[The Federalist] When the Department of Justice inspector general released his report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, coverage focused on the top-line findings contained in the executive summary. Then the news cycle whizzed by, leaving many details discussed throughout the 480-page tome unexplored.
One significant gap in media coverage concerns the potential complicity of former FBI Director James Comey in the FISA abuse‐a possibility the IG report hints at in several spots. The first suggestion that something was amiss with Comey’s conduct came early in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report, when the IG’s office spoke of the methodology underlying the FISA investigation.
"Certain former FBI employees who agreed to interviews, including Comey and Baker, chose not to request that their security clearances be reinstated for their OIG interviews," read the IG report. "Therefore, we were unable to provide classified information or documents to them during their interviews to develop their testimony, or to assist their recollections of relevant events."
Taken alone, this perfunctory comment might have meant little, but the IG report would stress this point several more times throughout its 400-plus-page analysis of FBI misconduct.
CONSIDER THE BRUCE OHR CONTRADICTIONS
For instance, according to the IG report, Baker said "he obtained more information regarding Ohr’s interactions with Steele during a Crossfire Hurricane leadership meeting with Comey and McCabe in spring 2017." Baker further stated that "he learned that Ohr was providing to the FBI information that Ohr had received from Steele," and, in Baker’s view, "this [was] not good."
But Comey told the IG "he had no knowledge of Ohr’s communications with members of the Crossfire Hurricane investigative team and only discovered Ohr’s association with Steele and the Crossfire Hurricane investigation when the media reported on it." Comey’s claims, though, conflicted with both Baker’s statements, and "notes taken by Strzok during a November 23, 2016 Crossfire Hurricane update meeting" that Comey attended.
[WZOGO.wordpress.com] HAM Radio has been around since the very beginning of radio, back in the 1890s. A loose-knit, but globe-spanning group, they are brought together by their common love for what they do. They are not a club, but comprise many clubs together.
While mostly ignored and left to their devices, HAM Radio operators provide several essential services, such as providing military personnel in hazardous duty postings overseas a means of talking to their families. When other communications fail, it is the HAM Radio operators who provide emergency communications to the nations.
Yet HAM Radio may be in trouble. It appears that there are those in government service who don’t like the idea of a group of people who can do things the government can’t do for themselves; and HAM Radio operators have a long history of doing just that. When Admiral Byrd led his expedition to the South Pole, the Navy couldn’t maintain contact with him. But a HAM Radio operator by the name of Collins could, leading that HAM to create the Collins Radio Company to build his equipment and sell it to the Navy.
#4
Cause when they provoke a civil war, they wanna be able to cut communications. Course, that'll happen anyway when power, water, and food gets cut from the cities:p
h/t Instapundit
[NY Sun] - As 2019 winds to a close, let us remark on how our year of turmoil and drama has brought us to a neo-Disraelian moment. You may say that’s all too convenient a comment from a scribe who for years has been blogging under the rubric of the Disraeli-Macdonald Institute. But there you have it. It’s not the first time that the sun has, in quite this way, lit up the meadows of the United Kingdom.
Back in the 19th Century, the Kingdom also faced social, economic, and political ferment with a leader possessing an "idiosyncratic" skill-set, an insightful prescription for national greatness, and popular appeal. Benjamin Disraeli ‐ whose birth his votaries celebrate this weekend ‐ warmed the late Victorian period with just such a combination. Historian David Starkey reckons that, metaphorically, his time has come again.
"The best model for understanding and indeed working on the situation in which we find ourselves is Disraeli," says the constitutional historian. He defines the Disraelian project as a composite of patriotism and paternalism. For Disraeli, the twin poles were the eminence of the British Empire, plus the inter-twined interests of the aristocracy (including the Crown) and the working classes.
Both allied against a cosmopolitan oligarchy: unrooted and unappreciative of the deep fabric of British history and tradition. Boris Johnson’s constituency is contemporary but no less framed upon Disraeli’s model. For the Prime Minister, his patriotism is framed by his advocacy for the UK’s independence from the European Union. Brexit means sovereignty, self-government, and self-determination.
Mr. Johnson’s paternalism, meanwhile, is the lynchpin for the Government’s spending agenda upon the National Health Service, the Armed Forces, vast education schemes, and the earthly environment. Disraeli and Johnson share more than a political platform. Both achieved early success as scribes and novelists. Both grasp, instinctively, the importance of Britain’s heritage in political discourse.
Both Disraeli and Bojo rose to power within the Conservative party. Gandees may have been skeptical of the bona-fides of both, but both were beloved by not only the ranks but also the files.
Nor has this bond across time gone unnoticed. Disraeli and Johnson "have a natural flair and love of publicity," F.H. Buckley writes (the scrupulous scribe throws in President Trump, making a triumvirate). "Politics is grimly serious, as practiced by the left, and we naturally look for a respite from the politician who entertains us," Mr. Buckley believes. Disraeli won the hearts of the people "with his colorful clothes, his novels and his wit."
"That’s also," Mr. Buckley adds, "how Johnson climbed to the top of the greasy pole."
Disraeli-like, Mr. Johnson is forging links "in what were once the Labor heartlands of the Northern and Midland working classes," Madsen Pirie muses. The new premier is appealing to "the basic patriotism they embrace." Touching on Boris’s bravado, the venerable co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute characterizes the Prime Minister’s message one of "an independent and proud Britain that stands up to bullying and threats from overseas."
Already there are signs of a dynamic, new Conservative ministry. Domestic spending will increase in health care, defense, and infrastructure, in anticipation of economies from ending EU membership. Foreign aid will undergo a "re-think," since much government-to-government aid never reaches the intended recipients, the poor and needy.
The Queen’s Speech announced the government’s intention to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, set up a constitutional commission (the UK Supreme Court must be top of mind), and strike up a free trade deal with Brussels by the end of 2020 or set off on a "clean break" Brexit. Hints of Disraeli, again. "I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution," proclaimed the young politician-to-be in the 1830s, "a Radical to remove all that is bad."
Speaking before an Edinburgh audience in 1867 ‐ Scotland wasn’t always adverse to Tories ‐ Disraeli disparaged Liberals as a "combination of oligarchs and philosophers who practice on the sectarian prejudices of a portion of the people." Conservatism, in contrast, is "formed of all classes, from the highest to the most homely." Its purpose? To uphold Britain’s institutions that are "in theory, and ought to be in practice, an embodiment of the national requirements and the security of the national rights."
Bravo Beaconsfield, I say, and all the more so that the Conservative party under Boris Johnson has staked its fortunes on the same ground, viewing its political adversaries with the same acumen. It’s downright Disraelian, indeed.
[AnNahar] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor... 's parliament approved a security and military cooperation deal with Libya's U.N.-recognized unity government based in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... on Saturday.
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#2
Turkey wants its empire back that's Yippie's only reason for living. I wonder of he's the religious Koran reading type or just a power obsessed dictator for life.
[Jpost] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... ’s pro-government media has stories about new submarines and Turkey leading the world in hair transplants, concerns about Libya and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... , but not much news on a massive Syrian regime offensive in Idlib that could lead to a million refugees fleeing. Already 25,000 have fled.
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[Def-Con News] She’s trying so hard to be relatable. Wealthy out-of-touch Elizabeth Warren has tried to convince people she’s "regular folk" by drinking beer, dancing like a goober, and using a fake hillbilly accent when she talks to the peasants. Now she’s hoping to swing support from Star Wars fans by claiming to be a Jedi. She doesn’t have a great track record for claiming ancestry, so chances are she is only 1/1024th Jedi
Behold:
As her story goes, her grandpappy was a Jedi knight who had to elope with her Indian grandmammy because a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, mixed marriages were not tolerated by the Empire. Thankfully the Death Star got blowed up a couple of times and eventually they were able to settle down in Tattooine, the Oklahoma of Star Wars planets, and start a family.
Though Warren had listed her race as Jedi/Native American on job applications, she insists that her fake minority status had nothing to do with the advancement of her academic career. It was her determination and the power of the Force that got her where she is today.
The beauty of Warren claiming Jedi ancestry is that unlike that Indian thing, no one can prove her wrong. There is no DNA test that can check for Midi-chlorians, which are intelligent microscopic life forms that live symbiotically inside the cells of all living things. High levels of Midi-chlorians allow a being to tap the power of the Force and indicate Jediness.
Another advantage is that at this point there’s only one Jedi left. It’s not like there are tribes of Jedis who can call her out for lying about her ancestry.
Her biggest problem is that she can’t actually demonstrate any Force powers. She tried to use the Jedi Mind Trick by saying, "I never pretended to be an Indian princess" and waving her hand but only the liberal media believed that brainwashing attempt. Being full of shit is an ability, just not a Jedi ability. While the Force may not be with her, the "Farce" is strong in this one.
If Elizabeth Warren wants to find a Star Wars character to believably associate with, she needn’t look farther than Jar Jar Binks. He’s a goofball with bad ideas, who makes jerky unsettling motions and speaks in mostly gibberish. She’s comically awkward, wants to destroy America, shakes her head like a chicken eating corn, and expresses her opinions with gobbledygook. They are one in the same.
The sad thing is, Elizabeth Warren actually believes this pathetic cultural reference pandering will expand her base of support.
Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one was because she is a fake person. Elizabeth Warren is every bit as disingenuous as Hillary but doesn’t have nearly the political machine behind her. She’s going to get destroyed worse than Alderaan, which is a Star War reference she doesn’t know because she’s pretending to be a fan when she’s not.
Link fixed
[Townhall] But in Thursday's debate, he committed a major sin. He alienated his base -- the only group in the party that still backs him. In speaking of economic growth, the moderator asked, "As president, would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth, even knowing potentially that it could displace thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of blue-collar workers, in the interest of transitioning to that greener economy?'"
Biden answered quickly and boldly: "The answer is yes."
End of story. There's your Trump TV advertisement. Even if Biden somehow still wins the nomination, Trump will destroy him with working-class and middle-class voters.
#5
I had posted the original story on Friday and a lot of Rantburgers agreed that cost him Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. States Hillary lost and Trump had to retain to win.
Via Whatfinger (BTW Whatfinger is short for What Finger do you give this article?)
[ThePost&Mail] The United States Supreme Court ‐ in a 9-0 holding ‐ unequivocally ruled that no trial is required for the Senate to acquit, or convict, anyone impeached by the House of Representatives.
Once you comprehend the momentous importance of this case, you will then understand why Harvard Law School professor (and Democrat impeachment witness), Noah Feldman, recently published an article erroneously claiming that President Trump hasn’t been impeached yet.
So Perfesser Cumberbatch is lying, deliberately ignoring a major SCOTUS ruling that clearly indicates the opposite of what the Perfesser contends.
The Senate does not in fact need to hold a trial and needs nothing more from Morticia Pelousey to move forward, vote, and bring down the tent on this colossal Shitshow.
We are ruled by mendacious, pseudo-sophisticated morons.
It's Kurt
[Townhall] Military guys ‐ and I am a graduate of the Army War College, which is not the one with noted expert on expertise Tom Nichols ‐ try to abide by the apocryphal advice of Napoleon, who counseled that you should never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake. But this doesn’t apply to the Democrats because they are not only too dumb to listen to your warnings but their weird dogma actually makes it impossible for them to imagine that they are heading for disaster in 2020. So, I’m going to mock these losers mercilessly, safe in the knowledge that even though I am telling that anime lollipop-looking twerp Adam Schiff and Jerry the Oompa Loompa Nadler exactly what is going to happen, they are powerless to stop it.
Nancy Pelosi, who is no dummy, knows. She gets it. That’s why she’s not taking questions on her solemn, sad impeachment thing. She gets that she’s trapped by the Commie Caucus’s resolute determination to please their blue enclaves at the expense of alienating everyone else. So she’s trying to make it fade away. Yeah, hold onto that impeachment for a while. It’ll get better with age, just like Jennifer Rubin has.
It’s fun to tell No Exit Nancy exactly what misery will befall her crummy party, and to know that she knows it’s all true, and that she also knows there’s not a damn thing she can do about it.
[Red State] Now that the Democrat-run House of Representatives has passed the articles of impeachment against President Trump on a purely partisan basis, there may or may not be an impeachment trial in the US Senate. In the event of a trial ‐ even if it only lasts for a single day ‐ the Constitution requires the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court to preside over the trial.
There was a flurry of speculation in the legacy media at the beginning of the Democrats’ impeachment charade about the potential need for Chief Justice John Roberts to recuse himself. Some conservatives believe Roberts was coerced into coming up with the pretzel-like logic that Obamacare was "just a tax" which therefore enabled him to vote with the liberal court majority to "save Obamacare." The reason may have been this one.
#2
Father of a Jamal Adeen Thomas and husband of Virginia Thomas. Overly fervent Trump supporters. The family's 'conservative' leaning seems contrived and misleading for personal gain, to me at least. Maybe I'm wrong ?
Ginni Thomas is apparently known for some fake news posts that were just too easy to catch by the MSM and turn around on real conservatives.
The good judge himself is accused of misreporting his wife's income from her activism. Besides other allegations of corruption and abuse. I don't know anything about the appointment of judges, but I wouldn't bet on this horse at a time like this.
[Breitbart] The nation’s illegal and legal immigration system will help shift 26 congressional seats, primarily from red states, and redistribute them to mostly blue states next year, according to new analysis.
Every year, the United States imports about 1.2 million legal immigrants who largely arrive to reunite with foreign relatives already in the country. This level of annual legal immigration is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who arrive on work visas every year and nearly a million illegal aliens who successfully enter the U.S.
Research by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler finds that annual illegal and legal immigration to the U.S. will redistribute political power in the form of 26 House seats away from a number of red states and towards massively populated blue states like California and New York.
"To put this number in perspective, changing the party of 21 members of the current Congress would flip the majority in the U.S. House," Camarota and Zeigler note.
#1
The capital city of Harare was once known as Salisbury. Masvingo was once known as Fort Victoria. Esigodivi was once known as Essexvale. Chinoy was once know as Sinoia.
#2
SCOTUS approved. They denied the case where in states were losing representation though had more 'citizens' than the states receiving representation. Another piece of crap from our aristocracy. Simple things like "We, the People of the United States,.." not "We are the world.." evade them.
#6
Don't need a 4-year university degree to do the kind of coding that ~80% of software engineering jobs require. 2 years of focused training (with some advanced math) a community college should be enough for a young native-born American to land an entry-level job in software engineering. Corporations should be coaxed/forced to provide the training to their employees from that point forward instead of grabbing foreign-born engineers who've been educated at other nations' expense.
Maybe foreign PhDs can be allowed to get visas, but certainly not anyone with just a bachelor' degree. Those jobs should go to native-burn Americans.
Now, I'll admit that my experiences are academic. But, I believe, there is an overlap when it comes to creativity & originality.
a. In my experience, people who take degrees in programming are not very good at it - programming is something that you have to learn on your own*
b. USA has a horrible educational system - I know because in my lifetime Israel started copying it.
b1. It overemphasizes formal achievement in K-12/undergraduate level**.
b2. The teachers are below average and they promote students most like them, while punishing all who ask uncomfortable questions (and since an average K-12 teacher knows nothing - they just rote memorized material) all really intelligent questions are source of discomfort.
b3 I haven't mentioned all the PC bull that teachers continuously spout at students causing the more intelligent/better read ones be disgusted with school.
c. As a result American, and lately Israeli, universities full of "brilliant" straight A students who no more capable of doing original research (and, IMO, ditto original programming) than they capable of flying by flapping their arms.
*I've noticed what most Israeli startups founded by physics/math graduates - not programmers.
**Really intelligent/creative people mature more slowly and like to play. They also tend to be monomaniacs (who go after the current interest to the exclusion of anything else) which affects grade averages.
#9
...don't forget that in the 60s, higher ed became one big paper mill for credentialing expanding into venues increase revenue and raise salaries. See - Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
Cover your ass with paper became a gold mine for professional education institutions.
#10
100% agree w/ all your points, grom. You know whereof you speak.
The Israeli entrepreneurs I've worked most closely with had, respectively, a PhD in Physics (along with a BA in Philosophy) and a BA in both Math and Philosophy.
The third guy on the team was a socially-awkward, extremely nearsighted, absolutely brilliant programmer who could master almost any coding challenge you could throw at him.
IMO these are the types of people who add 90% of the value in a tech company. Everyone else needs only to be competent, collegial and conscientious.
#11
The biggest driver of this downward spiral was probably the turn away from corporate training programs.
When companies stopped investing in 2-year (or longer) formal training rotations, they also began to prioritize credentials, including (especially) MBAs and the related pursuits of financial engineering and PowerPoint-slinging.
Maybe there should be tax breaks for corporations that hire and train young native-born Americans in useful skills.
I once spoke with a guy who used to be the CEO of Israeli Military Industries. Among other things he said "in my time, Security has standing orders to escort any MBA - politely but firmly, from the premises".
#14
Actually making Green Cards easier to get and removing H1Bs would go a long long way in solving the tech job problem for US Workers.
Why?
H1Bs are a form of indentured servitude. Look at the rules if you don't want to believe me.
#15
I was told the only reason so many international companies like to have Indians as region/chief bosses is they know how to get other Indians to work.
What grom said ; Really intelligent/creative people mature more slowly and like to play.
Really true. I used to wish schools were not built around the assembly line, regimented, systematized factory model. But then I realized it was part of the challenge, to grow in those classes retaining your individuality, go through exams and training with your internal compass intact, often hiding your true persona from the weak, the plodding and the conniving masses.
Again, we're lucky western mores reach rather late here. And the historic ideology around schooling and the 'goddess of knowledge' embedded in the Indian psyche is unassailable by SJWs for another century. But they're trying. And our own affirmative action is ensuring absolute imbeciles make it into institutes and get hired by multinationals, much to the chagrin of their foreign counterparts.
[Babylon Bee] For the second year in a row, The Babylon Bee is proud to present our coveted Christian of the Year award to Donald J. Trump.
Each year since this award was conceived, which was last year, we recognize one Christian who stood head and shoulders above the rest, fighting for the gospel and defending the church of Jesus Christ.
We considered awarding it to local pastors who fight for their congregations through thick and thin. We thought of the missionaries spreading the gospel abroad, no matter the personal cost. We even thought of the people who subscribe to The Babylon Bee and allow holy satire to go forth from our golden lighthouse of truth.
But in the end -- let's be honest -- there was really ever only one person we could give this award to: the man who saved Christmas. The man who ensured God's will could continue to be done by packing the courts with Republicans. The man who stood bravely as a tide of liberalism threatened to wash our country down the drain and stemmed the tide with his bare hands of persimmon hue.
That man is President Donald Trump.
Thank you for your service, Mr. Trump, and congratulations on the award!
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.
[The Federalist] When the Department of Justice inspector general released his report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse, coverage focused on the top-line findings contained in the executive summary. Then the news cycle whizzed by, leaving many details discussed throughout the 480-page tome unexplored.
...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
[Def-Con News] She’s trying so hard to be relatable. Wealthy out-of-touch Elizabeth Warren has tried to convince people she’s "regular folk" by drinking beer, dancing like a goober, and using a fake hillbilly accent when she talks to the peasants. Now she’s hoping to swing support from Star Wars fans by claiming to be a Jedi. She doesn’t have a great track record for claiming ancestry, so chances are she is only 1/1024th Jedi
[Red State] Now that the Democrat-run House of Representatives has passed the articles of impeachment against President Trump on a purely partisan basis, there may or may not be an impeachment trial in the US Senate. In the event of a trial ‐ even if it only lasts for a single day ‐ the Constitution requires the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court to preside over the trial.
[Babylon Bee] For the second year in a row, The Babylon Bee is proud to present our coveted Christian of the Year award to Donald J. Trump.
