Category Archives: Cabinet
Adam Schiff Leaks
Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has prepared a four page memo. The memo is a summary of thousands of pages of information the FBI refused to turn over to the committee until it was threatened with contempt of Congress. The committee is responsible for oversight of the FBI.
Nunes says the public has a right know about the information in the memo. But the FBI is fighting its release.
The summary is said to reveal the quality of evidence the Justice Department presented to a FISA court. The FISA court has the power to authorize spying on Americans, including members of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the committee. He says Nunes is trying to distract from Special Counsel Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation by releasing classified information. And he now claims Nunes altered information in the memo.
Trey Gowdy says the memo will be an embarrassment to Schiff.
Until now Schiff has shown little interest in obtaining information about FBI efforts to spy on Americans. Except when it suites his purposes.
Pelosi’s Crumbs
Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s tax cuts for workers “crumbs”. Thousand dollar crumbs, but still crumbs.
No doubt the House Minority Leader from San Francisco does have thousand dollar crumbs on her plate.
By her lights those crumbs are a “little piece of cheese in a mouse trap” for the little people who elect her to do what she does.
I don’t think she gets why her party has crumbled.
Jeff Sessions vs Pot Industry
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has “trampled the will of the voters.” At least that’s the way Republican senator Cory Gardner of Colorado sees it.
Gardner’s state has a thriving pot industry. It’s legal under Colorado law. But, it’s illegal under the federal marijuana tax act of 1937. And Sessions says it’s his job to enforce federal law.
On the other hand weed was kind of legalized during the Obama administration. Deputy A.G. James Cole wrote a memo directing prosecutors to ignore pot stores in states that authorize them.
Pot Industry
Senator Gardner says Sessions promised him he would submit to the Cole memo. And now Gardner says he’ll hold up “every single nomination from the Department of Justice” until Sessions sticks to his word.
A WSJ editorial says Sessions is being cast as the “uncool parent” who’s forcing a debate on the rule of law that Congress should settle.
Death to Khamenei
In a WSJ op-ed, Mark Duowitz and Ray Takeyh describe the current uprising in Iran. They say it differs from the Green Revolution which was about election fraud. This one began “over economic grievances and quickly transformed into a rejection of theocracy.”
The protesters are angry that $100 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen by the Obama administration haven’t trickled down to the people. Instead the money has gone to support militias in the Middle East and energy and weapons for Bashar Assad in Syria.
Death Threats
So, instead of chanting “Death to America” they now shout “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to Rouhani!”
The White House narrative on Iran has changed too. The Trump administration is supporting the protesters and ignoring the “moderate leadership.”
