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December 2019

JAMES COMEY “FESSES UP”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/comey-attributes-fisa-abuses-to-sloppiness-distances-himself-from-russia-probe/
Comey Attributes FISA Abuses to ‘Sloppiness,’ Distances Himself from Russia ProbeBy Jack Crowe

James Comey maintained that the FISA process abuses detailed in Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s Monday report were the result of “sloppiness” in a Sunday morning interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, and claimed that, although he signed off on the initial FISA application and subsequent renewals, he was not made aware of the details of the probe as director.

Comey began the interview by knocking down the more extreme claims made by Trump and his partisans in advance of the report, namely that the former FBI director and his staff targeted the Trump campaign for political reasons and committed criminal acts in doing so. Citing Horowitz’s report, which found that the investigation was properly predicated, Comey said that Trump’s claims of treason and other criminal activity were “nonsense.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/comey-carter-page-was-treated-unfairly-his-name-being-made-public-an-outrage/
Comey: ‘Carter Page Was Treated Unfairly,’ His Name Being Made Public an ‘Outrage’ By Nicholas Ballasy

WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey said on Sunday that Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, was “treated unfairly” during the Russia probe and his name never should have been made public.

In December of 2018, Comey, who signed the FISA application for Page, told reporters that the FBI had handled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process appropriately.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/comey-says-he-wouldnt-resign-over-doj-ig-report-if-he-was-still-fbi-director/

Comey Says He Wouldn’t Resign Over FISA Mistakes if He Was Still FBI Director By Nicholas Ballasy

Former FBI Director James Comey said on Sunday that he wouldn’t resign over the findings in the Department of Justice Inspector General report on the origins of the Russia probe if he was still in charge of the FBI.

“As director you are responsible from this. I was responsible for this and if I were still there I would be doing what Chris Wray is doing, finding out how did this happen and is it systemic because that’s the scariest part,” Comey said on Fox News.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/james-comey-admits-i-was-wrong-about-fbis-use-of-fisa-process/

James Comey Admits: ‘I Was Wrong’ About FBI’s Use of FISA Process By Matt Margolis

ormer FBI Director James Comey finally admitted on “Fox News Sunday” that the Inspector General report on FISA abuse wasn’t as vindicating as he’d previously suggested. He still defended the FBI’s handling of the investigation but said he’d been “overconfident” when he defended the FBI’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

When the report came out last week, Comey posted the following tweet claiming vindication.

Andy Puzder: Trump’s China trade deal brings US great benefits, fulfills campaign promise

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andy-puzder-trumps-china-trade-deal-brings-us-great-benefits-fulfills-his-campaign-promise

Friday’s announcement by President Trump and China that they have reached a Phase One trade deal that includes canceling the imposition of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese products is good news for the American people. It is a huge deal, fulfilling yet another Trump campaign promise and confirming his strategy of using America’s enormous economic leverage to compel our trading partners to deal with us fairly.

“The China deal covers tremendous manufacturing, farming, a lot of rules, regulations,” the president said Friday.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen confirmed the deal, saying the two sides had made “significant progress” and that the deal will create “better conditions” for U.S.-China trade.

For many years, American politicians stood by and did nothing while other countries took advantage of our generous approach to international trade. During the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump said he would change that.

A staunch advocate of reforming America’s trade policy for decades, candidate Trump warned of the dangers of massive trade deficits at a time when politicians from both parties – unable to figure out how to negotiate improved trade relations – chose to ignore the extent of the problem.

In his campaign to become president, Trump promised he would stop our trading partners from continuing to victimize American workers and businesses with abusive and illegal practices.

U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn Will Likely vote against Impeachment

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/12/14/collin-peterson-says-likely-vote-against-impeachment

By Carolyn Lange / West Central Tribune / Forum News Service

Barring new information that could convince him otherwise, Rep. Collin Peterson said Saturday he will vote against impeaching President Trump when the issue comes for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Peterson, a conservative Democrat who has not yet announced whether he’ll seek a 16th term representing western Minnesota’s 7th District, said he expects four or five other Democrats will do the same.

Peterson, who represents Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, made the comments Saturday while attending the annual meeting of the First District Association, a dairy cooperative in Litchfield.

After the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve two articles of impeachment on Friday, the full House is set to vote on the articles in the coming week. Peterson said he normally doesn’t make a decision until an issue — and all the information — is on the floor for a vote but said “unless they come up with something between now and Wednesday,” he will not support the articles of impeachment.

Trump and the Attack of the “Progressive” Jews… by Gerald A. Honigman

Progressive Hebrews promote the national liberation movements of all victims of imperialism and oppression…as long as those folks are not the world’s longest surviving victims of imperial conquest and oppression—Jews.

They absolutely love Tikun Olam—healing the world—as long as Jews, as JEWS, aren’t included. And as if believing Jews have not been in the forefront of such endeavors for millennia. The latter are expected to simply remain G_d’s Suffering Servant—as the Bible called Israel. With the above in mind, now let’s proceed…

A good friend asked me if I ever asked folks like “Progessive” professors—especially Jewish ones—why they oppose such things as President Trump’s potentially very positive decision to issue a new Executive Order on December 12th regarding aiding and abetting antisemitism, in all of its overt and camouflaged forms, in academia. The following is a result of that conversation…

President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order on December 12, 2019 which has the potential, if properly enforced, to change “business-as-usual” on too many campuses these days. Unfortunately, this subject brings back very bad memories from my own doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs—which have been written about elsewhere.

Fast forward to President Trump’s new Executive Order…

No sooner than the ink dried, “Progressive” Hebrews condemned it. They did likewise when President Trump recognized the same city that King David purchased for his capital 3,000 years ago—before most other peoples made their historical debuts—as the capital of the sole, resurrected Jewish State…Jerusalem. And then failed to ask them permission to move America’s embassy there as well. 

Obama Era Political Surveillance, and The Dual Purpose of Fusion GPS…

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/14/obama-era-political-surveillance-and-the-dual-purpose-of-fusion-gps/

[Random excerpts below. To read the entire report, go to URL above.  The piece is long, but highly informative – and infuriating! Read this next excerpt carefully.

The operators were searching “U.S Persons”. The review of November 1, 2015, to May 1, 2016, showed “eighty-five percent of those queries” were unlawful or “non compliant”.

85% !! “representing [redacted number]”.

We can tell from the space of the redaction the number of searches were between 1,000 and 9,999 [five digits]. If we take the middle number of 5,000 – that means 4,250 unlawful searches out of 5,000.

That means the 85% unlawful FISA-702(16)(17) database abuse has likely been happening since 2012. 

2012 is an important date in this database abuse because a network of specific interests is assembled that also shows up in 2016/2017:

Who was 2012 FBI Director? Robert Mueller, who was selected by the FBI group to become special prosecutor in 2017.

Who was Mueller’ chief-of-staff? Aaron Zebley, who became one of the lead lawyers on the Mueller special counsel.

American Leftists Believed Corbyn’s Inevitable Victory Would Be Their Model By Jonathan Chait

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/corbyn-bernie-sanders-socialism-british-election-2020.html

“Corbyn’s victory became a matter of faith, and its adherents continued to tout wisps of evidence for it even in the face of dismal polling ….Whether a more moderate Labour leader would have defeated Johnson — who is highly unpopular, yet still far less unpopular than Corbyn — is unknowable. What is certain is that his delirious backers assumed his success, and built around it a self-serving theory from which they refused to deviate in the face of mounting indications of doom.”

The British election results, like any election results, are the result of unique circumstances and multiple factors. They are also, however, a test of a widely articulated political theory that has important implications for American politics. That theory holds that Corbyn’s populist left-wing platform is both necessary and sufficient in order to defeat the rising nationalist right. Corbyn’s crushing defeat is a decisive refutation.

Many writers, not only on the left, detected parallels between the rise of Corbyn and the movement around Bernie Sanders. The latter is considerably more moderate and pragmatic than the former, and also not laden with the political baggage of Corbyn’s widely derided openness to anti-Semitic allies. And yet many leftists have emphasized the similarities between the two, which are indeed evident. Both built youth-oriented movements led by cadres of radical activists who openly set out to destroy and remake their parties. Both lost in somewhat close fashion, Sanders in 2016 and Corbyn the next year. And fervent supporters of both men treated their narrow defeats as quasi-victories, proof of victory just around the corner.

Arguments of this sort tend to quickly devolve into straw-man attacks. So, in order to show that the view I’m describing is widespread, I am sharing lengthy excerpts from a half-dozen essays written by American leftists in recent years:

Boffo Boris by Mark Steyn

https://www.steynonline.com/9913/boffo-boris

Whatever one feels about Boris Johnson (and almost any one who’s had any truck with the man has, if he’s honest, highly mixed views) today’s election is a spectacular triumph for him. On the day Andrew Scheer, the Canadian Tory leader, announced he would be stepping down, the UK Tory leader led his party to their biggest share of the vote in half-a-century and swiped seats held by Labour since 1935 – from Blythe Valley to Bishop Auckland. Both Scheer and Johnson are unprincipled opportunists, but the latter is a fighter who knows how to return the ball and swat it down the opposition’s gullet.

He was fortunate, of course, in finding himself up against Jeremy Corbyn rather than Justin Trudeau. Whether this was a referendum on Corbynism or on Brexit I leave for the exit pollsters, but either way Labour looks set to be reduced to fewer than 200 seats for the first time in eighty-four years. As I write, there appears to have been, in pure psephological terms, a swing away from Labour of about ten per cent. Six per cent of that went to the Brexit Party, not that it was enough to win them any seats, with the rest being split between Tories and the Liberal Democrats. So, put crudely, historically Labour working-class constituencies in northern England that voted Leave and were then screwed over by the subversives of a Remainer Parliament abandoned century-old tribal loyalties to Labour and shifted to pro-Brexit parties.

On the other hand, in leafier southern territory middle-class Remainers weary of Corbyn’s equivocation on the subject shifted in smaller numbers to the LibDems, as the party most upfront about its willingness to subvert the result of the referendum (“Bollocks to Brexit”). As a result, Labour has been reduced to a pantomime horse of urban redoubts – immigrant enclaves in the North and Midlands and upscale champagne-socialist quartiers of London, either indifferent or rather partial to Jeremy Corbyn’s particular baggage.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: Europe’s Solitary Defender of Persecuted Christians by Giulio Meotti *****

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15285/viktor-orban-persecuted-christians

“Those we are helping now can give us the greatest help in saving Europe. We are giving persecuted Christians what they need: homes, hospitals, and schools, and we receive in return what Europe needs most: a Christian faith, love and perseverance”. — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Daily News Hungary, November 28, 2019.

“Our estimation is that more than 90 percent of Christian have already left Iraq and almost 50 percent of Christians in Syria have left the country”. — Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church.

European leaders, rather than being embarrassed, should make the condition of Christians under Islam the starting point of their conversations with Muslims.

“The fate of Eastern Christians and other minorities is the prelude to our own fate.” — Former French Prime Minister François Fillon, Valeurs Actuelles, December 12, 2019.

“There is an ongoing persecution of Christians. For months, we bishops have been denouncing what is happening in Burkina Faso” Bishop Kjustin Kientega recently said, “but nobody is listening to us.” “Evidently”, he concluded, “the West is more concerned with protecting its own interests”.

In a recent series of a transnational tragedies, 14 Christians were murdered in an attack on a church in Burkina Faso, 11 Christians were murdered in an attack on a bus in Kenya and seven Christians were murdered by Boko Haram in Cameroon. These three deadly attacks by Islamists in the same week give an idea of the intensity and frequency of global anti-Christian persecution.

Another Ignored Genocide of Christians Plagues Burkina Faso by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15288/genocide-christians-burkina-faso

While a total of 12 Islamic terror attacks in Burkina Faso were registered in 2016, nearly 160 were reported in just the first five months of 2019.

The situation has reached the point where… the mainstream media habitually downplay the religious element whenever Muslims attack Christians, by referring to it as “sectarian strife….

[T]he militants told everyone to lie down and proceeded to look for Christians by asking for first names or looking for anyone wearing Christian insignia (like crosses). The deadly search yielded four men…. [W]hen they saw crosses, the assailants singled them out. All four were taken aside and executed.” – June 27, 2019.

“There is no Christian anymore in this town [Arbinda],” said a local contact; “… they [terrorists] were looking for Christians. Families who hide Christians are [also] killed. Arbinda had now lost in total no less than 100 people within six months.”

According to a local, “The assailants asked the Christians to convert to Islam, but the pastor and the others refused.” So “they called them, one after the other, behind the church building where they shot them dead.”

One can only hope that the response of the media and international community will be stronger than their usual one: ignoring the massacres. This slaughter has been already been characterized as a “genocide of Christians.” When, then, will the media and the so-called human rights groups finally confront — or at the very least condemn or even report on — these religiously fueled massacres plaguing West Africa?

On Sunday, December 1, 2019, Islamic terrorists raided a Protestant Christian church in Burkina Faso during the service and massacred 14 worshippers. The pastor and several children were among those killed.

This is but the latest of many lethal attacks on the Christian minority of the small nation located in West Africa, a region better known for the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Despots of the Square-Kilometer Empires by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15287/despots-square-kilometer-empires

The “Supreme Guide” is supposed to be excellent in everything. He has written on Islamic cuisine, the methodology of successful marriage, the destruction of Israel, the reform of human sciences, a new Islamic civilization to replace the old one that has decayed, and, as an afterthought, radical re-ordering of the global order.

Today, Syrian regime head Bashar Assad is confined to his square-kilometer close to Damascus with no chance of ever roaming in other parts of the war-torn country. General Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian master of PR, claims he prevented Assad from fleeing because Khamenei ordered him to stay put which, in practice, means the Syrian became a prisoner like Khamenei.

In autobiographical notes, Khamenei waxes lyrical about the joys of visiting Shiite “holy” shrines in Iraq. Today, he dares not set foot in an Iraq shaken by uprisings against his ideology. Worse still, fearful of visiting even Mash’had, Iran’s own “holy” city, he has to be content with a hussainiyah he built near a “villa” confiscated by the revolution.

In a recent speech in Tehran, Ayatollah Golpayegani, Chief of Staff of “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, claimed that his boss had reached a position from which he not only led the Muslim world but also dictated to infidel powers, now in retreat.