We have been following the controversy surrounding the outrageous conduct of University of Missouri Mass communications professor Melissa Click attacking the media covering a “Black Lives Matter” protest.” She has now been charged with third-degree assault — an offense that is criminal but likely to result in only a fine.
Continue reading “University of Missouri Communications Professor To Be Charged With Assault”
We have been reporting on the protests occurring on college campuses and the troubling demands sometimes made by the “Black Lives Matter” movement in terms of academic components and programs, including college newspapers. Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov finally had enough after receiving a list of rambling demands from black students — demands declared to be nonnegotiable for the Administration. Krislov correctly refused to concede core control over the academic mission and yield to such demands which included things like the firing of certain employees and enrolling recently released prisoners.
Continue reading “Oberlin President Rejects List of Rambling Demands From Black Students”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
An open letter to Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
President Putin,
As you are certainly aware, a great controversy is roiling here in the United States where a former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, maintained, diverted, and in some cases destroyed official email correspondence associated with her duties. She hosted these records on a personal home-brew email server maintained under her control. We are encountering difficulty obtaining these records and we ask for your assistance.
Continue reading “Mr. Putin, Please Release Hillary Clinton’s Email”
There is another surprising report out today on the Clinton email scandal. Fox News Reporter Catherine Herridge is reporting that at least one of the emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server contained extremely sensitive information identified as “HCS-O,” the code used for reporting on human intelligence sources in ongoing operations. We previously discussed the disclosure that emails had been identified with Special Access Program information that even the Inspector General could not review without added clearances. In the meantime, some in the Clinton camp may be singing “Let It Snow, Let It Snow.” The State Department is citing the winter storm for yet another delay in releasing the remaining emails — possibly pushing their release past the first primary contests. Any break would likely be welcomed, particularly after a growing number of people including Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have said that Clinton’s decision to use an unsecure private email system probably resulted in the emails being hacked by various hostile powers.
Continue reading “Report: Clinton Emails Contained Human Intelligence Classified At Highest Levels”
We have previously discussed the wacky views of Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh like declaring that Twitter is “the source of all evil and devastation.” Now the grand mufti has ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam even though Arabs helped spread chess around the world after conquering Persia in the Seventh Century. Yet, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s supreme Shia religious authority, has previously issued rulings forbidding chess. Likewise, after the 1979 revolution in Iran, chess was declared haram, or forbidden.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Declares Chess UnIslamic”
Fox News and NBC are reporting that Congress has been informed that Hillary Clinton’s unsecure home server contained information classified at levels higher than previously known, including classified Top Secret/Special Access. That would represent some of the most sensitive information to U.S. intelligence. I have held a TSSCI clearance since the Reagan Administration and I am again astonished by the remarkably bad judgment in the use of this server. In dealing with this type of information, it is generally restricted to SCIF and other highly restrictive access rules. Indeed, the limitations impose restrictions that have many of us grumbling constantly about the time and travel needed to deal with such documents in a safe and secure manner. CNN is reporting that “several dozen” new emails have been identified at the high classification level.
In a major victory for Congress, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman rejected the executive privilege claims of the Obama Administration in withholding documents from a House Committee looking into the Fast and Furious “gun-walking” scandal. I have long maintained that the refusal of the Administration to turn over material to this and other committees is denial of congressional authority protected under Article I. The case is Comm. on Oversight & Gov’t Reform v. Lynch, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5713.
Iran’s idea of an election has always been something of a curiosity. No more so than this week. The Guardian Council, an unelected group composed of Muslim clerics and hardliners, disqualified all but 30 of the 3,000 reform candidates seeking to appear on ballots for the parliamentary elections. Six of the 12 members of the Council are clerics selected by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Continue reading “Iranian Council Disqualifies Virtually All Reformers From Running For Office”
We have another study indicating the rapidly worsening situation due to global climate change. A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that the amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997. That absorption is much higher than anticipated and portends greater threats to ocean life as well as the continuing worsening of intense storms.
Continue reading “Study: Rate of Heat Absorption Of Oceans Has Doubled Since 1997”
For months, critics and candidates have been publicly denouncing what they view as open favoritism of the Democratic National Committee (and particularly DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz) toward Hillary Clinton. Even DNC members have objected to the role of the DNC and the view that it is trying to guarantee that Clinton is the nominee. One of the most commonly cited (and commonly accepted) examples are the small number of debates scheduled by the DNC at hours that guarantee the least exposure for Clinton. That criticism is likely to become deafening this Sunday when the key debate before the Iowa caucus will be scheduled not only on a Sunday night but in direct conflict with the NFL playoffs and the new episode of Downton Abbey. Our house is a typical example of the obvious dilemma. My wife is a Downton Abbey fan and, as you know, I am a football fan. The result? The debate might as well have been held by the DNC on Mars. It is a schedule that only Max Bialystock could truly love. [Update: despite virtual universal derision over the scheduling of the debates, Wasserman Schultz went public today and claimed that the schedule was actually designed to “maximize” exposure. This type of statement only magnifies the view that party leaders and some politicians have such a low opinion of voters that it borders on open contempt. How would scheduling a debate on a Sunday night in conflict with two of the biggest television draws maximize viewership — putting aside the refusal to allow more debates as demanded by two of the three candidates and many voters? Indeed, if she was implausibly trying for the largest audience, she is grossly negligent as the low ratings have proven.]
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I thought I would take a break from the legal discussions and move to something just as important–actually more so: the healthy diet.
Over the years I have come to appreciate this diet with its numerous aspects that can help not only your own well being, but it actually can contribute toward more sustainable agribusiness model.
I found that it is mostly a waste of money to subscribe to or purchase various diets that are mass marketed. This method I follow eliminates that requirement and the food actually tastes better in many ways.
So, I offer you another choice, and free of any program costs or subscriptions.
In another disturbing example of the abuses that occur in the absence of church (or mosque) and state separation, Pakistani lawmakers have yielded to the demand of Islamic clerics and killed a law that would have imposed real penalties for those who arrange forced child marriages, including raising the legal age of marriages. Clerics denounced the law as “blasphemous” and against Islam.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian rule is again evident this week with the rounding up of dozens of professors for simply signing a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in the south-east of the country. The signatories of the petition included famous linguist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. Erdoğan responded angrily to the letter, which was denounced as “terror propaganda” and he called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery. Supporters of Erdoğan and nationalist students have been intimidating academics by marking their doors and threatening professors who signed the petition calling for peace.
As the Taliban probes the strength of Afghan forces, they are finding it an easier task than anticipated with a sizable number of the Afghan force constituted of “ghost soldiers.” As much as half of the soldiers in frontline positions are missing. We previously discussed the same problem of “ghost soldiers” in Iraq who are paid soldiers but only exist on paper as part of the widespread corruption of that country. The Taliban are finding forward positions with only half of the troops claimed on paper. Something tells me that these same Afghan officers and officials will claim that, while the real soldiers perished at their under-manned outposts, their “ghost soldiers” somehow miraculously survived and will continue to fight . . . and draw pay.
A new poll shows that the number of citizens who identify with the Democratic or the Republican parties are at a near all time low. Only 29 percent of respondents in a Gallup survey identify as Democrats (the lowest point in 27 years). Only 26 percent defined themselves as Republicans in 2015. Thus, while the number of Americans in either party has fallen to near all-time lows, there remains virtually no choice other than those selected by the two parties as leaders. Another surprising poll, however, says that 20 percent of Democrats might support Trump in the general. Some 14 percent of Republicans said that they might support Clinton in the general election.
Continue reading “Number of Americans Associated With Either Party At Near Historic Lows”
