Thursday Top Headlines 

by Political Editors:  Donald Trump’s listening session with mass shooting survivors was really powerful (Reason)

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Parkland JROTC student: CNN gave me “scripted” questions, declines to participate (Washington Examiner)

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CNN crowd boos Pro-2A rape survivor (The Daily Caller)

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98% of mass shootings happen in “gun free zones” (The Daily Wire)

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FDA reduces regulations, approves record number of new generics (Washington Examiner)

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Manufacturers to American workers: We’re hiring (RealClearPolitics)

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Three-quarters of young Americans don’t qualify for military service (The Washington Free Beacon)

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Murder charge filed in fallout from video that shows nurses laughing as dying WWII vet struggles for air (Fox News)

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liar-nObama faces progressive backlash for tweet honoring the late Rev. Billy Graham (The Washington Times)

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Durham, North Carolina, drops charges against vandals who destroyed Confederate monument (The Daily Wire)

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Policy: Income inequality isn’t the problem (Hoover Institution)

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Policy: Congress, follow the White House’s lead on CFPB reform (Real Clear Policy)   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54329-thursday-top-headlines

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Iran: Trump Administration 

Violating Nuclear Deal 

by Adam Kredo

A top Iranian official accused the Trump administration this week of violating the landmark nuclear deal... as U.S. officials step up their efforts to combat Iran's support for terrorists and its illicit ballistic missile program, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about the matter. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, one of the original negotiators of the nuclear deal, lashed out at the Trump administration and claimed the United States is violating the accord by not helping the Islamic Republic gain access to international trade and cash windfalls. Tehran says the Trump administration's new efforts to stop international governments and companies from doing business with Iran violates statutes of the deal guaranteeing the United States would help Iran increase its global economic power...Like they hold the honest truthful nuclear deal.  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-trump-admin-violating-nuclear-deal/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=16936fb154-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-16936fb154-45611665 

'The Netanyahu Era is Over' 

by israeltoday.co.il 

{ israeltoday.co.il } ~ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's legal woes amplified on Wednesday... after a powerful close confidant turned state's witness in the escalating corruption investigations. The Israel Police had already recommended Netanyahu's indictment in the two investigations known as Case 1000 and Case 2000, which respectively accuse the prime minister of accepting bribes in return for political favors, and of making an underhanded deal for more favorable media coverage. Earlier this week, Police officials surprised the nation by unveiling Case 4000, in which Netanyahu is suspected, among other things, of doing political favors for Israel's Bezeq telecommunications company in exchange for favorable coverage on the popular Walla! online news portal, which is owned by Bezeq's controlling shareholder.  The situation for Netanyahu turned grim overnight when Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber turned state's witness in the case... http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/33434/Default.aspx

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Another Terrible FEC Report from the DNC

by Cortney O'Brien

{ townhall.com } ~ "If hemorrhaging money were an Olympic sport, the DNC would easily win the gold after filing yet another terrible FEC report late last night,"... Michael Ahrens of the Republican National Committee said in an email to supporters after looking at the latest Federal Election Commission filing. You see, January has produced more unfortunate numbers for the DNC.  When one accounts for debt, the RNC has 23 times as much cash on hand as their counterparts. The Democrats released its last poor FEC report during President Trump's State of the Union address, perhaps hoping to sweep the bad news under the rug...   https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2018/02/21/another-terrible-fec-report-from-the-dnc-n2452210?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad

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Democrats Don't Have a Messaging Problem 

on Tax Reform. They Have a Reality Problem

by Guy Benson

{ townhall.com } ~ This is about as clean a political win as you're going to see these days, so Republicans are absolutely right to be pressing their advantage... They've earned it. They withstood weeks of withering and punishing demagoguery from Democrats and much of the press -- which also happened to be highly inaccurate and laughably hyperbolic -- and ultimately stuck together to pass a controversial and unpopular bill. The legislation would hurt the middle class and bring about the apocalypse, Democrats argued. Republicans countered that their plan would actually benefit the vast majority of American taxpayers and help US businesses. The Republicans were right. As people began to witness a parade of companies  shelling out tax reform bonuses, stepping up employee benefits, boosting hourly wages, reducing prices for consumers, and expanding operations, support for the once-disliked law bounced dramatically, sailing 20 points northward across a swath of polling. Democrats' fear-mongering was being shredded in real time, by indisputable and unspinnable events. But then the second shoe dropped: Tens of millions of workers looking at their paychecks and noticing a bump in their income, thanks to the very tax cuts Democrats insisted wouldn't help average people...  https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2018/02/21/victory-lap-republicans-rubbing-democrats-noses-in-opposition-to-nowpopular-tax-reform-n2451910?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

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Leftists Use Teens as Pawns for Gun Control 

by Nate Jackson:  A week after the high school massacre in Florida, the gun control push has been ratcheted up a notch. Not only will kids and their families take to the streets of DC for March For Our Lives next month, teens from the school are in Florida’s capital to demand change. The Associated Press reports, “Students who survived the Florida school shooting prepared to flood the Capitol Wednesday pushing to ban the assault-style rifle used to kill 17 people, vowing to make changes in the November election if they can’t persuade lawmakers to change laws before their legislative session ends.”

          First, a point we always make. So-called “assault weapons” are nothing of the sort. That’s a made-up term by the Leftmedia meant to make people afraid of what is a basic semi-automatic rifle with certain cosmetic features. Find out the truth here.
          Second, it’s incredibly unfortunate that teenagers likely suffering post-traumatic stress from a horrific attack are being held up as the sage voices of reason and unassailable moral authority. The Left is using these kids as pawns to advance gun control, and it’s arguably even more sick than politicians making a platform out of the caskets of Sandy Hook’s children.
          It’s not just these Florida students, either. Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety is spinning off a group called Students Demand Action, which can spread the Left’s agenda nationwide.
          That is not to say adults shouldn’t listen to kids who are traumatized, but supposedly following them is another matter. As Dan McLaughlin writes, “If you have ever been, or known, a teenager, you know that even comparatively well-informed teens are almost always just advancing arguments they’ve heard from adults, and typically without much consideration of the opposing arguments.”
          The effectiveness of the Left’s strategy here, however, is that it’s tough to rebut an emotional appeal to “the children.” In fact, The New York Times featured an article yesterday conflating reasoned criticism with some off-the-wall conspiracy theories about the teen protesters. Calling the teens pawns of the Left is entirely different than alleging a “false flag” or “crisis actors.” But it serves the agenda to discredit all conservative voices while shouting us down for objecting.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54296-leftists-use-teens-as-pawns-for-gun-control

Russian Videos Show They’re Laughing 

At Mueller – He’s a Joke and So Are We 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ President Trump has stated that the world and Russia are laughing at us over the coup attempt disguised as an investigation into Russia-Trump collusion... Enemies of the state of the type of the Democrat Party and the already banned scum-George Soros would never get away with this kind of subversion in Russia. On Sunday President Trump tweeted, “If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America! As is usually the case, President Trump was right again. The YouTube channel Russia Insight, which claims to have no affiliation with any government, featured a broadcast from a Russian reporter, with him and his colleagues having a good laugh at our expense, thanks to the anti-American Democrats...  https://rickwells.us/russian-laughing-mueller-joke/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4APoJtqXNw

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Trump Team Briefs Security 

Council on Mideast Peace Plan

by MICHAEL WILNER

{ jpost.com } ~ US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace team briefed members of the UN Security Council on their plan to jumpstart negotiations... between Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday. Two sources familiar with the briefing told The Jerusalem Post that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law leading the diplomatic effort, Jason Greenblatt, his special representative for international negotiations, and Nikki Haley, US envoy to the UN, fielded questions from diplomats for roughly an hour after a public session of the council concluded. The briefing by senior Trump administration officials followed a speech to the council by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who asked UN members to come up with an international mechanism that would replace any US-led peace effort...  http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/JPost-Exclusive-Trump-team-briefs-Security-Council-on-Mideast-peace-plan-543193?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=21-2-2018&utm_content=jpost-exclusive-trump-team-briefs-security-council-on-mideast-peace-plan-543193 

Mueller Comes Up short - Again

by Matthew Vadum 

{ frontpagemag.com } ~ A Dutch lawyer unconnected to the unproven claim the Trump campaign somehow colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 election... has pled guilty to lying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators. This failure – yet again – to indict a Trump campaign official in connection with the campaign’s allegedly collusive behavior appears to constitute another tacit admission by Mueller that the Left’s electoral collusion conspiracy theory that he was commissioned to investigate is utter nonsense. Charging all these people with lying, instead of with anything related to collusion, is likely a prosecutorial tactic to pressure somebody somewhere into doing something. Mueller’s real target seems to be former Trump campaign manager Paul J. Manafort Jr. This small-potatoes indictment comes a year after the outlines of a Watergate-like conspiracy emerged in which a term-limited Democrat president used the privacy-invading apparatus of the state to spy on a Republican presidential candidate. Watergate differed in that President Nixon didn’t get involved in the plot against the Democratic National Committee until later as an accomplice after the fact...  https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269383/mueller-comes-short-again-matthew-vadum 

Former CIA Director James Woolsey Admits 

CIA Interferes In Foreign Elections 

For A “Very Good Cause” 

by Aaron Kesel 

{ activistpost.com } ~ Former CIA director James Woolsey has admitted the U.S. interferes in foreign elections for a “very good cause.”... In an interview on Fox News, former CIA Director James Woolsey was asked whether the U.S. interferes in other countries’ elections, Woolsey responded, “Well, only for a very good cause in the interests of democracy.” “Oh, probably, but it was for the good of the system in order to avoid communists taking over,” Woolsey told Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show laughing. According to WikiLeaks, the U.S. government’s own data shows that its deep state in the CIA and the military-industrial complex has meddled in the elections of a whopping 81 foreign governments between 1946 and 2000, including Russia in the 1990s. That’s no laughing matter and frankly worrying...  https://www.activistpost.com/2018/02/former-cia-director-james-woolsey-admits-cia-interferes-in-foreign-elections-for-a-very-good-cause.html?utm_source=Activist+Post+Subscribers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=66470d9ffa-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_b0c7fb76bd-66470d9ffa-387888649 

Pulosi Won’t Answer Question About Her 

Own Wealth During Pro-Commie Lecture

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ Nancy Pulosi got her hypocrisy shoved back down her own throat as if she was an average American during the passing of liar-nObamacare... It happened during a town hall on taxes in Phoenix on Tuesday evening. Pulosi was there trying to sell the Americans in the audience, some of who were dumb enough to buy into her claims, that it’s better to give the government your money than to keep it and spend it yourself. It’s for the children, a frequent claim made by the greedy austerity merchants of the Democratic Party. But not your own children, the children of illegal aliens and “refugees,” and maybe their parents, grandparents and cousins. That’s who we’re supposed to cheerfully donate our hard-earned money to government to import and take care of. She doesn’t use the word citizen in any of her ramblings, talking of “initiatives that help people,” squatters and those who simply prefer to be taken care of included. She says our budget is supposed to be a statement of what is important to us as a nation. If that were really how she felt, she’d let President Trump, who won the election, build a border wall and give us border security and immigration reform...   https://rickwells.us/pelosi-own-wealth-lecture/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3QjHlOeQM

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by Pat Buchanan
{ townhall.com } ~ According to the indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Russian trolls, operating out of St. Petersburg, took American identities on social media and became players in our 2016 election.

On divisive racial and religious issues, the trolls took both sides. In the presidential election, the trolls favored commie-Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein and Donald Trump, and almost never liar-Hillary Clinton.

One imaginative Russian troll urged Trumpsters to dress up a female volunteer in an orange prison jump suit, put her in a cage on a flatbed truck, then append the slogan, "Lock Her Up!"

How grave a matter is this?

This Russian troll farm is "the equivalent of Pearl Harbor," says Cong. Jerrold Nadler, who would head up the House Judiciary Committee, handling any impeachment, if Democrats retake the House.

When MSNBC's Chris Hayes pressed, Nadler doubled down: The Russians "are destroying our democratic process." While the Russian trolling may not equal Pearl Harbor in its violence, said Nadler, in its "seriousness, it is very much on a par" with Japan's surprise attack.

Trump's reaction to the hysteria that broke out after the Russian indictments: "They are laughing their expletives off in Moscow."

According to Sunday's Washington Post, the troll story is old news in Russia, where reporters uncovered it last year and it was no big deal.

While Mueller's indictments confirm that Russians meddled in the U.S. election, what explains the shock and the fear for "our democracy"?

Is the Great Republic about to fall because a bunch of trolls tweeted in our election? Is this generation ignorant of its own history?

Before and after World War II, we had Stalinists and Soviet spies at the highest levels of American culture and government.

The Hollywood Ten, who went to prison for contempt of Congress, were secret members of a Communist Party that, directed from Moscow, controlled the Progressive Party in Philadelphia in 1948 that nominated former Vice President Henry Wallace to run against Harry Truman.

Soviet spies infiltrated the U.S. atom bomb project and shortened the time Stalin needed to explode a Soviet bomb in 1949.

As for Russian trolling in our election, do we really have clean hands when it comes to meddling in elections and the internal politics of regimes we dislike?

Sen. rino-John McCain and Victoria Nuland of State egged on the Maidan Square crowds in Kiev that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine. When the democratically elected regime of Mohammed Morsi was overthrown, the U.S. readily accepted the coup as a victory for our side and continued aid to Egypt as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members were imprisoned.

Are the CIA and National Endowment for Democracy under orders not to try to influence the outcome of elections in nations in whose ruling regimes we believe we have a stake?

"Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?" Laura Ingraham asked former CIA Director James Woolsey this weekend.

With a grin, Woolsey replied, "Oh, probably."

"We don't do that anymore though?" Ingraham interrupted. "We don't mess around in other people's elections, Jim?"

"Well," Woolsey said with a smile. "Only for a very good cause."

Indeed, what is the National Endowment for Democracy all about, if not aiding the pro-American side in foreign nations and their elections?

Did America have no active role in the "color-coded revolutions" that have changed regimes from Serbia to Ukraine to Georgia?

When Republicans discuss Iran on Capitol Hill, the phrase "regime change" is frequently heard. When the "Green Revolution" took to the streets of Tehran to protest massively the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Republicans denounced President liar-nObama for not intervening more energetically to alter the outcome.

When China, Russia and Egypt expel NGOs, are their suspicions that some have been seeded with U.S. agents merely marks of paranoia?

The U.S. role in the overthrow of Premier Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, and of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and of President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon in 1963 are established facts.

When the democratically elected Marxist Salvador Allende was overthrown in Chile in 1973, and committed suicide with an AK-47 given to him by Fidel Castro, the Nixon White House may have had no direct role. But the White House welcomed the ascendancy of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

What do these indictments of Russians tell us? After 18 months, the James Comey-Robert Mueller FBI investigation into the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails has yet to produce evidence of collusion.

Yet we do have evidence that a senior British spy and Trump hater, Christopher Steele, paid by the liar-Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC to dig up dirt on Trump, colluded with Kremlin agents to produce a dossier of scurrilous and unsubstantiated charges, to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump. And the FBI used this disinformation to get FISA Court warrants to surveil and wiretap the Trump campaign.

Why is this conspiracy and collusion with Russians less worthy of Mueller's attention than a troll farm in St. Petersburg?

Judge Sullivan Order Indicates His Suspicion

Flynn Was Railroaded Into Guilty Plea 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ Those engineering the railroading of General Michael Flynn had only one thing to fear... having sewn up their guilty plea and being on the verge of sentencing the patriot former National Security Advisor to President Trump. That one thing was an honest judge, which they now face in the person of US District Judge Emmet Sullivan. Judge Andrew Napolitano says he’s never heard of something like what is taking place on the Flynn case having happened before. He says, “So Mike Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI in December. The judge before whom he pleads guilty takes himself off the case. Why?” “Because that judge is also on the FISA court and he may,” says Napolitano, “he may very well have authorized the wire tap that surveilled Mike Flynn when he was talking to then-Ambassador Kislyak, which is the alleged lie that he told the FBI about.”...  https://rickwells.us/judge-sullivan-flynn-railroaded/

VIDEO:  https://video.insider.foxnews.com/v/5737128795001

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Still Lacking Evidence Of Collusion, 

Democrats Move The Goalposts

by PETER HASSON

{ dailycaller.com } ~ Lacking any evidence of collusion between President Trump and the Russian operatives who meddled in the 2016 campaign... Democrats are now attempting to re-define “collusion” in order to declare Trump guilty of it. When Democrats first raised the collusion accusations after the election, they suggested that the Trump campaign had been in direct cahoots with the Russian hackers who stole emails from liar-Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee, before later distributing them to WikiLeaks. “It’s very much unknown whether there was collusion,” Podesta said in December 2016, referring to Russia’s hacking of the emails...  http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/20/collusion-democrats-move-goalposts/?utm_medium=email 

Same Crisis Actor Hogg In FL and CA, 

Coached By Media In Florida Aftermath 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ It’s commonplace for Democrats to be accused of standing on the backs of dead shooting victims to employ crisis actors... particularly when they can use children to condemn Republicans in the name of their murdered classmates. The situation with David Hogg is very strange. He was not only chosen, supposedly in the aftermath of the shooting, by the left to be their spokesboy for gun vilification and seizure, but he’s also been on TV recently on the opposite coast, 3,000 miles away in Redondo Beach, California. Either that’s the strangest of coincidences or there’s more to this story. As the video shows, he and one of his fellow punks videotaped themselves giving a hard to time to an authority figure, this time a California lifeguard, who the friend of Hogg was disrespectful to and used profanity against. It’s a relatively current video, since the age of Hogg appears to be the same...  https://rickwells.us/same-crisis-actor-hogg-fl-ca-2/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVvmjnND_nU

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North Korean Athletes Who Don’t 

Win Gold Face Torture Upon Return 

by Trey Sanchez 

{ truthrevolt.org } ~ During its Olympics coverage, the media was so desperate to keep its Trump hate front and center... that it actually praised the dictatorship of North Korea for “stealing the show.” Kim Jong Un’s advisor sister, who was in attendance, “threw shade” at Vice President Mike Pence and the U.S. media gobbled it up, completely ignoring the fact that she helps her brother starve and torture his citizens. Meanwhile, North Korean athletes are scared to death to return home if they fail to bring home a medal because the dictatorship is known to punish athletes who don’t win. Even placing second or third could mean trouble. And it’s all bad news so far, as was reported in The Sun, because North Korea has yet to pull off a victory in South Korea...  https://www.truthrevolt.org/news/north-korean-athletes-who-dont-win-gold-face-torture-upon-return 

Mr. Chips Needs to Pack Heat 

by Truth Revolt 

{ truthrevolt.org } ~ Understandably, much has been written about the awful school shooting in Parkland, Florida... where 17 young people were slaughtered at the hands of a sick and evil human being. The tragedy was particularly vexing as there were so many warning signs – indications that the killer, Nikolas Cruz, was planning his brutal act and was very capable of carrying it out. Social media: Last year, there was a YouTube post by “Nikolas Cruz,” who wrote: “Im [sic] going to be a professional school shooter.” Sheriff’s visits: Police responded to Cruz’s home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to documents released after the shooting. Full details are not yet available, but the nature of the emergencies at his home included “mentally ill person,” “child/elderly abuse,” “domestic disturbance” and “missing person.” FBI notification: The law-enforcement agency admittedly failed to investigate a warning that Cruz possessed a gun and planned to use it. Apparently a person who was close to the gunman called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5th, several weeks before the shooting, to report concerns about him...  https://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/sand-mr-chips-needs-pack-heat 

by Cal Thomas 
{ townhall.com } ~ Reaction to the latest school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead and many more wounded begins at the wrong end. It's not about passing more gun laws, which people intent on breaking existing laws will not obey; rather it is about heeding warning signs and doing something before it is too late.

In the case of 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with premeditated murder, the signs were like a flashing red light. Former classmates offered a profile in danger to the media. They called Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, a "loner" and "weird."

In a YouTube video by someone named Nikolas Cruz there is this comment: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." Law enforcement reportedly flagged the comment last September and YouTube removed it.

With all of these previews of coming destruction, why wasn't any action taken? Could Cruz have been helped? He was reportedly receiving "mental counseling," but clearly it was not enough to prevent this tragedy. Cruz is reportedly an orphan, but was there no one close to him who might have been helpful to him?

We are constantly told by law enforcement, "If you see something, say something." With Cruz there was plenty to see and also plenty to say. Did anyone speak up? The Florida campus reportedly had an armed officer onsite, though this officer never encountered Cruz during the shooting. Could there have been a quicker response? Could anyone have acted pre-emptively to force Cruz to get some help? Could he have been committed to a mental health facility for his own protection, and for the protection of others?

Metal detectors, armed guards and security passes for students, staff and teachers have all been proposed and in some cases tried as ways to discourage shooters from entering schools where unarmed students are trapped like fish in a barrel. School shooters and terrorists and this was an act of terror no matter the motive look for soft targets and there are few targets softer than a school full of kids.

Lawmakers in Florida and in Congress need to consider legislation that would give mental health professionals a way to intervene in cases of disturbed individuals who need psychological help, but aren't getting it. For those who seem most dangerous -- like Cruz -- perhaps laws could be enacted that would forcibly commit them to treatment, thereby cutting down on the number of mass shootings.

Social workers can intervene on behalf of young children they believe are being abused or neglected. In extreme cases, they can even remove the child from its home if the child is in need of protection. Could something like this be done with the mentally disturbed, without violating their constitutional rights? Don't we have the constitutional right to live free of the threat of mass shootings? Shouldn't the rights of the innocent be paramount?

To paraphrase a certain commercial about identity theft, no law can prevent all mass murder, or someone acquiring a gun, legally or illegally Cruz's AR-15 was apparently legally acquired, but the mayor of Broward County, Florida, Beam Furr, told the Miami Herald the shooting could have been prevented. "We missed the signs," said Furr, a former teacher, adding, "We should have seen some of the signs."

The signs were there for everyone to see. The problem with this shooting, as well as all the others, was the refusal to act. Action just might have prevented this tragedy.

Billy Graham Has Gone Home 

by Mark Alexander

The Rev. Billy Graham, prominent 

Christian evangelist, dead at 99 

by foxnews.com 

{ foxnews.com } ~ The Rev. Billy Graham , the Christian evangelist whose worldwide crusades and role as adviser to decades of U.S. presidents... made him one of the best known religious figures of his time, died Wednesday at age 99 at his home in Montreat, N.C, Todd Shearer of DeMoss Associates told Fox News. Graham, who had been in ill health for a number of years, was regularly listed in polls as one of the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World." Shearer told Fox News that Graham died from "natural causes."  His Christian crusades took him from the frenzy of Manhattan to isolated African villages and according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website, he preached to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history...  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/21/rev-billy-graham-prominent-christian-evangelist-dead-at-99-fox-news-confirms.html

VIDEO:   http://video.foxnews.com/v/5737782133001/

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Intel Chairman Nunes Goes After liar-nObama’s

Treasonous Deep State Leadership 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ Representative Devin Nunes may go down in history as the individual most responsible for saving our Republic and our President... from the shadow government Democrat coup that is underway. Once again he is demanding answers and letting the American people get a taste of the kind of subversion he is aware of and individuals he seeks to bring to justice. Catherine Herridge reports, “With this letter to current and former intelligence, law enforcement and State Department officials, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee launched phase II of the committee’s Trump dossier investigation.” She continues, “Chairman Devin Nunes posed a string of dossier-related questions covering when the officials learned the DNC and liar-Clinton campaign paid for the research by former British spy Christopher Steele, as well as how the dossier was used to secure one or more surveillance warrants.”...  https://rickwells.us/nunes-obama-treasonous-deep-state/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cj-khrH09E

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Latest Mueller target pleads guilty 

by JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY 

{ politico.com } ~ Special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation's latest target pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying to investigators about communications with Trump campaign aide... Rick Gates and others involved in a 2012 project related to Ukraine. Alex van der Zwaan, 33, a Dutch citizen who worked in London for the law firm Skadden Arps, had been involved in preparing a report on Ukraine that was commissioned by Gates and Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman. The pair is facing charges from Mueller over their own work involving Ukraine.  Van der Zwaan entered a guilty plea to the felony false-statements charge during an hour-long hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington. Sentencing was set for April 3, after the defense asked to speed things up because van der Zwaan's wife, Eva, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, is pregnant in London.  Van der Zwaan is the latest to face charges in Mueller's wide-ranging investigation, which revolves around Russian meddling in the 2016 election but can expand to encompass any crimes he finds along the way. Mueller is also looking into whether any Trump aides helped with Moscow's electoral interference and whether the president tried to obstruct the investigation...Ah, Mueller is still going after Trump.   https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/20/mueller-charges-attorney-with-making-false-statements-about-rick-gates-communications-417117 

Judge Napolitano Thinks Gov’t May Have 

Strong Armed Michael Flynn Into Guilty Plea

by NICK GIVAS

{ dailycaller.com } ~ Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said it’s possible former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is innocent... and was forced to plead guilty to lying to federal agents for reasons other than guilt. “I’ve never heard of this. So Mike Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI in December. The judge before whom he pleads guilty takes himself off the case. Why? Because that judge is also on the FISA court. And he may, he may very well have authorized the wiretap that surveilled Mike Flynn when he was talking to then Ambassador Kislyak, which is the alleged lie that he told the FBI about,” Napaolitano said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” “So Mike Flynn pleads guilty. A new judge comes in. It’s time for sentencing. Bob Mueller says we don’t want to sentence him until May. That’s normal.” “Then the judge on his own, not in response to any application from General Flynn’s lawyers says, ‘By the way, I want all exculpatory evidence, evidence that could help Flynn or hurt the government turned over,'” Napolitano continued. “Why would he we want that after General Flynn has already pleaded guilty? That is unheard of. He must suspect a defect in the guilty plea. Meaning, he must have reason to believe that General  Flynn pleaded guilty for some reason other than guilt. Do people plead guilty for a reason other than guilt?”...

http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/20/judge-napolitano-mike-flynn-guilty-plea/

VIDEO at the site.

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ABC Pays the Price After Joy Behar 

Attacks Christianity on ’The View’ 

by Randy DeSoto  

{ westernjournal.com } ~ “The View” co-host Joy Behar’s comparison of Christianity to a mental illness on last Tuesday’s program... has prompted over 25,000 calls to flood into the ABC network in protest. The Media Research Center watchdog group reported that this tally had come in as of Monday morning. The segment where Behar made the comparison centered around a back-and-forth regarding Vice President Mike Pence’s faith, based on some recent comments made by former White House staff Omarosa Manigault...  https://www.westernjournal.com/abc-pays-price-joy-behar-attacks-christianity-view/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=usjf&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=usjf

VIDEO 1:  https://www.mrctv.org/videos/view-mocks-pences-christianity-hostin-denies-shes-liberal

VIDEO 2:  https://twitter.com/ainsleyearhardt/status/965553796733722632

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Billy Graham Has Gone Home 

by Mark Alexander:  “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.” Billy Graham spoke those words often Born Nov. 7, 1918, he went home this morning at the age of 99. A friend, who spent years working with Graham’s ministries, observed, “Can you imagine the line of people waiting to say ‘thanks’ for sharing Christ with me!‘”

          “America’s Pastor” wanted to be a baseball player early in life, but after attending a Christian revival at age 16, his life was forever changed. Over the course of his life, he preached the saving gospel of Jesus Christ to hundreds of millions in 185 countries, and his message, broadcast via radio, TV, Decision magazine, newspaper columns, the Internet and 29 books, touched many millions more. The Billy Graham Crusades ran from the 1940s until his last New York City crusade in 2005, by which time Parkinson’s Disease had rendered him too weak to keep up the crusade pace.
          If you had the privilege of being among those in attendance, count yourself blessed. If not, there are plenty of his messages available online, including his last public sermon in 2006, which my children attended. And fittingly, there was this reflection on the occasion of his 99th birthday.
          Graham consulted and prayed with every American president from Harry Truman forward, and even presided at the graveside service for Lyndon Johnson and gave a eulogy at the funeral of Richard Nixon.
          In 1996, on the occasion of being presented the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award by Congress, Graham offered these observations about our nation:
          America has gone a long way down the wrong road. We must turn around and go back and change roads. If ever we needed God’s help, it is now. … If ever we needed spiritual renewal, it is now. And it can begin today in each one of our lives, as we repent before God and yield ourselves to Him and His Word. After World War II … we had the opportunity to rule the world. … Something has happened since those days and there is much about America that is no longer good. … The list is almost endless. … We have confused liberty with license — and we are paying the awful price. We are a society poised on the brink of self-destruction.
          What is the problem? The real problem is within ourselves. … I believe the fundamental crisis of our time is a crisis of the spirit. We have lost sight of the moral and spiritual principles on which this nation was established — principles drawn largely from the Judeo-Christian tradition as found in the Bible… What must be done? Let me briefly suggest three things. First, we must repent. In the depths of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln called for special days of public repentance and prayer. Our need for repentance is no less today…
          What does repentance mean? Repentance means to change our thinking and our way of living. It means to turn from our sins and to commit ourselves to God and His will. Over 2,700 years ago, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah declared, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.” (Isaiah 55: 6-7)
          Second, we must commit our lives to God, and to the moral and spiritual truths that have made this nation great. Think how different our nation would be if we sought to follow the simple and yet profound injunctions of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. But we must respond to God, Who is offering us forgiveness, mercy, supernatural help, and the power to change.
          Graham concluded: Third, our commitment must be translated into action — in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our society. Jesus taught there are only two roads in life. One is the broad road that is easy and well-traveled, but which leads to destruction. The other, He said, is the narrow road of truth and faith that at times is hard and lonely, but which leads to life and salvation. … What are YOU going to do? … As I look out across this distinguished group gathered here, I see more than a few men and women who have what it takes, under God, to lead our country forward “through the night.” And indeed, that charge undergirds our mission every day.
          Billy Graham preached not only to world leaders but also to the very poorest in Third World villages and everywhere in between. He defied boundaries of class and race to present a timeless message of hope for all people.
          Amid all the world travel, he was, first and foremost, a family man. His wife of 64 years, Ruth Bell Graham, was a Wheaton College classmate. Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China. Billy and Ruth married in 1943 and had five children, and now 19 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. Mrs. Graham died in 2007. Their eldest son, Franklin, officially took the helm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 2000, and many of his other children and grandchildren are involved in ministry.
          Accordingly, Graham devoted many of his messages to marriage and family. There is a framed personal letter from him written in 2014 on the wall next to my workstation – a constant reminder of what is really important in life. It closes, “Continue to fight the good fight, Mark. Don’t ever retire from life. Continue to lead Ann and your children for all the years that our Lord gives to you.” I have sometimes failed as a husband and father, but, by the Grace of God, have been forgiven, and indeed, will never retire from life.
          Of his own life, Graham said, “My one purpose is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ.”
          Knowing that he’d lived a long life dedicated to that purpose, he also said, “On day you will hear that Billy Graham has died. Don’t believe it. On that day I will be more alive than I ever.”
          On behalf of all our Patriot editors and staff, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Welcome home.   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54290-billy-graham-has-gone-home

Trump Is the Worst President? 

by Political Editors

Wednesday Top Headlines 

by Political Editors:  Trump directs Justice Department to ban bump stocks (National Review)

.

Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to California gun waiting period (NBC News)

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Gun control groups take out New York Times ad naming lawmakers who have accepted NRA donations (The Hill)

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Sorry, despite gun control advocates’ claims, U.S. isn’t the worst country for mass shootings (Investor’s Business Daily)

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Fact check: Have over 1,600 “mass shootings” occurred since Sandy Hook? (The Daily Signal)

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At least seven people have been charged with copycat threats since the Florida school shooting (Time)

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Mass shooting plot for SoCal high school thwarted by alert security guard (CBS News)

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One incident of millions: Good guy with a gun saves mother and daughter who were being attacked (The Daily Wire)

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Indictment reveals Russian influence operation primarily targeted liar-Clinton (The Washington Free Beacon)

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Russian trolls tweeted disinformation long before U.S. election (The Wall Street Journal)

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North Korea canceled secret meeting with Pence at Olympics (The Hill)

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Jim Mattis makes recommendations on Trump’s transgender troop ban (Washington Examiner)

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Baltimore is the nation’s most dangerous city (USA Today)

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Humor: Federal government launches GoFundMe campaign to pay off $20 trillion national debt (The Babylon Bee)

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Policy: New health policy would make coverage options more affordable (The Daily Signal)

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Policy: International Space Station better off in private hands (E21)   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54298-wednesday-top-headlines

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Part 2 – Political Fraud 

and The FBI FISA Application

by sundance

{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ In Part 1 we outlined a historic pattern of FISA-702 surveillance abuse by President liar-nObama’s top officials... within the DOJ and FBI. Here in Part 2 we outline how a specific application for a Title-1 surveillance warrant to the FISA court was intentionally misrepresented. This Part 2 video report focuses on the liar-nObama administration’s Illegal spying of the Trump Campaign through an American named Carter Page who was a brief volunteer on the campaign.  This video outlines the FISA ‘Title-1’ warrant on Mr. Page and the House and Senate investigations of the executive branch’s misleading application to the FISA Court.  Former U.S. attorney Joseph diGenova says he expects former top FBI officials to be charged criminally...  https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/20/video-series-part-2-political-fraud-and-the-fbi-fisa-application/

VIDEO 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBpMwRSacUk

.

HOT SEAT for Teacher and Councilman Who

Called MILITARY “LOWEST of our LOW” 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ The California teacher who ranted that the America’s military are a bunch of “dumb***s... not high-level thinkers and the “lowest of our low” is taking heavy fire from just about every non-libtard in the state. It seems not a lot of high-level thought went into his making those comments. Not only is Gregory Salcido a teacher in Pico Rivera, CA, he also is, at least for the time being, a city councilman. Former Army Paratrooper Bob Archuleta is also a Pico Rivera city councilman. He joined the Fox and Friends crew for a discussion of the situation. Both of Archuleta’s sons are West Point graduates and in addition to his own service as a paratrooper, he was for twenty years the LA County Commissioner of Veterans Affairs. In that capacity he’s been on the bases and interacted with the military service personnel of different branches. Archuleta describes them quite differently from the way Salcido did, as the “brightest we’ve ever seen.”...   https://rickwells.us/teacher-military-lowest-low/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfoxpmNU2HM

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Haley Tells Abbas: I Will Not Shut Up, 

US Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s 

Capital Will Not Change 

by Benjamin Kerstein

{ algemeiner.com } ~ US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley upbraided Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas... at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, saying, “I will not shut up,” and vowing American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “will not change.” Haley spoke following a lengthy speech by Abbas in which he denounced the US Jerusalem move as a violation of international law and demanded it be suspended. “You don’t have to like that decision,” Haley said, addressing Abbas, who was absent from the chamber, “but know this, that decision will not change.” She emphasized that the US had a right to make its own decisions on the location of its embassy by repeatedly emphasizing “our” in the phrase “our embassy.”...  https://www.algemeiner.com/2018/02/20/at-security-council-haley-tells-abbas-i-will-not-shut-up-us-recognition-of-jerusalem-as-israels-capital-will-not-change/# 

Mueller Indictments For Lying To FBI 

Are Unconstitutional, Fifth Amendment 

Being Torched 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ With Robert Mueller’s continued egg hunt gathering incidental, inconsequential pleas and indictments for non-serious... non-collusion related crimes, including process crimes of lying to the FBI, a question does need to be answered for strict constructionists reading the plain English of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. While there are surely many legal scholars who would disagree, the language of the Constitution is very clear and doesn’t require a law degree to comprehend. The Fifth Amendment provides that: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” That protection, “nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,” does not say in a criminal trial or in court or Congressional testimony, it says a criminal case. Criminal investigations are a huge component of a criminal case and compelling people to be witnesses against themselves are a daily occurrence...  https://rickwells.us/mueller-lying-fbi-unconstitutional/ 

Lidblog@optonline.net

Nancy Pulosi Heckled “How Much Are You Worth Nancy?” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=MC3QjHlOeQM

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POTUS Wants Ban On Bump Stocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDEY4bBFDW0

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Nikki Haley UN Speech Tells Palestinians, ” I Will NOT Shut Up!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxIT__fG2Oo

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Is The Case Against Mike Flynn Unraveling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbCyqfa-o1Q

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Fellow Student Claims She Reported School Shooter Many Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LEprbmIow

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Israel UN Ambassador Danny Danon Calls Out PA’s Abbas “You Are No Longer Part Of The Solution”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJ0eO7VIyw

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Government Witch Hunts Always Find A Witch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu0aN3BOPhQ

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Trump Is the Worst President? 

by Political Editors:  On the occasion of George Washington’s birthday observation, wrongly dubbed “Presidents’ Day,” a newly released New York Times poll of so-called “presidential politics experts” ranked President Donald Trump, after just one year in office mind you, as the worst of America’s presidents. This same group of “experts,” in a laughable display of “objectivity,” ranked Barack liar-nObama as the nation’s eighth best, up 10 spots from the 2014 poll. That raises the obvious question: Other than the fact that he is no longer president, what standards have changed to suddenly improve liar-nObama’s ranking by 10 spots?

          Actually, the real question is this: What standard of judgement were these “experts” using? It would seem they relied most heavily on their own subjective political bias. A truer and more objective guide by which to judge a president is the U.S. Constitution, specifically Article II, which delineates the duties and limits of the office. Judging from the opinions of these “experts,” it’s a good bet many of them need to reread, if not read for the first time, the Constitution. Even leftist Nate Silver bemoaned the poll’s lack of objectivity, tweeting, “It speaks poorly to the field of presidential scholarship that political scientists have Trump ranked as the worst president of all time — after only one year on the job — below presidents who e.g. helped blunder us into the Civil War & Great Depression.” He still misses the point, of course. Faithfully upholding the presidential oath to support and defend the Constitution is the true and only test. On that, liar-nObama not only utterly failed but intentionally and contemptuously so.
          Furthermore, using the constitutional test, these experts also get it completely wrong by ranking the likes of Franklin Roosevelt (3), Lyndon Johnson (10), Woodrow Wilson (11) and liar-Bill Clinton (13) far too highly. The experts couldn’t even get the simplest one correct: Washington, not Lincoln, is first among presidents.
          Obviously, this Times survey is purely a political hit-job designed to reinforce the Left’s desired anti-Trump narrative rather than report on any genuinely objective, scholarly measurement of a president. By using unnamed “experts” to declare that Trump is just the worst, the Times aims to continue brow-beating Americans into rejecting a man who actually had a pretty impressive first year in office. That’s especially true when compared to the last eight years of the most anti-American presidency in the nation’s history. But, honestly, should Americans expect anything less from the Leftmedia?   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54258-trump-is-the-worst-president

Johnson Timed Phony Russian Hacking 

Drop with Access Hollywood Diversion

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ liar-nObama’s second subversive, anti-American DHS Secretary, Jihadi Jeh Johnson... went on the Morning Joe program to shovel out a little disinformation and do some damage control over why the liar-nObama regime did nothing about the supposed Russian meddling in our election. What he doesn’t mention, for reasons that it would pull the rug out from under the Mueller witch hunt, is that it was an insignificant campaign that had no impact on the election or its results. Instead he plays the boogeyman card and claims the globalists made a calculated decision not to interject themselves. He’s referring to taking action publicly, where anyone would know what they were up to, FISA warrants and unmasking of Trump campaign officials excluded. They didn’t want to appear to be taking sides, says Johnson, although they were heavily engaged in such a program in support of liar-Clinton secretly... https://rickwells.us/johnson-timed-russian-hollywood/

VIDEO:  https://rickwells.us/johnson-timed-russian-hollywood/

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Palestinians: Hamas and Fatah - 

United against Trump

by Khaled Abu Toameh

{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction are continuing to contest control of the Gaza Strip... However, the two rival parties are prepared to lay aside their differences and work together to foil US President Donald Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East, the details of which remain unknown. Thwarting Trump's peace plan has become a top priority for Hamas and Fatah. This is a mission that seems to be much more important than alleviating the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where 65% of families live under the poverty line. Although the details of the Trump plan still have not been made public, Palestinians across the political spectrum say they will never accept any peace initiative presented by the Trump administration. Whatever the peace plan will be, the answer is No...  https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11913/palestinians-hamas-fatah-trump
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Media Wants to Ignore These Inconvenient

Facts About the Russian Indictments

by Andrew

{ conservativefreepress.com } ~ There are a few things about the indictments handed down by the Special Counsel’s office on Friday that the mainstream media seems determined to ignore... Perhaps that’s because to highlight these aspects of the document would be to admit that they’ve gotten the Russia/Trump narrative wrong for a long, long time. The first inconvenient fact of the indictments is that there is no allegation, as made crystal clear by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, that anything Russia did during the election changed one vote in November. So even though it is obviously a serious issue if we have a foreign power trying to sway the results of our elections, let’s not go overboard and start believing that they had any material effect on the outcome. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what Putin and his team of oligarchs would love us to believe. It is, actually, what far too many people on the left DO believe. It’s time for a reality check, and these indictments provide one. The second inconvenient fact is that the Russians weren’t only “helping” Donald Trump. They were also helping Jill Stein and commie-Bernie Sanders, both of them darlings of the progressive left...  http://www.conservativefreepress.com/legal-scoops/media-wants-ignore-inconvenient-facts-russian-indictments/ 

Sanctuary Mayhem: ICE Shuts Down Liberal

Paradise… Arrests Hundreds of Illegals

by CILLIAN ZEAL

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown on sanctuary cities has netted hundreds of illegal immigrants nationwide... including a number in Southern California. According to CNBC, ICE announced Friday that 212 illegals have been arrested as part of a five-day sweep in the Los Angeles area which has seen 122 businesses targeted. A similar raid in Northern California, including arrests in San Jose and San Francisco, happened just days beforehand.  Overall, according to the Los Angeles Times, over 500 people have been arrested and detained by ICE nationwide in the period of several days...  https://conservativetribune.com/sanctuary-mayhem-ice-arrests/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=CTBreaking&utm_campaign=breaking&utm_content=conservative-tribune 

LA's Homeless Tax Made Homelessness Worse

by Daniel Greenfield 

{ frontpagemag.com } ~ The Los Angeles political establishment,

 the media and everyone who listened to them insisted that raising taxes to spend... on the homeless was the answer. But subsidizing a social problem never works. L.A. County's homeless problem is worsening despite billions from tax measures Despite drilling a big hole in the boat, it continues to sink. Los Angeles County's homeless population is increasing faster than the supply of new housing, even with the addition of thousands of beds in the last two years and millions of dollars beginning to flow in from two ballot measures targeting the crisis. It's almost as if the problem worsens because you keep throwing money at it. Reasonable people would draw sensible conclusions. Lefties will just insist that more money needs to be spent until every single last homeless wanderer is living in Los Angeles...  https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269372/las-homeless-tax-made-homelessness-worse-daniel-greenfield

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by Cal Thomas 
{ townhall.com } ~ There is a war that has lasted longer than the one in Afghanistan. It is the so-called "war on poverty," launched by President Lyndon Johnson during his State of the Union address on Jan. 8, 1964.

While the poverty rate dropped from 17.3 percent to 11.1 percent in the ensuing decade, it has remained between 11 percent and 15.2 percent ever since, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Interestingly, as Census figures show, the poverty rate had already begun to decline starting in 1959, five years before the LBJ initiative was announced.

Many conservatives have argued that anti-poverty programs have created a permanent underclass that has little motivation for doing what is necessary to raise them from poverty to independence. These include, among other things, two essentials: a decent education denied by the left, which opposes school choice, and a strong two-parent family unit. 

In his budget proposal Monday, President Trump is asking Congress to cut certain entitlement programs that have arguably failed to motivate people to emerge from poverty and instead have subsidized and sustained many in poverty.

The Washington Post's reporting is typical of what the left has promoted for more than 50 years. It says the proposed budget "...takes a hard whack at the poorest Americans, slashing billions of dollars from food stamps, public health insurance and federal housing vouchers, while trying to tilt the programs in more conservative directions."

If the more liberal directions aren't working, why not try a more conservative direction? It was the late Jack Kemp, former congressman and secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who best addressed the conservative and most compassionate approach to ending poverty when he said: "Conservatives define compassion not by the number of people who receive some kind of government aid, but rather by the number of people who no longer need it."

That should be the goal of most federal programs and not just the ones addressing poverty. They should be measured by a standard of success, not seen as permanent entitlements into which increasing amounts of money is poured.

I recall an experience I had a few years ago in Singapore where I asked a taxi driver about that country's poverty rate. At the time, he said it was less than 2 percent. I asked how that was possible. He replied that Singapore has no welfare. The government will help the truly needy, but if one is able-bodied and doesn't work, he said, that person gets nothing from the government. The threat of an empty stomach is a prime motivator to find a job and take care of one's self.

That has been the missing ingredient in America's broken welfare system. Programs need to be reformed and the approach to poverty re-imagined, and not just by the government, but also by those who are stuck in poverty, believing there is no way out.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The key to a better life is inspiration, followed by motivation, followed by perspiration. A change of mindset can produce a change in virtually any circumstance.

President Trump's budget proposal offers an opportunity to open a new front in the anti-poverty campaign, one that has the potential for success. It worked once before when President liar-Bill Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich forged what was called the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996." The left screamed that people would starve. They didn't. In fact, many found jobs and discovered they no longer had to rely on government. That produced then and can produce again a sense of self-worth that is necessary for the improvement of any life.

Too Good to be True? Attorney General 

takes Aim at liar-Hillary and liar-nObama!

by Onan Coca

{ constitution.com } ~ Attorney General Jeff Sessions is talking a big game this week as he signaled to the American people... that he was taking aim at the two biggest crooks in America – Barack liar-nObama and liar-Hillary Clinton! In a wide ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News the Attorney General promised that the Justice Department would be investigating both the liar-nObama administration and liar-Hillary Clinton for various and sundry crimes. Of the liar-Hillary Clinton email investigation, Sessions said, “We’re going to do our job in his department properly and correctly. We can’t do that in the media we’re going to restore the rule of law.”...  https://constitution.com/good-true-attorney-general-takes-aim-hillary-obama/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4BWovexElw

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White House Slams Dems on Immigration, 

But What About These 8 Republicans? 

by fixthisnation.com 

{ fixthisnation.com } ~ After several immigration bills failed to get 60 votes in the Senate on Thursday, the White House released a statement blaming the Democrats... for failing to take the issue of DACA legislation seriously enough to reach a compromise. “Today, the clown-Schumer Democrats in the Senate demonstrated again that they are not serious about DACA, they are not serious about immigration reform, and they are not serious about homeland security,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “clown-Schumer Democrats chose to filibuster it because they are held hostage by the radical left in their party, which opposes any immigration control at all.” President Trump threw his support behind a bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley during debate – a bill that came very close to matching the proposal made by the president himself. Under that legislation, Congress would have allocated $25 billion for the border wall, put an end to chain migration, and closed up shop on the ludicrous diversity visa lottery. In exchange, Democrats would have been given an amnesty gift in the form of a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as minors. Only 39 Senators voted for the bill...  http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/white-house-slams-dems-on-immigration/ 

Delek, Noble sign accords for $15b in 

sales of Israeli natural gas to Egypt 

by SHOSHANNA SOLOMON 

The partners in Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields, including a unit of US Noble Energy Inc and Delek Drilling LP... have signed $15 billion in deals to export natural gas to Egypt over 10 years. In a filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Monday, Delek Drilling LP, a partner in the Tamar and Leviathan fields offshore Israel, said Noble Energy Mediterranean and its partners in the fields have signed accords with Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings Ltd. for the sale of some 64 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the two fields. One accord calls for the sale of 3.5 BCM of natural gas annually from the Leviathan field, for a total of 32 BCM, the filing said, with the partners estimating the total revenues from the sale from the Leviathan field to reach $7.5 billion...  https://www.timesofisrael.com/delek-noble-sign-accords-for-15b-in-sales-of-israeli-natural-gas-to-egypt/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=cd0573cd64-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-cd0573cd64-54638825 

School Shooting Was Outcome of 

Broward County School Board Policy 

by sundance

{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ In 2012 and 2013 while doing research into the Trayvon Martin shooting we discovered an alarming set of school policies... being enacted in Miami-Dade and Broward County Florida.  The policies were called “diversionary programs” and were essentially about stopping High School students from being arrested. Law enforcement was instructed to avoid arrests and defer criminal conduct to school administrators. Students who engaged in violence, drug sales, robberies, burglaries, theft and other various crimes were intentionally kept out of the criminal justice system.  County administrators and School Superintendents told local and county law enforcement officers to stop arresting students. Unfortunately, the school board mandated policies came into conflict with law and order. The problem of the conflicted policy -vs- legality worsened over time as the police excused much more than misdemeanor crimes. Over time this culminated in police officers falsifying documents, hiding criminal activity, lying on official police reports and even hiding stolen merchandise police retrieved from high school students...  https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/19/school-shooting-was-outcome-of-broward-county-school-board-policy-now-local-and-national-politicians-weaponize-kids-for-ideological-intents/ 

 

Lidblog@optonline.net

Trump Supports Improved Background Checks For Gun Purchases 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFjbDfql1o

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Kremlin Says Phooey To Mueller’s Indictments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb1629sRtTs

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Turley: People Engaging in ‘Willful Blindness’ to Ignore How Indictment Supports Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfQQOCMg3kU

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Family Who Took In Parkland H.S. Shooter Speaks Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw0OsoTmQdk

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Prager U: What You Need to Know About Planned Parenthood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16uUy8H4mg

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Israel Defense Ministry Announces Successful Arrow 3 Test: Will Shoot Down Ballistic Missiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAePLnviH0

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The Russian Destabilizing Campaign 

by Political Editors:  On Friday, news broke that Robert Mueller’s special investigation had indicted 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for having engaged in efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. In his announcement, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein explained, “The defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.” Rosenstein also pointed out that no Americans were being indicted, saying, “There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.” He added, “There is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.” However, Rosenstein did note that the investigation remains ongoing.

          The indictment states in part, “Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities." The Russians sought to prop up the candidates who initially looked like outliers, such as Donald Trump and commie-Bernie Sanders, while they worked to spread negative information against liar-Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Clearly, the Russians were not allied to any one political party or platform; instead, they sought to sow as much discord within the American political election process as possible. This conclusion is emphasized by post-election activity, when Russian agents engaged in organized efforts to both defend and attack Trump’s presidency. It was a political destabilization campaign that harkens back to Cold War-era espionage. And it serves as a reminder that Russian leadership is just as committed to weakening the U.S. as it ever has been.
          Russia is "our number one geopolitical foe,” Mitt Romney said in 2012, to the mockery of Barack liar-nObama and Democrats everywhere. Romney was right.
          Following the news, Trump tweeted, “If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their a—s off in Moscow. Get smart America!” Trump is right.
          Deliberately muddying the message, The Washington Post responded to the news by suggesting that it was Trump who has egg on his face with a story entitled “Trump’s Russia ‘hoax’ turns out to be real.” The piece then spins the Mueller indictment and accuses Trump of being wrong for calling the Russiagate investigation a “witch-hunt” and a “hoax” because Russia did seek to interfere. But the Post obscures the fact that what Trump called a hoax was the Demo/MSM narrative that his campaign supposedly colluded with Russia — a narrative Mueller’s indictment appears to undermine.
          It’s interesting to note the immense weight Democrats and the Leftmedia are willing to attribute to 13 Russians in their ability to influence the outcome of an election, while at the same time downplaying as completely inconsequential the impact that millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S. have on our elections. Which party is it that time and again rejects common-sense election fraud protections such as voter ID?   ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54230-the-russian-destabilizing-campaign

Tuesday Top Headlines 

by Political Editors:  Presidential “experts” rate Trump worst president, liar-nObama eighth best (The Washington Free Beacon)

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Trump supports improving federal background checks on gun owners (The Washington Times)

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Dallas mayor asks NRA to consider another city for annual convention (ABC News)

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Four leftist, anti-gun PACs outspent the “roadblock” NRA in the 2016 campaign (PoliZette)

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IRS warns of new tax refund scam (The Kansas City Star)

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Mueller charges lawyer connected to former Trump aid (The Hill)

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Duped: Michael Moore participated in anti-Trump rally allegedly organized by Russians (Fox News)

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Military action against Syria still on the table, Jim Mattis and Rex Tillerson say (Washington Examiner)

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Due to ecofascist threats, security officials recommended EPA chief Pruitt fly first class (The Washington Free Beacon)

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Marine Corps eases requirement that has inhibited female infantry officers (The Washington Free Beacon)

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Benjamin Netanyahu associates arrested in Israeli corruption probe (Associated Press)

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Humorous Bottom Story of the Day: Farty passenger forces flight to make emergency landing (New York Post)

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Policy: Four cases to watch at the Supreme Court this month (The Daily Signal)

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Policy: Judgment day for public unions (City Journal)  ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54265-tuesday-top-headlines

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Dems, scum-Soros Use Leftist Shooting

SurvivorsAs Disarmament Advocates, 

Rally Pawns 

by rickwells.us 

{ rickwells.us } ~ Democrats are notorious for standing on the backs of the victims, usually of their own creation, in order to gain political benefits... The shooting at the campus of Douglas High School in Florida, which they kept as an indefensible gun-free zone, are the latest in that despicable practice. In efforts which share the familiar look of the mainstream media propagandists collaborating with scum-George Soros front groups providing funding and the opportunity for a group of publicity hound children who survived the Florida attack to become political pawns in the globalist master plan.  The kids likely have libtard parents who have no problem with trusting the government won’t turn to tyranny if the nation is disarmed or with violating our Second Amendment rights. Maybe the children see themselves as the next commie leader in the mold of Hussein liar-nObama, Kamala Harris, Dianne Fein-stein or Richard “Stolen Valor” Blumenthal, pushing disarmament and the myth that tyranny only happens elsewhere. It’s more likely they don’t know any of those names other than liar-nObama and perhaps sugar daddy scum-George Soros...  https://rickwells.us/dems-soros-use-leftist-shooting-survivors-as-disarmament-rally-pawns/

VIDEO 1:  https://twitter.com/i/web/status/965227197647802368

VIDEO 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a46tzTvn6AI

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Antifa Thugs Target ICE

by Matthew Vadum 

{ frontpagemag.com } ~ The anarchist thugs of Antifa are branching out into obstructing immigration law enforcement... apparently no longer content with shutting down conservative speakers and beating up those they promiscuously label “fascists.” A case in point was last Thursday, Feb. 15, when about 70 activists surrounded a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) van that was attempting to enter the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. The anarchists chanted “no more deportations,” “Trump and Pence must go,” “f--k ICE,” as well as slogans in the Spanish language. Although the two ICE agents in the van at the time were unharmed and there were no arrests, the action was viewed by anarchists as a successful test of the tactic. Antifa intends to expand its use of the approach. Given Antifa’s ugly track record, this could mean violent, terroristic attacks on law enforcement...   https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269362/antifa-thugs-target-ice-matthew-vadum 

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Man jailed for jihad writes for Washington Post

by ART MOORE 

{ wnd.com } ~ Employed as a communications specialist for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C... police stopped Randall “Ismail” Royer for a traffic violation in September 2001. The officers found in Royer’s automobile an AK-47-style rifle and 219 rounds of ammunition. Two years later, Royer was indicted along with 10 others for conspiring to levy war against the United States and to provide material support to al-Qaida. For agreeing to cooperate with the government, he pleaded guilty to lesser weapons and explosives charges, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Now, released after serving nearly 14 years of his sentence, Royer, an American convert to Islam, says he is a changed man and rejects terrorism...   http://www.wnd.com/2018/02/ex-cair-official-imprisoned-for-jihad-writes-for-major-newspaper/

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Aliens Who Didn't Register Under DACA: 

Lazy or Committing Fraud?

by Michael Cutler 

{ frontpagemag.com } ~ The President’s Chief of Staff, Gen. John Kelly, recently raised some eyebrows... when he postulated that many illegal aliens who could have applied to participate in the liar-nObama administration’s illegal DACA program may have simply been too lazy to apply for temporary lawful status when the program was in effect. Although General Kelly had a highly successful and laudable record of service to our nation in the United States Marine Corps, he never enforced nor administered our nation’s immigration laws.  His lack of experience and subsequent lack of understanding about the challenges that confront those who enforce and administer our immigration laws have apparently caused him to come to a very wrong and, indeed, dangerous conclusion, which may have influenced President Trump’s decision to provide lawful status and a pathway to United States citizenship to three times as many aliens as were covered by the liar-nObama administration’s DACA program. Gen. Kelly may not realize that many of those applicants may be successfully gaming the immigration system by committing immigration fraud. They didn’t enroll not because they were lazy but because they weren’t present in the United States during the enrollment period and  would falsely claim they were if a new program were to take effect.  Indeed, if this program is created, many applicants might enter the United States in the months ahead, but claim they have been here for years...   https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269360/aliens-who-didnt-register-under-daca-lazy-or-michael-cutler 

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The Russians Didn’t File a FISA Warrant

by sundance

{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ Interesting interview.  The Russians didn’t keep liar-Hillary out of Wisconsin; the Russians didn’t make liar-Hillary use personal email... the Russians didn’t hire Fusion-GPS; the Russians didn’t pay Christopher Steele; the Russians didn’t make a dossier or deliver work product to the State Dept; the Russians didn’t do the unmasking of campaign officials. The Russians didn’t apply for a FISA warrant; the Russians didn’t lie to a FISA court; the Russians didn’t leak Mike Flynn monitored phone calls; the Russians didn’t use DOJ and/or FBI databases to download FISA 702(16)(17) queries and extract the data to private contractors; the Russians didn’t hire Nellie Ohr and Russians didn’t approach president-elect Trump and warn him of politically weaponized intelligence surveillance…The… wait…. then again, THAT’S ENTIRELY THE MOTIVE to blame the Russians.  https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/18/the-russians-didnt-file-a-fisa-warrant/

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvZeAecOZ4

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by sundance
theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ For those following the increasingly curious case against General Mike Flynn, events took another unusual turn yesterday as Special Counsel Robert Mueller -with agreement from all parties- filed a motion for a protective order to seal documents. These are documents compelled on behalf of the defense, by Judge Emmet Sullivan, prior to sentencing.

On November 30th, 2017, Mike Flynn signed a guilty plea; ostensibly admitting lying to investigators. The plea was accepted by Judge Ruben Contreras; who is also a FISA court judge. Six days later, December 7th, 2017, Judge Contreras “was recused” from the case without explanation. The case was reassigned to DC District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

The Contreras recusal always seemed sketchy. If the conflict existed on December 7th, wouldn’t that same conflict have existed on November 30th, 2017?

On December 12th, 2017, Judge Sullivan gave out a rather unusual set of instructions to Robert Mueller. The instructions included Sullivan telling Mueller to turn over to the Flynn defense anything that could be considered exculpatory:

[…]  if the government has identified any information which is favorable to the defendant but which the government believes is not material, the government shall submit the material to the Court for in camera review. 

On January 31st, 2018, Robert Mueller requested a delay of sentencing pushing the sentencing phase into May of this year. And then yesterday, February 14th, 2018, Mueller asks for the information he is turning over to be sealed.

As Nick Falco points out on Twitter: “We haven’t seen text messages between Strzok-Page mentioning Flynn or around the time of Strzok-Flynn Interview on January 24, 2017. I’m sure Horowitz has the texts & has given them to the Mueller team. Starting today, Flynn will have access to this evidence for his defense.” … “Today’s Stipulated Motion gives the Flynn team access to ALL evidence, including the FD-302’s, as long as the evidence is kept secret.”

♦Going back to the 30,000 foot overview, the substance behind the application for the FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant is the eventual basis for the FBI’s surveillance of Mike Flynn.

That FISA application is now evidenced to have relied heavily upon the ‘liar-Clinton-Steele Dossier‘; and with discoveries from the Devin Nunes memo, and Chuck Grassley memo, there is strong evidence of gross and intentional misrepresentation within the application.

That puts the spotlight back upon the FISA judge who approved the application despite the transparent flaws, political omissions and factual weaknesses. If Rudolph Contreras signed off on the Title-1 surveillance warrant, Judge Contreras is now in question.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has requested the FISA Application to be declassified by the DOJ. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has requested transcripts from the application hearing. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte -holding statutory oversight over the FISA court- has requested the actual FISA warrant and application all documents.

Nunes and Goodlatte’s requests were made to presiding FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer.

Judge Collyer was the FISA judge who wrote the eye-opening 99-page opinion of the FISA abuses reported by NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers, DOJ National Security Division head John P Carlin, and FBI Director James Comey.

Coincidentally or not Judge Rosemary Collyer might have been the Presiding FISA Judge who -holding concerns over ongoing FISC revelations in late 2017- recused Rudolph Contreras from further contact with the Flynn case. The other option for a forced recusal would the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts.

As Clarice Feldman writes at American Thinker: “As the evidence mounts that the warrant was improperly granted, someone – perhaps the chief judge of the district – removed him from further participation in the case, likely because Contreras approved the warrant and its extension. If the warrant was improperly issued, all the evidence it garnered is tainted.”

This brightens the spotlight upon Judge Contreras and his involvement in the FISA Title-1 surveillance authority.

Additionally, if you think about when everything began to break out from the headlines it would be intellectually dishonest not to note all of the FBI conspiracy revelations happened immediately after Mike Flynn signed the guilty plea. The timing appears to show White Hats within the intelligence apparatus hitting back against the DOJ and FBI for perceived injustice against Flynn.

Regardless of how you view events there’s something about the use of the liar-Clinton-Steele Dossier within the FISA application, and the subsequent approval therein, that doesn’t pass the proverbial sniff test. If Contreras was the authorizing judge; and it seems increasingly likely he was; this puts the judge in the center of the scandal.

What looks even worse for Contreras, amid the backdrop of a conspiracy of intent, is his direct relationship to former Attorney General scum-Eric Holder, President liar-nObama’s wingman:

2012 […] From 2006 until his appointment, Contreras was chief of the civil division in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. He’s the third person to hold that job before being appointed to the D.C. court, joining Chief Judge Royce Lamberth and Judge John Bates.

Contreras began his career at Jones Day law firm after earning his J.D. in 1991. Gregory Shumaker, partner-in-charge of Jones Day’s Washington office, spoke yesterday about first meeting Contreras when Shumaker was running the firm’s summer associate program. He said Contreras had a gift for connecting with people, a skill that would serve him well on the bench.

In 1994, Contreras was hired by scum-Eric Holder Jr., then the U.S. attorney for D.C., to join that office. Mark Nagle, vice president and general counsel for Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. and Contreras’ predecessor as civil division chief, spoke about Contreras’ many victories, including his time leading the city’s Medicaid fraud unit.  

In essence there’s a possibility Judge Contreras might have granted a little more leeway for the ideological endeavors of the DOJ given his prior personal and professional relationships. Was he willfully blind to the weakness and politics within the FISA application?

All of this is likely to come out as the outcry to release the FISA warrant gets stronger. Chairman Devin Nunes and Chairman Bob Goodlatte are directly asking the FISA court for information.

The Department of Justice will likely agree to more releases of investigative documents as IG Horowitz finishes his 14-month-long OIG investigation into the entire enterprise. The inspector general has been looking at the politicization, and subsequent weaponization, of the DOJ and FBI and his report will come out well in advance of the Flynn sentencing.