COMEY!
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America's Holocaust by Steve Berman? You decide. (See 1 below.)
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The day after the 4th, why/what did we celebrate? (See 2 below.)
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I was out all day with my grandson. We went to Congregation Mickve Israel
for the synagogue tour, then Fort Pulaski and lunch on the dock at EJ"s and I came home to this e mail and news from Comey ;
Democrats may gloat that Hillary is not criminally guilty but simply used extremely careless judgement and acts that another mortal might have been found guilty but being who she is she was given a pass. She would not be allowed a security clearance if she applied for one except for the fact that, as president, she can do whatever she wishes, even pardoning herself.
Welcome to the new America where elites are above the technical and hair splitting reach of the law.
As for myself,I believe what was rotten in Denmark has now reached our shores and thus I do not conclude a Hillary presidency is particularly healthy for the stock market. Why? First, Democrats live to spend money and our fiscal cupboard is not likely to support the spending she would love to do. Second, she will not be trusted and therefore her actions will remain under a cloud and third, her debt to Obama, to finish what he sought, is simply an act of giving more poison to an already sick and unhealthy system.
Obama obviously knew when he agreed to campaign with Hillary that the decision was to exonerate her of criminal liability and Comey's conclusion raises more questions about Bill Clinton's , just happened to be hanging around, to have a friendly conversation with the Attorney General about golf etc..
It is a sad day from my view but then, though I love peas, Obama and Hillary in the same pod is totally indigestible.
What Comey's decision suggests is that everyone should move to DC because there is no law inside the beltway.
Dick,
Just watched, for the second time this morning, Director Comey’s statement on the FBI’s current investigation of Hillary Clinton. To say his conclusion was stunning is a gross understatement. As he led his audience through the Department’s methods and findings I was sure he had made the case not only for prosecution but almost certain conviction on a host of federal charges. When he concluded that ….“based on these findings, no reasonable prosecutor would take this case and therefore we will not recommend prosecution by the Department of Justice,” I nearly fell off my stool. For two reasons.
1)I thought he had just made the case for such prosecution and
2)it isn’t his job to test the evidence for chances of successful prosecution, that’s the DoJ’s job. Why not give the AG the evidence and let her do her job. If, in the end, she decided NOT to prosecute, that decision would be on her, not Comey.
He can say in all good conscience that:
1) he’s done a thorough investigation and
1) he’s done a thorough investigation and
2) he’s not trying to do the AG’s job. That way, any fallout, legal, political or otherwise, falls on her not him. His conclusion made no sense to me from any angle I tried to look at it. Other than, the fix is in. I’m sure Trump will make this point sometime today.
Just saw that potential espionage charges might still be brought. By whom wasn’t made clear.
Woe is me!!!!! E-
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Dick
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Tomorrow Lynn and I attend the funeral of a very dear person who, though not family, was family. Ann Scheer, lived a full life, always was upbeat and positive, and could always find something good about anyone and anything. May her soul rest in peace.
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1) Embrace The National Holocaust
By Steve Berman
It’s difficult to find a word infused with more meaning than “holocaust.” But depending on who you are, other words are grenades with self-pulling pins, like “lynching” or “gringo.” Use whatever works for you.
From the earliest time–for me it was late February–since Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton could reasonably be suspected to end up as Act III of the three-act tragedy of American history, I and many other writers have seen this coming with a sense of dread. It’s like we have read the script through and know how it ends after the scene where little Cole tells Dr. Malcolm Crowe “I see dead people.”
We’re all heading in a forced march toward the same revelation Peggy Noonan had in April, “that moment when 2016 hits you.” There’s even a poll validating Noonan’s feelings. For fun, PPP–not the most reliable pollsters–decided to see how many respondents would prefer global incineration by a giant meteor (affectionately known on Twitter as SMOD, the Sweet Meteor of Death) to either Clinton or Trump. The meteor polled at 13 percent, above Gary Johnson.
President Obama flew with Clinton aboard Air Force One to a campaign event. If there was a clearer signal that there will be no charges forthcoming against Clinton, I can’t think of one.
Trump continues to do whatever Trump wants without even chipping the orange paint troweled around his pursed lips.I was going to title this piece “Nothing Matters” but then I had the rare epiphany that things do still matter. It’s just that the things that matter to one person don’t matter at all to others. All the bridges connecting principle to reason have been burned.
The word “holocaust” comes to us from the Greek “holokauston,” meaning “whole” and “burn.” It’s an appropriate word.
It’s appropriate because just 71 years ago the seminal event happened in which the wheels of human industry were applied to the stripping of human beings of all value and reducing them to ash in massive death factories. It’s appropriate because the best-known living witness to that Holocaust, Elie Wiesel, just died.
It’s appropriate to use the term “holocaust” to remind us that self-hating moral cowards like Max Blumenthal defend Holocaust deniers and wrap their worm tongues around the eardrums of Hillary Clinton. It’s appropriate to use the term “holocaust” when Trump tweets anti-Semitic blood libels in an internet meme and his defenders tell us to chill. And Sarah Palin tells a sympathetic crowd to hate their neighbors, because “you’re either with us or against us.” (“If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.”–Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes, Sarah.)
It’s all burning down before our eyes.
The GOP is evenly split between those who say go with Trump and those who say dump Trump. No matter what the convention decides, the GOP is effectively destroyed. It’s all according to the script–I wrote this on August 8, 2015, right after Erick disinvited Trump from the RedState Gathering (in fact I wrote it from my hotel room in Atlanta).
Trump is a direct result of the GOP’s inability to define itself as a party with a purpose. If the GOP is defined as “everything that isn’t Democrat” then it’s nothing more than the Whigs of 1854. Dead.GOP, it’s time to grow up and look down into the grave that the Whigs fell into before our party goes the way of the Know-Nothings.
With horror, I am seeing it all happen before my eyes. All the warnings, all the words spent, all the pleading, nothing has stopped this tragedy from unfolding.
Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States, and the Republican Party elected her. Then comes the holocaust of politics and the rule of law. As it all burns, I will do everything I can to help those caught in the flames they ignited to get out alive to fight another day.
May we all learn by embracing the holocaust.
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2)What Are We Celebrating?
By Thomas Sowell
There was a time when the Fourth of July meant something more than a three-day weekend. Speeches, writings and commemorative ceremonies reminded us of the origins and greatness of America. No matter where in the world our ancestors came from, we today are almost invariably better off because they came to America.
Independence Day signified much more than one country announcing its independence from another on July 4, 1776. It represented a new form of government -- freer and more accountable to its own people than the monarchies common around the world for centuries.
What happened in America did not stay in America. The example of freedom inspired other peoples in other lands. As a famous poem put it, it was America's "embattled farmers," fighting for their own freedom and independence, who "fired the shot heard round the world."
There was no question then that the United States was "exceptional," however much the smug elites of today -- including our President -- try to dismiss the idea. Because self-government on such a large scale was a unique experiment, the founders of the American republic were very much aware that it had its dangers. Thomas Jefferson warned that "eternal vigilance" was the price of liberty. Even generations later, Abraham Lincoln expressed his fervent hope that "government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." The survival of freedom was not something he took for granted.
Today, too many Americans take freedom for granted, as just another entitlement, something that does not require them to take any personal responsibility
It is painful to watch people on the streets -- or on college campuses -- being interviewed by TV reporters who ask them elementary questions about the people and institutions that run the country, and see how uninformed they are. And how unconcerned about their own gross ignorance.
People like that are the natural prey of political demagogues, of which there has never been a shortage. We see the consequences in ever expanding arbitrary powers of government. Just last week, a U.S. Attorney threatened prosecution of anyone who made "inflammatory" statements about Muslim boys accused of raping a 5-year-old girl.
Surely that Justice Department official knew that the courts were not likely to violate people's right to free speech. But the real threat was to drag people through expensive and time-consuming legal processes that could disrupt their lives completely.
Such high-handed use of government powers has become increasingly common during the Obama administration. But an apathetic and uninformed public voted him a second term.
That is not the "eternal vigilance" required to preserve freedom. It is the widespread apathy and gullibility which accepts the coming of tyranny on the installment plan.
Earlier generations of Americans fought and died to preserve freedom. Today's generation cannot spare time from their selfies and twitters to think about such things. Neither the past nor the future seems to weigh on their minds.
A generation that owes so much to the past acts as if they owe nothing to anybody. Their idea of freedom is exemption from laws or obligations.
What many conceive of as freedom today is much more like anarchy: Who are the police to tell them what they cannot do?
But anarchy does not mean freedom. It means that people "become the slaves of ruffians." What was said in 19th century Britain remains painfully true in too many crime-ridden neighborhoods in 21st century America.
The orgy of anti-police rhetoric in the wake of riots in Ferguson, Missouri and in Baltimore has already been followed by a sudden surge in violence, including murders, as police pull back or get pulled back. Innocent people have paid with their lives for such self-indulgences by demagogues and the media.
Freedom is not free. It requires, at a minimum, maturity and a sense of the realities of life. No society of human beings has ever been perfect. But we need only think of whatever person we love most and ask: Is that person perfect?
Is a country that is not perfect nevertheless deserving of our respect, our gratitude or our love? The Fourth of July is a good day to ponder that question
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