The Morning Briefing: Dems Lose Shutdown Battle, Secret Societies, and Much, Much More

Good Tuesday morning from the SHOT Show!

Here’s what’s on the president’s agenda today:

In the morning, President Trump will receive his daily intelligence briefing.
In the afternoon, the president will sign section 201 actions.

That was quick

It’s over. The Democrats folded like a cheap suit after what I believe was some sad focus grouping over the weekend. Even the media agrees the Democrats lost their gamble. The Democrats claim they were fighting for the DACA folk, but the DACA folk have nothing to do with funding the government. You know who actually understood the political reality of such a position? The Democrat senators in Trump states up for reelection in 2018. Those people voted for cloture so the Senate could proceed to a vote. This isn’t a moral issue for the Democrats, this is a campaign issue. The “moderates” of the Senate met over the weekend to find a compromise and even used a “talking stick” in the negotiations. At the end of the day, the Democrats agreed to the same thing they had been offered before the shutdown.

Now the fallout comes from “caving” to the will of the American voters. The progressive wing, which is the most vocal wing since it includes much of the media, is angry Schumer didn’t fight for the DACA folk.

“If Republicans said we are ending same-sex marriage, but we promise Democrats a vote later; or we approve of oil drilling in every national park, but you’ll have a vote later — do you think the Democrats would say yes?” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez said.

“This shows me that when it comes to immigrants, Latinos and their families, Democrats are still not willing to go to the mat to allow people in my community to live in our country legally,” he added. Politico reports there is “unrest” in the Democrat ranks.

“I’m leaving the Democratic Party today,” Alida Garcia, a strategist and advocate for immigrants’ rights at the lobbying group FWD.us, tweeted. She later called Democrats “liars.”

“They’re complicit w/ every single young person living in fear,” she said. “Every pain Latino & immigrant families feel from here out is 100% due to @TheDemocrats not fully embracing us as American. Implicit racism is equally as harmful. I’m done.”

Meanwhile, the DACA lobby decided to win some “hearts and minds” by blocking the entrance of Disneyland.

Keep your legislative eye out for shenanigans like this bipartisan trash: Graham-Durbin immigration proposal ‘completely dishonest,’ White House says.

Missing text messages and “secret societies”

The circumstances of the RUSSIA collusion investigation have been revealed as a total farce. Yesterday we learned that more than 50,000 text messages between senior FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his mistress DOJ lawyer Lisa Page were not archived. 50,000 text messages in 5 months! What could they be talking about? Do you send 50,000 text messages in 5 months? AG Jeff Sessions says he is looking for those messages.

“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source,” Sessions said in a statement provided to Fox News. “If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately.”

Do you believe this? Were other employees’ messages also not archived or just those of these two coup participants? The Agency offered some techy mumbo-jumbo, timey-wimey (paging Lois Lerner) explanation about a cell phone update interfering with data syncing but it smells like lies to me.

Needless to say, Congress is not pleased.

“The omission of text messages between December 2016 and May 2017, a critical gap encompassing the FBI’s Russia investigation, is … concerning,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in a joint statement.

“Rather than clearing up prior FBI and DOJ actions, these recently produced documents cause us to further question the credibility and objectivity of certain officials at the FBI,” they said.

Let’s take it to the next level since we are already swimming in a sea of absurdity. PJ Media’s Deb Heine has the scoop on Page and Strzok’s purported membership in a “secret society” that met the day after the election.

The thousands of texts @TGowdySC and I reviewed today revealed manifest bias among top FBI officials against @realDonaldTrump. The texts between Strzok and Page referenced a "secret society."

— John Ratcliffe (@RepRatcliffe) January 23, 2018

“We know about this insurance policy that was referenced in trying to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president,” he began. “We learned today about information in the immediate aftermath of his election that there may have been a ‘secret society’ of folks within the Department of Justice and the FBI to include Page and Strzok that would be working against him.

WHAT?!?!?! Stay tuned for developments on this bizarre Umberto Eco novel.

Related: Congressmen work to release bombshell report on FISA abuse. The FBI wants to see the report first. LOL.

Historical picture of the day:

British opposition leader Margaret Thatcher visited the British Rhine Army at Herford and Guetersloh on Jan. 23, 1976. Pictured Margaret Thatcher talking to soldiers of the 40th Field Regiment at Guetersloh. (AP Photo/Heinz Ducklau)

Other morsels:

White House: Trump’s Davos trip still on ‘if all things go as expected’

Man allegedly threatens mass murder at CNN headquarters, is arrested

Karolyi Ranch, USA Gymnastics training site, under scrutiny by authorities

Hijab-wearing model pulls out of L’Oreal campaign over 2014 tweets

‘I’ve got another nut job here’: Trump reportedly eyeing replacements for John Kelly

Trump waives dozens of environmental rules to speed up construction of border wall

Clothing company CEO says his company markets to Fox News viewers because they’re ‘f**king idiots’

Oxford University increases math, computer science exam times so women can get better grades

Boy Scouts Leader Busted With Hundreds Of Heroin Baggies And Illegal Firearms

Vice Loses Major $100 Million Investment, Forces Television Channel Off Air

Vermont governor signs bill legalizing recreational marijuana despite ‘mixed emotions’