Category Archives: Government

Conflicts of Interest

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The Presidential Transition Act was amended earlier this year. It now requires that “the eligible candidate will implement and enforce an ethics plan to guide the conduct of the transition beginning on the date on which the eligible candidate becomes the President-elect.” One of the requirements of the plan is that it shall “address how the covered eligible candidate will address his or her own conflicts of interest during a Presidential term if the covered eligible candidate becomes the President-elect.”

I look forward to a clear statement from the President-elect, whoever he may turn out to be, about how he intends to deal with family ties to foreign interests.

What Norms and Which Institutions?

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While Hillary Clinton eventually conceded the 2016 election to Donald Trump, she and her enablers/allies among the Democrats, Media, and Deep State spent four years peddling lies about Russia! Russia! Russia!, the Mueller investigation, an impeachment falsely accusing Trump of doing the sort of thing Biden actually did, and more.

It’s 2020, and Trump is using litigation and other processes prescribed by law to challenge apparent fraud in the election. A significant portion of politicians and the media say the President’s insistence that the game be played by The Rules is a threat to “our norms and institutions.”

Well, yes, it is.

It was Trump’s pledge to drain the swamp of a grifting Elite whose norms and institutions force one set of rules on the Deplorables but are not binding on themselves that led to his winning in 2016. I was Trumps modest success in beginning to drain the swamp that led a sufficiently large majority of voters to support him that the logistical planning for stealing the election was overwhelmed, causing the shutdown of vote counts and mad scramble for extra ballots in various places around the country.

America’s constitutional DNA assumes that men are fallible, so our system is rigged with checks and balances as a form of immune system. Thus far, we’ve been able to through off infections from various tyrannies. I hope we survive this time.

Control of the House

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When we speak of control of the House of Representatives, we usually mean having a majority of the members. A majority of the members elects the Speaker who then runs the body. However, there is another form of control: the majority in each state’s delegation. This has been important twice, 1800 and 1824. Those were the years that no candidate received a majority of votes in the Electoral College, so the election of the President was the duty of the House. When the House votes for President, each state’s delegation gets one vote. As of now, the delegations from 26 states are controlled by Republicans, 20 are controlled by Democrats, 3 are equally divided, and Iowa has an uncalled election that will either leave it equally divided or flip it Republican.

Normally, this wouldn’t be important, but given how 2020 has gone so far, …

I Never Had a Student Loan

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I graduated with my Bachelor of Engineering degree from Vanderbilt in 1970 after paying tuition in full each semester. Fairness dictates that if student loans are to be forgiven, then those of us who paid up front should receive tuition rebates with interest. At the current legal interest rate in Tennessee (Vanderbilt is in Nashville) I would be due a bit more that $90,000.

I’d be willing to take the rebate in the form of a tax credit that I could spread over several years.

The Next 69 Days

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There are 69 days remaining before the next presidential inauguration ceremony. Regardless of who takes the oath next January, there are certain things that I believe Donald Trump should do to close out this term.

First, he should work with Senator McConnell to fill any remaining vacancies in the federal judiciary.

Second, he should direct his appointees in the various agencies to complete the finalization of the rule making process on any pending elimination or improvement of federal regulations.

Third, he should declassify and publish by executive order all information and documents held by any federal government entity related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the Mueller investigation, and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Fourth, he should pardon Joe Biden for any criminal acts performed while Biden was Vice President, but not for any actions before or after his service in that office.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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The TKPOTD for four years ago today was a post of testimony Brett Kimberlin gave under oath during the Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. trial in October, 2016.

* * * * *

This was part of Aaron Walker’s cross examination of The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin during the Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. trial.

MR. WALKER: Now, remind me, if you will, what you do for your charities.
MR. KIMBERLIN: I run a non-profit Justice Through Music, and we work with, ah, famous bands and artist to get young people involved with civic participation. We, ah, we also work with, ah, dissidents around the workd to get them, um, their message out to the general public. We work with, um, a lot of voting registration groups. We, um, registered literally hundreds of thousands of young people to vote over the years. Um, we have been very much involved, um, with making sure that voting machines are, are not hackable and that their, um, they provide and accurate reading. We were very involved with making sure that, ah, Maryland, ah, got away from the electronic voting machines and changed over to the paper ballots, ah, that I believe they used this year for the first time in, um, Maryland. And, um, we have, ah, we have a lot of [unintelligible] campaigns. For example, we had a campaign called “Iran“, um, “Iran Now”, um, during the Green Revolutionin, in Iran. Ah, We’re doing a lot of, of, because my wife’s from Ukraine, we’re doing a lot of, ah, work with Ukraine. Right now, I’m working with, ah, Congressmembers, um, on legislation to protect the vote. I’m working with the Department of Justice right now to, ah, to protect, ah, this coming election. There’s a lot of information about hacking by Russian, and our team that works for me are, are specialists in hacking and, ah, electronic cyberhacking and things like that. So we are probably one of the foremost groups in, in the country on that.

Hmmmm.

* * * * *

I believe that it is reasonably safe to assume that changes in the leadership at the Department of Justice have resulted in The Dread Deadbeat Protector Kimberlin, Protect Our Elections/EMPR, or any of their associates not being knowingly engaged by the DoJ in “protecting” this week’s election.

One of the things the Gentle Reader might want to consider in choosing which candidate to vote for is the likelihood of that candidate’s changing the DoJ back to an organization that would use Brett Kimberlin as part of an election “protection” scheme.

The Bidens and the Deep State

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J. E. Dyer has a post over at Liberty Unyielding about the timeline of the FBI’s investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop and how it interleaves with other events of the past couple of years. She points out that the Deep State and it’s allies have known about the Biden’s all along, whereas Trump and his supporters have been learning about the Biden’s and Ukraine and other hidden stories as various rocks have been turned over and tings have slithered out.

Since William Barr became Attorney General, the Trump administration has slowly been gaining on the Deep State’s knowledge advantage.  Ponder the point that the Bidens aren’t the only game in town – Clintons, Russiagate, Spygate; the Bidens are just one of many interlinked tragedies – and you begin to realize how very big and pervasive this thing is.  It’s a war nobody knew in advance how to fight, but that’s what it is: a war.

In a war, you pick your battles, you pick your terrain, and you shape the battlespace to drive toward your end-state.

Indictments and convictions will be a useful tool for some aspects of taking down the Deep State, as the ultimate and necessary goal.  But indictments and convictions affect individuals, not the Deep State infrastructure or its corporate will.  Breaking the Deep State’s will is what will be necessary to win the Republic back for the people.

Read the whole thing.

I was disappointed that only one DoJ lawyer involved in the warrant application fraud on the FISA court was taken down before the election, but rushed, half-baked cases that can’t result in guilty pleas or convictions aren’t what the public needs. Patient investigation followed by a well-aimed strike at the right moment is what I hope has been happening and will happen.

I’m Listening to the Barrett Confirmation Hearing

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So far, it’s just Senators making statements with Judge Barrett sitting there listening.

The Democrats are making the main issue preserving the remains of Obamacare. Roe v. Wade is taking a back seat along with gun control.

The committee is about to take a lunch break.

UPDATE—It looks as if the talking points memo has been fully distributed. In Ohio this morning, Joe Biden responded to a question about the confirmation hearing by saying that issue was about millions of Americans losing their health care. The Roe v. Wade angle must not be polling well, and the Democrats may have notice that 2020 has generated a large number of voters who care about their Second Amendment rights.

What Did the President Know, and When Did He Know It?

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I remember watching the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973 and hearing Senator Howard Baker ask that question. It has again become appropriate, this time related to what the President knew in 2016. John Hinderacker has a post over at PowerlLine examining recently declassified information bearing on that question.

Highly redacted handwritten notes from a briefing CIA Director Brennan gave to President Obama on 28 July, 2016 have been declassified.

The relevant text reads:

We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from….

CITE alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.

President Obama had several comments or questions, only one of which survives redaction. He wanted to know whether there was any evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Brennan’s answer to that question isn’t recorded in the notes, but we know from other documents that the fact that there was no such evidence was communicated to Obama. Contributions by Comey, McDonough and Rice are fully redacted.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Brennan’s notes is their date (assuming July 28 is correct). According to the intelligence report, Hillary Clinton approved the plot to smear Trump with the Russia collusion fiction on July 26. Just two days later, the head of the CIA, the FBI Director, the National Security Adviser, the President’s Chief of Staff and the President himself met, presumably in the Oval Office, to discuss the intelligence. The report, picked up by spying on the Russians, who I take it were spying on Hillary, was obviously top priority and was taken seriously by the intelligence community, in the person of Brennan.

What little reporting that has been done on this briefing has focused on either the claim that the Trump/Russia collusion hoax originated inside of the Clinton campaign or the claim that President Obama was informed of the hoax within days of it being launched.

There’s another important angle here. The CIA learned of Clinton plan because it had leaked to the Russians. What are the odds that the same leaker(s)/operative(s) would have been embedded in the inner circle of a Clinton White House staff?

We dodged a very large bullet in 2016.

Bad Science and Even Worse Theology

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The Federalist reports that Nancy Pelosi wants to keep churches closed. When asked to comment on her archbishop’s statement that the state and local governments’ restrictions on worship violate the First Amendment, the Speaker said,

With all due respect to my Archbishop, I think we should follow science on this. And again with faith and science, sometimes they’re countered to each other.

Mrs. Pelosi is wrong in multiple ways in her statement. First, there is less science involved the medical response to the Wuhan virus pandemic than many people imagine. Good medicine, like good engineering, uses scientific knowledge and principles to the extent they are available and applicable to the case at hand, but sometimes a new problem must be dealt with without existing good scientific knowledge available. Guesswork based on experience may or may not give an optimal solution, and some guesses will be wrong. Today’s news about Nashville’s wrongheaded response in closing certain business is just one example of how fallible public health officials, mayors, and governors have been. Continuing to act as if a failed hypothesis is correct in bad science.

Second, while her invocation of science is bad science, her theology is even worse. Without exception, apparent contradictions between what we think we understand from science and theology wind up being caused by a lack of clear understanding of what one or both of them are trying to tell us—or from asking one of them to answer questions about which it has no answers. Science tells us how. Religion tells us why. (See the posts under the Science and the Bible tab in the menu above for more on this point.)

Third, her due respect for the pastoral authority of her Archbishop requires that she submit to his spiritual leadership. If she can not or will not, she has a limited range of options. She can go full Karen and speak with his manager. The Pope would probably take her phone call. (Come to think of it, she might even get support from Pope Francis.) Her other honest choice is to leave the Catholic Church. I expect she will do neither.

The voters of San Francisco are getting what they voted for. Good and hard.

Yet Another Rule 5

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Over the past few years, the Gentle Reader has seen references to three Rule 5s here at Hogewash!—

Stacy McCain’s Rule 5—Everybody loves a pretty girl.
Saul Alinsky’s Rule 5—Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5—Often mentioned when Brett Kimberlin violated it in many of his court filings.

Today, the Senate Homeland Security Committee authorized subpoena for John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, and others to testify. The committee had held off issuing subpoenas to avoid interference with U. S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the Russian Collusion Hoax.

Over the next few weeks we will probably be seeing the application of another Rule 5—Invoke your Fifth Amendment right to silence when you’re under indictment.

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen. OK, a bit behind schedule, but more or less on track.

Yes, In One Sense It’s Donald Trump’s America

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And Donald Trump’s America contains the following:

Kate Brown’s Oregon which contains
Ted Wheeler’s Portland

Jay Insee’s Washington which contains
Jenny Durkan’s Seattle

Gavin Newsom’ California which contains
Eric Garcetti’s Los Angeles and
London Breed’s San Francisco

J. B. Pritzker’s Illinois which contains
Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago

Andrew Cuomo’s New York which contains
Bill de Blasio’s New York City

Tony Evers’ Wisconsin which contains
John Antaramian’s Kenosha

In fact, Trump’s America contains 50 states with thousands of their own political subdivisions over which the President of the United States has no direct control of local affairs—but the local elected officials should. Whether local officials do or not exercise control or whether they are effective or not is generally not a federal question.

Don’t Know Much About History

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The California Assembly has passed a bill to set up a a task force to look at the question of slavery reparations. The bill now moves to the state Senate.

Slavery was not legal in the California under Mexican law when it became a territory of the United States in 1848, and slavery was never legal in the territory afterward. In 1849, a black man who had been brought to the territory as a slave won a court case that resulted in his freedom and the legal precedent of the official non-acknowledgement of slavery in California. It entered the Union as a free state in 1850.

California was a part of Mexico before 1848, and Mexico outlawed slavery in 1829. Prior to 1829 (under both Spanish and Mexican rule), the indigenous people of California were treated as de facto slaves by the Hispanic settlers.

So the history of California is such that if any reparations for slavery are owed, they are owed to the members of the various Indian tribes of California—and they are owed by the Hispanics in the state. It’s probably a safe bet that essentially none of the legislators who voted for the bill are aware of their state’s actually history of slavery.

I’m pleased that Mrs. Hoge and I left California 30 years ago.

No Need to Lie

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I’ve been sued for defamation by people who didn’t like what I wrote about them here at Hogewash!, and I’ve won all eight such lawsuits. Some were won on technical issues, but I won the ones that were decided on their merits because I had told the truth in my reporting.

Because there are enough wrong/evil/stupid things that the bad guys do, there is no need to make up lies about them. Because there are enough real conspiracies in the world to be investigated and reported on, there is no need to invent fake conspiracy theories. Indeed, outrage over shoddy or outright fake reporting can wind up being used by the bad guys as a smoke screen to keep the public from seeing truthful adverse reporting.

Kevin Clinesmith’s guilty plea to making a false statement related to an application for a FISA warrant renewal against Carter Page reveals some of the truth behind the Russia Collusion Hoax and a part of the Deep State’s involvement therein. Reporting about the actual facts supported by actual hard evidence in the Clinesmith case helps the public understand some of what it needs to know about the Deep State.

OTOH, the recently released Shawdowgate video appears to be poorly sourced. It presents allegations from a couple of individuals with murky backgrounds that are unsupported by hard evidence. In theory, the allegations, or some at least, might be true, but the lack of journalistic rigor leaves the story it reports open to attack. From what I have seen so far, such attacks are probably justified.

I believe that the Deep State is real, that it contains some bad actors, that they interfered in the 2016 election, and that some of them will be caught and held to account. Truthful, fact-based reports about that situation will help the public hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable. Spinning tales of fanciful conspiracy theories or knowingly false narratives plays into the Deep State’s hands.

The Truth is out there.

There is no need to lie.