Corrupted Sages; Hypocritical Compliance Officers

The Fall of a Philosopher King and the Attack on Liberty

Dennis Behreandt
The New American


You may have heard of Professor Neil Ferguson. He’s the expert in the U.K. that predicted COVID-19 would infect and kill everyone and whose doomsday scenarios resulted directly in the lockdown in his own country and contributed to the knife in the the back of freedom that was wielded by mostly liberal-progressive governors and their quisling compatriot technocrats here in the United States.

It turns out that Professor Ferguson decided he didn’t need the lockdown he demands for everyone else. According to the Telegraph, Ferguson figured he could have his married consort visit him at his house despite the lockdown in London.

According to the Telegraph, “The revelation of the ‘illegal’ trysts will infuriate millions of couples living apart who the government has banned from meeting up during the lockdown, now in its seventh week.”

The paper reported that Ferguson’s married girlfriend “travelled across London from her south London home to spend time with the government scientist, nicknamed Professor Lockdown.”

“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic,” Ferguson said in response to having been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Naturally, in keeping with modern liberal-progressive radicals, Ferguson’s paramour apparently disdains the tenets of traditional, boring old marriage, preferring a more hipster alternative “lifestyle.”

A Scandal of Gross Ineptitude at Best

The FISA Scandal Is about Corruption, Not ‘Sloppiness’

By David Harsanyi
National Review

When 96 percent of spy warrants reviewed contain serious errors or omissions — that’s wholescale fraud, not a few little slip-ups.

Consider this scenario: A federal lawyer is filling out applications requesting FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) warrants to spy on American citizens who work for a major presidential campaign to determine whether the campaign staffers are collaborating with a foreign power to steal the presidency of the United States.

They must know that such a conspiracy, should it be exposed, would be the most explosive in the history of the nation — towering over the piddling criminality of Watergate or the Teapot Dome scandal. And any genuine effort to ferret out criminality and sedition within one of the nation’s major parties — perhaps going a high as the future president himself — would be supported by unimpeachable underlying evidence and undertaken with abundant care and meticulous oversight.

So what are the chances that a good-faith investigation would botch nearly every request to spy on the campaign when the FISA court is already signing off on over 99 percent of applications? What are the chances that the FISA applications of a good-faith investigation would be riddled with errors and rely on “misleading and inaccurate” information based on a fabulist document paid for by the opposing political party?

You would think that this kind of potential abuse by the Justice Department would pique the interest of mainstream journalists. No such luck.

The Mien of a Tin Pot Dictator

Shane Jones has Run Out of Second Chances

Heather du Plessis-Allan
Newstalk ZB


I don’t think we should for one minute tolerate what Shane Jones has just done.  It’s very easy to applaud him because he stands up for the provinces or give him latitude because he’s witty.  But what he’s just done is reprehensible and deserves no place in our parliament.

Shane Jones has now threatened revenge against whoever it was who complained to the Herald about his comments at the forestry awards evening.  He says he knows who went to the Herald and he’s going to “deal to them”.

"When the election comes around and the Cabinet restrictions have been loosened, then I am personally going to deal to these National Party sympathisers who thought that it was a smart idea to try and have me quivering in a corner by racing to the media," he said.  "At the appropriate time, I will deal to them as a big-time, New Zealand First wrestler."

That is not OK.  It is not OK for a minister in Cabinet to threaten utu.

Biden Corruption

Malodorous Indeed 

Joe Biden used to be the Vice-President of the United States during the Obama Presidency.  During that period of service it is alleged that he facilitated his son, Hunter Biden getting on what is called the "Gravy Train".  Biden used his position and influence to secure lucrative business deals his son.

The researcher/author who did the hard yards exposing the graft is Peter Schweizer.  Here is a summary of what went down:

Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior editor-at-large at Breitbart News, explained how Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s second son, consummated financial relationships with foreign states and oligarchs in China and Ukraine while his father “steered [foreign] policy” towards those two countries as vice president. He offered his analysis in a Saturday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Saturday with host Matt Boyle.

“Why were these foreign governments and these foreign corrupt oligarchs stuffing money into Hunter Biden’s pocket?” asked Schweizer. “That’s why I have called for Hunter Biden to testify before a Senate committee.”

There Is a Very Rotten Odour Emanating From NZ's Left

Hoist and Dangling From Their Own Petard

It is hard to credit or comprehend the ethical environment that must now characterise the New Zealand Labour Party.  Similar comments now may also be made about Winston Peters and his party and the Greens.  It seems that moral hypocrisy is running through the vitals of left wing parties to such an extent that the ordinary bloke and blokesse are left shaking their heads--or, as their mates would say, "Gobsmacked".  

We are not up to play with all the "in's and out's".  So we will take our cue from Andrea Vance.

"The rot is very deep. [The] party is allergic to women."  Those are powerful words from a former Beehive aide, appalled by how the Labour party has handled allegations of sexual assault by a staffer.  Is it any wonder then, that some complainants turned to National's deputy leader Paula Bennett for help?

National's deputy leader is taking fire for relentlessly dogging Labour over their litany of failures.  During general debate in the House, National Deputy Leader Paula Bennett said Jacinda Ardern's senior staff and senior minister Grant Robertson had known the seriousness of the allegations.  She was approached by five desperate complainants, who'd been dismissed and ignored by their own party. . . .

Jacinda Ardern has pledged two - secret - inquiries. It's the bare minimum, and the cookie-cutter response to a PR crisis.  But look past the PM's soothing platitudes, to the party's defensive behaviour over the last fortnight. It reveals MPs and members are in denial about how badly they wronged these young volunteers.  Ardern, who chooses her words with care, dismissed the original media reporting, and interviews with complainants, as "speculation."

The NZ Prime Minister Derelict in Duty

The Corrupt "First Citizen" of Northland

New Zealand is rapidly losing its status as a corruption free society.  We now have a government where the Prime Minister parades in a hijab to make a point while her ministers engage in corrupt practice without consequence.

It's bizarre.  It's also nauseating. 

New Zealand loves to take the high moral ground on lots of issues and matters.  For example, we tell ourselves that we would never stoop to the low corruption of Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada.  Yet, now, when confronting the same bald-faced effrontery in our own country, we sniff like the proverbial Pharisee and pass by on the other side of the road, nostrils blocked and eyes averted.

This, from the NZ Herald:

NZ First's Shane Jones has stepped into the middle of legal action between the NZ Transport Agency and Northland's biggest logging transport operator, even though he holds the portfolio of Associate Transport Minister.  Jones said he was speaking as the Regional Economic Development Minister when he expressed concern to the Herald about a case between the NZ Transport Agency and Semenoff Logging.

"I'm concerned about the economic implications flowing from issues between NZTA and Semenoff Logging," Jones said, following a High Court decision last Monday where the transporter won temporary suspension of a ban on its licence.  On March 15, NZTA revoked Semenoff's transport services licence over a range of safety issues, due to take effect on March 22.

But on March 20, the business of the ex-Whangarei mayor Stan Semenoff hit back and sought a temporary stay on that licence ban, although the case is yet to go to a full hearing.  Justice Mark Woolford said in his March 25 decision in the High Court at Auckland that the Whangarei company is "the largest logging haulage company in Northland ... responsible for 50 per cent of Northland's wood flow and log haulage."

Jones is a Minister of the Crown.

One of The Great Rorts Of Our Time

Cycleways--A Thing of Deceptive Beauty

When public bodies waste taxpayers' money, blood begins to simmer on its way to boiling.  It now turns out that Auckland--New Zealand's largest city--has been the victim of a scam.  The deception, apparently, has been carefully engineered by a bunch of anti-car, cycle zealots whose view of the future is soooo righteous, it justifies dissembling and lying.

We live close to the Great South Road as it makes its way down towards the Hunua ranges.  That main arterial road was once a main highway south, with two lanes heading south, and two north.  Now it is one lane either side.  But one both sides of the road there is a vacant cycle way to encourage and facilitate bike use.  What used to be two lanes of traffic each way is now one traffic lane and a cycle way.  At all times during the day and night, even in commuter rush hours, the cycle lane is more empty and barren than the Sahara.  As a consequence, traffic is gridlocked.

Commentator Mike Hoskings has also had his fill of this deceit and chicanery.

Very Deep Indeed

. . . Something Rotten in the State of "Denmark"

New Zealand had a striking example last week of why Oppositions are a necessity for sound government.  A Government minister has been caught out twice misleading the House (a major transgression).  The Opposition sought and obtained permission from the Speaker for a snap debate.  

Here is the speech of one of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, as framed by the blog, Point of Order.

The   current Parliamentary  session  has  yielded few events, or  speeches, which linger  in the memory  for  more than  a few  minutes. The  Opposition, despite its  strength  in numbers at  least,  has landed   few hits  on  the   government.

That  is  until  this  week   when  it  called for, and  was granted,  a  snap  debate  on  the demotion  of Clare  Curran  from   Cabinet and her resignation  from two portfolios.

Perhaps surprisingly, one of the  most effective speeches  from the Opposition  benches  came from  veteran MP  Nick Smith.  Some  of the newcomers within  the Opposition  could  take  it  as  a  model of   its kind,  marshalling  the facts  before the  house  and  then   building  to  a  powerful  climax.

Here’s  how   Smith  made his  case:

“We have a Minister of Open Government—actually, the very first Minister of Open Government that’s ever existed in this Parliament—and the promise of the Minister of Open Government was to be the most open and transparent Government that this country has ever had, and then what we find out from that Minister is that not once but twice that Minister behaved in a secretive, in a sneaky, and in a dirty way.

A Relief

Corruption?  It Just Ain't So

On the 23rd of June, under the heading Corruption and Incompetence we published a piece alleging that NZ Cabinet Minister, David Parker was prima facie guilty of a corrupt act.  It now emerges, however, that he was not.  

Columnist Audrey Young reports:

National had legitimate questions for Parker about the background to an exemption for one development at Mangawhai involving settlement funding of two iwi - and Parker more than answered them, which he did so at length, and with reasoned and passionate argument.

What has emerged is that although the Treasury advised against any exemption for any development, it was done after Parker took a paper to cabinet and sought its approval.  It was done on the grounds of not wanting to create a contemporary Treaty of Waitangi breach through reducing the value of returns on a major investment by iwi using redress given to it by historic breaches.

The issue of general exemption for treaty investments was considered but rejected.  The potential reduction in value was not through the bill threatening the development, because it doesn't, but by reducing the pool of potential wealthy buyers for the top-end residential sites.  Parker refused to listen to any private pleadings of any developer during the course of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill banning foreign buyers from buying New Zealand houses.  [Emphasis, ours.]  He made it clear they should make [the pleadings] to the committee.

Corruption and Incompetence

Dirty Smells

Incompetence and corruption are two unacceptable nasties which are beginning to show up on a regular basis in NZ politics.  The present government is in disarray as it scores own goals left, right, and centre.  

Kiwiblog has called attention to the most recent imbroglios on the part of the government.  The first is a straight out attempt to slide a clause into a piece of legislation which would have brought pecuniary advantage to just one individual company--which happened to be owned by a mate of cabinet minister, David Parker.

Matthew Hooton sums up well what the Government tried (but failed to do). They tried to have an exemption to their ban on overseas house buyers law for just one company. A company owned by a mate of David Parker, and whose interests were lobbied for by Jacinda Ardern’s former Acting Chief of Staff.

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Matthew Hooton

on Wednesday

This scandal is far, far worse than the previous government's dealings with Warner Bros, Sky City or the Saudi sheik because - on the face of it - there doesn't appear to be any argument the public interest was involved.  It seems that an attempt was made to insert a clause into a government bill solely and specifically to favour a property development being led by a friend and business associate of the Economic Development Minister.
One of the lobbyists who successfully secu...

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Labour and the Queenstown property developer

There are questions about why Labour MPs on a Select Committee agreed to grant a special exemption from the overseas buyers' legislation for a lavish Northland beachfront property development where are valued at up to $4.5 million.

POLITIK.CO.NZ

This should be, as Matthew says, a major news story. I hope National pursues this further as the conflicts of interest in this are huge, as well as the hypocrisy.  [Kiwiblog]

One troubling aspect to this deceptive act of corruption is that the Minister in question has form.

Here is a transcript from Parliament from 21st March, 2016:

Old News--But Essential Nonetheless

FBI Corrupted By Its Senior Leadership

For those of our readers who follow US politics and have some knowledge of the US Justice Department and the FBI you will find a lot of damning material recently released by the Justice Department's inspector general report into the conduct of the FBI.  It reveals a shocking anti-Trump, pro-Hillary bias endemic to the agency's related investigations.

Now this has been both suspected and alleged by various parties and agencies of government and politicians for a long, long time.  On Thursday 14th June, the Inspector General's [IG] report was released.  Mollie Hemingway, Senior Editor of The Federalist has written a summary.  Keen students of the ineptitude, corruption, bias, and arrogance of the FBI will find all of the proof and evidence you want to establish "beyond reasonable doubt" that the senior leadership FIB has indeed become politicised, has been thoroughly anti-Trump, and in the tank for the Democrats.  [Note, however, that indictment is pointed at senior leadership in the FBI, not the rank and file.]

OK--so it's "Old News".  But it's more than that: it is now proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Hard to Believe

Rotting Corruption In the Body Politic

It turns out that President Obama was probably far more dangerous as President of the United States than we have hitherto thought.  It would seem that he and his immediate coterie actually believed that President Elect Trump was a Russian mole who had been working for Putin for years.  

It is one thing for corrupt politicians to start a smear campaign against an opponent built upon lies.  We may regard such troglodyte behaviour with scorn.  We may think that in the long run it damages the body politic.  We may wish to expose all such lying deceitfulness for the destructive, self-serving cant that it is.  But when we are confronted with someone who has held one of the highest offices in the land actually believing the smear to be true, all sorts of questions are begged about the intelligence, integrity, and maturity of that person.  We are left nodding once again to the biblical assertion: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"  [Jeremiah 17:9]

Obama Viewed Trump ‘as a Traitor and a Russian Spy

Jeff Poor  of Breitbart News  provides a partial transcript of Tucker Carlson speaking during his Fox News opinion programme.

Tonight, we have more on the ongoing saga of the Trump dossier.

Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham have launched a probe into former National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow, Idaho

A Dumpster Full of Grease Fire

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

I read the released FISA memo last Friday night, and since then have been mulling over how bright-yellow-gaudy-outrageous the whole thing is. And by outrageous, I mean horrific from the outset, and getting worse with each passing day. And by worse, I mean more yellow. Right now it is like a bushel basket full of jaundiced canaries. It is like that headache that Wodehouse described once, the one that started at the ankles and got worse going up. So this is not a dumpster fire. This is not a grease fire. This is a dumpster-full-of-grease-fire.

For the remainder of this rant, I would request that my readers not attempt to interrupt me with any words or gestures calculated to soothe. This is no time for sootheries. And don’t tell me I am using too many metaphors. My metaphors have all joined hands and are full of strange oaths. They are dancing around in a circle with a dangerous kind of gleam in their eyes.

Allow me to attempt my part in explaining the level of corruption involved in all of this.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

I Suggest We Not Vote for Dirtier Elections

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

So I begin these ruminations with a most necessary qualifier, necessary at least in these troubled days of ours. To defend due process is not to defend the dirty deeds that must be prosecuted or rejected under a system of due process. A civilized society, in order to institutionalize a bias against lynchings—against a populace taking what they might call “direct action” based upon what “everybody knows—must insist upon due process.

That said, here is the qualification yet again. I indent it so that certain people can find it more easily. If Roy Moore is guilty of what his accusers say, then he deserves everything he is going to get, good and hard. With a career and reputation in shambles, he would have no complaint against the Almighty over what transpired. As the bluesman Paul Butterfield once put it, trenchantly enough, “Ain’t no one to blame but myself.”

But if he is not guilty of the charges, then the Washington Post and the suborned women who accused him are the guilty ones. Not only are they guilty of false accusation, but they are guilty of something every bit as bad as what they accused Moore of doing. “And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you” (Deut. 19:18–19).

We have an accusation of a disqualifying sexual crime; if guilty, Moore ought not to be a senator. We have the counteraccusation that WaPo was offering money to women if they were willing to accuse Moore. This too is disqualifying; people who do this should be run out of the business of journalism. But notice that I am withholding judgment in both cases. I do not know if Moore molested a girl decades ago, and I do not know if the WaPo paid women to lie about Moore.

The Ebb of the Tide?

Trump Derangement Syndrome

James Delingpole
BreitbartLondon


Last night in London I took part in a debate staged by the How To Academy on Trump’s 100 Days.
I was on the pro side with journalist Melanie Phillips.

On the anti side of the debate were the Guardian‘s Jonathan Freedland and a flakcatcher from the Clinton era called James Rubin.

Let me tell you the bad news first: Trump derangement syndrome is everywhere, at least as bad in London as it is in the US.

To listen to my debate opponents you would have imagined that the US had recently elected to the presidency a cross between It the Clown, the Boston Strangler, Dr Strangelove and Alger Hiss. I’m fine with a bit of extravagant rhetoric but there were several moments where both Melanie’s and my jaw dropped at the outrageousness of the charges levelled by Freedland and Rubin at the Trump administration.

By what stretch of the imagination, for example, could former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn be described as a “foreign agent”? This was the phrase used by Guardian man Freedland in his speech and it got many laughs from the audience – Trump: the guy so bad he actually has Russky spies in his administration. But if the case against Trump is really such a slam-dunk as his critics seem to imagine, then surely there’d be no need so grotesquely to exaggerate his flaws?

With Freedland and Rubin acting up like snarky kids – and don’t get me wrong, they were good at it: sharp, quick, punchy, witty and relentlessly below the belt – I found myself forced into the unwonted position of having to play the grown-up.

This threw me slightly. I’d brought along my MAGA baseball cap and my Trump camouflage t-shirt – in order to tease the mainly liberal-leaning audience. But you can’t simultaneously play the clown and chastise your opponents for their puerility.

So I tried to keep my line on Trump as straightforward and honest as possible:

Is it Draining the Swamp or Partisan Politics?

Removing Logs From Eyes

We recently read an report of the Democratic members of the US House Judicial Committee writing a letter to its (Republican) Chairman asking for strict governance of Donald Trump, lest he use the office of President to extort and extract pecuniary gain.

In a letter to Republican Chairman Bob Goodlatte, all 16 Democratic members of the committee requested a hearing to review any conflict of interest laws or ethical rules that may apply to Trump’s business situation. They wrote:

 Although we do not yet know the details of his proposal, this announcement raises a number of questions, including whether Mr. Trump intends to legally transfer ownership of his assets to his children, or simply allow them to manage his assets[.]

 The letter also pointed out that it remains unknown what role Trump’s children will have in his administration and “whether they will be subject to an ‘ethics firewall;'” and whether “businesses, foreign governments, and others” would be able to “take actions that benefit Mr. Trump and his family” and if Trump would be transparent in any such dealings.

All well and good.  However, the expressed concern would be far more morally compelling if it had been accompanied by an extensive helping of humble  pie.

Rogue States

Saudi Corruption and UN Complicity

The UN is a waste of time and space.  It is an inherently corrupt organisation.  One of our local New Zealand blogs posted an article from Middle East Eye:

Saudi Uses UN Human Rights Council to Cover Up its Abuses

Leah Schulz
Middle East Eye

This week, Saudi Arabia will be re-elected to the UN Human Right Council (HRC) for the fourth time, after another non-competitive election at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).  While serving its third term on the council, Saudi Arabia blocked international inquiries into its human rights abuses, punished Saudi citizens who worked in collaboration with the HRC, and threatened to cut critical UN funding after being called out for violating children’s rights.

Saudi Arabia’s presence on the council turns the HRC’s mission on its head.  Given the kingdom’s unrelenting record of repression, Saudi Arabia's continued council membership is an affront to the HRC's mission of promoting and protecting "all human rights around the globe".  It is no secret that Saudi Arabia’s values are at odds with the council's. Religious intolerance, gender inequality and a penchant for public executions are hardly the qualities that the UN had in mind for its council members.

Now, of course, Saudi Arabia is a nation which falls into the category of states which get a "free pass" at the UN.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

The Whole Boot

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

All right, since disclaimers here are most necessary, I will make them. I believe that I have repeatedly made it clear that I am not in Trump’s corner, and am not going to vote for him. If Hillary is elected, America will have successfully avoided stepping in the dog poo. If Trump is elected, America will have successfully avoided stepping in the cow pie. We are merely talking about the about the bottom of the shoe versus the whole boot. Humanly speaking, we don’t have good options, and we should all know it.

But here is the problem. Consider Trump’s ongoing claim that the system is “rigged,” and his failure last night to commit to abide by the election results. That all depends, sez he. The response of the buttoned-up right to this attitude is the spectacle of quite a number of analysts with their dresses over their heads. And this reveals that they still don’t have a clue as to why Trump’s message is resonating with as many people as it has.

Now I am trying to explain something here, which is not the same thing as trying to plump, push, puff, or otherwise promote it.

There are two elements to this.

Corruption on a Grand Scale

Birds of a Feather

We published a couple of pieces recently upon the systemic, habitual corruption of the Clintons.  Their habitual sin is known as simony.  The dictionary definition of simony is:

c.1200, "the sin of buying or selling sacred things," from Old French simonie"selling of church offices" (12c.), from Late Latin simonia, from Simon Magus, the Samaritan magician who was rebuked by Peter when he tried to buy the power of conferring the Holy Spirit (Acts viii:18-20). Related: Simoniac; simoniacal.  [Dictionary.com]

It is clearly an ancient term. But the evil remains alive and well and very modern. Some things never change. The Clintons' version of simony is to sell their office and its influence for pecuniary advantage.  Therefore, they enter into Simoniac bargains accepting money in exchange for special favours.

However, because it's the Clintons--who are donkey deep into the Establishment--few people turn a hair.  The Republic's corruption is a broad river and very deep.  The Clintons will extol their charitable work via the "Clinton Foundation" and will tell all and sundry how many people they have wondrously helped, whilst they siphon off the "charitable" donations to maintain the extravagant lifestyle to which they have become very accustomed and to which they genuinely believe they are entitled.

But what about Donald Trump, Hillary's rival?

A Vast Criminal Enterprise

It's All Over, Rover

This blog has been scathing towards the US Presidential Pretender--Donald Trump.  However, we also need to go on record with respect to Hillary Clinton.  She, in the long storied history of US Presidents, would be the worst, exceeding some rather obnoxious competitors.  

Why do we say this?  Because she and her husband are reflexively corrupt.  We are not speaking here of a dalliance, or having a shady side which at times shows.  Rather we are alleging that Mrs Clinton and her husband have sought public office for private gain.  Systematically. Deliberately. Moreover, in order to succeed at larceny, Clinton has thought nothing of putting the Republic at risk, what with her illegal, private e-mail servers now hacked and available.  She is entitled to what she is entitled.

The corruption showed up long before husband, William Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas.  Here is Angelo Codevilla's account, written towards the end of Clinton's presidency, when he was surrounded by salacious scandals: