Displaying posts categorized under

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

House GOP Members Want Answers on January 6 Probe By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/14/house-gop-members-want-answers-on-january-6-probe/

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Representatives Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) asked for information about the Justice Department’s abusive investigation into January 6.

“Those that damaged property and assaulted police officers on January 6th should rightfully face justice,” the pair wrote in a letter sent May 14. “However, the public outcry and hyper-politicization of the events on January 6th may incentivize prosecutors to use overly aggressive tactics, overcharge, and abuse the power of the federal government in order to satisfy favored political groups.”

Roy and Massie asked Garland to schedule a briefing with Congress before the end of the month to address several concerns, including how plea deals are arranged, the FBI’s use of force in raiding the homes of nonviolent protesteors, and the Justice Department’s request to hold defendants behind bars pending trial. “[C]ongressional oversight of these prosecutions is essential as a check and balance on that power.”

House Republicans finally are pushing back on the Democrats’ largely fabricated narrative about what happened on January 6. Several GOP congressmen confronted ex-Trump officials in a House hearing on Wednesday, demanding answers on the killing of Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed veteran shot by a still-unidentified Capitol Police officer, and all the “outright propaganda and lies,” as Representative. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) said, peddled by Democrats and the news media.

Gosar also called for the release of the surveillance video captured by the Capitol Police’s security system on January 6. The USCP and Joe Biden’s Justice Department are fighting to keep those recordings under seal even from defense attorneys.

In a lengthy speech on the House floor Friday afternoon, Representative. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) expressed his outrage over the Capitol breach investigation; he cited numerous articles from American Greatness detailing how defendants are being treated and how political protest is being criminalized by Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

The Way of Socialism An absolute commitment to benevolence, like the road that is paved with good intentions, typically leads to an unprofitable destination. By Roger Kimball *****

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/15/the-way-of-socialism/

Anyone who doubts that those in charge of the operation of Providence have a sly sense of humor needs only to ponder the sweet declarations emitted by our more pampered celebrities on the subject of socialism. I remember, for example, when the actor Jim Carrey told Bill Maher that “we have to say yes to socialism—to the word and everything. We have to stop apologizing.”

What a card! Were socialism to be instituted in the United States, one of the first things that would happen is that people like Jim Carrey—with an estimated net worth of $180 million—would be instantly pauperized. For what are the two fundamental pillars of socialism? The abolition of private property and the equalization of wealth. And the cherry on top of this fudge sundae is that Jim Carrey actually starred in a movie called Dumb and Dumber, which is about “two unintelligent but well-meaning friends from Providence, Rhode Island.” Talk about art imitating life.

Let’s leave the latest incarnation of really-existing socialism—the country of Venezuela—to one side. That is a laboratory demonstration of what happens when you take a prosperous country and rigorously impose socialist policies on it. Jeremy Corbyn was partly right when he said the Venezuela of Hugo Chavez showed there was “another way” of doing politics and “it’s called socialism.”

Corbyn forgot to add: that way leads to universal immiseration and societal collapse, which is exactly what is happening in the once-rich South American country now. 

Is Joe Biden on the cusp of doing to us what Chavez did to Venezuela? To be frank, I do not think the American people will let him. But in the House of Fiscal Misery there are many mansions, and so far the actions of the Biden Administration have not been encouraging, as anyone who can pronounce the words “inflation,” “consumer confidence,” “energy prices,” or “taxes” knows full well. 

After De Blasio Says Subways Safe, 4 Slashed on Subway Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/05/after-de-blasio-says-subways-safe-4-slashed-subway-daniel-greenfield/

You can set your clock by what New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio says as long as you want to be late everywhere and to everything.

“What’s happening right now is clearly at the instruction of the governor, MTA leadership is fearmongering,” de Blasio said in an interview Friday. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’ve ridden the subways. So many folks in my life ride the subways all the time. They’re overwhelmingly safe,” the mayor said, adding that “there have been some incidents that truly are troubling.”

Here’s the latest “troubling incident”.

A group of men who are believed to have attacked at least four different people – slashing three of them – during a 12-minute violence spree on Friday morning

The first of Friday’s incidents was reported around 4:25 a.m., when a 44-year-old man riding a southbound No. 4 train was approached by two men, one of whom slashed him in the face, police said. The victim got off the subway at Manhattan’s Union Square Station.

The Paranoid Style in Progressive Politics Its attempts to pathologize every instance of Republican opposition to the Democratic program say much about the Left’s own anxieties. Lee Siegel

https://www.city-journal.org/the-paranoid-style-in-progressive-politics

The other day I found myself staring at this headline in the New York Times: “GOP Focuses on Polarizing Cultural Issues in Drive to Regain Power.” For a moment, I thought the article would, in a commonsense way, explore how Republicans were confronting the polarizing cultural issues that had been created by liberals. That is to say, I thought the article would be about the hardball nature of American politics.

Instead, it presented Republican opposition to explosively controversial questions like packing the Supreme Court, defunding the police, and giving legal status to illegal immigrants as part empty cynicism, part mental imbalance. The reporter, Carl Hulse, portrayed the Republican resistance to such extreme Democratic initiatives as a determined effort to appease the “conservative base.” That’s a phrase that has become a Democratic mantra signifying chthonic forces of disorder, and it has the effect of halting in its tracks any political argument or debate.

Nowhere in Hulse’s report was there an acknowledgment that the Republican focus on these matters was a legitimate form of democratic politics—as robust, and constitutional, as the calculating Democratic manipulation of same. What’s more, Hulse noted that “Republicans are also hammering at issues of race and sexual orientation, seeking to use Democrats’ push to confront systemic racism and safeguard transgender rights as attack lines.” The article treats “systemic racism” as a settled historic fact, as though it were the institution of slavery in the antebellum South. But systemic racism—the assumption that white racism is fundamental to American identity—is not a settled historical fact, having been discredited by, among others, at least a score of distinguished liberal historians. And transgender rights are a complex matter, extending from protection of transgender people under the law to the question of transgender athletes—on which there is no consensus on the right—and the issue of sexual-reassignment surgery for children. But Republicans violently “hammer” at such settled questions “in a drive to regain power,” while Democrats gently “push to confront” and “safeguard” them in a spirit of truth and justice.

The Beasts Smell Blood Gary Gindler

www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/the_beasts_smell_blood.html?

China and Russia are aggressively raising their stakes against Taiwan and Ukraine.  Why?  Just take a sober view of Biden’s America, at war with itself.  China and Russia came to a pragmatic conclusion: America in 2021 has neither the desire nor the courage nor the political will to protect itself and its allies.

It was under Biden that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline work continued.  It was under Biden that the preparations for the seizure of Taiwan by China entered the final phase.  Under Biden, China’s seizure of the South China Sea, suspended by Trump, is close to completion.  Under Biden, both Russia and China decided on something that was simply unthinkable under Trump — they forced preparations for open aggression against neighbors.

Trump, at the end of a dinner with the Chinese leader, three months into his presidency, fired 60 Tomahawk missiles at Syria.  Everything was organized so no one doubted that the missiles were intended for China and Russia’s leaders, although they were fired into Syria.  A year later, in February 2018, a platoon of American Rangers defeated a battalion tactical group of Russian mercenaries in Syria.  Of the 500 people, few survived, and all 27 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in a four-hour battle.

Both China and Russia immediately realized that, with Trump, the guy who brought down a billion dollars’ worth of missiles while sweets were being served, it was necessary to remain within the bounds of decency.  Under Biden, no one is going to remain within these bounds.  On the contrary, Beijing and Moscow are well aware that Biden is a temporary, accidental person in the White House, and it is necessary to strike while the iron is hot.  Under Biden, Beijing’s and Moscow’s expansionist plans are destined to come true.

Russia and China are united against a common enemy.  China’s #1 territorial objective is the capture of Taiwan.  Russia’s territorial task #1 is the seizure of Ukraine.  Trump was an insurmountable obstacle to their aggressive plans for four years.  Putin has taught the world that he is amassing troops on the border with Ukraine every spring.  But with each escalation, nothing happens.  More precisely, nothing happened during the Trump era, but with Biden, it can explode.

House Republicans Defy the January 6 Narrative The script about that day might have been concocted by Democrats and the media but the true account of what happened before, during, and after is still being written. By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/05/13/house-republicans-defy-the-january-6-narrative/

U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) prompted outrage this week following his remarks during a congressional hearing on the events of January 6, 2021.

Clyde, along with several Republican House members, is finally pushing back on the Democrats’ allegedly unassailable narrative about what happened that day. The roughly four-hour disturbance at the Capitol, as I’ve covered for months, is being weaponized not only against Donald Trump but also hundreds of nonviolent Americans who traveled to their nation’s capital to protest the final certification of a fraudulent presidential election.

Big Tech used the so-called “attack” on the Capitol as an excuse to achieve its long-sought-after goal to deplatform the former president; NeverTrumpers such as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) insist the chaos of the day was fueled by the “Big Lie”—in other words, the belief held by tens of millions of Republicans—and a good share of independents—that Joe Biden didn’t legitimately earn enough votes to win the White House. The Biden regime vows to use the “whole of government” to purge the country of “domestic violent extremists,” which is code for Trump supporters.

And the media continue to blatantly lie about the number of fatalities on January 6, including the myth that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died at the hands of Trump “insurrectionists.”

But some Republicans are fed up with all the myths, the Justice Department’s abusive manhunt for Capitol protesters, and the obvious double standards.

After citing the Russian collusion hoax and Robert Mueller’s special counsel probe as the “only insurrection” he’s ever witnessed, Clyde unloaded on former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller during their testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“The House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection,” Clyde said. “This is the truth. There was an undisciplined mob, there were some rioters and some who committed acts of vandalism. But let me be clear. There was no insurrection, and to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bald-faced lie.”

Some videos, Clyde accurately concluded, looked like scenes from a “normal tourist visit.”

His comments caused the predictable pearl-clutching. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who initiated the falsehood that January 6 was an “armed insurrection,” accused Clyde of being in “denial . . . and in the range of sick” for daring to call out the obvious discrepancies between cherry-picked video footage that showed scenes of violence and other recordings that showed far less dangerous activity.

Hunter Biden and a Female Chinese Operative Disturbing smoke over political opposition research and a presidential election. Joseph Hippolito

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/hunter-biden-female-chinese-operative-joseph-hippolito/

Hunter Biden did more than abuse drugs and use his father’s influence to enrich himself and his family. The youngest son of Joe Biden also acted as a conduit — willingly or otherwise — of political information that could be used against President Donald Trump in last year’s Presidential election.

Providing the information was JiaQi Bao, a young woman who worked in the United States as an advisor to Ye Jianming, the founder and chairman of the now-bankrupt conglomerate, CEFE China Energy. That conglomerate, as well as a Chinese investment firm, Bohai Harvest, served as Hunter Biden’s business partners.

Both firms also acted as fronts for the Chinese government and Communist Party.

On May 7, Britain’s Daily Mail published information it received from the younger Biden’s laptop about his relationship with Bao and her influence on him. Yet five months ago, a cyber security expert from New York, Yaacov Apelbaum, published the findings on his own blog, “The Illustrated Primer.” 

Chinese intelligence “controlled large parts of the strategy, funding, and overseas operations” for Bohai Harvest and CEFE China Energy, Apelbaum wrote. But in March 2018, when the conglomerate went bankrupt, Ye was arrested in China and charged with bribery. Since then, the world has received no news about Ye’s whereabouts or fate.

Bao also encouraged Hunter Biden to keep $1.4 million that rightfully belonged to the bankrupt conglomerate’s creditors. By doing so, the Chinese might have trapped the Bidens into doing their bidding.

Disneyland for the Old Two days of magical cheer in The Villages, Florida. Katie Hopkins

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/two-days-villages-florida-katie-hopkins/

“But why are they dancing?” I asked the gentleman who had come to collect me for my speaking engagement at one of the nearby recreation centers.

It was 5 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon and the square was filled with the sound of a great band and a happy gathering of oldies in floral shirts or sparkling tops, dancing away in the sunshine.

“Because it is Wednesday,” he replied without a hint of comedy.

And that’s the thing here in the largest retirement community on the planet: people dance just because it is Wednesday and they are darned happy to be alive. I can confirm this firsthand because I went back the next day and joined them doing the same thing again because it was Thursday.

Around 150,000 people now live in this place that some term Disneyland for the Old, and it is easy to see why. I used to work at Disneyland, Paris and the similarities are remarkable. Everything appears perfect, the buildings in the main squares are all fabricated to a theme, and an army of gardeners, food and beverage staff and community police keep the place looking Disney-perfect at all times.

If there are 150,000 residents, each of them must own at least two golf carts, if the sheer volume of cart traffic is anything to go by. These retired folk whizz about in these things embossed with their names – his on the driver’s side, hers right beside him – with purpose and at speed, as if late for every tee-off on every golfing green.

The Justice Department’s Resident Conspiracist Susan Hennessey’s appointment suggests the department will be politicized again. By Kimberley Strassel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-justice-departments-resident-conspiracist-11620944310?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

House Democrats in February stripped Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, punishment for promoting conspiracy theories. Democrats this week rewarded their own conspiracy theorist with a powerful position at the Justice Department. Anyone miss William Barr yet?

Lawfare Executive Editor Susan Hennessey announced this week she’s taking a job at the department’s National Security Division, reportedly as senior counsel. Lawfare began in 2010 as a national-security blog, though by the Trump era it had become an unabashed mouthpiece for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, and partisan enough to marinate in the anti-Trump fever swamps.

Before QAnon, there was that tinfoil-hat document called the Steele dossier. It read like the world’s worst spy novel—secret meetings, perverted sexual acts, bribes, blackmail, cutouts—but Ms. Hennessey and her fellow Lawfare contributors lapped it up and played a central role in building and promoting the Russia-collusion fiction. Ms. Hennessey’s history as a National Security Agency lawyer gave credibility to the craziness.

“The allegations are being taken quite seriously,” she assured readers in a post in January 2017, when news of the dossier first broke. Dossier author Christopher Steele is “a person whose work intelligence professionals take seriously,” she added. She also promised that this was not a case of Obama officials “leaking sensitive information” out of “revenge,” since intelligence officials treat sensitive information “with the utmost care.” Within days Lawfare was weaving madcap webs involving Mike Flynn, Roger Stone, Russian banks and Carter Page.

Like all good conspiracists, she also worked hard to cast doubt on facts that disproved her theories. She excoriated a 2018 memo by former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes about FBI surveillance abuses, suggesting it was a “lie.” She wrote this before she’d even read the memo, which proved accurate. When the Justice Department inspector general released a 2019 report lambasting the FBI’s conduct in the Russia probe (including that Mr. Steele had cobbled together gossip), she tweeted that she didn’t “think the findings are significant enough” to “justify the work of a podcast.” (In the runup to her job offer, thousands of her prior tweets disappeared.)

‘Where’s Durham?’: Investigation of Russia-collusion probe’s origin quietly hits second anniversary

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/13/wheres-durham-investigation-russia-collusion-probe/?

Former President Trump gushed “I am so proud” when then-Attorney General William P. Barr tapped John Durham to look for widespread wrongdoing by FBI officials in the early stages of its Russia-collusion probe.

That was in May 2019.

Two years later, Mr. Trump and other conservatives mock the investigation that has practically disappeared without an utterance from Mr. Durham or any sign that he has uncovered anything.

“Where’s Durham?” Mr. Trump said in March. “Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?”

Mr. Trump’s about-face is emblematic of the extent to which conservatives have soured on the Durham investigation. Those who once breathlessly predicted the probe would uncover a deep state conspiracy against Mr. Trump have now reduced it to a punchline.

When a poll last month revealed that 67% of Americans are unaware of the Durham probe, some internet jokesters wondered if Mr. Durham himself was among those oblivious to its existence.

As the investigation sputters toward its second anniversary on Thursday with few signs of life, conservatives are questioning what Mr. Durham has been up to for the past 24 months and if the public ever finds out, will anyone care?

“To say there has been a federal investigation into these FBI abuses and there has been one plea deal is to condemn it,” said Tom Fitton, president of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch. “You are describing failure.”

Once hopeful conservatives believed Mr. Durham would ride into town and aggressively expose malfeasance by Obama-era FBI and Justice Department officials. They expected his probe would shed light on whether FBI officials knowingly misled a court when it obtained permission to wiretap former Trump adviser, Carter Page.

Now they are puzzled as to why he has yet to interview FBI officials who held senior roles in 2016. Former FBI Director James B. Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and anti-Trump investigator Peter Strzok haven’t spoken with Mr. Durham, according to people familiar with the probe.

Mr. Durham did interview former CIA Director John O. Brennan in 2020 but told him that he was not the target of any criminal inquiry. The reason for the Brennan interview remains opaque.

Robert Ray, who succeeded Kenneth Starr as independent counsel during investigations into then-President Clinton, said these types of investigations have a shelf life. The longer an investigation runs, the more obstacles emerge because witnesses’ memories fade and cooperation becomes more difficult to obtain.