FBI Special Agent, Richard Thornton, in charge of the investigation, told reporters that “one could reasonably conclude his actions were consistent with the philosophies of violent, radical Islamic groups; he may have been radicalized, possibly with the help of others."
Michele Bachman commented:
"Problems such as this were unheard of before the large-scale resettlement of Somali refugees.
As people from Third World, impoverished, dysfunctional, war-torn countries establish communities anywhere in the world, from the tiny island nation of Nauru, to Minnesota, we see that transplanting the followers of Islamic Shariah law brings with it the continual problems of Islamic Shariah.
"There are no success stories of mass Islamic migration anywhere in the world. In order to prevent the continued existence of 'parallel societies' such as with the Somali population of Minnesota, immigrants must assimilate completely into American culture.
Two weeks after the Benghazi attacks, in which four Americans were killed, including the US Ambassador who was tortured before he was killed, Omar tweeted in response: Allah Akbar!
-- Was that her approval of the attack on the US Consulate?
Is it Romance, or Espionage?
We've learned via witnesses, substantiated with a video, that Ilhan was seen in a clandestine meeting with Mohammed bin Ahmed al-Masnad [aka: The Boss], the National Security Director for the Emir of Qatar.
It's now been revealed that that Ilhan''s endorsement of the Somali President may have been the basis of his appointing an al Jazeera "journalist" [her brother-in-law], Fahad Yasin, to a key slot in the Somali President's administration.
According to the Kenyan news link The East African, Fahid was appointed head of the Somali Security Agency.
Ed Note: By law, any person holding a security clearance, especially those with regular access to Intelligence Information, must report any and all contacts with foreign individuals - ESPECIALLY FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS, to the FBI. Has Ilhan reported her relationship with her brother-in-law to the FBI? If not, she's now in severe legal trouble, subject to arrest, loss of Security Clearance, and likely prosecution!
[for emphasis]
The significance of all this?
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and their allied states cut off commercial and diplomatic ties with Qatar to force it to alter its policies. In turn, Qatar has allied itself with Turkey [where the US has a sensitive military base], whose embassy was attacked by al Shabab in 2013.
From the NYT:
Qatar sends money, weapons, and military training to Somalia with the objective of managing ports or exploiting natural resources. A car bombing outside the courthouse in the port city of Bosaso, originally attributed to terrorists, was in fact carried out by militants from Qatar [al Shabab - an affiliate of al Qaeda)] to "advance Qatar's interests by driving the United Arab Emirates out of Somalia." [DP World]
----
These issues are important: 1) The US has military alliances with, and forward military bases in both the UAE and Qatar. 2) Qatar's relationship with al Shabab and possibly al Qaeda, both listed as Terrorist
organizations, and thus enemies of the US, might indicate the sharing of information
among the three. 3) Ilhan Omar serves in the US Congress, on the Foreign Affairs Committee, holding a
Top Secret clearance and is privy to highly sensitive intelligence information regarding
but not because she is guilty of Treason or poses a national security threat!] 4) Ilhan's close relationship with the head of Qatar's Security apparatus indicates
either
a romance, or that The Boss has recruited her as a spy given her access. 5) Ilhan's brother-in-law is the head of Somali Intelligence. 6) Ilhan's relationship with a foreign national opens national security
implications
and could lead to her arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment
- not to speak of removing
her from Congress. 7) Ilhan married her brother [illegal under Sharia Law] to obtain US citizenship for him, - is in the process of divorcing her first husband, - has now moved into a very
expensive, luxury condominium, - has gone to great lengths to hide her
relationship with Qatar's Intelligence Chief - has not disclosed that her brother-in-law heads Somalia's National Intelligence Security Agency . It is bad enough that Ilhan Moran, as a US Representative, has publicly condemned the US ; but she is now in a position to bring great harm to the US in Congress by spying for a foreign power.
UPDATE:[31Jan2019] Senator Schumer has called for an "Intelligence Intervention of Trump" to "educate the President on issues of National Security." This comes from the Democrat Party which routinely leaks highly classified and sensitive materials to CNN and other elements of the Press. More importantly, Schumer's inference is that he is setting the stage for the "impeachment" of the POTUS, implying that Trump is incapable of managing the Affairs of State. Mr Trump made clear early on that he had no confidence whatever in the US Intelligence Community's judgment, based on the weaponization of the Intelligence products he had received before and after his Inauguration. Importantly, Schumer's comments border on Treason, and issue which could backfire on his belligerence. The POTUS, like any other Chief Executive [Private or Public sector], listens to his advisors and makes his decisions which includes their input. [Obama was notable for ignoring his Presidential Daily Brief and instead going to the Golf Course; he was also notable for going to Las Vegas to gamble in the midst of the Benghazi disaster.]
According to the Yahoo News, President Trump has criticized his Intelligence Chiefs as "Extremely Passive and Naive" after they disagreed with his assessment of Iran as a "source of potential danger and conflict". Trump also discounted their assessments of North Korea and ISIS as continuing to pose serious threats to the US.
This is not to say these managers are not professional and competent; it IS to say the organizations they manage, because of their histories and massive growth since 2001, no longer have the capability to produce objective, precision analysis - in a timely fashion.
Our opinion is based on roughly 50 years of experience operating in and around
the Intelligence Community and LEC with Military Intelligence, CIA, DIA, NSA,
DOJ, theFBI [including active roles as Analyst and Operations Manager, as
Case Officer, Special Operations advisor, builder, instructor, and director of a
national MilitaryIntelligence organization that trained over 1,000 units,
Special Intelligence Advisorto the CG of Southern Command and to the
CIA's DDO-LA, Director of Operations for the Defense Clandestine Service,
and Editor of the (Intelligence) Black Book at the Pentagon].
Our judgement is that Mr Trump is correct in doubting the ability of the current Intelligence Community to provide an accurate National Security assessment. What he receives has no particular value.
The IC ranks are filled with programmed analysts who feed the current leadership the politicized drivel they’ve been forced to produce over the previous four Administrations.
This is a bloated, relatively incompetent bureaucracy, incapable of making objective assessments.
Now, what may have originally begun as an extremely accurate, objective assessment by an experienced and highly skilled analyst must currently navigate through a dozen or more layers of politicized supervisory bureaucrats, altering content to meet the accepted political orientation of each layer.
By the time the modified assessment reaches the Director level, it has become worthless pablum, inoffensive to even the most mindless politician - and thus acceptable to brief the President.
Back in 2002, with Ed Meese, we redesigned the Intelligence Community and capped the entire IC at fewer than 10,000 for all the components, with no more than 100 staff for the newly created Director of National Intelligence [DNI] to replace the Director of Central Intelligence which had become an incompetent but all-powerful overseer of all the Intelligence organizations.
The DNI, as we envisioned it, would become a streamlined coordination point through which intelligence collection could be coordinated and assessments could be conducted in an open and collegial manner.
STU III
Previously, coordination of precision intelligence was routinely conducted over the Grey Phone
[aka: STU, or secure telephone unit] in which all levels of classified information could be discussed without fear of interception.
A collective call could bring in analysts from key agencies, complete with tasking and retrieval, and on the spot assessments -- to be translated into refined intelligence.
But, the last time we checked, the IC had swollen to nearly 900,000 underemployed drones cleared at the Top Secret level, staffing nearly 1,300 government organizations, supported by nearly 2,000 private companies in 10,000 locations, with a proposed budget of about $60 Billion.
Today, that same coordination would be either impossible, or would take weeks of coordination, and "oversight".
To clarify, supporting this monstrous behemoth, we calculate there is a core competency of about 10,000 superb analysts, operators, and support personnel whose professionalism and expertise carry the weight and expense of the other 890,000 non-essential employees.
These professionals can tap into the collection and analysis of experts in accessible organizations [e.g., NSA, DIA, or NRO] in order to add technical expertise to their assessments and operations. Agencies such as NSA have highly sophisticated equipment which gathers an incredible amount of information, which is stored, but inadequately analyzed to become finished Intelligence. Furnished to the right analysts, the information can serve to create accurate intelligence.
As a footnote,
the IC is NOT composed of 17 agencies - as reported in the accompanying article which apparently uses Hillary Clinton or Senator Warner as its prime sources.
There are more than 1,000 organizations which collect, process, and contribute to a few actual agencies tasked with producing national Intelligence products.
These are:
1) CIA
2) DIA,
3) NSA [National Security Agency]
4) NRO [National Reconnaissance Office]
5) NGA [National Geospatial Intelligence Agency]
The DNI [Director of National Intelligence] is an Administrator - not an agency.
The following are not agencies, but are Intelligence subsets of Departments or other agencies
1) DOD/DHS
a) Army
b) Navy
c) Air Force
d) USMC
e) USCG
f) Secret Service [formerly under Treasury Department]
g) ICE
h) Customs & Border Protection
i) TSA
2) Treasury Department [Intelligence Bureau; Secret Service]
3) Energy Department [Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence]
4) Department of Justice
a) FBI
b) DEA
c) ATF
5) Commerce Department [Intelligence Bureau]
6) State Department [Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)]
There are a few other highly specialized organizations which conduct unique programs; but, those are not officially part of the Intelligence Community.
In summary, Trump is correct in his assessment of the IC chiefs who are Administrators, and not experienced operators or analysts.
Mr Trump is better served by outside organizations which specialize in collecting and analyzing Intelligence on specific areas and topics pending a complete revamping of the Intelligence Community.
Elon Musk: Serial Entrepreneur, and Threat to the Deep State
Just as Nicholas Tesla was targeted and destroyed by the Deep State when he came up with ideas and inventions which would improve the lives of humanity -- and provide free electricity and communications, so too is Elon Musk now being targeted since he abhors wasteful and overly expensive inefficiencies. In this story line, follow the money, but recognize Elon Musk can, and will, dislodge the Deep State.
Elon Musk settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] on charges filed over his abandoned attempt to take Tesla private. Musk will have to step down as the chairman of Tesla, and will be barred from that position for three years. He will remain Tesla’s CEO.
The SEC charged Tesla with “failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets.”
We are curious what role Melissa Hodgman, Director of the SEC's International Division, played in this bizarre attack; you might remember she is married to Peter Strzok, the corrupt, and now former Director of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Division; her role has been to block any investigations into Hillary's money laundering operation in the Clinton Foundation.
[Other than working with his girlfriend to undermine Trump, Strzok's notable success was in destroying the FBI's long term Operation Ghost Stories which identified and arrested a Russian SVR Sleeper Agent program by allowing the escape/release of the eleven spies arrested.]
Musk and the company will pay separate $20 million fines that will “be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process. Tesla is being forced to appoint two new independent directors to its board. The company must also hire a lawyer to monitor Musk’s communications, including his tweets.
Musk's crime?
He tweeted that he was "... considering taking the company private."
He didn't, but that's irrelevant as far as the corrupt SEC is concerned.
Back in 2010, Musk's initial public offering of the Tesla stock was $17 in 2010; today, it sells for $300, a modest increase that made its investors millionaires.
[We're curious as to how investors were harmed by Tesla's chronic speculation, captured this time in an eight word tweet]
Musk is a perceived enemy of the Deep State, which derives its wealth primarily from the Transportation industry, i.e., Detroit's internal combustion industry, the oil industry, the financial industry, and the Defense and Space industry.
Musk has challenged each of the industries.
Tesla Semi; non-diesel
His electric vehicles have spawned dozens of US and international electric vehicle competitors; the only barrier seemed to be the limitations of 2,000 year old battery technology, so he created a company to make 21st Century batteries for electric vehicles, to include the Tesla Semi trucks which could travel long distances without expensive diesel fuel costs
[currently about $150 Billion per year, which could cut into Warren Buffet's $34 Billion petroleum movement system of railroads].
The financial industry is leery of Musk because he can manufacture affordable vehicles and finance their sales through his own company at reasonable interest rates. As opposed to Detroit's products which languish on car lots, Tesla vehicles are sold on waiting lists because demand is so great.
Automobile dealerships, a mainstay of the financial industry selling car loans of $30,000 to $150,000 at high interest rates, will gradually disappear with the dominance of electric vehicles since the need for mechanical maintenance is eliminated with electric motors which need only simple lubricants; no more expensive maintenance and overhauls of automobile drive trains consisting of thousands of moving parts [there are about 13,000 moving parts in the drive train of the average gasoline propelled car today; an electric propelled automobile has a motor with nine moving parts; do the math]. Electric vehicles will still need financing, but their mechanical and physical life spans are indefinite as the structures are now carbon-based and the motors simply don't wear out.
GM's EV-s, all in working order, were destroyed
GM figured this out in 1995 after they had created the EV-1 and EV-2, wildly popular leased vehicles - which needed no maintenance.
Musk's exceptional drive has produced a number of extraordinary ventures, most of which have made him, and his investors, quite wealthy.
His first venture was a software company called Zip2, which provided News Media resources with research capabilities. He sold out to Compaq Computer for $307 Million -- his share was $22 Million.
His next venture was X.com, an on-line bank which eventually became PayPal, which blind-sided the banking industry as it made transactions electronic and simple; he eventually sold the company for $250 Million.
Further down the road, he studied "rocket science" in his spare time and created SpaceX on the basis that rockets were unnecessarily overpriced. His ventures included buying Russian rockets, developing a re-usable rocket; his reusable rockets were 100 time cheaper than those purchased under existing government contracts. He then secured a NASA contract for $1.6 Billion to resupply the Space Station [after the Space Shuttle program was ended by Obama in 2011]. This program evolved into the BFR [Big Falcon (Fucking) Rocket] program which has evolved into the Interplanetary Space Flight program with reusable rockets.
This venture caused him a great deal of opposition since the Deep State is unwilling to give up control of the Space Industry, funded by billion dollar NASA contracts, and promoted by Trump's Space Force.
On a number of early launches, Musk's rockets inexplicably exploded on the pad or shortly after lift-off, as we would later learn via sabotage, or via snipers who could puncture a fuel tank from a mile away. Musk and Trump solved this problem by launching from a highly restricted Military base, entry to which was only for fully identified, by-name personnel.
The Deep State has been squeezed out, for now, but will likely launch propaganda campaigns to denigrate Musk's efforts -- which promise to deliver astronauts to Mars, and the Moon in the immediate future.
Having successfully launched his Interplanetary program, Musk turned his attention again to his electric vehicles, addressing the limitations of battery life; so he built the GigaFactory, a lithium-ion battery factory in Nevada to power his vehicles and homes with solar-energy Powerwalls [a stationary home/business energy storage unit.
These ventures would undercut the battery companies, which have produced batteries which are archaic [3,000 years old in design], expensive, and have a life span of about five years.
Cancer Transmission Systems?
They would also undercut the electric utility companies by providing consumers with an alternative to buying ever-more expensive electricity by government-protected monopolistic utilities which produce electricity and deliver it to consumers in the least efficient and highly vulnerable manner.
There is reportedly a high correlation between exposure to the Electrical Magnetic Fields [EMF] high tension power lines and cancer. Electric utilizes have spent considerable money "debunking" these theories, but, it seems there is now pretty much of an inexplicable epidemic of cancer.
There's a considerable amount of money to be lost if Musk succeeds in creating electricity that is "off-the-grid", and naturally, the Deep State is reluctant to all the disruption of the "status quo". Expect a massive propaganda campaign to malign Musk's program.
But, lest you think Musk was slacking off, he came up with still another innovation; i.e., the Hyperloop passenger/freight train which replaces railroad trains with a high speed [700 mph], efficient, and comparatively inexpensive process.
Hyperloop Concept
The Hyperloop is a sealed tube, or system of tubes, through which a "pod" can travel without air resistance or friction -- at very high speeds.
All that sounds complicated, but, think in terms of the vacuum tube system many banks still use in drive-through lanes to deliver your cash from the teller in the window. Sixty years ago, that was the preferred system for office complexes and department stores.
This is a great idea which would provide a viable alternative to our crowded, expensive, uncomfortable, and inefficient airways which are highly vulnerable. Once again though, the Deep State is highly resistant to innovative technology which could slaughter their cash cows. Railroads, though massively inefficient and slow, are basically passenger-unfriendly and highly profitable freight carriers. Warren Buffett would be resistant, although rail would be the preferred carrier of dangerous loads of oil, coal, and explosives.
Nonetheless, opponents have already produced "studies" which call this technology impractical and vulnerable to disruption from power outages and "terror attacks".
Some may remember how the high-speed MagLev trains conceived in the 1980s were derailed in the US by Deep State nay-sayers to protect the airlines and rail monopolies -- but those constructed in foreign countries work just fine, until mysterious accidents caused them to shut down.
Musk's Tunnel Boring Machine
The question arose on how the HyperLoop would move through non-existent paths.
Naturally, Musk had an answer - his Boring Machine Company, which produces machines capable of boring tunnels through any material [e.g., rock] at 50-60 feet per day, with a diameter up to nearly 60 feet.
Currently, Musk has a variety of tentative contracts for boring his tunnels, into which he can insert his Hyperloop trains; since these might cause the disruption and obsolescence of existing transportation systems, we can guarantee a great deal of political opposition to arise from Deep State functionaries.
Stay tuned for more adventures of Elon Musk, the man from the future.
POSTSCRIPT:
Since we wrote this blog post last month, we've been traveling abroad and have visited museums of science and technology which broadened our awareness of potential implementation of Musk technology, to include coordinating new, virtually indestructible carbon fibre products which could be used in Musk's space programs. Notably, on our return, we learned that two of NASA's spacecraft "... ran out of hydrazine fuel!" - limiting their maneuverability, thus preventing them from gathering further information in our Solar System, even though their solar batteries were/are still functional. The "single point of failure" on each system was the "reaction wheels" which adjusted the camera/telescope visual field. 1) The Spacecraft DAWN, launched in 2007, probed the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, after which it continued on to circle and gather information on the protoplanets Ceres and Vesta. Currently, DAWN remains in an uncontrolled orbit, 22 miles above, and circling Ceres, completely dysfunctional. 2) The Kepler orbiting telescope, launched in 2009, had run out of hydrazine fuel two days earlier, eliminating its ability to orient and gather space data. The official explanation for its failure however, was eroding reaction wheels. 3) The Hubble orbiting telescope. launched in 1990, remains in orbit and fully functional, 14 years after George W Bush attempted to force it into low orbit and self-destruct; his rationale was that the more sophisticated Webb telescope would quickly replace it. The Webb telescope has been delayed multiple times and has recently been delayed again until 2021, somewhat beyond its original projection. Maintenance and servicing of the Hubble had been conducted by astronauts transported by the Space Shuttle program, which President Obama terminated in 2011, leaving no replacement for the Shuttle, and no US transport to the Space Station or any other destination.
We're not sure what NASA has been doing, or why its emphasis seems to be on degrading our space exploration program. Certainly, the demise of the DAWN and Keppler spacecraft due to fuel issues had to have been foreseen. Had not the scientific community risen up in rebellion against Bush's decision to destroy the Hubble telescope, the US would have little capability to monitor issues beyond our stratosphere -- while Russia, China, and India launch their space vehicles to the Moon and beyond. We have to wonder about this retreat from competition from our potential adversaries - an apparent goal of both Bush and Obama. So, what does all this have to do with Elon Musk? Well, Musk has repeatedly demonstrated his innovative spirit in creating solutions to bewildering challenges. His rocketry has proven reliable and inexpensive. One of his Tesla vehicles is now hurtling through space toward Mars, simply because Musk thought it would demonstrate he could accomplish just about anything space related. We suspect he could probably launch a refueling vehicle and apparatus to salvage both DAWN and Keppler -- using robotic processes. He could likely launch a space vehicle to land astronauts on the Moon were he so inclined. We trust Mr Trump has Musk in mind for some key role in his Space Force -- which might be a suitable replacement for NASA.
We're reprinting this article as it captures the essence of China's new
mass surveillance system, which couples with a mind and behavior control
process of rewards and punishments imposed by the government, based on
the citizens' behavior. Generally, we'd simply point to this as the extremism
inherent in China, but, in reality, we're seeing such a mechanism in the US as
our Social Media has now become a censorship mechanism, not unlike
China's Gamification of Trust.
If you "violate" the vague, yet
comprehensive Terms of Agreement of Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.,
they will shut you down and ban you for a week, a month, or forever,
particularly if you take a dynamic Conservative position. Unless
Congress and the President step in to force these IT giants to honor the
First Amendment, the concept of Freedom of Speech will be lost forever,
and the core of the United States will be lost forever. Keep in mind that, under the successive Administrations of Bush-1, Clinton,
Bush-2, and Obama, [the foursome comprising the embodiment of the Deep State Puppetry], a series of Executive Orders [EO] were enacted, using 9/11 as the excuse to protect America from terrorists. These incrementally restricted the rights of American citizens and were capped by the
Patriot Act and the NDAA, which stripped the Constitutional Rights of citizens
suspected of any linkage to TERRORISM, no matter how
spurious or specious the accusations. The counter-terrorism excuse was used to authorize NSA surveillance on US citizens, as well as introducing Secret Letters, Confiscation of personal property, warrantless searches, and sanctioned torture of prisoners of war. These EOs and legislation were supplemented and enforced by
the expansion and weaponization of our Intelligence and Law Enforcement Communities
and the creation of new agencies [e.g., Homeland Security] which morphed
into massive bureaucracies with no visible purpose other than to harass and control citizens to force them into total compliance.
Ultimately, we have witnessed the systematic deadly assault, physical and ad hominem, against our Legislators, our Cabinet members, our Supreme Court nominees, and our President [notably the attempted assassination of Representative Scalise, the physical assault of Senator Paul, and, last but not least, the derailing of Congressional train in Virginia designed to kill both our legislators and their families and cause the collapse of Congress.] Our News and Social Media have been purchased and controlled by Left Wing billionaires, and our journalists have been replaced by propagandists. Although few will recognize the symptoms and indicators, we are in the last stages of a fight for the very existence of our Republic; and we may very well succumb to the Chinese model described below if we lose.
----------
China's "Social Credit System" is a sprawling, complete, technological mass surveillance network. It's already been switched on and is expected to be fully operational by 2020.
It monitors China's nearly 1.4 billion citizens, and it's also designed to control and coerce them in a massive social engineering process some have called the "gamification of trust" in which the system assigns an individual Trust Score to each citizen as well as to businesses.
The Chinese Communist system will, according to the Chinese government
"allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step".
This scheme will harness the immense reach of China's technological infrastructure which includes 200 million CCTV cameras.
This 24/7 surveillance will be linked to facial recognition systems, and cross-checked with financial, medical records, and legal records – with the whole apparatus regulated and interpreted by advanced, data-crunching AI [artificial intelligence] networks.
[Ed Note: This ties to the interlocking companies in the US in which Medical, Financial, Legal, Personnel, and Security files are accessible by one major company which owns the subsidiaries operating in a different name.]
The scope of this venture is reminiscent of the TV show Black Mirror [i.e., the eerily prescient episode "Nosedive" which depicts a world where people can rate each other from one to five stars for every interaction they have, and which can impact their socioeconomic status]. China's goal goes even further.
Algorithmic Governance will rule your life
"This is potentially a totally new way for the government to manage the economy and society," according to economist Martin Chorzempa from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The goal is algorithmic governance!"
[Think in terms of a computer managing your life, as in HAL, the computer in 2001, Space Oddysey.
For such a complex plan, the crux of social credit is simple.
In localised pilot programs currently operational in Chinese cities, citizens are assigned a numerical score.
For positive personal and social acts – such as paying bills on time, engaging in charity, and properly sorting your recycling – citizens get their score bumped up, which gives them access to perks, like better credit facilities, cheaper public transport, and even shorter wait times for hospital services. [Ed Note: Not unlike the impact of your FICO score.]
But if you break the rules, beware. People with late with payments, caught jaywalking or smoking in non-smoking areas, will be punished.
In what's being described as a "digital dictatorship", their score takes a hit for each infraction, meaning they incur things like financial penalties and even travel restrictions.
That's what happened to investigative journalist Liu Hu, who says the social credit system destroyed his career after he was blacklisted for making accusations of government corruption.
Branded "dishonest", he had access to rail travel suspended, and his social media accounts – comprising some 2 million followers – were reportedly shut down, effectively making his job impossible.
[Ed Note:We now note US airline computers will unilaterally cancel your reservations if you are categorized as "non-compliant".]
As Hu told Foreign Correspondent, he doesn't believe most Chinese are aware of how these kinds of punishments could affect them.
"You can see from the Chinese people's mental state. Their eyes are blinded and their ears are blocked. They know little about the world and live in an illusion."
But the social credit system reaches even further than this.
Individuals aren't the only ones subject to this ramification.
Companies within and outside China are affected, with international airlines already feeling the coercive aspects of the controversial system, which could "interfere directly in the sovereignty of other nations".
Social surveys show the preliminary system is popular with socially advantaged citizens who already enjoy the perks of pilot programs.
"It sounds like it will help improve the quality of citizens in the long run," Shanghai-based saleswoman Joyce Hu told NPR last year.
"As long as it doesn't violate my privacy, I'm okay with it."
----------- Editor's Note:
We are reminded of China's Cultural Revolution [1966-76] during which the Red Guard brutally controlled/suppressed "free speech" by having children report on their parents, students report on each other and on their teachers, and even on farm workers who reported on each other's work habits. Penalties for violations included imprisonment, and execution. This was the ultimate thought and mind control, much like the insinuation and imposition of Political Correctness and the violent "demonstrations" of the Left on campuses and the destruction of historical monuments in the US. A side effect consisted of the destruction of much of China's recorded history as books and documents were destroyed, much like the systematic erasure of historical material on Google searches.
We are, naturally appalled at China's intrusion on the privacy of their citizens, yet we tend to forget NSA'S harvesting of thousands of Terabytes [Zettabytes], encompassing virtually every email, text, and phone conversation of every US citizen. As we've noted, our DHS and DOJ, under Obama, did not hesitate to use the information gathered against those designated political 'enemies' of the Deep State. State surveillance and suppression in the US far outweighed that in China; we just didn't notice it.
Ever wonder how a Congressman or Senator [or IRS official]
who earns less than $200,000 per year,
can have an annual income of several million dollars,
and retire into a lifetime of extraordinary wealth?
John Crudele explains below:
The IRS reportedly tipped off members of Congress to corporate takeovers and other pending actions so the elected officials could profit from Insider Trading. Allegedly, higher-level employees of the IRS also used that information to enrich themselves.
Until a few years ago Members of Congress were not barred from trading stock based on information they got while performing their public duties. However, following scandalous headlines in 2012
[you remember, when the News Media was credible], the practice was officially banned.
Mrs Peter Strzok - Deputy Director - SEC Enforcement
Interestingly, a page left unturned in this scandal is the one in which the wife of Peter Strzok [Melissa Hodgman] is the Deputy Director of the Securities & Exchange Commission Enforcement Division.
One might guess that in addition to blocking investigations into Hillary Clinton's money laundering schemes, Melissa might also have blocked inquiries into Congressional Insider Trading in exchange for Congress supporting Strzok's illegal activities and ignoring the criminal activities of senior officials at the DOJ and FBI.
It was assumed that Members of Congress were just profiting from what they happened to learn while working on their Committees — e.g., perhaps a drug about to be turned down by the FDA, or that a company was exploring to see how regulators would feel about a merger.
Did the Whistleblower report his findings to "authorities"?
He did, but was told to "get lost". Apparently Congress was making too much personal profit to have some reported blow their illegal enterprises.
[Ever wonder why no criminal charges were brought against Lois Lerner?]
Chief IRS Scoundrel Unprosecuted Sacrificial Lamb
According to the the Whistleblower, the IRS made their own illegal operation "legal". “In 2003-05 an officialMemo was created within the IRS noting who was permitted to participate in ‘insider trading’. The memo noted that all IRS employees in the executive branch and those one step below (territory managers, etc.) were permitted to participate. I was below that rank by one step, i.e., a large-case manager at the IRS. However, as my evaluation showed, I was expected to inform my manager of any and all mergers.”
In fact, the Whistleblower says he was fired for not doing so and was later the subject of retaliation. That was a lot of years ago. And the only people who could properly look into something like this — and hopefully determine that it couldn’t possibly be true — would be in the IRS Inspector General’s [TIG] Office of the IRS.
That’s who is supposed to investigate allegations of wrongdoing.
So, Crudele called the IRS Inspector General’s media contact, planning to give them the information, and perhaps the IG could convince the Whistleblower to come forward or obtain more details in exchange for Crudele's getting an exclusive on the story if the allegations were verified.
Crudele's exchange with the IG’s spokeswoman was unexpected:.
IG Spokeswoman: “Concerning..?” Crudele: "A tip from a reader of mine about IRS wrongdoing” IG Spokeswoman: “We get those on a regular basis; tell the tipster to contact the IRS Hotline.
Crudele:"The tipster doesn't wish to do that"
IG Spokeswoman:“All complaints are taken very seriously.”
Crudele:“Is there an insider trading exemption for officials in the IRS?”
IG Spokeswoman: [Crudele advised] she said there wasn’t such an exemption and sent him a brochure. “Once again, thank you for contacting us. Let me know if we can help further”
Crudele:“I’m amazed at the lack of cooperation I am getting from you” commented, criticizing her laziness before finishing with “have a nice weekend".
IG Spokeswoman: “On background, we sorry you feel that way. We are not lazy…just careful”
Mergers & Acquisitions Insider Information = Big Bucks
Crudele continued the Whistle-blower's story [details were excluded to protect his identity]: “So then one day I was informed of a merger between (two big companies), I was the Case Manager on that audit; I refused to inform my manager. Well, that was a sad day for my career. He (the manager) first produced a memo and then suspended me for failing to inform him of the merger so he could tell his supervisor. It seemed that the supervisor had planned to pay off his home mortgage with the merger information to the tune of $1 million plus.”
"There’s something you need to understand. The IRS places its workers permanently inside many companies where they continually receive privileged information while doing audits. So there’s plenty of money-making tips to go around. In addition my supervisor had planned on informing his manager who then could contact members of Congress so they could invest and profit from this information,. It was a way of securing a comfortable job on one of the boards like the Smithsonian once they retired.”
Crudele advises:
Consider how many individuals could have had access to this information and profited while the average American is told that it is “illegal.” The Whistleblower says he was pushed out of the IRS in 2004 and charges — trumped-up ones, he says — were brought against him. But he wouldn’t be surprised if this insider trading continued.
According to the Whistle-blower: “Unfortunately I doubt that this has stopped. One cannot allow this to take place and then suddenly end it. These individuals had planned and budgeted for these events to fund their lifestyle. That type of income generator just does not end. It’s always hard to take away perks from employees. Just try stopping the free coffee at your office."
“On a final note, which you may find of interest, my previous manager had assigned another manager to [a highly prized international] office for two years because she gave him numerous inside information tips."
Assuming Mr Crudele's story of IRS corruption alarms you, you will appreciate his parallel tale of Congressional Insider Trading based on confidential information presented in Committee Hearings.
Mr Trump's "Draining of the Swamp" comes none too soon, and it will create some soon-to-be impoverished Congressfolk who have lived large off their corrupt practices -- but will likely face prosecution and substantial legal bills this Fall.
----
Editorial Note:
We concur with Mr Crudele's story since we are somewhat aware that the IRS has not been pure as the driven snow; so, his tale of corruption comes as no surprise. We are also gratified for confirmation on just how corrupt our bureaucrats, and politicians [of both Parties] are, and how they've gotten wealthy through their corruption; it might also explain why we so much inaction on their part in pursuing the corruption of government bureaucrats and law enforcement officials.
During our post-IC career, one contractor told much the same story based on his consulting time with the IRS. Among his lurid tales were IRS rooms full of tax returns which employees dutifully were flushing down toilets; and, then there was a unique scam the IRS operated in which they sent out a computerized letter advising taxpayers in the upper-six figure income range that they had underpaid by $800 to $1,800, correctly assuming that the victims would simply pay the extra rather than waste time reviewing their taxes or fighting the penalty. [We were one of those unsuspecting victims in 1997, and we paid the extra $800.] We were also targeted by Lois Lerner's team, apparently purely out of spite since we have not been involved in a PAC, although we do admit to being a bit Conservative. We fought back, threatening to bring the case public and to Congress during the Lerner hearings, and the IRS relented. Finally, recognize that the IRS [and FBI] places their officers in US Embassies around the world, as part of the Country Team [Ambassador, CIA Station Chief, Defense, Political/Commercial, Economic, Agricultural Attache's] - each privy to sensitive Intelligence briefings on country and regional political and financial issues. Officially, the IRS Advisor role is to ensure US citizens and companies operating abroad pay their taxes. However, passing along sensitive Intelligence information to friends and supervisors is likely part of the abuse of the access the Whistleblower above has reported.
We have posted this House Resolution, with highlights and links to
related stories, to educate those who are unable to follow this Byzantine
plot line by Obama conspirators. It is a highly convoluted scheme,
acted out by some of the most corrupt persons in the history of they US
-- who, coincidentally were attorneys who should face
disbarment proceedings, and prison sentences.
Most stunning was the fact that these attorneys [officers of the Court]
held key positions in the Department of Justice
or the Federal Bureau of Investigation
-- previously the pinnacle of the
US Justice system.
A series of Attorneys General committed the most egregious of crimes,
beginning with Eric Holder's Fast&Furious debacle,
and then Loretta Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac,
and later, [Acting AG] Sally Yates who, rather than expressing
her concerns to President Trump regarding his Executive Order,
publicly defied Trump and condemned his Executive Order
-- which had been vetted by DOJ's Legal Counsel
-- and so Trump fired her.
The trail is now so convoluted that it is difficult to follow;
we hope this post has made this coup plot a bit more clear.
There is far more to this scheme than this definitive
House Resolution, but, there is still more to come,
and these revelations will hopefully lead to the
arrest and prosecution of all the conspirators
-- beginning with Hillary Clinton.
In commemoration of all those who have sacrificed their lives for the American way of freedom, and defiance of oppressive governments,
we are posting House Resolution 907 which precisely documents the
bulk of illegal and Treasonous actions committed by the Obama
Administration during which he weaponized the US Intelligence
Community against his political opponents,
and against American Citizens.
----------------------
We have highlighted key passages and added links
to assist you in understanding the gravity of this resolution
House Resolution 907 appears in its entirety below:
115TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. RES. 907
Expressing the sense of Congress that the Attorney General of the United
States should appoint a Special Counsel to investigate misconduct at
the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, including
an investigation of abuse of the FISA warrant process, how and why
the Hillary Clinton probe ended, and how and why the Donald TrumpRussia
probe began.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 22, 2018
Mr. ZELDIN (for himself, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. PERRY, Mr. DESANTIS,
Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Ms. TENNEY, Mr.
MEADOWS, Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. ROTHFUS, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. BUDD, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. YOHO, Mr. BRAT, Mr.
ROKITA, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. POE of Texas, Mr. WILLIAMS, Mr. DUNCAN of
South Carolina, Mr. GIBBS, Mrs. BLACK, and Mr. ISSA) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress that the Attorney General
of the United States
should appoint a Special Counsel
to investigate misconduct at the Department of Justice
and Federal Bureau of Investigation, including an investigation
of abuse of the FISA Warrant process how and why the Hillary Clinton email probe ended, and how and why the Donald Trump-Russia probe began; Whereas
There is an urgent need for the
appointment of a
second Special Counsel
in light of evidence that raises critical concerns about
decisions, activities, and inherent
bias displayed at the highest levels of the
Department of
Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI)
the concerns of the American people are serious and
the issues requiring an
immediate, unbiased, independent,
and thorough investigation are broad;
Whereas
misconduct during the 2016 presidential election by
high-ranking individuals within the FBI and DOJ may
have led to the premature conclusion of the FBI’s 2016
probe into then-presidential candidate and former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton;
Mess with me and I'll Clinticide you!
Whereas
during her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton violated Federal law, and Department of State
rules, regulations, and protocol, by using a private email
server in her Chappaqua, New York, home;
Whereas
official communications were transmitted on an unsecured
server and included emails that contained classified
information when they were sent, in addition to additional
emails which were retroactively deemed classified
by the Department of State;
Whereas
FBI Director James Comey acknowledged that 65
of these illicit emails were classified as ‘‘Secret’’ and 22
were classified as ‘‘Top Secret’’;
Whereas
there is significant evidence that the use of this private
server by Secretary Clinton was meant to avoid compliance
with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C.
552) and done to obstruct justice by not having to turn
over incriminating emails in the case of a subpoena;
Whereas
various sensitive emails subject to grand jury and
congressional subpoenas were destroyed on Secretary
Clinton’s private server through the use of ‘‘BleachBit’’
software and the destruction of hardware before they
could be obtained by investigators in March 2015;
Whereas
in a September 2015 meeting between then-Attorney
General Loretta Lynch and then-Director Comey, the
Attorney General instructed Director Comey to refer to
the Clinton email investigation as a ‘‘matter’’, thus watering
down the severity of the investigation and aligning
the FBI’s rhetoric with the messaging of the Clinton
campaign;
Whereas
Cheryl has Immunity? Time for a Clinticide?
Cheryl Mills, who served as Counselor and Chief of
Staff to Hillary Clinton during her entire tenure as
United States Secretary of State, was offered immunityfrom prosecution by the FBI during this investigation in
exchange for access to her laptop that contained many of
the questionable emails;
Whereas
I don't need no stinking witnesses!
according to transcripts obtained by the Senate Judiciary
Committee, former Director Comey was prepared
to exonerate Hillary Clinton as early as April or May of
2016 when he began to draft a statement announcing the
end of his investigation, before up to 17 key witnesses,
including former Secretary Clinton and several of her
closest aides, were interviewed;
Whereas
former Director Comey contradicted these transcripts
when he stated during sworn testimony before the
House Judiciary Committee on September 28, 2016, that
he made the decision not to recommend criminal charges
for Secretary Clinton ‘‘after’’ she was interviewed by the
FBI on July 2, 2016;
Whereas
Director Comey, in the final draft of his statement,
allowed FBI Agent Peter Strzok to replace ‘‘grossly negligent’’,
which is legally punishable under Federal law,
with ‘‘extremely careless’’, which is not legally punishable
under Federal law;
Whereas
Federal law states gross negligence in handling the
Nation’s intelligence can be punished criminally with
prison time or fines (18 USC § 793 and 798);
Whereas
on June 27, 2016, Attorney General Lynch had a
covert meeting with former President Bill Clinton aboard
her plane on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona;
Whereas
on July 5, 2016, FBI Director Comey violated DOJ rules
and unilaterally exonerated then-presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton in a public statement to the media;
Whereas
one day later, on July 6, 2016, an announcement
followed from Attorney General Lynch that the DOJ investigation
into then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
would be formally closed with no criminal charges;
Anthony and Huma
Whereas
in September 2016, the FBI, during an examination
of the personal laptop of former Congressman Anthony
Weiner as part of an unrelated investigation into him sending sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl, discovered
previously unexamined Department of State classified
emails belonging to his spouse, top Clinton aideHuma Abedin;
Whereas
McAuliff and the McCabes
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s wife, Dr.
Jill McCabe, was running for Virginia State Senate at
the time and, as of October 26th, had received $675,000
in donations from the Virginia Democratic Party and Common Good VA, the Leadership PAC controlled by Democratic Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a longtime
Clinton associate;
Whereas
an investigation conducted by the Office of the DOJ
Inspector General noted that on October 27, 2016, Director
Comey required that Deputy Director McCabe remove
himself from a conference call regarding the Clinton
emails discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop to avoid
the appearance of a conflict of interest after media reports
surfaced noting these questionable political donations;
Whereas
it took until October 28, 2016, for Director Comey
to announce via a letter to the chairs of the relevant congressional
committees that he was reopening the investigation
into Hillary Clinton, an additional, egregious
delay after the FBI failed to even examine the illicit
emails after the FBI discovered them on Anthony
Weiner’s computer;
Whereas
further investigation into whether then-FBI Deputy
Director McCabe and other FBI officials sought to purposely
delay the release of these illicit emails for politically
motivated purposes is warranted;
throughout Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of
State, a family foundation controlled by the Chairman of
Uranium One made $2,350,000 in contributions to the
Clinton Foundation which were not publicly disclosed in violation of an agreement Secretary Clinton had with the
Obama White House to publicly identify all donors;
in 2010, while Russian State interests were working
to both acquire a majority stake in Uranium One and to
purchase American mines, Bill Clinton was paid
$500,000 for a speech in Moscow by a Kremlin-linked
Russian investment bank that was underwriting Uranium
One stock;
the Senate Judiciary Committee launched a probe in
October 2017 to investigate the Uranium One matter, including
whether Federal departments and agencies such
as the Department of State knew the FBI was looking
into possible corruption before the deal was approved;
Whereas
an investigation conducted by the Office of the DOJ
Inspector General noted that a multi-State investigation
into the questionable dealings of the Clinton Foundation
with corrupt donors was shut down in August 2016,
when pressure was asserted on the FBI by senior officials
within the Obama Justice Department;
Whereas
the same Inspector General’s report also noted that
shutting down this investigation into Clinton Foundation
impropriety and influence peddling was connected to high
ranking officials in the DOJ and FBI, including Attorney
General Lynch, Director Comey, and Deputy Director
McCabe;
Whereas
the same Inspector General’s report also found that
Deputy Director McCabe, after consenting to the political
pressure to shut down the Clinton Foundation multiState
investigation, attempted to later use unauthorized
leaks to the press to create a false narrative that he was
opposed to the closure of the investigation and that he
did this in an attempt
to salvage his reputation following
revelations of questionable Clinton-connected money
being donated to his wife’s Virginia State Senate campaign;
Whereas
in October 2016, the FBI and DOJ used politically
biased, unverified sources to obtain warrants issued by
the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
of Review (FISA Court) that aided in the surveillance of
U.S. citizens, including Carter Page;
these warrants grant U.S. intelligence and law enforcement
agencies sweeping power to collect bulk information
and conduct ‘‘about collection’’, which results in
surveillance of a broad array of private communications
from the past, present, and future, including those of
U.S. citizens not specifically targeted in the FISA authorized
warrant;
Whereas
Steele - MI-6 Case Officer
to obtain these warrants, FBI and DOJ officials
submitted an unverified dossier prepared byChristopherSteele
to the FISA Court,
failing to disclose that
Christopher
Steele was hired by the firm Fusion GPS, which
was hired by the
Democratic National Committee and
Hillary Clinton
campaign to prepare this dossier and that
the source was unreliable and was soon thereafter going
to be terminated as a source;
Whereas
the FISA Court was not informed
that Christopher
Steele was actively opposed to the election of Donald Trump,
that he was the unnamed source cited in the
media reports that the FBI used to corroborate his dossier,
and
that Fusion GPS had been hired to perform
previous anti-Trump research efforts in 2015;
Whereas
the Woods Procedures, which are the FBI’s mandatory
vetting process required for all FISA warrant applications
instituted to ensure that all the facts contained
in an application are accurate and verified to clearly support
probable cause for a warrant, were not followed;
Whereas
former Director Comey admitted in sworn testimony
to the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8, 2017, that
material contained in the Steele dossier was known to be
both ‘‘salacious’’ and ‘‘unverified’’;
Whereas
since FISA warrant applications
- are rarely turned
down,
- are almost never subject to appeal, and
- are presented
in closed court with no public record where the
Government is not challenged by
any defense,
it is imperative
that the Government take extra care to validate the
information being utilized to build their case before they
take the extraordinary step of waiving rights of a U.S.
citizen without his or her knowledge or the opportunity
to present a defense;
Whereas
at the FISA Court, the Government has a responsibility
not only to provide its best evidence in support of
its case, but also to provide the best evidenceagainst its
case;
Whereas
these deeply flawed and questionable FISA warrant
applications utilizing illicit sources and politically biased
intelligence were approved by DOJ and FBI officials at
the highest levels before being submitted to the FISA
Court;
the initial FBI probe into the Trump Campaign and
alleged collusion with Russia was launched in July 2016,
based on questionable and insufficient intelligence and biased
motivations;
Whereas
former Director Comey prepared a series of seven
memoranda containing classified information, including
notes on his conversations with President Trump;
Whereas
Comey's "friend" - now Legal Counsel
former Director Comey admitted in sworn testimony
to the Senate Committee on Intelligence on June 8,
2017, that he had leaked this content to a personal
friend and encouraged that friend to share the material
with the press in order to trigger a Special Counsel investigation;
Whereas
an investigation conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee
later revealed that the personal friend of Director Comey was
Professor Daniel Richman of Columbia Law School and that Director Comey provided him with four of the seven memoranda;
Whereas
Director Comey’s actions are a clear violation of
non-disclosure agreements he signed as a condition of his
appointment and a clear violation of FBI protocols regarding
the dissemination of sensitive information outside of the Bureau which are based on provisions of the PrivacyAct of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a);
FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Counsel Page
Whereas
text messages exchanged between FBI Agent Strzok
and FBI Counsel Lisa Page, during the period of August
16, 2015, to May 17, 2017, contain serious evidence of
political bias and the improper handling of investigations
within the agency;
Whereas
the texts contain egregious evidence of bias against
President Trump, including Lisa Page stating ‘‘Trump
should go f himself’’ and Peter Strzok stating ‘‘F
TRUMP’’;
Whereas
those text messages were not stored within the FBI
archive system, an egregious oversight blamed on a technical
glitch, and even after these messages were partially
recovered by the Bureau’s Inspector General in January
2018, many unanswered questions remain regarding impropriety
and bias;
Possible Political Bias?
Whereas
in March 2018, former FBI Deputy Director
McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions who
noted that Deputy Director McCabe
‘‘lacked candor—including
under oath—on multiple occasions’’ and
had partaken
in ‘‘unauthorized disclosure to the news media’’,
among other violations noted in a report issued by the
Office of the DOJ Inspector General after a wide-reaching
investigation into Deputy Director McCabe’s conduct;
Whereas
a myriad of DOJ and FBI personnel have been fired
or demoted, or have resigned, including FBI Director
Comey, Deputy Director McCabe, Chief of Staff to the
Director James Rybicki, FBI General Counsel James
Baker, FBI Agent Strzok, FBI Counsel Page, FBI Special
Agent Josh Campbell, DOJ Senior Official Ohr, FBI Assistant Director Michael Kortan, and Assistant Attorney
General Peter Kadzik;
Whereas
evidence has come to light that raises serious concerns
about egregious misconduct within the DOJ and
FBI rooted in political bias;
Whereas
the DOJ, FBI, or both appear to have planted at
least one person into Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign
to infiltrate and surveil the campaign;
Whereas
the DOJ has failed to timely comply with several related
document requests by Congress;
FBI's Redacted Document [an indication of FBI Arrogance]
Whereas
providing Members of Congress with heavily redacted
versions of some but not all of the documents demanded
and offering Members limited in-person viewing
of these documents is an inadequate response to repeated
requests after months of delay by the DOJ;
Whereas
the mission of the Office of the DOJ Inspector General
is limited to detecting and deterring waste, fraud,
abuse, and misconduct in DOJ programs and personnel
and promoting economy and efficiency in those programs,
and a fully independent Special Counsel has greater autonomy
than an Inspector General or Federal prosecutors
to run a non-biased investigation and if necessary bring
forth criminal charges; and
Whereas
the DOJ and FBI cannot be expected to fully investigate
themselves regarding this matter:
Now, therefore,
be it
Resolved
That it is the sense of Congress that—
(1) DOJ, FBI, and all Federal law enforcement agencies have a sacred duty to uphold our Constitution and to protect our country without any partisan or ideological inclination affecting their important work;
(2) Congress acknowledges with gratitude that the vast majority of the men and women
who serve within these critical agencies do so with the utmost integrity, independence,
patriotism, and commitment to the rule of law;
(3) Misconduct regarding FISA abuse, how and why the Hillary Clinton probe ended, and how and why the Trump-Russia probe began should immediately be investigated by a Special Counsel who can act independently; and
(4) The Attorney General of the United States should immediately appoint aSpecial Counsel to conduct a thorough and independent investigation of these grave concerns. ------------------
