Monthly Archives: June 2018

The clown show continues

“Current [FBI] Director Christopher Wray responded to the IG’s report at a press conference and promised there’d be consequences for bad behavior. But he also said, ‘nothing in this report impugns the integrity of our workforce as a whole or the FBI as an institution.’ Like hell it doesn’t. What the report describes is a morally bankrupt clown show, and the fact that Wray won’t admit that means the show goes on.”

Wray sounds like what federal Judge Amy Berman denied in sentencing former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to jail without bail on far less important matters: “This isn’t middle school. I can’t take away your phone.”

Wray sounds just like a middle school teacher, not the head of the discredited clown show called the FBI. Fart, Barf & Itch, indeed!

After all, then-Obama FBI director James Comey was violating the law just like Hillary was: “While Comey was investigating Hillary Clinton for using her personal email to conduct State Department business,  ‘Comey used a personal email account (a Gmail account) to conduct FBI business.’ (pg. 427)…”

Via The LidPJMedia

UPDATE:  President Trump told FoxNews that Comey’s having his own private, off-the-books email account for official business (just like Hillary) was not the most interesting item of the IG report but certainly “the funniest.”

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Rule 5: Ashley Graham

The farce that has to end

“As retired FBI special agent Thomas Baker wrote on these pages last month (“The FBI’s Shocking Disrespect for Congress,” May 11), the FBI has damaged its credibility by flouting subpoenas and slow-rolling or hiding information. This behavior is why Congress must continue to pry out the truth.”

Deputy AG Ron Rosenputz’s recent threat to subpoena congressional staff is a good place to start. Fire the SOB, Mr. President, then order all documents released immediately.

Via The Wall Street Journal

UPDATE: One of the curious things the IG report found was the extent of leaks to the snooze media by literally scores of FBI personnel. In a curious reversal of the old norm of reporters being wined and dined: “FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings with media representatives, were treated to drinks and meals after work by reporters, and were the guests of journalists at nonpublic social events…”

The Texas-Mexico border: Safe and sound

“Our southern border is safe and sound. That’s what I found tracing it by bicycle. The one thing I didn’t find on the border that I expected to find everywhere, growing like scrub brush in the desert, was anger. I assumed Mexicans would be angry with Americans, intruders like me. I assumed Texans would be angry with Mexicans. I was wrong on both counts. These are generous people with centuries of a shared culture.”

A good read.

Via The Weekly Standard

Mr Boy: Don’t interfere

Mr. B. doesn’t want me to accompany him to his new student conference later this month in Aggieland. I wouldn’t have fun, he says, as if fun were the be-all determinant of human behavior.

Mrs. Charm, were she still with us, would insist on going. On the other hand, I remember that my parents didn’t get involved in my college career. They just quietly paid most of the bills, as I will be doing now.

Blue collar space

This collection of short stories recommended by novelist Sarah Hoyt looks good so far. The theme and characters remind me of Allen Steele’s novels of men living and working in orbit. Also the rough and tumble Belters of the Expanse.

The future, as the author says, won’t just happen. Someone has to build it.

UPDATE:  The author, Martin Shoemaker, wrote Today I Am Paul, a good short story about a sophisticated android who cares for the dying. It’s free here.

Telling the truth in three-quarter time

Amazing how the G7 kibitzers (and their elitest clones in the media) got all bent at Trump simply telling the truth about tariffs and other trade barriers.

“Trump is right that most countries protect their agricultural industries with tariff and non-tariff barriers. (The EU’s ban on GMO crops is an example of a non-tariff barrier that is rational only as an act of protectionism.) The U.S. has the most efficient agricultural sector in the world, and since most countries can’t compete with our farmers, they erect trade barriers. How is this any different from our imposing tariffs on steel or automobiles? It isn’t.

“Does Canada actually impose a 270% tariff on American dairy products, as Trump keeps saying? Yes, it does, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company:

Canada levies a tariff of 270 per cent on milk, 245 per cent on cheese and 298 per cent on butter in an effort to keep imports out and tightly control supply.

“So Trump is right. A world without tariffs is a desirable goal, but a world in which the U.S. has no tariffs, but other countries erect barriers to our products, is not.”

But the G7 bigwigs meet to party, not to tell the truth. And truth-tellers are not welcome. Especially not in the snooze media. It interrupts their snoozing.

Via Power Line Blog