To Be Fair, He Has a Point

NAACP leader uses F-word to apologize for using T-word after N-word meeting

The NAACP’s mission of political correctness and equality careened off the rails this week when a local president complimented a TV reporters breasts during an interview.

Don Harris, the president of the Maricopa County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had just finished an event at Tempe Union High School District to discuss an incident at the school in which several girls wore black t-shirts bearing the letters “N-I-*-*-E-R” on them.
The outrage was instantaneous.

“The six students in question pulled ranks to spell out NI**ER on their own, smiling gleefully to pose for an Instagram picture. Their punishment was 5-days suspension,” a petition demanding their expulsion reads, EAGnews reports.

“This hurtful use of a racial slur is a complete disregard for the dignity of the black community in Arizona and across the nation and the punishment does not fit the total ignorance and cruelty of the crime.”

Harris was on hand to accept apologizes and demand action.

But after the meeting, while participants were speaking with the media, he was caught on camera saying Channel 12 reporter Monique Griego had “nice tits.”

 And, well, she does.

The New Times contacted Harris after that incident and reports the NAACP leader said, “I apologize if anyone was offended. I could have said nothing . . . I’m really f*cking sorry.”

He argued that the meeting was over when he complimented the reporter’s rack and then really blew a gasket (edited for a family audience):

“I’m going to slash my wrists,” he spews. “Better yet, I’m going to throw myself out of a f*cking window, except I’m on the first floor . . . I’m one of the best g*dd*mned people in the state.”
People criticized him when he first took over the NAACP chief post from the Reverend Oscar Tillman, who retired in 2014 after 22 years in the position, he says, because “I was the wrong flavor.
“They’ve seen me now, they’ve seen what I’ve done. I’ve given up my law practice. I’m down here six, seven days a week. That’s what my commitment is. I support NOW, the women’s organization — g*dd*mn! — are you sh*tting me? Are you going to write this up?”

Griego didn’t comment on the situation but Harris insists he wants to apologize face-to-face. (Of course he does.)

 I'll bet he just wants another look.

There are now calls for Harris’s resignation and at least one minister seeking his ouster blames not Harris’s sexism, but his “white privilege.”

“Don can be a bit of a character, but I think he’s also a well-to-do, older, white male and he exhibited some of the signs of what we’ve called ‘white privilege,’ Rev. Jarrett Maupin says, according to KTAR. “He should know better than anyone, as the NAACP, to do what he did.”

I love me some blue on blue social justice.

"Rule 5 Sunday: Super Bowl L"  is ready at The Other McCain, courtesy of Wombat-socho.

New Stuff from Clinton.com

A quick, and partial run down of new developments because we're still traveling.

Hillary came about as close as possible to admitting that she exposed government secrets to possible hacking when she complained of classification run amok. She has a point, but it was not her right to choose. Not surprisingly Contacts in the FBI and DOJ are 'Super Pissed Off' at the White House because Josh Earnst said that the White House had no interest in indicting Hillary. Hey, it was true! LAST NIGHT'S STATE DEPARTMENT EMAIL DUMP: The Most Damning for Hillary Yet

Of the roughly 900 emails released, 243 were classified, bringing the total number of emails containing classified information to 1,583.

• Of the 243 classified emails, 11 were classified as SECERT, more than double the number from all of the previous releases combined.

• Of the 243 classified emails, 9 were classified for containing information related to “intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology.”

• Of the 243 classified emails, 128 were classified for containing “foreign government information,” which is considered “ born classified” and the “most important category of national security information” State Department officials encounter.

With a classification rate of nearly 27 percent, this was the most highly classified batch of emails yet, despite the fact the State Department only produced 10 percent of the emails it was required to under court order. And given the State Department’s claim that many of the emails they withheld were still being reviewed by other agencies as well as the steep increase in the number of emails classified as ‘SECRET,’ it appears Hillary Clinton’s email woes are only going to get worse. Indeed, many redactions in last night’s production had to do with information from several intelligence agencies including the CIA. No wonder Clinton’s friends in the State Department are trying to delay further releases until she’s cleared the early nominating contests.

Here are some of the most eye-popping emails from last night’s release below, which include classified conversations about embassy security in Egypt and a memo classified as ‘SECRET’ from John Kerry:

• On Her Private Email Server, Clinton Had A Classified Conversation Involving Specific Security Concerns Relating To The U.S. Embassy In Egypt. . .

State Department invokes executive privelege on 18 Hillary emails

The State Department announced yesterday that they will not release 22 e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server containing top-secret information, but they also will withhold another 18 unclassified e-mails. Those messages involve President Barack Obama, and the State Department has decided to honor a claim of executive privilege to keep those out of the public record.

These emails might challenge the claim that Obama knew nothing of Hillary's secret server.

The King and Queen of Lies:



Hillary Clinton and the Criminalization of America

That is what we are going to be finding out in Iowa. . . . That state is supposed to be the heartland of America. Do such people, in this case the liberal and "progressive" Democrats among them, countenance such criminal dishonesty? Let's hope for all our sakes they don't.

Betting on democrats not to vote for obvious criminals is a fools bet.

Hillary escaped indictment in White Water not because the authorities didn't think she was guilty, but because they concluded they had only a 10% chance of conviction and compared her to a Mafia kingpin.

Now There's a Talent!

"Rule 5 Sunday: Super Bowl L"  is ready at The Other McCain, courtesy of Wombat-socho.

We Met the Grand Kid Today

We made the 5 hour trip from St. Leonard to Canonsburg to set eyes on our first grandson, Graham Robert today. We reached Kelly and Alex's about 4, and had to take the dogs out to settle them down before.

Graham wasn't that conversational. All he wanted to do was eat, then sleep. But at least he wasn't very fussy about any of it. Kelly even let us hold the little guy a while. As expected, Georgia was a real pro.

They even trusted me briefly. After that we had a dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up until it was time to go.

Rule 5 Saturday - Another Great Dane - Solveig Mørk

It was something in the name that got Solveig Mørk (aka Solveig Mørk Hansen) to become our featured Rule 5 girl this week. No wikipedia page, but she has the usual, Facebook and Instagram pages. She models for Swimsuit Illustrated, World Swimsuits, and most of the usual outlets.

Not surprisingly for a European model, there's some NSFW material available.

GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (226th Issue) is pleased to announce that, Laura Prepon, that '70s show chick, will host the afternoon tour. William Teach has the weekly
"Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links ready at at Pirates Cove. Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Nighthawks" and "FMJRA 2.0: Pallas Athena" up for viewing at The Other McCain.

RIP: Paul Kantner

Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner dies at 74

Paul Kantner, one of the giants of the San Francisco music scene, died Thursday. Mr. Kantner, a founding member of the Jefferson Airplane, was 74 and had suffered a heart attack this week.

I was a big Jefferson Airplane fan, and on into the Starship "Blows Against the Empire" album, which was his and Grace Slick's creation.

I'm Not Convinced

FBI releases video of shooting death of Oregon protester

In an unexpected move, the FBI released video Thursday of state police officers fatally shooting one of the armed Oregon protesters who took over a remote wildlife refuge as a sign of protest against government land-grabbing and over-reaching.

Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, 56, died Tuesday during the arrest of occupation ringleader Ammon Bundy and four others during a traffic stop near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. His death was captured on video taken from an FBI plane that shot footage as Finicum, driving a white truck, was pursued and ultimately confronted and killed by Oregon State Police officers.

"I want to caution you that the video does show the shooting death of LaVoy Finicum," said Greg Bretzing, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Portland. "We realize that viewing that piece of the video will be upsetting to some people, but we feel that it is necessary to show the whole thing unedited in the interest of transparency."

He said it was "incumbent" on law enforcement to show the video of Finicum, who he said behaved recklessly and made a motion toward a gun in his coat pocket.

Hands up, don't shoot?

Supporters of the militants who took over the refuge had claimed Finicum, a rancher from Arizona who came to Oregon to support the protesters, was gunned down in cold blood. Some posts on social media have called his death an anti-government rallying cry.

I find it hard to believe this is the best video they have of the incident that they knew was going to be coming up; they set the roadblock knowing that Finicum and the Bundys were coming to town that evening to speak.

The FBI released the video to allay public concerns over "inflammatory" accounts of the shooting, Bretzing said. Bretzing said Finicum eventually pulled the truck over and was ordered by officers to surrender.

Eventually? The time from the truck going off the road into the snow and the Finicum being shot is less than 10 seconds.

"Finicum leaves the truck and steps through the snow," Bretzing said."Agents and troopers on scene had information that Finicum and others would be armed. On at least two occasions, Finicum reaches his right hand toward a pocket on the left inside portion of his jacket. He did have a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in that pocket. At this time, OSP troopers shot Finicum."

I didn't see that, but it's a pretty crappy video. I see a man with his hands out in surrender, and then stumbling around in the snow.

FBI agents are not generally equipped with body cameras, but video of the incident involving Finicum was captured by the FBI plane. The footage at times is obscured by trees but at one point, Finicum can be seen reaching toward his jacket pocket. The FBI said agents and troopers found three other loaded weapons inside the truck: two .223 caliber semi-automatic rifles and a .38 special revolver.

#Rancherlivesmatter 

Smitty Not Sure About Trump

To understate it slightly: When Marxists Aren’t Enough: Are We Really Considering A Used Car Salesman?

What bothers me about Trump is that he seems to come at POTUS as though it were a "Deal". This is election to an office, not simple business

— IGotOverMachoGrande (@smitty_one_each) January 28, 2016

And via Womb-socho's "In The Mailbox, 01.28.16" Jammie Wearing Fools: Flashback – Trump Tells Megyn Kelly Romney Lacked Courage When He Skipped Debate



And all lovey dovey with Megyn Kelly.

Another Day, Another Dollar at Clinton.com

I'm afraid it's gotten to the point that there's enough material every day. Somethings going to have to give; we'll be traveling to Canonsburg over the weekend, and I don't think I'll be able to keep up.

Wow, Official: Some Clinton emails 'too damaging' to release

The intelligence community has now deemed some of Hillary Clinton’s emails “too damaging" to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.

The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton's personal server.

Those must be some pretty important wedding plans or hot yoga routines. Really, I'm shocked that the professionals at the State Department actually let her near that stuff. I thought they had better sense. According to Former House Oversight chairman: 'FBI director would like to indict Clinton and Abedin'. We'll see about that. The Hill chimes in with the obvious: FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation not letting up. It's only been 6 months. I'm sure the DOJ would like to stall it for another 18. The Observer Observes Why Hillary’s EmailGate Matters:

. . . Even by these low standards Hillary Clinton is an outlier. Her willful disregard for basic security has harmed our country, though it may take decades to discover exactly how. As a top French diplomat explained in exasperation, “You cannot say just anything on just any network!”—a reality-based viewpoint wholly absent when Ms. Clinton ran the show at Foggy Bottom. . .

 On the Bimbo Eruption front, Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien explains Why I Heckled Hillary Clinton About Juanita Broaddrick and Sexual Assault

IN THE CONTEXT of the singular moment America saw of me at the early January town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire yelling words they could not hear at Hillary Clinton, she was correct when she told me I was being “very rude.” I knew I was rude. If there was a more polite way to ask Hillary for answers to my questions about her husband’s alleged sexual assaults and cover ups, I would have preferred it.

Ashe Schow finds more nuggets in Cammile Paglia's takedown of Hillary's feminist credentials:

The social critic took special note of how Clinton deviated from the "women as victims" narrative when it suited her — when her future was at risk due to husband Bill's infidelities. At that time, Clinton began berating women who accused her husband of rape and women who remained in abusive relationships.
. . .
For Clinton, her campaign suffers "when she privileges elite professional women at men's expense," Paglia concluded.

While the NYT tries to figure out why Bill Clinton can't bring his old "magic" to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Althouse has a poll at the link. I go with the vegan explanation.

While over at the center of the kleptocracy, Citizens United Demands Why Clinton Donor Wasn’t Jailed After Numerous Deaths. Yes, that Citizens United. The reason, of course, is that Democrats are never held accountable for their conduct, if they've donated enough to the Chelsea, Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation, or the DNC. Clinton pardon records offer fuel for Hillary's foes, pro quo, meets quid. One of those dirty little details that millennials will have no clue about. Access is getting almost as cheap a crude oil as Chelsea Clinton's fundraising flop: Soul Cycle event to raise money for Hillary a bust as $2,700 seats are offered for just $50 to fill bikes. I hear you can buy the bicycle seats to sniff, if you want. But have no fear, is the Clinton Foundation considering a much lower profile in 2016?

Why not? They have fulfilled their mission, at least in terms of the Clinton family ambitions, which is after all why the Clinton Foundation exists in the first place. After keeping the necessary political connections alive for another Hillary Clinton run for the Democratic presidential nomination, the foundation now worries that they may be getting in the way of her success, Ken Vogel reports for Politico:

The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation ― increasingly seen as a distraction by supporters of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid ― is considering dialing back its activity during the campaign and a potential Clinton presidency, according to interviews and documents obtained by POLITICO.
With its packed slate of events already colliding with the presidential election calendar and donors growing wary, the foundation has commissioned a study from the powerhouse Boston Consulting Group on how to improve the foundation’s showcase endeavor, the Clinton Global Initiative or CGI, while a 2015 study flagged concerns that Clinton’s presidential campaign could hurt a separate project, the Clinton Health Access Initiative. …
. . .
“Gosh, can’t they relax a bit on that work and focus on winning Iowa?” said one bundler. “But everyone is resigned to how they function, and presumes they know what they are doing.”

Or maybe they're just too busy shredding everything and destroying hard drives  in advance of the FBI investigation. "The Clintons are like herpes: Just when you think they're gone, they show up again."

Shockingly, a soft-porn actress has come out against Hillary, and for Bernie: 'What has she done that we're bragging about? How has she led?': Susan Sarandon backs Bernie for president. Hillary's campaign manager predicts Trump will win presidency if nominated! You can see the fear in his eyes. If that's what it takes to defeat Hillary, I'm OK with it. I'm a lesser of two evils kind of guy. Even Hillary! I'm in Fight of My Life in Iowa, New Hampshire she said, begging for a dollar. But
nobody circles the wagons like the “liberal” media.

Recent weeks have seen a large, simultaneous anti-Bernie Sanders effort by Democratic media. This movement is an attempt to ensure that a specific establishment, corporate candidate receive her scheduled coronation.

I don't see it that way myself. I see lots of Bernie fans, who would sniff his bicycle seat, but are too afraid he's lose.

Turkey Pumpkin Chili?

Looks good but sounds awful, but maybe some bacon would help:

Two People Can Keep a Secret . . .

If one of them is dead: Physicist formulates how long conspiracy theories could realistically remain a secret

From the moon landings being an elaborate hoax, to climate change deniers, there are many conspiracy theories that are believed by a large number of people worldwide.

But the amount of people who would have been involved in keeping such large-scale secrets suggests that if they were true, they would have been exposed by someone by now.

With this in mind, a physicist has calculated how many people would have potentially worked on some of the most popular theories, and what is the likelihood of them all keeping a secret.

Using this model, the truth about the moon landings being a hoax would have been exposed in three years and eight months.

A climate change fraud would have been uncovered in three years nine months, a vaccination conspiracy would take three years and two months to be revealed, and a suppressed cancer cure would come to light after three years and three months.

I would strongly argue that climate change fraud is not an argument over a conspiracy as such, but more of a disagreement over the quality and interpretation of data.

The formula was created by Dr David Robert Grimes from Oxford University.

He initially created an equation to express the probability of a conspiracy being either deliberately uncovered by a whistle-blower, or inadvertently revealed by a bungler.

This factored in the number of conspirators, the length of time, and even the effects of conspirators dying, whether of old age or more nefarious means.

Moon landing reveal is pictured top left. A climate change fraud would have 
been uncoveredin three years nine months (top right), a vaccination 
conspiracy would take three years and two months to be revealed (bottom
left), and a suppressed cancer cure would come to light after three years three
 months (bottom right)

 But notice how the length that the conspiracy can be maintained depends on the number of people in on the secret; the more people the sooner the conspiracy is likely to be unraveled. If one or two people decide to conceal a fact, that could last a very long time.

Regrets at Clinton.com

She's had a few, but then again, too few to mention. . . On a third bite at the apple, Hillary  Regrets the 'Uproar and Commotion' Over Her Insecure Email System, not that she exposed state secrets to the enemy.

Clinton went on to say that "it was a mistake" because she had to "go through all of this." She added, "I don't want to go through it. I don't want to put a lot of my friends through it."

Poor Baby. Cheryl Mills' Blackberry, linked to the super secret unsecured email server, was "lost," potentially giving access to the server to anyone who could nab find it. I'm sure the Secretary of State's lawyers business would be of absolutely no interest to foreign governments. She reported it to Brian Pagliano, the one time outside computer geek, hired by the Clinton at the State Dept. to run her off the books server, and he dutifully reported it to, apparently no one, which may account for him having taken the 5th.

“Somewhere b/w my house and the plane to nyc yesterday my personal bb got misplaced; no on [sic] is answering it thought [sic] I have called,” Mills wrote from her personal email account to the address Pagliano used when he worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

 Jim Gerhaty at NRO explains How the FBI Could Force DOJ to Prosecute Hillary Clinton. Comey would have to threaten to resign, but he has before.

Former Rep. John LeBoutillier optimistically explains We are witnessing the end of the House of Clinton.

1. There is the stench of political death around Hillary, Bill, Chelsea and the entire House of Clinton.

2. You could feel it when Republican front-runner Donald Trump hit back — hard — over the "penchant for sexism" charge by basically calling Hillary Clinton an enabler in the former president's sexual shenanigans.

3. When have we ever seen the Clintons back off? But they did.

4. Then came further reports about an expanded FBI probe of her handling of secure information; the nexus of State Department favors for donors to the Clinton Foundation; and the story that Hillary Clinton or her staff might have lied to FBI agents in this probe.
. . .
25. We are witnessing history: the fall of the Houses of Clinton and Bush.

Chelsea Clinton Deployed to NYC Fundraiser Hosted by Wall Street Banker - Guests can pay $2,700 for picture with Chelsea - Well, she is married to one, after all. But money trouble continue to plague the Clinton campaign anyway: Clinton Spokesman Dodges When MSNBC Asks if Campaign Is Strapped for Cash and MIA: Hollywood's Power Women for Hillary

A look at donations by THR's Power 100 list (Dana Walden and Elizabeth Banks have given, while Oprah has not) reveals scant support for Clinton. Says one industry dealmaker, "We all want a woman to be president — some of us just wish it were someone else."

Stacy McCain explains the junction of feminism and Hillary: Democrats, Feminists and Other Liars

Let’s begin with something that should be obvious, but which has seldom been stated explicitly: There is no objective reason for the recent upsurge of radical feminism in the United States. However bad sexism is today, it is not worse than it was five years ago or 10 years ago. In fact, there is abundant evidence that women in American today face much less discrimination than at any previous point in our history.

The only reason we have so many young American women identifying themselves as feminists in 2016 is because of partisan politics.

Four years ago, Democrats exploited an entirely fictional “Republican War on Women” narrative that enabled President Obama to win re-election with the largest “gender gap” ever recorded by Gallup. And with Hillary Clinton expected to be the Democrat nominee in 2016, the liberal propaganda machinery has been promoting the feminist brand in every way possible. Far beyond the narrow limits of what we usually think of as “politics,” and extending to the entertainment industry, university classrooms, the public school system and every other means of communicating ideas, feminist messages are being promoted by liberals with a frenzied energy that we can expect will crescendo to a shrieking climactic paroxysm of rage between now and November.

. . .
Democrats have decided that a revival of radical feminism is necessary to elect Hillary Clinton, and so we cannot escape it . . .

The Origin of the Wheel

Well it could have happened this way. . .

The real story why the wheel has been invented!
Posted by Jean Elan on Thursday, September 10, 2015

 Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Nighthawks" up for viewing at The Other McCain.

Beware the 'Shrooming Coyotes of Bolinas

Coyotes, Possibly High On Magic Mushrooms, Attacking Cars Near Stinson Beach

The sleepy beach town of Bolinas has something lively to talk about this week, as reports emerge that a coyote (or coyotes) has been attacking cars along Highway 1 in a manner so bizarre it has residents scratching their heads. The attacks are weird enough that one seemingly outlandish explanation, that the coyotes are eating hallucinogenic mushrooms and vision questing their way into interactions with drivers, is being considered.

A report in the Pacific Sun details the late-night encounters had by numerous motorists.
"A coyote has taken to staring down automobile drivers as they drive through this twisting, turning section of highway," notes the paper, "before attacking the car and then skulking off back into the wilderness. The coyote runs up to the cars, usually at night, forcing drivers to stop as the beast stares and sniffs around the vehicle."
. . .
“We are trying to figure this out,” Bloch helpfully informs us.

The Sun notes that the fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria) grows in the area and has hallucinogenic properties, and that Bloch recently warned residents about the possible side effects of their pets eating the wild fungus.
. . .
“It’s possible that someone was feeding him and thinking that it’s cool, and magical and mystical to have a coyote eating out of his hand,” she explained.

Which, when we consider that this is Bolinas we're talking about, seems in the end the likeliest of explanations.

Which reminds me of an "interesting trip" up Highway 1 at the end of winter break back in college, which I will not explain.

By way of Ann Althouse, this helpful video on how to discourage coyotes from being seen in populated areas:



I encountered coyotes a few times out in the West, and never had any problem with them not leaving at first sight. The coyotes of Wisconsin may have some "coydog" or "coywolf". The coywolves, in particular are larger, and have been implicated in human attacks.

Monumental Stupidity

The admiral in charge of Navy intelligence has not been allowed to see military secrets for years

For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.

Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading, seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of Navy personnel.

Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted, Navy leaders suspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations.

More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged. But neither has been cleared, either. Their access to classified information remains blocked.

OK, that make sense. You don't really want corrupt criminals like Hillary Clinton in charge of state secrets, after all. But why not at least put them in a less sensitive position.

Although the Navy transferred Loveless to a slightly less sensitive post, it kept Branch in charge of its intelligence division. That has resulted in an awkward arrangement, akin to sending a warship into battle with its skipper stuck onshore.

Branch can’t meet with other senior U.S. intelligence leaders to discuss sensitive operations, or hear updates from his staff about secret missions or projects. It can be a chore just to set foot in colleagues’ offices; in keeping with regulations, they must conduct a sweep beforehand to make sure any classified documents are locked up.

Some critics have questioned how smart it is for the Navy to retain an intelligence chief with such limitations, for so long, especially at a time when the Pentagon is confronted by crises in the Middle East, the South China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and other hotspots.

 How about the Coast Defense of Wyoming. I hear that position is still open.

Thanks to Major 'Ski

Fresh Scat Around Clinton.com

The FBI is still tracking her, and now it's going to the agencies that generated the top secret (and worse) data that coursed through Hillary Clinton's private unsecured email server. Remember, the rule is that only the agency that classifies the data has the right to change the classification. So Hillary could have, potentially, unclassified State Dept. secrets, but not CIA, NSA, DOD, DOE etc etc secrets. Ed Morrissey at HotAir explains why this is bad news for Hillary:

This move shows that the FBI is building a real case against someone, at least. If all they wanted to do was review the scandal to check a box, they would stop with the IG’s declarations and the State Department responses about “interagency disputes.” By going straight to the individual originators of the information, the FBI eliminates that (extremely weak) defense. That’s not just an investigative protocol; it’s a prosecutorial protocol. They want to have witnesses to attest to the sensitive nature of the information, and perhaps more importantly how it was handled prior to when the State Department’s top officials began accessing it.

Kurt Schlicter explains how tough it actually is to move secrets from the secured systems to Hillary's Dell. It's not just a simple cut and paste. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell agrees with me "Foreign governments have Hillary's email."

“I don’t think that was a very good judgment,” he added of Clinton’s decision to use the private server for official State Department business. “I don’t know who gave her that advice, but it was not good advice.”

For her part, Hillary has doubled down and reversed her one time (literally) apology for the email scandal:

“I’m not willing to say it was an error in judgment,” she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “Nothing I did was wrong.”

Huh? In September, she said: “As I look back at it now . . . I should have used two accounts. That was a mistake. I’m sorry about that. I take responsibility.”

Et tu Washington Post? 'WaPo': Hillary 'STILL Doesn't Have A Good Answer' on Emails . . ,

But it's clear from Clinton's response to Cuomo's prodding on Monday night that she simply doesn't really understand why the issue is still a problem for her — in the primary fight against Sanders and/or the general election race. When asked whether she should have apologized sooner, Clinton responded: "I had no intention of doing anything other than having a convenient way of communicating, and it turned out not to be so convenient. So again, we’ve answered every question and we will continue to do so."

 And Kathleen Parker?: Clinton's cracked credibility.

But more recent issues of inaccuracies are both concerning and consequential. We now know with certainty (thanks to an email from Clinton to daughter Chelsea the night of the Benghazi attacks) that the then-secretary of state knew it was a terrorist attack, contrary to official reports in the days afterward about street riots that escalated. We also know from the intelligence community inspector general that her private server contained information ranked beyond top-secret, contradicting her assertions to the contrary.

What difference at this point does any of it make? When it comes to public trust in a presidential candidate—everything.

 But that would require some to crack.

Smitty, at The Other McCain reports that Clinton may be planning to appoint a retired community organizer to the Supreme Court:

Shall not eight years of the personal pronoun pumping pipsqueak have been enough? The price of Her Majesty’s election, despite being the least suitable person since Barack Obama, may become apparent:

While at a rally in Decorah, Iowa, on Tuesday, a reporter asked Clinton what she thought about nominating President Obama to the highest court.
“Wow, what a great idea, nobody has ever suggested that to me,” Clinton said.. . .

It’s clear that our country is mismanaged by a homo bureaucratus infestation, where the motto is “fail upward”, but enough is enough.

And even worse,  With mom still running, Chelsea Clinton’s already gearing up for White House bid. Arghh! A spoiled child of privilege with no record of accomplishment is thinking of running for what she presumes is her entitlement?

On the "Hillary's Health" front, according to John Podhoretz at the New York Post Hillary needs to switch to decaf before opening her mouth again. It takes a lot of words to cover up the failures of her stint at the State Department. DrJohn at Flopping Aces has more serious thought Hillary’s coughing fits are symptoms of pulmonary emboli

. . . But the coughing fits are something else. I kind of put the first one in mind storage but the second episode compelled me to pay closer attention. I’ve seen this before and I’ve seen it in a close friend of mine.

These coughing fits are a symptom of pulmonary emboli being released into the circulation and entering the lungs. It’s usually a dry cough, but it turns into hemoptysis (coughing up blood) it’s a real problem. Cerebral venous thromboses of size have the potential to cause strokes or infarcts of the brain. Venal circulation returns blood to the heart, which directs it to the lungs for re-oxygenation via the pulmonary artery. Arteries bring blood to organs, veins take it away from organs. If a clot of sufficient size blocks the pulmonary artery, it’s lights out, and quickly. Such clots usually result from deep vein thrombosis. It’s not common, but CVST’s (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) can lead to pulmonary emboli. If small clots form or dislodge from the wall of a vein they travel to the heart and then to the lung where they can get lodged in the alveoli and causes irritation and subsequent coughing.For more see here, here, and here. In Clinton’s case it may be that she is still forming clots at the site of the injury or she may be having bits separate from a not fully resolved clot.

That’s what I believe we’re seeing.

Which puts a premium on her choice of VP.

Ann Althouse reviews Camille Paglia's essay "psycho analyzing" Hillary and it's not pretty:

This new Salon essay is getting attention for calling Hillary's feminism "blame-men-first feminism," but the core of the piece is psychoanalyzing Hillary, attributing her personality to the force of her dominating and abusive father. It makes her sound like not much of a feminist at all, but a throwback "embracing and reaffirming the painful decisions made by her own mother."

The “enabling” with which Hillary has been charged in her conflicted marriage may actually have been the pitying indulgence and half-scornful toleration that she first directed toward her brothers. She demoted her husband to a fraternal role—the shiftless “bad boy” in chronic need of scolding and spanking....
Childhood photos of Bill Clinton show his gregarious, fun-loving charm already fully formed. The young Hillary Rodham, in contrast, looks armored, with a sharp gaze and a tense, over-bright smile. Like many first-born daughters, she became her father’s favorite son, marginalizing her less self-assured and accomplished brothers. . .

What does that even mean and how is it supported by the psychoanalysis of the rest of the article? It's somewhat interesting, but rather banal, to say that a smart girl with a dominant father became acareer achiever and never cultivated an air of silky, soothing, warm hospitality.

But how does that establish that she "privileges elite professional women at men’s expense"? Yes, I know that Paglia inserted some boilerplate about the difference between Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem at the beginning of the essay. Even assuming that Steinem eclipsed Friedan and that Steinem's feminism is "blame men first," I don't see how that's saying much about Hillary Clinton.

The lesbian feminist blames Hillary's father, and men in general? How banal. Ann Althouse, reading Salon so you don't have to.

Malheur Standoff Ends in Bloodshed

The standoff between Bundy family lead ranchers, who occupied an unused Federal building at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in protest of the treatment of local ranchers at the hand of the federal government ended in a shooting at a roadblock set by the FBI and local authorities to "catch" the main agitators. The result was one rancher dead, and another injured, and the apprehension of several of the groups main characters:

Oregon standoff spokesman Robert 'LaVoy' Finicum killed, Bundys in custody after shooting near Burns

Oregon standoff spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum was killed and other leaders of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation were arrested Tuesday after the FBI and state police stopped vehicles about 20 miles north of Burns.

Authorities did not release the name of the person who died at the highway stop, but Finicum's daughter confirmed it was Finicum, 55, of Cane Beds, Arizona, one of the cowboy-hat wearing faces of the takeover.

"My dad was such a good good man, through and through," said Arianna Finicum Brown, 26, one of Finicum's 11 children. "He would never ever want to hurt somebody, but he does believe in defending freedom and he knew the risks involved."

Ryan Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nev., suffered a minor gunshot wound in the confrontation about 4:30 p.m. along U.S. 395. He was treated and released from a local hospital and was in FBI custody, authorities said.

Also arrested during the stop were his brother, Ammon Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, Ryan W. Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Mont., Brian Cavalier, 44, of Bunkerville, Nevada, and Shawna J. Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah. They were charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers, a felony.

I'm sure this is so they can charge all those apprehended at the scene with murder, for participating in a felony that led the the death of their friend.

Finicum on Monday said an interview that "the tenor has changed" between the occupiers and federal authorities.

Robert "LaVoy" Finicum's last interview with The Oregonian on the day before his death
"They're doing all the things that shows that they want to take some kinetic action against us," Robert "LaVoy" Finicum says of federal agents. These were some of Finicum's last words to The Oregonian/OregonLive on the day before his death.

"They're doing all the things that shows that they want to take some kinetic action against us," he said.

A bit prophetic, but also an indication that he might have been a little high strung.

Little detail was available about the dramatic finish to the free-roaming ways of the militant leaders. State police said troopers were involved in the shooting and that one person died, another suffered non-life-threatening injuries and no police were hurt.
. . .
The leaders were on the highway bound for John Day, where they were scheduled to participate in an evening community meeting set up by local residents. A crowd of several hundred had gathered at the John Day Senior Center and were subsequently told the the "guest speakers" would not be appearing.

The highway was blocked for a 40-mile stretch between Burns and John Day. Police were stationed near Seneca, a small city of 200 south of John Day, with long guns. They said they didn't know how long the roadblock would be place. Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer was there.

A few thoughts on this.

Challenging the federal government with guns in your hands is probably a bad idea, unless you are really willing to take it to the end. If that's what really happened.

Rumors are already circulating the Finicum was shot while attempting to surrender. I'm pretty confident that dash cam, body cam and probably even an Imax grade movie were shot at the scene to document the arrest. If something doesn't come out pretty soon, we can safely assume that the authorities are pulling a Rahm Immanuel to cover it up. Do not trust initial reports from either "side."

I'm sure the Obama administration will be opening an investigation into the representation of ranchers among the local cops and FBI. /sarc

There's no reason on earth that the Federal Government needs to own more than 50% of the land in Oregon, and rent it back to ranchers to graze on. If someone is making even marginal use out of it, they should have the opportunity to purchase it at a market price. Land is better used by owners than tenants.

Someone needs to look into the methods used by the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, and its parent, the Interior Dept. to acquire private lands to add to their holdings, as they were apparently trying to do to the Hammonds in Oregon, and the Bundys in Arizona. All bureaucrats want to expand their domain of influence and holdings, and want more and more restrictions on non-governmental citizens activities there. This is an area ripe for a reversal.

#Rancherslivesmatter

Pardon Me If I Post More Snow

How much snow was there?

Um, a lot. The volume of snow that fell last weekend in the eastern U.S. would fill Metlife Stadium (where the Giants and Jets play) about 98,000 times.

That's also equivalent to about 22 billion dump truck loads full of snow, according to meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherBell Analytics.

And if the snow all melted, it would equal 5 trillion gallons of water, Maue said, which is about one-fourth the volume of all the water in the Chesapeake Bay.

That sounds about right. Every year, enough water runs down the Bay's watershed to match about half the volume of the Bay, and the storm covered a much bigger area than the Bay.

Khloe Terae: Playboy Cyber Girl & Int'l Playmate of the Year
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Posted by Melissa Anne Teixeira - LFL Athlete on Sunday, January 24, 2016

To make up for the snow:

Honey Badger Does So Care

He wants to escape:

Clinton.com Keeps on Chooglin'

The Hillary Clinton super secret private unsecured email scandals seems to be approaching critical mass. Tom Delay is the next player to claim that a Hillary indictment will be sought by the FBI. amid news that they are probing how classified info got onto Hillary’s secret server. Does he still have good sources in the FBI? According to Former Federal Prosecutor Andy McCarthy Hillary Clinton’s Email Scandal Appears Gravely Criminal. Ya think?

New footage of a Clinton State Dept. flack has emerged as much as admitting bragging that lots of material that ought to have been classified was flying around on Blackberry's during Clinton's time at the State Dept.



Just a comment regarding Bern's question. Revolution vs. evolution: Evolution turned minute specs of living chemicals in the sea into land mammals that evolved into whales. The system was not governed by a plan but rather by the fact that each step along the way worked. Revolution produced the guillotine. Even the American Revolution gave rise to a false start, the Articles of Confederation. We are lucky to have survived with our independence intact.

Along the way, Reporter fights Hillary Clinton email delay. As you may remember the State Dept. wants to delay the final dump of Hillary's email until after Iowa and New Hampshire, citing the super storm, which closed the government in DC for three day, without any assistance from the Tea Party or Ted Cruz. Seems fair; three days, thirty days, they only differ by a zero. However, some curmudgeonly conservatives are claiming its because Hillary’s State Dept. Is Attempting to Rig Iowa and New Hampshire Elections. Ya think?

The Washington Post this morning featured a long article on How David Petraeus avoided felony charges and possible prison time. From the Duffleblog: New DOD Regulations Confirm That OPSEC Doesn’t Apply To Everyone.

The Department of Defense is set to release new security rules later this week, making it clear that consequences for violations don’t apply equally to everyone, sources say. The revisions will make explicit what has until recently been an informal system that occasionally treated powerful people the same as peons, and, more rarely, sometimes failed to bring the wrath of God down on regular people acting out of conscience.
. . .
Clinton’s use of an insecure, private server for Top Secret emails, and a complete lack of accountability, forced the Pentagon and the White House to finally address accusations that high ranking individuals are treated differently when it comes to standards for handling classified information.

“Everyone has always known that was the case,” said Jimenez. “But now we’ve clearly defined who gets away with what. If you’re a military officer you pretty much get a free pass at lieutenant general and higher. There’s a sliding scale from there down to colonel that mostly depends on who you know.”

“But we still have to nail Petraeus’ balls to the wall, because appearances.”

Read it all at: http://www.duffelblog.com/2016/01/opsec-doesnt-apply-to-everyone/#ixzz3yN3EHdvv

A former Miss Arkansas, involved with Bill Clinton back in the Arkansas Mafia days came out and said: ‘IF I DIE BY COMMITTING SUICIDE, DON’T BELIEVE IT’

“Soon after she began talking to the press during the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency, at a meeting in a restaurant with Tucker, Miller was told to be a ‘good little girl’ and was offered a federal job. If she didn’t accept the offer, ‘then they knew if I went jogging by myself and couldn’t guarantee what would happen to my pretty little legs,’ Miller recalled. ‘Things just wouldn’t be so fun for me anymore. Life would get hard.’”

Much nicer legs than Hillary's.

Maybe you don't understand it

But if you're a natural man

You got to ball and have a good time

And that's what I call chooglin'

Here comes Mary lookin' for Harry

She gonna choogle tonight

Here comes Louie, works in the sewer

He gonna choogle tonight

Keep on chooglin'

Keep on chooglin'

Keep on chooglin'

From the things not talked about file: No Reporters Allowed At Hillary’s Wall Street Speeches. The narrative must remain unchallenged.

A student at  Monday’s Democrat town hall on CNN inadvertently gave away the game by revealing that "someone" else planted his soft-ball question:



Do you think she might have known that one was coming?

Tom McGuire at Just One Minute applauds her new software upgrade: Human Emulation Module Upgraded In Animatronic 'Hillarity!'

For this next bit of Times reporting it helps to get Arnold's 'Terminator' voice playing in your head:

She talked about the snow in New York and her granddaughter, and she helped an older woman snap her first selfie. “Here, I’ll show you, it’ll be fun!” she said, grabbing the iPhone and extending her arm.

"It will be fun". Not quite "I'll be back", but workable.

Apparently her high-priced strategists have concluded that humans prefer a pretense of human contact so they have made the Hard Choice to send her out amongst a crowd of people who have not paid $200,000 to hear her speak. Breakthrough stuff.

And finally, questions on Hillary's health re-surface: HILLARY SUFFERS MASSIVE COUGHING FIT

Clinton’s campaign released a health statement in July confirming hypothyroidism as well as allergies. The former secretary of state takes Armour Thyroid to treat an underactive thyroid.

Armour Thyroid can also be used to prevent certain types of enlarged thyroid glands and to manage thyroid cancer, Fox News reported July 31.

The former first lady also sustained a concussion after falling inside her home in December 2012. She was given blood thinners for a blood clot in her head and returned to work Jan. 7, 2013.

Armour thyroid is the what they give you for hypothyroidism that isn't responding quite right to the cheap stuff, Synthroid. It's made from ground up pig's thyroids.

This is Why They Call 'Em Snow Dogs

She really likes the snow,

And just so you know she didn't have to lie in the snow:

Surveying her little queendom (the back yard) from above

War, What Is It Good For?

Stone-age massacre offers earliest evidence of human warfare

Some 10,000 years ago a woman in the last stages of pregnancy met a terrible death, trussed like a captive animal and dumped into shallow water at the edge of a Kenyan lagoon. She died with at least 27 members of her tribe, all equally brutally murdered, in the earliest evidence of warfare between stone age hunter-gatherers.

The fossilised remains of the victims, still lying where they fell, preserved in the sediment of a marshy pool that dried up thousands of years ago, were found by a team of scientists from Cambridge University.

Actually, more than evidence of war, it would appear to be evidence of the first war crime, as we understand it. People killing each other in conflict over land, property and sex is old news. Killing bound captives is something different. You would think captive women and children might be kept as slaves, unless maybe, it was beyond the ability of the tribe to support them, and they realized it.

The evidence of their deaths was graphic and unmistakable: the remains, which include at least eight women and six children, show skulls smashed in, skeletons shot through or stabbed with stone arrows and blades, and in four cases, hands almost certainly bound.

The discovery, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, was made in 2012 at Nataruk, a site 30km from Lake Turkana in northern Kenya’s Rift Valley, and is the earliest securely dated evidence of violent confrontation between nomadic hunter-gatherer groups.

“The deaths at Nataruk are testimony to the antiquity of inter-group violence and war,” said Marta Mirazón Lahr, from the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at Cambridge, who led the study.

But at least there doesn't seem to have been evidence of cannibalism. I'm a little surprised.

“These human remains record the intentional killing of a small band of foragers with no deliberate burial, and provide unique evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among some prehistoric hunter-gatherers.”

The fragmentary remains of the children, all under six except for oneteenager, were found with the women’s skeletons.

Most skeletons had severe skull fractures including extreme blunt force injuries to cheek and facial bones, broken hands, knees and ribs, arrow marks in the neck and, in the case of two men, arrow tips still lodged in their skulls and chests.

It's the traditional method of settling major differences between two groups of people.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Nighthawks" up for viewing at The Other McCain.

"Climate Change Made Me Do It!"

A jury in Snohomish County, Washington finds climate activists not guilty of  obstruction for blockading a regional oil facility in 2014. Can Breaking the Law Be a Legal Defense?

When our grandchildren write the history of the climate movement, they’ll save a few pages for the trials of 2016.

First, they’ll focus on Snohomish County, Washington, where last Friday a group of Seattle-area jurors found the so-called Delta 5 not guilty of obstruction for blockading a regional oil facility in 2014. The protest and the acquittal were notable as part of a growing wave of anti-oil-gas-and-coal citizen actions that has swept the country in the past few years, and the courtroom in Snohomish County was treated to a master class on why principled lawbreaking is just the tonic needed to cure our government’s woeful inaction on warming.

But what law students of the future will learn about the Delta 5 trial is something a bit more arcane, if no less momentous. For the first time in the United States, a jury heard testimony that defendants’ criminal actions were justified by “climate necessity”—that is, the argument that it’s better to break the law while getting in a few punches at the fossil fuel system than to sit back and lawfully watch the world burn. It’s a defense that’s been tried a handful of times, but in the U.S. has never made it past the judge’s bench slap. (One group of protesters used it successfully in England in 2008.)

I'm not necessarily unalterably opposed to jury nullification, but one should be careful of precedent. Them yahoos in Alabama and Mississippi might take to it.

In news on the intersection of environmentalism and law, the State of California is suing Exxon for disagreeing with them on climate change. California Joins the Effort to Persecute, Suppress Scientific Dissent on Climate Change

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in trying to prosecute ExxonMobil for supposedly lying to its shareholders and the public about climate change, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that Harris is investigating what ExxonMobil “knew about global warming and what the company told investors.”

Neither Harris nor Schneiderman recognizes the outrageousness of what they are doing—which amounts censoring or restricting speech and debate on what is a contentious scientific theory. In fact, they want not just to stop anyone who questions the global warming theory from being able to speak; they want to punish them with possible civil sanctions or even criminal penalties. As I said before about Schneiderman, Harris needs a remedial lesson in the First Amendment.

Perhaps we should investigate what Harris “knows” about global warming or climate change, which Harris (and Schneiderman) treats as if it is a proven, unassailable, incontrovertible fact.  However, as the Heritage Foundation’s Nicolas Loris has pointed out, “flaws discovered in the scientific assessment of climate change have shown that the scientific consensus is not as settled as the public had been led to believe.”

Another very dangerous precedent.

And for the trifecta, Many Climate Economists Reject Climate Models and Turn to Ethical Judgments

. . . For an example of how the 365 economists who responded to the survey were more concerned than the actual published literature, consider the question asking what year would the world start experiencing net negative economic impacts from climate change?

Here is the breakdown of the answers:

Already, notice that the expert respondents are at odds with the alarmist rhetoric that declares destructive climate change is already upon us. As the numbers indicate, 59 percent—a solid majority—thought that climate change would be beneficial for the global economy at least through the year 2025. Moreover, 37 percent of the experts thought that climate change would be beneficial to the global economy until at least the year 2050. Does this match up with the apocalyptic rhetoric coming from Vox and other quarters?

Yet even though the above survey response may surprise readers who have heard that disaster is imminent, the results in the published literature are even more optimistic. As Roberts reports:

The median answer here is 2025, which is considerably earlier than many prominent economic models estimate. For instance, Tol’s FUND model — one of the three big models used in the field — estimates that impacts will not be net negative until 2080.

In other words, the expert economists are not using the published results in order to justify the answers in the chart above. Their judgment tells them things are worse than the peer-reviewed models indicate, and—to reiterate—even the judgment of 37 percent think climate change will help the economy through 2050.
. . .
The irony here is incredible. Americans have been beaten over the head for years about the “settled science” of the peer-reviewed research, and the Obama Administration assembled an Interagency Working Group that has spent years calculating and updating estimates of the “social cost of carbon.” We at IER have reported on all of the problems with these models, and cited MIT economist Robert Pindyck’s scathing critique. Now guys like Roberts are coming along and effectively saying, “I don’t care about the peer-reviewed literature that the IPCC uses, or the models chosen by the Obama Working Group. Let’s make policy by conducting a survey to see what the group thinks.”

Proving only that economists are susceptible to propaganda too.

Post El Ninsnowmaggedocalypse Boat and Beach Report

After chipping away the hardened snow on the front porch this morning, I thought I should go down to the docks, and check on the boat. I wasn't afraid of it sinking; it's the one sitting on the lift, but I did worry a little about all the snow and ice. I spent about an hour clearing snow, chipping ice, and getting down into the bilge, which was frozen solid despite the anti-freeze I had added a few days before El Ninsnowmaggedocalypse. The harbor has a nice layer of pancake ice.

After I was done, I swung by the beach just to see. Here you can see that sea ice has piled up behind the north side of the jetty. I suspect it's not frozen Bay so much as snow that gets mixed in by the tide, and floats around. It won't last long, and it would be a mistake to try to walk on it. I know that from practical experience.

Not much snow settled on the beach, thanks mostly to the high winds that accompanied the storm.

It does make for a very arctic looking landscape.