It’s hard to find adequate words to describe 99-year-old evangelist Billy Graham’s passing from this world to the next.
Many tributes issued the day he passed called him “America’s preacher.”
I like that since our country will probably not see the likes of a Billy Graham again, but for a man who spent decades preaching to more than 200 million people in 185 countries, he was more than that.
In an unparalleled career spanning seven decades as a minister, evangelist, author, and internationally respected religious leader, it’s probable that Graham touched more lives for Jesus Christ than anyone since the Resurrection.
Before any theologians or ministers disagree, remember that Jesus’ disciples and the Apostle Paul didn’t have access to jet travel, the Internet or satellite communications when preaching the Gospel.
That’s not to say that Rev. Graham didn’t walk a mile in their shoes. The Washington Times reported that according to pedometers attached to his legs, he once logged 40 miles pacing various stage platforms during a month of preaching.
Billy Graham served as a spiritual adviser for 11 U.S. presidents, ranging from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. His Billy Graham Crusades reached tens of millions. In 1984 one of his Crusades attracted 1.1 million in a single service in Seoul, South Korea.
In 1991 he preached to 250,000 in NYC’s Central Park. In the spring of 1995 his “Global Mission” satellite-enabled crusade reached an estimated 1 billion people over several weeks in 117 languages.
A Billy Graham Crusade was like a Jesus-loving Rosetta Stone.
He always referred to his crusades as “personal evangelism on a grand scale,” eschewing the term “mass evangelism.”
Rev. Graham often ventured away from his beloved Asheville, North Carolina, but his message never ventured far from his favorite Bible verse of John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
That message was his go-to move, his holy ace-in-the-hole. His consistent message of God’s love available through the forgiveness of sins made possible by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross transcended borders, ethnicity, and language.
He hammered home that message of God’s love each and every sermon – from city to city, country to country, and continent to continent.
Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Graham was the greatest evangelist since the Apostle Paul.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said, “He will be missed on Earth and embraced in Heaven.”
Graham himself said in one of his many books, “My home is Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.”
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee may have said it best the morning Rev. Graham passed.
“When I heard this morning that Billy Graham had died I said, ‘That’s fake news.’ Billy Graham’s not dead. He’s more alive now than he’s ever been.”
God bless you Billy Graham, or as the Bible says in Matthew 25:23: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Ask a dozen people who the day is meant to honor and many will say George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays were both in February.
Some say President’s Day celebrates all presidents while others believe it commemorates the Mount Rushmore four.
Four years ago Chicago’s e-coupon marketer Groupon did a marketing gagon Presidents Day where they offered $10 off any $40 purchase from participating local businesses.
The statement on their website promoting the special read like this:
“The $10 bill, as everyone knows, features President Alexander Hamilton — undeniably one of our greatest presidents and most widely recognized for establishing the country’s financial system.”
For history-challenged readers, aka, high school students or Ivy League college underclassmen, the gag was Alexander Hamilton was never President of the United States, but served in President George Washington’s cabinet as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.
For readers who may be college juniors and seniors, nor did Hamilton invent the $10 bill.
He is however, the celebrated star of a popular musical where theater goers may pick up a historical fact or two between choruses.
Groupon reportedly claimed the spoof was a huge success, although a small group of litigious-minded Americans tried unsuccessfully to sue on the grounds they claimed the company had plagiarized April Fool’s Day.
They pressed for damages, claiming that the February stunt created a panic when thousands of Americans feared it was April 1 and they were late filing their taxes, causing them to get hooked on opioids and injure themselves while doing their returns on Turbo Tacks.
Alright, alright – I made that part up about the bogus lawsuit, but hey – we all celebrate Presidents Day in our own way!
Another sign of this dysfunctional holiday is the wandering apostrophe. Is it Presidents’ Day, President’s Day or Presidents Day?
However you write it, the apostrophe in Presidents Day has serious displacement issues.
The final reason why Presidents Day is schizo because unlike the Fourth of July, Veteran’s Day or even Valentine’s Day, it isn’t observed on a specific date but rather on the third Monday of February.
This makes it more like Thanksgiving, which is held on the fourth Thursday of November, except Thanksgiving has better food than Presidents’ Day, and Black Friday shopping rather than white sales, but at least they have the non-specific date thing in common.
This much I know for sure. Our Declaration of Independence says we have the right to life, liberty and three-day holiday weekends, and wherever you put the ‘Pres’idents Da’y apostrophe, this is an inalienable right – as long as you are a state or federal government employee or work for a bank.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who tolerate everything but free speech and conservative ideals, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Joy Behar loves to use her television vehicle to go on Christian bashing joyrides.
The carrot-top Behar got a double bonus the day before Ash Wednesday when she used her hen house perch atop ABC’s The View to mock Vice-President Mike Pence’s Christian faith.
Because Pence is both a devout Christian and a conservative, it was MOGO day for Behar (Mock One, Get One free).
In a round table discussion The View gals were responding to a video clip of former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman commenting on Pence’s faith on the reality TV show Big Brother.
Upon hearing Omarosa’s claim that Jesus talks to Pence, Behar pounced like a starving Roman Coliseum lioness surrounded by Christian hors d’oeuvres.
“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” Behar said snarkily to applause from an audience whom half thinks she is an ABC news anchor.
“That’s called ‘mental illness,’ if I’m not correct,” she added, spiking the rhetorical Christian bashing ball.
As I began writing this on Ash Wednesday, Behar’s insults reminded me of those who mocked Jesus during his last tortured hours on earth.
After His sentencing, when He was savagely scourged with the cruelest tools of torture Rome had ever devised, Pontius Pilates’ soldiers ridiculed and insulted Jesus, cloaked him in a faux robe and jammed a circle crown of thorns on his head.
Then there was the raucous Jerusalem throng on the route to Calvary where onlookers spit and hurled invectives while Jesus struggled to carry the massive wooden beam that would soon hold his impaled body with primitive spikes.
Finally there was the ultimate insult as the sinless One was hung front and center between two common thieves while religious leaders, residents of Jerusalem and Roman soldiers scoffed, scorned and sneered at Him while he hung battered, bloody and severely dehydrated.
Through bloodied eyes swollen with gashes and cuts, His nearly naked body bruised, broken and His life energy draining away one painful gasp at a time, Jesus Christ looked out over those silently applauding His execution and whispered, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Joy Behar and others who trash Christianity don’t know what they are doing either.
People like Behar see themselves as enlightened, inclusive and compassionate – except when it comes to those who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
They don’t see the “true joy” and fulfillment that comes from living a godly life in Christ Jesus, and just as the “enlightened” and learned ones of Jesus’ day did, they mock and ridicule what they don’t understand.
During his ministry Jesus warned His disciples “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you as well.” 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Fox and Friends co-host Ainsley Earhart said it best the day after KillJoy Behar’s insensitive comments: “I just felt sorry for her. As a Christian, obviously she doesn’t know Christ. She doesn’t know the joy and love that He provides to so many people, so it just made me feel sorry for her.”
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
They say every picture tells a story. If that’s true, the official presidential portrait of former president Barack Obama released Monday at the National Portrait Gallery is reminiscent of one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Why is Potus #44 immersed in green foliage and flowers with a resolute look on his face? Shouldn’t he be seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with a majestic look befitting the god-man who pledged to stem the rise of the oceans and heal the planet?
The portrait artist was personally selected by Obama, so it seems unlikely that the green foliage is meant to symbolize all the marijuana that young Barry Soetoro smoked as a member of his Choom Gang in high school.
Maybe the green background is meant to epitomize the Green Movement that grew like a weed under the stewardship of Obama’s rogue EPA?
Could it represent the Green Revolution that Obama snuffed out when he ignored the Iranian students protesting for freedoms early in his first term when he sided with the mullah hardliners instead?
And what’s with the flowers? If they were pansies and lilies the portrait might make more sense as representative of Obama’s leading from behind foreign policy.
To be honest visitors viewing the portrait in the gallery may see it as a giant Rorschach test made by Walt Disney.
Of course, if the artist wanted to really portray Obama’s fraudulent, clandestine behavior during his two terms, they may have wanted to do something like this:
Whatever the artist’s intent, the animated caricature looking down on Smithsonian visitors will be a symbolic portrayal of what current and future conservatives will always view as a cartoon presidency.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Everyone’s favorite ground hog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this month and you know what that means: six more months of Democrats bellyaching about Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
Random thoughts about this Democrat Russian collusion riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, or as I like to think of it, the Democrat farce wrapped in a deluded delusion, inside a conundrum of crap.
1) FACT: The infamous dossier written by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and political opposition research firm Fusion GPS was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democrat National Committee. Remember reading about that in the mainstream media before the release of the Nunes memo? Neither do I.
Reportedly Steele paid former Russian contacts for dirt on candidate Trump, including some working in the Kremlin.
Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson was paid through a conduit, the international law firm Perkins Coie who represented the Clinton presidential campaign.
The FBI also reportedly paid Steele by compensating him for expenses although they’ve been reluctant to admit it – probably because they paid him from loose change found between former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s couch cushions.
In other words, there’s more evidence of Steele, Fusion GPS and the FBI colluding with the Russians than any member of the Trump campaign.
If that’s not enough Russian collusion for you, Fusion GPS had done work for Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin comrades in an effort to undermine the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law that sanctioned Russian officials for the murder of one of Putin’s enemies.
Pravda has reported on this extensively for more than a year in their series on American collusion in Russia’s thriving character assassination industry.
2) FACT: Last week it was revealed that Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, got punked by a pair of Russian comedians promising “compromising” dirt on Trump in a 2017 phone call.
The prank definitely left the California representative schiff faced.
During the 8-minute call the radio pranksters posed as a fake Ukrainian politician who promised Schiff nude photos of Trump and a Russian model cavorting after a 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
Is anyone else disturbed by the left’s obsession with naked images of Trump? Sigmund Freud would schiff a load of bricks at their obsession.
Anyway, it’s obvious Schiff doesn’t know schiff about real Russian collusion. He not only promised he’d pass the information on to the proper “authorities,” his staff unsuccessfully attempted to correspond with the fake Ukrainian afterwards to try to obtain the promised materials.
3) FACT: February 8 Fox News’ Ed Henry reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, Mark Warner, had extensive contact in 2017 with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch in an effort to, you’ll never guess, obtain incriminating information on President Trump.
Warner was trying to connect with dossier author Steele, according to text messages obtained by Fox News. The story reported that Warner was trying to meet with Steele through a lobbyist representing – wait for it – Russian oligarch billionaire Oleg V. Deripaska.
Senator Warner had extensive contact last year with lobbyist Adam Waldman in an effort to connnect with Steele, who if he isn’t already, may be the most famous dossier author in history.
According to the text messages Warner was trying to connect with Steele “on the sly” because he didn’t “want to leave a paper trail” of his plans.
Over the four month period from February through May 2017 Warner was also trying to connect with Deripaska to see about having him testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the billionaire knew a bad business deal when he saw it and told Warner, “Nyet, nyet.”
4) FACT: Uranium One is about a 2010 deal in which a Kremlin-connected entity obtained 20 percent of America’s uranium production by acquiring Canada-based Uranium One.
It sounds like the premise of a Tom Clancy novel that was discarded for being too unrealistic.
The deal had to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States due to national security concerns since uranium is a dual-purpose fuel that can be used for nuclear energy to produce electricity or nuclear weapons.
Clinton was never concerned with America’s national security as first lady or U.S. senator, so why would she worry about it as Secretary of State?
One of the concerns with the Uranium One deal was the Foreign Investment board was never advised that the FBI had been investigating ARMZ, part of Rosatom, a Russian-owned nuclear energy company, since 2004.
Anyone that followed Hillary’s work as Secretary of State knew that ‘what they don’t know can’t hurt them’ was a staple of her management philosophy.
In April, 2015 the New York Times reported that the Clinton Foundation got millions from Uranium One investors from 2005 through 2011 but tch, tch, the foundation didn’t disclose any of those donations.
Around that same time former president Bill Clinton collected a $500,000 speaking fee in Moscow. Hopefully no naked photos of Bill Clinton will surface from that trip.
Doubly so for any naked pictures of Hillary.
Critics of the deal have been asking the same two questions the past three years: were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder aware of the FBI investigation into Russian collusion in the Uranium One deal, and if so, why did they allow the deal to go forward? If they weren’t aware of the deal, how could they have been so stupid?
We’ll be learning much more about this ticking time bomb of Russian bribery and intimidation since FBI undercover agent Douglas Campbell recently testified before three separate congressional committees. Fox News is already reporting that Campbell said that Russian executives told him Moscow was spending millions in lobbying fees to influence the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton.
And all this was before Obama was caught on an open mic telling former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he’d have more flexibility in his second term.
The evidence Campbell collected while working undercover for four years will be a “bombshell” in confirming long held suspicions about Obama and Clinton corruption concerning Russia.
5) FACT: We now know from the Devin Nunes memo released Feb 2 that the Steele dossier was the primary source used by the FBI to acquire the initial FISA warrant and to renew it every 90 days. But did you know:
The only part of the dossier verified by the FBI before presentation to the FISA court was Trump campaign worker Carter Page’s trip to Moscow;
The dossier was used for the first time in history as an excuse to wiretap Americans and a political opponent’s campaign;
FBI sources leaked portions of the dossier to the media to hamper the Trump campaign and later while the president-elect worked to assemble his staff and Cabinet;
The Mueller investigation into Trump was initiated by former FBI director Jim Comey’s illegal leaks and the investigation itself is built on a dossier chockfull of Russian disinformation.
Bottom line: Democrats have wasted over a year and millions of dollars in taxpayer money looking for the orange-colored collusion needle in the Russian haystack, and so far the only collusion they’ve uncovered is their own side playing footsie with the Russians.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
This year’s Grammy Awards were an apt reflection of much of today’s popular music: all style and no substance.
Viewership of this year’s Grammy Awards Snoop Dogg and pony show suffered a 24 percent decline in viewership and is it any wonder? A portion of the show founded to honor excellence in music recordings wasted its time airing semi-famous music artists reading excerpts from a Trump-trashing book that is losing credibility with each passing day.
Even MSNBC morning show diva Mika Brzezinski cut a segment short with Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff for fear that the manure he’s been shoveling might get on her shoes.
In fairness to Wolff though, it’s hard to distinguish between the manure he’s published in Fire and Fury and the cow paddies that Mike and co-host Joe Scarborough toss on the airwaves every weekday morning on their show Morning Joe.
At this year’s Grammy’s music artists like John Legend, Snoop Dogg, and Cher were pre-recorded reading book excerpts in prime time in front of a national television audience.
And for those viewers who haven’t had enough of Hillary Clinton, voila – there she was again in the spotlight she so sorely craves, reading a lame excerpt about her 2016 opponent who won the presidency she would try to steal by FISA hook or FBI crooks.
Geez, wonder why people didn’t want to tune into the woman William Safire once called “a congenital liar” reading from Michael Wolff’s book of lies? Would have been better to let sleeping dogs lie – so to speak.
Maybe they wanted to see if Snoop Dogg could read anything without using words like bi%#$, as$%#$%, fu&* or nig$%@.
Next year maybe they’ll do a spelling bee at the Grammy’s or a math competition so they can learn how alienating half of the population that voted for Trump doesn’t add up to helping sell more music.
Also Monday FBI Deputy Director Andrew “FISA Fiend” McCabe was escorted out of FBI headquarters a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray reviewed the inspector general’s report detailing McCabe’s dual roles in the Hillary Clinton email investigation and purported collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Russian agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale both declined comment. For more click here.
TRUMP EARNS “A” FOR SPEECH, DEMS “D” FOR DEPLORABLE BEHAVIOR
Tuesday night President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union address. During his 1 hour and 20 minute address the president spoke about the importance of faith and family, love of country, unity, bipartisanship and rediscovering the American way.
On average Republicans gave his remarks an “A,” Independents an “A-“, and Democrats a “C.” For more on Tuesday’s State of the Union click here.
One observation on Democrat’s activities during the president’s speech was reported by the London Daily Mail. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), was caught on camera playing match-three puzzle video game Candy Crush on her iPhone.
While the president was saying that America’s trade relationships needed to be fair and reciprocal, Lawrence was on a sugar high matching and dispatching three-of-a-kind candies.
Lawrence bills herself as “the only Member of Congress with the experience of a full career in the Postal Service.” Guess she’ll now also be known as the Congressional Black Caucus “sweetheart.”
RARE LUNAR EVENT OCCURS MID-WEEK
Midweek all 50 states were treated to a lunar event not seen here since 1866. Literally and figuratively, it was an event that occurs “once in a blue moon.”
That’s right, a super blue blood moon appeared this past week. According to the NPR website, a super blue blood moon is the convergence of three common lunar happenings occurring simultaneously.
First, the moon is full for the second time in the calendar month, and whenever that occurs its called a blue moon. Second, the moon’s ellipse brings it thousands of miles closer to Earth, making it appear 17 percent larger. That’s called a super moon.
Finally, the full moon’s close approach to Earth causes it to pass through Barack Obama’s shadow, causing the moon to appear blood red.
Whoops, Freudian slip. With all of Obama’s former talk about healing the planet and slowing the rise of the oceans, I unconsciously assumed he had something to do with this rare lunar event as well.
All kidding aside, you knew something weird was happening last week when uber-libs like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff expressed concern that leaks from Republicans about FBI and DOJ abuses could harm our national security and impugn the trust Americans have in those institutions. Which brings us to the biggest news stories of the week…
#ReleasetheMemo – Okay, They Did
The much ballyhooed four-page memo outlining abuse of the FISA process by the FBI and DOJ was released Friday by the House Intelligence Committee, and true to its hype it is B-A-D news. How bad we’ll see in the next few months, but suffice it to say it proves three points without a doubt:
The FBI used political opposition research paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrat National Committee to obtain a secret court warrant to illegally spy on a member of the Trump campaign.
Over eight years the Obama administration politicized everything throughout the federal government: the IRS, the National Security Council, the Department of Justice and even the vaulted FBI.
Liberals used to be the party of civil liberties and individual rights. Not only is that no longer the case, they have done a 180 degree turn. For liberals civil liberties and individual rights now seem to be totally subservient to the state. Criticism and/or accountability for abuses committed by agencies of the State will not be tolerated by the left.
We’ll be reporting more on the implications of the FISA abuse memo in a few days but until then, remember this: the left is already trying to spin release of the memo as Republicans unjustly criticizing law enforcement and needlessly exposing classified information to America’s enemies.
As the comic strip Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
What a spectacle the American people were treated to at Tuesday’s State of the Union.
How is it even possible to sit on your hands for 90 minutes, make faces like a petulant child, and show such hatred and contempt in the Peoples’ House during a nationally televised speech citing patriotism, inspiring personal stories and the promise to make all American citizens’ lives better?
Nancy Pelosi looked like she finally got around to reading what was actually in the Affordable Care Act and didn’t like it.
Chuck Schumer looked like he’d had supper at Washington’s Trump International Hotel and got stuck with the check.
Retiring Democrat Representative Luis Gutierrez stomped up the aisle like he’d just received an ICE alert on his phone amidst shouts of “USA, USA, USA” from impassioned attendees. Maybe Gutierrez was in a hurry to skedaddle home to watch highlights of Maxine Waters latest “Impeach 45, Impeach 45” speech.
During his first State of the Union address President Trump spoke with eloquence, passion and compassion. He touched on bipartisanship, the importance of faith and family, and love of country. The president also expounded on inclusivity, unity, and rediscovering the American way.
Maybe if he spoke in Russian it would have piqued Democrats’ interest.
“In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life,” Trump said.
Okay, I can see how Democrats would oppose that statement based on their belief that liberalism is the official state religion, that nature is God and mankind are monkeys not yet evolved.
“We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American flag. Today we are rediscovering the American way,” the president enthused.
With the porous southern border left unchecked it’s technically true both illegals and U.S. citizens share the same “home,” but apparently the thought of all of us sharing the same heart, destiny and flag is enough to chill the liberal heart.
“I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties – Democrats and Republicans – to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion and creed. My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans – to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American Dream. Because Americans are dreamers too,” Trump reminded.
Crickets. Scowls. Pouts that would try the patience of Santa Claus.
We get it that liberals despise Donald Trump as president. Fine. As I wrote in LifeZette after Trump’sstunning election win, Hillary had every conceivable advantage over the former reality TV star and we understand that was a crushing disappointment for those supporting her.
And it’s not really meant to rub salt in the wounds (well, maybe just a little) to remind those that didn’t vote for Trump that he is their president too.
When the president uses words like “booming economy,” “flag,” “law enforcement,” “military,” “border security” and “God,” he’s not intending to trigger a microaggression or offend, but simply remind us as Americans we’re all in this together.
Bottom line: Do liberals hate Trump more than they love America? From what we saw Tuesday night, the answer is as plain as the dour expression on their faces.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Introducing 3D News – Dean’s Daily Digest: A daily distillation of fake news, conservative shaming and liberal illogic reported by the mainstream media.
MONDAY, JANUARY 29
A giant sucking sound was audible emanating from the nation’s capitol Monday and no, it wasn’t a Democrat tax bill or the usual strange noises coming from Al Franken’s former Senate office.
Instead it was the sound of the swamp being drained, and it’s a sound Americans are going to hear often the next few weeks.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, better known as “Andy” to secret society types, was escorted out of FBI headquarters Monday a day after FBI director Christopher Wray reviewed an inspector general report on how the bureau handled internal investigations of the 2016 presidential election.
McCabe played a key role in the FBI investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server – despite the clear conflict posed when it became known that his wife accepted over half a million dollars in campaign contributions from a close Clinton ally.
Being the boy scout he is, McCabe later recused himself – a week before the election.
McCabe also played a pivotal role in the investigation into alleged contact between members of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. How big a role? Presumably that’s what in the four-page report Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release Monday.
The classified memo outlines alleged abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by senior DOJ and FBI officials while investigating suspected Russian collusion by Trump campaign officials.
As we mentioned in the post The Russian Collusion Boomerang, those swamp creatures laying traps and snares for the President they call a disgrace are now finding themselves hopelessly entangled in their own deceit and duplicity.
Also on Monday a group of Hollyweird political activists gathered for the aptly named “People’s State of the Union” in NYC’s Town Hall. You know, like the “People’s Republic of Korea” and the “People’s Park” at UC-Berkeley.
Emceed by anti-Trump critic Mark Ruffalo, aka the mild-mannered Bruce Banner in comic book movies like Iron Man and Thor, many of the perpetual gloom and doomers in attendance were secretly hoping all the vitriolic Never Trump banter would prompt the mild mannered Banner to morph into The Incredible Hulk – presumably so he could chase down the president and smash him with an over-sized people’s fist.
Unfortunately for them Hulk didn’t materialize and they had to settle for Michael Moore instead.
Mark Ruffalo – Dreamer Wannabe
“We must remove and replace the system and the culture that gave us Trump in the first place,” Moore told the Hollywood full-of-it faithful hoping for the second coming of Saul Alinsky.
By “the system” Moore undoubtedly meant the Constitution and Electoral College, and by the culture he meant things like illusory white male privilege, voter ID laws and enforceable borders – like the walls many Hollywookie types live behind in the People’s Republic of California.
There were also repeated references to Trump supporters being the “ugly underbelly” who elected him. Just a hunch that term was inspired by many celebs who spend an evening with Michael Moore.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Welcome to Dean Riffs’ Week in Review. Every weekday our panel of non-partisan judges (me) pick two or three weekday news items on which to comment – after careful pontification, of course. We riff responsibly here.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22
Today Senate Democrats scurried back to their offices, wiped the #SchumerShutdown shinola from their feet, and raced each other to the Senate Chamber to place their vote reopening the federal government.
File their foolish attempt to force a DACA solution by closing the government under #ChuckSucks.
Other than the military and critical agencies like Border Patrol not getting paid, I wouldn’t have minded if their temper tantrum lasted until Election Day. Now that they’re back though, they’ve rushed from the frying pan into the fire of Dreamer discontent.
The blow back from the Democrats backpedaling on their earlier promise to keep the government closed until Congress provided amnesty to DACA beneficiaries was swift and brutal.
Immigrant activists accused them of retreating without getting anything in return, and millions of legal voters were connecting the dots that Democrats seemed to favor the plight of illegals over members of our military, our border patrol and nine million children on the federally funded Children’s Health Improvement Program (CHIP).
To say they gained nothing isn’t quite fair, though. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (the Princess of the Pakistani Email Support Network) told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin what Schumer gained by shutting down the government:
“So the one thing I would say that he did get, is the potential for momentum,” Schultz told a slack-jawed Baldwin.
The final vote in the Senate to reopen the government was 81-18. Not only was Schumer and his leadership team nearly stampeded by Dem senators anxious to vote for reopening the government, especially those up for re-election this fall, ironically the Senate’s Schumer Shutdown may have damaged Democrats’ chances of winning back the House this November.
The mainstream media continued whistling back the DOJ/FBI graveyard as the stakes grew higher with the the news of five months of missing texts between star-crossed fibbies Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
A day earlier responsible media outlets, aka those not named ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC, reported Attorney General Jeff Sessions notified Congress that texts between Strzok and Page ranging from Dec 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017 were missing.
The missing texts are important because of what transpired during that time, including:
President Trump took the oath of office; National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was fired; the anti-Trump dossier was published; the president fired FBI Director James Comey, and special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate Russian meddling and potential collusion involving the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
What’s the common denominator in many of those events? Strzok interviewed Michael Flynn (without his attorney present); helped promulgate the questionable dossier; was best buds with Comey, and worked as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation until the texts were released showing his and Page’s obvious bias and “loathing” of President Trump.
If you are experiencing a sense of deja vu when hearing about the missing texts, it’s probably because the same thing happened with the IRS and Lois Lerner’s missing emails and Hillary Clinton’s 30,000-plus which were deleted and acid-washed – after they were subpoenaed, of course.
So what did the mainstream media report on if not the biggest FBI-related scandal since Watergate? In no particular order the Super Bowl, the latest royal wedding-to-be, and Minnie Mouse earning her own star on the Hollyweird Walk of Fame.
The media’s honoring Minnie Mouse while dishonoring their own profession with Mickey-Mouse coverage of this mushrooming scandal is irony at its finest.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
Sir Elton John live streamed an announcement today that his upcoming Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour will be his last.
The 70-year-old rocker’s career has spanned five decades, but you better pencil in six since his upcoming tour beginning this year concludes after 300 concert dates sometime in 2021. And now he wants to quit touring? What a yellow goldbrick!
John refuses to say he’s retiring, but rather said he is “embarking on the next phase of his creative journey.” Hmm…that could mean anything from starring as the next James Bond to making Bennie and the Jets a new political party.
Let’s see, 57 top 40 hits in the U.S., including 27 in the top 10 and nine earning #1. Okay, maybe he’s earned a little R & R – if he can afford it.
In other news today, CBS TV showed its commitment to the Green Revolution by announcing plans to recycle and reboot the hit show Murphy Brown.
The original series starring Candice Bergen ran from 1988-1998 and won 18 Emmy’s, including five for Bergen. How will the acerbic, tart-tongued Murphy Brown character fare in today’s media environment of cable news, social media, sanctuary cities, safe spaces and a take-no-prisoners political environment?
Then again, some cultural sensitivites haven’t changed all that much, such as the episode where Murphy lampooned political correctness:
“Oh, good morning, my little worker ants! That’s just a figure of speech; I would NEVER compare you to insects. At least not after that sensitivity training seminar those maggots at the network forced me to attend!”
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25
Remember the five months of texts between Federal Bureau of Incrimination paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page the DOJ said were missing? Apparently the premier law enforcement agency politicized by former President Obama and James Comey wasn’t exactly breaking a sweat looking for them.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said today his forensics team was able to track the “ghost texts” after requesting the actual cellphones the agents used. My goodness, what sleuths the FBI brass are! If only they had thought of looking on the four known cell phones Strozk and Page used before informing Congress the texts were lost, the bowed and bloodied agency would have been spared another embarrassment.
The FBI is still America’s premier law enforcement agency, but at this point under the leadership of James Comey, Rod Rothstein, Andrew McCabe, Andrew Weissman and Sally Yates, it appears the DOJ and FBI influenced the 2016 presidential election more than Putin, Russian bots and Macedonian content farmers ever could have.
Also on Thursday, Trump took his Make American Great Again tour on the road to Davos, Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum. Many in the media were licking their chops at the thought of the world’s economic and cultural elite dissing the president on the world stage.
The media, as usual on all things Trump, got it 100 percent wrong. Trump was received like a rock star.
He hosted a dinner with European business leaders and CEOs, held bilateral meetings with various world leaders (including African leaders), conducted business roundtables, accepted thanks from CEO’s of Bayer, Adidas and Siemens for slashing corporate tax burdens, chastised Russia for monopolizing European energy markets, encouraged others to deregulate burdensome rules to grow their economies, threatened to withhold all U.S.monies from the Palestinians if they refuse to negotiate in the peace process with Israel, and demanded others respect the U.S.
He concluded with a rousing 15-minute speech that reminded those gathered America was again open for business and “America First” did not mean American alone.
To the surprise of no one that respects how Trump is representing our country, there was no bowing, no apologizing for America and no leading from behind.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26
The #MeToo movement nailed another shameless cad on its public bedpost of contempt and public humiliation, but the circumstances of this particular incident were bemusing to say the least.
Today the New York Times announced that Democrat senior political advisor Burns Strider (his real name – honest) was accused of sexually harassing a 30-year-old female subordinate with whom he shared office space during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Reportedly Strider had kissed her on the forehead, rubbed her shoulders inappropriately and sent suggestive emails. The campaign manager recommended to the candidate that Strider be fired, but the candidate refused, choosing instead to dock his wages and require he undergo mandatory counseling.
The female staffer was assigned a new role within the campaign and required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibited campaign staffers from publicly discussing the campaign’s activities. The sleazy incident went unreported until now.
As faith advisor to the 2008 candidate Strider regularly sent the presidential wannabe daily scripture readings every morning of the campaign (I’m not making that up either). Five years later Strider again supported the same candidate who had stood beside him, this time leading an independent group supporting the candidate’s latest presidential run.
Months after that unsuccessful campaign ended Strider was reportedly fired again – quite coincidentally I’m sure – for sexually harassing another young female aide.
Like Tammy Wynette the unsuccessful two-time presidential candidate has a history of “standing by her man.”
“I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed,” Hillary Clinton tweeted Friday night.
“I called her today to tell her how proud I am of her and to make sure she knows what all women should: we deserve to be heard.”
Now thanks to Hillary’s book What Happened and Friday’s tweet, we know “what happened” in both 2008 and 2016.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
Welcome to Dean Riffs’ Week in Review. Every weekday our panel of non-partisan judges (me) pick two or three weekday news items on which to comment – after careful pontification, of course. We riff responsibly here.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15th
Hollywood celebs and others infected with acute Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) were quick to blame the president for Hawaii’s well publicized false missile attack alarm because…well, the Diss Trump show must go on and that’s what they do.
I mean, who doesn’t appreciate getting unsolicited opinions from people paid to be anyone other than themselves.
Comedian Jim Carrey: “If we allow this one-man Gomorrah and his corrupt Republican congress to continue alienating the world we are headed for suffering beyond all imagination.”
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis: “This Hawaii missle (sic) scare is on YOU Mr. Trump. The real FEAR that mothers & fathers & children felt is on YOU. It is on YOUR ARROGANCE. HUBRIS. NARCISSISM. RAGE. EGO. IMMATURITY and your UNSTABLE IDIOCY. Shame on your hate filled self. YOU DID THIS!”
Judd Apatow: (Big time Hollywood producer whose name I had to Google): Great to know the button saying there is a nuclear war is right next to the one saying this is a test. This is a load of bulls#!%. This is not what happened. Keep digging. This isn’t about a fu#@^!* shift change. ”
Amazing that both Hillary and Obama were never held accountable for things like Benghazi (where people actually died), Hillary’s illegal email server (where identities of intelligence officials were hacked and some sources were killed) and where the personal online health and financial information of millions of federal employees and military personnel were compromised and the left said, “Meh.”
What happened in Hawaii last Saturday was scary, but it was a regrettable accident caused by a state employee and had as much to do with the presidency as the rise of the oceans slowing and our planet healing – or being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize just 11 days into office.
FYI – Hawaii was so upset by the state employee’s mistake that he was “temporarily reassigned” to other duties. Not fired. Not suspended. Temporarily reassigned.
Maybe the employee with the itchy trigger finger can file for leniency with the Hawaii governor to have his record expunged so they can still win Employee of the Year.
“Mad Max” – Maxine Waters
Monday was also Martin Luther King, Jr Day and what better way to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon than to have an “empty barrel” like Maxine Walters replay the overdrawn race card.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have encouraged every responsible human being to march for justice, to march for peace, and most of all, to march for the impeachment of Donald Trump,” she tweeted. Similar messages were expressed by Georgia’s U.S. Representative John Lewis and Florida congresswoman Frederica “Mad Hatter” Wilson.
Apparently they forgot the Dr. King quote: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
On a lighter note, January 15th also marked the 126th anniversary since Dr. James Naismith published the rules of basketball. Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1892. As we like to say in Indiana, basketball was invented in Massachusetts but perfected in Indiana.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 16
The media’s latest flavor-of-the-month, fake news charge against Trump is that he is mentally unfit. After witnessing some of the questions media members posed at today’s press conference, many Americans could question the media’s mental health – especially Jim Acosta, Joe Scarborough, etc.
Here’s a sample of some of the questions posted to White House physician, Rear Admiral Dr. Ronnie Jackson.
“I’m wondering if you talked to the President about this — about the President’s mental fitness?”
“Are you ruling out things like early onset Alzheimer’s? Are you looking at dementia-like symptoms?”
“There was an incident recently where the President appeared to slur his words while giving an address. Did you look into what the cause of that might have been at all?”
” Because of his age, will you conduct cognitive testing in the future?”
“Do believe he is fit for duty? How can you determine that?”
And then some members of the Fourth Estate chose to play doctor themselves:
“He (the president) is taking a cholesterol-lowering medication, he has evidence of heart disease, and he’s borderline obese. Can you characterize that as excellent health?”
“Can you explain to me how a guy who eats McDonald’s and (inaudible) and all those diet cokes and who never exercises, is in as good as shape as you say he’s in?”
“Do you keep a tally of how much golf the U.S. President plays? And do you consider that exercise?”
“Is there anyone on the President’s medical team, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, whose job it is to monitor the President’s emotional state or watch for potential psychiatric problems or indicators of those?”
“On what basis would you — and this is just a philosophical question — advise the Cabinet that the President is unable to discharge his duties? How does that bar get met?”
After failing to trip up the good doctor with their clever inquiries, the questions then devolved from the insulting to the insane:
“Is he limited to one scoop of ice cream now?”
“Does the President wear dentures?”
“Do you have any concerns about the President’s use of Twitter?”
“Does he watch too much TV? “
“How would you describe his diet before he became President?”
Are you confident of his prostate health?”
And the media think Trump is a sexist. You can bet Oprah Winfreywould never be asked questions about her diet and prostate health if she was ever president!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17
At 8 o’clock this night President Trump announced the winners of The Fake News Awards in a flourish that would have made P.T. Barnum proud. Unless you share cave space with the Taliban, everyone who watches even a smidgen of TV knows that coverage of President Trump’s first year in office has bordered between negative to outright hostile.
Trump being Trump, he decided to honor the 90% negative media coverage he received in 2017 with their own awards. The president’s flair for the dramatic didn’t disappoint after the link to the award winners he shared on his Twitter account crashed the web server displaying the results.
To the surprise of no one CNN won four of the 11 awards and the New York Times two. Individual winners included the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, ABC’s Brian Ross and The Washington Post’s Dave Weigelearning a special mention for misrepresenting the size of a Trump crowd in Pensacola, Florida in a tweet.
Ahead of the much anticipated announcement, retiring junior Arizona senator Jeff Flake and senior Arizona senator John McCain shared a hissy fit about the president’s poking fun at the media. McCain said that Trump’s use of the phrase, “fake news” is “being used by autocrats to silence reporters, undermine political opponents, stave off media scrutiny, and mislead citizens.”
Senator Flake, whose poll numbers only rise to double digits in his own household, compared the President to Joseph Stalin. “2018 must be the year in which the truth takes a stand against power that would weaken it,” Flake said before an empty Senate chamber. He also criticized the president for calling the media “the enemy of the people.”
Maybe next Trump will announce awards for self-serving U.S. senators. He can call them the Flake the Fake Senator Awards.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18
On Thursday the House Intelligence Committee passed a motion along party lines to make a classified intelligence report charging excessive abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) available to all congressional members.
Those that read the four-page report described it in the following ways: “Deeply troubling.” “Alarming.” “Shocking.” “Bombshell.” “Jaw dropping.”
No wonder the Democrats were considering shutting down the federal government this weekend. How bad are the contents of the four-page report for Democrats and Obama administration officials?
“I think that this will not end just with firings. I believe there are people who will go to jail,” Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz said.
Several sources told investigative journalist Sara Carter they wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to the end of the Mueller investigation.
Florida Republican Representative Ron DeSantis tweeted this after reviewing the document: “The classified report compiled by House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry told Fox News, “You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is.”
North Carolina Republican Representative and Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows was even more somber. “It is shocking. Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.”
Democrats voted as a bloc against releasing the document outside the intelligence committee and you can bet they definitely will oppose releasing it to the general public. The only known Democrat to comment was California’s Adam Schiff who called the report “misleading” and “rife with factual inaccuracies.”
“This may help carry White House water, but it is a deep disservice to our law enforcement professionals,” he opined.
What a crock of schiff! Schiff needs to get his schiff straight. The report isn’t faulting the thousands of hardworking FBI agents for illegal activities, but the suits at the top: ex-FBI Director James Comey, Rod Rothstein, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Sally Yates, James Baker, Jim Rybicki, Peter Strozk and Lisa Page to name a few. #ReleasetheMemo
The Gospel of John (8:32) says, “The truth will set you free.” Those DOJ and FBI officials colluding directly with Obama administration officials, Fusion GPS and the Clinton campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, and indirectly with Russian Kremlin intelligence, may prove to be the exception to that rule.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
Much of Friday was taken up with a single question: will Chuck Schumer and the Democrats shut down the government. At midnight they did and the Schumer Shutdown began. Here’s why Schumer and the Dems are to blame:
Democrats didn’t object to anything in the proposed budget bill. It was what “wasn’t” in the bill that prompted the Dems to throw a tantrum: DACA, DACA, DACA. How can Republicans be blamed if the Democrats had no objections to the budget bill?
But what if there was another reason why Dems took the controversial move to shut down the government and paychecks for the American military and federal workforce in support of hundreds of thousands of illegals. What if they are trying to distract from the mushrooming FISA controversy that gathered considerable momentum on Thursday.
Monopolizing media coverage by closing the government would also distract from the anniversary date on Saturday marking Trump’s first successful year in office and all the good he has accomplished.
In short, the only way the Dems thought they could slow the Trump train was by making the case to American voters that on top of all the other inconveniences, senseless crime and expensive social welfare programs they believe taxpayers owe those here illegally, we also have to close our government on the altar of political correctness. Brilliant, huh?
It was a rash move by an increasingly desperate party bereft of constructive ideas, dynamic leadership and one about to be implicated in the most heinous political scandal in U.S. history.
Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. Welcome to those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who think free speech is hate speech, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see.
