It is worth remembering a recent court filing by the FBI where we discover James Comey documented each “Crossfire Hurricane” intelligence decision. Within the CYA memos  Comey included the ID of code-named spies in a journal of sorts, that remains hidden for now.  I have a hunch the full Comey journal will soon be released.

A court filing originally scheduled for April 15th, to determine the outcome of the multiple memos, and FBI closed-court discussion therein, was delayed until May 7th, tomorrow:

The number of Comey memos is why I now describe them collectively as the Comey “journal”.  {Go Deep} The reason I suspect the “journal” will soon be released is connected to the recent New York Times release admitting to the use of FBI intelligence assets(Stefan Halper and Azra Turk)) in the Trump operation.

Last week’s NYT “spy” admission followed a report a month earlier (everyone forgot) that DOJ Inspector General was investigating the FBI use of Stefan Halper.

CTH notes a conspicuous similarity where all FBI leaks are positioned to present justifications ahead of document/investigative releases adverse to the group’s interests.  These leaks appear to be planned releases from corrupt officials still employed within the FBI, and political allies outside government (Lawfare and MSM).

All of the leaks are justifications.  The Comey’s memos, as described by Weissmann and Mueller’s lead FBI Agent, David Archey, are also based around “justification”.

FBI Director James Comey transparently wrote those justification memos in his journal in 2016 and 2017 exactly for a moment when/if questions were raised about what the FBI investigators were doing.

Considering there were already FBI investigators taking notes and documenting the operation, there is no other intellectually honest motive for James Comey writing an independent journal other than justifying the specific activity. 

It would make sense for the currently employed corrupt FBI officials to head-off any inquiry, and lead their defense, with documents/leaks that justify their activity.

Additionally, Weissmann and Mueller positioned the corrupt FBI operation to remain completely in-the-loop on any damaging investigative material when they had a dedicated staff of FBI agents writing reports back to FBI Headquarters:

(Page 13 Weissmann-Mueller report)

When you read that underlined passage you realize how smart Weissmann, Mueller and the small group were.  The corrupt investigative unit set up a process where they could leak to the media at will, and yet if anyone ever made inquiry there are so many people piped-in to the investigation it would be impossible to find the leaker.

Simultaneously, for the ongoing cover-up needs of FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director David Bowditch and FBI General Counsel Dana Boente they had a daily briefing to use in burying issues adverse to their institutional interests.

If you wondered why the FBI was busy sending lawyers in with each person questioned by congress, well, page #13 of the Weissmann/Mueller report explains exactly what purposes those lawyers likely maintained.   The entire leadership structure of the FBI appears clearly compromised.  Hence the David Archey declarations align therein.

What better ongoing way for Director Wray to protect his institutional interests than to coordinate with General Counsel Dana Boente a series of document releases that will justify the corrupt endeavors of the preceding team of officials.  I digress….

Lastly, don’t be surprised to see the arc of this story bends slightly, and with increased scrutiny will will discover the White House National Security Counsel (NSC) was a participant in the political weaponization of intelligence through a memorandum of understanding with the FBI.

It would make sense if the Obama NSC had access to the FBI surveillance database, and simultaneously extracted raw intelligence search results….. keep watching.

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TheLastRefuge@TheLastRefuge2

Something to consider given the current state of adversarial hostilities toward AG Barr in DC.

What if tomorrow the DOJ/FBI suddenly doesn’t object to releasing *ALL* of Comey’s memos (the full spygate journal)?

Backstory: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/05/04/james-comey-justifies-fbi-spy-operations-more-reason-to-release-his-volumes-of-spygate-memos/ …

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To say there are conflicting reports of the U.S-China trade discussion, and possible breakdown therein, would be an understatement.  However, mining through the various U.S. and China news agencies, a more clear picture emerges.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighizer is quoted today: “We felt we were on track to get somewhere. Over the course of last week we have seen an erosion of commitments by China. That in our view is unacceptable.”  This statement appears to be in line with reports from Beijing about Chinese negotiators: “with sources suggesting that President Xi Jinping vetoed additional concessions proposed by his negotiators.”

(Bloomberg) […] Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Monday that the Chinese backsliding became apparent during their visit to Beijing last week, but that they had been reassured by their Chinese interlocutors that everything would turn out.

That changed over the weekend when China sent through a new draft of an agreement that included them pulling back on language in the text on a number of issues, which had the “potential to change the deal very dramatically,” Mnuchin said.

At that stage about 90 percent of the pact had been finalized, he said, and the Chinese wanted to reopen areas that had already been negotiated.  “We are not willing to go back on documents that have been negotiated in the past,” he said.  (read more)

The South China Morning Post concurs with Mnuchin and Lighthizer’s explanations when they share:

“Xi told them ‘I’ll be responsible for all possible consequences’,” the second source said. Chinese negotiators subsequently presented a tougher proposal to Washington, although it is not clear if they pitched an amended proposal to Xi after the latest round of talks in Beijing last week. (link)

So we see the framework of the duplicitous and conniving Chinese being duplicitous and conniving. Go figure.

Again, this status-conflict is in complete alignment with the historic Chinese world-view.  It is not so much an issue with differences of opinions; the U.S. -vs- China trade conflict is actually a fundamental issue of cultural clashes.

March 2018 – […] China has no cultural or political space between peace and war; they are a historic nation based on two points of polarity.  They see peace and war as coexisting with each other.

China accepts and believes opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.  Flowing between these polar states is a natural dynamic to be used -with serious contemplation- in advancing objectives as needed.

Peace or war. Win or lose. Yin and Yang. Culturally there is no middle position in dealings with China; they are not constitutionally capable of understanding or valuing the western philosophy of mutual benefit where concession of terms gains a larger outcome.  If it does not benefit China, it is not done. The outlook is simply, a polarity of peace or war.  In politics or economics the same perspective is true.  It is a zero-sum outlook.

Historic Chinese geopolitical policy, vis-a-vis their totalitarian control over political sentiment (action) and diplomacy through silence, is evident in the strategic use of the space between carefully chosen words, not just the words themselves.

Each time China takes aggressive action (red dragon) China projects a panda face through silence and non-response to opinion of that action;…. and the action continues. The red dragon has a tendency to say one necessary thing publicly, while manipulating another necessary thing privately.  The Art of War.

President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.

It is specifically because he understands that Panda is a mask that President Trump messages warmth toward the Chinese people, and pours vociferous praise upon Xi Jinping, while simultaneously confronting the geopolitical doctrine of the Xi regime.

In essence Trump is mirroring the behavior of China while confronting their economic duplicity. (more)

The Chinese delegation is still coming to DC on Wednesday/Thursday but it is doubtful anything will stop the increased tariffs from taking place Friday morning.

President Trump is hosting an award ceremony today at the White House to deliver the Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. golfer Tiger Woods. Anticipated Start Tim 6:00pm EDT

WH Livestream Link – Fox10 Livestream Link – Global News Livestream Link

CTH shared last week the visibility of a cross-party political and economic horse-trade {Go Deep}.  It would appear some evidence toward that likelihood is gathering:

(Schumer link)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer want their infrastructure proposal.  President Trump wants a fundamentally realigned geopolitical trade reset.  No doubt Pelosi/Schumer will attempt to get their political win and simultaneously eliminate any Trump win.  However, until the weeds are reached they are each playing their role.

One of the aspects to President Trump that bears a continual reminder is the importance of actual economic victory over optical political victory.   President Trump is primarily focused on the former, and only concerned about the latter as it relates to his goal:

….to fundamentally restructure the way the American economy interacts with the global community. Economic security is national security.

That’s what President Trump cares about. President Trump’s outlook on economic security is only superseded by one measure: his willingness to use the U.S. military to protect U.S. persons from physical threats of harm.

Withdrawing the tentacles of global exfiltration of American wealth; vis-a-vis the structural reset of the U.S. economy and how it engages with the global trade systems; is the pinnacle focus of President Trump. All other issues are ‘less than’; and the internal politics within Washington DC is far, far, less than in this set of priorities.

It may be uncomfortable for many to see and/or admit, but all other priorities held by supporters of President Trump fall below his primary economic objective.  American economic priority is the stuff Donald Trump has discussed, shared, considered and sought counsel on for over 30 years.

Any ancillary policy or issue that intersects with Trump’s focus on the U.S. economy gets priority [See: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP); and Paris Climate Treaty as examples].  However, all issues which fall farther away from the economy are downstream priorities.

Within the small dot, disproportionately emphasized by pundits, lays the internal politics of DC.  President Trump has spooky good political instincts, yet his valuation of politics is proportional to the necessity of politics in achieving the economic transformation.

Everything else is less-than.

Everything.

Trump may cede ground on specific issues that make his supporters angry; but he will never cede ground on an issue that intersects with his global economic realignment.

It’s worth keeping that in mind.

Earlier today President Trump presented the commander-in-chief trophy to the U.S. Army team during a Rose Garden event.

More than 600 Iranian-funded Hamas terror missiles have been fired into Israel from Gaza. Four Israeli civilians have been killed.  In retaliation, Israel has carried out military strikes against Hamas leaders in Gaza.  President Trump tweets support for Israel.

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel while Israeli strikes killed 14 Palestinians, most of them militants, in surging cross-border fighting on Sunday, according to Gazan officials and the Israeli military.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the military to continue “massive strikes” against Gaza’s ruling Hamas group and Islamic Jihad in the most serious border clashes since a spate of fighting in November.

Israel’s military said that more than 600 rockets and other projectiles – over 150 of them intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system – have been fired at southern Israeli cities and villages since Friday.

It said it attacked more than 260 targets belonging to Gaza militant groups. Gaza officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 22 people, including 10 civilians, since Friday.

A rocket that hit a house in Ashkelon on Sunday killed a 58-year-old man, police said. He was the first such Israeli civilian fatality since the seven-week Gaza war in 2014.

Another rocket strike killed a factory worker, a hospital official said. The military said a civilian was killed near the border by an anti-tank missile fired at his car from Gaza and a fourth died when a rocket struck the city of Ashdod.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad identified seven fighters killed in Israeli strikes, while medical officials said that six civilians also died.

In what it said was a separate, targeted attack, Israel’s military killed Hamed Ahmed Al-Khodary, a Hamas commander. The military said he was responsible for transferring funds from Iran to armed factions in Gaza. Hamas confirmed Khodary had been killed.

The attack on his car was the first such killing by Israel of a top militant since the war five years ago. Israel had suspended what Palestinians call an assassination policy in an attempt to lower tensions. (read more)

In response to the escalating attacks, National Security Adviser John Bolton announces the U.S. is moving military into the region.

“In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force. The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.” (WH Link)