1. Republicans are going bananas. Democrats, led by senate intel vice-chairman Mark Warner are having fits and meltdowns.
All of it because President Trump announced the appointment of Bill Pulte to replace Tulsi Gabbard at the end of the month as Acting DNI.
To make the issues even better, Democrats are now threatening to block FISA-702 reauthorization and stop the warrantless surveillance of American citizens unless Pulte’s appointment is withdrawn.
Yes, read that again slowly if needed – it’s perfect.
2. She couldn't get FISA reauthorization stopped by confronting congress, but she can get FISA reauthorization stopped by giving congress an alternative to herself. It's remarkable. Stunning.
..."Warner, who’s been critical in building Democratic support for a bipartisan deal to extend FISA Section 702, made clear to Thune that all options are on the table to reverse what Democrats see as a dangerous Trump pick to lead ODNI. Pulte, who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no national security experience and has used his existing role to exact revenge on Trump’s political foes.
From Warner’s perspective, it’s impossible to convince enough Democrats to support a reauthorization of Section 702 when Pulte would be the one overseeing the program. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has also privately told senators that the Pulte appointment makes passing a FISA deal much more difficult."....
3. Making the issue even more wonderful, the former Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is the primary strategist behind confronting the corrupt IC mechanisms that have always been facilitated by the same senate committee now having fits.
Seriously folks, you cannot make this stuff up.
If you think that Rubio and Tulsi are not the key voices in this appointment dynamic, you just are not paying attention to the snark from the National Security Advisor.
All those smiles and giggles are not just because they enjoy their jobs, but also because they understand the politics much better than people fathom.
This is a 14-year-senator, former Chairman of the SSCI and Gang-of-Eight member. Let's just say, he knows the gig.
4. There is a particular stupidity within Washington DC, a genuine blind spot they don’t even notice exists, when it comes to issues attached to the Intelligence Community.
I promise you folks; these IC people are genuinely ideological and not smart at all.
The bipartisan knuckleheads are so fraught with self-interest and the need for control, they cannot fathom how Bill Pulte would be elevated to Acting Director of National Intelligence just so existing Deputy Director Aaron Lucas doesn’t have to get bogged down in the quicksand of their insufferable bureaucracy.
Pulte can attend the meetings, summits, foreign ministerial gatherings, write the responses, go to the briefings, talk to the high-horse riders, and keep Aaron Lucas completely unencumbered to continue the work begun by DNI Tulsi Gabbard.
The Intelligence system in Washington DC controls much of the DC lawfare activity, and because DC is so territorial – filled with people who demand personal credit for everything that takes place, they have no concept that Pulte’s appointment might be something entirely different than the customary head of a silo they feel entitled to control.
Their field of vision does not extend beyond their feet.
The Intelligence Community in Washington, DC is filled with ideological stupid people. Trust me on this one; I made the mistake of giving them way more intellectual credit in the past than they deserve. Hanlon's Razor.
5. Democrats and Republicans threaten to withhold FISA-702 reauthorization, essentially blocking the 10,000+ govt workstations, from being able to conduct surveillance on American people.
The threat would terminate the NSA database portal that exists within the Perkins Coie DC lawfirm office.
The block would stop various FBI contractors from being able to search the database for electronic records of what their political opposition are doing.
Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are threatening to block the govt function of looking at the private records of corporations, the private conversations, that permits them to position money in advance of mergers and acquisitions.
The emotional strategy to block Bill Pulte from Acting DNI, is to threaten to stop warrantless searches of American metadata. This is their threat.
Best DNI ever.
Aloha!
/END
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1. Okay @RealCandaceO , you want to go there. Cool. Here's a thread on the reality of Russia from the perspective of an ordinarily invisible American.
I first travelled to Russia in 2024 because I wanted to see for myself what it was about, with specific focus on the sanction regime and how it was impacting life for an ordinary Russian.
I revisited twice since then, just to ensure my understanding was not misplaced.
What I write below is not from a guided tour, not from an organized visit through contact with anyone of significance in Russia.
This is simply an American who figures out a way how to get a visa when it was exceptionally complicated during the Biden administration and returned twice thereafter - the latter when Trump took office.
Warning to readers. This will be a long thread, because I will take you on the full journey - beginning in 2024.
2. It's April 2014 - To say the person inside the opaque glass enclosure was stunned, physically flummoxed and surprised in the moment just before the security officers arrived to escort me to the guarded holding area, would be an understatement. And trust me, there’s been some stunned moments visible in the eyes of people who encountered me.
“You need to come with us,” was the end result of a brief conversation at passport control. Followed by “We need to ask you some questions.” A few hours later I exited onto the streets of the forbidden zone, with an ear-to-ear grin that would only be understood by those in my family who saw how it started as a child. However, before getting to that part of the story, let me begin with the end in mind.
This journey is not for those of worried disposition, and I do not recommend it for anyone who does not carry a strong stable constitution of snarky and pragmatically humorous outlook. In many ways this journey is exactly what you would expect, in other ways it is so completely the opposite it’s bizarre.
Y’all already know the motives and intents of how it started [Background] so, I’m going to skip the part about why I chose to do this and instead focus on the stuff that’s likely of greater interest, the discovery stuff. I’m only here to find out the truth of stuff in Russia vs what we are led to believe.
To begin, I have found the majority of people do not understand the truth of real things and do not believe that its possible for an American to travel to Russia. Perhaps you would be surprised at the number of people who have bought into the pretenses sold by media and don’t think such a journey is physically possible.
The funny thing is, within the system of travel requests and travel permissions, nothing has changed; yet, everyone acts like everything has changed. It’s a weird dynamic to navigate a system that everyone -on both sides- believes no longer exists, but it does.
Almost all of the Russian visa centers, consulates and offices within the Western Zone, are no longer operable. For example, in the USA there are only two offices to submit an application to travel to the “forbidden zone.” One office in Washington DC another in New York. Neither accepts mail applications nor mailed documents, so that makes the logistics more challenging, but not impossible. It depends on how determined you are.
I should also add that some U.S. politicians have no idea what is legally possible. I say this because oddly some asked me to give them instructions on the process. (I have no idea why.) I should also note that everything in this process I’m describing is done with legitimate compliance, nothing is sketchy.
Current travel to the FZ is a little goofy; then again, it always was. You first have to get a letter of invitation – a strangely worded process from what I can only fathom was a former Soviet era approach that somehow remains in place. You get the letter of invitation from a quasi-official process. Keep in mind, everything RU is “quasi-something.”
So, you text a phone number +1(202) 436-XX55 [I filtered the number because I don’t want any unsuspecting knucklehead to try it out and get on some list, but if you want it – DM me]. Within your text you need to give them your name, email address and approximate date for your travel. The travel voucher people will respond with a link to fill out a voucher application with details. Once you fill out and submit the form, they send you a bill. You pay the bill, and you get a travel voucher/invitation via pdf attachment. This is your “invitation.” The cost of the invitation depends on the type of travel visa you need.
After you get the travel invitation, you then fill out a lengthy VISA application form on a Russian consulate site. The questions are lengthy, detailed and generally you are giving them your life story. Then you print the application, attach your photograph, and you must take it to a Russian VISA center. Another quasi-governmental process.
In the USA you cannot mail the documents. You must physically take the visa application, travel invitation and your passport to Washington DC or New York. You pay the visa center to process your request. You must pay in cash. You leave the documents and your passport with the center, who then send everything to the consulate for review and/or visa approval. The center gives you a receipt with a consulate link to track your application.
You check the link provided on your receipt, and when you notice the process has returned to the visa center (a few weeks), you must then travel back to pick up your passport and visa. You do not know if you are approved or not until you pick up your passport and check. If yes, there is a full-page visa sticker inside. If no, then nothing, and you don’t get an explanation.
You can tell following the official and legal process is a little complicated, a little expensive (with travel) and annoying, but generally, it’s not unmanageable. From beginning to end, give yourself about a month to complete the tasks.
Once you have the visa, you can then plan travel. However, given the nature of the current politics, you cannot travel directly. You have to travel to a place where you can transition to travel into the RU. Turkey, a NATO member, but not an EU member state, is the hub most people use to transfer from the west to a flight into the Russian Federation.
Turkey, particularly Istanbul, is making a ton of money as an RU transit hub. Their economy is booming as the gateway into and out of the Russian federation. However, you don’t have to use Turkey; once you have an RU visa, you can fly into Russia from any Grey Zone country.
3. Still April *2024* - There are not many people doing this. During my trips to the visa centers, I could tell the only people there were operatives of various opaque three-letter agencies and some American contractors (some glowing brightly). The Russians and the USA agents/contractors all knew each other well and conversed with great ‘openly visible’ affection. It was like visiting a secret club where everyone else knew the rules except me. lol.. Seriously… it was casually funny.
This was a travel request process with great deliberateness, and I undertook it with extreme compliance for the detail needed. At the same time, I went through the process with a lighthearted approach and laughed at the silly stuff I discovered along the way. That humorous approach became very useful when the RU passport control officers, uniformed military, took me into the airport holding room for “questioning.”
Apparently, not many people are getting RU travel visas, and the arriving officers were a little surprised that everything was done “by the book” so to speak. After lengthy questioning (which was a little funny if you are not prone to intimidation), fingerprinting (took six guards in case I went full Jason Bourne on them), pictures (yes lots of them, the lineup kind) and general waiting while sitting on a green metal chair in an empty room while officers called other officers to find out what to do, I conjured up mental images of low-earth orbiting satellites suddenly activating and various computer networks coming online in dark and unused basements, the tone changed…. slightly.
I was escorted to passport check kiosk #47 for the friendly “welcome to Russia” part.
Big heavy stamp, thud SHIOO-WHACK noise!
“Wait, wha.., that’s it?… Da!
At this point the airport was generally closed, everything was dark, and as I descended the stopped escalator (now a stairs), I noticed my checked bag sitting on the floor in a big empty room at the end of a long-ago-stopped baggage claim conveyor belt.
I grabbed my bag, laughed at the hollow sound of the dark green/rusty exit door slamming behind me, and was greeted by a couple of laughing Ruskie wolverines sitting on the hood of a car eating pizza and smiling. “Comrade!“, funny – not funny.
Oh, and it’s the middle of April and snowing!
Oh, and remember how much you paid attention to the daily happenings of the U.S. war in Afghanistan? That’s the analogy for how the average Russian I have encountered thinks of Ukraine, which is to say – not much really. There’s far more discussion of Ukraine in the USA than there is in Russia.
Another odd little social detail I noticed. I’m in the most culturally progressive, young, urban, hip, coffee shop type geography in the country (St Petersburg); everyone has a newer model cell phone, and I noticed something different immediately. People don’t walk around attached to their devices here, you just don’t see it. People physically talk to each other, use phones for actual phone calls, and at dinner there’s no one with their head in their cell phone in the entire restaurant. It’s like 1990’s USA.
1. FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Prior to January 2018, open discussion of the FISA Court was technically not allowed. Legally forbidden because everything around this issue was considered "classified" and a "national security interest."
2. If you pull back from the granular debate and think about it, none of the FISA justifications align with reality.
The FISA system is a designated secret court system that is said to only pertain to “foreign nationals.”
Ok, so if we accept the premise. Foreign nationals do not have U.S. constitutional protection. So why does the surveillance and intercept of them, and/or their communications, require secret U.S. courts?
The foundational premise of the FISC doesn't make sense from a constitutional perspective.
However, if you think about FISA and FISC as a false premise, then the actual purpose of both becomes something else entirely.
3. In reality, the Secret Court is needed because it’s not foreign nationals that need to be navigated in the American surveillance system. Rather, it’s the American citizenry engagement within that surveillance that requires a different legal approach.
Why should an American citizen suddenly have their constitutional protections switched from a normal U.S. Federal Court to a secret U.S. Federal FISA court simply because their contact -perhaps inadvertent- skims up against a foreign national?
The constitutional protection for an American (the 4th amendment to the Constitution) should not be arbitrary, depending on your contact.
Either you have Fourth Amendment protection, or you do not. If you are American, you do. So, what gives?
A regular federal court judge can decide on the issue of a Title-1 warrant, that can also be filed under seal if the exploration of the contact is a genuine concern.
There is no need for a secret court for either foreign nationals or U.S citizens. The former do not have constitutional protection, and the latter should not lose it under arbitrary determinations of U.S govt officials.
That’s the entire predicate that underpins the 4th amendment.
A couple of points needed for context as the Michael Atkinson transcript is released.
(1) Prior to becoming Inspector General for the Intelligence Community (ICIG), Michael Atkinson was legal counsel to the office of the AAG at the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD).
(2) Atkinson was legal counsel to AAG Mary McCord, when the Carter Page FISA was submitted in Oct '16.
(3) The Legal Counsel for the DOJ-NSD is responsible for oversight of all of the FISA applications. Atkinson was responsible for legal review, when McCord submitted the Title-1 warrant application.
(4) Atkinson then left the DOJ-NSD and took a position as ICIG
(5) Mary McCord then left the DOJ and went to work for Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler on the joint House impeachment comittee.
(6) When ICIG Atkinson took the CIA complaint from Eric Ciaramella (working at the National Intelligence Council), and engaged with Congress, he was essentially back collaborating with his former colleague, Mary McCord.
(7) Atkinson doesn't have clean hands in this. He is not a neutral figure. He was an enabler for the false impeachment accusation, just as he was an enabler for the falsely constructed FISA application.
1. Unlike most of your followers, I know how to research the claims you are making and see the defamatory lies within them. @ReOpenChris @TuckerCarlson
2. "Alaska" - Franklin Graham hosts "Marriage Encounter" events in Alaska, near his own small property (less than a quarter acre), for military husbands and wives who are in desperate need of marital support, before the marriage collapses.
It is not an "end times" bunker complex. It is cabins in a remote area where the marriage encounter workshops take place.
The entire area does not have municipal electricity. They use generators for power. The 90,000 gal above ground diesel fuel is brought in to power these generators. The remote area is only habitable in summer. It is a Samaritans Purse mission.
U.S. senators (mostly) write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds.
Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices. Everyone in DC knows the gig.
Example: Ukraine laundry to Biden, Haiti laundry to Clinton, Iran laundry to Obama.
The U.S. State Dept. served as a distribution network for the authorization of the money laundering by granting DC conflict waivers, approvals for financing (McCain Institute, Clinton Global Initiative etc), and permission slips for the payment of foreign money.
The officials within the State Dept. take a cut of the overall payments through a system of “indulgence fees”, commissions, junkets, gifts and expense account payments to those with political oversight.
If anyone gets too close to revealing the process they become a target of the apparatus.
President Trump was considered a threat to this process.
In reality all of the U.S. Senators (both parties) on the Foreign Relations Committee understand what is going on and/or are participating in a process for receiving taxpayer money and contributions from foreign governments. [See Bob Menendez]
A “Codel” is a congressional delegation that takes trips to work out the payments terms/conditions of any changes in graft financing.
On the right the McCain Institute was/is one of the obvious examples of the financing network. [That is the primary reason why Cindy McCain was such an outspoken critic of President Trump.] On the left you see the Clinton Global Initiative, same/same.
This is why Senators spend $20 million on a campaign to earn a job paying $350k/year.
The “institutes” is where the real foreign money comes in; billions paid by governments like China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Ukraine, etc. etc. There are trillions at stake.
The current nation of focus is the Ukraine laundry operation. The U.S. intelligence services, including CIA operations in USAID, have historically been the bagmen. That's why they consider Gabbard as a threat.
The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee (SFAC) is structurally designed to sell U.S. foreign policy. We all know the game of multinational corporations positioning their investment assets in various countries based on the expectation of U.S. foreign policy to support those investments. It is inside this network of long-established relationships that all of the various quid-pro-quos originate.
The Senate chamber as an institution is where most of the generational level corruption emanates; when the 17th amendment was created, this was the function and purpose for the constitutional change as organized by banking interests. In the decades since inception, the corruption within the upper chamber has become systemic. The Senate became entirely predicated on having greater power within the legislative branch.
Inside this institutional system, each Senate committee has an operational objective in alignment with the interests of the DC business. The Senate is detached from any operational function that would be considered representative of the American voter. The Senate Intel Committee supports the weaponized intelligence state. The Senate Finance and Banking committee supports the interests of big banks, who then reward the committee members. The Senate Judiciary Committee is structured to lean into the corruption needed in the Judicial branch, by controlling appointments and nominations. And so it goes, and so it goes.
Every member on the SFAC uses their position for personal and familial gain. For their specific expertise, the SFAC funding mechanism is by foreign governments and multinational corporations with foreign policy interests. It’s what they do.
Menendez is charged with the crime of doing what the Senate Foreign Affairs committee does; participate in bribery and corruption – although the pretending term is “lobbying.”
In April 2024, 165 Democrats voted for a foreign aid package brought to the floor by Republican Speaker Mike Johnson. The measure included $26 billion more for Israel, $61 billion more for Ukraine and around $10 billion for Taiwan. 151 Republicans voted to support the aid bill.
There is almost $100 billion in total foreign aid and approximately $0 to secure the southern U.S. border.
This is a “Republican” bill, that passed with Democrats, not Republicans. The ideological UniParty is very real in Washington DC, and this vote was entirely against the wishes of most Americans.
It’s really not just Mike Johnson, the root of the issue is much deeper than just corrupt and detached Republican leadership. The issue extends to every aspect of life and politics in Washington DC. Every member is participating in a process to give money to other countries, regardless of whether the American voter wants that to happen or not.
There is a complete collapse of the governmental structure of the United States as it pertains to representative government. The concept of representative government is completely gone, not even considered any longer amid the professional political class from both wings of the UniParty vulture.
I have no idea how this structural collapse can be fixed. There doesn’t seem to be any entity willing to stop the nonsense as it relates to financial systems and U.S. foreign aid.
We are in an abusive relationship with our government. There really is no other way to look at it.