And while the media has been accusing President Trump of “collusion” for the last few years, it appears they went to extraordinary lengths to get FBI employees to talk, regardless of the ethics and procedural protocols in place for a reason.

In addition to the significant number of communications between FBI employees and journalists, we identified social interactions between FBI employees and journalists that were, at a minimum, inconsistent with FBI policy and Department ethics rules. For example, we identified instances where FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings with media representatives, were treated to drinks and meals after work by reporters, and were the guests of journalists at nonpublic social events.
— OIG Review of Various Actions by the FBI and DOJ in Advance of the 2016 Election

While the summary is not specific, it sounds like the “then FBI Deputy Assistant Director (DAD)” could be none other than former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.

The inspector general (IG) indicated, without explanation, that “prosecution of the DAD [deputy assistant director] was declined.”

While going out of their way to make life as hellacious as possible for their targets, they DO take care of their own.

The investigation’s findings will be referred to the FBI for potential further action, the IG said.

The official became the second high-level FBI employee to be formally rebuked by the IG over media contacts seen as improper.
— Fox News, 5/29/19

Not saying 100% it’s Strzok, but it wouldn’t be a surprise and “further action” is certainly long overdue.

Subsequent “investigations” by the Democrat-led House of Representatives put an emphasis on “transparency” and demanded EVERYTHING in the Mueller report, including the 2% redacted court-protected grand jury testimony, be made public.

But now that the president was found to have done nothing alleged by the Democrats and their media, and an Inspector General’s coming report may show that pro-Hillary Democrats within federal law enforcement may have tried to rig the election against Donald Trump and subsequently derail and hamstring his administration, and wants EVERYTHING regarding the investigation declassified, transparency is now something deemed “dangerous” by those involved and “sources and methods” must be protected.

Many of whom were engaged, in what essentially was a coup d’etat, now know what it feels like to have federal law enforcement breathing down their necks, the potential cost of having to hire high-priced lawyers just to keep them free on bond, and have their lives and reputations turned upside down and damaged beyond repair.

The only difference is that those they pursued with the full weight of the federal government behind them were either innocent or entrapped. Those pro-Hillary #DeepState career federal law enforcement employees abused their power, assumed Hillary Clinton would win and none of their activities would ever be revealed, and now THEY are facing the very possible prison fate they cavalierly imposed on others.

Think about all the things these liberal Democrats did, fully expecting Hillary to win, figuring the American people would never know… ever. So let’s forget being polite and call this what it was: a coup attempt.

The wrongdoing probably includes attempting to warp a U.S. election, Russian collusion, repeatedly misleading and lying before the FISA courts, improperly surveilling American citizens, unmasking the names of citizens swept up in unlawful surveillance and then illegally leaking them to the press, disseminating and authenticating opposition smears during a political campaign, lying under oath to Congress, obstructing ongoing investigations, using federal funds to purchase ad hominem gossip against a presidential candidate, blatant conflicts of interests, weaponizing federal investigations, trafficking in and leaking classified information.
— National Review, 2/13/17

Despite the fact there’s been ZERO evidence (let alone proof of even intention) the Trump campaign sought and/or utilized Putin’s formidable Russian Internet apparatus to thwart Hillary’s longtime political ambition, there will come a time when this will all be over; many on the right are ready to hurl hundreds of thousands “We told you so” messages at the left and their media expecting them to issue acknowledgement they were wrong.

You’d think we’d know liberals by now.

Wholesale, the media will NEVER admit they were very wrong because, aside from their fragile sense of intellectual superiority, many have a lot to lose with any admission… like their freedom.

#DrainTheSwamp

If you’ve spent any time in and or around Washington, D.C., you’ll know that while there are many good Americans who came to serve their country with the best of intentions, you’ll also see that there are way too many who’ve come for a career and at the end of the day, that pension for life is the shiny thing that can cloud judgment. For some, it’s all about the power one can amass in the right job. With that climb to the top comes a lifestyle that revolves around some of wealthiest counties in the nation, meaning these people have a lot to lose if they get busted and they will eagerly use the power of the United States government to keep that from happening.

Too Big to Believe

Something is happening now at the FBI, with the Washington wagons circling the agency to protect it from charges of corruption. This time, the appropriate tag line is “too big to believe.” Yet each day brings credible reports suggesting there is a massive scandal involving the top ranks of America’s premier law enforcement agency. The reports, which feature talk among agents of a “secret society” and suddenly missing text messages, point to the existence both of a cabal dedicated to defeating Donald Trump in 2016 and of a plan to let Hillary Clinton skate free in the classified email probe.

If either one is true — and I believe both probably are — it would mean FBI leaders betrayed the nation by abusing their powers in a bid to pick the president. Talk about irony. While Dems and the left-wing media already found Trump guilty of collusion before Mueller was appointed, the real scandal might be the conduct of the probers themselves.
— New York Post, 1/23/18

While some are clamoring for yet another special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton campaign connections to election malfeasance, that’s really the last thing we need and the problem is, if we let these fat-and-happy career federal employees get away with this, what’s to stop it from happening again? Yes, it would be nice to hear media reports of FBI agents kicking in the door of the Comey household at 4:30am, as well as some of the other known operatives involved in the Fusion GPS-produced “dossier”.

It would be nice to see so many of these people go through what they put Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn through: have to hire pricey lawyers to defend themselves against a government that won’t have to deplete bank accounts or refinance a home just to fend off ambitious career government employees eyeing an office one or two floors up and the generous taxpayer-funded pay raises that come with them.

It is a perceived luxury enjoyed by federal prosecutors that routinely charge others with even borderline false statements but rarely face such charges themselves. While most prosecutors adhere to the highest ethical standards, a minority of Justice Department lawyers have been accused of false or misleading statements in federal cases. However, they are virtually never charged with false statements by their colleagues. There is no such reluctance in using this easily charged crime against targets outside of the department.

The issue is whether a different set of rules applies to the Justice Department than the one that it applies to the rest of us.
— The Hill, 3/5/18

Oh, and by the way, even if investigators KNOW you’re innocent, you’ll still be pressured into a guilty plea because the ends justify their political and career means.

We’ve been told as long as I have been aware of the name Robert Mueller, we are told that Mr. Mueller is a man of impeccable character, a man of refined tastes, a man of immense sophistication and qualification. But this doesn’t fit with a man of the impeccable reputation that Robert Mueller has. And the idea that he’s a cut above and he’s got this integrity that’s unassailable, this character that nobody else can approach, this decency and honesty that is unique, BS.

Michael Flynn, who the FBI didn’t even believe had lied to them, has lost his house and had to plead guilty in order to pay legal fees. And, meanwhile, everybody’s worried about poor Andrew McCabe and he might not get his pension if Jeff Sessions fires him before Friday. This investigation of Trump is damaging and ruining a lot of people.
— Rush Limbaugh, 3/15/18

I think anyone with a reasonable lawyer would succumb to the demands of someone like a Mueller with unrestrained prosecutorial power because he clearly could care less about the innocence of anyone between him and his goal.

Did Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is currently trying to frame President Donald Trump, take part in a much earlier FBI frame up that sent four innocent men to prison for more than 30 years, and resulted in an eventual settlement of more than $100 million for false imprisonment? The answer appears to be yes.
— Howie Carr, 3/22/18

We’re beginning to see hard evidence of a pattern where federal law enforcement malfeasance is covered up and seemingly rewarded despite the damage it causes to the lives of Americans.

Nobody gets fired in the swamp. Obama never fired anybody. George W. Bush didn’t. These people screw up left and right. They never get fired. Trump, he’s firing people. Oh, oh, the swamp is taken aback. This doesn’t happen. Gotta be some sort of abnormality, conspiracy or something. It just doesn’t happen. Swamp people don’t get fired. That’s one of the benefits of being in the establishment is you do not get fired. You get reassigned, your kids maintain their health care, you maintain your career and future, but you do not get fired. Well, not in Trump world. In Trump world you get canned and you get called out for it. And people find out why you got canned before you find out. Do not discount this.

Did Lois Lerner get fired? Did anybody that had anything to do with that botched Benghazi thing get fired? Did anybody ever get fired? No. They’re promoted! They’re shifted, they’re transferred, they are protected.
— Rush Limbaugh, 3/13/18

Going back, Robert Mueller presided over an FBI that had no problem sending the innocent to prison as long as they got what they wanted. The now-infamous Whitey Bulger-Winter Hill gang bungle is a prime example.

In 2001, the four men convicted of Teddy Deegan’s murder were exonerated. Turned out the FBI let them take the rap to protect one of their informants, a killer named Vincent “Jimmy” Flemmi, who just happened to be the brother of their other rat, Stevie Flemmi. Thanks to the FBI’s corruption, taxpayers got stuck with the $100 million bill for compensating the framed men, two of whom, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, died in prison.

Four years ago, when questioned about the FBI’s corruption in Boston, Mueller told the Globe, “I think the public should recognize that what happened, happened years ago.”

That’s true. And we still don’t know what really happened.
— Boston Globe, 7/24/11

Funny how that keeps happening while it appears some in the FBI are as heartless as those they investigate and prosecute.

Fox News has learned that the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility made the recommendation to terminate FBI official Andrew McCabe. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reviewing that recommendation and if he approves it by Friday at 5 p.m. EDT, McCabe would not receive his pension benefits.

On Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Thursday, George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley told MacCallum that McCabe possibly should be more concerned about his own legal jeopardy, pointing out that if he misled investigators, he could be charged like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
— Fox News, 3/15/18

While the media quickly moved on, many people who may be tied to this scandal know that bad things can happen to those who threaten the ambitions, comfort and/or freedom of the DC political and career-employee elite.

Now, there are those who can NEVER admit they were wrong about the Trump-Russia “collusion” because that would make them out to be either extremely gullible, stupid or in real legal jeopardy. Not a good set of legal options for financially-dependent professionals.

Optimism Interruptus

Inspector General Michael Horowitz pointed out #swamp self-protection put in place by the Obama administration in 2010; a problem his team circumnavigates today and turning it back on the abusers.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Wednesday he will review potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by both the Justice Department and the FBI, following requests from Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
— Fox News, 3/28/18

Newly uncovered text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page suggest a possible coordination between high-ranking officials at the Obama White House, CIA, FBI, Justice Department and former Senate Democratic leadership in the early stages of the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to GOP congressional investigators on Wednesday. The investigators say the information provided to Fox News “strongly” suggests coordination between former President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, and CIA Director John Brennan — which they say would “contradict” the Obama administration’s public stance about its hand in the process.
— Fox News, 3/28/18

Horowitz’ report of “no bias” in the Clinton email investigation was more like the good ole boys covering each other’s fat asses as long as they can. Fortunately, some would have none of it.

ONLY because of the public awareness and sheer sophistry of the findings, one may be facing the music.

News Tuesday that FBI agent Peter Strzok was escorted from the FBI building and effectively suspended from his duties was long overdue and a welcome development. Strzok improperly sent numerous harsh anti-Trump texts during the 2016 presidential campaign in exchanges with an FBI colleague he was romantically involved with.

Strzok was removed last summer by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as the lead FBI agent in Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the presidential election and possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russians, after Strzok’s texts blasting candidate Donald Trump were discovered. Strzok was reassigned to the FBI’s Human Resources Division until he was escorted out of the agency, reportedly on Friday.

Strzok removal from the FBI building “put Strzok on notice that the bureau intends to fire him,” The Washington Post reported.
— Fox News, 6/19/18

Don’t hold your breath.

Liberal Activists and Nonprofits

In 2009, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to declare themselves Taxed Enough Already in opposition to the agenda of Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Capitol Hill. Opportunistic “conservatives” saw dollar signs and co-opted the Tea Party movement for personal notoriety and monetary gain.

Conversely, liberals saw the November 8, 2016 progressive, anti-Trump anger in the streets and also devised ways to take it all the way to the bank.

The election of Donald Trump has lit a fire under people who donate to nonprofit organizations — or, at least, to some nonprofit groups. In the three months after Election Day, the ACLU collected more than $79 million online — more than 60 percent of what the organization spent in all of 2016. Planned Parenthood has been raking in donations as well, though it won’t say how much, possibly because the figure is so large that disclosing it would discourage more giving.
— Vox, 4/24/17

From the Southern Poverty Law Center to Indivisible to the pussy-hat Women’s March to the unpredictable #Antifa punks, liberal groups around the nation have reached out for the nonprofit dollar to oppose anything Trump agenda and most of that has been enhanced by the false claim that the Trump campaign won because the Russians helped him defeat Hillary. Combined, we’re talking millions of dollars; dollars that have maintained a very nice lifestyle for some of their new champions.

Meanwhile money bag-agitators like George Soros have lost millions betting against Trump economics while pumping up nonprofits resisting his agenda and hasn’t lost his shirt.

That would be a horrifying visual.

But money also has a way of making donors less tolerant of lame excuses.

After all of the months of incessant Trump-colluded-with-the-Russians recitations and it’s officially announced it never happened, do you expect these activist nonprofits (some of whom sent out hundreds of email solicitations for donations) admit they were stupid enough to believe this, despite the “dossier” being debunked months ago and STILL no smoking gun?

Russian Meddling Didn’t Decide the Election
The fact that Russian agents fomented both pro- and anti-Trump rallies after the election shows that discord, not a Trump victory, was their only goal all along.
— Wall Street Journal, 2/25/18

Discord is real easy when you have gullible sore-loser petulant children looking for any reason to whine because they didn’t get their way. You think the “Russians” didn’t know whom they were setting up?

It’s almost a sure bet that thousands of progressives donated to these nonprofit activists, partially inspired by the “collusion” storyline and some may demand an explanation as to who verified these allegations before they used as the basis for donations. You think Indivisible will admit they were wrong while trying to meet the next quarter tally so employees can continue to eat and pay their rent while arguing with disgruntled donors who stupidly gave because they were so blinded by Trump hate?

Good luck with that.

The Media

Whether we’re talking about broadcast and cable news operations, late night so-called comedy shows, actors, musicians, or athletes screaming anything anti-Trump has been a collective effort. Entertainers (and their worth is debatable) and athletes are easily dismissed because they have near-zero ability to change public opinion and affect government. The media is another thing altogether.

When Donald Trump came down the elevator at Trump Tower announcing his candidacy, the media laughed at any inference that his campaign would gain any momentum and last a month. When he won the Republican presidential nomination, they assured us he never win the presidency, especially against someone as formidable as Hillary Clinton. When Donald Trump became president-elect, the media blamed bad polls as their excuse for misreading the dissatisfaction of the American voter; not the entitled laziness of a visible sick-and-tired Hillary… that is until they could blame it all on The Russians!

When forced, the media fails miserably to substantiate their 24/7 declarations of Trump campaign guilt.

Network and cable news have spent millions or man hours on story after story with them making declarative statements as to the guilt of candidate and President Donald Trump in “colluding” with the Russians to yank the election from Hillary’s rightful grasp. They’ve had no smoking gun or anything aside from the opinions of pundits who craved the television facetime and would say anything to get invited back on. The more anti-Trump the better. Mention the Russians or the phrase “threat to our democracy” and someone will get your number before you leave the set so they can have you back on soon.

President Barack Obama said Friday that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in September to “cut it out” in regard to allegations that his nation engaged in cyberattacks against the U.S. electoral process. Obama added that further hacking by Russia did not occur following Obama’s admonition.

Hillary Clinton, for her part, said Russia’s efforts were at least in part to blame for her surprise loss on Election Day.
— Politico, 12/16/16

With that, there’s no way ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, msnbc, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, HuffPo, or any other left-leaning media company will ever admit to being totally duped by a false Democrat-created narrative and repeating it daily for more than a year. Of course, they’ll NEVER admit to have preferred Hillary Clinton and did everything possible to facilitate her victory. It’s only their limited credibility at stake here.

Credibility… for sale.

These two clowns are no different than these journalists who embed themselves with campaigns and learn all kinds of things that they save until after the election! Things that would have been of relevance before the election! They hide stuff and they save it for their book so that they can get rich on exclusive information, and yet they are reporters of the highest order. And now these two guys, David Corn and Michael Isikoff have done the same thing. They have known for however long they’ve been writing the book that the golden showers story is bogus and that Steele doesn’t even believe it. And only now do people learn it when their book is about to be published. Well, that golden showers story has been the fuel that has rocketed this whole investigation.
— Rush Limbaugh, 3/15/18

Remember, neither Republican or Democrat “memo” had been leaked by some phantom source to the media prior their release because we all know had anything pointed to certified Russian “collusion”, some anonymous “official” would have made sure a copy made it to someone at the New York Times or Washington Post and distributed widely from there.

Like the Election Night victory Trump voters who were denied a celebration because it was hijacked by the hysterical left, don’t look for any humility, contrition, or apology from the no-credibility news media for, happily and with conviction, getting it so wrong for so long. They believe they’re too important for that; just like the political hacks and career government employees who willfully created this mess in the first place.

Again, had it not been for Hillary’s defeat, we’d not have known about any of the abuses by the DOJ-FBI-media and the exclusively Democrat special prosecutor team phishing with our generous tax dollars for “Russian collusion” that they still can’t find any evidence of happening.

But they’ll plot and destroy anyone who impedes their political and professional objectives because who’ll investigate the investigators? Certainly not mere Americans.

The never before seen text messages, which were a part of the texts given to Congress by the Department of Justice, show that FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and his paramour FBI attorney Lisa Page discussed Strzok’s relationship with U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, who presided over a Dec. 1, 2017, hearing where former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Strzok was removed from Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office last year after anti-Trump text messages between him and his FBI agent lover were discovered by the DOJ’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz. But on Dec. 7, without warning, Judge Rudolph Contreras was removed as the presiding judge on Flynn’s case. Little information was given at the time as to why Contreras was removed.
— Sara Carter, 3/16/18

If those who’ve committed crimes (that anyone else would have been prosecuted, fined and/or imprisoned for) are allowed to escape the ramifications for their malicious actions, abuses WILL happen again and any American citizen who runs afoul of an ambitious, partisan, career government employee can and will be targeted for professional and personal destruction at a whim.

Donald Trump wins an election. From the very night of his election victory, the people who lost this election have refused to obey common decency, they have refused to obey the law. The law itself is now unequal. On the Trump side, people are being accused of doing things they didn’t do and are being rendered broke, penniless, defending themselves, while people on the Hillary side actually did break the law, actually did collude, actually did all of these things which are illegal, and they’re not being held accountable for a single bit of it.

Sorry, folks. We cannot have a country where some people are held accountable and other people aren’t. And particularly when people who are thought in their own minds to be at the pinnacle of power, when they’re above the law, when they’re unaccountable and the Drive-By Media fully supports that premise, sorry, folks, where are we headed?
— Rush Limbaugh, 4/25/18

Nowhere fast, if those in immediate peril have any say.

#DrainTheSwamp: Slow Motion

3/17/18: McCabe is fired while the left and their media lament the possible loss of his “career” employee benefits.

For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us.
— Andrew McCabe statement

Sucks to be like Mike, don’t it? Sad how no concern was displayed by the media when it came to the reputation and welfare of General Flynn, ensnared by the Mueller special counsel and FBI’s defamatory and degrading net.

Andrew McCabe IS not eligible for food stamps as his estimated net worth is around $11 million. How does that happen on a civil servant paycheck, and if he has those kind of assets, why was he so worried about losing taxpayer-funded, legacy benefits?

Because bad things are not supposed to happen to the government career.

The truth is finally coming out.

Andrew McCabe, onetime acting FBI director, leaked a self-serving story to the press and later lied about it to his boss and federal investigators, prompting a stunning fall from grace that ended in his firing last month, says a bombshell report released Friday by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
— Fox News, 4/13/18

Panic is setting in for Democrats desperate to retake the House in November.

Truth be told, party leaders are right to be disheartened by setbacks in the War against Trump. For the second time, the president was told he is not a target of Mueller, this time by Rod Rosenstein, the deputy assistant attorney general who created Mueller.

James Comey, of course, is on a book tour that has served a dual function: making him rich while also making him less trustworthy to both Democrats and Republicans. He and McCabe are trading accusations of lying, which is remarkable when you realize how many ordinary Americans they prosecuted for lying to them.

Comey is also attacking former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who responds by accusing him of making up a conversation.
— New York Post, 4/21/18

It can take a long time but those who’ve ruined lives with glee are finally sweating.

Cute how this works: Kick off the week with some “the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted” bombast from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, by which he rationalizes that his defiance of subpoenas and slow-walking document production to Congress — which is probing investigative irregularities related to the 2016 campaign — is required by DOJ policy and “the rule of law.” Then end the week with the Friday-night bad-news dump: the grudging removal of DOJ and FBI redactions from a House Intelligence Committee report on Russia’s election meddling.

Now that we can see what they wanted to conceal, it is clear, yet again, that the Justice Department and the FBI cannot be trusted to decide what the public gets to learn about their decision-making.
— Andrew C. McCarthy, 5/7/18

Let’s not call this the #swamp or #resistance, but call it what it is: an attempted coup d’etat….

… and again had Hillary won, we would have know about none of this and that’s what the #DeepState counted on.

UPDATE

The release of the Mueller report was (according to various media reports) supposed to be released, will be released this week, may be released next week… who knows when it will be released? But the left is beginning to sweat because after the years to accusing President Trump of colluding with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, the fact it never happened will soon be made public.

And we all know if there was proof of “collusion”, it would’ve been leaked to the media months ago and impeachment proceedings would have officially begun after Democrats reclaimed control of the House.

It’s beginning to look like there won’t be enough eggs for politicians, pundits, and media faces to go around.

Aside from the seditious perpetrated shenanigans within the alphabet agencies, we can only hope #FakeNews isn’t the only thing they’ll rightfully have to endure for years to come as the media will have slandered a sitting president for years, without proof for years.

Those within the #swamp who attempted to overturn the results of a presidential election must be made a very harsh example of because we all know, once the Democrat left feels they can get away with something, they WILL do it again until they get the results they find acceptable.

Fait Accompli

The long-anticipated Mueller report was delivered to Attorney General William Barr and the left didn’t get what they all assumed they’d get: proof of Russian collusion with Donald Trump to deny Hillary Clinton her assumed presidential victory.

1. President Trump was not indicted, nor did Mueller recommend an indictment against him for collusion or obstruction.

2. There were no major disagreements between Mueller and his managers at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

3. The Russians who tried to interfere in the 2016 election were exposed and charged — but no American was charged with any effort to conspire with Moscow and hijack the election.

4. While nearly three dozen people were charged, including a few close to the president or who worked for his campaign, no one in proximity to the president was formally charged with colluding with Russia. Most, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn or campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, were charged with process crimes or felonies unrelated to the main case, as in Paul Manafort’s secretive, multimillion-dollar foreign lobbying spree through Ukraine.
— The Hill, 3/22/19

Of course, Democrats and their media will not let an exoneration squelch the false accusation and narrative fed to the American people for over two years.

Let the liberal media meltdown begin.

They’ll never let go of the “collusion” accusation they’ve based their damaged reputations on… again.

Now, Mueller’s investigations leave one major mission unfinished: meting out justice to the intelligence, congressional, FBI and DOJ officials who appear to have used a political dirty trick to falsely weave an unproven narrative of Russia collusion.

There is a two-tier justice system. One for all of us and one for the Democrat-protected. Until we see otherwise, this is the new normal.