Month: February 2018

The Canadian Senate passed a bill Wednesday to change the lyrics of its national anthem so that they will be “gender-neutral.”

As The Daily Caller’s Grace Carr details, the bill would replace the lyrics “in all thy sons command” with “in all of us command,” according to CBC News. Former member of the Canadian House of Commons Mauril Bélanger first introduced the legislation in 2016.

Twelve bills have been introduced in the House in order to change the lyrics from what many have argued is discriminatory language. None of these bills, that sought to remove “sons” from the lyrics, were able to successfully pass the House until Wednesday, however. “O Canada” became the country’s official anthem in 1980.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also voiced his support of the proposed change after it passed the Senate Wednesday.

“Mauril’s bill to make O Canada gender neutral passed third reading in the Senate tonight – another positive step towards gender equality. #inallofuscommand” Trudeau tweeted.

Mauril’s bill to make O Canada gender neutral passed third reading in the Senate tonight – another positive step towards gender equality. #inallofuscommand

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 1, 2018

“I’m very, very happy. There’s been 30 years plus of activity trying to make our national anthem, this important thing about our country, inclusive of all of us,” Ontario Sen. Frances Lankin said, CBC News reported. “I’m proud to be part of the group that made this happen.”

Other Conservative senators and lawmakers, however, don’t think Canada’s Parliament should be allowed to alter a song whose words were written many years ago and whose author can have no say. Lawmakers were angry that Sen. Don Plett, who was a long time critic of the measure, didn’t have an opportunity to speak against the motion.

“When a majority of individuals decide to shut down discourse in this place, democracy dies. We need to be very wary of tools that muzzle debate,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos said.

The bill to amend Canada’s national anthem will now head to Governor General Julie Payette’s desk to be signed into law.

The 123rd Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., also recently passed a trifecta of resolutions to replace all gendered pronouns referring to God with gender neutral pronouns, oppose laws against illegal immigration, and open traditionally gender restricted congregational roles and facilities, like bathrooms, to transgender individuals. Diocesan delegate Rev. Linda R. Calkins urged the diocese to consider adopting the “The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation,” that removes all gender specific pronouns for God from scripture.

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With positioning at extremes, and leverage at extremes, and valuations at extremes, Deutsche Bank’s Binky Chadha raises the red flag as the correlation across asset-classes soars to record highs signaling extreme contagion risk.

Very strong momentum across asset classes has seen oil up, the dollar down, equities and bond yields up, with the average correlation between them rising to 90%.

As Chadah conclude, whatever the fundamental case for each of the asset-class trades, extended positioning argues at a minimum for a breather and more likely a pullback soon.

Moreover, the tight correlation in the moves across the major asset classes (oil up, dollar down, equities and bond yields up) suggests a pullback in one for idiosyncratic reasons would likely spill over to the others.

So extended is the positioning that an unwind could occur even without a fundamental catalyst triggering a domino effect, says Chadha. To him, the dollar has “potentially the widest fundamental impact” across assets as its depreciation over the past year has helped support oil and equity prices while contributing to weak inflation that kept yields low.

But fixed income may represent the biggest risk as valuations are “completely out of line with growth” and reflect weak inflation, he said.

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Senator John McCain may be on his death-bed, but that does not stop him defending the deep state and his neocon cronies in response to President Trump’s declassification of ‘the memo’.

In a tweeted comment, McCain responded in his ubiquitous manner:

“The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s…”

 

The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s. https://t.co/6dsbcBIla6

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 2, 2018

 

With a full statement as follows:

STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON PARTISAN ATTACKS ON THE FBI & DOJ

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on partisan attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice:

“In 2016, the Russian government engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy. Russia employed the same tactics it has used to influence elections around the world, from France and Germany to Ukraine, Montenegro, and beyond. Putin’s regime launched cyberattacks and spread disinformation with the goal of sowing chaos and weakening faith in our institutions.

And while we have no evidence that these efforts affected the outcome of our election, I fear they succeeded in fueling political discord and dividing us from one another.

The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s.

The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded.

Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

One wonders if he even read the memo?

 

 

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While US equity markets were already fading from payrolls, the headlines of what is alleged within ‘the memo’ appears to have spooked stocks, legging The Dow to new lows, down 400pts…

 

With The Dow back at 2-week lows…

 

And VIX spiked above 15.00…

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Moments ago, the House Intel “FISA” memo was officially declassified, and according to the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, one key point is that the salacious and still unproven Steele dossier former an essential part of the initial and all three renewal applications against Carter Page, in line with what as previously leaked.

As York also explicitly highlights, “The FBI’s Andrew McCabe confirmed to the committee that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.“

House Intel memo key point: The FBI’s Andrew McCabe confirmed to the committee that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information. Story posting soon.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 2, 2018

This, as Fox News confirms, means that absent the dossier, at least one of the surveillance warrants in the case would not have been obtained.

Back to the memo, which as York adds, “The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.”

More House Intel memo key point: The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications. https://t.co/jzSl1tzhfc

— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 2, 2018

York then also note that DOJ official Bruce Ohr was relayed information about Christopher Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.

All else equal, sounds like a clear case of bias, and when extended, it would imply that the entire Mueller probe is base on grounds that could be overturned in court.

* *

To recap, here are the key points disclosed in the memo, as summarized by the Washington Exmainer which has an early unclassified version of the memo:

• The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the intial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
• Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.
• The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
• DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.

As a reminder, the FBI and Justice Department mounted a months-long effort to keep the information outlined in the memo out of the House Intelligence Committee’s hands. Only the threat of contempt charges and other forms of pressure forced the FBI and Justice to give up the material.

Once Intelligence Committee leaders and staff compiled some of that information into the memo, the FBI and Justice Department, supported by Capitol Hill Democrats, mounted a ferocious campaign of opposition, saying release of the memo would endanger national security and the rule of law.

But Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes never wavered in his determination to make the information available to the public. President Trump agreed, and, as required by House rules, gave his approval for release.

Finally, the memo released today does not represent the sum total of what House investigators have learned in their review of the FBI and Justice Department Trump-Russia investigation. That means the fight over the memo could be replayed in the future when the Intelligence Committee decides to release more information.

Once the memo is fully released we will publish it here.

 

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Just a headline from Reuters for now, which sets off today’s fireworks:

PRESIDENT TRUMP APPROVES DECLASSIFICATION OF CONTROVERSIAL REPUBLICAN MEMO, SENDS BACK TO HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE – FOX NEWS

This is in line with what leaks reported yesterday. Next, we look forward to leaks from the House Intel Committee about the timing of the official release and whether it will have to be revoted first due to the alleged changes in the memo.

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Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“All the News That’s Fit to Print” proclaims the masthead of The New York Times. “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” echoes The Washington Post.

“The people have a right to know,” the professors at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism hammered into us in 1962. “Trust the people,” we were admonished.

Explain then this hysteria, this panic in the press over the release of a four-page memo detailing one congressional committee’s rendering of how Trump-hate spawned an FBI investigation of Republican candidate and President Donald Trump.

What is the press corps afraid of? For it has not ceased keening and caterwauling that this memo must not see the light of day.

Do the media not trust the people? Can Americans not handle the truth?

Is this the same press corps that celebrates “The Post,” lionizing Kay Graham for publishing the Pentagon Papers, top-secret documents charging the “Best and the Brightest” of the JFK-LBJ era with lying us into Vietnam?

Why are the media demanding a “safe space” for us all, so we will not be harmed by reading or hearing what the memo says?

Security secrets will be compromised, we are warned.

Really? Would the House Intelligence Committee majority vote to expose secrets that merit protection? Would Speaker Paul Ryan and White House chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, who have read and approved the release of the memo, go along with that?

Is Gen. Kelly not a proven patriot, many times over?

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff, who earlier warned of a threat to national security, now seems ready to settle for equal time. If the majority memo is released, says Schiff, the minority version of events should be released.

Schiff is right. It should be, along with the backup behind both.

This week, however, FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein slipped into the White House to plead with Kelly to keep the Republican memo secret. Wednesday, both went public to warn the White House against doing what Trump said he was going to do.

This is defiant insubordination. And it is not unfair to ask if Rosenstein and Wray are more alarmed about some threat to the national security than they are about the exposure of misconduct in their own agencies.

The memo is to be released Friday. Leaks suggest what it contends:

That the Russiagate investigation of Trump was propelled by a “dossier” of lies and unproven allegations of squalid conduct in Moscow and Trumpian collusion with Russia.

Who prepared the dossier?

The leading dirt-diver hired by the Clinton campaign, former British spy Christopher Steele. In accumulating his Russian dirt, Steele was spoon-fed by old comrades in the Kremlin’s security apparatus.

Not only did the FBI use this dirt to launch a full investigation of Trump, the bureau apparently used it to convince a FISA court judge to give the FBI a warrant to surveil and wiretap the Trump campaign.

If true, the highest levels of the FBI colluded with a British spy digging dirt for Hillary to ruin the opposition candidate, and, having failed, to bring down an elected president.

Is this not something we have a right to know? Should it be covered up to protect those at the FBI who may have engaged in something like this?

“Now they are investigating the investigators!” comes the wail of the media. Well, yes, they are, and, from the evidence, about time.

In this divided capital, there are warring narratives.

The first is that Trump was compromised by the Russians and colluded with them to hack the DNC and Clinton campaign to destroy her candidacy. After 18 months, the FBI and Robert Mueller probes have failed to demonstrate this.

The second narrative is now ascendant. It is this:

In mid-2016, James Comey and an FBI cabal, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, lead investigator Peter Strzok and his FBI paramour Lisa Page, decided Clinton must not be indicted in the server scandal, as that would make Trump president.

So they colluded and put the fix in.

This alleged conspiracy is being investigated by the FBI inspector general. His findings may explain last week’s sudden resignation of McCabe and last summer’s ouster of Strzok from the Mueller probe.

If true, this conspiracy to give Hillary a pass on her “gross negligence” in handling secrets, and take down Trump based on dirt dug up by hirelings of the Clinton campaign would make the Watergate break-in appear by comparison to be a prank.

Here we may have hit the reason for the panic in the media.

Trump-haters in the press may be terrified that the memo may credibly demonstrate that the “Deplorables” were right, that the elite media have been had, that they were exploited and used by the “deep state,” that they let their detestation of Trump so blind them to reality that they made fools of themselves, and that they credited with high nobility a major conspiracy to overthrow an elected president of the United States.

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