This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Legal

  • Ryan Lonergan; veteran confronts phony at school

    Ryan Lonergan; veteran confronts phony at school

    Ryan Lonergan

    A few days ago, someone sent us a link to the story of Ryan Lonergan, an Iraq War veteran who is working on his Masters Degree at George Williams College in Wisconsin in social work that would enable him to help veterans adjust to this insane civilian world we all live in after our service.

    Some doofus came up to him in the school’s cafeteria and started telling Lonergan a fantastical story about the student’s career as a Marine Corps officer. Lonergan drilled down into the student’s tale until the student finally admitted that he was FOS. The real veteran got a little loud and the phony ran from the confrontation. For Ryan, the story ended right there. Until he got a letter the next day from the school administration.

    They claimed that Lonergan had violated their policy 4.13.a below;

    George Williams Policy

    According to Fox News 6 the disciplinary hearing was scheduled for yesterday, but it was cancelled. Our friends at Badger Pundit send us a link to their yeoman’s work on an article on the subject.

    I’ve decided not to run some of the videos that I’ve seen lately because the folks who confront these phonies behave badly. I’m not saying that Ryan behaved badly – it sounds as if he mostly handled the situation like an adult and the school’s administration are over reacting. However, we have to measure our response to these phonies unless we all begin to look like bigger assholes than them. Let the judges and prosecutors get emotional.

  • About that Iran Nuclear Deal . . . .

    Remember the current     group of feckless fools and clueless tools’     Administration’s nuclear deal with Iran? You know, the one that     that gang of incompetent neophytes     the Administration refused to allow to be made public for review before it was signed?

    Well, maybe now we know why. Turns out some some senior Administration officials who’ll have to implement the deal have taken a hard look at what this       clown krewe     Administration agreed to allow in that deal. And there’s a problem.

    The deal appears to violate existing US law.  Law signed by – you guessed it – the current POTUS himself.  In fact, it runs afoul of multiple existing laws.

    The deal purportedly allows subsidiaries of US firms to do business with Iran. This is a major part of the deal, and is expected to result in tens of billions of dollars of trade between Iran and those subsidiaries.

    However, it so happens there’s this little thing called the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012..  It was passed by Congress in the summer of 2012. It was signed into law by the current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, in August of that year.

    Section 218 of that law explicitly prohibits foreign subsidiaries of US companies from doing business with Iran. Section 605 of that law requires this to remain the case until (1) the POTUS certifies to Congress that Iran is no longer listed by the DoS as a state sponsor of international terrorism, and (2) the POTUS certifies to Congress that Iran has ceased efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.  Both are required.

    The Iran nuclear deal is not a treaty; it is an “executive agreement” It thus does not trump existing Federal law.

    What’s more, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015  – also signed by the current POTUS –  specifically states that prior sanctions on Iran mandated by Federal law are not affected by the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran; they thus remain in effect.  So the current POTUS has signed Federal law requiring any US nuclear deal with Iran to be IAW existing US laws regarding Iran sanctions not once, but twice.

    I mean, really – how freaking incompetent must a group be to “accidentally” sign off on an agreement that is patently illegal?  Did they not bother to have any of their legal staff look at the damn thing before signing on the dotted line?

    Looks to me like someone has painted themselves into a corner. Best I can tell, the only way to actually implement key parts of the Iran nuclear deal at this point would be to require a clear violation of Federal law. Or, alternatively, the POTUS could certify to Congress that Iran is now neither a sponsor of terrorism or pursuing any form of WMD program.

    Personally, I’m betting on the former (ignore existing law). This Administration IMO seems quite comfortable with that, and I don’t think even this clueless krewe is stupid enough to do the latter.  But that’s just me.

  • Gee, What A Surprise

    Well, Clintoon’s private email is in the news again. And not for good reasons.

    1.  It seems that, well . . . some people in other countries were interested in Clintoon’s private email server. Seriously interested.

    As in, “people who appear to be linked to the People’s Republic of China”. That private email server was apparently targeted by malware operating from locations in China, South Korea, and Germany. The malware executing these attacks is reportedly linked to China.

    Other attacks, for which more information has not been made public, apparently also occurred.

    These attacks occurred during late 2013 and 2014. Those attacks were detected (and apparently blocked) by anti-malware software installed to protect the server in October 2013.

    No such anti-malware software was installed on the server prior to 2013. It’s thus unknown if the server was targeted prior to October 2013.

    However, were I a betting man, well . . . yeah, I’d guess it was. Some of our adversaries seem pretty damn competent when it comes to this kind of stuff.

    2.  Remember Platte River Networks and their lack of backups for Clintoon’s mail server? Well, it looks like maybe there’s an explanation for that after all.  Apparently, a Clintoon family firm – Clinton Executive Service Corporation – reportedly asked Platte River to reduce the amount of time for which backups of the server were held on-file.

    It appears Platte River originally had backups of the server from day one.  Clinton Executive Service Corporation seems to have asked them to reduce that to 30 days – apparently after the FBI began looking into the matter. Don’t know about you, but that makes me wonder.

    3.  However, it’s not only Clintoon’s private server that’s an issue. Apparently the FBI recently impounded four servers from the Department of State in conjunction with the matter.  Interesting.

    4.  And, finally: remember those claims by Clintoon that she never saw anything marked as classified in her private email?  Well, apparently the lady has rather poor eyesight – or has either very poor reading comprehension or memory.  At least 3 of the emails that the FBI received from her lawyer do indeed appear to be marked as being classified.  And the total number of emails found to contain classified information – whether marked or unmarked – is now up to around 400.

    Oh, and did I mention that one of those emails found to be marked as classified discussed the Iranian nuclear program?

    . . .

    But hey – what’s the problem?  No foreign governments could possibly have any interest in Clintoon’s chit-chat with her aides.  I mean, she was only the US SECSTATE.  She couldn’t possibly discuss anything in those emails of interest to foreign nations, right?

    Yeah, right.  And I’m the rightful Emperor of China, too.

  • Well, That Didn’t Take Very Long

    I’m guessing any number of people are saying or thinking “Told you so” right about now.

    ‘Sister Wives’ family cites gay marriage ruling in polygamy case

    Sheesh.  I don’t think I wanna know what’s coming next.

     

  • “Toby Miles”, You Got Some ‘Splainin’ To Do

    In fact, it looks like “Toby Miles” could well be in big trouble.

    What, you don’t recognize the name?  Well, don’t feel bad.  That’s by design.

    That was the name used for the third email account Lois Lerner used to conduct “official business” while executing her politically-driven hatchet work at the IRS.  The IRS apparently “just realized that” while responding judge’s order to turn documents related to Lerner over to Judicial Watch .

    The Washington Times has a good article on this bit of new news.  It’s IMO worth a read.

  • Ever Wondered “Why Platte River Networks”?

    Ever wonder why Clintoon chose Platte River Networks to host her private email server?  Well, it appears that the UK’s Daily Mail got curious about that too.

    So they tracked down a few former Platte River Networks employees and asked them some questions.

    This is what they found.   I’ll warn ya:  “It ain’t pretty.”  But the article does appear to have a good timeline of what happened when.

    Color me unsurprised.  When it comes to the Clintoons and how they operate, insider connections and plausible deniability seem to be primary concerns.

    The linked article is IMO worth a read.  But after reading it, I can’t say I’ll be surprised if it turns out there really aren’t any existing backups of Clintoon’s server.

  • Here Ya Go – A “Private” Email Update

    Here’s the latest on the continuing saga of the Clintoon “private” email brouhaha.

    • The number of “private” emails in Clintoon’s stash that have been reviewed and found to contain classified information now stands at at least 60.

    • A guy named Bob Woodward says that the whole thing “reminds me of the Nixon tapes” – and he’d probably know a thing or two about the Watergate scandal.

    • The Washington Times also discusses a whole host of procedural irregularities regarding the handling of Clintoon’s “private” emails.

    • And, finally, we have this from ABC News, courtesy of YouTube:

    Might want to tighten up that shoulder harness, Madam Former SECSTATE. It looks like the ride’s about to get bumpy.

    But your husband seems to be handling the stress of the situation fairly well. Maybe you also should hit the links to relax – instead of the campaign trail.

    (Hat tip to Drudge for the first 4 links.)

     

    UPDATE:  later reporting says the number of emails possibly containing classified information now exceeds 300.

  • “Curiouser and Curiouser”, Said . . . Pretty Much Everyone

    By now, I’d guess everybody has heard about former SECSTATE Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business email.

    While Clinton’s private email server appears to have been wiped clean of data before being turned over to Federal authorities, copies of many emails it formerly stored were apparently transferred to a USB “thumb drive”. That thumb drive was in turn apparently transferred to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall in December of last year.

    A sample of email stored on that thumb drive was later reviewed by Intelligence Community (IC) officials. Those IC officials determined that some of those emails were contained classified information.

    That determination happened on 22 May of this year. But it wasn’t until early July that Federal authorities delivered a GSA-approved safe allowing proper storage of classified information to Kendall’s offices.

    So, riddle me this. How and where was that classified thumb drive stored between 22 May and early July? Why wasn’t that thumb drive turned over to the government – perhaps in a sealed envelope after a joint inspection by Clinton’s and the Federal government’s lawyers – on or about 23 May in order to ensure it was properly stored and safeguarded?

    And, perhaps most importantly – besides Clinton and her Kendall, who else had access to the device between 22 May and early July?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

     

    FWIW: it also appears that Clinton’s aide and confidante extraordinaire, Huma Abedin, also had and used an account on that email server. And it still remains unclear whether the internet hosting service from which Clintoon rented the server – Platte River Networks – did or did not maintain a backup server that might shed further light on these . . . somewhat unusual goings on.

    I just don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.  Stay tuned.