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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

The Comey-Clinton Document Standard and Trump When Hillary kept classified information on her private email server, Justice and the FBI let her off.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-comey-clinton-document-standard-fbi-investigation-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-classified-prosecution-justice-department-11661711673?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

“If Mr. Garland can’t make a compelling case that Mr. Trump’s transgressions are greater than Mrs. Clinton’s, with enough clear and convincing evidence to warrant a criminal charge, the better judgment is not to prosecute and put the country through the trauma of a political trial that half of America will suspect is a case of unequal justice.”

When Jim Comey held his July 2016 press briefing on Hillary Clinton’s emails, his conclusion was this: “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”

In other words, Mrs. Clinton could have been indicted but wasn’t. That ended the Clinton email saga as a legal matter—with a lecture but without a prosecution. As we wrote at the time, this was an outrageous usurpation by the FBI director, whose role was to investigate and turn the evidence over to a U.S. Attorney or the Attorney General to decide on prosecution.

Donald Trump has enemies everywhere……..even inside his own house! Roger Kimball

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/donald-trump-enemies-everywhere-jared-kushner-peter-navarro/

I think that Michael Anton is correct that “the people who really run the United States of America have made it clear that they can’t, and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.”

“The people who really run the United States”: that would be denizens of the Swamp, the bureaucratic elite, their media and academic mouthpieces, worker bees in the ambient welfare jelly and the nomenklatura who win elections and circulate in and out of the corridors of power.

It’s a powerful, nearly monolithic force, a monument to special privilege and two-tier justice — and the prospect of dismantling it is daunting to say the least. The fact that Donald Trump, from the moment he sailed down the elevator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in 2015, managed to open a bleeding fissure in that smug consensus shows why the ruling class considers him so dangerous. One man, almost without allies, inexperienced in the ways of the Swamp, dependent at every turn on ambassadors and front men from the very thing he had campaigned to destroy: how much damage could he really do?

Kathy Hochul’s call for 5.4M Republicans to leave New York is dangerous and disgusting By Tim Hoefer

https://nypost.com/2022/08/25/kathy-hochuls-call-for-5-4m-republicans-to-leave-new-york-is-dangerous/

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t proven shy about issuing orders, had one for the state’s Republicans this week — all 5.4 million of them: “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?” she said. “You are not New Yorkers.”

If you can move beyond the frankly disgusting political partisanship and intolerance, her message is fiscally irresponsible, even dangerous. The governor probably already knows this, but the state’s extensive public sector is heavily reliant on personal income taxes paid by residents, and with nearly $14 billion in projected budget gaps over the next five years, it can’t afford to lose any taxpayers, let alone 5.4 million of them.

The Empire State has already lost 1.5 million residents in the past decade, and there’s no sign of that trend letting up. In fact, more than 350,000 New Yorkers relocated during the 12 pandemic-plagued months leading up to July 1, 2021.

Kathy Hochul said Republicans should move down to Florida.
Getty Images

In her attempt to be snappy, Hochul exposed a major problem that has gripped our state since the dawn of the Cuomo-Hochul era: New Yorkers are leaving, and they’re taking their tax dollars with them.

American civilization is being destroyed from within by the ‘Republic of Nice’ Turning a blind eye to open borders, raging crime, cultural decay and homelessness Don Feder

ttps://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/27/american-civilization-is-being-destroyed-from-with/

Civilization isn’t self-renewing. It takes work and will. In America, we won’t do the work and no longer have the will.

The signs of imminent collapse are all around us:

1. A ruling class that’s opened the floodgates of uncontrolled immigration — and damn the consequences

2. Crime without punishment

3. Elites that mock the values on which our nation was founded

4. Supporting barbarians at the gates

5. Refusing to procreate in sufficient numbers to maintain our population.

A shocking video from Texas shows Border Patrol agents calmly unlocking a gate that had previously been secured by the Texas National Guard, to allow dozens of “migrants’ to enter the country. The president’s open border policies are hugely successful, with more than 2 million Welcome Wagon encounters so far this year, compared with 1.27 million for the same period last year.

You Can’t Give The FBI The Benefit Of The Doubt On Anything  Francis Menton

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-8-27-you-cant-give-the-fbi-the-benefit-of-the-doubt-on-anything

The FBI — They’re the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. We rely on them to protect us from every sort of crook and bad guy, not to mention international terrorists. When they’re investigating something important, it’s understandable that they can’t disclose to the public what they’re up to. That would give away the game, and give the bad guys the chance to escape. So we need to trust them, to let them operate mostly in secrecy, and just give them the benefit of the doubt that they are doing the right thing.

Boy, has that narrative gotten blown to smithereens over the past few years. Starting with the Russia collusion hoax in 2016, it’s been one revelation after another of the thoroughly corrupted FBI meddling in domestic politics to advantage Democrats. They’re the new armed militant wing of the Democratic Party. As far as anyone can tell from the news, the people at the highest levels of the FBI today are completely obsessed with covering up for President Biden while using their law enforcement powers to go after former President Trump on the thinnest of pretexts. Today, nobody in their right mind should give the FBI the benefit of the doubt about anything. If you assume that everything they are doing is corrupt, you are highly likely to be right.

For this post, I’ll forego a review of the FBI’s role in the Russia hoax, and just consider some of the most recent developments.

Hunter Biden laptop

Retired FBI boss disassembles Trump search warrant: Feds ‘going to regret this’ Retired Assistant Director Kevin Brock says FBI didn’t exhaust other means or appear to have established probable cause for search.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/fbis-former-intel-chief-raid-trump-home-i-think-they-are-going

The FBI’s former intelligence chief declared Friday the agency should not have criminalized the records dispute between Donald Trump and the National Archives and that the bureau appears to have failed to meet the probable cause standard for the invasive search of the former president’s Florida estate.

“I think they’re going to regret this,” retired Assistant Director Kevin Brock told the “Just the News, Not Noise” television show after reviewing a heavily redacted affidavit the FBI used to persuade a judge to allow the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago.

Brock, ordinarily an ardent defender of his former agency, has raised concerns for several days that the bureau did not exhaust other means to resolve the dispute over presidential and alleged classified records Trump kept. He said he did not believe the FBI adequately considered the possibility that Trump had wide latitude to declassify records and declare them personal.

He said Friday his concerns were only heightened by the court-ordered release of the search warrant affidavit, which he noted was still heavily redacted.

“I will caveat all of this by saying we can only see what we can see, but the first thing that jumped out to me is that the probable cause statement focuses on the nature of the documents, and where they are,” said Brock, a respected three-decade agent who rose to become the bureau’s first intelligence chief under Director Robert Mueller. “But it doesn’t, at least in the unredacted portion, address the main element of the criminal federal statutes that they cite.

Biden’s Debt Transference and Enforcement Arm Work hard. Save your money. Pay your debts. Then get saddled with someone else’s debts because you didn’t have the foresight to be improvident at the opportune moment.  By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/27/bidens-debt-transference-and-enforcement-arm/

I have two subjects for you today: debt “forgiveness” and, once again, the raid on Mar-a-Lago by Biden’s secret police.

Let’s do the student debt wheeze first. “Forgiveness” without absolution: I think that just about sums up the Biden Administration’s latest publicity gambit, videlicet, the offer to “forgive” from $10,000 to $20,000 of the debt students have contracted. Note the scare quotes around “forgive.”

It is pointless to go into the details of the program because nobody knows what the details are. Tens of millions of Americans (whoever they are in Biden’s America) are apparently eligible. You are supposed to make less than $125,000 a year to be eligible, but who’s checking? The government agency handling the program, studentaid.gov, has been inundated with inquiries, since the announcement of “free stuff!,” as usual, has acted like a handful of fresh meat tossed into a pool of piranhas. How much will it cost? Who knows?

“The White House doesn’t know exactly how many eligible borrowers will actually end up applying for loan forgiveness,” one news source reported, “or how much it will cost.” According to a study from the Wharton School, however, the total tab might exceed $1 trillion. That is 1,000,000,000,000. It’s important to appreciate the number of zeros involved. 

I am not sure the Biden Administration has admitted yet whether the economy is in recession, but it is. And it is certainly suffering from inflation—or “Bidenflation” as some wags denominate it—the worst, we’re told, in 40 years. Gas prices have moderated a bit from their highs in May and early June, but they are still more than twice what they were when Biden took office, i.e., when Donald Trump was president, and everyone thinks prices will climb again this winter. 

So, prices are rising, your money is worth less, and, oh, by the way, you have less of it. On Friday, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average lost just over 1,000 points, wiping out billions in value. And if the “Prosperity Reduction Act” (the real name of the inflationary “Inflation Reduction Act”) weren’t enough of a blow—raising taxes and weaponizing the tax farmers of the IRS—Biden has delivered another sharp jab to the solar plexus of the American taxpayer with his hare-brained student loan “forgiveness” scheme. 

True, from time immemorial, the promise of debt forgiveness has been a powerful political gesture. But as has often been pointed out since the student loan subsidy was announced, Biden’s program is not really debt forgiveness. Rather, it is debt transference. That is, the debt doesn’t go away. It is just dropped in someone else’s lap. And that someone, Dear Reader, is you. 

Translating ‘fascism’ from leftist-speak into the real world By D. Parker

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/translating_fascism_from_leftistspeak_into_the_real_world.html

With “President” Biden dropping yet another version of the political “F-bomb,” it’s time to break everything down to basic terminology and clarify the issue for everyone.

Was anyone surprised that the august head of the party of projection said the MAGA movement is “like semi-fascism”?  It was even more amusing when his media flack on CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight was unable to explain just what he meant by that pejorative. That is par for the course when they engage in the practice of accusing others of what they are doing.

Breaking things down into their constituent parts is the only way to figure out what is going on with certain issues. We’ve already proven, along with a number of others, that the anti-liberty left is fascist.  We’ve found that’s becoming easier than Biden falling off his bicycle.  As they become more fascistic by the day, the stark comparisons between regimes of the past and what they are doing now are stacking up like cordwood.

Since this is such a common practice on their part, we’re going to provide an explanation of the two sides based on the fundamental principles that will be Kryptonite to those making the usual nonsensical accusations that depend on complexity that simply doesn’t exist.

The hard truth is there are just two primary political ideologies: individualism and collectivism

DR. FAUCI’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT Adam Andrzejewski

http://OpenTheBooks.com

DR. FAUCI’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Since January 2021, our auditors broke international news with our investigations of the Fauci Family compensation, benefits, royalty payments and other financial perks. In December 2021, we first estimated Fauci’s pension and updated our projection this week. Fauci will retire on at least $374,000 a year.

This week, our oversight was cited at The Federalist, Sinclair Broadcast Group (200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates across America), in an interview on Wake Up America morning program at NewsMaxTV, The Washington Times, Reason, The Daily Signal, the Daily Caller, and even our findings were mentioned at Slate.

Then, on Real World at Fox News, Neil Cavuto interviewed Tony Fauci and asked him about that taxpayer-guaranteed golden parachute. The doctor feigned ignorance, but we know the truth! And so does The Daily Caller. It’s backed by hard numbers and the government’s own formula to calculate retirement packages…

Student Debt Forgiveness Is Biden’s Bluto Moment His plan will feed inflation and hurt him politically. By Kimberley Strassel

https://www.wsj.com/articles/student-debt-forgiveness-is-bidens-bluto-moment-inflation-college-loans-university-education-payments-bills-savings-11661464019?mod=djemalertNEWS

If political moves received letter grades, Joe Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” mark might rank down there with the Deltas of “Animal House.” Think of it as the president’s Bluto moment.

In case the White House missed it, Democrats had recently been getting it together. After an 18-month food fight over the Biden agenda, the party finally united to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. It suckered spend-happy Republicans into passing a semiconductor bill that vulnerable Democrats could brag about back home. The left has successfully fanned fears on abortion, putting GOP candidates on the back foot. And Donald Trump is in the headlines—right where they want him.

Then along comes Blutarsky, and seven years of college down the drain. It would be hard to fashion a program that carries more political risk for less political reward. In the name of paying off that powerful voting bloc known as “overeducated and underemployed deadbeats,” Mr. Biden is dumping on his own inflation message, dividing his party, and insulting any American who has ever worked, saved or paid a bill.

Inflation remains voters’ biggest worry, and they understand Washington’s role in feeding it. Only recently they watched General Motors and Ford hike the prices of electric vehicles by $6,000 to $8,500—roughly pacing the $7,500 tax credit the Biden “inflation reduction” law bestows. Cause, effect. Millions of American parents read Mr. Biden’s Wednesday loan announcement as news that they will be paying $10,000 more for tuition next year (and the year after that, and after that) as colleges reap the loan windfall.

It won’t stop with college inflation, even Democratic economists warn. Every $20,000 of loan forgiveness is $20,000 the favored college forgiven can blow on urban loft refits or Hawaiian vacations. “Pouring roughly half [a] trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” Jason Furman, the Obama administration’s top economist, tweeted. Americans already doubted Mr. Biden’s new climate and health law would do much to lower prices, but they’ll draw a direct line from the loan bailout to further price hikes. A CNBC poll says nearly 60% of Americans fear this handout will make inflation worse.

The plan rips a new fissure in the Democratic Party, as nonsuicidal members run for cover. Maine Rep. Jared Golden called loan forgiveness “out of touch.” New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas said this is “no way to make policy.” Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet noted that the plan doesn’t address the underlying problem of rising tuition. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, running for the Senate, said the forgiveness “sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet.”

What unites these Democrats? Each is in a competitive race, and they clearly already see the potential to alienate large cross-sections of the American electorate. Sure, loan forgiveness may benefit up to 40 million people, and energize Gen Zers and some millennials to vote for the Democrats they were going to support anyway. What about the other 220 million voting-age Americans who are being asked to float the upper crust’s seminars on gender identity and social justice?