Commentary: The FBI’s Darkest Hour

by Adam Mill   One can imagine the unspoken question hanging in the darkness during the January 2017 ride back to the airport. A small gaggle1 of FBI agents had just concluded their long-overdue interview with Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source. The silence must have been deafening. Steele had tried to conceal2 his source from the FBI. But the FBI knew his identity and set up an interview behind Steele’s back, and the interview contradicted several Steele assertions. The downcast agents waited for somebody to ask the question on all of their minds: “Now what?” The right answer would have been to admit to the court that Steele was an unreliable source who exaggerates and lies and put an end to spying on Americans in pursuit of the mirage of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia. When presented one last opportunity to do the right thing, the FBI instead pushed harder for their now-discredited hypothesis justifying the investigation. Peter Strzok had promised his lover, Lisa Page, he would “save” the country from Donald Trump. Given a choice between bringing the FBI back into the light of the Constitution or the darkness of blind hatred of Donald Trump, the conspirators choose darkness. It was at…

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Commentary: Anti-Trump Fraternity and NeverTrump Sorority Collude in Impeachment Scam

How stupid does the anti-Trump fraternity think the American people are? By “anti-Trump fraternity” I mean not only the increasingly frantic Democrats who, like Belshazzar at that memorable dinner party many years back, can see the writing ever more clearly on the wall for 2020, but also the NeverTrump sorority who just cannot get over the fact that someone was elected president of the United States without their permission, indeed, over their explicit objections. How dare they!

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Washington Braces for Mueller’s Appearance Wednesday

  A leading House Democrat says special counsel Robert Mueller will give “very substantial evidence” that will make the case for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump. “This is a president who has violated the law six ways from Sunday,” House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler told Fox television on the weekend. Legislators from Trump’s Republican Party, however, predict a highly anticipated hearing this week will amount to nothing more than a rehash of previously published information. Also speaking Sunday on Fox television, Congressman Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of “going after things that we’ve already known.” Mueller is set to testify before two House committees Wednesday about his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and if Trump obstructed justice in trying to derail the probe. “We have to present, or let Mueller present, those facts to the American people…because the administration must be held accountable and no president can be above the law,” Nadler said. Mueller report conclusions  The Mueller report concluded there was not enough evidence to determine that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. But Mueller wrote he could not exonerate…

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House Republicans Want Nellie Ohr’s Oppo Research of Trump’s Family: Report

by Chuck Ross   House Republicans are reportedly seeking documents from former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr related to her research into President Donald Trump’s family, including his wife and children. During a congressional interview Oct. 19, 2018, Ohr said while she worked for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele dossier, she compiled open-source research on the travels and business activities of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Trump’s wife, Melania. “I was asked to research Trump’s family broadly in connection with any — any Russian connections,” Ohr told a Republican staffer during her interview. “Were you doing independent research based off of each family member?” the staffer asked. “I did some,” said Ohr, a Russia linguist. “As I recall, I did some research on all of them, but not into much depth.” Asked about her research into Trump Jr., Ohr said “I looked into some of his travels” in order to “see whether they were involved in dealings and transactions with people who had had suspicious pasts.” House Republicans are requesting Ohr’s investigative files, according to Fox News, citing two sources familiar with the matter. They want to know how the information on Trump’s family was used in the Fusion…

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Commentary: Magical Thinking Meets the Inconvenient Realities of the ‘New Energy Economy’

by Mark P. Mills   A week doesn’t pass without a mayor, governor, policymaker or pundit joining the rush to demand, or predict, an energy future that is entirely based on wind/solar and batteries, freed from the “burden” of the hydrocarbons that have fueled societies for centuries. Regardless of one’s opinion about whether, or why, an energy “transformation” is called for, the physics and economics of energy combined with scale realities make it clear that there is no possibility of anything resembling a radically “new energy economy” in the foreseeable future. Bill Gates has said that when it comes to understanding energy realities “we need to bring math to the problem.” He’s right. So, in my recent Manhattan Institute report, “The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking,” I did just that. Herein, then, is a summary of some of the bottom-line realities from the underlying math. (See the full report for explanations, documentation, and citations.) Realities About the Scale of Energy Demand 1. Hydrocarbons supply over 80 percent of world energy: If all that were in the form of oil, the barrels would line up from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, and that entire line would grow by the…

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House Democrats Spread ‘Lies’ About Climate Change And Hurricanes, Scientist Says

by Michael Bastach   House Democrats’ climate change hearing is based on “inaccurate” information that’s “not in accord with current science or consensus,” according to a scientist. A Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee will hold a hearing Tuesday on natural disaster policy “in the wake of climate change.” However, Democrats are under fire for making claims on the hearing’s webpage that don’t line up with the facts. Atmospheric scientist Ryan Maue, a hurricane expert, tweeted that the Democrats’ hearing “spreads lies” about the scientific consensus on climate change and hurricanes. The House subcommittee is chaired by California Rep. Harley Rouda and includes Green New Deal champion New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a member. Maue pointed out that major scientific assessments cast doubt on claims global warming is increasing hurricane frequency or intensity. “This is not in accord with current science or consensus anywhere = fraud,” Maue said of House Democrats’ climate claims, which relies on information on information posted online by environmental activists. Not a good look for next House hearing on climate change and disasters that furthers inaccurate information (spreads lies) from Union of Concerned Scientists on hurricanes. This is not in accord with current science or consensus anywhere =…

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Commentary: Novelist Michael Crichton and His Warnings about the Corruption, Politicization of Science

by Edward Ring   Just over 10 years ago, the world lost Michael Crichton, bestselling author and screenwriter, who succumbed to cancer at age 66. His loss was greater than we could have known at the time. During the final years of his life, Crichton became increasingly focused on the politicization of science. Few critics of this corruption, if any, are as articulate and influential as Michael Crichton was in his time. And now politicized science, and the justifications it provides activists, journalists, politicians, and corporate opportunists, is more dangerous than ever. Crichton’s scientific background – he obtained a medical degree in 1969, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies – distinguished him from the typical author of thrillers, and informed his life-long interest in science and technology. Whenever Crichton expressed skepticism about the latest environmental crisis of the century, he had credibility. One of the most succinct and moving examples of Crichton’s thoughts on this topic came in the form of a speech he gave in 2003 at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, titled “Environmentalism As Religion.” The transcript offers a compelling defense of rational environmentalism vs. environmentalism as a religion, and warns against the politicization of…

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller Announces His Resignation, Return to Private Life

by Masood Farivar   Special counsel Robert Mueller says charging President Donald Trump with a crime was not an option his office could consider under Justice Department guidelines, as he made his first public statement about his 22-month-long investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Mueller concluded his investigation into Russian election meddling in late March, saying he found no evidence of collusion between the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump and Moscow. On the question of whether Trump obstructed the investigation, however, Mueller wrote in his 448-page report that while he could not make a charging recommendation, he could not exonerate the president either. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mueller said “If we had confidence that president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”   Attorney General William Barr had told members of Congress that after reviewing Mueller’s report along with other senior Justice Department officials he determined that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of Justice. Barr said he made the determination irrespective of a long standing Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. However, Mueller in his report cited 11 instances of possible obstruction of justice…

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Gowdy: FBI Has Papadopoulos Transcripts That Are Potential ‘Game-Changer’

by Chuck Ross   Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said he is aware of potentially game-changing evidence in the FBI’s Russia probe regarding George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser. During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Gowdy indicated he has seen FBI transcripts related to Papadopoulos that contain potentially exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. “If the bureau’s going to send in an informant in, the informant’s going to be wired, and if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there’s going to be a transcript of that,” Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo. Gowdy continued: “Some of us have been fortunate enough to know whether or not those transcripts exist. But they haven’t been made public, and I think one in particular is going — it has the potential to actually persuade people. Very little in this Russia probe I’m afraid is going to persuade people who hate Trump or love Trump. But there is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game-changer if it’s ever made public.” The FBI officially opened its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign July 31, 2016,…

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Trump Hits Back Against GOP Rep Who Took Stance On Impeachment: ‘Justin Is A Loser’

by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump criticized Republican Michigan Rep. Justin Amash on Twitter after the congressman said Saturday that Trump “engaged in impeachable conduct” related to the Mueller investigation. “Never a fan of Justin Amash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy,” Trump wrote Sunday. Never a fan of @justinamash, a total lightweight who opposes me and some of our great Republican ideas and policies just for the sake of getting his name out there through controversy. If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, “composed” by 18 Angry Dems who hated Trump,…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019 “If he actually read the biased Mueller Report, ‘composed’ by 18 Angry [Democrats] who hated Trump, he would see that it was nevertheless strong on NO COLLUSION and, ultimately, NO OBSTRUCTION… Anyway, how do you Obstruct when there is no crime and, in fact, the crimes were committed by the other side? Justin is a loser who sadly plays right into our opponents hands!” he continued. Amash took his stand on impeachment Saturday in a tweet after reading special counsel Robert Mueller’s report…

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The Tennessee Star Report: Which Republicans Have Called for a Meeting of the House GOP Caucus?

  On Thursday morning’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the duo spoke about the recent call for a meeting of the Tennessee Republican House Caucus to discuss the controversies surrounding House Speaker Glen Casada. Later on in the segment, the team discussed how this was just another attempt at a Democratic induced “scandal” to remove Casada based solely on inappropriate text messages sent before he became Speaker and unproven allegations of bad conduct.  The men agreed that the caucus should be held openly so that the truth would be heard by the public. Here is the transcript from the show: Gill: Alright, the poll is open and voters are flocking to Tennessee Star on Facebook to cast their votes. The poll question of the day, very easy. Should the Republican House caucus meeting Monday to discuss the future of Glen Casada be open to the public? Is there support? Is there the base to pull him off the speakership? To pull him out of the House all together to expel him? And again, what are the charges? What has he…

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Commentary: Did Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the Clinton Campaign, and the DNC Make Up the Russia Collusion Hoax?

by Robert Romano   “This is probably done in conjunction with Fusion GPS that was making this stuff up, they conveniently were able to get this into the FBI, willing takers at the FBI, and this was all to dirty up the Trump campaign. I mean, I have to say, you can’t make this stuff up, but… that’s exactly what they did.” That was Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes’ (R-Calif.) reaction in an interview with John Batchelor on May 9, who asked him about a report from The Hill’s John Solomon that details a meeting former British spy Christopher Steele — author of the false allegation paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign that President Donald Trump was a Russian agent — had with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016. The meeting was memorialized in a memo Kavalec typed up afterward, and cast serious doubts on some of the allegations Steele was making, as well as his credibility. According to Kavalac, Steele was “keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8” to have an impact on 2016 election. The documents came from a Freedom of Information Act…

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Analysis: The Steele Dossier and the ‘Raw Intelligence’ Canard

by Chuck Ross   Defenders of the FBI’s activities during the 2016 campaign have adopted a familiar refrain over the past 28 months to describe the Steele dossier, that infamous document that served as a road map for the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. “It’s raw intelligence,” according to countless politicos and pundits, including CNN contributor Asha Rangappa, Democratic Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, former CIA executive John Sipher and numerous other commentators. The spy term, which describes information directly from a source that has not been fully analyzed, is intended to downplay the dossier’s significance to the collusion narrative. Christopher Steele, the dossier author, gathered his intelligence from a trusted network of sources, the argument goes, and provided it to seasoned investigators to analyze. But the charitable defense faces new challenges, especially in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. The problem with the “raw intelligence” canard is that it ignores questions about how Steele obtained his information and what the former spy did with it once he received it. The FBI also treated Steele’s allegations as more than mere raw intelligence. The bureau relied heavily on Steele’s work, even though it was unverified, to obtain spy…

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Commentary: The Fright of James Comey

by Victor Davis Hanson   In a recent op-ed, fired FBI Director James Comey was back again preaching to the nation about the dangers of Donald Trump and his capacity to corrupt any top-ranking federal official of lower character than Comey’s own. Comey seems to have become utterly unhinged by Donald Trump, especially when the president, in his thick Queens accent, scoffs in the vernacular—quite accurately, given the transgressions of the FBI hierarchy—about “crooked cops.” What an affront to Comey’s complexity, his subtlety, his sophistication, his feigned Hamlet-like self-doubt—at least as now expressed in his latest incarnation as Twitter’s Kahlil Gibran. One can say a number of things about the timing of Comey’s latest sermon and his characteristic projection of his own sins on to others. First, Comey’s unprofessionalism was home-grown and certainly did not need any help from President Trump. His schizophrenic behavior both as a prosecutor and investigator in the Hillary Clinton email matter was marked by exempting Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin from indictment, despite their lying to his own federal officials about their knowledge of a private Clinton email server. Comey wrote his summation of the Clinton email investigation before he had even interviewed the former…

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Commentary: Democrats’ Fantasies of ‘Barr Perjury’ Defy Logic and the Record

by Paul J. Larkin Jr.   Disappointed with, frustrated by, and angry at special counsel Robert Mueller’s unhelpful conclusion that President Donald Trump was not in cahoots with the Russians during the 2016 campaign, Democrats are desperately searching for something, anything, that they can use to impeach the Mueller report by impugning the integrity of Attorney General William Barr. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went so far Thursday as to accuse Barr of committing perjury when he answered a question by Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., of the House Appropriations Committee on April 9. She is flat wrong. Crist started by asking Barr several questions about the statement in his March 24 letter that the special counsel’s report does not “exonerate” Trump. After the attorney general answered those inquiries, the following exchange occurred: The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> Crist: Reports have emerged recently, General [Barr], that members of the special counsel’s team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24 letter, that it does not adequately or accurately necessarily portray the report’s findings.  Do you know what they’re referencing with that?…

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Mueller Agrees To ‘Tentative’ Date To Testify Before House Judiciary, Democrat Says

by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller has set a “tentative” date of May 15 to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline told “Fox News Sunday.” Democrats have ramped up calls for Mueller to testify to Congress in the wake of Attorney General William Barr’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 1 about his interactions with the special counsel’s office regarding the release of the Russia report. Mueller, a former FBI director, was unable to establish that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. He declined to make a decision on whether President Donald Trump should be charged with obstructing the investigation. That left the decision up to Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who decided against pursuing an obstruction case. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, offered Mueller a chance Thursday to testify before that panel if he feels the need to correct any statements made by Barr. Mueller sent Barr a letter on March 27 raising concerns about a four-page memo that Barr sent Congress summarizing the main conclusions of the special counsel’s probe. Mueller claimed that Barr’s letter lacked “context” and had…

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Far-Left Environmentalists Aren’t Impressed with Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke’s $5 Trillion Climate Change Agenda

by Michael Bastach   Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s $5 trillion climate change plan has not enthused far-left environmentalists, who say it doesn’t go as far as the Green New Deal. “Beto claims to support the Green New Deal, but his plan is out of line with [the] timeline it lays out and the scale of action that scientists say is necessary here in the United States to give our generation a livable future,” Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement. Sunrise Movement Statement in Response to @BetoORourke's Climate Plan: Thread: pic.twitter.com/VzN9Uz6pz5 — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) April 29, 2019 The Green New Deal, introduced by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February, calls for a World War II-style takeover of the U.S. economy to replace fossil fuels with renewables and vastly expand the welfare state, all of which is estimated to cost up to $93 trillion over a decade. O’Rourke, on the other hand, aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, getting halfway there by 2030. The plan also calls for a slew of new regulations and re-entering the Paris climate accord. O’Rourke unveiled his $5 trillion climate change agenda Monday at Yosemite National Park. O’Rourke framed his plan…

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Commentary: The Russia Collusion Hoax Lays Bare the Urgent Need for FISA Reform

by Robert Romano   By far the biggest takeaway from the failure of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to establish that there was any coordination or conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election by President Donald Trump, his campaign or any American is that we need immediate and swift reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court system that was weaponized against a political campaign to investigate a crime that was never committed. The FISA warrants taken out against the Trump campaign that began in Oct. 2016 relied upon the dossier full of phony allegations by former British spy Christopher Steele that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign. It gave the government access to campaign emails, phone calls, text messages and other communications. This was the same dossier that was briefed to then-President-elect Donald Trump in Jan. 2017 by former FBI Director James Comey, who later told Congress that it was “salacious and unverified” and then was used again when the warrants were renewed. The dossier alleged that President Trump was a bought and paid for Russian agent, that former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page while on a trip to Moscow where he delivered a commencement address at the…

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House Judiciary Committee Chair Nadler Falsely Claims Don Jr. Was Offered Stolen Information in Trump Tower Meeting

by Chuck Ross   New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, falsely claimed in an interview on Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. was offered stolen information in the infamous meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd failed to correct Nadler when he made the inaccurate statement. “I do not understand why he didn’t charge Don Jr., and others in that famous meetings with criminal conspiracy,” Nadler said of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the interview. “They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting, to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. That’s conspiracy, right there,” he added. Despite that claim, Trump Jr. was not offered stolen material before accepting the June 9, 2016 meeting. WATCH: Should Mueller have charged anyone for meeting with Russians in Trump Tower? #MeetThePress #IfItsSunday@repjerrynadler: "I do not understand why he didn't charge Don Jr. and others in that famous meeting." pic.twitter.com/2h0c3Mfimp — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 21, 2019 Trump Jr. accepted the meeting after a music publicist named Rob Goldstone emailed him on June 3, 2016 saying that a Russian attorney wanted to meet with the campaign to…

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Trump Continues to Hammer Mueller Report as a ‘Total Hit Job’

President Donald Trump is continuing to lash out at special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, a few days after a redacted version was released to the public, calling it a “total hit job.” “The Trump Haters and Angry Democrats who wrote the Mueller Report were devastated by the No Collusion finding! Nothing but a total “hit job” which should never have been allowed to start in the first place!,” Trump said Sunday, adding in a separate tweet that “Despite No Collusion, No Obstruction, The Radical Left Democrats do not want to go on to Legislate for the good of the people, but only to Investigate and waste time.” The Trump Haters and Angry Democrats who wrote the Mueller Report were devastated by the No Collusion finding! Nothing but a total “hit job” which should never have been allowed to start in the first place! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2019 The 448-page report outlined the findings of the 22-month probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and if Trump . Investigators determined no one on Trump’s campaign knowingly conspired with Russia, however they declined to exonerate the president on charges that his actions obstructed justice. The report describes…

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DOJ: The Long-Awaited Mueller Report Will Be Released Thursday Morning

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr plans to release a redacted version of the special counsel’s Russia report on Thursday morning, a Justice Department official told reporters. The report is expected to contain redactions for classified information as well as information provided to a grand jury that special counsel Robert Mueller used in his 22-month investigation. The Justice Department is planning to release the 400-page report to both Congress and the public. White House lawyers have reportedly been briefed on the Mueller report, but are not expected to invoke executive privilege to block other information from being released. Barr sent Congress a letter on March 24 summarizing Mueller’s main conclusions. In the letter, Barr said that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mueller was less decisive on the question of obstruction of justice. Barr said that while Mueller’s team did not recommend charges for obstruction, they also did not exonerate Trump on that question. Barr said that after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Justice Department lawyers, he decided not to pursue an obstruction case. One of his arguments was that since nobody was being charged…

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Commentary: Pursue Those Indictments!

by Roger Kimball   Last month, Chris Buskirk wrote a column for the Spectator USA describing Representative Devin Nunes as “a hero of the Republic.” It was well-deserved praise. Nunes, a Republican Congressman from a rural district in California was, until January, chairman of the House Permanent Special Committee on Intelligence (he is now the ranking member). Nunes has worked tirelessly for more than two years to expose what our masters in deep-state Washington would bury from the glare of public scrutiny: the evidence that the entire Trump-Russian collusion narrative was a partisan effort, first, to undermine the Trump presidential campaign and, when that failed, to cover up the effort while still working assiduously to destroy the Trump presidency. As Buskirk points out, without Nunes’s terrier-like efforts—conducted, it has to be pointed out, against the background of scurrilous and unremitting calumnies from the Democrats and their bought-and-paid-for megaphones in the media—the public would likely be totally in the dark about what really happened over the course of 2016 as the Obama Administration and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign endeavored to “dirty up” Trump and his colleagues, calmly at first, and then with growing hysteria as Trump, against all the odds, emerged as a serious…

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Commentary: And Then When That Didn’t Work…

by Victor Davis Hanson   Right after the 2016 election, Green Party candidate Jill Stein – cheered on by Hillary Clinton dead-enders – sued in three states to recount votes and thereby overturn Donald Trump’s victory in the Electoral College. Before the quixotic effort imploded, Stein was praised as an iconic progressive social justice warrior who might stop the hated Trump from even entering the White House. When that did not work, B-list Hollywood celebrities mobilized, with television and radio commercials, to shame electors in Trump-won states into not voting for the president-elect during the official Electoral College balloting in December 2016. Their idea was that select morally superior electors should reject their constitutional directives and throw the election into the House of Representatives where even more morally superior NeverTrump Republicans might join with even much more morally superior Democrats to find the perfect morally superior NeverTrump alternative. When that did not work, more than 60 Democratic House members voted to bring up Trump’s impeachment for vote. Trump had only been in office a few weeks. Then San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer toured the country and lavished millions on advertisements demanding Trump’s removal by impeachment – and was sorely disappointed when he…

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House Democrats Move to Subpoena Mueller Report

The majority Democrats on a House of Representatives committee are moving this week to subpoena the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and five former White House officials. The House Judiciary Committee had called for full disclosure by Tuesday of the nearly 400-page report and its underlying evidence. Attorney General William Barr said last week that he would release the report by mid-April, “if not sooner,” after confidential material had been redacted. With its Tuesday deadline unlikely to be met, the House panel plans to vote to authorize the subpoenas on Wednesday, allowing the committee’s chairman, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, to actually issue them as he sees fit. The House committee also plans to subpoena some of President Donald Trump’s closest one-time advisers — White House strategist Steve Bannon, communications director Hope Hicks, his first chief of staff Reince Priebus, White House counsel Donald McGahn and McGahn’s chief of staff, Ann Donaldson. The five officials were likely key witnesses during Mueller’s investigation of whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the prosecutor’s 22-month probe. A week ago, Barr released a four-page summary of the Mueller report, telling top lawmakers…

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Commentary: Senator John McCain’s Key Role in Fueling the Post-Election Trump-Russia Hysteria

by Julie Kelly   In his 2018 book, The Restless Wave, the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wondered aloud why he was sought out and given the infamous Steele dossier shortly after the 2016 presidential election. After suggesting that anyone who questioned his role in handling the political document was indulging in “conspiracy theories,” McCain offered his explanation: “The answer is too obvious for the paranoid to credit. I am known internationally to be a persistent critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime and I have been a long while.” It is true that McCain was an outspoken critic of Putin. But the big problem with McCain’s defense is that by the time he wrote those words—presumably the end of 2017, since the book was published in late May 2018—it already was public knowledge that the dossier had been authored and distributed by political pimps funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. When McCain was writing his book, many of the culprits were in serious legal jeopardy. Christopher Steele, the dossier’s author, was being sued for defamation and was under congressional scrutiny in 2017. (McCain had sent his close associate, David Kramer, to meet Steele in London shortly after the 2016 election to…

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Eco-Activist’s Sordid History Sheds Light On Parents’ Role In Children’s Climate Crusade

by Chris White   A parent of one of the children suing the U.S. government for not doing enough to confront climate change has a long criminal record connected to her attempts to derail energy projects. Her legal history has flown under the radar as the litigation gains more media traction. Jayden Foytlin is among 21 young people suing the U.S. federal government for not doing more to address global warming. Media reports discussing Jayden’s story have not fleshed out the role her mother, Cherri Foytlin, played in a growing anti-pipeline movement. Cherri has been arrested at least three times during direct action protests, according to copies of her arrest records obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Cherri has become a major actor in the environmental movement, opposing a number of pipeline projects over the past eight years, including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). She is focused on scuttling the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in southern Louisiana, even as the project nears completion. Many of Cherri’s protests and arrests have been caught on video and used to promote her demonstrations. She can be seen in online videos resisting arrest, arguing with government authorities and refusing to leave a local sheriff’s office after…

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Climate Skeptic Group ‘CO2 Coalition’ Invites Rep Ocasio-Cortez to Debate Green New Deal Policy Proposal

by Michael Bastach   Skeptics of global warming “catastrophe” have an extended an offer for Green New Deal champion New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to come and debate them. Retired statistics professor Dr. Caleb Rossiter offered a standing invitation for Ocasio-Cortez, and others who have attacked the CO2 Coalition, to come and debate climate science and energy policy. Taking a page from his early anti-war activism days, Rossiter put a piece of paper with Ocasio-Cortez’s name, and the names of other “alarmists,” on an empty chair next to panelists during a Friday panel at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Rossiter said anti-war activists would have empty chairs at events reserved for Defense Department officials who, though invited, would never show up. Ocasio-Cortez and Maine Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree recently went after big tech companies for sponsoring an event at LibertyCon, a conference put on by a libertarian student group, at which the CO2 Coalition also sponsored an event. Ocasio-Cortez and Pingree said tech companies’ “implicit” support for the CO2 Coalition was “dangerous to our society” because it allegedly spread misinformation about climate science. However, NASA attributes much of the observed “global greening” in the past 30 years to elevated CO2 levels. Rossiter,…

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Minnesota State Rep Introduces Bill to Increase Criminal Penalties for Hate Crime Hoaxes

A Republican lawmaker plans to introduce legislation in the Minnesota House to increase the criminal penalties for hate-crime hoaxes in response to the ongoing controversy surrounding “Empire” star Jussie Smollett. Rep. Nick Zerwas’ (R-Elk River) proposed bill would elevate the false reporting of a hate crime to a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail or a fine of up to $3,000, or both. Current Minnesota law categorizes providing false information to law enforcement officers as a misdemeanor. “Hate crimes are among society’s most heinous and despicable acts. Those that commit bias-motivated crimes deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Zerwas said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, false claims of victimization distract from genuine episodes of violent bigotry and discrimination. My bill is a reasonable step to help deter individuals from filing false police reports and to make sure that we devote law enforcement’s limited resources to investigating and prosecuting legitimate bias-motivated crimes.” In a Wednesday press release, Zerwas said he was motivated to introduce his legislation after reports indicated that the highly-publicized hate crime against Smollett was likely a hoax. As The Minnesota Sun reported, Chicago police suspect that Smollett paid the two perpetrators to…

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Cory Booker Called Smollett ‘Attack’ A ‘Lynching,’ Now He’s Refusing Comment Amid New Evidence In The Case

by Chuck Ross   A Democratic lawmaker who called the alleged hate crime attack against Jussie Smollett a “modern-day lynching” now says that he is withholding judgement in the case amid reports that authorities believe the “Empire” actor orchestrated a hoax. “Well, the information is still coming out, and I’m going to withhold until all the information comes out,” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate, told reporters Sunday when asked about his past remarks on the Smollett case. Booker’s remarks are a far cry from a tweet he posted in the hours after Smollett’s alleged attack was reported. NEW: Booker said he is waiting for more info on the new reports of Jussie Smollet’s attack potentially being a planned hoax. He called it a “modern-day lynching” when first reported. pic.twitter.com/rHNNJtNvCs — Bo Erickson (@BoKnowsNews) February 17, 2019 “The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I’m glad he’s safe,” Booker wrote on Jan. 29. Smollett, who is black and gay, claimed that he was attacked on Jan. 29 by two white men who hurled racist and homophobic insults at him while he was walking in Chicago. The actor also claimed that his assailants placed a rope around his neck…

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Al Gore, UN Officials Team Up To Push A ‘New Deal For Nature’

Tennessee Star

by Michael Bastach   United Nations has joined forces with former Vice President Al Gore to promote a sweeping environmental agenda that seems all to familiar: a “New Deal For Nature.” The U.N. is calling for a “New Deal For Nature” ahead of a biodiversity summit next year where some sort of global compact is expected to be agreed to, that is, if environmentalists get their wish. This newest New Deal got a boost at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland at a dinner co-hosted with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The dinner featured a rousing speech by Gore as guests ate their meals. “I refuse to believe that we are the generation who willingly and passively allowed the destruction of the world on our watch! Who is with me?” Gore said at the Thursday evening dinner. Environmentalists with Conservation International say such a New Deal is “essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement” to fight global warming. At its heart, however, this New Deal is a call back to warnings that underpinned “population bomb” fears, that humanity was sucking up Earth’s natural resources faster than they could be replenished. Those warnings fell flat as global population, food production and…

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Commentary: What the Hoax Papers Tell Us About the Decline of Academic Standards

by Phillip W. Magness   By now, most followers of the higher education press have heard of the “grievance studies” or Sokal Squared hoax. In this incident, a team of three researchers successfully published several hoax papers on intentionally absurd subjects in ostensibly serious scholarly journals. Their purpose was to demonstrate the susceptibility of these venues to low-quality, ideologically charged “research” that advances left-wing identity politics. The hoax articles lampooned the academic fashion ability of its chosen subject areas. Samples of the published papers included an article on “rape culture” among dogs in urban dog parks, a piece espousing a theoretical framework for the acceptance of obese bodybuilders, a nonsensical string of computer-generated “therapeutic” political poetry, and even a passage of Mein Kampf repackaged as critical gender theory. No doubt the hoaxers used the academy’s political inclinations advantageously, and indeed their critics have accused them of an unfair “put down” that targeted scholars of gender and racial discrimination—two worthy areas of academic study that champion historically disadvantaged persons and communities. Allow me to suggest that both their supporters and critics have largely missed the mark by focusing on the political objectives of the perpetrators. While identity politics have dominated the…

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A New Report Details How Nonprofits Are Funneling Millions To Democratic Governors To Further Their Global Warming Agenda

by Michael Bastach   California Governor Jerry Brown’s upcoming global warming activist summit is part of an effort to funnels millions of dollars from nonprofits to state politicians to advance a liberal climate agenda, according to a new report. Brown’s so-called “Global Climate Action Summit” begins on Wednesday, and is sure to garner media attention. Its list of speakers includes former Vice President Al Gore, actor Alec Baldwin and former Secretary of State John Kerry. Indeed, the whole point of the summit is to give politicians and activists a platform on global warming ahead of the November elections. However, Competitive Enterprise senior fellow Chris Horner wants people to remember one thing about the summit: “this is what activist government for hire looks like, and how it is brought about.” “Open record productions reveal that this summit is part of a major climate industry that funnels donor money through nonprofit organizations to staff up politicians’ offices,” Horner wrote in a new report published Tuesday. And what an industry it is, Horner’s report reveals. Democratic state governors hope to mobilize $50 million by 2020 from nonprofits towards promoting liberal climate policies, including meeting the goals of the Paris climate accord. This is…

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Thousands March Through The Streets To Protest ‘Climate Crisis’

by Jason Hopkins   Thousands of environmental activists participated in marches around the world Saturday, calling on their governments to end fossil fuel production and embrace renewable energy. Dubbed the “Rise for Climate” movement, thousands of environmentalists took to the streets to demand an end to the fossil fuel industry, claiming it is fueling a “climate crisis.” Around 820 demonstrations took place in 91 different counties, according to the Rise for Climate website. Led in large part by 350.0rg, the worldwide marches were orchestrated by other environmental groups, including the World Wildlife Fund, Climate Action Network and GreenFaith. Protest organizers are demanding a “swift” and “just” transition to 100 percent renewable energy, which would include solar and wind technology. “Climate change is the defining issue of our time, it is a crisis of democracy, justice and human rights,” May Boeve, the executive director of 350.org, said in a prepared statement. “The climate movement is made stronger by its sister movements: for human rights, economic justice, democracy, and much more. This weekend Rise for Climate will demonstrate the growing strength and diversity of the climate movement.” Demonstrations took place in San Francisco; Paris; Sydney; Bogota, Colombia and numerous other cities around the world. "The people gonna…

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A New Report Shows Paris Climate Accord Backers Are Just ‘Outsourcing’ CO2 Emissions To China

China

by Michael Bastach   When President Donald Trump unveiled plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord last year, he voiced his concern the Obama-era deal would amount to an international wealth transfer. Trump pointed out the Paris accord “doesn’t eliminate coal jobs, it just transfers those jobs out of America, and ships them to other countries,” he said in a Rose Garden speech last year. A new report shows Trump’s broader argument that emissions-intensive activities would not be eliminated, but moved overseas was probably correct. Industries have been moving operations overseas to poorer countries with fewer regulations. The report, funded by the ClimateWorks Foundation, found that countries are increasingly “outsourcing” their emissions to other countries, like China and India. Indeed, it’s a problem conservatives have warned about for years when it comes to climate policies — regulations emissions in, say, the U.S. will only encourage carbon dioxide-heavy industries to relocate overseas. That’s exactly what’s been happening, according to the new report. If those outsourced emissions were included “many promising climate trends would be negated or reversed,” reads the report by researchers with KGM & Associates and Global Eciency Intelligence LLC. “It is estimated that 20-30% of global CO2 emissions are part…

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