The Mid-Terms : Keeping ProgDems, the Deep State, Hillary, and Soros Far Away from Power

THREE WEEKS TO THE MID-TERMS. So, there's lots of news. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP TARGETS THE 9TH CIRCUIT. The Western Journal Conservative Tribune noted on Friday that President Trump is taking a hatchet to the historically liberal 9th Circuit Court. Ben Marquis wrote : "One of the most under-reported success stories of President Donald Trump’s tenure in office thus far has been the plethora of judicially conservative judges he has nominated and seen confirmed to fill vacancies on various US circuit and district courts across the nation, as that has significantly shifted the judicial branch toward the right. Fox News reported that Trump just nominated three more conservatives to fill vacancies on the liberal-dominated 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Long derided as the “Nutty Ninth,” the court oversees nine Western states, including California, and is one of the more influential courts in the country [and also the most overturned at the Supreme Court]. In naming those nominees, though, Trump broke with tradition and snubbed the two Democrat Senators from California -- Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris -- which has them hopping mad. As a traditional act of courtesy, Presidents typically work closely with the Senators of the home state of a judicial nominee, seeking their opinion and approval in what are known as 'blue slips' that signal a Senator’s support for the nominee. With regard to these three picks for the 9th Circuit, Trump bypassed that step and nominated them even as Feinstein and Harris had signaled their disapproval." • The Sacramento Bee reported that the White House initially attempted to negotiate with both Feinstein and Harris on the 9th Circuit’s vacancies, but those talks reached an impasse earlier during the summer and collapsed. And, now the speculation in the media is that President Trump decided to exclude Feinstein and Harris from the decision-making on the nominees who will reside on the court that oversees California likely came following the absolute debacle that was the confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. • The three conservative nominees named by Trump are Southern California attorneys Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee and Assistant US Attorney Patrick Bumatay. All three are reported to be members of the conservative Federalist Society and have worked for Republican administrations. The three men are in their 40s and 50s, relatively young by lifetime judicial appointment standards, meaning they’ll sit on the influential court for decades if confirmed. • President Trump never sought a supportive “blue slip” from Feinstein or Harris for those three nominees, and both Senators released statements that made their unhappiness with the situation abundantly clear. Feinstein said in a Friday statement : “Last night the White House moved forward without consulting me, picking controversial candidates from its initial list and another individual with no judicial experience who had not previously been suggested....The decision to move forward on 9th Circuit nominees without consultation or responding to my acceptance of the White House’s offer reflects President Trump’s desire to stack the court. I expect my blue slips to be honored as I was acting in good faith." And, Harris spokeswoman, Lily Adams, said in a statement : “Instead of working with our office to identify consensus nominees for the 9th Circuit, the White House continues to try to pack the courts with partisan judges who will blindly support the President’s agenda, instead of acting as an independent check on this Administration.” • Fox News noted that the snub of Feinstein and Harris came with another judicial success story for Trump this week -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reached a deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that would see 15 more conservative jurists immediately confirmed to various vacant circuit and district court seats. Fox News said that in exchange for the confirmation of those judges, McConnell would allow the Senate to go into recess until after the midterm elections, releasing vulnerable Democrat Senators facing tough re-election battles to finally hit the campaign trail. It had been rumored that Grassley and McConnell wanted to keep the Senate in session until some 49 outstanding nominations were voted on, a lengthy process that would have kept all Senators close to Washington. • Presuming the three nominees Trump named for the 9th Circuit are confirmed, it won’t completely shift the liberal Circuit Court to the conservative side. It would, however, close the partisan gap to 16 liberals and 13 conservatives, making that court far more ideologically balanced than it has been. • Senators Feinstein and Harris should by now understand that obstruction and resistance to all Trump agenda items and federal court appointees does not work. The President has the suport of key GOP Senators Grassley and McConnell and when Feisntein and Harris try to bluff the White House and the GOP Senate majority, it rightly falls on deaf ears. • • • HILLARY ABANDONS HER SECURITY CLEARANCE BEFORE IT IS TAKEN AWAY. In a purely face-saving move, Hillary Clinton had her security clearance removed over the summer “at her request,” the Senate Judiciary Committee, who received confirmation from the State Department, revealed Friday. Fox News said that : "The news comes as part of an update from the State Department of 'its ongoing review of the mishandling of classified information related to the use of Clinton’s non-government email server,' a news release from the Committee said. Five other people labeled by the former Secretary of State as being researchers, 'including close aide Cheryl Mills,' also lost their clearance, the news release said. The Judiciary Committee released a letter, dated September 21 from the State Department to Chairman Chuck Grassley, detailing their progress in the investigation and the status of Clinton’s clearance, which was 'administratively withdrawn' on August 30. Mills and the other four individuals, whose name were redacted from the letter, had their clearance removed on September 20, the letter said, adding : “As we previously informed the committee, these individuals had been granted access to classified information through a request made by Secretary Clinton designating them as researchers, per E.O. 13526, Sec. 4.4(a)(2).” The State Department then elaborated in the letter on their review, saying that “tens of thousands of documents” had been obtained and were being “reviewed for classified content.” Any documents determined to include classified material were then sent and examined by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security “and all valid security incidents have been added to the security file for some individuals,” the letter and news release said. • American Thinker's Thomas Lifson wrote on Saturday : "Compared to the media conniption fits over revocation of John Brennan's security clearance in August (Washington Post headline : 'Trump revoked John Brennan's security clearance. The long-term consequences may be dire'), Hillary Clinton's defenestration from the House of National Security is being portrayed as a 'voluntary' matter. CBS News, for instance, headlines, 'Hillary Clinton's security clearance revoked by her own request,' as if she woke up one day and decided she could no longer stand the stress of reading about our national secrets. Quite obviously, she surrendered the clearance to avoid the embarrassment of having it taken away, much the way Paul Manafort surrendered himself to authorities to begin his imprisonment to avoid a humiliating police raid or manhunt. The only reason the public even found out about Hillary's humiliation is that Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley released a September 21 letter from the Department of State that informed him of the revocation / surrender." • DOS did not want the information released at all, and demanded a review if Grassley wanted to release any part of it. Senator Grassley duly submitted the letter for clearance, and State blacked out the names of four individuals, presumably Hillary aides, who lost their clearances, in addition to Cheryl Mills, whom the State Department allowed to be named." Lifson notes that : "Given the history of redactions done to prevent official embarrassment instead of protecting national security, these redactions need to be probed : "By Mark Tapscott's count, Hillary was allowed to retain her security clearance 'three-and-a-half years -- or 1,279 days -- after the New York Times exposed her use of a private email server to conduct official US diplomatic business. Swamp bureaucracies move at a snail's pace, and delay until Democrats win control of Congress and the presidency is a strategy nobody articulates but everyone understands." • • • SENATE FOCUS ON FUSION GPS CONTINUES. BizPac Review published an article on Saturday about Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to hand over documents related to a former FBI lawyer’s meeting during the 2016 campaign with an attorney that represented the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. • This is the meeting that was revealed during a congressional deposition given by former FBI general counsel James Baker on October 3. Baker told lawmakers that in September 2016 he met with Michael Sussmann, a partner at Perkins Coies the lead law firm for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, Perkins Coie hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which in turn hired Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous Russian Dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. BPR says : "Sources familiar with Baker’s testimony say he testified that Sussmann provided him with documents related to Russian hacking of Democrats. He also testified that the meeting was unusual. Republican lawmakers have questioned why Baker was meeting with a top Democratic lawyer at a crucial point in the campaign. Baker was interviewed as part of an investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe, as well as the Steele Dossier." • Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee, is also asking Wray for FBI notes of interviews, known as 302s, conducted with Bruce Ohr, a Department of Justice official who met numerous times before and after the 2016 election with Steele. Ohr’s wife also worked for Fusion GPS while the firm was investigating President Donald Trump. Senator Johnson's letter said : "To better understand the FBI’s interactions with these two individuals, I request that you produce all communications and documents, including the FD-302s, memorializing the FBI’s communications with Michael Sussmann and Bruce Ohr.” • A spokesman for Perkins Coie told the Daily Caller on October 4 that Sussmann’s meeting with Baker was on behalf of a client other than the Clinton campaign or DNC : “Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Michael Sussmann served as a cybercrime prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice during both Republican and Democratic administrations. As a result, Sussmann is regularly retained by clients with complex cybersecurity matters. When Sussmann met with Mr. Baker on behalf of a client, it was not connected to the firm’s representation of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, the DNC or any Political Law Group client.” • Despite that claim, there is other evidence that Sussmann provided Baker with information that directly involved the Trump campaign. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence noted in a report released on April 27 that a person now known to be Sussmann told Baker in September 2016 about possible links between the computer servers of the Russian bank Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization. Sussmann shared the same information with journalist Franklin Foer, who wrote an anti-Trump article on the topic on October 31, 2016. • Michael Reagan made a good point about Hillary Clinton on Friday, writing as chairman of The Conservative Trust of America : "Hillary said, in the wake of her party’s outrageous and shameless attack on Brett Kavanaugh, that they need to go to war with the GOP. She didn’t distance herself from the phony allegations made against the respected Judge Kavanaugh -- she excused them! 'I remember what they did to me for 25 years -- the falsehoods, the lies, which unfortunately people believe because the Republicans have put a lot of time, money, and effort in promoting them,” Hillary said. Isn’t it amazing that every time Hillary is confronted by her own wrongdoing, she claims a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' is out to get her? Hillary is paranoid. But it’s no excuse for the blatantly disgusting Democratic character assassination of Brett Kavanaugh. No Republican has ever charged any Democratic nominee with a crime they had no evidence of. Hillary knows that. She also knows this is not about Kavanaugh. It’s about Donald Trump. It’s about destroying his character. Hillary and her gang want to stop Donald Trump. They are seeking to drive his poll numbers down and help Democrats win in November. That’s just the first goal of their diabolical plan. If they get control of the House and maybe the Senate, they will go into overdrive. People like Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal, and Chuck Schumer could be running the Senate." WELL SAID, and a real reson to be sure to vote on November 6. • • • OBAMA PLANNED FOR A TRUMP SUPPORTER REVOLT, BUT WE GOT DEMOCRAT TERRORISM INSTEAD. The Western Journal's Kara Pendleton wrote last Thursday that : "During a presidential debate, former first lady Hillary Clinton infamously commented on accepting election results. Her words, for the past two years, have come back to bite her and her supporters in the backside as raging hypocrites. In fact, on more than one occasion she addressed the topic. She vowed to accept the results and spent time criticizing anyone who didn’t, implying that would be the reaction of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Her implication was likely based on Trump stating things such as election rigging concerns and joking about accepting the results only if he won. Clinton had spoken about the importance of a 'peaceful transfer of power’ and stated that not accepting the results was 'a direct threat to our democracy.' Perhaps with this in mind, according to NYMag Intelligencer, the Obama Administration had a plan to circumvent Trump objections -- and it involved prominent members of the Republican party." • NYMag Intelligencer interviewed both Ben Rhodes, Obama’s senior aide and speechwriter, and Jen Psaki, Obama’s communications director. They revealed this plan formulated by Obama Administration senior staff members, according to the publication : "The offensive 'called for congressional Republicans, former presidents, and former Cabinet-level officials including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, to try and forestall a political crisis by validating the election result.' But that was only one aspect of it, and validating elections is itself a problem. 'In the event that Trump tried to dispute a Clinton victory, they would affirm the result as well as the conclusions reached by the US intelligence community that Russian interference in the election sought to favor Trump, and not Clinton.' Rhodes stated that, 'We wanted to handle the Russia information in a way that was as bipartisan as possible.' " • After Trump won, parts of the plan were obviously enacted, with the late Republican Senator John McCain playing a role in the Russian collusion narrative. BUT, this plan to shut down Trump and his objections to a Clinton win, according to the publication, "has gone previously unreported." The publication clarified that a published report about “Obama directing his staff to ‘prepare possible responses’ regarded “claims of Russian interference in the election” outlined in “a July 2017 op-ed by Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough.” Psaki downplayed the plan, and elaborated further on the thinking behind needing it. In doing so, she admitted Obama was a divisive figure. Psaki said : “There was recognition that we had a Democratic President who was quite popular but also divisive for a portion of the population. For them, just having him say the election was legitimate was not going to be enough. We didn’t spend a lot of time theorizing about the worst thing that could happen -- this isn’t a science-fiction movie. It was more about the country being incredibly divided and Trump’s supporters being angry.” • WHAT'S COMING BACK TO HAUNT THE DEMOCRATS NOW is that, as Psaki told NYMag Intelligencer, they feared from conservatives what their DEMOCRAT base is actually engaging in since Trump won. Psaki also said something else that applies very notably to the radical left, who, says Western Journal "have behaved like unhinged tantrum-throwers since the election results were announced....So while the left, including Clinton and Obama, engagde in what was supposed to be Trump and his supporters’ behavior if he lost, parts of the plan were in reality enacted -- especially the Russian interference narrative and getting at least one prominent Republican member of Congress involved in working against Trump, in the form of his legitimacy as President. There are those who claim if you want to know what the left is up to, just look at what they are accusing the right of doing. In this case, that theory seems to hold true." • • • SOROS -- THE DARK SIDE OF THE OBAMA PLAN. The Washington Free Beacon published on Friday an article titled "Dark Money Group Teams With Progressive Fund Led by Steyer and Soros," adding that some activity touches close to Democracy Alliance groups and strategies. The Free Beacon said : "A dark money nonprofit is teaming up with a project launched earlier this year financed by political billionaire activists Tom Steyer and George Soros in a bid to boost Democratic causes and candidates in at least 11 states, according to campaign finance disclosure documents. The State Engagement Fund, a 501(c)(4) based in Washington, DC, does not have to disclose its donors. From late August through September, State Engagement Fund made four donations worth $2.1 million to State Victory Action. The State Victory Action is a 527 organization formed this year. Previous disclosures showed nearly all of that group's $11 million in seed funding had come from billionaire political activists Tom Steyer and George Soros." This is more of the Soros plan -- joined by Steyer and now apparently Michael Bloomberg -- to literally buy America. State Victory Action was rolling out a strategy focused on state-level politics and candidates in Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Maine. However, says Free Beacon, a new IRS filing by State Victory Action also shows the group is active in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Florida, and has made minor contributions in other states like Michigan, New York, and Maryland. • Because State Victory Action has distributed nearly all the money it received form State Engagement Fund to state-based political committees, that $2 million is at work influencing election outcomes in some or all of the areas mentioned, BUT the source of that money and influence is untraceable. • Furthermore, according to the Free Beacon : "Numerous pieces of evidence create a strong circumstantial case that the State Engagement Fund has strong ties to the Democracy Alliance, one of the top donor clubs focused on advancing the Progressive agenda. The Democracy Alliance is a network of Progressive donors who coordinate their political donations to groups that the Alliance has endorsed. As of 2015, the organization has approximately 110 partners who are required to contribute at least $200,000 a year to groups the Democracy Alliance vets and recommends. Democracy Alliance was founded in 2005 by George Soros and footsoldier Erica Payne. • Free Beacon revealed that an Anne Bartley biography shows her listed as the State Engagement Fund's principal officer. She also "participated in the founding of several organizations," including the Democracy Alliance. • The Free Beacon says : "Other disclosure documents reinforce the circumstantial case of close ties between the State Engagement Fund and the Democracy Alliance. The group’s annual IRS report summarizing their activity in 2016 shows a $755,000 grant was made to the Committee on States. The Free Beacon reported in 2014 that the Committee on States was essentially being created to act as a state-level arm of the Democracy Alliance. Another document posted by Mother Jones lists an Anne Bartley as a founder of Committee on States in 2006. The same IRS disclosure also showed a $647,500 grant from State Engagement fund to America Votes. The previously referenced biography for Anne Bartley also states she was a cofounder of America Votes." • Disclosures filed with the IRS show the following dollar amounts represent what State Victory Action has sent to battleground states, based on the names and addresses of the recipients : $1.8 million in Minnesota to the 2018 Fund and Win Minnesota // $1 million to Better Future for New Mexico and Responsible Leadership NM // $1.1 million to the groups Florida for All, South Florida’s Future, and Win Justice Florida // $400,000 in New Hampshire to Families First New Hampshire and Win Together // $450,000 in the Keystone state to groups like Organize Pennsylvania, Conservation Voters of PA Victory Fund, and Pennsylvania United // $500,000 to Rebuild Maine // $500,000 to Good Jobs Colorado // $250,000 to Michigan Planned Parenthood Votes SuperPAC. State Victory Action also gave $2.5 million to Emily’s list, and roughly $2.5 million split between For Our Future and For Our Future Action Fund. For Our Future is a super PAC launched in 2016 by labor and teachers unions intended to stop the Trump candidacy, according to a report by Politico. • And, as we know, George Soros supported Obama and then Hillary in their presidential bids, and communicated with Hillary while she was Secretary of State to ask her to look out for some of his projects. • • • DEAR READERS, I was a loyal follower of National Review when William F Buckley was in charge. Now, I read it but sometimes disagree with the NR point of view. However, on occasion, they seem to channel WFB and get it just right. The NR Editors wrote an article on Friday titled "A Party of Stalkers." The Editors got it perfect, writing : "Hodgkinson was the left-wing activist who accused Donald Trump and Mike Pence of treason and -- 'fueled by rage against Republican legislators,' as the Virginia attorney general put it -- attempted to massacre a group of Republican congressmen practicing for a baseball game. He shot Representative Steve Scalise, along with a Capitol Police officer and two others, and very likely would have murdered a goodly chunk of the GOP caucus if not for the police assigned to protect Scalise, the majority whip. Senator Rand Paul was there, too, and escaped injury -- that time : A few months later, he was attacked while mowing his lawn, suffering six broken ribs. The man who attacked him, Rene Boucher, is a left-wing Chomskyite social-media rage-artist who wrote about his desire to see someone 'fry Trump’s gonads.' In 2013, a gunman attacked the conservative Family Research Council. In 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson massacred police officers in Dallas. Before that, five men associated with the Occupy movement made plans to blow up a bridge in Ohio." • The NR Editors remind us that Democrats lectured Republicans about their “tone” not so long ago, and about Sarah Palin and metaphorical crosshairs : "We are a long way from arguing about graphic design. The Democrats in 2018 seem to have taken the wrong lesson from Hodgkinson and the rest : They have embraced stalking and terror as political tactics. The so-called antifa have firebombed college campuses and committed political violence in order to silence dissenting speakers and to bully students into political conformity; Democrats have taken up stalking with gusto, recently chasing Ted Cruz and his wife out of a restaurant, while Representative Dave Brat recently discovered stalkers photographing his cars and property; police cordons have been broken, and buildings have been entered illegally; Senator Susan Collins has been threatened with rape. Hillary Clinton told her gang : “You cannot be civil.” • The point, according tothe NR Editors, is that : "An angry crowd at a town hall is protest, even when it is vulgar or unruly. Protest is part of democracy. But stalking and assault are not protest. Arson is not protest. The destruction of property is not protest. This is terrorism -- the attempt to instill in people the fear of physical harm or death in the service of a political agenda. This terrorism has been undertaken with the encouragement of Democratic elected officials and party grandees ranging from Senator Cory Booker to former attorney general Eric Holder. It has been justified and minimized by left-leaning media figures such as Don Lemon. The Left is in the grip of mass hysteria. Unable to get their way through the ordinary democratic process, the Democrats have resorted to extraordinary tactics, from the smear campaign organized against Brett Kavanaugh to attempting to pound down the doors of the Supreme Court. (We’re betting on the 13-ton bronze door.) They now insist that institutions of American government ranging from the Senate to the Electoral College to the Supreme Court are illegitimate because...they’re a little unclear on that part, but they are sure that they are not getting their way, and that’s enough for them. It’s a temper tantrum, true, but a temper tantrum thrown by antifa thugs is a riot. A screaming mob cornering someone in an elevator is not ordinary democratic discourse. It is a campaign of intimidation, and it should be recognized as such." • We surely all agree with national Review when its Editors say that : "Republicans are right to make an issue of Democratic mob attacks in the upcoming elections, and voters ought to take it into account. The Democrats have shown themselves incapable of responsible political action, and incapable of responsible government, too. There are those who make the law and those who break the law, and leading Democrats have aligned themselves, enthusiastically, with the latter. They should be kept as far from the levers of power as voters can put them." • AMEN.