“The Justice Department inspector general is preparing to release a report on the conduct of fired FBI Director James Comey in the Trump-Russia investigation, according to a number of sources with knowledge of the situation. The specific timing of the report’s release is not clear.
The Comey report is separate from a larger inspector general report on the DOJ’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe. That report, sometimes referred to by Republicans as an investigation into “FISA abuse,” is expected to be released later.
It is not clear why the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, chose to write a separate report on Comey.
Among other things, Comey has been under investigation for his handling of several memos he wrote memorializing conversations with President Trump. The memos began in January 2017, when Trump was still president-elect, and continued until April 2017, the month before Trump summarily fired the FBI director.
Comey’s memos were, at the least, confidential FBI documents, and at most, in some cases, classified. Comey told Congress that he sent some of the memos to a friend for the purpose of being leaked to the New York Times. Comey hoped media reports would set off a firestorm that would ultimately result in the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Trump-Russia matter.”
“Before He Was Running Against Trump, Joe Walsh Was Trying To Be Trump”
“”When I’ve looked at Trump these last few years, I see, like, the worst version of Joe Walsh.”
“In May 2012, a group of do-gooder congressmen held a press conference to announce their new “Fix Congress Now” caucus.
The effort, two conservative Democrats and two moderate Republicans told us that day, would encourage civility among Democrats and Republicans and perhaps get them to work together for the good of the nation.
Also, Joe Walsh was there.
None of the other members of Congress seemed to know why: His name isn’t on a press release for the event, and my story from the day doesn’t even mention Walsh. The few reporters at the event laughed at the idea that Joe Walsh was hoping for a functional Congress, of civility and camaraderie.”
“Never Trumpers Want a GOP Alternative. Most Republicans Don’t.
Former Representative Joe Walsh is running against a president who, polls show, is no more vulnerable to a primary challenge than his recent predecessors were.”
——
“Yet for all of Trump’s turbulence, even the president’s toughest Republican critics concede he is in virtually no danger of losing the party’s nomination for reelection—and certainly not to Weld or Walsh, the conservative ally turned foe who launched his bid over the weekend. Indeed, Trump is barely more vulnerable than his recent predecessors—none of whom drew serious primary challengers to their reelection.
“His numbers with Republicans are as solid as any recent Republican president—probably even more solid,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP strategist who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. In poll after poll, an overwhelming majority of Republican voters—well over 80 percent—approve of Trump’s performance in office, even as nearly all Democrats and most independents give him a thumbs-down. “He’s unbeatable in a primary,” Williams told me.
That reality has not stopped the remaining Never Trump Republicans in Washington from pining for someone—anyone, really—to challenge him. Walsh is far from a household name, but when he jumped into the fray on Sunday, he drew encouragement from Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator who has not wavered in his opposition to Trump. Elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Walsh served two years in the House, where he was known for criticizing Obama in harsh terms (including the lie that he’s an African-born Muslim) and using the kind of inflammatory, occasionally racist rhetoric that Trump would use to stir up the GOP base years later. Walsh cheered Trump’s run in 2016, but turned against him after he took office; the former congressman has spent the first days of his campaign trying to repent for his support of the president and his own history of racist tweets.”
“Nearly one of every three dollars spent on Ilhan Omar’s campaign has gone to her alleged lover’s firm”
“Omar’s alleged paramour, Tim Mynett, has been a fundraising consultant for Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Omar hasn’t commented on the accusations, but there’s a possible second scandal involving the more than $200,000 that her campaign has spent with Mynett’s firm.
Of the $145,406 reported earnings by the E Street Group during the 2018 campaign cycle, $62,674 came from Omar’s campaign. Not counting payroll taxes and transfers to Minnesota’s Democratic Party, E Street Group was Omar’s second-largest vendor, according to FEC data. From Labor Day through the end of the year, E Street Group ate up more than 10% of her campaign’s spending (not counting transfers to other campaigns).
Here’s the odd thing: The overwhelming majority of Omar’s funds spent on the E Street Group were paid after she won the contested primary and during the totally noncompetitive general election race in her D+26 district. Contrary to FEC rules, Omar’s filings did not designate whether her E Street Group disbursements (or any of her disbursements) were for the primary election or the general election.
The Omar campaign payments to the E Street Group, often reported as “fundraising consulting” fees on her FEC filings, have accelerated in the 2020 cycle. Her campaign has spent $160,000 at E Street this year, the campaign off year. That’s nearly one in every three dollars spent on her reelection (again, not including transfers to other campaigns or committees) going to her alleged lover.”
“DHS bars Dem staffers from visiting border facilities after ‘rude’ and ‘disruptive’ behavior”
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has barred Democratic staffers from the House Oversight Committee from visiting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a planned trip this week after committee staff allegedly were “disruptive” and refused to follow instructions during their last trip, Fox News has learned.
Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., had sent his staff to visit border facilities for “oversight inspections” last week and planned to send staff again to view Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP centers.
But sources told Fox News that DHS has revoked access to CBP facilities for the upcoming visit, citing staff behavior that “interfered” with law enforcement operations — including refusing to leave one site after their scheduled window, skipping some tours and being “rude” to officers. A DHS official said that ICE visits will still be allowed this week, but with a two-hour time limit. One of those visits took place on Tuesday.
“Due to the operational burden placed on the field by their refusal to comply with instruction during last week’s STAFFDEL [staff delegation visit], CBP pulled the trip in which more site visits were to take place at CBP and ICE facilities this week,” a senior DHS official told Fox News in an email Wednesday. “DHS communicated to the committee that due to their conduct, CBP could not support visits from the committee this week.””
MSNBC is too busy with important news to cover the Omar scandal……
THIS is why we make fun of them.
.@ChrislHayes reviews President Trump’s history of aggressive handshakes and the defenses world leaders, like France’s Emmanuel Macron, employ to counter them (close ups included). https://t.co/B0fbc1FzXE
“My Childhood Schooling In The Soviet Union Was Better Than My Kids’ In U.S. Public Schools Today
Ask the people in our immigrant community why we moved to the United States, and hear again and again: ‘For the kids.’ Yet here we are, failing them in one of the most important ways.”
“Now that back-to-school season is in full swing, let me tell you about the single most pressing unmet need of my ethnic minority community: education. Like other Russian-speaking Jews, I am forever thankful to this country for taking me in and for giving me liberty. Yet when I talk to people in our community about their wishes and anxieties, they always express discontentment with U.S. schools.
“How is it,” some ask, “that we are all engineers, but our children can’t do basic math?”
“What do the students read, exactly?” Others wonder.
“The only reason my child is doing well academically,” stated one mom of a second grader, “is because he attends a Russian program on Sundays.”
Since when do the bright eight-year-olds require tutoring?”
—————————
“Math was the dissident’s favorite in the Soviet Union. It was believed that the subject is so logical and abstract, the party could never impose its will on it. After all, two plus two equals four — in the 10-digit system, at least — regardless of the edicts of the Politburo.
Maybe the Soviet bureaucrats weren’t clever enough, because the American educational bureaucracy did ruin mathematics. That, of course, was accomplished via the 1960s’ “new math,” which has been reincarnated yet again in Common Core. Those who didn’t subscribe to the new math teachings weren’t exiled to Gulags, but the kids who were taught in this manner failed to learn. Sometimes, the soft managerial power of destructive innovation is mightier than the NKVD.
With generations raised after the new math, schools are hard-pressed to find anyone who can teach the subject — not that the administrators would know, anyway. U.S. instructors readily admit they don’t understand or like the discipline. They end up confusing the students. A few years ago at my child’s back-to-school meeting, a third-grade teacher was chirping away about Common Core math and how it shows that in math, too, there is more than one way to find an answer.
I was taught something like “multiple methods,” and I find this line of thought ridiculous. Yes, there can be more than one way to get to the same answer, but we prefer the elegant, simplest solution. There is logic and beauty in mathematics that educated people of average intellect have to be able to appreciate.”
“Let’s compare Trump’s policies and behavior to that of prior presidents — and to his 2020 opponents’.”
“In traditional political terms, there is always an alternate agenda to an incumbent president’s that reasonable voters can debate.
In Trump’s case, two massive annual budget deficits — coming on top of the previous two administrations that doubled the national debt — seem fair game. No president for the past 19 years has sought to offer any remotely sane budget. And with still relatively low interest rates, massive federal spending, a $22 trillion national debt, and an annual deficit of nearly $1 trillion, it is hard to imagine, in extremis, that there remains any notion of “stimulus” or “pump-priming” left.
Yet we hear little about such financial profligacy.
Not a word comes from Trump’s critics about the need for Social Security or Medicare reform to ensure the long-term viability of each — other than the Democrats’ promises to extend such financially shaky programs to millions of new clients well beyond the current retiring Baby Boomer cohorts who are already taxing the limits of the system.
To counter every signature Trump issue, there is almost no rational alternative advanced. That void helps explain the bizarre, three-year litany of dreaming of impeachment, the emoluments clause, the Logan Act, the 25th Amendment, the Mueller special-counsel investigation, Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti, Trump’s tax returns, White Supremacy!, Recession! — and Lord knows what next.
The subtext of all these Wile E. Coyote all-too-clever efforts at trapping road-runner Trump is not just the wish to abort an elected presidency; they’re offering the heat of hatred rather than the light of a viable political alternative.”
I like to look at 538’s summary and evaluation of the latest polls each day. It gets more interesting when Silver starts giving his probabllities of various outcomes. Yesterday, I had to jab The Cult with the Quin. Poll, but The latest Michigan poll wasn’t that horrible for Trump against Dems other than Biden. Something unusual is going on in Mississippi. I must read more to understand.
Back to Heath Mayo’s post last night:
1. Yes. Most Republicans in the House and Senate think Trump is nuts.
2. Yes. Most of them think Trump will lead the party to defeat in 2020
3. Yes. Most of them are just trying to ride out the storm.
Here is where young idealistic Mr. Mayo may become disillusioned: That strategy may work. After Trump, there may be a general amnesty and all Republicans may just try to forget everything that happened from 2016-2020.
4. Here is what is also true: Most Republican officeholders want Trump to lose. They hate running for re-election with him at the top of the ticket. The Senators who are not up for re-election until 2022 or 2024 have a clear strategy:
A. Lay low.
B. Don’t humiliate yourself by defending Trump’s idiotic comments or acts.
C. But don’t enrage The Cult by attacking their Dear Leader.
Note how Ben Sasse has shifted from the more courageous Amash/Hurd approach to the strategy outlined above. Mayo and I will remember his shift, but few others will and fewer still will hold it against him.
This was a reckless attempt to slander our family and smear a great company. Apologies are not enough when the true intent was solely to damage and cause harm. As a company, we will be taking legal action. This unethical behavior has to stop. @Lawrence@MSNBChttps://t.co/i4X6CcdkCm
Trump's lawyer asserts that @Lawrence O'Donnell's statement that "Russian oligarchs" co-signed Trump's Deutsche Bank loans is false and that some publicly available bank documents prove that Trump is the sole guarantor.
“James Comey violated FBI policies with memos on Trump discussions, IG report says”
“A scathing inspector general report released Thursday said that fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting private discussions with President Trump.
The Justice Department’s official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were in fact “official FBI records,” and said Comey set a “dangerous example” with his actions.
“By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information,” the report stated.
While the findings of the probe were forwarded to the DOJ, the department has declined prosecution, as Fox News reported earlier this month. But for Comey, who has cultivated the image of a by-the-book and irreproachable leader since his termination in 2017, the review shined a harsh light on his decisionmaking in the final, beleaguered weeks of his tenure at the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The 83-page document outlined a series of violations, including that he broke FBI policies and the bureau’s employment agreement “by providing one of the unclassified memos that contained official FBI information, including sensitive investigative information, to his friend with instructions for the friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter.”
Further, the IG determined that Comey kept copies of four memos (out of the total seven he drafted) in a personal safe at home after his removal as director — and in doing so “violated FBI policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by failing to notify the FBI that he had retained them.” The IG said Comey again violated the rules “by providing copies … of the four memos he had kept in his home to his three private attorneys without FBI authorization,” and by failing to alert the FBI once he learned one of the memos contained sections later deemed classified at the confidential level.”
Comey’s GOP critics slammed the former FBI boss in the wake of the report. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, called his actions “disgraceful.”
The report repeatedly and pointedly alleged that Comey wrongly violated policies for personal reasons — in this case, in order to spur a special counsel probe.
“[E]ven when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information. Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility,” the report said.”
—————–
Here’s my reading for today. The IG Report. Should be fun…..
“C. Comey Failed to Immediately Alert the FBI to the Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information
On June 7, 2017, Comey learned of the FBI’s classification decision regarding Memo 2 when the FBI allowed him to review copies of all seven Memos, with classification banners and markings, in preparation for his June 8, 2017 congressional testimony. Once he knew that the FBI had classified portions of Memo 2, Comey failed to immediately notify the FBI that he had previously given Memo 2 to his attorneys.
101
The FBI’s Safeguarding Classified National Security Information Policy Guide clearly states that “[a]ny person who has knowledge that classified information has been or may have been lost, compromised, or disclosed to an unauthorized person must immediately report the circumstances to his or her security office.”
102
Comey violated this requirement by failing to immediately inform the FBI that he provided Memo 2 to his attorneys. The FBI did not learn that Comey had shared any of the Memos with anyone outside the FBI until Comey’s June 8, 2017 congressional testimony. During his testimony, Comey stated that he provided Memo 4 to a friend to share the contents with a reporter. Comey did not mention that he provided Memos 2, 4, 6, and 7 to each of his three attorneys. Based on Comey’s testimony, FBI leadership knew that Richman was the friend to whom Comey had disclosed Memo 4 with instructions to provide its contents to The New York Times. Baker and Strzok immediately called Richman, while Comey was still testifying, to make arrangements to retrieve Memo 4. It was only through the FBI’s conversations with Richman on June 8 or June 9 that the FBI learned of the need to retrieve classified information, contained in Memo 2, as well as other FBI records, Memos 6 and 7, from each of Comey’s three attorneys. We do not believe that Richman’s volunteering to the FBI that he and Comey’s other counsel had these other Memos, after the FBI initiated contact with Richman in an effort to retrieve Memo 4, fulfilled Comey’s obligation to immediately report his disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons. By not immediately reporting that he had provided Memo 2 to his attorneys when Comey first learned that the FBI had designated a small portion of Memo 2 as classified at the “CONFIDENTIAL” level, Comey violated FBI policy.
VI. Conclusion
Congress has provided the FBI with substantial powers and authorities to gather evidence as part of the FBI’s criminal and counterintelligence mission. The FBI uses these authorities every day in its many investigations into allegations of drug trafficking, terrorism, fraud, organized crime, public corruption, espionage, and a host of other threats to national security and public safety. In the process, the FBI lawfully gains access to a significant amount of sensitive information about individuals, many of whom have not been charged, may never be charged, or may not even be a subject of the investigation. For this reason, the civil liberties of every individual who may fall within the scope of the FBI’s investigative authorities depend on the FBI’s ability to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure. As Comey himself explained in his March 20, 2017 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he was unable to provide details about the nature or scope of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election because the FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and about the people we are investigating…. Our ability to share details with the Congress and the American people is limited when those investigations are still open, which I hope makes sense. We need to protect people’s privacy…. We just cannot do our work well or fairly if we start talking about it while we’re doing it. However, after his removal as FBI Director two months later, Comey provided a copy of Memo 4, which Comey had kept without authorization, to Richman with instructions to share the contents with a reporter for The New York Times. Memo 4 included information that was related to both the FBI’s ongoing investigation of Flynn and, by Comey’s own account, information that he believed and alleged constituted evidence of an attempt to obstruct the ongoing Flynn investigation; later that same day, The New York Times published an article about Memo 4 entitled, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation.” The responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information falls in large part to the employees of the FBI who have access to it through their daily duties. On occasion, some of these employees may disagree with decisions by prosecutors, judges, or higher ranking FBI and Department officials about the actions to take or not take in criminal and counterintelligence matters. They may even, in some situations, distrust the legitimacy of those supervisory, prosecutorial, or judicial decisions. But even when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information. Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility. By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information. Comey said he was compelled to take these actions “if I love this country…and I love the Department of Justice, and I love the FBI.” However, were current or former FBI employees to follow the former Director’s example and disclose sensitive information in service of their own strongly held personal convictions, the FBI would be unable to dispatch its law enforcement 60
duties properly, as Comey himself noted in his March 20, 2017 congressional testimony. Comey expressed a similar concern to President Trump, according to Memo 4, in discussing leaks of FBI information, telling Trump that the FBI’s ability to conduct its work is compromised “if people run around telling the press what we do.” This is no doubt part of the reason why Comey’s closest advisors used the words “surprised,” “stunned,” “shocked,” and “disappointment” to describe their reactions to learning what Comey had done. We have previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy.
103
Comey’s unauthorized disclosure of sensitive law enforcement information about the Flynn investigation merits similar criticism. In a country built on the rule of law, it is of utmost importance that all FBI employees adhere to Department and FBI policies, particularly when confronted by what appear to be extraordinary circumstances or compelling personal convictions. Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure. What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome. The OIG has provided this report to the FBI and to the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility for action they deem appropriate.”
——————–
He should be in jail. You or I would be, and plenty of others are for far less than what Comey did and disclosed.
The Left’s Hatred of Capitalists
AUGUST 29, 2019 BY GENE VEITH
__________________________
… Bernie Sanders, sounding like an actual socialist, now says that he wants to nationalize the energy industry. Not only that, he says that he will file criminal charges against oil executives.
On what charge? “Fossil fuel executives should be criminally prosecuted for the destruction they have knowingly caused,” he tweeted, referring to their alleged role in destroying the environment.
Is there actually a law against destroying the environment, as such? There are lots of laws and regulations governing the oil industry and other businesses designed to protect the environment, which lawfully-operating companies are presumably compliant with, though environmentalists do not consider them sufficient. What kinds of actions would actually “destroy” the environment completely are not clear. If President Sanders and a Democratic Congress were to pass environmental destruction laws, you can’t prosecute individuals for breaking laws that did not exist at the time of their violation. Or would President Sanders just punish the oil executives at his order, as part of his “revolution”?
Ironically, Sanders has also announced his intention to cut the prison population in half. He will have to release lots of convicted felons if he is also planning to imprison employees of lawful businesses whose practices he does not approve of. …
… This implacable, visceral hostility to capitalists is evident more broadly in the reaction of many on the Left to the death of right-leaning philanthropist David Koch. “I’m glad he’s dead,” said HBO’s Bill Maher, and “I hope the end was painful.” Similar sentiments were shared throughout the Left …
… Koch was hardly a conservative. He was pro-gay rights, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, and anti-Trump. Koch was a libertarian, a supporter of free market economics …
… This extreme, emotional reaction–that can only be described as hatred–against a wealthy capitalist who gives money to fund his interests and to advance his beliefs is reminiscent of the demonization of top-hatted capitalists that was a recurrent theme of Marxist propaganda. …
______________________________
“… Koch was hardly a conservative. He was pro-gay rights, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, and anti-Trump. Koch was a libertarian, a supporter of free market economics …”
Because I’d just read this, which backs up more of what he said about the reaction to Koch’s death and hostility to capitalism. Both are vilified to the extreme.
“The Koch brothers tried to build a plutocracy in the name of freedom
The Kochs have always believed that rich people had the right to rule over everyone else, democracy be damned”
“t is the hope of every rich megalomaniac that they will “leave a legacy”. David Koch, who died last week aged 79, left a significant legacy indeed. In fact, along with his brother Charles, he can probably claim to have changed the world. Unfortunately, he changed it by setting it on fire.
It’s hard to describe just what a negative force the Koch brothers have been in United States politics over the past several decades. They have used every means at their disposal to subvert democracy. They funded academic posts, thinktanks, lobbying groups, fake grassroots operations, and political campaigns. They used their tremendous wealth to push a radically far-right economic vision in which government protections and welfare programs would essentially cease to exist. They may even have been directly responsible for the election of Donald Trump, the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity having hired 650 staffers to make millions of phone calls and knock on tens of thousands of doors in Wisconsin and Michigan during the 2016 election.
The Koch brothers profited handsomely from fossil fuels, and had a strong hand in muddying the debate around global warming, having spent more than ExxonMobil on funding climate denial. David Koch himself, asked whether climate change was real, would say only that “climate does fluctuate”. Carbon regulation posed a significant financial threat to the Kochs, and they supported “perhaps the earliest known organized conference of climate-change deniers, which gathered just as the scientific consensus on the issue was beginning to gel”. They helped to derail efforts at regulating carbon, and Christopher Leonard, author of Kochland, has concluded that “you’d have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs. They stopped anything from happening back when there was still time.” There may be planet-wide consequences to the political meddling of these two men.”
——————-
See this also, for more of the same Eat The Rich nonsense. .
11:28 Does the phrase “Trump is moronically framing himself” (of conspiracy) while later obstructing justice ring a bell? It should as that was by educated guess expressed here many times about what was happening from early 2017 until the release of The Mueller Report. The Mueller Report which is humorous reading confirmed that is exactly what happened.
When Mueller testified, I would have given anything if one of the congressmen had asked the question: Do you believe President Trump moronically framed himself? I think that would have produced a smile from Mueller.
If i read AJs post correctly, Omar paid 220 000 over two years to E Street for political consulting work. Thats fairly cheap. We havs no way of knowing if all of the money went from E Street to Wynet. Even if it did 110 000 per year is fairly cheap consulting work. At least Omar received some legitimate services for this (she denies the affair) Stormy Daniels on the other didnt have a legitimate job.
The smear attempts are getting quite pathetic but still have deadly consequences. Death threats to Omar continue to climb.
And despite Comey’s whining to the contrary, he is a liar and a leaker.
IG Report on Comey's handling of classified memos is out. Page 2 says Comey specifically asked his friend to leak a memo to Michael Schmidt of the NYT. Schmidt regularly received and regurgitated leaks that falsely suggested a treasonous Russia collusion conspiracy existed.
Law enforcement (CBD and ICE) have to stop being so sensitive and realise the legislature is in charge not law enforcement. Whether the staff was rude or didnt follow directions is beside the point, the legislature is in charge and can send staffers where they please. Barring staffers or even the legislators is pure defiance and should be grounds for dismissal. Such snowflakes.
I don’t know Koch so I wont mourn him but his legacy should be scorned in every possible way. The Koch brothers and others like them funded and encouraged the neo-liberal/libertarian turn in Anglo-American economics. Forty years later, the results are in. Total Failure; the destruction of the middle class, growth of inequality, decline of income mobility, decline of public institutions, stagnating wages, etc.
Its no wonder Sanders has a receptive audience for his message. We’ve tried free market capitalism for forty years and it failed. And he’s not a radical socialist. Many of his ideas and policies come from the tradition of the New Deal modified for the modern era. The Nordic and Rhine models have implemented more socialist versions and have far better results than the Anglo American world.
Well here in America, they can and did. And they had every right to do so. Especially after they clearly stated they intended to ignore the rules for such visits.
From the link you obviously didn’t read.
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““During discussions between Department and Committee staff, however, the Committee staff repeatedly stated that they do not intend to abide by DHS guidelines,” Ciccone wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. “In light of this, we are unable to accommodate your staff’s visit … unless we receive a firm commitment that the Committee and its staff will comply fully with all existing guidelines and policies.”
She added that the staff’s attempts to “conduct interviews and take photographs” without limitations are “a significant deviation” from DHS policy and “could jeopardize” the department’s ability to meet legal obligations.”
————-
“But according to a CBP official, the committee’s chief counsel, who led the delegation starting in Yuma, Ariz., “refused to leave the facility after the hour-long tour,” despite previously agreeing to a 45-minute tour at each location.
“I informed him that his actions on behalf of the Committee made a huge operational impact by not communicating back to CBP his true intent and expectations for this delegation,” the official said, noting that because of this, part of the delegation only toured Yuma and had to cancel other facilities that were previously scheduled. “This left agents in a position where they were waiting on staff to show and then they did not show at all.”
The official added that another part of the delegation began in the San Diego Sector. The official said that two staffers missed the first portion of the tour, and “apparently ended up crossing the border due to following their GPS guidance and were unable to make it.””
————–
““DHS asked the Committee to abide by the instructions of DHS personnel on the ground and to respect the significant operational interests of the border facilities visited,” Jordan wrote. “Unfortunately, at your apparent direction, Democrats refused to listen to law-enforcement instructions and made demands at the facilities ‘against the express written notice DHS had provided earlier.’”
Jordan said Democratic staff “abandoned” the agreement with DHS for limited photography and detainee interactions, and accused them of “wasting DHS manpower and taxpayer resources.”
Jordan also accused Democrats of withholding information from Republican committee staff and being “secretive” about details of itineraries and locations of meetings and visits.
Jordan also claimed that Democratic staff took “direction from liberal special interests” before last week’s tours, citing a meeting with representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal organization currently suing the Trump administration over detention facilities at the border. Jordan claimed the SPLC gave directions to Democratic staff about what to look for and ask about during their tours, as well as suggested questions for staff to pose to detainees and DHS officials during their visit.”
He should be in prison, and would be were it not for our two tiered justice system.
He’s a traitor who tried to overthrow a duly elected president.
Comey, FBI brass prepared meticulously to hit Trump with dossier Moscow sex allegation. Comey was to write account immediately. Had secure laptop waiting in car ('began typing as vehicle moved'), secure videoconference set up for Crossfire Hurricane team. https://t.co/4ZUz8qjxgC
This is how the support staff to a newly elected President welcomed him to office. Has to be the closest our country has come to a coup attempt in modern times.
“The IG report says the group “agreed that the briefing needed to be one-on-one, so that Comey could present the ‘salacious’ information in the most discreet and least embarrassing way.” But however it was presented, the FBI leaders worried that Trump might “perceive the one-on-one briefing as an effort to hold information over him like a ‘Hoover-esque type of plot.’” That was a reference to the FBI’s notorious founding director J. Edgar Hoover, who relished keeping (and using) embarrassing secrets on top political leaders.
The group discussed how Trump might react. In particular, they considered whether he would “make statements about or provide information of value to the pending Russia interference investigation” known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Perhaps Trump would say something incriminating. The FBI officials made plans for Comey, immediately after leaving the meeting, to write down everything he could remember about whatever Trump said. Comey also wanted to discuss Trump’s reactions with top aides immediately. Comey told the inspector general it was “important for FBI executive managers to be ‘able to share in [Comey’s] recall of the salient details of those conversations.’” Bureau officials also wanted to be able to respond if Trump publicly “misrepresent[ed] what happened in the encounter.”
So, preparations were made. “Comey said he had a secure FBI laptop waiting for him in his FBI vehicle and that when he got into the vehicle, he was handed the laptop and ‘began typing as the vehicle moved,’” the report says. He worked on his account as the FBI car took him to the New York field office, where aides had set up a secure video teleconference with Rybicki, McCabe, Baker, and the “Crossfire Hurricane” supervisors. Comey continued to work on his memo after that and sent the group a final version the next day, Saturday, Jan. 7.”
———
Days later CNN reported on the briefing, and the Dem operatives masquerading as journalists at BuzzFeed printed the Steele dossier in full. Jut like they planned it. This was a coup attempt.
Also: Comey told Congress under oath Crossfire Hurricane wasn’t targeted at Trump or his campaign, but four ppl (PapaD; Flynn; Page; Manafort, none of whom are Trump himself). So after briefing “Moscow hookers” — which is ONLY about Trump — why huddle with the Crossfire team? 🤔 https://t.co/AdhxJAe8m5
Considering Comey was preparing for this as early as 2015 (while Clinton "midyear" case was ongoing) It would be asinine to draw any other conclusion than they were targeting Trump BEFORE the "investigation" even started.
Couple this with what we learned from the #DNCemails – that Hillary wanted to run against Trump (Pied Piper strategy) – and we've got ourselves a full-blown Treasonous conspiracy right from the get-go.
This country has reached a pretty pass if a president cannot trust his FBI director not to go blabbing to the press when the president leans on him to go easy on senior national security officials corruptly compromised by foreign powers.
“Atticus Finch” is also a conservative Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher and lawyer from Texas. He and I have discussed the reasons that he and I never became Trumpkins though most of our friends did. Here is what we came up with:
1. We like to read books and lengthy articles on history, politics, theology, economics and current events.
2. We are past 50. We have seen and studied many good and bad leaders.
3. We never listen to talk radio, and very seldom watch any news programs on TV.
4. We follow many reporters and writers on Twitter and get news from over 50 publications.
However, we are very selective about those sources.
I’ve got something to say about Comey. I’ve read his book. I’ve listened to numerous in depth interviews of him. Jim Comey, whatever missteps he may have made in a long career filled w hard choices, is a patriot who puts his country first. Something DJT will never understand.
— Atticus Finch (of Georgia) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@Atticus59914029) August 29, 2019
“MATTIS told the president, ‘You’re going to have to get the next secretary of defense to lose to ISIS. I’m not going to do it.’ He then handed Trump his resignation letter.” https://t.co/q75CQI2GM7
9:13 is strange. All that grown-up stuff you do to keep yourself unpolluted from poisonous sources, then just taking the words of a guy’s description of himself at face value. Hmm. And even after all this exposure of his dubious ethics. Okie doke.
Wandering Views 
Old Jim is about to be exposed as the fraud he is. 🙂
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/justice-inspector-general-has-done-separate-report-on-james-comey
“The Justice Department inspector general is preparing to release a report on the conduct of fired FBI Director James Comey in the Trump-Russia investigation, according to a number of sources with knowledge of the situation. The specific timing of the report’s release is not clear.
The Comey report is separate from a larger inspector general report on the DOJ’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe. That report, sometimes referred to by Republicans as an investigation into “FISA abuse,” is expected to be released later.
It is not clear why the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, chose to write a separate report on Comey.
Among other things, Comey has been under investigation for his handling of several memos he wrote memorializing conversations with President Trump. The memos began in January 2017, when Trump was still president-elect, and continued until April 2017, the month before Trump summarily fired the FBI director.
Comey’s memos were, at the least, confidential FBI documents, and at most, in some cases, classified. Comey told Congress that he sent some of the memos to a friend for the purpose of being leaked to the New York Times. Comey hoped media reports would set off a firestorm that would ultimately result in the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Trump-Russia matter.”
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Like I said the other day.
Patient 0.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katenocera/joe-walsh-barack-obama-donald-trump
“Before He Was Running Against Trump, Joe Walsh Was Trying To Be Trump”
“”When I’ve looked at Trump these last few years, I see, like, the worst version of Joe Walsh.”
“In May 2012, a group of do-gooder congressmen held a press conference to announce their new “Fix Congress Now” caucus.
The effort, two conservative Democrats and two moderate Republicans told us that day, would encourage civility among Democrats and Republicans and perhaps get them to work together for the good of the nation.
Also, Joe Walsh was there.
None of the other members of Congress seemed to know why: His name isn’t on a press release for the event, and my story from the day doesn’t even mention Walsh. The few reporters at the event laughed at the idea that Joe Walsh was hoping for a functional Congress, of civility and camaraderie.”
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The elephant in the room that Never-Trumpers refuse to acknowledge. 🙂
🐘
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/trump-walsh-weld-republican-primary-2020/596899/
“Never Trumpers Want a GOP Alternative. Most Republicans Don’t.
Former Representative Joe Walsh is running against a president who, polls show, is no more vulnerable to a primary challenge than his recent predecessors were.”
——
“Yet for all of Trump’s turbulence, even the president’s toughest Republican critics concede he is in virtually no danger of losing the party’s nomination for reelection—and certainly not to Weld or Walsh, the conservative ally turned foe who launched his bid over the weekend. Indeed, Trump is barely more vulnerable than his recent predecessors—none of whom drew serious primary challengers to their reelection.
“His numbers with Republicans are as solid as any recent Republican president—probably even more solid,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP strategist who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012. In poll after poll, an overwhelming majority of Republican voters—well over 80 percent—approve of Trump’s performance in office, even as nearly all Democrats and most independents give him a thumbs-down. “He’s unbeatable in a primary,” Williams told me.
That reality has not stopped the remaining Never Trump Republicans in Washington from pining for someone—anyone, really—to challenge him. Walsh is far from a household name, but when he jumped into the fray on Sunday, he drew encouragement from Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator who has not wavered in his opposition to Trump. Elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, Walsh served two years in the House, where he was known for criticizing Obama in harsh terms (including the lie that he’s an African-born Muslim) and using the kind of inflammatory, occasionally racist rhetoric that Trump would use to stir up the GOP base years later. Walsh cheered Trump’s run in 2016, but turned against him after he took office; the former congressman has spent the first days of his campaign trying to repent for his support of the president and his own history of racist tweets.”
———————
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for….
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This is why Omar’s affair matters. Because she’s fraudulently using campaign cash to benefit her married lover.
And where in the heck is the media on this? Pathetic…….
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nearly-one-of-every-three-dollars-spent-on-ilhan-omars-campaign-have-gone-to-her-alleged-lovers-firm
“Nearly one of every three dollars spent on Ilhan Omar’s campaign has gone to her alleged lover’s firm”
“Omar’s alleged paramour, Tim Mynett, has been a fundraising consultant for Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Omar hasn’t commented on the accusations, but there’s a possible second scandal involving the more than $200,000 that her campaign has spent with Mynett’s firm.
Of the $145,406 reported earnings by the E Street Group during the 2018 campaign cycle, $62,674 came from Omar’s campaign. Not counting payroll taxes and transfers to Minnesota’s Democratic Party, E Street Group was Omar’s second-largest vendor, according to FEC data. From Labor Day through the end of the year, E Street Group ate up more than 10% of her campaign’s spending (not counting transfers to other campaigns).
Here’s the odd thing: The overwhelming majority of Omar’s funds spent on the E Street Group were paid after she won the contested primary and during the totally noncompetitive general election race in her D+26 district. Contrary to FEC rules, Omar’s filings did not designate whether her E Street Group disbursements (or any of her disbursements) were for the primary election or the general election.
The Omar campaign payments to the E Street Group, often reported as “fundraising consulting” fees on her FEC filings, have accelerated in the 2020 cycle. Her campaign has spent $160,000 at E Street this year, the campaign off year. That’s nearly one in every three dollars spent on her reelection (again, not including transfers to other campaigns or committees) going to her alleged lover.”
————————-
Lock her up and then send her back.
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Good. Too bad we can’t bar them from Congress for the same reason. 🙂
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-bars-house-oversight-dems-from-visiting-cbp-facilities-at-border-after-rude-and-disruptive-behavior
“DHS bars Dem staffers from visiting border facilities after ‘rude’ and ‘disruptive’ behavior”
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has barred Democratic staffers from the House Oversight Committee from visiting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a planned trip this week after committee staff allegedly were “disruptive” and refused to follow instructions during their last trip, Fox News has learned.
Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., had sent his staff to visit border facilities for “oversight inspections” last week and planned to send staff again to view Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP centers.
But sources told Fox News that DHS has revoked access to CBP facilities for the upcoming visit, citing staff behavior that “interfered” with law enforcement operations — including refusing to leave one site after their scheduled window, skipping some tours and being “rude” to officers. A DHS official said that ICE visits will still be allowed this week, but with a two-hour time limit. One of those visits took place on Tuesday.
“Due to the operational burden placed on the field by their refusal to comply with instruction during last week’s STAFFDEL [staff delegation visit], CBP pulled the trip in which more site visits were to take place at CBP and ICE facilities this week,” a senior DHS official told Fox News in an email Wednesday. “DHS communicated to the committee that due to their conduct, CBP could not support visits from the committee this week.””
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MSNBC is too busy with important news to cover the Omar scandal……
THIS is why we make fun of them.
——————–
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Ouch. This should sting.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/27/childhood-schooling-in-soviet-union-better-than-u-s-public-schools-today/
“My Childhood Schooling In The Soviet Union Was Better Than My Kids’ In U.S. Public Schools Today
Ask the people in our immigrant community why we moved to the United States, and hear again and again: ‘For the kids.’ Yet here we are, failing them in one of the most important ways.”
“Now that back-to-school season is in full swing, let me tell you about the single most pressing unmet need of my ethnic minority community: education. Like other Russian-speaking Jews, I am forever thankful to this country for taking me in and for giving me liberty. Yet when I talk to people in our community about their wishes and anxieties, they always express discontentment with U.S. schools.
“How is it,” some ask, “that we are all engineers, but our children can’t do basic math?”
“What do the students read, exactly?” Others wonder.
“The only reason my child is doing well academically,” stated one mom of a second grader, “is because he attends a Russian program on Sundays.”
Since when do the bright eight-year-olds require tutoring?”
—————————
“Math was the dissident’s favorite in the Soviet Union. It was believed that the subject is so logical and abstract, the party could never impose its will on it. After all, two plus two equals four — in the 10-digit system, at least — regardless of the edicts of the Politburo.
Maybe the Soviet bureaucrats weren’t clever enough, because the American educational bureaucracy did ruin mathematics. That, of course, was accomplished via the 1960s’ “new math,” which has been reincarnated yet again in Common Core. Those who didn’t subscribe to the new math teachings weren’t exiled to Gulags, but the kids who were taught in this manner failed to learn. Sometimes, the soft managerial power of destructive innovation is mightier than the NKVD.
With generations raised after the new math, schools are hard-pressed to find anyone who can teach the subject — not that the administrators would know, anyway. U.S. instructors readily admit they don’t understand or like the discipline. They end up confusing the students. A few years ago at my child’s back-to-school meeting, a third-grade teacher was chirping away about Common Core math and how it shows that in math, too, there is more than one way to find an answer.
I was taught something like “multiple methods,” and I find this line of thought ridiculous. Yes, there can be more than one way to get to the same answer, but we prefer the elegant, simplest solution. There is logic and beauty in mathematics that educated people of average intellect have to be able to appreciate.”
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Trump — or What, Exactly?
VDH nails it again.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/comparison-trump-record-former-presidents-current-critics/
“Let’s compare Trump’s policies and behavior to that of prior presidents — and to his 2020 opponents’.”
“In traditional political terms, there is always an alternate agenda to an incumbent president’s that reasonable voters can debate.
In Trump’s case, two massive annual budget deficits — coming on top of the previous two administrations that doubled the national debt — seem fair game. No president for the past 19 years has sought to offer any remotely sane budget. And with still relatively low interest rates, massive federal spending, a $22 trillion national debt, and an annual deficit of nearly $1 trillion, it is hard to imagine, in extremis, that there remains any notion of “stimulus” or “pump-priming” left.
Yet we hear little about such financial profligacy.
Not a word comes from Trump’s critics about the need for Social Security or Medicare reform to ensure the long-term viability of each — other than the Democrats’ promises to extend such financially shaky programs to millions of new clients well beyond the current retiring Baby Boomer cohorts who are already taxing the limits of the system.
To counter every signature Trump issue, there is almost no rational alternative advanced. That void helps explain the bizarre, three-year litany of dreaming of impeachment, the emoluments clause, the Logan Act, the 25th Amendment, the Mueller special-counsel investigation, Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti, Trump’s tax returns, White Supremacy!, Recession! — and Lord knows what next.
The subtext of all these Wile E. Coyote all-too-clever efforts at trapping road-runner Trump is not just the wish to abort an elected presidency; they’re offering the heat of hatred rather than the light of a viable political alternative.”
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I like to look at 538’s summary and evaluation of the latest polls each day. It gets more interesting when Silver starts giving his probabllities of various outcomes. Yesterday, I had to jab The Cult with the Quin. Poll, but The latest Michigan poll wasn’t that horrible for Trump against Dems other than Biden. Something unusual is going on in Mississippi. I must read more to understand.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/
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Back to Heath Mayo’s post last night:
1. Yes. Most Republicans in the House and Senate think Trump is nuts.
2. Yes. Most of them think Trump will lead the party to defeat in 2020
3. Yes. Most of them are just trying to ride out the storm.
Here is where young idealistic Mr. Mayo may become disillusioned: That strategy may work. After Trump, there may be a general amnesty and all Republicans may just try to forget everything that happened from 2016-2020.
4. Here is what is also true: Most Republican officeholders want Trump to lose. They hate running for re-election with him at the top of the ticket. The Senators who are not up for re-election until 2022 or 2024 have a clear strategy:
A. Lay low.
B. Don’t humiliate yourself by defending Trump’s idiotic comments or acts.
C. But don’t enrage The Cult by attacking their Dear Leader.
Note how Ben Sasse has shifted from the more courageous Amash/Hurd approach to the strategy outlined above. Mayo and I will remember his shift, but few others will and fewer still will hold it against him.
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And we all know how your “expert opinions” have turned out the last couple of years….. 🙄
They’ve been as accurate as yours, which is not very…..
And are you ever gonna get around to admitting how wrong you were about nearly everything you alleged?……
Asking for a friend…… 🙂
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They won’t stop if you don’t make them suffer the consequences.
—————-
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——————
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Oh look, breaking news….
And more stuff Ricky was wrong about. 🙂
As I’ve said all along, Mr. Straight Shooter is a lying fraud.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-inspector-general-says-comey-violated-policies-with-memos-documenting-private-conversations-with-trump
“James Comey violated FBI policies with memos on Trump discussions, IG report says”
“A scathing inspector general report released Thursday said that fired FBI Director James Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos documenting private discussions with President Trump.
The Justice Department’s official watchdog concluded that the memos Comey kept were in fact “official FBI records,” and said Comey set a “dangerous example” with his actions.
“By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information,” the report stated.
While the findings of the probe were forwarded to the DOJ, the department has declined prosecution, as Fox News reported earlier this month. But for Comey, who has cultivated the image of a by-the-book and irreproachable leader since his termination in 2017, the review shined a harsh light on his decisionmaking in the final, beleaguered weeks of his tenure at the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The 83-page document outlined a series of violations, including that he broke FBI policies and the bureau’s employment agreement “by providing one of the unclassified memos that contained official FBI information, including sensitive investigative information, to his friend with instructions for the friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter.”
Further, the IG determined that Comey kept copies of four memos (out of the total seven he drafted) in a personal safe at home after his removal as director — and in doing so “violated FBI policies and his FBI Employment Agreement by failing to notify the FBI that he had retained them.” The IG said Comey again violated the rules “by providing copies … of the four memos he had kept in his home to his three private attorneys without FBI authorization,” and by failing to alert the FBI once he learned one of the memos contained sections later deemed classified at the confidential level.”
Comey’s GOP critics slammed the former FBI boss in the wake of the report. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, called his actions “disgraceful.”
The report repeatedly and pointedly alleged that Comey wrongly violated policies for personal reasons — in this case, in order to spur a special counsel probe.
“[E]ven when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information. Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility,” the report said.”
—————–
Here’s my reading for today. The IG Report. Should be fun…..
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/read-doj-inspector-general-report-on-former-fbi-director-james-comey
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“C. Comey Failed to Immediately Alert the FBI to the Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information
On June 7, 2017, Comey learned of the FBI’s classification decision regarding Memo 2 when the FBI allowed him to review copies of all seven Memos, with classification banners and markings, in preparation for his June 8, 2017 congressional testimony. Once he knew that the FBI had classified portions of Memo 2, Comey failed to immediately notify the FBI that he had previously given Memo 2 to his attorneys.
101
The FBI’s Safeguarding Classified National Security Information Policy Guide clearly states that “[a]ny person who has knowledge that classified information has been or may have been lost, compromised, or disclosed to an unauthorized person must immediately report the circumstances to his or her security office.”
102
Comey violated this requirement by failing to immediately inform the FBI that he provided Memo 2 to his attorneys. The FBI did not learn that Comey had shared any of the Memos with anyone outside the FBI until Comey’s June 8, 2017 congressional testimony. During his testimony, Comey stated that he provided Memo 4 to a friend to share the contents with a reporter. Comey did not mention that he provided Memos 2, 4, 6, and 7 to each of his three attorneys. Based on Comey’s testimony, FBI leadership knew that Richman was the friend to whom Comey had disclosed Memo 4 with instructions to provide its contents to The New York Times. Baker and Strzok immediately called Richman, while Comey was still testifying, to make arrangements to retrieve Memo 4. It was only through the FBI’s conversations with Richman on June 8 or June 9 that the FBI learned of the need to retrieve classified information, contained in Memo 2, as well as other FBI records, Memos 6 and 7, from each of Comey’s three attorneys. We do not believe that Richman’s volunteering to the FBI that he and Comey’s other counsel had these other Memos, after the FBI initiated contact with Richman in an effort to retrieve Memo 4, fulfilled Comey’s obligation to immediately report his disclosure of classified information to unauthorized persons. By not immediately reporting that he had provided Memo 2 to his attorneys when Comey first learned that the FBI had designated a small portion of Memo 2 as classified at the “CONFIDENTIAL” level, Comey violated FBI policy.
VI. Conclusion
Congress has provided the FBI with substantial powers and authorities to gather evidence as part of the FBI’s criminal and counterintelligence mission. The FBI uses these authorities every day in its many investigations into allegations of drug trafficking, terrorism, fraud, organized crime, public corruption, espionage, and a host of other threats to national security and public safety. In the process, the FBI lawfully gains access to a significant amount of sensitive information about individuals, many of whom have not been charged, may never be charged, or may not even be a subject of the investigation. For this reason, the civil liberties of every individual who may fall within the scope of the FBI’s investigative authorities depend on the FBI’s ability to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure. As Comey himself explained in his March 20, 2017 testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he was unable to provide details about the nature or scope of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election because the FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and about the people we are investigating…. Our ability to share details with the Congress and the American people is limited when those investigations are still open, which I hope makes sense. We need to protect people’s privacy…. We just cannot do our work well or fairly if we start talking about it while we’re doing it. However, after his removal as FBI Director two months later, Comey provided a copy of Memo 4, which Comey had kept without authorization, to Richman with instructions to share the contents with a reporter for The New York Times. Memo 4 included information that was related to both the FBI’s ongoing investigation of Flynn and, by Comey’s own account, information that he believed and alleged constituted evidence of an attempt to obstruct the ongoing Flynn investigation; later that same day, The New York Times published an article about Memo 4 entitled, “Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation.” The responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information falls in large part to the employees of the FBI who have access to it through their daily duties. On occasion, some of these employees may disagree with decisions by prosecutors, judges, or higher ranking FBI and Department officials about the actions to take or not take in criminal and counterintelligence matters. They may even, in some situations, distrust the legitimacy of those supervisory, prosecutorial, or judicial decisions. But even when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information. Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility. By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information. Comey said he was compelled to take these actions “if I love this country…and I love the Department of Justice, and I love the FBI.” However, were current or former FBI employees to follow the former Director’s example and disclose sensitive information in service of their own strongly held personal convictions, the FBI would be unable to dispatch its law enforcement 60
duties properly, as Comey himself noted in his March 20, 2017 congressional testimony. Comey expressed a similar concern to President Trump, according to Memo 4, in discussing leaks of FBI information, telling Trump that the FBI’s ability to conduct its work is compromised “if people run around telling the press what we do.” This is no doubt part of the reason why Comey’s closest advisors used the words “surprised,” “stunned,” “shocked,” and “disappointment” to describe their reactions to learning what Comey had done. We have previously faulted Comey for acting unilaterally and inconsistent with Department policy.
103
Comey’s unauthorized disclosure of sensitive law enforcement information about the Flynn investigation merits similar criticism. In a country built on the rule of law, it is of utmost importance that all FBI employees adhere to Department and FBI policies, particularly when confronted by what appear to be extraordinary circumstances or compelling personal convictions. Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure. What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome. The OIG has provided this report to the FBI and to the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility for action they deem appropriate.”
——————–
He should be in jail. You or I would be, and plenty of others are for far less than what Comey did and disclosed.
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This book by Never Trumper Tom Nichols would probably make a perfect Christmas gift for Trumpsters in your family.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Expertise
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Veith:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2019/08/the-lefts-hatred-of-capitalists/
The Left’s Hatred of Capitalists
AUGUST 29, 2019 BY GENE VEITH
__________________________
… Bernie Sanders, sounding like an actual socialist, now says that he wants to nationalize the energy industry. Not only that, he says that he will file criminal charges against oil executives.
On what charge? “Fossil fuel executives should be criminally prosecuted for the destruction they have knowingly caused,” he tweeted, referring to their alleged role in destroying the environment.
Is there actually a law against destroying the environment, as such? There are lots of laws and regulations governing the oil industry and other businesses designed to protect the environment, which lawfully-operating companies are presumably compliant with, though environmentalists do not consider them sufficient. What kinds of actions would actually “destroy” the environment completely are not clear. If President Sanders and a Democratic Congress were to pass environmental destruction laws, you can’t prosecute individuals for breaking laws that did not exist at the time of their violation. Or would President Sanders just punish the oil executives at his order, as part of his “revolution”?
Ironically, Sanders has also announced his intention to cut the prison population in half. He will have to release lots of convicted felons if he is also planning to imprison employees of lawful businesses whose practices he does not approve of. …
… This implacable, visceral hostility to capitalists is evident more broadly in the reaction of many on the Left to the death of right-leaning philanthropist David Koch. “I’m glad he’s dead,” said HBO’s Bill Maher, and “I hope the end was painful.” Similar sentiments were shared throughout the Left …
… Koch was hardly a conservative. He was pro-gay rights, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, and anti-Trump. Koch was a libertarian, a supporter of free market economics …
… This extreme, emotional reaction–that can only be described as hatred–against a wealthy capitalist who gives money to fund his interests and to advance his beliefs is reminiscent of the demonization of top-hatted capitalists that was a recurrent theme of Marxist propaganda. …
______________________________
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When you’ve lost CNN….. 🙂
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DJ,
This caught my eye from the Veith post….
“… Koch was hardly a conservative. He was pro-gay rights, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, and anti-Trump. Koch was a libertarian, a supporter of free market economics …”
Because I’d just read this, which backs up more of what he said about the reaction to Koch’s death and hostility to capitalism. Both are vilified to the extreme.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/28/the-koch-brothers-tried-to-build-a-plutocracy-in-the-name-of-freedom
“The Koch brothers tried to build a plutocracy in the name of freedom
The Kochs have always believed that rich people had the right to rule over everyone else, democracy be damned”
“t is the hope of every rich megalomaniac that they will “leave a legacy”. David Koch, who died last week aged 79, left a significant legacy indeed. In fact, along with his brother Charles, he can probably claim to have changed the world. Unfortunately, he changed it by setting it on fire.
It’s hard to describe just what a negative force the Koch brothers have been in United States politics over the past several decades. They have used every means at their disposal to subvert democracy. They funded academic posts, thinktanks, lobbying groups, fake grassroots operations, and political campaigns. They used their tremendous wealth to push a radically far-right economic vision in which government protections and welfare programs would essentially cease to exist. They may even have been directly responsible for the election of Donald Trump, the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity having hired 650 staffers to make millions of phone calls and knock on tens of thousands of doors in Wisconsin and Michigan during the 2016 election.
The Koch brothers profited handsomely from fossil fuels, and had a strong hand in muddying the debate around global warming, having spent more than ExxonMobil on funding climate denial. David Koch himself, asked whether climate change was real, would say only that “climate does fluctuate”. Carbon regulation posed a significant financial threat to the Kochs, and they supported “perhaps the earliest known organized conference of climate-change deniers, which gathered just as the scientific consensus on the issue was beginning to gel”. They helped to derail efforts at regulating carbon, and Christopher Leonard, author of Kochland, has concluded that “you’d have a carbon tax, or something better, today, if not for the Kochs. They stopped anything from happening back when there was still time.” There may be planet-wide consequences to the political meddling of these two men.”
——————-
See this also, for more of the same Eat The Rich nonsense. .
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/27/death-destruction-david-koch-legacy
“Death and destruction: this is David Koch’s sad legacy
Anarcho-capitalism was the real cancer plaguing the billionaire libertarian. And it spread across universities, halls of Congress and the White House”
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11:28 Does the phrase “Trump is moronically framing himself” (of conspiracy) while later obstructing justice ring a bell? It should as that was by educated guess expressed here many times about what was happening from early 2017 until the release of The Mueller Report. The Mueller Report which is humorous reading confirmed that is exactly what happened.
When Mueller testified, I would have given anything if one of the congressmen had asked the question: Do you believe President Trump moronically framed himself? I think that would have produced a smile from Mueller.
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Mueller can’t smile.
I used to work with classified material.
If I had done part of what Comey did, I would already be in jail.
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That was Chas. He clicked too soon.
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Exactly Chas.
Ricky knows this too, but he’s in spin mode now.
—————-
Remember Ricky, the first step to recovery from your TDS is admitting you have a problem.
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If i read AJs post correctly, Omar paid 220 000 over two years to E Street for political consulting work. Thats fairly cheap. We havs no way of knowing if all of the money went from E Street to Wynet. Even if it did 110 000 per year is fairly cheap consulting work. At least Omar received some legitimate services for this (she denies the affair) Stormy Daniels on the other didnt have a legitimate job.
The smear attempts are getting quite pathetic but still have deadly consequences. Death threats to Omar continue to climb.
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——————-
And despite Comey’s whining to the contrary, he is a liar and a leaker.
And you fell for it Ricky. Repeatedly.
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Law enforcement (CBD and ICE) have to stop being so sensitive and realise the legislature is in charge not law enforcement. Whether the staff was rude or didnt follow directions is beside the point, the legislature is in charge and can send staffers where they please. Barring staffers or even the legislators is pure defiance and should be grounds for dismissal. Such snowflakes.
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“Power does not change you, it unmasks you.”
“Mr. Comey is a meat head. A political hack.”
Comey has been exposed.
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I don’t know Koch so I wont mourn him but his legacy should be scorned in every possible way. The Koch brothers and others like them funded and encouraged the neo-liberal/libertarian turn in Anglo-American economics. Forty years later, the results are in. Total Failure; the destruction of the middle class, growth of inequality, decline of income mobility, decline of public institutions, stagnating wages, etc.
Its no wonder Sanders has a receptive audience for his message. We’ve tried free market capitalism for forty years and it failed. And he’s not a radical socialist. Many of his ideas and policies come from the tradition of the New Deal modified for the modern era. The Nordic and Rhine models have implemented more socialist versions and have far better results than the Anglo American world.
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HRW,
Well here in America, they can and did. And they had every right to do so. Especially after they clearly stated they intended to ignore the rules for such visits.
From the link you obviously didn’t read.
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““During discussions between Department and Committee staff, however, the Committee staff repeatedly stated that they do not intend to abide by DHS guidelines,” Ciccone wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. “In light of this, we are unable to accommodate your staff’s visit … unless we receive a firm commitment that the Committee and its staff will comply fully with all existing guidelines and policies.”
She added that the staff’s attempts to “conduct interviews and take photographs” without limitations are “a significant deviation” from DHS policy and “could jeopardize” the department’s ability to meet legal obligations.”
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“But according to a CBP official, the committee’s chief counsel, who led the delegation starting in Yuma, Ariz., “refused to leave the facility after the hour-long tour,” despite previously agreeing to a 45-minute tour at each location.
“I informed him that his actions on behalf of the Committee made a huge operational impact by not communicating back to CBP his true intent and expectations for this delegation,” the official said, noting that because of this, part of the delegation only toured Yuma and had to cancel other facilities that were previously scheduled. “This left agents in a position where they were waiting on staff to show and then they did not show at all.”
The official added that another part of the delegation began in the San Diego Sector. The official said that two staffers missed the first portion of the tour, and “apparently ended up crossing the border due to following their GPS guidance and were unable to make it.””
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““DHS asked the Committee to abide by the instructions of DHS personnel on the ground and to respect the significant operational interests of the border facilities visited,” Jordan wrote. “Unfortunately, at your apparent direction, Democrats refused to listen to law-enforcement instructions and made demands at the facilities ‘against the express written notice DHS had provided earlier.’”
Jordan said Democratic staff “abandoned” the agreement with DHS for limited photography and detainee interactions, and accused them of “wasting DHS manpower and taxpayer resources.”
Jordan also accused Democrats of withholding information from Republican committee staff and being “secretive” about details of itineraries and locations of meetings and visits.
Jordan also claimed that Democratic staff took “direction from liberal special interests” before last week’s tours, citing a meeting with representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal organization currently suing the Trump administration over detention facilities at the border. Jordan claimed the SPLC gave directions to Democratic staff about what to look for and ask about during their tours, as well as suggested questions for staff to pose to detainees and DHS officials during their visit.”
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We’ve tried free market capitalism for forty years….
Not hardly.
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I don’t think I’ve ever called anybody a snowflake, but James Comey is such a snowflake.
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Canada’s classless and disgusting 19th PM.
https://twitter.com/AKimCampbell/status/1166772072002883584
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Yep.
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1167093597709189120
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https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1167152738146369536
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He should be in prison, and would be were it not for our two tiered justice system.
He’s a traitor who tried to overthrow a duly elected president.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/new-report-details-comey-plan-to-ambush-trump-with-moscow-sex-allegation
“The IG report says the group “agreed that the briefing needed to be one-on-one, so that Comey could present the ‘salacious’ information in the most discreet and least embarrassing way.” But however it was presented, the FBI leaders worried that Trump might “perceive the one-on-one briefing as an effort to hold information over him like a ‘Hoover-esque type of plot.’” That was a reference to the FBI’s notorious founding director J. Edgar Hoover, who relished keeping (and using) embarrassing secrets on top political leaders.
The group discussed how Trump might react. In particular, they considered whether he would “make statements about or provide information of value to the pending Russia interference investigation” known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Perhaps Trump would say something incriminating. The FBI officials made plans for Comey, immediately after leaving the meeting, to write down everything he could remember about whatever Trump said. Comey also wanted to discuss Trump’s reactions with top aides immediately. Comey told the inspector general it was “important for FBI executive managers to be ‘able to share in [Comey’s] recall of the salient details of those conversations.’” Bureau officials also wanted to be able to respond if Trump publicly “misrepresent[ed] what happened in the encounter.”
So, preparations were made. “Comey said he had a secure FBI laptop waiting for him in his FBI vehicle and that when he got into the vehicle, he was handed the laptop and ‘began typing as the vehicle moved,’” the report says. He worked on his account as the FBI car took him to the New York field office, where aides had set up a secure video teleconference with Rybicki, McCabe, Baker, and the “Crossfire Hurricane” supervisors. Comey continued to work on his memo after that and sent the group a final version the next day, Saturday, Jan. 7.”
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Days later CNN reported on the briefing, and the Dem operatives masquerading as journalists at BuzzFeed printed the Steele dossier in full. Jut like they planned it. This was a coup attempt.
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And he clearly lied under oath to Congress.
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Yep.
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https://twitter.com/DianePiette1/status/1167158562453360650
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“Atticus Finch” is also a conservative Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher and lawyer from Texas. He and I have discussed the reasons that he and I never became Trumpkins though most of our friends did. Here is what we came up with:
1. We like to read books and lengthy articles on history, politics, theology, economics and current events.
2. We are past 50. We have seen and studied many good and bad leaders.
3. We never listen to talk radio, and very seldom watch any news programs on TV.
4. We follow many reporters and writers on Twitter and get news from over 50 publications.
However, we are very selective about those sources.
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No! No! The NYT has capitulated to Trump. Its headline writers are now using Trumpian grammar. Can “tapp” and “counsil” be far away?
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Keep flailing Ricky. 🙂
The never-Trumpers are in full blown damage control mode now, what with egg all over their faces. Amusing I must say. 🙂
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9:13 is strange. All that grown-up stuff you do to keep yourself unpolluted from poisonous sources, then just taking the words of a guy’s description of himself at face value. Hmm. And even after all this exposure of his dubious ethics. Okie doke.
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