Sic Semper Tyrannis

Large domestic disturbances, the U.S. Military, and the Insurrection Act

By Robert Willmann

When a dramatic event happens that receives widespread attention, public reaction can escalate into violence and rioting, which can also be initiated and pushed along by agents provocateurs, and used by opportunists to loot and gratuitously damage property.  With over 35 million Americans unemployed after being thrown out of work for about two and a half months and millions with their activity restricted by bad governmental policies about the SARS-Cov-2 virus, an environment for enhanced trouble now exists.  If the rioting that started in Minnesota and moved to other cities does not taper off or end, the issue of involvement by the U.S. Military in the execution of civilian laws can be raised.

There are three main federal laws about the military that could be looked at regarding the disturbances in the streets after the incident of obvious police misconduct which caused the death of a handcuffed man in Minneapolis, Minnesota this past week.  They are the Posse Comitatus Act, the Insurrection Act, and Military Support for Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies.

The Posse Comitatus Act makes it a federal felony to use the Army or Air Force to execute civilian laws, except as specifically authorized (Does this mean the Navy can do whatever it wants?!  Well, no, because Department of Defense regulations on the issue apply to all personnel.) [1]--

"Section 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

An exception created by Congress is the Insurrrection Act [2].  It has only five short sections, the last one of which makes it apply to Guam and the Virgin Islands.  Of the three operative sections, one may become applicable--

"Section 251.  Federal aid for State governments

Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection."

More Evidence of the Fraud Against General Michael Flynn by Larry C Johnson

I never ceased to be amazed at the dishonesty and laziness of the media when it comes to reporting anything about Michael Flynn and the astonishing miscarriage of justice in bringing charges against him. The documents declassified and released by the DNI last Friday exonerate General Flynn and expose the FBI and the Mueller team as gargantuan liars. Even though Friday's release of the declassified summaries and transcripts was overshadowed quickly by rioting in Minnesota (you know, if it bleeds and burns it is the lede), the documents reveal General Flynn as the consummate professional keen on serving his country and the Russian Ambassador as disgusted by the petulance and arrogance of the Obama administration.

The declassified material released by newly installed Director for National Intelligence actually consists of two different sets of documents--First, there are five summaries of conversations for 22, 23, 29 (two on the 29th) December 2016 and 5 January. Second, there are the full transcripts of the conversations for December 23, December 29, December 31 in 2016 and January 12 and January 19, 2017.

To summarize--a total of eight different calls between Kislyak and Flynn were recorded between December 22, 2016 and January 19, 2017. Five of the eight calls were initiated by Ambassador Kislyak--Mike Flynn only called Kislyak three times and two of those were in response to calls from Kislyak, who requested a call back or left a message.

Here are the specifics of those calls.

December 22, 2016--This call apparently was made by Michael Flynn to the Russians, responding to a request from President-elect Trump to ask Russia not to support the Egyptian UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. (Note--Flynn make calls to most members of the UN Security Council).

December 23, 2016--Ambassador Kislyak calls Michael Flynn to report on his conversation with President Putin regarding the previous day's request. Michael Flynn emphasizes to Kislyak that the mutual goal is/should be stability in the Middle East. Flynn tells Kislyak, "We will not achieve stability in the Middle East without working with each other against this radical Islamist crowd." Kislyak remarks, "responding to your telephone call, and our conversations we will try to help to postpone the vote and to allow for consultations." 

December 29, 2016--Kislyak calls Flynn and leaves a simple message, "need to talk."

December 29, 2016--Michael Flynn returns Kislyak's phone call. First, Kislyak wants to discuss the Middle East policy. The Russians want to convey to the President-elect that the Russians will not be supporting the American colleagues at the Security Council. Flynn says it is good. Second, the Russians are very interested with working with the President-elect's team to help the peace process in Syria. Thirdly, the Kremlin would like to . . . have a first conversation on January 21 rst between the presidents. Putin's idea is to congratulate Trump and discuss issues. . . . Flynn tells Kislyak: Do not allow this administration to box us in right now! . . . . depending on what  actions the Obama Administrations takes over this current issue of the cyber stuff, . . . they're gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country, I understand all that . . . I know you have to have some sort of action, but to only make it reciprocal; don't go any further than you have to because I don't want us to get into something that have to escalate to tit-for-tat. . . . I really do not want us to get into the situation where we everybody goes back and forth and everybody had to be a tough guy here. We don't need that right now. We need cool heads to prevail. And we need to be very steady about what we are going to do because we have absolutely a common threat in the Middle East.

December 31, 2016--Russian Ambassador Kislyak calls General Flynn. Kislyak tells Flynn, "And I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions [were] targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president elect. . . . and with all our rights to respond we have decided not to act now because, its because people are dissatisfied with the lost . . .  elections and, and its very deplorable. . . . Flynn responds, "we are not going to agree on everything, you know that, but, but I think that we have a lot of things in common. A lot. And we have to figure out how, how to achieve those things, . . .and be smart about it and keep the temperature down globally, as well as not just here in the United States and also over in Russia.

January 5, 2017--Lt. General Mike FLYNN phones Ambassador Sergey KISLYAK to express his condolences on the death of GRU Director Igor SERGUN, who died unexpectedly today from unknown causes.

January 12, 2017--Mike Flynn returns Kislyak's phone call and discusses possible conference on Syria in Astana.

January 19, 2017--Kislyak leaves voicemail for Flynn, inquiring about scheduling of a phone call between Putin and Trump after the inauguration.

 

The New Dominion

This is now the New Dominion of the Democrats and Northam.  pl 

Lara Logan on Antifa's cadre role in anarchist agitprop

I listened to this colloquy last night betwixt Ingraham and Logan.  It supports the statements made just now by the governor of Minnesota and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul that the rioters the last few nights increasingly are organized, led and coordinated by people from "out of state" and dressed in black.  

Someone pays for the equipping, training, transporting of these anarchist cadres.  Who?  pl

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lara+logan+and+antifa&docid=13893463882189&mid=FEEEF1A3CF5C354492A1FEEEF1A3CF5C354492A1&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ed Butowsky vs. the Deep State" Anon

I received this text from a source who wishes to remain anonymous.  This source is deeply knowledgeable of the Butowsky matter.  pl

"The American public will be getting quite an education in the coming weeks about the perfidy, corruption and treachery of the Obama Administration’s FBI, CIA and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as documentary evidence comes to light showing that they plotted, schemed and lied to destroy Donald Trump and those associated with him. But they did not act alone—U.S. intelligence and law enforcement were empowered and enabled by a dishonest, compliant and incurious media.

The age of genuine investigative journalism—exemplified by the dogged reporting of giants like Seymour Hersh—is largely dead. There are some (Max Blumenthal, Matt Taibbi and Glen Greenwald come to mind) who try to do the honest, hard work of telling truth to a naïve, uninformed public. When they dare to challenge or attack the conventional wisdom these reporters are vilified for daring to probe topics or targets that the Washington, D.C. and New York City glitterati consider sacrosanct. The celebrities among the electronic and print media are lazy mediocrities like David Ignatius, Ellen Nakashima, Michael Isikoff, David Corn and David Folkenflik. They carry water for propagandists and rarely ask questions about issues that beg answers.

 

Transcripts of Flynn - Kislyak telephone calls are declassified and released

By Robert Willmann

Transcripts of phone conversations between Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.) and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were declassified and released today by the new Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/michaelflynn_phone_calls_kislyak.pdf

 

How will the NY City, LA, and Chicago governments pay their way in the future?

The governments of the really big cities of the US were in fiscal trouble BEFORE the COVID crisis.  The Democratic Party has long governed these places and throughout that period they made promises with regard to disbursements that far exceeded expected revenues.  As an example, pensions for city employees were inflated to incredible levels.  The NY City Police Department has 40,000 employees, etc., etc.  With the rise in these obligations came massive growth in state and local taxes in these big city localities.

The near elimination of deductions for State and Local Taxes (SALT) in the Federal Income tax after 2017 was a mighty blow to rich people resident in the big cities.  The loss of the SALT deduction in federal income taxes has greatly increased the departure of the moneyed class from these places. Where are they going?  Since the US is a federal republic in which each state has its own law code and tax system, the rich can flee to states where there are much lower taxes.  Texas,  and Florida are examples.

As these people and their money depart, the tax base shrinks proportionately but the expenditures have not shrunk thus far.  The governments of these cities have not been able to face the needed abandonment of the welfare and big government models that they have built.

And now, pilgrims we have the phenomenon of COVID-19 and the devastation wrought by government forced closures upon the many thousands of small businesses that lined the streets of these cities ante-COVID.

People are being trained by "staying home" to understand that they really do not need a lot of these businesses.  They are also being made to understand that working from home is not a bad way to live.  Their employers are being taught that perhaps they do not need to carry the burden of massive rented space in towering office buildings at the city's center.

Will the restaurants, small grocery stores and customer service businesses of all kinds survive the financial losses they have endured and bring themselves to re-open?  That is an open question.  Will they prefer to take "early retirement," husband their remaining resources and move away to less devastatingly expensive pastures?  

Loss of revenue is affecting everything within the economic "well" of the big cities.  A friend of mine lives near the New Jersey shore just south of New York City.  There is a small fishing port near him.  He told me that because the restaurants are closed in NY City the fishermen have lost their major market and are selling into the local market at devastatingly low prices.  Example - North Atlantic lobster fresh off the boat at the pier for $5.50 / pound.  In the long run these prices are a disaster for the fishermen.

The handwriting on the wall is clear for De Blasio, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom among others.  They surely will not have the tax revenue needed to run these cities at the present scale of government.  That is why you see careful restraint on the part of these people when speaking of Trump.  They want federal subsidies on a massive scale.  They want them today, tomorrow and forever.

Without that support these cities will inevitably shrink.  pl 

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 28 MAY 2020 by Patrick Armstrong

RUSSIA AND COVID. Latest numbers: total cases 379K; total deaths 4142; tests per 1 million 66K. Russia has done 9.7 million tests (second after USA); among countries with populations over 10M it's fourth in tests per million and of those over 100M first. The vaccines tests are reported to be going well. Peskov is out of hospital. Karlin thinks that it's out of control in Dagestan. Doctorow argues that Russia has learned from China the value of segregating COVID sufferers in special hospitals leaving the others free for other problems. Restrictions continue to be lifted.

VICTORY DAY. Postponed because of COVID-19, the Moscow parade is scheduled for 24 June, the anniversary of the 1945 parade. The Immortal Regiment marches a month later.

OIL WARS. Russian gas shipments are down and US LNG isn't looking good. US oil production is falling and a shale oil company has gone bust. Saudi Arabia has cut its production. Oil futures are below $40. The guessimates are that US shale needs about $60, Saudi Arabia about $80 while Russia is OK at $45 and can get by on $25 for some time. So Moscow's still smiling, even if a little grimly.

PAUL WHELAN. A man of somewhat mysterious background, was arrested in Russia a year and a half ago, charged with spying and has been in jail since. Finally he's been tried in a closed session; the prosecution wants him put away for 18 years, he insists he's innocent. What I find interesting – and very singular – is that the several countries of which he is a citizen aren't making much of a fuss. Which they usually do, even when they're economical with the truth; vide spy rock and Bellona.

OPEN SKIES. In 1955 President Eisenhower suggested the idea; Moscow rejected it because it was an "espionage plot". It finally happened in 2002 and 35 countries signed on to it. Given that 26 of the 35 are NATO members it could hardly be said to advantage Russia. Nevertheless Washington is dropping out: Russia of course is at fault: it's using it to "collect information". (To someone who's been in the business since the Soviet days, this reversal of positions is a continual and amusing fascination.)

MORE RUSSIANS. Moscow has granted citizenship to nearly 216 thousand people in the first quarter of 2020; about two thirds of them from Ukraine. It's a little known fact that Russia gets a lot of migrants: in 2019 it was fourth-largest (but does KSA really qualify?); second ten years earlier.

INFRASTRUCTURE. Sapsan trip. Always fascinated how clean and shiny everything is nowadays.

LAWSUITS. He said it was a joke, Putin disagreed and fired him. Now the former head of Chuvashia, Mikhail Ignatiev, says he's going to court. Good luck with that. The lawyer representing Sturgess and Rowley wants the Skripals to be brought to court to testify. Good luck with that.

FOOD. Putin recently said that Russia was now self-sufficient in "basic food products". I take that to mean that, while there may not be as many bananas as you might want, Russia produces enough calories in the right balance. I have no difficult believing him: it's been coming. A stunning achievement – when I lived there about half the food was imported and farming was in a desperate state. The Russian counter-sanctions on food were a brilliant move. Thought they were. (Got RI wrong, though.)

FAUGH! The coolest plane ever is to be replaced by another blah flying wing.

FAKE NEWS. Something or other nefarious Russian thingee alleged in Czechia. Rubbish I say and I don't bother to pay attention. Korybko does and here's his take. Something or other in Germany. I've given up taking these accusations even partly seriously after Skripal, Russiagate, Litvinenko, MH-17 and all the rest. The burden of proof is on the West doubly so because it's lied so often.

NEW NWO. A German poll on the post-COVID world gives a very interesting result: 37% consider close relations with the US more important than close relations with China; 36% see it the other way round. Almost exactly balanced and after all the anti-China propaganda too. The wheels are coming off the wagon.

THE AMERICAN DREAM. Is just fine. And as confident as can be.

NOT ON YOUR "NEWS" OUTLET. A UN study finds that 81% of civilians killed in east Ukraine were killed by Kiev forces shelling them. Peculiar "Russian invasion" isn't it?

BIDEN-UKRAINE. Remember this photo of Biden at the head of the table? the guy sixth on his left is the so-called President of Ukraine. A recording of Biden giving Poroshenko his marching orders has appeared. Not as if we didn't already know this from Biden's own lips. A Ukrainian judge has ordered he be listed as alleged perpetrator of crime in Prosecutor’s firing. No mention of Hunter B though. So far.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Murder is murder.

I was on the VMI Judo team as a cadet.  This was a "club" sport as opposed to a varsity sport, but we traveled to matches in the eastern parts of the US.  Yes, I had my ass whipped all over the place, had a couple of  broken bones (small bones).  You heal well at that age.   You get the idea, not a great athlete but a willing participant for several years.  The experience was very useful during my army career.   This was not because I was a "sidewalk superman."  No, it was because the experience built up my self-confidence.

I learned a lot.  One of the basics was concerned with chokeholds.  These are legal in Judo with certain restrictions.  The method is simple.  From the facing opponent position you cross your wrists, grasp the lapels of the person's judogi and rotate your arms inward so that your forearms press against the carotid arteries.  If he can't break loose he loses consciousness in ten or twelve seconds from oxygen starvation in the brain.  From a position behind the opponent you do a similar thing with the same result.

In Judo, when the opponent claps his hands you immediately release him.  If he loses consciousness you immediately release him.  Why?   He  will die if you maintain the pressure on the carotid artery or arteries.

Are we supposed to belief that the ass in blue did not know that?  The man was unarmed, was cooperative and was handcuffed.  Other asinine policemen (please don't call every cop an "officer") stood around and watched as their colleague ignored the pleas of the victim and onlookers to let him up.

Murder is murder.  Throw the book at them.  At the same time let us remember that these were Minneapolis police, not state of Minnesota or federal police.  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/28/minneapolis-protests-george-floyd-death/

Ray Guns At Sea.

"The amphibious transport dock Portland blasted the vehicle with a “Solid State Laser” prototype on May 16, the first at-sea test of the system, the Navy said in a Friday press release.

The Navy has been developing lasers and other directed-energy weapons since the 1960s.

Such weapons “are defined as electromagnetic systems capable of converting chemical or electrical energy to radiated energy and focusing it on a target, resulting in physical damage that degrades, neutralizes, defeats, or destroys an adversarial capability,” the release states.

Or in laymen’s terms: PEW PEW!"  Navy Times

---------------

The big advantage in this is that the fleet will not have to expend limited ordnance on aircraft, drones, patrol boats, etc., while  reserving that ammunition for major targets.

Ray guns! Yes!  pl

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/05/26/watch-this-ship-mounted-navy-laser-shoot-down-a-drone/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%2005.27.20&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief

"The general election scenario that Democrats are dreading" Politico

"... he believes, the way to think about the current economic drop-off, at least in the first two phases, is more like what happens to a thriving economy during and after a natural disaster: a quick and steep decline in economic activity followed by a quick and steep rebound.

The Covid-19 recession started with a sudden shuttering of many businesses, a nationwide decline in consumption, and massive increase in unemployment. But starting around April 15, when economic reopening started to spread but the overall numbers still looked grim, Furman noticed some data that pointed to the kind of recovery that economists often see after a hurricane or industry-wide catastrophe like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill."  politico

******

"Consumption and hiring started to tick up “in gross terms, not in net terms,” Furman said, describing the phenomenon as a “partial rebound.” The bounce back “can be very very fast, because people go back to their original job, they get called back from furlough, you put the lights back on in your business. Given how many people were furloughed and how many businesses were closed you can get a big jump out of that. It will look like a V.”"  politico

--------------

Well, pilgrims, there you have it.  If Politico thinks so, it must be so.  Do I think the Democratic Party grandees are deliberately suppressing the economy as long as they can and bitching and whining as the GOP tries to crank up the machine?  Yes, I do.  Is that criminal?  Should it be criminal?  IMO it should be but to prevent the disintegration of the Great Republic, we must not treat it as such.

IMO Trump now realizes that he was snookered by the medical equivalent of the Holy Office. Our Auto da Fe has been impressive and nearly fatal but not quite.  Trump's statement that he will never shut the economy down again indicates to me that the "scales have fallen" from his eyes.

Are his attempts too little and too late?  That could be.  Or, maybe not.

The brawny beast that is America is gathering itself up, and looking once again at what CAN BE, not at what is forbidden us by the Globalist nitwits who would destroy us and make us into building blocks for their utopia.  pl 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/26/2020-election-democrats-281470

The Solitude of Combat Veterans - Alan Farrell

 "Ladies and Gentlemens:

Kurt Vonnegut -- Corporal Vonnegut -- famously told an assembly like this one that his wife had begged him to "bring light into their tunnels" that night. "Can't do that," said Vonnegut, since, according to him, the audience would at once sense his duplicity, his mendacity, his insincerity... and have yet another reason for despair. I'll not likely have much light to bring into any tunnels this night, either.

The remarks I'm about to make to you I've made before... in essence at least. I dare to make them again because other veterans seem to approve. I speak mostly to veterans. I don't have much to say to them, the others, civilians, real people. These remarks, I offer you for the reaction I got from one of them, though, a prison shrink. I speak in prisons a lot. Because some of our buddies wind up in there. Because their service was a Golden Moment in a life gone sour. Because... because no one else will.

"The Major Won the Croix de Guerre" Alan Farrell

 In Memorial Day weekend and in honor of MACVSOG I have decided to put up Alan Farrell's story as titled above.  It is one of my favorites.  The unit involved was really a "hatchet company"  of MACVSOG. 

pl

Download The Major Won the Croix de Guerre

 

 

A Bombshell Report from the New CNN

A report by Fred

There I was, first day on the new job. Trying to impress the boss with my worsmithing and insights on life, the universe, and, well - everything. Of course all good writing takes coffee, and some fresh air. So I went for a stroll and imagine, as luck would have it, what came by? I think this is what Joseph Campbell referred to as a 'call to adventure'. Take a look.

 

The court of appeals orders that Judge Sullivan respond in 10 days about the motion to dismiss in the Michael Flynn case

By Robert Willmann

In a short order on 21 May 2020, the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that Emmet Sullivan, the trial court judge in the Michael Flynn criminal case, shall:  "file a response addressing petitioner's request that this court order the district judge to grant the government's motion to dismiss filed on May 7, 2020 ...."

What is eye-catching is that the court of appeals is focusing only on the motion to dismiss, and not the other issues regarding the appointment of John Gleeson as an amicus curiae to oppose the motion to dismiss and to gin up a contempt case against Flynn, and the transfer of the case out of Judge Sullivan's court--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/michaelflynn_mandamus_order_for_response-1.pdf

The order cites the court of appeals opinion, U.S. v. Fokker Services B.V., which was discussed here on SST a couple of days ago in connection with the petition for a writ of mandamus filed by Flynn in the court of appeals [1].  That opinion resulted in a mandamus order against a federal trial court judge who denied a request to waive the statute of limitations that was part of a deferred prosecution agreement between the government and a defendant.  The opinion applied the principle that the executive branch has broad discretion to decide whether to file a criminal charge, which one to file, and whether to dismiss it, unless a charge is repeatedly filed and dismissed in order to harass a defendant, or the defendant objects to the dismissal.  The discussion about having to get "leave of court" to dismiss a criminal case under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48 is on pages 11-12 of the Fokker opinion--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/us_v_fokker_services_818_f3d_733.pdf

Another item of interest in the order by the court of appeals is what it does not say. There is no mention of a lawyer who will represent the interest of the trial court judge in a response to the application for a writ of mandamus.  In the Fokker case, the court of appeals had two lawyers act as amicus curiae to argue in support of the trial judge's decision during that proceeding.  But who is going to write and file a response in support of Judge Sullivan's position?  Will it be John Gleeson, whom Sullivan appointed as an amicus curiae to oppose the dismissal of Flynn's case?  Are Sullivan's law clerks going to do it?

Hack WashPost Reporter Carries FBI Dirty Water in Lame Attack on Michael Flynn by Larry C Johnson

The Deep State, in a desperate attempt to try to mitigate the damage from the revelation that 39 different members of the Obama Administration unmasked Michael Flynn's name in at least 15 separate NSA intelligence reports, turned to Washington Post stenographer, Ellen Nakashima, to insist that Michael Flynn was really not unmasked. 

Nakashima is a longstanding go-to-tool for the CIA and FBI coup plotters eager to sow propaganda and disinformation among the American people. It was her June 14, 2016 article that pushed the contrived fantasy that Russia hacked the DNC. Now that we have the testimony of Shawn Henry, President of Crowdstrike, on the record and under oath before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, we know that his company never found any evidence that the DNC emails were exfiltrated by Russians.

Here are some key snippets from Nakashima's latest propaganda missive:

A Republican effort to determine who may have leaked the name of Michael Flynn in connection to his 2016 contact with the Russian ambassador has centered on the question of which Obama administration officials requested his identity be “unmasked” in intelligence documents.

But in the FBI report about the communications between the two men, Flynn’s name was never redacted, former U.S. officials said. . . .

Unmasking is a routine practice used to identify U.S. individuals who are referred to anonymously in an intelligence document, and it is meant to help government officials better understand what they are reading. But conservatives have long seized on Flynn’s unmasking to imply that he was treated unfairly by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials. . . .

The unmasking issue appears to be part of an effort by the president and his allies to tar former president Barack Obama with what Trump says was an unfounded criminal investigation into potential conspiracy between Russia and Trump associates — or what he now calls “Obamagate.” Obama is expected to be one of the most effective advocates for his former vice president, Joe Biden, in his bid to unseat Trump this fall.

The president’s allies are casting the unmasking requests as evidence of a malign effort to damage Trump through leaks to the media.

Nothing to see here. Move along. This was just routine sedition. Nakashima is lying by insisting that what was done to Michael Flynn was normal and routine. She is pushing the fantasy that the only way the FBI learned about Flynn's conversation with the Russian Ambassador was because the FBI was routinely monitoring Kislyak's conversations and just happened to capture Trump's incoming National Security Advisor.

Richard Townsend Sale 1939 – 2020

 

Richard T. Sale, 81, an international affairs journalist and novelist, died on May 9, 2020, at Duke Hospice - Hock Pavilion in Durham. The cause was liposarcoma, a rare cancer, said his wife, Carol A. Huff.

An unassuming writer of national security news and fiction novels, Mr. Sale notably worked for The Washington Post, United Press International (UPI), Life Magazine and Aerospace Daily.  His published books include: “Clinton’s Secret Wars,” St. Martin’s Press 2009; “Traitors,” Berkley Books 2003; and “The Blackstone Rangers,” Random House 1971.

His to-be-published work includes an historical fiction based on his coverage for Life Magazine of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and a fictional novel from his reporting inside the Arizona State Prison.

For The Washington Post in 1977, Mr. Sale wrote a six-part series on growing tension in Iran, including the first reports of the instability of Shah Mohammed Reza.

Mr. Sale was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in international reporting at UPI by Managing Editor Barry Sussman.  Cited in the nomination was Mr. Sale’s penetration of the U.S. intelligence community to report exclusively on secret developments affecting America’s relations abroad.  This included the  KGB’s construction in the 1980s of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a giant “bug,” or listening device.

UPI credited Mr. Sale as “an incessant, tireless reader of books on history, diplomatic practice, political biography and theory,” that informed his stories which “never blame or praise political actions, but simply provide a descriptive analysis,” according to the nomination.

After 27 years in Washington, D.C., Mr. Sale lived in Hawaii for six years where his coverage for the Honolulu daily papers included the military’s largest amphibious movement since the Korean War, as well as human interest stories such as the Easter ritual at Punchbowl National Cemetery.

Returning to UPI in 2000, Mr. Sale earned the international service the distinction of being the first news organization to name Osama bin Laden responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.  This was followed by Mr. Sale’s exclusive report of a possible explosion of a nuclear weapon in downtown Washington, D.C.

For the last 15 years, Mr. Sale wrote political analysis on the Sic Semper Tyrannis website of retired Col. W. Patrick Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official.

With a life of accomplishment and refined taste in literature, music and the arts, Mr. Sale was most comfortable with a relaxed style, characterized by having a sophisticated cocktail in a fine restaurant, followed by a hamburger and French fries.

In addition to his wife of 30 years, Carol Huff, Mr. Sale is survived by his children James Sale, and wife, Rebecca, of Pasadena, Calif.; Christopher Spiller of Arvada, Colo.; and Tandis Cavagnuolo of Miami Beach, Fla.; also his grandchildren Addison and Emma Sale; Caden and Coltin Spiller; and Capri and Siena Cavagnuolo.

Other survivors include his former spouse, Haida McGovern of Great Falls, Va.; his sister, Lindsey Tucker Bowen, Ph.D., of Cutler Bay, Fla.; and his half-brother, Edward Sale of Pasadena, Calif.; his in-laws, Fred A. and Ann Huff, brother-in-law, Fred J. Huff of Du Quoin, Ill.; and sister-in-law, Susan Smith, and husband, John of Carbondale, Ill.

Mr. Sale is predeceased by his father, film director and writer Richard B. Sale; and mother, Arline Walker Sale Evans.

He was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., spent his early years in Westchester County, N.Y., and attended Columbia University in New York City, graduating from Principia College in Elsah, Ill.

Mr. Sale was cremated as requested. A Celebration of Life is planned for this summer.  In lieu of flowers and to honor Mr. Sale and his feline friends, the family suggests contributions to the donor’s favorite animal protection agency.

Epicurean thought guided Mr. Sale, who believed that what drove the best of human beings was not a desire for fame or riches or power, but the desire to create something solid, original, and beautiful, something that would endure beyond the reach of time.

###

"End New York City’s lockdown now!" David Marcus

"In mid-March, we were told we have to endure a lockdown to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overrun. We did. The hospitals were not overwhelmed. We turned the Javits Center into a hospital. We didn’t need it. We brought in a giant Navy ship to treat New Yorkers. We didn’t need it.

We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.

Meanwhile, the Big Apple is ­dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. ­Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.

Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin’ Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated."  David Marcus

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As you may have noticed, I am not a fan of New York City, but this man understands the truth.

You heard it first here.  We understood early at SST that the hysterical, panicked, media driven BS that led to surrender of the course of national life to a bunch of medical academics driven by their professional deformations was simply suicidal.

The Left hates the US, hates the country as "irredeemably deplorable," hates it as stained by the great Faulknerian sins of slavery and colonial creation.  In their collective mind the US can only be redeemed by self destruction and a new beginning in socialist rectitude as part of a global state.  You get it, America in the Year Zero.

How natural it was for the leftist politicians and leftist media to embrace a medical analysis of the situation that pushed the country into an economic suicide attempt.  How natural ...  And how convenient for the limousine leftists like Pelosi and the Young Pioneer types like AOC to want to keep the economy down long enough to win in November.  How natural...

A lot of people die every day of a variety of causes.  This virus is a reaper that culls the population, eliminating the weak and the old.  The great majority of healthy, productive people survive infection with little or no apparent effect.   You may die of the long term damage done to your organs?  Yes, well, so what.  You are going to die of something no matter what you do.  No matter what they think in California we are all mortal.

Re-open the country, all of it!  Now!  pl

https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/end-new-york-citys-lockdown-now/

Michael Flynn files a new action in a court of appeals about the motion to dismiss and the appointment of an "amicus curiae"

By Robert Willmann

Yesterday afternoon, Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.) filed a new legal action in the federal Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asking the appellate court to issue an order directing that three things happen in the trial court.  First, the cancellation of the appointment of an outside lawyer who is to argue against the government's motion to dismiss the case and advise about whether a contempt of court proceeding should occur about possible perjury by Flynn.  Second, the government's request be granted to dismiss the criminal case.  And third, that the case be transferred to a judge different from Emmet Sullivan, who is currently presiding in the trial court.

The filing is a petition or an application for a writ of mandamus.  It is a new mini-lawsuit that starts in a court of appeals and is not an appeal out of a trial court while a case is still underway in the trial court.  When specifically authorized by law, you can appeal to a court of appeals while a case is going on in the trial court, and it is called an "interlocutory appeal".  But this is a new legal action asking that a court of appeals order a trial judge to do some specific thing.  As you might expect, the requirements to ask for a writ of mandamus make it a very limited and narrow doctrine.  Otherwise, people would be asking a court of appeals to intervene constantly whenever they did not like the ruling of a judge while a case was pending in the trial court and before it ended there.  A writ is a type of court order. 

The mandamus doctrine in federal court has three parts:  the petitioner must have no other adequate means to attain the relief he desires; the petitioner must show that his right to the writ is clear and indisputable; and the court in the exercise of its discretion, must be satisfied that the writ is appropriate under the circumstances [1].  The mandamus doctrine in Texas is more open and flexible and has two parts:  the petitioner has no adequate remedy by appeal for the trial court judge's alleged error; and the trial judge showed an abuse of discretion, violated a legal duty, or made a void order.  Although the doctrine may be phrased differently in states around the country and in federal court, the different versions establish the same basic concept.

From Frankenfish to Good Eatin’ Game Fish - TTG

A few years after I settled in Virginia, I began reading frightful stories about the arrival of a dangerous “frankenfish” in the Potomac River and its tributaries. This hideous invader called the northern snakehead was feared to be about to both outbreed all other native Potomac fish and eat every single one of them. Doomsday and Armageddon were upon us. We were advised to kill every one we saw without mercy. To do otherwise would mark one as a scofflaw. 

I recently found these videos which painted a far different picture. The northern snakehead is an invader and is definitely here to stay. But it is not replacing the existing species in the Potomac. Instead it has proven to be an exciting gamefish and good eating to boot. The videos chronicle kayak fishing for snakeheads in Aquia and Accokeek Creeks, two waterways I am very familiar with. The video featuring John Odenkirk, a local wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is very informative. He’s been studying the snakeheads up close since their arrival in the area. I might have to take up fishing again, but I’ll need something a little more substantial than my Fenwick ferruleless pack fly rod.

TTG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HdWNN3HVGQ  (fishing Aquia Creek)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqvEw9BVpo  (cooking and eating the beast)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R23-ThVeZ8o  (the snakehead “professor”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYdZ3YjEafM  (fishing Accokeek Creek)

"Watch a Boston Dynamics robot herd sheep in New Zealand" engadget

"In addition to herding sheep, Spot robots might also harvest crops, inspect yields or create real-time maps, Rocos says. These capabilities are all possible now that Spot is more nimble, can handle rugged terrain and can carry infrared and LiDAR cameras. Rocos hopes to use its tech to remotely design and edit missions and collect sensor data. In other words, users might be able to herd sheep in New Zealand from anywhere in the world.

Spot is constantly learning new tricks. Mostly recently, Boston Dynamics trained the four-legged robot to help triage COVID-19 patients. We’ve also seen Spot navigate an office, hold the door for a friend, pull a rickshaw and haul a box truck. While we haven’t seen it ourselves, police in Massachusetts are reportedly testing Spot as a "mobile remote observation device.”"  engadget

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Woof!  pl

https://www.engadget.com/boston-dynamics-spot-robots-herd-sheep-135533533.html

How Can Susan Rice Know What Obama and Comey Said if She Was Not Present? by Larry C Johnson

Here is the bottomline in a nutshell--Susan Rice has been caught red handed trying to construct a lie about what Barack Obama knew and did not know with respect to General Michael Flynn. She claimed to be present when Barack Obama discussed the Michael Flynn intercept but, according to Sally Yates, who was interviewed by the FBI, only Yates, Jim Comey and Barack Obama were present. This new revelation--made possible by the declassification of the Susan Rice email written in the last moments of the Obama Administration--actually bolsters Michael Flynn's contention that he was the victim of a political hit job designed to take out Donald Trump.

Let me remind you of the essential facts that you must have in mind in order to understand Rice's clumsy attempt to fabricate an excuse for Obama's inexcusable spying on Donald Trump, his family and his team.

1. December 29, 2016: Michael Flynn, who was vacationing in the Dominican Republic, returned Russian Ambassador Kislyak's phone call at the behest of the Trump Transition team back in Mar-a-Lago and requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. Sanctions in a reciprocal manner (see here). 

2. January 3, 2017: Deputy FBI Director Andy McCabe tells Department of Justice official, Mary McCord, that the FBI had been planning to close the Flynn investigation but "discovered" his phone calls with the Russian Ambassador. McCabe described the content to the calls (Exhibit 3, page 2).

3. January 4, 2017: The FBI Agent leading the investigation of the General Flynn sends Peter Strzok the memo recommending the case be close because there was no evidence against the General. (Exhibit 1) Peter Strzok tells the Agent that the "7th Floor" is interested.

4. January 5, 2017: Barack Obama tells Acting Attorney General Sally Yates in the presence of Jim Comey that he had learned about Flynn's conversation with the Russian Ambassador on sanctions. (Exhibit 4)

Please take a close look at Sally Yates' account to the January 5, 2017 meeting:

According to Sally Yates, OBAMA DISMISSED THE GROUP (i.e., Susan Rice, Jim Clapper, John Brennan and "others" from the National Security Council) and asked Yates and FBI Director Jim Comey to "stay behind." It was Obama who brought up Michael Flynn's conversation with the Russian Ambassador and specifically identified "SANCTIONS" as the substance of that conversation.

Obama then said, according to Yates, that he did not want any additional information on the matter, but was seeking information on whether the Obama White House should be treating Flynn differently going forward.

Now we have the Susan Rice account of this meeting and it differs markedly from Yates. How could Susan Rice know what was said in the January 5th meeting? She wrote this email 15 days after the meeting the email is supposed to record and, according to Yates, was not present.

"Not good at the 'vision thing.'" George Bush '41

"Between 1995 and 2009, $32 billion was expended on programs such as the Future Combat System^[220] (2003-2009), with no harvestable content by the time of its cancellation.^[221] The Army has not fielded a new combat system in decades.^{[222][93][223][224][35]}

Secretary of the Army Mark Esper has remarked that AFC will provide the unity of command and purpose needed to reduce the requirements definition phase from 60 months to 12 months.^{[225][25][54]} A simple statement of a problem (rather than a full-blown requirements definition) that the Army is trying to address may suffice for a surprising, usable solution. —General Mike Murray, paraphrasing Trae Stephens^{[43]:minute 41:50} (One task will be to quantify the lead time for identifying a requirement; the next task would then be to learn how to reduce that lead time.—Gap analysis )^{[30]:minute 11:00[226][227][5]} Process changes are expected.^[226][48] The development process will be cyclic, consisting of prototype, demonstration/testing, and evaluation, in an iterative process designed to unearth unrealistic requirements early, before prematurely including that requirement in a program of record. The ASA(ALT) Bruce Jette^[156] has cautioned the acquisition community to 'call-out' unrealistic processes which commit a program to a drawn-out failure,^[228] rather than failing early, and seeking another solution.^[229]

Secretary Esper scrubbed through 800^[230] modernization programs to reprioritize funding^[231] for the top 6 modernization priorities,^[60] which will consume 80% of the modernization funding,^[232] of 18 systems.^[232] The Budget Control Act will restrict funds by 2020.^{[233][234][235][236][237][238][239][240][241][31][32][242][243][244]} Secretary McCarthy has cautioned that a stopgap 2019 Continuing resolution (CR) would halt development of some of the critical modernization projects.^[245][246] Realistically, budget considerations will restrict the fielding of new materiel to one Armor BCT per year;^[247] at that rate, updates would take decades.^[247][243] The Budget Control Act (BCA) expires in 2022.^[248][249] The "night court" budget review process realigned $2.4 billion for modernization away from programs which were not tied to modernization or to the 2018 National Defense Strategy.^[250] The total FY2021 budget request of $178 billion is $2 billion less than the enacted FY2020 budget of $180 billion.  wiki on AFC

---------------

Me dear ol' da' (a cynical old soldier if ever there was one) served for 34 years and cautioned me that "in the Regular Army we cut off anything that sticks out."  That glorious tradition is still alive.

The Army Futures Command, like many previous attempts at enabling rigorous but unimaginative thinkers to try to do "the vision thing"  will probably solve few problems.  The folks they are dealing with just aren't up to the task.  These guys are better suited to drawing up railroad timetables than they are at making an intuitive leap.

This reminds of the British Army leadership who tried to resist the introduction of machine guns before 1914 and who thought that motor vehicles were a bad thing because they would frighten the horses.  To be fair the Ordnance Department of the US Army successfully resisted the introduction of breech loading cannon and repeating rifles on the basis of an anticipated prodigal use of ammunition by the troops.  That was in 1860.

I wish Esper and McCarthy lots of luck in this effort to induce streamlined, creative thought.  They will need it.  The desire to reduce such thought to smaller and smaller bits run by interlocking committees is overwhelming among the people they are working with.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Futures_Command

Boneless ribeye medium rare

About a pound, medium rare tonight.  Some mash anointed with the jus of the steak and a few spears of steamed asparagus.  ça suffit.  pl

 

 

Trump, Pompeo and the State IG

There is no doubt that Trump kept a lot of Obama Administration political appointees in their jobs when he took over and that has proven to be a bad mistake.  Many of them have consistently cooperated with his enemies in efforts to "get" him.  There is also no doubt that he had the legal right to remove these people.  He did not remove them.  Why he did not escapees me.  He seems to think that they were his employees and that confronted with the possibility of a loss of jobs and income, they would see their best interests served by acting loyally towards him.  He does not seem to have understood that political purpose could be more powerful as a motivator than a federal government paycheck.  IMO he tends to look down on "employees" as a disposable group.  A lot of entrepreneurial business people are like that in spite of all the BS about how much they love their work force.

Well, pilgrims, this Obama appointed non civil service IG launched investigations into Pompey's (first in his class at USMA) use of career government employees to run personal errands for him.  This is a clear violation of the law.  The LAW.  This IG was also investigating the Trump Administration's sales of military equipment to Saudi Barbaria without regard to restrictions put on such sales by Congress.

When asked about that Trump claimed to know nothing about such events and expressed the opinion that Pompeo's time is so valuable that he should be able to do whatever he chooses with people who work for the State Department.  With regard to the Saudi sales he said that the sales were profitable and that is enough to justify anything.

1.  We have never wanted a monarch in this country.

2.  An attitude like that expressed to the press may tilt the scales in what is bound to be a close election in favor of the Leftist Democrats including their Neo-Bolshevik wing.

Idiocy!  pl

The Media and Pundits Are Lying--The Flynn Unmasking Was Uncommon and Unusual by Larry C Johnson

The Deep State propaganda machine is spinning at hyperdrive. You are being repeatedly told that unmasking is common. Nothin unusual here. Move along. Reminds me of the scene from the Naked Gun when faux detective Frank Drebin tried to tell people they were not seeing what they were seeing:

 

Leave it to lying Jimmy Clapper to pop up as one of the prevaricators eager to feed a false meme to a gullible public. He is caught up in the unmasking with his metaphorical pants down around his ankles and his hideous junk exposed--simply put, Clapper spied on Michael Flynn. Here is Clapper's pathetic attempt to put lipstick on this crooked pig:

Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper said Thursday it is “routine” to “unmask” American citizens who have been caught up in surveillance of foreign individuals as Republicans spark an uproar over allegations that officials spied on former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Clapper and other apologists are counting on your ignorance of intelligence community processes and procedures for collecting intelligence. What I find shocking is that there are thousands of intelligence professionals who understand that Clapper is spewing total bullshit but, because of their hatred of Donald Trump, stay silent and allow Clapper's lies to go unchallenged.

Let us start with the basics. The document that Acting DNI Grenell declassified last week regarding the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn gives us only the names and dates that requests were made to the NSA. But those requests came in response to a NSA intelligence report or document that the requestors had read. That means finished intelligence.

The following is an example of the formatting and content of the type of NSA messages that the Obama people were reading when they encountered an "unnamed" American citizen and just had to know who it was.

"It all seems like a ruse for socialism" The Ceres Courier

"I know there are a lot of under 30’s who still live with their parents and play video games all day – products of the entitled generation – but many men find their worth and value in working and providing for their wives and children. I fear this pandemic shutdown – which has gone on too long, governor – is damaging the psyche of the average person. The government has some people in fears that if they pick up a gas nozzle or touch the door to a Circle K that COVID-19 will have them dead by evening.

Get past the fear and look at the statistics.

The death rate in Stanislaus County so far is 0.000025 percent. You get that by taking the 15 who have died divided by the population of 550,660.

As of Monday, 2,172 have been listed as COVID-19 deaths in California. Divide that number by 39,780,000 and you have a death rate of 0.0000546 percent. So Stanislaus County’s death rate is about half of the state’s. And so far all who have died have had compromised health or were elderly. If you took LA County out of the picture, California would have a death rate of 0.00002371 percent!

California is the most populous state yet our COVID-19 deaths account for 3.1 percent of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths. New York, by contrast, was at 27.5 percent. Is our death rate relatively low because of herd immunity or social distancing? I don’t know but I suspect it’s been traveling back and forth between California and China for some many months now.

So as you can see, the problem is in the highly densely populated areas, not in rural areas like Stanislaus County. So why are we still in lockdown?"  The Ceres Courier

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Ceres is a little town out in the central valley of California.  To say that it is in America's agricultural heartland would not be an exaggeration.  Victor Davis Hanson (the philosopher historian) and Gavin Nunes (the congressman) are from places like that in the same valley.  The town is about 40% Hispanic  and the rest is White with a smattering of "others?"

Yes!  Why is Ceres still locked down?  pl 

https://www.cerescourier.com/opinion/editorial/it-all-seems-ruse-socialism/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres,_California

River prawns as canal cleaners. Who knew?

 

"Beyond the consumer applications, Professor Sagi has also been involved in research on using the prawns to combat schistosomiasis, a debilitating waterborne disease that affects around 200 million people worldwide, primarily in impoverished areas. Also known as Snail Fever, the disease is caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes, which use aquatic snails as an intermediate host. Anyone swimming in, or drinking water inhabited by, these snails is likely to contract the disease, which can eventually lead to liver damage, kidney failure, infertility, or bladder cancer. In children, it may also inhibit growth and mental development.

Since the prawns are voracious predators of water snails, trials are underway to determine how commercial aquaculture operations can be most effectively configured for a parallel role as snail control centers. In a recent paper, Sagi and other proponents argue that the prawns could significantly reduce the number of infected people and the cost of the drugs required to treat them, plus the prawn ponds would provide permanent sources of food and income."  ars technica

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These are the size I am familiar with.

I have eaten a lot of these guys in SE Asia and in fancy restaurants in Dubai, Morocco and Abu Dhabi.  These are absolutely wonderful grilled with the heads on.  Oil, lemon, S&P, garlic, three minutes on a side.  The heads are deliciously crunchy.

This Israeli bio-engineering company has managed to raise them in tanks filled with females only.  Brilliant!  The males are a nuisance.  They are very territorial and fight all the time, injuring each other, killing other prawns and are thus much distracted from the serious business of gaining weight and making little prawns.  Yum.  pl

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/can-gender-bending-israeli-super-prawns-help-feed-the-world/

HARPER: SAUDI 'THIRD MAN' REVEALED

I have never been one to believe in "mistakes" or "accidents" when it comes to dramatic revelations, and so I don't believe the official explanation offered this week that a top FBI official made a blunder in releasing the name of a midlevel Saudi embassy official in Washington who was tasking two California Saudis to provide material support to the 9/11 hijackers.

Attorney General William Barr and Acting DNI Richard Grennell both filed claims that releasing the name of the Saudi official would violate "state secrets" and jeopardize US national security.  Dubious claims.  The real issue was protecting the Saudis from a pending multi-billion dollar civil suit by survivors and families of those killed in 9/11.  And at the moment, the Saudis are on the Administration's s__t list, for the oil dumping that has threatened to bankrupt the US shale oil sector.  There are other issues between the US and the Saudis as well, including the endless failed Yemen War and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

So Yahoo News picked up on the fact that an affidavit filed in the "state secret" claim "accidentally" revealed the name of Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, an official of the Saudi embassy in Washington who was described in a 2012 FBI memo as the man who directed al-Thumairy and al-Bayoumi to assist the first two 9/11 hijackers to arrive in the United States in early 2000.

Al-Jarrah was not a regular official of the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs, but was widely believed to be an agent of the Kingdom's General Intelligence Directorate (GID).

Perhaps at one point immediately following the 9/11 attacks, there was some justification for hiding some known facts about Saudi regime support for Al Qaeda.  But now 19 years later, there is no justification any longer.  If al-Jarrah offers a key to the deeper involvement of the Saudi government and Royal Family in supporting the 9/11 attackers, whether with full complicity or just general support for jihadists, it is long overdue for the truth to come out and for the families and survivors to at last have their moment of justice.  

More to follow on this new breaking story...

New Market Day - 2020

"The Battle of New Market was fought on May 15, 1864, in Virginia during the Valley Campaigns of 1864 in the American Civil War. A makeshift Confederate army of 4,100 men, which included cadets from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), defeated Union Major General Franz Sigel and his Army of the Shenandoah. The cadets were integral to the Confederate victory at New Market and this event marks the only time in U.S. history wherein the student body of a functioning and an operating college fought as an organized unit in pitched combat in battle (as recognized by the American Battlefield Trust).^[5][6] This event and battle was the 14th time VMI Cadets were called into action during the Civil War. As a result of this defeat, Sigel was relieved of his command and replaced by Maj. Gen. David Hunter, who later burned VMI in retaliation for New Market."  wiki

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Captain Henry A Dupont, US Army who commanded a battery of the 5th US Artillery at New Market was later a US Senator.  Many years after the battle he said that he wished he could have sent his sons to VMI.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Market

Understanding the Mueller Lies About Michael Flynn by Larry C Johnson

I want to help the average citizen understand how egregious and dishonest the Mueller team was in bringing charges against Michael Flynn for lying to FBI agents about what he said to Russia's Ambassador in a telephone conversation, which was likely intercepted by the CIA. Michael Flynn did not do a damn thing wrong in that conversation and the notes from FBI agents Strzok and Pientka, which Sidney Powell finally pried loose after more than two years of the prosecutors hiding exculpatory evidence, do not support the Statement of Offense.

I suspect most of you reading this have never read the Statement of Offense. I am going to let you read for yourself the salient portions:

b. On or about December 28, 2016, the Russian Ambassador contacted FLYNN.

c. On or about December 29, 2016, FLYNN called a senior official of the Presidential Transition Team ("PTT official"), who was with other senior members of the Presidential Transition Team at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian Ambassador about the U.S. Sanctions. On that call, FLYNN and the PTT official discussed the U.S. Sanctions, including the potential impact of those sanctions on the incoming administration's foreign policy goals. The PIT official and FLYNN also discussed that the members of the Presidential Transition Team at Mar-a-Lago did not want Russia to escalate the situation.

d. Immediately after his phone call with the PIT official, FLYNN called the Russian Ambassador and requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. Sanctions in a reciprocal manner.

e. Shortly after his phone call with the Russian Ambassador, FLYNN spoke with the PTT official to report on the substance of his call with the Russian Ambassador, including their discussion of the U.S. Sanctions.

Got that? Michael Flynn acted professionally and followed protocol. The Russian Ambassador called him. General Flynn called K. T. McFarlane, who was at Mar a Lago with the Trump Transition Team and asked for guidance on whether or not to respond and, if he was going to respond, what to say.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 14 MAY 2020 by Patrick Armstrong

RUSSIA AND COVID. Today's numbers: total cases: 250K; total deaths: 2305; tests per 1 million: 42K.Russia has done six million tests (second after USA); among countries with populations over 10M it's fifth in tests per million and of those over 100M first; one could therefore expect it to find new cases – most of which have little effect. Mishustin is back at work, Putin's spokesman is not. Putin, in a virtual meeting, announced the end ofthe "paid holiday period" and a gradual lifting of lock-down in a report on the state of play. There's a report that Russia is undercounting: actually it's taking a hard approach while some other countries take a soft approach (the from vs with question.) Which of course means that the numbers at worldometers.info are so varied in methodology as to be practically worthless...

OIL WARS. Prices creeping up to about $27. This piece argues that Riyadh has made a really big mistake and enumerates the ways it has. The US industry is in trouble.

RUSSIA INC. The IMF says, in PPP terms, Russia's economy passed Germany to become number five.

BROWDER. His story takes another hit – as it always does when someone takes a real look at it. The German press council rejected his complaint against Der Spiegel saying his narrative lacked proof.

NORDSTREAM. After a long trip from Nakhodka in which it kept pretending to change its destination, the pipe-laying ship Akademik Cherskiy is now ready to complete Nord Stream 2. In an amazing coincidence, the Russians hack Merkel's cell phone. Get in line Russia!. (Bernhard catches the NYT in another sloppy anti-Russia assertion.)

RUSSIAN YOUTH. It's a widespread delusion, strengthened by the narrow circle Western reporters talk to in Russia, that "the government's anti-Western agenda and reports of widespread corruption are turning young Russians against the leader."Levada has done a survey of Russian youth and that's pretty hard to find; in general they're not far off their parents: a bit more liberal but also a bit more nationalist. Perhaps the most interesting result was that a solid majority thought Russia was not European. Robinson discusses. He wonders why so few show much support for "'classical' civil and political liberties". My guess is that 20 years of observation of Western practice of these noble ideals has soured them.

PROVOCATIVE. US and British warships enter the Barents Sea, promoting regional security and stability, while building trust. I think a Russian-Chinese naval trip to the Beaufort Sea would get us all some stability and trust, don't you?

WESTERN VALUES™. Given that NATO likes to blather on about how it "promotes democratic values", it's amusing to see that Freedom House says that Hungary, Poland, Hungary, Montenegro and Turkey don't make the cut as "consolidated democracies".

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. Transcripts from House hearings have been published. Here they are. Nothing. It was all lies. Remember Crowdstrike and its "proof" the Russians hacked it? When they're under oath, nothing. Remember all those people on TV saying there was strong evidence of collusion? Under oath, they said there wasn't any. Schiff knew this and said it anyway. Justice Department drops case against Flynn – entrapment.More to come. But that doesn't mean that the shills have given up: Russia will steal the next election; or will China? But does Beijing want Trump or out? (Wouldn't it be fun if Moscow and Beijing disagreed on whom to put into the White House?)

DOES THE NYT PLAGIARISE RUSSIAN REPORTERS? You decide.

WHY IS THE US IN SYRIA? Washington longer bothers to prettify – the boot is straight to the face. ISIS? Forget ISIS says Jeffrey: "My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians". An amazing confession, in the same class as "We lied, we cheated, we stole".

DOUMA. More leaked documents expose OPCW corruption – the whistle-blower was not, as we we told, some marginal guy, but one of the leaders of the inspection team. The official line requires us to believe that this smashed through a steel reinforced concrete ceiling and landed peacefully on a bed.

UKRAINE. A police official wants to know the names, addresses and phones of all the Jews in Kolomyya, a city in western Ukraine; "most of its Jews were murdered by February 1943 at the Szepariwice forest outside the city and the Bełżec death camp." "Is Ukraine a Hub for International White Supremacist Fighters?" wonders a piece published by Harvard. Remember when it was Putin disinformation about nazis in Ukraine?

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Flynn - Perjury? Emmet Sullivan Doubles Down By Walrus.

Firstly, Larry Johnson and Robert Willmann know more about this case than I do. It now appears, if this report today is to be believed, that Emmett Sullivan is now inclined to charge General Flynn with contempt of court and perjury. I have to ask; for what? This is Kafkaesque.

For agreeing to a plea deal that Flynn knew was false? For failing to plead innocence? For reversing his plea when it was demonstrated that the prosecution case against him was utterly untrue and corrupt?

“Judge”, I use the term loosely, Sullivan seems to be so ensnared in the coils of judicial procedure that he has forgotten that truth and justice matter. That is the nicest construct I can put on it. I think it’s time for Sidney Powell to rip this judge to shreds. I await Larry and Roberts comments.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/federal-judge-orders-arguments-on-whether-michael-flynn-should-be-jailed-for-perjury/

 

Is Mike Garcia's election an omen?

"Republican veteran Mike Garcia held onto his lead in California's special election for the 25th Congressional District, and will become the first Republican to flip a seat held by a Democrat in the state since 1998, winning former Representative Katie Hill's seat. Garcia stopped short of a full-fledged victory speech on a call with supporters late Tuesday night, as results showed him ahead of Democratic State Assemblywoman Christy Smith by double-digits. 

But by Wednesday morning, Garcia was declaring victory. 

"After seeing more results last night, it is clear that our message of lower taxes and ensuring we don't take liberal Sacramento dysfunction to Washington prevailed," he said in a statement. "For too long, the people of our district have not had representation, and it's time their voice is heard in Washington.""  CBSnews

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His opponent has conceded the election.  

Garcia is a businessman who is the son of a Mexican immigrant and who was himself a fighter pilot officer in the US Navy.

The district is 35% Hispanic.

This is the first time for a long time that a Republican has taken back a congressional seat lost to the Democrats.

All across the country people are rising up in protest against the politically useful shutdown of the economy.  IMO the Democrats are hoping that government enforced unemployment will cause people in places like Philadelphia to vote for them.

Is Garcia's election a portent of outcomes that may prove the Democrats' hopes to be false.  pl 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republican-mike-garcia-wins-california-house-special-election-25th-district/

Understanding Unmasking Gate by Larry C Johnson

If you are confused or bewildered by the furor over the Obama administration's "unmasking" of Donald Trump, you are not stupid. Even if you worked in the intelligence community at some point in your life you might not understand it. So let me help you understand how astounding and damning the documents are that were declassified by DNI Grenell and released by Senators Johnson (no relation) and Grassley today.

Here is a section from the testimony to HPSCI (i.e., House Intel Committee) of an unnamed FBI Agent. Let's assume that this was a report that our National Security Agency put out.

Note--A NSA generated intelligence report is usually the product of collecting a phone call, an email or some other form of electronic communications. At the very top of the message and at the bottom and at the start of each paragraph there will be classification markings.

So, look at the following as a manufactured example:

TOP SECRET UMBRELLA AARDVARK ORCON

013005132020 (DATE TIME GROUP)

1. (TS/OC) In a conversation before the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, FBI Agent US CITIZEN stated:

So I reach out to him, I said, hey, let me know, you know, what you think about the information. He emails back, and that was maybe the 23rd, 24th of September, and states that the information that - in the dossier corroborated information that they received FROM A FOREIGN DIPLOMAT that actually predicated all this investigation.

So, you are Joe Biden. You have just read this message provided to you as part of your intel briefing. You want to know the name of the FBI Agent and the name of the FOREIGN DIPLOMAT. To get this info Biden, or one of this staffers, fills out an electronic request to the originating agency, i.e. the organization that put out the Intel Report. In this case, it is NSA. In filling out that report you have to give a valid reason based on a national security priority in order to explain why you want that information. Biden does not just get to say, "CUZ I WANTS TO KNOW."

That message goes to the NSA official in charge of "unmasking" who decides to approve the request. He or she sends back the UNMASKED message to Biden. Here is what he read (it is still classified TOP SECRET RIDICULOUS):

1. (TS/OC) In a conversation before the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, FBI Agent JOHN MARCINKOWSKI stated:

So I reach out to him, I said, hey, let me know, you know, what you think about the information. He emails back, and that was maybe the 23rd, 24th of September, and states that the information that - in the dossier corroborated information that they received FROM A AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR ALEXANDER DOWNER that actually predicated all this investigation.

This is what Joe Biden and 38 other members of the Obama Administration, including CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director Jim Comey, did to General Michael Flynn.

It is important to understand the following to appreciate how unusual this activity was.

 

Grilled Sword filet tonight

A little irregular on the cut but that is what cooking art is about.  Salt, pepper, garlic, a little olive oil.  Watch it close.  Was running low on gas in that tank, had to nurse it along.  SWMBO ruled it delicious.  pl

 

The NSA list of people asking that a name be unmasked which turned out to be Michael Flynn

By Robert Willmann

Released today is a list from the National Security Agency of officials who asked -- between 8 November 2016 and 31 January 2017 -- that a name be unmasked in intercepted communications, and the name turned out to be Gen. Michael Flynn--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/michaelflynn_nsa_unmasking_requests.pdf

Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the Director of the NSA, included the list with a short memo to Richard Grenell, the Acting Director of National Intelligence, who declassified the list and then routed it today to U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Ron Johnson.

I think the senators should have asked for a wider time frame.

 

UPDATE (2pm 13 May 2020)--Andrew McCabe and His Lies to HPSCI by Larry C Johnson

If you want to understand what a work of slime and mendacity that Andrew McCabe is, you just need to read the transcript of his testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and compare that with the documents released by the Department of Justice last week to dismiss the charges against General Michael Flynn. McCabe, who recently derided the DOJ decision as foolish, is either stupid or did not take time to read and remind himself of what he actually said and did.

Here is the bottomline--the transcript of General Flynn's conversations with Russia's Ambassador in December 2016 was deliberately leaked to give the FBI a pretext for interviewing and trapping Flynn and Andrew McCabe lied to HPSCI about this. The leak helped create the predicate to ambush Michael Flynn.

How was it a pretext? Nothing that Michael Flynn said in the phone call with the Russian Ambassador was illegal. It was the type of conversation that one would expect the incoming National Security Advisor to have with a senior foreign diplomat. It was not a public conversation. Only the NSA or the CIA had the ability to intercept this communication which took place outside the United States.

The FBI and their co-conspirators in the intelligence community (i.e., Clapper and Brennan) needed to get that information out into the public. Once it was publicized they could monitor what Flynn and other members of the Trump Administration said in response to the publicity and, if anyone said something the FBI deemed to be "untrue" they could be charged with lying to a Federal law enforcement officer if they repeated the lie. David Ignatius, who received the leaked information, was the obedient water carrier for the FBI.

There may be no vaccine. What then?

(My grandmother who died of the influenza in 1918

with her infant daughter)

"Paul’s challenge encapsulates the debate between elected officials eager to open up businesses and willing to accept the risk that more people will die, and public health experts committed to lowering infection rates and keeping the public as safe as possible.

“People are hurting and we’re destroying our country,” Paul told reporters outside the hearing room. “We’ve got to open up business we got to let people vote, and we’re not going to live in a perfect world without infectious disease, we’re still going to have it, but we got to open the economy and that’s the number one message I have.”

The Kentucky senator, an opthamologist, told Fauci he didn’t believe there would be a surge in cases if schools opened, which is not what public health experts say. Paul dismissed predictive models of the virus. “The history of this, when we look back, will be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction,” Paul said.

Paul then targeted Fauci personally: “As much as I respect you Dr. Fauci, I don’t think you’re the end-all, I don’t think you’re the one person that gets to make the decision. We can listen to your advice. But there are people on the other side saying there won’t be a surge and we can safely open the economy.”  CNBC

--------------

IMO, there may or may not be an effective vaccine developed against COVID-19.  Some virus bugs are never countered effectively by vaccines.  There are no vaccines for the common cold, the Spanish Influenza of 1918, and many other virus strains.  Some diseases must burn themselves out in a population by establishing  herd immunity.  Bubonic Plague is a bacterial infection, but the same thing was true of it.  It ravaged Europe, but eventually the fire of infection burned out in Europe and those of us who are descended from Europeans are the descendants of the herd survivors.

COVID-19 is nothing like the Black Death or the Spanish Influenza in lethality except for the old and infirm.  Suck it up, people!  Cowboy up!  Grow a pair!  Fauci is a techno dweeb who would keep the US shut down economically until the survivors of COVID-19 would be living in a post-apocalyptic world of small communities living in poverty, a dystopian nightmare.

Rand Paul is also a doctor, and a survivor of the disease.

The Democrats are having a good time playing with Trump while the country burns to the ground economically.

Biden?  Pelosi?  Juan Williams?  Northam?  You want them?  If you do, and you want to hunker down until the country dies, well then, Bless You!  You will deserve what you get.

SWMBO and I, and the doggies are unlikely to be here to share your pain.  pl

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/12/dr-anthony-fauci-sen-rand-paul-spar-over-safety-and-death-rates-among-children-with-coronavirus.html

Chinese booster falls across the US into the Atlantic

"Parts of China’s gigantic Long March 5B rocket finally made their uncontrolled descent back to Earth on Monday, CNN reports. Pieces of debris soared over the continental United States before splashing into the Atlantic Monday afternoon, as confirmed by the US Air Force.

“For a large object like this, dense pieces like parts of the rocket engines could survive reentry and crash to Earth,” Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell told CNN. “Once they reach the lower atmosphere they are traveling relatively slowly, so worst case is they could take out a house.”

The rocket had originally sent an experimental spacecraft into Earth’s orbit earlier this month — but the empty core of the rocket started hurtling back through the Earth’s atmosphere as it made its way down, without any technology to alter its course." Futurism.com

************

"The core stage, measuring around 30 metres long and 5 metres of diameter, has a mass of 20000 kg. The core stage has made an uncontrolled reentry at 15:33 UTC on 11 May 2020 over 20° W 20° N, as it flew over the Atlantic Ocean heading towards Nouakchott, Mauritania. During its last orbit it flew directly over Los Angeles and New York City.^[38] becoming the most massive object in decades to fall out of orbit in an uncontrolled manner. It was in an orbit with an inclination of 41.1°. That makes the core stage the most massive object to make an uncontrolled re-entry since the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 space station in 1991, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global satellite and launch activity. It is more massive than other notable satellites that have plunged unguided back into Earth's atmosphere in the last decade, such as China's Tiangong-1 space lab, Russia's failed Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, and NASA's UARS atmospheric research satellite. It's about one-quarter of the mass of NASA's Skylab space station, which made headlines when it fell to Earth over Australia in 1979. The rocket body consists mostly of hollow propellant tanks, and much of the structure of the rocket is expected to burn up during re-entry. But some pieces, such as denser parts of the two main engines, YF-77, survive the fall to Earth and hit the ground."    wiki on Long March vehicle mission

--------------

Whoa!  How big?  That would have made a big hole in one of NY City or LA's neighborhoods.  pl

https://futurism.com/oops-china-dropped-huge-rocket-piece

Flat Iron Steak tonight (inside)

Lots of Montreal steak seasoning on both sides.  Heat a black iron pan until it starts to smoke.  Add olive oil to pan.  Cook it until crusty on both sides.  Then turn down the heat until medium rare.  Turn off heat and add wine and arrowroot to pan for pan sauce.  Whisk until lumps of arrowroot are gone.  Praise be!

"... Single-Atom Transistors May Enable Quantum Computers ..." scitechdaily

"Linking multiple copies of these devices may lay the foundation for quantum computing.

Once unimaginable, transistors consisting only of several-atom clusters or even single atoms promise to become the building blocks of a new generation of computers with unparalleled memory and processing power. But to realize the full potential of these tiny transistors — miniature electrical on-off switches — researchers must find a way to make many copies of these notoriously difficult-to-fabricate components.

Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues at the University of Maryland have developed a step-by-step recipe to produce the atomic-scale devices. Using these instructions, the NIST-led team has become only the second in the world to construct a single-atom transistor and the first to fabricate a series of single electron transistors with atom-scale control over the devices’ geometry.

The scientists demonstrated that they could precisely adjust the rate at which individual electrons flow through a physical gap or electrical barrier in their transistor — even though classical physics would forbid the electrons from doing so because they lack enough energy. That strictly quantum phenomenon, known as quantum tunneling, only becomes important when gaps are extremely tiny, such as in the miniature transistors. Precise control over quantum tunneling is key because it enables the transistors to become “entangled” or interlinked in a way only possible through quantum mechanics and opens new possibilities for creating quantum bits (qubits) that could be used in quantum computing."  scitechdaily

--------------

Pilgrims, I don't claim to be Nicola Tesla or anyone approximating that but this seems like a big thing to me.  Tell me what you think about it.  pl 

https://scitechdaily.com/new-recipe-for-single-atom-transistors-may-enable-quantum-computers-with-unparalleled-memory-and-processing-power/

Larry Johnson--Two Important Transcripts Shedding Light on the FBI and Two of Their Informants

This piece is based on two of the transcripts that Adam Schiff was forced to release last Thursday and they are revelatory.

The first concerns Felix Sater (here's the transcript).

The second is from the FBI Agent who handled Christopher Steele (here's the transcript). The agent's name is kept confidential.

If you are the FBI and you are running a counter intelligence investigation into Trump's ties with the Russians you would want Felix Sater, who helped the FBI on several cases involving Russian spies and Russian organized crime. He was a business partner of Donald Trump's since at least 2001. And what does Sater reveal about The Donald's ties to the Russian mob and Russian spies? He exonerates Trump.

Then we have the unnamed FBI handler of Confidential Human Source Christopher Steele. He admits to knowing Sater and some of the things he did for the FBI. Any evidence of Trump cavorting with the Russians? NOPE. After you read the transcript you will appreciate why this FBI agent is not named. He did his job honestly and professionally. In fact, he's the one who terminated Steele as a source.

FELIX SATER:

I have written extensively about Felix Sater, the President/CEO of Bayrock Group, who was an informant for both the FBI and the CIA (you can read my early work on Mr. Sater here and here). His work as an FBI informant began in December of 1998 and then he started providing the CIA with good intel on Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist activities. Felix was born in Russia, speaks Russia and became friends with Michael Cohen (yeah, that Michael Cohen) when they were teenagers.

Felix Sater testified under oath to the House Intelligence Committee and confirmed the following:

• He had been working for the FBI and the CIA since December 1998 and provided important intelligence information on terrorism and assisted the FBI in criminal investigations. (see pages 5-12 of the deposition).
• Sater met Donald Trump for the first time in 2000/2001. It was at Sater's initiative (Sater rented space in the Trump Tower). Sater proposed they work on real estate deals. Sater was President of the Bayrock Group (see page 16).
• Trump had not and was not conspiring with Russian intelligence, Russian politicians nor Russian mobsters.

Throughout the lengthy deposition, Sater was repeatedly asked if President Trump had ever conspired, colluded or coordinated with any Russian political leaders or mobsters. He always said "no." Here is the money quote from Mr. Sater's deposition (see page 141):

Question: Returning back to the four parameters of the committee's investigation we discussed sort of at the outset, in our time together today, do you remember the discussion we had about collusion, coordination, and conspiracy?

Answer: Yes, sir.

Question: And I asked you with respect to yourself. I asked you with respect to then-candidate Trump. I asked you with respect to folks affiliated, officially affiliated with the campaign and folks unofficially affiliated with the campaign. Has looking at the documents and all of the discussion we had today changed your answer in any way?

Answer: Absolutely not.

One critical question no one on either the Republican or Democrat side asked him was this,  "Has the FBI ever asked you to work as a Confidential Human Source to ascertain if Donald Trump was working for or with the Russians?" I bet you the answer to that would be yes. And Sater's response would be, "I never saw any such thing."

Now we come to FBI Agent John Doe. I came to like this guy the more I read his testimony. The man is a straight shooter.

He met Steele for the first time in April 2010 at the request of Bruce Ohr (see pages 9-10). In the fall of 2013 (I get this date based on some earlier comments by Mr. Doe, the actual year is blacked out--see pages 12-14).

Watermen don’t stop - TTG

This is an AP story that appeared at the bottom of the front page of my local newspaper this morning. It caught my eye because, unlike northern Virginia, the Northern Neck has been largely spared from the coronavirus. That's a good thing for Tangier Island since it is only a short float from the Northern Neck. Given the proximity of the Northern Neck to northern Virginia and DC, I take it as a sign that God also loves this part of Virginia, a peninsula bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.

————  

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Inez Pruitt has watched the coronavirus spread throughout the world from the relative safety of Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. But the virus is now as close it can get without crossing the water, infecting people on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland. “I feel like if we got COVID, it would be devastating,” said Pruitt, a physician assistant who operates the island's health clinic. “In my head it has a very high potential of happening. I just hope to God it doesn’t.”

Reachable only by plane or boat, the dwindling community of fewer than 500 people has reported zero cases of the coronavirus. And though its one school and two churches have shuttered, life has continued at a level of normalcy that much of the nation lost weeks ago. Far fewer people on Tangier are wearing masks than in much of the U.S. Its watermen, who anchor the economy and make up much of the workforce, still pull up crab pots and sell their bushels to buyers on the mainland.

Only one restaurant is open this time of year, so only one had to close its dining room. The island still celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter, albeit in a long procession of golf carts and other vehicles that circled the island. “It’s sort of like we’ve been in a safe haven,” Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge said. “We feel more protected.” Tangier has come to be viewed by some in America's stifled East Coast cities as the perfect escape. “I’ve had folks call me up from all over and say, ‘Would it be OK if I flew in just to walk on the beach?’” the mayor said.

The mayor said he has discouraged such visits, but small planes have landed in recent weeks. The island also told a New York-based production company that was filming a possible television show about Tangier to stay away until the pandemic subsided. But the community’s protective isolation could also be its undoing if the coronavirus comes ashore. Disease can spread fast in the close-knit community, which hasn’t had a full-time doctor in half a century.

These days, a doctor usually flies to the island every other week. People who get really sick must be taken to a hospital on the mainland. About 40% of Tangier's inhabitants are more than 60 years old and therefore more vulnerable to the virus. Over the winter, a flu spread quickly and infected more than 50 people, Pruitt said. One person almost died. Another had a heart attack.  (continued at AP News)

————

I hope Tangier’s luck holds out. Between rising tides and subsidence, I doubt the island can hold out for another generation. It's loss will be a shame. It is a regional treasure. The Northern Neck will still be with us. The danger here is development, but I have confidence in the people and even the politicians. Congressman Rob Wittman is a great champion of the Bay and the watermen who make their living from her waters.

I found this video produced for a Northern Neck real estate salesman. The subject, Dr. Emory Lewis, is an obviously very well off retired physician who grew up on the water. He served as a Naval lieutenant during Viet Nam and went to medical school on the GI Bill. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. And here’s a story from the Richmond Times Dispatch about his retirement hobby as an oysterman. With all the restaurants shut down, I wonder if he’s selling directly to the public.

What gives me hope for the Northern Neck is the way Stafford is treating her Potomac shoreline. We have the Crows Nest Wildlife Preserve, one of the finest natural areas in the Chesapeake Bay region. We have Aquia Park and the newly created Widewater Park. We also have local watermen still able to make a living. Decatur’s Crabs has been in the Widewater area of Stafford long before I moved here. As long as the crabbin’s good, they sell in Fredericksburg daily and on weekends just down the road from me in northern Stafford. Here’s a video of two of their boats, newly refurbished for the season, leaving True North Boat Works, near Stingray Point where the Rappahannock empties into the Bay. And just because I like the water, here's another video of the "Crabman" setting out crab traps and bringing in the Mothers Day crabs.

The photo at the top of this post is of the Potomac River as seen from VRE commuter train. I took that ride from Quantico to Alexandria almost every day for over six years. It was glorious during those times of year when I could catch that sunrise on the way to work. Sometimes I would catch watermen loading their crab traps on their skiff and deadrise workboats. It was a great way to start a day. That’s the Maryland shoreline in the distance. As I recall, this is the River that Claude Devereux crossed in the middle of the night as he infiltrated Union lines on his espionage mission.

TTG 

Richard Sale - In Memoriam

Richard Sale

Richard died last night of pancreatic cancer.  He had suffered with that for three years.  He was a dear personal friend and until his last illness wrote often for SST.  pl 

What did Obama know, and when did he know it?

"Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that she first learned the FBI possessed and was investigating recordings of Flynn’s late 2016 conversations with a Russian envoy following a Jan. 5, 2017, national security meeting at the White House. It wasn't Comey who told her, but former President Barack Obama.

Yates, who was briefly the acting attorney general during the early days of the Trump administration before getting fired, also laid out how in the ensuing days, Comey kept the FBI's actions cloaked in secrecy and repeatedly rebuffed her suggestions that the incoming Trump team be made aware of the Flynn recordings.

These revelations appear in declassified FBI interview notes of the Mueller team’s conversation with Yates in August 2017, highlighted by the Justice Department on Thursday as U.S. Attorney for D.C. Timothy Shea moved to drop its criminal charges against Flynn.

“One thing people will see when they look at the documents is how Director Comey purposely went around the Justice Department and ignored Deputy Attorney General Yates,” Attorney General William Barr said during a Thursday interview with CBS News. “Deputy Attorney General Yates, I've disagreed with her about a couple of things, but, you know, here she upheld the fine tradition of the Department of Justice. She said that the new administration has to be treated just like the Obama administration, and they should go and tell the White House about their findings … And, you know, Director Comey ran around that.”

Yates told Mueller’s team she first learned of the Flynn recordings following a White House meeting about the Intelligence Community Assessment attended by Yates, Comey, Vice President Joe Biden, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-national security adviser Susan Rice, and others. Obama asked Yates and Comey to stay behind when the meeting concluded.

Obama “started by saying that he had ‘learned of the information about Flynn’ and his conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak," Yates said, according to the notes. “Obama specified he did not want any additional information on the matter but was seeking information on whether the White House should be treating Flynn any differently.”  washington examiner

-------------

Obama did not want any additional information on  the matter?   Careful CYA.  From the account of this meeting it is clear that Obama and Biden knew that Comey was intent on pursuing Flynn.  If that is so, then subsequent events indicate that Obama did not act to stop Comey, and since Comey was hiding his effort against Flynn from main Justice, it must be that someone on high was encouraging him.  Now, who would that be?  pl 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/sally-yates-learned-of-flynn-targeting-from-obama-as-comey-kept-her-in-the-dark-declassified-documents-show

Do the Democrats want 14.7% unemployment?

Having watched the Smerconish left-center discussion show this AM it seems pretty clear that Smerconish's audience wants the economy held down through "mitigation" until a sufficient number of citizens vote  against Trump seeking relief from government induced poverty.

The host was denounced during the program by twitterers for citing real life statistics that show that it is the old and infirm who are killed by the virus.  Oh, sure, ole' Covid-19 picks off a few others but not many.  For pointing that out, Smerconish, a liberal, was accused of promoting Trump's candidacy.  "Just let Joe stay in the basement.  No president can be re-elected with unemployment this high" was the comment of one man.

In his weekly on-line poll Smerconish asked people to vote as to whether or not those who report violations of "mitigation" are "whistle-blowers," or "snitches."  77% voted for "whistleblowers."  There is no doubt that Smerconish's CNN audience is overwhelmingly Democrat in party loyalty.

IMO this pretty much matches the sentiment of Democratic Party leadership, whether it be personified by Gretchen Whitmer, Ralph Northam or the ice cream queen, Nancy Pelosi who obviously  is keeping the House in adjournment to avoid cooperating with the president on more relief bills.

Is it a winning strategy to suppress the economy in order to win politically?  We will see, pilgrims.  We will see  pl 

Tara Reade - Biden Has Some Explaining To Do; By Walrus

“A court declaration from 1996 corroborates former Biden staffer Tara Reade's claim that she was sexually harassed while working for him in 1993, according to the Sacramento Bee.”

It seems that the Obama team and the Biden campaign missed one record when they were vetting and polishing Creepy Joes image; a filing for her divorce petition in 1996 in which her husband at the time refers to the sexual harassment (or worse) incident prior to their marriage and names Biden as the perpetrator.

IMHO, this opens the way for HRC to “save” the nation from another Trump Presidency. I also wonder about the existence of any statute of limitations on sex crimes.

I wonder how long the existence of this document has been known and by whom? I have my suspicions.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/1996-court-filing-corroborates-biden-accusers-claim-she-was-harassed

 

Open thread - 8 May, 2020

pl

"Avaaz." The "reseau" that unites the revolutionary Left?

(Antonia Staats)

"Avaaz claims to unite practical idealists from around the world.^[8] Director Ricken Patel said in 2011, "We have no ideology per se. Our mission is to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. Idealists of the world unite!"^[12] In practice, Avaaz often supports causes considered progressive, such as calling for global action on climate change, challenging Monsanto, and building greater global support for refugees.^[13][14][15]

During the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, Avaaz set up Internet proxy servers to allow protesters to upload videos onto public websites.^[16]

Avaaz supported the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya, which led to the military intervention in the country in 2011. It was criticized for its pro-intervention stance in the media and blogs.^[17]

Avaaz supported the civil uprising preceding the Syrian Civil War. This included sending $1.5 million of Internet communications equipment to protesters, and training activists. Later it used smuggling routes to send over $2 million of medical equipment into rebel-held areas of Syria. It also smuggled 34 international journalists into Syria.^[10][18] Avaaz coordinated the evacuation of wounded British photographer Paul Conroy from Homs. Thirteen Syrian activists died during the evacuation operation.^[10][19] Some senior members of other non-governmental organizations working in the Middle East have criticized Avaaz for taking sides in a civil war.^[16] As of November 2016, Avaaz continues campaigning for no-fly zones over Syria in general and specifically Aleppo. (Gen. Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, has said that establishing a no-fly zone means going to war against Syria and Russia.^[20]) It has received criticism from parts of the political blogosphere and has a single digit percentage of its users opposing the petitions, with a number of users ultimately leaving the network. The Avaaz team responded to this criticism by issuing two statements defending their decision to campaign.  wiki

----------------

Yes, pilgrims, my professional deformation leads me to find pattern where there may be none.  BUT, OTOH, there may BE a pattern.  It would be logical for there to exist connective tissue that relates the Sorosistas, The Clintonistas, the media freaks, Tom Perez' DNC, etc., etc., ad nauseam.  And then there are the communist regimes, Cuba, China, North Korea.  Are they  not all soulmates?

And then, there is Neil Ferguson the British epidemiologist who sold #10 on the idea of a national lock-down that looks to destroy the UK economy and political system.  Antonia Staats. his married mistress is a major figure in AVAAZ.  He broke curfew twice to get a little bit of that.  Coincidence?  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avaaz