After month of breathless media drooling over Robert Mueller’s investigation in possible Russian collusion in the 2016, Mueller gives us Ukraine and money laundering:
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager to President Donald Trump, and a business associate were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and violating federal lobbying and banking laws, the federal special counsel said on Monday.
“The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts,”
Paging Clara Peller, so where is the connection to the campaign of last year, Donald Trump or Russia? Oh year Manafort once worked for the Trump campaign.
A federal grand jury approved the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter has told Reuters, adding it could be unsealed as soon as Monday.
Mueller was hired to investigate crime. Instead he, or his team, commits them.
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Lt. Colonel, US Army (retired) Ralph Peter on the deserter Bergdahl, from Fox News:
The sentence the military judge will impose on Tali-Bowe Bergdahl isn’t about one self-centered deserter. It’s about our national defense. The judge’s decision will decide the state of discipline on battlefields for decades to come. Bergdahl has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He has pleaded guilty to both charges.
[…]
One need feel no personal animus toward Bergdahl to recognize that the proper punishment for his misdeeds would be the death penalty (his behavior condemned better men to death). But we no longer punish deserters that way.
The heaviest sentence that could be imposed upon Bergdahl is life in prison—to make the point to all those contemplating such crimes in the future that there will be grave penalties.
Bergdahl’s lark in the park cost the lives of six of brother soldiers. Our nation needs a clear message to our current a future soldiers that Bergdahl’s behavior will not be tolerated.
So I wonder…
Are Frankenstein movies offensive to those whose grandparents have had organ transplants?
Two reporters from the New York Slimes were shocked to learn that Hillary Clinton is in the words of the late William Safire a congenital liar.
Former Senator Bob Kerrey:
“Clinton’s an unusually good liar. Unusually Good. Do you realize that?”
Britt Hume, Fox News, video:
William Safire, Jan 08, 1996. New York Slimes:
Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar.
Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.
It appears to be a benefit of working for the Slimes is that you don’t actually have to read the paper, from Washington Examiner:
Two New York Times reporters are calling out people tied to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee for denying the Clinton campaign and DNC’s role in the making of the so-called “Trump dossier,” following a report Tuesday that found they funded the research for the dossier.
“When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer @marceelias pushed back vigorously, saying “You (or your sources) are wrong,” New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel tweeted of Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Marc Elias.
So much for the so-called Newspaper of Record.
Look let’s be honest about this. Both Corker and Flake were going to be primaried and the chances were very good indeed that they would both lose in the primary process.
And, justifiably so. Their recent comments show clearly their disconnection with the Republican base. With that disconnection they are absolutely useless and should leave. Now.
One of the problems with representative democracy is that elected officials tend to be unable to see past their next election campaign. Hence, long term solutions are kicked down the road in the name of political expediency. The New York Slimes rationalizes the urge to sabotage 401(k) retirement account for no long term financial benefit to the taxpayers:
Mr. Trump’s tweet concerned one of those accounting maneuvers, which would have allowed Republicans to effectively borrow tax revenues from the future to offset some rate cuts today. Reducing 401(k) contribution limits would force retirement savers to pay more in taxes today, as they sock away money, but less in the future, when they began withdrawing retirement funds tax-free.
More taxes now, less taxes latter, and reduced retirement benefits down the road. The government does not win, but responsible retirees lose. Bad idea.
Hat tip and reax, the Pundit from Poca, Don Surber:
Back in 1986, I signed up and went full in on stocks. I looked at the 30 year picture.
People told me the market might crash. It did the next year. It came back.
I never wavered, even when the market crashed upon the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Remember, the S&P fell 16% in his first six months as president. I saw it as a buying opportunity
Alas if only the political class could have been as smart back in 1986 as Mr. Sur4er was.
Jimmy Carter, the disgraced former President, has volunteered to go to North Korea, from Power Line:
Carter doubts that China can help rein in North Korea. The Chinese have no relationship with Kim Jong Un, he explains.
Carter doesn’t either. However, he has a relationship with the dictator’s grandfather. In 1994, he negotiated a disastrous deal with the regime and managed to foist it on President Clinton. The current crisis is the fruit of that deal.
Tell the Chicom, it is either no nukes for the Norks are we sell tactical nukes to South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
The deserter Bergdahl is not feeling the love, from NBC News:
LONDON — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who spent five years a captive of the Taliban after abandoning his army base in Afghanistan, has said returning home to the U.S. was as tough as his time as a hostage.
The former prisoner of war, who earlier this week pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior-before-the-enemy charges,
[…]
But Republicans roundly criticized Obama and President Donald Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly saying Bergdahl deserved to be executed by firing squad or thrown from a plane without a parachute.
I agree with the President, from Legal Information Institute:
10 U.S. Code § 899 – Art. 99. Misbehavior before the enemy
[…]
shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
Bergdahl plead guilty to the crime of Misbehavior Before the Enemy and death is a fitting punishment.
We’re seeing an awful lot of Articles now about Harvey Weinstein and all of the people that he was schmoozing with including a number of top-level Democrats ….and of course John McCain, but I repeat myself.
And who would have thought six months ago that this stuff would be happening? Well, we did here. Mind, not Weinstein particularly, but Hollywood, certainly the Democrats certainly and the establishment from both parties.
We’ve been saying for a long time that the culture simply put was being pushed too far… And that’s precisely What’s Happening Here. A fatal error has been made and we’re now seeing the consequences of that error. I for one am not surprised and in fact I’m extremely pleased. It means we actually stand a chance of saving this culture.
Really.
What we are seeing right now is the American culture finally hitting the international “enough” line.
Think on this for a minute. The NFL, Weinstein and with that, Hollywood as a whole, the flat-out rejection of the pig in a pantsuit and all the criminality that she represents…. The election of Donald Trump, the rejection of the establishment in both parties,…Indeed just about every major Story coming up lately on the domestic front is the American culture rising up to protect itself and reestablish itself. As I said as regards the fall of the Soviet Union, the culture will always Prevail. Yes, sometimes it takes a while, but you can put your money on the culture winning out eventually.
Once that Tipping Point is reached, all the stuff that’s been hidden for years suddenly starts coming out as the people who benefited from the Clique now being rebelled against, see which way the wind is blowing and understanding that there’s only one way they can save their sorry backsides.
I doubt it will help them, but it’s amazing the number of Stories we already knew that come out of such confessions.
There’s a number of people who point the finger of blame at Donald Trump for this happening, or praise from his supporters, but the fact of the matter is Trump is a symptom not the cause of the downfall of the….. shall we call them the “dirty Democrats”? There’s been a rebellion coming for some time and Trump just happened to ride that particular wave. And as I’ve been saying for several months now, I think we could have made a better choice, but there it is.
Personally, I consider watching all this to be more entertaining than anything Hollywood has come up with lately.Popcorn, anyone?
Leads from Behind, a/k/a Dim Won, b/k/a former President Barack Obama described ISIS as the junior varsity but declared it would be almost impossible to defeat them. Aside to Dim Won, you can’t succeed if you don’t even try. It seems that Forty Five didn’t take Forty Four’s advice, from Investor’s Business Daily:
Terrorism: Nine months after President Trump promised to defeat ISIS “quickly and effectively,” U.S.-backed forces captured Raqqa, which until Tuesday had served as the ISIS capital. The battle now is over who deserves credit: Trump or President Obama.
Trump, not surprisingly, claims it for himself: “It had to do with the people I put in and it had to do with rules of engagement,” Trump said in a radio interview.
Before dismissing this as typical Trump self-aggrandizement, consider that for several years Obama insisted that a quick and decisive victory against ISIS was all but impossible.
I don’t yet know if Dim Won ever set foot in Harvard classroom, but if he learned anything, is sure was not military tactics. After all this is the same Dim Won, who feted the deserter Bergdahl as if he were some kind of hero.
The would be hero of the Las Vegas mass murder has disappeared, from Mark Hensch, Circa:
The security guard who confronted the Las Vegas gunman seems to have vanished
The unarmed security guard who confronted the man behind a recent mass shooting Las Vegas has seemingly disappeared, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The Times on Monday reported that Jesus Campos has apparently vanished from the public eye after encountering shooter Stephen Paddock earlier this month.
Maybe the lame stream media should quit looking for Little Donny’s tax returns and try and find Jesus Campos, or whoever he is. So who is Jesus Campos? Where is he? Who is hiding him and why is he hiding?
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl pleaded guilty to Misbehavior Before the Enemy, and Desertion.
The crime, from Legal Information Institute: :
10 U.S. Code § 899 – Art. 99. Misbehavior before the enemy
Any member of the armed forces who before or in the presence of the enemy—
(1) runs away;[…]
(3) through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property;
(4) casts away his arms or ammunition;
(5) is guilty of cowardly conduct;
[…]
shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 69.)
Story , from NPR:
Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held by the Taliban after leaving his base in Afghanistan in 2009, has pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl was freed in 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees.
Bergdahl’s tears, via Red State:
In the interview, which was filmed last year by British filmmaker Sean Langan, Bergdahl said it was ‘insulting’ that he’s been portrayed as a traitor.
The charge of Treason, from LII:
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII, §?330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)
Bergdahl flatters himself too much. The only addition punishment imposed by Treason above that of Article 99, is disqualification from public office. As it stands, once released Bergdahl will be eligible to run for the office of dog catcher.
Memo from Oscar to Harv, “You out of here!”
Headline from Hollywood”
“Hollywood’s de facto governing body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to ‘immediately expel’ Harvey Weinstein…”
Hat tip and reax, Professor Ann Althouse:
NYT points out, Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby are still members of the Academy.
One member of the Academy’s board, Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy “told fellow board members that she was outraged by the allegations… [but] was also said to be aware that pushing him out could put the academy on a slippery slope.”
If the slope is slippery, the era is not over.
Perhaps Ms Kennedy should invoke the modified Groucho Marx rule, decline to a member of any organization which would admit Roman Polanski.
Mrs. B.J. Clinton must imagine herself the reincarnation of Ginger Rodgers. However Ginger could not square the circle as Mrs. Clinton is trying to do.
Mrs. Clinton wants women voters to view Little Donny’s admitted vulgar locker room talk as disqualifying. While she herself, wants a free pass her predator husband’s serial abuse, occasional rape of women, and her attacks on her husband’s various accusers. Mrs. Clinton’s mantra, all women should be believed, except when they accuse her husband, from Daily Mail(UK)
And asked about allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at
her husband and former president, Bill Clinton, she said: ‘That has all been litigated.‘That was subject of a huge investigation in the late 90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past.
‘It is something that has to be taken seriously, for anyone not just in entertainment.
‘The really sad part of the campaign was how this horrific tape, what he said about women in the past what he said about women during the campaign, was discounted by a lot of voters.
The Access Hollywood to which Mrs. Clinton both refers and mischaracterized is from 2005. Mean while back at the ranch, Mrs. Clinton husband was flying of Jeffery Epstein pedophile express, from Fox News:
[B.J.] Clinton’s presence aboard Jeffrey Epstein’s Boeing 727 on 11 occasions has been reported, but flight logs show the number is more than double that, and trips between 2001 and 2003 included extended junkets around the world with Epstein and fellow passengers identified on manifests by their initials or first names, including “Tatiana.” The tricked-out jet earned its Nabakov-inspired nickname because it was reportedly outfitted with a bed where passengers had group sex with young girls.
Sure Little Donny is vulgar, but unlike B.J. Clinton he does not fly Air Lolita.
The woman, Mrs. B.J. Clinton, who once proclaimed her ready for a three am phone call, five days after Affair Weinstein broke, from Fox News:
“I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein,” Clinton said in a statement, released on Twitter by spokesman Nick Merrill. “The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”
Five days to come an impression of Claude Raines. Color me unimpressed.
