Thursday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Finally Thursday, and Friday is so close you can see it…

Mueller hauled before secret FISA court to address FBI abuses in 2002, Congress told

By John Solomon

Robert Mueller, the former FBI director and current special prosecutor in the Russia case, once was hauled before the nation’s secret intelligence court to address a large number of instances in which the FBI cheated on sensitive surveillance warrants, according to evidence gathered by congressional investigators.

For most of the past 16 years, Mueller’s closed-door encounter escaped public notice because of the secrecy of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

But thanks to recent testimony from a former FBI lawyer, we now have a rare window into documented abuses of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants and how the courts handled the matter.

The episode is taking on new significance as Mueller moves into the final stages of his Russia probe while evidence mounts that the FBI work preceding his appointment as special prosecutor may have involved improprieties in the securing of a FISA warrant to spy on Donald Trump’s campaign in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

The sin that plagued the FBI two decades ago, and that now lingers over the Russia case, involves the omission of material facts by agents applying for FISA warrants in sensitive counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases.

Such omissions are a serious matter at the FISC, because it is the one court in America where the accused gets no representation or chance to defend himself. And that means the FBI is obligated to disclose evidence of both guilt and innocence about the target of a FISA warrant.

Read the entire article HERE.

For Reagan’s birthday, commit to redefeating socialism

by Michael Reagan

Improbably, there are those in our country today who want to revive the very things that failed so spectacularly in the Eastern bloc and elsewhere. They are not our enemies, as the Soviets were, but rather countrymen who have forgotten or ignored what my father described at CPAC as “the secret of the camps” — the lessons passed on by those who escaped communism’s clutches.

In the early 21st-century, too many have once again been seduced by a Faustian bargain: if a people will only cede their power to a set of bright minds gathered in a far-off capital, life’s challenges and hardships will dissipate. Of course, my father would have reminded us that this is a lopsided bargain; one that greatly favors the governors at the expense of the governed.

And yet, a political party is wondering, bizarrely, why what didn’t work in Russia can’t work in America. And make no mistake, these voices are growing louder and their pathways to power are becoming clearer. The men and women who demand government do evermore have even taken to proudly calling themselves socialists once again.

Our charge in the coming years will be to counter this burgeoning program through debate and at the ballot box. To do this, we must again rally around the principles that were at the heart of my father’s labors that he laid out so eloquently during his first presidential address at CPAC: the dignity of the citizen, the danger of the state, and fidelity to laws higher than our own. The alternative, a population pitted against itself based on race and class, is a road to serfdom, despotism, destitution, and disaster.

Read the entire article HERE.

Panera’s Utopic Pay-What-You-Want Restaurant Dream Is Dead

Via Eater

Nine years after introducing pay-what-you-can restaurants to several U.S. cities, Panera Bread is admitting defeat and closing down its last remaining non-profit Panera Cares location. The Massachusetts restaurant will shutter on February 15, according to Eater Boston.

The chain opened its first donation-based community cafe in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2010. Under the model championed by the company’s founder Ron Shaich, the restaurant operated like a typical Panera, but offered meals at a suggested donation price, with the goal of raising awareness about food insecurity. “In many ways, this whole experiment is ultimately a test of humanity,” Shaich said in a TEDx talk later that year. “Would people pay for it? Would people come in and value it?” It appears the answer is a resounding no.

At its peak, Panera Cares operated five locations, including ones in Dearborn, Michigan; Portland, Oregon; Boston, and Chicago. Each restaurant was designed to sustain itself, but the restaurants weren’t financially viable. The Portland-based Panera Cares was reportedly only recouping between 60 and 70 percent of its total costs. The losses were attributed students who “mobbed” the restaurant and ate without paying, as well as homeless patrons who visited the restaurant for every meal of the week. The location eventually limited the homeless to “a few meals a week.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Ocasio-Cortez Formulates “Green New Deal” To Fix Climate And “Repair Historic Oppression”

Via Zero Hedge

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is rolling out a legislative package which calls for a “national, social, industrial and economic mobilization at a scale not seen since World War II,” according to a letter she sent to colleagues.

The specifics of the plan, dubbed the “Green New Deal,” will be released next week – however Ocasio-Cortez lays out several goals in the letter, including reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions “through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” while creating millions of “good, high-wage jobs,” according to Bloomberg. The plan also aims to ensure prosperity and security while investing in US infrastructure and industry.

The “Green New Deal” will also fight racism apparently:

The resolution will also call for clean air and water, climate resiliency, healthy food, access to nature and “a sustainable environment for all for generations to come,” according to the letter. Lastly, the Green New Deal will “promote justice and equity by preventing current and repairing historic oppression to frontline and vulnerable communities.”

She said the goals will be accomplished through a 10-year plan of industrial and infrastructure projects. -Bloomberg

The cost? $7 trillion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=xZrx0lqUpTI

Read the entire article HERE.

Maxine Waters’ “Diversity Committee” May Pressure Banks Into Making Bad Loans

Via Townhall

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has a habit of redoubling her efforts when her ideas fail. That’s especially true given that she now chairs the House Financial Services Committee. One of her top priorities is bullying banks into boosting mortgage lending to marginally qualified borrowers based on race or ethnicity. And her main vehicle for that now is a proposed subcommittee on diversity and inclusion. In a prepared statement on January 30, she declared, “I am proud to say that this will be the first Subcommittee of its kind in Congress.”

One hopes it will be the last. For if she gets her way, the outcome, taken to its logical conclusion, may be a financial meltdown rivaling the one a decade ago.

Read the entire article HERE.

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