The big point everybody is missing about the FBI/CIA spy from Cambridge University

By Charles Lipson
Saturday, May 19, 2018 0 Corruption, Crime, FBI, FISA Courts, Foreign Intelligence Agencies, James Clapper, James Comey, John Brennan, Loretta Lynch, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Surveillance, Trump-Russia Investigation No tags Permalink

It is a sad sign of decline at Cambridge University that their latest spy is working for United States.

What is this poor world coming to?

Cambridge spies are supposed to work for the Russians.

There is tradition to uphold here, folks.

Can Putin and his minions no longer recruit idealistic socialists who hate their country?

Must they give up on entirely British universities and rely on Berkeley, Oberlin, and Evergreen State?

There is a small glimmer of continuity. At least the recruiting agencies were up to no good.

They were doing their best to infiltrate an American political campaign.

The story is here, complete with the spy’s name and picture. We know those details thanks entirely to CYA leaks from the DOJ or FBI, trying desperately to get ahead of Congressional investigations and the Horowitz report (the DOJ Inspector General).

Those details were supposed to be top secret. That the officials charged with keeping the secrets released them to protect themselves is a scandal in its own right.

On a more serious note: the house that Comey, Clapper, Brennan, and their aides built now looks increasingly like a game of jenga. The wooden blocks are being removed, though the process is moving very, very slowly because of DOJ and FBI self-protection.

Did these guys previously work on transparency and document security for Joe Paterno’s athletic department?

But with each new block removed, the whole structure looks more and more likely to collapse.
Kimberley Strassel’s quick, powerful update on FBI, DOJ, CYA leaks and what they tell us about political spying

By Charles Lipson
Thursday, May 17, 2018 0 CIA: Central Intelligence Agency, Crime, FBI, FISA Courts, FOIA, Foreign Intelligence Agencies, House of Representatives, Intelligence agencies, James Comey, John Brennan, Loretta Lynch, Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Special Counsel, Surveillance, Trump-Russia Investigation No tags Permalink
Bret Baier’s interview with James Comey: Sharper, clearer, faster, better than the others by orders of magnitude

By Charles Lipson
Thursday, April 26, 2018 1 Courts and the Law, Crime, Cybersecurity, Election 2016, FBI, FISA Courts, James Comey, Surveillance No tags Permalink

Baier’s evening newscast is, I think, the best on TV.

Even if you don’t like the discussion panel for the last 15 minutes (and those who are center-left may not), the hard-news portion is superb.

Indeed, I think it is easily the best straight-news show in the business. And I, for one, like the back-and-forth on the panel.

Tonight, Baier’s interview with Comey showed why he stands head-and-shoulders above the rest.

It was fast, crisp, and tough without being tendentious (except for one moment where Baier reflexively and accurately said Comey had made a factually incorrect statement).

It was also newsworthy.

Here it is, in case you missed it.
House Intelligence Committee now looking at targeting of Trump Campaign by Obama intel agencies, also raisng perjury questions

By Charles Lipson
Monday, February 12, 2018 3comments Anti-Trump Actions, Democratic Party, Due Process, FBI, FISA Courts, Intelligence agencies, John Brennan, Obama Administration, Surveillance, Trump-Russia Investigation Devin Nunes Permalink

Exclusive at Real Clear Investigations: CIA Ex-Director Brennan’s Perjury Peril (link here)

Here is the heart of Paul Sperry’s report:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes next plans to investigate the role former CIA Director John Brennan and other Obama intelligence officials played in promoting the salacious and unverified Steele dossier on Donald Trump — including whether Brennan perjured himself in public testimony about it.

In his May 2017 testimony before the intelligence panel, Brennan emphatically denied the dossier factored into the intelligence community’s publicly released conclusion last year that Russia meddled in the 2016 election “to help Trump’s chances of victory.”

Brennan also swore that he did not know who commissioned the anti-Trump research document, even though senior national security and counterintelligence officials at the Justice Department and FBI knew the previous year that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Last week, Nunes (R-Calif.) released a declassified memo exposing surveillance “abuses” by the Obama DOJ and FBI in their investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia. It said the agencies relied heavily on the uncorroborated dossier to take out a warrant to secretly surveil a Trump adviser in the heat of the 2016 presidential election, even though they were aware the underlying “intelligence” supporting the wiretap order was political opposition research funded by Clinton allies — a material fact they concealed from FISA court judges in four separate applications. –Paul Sperry at Real Clear Investigations

The Stench at Obama’s DOJ and FBI. My latest at Real Clear Politics.

My latest at Real Clear Politics (link here)
Here’s a synopsis:

The Stench at Obama’s DOJ and FBI

January 24, 2018

The investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not the only major investigation in progress.

There are now three major Congressional probes of the Obama-era FBI, Department of Justice, and intelligence agencies. They are slowly peeling away layers of political bias, unequal application of the law, and, perhaps even felonies by senior officials who may have leaked classified documents, obstructed justice, and violated Fourth Amendment guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.

These Congressional probes are not mere diversions, as Democrats charge. They have serious, legitimate intentions and raise troubling questions.

Why did former FBI Director James Comey and his team pre-judge and soft-soap the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unsecured private server and her classified emails?
Why did they decide to clear her before completing key interviews with Mrs. Clinton and her aides?
Why did DOJ grant immunity so freely to obtain evidence that could have been easily subpoenaed by a grand jury?
Why did the government itself then destroy that evidence, so no one could do a real investigation later?
For that matter, why didn’t they convene a grand jury in the first place, as Mueller did almost immediately?
What involvement did the FBI counter-intelligence division have with the FusionGPS, Christopher Steele “Russian dossier,” financed by the Clinton campaign?
Was the dossier used, in part, to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump associates and, if so, was the FISA court completely informed about the dossier’s financing, provenance, and lack of verification?
And what the hell happened to months of text messages among key anti-Trump investigators at the FBI and DOJ?

VERY important questions. The public deserves answers.

That’s why these investigations are at least as important as Mueller’s, and for the same reason. They are both about honest elections and the rule of law, applied equally to insiders and outsiders, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

It’s about whether our most powerful government agencies are worthy of our trust. If we have lost sight of those values, we’ve lost our Constitutional bearings.

The complete op-ed is here (link)

ZipDialog Roundup for Saturday, September 30

By Charles Lipson
Saturday, September 30, 2017 1 Barack Obama, Bureaucracy, Donald Trump, Healthcare, John Kelly, Mike Pence, Obama Administration, Obamacare and Repeal-Replace, Progressive Activism, Race Relations, Sports, Surveillance, Tom Price, Trump Administration, US Healthcare System, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Ben Rhodes, Colin Kaepernick, Cuba, James Clapper, James Comey Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Why Trump fired Tom Price and what it means, going forward

Comment: He was only appointed because he was the most knowledgeable Republican Congressman on healthcare.

So, he was a good choice as point man to repeal and replace Obamacare with a new bill. When that didn’t succeed, he was expendable.

We’ll never know if he would have survived another year or two if he had simply behaved himself. But he didn’t.

Flying private jets on the public dime is justifiable if and only if the trips are vital to the senior official’s time and the private plane saves a lot of otherwise wasted time.

Flying them in other cases and asking the public to pay is simply an unjustified perk and a perfect example of the Washington Swamp. Trump was right to fire Price for that reason alone.

Comment #2: Trump’s cabinet is not the first to misuse these privileges. I’m impressed that Chief of Staff John Kelly learned from this mess and immediately set up new procedures, requiring Cabinet officials to go through his office whenever they want to fly private jets at government expense.

◆ Mike Pence protégé, Seema Verma, seen as frontrunner to replace Price: She has deep experience running government health care programs (New York Post)

Verma currently heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the Affordable Care Act.

Verma led Indiana’s expansion of Medicaid when Pence was governor.

Comment: Experience is essential. HHS has 80,000 employees and a $1 trillion budget.

Indiana has been one of the three or four best-run state governments for two decades or more. Running programs there is high praise. Running them in Illinois normally leads to indictment.

◆ Victor Davis Hanson on “A Lying Quartet”: The Obama Officials who Surveilled their Political Opponents (American Greatness)

The names are familiar:

Susan Rice
James Clapper
John Brennan
James Comey

With a lot of details about their publicly-stated falsehoods, plus plenty on Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes, and others.

Rarely has an intelligence apparatus engaged in systematic lying—and chronic deceit about its lying—both during and even after its tenure. Yet the Obama Administration’s four top security and intelligence officials time and again engaged in untruth, as if peddling lies was part of their job descriptions.

So far none have been held accountable. –Victor Davis Hanson

◆ Colin Kaepernick: Imperfect Messenger. Donated $25,000 to group named after convicted cop killer who broke out of jail and fled to Cuba (Daily Mail)

Comment: Kaepernick started something big politically when he knelt. That brings scrutiny–and he has not fared well under that microscope.

Comment #2: Cuba really needed American recognition when Obama handed it to them. As usual, he got nothing in return, not even the return of convicted US criminals who were given asylum by Castro’s government.

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Hat Tip to

◆ Tom Elia for the Kaepernick story

◆ Clarice Feldman for the Victor Davis Hanson op-ed
The Sessions hearing in a nutshell

By Charles Lipson
Tuesday, June 13, 2017 4comments CIA: Central Intelligence Agency, FBI, Intelligence agencies, James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Republican Party, Robert Mueller, Senate, Surveillance, Trump-Russia Investigation No tags Permalink
What did Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee amount to?

Fairly little except for Sessions’ effective defense of his own reputation and conduct of his office.

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My take aways

I watched the entire hearing. Here’s my unvarnished take.

There was little new information added, but some misinformation and innuendo was swatted down.

Sessions seemed completely credible.

He was calm, even when being interrupted frequently

California Democrat Kamala Harris was especially aggressive and did not allow Sessions time to answer. She was considerably more interested in her questions. The chair had to intervene several times to let the witness answer

The only time Sessions became intense was when he defended his honor and integrity against public slurs, mostly those of James Comey (which were indirect rather than clear and candid)

The main news was that Sessions did not recuse himself because of any involvement with the Russians but, he said, because of DOJ policy that he should not be part of any investigation of a political campaign in which he participated.

Last week, former FBI Director James Comey slimed Sessions very carefully, saying that Sessions really had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation for reasons that Comey said he couldn’t go into, at least in public session.

Comey’s innuendo turned out to be a nothingburger, as we learned from leaks, except for its intended damage to Sessions’ reputation

The damaging implication, which Democrats had been pushing for a several weeks, was that Sessions had lied in his confirmation because he had several undisclosed meetings with the Russians.

The reality: the only thing that might not have been mentioned was a reception where twenty or so guests were present to say hello before a larger gathering they were attending. There would have been no private time for Sessions and the Russian Ambassador to work on their plot to overthrow the Republic. The whole thing is ridiculous.

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The Democrats and Sessions

There are two areas to keep the Democrats, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post busy attacking.

Sessions did not answer some questions related to his private conversations with Pres. Trump, even though Trump has not (or not yet) invoked Executive Privilege in that area. The Democrats were tenacious on that point. They may be right, but Sessions position was actually much more forthcoming than the Obama appointees, like Susan Rice, who refused to attend hearings at all. (I don’t think they even bothered to give a reason, but I could be wrong.)

The Democrats said Sessions recusal on the Russia investigation means he should have had not role in the Comey firing. (He supported the firing in a memo to Trump, who was going to do it anyway.) Their argument: if Comey was fired over Russia, as Trump said on TV, then Sessions should have stayed out. Sessions’ defense: his memo on Comey was not about the Russia investigation but about the Comey’s poor performance as FBI director.

Sessions actually showed that he had gone beyond his formal recusal and refused to be involved in the Russia matters at DOJ from Day One, before he submitted his formal statement.

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The Democrats’ Purpose: Nothing to do with Sessions, Everything to Do with Trump

So far, the Democrats have found nothing on their main allegation: that Trump won the election unfairly, and is therefore an illegitimate president, because he and the Russians worked together to throw the election. It’s important to remember that the Obama Administration controlled the CIA, NSA, DOJ, and FBI for two and half months after the election and didn’t find anything then.

There is evidence of attempted Russian interference in the election., but the Democrats on the Intel Committee today showed themselves utterly uninterested in that today, despite major breaking news about Russia’s attempted hacks of US state election systems. Virtually no questions on that because it didn’t lead back to Trump.

Having failed (so far) to find significant evidence of collusion, the Democrats’ “get Trump” strategy has morphed into vague claims about obstruction of justice.

Again, no evidence of that so far, either.

Worse for them, there is no underlying crime whose investigation could be obstructed.

Today’s hearing was really about political resistance and personal destruction, not serious investigation.

If there is serious investigation, it is far more likely to come from Robert Mueller’s operation, which is now gearing up.
ZipDialog Roundup for Wednesday, June 7

By Charles Lipson
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 0 Cybersecurity, Donald Trump, Election 2016, FBI, Free Speech, Free Speech Advocates in Higher Ed, Good News in Higher Ed, Intelligence agencies, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Islamic terrorism, Israel, James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Palestinians, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Surveillance, Trump-Russia Investigation, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Adam Kissel Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple

◆ ISIS attack at the heart of Iran’s government is stunning. ISIS, a Sunni group, has been under attack by the Iranian-led Shia forces in Iraq and Syria, and now they’ve struck back.

The spectacular event is designed to humiliate the Iranians and show that ISIS can strike anywhere, even hard targets in a hostile country.

Comment: More as it develops.

◆ Qatar Qrisis: Trump suggests he led Saudis to act against Qatar’s support of terror (New York Times)

Comment: True and dumb. True because Trump’s meetings in Saudi Arabia were a key to the new pressure the Arab states are putting on Qatar. Not smart to trumpet the US role when you are relying on others to lead. Makes them look like lap-dogs.

◆ Two big stories broken by ABC News:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign because Trump was furious Sessions had recused himself in Russian investigation

Former FBI Director Comey will not say Trump tried to obstruct justice

◆ Sessions offer to resign (ABC) Jonathan Karl reports:

The relationship between President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has become so tense that Sessions at one point recently even suggested he could resign.

The friction between the two men stems from the attorney general’s abrupt decision in March to recuse himself from anything related to the Russia investigation — a decision the president only learned about minutes before Sessions announced it publicly. Multiple sources say the recusal is one of the top disappointments of his presidency so far and one the president has remained fixated on. –ABC News

At a White House press briefing, Sean Spicer would not say whether Trump still supported AG Sessions.

Comment: First, Sessions was right to recuse himself.

Second, it’s over; he’s already done it; let it go, Donald.

Third, if your earliest and strongest supporter from the Senate is not comfortable in the Cabinet, who will be?

Four, this is still more evidence that, in this ship of state, everybody is rowing in different directions and the captain keeps changing course. What’s missing: self-discipline and a solid staff, given some authority to create order.

◆ Comey will stop short of saying Trump obstructed justice in Flynn probe (ABC)

Although Comey has told associates he will not accuse the president of obstructing justice, he will dispute the president’s contention that Comey told him three times he is not under investigation.

The president allegedly said he hoped Comey would drop the Flynn investigation, a request that concerned Comey enough that he documented the conversation in a memo shortly after speaking with the president. In the memo, according to sources close to Comey who reviewed it, Trump said: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” during a February meeting.

The request made Comey uncomfortable, but the source tells ABC News that Comey has told associates he will not accuse the president of obstructing justice.

“He is not going to Congress to make accusations about the president’s intent, instead he’s there to share his concerns,” the source said, and tell the committee “what made him uneasy” and why he felt a need to write the memo documenting the conversation. –ABC

Comment: Here’s how I read that. Comey cannot say the president tried to obstruct justice without creating big problems for himself. He would be legally required to report it and, if he had any integrity, would have resigned. Also, he subsequently testified to Congress that no one had tried to obstruct his investigation.

Given those constraints, he will do everything in his power to destroy Trump.

◆ Comey himself is being sued over an alleged coverup; a whistleblower says he gave Comey evidence of a huge, illegal surveillance operation on Americans by the CIA (using FBI computers) during the Obama administration (Circa)

A former U.S. intelligence contractor tells Circa he walked away with more than 600 million classified documents on 47 hard drives from the National Security Agency and the CIA, a haul potentially larger than Edward Snowden’s now infamous breach.

And now he is suing former FBI Director James Comey and other government figures, alleging the bureau has covered up evidence he provided them showing widespread spying on Americans that violated civil liberties.

The suit, filed late Monday night by Dennis Montgomery, was assigned to the same federal judge who has already ruled that some of the NSA’s collection of data on Americans violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, setting up an intriguing legal proceeding in the nation’s capital this summer.

Comment: Circa’s Sara Carter and John Solomon have done first-rate reporting on potential violations of civil liberties by US intel agencies.

◆ Why did Trump decline to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as he promised during the campaign?

Because he thought it would hamper his goal of an “ultimate deal” between the Israelis and Palestinians, says Eytan Gilboa (Begin-Sadat Center, Bar-Ilan University)

Trump completely reversed the attitude of Obama, which verged on hostility, towards both the pro-American Arab states and Israel. –Eytan Gilboa

◆ Excellent news: One of the country’s staunchest, most experienced advocates for free speech, Adam Kissel, has been to head the Dept. of Education’s higher ed programs (Inside Higher Ed)

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ZipDialog Roundup for Sunday, June 4

By Charles Lipson
Sunday, June 4, 2017 0 Bad News in Higher Education, Britain, Campus Crazies, China, Chinese security and military, College Witch Hunts, Europe, Healthcare, Higher education, Homeland Security, Identity Politics, Islamic terrorism, Japan, Media and Reporting, Media Bias, Mitch McConnell, North Korea, Political Correctness, Progressive Activism, Race Relations, Religion, Republican Party, Sports, Surveillance, Taxes, Terrorism in Europe, US foreign policy, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page No tags Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple

◆ England’s third major terror attack in 10 weeks raises fundamental questions about how to prevent these assaults

Comment: Kudos to the London police for their immediate response. It was swift, sure, and effective. 8 minutes from first incident to squads arriving in force. Their swift action prevented countless additional casualties.

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The problem is how to prevent these attacks, both in the short run (surveillance, arrests, etc.) and long run (tougher restrictions on immigration and rethinking the obvious failure to integrate the communities into the liberal west).

All Europe is facing a high threat from Islamic extremists, many (like the Manchester bomber) born in the very Western countries they are terrorizing.

As ISIS is squeezed abroad, they will try to revive their organization by killing in Europe.

Ordinary Europeans will refuse to live in perpetual terror and demand answers from their failing political leaders.

◆ US media reported the London attack, wall-to-wall, but buried one aspect of the story. Any guesses? You are correct.

I explain the MSM’s fecklessness, and illustrate it concretely, in a separate post, here. I call it PC BS.

◆ In happier news, one of baseball’s all-time greats, Albert Pujols become the 9th player to hit 600 homers. (ESPN) The cherry on top: it was a grand slam. Another cherry: it comes in the post-steroid era. His head and arms actually look human.

◆ Japan holds evacuation drills as North Korea’s nuclear program advances (Reuters)

Comment: The Japanese navy is also conducting joint exercises with the US fleet.

My sense is that the Chinese are playing rope-a-dope, doing a little to slow down Pyongyang but not nearly enough. That is simply unsustainable for the US and Japan.

◆ Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell hopeful on tax cuts, less so on healthcare (Reuters)

Comment: Tax reform is essential, and the Republicans know it, not just for the economy but for their reelection.

On healthcare, the pressure in late autumn, when next year’s premium notices go out, will be enormous. Obamacare is melting down, and that means suffering. The Republicans will point at Obama and the D’s. But that won’t cut it. People elected the R’s to fix it.

◆ California progressives really, really want single-payer, and they want their state to provide it. (Fortune)

The state Senate, with a big Democratic majority, passed it easily. They skipped over the pesky problem of paying for it. (Honestly, they did absolutely nothing about funding it.)

How expensive would it be? $400 billion. That’s huge. More than twice as big as the entire state budget today.

No one knows if the State Assembly will pass it or if Gov. Jerry Brown will sign it.

Naturally, they would need to heft tax hikes to pay for it, but economic studies show there is still a big shortfall. (ABC News)

Comment: The leading Democratic contender for Governor, Gavin Newsom (former mayor of S.F.), put on his tin-foil hat and strongly backed the single-payer plan.

◆ Another “can you top this” in college crazies: Black students at Evergreen State U. in Olympia, WA, demand all white people leave the campus for a day. (Washington Post)

Their demands managed to close the entire school for a day.

For some reason, not everyone thought this white-leave-campus thing was a good idea.

One long-time progressive, Prof. Bret Weinstein, did not favor it. And he didn’t like the students’ demands that new academic hires deemphasize academic ability and focus on race/gender/undocumented/social justice/etc.

As you can imagine, those opposed to Weinstein were not looking for a debate.

The were looking for blood.

In fact, the other professors at Evergreen State also turned on Weinstein. (National Review Online)

It’s so nasty, so crazy that even the NYT’s Frank Bruni writes a column against it. Naturally, he begins by condemning the US, thus establishing his bona fides as a morally superior person, but he still doesn’t like the ideas out in Olympia. It’s a strong column–and one the NYT readership needed to see.

There are names for people like Frank Bruni. Fascist. Racist. Sexist. Columnist.

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♥ Hat Tip for helpful suggestions:
◆ Richard Siegler and Tom Wyckoff for the Frank Bruni column.
ZipDialog Roundup for Thursday, May 25

By Charles Lipson
Thursday, May 25, 2017 0 Britain, China, Chinese security and military, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Europe, Health Insurance, Immigrant Crime, Immigration from Middle East and North Africa, Intelligence agencies, ISIS, Islamic terrorism, NATO, Obamacare and Repeal-Replace, Political Correctness, Russia, Surveillance, Terrorism in Europe, Trump-Russia Investigation, US Constitution, US Healthcare System, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Circa, Congressional Budget Office, Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Now, the Brits are hunting in Libya for some members of the Manchester terror cell.

They’ve already made a half-dozen arrests, including the bomber’s brother, in the UK (New York Times)

Officials were looking into reports that people who knew Mr. Abedi — including an imam at his mosque — had contacted the authorities as early as 2015 with concerns that he may have been recruited by extremists. –New York Times

Comment: The police, overwhelmed with tips, sometimes drop the ball. That’s always disturbing, but it would be more disturbing if they shied away for PC reasons. That’s been a problem for UK police. Here, for example, is the Manchester police apologizing for a 2016 training exercise that resembled an Islamist attack.

◆ Meanwhile, UK officials are furious that the NYT published secret information about the crime (BBC) The UK had shared it with the US. The Brits believes the leakers were US police, not the White House.

◆ Circa’s John Solomon and Sara Carter running circles around the MSM, this time on Obama Administration illegal spying on Americans

How bad was it? Bad enough that the lap dog FISA court judges were infuriated by the deceit and illegal action.

◆ Congressional Budget Office says Trump-Ryan health plan will be budget neutral but leave 23 million more uninsured over a decade (Associated Press)

The report said older people with lower income would disproportionately lose coverage. Over half of those becoming uninsured, 14 million people, would come from the bill’s $834 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to poor and disabled people, over 10 years. –AP

Comment: These numbers are disturbing but it compares this bill to Obamacare on the assumption that the ACA will survive. It won’t. It’s melting down and to save it would cost trillions.

◆ Mike Flynn has clammed up, but Paul Manafort has given Congressional investigators his documents related to Russian contacts (Washington Post)

◆ Richard Friedman on NATO’s purpose today (ZipDialog post)

◆ Who controls the South China Sea? China claims it, but it is an international waterway, and the US ensures it. The US navy sends occasional ships through to make sure it is open. Now, the US navy is conducting its first such operation of the Trump presidency. (CNN)

◆ Today in PC lunacy: White women’s burrito shop is forced to close after being hounded with accusations it was ‘culturally appropriating Mexican food and jobs’ (Daily Mail) In Portland, naturally.

Comment: The city will give up Hindu-Arabic numerals when they discover they were invented in South Asia in the 6th or 7th century and stolen from those poor folks. (Britannica)

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♥ Hat Tip for helpful suggestions:
◆ Fred Lawson for the Manchester police apology
◆ Tim Favero and Tom Elia for the burrito story; they clearly know me!