BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, “The Aftermath,” Thursday, June 15th, 2017

My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appear on the Sack Heads Radio Show™ each Wednesday evening.

Today’s was a conflicted show. On the heels of the terrible Alexandria, VA shooting of Steve Scalise by a Leftist literally out for Republican blood, the mood of America and in the Saloon is somber.

The phone line was also open for one and all; go to SHRMedia.com, get into the chatroom, acquire the phone number and call in live. The line will likely be open on subsequent shows. You see, there are benefits to being in the chatroom plus, of course, there are great people discussing all sorts of topics there; you’re soon to make more friends.

Tonight in the Saloon:

  • Threat of “dirty bomb” shuts down Port of Charleston involving the Maersk Memphis;
  • NYPD to be forced to reveal its terror tactics if NYC Council passes bill;
  • Fox News has removed its motto “fair and balanced;” why is that?
  • DHS rescinds Obama era policy protecting illegal immigrant parents;
  • Russia probe exposes Loretta Lynch; blowback is looming for the Demorats;
  • Independent counsel Mueller expands the investigation into “Trump obstruction”;
  • We have callers and a discussion ensues;
  • The Scalise shooting reveals the pervasive violence endemic to Leftists nationally;
  • Kel Fritzi is coming back as special guest next Tuesday, June 20th; be there!

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, please click on start.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, “The Aftermath,” Thursday, June 15th, 2017″ on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on YouTube, please likewise click on start.

Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here. Want to watch the past shows on YouTube? Please visit the SHR Media Network YouTube channel here.

BZ

P.S.
Another very special guest arriving next Thursday in the Saloon! Who could it be?

 

Open season on GOP, Conservatives, Trump

After all, the former US Attorney General whilst in office, Loretta Lynch, said that blood had to be spilled.

And so it was on Wednesday, June 14th, when a man who quite publicly, vocally and vehemently said “it’s time to destroy Trump & Co.” decided to spill blood.

Filled with the vigor of the Righteous Left and emboldened by recent overt acts and displays of violence against Conservatives, Trump and the GOP, a man decided he was going to kill as many Republicans as possible on a baseball field.

From the LATimes.com:

House majority whip, several others, shot at congressional baseball practice

by David Laufer and Michael Memoli

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was shot at a Republican congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning by a gunman who appeared to have targeted members of Congress.

Police in Alexandria, Va., located just outside of Washington, D.C., said they were investigating a “multiple shooting” and a suspect was in custody. Five wounded people were being taken to area hospitals for treatment, the police said.

Two police officers and two or three congressional staff members were among the wounded, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on CNN.

The shooter “was going after elected officials,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) told CNN from the scene of the shooting.  The location of the congressional practice session, in preparation for an annual charity baseball game, was well known in the area, he noted.

Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona, present at the time of the shooting, had this description.

Scalise, 51, the third-ranking Republican in the House, was standing on second base, fielding balls during batting practice when the shooting began, Flake said.

Reuters writes today about the condition, today, of Steve Scalise.

U.S. congressman undergoes another operation after shooting

by Susan Cornwell and David Morgan

U.S. Representative Steve Scalise underwent a third operation on Thursday, a day after suffering serious wounds when a man who had expressed anger toward President Donald Trump opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice, a source familiar with his condition said.

Scalise, a congressman from Louisiana who is the No. 3 House Republican, suffered injuries to internal organs, broken bones and severe bleeding after being shot in the left hip on a baseball field in Alexandria where he and other lawmakers were practicing for a charity baseball game.

Scalise, 51, and three others were wounded when a man identified as James Hodgkinson, 66, from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois opened fire on the lawmakers. The others wounded were a police officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist.

The U.S. Capitol Police said Hodgkinson used a 9 mm handgun and a 7.62-caliber rifle in the shooting, and traces run by investigators showed he evidently acquired the weapons legally.

“Both were purchased by the shooter from federal firearms licensees,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. “We currently have no evidence to suggest that the purchases were not lawful.”

Hodgkinson, who had a history of posting angry messages against Trump and other Republicans on social media, died after being wounded by police.

We also find this about the shooter, from Breitbart.com:

Report: James T. Hodgkinson, Shooting Suspect, Belonged to ‘Terminate the Republican Party’ Facebook Group

by Joel B. Pollak

James T. Hodgkinson, the suspect in the shooting attack on a Republican baseball practice on Wednesday morning, was reportedly a member of a group called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

Hodgkinson wounded four, including House Majority Whip Steve Scales (R-LA), before succumbing to his injuries sustained in gunfire exchanges with police.

The Belleville News-Democrat, a newspaper in Hodgkinson’s former hometown of Belleville, Illinois, reports:

 The shooter who was killed during gunfire at practice for a congressional baseball game Wednesday morning was from Belleville.

The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, who belonged to a number of anti-Republican groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”

The Facebook group reportedly celebrated the killing.

This should, in retrospect, come as no shock to those persons who are thinking clearly and have been cognizant of their surroundings for roughly the past year. That is to say, political violence has quite primarily been the result of Leftist elements, both organized en masse and singly such as this event.

The response on the Left has consisted of the same old: stop guns stop guns too many guns. Then came the wildly-inflated statistics, from Virginia Governor Terry Macauliffe.

Terry McAuliffe: ‘We Lose 93 Million Americans a Day to Gun Violence’

by AWR Hawkins

While speaking to reporters about the shooting in Alexandria, Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) said now is not the time to talk gun control but we must admit “we lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.”

Then there was this loving, tolerant and caring response on Twitter by the Huffington Post’s Jesse Benn directly following the shooting. From GotNews.com:

BREAKING: @HuffPost Contributor @JesseBenn Endorses Shooting of House Majority Whip @SteveScalise

by Charles C. Johnson

A Huffington Post contributor endorsed the severe wounding of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise at the hands of radicalized, Rachel Maddow-loving, Bernie Sanders-supporting shooter, James T. Hodgkinson.

There was also this, an email sent to Republican Claudia Tenney directly after the shooting of Scalise, from TheHill.com:

GOP rep. received threatening email with subject line ‘One down, 216 to go…’ after lawmaker shooting

by Olivia Beavers

The office of Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) received a threatening email with the subject line “One down, 216 to go…,” shortly after a shooter opened fire on GOP lawmakers who were at a congressional baseball practice, according to her office.

“Did you NOT expect this? When you take away ordinary peoples very lives in order to pay off the wealthiest among us, your own lives are forfeit. Certainly, your souls and morality were lost long before. Good riddance,” the email said.

Let us remember that Demorats have already called for violence and “blood in the streets.”

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, CO-HOST “MORNING JOE”:

 

“So, broad question about the future of the Democratic Party, especially given your firsthand experience with what we’ve all been through. There’s so much going on here that we clearly see, you know, places where you — we can criticize what the administration is doing, but how does the party rebuild? How do you prevent overreach in a situation like this? How do you prevent a continuation of the bubble in a situation like this, and how does the party reclaim its reach across the country while fighting these battles?”

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA):

“…So, the way we get outside the bubble is we take advantage of this tremendous public outcry against the administration. What we’ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there’s the momentum to be able to do this. And we’re not afraid of the popular outcry, we’re energized by it and that’s going to help us do our job and do it better.”

What we’ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets, fight online, fight at the ballot box, and now there’s the momentum to be able to do this. And we’re not afraid of the popular outcry, we’re energized by it and that’s going to help us do our job and do it better.

In reference to that, the DailyKos wrote: “VA-Sen: Tim Kaine (D) Calls For “Fight In The Streets” Against Trump, So Lets Push Him To Fight”.

What about the calm, enlightened, cooperative, unifying and tolerant speech of DNC Chair Tom Perez?

There are, naturally, following threats to the families of Republicans, from Politico.com:

‘This is how we’re going to kill your wife’

Police blanket a town hall by GOP Rep. Tom Garrett after a series of ‘credible’ threats.

by Kyle Cheney

MONETA, Va. — “This is how we’re going to kill your wife.”

That’s the message Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.) said he received in a series of recent threats that targeted him, his family and even, at one point, his dog. And it’s the reason, he said, that his town hall here in this sleepy Virginia community on Tuesday night was ringed by law enforcement.

When Garrett took the stage at Eastlake Community Church, the walls in the 300-seat room were lined with security — some uniformed and some in plainclothes. The presence was noticeable all night, as Garrett aides enforced rules to keep audience members from disrupting the event.

Though the town hall proceeded without significant incident — one woman was removed by police for repeated disruptions — security personnel made their presence felt, approaching hecklers throughout the evening and standing watch at all entrances and exits. The high security presence, Garrett said later, was the result of threats that Capitol Police, state police and intelligence officials “have deemed to be credible and real.”

This is not just an emerging trend, it is a pattern, as recognized by Newt Gingrich.

Tucker Carlson speaks to Mark Steyn regarding the violence and hate/labeling rhetoric of the Leftists.

Concurrently, this is the most cogent and logical thing I’ve heard issue from Paul Ryan’s mouth in close to a year.

Will Ryan come to understand how his prior pablum, conciliatory, bipartisan and compromising speech has led to this current state? Unlikely. The GOP gives, the Demorats take and spew venom and violence.

Completely unreasonable speech from the Left also accompanies this blather, from Breitbart.com:

Rep. Barbara Lee: ‘I Don’t Agree with States’ Rights’ Because Trump Does

by Penny Starr

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) said on Tuesday that she does not agree with states’ rights because President Donald Trump believes in restoring states’ authority on a wide range of issues, including education and health care insurance markets.

Lee made the remarks at the left-wing Center for American Progress in Washington, DC, where she referenced states rights as it applies to Trump’s decision this month to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate change agreement, a move she claims would hurt the U.S. economy.

No states rights. Simply to be a contrarian no matter the idiocy or illegality.

You know, call me wacky, but this discourse from the Left appears to clearly contain violent language to me. And not just from the Political Left. From the so-called “Celebrity Left” as well. Let’s examine this issue. Let’s look at some examples.

1. Shakespeare in the Park Stabs ‘Trump’ to Death in Performance of ‘Julius Caesar’
New York City’s Public Theater staged a production of Julius Caesar during its 2017 summer program, but with a twist on the classic play — Caesar looked just like Donald Trump, with a business suit and tie and a familiar blond hair-do. As happens in the play, the Trump-like Caesar is eventually brutally stabbed to death by his associates in the Senate.

The character’s similarity to Trump sparked outrage, and sponsors Bank of America and Delta Air Lines pulled their funding from the theater.

2. Kathy Griffin Holds President Trump’s Severed Head
Please check my post here about that event, where I covered the issue in massive detail.

3. Robert De Niro: “I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face”
The Oscar-winning actor participated in a voter registration PSA during the 2016 presidential race, but was filmed going off on Trump in a monologue during an outtake.

“He’s a punk, he’s a dog, he’s a pig, he’s a con, he’s a bullshit artist, a mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t care, thinks he’s gaming society, doesn’t pay his taxes,” the 73-year-old Godfather star said in the clip.

“He’s an embarrassment to this country,” he added. “He talks [about] how he wants to punch people in the face. I’d like to punch him in the face.”

4David Simon: “Pick Up a Goddamn Brick” if Trump Fires Robert Mueller
The creator of the HBO crime drama The Wire reacted to rumors that the president had considered firing the special counsel appointed to oversee the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller, by suggesting that Americans “pick up a goddamn brick” if the president followed through.

“If Donald Trump fires Robert Mueller and is allowed to do so, pick up a goddamn brick. That’s all that’s left to you,” Simon tweeted June 12.

The writer-producer later denied his tweet was an incitement to violence.

5. Joss Whedon: “I Want a Rhino to Fuck Paul Ryan to Death”
Bit of an oxymoron, that one. The 52-year-old Avengers director — who released a star-studded PSA in support of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race — took to Twitter in January to wish an untimely and unfortunate end to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).

“Violence solves nothing. I want a rhino to fuck @SpeakerRyan to death with its horn because it’s FUNNY, not because he’s a #GOPmurderbro,” Whedon tweeted.

Shortly after the November 8 election, the director tweeted that Trump “CANNOT be allowed a term in office.”

I could go on and on and on with comments made by Cher, Micky Rourke, Lea DeLaria, rappers Snoop Dog, Everlast and YG, Marilyn Manson, Larry Wilmore, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Ashley Judd, Madonna, et al.

Then there’s everyone else, as I illustrated in detail via my November 12th blog post wherein Leftists of all stripes were openly calling for Trump’s assassination on social media.

An interesting point about that post. Persons have asked me, “BZ, why not just copy those Tweets and paste them into your article instead of making photos of each one?” Easy answer: because I’ve had many, many Tweets disappear into the ozone. When I make a JPEG out of a Tweet, they are immured forever.

Paul Joseph Watson makes a nice overall summary here.

The Left makes hyperbolic attacks because they cannot win on fact-based issues. Leftists “do not want to hear thoughtful disagreement.” They do not wish to hear any disagreement at all.

This just in, from Fox59.com:

Several shots fired at truck flying ‘Make America Great Again’ flag on I-465

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Indiana State Police say shots were fired at a truck carrying a “Make America Great Again” flag and an American flag on eastbound I-465 Tuesday.

Officers believe the shots were fired from a newer white 4-door Chevrolet Malibu with a Louisiana plate near Emerson Avenue around 4 p.m.

The victim and a witness informed police that the Malibu pulled up next to the pickup truck, a passenger held a handgun out of the window and then a male fired several shots.

I am afraid, folks, that this is just the beginning.

People are talking about some sort of civil war. I’d rather call it a societal insurrection, societal chaos because, at this point, I have no idea what form it will take.

But it is coming. And it will be unpleasant.

“I AM PUSHBACK.”

BZ

 

Trump surveilled: update

Her?

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes created a firestorm when he released information earlier last week which tended to confirm that members of Donald Trump’s team had been surveilled and names unmasked for political purposes. Please see my two posts about the event here and here. Sotto voce, I’d care to point out this is the same Devin Nunes who, in May of 2013, revealed, as I wrote here:

Congressman Devin Nunes: the DOJ tapped phones in the House gallery

Fornicalia Congressman Devin Nunes of the 22nd district spoke on the Hugh Hewitt show Wednesday afternoon, and revealed a bombshell: not only did the DOJ tap the phones of reporters, but Nunes indicated the DOJ tapped the telephones of the House of Representatives in the gallery area — where not only reporters use the phones, but various DC politicians.

That said, here is Chairman Nunes’s initial revelation regarding the surveillance of President Trump, made on March 22nd.

This led to various products by Crane and Summit being pounded out of Demorat and American Media Maggot sphincters nationally, initially bent because Chairman Nunes dared to do his job and notify President Trump of his findings before the rest of the committee. This did not sit well with Adam Schiff, Little Chuckie Schumer, Nancy Pelosi et al.

Simultaneously, someone began to actually pay attention to a broadcast made on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” roughly a month ago, which included a revelation so large that it had been hiding in plain sight for some time. Please listen to Evelyn Farkas, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Obama Administration, “out” that administration regarding the Trump campaign.

What she said was essentially this: the Obama administration ensured the leakage occurred and then tried to hide both the source of the leak as well as how the information was being shipped to “the hill,” otherwise known as the AMM.

There was only one purpose: political. The obvious intent was to damage the Trump campaign as much as possible and then undermine, minimize and block the president-elect’s ability to conduct the business necessary to assemble his team and move forward.

I can think of no other words than this: a conspiracy.

LifeZette.com writes:

Fmr. FBI Asst. Director: Farkas Exposed ‘Conspiracy Cabal’ on Trump Surveillance

by Brendan Kirby

Law enforcement experts say Obama official must testify on ‘unmasking,’ may have admitted crime

The discussion with MSNBC host Mika Brezinski on March 2 focused on a New York Times story that appeared the day before under the headline, “Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Hacking.”

The story quoted unnamed former government officials who described efforts to “leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.” The information included evidence passed along by U.S. allies of meetings between Russian officials and Trump’s associates, and communications — intercepted by American intelligence agencies  among Russians — among Russians discussing contacts with Trump officials.

The spice must flow and the evidence must be preserved. Why?

“It was more actually aimed at telling the [Capitol] Hill people, ‘Get as much information as you can and get as much intelligence as you can before President Obama leaves the administration,’ because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior people who left,” she said. “So it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy.”

Read this once, and then read it again, more slowly and deliberately.

“The Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about the staff, the Trump staff’s dealings with Russians, that they would try to compromise these sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence,” she said. “So I became very worried because not enough was coming out in the open, and I knew that there was more.”

She added, “That’s why you have the leaking. People are worried.”

She knows there’s a leak, the reason for the leak, the means of the leak and its justification. Which led to this little joust between Sean Spicer and a journalista.

Of course, this is nothing more than fetid navel-gazing on the part of the Republicans, right? The people subject to “unmasking” were no more plain civilians than Jello is a food group, right? This has nothing to do with privacy, right? Wrong.

Joseph diGenova, who served as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia under Ronald Reagan, said Farkas and the former administration officials she referred to should be questioned under oath.

“Ms. Farkas made a major blunder and, in fact … probably confessed to a crime or knowledge of people who committed a crime,” he said. “It was a remarkable interview and amazing it went unnoticed at the time.”

We can only hope; but we know that with all of the Benghazi hearings under Trey Gowdy no one was fired or breathes air behind bars today.

But here are questions that, as per normal, no one — and I mean no one — in the American Media Maggot queue is asking.

James Kallstrom, a former assistant director of the FBI, told LifeZette it is troubling that Farkas even knew about the intelligence reports that she urged officials to spread to congressional staffers.

“How does somebody who’s not even in the administration anymore, who’s in civilian life, have access to this information?” he asked. “What kind of conspiracy cabal is this?”

What indeed? Let’s go to Circa.com for this news story.

Obama’s rule changes opened door for NSA intercepts of Americans to reach political hands

by John Solomon and Sara Carter

As his presidency drew to a close, Barack Obama’s top aides routinely reviewed intelligence reports gleaned from the National Security Agency’s incidental intercepts of Americans abroad, taking advantage of rules their boss relaxed starting in 2011 to help the government better fight terrorism, espionage by foreign enemies and hacking threats, Circa has learned. (More on this below.)

Dozens of times in 2016, those intelligence reports identified Americans who were directly intercepted talking to foreign sources or were the subject of conversations between two or more monitored foreign figures. Sometimes the Americans’ names were officially unmasked; other times they were so specifically described in the reports that their identities were readily discernible. Among those cleared to request and consume unmasked NSA-based intelligence reports about U.S. citizens were Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, his CIA Director John Brennan and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

I hope you read that quite closely. Who could unmask American names? John Brennan. Loretta Lynch. Susan Rice. Remember that.

Today, the power to unmask an American’s name inside an NSA intercept — once considered a rare event in the intelligence and civil liberty communities — now resides with about 20 different officials inside the NSA alone. The FBI also has the ability to unmask Americans’ names to other intelligence professionals and policymakers.

Stop. That power exists within, to my estimation, roughly all 17 alphabet agencies in the American intelligence community. Because I have not yet done so, I enumerate those agencies now and here:

  1. Office of the Director of National Intelligence 
  2. Central Intelligence Agency 
  3. National Security Agency
  4. Defense Intelligence Agency
  5. Federal Bureau of Investigation
  6. Department of State – Bureau of Intelligence and Research
  7. Department of Homeland Security – Office of Intelligence and Analysis
  8. Drug Enforcement Administration – Office of National Security Intelligence
  9. Department of the Treasury – Office of Intelligence and Analysis
  10. Department of Energy – Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
  11. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
  12. National Reconnaissance Office
  13. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance
  14. Army Military Intelligence
  15. Office of Naval Intelligence
  16. Marine Corps Intelligence
  17. Coast Guard Intelligence

All that’s missing is your local dental board’s intelligence unit. “You sir, slowly put down the amalgam.” Shh. Keep that one under your hat.

The ACLU, an ally of Obama on many issues, issued a statement a few months ago warning that the president’s loosened procedures governing who could request or see unmasked American intercepts by the NSA were “grossly inadequate” and lacked “appropriate safeguards.”

Put on your thinking caps. Ask: why would Obama do this? And why only two weeks from the end of his second term?

Nunes, as well as Trump supporters, will be trying to determine if that access was warranted or a backdoor form of political espionage by an outgoing administration trying to monitor its successor on the world stage.

Any proof Obama aides were using NSA-enriched intelligence reports to monitor his transition on the world stage could embolden the new president. But perhaps the most consequential outcome of the new revelations is that it may impact the NSA’s primary authority to intercept foreigners: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is up for renewal at the end of the year.

Ah, wait. A touchy subject for the intelligence community. Because who holds the purse-strings? Congress. Circa then nails it with this revelatory paragraph.

For years, the NSA has been required to follow strict rules to protect the accidental intercepts of Americans from being consumed or misused by other government agencies. The rules required a process known as minimization, where the identity and information about an American who was intercepted is redacted or masked with generic references like “American No. 1.”

The number of senior government officials who could approve unmasking had been limited to just a few, like the NSA director himself.

Wait. This conflicts with what we know now.

And in his final days in office, Obama created the largest ever expansion of access to non-minimized NSA intercepts, creating a path for all U.S. intelligence to gain access to unmasked reports by changes encoded in a Reagan-era Executive Order 12333.

The government officials who could request or approve an exception to unmask a U.S. citizen’s identity has grown substantially. The NSA now has 20 executives who can approve the unmasking of American information inside intercepts, and the FBI has similar numbers.

And executives in 16 agencies — not just the FBI, CIA and NSA — have the right to request unmasked information.

Thank you ever so kindly, Barack Hussein Obama. Stellar decision. Smashing. Brilliant.

“This raises serious concerns that agencies that have responsibilities such as prosecuting domestic crimes, regulating our financial policy, and enforcing our immigration laws will now have access to a wealth of personal information that could be misused. Congress needs to take action to regulate and provide oversight over these activities,” ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Giuliani warned in January.

Even when an American’s name isn’t included in a report, the NSA’s intercept information could be so specific that it identifies them.

I think you see both the problems and the reasons. CNN insists, however, that Farkas revealed nothing and the GOP has nothing.

Better yet (sorry for the poor audio), Farkas takes back her words and than attributes their repetition to — you guessed it — fake news.

I frequently have to remind myself that I inhabit the planet Earth, and not Zephron.

It’s interesting to note that Fred Fleitz, a former CIA officer, said:

He also questioned why so many in Washington regard as “established fact” the conclusion of U.S. security agencies that Russia meddled in the election in order to help Trump and hurt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He said he does not think Russia believed Trump could win.

Fleitz pointed to reports that Russian agents tried to hack into the computer systems of both major parties but succeeded only with the Democrats.

“Maybe all they did was exploit the fact that the Democrats left the barn door open,” he said.

Fleitz said the Obama administration did little to counter cyber threats, not just from Russia but from China, as well.

Then, finally, there is this pivotal information.

FOX: Trump Surveilled Before Nomination, Agencies with Info Blocked Nunes for Weeks

by Michelle Moons

A Friday breaking Fox News report on surveillance of President Trump’s team that began before he became the Republican presidential nominee claimed a very senior intelligence official was responsible—as well as for the unmasking of the names of private U.S. citizens.

The report cited sources which also indicated that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) knew of the existence of the information in January, but one or more intelligence agencies blocked him, and there were only two locations where he could view the information that he called “very troubling.”

On Thursday, the New York Times began reporting what they claimed were the identities of two White House officials who were the sources of the information disclosed to Nunes.

Nunes met with sources on White House grounds on the day before he announced to reporters striking news that he had seen new and disturbing information indicating intelligence officials under the Obama administration “unmasked” the names of Trump team members who were incidentally surveilled.

Who might this “very senior intelligence official” be? Mike Cernovich writes:

Susan Rice Requested Unmasking of Incoming Trump Administration Officials

Susan Rice, who served as the National Security Adviser under President Obama, has been identified as the official who requested unmasking of incoming Trump officials, Cernovich Media can exclusively report.

The White House Counsel’s office identified Rice as the person responsible for the unmasking after examining Rice’s document log requests. The reports Rice requested to see are kept under tightly-controlled conditions. Each person must log her name before being granted access to them.

Upon learning of Rice’s actions, H. R. McMaster dispatched his close aide Derek Harvey to Capitol Hill to brief Chairman Nunes.

This reporter has been informed that Maggie Haberman has had this story about Susan Rice for at least 48 hours, and has chosen to sit on it in an effort to protect the reputation of former President Barack Obama.

Who is Maggie Haberman? She is a political correspondent for the New York Times. To whom is Susan Rice married? That would be ABC Executive Producer Ian Cameron, since 1992. He left ABC in 2010. He, of course, kept his links to news and newsrooms. She was Obama’s US Ambassador to the UN and finally his National Security Advisor. She also carried Obama’s heavy water when she went of most every Sunday show possible following the Benghazi attack to claim it occurred because of a video made in the United States when, in fact, Hillary Clinton and others — as well as her daughter, Chelsea Clinton — knew and had information that was not the case at all. She knew that very night.

Here, Susan Rice speaks at length to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and both hedges and commits to nothing.

Perfect. But perhaps I should just defer to my fallback experts: Trey Gowdy and Tucker Carlson. Think ”wiretapped” vs “surveilled.”

Please note that at no point did Trey Gowdy — or has anyone trustworthy — denied that the NSA is not Hoovering every bit of digital take available in the US and abroad. If for no other reason than to make it available to certified authorities when requested.

You can’t request it if it isn’t there.

Judge Napolitano — now back on Fox News — weighs in as well.

Don’t forget, the spying of Donald Trump actually began back in 2011. Why would that be? Because Donald Trump was seriously considering running for president in 2012. Trump was causing headaches for Obama because of the birth certificate issue and became involved in opposing Obama’s policies. Trump spoke at CPAC in 2011; that’s called a clue.

The issue was so important to Barack Hussein Obama that he decided to attend the May 1st, 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner where Donald Trump would be in attendance, in lieu of monitoring the assault and capture of Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan the same night by SEAL Team 6 — of course, a singularly-important event. Obama spent most of his speech at that dinner attacking Donald Trump. Jack Posobiec indicates that Obama had, at that time, Donald Trump under surveillance as a private citizen for political purposes only; no security issues were involved.

2011 was a significant year for the Obama administration overall because he was simultaneously spying on Angela Merkel and other world leaders. This is also, 2011, when Obama changed the rules of intercept material by the US government. You see how this all ties together.

But here’s the bottom line, in my opinion. What started out in the Grand Scheme of Life under the Imperial Obama as an intent to link Trump and his assistants to Mother Russia in order to delegitimize his entire presidency and keep him from conducting the business necessary to enable his goals, Obama and his sniveling jackanapes may have inadvertently laid a path of digital and oral wreckage right back to themselves which could yield depositions, subpoenas, grand juries, indictments and perhaps even criminal prosecutions.

In other words, his little arrangement of mines and minefields may have supremely backfired.

BZ

P.S.

Michael Flynn requesting immunity? Let us not forget that he was chucked under the proverbial political bus just a few minutes ago. He’d be a DC moron not to lawyer up. Let us also not forget how many persons in the Obama Administration requested either immunity or invoked the Fifth Amendment.

First, 5 million illegals were granted immunity under Obama.

Second, how many Obama officials pleaded the Fifth in major cases? Seven?

1. Jeff Neely, the former Pacific Rim regional commissioner for the General Services Administration, pled the fifth on April 16, 2012 when Congress asked him to testify about overly-lavish spending on GSA conferences. He was eventually sentenced to prison for fraud anyway.

2. John Beale, a former official at the EPA, pled the fifth on October 1, 2013 when Congress probed into Beale’s theft of nearly $900,000 worth of salaries and bonuses from his own agency.

3. John Sepulveda, a former VA official, pled the fifth on October 30, 2013 after Congress subpoenaed him to testify as to why the department spent $6 million on conferences in Florida.

4. Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, two senior officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs, each pled the fifth before Congress on November 2, 2015 when asked to testify about $400,000 they had allegedly milked out of a VA relocation expense program. They were eventually given back their jobs.

5. Greg Roseman, a deputy director of the IRS, pled the fifth on June 26, 2013, after Congress asked him to testify about why the largest contract in IRS history was awarded to a close friend of his.

6. Patrick Cunningham, chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, pled the fifth when Congress asked him to testify about Operation Fast and Furious, which trafficked more than 2,000 guns along the U.S.-Mexico border.

7. Lois Lerner, an IRS director in charge of tax-exemptions, pled the fifth numerous times during Congress’ investigation into the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.

We’re supposed to assume nothing from that.

Right?

 

Schumer: Devin Nunes must go

From TheHill.com:

Schumer: Ryan should replace Nunes on Intel chair

by Jordain Carney

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday stepped up his criticism of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan to replace him. 
 
“Without further ado, Speaker Ryan should replace Chairman Nunes,” the Senate minority leader said from the floor. “If Speaker Ryan wants the House to have a credible investigation, he needs to replace Chairman Nunes.”
 
Nunes caused an uproar last week when he told the press that he had seen intelligence showing that members of President Trump’s transition team had been caught up in surveillance operations — without first discussing the information with fellow committee members. He later briefed Trump on the information. 

Please see my post here on the developments from last week as documented by Chairman Devin Nunes, who dropped this bomb-shell on Wednesday, March 22nd:

Of course, the fecal material struck propellant and the American Media Maggots threw camshafts nationally. Why? Because after berating President Trump over his March 4th Tweet (“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”), the information provided by Chairman Nunes tended to prove that — ahem — President Trump was correct. Think Trump and the Sweden comment, the Brussels terror attack and the election. Proven correct. Hmm.

New York Representative Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee said this to Bill O’Reilly on March 22nd.

You are up to date on the back story. Of course, Demorats and the AMM could not let that stand. However, as I am wont to say, “but wait; there’s more.” From the NYTimes.com:

House Democrats Ask Devin Nunes to Recuse Himself From Russia Inquiry

by Matthew Rosenberg and Emmarie Huetteman

WASHINGTON — Top House Democrats on Monday called on the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to recuse himself from the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, thrusting the entire inquiry into jeopardy amid what they described as mounting evidence he was too close to President Trump to be impartial.

The demands followed revelations that the committee’s chairman, Representative Devin Nunes of California, had met on White House grounds with a source who showed him secret American intelligence reports. The reports, Mr. Nunes said last week, showed that Mr. Trump or his closest associates may have been “incidentally” swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.

The new revelation that the information actually came from a meeting held on the grounds of the White House intensified questions about what prompted Mr. Nunes to make the claim about the intelligence gathering, and who gave him the information.

Two extremely important questions, then:

  1. Is this Chairman Nunes conducting illegal, biased or shady activities for Trump, perhaps at the behest of the Russians, or
  2. Is this Chairman Nunes doing his job?

The highest ranking Demorat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, along with (naturally) Nancy Pelosi believe that Nunes is in the pocket of the White House.

“The public cannot have the necessary confidence that matters involving the president’s campaign or transition team can be objectively investigated or overseen by the chairman,” Mr. Schiff said on Monday night.

If the Demorats truly believe this, wouldn’t they want to do what they did at Trump’s inauguration, and boycott the committee?

Still, Mr. Schiff stopped short of pulling the panel’s Democrats out of the investigation. Doing so could jeopardize Democrats’ influence over the inquiry and, importantly, their access to intelligence on possible ties between Trump associates and Moscow.

The revelation that Mr. Nunes had viewed intelligence materials on White House grounds the day before bolstering the administration’s case fueled damaging speculation that he was acting at the instruction of the president. That could prove fatal to the bipartisan investigation, which has hinged on the ability of Mr. Nunes to conduct a neutral inquiry while maintaining the trust and cooperation of Mr. Schiff.

Ms. Pelosi echoed Mr. Schiff’s call for Mr. Nunes to recuse himself, saying his behavior had “tarnished” his post and urging Speaker Paul D. Ryan to speak out.

“Speaker Ryan must insist that Chairman Nunes at least recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation immediately,” she said in a statement. “That leadership is long overdue.”

Trey Gowdy, no stranger to conflict, partisan politics in his hearings or to DC investigations, said this about the actions of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.

What Trey Gowdy said was, “just let Devin Nunes do his job.”

Chairman Nunes appeared on the Bill O’Reilly show with more direct information, which also includes the fact that the FBI “can’t make” a second appearance in committee.

For some reason the Church Lady seems to be speaking into my ear at this point.

So you have to ask yourself, as I’ve said and written since last year, “where is the evidence that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians and/or had anything to do with the throwing of the election in order to favor Mr Trump?” After all, even former DNI James Clapper (2010-2017, under Obama) said this during the March 5th edition of “Meet the Press.”

If this is true — and was likely known in 2016 — then what was the need for the surveillance of Trump and his associates under the Obama administration? We know the phones had to be tapped because of the Michael Flynn situation and because of the release of transcripts from conversations between Trump and both Turnbull and Nieto.

Trey Gowdy sums it up adroitly on Face the Nation last Sunday.

Remember, the NSA is cooperating, and the FBI is not. That makes me want to ask: did, possibly, the leak — or several of them — occur within the FBI itself?

Did the Obama administration use the cover of “legitimate surveillance” on foreign persons in order to unearth whatever it could on Donald Trump and his campaign? And isn’t this a clever and timely distraction from the real issue? The actual content of what Chairman Nunes is saying?

Remember, as per the Demorats, Leftists and American Media Maggots, this is all incidental. No one did it on purpose.

Right?

BZ

 

House Intelligence chair Devin Nunes: President Trump may be correct about surveillance

First, from Politico.com:

Nunes claims some Trump transition messages were intercepted

by Austin Wright

The move gave cover to the White House but was rebuked by top Democrats.

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes declared Wednesday that members of Donald Trump’s transition team, possibly including Trump himself, were under inadvertent surveillance following November’s presidential election.

The White House and Trump’s allies immediately seized on the statement as vindication of the president’s much-maligned claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower phones — even though Nunes himself said that’s not what his new information shows.

Democrats, meanwhile, cried foul.

Why did the Demorats “cry foul”? Not necessarily because they vehemently disbelieve the information but because Demorat Adam Schiff, the top Dem on the House Intelligence Committee, became butt-hurt due to the order in which persons were notified. In other words, Schiff determined he wasn’t advised soon enough and others, such as President Trump, acquired the information before he did.

Nunes set off the firestorm with a news conference earlier in the day in which he described the surveillance of Trump aides through what’s called “incidental collection,” something he noted was routine and legal. Such collection can occur when a person inside the United State communicates with a foreign target of U.S. surveillance. In such cases, the identities of U.S. citizens are supposed to be shielded — but can be “unmasked” by intelligence officials under certain circumstances.

Nunes, himself a Trump transition member, said a “source” had shown him evidence that members of the Trump transition team had been unmasked — and that their identities had been revealed in U.S. intelligence reports. Nunes had previously raised questions about the unmasking of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whose communications with Russia’s ambassador were intercepted by the U.S. government and whose identity was leaked to the news media.

Is there a price to be paid for this “unmasking” of American citizens? Oh quite so. From the WashingtonExaminer.com:

Bob Woodward: Obama officials possibly facing criminal charges for unmasking scheme

by Daniel Chaitin

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward warned on Wednesday that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said earlier that he had briefed Trump on new information, unrelated to an investigation into Russian activities, that suggested that several members of Trump’s transition team and perhaps Trump himself had their identities “unmasked” after their communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials.

He said it isn’t Trump’s assertion, without proof, that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower that is of concern, but rather that intelligence officials named the Americans being discussed in intercepted communications.

The next logical question should be: who in the American government or intelligence community has the authority or ability to “unmask” a US citizen?

He noted that there are about 20 people in the intelligence community who, for intelligence reasons, can order this “minimization” be removed.

Who specifically may have ordered this? The House Intelligence Committee wants to know.

Nunes and Schiff asked the intelligence community leaders to disclose any “unmasked” identities that were disseminated throughout the intelligence community, law enforcement, or among senior Obama administration officials from June 2016 until January 2017 that relate to Trump or Hillary Clinton and their associates.

An informed source told CNN that if Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was being surveilled, Flynn’s name should not necessarily have been included on the intelligence report. Rather, “American Citizen 1” or a similar anonymous term should have been used.

“However, as recent news stories, seem to illustrate, individuals talking to the media would appear to have wantonly disregarded these procedures,” Nunes and Schiff wrote. The congressmen also asked the names of individuals or agencies who “requested and/or authorized the unmasking and dissemination” of these identities.

The letter was addressed to Admiral Michael Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency; FBI Director James Comey; and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The acting Director of National Intelligence Michael Dempsey was also included.

FBI Director James Comey said on Monday in a House hearing that:

Several top officials would have access to the information or could request it. That includes top Obama appointees at the Justice Department, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and others. Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, testified that 20 people in his agency have the authority to “unmask” a U.S. citizen whose identity normally would be disguised.

Speaking of the FBI, Chairman Devin Nunes says that agency is not cooperating with the House’s investigation. From Grabien.com:

NUNES: FBI IS NOT COOPERATING WITH OUR INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP CAMP SURVEILLANCE

“We don’t actually know yet officially what happened to General Flynn,” Nunes said of how communications from Gen. Flynn’s calls were leaked to the press. “We just know that his name leaked out but we don’t know how it was picked up yet. That was one of the things that we asked for in the March 15th letter, was for the NSA, CIA, and FBI to get us all the unmasking that was done.”

“And I’ll tell you, NSA is being cooperative,” Nunes continued, “but so far the FBI has not told us whether or not they’re going to respond to our March 15th letter, which is now a couple of weeks old.”

Nunes also reported that as of now, he “cannot rule out” President Obama ordering the surveillance. 

Continuing from Politico.com:

During his press briefing, Nunes said he did not know yet whether the Trump transition officials who were “unmasked” were communicating from Trump Tower.

Nunes said he briefed House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on the information on Wednesday morning before heading to the White House to brief the president.

His committee is set to hold a public hearing next Tuesday with members of the Obama administration, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by Trump in January after refusing to defend his first travel ban executive order in court.

They are almost certain to face questions on the matter.

FBI Director James Comey appeared before the panel on Monday and confirmed that the FBI launched a counterintelligence investigation in July into Russia’s election meddling, including possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

One primary question: will be ever actually find those responsible for unmasking American citizens?

First you have to ask: do certain government agencies and deep-staters even want to?

BZ