Only Idiots Bite The Hand That Feeds.....

 #squad

Latest Development In Flynn Case Proves Special Counsel Was A Cover For Taking Down Trump

His former lawyer’s latest testimony establishes two facts, both of which benefit Michael Flynn and both of which the media has missed.

The special counsel’s investigation was a sham controlled by the intelligence community. Evidence has long suggested as much, but testimony earlier this week from Michael Flynn’s ex-lawyer—that Flynn’s former legal team had not seen recently revealed information purporting to implicate Flynn in a conspiracy with a Turkish agent—confirms it.

This testimony came on Tuesday when Flynn’s former Covington and Burling lawyer, Robert Kelner, took the stand at the trial of Flynn’s former partner at Flynn Intel Group (FIG), Bijan Rafiekian. Rafiekian, who co-founded FIG with Flynn, is on trial for conspiring with his co-defendant Kamil Ekim Alptekin and others (unnamed in the indictment) to act as an unregistered agent of the Turkish government and conspiring to file a material false Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statement. (Alptekin is a fugitive believed to be in Turkey.)

The government had planned to call Flynn as a witness at Rafiekian’s trial, but at the last minute prosecutors informed the court that Flynn would not testify. Instead, prosecutors notified the court that they viewed Flynn as an unindicted co-conspirator and that they intended to present hearsay evidence against Rafiekian—something allowed if Flynn had conspired with Rafiekian and Alptekin to file the false FARA statements.

Last week, presiding Judge Anthony J. Trenga held that the government had not yet presented sufficient evidence of a conspiracy to admit prior statements made by Flynn and Alptekin. Until prosecutors made a preliminary showing of a conspiracy at trial, Trenga ruled, the hearsay evidence would not be admitted, and even then the government may be bound by its prior admission that Flynn was not a co-conspirator.

Then last Friday came the revelation that the government possessed previously undisclosed information supposedly implicating Flynn in a separate conspiracy with Alptekin. Rafiekian’s attorney disclosed this shocker at the close of a pre-trial hearing, telling the court that before the start of the proceedings, the government had handed him a one-sentence statement. “If I may read it for purposes of the record,” Rafiekian’s lawyer continued:

The United States government is in possession of multiple independent pieces of information relating to the Turkish government’s efforts to influence United States policy on Turkey and Fethullah Gulen, including information relating to communications, interactions, and a relationship between Ekim Alptekin and Michael Flynn and Ekim Alptekin’s engagement of Michael Flynn because of Michael Flynn’s relationship with...

The War Over America’s Past Is Really About the Future

By: Victor Davis Hanson
The summer season has ripped off the thin scab that covered an American wound, revealing a festering disagreement about the nature and origins of the United States.

The San Francisco Board of Education recently voted to paint over, and thus destroy, a 1,600-square-foot mural of George Washington’s life in San Francisco’s George Washington High School.

Victor Arnautoff, a communist Russian-American artist and Stanford University art professor, had painted “Life of Washington” in 1936, commissioned by the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration.

A community task force appointed by the school district had recommended that the board address student and parent objections to the 83-year-old mural, which some viewed as racist for its depiction of black slaves and Native Americans.

Nike pitchman and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick recently objected to the company’s release of a special Fourth of July sneaker emblazoned with a 13-star Betsy Ross flag. The terrified Nike immediately pulled the shoe off the market.

The New York Times opinion team issued a Fourth of July video about “the myth of America as the greatest nation on earth.” The Times’ journalists conceded that the United States is “just OK.”

During a recent speech to students at a Minnesota high school, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., offered a scathing appraisal of her adopted country, which she depicted as a disappointment whose racism and inequality did not meet her expectations as an idealistic refugee.

Omar’s family had fled worn-torn Somalia and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before reaching Minnesota, where Omar received a subsidized education and ended up a congresswoman.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup earlier this month. Team stalwart Megan Rapinoe refused to put her hand over heart during the playing of the national anthem, boasted that she would never visit the “f—ing White House,” and, with others, nonchalantly let the American flag fall to...

Morning Mistress

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #687

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.

Hot Pick of The Late Night

Students say ‘Trump quote’ on immigration is super racist — but are shocked when they discover comments were actually from Obama

Campus Reform's Cabot Phillips turned the tables on a group of students who believed that President Donald Trump issued remarks revealing a controversial stance on immigration.

They were surprised when they found out Trump wasn't the author of the comments.
What are the details?

Philips visited college campuses in order to gauge students' thoughts on an immigration quote he posed as belonging to Trump — except former President Barack Obama actually made the remarks in 2014.

Phillips said, "Donald Trump announced this past week week that he would be urging ICE and other administration authorities to seek out people living here illegally that have broken the law to deport them."

"I have a quote here about the deportation of criminal illegal aliens," he added.

The quote is:

We are a nation of laws. Undocumented workers broke our laws and I believe they must be held accountable. Especially those who may be dangerous. That's why over the last six years deportations of criminals are up 80 percent and we're going to keep focusing on threats to our security.

Here are some of the more interesting responses:

• "Uhh, I think that policy comes from a place of white American nationalism."
• "Donald Trump has embraced this rhetoric of racism and xenophobia — that is not beneficial to our country at all."
• "This administration has totally not done anything moral."
• "I think that's a bad decision 'cause the United States should be open to immigrants."Phillips then turned around and told the students, "I'm gonna show you the person that said that quote."

Here's how they responded:

• "[Q]uite surprising — I thought it was from Trump."
• "I didn't expect it to be Obama."
• "It just shows the hypocrisy in politics."
• "I don't know a ton about Obama's deportation policies, but I imagine that they were a lot more humane than the ones currently going on."

Girls With Guns

On Suffering Life's Universal Indignities...

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...

On Ancient Open Carry....

Harvard Study Finds Trigger Warnings Do More Harm Than Good

For regular Internet users, trigger warnings appear nearly ubiquitous. Whether it be Twitter blocking potentially sensitive content, warnings at the tops of articles discussing violent or traumatic events, or a wide array of jokes and memes regarding being “#triggered” by minor shocks, the concept of trigger warnings are everywhere online.

Due to the rise in their presence, and certain activists arguing for an increase in their usage, Harvard University professors Benjamin Bellet, Payton Jones, and Richard McNally decided to explore whether these warnings regarding sensitive materials actually help survivors of traumatic events. Their results showed that trigger warnings might do more harm than good.

This experiment is a follow-up to a previous, smaller work by the professors, completed last year. For this trial, 451 respondents, all self-reported trauma survivors, were randomly assigned into one of two groups, and reported on the change in their anxiety levels after reading passages from classic literature of varying disturbing content, including neutral (wholly nonviolent content), mildly distressing (nongraphic scenes of violence), and markedly distressing (graphic depictions of violence).

One group, when given the markedly distressing passages, were given this preface: “TRIGGER WARNING: The passage you are about to read contains disturbing content and may trigger an anxiety response, especially in those who have a history of trauma” before reading. After each passage, respondents ranked certain emotions out of 100, and a more complex survey after finishing all of the readings.

Interestingly, the trigger warnings proved more detrimental than beneficial for survivors of trauma. The sight of the warning before the passage primed the respondent to fear whatever came next, and the anticipation heightened any effect from the passage itself. Merely describing a passage as potentially triggering imbued it with a previously unearned...