Power Line has the story based on comments by Lindsey Graham on one of Fox's talk shows. Assuming this is accurate, and it seems likely given Graham's comments on top of all the circumstantial evidence and the lack of other potential justification for heavily-reported evesdropping by the Obama administration on the Trump campaign, neither the FBI nor the DOJ can be trusted to investigate themselves. Even under new political appointee leadership, existing employees may well have been involved personally or choose to cover for their friends and colleagues who were. We need a special counsel who can investigate the entire situation: the FBI, the DOJ, the intelligence agencies, and even the national security staff at the White House. Remember that two high level officials at the Obama White House have already been revealed as requesting the unmasking of high level Trump campaign officials.
So, the Netflix production of Bright is getting a lot of attention and love on the blogosphere. I wanted it the weekend it was released, and was mildly looking forward to it. I'm actually surprised it is getting the favorable commentary that it is. It wasn't at all a bad movie; it just didn't register to me as exceptional in the way that it seems to have registered with others.
Despite three times more negative media coverage for Trump than for Obama, the two presidents have the same approval rating (at this point in Obama's presidency compared to this point in Trump's). But the media can't shut up about how awful Trump's approval ratings are. I don't remember them ever pushing that idea under Obama.
10 times the government's intelligence agencies abused our trust
Sharyl Attkisson has a list. It doesn't include the times she was spied on and her computer hacked. Note that the names Brennan and Clapper show up multiple times.
Is video game addiction a real mental health disorder
The mental health organizations are happy to slap the disorder label on anything they think their members can get paid to fix, especially by parents desperate to produce functional children rather than special snowflakes.
Keep this in mind when evaluating whether "mental health experts" should be able to make decisions concerning your gun rights.
No, it wasn't anything to do with breaking her promises to voters. It appears to be related to $803K of false reimbursement claims. She's running for a house seat in Virginia, the same state she allegedly defrauded. If she wins, she can probably earmark the same amount of money on a regular basis.
She also admits lying to the FBI about it afterwards. Normally I'm skeptical about convictions for lying to the FBI, especially when there's no real underlying crime involved. In this case, with dozens of people dead and more wounded, and the underlying issue being foreknowledge of a terrorist attack? Lock her up.
So, almost one third of the presidency, hmm? Let's look at that on a weekly basis. 7 days in a week. One third of that is 2 days plus a fractional 1/3rd day.
Alternative headline: "President spends weekends at home."
This appears to be a direct, on the record admission of obstruction of justice. If it was some random FBI agent complaining about the investigation without being involved on it, that would be one thing. But McCabe is a high level agent with significant authority over the investigation, as well as ethically compromised due to his wife's campaign for office which received a huge amount of money from a close Clinton ally during the investigation. While he did eventually recuse himself, it was after the conclusion was basically certain.
If, in addition to all of the above, he has admitted in writing that Hillary was going to get special treatment, that should be a trivial conviction for obstruction of justice and likely bribery.
There is some pretty solid timeline-based evidence here. As well as the simple, common-sense based implication from all the news that's been leaked and disclosed over the past year. The reason everyone is so desperate to avoid admitting it is that admitting it means admitting to criminal misuse of our national intelligence agencies for political purposes.
Following Hillary's loss in 2016, I would have been content to see her fade off into the sunset and retire from public life. It's not justice, but it's something I would have considered acceptable. But with this #resistance bullshit, and as we have seen more and more details of the attempted election interference by the FBI, DOJ, and intelligence agencies, more and more I think people will need to be prosecuted and thrown in jail to allow us to return to a normal, sane form of government again.
Another top FBI official with a connection to the Trump investigation reassigned
Well, either he was reassigned because of his involvement with the dossier, or he was reassigned for something worse. Regardless of which one is the case, he was misbehaving in some fashion and got caught. Odds are it was related to the Trump investigation or the Hillary investigation, and we have a clear link to the dossier based on the timing.
Congress begins investigation into Obama's Iran-Hezbollah coverup
On the one hand, the president has the authority to direct law enforcement resources where he thinks appropriate. On the other hand, obstruction of justice!
I suspect the Obama/Hillary administration will regret their decision to criminalize policy differences after losing in 2016.
Sketchy congressional IT staffer was laundering money from Hezbollah
You may remember the bit about a man from Pakistan working a sweet no-show, no-qualifications IT job in Congress that may well have been a blackmail operation. Well, the investigation continues, and it turns out his suspicious car dealership is linked to Hezbollah, and the investigation into his activities was blocked by the Obama administration. One of the officials involved in stonewalling the investigation was Bruce Ohr, who has made the news for being involved in the anti-Trump dossier at the FBI. Another was John Brennan, CIA director for Obama, and a man who proudly voted for a communist -- literally, the Communist Party USA presidential candidate, in 1976. Also, by the way, known for being aggressively anti-Trump and generally using his national security credentials to bolster his political talking points.
18 people injured in vehicular attack on pedestrians
The attacker reportedly has a history of drug use and mental health issues but there is no mention of Islam or terrorism, despite the attacker being of Afghan descent previously known to police, the vehicular attack method being popular among terrorists, and the attack taking place during the christmas season which is also popular among specifically Islamic terrorists.
Senators Paul and Wyden are in the right here. The DOJ on the other hand seems to try this pretty much every time there is a new administration or a renewal authorization before Congress where they might get some changes, or protect their illegal pressure campaigns on device manufacturers (Apple, etc).
It is impossible to weaken encryption for law enforcement without also weakening it for the ordinary users who need the security. Worse, most of the proposed solutions here would create a single point of failure. If the FBI master key was hacked -- and even the NSA cannot keep its hacker tools safe from other hackers -- then everything would be compromised, quite likely for years given how long it takes to update and replace a widely deployed vulnerability.
Further, the usual argument -- "Oh my god, we won't be able to stop terrorists!" -- is bullshit. They got tips on the Boston Marathon bombers. Didn't stop them. Many other examples. There is no magic shield, and terrorists are under no obligation to use pre-tapped phones or computers.
Preserving the privacy of millions of honest citizens is worth more to everyone than the desperate mirage the intelligence agencies are chasing.
FEC complaint about Hillary's campaign finance scheme with the DNC
Campaign finance law is bizarrely arcane. So much so that it is probably deliberately intended as a barrier to entry for normal people wanting to participate in politics. Normally I view FEC complaints and such as somewhat suspect. However, the details of Hillary's alleged scheme (which we already know through comments from people at the DNC) seem to have swung the primary election to her. It needs to be investigated, at least.
German authorities want to surveil everyone but ignore terrorists
A terrorist who committed an attack in Germany (the Christmas Market attack) had downloaded bomb making instructions to his phone nearly a year prior to his actual attack. He also communicated directly with ISIS in Libya. He was already under surveillance due to a tip from an informant in 2015 at the time. The police did nothing and he committed his attack in 2016.
It's possible that he meant other parts of the state. But it's also possible -- and historically likely, given other comments on this topic -- that the Democrats really did bus in voters from out of state to try to swing this Senate seat.
At this point, I'd say Roy Moore is right not to concede. There are enough absentee and military ballots to possibly change the outcome, and they should be counted. (Military votes will likely heavily favor Moore, which will be necessary to overcome the current lead held by Jones). If election fraud is discovered on top of that, it may well be enough to swing the seat back to Moore.
UPDATE: Moore's lawsuit has been dismissed. I believe that means he was unable to present convincing evidence of fraud. Unless he has such evidence, it's now time to concede.