North Korea Says Obama Placing Sanctions On Kim Jong Un Tantamount To Declaring War…

Weasel Zippers

"There can only be one Dear Leader.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says U.S. sanctions on leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials for human rights abuses are tantamount to declaring war.

The country's Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday carried by the official Korean Central News Agency saying the announcement of sanctions on Kim and 10 other officials was "peppered with lies and fabrications."

North Korea has already been sanctioned heavily because of its nuclear weapons program. However, Wednesday's sanctions mark the first time Kim has been personally targeted, and the first time that any North Korean official has been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in connection with reports of rights abuses.

Has Obama finally grown a pair? Or is he hoping to pass this mess on to the next president? I consider this president's character to be that sort.

Rep Trey Gowdy rips into FBI Director James Comey on Hillary Clinton's 'intent'

CNBC  

"A House panel grilled FBI Director James Comey two days after he recommended against prosecuting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for an email server scandal. In the hearing, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy questioned Comey on the definition of intent and how Clinton could possibly evade punishment.

"The exchange grew heated at times, with comments like this one from Gowdy: "You and I both know intent is really difficult to prove. Very rarely do defendants announce 'On this date I intend to break this criminal code section. Just to put everyone on notice, I am going to break the law on this date.'"

"Here's a full transcript of the exchange:

Speaker Ryan Formally Requests That Hillary Clinton Be Denied Classified Briefings During Campaign

PJ Media   "Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence  James Clapper requesting Hillary Clinton be denied classified information and briefings she would receive as the Democratic nominee for president, ABC News is reporting.

" 'There is no legal requirement for your to provide Secretary Clinton with classified information, and it would send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nation's secrets if you choose to provide her access to this information despite the FBI's findings," Ryan wrote in a letter to Clapper obtained by ABC News. "I firmly believe this is necessary to reassure the public that our nation's secrets are secure.' "

Paul Ryan ‏@SpeakerRyan  Jul 5

While I respect the professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law.

Speaker Ryan's tweet:

Green Party hopeful Jill Stein: Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted

Watch Hillary become the radical green candidate.

From Sept 2015:

CNN  "Likely Green Party nominee Jill Stein on Wednesday ridiculed Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, saying in a written statement that "all the elements necessary to prove a felony violation were found by the FBI investigation."

"The investigation concluded Tuesday with anannouncement from Director James Comey, who described Clinton's handling of classified information while the nation's top diplomat as "extremely careless" but recommended no charges against her.

" 'His statement undermined the defenses Clinton put forward, stating the FBI found 110 emails on Clinton's server that were classified at the time they were sent or received; eight contained information classified at the highest level, 'top secret,' at the time they were sent," Stein's statement noted. "That stands in direct contradiction to Clinton's repeated insistence she never sent or received any classified emails."

More commentary on the Clinton, um, pardon. Includes article by Judge Andrew Napolitano. UPDATED

Are there any Clinton supporters who feel shame over Hillary? Any?

Certainly not Rep. Elijah Cummings.

FBI Resignations: Where Are They?  . . . "A common training item in the military is the subject of ethics.  I would venture the FBI trains on this topic too.  For 14 years I was trained, or I trained others, to know the difference between a legal order and an illegal order.  And part of any good ethics review is integrity.  Knowing the difference between right and wrong and the importance of having strong moral principles.  These are universal values at the FBI.

"Integrity also comes into play when you see a wrong.

"After basic training -- still a Private (E-1) -- I stood outside my platoon sergeant’s office at parade-rest waiting to meet him and join the platoon.  I waited there a half-hour while he finished his coffee.  A yellowed mimeographed copy of a copy was taped to the lime-green hallway wall.  It was the only thing I could read from where I stood, so I read it over and over again.  I remember every word after 30+ years.  It said:

If you see something wrong and don’t do anything, you’ve just set a new standard.

. . . "As many as 150 FBI agents face the same large, yet simple, decision.  (I think they should have already made the decision over a year ago.)  Did any of them see anything wrong Tuesday when Director Comey ignored his oath and put his career before the FBI?  Because if they did, and because no resignations have been reported, each agent on this case who went back to work today has set a new standard." . . .

Comey has created a new defense for national security defendants

"It’s already being called “the Hillary Defense.”  Tim Johnson and Marisa Taylor of McClatchy report:

The FBI recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton and her staff on charges of mishandling classified information will give those accused of flouting national security rules a new line of defense even as it highlights a dual standard in how senior government officials are treated, several experts said Wednesday. (snip)

“I intend to use the Hillary defense,” said Sean M. Bigley, a lawyer whose firm handles dozens of cases a year involving national security clearances. “I really question how any agency can say someone is a security risk if the president of the United States did something similar.”

He added, “We’ve had people lose 20-year careers for doing less than what she did.” . . .

Andrew P. Napolitano:  The Department of Political Justice

. . . "Thus, in the past two years, the Department of Justice has prosecuted a young sailor for sending a single selfie to his girlfriend that inadvertently showed a submarine sonar screen in its background. It also prosecuted a Marine lieutenant who sent his military superiors a single email about the presence of al Qaeda operatives dressed as local police in a U.S. encampment in Afghanistan — but who inadvertently used his Gmail account rather than his secure government account.

"And it famously prosecuted Gen. David Petraeus for sharing paper copies of his daily calendar in his guarded home with a military colleague also in the home — someone who had a secret security clearance herself — because the calendar inadvertently included secret matters in the pages underneath the calendar.

"Yet earlier this week, FBI Director James Comey — knowing that his bosses in the Department of Justice would accept his legal conclusions about Mrs. Clinton’s failure to keep state secrets secure because they had removed themselves from independently judging the FBI’s work — told the public that whereas the inadvertence of the above defendants was sufficient to justify their prosecutions, somehow Mrs. Clinton’s repeated recklessness was not.

"It is obvious that a different standard is being applied to Mrs. Clinton than was applied to Gen. Petraeus and the others." . . .

Cartoons added by TD.

UPDATE:   CNN’s Don Lemon Says Sexism Played Role In FBI’s Criticism Of How She Handled Her Emails…

Have you heard of this man's Bidenesque gaffes?  

6 of Don Lemon’s Worst TV Gaffes

Number six gets the award: 
"6. And of course, that time he told a rape victim she could've easily shut down the alleged rape by biting Bill Cosby's penis."

The Most Conservative And Most Liberal Cities In America

Forbes   Read the list and see if there are any surprises among the most liberal.

"New York City may be less liberal than you thought.

"At least according to The Economist, which pulled data from an MIT study on how city governments reflect their constituents’ politics to produce a ranking of cities with populations of over 250,000. AsThe Economist asked (quite British-ly), “Would people expect Washington, DC, to come second, ahead of Seattle (where it is legal to smoke pot) or the Democratic stronghold of Boston?”

"As several articles have pointed out, though, the real takeaway was first called out by the PEW Research Center and then elaborated on by Vox: the most conservative cities are skewed toward being more liberal than one might expect. The how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck way to say this is: the most conservative cities are not as conservative as the most liberal cities are liberal. Click through our gallery to see the ten most liberal and ten most conservative cities in America."

Coulter: "MY VP PREDICTION: TRUMP'S FIRST MISTAKE"

Ann Coulter  "My vice presidential prediction is: Trump is about to make his first mistake. I knew this would happen as soon as he hired campaign consultants, rather than relying on his gut. If these campaign consultants were any good, their first piece of advice to Trump would be, "Fire us immediately!" 

"Trump's advisers are undoubtedly telling him he's got the "outsider" image covered. He needs someone with experience in Washington -- as if presidents don't have staffs -- an elected Republican official with solid standing in the GOP, preferably a sitting senator or governor, who will give the ticket gravitas and heft. 

"This is completely wrong. Trump isn't a standard-issue GOP, trying to balance the ticket to get his party into power. He's starting a new party! He's just blown up the old GOP. Instead of a party for, by and of globalist plutocrats, the new Trumpian party is a party of Americans for America. 

"How is Trump going to find a decent running mate from among the Republicans who have gotten ahead under the old model of sucking up to donors and lobbyists?" . . .

‘Justice’ Dept. makes it official: Hillary Clinton above the law

Joe Newby

You don't want to get this stare...ever.

"It’s now official. On Wednesday, the Obama Justice (or “Just Us”) Department announced that it has formally closed the investigation into “crooked” Hillary Clinton’s email server, effectively saying that the presumptive Democratic Party nominee is above the law." . . .

Ruminating on Hillary and her escape from prosecution

Think how the President of the United States could be a prime target for blackmail by unfriendly powers such as Putin's Russia. TD

Politico: The Weird Hedge Fund That Prepared James Comey for His Capitol Hill Hot Seat  "House Republicans might want to think twice before taking on the FBI director over Hillary’s emails."

Hillary Clinton emails: Justice Department closes investigation without charges  . . . "“The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing authority to handle classified information,” Mr Trump said, “and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being President.' ” 

Legal Insurrection:  Charade completed: AG Lynch rumber-stamps FBI recommendation not to prosecute Hillary   "She wanted to make sure the gift to Hillary was signed, sealed and delivered before Comey had a chance to backtrack on national TV.

Slate: The email scandal reveals everything that’s wrong with the outdated legislation used to prosecute spies and whistleblowers.
. . . "The better way forward is for Congress to do something it’s refused to do for more than 60 years: carefully and comprehensively modernize the Espionage Act, and clarify exactly when it is, and is not, a crime to mishandle classified national security secrets." . . .

Giuliani: 'President Trump' could prosecute Hillary  . . . "Calling the circumstantial evidence against Clinton “overwhelming,” Giuliani noted that is precisely the kind of evidence prosecutors use to show intent, since direct evidence of intent is usually lacking.

“Here’s the biggest piece of the circumstantial evidence: the destruction of the 34,000 emails,” he said, noting that a prosecutor would have been permitted to instruct the jury that the mass deletion “infers guilty knowledge.”

“I am so disappointed in this,” Giuliani said, but added the case is still not closed." . . .

WATCH: NBC Host Can’t Take It, Unloads After Hillary Escapes Indictment  "A huge political hit indeed, especially considering all that it revealed about Clinton’s true nature — namely her carelessness, her recklessness and her disdain for the truth."

It is revealing that the impartial "journalist" NBC host calls Hillary's escape "good news".

Roger L. Simon: Did Comey Actually Destroy Hillary Clinton by ‘Exonerating’ Her?  . . . "Look at that last paragraph again, because, if the Republicans have any brains at all, they will be quoting it ad infinitum. "To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions." What Comey is clearly saying (and leaving for us to "decide now") is that--whether you agree with his decision not to indict or no (I don't)—in a normal, real-world situation Clinton would face consequences, quite probably be demoted or even fired, certainly not promoted to the presidency of the United States, for what she did.

"Which brings me back to why Comey made this speech." . . .

It's hard to imagine Lynch speaking in public about how Clinton and her aides were "extremely careless" about national security, obvious though that was, or the high probability that the Clinton's server, not to mention her cell phone (!), was hacked by foreign powers. " . . . 

Comey’s game

"So did Director Comey cooperate the way American prisoners of war did, when forced to read statements praising their captors, by in effect blinking Morse code?  He gave exactly what he was supposed to.  But he did it in a way calculated to do political damage to Hillary Clinton."

Thomas Lifson   "Yesterday, the director of the FBI offered 15 of the most puzzling minutes in the history of American law enforcement.  James Comey spent the first 12 minutes or so laying out a devastating case dismantling Hillary Clinton’s email defense.  Then, in a whiplash-inducing change of narrative, he announced that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring the case he had just outlined, an assertion that was contradicted within hours by luminaries including former U.S. attorney (and mayor) Rudy Giuliani and James Kallstrom, former head of the FBI’s New York office.

"How can we possibly explain the FBI director deliberately inducing mass
cognitive dissonance?" . . .

Lifson then speculates on Comey's possible fear "whether something decidedly unpleasant might happen to him or his loved ones, as has happened to so many people inconvenient to the Clintons, by sheer coincidence, of course."

. . . "So did Director Comey cooperate the way American prisoners of war did, when forced to read statements praising their captors, by in effect blinking Morse code?  He gave exactly what he was supposed to.  But he did it in a way calculated to do political damage to Hillary Clinton." . . .

Fact Checker: Everything You Wanted To Know About Trump And The Six-Pointed Star

Yeshiva World News

"Controversy over Trump’s tweet carrying the image of a six-pointed star similar to the Jewish Star of David became the subject of much scrutiny over the Fourth of July weekend. And Trump continues to face criticism. For readers who may have tuned in sporadically or missed it entirely, here’s a complete timeline of the facts of exactly what happened – starting with the original, now-deleted tweet.

. . . 

"We are not going to issue a rating here, which is another case of Trump retweeting controversial memes without checking the source. Still, some questions remain: Did the campaign initially check at all to see where the image originated? Did the campaign know the potential anti-Semitic message it carried? 

"If the Trump campaign truly believed it was simply endorsing the shape of a sheriff’s star to “fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary,” why delete the initial tweet and replace the star with a circle?

"It’s unclear if we’ll get answers to these remaining questions, but we will update this timeline if there are any new developments."

Comey’s unusual public recommendation in the Clinton email investigation

Volokh Conspiracy . . . " Comey’s announcement takes the path of the least politicalization. Comey is a former career prosecutor who served twice as a political appointee in George W. Bush’s Justice Department. He is now serving a non-renewable 10-year term as FBI director that expires in 2023. It’s hard to come up with a clear argument for why Comey would be beholden to Clinton or why his recommendation would be politically biased.

"It is telling that, at least so far, Trump’s expected Twitter attacks on Comey are just generic. “The system is rigged,” “bad judgment,” etc.

. . . 

No decision on the Clinton email case will please everyone, of course. But Comey’s announcement takes the path of the least amount of politicalization in a uniquely politically charged case.