October 8, 2017
Oct 08 00:50 Collusion investigation update Oct 08 01:51 St. Cloud's insulated city council Oct 08 04:04 Wild country environmentalists Oct 08 04:49 Gun control BS from the Times Oct 08 13:59 The NFL is totally screwed up Oct 08 18:43 VP Mike Pence v. Eric Reid
Prior Months: Jan Feb ~ May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Collusion investigation update
If I were king for a day, one of the things high on my to-do list would be to officially end the
Greg Jarrett's article highlights the fact that "Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), have said they have seen no evidence of Trump- Russian collaboration. Both sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee." Jarrett then adds that "even more compelling are the statements of senior Obama administration intelligence officials who were privy to all the information gathered by both the FBI and the alphabet soup of intel agencies which began investigating the matter more than a year ago. Take a gander at what they have said. James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, has twice confirmed that he has seen no evidence of collusion. As the basis for his conclusion, he cited reports from the NSA, FBI and CIA. John Brennan, the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has said the same thing -no sign of 'collusion.' And then there is James Comey. When asked if Clapper's assessment was correct, the fired FBI Director testified that Clapper was 'right,' there is no known evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians."
At this point, it's pretty clear that Mueller won't find anything. He won't because there's nothing to find on the Trump-Russian collusion topic. It's time to wrap that up rather than continue to waste taxpayers' money on a fishing expedition.
Let's be honest, too. If nobody has proof that Trump and Putin colluded to steal the election from Hillary after 9 months of looking, it doesn't exist. Let's remember that the NSA, the FBI and the CIA haven't found proof of Trump-Putin collusion. If that trio can't find proof of it, then it doesn't exist. There's a better chance that I'll see the Northern Lights on a foggy night than finding proof of collusion.
This was underscored by the Senate Intelligence Committee when it disclosed that it had conducted in excess of 100 interviews over 250 hours, held 11 open hearings, produced more than 4,000 pages of transcripts, and reviewed some 100,000 documents. Every intel official who drafted the report on Russian election meddling was interviewed, as were all relevant Obama administration officials.
That sounds pretty thorough. If these professional investigators didn't find anything, it doesn't exist.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 12:50 AM
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St. Cloud's insulated city council
This week, I got an email from a loyal reader of LFR who is upset that the city council doesn't allocate more time to listening to citizens. Imagine my surprise to hear that the City Council allocates a maximum of 10 minutes each meeting to a segment known as Open Forum. According to the City Council website, Open Forum is a time when "St. Cloud residents may address the council with questions/concerns/comments (regarding an item NOT on the agenda)." According to the City Council's own website , "Speakers will be limited to the first five St. Cloud residents who sign up." Further, individuals will be limited to speaking twice a year. Additionally, each individual is limited to speaking a maximum of 2 minutes.
How is that giving people the time to properly address important issues? How can a city council member get enough information to formulate an informed opinion on a topic?
It isn't surprising that this city council is considering raising the minimum age to purchase cigarettes in St. Cloud to 21. This isn't a priority with anything but a handful of people. Nonetheless, a significant portion of time will be devoted to that subject during the first full meeting in November. How did that item get scheduled for that night's agenda? It definitely wasn't because of a significant outpouring of concern from citizens. Most likely, it's on the schedule because some special interest hacks told a handful of city council members it was important.
To be fair, there are a couple of city council members that are attentive listeners. Jeff Johnson and George Hontos will listen. There might be others but I can't confirm that. When Tip O'Neill famously said that "all politics is local", he certainly wasn't talking about this city council.
Seriously, this city council listens more to the special interests than to the citizenry. At this point, citizens only have a chance to react. They don't really have a chance to influence the council's agenda in any meaningful way.
That can't continue!
Whether they'll admit it or not, these people work for us, not the special interests that typically take up the majority of the city council's time.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 1:51 AM
Comment 1 by Dave Steckling at 08-Oct-17 05:39 PM
Thanks Gary for pointing out a major roadblock between the city council elected and electorate. Intelligent communication cannot exist when one side has a two minute buzzer.
The current council has two members which should excuse themselves in any discussion, motion or vote regarding refugee resettlement. Steve Laraway and a Dave Masters. Neither can be objective or impartial as both have conflicts of interest. Mr. Masters is an instructor with refugees in his classes and his job is jeprodized if he choses sides. Mr. Laraway sits on the board of Centra Care which has many thousands of refugee patients. In no manner can he be without conflict.
Wild country environmentalists
There's a fight happening in the Mountain West that people in the Midwest aren't that aware of. Midwesterners heard about it from time-to-time when President Obama or President Clinton put federal land off-limits to mining with the stroke of a pen and the Antiquities Act of 1906. According to this report , the Antiquities Act of 1906 passed to "protect prehistoric Native American antiquities."
As time passed, progressive presidents like Clinton and Obama started using the Antiquities Act to limit the use of federal lands. When President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in 2017, he took "1.35 million acres" off-limits for mining. That's half the size of Yellowstone National Park. When President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996, he put 1.9 million acres off-limits. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is bigger than Glacier National Park.
Wilderness-hungry environmental activists (like Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, aka BHA) are already running ads to essentially threaten lawsuits if the Interior Department follows through with reducing the size of these national monuments:
From the reaction of many environmental groups to Secretary Zinke's review, you would think antiquities will go unprotected. For example, a $1.4 million advertising campaign says "Mr. Secretary, don't turn your back on Roosevelt now." According to Land Tawney, president of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA), the organization sponsoring the ad campaign, "Our national monuments have stood the test of time, and the present review could trigger a game of political football, leaving some of our most cherished landscapes in limbo."
In Western states like Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho, $1.4 million is a monstrous ad campaign. Make no mistake about this. BHA's goal isn't to limit land usage. BHA's goal is to prohibit land usage it doesn't agree with.
Bears Ears could be reduced to 160,000 acres.
That's still a ton of land. The beauty of the land would still be maintained:
It would still be breathtaking:
BHA's vision is to "create de facto wilderness areas where backpackers displace loggers, ranchers, and miners. They do this in the name of protecting public lands, suggesting that throngs of Patagonia-clad hikers, who demand new trails, climb rock walls with holes drilled in the rock for protection, and leave dozens of fire rings around popular lakes, do no damage."
Secretary Zinke isn't focusing on the lawsuits that will inevitably get filed:
At issue in Zinke's review is the phrase in the act limiting designations to "the smallest area compatible" with "the protection of objects of historic and scientific interest."
I don't doubt that these land-hungry environmental activists will find judges sympathetic to their causes. I'm equally certain those sympathetic judges will get slapped down in the appellate courts.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 4:04 AM
Comment 1 by Craig Seliskar at 08-Oct-17 09:39 AM
Land grabs must end they threaten the livelihoods of many hard working Americans. Monument size can and should be reduced to make way for great activities that make for a better economy and greater national security. Mining and logging can and will be done in in methods that sustain the environment.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 08-Oct-17 09:48 AM
Craig, I wholeheartedly agree. If I got paid $5 for each dire prediction that the environmental activists made, I'd be wealthy. If I got another dollar for each of those dire predictions that they got wrong, I'd be richer than Warren Buffett. I'm finished listening to their BS.
Comment 2 by DAVID J.iNGRAHAM at 08-Oct-17 07:11 PM
The national monument policy that is being implemented is a policy of neglect for proper land management by not allowing the harvest of over grown landscape that in time will be come wild fire disasters. Harvest of the timber takes away the fuel for these terrible fires. The cost of managing national monuments is higher cost to the people, as it is supported by tax payers rather than some return from timber leases as multiple use. So if any body tells you monuments are better for the economy. it is a down right lie. All the benefits of national monuments can be accomplished thru multiple us as well as much more. The land designated per the Antiquities Act have to be confirmed by congress before any of these lands are truly monuments. National monument land designation is a communistic policy as well, where the right of the individual person is no longer allowed to stake and develop natural resource claims for the value held in these resources. They are now government owned and controlled at the dispossession of the will of government. So yes we are definitely becoming a communist nation under the divisive tactics of the Environmentalist lies, to steal the rights of the people frm the land
Comment 3 by Paul Swift at 08-Oct-17 07:22 PM
As a firm believer in the constitution, there is nothing in it that gives more than 10 square miles to the federal government in any state. Somehow, 200 years later, the dumb bastards cant read.imagine how rich this country would be without us paying all these shitheads for riding around in their new vehicles with their thumbs stuck up their ass.
Comment 4 by Lisa R at 09-Oct-17 12:55 AM
Thanks for the great blog, Gary. I shared it with my mining friends.
Response 4.1 by Gary Gross at 09-Oct-17 01:34 AM
Thanks Lisa. This isn't just about mining. It's about whether we'll tolerate intrusive, out-of-control government. It isn't just that the BLM, the US Fish & Wildlife Service & Army Corps of Engineers have been infiltrated by environmental activists. It's that this is part of the Deep State.
Gun control BS from the Times
This St. Cloud Times Our View editorial is littered with gun control advocates' BS from beginning to end. It starts with "No matter the body count (and injury count) last week in Las Vegas. No matter how many will die in the next U.S. mass shooting, which statistically is expected to happen today. No matter how long this madness keeps up, don't expect federal laws to help stem it anytime soon."
I hate bursting Randy's bubble but it's pretty likely that Congress will pass a law prohibiting bump stocks. So much for not expecting new "federal laws" to stop gun violence. It doesn't end there. The editorial continues, saying "That's why this board, along with most Americans, sees a good starting point being the long-proposed plan to require background checks for all gun purchases online and at gun shows. It's not the perfect answer alone. But it is a needed addition to existing laws."
Actually, it isn't a needed addition since it's already the law of the land. Whether a person buys a gun at gun shop or gun show, the buyer must undergo a background check. Period. This paragraph is filled with misinformation:
This board stated in 2015 that's worth a discussion, given rapid gunfire is common to so many mass shootings. Congress from 1994 to 2004 banned certain semi-automatic assault weapons and magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Did it help? Hard to say, but back then America was not averaging one mass shooting a day, either.
It isn't difficult to say. Leah Libresco studied the subject.
Here's what she discovered:
In real life, silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don't make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer. Magazine limits were a little more promising, but a practiced shooter could still change magazines so fast as to make the limit meaningless .
It's apparent that the Times Editorial Board haven't done the extensive research that Ms. Libresco has done. If they had, they'd know the things that she's written about.
Remember, though, the priority of any legislative package is to identify people who pose risks, not inanimate objects.
Tell that to the Democrats. Most Republicans understand that inanimate objects can't kill people without help from people.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 4:49 AM
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The NFL is totally screwed up
The NFL can't get out of its own way. This week, Vice President Mike Pence left the Indianapolis-San Francisco game when players knelt during the playing of the National Anthem. After finding out that the NFLPA has partnered with George Soros , I've decided the product just isn't good enough for me to put up with that crap.
Ed's column expresses my frustration with the NFL perfectly. In his column, Ed wrote "NFL fans expect Sunday football to be an escape from the politicization of all things. There are many reasons for this - but a not insignificant one is that taxpayers provide publicly funded stadiums to billionaire owners and millionaire players for almost every team in the league. We are all footing the bill for NFL players' workplaces. Why should they become venues for partisan protest?"
Thanks to DeMaurice Smith being the executive director of the NFLPA and a member of President Obama's transition team, partisanship was inevitable. If I had to pinpoint a turning point, I'd highlight the NFL Draft when ESPN celebrated Michael Sam getting drafted by the then-St. Louis Rams by showing Sam kissing his boyfriend . That's when I started noticing the NFL's political agenda.
Another step in the NFL's demise happened when Commissioner Goodell didn't respond appropriately when Ray Rice hit his then-fiance as they exited a casino elevator:
Then Goodell gave Greg Hardy a slap on the wrist for allegedly beating up his girlfriend. At some point, it's impossible to conclude anything except the fact that these players, owners and commissioner are a bunch of out-of-touch elitists who couldn't identify with their fans if their lives depended on it. (Their lives don't depend on it but their livelihoods do.)
After leaving the game, Vice President Pence tweeted "I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem."
I'm writing off the NFL as much as possible. I won't pretend that I'll never watch another game. I've been a fan since 1968, when only road games were televised. It's difficult to give up an addiction like that. I won't have a problem admitting that the NFL is my least favorite of the major sports, with basketball finishing a close second.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 1:59 PM
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VP Mike Pence v. Eric Reid
Apparently, San Francisco safety Eric Reid doesn't like it when politicians protest his political protest. Vice President Pence walked out of the Colts-49ers game when "23 members of the team took a knee during the national anthem in Indianapolis."
After the game, Reid responded, saying "He knew our team has had the most players protest. He knew we were probably going to do it again. And so this is what systemic oppression looks like -- a man with power comes to the game, tweets a couple things out and leaves the game with an attempt to thwart our efforts."
The players' efforts are to be political activists who wear football uniforms to their protests. When the NFLPA signed up to do political activism with George Soros , they hoped it wouldn't get noticed. They tried pretending that they were fighting injustice. Now that they're exposed, they're upset when VP Pence gives them a taste of their own medicine. That isn't systemic oppression. That's what happens when amateurs try playing politics with the big boys.
As usual, CNN's Brian Stelter gets a little unhinged:
Stelter opined that this was staged. He might be right, though I couldn't prove it either way. It's a little rich, though, to hear NFL political activists complain about staging an event. That's a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Thanks to these protests, the NFL's popularity has dropped significantly :
August Winston Poll
MLB/61 percent favorable to 13 percent unfavorable.
NFL/57 percent favorable to 23 percent unfavorable .
College football/53 percent favorable to 16 percent unfavorable.
College basketball/48 percent favorable to 17 percent unfavorable.
NBA/47 percent unfavorable to 23 percent unfavorable.
September Winston Poll
MLB/63 percent favorable to 16 percent unfavorable.
College football/51 percent favorable to 21 percent unfavorable.
NBA/46 percent favorable to 28 percent unfavorable.
College basketball/45 percent favorable to 25 percent unfavorable.
NFL/44 percent favorable to 40 percent unfavorable .
If the NFL continues with its protests, they should expect the NFL's popularity drop some more. They've barely scratched the surface. If the NFLPA continues their protests, they'll be less popular than Harvey Weinstein is with his former company.
Posted Sunday, October 8, 2017 6:43 PM
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