Obstruction of Injustice

If this is true, well, the "Obstruction!" thing was built around Trump's allegedly attempting to protect Michael Flynn on 'the Russia thing.'

A bombshell revelation was barely noticed at National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s hearing Tuesday, when his counsel revealed in court the existence of a Justice Department memo from Jan. 30, 2017 exonerating Flynn of any collusion with Russia.... the existence of such a memo calls into question Comey’s actions both when he met with Trump privately and when he wrote his personal memos recanting the meetings. If the Jan. 30, 2017 DOJ Flynn memo does exonerate Flynn, then it will call into question Comey’s actions when he had the private meetings with Trump. Why didn’t Comey reveal to Trump that DOJ found no evidence that Flynn was an ‘agent of Russia’ when he met Trump at the White House on Feb. 14 meeting? Why were the stories about Flynn, along with classified information regarding his phone conversations with the former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, leaked to the Washington Post in January, with a followup in early February? Remember, the information was leaked by senior government officials, according to the author and columnist David Ignatius. Ignatius said that senior officials accused Flynn of violating the Logan Act, even worse conspiring with Russia.

Further, new information that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe advised that there was no Logan Act violation, along with the DOJ internal memo of Jan. 30 that Flynn ‘was not an agent of Russia,’ was enough information for Comey to advise the President that Flynn had been cleared of any wrongdoing. Instead, Comey claimed obstruction of justice by the President.

Obstruction of injustice is surely not wrong, although I suppose it might be a crime even if it is morally correct. Flynn is looking to be owed a huge apology by this nation, and the FBI and DOJ need to be disbanded if this level of corruption proves true. We might have to replace the DOJ with something, but I think we can just learn to do without a secret police.

Fake News Today

MS: "List: More Honest Latin Mottoes for your Overrated University."

DB: "Islamic State Joins UN Human Rights Council."

BB: "Insane Guy Shouting He'll Buy Back Your Stuff With Your Own Money Becomes Popular Democratic Candidate."

Family History

Robert Mitchum sings a version of "Thunder Road," a movie he starred in as the outlaw driver.



It's a song that always makes me think of home. My family was not tightly involved in the moonshine trade, but my grandfather -- who was a welder -- did make moonshine stills during Prohibition, as it coincided with the Great Depression and still-welding work was the sort of thing people would pay for when there wasn't much other work to be had. He and my father also worked on the Tennessee muscle cars, and all other sorts of automobiles, that might have transported the stuff.

Mostly, though, it's the geography of the song: Asheville, the Cumberland Gap, Knoxville's Kingston Pike, and the mountains in between them. On the other side of the family, my mother is from Bearden. I get over there from time to time to see my favorite cousin. They're definitely not moonshiners, mom's folk: I think they're all teetotaling Baptists. But it's a connection in the song, all the same.

A Campaign Slogan

I'm not endorsing Trump, although the alternatives at this point are pretty ugly (excepting Major Gabbard, who is becoming more appealing by the day, although also not gaining in the polls as much as she deserves to do). If I were to advise him or his campaign, though, this is the slogan I would recommend he adopt:

"Trump 2020: Peace and Prosperity."

Then see if you can live up to it.

"The Capitalists Are Afraid"

Common Dreams is dreaming again. It may be a nightmare, actually.

The capitalists are determined to protect their wealth. They are determined, and probably able, to block left-leaning candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders from obtaining the Democratic nomination for president. But they are also aware that politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden who have spent their careers serving corporate power are harder and harder to sell to the electorate. The mendacity and hypocrisy of the Democratic Party are evident in the presidency of Barack Obama, who ran as an outsider and reformer in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown. Obama—whom Cornel West called “a black mascot for Wall Street”—callously betrayed the party’s base.

The piece ends with a prediction of 'monstrosities worse than Donald Trump,' which makes me think it must be the author who is afraid.

A Robert A. Heinlein Sort of Day

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly."

I didn't do all those things just today, but it was a day filled with a wide variety of actions. None of them were especially enjoyable, and some were strenuous, but all in all I do feel as if I have expressed a wide range of human action. I did butcher a top sirloin, and made a pretty tasty meal out of one part of it, paid quarterly taxes and dealt with bank accounts, hoisted felled trees, bucked them into logs with a chainsaw, and then split and stacked those logs under shelter against the winter. I finished a professional paper and brokered a deal, one in which I have none but a patriotic interest. I taught a young person a thing or two that will be of use as they move on through life, and comforted a friend whose family is putting itself through unnecessary stress.

I also drove a stick shift, and I made my wife smile, but I do those things most every day.

There's a First Time for Everything

Apparently to include "belonging to a government-designated domestic terrorist organization."

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday declaring the National Rifle Association a “domestic terrorism organization” due to its opposition to more stringent gun-control legislation.... The resolution accuses the NRA of not only resisting legislative reforms that its drafters believe would help curtail the country’s “epidemic of gun violence,” but also of “incit[ing] gun owners to acts of violence.”... The resolution also declares the Board’s intent to “limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization.”

'Greetings, fellow terrorists!'

It's bad enough that the SPLC has been designating fairly mainstream organizations and individuals as 'extremists' or 'hate groups.' Now it's actual government entities, albeit so far not very powerful ones. The penalty for being a 'domestic terrorist' is so far limited to San Francisco businesses being encouraged not to do business with you -- which I suppose means encouragement not to employ members of the NRA. That's a violation of freedom of association that is probably incapable of surviving a court challenge even in the 9th circuit.

Still: what a day for American political rhetoric!

Bee Stings

Biden Claims He Was There 3,000 Years Ago When Isildur Took The Ring And The Strength Of Men Failed

Catholic School Cures Harry Potter Fans By Forcing Them To Read JK Rowling's Twitter Feed

Antifa Unveils New Pumpkin Spice Molotov Cocktails For Fall Protests

Cthulhu Releases Tell-All Book From Time Within Trump Administration

Common sense gun solutions

Never Go Full "1984"

Drudge is leading with some reports today that suggest the administration is considering some radical moves. One of the links is to Infowars, so this may be over the top reporting; but it's worth underlining just how bad an idea it is.

On American Men

Some ladies on Facebook I know were sharing this, which I appreciate.

“Let this sink in for a minute.....Hundreds and hundreds of small boats pulled by countless pickups and SUVs from across the South are headed for Florida.

Almost all of them driven by men. They're using their own property, sacrificing their own time, spending their own money, and risking their own lives for one reason: to help total strangers in desperate need.

Most of them are by themselves. Most are dressed like the redneck duck hunters and bass fisherman they are. Many are veterans. Most are wearing well-used gimme-hats, t-shirts, and jeans; and there's a preponderance of camo....

...they'll spend the next several days wading in cold, dirty water; dodging gators and water moccasins and fire ants; eating whatever meager rations are available; and sleeping wherever they can in dirty, damp clothes. Their reward is the tears and the hugs and the smiles from the terrified people they help. They'll deliver one boatload, and then go back for more.

When disaster strikes, it's what men do. Real men. Heroic men. American men. And then they'll knock back a few shots, or a few beers with like-minded men they've never met before, and talk about fish or ten-point bucks.

And the next time they hear someone talk about "the patriarchy", or "male privilege", they'll snort, turn off the TV and go to bed.

In the meantime, they'll likely be up again before dawn. To do it again. Until the helpless are rescued. And the work's done.

They're unlikely to be reimbursed. There won't be medals. They won't care. They're heroes. And it's what they do.

Mind Your Business

Yet another thing about which Justice Sotomayor and I disagree.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has said that the seed for what has become her latest children’s book was planted the day a woman called her a drug addict.

Sotomayor , who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 7, had gone to the bathroom of an upscale New York restaurant to give herself an insulin shot. She was in her 30s but hiding her diabetes. Another diner came in and saw her and later, as Sotomayor was leaving the restaurant, she heard the woman tell a companion: “She’s a drug addict.”

Outraged, Sotomayor confronted her, explaining that the shot was medicine, not drugs: “If you don’t know something, ask, don’t assume,” Sotomayor said.

I would have thought that the problem wasn't the making of assumptions, but the injecting yourself into someone else's business. Most people would find it intolerably rude for someone to 'just ask' about private issues, which medical ones tend to be; they also object, reasonably, to people gossiping about them. The right thing to do is to be aware that there can be other-than-bad explanations for things you observe, and to let people be. 'Don't ask, don't tell,' to borrow another phrase that the Left generated.

A relevant musical interlude:

Paglia Again

She's always interesting and usually fun as well. The WSJ has an interview.

Stratospheric Warming

Apparently the Antarctic is a whole lot warmer than usual this year -- at least, way, way up.

So does that mean hotter weather lower down? Apparently not.

These events are significant, as the warming and the disruption of the polar vortex eventually makes its way down to the troposphere and can cause a change in weather patterns. It can bring colder weather and snow into lower latitudes, for example, Australia and New Zealand....

These events will also influence the annual growth of the ozone hole over Antarctica. Warming of the stratosphere should limit its growth, and we might see a smaller ozone hole this year. It will depend on the longevity of these events.

So, colder weather and a smaller ozone hole?

Not a fish storm

Dorian turned out to be a real monster, still sitting on top of the Bahamas with inconceivably high winds, barely moving.

The pictures from yesterday evening before it got dark reminded me of the awful vistas here from two years ago, with all the blasted trees.  The trees do come back, though, given time.  Ours are still funny-looking and will be for a few more years, but this is the difference two years can make, September 1, 2017, to September 1, 2019.  The first picture is after the tree-removal crew was here for a day and a half clearing the driveway with chainsaws and tracked vehicles.

Bouncing off highs

With any luck, Dorian could turn out to be a fish storm: those tracks keep drifting east.  Even my neighbors with a nervous eye out on their upcoming trip to D.C. may luck out.  As my husband says, get ready for a lot of frantic TV anchormen urging everyone to watch out for rip currents, the last refuge of a disappointed weather program producer.

There's still that interesting green model that wants the storm to do a loop-de-loop over Okeefenokee, and the standard "what if it just never turns again" reality-check model, with Biloxi in its sights.

This time of year the relentless bright sunny hot days get a little old, but I'll say one thing for them:  if you have a high-pressure area parked over you, you're not getting a hurricane.

Wretchard: China's Communists vs. Western Elites

It's closer than it ought to be.

As Gilder notes "In a just system of growth, business must be open to bankruptcy as well as to profit. When government puts its thumb on the scales of justice, manipulating money through guarantees and other exercises of power designed to stimulate economic growth or protect assets, it stultifies this learning process." He says that like it's a bad thing -- which it is -- but politicians are falling all over themselves to do it.

Such a system can determine who gets a bailout from the Fed and who gets a diploma from de Blasio's diversity schools but generates little information about who can turn a profit and which students will be the next Einstein. By destroying the measuring stick, defining money as a function of government decisions and competence as a consequence of political correctness, the Western elites have created an artificial, gradually shrinking world.

Wretchard is always worth reading.

Ranger School

It was all true, and then some.

...she lost a member of the platoon. In fact, the missing soldier was so thoroughly separated from the rest of his platoon that the RIs had to shut down the entire mission, telling the platoon to go to sleep where they were while the RIs searched for the missing candidate. The platoon never had the chance even to attempt its assigned mission. But the candidate who had served as platoon sergeant, despite a failure in her performance that ended the mission, received a passing grade.

...

Ranger Instructor 1: Female got a “go” last night. I was out there. She shouldn’t have. But it happened and [redacted]

Ranger Instructor 2: Why did she get a go then?

Ranger Instructor 1: I was out there until actions on [that is, the raid or ambush the platoon was supposed to conduct]. Never happened because they missed their hit time. 1SG recocked them [that is, reset the mission conditions and gave them the chance to start over]. That never happened because she gave abad head count three times. We finally realized their [sic] was a missing student.

Ranger Instructor 1: Had to lock the [platoon] down and find this kid.

Ranger Instructor 3: That’s a definite go haha

...

Ranger Instructor B: It’s all [b*******]. On 8-35 [the mission they were on], they walk [sic] the road back into camp under RI control [that is, RIs took over from the candidate leadership and led the platoon to its destination on an open road rather than through the woods]

Ranger Instructor B: And lost a Ranger

...

An RI with firsthand knowledge of the candidate’s evaluation explains, “During clearance of the [objective], she lost control of her squad, leading to fratricide” (i.e. leading to what would have been a friendly-fire incident if live rounds were being used in a non-training environment.) Understandably, this normally earns a failing grade (an “immediate no-go”). But it didn’t here.

This was, remember, the third attempt for these three would-be Rangers; they'd already failed out twice before. On the third go-round, word came down that they were to be passed even in spite of massive and potentially fatal errors.

The author adds, "It is important to emphasize that those whom I interviewed expressed admiration for the graduating females’ grit and perseverance and were not critical of the female candidates’ character or commitment. The officers and enlisted soldiers I spoke to uniformly respected the female candidates’ efforts and willingness to put themselves through the rigors of Ranger training."

That said, standards were suppressed -- and critics were silenced -- in order to obtain politically correct results. This will have deadly results eventually, which is why the training is so severe. As you will recall, the Marine Corps' study was similarly ignroed, and they were forced to proceed in spite of the clear findings.

An Unfair Criticism from VDH

"What is the alternative to Trump?" he asks. He begins with a very fair criticism -- of Trump, no less.

No president for the past 19 years has sought to offer any remotely sane budget. And with still relatively low interest rates, massive federal spending, a $22 trillion national debt, and an annual deficit of nearly $1 trillion, it is hard to imagine, in extremis, that there remains any notion of “stimulus” or “pump-priming” left.

Yet we hear little about such financial profligacy.

Not a word comes from Trump’s critics about the need for Social Security or Medicare reform to ensure the long-term viability of each — other than the Democrats’ promises to extend such financially shaky programs to millions of new clients well beyond the current retiring Baby Boomer cohorts who are already taxing the limits of the system.

I have occasionally noted in this space that I would like to hear a plan to save the Medicare We Have before we float plans for Medicare For All, but so far none have been forthcoming. I am forced to conclude that our two largest generations, who drive most of our politics, are satisfied with the arc toward failure. The Boomers who are still the frontrunners know there's enough for their generation; and the Millennials just beginning to assume office aren't interested in saving programs they can't imagine surviving long enough to serve them.

Anyway, VDH goes on to this:

To counter every signature Trump issue, there is almost no rational alternative advanced.... Instead of vague socialist bombast and promises, where is the actual detailed progressive version of the Contract with America, so voters can read it, digest it, and then decide whether it is superior or inferior to the status quo since 2017?

There's certainly been plenty of vague bombast, but there is actually a detailed set of plans on offer from Elizabeth Warren. They include the following:

* A wealth tax;

* New taxes on corporations, as well as mandates that would force them to put some of their workers on the boards;

* An 'economic patriotism' plan built around 'corporate citizenship' that is, if we are honest, fascist in Mussolini's specific sense of the term ("Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.");

* Essentially every kind of gun control anyone has thought of as an option;

* A plan to eliminate the Electoral College;

* A housing assistance plan that reads as if it were written to satisfy the criticisms raised by Ta-Nehisi Coates;

* Black reparations;

* Native American reparations;

* Gay reparations;

* Female reparations, these to be extracted from their future employers;

* College student reparations;

* Punishment for hospitals with high maternity death rates ("What could possibly go wrong? Well, the hospitals may have no control over the things that are causing the disparity. Yet hospitals that serve large numbers of black women will lose funding."); also, universal child care;

* A plan to boost immigration by decriminalizing currently-illegal entry;

* A plan to shut down mining and other wealth-extraction from public lands;

* ...and numerous other plans.

In fact, the only thing she seems to have no formal plan to do is reforming health care generally. I'm sure it's on her list of things to do, but it's not something she's explained exactly how she'd do.

She's got a pretty sweeping agenda, and I notice that she hasn't spelled it out at her campaign website in anything like the detail she has done elsewhere. It's at least as transformative as anything Obama imagined.

Military Citizenship

If there's one thing the military needs, it's more paperwork.

"The policy change explains that we will not consider children who live abroad with their parents to be residing in the United States even if their parents are U.S. government employees or U.S. service members stationed outside of the United States, and as a result, these children will no longer be considered to have acquired citizenship automatically," USCIS spokesperson Meredith Parker told Task & Purpose.

"For them to obtain a Certificate of Citizenship, their U.S. citizen parent must apply for citizenship on their behalf."

The process under INA 322 must be completed before the child's 18th birthday.

So are they considered 'natural born' citizens for the purpose of running for President? I suppose there's no actual legal standard for that, since there's 'no controlling legal authority.'