COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
ReplyDeleteJeff Sessions is flying around the country denouncing "Sanctuary Cities".
DeleteContinuing a fierce assault on 'sanctuary' policies, Sessions attacks California bill
And marijuana, that is a priority for Mr Sessions
The nation's top law enforcer is continuing to speak out against marijuana legalization.
"I've never felt that we should legalize marijuana," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Wednesday.
Mr Sessions used to be a 'States Rights' advocate.
DeleteThat ideology no longer suites him
Both Comey and Mueller are dirty. But not half as dirty as Obama and Clinton. I have mentioned on several posts, prior to the election and afterwards, that I found it astonishing how Obama was frothing at the mouth to get the vote out for Clinton. They knew the polls were showing that Clinton was in trouble. If Clinton was in trouble, Obama was in trouble. WTF
ReplyDeleteClinton, as President, would obviously had "acid washed " any and all agency files dealing with illegal surveillance. This will be the biggest political scandal in our lifetime.
Both Comey and Mueller are dirty. But not half as dirty as Obama and Clinton. I have my doubts about Sessions. Whois he trying to protect?
September 20, 2017, 12:05 am
ReplyDeleteBehind his political espionage of Trump, which benefited Hillary, lay an enormous sense of entitlement.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign memoir rests on an astonishingly audacious lie: that the very FBI director who made her campaign possible by improperly sparing her from an indictment doomed it. A normal pol who had mishandled classified information as egregiously as Hillary would have felt eternal gratitude to Comey. Only an entitled ingrate like Hillary would have the gall to cast her savior as the chief thorn in her side.
Nor does Hillary acknowledge another in-kind contribution to her campaign from Comey: his willingness to serve as a cog in Obama’s campaign of political espionage against Trump. Obama’s team of Hillary partisans, which included among others John Brennan, Susan Rice, and Loretta Lynch, wanted Comey to snoop on Trumpworld and he duly did.
It was reported this week that the FBI had until as recently as earlier this year been intercepting the communications of Paul Manafort, one of Trump’s campaign chairmen. This means that Comey, contrary to his lawyerly denial of Trump’s wiretapping claim, had the means to eavesdrop on any communications between Manafort and Trump.
Even at this late date, quibbling partisans in the media say that is insufficient proof of Trump’s claim. But could anyone imagine the Maggie Habermans bothering with such pedantry if George Bush’s FBI director had been snooping on David Axelrod? The same generation of reporters who watched All the President’s Men breathlessly now shill for the propriety of political espionage. They rush to offer what they consider high-minded reasons for wiretaps of Trump campaign officials. But those reasons, at least as this point, amount to nothing more than the haziest gossip. One of the supposed reasons for the wiretaps, rich in irony given Hillary’s complaint that foreigners interfered in the election, is that an ex-Brit spy, probably on Comey’s payroll (the FBI still won’t address this matter) and certainly on the payroll of pro-Hillary partisans, told U.S. government officials that Manafort was colluding with the Russians.
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{...}
DeleteHere Hillary benefited from the election-tipping of a foreigner, whose idiotic whisperings entertained by the FBI would turn up on the front pages of the New York Times at crucial moments in the campaign. This, by the way, throws light on another outrageously dishonest Hillary claim: that Comey never told anyone of his investigation into the Trump campaign. Of course, he did — through leaks. That was bad enough but Comey made the leaks worse by not telling reporters that the investigation into the Trump campaign excluded Trump as a target. Comey let reporters think that Trump was one. Again, no gratitude from Hillary.
Another recent revelation is that Susan Rice, one of Hillary’s most fervent supporters, spied on a post-election meeting between a prince from the United Arab Emirates and Trump aides. The media shrugged at the revelation, as if such snooping falls within the bounds of a blameless norm. An even slightly curious press, were it not in the tank for the Dems, would be agog at the news that one administration was spying on an incoming administration and demand an accounting of such an abuse of power. Had the George Bush administration, out of post-election spite, spied on pre-inauguration meetings between Obama’s people and officials from a Middle Eastern country, the press would still be talking about it as a historic abuse of power. But in Rice’s case, they hastily inform their audience that “such unmaskings are perfectly legal.”
The media’s customary double standard for Democrats, combined with its treatment of Trump as a singularly monstrous Republican candidate (and then incoming president), served as a safety net beneath such high-wire political espionage. Rice knew that even if she fell in her attempt to nail Trump the media would catch her.
The scandal at the center of the 2016 election was not that Trump colluded with Russians to win but that the media and the Obama administration colluded with Hillary to defeat him. The loudest cries of “foreign influence over the election” came from Hillary partisans who sought it, whether it was John Brennan running off to England and Estonia to collect dirt on Trump from their spies or deep-state clowns at the FBI who wanted to turn Christopher Steele into an asset. The villain, in this sorry fable, turned out to be the victim.
SPECTATOR
DeleteLet’s posit two points:
ReplyDelete1. Once the evidence of Hillary Clinton’s criminal activities became widely known, it wasn’t so much a matter of Comey making mistakes, but of Comey being put in an untenable position by events. Courtesy of Hillary’s felonies, Comey would influence the election EITHER by action or inaction.
2. For at least the last 6 months of the campaign, there was a real possibility that some lower-level FBI employee would sacrifice career for country and go public with details if the cover-up and inaction re Hillary’s crimes passed a certain level of egregiousness.
From the above, it follows: Comey was doing his best, under impossible circumstances, to run interference for Hillary and the Democrats. He did this by, first, trying to get in front of the bad news before it could come from less-controlled sources (the first 80 percent of his July statement; the October announcement of a re-start after Anthony Wiener managed to get into the act); and second, by giving out ludicrous statements, but with the patina of official authority, as to why an obvious prosecution would NOT take place (the last 20 percent of his July statement; the November “Never mind” follow-up on Wienergate.) This course of action appears to be chosen as a way to minimize the inevitable damage to Hillary’s campaign brought about by her own actions; that it was not enough, we may take as proof of a Benevolent Providence.
:)
ReplyDeleteNap's got it.
Good post, Deuce.
ReplyDeleteTHE NEW YORK POST
ReplyDeleteMnuchin says companies working with North Korea are ‘on notice’
By Mark Moore
Published: Sept 21, 2017 5:07 p.m. ET
Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed increased sanctions against the regime of North Korea in New York on Thursday.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said financial companies around the world “are now on notice” about doing business with North Korea.
“Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the U.S or North Korea, but not both,” he said, following up on President Trump’s announcement that he signed an executive order that targets the rogue regime and nations that do business with the country.
He said the actions will be “forward looking” and will take effect immediately in an effort to force President Kim Jong Un to cease his “hostile behavior.”
“For too long, North Korea has evaded sanctions and used the international financial system...for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” he said.
Asked whether Trump issued his executive order because sanctions imposed by the United Nations on North Korea’s imports and exports failed, he said the new penalties are “significant” because they allow the US to “freeze or block any transactions with any financial institution anywhere in the world that facilitates any transactions with the blocked person.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mnuchin-says-companies-working-with-north-korea-are-on-notice-2017-09-21
Enforcement will be impossible fkr the Trimp Administration to carry out against Chinese and Russian banks.
ReplyDeleteEspecially 2nd tier Chinese banks that do not normally operate in dollar denominated international transactions
The Chinese have several such institutions. There is no leverage for the US to use against those banks.
Munchkin knows that, even if my little butt slut doesn't
DeleteChina also helps North Korea evade sanctions that are supposed to block its access to the international banking system. Agents of North Korea, for example, are known to register companies in Hong Kong, set up offices in China and then utilize Chinese banks to conduct foreign financial transactions.
The Chinese also worked this scam to work with Iran, when there was a sanctions program instituted against that regime
DeleteThe operative word BEING NEW
And, as noted above, North Korean
China's central bank has told banks to stop providing financial services to new North Korean customers and to wind down existing loans with North Korean customers
Why !!!, you should have gone into the banking bidness, psycho crapping rat, instead of living in your mom's basement all these years after a career of war criminality.
DeleteYou might have been able to support your own daughter.
Though, knowing you, you would have spent it on yourself.
Put this asshole in The Dunce Box for a couple months, Deuce, for Christ's sakes.
As reported in 2013 referencing Iran
DeleteIn a conference call with reporters, Mr. Szubin described the sanctions as a large achievement that had left Iran “almost without recourse through ordinary banking channels.” At the same time, he said, “Iran is adapting.”
“Increasingly we’re seeing them turn to trading houses in third countries,” he said, “to facilitate movement of money that would ordinarily go through a bank.”
Robert "Butt Slut" Peterson has never been outside the Us
ReplyDeleteMy little butt bitch believes the MSM reporting on almost everything. Especially if it agrees with his preconcieved notions.
It is typical that he wants other peiple to step up and protect his bleeding anus.
DeleteNo one can be banned from Blogger, Butt Slut, or you'd have been purged when you calked Melody a "cunt"
Learn to enjoy your just desserts
** Exposed: The relationship between al-Qaeda and Iran -
ReplyDeletehttps://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=142858331&f=26412&c=5777387&u=49293618
Further proof that it was Iran we should have invaded after September 11th, not Iraq.
** 4 Muslim youth gang-raped Hindu teenage girl for 10 days, forced to convert -
https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=142850075&f=26412&c=5777387&u=49293618
“The Quran not only gave [Muslims] the right to rape — it condones and encourages
it.”
** Defense attorney: Muslim who plotted to behead Pamela Geller an “idiot,” not
guilty - https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=142845397&f=26412&c=5777387&u=49293618
A man accused of participating in a plot to behead conservative blogger Pamela
Geller became consumed by Islamic State group propaganda because he was overweight,
lonely and desperate for an escape from his bleak life, his defense attorney said
Wednesday.
Pam is putting one of them away, good for her.
** Oklahoma trial of Muslim who BEHEADED co-worker: “Slave to Allah” said he did it
because it's in Quran, “no regrets” -
https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=142856173&f=26412&c=5777387&u=49293618
Nolen carefully explained his interpretation of the Quran and said no one guided him
in the religion and that he came his beliefs on his own. "If you're not Muslim,
you're not on my side."
Ciao
DeleteGood night to all you others.
DeleteBye bye my little butt bitch
Jack Hawkins has the mind of a war criminal.
DeleteJack Hawkins IS a war criminal.
DeleteJack Hawkins is a sexual pervert.
DeleteJust look at his language.
That's why his wife ran away from him to Central America immediately after giving birth ("dropping the kid", his term) in the USA.
😁
Delete.
ReplyDeleteBoth Comey and Mueller are dirty.
Sometimes, it takes a thief to catch a thief.
:o)
.
That is far from being proved. This on the other hand, reeks:
ReplyDeleteTo obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act order to monitor a U.S. citizen, investigators must convince a judge they have probable cause to believe the person is acting as an agent of a foreign power, such as by conducting espionage against the U.S.
Analysts said the FISA court would have taken Mr. Manafort’s political role into account when weighing the second wiretap request and that investigators must have made a good enough case to persuade a judge to grant a wiretap on a person known to be in the close orbit of a presidential candidate.
“Judges are going to have questions about the tricky nature of issuing an order for someone who is part of a political campaign,” said Alan Butler, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s not going to get treated the same way as a normal routine application.”
Robert Deitz, who previously served as senior counselor to the director of the CIA and general counsel at the National Security Agency, said an application to surveil a politically connected person would have been subject to the same standard as any other application. He said it’s unlikely that politics would have played into the FISA court’s decision to grant an order.
“Serious government officials, the Department of Justice, Department of Defense and so on, they are always reluctant to do something that is going to have an influence on an election,” Mr. Deitz said. “I suspect federal judges are going to have that same reluctance, and I suspect that this application got very close scrutiny.”
The FISA court was established to provide judicial oversight of the U.S. government’s activities in a classified setting. It is able to approve applications for electronic surveillance and other searches as part of foreign intelligence investigations.
Mr. Manafort has called for the release of transcripts of his intercepted conversations, saying it would prove “there is nothing there.”
“He’s that confident there’s nothing there and certainly the FBI agreed because no charges were ever brought as a result of these FISA intercepts,” Mr. Maloni told 1A.
Late Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, released a letter he sent to the FBI asking if it ever bothered to warn the Trump campaign of the Russia probe.
He said wiretaps on Mr. Manafort make the question all the more pressing.
DeleteIt would seem that charges are about to be brought against Mr Manafort, in part one could assume, based upon information gleaned from the FISA surveillance.
My oh my, what possibly could Mr. Manafort have done that doesn't pale next to the crimes of Obama and Clinton?
DeleteNo idea, really
DeleteBut then I thought Petraeus should have been sent to prison for his actions, and he was not.
MISSION CREEP or CREEPY MISSION?
ReplyDelete...Tillerson should stand his ground. For America has no divinely mandated mission to democratize mankind. And the hubristic idea that we do has been a cause of all the wars and disasters that have lately befallen the republic.
If we do not cure ourselves of this interventionist addiction, it will end our republic. When did we dethrone our God and divinize democracy?
And are 21st-century American values really universal values?
Should all nations embrace same-sex marriage, abortion on demand, and the separation of church and state if that means, as it has come to mean here, the paganization of public education and the public square?
If freedom of speech and the press here have produced a popular culture that is an open sewer and a politics of vilification and venom, why would we seek to impose this upon other peoples?
For the State Department to declare America's mission to be to make all nations look more like us might well be regarded as a uniquely American form of moral imperialism.
Patrick J. Buchanan
MILITARY CAPABILITIES
ReplyDeleteBaltic conflict simulation concludes Poland is wasting valuable time
Reuben Johnson - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
21 September 2017
Key Points
The latest wargaming of a Russian invasion of the Baltic states and Poland has brought out some harsh lessons about the latter's ability to prevail
The key issue is the glacial pace of Polish defence procurement
From 12-14 September the Baltic Hegemon wargaming exercise had its second run-through in Warsaw, once again assuming a conflict with Russia in which Poland fights back as part of a larger NATO response. Poland and NATO forces ended the exercise in a position of advantage, but the sobering reality is that this frontline NATO country is desperately short of the assets needed to fight a modern military engagement with a Russian force – and the valuable time needed to procure those assets is seen as ticking by with no decisions being taken.
Janes 360
FISA should be done away with. It is like a Star Chamber. It is unconstitutional. It violates the 4th Amendment.
ReplyDeleteGo tell the Supremes
DeleteROME -- Officials are calling for increased police patrols and new laws to punish perpetrators after a spate of rapes around Italy.
ReplyDeleteAfter two new cases emerged Tuesday, Rome mayor Virginia Raggi declared it has been "a black September for Italy."
In Rome, a German woman reported being raped, robbed and bound in the swank Villa Borghese park overnight.
And in Catania, police on Tuesday arrested a man who allegedly raped a doctor to whom he had gone for medical help.
In August, a Polish tourist was raped and her partner beaten during a beach attack in Rimini.
The woman accused four Africans of the crime. The men, who were also accused of raping a Peruvian transsexual, is made up of two Moroccan brothers, 15 and 17, a 16-year-old Nigerian, and a Congolese who allegedly acted as their leader. He had come to Italy seeking asylum on humanitarian grounds, according to the Reuters News Agency.
The allegations fuelled rising sentiments in Italy that migrants are to blame for a disproportionate number of crimes committed in the country.
"Some 40 percent of rapes are being committed by foreigners who make up 8 percent of the population. You can't sweet this under a carpet," lawmaker Deborah Bergamini told Reuters News. "The influx of migrants is having major consequences."
Earlier in September, Matteo Salvini, of the far-right party Northern League, said on Twitter "There are too many of them. I will send quite a few home."
The Northern League has seen a jump in support since 2014, rising from 6 percent to over 15, rendering it the third largest party in the country. At the upcoming Italian election, they will ally with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party and Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party.
On the election, pollster Renato Mannheimer told Reuters News that, "The economy is a much more important issue, but sadly I think it will take a back seat to immigration."
WHAT IS IT ABOUT MALMO?
ReplyDeleteTHE QUANDRY:
Sweden has in recent years seen a sharp increase in the number of shootings per capita, with research suggesting that the Scandinavian country is statistically on par with southern Italy and parts of Ireland.
In 2016, some 250 shootings (random, fatal and non-fatal) were registered by police in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. In 2014, that number came to 200, indicating that Sweden is experiencing a drastic rise in such incidents.
“We don’t really know why yet, but what we can see is that the increase comes as we also see a rise in gang-related crimes and a growing number of criminal networks,” Manne Gerell, a criminologist at Malmö University, told The Local, after Swedish public radio first wrote about new research he is involved in.
One study which is yet to be published suggests that Sweden experienced four to five times as many fatal shootings per capita as Norway and Germany in 2008-2014, two otherwise similar countries. Previous figures have shown that deadly violence in general is going down in Sweden, but gun violence has gone up.
Gerell also singled out Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, as the one place where shootings are becoming particularly common.
HINT:
Scores of Swedes took the streets of Malmo, a southern city in Sweden, on Monday to protest an epidemic of violence that has taken the lives of far too many young people. The last victim was 16-year-old Ahmed Obaid. He was killed last Thursday after an unidentified gunman unleashed a salvo of bullets.
“Our kids should sleep well, play at play parks, feel safe,” Housam Abbas, the victim’s cousin, said, according to the Local.
Malmo, this once quiet city, is now overrun with violence. The culture of fear is so palpable that parents are no longer comfortable sending their children out to play.
"You have to look over your shoulder when you go out at night now. I don't let my little brother go out at night any more," said one high school student at Monday’s protest in front of city hall. "I hope that the politicians actually view this as a serious problem and start to solve this in Malmö."
After being handed a list of measures to curb the violence in the city, Justice and Migration Minister Morgan Johansson stated in a matter-of-fact tone: "We have to get rid of the weapons, we need tighter punishment so that those who are held for serious gun crime can be arrested immediately and not just be released a few days later."
What Johansson failed to mention, however, was the fact that the bulk of the violence stems from one community.
The Muslim immigrant community has a crime problem. It’s a truism that Swedish (and European) politicians have denied in bold-faced lies and assurances to the public.
Malmo, like Molenbeek, its sister city in Belgium, has become a breeding ground for criminals.
Thousands of Muslim immigrants have fled their war-torn homes in the Middle East to settle in quaint European cities filled with naïve and welcoming townspeople.
The Swedish establishment along with their fellows in France, England, Germany, Belgium and Denmark may not have noticed that since the great migration into Europe, crime, largely committed by migrants, has gone up manifold, leaving many to reassess their naïveté about hosting duties.
ReplyDeleteWait till the recently added cultural enrichment of the Africans show up in the statistics.
DeleteJust be thankful the majority of immigrants to the US are natives of the Americas
Deletethe majority ofCURRENT immigrants
Delete
ReplyDeleteJason Maloni, a representative for Manafort, told The Washington Post that Manafort had simply been trying to leverage his high-level role on the campaign to collect past debts.
But it was Manafort who, according to Deripaska, owed him money - not vice versa.
Legal complaints filed by Deripaska's representatives in the Cayman Islands in 2014 said he gave Manafort $19 million that year to invest in a Ukrainian TV company called Black Sea Cable. The project fell through, and Manafort all but disappeared without paying Deripaska back, the filings claimed.
In early 2016, Deripaska's representatives "openly accused Manafort of fraud and pledged to recover the money from him," according to The Associated Press. "After Trump earned the nomination [in May], Deripaska's representatives said they would no longer discuss the case."
Pray for the people of Dominica, who got a full force 5 hit from Maria.
ReplyDeleteBecause your prayers are all they have left.
Dominica knocked to its knees by Hurricane Maria's might - CNN
www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/world/hurricane-maria-dominica/index.html
10 hours ago - Over Dominica, in the Caribbean (CNN) Dominica was Hurricane Maria's first victim, and it was clear from a flight over the island nation that the ...
Hurricane Maria: Dominica 'in daze' after storm leaves island cut off ...
https://www.theguardian.com › World › Dominica
1 day ago - Dominica – the first island hit by the full category-five force of Hurricane Maria – is “in a daze”, officials have said, cut off from its Caribbean ...
Hurricane Maria: Families 'Feel Helpless' for Loved Ones on Battered ...
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../hurricane-maria-families-feel-helpless-loved-ones-batter...
15 hours ago - Families of people stranded on the Caribbean island of Dominica were desperate Thursday for any scrap of information about their loved ones ...
Hurricane Maria 'leaves 15 dead in Dominica' - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41354748
17 hours ago - At least 15 people are dead and 20 others are missing on Dominica after Hurricane Maria, the Caribbean island's prime minister has said.
In Devastated Dominica, 'Hams' Become Vital Communications Link ...
www.npr.org/...way/.../in-devastated-dominica-hams-become-vital-communications-link
14 hours ago - Brian Machesney (Call sign: K1LI), left, and Gordon Royer Jr. (J73GAR), in Dominica earlier this year, discussing the operation of a ham radio ...
Everything, crops, tropical forests, homes....all gone.
DeleteSTORY DEEP SIXED AND THE VIDEO "DISAPPEARED"
ReplyDeleteAn Australian news crew reporting on the “migrant crisis” in Stockholm, Sweden, was violently attacked by African Muslims in what was described as an Islamic enclave in the country’s capital city.
Upon entering an area inhabited by “mostly Somali migrants,” the news crew was accosted. At one point, the narrator states that a Somali motorist attempted to “deliberately [run] down” her cameraman. Following this incident, the news crew contacts the local police.
“[Swedish police] feel their presence will be provocative,” reports the narrator, indirectly evoking the growth of lawless Islamic ghettos across Europe resulting from left-wing policies of multiculturalism and mass immigration.
Prior to entering the minority ethnic ghetto, a male Swedish police officer advises the crew to leave him behind lest his presence be perceived as an affront to its residents. The police opt to observe the camera crew from a distance.
“I think it’s better if you go in without us,” says a Swedish police officer to the show’s host.
A Pew Poll showing the majority of Swedes are opposed to migration vanishes.
ReplyDeleteKim Fatso III now says he's going to detonate a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very bad and unwise choice for Kim Fatso III to make.
I am glad my grandfather left the Malmo area when he did.
ReplyDeleteVery, very glad.
On my mom's side, they were in Virginia in the late 1600's. Gramps was johnny come lately.
DeleteA word to the wise and the less-than-wise should be sufficient:
ReplyDeleteStick to the matter of the discussion on my posts.
Divert from the post on matters that are interesting.
Shovel the personal horseshit somewhere else.
My delete finger is getting very twitchy.
I shall be glad to follow your instructions.
DeleteI appreciate that, and so does everyone else with a functioning cortex.
ReplyDelete'We Need Help': U.S. Virgin Islands Governor On Devastation After Maria And Irma
ReplyDeletePresident Trump issued disaster declarations for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after the passage of Hurricane Maria.
Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks with U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp (@govhouseusvi) about the recovery effort there.
Interview Highlights:
"I had three islands — St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island — devastated by Hurricane Irma, and St. Croix was our base for restoration and recovery. And then here came Maria, and Maria decided, well, she wanted a piece of the Virgin Islands as well, and so a good section of St. Croix on the western end really got hammered hard. I mean the island was affected across the board, but the western end got hammered hard. So we're really right now making sure we check on our folks, make sure they're sheltered, they're fed, they're secure. We have a full curfew in the territory today. And I'm here working with the FEMA folks trying to make sure that we're reprovisioning more stuff to make sure we can feed our folks, give them water, and then we will turn our sight towards recovery, and the rebuilding of the entire U.S. Virgin Islands."
On the extent of power outages
"One-hundred percent out. Only those folks with power generations have power. The hospital is generated, we do the hospitals and the airports completely underground, so they have power. But everywhere else is relying on their own standby generators. The main distribution terminal from the plant where all those heavy power lines came down, that's damaged. So before they can get any place, have power, they've gotta get that assessed and then repaired, and start working on going out into the community."
On the power restoration timeline for St. Croix
"I believe we'll start seeing pockets of power probably within the week. But power restoration across the entire island will take months."
On what the U.S. Virgin Islands need most from the outside
"We need help. With our FEMA partners and our cruise ship partners, we're bringing in a lot of food, water, tarpaulins, personal hygiene packs, cots and blankets. That's really the immediacy of the need. We're asking folks who can to go to USVI Recovery and they can donate there. That's under the Community Foundation of the V.I., it's a 501(c)(3), and indeed it's been around for 30 years in the Virgin Islands, and they do all kinds of stuff to help the community, and we're coordinating donations there. But you know, folks that like to put missions together, we were asking them to think about food and water, and cots, personal hygiene packs. We're gonna soon have the DMATs, the disaster medical assistance teams, on the ground. We're expecting the C-17s to start arriving late this afternoon and this evening. I was able to speak to our Administrator William Brock Long of FEMA, and had a very good conversation with him, as well as the Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, as we coordinate the relief for St. Croix."
On which island is in the worst shape
"I know St. John is still the worst of it in terms of the extent of the damages. St. John and St. Croix and St. Thomas really hold a lot of the main infrastructure, particularly St. John is reliant on the infrastructure of St. Thomas, and we're working now, today they started back on power restoration there. St. Croix, we're just trying to fire up standby generators to water pumps and keep the city waters flowing and stuff like that. I can't tell you today which is the worst. It's worse in different pockets for many reasons, but it's just bad."
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{...}
ReplyDeleteOn what dealing with Maria and Irma has been like
"I have the distinct honor of being on deck with two [Category 5 hurricanes] in 12 days. Yesterday I was on 32 hours straight without sleep, and I was actually able to go and get a very hot shower and just lay down and sleep for five hours. And I truly got up much more refreshed today and much more focused. But I'll worry about me later as long as I can get a good chow in and coordinate the efforts and get them done, what need to be done, and take care of the folks. I'll be fine, if I see progress for the folks, that really helps me. That helped me personally to continue to drive on adrenaline and do what I am required to do."
PERSONAL NOTE
ReplyDeleteI had several clients and projects on St. Johns. Would often fly into St. Thomas, pick up a car, take the ferry to St Johns and enjoy something out of an old James Michner novel. I designed, developed and manufactured, critical architectural components, that were severely tested, outside the test parameters. (Jack told me wind gusts went to 200 mph. We never tested for that but I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy and designed accordingly)
After Irma, a friend, Jack, reported that the work we performed for his project, performed flawlessly.
Jack is a good guy, he hired a cargo plane loaded it with generators and supplies and with his crew were scheduled to fly to St Thomas at the time they closed the airport for Maria. I have not heard from him since. I will update you when i get in touch with him.
Politically, Jack can't get much further to the right without falling off the earth but he is a patriot the real deal.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many planes the glitterati in Hollywood and Manhattan loaded with generators and supplies.
Jimmy Kimmel, surely has bleeding fingers from all the cargo he loaded, fingers at least as tested as his bleeding heart. He does have a mouth and nose that needs a good bleeding.
ReplyDeleteChina: Trump Bank Ban Statement 'Not Consistent' With Facts
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman has said U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that Beijing ordered Chinese banks to stop dealing with North Korea is "not consistent with the facts,"
Mr Trump tendency to exaggeration is well known.
He is wrong about what China is doing, how they will do it and when they will do it.
Those in the US that believe what he says ... foolish at best.
No one else in the world takes him, or US, at its word.
Even though the US Sec of State has told all of them that ...
"The President speaks for himself"
DeleteAsked at a regular briefing about Trump's comment, Lu said, "As far as I know, what you have mentioned just now is not consistent with the facts."
Lu gave no explanation but added, "in principle, China has always implemented the U.N. Security Council's resolutions in their entirety and fulfilled our due responsibility."
The Chinese will
"Stay the Course"
DeleteChina’s foreign minister to visit Panama to forge new ties
Tourism, trade and maritime issues on the agenda for top-level meeting this weekend
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Panama at the end of this week, according to officials – three months after the countries established diplomatic ties at the expense of Taiwan.
The Central American nation’s foreign ministry said Wang would lead a delegation aimed at “advancing the bilateral agenda of Panama and China”, including on tourism exchanges, trade links and the maritime environment.
Traffic Jam In North Korea
ReplyDeletehttp://www.destinationtips.com/destinations/asia/24-forbidden-photos-inside-kim-jong-uns-north-korea/6/
Good place to try out the top speed of one's car.
.
ReplyDeleteRand Paul: No
John McCain: No
Susan Collins: TBD
Lisa Murkowski: TBD
.
John McCain: No
Delete?
I thought he was going to go with the Governor, and last I heard the Governor was for it.
He must be trying to 'cement' his reputation as a maverick.
Politically, I'll be glad when he's gone.
DeleteMaybe he's giving The Donald some payback for The Donald's early criticism of him.
DeletePerfectly justified, too, in a personal way, emotional way but not honest with the constituents.
.
DeleteAfter the cancer diagnosis, it appears he has decided to vote his conscience rather than his party.
He is insisting bills like this go through the normal committee process, be scored and open to amendments.
Sounds reasonable to me.
.
He"ll be there, politically, until he dies.
DeleteThen it is likely a Dem will take the seat in 2020.
Especially if Gov Ducey primaries Pence for the Presidency in 2020.
Lying RINO John McCain Says He Cannot Support Latest Obamacare Repeal Bill – But Ran on Repealing Obamacare
ReplyDeleteSeptember 22, 2017 by Jim Hoft 352 Comments
Senator John McCain told reporters today he cannot support the latest Obamacare repeal bill.
His hatred for Trump and the working man takes precedence over his campaign promises.
John McCain ran his election campaign on repealing Obamacare.
AD
John McCain even ran campaign ads promising to repeal and replace Obamacare.
VIDEO
John McCain is a liar.
Today McCain said he would not vote for the repeal of Obamacare — again.
McCain killed the bill in July.
Obamacare premiums in Arizona were up over 100% in 2016....
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/lying-rino-john-mccain-says-cannot-support-graham-cassidy-obamacare-repeal-bill/
I think he is just voting his final spite and payback at The Donald.
DeleteBut only John knows for sure, and he may have convinced himself otherwise, that he is doing it for noble purposes.
DeleteNo, he ran on replacing t h e ACA with something better.
DeleteWhich happens to be what Mr Trump ran on.
The current piece of legislation DOES NOT do that, in the opinion of those who are qualified, professionally, to have one.
Samantha Power sought to unmask Americans on almost daily basis, sources say
ReplyDeleteSamantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was ‘unmasking’ at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 – and even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, multiple sources close to the matter told Fox News.
Two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said the requests to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year. One source indicated this occurred in the final days of the Obama White House.
http://www.wnd.com/2017/09/obama-team-unmasked-americans-right-up-to-trump-inauguration/
Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year.
DeleteAdd Samantha to the list of those who should do some prison time.
DeleteHillary
Bill
Comey
AG Lynch
Mueller
Rosenstein
Debbie Wasserman Shultz
Huma Abedin
et. al.
O'bozo
DeleteAs long as they indict Trump, Quirk will be satisfied.
DeleteIt takes a thief, but Democrat thieves go free.
DeleteIt's just the way things are.
DeleteMr Trump was a Democrat, prior ro 2010.
DeleteIt is just the way things are
Two birds with one stone?
DeleteTo do what he promised, he just has to work with John, Chuck & Nancy .
It is just the way things are
He being Mr Trump, of course
Delete.
DeleteDougFri Sep 22, 05:13:00 PM EDT
As long as they indict Trump, Quirk will be satisfied.
Typical Doug.
Typical nonsense.
Typical whine.
I don't know how many times I have to say it. The Mueller investigation is way down on my list of exciting topics. It will be over when its over and let the chips fall where they may. I'll look at it when the results come in.
I have no interest in seeing Trump indicted (though lord knows he probably deserves to be for at least a few of the things he's pulled in his life). The country's got enough problems right now without adding that. On the other hand, if he's done something to deserve it I'm not going to join the chorus I expect will rise up here trying to rationalize and make excuses for the guy.
.
I agree with McCain, Paul, and Rat (the horror). Obamacare needs to be replaced, not altered. Those Pubs have had a long time to come up with something better than what they keep teeing up.
DeleteRepeal and Replace.....period.
DeleteRand Paul says the effort was fake. I agree. Their whole lives and existences are fake.
DeleteThose Senators.
DeleteTrump was a Democrat once. It would be hard not to be, in his business and where he lives. However,
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats have focused for so long on identity politics and demographic changes that they have forgotten how to craft great policy with which to govern effectively.
The Republicans have focused for so long on opposing the Democrats that once in power, they find themselves blinking in disbelief and unable to act.
Donald Trump saw through it all and stomped his way to victory IMO. He seems to be very good at playing both sides against the middle.
I hope HE stays the course.
Stomp being a relative term.
DeleteSqueezed into the office with 3,000,000 fewer votes than his opponent.
Mr Trump's fewer votes were just better distributed.
Providing him the victory
If he steers a middle course, with a solid 60 plus Senatorial majority, he'll do right by the country and the people that voted for him
DeleteIf it was about popular vote, he would have campaigned differently. Smart people understand that.
Deleterelative term or not, Hillary still has the boot prints on her back side. She was run over. Just like the other all so rans on the Pub side. So here we are.
DeleteNo doubt of who won ... And why
DeleteMr Trump cannot govern with the thin GOP majority in the Senate.
Will not be able to advance HIS agenda, unless he builds a coalition in the middle
Which it appears, to the dismay of all those who hate him, he is trying to do.
DeleteOn the Strange Trump stump -
ReplyDelete"Luther Strange was born an Eagle Scout, Old Glory in his heart and hands, he grew straight and tall and strong...."
Well, that's not exact quote, but close....
Actually, half the stump is about Trump his very self.....
DeleteThose people are going to be so tired after listening to all this they won't have the energy left to vote.
DeleteAn hour and twenty minutes.....
DeleteEven if you hate the guy you've got to admire his energy level for an old fart.....
New for Kim - "little Rocket Man"
Delete“F*** James Comey”: Protesters Try To Shout Down Comey’s Convocation Address — For 16 Minutes
ReplyDeleteALLAHPUNDITPosted at 6:41 pm on September 22, 2017
To cleanse the palate, there may not be a room anywhere in America that this guy can walk into at this point without meeting political hostility. If he’s among Democrats, he’s the man who tanked Hillary Clinton’s chances by reopening the Emailgate investigation 10 days before the election. If he’s among Republicans, he’s the man who refused three requests to say publicly that the president wasn’t under investigation in Russiagate and who then started leaking memos about their conversations after he was fired.
If he’s the honored speaker at the convocation for Howard University, where he’s a guest lecturer, he’s the man who speculated that rising crime in some cities could be the result of a “viral video effect,” in which cops are afraid to confront the bad guys for fear of being recorded by civil-rights activists. Imagine spending your career working in what’s supposed to be a non-political field and somehow ending up have made a political enemy of pretty much everyone in the country.
SEE ALSO: Live at 8 PM ET: Populist president campaigns against populist candidate in Alabama
I wonder what sort of reception he thought he’d get today. He’s a former head of the FBI addressing a historically black university at a moment when college audiences seem to be trying to one-up each other in showing how hostile they can be to the insufficiently enlightened. He would have been better off politely declining the invitation.
Protesters raised their right fists in the air and chanted, “We shall not be moved.” They also said, “F— James Comey” and “No justice, no peace.”
Comey was unable to speak at first due to the disruption. After several minutes, Comey tried to begin. “I hope you’ll stay and listen to what I have to say. … I listened to you for five minutes,” he said, before pausing again…
Comey had to raise his voice throughout the address as the chanting persisted. The protesters later said they were with the group HU Resist and were protesting “state-sanctioned violence.”
In his remarks, Comey said he appreciated the demonstrators’ “enthusiasm” but wishes they could understand “what a conversation is.”
Again: He knew he was speaking at a university, right?
The first clip will give you a taste of how badly things went but I recommend taking 20 seconds to skip around the full-length second clip, just to see how long the protest went on. For 16 farking minutes they chanted. Who’s indefatigability is more impressive, theirs or his?.....
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/09/22/f-james-comey-protesters-try-shout-comeys-convocation-address-16-minutes/
The first known reference to Kim Fatso III as "Rocket Man" was by The Economist in 2006.
ReplyDeleteThe Europeans have been calling him that for a long time.....
Trump uses the term a decade later and he's 'undiplomatic'.
Heard on Judge Jeanine sitting in for Hannity......
Here 'tis:
Deletehttp://time.com/4948559/donald-trump-rocket-man/
Actually the reference was to old man Rocket Man -
But he's not the first to use the epithet for a North Korean leader. In fact, Kim's father, Kim Jong-il was given the nickname on a July 8, 2006, cover of The Economist, a British business news magazine.
The title of the cover? "Rocket man."
If Little Rocket Man sets off a thermonuclear bomb over the Pacific Ocean my hunch is that's the end of Little Rocket Man, and alas a lot of other people.
DeleteGeneral Colin Powell used to talk of N. Korea becoming a charcoal briquette, and that was a long time ago....
What a world.
We've been directed to try to stay on topic, only wandering about if it is something interesting - this, I submit, is interesting -
ReplyDeleteThe Big Bang Wasn't The Beginning, After All
Starts With A Bang
The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Ethan Siegel Ethan Siegel , Contributor
NASA / GSFC
A Universe that expands and cools today, like ours does, must have been hotter and denser in the past. Initially, the Big Bang was regarded as the singularity from which this ultimate, hot, dense state emerged. But we know better today.
The Universe began not with a whimper, but with a bang! At least, that's what you're commonly told: the Universe and everything in it came into existence at the moment of the Big Bang. Space, time, and all the matter and energy within began from a singular point, and then expanded and cooled, giving rise over billions of years to the atoms, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies spread out across the billions of light years that make up our observable Universe. It's a compelling, beautiful picture that explains so much of what we see, from the present large-scale structure of the Universe's two trillion galaxies to the leftover glow of radiation permeating all of existence. Unfortunately, it's also wrong, and scientists have known this for almost 40 years.
Vesto Slipher, (1917): Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 56, 403
First noted by Vesto Slipher, the more distant a galaxy is, on average, the faster it's observed to recede away from us. For years, this defied explanation, until Hubble's observations allowed us to put the pieces together: the Universe was expanding.
The idea of the Big Bang first came about back in the 1920s and 1930s. When we looked out at distant galaxies, we discovered something peculiar: the farther away from us they were, the faster they appeared to be receding from us. According to the predictions of Einstein's General Relativity, a static Universe would be gravitationally unstable; everything needed to either be moving away from one another or collapsing towards one another if the fabric of space obeyed his laws. The observation of this apparent recession taught us that the Universe was expanding today, and if things are getting farther apart as time goes on, it means they were closer together in the distant past.
NASA / STScI / A. Felid
If you look farther and farther away, you also look farther and farther into the past. The earlier you go, the hotter and denser, as well as less-evolved, the Universe turns out to be.
An expanding Universe doesn't just mean that things get farther apart as time goes on, it also means that the light existing in the Universe stretches in wavelength as we travel forward in time. Since wavelength determines energy (shorter is more energetic), that means the Universe cools as we age, and hence things were hotter in the past. Extrapolate this back far enough, and you'll come to a time where everything was so hot that not even neutral atoms could form. If this picture were correct, we should see a leftover glow of radiation today, in all directions, that had cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero. The discovery of this Cosmic Microwave Background in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Bob Wilson was a breathtaking confirmation of the Big Bang.
NASA / WMAP Science Team
DeleteAccording to the original observations of Penzias and Wilson, the galactic plane emitted some astrophysical sources of radiation (center), but above and below, all that remained was a near-perfect, uniform background of radiation.
It's tempting, therefore, to keep extrapolating backwards in time, to when the Universe was even hotter, denser, and more compact. If you continue to go back, you'll find:
A time where it was too hot to form atomic nuclei, where the radiation was so hot that any bound protons-and-neutrons would be blasted apart.
A time where matter and antimatter pairs could spontaneously form, as the Universe is so energetic that pairs of particles/antiparticles can spontaneously be created.
A time where individual protons and neutrons break down into a quark-gluon plasma, as the temperatures and densities are so high that the Universe becomes denser than the inside of an atomic nucleus.
And finally, a time where the density and temperature rise to infinite values, as all the matter and energy in the Universe are contained within a single point: a singularity.
This very final point — this singularity that represents where the laws of physics break down — also is understood to represent the origin of space and time. This was the ultimate idea of the Big Bang.
NASA / CXC / M.Weiss
If we extrapolate all the way back, we get to earlier, hotter, and denser states. Does this culminate in a singularity, where the laws of physics themselves break down?
Of course, everything except that last point has been confirmed to be true! We've created quark-gluon plasmas in the lab; we've created matter-antimatter pairs; we've done the calculations for which light elements should form and in what abundances during the early stages of the Universe, made the measurements, and found that they match with the Big Bang's predictions. Coming forward even farther, we've measured the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background and seen how gravitationally bound structures like stars and galaxies form and grow. Everywhere we look, we find a tremendous agreement between theory and observation. The Big Bang looks like a winner.
Chris Blake and Sam Moorfield
The density fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background provide the seeds for modern cosmic structure to form, including stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, filaments, and large-scale cosmic voids.
Except, that is, in a few regards. Three specific things you would expect from the Big Bang didn't happen. In particular:
The Universe doesn't have different temperatures in different directions, even though an area billions of light-years away in one direction never had time (since the Big Bang) to interact with or exchange information with an area billions of light-years in the opposite direction.
The Universe doesn't have a measurable spatial curvature that's different from zero, even though a Universe that's perfectly spatially flat requires a perfect balance between the initial expansion and the matter-and-radiation density.
The Universe doesn't have any leftover ultra-high-energy relics from the earliest times, even though the temperatures that would create these relics should have existed if the Universe were arbitrarily hot.
Theorists thinking about these problems started thinking of alternatives to a "singularity" to the Big Bang, and rather of what could recreate that hot, dense, expanding, cooling state while avoiding these problems. In December of 1979, Alan Guth hit upon a solution.
DeleteE. Siegel / Beyond The Galaxy
In an inflating Universe, there's energy inherent to space itself, causing an exponential expansion. There's always a non-zero probability that inflation will end (denoted by a red 'X') at any time, giving rise to a hot, dense state where the Universe is full of matter and radiation. But in regions where it doesn't end, space continues to inflate.
Instead of an arbitrarily hot, dense state, the Universe could have begun from a state where there was no matter, no radiation, no antimatter, no neutrinos, and no particles at all. All the energy present in the Universe would rather be bound up in the fabric of space itself: a form of vacuum energy, which causes the Universe to expand at an exponential rate. In this cosmic state, quantum fluctuations would still exist, and so as space expanded, these fluctuations would get stretched across the Universe, creating regions with slightly-more or slightly-less than average energy densities. And finally, when this phase of the Universe — this period of inflation — came to an end, that energy would get converted into matter-and-radiation, creating the hot, dense state synonymous with the Big Bang.
E. Siegel, with images derived from ESA/Planck and the DoE/NASA/ NSF interagency task force on CMB research
The quantum fluctuations inherent to space, stretched across the Universe during cosmic inflation, gave rise to the density fluctuations imprinted in the cosmic microwave background, which in turn gave rise to the stars, galaxies, and other large-scale structure in the Universe today.
This was regarded as a compelling-but-speculative idea, but there was a way to test it. If we were able to measure the fluctuations in the Big Bang's leftover glow, and they exhibited a particular pattern consistent with inflation's predictions, that would be a "smoking gun" for inflation. Furthermore, those fluctuations would have to be very small in magnitude: small enough that the Universe could never have reached the temperatures necessary to create high-energy relics, and much smaller than the temperatures and densities where space and time would appear to emerge from a singularity. In the 1990s, 2000s, and then again in the 2010s, we measured those fluctuations in detail, and found exactly that.
NASA / WMAP science team
The fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, as measured by COBE (on large scales), WMAP (on intermediate scales), and Planck (on small scales), are all consistent with not only arising from a scale-invariant set of quantum fluctuations, but of being so low in magnitude that they could not possibly have arisen from an arbitrarily hot, dense state.
The conclusion was inescapable: the hot Big Bang definitely happened, but doesn't extend to go all the way back to an arbitrarily hot and dense state. Instead, the very early Universe underwent a period of time where all of the energy that would go into the matter and radiation present today was instead bound up in the fabric of space itself. That period, known as cosmic inflation, came to an end and gave rise to the hot Big Bang, but never created an arbitrarily hot, dense state, nor did it create a singularity. What happened prior to inflation — or whether inflation was eternal to the past — is still an open question, but one thing is for certain: the Big Bang is not the beginning of the Universe!
Astrophysicist and author Ethan Siegel is the founder and primary writer of Starts With A Bang! His books, Treknology and Beyond The Galaxy, are available wherever books are sold.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/09/21/the-big-bang-wasnt-the-beginning-after-all/#6cd869ff55df
Has a kind of pleasing Hindu aroma to me.....
A Joseph Campbell aroma, a Jewish aroma as seen through Joe's eyes.....
DeleteBack to Comey, et. al. -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 23, 2017
Hillary's Espionage and the Statute of Limitations
By Mark A. Hewitt
....The classic junior high school excuse, "the dog ate my homework," isn't valid under the law when the disappearance is suspicious.....
....Spoliation of evidence is prohibited by an array of laws and regulations. Also, anyone who destroys relevant evidence or assists in such destruction is subject to criminal prosecution, civil fines, tort liability, exclusion of testimony, and dismissal of claims, as well as adverse evidentiary inferences. We have little way of knowing if any one of the 33,000 missing documents under Mrs. Clinton's control could have been used "to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation."
The Trump DOJ should be making all possible efforts to retrieve the missing 33,000 emails and determine once and for all: "was it espionage or was it yoga?"
"You don't use BleachBit for yoga emails or for bridesmaids emails," Congressman Trey Gowdy said in an interview to Fox News. "When you are using BleachBit, it is something you really do not want the world to see."
The cabal of President Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI director James Comey did everything they could to protect Hillary Clinton from the politically explosive charge of espionage when it was obvious to anyone in the intelligence community what she was doing. There is sufficient and obvious evidence that like the Soviet spy Alger Hiss, Mrs. Clinton should be charged with espionage before the statute of limitations runs out.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/09/hillarys_espionage_and_the_statute_of_limitations.html#ixzz4tU0wl2DK
Also -
DeleteDemocrats Collude With Moscow Don
Why the intelligence community was so eager to flog Trump-Russia innuendo.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee as FBI director in May 2013. PHOTO: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
Sept. 19, 2017 7:00 p.m. ET
By the standards of a few weeks ago, Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer now are actively colluding with a guy who actively colluded with Russia to win the White House.
OK, Mr. Schumer in particular has known Donald Trump for decades. He knew there was little real substance to the Trump-Russia accusations. It was Mr. Schumer who publicly warned Mr. Trump of the folly of making a political enemy of the intelligence agencies.
Which brings us to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. If he hasn’t been asking himself some big-boy questions, he should start now. The FBI handed over to Mr. Mueller a counterintelligence investigation—not a hunt for a Trump crime, but a hunt for the truth about Russia’s role in the election.
The problem with the word “collusion” is that when Russia stirs up U.S. politics in its own interest, its actions can be convenient for different parties. That includes a U.S. intelligence community with its own ideas about what needs to happen. And, more than ever, the story line that Kremlin efforts were aimed with winsome simplicity at helping Mr. Trump seems largely a fabrication of these U.S. intelligence agencies.
If so, the moment of true political corruption may have come with Mr. Trump’s improbable, unexpected victory, when the agencies suddenly switched their diagnosis of Vladimir Putin’s motives. On Oct. 31, voters hadn’t yet gone to the polls. The New York Times summarized the Obama administration view that Russia’s effort “was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.”
Then came Mr. Trump’s unanticipated triumph, and the administration quickly revised its judgment from “Putin meddled” to “Putin meddled to elect Trump.” Stories in the Times and elsewhere, mostly citing Obama CIA chief John Brennan or people close to him, went further, hammering vaguely at the idea that Mr. Trump directly conspired with Russia.
The Trump dossier, in government hands for months, suddenly leaked into public view. Secret intelligence about Mike Flynn’s phone call with the Russian ambassador leaked into public view. Increasingly pathetic intelligence leaks tried to paint now-President Trump as betraying Israeli sources and “leaking” terrorism secrets to Moscow.
The media picked up and believed the fantastical claim that 17 intelligence agencies had agreed on the new explanation of Russia’s role. It turns out that handpicked personnel from three agencies drafted the finding. Handpicking is what you do when you want agents to come to a preordained conclusion.
DeleteNow ask yourself: Were the evolving claims about Russia’s motives based on any more solid intelligence than were the Trump dossier or Russia’s fake Loretta Lynch email? Or is the picture here of our intelligence officials serially grabbing after whatever flotsam serves their immediate needs?
Mr. Mueller’s recent apparent diversion into Trump business history and/or the tax practices of Paul Manafort isn’t just a hallmark of a special-counsel fishing expedition. This is a diversion from glaring matters at hand. Did FBI Director James Comey, as he reportedly told a closed congressional hearing, intervene in the Hillary email matter in response to likely planted Russian intelligence, setting off the chain reaction that may have shifted votes at the last minute to Mr. Trump?
The story of Mr. Comey’s reliance on possible Russian intelligence disinformation was widely reported by the Washington Post, CNN and others and then promptly dropped. No, this doesn’t mean Russia picked our president, if that’s the knowledge Mr. Mueller and some in the media think the American people need to be protected from.
It means that Mr. Comey and our blundering intelligence agencies, via their machinations to keep Mr. Trump out of the White House, may inadvertently have helped him win it.
What’s been going on ever since smells like a coverup. Remember, to Mr. Comey, Mr. Brennan and Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Mr. Trump was a buffoonish, irresponsible candidate. He also was certain to lose. To Team Obama, the threat that needed to be contained before Election Day wasn’t Russian meddling. The threat that needed to be contained was the Hillary email investigation.
Then came Mrs. Clinton’s shocking defeat, and Team Obama officials suddenly awoke to the realization that their actions might receive a scrutiny they never anticipated. That’s when Trump-Russia suspicions started to be flogged beyond their natural merits—to distract.
It simply isn’t true that everybody who puts on the uniform of his country is therefore the embodiment of Boy Scout values: trustworthy, loyal and brave. Mr. Mueller has a good reputation and we know nothing to gainsay it, but the coward’s way out is to accept the convenient precept that the only thing to see here is the possibility of Trump collusion. The public needs the truth from Mr. Mueller, not a coverup.
https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/dems-collude-with-moscow-don-1505862055
And last, concerning 'where the hell is Jeff Sessions ?' -
ReplyDeleteSeptember 22, 2017
Do we have a Justice Department or not?
By J. Marsolo
During the past few weeks, we have confirmed what we suspected. The Comey investigation of the Hillary email "matter" was a sham. We knew that Comey did not call for a grand jury, did not issue subpoenas, and granted immunity to most of Hillary's pals. Loretta Lynch told Comey to use the word "matter" instead of "investigation," and Lynch met with Bill Clinton days before the FBI questioned Hillary. But now we know that Comey wrote the exoneration letter before he interviewed Hillary and before he completed the sham investigation. Now we know why Comey did not put Hillary under oath when questioned. There was no point to it, since he had already decided to give her a pass. And not putting her under oath saved the additional problem that Hillary would naturally lie under oath, which would have required Comey to explain that Hillary lying under oath to the FBI was done without intent.
Now we know that Trump was correct when he said his lines at Trump Tower were "wiretapped." Maybe he did not use the exact language required, but everyone knew the meaning of Trump's charge. James Clapper knew but lied by saying there was no FISA warrant.
Comey knew but lied when he said there was no wiretapping of Trump.
Clapper and Comey knew there was a FISA warrant for Paul Manafort at Trump Tower. They knew that Manafort had worked as Trump's campaign manager and knew that the surveillance must have picked up Manafort speaking with Trump. Yet both insisted they knew of no such evidence. They both parsed words, in the best spirit of Bill Clinton parsing the meaning of "is" and "alone," not to answer fully and honestly.
The news about the FISA warrants on Manafort must have been leaked by Mueller's office; otherwise, how would we know about it? Mueller is clearly focused on Manafort, as evidenced by the morning raid with a no-knock search of Manafort's house. A no-knock warrant allows the police to enter without knocking or notice and is used when there is a probability that evidence will be destroyed between the time you knock on the door and the door's being opened. This is typical when the area subject to search contains drugs that may be flushed. But Manafort's warrant was for computers and documents that cannot be destroyed between the time of the knock and the entering, unless Mueller suspected that Manafort had taken Hillary's advice to scrub the computers with BleachBit. Imagine if Comey had investigated Hillary as Mueller is investigating Manafort.
It is a crime to leak a FISA warrant. Manafort has called for the Justice Department to investigate the leak and the reasons for the warrant.
We have also learned that Susan Rice and Samantha Power, both Obama political appointees, were unmasking the identities of numerous Americans from intelligence reports.
DeleteThis information requires an investigation by the Justice Department, with professional prosecutors, a grand jury, and subpoenas – in other words, a real investigation like Mueller's, not like the Comey investigation of Hillary.
The Hillary email matter must be investigated because of the importance of what she did, but more importantly for the reasons why Comey acted as he did. Simply stated, there was no real investigation of Hillary. The abuse of the surveillance to unmask the identities of Americans must be investigated. The reasons for the wiretaps on Manafort that ensnared Trump must be investigated.
But while Mueller is aggressively pursuing whatever it is he is investigating, spending millions, and creating his own justice department, our attorney general is missing in action. Meanwhile, Hillary is peddling her book, appearing on any TV show that will have her, attacking President Trump at every opportunity, and laughing at us because she escaped prosecution.
Attorney General Sessions made a yuge mistake in recusing himself from the "Russia" investigation, which led to the appointment of Mueller. He should have notified Trump that he would recuse himself so Trump could have appointed someone who is not afraid of the Democrats and their cheerleaders in the media. Sessions had a distinguished career as a senator and federal prosecutor, but his recusal and failure to investigate, especially the sham Hillary investigation, are inexplicable.
If Sessions does not wish to do his sworn duties, he should resign, or appoint a special prosecutor who will follow the law. Either we have a nation of laws or we do not
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/09/do_we_have_a_justice_department_or_not.html#ixzz4tU9deLzD
The crime Mr Mueller seems to be investigating, with regards Mr Trump ...
ReplyDeleteNot collusion, but obstruction.
Obstruction with regards the investigation of Lt Gen Flynn, who appears to have played 'fast & loose' with conflicts of interests while working in the White House.
The Lt Gen also collected unreported fees, $50,000 USD from RT to sit with Putin at an event of some sort.
Upwards of $500,000 from a Turkish narional representing, "Only the Shadow Knows".
That Mr Manafort colluded with Russians, possibly at a 'preponderance of evidence' standard, now.
That Mr Kushner, Don Jr and Manafort WANTED to collude, beyond a resonable doubt. They possibly conspired to collude, the subsequent investigation into, the President attempted to derail.
Judge Napolitano thinks the President to be in jepordy, in part because he thinks Mr Tromp' legal team is incompetent.