Alfie's Long Goodbye

What the British government is doing to a baby and his family is almost unbelievable. The government has determined that Alfie Evans, afflicted by a rare neurodegenerative disorder, has so poor a quality of life that no efforts should be made to keep him alive. He was taken off ventilation, but continued, surprising the doctors, to breathe. He has also been deprived of water and food. His parents want to take him to Italy, where a hospital is willing to treat him. The British government says no, and has police stationed to keep the boy from being rescued. It is, after all, in his best interest to die. They've even instructed the police to monitor social media and threaten anyone who dares to question their judgment and call them murderers.

How does a nation reach a point where it will essentially kidnap a child from a loving, functioning family, yank that same child off life support, deny him care as he unexpectedly fights to stay alive, and then block attempts by a foreign government to rescue him and provide him top-notch care free of charge? How does a great civilization sink to such barbarism and tyranny?

Rather than defending a right to life, the state has decided to define which lives are worth living. Rather than protecting the rights of the child only when the parents have manifestly failed, the state has decided that it is the greater, better parent. Why aren’t liberals horrified by the British Government’s behavior? Shouldn’t everyone be?

There are end-of-life cases that raise genuinely complicated issues. The same course of medical treatment might be obligatory in one set of circumstances, permissible in another, and cruel in a third. There are gray areas and judgment calls. This is not one of those cases. There is no allegation that providing the baby with nutrition and hydration, or treatment generally, will cause him suffering — or that extending his life will prolong his suffering, since there is no indication that he has been suffering.

The family is not asking the British government to pay for expensive treatments. They just want the freedom to take their boy to people who will try to keep him alive rather than cause his death. The considerations that move the government are that the baby’s doctors consider it unlikely that he will ever attain a high level of cognitive functioning or be able to survive on his own, and likely that his condition will eventually kill him. The courts have decided that Alfie Evans therefore derives no benefit from continuing to live.

It really is this simple: The government has decided that it is the baby’s best interest to die, and it is trying to ensure that he dies expeditiously. It is overriding parental rights in the process. The family and its supporters assert that it is barbaric to sentence anyone to death by starvation for the crime of being dependent on others, and that parents have a right to make medical decisions for their children.

Alfie, admitted to Alder Hey Hospital in December 2016, was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease associated with severe epilepsy and has been in a semivegetative state for more than a year. During that time, he has been kept alive by artificial ventilation in the critical care unit.

Based on "extensive damage" in the child's brain, the hospital recommended to the child's parents that active treatment be stopped. Disagreement between the hospital and his parents resulted in a referral of Alfie's case to the Family Division of the UK High Court for a judge to rule on whether active treatment is in Alfie's best interests.

When the court did not rule in their favor, the parents appealed the decision, and after that appeal was lost, the case was referred to the Supreme Court. While the case played out in the legal arena, the hospital continued to provide Alfie with artificial ventilation and assisted feeding, but his doctors said continued treatment was futile and speculated that, if they were to withdraw Alfie's ventilation support, the child would shortly die. Last week, Alfie's father traveled to Rome to meet Pope Francis, who expressed his support for their cause.
At that time, it was suggested that Alfie could be transported to Rome's Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital, a Vatican hospital and the main pediatric hospital serving southern Italy, for treatment.

However, a subsequent visit to Alfie and consultation with his doctors led the Roman doctors to conclude that the child's condition is irreversible and untreatable. Based in part on evidence supplied by the hospital, the supreme court dismissed Alfie's case. High Court Justice Anthony Hayden rejected the plan to take Alfie to Rome and said the order to end Alfie's life support should commence at 9 p.m. Monday.

In a last-ditch effort, Alfie's parents appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which rejected their application on Monday, declaring the complaint "inadmissible." At 9:17 p.m. Monday, ventilation support was withdrawn. Contrary to all the expectations of the doctors, Alfie continued to breathe independently. Tom Evans posted a video on Facebook in which he said that his son had been breathing for himself and that the doctors were refusing to give him oxygen.

For hours, Alfie continued to breathe unaided, with hospital staff refusing to help with either ventilation or hydration despite his coughing. About 2 a.m. Tuesday, Alder Hey hospital staff provided some hydration and oxygen support. The Italian government granted Italian citizenship to Alfie on Tuesday and applied to the foreign secretary for permission to intervene to save Alfie's life. Once again, the courts had to decide, in an urgent hearing on Tuesday, whether this would be permitted, and it ruled to ban travel.

In Wednesday's appeal hearing, Alfie's legal team argued that the hospital's original end-of-life plan was based on suppositions that the toddler needed oxygen to survive, Kiska said. The fact that Alfie lived on even without ventilation support was a material change in circumstance and served as grounds for renewing the matter.

It is in Alfie's best interest to travel to Italy, where doctors are ready to care for him, the legal team argued in court. "We're still holding out hope because Alfie continues to fight," said Kiska. Since the toddler has been "denied nutrition" for more than 24 hours, he said, "we're going against the clock."

A representative of the Italian Embassy attended the hearing, while an air ambulance waited outside Alder Hey Hospital to fly Alfie to Italy. Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said, "it cannot be in Alfie's best interests to be left in Alder Hey where the court order is to let him die. Alfie's best interests would be served by allowing him to travel to Italy." Williams said the "common sense approach" would be for Hayden to discharge all the court orders which detain Alfie. Having failed to gain the court's permission to fly his son to Italy, Tom Evans told British media on Thursday morning that he will be speaking to the doctors at Alder Hey about bringing Alfie home.

Professor Dominic Wilkinson, a consultant neonatologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital and director of Medical Ethics at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, said, "In Alfie's case, none of the foreign experts have offered any new treatment or any new outlook for Alfie. The Italian specialists have apparently indicated that they believe that his care should be palliative."

The high court ruled on Tuesday that Alfie may be allowed home from Alder Hey, where his life support has been withdrawn following a long legal fight, but barred the parents from taking their son to the hospital in Vatican City.

On Wednesday, three court of appeal judges backed the decision made at the high court the previous day to deny the request to fly Alfie to Italy after he was granted citizenship there.

The ruling followed a flurry of legal arguments by lawyers for Tom Evans and Kate James, the parents of Alfie, who was said to be “struggling” on Wednesday after being taken off life support. On Wednesday, the appeal judges heard that James was now represented by a different barrister, Jason Coppel QC, who said she had told him by telephone: “Alfie is struggling and needs immediate intervention.”

Coppel advanced arguments on grounds that ranged from drawing on legislation governing EU freedom of movement through to suggesting that the child’s new Italian citizenship was a change in circumstances that should be taken into account.

An “erroneous” decision in the UK could open up the doctors who had been involved in treating Evans to criminal proceedings in Italy, he added.

He and Paul Diamond, the barrister representing Alfie’s father, both argued that there had also been a change of circumstances in that the boy had been surpassing expectations of how he would cope after his breathing tube had been removed 48 hours earlier.

The barrister for Alder Hey told Wednesday’s hearing that a focus on repeated appeals by Alfie’s parents meant they parents had been unable to engage in any discussion about withdrawal of care.

Rejecting the arguments put forward by legal counsel for the parents, Michael Mylonas QC, said that the doctors had never said that the child’s death would be instantaneous after his ventilator had been removed.

Contrary to what counsel for the parents suggested, there was no new medical evidence, he added. “It has never been said to this family that Alfie would die immediately or before sundown.”

Mylonas said nothing had changed in respect of Alfie’s ability to travel to Italy, telling the judges: “Alfie stands exactly the same risk of brain damage in transit.”

The Italian hospital has acknowledged it will not be able to find a cure, but has proposed maintaining Alfie’s life for about two weeks while doctors tried to investigate his condition. But the courts have accepted the view of the experts who have been treating him at Alder Hey that there is no realistic prospect of further treatment, other than palliative care.

Mylonas said the “tragedy” for the parents was that Alfie looked like a normal child. Lord Justice McFarlane said the family had the “awful journey” from getting to know their baby, only for signs to appear two or three months later that “all was not well”.

Golda Meir

Golda Meir was best known as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel, from 1969-1974, and the first and only woman to hold the title. She was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman, politician and described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics back then. She was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people".

This is her most famous quote. This is her story:

Golda Meir was born Goldie Mabovitch in Kiev, Russia on May 3, 1898, the daughter of Moshe and Bluma Mabovitch. Her father boarded up the house during the 1905 Kiev pogrom where mobs killed over 100 Jews. That year, the family fled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Millions of Jews have been forced to migrate over the past 2,000 years to escape persecution and death. The most persecuted people in WORLD HISTORY.

In 1916-17, Golda Mabovitch attended Milwaukee Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) over the objections of her parents, who wanted her to get married rather than pursue a profession. She did both, attaining a teaching certificate and marrying Morris Meyerson.

In 1921, Golda and Morris Meyerson immigrated to Palestine and joined the Merhavia kibbutz, a communal settlement. In 1924, the couple moved to Jerusalem and soon had a son, Menachem, and a daughter, Sarah. Golda intensified her political activity by representing the Histadrut Trade Union and serving as a delegate to the World Zionist Organization.

Before World War II, much of the Middle East was under the control of France and Great Britain, as prescribed by the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 (officially termed the 1916 Asia Minor Agreement). British officials made promises to establish a Jewish homeland, but this never materialized and the matter was left for the next generation. The British White Paper of 1939 only called for a Jewish homeland, not a Jewish state, and it allowed Arab officials to determine the rate of Jewish immigration. During the war, Golda Meir emerged as a powerful spokesperson for the Zionist movement and fought hard against the policy, pleading that increased Jewish immigration was crucial in light of the persecution by the German Nazi regime.

The British intensified their enforcement of the White Paper policy by arresting many Jewish activists and illegal immigrants. When Moshe Shertok-Sharett was arrested, Golda Meir replaced him as chief liaison with the British. She worked to free him and many Jewish war refugees who had violated the British immigration policy. Meir later organized fundraising events in the United States for an Israeli independent state.

In 1948, Israel declared its independence and Golda Meir was one of the signers of Israel’s declaration. That same year, she was appointed minister to Moscow, but when hostilities broke out between Arab countries and Israel, she returned and was elected to the Israeli Parliament. Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion sent Meir on a secret mission, disguised as an Arab, to plead with King Abdullah I not to enter in a war against Israel. He declined and the conflict expanded to include the nations of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq and Syria against Israel.

Hostilities ended with an armistice that preserved Israeli independence and increased its size by 50 percent. Golda Meir served as minister of labor and worked to solve Israel’s housing and employment problems by implementing major residential and infrastructure construction projects. In 1956, she was appointed foreign minister and helped establish relations with emerging African countries and strengthened ties with the United States and Latin America.

At age 68, Golda Meir wanted to retire from public life. She was tired and ill but members of the Mapai political party encouraged her to serve as the party’s secretary general. Over the next two years, she helped merge her party and two dissident political parties into the Israel Labor Party. Following the death of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1969, she put off retirement again and agreed to serve out the remainder of his term. That same year, her party won the elections, giving her a four-year term as prime minister. During her tenure, she gained economic and military aid from U.S. President Richard Nixon, which helped her open peace talks with the United Arab Republic in hopes of ending hostilities.

During the relative period of peace between the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, Golda Meir straddled the line between radicals who wanted to settle the captured territory of the 1967 war (which she supported) and proposals by moderates who favored giving up land claims in exchange for peace. The debate ended with the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war on October 6, 1973, which is also known as the Yom Kippur War. Syrian forces had been massing along the Golan Heights. Concerned that a preemptive strike would bring condemnation by international supporters, especially the United States, Meir prepared for a defensive war. Syrian forces attacked from the north and Egypt attacked from the west. After three weeks, Israel was victorious and had gained more Arab land. Golda Meir formed a new coalition government but resigned on April 10, 1974, exhausted and willing to let others lead. She was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

Though she remained an important political figure, Golda Meir retired for good and published her autobiography, My Life, in 1975. On December 8, 1978, Meir died in Jerusalem at the age of 80. It was revealed that she suffered from leukemia. She was buried on December 12, 1978 at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

© 2017 Bio

The Fall of the Soviet Union

On December 25, 1991, the Communist flag was finally removed from the Soviet Union. On December 25, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as leader of the USSR. The Communist Soviet Union ceased to exist after 74 years. The world’s first Marxist-Communist state would become one of the biggest nations in the world, occupying nearly one-sixth of Earth’s land surface, before its fall and ultimate dissolution in 1991.

The Soviet Union had its origins in the Russian Revolution of 1917. Radical leftist revolutionaries overthrew Russia’s czar Nicholas II, ending centuries of Romanov rule. The Bolsheviks established a Socialist state in the territory that was once the Russian Empire.

A long and bloody civil war followed. The Red Army, backed by the Bolshevik government, defeated the White Army, a large group of monarchists and capitalists. In a period known as the Red Terror, Bolshevik secret police, known as Cheka, carried out a campaign of mass executions against supporters of the czarist regime and against Russia’s upper classes.

A 1922 treaty between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and modern Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The newly established Communist Party, led by Marxist Vladimir Lenin, took control of the government. Georgian-born Joseph Stalin rose to power upon Lenin’s death in 1924. Stalin ruled by terror and left millions of his own citizens dead. During his reign, which lasted until his death in 1953, Stalin enforced the collectivization of the agricultural sector. Rural peasants were forced to join collective farms. Those that owned land or livestock were stripped of their holdings. Hundreds of thousands of higher-income farmers, called kulaks, were rounded up and executed, their property confiscated. The Communists believed that consolidating individually owned farms into a series of large state-run collective farms would increase agricultural productivity. The opposite proved to be true. Agricultural productivity dropped. This led to devastating food shortages and millions died during the Great Famine of 1932-1933. For many years the USSR denied the Great Famine and hid the truth about millions dying from mass starvation due to failed Communist collectivism policies.

Stalin eliminated all likely opposition to his leadership through his secret police. During the height of Stalin’s terror campaign the Great Purge of 1936-1938, an estimated 600,000 Soviet citizens were executed. Millions more were deported, or imprisoned in forced labor camps known as Gulags.

Following the surrender of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II, the uncomfortable wartime alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States and Great Britain began to crumble. The Soviet Union by 1948 had installed Communist-leaning governments in Eastern European countries that the USSR had liberated from Nazi control during the war. The Americans and British feared the spread of Communism into Western Europe and worldwide. In 1949, the U.S., Canada and its European allies formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The alliance between countries of the Western bloc was a political show of force against the USSR and its allies.

In response to NATO, the Soviet Union in 1955 consolidated power among Eastern bloc countries under a rival alliance called the Warsaw Pact, setting off the Cold War. The Cold War power struggle—waged between the Eastern and Western blocs—would persist in various forms until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev rose to power. He became Communist Party secretary in 1953 and premier in 1958. Khrushchev’s tenure spanned the tensest years of the Cold War. He instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 by installing nuclear weapons just 90 miles from Florida’s coast in Cuba. At home, however, Khrushchev initiated a series of political reforms that made Soviet society less repressive. During this period, later known as de-Stalinization, Khrushchev criticized Stalin for arresting and deporting opponents, took steps to raise living conditions, freed many political prisoners, loosened artistic censorship, and closed the Gulag labor camps. Deteriorating relations between the Soviet Union and neighboring China and food shortages across the USSR eroded Khrushchev’s legitimacy in the eyes of the Communist party leadership. Members of his own political party removed Khrushchev from office in 1964.

The Soviets initiated rocketry and space exploration programs in the 1930s as part of Stalin’s agenda for building an advanced, industrial economy. Many early projects were tied to the Soviet military and kept secret, but by the 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for competition between dueling world superpowers.

On October 4, 1957, the USSR publicly launched Sputnik 1—the first-ever artificial satellite—into low Earth orbit. The success of Sputnik made Americans fear that the U.S. was falling behind its Cold War rival in technology. The ensuing “Space Race” heated up further in 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy responded to Gagarin’s feat by making the bold claim that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The U.S. succeeded—on July 16, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.

A longtime Communist Party politician, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985. The Communist Party elite had rapidly gained wealth and power while millions of average Soviet citizens faced starvation. There were frequent shortages of food and consumer goods. Bread lines were common and Soviet citizens often did not have access to basic needs, such as clothing or shoes. The USSR also faced foreign attacks on the Soviet economy. President Ronald Reagan isolated the Soviet economy from the rest of the world and helped drive oil prices to their lowest levels in decades. When the Soviet Union’s oil and gas revenue dropped dramatically, the USSR began to lose its hold on Eastern Europe. The divide between the extreme wealth of the Politburo and the poverty of Soviet citizens created a backlash from younger people who refused to adopt Communist Party ideology as their parents had. Gorbachev introduced new policies he hoped would reform the political system and help the USSR become a more prosperous, productive nation.

Gorbachev’s reforms were slow to bear fruit and did more to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union than to help it. A loosening of controls over the Soviet people emboldened independence movements in the Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe. Political revolution in Poland in 1989 sparked other, mostly peaceful revolutions across Eastern European states and led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall. By the end of 1989, the USSR had come apart at the seams. An unsuccessful coup by Communist Party hard-liners in August 1991 sealed the Soviet Union’s fate by diminishing Gorbachev’s power and propelling democratic forces, led by Boris Yeltsin, to the forefront of Russian politics.

On December 25, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the USSR. The Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 31, 1991.

No MeWe for Me!

Why does everybody want me to give up over 12,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter and go to MeWe, a social media site run by a liberal, California, Huffington Post blogger, acclaimed in Socialist Canada, with a name that rhymes with Pee-wee?

MeWe was picked as a "company to watch" in the 2018 FTI Tech Trends Report (propaganda.) The founder has served as a Steering Committee Member of National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) and been named Privacy by Design Ambassador by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. Canada? He has been interviewed on CNN International, Fox News, ABC, and radio stations around the world. Mark is a Huffington Post technology blogger and has been published in liberal media like The Nation, The Daily Mirror (UK), USA Today and other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.

It's another divide and conquer, bait and switch ploy to splinter conservatives before mid-terms and 2020. Do not fall for it. Facebook and Twitter have problems but the censorship is finally documented and being outed and there is a huge installed base of conservatives to share with and debate. Going to MeWe in "defiance" will accomplish nothing. In fact, it will hurt our cause. Stay here and fight until we have a viable alternative to migrate to.

Left-Wing Corruption in Brazil. Sounds Like The Clinton Foundation Players.

Barack Obama once called him the most popular politician on earth. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, the former left-wing President of Brazil, just began his 12 year prison sentence after being found guilty, and losing his appeal, of corruption and money-laundering. I wonder what Barry says now? Netflix just came out with "The Mechanism" - a riveting tale of Brazil's massive "pay for play" corruption scheme between the nation's Government-run oil company, politicians, corporations, contractors, and money launderers.

The Mechanism is riveting must see TV. The New Yorker just wrote a review of The Mechanism and tried to tie the rampant left-wing corruption in Brazil to Republicans like Donald Trump. I kid you not. That's how desperate the media is. Read on.

Lula, 72, is the leader of the left-wing Workers’ Party. He served as president from 2003 to 2010 and former U.S. President Barack Obama once dubbed him the “most popular politician on Earth.” During the end of his second term in 2010, Lula reached an approval rate of 87 percent, “levels never before registered,” according to Brazil’s Ibope poll.

Lula was known for his economic and social reforms, mostly notably his Bolsa Familia, a conditional cash transfer program to the poor. In other words, he paid poor people to like him, with other people's money. Lula was Brazil’s first president from the leftist Workers’ party and helped his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, win two subsequent elections before she was impeached last year for breaking budget rules amid a sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras. Billions of dollars were paid to middlemen, executives and politicians for fat contracts. Sounds just like the Clinton Foundation pay for play, huh?

Lula ran the powerful metal workers’ union before helping found the Workers’ party with fellow leftists, unionists and intellectuals in 1980. He fought and lost three elections before winning the first of two mandates in 2002.

Lula was charged for money laundering and accepting more than $1 million in bribes as part of a massive investigation into Brazil's business and political leaders that has become known as Operation Car Wash.

"I consider the culpability in the case extremely high," Judge João Pedro Gebran Neto said to The Associated Press. "This is about a former president and a corruption scheme that prevailed for years."

Lula was found guilty of accepting 3.7 million reais ($1.2 million) worth of bribes from engineering firm OAS SA after prosecutors argued that figure was the amount the company spent renovating Lula’s beachfront apartment in exchange for help in obtaining contracts from Brazil’s state-control oil company Petrobras.

Lula’s government was first hit by a corruption scandal called the Mensalão, in which lawmakers were allegedly paid to vote for government measures. He was still re-elected in 2006 and left office with an 87% approval rating. Then his successor Rousseff was impeached in August 2016. Brazil is a country that is polarized between its liberals and its conservatives, and the latter have shown themselves to be determined, in as many ways as possible, to roll back the reforms that Lula instituted.

Lula, on Tuesday, April 24, from prison, gave his Workers' Party (PT) the green light to find a new candidate for the October presidential election in which he remains the frontrunner.

"I want you to feel totally free to take whatever decision you need because 2018 is an important year for the PT, for the left and for democracy."

But the PT dismissed his offer, with party president Gleisi Hoffmann writing on Facebook that they would keep him as their candidate.

Lula was accused of being many things in the past, including being a Communist, a coarse proletarian and a drinker. Yet, Time Magazine named him the "world's most influential political leader," even ahead of US President Barack Obama. His left-wing base in Brazil once saw him as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize because he worked with President Obama, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Iran nuclear deal. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

More Pieces Of The Corruption Puzzle

Most of us know many pieces of the corruption puzzle. Here's a few more, thanks to a Facebook friend.

From 2001 to 2005 there was an ongoing investigation into the Clinton Foundation. A Grand Jury had been empaneled. Governments from around the world had donated to the “Charity." Pay for play. Yet, from 2001 to 2003 none of those “donations” to the Clinton Foundation were declared.

James Comey took over this investigation, tied to the Bill Clinton pardon of Marc Rich, in 2002. Lois Lerner was transferred to the Internal Revenue Service. Rod Rosenstein ran the Tax Division inside the Department of Justice from 2001 to 2005 and Robert Mueller was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In other words, they were all front line investigators into the Clinton Foundation investigation and they let each other off the hook.

James Comey leaves the Justice Department to go cash-in at Lockheed Martin. Hillary Clinton is running the State Department, on her own personal email server. Robert Mueller is FBI Director. The Uranium One “issue” comes to the attention of the Hillary. She supports the decision and approves the sale of 20% of US Uranium to the Russians after her husband, Bill Clinton, goes to Moscow, gets paid $500,000 for a one hour speech, then meets with Vladimir Putin at his home for a few hours.

Turns out the FBI had a mole inside this money laundering and bribery scheme. Mueller even delivered a Uranium Sample to Moscow in 2009. Guess who was handling that case within the Justice Department out of the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland? Rod Rosenstein. Guess what happened to the FBI informant? The Department of Justice placed a GAG order on him and threatened to lock him up if he spoke out about it.

Guess what happened soon after the Uranium One sale was approved? 145 million dollars in “donations” made their way into the Clinton Foundation from entities directly connected to the Uranium One deal. Guess who was still at the Internal Revenue Service working the Charitable Division? Lerner.

Guess who became FBI Director in 2013? Guess who secured 17 no bid contracts for his employer with the State Department and was rewarded with a six million dollar thank you present when he departed his employer. Comey.

Now he is the FBI Director in charge of the “Clinton Email Investigation” after of course his FBI Investigates the Lois Lerner “Matter” at the Internal Revenue Service and exonerates her. In April 2016, James Comey drafts an exoneration letter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile the DOJ is handing out immunity deals like candy. They didn’t even convene a Grand Jury.

Rosenstein becomes Asst. Attorney General, Comey gets fired based upon a letter by Rosenstein, Comey leaks government information to the press to force a Special Counsel, Mueller is hired by Rosenstein to provide cover for decades of malfeasance within the FBI and DOJ ... and the story continues.

All the same players. All compromised and conflicted. All working fervently to NOT go to jail themselves. All connected in one way or another to the Clinton's.

As of this writing, the Clinton Foundation, in its 20+ years of operation of being the largest International Charity Fraud in the history of mankind, has never been audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

Roseanne and Rosie. A Trump supporter and a Trump hater. Friends.

Roseanne and Rosie. A Trump supporter and a Trump hater. True friendship survives politics. Love that. As it should be. 

Rosie: "I don't understand, but I love you Roseanne. You know that."

Roseanne: "Thank you for the kind words, Rosie. Rosie and I both agree. Women must support women no matter their differences!

Death By Van. Again.

A white rental van mowed down pedestrians in Toronto today, killing nine and injuring 16 others. The suspect is 25-year old Alex Minassian. The van attack in Toronto comes six months after a similar attack in New York City killed eight people. On October 31, 2017, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov drove a rented pickup truck down a New York City bicycle path, killing eight and injuring a dozen others.

Recent ISIS terror attacks involving vehicles:

2016 France - Rental cargo truck - 86 dead, 458 injured

2016 Ohio State - Vehicle ramming - 13 injured

2016 Berlin Xmas Market - Hijacked truck - 12 dead, 56 injured

2017 London Bridge - Rental van - 11 dead, 48 injured

2017 Barcelona - Rental van - 13 dead, 130 injured

2017 Stockholm - Hijacked truck - 5 dead, 14 injured

2017 Edmonton - Rental truck - 4 injured

2017 London (Westminster bridge) - Rental car - 6 dead, 49 injured

2017 France - Vehicle ramming - 3 attacks - 1 killed

2017 Manhattan - Rental truck - 8 dead, 12 injured

2018 Toronto - Rental van - 10 dead, 15 injured

Think about that. Who is marching for them? Who is calling for banning vans? Nobody. Where is the outrage?

Turns out Michelle Bachmann Was Right After All

In 2012, Michelle Bachmann, and four members of the House, sent letters to the Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, warning about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the United States Government. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in 2014.

They wrote asking why Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of Democrat Anthony Weiner, was able to receive a security clearance despite having family members who are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Reasonable questions, don't you think, given what we know now about Anthony Weiner (who is in prison for pedophilia and a registered sex offender) and his wife Huma Abedin? What happened? Nothing. John McCain, Keith Ellison. Lindsey Graham, John Boener and the mainstream media DEFENDED Abedin, said she had NO connection to the Brotherhood, and excorciated Bachmann for daring to ask these questions.

Four years later, in 2016, the New York Post ran a detailed investigative piece about Huma Abedin’s work at the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs from 1995 through 2008, a Sharia law journal whose editor in chief was Abedin’s own mother. Huh? This was not some accidental association. She was, for many years, listed as an associate editor of the London-based publication and wrote for the journal while working as an intern in the Clinton White House in the mid-1990s. Her mother, Saleha Abedin, sits on the Presidency Staff Council of the International Islamic Council for Da’wa and Relief, a group that is chaired by the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Abedin's father, Syed Zaynul Abedin, was a professor in Saudi Arabia who founded the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, an institution established by the Government of Saudi Arabia with the support of the Muslim World League. So, Bachmann was right all along? Alert the media and John McCain.

As usual, the Soros/Clinton surrogate group Media Matters claimed predictably there was “no evidence” that Ms. Abedin or her family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and pointed to a Snopes.com “fact-check” piece that cited as its sole source… Senator John McCain.

Simply put, Huma Abedin worked for thirteen years as part of an enterprise whose explicit goal was to conquer the West in the name of Islam. Mrs. Clinton has sometimes referred to Huma Abedin as her “second daughter.” Whether it was because of their close relationship or for some other reason, Mrs. Clinton has done much to further the Muslim Brotherhood agenda while Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, she relentlessly pushed the overthrow of Libyan leader Mohammar Qaddafi, a dire enemy of the Brotherhood, even when President Obama and his Secretary of Defense were reluctant to go to war. Along with Obama, she pushed for the overthrow of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and his replacement by Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi.

She pushed for direct U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war, including the arming of Syrian rebels allied with al Qaeda.

She worked side by side with the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the umbrella group where 57 majority Muslim states pushed their agenda of imposing Sharia law on the non-Muslim world, to use hate crime laws in the United States to criminalize speech critical of Islam, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 16/18. Their first victim in the United States was a Coptic Christian named Nakoula Bassiley Nakoula, the maker of the YouTube video Hillary and Obama blamed for Benghazi.

Huma Abedin served as liaison between Clinton Foundation donors, including foreign governments, and the State Department. When foreign donors had difficult in getting appointments with Mrs. Clinton through normal State Department channels, Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band would email Huma Abedin, and poof! the doors would open as if by magic.

Andy McCarthy, an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, defended Bachmann’s line of inquiry. He argued that there are two legitimate questions to ask about Abedin. First, in light of her family history, is she someone who ought to have a security clearance, particularly one that would give her access to top-secret information about the Brotherhood. Second, is she someone who may be sympathetic to aspects of the Brotherhood’s agenda, such that Americans ought to be concerned that she is helping shape American foreign policy?

I'd like to know what John McCain has to say about all this these days. Here is the story of the woman who preceded Huma, Sharifa Alkhateeb, and the woman who has hoisted her flag, Linda Sarsour, the leader of the women's march. Their goal? Make all of America Muslim.  https://unfakenews9856.blogspot.com/2018/03/hillary-huma-and-saudi-takeover-of.html

HAVE YOU BEEN CENSORED BY FACEBOOK OR TWITTER?

Has Facebook or Twitter banned, censored or blocked you for no apparent reason? I've been banned for posting a picture of Obama and Iran's Ayatollah. Why? It violated Community Standards. I've been blocked for posting a picture of a young girl undergoing female genital mutilation. Why? It was "pornography." I was banned for posting details of how Iran and the Saudis imprison and hang gays in the town square simply for being gay. Why? It was offensive! Tell me why you were banned. Include screen shots, timing and descriptions. Let's compile a list and present it to Ajit Pai of the FCC and President Trump. Thank you.

The Pakistani Awans Have Dirt On The Dems

In Pakistan, Imran Awan's father has an armed motorcade of Pakistani government agents protecting him and brags about having mysterious political power in Pakistan and the US. And an ex-business partner of the Awans says he gave a USB drive of data to a Pakistani official.

The father of Imran Awan, an IT aide to Broward County Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former head of the DNC, who had “unauthorized access” to House servers, transferred a USB drive to a Pakistani senator and former head of a Pakistani intelligence agency. Imran bragged he had the power to “change the U.S. President" before the last election.

The House Office of Inspector General said that data was being funneled off the House network by the Awans as recently as September 2016 — shortly before the presidential election. Nearly Imran’s entire immediate family was on the House payroll working as IT aides to one-fifth of House Democrats, and he began working for the House in 2004.

The Awans held the ‘keys to the kingdom’ meaning they can create accounts, grant access, view, download, update, or delete almost any electronic information within an office. Because of this high-level access, a rogue system administrator could inflict considerable damage.

Think on that! What do the Awans and the Pakistanis have on the DNC, Democrats in Congress, the Clintons and Obama?

Gorsuch Upholds Scalia Ruling In Immigration Law

The media are spinning Gorsuch's Supreme Court decision as a slam against President Trump's immigration plan. No, it's a vindication of Scalia, a slam against Obama and an attempt to clarify vague Federal Immigration Law that can be used to wrongly block deportations. Here's why.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with Justice Antonin Scalia and upheld the invalidation of a provision of federal law that requires the mandatory deportation of immigrants who have been convicted of some "crimes of violence," holding that the law is unconstitutionally vague.

The case, Sessions v. Dimaya, had originated during the Obama administration. Only eight justices heard the case last term after Scalia's death, and in late June, the court announced it would re-hear arguments this term, presumably so that Gorsuch could break some kind of a tie.

James Garcia Dimaya, a native of the Philippines, was admitted to the United States in 1992 when he was 13 as a lawful permanent resident. In 2007 and 2009, he pleaded no contest to charges of residential burglary in California. In 2010, the Obama administration brought removal proceedings against Dimaya. An immigration judge determined that Dimaya was removable from the US because of his two state court convictions.

The court held that the convictions qualified for an "aggravated felony" under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes removal of non-citizens who have been convicted of some violent crimes and defines aggravated felony to include "crimes of violence."

Lawyers for Dimaya appealed the removal arguing that it was unconstitutionally vague and that their client never had fair notice that his crimes would result in deportation. They suggested the reasoning of a 2015 Scalia opinion, which struck a provision of the Armed Career Criminal Act as unconstitutionally vague, should extend to their case.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Dimaya's favor. Michael Kagan of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, an expert on immigration law, notes that Dimaya's challenge began when President Barack Obama was still in office and that Tuesday's ruling is "another sign from the court that due process matters when it comes to deportation."

The Judge On the Michael Cohen Case ACTUALLY MARRIED George Soros!

Guess who the Judge is on the Michael Cohen case? Kimba Wood - who presided over the 3rd wedding of George Soros in 2013 and was Bill Clinton's nominee for Attorney General!

President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen will appear in Manhattan federal court Monday, April 16th at 2 pm ET in the courtroom of Judge Kimba Wood for a hearing about how the government should handle materials seized from his office in Trump Tower, his home and temporary hotel room during an FBI raid last week. Kimba Wood is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Based upon a recommendation from Senator Al D'Amato, Wood was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Bill Clinton's choice of Kimba Wood for Attorney General was derailed after it became known that she had employed an illegal alien to look after her child. Although Wood had done so at a time when this was legal, and had paid Social Security taxes for the worker, the disclosures were enough to cause the immediate withdrawal of Wood from consideration. She performed the non-denominational ceremony of 83 year old George Soros and his 42 year old wife in 2013.

Cohen's lawyers have filed an injunction seeking to stop the Government from reviewing the materials, which they argue could include communications between Cohen and President Trump that should be shielded by attorney-client privilege. Trump's lawyers have argued that they should be allowed to review the documents before the Government can appoint a "taint team" consisting of third-party investigators who will make that determination.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press, pointing out more details from the filing, cited Cohen's lawyers as saying the FBI investigators "took everything" during last week's raids, which they have described as "completely unprecedented." Cohen's attorneys said the FBI seized dozens of electronic devices and other items including documents and data unrelated to the probable cause used to justify the warrants.

Trump seeks to block his own Justice Department from proceeding with a criminal investigation of Cohen. On Sunday evening, Trump's lawyer Joanna Hendon brought this argument:

"In the highly politicized, even fevered atmosphere that envelops this matter, it is simply unreasonable to expect that a team of prosecutors, even if not directly involved in the separate investigation of Mr. Cohen, could perform a privilege review in the manner necessary to safeguard the important interests of the President," Hendon wrote.

President Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen has revealed he’s repping two other clients besides the commander-in-chief — including one who wants his name kept out of the spotlight. In new federal court filings Monday, Cohen discloses that he’s given legal advice to three clients in 2017 and this year: Trump, Elliott Broidy and a third party who didn’t want to be identified.

Broidy, a major Republican donor, resigned last week after it emerged he had paid $1.6 million to a Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair. Cohen arranged the deal.

https://pagesix.com/2013/09/20/political-bigs-expected-at-george-soros-wedding/

Ghana Student, Naked and High On LSD, Attacks Cops. Cops Vilified For Protecting Innocent People.

The media is now spinning this Harvard student, who was violent and high on narcotics and LSD and standing naked in the middle of a busy street, as a "poor immigrant victim" and the police as villains for taking him down. Can you imagine being a police officer and dealing with this insanity every day?

Ohene, a Ghana-born student majoring in math at Harvard, was found naked standing in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue while 30 bystanders witnessed his psychotic rampage. He had taken narcotics and hallucinogenics, probably LSD. When Ohene started walking aggressively towards the officers with clenched fists, they made ‘the tactical decision’ to grab his legs and pull him to the ground, but the Harvard student continued resisting arrest.

The 21-year-old suspect has been charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, assault, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on an ambulance personnel.

A woman had called 911 saying a man had thrown his clothes in her face. Six other people later called to report a man who appeared completely naked.

Numerous attempts made by officers to calm the male down were met with opposition and his hostility escalated while officers attempted to speak with him. An officer who ended up punching Ohene wrote in an incident report that his behavior from the start was "aggressive, hostile, and intimidating. Every attempt that was made to calm Ohene down and reason with him was met with opposition. I perceived this as a threat and thought an attack was imminent. Ohene's goal was to seriously hurt himself or one of the officers on scene. Ohene absolutely could not be reasoned with."

A bystander's video shows four officers struggling with Ohene, who was believed to be high on hallucinogenic drugs. It took three officers from the Cambridge Police Department and another officer from the transit police to restrain Ohene and place him in handcuffs to avoid further injury to himself, the responding officers or any on-lookers.

He was then taken to a local hospital for an evaluation. While in the ambulance, he spat blood and saliva at an EMT. Two Cambridge police officers were also treated at a hospital for minor injuries and exposure to bodily fluids. As per department policy, the Professional Standards Unit operating within the Cambridge Police Department has launched an internal investigation into the officers’ use of force against Ohene. Members of the Harvard Black Law Students Association, some of whom witnessed Ohene's arrest, called into question Bard's version of events, characterizing the incident as an instance of police brutality.

'A naked, unarmed Black man stood still on the median at the center of Massachusetts Avenue,' the group said in a statement. 'He was surrounded by at least four Cambridge Police Department (CPD) officers who, without provocation, lunged at him, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.'

I am so sick of this crap, aren't you? We protect criminals and vilify law-abiding citizens.

Another School Walkout Planned for Friday, April 20.

REMINDER: The gun grabbing Commies plan another School Walkout on this Friday, April 20th. THEY ARE PUSHING FOR THE KIDS TO WALKOUT FOR THE ENTIRE DAY FROM 10 AM ON. DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN IN YOUR SCHOOL.

Your children CANNOT be punished for refusing to leave class or forced to participate in an event designed to strip our Constitutional rights. JUST SAY NO. You have time to make your voices heard, ORGANIZE IN YOUR COMMUNITY and remove your child from harm.

Also, I highly recommend that parents send letters to the schools, letters to their Congressmen, letters to the editor, and be present to videotape and monitor the Walkouts in their schools. Let the administration know you are not blind to their bias and attempts to repeal our second amendment. Public schools are taxpayer funded. By all taxpayers. Not just liberal ones. They should never use your children for political expediency.

April 20, 2018: National High School Walkout:

The plan calls for high school students to walk out on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, from at 10:00 a.m. local time until the end of the school day. Check their website for the walkouts planned near you.

"http://act.indivisible.org/event/national-school-walkout/"

Trump's Strikes in Syria Were A Test of Russia's Missile Defense System.

Trump's missile strikes on Syria (with British and French support) expose three truths devastating to the Syrians, Iranians, Russians, and Globalists:

(1) unlike Obama, under the right circumstances, Trump will pull the trigger;

(2) Russia lied to John Kerry and Obama about disposing of Assad's chemical weapons in exchange for American inaction, and until Trump, we never called Russia or Syria on their lies;

(3) the Russian anti-missile systems for which Syria and Iran paid high prices are useless, and were a waste of money, a huge loss of face for Moscow.

The ineffectiveness of the Russian air defense system will be of great interest to the Israelis and the Saudis as well. Russia says they got 71 missiles out of 103. Syrian TV says they got 13. The US military said that every missile fired hit its target. Who do you believe? We cannot give Russia easy access to the Mediterranean and allow Iran on Israel's doorstep. Stopping that does put America First.

Russia's missile defense system in Syria failed so now they threaten to move in another one! Russia Today reporting:

“I would like to note that a few years ago, taking into account a pressing request of some of our Western partners, we stopped supplying S-300 air defense systems to Syria. But given the latest developments, Moscow believes it is possible to return to mulling over the issue, and not only with regard to Syria but also to other states as well.”

Syrian air defense systems S-125, S-200, Buk, and Kvadrat, manufactured in the Soviet Union, were involved in the operation to thwart the missile strike. They didn't work.

James Comey Has Let The Clintons Off The Hook Four Times In The Past 25 Years.

Did you know that James Comey has let the Clintons off the hook FOUR TIMES in the past 25 years? Coincidence? I think not.

Millions of Americans watched in utter disbelief as the Director of the FBI, James Comey, the most powerful law enforcement body in the nation, said that no charges would be recommended in regards to Hillary Clinton’s home-brewed email server setup. The facts were there. The damning evidence was there. What wasn’t there was someone willing to uphold the law. That wasn't the first time that Comey let the Clintons slide. It was the fourth time.

In the 1990s, Comey served as deputy special counsel on the Senate Whitewater Committee, which investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton's alleged role in a failed Arkansas real estate venture. The investigation was to determine whether Bill Clinton used his political position as governor of Arkansas (in the 1980s) to push through an illegal loan to benefit Bill and Hillary's business partner in Whitewater. Several people involved in Whitewater went to jail, but no criminal prosecution was in the cards for Bill and Hillary. James Comey joined the Senate Whitewater Committee as a deputy special counsel. There he dug into allegations that the Clintons took part in a fraud connected to a Arkansas real estate venture gone bust. Comey concluded that the Clintons were part of “a highly improper pattern of deliberate misconduct.” Yet, no charges were ever brought against either Clinton for Whitewater. Sound familiar?

Back in 2002, James Comey, was the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and was investigating a case involving New Square and the Clintons, and suddenly, with very little explanation Comey closed the case. Four men from New Square were convicted in 1999 of bilking government aid programs and funneling the money back to their community of 7,000 people, about 30 miles northwest of Manhattan. Hillary met with New Square leaders of the community in August 2000 before her election to the Senate, and again, with her husband the President, in December 2000 after the election.

New Square voters gave Hillary 1,400 votes to 12 for the Republican candidate, unparalleled in any other district. President Clinton reduced the Federal Prison terms for the men and released them from prison. Critics say Hillary offered clemency for in exchange for votes. Pay for play.

An investigation into the New Square Four case was announced in 2001 by Mary Jo White of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. Comey took over and closed it with no explanation.

In 2002, Comey, then a federal prosecutor, took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton's 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted on a laundry list of charges before fleeing the country. The decision set off a political firestorm focused on accusations that Rich's ex-wife Denise made donations to the Democratic Party, the Clinton Library and Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign as part of a plan to get Rich off the hook. Comey ultimately decided not to pursue the case. The kicker: Comey himself had overseen Rich's prosecution between 1987 and 1993. 

While Comey was an attorney in Manhattan he had successfully prosecuted Marc Rich, a wealthy international financier, for tax evasion. On Clinton’s last day in office in 2001 he pardoned Rich, much to the dismay of many that were close to the case, including Comey. Said Comey in 2001, “I was stunned.” Concern surrounded whether Rich's wife had paid $450,000 to the Clinton Foundation in return for her husband's clemency.

In 2002, he replaced Mary Jo White as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton's controversial pardoning of financiers Marc Rich and Pincus Green on his final day in office. Both men fled the country after being granted clemency for a number of federal crimes, including tax evasion and buying oil from Iran when it was holding American hostages in 1979. Before being sworn in as U.S. attorney, Comey expressed enthusiasm over potentially prosecuting the Rich case and investigating 176 last minute pardons that Bill Clinton made as he was walking out of the White House. Rich's wife donated $450,000 to the Clinton Library. Again James Comey oversaw investigations of the pardon matters as well. THEN HE DID NOTHING. 

Also, during his time as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Comey brought charges against TV personality Martha Stewart. A report in The New York Times quoted Comey saying, "This criminal case is about lying — lying to the F.B.I., lying to the S.E.C., lying to investors ... Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not for who she is, but because of what she did."

James Comey sent Martha Stewart to prison for "lying" yet has let the Clintons off four times in the past 30 years. That should tell you all you need to know. Also, President Trump is going to pardon Scooter Libby, which George W. Bush, for whom he worked, REFUSED to do. Why? Because he was another James Comey paid hit job. The prosecutor, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed by James Comey to take Libby down. Fitzgerald is friends with Comey. John Bolton knows Scooter Libby deserves to be pardoned and that Fitzgerald wrongly entrapped Libby. It’s years overdue. What's Trump's purpose? To show the world how "Special Counsels" are hired, by evil men like Comey, to target and take-down the political opposition by any means possible. Pay for play.

For more on Scooter Libby, see: https://unfakenews9856.blogspot.com/2018/04/why-is-trump-pardoning-scooter-libby-to.html

Why did Trump Pardon Scooter Libby? To Show The World How Corrupt Comey & Special Counsels Really Are.

President Trump pardoned Scooter Libby, which George W. Bush, for whom he worked, REFUSED to do. Why? Because Libby was another James Comey paid hit job.

The prosecutor who went after Libby, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, was appointed by James Comey to take Libby down. Fitzgerald is friends with Comey. John Bolton knows Scooter Libby deserves to be pardoned and that Fitzgerald wrongly entrapped Libby. It’s years overdue. What's Trump's purpose? To show the world how "Special Counsels" are hired, by evil men like Comey, to target and take-down the political opposition by any means possible. Pay for play.

Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was indicted in 2005 and convicted of “perjury,” “obstruction of justice,” and “making false statements” in 2007. Libby was the first and only victim of special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald’s mission—to find the source who had “outed” CIA officer Valerie Plame to journalists. Fitzgerald had been named special counsel by none other than Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

At the CIA, Plame had proposed that her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, a diplomat and a fierce critic of the Iraq war, be sent to Niger to determine whether the central African nation had sent uranium to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Richard Armitage, then a deputy secretary of state—and similarly an opponent of the Iraq war—leaked Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak.

It was never entirely clear why the revelation of Plame’s identity as a CIA employee was such a consequential matter, as her employment status wasn’t classified, as she hadn’t been on a foreign assignment in five years. Revealing her status wouldn’t have violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. Nonetheless, Iraq War opponents and gullible journalists built the false narrative she was “outed” in retaliation for her husband’s vocal criticisms of the administration’s decision to go to war, and the FBI’s deputy AG appointed a special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, to determine if the disclosure of Plame’s job status to journalists constituted a crime.

The case would be have been long forgotten except for the thuggish prosecutorial conduct of Fitzgerald. He cornered officials in testimony from recollections, and pitted small, inconsequential timing differences against one another. At the outset, Fitzgerald interrogated Robert Novak, who at the time did not reveal his sources, of which one was Richard Armitage.

Fitzgerald also put New York Times journalist Judith Miller behind bars for 85 days to ferret out her sources on stories related to national security. Among those she revealed, after weeks in confinement, was Libby. Miller hadn’t even written about Plame. Libby was never even charged with leaking Plame’s identity or, indeed, leaking any classified information.

Deputy Attorney General James Comey reportedly told Fitzgerald, “Follow this anywhere it goes.” In the end, Fitzgerald would take it where he wanted to go regardless of the facts.

But there was a profound oddity here. Fitzgerald began his work already knowing who had promulgated the leak, for Armitage had confessed as much to the FBI in October. “I may be the guy who caused this whole thing,” he reportedly told a State Department official.

But Fitzgerald declined to prosecute Armitage. Indeed, he told Armitage to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t prosecute Bruce Harlow or Fleischer either. He was after bigger fish. If he could catch either Rove or Libby lying to his investigators or making misstatements that could be portrayed as perjurious, he might be able to get them to turn on their bosses and “expose” a conspiracy reaching up to the president and vice president to punish Wilson by outing Plame.

But during his trial, and based on conflicting testimony generated by Fitzgerald, Libby was ensnared. Fitzgerald caught him in conflicts over the timing of specific knowledge and the use of precise wording. Libby’s colleagues were instructed to give testimony about what he knew and when. With no evidence that he had anything to do with the underlying offense, Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. The president’s new National Security Adviser, John Bolton, knows a great deal about the Libby case and has no doubt capably apprised his boss of the details.

The president’s many critics will contend that this has less to do with Libby than with special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump, we’re certain to hear, is taking a shot at the credibility of special counsels by emphasizing their tendency to indict people not for committing the underlying crime but for false testimony. Certainly the fact that Comey appointed Fitzgerald is not unrelated to the president’s intention to pardon Libby. Trump may be hinting at his ability to pardon people he feels are wrongly prosecuted by the Mueller investigation.

President Trump said today that he's considering commuting the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and pardoning Martha Stewart. With the pardons of Jack Johnson, Dinesh D'Souza, Joe Arpaio and Scooter Libby, it sounds to me like President Trump is trying to undo malicious prosecution of the previous administrations and right egregious wrongs...particularly those by Patrick Fitzgerald.

Patrick Fitzgerald, Comey's right hand man, was involved in the prosecution of many of these folks. Who is Patrick Fitzgerald, besides the guy James Comey just hired on his legal team and who he leaked his memos to? U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who oversaw the prosecutions of Illinois Governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich, stepped down suddenly in 2012 and was the longest serving U.S. attorney in Chicago history, holding the office for more than 10 1/2 years. Hmm. Blagojevich?

Fitzgerald oversaw the public corruption investigations that resulted in the convictions of both Ryan and Blagojevich.

Among other prosecutions during Fitzgerald's career:

In December 2003, Fitzgerald was served as special counsel in the investigation of the outing of a covert employee of the CIA. The investigation resulted in the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Fitzgerald was lead counsel in Libby's trial that resulted in Libby's conviction on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

In 2010, Fitzgerald was appointed special attorney to supervise the investigation of former CIA officer John Kiriakou for allegedly repeatedly disclosing classified information to journalists, including the name of a covert CIA officer and information revealing the role of another CIA employee in classified activities.

At the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, Fitzgerald participated in the prosecution of those involved in the August 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and a plot to bomb other New York landmarks.

Eric Holder said in a statement that Fitzgerald "has served the American people and the citizens of Illinois with the utmost integrity and a steadfast commitment to the cause of justice."

"Over the years, he has gained the trust of two presidents and the unwavering confidence of four attorneys general, and I am deeply grateful to him for his service and his friendship over the years."

Connecting more dots. James Comey used Patrick Fitzgerald to take down Scooter Libby, whom Trump just pardoned, and Rod Blagojevich, who is hoping for a pardon.Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected what is likely ex-Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich’s final plea to overturn his conviction and 14 year prison sentence, his wife Patti Blagojevich went on TV to sway President Donald Trump.

The President has the authority to pardon the disgraced governor. She drew similarities between her husband’s prosecution by James Comey's pal, former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, and that of Dick Cheney's adviser, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom Trump pardoned last week.

“My husband is probably the only person in the entire history of the United States who is serving any kind of sentence for simply asking for campaign contributions."

Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s program “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 as he faced charges that he tried to sell off President Barack Obama’s Senate seat. In April 2010, Blagojevich moved to subpoena Obama.

Why did Comey's pal Patrick Fitzgerald prosecute Blagojevich? With a string of high-profile prosecutions under his belt, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald presented corruption charges against former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in December 2008. RIGHT AFTER OBAMA WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT.

Fitzgerland, the man often mentioned as a candidate to be the next FBI Director after Robert Mueller, suffered a setback at Blagojevish's trial. Jurors deadlocked on all but one charge. The failure to win a bigger conviction raised questions about possible missteps by prosecutors - and about Fitzgerald's future.

"Fitzgerald's been there for three presidential terms, and that's unusual. The power can go to your head. You can't get personal with defendants, and he does."

Fitzgerald rose to prominence by convicting another former Illinois governor, George Ryan, of corruption, and media mogul Conrad Black of defrauding investors. He was also tapped by James Comey to be the special prosecutor in Washington's CIA leak case, eventually convicting former Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for perjury and other offenses.

In the Blagojevich investigation, some critics have questioned whether Fitzgerald moved too fast to arrest the former governor, whether his team put on an overly complicated case and whether he became too personally involved in the matter.

After a hung jury, two of the nation's largest newspapers struck hard at Fitzgerald, with one saying he should drop the Blagojevich case, and a second calling on him to resign. A Washington Post editorial said the prosecutor got his shot at Blagojevich and lost and "should stand down before crossing another fine line - the one that separates prosecution from persecution." The same day, the Wall Street Journal wrote, "If Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't resign of his own accord, the Justice Department should remove him."

Jurors failed to convict Blagojevich on the charge that he schemed to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama's former Senate seat. In interviews after the mistrial, jurors said the government's case was too confusing and too long, and they wanted a "smoking gun" to connect the defendant's profanity-laden talk on government wire taps with actual crimes. Some jurors and legal analysts said Fitzgerald may have had Blagojevich arrested too soon.

Within fifteen minutes after the mistrial was declared, Fitzgerald's prosecution team announced that they would definitely pursue a retrial on the twenty-three mistrial counts. A post-verdict court date was set for August 23, 2010.

Federal prosecutors reduced the number of counts for Blagojevich's retrial, and on June 27, 2011, he was found guilty of 17 of the 20 remaining charges, not guilty on one, and no verdict was rendered by the jury on two counts. He was found guilty on all charges pertaining to the Senate seat, as well as extortion relating to state funds being directed towards a children's hospital and race track. However, he was acquitted on a charge pertaining to the tollway extortion and avoided a guilty verdict (by split decision) on attempting to extort Rahm Emanuel. On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. On June 30, 2012, Patrick Fitzgerald stepped down.

"He violated the code of ethics, the standard of the Justice Department in holding his press conference," said Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official who's now a Washington lawyer.

Earlier in his career, Fitzgerald served 13 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the southern district of Manhattan, helping prosecute organized crime as well as terrorism cases involving the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Fitzgerald's name was repeatedly mentioned as a possible replacement for FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was eventually replaced with Fitzgerald's pal, James Comey.

Obama refused to commute Blagojevich's sentence. His daughter said to Obama:

"I thought you would finally right this wrong. You didn't have to pardon him, only commute the sentence. You just had to let him come home. You didn't. You released others, like Chelsea Manning and FALN terrorists, who actually committed reprehensible crimes, but you failed to release an innocent man. I'm glad you're gone. I'm not delusional — you're not a saint. You were a mediocre president with unoriginal ideas."

The FBI wiretapped Blagojevich in 2008. Blagojevich had little love for Obama:

"This fucking Obama ran on my record, okay? He said he brought healthcare to kids. You know what I'm saying? He voted for it as a State Senator. You know, he's talking about a capital bill and spending on healthcare for working families."

"Somebody from the US Attorney's Office (or one of their former employees) leaked these classified FBI tapes to the opposition. The opposition campaign should be criminally charged for breaking the still standing court order sealing the tapes. This is clearly a case of someone from the US Attorney's office playing partisan politics, while they did everything they could to make sure we could not play the tapes that vindicated me. BTW, the tape played corroborates the fact that I was looking to appoint Lisa Madigan in exchange for more health care for Illinois citizens, a capital bill to put people to work, and a balanced budget."

How is Obama connected? Blagojevich was aware that Barack Obama would have preferred "Senate Candidate #1" (Valerie Jarrett), and he allegedly made efforts to obtain favors in exchange for appointing Jarrett for the U.S. Senate seat. Blagojevich said in a conversation with his chief of staff, in reference to what Obama would give him in exchange for Jarrett's appointment, "All they're going to give me in return is gratitude. The Senate seat's a f**ing valuable thing. F**k them." There was public speculation as to whether Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel had a role in any discussions with the governor's office. An internal investigation by the Obama team stated that Emanuel had communicated with the Governor's office about who might be appointed to the Obama seat, but nothing unethical or inappropriate had transpired. On December 10, 2008 Obama called for Blagojevich's resignation.

In a December 11 press conference, Obama stated that he, his staff and his transition team were not involved in any corrupt activity, and that his staff had been exonerated by the 76-page FBI affidavit. He stated that, not only had he never engaged the governor on the topic of his Senate seat, but he was "confident that no representative of mine would have any part in any deals related to this seat". His administration compiled a summary of who might have known what at various times. Obama stated that he did not think Blagojevich could "effectively serve the people of Illinois" and that his former Senate seat "belongs to the people". He also stated that to his knowledge, no representatives of his had engaged in any deal making with the governor. On December 15, the Obama team confirmed that its internal review found no inappropriate contact between Obama's staff and Blagojevich or his staff, stating "that review affirmed the public statements of the president-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as U.S. president-elect's staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as U.S. Senator". Right. In April 2010, Blagojevich moved to subpoena Obama. Then he went to trial and prison for 14 years.

Hmm. Sounds like a replay of what we are seeing today with Comey and Fitzgerald and his memos! A major illegal leak that took down a sitting Governor that Obama and Emmanuel wanted out of the way. Everybody covering every body else's ass. Connect the dots. Remember, Blagojevich was prosecuted by Comey's pal, Patrick Fitzgerald, who was promised a Cabinet job if he appointed an Obama-person to the Senate. That person was VALERIE JARRETT. Is Trump pardoning Blagojevich in exchange for his testimony on Comey/Fitzgerald/Obama/Jarrett?

For more on James Comey's protection of the Clintons over the past 25 years, see: https://unfakenews9856.blogspot.com/2018/04/james-comey-has-let-clintons-off-hook.html