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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

What Is Justice for McCabe? By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/andrew-mccabe-sues-justice-department-seeks-clemency/

The former deputy director’s FBI coddled Clinton and addled Trump. Now he seeks clemency . . . even as he sues the Justice Department.

Hillary Clinton checked every box for a violation of the Espionage Act. So much so that, in giving her a pass, the FBI figured it better couch her conduct as “extremely careless,” rather than “grossly negligent.” The latter description was stricken from an earlier draft of then-director James Comey’s remarks because it is, verbatim, the mental state the statute requires for a felony conviction. It wouldn’t do to have an “exoneration” statement read like a felony indictment.

In point of fact, the careless/negligent semantic game was a sideshow. Mrs. Clinton’s unlawful storage and transmission of classified information had been patently willful. In contemptuous violation of government standards, which she was bound not only to honor but to enforce as secretary of state, she systematically conducted her government business by private email, via a laughably unsecure homebrew server set-up. Her Obama administration allies stress that it was not her purpose to harm national security, but that was beside the point. The crime was mishandling classified information, and she committed it. And even if motive had mattered (it didn’t), her purpose was to conceal the interplay between her State Department and the Clinton Foundation, and to avoid generating a paper trail as she prepared to run for president. No, that’s not as bad as trying to do national-security harm, but it’s condemnable all the same.

While Clinton’s mishandling of classified information got all the attention, it was just the tip of the felony iceberg. Thousands of the 33,000 emails she withheld and undertook to “bleach bit” into oblivion related to State Department business. It is a felony to misappropriate even a single government record. The destruction of the emails, moreover, occurred after a House Committee investigating the Benghazi massacre issued subpoenas and preservation directives to Clinton’s State Department and Clinton herself. If Andrew Weissmann and the rest of the Mueller probe pit-bulls had half as solid an obstruction case against Donald Trump, the president would by now have been impeached, removed, and indicted.

James Comey is proof the ‘deep state’ is something to fear: David Harsanyi

https://nypost.com/2019/08/29/james-comey-is-proof-the-deep-state-is-something-to-fear/

For nearly three years now, those who promise to save us from the wicked clutches of President Donald Trump have bombarded America with lectures about the “rule of law.” Yet, over and over again, these self-styled champions of justice feel free to disregard the law whenever it suits them. The latest example is former FBI Director James Comey.

A new report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Justice Department found that Comey had written FBI memos, illicitly passed them on to a lawyer friend, who in turn leaked them to a friendly New York Times reporter who had been spreading the Russian conspiracy theory.

Why? Because Comey was interested in extracting revenge on the man who had fired him, Donald Trump.

Comey, the report found, had leaked “investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.”

That outcome, as Comey had admitted to Congress, was to “prompt the appointment of a special counsel” to investigate the president’s alleged conspiracy with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. By doing this, the DOJ inspector general, who is widely considered both meticulous and unbiased, found that Comey had “set a dangerous example” and “releas[ed] sensitive information” to “create public pressure for official action.”

It worked. And by manufacturing an investigation into the president — one that he didn’t have enough evidence to pursue in an official capacity — Comey had not only abused his power but plunged the nation into two years of hysterics about Russian interference.

A Centrist Debate Shutout The next Democratic debate is going to list hard to the left.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-centrist-debate-shutout-11567033452

Democrats on Thursday will announce the lineup for their next presidential debate, and the good news is that New Yorkers Kirsten Gillibrand (who dropped out Wednesday) and Bill de Blasio won’t be on stage to afflict viewers. The bad news: Neither will the centrists who dared in the first two debates to raise questions about the party’s leftward lunge.

By Wednesday 10 candidates had met the Democratic National Committee criteria of at least 2% support in four polls and donations from 130,000 people. That means no appearance in Houston on Sept. 12 for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

These candidates were truth-tellers on Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, free health care for undocumented immigrants from everywhere, slavery reparations and more. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have ended their campaigns, so Americans are likely to hear an unrelieved bidding war of spending promises and higher taxes. The centrist dearth will put more pressure on former Vice President Joe Biden to defend what is left of his moderate policy positions. But it might open running room for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a liberal who understands the need for a private economy.

By the way, billionaire Tom Steyer might not make the stage despite having spent more than $325,000 a day on campaign advertising since entering the race. This would prove again that Democrats are wrong about money dominating politics.

U.S. Intel Gatekeeper Dragging Feet on Trump-Russia Files, Insiders Say Paul Sperry

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/08/28/top_us_intel_office_dragging_feet_on_russiagate_files_for_trump_insiders_say_120135.html

More than three months after President Trump granted his attorney general unprecedented power to declassify intelligence files, key U.S. intelligence agencies are still withholding documents related to the Trump-Russia affair, say people with direct knowledge of White House discussions on the subject.

The source of the logjam: the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which Trump is in the process of shaking up after the resignations last month of its director, Dan Coats, and principal deputy, Sue Gordon. “Establishment” officials in that agency are still dragging their feet, say the sources, who spoke on condition that they not be further identified.

Sources who have seen the documents generally described their contents to RealClearInvestigations. They said the material still under wraps includes: 

Evidence that President Obama’s CIA, FBI, and Justice Department illegally eavesdropped on the Trump campaign — cases separate from the FBI’s disputed FISA court-approved surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

This is what energy independence looks like By Silvio Canto, Jr. (Finally!!!!rsk)

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/this_is_what_energy_independence_looks_like.html

The U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas.

Let me reveal my age and remember that I watched President Richard M. Nixon call for “energy independence” many years ago.   His successors have more or less said the same thing.

It appears that President Nixon’s call may soon be reality.  In fact, it looks like we may be “drowning the world” with oil, according to Nick Cunningham:   

The U.S. is still expected to account of the bulk of new drilling and the vast majority of new production, with much of that coming from shale. 

Already, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas. 

And the pace has accelerated in recent years. 

Taxpayers Forced to Cover Gender Surgery for Abuser and Rapist Daniel Greenfield …..???!!

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274763/taxpayers-forced-cover-gender-surgery-abuser-and-daniel-greenfield

Have we reached peak human rights yet?

The state of Idaho has been ordered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to provide gender confirmation surgery to inmate Adree Edmo.

According to Boise State Public Radio, the panel of judges agreed with a federal judge that it’s medically necessary and not doing so would violate the eighth amendment.

Edmo was convicted for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy when he was 22.

The Framers truly intended Cruel and Unusual Punishment to mean that taxpayers are obligated to fund lifestyle surgery for child rapists.

The news outlet reports that Edmo suffers from gender dysphoria, which experts say can cause a person severe distress. He has twice attempted self-castration.

Without costing taxpayers anything.

The media, which advocates for Edmo, has little interest in his victim.

Brady Summers dated Mason Edmo, now Adree Edmo, for two years. It was his first relationship since coming out. It did not end well.

“He would beat me on a constant basis,” Summers said. “I had to keep my head low. I had to be careful what I said, careful what I did. And the final straw of me escaping that was him beating me with a frying pan.”

Edmo went to jail, but tried to reconcile with Summers when he got out. It also did not end well. Not long after that, Edmo was in prison for sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16. It was then that Edmo began to get treatment for gender dysphoria, or conflict over feeling like he, Mason, should be a female. Edmo was also diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” and now identifies as a female and goes by the name Adree. She says that she was living as a female before she went to prison. Summers says Edmo never showed signs of either of these conditions, but was always a masculine, gay man.

“Never once indicated anything of gender dysphoria or sexual indifference,” he said. “He was a predator. He, on several occasions, had his way with me. It was brutal.”

More great work by the 9th circuit court.

The clever fake rabbis who made millions off of Prohibition Alice Kassens

https://www.jta.org/2019/08/27/opinion/the-clever-fake-rabbis-who-made-millions-off-of-prohibition

SALEM, Va. (JTA) — The Roaring Twenties was a raging headache for Jewish leadership. 

The 18th Amendment, which prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors,” soared through state legislatures and into law in 1919 fueled by the efforts of groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League. It resulted in a period of angst, imposters and outrage — but not for the reasons you might imagine. 

Suspicion abounded in the 1920s, especially among Jews and Catholics, that Protestants were seeking to cleanse America of immigrants and racial religious minorities. Prohibitionists claimed that ridding the nation of “demon rum” and other intoxicating liquors would cure social ills such as domestic violence, but others suspected the temperance movement was another example of a Protestant establishment shackling American Jews and Catholics.

Regardless of intent, politicians did not foresee the incentives that would lead to all kinds of subterfuge — the growing class of “fake rabbis,” for one.

Because wine plays a role in both Catholic and Jewish rituals and customs, leaders of both faiths felt prohibition would violate their First Amendment rights. The Volstead Act provided the details of how the 18th Amendment would be enforced, including allowing an exemption for sacramental wine. 

This exemption allowed for the use of wine by permitted individuals in religious functions and likely was a concession for the Jewish and Catholic vote. Catholic priests were permitted to serve wine in the church. Given that Jews conduct some ceremonies in the home, rabbis served as middlemen for their congregations, submitting a list of their congregation membership to Prohibition officials in exchange for permits for their members to purchase 10 gallons of wine per year from authorized dealers.  

Jordan Peterson: The deepfake artists must be stopped before we no longer know what’s real

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan-peterson-deep-fake
I can tell you from personal experience how disturbing it is to discover a website devoted to making fake audio clips of you — for comic or malevolent purposes

Something very strange and disturbing happened to me recently. If it was just relevant to me, it wouldn’t be that important (except perhaps to me), and I wouldn’t be writing this column. But it’s something that is likely more important and more ominous than we can even imagine.

There are already common fraudulent schemes being perpetrated by both telephone and internet. One known as the “Grandparent Scam” is particularly reprehensible, first because it is perpetrated on elderly people who are, in general, more susceptible to tech-savvy criminals and second because it is based on the manipulation of familial love, trust and compassion. The criminal running the Grandparent Scam calls, or emails the victim, pretending to represent a grandchild who is now in trouble with the law or who needs money for a hospital bill for an injury that can’t be discussed, say, with parents, because of the moral trouble that might ensue. They generally call late at night — say at four in the morning — because that adds to the confusion. The preferred mechanism of money movement is wire transfer — and that’s a warning: don’t transfer money by wire without knowing for certain who is receiving it, because once it’s gone, it’s not coming back.

Now what if it was possible to conduct such a scam using the actual voice of the hypothetical victim? Worse, what if it was possible to do so with voice and video image, indistinguishable from the real thing? If we’re not at that point now (and we probably are) we will be within months.

‘The Squad’ Co-Sponsors Bill Claiming Israel Tortures Children, And Parrots Other Terrorist Propaganda By Warren Henry

https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/26/squad-co-sponsors-bill-claiming-israel-tortures-children-terrorist-propaganda/

The claims made in the bill originate mostly from a group that could be described as the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization.

Many Americans now know that Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar—two members of “the squad” of far-left congresswomen so much in the news—were recently barred from traveling to Israel to agitate for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Fewer know all four members of “the squad,” including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, have co-sponsored a bill that accuses the Jewish state of torturing children. Fewer still know the claims made in the bill originate mostly from a group that could be described as the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization.

The so-called “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act“ was re-introduced in the House by Rep. Betty McCollum, whose congressional district neighbors Omar’s in Minnesota. Until recently, McCollum was considered a supporter of Israel, but a critic of its government.

In February, however, she condemned “[t]he right-wing, extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu and its apartheid-like policies,” adding “there are now members of Congress who are not willing to ignore the Israeli government’s destructive actions because they are afraid of losing an election.”

McCabe and Papadopoulos: Two-Tiered Justice By Andrew C. McCarthy

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/andrew-mccabe-george-papadopoulos-two-tiered-justice/

“Equal justice under the law” is not supposed to be an aspiration or a quaint slogan. It is supposed to be a guarantee.

The date of a meeting, that’s all the lie was about.

George Papadopoulos claimed that a meeting he’d had with the mysterious Maltese professor, Josef Mifsud, happened slightly before the green-as-grass 28-year-old was recruited into the Trump campaign. In reality, it was slightly after.

It wasn’t a very important lie. It was of no consequence to the FBI or the special counsel’s investigation. Papadopoulos was such an afterthought that the Bureau did not bother to interview him until late January 2017 — about 10 months after he met Mifsud. By the time Papadopoulos was charged, the Trump–Russia investigation had been ongoing for well over a year — it was already clear that there was no conspiracy.

Yet that didn’t stop Mueller’s staff and Rod Rosenstein, their Justice Department superior, from indicting Papadopoulos on a felony charge. Nor did it stop them from exhorting a federal court to impose a sentence of incarceration. (The judge thought so little of the case, a prison term of 14 days was imposed.)

It wasn’t enough that prosecutors and agents had scared the bejesus out Papadopoulos by scheming to arrest him as he disembarked from a flight in the early evening – after the court was closed, ensuring that young George would spend the night in jail. The fact that he had voluntarily spoken to the feds, that he had counsel who’d made themselves and him available to Mueller’s prosecutors, that he was no flight risk – none of that counted for anything. After all, what fun would it be to call his lawyers and arrange his surrender for processing and quick release on bail? Not when government officials could flex their muscles and show him who’s boss, right?