[CNN] Vindman is expected to return to the Pentagon, though it's still unclear what his assignment will be until he's expected to attend war college this summer.
"We welcome back all of our service members, wherever they serve, to any assignment they are given," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday when asked about Vindman's expected ouster.
#1
"We welcome back all of our service members, wherever they serve, to any assignment they are given. We *especially* welcome back. Lt Col Flounder."
"Psst. It's Vindman, sir"
"Yeah, whatever."
#2
Made my Fok'n day! Now for the Article-32 Investigation and recommendation of formal charges. I anxiously await his UCMJ testimony and full cooperation.
There will be grass and shrubbery that will soon need tending at Leavenworth. We may have just found our man.
#7
There will be grass and shrubbery that will soon need tending at Leavenworth.
True. The few enlisted at Fort Leavenworth enjoy the benefits of not performing all those soul crushing details as plenty of honor inmates get the 'privilege'.
It will however be a bit delayed. Once all appeals are completed and the Secretary signs the paperwork, he'll be moved to the general population.
[Yahoo via Right Scoop] It looks like the Senate is deepening their investigation into Hunter Biden and his dealings with Burisma. Yesterday we told you about the Senate requesting travel information from the Secret Service. Now it’s being reported that the Senate is getting sensitive financial info as well:
From Yahoo News:
The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators’ requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over "’evidence’ of questionable origin" to them, according to a leading Democrat on one of the committees conducting the investigation.
For months, while the impeachment controversy raged, powerful committee chairmen in the Republican-controlled Senate have been quietly but openly pursuing an inquiry into Hunter Biden’s business affairs and Ukrainian officials’ alleged interventions in the 2016 election, the same matters that President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani unsuccessfully tried to coerce Ukraine’s government to investigate.
Unlike Trump and Giuliani, however, Sens. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee; Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; and Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have focused their efforts in Washington, seeking to extract politically useful information from agencies of the U.S. government. They’ve issued letters requesting records from Cabinet departments and agencies, including the State Department, the Treasury, the Justice Department, the FBI, the National Archives and the Secret Service.
Notice how they write that Republicans are "seeking to extract politically useful information", making it sound like this is all about politics, when this is exactly what Democrats have been doing to Trump since he stepped into the Oval Office. It’s been one big fat fishing expedition, yet Democrats are pursuing the truth, you see?
#2
Rudy Giuliani has laid out his findings on Ukraine (and USA links) corruption in a series of podcasts and videos on Youtube. I wonder how much public exposure these get?
If much of this is true, it would explain the reaction and pushback (and impeachment attempts) from the Dems and others that Trump has received regarding Ukraine corruption.
#4
Indeed. Hidden in plain sight. Pelosi knew Peach Mint was completely stupid, from every angle, and head out as long as she thought she could.
Obviously the only reason to move forward with that Shitshow was the same reason not to manually tally the Iowa carcass caucus results. NB: each precinct chair in IA could have asked 3-4 pro's to help count up, then check or audit, the results and tap 'em into a shared spreadsheet for an auditor to aggregate and review - within maybe 2 hours, max. It's only about ~100,000 votes total from only 1,600 precincts.
OF COURSE the Dems knew the IA vote tally.
OF COURSE they knew Biden got his arse kicked.
OF COURSE they know he and his idiot son and shithead brother and sister are corrupt as sin.
OF COURSE they know Schifferbrains is a pompous ass and totally incompetent.
Pelouse-y knows all the above better than anyone. This knowledge has driven her insane.
The week just gets better and better
[The Hill] A federal appeals court in Washington threw out a lawsuit accusing President Trump of illegally profiting off his private businesses while in office, ruling that the Democratic lawmakers who brought the suit lack standing to sue.
A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said in a brief 12-page decision that the dispute centering around the Constitution's emoluments clauses has no place in the court system.
"The Members can, and likely will, continue to use their weighty voices to make their case to the American people, their colleagues in the Congress and the President himself, all of whom are free to engage that argument as they see fit," the judges wrote. "But we will not‐indeed we cannot‐participate in this debate."
The decision is a major win for Trump, who unlike every recent president, has refused to relinquish control over his business assets by placing them in a blind trust.
The case was brought in 2017 by more than 200 Democratic senators and House members who alleged that Trump's business holdings violated the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits federal officials from receiving gifts from foreign countries.
Their lawsuit argued that foreign diplomats' patronage of the president's hotels opens Trump up to the kind of foreign influence that the framers had sought to avoid.
The unanimous D.C. Circuit panel said in its decision that the members lacked standing because they did not comprise a majority of either the Senate or House when they filed the lawsuit and therefore did not represent either chamber.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2020 10:51 ||
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#1
Winning never seems to get old...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2020 11:53 Comments ||
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#2
At this rate, Cruella DeBotox will be driven insane & stashed in the loony bin by month's end.
#4
Three judge panel. One HW Bush appointee, one Bush W appointee and one Clinton appointee. Very lucky draw as the DC Circuit is still heavily Democratic.
#5
The left has made plenty of hay using such minutiae to kludge things up for their enemies for generations; I'm fine with the right starting to do the same.
The whole "Let's be practical/above that sort of thing/not die on that hill" mentality has been an abject failure.
#7
I'm in favor of our politicians seeing anything they put on paper can be torn up.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/07/2020 12:30 Comments ||
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#8
Where did Cruella DeBotox get the idea of ripping up a speech as a way of demonstrating hostility, contempt etc?
We understand gestures like a raspberry, thumbing one's nose, spitballs. Or the European cocked arm f-u gesture. Or the British two-finger reference to the medieval crossbow-finger amputee taunt. And I get the (biblical) idea of rending one's robes. Or the Arab gesture of throwing one's shoes.
But who the fook in his or her right mind & above the age of seven would think of ripping up a sheet of paper?
Who does that?
Where did she get the idea of using a preschooler's gesture?
Conclusion: she's losing her mind. She's barking mad.
[DAILYCALLER] Democratic House Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments... explained why she tore up President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s State of the Union speech during a presser Thursday, saying what she did was "entirely appropriate."
"I tore up a manifesto of mistruths," Pelosi told a news hound who asked her about it. Her staff brainstormed that term all night
"I don’t need any lessons from anybody, especially the president of the United States, about dignity. Dignity. Is it okay to start saying four more years in the House of Representatives? It’s just unheard of," she also said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2020 00:00 ||
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#10
In a perfect world, she'd be tarred, feathered and set on fire. Sadly she will likely wind up back in San Fran on her palace, wandering around and pooping in the bushes.
[DAILYCALLER] FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the FBI agents involved in the surveillance of Carter Page who are still at the bureau have been referred to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray noted that most of the FBI officials who oversaw Crossfire Hurricane, which involved surveillance of Page, have left the bureau and are no longer subject to disciplinary review. He said the FBI personnel who worked on that probe and who still have jobs at the FBI are mostly line-level agents.
"Those people have all been referred to our disciplinary arm," Wray testified, referring to the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).
Republicans on the committee pressed Wray over the Justice Department inspector general (IG) report released Dec. 9, 2019, that found the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in four applications to surveil Page.
#4
If this is Wray's response to a serious criminal internal problem, he needs to go. The FBI agents in the FISA debacle need to be referred to a grand jury for indictment (if they haven't already) and on to the courts for a trial.
#6
Bernie and Buttigieg seems to be emerging over Warren and Biden in Iowa and in early polls in NH. The question is, why do these two candidates seem to be trending thus far? Is it that people are fed up with establishment politicians like Warren and Biden? It can't be that there are that many gay people and communists in the country? Inquiring minds want to know.
#7
Ima interested to find out if NH (my home state) hates Fauxcohontas. Howie Carr (N.E talk radio kingpin) usually devotes a couple of segments on her every week, and he regularly torches her in print. Generally speaking, NH people don't much like Ma$$holes very much.
#8
Butt-gig is a boutique (or is it boudoir) candidate. Stalin Jr. is the nominee unless the dem deep state gets its game up to speed fast.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/07/2020 11:37 Comments ||
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#9
^ No doubt they are furiously war-gaming every scenario now, far into the night, every night (no wonder Pelouse-y has gone nuts).
Option 1: prop up Biden w/ enough Afr-American and Hispanic votes to win SC and NV in such large #s that the idiot media will create a new pro-Plugz narrative a la "Bill Clinton the Comeback Kid." Except, y'know, Plugz isn't a kid and has failed for his third time in 30+ years of running for prez. Oops.
Option 2: Let Mini do his Mischief and scramble everything in Super Tuesday, then assess the ruins and improvise
Option 2a: Ask Mini to exit in exchange for a promise not to nominate Vladimir Ilyich.
Option 2b: Let Mini stay but force him to take on Hillary as Veep choice.
Option 2c: Same as 2b but swap out Hillary for Big Mike and furnish Mini with a portable 8-inch high booster box that can be inflated to fit discreetly behind / under any podium of his choice.
Then of course there's Option 3, the Cruella DeBotox option: go stark raving mad and begin ripping up paper documents and strangling kittens at every opportunity ...
#11
A lot of Democrats watched the State of the Union and realized that Venezuela is a dictatorship and paradise and economic mess and suddenly realized that's exactly what Bernie wants.
[NYPOST] The frustrated head of the Democratic National Committee demanded Thursday that Iowa party officials conduct a complete recount of the botched caucus vote ‐ as Sen. Bernie Sanders ...The only first openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated out of it by Hillary Clinton, then went back to being a socialist, waiting for 2020 to roll around... was declaring victory despite the three-days-late incomplete tally.
"Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass," DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a tweet.
The call for a "recanvass" came three days after the Iowa caucuses, and with Sanders (I-Vt.) declaring victory in the first-in-the-nation nominating state, though no winner has been officially named and still only 97 percent of the tallies have been counted.
Speaking at his campaign’s New Hampshire headquarters in Manchester, Sanders noted that his campaign was winning the popular initial vote "by some 6,000 votes."
#6
Count again until you get the right answer. Worked so well last time...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/07/2020 7:46 Comments ||
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#7
The DNC will still try, by hook or by crook, to get a 'Middle of the Road' and 'electable' candidate chosen at their convention. They're probably coordinating their 'super delegates' as we speak.
Watch for a Bloomberg or Steyer like product.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/07/2020 8:28 Comments ||
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#8
Watch for a Bloomberg or Steyer like product.
If they spend their own money as well as that of the usual large and small donors, they will get to enjoy being less wealthy afterward, while we enjoy more the result of money flowing directly through the economy— money not spent by the government and therefore not increasing the federal deficit.
Time to weed the garden
[Last Refuge] According to Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg News the Vindman weasel may soon be removed from the National Security Council. Hopefully a full damage assessment has been conducted in the wake of the national security damage Vindman has created.
As would be expected from modern media the Bloomberg article is written to emphasize their ideological position that President Donald Trump, the head of the Executive Branch, should not be allowed to select the people who provide him advice and counsel:
Bloomberg ‐ The White House is weighing a plan to dismiss Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council after he testified in President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry, preparing to position the move as part of a broader effort to shrink the foreign policy bureaucracy, two people familiar with the matter said.
[...] Senior officials were informed on Thursday that some staff would be leaving the White House, the people added. The moves have been in the works since at least last week and could come as soon as Friday.
The departure of Vindman could trigger objections from Democrats and possibly some Republicans. Those concerns could mount if the Trump administration acts against additional government officials.
When we consider that Lt. Col. Vindman was carrying out what he believed to be his role; and when you overlay his military purpose; and when we accept Vindman was assisting CIA agent Eric Ciaramella in constructing his dossier to remove President Trump; and when we stand back and look at the aggregate interests involved; and when we consider there was ZERO push-back from the ranks of military leadership, specifically the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and when you accept Vindman was simply allowed to return to his post inside the White House ‐ where he remains today; well, the alarming aspect increases in direct proportion to the definition of the word: "coup".
Beyond the debate about the optics of the "coup", within the testimony of Lt. Col Vindman, the NSC witness readily admits to understanding the officially established policy of the President of The United States (an agreement between President Trump and President Zelenskyy), and stunningly admits that two weeks later he was giving countermanding instructions to his Ukrainian counterpart to ignore President Trump’s policies.
The coup against President Donald Trump went from soft, to hard.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2020 06:42 ||
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Sorry, B, didn't see you already posted the Bloomberg article
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2020 7:01 Comments ||
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No problem Frank. I like your graphic selection and the 'in-line' gardening comment much better. We'll just call it a 'Last Refuge Update' and see if it passes editorial staff muster.
#3
It'd be funny to see Ukraine go after Vindman, Ciaramella and Yanukovich in court for damaging the US-Ukraine relationship.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/07/2020 7:26 Comments ||
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#4
and see if it passes editorial staff muster.
Moved both to Government on Page 6: Seedy Politics, so the two articles can be compared side by side. Had one not had comments, it could have been stacked with the other.
#7
...Those concerns could mount if the Trump administration acts against additional government officials...
....LTC Fatboy IS NOT A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL. He is an officer in the United States Army, and he serves at the pleasure of the President of the United States.
'Decorated combat hero'? No prob - send him someplace where his talents and knowledge will be useful, doesn't have to be a combat assignment. But get him the hell away from the White House.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2020 9:55 Comments ||
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#8
We moved every three years or less. You are only guaranteed one year at any assignment because its expensive to move more frequently, other than operational necessities driven by skills. BTW, has he had his short tour assignment to Korea yet?
#14
If he's an active duty military officer, then he needs to get charged for leaking classified information and conduct unbecoming. Then throw his butt in Leavenworth, general pop.
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.
[CNN] Vindman is expected to return to the Pentagon, though it's still unclear what his assignment will be until he's expected to attend war college this summer.
[Yahoo via Right Scoop] It looks like the Senate is deepening their investigation into Hunter Biden and his dealings with Burisma. Yesterday we told you about the Senate requesting travel information from the Secret Service. Now it’s being reported that the Senate is getting sensitive financial info as well:
Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments...
She snapped! She just snapped ! 
[DAILYCALLER] FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that the FBI agents involved in the surveillance of Carter Page who are still at the bureau have been referred to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action.
...The 
