Maxine Waters turns on Chuck Schumer
Last week Maxine Waters called for the harassment of Trump administration officials and both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer issued statements–without mentioning Maxine Waters by name, but it was obvious who they were talking about–saying this type of rhetoric was wrong. Chuck Schumer went so far as to say it was un-American.
Maxine Waters was asked about this and she had this to say in response:
“Well, I’m surprised that Chuck Schumer, you know, reached into the other house (of Congress) to do that. I’ve not quite seen that done before, but one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis, leadership like Chuck Schumer will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership,” she said.
This is 100% but of course this is true of every politician. They are all more interested in holding onto their power at all costs than they are in doing what is right for the American people, but it is not often you hear one politician make that claim against another politician, and even rarer about a politician on the same side of the aisle.
And this is not the first time Democratic leadership has tried to stifle Maxine Waters; Nancy Pelosi and other leaders would like her to tone down the impeachment rhetoric as well.
On a side note: does anybody else find it interesting that two white Democratic leaders are trying to silence the voice of a black Democrat and yet there is no cry of racism? Just saying…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Brian Ross out at ABC
It is being reported here that Brian Ross is resigning from ABC, joining Dan Rather as a longtime “journalist” forced to step down in disgrace after reporting fake news. In Brian Ross’s case the final straw appears to be his “reporting” that Donald Trump instructed Michael Flynn to contact Russia during the election. This caused the stock market to tank and led to his one month suspension.
Here is more:
ABC News’ Brian Ross — who was suspended last year as chief investigative correspondent for a faulty report on Michael Flynn — is leaving the network, Page Six has exclusively learned.
ABC suspended Ross last December for a month without pay for a botched report on ousted White House national security adviser Flynn that reported President Trump directed Flynn to make contact with Russian officials. The mistake even sent stocks tumbling, and ABC issued an apology saying: “We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error.”
But this was not his first infraction because this is, of course, is the same Brian Ross who appeared on television with George Stephanopoulos and tried to blame the Colorado theater shooting on the Tea Party because he went on Facebook and found a person with the same name as the shooter who was a Tea Party member–it turned out to be a different person altogether.
This is long overdue…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, July 1st open thread: ‘Courtesy Call’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, July 1st. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we discussed 6 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates. You can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. The Twitter widget in the sidebar is fully interactive. This widget updates my tweets in real time and allows you to respond or retweet my tweets right from the blog.
Here is Thousand Foot Krutch performing “Courtesy Call live in 2014.
frui diem
The FBI is unwilling to hand over documents that allege Loretta Lynch obstructed justice
The House Judiciary Committee has been trying to get some documents related to the Hillary Clinton email scandal investigation but the FBI has been unwilling to comply and now we may know why; they purportedly show that Loretta Lynch interfered in the investigation.
Here is more:
according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, the bureau is refusing to allow even members of Congress with top security clearance to see intercepted material alleging political interference by President Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch.
That material – which has been outlined in press reports – consists of unverified accounts intercepted from putative Russian sources in which the head of the Democratic National Committee allegedly implicates the Hillary Clinton campaign and Lynch in a secret deal to fix the Clinton email investigation.
“It is remarkable how this Justice Department is protecting the corruption of the Obama Justice Department,” said Tom Fitton, president of Washington-based watchdog Judicial Watch, which is suing for the material.
And this appears to revolve around something James Comey wrote in his book while defending his handling of the email investigation:
the material is consequential because it appears to have influenced former FBI Director James B. Comey’s decision to break with bureau protocols because he didn’t trust Lynch. In his recent book, Comey said he took the reins in the Clinton email probe, announcing Clinton should not be indicted, because of a “development still unknown to the American public” that “cast serious doubt” on Lynch’s credibility – clearly the intercepted material.
In his new memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey, clearly referring to the document given the timing and circumstances, said he relied on it in part to make his unilateral and controversial decision to publicly announce the results of the Clinton investigation without Lynch. He said he worried the attorney general might be viewed as “politically compromised” if the secret information leaked, thereby undermining the “integrity” of the FBI’s investigation.
It is unclear at this time if the documents in question are legitimate or not, they could be Russian forgeries, however because they are related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation the Congress should be given access to them, especially in light of the fact James Comey took them serious enough to break FBI protocol because he did not trust Loretta Lynch.
After all, a fake Russian dossier did not stop them from opening up an entire investigation into Donald Trump…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
North Korea continues to upgrade nuclear reactor
Back at the summit in June North Korea’s Kim Jong Un committed to the full denuclearization of his country but according to this story he continues to upgrade his nuclear facility. Here is more:
North Korea has continued to upgrade its only known nuclear reactor used to fuel its weapons program, satellite imagery has shown, despite ongoing negotiations with the US and a pledge to denuclearise.
Infrastructure improvements at the Yongbyon nuclear plant are “continuing at a rapid pace”, according to an analysis by monitoring group 38 North of commercial satellite images taken on 21 June.
The cooling system for the plutonium production reactor has been modified and at least two new non-industrial buildings have been built on the site, possibly for use by visiting officials. A new engineering office building has been completed and construction has continued on support facilities throughout the complex, according to a blog post written by Frank V Pabian, Joseph S Bermudez Jr and Jack Liu.
The left is sure to jump all over this news and use it as proof that Donald Trump was naive for believing he could usher in a deal with North Korea to guarantee us peace with the peninsula in the future, but it should be remembered that no official deal has been reached and both nations are still proceeding with business as usual until a deal is struck.
“Infrastructure improvements continue at Yongbyon,” Jenny Town, managing editor of 38 North, wrote on Twitter. “Underscores reason why an actual deal is necessary, not just a statement of lofty goals.”
“Continued work at the Yongbyon facility should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise,” the experts warned. “The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.”
Of course Kim Jong Un cannot be trusted, he must be monitored closely to make sure he is in compliance with any deal once one is in place, but as the block quote above states, this is why we have to get a deal done. It would be a show of good faith for Kim Jong Un to stop the upgrades but while negotiating a deal he is still trying to come from some sort of position of strength. It also would have been a show of good faith for the United States to lift, or partially lift, the sanctions on North Korea but they remains in place until a deal is struck and I think we are seeing the same thing with Kim Jong Un right now.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
After weeks of speculation the rumors have been confirmed; Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is going to retire at the end of July. While Justice Kennedy is considered a “conservative” voice on the bench he has been a swing vote on several issues, siding with the liberal justices on occasion.
This is going to set up an interesting battle with the Republicans holding a slim margin of 51-49 in the Senate. We already know all the Democratic Senators are going to oppose the nominee no matter who it is, which means the Republicans can only lose one vote and somehow it looks like the wildcard could be none other than John McCain once again.
The new nominee, whomever he or she is, is likely to make the Supreme Court more reliably conservative and of course the Democrats are going to fight this tooth and nail. In addition to the politics of personal destruction I expect the Democrats to fall back to the Merrick Garland/ Neil Gorsuch situation and call for no nomination to be made during an election year.
Update: Well, that did not take long. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are already calling for a delay in the vote until after the election.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
In the wake of Maxine Waters’s call for upheaval and violence over the weekend both Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have issued statements, without mentioning Maxine Waters by name, saying violent rhetoric is wrong but also stating it was understandable because of the political climate in Washington created by Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, some Republicans in the House have introduced a censure measurement, here is more:
A House Republican on Monday introduced a measure to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and called on her to resign following her comments calling on Democrats to publicly confront officials in the Trump administration.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said the California Democrat’s comments do “not become somebody who’s in Congress,” arguing disciplinary action is appropriate.
“So we just introduced it, we have some co-sponsors, but what she did was to basically incite people to come after and attack members of the president’s cabinet,” Biggs told The Hill. “And also spread that out to more people.”
The measure calls on the congresswoman to resign, issue a formal apology to administration officials “for endangering their lives and sowing seeds of discord” and release a statement that neither harassment nor violence is an appropriate form of protest.
I would not expect much to come of this, even if the House censures her she is not going to resign and the house is not going to remove her. At best we can expect one of those non-apology apologies where she says she is sorry if she offended anybody without apologizing for the actual remarks.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Judicial Watch files ethics complaint against Maxine Waters for inciting violence against Trump officials
Over the weekend Sarah Sanders was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant because the owner of the establishment is an avid anti-Trumper. It has also been reported that the owner of the Red Hen followed Sarah Sanders into another restaurant to continue the harassment.
Maxine Waters appeared not only to condone the actions of the restaurant owner, but called on others to harass Trump officials whenever they get the chance.
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them! And you tell them that they are not welcome, anymore, anywhere.”
That certainly can be seen as a call to violence and we have already seen the Democrats’ rhetoric lead to violence, and almost to death, on a softball field in Washington DC during a practice for a charity game.
Judicial Watch saw this as a possible call for violence and today has filed an ethics complaint against Maxine Waters for her comments, here is more:
In today’s letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics co-chairman, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton writes:
In encouraging individuals to create “crowds” who will “push back” on President Trump’s Cabinet members at private business establishments and in seemingly trying to prevent these Cabinet officials from obtaining basic necessities without fear of assault and violence, Rep. Waters seems to be violation of House rules, specifically:
A Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House. [House Rule 23, clause 1.]
We hereby request that the Office of Congressional Ethics conduct a preliminary investigation into whether Rep. Maxine Waters violated House Rules in encouraging attacks on Cabinet officials.
With the possible exception of Nancy Pelosi (who did not mention Maxine Waters by name but said some comments were unacceptable and blamed it on Donald Trump) not one Democrat has condemned the words of Maxine Waters. I guess they are too busy calling for an ethics investigation into Sarah Sanders for using her official government Twitter account to “attack” the Red House restaurant…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
You may remember the curious case of the mysterious Awan Brothers: these brothers are Pakistani nationals who were working as IT specialists for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic National Committee, and it was reported that up to 30 Democrats employed their services. Shortly after the election the Awan brothers, with the exception of Imran, fled the country after being accused of hacking into government computers and funneling money to the Middle East. However, Imran Awan was arrested on bank fraud charges as he attempted to flee the country.
Now, according to this story, Abid Awan is suspected of stealing about $120,000 worth of equipment from New York Representative Yvette Clarke’s office. Here is more:
According to documents, Wendy Anderson, New York Democrat Rep. Yvette Clarke’s deputy chief of staff, discovered Abid Awan in December 2015 digging through the lawmaker’s office “with new iPods and other equipment strewn around the room.”
The aide immediately ordered Awan to leave the lawmaker’s office and would later tell investigators she believed the IT worker and Clarke’s chief of staff, Shelley Davis, plotted the heist together. In February 2016 — six months later after admitting her office could not account for $120,000 worth of equipment — the Congressional Black Caucus member terminated Abid Awan.
“Wendy was actually a truth-sayer, she wanted the right things to happen, enforce rules, and Yvette Clarke did not,” a Hill staffer told TheDCNF.
“She knew it was obviously stolen … What business case would they have had for iPods? … He’s a shared employee, basically a contractor. Why would he be camped out … in her personal office?”
After catching Awan in her boss’s office, Anderson was appointed Clarke’s chief of staff and promptly began pouring over the office’s financial records. She soon noticed “abnormal quantities of equipment, much with seemingly dubious business value,” according to reports.
I find two things interesting about this story: it is reported that it is believed Yvette Clarke’s Chief of Staff was involved in stealing the equipment and it is also reported that Yvette Clarke is not so interested in the truth of what was going on.
I wonder why that is and why it has taken so long for this story to come out? Perhaps Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her laptop, which is being held as evidence by the Capitol Police, could provide those answers.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Sunday, June 24th open thread: ‘Walk on Water’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, June 24th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we discussed 8 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates. You can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. The Twitter widget in the sidebar is fully interactive. This widget updates my tweets in real time and allows you to respond or retweet my tweets right from the blog.
Here is 30 Seconds to Mars performing “Walk on Water” live from last year.
frui diem
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