[The Federalist] In February I wrote that the Russiagate collusion-mongers were hurting America far worse than the sole group of Russians the special counsel indicted. The rationale was that in effectively waging a mass disinformation, lawfare, and political campaign against a sitting president, collusion-mongers had already done more damage to our government and society than anything Vladimir Putin could have cooked up.
This is true at a broader level as well. The political establishment that wishes to bring down the Trump presidency daily shows itself willing to eviscerate all norms, from corrupting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court and violating Department of Justice procedures, to perhaps even planting FBI informants inside the Trump campaign. It has exhibited a willingness to undermine national security in the form of gross intelligence and law enforcement politicization, game-playing with redactions, and endless leaks. The establishment has taken such actions under the guise of defending "norms" and protecting "national security."
In short, we are witnessing an episode of mass projection. Why? Because given that they are increasingly exposed, the Left must keep this charade going, grasping at every possible straw while hoping against hope the Trump administration makes a grave misstep under the heat of various spotlights. Otherwise, they risk their own downfall. The boomerang is real.
How do these folks reconcile their belief in the president’s lawlessness and recklessness with the fact that, after a campaign waged by the entire Clinton machine, months and months of efforts to uncover a smoking gun by the most skilled and hungry of prosecutors, surrounded by swamp creatures who wish to destroy President Trump at every turn, there appears to be no "there" there? The Facebook ads Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released really are not cutting it.
[Breitbart] Leakers to the New York Times confirmed in a story published on Wednesday that the FBI had run a spy operation on the Trump campaign that involved government informants, secret subpoenas, and possible wiretaps.
The story comes ahead of the release of the pending Department of Justice inspector general report on the FBI’s actions during the 2016 election, and likely is an attempt by the leakers to paint the FBI’s efforts in the most flattering light possible.
But the story revealed that the FBI ‐ which is supposed to be an apolitical agency ‐ was spying on the Trump campaign through phone records and with "at least one" human asset.
"The F.B.I. obtained phone records and other documents using national security letters ‐ a secret type of subpoena ‐ officials said. And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos," the Times reported, citing "current and former officials."
The revelation of "at least one government informant" appears to confirm a Washington Post story last week in which leakers revealed that the FBI had a "top secret intelligence source" ‐ a U.S. citizen who likely lived overseas ‐ who had spied on members of the Trump campaign for the FBI.
#6
FBI spying on Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Double-Plus Un-Good.
FBI/CIA/NSA/?Others? Spying on Donald Trump -- Double-Plus Good.
Gotcha, how could I have been so confused, must report myself for Thought-Crime.
#8
Besoeker, you are doing a bang-up job of following the various threads of these political scandals for us.
We've been pulling together hypothetical scenarios (some fairly accurate) from Open Source data here at the Burg for over a year. Just imagine what beltway insiders at DoJ, Justice, the Hill, and OGA must know with the knowlege, access, and connections they have.
Yes, evidence certainly points to the work of a Deep State cabal.
#10
Joe DiGenova on Today’s Deep State Admission of Spying on Trump: THIS IS MOST UNBELIEVABLE SCANDAL IN US HISTORY (Video)
Spying on Trump? Yes. But, I've got a feeling that if it all comes out, spying will only be a part of the problem this country has been dealing with. There is widespread corruption and theft from govmints (such as our own and Haiti), human trafficking, money laundering through charities, election fraud and vote rigging, and possibly arranged murder (e.g. SR) as starters.
Papadopoulos and Halper met several times during that stay, having dinner one night at the Travellers Club, an Old London gentleman’s club frequented by international diplomats. They were accompanied by Halper’s assistant, a Turkish woman named Azra Turk. Sources familiar with Papadopoulos’s claims about his trip say Turk flirted with him during their encounters and later on in email exchanges.
#14
Key take-aways from #12. You decide whom Halper was really working for:
Federal records show that Halper has been paid $928,800 since 2012 for work on four policy projects for the Pentagon.
And
Halper has links to the CIA stretching back decades. His late father-in-law was Ray Cline, a CIA legend who served as director of the agency’s bureau of intelligence and research. Halper also worked with a team of former CIA officers on George H.W. Bush’s unsuccessful 1980 presidential primary bid.
[TD] It’s a real vicious circle. The hotter it gets, the more air conditioners we use... and the more air conditioners we use, the hotter it gets. Because yes, air conditioners refresh us but they also contribute, paradoxically, to the climatic disturbance of the planet. These devices consume a lot of electricity. The latter is today mainly generated by gas or coal-fired power plants and these emit greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
A report published Tuesday, May 15, 2018 by the International Energy Agency, ensures that unless a radical change of trajectory is implemented, carbon dioxide emissions related to air conditioning should almost double between 2016 and 2050. By comparison it’s like adding Africa’s CO2 emissions, about one billion tonnes of CO2 a year, to the CO2 emissions of the rest of the planet. And in cities, the warming effect of air conditioners is all the more felt. Indeed, each device rejects in the street the heat it has produced to cool the interior of a room.
The vicious circle is reinforced by the continuous rise in the standard of living in the world. Starting with China, India and Indonesia, three countries that will contribute half of the global rise in electricity consumption for air conditioning.
#4
On a recent vacation in southern Germany, the tour guide was bragging the Germans had shut down the nukes and the people were heating their homes with 'sustainable' firewood.
Like the House Hunters International show about a climate-change grad student delighted that one of her choices for a dwelling in Europe included a wood-burning stove. Whaddaya think the smoke smell comes from, sweetheart?
Good thing they have non-CO2-producing firewood in Germany! (sarc) Especially compared to non-CO2-producing nuclear plants.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/17/2018 8:49 Comments ||
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#5
Think about it for a second and the Baseline need for electricity, lots of electricity, in a typical American home will be in (1) keeping the food cold (freezer and/or kitchen fridge) and the (2) climate control of the living spaces.
There is an entire industry in shelf stable milk processing, UHT pasteurization, because they want to avoid the infrastructure necessary to keep milk cool. The question is at what level the central authority can decide whether you can be cool, or not, right?
#6
A few years ago there was a summer heat wave in France that left approx 14000 elderly Parisians dead (that an that fact that all the care-takers go for a month long holiday in August). Air-conditioners were very heavily restricted in Paris at the time.
#8
In my humble opinion, people who live in the southern US should have a small shrine in their homes dedicated to Willis Carrier, the inventor of modern air conditioning. Without him the South would not be as populated as it is today.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/17/2018 15:23 Comments ||
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#9
Also, as for "renewable" woodstove for heating: using wood for heating is only renewable if a FEW people do it. If everyone used wood, the German forests would be gone in a few years. Also, the problem with using wood for heat isn't really just the CO2,it's all the other things in the smoke. Again, if only a few people use wood, it's not a huge deal. As more and more people do, the smoke will become a huge problem - real pollution, not CO2.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/17/2018 15:28 Comments ||
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#10
You're thinking of London's famous pea soup fogs, Rambler?
In a similar vein, Mr. Wife has described sitting at the back of his hotel lobby in Istanbul during the winter, back in the 1980s, seeing the pollution in the outside air dilute as it got farther from the front door. In those days, and probably still now, soft lignite coal was commonly used as heating fuel.
#11
England used to be heavily forested. Granted that a lot of that heating was done for forges and the like but the still burned it clean until they started using coal.
[NationalReview] The president of Santa Monica College is instructing students to file a report with campus police if they witness hate speech.
"Recently an outside visitor brought hate speech onto one of Santa Monica Colleges campuses," states a letter that SMC President Kathryn E. Jeffery sent to students and employees on May 3. "This will not be tolerated."
"If you are the target of hate speech or witness it, you should immediately contact the Santa Monica College Police Department at (310) 434-4300 or submit an anonymous report to campus police via the LiveSafe app or www.smc.edu/Anonymous-Reporting," the message continued. "Do not engage with the individual causing such an incident."
According to an article in the New York Post, the "hate speech" incident cited in the email involved a lot more than just speech ‐ the suspect was charged with misdemeanor battery for physically attacking a younger black woman in the parking lot. Police were reportedly investigating it as a hate crime because the suspect had also hurled racist insults at her.
An incident like that, of course, is absolutely something that the police should handle. But hate speech? Although it may be awful, its not a crime. Whats more, according to Campus Reform, college spokeswoman Grace Smith even acknowledged this fact in an interview with the outlet. Despite that acknowledgment, however, Smith still insisted that the reporting of hate speech to the police was important because those kinds of incidents are "considered a serious breach of community expectations," which "need to be reported to allow for appropriate investigation."
"Hate speech can lead to violence, and the role of campus police is to preserve peace," Smith said.
That may sound nice and sweet, but Smith is not exactly correct. The role of the police is actually not to "preserve peace." Thats far too broad. The role of the police is actually very specific; their role is to deal with crimes. Theres a huge difference between the two. For example: The last time I got into a tiff with one of my friends, things werent exactly peaceful, but I knew that I wasnt supposed to call 911 about it. Santa Monica College may think that this kind of reporting system is a good way to keep a finger on the pulse of the campus climate, but I feel like it seems more like a good way to keep the police distracted with a backlog of personal complaints, especially since the system allows for anonymous reporting.
Whats more, this policy could give students the idea that hate speech is somehow illegal or unconstitutional. Sure, Smith may have acknowledged that its not, however, its already something that far too many college students dont seem to understand. In fact, a recent survey found that only 39 percent of college students know that hate speech is protected speech.Its important for college students to understand that hate speech is protected speech ‐ and the reasons why thats a good thing. In fact, the only reason we have free speech in this country is because hate speech remains legal. After all, when you give the government the power to punish "hate speech," you’re also giving the government the power to decide what qualifies as acceptable speech. Our speech wouldnt be free, it would be subject to the whims of the people in power.
Now, I do of course understand that the campus police force does not actually have the power to punish any student or employee based on one of these "hate speech" reports. That would be unconstitutional. But honestly, the fact that students are even being asked to file them is scary enough. Think about it: The college is essentially telling these students that speech does fall under the jurisdiction of the police; that the things that you say should be scrutinized by the state, that it is the states job to scrutinize them. Even if they dont have the power to do anything about it, thats still terrifying stuff.
Racist, sexist, and other hateful speech is awful, and there should definitely be resources available to students on campus who want to report these types of incidents. The truth is, though, it is the job of the administration, not the police, to deal with them. Encouraging students to file police reports over speech is at best a waste of time and resources ‐ at worst, it conveys a complete disrespect for our countrys devotion to separating speech from law enforcement.
#9
Hate Speech as defined by the Thought Police (1984) - the book.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/17/2018 11:23 Comments ||
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#10
Racist, sexist, and other hateful speech is awful, and there should definitely be resources available to students on campus who want to report these types of incidents.
Heresy! Anathema! Excommunication! Unleash the Inquisition!
#13
58-1: Definition of counter-revolutionary activity:
A counter-revolutionary action is any action aimed at overthrowing, undermining or weakening of the power of workers' and peasants' Soviets... and governments of the USSR and Soviet and autonomous republics, or at the undermining or weakening of the external security of the USSR and main economical, political and national achievements of the proletarial revolution
[American Thinker] When we talk about the failed coup attempt by the intelligence services in America, there are two storylines. One is the television version, the version that is openly propagandistic. But the second storyline, the truthful one, is also discernible. This one manifests itself immediately, as soon as a person turns off the TV and begins to think independently. Therefore, we will have to talk about two parallel storylines of a single plot. We will conventionally and befittingly call them Left and Right.
The view from the Left: Putin has gravely serious dirt on Trump relating to Trump's sexual adventures in Russia. The view from the Right: Putin has no compromising goods on Trump, since all the information about Trump's adventures is concocted at the request of Trump's political opponent, Hillary Clinton. It was Hillary who used her campaign money to pay for firms that fabricated the "Russian dossier" on Trump.
The view from the Left: Trump employees and relatives have suspicious contacts with Russians associated with Russian intelligence services. The view from the Right: The Obama administration used a fictitious "Russian dossier" on Trump as an excuse for surveillance and wiretapping of Trump's campaign. In total, Obama's FBI had five Trump employees under surveillance, which was conducted before the elections, after the elections, and even for some time after the inauguration of the new president.
#1
But I was just following orders”
The Nuremberg Defense refers to a legal strategy employed by many of the defendants at the Nuremberg war crimes trials seeking to convict Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War. Many of those defendants claimed that they were not guilty of the charges against them as they were "only following orders.
Posted by: CC Reader ||
05/17/2018 18:31 Comments ||
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[Commentary Magazine] The year 2018 has thus far been toxic for black-Jewish relations. In February, Women’s March co-president Tamika Mallory attended the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) annual "Saviours’ Day" gathering, where sect leader Louis Farrakhan delivered a characteristic anti-Semitic tirade. "When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door," Farrakhan declared. "White folks are going down, and Satan is going down, and Farrakhan by God’s grace has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew‐and I’m here to say, your time is up." For good measure, Farrakhan also claimed that Jews control the FBI as well as Mexico, and he repeated a relatively new conspiracy theory, the "Pot Plot," alleging that Jews promote homosexuality among black men through the distribution of a special form of marijuana.
When it was revealed that Mallory had sat in the audience for this rant, she not only refused to distance herself from the anti-Semitic cult but boasted of her three-decade long relationship with it. "I was raised in activism and believe that as historically oppressed people, blacks, Jews, Muslims and all people must stand together to fight racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia," she said in a statement. Declaring that she is "guided by the loving principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," who dedicated his entire career to opposing the very sort of racial separatism, hatred, and conspiracy promoted by the likes of Farrakhan and others of his ilk, Mallory made clear that she had no intention of ever disassociating herself from the NOI.
While some black leaders and writers criticized Mallory, her stubbornness found support in high places. "Now you work with people all the time with whom you disagree," said Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, to the ladies of The View. Jarrett spoke as if America’s foremost anti-Semite were just some recalcitrant House Republican in need of a stern, Oval Office arm-twist. To this day, Mallory (along with her Women’s March sisters-in-arms Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez) proudly considers Farrakhan an ally, and there is no indication that she or the organization she leads has suffered serious reputational damage because of her association with him.
[Breitbart] Democrats, the mainstream media, and left-wing reporters are twisting President Trump’s words in calling MS-13 illegal alien gang members "animals."
During a roundtable discussion of California’s sanctuary state laws, Fresno Sheriff Margaret Mims mentioned to Trump the difficulty of working with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to notify them of an illegal alien MS-13 gang member.
In response, Trump called the MS-13 gang members "animals," as he’s done in the past.
h/t Instapundit
As I said in my column on Friday, one of the biggest stories of last week was the homecoming of the American hostages from North Korea.
This was pretty big news too:
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
North Korea has announced that they will dismantle Nuclear Test Site this month, ahead of the big Summit Meeting on June 12th. Thank you, a very smart and gracious gesture!
12:08 AM - May 13, 2018
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49.8K people are talking about this
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I begin far too many sentences these days with "In a sane world," so I will try to retire that for a while.
In a country populated by fewer people you're constantly overcome by the urge to strangle, either of those North Korea-related stories would have been something worth celebrating together as Americans.
Sadly, we don't live in an America where we can avoid the urge to strangle, especially those of us who have to pay attention to political news.
The potential of making long-term peace with a dark communist regime that we had barely communicated with for decades seems like it should be worth the majority of the attention for a few news cycles.
If, however, you have been subjected to the American mainstream media for the last several days, you would mostly have read and heard about Kelly Sadler, who is a previously unknown White House aide who said something monumentally stupid in a private meeting which was then leaked to the vulture media.
...They're all still talking and writing about Kelly Sadler because there was plenty they wanted to not have to talk about.
Although it seems like a thousand years ago now, it was last week that began with the resignation of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democratic poster boy for the #MeToo movement who it turns out was more catalyst than defender.
If we're weighing Scheniderman's sins against Sadler's I think he may have been a smidge more newsworthy but we're dealing with narrative creation and not journalism.
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.
[Breitbart] Leakers to the New York Times confirmed in a story published on Wednesday that the FBI had run a spy operation on the Trump campaign that involved government informants, secret subpoenas, and possible wiretaps.
[TD] It’s a real vicious circle. The hotter it gets, the more air conditioners we use... and the more air conditioners we use, the hotter it gets. Because yes, air conditioners refresh us but they also contribute, paradoxically, to the climatic disturbance of the planet. These devices consume a lot of electricity. The latter is today mainly generated by gas or coal-fired power plants and these emit greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
[NationalReview] The president of Santa Monica College is instructing students to file a report with campus police if they witness hate speech.
