What's with the leftward political movement of the NFL? UPDATED

Kaepernick named finalist for NFL Players Association 'Community MVP' award

"NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been named a finalist for an award honoring players for their community service work.

"Kaepernick and four other players were announced as finalists for the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) Byron “Whizzer” White Community MVP award, according to NBC Sports.

"The free agent quarterback pledged $1 million to various charitable organizations during the 2016 season. He won the NFLPA’s “Community MVP” award during Week 1 of the 2017 season after donating $100,000 to four charities and holding a back-to-school backpack giveaway in New York City." . . .

NFL rejects military veterans' 'Please Stand' Super Bowl program ad
"The military group American Veterans (AMVETS) says the NFL has rejected its full-page Super Bowl program ad that contained the hashtag "#PleaseStand." The ad, with the picture a color guard holding the American flag, also included a call to donate $20 to AMVETS.

"The ad jumps right into the controversy surrounding NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem, originally stoked by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick prior to last season and recharged after inflammatory comments by President Donald Trump last September.

"In a letter sent to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday, AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk wrote that "freedom of speech works both ways." Polk goes on to say, "We respect the rights of those who choose to protest," but "imposing corporate censorship to deny those same rights to those veterans who have secured it for all is reprehensible.' " . . .

UPDATE: NFL Remains Kneeling: Are They Afraid To Show Veterans Respect?  . . . "But Goodell and company still seem to be behaving as if they have more to lose by running afoul of Kapernick’s camp, which includes the player’s union and the vast left-wing media sphere, than they do the fan base and the people they count on to buy tickets to the games." . . .

Beyoncé Bashes Cops in Half-Time Show After Getting Police Escort to the Game  

 "Beyoncé performed a tribute to the militant Black Panthers Party during Sunday evening’s halftime show at Super Bowl 50 that some, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, called a blatant attack on law enforcement. But the pop star might have been late to the performance if she hadn’t received a highway-clearing police escort to deliver her to Levi’s Stadium on time." . . . The video.

Clinton–Obama Emails: The Key to Understanding Why Hillary Wasn’t Indicted

Andrew C. McCarthy

"New FBI texts highlight a motive to conceal the president’s involvement."

Can we assume Obama is checking to see if the cameras are on him?

 Obama, using a pseudonymous email account, had repeatedly communicated with Secretary Clinton over her private, non-secure email account. 

"These emails must have involved some classified information, given the nature of consultations between presidents and secretaries of state,  . . .  and the fact that the Obama administration adamantly refused to disclose the Clinton–Obama emails. If classified information was mishandled, it was necessarily mishandled on both ends of these email exchanges.

"If Clinton had been charged, Obama’s culpable involvement would have been patent. In any prosecution of Clinton, the Clinton–Obama emails would have been in the spotlight. For the prosecution, they would be more proof of willful (or, if you prefer, grossly negligent) mishandling of intelligence. More significantly, for Clinton’s defense, they would show that Obama was complicit in Clinton’s conduct yet faced no criminal charges. 

"That is why such an indictment of Hillary Clinton was never going to happen. The latest jaw-dropping disclosures of text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, illustrate this point." . . .

 Read more.


The Final Year Reveals the Obama Administration’s Naïvety and Arrogance

. . . "So The Final Year is about the Obama Doctrine, also known as hashtag diplomacy, also known as leading from behind, also known as voting “present” — also known as hands-off. That a lot of people can get killed while you’re wringing them is the movie’s unintended lesson. Summing up, I give you none other than Samantha “Soft” Power herself, who near the end of the doc says in a moment of sudden clarity: “My world is a world where you have 65 million displaced. Yemen and Syria and Iraq, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, Central African Republic, Burundi, South Sudan, Darfur, you know, the list, Afghanistan, of course, Venezuela imploding . . . There are concerns about terrorism and there is a fear of the other and . . . all the trendlines — on democracy, right now, at least — are going in the wrong direction.”

"If only she or her friends had held positions of authority, maybe they could have done something about some of that."

Democrats’ DACA blink long overdue lesson in humility

The Washington Times

"The Democratic blink on DACA, led by none other than Sen. Chuck Schumer, was a long-time-coming lesson in humility for the left.

"And, it’s one that’s going to end up emboldening President Donald Trump further, much to Democrats’ dismay.

"For years, Democrats have run roughshod over the Republican Party, even at times when the GOP held the majority.

“ 'With State of Union, Obama faces Republican-led Congress for first time,” the Chicago Tribune wrote in January of 2015.

"What a so-what moment that turned out to be for Republicans. It was after that, after all, that Obama was able to ramrod through a nuclear deal with Iran — much to the consternation of Israel — as well as broker, with 196 countries, the economy-destroying Paris Climate Agreement. And Obamacare? No comment needed.

"But Trump has broken the camel’s Democratic back — or at least, bruised it a bit. By standing strong and refusing to cave, he led the party to a not-so-significant win on the government shutdown." . . .

Loretta Lynch – Bill Clinton tarmac meeting now makes sense, it was the end not the beginning

Rich Terrell

Legal Insurrection

A signal to the Clintons that all was good; the FBI had made its exoneration decision, and key investigators believed Lynch was aware.

. . . "The key facts we know now but did not know then are:

1. The tarmac meeting was planned, not spontaneous, as we covered on August 5, 2017, ACLJ: DOJ Document Dump Shows Lynch-Clinton Tarmac Summit Planned, Media Coverup.
2. The conduct of Lynch in trying to conceal details was not consistent with it being an innocent meeting, as we covered on August 7, 2017, Loretta Lynch used alias “Elizabeth Carlisle” to email about Bill Clinton tarmac meeting and August 10, 2017, Why did Loretta Lynch need DOJ Talking Points about a meeting she alone attended?
3. The FBI has tried its best not to produce documents regarding the tarmac meeting, and when it did, those documents focused heavily on how the meeting was discovered, as Judicial Watch reported on November 30, 2017.
4. The FBI decided, sometime by early May 2016, not to charge Hillary. The drafts of the exoneration statement now are public, and show a concerted effort to reword the language to support exoneration. These drafts took place prior to the tarmac meeting and prior to the interview of Hillary on July 4th weekend.
5. Senior FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was part of the team investigating Hillary, was removed from the Mueller investigation of supposed Russia collusion in the summer  of 2016 for sending anti-Trump text messages (though the removal was not disclosed for several months). Strzok was involved in editing and softening the Comey draft exoneration statement.
6. Strzok was having an affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Based on text messages recently released, it appears they believed Hillary would not be charged and suggested Lynch Knew the Outcome of FBI Hillary Probe in Advance.

More posts at the Tunnel Wall

Why isn't Chelsea Manning back in jail? Make that "Chelsea"

Monica Showalter   "Chelsea Manning is thumbing his nose at the law again.  Laws, it seems, are for little people, not publicity hogs who get their name in the news.  Or perhaps, as Obama's pardon taught him, it's quite possible to get away with anything" . . .

. . . "It's also reality, if not formally so, that Manning is out of the Army and will never be welcome within a mile of its bases, given his odiously treasonous behavior. 

"But there's something distinctly disturbing about how this guy thumbs his nose at anything he ever agrees to, such as following Pentagon regulations, which he had to consent to for the position he got that enabled him to abuse that trust.  Such rules, in his fevered mind, are for normal people, not him.  The fact that he keeps breaking the law – and getting away with it – pretty well reinforces that he will just go on doing it and, in the end, diminishing the country.

"He's got to learn limits if there is to be any rule of law at all."