Thread by @STUinSD

Thread: News Summary from the Week that Was (7-13 July)

1. These weekly news summaries include stories that the legacy media either doesn’t report or – if they do – then never provide the proper context and follow-up.

2. Let’s get started with an article that shows just how ignorant and anti-American two serving members of Congress are. The fact that they are is not what is bothersome, but rather those who voted for these two are who concern me the most!

<quote>

2A. First-year congresswomen Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts retweeted a Salon article contending the Declaration of Independence is a racist and sexist document because it doesn’t address slavery or women’s rights.

2B. Pressley commented on a piece by Matthew Rozsa titled “Fourth of July’s ugly truth exposed: The Declaration of Independence is sexist, racist, prejudiced”.

2C. “Our founding fathers were not living gods … they were fallible human beings. The Declaration of Independence ‘did not condemn slavery, protect the rights of women or include Native Americans,'” she wrote.

2D. Pressley, an African-American, further wrote that the “impact of the prejudices, biases & contradictions codified by our founding fathers is still felt today.”

<unquote>

Read the rest here: wnd.com/2019/07/congre…

2E. These kinds of comments make me furious! How ignorant of history are they? They need to spend some time in Saudi Arabia, the DPRK, or Iran for context purposes (I’d say about 2 years would be about right!).

3. When Establishment Republican Peter King comes out with statements like this, you just know “the fit is going to hit the shan”:

<quote>

3A. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he is “confident” that when Attorney General Bill Barr concludes his investigation of the origins of the investigation of President Trump’s 2016 campaign, ….

3A1. … the American people will learn that the FBI and CIA under the Obama administration engaged in foul play.

3B. “There was no legal basis at all for them to begin the investigation of his campaign,” King said …., “and the way they carried it forward & the way information was leaked, the improper applications they filed in the FISA court to get surv, all of this is going to come out.”

3C. Sources familiar with the matter said at least one witness outside the Justice Department and FBI started cooperating -- a breakthrough that came after Attorney General William Barr ordered U.S. Attorney John Durham ….

3D. … to lead a separate investigation into the origins of the bureau’s 2016 Russia case that laid the foundation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

3E. “Just from evidence I’ve seen over the last several years being on the Intelligence Committee, being a member of Congress, there’s no doubt to me there were severe serious abuses that were carried out in the FBI, and I believe the top levels of the CIA,” [King] said.

3F. <unquote>

I wonder who that cooperating witness is, don’t you? Read the rest here: foxnews.com/politics/rep-p…

4. Another reminder that the ACLU was founded by Communists, and that their real mission is to destroy the US from within. This is truly horrible:

<quote>

4A. Video footage purportedly shows the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) instructing teachers on progressive sexual education and gender theory in collaboration with California school districts and Planned Parenthood.

4B. The video, released by conservative organization Our Watch and published June 26, depicts ACLU staff attorney Ruth Dawson, according to Our Watch, instructing teachers on how to help students obtain abortions without parental knowledge or consent.

4C. Dawson also instructed teachers on how to explain these students’ absences to parents, how to forbid parents from opting their children out of LGBTQ education classes and more.

4D. “They talk about mutual masturbation,” said Marietta School District parent John Andrews. “They discuss gender roles, the gender spectrum, and in the support materials … they take it even further.

4E. They discuss everything, topics like roleplaying for different genders, blood play, dental dams … fisting is mentioned. I mean, they mention it all.”

<unquote>

Read the rest here: dailycaller.com/2019/07/07/sex…

5. Impossible to avoid touching on the Jeffrey Epstein bombshell. I happen to like this early take on Monday which is virtually the opposite of most of the legacy media spin:

<quote>

5A. A former FBI official said Monday that the federal indictment of Jeffrey Epstein is a "placeholder" for prosecutors and he expects a much larger "superseding" indictment to be forthcoming.

5B. Former Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker said he believes the two-count indictment was brought to get Epstein "off the street" as fast as possible.

5C. "That [earlier] plea deal should never have happened. This is a zero-tolerance crime now and it should have been a zero-tolerance crime back then," he said.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: foxnews.com/us/jeffrey-eps…

5D. There are bound to be more people indicted, as Epstein’s indictment refers to unnamed individuals who facilitated procurement of minors, and other victims are said to have come forward since the indictment was announced over the weekend. Let the chips fall where they may!

6. Ok, more Epstein. This bombshell still has a lot of potential play in it, especially with Slick Willie going public with a weak-a$$ denial that he knew anything about the alleged pedophilia:

<quote>

6A. On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed the indictment against financier Jeffrey Epstein, revealing the sexual abuse and trafficking case against him.

6B. The unsealed indictment revealed key aspects of the case against Epstein, potential charges against his unnamed employees, and allegations of a conspiracy that could ensnare the financier's vast network of powerful contacts.

6C. Here are six key aspects of the indictment.

(1) The indictment mentions three unnamed minor victims.

(2) The indictment also mentions three unnamed employees who allegedly scheduled the girls for sexual encounters.

6C. (cont'd)

(3) The counts against Epstein date from around 2002 to around 2005.

(4) [T]he abuse usually began with a victim being escorted to a room with a massage table.

6C. (cont'd)

(5) Epstein not only paid the girls for "massages" that involved sexual abuse, but also encouraged them to find more minor women for the same abuse.

6C. (cont'd)

(6) "Jeffrey Epstein, the defendant, and others known and unknown, willfully and knowingly did combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to commit an offense against the US, to wit, sex trafficking of minors," the indictment reads.

6D. <unquote>

This is a good start; there’ll be more in subsequent weeks, I’m sure. Read the rest here: pjmedia.com/trending/6-thi…

7. More Democrat grandstanding – this time on the border!

<quote>

7A. U.S. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) told Breitbart News Dailythat many of the claims made by his Democrat colleagues and media about the Border Patrol facilities housing migrant families and unaccompanied minors are false.

7B. He blamed the Democrats for not properly funding the facilities despite months of warnings from Border Patrol officials about the crisis.

7C. The congressman explained this was the same thing he was told and witnessed in McAllen, where Democrat representatives, in particular, toured the facility, praised the Border Patrol agents inside, ….

7C1. … and then “walked right across the street to a camera and looked at the camera and said ‘kids in cages, kids in cages’.”

7D. “The idea that they are turning this into a political stunt just tells you everything you need to know about politics in 2019,” Roy concluded, “about their actual concern and compassion for the kids and the safety and sovereignty of our country and the American people, ….”

7D1. “… and that they are doing this for cynical political purposes and I’m tired of it.”

<unquote>

Read the rest here: breitbart.com/border/2019/07…

7E. Rule of thumb: put a Democrat in front of a camera, and brazen lies will spew forth in service of their political objectives. EVERYTHING is negotiable toward that end!

8. The Left have been trying to access @POTUS’s financial records by hook & by crook. One attempt has been the frivolous lawsuit by two Democrat state AGs that the president violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause. Not so fast, said a 3-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court:

8A. <quote>

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wed dismissed a lawsuit filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia alleging that President Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, finding that they did not have the standing to sue the president.

8B. Maryland and D.C. filed the lawsuit two years ago, alleging that Trump has violated both the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the Constitution by continuing to profit from his ownership of the Trump International Hotel while in office.

8C. A district court in Maryland originally ruled in their favor, finding that the local governments had standing to file the complaints, as the president's hotel may draw guests away from government-owned properties.

8D. But Wednesday's ruling found that the lower court did not fully consider the "novel" legal questions raised by such a lawsuit.

8E. "To allow such a suit to go forward in the district court without a resolution of the controlling issues by a court of appeals could result in an unnecessary intrusion into the duties and affairs of a sitting President," [4th Circuit Judge] Niemeyer wrote.

8F. The attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C., said shortly after the lawsuit's filing that they would seek Trump's tax returns as part of the legal proceedings.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: thehill.com/regulation/cou…

8G. This is the Democrats’ lawfare in operation again, folks. What they can’t win at the ballot box (in this case the presidency) they attack via the legal system through frivolous lawsuits.

9. Remember the Notre Dame cathedral fire and the legacy media’s pointed lack of context about the rise in anti-Christian attacks in France? Check this out.

<quote>

9A. When fire ravaged the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris last Apr, many Americans were surprised to hear speculation that the blaze might be tied to a wave of anti-Christian attacks in France & across Europe. It wasn’t — but a wave of anti-Christian attacks? That was news to many.

9B. As Richard Bernstein reports for RealClearInvestigations, the violence is all too real & at record levels. And those raising alarms have to contend not just with what they call rising Christianophobia but the near-silence of politicians & major media outlets in the face of it

9C. Anti-Christian attacks have quadrupled since 2008: The French police in 2018 recorded 129 thefts and 877 acts of vandalism at Catholic sites – mostly churches and cemeteries – and there has been no respite this year.

9D. The Conference of French Bishops reported 228 “violent anti-Christian acts” in France in the first three months of 2019 alone, taking place in every region of the country – 45 in the Southwest, 20 in the area along the English Channel, 24 in Brittany.

9E. The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians, based in Vienna, documented 275 anti-Christian incidents in Europe in 2017, up from 250 the year before.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: saraacarter.com/real-clear-inv…

9F. Chances of legacy media follow-up on this story? Zip, zero, nada. It is axiomatic that the legacy media are the enemy.

10. Next, we learn that much of the Russian dossier was “made up.” Surely not, Democrats!

<quote>

10A. Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday he believes the public will soon see that much of the Trump-Russia dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was "made up."

10B. According to a NY Times report, FBI officials questioned one of Steele's sources and "came to suspect that the man might have added his own interpretations to reports from his own sources that he passed on to Mr. Steele, calling into question the reliability of the info."

10C. Steele was interviewed as part of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's probe of how the FBI used the unverified dossier, including its role in obtaining a surveillance warrant against then-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

10D. "The fact remains that they used that garbage that was paid for by a political campaign before a court," said Nunes, adding that there is info that is "equally as bad or worse" that has not been made public about Steele's work.

<unquote>

More here: foxnews.com/politics/devin…

10E. Don’t you just wonder what Steele disclosed to DoJ questioners – especially given the rumors that he figured out that he was being set up as the “fall guy” for the whole #Spygate affair?

11. Still more on Epstein came out later in the week. There is very likely MUCH more about him than we’ve been led to believe by the lying legacy media and Democrats:

<quote>

11A. [T]he bits of information about multi-millionaire Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of an underage sex-trafficking ring are utterly bizarre, pointing to something perhaps even bigger and worse going on. [There are] at least ten big questions.

11B. One: How did Jeffrey Epstein make his fortune in the first place? One claim is a massive Ponzi scheme.

Two: Could Epstein really have been connected to some sort of intelligence service?

11C. Three: Why did the office Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance try to keep Epstein from being registered as a top-level sex offender?

11D. Four: After Epstein was labeled a “Level 3 sex offender” — meaning the worst — Epstein was required by law to check in with the NYPD every 90 days. He never checked in at all over an eight-year span. How did that not generate any consequences?

11E. Five: How did his private island off Saint Thomas get the nickname “Pedophile Island” and how does a rumor like that not get law enforcement to start snooping around?

11F. Six: Bill Clinton’s public statement about his interactions with Epstein was laughably inaccurate, contracted by contemporaneous media accounts, never mind FAA flight logs.

11G. Seven: Doesn’t this [sentence in a Vanity Fair article] seem to bury the lede, as they say in journalism? “Trump said that Pecker had told him that the pictures of Clinton that Epstein had from his island were worse.”

<unquote>

Read the rest here: nationalreview.com/the-morning-jo…

12. Another leaker undermining @POTUS policy objectives could get nailed:

<quote>

12A. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan is at the center of a federal investigation into the leak of confidential government information in late June ….

12A1. … that forced Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to call off a nationwide operation, three senior administration officials told the Washington Examiner.

12B. Following the publishing of sensitive leaked law enforcement information on June 21, then-acting ICE Director Mark Morgan’s team followed department protocol and reported the incident to the ICE Joint Intake Center so they could investigate.

12C. JIC is an agency office that handles internal investigations of personnel misconduct, sexual abuse, staff neglect, or violations of responsibilities that may have contributed to such incidents.

12D. McAleenan was named by three senior administration officials and two former officials as the orchestrator of the leak, charging he wanted to sabotage ICE’s monthslong plan to find and arrest around 2,000 people who had been denied asylum and not left the country.

12E. McAleenan opposed the plan because of its potential to remove a parent from a household with children in it.

12F. Three officials have claimed McAleenan ordered Morgan on two occasions in the two weeks leading up to the planned June 23 operation to not carry it out, orders that would have contradicted the White House’s support and approval.

12G. Morgan contacted the White House following McAleenan’s warning to try to carry it out, according to three current and two former senior administration officials.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: washingtonexaminer.com/news/acting-dh…

12H. This is rank insubordination; the guy should be fired posthaste. Period.

13. Former CIA director Mikey Hayden and card-carrying #NeverTrumper popped off again, demonstrating his Deep State credentials:

<quote>

13A. Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden is back in the news after suffering a stroke earlier this year. Mediaite's John Ziegler spoke to the retired general and asked him about the Mueller investigation and, of course, President Trump's policies.

13B. [Ziegler’s summary:] Hayden is very worried about the resignation of the UK ambassador to the United States and the fact that Trump consistently treats our closest allies like enemies and some of our worst enemies like allies.

13C. The Mueller report was even worse for Trump than he had anticipated and he eagerly looks forward to what Robert Mueller will say in his congressional testimonies next week.

13D. He ominously concludes that the damage that Trump has done to our institutions so far can be survived, but that the United States, at least as we know it, may not be able to endure two terms of him as president.

13E. [The reality as pointed out in the rest of the article:] This truly is ridiculous. The UK amb to the U.S. should have resigned. It's in principle fine for him to insult the president of the country where he serves, but if those memos are leaked he also should be in trouble.

13F. You can't expect Trump to have serious, thoughtful and frank conversations with a guy who doesn't respect him.

13G. As for the Mueller report, that's possibly even more insane. The Mueller report was one big disappointment for Trump-haters everywhere. Lastly, to imply that Trump -- all by himself -- will somehow destroy America is downright fantastical.

13H. The U.S. may very well have the strongest foundation of any nation on earth. This system survived a civil war, Jim Crow, and the civil rights clash in the second half of the 20th century.

13.I It's crazy to suggest that it can't survive one single president you happen to hate.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: pjmedia.com/trending/forme…

13J. Lunacy on display! Either TDS is incurable and intensifies over time, or the likes of Hayden are getting desperate as the DoJ posse led by AG Barr and US Attorney John Durham approaches!

14. Although there are a ton of other stories from which to choose, we’ll end this week’s summary with a little Democrat internecine warfare. Makes me smile BIGLY!

<quote>

14A. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) unloaded on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.) on Wednesday for "using the race card” after Ocasio-Cortez accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of being racially insensitive.

14B. Clay, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, fumed at Ocasio-Cortez and the group of progressive lawmakers that includes Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.).

14C. “It shows you how weak their argument is when they have to resort and direct racist accusations toward Speaker Pelosi … it’s very disappointing to me,” Clay said.

14D. The Missouri Democrat also described Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti and the progressive group Justice Democrats as “juvenile” and “ignorant.”

14E. The Justice Democrats have endorsed a progressive primary challenger against Clay and other centrist Democrats.

14F. Chakrabarti last week sent out a tweet comparing centrist Democrats to "new Southern Democrats" that "certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s."

14G. “It shows you how ignorant and little history [Chakrabarti] knows, how ignorant he is to American history. How dare he,” Clay said.

<unquote>

Read the rest here: thehill.com/homenews/house…

14H. Love watching the Democrat Party disintegrate, don’t you?

15. Here’s a short summary of this week’s stories:

15A. Two Democrats in Congress think the Declaration of Independence was a racist document. They don’t deserve to be in Congress. Period.

15B. An Establishment Republican believes that AG Barr is going to expose the perfidy of the FBI and CIA in his “investigation of the investigators.”

15C. We then learned that the ACLU was caught instructing teachers on progressive sexual education and gender theory in collaboration with California school districts and Planned Parenthood.

15D. Next, it’s pretty clear that the federal indictment of Jeffrey Epstein is a "placeholder" for prosecutors as more charges will be added as other victims come forward.

15E. Then, the Epstein indictment is summarized. Horrific!

15F. Next, a Republican congressman calls out Democrats for grandstanding during a recent visit to the border.

15G. Next, a 3-judge panel from the US 4th Circuit slapped down the frivolous emoluments clause lawsuit against @POTUS brought by two Dem state AGs. Liberal heads are exploding everywhere since it has been an article of leftist faith that this suit would take out the president.

15H. Next, we learned that anti-Christian violence in France is on an upward swing, which important context has been hidden by the legacy media after the Notre Dame cathedral fire.

15I. Christopher Steele was interrogated for 16 hours by the DoJ. There is speculation that he fears he will be the “fall guy” because his dossier has been proven to be fake.

15J. More digging into Jeffrey Epstein, with 10 questions that need to be answered.

15K. Former CIA director and consummate #NeverTrumper Michael Hayden popped off in an interview, and his ridiculous claims were debunked.

15L. And we wrapped it up with some Democrat internecine warfare as a black congressman from Missouri nailed Ocasio-Cortez BIGLY. Hehehehe!

16. And that’s a wrap! Lots of amazing stuff going on, but I don’t see much that would make your average Democrat happy, do you? What will next week bring?

17. There’s the Bijan Kian trial (will Flynn testify?), Mueller may or may not testify, Iran could go hot, the Democrats’ Star Wars bar scene will doubtless make a number of outlandish statements, and more potential revelations about Epstein and his Democrat connections.

18. Or maybe one of the shakiest members of the seditious cabal will fly the coop to a country with which the US has no extradition treaty! Wouldn’t that be something? Stay tuned. ///The end.