As Washington conservatives question whether partisan FBI officials working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller have stacked the deck against President Donald Trump, a criminal case in Las Vegas points to the sort of federal prosecutorial abuses that give the right cause for paranoia.
Reader Tips
The Berlin Celebration Concert – Beethoven, Symphony No 9 Bernstein, performed on Christmas Day, 1989 to mark the fall of the Berlin wall.
h/t to Maz2 and Deplorable Sewer Rat
Donald Clause
Making a list. Checking it twice.
Are We Still A Member Of This Thing?
More.
#Disappeared
Gateway Pundit: The Twitter account belonging to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vanished off Twitter late on Sunday evening, while many were celebrating Christmas Eve.
Update: Now back.
Jerusalem
The New York Times, as much as it pains them…
Yet, despite the dire predictions of major turmoil, and the best efforts of both Fatah and Hamas to mobilize the masses, so far there has been no large-scale, spontaneous outburst of violence in the wake of the president’s declaration.
The response has been more of a part-time simulation of an uprising, almost by appointment. A few thousand protesters have turned out at familiar friction points in the West Bank or along the Gaza border on the designated “Days of Rage” called for by the political factions. Other days, hardly anybody has shown up.
Christmas In Mosul
A ray of light from the most unlikely of places.
Update:
Merry Christmas from Syria’s Aleppo, free of ISIS and Al-Qaeda jihadists. A beautiful sight that won’t be seen on mainstream media. pic.twitter.com/6s5Wlt8LSm
— Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) December 25, 2017
Reader Tips
Seasons Greetings to all of you, from all of us at SDA. May your Christmas be merry and bright!
Santa Claus Boot Camp
Funniest thing i have seen all year 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/meNLDQi1gr
— Military Support (@MilitaryEarth) December 24, 2017
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Honey, I Finished The Internet
Live from Southern #saskatchewan the title match at the #UHC ultimate heifer championship.
See No Socialism, Hear No Socialism
World Economic Forum: “Venezuela was once twelve times richer than China. What happened?”
The Children Are Our Future
Maybe H.L. Mencken was onto something when he wrote the following: “The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda – a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. The aim is to make ‘good’ citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens.” I think that he must have been onto something, because lately, whenever someone in academia introduces contaminants into the echo-chamber, the rest of the institution reacts like a supercharged immune system, attacking the new and foreign idea in the hope of killing it off before it spreads, thereby purifying the sterile echo-chamber.
h/t Mike.
Dog Blogging
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As promised, a couple of candids of me and “Raylan” in the ring in Orlando, this one taken en route to winning the Central Florida Mini Schnauzer Specialty (his eighth breed specialty win of 2017). |
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At left, placing fourth in the group at the Space Coast Kennel Club Of Palm Bay (defeating 340 terriers). I was digging in my pocket for a dog treat as we waited for ribbons. Beginning in early January, we made 14 road trips and two flights from Saskatchewan to points across the breadth of the US — including Florida, California, Oklahoma and Texas, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, clocking nearly 37,000 miles by road in the process. He’s the first dog of his breed to have achieved #1 status in both Canada (2015) |
“It’s best to leave when you’re on top” they say, and so Raylan has been officially retired from the ring.
As for me, I’m home for a few months to rest and catch up on a few postponed projects around here. My sincerest thanks to my readers for your patience with this adventure, and to Lance and the guest bloggers who kept the place humming during my absences. I hope all of you will stick around to add flavour and variety to the content here.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you, and may you enjoy as much fun, success and adventure in the year to come as “Team Raylan” experienced in 2017.
Blowout 208
An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world:
In this week’s Blowout we once more feature Tesla’s Big South Australian Battery, which is already helping to save Australia from blackouts. We follow with OPEC’s dilemma; Saudi Arabia hunts for gas; Macron backs nuclear; BHP exits the World Coal Organization; China’s carbon trading market; India’s hybrid wind-solar project; AEMO’s baseload-free future; CSP in the Sahara; Swansea Bay on the skids; climate scientists flock to France; snowfall doubles in Alaska while climate change threatens the Winter Olympics, and Season’s Greetings to all our readers.
Reader Tips
Your tips thread is hereby open.
Bigly
Conrad Black — Trump’s Whirlwind Year
I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords
Quote Of The Day
Frankly, My Dear
America has statutes of limitations for a reason – because the accuracy of accusation diminishes considerably with the passage of time. Speaking for myself, as that Quebec minister would say, I prefer worldly courtesans d’un certain âge to giggling jailbait, and regard the most pitiful passage in the Starr Report to be the moment when Monica Lewinsky demands to know of the President of the United States whether he loves the new Sarah McLachlan album as much as she does. Could have been worse, I suppose. Could have been Hootie and the Blowfish. But, at any rate, Moore’s preferences as an eligible bachelor for the youngish end of Alabammy maidenhood doesn’t make him the Jimmy Savile of Dixie.
Back then, there were lots of 32-year-old men chasing 19-year-old girls – the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, to cite only the most obvious example…
h/t Adrian