[The Federalist] Two weeks ago, in addition to filing a supplemental motion to withdraw the guilty plea Michael Flynn had entered on December 1, 2017, Flynn attorney Sidney Powell filed a second motion seeking dismissal of the charge against President Trump’s short-tenured national security advisor, based on egregious government misconduct and in the interest of justice. Yesterday, the government responded to Flynn’s motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct, but failed to address two of the retired general’s strongest arguments.
In the Motion to Dismiss for Egregious Government Misconduct and in the Interest of Justice, Powell highlighted the evidence of misconduct revealed in the then just-released inspector general’s report on FISA abuse. While Powell hit many parts of the report, two aspects of it proved especially relevant to Flynn’s claims of government misconduct.
First, as Powell stressed, the IG report detailed Supervisory Special Agent 1’s (SSA 1’s) supervisory role in filing the four FISA applications for federal surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page. Those applications, the IG report concluded, included more than 20 significant misrepresentations and omissions.
[Breitbart] Wealthy travelers and major corporate clients are rejecting commercial airline travel and looking to private jets as a way to isolate themselves from the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The uptick in interest comes as more airlines cut scheduled flights to and from mainland China and Hong Kong in the wake of the spread of the disease that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
UK-based consultancy Ascend by Cirium said the number of flights scheduled to operate to, from and within China had dropped by 34 percent from Jan. 23 through Feb. 11, Reuters reports.
At the same time the number of deaths and new cases spiked dramatically on Thursday after authorities changed the way they count infections in a move that will likely fuel speculation that the severity of the outbreak has been under-reported.
The hard-hit central province of Hubei reported 242 deaths in just one day and 14,840 new patients ‐ by far its biggest one-day tally since the crisis erupted last month. The jump raised the death toll to 1,355 and the total number of nationwide infections to nearly 60,000.
China has now placed some 56 million in virtual quarantine in Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, since late last month and restricted movements of millions more in cities far from the epicentre in an unprecedented effort to contain the virus.
As those restrictions bite, more elite fliers are looking to private jets as a way to exit to China or conduct their activities across the globe, executives say.
For others, flying privately has always been a way of life.
[City Journal] Beset by high housing costs, crippling taxes, astronomical gas prices, wildfires, and rolling blackouts, Californians are heading for the exits. That’s sparking anxiety in places where these Golden State migrants are relocating. A mayoral candidate in Boise, Idaho, recently suggested building a wall to keep out Californians, who account for 60 percent of domestic migration into the growing state. The election of increasingly progressive candidates in Colorado sparked talk there of the "Californication" of the Centennial State.
Early last year, the Dallas News described the "California-ing" of North Texas, citing a study showing that 8,300 Californians move to the area yearly. Texas governor Greg Abbott launched a petition titled "Don’t California My Texas."
Much of this anxiety revolves around fears that the migrants will transform the politics and culture of the places that they’re moving to‐bringing an appetite for big, intrusive government. But a new survey suggests that, while plenty of people are looking to leave California, many are fleeing the state’s high costs and politics and may not be interested in voting for the same things in their new homes. The poll, by the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, found that 52 percent of California residents are considering migrating. As these polls go, that’s exceptionally high, putting California in the same category as some other states with very unhappy residents. A recent poll in New Jersey, for instance, found that about 44 percent of its people are looking to depart, while 50 percent of Connecticut residents indicated a desire to leave the state in a 2014 Gallup poll, the highest figure among any state at that time.
Continued on Page 49
#2
..personally, I'd go back to the original 13 stars so people won't forget what the got and how they got it. The Left shouldn't object, they want to do away with the states and the Electoral College anyway.
#3
30 years ago, Washington State natives were worried about what the influx of Bay Area Californians to "The Silicon Rain Forest" would do to their way of life....
#4
Simple (but unconstitutional) fix - if you've moved to another state from CA, those states should pass laws barring you from voting at all for five years.
#5
I think most Golden State Residents leaving are leaving because they lean conservative and can't take it anymore.
Washington State with its liberal policies created its own woke suck-hole to draw in liberals from throughout the nation. It leaned hard left at about the same time California did.
#9
I've heard the argument that people who move out of California most likely are different and won't taint other areas. Others take the view that those escaping from California are like the Coronavirus. I dunno, I have too few data points to decide conclusively. Besides, there are good people in California, like everywhere else. It is America and people can move where they want to. Just having some fun with this.
#13
Californians selling their expensive homes coming to Colorado with way more money than the locals allowing them to buy their homes outright with lots of extras. Buying rural property with acreage and developing it way above the average home since you have lots of money changes a neighborhood. Happy with the cheaper gas prices and everything else they throw their money around with abandon. The cost of a home in Colorado is half the price practically of an average California home and even more if they move from SF. These Californians changed many rural areas in the Rockies with their money flooding these neighborhoods and their liberal ideas which changed our state to purple/blue. It devastated our last election with electing Democrat Governor Polis and Democrat Congress critters along with horrible state amendments that were passed. It started a nightmare that has been never ending. Previous to the elections our signs promoting our Republican candidates were continually knocked down and stolen they only remained up for a few hours if that and cars with any Conservative bumper stickers or Tea Party ID were and still are often keyed, mine has been keyed, I wear mine with pride, I haven't repaired it. Not to forget their liberal influence in our schools/PTSA along with changing rezoning/regulations. Liberals just saturate and own places almost taking over it's awful. Conservatives have no one in Congress to fight against the many liberal policies getting passed and it drives many of us nuts. You can go testify but it's never taken seriously, we're looked upon as the token Conservative that they have to put up with.
Not to forget those moving here for the Marijuana being legalized, whether you use it or not you have to admit it does seem to attract more liberals than Conservatives, just sayin'.
My daughter lives in The 'Republic of Boulder' as she went to CU Boulder and stayed. She has been surrounded by lefties and I'm sad to say has taken on many of their views. She had Ward Churchill along with many other Liberal professors, Boulder is another world.
A side note, my son is in the military and has strong Conservative views thank God, he helps me keep my sanity. How they can be so different is beyond me. Outside influence is definitely a big factor and our Universities suck at that.
I worry for Senator Cory Gardner, lots of out of state money has been flowing into Colorado and we're seeing a real hard anti-Gardner push with clever tactics that are twisting the truth against him in many frequent commercials.
Trump is coming to Colorado Springs -YAY- for a rally and look out, me and a few of my friends are going on a road trip to support him and Gardner. I hope Trumps rally helps him.
Getting off my soapbox now sorry for the rant but this is a big deal to me. If we lose Gardner we've really lost
Posted by: Jan ||
02/14/2020 14:53 Comments ||
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#14
Californians ruined my beloved Austin. Now it's a hipster hellhole.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/14/2020 16:09 Comments ||
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#15
Austin has always had two things working against it - the State Capitol, with all its related swampiness, and the University.
It is a nice place to visit - I have two grandchildren there.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/14/2020 16:26 Comments ||
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#16
Jan, #13, that is exactly how I felt back in the 1970s when New Yorkers were flocking to California. Back then a lot of people were migrating to California; Texans, New Jerseys and of course lots of Mexicans. California is not the state it was in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Then in the 1990s Bill Clinton sat back and let millions of Mexicans enter the country and most of them came to California. In true Democrat fashion, Clinton didn't care if it was legal or not.
Some of us remember when it was a red state that gave you Presidents Nixon and Reagan. Some of us...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/14/2020 18:23 Comments ||
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#17
Yep - native San Diegan from birth. Look for Darrell Issa to replace our ethically-challenged (what a waste) Duncan D. Hunter in the 50th.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2020 19:06 Comments ||
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#18
Abu yes I was born and raised in SF in the 50's until 10 y/o. I go back to visit family and friends occasionally and I don't recognize the place. It's a dangerous and scary place these days. My dad moved our family to Oregon due to the influx of migrants and the city not being as safe as it once was, it was changing even back then.
I moved as a young adult to Colorado for the skiing in the 70's and working as a nurse I witnessed 1st hand the anchor baby program, then the Vietnam refugees in the 70-80's were and are good people and more recently the Somalian refugees all relocated in Colorado.
Liberals moving into my state is a scary thing makes me feel like it'll never go red again.
Posted by: Jan ||
02/14/2020 20:48 Comments ||
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[Babylon Bee] HAMPTON, NH‐Joe Biden fired back at a supporter criticizing his performance in the Iowa caucuses. She questioned why she should support him when he didn't even finish in the top three in Iowa.
Biden's response was baffling: "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed, animal food trough-wiper."
The supporter was confused: "I'm sorry, what?"
"I fart in your general direction," he continued. "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"
"Are... are you just quoting Monty Python?" she asked, clearly baffled.
"You dirt-eating piece of slime! You scum-sucking pig! You son of a motherless goat!"
"That's not even the same franchise!" she shouted back.
Biden wasn't fazed, though, telling her to "go away or I will taunt you a second time." His poll numbers have gone up since the exchange as he's now quoting movies made within the last fifty years.
#3
Get out a dollar bill. Grasp firmly on the narrow ends. "What was the last sound Stevie Ray Vaughn (Kobe, John Heinz, whoever) heard?" Pop the bill repeatedly.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2020 10:13 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] President Trump’s former chief of staff Marine Gen. (Ret.) John Kelly praised former National Security Council staffer Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified against the president during the impeachment inquiry, during a speech at Drew University in New Jersey on Wednesday, according to a report.
Kelly said, according to the Atlantic, that Vindman is blameless and simply following the training he received as a soldier when he reported concerns he had with the president’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the NSC’s general counsel.
"He did exactly what we teach them to do from cradle to grave," Kelly told the audience at the Mayo Performing Arts Center, according to the publication. "He went and told his boss what he just heard."
Kelly said that Vindman was rightly disturbed by the call and said Vindman properly notified his superiors, despite him not going to his direct superiors but instead going to the NSC general counsel and likely sharing his concerns with the "whistleblower," whose second-hand complaint about the call was used to launch the House Democrats’ impeachment effort.
Vindman was asked during the impeachment inquiry who in the intelligence community he spoke to about the call and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) refused to let him answer out of concern for revealing the whistleblower’s identity.
Kelly asserted, according to the Atlantic, that Trump did condition military aid on Zelensky’s willingness to dig up dirt on presidential candidate Joe Biden. Kelly left the White House in January 2019, months before the July 25, 2019, phone call.
He also reportedly called conditioning military aid to Ukraine on investigating Biden a "momentous change in U.S. policy toward Ukraine," which Vindman was right to flag since other federal agencies needed to know about the shift.
#7
He became an agent for enemies attempting to remove the legitimately elected government of the USA over something that according to his own testimony he did not hear (that is quid-pro-quo).
He should have been fired for being an idiot at the very least. Treated as a traitor for joining an administrative coup.
#10
properly notified his superiors, despite him not going to his direct superiors but instead going to the NSC general counsel and likely sharing his concerns with the "whistleblower,"
'Properly' and 'despite' seem like a contradiction, even IF there had been an illegal order.
Butthurt, huh? Prexident Butt-gig could help him "work that out..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2020 10:48 Comments ||
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#12
Would be great to see Trump meet Putin immediately after Inauguration in 2021 and hand over the entire DOD / DoS Ukraine lobby en mass.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2020 14:45 Comments ||
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#13
What #7 rjschwarz said.
Vindman's ego got in the middle of things. He disagreed with Trump's policy and decided to try to make a BFD out of it. If he doesn't get cashiered out of the military, he ought to be reassigned to the coldest part of Alaska monitoring the pipeline by himself. Vindman is basically a pogue getting in the way of POTUS' legit dealings with another head of state.
[Red State] Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump of politicizing the sentencing of Roger Stone because he tweeted congratulating Attorney General William Barr for "taking charge of the case." Some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), called for Attorney General Bill Barr to resign because the DOJ pulled back the recommendation by prosecutors for a 7-9 year sentence saying it was excessive. Four prosecutors quit in response to that action.
According to a senior DOJ official, the prosecutors lead DOJ officials to believe they were going to ask for a more moderate sentence than in fact they did and then were stunned when the prosecutors asked for a 7-9 year sentence for a non-violent first offense. The reason was because of a difference of opinion about the sentencing enhancement for an alleged "threat" to a witness. The witness himself said it wasn’t a real threat, that they kidded with each other all the time, he didn’t feel threatened and he told the judge he didn’t want Stone to serve jail time. But the prosecutors took the harshest view possible of that "threat," bumping what otherwise might have been a 2-3 year sentence to 7-9 years.
It’s just fundamentally silly to suggest that the DOJ doesn’t have the right to make their own decisions about recommendations and that the prosecutors’ opinion outweighs that of their superiors.
In his inimitable style former House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy just sliced and diced those attacks during an interview on Fox.
[Diana West] 'Globalist vs Nationalists' - The Bill Walton show.
The following from Amazon, on the book:
The first investigation into why a ring of senior Washington officials went rogue to derail the election and the presidency of Donald Trump. There was nothing normal about the 2016 presidential election, not when senior U.S. officials were turning the surveillance powers of the federal government—designed to stop terrorist attacks—against the Republican presidential team. These were the ruthless tactics of a Soviet-style police state, not a democratic republic. The Red Thread asks the simple question: Why? What is it that motivated these anti-Trump conspirators from inside and around the Obama administration and Clinton networks to depart so drastically from “politics as usual” to participate in a seditious effort to overturn an election? Finding clues in an array of sources, Diana West uses her trademark investigative skills, honed in her dazzling work, American Betrayal, to construct a fascinating series of ideological profiles of well-known but little understood anti-Trump actors, from James Comey to Christopher Steele to Nellie Ohr, and the rest of the Fusion GPS team; from John Brennan to the numerous Clintonistas still patrolling the Washington Swamp after all these years, and more. Once, we knew these officials by august titles and reputation; after The Red Thread, readers will recognize their multi-generational and inter-connecting communist and socialist pedigrees, and see them for what they really are: foot-soldiers of the Left, deployed to take down America’s first “America First” and most anti-Communist president. If we just give it a pull, the “red thread” is very long and very deep.
[Mil.com] Sailors who showed up to a speech by President Donald Trump wearing patches playing off the commander in chief's famous campaign slogan have been punished -- along with some of their superiors -- for violating a Pentagon order that bars troops in uniform from participating in political events.
Eighteen sailors and officers assigned to the Guam-based Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 were informed days after Trump's Memorial Day address on the amphibious assault ship Wasp that they were suspected of violating Pentagon policy. Nine of them had attended the speech sporting flight suits with red patches that said, "Make Aircrew Great Again."
Journalists attending the speech posted photos of the patches on Twitter, prompting questions about whether the uniform devices violated Defense Department policy requiring troops to remain apolitical while in uniform. The patches featured the president's likeness, along with the riff on Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.
Military.com obtained a copy of the 103-page investigation into the incident, which was launched just days after Trump's speech, through a Freedom of Information Act request. It found that, while the sailors didn't intend for the patches to make a political statement, they still broke the rules.
#2
Military personnel get trained about this, then watch their superiors like skelly, mcbastard and mcravin do the exact opposite. And anyone is surprised. Meanwhile, perpetually "strapped" police departments nationwide pay out settlements for 1A and 2A (and other A) rights violations because supposedly "trained" officers either don't know or consciously choose not to follow the law.
S P I T
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2020 9:41 Comments ||
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#3
A "103-page investigation". There you go--you want to make the armed forces more efficient, start with bullshit like that. It doesn't take 10 minutes to determine that policy was violated, and it doesn't take 10 minutes more to realize that this offense is worth getting worked up about. Slap the offenders with a trivial admonishment and get back to business.
#4
Stop dragooning service members into being props for a photo-op would be a good start. Yes, wearing the patches was stupid, but that is a different issue.
#5
Service members turning their backs to the CinC would not be punished at all. Unless it was Bath House.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/14/2020 15:36 Comments ||
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#6
Of course the journalists punched down and attacked the servicemen. Their job is to punch up, but instead they chose to speak truth to the powerless. Fuck journalists.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/14/2020 16:10 Comments ||
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[MSN] There’s an interesting discussion happening over at the Grassroots Motorsports forum right now, and presumably at many other places off-line. It’s about laws in Sacramento County stating, essentially, that almost any auto repair you do on your property is illegal. Of course, this is deeply troubling to almost everyone reading right now.
Similar laws do exist in other counties and states, of course, but since there’s been some conversation recently around the Sacramento County laws, we may as well start there. The laws in question have to do with Sacramento’s Zoning Code, the website for which has an explanation of the codes related to auto repair.
The code states that conducting "minor vehicle repair" or "minor automotive repair" is legal at a residence, and defines "minor automotive repair" as:
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/14/2020 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I stopped at one of those 'quick lube' places last week on the way to pick up my new eye glasses. I believe the lube, glasses and eye exam combined were not more than $1400. You've just got to take advantage of bargains where you can find them.
#6
toroidal contacts? I sthat the ones with weights in them? If so I would highly recommend against that move.
Posted by: Chris ||
02/14/2020 6:38 Comments ||
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#7
Mixed on this. Too many neighborhoods with half a dozen wrecks up on blocks or jacks and 'being worked on'. Compromise should be a time limit, say 72 hours. Move it or lose it.
#9
One more reason (if a person needs one) to not live in California. My fear is that so many people are moving out California to other parts of the country that they will pollute these areas with their nonsense.
#12
Procoplus2K
There is that. If an area has zoning laws they are usually there for a reason. I for one don't somebody opening up a junkyard next to my house in a residential neighborhood. And don't tell me it's their property. They knew what the zoning laws were when they bought the property. Now restrictive covenants and HOAs. That's another matter.
#15
Oh the good ole days of ripping out the 455 in the Pontiac,to replace another set of spun main bearings. All right on the main North Bay street. The neighborhood must of hated me.
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.
[Babylon Bee] HAMPTON, NH‐Joe Biden fired back at a supporter criticizing his performance in the Iowa caucuses. She questioned why she should support him when he didn't even finish in the top three in Iowa.
[Breitbart] President Trump’s former chief of staff Marine Gen. (Ret.) John Kelly praised former National Security Council staffer Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified against the president during the impeachment inquiry, during a speech at Drew University in New Jersey on Wednesday, according to a report.
