Mueller: That's my story, bye!....

Rich Terrell

Mueller Statement: I’m Resigning, Don’t Intend to Testify in Congress  . . . "Mueller has remained mostly silent since he released his report. His office spoke out on Tuesday to deny information in Michael Wolff’s* new book that claims Mueller drafted indictments against Trump.

"Mueller said he is resigning from the DOJ to return to a private life. He chose to speak out since he completed his investigation and will now close the office.

"Mueller basically explained his report. He reinforced the Constitutional stance that a president cannot have an indictment while in office. He also stressed that his office did not make a determination about whether Trump committed a crime and had insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.

In other words, the office could not even consider charging Trump with a crime. He said that if he hadn’t committed a crime they would have said so. They also would have said they exonerated him.

He also said that any testimony would not go beyond this report. The report is his testimony.

He praised those in the special counsel office and also did not question Attorney General Willian Barr’s good faith in the way he released the report.

"Mueller did not take any questions. He stated that this will be his only statement about the report, which basically squashes the Democrats hope for him to testify in front of Congress.

He ended his conference with this message:" . . .

No Questions? Nonsense—Mueller Must Testify

. . . Much in the same way that James Comey and Peter Strzok invented the “extremely careless” category to avoid describing Hillary Clinton’s actions as “grossly negligent,” Mueller and his office came up with the new and nebulous criterion of confidence.

"But even on confidence, Mueller and his office are vague. All he said was that had the investigators been confident that Trump clearly did not commit a crime, they would have said so. And given that Mueller carefully sidestepped the question of whether they would have stated publicly that they were confident the president had committed a crime, we can assume that he would rather leave the question unanswered and to the fanciful imagination of the mainstream media." . . .

*Mueller Spokesman Denies Michael Wolff’s Claim He Drafted Indictments of Trump

. . . One problem. Mueller’s spokesman Peter Carr said: “The documents that you’ve described do not exist.”
Did Wolff hand over fake documents to The Guardian? Did The Guardian lie about reading the documents?" . . .

Tony Branco, Townhall 

Trump's Lean White House 2018 Payroll On-Track To Save Taxpayers $22 Million

A CNN or MSNBC panel will discuss the negatives of this report. Al Sharpton will discuss the racism behind this and Bobby O'Rourke will apologize for the male white privilege behind it. TD

Forbes

"President Trump’s White House payroll has 374 employees, that's 95 fewer staffers than Barack Obama at the same point in their presidencies. The Trump White House workforce runs 20 percent leaner.

"White House staff experienced 39-percent turnover during the last 12-months. Of the 377 employees last year, only 229 remain. Most that left were quickly replaced.

"Today, the Trump administration released its annual report to Congress on the White House Office Personnel. The payroll data includes employee name, status, salary, and position title for all 374 White House employees as of June 30, 2018. Search the recent Trump administration (2017 and 2018) and Obama administration (2012 through 2016) payroll data posted at OpenTheBooks.com." . . .  Hat tip to Michael Antonovich at Hollywood Conservatives for Trump

Trump has more female senior advisers than last three administrations

Ann Coulter's Marshall Plan

Ann Coulter : "Over Memorial Day weekend, some shocking news broke about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. David Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning King biographer, came across some new details about the FBI's secret bugs of King in the National Archives. (The full tapes are not scheduled for public release for about another decade.) 

"During one orgy in King's room at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., according to FBI summaries of the tapes, he watched and laughed as one of his ministers raped a parishioner. Another time, he jokingly referred to himself as the head of the "International Association for the Advancement of P***y-Eaters." There's more, but you get the gist. 

"With every statue in the country of Robert E. Lee being hauled off and sold for scrap, first, I would like to say that I oppose the removal of MLK's statue from the Washington Mall. 

"But the latest revelations also present me with a fantastic opportunity to renew my proposal that we replace Martin Luther King Day with Thurgood Marshall Day! 

"I say this knowing full well that Black America has been waiting with wild anticipation for what this white girl has to say about a national holiday celebrating an African American civil rights icon. But it is a national holiday and, most important, Marshall is a much cooler African American civil rights icon. 

"In addition to the fact that Marshall worked closely with J. Edgar Hoover to expel communists from the NAACP -- while King's organization was bristling with them, to the immense annoyance of President John F. Kennedy -- Marshall redeemed blacks' civil rights the American way: by winning his battles in court." . . .

. . . "And we had the principle that all men are equal before God. For about a century, it was a principle often honored more in the breech than in the observance. That is, until the clever barrister Marshall came along, went to court, and demanded that America live up to its ideals.
"King's protests had the unfortunate effect of giving violent street agitation a halo. Now every idiot smashing a Starbucks window thinks he's a civil rights champion. But it was Marshall, doing it the American way, who changed the world. " . . .
Photos added by TD

I have to believe President Trump would love this idea. TD

Democrats take Mueller's report as a GO!

‘Not Exonerated’ Is Not a Standard Any Free Country Should Accept . . . "That’s not how it works in America. Investigators are supposed to look for evidence that a crime was committed, and, if they don’t find enough to contend that a crime was a committed, they are supposed to say “We didn’t find enough to contend that a crime was committed.” They are not supposed to look for evidence that a crime was not committed and then say, “We couldn’t find evidence of innocence." . . . 

Innocence is the default position in this country. If a person doesn’t have enough evidence that someone committed a crime to contend that a crime was committed, he is obliged to presume his innocence. “Not exonerated” is not a standard in our system, and it shouldn’t be one in our culture, either.

Mueller offers sly impeachment bait:  "Robert Mueller's 11 A.M. statement to the media today stuck to what was in his report (which he said "speaks for itself") but selectively highlighted and sequenced points intended to damage President Trump, providing obvious bait for impeachment proceedings.  Here is one example (transcript): 

"[I]f we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime." . . .

. . . "I see this as a defensive move, perhaps to protect his good friend James Comey, as well as protect his office's record in the face of disappointment by the Trump-haters that he provided no indictments."

• Breitbart Mueller Reports
• Watch Live: Jerry Nadler Responds to Mueller Press Conference
• Buttigieg on Mueller’s Statement: ‘This Is as Close to an Impeachment Referral as You Could Get’
• Gingrich on Mueller Statement: ‘He’s ‘Trying to Have It Both Ways’
• CNN’s Borger: Rep. Amash Could Primary Trump

Much more on this from all sides here.

Another opinion: Mueller breathed life into Democrat impeachment push, and may have just reelected Trump

Legal Insurrection

Nancy Pelosi has been under enormous pressure to green light impeachment proceedings. I don’t see how she holds off now. Mueller likely forced Pelosi to go to a place politically she didn’t want to go.

"Democrat attempts to commence impeachment proceedings against Trump.

"Mueller didn’t add any substance to the 400-page report, and most of his statement was related to procedures, including his resignation, the closing of the special counsel’s office, and his desire not to testify about the report beyond the report itself.

"The substance of the statement on Russia collusion/conspiracy was brief and shut the door. There was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy as to Russian interference.

"But most of the substance was on obstruction. Mueller reiterated that the Office of Special Counsel could not clearly determine that Trump did not commit a crime, or it would have said so. “‘If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

"This is a completely unfair standard and not what prosecutors normally due — investigations are not to find that a person did not commit a crime, but to find if the person did commit a crime.

"More important, Mueller made clear that he considered the Special Counsel’s Office bound by DOJ policy against charging a sitting president with a crime, so his office never reached a determination one way or the other. Mueller made clear that under the Constitution, there were other mechanisms for dealing with a president accused of wrongdoing. Without mentioning impeachment proceedings, Mueller certainly must have intended to suggest it." . . .

Has anyone considered the effect this is having on the international dealings?

Martin Luther King, Jr and the Dead Man’s Rule

Whether King’s detractors are eventually proven correct, they do not diminish the gift of peaceful transformation King gave our nation. Unlike President Obama, King did not strive to alter the underlying core of America but to improve her.

Lynne Lechter  "Roughly half of the states in America have enacted a version of the Dead Man’s Rule. Generically, they are various permutations of laws enacted to prevent one party to a litigation in providing live testimony against another party to the litigation who has died during the pendency of the litigation. These laws are predicated in a basic belief in fairness where dead persons are no longer able to deny adverse testimony or defend themselves with their own statements.

"The laws do not prevent a litigant from prevailing in a legitimate dispute, but they narrow the manner in which the litigation may proceed. At least half of the States have determined that it is unfair to ascribe words to a dead person who is not alive to refute them.

"This body of jurisprudence comes to mind when reviewing the current controversy regarding the late Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK) and his alleged lurid sexual predilections that have been recently “revealed.”
. . . 

What an Honest Commencement Speech Would Sound Like

Ruth S. King  "It is graduation season. I have been going to high school, college and law school commencements since 1977 for my children and grandchildren. I’ve been to eighteen including for two grandchildren this month.

"I have heard speeches that are wonderful, boring, inspiring, amusing and pedestrian from graduates and invited speakers alike. Frankly, this is what I think most students need to hear:

Good morning and congratulations!  I sincerely believe that most of you came to college with a desire to learn and be prepared for your future. But many of your teachers have skills and ideas that are proscribed by coercive politically correct bureaucrats.

However, you are all victims of a colossal scam for which your parents have anted up colossal sums of money.

You have been ensconced in an academic gulag where you have been programmed and robbed of the intellectual dexterity it takes to listen to, consider and debate opinions that are contrary to those into which you are being indoctrinated.

You abjure capitalism without understanding that everything you own, buy, wear, ride and text on -- and that includes your Che Guevara t-shirts -- are available to you because capitalism provides the funds for research, development and production.

Even the organic vegetables you consume so virtuously, not to mention those windmills and solar panels, depend on capital investment.

 You mock religious Creationists, but many of you are worshippers in the cult of global warming without even being aware of the vast scientific research that debunks it.

Many of you call yourselves “woke” and “alert to injustice in society, especially racism” but sanction the racist hypocrisy of organizations that promote libel, boycott and divestment from a freewheeling democracy like Israel, while giving Ilhan Omar and Tlaib a " freedom of speech" pass.

You raise your fists in solidarity with “Black Lives Matter” but have no interest in the genocides and famines that are perpetrated on hapless millions of black people in Africa.

There is no calamity, no atrocity, no failure of a system, no tyranny that you have not been taught to trace to a “root cause” in American greed or complicity. Patriotism and nationalism are evil, but you give socialism a wide berth ignoring its documented failures.

Almost everything you learn to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree is indexed to gender and race. Oh, and by the way, “Bachelor” is a male noun. Will that word also be scrubbed from your diplomas?

You wish to make simple pronouns “gender fluid” while ignoring the barbarism inflicted on millions of women by Shariah laws. Will it really ameliorate their suffering if you call them “hirs?”

You have lost the fun of flirting without p.c. opprobrium and ridiculous accusations that trivialize real abuse. And, you reduce all expressions of gratitude, admiration or even condolence to illiterate texts.

 You are coddled and babied in the most cynical and self-indulgent way with “safe spaces” to avoid any words, images, or persons that “trigger” your vapors.

In conclusion, my advice to you is simple.  The word commencement means a start. Go forth and free your mind from the cant to which it has been hostage for four years. And grow up!

Author Ruth S. King:  As seen in: The Guardian, American Thinker, Market Realist, Family Security

Matters,Contracting Business, SNIPS Magazine, reevesjournal.com

CNN now the 'hate Trump' network, ex-contributors say: Network 'openly despises conservatives'

Fox News  . . . “ 'Who are the Republicans, John Kasich? He hates Trump!” Moore said, referring to the former Republican governor of Ohio, whom CNN recently hired. "CNN is the 'hate Trump' network. They just trash Trump every single hour of every single day. All they’ve talked about for two years is the Mueller report and how bad does it make them look now that it proved nothing.' " . . .
. . . Former Trump campaign deputy communications director Bryan Lanza left the network, claiming CNN's only identity is "anti-Trump," not "conservative versus liberal.”
 . . .
“ 'If you hate Trump, you tune to CNN to validate your hatred,” Lanza told Mediaite. “Not sure it’s a winning formula -- and I’m validated by their last-place performance against other outlets.' ” . . .

Man, you're a CNN Republican through and through!

PowerLine Blog

Liberals Turn To Tried And True Strategy Of Boycotting Delicious Fast Food

Babylon Bee



"U.S.—Democrats are turning to a sound strategy that’s worked wonders for them in the past: declaring boycotts of beloved restaurants serving delicious food.

" 'This has always worked wonders for us in the past,” Bauman said. “There’s nothing that makes our cause look more appealing than declaring beloved American pastimes like tasty burgers and fries as problematic the instant we catch a whiff of a restaurant not being on board with the platform of the Party.”

"Millions of Americans rallied to the cause right away, proving that the move was a savvy political maneuver and definitely not a case of petty virtue-signalling.

"Liberals just decided to perform their quarterly duty of boycotting Chick-fil-A. "You know it's effective because of how many people go eat there in the weeks after we announce the boycott," said one liberal Twitter activist. "That just shows we're really starting a conversation.

"While liberal activists have previously called for boycotts of Chick-fil-A, a move that proved to endear Americans to their cause, Eric Bauman, the chair of California’s Democratic Party, last year decided to take things one step further and boycott In-N-Out, a maneuver that’s sure to win over the hearts and minds of the American people.

"At publishing time, Democrats had called for a boycott of Chevrolet, baseball, and apple pie."

Is anyone not aware that the Babylon Bee is a satire site of some prominence? People tend to send it's articles to fact-check sites like Snopes, such as this one.  
They should have fun with this one from the BB:

"Joseph Stalin Posthumously Identifies As Strong Woman Of Color To Deflect Criticism Of Socialist Policies"

Hey, it could happen. TD

When Abortion Suddenly Stopped Making Sense

Frederica Mathewes-Green

 " . . . I was home from grad school, flipping through my dad’s copy, and came across an article titled “What I Saw at the Abortion.”
. . . 
"The doctor performing the procedure inserted a syringe into the woman’s abdomen and injected her womb with a prostaglandin solution, which would bring on contractions and cause a miscarriage. (This method isn’t used anymore, because too often the baby survived the procedure — chemically burned and disfigured, but clinging to life. Newer methods, including those called “partial birth abortion” and “dismemberment abortion,” more reliably ensure death.) 

"After injecting the hormone into the patient’s womb, the doctor left the syringe standing upright on her belly. Then, Selzer wrote, “I see something other than what I expected here. . . . It is the hub of the needle that is in the woman’s belly that has jerked. First to one side. Then to the other side. Once more it wobbles, is tugged, like a fishing line nibbled by a sunfish.” 

"He realized he was seeing the fetus’s desperate fight for life. And as he watched, he saw the movement of the syringe slow down and then stop. The child was dead. Whatever else an unborn child does not have, he has one thing: a will to live. He will fight to defend his life. The last words in Selzer’s essay are, “Whatever else is said in abortion’s defense, the vision of that other defense [i.e., of the child defending its life] will not vanish from my eyes. And it has happened that you cannot reason with me now. For what can language do against the truth of what I saw?' ” . . .

Trump’s High-Wire Act of Reestablishing Deterrence without War

The more Obama appeased Putin — dismantled missile defense in Eastern Europe, blamed the Bush administration for the tensions that were to be relieved by the reset, and in a hot-mic exchange offered to become more malleable with Putin if Putin would behave while Obama was up for reelection — the more Putin detested Obama.

Victor Davis Hanson
"Trump’s opponents at home and abroad would love to see him get the U.S. into a messy intervention right before the election."

"Donald Trump inherited a superficially stable world from Barack Obama that, in fact, was quite volatile. There had been no tense standoffs with North Korea, but also apparent intercontinental ballistic missiles with possible nuclear warheads now pointed at the United States. Obama more or less punted on North Korea, by declaring it a problem — and hoping that Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear testing did not get too out of hand before 2017.

"Then there was the “Iran deal.” It was an appeasing agreement that almost surely guaranteed that Iran would soon have nuclear weapons, along with a revived economy liberated from sanctions and empowered with American cash. Iran’s terrorist surrogates were the greatest beneficiaries of U.S. naïveté. At best, Obama assumed that when Iran went nuclear, it would be on someone else’s presidential watch and therefore not his fault. At worst, Obama, in delusional fashion, believed that empowering Iran would balance Sunni states and bring justice to historically oppressed Shiite and Persian minorities who would take their rightful place in the Islamic world." . . .

Obama took lying to new heights with the Iran deal

Washington Post  "When it comes to the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration increasingly appears to have been a bottomless pit of deception.
"First, President Barack Obama failed to disclose to Congress the existence of secret side deals on inspections when he transmitted the nuclear accord to Capitol Hill. (They were only uncovered by chance when then-Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) learned about them during a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency officials in Vienna.) Then, we learned that the Obama administration had secretly sent a plane to Tehranloaded with $400 million in Swiss francs, euros and other currencies on the same day Iran released four American hostages, which was followed by two more secret flights carrying another $1.3 billion in cash.
"Now, in a bombshell revelation, Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), have revealed in a new report that the Obama administration secretly tried to help Iran use U.S. banks to convert $5.7 billion in Iranian assets, after promising Congress that Iran would not get access to the U.S. financial system — and then lied to Congress about what it had done. (Full disclosure: My wife works for Portman).
"In July 2015, Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that, under the nuclear accord, Iran “will continue to be denied access to the [U.S.] financial and commercial market” and that “Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks.” A few weeks later, one of Lew’s top deputies, Adam Szubin, used the exact same words in testimony to the Senate banking committee.
"But Senate investigators found that on Feb. 24, 2016, the Obama Treasury Department “granted a specific license that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system” — exactly what Lew and Szubin said would not happen — including unlimited future Iranian deposits at Bank Muscat in Oman until the license expired." . . .