Violent riots broke out in the Belgian city of Anderlecht last weekend. Violence erupted Saturday afternoon, with groups of migrants throwing rocks and glass at police officers, according to reports. One man is said to have fired three shots in the air from a gun that appeared to have been stolen from the police. All the studies show you cannot lock people down. They will begin to become violent after 4 to 6 weeks. This fake attempt to use a virus that has not proven to be even as lethal as the annual flu will have serious implications in rising civil unrest. You will NOT be able to keep people locked down for 18 months as Bill Gates is insisting.
ANSWER: There is no doubt that Americans have been getting a civics lesson as they turn to Washington for answers to the coronavirus crisis, but discover that their state governors have assumed far more control over what goes on in their daily lives than the constitution allows. It has been State and local authorities making decisions about shutting down businesses and allocating medical equipment to hospitals – not the President. They have merely listened to Bill Gates and the compromised Anthony Fauci whose recommendations are illegal.
This is what the “United States” meant that there was a separation of powers between federal and state. This is the system the founding fathers designed, though it seems anachronistic to many while people like Fauci have been the stooge for Bill Gates claiming this is a deadly disease that warrants we be locked-down as prisoners in our own homes without any legal authority under the Constitution.
It is the Commerce Clause in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause3) that governs this question. The Commerce Clause states that the United States Congress shall have power:
“[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
The Supreme Court ruled in Swift and Company v. United States, 196 U.S. 375 (1905), that Congress had the authority to regulate localcommerce, as long as that activity could become part of a continuous “current” of commerce that involved the interstate movement of goods and services.
My interpretation of this is simple. It is unconstitutional for any state to block interstate commerce. Consequently, the President has the executive power to issue a binding order to open up commerce and the states cannot legally resist that order for keeping the economy locked-down violates the Commerce Clause. Over the years, the meaning of the word “commerce” has been a source of controversy. The Constitution did not explicitly define the word. That has led to legal arguments back and forth.
Some argue that the word “Commerce” refers only to trade or exchange. Others counter that claim arguing that the Framers intended to describe more broadly commercial and social connections between citizens of different states. Hence, the interpretation of “Commerce” has been the dividing line between federal and state power. My reading is that they intended to prevent states from discriminating against each other and to ensure the free-flow of both the people with the freedom to travel and commerce in an economic sense.
In Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824), the Supreme Court held back then that intrastate activity could be regulated under the Commerce Clause, provided that the activity is part of a larger interstate commercial scheme. In Swift, as I said, the Supreme Court held that Congress had the authority to regulate local commerce provided it was part of a continuous “current” of commerce that involved the interstate movement of goods and services. Therefore, from 1905 until about 1937, the Supreme Court used this narrow version of the Commerce Clause. However, that changed with Franklin D. Roosevelt who stacked the court to justify his socialism and the New Deal. Beginning with NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp, 301 U.S. 1 (1937), the Supreme Court recognized broader grounds upon which the Commerce Clause could be used to regulate state activity since FDR was seeking more power to dominate the states.
The Supreme Court held in NLRB that activity was commerce if it had a “substantial economic effect” on interstate commerce or if the “cumulative effect” of a single act could have an effect on such commerce. Then in NLRB v. Jones, United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941) and Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), the Supreme Court revealed its socialist interpretation which broadened the scope of the Commerce Clause. Suddenly, what emerged was a highly dynamic and integrated national economy, whereby the Court applied its broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause, reasoning the even local activity will likely affect the larger interstate commercial economic scheme. The limitations between state and federal were no longer so clear.
After 1937 until 1995, the Supreme Court never invalidated a single law on the basis of the Commerce Clause. State’s rights seem to fade into the distant horizon. Then in 1995, the Supreme Court attempted to curtail this expansive interpretation of the Commerce Clause and was returning to a more conservative interpretation. This decision came down in United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995). In Lopez, the defendant was charged with carrying a handgun to school in violation of the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. The defendant argued that the federal government had no authority to regulate firearms in local schools, while the government claimed that this fell under the Commerce Clause, arguing that possession of a firearm in a school zone would lead to violent crime, thereby affecting the general economic conditions. The Supreme Court rejected that argument and held that Congress only has the power to regulate the channels of commerce, the instrumentalities of commerce, and action that substantially affects interstate commerce. The Court declined to further expand the Commerce Clause holding:
“To do so would require us to conclude that the Constitution’s enumeration of powers does not presuppose something not enumerated, and that there never will be a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local. This we are unwilling to do.”
In Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), the Supreme Court returned to its more liberal construction of the Commerce Clause in relation to intrastate production. In Gonzales, the Court upheld federal regulation of intrastate marijuana production.
Then in 2012, the Supreme Court again dealt with the Commerce Clause in NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 US. 519 (2012) concerning the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act (AFA), which sought to require uninsured individuals to secure health insurance (Obamacare) in an attempt to stabilize the health insurance market. Focusing on Lopez’s requirement that Congress could regulate only commercial activity, the Court held that the individual mandate could not be enacted under the Commerce Clause. The Court stated that requiring the purchase of health insurance under the AFA was not the regulation of commercial activity so much as inactivity and was, accordingly, impermissible under the Commerce Clause.
CONCLUSION
Therefore, relying on these decisions, the attempt by the states to lock-down the economy is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and the President has the power even under National Security to reopen the economy since it has been illegally shut down at the request of Bill Gates and his surrogate Anthony Fauci. This is dealing DIRECTLY with interstate commerce which is no different than protectionism that each state could then impose tariffs on imports from another state, which was the clear intention of the Founding Fathers to prohibit.
New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy is a member of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s economic task force on the Wuhan Virus. Earlier today Comrade Murphy announced all citizens in the New Jersey Directorate would remain on lock-down, suspending all citizen rights, until the state government declares all signs of the Wuhan Virus are gone.
The North Eastern political ideologues are counting on financing from the Federal government to keep their citizens confined. Essentially the state of New Jersey will remain on perpetual quarantine until politicians determine it is safe to engage in civic society.
Tonight on Tucker Carlson Comrade Murphy defended his decision. Carlson contrast the state allowing liquor stores to remain open but shutting down religious services. All determinations are ideological…
It seemed clear several weeks ago this was going to happen. East coast blue state governors and West coast blue state governors are united to begin the economic civil war planning to block any White House effort to re-open the U.S. economy. The founders planned for this in Article I, Sec 10 (paragraph 3):
“No state shall, without the consent of Congress, … enter into any agreement or compact with another state”..
The three step plan seems predictable: (1) Get out ahead of President Trump. (2) Defy the ‘all clear’ and shape economic benefit to their political allies. (3) Then use Fauci’s upcoming dossier to hit the administration for heartlessly opening the economy too early.
♦ On the East Coast the governors of New York (Cuomo), New Jersey (Murphy), Connecticut (Lamont), Pennsylvania (Wolfe), Delaware (Carney) and Rhode Island (Raimondo) have started assembling their economic war council with the intent to keep the northeast region shut down. Controlling critical ports and infrastructure is a key part of their strategy.
EAST COAST — Six Northeast governors will form a working group to come up with a plan to restart [control] the regional economy, they announced on Monday. (link)
♦ On the West Coast the governors of California (Newsom), Oregon (Brown) and Washington State (Inslee) are also assembling their economic war council for similar intents and purposes. Combined with their political northeastern allies, controlling two-thirds of U.S. ports will give them a strategic advantage to keep choking the economy until after they can install their commanding general in the White House.
WEST COAST – The governors of Washington, California and Oregon on Monday announced they were working on a joint plan for reopening[controlling] their states’ respective economies once it is safe to lift coronavirus-related restrictions.
It appears the Governors rushed to publicity to avoid their enemy, U.S. President Donald Trump, striking strategically against their schemes. As the interview with Governor Murphy highlights, during this economic war residents within the Blue occupied territories will be held captive to the political whims of their regional generals.
The economic freedom and liberty zone will encompass the Red region. The center of the country, mid west, southern region (surrounding the Gulf of Mexico) and south eastern Atlantic region. These areas will be open to commerce and economic freedom.
However, the urban dense populations (Blue pockets within Red zones) will push-back against the efforts of the Red generals in an attempt to retain alignment with their Blue team generals. Depending on the strength of the urban forces there may be roadblocks, sabotage, skirmishes and political violence against the freedom & liberty Red team.
Red captives within the Blue zones will have to be smart and strategic. Big Blue tech will be assisting the totalitarian Blue generals. Direct confrontation against the Blue forces should be avoided, and it will likely be a better strategy to fight stealthily as insurgents.
Any Red team member of the economic freedom alliance, trapped within a Blue region, is warned to evaluate their connection to their electronic devices. Your cell phones could be used as portable transponders expose your movement and your political views.
This is going to be one hell of a battle. A Spring and Summer conflict like we’ve never seen in the history of U.S. politics outside of actual, physical, civil war.
The last time the Supreme Court ruled on an issue related to congress not formally adjourning session they left open the door to support Executive Branch invocation of Article II, Section 3, during an “unusual circumstance” or “national catastrophe.”
Today President Trump warned congress he may invoke Article II, sec 3, due to the COVID-19 crisis and his need for administration positions that have been delayed by democrats in the Senate for more than two years.
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The coronavirus pandemic would seem to qualify as an “unusual circumstance” where recess appointments would be needed, valid and justified. However, senate democrats would likely fight any attempt in court. The Senate has refused to adjourn session since President Trump was inaugurated, and multiple cabinet officials have been blocked from confirmation.
“Leader McConnell had a conversation today with the president to discuss Senate Democrats’ unprecedented obstruction of the president’s well-qualified nominees and shared his continued frustration with the process,” said a McConnell spokesman. “[McConnell] pledged to find ways to confirm nominees considered mission-critical to the COVID-19 pandemic, but under Senate rules that will take consent from Leader Schumer.” (link)
After the prepared remarks from President Trump, he explained why he is now looking strongly at the possibility of triggering the forced adjournment:
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Success in the courts would be a 50/50 proposition. Generally the courts lean toward supporting the separation of power and there’s ample loony activist judges to support the Democrats. However, that said, the urgency of COVID-19 could very possibly tip the scales in favor of the executive branch during this crisis.
Ultimately the battle is more-or-less political. Democrats and their media allies will weaponize any article II invocation effort to frame President Trump as a dictator. As long as the Democrats have the DNC national media as their ally, public opinion on the issue would be challenging.
The U.S. economy will reopen sooner rather than later specifically because of non-discussed issues in the total U.S. food supply chain. While government officials have to be very careful in public comments, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue hinted toward the issue today during his remarks at the coronavirus task force briefing. WATCH:
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The issue is slightly complex; and with two months of manufactured food supply-chain stress; it is now becoming increasingly important to re-open consumer access to the fresh-food side of the aggregate supply chain (ie. restaurants, cafe’s, and food away from home).
Most Americans were not aware food consumption in the U.S. was a 55/45 proposition. Approximately 55% of all food was consumed “outside the home” (or food away from home), and 45% of all food consumed was food “inside the home” (grocery shoppers).
Food ‘outside the home’ included: restaurants, fast-food locales, schools, corporate cafeterias, university lunchrooms, manufacturing cafeterias, hotels, food trucks, park and amusement food sellers and many more. Many of those venues are not thought about when people evaluate the overall U.S. food delivery system; however, this network was approximately 55 percent of all food consumption on a daily basis.
The ‘food away from home‘ sector has its own supply chain. Very few restaurants and venues (cited above) purchase food products from retail grocery outlets. As a result of the coronavirus mitigation effort the ‘food away from home’ sector has been reduced by 75% of daily food delivery operations. However, people still need to eat. That means retail food outlets, grocers, are seeing sales increases of 25 to 50 percent, depending on the area.
•Phase One was retail. •Phase two was distribution. •Phase three was the space between processing/manufacturing and distribution. •Phase four was raw material supply to manufacturing. •Phase five is consumer packaging capacity, and bulk storage inventories.
This is the phase where Secretary Sonny Perdue starts getting concerned…
♦ Phase Five – The retail consumer supply chain for manufactured and processed food products includes bulk storage to compensate for seasonality. As Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue recently noted “there are over 800 commercial and public warehouses in the continental 48 states that store frozen products.”
Here is a snapshot of the food we had in storage at the end of February: over 302 million pounds of frozen butter; 1.36 billion pounds of frozen cheese; 925 million pounds of frozen chicken; over 1 billion pounds of frozen fruit; nearly 2.04 billion pounds of frozen vegetables; 491 million pounds of frozen beef; and nearly 662 million pounds of frozen pork.
This bulk food storage is how the total U.S. consumer food supply ensures consistent availability even with weather impacts. As a nation we essentially stay one harvest ahead of demand by storing it and smoothing out any peak/valley shortfalls. There are a total of 175,642 commercial facilities involved in this supply-chain across the country
Few Americans are aware of this. However, that stored-food-supply is the supply-chain for food manufacturers who process the ingredients into a variety of branded food products and distribute to your local supermarket.
That bulk stored food, and the subsequent supply chain, is entirely separate from the commercial fresh food supply chain used by restaurants, hotels, cafeterias etc. For almost 8 weeks the retail consumer supply chain has been operating beyond capacity and the burn rate of raw food products is up a stunning 40 percent.
Those bulk warehouses, the feeder pools for retail/consumer manufactured food products, are starting to run low.
Believe me: (1) we don’t want to find out what happens when those 800 mass storage facilities run out; and (2) the food supply chain will be a big part of President Trump’s decision-making on reopening the economy thereby re-opening restaurants, cafeterias, etc…. and switching consumption back to fresh supply.
This “bigger picture” is not being considered by politically-minded governors, DC politicians, and public health-centric advisors who focus exclusively on the virus.
Additionally, there are very specific issues within each supply chain (commercial and consumer). It is not as easy as people think to move the commercial supply-chain (restaurants etc.) into the consumer supply chain (grocers). First, there are simply packaging capacity issues. Additionally, there’s an entirely different set of regulations on the processing side for the consumer supply chain.
One dairy farmer helps explain:
Are we dumping milk because of greed or low demand, no. It’s the supply chain, there are only so many jug fillers, all were running 24/7 before this cluster you-know-what.
Now demand for jug milk has almost doubled. However, restaurant demand is almost gone; NO ONE is eating out.
Restaurant milk is distributed in 2.5 gal bags or pint chugs; further, almost 75 percent of milk is processed into hard products in this country, cheese and butter. Mozzarella is almost a third of total cheese production; how’s pizza sales going right now??
A bit of history – Years ago (40+) every town had a bottler, they ran one shift a day, could ramp up production easily. Now with all the corporate takeovers (wall street over main street) we are left with regional “high efficiency” milk plants that ran jug lines 24/7 before this mess, no excess capacity.
Jug machines cost millions and are MADE IN CHINA. Only so many jugs can be blown at a jug plant. We farmers don’t make the jugs, damn hard to ramp up production.
I’m a dairy farmer, believe me NO dairyman likes dumping milk; and so far there is NO guarantee they will get paid. Milk must be processed within 48 hours of production and 24 hours of receipt in the plant or it goes bad. Same with making it into cheese and butter, and neither stores well for long.
The same supply line problems exists where restaurants are supplied with bulk 1 pound blocks of butter or single serv packs or pats; and cheese is sold in 10 to 20 pound bags (think shredded Mozzarella for pizza). Furthermore, it is not legal for this end of the supply chain to sell direct to consumers in most states.
Take cheddar cheese for instance; it goes from mild to sharp to crap in storage. Butter, frozen, only stores for so long and then must be slowly thawed and processed into other uses as it gets “strong”. At Organic Valley we cook it down into butter oil or ghee for cooking.
We are headed for the same problem with canned veggies. The vast majority of produce comes off and is processed in season; canned or frozen. The supply is already in cans for the season; restaurants use gallon cans or bulk bags of frozen produce.
At some point we will run out of consumer sized cans in stock because home size sales are up (40%+) and restaurant sales are almost nonexistent. Fresh produce out of U.S. season comes from Mexico (different climate). I’m talking sweet corn, green beans, peas, tomatoes, all veggies are seasonal in the USA. Fresh, out-of-season, row crops are imported. (There are exceptions, like hydroponic grown, but small amount of total).
Someone mentioned “time to raid all those bins of corn”. Those bins on the farm contain yellow corn, cattle feed and totally unfit for human consumption, now or at harvest.
Eggs? Same problem. Bakeries and restaurants of any size use Pullman egg cases, 30 dozen at a pop, 30 eggs to a flat, 12 flats to a case. There are only so many 1 dozen egg cartons available and only so many packing machines.
Industrial bakeries and processors of packaged food buy bulk liquid eggs, no carton at all. Also in many states it is illegal to sell this supply-chain directly to consumers.
On your standard buffet of any size, do you really think they boil eggs and peel them? They come in a bag, boiled and diced; those nice uniform slices of boiled egg you see on your salad, a lot of them come in tubes boiled and extruded at the same time, just unwrap and slice. Your scrambled eggs come in a homogenized bag on most buffets.
Another example of Main Street being gutted and “improved by wall street” NO local egg processors available or many small egg producers either, all corporate and huge, contracted to sell to the corporate masters.
This is a warning the same problems exist in all supply chains.
The supply chain is farked.
David Osterloh, 61-year-old dairy farmer
Most people don’t contemplate the bigger issue within the dynamic of total food distribution in the United States. It is a very complex supply chain that has been reinvented over the past 50 years as more people started eating away from home.
The commercial fresh food supply chain, which is 55 percent of total food consumption, is currently stalled. The retail or manufactured food supply (grocery stores), which was formerly 45 percent of food distribution, cannot reasonably generate enough product to compensate for half of the total food supply chain shutting down without radical adjustments to the operation; and those radical adjustments take time to implement.
There is still plenty of fresh supply foodstuffs, but processed or manufactured food will likely not be able to keep operating at the current capacity much longer.
Traditional emergency food recovery and distribution models (think hurricanes) are designed for short-term disruptions to the restaurant sector that provides 50% of food outside the home; and, as a result, short-term increases to at home food needs. Those emergency and recovery models have contingency plans for short-term regional bursts of specific non perishable products into specific areas. This ain’t that.
The current supply chain disruption is a severe reduction in the availability of ‘food outside the home‘ for a sustained period. Losing the entire sector is very unusual, unprecedented, unforeseen in scale; and there is no national contingency plan for a nationwide demand on all retail supermarket food products simultaneously.
Once these bulk warehouse fulfillment centers run out, every manufacturer and food processor in the country is pulling from the same upstream supplier network. Again, there’s no need to panic, the total food supply is not short, we all just need to adjust our shopping habits and get a little creative.
White House Manufacturing Trade Advisor Peter Navarro is also leading the execution of the Defense Production Act to rally American resources in combating the Wuhan Virus. In this interview Navarro discusses the scale of Beijing’s influence over the World Health Organization as a propaganda operation.
Interestingly Navarro notes the Chinese delegation visit in January 2020 and the issues of human-to-human virus spread. CTH has long suspected U.S. intelligence on the Wuhan virus was behind Trump’s proactive health measures in November 2019. It would make sense for POTUS to have a heart-health evaluation prior to beginning a prophylactic regimen [hint hydroxychloriquine] and that might explain a particular advocacy emphasis later on. Just sayin’.
Additionally, Navarro again outlines the importance of returning our critical U.S. manufacturing back to the United States. Honeywell now making masks and GM making ventilators. Peter Navarro is a patriot; in the right place for this moment in history.
Unfortunately, with President Trump effectively communicating the latest information on the federal efforts to mitigate COVID-19, more corporate U.S. resistance media have decided not to carry the live broadcasts from the White House task force briefings.
Today at 5:00pm ET the White House will hold a briefing for the public and media on the latest mitigation efforts against the coronavirus. [Livestream Links Below]
With the release of recent transcripts and the declassification of material from within the IG report on the Carter Page FISA, there is a common misconception about why the intelligence apparatus began investigating the Trump campaign. In this outline we hope to provide some deep source material that will explain the origin, and specifically why the those inside the Intelligence Community began using Confidential Human Sources.
During the time-frame of December 2015 through April 2016 the NSA database was being exploited by contractors within the intelligence community doing unauthorized searches.
On March 9, 2016, oversight personnel doing a review of FBI system access were alerted to thousands of unauthorized search queries of specific U.S. persons within the NSA database.
NSA Director Mike Rogers was made aware.
Subsequently NSA Director Rogers initiated a full compliance review of the system to identify who was doing the searches; & what searches were being conducted.
On April 18, 2016, following the preliminary audit results, Director Rogers shut down all FBI contractor access to the database after he learned FISA-702 “about”(17) and “to/from”(16) search queries were being done without authorization. Thus begins the first discovery of a much bigger background story.
When you compile the timeline with the people involved; and the specific wording of the resulting review, which was then delivered to the FISA court; and overlay the activity that was taking place in the GOP primary; what we discover is a process where the metadata collected by the NSA was being searched for political opposition research and surveillance.
Additionally, tens-of-thousands of searches were identified by the FISA court as likely extending much further than the compliance review period: “while the government reports it is unable to provide a reliable estimate of the non compliant queries since 2012, there is no apparent reason to believe the November 2015 [to] April 2016 period coincided with an unusually high error rate”.
In short, during the Obama administration the NSA database was continually used to conduct surveillance. This is the critical point that leads to understanding the origin of “Spygate”, as it unfolded in the Spring and Summer of 2016.
It was the discovery of the database exploitation and the removal of access as a surveillance tool that created their initial problem. Here’s how we can tell.
Initially in December 2015 there were 17 GOP candidates and all needed to be researched.
However, when Donald Trump won New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina the field was significantly whittled. Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Kasich and Carson remained.
On Super Tuesday, March 2, 2016, Donald Trump won seven states (VT, AR, VA, GA, AL, TN, MA) it was then clear that Trump was the GOP frontrunner with momentum to become the presumptive nominee. On March 5th, Trump won Kentucky and Louisiana; and on March 8th Trump won Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii.
The next day, March 9th, NSA security alerts warned internal oversight personnel that something sketchy was going on.
This timing is not coincidental. As FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer later wrote in her report, “many of these non-compliant queries involved the use of the same identifiers over different date ranges.” Put another way: attributes belonging to a specific individual(s) were being targeted and queried, unlawfully. Given what was later discovered, it seems obvious the primary search target, over multiple date ranges, was Donald Trump.
There were tens-of-thousands of unauthorized search queries; and as Judge Collyer stated in her report, there is no reason to believe the 85% non compliant rate was any different from the abuse of the NSA database going back to 2012.
As you will see below the NSA database was how political surveillance was being conducted during Obama’s second term in office. However, when the system was flagged, and when NSA Director Mike Rogers shut down “contractor” access to the system, the system users needed to develop another way to get access.
Mike Rogers shuts down access on April 18, 2016. On April 19, 2016, Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson’s wife, Mary Jacoby visits the White House. Immediately thereafter, the DNC and Clinton campaign contract Fusion GPS… who then hire Christopher Steele.
Knowing it was federal “contractors”, outside government with access to the system, doing the unauthorized searches, the question becomes: who were the contractors?
The possibilities are quite vast. Essentially anyone the FBI or intelligence apparatus was using could have participated. Crowdstrike was a known FBI contractor; they were also contracted by the DNC. Shawn Henry was the former head of the FBI office in DC and is now the head of Crowdstrike; a rather dubious contractor for the government and a politically connected data security and forensic company. James Comey’s special friend Daniel Richman was an unpaid FBI “special employee” with security access to the database. Nellie Ohr began working for Fusion-GPS on the Trump project in November 2015 and she was a CIA contractor; and it’s entirely likely Glenn Simpson or people within his Fusion-GPS network were also contractors for the intelligence community.
Remember the Sharyl Attkisson computer intrusions? It’s all part of this same network; Attkisson even names Shawn Henry as a defendant in her ongoing lawsuit.
All of the aforementioned names, and so many more, held a political agenda in 2016.
It seems likely if the NSA flags were never triggered then the contracted system users would have continued exploiting the NSA database for political opposition research; which would then be funneled to the Clinton team. However, once the unauthorized flags were triggered, the system users (including those inside the official intelligence apparatus) needed to find another back-door to continue… Again, the timing becomes transparent.
Immediately after NSA flags were raised March 9th; the same intelligence agencies began using confidential human sources (CHS’s) to run into the Trump campaign. By activating intelligence assets like Joseph Mifsud and Stefan Halper the IC (CIA, FBI) and system users had now created an authorized way to continue the same political surveillance operations.
When Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort on March 28, 2016, it was a perfect scenario for those doing the surveillance. Manafort was a known entity to the FBI and was previously under investigation. Paul Manafort’s entry into the Trump orbit was perfect for Glenn Simpson to sell his prior research on Manafort as a Trump-Russia collusion script two weeks later.
The shift from “unauthorized exploitation of the NSA database” to legally authorized exploitation of the NSA database was now in place. This was how they continued the political surveillance. This is the confluence of events that originated “spygate”, or what officially blossomed into the FBI investigation known as “Crossfire Hurricane” on July 31.
If the NSA flags were never raised; and if Director Rogers had never initiated the compliance audit; and if the political contractors were never blocked from access to the database; they would never have needed to create a legal back-door, a justification to retain the surveillance. The political operatives/contractors would have just continued the targeted metadata exploitation.
Once they created the surveillance door, Fusion-GPS was then needed to get the FBI known commodity of Chris Steele activated as a pipeline. Into that pipeline all system users pushed opposition research. However, one mistake from the NSA database extraction during an “about” query shows up as a New Yorker named Michael Cohen in Prague.
That misinterpreted data from a FISA-702 “about query” is then piped to Steele and turns up inside the dossier; it was the wrong Michael Cohen. It wasn’t Trump’s lawyer, it was an art dealer from New York City with the same name; the same “identifier”.
A DEEP DIVE – How Did It Work?
Start by reviewing the established record from the 99-page FISC opinion rendered by Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer on April 26, 2017. Review the details within the FISC opinion.
I would strongly urge everyone to read the FISC report (full pdf below) because Judge Collyer outlines how the DOJ, which includes the FBI, had an “institutional lack of candor” in responses to the FISA court. In essence, the Obama administration was continually lying to the FISA court about their activity, and the rate of fourth amendment violations for illegal searches and seizures of U.S. persons’ private information for multiple years.
Unfortunately, due to intelligence terminology Judge Collyer’s brief and ruling is not an easy read for anyone unfamiliar with the FISA processes. That complexity also helps the media avoid discussing it; and as a result most Americans have no idea the scale and scope of the Obama-era surveillance issues. So we’ll try to break down the language.
For the sake of brevity and common understanding CTH will highlight the most pertinent segments showing just how systemic and troublesome the unlawful electronic surveillance was.
Early in 2016 NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers was alerted of a significant uptick in FISA-702(17) “About” queries using the FBI/NSA database that holds all metadata records on every form of electronic communication.
The NSA compliance officer alerted Admiral Mike Rogers who then initiated a full compliance audit on/around March 9th, 2016, for the period of November 1st, 2015, through May 1st, 2016.
While the audit was ongoing, due to the severity of the results that were identified, Admiral Mike Rogers stopped anyone from using the 702(17) “about query” option, and went to the extraordinary step of blocking all FBI contractor access to the database on April 18, 2016(keep these dates in mind).
Here are some significant segments:
The key takeaway from these first paragraphs is how the search query results were exported from the NSA database to users who were not authorized to see the material. The FBI contractors were conducting searches and then removing, or ‘exporting’, the results. Later on, the FBI said all of the exported material was deleted.
Searching the highly classified NSA database is essentially a function of filling out search boxes to identify the user-initiated search parameter and get a return on the search result.
♦ FISA-702(16) is a search of the system returning a U.S. person (“702”); and the “16” is a check box to initiate a search based on “To and From“. Example, if you put in a date and a phone number and check “16” as the search parameter the user will get the returns on everything “To and From” that identified phone number for the specific date. Calls, texts, contacts etc. Including results for the inbound and outbound contacts.
♦ FISA-702(17) is a search of the system returning a U.S. person (702); and the “17” is a check box to initiate a search based on everything “About” the search qualifier. Example, if you put a date and a phone number and check “17” as the search parameter the user will get the returns of everything about that phone. Calls, texts, contacts, geolocation (or gps results), account information, user, service provider etc. As a result, 702(17) can actually be used to locate where the phone (and user) was located on a specific date or sequentially over a specific period of time which is simply a matter of changing the date parameters.
And that’s just from a phone number.
Search an ip address “about” and read all data into that server; put in an email address and gain everything about that account. Or use the electronic address of a GPS enabled vehicle (about) and you can withdraw more electronic data and monitor in real time. Search a credit card number and get everything about the account including what was purchased, where, when, etc. Search a bank account number, get everything about transactions and electronic records etc. Just about anything and everything can be electronically searched; everything has an electronic ‘identifier’.
The search parameter is only limited by the originating field filled out. Names, places, numbers, addresses, etc. By using the “About” parameter there may be thousands or millions of returns. Imagine if you put “@realdonaldtrump” into the search parameter? You could extract all following accounts who interacted on Twitter, or Facebook etc. You are only limited by your imagination and the scale of the electronic connectivity.
As you can see below, on March 9th, 2016, internal auditors noted the FBI was sharing “raw FISA information, including but not limited to Section 702-acquired information”.
In plain English the raw search returns were being shared with unknown entities without any attempt to “minimize” or redact the results. The person(s) attached to the results were named and obvious. There was no effort to hide their identity or protect their 4th amendment rights of privacy; and database access was from the FBI network:
But what’s the scale here? This is where the story really lies.
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 10,000 and 99,999 [six digits]. If we take the middle number of 50,000 – a non compliant rate of 85 percent means 42,500 unlawful searches out of 50,000.
The [six digit] amount (more than 10,000, less than 99,999), and 85% error rate, was captured in a six month period, November 2015 to April 2016.
Also notice this very important quote: “many of these non-compliant queries involved the use of the same identifiers over different date ranges.” This tells us the system users were searching the same phone number, email address, electronic identifier, repeatedly over different dates.
Specific person(s) were being tracked/monitored.
Additionally, notice the last quote: “while the government reports it is unable to provide a reliable estimate of” these non lawful searches “since 2012, there is no apparent reason to believe the November 2015 [to] April 2016 coincided with an unusually high error rate”.
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.
Who was 2012 CIA Director? John Brennan (remember the ouster of Gen Petraeus)
Who was ODNI? James Clapper.
Remember, the NSA is inside the Pentagon (Defense Dept) command structure. Who was Defense Secretary? Ash Carter
Who wanted NSA Director Mike Rogers fired in 2016? Brennan, Clapper and Carter.
And finally, who wrote and signed-off-on the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment and then lied about the use of the Steele Dossier? The same John Brennan, and James Clapper along with James Comey.
Tens of thousands of searches over four years (since 2012), and 85% of them are illegal. The results were extracted for?…. (I believe this is all political opposition use; and I’ll explain why momentarily.)
OK, that’s the stunning scale; but who was involved?
Private contractors with access to “raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to FBI’s requests“:
And as noted, the contractor access was finally halted on April 18th, 2016.
[Coincidentally (or likely not), the wife of Fusion-GPS founder Glenn Simpson, Mary Jacoby, goes to the White House the very next day on April 19th, 2016.]
None of this is conspiracy theory.
All of this is laid out inside this 99-page opinion from FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer who also noted that none of this FISA abuse was accidental in a footnote on page 87: “deliberate decisionmaking“:
This specific footnote, if declassified, could be a key. Note the phrase: “([redacted] access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding entered into [redacted])”, this sentence has the potential to expose an internal decision; withheld from congress and the FISA court by the Obama administration; that outlines a process for access and distribution of surveillance data.
Note: “no notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016“, that is important.
Summary: The FISA court identified and quantified tens-of-thousands of search queries of the NSA/FBI database using the FISA-702(16)(17) system. The database was repeatedly used by persons with contractor access who unlawfully searched and extracted the raw results without redacting the information and shared it with an unknown number of entities.
The outlined process certainly points toward a political spying and surveillance operation; and we are not the only one to think that’s what this system is being used for.
Back in 2017 when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was working to reauthorize the FISA legislation, Nunes wrote a letter to ODNI Dan Coats about this specific issue:
SIDEBAR: To solve the issue, well, actually attempt to ensure it never happened again, NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers eventually took away the “About” query option permanently in 2017. NSA Director Rogers said the abuse was so inherent there was no way to stop it except to remove the process completely. [SEE HERE] Additionally, the NSA database operates as a function of the Pentagon, so the Trump administration went one step further. On his last day as NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers -together with ODNI Dan Coats- put U.S. cyber-command, the database steward, fully into the U.S. military as a full combatant command. [SEE HERE] Unfortunately it didn’t work as shown by the 2018 FISC opinion rendered by FISC Judge James Boasberg [SEE HERE]
There is little doubt the FISA-702(16)(17) database system was used by Obama-era officials, from 2012 through April 2016, as a way to spy on their political opposition.
Quite simply there is no other intellectually honest explanation for the scale and volume of database abuse that was taking place; and keep in mind these searches were all ruled to be unlawful. Searches for repeated persons over a period time that were not authorized.
When we reconcile what was taking place and who was involved, then the actions of the exact same principle participants take on a jaw-dropping amount of clarity.
All of the action taken by CIA Director Brennan, FBI Director Comey, ODNI Clapper and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter make sense. Including their effort to get NSA Director Mike Rogers fired.
Everything after March 9th, 2016, had a dual purpose: (1) done to cover up the weaponization of the FISA database. [Explained Here] Spygate, Russia-Gate, the Steele Dossier, and even the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (drawn from the dossier and signed by the above) were needed to create a cover-story and protect themselves from discovery of this four year weaponization, political surveillance and unlawful spying. Even the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel makes sense; he was FBI Director when this began. And (2) they needed to keep the surveillance going.
The beginning decision to use FISA(702) as a domestic surveillance and political spy mechanism appears to have started in/around 2012. Perhaps sometime shortly before the 2012 presidential election and before John Brennan left the White House and moved to CIA. However, there was an earlier version of data assembly that preceded this effort.
Political spying 1.0 was actually the weaponization of the IRS. This is where the term “Secret Research Project” originated as a description from the Obama team. It involved the U.S. Department of Justice under Eric Holder and the FBI under Robert Mueller. It never made sense why Eric Holder requested over 1 million tax records via CD ROM, until overlaying the timeline of the FISA abuse:
The IRS sent the FBI “21 disks constituting a 1.1 million page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” The transaction occurred in October 2010 (link)
Why disks? Why send a stack of DISKS to the DOJ and FBI when there’s a pre-existing financial crimes unit within the IRS. All of the evidence within this sketchy operation came directly to the surface in early spring 2012.
The IRS scandal was never really about the IRS, it was always about the DOJ asking the IRS for the database of information. That is why it was transparently a conflict when the same DOJ was tasked with investigating the DOJ/IRS scandal. Additionally, Obama sent his chief-of-staff Jack Lew to become Treasury Secretary; effectively placing an ally to oversee/cover-up any issues. As Treasury Secretary Lew did just that.
Lesson Learned – It would appear the Obama administration learned a lesson from attempting to gather a large opposition research database operation inside a functioning organization large enough to have some good people that might blow the whistle.
The timeline reflects a few months after realizing the “Secret Research Project” was now worthless (June 2012), they focused more deliberately on a smaller network within the intelligence apparatus and began weaponizing the FBI/NSA database. If our hunch is correct, that is what will be visible in footnote #69:
How this all comes together in 2019/2020
Fusion GPS was not hired in April 2016 to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the intelligence community was already doing surveillance and spy operations. The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign, and were monitoring everything by exploiting the FISA database.
However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations. Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier.
That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.
The Steele Dossier, an outcome of the Fusion contract, contains two purposes: (1) the cover-story and justification for the pre-existing surveillance operation (protect Obama); and (2) facilitate the FBI counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign (assist Clinton).
An insurance policy would be needed. The Steele Dossier becomes the investigative virus the FBI wanted inside the system. To get the virus into official status, they used the FISA application as the delivery method and injected it into Carter Page. The FBI already knew Carter Page; essentially Carter Page was irrelevant, what they needed was the FISA warrant and the Dossier in the system {Go Deep}.
The Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to give them a plausible justification for already existing surveillance and spy operations. Fusion-GPS gave them that justification and evidence for a FISA warrant with the Steele Dossier.
Ultimately that’s why the Steele Dossier was so important; without it, the FBI would not have a tool that Mueller needed to continue the investigation of President Trump. In essence by renewing the FISA application, despite them knowing the underlying dossier was junk, the FBI was keeping the surveillance gateway open for Team Mueller to exploit later on.
Additionally, without the Steele Dossier the DOJ and FBI are naked with their FISA-702 abuse as outlined by John Ratcliffe.
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Thankfully we know U.S. Attorney John Durham has talked to NSA Director Mike Rogers. In this video Rogers explains how he was notified of what was happening and what he did after the notification.
If it serves progressives politically to have people out of work, miserable, starving, then they are consciously serving the interests of the country which spawned the virus, Communist China
The Washington Post claims “constitutional experts” have “no idea” where President Trump got the idea that emergency powers give him the total authority to reopen the U.S. economy. It took me less than one minute to find a report from a liberal group, the Brennan Center, which noted that “the president has significant discretion to declare a national emergency” and “there are no statutory limitations, beyond the word ‘emergency’ itself, on what type of event qualifies.”
Does an economic depression constitute a special event requiring emergency action? Do food shortages constitute a special event requiring emergency action? You betcha.
Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, under the National Emergencies Act, relating to the coronavirus. The Brennan Center found 123 statutory powers that are available to the president when he declares a national emergency.
The problem in America is not Trump but outlaw governors and mayors who have, in the case of Greenville, Mississippi, banned drive-in church services.
Critics of Trump who assert his claim of total authority is hogwash are ignoring what scholars call the “Emergency Law Regime.” Trump didn’t make this up. It’s been on the books for decades. Congress gave the president these powers. They are what political science professor Clinton Rossiter called the “Constitutional Dictatorship,” which is also the name of his 1948 book.
Presidents of the past using these powers have been swooned over by the liberals. One was Abraham Lincoln, who didn’t even have emergency powers granted by Congress. He simply exercised raw power. Another was FDR.
Prospect of food shortages, massive unemployment
With the prospect of food shortages, in addition to massive unemployment, it’s very easy to see how President Trump can use these emergency powers to control and expand the national economy, including interstate commerce. On Tuesday, he said he would rather work with the governors than order them around. But he made it clear he has the ultimate authority, and he’s right.
The liberal media are promoting the notion that Trump, if he acts to save jobs and the economy, would be a dictator or King. It seems the Post and its “experts” would rather leave the national economy in the hands of liberal governors who have closed down churches while keeping potheads addicted to marijuana they get from the “essential businesses” selling the dope. Liberal governors want people to remain in a fog, drunk or stoned, and not go to church. That makes them more susceptible to mindlessly accepting anti-Trump propaganda.
President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus without Congressional approval in 1861. But he’s a beloved president because he rescued the nation. Trump can rescue the nation without exercising Lincoln-like powers. He can use the emergency powers Congress gave him. These also include the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
Trump has not acted like a dictator. He has followed the law.
By contrast, some governors and mayors are acting like tyrants by ordering churches closed down and church members arrested or fined. But the liberal media don’t utter a peep. They would, however, probably scream to high heaven if the governors in their states shut down their pot shops and liquor stores. These journalists, of course, have been designated as employees of “essential businesses” in the states, despite their open disdain for our constitutional system and the legitimate election of Donald J. Trump as president.
Trump has depended on the governors to exercise such power properly. Clearly, however, many governors have gone far beyond what is necessary. Trump can and should assert control over these outlaw governors. Many Americans would welcome federal intervention under these circumstances. They want to get back to work and get back to church.
Congress has never revoked national emergency powers, and it’s unlikely they would intervene, in voting to override an emergency declaration, to stop Trump from getting Americans back to work. Instead, Democrats will obstruct the legislative process of helping those forced out of their jobs through government action. As we have already seen, they are trying to use this crisis to add extreme left-wing agenda items, such as fraudulent mail-in voting, to financial stimulus legislation.
Trump, under current circumstances, is simply contemplating a decision to allow private businesses that have been closed down by government to get back to work. There’s no legal basis on which to challenge his executive authority. In fact, he’s trying to restore a system of free enterprise, one of our birthrights as Americans.
Congress passed the Defense Production Act (DPA), under which Trump has ordered General Motors to make ventilators. This is acceptable, proper, and necessary. Nobody disputes the president’s authority in this case. In fact, Democrats asked for it.
The DPA, according to the Congressional Research Service, “confers upon the President a broad set of authorities to influence domestic industry in the interest of national defense.” Once again, we see wide latitude given to the president. Since the law refers explicitly to “production,” it is easy to see how it could be used to justify a presidential decision to get the United States back to work. Trump would simply have to justify the decision as critical to the national security posture of the United States and in the “national interest.” Various sections of the Defense Production Act, such as “Strengthening domestic capability,” are open-ended.
One of the objectives as mandated by the Congress in the Federal Reserve Act is promoting maximum employment. The president can and should declare that to be his objective as well. It’s difficult to see how the “progressives” would argue with that, unless of course it serves them politically to have people out of work, miserable, and starving. If that’s the case, then they are consciously serving the interests of the country which spawned the virus, Communist China.
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This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
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