The Castro Control of Venezuela

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Throughout the current crisis, we have referenced the behind the scenes role of the Castro regime in Cuba calling the shots in Maduro’s Chavismo autocracy. Mary Anastasia O’Grady in her Americas Wall Street Journal column has maintained a watching brief on the nefarious objectives and activities in several Latin America countries have accomplished to cause the death spiral of democracy. The latest example is the current crisis in Venezuela. She suggests that the former Obama Administration had winked at these destabilizing efforts by the corrupt Castro Communist oligarchy in Havana. She argues persuasively that in addition to sanctions against the Maduro regime the Trump Administration consider applying them to the Castro family in Havana.

Note how she leveraged off of the alleged rebellion in Valencia, Venezuela this weekend, “crushed” by the Maduro controlled National Guard to expose Cuba’s complicity and track record to date with more on the way in today’s column, “The Guns of Venezuela.”

In a video posted on the internet Sunday morning, former Venezuelan National Guard captain Juan Caguaripano, along with some 20 others, announced an uprising against the government of Nicolás Maduro to restore constitutional order. The rebels reportedly appropriated some 120 rifles, ammunition and grenades from the armory at Fort Paramacay in Valencia, the capital of Carabobo state. There were unconfirmed claims of similar raids at several other military installations including in Tachirá.

The Cuba-controlled military regime put tanks in the streets and unleashed a hunt for the fleeing soldiers. It claims it put down the rebellion and it instructed all television to broadcast only news of calm. But Venezuelans were stirred by the rebels’ message. There were reports of civilians gathering in the streets to sing the national anthem in support of the uprising.

Note to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Venezuelans want to throw off the yoke of Cuban repression. They need your help.

Unfortunately Mr. Tillerson so far seems to be taking the bad advice of his State Department “experts.”

The same bureaucrats, it should be noted, ran Barack Obama’s Latin America policy. Those years gave us a rapprochement with Havana that culminated with the 44th president doing “the wave” with Raúl Castro at a baseball game in 2016. Team Obama also pushed for Colombia’s surrender to the drug-trafficking terrorist group FARC in a so-called peace deal last year. And it supported “dialogue” last year to restore free, fair and transparent elections in Venezuela. The result, in every case, was disaster.

Any U.S.-led international strategy to liberate Venezuela must begin with the explicit recognition that Cuba is calling the shots in Caracas, and that Havana’s control of the oil nation is part of its wider regional strategy.

Slapping Mr. Maduro’s wrist with sanctions, as the Trump administration did last week, won’t change Castro’s behavior. He cares only about his cut-rate Venezuelan oil and his take of profits from drug trafficking. To affect things in Venezuela, the U.S. has to press Cuba.

Burning Cuban flags, when they can be had, is now practically a national pastime in Venezuela because Venezuelans understand the link between their suffering and Havana. The Castro infiltration began over a decade ago when Fidel sent thousands of Cuban agents, designated as teachers and medical personnel, to spread propaganda and establish communist cells in the barrios.

As I noted in this column last week, since 2005 Cuba has controlled Venezuela’s citizen-identification and passport offices, keeping files on every “enemy” of the state—a k a political opponents. The Venezuelan military and National Guard answer to Cuban generals. The Venezuelan armed forces are part of a giant drug-trafficking operation working with the FARC, which is the hemisphere’s largest cartel and also has longstanding ties to Cuba.

These are the tactical realities of the Cuba-Venezuela-Colombia nexus. The broader strategic threat to U.S. interests, including Cuba’s cozy relationship with Middle East terrorists, cannot be ignored.

Elisabeth Burgos is the Venezuelan ex-wife of the French Marxist Regis Debray. She was born in Valencia, joined the Castro cause as a young woman, and worked for its ideals on the South American continent.

Ms. Burgos eventually broke free of the intellectual bonds of communism and has lived in Paris for many years. In a recent telephone interview—posted on the Venezuelan website Prodavinci—she warned of the risks of the “Cuban project” for the region. “Wherever the Cubans have been, everything ends in tragedy,” she told Venezuelan journalist Hugo Prieto. “Surely we have no idea what forces we face,” Mr. Prieto observed—reflecting as a Venezuelan on the words of Ms. Burgos—because, as she said, there is “a lot of naiveté, a lot of ignorance, about the apparatus that has fallen on [Venezuelans]: Castroism.”

Cuban control of citizens is as important as control of the military. In Cuba this is the job of the Interior Ministry. For that level of control in Venezuela, Ms. Burgos said, Mr. Maduro must rely on an “elite of exceptional experts” Castro grooms at home.

Cuba, Ms. Burgos said, is not “simply a dictatorship.” For the regime it is a “historical political project” aiming for “the establishment of a Cuban-type regime throughout Latin America.” She noted that along with Venezuela the Cubans have taken Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, and are now going after Colombia. “The FARC, turned into a political party and with all the money of [the narcotics business], in an election can buy all the votes that it wants.”

Mr. Tillerson is forewarned. Castro won’t stop until someone stops him. To get results, any U.S.-led sanctions have to hit the resources that Havana relies on to maintain the repression.

The Guns of Venezuela

Castro is calling the shots in Caracas. Sanctions have to be aimed at him.
WSJ.COM

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VIDEO: The Trump Effect — Deprogramming The American Mind

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President Donald Trump challenge to Politically Correct ideology dominating American political discourse since the Islamic terrorist attack of 9/11/2001.

THE TRUMP EFFECT: DEPROGRAMMING THE AMERICAN MIND concludes that the President has the potential to Make America Great Again, by changing the way Americans think about ourselves and the world. Produced, directed and edited by Agustin Blazquez, featuring author and filmmaker Laurence Jarvik.

Refugee contractors launch campaign for a minimum of 75,000 refugees for FY18

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In mid-September the Trump Administration will be sending its ‘Presidential determination’ to the Hill.

The determination will set the CEILING for the number of refugees the President would like to see admitted to the US and sets priorities for what regions of the world will be the source of those refugees.

It also tells Congress how much money the Administration needs to get that job done.

For the umpteenth time, the number is a ceiling that is rarely reached.

The contractors*** are telling their followers that the magic number for FY18 is 75,000.  They must be taking a new tack because at this time last year they were asking Obama for 200,000.  I suspect they know the situation is bad for their budgets and they need more than 50,000 (paying refugee clients) to stay afloat.

By the way, Trump reset the ceiling for FY17 to 50,000.

And, as  of this morning (according to Wrapsnet) Trump is at 50,672.  This is the first time in the history of the program that the ceiling has been surpassed.

For the eight years of the Obama Administration the average number of admissions was 69,683 (see here). The average would have been much lower if it weren’t for his last year, an outlier, of nearly 85,000.

So, if Trump goes to 75,000 for FY18, which begins October 1, he will be proposing to bring in more refugees than Obama’s average.

Ginning up their base!

In an August recess toolkit prepared by the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm of the refugee industry), here is what they are telling their activists (and using your tax dollars for their community organizing!):

Trump’s attacks on refugees, immigrants, and their families are morally detestable, discriminatory, and violate our sacred honor to protect the most vulnerable among us. Right now, we need Congress to urge the administration to resettle at least 75,000 refugees next year and protect DACA. Congress must also robustly fund refugee assistance overseas and the U.S. refugee resettlement program, at minimum at last year’s levels, and reduce funding for mass immigration detention, deportation, and border militarization.

One of the most active of the activist groups is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) which has instructions to its supporters on what to say to Washington Representatives and Senators.

They know that the Republican Congress can be manipulated easily by public opinion on this issue because the establishment GOP fears being labeled racist AND many R’s are beholden to the Chamber of Commerce, big business and global corporations looking for more consumers and a ready supply of cheap labor.

NOTE: The Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities are below.  Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.

The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again! Big businesses depend on the free flow of cheap (some call it slave) labor.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists from the process.

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‘When Was America Ever Great,’ You Ask? Here’s My Answer…

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Celebrating Independence Day and watching President Trump on the international stage during the G20 Summit, I couldn’t help but reflect upon a recent conversation I had with one of my “Hollywood” friends.

This friend is a self-proclaimed liberal and sees absolutely no value in anything Republican!

I remember having many conversations with him during last year’s presidential campaign and talking to him about Trump’s tagline, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA).

Even though, I’d heard his retort before from liberals, both Black and White, I was still shocked when he asked, “When was America ever great?”

When I’ve heard this response from liberals in the past, it’s usually followed with ad hominem attacks on America, beginning with slavery, then Jim Crow, segregation, police killings of unarmed Blacks, etc.

These assertions are undeniably factual, but to end there is like reading the first chapter of a book that opens with a murder and concluding that the whole book is about that one event.

Slavery and racism are still the biggest blemishes on America’s history, but because we are Americans and showed resolve, we also have one helluva redemption story to tell. We have come a long way from the days of slavery and Jim Crow.

Here are a few questions for my liberal friends. If America is so racist, how did we elect a Black man as president? If America is so racist, how did we have two consecutive Black secretaries of state (Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice)? If America is so racist, how did we have two consecutive attorneys general (Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch)? If America is so racist, how are African-Americans making millions of dollars in sports, music, business and technology?

Name me one other major power that can make the claim that Black people have these opportunities in their country. Germany can’t. Britain can’t. China can’t. Australia can’t. France can’t. I think you get my point.

During a time when all Americans should be celebrating the progress we’ve made as a nation on our journey towards redemption, liberals seem to want to focus on our past.

So, to answer my Hollywood friend’s original question, “When was America ever great?” my response is very simple.

America was great when former President Lincoln freed the slaves. America was great when Congress passed the Civil and Voting Rights Acts in the 60s. America was great when they elected the first Black president in 2008. America was great when we witnessed, yet again, the peaceful transfer of power to Donald Trump from Barack Obama, despite just witnessing one of the nastiest presidential elections in our nation’s history.

America will always be great as long as we accept the will of the American people, when it comes to our free and fair elections. You don’t have to like the choice, but you must accept the result.

This is what makes America great.

Has America lived up to the words in the Declaration of Independence?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?”

No, we still have a long way to go, but we have made remarkable progress.

Isn’t it amazing that the very liberals who criticize this country never, ever seriously consider leaving the country? Despite all of our nation’s faults, where else could those liberals go and still have this type of freedom and opportunity?

We must get back to our founding principles; love of God, love of country; and love of our people.

Academy Award winning actor, Denzel Washington made this point in a phenomenal graduation speech he gave two years ago to the students of Dillard University in New Orleans, La., one of our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It was one of the shortest, yet, most powerful speeches I have ever heard.

Liberals must stop obsessing about America’s racial past and focus on America’s promise. We must not live our lives in fear of loss; we must live our lives in hope of gain.

America is not as bad as it used to be and not as good as it can be.

It’s like President Obama said: “We are the change that we seek.”

Liberals are great at complaining about problems, but rarely if ever provide any practical solutions to their complaints.

On this day and every day, we have the freedom to be free. Respecting this freedom, for everyone, is how we all can truly “Make America Great Again.”

These College Students Lost Access to Legal Pot – And Started Getting Better Grades

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The most rigorous study to date shows that college students in the Netherlands who are denied access to “cannabis cafes,” do better academically than their peers who are allowed to frequent them.

The Dutch have permitted marijuana to be sold and consumed in cafes that are strictly regulated, may not sell other drugs or advertise, and are swiftly shut down if they fail to comply with regulations.

The Dutch town of Maastricht, which is close to the borders of Germany, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, experienced a problem with drug tourism. People from those countries came to Maastrict to buy marijuana legally; those from Luxembourg and France created most of the problems. So Maastrict authorities denied citizens from Luxembourg and France access to the cafes.

But students from all five nations attend Maastrict University. The town’s policy change gave researchers a natural experiment to determine whether legalization vs. prohibition in the same student body makes a difference in their academic performance.

In fact, it does. Students banned from the cafes, who were less likely to use marijuana and suffer cognitive deficits from its use, experienced a 5 percent increase in their odds of passing their courses. The beneficial effect was even more pronounced for students at risk of dropping out.

The authors conclude:

We have investigated how restricting cannabis access affects student achievements, finding that the performance of students who lose legal access to cannabis substantially improves. Our analysis of underlying channels suggests that the effects are specifically driven by an improvement in numerical skills, which existing literature has found to be particularly impaired by cannabis consumption. This article provides the first causal evidence that restricting legal access to cannabis affects college students’ short-term study performance. We believe that our findings also imply that individuals change their consumption behavior when the legal status of a drug changes.

Read Washington Post article here. Read research paper here.

American Society of Addiction Medicine Faults Study Purporting to Show Marijuana is an Effective Substitute for Pain-Relieving Opioids

As the assertion continues that marijuana is a safe and effective alternate to opioids for pain relief, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) takes issue with the scientific validity of a new study that intensifies the claim.

“Cannabis as a Substitute for Opioid-Based Pain Relief,” a new study, “demonstrates several distortions that can and do arise with the current enthusiasm for cannabis as a panacea,” says William Haning, MD, editor-in-chief of ASAM Weekly.

Dr. Haning notes that Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research “is an online open access periodical published by an enterprise that captures specialty niches.”

He continues, “The article and the accompanying polemical editorial which asserts ‘that cannabis is a safe, non-addictive product,’ suffer from the illusion of balanced scientific inquiry.”

He goes on from there. Read his ASAM Weekly editorial here. Read Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research study here.

Economy Needs Workers, but Drug Tests Take a Toll

In an oddly titled article, which appears to blame drug testing rather than drug use, the New York Times reports that the middle-class factory jobs President Trump promised to bring back from overseas are going begging because applicants can’t pass drug tests.

“Indeed, the opioid epidemic and, to some extent, wider marijuana use are hitting businesses and the economy in ways that are beginning to be acknowledged by policy makers and other experts,” notes the article.

One expert says the drug issue keeps workers who are trapped in low-paying jobs from securing better-paying, blue-collar positions and a toehold in the middle class.

The Times, whose editorial board called for full marijuana legalization a few years ago, observes that “workplace considerations – not social conservatism or imposition of traditional mores – make employee drug use an issue.”

The owner of a boiler-making factory in Youngstown, Ohio, explains why. “The lightest product we make is 1,500 pounds, and they go up to 250,000 pounds. If something goes wrong, it won’t hurt our workers. It’ll kill them.”

Maybe traditional mores like safety concerns have value after all.

Read New York Times article here.

How the Legalization of Marijuana Affects Employee Drug Testing

Medical marijuana laws vary greatly from state to state. A few require employers to accommodate workers’ medical marijuana use when possible. Most don’t.

This map demonstrates the current status of the differing requirements of state marijuana laws.

Read blog entry here (second story).

Pattern of Marijuana Use During Adolescence May Impact Psychosocial Outcomes in Adulthood

Escalating marijuana use in adolescence may lead to higher rates of depression and lower educational achievement in adulthood, a new study published in Addictionfinds.

Researchers interviewed 159 boys and young men who were part of a longitudinal study of males at high risk for antisocial behaviors and other problems based on low income, family size, and gender.

At age 20, each participant reported whether and how much marijuana they used each year since they started. Their brains were also scanned.

The “boys who started occasionally using marijuana around 15 or 16 years old and had a dramatic increase in use by the time they were 19 had the greatest dysfunction in brain reward circuitry, the highest rates of depression, and the lowest educational achievements,” say the researchers.

“Though the results do not show a direct causal link,” they say, “it’s important to note that even though most people think marijuana isn’t harmful, it may have severe consequences for some people’s functioning, education, and mood.”

Read Science Daily article here. Read Addiction abstract here.

Marijuana and Vulnerability to Psychosis

Researchers at the University of Montreal, pictured above, find that going from occasional to weekly or daily marijuana use increases an adolescent’s risk of having recurrent, psychotic-like experiences by 159 percent.

Although marijuana causes many kinds of cognitive problems, “the development of inhibitory control was the only cognitive function negatively affected by an increase in marijuana use,” say the researchers.

“Our results show that while marijuana use is associated with a number of cognitive and mental health symptoms, only an increase in symptoms of depression — such as negative thoughts and low mood — could explain the relationship between marijuana use and increasing psychotic-like experiences in youth,” the lead researcher said.

Read Science Daily article here. Read Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatryabstract here.

Depression Among Young Teens Linked to Cannabis Use at 18

Young people (ages 12-15) with chronic or severe depression are at elevated risk of developing a marijuana-use disorder in later adolescence.

Researchers at the University of Washington, pictured above, collected data from 521 students recruited from four Seattle middle schools and conducted annual assessments of the students at ages 12-15 and then again at age 18.

The scientists found that a “one standard deviation increase” in cumulative depression during early adolescence produced a 50 percent higher likelihood of marijuana-use disorder at age 18.

They were surprised to see that the prevalence of both alcohol-use disorder and marijuana-use disorder were higher among their students than national averages. What effect marijuana legalization in Washington may have had on these outcomes is not clear.

They point out that a similar study in another state that has not legalized the drug would clarify the issue.

Read Science Daily article here. Read Addiction abstract here.

Note:

After publishing our story about Georgia Representative Allen Peake last week, we came across a video on Haleigh’s Hope Facebook page in which Rep. Peake explains how he is violating federal law by distributing a Schedule I drug throughout the state. We posted the video on The Marijuana Report’s Facebook page. You can see it here.

The Marijuana Report is a weekly e-newsletter published by National Families in Action in partnership with SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana). Visit our website, The Marijuana Report.Org, to learn more about the marijuana story unfolding across the nation.

SUBSCRIBE to The Marijuana Report.

SUBSCRIBE to Spanish edition of The Marijuana Report.

Dump the Girly Man Church and Girly Man Christianity

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Wimpy churches have contributed heavily to the moral decay of the USA. The Outlaws Chapel is calling men and women of faith who are ready to dump “girly man church” to become churches that challenge the evil agendas.

VIDEO: Why Did the Democratic South Become Republican?

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Is it true that in the 1960s and 70s, around the time of the Civil Rights Act, the Republican Party switched identities with the Democratic Party? Is it true that the Republicans abandoned their historic support of civil rights for blacks in order to get the Southern vote?

The south used to vote Democrat. Now it votes Republican. Why the switch? Was it, as some people say, because the GOP decided to appeal to racist whites?

Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain tackles the thorny subject of what has come to be known as the GOP’s “Southern Strategy.”

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Al Gore’s sequel opens: It’s bunk

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Al Gore’s new movie opens today.

Leading off the article in The Washington Times and at Fox:

“Nobody is more excited about Friday’s release of Al Gore’s sequel to An Inconvenient Truth than climate skeptic Marc Morano, which comes as an ill wind for the movement to stop global warming, not to mention Mr. Gore.

For months, Mr. Morano and his team have tracked the Democrat at advance screenings of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, ambushing him with stunts such as asking him about his prediction that without drastic measures, the planet would reach a ‘point of no return’ in a decade.

The former vice president made that claim 11 years ago in An Inconvenient Truth, the Oscar-winning documentary whose warnings of climate doom propelled Mr. Gore to the forefront of the movement against global warming — while turning him into something of a punchline.

‘Al Gore is the gift that keeps on giving,’ said Mr. Morano, who runs the skeptical Climate Depot website, a project of the free-market Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.”

Read the full article at The Washington Times.

CFACT was at the Sundance Film Festival and attended the premiere.

We posted an “inconvenient review” at CFACT.org.

Gore’s new movie is a self-centered diatribe that’s riddled with inaccuracies.  It is an embarrassment.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy did some serious damage, including flooding New York’s South Ferry subway station.  Gore cites this as evidence for the extreme claims he made in his first film, An Inconvenient Truth.

This is false. 

Hurricane Sandy was a product of nature, not man.  It would have struck just as hard whether we used energy or not  Its storm surge happened to coincide with high tide.  This was not a product of climate change, nor was it exacerbated by changes in sea levels which have not deviated meaningfully from the tiny one to three millimeters per year they have fluctuated since before the industrial revolution.

Gore’s exploitation of the pain inflicted by Hurricane Sandy to advance his agenda is shameless.  It is a prime example of the tricks and traps of the climate trade CFACT documents in our own film, Climate Hustle.

The Washington Times reports that many on the Left are embarrassed by Gore and his sequel.

They should be.

McMaster blocked Islamic Scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali from meeting President Trump

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McMaster appears to be doing all he can to make sure that the truth about Islam and jihad is not discussed at the NSC or the White House. He must go. He must go soon.

“Censored! McMaster Barred Scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Giving Talk on Radical Islam at NSC,”

by Mike Cernovich, Medium, August 4, 2017 (thanks to the Geller Report):

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born former Dutch deputy threatened with death for her outspoken criticism of Islam. Photo: EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was schedule to present a paper on radical Islamic terror at the National Security Counsel before being blocked by H.R. McMaster and his recently appointed Senior Director of Counter-Terrorism, Mustafa Javed Ali.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was in town to present her work to the Senate, was also prohibited from visiting the President during her White House visit, where she was allowed to meet with select members of the NSC in an informal setting.

Asked why she was censored, a source reported, “Mustafa Javed Ali said she was Islamophobic, and that the only way she could present her paper would be to have someone from CAIR come in to refute her work.”

This “both sides” justification for banning Ali was, according to my source, “complete bulls*t.”

“People come in to present their views every day. There’s no requirement that every presentation be a debate.”…

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Help Terminate The Special Counsel: Send This Petition (SCRAP) to Congress

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Special Counsel Recall And Accountability Petition (SCRAP)

We, citizens of America, herewith exercise our right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to wit:

Whereas, the Code of Federal Regulations, 28 CFR 600.1 – Grounds for appointing a Special Counsel, states that the Attorney General, or in cases in which the Attorney General is recused, the Acting Attorney General, will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted. And

Whereas, a Special Counsel was appointed by the Acting Attorney General without identifying a person who had committed a crime or a criminal matter that warranted investigation; instead, the appointment was made to investigate a non-criminal national security matter. And

Whereas, the appointment of a Special Counsel, under the above circumstances, creates an unconstitutional perversion of our criminal justice system, in that, any and all Americans who have committed no crime can be investigated by a Special Counsel and presumed “guilty” until proven “innocent” and, thereby, rendered vulnerable to search and seizures of our persons, houses, paper and effects without probable cause—a violation of our rights granted by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. And

Whereas, the Code of Federal Regulations, 28 CFR 45.2, states that a Justice Department employee cannot participate in a “criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with …Any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution.” And

Whereas, in violation of 28 CFR 45.2, the Special Counsel appointed by the Acting Attorney General has both a personal and political relationship with a key witness, as well as has hired lawyers to assist with the investigation who have made financial contributions to and performed legal services for the individual deemed to have been harmed by the non-criminal national security matter being investigated by the Special Counsel. And

Whereas, in light of the aforementioned, we, American citizens, assert that the Special Counsel appointment by the Acting Attorney General justifies this registration of our grievances with our Government, in that this appointment, in summary:

Establishes the precedent that a Special Counsel can be appointed to investigate any and all Americans who have committed no crime, and

Renders asunder one of the most sacred principles in the American criminal justice system that a citizen is innocent until proven guilty, and

Even more egregious, makes all Americans vulnerable to search and seizures of our persons, houses, paper and effects without probable cause—a violation of our rights granted by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Now, therefore, we demand that the United States House of Representatives Oversight Committee call for the immediate termination of the Special Counsel whose existence violates Code of Federal Regulations sections 28 CFR 600.1 and 28 CFR 45.2 and puts in jeopardy our Fourth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution.

EDITORS NOTE: This petition originally appeared on The Black Republican blog. The featured image of Robert S. Mueller, III is by Charles Dharapak from the Associated Press.

Che Guevara: Remembering the ‘Butcher of La Cabana’

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To truly understand who Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentinian Marxist revolutionary, really was please watch this film titled “CHE: The Other Side of An Icon / complete film followed by “You Don’t Know Che” by Steve Pichan”

There are two things one sees on tee shirts that glorify evil incarnate. The first is the anti-Christian, anti-Semitic and anti-American peace sign, which has been put on jewelry, tee shirts and even on children’s clothing (listen to my interview with Paul Ibbetson, host of the Conscience of Kansas radio show on the peace sign below). The second is the image of Che Guevara the “butcher of La Cabana” on paraphernalia sold by Amazon.com, eBay and at TheCheStore.com.

Che Guevara died on October 9, 1967, in La Higuera, Bolivia.
Humberto Fontova in his book “Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots who Idolize Him” wrote on page 82:

Twenty-four-year-old Teresita Saavedra was a lay Catholic leader when the Che-trained militia arrested her in the town of Sancti-Spiritus in Central Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion had just been crushed and a huge dragnet was sweeping Cuba for any who had sympathized with those abandoned freedom fighters. Teresita, who certainly qualified, was hauled away at Czech machine-gun point to the town’s police headquarters. In the interrogation room she was repeatedly raped by five milicianos, who then released her. Teresita committed suicide that night.

The quote reads: “The life of a human being is worth more than all the gold of the rich men of the world” – Che

I recently visited Communist Cuba and noticed images of Che are everywhere. On posters, painted on walls and even in Cuban hospitals and health clinics. Che has become the primary symbol of the revolution, eclipsing even Fidel Castro and his brother Raul.

As Che said, “The clay of our work is the youth.” Fidel and Che understood the value of propaganda. Fidel’s February 1957 interview with New York Times correspondent Herbert L. Matthews is one example of Fidel using the media to his advantage, portraying his and Che’s “revolution” as a benevolent one.  This lie was exposed on January 1, 1959 when Fidel and Che toppled Batista and established what is now a Communist dictatorship.

After this “revolutionary victory” who was Che Guevara what was his role?

Michael J. Totten in his February 2014 World Affairs Journal column “The Truth About Che Guevara” wrote:

He [Che] helped free Cubans from the repressive Batista regime, only to enslave them in a totalitarian police state worst than the last. He was Fidel Castro’s chief executioner, a mass-murderer who in theory could have commanded any number of Latin American death squads, from Peru’s Shining Path on the political left to Guatemala’s White Hand on the right.

[ … ]

As Guevara wrote to a friend in 1957, ‘My ideological training means that I am one of those people who believe that the solution to the world’s problems is to be found behind the Iron Curtain.’…He was a great admirer of the Cultural Revolution [in China]. According to Regis Debray, ‘It was he and not Fidel who in 1960 invented Cuba’s first corrective work camp,’ or what the Americans would call a slave labor camp and the Russians called the gulag.”

Read more.

Before the revolution Cuba was 80% Catholic. Che, like Karl Marx, believed that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” Matthew Archbold in his National Catholic Register article “5 Reasons Christians Should Never Ever Celebrate Che Guevara” wrote:

5) Che savagely killed Christians for little or no reason.

And it’s not just me saying it. In 2005, Cuban Jazz musician Paquito D’Rivera wrote a moving letter to the guitarist Santana, who wore a shirt with a crucifix and an image of Che’s face to the premiere of the movie The Motorcycle Diaries, which lionized Che.

Hola, Santana: I found out, through our friend Raul Artiles, that you’ll be performing in Miami soon; I find this rather ill-advised, since not too long ago you committed the faux-pas of appearing at the “Oscar Awards” ceremony, brandishing, with pride, an enormous crucifix over a tee-shirt with that archaic and stereotyped image of “The Butcher of the Cabaña,” the moniker given to the lamentable character known as Ché Guevara by those Cubans who had to suffer his tortures and humiliations in that nefarious prison.

One of these Cubans was my cousin Bebo, imprisoned there just for being a Christian. He recounts to me on occasion, always with infinite bitterness, how he could hear, from his cell, in the early hours of dawn, the executions without prior trials or process of law, of the many who died shouting, “Long Live Christ The King!” The guerrilla guy with the beret with the star is something more than that ridiculous film about a motorcycle, my illustrious colleague, and to juxtapose Christ with Ché Guevara is like entering a synagogue with a swastika hanging from your neck…

Wow. Pretty awful. But hey, so maybe Che had a little bitty problem with Christians. But it’s not like he totally hated Christ, right?

4) Che hated Christ.

Che actually said, “In fact, if Christ himself stood in my way, I, like Nietzsche, would not hesitate to squish him like a worm.”

Read more.

Committees for the Defense of the Revolution banner in Havana.

But propaganda didn’t end with the January 1, 1959 Cuban Revolution. Today, the Cuban government controls all aspects of the media, magazines, newspapers, broadcasting facilities and the internet. Billboards and graffiti with pro-Che sentiment litter the landscape, and strict law enforcement and community groups like the “Committees for the Defense of the Revolution” are used to minimize the expression of conflicting views. As Totten noted:

You know what happens to Cubans who display open hatred of Che?

They get arrested.

When he was still alive, they were executed or herded into slave-labor camps.

So yeah, everyone “loves” him. It’s required by law. Woe to those who disobey State Security.

Totten provides these quotes from Humberto Fontova’s Exposing the Real Che Guevara:

“A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.”

“We will bring the war to the imperialist enemies’ very home, to his places of work and recreation. We must never give him a minute of peace or tranquility. This is a total war to the death.”

“If the nuclear missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City…We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims…We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm.”

Here’s one more from Fontaine in France: “In his will, the graduate of the school of terror praised the ‘extremely useful hatred that turns men into effective, violent, merciless, and cold killing machines.’ He was dogmatic, cold, and intolerant, and there was almost nothing in him of the traditionally open and warm Cuban temperament.”

Totten wrote, “Che’s selfless and collectivist New Man is a utopian fantasy. Humans will only work long and hard hours for no pay if they’re forced—hence Cuba’s repressive political system.”

Next time you see someone wearing a Che tee shirt, stop and ask them do they really know what they are doing?

Oh, by-the-way, Che was not a Cuban, he was from Argentina. His first name was Ernesto but the Cubans called him Che because Argentinians use the word Che instead of the pronoun Tu.

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EDITORS NOTE: It was Colonel John Waghelstein U.S. Army (Ret.) who served as an adviser to the Bolivian airborne unit that chased down the last of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s rebel band in 1967. The author served with Colonel Waghelstein, then Major Waghelstein, when he Commanded the 2 Battalion 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

No Holds Barred: The Swamp Offensive

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Every board game has rules. Every card game has rules. Every athletic competition has rules. Every election has rules. Every society has rules. WHY?

Rules establish the object of the game and provide the organizing principle for fair play – rules establish what is and what is not acceptable conduct in the game. You have to take turns, you cannot look at someone else’s cards, you cannot challenge or dispute the referee, you cannot vote twice –  and there are penalties for not following the rules in every game. If you don’t play by the rules in a game you either lose on points or are disqualified.

Let’s examine the sport of wrestling and begin with the overview of wrestling rules provided by West Virginia Wrestling.

The object of traditional wrestling is to pin your opponent on his back. When you pin your opponent, the match is over and you are the winner. If nobody gets pinned, the winner is the wrestler who has scored the most points during the match.

The rules of traditional wrestling identify holds that are acceptable and holds that are not acceptable during the match. “No holds barred” means there are absolutely no restrictions or limits on the holds used to pin your opponent.

Laws are the rules of society and like any game there are penalties for not following the rules – but what happens when the rules are abandoned and a no holds barred mentality dominates the game in politics?

President Donald Trump thought he entered a traditional match of presidential election politics when he descended the escalator at Trump Towers. Instead he found himself fighting in a professional no holds barred kayfabe wrestling match against the entire Washington establishment of swamp creatures colluding in a sinister effort to pin him down. The 2016 presidential campaign, election, and aftermath are a professional political wrestling match with the corrupt mainstream media hired as the kayfabe referee.

Kayfabe is professional wrestling’s suspension of disbelief that presents fake staged events as genuine competitions. In professional wrestling the referee’s on-stage kayfabe purpose is to convince the spectators they are watching a legitimate traditional match. In reality the referee and the wrestlers are participating in the staged spectacle of a scripted match with a pre-determined outcome. The referee and the wrestlers are actors who maintain kayfabe by playing their parts and never breaking character.

There are five ways to score points in a wrestling match and the swamp creatures have tried them all:

1) Takedown – (2 points) You score two points for taking your opponent down to the mat and controlling him/her.

Hillary attempted the takedown maneuver with her frontal attack on Donald Trump accusing him of being a misogynist. Amplifying her accusations with the infamous Billy Bush tape leaked intentionally just before the election, Hillary hoped to end the match by securing the women’s vote. Instead of pinning Donald Trump the tape ended the career of Billy Bush and exposed Hillary’s complicity in the real life misogyny, womanizing, and exploitation of women by her unfaithful husband Bill Clinton. No takedown.

2) Escape – (1 point) You score one point for getting away or getting to a neutral position when your opponent has you down on the mat.

Hillary tried the escape maneuver by accusing Donald Trump of being dangerously inexperienced. With the dexterity of a counter-puncher candidate Trump laughed in derision and asked the American public how the many years of “experience” of the career politicians in Washington had benefited anyone but the politicians themselves? Candidate Trump pointed out the unseemly corruption of the Clinton family – Hillary’s pay-for-play scheming while Secretary of State and the corrupt Clinton Foundation that only distributed a fraction of the monies they collected. Trump escaped.

3) Reversal – (2 points) You score two points when your opponent has you down on the mat and you come from underneath and gain control of your opponent.

Hillary thought she had Donald Trump on the mat when she romanticized the inclusiveness of Obama’s open border policies and support for illegal immigrants. She criticized Trump as a racist and an Islamophobe. Hillary campaigned around the country saying that real Americans needed to be with HER to be inclusive and accepting.

Donald Trump pointed out that open borders are designed to flood America with illegal immigrants who will vote illegally for their Democratic Party benefactors. He said the open border policy is a Trojan horse that will bring masses of immigrants from Islamic countries with cultural norms hostile to America and facilitate the social chaos necessary for the destruction of American democracy – the overarching goal of Hillary and her leftist Democratic Party. Candidate Donald Trump made a strong case for LEGAL immigration. After all, he married two legal immigrants. The distinction between illegal and legal immigration that Hillary tried to blur was clarified by candidate Trump and he accomplished a reversal.

4) Near Fall (Back Points) – (2 or 3 points) You get near fall points when you almost but not quite get your opponent pinned.

Hillary almost acquired near fall points by insisting that Donald Trump release his tax returns. Candidate Trump outmaneuvered her again by saying that he would release his tax returns when she released the 33,000 emails stored on her illegal server. Near fall avoided.

5) Penalty Points – (1 or 2 points) Your opponent is awarded points if you commit the following infractions.

There are seven misconduct infractions of varying degrees of severity with corresponding penalties. The more severe the misconduct the more points are awarded to the opponent. The organized opposition to Donald Trump escalated as he became a more viable candidate and absolutely exploded after he won the election. Donald Trump was an aspirational candidate who gave Americans real hope for real change. He was the people’s billionaire who understood the working man and how the corrupt Washington establishment of Democrats and Republicans had exploited them for personal gain. Candidate Trump promised to drain the swamp and the swamp creatures have committed every possible misconduct infraction to stop President Trump from keeping his promise.

a. Illegal Holds

The conflicts of interest inherent in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s anti-Trump investigation are staggering. Comey deliberately leaked government records to have Mueller appointed as special counsel, the majority of lawyers Mueller hired are Democrat donors, and there is no day-to-day supervision from a constitutional officer. This is not an appropriate investigation it is a witch hunt. 2 points President Trump.

b. Technical Violations

The Democrats and establishment Republicans are colluding in an unholy un-American alliance to force President Trump off the mat. President Trump poses an existential threat to their self-serving swamp life. President Trump’s America-first agenda is diametrically opposed to globalism and the corrupt personal self-enriching agendas of the swamp creatures. If President Trump is free to govern he will drain the swamp and the swamp creatures will all lose their power. 2 points President Trump.

c. Unnecessary roughness

Unwarranted attacks on President Trump’s family are designed to infuriate the President, entertain the left-wing liberal Democrat base, and deflect attention away from President Trump’s successes. 2 points President Trump.

d. Unsportsmanlike conduct

A smiling ex-president Obama, the deadliest rattlesnake in the swamp, deceitfully promised incoming President Trump a peaceful transition of power while his legacy appointments remained to sabotage President Trump’s administration. 2 points President Trump.

e.  Flagrant Misconduct

The phony Russia dossier and false conspiracy theories accusing the Trump team of colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential race have echoed back and forth across the mainstream media for six months. Recent hearings revealing evidence possibly linking Democrats to Russia and the false dossier have suspiciously quieted the accusations against Trump for the moment. The actual collusion with Russia happened during Obama’s administration when then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton secretly sold 20% of our uranium to Russia. The flagrant misconduct and false narrative of the swamp creatures designed to impugn President Trump and cover up their own misconduct is stunning. 2 points President Trump.

d. Stalling

The stalling technique is being used by all the swamp creatures to derail President Trump’s initiatives in a deceitful attempt to win back seats in the 2018 midterm elections. The strategy is that a stalled ineffectual President Trump will be vulnerable in 2020 and a midterm loss of enough seats would make impeachment proceedings against him possible. The swamp is so threatened by exposure that they will do anything to stop President Trump – no holds barred. The swamp creatures are hidden everywhere inside and outside of President Trump’s administration disguised by their jungle camouflage and poised to strike. Mueller, McMaster, McCain, Graham, McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi, Rubio, Flake, Ryan, Heller, Alexander, Murkowski, Capito, Collins, Portman, the entire Democrat Party – all colluding with Obama’s entrenched legacy team attempting to demean, destabilize, delegitimize and overthrow the government of duly elected reformer President Donald Trump. 2 points President Trump.

e. Incorrect starting position or false start

Freedom of the press has been corrupted in America. The mainstream media owned by self-serving globalists intent on unrestricted access to the lucrative global marketplace view President Donald Trump and his America-first agenda as their enemy. The globalists have colluded to create and report fake news including false accusations of every sort to bring down President Trump and pin him to the mat. 2 points President Trump.

President Trump is trying to restore integrity to American politics and preserve American democracy by exposing and draining the corrupt Washington swamp of establishment politicians who put themselves first before America. The swamp creatures are in a fight for their survival and are playing an unprecedented vitriolic no holds barred match against President Trump. They would have already lost a traditional match to President Trump in a points shut-out or been disqualified by honest investigative reporting. Instead the mainstream media kayfabe referee is part of the professional swamp and continues to protect the status quo so the swamp creatures can slither safely back home to their swamp.

The swamp offensive is a lethal, deceitful, underhanded effort on both sides of the aisle inside and outside President Trump’s administration. It is a particularly un-American effort to derail the President’s patriotic mission to drain the corrupt Washington swamp and restore American democracy to the American people. President Donald Trump is an extraordinary fighter. He is the right man at the right time to fight this unfair orchestrated fight. He will need added security to protect himself from the deadly swamp creatures and their staged kayfabe.

VIDEO: The Truth vs CNN with Bill Whittle

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In his latest FIREWALL, host Bill Whittle recounts the recent CNN scandal, describes the masterful way the videos were released and shows what incredible — almost unbelievable — harm is caused by media bias.

How Mass Schooling Perpetuates Inequality by Kerry McDonald

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While visiting a public park out-of-state recently, we met a young boy who shares many interests with my 8-year-old son and is also homeschooled. They hit it off immediately and we met up with Matt, along with his mom and younger brother, several times.Schooling can bring out the worst behaviors.

We learned that life is tough for this family. Matt’s father isn’t around, and his mother struggles as a single mom supporting two young children on her own. She pulled Matt out of public school a couple of years ago feeling that it wasn’t working for him. He was labeled as hyperactive, a troublemaker, a slow reader, a kid with a temper.

As I interacted with this engaging, polite, energetic boy, it became obvious to me how mass schooling would be a terrible fit for him – a square peg in a round hole. Mass schooling was designed to crush a child’s natural exuberance and make him conform to a static set of norms and expectations.

Being Labeled a Deviant

For kids like Matt, schooling can bring out the worst behaviors. Like a trapped tiger – angry and afraid –  they rebel.

Unable to conform properly to mass schooling’s mores, they get a label: troubled, slow-learner, poor, at-risk. They will carry these scarlet letters with them throughout their 15,000 hours of mandatory mass schooling, emerging not with real skills and limitless opportunity, but further entrenched in their born disadvantage. A tiny few may succeed at overcoming these labels – a dangling carrot that sustains the opportunity myth of mass schooling – but the vast majority do not.

Monique Morris writes in her book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools: “Literature on the structure of dominance and the socially reproductive function of school tells us that schools may reinforce and reproduce social hierarchies that undermine the development of people who occupy lower societal status.”

In reference to the black girls she writes about in her book, Morris concludes that “these socially reproductive structures constitute educational experiences that guide them to, rather than direct them away from, destitution and escalating conflict with the criminal justice system.”[1]

That is why I was heartbroken to hear that Matt is going back to school in the fall.

What Do You Do With No Real Alternatives?

I understand why his mother feels she has no other choice but to send him there. She’s struggling to support her family on her own, to build a better life for her kids. It’s hard to be a single mom and to homeschool. In fact, a new homeschooling report issued last week by Boston’s Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research shows that 90 percent of homeschoolers live in two-parent families, and they are three times more likely to have one be a stay-at-home parent. Homeschooling as a single mom is beyond hard.

But it doesn’t have to be. If Matt’s mom could enroll him in a self-directed learning center, like those scattered across the country, she could support her family and continue to homeschool Matt with a complementary learning environment that encourages freedom and autonomy and pursuit of his passions and gifts. These learning centers, where tuition is typically only a fraction of a standard private school, often rely on donations to offer sliding scale fees or scholarships.

Of course, if Matt’s mom had a voucher that could help too, not only in defraying some education costs but also in encouraging the innovation and entrepreneurship necessary to launch more of these self-directed learning centers – and other school alternatives – across the country.

Imagine if some of the over $600 billion that American taxpayers are charged each year to pay for U.S. public schools were re-allocated to create alternatives to the mass schooling monopoly. Imagine what that might do to help families like Matt’s.

Generating a Resistance to Learning

I can see the reel playing before me of Matt’s remaining years in school: the endless discipline, the daily detentions, the force-fed academics, the testing that masquerades as learning, the sadness and despair that will only be amplified now that Matt has had a taste of education freedom and autonomy. He knows how learning can be, should be, but for most children is not.

As Schooling the World documentary filmmaker, Carol Black, writes in her powerful essay:

Children’s resistance takes many forms; inattention, irritability, disruption, withdrawal, restlessness, forgetting; in fact, all of the ‘symptoms’ of ADHD are the behaviors of a child who is actively or passively resisting adult control. Once you start to generate this resistance to learning, if you don’t back away quickly, it can solidify into something very disabling.”

I hope I’m wrong. I hope school will be ok for Matt this time around. But I am not optimistic. And I am angry: angry that mass schooling is the only other option for Matt, angry because this was how the system was designed to be. Remember: Horace Mann, the proclaimed “father of American public education” who created the nation’s first compulsory schooling law in Massachusetts in 1852, homeschooled his own three children with no intention of sending them to the common schools he mandated for others.

The Pioneer Institute homeschooling report says of Mann:

This hypocrisy of maintaining parental choice for himself while advocating a system of public education for others seems eerily similar to the mindset that is so common today: Many people of means who can choose to live in districts with better schools or opt for private schools resist giving educational choices to those less fortunate.”

Matt is an important reminder for me of why I advocate so strongly for education choice and parental empowerment. He should be a reminder for all of us that mass schooling was created as a system of social control for those without privilege. If we truly care about equity we should care about choice.

[1] Morris, Monique. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. New York: The New Press, 2016, p. 188.

Reprinted from Whole Family Learning.

Kerry McDonald

Kerry McDonald

Kerry McDonald has a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin and an M.Ed. in education policy from Harvard. She lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband and four never-been-schooled children. Follow her writing at Whole Family Learning.

RELATED ARTICLE: K-12 School Agrees to Gender Inclusion Policy With No Notice or ‘Opt Out’ for Parents

UPDATE: Lynch-Clinton Tarmac Meeting, Abedin Emails and California’s Dirty Voting Rolls

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Justice Department Blacks Out Talking Points on Lynch-Clinton Tarmac Meeting

We have begun to see how the Trump administration responds over time to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) queries, especially our requests regarding shady dealings in the Obama administration.  We aren’t encouraged.  One must wonder if Obama holdovers at the Department of Justice (DOJ) are still calling the shots, or whether President Trump’s appointees simply don’t care about battling government corruption and enforcing the rule law.

Here are the particulars.

The DOJ has refused to disclose the talking points developed by the Obama Justice Department to respond to press inquiries about the controversial June 27, 2016, tarmac meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The DOJ heavily redacted the documents under FOIA Exemption b (5), which allows agencies to withhold draft or deliberative process material. The blacked-out material centers on talking points drafted and used by Justice. The agency produced 417 pages of documents in response to our FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-00421) for:

  • All records and/or transcripts of a meeting held between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in June 2016.
  • All records of communication sent to or from officials in the Office of the Attorney General regarding the meeting held between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in June 2016.
  • All records of communication sent to or from officials in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General regarding the meeting held between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in June 2016.
  • All references to the meeting held between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton contained in day planners, calendars and schedules in the Office of the Attorney General.

One email exchange shows that Former Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik was brought in to assist with public relations issues on June 28, 2016, the day after the tarmac meeting. (Kadzik is a longtime friend of John Podesta and a Hillary Clinton donor, who was criticized as being conflicted when he was assigned as the Justice Department attorney to oversee the probe of Hillary Clinton’s and her aide Huma Abedin’s emails found on Anthony Wiener’s computer.)

Melanie Newman, director of the Justice Department Public Affairs Office, sent an email to Richard P. Quinn, former national security assistant special agent, and Michael P. Kortan, who is currently the assistant director for Public Affairs for the FBI, advising them she wanted to “flag a story” about “a casual, unscheduled meeting between former President Bill Clinton and the AG.” And she provides the AG’s talking points.

Lynch met privately with former President Bill Clinton on board a parked plane in Phoenix. The meeting occurred during the then-ongoing investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s email server, and only a few days before she was interviewed by the FBI. Lynch later admitted that the meeting with Bill Clinton “cast a cloud” over the Justice Department/FBI investigation.

A week after the tarmac meeting, FBI Director James Comey called Hillary Clinton’s actions “extremely careless” but did not recommend charges, and Attorney General Lynch ended the criminal investigation.

It is jaw-dropping that the Trump administration is blacking out key information about how the Obama Justice Department tried to spin Loretta Lynch’s scandalous meeting with Bill Clinton. President Trump should order the full and immediate release of these materials.  In the meantime, our lawyers will work overtime to consider the option of persuading the courts to order the release of the information about this scandal.

Abedin Emails Contained Classified Information and Reveal Pay-to-Play

Can you think of a secretary of state of either party who flagrantly sold influence in the manner of Hillary Clinton?

When will those we rely upon in Washington to enforce the rule of law hold her to account?

In the meantime, thanks to your Judicial Watch, the evidence steadily accumulates and has long reached a critical mass requiring law enforcement action.

In fact, we just released 1,606 pages of documents from the U.S. Department of State revealing repeated use of unsecured communications for classified information and numerous examples of Clinton Foundation donors receiving special favors from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff.

The documents, containing emails from the unsecure, non-government account of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s then-deputy chief of staff, also show Clinton or her staff expressing interest in visiting Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and North Korean dictator Kim Jung II.

The documents included 91 Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least 530 emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department, and further contradicting a statement by Clinton that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails had been turned over to the State Department.

The documents were obtained in response to a court order from our May 5, 2015, lawsuit against the State Department (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)) after it failed to respond to our March 18, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for: “All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-‘state.gov’ email address.”

Several emails contain classified information:

  • On March 12, 2009, Sid Blumenthal, former aide to Bill Clinton and confidant of Hillary Clinton, sent Mrs. Clinton a memo about Northern Ireland that is classified CONFIDENTIAL, and the details were withheld from release under FOIA Exemption 4 (D) (dealing with foreign relations or foreign activities).
  • On February 27, 2009, Ambassador Melanne Verveer sent Clinton a briefing memo/email on discussions she held with Congolese officials, which was classified as CONFIDENTIAL and withheld under FOIA exemption B1.4(D).
  • On January 22, 2010, Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan sent an email about a call to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang to several State Department officials. It contained information classified as CONFIDENTIAL by State and exempted under FOIA Exemption B1.4(D). It was forwarded to Abedin’s unsecure email account. The email had an attached memorandum of the Clinton-Yang call. State Department official Courtney Beale subsequently tells Assistant Secretary Todd Stern that she had sent that memo previously to him on the “high side” [i.e., via secure email channels].
  • On August 20, 2010, State Department official Laura Lucas sent to Abedin’s unclassified email account a call sheet for Clinton with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, which contained classified CONFIDENTIAL information that was withheld based on B1.4(D).

A number of emails show the free flow of information and requests for favors between Clinton’s State Department and the Clinton Foundation and major Clinton donors:

  • For example, Howard Buffett, Jr., grandson of Warren Buffet, sought a meeting for his father, Howard Sr., with Hillary Clinton to discuss “food security.” The Buffett family, including Warren, his son Peter, and his late wife, Susan, through the Susan Buffett Foundation, all donated heavily to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation. On behalf of Howard Buffett Jr., Bill Clinton aide Ben Schwerin asked Abedin to get Howard Buffett Sr. a meeting with Clinton. He says, “Any chance of a brief meeting?” Abedin replies, “we will take care of this.”
  • In another example, on April 12, 2009, Miguel Lausell, a Puerto Rican telecom executive who reportedly donated $1 million to the Clinton Presidential Library and was a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, made a request of Abedin through Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band to push for the appointment of someone to become US ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Lausell concludes: “I will be in DC from the 7th to the 9th and would like if possible to say hello to hillary Please let me know.It would be just a short visit and not to ask anything from her.Just hello.” [Errors in original]
The next day, April 13, Clinton aide Nora Toiv passed Lausell’s message to Clinton special assistant Lauren Jiloty and Rob [last name unknown] to “make sure there is a response.”
  • On April 3, 2009, Kelly Craighead, who at the time was Managing Director of Democracy Alliance, a controversial left-wing fundraising organization, emailed Abedin and Capricia Marshall, former Executive Director of HillPAC and Friends of Hillary, asking them to “reach out” to someone who was an “extremely loyal supporter” and was waiting to hear about a senior position at the State Department. Marshall responds to Craighead, saying the person was “on everyone’s list/grid” and directed her aides to follow up.

A year later, in April 2010, Craighead contacted Abedin again, asking for assistance in landing a job for someone at State: “It would mean a lot to me if you could help or advise on a personnel situation for a dear friend.” Abedin replies, “We love [Redacted]. Looking into this asap.”   The Washington Free Beacon described Craighead’s Democracy Alliance as “a clearinghouse that connects liberal billionaires to a select group of endorsed organizations, such as the Center for American Progress and the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, without threat of disclosure.” The Beacon also noted Craighead was implicated in a federal investigation of Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign fundraising scandal.

  • On March 15, 2010, event planner Bryan Rafanelli, who was a 2016 Hillblazerand, according to Politico, had a company that was paying $1,200 a month rent for unused office space to Hillary Clinton’s defunct presidential campaign in 2010, got a private White House tour for friends arranged by Abedin.

Other emails show a lax attitude toward the security of communications:

  • At least one senior State Department official refused to send a classified documentto Abedin’s account. Joseph E. MacManus, then-executive assistant to the secretary, told Abedin that a draft outline paper of Richard Holbrooke’s goals for a Pakistan trip “is classified so it cannot go by blackberry email.” As a result, MacManus sent the document through classified channels.
  • Clinton signed the document and gave it to her communications people to transmit. But the communications team, wanting to send it by secure channels, waited till the following day to send it. That delay caused Cheryl Mills to inquire about the delay, which produced an abject apology by State Department official Daniel Smith to Mills: “I’m very sorry about what happened and that we all let the Secretary down.”
  • On April 16, 2009, Clinton aide Lona Valmoro asked Abedin if Clinton wanted to skip a meeting on “cyber security” in favor of a meeting on “Global Philanthropy.” Valmoro adds: “Jen said that Rice [presumably Condoleezza] rarely went to these, FYI.”
  • On April 23, 2010, Abedin tried to set up a secure call for Clinton with Dennis [last name unknown], but it didn’t connect, and Clinton said, “We’ve now tried twice to go secure and lost both calls.” After Abedin tells her she had tested the secure line, Clinton says “We finally gave up and talked in code nonsecure.”
  • Billionaire J.B. Pritzker emailed Band on March 21, 2009, asking him to forward the email to Clinton “via a non-govt email account.” The email, addressed to Abedin, references President Obama’s treatment of Netanyahu and Clinton’s speech the next day at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference and warns that there is “lots of deep concern at Obama (even all the Dems here) … I know it seems obvious, but during the presentationtomorrow I suggest focusing on Iran, Iran, and Iran.” Pritzker attaches an article by Lloyd Grove entitled “Jewish Anger: Will There Be Historic Break from the Dems?” Band forwards the email to Abedin without comment.

The same night Abedin emailed Clinton, saying, “pir [Philippe Reines] mentioned that if you plan to call potus tonite or tomorrow, he wants to leak it.”

  • On February 12, 2010, Abedin emailed Cooper, who helped administer Clinton’s non-government email server, about a fax she sent for Clinton with information about upcoming foreign dignitary calls. Cooper replies, “ I can just print it.” Abedin responds, “Cool. Thank you.” Cooper then says, “Still waitin on secure.” Further on in the exchange, Abedin says, “Sending now.” It appears that Cooper, who was not a State Department employee and did not possess a security clearance, according to the Washington Examiner, was helping troubleshoot a secure fax machine used to transmit government documents to the Secretary of State.

In a follow up email, Abedin tells Cooper “I HATE SECURE FAXES.” Cooper responds, “Its coming in. I cld redesign system in 5 min prob.” Abedin replies, “Uh yeah. You have no idea.”

  • On April 16, 2009, State Department staffer Jennifer Davis sent a documentprepared for Clinton by National Security Advisor Tom Donilon to Clinton’s and Abedin’s BlackBerries.

Abedin was unable to read the PDF file on her BlackBerry due to the fine print so diplomat Lewis Lukens asked Davis to send the document to two other State Department officials, Paul and Courtney. Davis replies, “Already sent to Paul (on low-side) [unsecure] … Will send to plane now (on highside) for Paul and Courtney.”

  • In a March 20, 2009, advisory email to Clinton, retired General Jack Keane advised her that to conquer the Afghan insurgency, the then-commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, was “not the leader to get us there.” He concluded his message with “Please keep these scribblings for your eyes only.”

On a number of occasions Hillary Clinton’s daily schedule was shared with the Clinton Foundation:

  • On February 9, 2010, Valmoro forwarded Clinton’s sensitive daily schedulefor February 10, 2010, to Clinton Foundation officials. On Feb. 22, 2010, Valmoro forwarded Hillary Clinton’s daily schedule for February 23, 2010, to foundation officials, including Band, Cooper, and Terry Krinvic. On April 4, 2010, Valmoro forwarded the daily schedule for April 5 to foundation officials. And on May 18, 2010, Valmoro again forwarded the schedule for May 19, 2010, to foundation employees.

Two emails show Secretary Clinton or her staff expressing an interest in visiting two brutal dictators.

  • On April 18, 2009, Abedin told Senior Advisor Philippe Reines that Clinton had “an encounter” with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who “complimented wjc [Bill Clinton], said he hoped she would come to venezuela, she said she hoped so too.” Reines expressed concern, saying “Was the encounter on camera or widely seen?” Abedin responds: “Seen by a dozen people. A photog came in and took a photo at the end.” Reines replies, “Who went up to whom?”
  • Veteran diplomat Wendy Sherman sent a message to State officials on February 6, 2009, advising them to send a message to North Korean dictator Kim Jung Il that Hillary Clinton “looks forward to the day when enough progress is made that she can come to NKas well.”

The emails reveal more instances of Tony Rodham seeking to leverage his influence as Clinton’s brother:

  • On January 29, 2010, Confidential Assistant Monica Hanley forwarded to Abedin a request from Tony Rodham, on three issues. One involved help on a “green card renewal.” Another involved a visit by someone of which Abedin said they “wanted to regret.” A third involved a job for someone whose CV Rodham forwarded to State. It appears that Tony Rodham was seeking to help someone caught up in a criminal case involving Micheil Saakashvili, the then president of the Republic of Georgia. The Rodham friend was having difficulty getting a green card due to his arrest, which he said was political retribution by Saakashvili. Abedin told Hanley to tell him the request “has been passed to DHS.”
  • On March 18, 2010, Rodham sent Hanley the resume of someone looking for a job. Monica passed to Abedin, asking: “Do you want me to call [Redacted] or pass along to WHL [White House Liaison]?” Abedin replies: “Call and find out interests.”

Other emails detail the inner workings of Clinton’s State Department:

  • On Apr. 17, 2009, Abedin tells colleagues Valmoro, Andrew Shapiro, Philippe Reines, Mills and Jake Sullivan in an email with the subject line “Aipac” that, “Calls from our friends in the jewish community are now getting ugly. I don’t understand who’s taking charge here.” The reference is likely to a book that had just been released called The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earththat disclosed that the NSA had intercepted former Rep. Jane Harman on the phone about her efforts to intervene with the Bush Administration on behalf of two AIPAC officials being investigated for espionage.
  • On September 11, 2010, Blumenthal forwarded an article/audio clip from Think Progress about a Republican congressman arguing that they should force a government shutdown if necessary to cut the “gangrene” out of government. Blumenthal advised Clinton that the White House “should use this on all the Sunday shows” and “Name Boehner. Force Boehner out.”
  • On February 26, 2010, noting the absence of Mills and Bill Burns, Clinton tells Abedin that “the whole point” of a photo shoot that day “is to show a team that is diverse in every way. That won’t happen and I am worried about that.”
  • On November 14, 2011, Abedin tells Clinton she’s going to have to stay at a “horrible Sheraton,” where President Obama would be staying, and asks if she’s open to another hotel. Clinton responds that “it would be hard not to be in same hotel as POTUS so try to get best option there.”
  • On November 30, 2011, Abedin tells Clinton she’ll have to stay at a “second tier hotel” in Burma because “the nice hotel owner was problematic.” The “second tier hotel” room is a suite with “a room nearby large enough to accommodate more people.”

This may seem like a lot of material but the State Department is far from finished producing emails, so there will be more to come.

But there’s plenty already for prosecutors.

Pay-to-play, classified information mishandling, influence peddling, cover ups – these new emails show why the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s conduct must be resumed. The Trump Justice Department and FBI need to reassure the American people they have finally stopped providing political protection to Hillary Clinton.

Judicial Watch Warns California on Dirty Voting Rolls

We’ve uncovered an election integrity crisis in California.

Judicial Watch lays it all out in a notice-of-violation letter to the state and 11 of its counties threatening to sue in federal court if they do not clean voter registration lists as mandated by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).  Both the NVRA and the federal Help America Vote Act require states to take reasonable steps to maintain accurate voting rolls. Our August 1 letter was sent on behalf of several JW California supporters and the Election Integrity Project California Inc.

In the letter, we noted that public records obtained on the Election Assistance Commission’s 2016 Election Administration Voting Survey and through verbal accounts from various county agencies show that 11 California counties have more registered voters than voting-age citizens: Imperial (102%), Lassen (102%), Los Angeles (112%), Monterey (104%), San Diego (138%), San Francisco (114%), San Mateo (111%), Santa Cruz (109%), Solano (111%), Stanislaus (102%), and Yolo (110%).

We also note that Los Angeles County officials “informed us that the total number of registered voters now stands at a number that is a whopping 144% of the total number of resident citizens of voting age.”

Federal law is clear.  Under Section 8 of the NVRA, states are required to make a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from official lists due to “the death of the registrant” or “a change in the residence of the registrant,” and requires states to ensure noncitizens are not registered to vote.

In what perhaps is an understatement, our warning letter suggests there is “strong circumstantial evidence that California municipalities are not conducting reasonable voter registration list maintenance as mandated under the NVRA.”

We referred California officials to a settlement agreement we reached with the State of Ohio in which Ohio agreed to update and maintain its voter registration lists and to keep a current voter registration list online and available for public access.

California’s voting rolls are an absolute mess that undermines the very idea of clean elections. It is urgent that California take reasonable steps to clean up its rolls. We will sue if state officials fail to act.

California is hardly unique. In April we sent notice-of-violation letters threatening to sue 11 states having counties in which the number of registered voters exceeds the number of voting-age citizens.  The states are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee.

On July 18 we filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County and the Maryland State Boards of Elections under the NVRA. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Baltimore Division (Judicial Watch vs. Linda H. Lamone, et al. (No. 1:17-cv-02006)).

Election Integrity Project California Inc. is a registered nonprofit corporation that seeks to preserve a government of, by, and for the people. To that end, Election Integrity Project California empowers citizen volunteers through education and training to protect the integrity of the electoral process in California.

The director of Judicial Watch’s own Election Integrity Project is senior attorney Robert Popper, who was formerly deputy chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

We will be sure to keep you updated on our efforts to promote clean and secure elections.