Attorney General Garland is correct in protecting the integrity of the cases at DOJ.

Partially redacted documents (click here) with classified markings, including colored cover sheets indicating their status, that FBI agents reported finding in former president Donald Trump’s office at his Mar-a-Lago estate. 

That picture is just mesmerizing. Highly classified documents with human lives in the balance strewn with Time magazine. The White House staff couldn't get Trump to read PDBs and this is what happens to the USA's most secret of secrets. Something has to be done about it. This is more than negligence. This is an outrage. He couldn't give a damn about the country, the people or those he compromised that loved this country.

There was nothing sacred to Trump. His lawyers let him get away with it. There were no stops. All Trump cared about was the leverage he could create for himself in whatever perverted idea he had about the world. He had no respect for life. This fits in to the hideous man we witnessed during the pandemic news conferences with injectable bleach and penetrating UV light. How can any sane and loyal American give credence to this idiocy?

August 30, 2022
By Glen Thrush

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (click here) on Tuesday imposed new restrictions on partisan activity by political appointees at the Justice Department, a policy change that comes ahead of the midterm elections.

The new rules prohibit employees who are appointed to serve for the duration of a presidential administration from attending rallies for candidates or fund-raising events, even as passive observers.

Under the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activities while on the job, the department had previously allowed appointees to attend such events as passive participants provided they had permission from a supervisor.

That is now banned. Under the new policy, the department also prohibits appointees from appearing at events on election night or to support relatives who are running for office. Both had been allowed in the past with prior approval....

The Hatch Act fights corruption. It was always there to enforce, it is just that the Attorney General is correct in enforcing it. Basically, rubbing elbows with those influential is not allowed. The simple appearance of impropriety is not to be on display. It is about time there was no looking the other way.

The Hatch Act, (click here) a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees, as well as some state, D.C., and local government employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. ​The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation.​​​​

There is nothing like having a candidates Megadonor at a rally and low and behold who shows up but someone from inside the government to make the donations seem so worth it.

From CNN:

Trump weighs delaying 2024 decision as political and legal troubles grow (click here)

Ya think? But, it also gives the GOP/MAGA a chance at being elected this November.

Don't defund the cops, just the FBI. The words GOP HIPPOCRITES come to mind.

They don't care about the people. 

The don't care about the country.

What does the GOP care about?

They care about their own priorities and their own power to carry out civil rights violations against Americans.

I swear someone needs to us that REALITY of statements as a campaign slogan.

August 15, 2022
By Andrew Solender and Alayna Treene

Republicans (click here) used the "defund the police" slogan after George Floyd's murder to paint the Democratic Party as radical. But since the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago, a growing number of GOP candidates and lawmakers are rallying around their own calls to defund or abolish federal law enforcement agencies.

Why it matters: The new demands muddle a narrative embraced by Republicans long before the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020 — that they are the party of law enforcement. They also show how much former President Trump has reshaped his party.Strategists say it could jeopardize the GOP's chances in some contests in November.

The big question: Could this become the new Trump loyalty litmus test?

Driving the news: Dan Bolduc and Bruce Fenton, leading Republican Senate candidates in New Hampshire, said in a recent debate they believe the Department of Homeland Security and top agencies need to be significantly "reduced" and called for abolishing the FBI....

The incarnation of the Koch Brothers. Every citizen in this country should be able to make a difference in an election. These megadonors carry more weight than any other vote. The go into their ballot with the idea they can buy their dream ticket into whatever government office they believe will benefit their interests. If the rest of the country could do that they would, but, the average American might be able to pass on $10 a month to their candidate if they aren't paying for gas to and from work with an artificial cost that benefits Big Oil and its political ambitions.

So, in the long view, who is actually paying the price for the Dark Money and Mega-Hegemony contributors? The American people simply because they aren't able to donate EQUAL amounts to these guys.

THE MONEY BEHIND THE LYING PROPAGANDISTS!

August 26, 2022
By Russell Lissau

Elizabeth (click here) Uihlein (L) and Jacob Peters arrive for the State Dinner at The White House honoring Australian PM Morrison on September 20, 2019 in Washington, DC.

A suburban billionaire and his wife (click here) have contributed millions of dollars to conservative candidates and organizations across Illinois and the nation this election cycle, state and federal records show.

And though senatorial, congressional and gubernatorial hopefuls are among the beneficiaries of Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein's largesse, the Lake Forest couple hasn't limited their contributions to top-of-the-ticket candidates....

...An heir to the Schlitz brewing fortune, Richard Uihlein cofounded the Uline shipping supply company with his wife. He serves as Uline's CEO, and she is the Wisconsin-based company's president. Known to avoid interviews, they couldn't be reached for comment.

Together, the Uihleins have donated millions to well-known and low-profile candidates and groups. The first category includes former President Donald Trump, former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and -- after a split with Rauner -- 2018 gubernatorial challenger Jeanne Ives.

The politician who has received the most support from Richard Uihlein this cycle is gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey. Uihlein has given Bailey's campaign more than $9 million, Illinois State Board of Elections records indicate.

Uihlein also has donated more than $28 million to an independent committee called the People Who Play By the Rules PAC that targeted Bailey's chief GOP rival, Richard Irvin, in the June primary and now is attacking Pritzker.

This week, Lightfoot accused the group of darkening her skin tone in an anti-Pritzker ad. The group's leader, conservative radio host and longtime Uihlein ally Dan Proft, has denied the accusation....

Governor Pritzer has looked for a special session of the Illinois legislature (click here) to act to support women's decision making regarding their own bodies, but, no surprise here the Republican obstructionists will make that special session impossible. Americans need to elect Democrats this November at the federal and state level. It is just that important. If the Republicans get away with assaulting women's civil rights, they won't stop with a woman's health.

Oh, the Republican GOP/MAGA candidate for Illinois governor, Darren Bailey, has called Chicago every slanderous word he can think of, "hellhole" and the "OK Corral." I wonder fi Bailey is willing to act to end violence in major cities by ending interstate gun trafficking?

August 31, 2022 is 25 years after the death of Princess Diana. It is being noted in the UK.

This is an interview by the Chicago Tribune that reflects on a visit by Princess Diana to Northwestern University. Diana was a profound personality in this world. She showed the world how celebrity can be used for good.

August 31, 2022
By Kori Rumore

Princess Diana receives a flower from an admirer in Evanston on June 4, 1996, after leaving the home of Henry Bienen, the president of Northwestern University.

...It was this combination of academics, philanthropy and friendship that paved the way for Princess Diana’s first and only visit to Chicago on June 4-6, 1996 — one month before she and Prince Charles agreed on terms for a divorce, and just 15 months before her death....

...Q: Did you have any idea how big it would be, (click here) how widely broadcast her visit would be when you agreed to it?

A: No, not really. I hadn’t really paid, frankly, that much attention to her. Of course I knew who she was. I knew she was a worldwide celebrity. The first inkling I got was she came from the plane and she came to meet me on campus. We were walking around and the lines behind the rope lines were literally five and six (people) deep and I was floored.

That was the beginning of the visit. And then I really understood how huge the media attention would be and that this was a very bid deal. But no, initially, I was very surprised....

Princess Diana on a yacht in Portofino, Italy, one week before she passed in 1997

She is so missed. Any photo, any moment has become a treasure.

This shot of Princess Diana (click here) sitting on the diving board of the private yacht "Jonikal," owned by her boyfriend, Mohammed Al Fayed, is from the final holiday she ever took. In the summer of 1997, Diana was trying to reinvent herself, to remove herself from the public eye and become a person again.

In late July she traveled to Saint Tropez in the South of France where she spent time on Fayed's yacht and the Fayed family's 30-bedroom villa, Castle St. Therese, with her sons, William and Harry. It's clear from this photo that even when she was alone she was never really alone.

Photographers were constantly hounding her, even when she was in the middle of the ocean. There was nowhere she could go where she was safe.

Trump’s lawyers conspired.

There is a good chance Trump’s lawyers that lied to the FBI and hid documents will lose their law license.

More lives ruined by Trump’s continuing vortex into hell. Those don’t even count for the human beings from other countries sympathetic to USA intelligence in helping with our national security. How many of those lives are ruined, imprisoned or dead? And their families?

There are lots of ways that intelligence can be used against us. Russia likes to prey on Russians in the USA to intimidate them with personal threats and threats on their families to gain cooperation. These issues that are NOW created by Trump have legs for possibly decades into the future.

There is no doubt Donald John Trump and his willing conspirators have compromised the USA. They have no remorse, ie: Giuliani. They don’t care about the people of this country. They care about themselves, their personal priorities and personal power. 

He was a man of peace. He lead with dignity.

April 30, 2022

Moscow - Mikhail Gorbachev, (click here) who as the last leader of the Soviet Union waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War, died Tuesday. He was 91.

The Central Clinical Hospital said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given....

Unless one understands what it takes to secure a country, the reality of being unable to secure it no matter how hard one tries escapes many leaders. Unfortunately, the land mass of the Soviet Union was so enormous that it was impossible to maintain as one country. There were many reasons the Soviet Union was lost, but, the cost of even transportation across the entire continent added more to it's economy than it could sustain.

Putin and the communists probably saw Mikhail Gorbachev as an incompetent leader. He was not. He was provided an impossible situation and did the best he could. The world respected him. They saw him as a man of peace. Peace was the best route for the Soviet Union, no different than it was for the Post-Soviet states. No different than Ukraine and, yes, Russia.

The problem with Russia today under the leadership of Vladimir Putin is that he is still running the country as if it were the Soviet Union and Russia cannot support the war structure that was built by other Soviet leaders. Putin never stopped being angry about the loss of the Soviet Union and basically sees the Post-Soviet nations as misbehaving children. That is not at all the attitude a Russian president should take about any of the circumstances of Russia. Russia, whether Putin hates it or not, is a Post-Soviet nation.

There was no way to protect the Soviet Union and maintain an economic viability. Peace was always the way forward. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Soviet Union before Yeltsin and Gorbachev never stopped fighting the Russian Revolution. They never accepted the fact the fighting was over. WWII caused some of that general irritation with the world.

There will never be another Mikhail Gorbachev as there is no Soviet Union. While he resigned his position as leader of that enormous country; it breaking into nations as it did was the best outcome for the people. All the Post Soviet nations get along and are reasonably happy and prosperous, except, for Russia. Russia has never accepted itself as a country with the borders it has and that is due to the communists, their eternal pain with the world and a leader in Putin that indulges that anger and fosters it for his own purposes.

Mikhail Gorbachev will always be seen as a partner in peace by the American people. He will be loved for that alone.

With Russian families abandoning their country…

 …cam Russia still claim sovereignty? 

We saw young men leave for Canada during Vietnam, but, what percentage of US military was left to defend the country?

The problem with Putin’s war is that it is destroying two countries at once. His invasion into Ukraine was based in tank dominance. That didn’t happen and a large number of the men in those tanks died because it was a tinderbox once ignited by a armor penetrating middle. 

This strategy worked in Syria because the opposing forces were not armed to defeat Russian tanks. Syria was destroyed in many places, including hospitals. 

Russia’s conventional military is weak. When realizing the conventional military is weak, what is left is Putin and missiles. Not much else.

The nuclear power plants are estimated to be used as shields to prevent attack.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-show-damage-building-ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-2022-8%3Famp

It sounds right. Nothing else makes sense. So, Putin sees two footholds in Ukraine at the nuclear power plants. Putin is treating the plants as forts. These facilities are not built to be forts. Putin has lost the war and the only thing allowing those soldiers at the plant to stay is the delicacy of the circumstances.

Soldiers at nuclear power plants are another human rights violation as it threatens the lives of so many including any accidental release into the atmosphere to be carried by wind anywhere.

Is there actually a Russia? It is disappearing everyday. The land is there. Some of the people remain including the ruling elite, but, other than an ocean naval fleet Russia has no military to defend its borders. 

There is Putin. There are missiles. Global Russian assets are being absorbed by foreign governments to assist Ukraine in it’s need for humanitarian aid as well as a national defense.

So, realistically is there a Russia. In my opinion, no. In name only. Putin counted on its propaganda and nothing of substance.

Putin’s anger with the world is destroying Russia from the inside and Ukraine from the outside. 

So, what to do? 

Wait it out until Putin realizes he is the leader of an emptied country except for the remnants of communism. Global leaders, including Xi of China, need to realistically assess any possibility of a victory and refuse assistance to prolong the end.

No power, including Ukraine, wants to invade Russia and kill Russians. Russia needs to stop and first turn over the nuclear power plants. Those reactors are neutral zones and no soldiers belong there. The soldiers there, are hiding from reality as is there president.

It appears Russians with young men to be conscripted are leaving.

Russia is claiming it has it's own iPhone now with premeir salesperson Maria. Butina, former spy. Putin claims the war that is not a war is going as planned to protect civilian lives. I guess having him represented at the NPT meeting at least got a message to him that he is killing a lot of innocent people.

August 29, 2022
By Yesica Fisch

Sloviansk, Ukraine - Russia and Ukraine traded claims (click here) of rocket and artillery strikes at or near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Sunday, intensifying fears that the fighting could cause a massive radiation leak.

Ukraine’s atomic energy agency painted an ominous picture of the threat Sunday by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces have controlled since soon after the war began.

Attacks were reported over the weekend not only in Russian-controlled territory adjacent to the plant along the left bank of the Dnieper River, but along the Ukraine-controlled right bank, including the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets, each about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the facility.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had attacked the plant twice over the past day, and that shells fell near buildings storing reactor fuel and radioactive waste....

Real world evidence, please. The global community seemed to have their own significant evidence at the NTP meeting. Shouting matches really don't matter. Where are the two nuclear lab persons taken to Belarus. No one has spoken to the kidnapping or worse by Russian soldiers.

Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994

The treaty became effective in March 1970 and was to remain so for a 25-year period. Additional countries later ratified the treaty; as of 2007 only three countries (India, Israel, and Pakistan) have refused to sign the treaty, and one country (North Korea) has signed and then withdrawn from the treaty.

Currently only five countries have not signed NPT which are, India, Pakistan, Israel, South Sudan and North Korea.

China: Accession to Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) On July 1, 1968, the Treaty was signed at Washington in the name of the Republic of China. An instrument of ratification of the Treaty on behalf of the Republic of China was deposited at Washington on January 27, 1970.

The NPT has no veto rights by the five nuclear powers. It is not controlled by the UN Security Council.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Remains Strong Despite Russian Obstructionism. After weeks of intensive but productive negotiations, the Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document at the conclusion of the Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

I really think a high profile visit to the Ukraine nuclear reactors needs to include an energy minister from Russia, Ukraine and the IAEA. It should seek to settle this dispute and put forward the neutral country that will oversee the reactors and shut them down until this war is ended. Taking custody of the reactors by a neutral global power should allow Russia to return to the NPT without complaints. 

These reactors are in a war zone of which Russia admits it is a special military operation, hence, things going boom. So, the idea of a neutral party taking custody of the reactors to provide protections for human beings in the area and beyond is highly reasonable.

 

It has been a while since Artemus engines were fired up.

August 29, 2022

By David W. Brown and Kenneth Chang

On Monday (click here for video) we didn’t get to see the Space Launch System travel to space. But NASA’s moon rocket has fired its engines before, although it stayed firmly on the ground. Sometime between then and now, something went wrong with engine #3.

On March 18, 2021, NASA completed a “hot fire test,” when the four engines in the core stage of the Space Launch System ignited and continued firing for more than eight minutes, performing what they would do during a trip to space but firmly anchored to the ground.

"Don't believe them." is a great reply to the political lies of the anti-Constitutionalists.

"Don't believe them or it and this is the truth...and this is where it can be verified."

I think that is a real answer to most lies being peddled when someone states an obvious manipulation of an issue.

August 15, 2022

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision (click here) overturning Roe v. Wade, it’s essential that California voters amend the state Constitution to ensure reproductive choice.

California’s existing laws protect an individual’s right to make decisions about abortion and contraceptives. And the state constitutional right to privacy has been interpreted by California’s Supreme Court to safeguard those choices.

But as we’ve seen with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent shocking decision and the rush by other states to ban abortion, reproductive rights that are not explicitly granted in a constitution are vulnerable to the whim of justices and lawmakers. And, as Justice Clarence Thomas foreshadowed in his concurring opinion, the federal right to contraception could be overturned next.

Thus, Californians can no longer count on federal protections. They need to explicitly embed rights to choose an abortion and to choose or refuse contraception in their state constitution. Proposition 1 on the Nov. 8 ballot would do just that. Vote yes.

The law would ensure that only future state voters, not politicians nor justices, could alter those rights. It is perhaps the most important measure on the upcoming ballot.

And it is certain to face an onslaught of campaign misinformation. Californians should expect to be bombarded this fall by political ads arguing that Prop. 1 would allow unrestricted late-term abortions that would cost taxpayers millions. Don’t believe them....

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

August 29, 2022
By Amy B. Wang

The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation (click here) into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies on Monday denied a motion from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify.

However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney also delayed Kemp’s appearance before the grand jury until “some date soon after” Election Day in November. Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, has alleged that the investigation is politically motivated.

McBurney had previously expressed skepticism over arguments from Republicans that the prosecution, led by a Democratic district attorney, was politically motivated.

“It is not my space” to focus on politics, McBurney said last week as lawyers for Kemp argued that the subpoena had already become a political issue this election season. “I don’t think it is the right forum” to debate the political ramifications of the case, said the judge....

Really?

Must every legal DELAYING maneuver be tried by the people that should be cooperating? Seriously? What kind of lawyers are these that don't even try something legally that will work? They are criminal in their purpose and content.

Lawyers when they receive a license takes an oath. 

Atlanta, April 22, 2002

The Honorable Supreme Court met pursuant to adjournment. (click here)

The following order was passed:

The order entered by this Court on April 8, 2002, amending the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law is hereby vacated. It is further ordered that the Attorney’s Oath, found in the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law, Part B, Section 16, be amended to read as follows:

I, ________________, swear that I will truly and honestly, justly and uprightly conduct myself as a member of this learned profession and in accordance with the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, as an attorney and counselor, and that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Georgia. So help me God.

I realize oaths and state and federal constitutions don't mean anything to people like Kemp and Graham, but, this is such nonsense. For those involved with Trump that have a law license, there needs to be complaints brought to the state law agencies to file at the very least ethics complaints.

...The legal maneuvering is the latest sign of tension between prosecutors and high-profile witnesses in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s expansive criminal probe of alleged election interference by Trump and his allies....

Even the Washington Post recognizes for what it is. Let me add a few words to that, evasion and fraud. Every person involved with Trump knows they are pulling stunts and not practicing law. The judge in his instance made it clear there is no politics in his court. So, with that, legal remedies need to be sought in every state these bozos are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of voters. They are practicing politics rather than submitting to the law. That in any other court would not be tolerated, as it isn't here, but, at what point are licenses pulled and fines levied for DELAYING the right of the people to try those breaking the law?

The Sixth Amendment to the USA Constitution guarantees all those charged with crimes a speedy trial. When does the right to a speedy trial also satisfy "the people."

It is no different than Big Tobacco and the State of California. It isn't just what is in question, it is what is gained.

August 29, 2022
By Scooty Nickerson

Win or lose, (click here) tobacco companies are reaping hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to a California proposition that they spent a fraction of that amount to get on this fall’s ballot.

The measure, known as Proposition 31, asks voters if a 2020 legislative ban on flavored tobacco products, including electronic and menthol cigarettes, should be upheld.

But here’s the thing: The No on Prop. 31 campaign secured a nearly two-year pause on the ban when it collected 623,000 signatures to force the Legislature’s handiwork to a vote in the next general election. That delay cost Big Tobacco about $20 million, half paid to a signature-gathering firm.

Qualifying a referendum on the ban cleared the way for manufacturers to continue selling flavored tobacco products to Californians, including everything from mango-flavored vape pens to menthol cigarettes, until voters weigh in this November....

Those involved in the Trump Republican Circus are trying to delay any proceedings in hopes Trump makes it back to the Oval Office to hand out pardons immediately and get on with the revolution of ending the US Constitution. That is unethical if not illegal. Can we get on with all this, please.

The State of California should sue for the entire amount of money Big Tobacco gained in it's "gaming the system."

Flavored tobacco is a gateway to hook young smokers for life and the addiction to the product remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the state, killing 40,000 Californians a year.

"Good night, moon."

New moon

1.6 day old moon

2.9 percent lit

Now that Artemis is announced and on its launch pad, the reach into space has to be sincere and earnest.

The USA should be looking to the moon as an interim weigh over to Mars. It should be looking to Mars as the initial move to interstellar space and beyond.

The James Webb Space Telescope (click here) is bringing in incredible information and NASA needs to start mapping our way to other solar systems and quite possibly other reaches to the universe. I think the American people need to have a realistic vision of tomorrow beyond the Milky Way.

I believe the USA is Atlas.

It is time to move the NPT forward. It has been long enough and the Non-Proliferation Treaty must be honored. It clearly means that every country in the world with any nuclear weapons needs to be moving to a nuclear free world. No excuses. No more China and Russia from using it strategically to wait and see if the Free World will back away enough so they are more nuclear than any other.

The move away from nuclear weapons has to be pursued with vigor and get it done. No more weapons of mass destruction globally.

Every American President facing the potential use of nuclear weapons since WWII has invoked the spirit and language of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Every Russian leader, except, Putin in recent weeks has backed the NPT.

All this nonsense by Putin is to keep his voting base in Russia of the communists. He needs to stop touting the Soviet Union will return because it won't. He needs to return to the leader of a country that needs to stop it's aggressions and develop and economy that will eventually be able to be trusted to return to a larger economy outside of Russia.

Vladimir Putin wants to build two nuclear reactors in a NATO country, Hungry. The handshake probably already took place. Putin doesn't know what he doing with nuclear weapons or energy. He has to stop pretending Russia rules the world and continually making plans to end the Free World. It isn't happening and he needs to stop denying it.

The world has a problem and it is one man named Vladimir Putin. He has lost the war in Ukraine. Someone needs to take custody of the out of control nuclear reactors in Ukraine and soon.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken’s Remarks to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference

Secretary of State Blinken spoke to the issues with North Korea and Iran.

The five permanent nuclear nations of the NPT all agree that "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." One month after that affirmation to each and every country on Earth, Russia invaded Ukraine and has been nuclear saber rattling ever since.

Nuclear Non-Prolifertion was a focus of President Obama. He wanted the world to be free of these weapons of mass destruction.

March 28, 2016
By Steven Mufson

A group of nuclear nonproliferation experts (click here) gathered in the White House Situation Room last Halloween to talk about how President Obama could still make nuclear security an important part of his legacy.

The timing was coincidental, but the location reflected the sensitivity and gravity of the agenda: loose nuclear material, superpower nuclear arsenals, nuclear terrorism, tensions with Russia and the unpredictability of North Korea. The administration also was hunting for ideas about what might be still doable in the president’s waning days in office.

The muted, closed-door White House meeting was a far cry from the rousing speech Obama delivered on April 5, 2009, before a crowd in Prague’s Hradcany Square. There, a hopeful Obama set high goals for reducing the risk of nuclear weapons. He vowed to shrink the U.S. nuclear arsenal, secure poorly guarded nuclear materials such as uranium and plutonium, convene international nuclear summits, and confront and contain North Korea, which just that morning had tested a long-range missile....

Given the ridiculous position Russia took at the 5 year review of the NPT it is time the USA assign a special council with enough staff to build a global consensus to move this forward for every country on Earth. It is necessary. It is time the communists stop using the NPT as part of a strategy against the Free World and disarm from nuclear weapons.

April 4, 2019

By Steven Pilfer of Brookings

April 5 marks the 10th anniversary of the speech (click here) in which Barack Obama laid out his vision for a world without nuclear weapons. It did not gain traction. Instead, the United States and Russia are developing new nuclear capabilities, while the nuclear arms control regime is on course to expire in 2021. The result will be a world that is less stable, less secure, and less predictable.

A Worthwhile Vision

Just 10 weeks after his inauguration, President Obama’s first trip to Europe took him to Prague. Speaking in Hradcany Square, Obama voiced his deep interest in reducing nuclear arms, including a “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” He added that reaching that goal would require time, and that, as long as nuclear arms existed, the United States would maintain a “safe, secure and effective” nuclear arsenal....

President George W. Bush was deeply committed to ending weapons of mass destruction.

March 30, 2004

By Joseph Cirincione

...The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) (click here) has served as the backbone of nuclear non-proliferation efforts for almost thirty-five years. Overall, the regime has been remarkably successful but recent developments have illustrated three serious gaps in the treaty:.

states can legally pursue civilian nuclear programs that can later be used to produce nuclear weapons;

a newly-discovered nuclear black market flaunts the treaty's export provisions; and,

a treaty designed to block state acquisition now must grapple with non-state terrorists intent on getting nuclear weapons.

President Bush's speech of 11 February was a positive step towards covering these gaps. The measures he announced would, overall, help forge a stronger, more effective and more international non-proliferation policy. Many of the initiatives, if implemented, will increase the ability of the United States and other nations to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. On 25 March, the administration also introduced at the United Nations Security Council a Draft Resolution on Non-Proliferation that, if adopted, would also strengthen international anti-proliferation laws and cooperation. The draft resolution would go a long way towards integrating some of the administration's policy innovations, such as the Proliferation Security Initiative, with established international legal norms and institutions. This, in turn, would greatly facilitate the participation of many other nations in these efforts.

Serious questions remain, however, as to the willingness of the President to back up these proposals with financial and political capital. For example, although the President called for expanding the Nunn-Lugar programs which have proven so effective in securing and eliminating nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the former Soviet Union, the administration's budget for the coming fiscal year actually cuts funding for Nunn-Lugar programs by ten percent. Similarly, the President called for enhancing the International Atomic Energy Agency's capabilities to detect cheating and respond to treaty violations, but he did not provide any increase in the U.S. contribution to the IAEA....

Acting as the Atlas of the World, the USA pledged peace to all non-nuclear countries.

Among the sculptures (click here) present in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and belonging to the Farnese collection , one is of particular importance for the studies that have been conducted on it. This is the statue of the Farnese Atlas .

The United States (click here) believes than universal adherence to and compliance with international conventions and treaties seeking to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a cornerstone of global security. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is a central element of this regime. March 5, 1995, was the 25th anniversary of its entry-into-force, an event commemorated by President Clinton in a speech in Washington on March 1, 1995. A conference to decide on extension of the treaty will begin in New York City on April 17, 1995. The United States considers the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons without conditions as a matter of the highest national priority and will continue to pursue all appropriate efforts to achieve that outcome.

It is important that all Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons fulfill their obligations under the treaty. In that regard, consistent with generally recognized principles of international law, Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons must be in compliance with these undertakings in order to be eligible for any benefits of adherence to this treaty.

As a nuclear-weapon state the United States has consistently recognized its responsibilities under the treaty, and the importance of addressing the special needs of non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the treaty with regard to measures that would alleviate their legitimate security concerns. To that end, the president directed that the United States review its policies on security assurances for such non-nuclear-weapon states and that consultations be held with other nuclear-weapon states on this important topic.

Bearing the above considerations in mind, the president declares the following:

The United States reaffirms that it will now use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons except in the case of an invasion or any other attack on the United States, its territories, its armed forces or other troops, its allies, or on a state towards which it has a security commitment, carried out or sustained by such a non-nuclear-weapon state in association or alliance with a nuclear-weapon state.

Aggression with nuclear weapons, or the threat of such aggression, against a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would create a qualitatively new situation in which the nuclear-weapon state permanent members of the United Nations Security Council would have to act immediately through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, to take the measures necessary to counter such aggression or to remove the threat of aggression. Any state which commits aggression accompanied by the use of nuclear weapons or which threatens such aggression must be aware that its actions are to be countered effectively by measures to be taken in accordance with the U.N. Charter to suppress the aggression or remove the threat of aggression.

Non-nuclear-weapon States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons have a legitimate desire for assurances that the U.N. Security Council, and above all its nuclear-weapon state permanent members, would act immediately in accordance with the charter, in the event such non-nuclear-weapon states are the victim of an act of, or object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

The United States affirms its intention to provide or support immediate assistance, in accordance with the Charter, to any non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of, or an object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

Among the means available to the Security Council for assisting such a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would be an investigation into the situation and appropriate measures to settle the dispute and to restore international peace and security.

U.N. Member States should take appropriate measures in response to a request for technical, medical, scientific or humanitarian assistance from a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of aggression with nuclear weapons, and the Security Council should consider what measures are needed in this regard in the event of such an act of aggression.

The Security Council should recommend appropriate procedures, in response to any request from a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is the victim of such an act of aggression, regarding compensation under international law from the aggressor for loss, damage or injury sustained as a result of the aggression.

The United States reaffirms the inherent right, recognized under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, of individual and collective self-defense if an armed attack, including a nuclear attack, occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.

Frequently, making enormous progress in trust and disarmament from nuclear weapons depends on the partner a president has.

In a December 1989 summit between Bush and Gorbachev in Malta, (click here) the two leaders discussed arms reductions and strengthening their relations. At a summit in Washington, D.C., in June 1990, the two men signed a broad arms reduction agreement in which the United States and Soviet Union consented to decreasing their nuclear arsenals. Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker, worked hard to establish a meaningful relationship with Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet foreign minister. By most accounts, they were very successful in redefining relations with the Soviet Union in a post-Cold War environment. In July 1991, Bush met Gorbachev in Moscow and signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START.

When Gorbachev's opponents attempted a coup to oust him from power the next month, the Bush administration waited anxiously for the outcome. The coup failed, and Gorbachev resumed his position but the Soviet Union was in evident decline. Throughout the fall, the Soviet Republics began to declare their independence from the Soviet Union, and in December, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus announced they were forming a new confederation of states. Gorbachev resigned as the President of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991.

The efforts of Bush, Gorbachev, Baker, and Shevardnadze achieved results in improving U.S.-Soviet relations in ways that would have been unthinkable ten years earlier. Critics of the Bush administration faulted it for being aligned too closely with Gorbachev and too willing to compromise; many thought that Bush should have made more overtures to Boris Yeltsin, the President of Russia who often wanted reforms to proceed more quickly than Gorbachev and eventually oversaw much of Russia's transition away from Communism. Nonetheless, Bush's relationship with Gorbachev helped facilitate improved U.S.-Soviet relations....

Not since Reagan has the NPT been valued as an international goal.

The point of view that the NPT is neglected is not an unusual point of view.

Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 40, Issue 6 (2017) 

Eight Lost Years? (click here) Nixon, Ford, Kissinger and the Non-Proliferation Regime, 1969–1977

The years following the signature of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 have generally been seen as a period of neglect in US non-proliferation policy. While joining recent scholarship questioning this, the article also shows that the policies that emerged from the Nixon–Ford years were the product of a broad range of factors that constrained both the United States’ ability and willingness to build an effective non-proliferation regime. These included the Nixon administration’s initial skepticism regarding the NPT, as well as the global dispersion of power away from the US, combined with the continued importance of anti-Soviet containment.

President Jimmy Carter probably received more attention for his work toward peace after he left office.

President Carter was in office from 1977-1981.

February 22, 1997
By President Jimmy Carter

The Nuclear Crisis

...Now it is time for the 30-year-old NPT (click here) to be reviewed (in April, by an international assembly at the United Nations), and, sad to say, the current state of affairs with regard to nuclear proliferation is not good. In fact, I think it can be said that the world is facing a nuclear crisis. Unfortunately, U.S. policy has had a good deal to do with creating it.

At the last reassessment session, in 1995, a large group of non-nuclear nations with the financial resources and technology to develop weapons--including Egypt, Brazil and Argentina--agreed to extend the NPT, but with the proviso that the five nuclear powers take certain specific steps to defuse the nuclear issue: adoption of a comprehensive test ban treaty by 1996; conclusion of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, and "determined pursuit" of efforts to reduce nuclear arsenals, with the ultimate goal of eliminating them.

It is almost universally conceded that none of these commitments has been honored. India and Pakistan have used this failure to justify their joining Israel as nations with recognized nuclear capability that are refusing to comply with NPT restraints. And there has been a disturbing pattern of other provocative developments:...

So, while the NPT still existed and exists there seems to be a chronic wanding away from it, except, every five years. What bothers me about this drifting away from the NPT is that communists in general will sign on to these agreements in hopes the Free World will diminish importance of their nuclear arsenal due to the existence of the NPT. In other words, it is a tool to attempt to have the Free World allow themselves to be weaker in the face of potential elimination of nuclear arsenals worldwide.

That is what the NPT is about, dissolving nuclear arsenals over time with countries hopefully moving to conventional weapons and war. What we are seeing with Russia is leaning heavily into this reality. But, Russia has proved itself to be incompetent in conventional warfare. So, due to that fact, rather than accepting it's own borders rather than the old Soviet Union borders, and declare itself neutral for it's incompetency, Putin is muscle flexing all the time about his nuclear prowess. Same status is true with North Korea.

Saving Nonproliferation

By Jimmy Carter

Renewal talks for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (click here) are scheduled for May, yet the United States and other nuclear powers seem indifferent to its fate. This is remarkable, considering the addition of Iran and North Korea as states that either possess or seek nuclear weapons programs. A recent United Nations report warned starkly: "We are approaching a point at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation."

A group of "Middle States" has a simple goal: "To exert leverage on the nuclear powers to take some minimum steps to save the non-proliferation treaty in 2005." Last year this coalition of nuclear-capable states -- including Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and eight NATO members -- voted for a new agenda resolution calling for implementing NPT commitments already made. Tragically, the United States, Britain and France voted against this resolution....

Carter - Ford debate

President Gerald Ford was in office for three years. He was great, but, it was a short period of time.

 Nuclear Policy 

Statement by the President (click here)

October 28, 1976

We have known since the age of nuclear energy began more than 30 years ago that this source of energy had the potential for tremendous benefits for mankind and the potential for unparalleled destruction.

On the one hand, there is no doubt that nuclear energy represents one of the best hopes for satisfying the rising world demand for energy with minimum environmental impact and with the potential for reducing dependence on uncertain and diminishing world supplies of oil.

On the other hand, nuclear fuel, as it produces power also produces plutonium, which can be chemically separated from the spent fuel. The plutonium can be recycled and used to generate additional nuclear power, thereby partially offsetting the need for additional energy resources. Unfortunately-and this is the root of the problem-the same plutonium produced in nuclear powerplants can, when chemically separated, also be used to make nuclear explosives.

The world community cannot afford to let potential nuclear weapons material or the technology to produce it proliferate uncontrolled over the globe....

President Nixon and Non-Proliferation

With the number of nuclear weapon states (click here) steadily rising, and tensions between the Cold War superpowers continuing to intensify, world leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain recognized that “the proliferation of nuclear weapons would seriously enhance the danger of nuclear war.”

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) became effective on March 5, 1970, when the United States and the Soviet Union, along 41 other individual states, submitted their depositions of the treaty in Washington, London, and Moscow.

Although the decade long process to produce the treaty began before Nixon’s presidency, the NPT was the first of several important international agreements signed between the US and the USSR under the Nixon Administration. At the time, many believed that non-proliferation through international cooperation was essential to protecting human lives around the world. For President Nixon, who ratified the treaty in November 1969, the NPT formed a crucial component of what he referred to as his “era of negotiation” with communist leaders.

While peaceful negotiations proved to be a hallmark of President Nixon’s policy towards the USSR, support for his course of action was not universally felt among all Americans. In 1969, Senator Barry Goldwater voiced his opposition to the NPT to the President, speaking for conservatives across the United States who felt a firmer hand was needed when dealing with communism, and its perceived threat to the American way of life. In a memorandum dated March 5, 1969, a year before the enforcement of the NPT, Henry Kissinger, acting as President Nixon’s National Security Advisor, detailed Senator Goldwater’s objections to the treaty in preparation for a meeting between the Senator and the President. However, the Administration was more than prepared to defend the NPT, and the security it brought to the American people.

President Johnson signed the NPT on July 1, 1968. He would celebrate the Fourth of July in three more days.

..."The atoms are for the enrichment of man, not his destruction...."

 

The USA was once very close to a nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union.

RADIO AND TELEVISION ADDRESS (click here) TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ON THE SOVIET ARMS BUILD-UP IN CUBA, 22 OCTOBER 1962 

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 (click here) was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in a number of ways, featuring calculations and miscalculations as well as direct and secret communications and miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level with relatively little input from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process.

Aerial view of missile launch site at San Cristobal, Cuba. (John F. Kennedy Library)

That intelligence photo is not from 30,000 feet either. The pilot could have been shot down if the Cubans and Russia were preparing for war. They weren't. They simply were preparing to kill all people in the USA. Is there a reason to believe that is still not the aspirations of Putin's Russia?

After the failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion, and while the Kennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, in July 1962 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Cuban premier Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. Construction of several missile sites began in the late summer, but U.S. intelligence discovered evidence of a general Soviet arms build-up on Cuba, including Soviet IL–28 bombers, during routine surveillance flights, and on September 4, 1962, President Kennedy issued a public warning against the introduction of offensive weapons into Cuba. Despite the warning, on October 14 a U.S. U–2 aircraft took several pictures clearly showing sites for medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) under construction in Cuba. These images were processed and presented to the White House the next day, thus precipitating the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Kennedy summoned his closest advisers to consider options and direct a course of action for the United States that would resolve the crisis. Some advisers—including all the Joint Chiefs of Staff—argued for an air strike to destroy the missiles, followed by a U.S. invasion of Cuba; others favored stern warnings to Cuba and the Soviet Union....

The Non-Proliferation Treaty is reviewed every five years for progress being made to end nuclear weapons on Earth.

Since 1970. Why is it taking so long?

    

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): our dossier (click here)

The NPT (click here) allows for the parties to gather every five years to review its operation. At the 1995 Review and           Extension Conference, the parties extended the Treaty indefinitely and formalized the practice convening a Review Conference every five years. The Tenth NPT Review Conference has been delayed by the global COVID-19 pandemic, but parties aim to hold the meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2022. The official NPT Review Conference page can be found at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs....

Office of Disarmament Affairs (click here)

All the necessary people needed to secure reliable disarmament are in place. It is time for all countries owning nuclear weapons to act in earnest to end the existence of nuclear weapons. Nuclear technology is more dangerous today than ever before and it leads to a dead end. The nuclear holocaust must never be engaged as the only survivor may be Earth and certainly not in it's current state.

It is difficult to believe 52 years has gone by and far less progress has occurred than originally expected. 

Nuclear non-proliferation has been pursued for decades. Reducing the nuclear arsenal globally has been a purposeful pursuit so some idiot like Trump wouldn't do something so stupid it could cause a global retaliation that would destroy civilization. If nuclear weapons were ever used again, there would be little hope in the future for peace.

This is not a point of pride for the USA. It was survival with the understanding it was under attack.

A person's shadow on bank steps in Hiroshima, Japan, (click here) which was created during the 1945 nuclear blast.

Vaporized. There is nothing to be proud of and survival is not something we openly sought, it was a defense of the country we called home.

If nothing else, know this, the USA was not ended. After the first nuclear detonation to the beginning of the attacks on Japan to end a war cast upon the USA was a matter of weeks. The ideas of nuclear supremacy was not being sought by the scientists in the country, the Nazis were destroying Europe. The USA was very reluctant to go to war, even with the pleadings of strong allies such as Winston Churchill.

But, the attack from the Pacific was completely unexpected. Who, in their right minds would have conceived of Kamikaze pilots? What kind of enemy was this? We were astounded when al-Qaeda carried out such attacks. Seeing young children in Palestine march into crowds or enter a bus in Israel to kill themselves in a misdirected ideology. What KIND OF PEOPLE ARE THESE enemies?

The USA carried out it's attacks and destroyed cities with one blast. Putin is a fool.

On 16 July 1945, (click here) U.S. scientists working on the Manhattan Project successfully detonated the first-ever nuclear explosion in the ‘Trinity’ test at Alamogordo, New Mexico. With World War II still dragging on in the Pacific, preparations moved forward to use nuclear bombs against Japan.

On 6 August 1945, at 08:15, the first bomb was dropped on the centre of Hiroshima. ‘Little Boy’ was a gun-type fission bomb, using a conventional explosive charge to fire one sub-critical mass of uranium into another. This kind of device had never been tested before, but the scientists were confident it would work.

And it did. The bomb had an explosive yield of around 13 kilotons. At the moment of detonation, a fireball was generated that raised temperatures to 4,000 degrees Celsius, turning Hiroshima – where many buildings were made of wood and paper - into an inferno. The blast created shock waves faster than the speed of sound. This and the radiation immediately killed everything within one kilometre of the hypocentre.

After the blast, those who approached ground zero searching for the missing were exposed to radiation. Black rain, containing large amounts of radioactive fallout, caused widespread contamination. Estimates of casualties vary greatly. A more conservative estimate by the atomic archive lists 66,000 people killed immediately and a total death toll of 135,000, while the U.S.-Japanese Radiation Effects Research Foundation indicates a range of 90,000 to 166,000 deaths within the first four months....

I can hear it now.

Ivanka, “Daddy, what are you doing with those papers?”

Trump, “Making friends.”

Ivanka, “What do you mean making friends?”

Trump, “Well, I have to get these guys, Putin and Xi and the fellow from the Philippines to trust me. The best way I know how to do that is make their national security better by telling them the names and identity of their own people spilling their guts to US intelligence.”

Ivanka, “Oh. I suppose that makes sense.”

It started out about a dozen documents. I think that was the partial count of boxes.

August 26, 2022
By Perry Stein and Devlin Barrett

Mar-a-Lago affidavit (click here): 184 classified documents recovered in January

Some White House documents sent to the National Archives in January appear to contain Trump’s handwritten notes, court filing says.

There is no denying the writing belongs to Trump. He was in possession of the documents.

...On Aug. 8, FBI agents searched the estate in Palm Beach and carted away about 20 boxes from a bedroom, office and a first-floor storage room....

...Some were marked “HCS,” a category of highly classified government information; others related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and material meant not to be shared with foreign nations....

...It is unusual to make the details of such an affidavit public, particularly in an ongoing investigation. But numerous media organizations and other parties have asked that the document be unsealed, citing the extreme public interest in the case involving a former president who may run again in 2024....

...a telling revelation that a large number of individuals have provided information to the FBI about the classified documents that were kept at Mar-a-Lago....

The "PREMISES" were never a secured facility for the storage of classified military documents. It is a national security issue. How many copies were made and distributed. Russia and China didn't have to engage in corporate espionage, Trump made is easy for them. Trump was never president, he was Putin's yes man.

Case 9:22-mj-08332-BER Document 102-1 Entered on FLSD Docket 08/26/2022

 

Putin said, "Jump."

Trump said, "How high?"

Trump violated U.S.C. 793(c), 1519 or 2071

(c)

Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made, or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this chapter; 

2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally

(a)

Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(b)

Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

The United States of America has been compromised by its own president.

1994—Pub. L. 103–322 (click here) substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $2,000” in subsecs. (a) and (b).

 

1990—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 101–510 inserted at end “As used in this subsection, the term ‘office’ does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.”

I imagine that is $2000 per document.

I would also know what the agency found in the room where these documents were found. Were they the only documents there or what exactly seemed to be the function of the storage area besides hiding stolen documents. Availability of copiers, telecommunication devices and the records of those apparatus.

Executive Order 13526- Classified National Security Information (click here)

...Sec. 1.2.  Classification Levels.  (a)  Information may be classified at one of the following three levels:

(1)  "Top Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe.

(2)  "Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe.

(3)  "Confidential" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe....

...Sec. 1.4.  Classification Categories....

...(a)  military plans, weapons systems, or operations;

(b)  foreign government information;

(c)  intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology;

(d)  foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources;

(e)  scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to the national security;

(f)  United States Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;

(g)  vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, infrastructures, projects, plans, or protection services relating to the national security; or

(h)  the development, production, or use of weapons of mass destruction....

There is a lot of words used in this affidavit that is rather scary. This wasn't simply classified and filed, this is also about the agencies and their agents.

Under "Statutory Authority and Definitions"

SCI - Sensitive Compartmented Information

 SI - Special Intelligence is a control system (a safeguard system) within an SCI to prevent foreign intelligence from monitoring the US Government's deepest secrets.

Paragraph 13

HUMIT is an intelligence control systems for SCI to protect clandestine human sources also called "human intelligence." In other words, those human beings in the world that act IN TRUST to the USA to bring about better security for the USA and other countries were in the mix of the documents Trump stole. The agencies have to find out if these Human Intelligence have indeed been compromised and bring them to the USA if they were. This aspect of the affidavit could be highly injurious to the USA considering how long it takes to develop this kind of trusted human intelligence.

It is one thing to have corporate and government espionage by foreign powers, but, these are human beings that developed a loyalty to the USA and trusted it. There is a lot that has to be weeded through to determine exactly who was compromised and if we can know if harm came to them as an act by this president. 

FISA - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

NOFORN - Not releasable to foreign nationals/governments/US citizens

ORCON - Originator Controlled - distribution beyond designated US entities and persons must have originator approval. There is also extensive discussion in the Executive Order about originators. So, this is a sensitive issue in that there is a high level of trust within this classification. The originator of the document remains in the loop for any distribution beyond what the originator considers pertinent to share. This includes all sorts of legal implications for the USA as well. Patents come to mind. There is probably foreign intelligence that falls into this category as well. Even troop movements as reported by a source other than the USA military. We see a lot of originator information within the Ukraine war. Average folks shared information that was gathered from common sources. The information was important to military operations. 

"Need to Know" comes up as a function of the government even when dealing with foreign governments. Levels of classification of PERSONNEL comes to play in this aspect of the classification system. 

My nightmare is probably true. Under that same heading in the affidavit in paragraph 18 are the words,

...automated information systems, including networks and telecommunication systems... 

Trump transmitted information. He also didn't care about having these documents in a proper holding area. There must be electronic records that could be hacked into or read electronically by outside sources.

November 25, 2019

By Kevin Breuninger

A Chinese businesswoman (click here) convicted of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort while carrying a bag full of electronics is sentenced to eight months in jail.

Yujing Zhang, a 33-year-old Shanghai business consultant, was arrested on March 30 and charged with unlawfully entering Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and lying to federal agents.

She was convicted on both counts by a 12-member jury in Florida federal court in September, following a brief but unusual trial....

Michael Moore has an interesting release on Substack this week about his time at Maralago. Not until people were gathering and taking selfies with him did any security personnel stop his progression through the facility.

32 C.F.R. Parts 2001 (click here) and 2003 (click here); specifically 32 C.F.R. 2001.43 (click here) also

Cornell
32 CFR § 2001.43 - Storage (click here)

The storage area at Maralago was never certified by the GSA, a vault built to federal standards or an area constructed according to specifications of 2001.53.

Listed in the affidavit in entirety of parts of law of significance to the affidavit:

18 U.S.C. 1518

18 U.S.C. 2071

PRA 44 U.S.C. 2201

44 U.S.C.3301(a)

They can be read on Page 6, just before the section "Probable Cause"

February 9, 2022 was the trigger that began the investigation at DOJ, when a Special Agent assigned to NARA's Office of Inspector General received information from NARA's White House Liaison Division the 15 boxes retrieved from Maralago besides public records were classified documents that had been opened and strewn in with all the other information and records as well as improperly identified. It was a security breach.

Congress was notified with the first in line the Chairwoman of Oversight and Reform in the USA House Carolyn Maloney. There is a URL listed. Then came the enforcement of the "Big Lie" once again by "Save America Political Action Committee." Lies about the agents never finding anything and how this was a big political stunt, no doubt by President Biden himself. No loyalty to the country was expressed at all. Everything was to enforce "The Big Lie" that Trump was still and even more so "Poor Trump" burdened heavily with all the faults and corruption of the USA Government. I doubt seriously any such PAC will apologize for the propaganda campaign while the USA was treated with enormous disrespect by Trump himself and allowed the country to be compromised.

January 18, 2021 a report from CBS Miami citing moving trucks at Maralago.

Section "Provisions of the 15 Boxes" - page 13

May 6, 2021 NARA request for missing PRA records and continued to ask for them until December 2021 when NARA was informed 12 boxes were found and ready  for retrieval at the PREMISES.

Section The Fifteen Boxes provided to NARA contained classified information - Page 16 of the affidavit.

May 16-18, 2021 FBI agents did a preliminary review and found classified documents in 14 of the 15 boxes. Then the breakdown of the documents, 184 unique document total with 67 marked confidential, 92 marked secret and 25 marked top secret. 

Another abbreviation of NDI is listed in the affidavit. The only NDI I am familiar with is (click here).

Entering the picture are the legal advisers to Trump and a letter what's value is enough to present to a judge considering action with the information presented. Also a reference to May 5, 2022, "Breitbart" and Kash Patel with another URL.

It is going to be difficult to attempt to tie all this together because it is heavily redacted. This is page 18.

Page 21 of the affidavit June 8, 2022 a letter between DOJ and Trump counsel states the PREMISES was basically in violation of the security of the USA as it never had sufficient means to protect the documents to standard.

Page 22 - Footnote number 2 refers to 18 U.S.C. 793(e) and it has been viewed legally in reference to military national defense. Case law is stated. 312 U.S. 19 28 (1941), applicable language including the Espionage Act. More case law 221 F.3d 542 579 (4th Cir 2000), more case law 844 F.2d 1057, 1071-72 (4th Cir. 1988) and also Case Law 844 F.2d at 1071-72.

I don't recall Footnote 1. It must be redacted.

June 9, 2022 Trump's counsel acknowledges receipt of the DOJ letter.

New section on page 25 entitled, There is Probable Cause to Believe That Documents Containing Classified NDI and Presidential Records Remain at the Premises

Page 28 lists the exact places where documents were found, STORAGE ROOM, the president's suite at Maralago, Pine Hall and "45 Office." EGO TRIP. Trump was president number 45, yes? The affidavit goes on to say, these areas and others are not secure or authorized since January 20, 2021. 

Section "Conclusion" 

No one is holding back for any reason, there is reason to believe and plenty of it evidently, although it would only take one classified document to violate 18 U.S.C. 793(e), 2071 or 1519. Here is mentioned for the second time Attachment A and now there is Attachment B.

Section "Request for Sealing" is to protect the documents submitted as evidence. There is some open question about the thoroughness of the documents returned and more being in the possession of Trump on the PREMISES.

Section that speaks to rules for handling Client - Privilege Documents on Page 30 and 31.

Exhibit 1 on Pages 31 to 35

Attachment A on Page 36

Attachment B on Page 37

Total of 38 pages of the document with non-disclosure of page 38, probably a blank.

Trump and is alternate universe and media is untrustworthy and dangerous to not just the people of the USA, but, every other person and country that trusted the USA.