Devine: Bumbling Obama aides actually admit Russiagate smear campaign against Trump

 “That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.”

It’s hard to believe that the Russiagate plotters are so stupid, but the declassified documents tumbling out of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s files show that, while they had a lot of power and managed to hide their nefarious activities for almost a decade, President Barack Obama’s henchmen were none too bright.

The latest tranche of declassified emails has Obama’s DNI, James Clapper, telling then-National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers essentially to shut up and put his name to the intelligence community assessment (ICA) that Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan were cooking up, at Obama’s direction, to concoct a narrative that Russia had tilted the 2016 election to help Trump win.

(From left) Former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan participate in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on worldwide threats, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP

“Understand your concern,” Clapper wrote to Rogers on Dec. 22, 2016, in the waning days of the Obama administration.

“It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking to it.’ ”

Compromised

Rogers had kicked off the conversation by laying out his concerns that normal tradecraft was being compromised and that his team had not had “sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence.”

“I’m concerned that, given the expedited nature of this activity, my folks aren’t fully comfortable saying that they have had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments,” Rogers wrote.

“I know that you agree that this is something we need to be 100% comfortable with before we present it to the President — we have one chance to get this right, and it is critical that we do so.

“In addition, if NSA is intended to be a co-author of this product, I personally expect to see even the most sensitive evidence related to the conclusion.”

But Clapper was unyielding.

“More time is not negotiable,” he replied, copying Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey on the email.

“We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.”

“This is one project that has to be a team sport.”

Team sport.

What an unprofessional, idiotic thing to say, let alone write down for posterity.

As Gabbard said when she released the emails Wednesday: “Clapper’s own words confirm that complying with the order to manufacture intelligence was a ‘team sport.’ ”

There was no reason for the ICA to be completed under such a compressed schedule — less than a month from the Oval Office meeting on Dec. 9, 2016, when Obama ordered Clapper, Brennan, Comey and others to prepare a new intelligence assessment to replace all the inconvenient others before the election that had found that Russia wanted to sow discord but was not partial to one candidate over the other.

In fact, previous declassified material released by Gabbard shows that Russian spies possessed damaging material on Hillary Clinton’s “psycho-emotional” and physical ailments that they were withholding until after the election because they were so certain she would win.

But Obama wanted the cooked ICA to be released before Trump’s transition on Jan. 20, 2017.

He wanted to do maximum damage to Trump, whose election was a repudiation of Obama’s presidency, and of course to cover up Clinton’s scandals — including her BleachBitted private server, missing emails and alleged pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation.

Pre-inaugural smear

And thus, the ICA was released on Jan. 6, 2017, using the discredited and fictional Steele dossier to underpin its findings, with Brennan running roughshod over the objections of the CIA’s top Russia experts by insisting it be included, not just in an appendix but in the main body.

The ICA “findings” were leaked to the media before the intelligence analysts had even started work.

On the very day Obama ordered the ICA, Dec. 9, 2016, the Washington Post ran an anon­ymously sourced story that claimed “the CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency.”

How prescient of it.

The framing of Trump as a Russian asset sabotaged his first presidency, in what Gabbard has called a “years-long coup.”

It undermined his authority and allowed his detractors to paint him as an illegitimate president ­installed by his “handler” Vladimir Putin.

There is no knowing exactly how the lies affected the relationship between the US and Russia, and how they factored into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but they linger in the historic backdrop of Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday, to try to end that awful war.

Anti-lawfare lawyer Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, says Russiagate is “the biggest scandal in American history — and there will be indictments …

“Obama, Biden, Hillary, Brennan, Clapper, and so many others, they made up the Russian collusion hoax to protect Hillary Clinton and to hurt then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. When they failed and Trump won, they used it to try to destroy President Trump’s presidency. And when he declassified Crossfire Hurricane [the FBI counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign’s nonexistent collusion with Russia], they tried to destroy him. They tried to bankrupt him, throw him in prison for life, take him off the ballot, and get him killed.”

Davis says recently declassified evidence that suggests that the classified material leaked to harm Trump could lead to espionage charges for the leakers that, unlike most other federal crimes, has a 10-year statute of limitations under the Espionage Act.

‘Criminal conspiracy’

Other potential charges for the coup plotters could include being engaged in a criminal conspiracy and covering it up, which is essentially a continuation of the conspiracy, meaning there is no statute-of-limitations obstacle for prosecutors.

Coup plotters might also face charges of “conspiracy against rights,” says Davis, which is “when you politicize and weaponize intelligence agencies and law enforcement to go after your political enemies for non-crimes, like Obama and Biden and Hillary and so many others did to Trump. That is the classic definition of a conspiracy against rights.”

Obama, whom Trump calls “the ringleader” of Russiagate, may face legal jeopardy, says Davis, despite being protected by presidential immunity for official acts.

“You definitely do not have presidential immunity for your acts after you leave the White House as the former president of the United States, and when you continue to cover up your conspiracy, you are engaged in criminal conduct for which you do not enjoy presidential immunity.”

Davis advises anyone involved in Russiagate to “lawyer up. Justice is definitely coming, and nobody’s above the law.”

It is just amazing that such bumbling blockheads got away with it for so long.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/13/opinion/obama-aides-admit-russiagate-was-a-smear-campaign-against-trump/

Healthcare operator Nutex delays Q2 filing, posts 220% revenue gain

Nutex Health (NASDAQ: NUTX), a physician-led healthcare system with 24 micro hospitals across 11 states, announced three significant updates: preliminary Q2 2025 results, a Form 10-Q filing delay, and a $25 million stock repurchase program.

The company reported strong Q2 2025 performance with revenue of $244.0 million, up 220.7% year-over-year, and gross profit of $124.9 million (51.2% margin). Total hospital visits increased by 10.6% to 45,573. For H1 2025, revenue reached $455.8 million, up 217.5%, with gross profit of $243.3 million.

The Form 10-Q filing delay is due to non-cash accounting adjustments related to stock-based compensation for under-construction hospitals. The company expects to file within the five-day grace period and confirms these adjustments won't affect revenue, gross profit, or operations.

https://www.stocktitan.net/news/NUTX/nutex-health-provides-preliminary-second-quarter-financial-results-q8fxfugzr8dc.html

Hims & Hers Health stock drops after FTC probe report surfaces

 Hims & Hers Health (NYSE:HIMS) stock fell 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday following a Bloomberg report that revealed the Federal Trade Commission has been investigating the telehealth company’s business practices for more than a year.

According to the report, which cited people familiar with the probe, the FTC is examining complaints about the company’s advertising practices and whether it has made it too difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.

The company has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing. Hims & Hers acknowledged last year that it was "voluntarily cooperating" with an FTC investigation but has declined to provide specific details about the nature of the inquiry or what information regulators had requested.

The telehealth provider, which offers prescription medications for conditions like hair loss, erectile dysfunction, and mental health through its subscription-based platform, has not commented on the latest developments regarding the investigation.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hims-hers-health-stock-drops-204846887.html

Guess What Leftists Have Up Their Sleeve In Response To Trump's D.C. Crime Crackdown...

 by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

In the wake of President Trump taking the decision to crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, angry leftists are planning to counter strike by… banging spoons on saucepans.

Some might say they’re responding in the only way they know how. 

By making a load of noise without achieving anything.

Yeah, neighbours are not going to come outside and politely ask why their kids are being woken up.

Or why they’ve been disturbed from their slumber.

Not in D.C.

Trump must be terrified of this devastating opposition ploy.

He’s surely reconsidering deployment of the National Guard.

Where do they get these stupid ideas?

Ah. From their stupid leaders.

During the pandemic, British people were subjected to a similar pathetic display every week by people who didn’t have the mental strength to face up to the reality of being unnecessarily locked up by politicians and elites who hate them.

There is a simple answer to that question.

*  *  *

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/guess-what-leftists-have-their-sleeve-response-trumps-dc-crime-crackdown

Obama: Eat your Blue vegetables

 

By M. Walter

The New York Times published a piece yesterday entitled “Some Democrats Panicked Over Mamdani. Obama Called Him.”  Obama hasn’t given his official endorsement — yet.  This was just a friendly little phone call, evidently.  Here’s part of what the article said:

The interest from the closely guarded world of Mr. Obama and those around him is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Mamdani is likely to be embraced by the Democratic mainstream, whether the party’s leaders and donors like it or not [emphasis added].

“Whether the party’s leaders and donors like it or not” sounds pretty “authoritarian,” and par for the course for The One.  And really, par for the course for the party which “nominated” Kamala Harris without a single vote.

But back to The Lightbringer:  Obama always did whatever was good for Obama, party be damned.  Not entirely sure what Obama thinks Mamdani can do for him, other than break his horrendous record for endorsements, but Mamdani may want to think twice.  Mamdani appears to be on a glide path to securing NYC’s mayor’s office (which no doubt factors into Obama’s decision to call him — that and him being an out-of-the-closet socialist) but an Obama endorsement?  Mamdani may want to check the rearview mirror.

Via NPR, right after Obama left Office:

Every president sees his party lose hundreds of positions…  but no president has come close to Obama. During Obama’s eight years in office, the Democrats have lost more House, Senate, state legislative and governors seats than under any other president.

 

Democrats currently hold fewer elected offices nationwide than at any time since the 1920s [emphasis added].

Obama left the Democrat party an absolutely smoldering ruin.  Just gutted.  And why?  To line his own pockets. Via an April 4, 2025 New York Post piece:

Barack Obama ‘destroyed’ the Democratic Party by competing for ‘power and money’ with his own organization: new book

The book, ‘Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,’ … claims that Obama was never a Democratic Party loyalist.

…Obama’s creation of Organizing for Action — a nonprofit that launched in 2012 following Obama’s re-election to advance his legislative priorities — fractured the Democratic Party, according to the book, authored by political journalists Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill.

‘Though Organizing for Action never realized his vision, it competed with the party for power and money,’ the book said. ‘He left the Democratic Party far weaker than he found it. Or, as one party operative put it, “Obama destroyed that s—.”’ [Emphasis added]

If OfA did any good, or his other organization, My Brother’s Keeper, has done any good for anyone other than Obama, I haven’t seen it.

Newsweek had a piece a few weeks ago entitled “Intersectional Communist Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats Can’t Quit Obamaism.”  Now, I don’t know what “intersectional communism” is but it sounds bad.  Like something you’d need amoxycillin for.  In any case, the Democrat party is still in shambles. Seems four years of Obama’s VP in the White House then his Kamala endorsement didn’t do a thing to help reassemble his once much vaunted, now long gasping coalition.

It has been painfully obvious, ever since the presidential election last November [2024], that the Democratic Party’s brand is in tatters.

[snip]

[I]t is clear that Barack Obama’s winning 2008 political coalition—comprising racial and ethnic minorities, young people, and highly educated whites—has completely withered. ‘Obamaism’ is dead—and Democrats have to reconcile themselves to that demise. At minimum, they should stop taking advice from Obama himself; the 44th president was Kamala Harris’ top 2024 campaign trail surrogate, and we saw how that worked out.

Obama was the penultimate D.E.I. hire and as such, he cannot be thrown overboard, at least overtly.  If the Democrats want to distance themselves from him, they’ll have to do it from the shadows.  Like “the light that touches” everything Mufasa sees in the Lion King’s kingdom, the Democrats’ kingdom, such as it is, is The Lightbringer’s, so they’ll have to reconcile that in the darkest corners of whatever comes next for this shambolic party.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/obama_eat_your_blue_vegetables.html

The federal government has a history of fudging numbers—isn’t a level of healthy skepticism necessary?

 

By Jack Hellner

The BLS has great flexibility on seasonal adjustments and sampling techniques. They frequently make significant monthly changes to employment numbers.

Three months before the 2024 election, and seventeen months after they released the initial numbers, the BLS reduced jobs created for the year by over 800,000. This number is not highlighted as much as the monthly numbers.

In October 2024, in the last employment report before the election, the BLS made the biggest seasonal adjustment ever.

But according to most media outlets and experts no one should question the numbers, and it is Trump’s fault that anyone would now mistrust the numbers.

Well, I have questions about some other big numbers the government puts out:

In FY 2022, the government said the deficit was $1.4 trillion, but the debt went up $2.5 trillion, from $28.4 trillion to $30.9 trillion—so where did the extra $1.1 trillion go?

And this unexplained additional debt goes on every year:

In FY 2023, the deficit was said to be $1.7 trillion but the debt went up $2.3 trillion to $33.2 trillion, so that is another unexplained $600 billion.

In FY 2024, the deficit was listed as around $1.8 trillion, but debt went up $2.3 trillion to $35.5 trillion.

So, in three short years, the debt went up $2.2 trillion more than the deficits the government said. Shouldn’t we all want to know why $2.2 trillion additional money was printed? How much spending is off-budget?

On audited statements in the private sector, a required statement is the sources and uses of funds—so why does the government have less transparency? The public certainly has a right to know.

There are over 400 departments (fiefdoms) in the executive branch and judges, most of the media, bureaucrats, other Democrats, and some Republicans are fighting hard to block Trump from digging in to see how the money is spent, and trying to protect the bloated number of bureaucrats instead of worrying about the rest of us.

The Census:

In the 2020 census, there were significant miscounts in 14 states. These numbers greatly influence elections as they determine the number of congressional seats and electoral votes. The data also determines how much government each state gets.

I don’t understand why we include illegals in the counts? Also, how do you get accurate numbers, since I am sure they move around and we are told no one knows how many there are in any given area?

Somehow, five out of six of the significant undercounts were in Republican states. And six out of the eight significant overcounts were in Democrat states. From NPR:

A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally's accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).

It also uncovered significant net overcount rates in eight states — Delaware (5.45%), Hawaii (6.79%), Massachusetts (2.24%), Minnesota (3.84%), New York (3.44%), Ohio (1.49%), Rhode Island (5.05%) and Utah (2.59%).

Why should we trust the overall census when there are so many significant errors, and why should we be forced to have electoral votes based on bad numbers for ten years?

COVID deaths:

Before COVID, deaths from the flu and other diseases were counted as caused by the disease, but suddenly for COVID, they included deaths where the person possibly had COVID, no matter how many other diseases the person had. The death numbers were intentionally inflated.

Temperature data:

The weather stations have been moved from rural to urban areas over the years, and that clearly skews the results, because cement, asphalt, and buildings are warmer than grass, shade, and trees.

There is no way that anyone can calculate an average global temperature one thousand years ago, one hundred years ago, or today. Seventy percent of the earth is covered by water, and 70% of temperature data is not gathered above the water.

Crime rate: 

We are told the crime rate is down in D.C., but a police commander apparently falsified the data:

The Press and Dems Push Back on Trump D.C. Announcement, but There’s Proof They Are Lying About the Data

In a report published in July, it was revealed that a D.C. police commander was recently suspended for falsifying data to improve the city’s crime statistics.

How many places does this occur? 

Numbers, statistics, seasonal data, polls, and statistical sampling are easy to manipulate. It is a shame that most of the media just repeat what they are told instead of doing research.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/the_federal_government_has_a_history_of_fudging_numbers_isn_t_a_level_of_healthy_skepticism_necessary.html

Rubio dials it to 11 on Colombia's leftist president after slaying of conservative presidential candidate

 

By Monica Showalter

Leftists have long held no qualms about assassination against their rivals, and in Colombia, where narcoterrorism is also a problem and left-narco alliances are common, it has started up again..

But at least we have a secretary of state who is wise to what's going on.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a high-level delegation to Bogota after a leading Colombian presidential candidate, conservative Sen. Miguel Uribe, died of his wounds in a June shooting by a criminal known as a 'sicario' or hitman who obviously had a sponsor.  

Rubio seems to know who that might be, though, and has dialed up the pressure on the radical leftist in the presidential palace, Gustavo Petro, which tells us a lot about what he thinks is going on.

According to the expat-oriented City Paper of Bogotà, in a piece that ran two days ago, Rubio sent in his big guns to the funeral of the murdered conservative presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe -- dispatching Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau to interrupt his regularly scheduled trip there to lead a high powered delegation, which included GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Colombian-American whose Colombian brother used to run the Inter-American Development Bank, and who obviously, is very connected in Colombian power circles outside the far-left Petro government.

The City Paper noted:

Landau said his trip would demonstrate “deep concern” and stressed Colombia’s strategic importance to the United States, particularly on migration and other regional issues. He also reaffirmed the “solid diplomatic relationship” between Washington and Bogotá, underscoring U.S. commitment to defending democracy and condemning political persecution of opposition leaders.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also expressed his condolences, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the assassination. “The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible,” he said.

It probably doesn't look like much at first glance given the cordial words, and given that Landau is hardly a household name, but when one reads further -- yeah, it's a big deal, City Paper continued:

While senior U.S. officials occasionally attend high-profile funerals abroad, analysts note that Landau’s decision to alter his travel schedule – he was originally headed to Cartagena later this week – breaks with protocol and sends a deliberate message to Casa de Nariño [the Colombian presidential palace]. The visit comes as Colombian authorities face mounting pressure to ensure the safety of political candidates ahead of the 2026 elections.

... and this ...

The U.S. attendance, combined with high-profile calls for justice from Washington – shows that Uribe Turbay’s killing is being treated not only as a Colombian tragedy, but as a matter of hemispheric concern. The visit comes just days after President Petro expressed solidarity with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, following a U.S. decision to double its reward to US$50 million for information leading to his arrest for being “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world,” stated U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

What's more, investigators have learned that the weapon used to kill Uribe was a Glock-style weapon legally purchased in Mesa, Arizona, in 2020. Colombian radio noted that illegal migrants, in what's called a 'hormigueo' or tingling ant chain, are frequently used to transport weapons back to Colombia, which right there makes it a U.S. concern.

 The narco detail regarding Petro cited by the City Paper, is worth noting, too, because Colombia's former vice president, Pacho Santos, seems to think that Petro had something to do with this killing, not only because he is a leftist but also because he is an ally of drug kingpins, one of which is Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, who has been identified by the Justice Department as a bona fide drug kingpin.

Petro tiene las manos manchadas de sangre. Durante tres años señaló a Miguel Uribe, le puso la diana… y la mafia hizo el resto.

¿Casualidad? ¡No!vEs el Pacto de la Picota en acción: un plan para que la mafia ponga presidente en 2026… como en tiempos de Escobar.

⚠ La… pic.twitter.com/P3qfNtau6V

— Pacho Santos (@PachoSantosC) August 13, 2025

Google Translate:

Petro has blood on his hands. For three years, he pointed at Miguel Uribe, put a target on him… and the mafia did the rest. Coincidence? No! It’s the Picota Pact in action: a plan for the mafia to install a president in 2026… just like in Escobar’s times.  Democracy is at stake. For Miguel. For freedom. Let’s not let the mafia win! I invite you to read my full column at @infobae

The link to the Infobae piece is here, and he argues, via Google Translate:

The opposition must understand that in the 2026 elections, drug traffickers, like Pablo Escobar in 1990, will play to favor a president and his candidate. The reason? Never, not even with Ernesto Samper, have they had such a close ally in power. Petro released them from prison to take them to a political event of his, he's expanding the cocaine trade like never before, or perhaps when Juan Manuel Santos dismantled the anti-drug policy in 2013, he offered them all kinds of benefits in a law about to be passed by Congress, ended the eradication policy, and handed over to his best friend, drug trafficker Nicolás Maduro, the Catatumbo region where 30 percent of Colombia's cocaine is produced. Do you want more evidence?

Santos is an unusually good observer here, having been way too close to the 'action' in his lifetime.

He is a conservative who served as vice president to President Alvaro Uribe, who destroyed FARC's Marxist narcoterrorists -- and is cousin to President Uribe's more liberal immediate successor, Juan Manuel Santos, both the scions of a prominent newspaper family. More to the point, Pacho Santos and Diana Turbay, Miguel Uribe's mother, were journalists kidnapped by Pablo Escobar in 1990 in a terrifying ordeal written about by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his News of a Kidnapping, one of his finest books. President Alvaro Uribe and Sen. Miguel Uribe are not related but were political allies.

I've spent time with Pacho Santos on a few occasions back in the early aughts and recall how obsessed he was with stomping out drug dealers who have done so much damage to Colombia. I recall his speaking at UCLA at a time when drug legalization was a fashionable topic and he warned it was a really bad idea, given the experience in Colombia.

Now he's warning that the attack on Uribe was drug-related, and the Colombian state under leftist rule is pretty well headed toward Venezuelan-style narcostate status, which will happen a lot faster in Colombia than it did in Venezuela and for that Petro needs to be thrown out. 

Marco Rubio obviously understands the picture, too, which explains the actions taken, Rubio is on it, and he's going o find a way to stop this from advancing. Colombia should never descend into a narcostate again. This killing is a warning it's well on its way. But Rubio is on the job.

It is a sad ordeal for Colombia. The man with the white hair in the photo above lost his only son to this sicario, who told investigators he killed for money, on top of losing his wife, Diana Turbay, to these same kinds of narcoterrorists.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/08/rubio_dials_it_to_11_on_colombia_s_leftist_president_petro_following_slaying_of_conservative_presidential_candidate.html