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Title: The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 Post by: nChrist on December 10, 2019, 04:16:11 PM ________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) _______________________________ The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest Dec. 10, 2019 https://patriotpost.us/digests/67276-mid-day-digest-2019-12-10 THE FOUNDATION “We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth — and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.” —Patrick Henry (1775) https://patriotpost.us/fqd/67275-founders-quote-daily-2019-12-10 IN TODAY’S EDITION So it turns out Trump was right about the FBI.1 Democrats offer up two lame articles of impeachment.2 Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9. FEATURED ANALYSIS The DoJ FISA Report — Trump Was Right10 By Mark Alexander The best indication that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review of FISA applications11 is a serious problem for Democrats is the fact that The Washington Post listed it as third down in its political headlines this morning. If the report had dispensed with the Trump administration’s claim that a handful of top government bureaucrats who supported Hillary Clinton12, most notably Barack Obama’s former FBI Director James Comey13 and former CIA Director John Brennan14, used the FISA court search warrants as a layup for Robert Mueller’s investigation15 — in effect a bureaucratic coup d'etat16 to take Trump down — the report would have been the top headline this morning, teeing up fodder for the House impeachment inquisition17. Brennan and Comey, and their corrupt Clinton cronies18, used their “Crossfire Hurricane19” investigation to set Trump up for a takedown20. And the best evidence supporting that fact provided by Horowitz: Of the 17 most egregious “errors”21 a handful of corrupt FBI managers committed in order to justify the FISA warrants and launch the Mueller investigation, every one favored the Clinton campaign. As you recall, the Russia-collusion investigation22 originated with the FBI’s “evidence” for unaccredited FISA warrants23 linked to the fake Trump dossier24 they knew was funded by the Clinton campaign25. And that has been the fundamental basis for our objection to these “investigations” from their inception. According to Horowitz’s report: “We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures. While we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct on the part of the case agents … we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or problems we identified. In most instances, the agents and supervisors told us that they either did not know or recall why the information was not shared with the OI (Office of Investigations), that the failure to do so may have been an oversight, that they did not recognize at the time the relevance of the information to the FISA application, or that they did not believe the missing information to be significant. On this last point, we believe that case agents may have improperly substituted their own judgments in place of the judgment of the OI, or in place of the court, to weigh the probative value of the information.” In other words, members of the deep-state cabal26 who set Trump up proceeded on the basis of their opinion, which was obviously a reflection of their bias. To that end, the Horowitz report concludes: “We also found that the FBI did not aggressively seek to obtain certain potentially important information from Steele [author of the fake Trump/Russia dossier]. For example, the FBI did not press Steele for information about the actual funding force source for his election reporting work.” So, we are to believe that nobody involved in this setup thought to ask the critical question, “Who funded the dossier?” — even though it had been suggested the Clinton campaign was behind it. How convenient! Again, we now know, as Clinton’s FBI backers knew then — that the funding was from the Clinton campaign and the Democrat National Committee. And a note regarding the report’s assertion that, based on the mandate of what Horowitz was tasked to investigate, there was no evidence of “bias.” Clinton’s backers were high-ranking FBI bureaucrats — of course they did not leave an official trail of evidence pointing to their political bias in kicking off this investigation. However, there is no question that each of the individuals involved in the chain of command demonstrated significant personal bias against Trump. Horowitz was not tasked with evaluating their personal bias, only the evidence directly related to the FISA warrants. The FBI’s predication for those FISA warrants is what prompted Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham to declare the Horowitz report woefully incomplete27. According to AG Barr: “The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration. In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source. The Inspector General found the explanations given for these actions unsatisfactory.” Title: The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 Post by: nChrist on December 10, 2019, 04:17:16 PM ________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) _______________________________ Durham, who is investigating the origins of Comey’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation28 in a criminal probe, took the unusual step prior to the release of his own report to note: “I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff, however, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.” The Wall Street Journal notes, “The FBI corrupted the secret court process for obtaining warrants to spy on former Trump aide Carter Page. And it did so by supplying the court with false information produced by Christopher Steele, an agent of the Hillary Clinton campaign.” The editors noted further, regarding the report’s finding that “the Crossfire Hurricane team’s receipt of Steele’s election reporting on September 19, 2016 played a central and essential role in the FBI’s and Department’s decision to seek the FISA order,” that “This confirms what Rep. Devin Nunes and House Republicans first disclosed in February 2018, which was denied by Rep. Adam Schiff and sneered at by the press at the time.” As seasoned political analyst Brit Hume concludes, “The 17 instances of misconduct cited in the report — they are damning… The FISA court was clearly taken for a ride by the FBI … up and down the chain of command. … The FBI has had some dark days in its past, but nothing like this recently. … This was very serious misconduct on the part of the FBI.” Of course, the now-demented James Comey is out taking a victory lap29, laughably insisting, “The FBI fulfilled its mission — protecting the American people and upholding the U.S. Constitution.” While most rank-and-file agents are devoted to that mission, Comey was not among them. The report indicates that, among other things, Comey lied to Congress30 when he asserted he did not open a counterintelligence investigation into Trump prior to the 2016 election, leading to the FISA warrants. But in fact, he did just that. Finally, responding to the FISA report, Trump said: “They got caught, they got caught red-handed. … Never ever should this happen again in our country.” And he is right. Stay tuned for the Durham report… https://patriotpost.us/alexander/67271-the-doj-fisa-report-trump-was-right Impeachment Inquisition: Dems Announce Articles of Impeachment31 House Democrats are clearly racing to hold their impeachment vote before the end of the year, as Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler announced on Tuesday two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. In a telling display of the complete partisan nature of this entire impeachment charade, Democrats dropped their once loudly proclaimed allegation of bribery and have settled for the broad and vague charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Once again, no evidence of an actual crime was presented. Democrats continue to insist that Trump’s request that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate the allegations of Ukraine’s involvement in 2016 election interference and the corrupt dealings of Joe and Hunter Biden constitutes an abuse of power for personal gain. However, Trump’s request of an investigation was well within his legal authority — irrespective of whether it benefited him politically — per the U.S. treaty with Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, signed by Bill Clinton in 1998 and ratified by Congress in 2000. This fact only serves to underline how baseless the Democrats’ charges are. “As long as we come up with articles that are clear and concise that the American public can understand that this is supportive of the Constitution, I’m pleased,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) stated on Sunday. Well, Cohen’s sentiments notwithstanding, what the Democrats have produced fails to provide any clear, objective, nonpartisan, or constitutionally consistent rational for impeachment. In truth, as Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) observed, “They’re desperate to have an impeachment vote on this president.” And while Nadler may claim that both Democrats and Republicans can “surely agree that no public official, including and especially the president of the United States, should use his office for private gain,” that charge has never been proven. Rather, Democrats are stretching the understanding of “private gain” in ways the Constitution never intended, and, ironically, all for their own political gain. Nadler further contends, “We agree that no president should put himself before the country.” How exactly did Trump put himself before the country? For the Democrats, the real answer to that question is that he chose to run for president and defeated their favored candidate. That’s why they have been seeking to impeach him ever since. Finally, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once claimed that she would not move forward on impeachment without bipartisan support, it is almost certain that not a single Republican will vote in favor of impeachment. To make matters worse, she is likely to lose the votes of several Democrats. So much for Pelosi’s bipartisan claims. If anything, it will be the Republicans who will be able to tout bipartisan support against the Democrats’ partisan impeachment sham, and deservedly so. https://patriotpost.us/articles/67269-impeachment-inquisition-dems-announce-articles-of-impeachment-2019-12-10 ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY Featured Analysis: Washington Post Reports What We Already Knew About Afghanistan32 — Money was spent poorly and our mission there was ill-defined. That’s no surprise. Blue Lives Matter — Even in Democrat Cities33 — Yet Seattle provides a case study in how disrespect for cops yields undesirable results. American Spirit: Entire Kindergarten Class Shows Up for Boy’s Adoption Hearing34 — “I love my daddy so much,” the boy said, and he was excited to have his class there. Video: Unemployment at 50-Year Low; Quick, Impeach Trump!35 — Democrats are in a pickle for 2020 given the president’s record economic success. Video: The Amazing History of Christmas36 — How much do you know about Christmas — about its origins and its many beloved traditions? Title: The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 Post by: nChrist on December 10, 2019, 04:18:43 PM ________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 12-10-2019 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) _______________________________ TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE GREAT REVEAL: House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment Tuesday against President Donald Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress (Associated Press38) “WE’RE GOING TO GO WITH IT”: Democrats, White House reach agreement on revised NAFTA trade pact (Los Angeles Times39) “WE DO NOT AGREE”: U.S. Attorney John Durham objects to IG findings on Russia probe origins in stunning statement (Fox News40) GEE, WHAT COULD DURHAM BE OBJECTING ABOUT? FBI Director Christopher Wray announces “40 corrective steps” in response to failures detailed in Horowitz report (National Review41) MEASURE TOTALS $738 BILLION: Lawmakers reach deal on massive defense bill, eye Russia, Turkey, China (Reuters42) A $12 BILLION DISPUTE: High Court justices to hear ObamaCare case with billions at stake (The Hill43) DECLINED WITHOUT COMMENT: Supreme Court leaves in place Kentucky abortion law mandating ultrasounds (NBC News44) TRENDING BLUE: Virginians prepare for a Second Amendment battle (National Review45) “CATCH AND RELEASE IS OVER”: Border apprehensions drop for sixth month in a row (The Daily Signal46) “SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE”: China set to roll out Orwellian mass-surveillance tool (The Washington Times47) POLICY: How to lower student-loan defaults: Simplify enrollment in income-driven repayment plans (Manhattan Institute48) POLICY: The strategic case for supporting Ukraine (The American Interest49) HUMOR: Trump offers Hunter Biden job in Energy Department based on oil-industry experience (The Onion50) For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights51. The Patriot Post is a certified ad-free news service, unlike third-party commercial news sites linked on this page, which may also require a paid subscription. https://patriotpost.us/articles/67268-tuesday-top-news-executive-summary-2019-12-10 OPINION IN BRIEF Cal Thomas: “African American and Hispanic unemployment are at record lows. Could the result be more support for the president and other Republicans from African Americans and Hispanics in the 2020 election? … This is what scares and angers Democrats. If they lose significant numbers of black voters, they’re toast. Democrats have taken the black vote for granted. They have talked a good game but failed to deliver with jobs and better education opportunities — such as school choice. If the hatred seems bad now — and it is — imagine what it will be like should President Trump have the opportunity to name another justice to the Supreme Court. It will make the hatred directed at Brett Kavanaugh seem tame. Government has become a god to the left. If they aren’t controlling it, they become out of control. If they aren’t addicting more people to government, they are losing them, as those who have been dependent on government become more independent and self-reliant. With House Democrats contemplating a vote on articles of impeachment against the president before Christmas, we seem to be closer to ‘peace on earth’ than we are to ‘good will to men’ (and women).” SHORT CUTS For the record: “The FBI corrupted the secret court process for obtaining warrants to spy on former Trump aide Carter Page. And it did so by supplying the court with false information produced by Christopher Steele, an agent of the Hillary Clinton campaign.” —The Wall Street Journal Braying jackass: “It may be too much to hope that this report will put to rest the conspiracy theories about the 2016 election — especially now when the president and his allies are eager to distract from mounting evidence of his abuse of power with respect to Ukraine.” —Rep. Adam Schiff Grand delusions: “The evidence of the president’s misconduct is overwhelming and uncontested.” —Adam Schiff The BIG Lie: “For years, President trump and his Republican allies in Congress and the media have speculated wildly about deep-state conspiracies against his presidency. They’re based on the claim that the FBI opened an investigation into the president’s campaign with political motives. [Yesterday] we … got a report from the Department of Justice inspector general that puts these conspiracy theories to rest once and for all. This report conclusively debunks the baseless conspiracy that the investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia originated with political bias.” —Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Alpha jackass: “So it was all lies. No treason. No spying on the campaign. No tapping Trumps [sic] wires. It was just good people trying to protect America.” —James Comey Dubious grandstanding: “The FBI fulfilled its mission — protecting the American people and upholding the U.S. Constitution. Now those who attacked the FBI for two years should admit they were wrong.” —James Comey Non compos mentis: “I do believe … that we have to deal with the original sin. We have to deal with slavery. Slavery was the thing that put all of what President Trump has done lately into motion.” —Rep. Al Green Sick and twisted: “Receiving THOUSANDS of messages about how I made a mistake having an abortion 7 years ago and how I must be a miserable person… I am in fact a happy, thriving multi millionaire, madly in love, with free time, good sleep and a wonderful career and life. But thanks for checking.” —actress Jameela Jamil And last… “Remarkable that the Democrats are not impeaching the President for operating concentration camps. I guess they’re okay with them. Or maybe they made it all up.” —Erick Erickson https://patriotpost.us/articles/67267-tuesday-short-cuts-2019-12-10 Don’t Miss Cartoons and Memes Check out Information52. If you’d like to receive Cartoons and Memes by email every Monday, update your subscription here53. TODAY’S MEME https://patriotpost.us/memes/67263-mistakes-2019-12-10 For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union54. TODAY’S CARTOON https://patriotpost.us/cartoons/28045 For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive55. Join us in prayer for our Patriots in uniform and their families — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way, and for our nation’s First Responders. We also ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the Spirit of Liberty56 in the hearts and minds of our countrymen. Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis |