Tag Archives: hillaryclinton

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The Broadside | Believe Them When They Tell You What They Think

If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently you might’ve seen a couple of stories that underscore the threat to our God-given freedom to speak our mind. As the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution puts it, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Yet our ruling class and associated busybodies have recently started saying out loud that free speech must be limited. Two former presidential candidates top the list.

“We lose total control” says the two-time loser and political criminal. Lose total control of what, you might ask? The ability to control what is said on social media and, eventually, anywhere else. This is the stuff dictatorships are made out of.

Then there’s the presidential flameout with too much time on his hands, John “Swiftboat” Kerry Heinz.

It’s a longer clip, so let me bottom line it for you: Kerry says that the First Amendment is “a major block” to curtailing speech and suggests that they have to “win the right to govern” so that “you’re free to be able to implement change.”

What kind of “change” would that be? Anyone care to guess?

Jonathan Turley, a highly respected legal authority, promoted his new-ish book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” in an op-ed for USA Today (I don’t encourage linking to USA Today or referring to them as a trusted authority, but occasionally they carry columns by people I trust). In it, he takes both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to task for advocating censorship using lies. For example,

As I have said, the Biden-Harris administration has proved to be the most anti-free speech administration in two centuries. You have to go back to John Adams’ administration to find the equal of this administration.

Harris has been an outspoken champion of censorship in an administration that supports targeting disinformation, misinformation and “malinformation.” That last category was defined by the Biden administration as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”

In the debate, Walz also returned to his favorite dismissal of censorship objections by saying that it is all just inflammatory rhetoric.

Recently, Walz went on MSNBC to support censoring disinformation and declared, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

That is entirely untrue and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the right called “indispensable” by the Supreme Court. Even after some of us condemned his claim as ironically dangerous disinformation, Walz continues to repeat it.

Below is Turley’s guest appearance on Fox News, discussing his column and mentioning both Kerry’s and Clinton’s assaults on free speech.

Let me repeat what I’ve said before and you probably know, but it needs to be said: Government does not confer your constitutional rights to you; they are supposed to protect your already given rights from any intrusion. If they give you your rights, they can take your rights. You are endowed with these rights; they are yours by nature. Resist and object loudly to any law that interferes with your natural, intrinsic rights.

These wannabe dictators are clearly telegraphing their intentions. Come November, do everything you can to keep Harris and Walz out of the White House.

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Daily Broadside | The Durham Report Tells Us Little We Don’t Know And Doesn’t Punish Anyone for Their Crimes

I mentioned the John Durham report in yesterday’s post and wanted to spend a little more time on it. When former Attorney General William Barr appointed Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney Durham in May 2019 to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia! Russia! Russia! investigation, Durham was a veteran federal prosecutor with a good, nonpartisan reputation. Durham’s work turned into a criminal probe, with Barr eventually appointing Durham as Special Counsel on October 19, 2020, to protect his work no matter the outcome of that year’s presidential election.

Most importantly, if Durham at any time believed “it is necessary and appropriate,” he was authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from his investigation. That’s what most conservatives hung their hats on — that Hillary Clinton and Christopher Wray and any other actors in the hoax would be punished. But, as you know, the Deep State and the Uniparty are all smoke and mirrors when it comes to actually holding someone accountable, even if it’s a conspiracy to take down a duly elected president.

Special counsel John Durham’s highly awaited report was released on Monday, in which he harshly criticized the FBI for its handling of an investigation into former President Donald Trump and noted that former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Barack Obama and other top national security officials regarding intelligence about a plan to “stir up a scandal” targeting Trump and Russia.

The 300-page report, which faulted the FBI for opening its probe into allegations that Trump colluded with Russia, at one point cited handwritten notes from Brennan, who had briefed Obama about the “alleged approval” by then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign in July 2016 of a proposal to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”

Durham specifically made mention of “highly significant intelligence” that the FBI “received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.” During the 2016 contest, Trump and Republicans had criticized Clinton, a former secretary of state, for her use of a private server that they said was insecure and should have brought about felony charges against her.

Brennan briefed not only Obama, but also then-Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey, according to Durham’s report. It suggested that top officials in the Obama administration were aware of the plan to denigrate Trump and paint him as a Russian asset, which the former president has long described as a witch hunt meant to harm him politically.

[…]

In Durham’s report, no charges have been recommended for any of the aforementioned individuals. Durham, a former U.S. attorney in Connecticut, also did not recommend any FBI policy changes.

But he did sharply criticize the bureau for departing from previous norms in how it opened the investigation into Trump, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane. The FBI, the report said, failed to take several necessary steps before that investigation was launched.

Ah, yes … sharp criticism. That’s the ticket! Our government agents are all about issuing strongly worded letters denouncing bad behavior, but nobody ever goes to jail for their crimes. Nobody really loses their job. Of course, Republicans are vowing that NOW they’re going to provide the necessary “oversight” and “accountability” so that “this never happens again”!

“Those responsible need to be held accountable, not just for meddling in the presidential election but also for the damage done to our institutions.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

“To ensure Americans can maintain faith in our legal system, those responsible for this miscarriage of justice must be held accountable.” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

“While I’m glad this report debunks yet another false narrative pushed by the Left and liberal media, the House will conduct vigorous oversight and do everything within its power to ensure this never happens again.” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.).

Isn’t that precious?

I’ll tell you what all that posturing means: nothing. Nothing will change.

At least Vivek Ramaswamy understands what it means.

Ramaswamy responded to the report telling The Epoch Times, “Enough is enough. Root out the corruption & shut down the FBI.”

“This is achievable,” the Republican presidential candidate went on. “At the local level, we have police & prosecutors. At the federal level, we have U.S. marshals & the DOJ. An intermediary bureaucracy is rife with risk for politicized corruption & it’s been happening since J. Edgar Hoover in the 60s.”

I’m all for abolishing the FBI and any number of other three-letter agencies that shield unelected bureaucrats from accountability while regulating every aspect of our lives. The FBI has become a corrupt, partisan, armed agent of the Left.

But the GOP and GOPe don’t have the spine to do it. That’s why we’ll only hear strongly worded denouncements.

Jeff Carlson’s op-ed speaks for me:

But it’s what Durham doesn’t cover that’s far and away most notable. Durham doesn’t appear to even touch on notable high-level events such as the White House meeting on Jan. 5, 2017, that included then-President Barack Obama–a meeting that appears to directly implicate both Obama and now-President Joe Biden in the coming attacks on Trump’s administration.

There’s also no effort to address the NSA’s collection of data and the unmasking of members within the Trump campaign that were highlighted by then-Rep. Devin Nunes in early 2017. While we know that some of the actions taken by the FBI and other three-letter agencies required high-level decision-making, Durham not only fails to address the actions of these high-level individuals, he didn’t even identify them.

Durham didn’t even address the supposed hack of the Democratic National Committee servers. This lack of information is made all the more frustrating by the fact that Durham’s team conducted “more than 480 interviews” and reviewed “more than six million pages of documents.” It seems clear that a big part of the story remains untold.

There’s also a generalized absence of information on anything post-January 2017. We didn’t find anything material on the Intelligence Community Assessment, which was used to push the narrative that President Trump had been compromised by Russia. We also didn’t find anything regarding the Obama administration’s targeting of Trump’s national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn.

Nor did Durham address the FBI’s leadership briefing of the Justice Department (DOJ) and Congress in March 2017, in which James Comey misrepresented not only the entirety of the FBI’s investigation but also failed to disclose Danchenko’s information and his complete lack of suitability as a confidential human source—which invalidated the entirety of the Steele dossier.

Importantly, there’s a complete failure on the part of Durham to provide any measure of accountability. There are virtually no criminal referrals contained in Durham’s report nor are there any material recommendations for criminal investigations into these individuals.

Once again, there’s no accountability for those who are truly guilty—and those who are truly privileged.

There’s no accountability because the entire system is built to protect the guilty. Hunter Biden, anyone? Hillary Clinton? James Comey? Barack Hussein Obama? Brandon? They are all clearly guilty, but none of them will ever truly face any justice.

As a Christian I feel frustrated when I see evil and powerful men and women getting away with their wickedness. But I return to the Psalms where I learn what I am to do:

Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
    when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psalm 37:7)

Some time ago I wrote the word “Democrats” in the margin next to that verse in my Bible.

We can know for sure that the evil will get what is coming to them, but it it tough to be patient while watching the wicked prosper.

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Daily Broadside | Trump May Have Historical Precedent Going For Him, But 2020 Is Historical Precedent Now, Too

We’re still 17.5 months away from the next presidential election, enough time for the Resident to do more considerable damage to the nation of which he is the titular head. I won’t say that he “leads” the U.S. because as we all know, he doesn’t have that capacity.

Nevertheless, we can begin fretting about how the political fight among Republicans will shape up and start making some observations. Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and conservative radio host Larry Elder have officially declared their candidacies to be the Republican nominee for president.

Of course, the presumptive nominee to beat is president-in-exile Donald J. Trump.

Historian and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Niall Ferguson, makes a prediction about Trump that has caught the public’s attention. 

Former President Donald Trump is likely to become the next U.S. president, according to Scottish-American historian Niall Ferguson.

“A second Trump act is not just possible. It’s fast becoming my base case,” Ferguson, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, wrote in a May 13 op-ed for The Spectator.

Ferguson explained that there is a “campaign of lawfare against Trump” but the effort “has already started to backfire.”

“It may seem paradoxical that the Democrats are harassing Trump in the courts if they want to run against him. But it makes sense: the prospect of him performing the perp walk attracts media coverage, and media coverage is the free publicity on which Trump has always thrived,” Ferguson wrote.

Ferguson added, “Every column inch or minute of airtime his legal battles earn him is an inch or a minute less for his Republican rivals for the nomination.”

We already know that the DNC, the media, NeverTrumpers and social media giants like Facebook are all in to prevent Trump from becoming president again, and they’ll abuse the law in service to that end if it keeps him out of office.

I’ve said before that the greatest service Trump did for the country, perhaps apart from appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, was to expose the Deep State and their lawless activities, even if he did it inadvertently. Did you see John Durham’s report yesterday? It proves that the FBI knew the Steele dossier was garbage, but they used it as a pretext to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into whether Trump was a Russian stooge. It also proves that Hillary Clinton was in on the scam from the start. Think anyone will go to prison for conducting a psyops campaign during a presidential election, or nah?

Norms status: R E S T O R E D.

If Trump wins the White House again, it will be the same harassment and false charges all over again to hamper any effectiveness he might have.

What about Ron DeSantis?

Ferguson also argued that if it were a two-man race between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, there would be “a good deal more uncertainty around the outcome,” given that the governor “still looks to be in contention” in head-to-head polling.

“When voters are polled about this crowded field, Trump is the clear frontrunner, leading DeSantis by an average margin of nearly 30 points, 52.1 percent to 22.9,” Ferguson wrote.

Currently, the Florida governor has not indicated when or if he will announce a 2024 White House bid.

I like what I’ve seen of DeSantis, but I also like what I’ve seen of Ramaswamy. As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, I’m very mixed on Trump. Although if he’s the nominee, I’d crawl over broken glass and spilled vinegar to pull the lever for him.

Ferguson places the betting odds on Trump.

As for the primaries, Ferguson notes that Republican candidates that have an early lead in the polls, as Trump does, typically end up the nominee. “Early frontrunners have won Republican primaries in six out of eight competitive races since 1972, when the modern system of primaries was introduced,” he notes. “The two exceptions were John McCain in 2008 and Trump himself in 2016.”

If Donald Trump maintains his current average polling numbers throughout the first half of 2023 but fails to become the Republican Party’s choice for the presidential nomination, he would become the highest-polling candidate ever to be unsuccessful in securing the nomination. So the odds are clearly in his favor.

As for the general election. Democrats assume that Trump can’t beat Biden — and that’s probably the only reason they’re tolerating nominating a vegetable for president — particularly in light of the results of the 2022 midterms. Of course, while Joe Biden likes to take credit for that, the abortion issue was a much more significant factor than Joe Biden.

Ferguson goes on to say that the economy will be a huge factor in the 2024 election and that, historically, “The Republican frontrunner usually wins the nomination, and a post-recession incumbent usually loses the presidential election.”

I don’t know that post-2020 we can count on historical precedent. We now know that the government uses its political power to favor Democrats and that organizations like Facebook pump money into regions where they can harvest ballots on behalf of Democrats. We are becoming like the corrupt third-world countries run by tin pot dictators who hold political power by cheating and rigging and influencing the elections. I used to feel sorry for those people who voted in vain.

Now I just feel sorry for us.

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Daily Broadside | Shocker: Man Tries to Kill Justice Kavanaugh Because He Was Upset Over the Leaked Draft Opinion on Roe v. Wade

Daily Verse | Job 42:2
“I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”

Thursday’s Reading: Psalms 1-6

Happy Thursday and let’s jump right into the anarchy that the anti-American progressive Marxist true believers, including Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, AOC, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and other RINOs, have unleashed on our country.

The armed California man arrested near the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday morning has been identified as Nicholas John Roske, law enforcement sources tell Fox News.

Roske of Simi Valley, California, was carrying a gun, knife and pepper spray when arrested and had made violent threats against Kavanaugh, sources said. Roske was picked up on a nearby street after calling police on 911 to report himself.

A criminal complaint obtained by Fox News shows that Roske is being charged with attempting to murder a United States Supreme Court Justice. He is scheduled to have a first appearance in federal court in Maryland Wednesday afternoon.

He told officers that he wanted “to give his life purpose” and purchased the gun and other items for the purpose of breaking into Kavanaugh’s home and killing the justice and then himself. Roske admitted in a second interview with the FBI of his intent to kill Kavanaugh and himself, according to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint.

Roske told detectives that “he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to an abortion as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” and believed Kavanaugh “would side with Second Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws,” according to the affidavit.

The guy reported himself. What if he hadn’t?

The White House responded with a statement on behalf of the Resident.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that Joe Biden “condemns the actions of this individual in the strongest terms” and that he’s “grateful to law enforcement” for quickly taking the suspect into custody.

“As the President has consistently made clear, public officials—including judges—must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety or that of their families,” Bates said in the statement. “And any violence, threats of violence, or attempts to intimidate justices have no place in our society.”

Pfffft. I’m old enough to remember this attempt “to intimidate justices” over abortion:

And this attempt to intimidate members of Trump’s cabinet:

And this bit of wisdom from the Loser:

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” Clinton declared in a recent CNN interview. When and if Democrats assume power in Congress, she said, “that’s when civility can start again.” Members of the American left agreed; those on the American right did not. 

The Democrats are the ones calling for violence. It’s the progressives who rant and rave, who agitate, who act violently, who have fire-bombed pro-life clinics. The violence is coming from the Left, not the Right.

I wonder if Roske was on Merrick Garland’s list of domestic terrorists?

After the leak of the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the Senate introduced and passed the Supreme Court Police Parity Act, by unanimous consent. It’s now stalled in the Democrat-controlled House where they’re hoping one of the conservative justices will be assassinated so that they can quickly replace him or her with a trans-woman-of-color.

Following news of the arrest, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell urged Democrats to pass the Supreme Court security bill.

“House Democrats must pass this bill and they need to do it today. No more fiddling around with this, they need to pass it today … before the sun sets,” he said on the Senate floor.

Roske was arrested and was found with an arsenal on him.

A black tactical chest rig and tactical knife, Glock 17 pistol with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles, and other items were found in his suitcase and backpack.

He apparently was planning to murder Justice Kavanaugh, then kill himself. Instead, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Chief Justice Roberts is partly culpable for this turn of events. Writes Josh Blackman:

Every day that goes by, and Dobbs remains undecided, is a day that the lives of the Justices and their families are at risk. Immediately after the leak, I wrote that the Court should issue a one-sentence per curiam opinion, with a reasoned decision to follow–follow the path of Ex Parte Quirin. Lurking in the back of mind was the risk that a Justice could be assassinated. Now, that risk looks so much more real …

… Why is there a delay? So Roberts can take yet another ill-fated attempt to pick off one or two votes? A real leader would have put aside his quixotical quest for balance. Every day that passes, as the Chief haggles over votes, a target remains on the backs of his colleagues.

The Dobbs 5 should immediately issue an unsigned per curiam order, with an opinion to follow, even over the Chief Justice’s objection. The Justices should send a clear and unequivocal message that they will not be intimidated by these acts of violence.

This is where the progressive Left has brought us: conspiracies, mob tactics, intimidation, and near-assassination attempts. That’s how they intend to get the outcomes they want. Not through the democratic process, but through force.

God help us.

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Daily Broadside | The Secrets of the Russia Collusion Lie Are Being Revealed

Daily Verse | Numbers 15:30
‘But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord, and that person must be cut off from his people.’

Wednesday’s Reading: Numbers 13-16

Wednesday and where do I start? Sandy Hook and Remington? Thousands of invalidated baptisms? The 30 Democrats leaving the House at the end of this term? The BLM supporter who tried to assassinate a mayoral candidate in Kentucky?

Nah.

Let’s go with the most recent developments in the RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! collusion narrative that the Democrats and MSMSNBCNN alliance reported on pushed for years — that President Trump was a RUSSIAN agent and puppet of Putin and he was selling the United States out to RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! and our precious democracy was in Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

It was all a lie, just as we knew it was.

Special Counsel John Durham continues to unravel the Trump-Russia “collusion” story, and his latest court disclosure contains startling information. According to a Friday court filing, the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign effort to compile dirt on Donald Trump reached into protected White House communications.

According to Fox News:

Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to “infiltrate” servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an “inference” and “narrative” to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham found.

The tech company had privileged access to the servers which held non-public data. In other words, they were paid to exploit their access to private, non-public, secure information in the hopes of finding dirt on Trump.

Durham’s filing states that in July 2016, the tech executive worked with Sussmann, a U.S. investigative firm retained by Law Firm 1 on behalf of the Clinton campaign, numerous cyber researchers and employees at multiple internet companies to “assemble the purported data and white papers.”

“In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data,” the filing states. “Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.”

“Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia,” Durham states. “In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain ‘VIPs,’ referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton campaign.”

This after years of smears coming from the likes of Adam Schiff-for-Brains who claimed that “he has seen ‘more than circumstantial evidence’ of a Trump-Putin conspiracy” … a truly delusional and lying piece of Schiff. Don’t forget MSNBC’s star, Rachel Maddow, who was “the most prominent TV host to push the Russia collusion narrative.“

Fox News’s Gregg Jarrett, who wrote a book about the hoax, “Witch Hunt,” writes,

The stunning revelation that lawyers for the Hillary Clinton campaign paid a computer technology company to surveil a sitting president, Donald Trump, shows that more than half a dozen crimes may have been committed to advance the false accusation that he colluded with Russia.

It’s likely true that no one of any importance will get jail time for this, least of all Clinton.

As with any well organized criminal exercise, it is exceedingly difficult to nab the person at the top. Hillary Clinton is no different.  She carried out her machinations in smart and clever ways. She had others do her dirty work for her and maintained a distance separated through an elaborate chain of people. It was akin to a money laundering scheme, except dirty information was being washed.

Unless people in the chain break their silence and implicate Hillary, she will likely escape culpability.

Evidence of her role has slowly emerged from declassified records. It was July 26, 2016, when Clinton personally approved the plot to vilify Trump with the bogus collusion claims, according to CIA documents.  The genesis of the smear came from Hillary herself as a strategy to distract from her own email scandal.

Two days later, President Obama was alerted but appears to have done nothing except keep the matter concealed. Intelligence officials then sent an investigative referral on Clinton to then-FBI Director James Comey and his deputy, Peter Strzok. Predictably, it was buried.

Make no mistake –it was Clinton who invented the elaborate collusion hoax, financed it, and directed the process by which it was circulated to the media and the FBI.  Her false claims were then disseminated by a cadre of cronies and dirty-tricksters working secretly in the shadows.

Neither the White House nor Hillary herself responded to requests for comment in the wake of the Special Counsel’s revelations. This even as Democrats want Clinton investigated:

[N]early three out of four Americans want to see Hillary Clinton investigated for her connection to the efforts to frame Trump for ties to Russia. That number includes 66 percent of Democrats.

It’s hilarious to me that Clinton is making noise about a comeback in 2024 for a third run at the White House. But I’m not stupid … the Democrats put an empty, self-promotional, racist grand-stander with zero brains in the White House in 2020, so I wouldn’t put it past them to do the same with Felonius Milhous Pantsuit (as Kurt Schlichter calls her).

I admit that once Trump was out of office, I expected that the Durham investigation would die a quiet death, simply fading from view without notice. The fact that he’s been chipping away all this time is encouraging and I hope—I hope!—that he can prove that the only collusion going on was between Hillary, Obama, Biden and the rest of the Democrat cabal, including the MSM.

Our republic is counting on it.