George Rebane

Comey is fired, and as pundits on both sides are now discovering that it was for the reasons apparent to (almost) all of us on RR last July (here, here, and here for openers).  Those who still think the dismissal of this well-dressed doofus will affect ongoing FBI investigations are just whistling past the graveyard.

‘To Set Prices, Stores Turn to Algorithms’ (9may17 WSJ)  Well, no sh!t Red Ryder.  Another belated and breathless discovery by under-educated journalists (and editors).

‘A Philosopher gets Pilloried’ reports on Professor Rebecca Tuvel being attacked by her ultra-left colleagues in academia for daring to generalize inquiries based on accepted specific questions such as “why society is increasingly willing to embrace people who identify as “transgender,” even as it rejects those who identify as “transracial.” Why laud Caitlyn Jenner while vilifying Rachel Dolezal ?”  Read the article to see the next level of what may only be called rabid insanity that lies at the heart of the attack she is currently under.  Jillian Kay Melchior of Heat Street notes that “it’s her opponents on the progressive left that this saga should really frighten. Their reaction suggests their ideas can’t withstand even the most basic critical scrutiny. Such fragile principles (of the Left) aren’t persuasive or enduring.”

[update]  The Canning of Comey Cauldron boils over.  Liberals, nationally and in these pages, have again evoked their ‘gruberized American voter’ audience for which they are playing all versions of ‘Comey was fired to stop the FBI from discovering dirt on Trump’.  You really have to believe that the electorate is stupid to float that one since Comey was not a material participant in or contributor to the FBI’s ongoing investigations, merely the politically clumsy head of the bureau who couldn’t keep his foot out of his mouth.  That both Republican and Democrat MoCs demand the continuance of these investigations has settled the matter in the minds of the more discerning.  But that makes no never mind to leftwing worthies ranging from Chuck Schumer to some of our own commenters – the national Dump Trump chorus must not skip a beat.

Pot Panel Lists to Port.  The county’s panel to recommend its new marijuana ordnance was completed by the Supes yesterday.  Republican Chairman Bob Hren and other conservatives pointed out the obvious list of the 14 originally accepted panelists that included nary a person from the Right.  In response, the BoS decided to appoint two more to the panel, one of whom is Mr Don Bessee, Executive Director of the Northern California chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, RR reader, and frequent commenter in these pages.  We hope that Mr Bessee will keep RR readers up to date with the panel’s doings, and maybe even contribute a byline commentary now and then on his views about the arrival of legalized RMJ in Nevada County.  (more here)

‘The Left’s War on Free Speech’ has a long history which is neatly summarized by WSJ editorial board member and national columnist Kim Strassel.  It is published in the April 2017 Imprimis of Hillsdale College where she spoke earlier this year.  There Ms Strassel not only highlights the tremendous damage that the Left is doing to our national wellbeing with their vitriolic and often violent opposition to free speech in our public forums, but also provides some important remedies still available to those Americans who hold our Constitution dear.

[11may17 update]  NPR is prominent among the lamestream outlets in keeping up the now obligatory daily Trash Trump narrative of progressive politics.  This morning it did a thorough job in reporting on another Republican MoC’s townhall, this one in New Jersey.  The audio recorded the totally one-sided comments by the audience marbled with the loud boos, shouts, and hisses from the audience that drowned out the congressman’s words.  The NPR correspondent’s copy again represented the gathering as comprised of a typical cross section of America, instead of a hall packed full of carefully selected, organized, imported (as needed), and ideologically homogeneous crowd of leftwingers.  The beat goes on.

We all know why the Dems are screaming for special prosecutors for every imaginable investigation that may involve President Trump, don’t we?  What better taxpayer funded circus to continue dunning the administration as operating under the shadow of potential criminality while diverting America’s attention to what the Republicans actually accomplish between now and the 2018 elections?

RR has long advised its readers that the ACLU is a leftwing institutional mouthpiece.  With the current post-election rabid radicalization of what is now the Alt-Left, ACLU has compliantly shifted its public stance to where it is unabashedly the voice of progressivism.  This shift is described in the most delicate of terms by Wendy Kaminer and Alan Dershowitz, two of ACLU’s former board members, in their ‘Where’s the ACLU When You Need It?’  There we read how “its new guard reflects the left’s turn against liberal values and toward progressive politics.”  Of course, the grassroots progressives know nothing of this as also confirmed by the outpourings from our own local liberal leftwingers.

Merrick Garland as the new FBI Director, so suggests Sen Mike Lee (R-UT).  What a great idea.  As a former federal prosecutor, the man is very qualified for the job.  And his nomination by President Trump should either quiet the Left’s narrative that he’s trying to monkey with FBI’s investigations, or put an enjoyable twist in their knickers to see how they will then attempt to continue that line of propaganda and fake news releases (e.g. Comey asking for more resources for Russia investigation which were denied).  In any event, Judge Garland’s nomination should put a cork into the demands for special prosecutors.  It would be hard for Team Chuckie to deny the professionalism and objectivity of Obama’s candidate for SCOTUS and oppose his confirmation.

[14may17 update]  Garland for FBI Director gains momentum.  Now Senate majority leader McConnell is picking up on Judge Garland nomination (here).