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Today’s Cryptogram PL JPN VK ZNE UBVLZCDA ENJXBC X HNNC HMLKE JVDD ZLYLB PXYL NZL. —RPVZLKL JVKCNW You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you might give the group on how...

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) claimed in an interview Saturday that President Donald Trump must be impeached "to deal with slavery" — despite the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, being ratified in 1865. Green, whose articles of impeachment were overwhelmingly rejected by the House, was asked on MSNBC what the outcome of the impeachment proceedings will be "if more evidence is revealed." In response, Green invoked America's "original sin." "I believe that the American people understand that this is something that we must do at this point," Green said. "I also think that if we don't include some of the things...

In the waning years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden, whose life was in a downward spiral, took a job with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was transparently attempting to gain influence with Hunter’s father. The maneuver was unsuccessful for Burisma (which received no favorable treatment from the vice-president), fairly successful for Hunter (who received a hefty paycheck for minimal work), and has left a residue of low-grade sleaze that Joe Biden’s campaign has proven unable to scrape away. The dilemma this poses for Biden, and his party, is what - if anything - they can do about this...

Live Updates: U.K. Votes in General Election Britain’s voters head to the polls to choose their next government on Thursday in a deeply divided moment for the country that has left the outcome unpredictable. RIGHT NOW Voting has begun in the British general election, the second since the country’s landmark Brexit referendum.

Washington (CNN)The legal team for the whistleblower whose account kicked off the impeachment inquiry is preparing for the possibility that lawmakers will call their client to testify in the Senate, two people familiar told CNN. (snip) --- The White House counsel's office remains in discussion with Republican senators about the length and scope of President Donald Trump's likely Senate impeachment trial. But the whistleblower's lawyers are preparing for all possibilities, including receiving a subpoena for testimony as allies of the President continue their demands to hear from the anonymous person who ignited the Ukraine controversy. A subpoena would put the...

Bring back Lighthizer. Really. Trump. Bring back Lighthizer.

A small group of House Democrats fearful of their re-election prospects has revived the idea of censuring President Trump instead of impeaching him, according to a report out Tuesday. The Democrats, all repping districts Trump won in 2016, met Monday afternoon to consider their options, no matter how slim, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had already put the kibosh on censure, Politico reported. The lawmakers, about 10, included Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Ben McAdams of Utah and Anthony Brindisi of upstate New York. A poll last week by GOP pollster John McLaughin Associates found...

I heard there is a 19 page shortened version of the fisa report and I would love to read it.

“The activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified Wednesday — as direct a slap at former FBI chief Jim Comey as you could ask for. Horowitz was walking the Senate Judiciary Committee through his report on FBI and Justice Department malfeasance in Crossfire Hurricane, the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign. Bottom line, as Sen. John Kennedy put it: Misfire Hurricane would’ve been more accurate. The outrages went far beyond the “17 significant errors or omissions” in applications to spy on onetime Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page. Horowitz found FBI...

Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 in response to the unlawful surveillance of Americans by the FBI and the CIA during the Watergate era. President Richard Nixon -- who famously quipped after leaving office that "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal" -- used the FBI and the CIA to spy on his political opponents. The stated reason was national security. Nixon claimed that foreign agents physically present in the U.S. agitated and aggravated his political opponents to produce the great public unrest in America in the late 1960s and early...

RESOLUTION Calling for the resignation and disbarment of United States Attorney General William P. Barr, and for other purposes. Whereas, on March 24, 2019, United States Attorney General William P. Barr deliberately mischaracterized the “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election” issued by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III; Whereas, on March 25, 2019, at Attorney General Barr’s direction, the Department of Justice ceased defending the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), a duly enacted law under the United States Constitution; Whereas, on April 24, 2019, Attorney General Barr directed then-Acting Assistant...

The essence of a coup, which some might refer to as covert action, is the hidden hand. One does not announce that a foreign power is overthrowing the government and installing a new government. One pulls strings as if from behind a curtain, making events that are all part of a carefully orchestrated plan appear disconnected, spontaneous and serendipitous. As I read through the recently released IG report for the second time, as someone with a great deal of experience in military and intelligence matters, I see that hand everywhere. Per the IG report, a single report is delivered to...

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report mentions a claim that Russians recorded President Bill Clinton having phone sex with White House intern Monica Lewinsky — but the reference was redacted from the version released to the public. The redaction is likely to anger Republicans, because the allegation has been known since at least 2001 and the Mueller report's reference to a claim that President Trump watched prostitutes urinating in a Moscow hotel room was not struck out. Clinton allegedly was recorded by Russia in the 1990s, allowing Russia to learn of the affair before American officials. A reference to the Clinton...

Y.C. Jao was a respected Chinese correspondent working for The Associated Press in April 1949 when Mao Zedong’s Red Army stormed into Nanjing, defeating the Nationalist forces of leader Chiang Kai-shek and paving the way for the Communist takeover of China. A family man in his late 40s, tall and erudite with liberal views, Jao was an intellectual deeply committed to news, and to modernizing journalism in China. He had studied at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in the 1920s, before returning after 10 years to teach journalism and to start an English-language paper...

President Donald Trump has ushered in the end of an era — no more will liberals dominate the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and use the federal appellate court as a rubber stamp for defeating pro-life legislation and pushing abortion on demand. Today the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Trump nominated VanDyke in September. He is a committed and strong 'constitutionalist' who will uphold the values and deeply held beliefs of our nation. VanDyke joins the ranks of over 150 judges confirmed to...

Humper has a New Texarkana Lawyer. Deadline Friday.

I want to start out by saying every state flag everything that is put on the flag has meaning. The organic American flag is known as a flag of peace. I was reading on this page someone made a statement as to what does it matter has a few adornments I'm it does matter because at the end of the day. If the government decided to add a color to the original flag it absolutely changes the meaning of things. The original colors meant this Red:Hardiness and Valor White:Purity and Innocence Blue: Viligiance, Perserverance; Justice. The United States Flag -...

The past 24 hours provided a clear and painful picture of the momentous challenges American Jews face these days. The day began with news that President Trump has issued an executive order designed, the White House said, to fight anti-Semitism. Reporting on the order, The New York Times stressed that it will “effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion,” and that it “could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.” Leftist NGOs echoed the same talking point, and a phalanx of pundits...

America's Democratic Party is split with tribal factions. Britain's Labour Party looks to lose a big landslide loss. Etc.

Pope appoints cardinal critical of Church’s ‘severe’ language to gays to head major Vatican office ROME, December 11, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has appointed the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide), placing him in a strategically more helpful position for a future papal conclave.  Tagle’s move to one of the largest and most prestigious dicasteries in the Roman Curia is widely seen as a sign that Pope Francis is grooming him as his successor. He is seen as highly sympathetic to Pope Francis’s perspective on doctrinal and...