It’s Monday, April 23rd, 2018…but before we begin, it’s said some men are born great, while others have greatness thrust upon them.  For many of the latter, taking advantage of the opportunity for greatness offered them requires a selfless act in the face of extreme peril.  Those like James Shaw…

…rise to the challenge and exhibit the prerequisite courage.  Others, even when faced with a less taxing test than Shaw confronted…

…fail at the moment of truth.  No one knows how they’ll perform under pressure until they encounter such circumstances; thankfully, most of us never will.

So here’s to James Shaw: may God continue to bless us with many more like him.

In a polar opposite, here’s someone who should spend a significant span of time in stir for depraved indifference and aggravated stupidity:

“…Reinking’s firearms authorization was revoked at the request of the FBI after the arrest near the White House, Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said Sunday. He added that four weapons were seized, including the AR-15 that Reinking allegedly used in Sunday’s shooting.

Aaron said the four guns were returned to the suspect’s father, who acknowledged giving them back to his son.“

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, an insightful question The Boss posed during a conversation over the weekend: wouldn’t inquisitive “journalists” focused on ferreting out the truth want to follow up James Comey’s establishment of what’s “possible”…

…(his self-declared lack of knowledge notwithstanding) by asking, ” Then, is it not also possible…in fact, far more likely…the DOJ and FBI conspired to promote Hillary’s candidacy prior to November 2016, then colluded to overturn the results and take down a lawfully-elected President after the fact?!?

Small a wonder a majority of Americans have lost faith in the MSM as an institution, let alone its ability to deliver unbiased journalism.

Meanwhile, as the WSJ has reported…

Justice Department Watchdog Probes Comey Memos Over Classified Information

Former FBI director has said he considered the memos, which he gave to a friend to release to media, personal documents

 

Oh,…you considered them “personal documents”?

Ah, yes: the old “personal documents” ploy.  Perhaps if Julius and Ethel Rosenberg…

…Edward Snowden…

…or Bradley Manning…

…had thought to use Comey’s incredibly lame excuse, they would have, respectively: died of natural causes, avoided exile and still possess a penis.

As Katie Pavlich notes at Townhall.com:

“…He [Comey] has told Congress that he wrote them and authorized their release to the media “as a private citizen.”

In an email written by Comey that was released with the memos, the former FBI Director acknowledged his notes could be classified.

Let that sink in:

“I am not sure of the proper classified here so have chosen SECRET. Please let me know of [if] it should be higher or lower than that.“

Sure doesn’t sound like he’s trafficking in “personal documents” to us.

In a related item, as FOX Business relates, Devin Nunes has correctly concluded…

No official intel used to start FBI probe into Trump campaign-Russia collusion

 

“House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday his review of FBI and Justice Department “electronic communication” documents shows no intelligence was used to begin the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.

“We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others were pushing information into the State Department. So we’re trying to piece all that together and that’s why we continue to look at the State Department,” Nunes told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

…Nunes doesn’t know whether the former secretary of state and then-Democratic challenger to Trump in the election, Hillary Clinton, was pulling the strings of the investigation launched against her political opponent. However, he said it is known that two long-time Clinton associates – including Sidney Blumenthal – were “actively” giving information to the State Department, which “was somehow making its way to the FBI.”

From what we’ve seen to date, the only evidence anyone has uncovered clearly indicates this investigation never should have been conducted in the first place.

As Andy McCarthy notes at NRO, at least for those willing to consider…

…the truth is hiding in plain sight:

McCabe: Leaking and Lying Obscure the Real Collusion

He changed his story about the FBI and the Clinton Foundation, lying about his lies.

 

“The Justice Department’s inspector general has referred Andrew McCabe to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., for a possible false-statements prosecution. It was big news this week. But the story of how the FBI’s former deputy director lied to investigators, repeatedly, is mainly of interest to him. It is the story of what he lied about that should be of interest to everyone else.

He lied about leaking a conversation in which the Obama Justice Department pressured the FBI to stand down on an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.

That’s not getting much attention. The referral by Inspector General Michael Horowitz focuses us, instead, on the prospect of McCabe’s prosecution. That’s understandable. McCabe has it coming, as the IG’s 35-page report powerfully illustrates.

The report concludes that the former deputy director “lacked candor,” the standard for internal discipline at the FBI, from which McCabe was fired. It is a charge similar to those spelled out in the federal penal code’s false-statements and perjury laws. Specifically, the report cites four instances of lack of candor; more comprehensively, McCabe is depicted as an insidious operator.

About two weeks before Election Day 2016, the then–deputy director was stung by a Wall Street Journal story that questioned his fitness to lead an investigation of Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ nominee. McCabe’s wife had received $675,000 in donations from a political action committee controlled by the Clintons’ notorious confidant, Virginia’s then–governor Terry McAuliffe — an eye-popping amount for a state senate campaign (which Mrs. McCabe lost). It was perfectly reasonable to question McCabe’s objectivity: The justice system’s integrity hinges on the perception, as well as the reality, of impartiality.

The reporter on the story, Devlin Barrett (then with the Journal, now at the Washington Post), soon had questions for the Bureau for a follow-up he was working on: Back in July, according to Barrett’s sources, McCabe had instructed agents to refrain from making overt moves that could alert the public that Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ nominee, was yet again on the FBI’s radar — this time, owing to a probe of the Clinton Foundation.

Barrett’s call came in just as the Bureau was dealing with the controversy over Director James Comey’s reopening of the Clinton emails investigation. Comey convened a meeting of the FBI’s leadership team to discuss reviewing emails, some of which were classified, that had been found on the private computers of Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner (who had been “sexting” with a minor). Because he was out of town, McCabe telephoned in to the meeting. He was humiliated, however, when Comey instructed him to get off the call. The director and his chief counsel were concerned about the perception of pro-Clinton bias. (But not his own!)

After stewing for a few hours, McCabe got in touch with his special counsel, Lisa Page — the FBI lawyer now infamous, along with her alleged paramour, FBI agent Peter Strzok, for thousands of text messages, many bracingly partisan and anti-Trump. McCabe instructed Page to rebut Barrett’s story with a leak. Specifically, she was to tell Barrett about a tense conversation on August 12, 2016, between McCabe and a high-ranking Obama Justice Department official. The leak would show that McCabe, far from burying the Clinton Foundation investigation, had defended the FBI’s pursuit of it.

The bulk of the IG report documents McCabe’s mendacity: He dishonestly denied knowledge of the leak he had ordered, covered his tracks by deflecting blame, and — when he finally admitted his role — falsely suggested that Comey had been aware and approving of his actions. McCabe lies to his boss (himself an accomplished prevaricator!), he lies to his fellow agents, and he lies — under oath — in interviews conducted by the FBI’s internal investigators and the IG. Even when he changes his story, McCabe lies about the lies.

What a guy.

…The Obama Justice Department “guidance” about the Clinton Foundation probe reminds us of their approach to the Clinton emails caper — call it a “matter” not an investigation; do not use the grand jury; instead of subpoenas, try saying “pretty please” to obtain evidence; do not ask the co-conspirators hard questions because they’re lawyers so that might infringe attorney–client privilege; let the witnesses sit in on each other’s interviews; let the suspects represent each other as lawyers; if someone lies, ignore it; if someone incriminates himself, give him immunity; have the attorney general meet with the main subject’s former-president husband on the tarmac a few days before dropping the whole thing; oh, and don’t forget to write up the exoneration statement months before key witnesses — including the main subject — are interviewed.

With the Clintons, though, enough is never enough. Obama Justice Department officials, figuring they were only a few days from succeeding in their quest to become Clinton Justice Department officials, decided to try to disappear the Clinton Foundation investigation, too.

After nearly two years of digging, there is still no proof of Trump-campaign collusion in Russian election-meddling. But we have collusion all right: the executive branch’s law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus placed by the Obama administration in the service of the Clinton campaign. To find that, you don’t need to dig. You just need to open your eyes.“

Here’s the juice: the old maxim “There are none so blind as those who will not see” applies to The Left in its entirety, along with those who couldn’t care less about Progressive causes, yet continue to pull the handle for whatever name is followed by a (D) with the same certainty one of Pavlov’s dogs would salivate after the bell rings.

Next up, speaking of Pavlovian dogs, here’s further proof gridlock in Washington is the result of deliberate Dimocratic delays, as Marc Thiessen details via FOX News…

Pompeo is close to confirmation and 11 senators are close to making a colossal mistake

 

“For the first time in the history of the republic, it appears increasingly likely that a majority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote against the president’s nominee for secretary of state. If this happens, it would be a black mark not on Mike Pompeo’s record, but on the reputation of this once-storied committee.

There are no instances of a secretary of state nominee ever receiving an unfavorable committee vote since such votes were first publicly recorded in 1925 (before that, the committee voted in closed session). Democrat John Kerry was approved in a unanimous voice vote, including from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who opposes Pompeo. Democrat Hillary Clinton was approved 16 to 1, despite concerns about foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation. Madeleine Albright was approved unanimously, with the strong support of my former boss, the committee’s conservative then-chairman, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who called Albright “a tough and courageous lady” and voted for her despite saying that she was “sincerely wrong” in some of her foreign policy views.

Other Democrats, including Warren Christopher and Cyrus Vance, were also approved unanimously in committee, as were Republicans Colin Powell, James Baker and George Shultz. Indeed, no secretary of state going all the way back to Henry Kissinger had ever received more than two negative votes in the Foreign Relations Committee — until Donald Trump became president.

Last year, all 10 Democrats on the committee voted “no” to Rex Tillerson’s nomination, making him the first secretary of state in history to be approved on a party-line vote. Now, thanks to the opposition from those 10 Democrats and Paul, it appears that Pompeo could soon become the first secretary of state nominee in history to receive a negative recommendation from the committee.

There is simply no excuse for this. There are no ethical questions hanging over Pompeo’s nomination. He has engaged in no disqualifying personal conduct. And no one questions that he is extraordinarily qualified for the job. Indeed, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said that Pompeo “has a clear record of public service to his nation — in uniform, in Congress, and as the director of the CIA.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he believes that Pompeo “will work hard to restore morale at State and work to supplement, not atrophy, the diplomatic tools at the Secretary of State’s disposal.” Yet both are voting against him. Indeed, nine of the committee’s 10 Democrats have already declared their opposition to Pompeo — including two, Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., — who voted for him to lead the CIA.

…A negative vote would hurt the Foreign Relations Committee more than Pompeo. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will bring his nomination to the floor regardless of what the committee does, and it is expected that some Democrats — such as Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who has publicly announced her support — will vote for him. And when Pompeo is confirmed by the full Senate, he would be more than justified in determining that the State Department is best served by working closely with the appropriators and Senate leadership, and bypassing a committee that can’t make policy, can’t legislate and can’t lead.“

For those still doubting The Left controls the vast majority of content on The Web, consider the results of our search for a synonym for “obstructionist”:

Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

And in what can only be categorized as cross between News of the Bizarre and another sordid story straight from the pages of The Crime Blotter…

American Airlines employee receives prison sentence for trying to bypass security checkpoint, yelling threats and racial slurs

 

“An American Airlines employee has been sentenced to 14 months in prison after trying to bypass a Transportation Security Agency checkpoint at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and then threatening, cursing and using racial slurs at police and airport security once they turned him away.

According to court documents, the incident took place on March 30, 2017 at about 5:25 pm, when [Jordan] Moore attempted to go through the airport’s TSA pre-check line without the proper boarding pass. TSA officers denied Moore access to the express line. In response, Moore called a TSA supervisor a “b—- ass n—–” and threatened “to kick his ass” and kill him, the Charlotte Observer reported.

…A police officer tried to detain Moore who “violently resisted arrest,” according to court documents. Five police officers came to restrain him.

Initially Moore pleaded guilty in November to a single count of interfering with security personnel. Moore said he accepted responsibility “for what I actually did,” but he told the judge he “just wanted to go home” to see his family, find a job and apply to pharmacy school, the Charlotte Observer reported.“

“Find a job”…”apply to pharmacy school”; we can only observe Mr. Moore had an interesting method of reinforcing his resume!

Finally, since we’re on the subject of the bizarre, we’ll call it a day with the Billy Ray Valentine Memorial What Is Ya, Ignorant?!?, courtesy of the same D.C. city councilman who recently blamed a March snowfall on Jewish control of the weather:

DC lawmaker’s make-good visit to Holocaust museum after controversial comments goes awry

 

“A Washington, D.C., council member who came under fire last month for asserting that rich Jews control the weather, drew more criticism this week when he abruptly left a Holocaust museum after making more eyebrow-raising comments.

After facing accusations of anti-Semitism, White paid a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the capital. But rather than put the controversy to rest, White and his team made offensive comments and left the tour early, sparking another furor, the Washington Post reported.

“Are they protecting her?” asked the lawmaker, as the tour looked at a 1935 photograph showing a woman surrounded by Nazi soldiers while having a sign hanging from her neck reading “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.”

“No,” the guide explained to White, according to the paper, noting that the Nazi stormtroopers were marching the woman through. “Marching through is protecting,” White incredulously responded. “I think they’re humiliating her,” the guide explained.

White’s response prompted mockery on social media, with New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait tweeting: “Free advice for any pol who has to visit the Holocaust Museum to prove he’s not anti-semitic: Just assume the Nazis are the bad guys in all the exhibits.”

Halfway into the 90-minute tour, White suddenly disappeared, but texted Rabbi Batya Glazer, a director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, who was also in attendance, that he was expected at a meeting elsewhere. However, White was later seen standing alone outside the museum, according to the Post. He didn’t respond to questions on why he left the tour early.

But that wasn’t the end of the controversy. Though White left, some of his staff members stayed for the remainder of the tour, examining an exhibit on the Warsaw Ghetto. As the guide was telling how about 450,000 Polish Jews were crowded into one small area, one aide of White asked if the ghetto was similar to “a gated community.” The Rabbi quickly explained to the aide: “Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a gated community,” she said. “More like a prison.”“

We for one wouldn’t characterize the questions and comments of the councilman and his staff as offensive, but rather an expression of incredible ignorance.

So, in keeping with the title of our final segment, we’d ask the unlearned council member, “C’mon, Trayon…

Magoo