Category Archives: Government
Professional School Shooter
A Wall Street Journal story says the FBI failed to follow up on a tip that Nikolas Cruz was a dangerous threat to others.
On Jan. 5, the FBI received a call on a tip line from a person close to Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old charged in this week’s shooting, the bureau said in a statement on Friday. The caller provided information on “Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social-media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” the FBI said.
The FBI said the information should have been assessed as a possible “threat to life” but “no further investigation was conducted.”
Professional School Shooter
BuzzFeed reports that last September a Mississippi bail bondsman named Ben Bennight tipped the FBI to a disturbing YouTube post by a Nikolas Cruz. The post said “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.” The FBI followed up with a visit to Bennight’s office but he had no further information. At a press conference after the shooting the Bureau said it “could not uncover any details from the account.”
Florida Governor Rick Scott called for FBI Director Christopher Ray to step down.
The End is Coming
Republicans pushed through a pro growth tax cut. But then they passed a budget full of deficit spending. On Face the Nation Rand Paul called his party hypocritical.
The End is Coming
Kevin Williamson at National Review calls Senator Paul “fantastically bitchy.”
But he also says “the end is coming.”
Comey’s Response
The Devin Nunes memo released last Friday described an FBI application to the FISA court. The FBI was seeking permission to spy on Carter Page, a low level Trump advisor with Russian contacts. The application included the infamous Christoper Steele Trump dossier.
That would be the same dossier that former FBI Director Comey said contained “salacious and unverified” information. Not only that, the Clinton campaign funded the thing and possibly contributed information to it.
Comey’s Response
Comey’s response when he read the memo – That’s it?
Adam Schiff Leaks
Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has prepared a four page memo. The memo is a summary of thousands of pages of information the FBI refused to turn over to the committee until it was threatened with contempt of Congress. The committee is responsible for oversight of the FBI.
Nunes says the public has a right know about the information in the memo. But the FBI is fighting its release.
The summary is said to reveal the quality of evidence the Justice Department presented to a FISA court. The FISA court has the power to authorize spying on Americans, including members of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the committee. He says Nunes is trying to distract from Special Counsel Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation by releasing classified information. And he now claims Nunes altered information in the memo.
Trey Gowdy says the memo will be an embarrassment to Schiff.
Until now Schiff has shown little interest in obtaining information about FBI efforts to spy on Americans. Except when it suites his purposes.
Pelosi’s Crumbs
Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s tax cuts for workers “crumbs”. Thousand dollar crumbs, but still crumbs.
No doubt the House Minority Leader from San Francisco does have thousand dollar crumbs on her plate.
By her lights those crumbs are a “little piece of cheese in a mouse trap” for the little people who elect her to do what she does.
I don’t think she gets why her party has crumbled.
