Who is Saying This?

For John, BLUF:  We need to be careful of the sources of ideas.  The idea is the thing, but we should also judge the source.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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We have run federal agencies. Here’s what the civil service needs.

Here is the sub-headline:

Career civil servants must be able to speak truth to power.  But they must also be held accountable.

From The Washington Post, by Mike Hayden, James Loy, J. Michael “Mike” McConnell, John Negroponte and Sean O’Keefe, 18 June 2024 at 6:15 a.m. EDT.

Here is the quick background on the Opinion Piece Authors:

Mike Hayden was director of the CIA from 2006 to 2009 and of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. James Loy was deputy secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005 and commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1998 to 2002. J. Michael “Mike” McConnell was director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009 and of the NSA from 1992 to 1996. John Negroponte was deputy secretary of state from 2007 to 2009 and director of national intelligence from 2005 to 2007. Sean O’Keefe was NASA administrator from 2001 to 2005 and secretary of the Navy from 1992 to 1993.

Here is the lede plus three:

Frustrated by what he saw as an entrenched bureaucracy resistant to his policies, Donald Trump as president attempted to remove most of the protections afforded federal civil servants so he could replace them with policy proponents and loyalists. Although his efforts were promptly rescinded by newly elected President Biden, Trump has announced that he would try again if reelected.

We think there is some merit in both points of view. However, as members of a bipartisan group of former national and homeland security, diplomatic, intelligence and law enforcement officials who have served both Democratic and Republican presidents, we think there is a “third way” that preserves all that is right with our civil service but also addresses what almost everyone agrees is wrong with it.

Our experience has shown us that career civil servants are a priceless resource who must be preserved and protected from partisan political influence. Their ability to “speak truth to power” (including to officials like us) without fear of losing their jobs was and is critical — so using political ideology as a litmus test in their appointment or retention, no matter how well-intentioned that might be, presents a dangerous risk to our national security.

However, these employees must also be held accountable for doing their jobs well. As a practical matter, the few bad actors among them are overprotected under the existing system. It is just too hard to ensure that they can be terminated when they fail to meet reasonable standards of performance or conduct — for example, for refusing a direct, lawful order.

Did anyone notice the name at the head of the author list?  Mike Hayden.  There was a time, in the 80s, when I thought he was the epitome of the competent professional.♠  In fact, when my wife and I took a short story writing class at UMass Lowell from Author David Daniels, I used young Mike Hayden as the model for the hero of one of my stories.  Then he became one of the infamous 51, who, at the urging of now Secretary of State Antony Blinken, signed a letter that shaded the truth to influence the 2020 Election.  [DA Alvin Bragg, where are you, or are you just another political hack?]♥ 

In full disclosure, my Father, my two Brothers and my three Children have all been part of the Civill Service.  I am proud of the work each of them has done.  On the other hand, I know who Ms Darleen Druyun is.  Sharp as a tack, bossy and corrupt.  She is the bad side of the Civil Service.  Most are not like that.  Most are people trying to do their job and do it well.  So, we should read the article and consider the points made, but we should keep in mind that at least one of the authors acted to subvert a Presidental Election in 2020.♦ 

We should also keep in mind that one of Former President Trump's complaints against the Permanent Civil Service was the willingness of senior appointees to use their positons and powers to frustrate the reforms he was trying to implement.♣  It should be part of the Civil Service ethos tthat the President was elected by the People to bring, in some cases, change to government.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  He worked for Brigadier General Leonard H. Perroots, a consumate profession, then serving as the Chief of Intelligence for US Air Forces in Europe.
♥  Whispers to readers, "Political Hack."
♦  The Laptop from Hell.
♣  This is someties known as the Deep State.  The Deep State is believed to have epic powers.  British Prime Minister Liz Truss believes she was forced from office by the British Deep State.  I saw the Turkish Deep State approve a new Prime Minister, when the Chief of the Turkish General Staff payed a courtsey call on Ms Tansu Çiller, giving a nod of approval for her appontment as Prime Minister.

What is Behind the Protests

For John, BLUF:  We, the Citizens of these United States, are being gaslighted by those who are using the Israeli response to the 7 October 2023 attack to justify demonstrations in the halls of academia.  Yes, people should be free to demonstration what they see as oppression, but we, the Citizens, need to understand that the movement behind the demonstrations is bigger than Gaza and the Palestinians.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Student activists or pro insurgents?

Here is the sub-headline:

The terrorism that's infiltrated the most elite US college campuses

From The Cosmopolitan Globalist, by Ms Eve Barlow, 4 May 2024.

The article linked is dated 4 May, but I became aware of it from an EMail this morning, from The Cosmopolitan Globalist (Claire Berlinski) (at 9:45 AM).

Here is the lede:

Last night I gained access to a GoogleDrive (see below) obtained by social media account Israel War Room via a source who is allegedly within the UPenn “anti-war” encampment. It contains over 200 documents linked below that are pro-terrorism, with guidelines on how to riot and cause disruption, how to make weapons and take over buildings. Israel War Room highlight that the drive lists Carrie Zaremba as the owner of all files, who is reportedly a spokesperson for National Students for Justice in Palestine, aka SJP.

This reovew of documentzs on-line leads to some interesting discoveries.

This is from an X posting, by Ms Laura Powell, a Blue Check, @LauraPowellEsq:

One of the spokespeople for the UCLA protesters explains their end goal is for "more than divestment." She says, "Given that the University of California is founded on colonialism, it's inherently a violent institution." She argues the UC system is linked to both foreign wars and domestic police brutality and demands this be addressed.

She's saying the quiet part out loud. They intend to dismantle our domestic institutions. The Palestinian cause is just a warmup.

When the unnamed spokesperson says "the University of California is founded on colonialism", is she talking about Spanish colonialism of Alta California out of Mexico, or was it the Bear Flag Republic revolt in June of 1846?  Or was it on 9 July 1846, when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Joseph Revere raised the United States flag in Alta California.  And what is the payback being demanded?  Should the University of California sytem be abolished and all diplomas revoked, back to 1866?

In another part of the documents there is a call to, apparently, eliminate some of the leading Western Nations.  It calls for "NO MORE ISRAEL", naturally.  But it also calls for "NO MORE USA" and "NO MORE UK".  It goes on to call for the elimination of Italy, France, Canada, Germany and Australia  Why not Chile or Venezuals or Mexico?  This is a Marxisst like movement that is designed to destory Western Europeans ideas.  Then we will be left with the Paternalism of organizations like the World Econommic Forum and the People's Republic of Chinz.

Those who think that the Pro-Hamas movement we see is just a collection of sympathetic students hoping to ease the suffering of Palistinians in Gaza, a deeper dive is needed.  For eample, what does it mean that there is a Gays for Gaza movement?  Do they not understand the rules in Gaza?  Or are they just riding on the issue of the hour to push their own agenda?

It is time for our political leadership to step up and fight back to save our Republic.

Regards  —  Cliff

Rioters Get It Easy.

For John, BLUF:  To the eye of the Common Man, legal justice in New York City seems to be a two level system, harsh on supporters of Mr Trump, and easy on Democrats, and especially Progressives with anti-American ideas.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Outrage as Manhattan DA Bragg’s office drops nearly all cases from Columbia University’s anti-Israel protest

From The New York Post, by Kyle Schnitzer, 20 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus four:

Nearly all the protesters charged with storming and occupying Columbia University’s campus during heated anti-Israel demonstrations won’t face criminal charges, Manhattan prosecutors announced Thursday — drawing outrage from law enforcement and Jewish advocates.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office dismissed cases against 31 of 46 people charged with trespassing in the Ivy League school’s Hamilton Hall after a dramatic April 30 NYPD raid rounded up protesters on the Morningside Heights campus.

Prosecutors largely cited lack of evidence, such as security video footage, that could tie the students or staff to the building takeover for leaving them free and clear without even a slap on the wrist.

The dismissals quickly drew fury from rank-and-file NYPD officers, higher education officials and Jewish leaders who spoke with The Post.

“This is turnstile justice,” said Michael Nussbaum, a 25-year member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

So, what happens to the remaining 15?  Will they also slip through the crack?  One might think he is waiting for a busy news day to slip them out the back door, making them "old news" the next day.

In a way, I have some sympathy for the problem of identifying the perps and what they did.  On the other hand, based on how the Government has gone, and is still going, against the peaceful demonstrators on 6 January 2021, it looks weak in comparison.  It allows one to think about the issue of two levels of justice.  The treatment of Trump Supporters versus the treatment of Progressive Haters of America and what we, as Americans, stand for.

And what does DA Alvin Bragg stand for?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Big Apple Sets Its Own Rules

For John, BLUF:  Per Law Prof Turley, New York City is a vast Democratic Party wasteland, where the rule of law is subverted to political ends.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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At the Supreme Court, two cases lay bare New York’s legal wasteland

From The Hill, by Law Professor Jonathan Turley, 22 June 2024, 10:30 AM ET.

Here is the lede plus one:

In 1976, Saul Steinburg’s hilarious “View of the World from 9th Avenue” was published on the cover of the New Yorker. The map showed Manhattan occupying most of the known world with wilderness on the other side of the Hudson River between New York and San Francisco. The cartoon captured the distorted view New Yorkers have of the rest of the country.

Roughly 50 years later, the image has flipped for many. With the Trump trial, Manhattan has become a type of legal wilderness where prosecutors use the legal system to hunt down political rivals and thrill their own supporters. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) ran on a pledge to bag former president Donald Trump. (She also sought to dissolve the National Rifle Association.)

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also pledged to get Trump. Neither specified how they would do it, but both were elected and both were lionized for bringing controversial cases against Trump.

Just beyond the Hudson River, the response to these cases has been far less positive. James secured an obscene civil penalty of almost half a billion dollars without having to show there was a single victim or dollar lost from alleged overvaluation of assets.

The picture Profesor Turley paints is one of the rule of law being subverted to political ends in an area where one political party has almost total control.  The natural question is if the Democratic Party stranglehold on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could create similar political and legal conditions?

The job of good Americans is to stand against this kind of perversion of the Rule of Law.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Preserving Our Freedoms

For John, BLUF:  We are missing the erosion of our society, but an immigrant points it out to us..  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  We Have Been Subverted

Here is the sub-headline:

What is at stake in our ability to see the threat plainly?  Nothing less than the preservation of our way of life.

From The Free Press, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, 4 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus seven:

If you wonder why I—a woman of color, an African, a former Muslim, a former asylum seeker, and an immigrant—look at the antics of today’s anti-Israel, anti-American protesters with such fear and trembling, allow me to explain.

I was born in Somalia in 1969. The country had achieved independence nine years before. But less than a month before I was born—on October 21, 1969—a junior member of the brand-new Somali armed forces seized power with the help of the Soviet Union. The first two decades of my life were shaped by the upheaval that followed that coup.

The Somalia that gained its independence was a young, optimistic society full of national pride. We had such hope for growth, political stability, prosperity, and peace. But, in a story sadly familiar to many of my fellow Africans, those hopes were dashed.

What followed was a nightmare.

For me it is all captured in the earliest memories of my youth: statues of Mohamed Siad Barre, our dictator, sprung up across Mogadishu, flanked by a trio of dark seraphim: Marx, Lenin, and Engels. This particular communist experiment plunged Somalia into bloodshed, mass starvation, and a 20-year period of suffocating tyranny. I recall my grandmother and mother smuggling food into our house. I also remember the whispering: we felt the state was omnipresent. It could hear everything.

My father was thrown into prison. His friends—those other pioneers in pursuit of a democracy modeled on America—were either jailed like him or, in many cases, executed.

By the time I was eight, my family knew we needed to escape. We left in 1977. By 1990, the country had descended into a civil war from which it has never fully recovered.

I never stopped longing for the kind of freedom my father had taught me about. And at the age of 22, I fled to the Netherlands seeking it. There—and later, in America—I discovered what we’ve come to call “Western” values.

This is a companion piece to the one noted in an earlier blog post, "Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now".♠

We are where we are, in terms of political organization, because of those who went before us, stretching back thousands of years.  We have the Magna Carta, from 1215 AD.  It was kind of narrow when signed, but it grew in meaning until we had the Common Law protecting the rights of Citizens.  Before all thar we had the Decalogue, the Ten Commandmentd, brought down from the mountain by Charlton Heston.  It was a set of rules about how Citizens should relate to each other.

But, today these underpinnings are being dismissed or buried.  An example of this ahistoric approach is the recent outrange regarding a Louisiana Law signed Wednesdaay, by Governor Jeff Landry requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.  But, not everyone is happy to see the Ten Commandments put forward as a guide for life, as this Slate article shows.

Our system of government works because there are rules and we follow them.  Author Ali is saying that is slipping away.  On the one hand, we have moral relativism.  However, it does not provide a solid basis for agreeing on the future, as discussed here.  On the other hand we have the Marxist Woke culture of group pitted against group, destroying unity.  Remember, our motto, as a nation, from 1782, was E pluribus unum ("Out of many, one").  What do we rally around?

We would do well to pay attention to Ms Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The two authorw are married.

Where Are We?

For John, BLUF:  Our Society is showing signs of misfunction, and we should do something about it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Niall Ferguson: We’re All Soviets Now

Here is the sub-headline:

A government with a permanent deficit and a bloated military. A bogus ideology pushed by elites. Poor health among ordinary people. Senescent leaders. Sound familiar?

From The Free Press, by Professor Niall Ferguson, Thursday, 20 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

The witty phrase “late Soviet America” was coined by the Princeton historian Harold James back in 2020. It has only become more apposite since then as the cold war we’re in—the second one—heats up.

I first pointed out that we’re in Cold War II back in 2018. In articles for The New York Times and National Review, I tried to show how the People’s Republic of China now occupies the space vacated by the Soviet Union when it collapsed in 1991.

This view is less controversial now than it was then. China is clearly not only an ideological rival, firmly committed to Marxism-Leninism and one-party rule. It’s also a technological competitor—the only one the U.S. confronts in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It’s a military rival, with a navy that is already larger than ours and a nuclear arsenal that is catching up fast. And it’s a geopolitical rival, asserting itself not only in the Indo-Pacific but also through proxies in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

But it only recently struck me that in this new Cold War, we—and not the Chinese—might be the Soviets. It’s a bit like that moment when the British comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb, playing Waffen-SS officers toward the end of World War II, ask the immortal question: “Are we the baddies?”

I imagine two American sailors asking themselves one day—perhaps as their aircraft carrier is sinking beneath their feet somewhere near the Taiwan Strait: Are we the Soviets?

Yes, I know what you are going to say.

Then the Author goes on to look at comparisons between the late Soviet Union and current America.  Things like the dynamism of the ledership and population death rates, including suicides and drug overdoses.

After looking at the economy the Author looks at the American Sociwety and the way it is divided between the upper class and the working class and looks at DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).♠

The equivalent falsehoods in late Soviet America are that the institutions controlled by the (Democratic) Party—the federal bureaucracy, the universities, the major foundations, and most of the big corporations—are devoted to advancing hitherto marginalized racial and sexual minorities, and that the principal goals of U.S. foreign policy are to combat climate change and (as Jake Sullivan puts it) to help other countries defend themselves “without sending U.S. troops to war.”

In reality, policies to promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” do nothing to help poor minorities. Instead, the sole beneficiaries appear to be a horde of apparatchik DEI “officers.” In the meantime, these initiatives are clearly undermining educational standards, even at elite medical schools, and encouraging the mutilation of thousands of teenagers in the name of “gender-affirming surgery.”

Anyway, it is an interesting critique of where we, in America, are today, and some areas we need to examine to do better in the future.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  In my mind DEI is like PERT, which was all the rage in management terms in the 1960s, but then was found to have not been a real thing, at least in the project floouted as its success, the Polaris Missile Program, but rather a way of conveying information on a project.

Today We Celebrate Freedom

For John, BLUF:  A Long Time coming.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth

From IZON GOP, by Mr Dennis Galvin.

Here is the article:

June 19, 2024

JUNETEENTH AND THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION

    Prior to 1775, the history of humanity could be described as the story of masters and slaves. Starting in 1776 however, some historians believe a radical revolutionary period, championing human liberty, swept through both America and Europe for close to a century. This period ultimately changed human consciousness in western civilization. The capstone of this period was the American Civil War. One of it fruits was the destruction of American chattel slavery, commemorated now by the “Juneteenth Holiday”.

    The precipitating idea that gave rise to this century of revolutionary turmoil was the Declaration of Independence and the spirit that emanated from the words: “ all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator… with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This bold aspiration was not unopposed. In Europe, the quest for liberty was resisted and in 1848 largely defeated by the established order. In the United States, the growth of a violent proslavery cabal threatened to reduce the nation’s initial promise of freedom to a discredited fantasy.

    Yet, a determined moral spirit persisted in the United States, bringing forth a second wind of change. Historian Charles Beard asserts that this “Second Revolution” was ignited in the US in 1861. It introduced a new cast of founding fathers and a renewed spirit, sufficient to muster the resolve to achieve what the original founders could not. The eradication of slavery.

    Who were these second founders ? Certainly, former President and congressman John Quincy Adams, a distinguished son of Massachusetts was one. He confronted powerful slave interests in the US Congress, braving continuous threats of violence and harassment, to defend the “right of petition”, which allowed the northern states to continuously demand the eradication of slavery. He helped craft the Missouri Compromise in 1820, which limited the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories of the Louisiana Purchase.

    Another was Frederick Douglas, a self-educated former slave, who through the example of his own life, discredited the stereotypes that supported the slave interest. As a minister, he railed against the heretical claims of southern preachers, that slavery was sanctioned by Christian teaching. His condemnation and agitation against the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) and the Kansas Nebraska Act (1854) awakened the moral consciousness of the north.

    Perhaps the most powerful and articulate antebellum voice challenging the slave interests was Senator Charles Sumner, another son of Massachusetts. He brilliantly argued against claims that the US Constitution supported slavey. Sumner was brutally beaten by South Carolina slave master Congressman Preston Books because of his views. Yet in 1860, Sumner delivered arguably one of the most significant orations in US history, entitled, “ the Barbarity of Slavery”. He delivered it on the Senate floor, denouncing not only slavery, but the moral fabric of the southern culture that supported it. Sumner graphically portrayed slave society as a legal, moral and religious perversion of civilization and boldly proclaimed that freedom was the national policy of the United States.

    The southern response was secession. It was left to the courage, wisdom and foresight of President Abraham Lincoln, to preserve the union, and the military genius and determination of Ulysees S. Grant to end the conflict. It was the direct efforts of both men that ultimately led to the eradication of slavery in the United States, at a cost of one million lives, to include Lincoln’s own. An entirely new nation emerged from this struggle, one that had now affirmed its original commitment to liberty in blood.

    It is important to commemorate Juneteeth. It animates the foundational intent of our nation. Rooted in a faith in God and moral law and christened by fratricidal conflict. this revolutionary era in history testifies to the original hope and belief of the American people, that the true destiny of humanity, is to be free

END

Sources:

John Quincy Adams, “American Visionary” , Fred Kaplan Harper-Collins, NY 2014

“Charles Sumner And The Coming Civil War”, David Donald, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers NY 1967

“Rethinking The Coming Of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise,” Gary Kornblith, Oxford Journal 2012

“The Rise of American Civilization”, Charles A Beard and Mary R. Beard, 2 Vols in 1 New York, 1930

The Actual Speeches of Charles Sumner- downloaded ( These are very good to read, he was an exceptional orator)

-    Freedom is National Speech

-    Crimes Against Kansas

-    Barbarity of Slavery

I fully agree with Dennis on this.

I would add two names.

• One is Author Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Mass on 14 June 1811 and passed in 1896.  She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which helped raise opposition to Slavery.
• The other is Robert E Lee, who knew when it was time to fold his cards and did so with dignity.  The end of the Civil War could have been a lot more ragged than it was.  Geneeral Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House,♠ accepted with dignity by General Grant, avoided large groups of guerarillas carryinhg on the fight over several more years.  That would not have changed the outcome, but would have inflilcted much more suffering on all concerned.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Lowell's Pollard Memorial Library has, on the Second Floor, a painting of the surrender.

Justice, Not Revenge

For John, BLUF:  Did not NYC DA Alvin Bragg set a precedent by indicting someone for trying to cover up potentially harmful ihnformatoin during a Federal Election?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Do the Plotters of the ‘51 Intel Experts’ Coup Deserve Prison?

From American Thinker, by Author Jack Cashill, 17 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus nine:

People of a certain age will remember the name “Donald Segretti.” In the 1972 re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon, this youthful campaign aide made the phrase “dirty tricks” part of the American political lexicon. Segretti’s mischief included sending embarrassing letters under the names of Nixon’s political rivals. Although his dirty tricks had little or no effect on the election’s outcome, Segretti served four and a half months in prison.

With Segretti’s four and a half months as a baseline, the 51-plus dirty tricksters who conspired successfully to get Joe Biden elected president in 2020 would seem to deserve no less. Confident to a fault about the Democrat control of the media, 51 intel officials signed on to the most flagrant disinformation campaign in anyone’s memory. “I think there needs to be an investigation into every single one of them,” said Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), and that investigation deserves a special counsel.

More deserving of prison time than the 51 were the Biden apparatchiks who set the plot in motion. On October 14, 2020, when they saw the New York Post headline “Smoking-Gun Email Reveals How Hunter Biden Introduced Ukrainian Businessman to VP Dad,” they were ready to roll. They had known since December 2019 that this story might drop. That was when Mac Isaac alerted the FBI to a laptop Hunter Biden had abandoned at his computer repair shop in Delaware.

Fearing that the story might break at any time, operatives within the FBI reached out to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms well before the 2020 election and warned them of a potential Russian pre-election “hack and dump” operation. If done with ill intent, these operatives deserve prison time as well.

On the day the Post story broke, representatives from the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force met with Facebook execs. As would later be confirmed at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, the FBI knew that the laptop was, in fact, Hunter Biden’s.

Facebook founder — and future un-indicted co-conspirator — Mark Zuckerberg did not need to have his arm twisted. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had already invested $300 million, in CNN’s words, toward “enhancing access to voting in the United States.” CNN failed to add that the Zuckerbucks enhanced access almost exclusively in Democrat districts.

With a little prodding from the FBI, Facebook promptly “deamplified” the Post story, dramatically reducing its circulation. On the same day the story broke, the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force also leaned on Twitter. The Twitter people needed little persuasion — some 98 percent of their political donations went to Democrats. They were all in for Biden, and Twitter blocked not only the Post story, but also the Post itself.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing, former disgraced FBI general counsel-turned Twitter exec James Baker was asked about his role in silencing the Post. To virtually every salient question regarding the laptop, Baker pleaded — in vintage Watergate fashion — memory loss.

“You were entrusted with the highest level of power at Twitter, but when you were faced with the New York Post story, instead of allowing people to judge the information for themselves, you rushed to find a reason why the American people shouldn’t see it,” said committee chair James Comer. “You did this because you were terrified of Joe Biden not winning the election in 2020.

A May 10, 2023 report by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government filled in the details. The plot was hatched on October 17, 2020, when Biden campaign adviser — now secretary of state — Antony Blinken contacted Michael Morell. Morell had served as acting director of the CIA under Obama. At Blinken’s request, Morell began assembling the draft of a statement that would dismiss this epic October surprise as more of the same old Russian disinformation. At the very least, Blinken should resign immediately.

I admit that I am surprised that Citizens are not outraged over this informstion suppression effort.  At this point there should be no doubt that the 51 Intel Leaders who signed the letter suggesting the Laptop From Hell was Russisn Disinformstion did it to influence the election.  And one can understand their concern.  President Trump's first National Security Advisor, Retired Army Liueutenant General Michael Flynn, wanted to shake up the Intelligence Community, to make it more effective.

While the term Deep State has been used to describe the bureaucratic interactionsz in the Federal Government, I am suspect of it as an actuality.  Who is pulling those different gruops together to create a Deep State?  In Turkey there was such an organization, the Turkish General Staff (TGS).  However, the current President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, put a stop to the practice.  Was that an improvement?

My personal view is that one Alvin Bragging event is suffficient.  I would be happy to see one of the 51 come forward, under immunity, and say that what they did was wrong.  I don't think they have to cop to swinging the election.  That is for the Voters to decide, in their hearts.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And, I guess, the pollsters.

Register Women for Selective Service

For John, BLUF:  Do you want your Granddaughter having to sign up for Selective Service (the Draft)?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Highlights of the Weeh

An extract.

From Don Surber Substack, by Opinionator Don Surber.

Here is the lede plus one:

ITEM 19: Dennis Kucinich tweeted, “Senate Armed Services draft NDAA Summary that would require the registration of women for the draft.  Also earlier today, the House approved automatic Selective Service registration for the first time since 1972 during the Vietnam War.  Does anyone hear the drums of war and see the erosion of our individual liberty?”

Draft beer, not women.

Acronymn alert:  NDAA is the National Defense Authorization Act as it wends its way through Congress enroute to the President.

This does not seem like the drums of war.  I think that former Representative Dennis Kucinich is overreaching here.  This is not to say we can't hear those drums beating.  We have Ukraine, Gaza, the Philippines, Taiwan and North Korea.  But, this issue seems more a combination of fairness and a manpower shortage.♠

I am of two minds with regard to this.  One the one hand, I like the motto "Draft beer, not women."  Women add complications to the battlefield, including issues of upper arm strength and endurnce.  There is also the cultural tendency to treat women differently from men, even in battle.  Pull women into the factories and allow them to sign up for medical and clericall and desk job work, which doesn't require a draft to make happen.  Plus, women do the difficult work of having children, which men do not do.

On the other hand, I am tired of listening to women complaining that they are not treated as equal citizens.  I try to treat all Americans as equal citizens.  So, why not let them pull their fair share?  Having said thst, I am not convinced that all women (or even a large majority) think we should have to smush everyone into a single mold.

On balance, I am opposed to this.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  When I say manpower I mean a shortfall in male nelistments.  Women has been enlisted at about the same level for years.  It is men who are not enlisting as much.

The Veep Race

For John, BLUF:  Virginia Lieytenant Governor Winsome Sears is a great American.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Highlights of the Weeh

An extract.

From Don Surber Substack, by Opinionator Don Surber.

Here is the lede plus one:

ITEM 29: Off the Press reported that Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is on his list of VP candidates.

That’s great news because it will make Winsome Earle-Sears governor

Mr Surber is a resident of West Virgina, so has been observice Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears from fairly close.

Sometimes I think it is too bad the Constitution requires that Presidents be native born.

Former President Trump could do worse than pick Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, although I understand one of my Daaughters-in-Law has threatened to march on Richmond if it looks like the Governor is going anywhere.

UPDATE:

Regards  —  Cliff

Round Cube Hits a Big Pothole

For John, BLUF:  Software companies should not release new versions without sending along some helpful information.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This is pothole season in New England and the mail client Roundcube has hit a big pothole.

Yesterday morning I transitioned my work moderating an internet discussion group from my iPad (in the bedroom) to my MacBook (in the kitchen).  That meant transitioning from the iPad Mac Mail to Round Cube.  I like Round Cube, becsuse it allows me to click a button and go underneath the hood and mess with the HTML code that defines what is displayed.  For example, I can adjust the margin width.  I like to pick 480 pc.

However, yesterday, when I opened Round Cube on my laptop it was totally different.  It was an almost totally new interface.  And, I could not find access to the HTML code.  It was not a happy experience.  I did some searching on line, but the new paths still escape me.

It is not so much that I am bothered by the change of interface.  Most of us are in the make it better mode.  That is for the good.  What disturbs me and puts me off is that this change was not only a complete surprise, but it also was unaccompanied by any help suggestions.  What were they thinking?

Yes, I did go to the web page I got from Wikipedia, but it was of little help.  And their Announce subpage was a blank. Regards  —  Cliff

Kudos to TD Bank

For John, BLUF:  There are people out there who understand providing good service.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Yesterday I went to TD Bank (Mammoth Road, Lowell) to make a deposit.  I arrived at the drive-up window lane at 4:50, and found one car in front of me.  It appear the car in front of me was waiting for the bank to complete the transaction.

The Bank closed at 5:00 PM, but I was not worried.  The line is usually very efficient.  Howeveer, the clock ticked past 5:00 PM and then up to 5:08 before the vehicle in front of me pulled away.

As I pulled forward to the window the clerk was loweing one of the two venitian blinds.  However, she cheerfully opened the tray and asked me if she could help me.  I put my deposit into the tray and she quickly processed it, returning with the receipt and cheerfully asking if there was anything else she could do to help me..

I thznked her and headed out, but her actions helped to make me a more loyal customer for TD Bnak.  She could have just closed the blind on me, but she didn't.  She provided solid service.

Thank you TD Bank.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trying to Influence the News

For John, BLUF:  The Main Stream Media trying to influence the news.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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NBC’s Secret Trump Scheme Exposed – Here’s Their Shocking Move Against Judge Cannon

From Patriot Journal, by Reporter Mick Farthing, 4 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus three:

Democrats have engaged in what some are calling “lawfare” against Donald Trump. They have launched several criminal trials in various districts, hoping, it seems, to stop him from becoming president. One of the trials is over, resulting in a guilty verdict.

Another case is in Florida, where a federal prosecutor is trying to pin Trump for the documents he kept at Mar-A-Lago.

The big problem for the left? The prosecutor, Special Counsel Jack Smith, has been outed for “manipulating evidence.” The judge presiding has postponed the case until the election to sort through these accusations. Now, it has come to light that Democrats plotted to get this judge removed to speed up the case.

From Breitbart: NBC and MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner has been revealed as the origin of an “orchestrated campaign” to file complaints against Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s case in Florida…

This kiind of action seems self-defeating.  And a little too activist for a legitimate news organization.

If the Biden side (including NBC) believes in the legal system, as they claim, they should let it work out its efforts without people trying to put their thumb on the scale.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Random Attacks

For John, BLUF:  There are people who find violence a solution to their problems.  Civilization can tolerate only so much violence.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Islamists Keep Stabbing People. Why Aren’t We Talking About It?

Here is the sub-headline:

Many in the West seem resigned to violence that once shocked us.

From The Free Press, by Peter Savodnik, 6 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus five:

Last week, a 25-year-old Afghan man went on a stabbing spree in a marketplace in Mannheim, in southwestern Germany, killing a police officer and wounding five other people.

In a video of the attack, the man, whose name has not been released, can be seen repeatedly stabbing several people—including the police officer, in the back of his head and neck—until another police officer shoots the assailant.

All we know about the dead police officer is his name was Rouven L., and he was 29, and he was trying to stop an attack on Michael Stürzenberger, a well-known blogger who has been critical of Islam. (Stürzenberger was wounded, but not critically.)

It took four days for anyone with a uniform or in office to say publicly what was obvious, which was that this had something to do with Islamism.

“Islam belongs to Germany, but Islamism does not,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted Tuesday. “It is a deadly form of fanaticism. There is now clear evidence of an Islamist motive for the crime in #Mannheim.”

This latest violence is part of a gathering storm of Islamist stabbings, riots, and violent demonstrations engulfing the West, with Europe at the center of the maelstrom.

The question for the public is if this is just noise or if it is a serious trend, a trend that needs to be dealt with.

The examples shown in this piece are in Europe.  Do we have the same issues here in the United States.  That is to say, is this Islamists against Europe or is it Islamists against the West?  In either case, it this becomes a serious threat to Citizens anywhere it is the duty of the United States Government to (1) stand against it and (2) to differentiate between those who wish to impose Islam by force from those who wish to attract converts by their excellent example.  The first are criminals and the second are our respected fellow citizens.

We, as Citizens, have a responsibility to distinguish between conduct and belief.  We can think someone is just an evil person.  We are not free to take action against that person.%nbsp; We can say they are evil, but we can't take action against the person.  It is about civilization.

Regards  —  Cliff

OVERLORD

For John, BLUF:  Freedom of the People is something we hold in commonn with the French.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Normandy is in party mood on the eve of D-Day's 80th

From The Times, by Historian Max Hastings, Monday, 3 June 2024, 12.01am BST.

Here is the lede plus three:

Normandy, where last month I was doing book research, proved en fête before the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Every shop and restaurant was adorned with period caricatures, flags and welcome signs. Banish the legend of French rudeness — everybody was delightful. There seemed more American than British visitors. The vast US memorial at Omaha Beach was a heaving mass — take a bow, Steven Spielberg — whereas when we visited two of the Commonwealth cemeteries, Tilly-sur-Seulles and Jérusalem, which seem much more moving because they're so intimate, we were alone.

Keith Douglas lies in the former, he who wrote "And when I prepare to die behind my gun/ I shall not glow with fervour like a sun/ Then, whatever will restrain/ the coward reasoning closely in my brain/ I think it will be that I am mad to see/the whole performance and what the end will be". He never did fulfil that latter ambition of survival, shared by almost every man of the millions who fought in Normandy, being killed on June 9, 1944, aged 24.

Driving through the lush Norman countryside, with so many golden-walled manor houses such as once we coveted, I recalled the 1980s when I began to write about the Second World War, and met a host of veterans. One of my favourites was an exuberant French former officer of the Special Operations Executive named Jacques Poirier. "Since you are to write about Resistance," he cried — I was then doing a book about that experience — "we must share the drink of Resistance!" And thus he introduced me to Kir, named for Canon Félix Kir, a famous Dijon Resister.

I have been drinking white wine with cassis ever since. If one orders it in most English restaurants they overdo the latter, but on Friday at Jeremy King's newish Arlington, it was just right.

So, it seems, we (and the British, Canadians and French and some Poles) were, in fact, liberators in 1944.  And, it was not a free ride for the French Civilians.

What is interesting is that the People of France, or at least the People of Normandy, at a distance of 80 years, still are appreciative of the efforts expended to liberate their territory from German occupation.

As an American I am proud of the fact that we went to the aid of the French.  Also, I am appreciative of the fact that those liberated, and the descendents of those liberated, are appreciative of our efforts.  We have had our differences with the French, but we pull together on the idea of the inherent right to freedom on the part of the people.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Course of the Future

For John, BLUF:  If women are not having children, from where will the next generration come?♠  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The New York Times sure is pushing hard on the narrative of the middle-aged, childless, single-woman lifestyle.  Why?

From Not the Bee, by Blogger Planet Moron, 3 June 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

I have a theory about happy people. Happy people feel remarkably uncompelled to point out to other people how very happy they are. It's unnecessary. Rather, they just go about their day, you know, being happy.

With that in mind, permit me to introduce you to Glynnis MacNicol, guest Opinion Essayist for The New York Times.

In her essay, she details three things she believes it's very important for you to know:

1. She is very very happy being single, childless, and almost 50. Really, It's like a "fantasy."  She's enjoying her age, she's enjoying her choices, she's enjoying herself, she's enjoying her enjoyment and she doesn't need you to approve of it which is why she's so desperate to convince you it's true through repetition.
2. Men are terrified of her for being happy and enjoying her fantasy life even though they don't know she exists.
3. ‘80s sitcoms were the height of feminist triumph.  Or something.

I applaud Ms Glynnis MacNicol for her success in life and her ability to do it on her own.

However, what about her responsibility to posterity?  Not that I am looking for another Reporter McNicNicol loose in Journalism.  But, what about the generation of the people who will sustain Glynnis MacNicol in her old age?  Nature says it takes about 2.1 births for every female to sustain a population.  Who does Ms MacNicol have producing the lost 2.1 babies, since she is not producing any children?  Maybe that is what President Biden is trying to fix with his open borders.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  This reminds one of South Koreas 4Bs Movement.