[Wash Times] Attorney General Jeff Sessions may have declined calls to appoint a second special counsel to probe the FBI’s behavior during the 2016 campaign, but the man he has picked to lead an internal Justice Department review is a special counsel in every way but name.
John W. Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, can convene a grand jury, issue subpoenas, collect evidence and order witnesses to testify ‐ all the usual powers a federal prosecutor has ‐ as he delves into whether the FBI abused its powers when it sought permission then carried out wiretapping of a Trump campaign figure, or whether it trod too lightly in pursuing questions about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Sessions said the facts of the FBI situation don’t yet rise to the level of demanding a special counsel, but Mr. Huber is as close as can be.
"He will have the full authority of a federal prosecutor," said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush. "If he looks at this and finds someone in the DOJ lied to a government official, he would be able to convene a grand jury, compel testimony and even prosecute them."
By appointing an active federal prosecutor ‐ in this case one first nominated by President Obama, and kept on by President Trump ‐ Mr. Sessions may also deflect criticism that the review is a partisan attempt to undermine the other special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is probing the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russia in 2016.
#7
Clapper ran out the clock on perjury before Congress. Is that what is going on here--running out the clock? I hope we are not just witnessing more theater.
[Hot Air] There were estimates last year that the number of drug overdose deaths in 2016 might be as high as 60,000 but the actual numbers, released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are even worse:
The sharp increase in deaths from cocaine and other drugs is believed to be, in part, a result of drug suppliers mixing illicit fentanyl into the supply, thereby increasing the chance of an overdose. The geographic distribution of overdose deaths doesn’t focus on one region of the country, though the specific drug causing the increases varies from state to state. The highest adjusted death rate was in West Virginia. The lowest rate was in Texas.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] These days one often hears the argument: Where were these tolerant religious views and flexible doctrinal interpretations hidden earlier? Why have they come out in the open all at once? The implicit and at times explicit inference in these remarks is that moderate religious views that are becoming popular these days are part of a major conspiracy against Islam!
For example, there is controversy and debate over details regarding women, the arts and entertainment and the relationship of Moslems with those belonging to a different religion, sect or doctrinal denomination. Those who are raising fingers of accusation against moderate religious teachings have not immersed themselves in the study of orthodox ’fiqh’ (Islamic jurisprudence), which is replete with ’fatwas’ and opinions which the ignorant deem as heresy today.
In his interviews to the press, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... as of 2016.... said that Islam is being hijacked by a faction that wants to attain power, the faction of Islamists like the Moslem Brüderbund, the Khomeini regime (the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) or the Sururist Movement, a wretched branch of the Moslem Brüderbund; but Islam is not the private property of these elements. Marking a departure from the culture of these groups regarding women, he has stated that the general Moslem conscience supports the ideals of decency and good manners without discrimination of color and strictures of the Abaya or the dress worn by Moslem women.
This is absolutely true. Clothing is the manifestation of local cultural norms and setting. Take a look at the clothes of women of Mauritania or Sudan and compare them with the clothes of women from Chechnya, or Iranian women or Kurdish women. All of them have distinctive features that reflect their respective indigenous culture. The underlying idea behind all of them is the emphasis on decency.
Thus, I would like to emphasize that there is nothing new about the moderate religious discourse and it is not the reflection of a modern trend. The fact is that closed mindset has been opened and a gush of fresh air has started flowing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[IsraelNationalNews] At least to this observer, UK prime minister Theresa May has been sounding a touch hysterical ‐ or maybe it’s just me who finds this getting out of hand.
She’s now got the United States backed into taking punitive action against Russia. This, as we expel 60 Russian diplomats as part of a united front that includes 14 European countries, all of whom say that, "It’s time to do something about Russia." The pundits agree. All of the same mind that, "It’s time to put Putin in his place" ...and "Enough is enough."
Enough of what? Seems that the Russians poisoned a couple of dissident Russians somewhere in England, Salisbury to be exact, so this means? This, read all about it, means war.
We are not quite there yet, but it sounds like somebody thinks a Cold War is fine, but that a Hot War would be better, as we wrote in "Cool-hand Trump vs war-hawk Dems"
Once again, just this morning, we find May addressing Parliament with words to die for, like this ‐ "It [the alleged poisoning] is part of a pattern of increasingly aggressive Russian behavior."
For aggressive behavior off the scale, she might consider what the poison-hearted Palestinian Arabs keep doing to the Israelis in "Days of Rage" ‐ often with British and EU approval.
I get it that Putin has schemes not in our favor, sure, but what’s alarming is the haste to take up battle stations that can only push Putin to the brink...over what is not that clear.
"A clear breach," May goes on to say, as a summons to the world to get tough.
Even though, by the way, there is no proof that the Russians did anything.So maybe it’s simply a time for war. The Europeans need it every so often ‐ quite often in fact.
Most times the entire continent gets into the act ‐ seldom is it one on one ‐ and usually the firing begins over not much. I’m thinking WWI over some archduke getting assassinated in Sarajevo. Rather than get even with the assassin, everybody go home and call it a day, four years and three months they fought, 32 countries, leaving behind 41 million dead.
To my thinking, one archduke wasn’t worth all that trouble.
...But just because the Europeans tend to go brothel now and again, I don’t see where this is any of our business. Unless Russia actually invades. Then, okay, we come to the rescue, as usual. But this is not Churchill warning about Hitler and the Wehrmacht. This is May about an alleged poisoning of two people in Salisbury.
Two people and they aren’t even archdukes.
Since when did our own people ‐ experts, all ‐ become so trigger-happy? Itchy-fingered Democrats, of course they want war with Russia.
They’ve been saying it, or hinting it, ever since Trump got elected and to prove that he is no friend of Putin’s, demand he turn hawkish and damn the consequences.
Trump was put on the spot..." stand with our allies" ...or stand apart...so he had no choice.
He had to act, but reluctantly, since, as we’ve been saying, Trump has been the cool-hand in a room full of hot heads.
That one thing can lead to another with 4,000 nuclear warheads standing by on either side...and the Cuban Missile Crisis a nightmare to remember...few realize the bell tolls for thee.
#3
If Russia attempted a nerve agent assassination in an allied country, that has WHAT to do with Islam?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2018 10:54 Comments ||
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#4
(a) Ever heard of "proof", Frank? Far as I'm concerned, the word of Teresa May worth exactly the same as the word of one of your own politicians.
(b) Europe is being taken over by Islam, with the complete complicity of EUropean ruling class - yes, or no?
[SmallWarsJournal] On March 18, after two months of the Turkish military repeatedly shelling the Kurdish-held city of Afrin, Turkish-backed Syrian rebels occupied the city. Turkey’s campaign into Syria began a year and a half ago, initially focusing on uprooting the Islamic State. But with the sharp decline in power of the Islamic State following the fall of its de facto capital, Raqqa, Turkey has redirected its focus onto Kurdish forces in Syria. The capture of Afrin creates another power shift in Syria in favor of both Turkey and the Assad government, as well as possibly the Islamic State, at the expense of the Kurds but also the rebels.
The Syrian civil war has been anything but one-sided from the very start. The Assad regime (government forces), the loosely connected Syrian rebels (anti-government forces), the Kurds and assorted allies (Syrian Democratic Forces), and the Islamic State are the four major military factions in Syria. Their fortunes have been greatly aided and hindered by the support and opposition of foreign powers, including the United States, Russia, and Turkey.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 3dc ||
04/01/2018 00:00 ||
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[11125 views]
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#1
Afrin is still very hot for Turkey and their FSA mercenaries. Almost 50 FSA and Turk troops were killed in Afrin yesterday alone as well as a Turk tank was taken out.
IED's explosions are a daily event against the Turk/FSA forces in Afrin. One Brit fighting for the YPG was killed in the fighting 2 days ago.
#3
The martial opera The New Ottoman Empire Marches, Act II: Turkish Republic of North Syria is being enacted as we watch. Please don't confuse it with Act I:Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, the two names have nothing in common! (/sarc)
Somebody is going to have to go to war, as in War-War, with Erdogan eventually I am afraid. Like the French Bourbon Kings he just isn't going to stop on his own.
h/t Instapundit
[NYMag] Last weekend, a rather seismic op-ed appeared in the New York Times, and it was for a while one of the most popular pieces in the newspaper. It’s by David Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard, who carefully advanced the case that there are genetic variations between subpopulations of humans, that these are caused, as in every other species, by natural selection, and that some of these variations are not entirely superficial and do indeed overlap with our idea of race. This argument should not be so controversial ‐ every species is subject to these variations ‐ and yet it is. For many on the academic and journalistic left, genetics are deemed largely irrelevant when it comes to humans. Our large brains and the societies we have constructed with them, many argue, swamp almost all genetic influences.
Humans, in this view, are the only species on Earth largely unaffected by recent (or ancient) evolution, the only species where, for example, the natural division of labor between male and female has no salience at all, the only species, in fact, where natural variations are almost entirely social constructions, subject to reinvention. We are, in this worldview, alone on the planet, born as blank slates, to be written on solely by culture. In short: The people who proclaim their allegiance to Science and Evolution the loudest, have less grasp of the scientific results in evolutionary research than an average Jewish/Christian/Muslim fundamentalist.
All differences between men and women are a function of this social effect; as are all differences between the races. If, in the aggregate, any differences in outcome between groups emerge, it is entirely because of oppression, patriarchy, white supremacy, etc. And it is a matter of great urgency that we use whatever power we have to combat these inequalities.
h/t Instapundit
[NationalReview] All you needed to know about student activist David Hogg’s speech at the "March for Our Lives" in Washington, D.C., over the weekend was that he affixed a price tag on the microphone to symbolize how much National Rifle Association money Senator Marco Rubio took for the lives of students in Florida.
The stunt wasn’t out of place. Indeed, it perfectly encapsulated the braying spirit of the student gun-control advocacy in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. As Instapundit said once: "In the future everyone will be H*tler - for 15 minutes.". I foresee considerably more than 15 minutes for young David Hogg. In fact, I'm willing to bet, we'll be hearing this name a lot in the years to come.
#1
Our 1st guarantees your right to be a no-notbing idiot and spout-off nonsense. These kids are being played and used as demagogues for the left-wing puppeteers. Do they really want the State to be the only ones who have guns?
#2
Do they really want the State to be the only ones who have guns?
These children suffer from what I call "commissar syndrome." They fully expect to be shot callers in the "state," so of course they have no problem with the "state" having a monopoly on coercive force. As we all know, many useful idiots actually wound up kneeling alongside a ditch alongside the people they expected to be ruling over.
That's why I'll keep my guns, thanks...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/01/2018 9:14 Comments ||
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#3
And when I say "As we all know," by we I mean people who have actually studied the history of totalitarian states. We of course know that icky stuff is not taught at Parkland or any other gubbamint skool.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/01/2018 9:19 Comments ||
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#4
Since they don't teach real history anymore, they won't know what happened to the first 'Red Guard'.
#5
They have no understanding or constructive ideas on how to increase school security, and they are willing useful idiots to those leading and financing an alternate agenda.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/01/2018 13:30 Comments ||
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#6
They want to be on TV. They'd set themselves on fire if told to do it to remain on TV.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/01/2018 13:43 Comments ||
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#7
They want to be on TV. They'd set themselves on fire if told to do it to remain on TV.
Neh, Hogg (a leadership material if I ever seen one) would set somebody else on fire.
...
In roughly six weeks, we’ve come to know Parkland students David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, and to a lesser extent (because mainstream media doesn’t appreciate his pro-2A stance), Kyle Kashuv. These teenagers have been thrust into the media spotlight because youth makes for an ideal poster child. Energy and a fresh face can do much to advance a narrative, regardless of content.
We have seen exactly this in the past few weeks. There is a sense that because one has gone through a crisis, one has the expertise to discuss the issue – almost continually – in the public square.
I have no problem with these kids talking about their experiences and demanding change. I have every problem with the free pass they’ve been given as they label NRA supporting legislators and actual members “kid killers”, among other things. I have a problem with their lack of basic knowledge about guns and gun laws while chiding Second Amendment supporters for possessing weapons and using them in accordance with established law. But I have already written about those frustrations.
...
The parents of these newly-minted anti-gun crusaders only want this to keep going, no matter what it looks like or costs their kids in the future. They don’t care that they’re pushing their kids onto the national stage when they’re not intellectually or emotionally mature enough. They’re political stage moms/dads who want to live vicariously through their activist offspring.
#11
#10 If 4chan has it, Hogg will look even stupider after he deletes his "secret" account. "What? they can archive that stuff? That's MY stuff! They should be shut down NOW!!!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/01/2018 18:18 Comments ||
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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.
Crown Prince of 
