Author: Doug Santo

“…The Viganò testimony bears the mark of a man seething with anger and perhaps facing the mystery of death. “It is in moments of great trial that the Lord’s grace is revealed in abundance and makes His limitless mercy available to all,” the 77-year-old churchman writes near the end. “But it is granted only to those who are truly repentant.”

For American and global Catholicism, Viganò’s dark night of the soul presents a bright clarifying moment. The document portrays a church whose highest echelons are dominated by old men who apparently don’t believe, or at least don’t take all that seriously, what she has taught about human sexuality for two millennia. And others who are willing to cut corners to protect their decadent brethren.

Either Viganò’s core claims hold water, or they don’t. Either the Vatican was informed of McCarrick’s predations as early as 2000 only to turn a blind eye, or it wasn’t.

Either Pope Benedict XVI imposed private sanctions against McCarrick in 2009-10, barring him from celebrating public Masses and cavorting with seminarians, or he didn’t. Either McCarrick’s successor as cardinal-archbishop of Washington, Donald Wuerl, was aware of the sanctions, or he wasn’t.

Either Pope Francis rehabilitated McCarrick upon taking the Petrine office, despite being warned of the abuse “dossier,” or he didn’t.

If Viganò is telling the truth about these things, then the moral catastrophe he describes is horrifyingly real.

Everything else is noise…”

https://nypost.com/2018/08/27/the-catholic-abuse-scandal-now-leads-all-the-to-way-the-vatican/

OR THE ANNALS OF 

LIBERAL HYPOCRISY

Do Obama, Biden, Schumer and Pelosi mean it now when they praise John McCain or did they actually mean it back when they were calling him a Bush toady, a corporate tool, and a peddler of despicable political smears? 

The internet never forgets!

https://www.lifezette.com/2018/08/what-democrats-said-about-mccain-that-they-now-want-you-to-forget/

All the best people told me it was the Russians!

“…A Chinese-owned company operating in the Washington, D.C., area hacked Hillary Clinton’s private server throughout her term as secretary of state and obtained nearly all her emails, two sources briefed on the matter told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Chinese firm obtained Clinton’s emails in real time as she sent and received communications and documents through her personal server, according to the sources, who said the hacking was conducted as part of an intelligence operation.

The Chinese wrote code that was embedded in the server, which was kept in Clinton’s residence in upstate New York. The code generated an instant “courtesy copy” for nearly all of her emails and forwarded them to the Chinese company, according to the sources.

The Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) found that virtually all of Clinton’s emails were sent to a “foreign entity,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, said at a July 12 House Committee on the Judiciary hearing. He did not reveal the entity’s identity, but said it was unrelated to Russia.

Two officials with the ICIG, investigator Frank Rucker and attorney Janette McMillan, met repeatedly with FBI officials to warn them of the Chinese intrusion, according to a former intelligence officer with expertise in cybersecurity issues, who was briefed on the matter. He spoke anonymously, as he was not authorized to publicly address the Chinese’s role with Clinton’s server.

Among those FBI officials was Peter Strzok, who was then the bureau’s top counterintelligence official. Strzok was fired this month following the discovery he sent anti-Trump texts to his mistress and co-worker, Lisa Page. Strzok didn’t act on the information the ICIG provided him, according to Gohmert…”

https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/27/china-hacked-clinton-server/

Leak a story to the press, use the resulting press reports as evidence to the FISA Court to spy on American citizens. The stories of malfeasance at the FBI/DOJ continue. We need a thorough house cleaning at those agencies.

“…An FBI special agent told Congress earlier in August that the bureau has used leaked news stories as justifications to obtain surveillance warrants against American citizens, a source familiar with the testimony tells The Daily Caller News Foundation. During a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees on Friday, Special Agent Jonathan Moffa told congressional investigators that the FBI and Justice Department have leaked stories to the press and then used them to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)…”

https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/27/source-fbi-congress-leaked-stories-spy-warrants/

I wonder how Kushner’s record compares to Hillary Clinton’s or Jon Kerry’s?

“…Kushner, married to first daughter Ivanka Trump, has been a top domestic and foreign policy adviser to the president since the 2016 election. He has been involved in several major agenda victories for the White House, among them the push for prison reform, bringing jobs to the U.S. from overseas, working up a Middle East peace timeline, nailing down the 2028 Summer Olympics, and securing soccer’s World Cup in North America in 2026.

His focus on Mexico during the 2016 presidential campaign was one of the reasons he wanted to work inside the West Wing, said an official. It was Kushner, for example, who worked out the campaign year visit by President Trump to Mexico.

“He has a close relationship with Mexico. It is just natural that he was brought into the NAFTA and other talks,” said the official, who added that Kushner has been working with U.S. officials on NAFTA reforms for a year and a half…”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/nafta-another-win-for-jared-kushner

The congressional hearing on this matter starts in about 1 week. The headlines keep pilling up.

Facebook’s definition of “hate speech” grows even more bizarre.

Facebook Censors Articles from Conservative Outlets About Manafort, Cohen.

96 Percent of Google Search Results for ‘Trump’ News Are from Liberal Media Outlets.

“…For a long time there has been concern that the Me Too movement went too far in portraying men as monsters. But several recent events have shown that the movement was just as misguided in turning women into flawless paragons of virtue.

After accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape, Asia Argento became one of the main faces of Me Too. But last week the movement was rocked when actor and musician Jimmy Bennett accused Argento of sexually assaulting him when he was 17 and she was 37.

Argento denied all the charges, including having any sexual relationship with Bennett and, in a statement to reporter Yashar Ali, claimed her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain actually made the payments to the cash-strapped Bennett because he was “afraid of the possible negative publicity” and to “not suffer any future intrusions in our life.”

Fellow Weinstein victims were careful about condemning Argento. Rose McGowan, one of the most outspoken heroes of the movement, tweeted “None of us know the truth of the situation, and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle.” Mira Sorvino tweeted a statement describing herself as “heartsick” over the accusations and noting that “perhaps she [Argento] will be exonerated.” It was hard not to notice that men who were similarly accused did not get the benefit of the doubt from these women.

Following Argento’s denial, pictures surfaced showing her and Bennett in bed together. She has not made any further comment.

The same week, the 2018 winner of the Miss America pageant, Cara Mund, accused Gretchen Carlson of bullying her.

“Our chair and CEO have systematically silenced me, reduced me, marginalized me and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on a daily basis,” Mund said.

Two other Miss America winners also joined in her complaint. Like Argento, Carlson was a trailblazer in the Me Too movement. Her sexual-harassment accusation against then Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes was the first of many and ultimately forced his resignation. The idea that a Me Too leader would nevertheless be terrible to other women caught people by surprise…”

https://nypost.com/2018/08/25/when-metoo-advocates-face-their-own-fall-from-grace/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons

I am generally for less government regulation. But the social media giants have a monopoly on what can be considered public airwaves. They are biased against conservatives and expressing that bias as censorship of speech. Government should take action.

“…Amid concerns that conservative voices are being silenced on social media, a U.S. House committee announced Friday that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other tech executives will appear before the panel on Capitol Hill Sept. 5.

Dorsey will discuss his company’s “algorithms and content judgment calls” before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the committee announced via Twitter…”

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/08/25/twitter-ceo-other-tech-execs-to-address-social-media-bias-against-conservatives-at-capitol-hill-hearing.html

We vacationed at the cabin for a few days in August 2009. We left the cabin and returned to Sacramento. Austin and I went with grandpa in his new truck to run an errand. Grandpa turned too hard and scraped a light pole. Grandpa swore Austin and I to secrecy.

Lee Ann and Lesley were pulling in to the driveway as we got back to the house. Even though Austin had agreed to keep quiet about the accident he  jumped out of the truck and ran to tell grandma that grandpa had an accident. I captured the moment with my camera. This has been one of my favorite photos ever since.

Group ready to eat dinner at the cabin in August 2009. Lesley cleaning up a spill. She may have had too many adult beverages!

Kim Strassel:

“…The country has watched the FBI treat one presidential campaign with kid gloves, the other with informants, warrants and eavesdropping. They’ve seen the Justice Department resist all efforts at accountability, even as it fails to hold its own accountable. And don’t get them started on the one-sided media.

And they are now witnessing unequal treatment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Yes, the former FBI director deserves credit for smoking out the Russian trolls who interfered in 2016. And one can argue he is obliged to pursue any evidence of criminal acts, even those unrelated to Russia. But what cannot be justified is the one-sided nature of his probe.

Consider Mr. Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who this week pleaded guilty to eight felony charges. Six related to his personal business dealings; the other two involved campaign-finance violations arising from payments to women claiming affairs with Donald Trump. The criminal prosecution of campaign-finance offenses is exceptionally rare (most charges are civil), but let’s take Mr. Khuzami’s word for it when he says Mr. Cohen’s crimes are “particularly significant” because he’s a lawyer who should know better, and also because the payments were for the purpose of “influencing an election” and undermining its “integrity.”

If there is only “one set of rules,” where is Mr. Mueller’s referral of a case against Hillary for America? Federal law requires campaigns to disclose the recipient and purpose of any payments. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to compile a dossier against Mr. Trump, a document that became the basis of the Russia narrative Mr. Mueller now investigates. But the campaign funneled the money to law firm Perkins Coie, which in turn paid Fusion. The campaign falsely described the money as payment for “legal services.” The Democratic National Committee did the same. A Perkins Coie spokesperson has claimed that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the research, and maybe so. But a lot of lawyers here seemed to have been ignoring a clear statute, presumably with the intent of influencing an election.

Prosecutions under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) are also exceptionally rare, though Mr. Mueller is getting media kudos for hammering the likes of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for failing to register as lobbyists for foreign entities. The law is the law.

But under this standard, where are the charges against the principals of Fusion GPS, who Sen. Chuck Grassley has said look to have been lobbying on behalf of powerful Russians against a U.S. sanctions law, with its payment again funneled through a law firm? This was a sideline to its dossier work, but Mr. Mueller usually has no issue with sideline charges…”

Original here

This is a terrible situation. I am not Catholic or even religious, but I respect the church. This is not the church that has failed, it is the clergy. What a disgrace.  

The former apostolic nuncio has claimed that Pope Francis knew about sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI but chose to repeal them.

Full story here

Another great piece by Andrew McCarthy. It does no good to post a snippet here. If you are interested in a real analysis of the laws relating to campaign money and the president and Cohen go read Mr. McCarthy’s article. News you get in the MSM is worthless.

Go here

The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the third quarter of 2018 is 4.6 percent on August 24, up from 4.3 percent on August 16. After yesterday’s releases on new-home sales and costs from the U.S. Census Bureau, the nowcast of third-quarter real residential investment growth increased from -4.5 percent to -1.1 percent. After this morning’s advance durable manufacturing report from the Census Bureau, the nowcast of third-quarter real nonresidential equipment investment growth increased from 6.4 percent to 7.5 percent and the nowcast of the contribution of inventory investment to third-quarter real GDP growth increased from 1.92 percentage points to 2.03 percentage points.

nhttps://www.streetinsider.com/Fed/Atlanta+Fed+Raises+GDP+Forecast+to+4.6%25/14546182.html

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