[The Hill] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is talking with other Republicans about writing a report next year alleging "corruption" at the FBI, according to The Washington Post.
Citing people familiar with the plan, the Post reports that the Nunes project would focus on information about the conduct of FBI officials in the course of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in last year’s election.
President Trump and his allies in Congress have stepped up their attacks on the FBI as a former leader of the bureau, Robert Mueller, continues his special counsel investigation of last year’s election.
Mueller in December brought charges against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is now talking to investigators.
Trump’s latest attacks on the FBI came on the morning of Christmas Eve, when he ripped into Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over reports that he is to retire soon.
McCabe has been a top target of Trump’s because he worked under former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired in May. Trump, along with Nunes and other Capitol Hill Republicans such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), suggest the FBI was not aggressive enough in its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
McCabe’s wife, a candidate for Virginia’s state Senate at the time, also accepted campaign donations from a political action committee tied to Hillary and Bill Clinton. This has led some Republicans, led by Trump, to ask if he is biased.
Democrats have noted that Comey essentially re-opened his investigation of Clinton a little more than a week before Election Day 2016, before closing it again days before the election. Clinton believes this effectively cost her the campaign.
Nunes has also come under fire for partisanship from Democrats.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member on Intelligence, accused him of doing the bidding of the White House with his repeated criticism of the FBI.
"And here I think, again, we are seeing some on our committee, including the chair, doing the work of the White House, doing the work of Steve Bannon," Schiff said in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday.
[FOX] Relatives and friends of two Ohio postal workers slain by an enraged, naked coworker were at a loss to explain the violence that occurred Saturday morning.
Police said DeShaune Stewart, 24, of Columbus, was charged with killing his supervisor at a post office in Dublin, Ohio, and then killing the Dublin postmaster outside the Columbus apartment complex where she lived.
Both killings were regarded as acts of "workplace violence," police said, adding that they believed Stewart regarded the victims as being to blame for his impending dismissal from his job.
#4
Seriously, though, I didn't look all that hard (or ask in likely circles). If any of you know of such a thing (or -- Rantburg being Rantburg -- have done such a thing), please gimme a heads-up.
[Al Jazeera] South Sudan's army and anti-government rebels have both accused one another of violating a ceasefire just hours after it came into effect.
The peace agreement, in place since 00:01 local time on Sunday, was brokered earlier this week after days of internationally mediated talks in neighbouring Æthiopia to allow for humanitarian aid to get to civilians caught up in the fighting.
It marked the latest attempt to end a devastating civil war that began in 2013 when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir started fighting those allied to his former deputy, Riek Machar.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... a front man for Machar's SPLA-IO group said in a statement on Sunday that rebel bases in the north of the country had come under "the most aggressive attack" earlier in the day.
Lam Paul Gabriel said the group's fighters had "repulsed" an attack by government troops in northern Koch County.
He added that SPLA-IO positions in southwestern Yei County were being bombarded and accused the military of sending in soldiers to attack rebel bases in the western Wau region.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2017 00:00 ||
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[PopularMechanics] Units of the U.S. Army are training to map out, and if necessary fight in, North Korea’s underground complexes. Soldiers from the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division are training in underground tunnels to prepare for the mission of securing North Korean tunnels in the event of war. North Korea is estimated to have thousands of tunnels and underground facilities that would shelter the regime leadership and possibly chemical and nuclear weapons, in the event of war with the United States and South Korea.
During the four day exercise described by Stars and Stripes, dubbed Warrior Strike IX, troops from the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry regiment, 1st Cavalry Division practiced breaching and entering tunnel complexes at the U.S. Army’s Camp Stanley in South Korea. The soldiers conducted the exercise wearing chemical protective suits and night vision goggles to see in the dark.
North Korea is estimated to have between 6,000 and 8,000 underground facilities. Meant to preserve the country’s leadership and armed forces from air attack, the facilities are also thought to store stockpiles of chemical weapons. In 2012, South Korea estimated the North had between 2,500 and 5,000 metric tons of chemical arms, including mustard gas, hydrogen cyanide, and highly lethal nerve agents including sarin, soman, and VX. In 2017, North Korean agents assassinated leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother in Malaysia with a lethal dose of VX, making it seem even more likely the country might use such weapons in wartime.
Stars and Stripes, reporting on the exercise, says the soldiers negotiated a half-mile long horseshoe-shaped tunnel equipped with the Mobile Ad Hoc Networking Unit system, or MPU5. Described by the manufacturer as the "World’s First Smart Radio," it creates a peer-to-peer wireless relay network capable of relaying signals from deep underground to the surface. MPU5 is based on the Android OS and can handle voice, data, and video. The device was also linked to trackers attached to soldiers’ boots, like horseback riding spurs, allowing the Army to keep track of troops underground.
In the event of war on the Korean peninsula South Korean soldiers will do the bulk of the fighting, both above and underground. Still U.S. forces would likley do a considerable amount themselves, and must be ready to fight and communicate hundreds of feet underground in the dark. In the meantime, U.S. troops must train for every contingency .
[Al Jazeera] North Korea has slammed the latest round of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Pyongyang as "an act of war" and vowed to consolidate its nuclear programme.
In a statement published by the state-run KCNA news agency on Sunday, the foreign ministry said new measures proposed by the US infringe North Korea's illusory sovereignty and violate peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.
"We define this 'sanctions resolution' rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the illusory sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region and categorically reject the 'resolution,'" the ministry said.
The 15-member UNSC unanimously voted on Friday to impose tough new sanctions on North Korea in response to its latest missile test and vowed to prevent Pyongyang from furthering its nuclear programme.
The measures order North Koreans working abroad to return home within two years and ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
yeah, if they weren't growling and barking nobody would be looking at that dog.
[PJ] Dawn Fitzpatrick, president of the March for Life Chicago board of directors, told PJM the pro-life movement in Illinois had some setbacks in 2017 ‐ most recently, the passage of House Bill 40, which is expected to result in tens of thousands more taxpayer-subsidized abortions.
"It was just devastating," Fitzpatrick said. "Of course, we are all very upset about that."
Still, Fitzpatrick described her mood and that of other pro-life advocates as "hopeful" as they prepare for the 2018 March for Life Chicago on Jan. 14. The annual event is expected to draw more than 6,000 people, Fitzpatrick said, which would make it the most massive pro-life rally in the Midwest.
"I think that we will have more people than ever because of (HB 40)," she said, "as we stand in the public square and band together to show we love life and are not afraid to stand up for that."
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that House Bill 40 makes sure that abortions remain legal and available in Illinois even if the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade. The legislation also lets women covered by Medicaid or state-employee insurance to use their coverage to pay for abortions.
“He [Rauner] has basically discredited himself as a Republican,” Ives said. “He’s signed into law very extreme measures. The man who said he had no social agenda ended up having only a social agenda.”
#4
Yet the pro-life people is also anti-death-penalty?
So the criminals who brutally murder people and cause great suffering to their victims get a pass while innocence little babies whose only fault is being an inconvenient to their mothers get put to death with no second thoughts?
Since 2015, no woman has successfully made it through SFQC, or the Special Forces Qualification Course since Ash Carter, with a stroke of a pen, created the single greatest disaster in US military history, the authorization for women to serve in the combat arms and special operations units.
#3
Cadre are already calling this out, and the sellout flag rank officers who are using this as a career builder are going to be cut off by the Groups and by non-sellouts.
#5
Gad, I can remember ROTC summer camp at Ft. Sill. My company was full of jocks. A couple of OL from OU, about three DBs from Okie State, a bunch of real studs from Southern University and some complete animals from D-2 school in Arkansas.
When it came to the mile run, it was a complete laugher. We had this kid from Southern run it in 5:10 in combat boots. I ran it in 5:30, and we had guys doing 3 and 500 sit-ups, not to mention pull ups one handed and push ups tell jokes.
The cadre was just completely nuts over this. They were talking about how tough the physical fitness test was and we were laughing all the way to the mess hall. We made a shambles of the testing metrics.
Then a bunch of the same guys went to Ranger School and had to gut out some really tough training. The Ranger cadre at Harmony Church were a bunch of sadistic maniacs.
Too bad our leaders who never served in combat didn't understand the physical demands of combat and long range patrolling.
I hope Mattis gets his game on here really soon before the damage metastasizes.
#6
SPOD, thanks for your service. Our military suffered under Obama as well as from the sequester. Thank goodness Trump seems to have the will to build up the military and dump much of the PC crap. His view seems to be on war-fighting and not lefty PC.
#7
Was at Christmas dinner today with a colleague of Mr. Wife’s. The discussion was about the gentleman’s daughter, who next year will be applying to all the service academies and several universities with ROTC programs — she wants to serve as a doctor, and will go with whichever service accepts her, though she thinks she would prefer the Air Force if given a choice, Nonetheless, putting on America's uniform is more important to her than which version she ends up wearing.
The kids want to make the grade, if only it isn’t actively prevented.
#8
I would expect the NCO Corps to tighten it up and square it away. You Seniors write the OER's anyways.
You know what to do. No more task force smiths.
[The Hill] The U.S. Mission to the United Nations announced Sunday that it negotiated a major reduction in the U.N.’s budget for the upcoming fiscal years.
According to a statement from the mission, the 2018-2019 U.N. budget will have a $285 million reduction from the previous two years.
"In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key U.S. priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system," the statement reads.
One of the Trump administration’s goals has been to reduce the amount of contributions that the U.S. makes to the U.N. The U.S. currently provides for about 22 percent of the annual budget, or about $3.3 billion per year, according to PolitiFact.
The U.N. General Assembly previously approved a $5.4 billion operating budget for 2016 and 2017. The regular budget is separate from the body's budget for its sprawling peacekeeping operations, which totaled $7.8 billion for 2017 alone.
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.
[PopularMechanics] Units of the U.S. Army are training to map out, and if necessary fight in, North Korea’s underground complexes. Soldiers from the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division are training in underground tunnels to prepare for the mission of securing North Korean tunnels in the event of war. North Korea is estimated to have thousands of tunnels and underground facilities that would shelter the regime leadership and possibly chemical and nuclear weapons, in the event of war with the United States and South Korea.
North Korea
Dawn Fitzpatrick, president of the March for Life Chicago board of directors, told PJM the pro-life movement in Illinois had some setbacks in 2017 ‐ most recently, the passage of House Bill 40, which is expected to result in tens of thousands more taxpayer-subsidized abortions.
[The Hill] The U.S. Mission to the United Nations announced Sunday that it negotiated a major reduction in the U.N.’s budget for the upcoming fiscal years.
