F-35 should be scrapped to build more A-10’s (and F-16’s and F-22’s)

Air Force appears to concede that the F-35 can’t (and won’t) replace the A-10 Warthog

The amount of money that we’ve flushed into the development and deployment of the F-35 Lightning all-weather, stealth multirole fighter is now enough to fund the budgets of several small to mid-size nations. But for all of that, the program has experienced one setback after another, including one in April that threatened to ground the entire fleet. Even with that issue resolved, a later test of six of the new, stealthy fighters revealed that only one of them was capable of a rapid, ready alert launch.

This has led to inevitable, unfavorable comparisons to the aging but highly reliable A-10 Warthog. In fact at one point, the military even scheduled a face to face “grudge match” testing the two craft against each other in close air support scenarios. That process is still rolling out but we’re getting a pretty good idea of how it’s going from the supply chain side of the military. While no official announcement has been made, an article from Instapundit pointing us to this piece from Popular Mechanics shows that the Warthog “ain’t going anywhere.”

I’ve maintained for the last few years that the F-35 has been, and continues to be, a mind blowingly expensive boondoggle that should have been scrapped years ago, as failure after failure of software installs, and general flight characteristics seem to bear out my opinion. Now that the maintenance depot system for the A-10 Warthog is ramping back up seems to add credence to that.

Here’s the thing. The Air Force hates, hates, hates the close air support mission, because it requires a plane that can fly low and slow, and remain on station for long periods of time. It’s the low and slow aspect that is seemingly the “breaking point” for the Air Force brass, since it’s not, well, fast. And since we’re talking slow, the thinking seems to be, “We’ve already got a slow aircraft for that mission, the AC-130 Spectre, so why keep the A-10 around, since it’s getting “too expensive” because it’s old, right? Well, the answer to that is that is that the A-10 is a more robust aircraft than the AC-130, and can take considerably more hits before it’s put out of action, plus the A-10 can be flown from smaller fields, and can fly much lower than the AC-130.

The question I have is, why use a stealth aircraft in the CAS mission in the first place, when the only weapon it can deploy in “stealth mode” is it’s built in cannon? If it carries wing mounted bombs or missiles, it’s no longer stealthy. If it opens it’s built in weapons bay doors to release those weapons, again it’s no longer stealthy. When the F-35 isn’t stealthy, it’s at risk of being shot down, which because of it’s complexity is more easily accomplished, making for a very expensive hole in the ground. Also, it can’t fly slow enough to be effective in the CAS mission! The entire idea of even attempting to have the F-35 involved in the CAS mission is ridiculously stupid.

Other failings of the F-35 can be seen here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The F-35 is not worth another dime being spent, and the money should go to re-open the A-10 line to build new A-10’s.

Monday Emailgate update

It’s Monday, and a lot has been reported over the weekend regarding the FBI investigation into Clinton’s exclusive use of a private server during her term as SecState, quite a bit of which I linked to in my previous posts which you can see by scrolling down from this post. Let’s get to the latest stuff though, shall we?

Laptop in FBI’s Weiner sexting case had ‘state.gov,’ Clinton-related emails, source says

FBI Director James Comey’s decision to revisit the Hillary Clinton email-private server case was triggered by the discovery of Clinton-related emails in a separate sexting investigation involving ex-New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, a government source told Fox News on Sunday.

The source said an analysis of the metadata on Weiner’s computer has turned up “positive hits for state.gov and HRC emails,” which led Comey to revisit the FBI investigation into Clinton using a private email server system while secretary of state. A second law enforcement source confirmed the account.

Weiner is the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. He resigned from Congress in 2011, after a sexting scandal.

That Clinton-related emails were on Weiner’s computer, which he purportedly shared with Abedin, was reported first by The Wall Street Journal. [Note: Subscription required]

From what I’ve read elsewhere, the WSJ reports that there are approximately 650,000 emails that the FBI will have to sift through to pull out any that pertain to the case against Weiner, and any that pertain to Clinton, from all of the rest of the emails, which I’m going to presume are not related to either case (family, other work related, etc. – you know, the usual stuff everybody has). Apparently though, as I reported yesterday, there are approximately 10,000 emails directly pertaining to Clinton, which is an astonishing number. Granting that many, if possibly not most, are duplicates of emails already discovered elsewhere during the investigation, any new emails will have to be checked for classified information, which will take potentially weeks, well after Election day, to complete. Regardless of what is found, the mere fact that there were any Clinton related emails on this laptop may prove problematic for Abedin, as she could be brought up on perjury charges for not turning over these emails after previously swearing under oath that she had turned over all work related emails. Apparently Clinton has yet to talk to Abedin about this situation. I imagine that it may be a bit awkward, don’t you think?

There is more to read there so I encourage you to do so. In related news –

FBI Obtains Warrant for Newly Discovered Emails in Clinton Probe — as Reid Accuses Comey of Hatch Act Violation

The FBI obtained a warrant to search emails related to the probe of Hillary Clinton’s private server that were discovered on ex-congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop, law enforcement officials confirmed Sunday.

The warrant came two days after FBI Director James Comey revealed the existence of the emails, which law enforcement sources said were linked to Weiner’s estranged wife, top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The sources said Abedin used the same laptop to send thousands of emails to Clinton.

The FBI already had a warrant to search Weiner’s laptop, but that only applied to evidence of his allegedly illicit communications with an underage girl.

Agents will now compare the latest batch of messages with those that have already been investigated to determine whether any classified information was sent from Clinton’s server.

Comey’s disclosure included few details about what the emails contained. In a letter to Congress, he said the FBI learned “of the existence of e-mails that appear to be pertinent” to the Clinton probe, but he added that the agency “cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant.”

As I reported earlier (see previous posts), the FBI couldn’t look at the contents of the Clinton related emails because they were outside the scope of the search warrant in the Weiner investigation. Apparently there was enough in the headers of the Clinton related emails to seek and obtain a search warrant for those Sunday, which leads me to speculate that there really are new emails that have not previously been seen in the Clinton investigation that they prompted the FBI to seek the warrant on Sunday. If they were “old news”, or mundane, they would have waited until today at the earliest to seek the warrant.

The revelation ignited fierce criticism. Citing the longstanding practice of avoiding even the appearance of acting in a manner that could tip the political scales, former Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said that “most people, when they hear that the FBI is involved, automatically assume the negative.”

Clinton called the move an “unprecedented” departure from FBI policy, and on Sunday, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid scolded Comey for potentially breaking the law.

“Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be clear intent to aid one political party over another,” the letter says. “I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act.”

The act bars government officials from using their authority to influence elections.

Reid also accused Comey of shielding Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from scrutiny over his connections to Russia, saying “it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination” between Trump and his advisers and the Russian government.

As I also reported yesterday, Comey came under fire from the Left for releasing the letter he sent to Congressional Committees stating his intent to re-open the case against Clinton because of what they found in the unrelated Weiner case, without specifying what case it was, which was the “cover” the Left used to express their “outrage” toward him, when in actual fact, they were outraged that he had the temerity to continue investigating Clinton after “exonerating” her (which he didn’t).

Clinton’s comments notwithstanding, what is truly “unprecedented” is a Cabinet Secretary exclusively using a home brewed, private, email system in order to cover up and conceal all of her communications from government over sight, and the American people. Not only is that unprecedented, it’s also illegal.

As for Senator Reid? I think this is his last act before retirement, and I don’t think his comments are to be taken seriously. Indeed, it’s my personal opinion that Senator Reid himself should not be taken seriously. Of course, YMMV.

John Sexton of Hot Air has his take on the warrant topic here, and is worth the read – especially the silly tweet near the end by HuffPo writer Sam Stein. Timing is everything Sam. (Sorry, I won’t link to HuffPo)

Last, but not least, for this post, Fox News contributor KT McFarland has an excellent opinion piece on the wrong lessons learned by Hillary Clinton in her early career here that is definitely worth the time.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t

James Comey: Caught between the Devil and the deep blue [C]

From Hot Air columnist Jazz Shaw –

The rest of the Hot Air team covered the FBI bombshell last night quite thoroughly and not a lot has changed overnight. We still have that letter to Congress from the Director sitting out there like the proverbial turd in the punch bowl, with proclamations and demands coming in from the candidates and spokesmodels for both parties. Without more information to go on in terms of precisely what was found on the “device” shared by Huma Abedin and her estranged (with emphasis on the “strange” part) husband, political analysts are left with little to sink their teeth into.

Related, from Allahpundit, also of Hot Air –

Just a reminder: Democrats and their lousy candidate left Comey with no good options

Back in July, when Comey gave his presser stating that Clinton was reckless among other things, with her email set up yet let her off the hook, many on the Right – including me – howled with outrage at the fact that, in essence, the FBI and DoJ had “punted” on a sure fire, slam dunk (to mix metaphors) easy case, stating at the time that no prosecutor would file charges.

I had been blogging for months (at a different venue) about Clinton’s email scandal, along with many others that A) write at venues that actually have readers, and B) get paid to do this, and so I had a vested interest in hearing what Comey had to say. To say I was disappointed in what he said at his news conference is a gross understatement. Rather, I was quite shocked and, yes, outraged at his conclusions. I mean, he goes to all the trouble to say how bad this all was, but wasn’t going to do anything about it? C’mon, man! SERIOUSLY?!?!?! I can only imagine how people such as Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne at Fox News, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, John Schindler at XX Committee, et al. felt at the same time, after all of the hard work they did covering this scandal (that I admittedly piggy back on – hey, I don’t have their sources, so they are my sources, ok?).

The backlash to his statements from the Right was nearly instantaneous, and was blistering in the heat applied with many calling for his resignation (including me), while at the same time those on the Left, who had been excoriating the investigation the entire time, saying it was a waste of time and tax payer dollars, and incessantly calling on Comey to end it all, were now suddenly coming to his defense, saying what an honorable, honest, and fair broker he was, and that the Right should leave him alone because he “did the right thing” by “exonerating” Clinton (when he did nothing of the sort).

Everyone on the Left was now happy and mollified, thinking this was all behind us, put to bed, buried, so totally over, while those of us on the Right, although down, weren’t out of this fight quite yet, and kept digging, and digging, sharing with the world whatever we were able to dig up, and then BOOM! A bolt out of the blue that absolutely NO ONE saw coming. FBI Director James Comey sends a letter to various Congressional Committee Chairs AND TO RANKING MEMBERS (that means Democrats, folks), stating that new emails had come to light in the case against Clinton, and that they were reopening the case. In that letter, Comey left things quite vague as to just what exactly they had found, but we have all since learned that it was because of tens of thousands of emails found on a computer shared by Huma Abedin, senior aide to Clinton, and her husband Anthony Weiner, that were from/to Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secrtary of State that were not turned over to State when Abedin left, as required by law. She has made a statement saying that she has no idea how all of those emails got there, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Well, by sending that letter, Comey has rather annoyed some folks, including his boss AG Lynch, and several Democrat Congress types, who are saying that “it’s unprecedented!”, “it’s something that just isn’t done!”, “it’s OUTRAGEOUS that he did this so close to the election!”, among other aspersions thrown his way, and many on the Right now saying how brave he is, it’s the right thing to do, etc. in an effort to come to his defense, and for those on the Left to leave him alone.

In July, it was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t. Amazingly enough, now that it’s the end of October, he still finds himself in basically the same position. I, for one, would NOT want to be in his position.

New Emailgate information revealed

Oh, man … where to begin?

As I posted yesterday, FBI Director Comey sent a letter to various members of Congress generally stating that because of information from an unrelated case, they were re-opening the case concerning Clinton’s use of a private email server during her (entire) term as Secretary of State. Naturally, this landed like a bomb in that it came so close in relation to the election. As of my original post on this, what new information the FBI had warranting the reopening of this case was not precisely known by anyone outside of the FBI investigation, but various reports since last night have revealed that information, and it’s a true shocker.

The new information is that Huma Abedin’s (one of Clinton’s top aides) estranged husband Anthony Weiner, who is being investigated for (insert the obligatory allegedly) sexting with a 15 year old girl, apparently had thousands of Clinton emails on the device he used to engage in the (insert the obligatory allegedly) sexting, because Huma had also used that same device to download those Clinton emails so she could print them for Clinton, and then apparently, simply forgot to delete them. Now, whether any of those new emails the FBI found have classified information or not, is not known at this time, as the FBI hasn’t looked at them, because they are outside of the scope of the investigation into Weiner’s activities, and they will need to get a search warrant to look at them. Remember – in order to obtain a search warrant, there needs to be a grand jury.

In an ironic (and idiotic, imo) twist, Allahpundit reports that Rush is pushing the idea that this story has been pushed to distract from the WikiLeaks dumps of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta’s emails, apparently saying that this move is supposed to help Clinton? According to someone I follow at Twitter, Just Karl, he thinks Rush knows Trump is still going to lose, so he’s still working the “rigged” scenario. Possible, but just how Rush came to that conclusion is beyond me … of course, imo, Rush lost pretty much all cred with me because of the oxy use, but that’s just me. YMMV.

In yet another ironic twist, several “leading” Democrats, who in July hailed Comey’s decision to close the case against Clinton, now are excoriating him for sending the letter to Congress, and are calling on him to A) release the emails, and B) divulge whatever information they have uncovered in this on-going investigation, echoing Clinton’s own call for the new emails to be released.

There’s only two little problems that my non-lawyerly mind can see with this, A) the FBI needs to determine if any of the thousands of emails contain classified information before any of them can be released to the public, and they can’t do that until they look at them, and they can’t do that until they get a new search warrant, and B) this is an on-going investigation (into Weiner), and the FBI does not divulge any information regarding an on-going investigation. For a real lawyers take on this seemingly never ending scandal revolving around Clinton, read this excellent piece by Andrew C. McCarthy at NRO.

Now, there has been some rather breathless speculation that Clinton’s chances are doomed, and that these new revelations will propel Trump to the White House, and I must admit that I got a little breathless myself when I first learned last night that the case was going to be re-opened (not that Clinton’s chances are doomed, and that these new revelations will propel Trump to the White House – wanted to make that clear), thinking that maybe Comey was doing this because he wanted to “atone” for his dereliction, but I don’t think it’s so much an “atonement”, as maybe it’s just his way to mollify those in the FBI and DoJ that were gobsmacked by what he said back in July. As a minor side note to this, apparently an obscure PAC has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against FBI Director Comey. The complaint accuses Comey of interfering in the election. Like that’s gonna work.

This has been quite the unexpected whirlwind (hence the term “October surprise”, eh?), hasn’t it? Will this prove to be Clinton’s undoing, elevating Trump to the Presidency, or will this, in the end, not really matter as to the effect on the election? As of today, we have ten more days to find out, and they may be the longest ten days of our lives. I think we can all agree on that, at least.

Breaking – FBI reopens Emailgate case

Breaking story –

FBI reopens investigation into Clinton email use

The FBI has reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, in a stunning turn of events just days before the presidential election.

FBI Director James Comey wrote in a letter to top members of Congress Friday that the bureau has “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.”

Comey did not detail those emails, saying only that they surfaced “in connection with an unrelated case.”

He told lawmakers the investigative team briefed him on the information a day earlier, “and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”

Little to no further details on this at the moment, other than there may be more emails with classified information in them, from an investigation in a different, unrelated, case as mentioned above. More on this here, here, here, and here, and the letter from FBI Director Comey is here. I will update as more information becomes available.

Obviously, this could prove problematic for Clinton, depending on what’s in the new emails. No comment yet from the Clinton camp. Stay tuned.

 

Voter registration, along with voter fraud, IS a problem

Trump cites voter registration problems to back up ‘rigged’ charge

As Donald Trump takes bipartisan heat for his persistent claim the election could be “rigged,” the GOP nominee is holding up studies and reports of potential voter fraud to back up his case.

At his address in Gettysburg, Pa., on Saturday, Trump cited a 2012 Pew study that found evidence the voter registration rolls needed serious cleaning up.

The study found one in eight voter registrations were either invalid or inaccurate; more than 1.8 million dead people were listed as voters; and 2.75 million people were registered in more than one state.

Voter fraud is always pooh-poohed by the Left as something that doesn’t exist, a myth, and or a false claim from the Right. When specific instances of real vote fraud are brought up by those on the Right to refute the myths claims of those on the Left, those on the Left are quick to stick their fingers in their ears while they loudly yell, “LALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”, and then when we on the Right stop talking about it, the Left, smug in their dishonesty, goes, “See! What did we tell you?”.

Clean voter registration is becoming more of a problem as well, as the Left has been more effective lately in attacking voter registration laws that require state approved ID in order to be able to legally register and vote, laughably citing “disparate impact” on minorities because it’s “too hard” to get state approved ID, which is absurd. In every case that I’ve looked at, the steps needed to take to get state approved ID are relatively simple, and in most cases are FREE of charge. So basically, those fighting voter ID laws are racists because they’re saying that minority folks are just too stupid to know how to get a state approved ID, and yet the courts are swallowing the “too hard” argument, and are either striking down the laws as “unconstitutional” because of the “disparate impact on minorities”, or are issuing injunctions preventing the states from enforcing the law requiring ID to vote. And why is it that the Left is working so hard to eliminate these laws? So they can cheat during our elections, and skew the results to their candidates, by enabling people to “vote early and often” – illegally.

To those on the Left who say that voter fraud isn’t “a thing”, I invite you to check out the stat-by-state data base at True The Vote, listing the cases of voter fraud that are being prosecuted right now, and tell me that voter fraud isn’t real. This data base is continuously updated, as new cases get prosecuted. If you know of any cases that aren’t on the list, let them know so they can add it in.

Although Trump articulated this subject somewhat poorly, I can’t fault him for articulating the subject, even if the MSM is going to go nuts over this – oh, too late. They already have.

Typical.

Coincidence, or were the wrong 33,000 emails deleted?

Emails show close Clinton allies in dark, shocked over ‘insane’ server setup

Some of Hillary Clinton’s top advisers were in the dark about the scope and depth of her controversial email system as the scandal broke in March 2015, with even her now-campaign manager professing ignorance about the private system at the time, according to emails released Thursday by WikiLeaks.

One close ally, Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden, was still fuming months later, pressing now-Campaign Chairman John Podesta on who gave Clinton permission to use the system.

“Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?” Tanden wrote in July. “Like whole thing is f—ing insane.”

The tenor of the emails belies the assuring tone Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and her campaign took as they publicly downplayed the controversy in the months after it broke. The emails showing Hillaryland’s initial reaction to the news were discovered in a batch of more than 33,000 hacked from Podesta’s account and subsequently posted to anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks.

While some of Clinton’s closest aides, particularly those who worked with her at the State Department, such as Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, appeared to be well aware and deeply involved in her email setup, others apparently were not.

Salty tongued Neera Tanden has seemed, to me, to be the only person associated with Clinton that has been even slightly honest in this whole sordid mess.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has his take on this as well, a portion of which is below (mainly for the way he expressed it), but make sure you read the whole thing.

Tanden called the scandal a “Cheryl [Mills] special,” and wondered why the Clintons didn’t air all of this out themselves after leaving the State Department. She then answered her own question. “I guess I know the answer,” she wrote to Podesta, “they wanted to get away with it.”

For the most part, though, they did. The FBI mysteriously discovered a need to find intent in a statute (18 USC 793f) that specifically does not require it, and the Department of Justice happily concurred. The same people who called Hillary’s e-mail “f****** insane) and had no idea how deep the rabbit hole actually was spent the last 19 months insisting that there was no rabbit hole at all. They continue to insist that Hillary Clinton has been the most transparent Secretary of State in the history of Secretaries, in the history of States, and in the history of “ofs” even after ripping their fellow Clintonistas for hiding the scandal until it exploded in their faces. That worked, too, at least with the media and voters, who picked up on their transparency arguments and in many cases downplayed the significance of the classified-information spillage — and hardly mentioned the corruption of important checks and balances on executive-branch agencies.

If nothing else, this serves as a reminder that this was a big dea, it was “f****** insane,” and that no one at all got “drawn and quartered” or even reprimanded for it.

Closing thought to chew on. When this entire Emailgate scandal first erupted, we were all told that Hillary had turned over “all” of her work related emails (which we later found out was not true — surprise!), after having her lawyers go through all of them, and then deleting the remaining 33,000 emails, as they were “not work related” (which we, again, later found out was not true — surprise!). Fast forward to this month, and from stage left, enters a new actor in this sad, sordid national melodrama, WikiLeaks who “gifts” us with what is purported to be the hacked emails of John Podesta (who has yet to state that these aren’t genuine), head of the Clinton campaign. And, just how many of Podest’s email has WikiLeaks said they’ve “acquired”? 33,000?

Coincidence, or were the wrong 33,000 emails deleted?

Today’s Emailgate update + New Update

Update:

Clinton Transmitted Classified Information to Her Lawyers

What was their security-clearance level?

What was the legal rationale under which Hillary Clinton quite intentionally shared classified information with her lawyers, including David Kendall, Cheryl Mills, and Heather Samuelson?

As I outlined in last weekend’s column, we know that Clinton’s e-mails were replete with classified information. According to the FBI, the classified e-mails included intelligence graded at the most closely guarded level: eight top-secret e-mails, and seven designated as “special access program” (SAP) information. (While FBI director James Comey’s presentation understandably left this vague, the likelihood is that seven of the eight top-secret e-mails are SAP.) Under President Bill Clinton’s 1995 executive order, top-secret intelligence is information the mishandling of which “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” The SAP designation is added when the unauthorized disclosure of intelligence could compromise critical intelligence-gathering methods or imperil the lives of intelligence sources. That is why access to this information is so tightly restricted, and its unauthorized disclosure is routinely prosecuted.

Read the rest.

Original post follows –

Sources: Clinton emails would have been ‘whitelisted’ for Obama BlackBerry

President Obama’s high-security BlackBerry used a special process known as “whitelisting” that only allowed it to take calls and messages from pre-approved contacts, two former senior intelligence officials with knowledge of the set-up told Fox News – pointing to the detail as further proof the White House knew Hillary Clinton’s private account was used for government business.

Well, whitelisting isn’t that special of a process as any IT pro will tell you, but it’s not something the typical user really worries about, relying instead on built in spam filters for email, and caller ID on their phones. I’m pretty careful with email (the number one thing is not clicking on a link from someone you don’t know), and if I don’t recognize the phone number in the display for an incoming call, I don’t answer, and just let it go to voice mail. Being who I am not, I don’t need to have really sophisticated filters/controls on my “communications systems”, whereas the President does need to have that kind of protection/selectivity.

As for who in the White House knew that Clinton had a private server set up from the domain name (clintonemail.com), the President isn’t necessarily one of them, although it is probable he did. I can absolutely guarantee you that he did not set up his BlackBerry contact list, and whoever the IT pro that did set it up quite possibly could have set it up to only show the persons name (and the subject line for email), and not their email address/phone number.

So, the IT department at the WH certainly knew about the clintonemail.com domain, but who else knew is really anybody’s guess. This brings up the following questions though, that if the White House IT department knew about it, did they raise any questions about this unusual arrangement, and if not, why not? Did they in fact raise questions, but were told to not worry about it? Were they, like their counterparts at State, told to shut up and never speak about it again?

Related –

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: State can’t find e-mails from key Hillary email scandal figure

Ho-hum — another day, another stonewall. Give ABC News credit for picking up on a very curious lack of transparency involving a key figure in the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal. Bryan Pagliano got immunity from the Department of Justice but managed to keep from having to testify when the FBI recommended no action on the case, despite clear evidence of lawbreaking by Hillary and her aides. Pagliano, a State Department information-technology specialist, also has had his internal State communications mysteriously vanish, and the National Archives — and the Republican Party — want to know why …

Easy to speculate about – the aforementioned stonewalling by State has been systematic all through this entire scandal, so Pagliano’s .pst file listing all of his emails going missing is, for this administration, “par for the course” (pun intended) as State has worked overtime on playing the CYA game, not only for itself and many of it’s staffers, but also for Clinton, rather than what it should have been working overtime on, which is following the law.

Time after time, the State Department has either ignored until sued, or glacially slow-walked, every FOIA request or Congressional subpoena. Don’t believe me? Go here and check out their archives to see how many times they’ve had to sue State to get records requested via FOIA. And they aren’t the only entity that has had to sue to get State to cough up records requested through FOIA. And State isn’t the only agency that does this, either.

So much for the “most transparent administration in history” BS. Make sure to read all of the articles linked to. If I become aware of anything new, I’ll update this at the top.

Emailgate updates, plus an update

Update: Make that three articles of note.

‘We Need to Clean This Up’: More Evidence Obama Lied about Hillary’s Private E-mails

WikiLeaks has released e-mails showing Hillary Clinton’s advisers knew there was a problem when President Obama denied knowledge of Clinton’s private e-mail system.

There was panic in Camp Clinton when President Obama falsely told the public he had not known about then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of private e-mail until he heard about it “through news reports.”

Read the rest.

Original post follows.

Two more articles to add to the ever growing list in the still on-going Emailgate scandal. First up is a good opinion piece from Fox News‘ Gregg Jarrett.

Gregg Jarrett: The perpetual cloud of dirt and scandal that hovers over Hillary Clinton

“Pig-Pen” and his perpetual cloud of dirt.

It follows him wherever he goes and engulfs whatever he does. The beleaguered character in the comic strip “Peanuts” cannot seem to rid himself of the dirt, despite his best efforts. At times, he seems oblivious to the cloud. Or in denial.

Remind you of Hillary Clinton? Metaphorically, that is.

The dirt cloud of scandal has followed Clinton incessantly for years. Not just a single, isolated scandal… but several. Travelgate, Whitewater, cattle futures, Benghazi, private email server, Clinton Foundation, Wall Street speeches, you name it.

It’s one ignominious incident after another. And all of them are of her own making.

Which, of course, she blames on others, most famously being a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that was “out to get her” (well, kinda, sorta, yeah – duh!)

Clinton tends to stretch the bounds of propriety, dangling her foot over the legal lines.

Yeah, by leaps and bounds. I have never seen a public personae push so hard at stretching the bounds of propriety as she has, and suffer absolutely no consequences! It’s just … surreal.

Two more things from this, and then we’ll get to the other article.

Recall Dr. McCabe and her husband, FBI Deputy Director McCabe?

Her latest scandal kicks up dirt on the FBI for its bewildering (see also, “stupefying”) decision to recommend that Clinton not be criminally prosecuted under the federal Espionage Act for mishandling classified documents and jeopardizing national security as Secretary of State. It seems that Clinton’s close friend shoveled truck-loads of money to the wife of the FBI deputy director overseeing the agency’s investigation of Clinton.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe was the money man. Through political groups he controls, he saw to it that Dr. Jill McCabe received more than $ 675,000 for her state senate race, according to The Wall Street Journal. It just so happens that her husband, Andrew McCabe, is second in command at the FBI and, as such, likely played a key role in allowing Clinton to escape criminal prosecution. No one has yet proven that Clinton’s fingerprints are on the bags of money. But her longtime friend and ally, Gov. McAuliffe, doesn’t deny he engineered the cash.

If that isn’t a quid-pro-quo scenario … proof or no, it still has the stench.

Last but not least, Gregg asks a question. I think I know the answer.

All along Clinton seemed confident she would not be criminally charged. Did she know something we didn’t know?

Yes, she did. She knew, because a certain individual (let’s call him President CoverHisAss) that had emailed her at her private server email address, and then LIED about knowing about her illegal server, that nothing would befall her. I think that is the precise message delivered by AG Lynch to Bill Clinton in that “spontaneous, coincidental, we were talking about grand kids, but no media, or recording devices, were allowed” meeting on the tarmac.

Make sure you read the entirety of Gregg’s piece. I just wanted to add my humble 2 cents worth.

The second, related article –

‘We need to clean this up’: Clinton aide cried foul on Obama’s email denial

One of Hillary Clinton’s top aides urged colleagues to “clean this up” after President Obama claimed in March 2015 he only learned of Clinton’s private email system from news reports — a statement the aide pointedly challenged by noting the president “has emails” from her non-department address.

The directive from Cheryl Mills, one of the Democratic presidential nominee’s most trusted aides, was revealed Tuesday in the newest batch of Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails posted by anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks. It is one of several showing how Clinton’s inner circle scrambled to correct the record after Obama’s initial remarks.

The hacked Mills message stems from a discussion on March 7, 2015, the night Obama told CBS News he found out about Clinton’s email system “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”

“We need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov,” Mills wrote to Podesta just before midnight.

President CoverHisAss knew she had a home brew email server and was using that exclusively, yet lied to the American public on national TV about it, and the “Clinton Team” went into cover up mode to not only cover her ass, but President CoverHisAss’s ass as well, which is how she and her “team” all avoided jail time.

He’s just as complicit as the rest.

Hey DoD! Forgive the “debt”!

Lawmakers blast Pentagon over ‘boneheaded’ clawback of improper military bonuses

California lawmakers from both sides of the aisle piled on the Pentagon after reports it is forcing service members to repay enlistment bonuses improperly paid to thousands of National Guard soldiers a decade ago.

The Defense Department ordered as many as 10,500 former National Guardsmen from California to pay back enlistment bonuses totaling as much as $20 million, or $15,000, according to The Los Angeles Times. The bonuses were paid to entice more people to enlist during the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a 2013 Inspector General’s report deemed some excessive.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the Pentagon demands “disgraceful.” McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, said the House will demand answers from the National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees the California branch of the Guard.

McCarthy was joined in outrage by fellow Golden State Republican congressmen Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter, and Mark Takano, a Democrat.

“I find it hard to believe either you or your leadership team was aware that such a boneheaded decision was made to demand repayment,” Hunter wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in which he asked Carter to put his weight behind a quick remedy.

Takano called it “ridiculous,” and said Congress is prepared to act.

“These service members — many of whom were sent into combat — are now being forced to make difficult and painful decisions to pay back thousands of dollars they never knew they owed,” said Takano said, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “The solution to this ridiculous situation is an act of Congress.”

If the DoD doesn’t act soon to rectify this STUPID situation, then Congress needs to act. By all means, poke and pry to see if there are actual cases of fraud and act on those to get the money back, but for the rest? Forgive the “debt”.