JustOneMinute

We Need A Few Good Men (and Women!) To Release The Memo

The pushback continues:

FBI says it has 'grave concerns' about accuracy of hotly debated FISA memo

My secret voices tell me the actual exchange was:

"We have concerns about the accuracy of the memo."

"Grave concerns?"

"Are there any other kind?"

 

The Next Big Collapse

The bitcoin bubble may play out at an accelerated pace:

U.S. Regulators Subpoena Crypto Exchange Bitfinex, Tether

U.S. regulators are scrutinizing one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges as questions mount over a digital token linked to its backers. 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent subpoenas on Dec. 6 to virtual-currency venue Bitfinex and Tether, a company that issues a widely traded coin and claims it’s pegged to the dollar, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The firms share the same chief executive officer. 

Tether’s coins have become a popular substitute for dollars on cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, with about $2.3 billion of the tokens outstanding as of Tuesday. While Tether has said all of its coins are backed by U.S. dollars held in reserve, the company has yet to provide conclusive evidence of its holdings to the public or have its accounts audited. Skeptics have questioned whether the money is really there.

More background here but the gist is that Tether is what you'd get if you had a cryptocurrency "pegged" to the US dollar, backed by bank deposits, and managed by Bernie Madoff.

The good news, this is only a $2 billion scam we are talking about. The NY Times just had a story about financial scams in China which cited four recent instances in the billions. The lead is the now-collapsed Qianbo, with $5 billion in losses but this is included:

Just four months ago, a Beijing court handed down a lifetime prison sentence to the founder of a $9 billion online lending platform called Ezubao that authorities now say had been a Ponzi scheme. Last summer, Chinese police arrested the head of Fanya Metals Exchange, which offered investment products promising double-digit returns, after it lost $6 billion of investor money. One month later, investors in a company called Shanxinhui lost billions of dollars and many hundreds of protesters took to the streets. In response to protests in Beijing at the time, Guo Shengkun, then China’s police chief, pledged to rein in fraudulent financial schemes.

People want to believe. 

Get Woke, Go Broke

The entertainment industry is just entertaining each other now.

Breakthrough Health Advice...

Here's my breakthrough insight - Don't get the flu!

I am limping along the comeback trail but wow - that was a wipeout. I'd gotten the shot - I wonder if that helped at all.

And now that I am actually able to sit in front of a computer I see Drudge is headlining the same news.

Trump Happy To Speak "Under Oath"?!?

From the flailing NY Times:

Trump Says He Is Willing to Speak Under Oath to Mueller

OK, it makes for a snappy headline and Trump did say it but as we all should know by now - false material statements to a Federal investigator are a felony, with or without any "oaths".

If Trump's lawyers are OK with putting their, well, garrulous impulsive and undisciplined client in front of interviewers looking for a process crime, well, I can only hope they have an associate with quick reflexes standing by with a thorazine dart gun.

Or we may be on a road to some sort of Washington crisis when Mueller returns an indictment against Trump for lying and obstructing an investigation that turns up no actual collusion.

If You Are Having Trouble Becoming Alarmed...

Michael Goodwin summarizes the "too big to believe" drama and trauma at the FBI and DoJ - did they really cover for Hillary and target Trump?

Gee, let's see - did anyone honestly ever think that the Democratic DoJ would mount a serious effort against their party's Presidential front-runner and establishment darling? The idea that Loretta Lynch knew, or said, or was told that 'the fix is in' is about as surprising as suggesting she knew the sun rose in the East. EVERYONE knew the fix was in - meetings and memos not needed.

As to the FBI abusing FISA or deleting texts, or anything else, well, that is outrageous but... Trump is an outlier in terms of being so outside the political establishment. A more conventional Republican would have found some institutional support among the lifers at the FBI. But Trump? There might have been plenty of Bush-era holdovers who had no use for the guy and were happy to stand back and watch their partisan counterparts do their evil thing.

Or maybe this is all just hype to distract us from Trump's collusion with Putin. Maybe! Unless and until Tom Brady has a twinge on some other body part this will be the story to watch.

PILING ON: Andrew McCarthy details Obama's urgency about hiding his own complicity in Hillary's private email system.

This Is A Surprise?

From the Washington Times:

Shock poll: Americans want massive cuts to legal immigration

Cutting chain migration even more popular than legalizing Dreamers

A "shock" poll? Geez, clues included the utter collapse of the mainstream Republican candidates in 2016 and the eventual election of Donald Trump.

A government shutdown is in the rearview mirror, but the outlines of a looming immigration deal remain murky with the sides still far apart — though the latest polling suggests President Trump’s bargaining position may be strong.

A Harvard-Harris poll taken in the run-up to the shutdown found Americans strongly support granting citizenship rights to illegal immigrant Dreamers. But they also back Mr. Trump’s three demands for a border wall, limits to the chain of family migration and an end to the Diversity Visa Lottery.

Most striking of all is the public’s demand for lower overall legal immigration — a position that has little traction on Capitol Hill but one that is overwhelmingly popular across the country. 

The poll found that most Americans want annual legal immigration capped at 500,000 a year or less — far lower than the current annual rate of 1.3 million.

That is at page 68 of the .pdf. Bring your reading glasses.

Whew!

Back in business! If this means the media can go back to an endless focus on Tom Brady's hand I'm all for it.

Sunday Morning

The Sunday morning kick-off. The day of the two conference championships used to be the best pro football day of the year. Now, after years of ownership greed, the concussion cover-up, the interminable booth reviews where we sit at home watching refs watch television, and the politicization, well, I sort of don't care. Still, old habits die hard (but can die).

OTOH, for years the Super Bowl had the reputation of being boring and that has surely not been the case lately.

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

It is a near-springlike, or at least, non-wintry day here in the Northeast. Enjoy!

Let The Blaming And Shaming Begin!

Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of bounced checks!

I take for granted that Trump won't engage in Obama-style 'Shutdown Theater' and start closing visible yet inexpensive things like the Lincoln Memorial. That could be trouble for the Dems, since how will we miss the government if we don't notice it is gone? Time will tell.

Showdown Drama!

Will there be life after Friday if our lawmakers can't keep the government funded? SO exciting!

As to the Blame Game, I don't see how the Democrats' "Put Illegal Immigrants First" strategy will outplay Trump's "Put Americans First" agenda, outside their progressive base anyway, but they are the geniuses, not me.

This I do know - comparisons of two things get an "er", not an "est":

It is anything but clear which side would pay the steepest political price if the government does indeed run out of money a year to the day after Mr. Trump took office. But Democrats appear poised to force the issue.

Nowhere in the article does the flailing NY Times allude to a third side, so the apparent mystery is, which side will pay the steeper price.

Looks like the Times is no longer hiring the best and brightest editors. Or even the better and brighter editors.

Not The Collusion I Was Promised But...

McClatchy reports that the FBI is investigating the possibility that a prominent Russkie made illegal campaign contributions to the NRA, ultimately to the benefit of Trump.

OK, interesting, but...

If proven this may shame the NRA and embarrass the Russian, but the Trump people will claim ignorance. Maybe their knowledge and connivance will be demonstrated by the FBI evidence, but maybe not.

Martin Longman of The Washington Monthly has a follow-up which is useful for illustrating the progressive mindset. The gist - CBS News reported that the Russian biggie, Torshin, wanted to meet Trump Sr. during the NRA Convention in Louisville. Jared Kushner said no to this sort of idea:

The email was sent to top Trump campaign officials including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, campaign official Rick Gates and eventually Jared Kushner who is the president's son-in-law. Kushner's attorney says his client said to "pass on this" and warned campaign officials to "decline such meetings."

However, Don Jr. ended up at a convention dinner and was introduced to Torshin. Having been to the odd event where several hundred people are mingling, I have no doubt that someone intent on meeting me could wriggle over for a handshake. I am not too suspicious of this "meeting", which could also be described as an encounter. But from the left, here is Mr. Longman, who possibly should get out to a few philanthropic events himself and see who he can meet. My emphasis:

In other words, Erickson pitched the campaign on a meeting with Torshin and a possible Trump/Putin meeting and this pitch made the rounds before Kushner allegedly spiked the idea. Yet, it’s not clear if the idea was truly spiked or if it was modified. What actually wound up happening is that Donald Trump Jr. made a trip to Louisville for the NRA conference at the Kentucky Exposition Center. The conference ran from May 19 to May 22. And while Donald Jr. was at the convention he had a meeting with Torshin. The length and nature of this meeting is in dispute, with the Trump camp characterizing it as more of a brief conversation about firearms than a formal sit down.

...

 But it’s also important to note how this was reported here. Torshin had requested a meeting with Trump Sr. at the NRA convention but had to settle for a meeting with Trump Jr. If this is accurate, then the whole reason that the younger Donald was in Louisville was to meet with this money laundering Russian mob boss. 

Say what? The Russian wanted to meet Trump and managed to do so; therefore the whole reason Trump Jr. was in Louisville was to meet him? Uhh, the 2016 NRA convention drew a lot of prominent Republicans including Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, L'il Marco Rubio, Jeff Sessions and Mitch McConnell. Oh, yeah, and Donald Trump Sr., who spoke at the convention in Louisville but probably flew home to bed rather than stay at one of the dinner after-events. That can be grist for Mr. Longman's mill, who might want to revise and extend this remark:

Perhaps it had to work this way [Trump Jr. going to dinner] because Trump Sr. chose to speak at the larger annual NRA meeting in Atlanta in late April instead of attending the smaller gathering in Louisville in May.

Hmm, that links to an account of an April 2017 NRA Annual Convention in Atlanta. 

Well. Proving that Russian influence peddlers wanted to meet Trump is a long way from proving illegal collusion to steal the election. But Keep Hope Alive!

I LOVE A MYSTERY, BUT THIS AIN'T ONE: From the original McClatchy piece:

However, the NRA reported spending a record $55 million on the 2016 elections, including $30 million to support Trump – triple what the group devoted to backing Republican Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential race. 

Well, the Newtown massacre was right after the 2012 election and galvanized both sides of the gun control debate.

 

Russian Spies Were Actually Spying?!?

Breakthrough stuff - Russian spies may have been operating in the US for years. Fortunately, Mueller is on it, and he may yet find some link to Trump. The Resistance is Keeping Hope Alive!

And speaking of keeping those candles burning, David Ignatius of the WaPo assures us that the reputation of the FBI is emphatically NOT in tatters and sure, it was George Papdapoulos talking to an Australian diplomat that ignited the Russian collusion investigation, not that tedious Steele dossier.

Sure, whatever. For my money, Trump made many Russian contacts hosting Miss Universe in Moscow and selling high-end flight capital real estate to Russian oligarchs. Don Jr. was also someone the Russians were able to locate, not to mention one-time campaign head Paul Manafort. But if Ignatius wants to pretend to believe that despite a wealth of current contacts the Trump campaign would coordinate surely-embarrassing possibly illegal collusion with the Russians through a guy who had no prior connection to the Trump campaign or anyone in it, working on the periphery out in London well, good for him. And good for me, since I have some Bitcoin I would like to sell him.

ERRATA: Readers with elephantine memories will recall the excitable but not always reliable Buzzfeed reporter Jason Leopold from the Plame days.

My Woody Allen Boycott Gains Traction

OK, I have been boycotting Woody Allen since the Soon Yi Previn debacle burst into the news in the early 90's, but Hollywood is finally getting on board. Slow trainwreck coming.

MLK Day Open Thread

Away we go.

Sunday Afternoon Action

How 'bout them Steelers?

And I Support Equal Pay For Equal Lawyering

Not to say Mark Wahlberg is the victim here but he is clearly paying atonement for a sin he didn't commit:

'I 100% support the fight for fair pay': Mark Wahlberg donates $1.5M in Michelle Williams' name to Time's Up legal fund after pay disparity scandal

Wahlberg said in a statement on Saturday that he is donating his earnings from the All The Money In The World reshoot to Time's Up

His decision follows reports that he was paid substantially more than co-star Michelle Williams for reshooting the scenes

All the scenes that featured Kevin Spacey were reshot in November when the actor was replaced by Christopher Plummer

This reshoot required director Ridley Scott to bring back his two stars, Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams 

It has been reported that Wahlberg was paid $1.5million for the 10-day re-shoot while Williams made just $80-a-day, according to Jessica Chastain

That would add up to $800 at the end of the 10-day shoot, which is 0.05 % the salary her co-star made for his work on the film 

Oh, that Marky-mark and the insidious old boys club, ripping off the hard-working ladies. But wait!

But according to TMZ sources, the glaring disparity in Williams and Wahlberg's payouts came down to their individual contracts: Williams' contract reportedly required her to do reshoots, as needed, as part of her overall salary, whereas Wahlberg's did not have such a clause.

So Williams honored her contract like a proper professional, and Wahlberg said "'Ef you, pay me", also not unheard of in professional circles.

We All Knew Cy Young Had An Arm, But Still

Cy Young, American Immortal, passed away recently:

Cy Young, Only American to Win Gold in Javelin, Is Dead at 89

Say what?!?

This Cy Young was no relation to the great pitcher. Instead, he was a big strong farm boy who won gold at the 1952 Olympics. A teammate took silver but the best American result since then was a bronze in the 1972 Munich games by William Schmidt.

FWIW, the late Mr. Young may remain the only American to win javelin gold for a long time. First of all, big high school kids with big arms are pushed to play quarterback and/or baseball. Secondly, a majority of states ban high school javelin competitions - something about erratically thrown spears flying several hundred feet while distracted teenagers mill about doing other things at a track and field meet. Go figure.

Irrigate The Swamp?

Trump is probably correct that bringing back earmarks would let Congressional leaders buy votes more easily so they could "get things done".

There is also an issue of Congressional versus Executive power, illustrated by this Congressman from Florida:

The president’s sudden earmarks support drew cheers from some House Republicans such as Representative Tom Rooney of Florida. He has been pushing for an exception to the earmark ban to secure more money for modernizing the deteriorating water infrastructure in his state.

“I have received overwhelming support from people back home in Florida who expect me — not unelected bureaucrats — to make sure their tax dollars are invested in important programs and projects in their communities,” Mr. Rooney said.

Hmm. If I were an earnest Democrat worried that the faceless bureaucrats were being led by an insane clown posse of Republicans I might like the idea of writing some of these funding decisions into law rather than simply hoping Federal money is not all spent in Red and swing states. But that's just me.

Add This To "Frequently Unasked Questions"

Elizabeth Warren chimes in in the possibilities of an Oprah Presidential candidacy. Left unasked - in the Progressive Pantheon of Victims, what is the relative ranking of a self-made billionaire black woman relative to a self-made Harvard Professor of the blonde-hair, blue-eyed Native American persuasion?

I don't think Oprah could be beaten, but if he has a rousing economy behind him in 2020, Trump would be the person who could do it. Or maybe Tom Brady, who will have six or seven Super Bowl rings by then.

I WOULD NEVER BE THIS LUCKY: It is far too much to ask but please, please, pretty please - could Hillarity! run yet again in 2020 and denounce Oprah as a sold-out crony capitalist tool of Big Business?

The Reality TV Star Takes On Reality, TV

Trump did well in a very unusual televised meeting with Congressional leaders on immigration. Naturally the Times is unpleasantly surprised:

In effect, the president and his visitors threw away the blah-blah scripts and negotiated possible legislation in front of the nation. “I hope we’ve given you enough material,” a pleased Mr. Trump joked with reporters as he finally ushered them out of the Cabinet Room in the White House.

That was the point. After days in which his very fitness for office was debated, Mr. Trump appeared intent on demonstrating that he could handle the presidency. He was in command of the meeting while inviting input. He did not berate anyone. He did not call anyone derogatory nicknames. He signaled that he was open to compromise.

The bar, of course, was historically low given that Democrats and even some Republicans have been describing him as so unstable that he should be removed from office. For his advisers, the meeting was a relief, a chance to reset the narrative and make Mr. Trump look more like a traditional president. And his critics, grading on a curve, called it a welcome change, a moment of constructive engagement that they hoped would lead to more.

Yet it was a measure of Mr. Trump’s political weakness that anyone seemed surprised.

Hmm. Trump's political weakness? Perhaps it was a measure of the insanity of the opposition that they needed reassurance that Trump was not drooling on himself, and that a long-time businessman, real estate developer and Reality TV star could lead a meeting. On television!

If You Can Keep Your Head While All About You Others Are Losing Theirs...

If you can keep your head while all about you others are losing theirs you are neither a Brooksian anti-Trumper nor a member of the Trump legal team.

Traditional "How 'Bout Them Dawgs!" Open Thread

One might think that as a Yankee fan I would have some empathy for Alabama backers and not fall into the same "Anyone but the Tide" mindset similar to that which guides so many baseball fans jealous of the ongoing glory of the most successful franchise in professional sports.

One might think so, and if I were a better man it might be true. But for tonight, and even though it might delight Jimmy Peanut himself, it's Go, Bulldogs.

Resistance Madness

The editors of the flailing NY Times have lost the plot and lost their minds. They have now run not one but two stories hailing tax shelters for and tax avoidance by the rich. OK, they hate Trump but really - what has happened to decades of progressive orthodoxy regarding "tax the rich"? weird.

The first story (from a week ago) assures us that high-tax Blue State leaders are lying awake nights scheming up tax shelters for the rich:

Democrats in High-Tax States Plot to Blunt Impact of New Tax Law

Democrats in high-cost, high-tax states are plotting ways to do what their states’ representatives in Congress could not: blunt the impact of the newly passed Republican tax overhaul.

Governors and legislative leaders in New York, California and other states are considering legal challenges to elements of the law that they say unfairly single out parts of the country. They are looking at ways of raising revenue that aren’t penalized by the new law. And they are considering changing their state tax codes to allow residents to take advantage of other federal tax breaks — in effect, restoring deductions that the tax law scaled back.

Left under-emphasized in this article (but not elsewhere) - these changes cause concern primarily to those with high property tax and state/local income tax bills. The Blue State working class will be seeing a tax cut. No new taxes on the rich! An unexpected progressive rallying cry, yet here we are.

This idea is creative:

Another idea would be to allow residents to replace their state income tax payments with tax-deductible charitable contributions to their state governments.

I know what you are thinking, if you are an active (or even casual) philanthropist - there are quid pro quo rules and disclaimers that make it impossible for me to, for example, "contribute" to a charity in exchange for seats behind the dugout at Yankee Stadium. So wouldn't that preclude the idea that I could contribute to a "state charity" and get instant relief on my state taxes?

Weirdly, no:

Too Good to Be True? How State Charitable Tax Credits Could Increase Federal Funding for California

By: Phillip C. Blackman and Kirk J. Stark (Prof. Stark is noted in the NY Times piece)

Date Written: September 17, 2013

An IRS chief counsel memorandum published in 2010 found that a taxpayer was permitted to claim a charitable contribution deduction for the full amount of a gift, even thought a substantial portion of the gift was effectively refunded to the taxpayer through a charitable state tax credit. In this article, Blackman and Stark explain that the IRS memorandum permits states to adopt charitable tax credits that effectively enable taxpayers to convert state taxes to charitable gifts — a strategy that would be attractive to alternative minimum taxpayers. 

No kidding. In 2013 the AMT angle was emphasized because normal high-income filers could get a full deduction the old-fashioned way. But the presumption in some circles is that the current legal guidance will still apply.

Of course, the legal foundation for that counter-intuitive guidance may shift. As to what the logic was, I am not a tax lawyer but I do notice that an Obama-era ruling helped guide Federal funds to California. Coincidence or politics? I don't know, but I sense a lack of outrage in this coverage of the tax shenanigans adopted by the California Legislature to exploit this ruling.

OK, no more taxes! We are moving on to the NY Times support for tax cheats and the Swiss bankers who enable them. Read this story about the Swiss private banker and his US clients and tell me who is portrayed sympathetically.

The gist - a few years back, US authorities moved hard on the Swiss banks with their secrecy laws, demanding info about US clients who might be cheating on their taxes. Big Swiss banks with banking operations and assets in the US had a lot of pressure points and eventually melted like Swiss chocolate on a radiator.

But a tiny private Swiss bank with no US presence stepped into the breach. The result is a gripping tale of greed, crime and possible punishment, but read it and see for yourself whether the Swiss private banker is depicted as a money-grubbing sleaze or a young man seizing opportunity and defying The Man.

For my money it was a weird story. I would have said the guy was a sleaze enabling tax cheats but the Times saw it differently. Strange times. I blame credit Trump.

This Is NOT How Twitter Works

This is not how Twitter works at all, and the Christmas spirit is totally two weeks ago, but props to Sarah Silverman and her followers. Geez, an outbreak of actual kindness in 2018 - is it possible? Maybe Peak Surprise is still ahead.

Pro Tip: Don't Hit, Run, Hide and Freeze

The punishment did not fit the crime:

Milwaukee man hides after crash, freezes to death

Mark Henderson was on parole for pleading guilty in a 2012 fatal hit-and-run

MILWAUKEE —

A Milwaukee man ran from an accident scene, hid in the bushes, and ended up freezing to death, according to a report released Wednesday by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office.

Mark Henderson, 34, blew a red light at 99th and Good Hope around 2 p.m. on December 30th causing a four car crash. Henderson ran from the scene and hid in the bushes from police.

His body was found the next day by his girlfriend and the homeowner near North 97th and Good Hope Road. The medical examiner report said Henderson was lying between a shed and wooden fence.

Henderson was on parole for pleading guilty in a 2012 fatal hit-and-run.

More on the current story here. In the 2012 hit and run he was apparently drag-racing when he struck two pedestrians, killing one. Bad karma right there.

Fake News?!?

OMG! The explosive new Bible Koran of the Resistance might have some made up stuff? I bet no one saw that coming, other than everyone.

RESIST!

Free The States!

Tyrannosaurus Jeff tramples states rights, this time on marijuana laws. Or threatens to, or something.

Traditional Snow Day Open Thread

I've got gas for the snow-toy so bring it on!

Immigrants And Crime In Germany

Here is a headline from Germany that may surprise no one:

Study: Influx of young male migrants fueled rise in violence

BERLIN (AP) — A study funded by the German government has found that the recent influx of mostly young, male migrants has led to an increase in violent crime.

The study by criminologist Christian Pfeiffer uses figures from the northern state of Lower Saxony to examine the impact of refugee arrivals on crime in 2015 and 2016.

Published Wednesday, the study attributes a 10.4 percent rise in violent crimes in the state during those two years almost exclusively to refugees.

It notes that young, mostly male refugees traveling alone are more likely to commit crimes if they feel they have no hope about their future, and that most come from Muslim countries "characterized by male dominance.

On the other hand, it is possible that the author of the study was surprised. Here he is from Spiegel Online roughly two years ago:

Part 3: Are Refugees More Violent?

Christian Pfeifer, 71, is a criminologist.

Is crime in Germany on the rise, Mr. Pfeiffer?

For months, fear has been spreading that the crime rate in Germany may soon rise. People feel like their security is under threat due to the many foreigners arriving en masse. What the far-right regards as an absolute truth, Christian Pfeiffer, former director of the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, calls "propaganda." He cites data from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) gathered between January and September last year. It shows that while the absolute number of crimes has risen, the crime rate grew much slower in relation to the high number of immigrants. 

Back in the 1990s, when civil war in Yugoslavia drove hundreds of thousands of refugees to Germany, Pfeiffer examined the effect that an influx of mostly Muslim immigrants had on the crime rate. What he discovered was that immigrants tend to commit fewer crimes than the rest of the population. "Those who had a chance of being granted asylum did everything to avoid putting their status in jeopardy. This, in turn, led to greater obedience to our laws," Pfeiffer says.

The criminologist expects similar restraint from today's Syrian refugees, who unlike the North African suspects in Cologne on New Year's Eve, have a legitimate chance of remaining in Germany for the long term. The biggest difference between the Syrians and the Yugoslav refugees, he says, is that back in the 1990s, people took their whole family with them when they fled. The refugees from Syria include at least 400,000 young, single men -- a demographic with the highest propensity for crime in any country or society.

"Whether we will continue to live safely in the future depends on how we teach our rules to these often angry and frustrated youths, who come from very macho cultures. They need to learn that women are not to be preyed upon, you don't hit children and you don't respond to being disrespected with violence," Pfeiffer says.

Well, OK - maybe he wasn't surprised since the socialization he hoped for seems not to have taken place. 

This summary of the report makes it clear that, well, basically the criminal immigrants are victims of circumstance and an unwelcoming German response:

Criminologists are calling for better prevention measures to deal with violence committed by refugees, following the release of a study shared with the German Press Agency (DPA) and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others. The study recommends refugees have access to language courses, sports, internships and more exposure to women.

I guess since keeping them out is not an option then more and more generous government programs will be the favored progressive response.

FBI Irregularities In Clinton Investigation? Shocking!

The Hill presents it as news but they cannot possibly think this will shock or surprise anyone:

Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case

Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken when the former secretary of State and her top aides transmitted classified information through her insecure private email server, lawmakers and investigators told The Hill.

That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the “sheer volume” of classified information that flowed through Clinton’s insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said.

False statements? Please. For a false statement to be lead to a criminal it needs to be both false and material to the investigation. Since nothing anyone said was ever going to lead to charges or an indictment, no false statement could be material. Duh.

Some bright lights have managed to pierce the fog:

Some Republicans on the committee say the findings and revelations have left them more convinced than ever that FBI leadership rigged the outcome to clear Clinton.

“This was an effort to pre-bake the cake, pre-bake the outcome,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a House Judiciary Committee member who attended the McCabe briefing before the holidays. “Hillary Clinton obviously benefited from people taking actions to ensure she wasn’t held accountable.”

Say what? The Democratic-led DoJ couldn't even mount an objective investigation into the behavior of the former Secretary of State turned Democratic Party Presidential front-runner? 

Good Cop, Bad Cop, Bitterly Divided

A man of better character than I (or grammar skills than me?) would read past this headline and lede at the flailing NY Times to see if the obvious counter point is made. I cannot.

Kim Jong-un’s Overture Could Drive a Wedge Between South Korea and the U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea — Beyond a New Year’s declaration by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, that he would move to the mass-production of nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles in 2018 lies a canny new strategy to initiate direct talks with South Korea in the hope of driving a wedge into its seven-decade alliance with the United States.

Just remember - if South Korea and North Korea reach a meaningful and reassuring detente the Times will only embrace it if they can "blame" Trump.

ERRATA: NO, Trump did not invent the 'good cop/ bad cop' ploy. Nor did this LA DA.

Happy New Year!

The traditional Get Out and Embrace The Day New Year's open thread.

Since no one asked, I am rooting for an Oklahoma-Clemson showdown next week.

AS A PSA: This NY Times "coverage" of hangover remedies and preventative ploys is Fake News at its worst.

By way of contrast, here is the real scoop, with real preventative tips. Let me contrast just one point. From the Times:

What causes a hangover?

Dr. Veach said a hangover occurs when the concentration of alcohol in one’s system is decreasing. It is at its worst when all the alcohol has been eliminated.

“Addiction specialists have often noted that a hangover is technically a form of alcohol withdrawal at its most benign,” she said.

The scientific community does not completely understand what causes hangovers, Dr. Preston R. Miller, a surgeon at Wake Forest, said in an email. Alcohol is a diuretic that causes dehydration and irritation of the gastrointestinal tract, leading to nausea and dilation of blood vessels, which can cause the headaches associated with hangovers.

It's complicated!

 

But for people who can handle complexity:

 

What Causes a Hangover? 7 Major Biochemical Reactions to Alcohol

Alcohol, and too much of it specifically, triggers a cascade of reactions in your body that contribute to the symptoms known as a hangover. This includes:

1. Increased Urination

Alcohol inhibits the secretion of vasopressin, an antidiuretic hormone that keeps you from urinating unintentionally. When this enzyme is suppressed, water is sent right to your bladder (along with electrolytes) to be excreted, causing you to urinate more often.

2. Dehydration

The increased urination can lead you to become quickly dehydrated, and as your body draws water from your brain to function, it may leave you feeling fatigued or dizzy.

3. Acetaldehyde Build-Up

When alcohol reaches your liver, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase breaks it down into acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is far more toxic than alcohol (by up to 30-fold!²).

So your body again attempts to break it down with the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and glutathione, a powerful antioxidant that is crucial for liver detoxification (glutathione contains high levels of cysteine, which is why taking this in supplement form may help prevent hangovers… more on this below).

Together, this powerful detox duo can break down the acetaldehyde into harmless acetate (which is similar to vinegar).

However, when you drink too much alcohol, your stores of glutathione become depleted, which allows acetaldehyde to build up in your body, causing the toxic hangover effect.

It should be noted that women have less acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and glutathione than men, which is why women may have a more severe reaction to drinking the same amount of alcohol as a man of similar weight.

4. Congeners

...

5. Glutamine Rebound

Alcohol inhibits glutamine, a natural stimulant in your body. This is partly why alcohol has a depressive effect that may make you fall asleep easily… at first. After you've stopped drinking, your body will work overtime increasing glutamine levels, which is why you'll ultimately wake up more often and have a more fitful night's sleep after you drink.

This glutamine rebound may contribute to the fatigue, tremors, anxiety, restlessness, and even increased blood pressure that are often felt during a hangover.³

6. Disruptions to Your Stomach Lining, Blood Vessels, and Blood Sugar

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7. Inflammatory Response

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Dehydration and loss of electrolytes are covered by the sports drink or Pedialyte cure 'everyone' knows about. The glutamine rebound is hard to treat responsibly since no sane person will advise someone who has had a lot to drink to pop a Valium or a sleeping pill.

However! The aldehyde accumulation is real and easily pre-treated. This article mentions some relevant rat studies using cysteine and Vitamin B-1. The bottom line, from the first good article:

1. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)

NAC is a form of the amino acid cysteine. It is known to help increase glutathione and reduce the acetaldehyde toxicity⁵ that causes many hangover symptoms. Try taking NAC (at least 200 milligrams) 30 minutes before you drink to help lessen the alcohol's toxic effects.

If you're wondering just how powerful NAC can be, consider that, like alcohol, one way that Tylenol causes damage to your liver is by depleting glutathione. If you keep your glutathione levels up, the damage from the acetaminophen may be largely preventable. This is why anyone who overdoses on Tylenol receives large doses of NAC in the emergency room -- to increase glutathione.

2. B Vitamins

NAC is thought to work even better when combined with thiamine, or vitamin B1.⁶ Vitamin B6 may also help to lessen hangover symptoms. Since alcohol depletes B vitamin in your body and they're required to help eliminate it from your body, a B-vitamin supplement taken beforehand, as well as the next day, may help.

Science! Its easy to find real live people who have tried supplements like this with dramatic results. Write me down as Witness 1. Of course, folks who like to mix and match can buy NAC and a B-complex vitamin separately.

 

My point is that there is real science behind this and plenty of people who say that it works for them. Why are the science-deniers at the Times hiding this from their readers?