On November 16, 2017,
in Uncategorized,
by magoo1310
It’s Wednesday, November 15th, 2017…but before we begin, please indulge us as we offer a few thoughts on what is rapidly becoming the the 2017 equivalent of the McMartin/Amirault/Wenatchee daycare witch hunts:
No offense,…but seriously: like, at the risk of committing the unpardonable sin of body-shaming, with all the babes available in Hollywood, James Woods was going to hit on Tom Hank’s so-average squeeze in Big?!?
What’s next: secret rooms, clowns, satanic rituals and knives which leave no wounds?!? Not to mention Perkins’ (and this is key!!!) completely unprovable charges couldn’t have anything to do with Woods’ Conservatism, the only thingworse in Hollywood than bad touches?!?
Forgetting for the moment the serial sexual assaulter who’s the subject of our Quote of the Day above…
…let’s assume The Right and The Left are to move forward under the same set of rules: what will henceforth constitute grounds for exclusion from politics at any level?
Sure, Slick Willy definitely rules out rape…
…but what about depraved indifference…
…overt racism…
…or malicious malice of forethought?
So many inconsistencies, so little time until the special election.
Questions: If Moore’s conduct was “common knowledge”; (1). Why wasn’t the Alabama Republican Party aware of it?; (2). Why didn’t Luther Strange USE it? (or wasn’t he interested in winning?!?), and; (3). Why was NONE of this information ever promulgated publicly until some 30 days before the special election?!?
Some three weeks ago, while attending our 40th Naval Academy reunion, we were told a story in which we were the central character…and we didn’t remember it. And believe you us, it was a tale we’d be proud to retell. Yet it somehow slipped our memory…eluding the recall of one who once claimed the title of the biggest game show winner in history?
Yet we’re to take the 35-40-year-old recollections of a 14-year-old girl, a mall kiosk employee and a security guard as gospel?!?
Sorry, but we’re akin to the mixed feelings expressed by Conrad Black, as he records…
“It is hard not to look upon the Roy Moore imbroglio as another well-timed hit-job from a familiar and well-practiced source — the same people who thought they had destroyed the Trump campaign by releasing the Billy Bush tape from eleven years before, and, when that didn’t finish Trump off, tried the nuclear option very late in the campaign by shopping to the media the Steele dossier, which the Clinton campaign had commissioned, with its salacious and seditious elements. The dossier was so extreme in its allegations and so thoroughly unsupported and unverifiable that even the most rabid Democratic mouthpieces wouldn’t touch it.
They could only get a nibble from Yahoo before the election, despite Democratic senator Harry Reid’s publicly writing to the well-traveled FBI director, James Comey, who was sitting on the dossier like a toad. The Clinton campaign engaged retired British spy Christopher Steele and sent him on a denunciation-buying tour of the Kremlin, with a thickly packed wallet, and worked hard to get it into the hands of the FBI and the media. Their choice of media recipients confirmed the general belief that their most slavish influential media supporters were the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker, CNN, and Yahoo. The omission of MSNBC must be a hurtful reflection on its ratings for Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Rachel Maddow.
I don’t like Moore as a candidate; I think it is outrageous for any candidate for a serious office to flourish a firearm at an election meeting, and some of his comments, especially about gays, have been completely unacceptable for a candidate for the U.S. Senate. I have no problem with his putting a large and unauthorized monument to the Ten Commandments in the court-house rotunda as chief justice of Alabama, and the removal of him from that office for doing so is reprehensible. His opponents were inviting him to seek a high electoral office, and his most sophisticated opponents were ready for him. With the other earmarks of a well-planned assault, disposing of Moore and slicing the Republican Senate majority to a knife-edge, the Democrats and their media allies left it to just one month before the runoff election.
Moore has denied the allegations, but some of the answers he gave to Sean Hannity on Fox News about “dating teenage girls” when he was in his thirties were unimpressive.It is an issue because of the acute sensitivity to physical harassment of women and even greater public outrage about any form of abuse of minors. Both are well-founded and justly righteous public attitudes. Their application in this case is mitigatedby the absence of authoritative corroboration, any seriously alleged pattern of repeated misconduct (as in the Weinstein allegations), and the fact that the alleged incident is violently denied by the former chief justice of the state, occurred 38 years ago, did not involve any direct physical grope or probe, was not reported to law authorities (and was not necessarily illegal if it happened at all and certainly is not actionable now) and was given instead to the trusty first battery of reliable Democratic artillery in the media. (After the Watergate character assassination, the Washington Post holds that status permanently, like the nuncio of the Holy See being the dean of the diplomatic corps in all countries that attended the Congress of Vienna.)
It is a reasonable supposition that most people in public life have something not much less embarrassing than this in their backgrounds that remain unknown, one form of misconduct or another.(See: “Kennedy, Theodore”; “Byrd, Robert”; “Clinton, William Jefferson”)It is also true that even if this incident occurred, as long as it was not repeated, it does not disqualify Moore from being a senator, if he has had 38 subsequent years of unexceptionable sexual and romantic conduct. However, the Democrats and their media allies can usually be relied upon to drum up some sort of after-outcry of the long-silent aggrieved, and they started to come out of the woodwork on Monday. If further accusers are credible, Moore is doomed. If it looks like an orchestrated take-down, he may have a chance. Obviously, if Moore is likely a serial sex-criminal, he must be stopped.
As I wrote above, I don’t like Roy Moore as a candidate, but I don’t like premeditated political character assassinations either, and in a parallel of the fact that impositions on underage girls by grown men should be punished, if there is proof that they occurred, electioneering by severe partisan defamation unleashed at critically timed pre-electoral moments should not be rewarded with success. They have not been with the Steele dossier, which Kimberley Strassel correctly described in the Wall Street Journal on November 10 as the greatest political dirty trick in American history. The great investigation of Trump-Russian election collusion was just Hillary Clinton’s instant excuse for her electoral defeat, and the entire country has had to pay for this nonsense, which may stumble on to some financial or impropriety missteps by secondary individuals, but is basically just a long-running smear job against Trump, instigated and launched by his scheming and sulking opponent, who may now, finally, be facing her own special counsel…”
With all undue apologies, we’ve regretfully been lied to…
…far too often!
Thus we’re forced to leave the final decision with the voters in Alabama.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, FOX News offers another reason…as if any were needed…we wouldn’t believe the MSM if they reported grass was green and Obama the worst President in American history:
“The most recent example of high-profile media bias against President Trump comes from New York Times’ top photographer Doug Mills, who apparently snapped an unflattering picture of the president as “revenge.”
Mills was upset when he wasn’t allowed to follow Trump inside the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings on Friday, which the White House press pool wasn’t invited to…
…Mills was apparently still unhappy with the president on Monday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and took out his frustration by tweeting an unflattering image of a grimacing President Trump that he snapped during the ASEAN leaders’ annual “family photo.” The photo that quickly circulated online is an awkward image of Trump reaching across his body to shake the hands of other world leaders. Video shows that Trump quickly made the unflattering face before smiling and looking presidential for the remainder of the photo op.
…The Washington Post noticed and published a story headlined, “News photographer who protested White House restrictions on access gets revenge with revealing shot of Trump.” The story noted, “Surely there were many other frames Mills could have chosen that made Trump look more distinguished.”
“Yet Mills and other pool photographers published the awkward ones,” the Post’s David Nakamura wrote…”
James Freeman, Best of the Web…
American Intelligence Horror Story
Are U.S. spies losing their technological edge?
For years technologists have been warning about the possibility of a sort of digital Pearl Harbor in which a hostile foreign power launches a devastating cyber-attack on the United States. Is it already happening?
A disturbing report in the New York Times describes the damage that has been done—and is still being done—by a mysterious group called the Shawdow Brokers, which managed to steal the hacking tools the U.S. National Security Agency has used to spy on other countries. The Times describes an “earthquake that has shaken the N.S.A. to its core” and adds:
Current and former agency officials say the Shadow Brokers disclosures, which began in August 2016, have been catastrophic for the N.S.A., calling into question its ability to protect potent cyberweapons and its very value to national security. The agency regarded as the world’s leader in breaking into adversaries’ computer networks failed to protect its own.
Among the most disturbing aspects of the case is the fact that, long after the theft of critical data was detected, our government still doesn’t know how it happened. The Times writes:
Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the agency’s counterintelligence arm, known as Q Group, and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider’s leak, or both.Three employees have been arrested since 2015 for taking classified files, but there is fear that one or more leakers may still be in place. And there is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who fled with four laptops of classified material in 2013.
Mr. Snowden’s cascade of disclosures to journalists and his defiant public stance drew far more media coverage than this new breach. But Mr. Snowden released code words, while the Shadow Brokers have released the actual code; if he shared what might be described as battle plans, they have loosed the weapons themselves. Created at huge expense to American taxpayers, those cyberweapons have now been picked up by hackers from North Korea to Russia and shot back at the United States and its allies.
“Sorry, but could you define the term “useless f*cksticks”?
This NSA disaster occurred on President Obama’s watch and the Times report suggests that Mr. Obama ignored advice from top officials in his national security team to address the management failure because he prioritized the effort to search for potential 2016 Trump campaign links to Russia:
One N.S.A. official who almost saw his career ended by the Shadow Brokers is at the very top of the organization: Adm. Michael S. Rogers, director of the N.S.A. and commander of its sister military organization, United States Cyber Command. President Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr. (You know, the bald guy who lied under oath to Congress!), and defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, recommended removing Admiral Rogers from his post to create accountability for the breaches.
But Mr. Obama did not act on the advice, in part because Admiral Rogers’s agency was at the center of the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
As for President Trump, the question is why he has not initiated a house-cleaning at the top of the NSA.
For all Americans, the question is whether the technological edge that the United States has enjoyed in defense and intelligence for essentially all of our lifetimes is now in jeopardy.
As for President Trump not relieving Rogers, perhaps John Koskinen cc’d the Admiral on whatever prevented The Donald from firing his useless hide.
Speaking of horror stories, here’s an item we had to double-verify, its implications for national security are so threatening:
“Facing low recruitment levels, the U.S. Army quietly lifted its ban on allowing people with a history of mental illness, self-mutilation and drug abuse to serve in the military – despite warnings from the industry about the risks involved. The new rules green-light recruits who have bipolar disorder, depression and issues with cutting – a process in which a person takes a knife or razor to his or her own skin – along with those who bite, hit or bruise themselves intentionally.
“I am shocked,” Craig Bryan, executive director of the National Center for Veterans Studies at The University of Utah, told Fox News. “This contradicts everything we have been working toward for the past 10-to-15 years.” Bryan says there is strong evidence to indicate self-injury is a “stepping stone to suicide” and is “the single strongest predictor of suicidal behavior.”
The Army signed off on the new policy in August but never announced it(no sh*t!!!), according to USA Today, which first reported the news. The decision to lift restrictions comes as the military looks like it will miss its goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers through September 2018.
In order to hit last year’s goal of 69,000 recruits, the Army also accepted men and women who did poorly on aptitude tests, increased the number of waivers for pot use and offered hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses…
…Army spokesman Lt. Col. Randy Taylor says the waiver expansion was possible because the government has more access to applicants’ medical records. “These records allow Army officials to better document applicant medical histories,” he said – but adds that the “waivers are not considered lightly.”
Dr. Joel Dvoskin, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the University of Arizona’s Department of Psychiatry, told Fox News he believes lifting the ban is a step in the right direction. “The label of mental illness is meaningless,” he said. “There are a ton of people(“ton”: a psychiatric term) who have a history of something – some kind of emotional trouble – and they are fine.There is no reason in the world they couldn’t serve in the military.”
He added, “Stereotypes are pretty evil all the way around. Because of the stigma (of mental illness), we stereotype them.” Dvoskin said in some cases, mental illness might make would-be soldiers “tougher and better” as the result…”
Hey, what…
…could go wrong?!?
For the record, upon delving into Dr. Dvoskin’s background, we learned, in addition to his psychiatric credentials, he’s provided architectural design services to a number of psychiatric hospitals from Pueblo to Puerto Rico, trained clinicians across the United States, Canada and even the United Kingdom, as well as consulted with a number of other organizations, including the U.S. Secret Service and NBA.
He also offers training, mediation and public speaking services, which may or may not include his talents…
…on the guitar.
What we couldn’t find was any hint of military service or experience. And as Barney Greenwald so famously pointed out to the prosecution “expert” in of our favorite scenes from The Caine Mutiny (1:26:40 – 1:27:10)…
By the way, contrary to the prosecution’s claim, the “strain” civilian CEOs experience in the rigorous environment of their office or boardroom has as much in common with what Navy captains go through even in training, let alone actual combat, as an Iroquois war canoe has with the USS Gerald R. Ford.
This isn’t simply crazy; it’s completely and utterly…
The question now is what The Donald and Mad Dog are going to do about it.
Turning to The Lighter Side…
Then there’s this rather accurate representation of what can either be a Harvey Weinstein or Bill Clinton…
Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with a supposed “story” with even less proof than the Roy Moore charges:
“So long, honey; you feed the dog, I’ll feed the crabs!”
“The mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart’s disappearance has bewildered many for years.(Only those who continue to think about it…or are looking for publicity.) Some have proposed that her plane simply crashed and sank, while others have pondered a number of other explanations, including capture by the Japanese, or that she lived out her days on Gardner Island.
One theory that has perenially existed (Only if “perenially” is taken to mean “in the last week”!) is that Earhart’s remains may have been eaten by coconut crabs, a three-foot long crab with claws so powerful it can crack open a coconut. The unproven theory suggests that Earhart crashed on the island of Nikumaroro and the crabs ate her remains…”
“…Some have called the Amelia Earhart [coconut crab] theory total nonsense. As one skeptical commenter on an iO9 report put it: “Every credible historian says Earhart’s Lockheed Electra ran out of fuel and sank in almost 20,000 feet of water. It’s expensive and difficult to look in the deep ocean, but I promise you that’s where she’ll ultimately be found.”
Meanwhile, nobody ever seems to give a hoot about the grisly fate of Earhart’s navigator, Fred Noonan…
…assuming, of course, the “unproven theory” is right, and “every credible historian” wrong.
Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with another Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us, courtesy today of some 15,000 supposed-scientists and the frequently inaccurate Sun:
Won wood think, at leased with an article claiming the future of the planet’s at steak, The Son‘s editors wood halve at least caught the typo in the headline.
Perhaps, like Egon confronting the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters, the inevitability of the global catastrophe The Sun‘s editors were confronting rendered them…
Loading ...
You must be logged in to post a comment.