op ed review 12/10
Supreme Court lets full Trump travel ban take effect.
President Trump announced that the United States officially
recognizes the city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and will begin
moving its embassy there.
“Jerusalem
is the capital of Israel. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, convenes there.
Israelis call it their capital for the same reason they claim two plus two
equals four. It’s just true. What makes the decision controversial is that
everyone had agreed to pretend it wasn’t the capital in order to protect “the
peace process.”
The House of Representatives unanimously passed the Taylor
Force Act, which would restrict U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority
until it stops subsidizing terrorists through “pay to slay” policies.
President Trump rolls back national monument
abuse; environmentalists go nuts: By
significantly reducing the size of two gargantuan national
monuments on federal land in Utah, President Donald Trump has begun to undo the
decades-old mistreatment of rural Westerners by smug elites in faraway
Washington.
Utah ´Monument´ Was a Reward to an Indonesian billionaire
Clinton donor “much of the land involved is energy-rich and was put off
limits by President Clinton to deprive Americans access to those resources and
to reward a political donor.”
November: Highest
Single-Month Manufacturing Jobs Gains in 15 Years…
2.2 Million New Jobs Since Election, More Americans Working
than Ever!
The Justice Department has formally launched a federal
investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practices and the sale of fetal tissue.
A Republican operative prominent in the “Never Trump”
movement, helped pitch the Washington Post story in which the first allegations
of sexual misconduct nearly 40 years ago were made against Alabama GOP
senatorial nominee Roy Moore.
One of the other accusers admits she doctored the yearbook script.
ABC News, the network of Brian Ross,
downplayed the bombshell by presenting the admission of forgery as adding
‘notes’ to the inscription.
Minnesota Democrat Sen. Al Franken said Thursday he will
resign from the U.S. Senate following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations
against him.
Nancy Pelosi to Republicans in California: 'You Don't Belong Here'. “Republican tax bill is evil in the extreme”
Barack Obama went on an unhinged rant during which he
compared Donald Trump to Hitler and implied that Americans should vote Democrat
or millions of people would be killed. Then he tried to take credit for
America’s now strong economy. The bizarre remarks were made during an Economic
Club of Chicago event on Tuesday night but have been largely ignored by the
mainstream media.
Prosperity in the Swamp:
The five richest counties in the United States when measured by median
household income are all suburbs of Washington, D.C.,
U.S. immigration officials have revealed that they face a
deportation backlog of 550,000 illegal immigrants who were given temporary
amnesty by former President Obama or simply let off the hook by liberal judges.
Rev. Franklin Graham: “No President in My Lifetime Has
Defended the Christian Faith Like Trump”
Hey UK, how’s that globalization working out for you? A record 400 arrests were made for
terrorism-related offences in Great Britain in the last year. Earlier this week, a report revealed that counter-terror
teams are currently running about 500 live investigations involving 3,000
individuals at any one time, while there is also a wider pool of 20,000
subjects of previous probes. Two men appeared in court yesterday after security
services said they interrupted an alleged plan to blow up the gates to Downing
Street and assassinate Prime Minister Theresa May.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5155109/Record-400-terror-arrests-UK-year.html#ixzz50aheDg00
Rep unveils bill to imprison officials who shelter illegal
immigrants
Puerto Rico gives out $100 million in Christmas bonuses
after pleading for $94 billion in hurricane relief
Americans overwhelmingly support the appointment of a
special counsel to investigate the 2010 deal that gave Russia direct control
over one-fifth of the U.S.´ uranium, a new IBD/TIPP Poll shows.
___________________________________________________________________
COLUMN OF THE WEEK
Greg
Jarrett, Fox News Legal Analyst 12/6
How
is it possible that Hillary Clinton escaped criminal indictment for mishandling
classified documents despite incriminating evidence that she violated the
Espionage Act? Why did Donald Trump
become the target of a criminal investigation for allegedly conspiring with
Russia to influence the presidential election despite no evidence that he ever
did so?
The
answer, it seems, comes down to one person who played a vital role in both
cases: Peter Strzok, deputy director of counterintelligence at the FBI. Strzok
was exchanging politically charged texts with an FBI lawyer that denigrated
Trump and lauded Clinton at the same time he was leading the bureau’s criminal
investigation of Clinton. He is also the one who changed the critical
wording of then-FBI Director
James Comey’s description of Clinton’s handling of classified material that
resulted in no charges being brought against her.
Then,
Strzok reportedly signed the document launching the 2016 investigation into Russia’s
meddling in the election and whether the Trump campaign played any role.
After leading the FBI’s probe into Trump, he then joined Robert Mueller’s
special counsel team as an integral investigator. Thus, it appears that one man with a strident
political agenda accomplished his twin goals of clearing Clinton and accusing
Trump, evidence be damned. And then he
was caught.
The
Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, discovered the
electronic texts Strzok exchanged with his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The messages were so politically incendiary
and so threatened the integrity of Mueller’s investigation that Strzok was
quietly canned over the summer from the special counsel team, where he was a
pivotal participant. The Trump-Russia investigation is now awash in
illegitimacy.
Did
Mueller or anyone else notify Congress that both the Trump investigation --and
the Clinton case before it-- were corrupted?
Of course not. This was covered
up. Mueller surely knew that if the
truth were revealed, it would further discredit a Trump-Russia probe that had
already taken on the stench of dead fish. The House Intelligence Committee
could smell it and knew something was amiss. It demanded answers. But the Justice Department and the FBI refused
to respond or otherwise produce relevant documents that the committee
subpoenaed. They are still stonewalling
many of Congress’s valid requests and should now face contempt charges.
Importantly,
all of the anti-Trump and pro-Clinton messages should be made public. Americans should decide for themselves whether
our system of justice has been compromised by unscrupulous influences.
Just
how rife with political prejudice and corrupt motives is the special counsel’s
investigation?
Instead
of choosing prosecutors who could be neutral, fair and objective, Mueller
stacked his staff with Democratic donors. Apparently, he
conducted little or no vetting of both prosecutors and investigators. How else does one explain the presence of
Strzok and Lisa Page on the investigative team?
It
appears that Mueller selected people of a particular political persuasion
without discerning review or scrutiny. We were supposed to simply trust Mueller’s
judgment, notwithstanding his own disqualifying conflict of interest under the special counsel statute that
demanded his recusal.
The
Trump-Russia investigation is now awash in illegitimacy. Mueller and those who work for him have
squandered all credibility. It is
imperative that the special counsel be dismissed, the current staff fired, and
a new counsel appointed to re-evaluate the evidence objectively.
Every
member of Mueller’s hand-picked staff must now be examined. The special counsel
has proven he cannot be trusted with his assembled team of partisans. Do not expect Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein to make these changes. He, too, should be removed in his capacity as
Mueller’s supervisor. As both a witness
and prosecutor, Rosenstein has his own conspicuous and disabling conflict of
interest. Yet he has refused to step
aside. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is duty-bound to remove both
Mueller and Rosenstein.
Given
what we know about the composition of the special counsel team, there may well
be others who harbor a blatant political bias and have expressed their animus
toward Trump in emails or texts. The
computer accounts of the entire staff need to be examined by Congress and the
DOJ Inspector General. Failing that,
news organizations should file a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The
examination should begin with Andrew Weissmann, who has close ties to Hui Chen,
whom he hired at the Justice Department and with whom he worked at the U.S.
Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. Documents
show the DOJ approved a
salary for her position of $711,800 for two years of work, which is more than
the attorney general earns.
Chen
resigned in June of this year, stating that she could no longer work in the
administration of a president who had violated the Constitution and engaged in
treasonous conduct. According to The
Hill, she “posted tweets
or retweeted articles that were considered critical of Trump.” But
before her departure, Chen attended a “March for Truth” rally and proudly
posted on Twitter a photograph of herself outside the White House wearing an orange
“Resist” jacket. She posted another
photo of the Trump International Hotel with the words “Pay Trump Bribery Here”
superimposed over the entrance.
Chen’s
favored hashtag is “TrumpRussiaCoverUp,” and she has blanketed her Twitter
account with virulent denunciations of the president. Hundreds of them. Since Chen made little secret of her views while
at Justice, it is reasonable to ask whether she expressed them to Weissmann,
the person to whom she reported. If so,
how did he respond? Like Strzok, did
Weissmann write anti-Trump messages to his friend and colleague, Hui Chen, or
others? Every member of Mueller’s hand-picked staff must now be examined. The special counsel has proven he cannot be
trusted with his assembled team of partisans.
It
never made sense that Hillary Clinton escaped criminal prosecution for
mishandling classified documents. The Espionage Act makes it a crime to mishandle
classified documents
“through gross negligence” (18 USC 793-f). With 110 emails on Clinton’s
private server that were classified at the time they were sent or received,
only illogical legal gymnastics driven by corruption could clear her.
Enter
Strzok. It turns out, he is the person
who altered former Director Comey's early draft describing Clinton’s actions as
criminal under the law. But later, the
words “grossly negligent” were crossed out and the language “extremely
careless” was substituted. Although the
two terms are synonymous, the former terminology is specifically stated in the
statute while the latter is not.
It
appears that Strzok, and perhaps Comey, knew Clinton violated the law
but subsequently resolved to conjure a way to exonerate her by editing the
language so that it seemed less culpable and more innocuous. Were these machinations driven by Strzok’s
political agenda? Did he despise Trump
so much that he devised a scheme to clear Clinton so that a criminal indictment
would not impede her assent to the presidency?
Strzok,
Comey and others who may have been involved must be put under oath to answer
these vital questions. In the meantime, the Department of Justice must
now, belatedly, reopen the Clinton email case and re-examine fairly and
impartially all of the evidence to determine whether criminal charges against
her should be sought. The statute of
limitations has not expired.
Sadly,
the FBI is no longer the respected premier law enforcement agency in America. People like Strzok have politicized the
bureau, discredited its work and done immeasurable damage. So, too, have Comey and Mueller. President Trump is right –the FBI’s
“reputation is in tatters,” and the Clinton probe was “phony and
dishonest.”
____________________________________________________________________
OTHER COLUMNS
“How can … Christians, white and black, possibly feel that
the U.S. Constitution secures for them the ‘blessings of liberty’ if, on a
whim, a gay couple can walk into their establishment and demand a product that
violates their religious convictions? Especially when those demanding this
product or service can easily obtain it elsewhere. No, this is not like
refusing to serve blacks in a restaurant. The spirit of that behavior is
racism, the antithesis of ‘securing the blessings of liberty.’ At the end of
the day, our Constitution is only as good as the goodwill of our citizens.
Things will only work when the ideal of ‘securing the blessings of liberty’ is
taken seriously and respected by all.”
-Star
Parker
“By the time the bloody world war ended in 1945, more than
400,000 American military men and women had been killed. They proudly fought
and honored our flag with their very lives so that you and I could live in
peace and freedom. While they endured a hellish nightmare for us, it is beyond
shameful that some cannot muster the decency to simply stand in honor of them.
… This week as we honor the shattered lives of Pearl Harbor, please take a few
minutes to reflect on the entirety of the song that pays tribute to all those
who serve.”
-Rebecca
Hagelin
___________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Nancy Pelosi on the Republican tax bill: “It is the end of the world. … This is
Armageddon.”
Washington Post: If You’re Upset About the Kate Steinle
Verdict — You’re a White Nationalist…
Colin Kaepernick honored with ACLU award
TIME’ 2017 Person of the Year List Includes Colin Kaepernick
The University of Cincinnati student government provides
funding for a workshop to teach students how to make "comfort kits"
that include items such as worry stones, putty, fidget toys, paintbrushes,
journals, and nail polish. ”The kits will "provide support and comfort to
survivors of gender-based violence and others who feel like they need it,"
_______________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
In the last 12 months US backed combat operations drove ISIS
from its last bits of territory; America withdrew from the Paris Agreement on
Climate Change, UNESCO, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The House and
Senate have come within sight of overhauling the tax code and dismantling
Obamacare. Most recently Donald Trump in a spectacular departure from his
predecessor's Middle Eastern diplomacy has moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
It is as if a hurricane has swept through Washington. Each fallen pillar represents a very
deliberate reversal of the status quo ante policies of Barack Obama. The entire
edifice the former president erected in his 8 years in office is in the process
of being systematically demolished.
Don’t be so caught up watching the granules moving at your
feet that you fail to step back and recognize the entire landscape is shifting.
Latest revelations make the entire ‘collusion’ probe look
like a partisan hit
“Obstruction Of Justice Was Coming From Inside The
FBI”
Under Barack Obama, the wealthiest 1% increased their share
of America´s wealth to 40%. The Washington Post blames President Trump for what
Obama did……Hilarious.
Juanita Broaddrick rips Time’s ‘silence breakers’ snub: ‘I
didn’t fit in their liberal victim mold’
VDH:
Pearl Harbor and the Legacy of Carl Vinson
____________________________________________________________________
PHOTOS, VIDEOS, ETC
On the 76th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor,
shocking colorized photographs show the horror of the missile assault that
claimed more than 2,400 lives*
______________________________________________________________________
WISE
WORDS
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those
who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things
worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man.”
-Cesare
Beccaria, 1764
posted by gary at
8:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home