[The Federalist] On Tuesday, presiding judge Emmet Sullivan hit a variety of topics when Michael Flynn appeared before him for sentencing on one count of lying to the FBI. The hearing ended with Sullivan holding the matter until Flynn finished cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
But by then Sullivan had ping-ponged from questioning whether Flynn needed additional time to reconsider his guilty plea, to asking the government if the former Army lieutenant general could be charged with treason. One soliloquy in particular struck me. In discussing the charges brought against Flynn, Sullivan stressed that "This is a very serious offense. A high-ranking senior official of the government making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation while on the physical premises of the White House."
For one short moment, Sullivan’s stark pronouncement cut through the partisan noise surrounding Flynn’s prosecution. Yet it is not that simple. For many, the criminal case against Flynn was never about Flynn; it was about our country abandoning the precept of equal justice under the law.
This governing platitude took a hit when the FBI spun its investigation into Hillary Clinton as a mere "matter;" when agents questioned the former secretary of State in the presence of two witnesses, assuring their stories would match; when an agent involved in the Clinton investigation called her responses "questionable," but not "provable" lies, and nothing became of it; when the FBI took no action against other witnesses whom they believed clearly lied during their investigation of Clinton; and when the public learned that the agents knew all along nothing would be done about Clinton’s criminal recklessness in her handling of classified materials.
In contrast to the kid-glove handling of Hillary Clinton and those close to her, the FBI reached out to Flynn with an iron fist ensconced in a velvet glove. An interview that ended with agents concluding that Flynn had not lied resulted instead in federal charges once Special Counsel Mueller’s office became involved.
Yesterday, news broke that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had been paid $530,000 for his work lobbying for a Turkish firm with connections to that country’s government during the presidential campaign, as revealed by documents Flynn filed with the Department of Justice to register retroactively as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Knowledge of Flynn’s connections to Turkey is not new; the Daily Caller first reported on his consulting work and links to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in November, days after the election. The registration under FARA, however, is new.
What’s more, despite earlier denials by press secretary Sean Spicer that the White House was aware of Flynn’s lobbying, the AP is now reporting that the transition team was aware that Flynn might need to register as a foreign agent. Flynn’s personal lawyer contacted transition officials, including soon-to-be White House Counsel Don McGahn, to inform them of Flynn’s activities and possible registration with the Justice Department, the AP reports. The story says the transition team was not told about the specific details of the filing and informed Flynn’s lawyer that the White House did not need to be involved. Sean Spicer appears to have confirmed the AP story at a press conference this afternoon, saying that Flynn’s lawyer contacted the transition team for guidance and was “instructed that this wasn’t the role of the transition team … this was a personal matter.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2018 11:04 Comments ||
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#5
I don't have much sympathy for anyone who is working or has worked with sultan ergomesh...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/21/2018 15:42 Comments ||
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[American Thinker] Judge Emmett Sullivan does not like Robert Mueller. Who does?
Sullivan’s Travels with Mueller
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan was the judge in the Ted Stevens case. Stevens was the 85-year-old Republican senator from Alaska whose conviction for corruption was set aside by Judge Sullivan because of investigative and prosecutorial abuse. Prosecutors falsely charged and convicted a sitting U.S. senator whom they knew was innocent. It is believed that because of Stevens's October conviction, he lost his November re-election bid to Democratic challenger Mark Begich.
Judge Sullivan angrily stated when he set aside the conviction a month later that, "In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case."
Judge Sullivan also appointed an independent counsel to investigate misconduct by the government investigators (Mueller’s FBI) and prosecutors. That IC, Henry F. Schuelke, III, concluded, "The investigation and prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens were permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated [his] defense and his testimony, and seriously damaged the testimony and credibility of the government's key witness." And, "It should go without saying that neither Judge Sullivan, nor any District Judge, should have to order the Government to comply with its constitutional obligations."
Sullivan and Mueller Today
The original judge for the Flynn sentencing was Judge Rudolf Contreras. Contreras, of the FISC (the court which accepted from the Obama administration the Steele dossier as evidence supporting the issuance of a FISA warrant to spy on members of the Trump campaign), accepted Flynn's guilty plea. Six days later, Contreras was recused from the case. Some say the reason was his FISC relationship, some say it was because he is a personal friend of Peter Strzok, the disgraced former FBI Chief of the Counterespionage and the universally acknowledged "King of Texts," having exchanged a gazillion of them with the also disgraced former FBI counsel to the just as disgraced "King of Lies" Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
#1
After looking at this, I am inclined to suspend judgement on Judge Sullivan DS ties and allow any additional info to perc to the top. I re-read the hearing transcript. Some parts are unusual and a little over the top; other parts not off the rails.
[Breitbart] Breitbart News’ Jerome Hudson spoke with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow on Thursday about the new media legacy Andrew Breitbart built a decade ago.
"It’s an amazing thing what Andrew accomplished. I know he is credited a lot for the rise of the citizen journalist class, for people on the right finally starting to fight back," Marlow stated. "I think a lot of the anti-establishment movement that we have in the United States, and around the world, can be traced back to Andrew."
Alex Marlow also discussed what he thought Andrew Breitbart may find interesting if he were still alive today.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In my view, the liberation of Hodeidah from the Houthis and the latter’s withdrawal from it are a very important sign, not only for Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... but for the Middle East as a whole.
As it is known to everyone, Houthis are only one of Iran’s many arms in the region, as ever since their coup till the talks in Sweden, the decision to go to war or to make peace was never their own.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2018 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
[Express] VLADIMIR Putin has mocked "undemocratic" calls for a second Brexit referendum as the Russian President accused Remainers of "disrespect".
Mr Putin rallied his support behind Theresa May saying she must "fulfil the will of the people", saying he understands the Prime Minister’s position in "fighting for this Brexit". Speaking during his annual press conference, he said: "The referendum was held. "What can she do? She has to fulfil the will of the people expressed in the referendum." "Was it not a referendum?
"Someone disliked the result, so repeat it over and over? Is this democracy?
"What then would be the point of the referendum in the first place?"
Mr Putin also accused the UK and US political classes of "disrespecting" the public by questioning the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election.
He said: "They don't want to recognise Mr Trump's victory. That's disrespect of voters.
[National Review] s the year ends, the Trump legal drama winds down towards its tawdry end. The immense fraudulent fantasy of a Benedict Arnold on steroids collaborating with a foreign enemy, a Manchurian Candidate "groomed for the presidency by his Russian controllers," has come down to a squalid dispute between the president, his crooked former lawyer, and the publisher of the National Enquirer over the nature of incentivizing the pre-electoral silence of a porn star and a former Playboy bunny.
The slab-faced, trim and grim Robert Mueller, closing in like a heat-seeking missile on the start of the third year of the most ineffective and redundant investigation in history, could be a brilliant straight man, desperately serious and purposeful as he silently marches across our television screens every night in reruns of the same old news film in the elaborate pretense that he is doing something useful and important. It is the same pattern as the Clinton investigation, which began with the financial improprieties of Whitewater and meandered around to checking the president’s semen against a White House intern’s carefully preserved dress. The lust to tear down a president leads ostensibly serious and responsible people to act contemptibly, and ultimately to become absurd.
[National Review] A high wall would end the border patrol's reliance on dogs and tear gas when rushed by would-be border crossers throwing stones.
There was likely never going to be "comprehensive immigration reform" or any deal amnestying the DACA recipients in exchange for building the wall. Democrats in the present political landscape will not consent to a wall. For them, a successful border wall is now considered bad politics in almost every manner imaginable.
Yet 12 years ago, Congress, with broad bipartisan support, passed the Secure Fence of Act of 2006. The bill was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush to overwhelming public applause. The stopgap legislation led to some 650 miles of a mostly inexpensive steel fence while still leaving about two-thirds of the 1,950-mile border unfenced.
In those days there were not, as now, nearly 50 million foreign-born immigrants living in the United States, perhaps nearly 15 million of them illegally.
Sheer numbers have radically changed electoral politics. Take California. One out of every four residents in California is foreign-born. Not since 2006 has any California Republican been elected to statewide office.
[NPR] Heading into the 2020 Democratic primaries, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll has a warning for Democrats: Americans are largely against the country becoming more politically correct.
Fifty-two percent of Americans, including a majority of independents, said they are against the country becoming more politically correct and are upset that there are too many things people can't say anymore. About a third said they are in favor of the country becoming more politically correct and like when people are being more sensitive in their comments about others.
That's a big warning sign for Democrats heading into the 2020 primaries when cultural sensitivity has become such a defining issue with the progressive base.
"If the Democratic Party moves in a direction that is more to its base on this issue, it suggests independents are going to be tested to stay with the Democrats electorally," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll.
The question was first asked as part of a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll in October 2010. Since then, the margin ‐ between those who opposed more political correctness and those who favored it ‐ has narrowed some. Back then, a slightly higher 56 percent said they were against the country growing more politically correct while just 28 percent said they were in favor, 8 points lower than this latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey.
"Political correctness" has been fundamental to the Trump phenomenon.
[The Federalist] Nate Silver, of all people, recently tweeted that the scale of Russian involvement in the 2016 election was quite small, and its effect was not visible. Silver is of course not a Russian agent, nor should this sentiment be out of place.
After all, it seems so obvious that it shouldn’t even need mentioning in analytical circles. But it’s not often that we see an otherwise shrill and religiously anti-Republican national publication write a normal analytical opinion. It’s a signal of the scaling down of the Russian influence narrative that has been pushed for the last two years.
NPR’s essay on Russia collusion being unproven was a surprise: "Prosecutors say that [Paul] Manafort shouldn’t get any consideration for the information he has given the feds because he has been lying to them; Manafort’s lawyers say he gave the government valuable information. Nonetheless, the crimes for which the feds want Manafort to be locked up aren’t a Russian conspiracy to throw the election."
It was followed by The Nation, no right-wing MAGA hatters, with a thorough essay discussing the differences of the ones charged, the charges, and the original narrative of the collusion story. In an absurd irony, the piece notes how Manafort might go to jail for a "crime" of ostensibly tilting the Ukrainian government towards the European Union ‐ weaning them away from Russia:
#1
So the Russian involvement Was somewhere between $6k and a few hundred thousand... The dossier was paid for by Hillary, so it was cost free. I need to find out who in Russia worked the financials so I can invest in him. His return on investment was unmatched! I mean the USG has spent over $25 million investigating it, a hell of a return...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/21/2018 9:18 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] ’Why did we do it? I don’t know, but we needed someone to operate our ports quickly,’ says official, amid fears Beijing’s potential intelligence gathering could keep US navy away.
Did Israel compromise its own security and its alliance with the US by allowing a Chinese company to operate parts of the Haifa port?
Several analysts and anonymous officials have in recent weeks expressed great concern over a deal that will put the Shanghai International Port Group in charge of the port’s container terminal starting in 2021.
Allowing Beijing a foothold in so strategically important a location, close to an Israeli naval base, they fear, could compromise Israeli intelligence assets and even lead US military vessels to avoid docking at Haifa at all.
A senior Transportation Ministry official this week dismissed such concerns as the plot of a spy movie and called them politically motivated, noting that the Chinese are already operating ports across the Western world and asserting that Israeli authorities did due diligence before signing the deal.
And yet, even diplomatic sources within the Israeli government admit that letting a company tied to the communist regime operate the terminal raises legitimate concerns in Washington. They further acknowledge that they don’t really know how this misguided decision came to pass in the first place, and they are urging Jerusalem to quickly sort out the matter before it causes serious harm to the US-Israel relationship.
"We warned that this would be an issue," a senior government source told The Times of Israel this week, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . "This issue is part of a broader concern that the Americans have about our relationship with China. Their concerns are legitimate."
China is currently making great efforts to gain control over ports in dozens of countries around the world, which the US sees as a distinct threat, the official continued.
Giving the tender to China ‐ other countries interested were Germany, Swiss and the Philippines ‐ might not have been a mistake per se but could have been the result of "lack of awareness," Dan Shapiro, who currently serves as a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, added, pointing to the rapidly changing nature of US-China relations.
#3
The China deal did not receive the approval of the Israeli Cabinet or the National Security Council. There were competing bids from the Philippines and Germany, inter alia. Only now is the Israeli cabinet reviewing the implications of what has occurred. Thus, the decision to favor China will be overturned for reasons of domestic security.
#4
Yes! Next question. Kick China out of the WTO and send them back into isolation. To allow them to get any stronger than they are right now is insanity.
#6
And they probably put asbestos in your starch and was it either melamine or formica powder in your baby's formula until they died from malnutrition. What could possibly go wrong?
[Live Science] The brain of one of the oldest Australopithecus individuals ever found was a little bit ape-like and a little bit human.
In a new study, researchers scanned the interior of a very rare, nearly complete skull of this ancient hominin ancestor. Hominins include modern and extinct humans and all their direct ancestors, including Australopithecus, which lived between about 4 million and 2 million years ago in Africa, and early humans of the genus Homo would eventually evolve from Australopithecus ancestors.
The modern human brain owes a lot to these small, hairy human ancestors, but we know very little about their brains, said Amélie Beaudet, a paleontologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. [In Photos: 'Little Foot' Human Ancestor Walked with Lucy]
Between ape and human
Beaudet and her colleagues used micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), a very sensitive version of the same sort of technology a surgeon might use to scan a bum knee. With this tool,the researchers reconstructed the interior of the skull of a very old Australopithecus.
The skull belongs to a fossil dubbed "Little Foot," first found two decades ago in Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg. At 3.67 million years old, Little Foot is among the oldest of any Australopithecus ever found, and its skull is nearly intact. The fossil's discoverers think it may belong to an entirely new Australopithecus species, Live Science reported.
With micro-CT, the research team could see very fine imprints of where the brain once lay against Little Foot's skull, including a record of the paths of veins and arteries, Beaudet told Live Science. Using the skull to infer brain shape in this way is called making an endocast.
SATIRE WARNING
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐After Trump announced that US troops would be pulled out of Syria, the President was quickly criticized by leaders on both the left and the right for breaking with the longstanding American tradition of remaining in Middle Eastern countries indefinitely.
Trump drew ire from both sides of the aisle for his "careless and reckless" disregard for the beloved American custom of meddling overseas without a congressional declaration of war and then hanging around for another few decades.
"Occupying a country on the other side of the globe and staying there forever is an American pastime," said a CNN host. "For Trump to pull out when we haven't even been there a decade yet is a disgusting display of his selfishness and unwillingness to conform to the standards of presidential decorum."
"Has he no respect for our ways of life?" the host concluded gravely.
In a rare moment of unity, pundits on Fox News agreed. "We just need another 20 or 30 years in Syria, and we can accomplish our goals," said a morning host on the right-leaning news station. "He didn't even really give our soldiers a chance to settle in."
"This is America, for goodness' sake‐land of the free and home of messing with other countries' affairs. I don't like criticizing the president, but he's way off on this one," he added.
[American Thinker] Most non-orthodox Jews in America undergo cognitive dissonance when they get to know political views of people like me. I am a constitutional conservative, non-orthodox Jew who pulled the lever hard and strong for President Trump and would do it again over any Democrat (man or woman of the left). I would do it again even if 27 Playboy Bunnies signed nondisclosure agreements, because, in the wide scheme of things, Playboy Bunnies are meaningless in comparison to civilization affecting things like whether we hand $150 billion dollars to America- and Jew-hating terrorists in Iran, deny that boys are boys and girls are girls, reject protection of private property and by doing so run up more trillions of dollars of debt to place on the shoulders of our kids, appoint another radical Supreme Court justice who basically rejects most of our Constitution, trash our police, destroy our national sovereignty at the borders, and hollow out our military.
[NR] Planned Parenthood routinely discriminates against its pregnant employees, refusing to provide them with adequate rest and often firing or refusing to promote them, according to a New York Times report published Thursday.
Planned Parenthood supervisors regularly refuse to hire and promote pregnant women or women they believe are likely to become pregnant and, when an employee does become pregnant, they are refused break periods and discriminated against when they return from maternity leave, according to former Planned Parenthood employees in California, New York, Texas, and North Carolina.
"It was looked down upon for you to get pregnant," said Carolina Delgado who worked for a Miami affiliate until 2012. "I don’t think that any supervisor had to literally say it for us to feel it."
According to those former employees, supervisors routinely discussed the likelihood of a particular employee becoming pregnant when deciding who to promote and, in response, employees would often emphasize that they were single, gay or did not plan to have children.
1
Ta’Lisa Hairston, who worked in the Human Resources department at a New York affiliate, was forced to undergo an emergency C-section just 34 weeks into her pregnancy after her health suffered when she was refused the regular break periods prescribed by her doctor.
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.
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[Express] VLADIMIR Putin has mocked "undemocratic" calls for a second Brexit referendum as the Russian President accused Remainers of "disrespect".
[National Review] A high wall would end the border patrol's reliance on dogs and tear gas when rushed by would-be border crossers throwing stones.
[Live Science] The brain of one of the oldest Australopithecus individuals ever found was a little bit ape-like and a little bit human.
[NR] Planned Parenthood routinely discriminates against its pregnant employees, refusing to provide them with adequate rest and often firing or refusing to promote them, according to a New York Times report published Thursday.
