“One of three jihadis who killed seven people in London last week told Italian police he wanted to be a terrorist when they kept him from travelling to the Middle East last year, an Italian prosecutor said on Tuesday.
British police named Moroccan-Italian Youssef Zaghba, 22, as one of the perpetrators of the June 3 attack, the third carried out by Islamists in Britain in as many months.
Zaghba, whose Italian mother lives near the city of Bologna, was stopped at the airport there in 2016 when he was trying to fly to Turkey, city prosecutor Giuseppe Amato told broadcaster Radio24.
“A person going to Turkey with a backpack aroused some suspicion, also because he told the agent who checked him that he wanted to go and be a terrorist, then he corrected himself,” Bologna prosecutor Giuseppe Amato told broadcaster Radio24.”
—————————
“What has become clear since the Saturday night assault is that again and again, the young men who killed seven people before they were shot to death by the police had been reported to law enforcement authorities, bumping into what should have been the country’s security net, only for those signals to be played down, ignored or missed.”
————
“The latest revelations have placed Mrs. May, a former home secretary who was in charge of counterterrorism for six years before taking over as prime minister last year, under intense scrutiny two days before a general election. Even her own foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, a former London mayor, voiced the question many here are asking.
“How on earth could we have let this guy or possibly more through the net — what happened?” he asked in an interview on Sky News.
Some of the missed warnings were especially glaring because they came from the very people the British government had entrusted with identifying extremists.
Usama Hasan, a former Islamic extremist who now works with the police to help de-radicalize others, said he had a physical altercation in a London park less than a year ago with one of the assailants, Khuram Shazad Butt.
Mr. Butt’s brother, Saad, who did paid work for the police on counterextremism issues and was estranged from the assailant, missed signs of how dangerous his brother’s extremism had become.
Other warnings had also been raised about Mr. Butt, 27, who held odd jobs, including at KFC and a six-month stint as a customer service trainee for the London subway system that ended in October. His second child was born weeks before the attack, neighbors said.
In 2015, an F.B.I. informant, Jesse Morton, wrote a report to his handler in the United States, identifying Mr. Butt as a person to watch because of what Mr. Morton described as his rising role in extremist chat rooms run by Al Muhajiroun, an organization banned in Britain because of its sprawling links to terrorism.
“My handler got back to me and said it was ‘excellent work’ and forwarded it to the head office,” said Mr. Morton, a former Qaeda recruiter from New York who served prison time on terrorism charges before recanting and agreeing to work undercover for law enforcement.
Mr. Morton, who recently started Parallel Networks, an organization combating extremism, said it was unclear to him whether his F.B.I. report had been forwarded to British officials. A spokesman for the F.B.I., Andrew C. Ames, said the agency had no comment.
Even excluding the F.B.I. report, plenty of alarms were ringing for the British authorities about Mr. Butt.
Neighbors and friends noticed his behavior, including a mother of three who lived in the same apartment building as Mr. Butt in Barking, a suburb in eastern London.
The mother, Erica Gasparri, was quoted by The Guardian as saying she confronted Mr. Butt two years ago after he had tried to convert her son to Islam. When she found him in a local park, she recalled, Mr. Butt said he was ready to do “in the name of Allah what needs to be done, including killing my own mother.”
Ms. Gasparri said she had called a police hotline and passed on photographs she had taken of him, but never got a call back.”
“Theresa May has declared she is prepared to rip up human rights laws to impose new restrictions on terror suspects, as she sought to gain control over the security agenda just 36 hours before the polls open.
The prime minister said she was looking at how to make it easier to deport foreign terror suspects and how to increase controls on extremists where it is thought they present a threat but there is not enough evidence to prosecute them.
The last-ditch intervention comes after days of pressure on May over the policing cuts and questions over intelligence failures, following terror attacks on London Bridge, Manchester and Westminster.
She said: “But I can tell you a few of the things I mean by that: I mean longer prison sentences for people convicted of terrorist offences. I mean making it easier for the authorities to deport foreign terror suspects to their own countries.
“And I mean doing more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they present a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court.
“And if human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change those laws so we can do it.”
The proposed measures appear to be an attempt at strengthening terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpims) rather than a complete return to Labour’s control orders, which were repeatedly struck down by the courts and then scrapped by May in 2010 when she was home secretary.
They could involve further curfews, restrictions on association with other known extremists, controls on where they can travel and limits on access to communication devices.
The Conservatives have promised not to withdraw from the European convention on human rights during the next parliament but they could begin to try to replace or amend parts of the Human Rights Act after the UK leaves the EU.”
Ricky, your NYT link last night mentioned in passing how green energy was taking off in places like India. We were just talking about that in my Global Health class this week:
I watched Idiocracy last night for the first time since the election. It was unnerving. The President, the people, the top White House aides and the popular culture were basically what we experience every day.
The only real difference is that we have a reasonably intelligent Cabinet. Who knows? They may all quit in disgust.
The most unnerving part of the movie was when the people were easily duped into believing the most obvious and outrageous lies told by a buffoonish leader backed by an equally buffoonish media. The scantily clad Fox News anchors were hilarious.
Other than being an American, I have no dog in this fight. If the shrills in the media succeed in calling the president to resign/be ousted/whatever, what happens to the rule of law in this country? Will we ever be able to have a four-year presidency again? Won’t we end up in gridlock in this country as forces rip us apart back and forth?
Isn’t that what happens in a banana republic?
This is why I’m appalled at the continuing “resistance” I see in the press, on my street corners and among friends who should know better. There’s a bigger picture at stake here and this fifth column is horrifying.
OTOH, as a Christian, I believe God is in control. He allowed the Israelites to have a King like their neighbors, but warned that king would take away their money, their goods, their children and their peace.
“The Justice Department announced Wednesday it will no longer allow prosecutors to strike settlement agreements with big companies directing them to make payouts to outside groups, ending an Obama-era practice that Republicans decried as a “slush fund” that padded the accounts of liberal interest groups.
In a memo sent to 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices early Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would end the practice that allowed companies to meet settlement burdens by giving money to groups that were neither victims nor parties to the case.
Sessions said the money should, instead, go to the Treasury Department or victims.
“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people—not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Sessions said in a statement.
Conservatives have long fought the policy introduced under the Obama administration. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would prohibit the Department of Justice from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups, after concerns that the settlements bypass congressional appropriations processes.
“This bill is oversight and action. Congress must not tolerate Justice Department political appointees using settlements to funnel money to their liberal friends,” Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who introduced the bill, said in a statement. “This is also an institutional issue. Once direct victims have been compensated, deciding what to do with additional funds recovered from defendants becomes a policy question properly decided by elected representatives in Congress, not agency bureaucrats or prosecutors.” ”
————–
Once again the media seeks to make the criminal into a victim. Sure she leaked top secret docs and committed other crimes. But it’s OK, because she likes animals, kids, and is a nice person.
🙄
She should be disappeared….. into a federal prison for the next 7-10 years.
“The family of an intelligence contractor who allegedly leaked a highly classified document about Russian interference in the U.S. election told NBC News that “she would not jeopardize anybody’s safety.”
Reality Winner, a 25-year-old who worked at the National Security Agency, has been charged with providing the report to The Intercept, an online news organization. Winner’s mother said her daughter was “terrified” when she returned to her Augusta home Saturday to find armed federal agents waiting for her.
“Her words to me was that she was scared she was going to be … they were going to make her disappear,” mother Billie Davis-Winner said Tuesday.
She added that her daughter would never put herself in a position where another person was at risk.
“She would not jeopardize anybody’s safety. She would not, I can tell you that for certainty,” Winner-Davis said. “She loves children. She loves animals … She’s not a threat to anyone. She’s not a violent person.”
Winner-Davis said that despite the allegations she remains “a proud mom … I have every reason to be proud of that girl.”
She added: “I can’t ever call her a traitor or even believe that. No, that is not Reality. That’s not her.”
“I fear that they’re going to make an example out of her””
————————-
And I’m hoping they do. It’s the only way the illegal leaks from Obama holdovers and other Dems will stop.
That’s not how the 1st Amend. works. Further proof that Twitter makes it’s users turn into uninformed morons who only know soundbites and talking points. But hey, you can always find some liberal lawyer looking for a payday to take your case, meritless as it is.
“President Donald Trump may be the nation’s tweeter-in-chief, but some Twitter users say he’s violating the First Amendment by blocking people from his feed after they posted scornful comments.
Lawyers for two Twitter users sent the White House a letter Tuesday demanding they be un-blocked from the Republican president’s @realDonaldTrump account.
“The viewpoint-based blocking of our clients is unconstitutional,” wrote attorneys at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tweeters — one a liberal activist, the other a cyclist who says he’s a registered Republican — have posted and retweeted plenty of complaints and jokes about Trump.”
I haven’t followed this case about Reality Winner, but how does she know no one will be injured by her actions? This is the foolishness that I keep seeing in the press and it’s why I turn away.
Tychicus, No, I never read the comments. I do think the number of anti-religious people in America is increasing on a daily basis.
Michelle, People oppose Trump for at least two reasons:
1. Liberals oppose him because they view him as a right wing extremist (and to this point he has governed as a right winger).
2. Thoughtful, educated people across the political spectrum view him as dangerous because of his extreme ignorance, immaturity, dishonesty and lack of self control. These traits would have been bad in the 1880s. In a nuclear age, they are extremely disconcerting.
Liberals formed “the resistance” because of Concern #1. People like Douthat and Kristol look for ways to get to Pence because of Concern #2.
The 25th Amendment and impeachment are Constitutional ways to get to Pence. Trump is historically bad, but we as a people have become historically stupid. Is an Idiocracy higher or lower on the scale than a Banana Republic?
I’m going to tell you the real reason many people voted for Trump.
They had to vote between two awful candidates.
They chose to vote AGAINST the one they disliked the most.
Many, like me, didn’t for for president at all. I wish we would stop hearing about the horrible people who voted for Trump, and how screwed up they are. I wish Christians would stop being called hypocritical scapegoats because of the choice some of them made FOR rather than AGAINST.
I see them as being caught between a rock and a hard place and made the best choice they could under an impossible ballot.
There is little way to reason with establishment ideologies (on both sides) that do not adhere to the best interests of the country they purport to represent. And because of that, I’m expecting things to get worse before they get better. But that was probably going to happen anyway since entrenched power will not give it up without a fight. Like pulling a tooth that is not quite ready to let go, hard pressure to the right, and then to the left and back again will loosen it. What saddens me in this whole process is that many capable people will just walk away because they can’t have it all their own way. I expect it to be uncomfortable–even painful. Hopefully sovereignty is worth it, or this will be just another futile exercise.
Michelle, I have not read any conservative Never Trumpers who were critical of Christians (or others) for voting for Trump in the general election. As you said, there was no good choice.
However, virtually every conservative writer whom I respect has been extremely critical of Christians or other “conservatives” who have consistently defended the lies, false accusations, idiotic statements and gross misbehavior of Trump since the election. I believe some might refer to that as “enabling”.
Whether you support him or not, I think most people would agree that Trump is not a ‘comfortable’ president. I had an interesting conversation recently with 2 Christians that I know well—one is a Trump supporter, and the other a Left-leaning Independent who sees Trump’s election as a possible hopeful sign.
It was interesting to me that both of them compared him to forces of destruction. One said he was like a wrecking ball, taking down the powers that be so the country could become reindustrialized. But the other—the Lefty, compared him to a Plague—like the locusts or frogs of Egypt—which will only get worse until the grip of corrupt tyranny is broken. Both acknowledged his moral failings, but both are rooting for his success in bringing production and real economic stability back to the US.
If there had been another viable candidate with his agenda, I think we all could have cheerfully supported him/her.
AJ, After today’s and tomorrow’s testimony and Trump’s certain “rebuttals”, we may not have squat, but we will almost certainly have obstruction of justice. That is what forced Nixon out and led to Clinton’s impeachment. The question remains: Is Trump mentally capable of committing obstruction of justice? Possibly not. Can the average American understand obstruction of justice? Probably not.
So we will probably let him have his four years unless he gets bored or frustrated and quits. It is important that Debra and others see he got his chance. Some will eventually see that he is a con man. More importantly, some will see that his whole demagogic message is a con.
Debra, You are at least one dramatic economic change behind the times. Not only is manufacturing not coming back, the people who are the most at risk right now of job loss are those in retail. Fortunately, most young people seem to be able to handle the constant changes.
rw: “… but we will almost certainly have obstruction of justice.”
Based on what?
Comey will most likely testify that Pres. Trump told him to “let go” of the investigation re. the Russian connections with Flynn, but that’s not obstruction of justice.
Exactly Debra. Him asking to drop the investigation of Flynn is not a crime. Now if he had acted to ensure it was, that’s a different story. But Comey isn’t alleging that, merely that he asked.
Asking Comey for a loyalty pledge? Nothing unusual there either. It’s typical to ask holdovers if they’ll pledge loyalty to the new boss, or if they want to be replaced.
There certainly doesn’t appear to be anything that rises to an impeachable offense in Comey’s prepared testimony for tomorrow, which he released today.
Looks like another big, fat, nothing burger, as expected.
“Anytime someone mentions Watergate in this town, it’s a desperate plea for attention.”
Woman on Fox News Special Report.
Fox doesn’t tell who the participants are.
Many of these journalists cut their teeth on Watergate–I was a reporter that year, too, and many watched the entire proceedings with baited breath (is that the right baited?). They’re hoping to finish their careers with another journalist “coup” proving their careers were not in vain.
Sadly, they are not historians and cannot imagine negative results coming from their crusade, much less that things might just very well get worse for the nation. 😦
In Watergate, the journalists had to dig and search for witnesses. Today, they can just read Trump’s Tweets or watch him blurt out confessions to Lester Holt.
For decades, Comey was a respected public servant, admired by co-workers and staff, Republicans and Democrats alike. Then as part of his job, he was forced to investigate the two biggest slimes in America:
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Sadly, since his country had turned into an Idiocracy, they won their parties’ presidential nominations. Just as the two competed for votes, they competed to see who could claim to have been treated worse by Comey. Hilariously @ 5:56, The Trump Cult used the same exact term (nothing burger) to proclaim Trump’s innocence that Hillary had used last week to describe how mean old Comey had persecuted her.
Moral of the Story: If your country turns into an Idiocracy, stay out of the public sector.
Ricky and Tychicus, I just watched Charles Barkley say he preferred the NHL playoffs to the NBA — parity and close games as opposed to massive blow outs.
AJ — the Brits endured 25 years of IRA bombings which extracted a higher death toll yet they never banned nor discriminated against Irish Catholics. I hope they don’t lose the stiff upper lip and panic to gain electoral advantages
Did he possibly break with some longstanding govt policies? Possibly…..
Did he do anything illegal, or attempt to impede the investigation? No to both.
All this money and resources wasted for nothing. You can take some solace in Flynn’s possible wrongdoing and maybe even a conviction for him, but sadly the left, media, and never-Trumpers have missed their intended target. The truth matters, and it never was on their side.
Wandering Views 
Missing the obvious?
Or ignoring it for PC reasons?.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/london-attacker-told-italian-police-he-wanted-to-be-a-terrorist/ar-BBC9bgo?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
“One of three jihadis who killed seven people in London last week told Italian police he wanted to be a terrorist when they kept him from travelling to the Middle East last year, an Italian prosecutor said on Tuesday.
British police named Moroccan-Italian Youssef Zaghba, 22, as one of the perpetrators of the June 3 attack, the third carried out by Islamists in Britain in as many months.
Zaghba, whose Italian mother lives near the city of Bologna, was stopped at the airport there in 2016 when he was trying to fly to Turkey, city prosecutor Giuseppe Amato told broadcaster Radio24.
“A person going to Turkey with a backpack aroused some suspicion, also because he told the agent who checked him that he wanted to go and be a terrorist, then he corrected himself,” Bologna prosecutor Giuseppe Amato told broadcaster Radio24.”
—————————
More, and even worse……
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/london-assailants-evaded-an-avalanche-of-warning-signs/ar-BBCcb8l?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
“What has become clear since the Saturday night assault is that again and again, the young men who killed seven people before they were shot to death by the police had been reported to law enforcement authorities, bumping into what should have been the country’s security net, only for those signals to be played down, ignored or missed.”
————
“The latest revelations have placed Mrs. May, a former home secretary who was in charge of counterterrorism for six years before taking over as prime minister last year, under intense scrutiny two days before a general election. Even her own foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, a former London mayor, voiced the question many here are asking.
“How on earth could we have let this guy or possibly more through the net — what happened?” he asked in an interview on Sky News.
Some of the missed warnings were especially glaring because they came from the very people the British government had entrusted with identifying extremists.
Usama Hasan, a former Islamic extremist who now works with the police to help de-radicalize others, said he had a physical altercation in a London park less than a year ago with one of the assailants, Khuram Shazad Butt.
Mr. Butt’s brother, Saad, who did paid work for the police on counterextremism issues and was estranged from the assailant, missed signs of how dangerous his brother’s extremism had become.
Other warnings had also been raised about Mr. Butt, 27, who held odd jobs, including at KFC and a six-month stint as a customer service trainee for the London subway system that ended in October. His second child was born weeks before the attack, neighbors said.
In 2015, an F.B.I. informant, Jesse Morton, wrote a report to his handler in the United States, identifying Mr. Butt as a person to watch because of what Mr. Morton described as his rising role in extremist chat rooms run by Al Muhajiroun, an organization banned in Britain because of its sprawling links to terrorism.
“My handler got back to me and said it was ‘excellent work’ and forwarded it to the head office,” said Mr. Morton, a former Qaeda recruiter from New York who served prison time on terrorism charges before recanting and agreeing to work undercover for law enforcement.
Mr. Morton, who recently started Parallel Networks, an organization combating extremism, said it was unclear to him whether his F.B.I. report had been forwarded to British officials. A spokesman for the F.B.I., Andrew C. Ames, said the agency had no comment.
Even excluding the F.B.I. report, plenty of alarms were ringing for the British authorities about Mr. Butt.
Neighbors and friends noticed his behavior, including a mother of three who lived in the same apartment building as Mr. Butt in Barking, a suburb in eastern London.
The mother, Erica Gasparri, was quoted by The Guardian as saying she confronted Mr. Butt two years ago after he had tried to convert her son to Islam. When she found him in a local park, she recalled, Mr. Butt said he was ready to do “in the name of Allah what needs to be done, including killing my own mother.”
Ms. Gasparri said she had called a police hotline and passed on photographs she had taken of him, but never got a call back.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
But there’s hope. They seem to be starting to understand their govt is part of the problem.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/may-i%E2%80%99ll-rip-up-human-rights-laws-that-impede-new-terror-legislation/ar-BBCaRyG?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
“Theresa May has declared she is prepared to rip up human rights laws to impose new restrictions on terror suspects, as she sought to gain control over the security agenda just 36 hours before the polls open.
The prime minister said she was looking at how to make it easier to deport foreign terror suspects and how to increase controls on extremists where it is thought they present a threat but there is not enough evidence to prosecute them.
The last-ditch intervention comes after days of pressure on May over the policing cuts and questions over intelligence failures, following terror attacks on London Bridge, Manchester and Westminster.
She said: “But I can tell you a few of the things I mean by that: I mean longer prison sentences for people convicted of terrorist offences. I mean making it easier for the authorities to deport foreign terror suspects to their own countries.
“And I mean doing more to restrict the freedom and the movements of terrorist suspects when we have enough evidence to know they present a threat, but not enough evidence to prosecute them in full in court.
“And if human rights laws stop us from doing it, we will change those laws so we can do it.”
The proposed measures appear to be an attempt at strengthening terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpims) rather than a complete return to Labour’s control orders, which were repeatedly struck down by the courts and then scrapped by May in 2010 when she was home secretary.
They could involve further curfews, restrictions on association with other known extremists, controls on where they can travel and limits on access to communication devices.
The Conservatives have promised not to withdraw from the European convention on human rights during the next parliament but they could begin to try to replace or amend parts of the Human Rights Act after the UK leaves the EU.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-pence-is-sounding-better-and-better/2017/06/06/c1bf0f52-4af3-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.d56d5a3d9611
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An interesting take on the Tweets.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-trump-stops-tweeting-how-will-we-know-who-he-really-is/2017/06/06/9f29cd00-4af4-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html?utm_term=.9616002304c7
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Ricky, your NYT link last night mentioned in passing how green energy was taking off in places like India. We were just talking about that in my Global Health class this week:
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I watched Idiocracy last night for the first time since the election. It was unnerving. The President, the people, the top White House aides and the popular culture were basically what we experience every day.
The only real difference is that we have a reasonably intelligent Cabinet. Who knows? They may all quit in disgust.
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The most unnerving part of the movie was when the people were easily duped into believing the most obvious and outrageous lies told by a buffoonish leader backed by an equally buffoonish media. The scantily clad Fox News anchors were hilarious.
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Other than being an American, I have no dog in this fight. If the shrills in the media succeed in calling the president to resign/be ousted/whatever, what happens to the rule of law in this country? Will we ever be able to have a four-year presidency again? Won’t we end up in gridlock in this country as forces rip us apart back and forth?
Isn’t that what happens in a banana republic?
This is why I’m appalled at the continuing “resistance” I see in the press, on my street corners and among friends who should know better. There’s a bigger picture at stake here and this fifth column is horrifying.
OTOH, as a Christian, I believe God is in control. He allowed the Israelites to have a King like their neighbors, but warned that king would take away their money, their goods, their children and their peace.
Voila. 😦
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What michelle said.
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Sessions has killed the Obama era practice of paying bribes to community organizers as settlements to lawsuits they had no part in. Good news.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/07/doj-ends-holder-era-slush-fund-payouts-to-outside-groups.html
“The Justice Department announced Wednesday it will no longer allow prosecutors to strike settlement agreements with big companies directing them to make payouts to outside groups, ending an Obama-era practice that Republicans decried as a “slush fund” that padded the accounts of liberal interest groups.
In a memo sent to 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices early Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would end the practice that allowed companies to meet settlement burdens by giving money to groups that were neither victims nor parties to the case.
Sessions said the money should, instead, go to the Treasury Department or victims.
“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people—not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Sessions said in a statement.
Conservatives have long fought the policy introduced under the Obama administration. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that would prohibit the Department of Justice from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups, after concerns that the settlements bypass congressional appropriations processes.
“This bill is oversight and action. Congress must not tolerate Justice Department political appointees using settlements to funnel money to their liberal friends,” Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who introduced the bill, said in a statement. “This is also an institutional issue. Once direct victims have been compensated, deciding what to do with additional funds recovered from defendants becomes a policy question properly decided by elected representatives in Congress, not agency bureaucrats or prosecutors.” ”
————–
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rw @8:30: Did you read any of the comments? There sure are a lot of “anti-religious” folks out there…
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Once again the media seeks to make the criminal into a victim. Sure she leaked top secret docs and committed other crimes. But it’s OK, because she likes animals, kids, and is a nice person.
🙄
She should be disappeared….. into a federal prison for the next 7-10 years.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alleged-nsa-leakers-mom-shes-scared-they-are-going-to-make-her-disappear/ar-BBCdrFj?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
“The family of an intelligence contractor who allegedly leaked a highly classified document about Russian interference in the U.S. election told NBC News that “she would not jeopardize anybody’s safety.”
Reality Winner, a 25-year-old who worked at the National Security Agency, has been charged with providing the report to The Intercept, an online news organization. Winner’s mother said her daughter was “terrified” when she returned to her Augusta home Saturday to find armed federal agents waiting for her.
“Her words to me was that she was scared she was going to be … they were going to make her disappear,” mother Billie Davis-Winner said Tuesday.
She added that her daughter would never put herself in a position where another person was at risk.
“She would not jeopardize anybody’s safety. She would not, I can tell you that for certainty,” Winner-Davis said. “She loves children. She loves animals … She’s not a threat to anyone. She’s not a violent person.”
Winner-Davis said that despite the allegations she remains “a proud mom … I have every reason to be proud of that girl.”
She added: “I can’t ever call her a traitor or even believe that. No, that is not Reality. That’s not her.”
“I fear that they’re going to make an example out of her””
————————-
And I’m hoping they do. It’s the only way the illegal leaks from Obama holdovers and other Dems will stop.
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That’s not how the 1st Amend. works. Further proof that Twitter makes it’s users turn into uninformed morons who only know soundbites and talking points. But hey, you can always find some liberal lawyer looking for a payday to take your case, meritless as it is.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/twitter-users-blocked-trump-cry-200138165.html
“President Donald Trump may be the nation’s tweeter-in-chief, but some Twitter users say he’s violating the First Amendment by blocking people from his feed after they posted scornful comments.
Lawyers for two Twitter users sent the White House a letter Tuesday demanding they be un-blocked from the Republican president’s @realDonaldTrump account.
“The viewpoint-based blocking of our clients is unconstitutional,” wrote attorneys at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tweeters — one a liberal activist, the other a cyclist who says he’s a registered Republican — have posted and retweeted plenty of complaints and jokes about Trump.”
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I wish I could like Michelle’s post a dozen times
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I haven’t followed this case about Reality Winner, but how does she know no one will be injured by her actions? This is the foolishness that I keep seeing in the press and it’s why I turn away.
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Tychicus, No, I never read the comments. I do think the number of anti-religious people in America is increasing on a daily basis.
Michelle, People oppose Trump for at least two reasons:
1. Liberals oppose him because they view him as a right wing extremist (and to this point he has governed as a right winger).
2. Thoughtful, educated people across the political spectrum view him as dangerous because of his extreme ignorance, immaturity, dishonesty and lack of self control. These traits would have been bad in the 1880s. In a nuclear age, they are extremely disconcerting.
Liberals formed “the resistance” because of Concern #1. People like Douthat and Kristol look for ways to get to Pence because of Concern #2.
The 25th Amendment and impeachment are Constitutional ways to get to Pence. Trump is historically bad, but we as a people have become historically stupid. Is an Idiocracy higher or lower on the scale than a Banana Republic?
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Impeachment is constitutional. But you need proof and evidence. And thus far, you never-Trumpers got squat.
Until you do, you’re just whining about style points like the left, albeit slightly more articulately.
Yawn.
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I’m going to tell you the real reason many people voted for Trump.
They had to vote between two awful candidates.
They chose to vote AGAINST the one they disliked the most.
Many, like me, didn’t for for president at all. I wish we would stop hearing about the horrible people who voted for Trump, and how screwed up they are. I wish Christians would stop being called hypocritical scapegoats because of the choice some of them made FOR rather than AGAINST.
I see them as being caught between a rock and a hard place and made the best choice they could under an impossible ballot.
Back to soul work.
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Whoops, that should be against rather than for! Lol.
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There is little way to reason with establishment ideologies (on both sides) that do not adhere to the best interests of the country they purport to represent. And because of that, I’m expecting things to get worse before they get better. But that was probably going to happen anyway since entrenched power will not give it up without a fight. Like pulling a tooth that is not quite ready to let go, hard pressure to the right, and then to the left and back again will loosen it. What saddens me in this whole process is that many capable people will just walk away because they can’t have it all their own way. I expect it to be uncomfortable–even painful. Hopefully sovereignty is worth it, or this will be just another futile exercise.
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Michelle, I have not read any conservative Never Trumpers who were critical of Christians (or others) for voting for Trump in the general election. As you said, there was no good choice.
However, virtually every conservative writer whom I respect has been extremely critical of Christians or other “conservatives” who have consistently defended the lies, false accusations, idiotic statements and gross misbehavior of Trump since the election. I believe some might refer to that as “enabling”.
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Whether you support him or not, I think most people would agree that Trump is not a ‘comfortable’ president. I had an interesting conversation recently with 2 Christians that I know well—one is a Trump supporter, and the other a Left-leaning Independent who sees Trump’s election as a possible hopeful sign.
It was interesting to me that both of them compared him to forces of destruction. One said he was like a wrecking ball, taking down the powers that be so the country could become reindustrialized. But the other—the Lefty, compared him to a Plague—like the locusts or frogs of Egypt—which will only get worse until the grip of corrupt tyranny is broken. Both acknowledged his moral failings, but both are rooting for his success in bringing production and real economic stability back to the US.
If there had been another viable candidate with his agenda, I think we all could have cheerfully supported him/her.
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AJ, After today’s and tomorrow’s testimony and Trump’s certain “rebuttals”, we may not have squat, but we will almost certainly have obstruction of justice. That is what forced Nixon out and led to Clinton’s impeachment. The question remains: Is Trump mentally capable of committing obstruction of justice? Possibly not. Can the average American understand obstruction of justice? Probably not.
So we will probably let him have his four years unless he gets bored or frustrated and quits. It is important that Debra and others see he got his chance. Some will eventually see that he is a con man. More importantly, some will see that his whole demagogic message is a con.
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Debra, You are at least one dramatic economic change behind the times. Not only is manufacturing not coming back, the people who are the most at risk right now of job loss are those in retail. Fortunately, most young people seem to be able to handle the constant changes.
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An article here, a headline there…Pretty soon we shall all be looking for the sky to fall!
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rw: “… but we will almost certainly have obstruction of justice.”
Based on what?
Comey will most likely testify that Pres. Trump told him to “let go” of the investigation re. the Russian connections with Flynn, but that’s not obstruction of justice.
So what are you saying is …?
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Exactly Debra. Him asking to drop the investigation of Flynn is not a crime. Now if he had acted to ensure it was, that’s a different story. But Comey isn’t alleging that, merely that he asked.
Asking Comey for a loyalty pledge? Nothing unusual there either. It’s typical to ask holdovers if they’ll pledge loyalty to the new boss, or if they want to be replaced.
There certainly doesn’t appear to be anything that rises to an impeachable offense in Comey’s prepared testimony for tomorrow, which he released today.
Looks like another big, fat, nothing burger, as expected.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-wanted-loyalty-halt-flynn-probe-10-takeaways-comeys-prepared-testimony-190857713.html
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“Anytime someone mentions Watergate in this town, it’s a desperate plea for attention.”
Woman on Fox News Special Report.
Fox doesn’t tell who the participants are.
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Tychicus, Here is an article.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/obstruction-justice-comey-impeachment-622400%3Famp%3D1
To me the single most damning bit of evidence was Trump’s answer to Lester Holt’s question as to why he fired Comey.
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Many of these journalists cut their teeth on Watergate–I was a reporter that year, too, and many watched the entire proceedings with baited breath (is that the right baited?). They’re hoping to finish their careers with another journalist “coup” proving their careers were not in vain.
Sadly, they are not historians and cannot imagine negative results coming from their crusade, much less that things might just very well get worse for the nation. 😦
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In Watergate, the journalists had to dig and search for witnesses. Today, they can just read Trump’s Tweets or watch him blurt out confessions to Lester Holt.
For decades, Comey was a respected public servant, admired by co-workers and staff, Republicans and Democrats alike. Then as part of his job, he was forced to investigate the two biggest slimes in America:
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Sadly, since his country had turned into an Idiocracy, they won their parties’ presidential nominations. Just as the two competed for votes, they competed to see who could claim to have been treated worse by Comey. Hilariously @ 5:56, The Trump Cult used the same exact term (nothing burger) to proclaim Trump’s innocence that Hillary had used last week to describe how mean old Comey had persecuted her.
Moral of the Story: If your country turns into an Idiocracy, stay out of the public sector.
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Ricky and Tychicus, I just watched Charles Barkley say he preferred the NHL playoffs to the NBA — parity and close games as opposed to massive blow outs.
AJ — the Brits endured 25 years of IRA bombings which extracted a higher death toll yet they never banned nor discriminated against Irish Catholics. I hope they don’t lose the stiff upper lip and panic to gain electoral advantages
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AJ, Here is how conservative David French described your “nothing burger”:
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HRW, The basketball has been baaad. However, we are going to root for LeBron to make a game of it tonight.
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French actually viewed Comey’s testimony as not as harmful to Trump as did Benjamin Wittes. Here is an analysis:
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This will keep it close for a while.
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HRW and Roscuro, How is this working out?
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Comey: He’s guilty
Democrats: He’s guilty
Trump: I’m guilty
Republicans: We may never get to the bottom of this.
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Like I said, a big, fat, nothing burger.
Will there be political fallout? Yes.
Will it affect his poll numbers? Yes.
Did he possibly break with some longstanding govt policies? Possibly…..
Did he do anything illegal, or attempt to impede the investigation? No to both.
All this money and resources wasted for nothing. You can take some solace in Flynn’s possible wrongdoing and maybe even a conviction for him, but sadly the left, media, and never-Trumpers have missed their intended target. The truth matters, and it never was on their side.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/comeys-testimony-mostly-hurts-the-president-but-one-thing-could-help-him/ar-BBCfMVN?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U452DHP
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AJ, Did you teach Hillary to say that or did she teach you?
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the anon quote at 957 is mine
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AJ@9:58 There are probably going to be some very disappointed Never-Trumpers this time tomorrow. :–)
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These guys won’t be disappointed though. They know how to do a hearing with all the trimmings—including popcorn. :–)
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Debra, You are underestimating your man’s Tweeting ability. That man does not disappoint.
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