Friday, April 5, 2019
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #582
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
House Democrats Want ‘Oversight’ over Fox News’ Editorial Decisions
House Committee on Oversight and Reform chair Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote to former Fox News reporter Diana Falzone last month demanding that she turn over any documents relating to Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs.
An article in the New Yorker last month alleged that Fox News executive Ken LaCorte spiked the story to protect Trump — a claim LaCorte has vehemently denied, saying the story lacked corroborating evidence and that the network was merely practicing responsible journalism, as were other outlets who declined the story.
That article seems to have motivated Cummings’s letter — a letter that not only seeks personal dirt on the president, but seeks information that might be used to review Fox News’ editorial decisions. The committee’s letter suggests that Fox News may have violated campaign finance rules if it tried to help Trump by suppressing the Daniels story.
Falzone has said she will cooperate with the committee, despite an agreement with Fox that prevents her from speaking about the story. In an op-ed at Mediaite, LaCorte says he supports Falzone’s desire to talk about the story publicly, but that he will refuse to cooperate with...
TEXAS TEACHER ASSIGNS ANTI-TRUMP ESSAY AS CLASS HOMEWORK
Seventh grade assignment characterized the president as “racist” and questioned whether he should be impeached.
A middle school teacher in the public Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District near Houston assigned 12 and 13 year old seventh grade students to read and answer questions on an essay blasting President Donald Trump as “racist,” “insensitive,” and counter to American values as part of a lesson on inferring information from written text.
Even for seventh grade students who are not overly familiar with politics, it is easy to parse the message of the piece which essentially translates as ‘Dump Trump.’ Titled, “Trump Against American Values,” the essay begins, “Throughout Donald Trump’s time in the American spotlight, we have come to see his true colors. From the beginning of his presidency, we have witnessed insensitive remarks toward other racial and cultural groups.”
The assignment goes on to say that “Some of Trump’s policies have gone against what Americans value most, like the freedom of opportunity” and labels the president as “insensitive” for his focus on building a wall on the border with Mexico.
The piece concludes with remarks that could well have been lifted from a campaign commercial for one of Trump’s 2020 Democratic challengers:
“With all of these racist remarks by our president, I think that we as a people need to take a stand and show that we will not accept this kind of leadership in our country.”
Multiple choice questions follow this political diatribe. One asks, "Which of the following conclusions would the author most likely agree with?" The possible answers include, “Donald Trump should not be president” and “America’s future is in grave danger.”
A second question asks the middle schoolers to complete the sentence, "The reader can infer that ..." The available options include, “Mexican Americans are the major group upset with President Trump” and “The United States will impeach Donald Trump.”
The politically charged assignment was made public by Texas state representative Briscoe Cain, a Republican, who was made aware of it by a parent in his district.
Cain minced no words in calling out the school district and teacher (whose name has not been released) in a post on Facebook:
"This individual has violated the sacred trust that every parent has with the State of Texas when they send their child into a public school," Cain stated of the teacher who assigned the anti-Trump essay. "They have lost the privilege of being in a classroom with Texas children, and forfeit the title of teacher. No teacher should attempt to indoctrinate a child to their ideology, no matter who is...
Mueller's Chevauchée: Burn Everyone and Everything Trump Loves
Medieval English kings were not nice people. Edward III (1312–1377), in particular, used his son the Black Prince to wage a form of warfare called chevauchée, which consisted of killing and burning everyone and everything that could be reached by fast-moving raiders.
The object was twofold. One was to destroy an opponent's logistics base and discourage supporters. The other was to bait the opponent into leaving a good defensive position and coming out into the open, where he could be attacked; a noble needed strong nerves and a stony heart to stay behind walls while his subjects were slaughtered and his lands destroyed.
As many have noted during the past week, Robert Mueller and his legal sell-swords must have been aware for nigh onto two years, at least, that the accusation that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians had no evidentiary support. Nonetheless, per the attorney general's summary letter to Congress, the investigation spent tens of millions of dollars, employed 19 lawyers and 40 other professional staff, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communications records, authorized almost 50 pen registers, made 13 document requests to foreign governments, and interviewed 500 witnesses.
Barr and Mueller seem to regard this recounting as cause for satisfaction, as evidence of great diligence by the Department of Justice. But each of these actions inflicted substantial expense and career damage on those unlucky enough to be caught up in it. Every one of those witnesses should have lawyered up, knowing the ruthlessness of prosecutors on the scent of a big-time case. The game is to find something on a lower-level person and threaten him with heavy penalties unless he gives the prosecutor a more tempting target. If no extortionary material can be found, the witness can be accused of lying to the FBI, with the proof consisting of notes taken by the interviewing FBI agents themselves, since the agency refuses to make recordings. Family members can be threatened.
Most of these witnesses have kept quiet about the experience, content to have escaped. Some are speaking out, such as Michael Caputo, who has written eloquently and repeatedly about the costs imposed on him and others.
Sundance, at Conservative Treehouse, concludes that none of this investigating was really directed at the collusion charge. It was all an effort to entrap Trump himself or at least some of his supporters into actions that could be branded as "obstruction of justice," with that term broadly interpreted to encompass almost any action he took.
When Trump said Michael Flynn was a "good guy," this was spun as "obstruction." When he wanted to release FISA memos, he was warned that this would be "obstruction." Any reaching out to witnesses would have been branded "obstruction." Any statement of sympathy for Paul Manafort or Roger Stone would have been obstruction gold.
In this view, which is persuasive, the collateral damage inflicted on those on the fringes of the investigation was not...
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