BALTIMORE, Maryland, Saturday, July 16, 2016 - Tampa Bay starting pitcher Matt Moore kept trying to get Oriole Shortstop J. J. Hardy to swing at a low fastball. That got Moore behind on the count, 2-0, in the second inning with Matt Wieters already at first base on a single. Moore got a strike with his third pitch, but the fourth pitch, well, he'd dearly like to have that one back. The ball was up just enough for Hardy to turn on it and send it far over the left field wall for a two-run homer. It was Hardy's fourth of the season, not bad when you consider that he missed much of the first half of the season with injuries.
Chris Tillman threw seven strong innings and Brad Brach and Zach Britton followed with perfect innings as the Orioles won their third straight game and maintained their two game A.L. Eastern Division lead over the Red Sox, and built their lead over third-place Toronto to 4 games after the Jays lost for the second game in a row to the Athletics. Tillman won his 13th game of the season against only two losses. It was also his third straight start of seven innings or more. Britton earned his 29th save of the season to lead the American League. He is perfect in save opportunities.
All of this comes the night before Dylan Bundy makes his first major league start for the Orioles against the Rays in the series finale on Sunday. Bundy was Baltimore's first round draft choice in 2011, but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2013 and hardly pitched at all the next two seasons. But Bundy has pitched well out of the Oriole bullpen this season, especially of late, prompting Baltimore to turn to him tomorrow.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Background of Butcher Who Drove Truck in Nice, France Attack Remains A Mystery
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Saturday, July 16, 2016 - Even as the death toll rose to 84 in Nice, France, including an 11-year-old American boy and his dad, French Authorities identified the Butcher as a 31-year-old Islamic with a Tunisian background. While ISIS says it is behind the massacre, the early results of the French investigation seem to suggest otherwise.The Murderer, identfied by authorities as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, drove his large truck in a zig-zag pattern along the Promenade des Anglais, enabling him to butcher additional victims. When his truck was finally stopped, Bouhlel alighted and ran further along the road, using a high-powered rifle to execute other victims while shouting 'Allahu Akbar.' However, other reports said that Boulel only shot people while driving and was killed by police before he could leave the truck. The charge of shouting "Allahu Akbar," has also been questioned. But French authorities have not backed away from connecting the whole sordid incident to the current Jihad. Ironically. Bouhlel's brother told investigators that he didn't even believe Bouhlel was a practicing Muslim. And Bouhlel's father, while admitting he had not seen his son in four years, said that the man had mental problems.
Wikipedia reported that several persons tried to stop the truck during the carnage, including a motorcyclist who tried to latch onto the door of the truck but, instead, was thrown under the truck, and two police officers, who, having witnessed the incident with the motorcyclist, raked the truck with gunfire in a vain attempt to stop the vehicle before it could cause additional deaths.
In France, Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve initiated a plan immediately following the attacks to beef up security nationwide. French President François Hollande returned to Paris from Avignon to have an emergency Interior Ministry meeting regarding the attacks. Hollande addressed the French nation in a televised broadcast from Paris in the early morning of Friday, July 15, 2016 announcing future measures against terrorism, including a three-month extension of the state of emergency, previously due to end on July 26. In the speech he said "There's no denying the terrorist nature of this attack". He also announced more security personnel would be deployed. Minister Cazeneuveon later announced plans to increase security in response to the attack by calling 12,000 police reservists to add to the 120,000 person force. Cazeneuve urged "all patriotic citizens" to join the reserve forces to boost security following the attacks. Wikipedia deserves much credit for this information, as does the web site "Site Intelligence Group."
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Death Toll Rises in France; General Flynn Demands Muslim Nations Band Together to Ridicule the Terrorism
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Thursday, July 14, 2016 (Bastille Day) - Retired Army Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Obama, and a man on Donald Trump's Short List of persons being considered as his vice-presidential running mate, tonight called for the heads of Muslim nations around the world - and especially the powerful states in the Middle East - to band together publicly to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the massacre of innocent civilians which took place tonight in Nice, France. Late reports say that 77 are now dead after someone drove a large truck down an ocean-front promenade crowded with pedestrians. Dozens are said to be injured, although some estimates on the number of survivors who are injured have dropped. While ISIS and other terrorist groups have not claimed responsibility for the attack, French officials have identified the driver of the truck as a 31-year-old Tunisian. The driver was killed by police after he lept from the truck and ran down the street firing a rifle at innocent bystanders. It is not clear how many of the dead were killed by bullets.
Flynn, appearing on Fox News, appeared extremely angry and described himself as such. Flynn said that the time has come for ISIS to be confronted and completely defeated. He said that the west's willingness to coddle the large Muslim States has allowed the fight against the terrorists in ISIS and Al Qaeda to linger on far longer than is necessary. Flynn was openly critical of Obama, for whom he worked.
It was revealed this week by Flynn that he never was afforded the chance to meet with Obama, even though he held the highest intelligence posts in the Obama regime. Obama has not said how or why he never met with high intelligence officials in his own administration.
Flynn, appearing on Fox News, appeared extremely angry and described himself as such. Flynn said that the time has come for ISIS to be confronted and completely defeated. He said that the west's willingness to coddle the large Muslim States has allowed the fight against the terrorists in ISIS and Al Qaeda to linger on far longer than is necessary. Flynn was openly critical of Obama, for whom he worked.
It was revealed this week by Flynn that he never was afforded the chance to meet with Obama, even though he held the highest intelligence posts in the Obama regime. Obama has not said how or why he never met with high intelligence officials in his own administration.
At Least 73 Dead in Nice, France Terror Attack as Large Truck Mows Down Bastille Day Celebrants
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Thursday, July 14, 2016 (Bastille Day) - The Butchers have struck again.
At least 73 are dead in Nice, France when a large mega-sized truck plowed through a large crowd in the streets of Nice, France, leaving an astonishing path of death and destruction. The death toll is expected to rise.
Although ISIS has not claimed responsibility as yet, few doubt that the Islamic Extremists are behind the inhuman attack and carnage. It has all of their earmarks: an attack designed to kill the maximum number of people. Another 100 people, and probably more, are injured.
The attack occurred at about midnight in Nice, a short time after the annual fireworks celebration ended. According to the Telegraph in London, and their reporter, David Chazan, "A gunman reportedly got out of the lorry(truck) and fired into the crowd on the seafront Promenade des Anglais, an area popular with tourists in the Riviera resort, leaving dead and injured people lying in the street.
He was shot dead by police but there were reports that an accomplice had fled and that guns and grenades were found in the lorry.
The local Prefecture described the slaughter as a “terrorist attack” but an interior ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henry Brandet, said it was too early to be certain of the killers’ motives.
In New York last night, Donald Trump, the Republican's Presumptive Presidential Nominee, sounded angry when he told Fox reporter Greta van Susteran that the United States posture on terrorism was "weak and ineffective," and would continue to instigate terror attacks. He told van Susteran that he was postponing his announcement of a running mate as the world attempted to deal with the coming aftermath. John Bolton, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, told van Susteran that he totally agreed with Trump's statements and he, too, urged a concentrated military response against ISIS. The purpose of every step taken by the West must be to keep persons who are willing to commit terror out.
At least 73 are dead in Nice, France when a large mega-sized truck plowed through a large crowd in the streets of Nice, France, leaving an astonishing path of death and destruction. The death toll is expected to rise.
Although ISIS has not claimed responsibility as yet, few doubt that the Islamic Extremists are behind the inhuman attack and carnage. It has all of their earmarks: an attack designed to kill the maximum number of people. Another 100 people, and probably more, are injured.
The attack occurred at about midnight in Nice, a short time after the annual fireworks celebration ended. According to the Telegraph in London, and their reporter, David Chazan, "A gunman reportedly got out of the lorry(truck) and fired into the crowd on the seafront Promenade des Anglais, an area popular with tourists in the Riviera resort, leaving dead and injured people lying in the street.
He was shot dead by police but there were reports that an accomplice had fled and that guns and grenades were found in the lorry.
The local Prefecture described the slaughter as a “terrorist attack” but an interior ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henry Brandet, said it was too early to be certain of the killers’ motives.
In New York last night, Donald Trump, the Republican's Presumptive Presidential Nominee, sounded angry when he told Fox reporter Greta van Susteran that the United States posture on terrorism was "weak and ineffective," and would continue to instigate terror attacks. He told van Susteran that he was postponing his announcement of a running mate as the world attempted to deal with the coming aftermath. John Bolton, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, told van Susteran that he totally agreed with Trump's statements and he, too, urged a concentrated military response against ISIS. The purpose of every step taken by the West must be to keep persons who are willing to commit terror out.
Fox Radio News Has Love Affair With Clinton; Forgetting All the While About Objectivity.
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Thursday, July 14, 2016 - A lot of radio stations around the country subscribe - at considerable cost - to Fox Radio News, believing they are getting competent national and international news that is not slanted to the left like the other ultra left mainstream media services. Sadly, these subscribers are being hosed. Fox Radio News is just like ABC, NBC, CBS, AP and NPR; that is, they are very far left and intent on staying there. Even a moderate sampling will prove the point. For the last two weeks you would swear that Hillary Clinton's run in with the FBI was, basically, a non-event. The only news about James Comey's very unusual dressing down and criticism of the sociopathic Clinton was a passing reference to the decision not to prosecute. The fact that Comey spent so much time and space explaining was a liar the presumptive Democratic Nominee is, how lax she was with the most precious national secrets, etc was not news as far as Fox Radio News was concerned. It didn't end there.
Hour after hour the news reported about the campaign was 95 percent pro-Hillary and, thus, 95 percent against Donald Trump. Each hour provided ridiculously edited sound bites about something wonderful Hillary said with no balancing report on why she should not be believed. When she asked supporters what it would be like if Donald Trump was in charge of the FBI, no one mentioned that she was part of the first administration ever to make wholesale use of the tax agency to attack political opponents. George Bush Sr. and Jr. were never accused of any such low-call behavior. But Obama and company certainly have. If Trump became president and ordered immediate audits of Bill and Hillary, no one would blame him. In fact, it is long long overdue.
Donald Trump has never held public office. He has never been investigated for any crimes. But listen to sound bites on Fox Radio News and you would think the file on Trump's illegal activities are a mile thick rather than empty. Criticize Trump's lack of experience and report on it, but don't forget that Hillary spent her four years at the State Department in permanent debacle status. Even life long Democrats can find no instance when Hillary took up a problem in American foreign policy and did anything other than make it much worse. Her crowning jewel, of course, is Benghazi. If you listen to Fox Radio News, can you remember hearing Donald Trump talking about Benghazi? You cannot. And this, even though Hillary lied about her role, lied about her activities with respect to the international embarassment, and, worst of all, lied to the families of the dead when their bodies arrived back in America. That incident, in and of itself, disqualifies her from ever again getting near the White House in the mind of many Americans.
And then there are the polls. Polls released this week by and large show Trump surging in the polls, both nationally and especially in swing states. But those objective souls at Fox Radio News must have been held at gunpoint because they got nowhere near the news about those polls. The only ones the ultra left were reporting on were the outliers and their results in the two states where Hillary, inexplicably, continues to do well.
Fox Radio News has fallen into the disgrace category when objectivity is judged.
Hour after hour the news reported about the campaign was 95 percent pro-Hillary and, thus, 95 percent against Donald Trump. Each hour provided ridiculously edited sound bites about something wonderful Hillary said with no balancing report on why she should not be believed. When she asked supporters what it would be like if Donald Trump was in charge of the FBI, no one mentioned that she was part of the first administration ever to make wholesale use of the tax agency to attack political opponents. George Bush Sr. and Jr. were never accused of any such low-call behavior. But Obama and company certainly have. If Trump became president and ordered immediate audits of Bill and Hillary, no one would blame him. In fact, it is long long overdue.
Donald Trump has never held public office. He has never been investigated for any crimes. But listen to sound bites on Fox Radio News and you would think the file on Trump's illegal activities are a mile thick rather than empty. Criticize Trump's lack of experience and report on it, but don't forget that Hillary spent her four years at the State Department in permanent debacle status. Even life long Democrats can find no instance when Hillary took up a problem in American foreign policy and did anything other than make it much worse. Her crowning jewel, of course, is Benghazi. If you listen to Fox Radio News, can you remember hearing Donald Trump talking about Benghazi? You cannot. And this, even though Hillary lied about her role, lied about her activities with respect to the international embarassment, and, worst of all, lied to the families of the dead when their bodies arrived back in America. That incident, in and of itself, disqualifies her from ever again getting near the White House in the mind of many Americans.
And then there are the polls. Polls released this week by and large show Trump surging in the polls, both nationally and especially in swing states. But those objective souls at Fox Radio News must have been held at gunpoint because they got nowhere near the news about those polls. The only ones the ultra left were reporting on were the outliers and their results in the two states where Hillary, inexplicably, continues to do well.
Fox Radio News has fallen into the disgrace category when objectivity is judged.
A Real Warrior of the Airwaves is Called Home; Trump Surges in Polls, Leans Toward Pence for VP; Obama's Remarks at Police Officers' Memorial Cause Controversy; Portugal, a 3rd Place Finisher in Group Play, Wins EURO 2016 Title
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Wednesday, July 13, 2016 - Tom Marr was a veteran broadcaster who spent much, but not all of his career in Baltimore. He was mostly conservative, but not to the point of being an idealogue. For instance, he was a huge Donald Trump backer.
Tom Marr died last week at age 73. He was in the hospital for back surgery, and suffered a stroke a day after the surgery. He lost his fight with the attack a few days later. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Sharon, five children and ten grandchildren. He was a strong voice in Baltimore radio, never shy about things he believed in. He was also a Baltimore Oriole Broadcaster for many years. He loved that job and was a lot better at it than he was generally given credit for. Unlike many baseball play-by-play men, he had very little play-by-play experience when he took over the assignment. He was a leading broadcaster at Radio Station WFBR in Baltimore when that company won the Oriole Broadcast Rights. He convinced the stations' owners to allow him to join veteran broadcasters Chuck Thompson - a baseball Hall-of-Famer - and Bill O'Donnell, in the broadcast booth. The energy and hard work that the Station put into the broadcasts changed the entire way the City viewed the team. For many years prior to WFBR winning the rights, the team was highly successful on the field but could not break through the one million fans per year attendance figure, and when Washington insider Edward Bennett Williams purchased the team, there were strong rumors that the team would, sooner or later, be moved to Washington, D.C. All of that changed when WFBR won the rights and reinvigorated the franchise. Attendance jumped. Marr's enthusiasm was no small part of the resurgence. The chemistry between Marr and Hall-of-Fame Manager Earl Weaver was magic, and their pre-game show became the stuff of baseball's nearly hallowed lore. But when WFBR lost the rights to the team in 1986, the new broadcaster would not retain Marr. He had been a news man before he did baseball, and to the news he returned. Plus, he jumped right in to the new AM radio format: political talk show.
Many people around the country and the world became familiar with Marr as a frequent fill-in for Mark Levin. Levin is a radio powerhouse, and he and Marr became friends as well as colleagues. So highly does Levin think of Marr, that this Friday, when Levin takes a scheduled day off, he will play the last show Marr did filling in for him. I don't believe I have ever heard of a talk show host using a fill-in's re-broadcast. I cannot imagine a higher honor. One of the things I loved about Marr was the way his method of broadcasting allowed listeners to get to know the man behind the microphone. While rarely talking about himself, the kind of decent human being that he was came through loud and clear. Even though I never met him in person, I felt upon the announcement of his passing that a member of my family had died.
Trump Surges in Polls in Aftermath of Comey's Remarks; Pence May Be VP Choice
The Quinipiac Poll and other leading polls show Donald Trump surging ahead in key swing states, even as the GOP Presumptive Nominee narrows his choices for the spot of Vice-President on his ticket to Newt Gingrich and Mike Pence. Several political news sites say that the campaign continues to mention New Jersey Governor Chris Christie merely to molify the first major rival to endorse Trump. Meanwhile, meetings with the Indiana Governor, Mike Pence, instensified.
One major local poll showed Trump up six points in Pennsylvania and five points in Florida. In another poll result that bodes poorly for Democrats, Rasmussen shows Obama's disapproval rating going up in the immediate wake of his remarks about the nation's racial strife and anti-police machinations.
While the Mainstream Ultra Left Media tried mightily to sanitize Obama's remarks at the memorial service for the five slain Dallas Police Officers, a whole lot of people weren't buying it. There was criticism galore across the internet last night and early today. Obama, incredibly, had virtually warned the public about the tone of his remarks when he said over the weekend that the motive of the cop-slayer was too confusing to be calling it a hate crime. The Police Chief of Dallas - a highly respected black man - David O. Brown, had told the public of the racially-charged words of the killer, Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, during the extended negotiations between Johnson and police while Johnson was holed-up in a parking garage after the murders. Johnson taunted police and asked negotiators how many officers he had killed, so far. He also bragged of setting bombs at various locations throughout the City of Dallas. This turned out not to be true. He also said he intended to kill more white police officers. Despite this, and despite the fact that Obama conceded that racial hatred was afoot in the killings in Dallas, Obama and his regime will not refer to the crimes in Dallas as being a hate crime.
Michelle Malkin, a nationally known conservative commentator, sent a message to an internet site in which she asked why Obama had decided to turn a memorial service into a recruiting class for Black Lives Matter. Mark Levin, one of the nation's most influential radio commentators, was livid about both the tone and substance of Obama's remarks. Yet, read an alleged transcript of the speech on TIME - I've never known TIME Magazine or the web to carry such transcripts, but then again I am hardly a regular reader of TIME - and you won't see a speech that is the least bit out-of-place when compared to other funeral service remarks. The President praised the officers - calling them heroes - and their families. But Obama is Obama and he couldn't avoid making political remarks in a setting that was clearly inappropriate. Sometimes he needs to be just the President. It is a noble calling and much good can result. And, you know, it would sure be nice if, just once in a while, when he slipped in political remarks, he could praise these United States and how far we've travelled in 240 years. Compare the situation when we declared independence and the freedoms in America today. Some of the changes have not been good and more than a few of those are the fault of the ultra left. Here are some of Obama's remarks as reprinted in TIME:
"No. The reward comes in knowing that our entire way of life in America depends on the rule of law, that the maintenance of that law is a hard and daily labor, that in this country we don’t have soldiers in the streets or militias setting the rules. Instead, we have public servants, police officers, like the men who were taken away from us. And that’s what these five were doing last Thursday when they were assigned to protect and keep orderly a peaceful protest in response to the killing of Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Philando Castile of Minnesota.
OBAMA: They were upholding the constitutional rights of this country. For a while, the protests went on without incident. And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were.
In fact, the police had been part of the protest planning. Dallas P.D. even posted photos on their Twitter feeds of their own officers standing among the protesters. Two officer, black and white, smiled next to a man with a sign that read “no justice, no peace.” And then around nine o’clock, the gunfire came. Another community torn apart; more hearts broken; more questions about what caused and what might prevent another such tragedy. I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the past week. First, the shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, the protests. Then the targeting of police by the shooter here, an act not just of demented violence, but of racial hatred. All of it has left us wounded and angry and hurt. This is — the deepest faultlines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened. And although we know that such divisions are not new, though they’ve surely been worse in even the recent past, that offers us little comfort. Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience. We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold and that things might get worse. I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds. I know we’ll make because of what I’ve experienced in my own life; what I’ve seen of this country and its people, their goodness and decency, as president of the United States. And I know it because of what we’ve seen here in Dallas, how all of you out of great suffering have shown us the meaning of perseverance and character and hope.
OBAMA: When the bullets started flying, the men and women of the Dallas police, they did not flinch and they did not react recklessly. They showed incredible restraint. Helped in some cases by protesters, they evacuated the injured, isolated the shooter, saved more lives than we will ever know. We mourn fewer people today because of your brave actions....“Everyone was helping each other,” one witness said. And it wasn’t about black or white. Everyone was picking each other up and moving them away.
See, that’s the America I know. The police helped Shetamia Taylor as she was shot trying to shield her four sons. She said she wanted her boys to join her to protest the incidents of black men being killed. She also said to the Dallas P.D., thank you for being heroes. And today, her 12-year-old son wants to be a cop when he grows up. That’s the America I know....And in the process, we’ve been reminded that the Dallas Police Department has been at the forefront of improving relations between police and the community.
The murder rate here has fallen. Complaints of excessive force have been cut by 64 percent. The Dallas Police Department has been doing it the right way. And so, Mayor Rawlings and Chief Brown, on behalf of the American people, thank you for your steady leadership. Thank you for your powerful example. We could not be prouder of you. These men, this department, this is the America I know. And today in this audience, I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers. I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In this audience, I see what’s possible. I see what’s possible when we recognize that we are one American family, all deserving of equal treatment. All deserving equal respect. All children of God. That’s the America I know. Now, I’m not naive. I have spoken at too many memorials during the course of this presidency. I’ve hugged too many families who have lost a loved one to senseless violence. And I’ve seen how a spirit of unity, born of tragedy, can gradually dissipate, overtaken by the return to business as usual, by inertia and old habits and expediency.
OBAMA: I see how easily we slip back into our old notions, because they’re comfortable, we’re used to them. I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been. And so, I’m reminded of a passage in John’s Gospel, “let us love, not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.” If we’re to sustain the unity, we need to get through these difficult times. If we are to honor these five outstanding officers who we lost, then we will need to act on the truths that we know. That’s not easy. It makes us uncomfortable, but we’re going to have to be honest with each other and ourselves.
We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professional. They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn. When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety. And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves, well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.
We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation. They didn’t necessarily stop when a Dr. King speech, or when the civil rights act or voting rights act were signed. Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. Those who deny it are dishonoring the struggles that helped us achieve that progress. But we know…
But America, we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain. Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this.
OBAMA: And so when African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country, voice a growing despair over what they perceive to be unequal treatment, when study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently. So that if you’re black, you’re more likely to be pulled over or searched or arrested; more likely to get longer sentences; more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime. When mothers and fathers raised their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer — yes, sir; no, sir — but still fear that something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door; still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right might end in tragedy.
When all this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid. We can’t simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and coworkers and fellow church members, again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us. We also know what Chief Brown has said is true, that so much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves.
As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book. And then we tell the police, “You’re a social worker; you’re the parent; you’re the teacher; you’re the drug counselor.” We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience; don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when periodically the tensions boil over. We know those things to be true. They’ve been true for a long time. We know it. Police, you know it. Protesters, you know it. You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are. And you pretend as if there’s no context. These things we know to be true. And if we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle.
OBAMA: In the end, it’s not about finding policies that work. It’s about forging consensus and fighting cynicism and finding the will to make change. Can we do this? Can we find the character, as Americans, to open our hearts to each other? Can we see in each other a common humanity and a shared dignity, and recognize how our different experiences have shaped us? And it doesn’t make anybody perfectly good or perfectly bad, it just makes us human.
I don’t know. I confess that sometimes I, too, experience doubt. I’ve been to too many of these things. I’ve seen too many families go through this. But then I am reminded of what the Lord tells Ezekiel. “I will give you a new heart,” the Lord says, “and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” That’s what we must pray for, each of us. A new heart. Not a heart of stone, but a heart open to the fears and hopes and challenges of our fellow citizens. That’s what we’ve seen in Dallas these past few days, and that’s what we must sustain. Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes. So that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie, who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous. And the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words, and values and authority of his parents. With an open heart, we can abandon the overheated rhetoric and the oversimplification that reduces whole categories of our fellow Americans, not just opponents, but to enemies. With an open heart, those protesting for change will guard against reckless language going forward. Look at the model set by the five officers we mourn today. Acknowledge the progress brought about by the sincere efforts of police departments like this one in Dallas. And embark on the hard, but necessary work of negotiation, the pursuit of reconciliation. With an open heart, police departments will acknowledge that just like the rest of us, they’re not perfect. That insisting we do better to root out racial bias is not an attack on cops, but an effort to live up to our highest ideals. And I understand these protests — I see them. They can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt. Protesters can get hurt. They can be frustrated. But even those who dislike the phrase “black lives matter,” surely, we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family. We should — when we hear a friend describe him by saying that, whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody, that should sound familiar to us, that maybe he wasn’t so different than us. So that we can, yes, insist that his life matters.
OBAMA: Just as we should hear the students and co-workers describe their affection for Philando Castile as a gentle soul. Mr. Rogers with deadlocks, they called him. And know that his life mattered to a whole lot of people of all races, of all ages, and that we have to do what we can without putting officers’ lives at risk, but do better to prevent another life like his from being lost.
With an open heart, we can worry less about which side has been wronged, and worry more about joining sides to do right.
Because the vicious killer of these police officers — they won’t be the last person who tries to make us turn on one another. The killer in Orlando wasn’t nor was the killer in Charleston. We know there is evil in this world, that’s why we need police department departments. But as Americans, we can decide that people like this killer will ultimately fail. They will not drive us apart. We can decide to come together and make our country reflect the good inside us, the hopes and simple dreams we share. We also glory in our suffers because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. For all of us, life presents challenges and suffering. Accidents, illnesses, the loss of loved ones; there are times when we are overwhelmed by sudden calamity, natural or man-made. All of us, we make mistakes, and at times we are lost. And as we get older, we learn we don’t always have control of things, not even a president does. But we do have control over how we respond to the world. We do have control or how we treat one another. America does not ask us to be perfect, precisely because of our individual imperfections, our founders gave us institutions to guard against tyranny and ensure no one is above the law. A democracy that gives us the space to work through our differences and debate them peacefully, to make things better, even if it doesn’t always happen as fast as we’d like. America gives us the capacity to change. But as the men we mourn today, these five heroes knew better than most, we cannot take the blessings of this nation for granted. Only by working together can we preserve those institutions of family and community, rights and responsibilities, law and self-government that is the hallmark of this nation. It turns out we do not persevere along. Our character is not found in isolation. Hope does not arise by putting our fellow man down, it is found by lifting others up. And that’s what I take away from the lives of these outstanding men. The pain we feel may not soon pass, but my faith tells me that they did not die in vain. I believe our sorrow can make us a better country. I believe our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace. Weeping may endure for a night but I’m convinced joy comes in the morning.
OBAMA: We cannot match the sacrifices made by Officers Zamarippa and Ahrens, Krol, Smith and Thompson, but surely we can try to match their sense of service. We cannot match their courage, but we can strive to match their devotion. May God bless their memory. May God bless this country that we love.
Sports: Portugal Wins EURO 2016 Despite Injury to Ronaldo
Only 25 minutes in to the EURO 2016 title game, Christiano Ronaldo went down, not to return. But then, 84 minutes later, Portugal won, anyway.
Tom Marr died last week at age 73. He was in the hospital for back surgery, and suffered a stroke a day after the surgery. He lost his fight with the attack a few days later. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Sharon, five children and ten grandchildren. He was a strong voice in Baltimore radio, never shy about things he believed in. He was also a Baltimore Oriole Broadcaster for many years. He loved that job and was a lot better at it than he was generally given credit for. Unlike many baseball play-by-play men, he had very little play-by-play experience when he took over the assignment. He was a leading broadcaster at Radio Station WFBR in Baltimore when that company won the Oriole Broadcast Rights. He convinced the stations' owners to allow him to join veteran broadcasters Chuck Thompson - a baseball Hall-of-Famer - and Bill O'Donnell, in the broadcast booth. The energy and hard work that the Station put into the broadcasts changed the entire way the City viewed the team. For many years prior to WFBR winning the rights, the team was highly successful on the field but could not break through the one million fans per year attendance figure, and when Washington insider Edward Bennett Williams purchased the team, there were strong rumors that the team would, sooner or later, be moved to Washington, D.C. All of that changed when WFBR won the rights and reinvigorated the franchise. Attendance jumped. Marr's enthusiasm was no small part of the resurgence. The chemistry between Marr and Hall-of-Fame Manager Earl Weaver was magic, and their pre-game show became the stuff of baseball's nearly hallowed lore. But when WFBR lost the rights to the team in 1986, the new broadcaster would not retain Marr. He had been a news man before he did baseball, and to the news he returned. Plus, he jumped right in to the new AM radio format: political talk show.
Many people around the country and the world became familiar with Marr as a frequent fill-in for Mark Levin. Levin is a radio powerhouse, and he and Marr became friends as well as colleagues. So highly does Levin think of Marr, that this Friday, when Levin takes a scheduled day off, he will play the last show Marr did filling in for him. I don't believe I have ever heard of a talk show host using a fill-in's re-broadcast. I cannot imagine a higher honor. One of the things I loved about Marr was the way his method of broadcasting allowed listeners to get to know the man behind the microphone. While rarely talking about himself, the kind of decent human being that he was came through loud and clear. Even though I never met him in person, I felt upon the announcement of his passing that a member of my family had died.
Trump Surges in Polls in Aftermath of Comey's Remarks; Pence May Be VP Choice
The Quinipiac Poll and other leading polls show Donald Trump surging ahead in key swing states, even as the GOP Presumptive Nominee narrows his choices for the spot of Vice-President on his ticket to Newt Gingrich and Mike Pence. Several political news sites say that the campaign continues to mention New Jersey Governor Chris Christie merely to molify the first major rival to endorse Trump. Meanwhile, meetings with the Indiana Governor, Mike Pence, instensified.
One major local poll showed Trump up six points in Pennsylvania and five points in Florida. In another poll result that bodes poorly for Democrats, Rasmussen shows Obama's disapproval rating going up in the immediate wake of his remarks about the nation's racial strife and anti-police machinations.
While the Mainstream Ultra Left Media tried mightily to sanitize Obama's remarks at the memorial service for the five slain Dallas Police Officers, a whole lot of people weren't buying it. There was criticism galore across the internet last night and early today. Obama, incredibly, had virtually warned the public about the tone of his remarks when he said over the weekend that the motive of the cop-slayer was too confusing to be calling it a hate crime. The Police Chief of Dallas - a highly respected black man - David O. Brown, had told the public of the racially-charged words of the killer, Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, during the extended negotiations between Johnson and police while Johnson was holed-up in a parking garage after the murders. Johnson taunted police and asked negotiators how many officers he had killed, so far. He also bragged of setting bombs at various locations throughout the City of Dallas. This turned out not to be true. He also said he intended to kill more white police officers. Despite this, and despite the fact that Obama conceded that racial hatred was afoot in the killings in Dallas, Obama and his regime will not refer to the crimes in Dallas as being a hate crime.
Michelle Malkin, a nationally known conservative commentator, sent a message to an internet site in which she asked why Obama had decided to turn a memorial service into a recruiting class for Black Lives Matter. Mark Levin, one of the nation's most influential radio commentators, was livid about both the tone and substance of Obama's remarks. Yet, read an alleged transcript of the speech on TIME - I've never known TIME Magazine or the web to carry such transcripts, but then again I am hardly a regular reader of TIME - and you won't see a speech that is the least bit out-of-place when compared to other funeral service remarks. The President praised the officers - calling them heroes - and their families. But Obama is Obama and he couldn't avoid making political remarks in a setting that was clearly inappropriate. Sometimes he needs to be just the President. It is a noble calling and much good can result. And, you know, it would sure be nice if, just once in a while, when he slipped in political remarks, he could praise these United States and how far we've travelled in 240 years. Compare the situation when we declared independence and the freedoms in America today. Some of the changes have not been good and more than a few of those are the fault of the ultra left. Here are some of Obama's remarks as reprinted in TIME:
"No. The reward comes in knowing that our entire way of life in America depends on the rule of law, that the maintenance of that law is a hard and daily labor, that in this country we don’t have soldiers in the streets or militias setting the rules. Instead, we have public servants, police officers, like the men who were taken away from us. And that’s what these five were doing last Thursday when they were assigned to protect and keep orderly a peaceful protest in response to the killing of Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Philando Castile of Minnesota.
OBAMA: They were upholding the constitutional rights of this country. For a while, the protests went on without incident. And despite the fact that police conduct was the subject of the protest, despite the fact that there must have been signs or slogans or chants with which they profoundly disagreed, these men and this department did their jobs like the professionals that they were.
In fact, the police had been part of the protest planning. Dallas P.D. even posted photos on their Twitter feeds of their own officers standing among the protesters. Two officer, black and white, smiled next to a man with a sign that read “no justice, no peace.” And then around nine o’clock, the gunfire came. Another community torn apart; more hearts broken; more questions about what caused and what might prevent another such tragedy. I know that Americans are struggling right now with what we’ve witnessed over the past week. First, the shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, the protests. Then the targeting of police by the shooter here, an act not just of demented violence, but of racial hatred. All of it has left us wounded and angry and hurt. This is — the deepest faultlines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened. And although we know that such divisions are not new, though they’ve surely been worse in even the recent past, that offers us little comfort. Faced with this violence, we wonder if the divides of race in America can ever be bridged. We wonder if an African American community that feels unfairly targeted by police and police departments that feel unfairly maligned for doing their jobs, can ever understand each other’s experience. We turn on the TV or surf the internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold and that things might get worse. I understand. I understand how Americans are feeling. But Dallas, I’m here to say we must reject such despair. I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem. And I know that because I know America. I know how far we’ve come against impossible odds. I know we’ll make because of what I’ve experienced in my own life; what I’ve seen of this country and its people, their goodness and decency, as president of the United States. And I know it because of what we’ve seen here in Dallas, how all of you out of great suffering have shown us the meaning of perseverance and character and hope.
OBAMA: When the bullets started flying, the men and women of the Dallas police, they did not flinch and they did not react recklessly. They showed incredible restraint. Helped in some cases by protesters, they evacuated the injured, isolated the shooter, saved more lives than we will ever know. We mourn fewer people today because of your brave actions....“Everyone was helping each other,” one witness said. And it wasn’t about black or white. Everyone was picking each other up and moving them away.
See, that’s the America I know. The police helped Shetamia Taylor as she was shot trying to shield her four sons. She said she wanted her boys to join her to protest the incidents of black men being killed. She also said to the Dallas P.D., thank you for being heroes. And today, her 12-year-old son wants to be a cop when he grows up. That’s the America I know....And in the process, we’ve been reminded that the Dallas Police Department has been at the forefront of improving relations between police and the community.
The murder rate here has fallen. Complaints of excessive force have been cut by 64 percent. The Dallas Police Department has been doing it the right way. And so, Mayor Rawlings and Chief Brown, on behalf of the American people, thank you for your steady leadership. Thank you for your powerful example. We could not be prouder of you. These men, this department, this is the America I know. And today in this audience, I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers. I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. In this audience, I see what’s possible. I see what’s possible when we recognize that we are one American family, all deserving of equal treatment. All deserving equal respect. All children of God. That’s the America I know. Now, I’m not naive. I have spoken at too many memorials during the course of this presidency. I’ve hugged too many families who have lost a loved one to senseless violence. And I’ve seen how a spirit of unity, born of tragedy, can gradually dissipate, overtaken by the return to business as usual, by inertia and old habits and expediency.
OBAMA: I see how easily we slip back into our old notions, because they’re comfortable, we’re used to them. I’ve seen how inadequate words can be in bringing about lasting change. I’ve seen how inadequate my own words have been. And so, I’m reminded of a passage in John’s Gospel, “let us love, not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth.” If we’re to sustain the unity, we need to get through these difficult times. If we are to honor these five outstanding officers who we lost, then we will need to act on the truths that we know. That’s not easy. It makes us uncomfortable, but we’re going to have to be honest with each other and ourselves.
We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professional. They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn. When anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased, or bigoted, we undermine those officers that we depend on for our safety. And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves, well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.
We also know that centuries of racial discrimination, of slavery, and subjugation, and Jim Crow; they didn’t simply vanish with the law against segregation. They didn’t necessarily stop when a Dr. King speech, or when the civil rights act or voting rights act were signed. Race relations have improved dramatically in my lifetime. Those who deny it are dishonoring the struggles that helped us achieve that progress. But we know…
But America, we know that bias remains. We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes. If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain. Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments. We know this.
OBAMA: And so when African-Americans from all walks of life, from different communities across the country, voice a growing despair over what they perceive to be unequal treatment, when study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently. So that if you’re black, you’re more likely to be pulled over or searched or arrested; more likely to get longer sentences; more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime. When mothers and fathers raised their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer — yes, sir; no, sir — but still fear that something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door; still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right might end in tragedy.
When all this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid. We can’t simply dismiss it as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and coworkers and fellow church members, again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us. We also know what Chief Brown has said is true, that so much of the tensions between police departments and minority communities that they serve is because we ask the police to do too much and we ask too little of ourselves.
As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools. We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment. We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs. We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book. And then we tell the police, “You’re a social worker; you’re the parent; you’re the teacher; you’re the drug counselor.” We tell them to keep those neighborhoods in check at all costs and do so without causing any political blowback or inconvenience; don’t make a mistake that might disturb our own peace of mind. And then we feign surprise when periodically the tensions boil over. We know those things to be true. They’ve been true for a long time. We know it. Police, you know it. Protesters, you know it. You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are. And you pretend as if there’s no context. These things we know to be true. And if we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle.
OBAMA: In the end, it’s not about finding policies that work. It’s about forging consensus and fighting cynicism and finding the will to make change. Can we do this? Can we find the character, as Americans, to open our hearts to each other? Can we see in each other a common humanity and a shared dignity, and recognize how our different experiences have shaped us? And it doesn’t make anybody perfectly good or perfectly bad, it just makes us human.
I don’t know. I confess that sometimes I, too, experience doubt. I’ve been to too many of these things. I’ve seen too many families go through this. But then I am reminded of what the Lord tells Ezekiel. “I will give you a new heart,” the Lord says, “and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” That’s what we must pray for, each of us. A new heart. Not a heart of stone, but a heart open to the fears and hopes and challenges of our fellow citizens. That’s what we’ve seen in Dallas these past few days, and that’s what we must sustain. Because with an open heart, we can learn to stand in each other’s shoes and look at the world through each other’s eyes. So that maybe the police officer sees his own son in that teenager with a hoodie, who’s kind of goofing off but not dangerous. And the teenager — maybe the teenager will see in the police officer the same words, and values and authority of his parents. With an open heart, we can abandon the overheated rhetoric and the oversimplification that reduces whole categories of our fellow Americans, not just opponents, but to enemies. With an open heart, those protesting for change will guard against reckless language going forward. Look at the model set by the five officers we mourn today. Acknowledge the progress brought about by the sincere efforts of police departments like this one in Dallas. And embark on the hard, but necessary work of negotiation, the pursuit of reconciliation. With an open heart, police departments will acknowledge that just like the rest of us, they’re not perfect. That insisting we do better to root out racial bias is not an attack on cops, but an effort to live up to our highest ideals. And I understand these protests — I see them. They can be messy. Sometimes they can be hijacked by an irresponsible few. Police can get hurt. Protesters can get hurt. They can be frustrated. But even those who dislike the phrase “black lives matter,” surely, we should be able to hear the pain of Alton Sterling’s family. We should — when we hear a friend describe him by saying that, whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody, that should sound familiar to us, that maybe he wasn’t so different than us. So that we can, yes, insist that his life matters.
OBAMA: Just as we should hear the students and co-workers describe their affection for Philando Castile as a gentle soul. Mr. Rogers with deadlocks, they called him. And know that his life mattered to a whole lot of people of all races, of all ages, and that we have to do what we can without putting officers’ lives at risk, but do better to prevent another life like his from being lost.
With an open heart, we can worry less about which side has been wronged, and worry more about joining sides to do right.
Because the vicious killer of these police officers — they won’t be the last person who tries to make us turn on one another. The killer in Orlando wasn’t nor was the killer in Charleston. We know there is evil in this world, that’s why we need police department departments. But as Americans, we can decide that people like this killer will ultimately fail. They will not drive us apart. We can decide to come together and make our country reflect the good inside us, the hopes and simple dreams we share. We also glory in our suffers because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. For all of us, life presents challenges and suffering. Accidents, illnesses, the loss of loved ones; there are times when we are overwhelmed by sudden calamity, natural or man-made. All of us, we make mistakes, and at times we are lost. And as we get older, we learn we don’t always have control of things, not even a president does. But we do have control over how we respond to the world. We do have control or how we treat one another. America does not ask us to be perfect, precisely because of our individual imperfections, our founders gave us institutions to guard against tyranny and ensure no one is above the law. A democracy that gives us the space to work through our differences and debate them peacefully, to make things better, even if it doesn’t always happen as fast as we’d like. America gives us the capacity to change. But as the men we mourn today, these five heroes knew better than most, we cannot take the blessings of this nation for granted. Only by working together can we preserve those institutions of family and community, rights and responsibilities, law and self-government that is the hallmark of this nation. It turns out we do not persevere along. Our character is not found in isolation. Hope does not arise by putting our fellow man down, it is found by lifting others up. And that’s what I take away from the lives of these outstanding men. The pain we feel may not soon pass, but my faith tells me that they did not die in vain. I believe our sorrow can make us a better country. I believe our righteous anger can be transformed into more justice and more peace. Weeping may endure for a night but I’m convinced joy comes in the morning.
OBAMA: We cannot match the sacrifices made by Officers Zamarippa and Ahrens, Krol, Smith and Thompson, but surely we can try to match their sense of service. We cannot match their courage, but we can strive to match their devotion. May God bless their memory. May God bless this country that we love.
Sports: Portugal Wins EURO 2016 Despite Injury to Ronaldo
Only 25 minutes in to the EURO 2016 title game, Christiano Ronaldo went down, not to return. But then, 84 minutes later, Portugal won, anyway.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Who Will Real Loser Be In Freddie Gray's Sad Death?
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Friday, July 8, 2016 - Some of the political leaders in Baltimore City are vigorously standing behind the State's Attorney who piled charges upon charges on six veteran police officers who happened to be at the scene on the day when Freddie Gray died. So far, three cases have gone to trial, a fourth is in trial, and three trials are waiting to start. If you do the math, you'll see that there is one too many. This is because the first officer who went to trial chose a jury, and the jury was hung, 11-1 in favor of acquittal. The next two officers, including the van driver who was said to be the "most culpable," have been acquitted and totally exonerated by the judge. They chose to be tried in front of a judge instead of by a jury. Now another trial in front of the same judge is in progress. Meanwhile, many of the six have joined together to sue the State's Attorney, among others, in federal court for defamation of character. Before the trials started, the City settled a civil claim filed by Gray's family for half the national debt.
The presiding justice, veteran Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams, has been strident in his rulings against the City. Williams, who is black, is a former federal prosecutor with an expertise in precisely this kind of crime. He is tolerating no nonsense. His early pre-trial rulings all went against the Defendants. The most important of these rulings - which this writer vigorously criticized - denied the Defendants' joint request for a change of venue. This decision meant that all of the trials would be in Baltimore City, the exact same jurisdiction where Gray died and where riots broke out after the death.
Once the litigation began, and it became all too clear that the State had neither the evidence or trial skills necessary to prove a case against the Defendants, the tenor of the judge's rulings changed. His rulings reflected his distaste for charges brought against Defendants who had nothing to do with the death of the victim. He was especially vehement in his observations about the State's Attorney's interactions with the coroner, whom she tried to brow beat into finding that a homicide had occurred when there was absolutely no evidence to corroborate that charge.
Pressure to drop the remaining charges against the lesser defendants has grown exponentially once the van driver was fully exonerated. But State's Attorney Mosby will not do it. She is banking on the sad reality that a majority of City residents believe that when a defendant dies in police custody, it has to be the police department's fault, regardless of the facts.
More and more it appears that the six officers were charged with no expectation or realistic belief that they were actually guilty. Some of the state's behavior in the case has been downright unseemly, including browbeating a coroner into ruling the death of Gray a homicide even though their inclination was to rule the death accidental. Then, it became clear that the three officers who pursued Gray after Gray bolted from the scene when he saw police arriving, had nothing whatsoever to do with Gray's death. But the State's Attorney would not drop the cases.
Just as unseemly is the allegation by the State that Gray was subjected to a so-called "rough ride" in the police van. This is the theory the State proposes in its opening statement as the cause of Gray's death. The state suggests that the van driver - Officer Goodson - drove the police van so recklessly that Gray was bounced around in the back of the van, where he left without a seat belt on, to the point that his neck was broken. Unfortunately for the State, they have produced no witnesses or physical evidence to corroborate their allegation. The lack of an eyewitness is one thing, but a rough ride could be proven by the injuries to Gray's person, damage to the van, damage to Gray's clothing, etc. No such physical evidence has been produced.
The policeman currently on trial is Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking policeman charged in the case. The State has sought to prove that Rice was negligent at the scene and this negligence caused Gray's death. Sadly, for the State, this is not a civil trial where negligence is the desired finding. Negligence is not usually criminal. The Gray family has already been amply compensated.
It is hard to figure what, exactly, Mosby hoped to achieve with these over-wrought charges and trials, other than her own self-aggrandizement. While she was initially portrayed as a national hero for her prompt indictment of the police officers, the aftermath of her actions have been disastrous. All of the cases tried to conclusion, thus far, have resulted in the full exoneration of the officers charged. Furthermore, the judge's findings and rulings bode poorly for the upcoming trials. Meanwhile, Mosby and those who assisted her in going after the six officers have been sued for lots of money. If those trials result in substantial money judgments in favor of the officers, one wonders who the real losers will be.
The presiding justice, veteran Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams, has been strident in his rulings against the City. Williams, who is black, is a former federal prosecutor with an expertise in precisely this kind of crime. He is tolerating no nonsense. His early pre-trial rulings all went against the Defendants. The most important of these rulings - which this writer vigorously criticized - denied the Defendants' joint request for a change of venue. This decision meant that all of the trials would be in Baltimore City, the exact same jurisdiction where Gray died and where riots broke out after the death.
Once the litigation began, and it became all too clear that the State had neither the evidence or trial skills necessary to prove a case against the Defendants, the tenor of the judge's rulings changed. His rulings reflected his distaste for charges brought against Defendants who had nothing to do with the death of the victim. He was especially vehement in his observations about the State's Attorney's interactions with the coroner, whom she tried to brow beat into finding that a homicide had occurred when there was absolutely no evidence to corroborate that charge.
Pressure to drop the remaining charges against the lesser defendants has grown exponentially once the van driver was fully exonerated. But State's Attorney Mosby will not do it. She is banking on the sad reality that a majority of City residents believe that when a defendant dies in police custody, it has to be the police department's fault, regardless of the facts.
More and more it appears that the six officers were charged with no expectation or realistic belief that they were actually guilty. Some of the state's behavior in the case has been downright unseemly, including browbeating a coroner into ruling the death of Gray a homicide even though their inclination was to rule the death accidental. Then, it became clear that the three officers who pursued Gray after Gray bolted from the scene when he saw police arriving, had nothing whatsoever to do with Gray's death. But the State's Attorney would not drop the cases.
Just as unseemly is the allegation by the State that Gray was subjected to a so-called "rough ride" in the police van. This is the theory the State proposes in its opening statement as the cause of Gray's death. The state suggests that the van driver - Officer Goodson - drove the police van so recklessly that Gray was bounced around in the back of the van, where he left without a seat belt on, to the point that his neck was broken. Unfortunately for the State, they have produced no witnesses or physical evidence to corroborate their allegation. The lack of an eyewitness is one thing, but a rough ride could be proven by the injuries to Gray's person, damage to the van, damage to Gray's clothing, etc. No such physical evidence has been produced.
The policeman currently on trial is Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking policeman charged in the case. The State has sought to prove that Rice was negligent at the scene and this negligence caused Gray's death. Sadly, for the State, this is not a civil trial where negligence is the desired finding. Negligence is not usually criminal. The Gray family has already been amply compensated.
It is hard to figure what, exactly, Mosby hoped to achieve with these over-wrought charges and trials, other than her own self-aggrandizement. While she was initially portrayed as a national hero for her prompt indictment of the police officers, the aftermath of her actions have been disastrous. All of the cases tried to conclusion, thus far, have resulted in the full exoneration of the officers charged. Furthermore, the judge's findings and rulings bode poorly for the upcoming trials. Meanwhile, Mosby and those who assisted her in going after the six officers have been sued for lots of money. If those trials result in substantial money judgments in favor of the officers, one wonders who the real losers will be.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Three Days After Independence Day, 240 Years Down Wind; The Criminal Won't Be Prosecuted, The Media Circles the Wagons Around the Criminal; The Ultra-Left President Smiles; Wales Eliminated, But the Orioles Do Win in 14th Inning to Win Series In Los Angeles Against Dodgers
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Thursday, July 7, 2016 - Three days after America Declared its Independence just 240 years ago, Two Days after the FBI's Soul-less, Gutless, Integrity-Deficient Top FBI Hound Dog spent a long long time reciting some of the criminal acts engaged in by the Former Secretary of State who is also the presumptive Democratic Nominee for President, before announcing that he recommends against indicting the criminal, and One Day after the No-Integrity-At-All Attorney General accepted the FBI's recommendation and is closing the Justice Department's books on the matter (and five days after the AG had a secret meeting in a parked airplane on an abandoned part of the Phoenix Airport Tarmac with the Criminal's Husband). What a surprise! What shocking news! The FBI spends about one solid year investigating Hillary Clinton. Over 100 agents are involved. Witnesses are granted immunity, something never done unless criminal charges await, and Clinton herself is interviewed for three hours on the day before Independence Day. But two days after that lengthy interview - which is way too little to actually digest and investigate her answers to the questions posed by investigators - James Comey says that no federal prosecuter worth his salt would seek indictments in such a case. It took a full year for Comey to come to this conclusion? It did not. He knew that is what he would do one second after he was told that is what he would do by the powers that be in the Obama Regime. There is no other explanation. Was he told by Obama himself or an intermediary? I do not know but would like to know. Comey will not say, you can bet on that, even though he is to testify later today before a House Oversight Committee.
We reported yesterday that there is considerable internet chatter about the seven or eight emails that went directly between Hillary and Obama. What was in those emails? The only way the public would have even half a chance of finding out is if Hillary was charged criminally. Surprise! Surprise! That won't be happening.
Some who refuse to believe that this injustice is really happening again are pinning their hopes on two things:
1. That Hillary will have her security clearance completely withdrawn; and
2. That indictments will still be handed down in the FBI's supposedly separate Probe of the Clinton Crime Family.
The second possibility, I believe, was considered by the FBI to be part of the probe of Hillary and, thus, will never be discussed again. I have no facts to support this possibility, but I do have history. What history? The history of the Clintons getting away with all manner of malfeasance, criminal and civil, without any push back by anybody.
The first possibility may sustain the exact same fate as the second, even though the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has written formally to James Clapper, the National Intelligence Director for Obama, asking that Clinton's Security Clearance be revoked. I look for Clapper's response to be along the lines of "the FBI Director Recommended no action, who am I to act when he won't." I simply ask that he not copy my statement directly. Ha!
So here we are in July, 2016, looking once again at the distinct and developing possibility that another crime by the Bonnie and Clyde of modern day political life will go unpunished. How does this keep happening?
Last night - another sleepless one for this writer - I listened with incredulity as an overnight radio host whom I most always like and enjoy, says that he pretty much agreed with Comey because it was only sending emails on the wrong server. A lot of voters think like this man does. It comes from paying a little bit of attention to developments, but missing a whole lot of the details. If all Hillary did is what the overnight lad thought she did, I'd agree with him. But Hillary is a habitual criminal actor with a long and unbroken history of making money and gaining personal advancement by being a bald-faced liar. The first significant job she obtained - a staff attorney for the Senate Watergate Committee - she was fired from by her Democratic supervisors for - guess! - habitual lying. Folks, that means she was telling a whole lot of untruths to the Democrats on the Watergate Committee. This is the real Hillary Clinton. This pattern of behavior can be followed throughout her life. She lies because she can. It is sociopathic with her. Tell me I am wrong. You cannot. She has developed a knack for pulling up her act just a knick of time before the real heavy boom is lowered. It is almost a sixth sense for habitual liars and other habitual criminal actors. That is how they last so long on the public pallette. And believe me, Hillary has lasted way too long. Yes she has!
So, like I said, here we are again. Several of the lengthy line of former prosecutors who "graced" the TV airwaves last evening said they pretty much knew the fix was in on this case right from the gitgo, and not just because one of the Clintons were involved. Normally, they said, the FBI chief is never called on to make the kind of recommendation he made in this case. That is because a member of the U. S. Attorney's Office is working with the FBI on the case right from the beginning, guiding and advising the career investigators so that they leave no stone unturned. It is this U. S. Attorney who would make the recommendation that Comey made in this case. When the former U. S. Attorneys noticed that no current member of the office was working with Comey and his agency, they knew the investigation was not going to result in an indictment. The only question was at what step it was going to be short-circuited. Rush Limbaugh - again living up to his reputation of being indispensible - had said before Comey went public that he was certain the public was "being played." He meant, of course, that the public was being strung along, getting enough leaks and peripheral news releases to make folk think something good and significant was pending, when, of course, it wasn't. Once again, Limbaugh hit the nail on the head. Once again, the public was strung along, then hit over the head by a bunch of laughing leftists.
I heard some commentators looking desperately for something positive coming from Comey's sellout announcement. One said that because Comey trashed her before saying she shouldn't be indicted, she will have extreme difficulty in assuming her usual role as a "victim." While it is true that such a role would be out of the question, don't think for even one second that it will prevent her from pushing on with her march to Washington. She will simply 'adjust' her schtick to one of a daily "expose" of what the nation will be like under Trump. If you look, you will see that it has already started.
A lot of folk, I fear, are like me. We look out the proverbial window of time going forward. We see our nation, our very very precious and unique nation - one that exists without anything even remotely similar before it and without any hope of anything similar coming into existence after the USA is gone - and we wonder how our citizenry today has become so utterly narcissistic that it could actually consider electing a person totally devoid of personal integrity and personal values. Elect any liberal, moderate, conservative. Elect any woman, any man, elect any person of any race, any skin color, any religion or no religion, elect anybody. But do not elect such an utter hound dog that cares about nothing except her own pathetic criminal self.
Please, please, I beg you, America!
Sports: The Last of the Noble Underdogs Bows Out of Euro 2016; Orioles In Dramatic Extra-Inning Win in Los Angeles To Win Series With Dodgers, Schoop, Trumbo, Bundy Star
Wales lost to Portugal, 2-0, when a great soccer player who thought he had something to prove, played a great match. Sadly for the Welsh, that great player on this day was not Gareth Bale. It was Christiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo pulled off a spectacular head shot for the first Portugese score, then set up teammate Nani a few minutes later for the second. Both scores came shortly after the half. Portugal will now take on the winner of France v Germany for the Euro 2016 Title. That match is taking place as I post this.
The Orioles are coming home from a long and arduous West Coast Road Trip. They will play three games at Camden Yards against the Angels, beginning Friday night. After Sunday's final game of the series the All-Star Break begins. All but five Orioles will have off until the Friday after the All-Star Game. Had it not been for the four-game sweep they suffered in the middle series of the trip, they would be returning home with a significant accomplishment. Even with the four-game sweep in Seattle, the trip was important and not a total loss. Especially noteworthy was the series win in L.A. To win that series, the Orioles had to recover from an opening game loss and win the remaining two games. This they did. First was a fine win on Tuesday night, highlighted by Chris Tillman's 11th win, accomplished with a seven-inning, five hit performance. Following that game was Wednesday's 14-inning win over the Dodgers. Mark Trumbo had two homers and a double, and Jonathan Schoop had a clutch two-out two-run double in the 14th inning to win the game, which he did after both Manny Machado and Chris Davis got on base with singles. Davis was down on the count, 0-2, before working the count full, fouling off two tough pitches and then slashing a solid hit to right field. Schoop also had two strikes when he whacked his double. Davis raced home all the way from first, following Machado home. Zach Britton picked up the save.
We reported yesterday that there is considerable internet chatter about the seven or eight emails that went directly between Hillary and Obama. What was in those emails? The only way the public would have even half a chance of finding out is if Hillary was charged criminally. Surprise! Surprise! That won't be happening.
Some who refuse to believe that this injustice is really happening again are pinning their hopes on two things:
1. That Hillary will have her security clearance completely withdrawn; and
2. That indictments will still be handed down in the FBI's supposedly separate Probe of the Clinton Crime Family.
The second possibility, I believe, was considered by the FBI to be part of the probe of Hillary and, thus, will never be discussed again. I have no facts to support this possibility, but I do have history. What history? The history of the Clintons getting away with all manner of malfeasance, criminal and civil, without any push back by anybody.
The first possibility may sustain the exact same fate as the second, even though the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has written formally to James Clapper, the National Intelligence Director for Obama, asking that Clinton's Security Clearance be revoked. I look for Clapper's response to be along the lines of "the FBI Director Recommended no action, who am I to act when he won't." I simply ask that he not copy my statement directly. Ha!
So here we are in July, 2016, looking once again at the distinct and developing possibility that another crime by the Bonnie and Clyde of modern day political life will go unpunished. How does this keep happening?
Last night - another sleepless one for this writer - I listened with incredulity as an overnight radio host whom I most always like and enjoy, says that he pretty much agreed with Comey because it was only sending emails on the wrong server. A lot of voters think like this man does. It comes from paying a little bit of attention to developments, but missing a whole lot of the details. If all Hillary did is what the overnight lad thought she did, I'd agree with him. But Hillary is a habitual criminal actor with a long and unbroken history of making money and gaining personal advancement by being a bald-faced liar. The first significant job she obtained - a staff attorney for the Senate Watergate Committee - she was fired from by her Democratic supervisors for - guess! - habitual lying. Folks, that means she was telling a whole lot of untruths to the Democrats on the Watergate Committee. This is the real Hillary Clinton. This pattern of behavior can be followed throughout her life. She lies because she can. It is sociopathic with her. Tell me I am wrong. You cannot. She has developed a knack for pulling up her act just a knick of time before the real heavy boom is lowered. It is almost a sixth sense for habitual liars and other habitual criminal actors. That is how they last so long on the public pallette. And believe me, Hillary has lasted way too long. Yes she has!
So, like I said, here we are again. Several of the lengthy line of former prosecutors who "graced" the TV airwaves last evening said they pretty much knew the fix was in on this case right from the gitgo, and not just because one of the Clintons were involved. Normally, they said, the FBI chief is never called on to make the kind of recommendation he made in this case. That is because a member of the U. S. Attorney's Office is working with the FBI on the case right from the beginning, guiding and advising the career investigators so that they leave no stone unturned. It is this U. S. Attorney who would make the recommendation that Comey made in this case. When the former U. S. Attorneys noticed that no current member of the office was working with Comey and his agency, they knew the investigation was not going to result in an indictment. The only question was at what step it was going to be short-circuited. Rush Limbaugh - again living up to his reputation of being indispensible - had said before Comey went public that he was certain the public was "being played." He meant, of course, that the public was being strung along, getting enough leaks and peripheral news releases to make folk think something good and significant was pending, when, of course, it wasn't. Once again, Limbaugh hit the nail on the head. Once again, the public was strung along, then hit over the head by a bunch of laughing leftists.
I heard some commentators looking desperately for something positive coming from Comey's sellout announcement. One said that because Comey trashed her before saying she shouldn't be indicted, she will have extreme difficulty in assuming her usual role as a "victim." While it is true that such a role would be out of the question, don't think for even one second that it will prevent her from pushing on with her march to Washington. She will simply 'adjust' her schtick to one of a daily "expose" of what the nation will be like under Trump. If you look, you will see that it has already started.
A lot of folk, I fear, are like me. We look out the proverbial window of time going forward. We see our nation, our very very precious and unique nation - one that exists without anything even remotely similar before it and without any hope of anything similar coming into existence after the USA is gone - and we wonder how our citizenry today has become so utterly narcissistic that it could actually consider electing a person totally devoid of personal integrity and personal values. Elect any liberal, moderate, conservative. Elect any woman, any man, elect any person of any race, any skin color, any religion or no religion, elect anybody. But do not elect such an utter hound dog that cares about nothing except her own pathetic criminal self.
Please, please, I beg you, America!
Sports: The Last of the Noble Underdogs Bows Out of Euro 2016; Orioles In Dramatic Extra-Inning Win in Los Angeles To Win Series With Dodgers, Schoop, Trumbo, Bundy Star
Wales lost to Portugal, 2-0, when a great soccer player who thought he had something to prove, played a great match. Sadly for the Welsh, that great player on this day was not Gareth Bale. It was Christiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo pulled off a spectacular head shot for the first Portugese score, then set up teammate Nani a few minutes later for the second. Both scores came shortly after the half. Portugal will now take on the winner of France v Germany for the Euro 2016 Title. That match is taking place as I post this.
The Orioles are coming home from a long and arduous West Coast Road Trip. They will play three games at Camden Yards against the Angels, beginning Friday night. After Sunday's final game of the series the All-Star Break begins. All but five Orioles will have off until the Friday after the All-Star Game. Had it not been for the four-game sweep they suffered in the middle series of the trip, they would be returning home with a significant accomplishment. Even with the four-game sweep in Seattle, the trip was important and not a total loss. Especially noteworthy was the series win in L.A. To win that series, the Orioles had to recover from an opening game loss and win the remaining two games. This they did. First was a fine win on Tuesday night, highlighted by Chris Tillman's 11th win, accomplished with a seven-inning, five hit performance. Following that game was Wednesday's 14-inning win over the Dodgers. Mark Trumbo had two homers and a double, and Jonathan Schoop had a clutch two-out two-run double in the 14th inning to win the game, which he did after both Manny Machado and Chris Davis got on base with singles. Davis was down on the count, 0-2, before working the count full, fouling off two tough pitches and then slashing a solid hit to right field. Schoop also had two strikes when he whacked his double. Davis raced home all the way from first, following Machado home. Zach Britton picked up the save.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Comey Sells Out; Apparently He Wants to Be Like Hillary
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - James Comey is more of a sell-out, more of a loser, more of a weak-kneed weasel than Paul Roberts, the weak, jerk of a chief justice who is, more than any Congressional Democrat, responsible for the moral and economic disaster that is the Marxist program euphemistically called Obamacare. In case you've been day-tripping in a parallel universe, Comey is the soul-less, gutless, sell-out of an excuse for an FBI Director. Yesterday he strolled in front of a worldwide TV hookup and, for ten or fifteen minutes, spelled out the nature of the USA's case against the World's Greatest Liar, who is also one of the World's Greatest Thieves, who is also one of the World's Worst Government "Leaders," and, of course, here we speak of Hillary "the Devil" Clinton. Sadly and Shockingly, at the end of his wonderful recitation of some of the evil engaged in by Clinton during her term as the USA's Secretary of State, Comey then announced that his FBI would not recommend criminal charges be brought against Hillary.
It was one of those moments that defy explanation. It was like having the world pulled out from under your feet. For the time he was reciting the evil done by Clinton, all seemed right with the world. Someone finally had the personal fortitude to lower the boom on a really bad person who had somehow escaped her day with justice for what seemed like forever. Not since her own political party had the good sense to fire her from the paid staff of the Senate Watergate Committee - for habitual lying, of course - had Hillary faced the music on her ill-gotten gains and undeserved advancements, hirings and elections. Now, even though the FBI had her red handed, lying through her teeth, telling all manner of untruth, virtually handing over top secret material to the country's biggest enemies, recklessly revealing the names of undercover operatives, and other offenses, Comey couldn't find it in his heart to proceed with recommending charges against Clinton. It is a very screwed up system. Comey and the FBI cannot bring charges against anyone, including Clinton. All they can do is recommend that the Justice Department bring charges. All along is was almost assumed that the FBI would make such a recommendation, then stand by and watch while the Obama-controlled Justice Department either openly kill the case or simply sit on them until it was too late. Nobody expected Comey to recite a devastating case against the liar, then recommend that Justice sit on it.
To say that what Comey did really really stinks is a grotesque understatement. So many people have been sent to jail for crimes that are far less serious that you would lose count of them before you went back even one decade. But that doesn't matter. Because Comey intentionally misinterpreted the law, he said "No" prosecutor worth his salt would proceed with such a case. Then, many former federal prosecutors said they would be anxious to proceed with exactly this case, including Comey's former boss, the highly respected Rudolf Giulianni, who is also the former mayor of New York.
A real prosecutor, confronted with the wholesale violations Comey himself spelled out, would put the case before a jury and let it go at that. If a jury clears the misfit, fine. But how dare he substitute his judgment when he himself admits the evidence and the charges are so utterly serious! How dare he? This is a woman who has a long history of public lying, public malfeasance, public corruption and public partisan prostitution. What a pair of hound dogs the two of them - Comey and Clinton - are. And are they ever? A weak-kneed hound dog lets a career liar walk. Good for Washington. Good for the dogs that live there. Comey is now in the same pig pen that Roberts lives in. No matter what he does from now to Kingdom Come, he will be remembered as the sell-out who screwed the Good Guys to Benefit the Bad Guys. Roberts threw a big and very undeserved bone to Obama in saving his old, stale, Marxist Health Care Plan, a move that so infuriated over half the judges on the court that they stopped talking to him for a long time. The people Roberts benefitted laugh behind his back because he will never be counted as a "real" Leftist like Obama. Instead, he is one of those sell-out Republicans who thinks he'll belong to the top social circles in DC if he does what he did. What a dummy! Now, Comey is in the same club. Welcome Aboard, Mr. Sell-Out!
Comey should resign. He should take his minute in the sun and quit. At least it would be one decent act. Didn't we hear for months how Comey was a straight shooter? Then, at the crucial moment, we find out he is anything but. He is a weak-kneed crud ball just like the criminal he was afraid to indict.
A lot of ink has been spent over the last 48 hours trying to figure out why Comey did such a ridiculous and stupid thing. He spared Clinton the indictment but at the same time ruined any chance he had of becoming a Left Wing Hero by taking the extended period to trash Hillary. So he has succeeded in getting both sides angry at him.
The best and most provocative analysis I've heard came from Baltimore Radio Staton WCBM and its morning co-host, Sean Casey. Casey said that numerous sources have spoken of seven or eight emails that are between Obama and Clinton directly. When the FBI asked for the emails, Obama's attorneys said "bug off," citing executive privilege. Clinton, of course, destroyed her copies. No one will ever see those emails. But if Hillary were indicted, the pr secuter would ask for and probably receive those correspondence. And what a bomb shell! Many think they flesh out the agreement the two reached about the story that a video led to the Benghazi attack. If that is what the emails exposed, it could bring down Obama.
No use speculating further, however, because thanks to Comey, it won't happen. Like I said, Comey should resign. Hillary should, too, but when has someone without a soul ever did something that would be quite the sacrifice. Sacrifice is not a word Hillary even thinks about when it is her that is to do the sacrificing.
It was one of those moments that defy explanation. It was like having the world pulled out from under your feet. For the time he was reciting the evil done by Clinton, all seemed right with the world. Someone finally had the personal fortitude to lower the boom on a really bad person who had somehow escaped her day with justice for what seemed like forever. Not since her own political party had the good sense to fire her from the paid staff of the Senate Watergate Committee - for habitual lying, of course - had Hillary faced the music on her ill-gotten gains and undeserved advancements, hirings and elections. Now, even though the FBI had her red handed, lying through her teeth, telling all manner of untruth, virtually handing over top secret material to the country's biggest enemies, recklessly revealing the names of undercover operatives, and other offenses, Comey couldn't find it in his heart to proceed with recommending charges against Clinton. It is a very screwed up system. Comey and the FBI cannot bring charges against anyone, including Clinton. All they can do is recommend that the Justice Department bring charges. All along is was almost assumed that the FBI would make such a recommendation, then stand by and watch while the Obama-controlled Justice Department either openly kill the case or simply sit on them until it was too late. Nobody expected Comey to recite a devastating case against the liar, then recommend that Justice sit on it.
To say that what Comey did really really stinks is a grotesque understatement. So many people have been sent to jail for crimes that are far less serious that you would lose count of them before you went back even one decade. But that doesn't matter. Because Comey intentionally misinterpreted the law, he said "No" prosecutor worth his salt would proceed with such a case. Then, many former federal prosecutors said they would be anxious to proceed with exactly this case, including Comey's former boss, the highly respected Rudolf Giulianni, who is also the former mayor of New York.
A real prosecutor, confronted with the wholesale violations Comey himself spelled out, would put the case before a jury and let it go at that. If a jury clears the misfit, fine. But how dare he substitute his judgment when he himself admits the evidence and the charges are so utterly serious! How dare he? This is a woman who has a long history of public lying, public malfeasance, public corruption and public partisan prostitution. What a pair of hound dogs the two of them - Comey and Clinton - are. And are they ever? A weak-kneed hound dog lets a career liar walk. Good for Washington. Good for the dogs that live there. Comey is now in the same pig pen that Roberts lives in. No matter what he does from now to Kingdom Come, he will be remembered as the sell-out who screwed the Good Guys to Benefit the Bad Guys. Roberts threw a big and very undeserved bone to Obama in saving his old, stale, Marxist Health Care Plan, a move that so infuriated over half the judges on the court that they stopped talking to him for a long time. The people Roberts benefitted laugh behind his back because he will never be counted as a "real" Leftist like Obama. Instead, he is one of those sell-out Republicans who thinks he'll belong to the top social circles in DC if he does what he did. What a dummy! Now, Comey is in the same club. Welcome Aboard, Mr. Sell-Out!
Comey should resign. He should take his minute in the sun and quit. At least it would be one decent act. Didn't we hear for months how Comey was a straight shooter? Then, at the crucial moment, we find out he is anything but. He is a weak-kneed crud ball just like the criminal he was afraid to indict.
A lot of ink has been spent over the last 48 hours trying to figure out why Comey did such a ridiculous and stupid thing. He spared Clinton the indictment but at the same time ruined any chance he had of becoming a Left Wing Hero by taking the extended period to trash Hillary. So he has succeeded in getting both sides angry at him.
The best and most provocative analysis I've heard came from Baltimore Radio Staton WCBM and its morning co-host, Sean Casey. Casey said that numerous sources have spoken of seven or eight emails that are between Obama and Clinton directly. When the FBI asked for the emails, Obama's attorneys said "bug off," citing executive privilege. Clinton, of course, destroyed her copies. No one will ever see those emails. But if Hillary were indicted, the pr secuter would ask for and probably receive those correspondence. And what a bomb shell! Many think they flesh out the agreement the two reached about the story that a video led to the Benghazi attack. If that is what the emails exposed, it could bring down Obama.
No use speculating further, however, because thanks to Comey, it won't happen. Like I said, Comey should resign. Hillary should, too, but when has someone without a soul ever did something that would be quite the sacrifice. Sacrifice is not a word Hillary even thinks about when it is her that is to do the sacrificing.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Wales Storms From Behind to Stun Belgium, 3-1, Robson-Kanu and Burnley's Sam Vokes Score Critical Goals
BALTIMORE, Maryland, Saturday, July 2, 2016 - If there is, indeed, magic in sports, and if there is nobility to actions executed on an athletic pitch, then they both were manifested on Friday in Lille Metropole in France. One of the oldest and least-accomplished national teams in all of sports, the Welsh football team, continued their magical run with a performance for all of the ages, storming from behind to beat the No. 2 team in the sport, Belgium, in the Euro 2016 Quarterfinals, 3-1. First Hal Robson-Kanu, then Sam Vokes, scored wonderful, breath-taking goals as the Welsh rallied dramatically. Belgium, ranked No. 2 in the world by FIFA, took the lead in the match on a goal by Radja Nainggolan in the 13th minute. The lead lasted until the half-hour mark, when the inspiring Ashley Williams stung the back of the Belgian net, to the shear joy and elation of the Welsh faithful. That 1-1 tie lasted to the halftime rest. Robson-Kanu struck at 55 minutes on a masterpiece of a feed from Aaron Ramsey. Now, the Welsh were up, 2-1. Belgium's stars raced forward, flooding the zone around Wales' Outstanding Keeper, Wayne Hennessey, but after Nainggolan's score, Hennessey would not yield. Still, the pressure mounted and mounted, and was resisted and resisted.
Then the purest form of heavenly intervention arrived in Lille Metropole. The Belgium pressure was unbearable and the man of the hour, Robson-Kanu, was exhausted. Welsh coach Chris Coleman decided that he had no choice but to pull Robson-Kanu in favor of Burnley's Sam Vokes. It was the stuff with which genius is defined. On a whim, a counter-attack took place. Down the right wing, ball at this feet, raced Chris Gunter of the Welsh side. Then he lofted a high feed into the box. Cutting from the other side was Vokes. Now, he raced to the ball and leaped while on the dead run. As his heIt seemed to this observer that Vokes could leap no higher nor hang any longer than he did in that rarefied French air. Vokes used his head to strike the flying feed, and in doing so re-directed the Gunter feed toward the upper corner of the goal at the far post. Belgium's talented Keeper - Thibaut Courtois - leaped and dove toward the ball, but never really came close. The ball ripped into that upper corner of the net without being touched. Now, all of Belgium's fleeting hopes were away, fluttering on a powerful updraft of Welsh joy. To see the unrestrained happiness and glee on the faces of Vokes and Gunter was the most wonderful thing. For those fleeting moments, the evil of ISIS and the haughty narcissism of Hillary Clinton disappeared from the Earth, replaced, if only for a moment, by all the good this Earth could muster. Now the score was Wales 3, Belgium 1. Wales is through to the Euro 2016 Semi-Final. That is farther than any Welsh Side has ever advanced in a major tournament.
On Wednesday, July 6, beginning at 9 pm French Time (3 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time) in Lyon, Wales will take on Portugal in the first of two Euro 2016 Semi-Final Matches. The second semi-final, between Germany and the winner of today's final Quarterfinal between France and Iceland, will be on Thursday at 9 pm French Time in Marseilles. The two winners will play for the Euro 2016 Title on Sunday, July 10, in St. Denis.
Then the purest form of heavenly intervention arrived in Lille Metropole. The Belgium pressure was unbearable and the man of the hour, Robson-Kanu, was exhausted. Welsh coach Chris Coleman decided that he had no choice but to pull Robson-Kanu in favor of Burnley's Sam Vokes. It was the stuff with which genius is defined. On a whim, a counter-attack took place. Down the right wing, ball at this feet, raced Chris Gunter of the Welsh side. Then he lofted a high feed into the box. Cutting from the other side was Vokes. Now, he raced to the ball and leaped while on the dead run. As his heIt seemed to this observer that Vokes could leap no higher nor hang any longer than he did in that rarefied French air. Vokes used his head to strike the flying feed, and in doing so re-directed the Gunter feed toward the upper corner of the goal at the far post. Belgium's talented Keeper - Thibaut Courtois - leaped and dove toward the ball, but never really came close. The ball ripped into that upper corner of the net without being touched. Now, all of Belgium's fleeting hopes were away, fluttering on a powerful updraft of Welsh joy. To see the unrestrained happiness and glee on the faces of Vokes and Gunter was the most wonderful thing. For those fleeting moments, the evil of ISIS and the haughty narcissism of Hillary Clinton disappeared from the Earth, replaced, if only for a moment, by all the good this Earth could muster. Now the score was Wales 3, Belgium 1. Wales is through to the Euro 2016 Semi-Final. That is farther than any Welsh Side has ever advanced in a major tournament.
On Wednesday, July 6, beginning at 9 pm French Time (3 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time) in Lyon, Wales will take on Portugal in the first of two Euro 2016 Semi-Final Matches. The second semi-final, between Germany and the winner of today's final Quarterfinal between France and Iceland, will be on Thursday at 9 pm French Time in Marseilles. The two winners will play for the Euro 2016 Title on Sunday, July 10, in St. Denis.
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