[The Federalist] When former FBI director James Comey disclosed at a congressional hearing last June that he had disseminated memos to a friend, his defenders scrambled to make excuses for him. The mainstream media launched either fake news or a series of legal justifications to whitewash his violations of a litany of federal rules and laws protecting his private conversations with the president.
Now that the memos have been perused, the theories of a number of such legal commentators, which were based on sketchy information to begin with, have unsurprisingly proved to be full of errors, irrelevancies, and overstatements. Rather than walk back their defense of Comey’s leaks, however, they have doubled down on heroizing him.
No, Comey’s Memos Are Not His Personal Property.
Last May, the Washington Post called White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders a liar for saying Comey leaked privileged information. At the time, legal professor Jonathan Turley wrote eloquently in her defense. Today, he confirms his position, arguing that the media continue to allow their bias to overwhelm their objectivity in reporting on Comey’s culpability.
The release of the actual memos (albeit redacted) resolves a number of points of contention. The first is whether they were government records. If they were produced in the course of government employment, they constituted confidential information subject to both internal Justice Department rules restricting their removal and disclosure as well as federal statute. More on the latter presently, but in the meantime, it is important to note these restrictions would apply whether the material released was classified or not.
It has been reported to the MOD network that a comment from veteran Rantburg poster 'Sgt. DT' may have been inadvertently deleted. Apologies are very much in order.
#1
Show the deleted item. And explain why the post was "inadvertently" Deleted. Was it politically smelly in your estimation . Or was it obscene?
Or was it just "stupid" for some reason ? I rather liked your state trooper meme for stupid stuff. Or what was the really real reason it was deleted? Did you think it was from a "nobody" then? And not one of the "good 'ol boys"? naturally the good 'ol boys should get a pass. We can't be censoring one of the "good 'ol boys"
Level with us. What are your criterion for censorship. ? Its OK you can be honest.
#2
you're close? Nobody Mods away SGT DT's comments, except by accident (that said, wuzn't me! I don't delete).
Now Jack C? .... I regularly internet cop his droppings unless there's something intelligible, and he'll eventually move to a new anon nym...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2018 21:30 Comments ||
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#3
When you are an ass, Hemingway, which is often, you get deleted or spam copped. I go for straightforward deletion, because I find two or three spam copped comments in a row annoying, but our newer moderators still have patience.
Those occasions when you are not an ass I leave untouched, so that all can enjoy it.
[Breitbart] Students around the country walked out of class in support of the Second Amendment on Wednesday.
The walkout was part of Will Riley’s "Stand for the Second" event ‐ a nationwide call to counter nonstop gun control campaigns with a walkout in support of the Second Amendment and our founding principles.
On May 1, Breitbart News reported that Riley, a senior at New Mexico’s Carlsbad High School, is not a gun owner but believes the ideals and freedoms dear to our Founding Fathers ought to be dear to us as well.
Students at over 300 schools responded to Riley’s battle cry, pledging to "Stand for the Second" in their respective locations.
Although the pro-Second Amendment walkout did not garner the same level of establishment media coverage as gun control walkouts, the Marion Star reported approximately 150 middle school students at Caledonia, Ohio’s River Valley Middle School walked out in support of gun rights. NBC 52 reports that students in Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Illinois walked out as well.
#5
G(r)om, I disagree with you. I do agree there is a war for our kids minds going on. When the left burned down Berkley, the right did not go to wall street and burn it down because we are better than that. We need to fight to put a stop to the politicization of our children, not advance it. We need to sue the organizers of these movements, we need to sue the school districts for allowing/supporting these political movements and force the schools to stay out of politics.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/03/2018 17:02 Comments ||
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#6
the right did not go to wall street and burn it down because we are better than that
[AAWSAT] We should all be glad that Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... , the leader of North Korea, and Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, had a positive summit ‐ and that Kim literally took a historic step into the South, as did Moon, briefly, into the North. Dialogue is certainly better than a march to war. That said, we all need to keep our expectations in check.
Although the leaders agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration to work together toward a permanent peace rather than the current armistice and declared a commitment to "denuclearization," we cannot know whether this statement of principles will be of lasting worth until the details are hammered out. This is certain to be a long and difficult process.
Similarly, we should all welcome the Trump-Kim summit expected in May or June. But no summit declaration on that occasion will be meaningful regarding North Korea’s nuclear arsenal if the definition of the term "denuclearization" is left blurry and no robust verification regime is put in place. We need to see concrete steps. That would include, in the first instance, allowing the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency back into North Korea to begin an assessment of Pyongyang’s nuclear program and ensure, if possible, that North Korea is not advancing the program while talks continue.
Any US-North Korean declaration must also include a detailed definition of "denuclearization" to ensure that we are all talking about the same thing. In 1992, when the North and South issued a joint declaration, this term was born because "disarmament" was considered unacceptable terminology. Pyongyang has long used denuclearization as a proxy for ensuring that its security was guaranteed and not threatened by US military power and nuclear weapons. The United States, and the rest of the world, are looking for quite a different outcome: the destruction of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and permanent constraints on its missiles. President Trump must also concern himself with Americans held in North Korea, Pyongyang’s cybercrimes and its disastrous human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. record.
#2
Key to the process is remembering that when you are speaking and interacting with the Norks, you are actually speaking and interacting with the Chinese.
BTW, for a real taste of 'Euro Think' toward the U.S., don't miss the Klassenfeind reader comment in the ZH link. They're always wishing us the very best.
#3
The key is China, not N or S Korea, or US. Trump may have made China nervous about continuing to encourage Kim's antagonism, for fear of Trump and/or Kim losing self-control.
#5
Ceaușescu solution is likely if the North sees how they've been lied to and starved. I'm sure Kimmie is aware of that.
The sad thing is that when we turned on Libya soon after they got rid of their WMD we set a negative precedent that gives Kimmie few options but to hold on for dear life or seek protected exile somewhere.
[Daily Caller] Black male support for President Donald Trump doubled in just one week, according to a Reuters poll on presidential approval.
A poll taken on April 22, 2018 had Trump’s approval rating among black men at 11 percent, while the same poll on April 29, 2018 pegged the approval rating at 22 percent. It should be noted that Reuters only sampled slightly under 200 black males each week and slightly under 3,000 people overall.
Trump experienced a similar jump in approval among black people overall, spiking from 8.9 percent on April 22 to 16.5 percent on April 29.
Black males were also far more likely to say that they had "mixed feelings" about the president. On the 22nd, 1.5 percent said they had mixed feelings, while 7.1 percent said the same on the 29th.
The results are interesting given the recent transformation of Kanye West, who posted a picture of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat on his Twitter account last week.
#4
Victor, that was exactly my thought. If Kanye stands firm for a few more weeks this could be a Yuuge change.
Not that I'm paranoid, but, I won't be surprised if Mr. West is the target of some unwelcome attention very shortly. The Left can't let them uppity Nigg*** start thinking for themselves can they?
#5
AlanC, did you miss auntie Waters comment on Monday? They are already trying to drag him back in chains.
"Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday weighed in on Kanye West's recent comments about President Trump, praising the rapper for his contributions to the African-American community while also saying he sometimes "talks out of turn."
Talks out of turn. Wow. Slavemaster much, Maxine?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/03/2018 9:53 Comments ||
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#6
And this from Kim Kardashian West. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read it. She defended her husband. Credibly.
"Kim Kardashian West slammed mainstream media critics attempting to demonize her husband Kanye West after the Grammy-winning rapper-producer publicly expressed support for President Donald Trump." And she went OFF on the critics. Whoda thunk it. That was from a Breitbart article.
#8
Democrats and Leftists trying to prevent Donald J. Trump from leading blacks off the plantation.
I love it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/03/2018 10:29 Comments ||
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#9
Minority and victim pandering is all they have for a political platform. Minorities stop voting for them, they will be finished as a party and they know it.
Thus the vicious vitriol against those that speak or act against the approved group-think.
Ironically this will just make more people leave faster.
#12
Not that I'm paranoid, but, I won't be surprised if Mr. West is the target of some unwelcome attention very shortly. The Left can't let them uppity Nigg*** start thinking for themselves can they?
Turned past TMZ and got a segment where they had both people of color on their staff...though one was whiter than Obama but dreads...start bagging on Kanye, with a room of sodden white people nodding in sad approval.
I watched for a little bit and it was so lame, so predictable.
#14
Black males seeing jobs returning after a long time and rediscovering their pride.
Do not forget, a lot of blacks migrated out of the south to work in Democrat cities because of jobs, and they started voting Democrat while there. Votes and jobs are linked.
Trump needs to keep the job numbers improving and the left will lose all but the fringe.
[Townhall] Eh, it's just one polling series -- but it's an intriguing one, tracking data over two years. With President Trump's job approval ticking up a few more points lately (it's better, but still not good, especially considering this electoral context), might young voters' acute allergy to the Republican Party and its current leader be subsiding a bit? Perhaps. Here is what Reuters/Ipsos' latest survey found, followed by a some further analysis:
#3
I'd like to think they're seeing the job situation
but its probably because the only Dem names bandied about are over a hundred years old. Despite that these numbers will probably rise once they Dems rally around a single person.
[The Federalist] Gen. Michael Hayden, the former NSA and CIA director, has inadvertently revealed the ultimate subtext for the political establishment’s antagonism towards President Trump.
Trump has "normalized lying to an unprecedented degree," Hayden writes in a New York Times op-ed, adding: "In this post-truth world, intelligence agencies are in the bunker with some unlikely mates: journalism, academia, the courts, law enforcement and science ‐ all of which, like intelligence gathering, are evidence-based. Intelligence shares a broader duty with these other truth-tellers to preserve the commitment and ability of our society to base important decisions on our best judgment of what constitutes objective reality."
There’s some irony there, given how intelligence agencies have used journalists and academics to advance their agendas. But we’ll set that aside. While professionals in these fields should base their work in careful and dispassionate analysis of facts, logic and evidence, they’ll encounter two problems. First, rising within many of these institutions requires political acumen in at least equal proportion to merit. Second, progressives dominate in most of these fields ‐ if you do not conform you are unlikely to survive.
Those who exhibit intellectual honesty and follow truth wherever it leads them, even when it flies in the face of the views of their superiors, are frequently punished. This is especially so if the relevant work is deemed detrimental to the aims of the bureaucracies in which they serve. Increasingly of course, we see all of these areas politicized in myriad ways. These same rules apply in politics as politics.
#2
In this post-truth world, intelligence agencies are in the bunker with some unlikely mates: journalism, academia, the courts, law enforcement and science ‐ all of which, like intelligence gathering, are evidence-based.
Speaking of normalized lying boy howdy. I'll give you the courts and law enforcement mostly but the others????? BS.
#4
Those who exhibit intellectual honesty and follow truth wherever it leads them, even when it flies in the face of the views of their superiors, are frequently punished.
That has been the case for thousands of years, nothing at all new about this observation. More successful societies had ways of dealing with this delinquent tendency. The US once had a society which had its own checks & balances to get around this flaw, some of which were encoded in law, some were encoded in the hearts of its citizenry.
[American Thinker] What a week for President Trump! We have North and South Korea making peace, with the North promising to give up its nukes ‐ something unimaginable for past administrations, those filled with diplomatic wizards like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry. This announcement is on the heels of a successful state visit by French president Emmanuel Macron and Mike Pompeo's confirmation as secretary of state.
The economy is humming along with record low unemployment, particularly benefiting blacks and Hispanics, in a way that Democrat policies never allowed for. Rap superstar Kanye West, much to the dismay of the left, came out of the liberal closet and proclaimed himself a Trumpster. Left-wing MSNBC hack Joy Reid, after the discovery of her past Twitter musings, can't decide if she was a homophobe years ago when it wasn't one of the third rails of liberal politics, allowing the left another opportunity to eat one of its own, or else make silly excuses for her homophobia.
All is not wine and roses, however. The president's nominee for Veterans Administration secretary, Dr. Ronny Jackson, was hounded into withdrawing his nomination through rumors and unsubstantiated allegations, in a similar fashion to how Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork were treated when nominated for the Supreme Court, and just as Harry Reid tried to smear candidate Mitt Romney with lies about Romney not paying his taxes.
If Dr. Jackson was a drunken pill-pusher, as Senator Jon Tester claimed, why did George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama both use Dr. Jackson as their personal physician ‐ not only for themselves, but also for their wives? Allegations are easy to make. Just look at the Russian collusion stories, to this day without proof or verification. In the short time frame between Dr. Jackson's nomination and confirmation hearings, it's quite difficult to prove that something didn't happen, particularly when it appears that the president is the only Republican defending his nominee against allegations promoted by the Democrats and the media.
#3
They have had plenty of opportunities to shed the uniparty ways and board the Trump train. Many simply refuse to do so and I hope they get primaried out.
[American Thinker] The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell argues, along with the left, that President Trump's economic achievements are not all that impressive. In her last column, she concludes:
Presidents get too much blame when the economy sours and too much credit when it improves. Not that you'd know this from Trump's boasts whenever some good news ‐ even news that's not actually that good ‐ rolls in.
While I generally agree with her statement that presidents get too much blame and too much credit for the economy, there are some problems with her reasoning.
When one president increased regulations as fast as he could, foisted high taxes on us, and always sought more power for the government, and the other president is trying to reduce regulations as fast as he can, cut taxes, and reduce the power of government, it can have a heck of a lot of impact.
President Obama's policies led to the slowest economic recovery in seventy years, despite massive government spending increases, huge injections of cash by the Federal Reserve, and punishingly low interest rates, which discouraged savings.
Today, I have read that the economy is growing at the fastest rate since 2005 (after Bush's tax cuts), and the first quarter showed the fastest personal income growth since 2007. (It looks as though the tax cuts are trickling through.)
We had eight years of Obama to judge his policies, and the results weren't good. Now we have had a mere one year to judge Trump's, and only four months after the tax cuts, so we will see.
#1
Obama's Recovery Summer never arrived outside manipulated data reports and Media hum jobs. We can look around and see what a recovery does look like now. Going to believe the Legacy Infortainment Enterprises (LIEs) or you lying eyes?
#2
I wonder how thoroughly, in a metaphorical sense, Ms. Rampell was licking Obama's balls during his two terms wrecking the economy and piling on the debt. Because that's different!
[Washington Examiner] Fox News anchor Shepard Smith suggested there is a "concerted effort" by people appearing on his network to advise President Trump not to sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.
"There appears to be a concerted effort ... to put a bunch of people on television having seen [Mueller’s] questions, and to say into the television ‐ like this channel ‐ ’Don’t do it, Mr. President. Don’t do it. Don’t go up there, don’t do it. We know you want to. Don’t do it. Can’t do it,'" Smith told Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason Wednesday.
"We all know the president does watch some television, and he’s got a lot of surrogates, as we call them, or friends out there that speak for him and speak on behalf of him," Mason said.
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.
North Korea
[American Thinker] What a week for President Trump! We have North and South Korea making peace, with the North promising to give up its nukes ‐ something unimaginable for past administrations, those filled with diplomatic wizards like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry. This announcement is on the heels of a successful state visit by French president Emmanuel Macron and Mike Pompeo's confirmation as secretary of state.
[American Thinker] The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell argues, along with the left, that President Trump's economic achievements are not all that impressive. In her last column, she concludes:
[Washington Examiner] Fox News anchor Shepard Smith suggested there is a "concerted effort" by people appearing on his network to advise President Trump not to sit down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.
