Monday, May 18, 2020

Senate Judiciary To Vote On Subpoenaing 53 Obama-Era Officials Over Crossfire Hurricane Scandal

 WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - MAY 12, 2020: U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to the media on his way to the Republican caucus launch.
 The 53 Obama-era officials that are listed as part of Graham’s subpoena included, 

Trisha Anderson, Brian Auten, James Baker, William Barr, Dana Boente, Jennifer Boone, John Brennan, James Clapper, Kevin Clinesmith, James Comey, Patrick Conlon, Michael Dempsey, Stuart Evans, Tashina Gauhar, Carl Ghattas, Curtis Heide, Kathleen Kavalec, David Laufman, Stephen Laycock, Jacob Lew, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Mary McCord, Denis McDonough, Arthur McGlynn, Jonathan Moffa, Sally Moyer, Mike Neufield, Sean Newell, Victoria Nuland, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Stephanie L. O’Sullivan, Lisa Page, Joseph Pientka, John Podesta, Samantha Power, E.W. “Bill” Priestap, Sarah Raskin, Steve Ricchetti, Susan Rice, Rod Rosenstein, Gabriel Sanz-Rexach, Nathan Sheets, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Glenn Simpson, Steve Somma, Peter Strzok, Michael Sussman, Adam Szubin, Jonathan Winer, Christopher Wray, and Sally Yates.”
 
The Senate Judiciary Committee announced late on Monday that it would be voting to authorize issuing subpoenas to top Obama-era officials over their investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and other related matters.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made the announcement in a press release saying that the subpoena authorization “covers a number of documents, communications and testimony from witnesses, including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan, Sally Yates, and others.”

Assuming the vote passes, Graham’s subpoena would give the Committee access to:

UNC economist asks why state remains in coronavirus lockdown

Via Reopen NC

 

UNC-Chapel Hill economist Martin Zelder (guest on the latest edition of the John Locke Foundation’s “HeadLocke” podcast) submits a new column this week. He continues to question state government’s approach to COVID-19.

Why Are We Still In Coronavirus Lockdown?

Suppose you lived in a swamp that was infested by mosquitoes whose bites cause illness and occasionally death, and I proposed to you the following: tear out all vegetation, drain all bodies of water, and only go outdoors 15 minutes a day. And suppose that I insisted that you continue these practices every day for as long as mosquitoes are still a risk. Would you want me to be your Mosquito Abatement Commissioner?

The example is silly, but the analogy, to North Carolina’s coronavirus policy, is not. It raises a number of questions—answered here—whose answers are being overlooked at our peril.

Trump, Many Years Ago

Via Thuy  

It Was Time… This should make your day!

Via The Feral Irishman

 It Was Time…

The Operations team had been watching the governors mansion for just over two weeks now. The team knew the comings and goings of housekeepers, food trucks, security, friends, staffers, and even the exterminator. There was nothing they did not know about the governors day.

Four weeks earlier, the Governor was sued by a group of businessmen and a few State Congressmen. The suit revolved around the Governors “Emergency Order” forcing the state citizens’ to shelter in place along with closing all privately owned businesses. The goal was to lock down the state for three weeks “to flatten the curve“, the Governor said.

At the end of the three weeks the Governor extended the order for an additional eight weeks.
Citizens’ were restricted to essential travel, which boiled down to travel to grocery and drug stores or doctor appointments. No grass cutting, fishing, or travel to a citizen’s additional properties was allowed. State Police were pulling citizens’ over on the interstate and questioning the purpose of their travel. If the Trooper deemed travel not appropriate, the Citizen and all passengers were given a $1,000 ticket. Then, a tow truck was called, and the Citizen’s vehicle was towed off to a impound yard. The Citizens’ in the vehicle were taken to their home by the State Police Trooper that had stopped them.

Some 42% Of Jobs Lost In Pandemic Are Gone For Good

Via Jessica

 Virus Outbreak Illinois Unemployment

Only some of roughly 36 million jobs lost since the beginning of the lockdowns designed to protect hospitals from surging cases of COVID-19 patients are not coming back in a V-shaped or a U-shaped recover. The University of Chicago estimates that 42% of the recent layoffs will result in permanent job losses.

“We find three new hires for every 10 layoffs caused by the shock and estimate that 42% of recent layoffs will result in permanent job loss,” writes Jose Maria Barrero, Nick Bloom and Steven Davis from the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago in a working paper titled “COVID-19 As A Reallocation Shock” published on May 5.

More @ Forbes

Almost Home


Memories, but no bales like that on the farm.

Elon Musk: ‘Take the Red Pill’ & Maher On OCD Pandemic Overreaction: ‘What’s The Point Of Life If You Can’t Live It?’

 Musk

Elon Musk: ‘Take the Red Pill’

Television personality Bill Maher during an interview on October 7, 2008.

Maher On OCD Pandemic Overreaction: ‘What’s The Point Of Life If You Can’t Live It?

NC unemployment delays have been a disaster. Own it, Gov. Cooper

Via Jessica

 

North Carolina’s unemployment system is a disaster right now. Hundreds of thousands of people aren’t getting their benefits. They’ve waited as long as two months instead of the two weeks that’s typical. They’re getting little to no information from the state unemployment office, and their governor is not doing a whole lot better.

At a news conference last week, Roy Cooper said he knows N.C. families need help and doesn’t think the state unemployment office has done enough. “I am pushing them to move faster,” the governor said. That’s a little too close to blame shifting for North Carolinians who desperately need their benefits. The governor needs to own this problem, address it, and fix it.


Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article242807601.html?fbclid=IwAR3oQlFeyJfZUCzZOxZU1mTRVKRvRUt4G7OrS-SnMLiDF32TgWAgh6E1f90#storylink=cpyMore @ The Char;lotte Observer

Team Obama’s Unmasking Dodge

 Opinion: The FBI’s Flynn Outrage

Biden, Clapper and Brennan serve up dubious answers.

The media are mostly ignoring the news that 39 Obama officials sought to read the transcripts of Michael Flynn’s conversations with foreigners, but here and there they’ve asked a question. The unpersuasive answers suggest there’s more to learn.

Take Joe Biden, who “unmasked” Mr. Flynn only a few days before leaving office as Vice President. Last week Mr. Biden told ABC that he knew “nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn.” George Stephanopoulos reminded Mr. Biden that he attended a Jan. 5, 2017 Oval Office...

More @  WSJ

Someone committed a crime in the Michael Flynn case. It wasn’t him.

 Former national security adviser Michael Flynn in 2018. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Obama administration officials leaked unmasked intelligence about Flynn to the press. The fact that those individuals have gone unpunished for three years, while Flynn has endured a legal hell, is appalling.
Let’s be clear: A crime was committed in the Michael Flynn case. But that crime was committed not by the retired general, but by someone who leaked the classified details of his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The Justice Department was correct to drop charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI about his communications with Kislyak. The case was reviewed by Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri with two decades of experience as a prosecutor and FBI special agent, and the resulting 108-page motion to dismiss is a searing indictment of FBI misconduct.

Comment on "Colossal Failure of Government

The Snowflake Hilariously Summed Up By This Brilliant Meme

The teaching of non-Revisionist history (historical revisionism is the re-interpretation of historical accounts) should be part of every curriculum throughout every school and university in the land.

As each generation passes, the record of their times must not pass with them into oblivion. Young people should be able to feel and understand the burdens, the mistakes and the achievements that their predecessors dealt with.

Faced as they will be with their own challenges, they will then come upon them hopefully equipped with some in-depth knowledge of the successes and failures of the past. To replicate the former and dodge the latter will be a passport into their, hopefully, better future.

I say this because the older I get the more acute becomes a sense of my own mortality. This is perfectly normal and inevitable. I have found that understanding and accepting this eases or eliminates any innate fears and frees the mind to look into the future with a much broader and far less selfish perspective.

Conclusion: The prime function of each generation is to prepare the next for the trials and tribulations they will most certainly face. That is the reality of life for a sentient species and it must not be evaded, misrepresented or understated, but if it is it will be the following younger generations who will pay the ultimate price – life is hard and now becoming harder and they will not grow old to teach the next.

No doubt the current indoctrinated and benighted snowflake-safe space generation will be the first to fall; perhaps that is the ultimate objective of their tutors. It is very easy to fall into slavery of the mind or body, or both, but damned hard, sometimes impossible, to escape it.

~~Seneca III

  Colossal Failure of Government

Obamagate

Via Cousin John