This evening President Trump welcomed home Joshua Holt, a young man who had been imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly two years.  Mr. Holt and his family are from Utah.  The family, the State Department team and a group of U.S. politicians who participated in the negotiations for his release, held a short Oval Office press availability.

Senator Orrin Hatch (Utah), Senator Bob Corker (Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee), Senator Mike Lee (Utah), Representative Mia Love (Utah) and a number of key State Department officials were present. Toward the end of the remarks President Trump spoke briefly about the latest discussions surrounding a possible summit with North Korea.

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With much of the media, and indeed the President himself, fueling the ongoing headline discussion over the ramifications of the Obama administration setting up “surveillance”, “informants”, counterintelligence operations and “agent provocateurs” against their political opposition, ie. “SpyGate”, it is perhaps time for some mental sorbet.

Relating to the overall issue, on March 28th, 2018, the DOJ Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz formerly announced an additional investigation of how the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in matters relating to the FISA Title-1 application filed against U.S. person Carter Page.  However, one part of the OIG notification was generously overlooked by a defensive and IC compliant media:

As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source. Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.  (pdf link)

Two months later on Monday May 21st, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein added a significant DOJ mandate to the Inspector General review.  Rosenstein expanded the original FISA review to include looking at whether officials within the intelligence community may have unlawfully used human intelligence assets to “spy” or “surveil” the Trump campaign:

“The Department has asked the Inspector General to expand the ongoing review of the FISA application process to include determining whether there was any impropriety or political motivation in how the FBI conducted its counterintelligence investigation of persons suspected of involvement with the Russian agents who interfered in the 2016 presidential election.” (link)

The overall FBI and DOJ corruption and political weaponization discussion has now shifted to issues of politically motivated spies, surveillance and the use of intelligence agents to conduct domestic operations.  There are obvious ramifications and seemingly and endless series of directions and outlines for evidence therein.

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If you don’t remember the CTH research (2013 through November 2015) eventually culminating with the 2016 “Splitter Strategy“; and if you don’t remember the “Tripwires” used to explain the processes and predictable consequences within the splitter strategy, then skip this discussion thread.

For readers who were around during that timeframe, do the recent discoveries about: •”Five-Eyes intelligence networks” conspiring with domestic political operatives;… •career Republican political party officials like Stefan Halper – with connections as Deep State CIA and FBI informants;… •campaign infiltration schemes run by weaponized DC UniParty intelligence officials;… and •”off-the-book” financing for FBI domestic political spy operations by billionaire Russian interests like Oleg Deripaska;…

Well, do these stunning new and factual revelations begin to answer the previous unanswerable questions behind the “why” in relationship to the Splitter plans?

There was a time, during that research, when the white-wine-spritzer triangle cucumber and mayonnaise sandwich crowd were calling us ‘conspiracy nuts‘.  Do the revelations in the past six to eight months now begin to provide, and fill-in, the missing context?

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South Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-in is the Asian version of Barack Obama, and much like North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un essentially irrelevant in this geopolitical confrontation.  Take a seat, or make a sandwich…. it matters not.

Behind the fanciful Korean ‘denuclearization talks‘ and lofty ‘peace initiatives‘ a far more consequential geopolitical economic battle is taking place between the worlds largest two economies.  U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping are engaged.

The Sandwich Maker Summit –  (Reuters) – “South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday in an effort to ensure that a high-stakes summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump takes place successfully, South Korean officials said.

[…]  Their two hours of talks at the Panmunjom border village came a month after they held the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade at the same venue. At that meeting, they declared they would work toward a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

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Credit to Fox Business for finally admitting the role Xi Jinping played in leveraging North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to become more adversarial to the U.S.- North Korean denuclearization talks and summit in Singapore.  Perhaps this is the first reality shift for Western media to discuss, with greater accuracy and honesty, the extent of influence held by China over the activity of North Korea.  The DPRK is a proxy province of China.

The first U.S. trade delegation visit to China happened May 2-5.  Then there was an unexpected second trip by Chairman Kim to Beijing (May 8-9). Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping instructing Chairman Kim to change his approach publicly in order to provide China with leverage in the next U.S./China trade summit which took place shortly thereafter on May 15-18.  China is leveraging North Korea for a better trade outcome.

As noted by President Donald Trump during his Oval Office remarks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the specifically scheming and cunning influence by Chairman Xi, what we customarily call ‘Red-Dragon-China‘, was -and is- accepted by President Trump as evidence of Beijing’s manipulative intent.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

What exactly does the word “spy” mean?  That is the current mystery being debated amid the apex intellectual circles in Washington DC.

Does “spying” really mean the process of excavating boulders using spoons made of eggshells?  Or is there something even more complex in the modern terminology?  FOX news host Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino debate the answer.

Current Steel and Aluminum tariff exemptions expire June 1st.  Secretary Ross scheduled to be in Beijing, China June 2nd, 3rd, 4th.  The G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec is on June 8th and 9th.  The tenuous Singapore summit was previously scheduled for June 12th.

Tweet Link

The Broward County diversionary school discipline program known as the “Promise Program” has gained scrutiny since the Parkland shooting left 17 students dead.  The unstable shooter was identified as a prior benefactor of a county school district policy to reduced crime rates by exchanging criminal punishment for school discipline.

Many readers are aware CTH spent almost two years researching this practice in both Miami-Dade and Broward County.  The downstream consequences were predictable when it first began; unfortunately, no-one wanted to accept the warnings – and the corruption is so systemic within the School and Police leadership, there’s no hope to ever see it change.

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