CHANGE: Chipotle rolls out new benefits, cash bonuses due to tax cut. “Qualified hourly employees and salaried restaurant employees will receive a special one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000, and some staff employees will receive a one-time stock grant. Other offerings will include accelerated training programs, and additional paid parental leave for everyone, from hourly managers to salaried employees.”
Archive for 2018
February 7, 2018
COLLUSION: FBI lovers’ latest text messages: Obama ‘wants to know everything.’
Newly revealed text messages between FBI paramours Peter Strzok and Lisa Page include an exchange about preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted “to know everything we’re doing.”
The message, from Page to Strzok, was among thousands of texts between the lovers reviewed by Fox News. The pair both worked at one point for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Page wrote to Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016, about prepping Comey because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” According to a newly released Senate report, this text raises questions about Obama’s personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation.
This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Plus:
Among the newly disclosed texts, Strzok also calls Virginians who voted against then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s wife for a state Senate seat “ignorant hillbillys.” (sic)
That text came from Strzok to Page on Nov. 4, 2015, the day after Jill McCabe lost a hotly contested Virginia state Senate election. Strzok said of the result, “Disappointing, but look at the district map. Loudon is being gentrified, but it’s still largely ignorant hillbillys. Good for her for running, but curious if she’s energized or never again.”
Your tax dollars at work.
UPDATE: Full report here.
LATE-STAGE SOCIALISM: Once-rich Venezuelans live as beggars in Colombia, but they don’t want to go back.
“Venezuela… I wouldn’t wish it on even my worst enemy,” a teary-eyed Luis Alfredo Rivas, 32, told el Nuevo Herald at a bus terminal in Bogotá, where he had just arrived from the neighboring country.
Rivas explained how he made the decision to leave. “Venezuela’s minimum wage is only 190,000 bolivars per week, when a kilogram of rice costs 210,000 bolivars. What can I do there?” he asked.
“My plan is to be here, to work and to move ahead and if I can, to bring my family over, too, to get them out of that hell,” he said.
As Venezuela’s economy continues to crumble, thousands of its citizens are trekking into Colombia every day — sometimes by walking hundreds of miles on foot through the Andes — to escape chronic shortages of food and medicine, frequent looting and rampant crime.
Related: Blackout hits parts of Venezuelan capital: witnesses, subway authorities.
The country sitting on top of the world’s largest oil reserves can’t keep its capital city fully lit.
BYRON YORK: Republicans and those ‘attacks’ on the FBI.
The news is filled with reports that Republicans in Washington are “attacking” the FBI over the Trump-Russia investigation.
The Washington Post recently compiled a collection of statements by GOP lawmakers under the heading, “Republicans launch attack after attack on the FBI.” The New York Times ran a news analysis headlined, “Trump’s Unparalleled War on a Pillar of Society: Law Enforcement.”
Those words have been echoed many, many times by various talking heads on television.
But have Republicans really been attacking the FBI? The bureau is a big organization — about 35,000 people. It does many different things. A more accurate way to describe what Republicans are doing is that they are condemning the FBI leadership’s handling of two of the most heavily politicized investigations in years — the Trump-Russia probe and the Hillary Clinton email investigation. All that proves is that when law enforcement wades into politics, it becomes the target of sometimes intense political criticism.
That is an entirely different thing from attacking the FBI as an institution or attacking the role it plays in government.
Well, I feel bad for the many honest agents that their leaders’ misbehavior reflects on the whole organization. But it does.
BYRON YORK: Scheming, speculation behind scenes as Democrats push intel memo.
This time last week, there was growing tumult in Washington over the memo produced by House Intelligence Committee Republicans alleging “FISA abuse” in the Trump-Russia investigation. There were dire warnings that the release of the GOP memo would endanger national security, that doing so would be “extraordinarily reckless” without proper FBI and Justice Department review, and that the FBI had “grave concerns” about “material omissions of fact” that would “fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”
The GOP memo survived a starkly partisan process in the Intelligence Committee. Republicans voted unanimously to make it public, while Democrats voted unanimously against making it public. It was released last Friday with President Trump’s approval.
Now, another memo is in the pipeline, this one produced by the committee’s Democratic minority, and things are much quieter.
First, in a sharp contrast to last week, Republicans joined Democrats to vote unanimously to release the Democratic memo. Second, there haven’t been high-profile warnings about endangering national security. And third, there haven’t been alerts that the memo has critical omissions.
All that raises eyebrows among some Republicans on Capitol Hill who have read the Democratic memo. They say it contains much more classified information than the Republican memo did. The GOP paper was written so that it had a minimum of classified information in it, they explain, and indeed, after inspecting it, the FBI asked for just one small change.
The Democratic memo, these Republicans say, is much different. “It’s full of sources and methods,” said one lawmaker, referring to highly classified information. “It includes material that they clearly cannot release,” said another. “It’s nothing but sources and methods,” said a third. “Even to the footnotes.”
The inclusion of all that classified information has Republicans speculating on Democratic strategy. (A Democratic spokesman declined to comment.) One widely held theory is that the memo was intentionally written in a way that the FBI, Justice Department, and White House would have little choice but to recommend extensive redactions.
Well, when Adam Schiff is involved, you know it’s not motivated by truth, or a desire to benefit the United States.
NOW THAT’S A STRONG, INDEPENDENT WOMAN: Woman Arrested For Removing Hijab in Tehran Refuses to Repent Despite Facing 10 Years in Prison.
“Ms. Hosseini did not even appear in court to express remorse for her action. She said she objects to the forced hijab and considers it her legal right to express her protest,” Hosseini’s lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on February 5, 2018.
Hosseini, 32, has been in detention since January 29, 2018. She was unable to pay the $135,000 USD bail set by the judge presiding over her case.
She was arrested on January 29, 2018, for posting a photo on social media of herself standing on a bench holding her white headscarf like a flag on Tehran’s Revolution’s Street.
All women in Iran are required to cover their hair and bodies in public.
Vida Movahed was the first woman to be arrested after she did the same thing in late December 2017 in Tehran. The act of removing your headscarf in public and waving it like a flag has become a symbol for the “Girls of Revolution Street” movement, which advocates choice over compulsion for women’s clothing.
“Ms. Hosseini is being held in difficult circumstances in Gharchak Prison [south of Tehran] but she is not prepared to say she is sorry,” Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights lawyer, told CHRI. “She believes she’s innocent.”
She’s right.
WELL, FOR CERTAIN VALUES OF “CLEARED,” ANYWAY: Cleared of Corruption Charges, Robert Menendez Regains Top Foreign Relations Post. Let’s just hope his future foreign relations are above the age of consent.
MEET THE BELIEVERS: The Afghanistan War’s US Commanders are Ready For a Reboot.
“I’m a believer,” said Col. Stephen “Joker” Jones, who flew a Predator drone providing intel to the B-2 stealth bomber strike that hit this very airfield on Oct. 7, 2001 at the beginning of the war, then later flew B-1 Lancer missions over Afghanistan, and is now back to flying drones. “This country has defined my career. This is what I’ve done with my entire adult life,” Jones told reporters visiting the airfield with Gen. Votel. “I’m here for a year. I fully expect to come back. And that’s totally fine with me.”
Joker’s serious. And eager. He sits at the deployed end of a string of officers with the same faith, a string that runs back through Kabul, Votel’s CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s Pentagon suite, and all the way to the Oval Office. All are convinced that President Donald Trump’s new “South Asia strategy” can work.
Here’s why: Up to now, as senior U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan see things, they’ve never really had the chance to win. As they see it, past years have brought only fits and starts on the battlefield and in the Situation Room, troop surges that won hard-fought gains and drawdowns that gave them up again, early overestimations of Afghan capabilities and more recent failures to build on successes. But now, they say, they have the strongest and most capable Afghan force they’ve worked with, led by a combat-seasoned generation of Afghan senior officers and NCOs. And they say that Trump’s plan gives them permission to wage a sustained, offensive air and ground campaign against what’s left of the Taliban. Afghanistan, they believe, finally has a chance to win.
The change in attitude is best explained by four words further down in the report: “The leash is off.”
SALENA ZITO: There aren’t two Americas. There are hundreds. Can they get along?
We are parochial by birth; we love our neighborhoods and towns, our sports teams and our schools, as well as churches, county fairs, local music, and parish festivals.
No matter what the subject is, we brag ours is better than yours, maybe put on our team jersey’s and crow about it, but for the most part it is all done in good nature. We find a way to come together on some cultural touchtone and we continue on with our lives.
“It is a shame that politics cannot adopt that same robust competitive nature, that doesn’t end with a conniption,” said one building manager, after watching the State of the Union address last week.
“You know, disagree on some things, but show a little respect when it comes to other things,” he said.
He was adamant in not wanting to give his real name. “Just use ‘Derek,'” he says shaking his head, “because I see what happens on social media if you express a thought.”
“Yeah, no thank you,” he quipped. He is part of the fabric of the country who doesn’t live and die by tribal politics.
Derek, who is African-American, said he was disappointed last week in the members of Congress when they sat on their hands during the State of the Union address on several fronts. “And what was going on there when the president noted the dive in black unemployment, and they all sat on their hands and rolled their eyes?”
“Man, I don’t get Washington. I didn’t vote for Trump, but I accepted him as the president and honestly, under his policies, I have more money in paycheck,” he said.
Read the whole thing.
THEY WERE ONLY FOLLOWING SALES ORDERS: Germany Sold Technology to Iran for Use in Syrian Chemical Attacks.
Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control approved a license for a company to sell military applicable technology to Iranian companies that subsequently was used in Syrian regime chemical weapons attacks, reported the German publication Bild on Monday.
The German company Krempel, located near the southern city of Stuttgart, sold electronic press boards to Iranian companies that were used in the production of rockets.
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2017 that multiple German intelligence reports revealed that Iran sought chemical and biological weapon technology in the federal republic.
The research of the human rights group, Syrians for Truth and Justice, Bild and the online investigative journalist website Bellingcat, showed photographs of the rocket remains with the company logo of Krempel and the product signature: “Made in Germany.”
I am so done getting lectured by our “betters” in Europe.
IRA STOLL: A Tale of Two Memos: Mulvaney, Nunes Missives Both Press Rule of Law. “In the end the Nunes Memo and the Mulvaney Memo both get at a similar theme — that government officials, whether FBI agents or consumer financial protection bureaucrats, need to follow the law, and that the law should be known in advance and applied impartially. More than 300 years after Locke’s Second Treatise, you’d think this would not be such an intensely controversial point. Perhaps Professor Epstein was right when he called it wishful thinking. Good for Mr. Mulvaney, though, for giving it a try.”
MARK HEMINGWAY: The Other Secret Dossier.
Last week, the Guardian reported the FBI is looking at a second Trump “dossier,” in addition to the one compiled by former British spook Christopher Steele at the behest of the Clinton campaign. The second dossier is allegedly compiled by Cody Shearer. “One source with knowledge of the inquiry said the fact the FBI was still working on [the ‘Shearer dossier’] suggested investigators had taken an aspect of it seriously,” notes the Guardian. “It raises the possibility that parts of the Steele dossier, which has been derided by Trump’s supporters, may have been corroborated by Shearer’s research, or could still be.”
The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand is now confirming that a “memo” written by Shearer does exist and she has personally reviewed it. It contains a “a range of allegations concerning the president’s personal behavior and financial transactions.” She does not specify what those allegations are. Bertrand further reports that Jonathan Winer, the Obama State Department’s special envoy to Libya, and former John Kerry aide, was the go-between for Shearer and Steele while he was working at the State Department.
Additionally, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley released a heavily redacted version of the letter making a criminal referral against the author of the original dossier, Christopher Steele. The letter references a “contact” and “friend of the Clintons . . . contemporaneously feeding Steele allegations” about Trump. It is widely assumed that the contact in question is Cody Shearer. THE WEEKLY STANDARD has reached out to Grassley for comment and has received no response.
However, it’s worth noting that Shearer is one of the most disreputable characters in Washington, and has been frequently connected to the most scandalous acts of the Clintons’ political careers. If Steele passed on information and/or allegations from Shearer to the FBI, and that information was acted on, it raises serious concerns about the impartiality and judgment of Steele and the FBI.
Indeed.
The Clintonistas play hardball, and to them the 2016 election ain’t over yet.
WELL, GOOD. MAYBE. Senate leaders say they’re zeroing in on two-year budget deal. “The deal would set spending levels for fiscal 2018 and 2019 and avoid the prospect of a second government shutdown Thursday when a stopgap spending measure expires.”
Of course a “bipartisan budget deal” probably just means “more spending for everyone!”
February 6, 2018
TROLL LEVEL: POTUS. Trump’s Parade: Greatest Troll Ever?
SO I THINK THIS MEANS THAT RUSH LIMBAUGH IS the 21st Century Kingsfield or something.
HERE’S TONIGHT’S OPEN THREAD. Talk about whatever interests you. Was there any news today?
KYLE SMITH: Feminists Seize the Moment for Sisterly Revenge. And Katie Roiphe gets bashed for documenting the reaction of women who see and disapprove of the overreaction. “It’s hard to escape a sense that feminists see the moment as one of sisterly revenge against men in general. Big-eyed Timmy didn’t call or even text you after that drunken hookup junior year? Well, you can’t do anything about that but you can delight in the fall of Lorin Stein, the Paris Review editor who apparently lost his job for no reason other than having had affairs with willing staffers and whose career now looks like the equivalent of a hapless business that got burned down because it happened to be located in a riot zone.”
TAMARA KEEL: The Pros and Cons of Carrying a 1911.
“Jimmy, why won’t you let this Latina for Trump speak? You keep interrupting her. Is it because she has darker skin than you?”
With that, Kimmel completely lost it and shouted at me: “Shut up, you a—hole!”
Read the whole thing.
BETTER THERE THAN MY BEDROOM FLOOR: Spider-like Creature With a Scorpion’s Tail Found Trapped in Amber.
STATING THE OBVIOUS: It doesn’t appear that the Girl Scouts offer a badge for enterprise, but if they did, this young lady deserves one. According to CNBC:
The San Diego Girl Scout council is looking into whether a scout who was photographed selling cookies outside a marijuana dispensary broke any rules […] Urbn Leaf founder Will Senn said the girl was with her parents and was just passing by with her wagon. He said he likes to support local fundraising efforts. “Cannabis is now legal in California and a direct result of that is the munchies a lot of times,” he joked.