Goldman Sachs Loves The Clintons

[Guest post by hit and run*]

And the Clintons love them right back, episode bajillion in a gazillion part series.  

Via HotAir, we have yet another story detailing the close relationship between Goldman Sachs and the Clintons.  And as with every story surrounding the Clintons, there is an appearance of unsavoriness on the surface, with hardly-in-doubt ethical line-crossing lurking just beneath.

Or, I suppose I just could have said it is a day ending in 'y'.

Here we go, from IBT:

Goldman Sachs paid former President Bill Clinton $200,000 to deliver a speech in the spring of 2011, several months before the investment banking giant began lobbying the State Department, then headed by Hillary Clinton, federal records reviewed by International Business Times show.

If nothing else, let's reserve some measure of respect at how much of a pro these Clintons are with the quids and quos.  Besides, being the champion of everyday Americans doesn't come cheap, you know.

Pressing onward:

State Department records show that Bill Clinton’s $200,000 Goldman Sachs speech was delivered April 11, 2011, to “approximately 250 high level clients and investors” at a United Nations dining room in New York.

In federal disclosure documents, the Duberstein Group is listed as lobbying the Clinton State Department on behalf of Goldman Sachs between July and September 2011. Goldman Sachs paid the Duberstein Group $100,000 during that time.

Those records show that the firm was specifically lobbying the department on “proposed legislation” linked to a series of budget bills. One bill continued congressional authorization for the Export-Import Bank, a government-backed lender whose financing was critical for the prospects of a company in which Goldman owned a stake. The Duberstein Group did not respond to questions about its precise interests in the legislation at issue.

The original budget bill was introduced in July and did not include an extension of the Export-Import Bank, but the bank reauthorization was added in late September, during the same period Goldman was lobbying the State Department on the bill.

Well, sure, but unless a gun is found in the Scooby van emitting smoke, and Hillary's hands test positive for gun residue - Team Clinton will insist that there's no there, there, and it's all just the work of people who hate Hillary because she's a woman dwelling on what really is nothing more than optically unfortunate coincidences. Or something.

However, veering back to reality (and switching metaphors) everyone knows - and I mean everyone - that the smoke wafting about originated from a fire kept just out of view.

We'll end with a little fun with numbers when it comes to the Clintons and Goldman:

Since leaving office, President Clinton has received $1.35 million from the bank for eight speeches, the Washington Post reported. Two years ago, Hillary Clinton, having left the Obama administration, gave two speeches at Goldman Sachs events in the span of a week, Mother Jones magazine reported.

Goldman Sachs is really Ready for Hillary.

IS THAT A PROMISE OR A THREAT: I really do intend on putting up something non-Clinton related.  Some day.

Link to Last Page of Thread.

Comments

[henry]

About this "crime doesn't pay" thing. Did the progs push that meme to ward off competition?

[clarice]

You're sounding more like TM every minute and with graphics!! XOX (You always were my favorite.)

[Michael (fpa Patriot4Freedom)]

Goldman Sachs . . . Paying the Clintons millions,
so Hill-Liar-y can fight for the middle class.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Extraneus]

In a discussion on CNN led by Don Lemon that took place late Monday night, former White House green jobs czar Van Jones played the role of conservative panel guest. Yes, really. Even Jones was clearly disturbed by the justification for violence he heard from HuffPost Live host and Morehouse College professor Marc Lamont Hill.

“There shouldn’t be calm tonight,” Hill said in response to the various calls for peace from figures infinitely more responsible than himself. “I think there can be resistance to oppression, and when resistance occurs, you can’t circumscribe resistance.”

While he noted that there should be “ethics” associated with the ongoing civilizational collapse in Baltimore, but it would be wise for these panel guests to mind their own morality and grow more upset over “the destruction of property than the destruction of black bodies.”

“I’m not calling these people rioters, I’m calling these uprisings,” he added. “The city is not burning because of these protesters. The city is burning because the police killed Freddie Gray.”

This virtual incitement to violence clearly made Hill’s fellow broadcasters nervous. “Black lives matter, but, you know what? Black jobs matter, and black business matter, and black neighborhoods matter, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to give any kind of suggestion that the destruction of black communities is a positive or can be positive in this context,” Jones said.

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/04/28/the-sickening-few-in-the-media-who-welcomed-the-baltimore-riots/

[Janet]

About this "crime doesn't pay" thing. Did the progs push that meme to ward off competition?

Hah! Sorta like the "it's not polite to talk about politics or religion" line. Conservatives politely obeyed while leftists screamed their views from the rooftops, & at dinner parties, & on TV, & on theater stages, & on movie screens,...

[Barbara]

Apropos of nothing particularly related to this thread, I recalled a song yesterday that was written and performed by the Kingston Trio around the time my brother was in college. Here are the lyrics; you can probably find a YouTube of it somewhere.

Lyrics:
They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud,
For mans' been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.

They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man.

[Jack is Back!]

Goldman Sachs are pikers when it comes to lobbying the Clintons. They are only a small part of the 181 household corporate names to haven done so.

Vox, yep them, are on the case.

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/28/8501643/Clinton-foundation-donors-State

[Ben]

Lesson for rioters;

NEVER STEAL ANYTHING SMALL.

Goldman mission statement.

[James D.]

Ext @ 9:25

This is where conservatives have a good response. THe death of FG is not about racist police killing a black man. It's about unaccountable police, protected by corrupt police unions and controlled by progressive democrat city leaders, killing a citizen.

And the larger response is that it's about progressive democrat policies purposely transforming (fundamentally, even) lower-income but decent and livable neighborhoods into hopeless, poverty-ridden crapholes filled with deliberately uneducated or miseducated feral beasts, which the police then have to deal with.

Everything that happened in Baltimore is the fruit of progressive democrat policies over the last 50+ years. Every life lost, every home or business destroyed, all of it is on the hands of the progressive democrats.

[Ben]

Of course 50 years of historical context suits you. Native American's forced relocation resulted in similar cultural decline and conservatives will excuse themselves from culpability with the same absence of shame.

[Miss Marple]

JamesD.,

I was struck last night by how so many of the rioters, when interviewed by Leland Vitter (who surprisingly did a very good job) were unable to articulate the reasons for their anger and when telling accounts of how they had been injured police, couldn't connect the dots as to why. (Throw bottles at police. Police retaliate with firing beanbags. Bottle thrower thinks this is unfair.)

Notable absence of logic or reason, notable lack of language skills. all emotion.

This goes back to my old complaint that the inner city schools are producing kids so uneducated that they live in a state of complete boredom and bewilderment, only relieved by sex, drugs, violence and rap music.

[Janet]

While Baltimore burns & feral youth run wild...our society is working on deconstructing marriage.

[rse]

Amen James which is why I brought up Moses and the Algebra Project the other day and it's connection to Baltimore. They were not and are not interested in teaching math or reading properly to these kids. They wanted to use curriculum to maximize grievances and manipulate it just like Bev Hall was pushing in Atlanta.

There is a famous writing assignment elite colleges are pushing that involves reading a book about Bethany Green and then role playing in writing what it would be like to live in such a high rise hellhole. To speculate in writing what could be done to solve the problem. Everything about these types of assignments heightens the very welfare state that created such dysfunction in the first place. That crucial fact though is not in the assigned materials. Students get pushed to believe more government is the answer especially if carried out at the local level or by private companies with a voucher that comes with an ability to control policy.

http://www.newamerica.org/new-america/webcast-exploring-a-new-america-what-drives-innovation-around-the-country/ is actually what I came to post. Keynoting a Let's Redo America conference with Google backed foundations and the Ford Foundation should not be what Republican Pres hopefuls do. There's John Kasich though as the keynoter. No wonder he misrepresents the Common Core.

[jimmyk]

Has anyone ever seen TM and hit together? Just speculating....

The flip side of the quid pro quo vs. "coincidence" question might be this: How many pure donations have there been to the Clinton Foundation, i.e. from donors that had no prospect of a quid for their quo? No doubt there were some naive altruistic types who actually fell for the "good works" scam, but I'll bet it's not a big number.

[Jeff Dobbs]

henry:
About this "crime doesn't pay" thing. Did the progs push that meme to ward off competition?

The Clinton "Free to Be Lawless" token (hi Janet!) is the trillion dollar platinum coin.

[jimmyk]

were unable to articulate the reasons for their anger

I noticed that too, Miss M. Pretty clear that most of them are just out there to capitalize on another opportunity for free stuff, and for the fun of destruction and mayhem without consequence.

I felt a little bad for the one young guy whose store had been looted, who complained that the police didn't come, but even he didn't seem to comprehend why they didn't come.

[Jack is Back!]

rse,

Front page story in the Southampton Press about school parents opting their kids out of the new State testing requirements under common core. If you can't sell common core in New York State, especially the Hamptons, you have a faulty product.

But then the CC testing also valuates teachers which has the unions lobbying the parents to opt out. So it might just be another prog reaction versus a parent revolt.

[Michael (fpa Patriot4Freedom)]

jimmyk - Great point - that the total number of donors without a favor to ask for is probably pretty low.
And I would bet good money that the *large donors* are almost exclusively those with business/government connections seeking favorable State Dept. actions/policies.

[Marlene]

The schools in Baltimore are closed today and the curfew doesn't begin until 10PM. The groups of young teens started gathering after school yesterday and they were part of the mayhem until the professional thugs got involved.
I've been thinking about the angst in suburbia and the free range parenting movement. In fact, remember the parents in Maryland who were charged with neglect because their young children walked to the park? Where is the concern of the child protective services for the kids who were on the streets yesterday? I guess certain neighborhoods allow free range kids with no parental responsibility expected? I realize there were hundreds of older thugs on the streets,but there were lots of 12,13 & 14 year old kids who were out after school.

[Miss Marple]

Marlene,

No one in the inner cities will call CPS because it is "snitching." The suburbs, on the other hand, are full of busybody liberals who won't hesitate to rat on their neighbors.

[narciso]

why indeed, can't imagine,

http://heavy.com/news/2015/04/freddie-gray-arrest-record-criminal-history-rap-sheet-why-was-freddie-gray-arrested/

I pointed out how Homicide and the Wire, have chronicled the dysfunction in that city,

the headlines are remarkably passive voice, whereas 'City burns, while feckless leaders,
frack themselves' probably is closer to the mark,

[matt]

Ten or so years ago our industry association had a meeting at I believe, the Hilton on the inner harbor. Baltimore has always been sketchy.

A friend of mine went to the mall across the street to do some shopping. He saw a kid getting beaten up and intervened. In a mall, with a cop @ 30-40' away.

The next thing he knew the muggers were beating him up and robbing him. In the early evening. In the mall. With a cop nearby who did nothing.

There is no integrity in Baltimore. The cops are as crooked as it gets and the city government has been looting the treasury for the past 50 years. Ask Nancy Pelosi. Let it burn. Let the miscreants live in their own feces. Move Johns Hopkins to the burbs.

[Miss Marple]

I wonder if Obama will have a comment on THIS:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/04/28/Iran-holds-U-S-ship-34-sailors-.html

[DebinNC]

The Ferguson looters/bottle throwers had enough fear of judicial consequences to cover their faces. Not so the Baltimore branch.

[henry]

Iran siezes US cargo ship. per twitter (a couple tweets), no link yet.

[Miss Marple]

henry,

Linked just above you.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Sooooo......about my Friday post on the Clintons and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act....

Shannen Coffin and Michael Edney take a run at the concept in the WSJ.

In his summary at the Corner, Coffin concludes...

Since that statute is modeled on domestic bribery laws, a consistent application of that standard would suggest an investigation is warranted here. And since the federal domestic bribery statute applies not only to the briber but the bribee, that investigation should look into the pattern of donations to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State from both the perspective of the companies involved and that of Hillary Clinton herself.

Keep Hope Alive! But still not holding my breath, of course.

[henry]

Security Square Mall, next. Let's see if the National Guard is allowed to stop this one.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/iran-us-cargo-ship-seized_n_7161152.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

Another link, Saudi TV reporting same thing on ship.

[Buckeye]

I have a distant cousin who is a poster child for progville.

Lesbian, Pro-union, Pro-reproductive rights, Democrat. If there is a prog cause, she is for it.

She is also a Child Protective Services case worker in suburban Detroit.

Yesterday she posted a "you go momma" comment on Facebook along with the video of the Baltimore mom smacking her son upside the head for throwing rocks at the police.

I sometimes wonder how she reconciles these "off narrative" beliefs.

[Jeff Dobbs]

From iotwreport....it's too big. too bad.

Obama slated to throw out the first molotov cocktail when baseball resumes in Baltimore

[narciso]

I was just to bring that one, up, hit, although the larger pattern is the dereliction in the cfius, like that NY1 pieceI put at the top of the last thread.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/maddow-police-are-little-bit-out-control

maybe if it happened in her neighborhood,

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

That's only his adult arrest record. It may well represent less than half of his interactions with police. He should have changed his name to Obamason.

[DebinNC]

BOzo's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing initiative (AFFH)is all about transferring the miscreants out of the city and into the suburbs he and Uncle Jeremiah vehemently despise. The 2014 Great Shellacking II put a crimp in HUD's efforts, but the plans are in place for new public housing/Sec8 vouchers wherever racial "diversity" doesn't meet the level BOzo et al believe is "fair".

[narciso]

that being said, it's hard to see how the police didn't fark this up, I'm not taking Al Ghuardian's or any of the usual suspects as face value, but it's hard to see how this kind of fatal injury could be justified,

I see the hand of the community relations service, in the delays that enabled this fustercluck, we've seen since Saturday, and no that doesn't excuse Hogan!!

[jimmyk]

there were lots of 12,13 & 14 year old kids who were out after school.

Marlene, I suspect "neglect" enforcement doesn't apply to kids 12 & over out on their own. On the other hand, having a kid rioting ought to be prima facie grounds for some consequences for both the parent (guessing it's only one parent 90% of the time) and the kid.

It's hard to understand the "stand down" non-response, given all the experiences of the last 20 years (Crown Heights, etc.) other than as tacit support for the rioters.

[Marlene]

The daughter and son-in-law had an ugly incident a few years ago when they spent a week-end in Baltimore. I mentioned it here,I think. They were at a movie theater and a situation developed a few rows from where they were seated. The son-in-law tried to intervene in his calm and quiet way. Bad idea. They left the theater after the manager refused to eject the guy responsible for hurling insults and disrupting the people around him.

[narciso]

oh frabjous joy:

http://www.jammiewf.com/2015/as-baltimore-burns-obama-tweets-about-being-a-better-community-organizer/

[Buckeye]

Ha Hit

Last night I heard that Zero and Lynch were huddled trying to figure out what to do about Baltimore.

First thing that went through my mind is that they probably were looking for gummint funds to buy Molotov cocktails for the more seriously disadvantaged youths in the "community"

[Ignatz]

Andy Jackson was a conservative. Who knew?

[CR]

Free Range Rioters

[narciso]

interesting that the lobbying disclosure, mentions energy, could this have been an outfit like Uranium One

[narciso]

a caveat, the byline on the IBT is David 'why can't the Marathon bomber be white' Sirota,

[DebinNC]

Video of Baltimore mom's angry "encounter" w/son:

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/04/28/mom-caught-on-video-hitting-son-taking-part-in-baltimore-riots/

I'm torn about this. Kudos to her for acting, but I'm appalled at the way she did it. I bet her angry, knee-jerk response is her normal "communication" style.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Bill Clinton is still and always will be an ignorant, clown-nosed, ignorant hilljack with towering mommy, daddy and spousal issues.
All he ever delivers in a speech are vapid, goofy platitudes.
Why would anyone pay him diddlysquat for a speech except as payola?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Did I mention he's ignorant?

[narciso]

well in the age of Zaphod, ignorance is a high standard to prove, Larf, Tommy 'the Dude' Vietor

[jimmyk]

And "Homeland" caves to PC pressure:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/27/homeland-going-germany-season-5

[narciso]

alright I might have to retract the previous statement,

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/04/28/maryland-governor-larry-hogan-will-not-cover-for-failure-of-liberal-baltimore-mayor-two-video-pressers/comment-page-1/#comment-1399525

well the battlefield has moved to Europe, but I'm confident they will botch it,

[DebinNC]

Is Bill Clinton in hiding? He recently showed up for the 20th anniversary of the OK City bombing, saying we should all live by "the Oklahoma standard". I agree, as OK iirc is the only state where BOzo didn't win a single county in either election.

[Old Lurker]

You left out "mouth breather" Iggy.

[narciso]

he's a slick conman, some might say like Boyd Crowder, but really more like Wyn Duffy,

[DebinNC]

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Iran-opens-fire-at-and-detains-US-cargo-ship-in-Gulf-399456

Pentagon say boarded ship isn't American-owned and no U.S. sailors are aboard.

[narciso]

the strigoi at Mother Jones's link miss the point,

[DebinNC]

Liberal elites are blind to the reason for what's happening in Baltimore and elsewhere:

Running with the Predators

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Walter Williams applies some common sense to the California drought and water shortage.

[narciso]

fwiw:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillarys-cynical-song-of-self-1430177134

[Jane]

Iran fires at, detains U.S. ship in Gulf

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/04/28/Iran-holds-U-S-ship-34-sailors-.html

(Has this been posted?)

[narciso]

yes, Marshall Islands flagged in Iranian waters,
"American education, by and large, has become an education in cynicism: Our Founders were rank hypocrites. Our institutions are tools of elite coercion. Our economy perpetuates privilege. Our justice system is racist. Our foreign policy is rapacious. Cynicism gives us the comfort of knowing we won’t be fooled again because we never believed in anything in the first place.... This is the America that the Clintons seek to enlist in their latest presidential quest. I suspect many Democrats would jump at an opportunity not to participate in the exercise... But they will go along with it, mostly because liberals have demonized the Republican Party to the point that they have lost the capacity for self-disgust.... As for the rest of the country, Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy offers a test: How much can it swallow? John Podesta and the rest of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign team must be betting that, like a python devouring a goat, Americans will have ample time to digest Mrs. Clinton’s personal ethics..."

[DebinNC]

Baltimore Mayor R-B is in full damage control mode today. CNN panel was brutal this a.m.

[James D.]

Deb @ 11:40

Good article, but I think that, while the author that MacDonald profiles and critiques may be blind to the real reasons for what's happening in Baltimore, the true "elites" (such as our current President and Attorney General and the Mayors of Baltimore, New York City and far too many other big cities to count) understand perfectly well, and they want it that way.

[clarice]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/28/iran-fires-boards-marshall-islands-cargo-ship/

It's a Marshall Islands ship. They are now independent of the US but we are treaty bound to defend them. Let's see what our fearless CiC will do about it. Sure looks like Iran wants to tank any deal now that they humiliated Kerry/Obama and gained time and a lifting of sanctions by Russia.

[GUS]

I think what the Baltimore situation needs is a Community Organizer.

[Miss Marple]

DebinNC,

I am trying to imagine my reaction if I saw my son, who was normally a good kid and who I thought was in school, on TV causing mayhem with my friends' and neighbors' businesses and homes.

Imagine if that woman was trying to get him into college and out of the ghetto, and she suddenly sees his hopes for a scholarship going up in smoke, plus the very real danger he might be killed.

Personally, I think he's lucky she didn't have a ball bat.

[henry]

Clarice, I would not take lightly the desire of Iran to torpedo something larger than the nuke deal -- they have lots of submarines.

[jimmyk]

Iggy@11:42, Williams doesn't mention the water diverted to protect the delta smelt. Any idea what percent of the water supply that represents? I suppose that's a more subjective question than the ones he raises, since it depends on how much we value the smelt.

[Miss Marple]

http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/28/report-baltimore-gang-members-unite-to-protect-black-owned-businesses-direct-looters-towards-chinese-and-arab-owned-stores/

[DebinNC]

The BOzos are hosting a state dinner tonight for Japan's PM with the Jersey Boys as what BOzo refers to as "the talent".

[Jack is Back!]

narc,

Did you ever read the original David Simon book which spawned the TV series: Homicide - Life on the Street. Great read and scary.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Our forefathers established a covenant with God when our country was founded. For many decades we prospered and were secure as a nation. Our source of authority was our Judeo-Christian faith, and our elected leaders were servants to God, the Constitution and the people who elected them.

And then the Democrat party was formed. Little by little, the Democrat party began its choke-hold on city and state municipalities. Soon the federal government was dominated by Democrats, who wasted no time building government-dependent constituencies throughout the land, especially in the inner cities. Republicans did little to stop them. Before long, God was kicked out the door and 'benevolent' Uncle Sam was substituted as our figurehead and source of authority.

I wonder if any of our elected "servants" can see a connection here to the growing chaos and mayhem our country is experiencing and the casting away of all moral restraints. But more importantly, do enough of us see the obvious answer to the mess we're in - and are there enough Americans in leadership positions to call us to a national prayer of reconciliation and sincere spiritual renewal?

I see little hope for America unless we return as a nation to the God of our forefathers. I hope I'm not in the minority.

[James D.]

BeenThere, you're not a minority on here.

In the country at large, though? I'm afraid you/we probably are.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The Rock Hyrax probably arranged this particular bit of Naval gazing so Barry can intervene heroically and thereby demonstrate the goodwill of the Iranians who set free the captives.
He's already turned back the Spanish, Mongol Iranian Armada.
From Lightworker to Divine Wind.

[narciso]

I saw one figure of 800,000 gallons, involved,

[maryrose]

MM
Why am I not surprised
The call to the police by the mayor to stand down much like Benghazi caused it to veer out of control
Blanco didn't want help either and thus we got Katrina
Ineffective leadership
Mayors should be over ruled at some point

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

-- Any idea what percent of the water supply that represents?--

No, but I think his point was, even if it wasn't diverted it would be misallocated by non market forces.

[narciso]

actually acre feet, whatever that means,

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

An acre foot is the amount of water that would cover one acre a foot deep; ~300,000 gallons.

[Old Lurker]

So 800,000 acre feet has A LOT of zeros.

[Jeff Dobbs]

In honor of the gay marriage case before the Supremes today, Hillary did this to her H logo.......

Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton · 2h 2 hours ago
Every loving couple & family deserves to be recognized & treated equally under the law across our nation. #LoveMustWin #LoveCantWait –H
6,349 Retweets | Favorited by HumaAbedin and 6,987 others

[henry]

A tracking tool for the Maersk Trigris found by our Chitown lurking unit on ZH.

[Old Lurker]

Did I read that 70% of the rain/snow which falls on CA flows into the ocean?

[Michael (fpa Patriot4Freedom)]

Has anyone heard *anything* close to a definitive explanation of how Freddie Gray was injured?
I know that I haven't.

But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out that he fell off the bicycle he was riding, or crashed his bicycle, and pitched forward, striking his head and snapping his neck.

An accident in much the same way caused Christopher Reeve's neck fracture, although he fell from a horse. A number of cyclists have been killed or seriously injured in similar accidents.

Some of the most notable and relevant (albeit limited) facts that I am aware of to date are:

1) Mr. Gray was arrested on a public street/area during daylight hours.
2) Pedestrians were walking about in the area where the arrest occurred.
3) Mr. Gray reportedly fled from the police, either on foot or on a bicycle.
4) A bicycle can be seen in the video on the ground next to Mr. Gray, who was lying on the ground being taken into custody.
5) A civilian took the widely seen video footage.
6) The videos do not show any beating.
7) Neither the videographer nor any other witness has made any claim that the police beat Mr. Gray.
8) Mr. Gray appeared to be dazed or impaired when the officers first tried to get him to his feet.
9) A police officer had to pick Mr. Gray's body up and hold him up when he was first brought to his feet.
10) When the video showed Mr. Gray being brought to his feet, he appeared to be unable to stand upright on his own.
11) Mr. Gray appeared to be unable to walk on his own, and was carried/dragged to the paddy wagon.
12) A police officer had to lift Mr. Gray up from under his arms to get him up and into the paddy wagon.
13) Mr. Gray appeared unable to move his body in any appreciable way to help himself up and into the paddy wagon.
14) Mr. Gray was not placed in an ambulance and taken directly to a hospital.

In consideration of the above, I would submit that it is probable that Mr. Gray injured himself when he fell to the ground before he was taken into custody.

It would certainly have been helpful if the Baltimore city officials and police had made that information widely available from the beginning.

Apologies to all for the overly long post.

[Jack is Back!]

Ha!

WH PRESS SECRETARY ‏@weknowwhatsbest 1h1 hour ago
Pres Obama said that if he had a city, it would look like Baltimore.

[narciso79]

thanks, ignatz, there does seem to be a pattern of obfuscation in all these stories,

[matt]

an acre foot is a foot deep, one acre mass of water or 325,853.383688 gallons. It is also the planned usage of an American (nuclear) family for one year.

However, it is being redefined by the Obama administration's National Institute of Science & Voodoo technology to include LGBT and/or one parent families with 6-7 children by 6-7 different fathers. The new calculations also include the arrest records and convictions. White privelege is discounted by 14.6% and the calculations are done using common core math.

The Freestuff multiplier of 2.186 is used for minority or affirmative action calculations.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

That's exactly what I was wondering Michael when I first read the reports he seemingly couldn't walk when arrested.
OTOH if he couldn't even walk they should have assessed him before moving him. If he did have a fracture they might very easily have turned a bad injury into a fatal, albeit an accidental one.
Perhaps forensics can determine what happened. Maybe they did go crazy on him, but it hardly seems cut and dried.
Surely Ferguson should compel the common sense of waiting for facts rather than speculation.

[DebinNC]

I guess Billy Dale wasn't contacted on whether he feels he was "treated equally under the law" by HillBilly in their failed prosecution of him for embezzlement.

[clarice]

From Omri Ceren, The Israel Projectt's been a busy two hours, but some clarity is starting to emerge about the Iranian seizure of a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel is the M/V Maersk Tigris and sails under a Marshall Islands flag. It was intercepted by Iranian navy patrol crafts earlier today and sent a distress call, and which point it was contacted by US naval assets who streamed to the area to monitor the confrontation. The vessel was ordered to sail into Iranian waters and refused, at which point the Iranians fired shots across her bow, and the master complied. It's now in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.

There is a dispute over whether the M/V Maersk Tigris was in international waters when it was initially intercepted. The Pentagon seems to have told journalists this morning that it was transiting through Iranian territorial waters. Defense analysts are posting maps showing otherwise (https://twitter.com/PatMegahan/status/593073911786377216).

A few things you're likely to be hearing as the afternoon kicks off:

(1) The U.S. is treaty-bound to defend the security of the Marshall Islands. To what extent will the US be obligated to act in response to functionally unspinnable Iranian aggression? Keep in mind that in two weeks the President will be personally in a room floating security assurances to the Gulf, promising that the U.S. will protect them from future Iranian aggression.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a sovereign nation. While the government is free to conduct its own foreign relations, it does so under the terms of the Compact. The United States has full authority and responsibility for security and defense of the Marshall Islands, and the Government of the Marshall Islands is obligated to refrain from taking actions that would be incompatible with these security and defense responsibilities. (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/26551.htm)

(2) The administration just wrapped up a week of insisting that under no circumstances would it allow Iran to interfere with shipping in the area. It's unclear how that can be reconciled with what the Iranians just did.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, April 21: "principal goal of this operation is to maintain freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea... would send a clear signal about our continued insistence about the free flow of commerce and the freedom of movement in the region... this is a clear statement about our commitment to ensuring the free flow of commerce in this important region of the world" (https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/21/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-4212015)

State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf, April 21: “I think the Defense Department may have already addressed this in their briefing today, but there were reports about these U.S. ships that have been moved. And I want to be very clear, just so no one has the wrong impression, that they are not there to intercept Iranian ships, to do issues like that; that the purpose of moving them is only to ensure the shipping lanes remain open and safe. I think there was some misreporting and confusion on this, and I just wanted to be very clear.” (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2015/04/240950.htm)

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren, April 21: “[U.S. warships] are operating [in the Arabian Sea] with a very clear mission to ensure that shipping lanes remain open, to ensure there's freedom of navigation through those critical waterways, and to help ensure maritime security…By having U.S. ships in the region, we…preserve options should the security situation deteriorate to the point where there is a problem or a threat to freedom of navigation or to the shipping lanes or to overall maritime security.” (http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128634)

(3) What the hell are the Iranians doing playing chicken with the U.S. Navy on the same day that the full Senate takes up debate on Corker-Menendez? Business Insider's national security and military editor Armin Rosen had one of the early lines on this:

Whatever else is going on, IRGCN just baited a Burke-class US destroyer into a confrontation in the world's busiest oil chokepoint (https://twitter.com/ArminRosen/status/593076865922891779)

[narciso79]

yes, they're dodging like the artful dodger:

[Jane]

Apparently the ship is now in Iran. The sailors are toast.

[Captain Haiku]

Barky has no beef
With Iranians Captain
Acted stupidly

[narciso]

I was having that empty icon problem, just now

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The problem with the 800,000 acre feet is most of it would go to supply San Joaquin Valley farmers at subsidized, below market rates.
Shouldn't conservatives and libertarians object to that government command and control as much as we did to Barry's shovel ready boondoggles?

The GOP could have added cost benefit analysis to the ESA when they controlled congress and the WH but did nothing, and so a few thousand 2" long fish determine where water for 800,000 families goes. However that idiocy is compounded by the fact that politically favored blocks benefit at below market rates and so the water is misallocated.

[Jane]

I would not be surprised if we lose this case in front of the SC. Even Amy is upset at that prospect. I remember the day the MA CT decision came down. She thought it was very bad news for the gays. This one too.

The court will push what is coming on its own. That is a mistake. If the states vote for their own marriage requirements the gays will be respected.

It would be okay with me if they ruled it was a state's issue, but states had to reciprocate in terms of recognizing marriage legal in other states. I doubt that happens.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

An American family uses 900 gallons/day? That must include industrial usage, so it's total water usage nationwide per family.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Jane, it seems like Kennedy is going to side with the libs. Has anyone raised the specter of polygamy in their arguments? How does a flexible definition of marriage include SSM but not polygamy?

[rse]

New post up. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/congressionally-mandating-dialectical-thinking-and-then-forcing-states-to-annually-measure-and-manipulate-it/

No I do not like the language of Lamar and Patty's Bipartisan ed bill and there is absolutely no question of what it actually does. I would be more than happy to discuss what the language actually does with anyone from either the Left or the Heritage Foundation. I am beginning to think there primary funders must want to operate charter schools. There ed analysis is frequently wrong as can be.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Confirmation of the end of America as we know it:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/04/28/peanut-free-baseball/26505143/

[Jack is Back!]

clarice,

The Champ will respect that Marshall Islands agreement just like he did the one Clenis delivered for the Ukraine getting rid of their Nukes. He'll let is girlfriend in Denmark deal with it. Maersk is one theirs, don't ya know.

[narciso]

You aren't supposed to ask that question, Scalia was very prescient in Lawrence, a decade and a half ago,

this is the problem, rse, if the mind arson software is corrupt, the hardware is useless,