[Washington D.C.] ‐ Judicial Watch today released newly obtained internal IRS documents, including material revealing that Sen. John McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner, urged top IRS officials, including then-director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner, to "audit so many that it becomes financially ruinous." Kerner was appointed by President Trump as Special Counsel for the United States Office of Special Counsel.
The explosive exchange was contained in notes taken by IRS employees at an April 30, 2013, meeting between Kerner, Lerner, and other high-ranking IRS officials. Just ten days following the meeting, former IRS director of exempt organizations Lois Lerner admitted that the IRS had a policy of improperly and deliberately delaying applications for tax-exempt status from conservative non-profit groups.
Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a "marathon" meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the "worst decisions I have ever seen."
In the full notes of an April 30 meeting, McCain’s high-ranking staffer Kerner recommends harassing non-profit groups until they are unable to continue operating. Kerner tells Lerner, Steve Miller, then chief of staff to IRS commissioner, Nikole Flax, and other IRS officials, "Maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous." In response, Lerner responded that "it is her job to oversee it all:"
#14
He has one option: resign now. If he had any honor, he would do it. This man is not a hero, he is a traitor. He deserves all the shit thrown at him. IMHO that includes wishes for the rapid acceleration of his assumption of room temperature.
Much like I wish for Soros, hurry up and die you traitorous son of a bitch John McCain, before you do more harm.
[Hot Air] If the people protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or even trying to Doxx them thought they were having any impact on the agency’s agenda, those hopes have probably been dashed. ICE is still keeping busy, this time out in the Buckeye State. A raid in Ohio recently saw agents visiting a meatpacking plant where the management mysteriously seems to have not noticed that they literally had more than 100 illegal aliens working there, most of them from Guatemala. After being briefly detained, a number of them were allowed to go free with a court date while the agency looks further into the activities of the employer. (Fox News)
[Wash Times] Medicaid fraud has risen and bogus payments have more than doubled since Obamacare expanded the government’s chief health insurance program for the poor, topping $37 billion a year, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Senate’s chief watchdog committee.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the program, doesn’t even have an anti-fraud strategy, and has ignored 11 separate recommendations by the Government Accountability Office over the last three years to combat fraud, the Republicans said on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said.
California alone paid out $1 billion in sketchy payments, yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the program, told Congress it didn’t see any urgency in trying to go after the money.
Making efforts to collect that money should be a start for CMS, said the GOP staffers, in a report issued by committee Chairman Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican.
"CMS is not effectively policing Medicaid fraud," the committee’s Republican staff said in the new report, blaming program directors going back more than a decade.
[Breitbart] Disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok no longer possesses his security clearance, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday.
"Mr. Strzok ‐ as I understand ‐ has lost his security clearance," the country’s top law enforcement officer told radio host Howie Carr.
The admission follows multiple reports stating the former FBI Deputy Head of Counterintelligence was escorted from the bureau’s headquarters on Friday as part of an internal disciplinary measure.
Aitan Goelman, an attorney for the former FBI investigator, told the Washington Post Sunday that his client intends to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, along with other Congressional committees, without immunity or invoking the Fifth Amendment.
The Justice Department watchdog report released last week concluded Strzok had shown "bias," during the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email use. There is likely more to this story (loss of security access) than 'bias'.... but excellent! Now what about Page, Comey, McCabe, Clinton, Abaden, FBI agents who accepted 'gifts' and all the others ?
Lingering question; I know it sounds crazy, but any chance a few of Strzok's cohorts may still be employed on the Robert Mueller investigative team? Oh wait....
#6
#2 So, what I'm reading is his "security clearance" has been yanked but he has not been "fired." Passing strange for sure.
Given that this status is embarrassing and awkward for him and the DOJ, one has to wonder if there's an investigatory or prosecution advantage to having him remain employed. Avoid the 5th amendment protection?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2018 9:29 Comments ||
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#7
one has to wonder if there's an investigatory or prosecution advantage to having him remain employed
#10
A worn geological feature.
A field-trip. An alien teacher:
"This hill was a swamp --
See those prints where they'd stomp? --
Oh, and here comes the very same creature!"
[FOX] Charles Krauthammer, a longtime Fox News contributor, Pulitzer Prize winner, Harvard-trained psychiatrist and best-selling author who came to be known as the dean of conservative commentators, has died. He was 68.
His death had been expected after he wrote a heartbreaking letter to colleagues, friends and viewers on June 8 that said in part "I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me...
""Recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over."
In recent years, Krauthammer was best known for his nightly appearance as a panelist on Fox News’ "Special Report with Bret Baier" and as a commentator on various Fox news shows.
But Krauthammer was arguably a Renaissance man, achieving mastery in such disparate fields as psychiatry, speech-writing, print journalism and television. He won the Edwin Dunlop Prize for excellence in psychiatric research and clinical medicine. Journalism honors included the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his Washington Post columns in 1987 and the National Magazine Award for his work at The New Republic in 1984. His book, "Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics," instantly became a New York Times bestseller, remaining in the number one slot for 10 weeks, and on the coveted list for nearly 40.
Krauthammer delivered his views in a mild-mannered yet steady and almost philosophical style, befitting his background in psychiatry and detailed analysis of human behavior. Borrowing from that background, Krauthammer said in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that the post-Cold War world had gone from bipolar to "unipolar," with the United States as the sole superpower. He also coined the term "The Reagan Doctrine," among others.
Krauthammer harbored no compunction about calling out those in power, whether they were Democrats or Republicans or conservatives.
#1
Godspeed. That said, should Trump survive and unwind the damage of the obumble years, NeverTrumpism will historically be seen as not rationally defensible.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/22/2018 6:36 Comments ||
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[GunsAmerica] Virginia’s Chesapeake City Council voted last week to donate rather than destroy a rare World War II firearm believed to have popularized the term "assault rifle."
The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44) was developed by German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser in 1942 and was used by the Nazis through the end of the war. Germany produced about 426,000, but because few ended up on North American shores, NFA-compliant models are worth nearly $30,000.
The Chesapeake Police Department confiscated the StG44 in April of 2009 after finding one in a van involved in several hit-and-runs, according to the Virginian-Pilot. The driver, Eugene McGee, was convicted of felony hit-and-run and had his Second Amendment rights revoked.
But rather than destroy the firearm, the city decided in 2010 to donate it. Police spokesman Leo Kosinski told the Pilot that he isn’t sure why it’s taken so long for the donation to occur, though he suspects that whoever came up with the idea has since retired.
#1
Lawsuit from the "pull-down-Confederate-statues-without-a-permit" crowd in 3-2-1
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/22/2018 7:09 Comments ||
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#2
StG-44s aren't rare. They found tons of them in the Middle East and Africa. With ammo headstamped 1944 and 45.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/22/2018 10:51 Comments ||
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#3
Another "Asset Forfeiture" by the all powerful State: The Chesapeake Police Department confiscated the StG44 in April of 2009 after finding one in a van involved in several hit-and-runs...?
Why not --- Send it for Auction and give the money to the victims of those hit-and-runs?
Pardon my ignorance but what does it take to get it "NFA-compliant"?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/22/2018 13:31 Comments ||
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#6
Basically the banned guns list, unless you register the firearm and bribe pay the government money. Last time I checked, the amount for a machine gun was $3000.
So either the StG44 was made a non-"assault rifle", by modifying it to fire only semi-auto and removed the bayonet lug or Mr. Hit and Run payed $3000 to the Feds.
[GreatFallsTribune] DODSON ; A Montana Highway Patrol Trooper says two people were injured after the driver swerved their vehicle to avoid hitting a kangaroo on the road.
Trooper Matt Finley tells KWYB-TV that he thought it was joke when he was responding to the call on Wednesday morning out on Highway 2 until he saw the kangaroo.
[NEWZIMBABWE] REVERED Zanu wartime guerrilla commander Josiah Tongogara was killed by his colleagues sympathetic to former President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... According to Zapu’s liberation war intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa, Tongogara had openly argued against Mugabe leading the then proposed Patriotic Front bringing together the two guerrilla movements.
"He had almost openly said it. That he believed (late Vice President Joshua) Nkomo was a natural leader and had the focus while Mugabe would only be good as an administrator maybe secretary general of the Patriotic Front.
"Unfortunately he said it out in informal discussions with other people," said Dabengwa.
He said Tongogara who died supposedly in a freak car accident on December 26 1979 a few weeks before Zim-bob-we attained independence had argued a Mugabe leadership would be a disaster.
"He said it would be a total disaster and told me he was not saying it to please anyone but that is what he believed.
"He was angry when it was decided that the issue would be settled when we arrive home from London (during Lancaster House negotiations). He wanted the issue settled there because all stakeholders including the military were represented," Dabengwa added.
The former Home Affairs Minister said efforts to revive the unity pact with senior Zanu guerrilla fighters like Solomon Mujuru and Vitalis Zvinavashe met with resistance.
"They were dodgy and this went on until after the election results had been announced. Ikoko by then had ordered (another late former Vice President Joseph) Msika to register Zapu as a political competitor in the 1980 elections," he said.
As fate would have it Mugabe would decide to go it alone during the 1980 elections, win power and rule with an iron fist for 37 years before he was forced to resign by the army last November. Mugabe’s leadership as Tongogara had "prophesied" was indeed an unmitigated disaster as he left a once thriving economy left in his hands by the Rhodesians in ruins.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Fortune] Smack in the middle of Grier Brunson’s family’s ranch, a patch of West Texas dirt that sprawls across 45 square miles, sits a lush, green dip in the land that the family calls "the draw."
Thousands of years ago, Pueblos built rocky settlements here. Hundreds of years ago, Comanches thundered on horseback across this plain. Today, the natural bounty in and around the draw is producing a rather more modern stampede.
On the rim of the draw, amid the mesquite trees and the sagebrush, oil rigs loom like rockets at launch, and a team fracking a well shoots untold thousands of gallons of water and hundreds of truckloads of sand down into the earth, using huge hydraulic pumps that emit a dull, constant roar. For the Brunson family, these are the sights and sounds of money: Two miles underground, oil‐thousands of barrels of it every day, worth millions of dollars‐is being cracked loose from the rock and pulled up through carefully engineered holes.
#1
It cheers me that the Bedouins have nearly exhausted their low hanging fruit, petrologically speaking. As we get better at getting at the hard to get at stuff here and use it more efficiently big changes will follow.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/22/2018 6:45 Comments ||
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#2
Don't look now but the aforementioned big changes are already here.
The North American continent achieved net energy independence this year and by the next campaign season Trump may well be able to run on the idea of imminent (or achieved) US energy independence. Full cycle cost in some shale fields is less than a third of what it was five years ago (and dropping). Increasingly the problems are that there's so much oil the infrastructure doesn't exist to move it from the fields to market and materials can't be delivered fast enough to complete new wells at the pace they're being drilled.
Imagine what might happen when the nation whose military guarantees global stability suddenly finds that it no longer needs the rest of the world for anything critical.
[Money.CNN] Recep Tayyip Erdogan is asking Turkish voters for another term as president. They may say no because of a feeble currency [two years ago, it was about 3 lira/$, a year ago about 3.5 lira/$, today about 4.7 lira/$ - all official exchange rate]
and runaway price hikes.
The economy has become a major issue in Turkish elections scheduled for Sunday thanks to inflation that's running at 12%, and a currency that has dropped to a record low against the US dollar....
"The economy is terrible. It's over. Everyone except for [Erdogan] and his sultanate is suffering," Nusret Barak, a retiree, told CNN in Istanbul. "There is nothing at our breakfast table anymore ... I have less cheese, I have less bread, I have fewer olives [note this guy correctly uses the words 'less' and 'fewer' - many educated English speakers don't].
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[Daily Finland] Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that recreational marijuana will become legal nationwide in Canada starting Oct. 17. Visitors, too? The Canadian Senate passed a bill to legalize cannabis on Tuesday after more than a year of intensive study in both the House of Commons and the Senate. The legislation makes Canada only the second country in the world to allow a nationwide, legal marijuana market, although each Canadian province is drafting its own rules for pot sales.
The legislation, which stems from a campaign promise of Trudeau to keep marijuana away from underage users and reduce related crime, allows adults in the country to legally possess and use small amounts of recreational cannabis.
It sets out parameters around the production, possession, safety standards, distribution, and sale of the drug. It also creates new Criminal Code offences for selling marijuana to minors. More bureaucracy!
Under the bill, it will be illegal for anyone younger than 18 to buy pot, but allows for provinces and territories to set a higher minimum age. Thus fulfilling his campaign promise to keep pot away from underage users. It's illegal. What else can he do?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/22/2018 13:06 ||
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[DAWN] A 21-year-old girl was kidnapped and allegedly raped in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Gulshan-e-Hadeed area within the limits of Steel Town police, officials said on Thursday.SSP Investigation (Malir) Abid Husain Qaimkhani said the girl along with her family members was standing near a park in Phase-II of Gulshan-e-Hadeed on Wednesday at around 7:30pm when three suspects travelling in a car kidnapped her.
According to the complaint filed by the victim's father, one of the suspects who he claimed is a neighbour raped the girl and the men later abandoned her near her residence in Hadeed.
The Steel Town police early on Thursday registered a first information report and tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! two suspects nominated in the complaint. Efforts were underway to arrest the third suspect, police said.
SSP Qaimkhani said the girl’s medical examination was carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where doctors confirmed that she was raped.
The police also seized the car used during the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
21?
She's an Old Maid in the Land of the Pure
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/22/2018 16:08 Comments ||
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#2
the girl along with her family members
Guess the family didn't have enough stones to intervene.
They keep trying, but thus far nothing has stuck. So we’ll see whether this effort is any different.
[EN.ABNA24] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife, Sara, has been indicted for aggregated fraud and breach of trust over the misuse of public funds at their official residence.
According to the indictment released by the Israeli "justice ministry" on Thursday, Sara Netanyahu, along with a regime employee, fraudulently ordered hundreds of meals worth $100,000 from gourmet restaurants between 2010 and 2013 in violation of rules barring such practice when the prime minister's residence has a cook.
The Israeli premier's wife further directed the residency workers to hide the employment of a cook "so that this won't be found out by the treasury and the office manager," according to the indictment.
In recent months, Netanyahu’s attorneys have tried to reach a settlement that would see no criminal indictment but the return of the funds.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit rejected any settlement because Sara Netanyahu is also a suspect in Case 4000, which involves suspicions the prime minister advanced regulations benefiting Bezeq telecom’s owner in exchange for flattering coverage from Bezeq’s Walla news site.
Sara Netanyahu has long faced allegations of abusive behavior and living extravagantly.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/22/2018 00:00 ||
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[NPR] Two common herpes viruses appear to play a role in Alzheimer's disease.
The viruses, best known for causing a distinctive skin rash in young children, are abundant in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer's, a team of scientists reports Thursday in Neuron. The team also found evidence that the viruses can interact with brain cells in ways that could accelerate the disease.
"Our hypothesis is that they put gas on the flame," says Joel Dudley, an author of the study and an associate professor of genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York City.
The finding adds credence to a decades-old idea that an infection can cause Alzheimer's disease. It also suggests that it may be possible to prevent or slow Alzheimer's using antiviral drugs, or drugs that modulate how immune cells in the brain respond to an infection.
But the study doesn't prove that herpes viruses are involved in Alzheimer's, says Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, which helped fund the research.
"The data are very provocative, but fall short of showing a direct causal role," he says. "And if viral infections are playing a part, they are not the sole actor."
Even so, the study offers strong evidence that viral infections can influence the course of Alzheimer's, Hodes says.
Like a lot of scientific discoveries, this one was an accident. "Viruses were the last thing we were looking for," Dudley says.
[Daily Finland] The White House on Thursday announced a comprehensive plan to reorganize the U.S. federal government, including reforming the food stamp program and merging the departments of education and labor so as to bring education and job training together.
The reform is aimed to improve and streamline the federal government but will not be in a type of "one size fits all" solution, the White House said in a statement.
Currently American job seekers have to navigate over 40 workforce development programs across 15 Federal agencies, and poultry firms have to deal with multiple government offices and loads of paperwork because chickens and eggs are regulated by different agencies, said the statement.
Under the plan, the food stamp program, officially known as SNAP, would be moved out of the Department of Agriculture and into the Department of Health and Human Services.
Other key proposals include consolidating food safety functions into a single agency called Council on Public Assistance and economic assistance resources into a new Bureau of Economic Growth within the Department of Commerce.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries would be merged within the Interior Department, which would also take over part of the Army Corps of Engineers' civil works program.
Another proposal which is reportedly sure to be controversial is to privatize the United States Postal Service. And more.
[Todd Starnes] The VA hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana is making national headlines after they temporarily replaced flags representing the branches of the military with the Gay Pride flag.
The VA acknowledged the controversy, but defended its decision to temporarily remove the Service Flags.
"Due to limitations in the number of flag poles outside our VA, the Service Flags were lowered temporarily," a statement read. "Rather than take one flag down temporarily, it was determined to lower all the flags so as to be equal."
Television station WANE reports the Gay Pride flag was only scheduled to fly for a day to "signify that we treat all our veterans equally."
Gay Pride Flag in Veterans Park Stirs Controversy
"We are flying the flag that represents and honors these veterans as a display of solidarity and respect for their service," the statement read. "We all serve this nation."
Dozens of readers weighed in on the controversy at DisabledVeterans.org.
[SN] WASHINGTON — SpaceX has won its first big-ticket classified military launch contract for the Falcon Heavy rocket. The Air Force awarded SpaceX a $130 million contract for the launch of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)-52 satellite.
The Falcon Heavy beat United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 in a competition under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The launch will take place at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles announced the contract award on Thursday. SMC Commander Lt. Gen. John Thompson said this was “another opportunity to foster competition on the EELV program in an effort to reduce launch costs while maintaining assured access to space.”
This is the fifth competitive procurement under the current Phase 1A of the EELV program since SpaceX entered the market to challenge ULA. The $130 million award for the Falcon Heavy launch is considerably lower than the average $350 million price tag for Delta 4 launches.
AFSPC-52 is a classified mission projected to launch in late Fiscal Year 2020.
SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement that the company is “honored by the Air Force’s selection of Falcon Heavy to launch the competitively-awarded AFSPC-52 mission.” She said the contract award indicates the military’s “trust and confidence” in the company.
Falcon Heavy also in on track to launch the U.S. Air Force’s STP-2 technology demonstration mission, currently scheduled for October.
The Air Force released the solicitation of the AFSPC-52 mission September 28 and proposals were due October 30.
During a meeting with reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., the military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, said he was confident that the cost of military launches will continue on a downward path.
“You have to watch what we’ve done. We’ve saved money over time,” Bunch said. “That’s driven some by what we’re doing with competition and also by the commercial demand signal. The two are coupled together.”
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.