The Double Standards of the Mueller Investigation

The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers.

This column by Mr. Hanson is linked to elsewhere in the  Tunnel Wall. We feel it is a strong enough commentary on leftist journalism and leftist politics that it should stand alone. TD

Victor Davis Hanson  "The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck.

"In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump’s campaign team might have done wrong in 2016.. . . 

"If so, then the DOJ will have to look at Comey himself and DOJ officials who obstructed a federal court. On at least four occasions, they were not honest about the deeply flawed Christopher Steele dossier being the source of information used in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"Comey also has said that he predicated the nature of the Clinton email investigation on his assumptions about her chances of winning the presidency — another investigatory abuse.

"The Mueller team is reportedly still looking into the possibility of election-cycle collusion with Russia by Trump officials.

"That track will require Mueller’s DOJ counterparts to look carefully at the Clinton campaign, which paid opposition researcher Steele, a British subject, for dirt on Trump that was produced through collusion with Russian sources.

"Mueller is also said to be investigating whether Trump or his advisers broke laws concerning the release of confidential government information.

"If so, the DOJ may have to indict Comey. He confessed to passing along confidential FBI memos to a friend for the expressed purpose of leaking their contents to the press.

"High-ranking Obama administration officials may also be subject to indictments, given that they may have requested the “unmasking” of American citizens whose communications were intercepted during the surveillance of foreign parties and then leaked the names of those citizens to the press.

"Mueller’s team apparently has assumed that Michael Cohen’s status as Trump’s attorney offers no protections under normal attorney-client privilege protocols.". . . 

Politics have infected these investigations. Trump was seen as a threat to the status quo, and FBI and DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of it.The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mueller’s investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Comey, McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one.A reckoning is near.

Highlights and cropping by TD 

Donald Trump and the Star Chamber of Horrors

What's a star chamber"? . . . "it became synonymous with social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the power it wielded."

By Michael Walsh  "Fifteen months into his administration, Donald Trump remains the object of a dedicated attempt by the Democratic Party, the media, NeverTrump Republicans, and rogue members of the deep state to take him down. From the night he was elected, lifelong members of the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party and the embedded bureaucracy have refused to accept the results of a national election, and have instead waged a campaign of “lawfare” against a man they consider an interloper—a situation unique in the annals of American democracy.

"From Hillary Clinton to James Comey to Robert Mueller to Stormy Daniels, to various minor federal judges, to CNN and MSNBC, the list of Trump’s enemies continues to grow.

"Their tactics are breathtakingly simple—and amazingly brazen. As the past year-plus of Robert Mueller’s tedious investigation has proven, there is no very great crime behind Trump’s very great fortune of having been elected the 45th president of the United States. The entire notion of Russian “collusion” (not in itself actionable in the first place) was cooked up in the witches’ cauldron that was Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The resulting brew was liberally dispensed to the cadres of media operatives pretending to be dispassionate reporters in order to assuage the failed candidate’s rage over losing what she thought—what she was assuredby her friends at the CIA and the FBI—was a fixed fight.

"And so the Big Lie—that Trump had collaborated with Vladimir Putin to change the course of an American election—was born." . . .

The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers.  . . . "By charging former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, Mueller emphasized that even the appearance of false testimony is felonious behavior.

"If that is so, then the DOJ will probably have to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe with perjury or related offenses. A report from the Office of the Inspector General indicates that McCabe lied at least four times to federal investigators." . . .

"Mueller has searched far and wide for wrongdoing but so far has found little. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other wrongdoing already found, but no one seems to be looking at it.

"Flynn, Cohen, and other Trump aides are considered small enough fry to go after. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, and others seem big enough fry to leave alone."

Dr. Ronny Jackson Withdraws as VA Secretary Nominee (Updated)

Legal Insurrection

Jackson described the allegations against him as “false and fabricated.”

Peter Baker

✔@peterbakernyt

White House @PressSec says Dr. Jackson remains on duty as White House physician, at least today. "Admiral Jackson is a doctor in the United States Navy assigned to the White House and is here at work today,” she says in statement.

. . . "On Wednesday, The New York Times published an article that contained a summary of allegations against Jackson from 23 former and current colleagues. What got me is that these stem back to 2006 and yet former President Barack Obama and Trump kept him as White House physician:" . . .

Trump warns Senate Democrat will 'have a big price to pay' for disclosing Ronny Jackson allegations

But the amazing thing about this smear campaign against Jackson is the ease with which unsubtantiated allegations are gaining traction.  . . . "The Democrats are using Jackson as a whipping boy because they believe he favors a form of VA privatization, as some in the administration have proposed. He will probably drop out before long, a victim of the partisan times in which we live. "

Happy Hayride

Dr. Ronny Jackson and the Curious Case of Sudden Journalism

American Spectator  "There were any number of news stories that one could have been paying attention to on April 25, 2018. The most entertaining was Kanye West’s brilliant trolling of every liberal breathing.
"French President Emmanuel Macron addressed a joint session of Congress, which must have thrilled the Democrats on Capitol Hill, as every one of them is a raging Francophile.
"The story that the mainstream media seemed most interested in, however, involved Navy Admiral Ronny Jackson, the president’s personal physician and nominee to head the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Few had heard of Adm. Jackson until he shared the results of President Trump’s first physical in office. Jackson didn’t just appear on the Washington scene when Trump did though, he was President Obama’s doctor for almost three and a half years.
"No one was interested in Jackson for several years, but now that Trump wants him to have higher profile job the “journalism” knives are out and wrecking him has become a media priority:" . . .

Amber Athey‏Verified account 

CNN is covering the Ronny Jackson allegations over French President Macron's live address to a joint session of Congress.. . .

. . . "The allegations are so damning and overwhelming that even a casual observer could be prompted to ask, “Why now?”"Adm. Jackson has been a high ranking Naval officer and physician for quite a number of years — surely some of this should have come to light before now. Maybe say… when he was named the personal physician to the most powerful man on Earth and given a full time office the White House."It’s understandable that the Veterans Affairs Committee would dig into Jackson’s background now. However, it is mind-boggling that the litany of grievances wouldn’t appear until they did so."Not everyone close to the situation is buying the “charges”: . . .

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino had this defense of Admiral Jackson. See his video at the link:

"This is a book of trips I took in the Secret Service, where I ran that show and Ronny Jackson was the doctor on that trip for the president. I didn't hear a peep from you fake, phony cowards. You sicko animals...This man was a gentlemen. This man was a patriot." —@dbongino

Warning: Reading this post is known to the State of California to cause. . .

Image by The Earl of Taint. Via American Thinker

What does warning label from California really mean?  . . . "Many consumers have seen a label that says, "This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer." Just how much danger, if any, does the product pose?

"Sheryn Daugherty was quite pleased with her new pair of hiking pants until she read the label saying they contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects.

" 'I instantly thought well, why would this even be on the market?" she said.

Daugherty bought the pants in Utah. Why would the state of California have anything to say about what material is used?

" 'One of my friends just joked and said, 'Don't wear them in California and you're good,'" Daugherty said.

"She asked why California apparently is the only state that requires this sort of warning. If a product is dangerous there it's dangerous everywhere, right?

"The warning stems from California's ballot initiative, Proposition 65, passed back in 1986. It requires anyone who manufactures or distributes a product sold in California that contains a material on a list of some 800 chemicals to include a warning label.

"We put her question to Steven Christiansen, an attorney who was practicing environmental law in California when Prop. 65 passed.

" 'They have the authority to impose a fine up to $2,500 per day for violations," he said." . . .

US judge blocks weed-killer warning label in California  . . . "Glyphosate is not restricted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has been widely used since 1974 to kill weeds while leaving crops and other plants alive." . . .

What does California know that you don’t?  If you wanted to crusade against something without actually doing anything, just propose putting warning labels on stuff. How about one at the San Francisco city limits warning the sidewalks and alleys are known to contain hazardous medical waste? TD

California could require cancer warning labels on coffee at Starbucks, other retailers  . . . "Although the case has been percolating in the courts since 2010, it has gotten little attention." . . .

20 Ridiculously Stupid Warning Labels! Silly breeds silly and these labels are stupid because of the idiotic tort laws in this nation.

1.Teddy Kennedy's Surprise for Grandma. 2.First Mary Jo Kopechne, Then America.

"I've left a victim to drown! What do I do?"
"Alibi....alibi..."

Ann Coulter  "This week, we'll cover one of the little-
noticed ways mass Third World immigration is making our country more colorful: elder rape.

" Usually the vibrant cultural diversity that immigrants bring runs more along the lines of child rape, drunk driving and food stamp fraud. But our official government policy of importing the Third World also means we're going to have a lot more elder rape, too.

"Thank you, Teddy Kennedy! Something for the seniors.

"I was recently reminded of this aspect of diversity because, a few days ago, jury selection began in the trial of illegal alien Victor Aureliano Martinez Ramirez and anchor baby Jose Fernando Villagomez for the rape, torture and murder of 64-year-old Marilyn Pharis.

"Pharis was attacked in 2015, just a few weeks after Kate Steinle was killed by an illegal in San Francisco -- a wondrous moment in time when Donald Trump wanted to deport illegals, rather than call them "Dreamers" and give them amnesty.

Breitbart

"Like Steinle's killer, Martinez Ramirez had a lengthy and impressive arrest record in this country, including felony assault with intent to commit sexual assault. A week before his violent home invasion, he was released from jail on drug and weapons charges.

"We don't know the details of the recent attack because the perps have VIP status, requiring the utmost discretion from our media. But based on what is known, the crime sounds pretty gruesome.

"Pharis was attacked at 10 in the morning, at home, sleeping in her own bed, after working a night shift at Vandenberg Air Force Base. According to the dry legal charges and hospital report, she was penetrated with a "foreign object" and beaten with a hammer, leaving her with a broken neck and broken eye sockets. Pharis survived, managed to call the police and was taken to a hospital, where she died eight days later. " . . .

First Mary Jo Kopechne, Then America

. . . Liberals couldn't convince Americans to agree with them, but they happened to notice that the people of most other countries in the world already agreed with them. So Sen. Ted Kennedy's immigration act brought in millions of poverty-stricken foreigners to live off the American taxpayer and bloc-vote for the Democrats. . . . .

"The rapist promised the judge to "stay out of trouble and stay away from people who would put trouble in my way." Like 74-year-old hussies in wheelchairs -- that's trouble with a capital T! Melted by his words, Judge [Christylee] Peck sentenced Doukoure to the 16 months he'd already spent in county lockup, awaiting trial, so he was released immediately and is now well on his way to taking Joy Reid's job at MSNBC."

How can the American citizen voter have anything but contempt for Democrats?

Any good emails lately, Hillary?

‘We’re going to make them own her’: Hillary to become RNC’s weapon for midterm battle  "Hillary Clinton is going to have a leading role in the Republican Party’s 2018 midterm strategy.
"The failed Democratic presidential nominee, whose own party wishes she would return to her home in the woods for a while, doesn’t appear to be going away. And the GOP is betting on that fact to score some major wins in the coming months."
"Republicans hope to use Clinton’s refusal to disappear to their advantage, forcing Democrats to be associated with their failed nominee at every turn." . . .

“If Bill Nelson had his way, Hillary Clinton would be president,” the ad stated. “Florida won’t forget.”

EXCLUSIVE: Hillary’s Deleted Emails Have Been Found, Court Orders Them RELEASED  "WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails will be released to the public in September 2018, in accordance with a court ruling pertaining to the contents of Clinton’s “backup” email device.

"It turns out that fired FBI director James Comey had Hillary Clinton’s definitive backup email device the entire election and never searched it.

"Thanks to the work citizen researcher Larry Kawa, the coverage of Big League Politics, the determined congressional work of Rep. Ron DeSantis, and the lawyers of Tom Fitton’s Judicial Watch, a court ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss orders the State Department to hand over the contents of the backup device by September 2018, right before the midterm elections." . . .

Hat tip to Chris Salcedo, WBAP Dallas

James Comey Had Hillary’s Backup Email Device The Whole Time

Cartoon added TD

. . . “ 'I don’t know what it suggests. The State Department now has it. We know that the State Department has not gone through it. Five disks of information. It may have been six, the number changed,” Bekesha said. “They said there are thousands of records on whatever was turned over from the Datto device and eventually they will get around to reviewing those records and getting them to us in response to our FOIA.”

“ 'Until the State Department releases the information, we will not know: what was on there that Hillary Clinton did not turn over? What did Huma Abedin not turn over? Are there emails from Chelsea Clinton on the server?,” Bekesha said. Judicial Watch continues to find new Hillary Clinton emails on a regular basis.

"Citizen researcher Larry Kawa, who brought the case to Judicial Watch, told Big League Politics that the device contains “everything.' ” . . .

Hillary Clinton's beaten wives of the press

Any questions as to why the public, which should be the press's top priority instead of Hillary, no longer trusts the press?

Monica Showalter  "Any cop can tell you the scenario: wife-beater beats up wife, bruised up wife calls the cops, cops come over, and then wife decides she really loves her abusive husband and turns on the cops instead of the wife-beater, refusing to press charges, wasting the cops' time.  Pathetic co-dependency works like this, and some states have actually made it a crime to back off from pressing charges and refusing to cooperate in the prosecution of obvious abusers.

. . . "Then there's Hillary Clinton and her adoring co-dependent press, the relationship of whom was amply described by Amy Chozick in her fawning, unintentionally interesting new book, Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling." . . .

Buy tickets for Hillary's upcoming tour appearances  "View the Hillary Clinton 2018 2019 schedule, stay up-to-date on the latest Hillary Clinton tour information, browse and buy tickets! Front Row Tickets.com has tickets to all Hillary Clinton events.

"All Events by Date

"There are no tickets available for Hillary Clinton at this time. Please enter your contact information below and the Front Row Tickets team will contact you as soon as Hillary Clinton tickets become available."

No trace here of the cost per ticket or if there is a female discount. TD

2017: VIP TICKETS FOR HILLARY CLINTON'S BOOK TOUR COST OVER $2,000  Those who wish[ed] to attend Clinton's book tour appearances will apparently have to dish out a fair amount of money. 

Hillary Clinton Schedule and Appearances   She even sells out Down Under!
216-419 NZ dollars + .71 US dollar currently

Maybe you'll get to ask a question like this. Naaaa:

You clearly corrupted our national security’ – US veteran to Hillary Clinton

Mass shooters and madness

Personal Liberty

. . . "In order to open fire in the Waffle House, Reinking strolled past multiple laws, multiple law enforcement officers and a parent/guardian who obviously wavered between “disinterested” and “criminally negligent.” Two agencies of the Federal government had him, on at least one occasion, within shooting distance of the Oval Office. The locals in the Land of Lincoln, where gun laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, handed Travis’s weapons back to his old man, who handed them back to his son.

"An individual known to be not only mentally ill, but violently so, strolled past every roadblock — short of outright national confiscation — we’ve been told to believe will stop horrors like the one which unfolded near Nashville. And for those of you who might respond by saying nationwide confiscation is the answer, I would point you east. Good luck telling the victims of the Bataclan theater massacre that they’re not dead, not to mention the hundreds of victims of monsters who reacted to gun bans by arming up with blades, bombs and box trucks to slaughter their victims.

"Just like the attacks in Parkland, Charleston, Aurora and Columbine, the legal apparatus in place to keep guys like Travis Reinking, Dylann Roof, James Holmes, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold from unleashing their inner demons on the rest of us failed at every level." . . .

"How to Avoid Road Kill and Reduce Psychic Pain"; Prof. Mike Adams stirs the pot yet again

In addition to claiming an absence of pain for the unborn, Parker invokes the concept of pain in order to justify abortion as a positive good. He does this by referring to the procedure as a “palliative solution to psychic pain.” By that, Parker means that abortion is often a source of stress relief for a pregnant woman." . 

Mike Adams  "Abortionist Willie Parker has a difficult time deciding what gives human beings value. He claims that his judgments are grounded in facts. But he justifies performing second trimester abortions by citing the “medical truth” that “Before twenty two weeks, a fetus is not in any way equal to ‘a baby’ or ‘a child.’ It cannot survive outside the uterus because it cannot breathe – not even on a respirator. It cannot form anything like thoughts.” That statement may be grounded in medical truth. But it is also grounded in bad philosophy.

"For most people, the first impulse upon reading such a statement is to explore the specific implications of killing innocent human beings simply because they are unable to survive on their own. But such an exploration is unnecessary, given that Willie Parker actually performs abortions beyond the twenty-two week mark. That is why Parker continues to search for other ways to distinguish between being human in a biological sense, and being a person in a philosophical sense. This leads him to try to identify some characteristic or function that begins to appear after the 25- week mark, beyond which Parker says he will not perform an abortion.

"Parker makes the claim that up until 29 weeks there is a scientific consensus that the unborn “cannot feel anything like pain.” Thus, he advances the idea that physically assaulting an innocent human being is justifiable provided that the victim cannot feel any assault taking place. It is worth noting that many rapists drug their victims and commit sexual assault only after she has passed out and is thus unable to feel anything. Surely, we would never accept “no pain, no crime” as a legitimate defense in a court of law. Nor should we accept it in the court of public opinion." . . .   … To be continued.

So does the fetus, in fact, feel pain? A growing body of evidence says yes. The fetus is known to have pain receptors throughout the body by 8 weeks of gestation

Animation shows for first time how Nikolas Cruz carried out Parkland school massacre

Chicago Tribune  "As gunman Nikolas Cruz skulked through Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, a person’s chances of surviving depended largely on where they encountered him.

"One student who came across him on the first floor got away as Cruz loaded his weapon, according to a chilling animation released Tuesday. And all students on the second floor survived. But students and staff on the first and third floors were at Cruz’s mercy, the animation shows.

"The rudimentary video, made by investigators from the Broward Sheriff’s Office, provides the first official account of Cruz’s movements during approximately six minutes and 45 seconds he spent inside the school building. It was played at Tuesday’s first meeting of the state-appointed commission investigating “system failures” related to the Parkland school mass shooting.

"The animation shows Cruz — as a black dot with a line representing the AR-15 rifle he carried — methodically stalking through the building and shooting his victims — students are shown as green dots and school staff as blue dots. As bullets strike each person, the color of the dot that represents them changes to purple for the dead and yellow for the injured." . . .

Timeline of the shooter's actions 

"Gunman Nikolas Cruz prowled the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for six horrible minutes – a flash of terror where life and death became a matter of chance. Interviews, police reports, audio recordings and other records provide 2:19 p.m.
"It is a half hour before roughly 3,500 students and staff are set to stream out of their high school in Parkland. Love and thoughts of dates with sweethearts fill their heads this Valentine’s Day as the clock slowly ticked toward dismissal.

Court rules against Trump's DACA pause

Rich Terrell

Federal judge orders resumption of DACA after 90 day delay  . . . "Trump is not going to win this battle in the federal courts. Only at the Supreme Court will he have a chance. Even there, his immigration rulings have an uncertain future, given some of the straws in the wind we've seen from Judge Gorsuch."

Third judge rules against Trump move to end DACA
. . . "Trump announced in September that he planned to phase out the program, allowing renewals through March 5 of this year but then refusing to issue new permits. The arrangement would have resulted in about 700,000 people having their work permits and quasi-legal status expire over a two-year period. 
"The administration said the move was necessary to head off a lawsuit threatened by conservative state attorneys general who managed to block an expansion of the program under President Barack Obama. Bates, however, made clear on Tuesday that he did not find that to be a credible reason for the wind-down of DACA."