Tag: Crime & Punishment

Beginning Of The End?

Every drama has a point when the shit hits the fan…..and all one can do is just sit and watch for things are escalating almost out of control…..

This whole firing of the FBI head was the spark that lit the fuse….and now the fuse is covered in gasoline…..and the match is waiting to ignite the whole mess……

President Trump asked James Comey to stop the federal investigation into Michael Flynn, according to a memo written after a February meeting with the president by the former FBI director. “I hope you can let this go,” the New York Times quotes the memo as saying. Comey, in the memo, says Trump hoped Comey would agree to “letting Flynn go.” Flynn was—and remains—under federal investigation for his financial ties to Russia and Turkey. He resigned as Trump’s national security adviser a day before the conversation between Trump and Comey detailed in the memo. The memo provides more evidence that Trump has tried to influence the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia. Last week, the president said he fired Comey over “this Russia thing.”

Comey is said to have created a paper trail documenting what he believes was inappropriate behavior by Trump, detailing all phone calls and meetings with the president in memos. Such notes by FBI agents are often considered credible evidence in court. The White House issued a statement denying the contents of the memo: “The president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn.” According to Comey’s memo, Trump also told Comey he should possibly start jailing reporters for publishing classified information. Read the full Times piece here.

And now the acceleration will begin…….

White House aides and senior staffers admit that former FBI Director James Comey’s revelations on Tuesday are probably going to be the hull breach that sinks Donald Trump’s presidency.

“I don’t see how Trump isn’t completely f*cked,” said one senior official to The Daily Beast on Tuesday, referring to Comey’s announcement that he has kept notes of his conversations with Pres. Trump regarding requests Trump made asking Comey to back off on the investigation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

Source: ‘Completely f*cked’: Trump’s White House staff admits the Comey memo is the beginning of the end

Even the GOP in Congress can see the handwriting on the wall……there have been the usual Dem calls for an impeachment process…..but now the GOP is getting in the line……and the voices will grow as more and more loose ends are revealed.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Wednesday said reports that President Trump pressed ousted FBI Director James Comey to end an investigation would merit impeachment if true, becoming the first Republican lawmaker to broach the idea.

Asked by another reporter whether he trusted Comey’s word or Trump’s, Amash said: “I think it’s pretty clear I have more confidence in Director Comey.”

Amash is one of only two House Republicans to cosponsor a Democratic bill to establish an independent commission to investigate Russia’s role in the election. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) has also endorsed the legislation.

(thehill.com)

So the question is….is this the beginning of the end?

What say you?

From The Manure Pile Of A Cover-Up

I apologize to my readers for the large number of posts today and probably for the week…..I have 30 drafts in waiting and need to get them cleared out for events will start spiraling soon and I need the space….enjoy.

Not since Nixon and Reagan and possibly Clinton has there been a hint of a possible cover-up….but don’t you know that if anyone would be capable of a cover-up it would be Trump and the malignant toads that surround him.

What I am referring to is the meeting between Rancid Prius and the FBI…..

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to dispute media reports that President Trump’s campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, a White House official told the AP late Thursday. The official said Priebus’ request came after the FBI told the White House it didn’t believe a New York Times report last week describing those contacts. As of Thursday, the FBI had not stated that position publicly and there was no indication it planned to. The White House official would not comment when asked if the administration was concerned about the appropriateness of Priebus’ communications with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Priebus’ discussion with McCabe sparked outrage among some Democrats, who said he was violating policies intended to limit communications between the law enforcement agency and the White House on pending investigations. “The White House is simply not permitted to pressure the FBI to make public statements about a pending investigation of the president and his advisers,” says Michigan Rep. John Conyers. CNN reports that after it first reported the discussion, White House press secretary Sean Spicer disputed their account. “We didn’t try to knock the story down,” he said. “We asked them to tell the truth.” The FBI declined to comment.

Do you think that some media reported on this meeting is the reason they are barred from the White House?

Of course according to the Trump camp and the throngs of adoring worshipers this is a “fake” story.  And to control these “fake Stories”…..the Trump clown show has decided to secretly go after anyone who commits the damnable crime of leaking…..and then there was a oops! moment……

Now even White House leak crackdowns are leaking to the press. At a meeting called by press secretary Sean Spicer, staffers were told to dump their phones on a table for a “phone check,” to prove they had nothing to hide. New security measures include random phone checks of staffers, overseen by White House attorneys.

Source: Spicer Leak Crackdown Leaked to Press | RealClearInvestigations

You just cannot make-up a comedy sketch like this one…..gets NO better than this….now does it?

Closing Thought–20Feb17

Just a FYI piece for my readers

This would be a good post for my more tech oriented readers to reply about….I am not a techno geek….Hell I still hunt and peck with 3 fingers….

Ever get annoyed by those pop-up adverts that appear out of nowhere when you are trying to watch something interesting?

Did you know that many of those advertisers are getting popped by hackers for millions, even billions of dollars?

Computer hackers are a sophisticated system of fake websites and artificial web users to deceive advertisers into thinking that people are clicking on billions of online adverts and videos every day.

The fraudsters create a series of fake websites and use computer programs called “bots” to record the starting and stopping of videos and clicks on adverts, which are then reported to advertising companies as activity by humans on real websites.

In fact, some experts believe that 70% of online advertisements are never even watched or clicked by humans.

This statistic stunned Ron Amram, vice-president of media at Heineken USA, who admitted to Bloomberg in 2014, “It was like we’d been throwing our money to the mob.”

Source: Hackers use ‘bot fraud’ operation to cheat advertisers out of billions every year

I have mixed emotions…..on one hand serves them right for being irritating douches and the other no one deserves that kind of punishment….

Signing off for the day…posting will start again tomorrow….chuq

Take The Punishment And Smile

WE have had about 2 weeks of a debate on “fake news”….even here on IST there has been a bit of a conversation….and as usual there will remain two sides to this debate…..those that see the “fake news” and those that will not…..

The Trump camp is doing nothing to clarify this debate……and they have even admitted that they use the term “fake news” to punish those that criticize the president……

Deputy Assistant to President Trump, Sebastian Gorka, said that the White House is going to continue calling the media fake news until the press stops being critical of Trump.

According to CNN, Gorka said, “There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term. That’s how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, ‘fake news.’ I’m sorry, Michael. That’s the reality.”

Any story that criticizes Trump, or that the President does not like is going to be labeled “fake news” by the White House. It seems that the only real news that the White House will accept is stories that praise Trump.

The real point of the Trump White House’s adoption of the fake news term as a weapon is the delegitimation of the free press. The White House is attempting to delegitimize facts and information that they don’t like by labeling them as not real. If President Trump and his team are able to successfully confuse the American people, it will be more difficult to hold them accountable for their actions.

Personally I think it is a bit juvenile….what can you expect from a reality star…..but now we know that there use of “fake news” is just a tactic……

Really?  Journalism is truly dead!

NO one is allowed to be critical?  I believe a history student, even a dumb one, can point to a time when this was used extensively…..and that did not turn out well.

Side note:  After all the grief the Right gave Obama for his golf games and Trump played just over the weekend and nothing nothing was said….I wonder why?  (that was rhetorical and sarcastic)

Closing Thought–19Dec16

From the fires of Hell….

Everyone has seen or heard about the devastating fires that raged through Tennessee…..even those idiots that thought it was some sort of “Muslim” terrorist attack……but sad (for them) it appears that the fires were started by a couple of teenagers….and their fate does not appear to be bright…..

Everything, including murder charges that could bring a sentence of life in prison, is “on the table” for two teenagers accused of starting a devastating wildfire in Tennessee, prosecutors warn. The pair, whose names and ages have not been publicly released, were charged with aggravated arson earlier this month and are in juvenile detention. Authorities say a firestorm that began with a blaze the teens allegedly started in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 23 ended up killing 14 people, injuring another 175, destroying more than 2,000 homes and other structures, and scorching around 20,000 acres of the park. It’s not clear whether prosecutors plan to try the teens as adults.

CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos says the teens could be tried for first-degree murder even if they weren’t planning to kill anybody, because Tennessee law allows the charges “killing of another committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate” offenses including arson. Sources tell the Knoxville News Sentinel that the boys are 17 and 15 years old, making it possible that both could be tried as adults. The sources say the boys were tossing lit matches onto the ground around the Chimney Tops Trail, and they were tracked down with the help of a photo another hiker took of the boys walking away from the trail with smoke in the background.

It will be interesting to see just how sympathetic a jury will be…that is if they do not plead out (which I look for to happen)…..

Burn Baby Burn

This is one of those stories that few will read or even care….but for me I feel I must set the record straight whether anyone reads or not…..I do not those that peddle bullshit.

Awhile back some fires were raging in Israel and some accused the Pals of setting them…and then AQ was responsible….so far NO one knows for sure who set these fores (according to Times of Israel)…….

I bring up this seemingly uninteresting story because of those fires in Tennessee….while reading some of the more lunatic BS artists sites like Infowars, Breibart or WND I read that there was a group of Muslims or should I say jihadist that could have set this fire…..well an arrest has been made…..

Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,700 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, the AP reports. Officials offered few other specifics about how they think the two started a fire that leveled buildings into charred scraps, carving a deadly path through the Gatlinburg area. People scrambled in terror to try to flee on foot or drive out of the inferno that often cloaked them from all sides, shooting hot embers through the winds. Some spent days hoping for good news about their missing loved ones. Many learned they would soon be planning funerals. The juveniles face aggravated arson charges in the fire in the Chimney Tops area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 23.

That fire grew amid drought conditions and ultimately rode winds exceeding 87mph into the Gatlinburg area early last week. Authorities have not yet announced a dollar amount on the damage caused by the wildfire. The teens are being held in the Sevier County juvenile detention center. “Our promise is that we will do every effort to help bring closure to those who have lost so much,” said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn. The juveniles are from Tennessee, but not Sevier County, where the fires spread. Otherwise, officials said state law prevents releasing more information about them. Great Smoky Mountains National Park Chief Ranger Steve Kloster said the public was “critical” in offering investigators information through a tip line. Previously, the National Park Service said it believed the fire was human caused and set up a tip line for people to call if they hiked that trail on Nov. 23, or knew anyone who did.

I know that few even care but I thought that maybe someone ought to call out the mindless crap spread on Right wing slugs, sites and blogs.

I decided that I would correct their accusation since I am certain that they will not….

Closing Thought–23Nov16

Justice……

There is a group that tries to keep the world safe from a/wads and murders in nations…..the ICC…..

After WW2 and the founding of the UN the world attempted to find a way to make those that commit atrocities to be held accountable for their crimes…..

Most of history’s worst killers have gone unpunished. Josef Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” The ICC represents a strong and growing commitment by the international community to end impunity for atrocity crimes in the 21st Century.

After violent armed conflicts or other massive assaults on civilian populations, many countries remain mired in cycles of violence and retribution. Prosecuting individuals for atrocity crimes can:

  • Achieve justice for the victims and for society and help create respect for the rule of law;
  • Counter attempts to blame nations or ethnic, religious, or other groups as a whole for the crimes of individuals;
  • Isolate and incapacitate criminal leaders so that they can be removed from active political participation;
  • Acknowledge and condemn the suffering of victims and survivors;
  • Establish an accurate historical record; and
  • Act as a deterrent to future criminals.

These benefits can be advanced by the mere existence of the ICC. States will be encouraged to investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes because, if they do not, the ICC may find it necessary to pursue its own investigations and prosecutions.

Personally, I think it is a good idea…this would try to hold people like Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini et al responsible for their actions…..the problem is not all countries signed onto the ideal……like the US.

Recently some Africa countries that had signed are pulling their signatures because they say that 3rd world countries are targeted while others seem to skate from facing justice…..(below is a post that I did on this situation)…..

Source: Is Justice Truly Blind? – In Saner Thought

It appears that another country has decided to pull their signature also….Russia…..

Source: Russia withdraws signature from international criminal court statute | World news | The Guardian

This institution has not lived up to the promises it made to the international community….countries like the US did not sign on because of many reasons but the biggest in my mind is that they do bot want to be held accountable for their actions……

I think that if a country signs on to the UN then it must also sign on to the ICC of their UN application will not be processed.