Are Voters this Stupid when it Comes to Bernie Sanders?

Posted on February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Denise Simon

The legislators on the Left are always voting for laws that protect us from ourselves, taking away independent thought and decisions. It is a double edge sword for sure, some people need others to make decisions for them.

Laws where an individual’s behavior hurts others in all forms does have some merit…but c’mon Bernie and the same goes for Vermont and Iowa or any Bernie voters across the nation.

Bernie Sanders raises $3.3 million in first 10 hours after ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in his first-ever campaign for the Senate made the legalization of all drug use one of the cornerstones of his policy platform.

Recruited in a 1972 special election as the Senate candidate for Vermont’s Liberty Union Party, Sanders promised that if elected, “All laws relating to prohibition of abortion, birth control, homosexual relations, and the use of drugs would be done away with,” the Rutland Daily Herald reported in December 1971.

“In a free society, individuals and not government have the right to decide what is best for their own lives, as long as their actions do not harm others,” Sanders said during the campaign for the seat he would eventually win in 2006. (source)

***

As the DEA explained in its 2019 National Drug Threat Assessment, also released Thursday, most synthetic opioids are produced in China and Mexico; methamphetamine and heroin are primarily Mexican, and much cocaine is produced in Colombia. All of the drugs are routinely smuggled over the porous southwestern border or, in the case of Chinese goods, sent in using the U.S. mail.

“We’re pleased that in 2018, drug overdose deaths declined over 4 percent overall, with even greater decreases—over 13 percent—in overdoses from controlled prescription opioids,” DEA acting administrator Uttam Dhillon said Thursday. “Many challenges remain, however, including the spread of fentanyl and methamphetamine across the country. DEA and its partners will continue to work diligently to combat the drug trafficking organizations that bring these deadly substances into our country and endanger the American people.”

As the drug crisis changes shape, lawmakers continue to struggle over how best to combat it. On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives finally passed an extension of the DEA’s temporary scheduling of fentanyl’s synthetic analogs, giving law enforcement another year to prosecute traffickers in substances like acetyl fentanyl and carfentanil under the strictest section of the Controlled Substances Act. Eighty-six House Democrats, however, objected, with several taking to the floor to argue that a “public health” approach is preferable to the incarceration of drug dealers. (source)

***

Since fentanyl and carfentinil can be absorbed through the skin, eyes, or respiratory system, there is a very real danger for secondary exposures for firefighters and EMS personnel from drug residue on a patient’s clothing, furniture, and even carpeting. There have been numerous documented cases in the United States of firefighters and EMS personnel experiencing respiratory distress and other overdose symptoms after coming into incidental contact with fentanyl and carfentinil residue in the course of providing patient care. The lethality and ease of coming into contact with the drug underscores the need for firefighters and EMS personnel to exercise extreme caution when responding to suspected opioid-related calls. All responders should be careful to appropriately don and doff any personal protective equipment selected for use when responding to these calls.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently published a handbook and roll call video to educate first responders on the dangers presented by fentanyl and carfentinil. Fire chiefs should work closely with their medical directors to review this information and design protocols to protect firefighters and EMS personnel from exposures to these dangerous narcotics. Fire chiefs also should maintain regular contact with their law enforcement partners to understand which narcotics may be most prevalent in their communities. (source)

*** Has Bernie explained any of that? Not so much. Consider the real destruction of the thousands and thousands of the narcotic generation and the labor output competition with other nations.

Bernie sees the “War on Drugs” as a costly, destructive, and ineffective policy. Current drug laws have not worked. After spending billions of dollars and destroying millions of lives, there has been no real decrease in drug accessibility or use, as evidenced by the opioid epidemic, the rising rates of heroin use, and the scourge of meth. Bernie believes treatment, not punishment, is the answer, and he’s repeatedly introduced legislation to extensively reform the criminal justice system along these lines.

War on Drugs: The fifty year war on drugs is a failed policy that has led to mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders and has unfairly targeted people of color.

Treatment for Drug Offenders: Nonviolent drug offenders should not be incarcerated. Instead, they should have access to affordable treatment to address their drug dependencies.

Legalize Marijuana: Marijuana ought to be legalized.

Addressing the Heroin and Opioid Epidemics : Heroin and opioid abuse is at epidemic levels, and the U.S. is not addressing the crisis with the urgency and seriousness that is required. We must address this crisis by providing resources, proper treatment and healthcare professionals to the communities struggling with this epidemic.

Here’s a link to Bernie’s plan to legalize marijuana and his comprehensive plan, Justice and Safety for All, to reform the criminal justice system.

So, Who Stole John Solomon’s Laptop?

Posted on February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Denise Simon

The reader is invited to apply some strategic thinking on this one. Those journalists doing exceptional investigative work seem to have some very odd things happen to them including Sharyl Attkisson. Remember her and her work with Fast and Furious and Benghazi and how her home computer was attacked?

Okay, so read on but perhaps Solomon should have been more security conscious. It was found later, in just enough time for the thief to copy the full hard-drive.

On the night before the Senate impeachment trial began, someone broke into veteran Washington investigative journalist John Solomon’s car, which was parked near the White House, and stole his laptop, according to a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department report obtained by RealClearInvestigations.

John Solomon: DOJ watchdog's FISA report will have '6 to ...

The computer contained notes on Ukraine and former Vice President Joe Biden and other sensitive information, Solomon said in an interview. He said he was preparing to launch a new podcast and news site at the time.

Though the laptop has since been recovered, the investigation is still open. “The case has been assigned a detective and is under investigation,” MPD spokesman Sean Hickman told RCI.

The Secret Service is also involved in the matter, which appears suspicious. Break-ins are relatively rare in the high-security area where the crime occurred, just outside the White House perimeter, and a sophisticated device appears to have been used to get into the vehicle.

In the early evening of Jan. 20, the police report states, Solomon’s Apple MacBook laptop and computer bag, valued at around $1,800, were stolen from his 2019 Toyota SUV parked at 1776 F St. NW, across from the White House’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building. No windows were broken, and there were no other signs of forced entry. Authorities suspect the thief or thieves used an electronic jamming device to open the car door lock.

Solomon said that, other than the bag, nothing else was stolen from his car, including cash he used for the Metro.

The computer and bag, which also contained his U.S. Capitol press security badge, were discovered the next day nearly a block away from where his car had been parked. The contents of the bag had been dumped out on a picnic bench near the FDIC building. The location had no security cameras, so there is no known video surveillance footage that can be reviewed. Authorities described it as one of the few “dark spots” in the area.

Solomon, who noted that an iPod was missing from his bag, says he is working with computer forensics experts to determine if any of his laptop information was exploited or if his hard drive was scanned within the period the laptop went missing.

“It’s a pretty professional job,” he said of the break-in, “but it’s probably just a coincidence.”

“It was probably just a street criminal searching for pass codes,” he added. “Or it could be someone searching for my Ukraine stuff. We don’t know at this point.”

An award-winning investigative reporter, Solomon has been a political target in recent months.

In December, House impeachment manager Adam Schiff released a report that published Solomon’s phone records. The Democratic leader cited Solomon no fewer than 35 times in his impeachment report. He added Solomon’s phone call history in a spreadsheet he compiled in the footnotes section of the report, which claimed Solomon reported “conspiracy theories” in The Hill newspaper to help President Trump “push false narratives” about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election in favor of Hillary Clinton, as well as Biden’s attempts as vice president beginning late 2015 to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating a gas industry oligarch whose company paid his son millions of dollars.

Solomon, who previously worked for the Associated Press and Washington Post, suspects Schiff was singling him out as part of a political smear campaign.

Earlier From Paul Sperry’s Notebook: “Whistleblower” Censorship at Facebook and in Senate

“I’m the only [reporter] who ends up having his records released,” Solomon said in a recent interview with Fox Business News anchor Lou Dobbs.

“It makes me wonder whether it’s a political payback, because a few months ago, I wrote a story exposing the fact that Chairman Schiff had met with Glenn Simpson at the sidelines of the Aspen Institute at a time when he shouldn’t have been having contact with Glenn Simpson,” he added. “It feels like a political payback.”

Congress had been investigating Simpson, whose opposition research firm Fusion GPS was hired by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Trump in 2016. Simpson hired former British intelligence officer and FBI informant Christopher Steele to compile the discredited Trump-Russia “dossier” the Obama administration used to spy on a Trump campaign adviser. Some of the spy warrants were declared invalid because the government made “material misstatements” in obtaining them, according to a new court order.

In early 2019, moreover, Solomon reportedly was put on a list of U.S. journalists whom then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch sought to have “monitored.”

An Obama holdover, Yovanovitch was ousted as ambassador last May after Solomon reported that she tried to block investigations into Ukrainian meddling and corruption tied to the previous administration. She subsequently testified before Schiff’s impeachment committee. On Friday it was reported that she had retired from the State Department.

Chinese National Arrested for Smuggling US Microchips

Posted on February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Denise Simon

US federal agents arrested a Chinese citizen attempting to obtain hundreds of radiation-hardened microchips typically used in satellites and ballistic missile systems as he tried to leave the United States last year, according to court documents obtained by Quartz.

The bust, which had not been reported in the media until now, was the culmination of an elaborate international sting that stretched from China to Arizona, and included an undercover operation in Bangkok.

The made-to-order chip is manufactured and sold in the United States by Cobham, a multinational defense contractor headquartered in Britain. They cost $2,500 each, and the company only makes about 1,000 of them a year. They are made to withstand extreme temperatures, severe vibrations, and radiation exposure. Known as “rad-hard chips,” they require a license from the Department of Commerce to export, and sending the chips to China—as well as a small handful of other countries, including Russia—is banned outright. A commercial version of the same chip, with the same memory capacity but without the ability to survive in the harsh conditions of outer space, goes for about $60.

A 2011 attempt by the Chinese to obtain an earlier version of the same chip was also foiled by the Department of Homeland Security. But more than 100 of the 312 chips purchased by the suspect in that case remain missing.

In this latest case, authorities say Jian Fun Tso, who goes by Steven, emailed Cobham in January 2018 to ask about purchasing the microchips for a group of unidentified customers. He said the buyers intended to use the chips in a radar-assisted parking device for cars. Tso called the sales potential “huge.” According to prosecutors, Tso’s clients were based in China.

A Cobham representative told Tso that, although his managers would certainly love “huge” numbers, the chips he was inquiring about—aside from being illegal to ship to China—cost far more than anyone creating such a product would ever need to spend.

Nicholas Eftimiades, a veteran intelligence officer who held positions with the CIA, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and the Defense Intelligence Agency during his 34-year career, said the technology in radiation-hardened microchips is “very, very closely guarded.” He said Tso’s explanation of how his clients would use them was nothing short of “ridiculous.”

“That chip could only be used by a certain number of state institutions in China, all leading to the People’s Liberation Army,” Eftimiades told Quartz. “They’re trying to steal it in a covert manner, the likelihood is a military space program or missile program.” Court documents quote a Cobham official saying there was “absolutely no rational reason” for anyone to use the chip in an automotive application.

China, which maintains the most extensive intelligence apparatus in the world, has increased the size and scope of its efforts in recent years. Beijing’s attempts to acquire sensitive American technology target not just the US government and the defense industry, but major universities and research scientists as well.

Chinese hackers have already compromised dozens of critical US weapons systems. In 2018, Chinese hackers stole top-secret plans for a supersonic anti-ship missile the Navy was developing. Last fall, two Chinese diplomats living in the United States—one of whom authorities believe was in fact an undercover intelligence officer—were expelled from the country after attempting to get onto a secure Virginia military base. Authorities recently charged a Chinese-born tour guide in San Francisco with passing US secrets to China’s Ministry of State Security. And last month, two different Chinese nationals were caught surveilling the same Florida military base twice in two weeks.

“The Chinese have been eating our lunch since the eighties,” former CIA officer Robert Baer told Quartz. “Nearly every single scientific and technological breakthrough they’ve made is thanks to what they’ve ripped off from us. And it’s only getting worse. Chinese theft of our technology is up there with our worst national security threats.”

Tso tries again

According to court filings, Cobham—which in 2018 alone received eight requests from Chinese entities for the valuable microchips—reported Tso’s call to US counterintelligence.

Unable to get the chips from Cobham, Tso tried a US electronics distributor that acts as a reseller. This time, Tso left out the part about China being the chips’ ultimate destination.

The distributor emailed Tso a blank end user agreement to fill out. Tso returned it, listing the end user as an electrical engineer named “John Anderson” from Metech ICT, an automotive electronics company based in Liverpool, England. Like Cobham, the distributor found his request suspicious and referred him to an undercover agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS).

Tso soon made contact with the undercover agent, who was stationed in Phoenix, Arizona. He sent the agent, who claimed to work for the distribution company, a purchase order for the chips. DCIS checked the information Tso provided for Metech ICT against the UK corporate registration database. No one named John Anderson worked there. The address Tso provided was for a restaurant he ran in Liverpool.

The undercover agent agreed to sell 200 chips to Tso, who said he planned to pick them up in the United States and personally take them back to the UK. Tso said he would wire the undercover agent 50% of the payment up front, and the remainder upon delivery, transferring his own money from Hong Kong to the UK and then on to the United States, claiming the nonexistent John Anderson would reimburse him later.

***

In what Eftimiades describes as a “whole of society approach,” the Chinese security services deploy overseas agents who range from trained intelligence officers to rank amateurs who engage in comically bad spycraft. Non-professional “freelance” operatives like Tso tend to do it for the money, and often become involved through personal networks.

It’s all part of a worldwide program to steal information that will increase Chinese power economically and politically, former CIA officer Joseph Wippl told Quartz. “It is not limited to the United States, although we are the priority No. 1 target,” he said.

To Bangkok and back

In November 2018, some 10 months after Tso’s original email to Cobham, the undercover agent met him at the Bangkok Intercontinental Hotel to finalize the deal.

Tso, who brought his wife to the rendezvous, asked the agent to provide him with a set of false invoices reflecting a total price of $10,000 for the $550,000 worth of chips, saying it would help him avoid any potential problems with customs if he were stopped.

That’s when Tso admitted the chips were ultimately destined for China. Tso also confided to the undercover agent that the money he sent from the UK had in fact originated in Hong Kong and China, and that Metech ICT was a front company he had set up.

As long as they were “both protected,” the agent told Tso this was fine. Tso called a female contact he referred to as “Big Sister,” who told the undercover agent she planned to meet Tso in the UK and hand-carry the chips from there to Hong Kong. “Other individuals” would transport the chips from Hong Kong to China, Big Sister said.

The following month, Tso wired a payment of $275,000 to the undercover agent’s bank account, which was $10,000 more than the actual balance due. Tso, who had given his customers a purposely inflated price, was planning to keep the extra money for himself and asked to be reimbursed when he arrived in Phoenix to pick up the chips.

***

On January 14, 2019, Tso flew from Liverpool to Philadelphia, where he boarded a connection to Phoenix. A day later, he met with the undercover agent, who gave Tso $10,000 in cash and a box he said contained the 200 radiation-hardened chips they had discussed. The agent reminded Tso that it would be illegal to bring the chips from the UK to China, to which Tso responded that he “hoped” the chips would stay in the UK but that “the less he knew about the ultimate end user, the better.”

The next day the undercover agent drove Tso to Phoenix’ Sky Harbor airport. He was intercepted by US Customs and Border Protection as he attempted to board his flight.

Tso pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges a year later, just before his trial was set to begin. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 13, and faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Tso’s lawyer, Seth Apfel, declined to comment, as did the federal prosecutors handling the proceedings.

John Sipher, who spent 28 years in the CIA’s National Clandestine Service before retiring in 2014, told Quartz that the Tso case “mirrors dozens of other cases and is likely the tip of the iceberg.”

This time, Tso’s unlikely story for how the chips would be used gave away his intentions before it was too late, said Eftimiades. “When someone’s putting $200,000 out, not asking for financing, and they don’t know the [real] use of the chip, it becomes apparent very quickly that this is a lie.”

Carter Page Sues all of Them

Posted on February 3, 2020February 3, 2020 by Denise Simon

As closing arguments are delivered in the Senate impeachment trial, one must note that the House Manager’s Team has made the same points day in and day out while overlooking the other part of the whole concocted scheme against President Trump. The other part is the successful plot against Donald Trump that was launched many months before he even took the Oath of Office for the presidency, Crossfire Hurricane. Carried through to Mueller investigation, it is proven that the ‘dossier’ was complied using foreign entities, some still unnamed.

That plot, using foreign interference was to interfere in our domestic election process. The choreographed operation continued through to the end of the impeachment trial in the Senate. Once, Trump is acquitted, brace for impact as the LEFT will not stop unless they are exposed in full and perhaps that will begin in earnest by two channels. The work pledged by Senator Lindsey Graham is characterized as a systematic examination of all things stemming from the contentious phone call between President(s) Trump and Zelensky. The other channel is the lawsuit filed by former volunteer foreign policy advisor, Carter Page.

Did Carter Page contacts give Obama FBI window into Trump ...

Page is suing the Democrat National Committee, Perkins Coie, LLP. and Michael Sussman. Carter Page has requested a trial by jury.

In a short summary of the Carter complaint:

As part of this effort, Defendants developed a dossier replete with falsehoods about numerous individuals associated with the Trump campaign—especially Dr. Page. Defendants then sought to tarnish the Trump campaign and its affiliates (including Dr. Page) by publicizing this false information.

Defendants’ efforts mobilized the news media against Dr. Page, damaging his reputation, and effectively destroying his once-private life. The Defendants’ wrongful actions convinced many Americans that Dr. Page is a traitor to the United States, and as a result he has received—and continues to receive—multiple death threats. Dr. Page’s businesses have suffered greatly from the false, malicious information spread by Defendants.

In short, Defendants’ actions have not only damaged Plaintiffs’ reputations and financial prospects, they have even caused Dr. Page to reasonably fear for his safety. Defendants misrepresented Dr. Page’s connections to and interactions with certain foreign nationals in order to create the false impression that Dr. Page—who served his country honorably in the United States Navy and in the private sector—was in fact an agent of a foreign power, Russia. Defendants leveraged these fabrications within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”), leading these agencies to present false applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”).

As a result, Dr. Page was wrongfully and covertly surveilled by the United States government pursuant to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) warrants for more than a year, and has seen his reputation ruined and his personal safety threatened.

For clarity on the Defendants:

Defendant Perkins Coie LLP (“Perkins Coie”) is an international law firm with over 1,000 lawyers. Perkins Coie has twenty offices worldwide, and its Chicago office has about 144 lawyers and officers. Approximately 67 Perkins Coie partners operate out of the Chicago office.

Defendant Marc Elias is a natural person who is domiciled in Washington, DC. He is a Partner at Perkins Coie. Elias represents the DNC, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Priorities USA, Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC. Elias also represented then-U.S. Senator from Illinois Barack Obama from at least as early as 2006, including throughout the period that Obama served as United States President and titular head of the DNC. Elias has served as chair of Perkins Coie’s political law practices since after the start of the Obama Administration in 2009. In 2016, he organized the opposition research which led to the U.S. Government’s surveillance abuse against Plaintiff.

Defendant Michael Sussman is a natural person who is domiciled in Washington, DC. He is a Partner at Perkins Coie and has represented the DNC.

The timing of this complaint will assist the Lindsey Graham investigative team in the Senate under what is known in legal jargon as discovery. This is the process where documents, communications and interrogatories are gained by both sides of the case.

For additional clarity:

In April 2016, as agents of the DNC, Elias, Sussman and Perkins Coie retained Fusion GPS on the DNC’s behalf to produce negative information on then-candidate Trump.Defendants funded Fusion GPS’s research. Fusion GPS reported to Elias the information from its research.

You are encouraged to read the full complaint to expel false notions found in news media and in social media for context and accuracy found here.

CBP 2019 Report on Travel and Trade

Posted on January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 by Denise Simon

If you don’t think that Customs and Border Protection is needed and is quite busy, take a look at this report. Then consider what CBP just can’t get to because of lack of resources. At least this changes the topic for a short while from impeachment…

WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection released its annual Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 trade and travel report today. According to the report, CBP personnel processed $2.7 trillion of imports and 410 million travelers in FY 2019.

The “Trade and Travel Fiscal Year 2019 Report” describes CBP’s essential role in promoting economic growth and ensuring that the United States maintains its place as the world’s top destination for tourism and business travel. CBP leveraged innovative technologies and programs to further streamline lawful trade and travel while enhancing security.

“CBP continues to make lawful trade and travel more efficient and convenient while protecting the American people and our domestic industries” said Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. “We could not accomplish this critical mission without the 31,000 dedicated CBP officers, specialists and mission support staff who work hard every day to make our nation safer and more prosperous.”

In FY 2019, CBP further reduced import processing times by modernizing the Automated Commercial Environment, an electronic import-export system, and by expanding the use of non-intrusive inspection technology (NII). The use of NII generates up to $17.5 billion in economic benefits for the trade community and up to $1 billion in government cost savings every year.

CBP simultaneously took decisive action to safeguard America’s domestic industries against unfair competition and to protect American consumers from counterfeit and unsafe imports. In FY 2019, CBP:

Collected $80.7 billion in duties, taxes, and other fees. That figure included $71.9 billion in duties, a 73 percent annual increase;

Began enforcing 33 new anti-dumping/countervailing duty orders while recovering more than $121 million in duties owed, a nearly 86% annual increase;

Initiated 36 Enforce and Protect Act investigations into allegations of large-scale, highly-coordinated duty evasion schemes; and

Launched an innovative e-commerce data pilot with industry partners to secure low-value shipments bound for the United States.

CBP is also responsible for identifying and containing emerging and rapidly-evolving biological threats to American agriculture and consumers. CBP agriculture specialists intercepted more than 56,000 harmful pests and more than 1.75 million prohibited plant materials, meats and animal byproducts during import and traveler inspections last year.

In addition to fulfilling its trade mission, CBP continued to facilitate lawful travel while maintaining the highest possible security standards. CBP processed 135.7 million international air travelers in FY 2019, representing a 32.8% increase over the past six years. Over the same period of time, CBP reduced average wait times at the nation’s top 25 international airports by 17.8%.

CBP and its partners also continued to implement biometric facial comparison technology at air, land and sea ports of entry. This technology enables CBP to fulfill Congressional mandates while enhancing security, facilitating lawful travel and protecting the privacy of all travelers.

CBP expanded existing initiatives to meet its goal of developing a travel system that is secure, straightforward, efficient and best-in-class. In FY 2019, CBP:

Enrolled more than 1.1 million new members in Trusted Traveler Programs, which expedite the entry of pre-approved, low-risk travelers;

Processed more than 21.5 million travelers through Preclearance, a program that enables CBP to deploy personnel overseas to inspect travelers before they board U.S.-bound flights; and

Selected 38 new public and private sector partners for the Reimbursable Services Program, a program that enabled CBP to process an additional 2.1 million travelers and 213,000 vehicles.