Thursday, March 30, 2023
Time to End the Veil of Secrecy Inside D.C. Kangaroo Court
Judge Beryl Howell did not get the gushing send off from her colleagues she undoubtedly expected.
Howell, appointed to the D.C. District Court by Barack Obama in 2010 and elevated to the court’s highest post in 2016—just in time to oversee numerous criminal investigations into Donald Trump—finished up her seven-year stint as chief judge earlier this month. Colleagues and staff assembled in her courtroom as the proverbial torch was passed to Judge James Boasberg, another Obama appointee.
But according to Politico, the retirement celebration turned into a “roast” of sorts as one judge after another chided Howell for her closed-doors dealings.
“Howell seemed to freeze in her seat as the most senior jurist on the court, Judge Paul Friedman, publicly described her still-secret rulings in grand jury-related matters,” reporters Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney wrote on March 17. “[Her] fellow judges made clear they were as tantalized as the rest of the political world by Howell’s secret work presiding over grand juries that could lead to charges against former President Donald Trump.”
Howell sat “stone-faced” when Friedman teased how, “we’d all love to read her opinions, but we can’t.” Friedman also noted that Howell issued “100 secret grand jury opinions” as chief judge.
Tanya Chutkan, another Obama appointee, also chimed in. “There’s so much work Chief Judge Howell has done that we may never know about,” she joked.
Although she will remain on the bench as an associate judge, her farewell as chief ended on a sour note. Nevertheless, Howell got the last laugh, once again, at Trump’s expense.
In yet another sealed ruling, Howell rejected claims of privilege and ordered Evan Corcoran, one of Trump’s attorneys, to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Team Trump’s handling of alleged classified documents.
Howell’s penchant for secrecy, of course, doesn’t extend to the news media; details related to the sealed order were leaked a few days later.
“Sources added that Howell also ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what Howell described as Trump’s alleged ‘criminal scheme,’ echoing prosecutors,” ABC News reported on March 21. “Those records include handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.” (Corcoran testified on Friday.)
In a matter of months, Howell has authored a flurry of secret decrees, including authorization to retain the contents of Representative Scott Perry’s (R-Va.) cell phone—seized by FBI agents last August, the day after the Mar-a-Lago FBI raid—and compelling the testimony of key Trump aides including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former national security advisor Robert O’Brien, and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a ruling also leaked to ABC News last week.
In fact, much of the work conducted in Washington, D.C.’s E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse is far out of the public eye. In the ongoing prosecution of at least 1,000 people (and counting) in what the Biden regime considers an act of domestic terror comparable to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, it is nearly impossible for Americans to watch what’s happening on a daily basis. When initial court proceedings began in the January 6 investigation—arraignments, pretrial detention requests, plea agreements—Howell made those individual hearings available on a public access line.
But shortly before the first jury trial in March 2022, most of the public access lines were disabled. Reporters or members of the public who want to view any part of the Justice Department’s largest criminal investigation in American history must travel to the nation’s capital, go through an intense security screening, and sit in a small courtroom without access to...
The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #1341
Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,
Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.
If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.
Please Leave Silently Into The Night......
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2036
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.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
A Nation Committing Suicide
It’s hard not to think about this reading the results of the latest Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, appearing under the headline “America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It.”
Only 38% of Americans now say patriotism is “very important,” compared to 70% in 1998. Thirty-nine percent say religion is “very important,” compared to 62% in 1998. And 30% say having children is “very important,” compared to 59% in 1998.
The results that follow from these attitudes are not surprising.
Marriage rates are way down. Birthrates are way down.
In 1990, 67% of American adults between the ages of 25-54 were married. This was down to 51% in 2021.
In 2020, there were 56 births in the U.S. for every 1,000 women ages 15-44. In 1990, there were 70.9.
And, among the births we do have, in 2021, 40% of our babies were born to unmarried mothers.
Not surprisingly, our population is hardly growing. In 2022, the U.S. population increased 0.4%, a modest increase from the 0.1% increase in 2021, the lowest annual population growth since the founding of the nation.
Looking at the same polling data results among the youngest sector of our population, the picture looks even more dismal.
Among those under 30, just 23% say patriotism is “very important” to them, 31% say religion is “very important,” and 23% say having children is “very important.”
What is important to Americans today?
Although 70% say marriage is either “very important” or “somewhat important,” 65% say belief in God is “very important” or “somewhat important,” 73% say patriotism is “very important” or “somewhat important,” 91% say self-fulfillment is “very important” or “somewhat important,” and 90% say money is “very important” or “somewhat important.”
The devaluing of marriage, children, and patriotism and the focus on “self-fulfillment” and money are, of course, signs of a culture sunk into egotism and materialism, with a loss of a sense of being part of something larger than oneself.
It is not an encouraging picture for a country that hopes to have a future.
Our health care and retirement systems depend on a growing population. Stagnant population growth means more and more retirees per each individual in the workforce. It’s why our Social Security system is bankrupt.
Zero population growth means an aging population and increasing health care costs. In 2019, 56% of all health care costs were in age groups 55 and above. The overall burden of health care costs will continue to increase as the percentage of the population over 55 increases.
There are also implications on national security of attitudes that devalue patriotism and national service.
We now have a volunteer military. This can’t work with a population of young people who feel no sense of identity and obligation to their nation.
Again, the results are predictable. In 2022, the Army fell 15,000 short of its recruiting goal.
National defense spending is 3% of gross domestic product, very low by historical standards.
The Wall Street Journal reports our Navy’s fleet of ships will shrink to 291 by 2028 from 297 today. And the number of aircrafts in the Air Force is...
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