HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Georgetown called out for urging donations to left-wing groups. “Georgetown University’s Law School Library appears to have taken down a web page encouraging students to donate ‘time and money’ to a list of left-wing activist groups after more than 13,000 people signed a petition against it.”
Archive for 2018
June 14, 2018
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: ‘Air Claire’ McCaskill, Sarah Huckabee Sanders Out? And Much, Much More.
Tyler O’Neil is filling in for Liz this week.
REMEMBERING THE OBAMA ERA: Victor Davis Hanson: The Silencing Of The Inspectors General.
McCabe and at least a half-dozen other FBI employees quit, retired, were fired or were reassigned as a result of fallout from the politicization of the FBI. Yet, as Barack Obama left office, his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, strangely boasted that the Obama administration “has been historically free of scandal.” Obama himself recently concluded of his eight-year tenure, “I didn’t have scandals.”
Those were puzzling assertions, given nearly nonstop scandals during Obama’s eight years in office involving the IRS; General Services Administration; Peace Corps; Secret Service; Veterans Administration; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, not to mention the Clinton email server scandal, the Benghazi scandal and the 2016 Democratic National Committee email scandal.
For nearly eight years, the Obama administration sought to cover up serial wrongdoing by waging a veritable war against the watchdog inspectors general of various federal agencies.
In 2014, 47 of the nation’s 73 inspectors general signed a letter alleging that Obama had stonewalled their “ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner.”
The frustrated nonpartisan auditors cited systematic Obama administration refusals to turn over incriminating documents that were central to their investigations. . . .
In 2014, an internal audit revealed that CIA officials had hacked the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers while compiling a report on enhanced interrogation techniques. CIA Director John Brennan had claimed that his agents were not improperly monitoring Senate staff computer files. He was forced to retract his denials and apologize for his prevarication.
In 2016, the State Department’s inspector general found that Hillary Clinton had never sought approval for her reckless and illegal use of an unsecured private email server. The IG also found that staffers who were worried about national security being compromised by the unsecured server were silenced by other Clinton aides.
Still, Obama was right in a way: A scandal does not become a scandal if no one acts on findings of improper behavior.
It was wall-to-wall corruption, but the press didn’t care because Obama was a sharp-creased Democrat.
ELON’S ON THIS: U.S. Senator: Do not underestimate China’s determination to win in space.
Link was bad before. Fixed now — sorry!
More: Ex-teacher blog post a ‘public shaming’ of black principal, Madison school leaders say.
Plus: “To my ear, ‘grace’ has a whiff of racism about it, and not just because four-fifths of the word is ‘race'” It feels oleaginous and patronizing and quasi-religious.” Well, “oleaginous and patronizing and quasi-religious” is a good description of a certain strand of lefty politics.
37TH AIRLIFT SQUADRON OVER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL: USAF C-130Js make a D-Day commemoration flight.
YES, WE WILL RESUME REGULAR BLOGGING GRADUALLY TODAY.
CITIES WITH HIGH NUMBERS OF UNIMMUNIZED CHILDREN: A list of potential disease outbreak hotspots.
The new study is a “good contribution” to the field, said Saad B. Omer, a professor of global health and epidemiology & pediatrics at Emory University.
Omer, who was not involved in the research, said one strength of the work is that the researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of individual states with nonmedical exemptions, which had never been done.
Omer’s own research has shown that states with philosophical exemptions had both higher rates of refusal and higher rates of disease; his study focused on rates of whooping cough. “Clusters of refusal overlap clusters of outbreaks,” he said.
An article worth reading. (Link fixed.)
PROGRESSIVE GOVERNANCE: The City of Philadelphia Cut Ties with a Religious-Based Foster Agency and Now Dozens of Children Are in Limbo.
They hate religion more than they love children.
“THIS IS NOT TRUMP WORLD.” Are you sure, Mr. Biden?
Flashback: Biden Swims Naked, Upsetting Female Secret Service Agents:
“Agents say that, whether at the vice president’s residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude,” Kessler writes in the book – due for release Aug. 5.
“Female Secret Service agents find that offensive,” he writes.
“Biden likes to be revered as everyday Joe,” an unnamed agent told Kessler. “But the reality is no agents want to go on his detail because Biden makes agents’ lives so tough.”
Plus: Washington Post: What Are We Going To Do About Creepy Uncle Joe Biden?
Also: Joe Biden’s Woman-Touching Habit.
Related: Talking Points Memo: Why Does Creepy Uncle Joe Biden Get A Pass From Liberals?
Plus:
I mean, sorry, but if you think Talking Points Memo is “Trump World,” then. . . .
EVERYTHING IS PROBLEMATICAL: Outrage After England’s Prince George, Age 4, Plays With One Specific Item.
OBAMA EATS DOG, DOG EATS OBAMA’S HOMEWORK: Nat. Archives Stumble onto New Obama Scandal — ‘Wholesale Destruction’ of Gov’t Records.
“A first-rate librarian, (David) Ferriero has been driving a much-needed digital overhaul and expansion of the National Archives over the nine years of his appointment,” writer Thomas Lipscomb reported for RealClearPolitics. “This will greatly improve the ability of digital search locally and remotely, as well as accessing the files themselves.”
However, that only works if you have the files you need in the first place. And Lipscomb, well, doesn’t.
The former president, it must be noted, signed a law that put electronic communications under the 1950 Federal Records Act. However, it doesn’t seem that his practice is quite what he preaches.
Lipscomb wrote that “the accumulation of recent congressional testimony has made it clear that the Obama administration itself engaged in the wholesale destruction and ‘loss’ of tens of thousands of government records covered under the act as well as the intentional evasion of the government records recording system by engaging in private email exchanges.”
I probably don’t need to ask why this isn’t a bigger story.
Plus: “Obama’s traveling staff was almost all women and dubbed ‘the Vagiants.'”
ANALYSIS: TRUE. A politically weaponized FBI is nothing new, but plenty dangerous.
ANDREW MCCARTHY ON ROD ROSENSTEIN’S SUBPOENA THREAT: He’s Conflicted, and He’s Acting Like It. “On what planet is it necessary for Jeff Sessions to recuse himself but perfectly appropriate for Rod Rosenstein to continue as acting attorney general for purposes of both the Mueller investigation and Congress’s probe of Justice Department investigative irregularities?”
SO I’VE TAKEN SOME PRETTY FANCY CAMERAS DIVING, but this time I thought I’d take a cheap one. It’s not a dive camera, but a “ruggedized” camera for use around water, waterproof only to 28 feet. Still you can use it on the boat, and you could certainly take it snorkeling without worrying. I took the Nikon COOLPIX W100.
Verdict: A rugged, inexpensive knocking-around camera, good for when you don’t want anything more expensive, or more fragile, at risk. And yeah, I’m scheduling this post from Cayman, but I should be back and blogging later.