The distinguished political scientist Angelo Codevilla coined the ominous term "cold civil war" to describe America’s precarious condition, adding: "Statesmanship’s first task is to prevent it from turning hot." The attempted massacre on June 14 of Republican congressmen and their staff by a deranged partisan of Sen. Bernie Sanders turned up the heat a notch, but it would be mistaken to attribute much importance to this dreadful outburst of left-wing rage. The augury of American fracture will not be street violence, but a constitutional crisis implicating virtually the whole of America’s governing caste. The shock troops in the cold civil war are not gunmen but lawyers.
A considerable portion of America’s permanent bureaucracy, including elements of its intelligence community, is engaged in an illegal and unconstitutional mutiny against the elected commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump. Most of the Democratic Party and a fair sampling of the Republican establishment wants to force Trump out of office, and to this end undertook an entrapment scheme to entice the president and his staff into actions which might be construed after the fact as obstruction of justice. By means yet undisclosed, the mutineers forced Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn from office and now seek to bring down the president for allegedly obstructing an investigation of Gen. Flynn that arose in the first place from the entrapment scheme.
...The Trump-Russia collusion story is nonsense, as its disseminators know better than anyone else. The object of the exercise is not to support the innuendo, but to launch an investigation which can provoke the White House into responses that might be construed as illegal. The intelligence leaks involved in framing the story alone are probably sufficient grounds to put several dozen senior officials in federal prison for double-digit terms. That consideration gauges the scale of the problem: the mutineers have committed multiple felonies, and their downside should the mutiny go wrong is not ignominious retirement but hard time at Leavenworth.
Trump’s one great advantage in all of this is that he has done nothing wrong. He did not obstruct justice because there is no crime. The mutineers’ only hope is to provoke him to take actions which might be construed as obstruction of justice in an investigation with no crime and no victim. Still, it is a moment of great danger for the American Republic. The mutiny has burned its bridges on the beach, and its perpetrators will risk everything to make it succeed. Whatever the outcome, the legitimacy of a political system designed to be litigious and oppositional will be called into question, and the polarization of American opinion will become more rather than less extreme.
#3
Whatever the outcome, the legitimacy of a political system designed to be litigious and oppositional will be called into question
US Chief Justice Roger Taney, 1857, on the human rights of black slaves in the USA: "they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect"
I wonder if/when a US high court decision will some day soon result in the US electorate coming to believe that the US justice/political system has no jurisdiction that they are bound to respect.
[Breitbart] Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, says Wednesday’s shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, officers, and others at a congressional baseball practice makes him "so worried about the life of the President of the United States."
In an interview on the Fox Business Network Wednesday, Marcus said "I wish that the president would sit down with the leadership of the Democratic Party and say guys, let’s cut it out. Let’s get together and let’s start working together and accomplish what has to be accomplished."
#3
"I wish that the president would sit down with the leadership of the Democratic Party and say guys, let’s cut it out. Let’s get together and let’s start working together and accomplish what has to be accomplished."
Yes, indeed - 'working together' always means 'get the Republicans to do what the Democrats want them to do'. Not this time, dickhead.
#5
From what has happened recently it would have been better advice from Marcus, that Trump should keep a safe distance from Democrats, not get together with them.
Bobby Kennedy let a Palestinian hater (Sirhan Sirhan) a bit too close to him.
Posted by: Daniel ||
06/16/2017 23:26 Comments ||
Top||
[Jonathan Turley] The Washington Post is reporting that Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election has now expanded to look into whether President Donald Trump attempted to obstruct justice. What is most notable is not the investigation of obstruction of justice. Rather it is the fact of the leak that is alarming. Former FBI Director James Comey (who followed Mueller at the Bureau and has had a long relationship with Mueller) just admitted to leaking damaging information against Trump.
Comey, who was tasked with investigating leakers, became a leaker himself. Now, the Special Counsel’s office is accused by Trump’s counsel of leaking informing damaging to Trump -- an office that could be asked to consider unauthorized leaks as part of its investigation. While such leaks could come from witnesses, those witnesses appear in large part high-ranking members of the Trump administration unless they came from a briefing with members of Congress.
The leak became a torrent with the disclosure that Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Adm. Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency and Richard Ledgett, Rogers’ departed deputy, all agreed to participate in interviews with Mueller’s investigators as part of the investigation.
#1
Let me ask about this. Back in July 2016, Comey said: 'no reasonable prosecutor' would bring a case against Clinton for emails...
In the face of overwhelming evidence against Clinton that Comey outlined earlier, he came up with the above statement that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton. Despite this not being his prerogative, he assumed the role of a Federal prosecutor rather than just provide the evidence.
Now, contrast this with the current fake special prosecutor investigation fishing expedition witch hunt where not a smidgen of evidence has been presented by anyone that would support the claim of Russian collusion by the Trump team. Now, the witch hunt has been expanded to look into obstruction of justice where no law has been broken. Where's the "no reasonable prosecutor" conclusion in this fake, B.S., no evidence investigation by Special Counsel Mullah Mueller? Pull the plug and drain the swamp bigly. DOJ needs to start pushing real investigations where real criminality has occurred. That means cleaning out the mess left from the last admin., restoring faith in our system of justice and stop the pitting of one group against another group. Halt the activities of the last crony justice system now. Stop the weaponizing of the government against its citizens and its duly elected president.
[DAWN] IN a country still battling violent bandidosbully boyz that have wreaked havoc on society for the past couple of decades, a recent prison break in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... indicates major shortcomings in our counterterrorism apparatus. While it has not yet been determined when the incident occurred as police were informed about it after a considerable delay -- a troubling detail in itself -- the audacious escape of two allegedly ’high-profile Lion of Islams’ from the city’s main jail is alarming. Members of the banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , the men -- who are still under trial -- are accused of multiple murders. According to an official from the city’s counterterrorism department, one of them has slain 57 people, while the other had carried out seven assassination'>assassinations. As a consequence of the prisoners’ escape, 12 jail officials have been suspended.
It is difficult to overstate the gravity of this security lapse. Some of the most hard-core bandidosbully boyz in Pakistain are incarcerated within the walls of the Central Prison; it was a given that security measures had to be ironclad. The institution is an obvious target for resourceful gunnies on the outside seeking to spring their compatriots from behind bars. In October 2014, law-enforcement personnel discovered members of a banned outfit in the process of digging a 45-metre-long tunnel from within a house in a nearby colony towards a prison barracks housing 100 ’dangerous Lion of Islams’. The men were only 10 metres from their target when they were apprehended. It was claimed in the aftermath of this incident that security at the prison had been further enhanced. How then have two individuals belonging to one of the most violent bully boy groups managed to elude all the measures put in place to keep them under lock and key? Jail personnel have been known to collude with inmates either in return for money or out of fear; that is obviously where the investigation must begin. The delay in reporting the escape also raises questions. In short, every effort must be made to get to the bottom of the incident. There is already far too much evidence that law-enforcement authorities are not as vigilant as they should be about bully boy outfits. Consider the fact that a large number of them still maintain a digital presence unhindered, and that the banned sectarian group Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat ...which is the false nose and plastic mustache of the murderous banned extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, whatcha might call the political wing of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi... is reportedly operating in rural Sindh under a new name. We simply cannot afford to be lax on this front.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2017 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi
The insurgency remains difficult to resolve in part because of the insurgents' secrecy. Though none doubt that the insurgents, who claim to champion the national interests of Thailand’s Malay, Muslim minority, desire independence for the region, few can confirm or even identify who represents them. The Thai government is now negotiating with apparent representatives of the insurgency, yet experts have noted a divide between younger military commanders in southern Thailand and older political leaders, many of whom reside far from the battlefield in Malaysia. Negotiations exclude the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), which spearheads the insurgency in the south, undermining the credibility of the peace process and the Thai government’s commitment to it.
The Thai military insisted that negotiations would continue after the bombing, which the BRN likely perpetrated. “The attack is not getting in the way of the peace talks, which we are pushing forward,” said Major General Sith Trakulwong. “Despite the violence, the peace talks will go on.”
In the face of such difficulties, Bangkok appears to lack interest in resolving the insurgency through either a military victory or political settlement. Instead, the military dictatorship has redoubled its efforts to muzzle the press and quash dissent, inserting itself into everyday life. Officials have prioritized foreign policy over national security, looking to improve their military relationship with the United States and planning for Prime Minister Prayut’s visit to the White House. Meanwhile a May 22 bombing in Bangkok indicated that the south will prove far from the Thai government’s only dilemma in terms of security. With other concerns dominating Bangkok’s attention it was only on June 5, almost a month after the supermarket bombing in Pattani, that the government saw fit to increase patrols along the Malaysian-Thai border.
Thailand’s military prefers governance to war, explaining its challenges with the insurgency. “The core pursuits of the Thai military are playing politics and engaging in business activities (including illegal activities, such as smuggling); when the occasion arises, commanders are not averse to killing a few dozen unarmed civilians,” Duncan McCargo, a professor at Leeds University, argued in his book about the insurgency. “The Thai military had no strong grasp of counterinsurgency techniques or strategy, subjects which were not really taught at the Chulachomklao Military Academy.” Rather than confronting the difficulties that it faces in the south, the military dictatorship has opted to avoid or ignore them, reinvigorating the insurgency.
[LI] Marxist Wisconsin Professor Rakes In $170,000 Per Year Teaching About Inequality And Oppression
The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a sociology course informing students that capitalism creates "a world of great misery, inequality and oppression" that "is irrational in ways that hurt nearly everyone."
Erik Olin Wright, the well-heeled professor who teaches the graduate-level course, rakes a sweet annual salary of $170,000 per year.
The MacIver Institute, a free-market think tank, obtained the syllabus for Wright’s course by way of a public records request. The course is entitled: "Class, State, and Ideology: An Introduction to Social Science in the Marxist Tradition."
The affluent professor’s course syllabus, which goes on -- and on -- for almost 80 pages, declares that capitalism "generates harms" and "generates injustices" which "can be broadly grouped under three rubrics: exploitation, domination and irrationality."
Marxism, on the other hand, is an "emancipatory social science" that seeks to "fulfill the goal of generating critical social scientific knowledge relevant to the task of challenging systems of oppression."
"Human emancipation" is the goal of Marxism, the fat-cat professor explains.
#1
You just can't make this feces up, can you? BTW, speaking of "emancipation", about 15 minutes ago, I just took a massive "Erik Olin Wright" while reading the sports page. Ahhhh, I feel so liberated now!
All goodness falls under one rubric!
A monkey, a wrench, a la Kubrick.
Now spinning, now falling.
The headaches? Appalling,
Till commies get sick of their Oobleck.
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.
[DAWN] IN a country still battling violent 
[The Diplomat] By Austin Bodetti
[LI] Marxist Wisconsin Professor Rakes In $170,000 Per Year Teaching About Inequality And Oppression
