Biden Document Discovery Doesn’t Add Up

https://realclearwire.com/arti...t_add_up_148764.html

Last week, CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman why President Biden would dispatch his personal attorney, who didn’t have proper security clearance, to his Delaware home to search for classified documents. Presumably, Brennan believed that when searching for classified documents, one should have the credentials to actually read them. Brennan’s focus on who was reviewing Biden’s papers touched on a potentially interesting line of inquiry. The question hanging in the air, however, relates to the discovery that started this whole process: Why would lawyers be “packing up” Biden’s office in the Penn Biden Center in the first place?

Not unlike other politicians, Joe Biden has done a terrific job of turning political success into a financial windfall. But someone who considered himself “middle-class Joe” for decades should realize the wastefulness of having lawyers perform a task that a trusted intern or aid could perform. As many big-time East Coast lawyers now routinely charge $1,000 an hour, it’s an awfully expensive packing crew – unless the intent wasn’t truly to “pack” but rather to purge.

The timing here is suspicious as well. Apparently, this moving crew was at Biden’s University of Pennsylvania office a week before midterm elections that were widely anticipated to turn control of the House over to the Republicans. As Republicans had signaled that they were going to be spending considerable time wearing out the subpoena powers of various House committees to investigate Biden and his family, it would be an auspicious time to get rid of anything damaging. By using lawyers to carry out the document purge, Biden would be able to attach attorney-client privilege to their efforts, thereby avoiding damaging testimony about the contents of any shredded documents.

To be clear, there’s nothing illegal about getting rid of musty records in the absence of a valid document retention request. The Biden administration made it clear that it would not consider any such request valid until the new Congress was sworn in and the various committee chair gavels handed out. In a response to document requests made in December from Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, an administration lawyer responded, “Congress has not delegated such authority to individual members of Congress who are not committee chairmen, and the House has not done so under its current Rules.” In short, you’ll have to start over. Biden was effectively setting a hard deadline for when document purges go from being propitious to being illegal.

Unfortunately for the president, the attorneys tasked with shutting down his University of Pennsylvania office stumbled across top secret government documents and understood the consequences. Had they not made those discoveries, we likely would have never heard of these high-priced packers.

Republicans, including Donald Trump, have been quick to point out the timing of the initial discovery and the lack of prompt public disclosure. They believe the midterm elections might have been more favorable to Republicans if it was clear that Trump wasn’t the only one potentially breaking the law. Maybe. But the timing and process does lead to questions about what more the current president might have to hide.

For now, President Biden wants us to take him at his word that this whole classified documents mess is nothing more than an honest mistake. As he says, “There’s no there, there.” That may be true, but the activities that preceded the classified document discoveries raise different questions. From a man who campaigned on elevating the standards at the White House, this is disappointing to say the least.

Back in the 80's, I was an OCA (Original Classification Authority), up to secret level.
Back then, we had to get signed off by the ships OPS officer to become an OCA, and then be "re-certified" annually. The PQS (Personnel Qualification Standard) was about 4 hours of stupid conversation revolving around what, where, and when, documents should be classified, and at what level.

To a man, almost every "training" and "re-certification" ended with:
"If you're unsure, classify it at the highest level you're certified to."

I'm like, ya know the training would have went more quickly, and smoothly, if you'd have led with that...

https://hotair.com/tree-huggin...bean-islands-n526364

The Biden administration has granted a license to Trinidad and Tobago to develop a major gas field located in Venezuelan territorial waters, U.S. and Trinidad officials said on Tuesday, marking a further easing of some sanctions on Venezuela.

The license, issued by the U.S. Treasury Department at Trinidad’s request and intended to enhance Caribbean regional energy security, means the island nation can do business related to the Dragon gas field with Venezuela’s heavily sanctioned state-run oil company PDVSA.

We’re busy securing the Caribbean’s “regional energy security” while draining our own Strategic Petroleum Reserves to the last drop and demonizing clean, relatively cheap natural gas here in favor of pet renewable projects nationwide.

The administration puts up great talking points about how many leases they’ve allowed the fossil fuel industry to bid for, but even that has taken a precipitous decline. Besides, a lease still needs a permit for anything to happen on it, as this administration well knows. In March of last year, even as Biden was talking out of both sides of his mouth and oil and gas prices were spiking to insane levels, his Department of Interior was working on new rules to make permitting even tougher.

…The decision was the result of extensive diplomacy between Vice President Kamala Harris and Caribbean leaders in an effort to ensure regional energy security and reduce reliance on other nations’ resources, including Russia, the official said.

“The U.S. Vice President has been a careful and committed listener,” Prime Minister Rowley said.

…One of Washington’s key aims appeared to be a response to U.S. partners in the Caribbean who have called for help to deal with high energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The Vice President conveyed to the Prime Minister that the Treasury Department would take action to help meet the region’s long-term energy needs,” a statement from Harris’ office said, referring to a call with Rowley on Tuesday.

another biden gaffe: "I shipped air defense systems all to help counter Ukraine's brutal aggression that's happening because of Russia."

https://twitter.com/greg_price...HHwWgIDQsfr6q_UsAAAA

Way back in the late 1950s, when I was a missile nerd in the Navy, we were working late one evening to get ready for a Regulus launch the next day.

I was trying to calibrate a piece of the electronic stuff and I needed a manual that was in the safe. I had the appropriate security clearance for the manual, but the Duty Officer for that evening did not, so he refused to open the safe for me.

The skipper was all kinds of pissed the next day when the launch had to be canceled because the bird was not ready.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I had the appropriate security clearance for the manual, but the Duty Officer for that evening did not, so he refused to open the safe for me.

I realize that some questions don’t have rational answers, but why was he allowed access to classified material that he wasn’t cleared for? I.e., if he could open the safe he had access to it. Any idea—?

a bit OT, but

Adam Schiff announced an intention to run for the U.S. Senate

This is for the seat that is presently held by Dianne Feinstein. She has not announced whether she will run again. She is 89 y.o.

Under the new House Republican Majority, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy officially denied Schiff a seat on the House Intelligence Committee.


https://americanliberty.news/p...gn/vsnitsar/2023/01/

Schiff needs a seat in the local prison for all the crap he has done.

biden is trying to force electric cars and then he does this:

https://www.foxnews.com/politi...id-green-energy-push

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would complete a 20-year withdrawal of 225,504 acres in a northern Minnesota forest area that is home to some of the largest domestic critical mineral reserves.

The action announced by the Department of the Interior (DOI) effectively prohibits mining activity from taking place in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Duluth, Minnesota, and surrounding area for the next two decades. The agency said it took the action in an effort to protect the local environment and watershed, which environmentalists worried would be contaminated by mining activity.

"The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans. Protecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy," DOI Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

Last year, the DOI canceled two mineral leases held by the firm Twin Metals Minnesota, which had been located in the Superior National Forest located outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. As a result of that decision and the action Thursday, domestic mining companies will effectively be banned from operating in the region for the foreseeable future and the forest's vast critical mineral resources will be left untapped.

However, Twin Metals' mining project contained about 88% of the nation's cobalt reserves in addition to vast copper, nickel and platinum-group elements. Such critical minerals are vital for various green energy technologies like electric vehicle batteries, battery storage facilities, solar panels and wind turbines, which the Biden administration has aggressively pushed.

However, China, other hostile nations and countries with severe human rights concerns dominate the global mineral supply chain.

The State Department recently signed an agreement that opens the door to financing mining projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which mined more than 70% of the global supply of cobalt in 2021 and is home to 3.5 million metric tons of cobalt reserves. But independent investigations conducted in recent years have found that cobalt mines in the DRC employ child laborers.

"It’s difficult to square the announcement of this significant land withdrawal with the Biden administration’s stated goals on electrification, the energy transition and supply chain security," said National Mining Association President and CEO Rich Nolan in a statement. "At a time when demand for minerals such as copper, nickel and cobalt are skyrocketing for use in electric vehicles and solar and wind infrastructure, the administration is withdrawing hundreds of thousands of acres of land that could provide U.S. manufacturers with plentiful sources of these same minerals."

"In the end, by closing off more and more U.S. land to responsible domestic mining instead of producing minerals here at home, creating high-paying American jobs and mining operations that will be conducted in accordance with the world's most stringent environmental, labor and safety regulations, the administration is looking to stand up operations in the Congo and Zambia,"

quote:

Originally posted by clubleaf206:
Jeezoman! Am I the only one in the US that doesn’t have classified documents in his possession?

That's classified.

More wrongness: Foot off Gas

From the article:
So half of all new cars and trucks sold in the future would have to be electric? Nearly half of households (not to mention so many professional kitchens) in America would have to switch to electric stoves? We’d need to generate much, much more electricity to fill the void of all that power once produced by millions of gasoline-powered engines and gas-fired stoves.

"If environmental zealots in the Biden administration were to get their way, then something would have to answer the call for such a huge increase in electricity demand. Do they have an answer for this challenge?

No. They declared natural gas the bridge fuel to renewables, and then they declared pipeline projects dead."

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I had the appropriate security clearance for the manual, but the Duty Officer for that evening did not, so he refused to open the safe for me.

I realize that some questions don’t have rational answers, but why was he allowed access to classified material that he wasn’t cleared for? I.e., if he could open the safe he had access to it. Any idea—?

I have absolutely no idea. It was the Navy. He was a commissioned officer, I was an E-5, so who was I to question his author-i-tay?

During my illustrious USAF career, I was briefed that any transgression of UCMJ or other rules, policies or procedure would result in me losing my top secret clearance.
During my hitch, I never once laid eyes on anything marked as secret. Never. So much for the threat.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
a bit OT, but

Adam Schiff announced an intention to run for the U.S. Senate

This is for the seat that is presently held by Dianne Feinstein. She has not announced whether she will run again. She is 89 y.o.

Schifferbrains, in a snit, vs. DiFi, in a snit?

Governor Goodhair II, having just survived a recall vs. Uncah Joe, who will only survive politically as long as Hunter evades peoples' recall?

This could be hilarious.

https://hotair.com/ed-morrisse...-act-charges-n527376

A jury has acquitted Mark Houck of violating the FACE Act after an altercation near an abortion clinic so minor that local authorities refused to prosecute.

Don’t remember this case? You might remember when Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray sent dozens of FBI agents to raid his house over an argument

The Biden administration sent 30 FBI agents to Mark Houck's house and arrested him in front of his wife and seven children.

The case had been thrown out of a district court the year prior.

Today, he was found not guilty.

more at link




guess they needed all that fire power in case the kids acted up. Crying and shit

Absolutely shameful display of judicial abuse. Thank God he was acquitted. I was praying for this outcome, literally.

I heard the jury was hung up for a little while, too. From what I've heard about the case, shouldn't have been a close call

Hunter Biden threatened to withhold cash-strapped assistant's pay if she didn't FaceTime him naked, texts show - as it's revealed she's the FOURTH employee with whom he had a sexual relationship.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...nt-FaceTime-sex.html

Hunter Biden threatened one of his cash-strapped young female staffers with withholding her pay if she didn't FaceTime him for sex.

Shocking texts between the President's son, 52, and his young assistant, who was 29 at the time, show Hunter asking for video sex sessions and sending her cash via Apple Pay after she pleaded that she was struggling to make rent.

The woman, who DailyMail.com has chosen not to identify, worked as an assistant at Hunter's law firm, Owasco, in 2018 and 2019. She is the fourth employee he is known to have had a sexual relationship with.

Documents on his abandoned laptop show Hunter put his lover and brother's widow Hallie Biden on his company payroll, as well as her sister Liz Secundy, with whom he also had an affair, texts reveal.

Text messages at link.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://hotair.com/ed-morrisse...-act-charges-n527376

A jury has acquitted Mark Houck of violating the FACE Act after an altercation near an abortion clinic so minor that local authorities refused to prosecute.

Don’t remember this case? You might remember when Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray sent dozens of FBI agents to raid his house over an argument

The Biden administration sent 30 FBI agents to Mark Houck's house and arrested him in front of his wife and seven children.

The case had been thrown out of a district court the year prior.

Today, he was found not guilty.

more at link




guess they needed all that fire power in case the kids acted up. Crying and shit

They (DOJ, FBI)don’t really care if he won or lost they are sending everyone the same message as some of the J6 defendants. If you speak out, act against the leftist ideals you will be handcuffed, terrorized, charged, and you will have to pay for your defense.

^^^Sooo, where are all those 'informed individuals' that constantly proclaim that the 'feds' only bring cases that the know will result in convictions...