[Townhall] Former FBI Director James Comey is sitting with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees behind closed doors on Friday to answer (or not answer) their questions. Congress is investigating how FBI and DOJ handled the Hillary Clinton and Russia probes and, as you can imagine, Comey was one of the top witnesses on their list.
It doesn't seem to be going as planned. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) appeared to be most frustrated, explaining to the press that Comey came with two attorneys, one of whom has instructed his client to answer very few questions.
"We absolutely need to get answers," Issa said.
The Republicans are also frustrated with a witness who has yet to show. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has yet to appear, and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) had a few guesses as to why.
(National Sentinel) Treasonous: The Deep State continues to work against POTUS Donald Trump in every way possible, up to and including bringing the U.S. and China to the brink of a hot war.
Earlier this week, POTUS Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping dined together at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The primary subject: Trade.
Following the dinner, both sides announced some progress. The U.S. and Chinese governments would suspend tariff regimes for 90 days while trade negotiators from both countries attempted to work out a more permanent compromise.
Making trade fairer between the U.S. and China is a central tenet of POTUS Trump’s economic agenda and a major part of his "MAGA" plan. Without question, there needs to be a better balance: On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced that the U.S. trade deficit has grown to a near-monthly record of about $55.5 billion in October, the highest since 2008. And most of that was with China.
Following the dinner/meeting, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that it was "very successful," adding, "we have confidence in the implementation" of what was agreed upon.
[CNS News] Commenting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of alleged collusion in the 2016 campaign, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova said Mueller will not charge the president with a crime -- there is no evidence Trump did anything illegal -- and that history will show this entire exercise was crafted to "frame Donald Trump for a crime he did not commit."
The "Mueller investigation is a joke, has been a joke, should be over," he said.
DiGenova, who helped prosecute attempted presidential assassin John Hinckley, added that Mueller "has played his role beautifully with the assistance" of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is the "single, most fundamentally dishonest lawyer in America" and who "deserves the guillotine."
[Real Clear Politics] Tucker Carlson said the left used to pretend that you have a right to think for yourself, something they are not even pretending to care about anymore. He said the current ruling class considers themselves gods who render their own judgment.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Freedom of speech. A lot of people voted for Donald Trump in the hope they’d have more of it. Two years in, the opposite has happened. Our ruling class has clamped down as never before on personal expression. Gone is the free exchange of ideas we were promised as Americans. In its place: mandatory, soul-deadening conformity. An entire population forced to repeat the same mindless platitudes, or else. An axis of left-wing corporate power, academia, media, and lawmakers have aligned to curb your right to speak freely, which is to say, your right to think for yourself. When they control your words, they control your mind. The left used to deny that this was their goal. They’re not even pretending any more. They’re baring their teeth and snarling. Get in line or we’ll hurt you.
In a speech Monday night, CEO Tim Cook pledged that Apple, one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world, will do whatever it takes to silence dissenting opinions:
COOK: Hate tries to make its headquarters in the digital world. At Apple, we believe that technology needs to have a clear point of view on this challenge. There is no time to get tied up in knots. That's why we only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division and violence: You have no place on our platforms.
#1
And Tucker is right there nuzzling that teat. So credible...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/08/2018 4:31 Comments ||
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#2
If it's Cook's platform, he can make the rules for how it's used. Same with Facebook, Twitter and all the rest of them. Screw 'em. I never used them anyway. I can still say and think what I want.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/08/2018 12:36 Comments ||
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[CBC] A new album of recently unearthed Yiddish songs counters the Second World War narrative of Jewish people as passive victims of Nazi soldiers.
Titled Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II, the album features 17 songs written by Soviet Jews during the war telling tales of resilience and resistance.
Some are written by soldiers of the Red Army, with powerful lyrics about the Jewish people's survival of attempted genocide throughout history, or graphic descriptions about fighting Nazi soldiers on the battlefield.
"This rage against the German army is the rage of a soldier fighting the war," Anna Shternshis, a University of Toronto Yiddish studies professor, told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"We get that raw emotion only from materials from songs like this written during the time of the war. Because once the war is over, people start moving on. They start thinking about how they make sense of their lives now."
#1
I wonder if Rantburgers have heard of the poem "Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk" written by Itzhak Katzenelson, who was murdered in Auschwitz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzhak_Katzenelson
I haven't been able to find a full English translation. It was translated into German by East German songwriter Wolf Biermann.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/08/2018 14:15 Comments ||
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[Mercer at Townhall] In the United States, even Customs and Border Protection apologizes for doing its job. CBP is supposed to "protects the public from dangerous people and materials attempting to cross the border ..."
On one of the networks that wants all people, dangerous or not, to cross the southern border into the U.S., if they so desire, a CBP officer was bending over backwards to appear like a "global force for good." (That, believe it or not, was the U.S. Navy’s motto, between 2009 and 2015!)
Tear-gassing rubble-rousing migrants, who were charging his officers and breaching the U.S.-Mexico border, was in the service of protecting ... the migrants, especially The Children. Perhaps that’s in the oath of office a CBP officer takes?
Law enforcement officers entrusted with the safety of the American people struggle to articulate pride in executing their mandate. Attached to the expected self-loathing repartee is, invariably, a declaration of loyalties to The World.
It’s instructive to contrast the apologetics around defending the U.S. border and the American people with the absence of apologies on Israel’s borders.
In May this year, "Tens of thousands of Palestinians massed near Gaza’s border fence, threatening to ’return’ to the lands their forefathers lost when Israel was created in 1948." They wanted in.
Israeli soldiers responded not with tear gas, but with bullets. They killed over 60 protesters who threatened to breach the border. The number has since risen to 120.
Most of us, this writer included, would condemn such excessive force.
Yet surprisingly, the Economist‐a liberal, pro-Palestinian, most excellent weekly‐pondered but briefly and nonchalantly about Israel’s army having used excessive force, concluding almost callously: "Every state has a right to defend its borders."
#1
"Tens of thousands of Palestinians massed near Gaza’s border fence, threatening to ’return’ to the lands their forefathers lost when Israel was created in 1948."
Lost in the failed war to destroy Israel. Just like the Germans three years before lost Prussia and Silesia in a failed war. Both those provinces were ethnically cleansed. Right of return? Ask the Russians and Poles.
#2
looking for a massing of water cannon bearing trucks that would hose down the wall whenever scaling attempts were discovered. non lethal method and provides a bath for those still trying....
and if periodically some 10w-30 Pennzoil found its way into the plumbing,, well moving parts do need lubricated
#3
looking for a massing of water cannon bearing trucks that would hose down the wall whenever scaling attempts were discovered.
People get twitchy when you talk about autonomous killbots guarding the border, but they could be as easily equipped with water cannons in place of a chain gun.
#4
The title is an interesting idea. What if law abiding folks showed up and started throwing rocks a the rock throwers. It'd be interesting to see those that defend the Palestinian rock throwers and the caravan rock throwers suddenly reverse course and suggest how inhuman it is.
[American Thinker] Poland, Europe, and NATO have all been targeted by Russian information attacks. Moscow has been mastering the methods of covert aggression for years, bringing down the levels of security in many European countries, and particularly in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEE). The strengthening of NATO’s Eastern Flank would serve to curtail Russia’s influence over the region. Therefore, the Kremlin has intensified its aggressive activities. This was particularly visible during this year’s edition of the Anakonda military exercise, a key training event for Polish Armed Forces with a high participation of allied countries and organizations. Can someone please define the term "European Order" ?
Several conclusions can be drawn from analysis of the activities Russian propaganda has taken against ANAKONDA-18. Russia sows fear by trying to convince public opinion in Poland that if a conflict between Russia and NATO broke out, our country would be doomed (it threatens us with a nuclear attack, puts forward hypotheses that Poland is in the gunsites of Russian missile launchers, pushes claims that "Poland will serve as a training ground for U.S. and Russian nukes"). The Kremlin would like to see the Poles feel threatened and bound to fail should there be a confrontation with Moscow. Therefore, Russia portrays the Polish Armed Forces as unable to conduct defensive operations, with low morale and far less training and skill than their Russian counterparts. In the same vein, NATO is depicted as an "empty" alliance that does not offer any guarantees. Moscow’s propaganda fabricates negative opinions about the Polish Armed Forces and puts them in the mouths of both Polish and allied soldiers and commanders. At the same time, the capabilities of the Russian army are lauded, in terms of modernization of the military equipment and the capabilities of troops.
The campaign of fear targeting Poland is aimed at paralyzing the minds and the will to act of our soldiers, but also our countrymen and decision-makers, in order to prevent our country from defending its interests effectively. Russia also tries to spread a false picture of NATO’s activity on its Eastern Flank, suggesting that the Alliance takes aggressive actions that Russia is forced to neutralize (according to the Kremlin propagandists, the USA and NATO want to clash with Russia, with ANAKONDA-18’s utmost goal being to exercise aggressive operation against Russia and Belarus). The Russian narrative is also about accusing Poland and other NATO members of being irresponsible. If you went by pro-Russian media, you would read that given the number of soldiers and the amount of equipment, ANAKONDA-18 might spark off an armed conflict. The same media presented a manipulated scenario of the exercise and lied about the number of troops. The alleged "100,000 soldiers" who were to take part in the exercise and pose a serious threat to Russia, turned out to be just 17,500 in reality. At the same time, Moscow accused the Alliance of covering up its activities and failing to comply with transparency requirements, which are, by the way, two things Moscow itself always does. The strategy of manipulating the facts about the activities of NATO has become a permanent tool of Russian propaganda where the Kremlin’s aggressive policy is portrayed as a response to the alleged aggressive posture of the West.
#3
The "European Order" is undermined by the fact that the nations of Europe refuse to spend on their own defense. If any government tried to do so, they would be turned out by their voters.
American aid was like heroin to them. They're hooked and can't stop without dying. Time to pull the plug and let them go peacefully.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
12/08/2018 8:34 Comments ||
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[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐A feud between former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Trump erupted Friday as Tillerson revealed that he constantly had to tell Trump he wasn't able to bomb Wakanda, the fictional African country depicted in the Marvel film Black Panther.
Tillerson would calmly explain to Trump that not only did Wakanda have advanced technology that far surpassed that of the United States military, but the country was also entirely made up.
"We'd be sitting in these strategy meetings and Trump would always pipe in with things like, 'I keep coming back to Wakanda. This vibranium could be very huge. Very huge,'" Tillerson said in a rare moment of candor. "And I'd have to say, 'Mr. President, with all due respect, Wakanda isn't a real place.'"
Tillerson claims the president would grow very upset when informed that Wakanda couldn't be bombed because it only existed in Marvel comics, shows, and films. "That isn't thinking like a winner. That's loser thinking. We've gotta go out there and get it. Just get our best people on it, right away," Trump reportedly said when reminded for a third time that week that it was physically impossible for the United States to invade the imaginary land. "I saw a very good documentary about these people over the weekend on Netflix. It looked very real, very official. Not fake news."
At publishing time, Tillerson had also revealed that Trump constantly attempted to send the US military to the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Agrabah.
[The Dan Bongino Show] In this episode I address the scheme to set up, and take down, Lt. General Mike Flynn. The details are both shocking and disturbing.
Note: This is a summary of Bongino’s remarks. His podcasts don’t lend themselves to direct quotes.
Bongino discusses Flynn’s opposition to the Iran Deal, that he had information on how dangerous the deal was for the US. Because of this and Flynn’s knowledge of other administration business, “they need to make Flynn go away. He knows too much. He’s got the goods. Obama officials watch Flynn supporting Trump on the campaign trail.” They’re afraid of what he might reveal. Obama spoke to Trump to try to discourage him from hiring Flynn. Trump hires him anyway.
On December 29, 2016, two important incidents occurred. Mike Flynn was vacationing in the Dominican Republic where he did not have secure communications. The Obama team knew this. “Obama needs to do something to “piss off the Russians, but not start WWIII” hoping that they will contact Flynn and they do. Obama orders sanctions against Russia and expels 35 diplomats in retaliation for their interference in our election. Why would he do this nearly two months after the election?
As the Obama team hoped, Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak calls Flynn in the Dominican Republic. They discussed the events of the day including the sanctions.
And the Obama team now has a transcript and a recording of the call. They use this later when agents interview Flynn. They know that Flynn will not remember all the details of the call and they will use this in the future to set him up for a “false statement” charge.
On January 12, 2017, an Obama official leaked Flynn’s name and details of his December 29, 2016 call with Kislyak to David Ignatius at the Washington Post who then published a story about it. The identity of the leaker is unknown. Whoever leaked it has committed a felony.
On January 24, 2017, two FBI agents arrive unannounced at the White House to question Flynn, omitting the fact that they were conducting a criminal interview,
Both agents have said they believed Flynn had been truthful in answering their questions.
Yet, Flynn is later charged with lying to the FBI.
Bongino’s theory sounds plausible to me. This pales in comparison to the conspiracy perpetrated against Trump. Flynn is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18th and following that, the records of his case may become public.
Posted late yesterday as a comment by our own Anomalous Sources.
(National Sentinel) Fake News: POTUS Donald Trump’s chief of staff may soon depart the White House, but former Marine Gen. John Kelly isn’t resigning, according to sources who spoke to The Daily Caller.
The online news site reported that Kelly has no intention of leaving his post voluntarily despite reports in "establishment" media on Friday claiming that he was set to step down after 16 "tumultuous months" as POTUS Trump’s COS. The source told the news site it was "absolutely untrue" that Kelly would quit on his own.
Kelly took the day off on Friday as the president returns from a trip to Kansas City, MO., to give a speech on law enforcement. He is planning to attend a White House staff dinner the president is giving Friday evening.
That said, POTUS would like for Kelly to depart but sources told TheDC he isn’t ready to fire the former Marine general. That could set off a months-long stalemate.
#4
WaPo said...
isn't the best reliable source in the book.
That said, any military officer usually could expect to be in the job for about 18 months before they rotate them to another job someplace in the command, or from a short or unaccompanied tour.
[CNS News] The decision by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to haul former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch in to testify two weeks before Christmas -- in a lame duck Congress, about Hillary Clinton's email server and alleged Russia-Trump collusion -- is an "embarrassment to all Republicans who believe in legitimate oversight," said attorney and former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova.
"This is all a show by Gowdy and Goodlatte, two of the most ineffective, feckless, stupid overseers in the history of Congress," said diGenova, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. "This is as bad as it gets for Republicans.... Just watching Gowdy on television, I want to slap him across the face."
BLUF:
[Hot Air] "It was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil Corporation to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t ‐ doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t ‐ doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things but rather just kind of says, look, this is what I believe and you can try to convince me otherwise, but most of the time you’re not going to do that."...
"When the president would say, ’Here’s what I want to do, and here’s how I want to do it,’ and I’d have to say to him, ’Well, Mr. President, I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law, it violates the treaty, you know,’" Tillerson explained.
"I didn’t know how to conduct my affairs with him any other way than in a very straightforward fashion. And I think he grew tired of me being the guy every day that told him, ’You can’t do that, and let’s talk about what we can do.’"
#1
The single most disappointing and concerning thing about Trump. Where did he get these people. On paper, Tillerson is an accomplished executive, but he obviously didn't get that in USGOV he was no longer a CEO.
And then you got freaks like Omarosa. W T F?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/08/2018 4:46 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, it didn't work out. Personal ego permitting, say something nice about your former boss and move on (great golfer, super family, etc). Diving into the mud provides no service to the country.
#4
Rex has gone to work at the Clinton spite factory.
Bath House Barry is the head of Public Affairs. John Brennan is the Manager of Operations. They're now in a full production mode.
The problem with being persona non grata is that qualified NeverTrumpers refuse to join the Trump administration. So he’s had to pick from a smaller pool of candidates, and expand his search beyond those with traditional government experience. The thing about hiring senior managers from private industry is that they are accustomed to their own way of doing things, and with the best will in the world are not necessarily able to adjust.
The thing about hiring senior managers from private industry is that they are accustomed to their own way of doing things,
I call it The Ross Perot Syndrome. Businessmen generally make poor politicians because they want to get things done and know how they want to do it. With politics, you checks & balances, the opposition party, the media, and as Trump has revealed, the Deep State actively working against him. If this was a business, a whole lotta people would be down at the unemployment office.
Still, despite the chaos (or perhaps because of it), I would argue that Trump is exactly what the country needs right now.
#10
Trump has 6 more years at best. Qualified NeverTrumpers refuse to join the Trump administration because they have chosen the safety of having career prospects after Trump is gone.
#12
"Well, Mr. President, I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law, it violates the treaty, you know,"
Mr. Tillersons job was to find a "way"; that's what subordinates are supposed to do. And, if they can't, they should not be surprised or out of sorts when someone else is called in.
#13
Was wondering why this former Exxon-Mobil exec was suddenly spewing spital, until I saw how far and fast the price of gasoline and diesel is falling under Trump.
#15
That may not be a “Trump problem” per se, more of a “guy who’s never held office and didn’t go to law school and thus doesn’t know the rules” problem.
Yeah, when the indictments drop, most of them will be career politicians and attorneys.
[Armslist] The 380 EZ is a relatively new firearm. It is larger than a lot of recently released .380s and the slide is much easier to manipulate. Kel-Tec released the P3AT in 2003, which created the modern pocket .380 craze. The round has increased in popularity drastically in the past 15 years with many manufacturers contributing to the resurgence of the round in self defense weapons, even if many consider it a back-up firearm.
One of the fastest growing segments in the firearms industry, if not the fastest, is the female shooting market. There are many factors that contribute to market demands, and the 8 year buying frenzy that happened while Obama was in office led to many people making purchases with less than the usual amount of pre-purchase scrutiny. Some might even say there was a lot of panic buying occurring. As women entered the market and began to shoot more, the market realized that women do not have the same grip strength that men have. Some men don't either, but they're reluctant to admit it, and are more likely to try alternative methods (like attaching skate-board tape to the slide) to avoid having to talk about their difficulties manipulating the slide. Women tend to be more honest about such things as they are less prone to exhibit this bravado.
#1
I'm into SIGs and I have a P238, which is a nice little pistol. Since I got a P365, the extra capacity and bigger round make the .380 a backup backup gun. And no, I didn't hiccup.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/08/2018 4:28 Comments ||
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[The Federalist] At 88 years old, Thomas Sowell continues to demonstrate why he’s one of the most formidable intellects of the age. In Discrimination and Disparities, released earlier this year, Sowell rebuts common misconceptions regarding socioeconomic differences among individuals, groups, and nations, and demonstrates that disparities are often explained by economics.
For instance, emotionally loaded phrases like "systemic racism" and "exploitation" are frequently used to explain differences between blacks and whites, rich and poor, and even individual nations. But a better understanding of economics refutes these notions.
Sowell begins by noting there are different types of discrimination. Discrimination I he defines as "an ability to discern differences in the qualities of people and things, and choosing accordingly"‐in other words, "making fact-based distinctions." Discrimination II he defines as "treating people negatively, based on arbitrary assumptions or aversions concerning individuals of a particular race or sex, for example"‐in other words, what most people mean today when they talk of "discrimination."
Ideally, Discrimination I‐judging each person individually‐would be universally practiced. Rarely, however, is the ideal "found among human beings in the real world, even among people who espouse that ideal." He gives an example:
If you are walking at night down a lonely street, and see up ahead a shadowy figure in an alley, do you judge that person as an individual or do you cross the street and pass on the other side? The shadowy figure in the alley could turn out to be a kindly neighbor, out walking his dog. But, when making such decisions, a mistake on your part could be costly, up to and including costing you your life.
In short, cost is the relevant factor when determining a course of action. The cost of Discrimination I‐judging the person as an individual‐may be prohibitively high in some cases, as when you approach a shadowy figure in a dark alley. But that does not mean that choosing to cross the street to avoid that shadowy figure is automatically Discrimination II‐arbitrarily expressing antipathy toward a group.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] Former FBI Director James Comey is sitting with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees behind closed doors on Friday to answer (or not answer) their questions. Congress is investigating how FBI and DOJ handled the Hillary Clinton and Russia probes and, as you can imagine, Comey was one of the top witnesses on their list.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐A feud between former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Trump erupted Friday as Tillerson revealed that he constantly had to tell Trump he wasn't able to bomb Wakanda, the fictional African country depicted in the Marvel film Black Panther.
[The Federalist] At 88 years old, Thomas Sowell continues to demonstrate why he’s one of the most formidable intellects of the age. In Discrimination and Disparities, released earlier this year, Sowell rebuts common misconceptions regarding socioeconomic differences among individuals, groups, and nations, and demonstrates that disparities are often explained by economics.
