Kimberley A. Strassel: Crying Wolf on Impeachment
Posted: January 31, 2020 Filed under: Breaking News, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Adam Schiff, Donald Trump, Impeachment, Kimberley A. Strassel Leave a comment
The whole affair was a series of major fouls. The best outcome is a speedy acquittal.
Kimberley A. Strassel writes: The impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump is coming down to one big question: Will Democrats, by crying wolf, drown out the more legitimate Republican cry of foul?
“Foul” has served as the GOP’s most powerful and honest argument from the first days of these impeachment maneuverings. Democrats broke every standard of due process, transparency and fairness in their House investigation, making a mockery of their constitutional duty.
They hid the identity of the original accuser, denying Republicans and the country the ability to judge his motives. They held secret depositions, barring more than three-quarters of House members, as well as the press and the American public. They called 18 witnesses, but blocked the president from calling any in his defense. The White House legal team was excluded from the proceedings—prohibited from cross-examining witnesses, denied the ability to introduce any evidence that spoke to the central question of the president’s focus on Ukrainian corruption.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff secretly obtained and published the communications records of the president’s private attorney, a member of Congress and a reporter. Democrats withdrew their court challenge to compel a key witness, depriving the White House of the ability to defend its executive-privilege claim in court. And the legitimacy of the first portion of the House inquiry—including numerous subpoenas—is in doubt, since it was conducted before the House voted to open it.
Democrats approved two articles of impeachment that failed to identify a crime. Senators are instead asked to render verdicts on a vague “abuse of power” claim and on a “obstruction of Congress” charge that is the result of the House’s own decision not to litigate its demand for testimony. Those articles were passed by a partisan vote with no serious expectation of conviction, simply to make a statement: “He is impeached forever,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this month. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Leaker of the Free World’: New York Post Cover for August 30, 2019
Posted: August 31, 2019 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Humor, U.S. News, White House | Tags: corruption, FBI, Humor, Inspector General Report, James Comey, journalism, Leaking, media, New York Post, Press Leaks Leave a comment
A Letter To Our Subscribers, From The New York Times
Posted: August 8, 2019 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: journalism, media, New York Times, NYT Leave a comment
Dear Valued Subscriber,
For a mere $39.99 a month, about what you pay your Guatemalan nanny, you depend on us for thought-provoking personal reassurance, award-winning arrogance, hard-hitting sycophancy, and up-to-the-minute coverage of Orange Man – who is very, very bad.
The New York Times remains the world’s most prestigious Viewpoint Validation Service because we understand the crippling emptiness permeating the wealthy liberal soul – we are that emptiness – and you entrust us to make you feel good, smart and worthy every day.
While News and Opinion whisper watered-down postgrad nothings in your ear, Style and Dining guarantee you’ll be validated on the outside, as well as inside. Style and Dining remain committed to informing you on exactly what Brooklyn thought was cool three years ago. While the city that is our namesake – and the place you’ve built your entire identity around – might be a dead, stale cultural wasteland that no one cares about anymore, our Travel section reminds you that you’re a global citizen. Times subscribers don’t have homes, they have bases.
But even the pre-eminent VVS is vulnerable to mistakes.
As some of you are aware, we failed in our commitment to ferociously guard the sanctity of your echo chamber this week. A headline appeared on our front page suggesting Orange Man spoke against racism. While the headline was factual, it was a flagrant betrayal of the service you expect us to provide and we literally stopped the presses to fix it.
We listened to our readers on how to proceed from there. The headline writer was an elderly holdover from the days when we were a newspaper. But today’s lovepaper business is different. Inspired by the Texas revolutionary Joaquin Castro, our editorial board decided to take out a full page ad in our own paper to publish his home address and pictures of his family. Then we mobilized our 52,247 interns to brigade his employer, us, with phone calls to report that we have a racist in our ranks. The writer was immediately fired. Our interns, known as …. (read more)
Source: Spectator USA, as told to Chadwick Moore
The New York Times Company Tanks 20% After Saying Ad Revenue Will Decline Next Quarter
Posted: August 8, 2019 Filed under: Business, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: media, New York Times, Newspapers Leave a comment
- Shares of The New York Times Company plunged as much as 20% on Wednesday after the publisher said it expects total advertising revenue to fall next quarter.
- The newspaper publisher reported second quarter results on Wednesday that beat expectations for earnings per share but fell short of revenue estimates.
- The New York Times also said it added 197,000 new digital-only subscribers during the period, bringing the publication’s total subscriber base to 4.7 million.
- Watch The New York Times Company trade live.
The New York Time Company saw its stock tumble as much as 20% on Wednesday after the newspaper publisher said it expects advertising revenue to shrink by high-single digits in the third quarter.
[Read the full story here, at Markets Insider]
The publisher reported second quarter financial results on Wednesday. Here are the key numbers:
- Revenue: $436.25 million, compared to $439.25 million estimated by analysts
- Earnings per share: $0.17, compared to $0.15 estimated by analysts
- Operating profit: $37.9 million, down from $40 million last year
The company said it expects total ad revenue to decline in the high-single digits Read the rest of this entry »
Proving Hitchcock Right, Bird Attacks Are Turning Violent This Summer
Posted: July 17, 2019 Filed under: Art & Culture, Cinema, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock, Hitchcockian, Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Nature, red-winged blackbirds, The Birds, Tippi Hedren Leave a comment
Red-winged blackbirds and other species are stepping up divebombing attacks on humans.
Fleming Smith reports: Stephen Vedder used to enjoy peaceful lakeside runs near his Marlborough, Mass., home. This spring, after years of coexisting with an ornery neighbor, those tranquil outings came to an end.
The culprit was a red-winged blackbird.
More than 250 million of the birds live across North and Central America, and this summer some are feeling extra aggressive toward human neighbors—driving them to change walking routes, wear protective headgear or furiously wave arms above their heads as they jog.
“You talk to people about being attacked by birds, and they look at you like you’re crazy,” says Mr. Vedder, a 60-year-old programmer. “This is ‘The Birds’ all over again, but it’s real!”
Many people who have long lived in harmony with the birds have noticed an uptick in their aerial assaults this season. Bird-on-human attacks are growing more common as people encroach on their habitats, says Lori Naumann, information officer at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Read the rest of this entry »
‘CUFF HUXTABLE’: New York Post Cover for Sept 26, 2018
Posted: September 27, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Bill Cosby, New York Post, news, NYC, Sexual assault, Tabloid, The Cosby Show Leave a comment
Source: Covers | New York Post
Youth Unemployment Hits 52-Year Low
Posted: August 17, 2018 Filed under: Business, Economics, U.S. News | Tags: Employment, jobless rate, Labor, Teenagers, Unemployment, Youth Leave a comment
Data suggest more opportunities are available to some groups that historically struggled to find jobs.
>Andrew Duehren reports: The unemployment rate among young Americans fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years this summer, though the share of young people looking for work remained well below its peak in 1989.
Of Americans between 16 and 24 years old actively looking for work this summer, 9.2% were unemployed in July, the Labor Department said Thursday, a drop from the 9.6% youth unemployment rate in July 2017. It was the lowest midsummer joblessness rate for youth since July 1966.
One of those finding work was Teandre Blincoe, 17, who placed in a job this summer in an information technology division at Humana, a health insurance company based in Louisville, Ky., by KentuckianaWorks, which has partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to place low-income youth in summer jobs.
With his first job under his belt, Mr. Blincoe said he would feel more confident looking for employment in the future. “I have a really solid idea of how I can present myself and actually get a job.”
Low unemployment among young people shows that in a tight labor market more opportunities are opening to groups that historically have struggled to find jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
John Brennan, Heroic American
Posted: August 16, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: CNN, corruption, John Brennan, media, MSNBC, National security, Obama administration, Security clearance, Trump Administration Leave a comment
More and More of What We Do Depends on Government Permission
Posted: July 25, 2018 Filed under: Law & Justice, Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Department of Motor Vehicles, IRS, Licensing, Occupational Licensing, Permission Leave a comment
The granting or withholding of that approval is a powerful lever over our lives.
>J.D. Tuccille writes: Increasingly, that’s the theme of modern America. More and more of what we do is dependent on permission from the government. That permission, unsurprisingly, is contingent on keeping government officials happy. Rub those officials the wrong way and they’ll strip you of permission to travel the roads, leave the country, or even make a living.
That’s not a recipe for a free country.
In February of this year, the IRS began sending the U.S. State Department lists of Americans who have a seriously delinquent tax debt, so that these individuals can be denied the right to travel overseas.
“[T]his only applies to a seriously delinquent tax debt,” cautions tax attorney Robert W. Wood, “more than $50,000. Even so, that $50,000 includes penalties and interest. A $20,000 tax debt can grow to $50,000 including penalties and interest.”
Passport revocation isn’t contingent on criminal conviction, or suspicion of flight. Your travel documents can be yanked just for the outstanding debt—even if you’re already outside the country.
“If you’re already overseas, the State Department may, but is not required to, provide a passport permitting your return home,” writes former federal prosecutor Justin Gelfand. “And a 1952 statute makes it a crime for a U.S. citizen to enter or exit the country without a valid passport.”
That law requiring a passport to cross the border in either direction, combined with the threat to strip passports from alleged tax debtors, effectively makes the country one big debtors’ prison.
What connection is there between taxes and the right to travel? None. Members of Congress and other government officials just thought they could coerce more people into meeting IRS demands if they made the right to travel (not so much a “right” any more) dependent on keeping the taxman happy. Read the rest of this entry »
In Hollywood, ‘Anything Goes’ Becomes ‘You’re Fired’
Posted: July 23, 2018 Filed under: Entertainment, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: #MeToo, Activism, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hollywood, James Gunn, media, Mob, Twitter Leave a comment
Disney has severed ties with filmmaker James Gunn, who previously directed two ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movies. Photo: Jordan Strauss/Associated Press
Joe Flint reports: Executives and creatives are losing their jobs as the entertainment industry becomes less tolerant of offensive remarks, abusive behavior
Hollywood’s longstanding say-anything, do-anything culture is rapidly turning into one where the wrong words can have career-killing consequences.
Top executives at Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures and Netflix Inc., as well as creative talent who worked on the “Lethal Weapon” television series and “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies have been fired in recent months after allegations of offensive remarks, verbal abuse and other inappropriate behavior that in the past was more likely to have been tolerated, industry veterans said.
“Saying something offensive back in the day wouldn’t necessarily get you fired,” said Tom Nunan, a former high-ranking television executive and executive producer of the Oscar-winning movie “Crash,” about race relations in Los Angeles. “Now the consequences are severe and immediate.”
The recent firings comes in the wake of the #MeToo movement that started in Hollywood with allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and has had repercussions throughout workplaces. Mr. Weinstein has denied accusations of nonconsensual sexual acts. Read the rest of this entry »
TIME Cover, Corrected
Posted: June 22, 2018 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Illegal immigration, Illegal immigration to the United States, media, Migrants, satire, Time Leave a comment
Kimberley Strassel: Insubordination and Bias at FBI
Posted: June 17, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Bias, Bill Clinton, FBI, Hillary Clinton, Investigation, James Comey, Kimberley Strassel, Loretta Lynch, Michael Horowitz Leave a comment
The inspector general report is careful in its conclusions, but damning on the facts.
Kimberley A. Strassel Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 500-page report covers plenty, but it can be distilled to two words he uses to describe the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the 2016 election: insubordination and bias. Two terms that are chilling in connection with such a powerful agency.That won’t be the message from Democrats and most of the press, who will focus on a few episodes they will claim cost Hillary Clinton an election. Watch for them to blame former FBI Director James Comey, whom the report faults for “a serious error of judgment,” for having “concealed information” from superiors, and for “violation of or disregard for” departmental and bureau policies.
True, the report is damning about the man who lectures Americans on “higher loyalty.” It describes how an “insubordinate” Mr. Comey was, as early as April 2016, considering how to cut his Justice Department bosses from a public statement exonerating Hillary Clinton. He hid this scheme for fear “they would instruct him not to do it”—and therefore was able to “avoid supervision.” He then “violated long-standing Department practice and protocol” by using his July 5 press conference for “criticizing Clinton’s uncharged conduct.” In October, he made public that the FBI had reopened the investigation, even though the Justice Department recommended he not do so. Mr. Comey went rogue, and President Trump had plenty of justification in firing him in May 2017.
Yet it is the report’s findings on the wider culture of the FBI and Justice Department that are most alarming. The report depicts agencies that operate outside the rules to which they hold everybody else, and that showed extraordinary bias while investigating two presidential candidates.
There’s Loretta Lynch, who felt it perfectly fine to have a long catch-up with her friend Bill Clinton on a Phoenix tarmac and whom the inspector general slams for an “error in judgment.” Read the rest of this entry »
Affidavit: 9th-Grader Broke Up With His 33-Year Old School Counselor After His Mom Caught Them Naked
Posted: June 17, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Education, U.S. News | Tags: Bedford Police Department, Bedford Texas, Euless Texas, Fort Worth Texas, School Counselor, Sexual Misconduct, Shannon Hathaway, Student Teacher Sex, Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Leave a comment
Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
Bedford police issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday for 33-year-old Shannon Hathaway, who is accused of having a physical relationship with a Harwood Junior High School student.
Prescotte Stokes III reports: A 33-year-old school counselor is accused of having sex with a ninth-grade student nearly a dozen times and even told the student’s sister that she would leave her husband for him, according to an arrest affidavit.
The student ended the relationship after his mother caught them in bed in his room, the affidavit says.
Shannon Hathaway, a former school counselor at Harwood Junior High School, surrendered to Bedford police on Thursday morning on a charge of improper relationship between an educator and a student.
Her arrest came at the end of a monthlong investigation by the HEB Independent School District and the Bedford Police Department.
Attempts to reach Hathaway were unsuccessful Thursday evening and jail records did not list her attorney’s name.
School district officials became aware of Hathaway’s relationship with a former 17-year-old male student at Harwood Junior High when the teen’s sister informed school administrators of it on May 8, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram on Thursday.
The sister said that during the 2016-2017 school year, Hathaway would spend a lot of time with her brother, who is now 18 years old and has since dropped out of school. She said she never witnessed inappropriate behavior between the pair, aside from Hathaway holding her brother’s hand.
She said that Hathaway told her she was in love with her brother and would leave her husband for him, the affidavit says. The sister told investigators that her brother confided in her about having sex on numerous occasions with Hathaway at her home in Keller, his mother’s home in Euless and potentially at Harwood Junior High. It’s unclear in the affidavit what she meant by “potentially.”
In a voicemail sent to parents Thursday morning, HEB ISD Superintendent Steve Chapman said: “There is no evidence to suggest the alleged behavior happened on the Harwood Junior High campus.”
Hathaway was placed on paid administrative leave by the school district after the report came to light and the district began an internal investigation. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Brilliantly Mocks the ‘Magic of the Birth Canal’
Posted: June 6, 2018 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, U.S. News | Tags: Abortion, Birth, Choice42, Health, Logic, Magic, Medicine, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, science 4 Comments
… A few days ago, Choice42 released this deliciously sardonic video entitled “The Magical Birth Canal.” It is a searing take on the pro-abort narrative that says life begins at birth.
Quite simply, it is brilliant …
… Something within that canal confers humanity on a life that has been human from the moment of conception. But pro-aborts prefer to think of the unborn as a mass of tissue not worthy of protection. Read the rest of this entry »
OH YES THEY DID: Security Troops on U.S. Nuclear Missile Base Took LSD
Posted: May 25, 2018 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: 90th Missile Wing, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, ICBM, LSD, nuclear, Nukes Leave a comment
WASHINGTON (AP) — One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third admitted, “I absolutely just loved altering my mind.”
Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America’s arsenal. Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico.
“I felt paranoia, panic … I didn’t know if I was going to die that night or not … almost as if I was going to have like a heart attack or a heat stroke.”
— Airman 1st Class Tommy N. Ashworth
“Although this sounds like something from a movie, it isn’t,” said Capt. Charles Grimsley, the lead prosecutor of one of several courts martial.
A slipup on social media by one airman enabled investigators to crack the drug ring at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in March 2016, details of which are reported here for the first time. Fourteen airmen were disciplined. Six of them were convicted in courts martial of LSD use or distribution or both.
None of the airmen was accused of using drugs on duty. Yet it’s another blow to the reputation of the Air Force’s nuclear missile corps, which is capable of unleashing hell in the form of Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The corps has struggled at times with misbehavior, mismanagement and low morale.
Although seen by some as a backwater of the U.S. military, the missile force has returned to the spotlight as President Donald Trump has called for strengthening U.S. nuclear firepower and exchanged threats last year with North Korea. The administration’s nuclear strategy calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending in coming decades.
The service members accused of involvement in the LSD ring were from the 90th Missile Wing, which operates one-third of the 400 Minuteman 3 missiles that stand “on alert” 24/7 in underground silos scattered across the northern Great Plains.
Documents obtained by the AP over the past two years through the Freedom of Information Act tell a sordid tale of off-duty use of LSD, cocaine and other drugs in 2015 and 2016 by airmen who were supposed to be held to strict behavioral standards because of their role in securing the weapons.
“It’s another black eye for the Air Force — for the ICBM force in particular,” says Stephen Schwartz, an independent consultant and nuclear expert.
In response to AP inquiries, an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Uriah L. Orland, said the drug activity took place during off-duty hours. “There are multiple checks to ensure airmen who report for duty are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and are able to execute the mission safely, securely and effectively,” he said.
Airman 1st Class Tommy N. Ashworth was among those who used LSD supplied by colleagues with connections to civilian drug dealers.
“I felt paranoia, panic” for hours after taking a hit of acid, Ashworth said under oath at his court martial. He confessed to using LSD three times while off duty. The first time, in the summer of 2015, shook him up. “I didn’t know if I was going to die that night or not,” he said as a witness at another airman’s drug trial. Recalling another episode with LSD, he said it felt “almost as if I was going to have like a heart attack or a heat stroke.”
Airman Basic Kyle S. Morrison acknowledged at his court martial that under the influence of LSD he could not have responded if recalled to duty in a nuclear security emergency. Read the rest of this entry »
Cambridge Professor Stefan Halper Outed as FBI Informant Inside Trump Campaign
Posted: May 20, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Classified information, Democratic Party (United States), Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Moscow 1 Comment
‘It’s Not Syping Spying, it’s Investigating Spying’.
The revelation, stemming from recent reports in which FBI sources admitted sending an agent to snoop on the Trump camp, heightens suspicions that the FBI was seeking to entrap Trump campaign aides. Papodopoulous has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, while Page was the subject of a federal surveillance warrant.
[Read the full text here, at nypost.com]
“If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal,” President Trump tweeted Saturday, calling for the FBI to release additional documents to Congress.
The Halper revelation also shows the Obama administration’s FBI began prying into the opposing party’s presidential nominee earlier than it previously admitted. Read the rest of this entry »
Veronique de Rugy: Taming the Tyranny of the Agency
Posted: May 18, 2018 Filed under: Economics, Politics, Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Administrative State, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, John Tierney, regulatory agencies, The Administrative State Emerges, Tyranny, Veronique de Rugy Leave a comment
These members of the ‘government within the government,’ as The New York Times‘ John Tierney describes them, produce one freedom-restricting, economy-hindering rule after another without much oversight.
Veronique de Rugy
writes: The tyranny of the administrative state is real and hard to tame. Americans would be horrified if they knew how much power thousands of unelected bureaucrats employed by federal agencies wield. These members of the “government within the government,” as The New York Times‘ John Tierney describes them, produce one freedom-restricting, economy-hindering rule after another without much oversight. These rules take many forms, and few even realize they’re in the making — until, that is, they hit you square in the face.
Take the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule that effectively banned car dealers from giving auto loan discounts to customers on the claim that they might lead to racial discrimination (a dubious conclusion reached using flawed statistical models). Dodd-Frank, the legislation that created the CFPB, prohibited it from regulating auto dealers — so the CFPB quietly put out a “guidance” document to circumvent due process and congressional oversight.
[Read the full story here, at Creators Syndicate]
Thankfully, this time around, someone noticed. In recent weeks, the Senate passed a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act — a streamlined procedure for Congress to repeal regulations issued by various federal government agencies. The House is expected to follow suit soon and send the bill to the president’s desk, if it hasn’t already by the time you read this. Read the rest of this entry »
OH YES SHE DID: Teacher Caught Blowing a 13-Year-Old Student on Camera
Posted: May 16, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Arizona, Brittany Zamora, Las Brisas Academy Elementary School, New York Post, Sexual Misconduct Leave a comment
Zamora was taken into custody Thursday on one count of obscene material transmission to a minor, according to the Arizona Republic. A court commissioner then found probable cause to hold her on suspicion of eight counts of sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of child molestation and one count of transmitting obscene material.
“I know baby! I want you every day with no time limit.”
Brittany Zamora, a 27-year-old teacher at Las Brisas Academy Elementary School in Goodyear, allegedly had sex with the 13-year-old student three times and also performed oral sex on him in her car during encounters from Feb. 1 through March 8, according to court records obtained by the Arizona Republic.
Zamora and the teen also traded naked photos, he told police, saying their relationship started when the married teacher began “flirting” with him in a classroom chat group. She then sent the teen a nude picture of herself and another clad in lingerie.
During one exchange, the teen told Zamora he wanted to have sex with her again, court records show.
“I know baby!” Zamora responded. “I want you every day with no time limit.”
In another message, according to court records, Zamora said: “If I could quit my job and (have sex with) you all day long, I would.”
Zamora was arrested last week after the teen’s parents found text messages indicating a sexual relationship between the pair. The texts were discovered because the boy’s parents had installed an app to monitor his phone, police said. Read the rest of this entry »
Did the Bureau Engage in Outright Spying Against the 2016 Trump Campaign?
Posted: May 11, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: 2016, Central Intelligence Agency, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Government of Russia, Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, The Washington Post, United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 1 Comment
About That FBI ‘Source’
Kimberley A. Strassel writes: The Department of Justice lost its latest battle with Congress Thursday when it allowed House Intelligence Committee members to view classified documents about a top-secret intelligence source that was part of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. Even without official confirmation of that source’s name, the news so far holds some stunning implications.Among them is that the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation outright hid critical information from a congressional investigation. In a Thursday press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan bluntly noted that Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes’s request for details on this secret source was “wholly appropriate,” “completely within the scope” of the committee’s long-running FBI investigation, and “something that probably should have been answered a while ago.” Translation: The department knew full well it should have turned this material over to congressional investigators last year, but instead deliberately concealed it.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
House investigators nonetheless sniffed out a name, and Mr. Nunes in recent weeks issued a letter and a subpoena demanding more details. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s response was to double down—accusing the House of “extortion” and delivering a speech in which he claimed that “declining to open the FBI’s files to review” is a constitutional “duty.” Justice asked the White House to back its stonewall. And it even began spinning that daddy of all superspook arguments—that revealing any detail about this particular asset could result in “loss of human lives.”
This is desperation, and it strongly suggests that whatever is in these files is going to prove very uncomfortable to the FBI.
The bureau already has some explaining to do. Thanks to the Washington Post’s unnamed law-enforcement leakers, we know Mr. Nunes’s request deals with a “top secret intelligence source” of the FBI and CIA, who is a U.S. citizen and who was involved in the Russia collusion probe. When government agencies refer to sources, they mean people who appear to be average citizens but use their profession or contacts to spy for the agency. Ergo, we might take this to mean that the FBI secretly had a person on the payroll who used his or her non-FBI credentials to interact in some capacity with the Trump campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Team Obama Should Just Accept They Failed with Iran
Posted: May 2, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: Hezbollah, Iran, Islamic republic, Isral, Obama administration, The Secret Backstory Of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off the Hook, Tommy Vietor 1 Comment
Well, after driving the United States into a foreign-policy wreck, it’s time for former members of the Obama administration to ask themselves the same question.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has recovered documents that demonstrate Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. These clandestine plans for five 10-kiloton nuclear warheads were hidden and stored by Iran while it was developing a ballistic-missile program that would be able to carry them to Tel Aviv.
So not only did the United States end up saving the Islamic Republic from economic ruin with the Iran deal, it allowed the nation to solidify its foothold in Syria and strengthen its terrorist proxy Hezbollah. And not only did the Obama administration allow a humanitarian disaster to unfold in Syria while it was placating Russia to save the deal, it destroyed a sanctions program that was working.
[Read the full story here, at NYPost.com]
On top of that, we also now know that the Iran deal was sold to the American public in bad faith. Yet, even after these revelations came to light, the former Obama aides who established a media echo chamber meant to silence critics and mislead citizens were still taunting and whining from sidelines, offering one bizarre justification after the next to continue the charade.
Tommy Vietor, former spokesman for Obama’s National Security Council, defended the Iran deal by making the bewildering accusation that President Trump was “cooking up intel with the Israelis” to start a war. Read the rest of this entry »
A Higher Priority: The Investigation of James Comey Raises Serious Questions Over His Leaking Of FBI Material
Posted: April 24, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Classified material, FBI, James Comey, Jonathan Turley 1 Comment
Jonathan Turley writes:
… The release of the memos already contradicts critical aspects of Comey’s explanation for his leaking of the information. What is troubling is that many have worked mightily to avoid the clearly unprofessional aspects of Comey’s conduct. Comey could well be accurate in his account of Trump and justified in his concerns over Trump’s conduct but that does not excuse the actions that he has exhibited in both the leaking of the memos and the timing of his book. Comey’s best-selling book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, could prove tragically ironic if Comey showed a higher loyalty to himself in responding to his own firing rather than the investigation that he once headed. In the very least, there remains a serious question of Comey’s priorities in these matters.
Here is the column:
One day after the disclosure that the Justice Department inspector general has recommended criminal charges against former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, it has been confirmed that fired FBI director James Comey is under investigation by the same office for leaking information to the media. This disclosure followed the release of the Comey memos, which seriously undermined both Comey and his cadre of defenders. Four claims by Comey are now clearly refuted, and the memos reaffirm earlier allegations of serious misconduct.
James Comey was a leaker
For more than a year, various media experts have advanced dubious defenses for Comey, including the obvious problem that the man charged with investigating leaks became a leaker himself when as it suited him. Clearly, Comey removed the memos and did not allow for a predisclosure review of the material. Moreover, the memos were withheld by Comey’s surrogate, a Columbia University law professor, who reportedly read the information to the media.
If taking and disclosing memos were perfectly proper, why the surrogate and subterfuge? More importantly, Comey did not disclose the memos to Congress or hold copies for investigators. If Comey was not a leaker, then any fired FBI agent could do the same with nonpublic investigatory material. If the inspector general agreed with that position, then federal laws governing FBI material would become entirely discretionary and meaningless.
The memos were FBI material
Various media experts and journalists also defended Comey by portraying the memos as essentially diary entries. When I argued that the memos clearly were FBI material subject to limits on removal and disclosure, the response was disbelief. Legal expert and former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa said that these constituted “personal recollections,” and CNN legal expert and Brookings Institution fellow Susan Hennessey wrote, “It’s hard to even understand the argument for how Jim Comey’s memory about his conversation with the president qualifies as a record, even if he jotted it down while in his office.”
The plain fact, then and now, is that it’s hard to understand that it would be anything other than a record under federal rules. These were memos prepared on an FBI computer, in the course of an FBI investigation. All FBI agents sign a statement affirming that “all information acquired by me in connection with my official duties with the FBI and all official material to which I have access remain the property of the United States of America” and that an agent “will not reveal, by any means, any information or material from or related to FBI files or any other information acquired by virtue of my official employment to any unauthorized recipient without prior official written authorization by the FBI.” Read the rest of this entry »
‘SEX CULT!’ New York Post Cover for April 21, 2018
Posted: April 22, 2018 Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Religion, U.S. News | Tags: Cult, media, New York, New York Post, news, Newspaper, NYC, Sex, Sexuality, Slavery, Tabloid Leave a comment
Source: New York Post
New York Post Cover for April 18, 2017
Posted: April 18, 2018 Filed under: Breaking News, History, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Barbara Bush, headlines, media, New York Post, Newspaper, Tabloid Leave a comment
Source: New York Post
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Will Be the Third Most Valuable Private Company in the Country After a $500 Million Fundraising Round
Posted: April 15, 2018 Filed under: Business, Global, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation, U.S. News Leave a comment
Turns out this space stuff is pretty lucrative. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Elon told you so.
Tim Fernholz writes: Elon Musk’s bet on the future of space transportation is set to be the third-biggest private tech company in the US, behind only Uber and Airbnb, and worth more than $27 billion.
SpaceX filed paperwork in Delaware to raise an additional $500 million in capital, according to Equidate, a stock market for private technology companies that tracks such filings. Once the fundraising round is completed, the company’s value will have increased by approximately 25% in the last nine months, according to Equidate COO Hari Raghavan. It has more than doubled since 2015.
It’s not clear yet which investors will provide the cash, but the company has preferred to retain old investors than add new ones. Fidelity is rumored to be leading the round, and Musk is supposedly set to put up more equity in the company he founded out of his own pocket in 2002.
SpaceX confirmed the fundraising round, but did not share any details about how the capital will be used. Read the rest of this entry »
‘SYRIA STRIKE’: New York Post Cover for April 14, 2018
Posted: April 14, 2018 Filed under: Breaking News, Foreign Policy, Guns and Gadgets, Mediasphere, Russia, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: media, New York, news, NY Post, Syria, Tabloid 1 Comment
Source: New York Post
[VIDEO] MONTAGE: Zuckerberg Promises ‘More AI Tools’
Posted: April 12, 2018 Filed under: Entertainment, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, video Leave a comment
Amber Athey reports: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a simple solution for most of the problems presented to him by Congress: “more AI tools.”
Zuckerberg repeatedly stressed Facebook’s growing focus on artificial intelligence during his testimony Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] MONTAGE: Zuckerberg Doesn’t Know — His ‘Team’ Will ‘Follow Up’
Posted: April 11, 2018 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Science & Technology, U.S. News | Tags: Congress, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, media, video Leave a comment
During Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before two Congressional committees, it was unclear whether the Facebook CEO knew the answer to ANYTHING. Don’t worry though, his ‘team’ will be sure to follow-up.
Kevin Williamson Firing Shows the ‘Nonpartisan’ Media’s True Colors
Posted: April 9, 2018 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank, U.S. News | Tags: Atlantic Magazine, Kevin Williamson, Media bias, New York Post, New York Times Leave a comment
Karol Markowicz writes: Atlantic magazine editor Jeff Goldberg’s decision last week to fire writer Kevin Williamson drives home a discouraging point about the “mainstream” media: Conservatives need not apply.
Williamson came to The Atlantic from the conservative National Review, and his hiring sparked an uproar on the left. After combing through over a decade of his writings, detractors found a tweet where he called for death, by hanging, for abortion. When Goldberg learned Williamson also had referenced the tweet on a podcast, he gave in.
Surely Williamson’s quip was mere hyperbole, meant to provoke. After all, he never wrote an actual column making that argument, despite having written extensively, including about abortion. And his first tweet simply argued that “the law should treat abortion like any other homicide.”
Only when he was asked what kind of punishment he had in mind did he tweet back: “hanging.” He was “absolutely willing to see abortion treated like regular homicide under the criminal code.”
You don’t have to agree with that; I don’t. But Williamson’s position (not all pro-lifers’) is that abortion is murder (literally, the killing of a baby), that it should be made illegal and carry a punishment equal to that of similar crimes.
Is this more radical than Ruth Marcus’ view in The Washington Post? “I’m going to be blunt here: That was not the child I wanted,” she wrote about how she would have aborted her child if the baby was found to have had Down Syndrome. Her view is disgusting to conservatives, yet there was no move to get her fired. Read the rest of this entry »
‘WE OWN YOU: Pay Us For Your Privacy’: New York Post Cover for April 7, 2018
Posted: April 8, 2018 Filed under: Business, Entertainment, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Advertising, Facebook, media, New York, NYC, Sheryl Sandberg, Tabloid, Zuckerberg Leave a comment
Source: New York Post
[VIDEO] Black Gun Owner’s Epic Rant Against The Government Goes Viral
Posted: April 6, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Guns and Gadgets, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Self Defense, U.S. News | Tags: African Americans, Civil Rights, Gun rights, Mark Robinson, North Carolina, video 1 Comment‘When are you all gonna start standing up for the majority? … I’m the majority!’
Ryan Saavedra On Tuesday, while speaking during a city council meeting on curtailing gun violence, an African-American gun owner in North Carolina blasted government officials who want to restrict gun rights of law-abiding citizens.
“When are you all gonna start standing up for the majority? … I’m the majority! I’m a law-abiding citizen who’s never shot anybody,” Mark Robinson said. Read the rest of this entry »
YouTube Shooting: Female Suspect Dead at Firm’s HQ in San Bruno, California
Posted: April 4, 2018 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Guns and Gadgets, Terrorism, U.S. News | Tags: San Bruno, San Mateo County, YouTube Leave a comment
It wasn’t immediately known whether the woman killed herself or was killed by responding security or responding officers.
Alex Johnson and Andrew Blankstein report: A woman opened fire at YouTube’s California headquarters Tuesday afternoon before dying of a gunshot wound, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC News. Multiple injuries were reported.
It wasn’t immediately known whether the woman killed herself or was killed by responding security or law enforcement officers.
Little other information was immediately available. Zuckerberg General Hospital told NBC News that it had received three patients and was expecting more, while Stanford Medical Center said it was expecting four or five patients.
Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.
— Vadim Lavrusik (@Lavrusik) April 3, 2018
I got evacuated outside with my hands up. I’m with other people. I don’t think the shooter’s been found that I know of. I saw blood drops on the stairs I walk up everusay. I’m shaking. This is surreal. I hope my colleagues are okay.
— Lil | Milktea (@_lilchen) April 3, 2018
YouTube employees tweeted that they had evacuated the building in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, or were in hiding. Read the rest of this entry »
BUSTED: College Student Sarah Katherine Campbell Charged with Falsely Reporting Sexual Assault
Posted: March 4, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, U.S. News | Tags: Fraternity party, hoax, New York Post, Sarah Katherine Campbell, Sexual assault 1 Comment
Joshua Rhett Miller A Clemson University student who claims she was sexually assaulted at an off-campus fraternity party was arrested for lying about the attack, authorities in South Carolina said.
Sarah Katherine Campbell, 18, of Herndon, Virginia, was booked Wednesday on one charge of filing a false police report in connection with the alleged assault at the Delta Chi frat house in Seneca on Jan. 27, according to the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m a victim of sexual assault. This story is being blown out of proportion, and that’s all I can say.”
— Sarah Katherine Campbell
Her arrest came after investigators found evidence suggesting that the sexual encounter between Campbell and a man at the fraternity house was consensual and that Campbell “had not been truthful in the information” she gave to police, according to Jimmy Watt, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.
Reached by the Anderson Independent Mail on Thursday, Campbell insisted she’s not at fault and reiterated her original claim that she was assaulted at the party. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Moore, Russian Tool
Posted: February 21, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, Russia, U.S. News | Tags: Communism, Donald Trump, Marxism, Michael Moore, Moron, propaganda, Protest, Rally, Robert Mueller, Social media, Stooge, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment
Derek Hunter reports: Progressive director Michael Moore participated in an anti-Trump protest in New York that was organized by Russians, according to information released Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein announced indictments from Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday against 13 Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 election, highlighting how the Russians used social media to stir up strife and anger on social media using memes and unwitting Americans to do their bidding. One Russia-sponsored event was a protest of then President-Elect Donald Trump on Nov. 12, 2016, called “Trump is NOT my President,” and it involved Moore.
At today’s Trump Tower protest. He wouldn’t come down. Here’s my Facebook Live coverage: https://t.co/FzxOyljoK5 pic.twitter.com/PxjoALcyn8
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) November 13, 2016
The Woke Police Have Ruined Entertainment
Posted: February 12, 2018 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Activism, Global Panic, Mean Girls, Movies, Music, SJW, Tina Fey, Woke Leave a comment
Johnny Oleksinski When Tina Fey’s film “Mean Girls” came out in 2004, the comedy was lauded as a silly, satirical excoriation of modern high-school life and its cliques, cafeteria antics and materialism. “Mean Girls” was a “Clueless” for the millennial age. And it was so fetch.
Fast forward to 2018. “Mean Girls” is about to begin a new life as a Broadway musicalin March. But some Broadway watchers believe the subject matter is too mean for these kinder, gentler times.
“It just might not be the moment for ‘Mean Girls,’ ” one Broadway insider told me on the condition of anonymity. “It might feel stale and tone-deaf to the critics. And while this is something that could be critic-proof, maybe not.”
The fear of offending audiences isn’t limited to musicals about bratty teens. In this oversensitive era, TV shows, Oscar-worthy movies and pop music are all under pressure to be as nice as Betty Crocker. For millennia the best art has offended, tantalized, frightened, riled up and, of course, been life-affirming. But today the American public, looking more than ever like Soviet Russia, has just one rule for entertainers: Don’t rock the boat.
During last Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show, singer Justin Timberlake barely rocked his hips. The former boybander is responsible for the most famous sex stunt in the history of the event — Janet Jackson’s 2004 nipple-baring “wardrobe malfunction.” Read the rest of this entry »
Biased FBI and DOJ Officials Broke The Law And Tried To Decide The Election: An Annotated Timeline
Posted: February 6, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Devin Nunes, FBI, Hillary Clinton 1 Comment
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., returns to a secure area in the Capitol Jan. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Thomas Del Beccaro writes: There can be no question, at this point, that certain higher ups in the FBI and the DOJ did not want Hillary to be indicted and did not want Donald Trump to become President. Those efforts were not entirely independent of each other.
Below is a timeline of events – abbreviated though it is – that makes it rather plain that the FBI and DOJ were not investigating potential crimes objectively.
Indeed, they were committing crimes during the process in aid of their preferred outcomes.
1. 2007. Hillary Clinton wanted to be President. Hillary’s ambitions to be president started long ago. She ran for President in the 2008 cycle. In 2009, after losing to Obama, Hillary became Obama’s Secretary of State. She stayed in that post until 2013.
2. March 2015. The Hillary email scandal breaks. Hillary was using an unapproved/unsecured server and devices to communicate. She was using a private email account. Classified information was being sent through that email, server and devices – including when Hillary was abroad.
All of that is illegal. As 2015 unfolds, it becomes clear to the FBI and the DOJ that President Barack Obama was communicating with Hillary using her non-state department email. Obama was using an email and a name that masked who he was.
That had to be known to authorities long before March of 2015 given that it occurred prior to 2013.
As Andrew McCarthy points out in his recent article, there was no chance that the DOJ was going to indict Hillary because that would have required implicating President Obama. That was never going to happen. From thereafter, DOJ officials acted with that understanding, however illegal, in mind.
3. June 2015. Donald Trump announces his Presidential run.
4. March 2016. Trump has enough delegates to claim the nomination. Read the rest of this entry »
UNHINGED: Comey Rips ‘Weasels and Liars,’ Invokes Joe McCarthy in Twitter Rant
Posted: February 2, 2018 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, FBI Leave a comment
The former FBI director speaks out on Twitter.
Samuel Chamberlain reports: Former FBI Director James Comey lashed out at unnamed “weasels and liars” on social media late Thursday, hours before President Trump was expected to declassify a controversial memo about purported surveillance abuses over the objections of Democrats.
“All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would,” Comey wrote on Twitter. “But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up.
“Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy,” Comey added, a reference to the Wisconsin senator who claimed high-ranking government officials were Soviet spies in the 1950s.
Comey appeared to be referencing an FBI statement released Wednesday that objected to the release of the memo, authored by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. That statement said the FBI had “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
Sources told Fox News Thursday that the version of the memo Trump plans to declassify contains “technical edits” made at the FBI’s request. The sources said the edited version was shown to five FBI officials at the White House on Tuesday afternoon and the officials were satisfied that the edits addressed concerns they had about an earlier version of the memo that was reviewed on Monday. Read the rest of this entry »
