August 06, 2019
Bernie and Jane Sanders aren't out of trouble yet!
From CBS News:
According to Politico, prosecutors might also be looking into allegations that Sen. Sanders' office inappropriately urged the bank to approve the loan.
Burlington attorney and Sanders supporter Rich Cassidy has reportedly been hired to represent Sen. Sanders. And high-profile Washington defense attorney Larry Robbins, who counseled I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is protecting Jane Sanders.
End excerpt.
So the Socialist Sanders is being pursued for corruption. How ironic! Or is it; socialism is the enshrinement of corruption into law.
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August 05, 2019
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson slammed for tweet about mass shooting data
Astrophysicist and television personality Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson sparked backlash for a tweet Sunday he wrote following this weekend's mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso, showing an apparent low death rate when compared with other types of tragedies.
In the tweet, Tyson listed several other means by which Americans perish every 48 hours, and claimed emotion often clouds the facts in situations like these.
"In the past 48hrs, the USA horrifically lost 34 people to mass shootings. On average, across any 48hrs, we also lose… 500 to Medical errors 300 to the Flu 250 to Suicide 200 to Car Accidents 40 to Homicide via Handgun Often our emotions respond more to spectacle than to data," he wrote Sunday.
Naturally, he was castigated by a bunch of idiots. I won't dignify them by publishing their drivel here, but you can read the Whole Thing here: https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/neil-degarasse-tyson-slammed-for-tweet-about-mass-shooting-data
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A couple of thoughts on the shooting in El Paso. While the media is ignoring Dayton as the shooter was a committed Leftist, much attention is being paid to El Paso. Why?
First, there is a desperate need to splinter Hispanics off from Trump, and this situation is, the media believes, a key to doing this. They want to make the President look uncaring toward Hispanics, or at least somewhat unconcerned.
Meanwhile, if Trump goes forward with gun control - and he has said he would sign a gun control bill if it reaches his desk - he risks losing the First Amendment conservatives, including in Texas.
So, they have him in a box, particularly in Texas, which is a must win for Trump to be re-elected. Or so they think.
Trump would be a fool to sign a gun control law. It would do nothing to solve the problems of mass shootings - just look at Brazil, which has strict gun control laws and also has one of the highest gun violence levels on Earth. But one does not need a gun to do mass murder; in fact, you can do better with an incendiary device.
Trump appears ready to fall for this.
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Warner Todd Houston posted this on Facebook:
OK, I just have to say it... if you are graduating college with a $500,000 school loan debt, you were too stupid to have been allowed to go to college at all. It takes only ten seconds of thinking to know that a $500,000 loan is over a thousand a month in payments. And if you aren't a millionaire already, then you won't ever be able to retire that debt. We need to put an end to this college merry-go-round. Only a very few people NEED college for their life's work.
I left the following reply:
Does anyone remember when we had the mortgage meltdown that gave us Barack Hussein Obama? We were treated to an endless spectacle of bankers and loan officers draggred before Congress for "predatory lending". Isn't it odd that there is no interest in doing that now? This is clearly a matter of predatory lending, and providing a very shoddy product to boot.
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Occluded Cortex aka Alexandria Oasio Cortez picks some winners. Now her recently resigned Chief of staph, er, staff is being investigated by the Feds for campaign finance violations.
According to The Blaze:
More from the Post:
But they funneled more than $1 million in political donations into two private companies that Chakrabarti also incorporated and controlled, according to Federal Election Commission filings and a complaint filed in March with the regulatory agency.
In 2016 and 2017, the PACs raised about $3.3 million, mostly from small donors. A third of the cash was transferred to two private companies whose names are similar to one of the PACs — Brand New Congress LLC and Brand New Campaign LLC — federal campaign filings show.
As Fox News noted, the FEC only initiates investigations stemming from complaints filed by outside organizations if there is sufficient evidence to believe a violation occurred.
According to the Post, the investigation includes probing the motive behind salary rules implemented by Ocasio-Cortez's office. In March, she announced no staff member working in her office would make less than $52,000 or more than $80,000.
I suspected AOC was corrupt, and knew she had a lot of dark money behind her. I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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James Lovelock, the father of the GAia hypothesis and an ardent member of the Gang Green aka a global warming alarmist, admits the Sun is largely responsible for a warming planet.
From Sky News:
But our use of energy had made a difference, he said: "We've reached a point now where the sun is so hot that it's very difficult for the whole system to do it, and when we start interfering and adding fossil fuels to the air, it becomes doubly hard to keep the Earth right.
"But we've got to do it if we're going to survive."
Asked how climate change might be tackled, he said: "I think we don't know yet. We have to learn a lot more about the Earth and about the system we live in before we can be sure of offsetting the bad effects of global warming."
The Centenarian Lovelock is pretty much the dean of global warming, and these statements are rather like the Pope saying Jesus was just some dude.
Lovelock also calls for nuclear power. It is, after all, the cleanest form of power (except for the radioactive waste, but there are new developments in the field that can make a largely waste-free reactor.)
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Another 53 shot in Chicago this weekend. There is an #ElPaso and a #Dayton EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND in Chicago, and the media ignores it.
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August 04, 2019
Educators are finally starting to realize that kids are all different.
Singapore ends standardized testing for children because learning is not a competition.
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The U.N. is hatching a scheme whereby floating cities will be built in response to "sea level rise" as a result of Global Warming.
From the article:
UN-Habitat, which works on sustainable urban development, will team up with private firm Oceanix, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Explorers Club, a professional society, to advance the concept, the coalition announced Wednesday.
As climate change gathers pace and more people crowd into city slums, "floating cities is one of the possible solutions", said UN-Habitat's executive director, Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
The partnership plans to build within months a prototype open to the public, which it hopes to dock on the East River next to U.N. headquarters.
I'm all for it. By all means, build it right outside of the U.N. In fact, move the U.N. into the giant ship, and let it float away, never to be seen again!
These fools have been watching that horrible movie Waterworld too much.
Have they even considered what a city blocking sunlight to the ocean will cause?
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IT'S NOT TREASON IF WE DO IT TO REPUBLICANS!
The Justice Department’s chief watchdog is preparing a damning report on James Comey’s conduct in his final days as FBI director that likely will conclude he leaked classified information and showed a lack of candor after his own agency began looking into his feud with President Trump over the Russia probe.
A WORD FROM MR. BIRDNOW:
It never ceases to amaze me how pucillanimous the GOP can be. Democrats would prosecute whether they could get a conviction or not; they want to shake the tree to see what falls out. Our side snivels about "it would be hard to win in court" and surrenders. The Dems know that at worst they'll lose a protracted legal case, costing the defendent a lot of money and time. They may get a plea deal just because Comey is too broke to fight this. Our side seems oblivious to this thinking. But then, Barr was a Bush man and thinks like the old guard Establishment.
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It's official; Global Warming is now blamed for everything.
Now it's to blame for Lyme's disease.
From the article:
More than four decades after Lyme disease was first diagnosed, the bacterial infection continues to spread. About 30,000 cases nationwide are reported to the CDC each year, but the actual number of people infected could be 10 times higher. Treatment with antibiotics is often effective, though not foolproof, and there is currently no vaccine.
Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it...
A: There’s a lot of data out there showing a correlation between the movement of ticks and the rise in temperatures, but I wouldn’t say it’s universally accepted in the medical or scientific literature.
Bingo!
It never occurs to this fellow - one George Vernadakis - that we are better at diagnosing this illness than we used to be, making for more cases. And that, with an ever-increasing population, we are going to have more cases. And that with less use of insecticides we are going to have more cases. And that, following Marx's dream of erasing the divide between city and countryside, we have moved into the domain of disease carrying critters.
It has nothing to do with Global Warming. In fact, ticks that can transmit diseases to humans range well into Canada. Warming isn't going to matter.
He continues:
But I think the overwhelming consensus in the scientific community is that climate change is the main issue.
He does eventually find wisdom in his dotage:
There’s been research, for instance, that a drop in the number of foxes means more mice [that can transmit Lyme disease bacteria to ticks] survive in suburban enclaves. [A study published in July 2012 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled "Deer, Predators, and the Emergence of Lyme Disease,†investigated this phenomenon.]
So, it’s a lack of biodiversity, it’s how we live, it’s where we live, and it’s the change in our climate — it’s all driving this. And it’s driving this disease in many, many countries.
Yah; people are living in places where they didn't used to live, and they are altering the landscape. Deer can be found in many suburban neighborhoods these days. And since hunting is limited it means more deer getting into the exurbs. It really isn't that complicated. Global Warming does not neter into it.
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There are many questions we are awaiting answers on. . . The major question everyone in America is searching for is, "Why?â€
[...]
Politicians that are not currently in power exploit this pain to begin calling for an undoing of Constitution(s) even before the victims have been identified.
Refusing to call culture to account, they campaign on casting the Constitution as inhumane.
Refusing to institute legal and common sense changes that reinforce the rights, and protections of our people with constitutional consistency they point to the tools of the killers as opposed to the killers’ conscience.
Politicians have to do this.
They can’t sound like schizophrenic crazies themselves, harping for people to stop pulling triggers, and on the other hand allow post-birth killing of children to remain legal.
That’s the advantage that you and I enjoy not being a Democratic candidate for president in 2020.
[...]
When the Parkland, Florida shooting took place I penned a short column on seven simple steps that could be taken to immediately end school shootings.
In the aftermath of Parkland the Florida Assembly took up all seven in legislative proposals and adopted (I believe) six of them as final law.
They don’t all apply to a mall in El Paso or a bar in Dayton, but one incredibly important parallel does apply.
Both shootings happened in "gun free zones.†[emphasis added]
Simon Malls, the operators of the Cielo Vista Mall, the scene of the El Paso shooting, bans guns on their property even though Texans are allowed to open and carry concealed.
Similarly eateries that serve alcohol in Dayton, Ohio ban guns. They do so even though Ohio is similar to Texas offering both open and concealed carry options.
We may not know the answer to why the shooters chose to kill. But we know at least part of the reason they chose where to kill.
In gun free zones there is no one to return fire.
In the Texas shooting—if the "manifesto†is confirmed to be that of the shooter’s—it was fairly obvious that he had his doubts that he would survive. The fact that he did is a testament purely to the idea that the 3,000 people in the mall that day simply had no means to respond.
In Ohio, according to an eye-witness report, the gunman was disarmed and killed with his own firearm.
In both instances the killers did not choose to attack a military base, a police department, or a gun range.
Nope, their cowardice took them to places where killing victims was akin to shooting fish in a barrel.
As did the Gilroy, California, and Brooklyn, New York shooters the week before.
Candor forces me to admit that the Democrat candates are not stupid; they know all this. Wouldn't it be refreshing if one of them dared to admit it?
Yeah, I know. Dream on, Dana.
The excellent article is here: https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2019/08/04/the-cowardice-of-mass-shooters-and-the-easy-prey-they-always-target-n2551139
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Yesterday I went down to the Ozark Hilton, that luxurious shack in the rugged hills. Built almost entirely out of trash by yours truly, the OH features such amenities as a cinder block open air toilet, a rainbarrel for water, and kerosene lamps for lighting. Luxury. I've been building this thing for decades now, and have virtually never cut a board; I just find a way to make it all fit, like assembling a crazy jig saw puzzle from multiple sources.
Yesterday I was extending the roof to cover my new, spiffy porch. I was nailing up some boards when BAM! A wasp stung my thumb. I guess I was close to their nest because she (it's only females that sting, I am given to understand) put everything into it. Then, to make sure I got the point, she stung me three more times, once in the face, once in the back of my head (as I was running) and once in the arm. Those weren't so bad, but the thumb swelled up like a balloon, and then the whole hand. The worst part was that my car keys were inside the cabin - and that little love child wasn't letting me anywhere near the door. I wound up sitting up against my truck for the rest of the day.
Eventually it started to rain, and the wasps went back to their nests. That rain was MOST welcome! I would have gone home if it were earlier, but I didn't want to drive home in the dark (and man does it get dark down there!) so I stayed the night. Lucky for me I didn't go into anaphylaxis; I'd have died for sure. The Ozark Hilton isn't exactly accessible, even though I do get cell service there. Sort of. And once an AAA tow truck did pull my pickup out of a mud pit it had sunk into, but that was at the top of the drive near the road.
At any rate, I survived although my hand still resembles a surgical glove being used as a water balloon.
I've noticed that the red wasps are always the aggressors. I've shared my cabin with the black ones and they never bother me, but the red ones live outside and are quite aggressive when disturbed. I found it shameful to be chased out of my own cabin by an insect, but what are you going to do? There really is no goo way of keeping them away.
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Mayak's had problems in the past.A vast cloud of nuclear radiation that spread over continental Europe in 2017 has been traced to an unacknowledged nuclear accident in southern Russia, according to an international team of scientists.
The experts say the cloud of radiation detected over Europe in late September 2017 could only have been caused by a nuclear fuel-reprocessing accident at the Mayak Production Association, a nuclear facility in the Chelyabinsk region of the Ural Mountains in Russia, sometime between noon on Sept. 26 and noon on Sept. 27.
Russia confirmed that a cloud of nuclear radiation was detected over the Urals at the time, but the country never acknowledged any responsibility for a radiation leak, nor has it ever admitted that a nuclear accident took place at Mayak in 2017. [Top 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]
The lead author of the new research, nuclear chemist Georg Steinhauser of Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany, said that more than 1,300 atmospheric measurements from around the world showed that between 250 and 400 terabecquerels of radioactive ruthenium-106 had been released during that time.
Ruthenium-106 is a radioactive isotope of ruthenium, meaning that it has a different number of neutrons in its nucleus than the naturally occurring element has. The isotope can be produced as a byproduct during nuclear fission of uranium-235 atoms.
Although the resulting cloud of nuclear radiation was diluted enough that it caused no harm to people beneath it, the total radioactivity was between 30 and 100 times the level of radiation released after the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011, Steinhauser told Live Science.
The research was published today (July 29) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The entire article is here: https://www.foxnews.com/science/mysterious-radiation-cloud-over-europe-traced-to-secret-russian-nuclear-accidentThe accident came a little more than 60 years since a nuclear accident at Mayak in 1957 caused one of the largest releases of radiation in the region's history, second only to the 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is now in the Ukraine. [Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster 25 Years Later (Infographic)]
In the 1957 accident, known as the Kyshtym disaster after a nearby town, a tank of liquid nuclear waste at the Mayak facility exploded, spreading radioactive particles over the site and causing a radioactive plume of smoke that stretched for hundreds of miles.
The study showed that the 2017 accident at Mayak was unlikely to have been caused by a relatively simple release of radioactive gas, Steinhauser said. Rather, a fire, or even an explosion, might have exposed workers at the plant to harmful levels of radiation, he added.
Russia has not acknowledged that any accident occurred at the Mayak facility, maybe because plutonium is made there for thermonuclear weapons. However, Russia had established a commission to investigate the radioactive cloud, Steinhauser said.
The Russian commission ruled that there was not enough evidence to determine if a nuclear accident was responsible for the cloud. But Steinhauser and his team hope it may look again at this decision in the light of the new research.
"They came to the conclusion that they need more data," he said. "And so we feel like, okay, now you can have all of our data — but we would like to see yours as well."
Any information from Russia about an accident at the Mayak facility would help scientists refine their research, instead of having to rely only on measurements of radioactivity from around the world, Steinhauser said.
Gee, those Russkies are still swfully secretive dudes.
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August 03, 2019
This is a long post, and includes some exhaustive detail about some possible financial chicanery between AOC and Charki -- just Standard Operating Procedure for Democrats, as you well know. I urge you to go here https://pjmedia.com/trending/aocs-chief-of-staff-is-out-is-pelosi-to-blame/ to read the entire story!Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) right before the August recess. On Friday, one week later, AOC's office announced that her chief of staff and early patron, Saikat Chakrabarti, is leaving for a liberal nonprofit focused on the Green New Deal. Chakrabarti had made many high-profile flubs recently, but his worst offense involved a scathing attack on moderate Democrats. It is highly probable that Pelosi asked AOC to oust Chakrabarti in exchange for something AOC wanted.
"Saikat has decided to leave the office of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to work with New Consensus to further develop plans for a Green New Deal," AOC's Director of Communications Corbin Trent said in a statement to The Intercept. "We are extraordinarily grateful for his service to advance a bold agenda and improve the lives of the people in NY-14."
AOC's office framed his departure as another step in the crusade to bring "progressive" change to America. "From his co-founding of Justice Democrats to his work on the Ocasio-Cortez campaign and in the official office, Saikat’s goal has always been to do whatever he can to help the larger progressive movement, and we look forward to continuing working with him to do just that," Trent concluded. Chakrabarti also has a new baby, and reportedly will devote more time to parenting. (Having recently become a father, I can sympathize, but I can also say fatherhood does not preclude working a demanding job.)
Perhaps in order to obfuscate from this big news, Ocasio-Cortez broke some more news to The Intercept: Trent is moving from her congressional office to her campaign. He is "shifting to our campaign side so we can work on some ambitious comms projects we've been looking forward to working on," AOC said in a text message. She faces a Republican challenger, Scherie Murray, a New York businesswoman who immigrated from Jamaica as a child.
According to the official narrative, these are two ordinary staff changes: one staffer is moving from the D.C. office to the campaign, and one is moving to a progressive nonprofit. Yet Chakrabarti's departure is far more significant than AOC is letting on.
After all, Chakrabarti founded Brand New Congress PAC in 2016 and Justice Democrats in 2017. Justice Democrats aimed to get far-left candidates elected to Congress, and AOC was both the beneficiary and the poster child of that effort.
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Puerto Rico's governor has finally resigned as he promised.
Ricardo Rossello - a Hillary Clinton supporter and devout Democrat - was forced out over racist/sexist/homophobic comments and an utter disdain for the working class of the Island nation. I wrote about his woes here.
Considering how Rossallo tried to blame the post-hurricane problems of the Island on Donald Trump as a political hit, and considering how he has failed to get the island up and running enough to take back the many refugees now living in Florida, I can say it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
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Here is a feel-good story which also acts as a cautionary tale about trusting experts" over one's own judgment. A young man became very ill and remained so for years. Eventually his doctors ran out of ideas and tried to move him into psychiatry, on the theory it was a psychiatric problem and not physical. Well, this fellow (a fellow St. Louisan) began doing his own research and eventually discovered not only what was wrong with him but invented his own surgery to cure him of the problem. And it worked.
The story is too long and winding to excerpt; please read the article.
It is a cautionary tale about over-reliance on experts. This guy would have died had he simply accepted the medical profession's opinions. But he didn't.
My older brother Brian had a thing called pyloric stenosis when he was a child. He was the second born, and my mother was told by the pediatrician (who had a reputation for being a top guy in his field) that it couldn't be that because "that only affects first born". Well, my father had had it, and HE was also a second son. Eventually my mother lost her temper with the doctor and he relented saying "I think we have a nervous mother" but put Brian in for tests. Well, they did an emergency surgery on him shortly after he was brought in, and said had they waited he would have died. So, I almost lost a brother because an expert was wrong.
This brings to mind the whole global warming issue. I have been fighting with Alarmists on Facebook for the last week now, and invariably it comes to "I trust science" by my antagonists, who assume that "the science is settled" because an expert tells them it is so. I point out that the "consensus" is nothing of the sort, and explain how that was based n two rather dubious studies, one by an historian and another by a communications professor, and that the latter was a questionaire which asked if the climate was changing and if Man had anything to do with it. Naturally the answer was yes to both, so John Cook, the author of the study, got the answer he wanted. Oh, and he only sent out 1100 of these questionaires. And how many busy scientists - without an ax to grind - just threw them away? The former - a survey of peer reviewed papers by Naomi Oreskes - concluded no papers disputed global warming. Well, she was looking for a bald conclusion in the paper's abstract saying "no global warming". How often does that happen? and let us not forget the pressure being put on editors and the like to not publish "denier" research. We know this is happening; the "hockey team" in the Climategate e-mails proved there was collusion in that regard.
But these people who I am arguing with don't want to hear it. They also don't want to hear about the Oregon Petition, which has 31,000 signers.
What they DO want is to believe "scientists" uncritically. They want this in ]black and white. The very marginal nature of what is being analyzed escapes them. But, like this fellow in the story above, or like my brother, a healthy dose of skepticism could possibly save a life or two. It certainly will prevent a terrible tragedy in the global warming business as the world is about to horribly impoverish itself if decarbonization schemes are implemented, and the poor in the Third World will suffer the most. People will die, of starvation, of bad water, lack of medicine, etc. It is completely unnecessary, but it will happen if the Gang Green gets it's way. And they'll only get their way if people stop thinking for themselves and become obedient.
At any rate, do read the entire story; it's a wonderful testament to the human spirit.
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The Pentagon, that five sided funny farm, is planning to deploy surveillance balloons inside the United States to spy on the citizenry.
From the U.K. Guardian:
Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to "provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threatsâ€, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.
The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.
Despite being a violation of posse comitatus, one wonders at the "test" which will probably be ongoing for a long time. Why not test this overseas? We actually need it in the Middle East. Afghanistan, maybe? Why here?
Also, how many UFO reports are these things going to generate?
Here is what makes this even more puzzling:
The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States.
Why does Southcom need to "rewind the tape" in the Caribbean or Central America? Wouldn't this be better employed in the Middle East or the Orient?
I have no doubt it is intended for use in the United States.
For example:
Now, this might be useful against drug dealers. it definitely would be useful against terrorists. But it would be most useful of all against American citizens the government wants to track. And, if enough are deployed, they could know their whereabouts of every automobile in the country. Is that the kind of power we want to give our government?
If the government wants information on a given person's movements, they can use drones now. This is different; a largely permanent surveillance system. It is rare when I agree with the ACLU on anything, but I do share their suspicion here:
Americans have become far too lax about their privacy and freedom from government intrusion. It's a slippery slope; once you accept the yoke around the neck you eventually accept the saddle on your back. This is a dangerous development, in my humble opinion.
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If it seems like there are more commercials on television these days, that's because there are.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/tv-networks-stuff-in-more-commercials-despite-vows-to-cut-back/ar-AAFeWg3
Seems liberal economic thinking is running rampant; they are increasing the number of commercials to make up for lost revenue, lost because, well, there are too many commercials on broadcast television. The young people know nothing about how free markets work...
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August 02, 2019
The decision not to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey over his deliberate leaks to the media isn’t a sign of weakness or lack of will, but of the professionalism and well-reasoned restraint of President Trump’s Department of Justice.
Attorney General Bill Barr’s number one goal since taking the helm at the DOJ has been to restore the impartial and professional ethos that has characterized that agency for more than 200 years.
He is working diligently to cleanse it of the stain of politically driven vindictiveness that Obama-era officials created by grossly mishandling the Clinton email investigation, and then, even more egregiously, orchestrating the series of events that led to the Russiagate witch hunt.
Before this "investigation of the investigators†is over, there will undoubtedly be many cases of misconduct that warrant criminal prosecution. Comey’s, however, was not one of them.
What Comey did -- release private memos made in the course of his employment as FBI director to politically damage the president of the United States, who had just fired him for unrelated misconduct -- was absolutely outrageous, and totally unbecoming of the leader of this country’s premier criminal investigatory agency. It speaks volumes about Comey’s corrupt character and further illustrates why both President Trump and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that Comey was no longer fit to serve in that role.
In this case, however, even that deplorable conduct did not rise to the level that was possible to prosecute criminally. The career prosecutors assigned to the case told Fox News that this "wasn’t a close call,†and I can see why. The confidential nature of the memos was too ambiguous. The intent element was too hard to prove.
Attorney General Barr made the right call. This would have been the first major charging decision of this investigation, which is not the time to go all in on a "maybe†case. To do so would create exactly the appearance of political vindictiveness and retributivist prosecution he is working so hard to dispel.
That does not mean, as some are now claiming, that the decision not to prosecute in this particular case is a vindication of Comey, a defeat for the president, or an end to the inquiry surrounding these leaks.
There's more here -- a lot more. And if Joe diGenova says it, well, it's worth reading, here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joe-digenova-barr-james-comey-leaks-decision
If I were Jimmy Comey -- Thank the Lord I'm not -- I wouldn't be planning any out-of-country trips for the next few years!
Dana adds more here:
Brit Hume shares a ‘very smart thread’ on why James Comey was not charged
Note: You have to wade through a few Tweets here. This may not be your cup of tea, but increasingly it's the way information is shared these days.Very smart thread on why DOJ decided against prosecuting Comey (for now). https://twitter.com/johnwhuber/status/1157034985393668102…
1,000 people are talking about this
THREAD ==>
'Nuff said?
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:23 PM
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