Another Lie

Kevin Clinesmith, an ex-FBI lawyer at the heart of the Eric Holder FBI’s smear of Carter Page as part of the Progressive-Democrats’ effort to get back at Donald Trump for his effrontery in winning a Presidential election, has been charged with doctoring an email to justify a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Here’s the additional lie:

Mr. Clinesmith’s attorney says his client didn’t intend to mislead the court.

He deliberately altered an email to say the opposite of what it actually said when preparing it to be forwarded in support of a surveillance application. How is it possible to do that without intending to mislead the court?

Sounds to me like another of Clinesmith’s lies, this time through his lawyer.

Laughably, some (not the editors) are arguing Clinesmith altered the email to

…convey to the court that Page was not sent by the CIA to meet with the Russians. That’s the difference between an “operational contact” and a “source”. … He shouldn’t have changed the other guy’s email to do it and he therefore is guilty of that, but what he was trying to convey was the truth.

Not quite. If Clinesmith had been interested in the truth, he would have included a separate note explaining his FBI view of the CIA‘s difference between “source” and “operational contact.” He chose not to; he chose to alter the CIA email to say the opposite of what the CIA said about its own asset.

Clinesmith knew what he was doing, and he lied about it.

Tyranny of the Left

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) says he’ll cut off the power and water to those homes and businesses

that are in violation of gathering regulations as a means to “shut these places down permanently.”
“By turning off that power, shutting off that water we feel we can close these places down, which usually are not one-time offenders but multiple-offenders[.]”

Never mind that draconian lockdowns damage the economy to the point of doing more harm than the Wuhan Virus. Garcetti, in addition to permanently destroying businesses—and the lives of those business’ owners, operators, and employees—fully intends to destroy homes and homeowners, also.

This is the tyranny we can expect from a Progressive-Democrat Federal administration, empirically demonstrated.

Hong Kong Semi-Autonomy

Here’s another hint. In the ongoing dispute between the US and the People’s Republic of China—the latest example of which is the lack of US visa renewals for PRC journalists—Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of Chinese and English editions of the PRC State organ Global Times, had this:

From what I know, given that the US side hasn’t renewed visa of Chinese journalists, Chinese side has prepared for the worst scenario that all Chinese journalists have to leave the US. If that’s the case, Chinese side will retaliate, including targeting US journalists based in HK[]

Including targeting US journalists based in HK.  So much for Hong Kong’s semi-autonomy. It’s plainly a fully absorbed satrap of the PRC.

Unlawful Delay?

The Hong Kong Bar Association says the People’s Republic of China government’s move to delay Hong Kong’s legislature elections by a year “may be unlawful.”

They are mistaken; the delay is not unlawful. Unlawfulness presumes that there are laws to be broken. In a nation that rules by law—as opposed nations that operate under the principle of rule of law—any law is what the men of the People’s Republic of China government say it is. And they’ll adjust the text of a law, or rescind one or write a new one, at whim to suit their whims.

There are no laws that can be broken in the PRC. A law in that nation is simply a strip of clay, to be molded and remolded at convenience.