Hillary's "Honest Mistake"

But a liar? Yes, indeed.

From Clinton's E-Mail Shenanigans Sure Don't Look Like an Honest Mistake of the situation (emphases mine):

...The State Department’s Office of Inspector General has released its report about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state. The report does not uncover any smoking guns -- no records of Clinton saying “Heh, heh, heh, they’ll never FOIA my e-mails NOW!!!!” -- what it does lay out is deeply troubling. Even though her supporters have already begun the proclamations of “nothing to see here, move along.”

It lays to rest the longtime Clinton defense that this use of a private server was somehow normal and allowed by government rules: It was not normal, and was not allowed by the government rules in place at the time “The Department’s current policy, implemented in 2005, is that normal day-to-day operations should be conducted on an authorized Automated Information System (AIS), which “has the proper level of security control to … ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information.”

It also shreds the defense that “Well, Colin Powell did it too” into very fine dust, and then neatly disposes of the dust. As the report makes very clear, there are substantial differences between what Powell did and what Clinton did...

[...]

It’s really hard to come away from reading this report thinking “Yup, just an honest mistake.” Or indeed, “just a mistake, no big deal.” Or even “no worse than others have done.” I worked in bank IT for several years before I went to business school, and when this story first broke, I enjoyed an amusing hour or so envisioning what regulators would have said if we’d tried any of these sorts of excuses on them. Since then, I’ve had several such conversations with folks who are still laboring in the trenches of the securities industry, and their bitter laughter still rings in my ears. Why is Clinton being held to a lower standard?...

Read the rest HERE.

Impact on the June 7 California Primary?

Impact on the July 25-July 28 Democratic National Convention?

Impact on the November 8 National Election?

Additional reading (from Bunkerville): Clinton was scrubbing emails since she was first lady. Project X. Meet Laura Callahan.

For Memorial Day Weekend 2016

About this observance — a time for reflection and patriotism...

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The poem "In Flanders Fields" set to music:


Commentary from my friend Stogie:

Red poppies are flowers whose seeds can remain dormant for years, and are activated into germination when the earth is broken or turned. When the soldiers in Belgium began burying their dead, there was a lot of freshly turned earth. In a few days the fresh graves were ablaze with the red poppies, as if God Himself had decorated the graves.

Because of this, the red poppy became a symbol of Memorial Day and for many years was worn by many to remember the war Dead. This is an old tradition we should work to revive.

Accurate — Or Not?

A comment at Weasel Zippers to the May 22, 2016 post Trump Leads Clinton For First Time In Average Of National Polls:

Recommended Reading

See Feds Order Colleges to Stop Checking Criminal/School Discipline History Because it Discriminates Against Minorities (dated May 20, 2016).

New buzz word therefrom: “justice-involved individuals.”

There is also the following in the linked article (emphasis mine):

Obama's Hiroshima Visit

One of many photos of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the 1945 nuclear bomb

According to CNN (emphasis mine):

President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit the site of the U.S. atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima, Japan, the White House said Tuesday, a charged final-year stop meant to advance his goal of nuclear disarmament.

[...]

The White House has said the United States does not owe Japan a formal apology for using the atomic bomb in August 1945. Instead, officials say the visit will serve as a reminder the terrible destruction that nuclear weapons can inflict....

Read the rest HERE.

Also see the Reuters article Obama's Hiroshima visit looks to future amid charges of selective amnesia.

The following Letter to the Editor expresses a different opinion about Obama's visit to Hiroshima (from the Washington Post, emphases mine):

About Sherlock Holmes

(For politics, please scroll down)

FYI:

Hannity's May 18, 2016 Interview With Donald Trump

Worth 40 minutes of your time (hat tip to Adrienne):

What Bernie's Supporters Refuse To Understand

With a hat tip to Dinesh D'Souza's Facebook page:

Hot links from Bernie's campaign site:

Hillary's Vulnerabilities

Hillary Rodham Clinton touts, "Equal pay for women!"

Oh, really?

From Breitbart (May 11, 2016):

A Night Out

(For politics, please scroll down)

Photo credit

Last night, I went with my cousin to the National Theatre to see The Wizard of Oz. No politics!

BWW Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ Gets Modern Update at the National Theatre.

The trailer from the 1939 film production of The Wizard of Oz:

Today's News

Article: Obama administration to issue transgender restroom guidance to schools.

Ain't It The Truth?

In response to Silverfiddle's comment yesterday:

We've got to give El Donaldo some credit. He's forcing the political whores to lay their cards on the table.

DC is spilling over with cheap pimps, and the dirty little secret being revealed is that they know no ideology...

Let us count the ways and hope that we don't exceed the allowable bandwidth.

(hat tip to Skip V. Patel's Twitter page)

Economic Reality

How is this not a death spiral?

I'm glad that I'm as old as I am. Our posterity will have it really rough.

Germany Today

Islam rising in Europe — er, Eurabia.

From One killed, three wounded in 'apparently Islamist' attack in Germany (dated today):

Paradigm Shift?

The Cambridge Dictionary Online defines "paradigm shift" as the following:

a time when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely.

Last week, I said at at Ed Bonderenka's blog Not of This World...

If what we are witnessing [in this election cycle] is a paradigm shift, we shouldn't be surprised that there is a great deal of animosity. And I've come to believe that we may well be in the early stages of a paradigm shift. I lived through the huge paradigm shift of the Sixties followed by a smaller paradigm shift (Reagan),and, of course, the more recent paradigm shift (2007-present).

When a pendulum swings in reaction to a very recent swing, the pendulum will swing hard. If time allows and the clock doesn't implode, the pendulum will come back to center.

From Trump: What American Conservatism Needs:

How To Fix The World

One of my Facebook finds:

Some of the fondest memories I have of both my mother and my grandmother involve sitting on the front porch of this old house, the last remaining family homestead. We sat around sipping lemonade — and never discussed politics.

I miss you, Mom and Wawa — especially on Mother's Day.

[about Mother's Day]

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971):


The reaction of the audience and the music critics to the premiere performance of the piece was negative — to say the least.

This Week On The Gathering Storm

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, hosted by WC and me.

The show broadcasts live for 30 minutes every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is 646-915-9870. Callers welcome!

Our scheduled guest this week is Mr. Ducky. We plan to discuss why both Left and Right are dissatisfied with the establishment's handling of the election process.

Listen to the May 6, 2016 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Hillary Clinton, Glib Liar

Hillary Clinton's proclamation upon Donald Trump's being named the presumptive GOP nominee: HILLARY CLINTON SAYS THE WHOLE WORLD IS COUNTING ON HER.

Reality check:


All this yapping about emails — when the significant issue is HillaryBeast's private server. Previous secretaries of state did not have private servers. She's using smoke and mirrors to avoid that larger issue.

A few weeks ago, I asked one of my Democrat high school students this question when she parroted much of what HillaryBeast said in the above video. The exchange went something like this....

Important Reminder

One of my Facebook finds:

Not that our so-called elected public servants pay a bit of attention to our reminders. They think of us as the peasants beyond the moat, peasants to be managed — as does "the establishment" of both political parties.

Is there any way that WE THE PEOPLE can take back the power that we've ceded via ignorance, misplaced trust, and political apathy?

[Note: this blog post can be used to discuss the results of the Indiana primary held on May 3, 2016. Health considerations have slowed down my blogging schedule.]