Wednesday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Good morning Deplorables, it’s already hump day.

Betraying the Constitution: Who Will Protect Us from an Unpatriotic Patriot Act?

By John W. Whitehead

“It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”—Thomas Paine

While Congress subjects the nation to its impeachment-flavored brand of bread-and-circus politics, our civil liberties continue to die a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.

Case in point: while Americans have been fixated on the carefully orchestrated impeachment drama that continues to monopolize headlines, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law legislation extending three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which had been set to expire on December 15, 2019.

Once again, to no one’s surprise, the bureaucrats on both sides of the aisle—Democrats and Republicans alike—prioritized political grandstanding over principle and their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.

As Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) predicted:

Today, while everyone is distracted by the impeachment drama, Congress will vote to extend warrantless data collection provisions of the #PatriotAct, by hiding this language on page 25 of the Continuing Resolution (CR) that temporarily funds the government. To sneak this through, Congress will first vote to suspend the rule which otherwise gives us (and the people) 72 hours to consider a bill. The scam here is that Democrats are alleging abuse of Presidential power, while simultaneously reauthorizing warrantless power to spy on citizens that no President should have… in a bill that continues to fund EVERYTHING the President does… and waiving their own rules to do it. I predict Democrats will vote on a party line to suspend the 72 hour rule. But after the rule is suspended, I suspect many Republicans will join most Democrats to pass the CR with the Patriot Act extension embedded in it.

Massie was right: Republicans and Democrats have no problem joining forces in order to maintain their joint stranglehold on power.

The legislation passed the Senate with a bipartisan 74-to-20 vote. It squeaked through the House of Representatives with a 231-192 margin. And it was signed by President Trump—who earlier this year floated the idea of making the government’s surveillance powers permanent—with nary a protest from anyone about its impact on the rights of the American people.

Spending bill or not, it didn’t have to shake down this way, even with the threat of yet another government shutdown looming.

Congress could have voted to separate the Patriot Act extension from the funding bill, as suggested by Rep. Justin Amash, but that didn’t fly. Instead as journalist Norman Solomon writes for Salon, “The cave-in was another bow to normalizing the U.S. government’s mass surveillance powers.”

That, right there, is the key to all of this: normalizing the U.S. government’s mass surveillance powers.

In the 18 years since the USA Patriot Act—a massive 342-page wish list of expanded powers for the FBI and CIA—was rammed through Congress in the wake of the so-called 9/11 terror attacks, it has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The Patriot Act drove a stake through the heart of the Bill of Rights, violating at least six of the ten original amendments—the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments—and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well.

The Patriot Act also redefined terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience are now considered potential terrorist acts, thereby rendering anyone desiring to engage in protected First Amendment expressive activities as suspects of the surveillance state.

Read the entire article HERE.

Phone Records Show Schiff Spied on Giuliani, Rep. Devin Nunes, and a ‘Hill’ Reporter

Via PJ Media

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s impeachment report on what he calls President Trump’s “scheme” with “agents” to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2020 was exactly what you’d expect if you watched the hearings on TV. But then came the footnotes.

Way back in the footnotes were records of phone calls, helpfully produced and highlighted, between Trump’s private attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and Congressman Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intel Committee, Schiff’s colleague. You read that right. Schiff appears to have spied on Devin Nunes.

Schiff got the phone records of Giuliani’s calls with the White House.

And then there were the call records of Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate, who’s fighting campaign finance charges, and a number of people, including former Hill reporter John Solomon; attorneys Victoria Toensing and Jay Sekulow, both of whom have represented President Trump; along with Nunes.

Schiff didn’t divulge phone calls between Parnas and any other reporters, congressional representatives, or attorneys but claims the dates on which the phone calls happened reveal multiple conversations in advance of Trump’s sacking his Ukrainian Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, which, by the way, isn’t against the law.

Schiff claims the people and phone calls showed that there was an orchestrated effort to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in advance of the 2020 election.

Read the entire article HERE.

Convicted Pedophile Used In Mueller Investigation Indicted For Funneling Millions In Illegal Contributions to Hillary, DOJ Says

Via The Daily Wire

George Nader, a convicted pedophile that special counsel Robert Mueller used in his Russia investigation, was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly concealing millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“The Justice Department refers only to an unidentified 2016 presidential candidate, but campaign finance records make clear that the candidate was Clinton,” Politico reported.

In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice wrote:

According to the indictment, from March 2016 through January 2017, Khawaja conspired with Nader to conceal the source of more than $3.5 million in campaign contributions, directed to political committees associated with a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election. By design, these contributions appeared to be in the names of Khawaja, his wife, and his company. In reality, they allegedly were funded by Nader. Khawaja and Nader allegedly made these contributions in an effort to gain influence with high-level political figures, including the candidate. As Khawaja and Nader arranged these payments, Nader allegedly reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence.

“The indictment noted that political committees that received funding unwittingly submitted false disclosure reports and were presumably victims of the plot,” The Washington Post reported. “Still, Clinton apparently attended numerous events, including small gatherings, with Nader, who on July 19, 2016, messaged the foreign official a photograph of him with Candidate 1’s spouse — an apparent reference to Bill Clinton — at Khawaja’s home.”

Read the entire article HERE.

The Democratic Party’s ultimate coup d’etat

Via WorldNet Daily

In reality, climate change and its proposed solutions comprise the far left’s secret weapon – its atomic bomb – for destroying capitalism and America’s existing social and economic order and replacing it with an entirely new utopian, globalist, socialist order.

So let’s take a quick look beyond the current smokescreen of impeachment mania and focus on the real ongoing coup d’etat – the attempted overthrow not just of President Donald Trump, but of America.

Right now, as you read these words, millions of American school kids are terrified, anxious and depressed as a result of being indoctrinated via sensational “news stories” quoting “experts” who insist human-caused global warming will soon lead to the end of life on earth as we know it.

Perhaps these unfortunate children, scared out of their wits, would relax a little if they realized that the news media have been utterly enthralled with tales of catastrophic climate change for well over 100 years.

Way back in 1895 – when Grover Cleveland was president, “America the Beautiful” was first published and the sport of volleyball had just been created – the New York Times announced the coming of a new ice age. Americans were in danger of freezing to death.

But that was just the beginning.

Read the entire article HERE.

New Greta On The Shelf Doll Will Track Your Climate Sins

Via The Babylon Bee (Satire)

U.S.—A fun new “Greta on the Shelf” doll will watch you every day and fly back to the UN each night to report your climate sins to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The doll is equipped with eye sensors programmed to detect activities that are harmful to the environment.

“Greta sees you when you’re sleeping, she knows when you drive your SUV to the store instead of taking public transportation,” the manufacturer said. “She knows if you’ve been bad or carbon-neutral, so be carbon-neutral for goodness’ sake!”

One couple in Portland proudly displayed their new doll and lectured their children on the true meaning of Christmas: fighting climate change. “We’re gonna play a fun game for the holidays this year — try to be good little carbon-neutral children, or Greta will tell on you!”

“How dare you!” the doll chanted as the kids of the household left the door open while the heater was on. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.” The doll then blasted off toward UN headquarters using its jet engines to report on the naughty children, who will receive coal in their stocking. They will be snitched on again, however, if they burn the coal for warmth.

Greta is programmed to detect activities including these:

• Leaving the light on when you exit a room
• Leaving the fridge open
• Driving an SUV
• Parents participating in illicit activities that may lead to the creation of more humans
• Using a plastic straw instead of sticking your face in a beverage and slurping
• Forgetting your reusable grocery bags at home
• Getting a cut-down Christmas tree
• Getting a carbon-heavy plastic Christmas tree
• Turning on any electric appliances
• Using the heater instead of rubbing two sticks together for warmth

Children have responded enthusiastically to the doll so far, saying things like, “Mommy, I’m scared,” and “Make the bad girl go away.”

Check out all of the Bee’s great takes on politics and culture HERE.

Be sure to subscribe to Def-Con News to get Breakfast For The Brain in your morning mailbox.