Category Archives: BAB’s A List

Deep State Establishment Vs. The Aristocratic Republic The Founders Bequeathed

America, BAB's A List, Communism, Constitution, Democracy, Donald Trump, Federalism, Foreign Policy, Founding Fathers, Government, History, Intelligence, The State

By Dr. Boyd D. Cathey

Who is former CIA director William Brennan? Here is what the Wikipedia says of him: In 1976, he voted for Communist Party USA candidate Gus Hall in the presidential election; he later said that he viewed it as a way “of signaling my unhappiness with the system, and the need for change.” Despite that and despite what such actions denote, he has been involved in the most sensitive of US intelligence work and in the CIA for twenty-five years, serving directly as a personal intelligence advisor in the administration of Bill Clinton, and, as a staunch Obama supporter, appointed to head the CIA in 2013.

This fact puts into context an element of the present multifaceted assault on the Trump presidency, and, indeed, of a highly-politicized intelligence community, infiltrated over decades by cadres of Deep State operatives and sleeper agents, whose goal is to bring down that presidency.

The Deep State establishment wants us to do our thing—pay bills, pay taxes, take the children to school, watch ESPN, mow the grass, maybe go to church, but mainly stay away from getting involved in the “big issues” of really deciding how this country is run. That is their thing: making executive decisions at the top of the food chain, running this nation, conducting its foreign affairs, enacting its domestic policy, lining their pockets, and passing legislation that most of us never hear about until it hits us in the face—or in the pocket book. It’s not exactly an old fashioned dictatorship, but neither is it the republic that our ancestors or the Founders of this nation envisaged, either.

Certainly, those men who assembled to draft our Constitution some 230 years ago did not believe in a “peoples’ democracy.” For them, the republic they gave us did have tiers and gradations, such that those with the most involvement and interest in the new nation would also have the most direct influence. Thus each of the thirteen states had a plethora of property requirements and age requirements, as well as religious tests: all these came together to insure a high level of participation from those who had those interests.

So, what then is the difference between then and now? Do we not still have an aristocracy that, in effect, runs the country?

The issue here is rather the nature of government and how it is construed and operated. Our Founders considered the aristocratic republic they established to be a natural development, based firmly in the deepest traditions and inherited beliefs of the citizens of the new nation. The new constitution would represent an organic “moment” in which the new United States would crystallize its history, reaffirm its British heritage of law and justice. It was, then, not a revolutionary moment, but one cementing a link and connection to the past, to rights that went back to Magna Carta, to Rome, Athens, and, yes, Jerusalem.

It was also intended to be transparent, in that this constitutional arrangement, with its mix of the traditions of aristocracy and limited democratic participation, was not hidden from view. Nor was it intended to be. Americans knew what they were getting. Of course, there were debates over aspects of the founding, and there were disputes, seen most particularly in the several state conventions in the 1820s and 1830s, about whether we wanted to move further in the direction of “democracy” or not.

A major concern of the Founders was the effect wealth might have in influencing elections. They wanted to avoid impropriety as much as possible, to make such concerns as public as they were able. While they foresaw that men of great affluence might gain advantage, imposing set property conditions and the accumulated weight of traditions, custom, and a sense of deference they believed, could offset such dangers. And, very importantly, they wished that local and states’ rights act as a major counter-balance to eventual encroachments attempted by the Federal government. In other words, they posited what Catholic theorists term “subsidiarity,” that is, what can be done on a lower level of governance, ought to be done on that level and not on a higher level. A whole series of layers of intermediate organisms, families, communities, states, would insulate citizens from overweening powers emanating from Washington.

But, as was stated more than once, the republican “experiment” depended largely on the virtue of its citizenry.

Contrast this now with what acute observers like James Burnham (e.g., The Managerial Revolution) and Samuel Francis (e.g., Leviathan) have starkly noted about the modern United States, about how unelected and largely unseen “managers,” technocrats, and political operatives have in a real sense taken over both the electoral process as well as the running of government, forming a new, “hidden” kleptocracy, of those who answer to no one, and whose tenure is unlimited. It is, thus, an ugly and grasping inverted mirror of the model the Founders envisaged.

And since 1865 those protective, intermediate layers—states’ rights, local controls, our liberties—have succumbed, one by one, to the power of the Federal state which seems to increasingly suck the lifeblood out of society. We now are face-to-face, far too often, with the full power and threats of a Federal bureaucracy which seems to know no limits. Those unseen managers, the Deep State establishment, will brook no real opposition. If it should appear, it is either tamed and bought off, or squelched.

Enter Donald J. Trump and an agenda that promised to “drain the swamps,” and a very rude awakening in last November’s election. For the Deep State establishment it could not—must not—be permitted to stand. And thus we come to today, all the chimerical controversy about how the “Russians did it,” and how that uncouth ruffian in the White House needs to be taken down a peg or two, surrounded by “experienced advisors,” or perhaps removed from office, toute suite!

This process has in effect torn the lying mask off the face of the Deep State, and most particularly, its advance panzer units, the Mainstream Media. A recent study completed by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy [May 18] has analyzed media coverage of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Here is what was found:

CBS, CNN, NBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post…. All six portrayed Trump’s first 100 days in highly unfavorable terms. CNN and NBC’s coverage was the most unrelenting—negative stories about Trump outpaced positive ones by 13-to-1 on the two networks. Trump’s coverage on CBS also exceeded the 90 percent mark. Trump’s coverage exceeded the 80 percent level in The New York Times (87 percent negative) and The Washington Post (83 percent negative). The Wall Street Journal came in below that level (70 percent negative), a difference largely attributable to the Journal’s more frequent and more favorable economic coverage.

Even Fox scarcely gave the president more than 50% favorable coverage.

Add to this the unrelenting assaults by Democrats, academia, Hollywood, and various skittish Republicans and NeverTrump Neoconservatives, and we can see the massive offensive against not just President Trump, but even more, against the “drain the swamps” agenda that brought him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the first place.

More than once I have called for a massive response to this massive offensive. I have stated that while winning this past November 8 was a mini-miracle, extremely difficult to achieve, “winning the victory” would be even harder. And, certainly, it is proving to be so.

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~ DR. BOYD D. CATHEY is an Unz Review columnist, as well as a Barely a Blog contributor, whose work is easily located on this site under the “BAB’s A List” search category. Dr. Cathey earned an MA in history at the University of Virginia (as a Thomas Jefferson Fellow), and as a Richard M Weaver Fellow earned his doctorate in history and political philosophy at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. After additional studies in theology and philosophy in Switzerland, he taught in Argentina and Connecticut before returning to North Carolina. He was State Registrar of the North Carolina State Archives before retiring in 2011. He writes for The Unz Review, The Abbeville Institute, Confederate Veteran magazine, The Remnant, and other publications in the United States and Europe on a variety of topics, including politics, social and religious questions, film, and music.

Attack On Robert E. Lee Part Of Marxist Assault On Founding, Christian Civilization

BAB's A List, Christianity, Communism, History, States' Rights

“The Attack on Robert E. Lee is An Attack on Us All, on Our History and Culture; It is Part of the Marxist Assault on Western Christian Civilization,” inveighs Dr. Boyd D. Cathey. It is “a war of cultural extermination,” an “ideological blitzkrieg,” waged by “an advance Red Guard of vicious cultural barbarians.” We can’t be “lily white about this.” You don’t “convince a King Cobra that we are nice folks who only want to work with them!” Time to fight back, demands Dr, Boyd.

In the early hours of this morning—one might say in the darkness, but it would be the “darkness” of a society that wishes, it appears, to commit cultural suicide and revile its ancestors—in those early hours the culturally Progressivist leaders of New Orleans took down the statue of General Robert E. Lee in their city. In removing the Lee statue they not only impugn the life of that noble Christian and unselfish man whom President Dwight D. Eisenhower admired above all other American military heroes, but they attempt to exterminate and erase entire portions of our collective history, that is, to ban and remove from sight anything that in any way would remind us of our past and the heritage handed down to us. They are, then, an advance Red Guard of the vicious cultural barbarians, cultural vandals, whose burning hatred for anything that even meekly questions their ongoing ideological blitzkrieg to “cleanse us” of the history and traditions of Western Christian civilization, is seen as an impediment and a danger to their revolution. Any opposition to their designs must, therefore, be attacked and wiped from public view.

Their next target is the imposing statue to General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Let me state here: I hold an honors Masters’ degree in history (Thomas Jefferson Fellow) from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. And I am a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, having become a member well over thirty years ago (after I returned from grad school in Europe). I have been active on the North Carolina division level as well as on the national level. And, those who read these words (and read the Abbeville Institute and Confederate Veteran magazine) will know that I have written extensively in broad defense of not just Southern and Confederate heritage, but in defense of that heritage as an essential and pivotal part of American history. One cannot truly comprehend—one cannot hope to understand—our history as a nation or as a people without remembering who we are, and who we have been.

That does not mean that I—or any of us—have to worship at the statue of this historical figure, or of that historical personage. Just as I would not demand that Illinois take down its statues to Abraham Lincoln, I stoutly oppose removing statues to Lee, or to Jefferson Davis, or to Bedford Forrest. Whether one agrees with Robert E. Lee’s painful decision to leave the US Army and volunteer to fight for his home state of Virginia, or not, it is singularly important that we ALL be reminded that he not only existed larger than life, but that he had and continues to have an inordinate influence over us and our history. To attempt to efface his memory, to radically distort his beliefs and his actions, all to make him “fit” in a predetermined ideologically Marxist template, not only insults a great and decent man, but perverts and destroys history, itself.

This is what the cultural barbarians did in New Orleans and what they intend to do in Charlottesville.

The action in New Orleans followed a controversial and highly contentious period of debate, remonstrations, demonstrations, and legal maneuvers. Various pro-heritage and preservation organizations worked tirelessly to defend the monument. Sadly it seems, in too many of these defensive actions among heritage defenders there is division as to strategy and approach. And it was and is those divisions that have plagued far too often those who supposedly proclaim their opposition to the cultural genocide that gathers pace in our decadent contemporary society.

Up in the Old Dominion State, the Virginia Division of The Sons of Confederate Veterans have played an important role in defending the Lee statue now under attack. And they should be saluted for that. Yet, unfortunately, some of their public statements and actions betray a kind of pusillanimous response to this assault on not just Confederate heritage, but on the fabric of American history.

It has become increasingly clear that too many of the defenders of our heritage believe that opposition to the onrushing and take-no-prisoners revolutionary fanatics, those cultural barbarians, can continue as it was decades ago. In a real sense, they resemble those so-called “conservatives” and establishment Republicans who think that polite dissent is the only means to achieve success. They seem to say, “we must have none of those ‘flaggers’ and no demonstrations from those ‘unwashed deplorables’! And no outside ‘interference’ from more insistent and activist heritage groups!”

Unfortunately, we no longer live in those polite times. Our enemies are engaged in a war of extermination, and if we do not understand that, if we do not see that, then we shall surely become victims of it. The terms of battle have changed radically, and whether we wish it or not, we must respond using every legitimate weapon at our disposable.

Certainly, that does not mean joining hands with outright crazies, or Nazis. But it does mean that we should not turn away men and women of good will, even if they be not members of our organization or Sunday church-goers. Desperate times require desperate measures, always in keeping with integrity and faithfulness to the example of our ancestors.

My longtime friend and fellow compatriot Richard Hines, over the past thirty years, has contributed his time and fortune to the preservation and defense of the patrimony we have inherited from our ancestors. There is no stronger, no more unselfish and valiant defender of our heritage and the legacy of our Western Christian traditions then he. In the May/June issue of Confederate Veteran magazine his heritage defense organization ran a full page ad on the inside back cover, soliciting additional support (he had already made a substantial contribution) for a defense of the Lee statue in Charlottesville. You would think that the Virginia descendants of the noble veterans of that cruel war of 1861-1865 would have welcomed the support, but no, those near-sighted members of the Virginia SCV protested this “outside interference”!

Then, there was the press release “protest” by the official Virginia division, criticizing a torchlight march near the Lee statue, which included, it is said, members of the ”Alt-Right.” Obviously, the unending attacks by the cultural Marxists had had their effect, for the Virginia division scurried rapidly to the tall grass, forcefully declaring that it had nothing to do with possible “racists,” “white supremacists,” etc., etc.—all the “devil terms” of the cultural Left. One could almost hear the voices and the standard narrative of the leftist mainstream media echoed therein. And one could, justifiably, ask whether such aping of the dominant narrative will do anything, anything at all, to defend our heritage, or to ingratiate us in the eyes of the cultural barbarians who seek to destroy us?

Rather, is not such a polite attitude an admission that our older strategy, even if certainly the ideal in a civilized society, has failed? One does not get down on one’s knees and attempt to “reason” with a King Cobra, and, I dare say that operating by the old rules with our enemies these days—whether in Washington DC, or in New Orleans, or in Charlottesville, Virginia—will get us only that much quicker to the dust bin of history and the final end of our culture and our people. Seems like the cobras will strike us every time…but that too many of us have never learned, or may never learn, that lesson.

I send along, then, a rousing defense of “Marse Robert” by that superb columnist Ilana Mercer and the critical significance of Southern and Confederate heritage in the history of our nation.

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~ Dr. Boyd D. Cathey is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Abbeville Institute. He contributes to the Confederate Veteran magazine, the Unz Review, as well as to Barely a Blog. His articles are on this site under the “BAB’s A List” search category.

On The Deep State (Damn Straight!), Comey’s Memo To Self & Ongoing Media Cadenza

BAB's A List, Conservatism, Donald Trump, Intelligence, Law, Media, Neoconservatism, Russia, The State

By Dr. Boyd D. Cathey. (Warning to the congenitally dour: humor and Southern idiom and imagery ahead.)

Some pundits and writers on the Left and within the Deep State political and cultural pentagon deny that there is such a thing as the “Deep State.” In recent days I’ve read a couple of Mainstream Media [MSM] columnists who simply dismiss such an idea. “No,” they say with mock seriousness, “what you see—those of us self-erected ‘big shots’ in the political class and the self-perpetuating bureaucracy in Washington, the financial globalists, the Hollywood elites, the educational establishment—we aren’t really a ‘state-within-a state’. You just need to be quiet, go back to your workaday professions, and leave governing, educating your children, and producing your entertainment, to us. It’s above your pay grade.”

Let me translate, “we are your masters and you are the sheep—shut up and don’t ask questions and don’t even think about any real influence in the destiny of this nation.” And even more simply stated: “We are the managerial elite, you are the deplorables.” Seems we have heard that word before….

But only a few minutes watching the hysterical MSM yesterday, in addition to occasioning a severe case of nausea, would have convinced even the most casual and uninterested viewer that the “chattering class” of this nation had literally gone berserk, in ideological and linguistic lock-step—almost as if some hidden “Wizard of Oz,” behind the curtain, had given the punditry a strict talking points memo. The non-existent “Deep State” had once again bared its teeth, and the unmistakable reality of its suffocating presence sank in.

Over on CNN, leftist wing nut Chris Cilizza jumped, like a tick on a freshly-bathed dog, on the purported “news” that back in February, during a private meeting between President Trump and former FBI head James Comey, the president urged Comey to “let the [Michael] Flynn investigation go.” Then, according to—as always—an “unnamed” source who telephoned The News York Times right after that, Comey drafted a “memo to self,” more or less, recounting this his version of what happened. “Obstruction of justice!” Cilizza screamed. “Impeachment moment!” echoed the other programmed automatons in the MSM. “The end of the Trump presidency!” shrieked ABC, MSNBC, CBS, ad nauseum.

“Obstruction of Justice?” First, the White House has pushed back hard on this convenient “after-thought” by Comey. If he thought it were an attempted “obstruction of justice” way back in February, why wasn’t it made public way back then? Why weren’t the appropriate congressional committees notified? Additionally, when the president and Comey met, Flynn had already been cleared by the FBI of any criminal action. Even if President Trump had suggested that Comey try to “move on,” how in any sense, legally or otherwise, can this be considered “obstruction”? That term, legally, implies action to prevent, to hinder, or to subvert an investigation or process. So, even if Comey’s “recollection” has any truth to it—and that is debatable—the only thing that has happened here is that the MSM has had another cardiac moment, another “impeachment moment” day dream.

The mind-numbing programmed MSM and their Democratic allies remind me of disjointed Bloodhounds who race frantically from deceptive scented clue to deceptive scented clue, but without ever catching their prey… because there is nothing there, there. The “Russians did it” template is fake and false, made up out of whole cloth by the Clintonistas after Hillary’s loss. And very likely, as we now know, the theft of over 44,000 Democratic National Committee emails was committed by Seth Rich, a disaffected DNC staffer who had access, who was enraged by the pro-Hillary sandbagging of Bernie Sanders. Of course, just a few days after Rich did that, he wound up murdered. And despite the fact that nothing was taken from him—not his wallet full of cash or his expensive necklace—the DC police department (with orders from up high) and FBI (and the Clinton folks) continue to say it was an attempted robbery and refuse to cooperate in any further investigation.

Just the same old Washington DC, the same old politics. And they want us to think that the “Deep State” doesn’t really exist? And too many Republicans and so-called “conservatives” either buy into that template, serving as fifth columnists, or, at a minimum, go along to prevent that kind of full-fledged assault on them that is now being inflicted on Donald Trump, his administration, and his agenda.

One of the most notorious fellow-traveler apologists for the Deep State is neoconservative head honcho and Weekly Standard founder and editor, Bill Kristol. Kristol is one of the fiercest and most intransigent NeverTrumpers, and much like columnist George Will, he continues his ferocious opposition. Most recently Kristol granted an interview to the left wing web site, “Mediaite.” Nothing unusual about that, since the candidacy of Donald Trump has brought dozens of supposedly “conservative” pundits and writers “out of the closet” and revealed what we have known all along: they are, in fact, raving leftists at heart in their basic precepts, and they will do practically anything, work with anybody, even if much further to the left, if they can “get back” at The Donald for his “sin” of challenging their leadership and control of the decadent and dying “Conservative Movement.”

To conclude, I have suggested that we are living now in a hollow, geographical entity officially titled “the United States of America,” but which is definitely NOT united, and where the very concept of “America” has no common acceptance. And the question, then, remains: how is it possible, how can there be a real future for a country where one half wants to literally suppress and obliterate the other half? And, then, those of us scheduled for such suppression—why do we permit so many of our elected representatives to take a dive and go along, and even enable this potentially fatal infection?

Why aren’t millions of us “deplorables” organizing nationally and in each state to challenge the GOP wimp-outs, like Dave Bratt did with Eric Cantor in Virginia? Why aren’t we making our presence known at meetings of leftist congressmen and on campuses? The Deep State—the establishment “swamp”—is in full attack mode. Either we respond, or we disappear as a people, with our traditions, our history, and our faith.

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~ Dr. Boyd D. Cathey is an Unz Review columnist, as well as a Barely a Blog contributor, whose work is easily located on this site under the “BAB’s A List” search category.

Rationale & History Of Rod Rosenstein’s Comey Probe, Sans Revisionism Of ‘Thuggish MSM’

BAB's A List, Communism, Democrats, Donald Trump, Fascism, History, John McCain, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, The State

By Unz Review columnist Dr. Boyd D. Cathey:

A “fascist coup!”—a “massive cover-up!” —-“the most serious constitutional crisis in our history!” Wow. To hear these primal screams uttered by the Mainstream Media (MSM) and various Democratic leaders, in forcefully pained and apocalyptic tones, you would think that the nation teeters (or, is it “totters”?) on the brink of a coup d’etat, with Abrams tanks and the heavily-armed 82nd Airborne waiting in the suburbs to roll into Washington and seize control of our peaceful democratic republic, in the name of that “new Hitler” autocrat, SS Gruppenfuher Donald von Trump!

Yet the only startling element—although we shouldn’t be at all surprised— in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey was the obvious neo-Stalinism of the leaders of the Democratic Party and their advance Einsatsgruppen in the thuggish coterie called the Mainstream Media [MSM]. Yes, increasingly the Dems and the MSM remind me of the old Communist Party, and not just ideologically, but also in their everyday, turn-on-a-dime, praxis.

Consider: until Stalin and Hitler made their infamous “pact” in 1939 which essentially surrounded Poland with two hungry and powerful military powers, Communist parties worldwide had engaged in a constant campaign of attacks against “fascism” and “Naziism.” In France the Parti Communiste Francaise had supported the Popular Front with other so-called “democratic” and socialist parties. In the United States Communists had involved themselves in various “democratic” front groups and in support of various mainstream political candidates—all in the name of democracy and staunch opposition to “fascism.”

Then, after the sudden signing of the non-aggression pact on August 23, 1939, Communists parties throughout the Commintern—throughout the world—received the sharp directive: no longer attack Hitler and the Nazis. And The Daily Worker newspaper, which had only a few days earlier lambasted Hitler and his country in apocalyptic terms, all of sudden found nice things to say about them, and the PCUSA was told to cease and decease in criticisms.

For weeks, indeed, for months the very same Democrats and their advance units in the MSM now lauding Comey had been attacking him. Just a week ago Hillary Clinton once again blamed him for her loss last November. And Senator Chuck Schumer, on more than one occasion, had indicated that Comey should step down as FBI director for his antics during the 2016 election campaign. Same thing for the MSM. But then, after President Trump fired Comey, just like the old Commie Stalinists of yore, almost the entirety of the MSM/Democratic wing of the Deep State establishment came to his defense: now he was the valiant, brave, professional who was leading a fearless investigation into the supposed “collusion” between the Trump campaign and—shudder, shudder—Vladimir Putin!

Even some Republicans got into the act, mostly to question the “timing” of the firing, but, in effect, towing the Soviet—uh, I mean, Democratic Deep State—line. John McCain, the nation’s leading Russophobe politician, chimed in questioning the timing aspect, and he was joined by Senator Richard Burr, expressing similar disquiet. Such a response from the supposed “opposition” was fatuous, indicating that either those GOP solons had not really read through the sequence of events, or somehow gave credence to the completely hollow Deep State narrative that somewhere, somehow, hidden so profoundly in the minutiae of data that it had escaped our intelligence agencies for nine—nine!—months, there was “proof” of collusion.

Yet, this narrative—which not only James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence) and Comey have said repeatedly has no investigative basis whatsoever, and now Senator Dianne Feinstein and even Representative “Impeach the Prez” Waters from California admit has no basis in fact—this narrative re-appears suddenly like the dragon Fafnir of Norse mythology to explain why the president fired Comey. It was, they darkly claim and insinuate, to stop and to forestall the Trump/Russia collusion investigation! Aha! Thus, the timing: it happened just a few days before Comey was to testify before Congress, again, for the umpteenth time! And, of course, we all know that the former FBI director was going to spill the beans this time!

All of this is based on utter rubbish, a narrative that the MSM and Democrat left want to be true, that they work to make true, that they earnestly believe to be true, but, in fact, is completely and totally false. Just like the Communists of 1939, they have turned on a dime. Last week and for months they were demanding that Comey be drawn-and-quartered: “Give us the head of James Comey!” quoth Salome Hillary. Now, you followers of “Big Brother,” just forget what we said for the past nine months!

But the reality—that is, the real reality—is otherwise. The Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was charged just a couple of weeks ago with preparing a report on James Comey’s tenure. Now, Rosenstein is a career Justice Department official, having served for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, including under George Bush and Barack Obama. He was just recently confirmed by the Senate by an overwhelming 94-6 vote, with Chuck Schumer praising his probity of character, integrity, and professionalism. Only after his confirmation was he, quite properly, charged with this investigation. Rosenstein is apolitical, and that was the precise reason the AG Jeff Sessions entrusted him with the duty to examine Comey’s record. And that detailed report, when it was ready, was presented to the president who, then, acted upon it.

Certainly, the White House recognized that its enemies would attempt to make an issue out of this dismissal, but the crass, fly-in-your face hypocrisy and the Soviet-style volte-face response is, to put it mildly, incredibly revolting and blatantly offensive.

Nevertheless, the Deep State cultural Marxists, continuing to exist in their “Russia did it” reality bubble, have gone literally berserk. For them it’s all a part of a new Watergate, an attempted coup, et cetera, et cetera. And, sadly, there are millions of Americans, deformed by decades of higher educational indoctrination, a corrupted bowl of intellectually soured ideological porridge, who will believe this pushed, baseless narrative.

In fact, the only players in any attempted “coup” are those Deep State establishmentarians, the MSM and their epigones in the Democratic Party (and their fifth columnists in the GOP), who are doing their damnedest to weaken, de-legitimize, and destroy this president and his presidency. They are the real culprits here. And just like the Soviets and the Nazis of seventy-eight years ago, they will call white, black, and black, white, should it serve their nefarious political and cultural purposes.

Here, then, I pass on the detailed memo of Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. This action was overdue, and it was done legitimately, with due process, and was right.

~ Dr. Boyd D. Cathey

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Rod Rosenstein’s letter recommending Comey is fired

Memorandum for the Attorney General
===============================================================================
May 9, 2017

FROM: Rod J Rosenstein
Deputy Attorney General

SUBJECT: Restoring public confidence in the FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has long been regarded as our nation’s premier federal investigative agency. Over the past year, however, the FBI’s reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice. That is deeply troubling to many Department employees and veterans, legislators and citizens.
The current FBI Director is an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice. He deserves our appreciation for his public service. As you and I have discussed, however, I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken. Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.
The director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution. It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement. At most, the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors. The Director now defends his decision by asserting that he believed attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict. But the FBI Director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department. There is a well-established process for other officials to step in when a conflict requires the recusal of the Attorney General. On July 5, however, the Director announced his own conclusions about the nation’s most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders.
Compounding the error, the Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation. Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously. The Director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial. It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.
In response to skeptical question at a congressional hearing, the Director defended his remarks by saying that his “goal was to say what is true. What did we do, what did we find, what do we think about it.” But the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference. The goal is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a federal criminal prosecution, then allow a federal prosecutor who exercises authority delegated by the Attorney General to make a prosecutorial decision, and then – if prosecution is warranted – let the judge and jury determine the facts. We sometimes release information about closed investigations in appropriate ways, but the FBI does not do it sua sponte.
Concerning his letter to the Congress on October 28, 2016, the Director cast his decision as a choice between whether he would “speak” about the FBI’s decision to investigate the newly-discovered email messages or “conceal” it. “Conceal” is a loaded term that misstates the issue. When federal agents and prosecutors quietly open a criminal investigation, we are not concealing anything; we are simply following the longstanding policy that we refrain from publicizing non-public information. In that context, silence is not concealment.
My perspective on these issues is shared by former Attorneys General and Deputy Attorneys General from different eras and both political parties. Judge Laurence Silberman, who served as Deputy Attorneys General under President Ford, wrote that “it is not the bureau’s responsibility to opine on whether a matter should be prosecuted.” Silberman believes that the Director’s “Performance was so inappropriate for an FBI director that [he] doubt[s] the bureau will ever completely recover.” Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General under President George W. Bush, to opine that the Director had “chosen personally to restrike the balance between transparency and fairness, department from the department’s traditions.” They concluded that the Director violated his obligation to “preserve, protect and defend” the traditions of the Department and the FBI.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W Bush, observed the Director “stepped way outside his job in disclosing the recommendation in that fashion” because the FBI director “doesn’t make that decision”. Alberto Gonzales, who also served as Attorneys General under President George W Bush, called the decision “an error in judgement.” Eric Holder, who served as Deputy Attorneys General under President Clinton and Attorneys General under President Obama, said that the Director’s decision “was incorrect. It violated long-standing Justice Department policies and traditions. And it ran counter to guidance that I put in place four years ago laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during an election season.” Holder concluded that the Director “broke with these fundamental principles” and “negatively affected public trust in both the Justice Department and the FBI”.
Former Deputy Attorneys General Gorelick and Thompson described the unusual event as “read-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation,” that is “antithetical to the interests of justice”.
Donald Ayer, who served as Deputy Attorneys General under President HW Bush, along with former Justice Department officials, was “astonished and perplexed” by the decision to “break[] with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections.” Ayer’s letter noted, “Perhaps most troubling… is the precedent set by this departure from the Department’s widely-respected, non-partisan traditions.”
We should reject the departure and return to the traditions.
Although the President has the power to remove an FBI director, the decision should not be taken lightly. I agree with the nearly unanimous opinions of former Department officials. The way the Director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong. As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions.