Clinton, Defined

A concise description of the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee from the editors of NRO --

If you need a reintroduction to Mrs. Clinton, we will oblige: She is an opportunist without anything resembling a conviction with the exception of her unwavering commitment to abortion, a “public servant” who along with her husband grew vastly wealthy exploiting her political connections and renting access to everybody from Goldman Sachs to Vladimir Putin, a petty, grasping, vindictive, meretricious time-server whose incompetence and dishonesty have been proved everywhere from Little Rock to Benghazi.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438499/hillary-clinton-democratic-convention-speech

Basically, she's like the movie, "Avatar" -- Awful, left wing, with an appealing gimmick (3D effects for the film, two X chromosomes for her).

Stealing Reagan

Ben Shapiro with an excellent analysis of Barack Obama's hypocritical impersonation of Ronald Reagan at the DNC last night.

Suddenly, Obama discovered that Americans share common values and ideals rooted in individual liberty, that national security is important, that America is a pretty wonderful place – and most important, that Americans don’t need a dictator. It was all pretty rich coming from the man who once declared he has a pen and a phone, ignored his own admission of Constitutional limits on his executive authority, seeks to rule everything from public school bathrooms to carbon emissions, and crammed down a program that forces Americans to purchase his approved form of health care at point of bayonet. But Obama could only make conservative arguments because Donald Trump has abandoned conservatism in favor of a statist nationalism that fits more comfortably on the left than the right.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7888/obama-hijacks-reagan-conservatism-clubs-trump-it-ben-shapiro

True Conservatives

Bill Kristol and Jonah Goldberg discuss subjects centered around political philosophy, the deplorable GOP presidential nominee, and Liberal Fascism, among others. A pleasure to listen to these guys. The hour and a half just flew by.

http://conversationswithbillkristol.org/video/jonah-goldberg/

And, just back from the RNC, Jonah is in a foul mood --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438248/donald-trump-republican-convention-supporters-magical-thinking

Reality Denying Democrats

Kevin Williamson writes about the Democrats' notorious habit of shifting the blame for their failures onto Republicans and other convenient scapegoats.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437647/democratic-party-urban-poverty-distract-blame-gop\

And Kimberley Strassel shows that James Comey's caving to political pressure in the Clinton e-mail affair was completely consistent with his history of taking the easy road.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/comey-ran-true-to-form-1467932483

The Clinton Double Standard

Former Army lawyer David French explains how Hillary Clinton would have been treated had she been an army officer and transmitted just one secret message from an unsecured device.

The end result of the entire process is almost always a negotiated end to the officer’s military career as well as a permanent ban on her access to classified information. In exchange for forgoing criminal prosecution, the officer would leave the military, consent to the permanent loss of her security clearance, and consent to never again seek access to classified information. And that’s a good outcome for the officer — a merciful outcome considering the gravity of the offense.

In other words, her actions would have ended her military career, and she would have been fortunate to resign in lieu of enduring a court-martial. In her post-military civilian life, she would have been unemployable in any serious government position, and if any president made the mistake of appointing her to, say, undersecretary for food safety in the Department of Agriculture, the appointment would be immediately shot down in committee.

To say that Hillary Clinton is unfit to be commander-in-chief is to give her too much credit. It implies that she might be fit for other positions of responsibility. She’s not fit to be POTUS, and she’s not fit to be a private. It’s time for her to slink back to her foundation, make her speeches, and retire to private life. Instead, she’s still the odds-on favorite to stride into the Oval Office. Our nation is in the very worst of hands.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437536/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-unfit-president-unfit-soldier?target=author&tid=1048

In this week's G-file, Jonah Goldberg heaps scorn on the left's hypocritical politicization of tragedies and then takes a (funny) look at the Adventures of Super Hillary.

http://www.nationalreview.com/g-file/437640/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-selfishness-not-incompetence-behind-it

"She Couldn't Get Indicted If She Tried"

Jonah Goldberg, Kevin Williamson and Charles Krauthammer dissect the Comey decision. All very good. --

Goldberg --
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437596/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-server-smoking-gun-proving-intent

Williamson --
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437597/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-fbi-decision-america-lawless-state

Krauthammer --
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437592/hillary-clintons-e-mails-james-comey-avoided-involvement-election

Deroy Murdock finds former prosecutors who dispute Comey's assertion that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case". --

Here he quotes former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell.

"...the only real issue is whether Secretary Clinton allowed classified information to be transmitted to her personal e-mail account. That alone is a felony count for each e-mail so transmitted — whether marked classified or not."

..."If she didn’t know that the intelligence she was receiving was or should be classified, she is far too stupid to be president, and in any event, her security clearance should be permanently withdrawn."

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437591/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-reasonable-prosecutors-would-charge-her

Watch This

Trey Gowdy puts on a prosecutorial clinic in just six minutes. Masterful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC1Mc6-RDyQ

Now read Guy Benson's analysis --

At first blush, it seems as though Gowdy is merely embarrassing Clinton, inducing the FBI director into issue rapid-fire debunkings of her many untruths.  Sure, it's good political theater that underscores how deeply and consistently dishonest Clinton has been with voters, the media and Congress (under oath) throughout this imbroglio. But it was more than that. The key bit comes about two minutes into the clip, when Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, asks Comey about how "false exculpatory statements" (a.k.a. self-serving lies) can be used against a defendant in a criminal case.

GOWDY: False exculpatory statements -- they are used for what?

COMEY: Well, either for a substantive prosecution, or for evidence of intent in a criminal prosecution.

GOWDY: Exactly.  Intent and consciousness of guilt right?

COMEY: Right.

The South Carolinian goes on to give a bit of a speech that may sound like grandstanding and lecturing, but he was actually making a crucial point by following through on the logic.  Let's take a step back briefly: During his testimony, Comey effectively admitted that he was leaning on precedent to more or less ignore the fact that the law as written does not require proof of intent in order to launch a "gross negligence" prosecution. (Speaking of that term, Comey said during the hearing that Hillary's conduct was "the definition of negligence").  Set aside the fact that Congress -- you know, the actual lawmakers -- have not seen fit to change the letter of the law over the century of enforcement, or lack thereof, Comey references.  Set aside the question of whether it's within Comey's authority to basically rewrite laws based on precedent.  And set aside the point that Hillary's decision to order the creation of her unsecure email scheme was a manifestly intentional act -- especially when no "reasonable person" in her position could have thought such an act was appropriate, according to Comey's own words. 

What Gowdy is drilling down on here is that ex post facto lies to cover up improper or illegal conduct is routinely presented by government lawyers as evidence of willfulness and intent.  "Very rarely do defendants announce, 'on this date, I intend to break this criminal code section,'" Gowdy explains, stating the obvious.  Prosecutors have to demonstrate intent through other means, such as...highlighting disproven false exculpatory statements.  In other words, Gowdy is asking, how can her many lies be construed as anything other than consciousness of guilt?  And based on the prosecutorial practices Comey described in this exchange, how can he continue to coherently argue that Mrs. Clinton lacked intent?  Good questions.  There isn't a persuasive answer to them, aside from 'under immense outside pressures, Comey blinked.'

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/07/07/analysis-why-gowdys-point-in-grilling-comey-was-so-important-n2189326

And...Listen to this --- Ben Shapiro gives James Comey a well deserved thrashing.

http://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/7283/ep-146-fbi-defended-hillary-destroying-law-ben-shapiro

Banana Republic

FBI Director James Comey --

“This is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions.”

Remember when he claimed, "I don't care a whit about politics"?

Bulls**t.

Comey also said, "Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,"

This too, is a lie. The explicit purpose of utilizing a private server (make that multiple private servers) was to circumvent the law -- Clinton had them set up to hide, and destroy when it suited her, material which, by law was government property.

In order to conceal the Clinton Foundation's illicit quid pro quo dealings with foreign governments, Hillary Clinton,

Illegally operated an insecure personal server in managing her government business;
Was grossly negligent in handling classified material (18 U.S. Code, §793-f)*, including more than a hundred emails classified at the time of handling;
Personally possessed classified material (18 U.S. Code §1924)**;
Withheld evidence;
Destroyed evidence;
Endangered national security (18 U.S. Code §798)***;
Set herself up to be blackmailed by the Russians, the Chinese and/or the Iranians;
Repeatedly lied about her actions and their motivations,

and will become the next President of the United States.
             

*Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

**1)  a)

Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

(b)

For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).

(c)

In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.

*** (a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information—                   

(1)

concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or

(2)

concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or

(3)

concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or

(4)

obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

Kurt Schlister (Written before James Comey's statement today) --

The idea of the rule of law today is a lie. There is no law. There is no justice. There are only lies.

Hillary Clinton is manifestly guilty of multiple felonies. Her fans deny it half-heartedly, but mostly out of habit – in the end, it’s fine with them if she’s a felon. They don’t care. It’s just some law. What’s the big deal? It doesn’t matter that anyone else would be in jail right now for doing a fraction of what she did. But the law is not important. Justice is not important.

http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/07/04/you-owe-them-nothing--not-respect-not-loyalty-not-obedience-n2186865

Good analyses of Comey's disgraceful decision from Ben Shapiro:

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7177/fbi-yes-queen-hillary-broke-law-no-she-wont-be-ben-shapiro

...And from Austin Bay:

http://observer.com/2016/07/james-comey-sells-out/

...And from David French:

Tuesday morning, FBI Director James Comey stepped up to a podium and calmly and methodically demolished every single Hillary Clinton lie, spin, and evasion regarding her misuse of classified information. Months of deception blew up in her face.

And then Comey decided to make her president of the United States.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437485/hillary-clinton-email-fbi-james-comey-turn-america-banana-republic

FREE BRIAN H. NISHIMURA!! -- http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-05/peak-fbi-corruption-meet-bryan-nishimura-found-guilty-removal-and-retention-classifi

Jay Cost (tweet) --

FFS somebody has got to jump into this F*CKING race. We can't be stuck with these two awful human beings.

Updates, July 6 --

WSJ Editorial --

We almost wish Mr. Comey had avoided his self-justifying, have-it-both-ways statement and said bluntly that he couldn’t indict Mrs. Clinton because the country must be spared a Donald Trump Presidency. It would have been more honest and less corrosive to democracy than his Clinton Standard.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/jim-comeys-clinton-standard-1467759942

The Washington Examiner lists the 14 most damaging things Comey said about Clinton's e-mails. --

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-14-most-damaging-things-said-about-clintons-emails-at-the-fbi-press-briefing/article/2595620

Ben Shapiro on why the Democrats get away with it. --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437509/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-proves-political-corruption

Jon Gabriel --

Traitor Edward Snowden is hiding out in Russia for compromising state secrets. Democratic nominee Hillary is favored to be our next President. Chelsea Manning is three years into a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified government documents. Hillary Clinton is holding campaign rallies with Barack Obama. Petty Officer 1st Class Kristian Saucier is awaiting a sentence of up to 30 years for taking a few snapshots on a US Navy sub. Hillary is choosing furniture for the Oval Office.

When I was a student in the Navy Nuclear Power Program, one of my classmates decided to take a couple basic engineering textbooks to his off-base house to study. Since they were related to a sensitive military program, the books were marked “confidential,” the lowest classification level available. Once the violation was discovered, he saw his home raided, was immediately removed from the program, tossed into the brig, and prosecuted. Mishandling classified material is a deadly serious matter, even if the material focuses on diodes and resistors instead of troop movements and intelligence gathering. Or at least it used to be.

https://ricochet.com/hillary-clinton-too-big-to-jail/

Alana Goodman (Washington Free Beacon) --

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” said Comey.

...Joseph diGenova, former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, called Comey’s statements an “absurdity in light of the conclusions that [the FBI] reached.”

“How can he spend 15 minutes describing a series of crimes being committed … and then he says no reasonable prosecutor [would prosecute]?” said diGenova. “That is ridiculous. I consider myself a reasonable prosecutor and I would have brought charges based on the facts that he accumulated.”

...“The standard under the statute is gross negligence. [Comey] described the conduct as ‘extremely careless,’” said diGenova. “To me that is worse. His conclusion that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges is completely inconsistent with his recitation of the facts and the law.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/ex-u-s-prosecutors-fbis-clinton-press-conference-absolutely-bizarre/

A couple of lawyerly assessments of Comey's disgraceful performance --

Shannen Coffin -- http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437493/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-fbi-director-comey-built-strong-case-decided-against

Andrew McCarthy -- http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook

Even the Associated Press, a left wing mouthpiece of the left wing mainstream media, agrees that Clinton is a damn liar. --

http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-email-fact-check-2016-7

An optimistic view by Kevin Williamson --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437507/2016-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-elites-aristocrats-nobility

Irrationalia

Neil DeGrasse Tyson --

"Earth needs a virtual country: #Rationalia, with a one-line Constitution: All policy shall be based on the weight of evidence."

Kevin Williamson's retort --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437324/neil-degrasse-tysons-rationality-pipe-dream

While Jonah Goldberg offered a link to his latest Prager U. presentation --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_rBxHxaco