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."
Mr. Grassley’s comments come amid questions over the status of another top official at the agency. Andrew McCabe, who was told to leave his post as deputy director of the FBI earlier this year, may be fired in advance of his expected retirement from the bureau on Sunday, according to people familiar with the matter.
ReplyDeleteMr. McCabe was meeting Thursday with staffers in Mr. Rosenstein’s office in a last-ditch attempt to avert his dismissal for allegedly not being forthcoming in an internal investigation, one of the people said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that decisions about Mr. McCabe’s status should be left to the Justice Department but that the White House did acknowledge “some cause for concern.”
The Donald is only now installing his 'yes men'.
ReplyDeleteThe Q-ster was wrong in thinking he had already installed them.
Also a 2nd Special Counsel might well be appointed soon.
The tires are flat on Hillary's Scooby Van, and I feel the lug nuts loosening.
And hear, afar off, like a low thunder in the summer mountains, the low sounds of the conversation of the gods beginning to turn to laughter.
DeleteHo ho ho, laugh the gods.
DeleteCan you hear them ?
Now Hillary Clinton fractures her wrist after slipping in a palace bathtub during trip to India
Hillary Clinton's wrist injury is worse than originally thought
The former Secretary of State was forced to cancel her appearances in Jodhpur, India this week when she slipped in a palace bathtub and hurt her wrist
Doctors advised the 70-year-old to rest, but the pain grew unbearable so she was taken to the hospital early Wednesday morning
A CT Scan and X-ray confirmed she had a hairline fracture on her wris
This is the second time the former presidential candidate has injured herself on her India after slipping on steps at a 13th century harem
By Ashley Collman For Dailymail.com and Jessica Finn For Dailymail.com and Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 16:31 EDT, 15 March 2018 | UPDATED: 17:33 EDT, 15 March 2018
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5506823/Hillary-Clinton-fractures-wrist-slipping-bathtub.html#ixzz59smP7No5
This is the second time the former presidential candidate has injured herself on her India after slipping on steps at a 13th century harem
DeleteThe old political whore !
Ho ho ho
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DeleteThe Q-ster was wrong in thinking he had already installed them..
I believe you are wrong about this. I believe what I said was that Trump was installing 'another' yes man. There are yes men scattered throughout the administration no, Miller, Sanders, et al.
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DeleteThere are yes men scattered throughout the administration now, Miller, Sanders, et al.
I can't remember the exact wording of my comment but I am not surprised you misread its intent which was that the idea that even though Trump says he likes a diversity of opinion around him in the end he doesn't. He likes fighting among the troops for its entertainment value but not because he wants anyone actually opposing him especially in public.
It now appears e has now grown tired of the chaos even for its entertainment value.
He's always got golf for that.
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Since you can't remember what you said, I'll take your word for it, and I take it all back.
Delete.
DeleteI appreciate that.
Damn white of you.
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And Liz Peek, a writer and frequent guest on Fox Business and Fox News tweeted: “Hillary is supposed to be supportive of women but secretly she thinks they are cowed by husbands & bosses — shame on her. She can’t imagine women didn’t support her — that’s the biggest sign they actually think for themselves.”
ReplyDeleteHillary Clinton is turning out to be a touchstone for our time, just not in the way she expected. She reminds us almost every day that the left exercises a sexism that this nation has rejected.
It also reminds us of the importance of a genuine advocacy for women in this country that instead of punishing women for thinking for themselves, we value and elevate all women, making sure they’re free to make choices that best suit them.
Hear, hear !
DeleteMueller witness is convicted pedophile with shadowy past
ReplyDeleteBY BRADLEY KLAPPER AND KAREL JANICEK
Associated Press
March 15, 2018 10:36 AM
WASHINGTON
How did George Nader — Lebanese-American businessman, globe-trotting "fixer," convicted child molester — get caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation?
The answer, it seems, can be found in the shadows, where Nader has long operated.....
http://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article205252829.html#fmp
TRUMP’S CIA PICK IS THE GREAT FEMINIST MOMENT THE LEFT HATES
ReplyDeleteDoes real feminism look like Linda Sarsour, Hillary Clinton or the first female CIA head?
March 16, 2018 Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.
“2018 will be the year of women,” CNN declared last year.
What was the greatest achievement of women in ’17 and ’18? Ask the media and they’ll tell you that it’s Hillary Clinton running on her husband’s name and losing an election before blaming it on sexism. Or the #MeToo movement’s transformation from fighting abuse to #TimesUp calls for Hollywood quotas. Or the Women’s March, whose leader was caught cheering on a Farrakhan speech in which the racist leader told black women that their husbands were fat because they were too lazy to cook.
“You lazy woman," the man whom a leftist activist behind the Women’s March praised as the greatest, ranted. "Who the hell wants a woman with a good shape and a fat behind that don’t know how to prepare no food for her husband and her children?"
There’s the media’s official feminism.
Hillary Clinton blaming her defeat on white women listening to their husbands, Harvey Weinstein’s pals exploiting the crimes that they kept quiet about for special #TimesUp privileges and a Women’s March in thrall to a man who had declared, “Allah says in the Qur’an that men are a degree above women.”
While the media was chasing fake feminism, President Trump nominated Gina Haspel as the first female head of the CIA. And instead of celebrating this amazing milestone, the media wasted no time before smearing an accomplished woman who had succeeded in one of the country’s most dangerous fields.
The media fed the myth that Valerie Plame, an anti-Semitic socialite who was key to a leftist campaign against the Bush administration, was a covert operative who faced danger every day. Unlike Plame, last seen pushing the Iran Deal and ranting about the Jews, Haspel is the real thing. She joined the CIA in ’85 and received the Intelligence Medal of Merit.
Gina Haspel was on the ground around the world, including in the Thai jungle where captured Al Qaeda terrorists were interrogated. And Haspel proved to be much tougher than some of the male politicians back in Washington D.C. who wanted to fight the terrorists who had murdered thousands of people in this country, but expected them to give up their secrets without any inconvenience or pressure.
Haspel and the people under her did the difficult and unrewarding job they had to do for their country. And, like the Vietnam veterans of a previous generation, they returned from Asia to jeers and smears. The women and men who had gone into the heart of darkness had their names dragged through the mud and their careers destroyed by the Democrats and their radical leftist media allies.
Senator Dick Durbin compared them to the “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags” and “Pol Pot”. CNN's Anderson Cooper echoed him, "if you envision Nazis doing this, and I even hate to say this, if you envision the Khmer Rouge doing this." And Senator McCain, who is already attacking Haspel, sleazily compared it to Pol Pot, the Spanish Inquisition and the Japanese torture of Americans during WW2.
DeleteNow many of the same activists who originally took credit for stopping Haspel in ’13 are back at it again. And some turncoat Republicans like McCain have joined them. Senator McCain has accused Gina Haspel of being involved in “one of the darkest chapters in American history”.
One of the darkest chapters of American history came when we stopped fighting Islamic terrorists and instead turned on those who did. We have nothing to atone for when it comes to our treatment of terrorists. We have something to atone for when it comes to how we treated the men and women who put their lives and careers on the line from Afghanistan to Benghazi to fight Durbin and McCain’s pals.
The same media that feigned outrage at the myth of Valerie Plame were eager to leak the names and destroy the reputations of those intelligence personnel who had been in the trenches of terror. And the media never tired of its weepy depictions of suffering Islamic terrorists being tortured by Americans.
Despite Obama Inc’s obsession with diversity, Gina Haspel was not allowed to serve as National Clandestine Service director because of her work fighting terrorists. John Brennan, Obama’s CIA boss, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, blocked her in ’13. And so a talented woman was demoted instead.
"CIA director John Brennan apparently has decided to postpone and reverse the appointment of the first woman to head the CIA directorate of operations (which controls all covert operations and spying)," John Yoo wrote. "This is a lot more serious than the hypocrisy of the diversity-crazed Obama administration’s blocking the first woman for this most sensitive and important of intelligence positions. This is the very politicization of the CIA that conservatives feared when Brennan was nominated."
To maintain diversity, Brennan’s CIA elevated two other women instead. Diversity says that all women are interchangeable elements in a gender quota. It doesn’t matter which woman you pick, as long as it’s a woman. Romney was mocked for his “binders full of women” remark, but it was Obama who actually treated women as an interchangeable bunch of names, rather than as individuals with talent and ability.
DeleteWhile Obama may have kept her down, Trump recognized her merit. Real feminism is not made with #TimesUp style gender quotas, but it is the right to have your individual achievements recognized.
Gina Haspel’s belated recognition is an important moment for her and for the people in our intelligence community, a group that the media has recently begun celebrating in the abstract while smearing them as individuals, who put their reputations on the line after 9/11. And it’s also a historical milestone.
Last year we were told that Hillary Clinton, a political hack who owed her entire career to her husband, represented a political milestone. But Gina Haspel is here because she put in the decades of work. She’s one of the many hardworking women who were given an opportunity to rise by this administration. And their authentically historical milestones are being overlooked by a media obsessed with hating them.
"The 'First Woman CIA Director' Is a Smokescreen," an Atlantic smear insists. "Gina Haspel's gender is the least important fact about her." Like so many other examples of the pro-terrorist genre, it treats us to piteous images of the poor terrorists and the cruel CIA people who made them feel very bad.
And yet there is something very powerful in the image of a woman standing up to Islamic terrorists.
Al Qaeda, the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood and the various strains of the Islamic movement envision a world in which women are segregated and enslaved. The female interrogators who turned the tables on captured Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were making a meaningful feminist statement. They were doing what the abused women in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan would never be able to do.
They fought back.
The media’s idea of a feminist heroine is Linda Sarsour. And Sarsour’s idea of feminism was protecting a sexual harasser, praising Saudi Arabia and Farrakhan. That’s also Tamika Mallory’s idea of feminism. Gina Haspel’s idea of feminism was going after the Islamic terrorists looking to realize Sarsour and Farrakhan’s idea of a perfect Islamic society where women and non-Muslims know their place.
Gina Haspel’s nomination sends a message to Islamic terrorists and their domestic collaborators. And it shows that real feminism looks nothing like the Women’s March. It looks like the new head of the CIA.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269606/trumps-cia-pick-great-feminist-moment-left-hates-daniel-greenfield
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DeleteBullshit.
Some here complain about the devolution of the American culture. Haspel is the poster girl for that devolution.
The guy who informed the world about American rendition and torture at black sites was prosecuted. Haspel was promoted.
It's disgusting. Typical Trump. Typical yes man (woman?) nomination.
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She's a messed up dyke who can't say 'no' and cross dresses as a man.
Delete.
DeleteI was going to say that but I am making a personal effort to change the direction of our quickly degrading culture.
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FAKE NEWS
DeleteDid not happen!
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ReplyDeleteSpeaking of a Degrading Culture...
The spread of true and false news online
Lies spread faster than the truth
There is worldwide concern over false news and the possibility that it can influence political, economic, and social well-being. To understand how false news spreads, Vosoughi et al. used a data set of rumor cascades on Twitter from 2006 to 2017. About 126,000 rumors were spread by ∼3 million people. False news reached more people than the truth; the top 1% of false news cascades diffused to between 1000 and 100,000 people, whereas the truth rarely diffused to more than 1000 people. Falsehood also diffused faster than the truth. The degree of novelty and the emotional reactions of recipients may be responsible for the differences observed.
Science, this issue p. 1146
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ReplyDeleteSpeaking of a Degrading Culture II
The Robots are Coming and Jobs are Leaving
Technology and Outsourcing rather than Immigration are the Key Factor in the Loss of Jobs in the US
Famed physicist Stephen Hawking died Tuesday at the age of 76, and before he departed this world, he left us with warnings that Earth is headed for a “catastrophic ending” in the near future.
This doom will not come from a fiery asteroid or even global warming, but from rising inequality fueled by increasingly smart robots, Hawking said.
“Intelligent future AI will probably develop a drive to survive and acquire more resources as a step toward accomplishing whatever goal it has, because surviving and having more resources will increase its chances of accomplishing that other goal,” he said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything forum in 2015. “This can cause problems for humans whose resources get taken away.” His solution? We should all leave the planet and find new lives in outer space.
His dire prediction came as robots and artificial intelligence increasingly take over human jobs, with some 800 million people around the world — including a third of the workforce in the U.S. — predicted to be out of jobs by 2030 because of automation, according to an eight-month study from the McKinsey Global Institute. Though Hawking often warned about the upcoming robot takeover, he noted technology could also produce new solutions.
“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed,” he wrote. “Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution.”
This philosophy has also been described as automated luxury communism: the idea that in a future in which labor is automated, machines will do work that profits people and those profits can be distributed amongst them equally. In such a post-work society, things like a 10-12 hour work week, a guaranteed social wage, guaranteed housing, universal education, and healthcare would be the norm, Aaron Bastani, author of “Fully Automated Luxury Communism,” set for release in September 2018, told the Guardian.
“There may be some work that will still need to be done by humans, like quality control, but it would be minimal,” he said.
He noted Uber as an example: now the company employs hundreds of thousands of drivers around the world, but it is anticipated to replace them with self-driving cars by 2030. Under the tenets of luxury communism, such services would be provided by the state rather than a private company, with profits being used to increase the standard of living for all.
Some argue automation will not evolve to meet all of the needs of humans, or that the model of luxury communism isn’t environmentally sustainable. Hawking himself said the future didn’t seem bright for such a model.
“So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality,” he said...
Some pollyanish futurists disagree. I think they are probably wrong.
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What could possibly go wrong ?
DeleteEspecially since now we have sex robots ?
The paleolithic hunter/gatherers were cathected to the animals, the farmers to the land, in both instances to the giver of sustenance.
DeleteIn our AI Intelligent future will we become cathected to the robots ?
And what would this mean and do to us when/if we discover we are being used by them ?
Would we lose our self respect ?
Would we end up suicidal ?
I think it's time to get the hell out of here, to leave this sad planet.
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DeleteThe Beginning of Dystopia
The Robots are Coming and We Should Worry
Famed physicist Stephen Hawking died Tuesday at the age of 76, and before he departed this world, he left us with warnings that Earth is headed for a “catastrophic ending” in the near future.
This doom will not come from a fiery asteroid or even global warming, but from rising inequality fueled by increasingly smart robots, Hawking said.
“Intelligent future AI will probably develop a drive to survive and acquire more resources as a step toward accomplishing whatever goal it has, because surviving and having more resources will increase its chances of accomplishing that other goal,” he said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything forum in 2015. “This can cause problems for humans whose resources get taken away.” His solution? We should all leave the planet and find new lives in outer space.
His dire prediction came as robots and artificial intelligence increasingly take over human jobs, with some 800 million people around the world — including a third of the workforce in the U.S. — predicted to be out of jobs by 2030 because of automation, according to an eight-month study from the McKinsey Global Institute. Though Hawking often warned about the upcoming robot takeover, he noted technology could also produce new solutions.
“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed,” he wrote. “Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution.”
This philosophy has also been described as automated luxury communism: the idea that in a future in which labor is automated, machines will do work that profits people and those profits can be distributed amongst them equally. In such a post-work society, things like a 10-12 hour work week, a guaranteed social wage, guaranteed housing, universal education, and healthcare would be the norm, Aaron Bastani, author of “Fully Automated Luxury Communism,” set for release in September 2018, told the Guardian.
“There may be some work that will still need to be done by humans, like quality control, but it would be minimal,” he said.
He noted Uber as an example: now the company employs hundreds of thousands of drivers around the world, but it is anticipated to replace them with self-driving cars by 2030. Under the tenets of luxury communism, such services would be provided by the state rather than a private company, with profits being used to increase the standard of living for all.
Can AI improve the taste of kale? How AI and machine learning is changing the farming landscape.
Some argue automation will not evolve to meet all of the needs of humans, or that the model of luxury communism isn’t environmentally sustainable. Hawking himself said the future didn’t seem bright for such a model.
“So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality,” he said...
Magic 8 Ball Predictions (c) - Quirk Productions, Inc.
Because of the ever widening inequality worldwide, Magic 8 Ball predicts eventual conflict between the haves and the have nots of the world. Given that the 'have nots' have the numbers but they 'haves' have the money, the power, the influence AND the big guns, the Magic 8 Ball predicts the 'have nots' chances as "Not Good".
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ReplyDeleteOpinion: Quirk Productions
Does anyone else feel a kind of queasy, uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassed watching these Dick Morris videos?
At least in this one he has a clean shirt on. But what's with that room? Did his ex-wife take all the furniture during their separation and never give it back? Not that she should of course. There were the incidents with the call girls that got him fired by Clinton. And of course, revelations he had a second family and a six year old child he had been paying child support for.
He was a pollster that got fired from FOX for getting his predictions wrong.
I heard he was working for the National Enquirer.
Everyone deserves a second chance but three, four, five?
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I agree, and also wondered about the room.
DeleteWhere the hell is he, some motel ?
Wasn't he called TwinkleToes because he liked the hookers to nibble his toes ?
Also I hate his smile, and he kinda grunts once in a while.
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ReplyDeleteAn obvious solution? Given the dicks we have in D.C...
GOP Senate candidate proposes arming homeless people with shotguns
While Brian Ellison’s preference, a pistol, is illegal without a permit, open-carrying long guns is not.
A Michigan candidate for US Senate has proposed arming homeless people with pump-action shotguns in an effort to reduce crime.
Brian Ellison, who is running against Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow, says homeless people are “constantly victims of violent crime” and providing them with firearms would provide a deterrent.
Ellison, a Libertarian who is expected to be the party’s candidate in the November midterm election, said he had settled on pump-action shotguns for practicality purposes.
“Frankly I think the ideal weapon would be a pistol,” he told the Guardian, “but due to the licensing requirements in the state we’re going to have a hard enough time getting homeless people shotguns as it is...
Wayne LaPierre: "Hmmm, interesting."
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Well, make up your mind, Quirk.
DeleteIs the guy a Republican, or a Libertarian ??
GOP Senate candidate proposes arming homeless people with shotguns....
Ellison, a Libertarian who is expected to be the party’s candidate in the November midterm election
This is a good example of why so many find it so often so frustrating reading you.
One is so often left in confusion !
As for his proposal, I think it's nuts.
Sounds like setting up a continual shoot out at the OK Corral to me.
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DeleteMy bad.
The idea sounded so god awful I just assumed...
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DeleteAs for his proposal, I think it's nuts.
Sounds like setting up a continual shoot out at the OK Corral to me.
Speaking of nuts, many of the homeless the guy wants to arm are homeless because they are nuts, or at least, close enough to for government work.
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ReplyDeleteThe administration of the US government by Cadet Bone Spur began over a year ago.
Comprised of all the "Best People"
Now they are rearranging the deck chairs
Commentary at the EB going from beating dead horses to revisionist history.
Movin' on up.
ReplyDeleteNATION-NOW
GOP SEN. RAND PAUL OPPOSES TRUMP NOMINEES POMPEO, HASPEL; COULD IMPERIL THEIR CONFIRMATION
McCain won"t be there.
Without Rand Paul the nominee gets 49 GOP votes.
Which of the Democrats, described as "treasonous by the President, will cross the aisle to support those that support torture?
A New Beginning?
Not likely.
https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/downtown-truckee-california
ReplyDeleteGood Lord !
DeleteWill winter never cease in down Truckee ?
AND ! I saw a pedestrian and that snow plow again !
Thaanks for the update !
For the first time, California appoints an undocumented immigrant to a state post
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/california-undocumented-appointment-trnd/index.html
Sounds like the engineers were submitting the collapsed pedestrian bridge in Miami to some sort of stress test.....while traffic was freely moving underneath it....
ReplyDeleteThis simply is not a public display of brilliance.....
"Shouldn't we stop the traffic ?" says one civil engineer to another.
Delete"Why ?" says another.
"What if it fails the test ?"
"Ah ! You're a nitwit !"
Mittens escapes the death penalty -
ReplyDeleteJudge: No death penalty for Mitt Romney, Christie Whitman
Cherry Hill Courier-Post Published 11:02 p.m. ET March 15, 2018 | Updated 5:03 p.m. ET March 16, 2018
636549422145151033-CC-0222-Lincoln-Day-Dinner025.JPG
(Photo: James M. Dobson / The Spectrum & Daily News)
CAMDEN – A lawsuit seeking the death penalty for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman is frivolous and malicious, a federal judge in South Jersey has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler on Thursday dismissed the civil suit filed by a woman who claimed the politicians were among six people “trying to blow up” her Newark apartment building. The woman, Evette Feagin, also claimed the defendants “tried to blow up downtown Newark.”
Christie Todd Whitman
Christie Todd Whitman (Photo: File photo)
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former Essex County Executive James Treffinger also were involved in the plot, Feagin alleged in the lawsuit.
Feagin asked the court to impose the death penalty on all of the defendants except Farrakhan – she did not specify what punishment he should face – but the judge noted a federal court cannot grant such “an extreme measure” in civil actions.
He also described the complaint as “frivolous and malicious.”
“Even under the most liberal of constructions,” Kugler ruled, Feagin’s suit “fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted and is in no way plausible on its face.”
https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2018/03/15/judge-no-death-penalty-mitt-romney-christie-whitman/430915002/
The Judge should have ordered a psychological exam for the Plaintiff, and a restraining order on possessing guns too, if she has any, plus a fine for filing frivolous and malicious lawsuits, and ordered her to pay all the costs, and cease and desist with such court behavior.
“I’m In”: Trump, Kelly Reach Truce Guaranteeing He Stays On, Says WSJ
ReplyDeleteALLAHPUNDITPosted at 2:01 pm on March 16, 2018
Here’s a fun bit from last night’s WaPo story about McMaster’s maybe/maybe-not departure. The rumblings about mass firings have created a sense of madness within the West Wing, the paper claims. In politics as in college hoops: When you’re in the grip of March madness, there’s only one thing to do. Gamble!
SEE ALSO: In Venezuela, deli scales can’t hold the number of digits required to sell meat
The mood inside the White House in recent days has verged on mania, as Trump increasingly keeps his own counsel and senior aides struggle to determine the gradations between rumor and truth. At times, they say, they are anxious and nervous, wondering what each new headline may mean for them personally.
But in other moments, they appear almost as characters in an absurdist farce — openly joking about whose career might end with the next presidential tweet. White House officials have begun betting about which staffer will be ousted next, though few, if any, have much reliable information about what is actually going on.
I’ve got John Bolton over McMaster in the Natsec Regional. If Trump doesn’t pull the plug on the general by close of business today, my bracket’s busted.....
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/16/im-trump-kelly-reach-truce-guaranteeing-stays-says-wsj/
I'm in on Bolton.
DeleteBut not by the end of business day today.
OUTDOORS
ReplyDeleteIdaho Fish and Game kills 10 wolves
UPDATED: Thu., March 15, 2018, 11:31 a.m.
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017, file image provided the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, a wolf pack is captured by a remote camera in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in northeast Oregon. (uncredited / AP)
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017, file image provided the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, a wolf pack is captured by a remote camera in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in northeast Oregon. (uncredited / AP)
By Eli Francovich
elif@spokesman.com
(509) 459-5508
Idaho Fish and Game officials recently killed 10 wolves in an effort to improve elk survival rates in northern Idaho.
The wolves were killed in northern Idaho’s Lolo elk zone, according to a news release. The operation started in late February.
The Lolo elk population has declined in the last 25 years from a peak of 16,000 elk to less than 1,000 at points, according to the news release. Last year biologists surveyed approximately 2,000 elk. The department attributes the struggling elk population partially to wolf predation.
The department prefers when hunters and trappers control wolf populations, according to the IDFG news release. However, the Lolo elk area is steep, rugged terrain and is difficult to access, especially in winter. As of Monday trappers and hunters reported killing 22 wolves during the 2017-18 season. The trapping season ends March 31 and the hunting season ends June 30.
The operation was funded with Fish and Game license dollars transferred to the Idaho Wolf Depredation Control Board. The board was created by the Idaho Legislature in 2014.
In an email IDFG spokesman Roger Phillips said he did not yet have a cost estimate for the operation. IDFG contracted with U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to hunt and shoot the animals using helicopters. IDFG has conducted similar operations in the past and makes a point of announcing the operation after the fact.
A news release by the Center for Biological Diversity – a conservation group based in Arizona but with a staff attorney in Idaho – decried the killings.
“It’s tragic that our tax dollars paid for Wildlife Services to kill 10 more wolves under the guise of protecting elk struggling from habitat loss and degradation,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in a news release.
“Once again, this federal wildlife-killing program’s plans to aerially gun-down wolves in a remote area of the Clearwater National Forest were withheld from the public until the operation was complete. The public and our native wildlife deserve more.”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/mar/14/idaho-fish-and-game-kills-10-wolves/
Andrea Santarsiere is a total idiot.
DeleteThese Canadian wolves were not native to here.
In addition to wiping out the elk, they will eventually wipe out our remaining herd of Mountain Caribou in the Selkirks.
Selkirk Mountains caribou survey finds 11 endangered animals ...
www.spokesman.com/.../selkirk-mountain-caribou-survey-finds-11-endangered-anim...
Apr 7, 2017 - ENDANGERED SPECIES -- About a dozen animals may be all that remains of the woodland caribou in the endangered Southern Selkirk herd that roams near the U.S.-Canada border, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Reporting on the annual late-winter helicopter survey ...
S. Selkirk Mountain Caribou – Selkirk Conservation Alliance
scawild.org/south-selkirk-mountain-caribou/
Today, woodland caribou are found in only one location south of Canada, which are the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho and northeastern Washington. This small population, which historically numbered in the hundreds of caribou, has been reduced to less than 15 animals.
Fish and Game shouldn't be using helicopters as a platform for shooting the wolves, but C-130 Gunships.
DeleteThis solve solve the problemwe have foolishly created for ourselves by ourselves once and for all.
Lockheed AC-130 - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AC-130
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of anti-ground oriented weapons that are integrated with sophisticated sensors, navigation, and fire-control systems. Unlike other military fixed-wing aircraft, the ...
First flight: AC-130A: 1966 Manufacturer: Lockheed; Lockheed Martin; Bo...
Retired: AC-130A: 1995; AC-130H: 2015 Role: Ground-attack aircraft and close air supp...
GAU-12 Equalizer · Douglas AC-47 Spooky · Mk44 Bushmaster II · M102 howitzer
"Angel of Death" AC-130 Gunship in Action / Firing All Its Cannons ...
Video for c-130 gunship▶ 14:03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG8A3FXhZ_c
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DeleteThe Lolo elk population has declined in the last 25 years from a peak of 16,000 elk to less than 1,000 at points, according to the news release. Last year biologists surveyed approximately 2,000 elk. The department attributes the struggling elk population partially to wolf predation.
This sentence says it all to anyone with eyes to see and a little bit of common sense.
"The Lolo elk population has declined in the last 25 years from a peak of 16,000 elk to less than 1,000 at points..."
The sentence is intentionally misleading. Is the author saying that the elk population dropped from 16,000 to 1,000? Of course, not. We know this from the next sentence...
"Last year biologists surveyed approximately 2,000 elk."
So what, are they saying that there are only 2,000 elk in the state. If so, why didn't they say it?
"The department attributes the struggling elk population partially to wolf predation."
Really, what part. Do they even know? If so why didn't they say it? They make it sound like elk is the only food source for wolves.
Wolves eat ungulates, or large hoofed mammals, like elk, deer, moose and caribou, as well as beaver, rabbits and other small prey. Wolves are also scavengers and often eat animals that have died due to other causes.
"The department prefers when hunters and trappers control wolf populations, according to the IDFG news release."
Really? Of course they do, wolves don't rent motels, buy gear from outfitters, buy supplies from local merchants, pay fees to Idaho Fish and Game, provide photoshop opportunities for the Trump boys.
This is just another money making scam. They are no better than the scum who prowl the halls of D.C. This proves it.
"A news release by the Center for Biological Diversity – a conservation group based in Arizona but with a staff attorney in Idaho – decried the killings.
“It’s tragic that our tax dollars paid for Wildlife Services to kill 10 more wolves under the guise of protecting elk struggling from habitat loss and degradation,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity in a news release.
“Once again, this federal wildlife-killing program’s plans to aerially gun-down wolves in a remote area of the Clearwater National Forest were withheld from the public until the operation was complete. The public and our native wildlife deserve more.”
The elk are disappearing and moving further into the Lolo not because of wolves but because of disease, predation by hunters, encroachment into their natural breeding areas, such as been farmland is turned into subdivisions.
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And ....
ReplyDeleteChicago students trash Walmart during walkout over gun violence
By: Dane Placko
POSTED: MAR 15 2018 10:04PM EDT
VIDEO POSTED: MAR 16 2018 08:28AM EDT
UPDATED: MAR 16 2018 08:35AM EDT
Chicago police are trying to identify the dozens of students from Simeon Career Academy who they say took part in a vandalism spree while they were supposed to be protesting guns.
Shoppers and store employees were stunned by the destruction Wednesday morning at the Walmart in Chatham Market on the South Side.
Chicago police say it started when students at neighboring Simeon Career Academy were allowed to leave the school for 17 minutes to take part in the nationwide walkout to protest guns.
Police say between 40 and 60 of those students crossed the street and trashed parts of the store, knocking over product displays, yanking items off shelves, breaking packages and stealing small items like chips and candy.
photo
In a statement, a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson says: "We are very concerned by these allegations and we are reviewing the matter."
Some of the students that FOX 32 talked to at Simeon say they're angry that a walkout intended to promote peace instead led to vandalism and violence.
FOX 32 showed the video to 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins, who was instrumental in getting the big box retailers to move to the South Side.
"We've worked too hard to try to get these national retailers here in our community. And this doesn't help us. It makes no sense to tear up the community which you call home,” he said.
A Chicago police spokesman says they're reviewing what he calls "high quality" video surveillance from Walmart to identify the students at fault, as well as videos posted to social media.
He says those students will likely be charged with misdemeanors and face discipline from the school.
http://www.fox5ny.com/news/chicago-students-trash-walmart-during-walkout-over-gun-violence
I yield to other voices.
DeleteI'm going back to the sanity of The Truckee Cam.
I can't take it anymore.
Quirk:
ReplyDelete"The guy who informed the world about American rendition and torture at black sites was prosecuted. Haspel was promoted.
It's disgusting. Typical Trump. Typical yes man (woman?) nomination."
Does Rand Paul Owe Gina Haspel an Apology? | National Review
Delete2 days ago - A reading of the same page demonstrates that the Chief of Base present and quoted during this event was a man, not Gina Haspel. This is just one of many false claims about Ms. Haspel being peddled by the uninformed. Here is the page of the book in question:
https://www.nationalreview.com/blog/corner/rand-paul-attacks-gina-haspel/
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteStrzok and Page Plotted Covert Meeting with Presiding Judge in Michael Flynn Case
ReplyDelete"Rudy is on the [FISC]!” Page texted Strzok on July 25, 2016. “Did you know that? Just appointed two months ago.”
“I did,” Strzok responded. “I need to get together with him.”
“[He] said he’d gotten on a month or two ago at a graduation party we were both at.”
Strzok and Page, who reportedly had a romantic relationship, even discussed planning a dinner party with the express purpose of providing cover for a meeting with Contreras."
Flynn family is homeless.
Delete
Delete.
Mueller's my hero!
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"The text messages demonstrating the couple’s efforts to meet with Contreras were initially concealed from Congress as DOJ officials redacted the information before turning over the communications to lawmakers, congressional investigators told The Federalist. Some of the information contained in the text messages obtained by The Federalist remains unseen by congressional investigators."
Delete
Delete.
The DOJ and FBI are not corrupt.
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DeleteI'm beginning to suspect I may be a nitwit.
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Have you considered morally corrupt?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe only thing more entertaining and satisfying than watching Hillary, or Trudeau, make fools of themselves in India would be a joint tour of Hillary and Turdeau making fools of themselves in India -
ReplyDeleteIt takes a village: Hillary Clinton layers a scarf, shawl and custom kurta with extra-long sleeve to hide broken wrist after hotel tub fall while touring Jaipur
Hillary Clinton customized her traditional kurta while in Jaipur on Thursday to hide the plaster cast she received after fracturing her wrist in India
The loose-fitting top was pulled tight across her torso to create an empire-waist, thus lengthening one of the sleeves which she used to cover her wrist
Hillary, 71, also used her scarf and shawl to cover up the wrist as she took in the historic monuments with her right-hand lady Huma Abedin
She was treated at a local hospital in Jaipur on Wednesday after falling in her hotel tub just two days after twice stumbling down the steps of a palace
By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 13:06 EDT, 16 March 2018 | UPDATED: 16:25 EDT, 16 March 2018
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5510711/Hillary-Clinton-hides-broken-wrist-shawl-custom-kurta.html#ixzz59xmYayGc
Time to come home to the States and become invisible here, Hillary.
Even the Democrats are sick of you.
Has Sessions wimped out on McCabe ?
ReplyDeleteWas the deadline today at 5-pm Eastern, or is it tomorrow at midnight ?
My sources in Coeur aren't telling me.
WHOA !!!!
DeleteLaura Ingraham just this minute reports that her sources just told her McCabe has just been FIRED!!!
You heard it here at the EB first.....
If there were Justice in this world, Judge Contreras would be jailed along with all the others.
ReplyDeleteThe laughter from the far off mountains is beginning to fill the valleys.
ReplyDeleteI think I even hear Frank Church chuckling in his grave.
DeleteCheck out Truckeecam now!
DeleteBlue/white snowset.
Will do in a minute, but first:
DeleteMcCabe Quote:
"If I'm going down I'm taking everyone else with me."
HO HO HO !
Good Lord !
DeleteThere's a large blue/white fog taking over the entire town of Truckee !
The weather in Truckee looks to be symbolic of our nation's 'weather' right now.
DeleteMcCabe is not the type of guy to fall on his sword. This will be entertaining.
ReplyDeleteTrump is very mean.
ReplyDeleteComey should be Marandized before he takes his book victory tour.
ReplyDeleteNY TIMES STORY
ReplyDeleteAndrew McCabe, a Target of Trump’s F.B.I. Scorn, Is Fired
By MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN 17 minutes ago
Lack of candor is a fireable offense at the F.B.I., but Mr. McCabe’s last-minute dismissal from the agency was carried out against a highly politicized backdrop
Andrew McCabe Releases Angry Statement Following Firing, Blasts President Trump
Deletehttp://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/__trashed-30/
DeleteMike Flynn Jr. Celebrates McCabe’s Firing – Unleashes Ferocious tweetstorm
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/mike-flynn-jr-celebrates-mccabes-firing-unleashes-ferocious-tweetstorm/
However, former FBI director James Comey, also fired by the Trump administration, defended his former employee, saying in January that McCabe “stood tall” as “small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on.”
Deletehttps://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/andrew-mccabe-firing-recommended-fbi-deputy-director/
Delete.
They're moral giants.
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The move, which had been expected, was made on the recommendation of FBI disciplinary officials and comes ahead of an inspector general report expected to conclude that McCabe was not forthcoming with the watchdog office as it reviewed the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
ReplyDeleteSessions said in a statement that investigators “concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/jeff-sessions-fires-former-fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe/
One set of standards for "Justice," another for the slaves.
ReplyDeletehttp://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/376788-if-andrew-mccabe-lied-could-he-be-charged-like-michael-flynn
McCabe sees McCabe as one of the great men of all time, according to his statement.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete.
That's how I see me.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSay, that was a good tweetstorm by young Flynn.
DeleteGeneral Flynn is out in California campaigning against Maxine Waters.
DeleteAll is forgiven, if there is anything to forgive.
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ReplyDeleteDoes Rand Paul Owe Gina Haspel an Apology? | National Review
Perhaps, at one time. Today, the thought of anyone apologizing for anything in D.C. can only be considered quaint.
In the real world, common courtesy would demand he apologize for using a news report that got the dates wrong. She couldn't have overseen torture at the time including that of Abu Zubaydah because she wasn't at the Thai prison at the time.
However, that has nothing to do with my comment. She was there running the place later, she was there while torture was being conducted, and if she wasn't there while Abu Zubaydah was being tortured she was there while al-Nashiri was being tortured.
And the stories continue on how after being promoted through the CIA it was Haspel who drafted the memo and convinced her immediate boss at the time to destroy all those torture tapes even though there was an order out specifically demanding that all tapes and other medium associated with the torture investigation be preserved.
I contend there is no way she should run the CIA.
Will she? Questionable.
However, if she is confirmed, her and Trump will will make a very compatible couple, after all, it was Trump who said he wants torture, not the torture we've seen but even tougher torture.
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she and Trump
Delete.
ReplyDelete.
Mueller's my hero!
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Bot Boy is at it again.
I don't believe anyone here has ever said 'Mueller is my hero', well except for Doug on numerous occasions. The comments are after all under his name and contain no quote marks or italics.
What I have said here is ...
1. The Mueller investigations seems to be proceeding smoothly and I can wait until its completed before offering up comments on the results.
2. Mueller seems to be conducting a typical investigation just as any other prosecutor would do.
3. He is moving efficiently and for the most part without all the leaks we usually see in D.C.
4. Based on the actions he's made public, he seems to know what he is doing and the results show it.
5. While he is attacked constantly on this and other right wing sites, there never seems to be any specific charges of malfeasance being made against him regarding his investigation.
However, I do occasionally ask Dougie the following two simple questions and have in fact done it numerous times...
4. "Do you believe any of the people who have pled guilty or any of the people who were indicted were either not guilty or shouldn't be indicted and if so what do you base that on?"
-and-
"Show me any instance where Mueller has operated illegally or unethically in conducting his investigation."
Usually, when I ask either of those two questions, Doug ignores the questions and simply runs away and hides until the heat dies down then later he returns and puts up the same old bullshit.
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Mueller's my hero!
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like some untethered bot running a continuous loop.
I'm beginning to think Mueller really is his hero and that the dot thing is simply his sub-conscious attempt at trying to bask in my reflected glory.
Kind of gratifying in a way but still...
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I'm beginning to think Mueller really is his hero and that the dot thing is simply his sub-conscious attempt at trying to bask in my reflected glory.
DeleteYes, Yes !!!
Now you mention it is does seem so OBVIOUS !!
HOW COULD ANYONE ELSE NOT HAVE SEEN THIS UNTIL NOW ? ? ? ? ?
ho ho ho
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DeleteExactly.
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