“Beatrix von Storch, a leading figure in the Alternative for Germany party, is one of the first hit by new hate speech laws on social media. Critics say the legislation opens the way for censorship by internet companies.
A top lawmaker from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was blocked from Twitter and Facebook on Monday after slamming the Cologne police for sending a New Year’s tweet in Arabic.
The incident caused the AfD to lash out further and criticize censorship as a controversial new German social media law known as NetzDG went into effect January 1 in a bid to clamp down on online hate speech.”
“”What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?” wrote Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD’s parliamentary group.
The tweet was later deleted after Twitter froze von Storch’s account and informed her she had violated hate speech rules. Her account was shut down for 12 hours. The Cologne police said on Monday that they had filed a criminal complaint against von Storch for hate speech.”
———————————-
I much prefer the method Calif used here. (I can’t beleieve I said that. 🙂 )
Leave the speech alone and free, even if it’s offensive. There are already laws on the books that cover this stuff.
“California has leveled misdemeanor charges against 41-year-old Mark Feigin after he sent five anti-Muslim posts to the Islamic Center of Southern California’s (ICSC) Facebook page in 2016.
The California Attorney General’s office argues that his comments constituted “repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device” with “intent to annoy or harass,” a misdemeanor under California law, Reason.com reported Friday. California courts are scheduled to begin the trial Jan. 2, according to court records. Feigin admitted in October 2016 that he wrote the following comments between Sept. 17 and 25 of the same year.”
“ICSC Communications Coordinator Kristin Stangas blocked Feigin soon after he made the final post, but also kept copies of the comments to pursue legal action. The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Feigin Oct. 19 and interviewed him. Feigin is now arguing that his charges should be dismissed because they are based on an unconstitutional application of the law.
Specifically, Cal. Penal Code § 653m(b) states that “every person who, with intent to annoy or harass, makes repeated telephone calls or makes repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device … to another person is … guilty of a misdemeanor. Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to telephone calls or electronic contacts made in good faith or during the ordinary course and scope of business.”
The AG’s office argues that Facebook comments are not legally different from telephone calls in this circumstance, and that Feigin’s intent was clearly to “annoy or harass,” making his actions illegal.”
——————————-
See. No need for stupid and speech limiting new laws.
“If [Brown] thinks he is protecting the community, he’s doing quite the opposite,” Homan said. “[Brown] is knowingly putting law enforcement at risk.
“There’s no sanctuary from law enforcement,” he said. “California better hold on tight – they’re about to see a lot more deportation officers. If politicians don’t protect their communities then ICE will.”
Homan said illegal alien smuggling organizations will use the California law as a “selling point” and that Brown “bit off a lot more than he can chew.”
Homan said that Brown and other sanctuary-jurisdiction leaders may have violated 8 U.S. Code § 1324 – relating to “harboring certain aliens.”
He said he hopes the Justice Department will look into whether officials can be criminally charged under the statute.
According to text of the federal law cited by Homan, any person “knowing… the fact that an alien has come to… the United States in violation of the law, conceals, harbors or shields from detection… such [an] alien in any place” can face fines and/or up to several years in prison.”
———————-
“President Donald Trump is hardening his demands for a deal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, a dispute with congressional Democrats that hangs over talks this week to avoid a government shutdown.
Any deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, must also forbid immigrants from sponsoring family members to join them in the U.S., end a program that allots visas to people from countries with low rates of migration to America, and provide money for a wall on the Mexican border, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. The statement echoed a Trump tweet from last week.
“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc,” the president wrote on Friday. “We must protect our Country at all cost!” On Tuesday he added, “Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics.”
————-
“The latest in a series of stopgap measures funding the government runs out Jan. 19. Some Democrats are determined to use the next deadline to restore the DACA protections.
Trump announced in September that he would end the Obama-era policy — upending the lives of almost 1 million young immigrants — but he has held open the possibility of signing legislation restoring it.
His demands for such a bill have broadened and hardened. At one point, he suggested it wouldn’t even have to include money for a border wall, according to Democrats. In October, the White House gave lawmakers a seven-page wish list in exchange for making DACA protections permanent. In recent days, the administration has focused on demands for a wall and elimination of categories of visas.”
Well look at that. False statements to the FBI and nobody was charged.
And this proves what we already know. That partisan actors had taken over at the DoJ and FBI under Obama, and gave special treatment to Clinton and Democrats.
Now let’s all stop pretending that it didn’t happen and that their reputation is impeccable. And more importantly, cut out the cancer that infects the halls of justice. Remove the Obama plants and holdovers.
“Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.
For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server, lawmakers and investigators told The Hill.
That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the “sheer volume” of classified information that flowed through Clinton’s insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said.
The name of the witness is redacted from the FBI documents but lawmakers said he was an employee of a computer firm that helped maintain her personal server after she left office as America’s top diplomat and who belatedly admitted he had permanently erased an archive of her messages in 2015 after they had been subpoenaed by Congress.
The investigators also confirmed that the FBI began drafting a statement exonerating Clinton of any crimes while evidence responsive to subpoenas was still outstanding and before agents had interviewed more than a dozen key witnesses.
Those witnesses included Clinton and the computer firm employee who permanently erased her email archives just days after the emails were subpoenaed by Congress, the investigators said.
Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee who attended a Dec. 21 closed-door briefing by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe say the bureau official confirmed that the investigation and charging decisions were controlled by a small group in Washington headquarters rather the normal process of allowing field offices to investigate possible criminality in their localities. The Clinton email server in question was based in New York.
In normal FBI cases, field offices where crimes are believed to have been committed investigate the evidence and then recommend to bureau hierarchy whether to pursue charges with prosecutors. In this case, the bureau hierarchy controlled both the investigation and the charging decision from Washington, a scenario known in FBI parlance as a “special,” the lawmakers said.”
A lengthy article on what world leaders think of Trump after meeting with him. Language warning:Tillerson is quoted.
As you process today’s tweets on North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Israel and the Palestinians, check out this @sbg1 piece offering a trenchant look at Trump’s foreign policy. https://t.co/5lf1zO0yFd
Debra, Douthat is encouraging Romney to become the “sane Donald Trump” that Peggy Noonan” wanted last year. This leads me to ask: If a Republican is going to have to pander and tell populist fairy tales to be elected, why not just leave the playing field to the Democrats and the actual Trumpers?
The big news of the day will be quotes from Steve Bannon on the Russia story. However, his language was so foul, I think we can wait for a G-rated version.
“If a Republican is going to have to pander and tell populist fairy tales to be elected, why not just leave the playing field to the Democrats and the actual Trumpers.”
But it’s been 35 years since Reagan won his last election. What was the great value GHWB and W provided, and that we missed out on because of the failed campaigns of Dole, McCain, and Romney?
“President Trump tweeted Tuesday there’s a double standard in the government’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin, pointing to Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor jailed for taking six photos inside a submarine.
Saucier, 31, was released from prison in September after receiving a one-year sentence for mishandling classified information. With a felony conviction, he now works up to 70 hours a week collecting garbage in Vermont.
“Obviously with his tweet today he still recognizes my case, so hopefully he will do something about it. I think my family and I have been punished enough,” Saucier told the Washington Examiner. “I made an innocent mistake as a kid, it wasn’t planned like Hillary Clinton and them blatantly flouting the law.”
The home where Saucier lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter is in foreclosure and credit card debt collectors call frequently. His cars were repossessed while he was in prison and the family has a payment plan for their electricity bill.
Because he has an other-than-honorable discharge, Saucier doesn’t get veteran benefits, including disability payments for service-related injuries. He wears an ankle monitor until April.
But most frustratingly to Saucier, a felony record makes finding a job difficult.
“We’re struggling,” he said. “No one will hire me because I’m a felon … All the skills I worked so hard for in the military are useless.”
Trump invoked Saucier repeatedly during the presidential campaign and days after taking office told Fox News host Sean Hannity in January he was “looking at” a pardon because “it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people.” But Trump didn’t give a pardon, leaving Saucier to serve his full sentence in prison.
Saucier, who served 11 years in the military, including two tours in the Middle East, at times felt like he had been used as a disposable campaign prop, until Trump’s tweet Tuesday.”
————————
Selective enforcement is a joke. If it wasn’t a big deal when Hillary did far worse, then neither is this and he deserves a pardon. But Comey wasn’t one of his buddies, so he pays the price.
“I then examined the substance of the Order issued by acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (after Jeff Sessions recused himself), and concluded that Mueller was exceeding his authority:
To the extent Mueller’s team is investigating the political decisions and strategies of the incoming Trump administration during the transition period, it amounts to an interference in the post-election political process and is beyond Mueller’s authority.
Paul Manafort has been indicted for matters completely unrelated to and long prior to the election or the supposed “Russia collusion.
Manafort filed a Complaint (pdf.) in federal District Court in D.C. seeking, among other things, and order declaring that the appointment of Mueller to pursue “any matters that arose or may arise directly from” his investigation exceeded Rosenstein’s authority. That provision effectively purported to give Mueller roving authority to prosecute anything he finds, such as Manafort’s alleged long-ago crimes.
The full Complaint is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Here are the key summary paragraphs from the complaint setting forth the basis for Manafort’s suit:
7. This case arises from an appointment in excess of that limited authority— specifically, Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s order appointing Robert S. Mueller III as Special Counsel in May 2017 (“the Appointment Order”), attached hereto as Exhibit A.
8. Consistent with DOJ’s special counsel regulations, the Appointment Order gives Mr. Mueller authority to investigate a specific matter: “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” But the Appointment Order then purports to grant Mr. Mueller the additional authority to pursue “any matters that arose or may arise directly from” that investigation. As explained below, that exceeds the scope of Mr. Rosenstein’s authority to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments. Indeed, the Appointment Order in effect purports to grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote from the specific matter identified as the subject of the Appointment Order.
9. As a result of the ultra vires Appointment Order, Mr. Mueller’s investigation of Mr. Manafort has extended far beyond “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” The investigation has focused on Mr. Manafort’s offshore business dealings that date back to as early as 2005—about a decade before the Trump presidential campaign launched—and have been known to the United States government for many years.
10. On October 27, 2017, the Office of the Special Counsel caused an indictment against Mr. Manafort to be returned. The indictment does not charge any links between Mr. Manafort and the Russian government. Instead, the Special Counsel has constructed an indictment that, at its essence, concerns failing to file certain informational reports of offshore bank accounts and failing to register as a foreign agent. None of the charges relate to Mr. Manafort’s activities during his brief stint in 2016 as the campaign manager for the Trump presidential campaign.
11. The actions of DOJ and Mr. Rosenstein in issuing the Appointment Order, and Mr. Mueller’s actions pursuant to the authority the Order granted him, were arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law under 5 U.S.C. § 706. By this action, Mr. Manafort asks this Court to hold those actions ultra vires and set them aside….
The Complaint addressed ancillary authority a special counsel has, and argues that it does not include becoming a roving prosecutor:
25. Those carefully crafted jurisdictional limitations serve critical values. They ensure that the scope of an investigation is limited to specific matters identified in advance by a politically accountable official—the Attorney General. They ensure that any additional matters beyond that are specifically approved by a politically accountable official—the Attorney General. Those limitations prevent the special counsel from becoming an unaccountable roving commission, with virtually unlimited resources, that can delve into citizens’ lives in search of criminality unrelated to the specific matters the special counsel was appointed to address.
That “roving” prosecutor concept is fundamental to our legal system. As I pointed out before, we don’t find the man first, then look for a crime. But that appears to be what is happening, Mueller found the man (Trump), now he’ll find the crime.
The Complaint continues that Rosenstein exceeded his power in purporting to grant Mueller such sweeping powers;
26. This suit arises from an appointment and the exercise of authority in defiance of those jurisdictional limitations. Whether DOJ’s special counsel regulations themselves “create any rights,” 28 C.F.R. § 600.10, they bind DOJ and the officers within DOJ. DOJ and its officials cannot grant a special counsel jurisdiction where DOJ regulations, such as 28 C.F.R. § 600.4, deny DOJ and its officials power to do so. Nor can the special counsel exercise jurisdiction that otherwise binding DOJ regulations prohibit. Those, however, are precisely the circumstances here.”
“Finally, Republicans say they have an affidavit from an FBI agent which contradicts a claim made by former FBI Director Comey. During the investigation, the FBI recovered some work emails which had not been turned over to the State Department by Clinton. Each missing email could potentially have been charged as a misdemeanor violation of the federal records act which requires government workers to preserve such records. On this point, Comey claimed the investigation had specifically looked at whether or not Clinton had violated the federal records act but the new affidavit says that’s not true, i.e. the investigation never considered the destruction of federal records.
The impression you get from all of this is that the people in charge of this “special” investigation decided early on that Clinton wouldn’t be charged. There was no effort to put any of her people through the legal wringer to see what they might say under duress. Instead, the Bleach Bit guy and Clinton’s own attorneys got immunity deals. When the FBI interviewed the major players, including Clinton herself, the exoneration had already been drafted. It was pro forma justice, very different from the kind of aggressive tactics we’re seeing Mueller employ in going after people like George Papadopolous and Paul Manafort. Apparently, Hillary convinced everyone she never intended any harm. She was just a grandma who didn’t understand what it meant to wipe a server (“With a cloth?). Ultimately, the smartest woman in the world was saved by her constant profession of ignorance.”
Bannon is atrocious and more of a loon than Trump (I’m guessing), but isn’t today’s fiasco just a little unsettling, as if Trump didn’t know of or anticipate any of this about Bannon in the first place?
That’s good, Ricky, but maybe they should have picked on a non-Baptist church (I’m presby). Didn’t the SBC guy take heat for advising adherents not to vote for Trump?
SolarP, You are thinking about Russell Moore. He is in the Babylon Bee article forcing Jeffress to drink molten gold.
I am Southern Baptist. He is the head of our Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. In the primaries, he was very anti-Trump and wrote an article for National Review’s Against Trump issue.
In the general election, he saw the dilemma and was relatively silent. However, he took a lot of heat from some of our Trumpkin pastors of mega-churches. He was defended by a large number of younger pastors and kept his job.
Yale psychiatry prof spent two days last month briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill about Trump's mental state. She says: “Their level of concern about the president’s dangerousness was surprisingly high.” https://t.co/nPQA4XG5u6
“The Real AJ at 6:59”
“And now for something Cali. is doing wrong. For now…..”
As a “Real Californian” I don’t like being referred to as “Cali.” The only time I hear that epithet is from someone out of the state. Call us “Nuts, fruits or flakes” or “La la Land” even “CA” but Cali? Puhlease!
Whatever you say about California, they have great fruits and nuts. And because of their very stringent laws on organic and labeling, I always buy from CA if I have a reasonable choice. ;–)
Wandering Views 
The thought police are alive and well in Germany. Let the censorship begin!
http://www.dw.com/en/afd-politician-censored-under-new-german-hate-speech-law-for-anti-muslim-tweet/a-41992679
“Beatrix von Storch, a leading figure in the Alternative for Germany party, is one of the first hit by new hate speech laws on social media. Critics say the legislation opens the way for censorship by internet companies.
A top lawmaker from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was blocked from Twitter and Facebook on Monday after slamming the Cologne police for sending a New Year’s tweet in Arabic.
The incident caused the AfD to lash out further and criticize censorship as a controversial new German social media law known as NetzDG went into effect January 1 in a bid to clamp down on online hate speech.”
“”What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?” wrote Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the AfD’s parliamentary group.
The tweet was later deleted after Twitter froze von Storch’s account and informed her she had violated hate speech rules. Her account was shut down for 12 hours. The Cologne police said on Monday that they had filed a criminal complaint against von Storch for hate speech.”
———————————-
I much prefer the method Calif used here. (I can’t beleieve I said that. 🙂 )
Leave the speech alone and free, even if it’s offensive. There are already laws on the books that cover this stuff.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/30/california-prosecutes-man-for-posting-anti-muslim-messages-on-facebook/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social
“California has leveled misdemeanor charges against 41-year-old Mark Feigin after he sent five anti-Muslim posts to the Islamic Center of Southern California’s (ICSC) Facebook page in 2016.
The California Attorney General’s office argues that his comments constituted “repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device” with “intent to annoy or harass,” a misdemeanor under California law, Reason.com reported Friday. California courts are scheduled to begin the trial Jan. 2, according to court records. Feigin admitted in October 2016 that he wrote the following comments between Sept. 17 and 25 of the same year.”
“ICSC Communications Coordinator Kristin Stangas blocked Feigin soon after he made the final post, but also kept copies of the comments to pursue legal action. The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Feigin Oct. 19 and interviewed him. Feigin is now arguing that his charges should be dismissed because they are based on an unconstitutional application of the law.
Specifically, Cal. Penal Code § 653m(b) states that “every person who, with intent to annoy or harass, makes repeated telephone calls or makes repeated contact by means of an electronic communication device … to another person is … guilty of a misdemeanor. Nothing in this subdivision shall apply to telephone calls or electronic contacts made in good faith or during the ordinary course and scope of business.”
The AG’s office argues that Facebook comments are not legally different from telephone calls in this circumstance, and that Feigin’s intent was clearly to “annoy or harass,” making his actions illegal.”
——————————-
See. No need for stupid and speech limiting new laws.
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And now for something Cali. is doing wrong. For now…..
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/01/02/ice-director-rips-california-governor-jerry-brown-sanctuary-state-law
“If [Brown] thinks he is protecting the community, he’s doing quite the opposite,” Homan said. “[Brown] is knowingly putting law enforcement at risk.
“There’s no sanctuary from law enforcement,” he said. “California better hold on tight – they’re about to see a lot more deportation officers. If politicians don’t protect their communities then ICE will.”
Homan said illegal alien smuggling organizations will use the California law as a “selling point” and that Brown “bit off a lot more than he can chew.”
Homan said that Brown and other sanctuary-jurisdiction leaders may have violated 8 U.S. Code § 1324 – relating to “harboring certain aliens.”
He said he hopes the Justice Department will look into whether officials can be criminally charged under the statute.
According to text of the federal law cited by Homan, any person “knowing… the fact that an alien has come to… the United States in violation of the law, conceals, harbors or shields from detection… such [an] alien in any place” can face fines and/or up to several years in prison.”
———————-
And Trump is taking a hard line as well.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-03/trump-hardens-immigration-stance-heading-into-shutdown-talks
“President Donald Trump is hardening his demands for a deal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation, a dispute with congressional Democrats that hangs over talks this week to avoid a government shutdown.
Any deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, must also forbid immigrants from sponsoring family members to join them in the U.S., end a program that allots visas to people from countries with low rates of migration to America, and provide money for a wall on the Mexican border, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. The statement echoed a Trump tweet from last week.
“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc,” the president wrote on Friday. “We must protect our Country at all cost!” On Tuesday he added, “Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics.”
————-
“The latest in a series of stopgap measures funding the government runs out Jan. 19. Some Democrats are determined to use the next deadline to restore the DACA protections.
Trump announced in September that he would end the Obama-era policy — upending the lives of almost 1 million young immigrants — but he has held open the possibility of signing legislation restoring it.
His demands for such a bill have broadened and hardened. At one point, he suggested it wouldn’t even have to include money for a border wall, according to Democrats. In October, the White House gave lawmakers a seven-page wish list in exchange for making DACA protections permanent. In recent days, the administration has focused on demands for a wall and elimination of categories of visas.”
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Well look at that. False statements to the FBI and nobody was charged.
And this proves what we already know. That partisan actors had taken over at the DoJ and FBI under Obama, and gave special treatment to Clinton and Democrats.
Now let’s all stop pretending that it didn’t happen and that their reputation is impeccable. And more importantly, cut out the cancer that infects the halls of justice. Remove the Obama plants and holdovers.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367141-congressional-investigators-find-irregularities-in-fbis-handling-of
“Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.
For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server, lawmakers and investigators told The Hill.
That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the “sheer volume” of classified information that flowed through Clinton’s insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said.
The name of the witness is redacted from the FBI documents but lawmakers said he was an employee of a computer firm that helped maintain her personal server after she left office as America’s top diplomat and who belatedly admitted he had permanently erased an archive of her messages in 2015 after they had been subpoenaed by Congress.
The investigators also confirmed that the FBI began drafting a statement exonerating Clinton of any crimes while evidence responsive to subpoenas was still outstanding and before agents had interviewed more than a dozen key witnesses.
Those witnesses included Clinton and the computer firm employee who permanently erased her email archives just days after the emails were subpoenaed by Congress, the investigators said.
Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee who attended a Dec. 21 closed-door briefing by FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe say the bureau official confirmed that the investigation and charging decisions were controlled by a small group in Washington headquarters rather the normal process of allowing field offices to investigate possible criminality in their localities. The Clinton email server in question was based in New York.
In normal FBI cases, field offices where crimes are believed to have been committed investigate the evidence and then recommend to bureau hierarchy whether to pursue charges with prosecutors. In this case, the bureau hierarchy controlled both the investigation and the charging decision from Washington, a scenario known in FBI parlance as a “special,” the lawmakers said.”
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A lengthy article on what world leaders think of Trump after meeting with him. Language warning:Tillerson is quoted.
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Germany debates whether America has gone mad or just elected a mad leader:
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Debra, Douthat is encouraging Romney to become the “sane Donald Trump” that Peggy Noonan” wanted last year. This leads me to ask: If a Republican is going to have to pander and tell populist fairy tales to be elected, why not just leave the playing field to the Democrats and the actual Trumpers?
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David French has been really solid over the last two years.
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The big news of the day will be quotes from Steve Bannon on the Russia story. However, his language was so foul, I think we can wait for a G-rated version.
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“If a Republican is going to have to pander and tell populist fairy tales to be elected, why not just leave the playing field to the Democrats and the actual Trumpers.”
But it’s been 35 years since Reagan won his last election. What was the great value GHWB and W provided, and that we missed out on because of the failed campaigns of Dole, McCain, and Romney?
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Intent is irrelevant. It didn’t matter in this case, and it shouldn’t for Hillary and Huma either.
But you already knew that.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sailor-cited-by-trump-as-evidence-of-hillary-clinton-double-standard-now-works-as-garbage-man/article/2644729
“President Trump tweeted Tuesday there’s a double standard in the government’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin, pointing to Kristian Saucier, a former Navy sailor jailed for taking six photos inside a submarine.
Saucier, 31, was released from prison in September after receiving a one-year sentence for mishandling classified information. With a felony conviction, he now works up to 70 hours a week collecting garbage in Vermont.
“Obviously with his tweet today he still recognizes my case, so hopefully he will do something about it. I think my family and I have been punished enough,” Saucier told the Washington Examiner. “I made an innocent mistake as a kid, it wasn’t planned like Hillary Clinton and them blatantly flouting the law.”
The home where Saucier lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter is in foreclosure and credit card debt collectors call frequently. His cars were repossessed while he was in prison and the family has a payment plan for their electricity bill.
Because he has an other-than-honorable discharge, Saucier doesn’t get veteran benefits, including disability payments for service-related injuries. He wears an ankle monitor until April.
But most frustratingly to Saucier, a felony record makes finding a job difficult.
“We’re struggling,” he said. “No one will hire me because I’m a felon … All the skills I worked so hard for in the military are useless.”
Trump invoked Saucier repeatedly during the presidential campaign and days after taking office told Fox News host Sean Hannity in January he was “looking at” a pardon because “it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people.” But Trump didn’t give a pardon, leaving Saucier to serve his full sentence in prison.
Saucier, who served 11 years in the military, including two tours in the Middle East, at times felt like he had been used as a disposable campaign prop, until Trump’s tweet Tuesday.”
————————
Selective enforcement is a joke. If it wasn’t a big deal when Hillary did far worse, then neither is this and he deserves a pardon. But Comey wasn’t one of his buddies, so he pays the price.
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This could get real interesting. 🙂
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/01/paul-manafort-sues-to-reign-in-mueller/#more-238257
“I then examined the substance of the Order issued by acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (after Jeff Sessions recused himself), and concluded that Mueller was exceeding his authority:
To the extent Mueller’s team is investigating the political decisions and strategies of the incoming Trump administration during the transition period, it amounts to an interference in the post-election political process and is beyond Mueller’s authority.
Paul Manafort has been indicted for matters completely unrelated to and long prior to the election or the supposed “Russia collusion.
Manafort filed a Complaint (pdf.) in federal District Court in D.C. seeking, among other things, and order declaring that the appointment of Mueller to pursue “any matters that arose or may arise directly from” his investigation exceeded Rosenstein’s authority. That provision effectively purported to give Mueller roving authority to prosecute anything he finds, such as Manafort’s alleged long-ago crimes.
The full Complaint is embedded at the bottom of this post.
Here are the key summary paragraphs from the complaint setting forth the basis for Manafort’s suit:
7. This case arises from an appointment in excess of that limited authority— specifically, Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s order appointing Robert S. Mueller III as Special Counsel in May 2017 (“the Appointment Order”), attached hereto as Exhibit A.
8. Consistent with DOJ’s special counsel regulations, the Appointment Order gives Mr. Mueller authority to investigate a specific matter: “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” But the Appointment Order then purports to grant Mr. Mueller the additional authority to pursue “any matters that arose or may arise directly from” that investigation. As explained below, that exceeds the scope of Mr. Rosenstein’s authority to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments. Indeed, the Appointment Order in effect purports to grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote from the specific matter identified as the subject of the Appointment Order.
9. As a result of the ultra vires Appointment Order, Mr. Mueller’s investigation of Mr. Manafort has extended far beyond “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” The investigation has focused on Mr. Manafort’s offshore business dealings that date back to as early as 2005—about a decade before the Trump presidential campaign launched—and have been known to the United States government for many years.
10. On October 27, 2017, the Office of the Special Counsel caused an indictment against Mr. Manafort to be returned. The indictment does not charge any links between Mr. Manafort and the Russian government. Instead, the Special Counsel has constructed an indictment that, at its essence, concerns failing to file certain informational reports of offshore bank accounts and failing to register as a foreign agent. None of the charges relate to Mr. Manafort’s activities during his brief stint in 2016 as the campaign manager for the Trump presidential campaign.
11. The actions of DOJ and Mr. Rosenstein in issuing the Appointment Order, and Mr. Mueller’s actions pursuant to the authority the Order granted him, were arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law under 5 U.S.C. § 706. By this action, Mr. Manafort asks this Court to hold those actions ultra vires and set them aside….
The Complaint addressed ancillary authority a special counsel has, and argues that it does not include becoming a roving prosecutor:
25. Those carefully crafted jurisdictional limitations serve critical values. They ensure that the scope of an investigation is limited to specific matters identified in advance by a politically accountable official—the Attorney General. They ensure that any additional matters beyond that are specifically approved by a politically accountable official—the Attorney General. Those limitations prevent the special counsel from becoming an unaccountable roving commission, with virtually unlimited resources, that can delve into citizens’ lives in search of criminality unrelated to the specific matters the special counsel was appointed to address.
That “roving” prosecutor concept is fundamental to our legal system. As I pointed out before, we don’t find the man first, then look for a crime. But that appears to be what is happening, Mueller found the man (Trump), now he’ll find the crime.
The Complaint continues that Rosenstein exceeded his power in purporting to grant Mueller such sweeping powers;
26. This suit arises from an appointment and the exercise of authority in defiance of those jurisdictional limitations. Whether DOJ’s special counsel regulations themselves “create any rights,” 28 C.F.R. § 600.10, they bind DOJ and the officers within DOJ. DOJ and its officials cannot grant a special counsel jurisdiction where DOJ regulations, such as 28 C.F.R. § 600.4, deny DOJ and its officials power to do so. Nor can the special counsel exercise jurisdiction that otherwise binding DOJ regulations prohibit. Those, however, are precisely the circumstances here.”
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What a joke.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/03/fbi-evidence-one-witness-clinton-email-case-lied/
“Finally, Republicans say they have an affidavit from an FBI agent which contradicts a claim made by former FBI Director Comey. During the investigation, the FBI recovered some work emails which had not been turned over to the State Department by Clinton. Each missing email could potentially have been charged as a misdemeanor violation of the federal records act which requires government workers to preserve such records. On this point, Comey claimed the investigation had specifically looked at whether or not Clinton had violated the federal records act but the new affidavit says that’s not true, i.e. the investigation never considered the destruction of federal records.
The impression you get from all of this is that the people in charge of this “special” investigation decided early on that Clinton wouldn’t be charged. There was no effort to put any of her people through the legal wringer to see what they might say under duress. Instead, the Bleach Bit guy and Clinton’s own attorneys got immunity deals. When the FBI interviewed the major players, including Clinton herself, the exoneration had already been drafted. It was pro forma justice, very different from the kind of aggressive tactics we’re seeing Mueller employ in going after people like George Papadopolous and Paul Manafort. Apparently, Hillary convinced everyone she never intended any harm. She was just a grandma who didn’t understand what it meant to wipe a server (“With a cloth?). Ultimately, the smartest woman in the world was saved by her constant profession of ignorance.”
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yeah Comey’s terrible
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Here is the G-rated version of the Trump/Bannon battle. I understand Jerry Springer has offered to referee this spat.
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics/bannon-wolff-fire-and-fury/index.html
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I read the original. Trump is right.
Lost his mind.
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Bannon is atrocious and more of a loon than Trump (I’m guessing), but isn’t today’s fiasco just a little unsettling, as if Trump didn’t know of or anticipate any of this about Bannon in the first place?
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https://babylonbee.com/news/first-baptist-dallas-members-melt-golden-jewelry-towering-donald-trump-statue/
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That’s good, Ricky, but maybe they should have picked on a non-Baptist church (I’m presby). Didn’t the SBC guy take heat for advising adherents not to vote for Trump?
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SolarP, You are thinking about Russell Moore. He is in the Babylon Bee article forcing Jeffress to drink molten gold.
I am Southern Baptist. He is the head of our Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. In the primaries, he was very anti-Trump and wrote an article for National Review’s Against Trump issue.
In the general election, he saw the dilemma and was relatively silent. However, he took a lot of heat from some of our Trumpkin pastors of mega-churches. He was defended by a large number of younger pastors and kept his job.
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Sadly, not all of the Babylon Bee article was satire:
https://www.google.com/amp/thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/340451-choir-sings-make-america-great-again-song-to-trump%3famp
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Twitter is eating this up.
https://twitter.com/birdsgetstarted/status/948721876313964544
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Look! It’s HRW!
https://twitter.com/verodonelle/status/948644315714142208
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Cringe! Some folks have no pride (in a bad way).
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Will Mueller hire a psychiatrist?
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SolarP, No, there is nothing unsettling, nothing to worry about.
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“The Real AJ at 6:59”
“And now for something Cali. is doing wrong. For now…..”
As a “Real Californian” I don’t like being referred to as “Cali.” The only time I hear that epithet is from someone out of the state. Call us “Nuts, fruits or flakes” or “La la Land” even “CA” but Cali? Puhlease!
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How about “The Land of Fruit and Nuts”?
🙂
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Whatever you say about California, they have great fruits and nuts. And because of their very stringent laws on organic and labeling, I always buy from CA if I have a reasonable choice. ;–)
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