DEEP STATE BLUES: FBI looking into James Comey’s off-the-books ‘honeypot’ operation targeting 2016 Trump campaign.

According to the whistleblower, two female FBI undercover employees infiltrated Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at high levels and were directed to act as “honeypots” while traveling with Mr. Trump and his campaign staff.

The Times has learned that the bureau, now led by Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is looking for those once-undercover employees who were previously under Mr. Comey’s direction.
The FBI declined to comment.

According to the whistleblower disclosure, which The Times reviewed, the investigation differed from Crossfire Hurricane, a later FBI counterintelligence operation that looked into never-proved allegations that the campaign was colluding with Russia.

The whistleblower said the early off-the-books probe was a criminal investigation targeting Mr. Trump and his staff.

Mr. Trump launched his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City, about a year before the FBI opened Crossfire Hurricane.

The whistleblower agent “personally knew” that Mr. Comey ordered an FBI investigation into Mr. Trump and that Mr. Comey “personally directed it,” according to the disclosure.

Flashback: Obama, Clapper were briefed on reports of Clinton campaign’s Russia collusion narrative, Durham report shows.

I’d be shocked if Obama’s fingerprints weren’t all over this.

ATHENA THORNE: Flailing Democrats Turn to Yet Another Once-Effective Technique. “Now, out-of-power leftists are hoping to resurrect another technique that was quite effective for them in days past: storytelling. Specifically, this is the art of designating a victim with a sob story for their media counterparts to blast everywhere 24/7 in an attempt to turn public opinion their way.”

Never underestimate the power of a narrative but the press no longer enjoys an effective monopoly for pushing one.

WINNING:

Why GOP members will be hesitant to fight Trump: "Republican [voters] love Donald Trump the way Grimace loves Ronald McDonald"…

Trump's net approval with the GOP is even higher than it was during his 1st term.

Also, GOP voters trust Trump over Congressional GOP: 58%-22%. pic.twitter.com/4s7iDPZRVs

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 25, 2025

The explanation is simple. Trump and his White House team are executing. Congress so far isn’t.

ANOTHER EXCELLENT VIDEO PODCAST FROM RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Islam and the West: Real History vs. Fake History.

GRAND SLAMMED: Denny’s announces egg surcharge, joining Waffle House.

In a statement to ABC News on Monday, the company explained that the surcharge is necessary due to the nationwide egg shortage and rising costs.

“Some of our restaurant locations will need to temporarily add a surcharge to every meal that includes eggs. This pricing decision is market-by-market, and restaurant-by-restaurant due to the regional impacts of the egg shortage,” the statement read.

The company also stressed its commitment to keeping meals affordable despite fluctuating costs.

Earlier: I Could Live With the Egg Shortage, but NOT THIS… NOT THIS.

IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH: Bloodbath at MSNBC as Three More Hosts Bite the Dust.

CHINA IS ASSHOE: Undersea cable to Penghu severed, Chinese-funded ship suspected.

An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible.

It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor.

The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said.

More: “Despite flying Togo’s flag, Hong Tai is Chinese-owned and all eight crew members on board are Chinese, the CGA said.”

GOOD TO KNOW BUT EITHER REFORM OR COLLAPSE IS INEVITABLE: No, the GOP Isn’t Cutting Your Social Security and Medicare.

NOT YOUR FATHER’S EAGLE: F-15EX deemed effective against fifth-generation threats in Pentagon evaluation.

In its 2024 annual report, the Directorate of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) assessed the F-15EX to be “operationally effective” in an air superiority role, even when matched against fifth-generation aircraft.

“The F-15EX was able to detect and track all threats at advantageous ranges, use onboard and off-board systems to identify them, and deliver weapons while surviving,” the report states.

Notably, the twin-engined jet also scored well in the areas of reliability, availability and maintainability – achieving “nearly all objectives”, the report notes. Pilots surveyed also expressed a generally positive opinion of the fighter’s cockpit layout.

There was little doubt about the battle-proven F-15’s ability to prevail against fourth-generation threats, against which the Eagle family boasts an undefeated 104-0 combat record.

However, critics of the programme have argued the modernised Cold War fighter is ill-suited to compete with more advanced foes like Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 or China’s Chengdu J-20.

Defying that narrative, the DOT&E says the F-15EX performed well in tests against “surrogate fifth-generation adversary aircraft” on both defensive and offensive counter-air missions. The Eagle II was also found to be effective in a basic air-to-ground strike role.

But: “Notably, evaluations did not include testing the F-15EX against the most advanced long-range weapon systems currently being developed and fielded, according to the DOT&E.”

That’s one helluva airframe, developed on slide rules 50-plus years ago — now enhanced with modern radar, avionics, and a few other nifty tricks.

KRUISER: Dumbest TDS Hot Take This Week…So Far: ‘Rogue President.’ “It didn’t take long to find the first ‘winner’ for this week — I happened upon today’s subject of mockery before noon my time on Monday. This column might become an almost full-time gig. I’ll have to safeguard against frequent trips to the Democrats’ alternative reality, of course, but that’s in my skill set.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. All of it, all too true.

No, I don’t trust the government. If the Executive Branch has limited control over the bureaucracy, and if Congress and the Judiciary are compromised by conflicts of interest driven by NGOs, then governance is no longer by "We The People."

Instead, it has become a self-serving…

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 25, 2025

Full text:

No, I don’t trust the government. If the Executive Branch has limited control over the bureaucracy, and if Congress and the Judiciary are compromised by conflicts of interest driven by NGOs, then governance is no longer by “We The People.”

Instead, it has become a self-serving global power struggle—a Game of Thrones rather than a republic.

What made “Game of Thrones” so intriguing at the start was that it was a world without the possibility of redemption. But that’s as unsustainable a premise in fiction as it is in real life, and the show collapsed.

Washington needs redemption and quickly.

HOW LOW CAN HE GO?

New poll has Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson with a 6.6% favorability mark and 80% unfavorable. https://t.co/uQrWCCkAom

— Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) February 24, 2025

You can see all the numbers here but what’s most interesting is how far out of line Democrat politicians are with their constituents actual interests, even in a deep-blue city like Chicago.

UPDATE (From Ed): To answer the query in Steve’s headline: Brandon Johnson Is Now Less Popular than Most Communicable Diseases.

THEY’RE FLAILING: The Atlantic Wants a ‘Liberal Tea Party’ and I Can’t Stop Laughing.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA:

Elon musk is worth $400 billion because he owns significant stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, and X, and XAI.

Elizabeth Warren is worth $20 million AND UP because…???

I'll wait.

And show your work.

— Joey Meugniot (@realjoeymUS) February 18, 2025

Related:

Just another occasional reminder that outside income earned by any elected official should be taxed at 100%, along with a 100% tax on investment returns over the 7% that individual investors hope to make.

— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) February 25, 2025

Incentives need to change, starting with whom our elected officials actually work for.

TAR, FEATHERS: FBI Whistleblowers Slam Dem Rep. for Mourning Fired Feds, Ignoring Whistleblowers.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. By Defending Free Speech Worldwide, Team Trump Reclaims America’s Global Moral High Ground.

In the span of four years, the Delaware Democrat morphed the United States from the world’s leading champion for natural rights into a knock-off version of an increasingly despotic Europe.

Which brings us to Vice President J.D. Vance’s monumental speech at the Munich Security Conference.

America’s vice president could have easily used his address to regurgitate the same worn-out platitudes about diplomatic “cooperation” and “improving relations” routinely espoused by Washington and European dignitaries. Instead, he took a much bolder approach.

Throughout his nearly 20-minute remarks, Vance gave a full-throated defense of free speech. While acknowledging the Biden administration’s censorship practices, Vance eloquently explained the importance of maintaining open discourse in civil society and lambasted self-professed “democratic” European states for deploying authoritarian tactics to silence their own peoples.

Indeed. The Western alliance might be in better shape if major members like Germany and Britain were respecting their citizens’ rights the way governments should.

WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THE COFFEE? I Could Live With the Egg Shortage, But NOT THIS… NOT THIS.

FAIL, BRITANNIA: Fury deepens over ‘sinister’ Thought Police targeting of a grandmother who criticised Labour as voters call for Starmer to go over ‘abuse of power.’

Two police officers were caught on camera paying a visit to a grandmother simply for criticising Labour politicians on Facebook.

Detectives have been accused of acting like East Germany’s Stasi secret police for quizzing Helen Jones over her calls for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

Police conceded that the 54-year-old had committed no crime – yet Mrs Jones said she has effectively been silenced by the officers, as she was intimidated by them calling at her door and is too terrified to post on social media again.

Voters have rallied to her defence and blasted the ‘shocking’ incident as a waste of police time and accused the Government for alleged ‘abuse of power’.

Former Tory Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg called the behaviour ‘extraordinary’.

It is the latest in a string of incidents in which police have investigated people for social media posts, including newspaper columnist Allison Pearson, feminist writer Julie Bindel, and former policeman Harry Miller, whose name was added to a database for his ‘non-crime hate incident’.

Greater Manchester Police has one of the highest crime rates in Britain and fails to solve almost three out of four shoplifting incidents.

Related:

“The Britain I grew up in was the most peaceful, gentle & homogenous society that has ever existed with extraordinarily low levels of crime & high levels of public trust. That has been deliberately destroyed.” — Historian David Starkey, 2024.

Britain needs #Remigration. pic.twitter.com/6A7OuSQILb

— Sapphire (@sapphire18_) February 18, 2025

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Dems’ America Is a Dark, Awful Place, and I Hope They Stay There. “The Democrats invested so much hate and tomfoolery (I’m being kind; it probably won’t last) in attempting to prevent the Trump 47 era from ever happening that the loss they suffered last November has broken them just a smidge. The condition is of course compounded by the fact that they weren’t mentally well before Trump kicked them to the curb.”

HMM: Warren Buffett Sends a Dire $134 Billion Warning to Wall Street. History Says the Stock Market Will Do This Next.

In 1965, Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway. The stock has since returned 19.9% annually, while the S&P 500 has compounded at 10.4% annually. That outperformance is due in large part to shrewd investments made by Buffett, which makes his recent capital allocation decisions a dire warning to Wall Street:

Berkshire sold $143 billion in stock in 2024, while purchasing only $9 billion. That brings its net sales to $134 billion last year. Berkshire has never been a net seller on [sic] that magnitude at any point in its history.

Berkshire had $334 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet, as of December 2024. That figure doubled in the past year, and it represents a new record for the company.

Importantly, in his most recent shareholder letter, Buffett wrote, “Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses.” That implies Buffett struggled to find good stocks at reasonable prices last year, which itself is a clear warning to Wall Street.

“Buy the dip” remains solid advice for billionaires and small investors alike.

ICYMI: DOGE Might Hold the Key to Opening up All of Washington’s Dirtiest Secrets.

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Trump Admin’s War on Federal Bureaucracy Threatens Nancy Pelosi’s ‘Local Legacy’ in San Francisco. “President Donald Trump announced in a Wednesday executive order that his administration will look to cut the Presidio Trust to the fullest extent possible, picking a fight with the federal agency that oversees the nearly-1,500 acre park in San Francisco. Pelosi worked in Congress to establish the Presidio Trust in the 1990s to manage the city’s famous Presidio, and she subsequently helped land a $200 million award to Presidio Trust in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to cover costs of ‘climate resilience’ projects at the park.”

$200 million on “climate resilience” at a 1,500-acre park in a city that rarely gets very hot and almost never gets very cold is patently absurd and certainly a grift.

FLORIDA, MAN! This State Is Ready to Abolish Property Taxes.

CLEANING UP THE TOWN:

Agencies often have more software licenses than employees, and the licenses are often idle (i.e. paid for, but not installed on any computer). For example, at GSA, with 13,000 employees, there are:
– 37,000 WinZip licenses
– 19,000 training software subscriptions (and multiple…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 24, 2025

I was shocked to learn that WinZip is still around.

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: The Democratic Party Is Starving to Death.