Mueller in Boston

What's behind Boston's ethos

What kind of man is the current Special Counsel in the Trump-Russia collusion probe, Robert Mueller? Is he willing to bend justice to protect the guilty and punish the innocent? Apparently so. Howie Carr, a Boston radio personality and encyclopedic chronicler of the Boston mafia of the Whitey Bulgier era ... during the last half century, has researched and written an article in The Daily Caller about how Mueller, then the U.S. Attorney in Boston, was less than forthright in his handling of the case of tour men who were railroaded by the FBI for a gangland murder ... for which they, or their estates, decades later split $102 million settlement for wrongful conviction.

Yes, this story is a little convoluted, but Howie does a real investigative reporters job in laying out all the well documented facts ... and they give us a clue where Mueller's priorities lie ... and to what ends he is willing to go to satisfy his prosecuteral  blood lust and protect his beloved FBI. See: Howie Carr Article. Read it twice if need be ...

FU America

President Obummer, instead of blowing kisses to his constituency as he leaves for his coming life of abject luxury ... wherein he is expected to rake in at least a billion dollars of tribute, is instead giving the one finger salute to his countrymen. One of many of his parting gifts is the commutation of the sentences of 1715 drug offenders (more than the last 12 presidents combined, see: USA Today Story  ... mostly amphetamine or heroine or crack cocaine dealers and manufacturers) who, according to source research done by Howie Carr, over a third of which had used guns in the commission of their crimes (likely quite a bit higher percentage since many gun offenses are often plea-bargained away to obtain a guilty drug plea.) Apparently gun control is, cynically, quite a relative thing to Obummer.

The obvious question is: How many of these drug offenders will return to a life of crime and exacerbate the opioid and drug epidemic that this nation is currently suffering? Recidivism rates are generally quite high among such criminals. Studies have shown that as many as 41% of such offenders will be re-arrested within the first year after release! See: National Institute of Justice for interesting data. Now, may we assume that Obummer's vetting process cuts this number in half ... down to 20%. This still means that, as a parting gift, Obummer has punished us with 340 bad guys out to corrupt our children and grandchildren with their evil goods. (And I am sure the numbers will be substantially higher.) What a sinister way to say goodbye and "thank you" to American for all that has come his way.

And why would Obummer perform this evil deed? Perhaps because he was a heavy drug user himself in his youth and identifies with the equivalent of his former suppliers?

Among others (see: Washington Post Article), he has also commuted the 35 year sentence of Chelsea (née Bradley) Manning for treason. This transgender seditious soldier, Manning, will be released after serving less than 10% of this easily justifiable sentence. (He could have and probably should have been executed.) I wonder what Obummer saw in Manning that inspired him to empathize with this scumbag? I wonder?

Lastly, Obummer also granted clemency to Oscar Lopez Rivera, the FALN terrorist who killed 6 people and was an ally of Fidel Castro ... shades of his "neighbor," the Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers.

Are we beginning to see a pattern here?

Buffalo Springfield

"Everybody look what's goin' 'round ..."

Hellary Clinton it appears has "pneumonia" ... this is why she collapsed halfway through the 9/11 ceremony on Sunday. Now, many other Democrat operatives also have pneumonia ... it's goin' 'round ... Senator Chuck Schumer, Campaign Manager Robbie Mook, and others in her Brooklyn campaign headquarters ... see: People Magazine. Boston radio host, Howie Carr, has compared this pneumonia echo to the "I am Spartacus" scene in the Kirk Douglas movie where all the escaped slaves step forward with this same avowal to protect Kirk.

But the real 64 million dollar question is: Does Huma Abedin also have pneumonia?

I have another skeptical comment about Hellary's health problems. Her persistent and serious coughing has been attributed to "seasonal allergies." Now, since this malady was first evidenced in her public appearances this last January 25th ... exactly what season are we talking about? It has been with her now for three seasons?

One Small Step

Credit for the following idea goes to Howie Carr on talk radio in Boston. There is lots of ringing of hands about localized Islamic terrorists who have been inspired and/or learned their trade over the Internet ... using social media sites and chat rooms. Yes, the United States should encourage these social-media plutocrats to pay some attention to these terrorist threats instead of pushing their liberal agendas. And there have been some preliminary developments taken in this direction ... but surely not enough.

However, the much bigger issue is, in fact, the access to the Internet itself. If we have intelligence agencies worth the billions we spend on them, we should be able to identify the loci ... be they radio stations or ISPs or cell towers or whatever ... of where the ISIS and other radical Islamists are accessing the net ... be it in Raqqa or Benghazi or Kirkuk or whereever. Then use some precision ordinances to destroy these internet transmission points ... over and over again if necessary

I think this simple one-step strategy is called nipping the problem in the bud. Can there be any reason why this has not been done already? (Just like, why did it take us over two years even to begin to attack the oil infrastructure that was funding ISIS?)  If there is a rationale for sitting on our hands here, I shudder to contemplate it.

No Trump

Multi-billionaire Donald Trump again announced for the presidency yesterday and threw some red meat to the assembled crowd ... saying for one thing that he would build a wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for it!. The Donald certainly doesn't lack for ego ... and this is the major off-putting aspect of his personality ... see: Daily Mail Article and Video. Surely Trump might do, as president, many of the things that need doing ... reasserting America's place on the world stage ... restoring our infrastructure ... bringing the American fiscal budget more in balance ... getting our economy moving (even promising 4% annual GDP growth) ... and making this country great again.

And, after eight years of lackluster rule by his current doppelganger, the American voter might be ready for such an offbeat solution ... even radio host Howie Carr here in Boston is rooting for The Donald. However, I somehow feel that Trump is in this race more for the ride and is unlikely to move the masses of the voting public to his side. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before ... predicting Ronald Reagan had no chance. But, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee ... despite his already trashing of some of his Republican opponents ... I strongly suspect that enough opposition research will come out on him as to sink the very slim chance that he might have. He has lived a very fast and loose life after all.

But then again so has Hillary

Five Factoids

Here are five factoids that came to my attention this AM that might be of interest:

1) One of the primary reasons that Scott Brown lost his bid for the Senate in New Hampshire was his anti-gun (Second Amendment) stance ... i.e., he alienated much of the conservative base up there.

2) Kaci Hickox, the nurse who would not adhere to her Ebola quarantine at her home in Maine, is not certified as a nurse in Maine! If she is so recognized elsewhere is not clear. Why has this not been reported?

3) Howie Carr, a popular talk-show host here in Boston, was in a car accident yesterday near his studio. He was taken to the hospital but released last night.

4) 357 people are under active observation for Ebola just in New York City ... a factoid only released after Tuesday's midterm elections ... see: NBC New York Story.

5) Voters in Berkeley, California passed a resolution on Tuesday that imposes a one cent per ounce tax on soft drinks. A six-pack of 12 oz. Pepsi's will now cost $0.72 more in this berg.

Silence!

Has anyone but myself noticed the recent decline of talk radio?  Last week in Boston, the FM talk station, WTKK, went to an (atrocious) all-music format.  It had been almost exclusively talk and mostly right-leaning talk ... except for Margery Eagan and Jim Braude in the morning hours.  They had had a conservative Michael Graham filling up the drive-time slot and that occasional righty, Mike Smerconish in between … see: Gaulitics.com.  Even that power-mouth Rush Limbaugh, after a little over a twelve month move to AM’s WXKS Talk 1200 from the feeble-AM-signaled WRKO 680, recently was forced to move back … just a little humbled (see: Boston Radio Watch ).  WXKS then went to a silly all-comedy format.

Over the last year here in Boston we have seen quite a parcel of other silenced right-wing voices … Lara Ingraham disappeared (and, in her last months, pleading for more advertisers) as well as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Jeff Katz, Jay Severin, and Michael Savage. And, as of now, the only oral oasis for us crypto-Nazis here in Boston is WRKO (whose signal fades fast after sundown … very annoying in the winter time) which carries just the few voices of right-reason remaining -- Jeff Kuhner, Howie Carr, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin.  (Of course there is still FM-radio’s NPR here in Boston (WGBH 89.7) … on which one can hear how to make Nina Tottenberg’s cranberry sauce, listen to Terry Gross castigate conservatives and learn about All [Liberal] Things Considered.)

But the real reason for this blog entry is that I sense that this shrinkage is not happening by accident.  I strongly suspect that there is an invisible hand at work behind the scenes that is somehow convincing advertisers (and station managers) that it would be better if they were not abetting this brand of right-wing political talk radio.  And when Rush Limbaugh offered up a derogatory name for Sandra Fluke after she “testified” to Congress about her need for free contraceptives, even this ratings giant lost significant advertisers.  President Obama has not minced words about his disgust over conservative talk radio and the messages that it conveys (see: American Thinker).  And as Joe Biden says, President Obama carries a big stick and, as we have seen, he is not afraid to use it.

And so, at least in Boston, the pond for conservative talk radio is rapidly drying up.  This was one of the few alternatives to the mostly-liberal Main Stream Media ... but has drawn the ire of both it and the party currently in power. As long as they are going after the Second Amendment to the Constitution, why not scuttle the First Amendment also?

Why I'll Vote for Mitt ...

The RedState blog has a current entry that castigates Mitt Romney as presaging the end to the Conservative movement after he loses to The Barry next year (see: Red State Blog.)  Mitt Romney seems to have legions of detractors within the Republican party: Rush Limbaugh, Erick Erickson (of the RedState blog), Howie Carr, Michael Graham, etc.  There even is a movement called  "Anyone But Mitt".  Most of this distaste arises from serious doubts about his Conservative credentials.  He was for abortions before he was against them; he ushered Romneycare into Massachusetts as a precursor to Obamacare;  etc.  However valid these doubts are, there is one reason, I'll vote for Romney -- he has the best chance of fixing this country's economic malaise.  And I believe that he will assemble around him the kind of people who understand how our economic engine is assembled and what it takes to bring about its overhaul. All else is, for the nonce, unimportant.

Yes, there will be fusillades of opposition TV ads attacking Romney next year (assuming he gets the nomination) about his vacillating on these issues, his Wall Street ties, and many Latter-Day-Saints innuendos.  After all, how will The Barry spend his billion dollar political war chest?  (A friend in the know has even suggested that Romney may have trouble buying TV spots leading up to the election ... since Obama, with all his campaign funds, will have reserved all the premium TV-spot buys.)  But, I have not, nor will I give up on Romney as I think, if he is elected, he will do what it takes to fix things ... like he did with the 2002 Winter Olympics.  Interestingly, David Brooks likes him too for President (see: David Brooks Endorsement) ... perhaps it's, once again, the crease in his pants?  And I also kind of doubt that there will be a Romney bimbo eruption eleven months hence.

By the bye, has anyone noticed the juxtaposition possibilities between Mitt Romney and Stephen Colbert?  Put a pair of rimless glasses on Romney and he could host the Colber(t) Repor(t).

Arrogance

The President held his health care summit yesterday and, as is his wont, dominated the process ... grabbing most of the face time, continually interrupting many Republicans when they managed to squeeze in a few salient points, slipping Senator Paul Ryan the sly finger when he had questioned Obama's arithmetic, and reminding John McCain that it was he who had been elected President. (Oh, how I wish that McCain had said, "could I have a Mulligan on that?") Our President's hubris is becoming his signature characteristic ... just like Gerald Ford was defined by his clumsiness, Bill Clinton, by his mendacity, and George W. Bush, by his oratorical ineptitude. Why Obama is so arrogant is a subject for historians, but may I suggest that his disdain meter often reads all the way over to "hatred" ... hatred for conservatives, hatred for this country's exceptionalism, hatred for our middle and upper classes, hatred for many of our industries and companies, and maybe even hatred for capitalism itself. And this haughtiness, I suggest, may well be his undoing. I would not be that unhappy with this outcome

Now onto a sidebar brought out by yesterday's subject. Howie Carr, a talk-show host here in Boston was taking calls about health care. Someone phoned in from Bangor, Maine and said that the parking lot at the East Maine Health Center in Bangor told the story better than any of these Congressional debates. He said that his cruise through this parking lot showed that at least half the license plates were from Canada. (Also note that the Premiere of Canada also traveled to Florida to have heart surgery ... as opposed to subjecting himself to the vagaries of Canada's socialized health care.) What if Obama and the Congressional Democrats manage to clone the Canadian health-care system here in the United States? To where then are we going to travel to get better health care ... Mexico?