New reflections on the American coup and what lies behind it

Yesterday, I ran across four articles of interest.

The coup

The starting point is James Howard Kunstler’s October 15 essay, ‘Wait For It’, which is about the ongoing American coup, the latest development being President Trump’s conversation with the president of Ukraine and the Democrats’ ‘whistleblower’ (emphases mine):

For one thing, he-she-it is not a “whistleblower” at all; was only labeled that via legalistic legerdemain to avoid revealing the origin of this affair as a CIA cover-your-ass operation. Did Mr. Schiff actually think he could conceal this figure’s identity in a senate impeachment trial, when it came to that — for what else is impeachment aimed at? Anonymous sources are not admissible under American due process of law. Mr. Schiff must have missed that class in law school.

All of this hocus-pocus suggests to me that there is no “whistleblower,” that it is a phantom confabulation of gossip threads that unraveled the moment Mr. Trump released the transcript of his phone call to Ukraine’s president Zelensky, aborting Mr. Schiff’s game plan. The ensuing weeks of congressional Keystone Kops buffoonery since then appears to conceal a futile effort by Mr. Schiff and his confederates to find some fall guy willing to pretend that he-she-it is the “whistleblower” …

One marvels at Rep. Schiff’s tactical idiocy. But just imagine the panicked consternation it must be triggering among his Democratic colleagues. Notice that Mrs. Pelosi has been hiding out during this latest phase of the action. She may sense that there is nothing left to do but allow Mr. Schiff to twist slowly slowly in the wind, as he has hung himself out to dry. She should have known better since every previous declaration of conclusive evidence by Mr. Schiff over the past three years has proved to be false, knowingly and mendaciously so.

One also clearly senses that all the smoke-and-mirrors are a desperate attempt to divert attention from a soon-to-drop DOJ Inspector General’s report which, by the way, will only be an overture to much more damaging action likely to come from Mr. Barr’s proceeding. After all, IG Horowitz was not allowed under the rules to compel the testimony of persons outside the Department of Justice, which would now include Andrew McCabe, James Comey, and many others at the center of the RussiaGate prank …

That lame admission will not avail to protect him or the CIA, an agency that is behind the administrative civil war. It has been a rogue agency for a long long time, but may have finally overplayed its hand, along with the newer adjunct agencies that have been stitched onto it since 9/11/01 — the dark network that goes by the name Intelligence Community. So many shoes are ready to drop on them that the din might drown out all the John Philip Sousa marches ever played in the lobby at Langley, let alone the thin trilling of a fake whistleblower.

Apart from these fateful developments the prize for the week’s most transparently disingenuous bit of media agitprop goes to Saturday’s New York Times puff piece on former FBI Director Jim Comey, which actually sets him up for federal indictment on something like sedition or treason.

Did you notice that the photo-caption states: James Comey plans to spend the next 13 months working to drive President Trump from power. Oh, really? By what means, exactly? Single-handedly or with whom? And how did the strategy he kicked off in 2016 work out? In case Mr. Barr is looking for some way to attribute motive to the actions that he’s investigating, he may need to seek no further. Also, consider that The New York Times and its editor-in-chief Dean Baquet, and publisher A.G. Sulzberger may be named as unindicted co-conspirators in the three-year campaign of sedition (freedom of the press, of course). Alert the shareholders.

I should emphasise that Jim Kunstler is not a Trump supporter, but even the Democrats’ continuing attempts at getting a legitimately elected president out of office have been making him think a bit more about the coup.

The ‘revolution in reverse’

The comments to Kunstler’s article were as wide-ranging and fascinating as ever.

Someone linked to an October 10 essay on Tzarism.com called ‘The Hi-Tech Traditionalist: A Revolution In Reverse: The Uprising Of The American Elites Against The American People’. The author, Dr Baruch Pletner, is a polyglot:

The Hi-Tech Traditionalist – Baruch Pletner is an entrepreneur, a scientist, an inventor, and a private pilot. He is passionate about education, the outdoors, and the war on globalism. Baruch holds a PhD degree from the Technion in Haifa, Israel and an MBA from Northeastern University in Boston.

He points out that the leftist revolution taking place in the United States is the inverse of what usually happens in an uprising:

The great Bolshevik revolutions of the last century in Russia, in China, and in Cuba all followed a familiar pattern: a group of young, energetic, endlessly corruptible, but not yet corrupt outsiders take on, in the name of the people, a tired corrupt establishment. A civil war ensues in which the people side with the revolutionaries because they (mistakenly) think that things can never be worse. Revolutionaries win, slaughter the establishment elites, and proceed to rob and enslave the people in even more outrageous fashion. Soon enough the old guard revolutionaries become every bit as corrupt as the ones they have replaced if not more so and the cycle repeats itself.

In America, the situation is rather farcically backwards. In America, the corrupt establishment elites have decided to stage a Bolshevik coup against the American people rather than the other way around. A Tsar fully in command of his own kingdom staging a coup against his own people is a bizarre development to say the least, and yet, here we are in 2019 America. Like always, there are reasons. First and foremost among them is the sheer scope of the nepotism and corruption of the American elites in business, government, technology, and the intelligence services. This scope has very likely far exceeded anything previously known in human history. Had the dimensions of the robbery perpetrated by the American ruling classes against the American people become widely known earlier, America could well have experienced a more typical revolution, one by the people against the elites.

There are other reasons, he says, which date from the late 1980s. Continuing on from the previous paragraph, he tells us:

Well aware of the possibility if not probability of such an outcome, the people who run America put in place a plan to make it all but impossible. The plan involved the gradually escalating erosion of the limits on government powers put in place by the Constitution with a parallel erosion in the God-given rights guaranteed every American by the same document. This was a fully bipartisan effort, put in place immediately after president Reagan departed office. It is sufficient to observe the exponential increase in government versus private sector employment in America from 1988 to 2019 to fully grasp this point. Stopping immigration from countries that have (or at least used to have) a tradition of personal freedom and limited government while throwing open the spigots for immigration from countries that have neither was the second part of the same plan. The destruction of family values and Christianity in America was the third.

Then there were the social, guilt-inducing conditioning of the majority of the American populace, who have no control over their skin colour. As such:

Americans allowed themselves to become squeezed out of well-paying jobs by the elites-induced trifecta of low and high-skilled immigration and automation, with nary a whisper in protest.

Then, he says, along came Donald Trump. In the eyes of the elite, President Trump must be stopped:

Trying to pin on Trump their own sins of sexual corruption, nepotism, embezzlement, etc. has not been a well-thought out strategy on the part of the American power elites simply because it enabled him to begin educating the American public as to the breathtaking scope of their own criminality. Now, on the verge of Trump’s inevitable reelection, they are left with only one option: a coup d’etat against the American people, the American Constitution, and the American Republic itself.

Since the elites still very much permeate every hall of power in America, this is a one-off deal in which the rulers of a country set out to violently overthrow the very political structure of the country they are ruling, but, as they say, it is what it is. The cover may be different, but the playbook is the same, so we are already being exposed to the oldies but goodies of escalating agitprop (weaponized lies and propaganda), suppression of unwanted elements (cancel culture), and paid snitching (whistleblowing). Now we are entering into a new phase, that of secret trials with a predetermined outcome.

He means impeachment hearings, which he goes on to discuss, adding:

… what follows next will not be pretty. Having obtained an illegal impeachment that has no chance in the Senate, the powers that be in America will use this “impeachment” to force Trump off the 2020 ballot by any means possible, including things that now sound crazy like setting up a parallel Supreme Court having declared the Constitution illegitimate because it was written by white males some of whom supported slavery and ratified without African American and other minority votes.

Needless to say, such actions may well precipitate an armed conflict we know of as civil war, but that would not be an unexpected outcome for the elites. We know now that the American intelligence services all work for the elites and not for the people. They will fight on their side in the coming war. What we don’t know is to what degree the armed forces have been infiltrated, especially the mid-level officer corps.

That is my concern, too.

The New York Times and Carlos Slim’s fortune

Someone else responding to Kunstler’s piece posted a 2015 Ann Coulter article for Townhall, ‘Carlos Slim: The New York Times’ Sugar Daddy’.

Ann Coulter observed the editorial shift in the New York Times since Carlos Slim rescued the failing newspaper in 2008.

Back in 2004—before the Times became Slim’s pimp—a Times article stated: “Clearly . . . the nation’s southern border is under siege.”² But that was before Carlos Slim saved the Times from bankruptcy. Ten years later, with a border crisis even worse than in 2004, and Latin Americans pouring across the border, the Times indignantly demanded that Obama “go big” on immigration and give “millions of immigrants permission to stay.”

And, going back further to the Clinton administration, the NYT used to point out porous border problems:

In 1997—the pre-Slim days—the Times had editorialized: “Fighting illegal immigration is a difficult and important job. But Congress should do it in a way that will deter illegal entry at the border.”³⁹ Another editorial that year complained that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had “done a poor job of keeping out illegal aliens, deporting criminals [and] processing requests for asylum.” This wasn’t even Bush-bashing—Clinton was president!

Coulter explains how Slim makes his money off the American taxpayer, which involves much more than enlightened citizens buying copies of the New York Times:

One of the ways Slim makes money off of illegal immigration in the United States is by overcharging Mexicans to call home, especially during World Cup soccer season. Slim takes a percentage of all cell phone calls into Mexico—and Telmex’s “interconnection rates” are astronomical. International roaming rates are 37 percent higher in Mexico than the average of all OECD countries.

But the main way illegal immigrants benefit Slim is through their remissions. Monopolistic pricing is of little value in a poor country. A monopoly on air in Burundi would not produce the world’s richest man. Luckily for Slim, Mexico is located right next to one of the wealthiest nations in the world. The OECD estimates that Slim’s suffocating telecommunications monopoly costs Mexican consumers $26 billion a year, with more than half of that coming from Slim gouging his customers. They would have $20 billion less to spend without 40 million Mexicans living in the United States.

According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Mexican immigrants or those of Mexican descent send at least $20 billion out of America back to their relatives in Mexico each year.²⁹ No wonder immigrants are so reliant on welfare—they’re sending so much of it out of the country! Twenty billion dollars is significantly more—about a quarter more—than the amount of money the United States sends to Mexico in direct foreign aid. The $20 billion being sent to immigrants’ grandmothers in Chiapas is forever eliminated from the American economy—unavailable for investment in American companies, the purchase of American products, or hiring American workers. That’s a cost of immigration that Americans are never told about.

These billions of dollars being drained out of the U.S. economy every year would be bad enough if the money were coming exclusively from cheap-labor employers like Sheldon Adelson. But it’s worse than that. It comes from American taxpayers. Not only do taxpayers have to support Americans who lose their jobs to low-wage immigrant laborers, taxpayers support the immigrants, too. Seventy-five percent of immigrant families from Mexico are on government assistance.

Putting two and two together, we can more easily understand the New York Times‘s editorial line under Slim and the billionaire’s desire to see more Mexicans enter the United States illegally:

That’s why, in 2014, Slim was exhorting Mexican youth to cross illegally into the United States for jobs. The stated purpose of Obama’s open defiance of American immigration laws was to avoid punishing “children” who were brought to the United States by their parents. Slim didn’t care about that. (Then again, neither did Obama.) He just wanted more Mexicans working in America and sending dollars back to him. As the CEO of the “Carlos Slim Foundation” explained, “[O]ur goal is to reduce the access barriers for them to reach this potential . . . to build not just them but their families, so they’re able to contribute to the economy”—i.e., the Mexican economy owned by Carlos Slim.

The ‘invisible government’

Truthdig has an article by the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, ‘Our Invisible Government’, which is, in part, a book review of Stephen Kinzer’s new book, Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.

I will not be excerpting Hedges’s article except for this:

Kinzer builds his book around Sidney Gottlieb, an elusive, quirky and powerful operative in the CIA who in his quest for mind control—something he and others in the CIA had convinced themselves the Soviets had mastered—oversaw medical experiments that had been originated by his German and Japanese collaborators. These experiments were coded-named Bluebird and later Artichoke, which Kinzer calls “one of the most violently abusive projects ever sponsored by an agency of the United States government.” The torture sessions often permanently shattered the minds of his subjects. Victims were kidnapped (later this would be called “extraordinary rendition”) and sent to clandestine centers around the globe—now known as “black sites”—or were picked from the prison population abroad and at home. Those forced into taking part in these experiments included impoverished African Americans at the Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Ky. Many of the victims were labeled “expendables,” meaning they could be murdered after the experiments and disappeared. The corpses were usually burned. Anyone who was powerless, or could be made powerless, was a potential target. Mentally handicapped children at the Walter E. Fernald State School in Massachusetts, for example, were fed cereal laced with uranium and radioactive calcium and their induced sicknesses were monitored. Gottlieb oversaw the administering of LSD and other drugs to induce psychotic states at the federal prison in Atlanta and a youth correctional facility in Bordentown, N.J. None of his subjects consented to being a human guinea pig, and many ended up psychologically impaired for life. The Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, being held in the Atlanta penitentiary, was told he would be part of an experiment on curing schizophrenia but then was surreptitiously given LSD nearly every day for 15 months. CIA scientists also conducted experiments on terminally ill patients at an annex of Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Gottlieb searched for years for a cocktail of drugs that, in Kinzer’s words, would draw “prisoners away from their identities, induce them to reveal secrets, and perhaps even program them to commit acts against their will.” It was a vain quest. But with each failure he and the CIA became ever more zealous, working closely with former German Gen. Walter Schreiber, the onetime surgeon general of the Nazi army who had “approved experiments at the Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and Dachau concentration camps in which inmates were frozen, injected with mescaline and other drugs, and cut open so the progress of gangrene on their bones could be monitored.” Kinzer adds that according to one American researcher, the experiments “usually resulted in a slow and agonizing death.”

Gottlieb had a habit of secretly lacing the drinks of colleagues with LSD to see their reaction. Some never recovered. One of his victims was Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who was appalled by the brutal interrogations he witnessed and planned to resign from the CIA. Gottlieb and his secretive group of torturers and assassins were terrified Olson would go public. Olson was found dead in 1953 on a sidewalk in Manhattan after allegedly diving through a hotel window. His son Eric had his father’s body exhumed in 1994 and turned over to James Starrs, a forensic pathologist at George Washington University in the District of Columbia. “Starrs had found no glass shards on the victim’s head or neck, as might be expected if he had dived through a window,” Kinzer writes. “Most intriguingly, although Olson had reportedly landed on his back, the skull above his left eye was disfigured.”

“I would venture to say that this hematoma is singular evidence of the possibility that Dr. Olson was struck a stunning blow to the head by some person or instrument prior to his exiting through the window of room 1018A,” Starrs concluded.

Starrs was later more emphatic: “I think Frank Olson was intentionally, deliberately, with malice aforethought, thrown out of that window.”

As awful as that is, the rest of the article has details of even more gruesome and demonic ‘experiments’, which those interested may read at their leisure.

Conclusion

We have much to pray for in the coming months: the safety of Donald Trump and his family, the thwarting of evil deeds from our notional betters and the return of a moral society, which is the only way to conserve the freedoms we know in the West. Those, too, must be restored, with Big Government — the malicious Nanny State — being thrown out.

Also, please spare a prayer for Brexit. What has been going on in Parliament and the upper courts of law since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister has been chilling, to say the least.

Trump’s busy schedule before flying to London

President Trump had a busy schedule at the end of May 2019, which included a return trip to Japan.

This time it was a State Visit.

As he and First Lady Melania would be out of the country on Memorial Day weekend, they visited Arlington Cemetery before their departure:

Honored to be at @ArlingtonNatl today & take part in #FlagsIn to remember our fallen heroes. God Bless our military, their families & God Bless our great Nation! @USArmyOldGuard pic.twitter.com/lJ3lu2KfJG

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 23, 2019

On May 25, the first day of the State Visit to Japan, Trump met with that nation’s business leaders, too many to list here:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie hosted the Trumps for dinner that night. Abe had not forgotten his guest’s favourite dessert:

President Trump & First Lady Melania with H.E. Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister , & Mrs Akie Abe of Japan — Inakaya Hibachi restaurant
1st•Japanese potato with butter
2nd•Salad
3rd•Grilled chicken
4th•Wagyu beef steak with broccoli & carrots
Desert•Vanilla ice cream pic.twitter.com/d2B5c2j0ZP

— Baba97 (@Baba9773) May 26, 2019

Abe was delighted to welcome back his friend:

President Trump and the First Lady are staying in Japan as the first State Guests of the new era “Reiwa”! TOKYO SKYTREE welcomes their historic visit with a special lighting inspired by the Stars and Stripes. Akie and I are looking forward to seeing them tomorrow ! pic.twitter.com/yMohHzRgWf

— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) May 25, 2019

The next day, the two world leaders played golf:

Great morning of golf with Prime Minister @AbeShinzo at Mobara Country Club in Chiba, Japan! pic.twitter.com/EZeJ8znS51

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019

令和初の国賓としてお迎えしたトランプ大統領と千葉でゴルフです。新しい令和の時代も日米同盟をさらに揺るぎないものとしていきたいと考えています。 pic.twitter.com/8ol8790xWY

— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) May 26, 2019

Their wives toured the Mori Building Digital Art Museum:

A great day exploring Tokyo with Mrs. Abe! Thank you to @teamLab_net exhibits at Mori Bldg Digital Art Museum for a wonderful interactive experience. pic.twitter.com/Kv7cLuJeG7

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 26, 2019

@FLOTUS & Mrs Akie Abe are in the Forest of Lamps portion of the exhibit @teamLab_net #Tokyo pic.twitter.com/rrk7s8bhg1

— Baba97 (@Baba9773) May 26, 2019

The QTree explained the significance of the following day’s welcome by the new Emperor and Empress of Japan — a first for both couples:

… our President and FLOTUS become the first guests of Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Imperial Palace.

There are three components to the state visit: (1) The guest arrival and formal greeting by the Emperor and Empress. (2) The ceremonial anthems of both nations and the presentation of the imperial guard.  (3) A “state call” or discussion of diplomatic matters between the Emperor, Empress and their honored guests.

During the official state call component there is an exchange of gifts.

1) Formal greeting by the Emperor and Empress …

Pres and Mrs Trump welcomed to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo by Emperor Naruhito. Pres first foreign leader received by the new Emperor. pic.twitter.com/5tg90KwAMK

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 27, 2019

2) The ceremonial anthems of both nations and the presentation of the imperial guard.

Japan's new emperor, Naruhito, welcomes President Trump and the First Lady during the president's state visit to Japan.

pic.twitter.com/jWRRHtRmTa

— Baba97 (@Baba9773) May 27, 2019

The ‘inside palace’ greeting and introduction was not covered by international media. However, due to the significance of the visit (first of imperial era of Reiwa) it was broadcast on local Japanese media (below).

Body language and facial expressions can’t be faked. They are all VERY PLEASED AND HONORED to meet one another. Such a proud moment for both nations.

(3) A “state call” or discussion of diplomatic matters between the Emperor, Empress and their honored guests in video below.

"Trump becomes the first world leader to meet Japan’s new emperor Naruhito" https://t.co/WVUdbXE6hl

— unseen1 (@unseen1_unseen) May 27, 2019

Then, there was the customary exchange of gifts. The Japanese emperor is an accomplished violin and viola player, as evidenced below in this video from 2007:

The accompanying press pool report states (emphases mine):

The President presented the Emperor an American-made viola in a custom case and a signed photo of American composer Aaron Copland. This vintage 1938 viola was handmade in Charleston, West Virginia. The President also presented the Emperor with a signed and framed photo of the President.

The First Lady presented the Empress with a custom White House desk set featuring a pen made of Harvard tree wood. The Empress herself studied Economics at Harvard. This fountain pen was handcrafted from a red oak tree that still stands in Old Harvard Yard. The First Lady also presented the Empress with a signed and framed photo of the First Lady.

The Emperor presented the President with a traditional Japanese pottery and porcelain bowl as well as a signed and framed photo of His Majesty the Emperor.

The Empress presented the First Lady with an ornamental Japanese lacquer box with traditional design as well as a framed and signed photo of Her Majesty the Empress.

Note: It is long-standing custom of the Imperial Palace that their Majesties the Emperor and Empress exchange signed, framed photographs with their guests on the occasion of a State Visit.

Afterwards, Trump and Abe held discussions on trade and security:

Their wives attended a cultural presentation:

Upon his return, Trump tweeted:

Back from Japan after a very successful trip. Big progress on MANY fronts. A great country with a wonderful leader in Prime Minister Abe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2019

While the Trumps were in Japan, on May 25, actor Jon Voight tweeted:

Actor Jon Voight: "President Trump is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln"

"Our country is stronger, safer, and with more jobs because our president has made his every move correct. Don't be fooled by the political left because we are … witnessing triumph" pic.twitter.com/AiepGX0nuw

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 25, 2019

The president faces the same threats as Lincoln did. He is in danger every day from people who desperately want to remove him from office, either by death or by impeachment. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says Trump belongs in prison.

The Mueller Report left the door open to more scheming by Democrats.

The coup is not yet over.

Therefore, on May 30, the Revd Franklin Graham issued a national appeal for prayer for the president on Sunday, June 2:

I want to remind everyone of the importance of praying for @POTUS @realDonaldTrump this Sun., June 2. We need to pray for him as he carries out his duties, that God will give him wisdom in every decision he makes & protect him from his enemies who would like to see him fall. 1/3

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) May 30, 2019

Thank you to the thousands of people who have already let me know that you'll be praying this Sunday. If you’d like to add your name to others who are signing up to show their support & that they are committing to pray for @POTUS click here to sign on: https://t.co/MGLBQnuitg 2/3

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) May 30, 2019

I also hope thousands of pastors across the nation will take a moment in their service this Sunday to pray for the President with their congregations. The Bible tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power …” (James 5:16). I believe there is power in prayer! 3/3

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) May 30, 2019

pic.twitter.com/16bASxFf25

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) June 2, 2019

That day, another friend of the president’s explained to Fox News that this appeal had nothing to do with politics but the real fight of good versus evil:

Watch my interview on “Fox & Friends” this morning as I explain why millions of Christians are praying today for President @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/N03JCWZawz

— Dr. Robert Jeffress (@robertjeffress) June 2, 2019

Other pastors on social media had to remind their detractors that they had prayed for past presidents, too:

Join me and thousands of others as we pray for the President of the United States today. Yes, I have prayed for all Presidents in the past and will continue to pray for them in the future. I hope you will join me. (1 Tim. 2:2)@jackngraham @Franklin_Graham @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/FrVjDRP0th

— Greg Laurie (@greglaurie) June 2, 2019

On Friday, May 31, a mass shooting took place in Virginia Beach. After golfing on Sunday, June 2, the president visited the Revd David Platt’s McLean Bible Church in Virginia, where he joined congregants in praying silently for the victims of the shooting.

President Trump makes a surprise visit to a Church service in Vienna, VA to pray for the victims of the shooting. 🙏🏻🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/24MDbAhh6y

— CHIZ 🇺🇸 (@CHIZMAGA) June 2, 2019

The New York Post reported:

While he did not talk during the service, Trump stood behind pastor David Platt as he offered a prayer for the 12 killed in Friday’s mass shooting.

The president was there to “visit with the Pastor and pray for the victims and community of Virginia Beach,” said Judd Deere, the White House’s deputy press secretary.

Trump arrived at about 2:20 p.m. and his motorcade left a little over 15 minutes later.

DeWayne Craddock, 40, slaughtered 12 at Virginia Beach’s municipal building Friday — just hours after quitting his job as a civil engineer.

In turn, Platt prayed for the president:

For those of you who pray, @realDonaldTrump briefly joined a Pastor David Platt at Mclean Bible Church (in suburban Virginia) today during an afternoon service after a round of golf. Platt prayed for him and other government leaders. Here's the prayer, transcribed from video: pic.twitter.com/cTirO9VB8L

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) June 2, 2019

I do not know where Platt stands on his stance of private redistribution of wealth he was promoting back in 2012, but I am grateful that he prayed for President Trump.

Considering the prayers, the threats that the president endures daily and Jon Voight’s comparison of him with Lincoln, it was amazing that he and the first lady went to Ford’s Theatre that night for an awards presentation. Ford’s Theatre was the site of Lincoln’s assassination:

A lovely evening at Ford’s Theatre honoring this year’s Lincoln Medal recipients & the great work they’ve done. Thank you to @FordsTheatre for hosting the gala & the opportunity to come together in celebration of the arts & the legacy of former President Lincoln. pic.twitter.com/wna5EJK7TW

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) June 3, 2019

I am very glad I was out of the country at the time. Otherwise I would have been worried about his safety.

Yet, thankfully, God continues to watch over President Trump, who flew to London that night with the first lady and his family (apart from Barron).

More on that trip tomorrow.

‘Witch hunt’ over as Mueller report lays to rest Left’s ‘collusion’ narrative

At 5 p.m. on Friday, March 22, 2019, news emerged that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was complete, with no more indictments:

Robert Mueller has delivered his report to William Barr.

At 5:00 PM.

On a Friday.

Without any more indictments.

The investigation is over.

— Alana Mastrangelo (@ARmastrangelo) March 22, 2019

NBC News reports that there are no more indictments coming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller pic.twitter.com/BsA9sFfQYe

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 22, 2019

Attorney General William Barr wrote a letter to both houses of Congress:

DOJ letter says there was not a single time Mueller was blocked from an action he wanted to take. https://t.co/5D0ip8v9tm

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 22, 2019

This investigation has been a millstone around President Trump’s neck since 2017.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-North Carolina) said:

This episode was a COUP attempt.

People should be in jail.

FIXED!

— Larry Schweikart (@LarrySchweikart) March 25, 2019

In case you're wondering what's in the Mueller report, after two years of deranged conspiracy-mongering about how Trump committed treason and stole an election that belonged to Hillary Clinton, the report was quietly dumped on a Friday afternoon in the middle of March Madness.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 22, 2019

It was an expensive investigation:

This WITCH HUNT wasted more than $25 MILLION! #WitchHunt pic.twitter.com/UvnO2FTQSJ

— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) March 25, 2019

The third paragraph in the following announcement details what it involved — all to no avail:

MUELLER STATEMENT #NoCOLLUSION pic.twitter.com/g2RhxMu80w

— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) March 24, 2019

Imagine the disappointment:

pic.twitter.com/E2ObgxRugQ

— Kevin Boyd🗽 🇺🇸 (@TheKevinBoyd) March 23, 2019

Media and the coming downfall

The media were positive that President Trump was guilty of a criminal offence, as they watched the Mueller probe unfold involving:

19 Lawyers
40 FBI Agents
2800 Subpoenas
500 Search Warrants
230 Requests for Communication Records
50 Orders for Pen Registers
13 Requests for info from foreign governments
500 Witnesses
The media LIED to the people.
Eat crow. pic.twitter.com/KyuBpbNHY0

— Diana247 (@Diana24724) March 24, 2019

More on this in a moment:

CNN, "The Most Trusted Name In News," staked its entire journalistic reputation on a hoax. Zucker bet the farm and lost.

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 23, 2019

For now, let’s look at three people on MSNBC.

Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow wasn’t crying, but she came pretty close:

It’s me heres the video!! I’m loooooosing my sh-t😂😂🤣😂 Again!!! I make these all the time 2nd time they took me down 2 weeks ago! Wth pic.twitter.com/pmohFa9GDp

— Karli Bonne’⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@kbq225) March 23, 2019

Mika Brzezinski

Morning Joe‘s Mika Brzezinski also had a close call with the tear ducts:

Watch Mika Brzezinski realize what she’s reading about there likely won’t be any more indictments from the Mueller investigation. 😂 pic.twitter.com/zjUj0NcXb1

— Andrea Ruth (@AndreaNRuth) March 22, 2019

Chris Matthews

Chris Matthews, who once said he felt a tingle go up his leg during Obama’s 2008 campaign, looked as if he was fighting back tears but spoke in anger. He was particularly upset the report was released at 5 p.m. on a Friday:

I haven’t seen MSNBC this upset since Election Night 2016. pic.twitter.com/4dwHVRXxA4

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) March 23, 2019

There is always the danger that a lie told long enough appears to be true:

I'm starting to think @HardballChris actually believed Trump/Russia collusion was real. You would think someone in his position would have learned about Bruce Ohr, McCabe, Lisa Page, Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele and the DNC/Clinton/Perkins Coie. Time to retire?

— MakeTheLieBigEnough (@lie_make) March 23, 2019

There was also this gem in Chris’s segment:

HE ADMITS they were “TARGETING” Trump! Listen about 2/3 the way through Apx 1 min into it he slips up & calls Pres. Trump “THE PERSON BEING TARGETED” and quickly corrected himself saying “the subject being investigated”

Ratings tank

On Wednesday, March 27, Breitbart‘s John Nolte reported on the tanking ratings for CNN and MSNBC (excerpts follow, emphases mine):

During the week of March 18, the far-left CNN lost almost 30 percent of an audience that is already minuscule …

On the credibility front, CNN chief Jeff Zucker tried to excuse his network’s two-year deliberate deception about Trump colluding with the Russians by admitting on Tuesday that no one at CNN does investigative work.

Like we didn’t already know that.

“We are not investigators,” he told the far-left New York Times. “We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did.”

All Zucker did there was to confirm what we already knew: CNN acts as stenographers for the establishment, most especially the intelligence community, all of whom share CNN’s left-wing agenda for the country.  The facts are that so-and-so told us this and so-and-so told us that, is not journalism. Journalism requires investigation and the risk of uncovering a truth that might be inconvenient to your own personal beliefs and still reporting that truth …

For the week of March 18, meaning prior to the release of the Mueller Report exonerating Trump from the Russia Collusion Hoax, CNN lost a jaw-dropping 24 percent of its total day viewers and 27 percent of its primetime viewers, when compared to this same week last year.

In the 25-54 age demo, which sets advertiser rates, CNN lost an astonishing 37 percent of total day viewers and 38 percent primetime viewers.

For comparison purposes, during this same week, Fox News increased its total day and primetime viewership by +8 and +2 percent, respectively.

MSNBC, CNN’s competition for left-wing viewers, only lost 9 percent of its total day viewers and 15 percent of primetime viewers. In the 25-54 demo, MSNBC also took a huge loss in total day and primetime; 33 percent and 32 percent, respectively …

On Monday, during primetime, four of CNN’s hours failed to break 700,000 total viewers: Jake Tapper (683,000), Wolf Blitzer (637,000 & 622,000), Erin Burnett (685,000).

MSNBC might see a ratings dip as it maneuvers in the post-Mueller world, but CNN was already in trouble, already in far-last place, and those wondering how CNN’s ratings could possibly get any worse are about to find out.

With the Mueller probe wrung dry, Rachel Maddow’s show definitely took a hit:

"Maddow, who has consistently vied for the first or second top-rated cable news program, was sixth on Monday evening, down almost 500,000 total viewers from the previous Monday" https://t.co/jqqo8oytsJ

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) March 27, 2019

Not surprisingly, Trump tweeted about both networks’ ratings:

The Fake News Media has lost tremendous credibility with its corrupt coverage of the illegal Democrat Witch Hunt of your all time favorite duly elected President, me! T.V. ratings of CNN & MSNBC tanked last night after seeing the Mueller Report statement. @FoxNews up BIG!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2019

Wow, ratings for “Morning Joe,” which were really bad in the first place, just “tanked” with the release of the Mueller Report. Likewise, other shows on MSNBC and CNN have gone down by as much as 50%. Just shows, Fake News never wins!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019

The Fake News Media is going Crazy! They are suffering a major “breakdown,” have ZERO credibility or respect, & must be thinking about going legit. I have learned to live with Fake News, which has never been more corrupt than it is right now. Someday, I will tell you the secret!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019

Reactions from Democrats and their allies

Before the Mueller report was completed, the American public saw these now-familiar Democrats on television with nauseating regularity:

A complete and full vindication! pic.twitter.com/us7fgZN6rD

— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) March 24, 2019

The Dems and their supporters will continue to press on with other anti-Trump talking points:

"Determined Democrats damaging their party and our country"https://t.co/tB2znAl958

— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) March 26, 2019

Assassination attempt

This attempted coup has roused radicals to take matters into their own hands. The latest was, thankfully, thwarted on Wednesday, March 27, on the border between West Virginia and Maryland:

https://t.co/fpYLUls5P7 BREAKING: Deranged Man Threatens To Assassinate Trump, Then Blow Up Pentagon [DEVELOPING]

— Stonewall Jackson (@1776Stonewall) March 27, 2019

I mean, after all, even liberal celebrities – Madonna, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, Jim Carrey, Kathy Griffin and elected Dems such as Maxine Waters and Jerry Brown have openly called for harm or death on the President. So just imagine what random leftists are feeling, thinking

— Stonewall Jackson (@1776Stonewall) March 27, 2019

Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has put impeachment on the back burner for now:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on impeaching President Trump: "Impeachment is not on the table until it is on the table." pic.twitter.com/wOVVtsEVs9

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 27, 2019

Adam Schiff

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is one of the president’s most constant critics, refuses to let go:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff says his panel is willing to subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller to obtain a clearer picture of the contents of his final report https://t.co/gpbURlbWZd pic.twitter.com/xj5b49cf5J

— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2019

He commiserated with Rachel Maddow, but that was only momentarily:

No need for the volume when the faces tell it all. #NoCollusion #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/QjEAsxvfAu

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 23, 2019

A fellow House member, Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), has strong words for him …

You. Have. Been. Exposed.

Stop the charade. There was no collusion.

You used your unique position on the Intel Cmte to convince the American people that you had access to evidence of collusion.

You lied and misled in order to pursue your political agenda. Move on. https://t.co/9GRVkBmeVS

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 25, 2019

"Let’s see him present the evidence he has on Trump/Russia collusion,” @RepDanCrenshaw tells @pennystarrdc. “He can’t do it because he doesn’t have it.” https://t.co/pVgDwBuMM4

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 27, 2019

… as does journalist Paul Sperry:

Apparently you didn't read page 3, which states that Rosenstein and DOJ officials had "engaged in discussions" with the Special Counsel's office regarding obstruction question "over the course of the investigation." So your rash 48-hour decision argument looks to be a red herring https://t.co/0vemcAsUNL

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 25, 2019

On March 27, Fox News reported of Republicans’ calls for Schiff’s resignation:

Republicans are stepping up calls for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to resign or give up his committee post for repeatedly pushing claims of collusion between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.

Now that Robert Mueller’s probe has shown no evidence of collusion, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has been the most vocal in calling for Schiff’s resignation – telling “Fox & Friends” on Monday that the California Democrat “ought to resign today.”

… While not going so far as Conway in calling for Schiff to leave office, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that Schiff does owe “an apology to the American public” and should step down from his post as head of the intelligence committee.

“He owes an apology to the American public,” McCarthy said. “There is no place in Adam Schiff’s world or in Congress that he should be chair of the intel committee.”

McCarthy added: “There is no way he could lead the intel committee and he should step back.”

James Comey

On Sunday, March 24, former FBI director James Comey tweeted, and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) — chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — duly replied:

Could not agree more.

See you soon. https://t.co/KNGzyDizdq

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 25, 2019

Sean Hannity also replied:

Yes Mr @Comey . Let’s start with why did you sign off on the FISA warrant based on hrc lies in oct 2016. And in January 2017 say it’s “unverified and salacious” ? Did you commit a fraud of the FISA court or lie to the President Elect you hated?

And, let’s not forget a memo that Comey leaked in 2017:

Comey instructed his friend, Daniel Richman, to give the [New York] Times a memo he wrote about a conversation he had with Trump on Feb. 14, 2017. Comey claimed Trump asked him to shut down an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Comey’s ploy worked, as Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel May 17, 2017.

What happens next?

It seems probable that President Trump will not let sleeping dogs lie. Nor should he.

On Wednesday, March 27, he gave an interview to Sean Hannity, his first since the Mueller report’s completion (watch on YouTube):

President Trump, in an exclusive wide-ranging interview Wednesday night with Fox News’ “Hannity,” vowed to release the full and unredacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants and related documents used by the FBI to probe his campaign, saying he wants to “get to the bottom” of how the long-running Russia collusion narrative began.

Trump told anchor Sean Hannity that his lawyers previously had advised him not to take that dramatic step out of fear that it could be considered obstruction of justice.

“I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release,” Trump said. “I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, and they really didn’t want me to do it early on. … A lot of people wanted me to do it a long time ago. I’m glad I didn’t do it. We got a great result without having to do it, but we will. One of the reasons that my lawyers didn’t want me to do it, is they said, if I do it, they’ll call it a form of obstruction.”

Trump added: “Frankly, thought it would be better if we held it to the end. But at the right time, we will be absolutely releasing.”

Trump also accused FBI officials of committing “treason” — slamming former FBI Director James Comey as a “terrible guy,” former CIA Director John Brennan as potentially mentally ill, and Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff as a criminal.

He mentioned ‘treason’ more than once:

“It was treason, it was really treason,” Trump said, referring to texts between former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page that discussed an “insurance policy” in the event of Trump’s election.

“You had dirty cops, you had people who are bad FBI folks … At the top, they were not clean, to put it mildly.” He said later, “We can never allow these treasonous acts to happen to another president.”

Also:

“I think Brennan’s a sick person, I really do,” Trump said. “I believe there’s something wrong with him, for him to come out of the CIA and act that way was so disrespectful to the country and to the CIA. He was not considered good at what he did. He was never a respected guy.”

Looking back to 2016:

“When I said there could be somebody spying on my campaign, it went wild out there,” Trump told Hannity. “They couldn’t believe I could say such a thing. As it turned out, that was small potatoes compared to what went on. … Millions and millions [spent] on the phony dossier, and then they used the dossier to start things. It was a fraud, paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.”

As for the mysterious tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and Obama’s attorney general Loretta Lynch during the summer that year, he said:

I had a lot of planes for a long time. I’ve never stopped the plane on the tarmac to let somebody on the plane. Bill Clinton said he was there to play golf, but I know the area very well. Arizona. It’s a little warm at that time of year for golf, OK?

He also had a dig at his own former AG Jeff Sessions — and rightly so:

Trump also told Hannity “this all would not have happened” if Attorney General William Barr had been with his administration from the beginning.

I could not agree more!

However, without Mueller and Stumbling Block Sessions, the administration can move forward, and one congressman, dairy farmer Devin Nunes (R-California), is raring to go:

And I believe we FINALLY have an AG that is willing to play ball. I've been impressed so far, with Barr

— Stonewall Jackson (@1776Stonewall) March 27, 2019

pic.twitter.com/b1bp3CGqwC

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2019

Onwards and upwards!

MAGA!

Trump mentions ‘treason’ in tweets

Last week, I wrote ‘Senate Intelligence Committee: “no direct evidence of conspiracy between Trump campaign and Russia”‘.

On Sunday, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe appeared for a half-hour on CBS’s 60 Minutes in an interview with Scott Pelley.

McCabe is currently doing a book tour to promote The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.

On March 16, 2018, President Trump tweeted:

Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

Two weeks earlier, Fox News reported that the Department of Justice’s Inspector General (IG), Michael Horowitz, was expected to (emphases mine):

criticize former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for approving a leak of information about the Hillary Clinton investigation to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times reported late Thursday.

According to the Times, which cited four people familiar with the investigation into the department’s handling of the Clinton probe, McCabe will be censured for disclosing the investigation’s existence to the Journal.

The Journal report in question, which was published Oct. 30, 2016, recounts a conversation in which McCabe sparred with a senior Justice Department official over an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. The Journal — which cited sources including “one person close to Mr. McCabe” — said McCabe insisted that the FBI should move forward with its investigation, while the Justice Department official expressed concern about its potential effect on the presidential election.

McCabe, a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s ire, left his position as FBI deputy director in January and is scheduled to retire later this month. He had served for several months as acting director following Trump’s firing last May of FBI Director James Comey.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department, the FBI and the inspector general had no immediate comment on the report Thursday evening …

Trump verbally attacked McCabe during the campaign and again as president because McCabe’s wife, during a failed state Senate run, had accepted campaign contributions from the political action committee of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton ally.

David J Harris Jr and Real Clear Politics have more detail, dating from January 2018.

On March 14, a Fox producer for DoJ news tweeted:

A source with knowledge of the investigation tells Fox News Andrew McCabe’s entire pension is, “definitely in jeopardy.” @FoxNews @foxnewspolitics

— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) March 14, 2018

On March 15, the Washington Examiner reported that McCabe was ‘still holding on to his retirement’:

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is holding onto his pension just days before he is set to officially retire.

McCabe was at the Justice Department to meet with Scott Schools, the most senior career attorney in the department, as well as other officials, for a majority of the afternoon Thursday, to make a case why he should be allowed to retire and not be fired.

Schools reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who in turn reports to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The decision to fire McCabe before Sunday, and thus strip McCabe of his full pension and benefits, is in Sessions’ hands.

The_Donald featured a fiery thread in response:

So, This Lying, Leaking, Lawless LOSER Is Pleading To The DOJ Today To Keep His Pension? WE, The Taxpaying Citizens Demand This CRIMINAL Receive NOTHING And Be INDICTED For His CRIMES!!

Then, the next day:

Andrew McCabe has been fired. 26 hours before his pension would have fully kicked in.

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) March 17, 2018

CBS News, in reporting McCabe’s meeting the previous Friday pointed out:

If McCabe is fired, it is believed his only avenue of appeal would be to file a lawsuit to try to reclaim his pension.

Twitter exploded.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) was indignant:

In the absence of the IG report, it’s impossible to evaluate the merits of this harsh treatment of a 21-year FBI professional. That it comes after the President urged the DOJ to deprive McCabe of his pension, and after his testimony, gives the action an odious taint. https://t.co/rpZqqxFp4u

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 17, 2018

So was the former CIA director, directing his ire at President Trump:

When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you. https://t.co/uKppoDbduj

— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018

Later that day, McCabe issued a lengthy statement (click on image to see it in full, also available at CNN):

pic.twitter.com/ARs5eMrHVB

— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) March 17, 2018

His statement elicited this response:

.@JakeBGibson McCabe, you disgraced the oath you swore. You harmed the nation by your deceit. You took 1/2 million dollars for your wife’s campaign from Hillary’s guy, McAuliffe, the #FBI said you should be FIRED. You deserve it. #Cockroach

McCabe’s lawyer also issued a statement. (Apparently, his lawyer — a former Inspector General for the DoJ — supported the current Inspector General’s report until McCabe was implicated by it.)

The DoJ disagreed with McCabe and his lawyer:

#BREAKING: Justice Dept spokeswoman contradicts McCabe, says he and his lawyer were made aware of the firing before it happened. – NYT

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 17, 2018

I hope that FBI Director Christopher Wray received all of McCabe’s documentation about the 2016 election.

There were also newsy snippets:

McCabe tells CNN Nunes memo mischaracterized his testimony: “We started the investigations without the dossier. We were proceeding with the investigations before we ever received that information.”

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) March 17, 2018

Wray and McCabe’s meeting did not go well and it was McCabe who challenged the Director. McCabe stepped down because of this and tried to ride it out until retirement. Truth internally came out before that happened. This has nothing to do with Trumps tweets or Nunes memo

— Adam Housley (@adamhousley) March 17, 2018

I am told yesterday McCabe felt the heat and went to try and save his last two days and even told some he would take people down with him if he as fired. So…let’s see what comes of this. I know this…a ton of agents…a ton…were watching this very closely.

— Adam Housley (@adamhousley) March 17, 2018

🔥🔥🔥 “Justice Department Inspector General and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”” https://t.co/XYP8exmxk7

— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) March 17, 2018

On March 17, The Hill, among other media outlets, noted that McCabe’s weekend statement seemed to contradict James Comey’s testimony from May 2017 about relaying sensitive information to the media.

News emerged that McCabe wrote memoranda of his conversations with President Trump and gave those to Robert Mueller. CBS reported that details of James Comey’s firing were included.

Fox News correspondent Adam Housely said that McCabe’s dismissal was a morale boost to FBI agents.

On March 18, TownHall posted an editorial, ‘The Coming Collusion Bloodbath’. Nearly one year on, we could be at that point:

That Comey, McCabe, and others have practiced an obvious double standard in the email case of Hillary Clinton where ample evidence caused 106 of the case agents and attorneys working on the case to believe indictment would occur, and simultaneously going to such extraordinary measures through the assistance of essentially Hillary’s campaign operation to attempt to thwart the outcome of the election is more than enough reason to go after them on a criminal basis alone.

That McCabe reportedly lied to the low key Inspector General, while attempting to send General Michael Flynn to prison for lying to the same FBI is of highest hypocrisy.

Before McCabe was fired, Reddit had censored discussions about his ‘corruption issues’. Now that he was gone, they could be discussed freely once more.

Attention then turned to the McCabe’s connections with Hillary Clinton. A New York radio host tweeted:

The fact that Andrew McCabe didn’t think anything was wrong with his wife accepting a massive amount of money for her campaign from a longtime Clinton bagman, while his department is investigating Hillary, tells you how low his standards are. #AndrewMcCabe #McCabefired

— MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) March 17, 2018

The following 2017 video resurfaced. It shows that McCabe had (still has?) a home in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons live (start at 5:00 in):

On April 13, Inspector General Horowitz issued his report:

DOJ IG releases explosive report that led to firing of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe https://t.co/25JuVb7sez #FoxNews

— unseen1 (@unseen1_unseen) April 13, 2018

Fox News explained:

The report, handed over to Congress on Friday and obtained by Fox News, looked at a leak to The Wall Street Journal about an FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation.

The report says that McCabe authorized the leak and then misled investigators about it, leaking in a way that did not fall under a “public interest” exception.

“[W]e concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the CF investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception,” the report says …

Sessions said that McCabe “made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor − including under oath − on multiple occasions.”

James Gagliano, a retired FBI supervisory special agent said that, according to the IG’s report, firing McCabe was the right thing to do. He says that whether you are a Marine or a special agent of the FBI, the same rules apply:

CNN on McCabe IG report: McCabe lied, he deserved to be firedpic.twitter.com/0alifFjlVj

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 13, 2018

In May, FBI agents wanted to be subpoenaed in order to testify against Comey and McCabe:

DAILY CALLER: FBI agents want Congress to subpoena them so they can expose wrongdoing caused by James Comey and Andrew McCabe

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) May 23, 2018

Questions arose in Congress. The Gateway Pundit reported that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wanted answers about the FBI’s treatment of General Flynn.

Early in June:

NEW: Andy McCabe – under investigation – seeks immunity as part of deal to testify before Grassley's panel next week. He may have to plead Fifth if he doesn't get it. Grassley also wants Comey and Lynch to appear before panel on IG report. @LauraAJarrett https://t.co/ymeVO78HgN

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 5, 2018

Allegations arose about McCabe’s involvement in the 302s (FBI reports) regarding General Flynn:

Senate investigators suspect Gen. Flynn's 302s were edited by McCabe, referred matter to IG Horowitz

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) June 7, 2018

On September 6, the Washington Post reported that a grand jury had been investigating McCabe ‘for months’:

… an indication the probe into whether he misled officials exploring his role in a controversial media disclosure has intensified, two people familiar with the matter said.

The grand jury has summoned more than one witness, the people said, and the case is ongoing. The people declined to identify those who had been called to testify.

The presence of the grand jury shows prosecutors are treating the matter seriously, locking in the accounts of witnesses who might later have to testify at a trial. But such panels are sometimes used only as investigative tools, and it remains unclear if McCabe will ultimately be charged.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C., which has been handling the probe, declined to comment.

Michael Bromwich, a lawyer for McCabe, said in a statement after this report was published online that he had been confident McCabe would not be charged, absent “inappropriate pressure from high levels of the Administration.”

“Unfortunately, such pressure has continued, with the President targeting Mr. McCabe in numerous additional tweets,” Bromwich said. The lawyer also raised questions about the timing of the news report on the grand jury.

ZeroHedge had more (emphases in the original):

Specifically, McCabe was fired for lying about authorizing an F.B.I. spokesman and attorney to tell Devlin Barrett of the Wall St. Journal – just days before the 2016 election, that the FBI had not put the brakes on a separate investigation into the Clinton Foundation, at a time in which McCabe was coming under fire for his wife taking a $467,500 campaign contribution from Clinton proxy pal, Terry McAuliffe. 

In order to deal with his legal woes, McCabe set up a GoFundMe “legal defense fund” which stopped accepting donations, after support for the fired bureaucrat took in over half a million dollars – roughly $100,000 more than his wife’s campaign took from McAuliffe as McCabe’s office was investigating Clinton and her infamous charities.

On September 17, Trump tweeted about the two FBI employees who were part of the group working against his presidency:

Immediately after Comey’s firing Peter Strzok texted to his lover, Lisa Page “We need to Open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy (McCabe, also fired) is acting. Page answered, “We need to lock in (redacted). In a formal chargeable way. Soon.” Wow, a conspiracy caught?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2018

On September 18, the Gateway Pundit reported on the press release for McCabe’s upcoming book, The Threat, mentioned above. The press release quoted McCabe as saying (emphases mine):

I wrote this book because the president’s attacks on me symbolize his destructive effect on the country as a whole. He is undermining America’s safety and security, and eroding public confidence in its institutions. His attacks on the most crucial institutions of government, and on the professionals who serve within them, should make every American stand up and take notice.

On September 21 came the first mention of reports that Rod Rosenstein offered to wear or joked about ‘wearing a wire’ for a meeting with Trump:

Peter Doocy just said on Fox News that it was a heated exchange between McCabe and Rosenstein, McCabe wanted to investigate the President even more and Rosenstein incredulously said "What do you want me to do, wear a wire?"

They think McCabe is leaking his own memos. pic.twitter.com/VNMhoguFvR

— Shem Horne (@Shem_Infinite) September 21, 2018

A few weeks earlier, President Trump had intended to declassify various unredacted documents. By September 22, he had backtracked. The DoJ advised him that declassification could harm the Mueller probe. In addition, US allies warned against declassification for security reasons. Trump instructed IG Horowitz to review them instead. Had Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein any influence on Trump on this subject? Declassification would have been a huge risk for Rosenstein — and McCabe.

On September 27, the then-House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSPCI) Chairman Devin Nunes (R-California) said that he planned to release testimony from 70 or more witnesses who were interviewed in the HSPCI’s own Trump-Russia probe. The Daily Caller reported:

Nunes said that between 70 and 80 percent of the transcripts do not contain classified information. The remaining transcripts would have to be reviewed by the office of the director of national intelligence. Nunes said that review process “would only take a matter of days.”

Nunes and other House Republicans have also led a push to get President Donald Trump to declassify and release documents related to the FBI and Justice Department’s collusion investigation.

Among the interview transcripts that House Intel is voting to release on Friday are James Clapper, Sally Yates, Andrew McCabe, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes. https://t.co/jZB03qQ0TR @dailycaller

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 27, 2018

It also transpired that McCabe and Rosenstein were feuding via the media. McCabe represented the faction that wanted to end Trump’s presidency. Rosenstein represented the people currently at the DoJ and FBI.

Rosenstein was using the Washington Post to get his story out. McCabe was using the New York Times.

One example of this was when the Rosenstein-wear-a-wire story appeared in The New York Times:

Rosenstein denies the NYT story.

Mr. Rosenstein, give Congress the McCabe memos that we asked for in July and all the other documents we’ve requested so we can all judge for ourselves.https://t.co/dHOgL73paP

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) September 21, 2018

On October 9, The Hill‘s John Solomon reported that Rosenstein was desperate to downplay the story. However, released testimony from former FBI lawyer James Baker indicated that this was no joke:

Baker’s story lays bare an extraordinary conversation in which at least some senior FBI officials thought it within their purview to try to capture the president on tape and then go to the president’s own Cabinet secretaries, hoping to persuade the senior leaders of the administration to remove the president from power.

Even more extraordinary is the timing of such discussions: They occurred, according to Baker’s account, in the window around the firing of FBI Director James Comey. Could it be that the leaders of a wounded, stunned FBI were seeking retribution for their boss’s firing with a secret recording operation?

I doubt this is the power that Congress intended to be exercised when it created the FBI a century ago, or the circumstances in which the authors of the 25th Amendment imagined a president’s removal could be engineered.

This wasn’t a president who was incapacitated at the time. He was fully exercising his powers — but in a way the FBI leadership did not like.

And that makes the FBI’s involvement in the tape-record-then-dump-Trump conversations overtly political — even if Rosenstein believed the whole idea was farcical.

Also:

Keep in mind, this is the same FBI that, a few months earlier during the 2016 election, had its top counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok talking to Page — his lover and the top lawyer to McCabe — about using their official powers to “stop” Trump in the election and having an “insurance policy” against the GOP nominee. That insurance policy increasingly looks like an unverified dossier created by British intelligence operative Christopher Steele — a Trump hater himself — that was bought and paid for by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through their mutual law firm.

“You walk away from the Baker interview with little doubt that the FBI leadership in that 2016-17 time frame saw itself as far more than a neutral investigative agency but actually as a force to stop Trump’s election before it happened and then maybe reversing it after the election was over,” said a source directly familiar with the congressional investigation.

The following day, the Washington Post published an article outlining the tension between McCabe and Rosenstein. The FBI higher-ups did not like that Rosenstein had recommended in writing that President Trump fire James Comey. DoJ officials did not like that the FBI, McCabe in particular, opened an investigation on Trump immediately after Comey’s departure. WaPo reported that the two quarrelled shortly after Robert Mueller was appointed — in front of him.

Rosenstein, incidentally, had allegedly already made his ‘wear a wire’ comment.

The subject of the meeting in question was whether Rosenstein or McCabe should recuse themselves from involvement in the Mueller probe:

Rosenstein wanted McCabe out of the Russia probe, and McCabe felt differently, arguing that it was the deputy attorney general, not the head of the FBI, who should step away from the case.

Although neither recused himself:

The McCabe-Rosenstein relationship has only worsened with time …

The Rosenstein-McCabe relationship has come under renewed scrutiny as lawmakers have demanded answers about memos written by McCabe and his then-senior counsel, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, about the discussions on May 16, 2017, in which McCabe wrote that Rosenstein suggested recording the president and discussed the 25th Amendment.

Rosenstein was due to meet that week with The House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees about the DoJ, but the meeting never happened.

On October 11, the Washington Examiner reported that the FBI was delaying publication of McCabe’s book, The Threat. It would not appear until February 2019:

McCabe was fired by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in March, less than 48 hours before his retirement day because of “allegations of misconduct” found by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. McCabe, has disputed the IG report, and is now the subject of a grand jury inquiry.

According to the FBI’s employment agreement, all disclosure of information must be reviewed and adhere to the FBI’s “Prepublication Review Policy Guide,” made official in 2015.

Although there is more to cover on McCabe, this is a good point at which to bring us to the present day.

On Monday, February 18, 2019, President Trump pulled no punches:

“After two years and interviewing more than two hundred witnesses, the Senate Intelligence Committee has NOT discovered any direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia.” Ken Dilanian @NBCNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

Is this the first time President Trump has tweeted the letters ‘t-r-e-a-s-o-n’?

….There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous “insurance policy” in full action!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

“This was an illegal coup attempt on the President of the United States.” Dan Bongino on @foxandfriends True!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

Here’s ‘treason’ again:

“The biggest abuse of power and corruption scandal in our history, and it’s much worse than we thought. Andrew McCabe (FBI) admitted to plotting a coup (government overthrow) when he was serving in the FBI, before he was fired for lying & leaking.” @seanhannity @FoxNews Treason!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

Trump was on fire:

Remember this, Andrew McCabe didn’t go to the bathroom without the approval of Leakin’ James Comey!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

“….(The Witch Hunt) in time likely will become recognized as the greatest scandal in American political history, marking the first occasion in which the U.S. government bureaucrats sought to overturn an election (presidential)!” Victor Davis Hanson And got caught! @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

Had the opposition party (no, not the Media) won the election, the Stock Market would be down at least 10,000 points by now. We are heading up, up, up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

We can only hope that the tables start turning soon.

Perhaps the new attorney general, Bill Barr, will set things in motion.

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward says there’s no Trump-Russia collusion

Bob Woodward, who, with his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein, exposed Watergate in the 1970s, recently completed a book on the Trump presidency.

The book is called Fear. Some of its content is dubious.

However, on Friday, September 14, 2018, Woodward gave an interview to Hugh Hewitt in which he said he spent two years looking for Trump-Russia collusion — and came up empty handed.

Real Clear Politics has the transcript of Woodward’s exchange with Hewitt about President Trump’s former White House attorney John Dowd, who, for better or worse, played it straight with special counsel Robert Mueller and his team (emphases mine):

HUGH HEWITT, HOST: Yeah, but I just think people who have been critical of you in the public, all they have to do is say hey, release my tapes, Bob, and we’ll find out whether Gary Cohn said what he said, and John Dowd said what he said, and Rob Porter said what they said. Now let’s get to the substance. I believe that if the president had actually read this book, and their team had read this book, they would not have attacked the book. They would have spun it differently, because there’s a lot complimentary in this book, the most important of which is John Dowd firmly believes, the president’s former lawyer, that the special counsel, Bob Mueller, has nothing. There’s no collusion, there’s nothing. It’s all a play to get an 18 USC 1001 perjury trap, and that POTUS should never sit down. Is that a fair assessment of what John Dowd believes?

BOB WOODWARD, ‘FEAR’ AUTHOR: Oh, well, yeah, until we end. And finally, it, the point where Dowd resigns because he is convinced the president should not testify, Dowd concludes that Mueller had played him for a sucker, got all of the cooperation of 37 witnesses, a million pages-plus of campaign documents, 20,000 pages of White House documents. So in the end, as he says to the president, he said you were right. We can’t trust Mueller.

HH: And I tell you, Bob Woodward, I read this book as a lawyer. I’m not a defense lawyer, although I was at Justice. Dowd got played badly. Do you agree?

BW: Well, but he is the one who decided on the strategy – total cooperation. We’re going to let you, we’re opening the door completely. And some of the most sensitive material was given to Mueller. He was delighted to have it. It is quite true that Dowd concluded from his own work, remember, he spent eight months on this intensely, time with Mueller, time with the White House people, time with Trump. And he didn’t see anything there until the end.

HH: So let’s set aside the Comey firing, which as a Constitutional law professor, no one will ever persuade me can be obstruction. And Rod Rosenstein has laid out reasons why even if those weren’t the president’s reasons. Set aside the Comey firing. Did you, Bob Woodward, hear anything in your research in your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?

BW: I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard. And so you know, there we are. We’re going to see what Mueller has, and Dowd may be right. He has something that Dowd and the president don’t know about, a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony. As you know, that often happens, and that can break open or turn a case.

HH: But you’ve seen no collusion?

BW: I have not.

There’s a coup going on.

Mueller will have to find something to pin on President Trump to justify his waste of taxpayers’ money, which is probably by now into the double digits of millions of dollars right now. By last November, it was rumoured to have cost $5m already.

Mueller is all about saving his own reputation and destroying others’, which he has done throughout his career. But, that’s another topic for another day.

The coup, beauty and ugliness

President Trump’s administration — including the White House — has been the most transparent in living memory:

When you're on a White House tour and this happens… pic.twitter.com/q5FdaZcRxi

— The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) September 8, 2018

On a White House tour you ask, "Can I meet the president?" Next thing you know someone leads you into the Oval Office for a selfie with President Trump! Lucky kid. pic.twitter.com/iVEJbBByJ7

— The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 19, 2018

That’s the beauty of Trump’s presidency.

However, as we know, the US president has many enemies. A soft coup has been in operation since 2016:

"This Is A Coup, Okay": Bannon Weighs In On Anonymous Anti-Trump Op-Ed. https://t.co/43hymLMuTp

— The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) September 9, 2018

President Trump’s former strategist discussed the recent anonymous editorial published in the New York Times. What follows is from a September 9, 2018 ZeroHedge article (emphases in the original):

Responding to an anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times detailing an active resistance within the Trump White House, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told Reuters that President Trump is facing a “coup” the likes of which haven’t been seen since the American Civil War. 

“What you saw the other day was as serious as it can get. This is a direct attack on the institutions,” Bannon said while flying to Italy. “This is a coup, okay”.

The Wednesday column in the New York Times slams Trump’s “amorality” and claims that “Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”

Bannon told Reuters that the last time a sitting US president had been challenged like this was during the American Civil War when Democratic General George B. McClellan went after Republican President Abraham Lincoln. 

“This is a crisis. The country has only ever had such a crisis in the summer of 1862 when General McClellan and the senior generals, all Democrats in the Union Army, deemed that Abraham Lincoln was not fit and not competent to be commander in chief,” said Bannon – whose departure from the White House was in large part over a fallout with Trump’s “establishment” advisers. Bannon said at the time that the “Republican establishment” sought to nullify the results of the 2016 election and effectively neuter Trump. 

“There is a cabal of Republic establishment figures who believe Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. This is a crisis,” Bannon said in Rome.

This is but one of President Trump’s many enemies in the international establishment. See what he has to say:

GEORGE SOROS: "Trump will disappear in 2020 or even sooner and Democrats will win 2018 in a landslide." pic.twitter.com/5xSrG3Tijt

— The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) September 11, 2018

He has said before that he makes money out of chaos. Pardon the language below, but this expresses the ugliness of at least one of Trump’s enemies:

It's not Soros money. Pardon me but he doesn't give a shit. He's using money from the shadow world bank that has unlimited $$. He's not like you and me. He has a world of money to play with. I wish people could understand what he is. Stuff of nightmares.

— The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) September 11, 2018

This is why it is essential for sensible Americans to make sure they get out and VOTE in the November mid-terms. Some states are still in primary season. Vote then, too, if at all possible:

Please encourage your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors to vote.
Please vote as if the country's existence, as we know it, is at a critical crossroad…
Because it is. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/dwolS52a3X

— ❌carson c code❌ (@carson_code) September 11, 2018

Yes, America is at a critical juncture right now.

I hope all eligible American voters mark their calendars for Tuesday, November 6th, 2018. The world’s future depends on them.