Was the Steele Dossier the FBI’s ‘Insurance Policy’?

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM …

Remember the text of the meeting when FBI agent Strzok met in McCabe’s office ahead of the 2016 Presidential election and stated that even though there was no way Trump could get elected and a Trump victory was the longest of long shots, the FBI “can’t take that risk” and he insisted that the bureau had no choice but to proceed with a plan to undermine Trump’s candidacy with this insurance policy … “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” National Review asked the question, was the Steele Dossier the FBI’s insurance policy? As unbelievable as it seems, it appear to be true. The FBI used this ridiculous and discredited document to start the wheels in motion to gain the FISA warrants to undermine a presidency and start a coup.

Individuals don’t just need to be fired, they need to be sent to prison.

The FBI’s deputy director Andrew McCabe testified Tuesday at a marathon seven-hour closed-door hearing of the House Intelligence Committee. According to the now-infamous text message sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok to his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, it was in McCabe’s office that top FBI counterintelligence officials discussed what they saw as the frightening possibility of a Trump presidency. That was during the stretch run of the 2016 campaign, no more than a couple of weeks after they started receiving the Steele dossier — the Clinton campaign’s opposition-research reports, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, about Trump’s purportedly conspiratorial relationship with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia.

Was it the Steele dossier that so frightened the FBI? I think so.

Obama-era FBI and Justice Department had great faith in Steele because he had previously collaborated with the bureau on a big case. Plus, Steele was working on the Trump-Russia project with the wife of a top Obama Justice Department official, who was personally briefed by Steele. The upper ranks of the FBI and DOJ strongly preferred Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, to the point of overlooking significant evidence of her felony misconduct, even as they turned up the heat on Trump. In sum, the FBI and DOJ were predisposed to believe the allegations in Steele’s dossier. Because of their confidence in Steele, because they were predisposed to believe his scandalous claims about Donald Trump, they made grossly inadequate efforts to verify his claims. Contrary to what I hoped would be the case, I’ve come to believe Steele’s claims were used to obtain FISA surveillance authority for an investigation of Trump.

There were layers of insulation between the Clinton campaign and Steele — the campaign and the Democratic party retained a law firm, which contracted with Fusion GPS, which in turn hired the former spy. At some point, though, perhaps early on, the FBI and DOJ learned that the dossier was actually a partisan opposition-research product. By then, they were dug in. No one, after all, would be any the wiser: Hillary would coast to victory, so Democrats would continue running the government; FISA materials are highly classified, so they’d be kept under wraps. Just as it had been with the Obama-era’s Fast and Furious and IRS scandals, any malfeasance would remain hidden.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) Says About Media & Fake News …I Have ‘Newfound Empathy’ for President Trump

IMAGINE THAT, AN ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN HAS THE LIBERAL MSM TURN ON THEM AND NOW THEY CAN EMPATHIZE WITH TRUMP?

As reported at The Hill, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) stated that he had a “newfound empathy” for President Donald Trump after the MSM that had been so kind to him in the past, turned on him as he received his own brand of fake new coverage. The fake news charge was in reference to the so-called “Corker kickback” that was alleged by the liberal MSM and the LEFT. Of course it was false and categorically denied by Sen. Corker. But what else would you expect the LEFT to do but lie? However, it is better late than never that Corker, who has feuded with Trump over the past year, that Corker now knows what it feels like to walk for one second in the shoes of President Donald Trump. Maybe Republicans, especially RINO’s and establishment Republicans will now understand where the MSM’s allegiance really lay.

Sorry LEFT, you must mean the Corn Husker kickback and Landrieu Louisiana Purchase for Democrat payoffs to pass Obamacare.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Thursday he has “newfound empathy” for President Trump after a report he benefited from a provision in the final GOP tax bill went viral.

“I told (Trump) that I’d had a healthy respect for the media and I deal with them all the time, and, you know, to attack the media has not been something I’ve done,” Corker said on Fox News.

“I’ve never ever in my life used the work ‘fake news’ until today. I actually understand what it is the president has been dealing with,” he continued.

Corker was responding to a story first reported by International Business Times and picked up by other outlets that a provision added to the tax bill during the reconciliation process would directly benefit those with real estate holdings, like Corker.

Corker said he was unaware of the provision, and said it was included in the House version of the bill then included in the final version submitted from a conference committee.

Corker said he spoke with Trump on Wednesday about his “newfound empathy” for the president, who has frequently singled out news outlets for their reporting and labeled them “fake news.”

“He just mentioned that he’d been dealing with this for over a year, and look, I’m sorry I’ve witnessed it firsthand, it is not good,” Corker said. “I know other people have witnessed the same. I have a newfound empathy for what he and others have been dealing with this in this regard.”

Wells Fargo & Fifth Third Bancorp Provide Bonuses & Unveil Minimum Wage Hikes after GOP Tax Bill Passage

SO THIS IS WHAT ARMAGEDDON MEANS TO DEMOCRATS … EMPLOYEES BENEFIT AFTER TAX CUT BILL PASSAGE …

Merry Christmas from President Donald J. Trump and the Republicans in The House and Senate. Because the GOP Tax Bill was passed, look what happened in return. Remember, not one, not one Democrat voted for this legislation. Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank provide early Christmas presents to their employees, thanks to passage of the Tax bill.

Fifth Third Bank to give bonuses, raise minimum wage after tax bill passage from CNBC.

Fifth Third Bancorp will pay more than 13,500 employees a bonus and raise the minimum wage of its workforce to $15 an hour after the passage of the Republican tax plan that will cut the bank’s corporate tax rate.

Fifth Third is yet another company to announce a bonus for employees because of the tax plan. AT&T said earlier Wednesday that it would pay more than 200,000 U.S. employees $1,000 each and increase its capital spending budget by $1 billion.

Wells Fargo, meanwhile, also said it would be boosting its minimum wage for employees to $15 an hour, which was prompted by the tax plan. The San Francisco-based bank also said it would target $400 million in donations to community and nonprofit organizations next year.

The Ingraham Angle: 12/19/17 – Discusses Trump & the Media

Laura Ingraham discusses the liberal media and their bias against President Donald Trump …

The media bias has been against Trump from the outset, what is going to happen when the people start to pay attention again and look at ISIS caliphate destroyed, the economy, the jobs, tax cuts and driving black and Hispanic unemployment to all-time lows isn’t a good thing, what is?

Senate Passes $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut Early Wednesday Morning … Pending Procedural House Vote … Trump To Sign This Afternoon

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TRUMP AND THE GOP …

Early Wednesday morning, the U.S. Senate passed the 1.5 trillion tax cut bill. It will be sent on to the House Wednesday for a vote and then off to President Trump this afternoon for signing. The Senate vote was along party lines, 51-48, with not one Democrat voting in favor of the bill. That is correct America, not one Democrat wanted to give the American people a tax cut. The House passed The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 227-203 on Tuesday where 12 Republicans and all Democrats voted against the bill.

Sadly. the LEFT is more worried about their resistance to President Trump than they are in giving a tax break to the American people. Like it for not Democrats and the liberal MSM, this is a huge win for President Trump. We shall see what these fake, skewed polls look like when the American people see a change in their pay checks in February. As stated at The Weekly Standard, “The tax bill may be polling poorly as it heads to Trump’s desk, but he and the Republican party head into next year’s midterm election cycle with a substantive legislative accomplishment they can argue is helping boost the economy.”

The Senate passed the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax cut early Wednesday morning, leaving just one technical hurdle and President Trump’s signature as the final steps before the president’s top legislative priority becomes reality.

There was little last-minute drama in the Senate where the final tally was 51-48 – hardly different from the original version that cleared the Senate earlier this month.

Not a single Democrat voted for it, just as none in the House voted for a similar bill earlier on Tuesday.

Moments after the measure passed, Trump was quick to voice his approval and said if the House succeeds in a final re-vote Wednesday morning, there will be a White House news conference at 1:00 p.m.

‘The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,’ he tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. ‘Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.’

From The Cato Institute: Final Tax Bill: Biggest Cuts for the Middle.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has released its distributional analysis of the final Republican tax bill. The bill provides even larger percentage cuts for middle earners than previous versions of the legislation.

If the legislation is enacted, higher earners will pay an even larger share of the overall income tax burden than they do now. Our highly “progressive” income tax will be even more progressive. That approach is counter to sound fiscal governance and undermines the growth potential of tax reform, but that is what Republicans are delivering.

Looking at JCT’s table for 2019, second column, the percentage cuts are roughly similar across income groups from $20,000 to $1,000,000. But the JCT table slants the results by including payroll and excise taxes. The table under-measures the percentage cuts to the middle compared to the top.