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Link To Video: Special Interview with Ivan Raiklin: The Pence Card & the Moment of Truth Transcript, via a friend follows:

The FBI — They’re the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. We rely on them to protect us from every sort of crook and bad guy, not to mention international terrorists. When they’re investigating something important, it’s understandable that they can’t disclose to the public what they’re up to. That would give away the game, and give the bad guys the chance to escape. So we need to trust them, to let them operate mostly in secrecy, and just give them the benefit of the doubt that they are doing the right thing. Boy, has that narrative gotten blown to smithereens...

**SNIP** When she was arrested, Griner was returning to Russia to join Jones on their team, UMMC Yekaterinburg, for the playoffs. Griner has starred for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury since 2013 and soon after also joined Yekaterinburg, among a handful of clubs owned by oligarchs who pay top salaries for pride and political reasons. Those clubs are not seen as an option right now because of Griner’s detention and the war in Ukraine. “It’s taken some money off the table for some people,” said Mike Cound, an agent who represents dozens of professional women’s basketball players. “It’s lowered the overall...

DENVER – A Colorado mother accused of plotting to kidnap her son from foster care after her teen daughter said she started associating with supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory was found guilty of conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping on Friday. Cynthia Abcug, 53, denied she was involved in planning a raid on the foster home where her then 7-year-old son lived in the fall of 2019. She had lost custody of him earlier that year after being accused of medical child abuse — lying about him having seizures and other health problems in order to trick doctors into providing...

Hearing that song all over the radio 50 years ago today Chicago's "Saturday In The Park". Welcome To Your Weekend... Rush had an expression for folks who looked like they belonged at the FM radio stations 50 years ago. "Dope Smoking Maggot Infested FM Type" And that reminds me of John Fetterman in the here and now... Walmart Pays For 'Medically Necessary' Abortions While China Wants Three-Child Families... "You Can't Make Babies With Your Hands" I guess I'm a good Chinese Communist I am the father of three for what it's worth... The man who succeeded Mike Pence as the...

Donald Trump came down the escalator in Trump Tower in June of 2015 and announced he was running for president. Beltway conservatives laughed, but little did they know that the joke was on them. By the time they realized what was happening — that they'd lost touch with the people — it was too late. *snip* It was the establishment GOP that hated Trump first and hated him the hardest. He's "uniquely unsuited to office" because he takes the totality of the Washington swamp — and all its networks of power — and renders them useless. That's why Trump is...

Brooks, who is accused of killing six people at a Christmas parade last year, appeared bored and asleep in court.. Darrell Brooks Jr., the man accused of ramming an SUV into a Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade last year, was escorted out of court Friday following an outburst. Brooks yelled at Judge Jennifer Dorow and the courtroom gallery, expressing his boredom toward the end of the proceeding Friday, before she denied Brooks' legal team's motions to dismiss and suppress evidence in the case ahead of his October trial. ... Brooks was facing 83 charges, including six first-degree homicide counts ... The...

“Anyone thrilled at the prospect of trying to prosecute a former president under the Espionage Act has blacked out the recent history of this law.” When federal agents removed top-secret documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last week, they carried with them a search warrant citing possible violations of the Espionage Act. Ah, the Espionage Act! How that must have sounded comfortingly confirmatory to those leftists who still believe, despite the total lack of evidence, that Trump was elected and governed in collusion with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. These reports surely have some folks gleefully contemplating the prospect of...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said the Biden White House pointing to Republican members of Congress who got Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans forgiven to respond to criticism of its student loan program is wrong because the PPP loans were designed to preserve jobs and were designed to be forgiven, while student loans “are things people signed promising to pay them back.” He also stated that the response lacked class, and “if you’re going to be unclassy, be smart about it. Don’t be dumb about it if you’re not classy.”

The New York Times editorial board called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to seek an indictment of former President Trump if “sufficient evidence” exists to establish his guilt “on a serious charge.” The board argued in a piece published Friday that, “Mr. Trump’s unprecedented assault on the integrity of American democracy requires a criminal investigation” following the Jan. 6 select committee hearings and news of the Justice Department’s search of Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., home for classified documents. “This board is aware that in deciding how Mr. Trump should be held accountable under the law it is necessary to consider...

Maryland’s highest court ruled that Washington, D.C.-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo has to be resentenced due to U.S. Supreme Court decisions on constitutional protections for juveniles made after his sentencing. Malvo had been sentenced to six life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was 17 at the time of the murders. The Maryland Court of Appeals said it is unlikely that Malvo would ever be released because he is also serving separate life sentences for murders in Virginia. “As a practical matter, this may be an academic question in Mr. Malvo’s case, as he would first have to be...

“Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days” (Proverbs 28:14).

As the mask mandate debate rages on, epidemiologists and medical specialists suggest looking to countries where citizens are perfectly happy to wear them to see how powerful the simple infection-control measure can be. Nearly two-and-a-half years into the Covid-19 pandemic, countries where mask-wearing is a cultural norm are seeing some signs of success as the persistent Omicron sub-variants spread throughout their communities. University of Otago public health professor and epidemiologist Michael Baker said underlying the widespread acceptance of masks in some counties was a sense of personal responsibility to protect others from Covid-19. "I'm looking at the countries that appear,...

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A 'straight pride' march held in front of a California abortion clinic descended into violence as attendees clashed with counter-protesters and police. The National Straight Pride Coalition touted the event as a celebration of 'heterosexuality, masculinity, femininity, babies - born and unborn and Western straight civilization, our wonderful country and Christianity.' Founder Don Grundmann promised a calm organized march, telling the Modesto City council in early August: 'We're a peaceful group, we wanted to have a meeting. We're attacked as racist. We're a totally peaceful racist group.' But it quickly descended into violence, as angry pro-LGBT rights groups clashed with...

Visitors forced to spend 17% more last year as price of hotels, passes and even Mickey ears rocket Since reopening in April of last year, the company has made a host of changes to its preeminent parks in Florida and California, nixing perks and raising prices Those efforts, recent earnings reports reveal, have seen the parks' bottom lines swell - but has also alienated visitors been priced out by the increased costs Implementing changes such as a $15 a day pass on top of admission and a $32 charge for its airport shuttles, customers are complaining of Disney's practices The...

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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is backing the construction of new reactors for the first time since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. It will have to convince a skeptical public first, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Gearoid Reidy.Just over a decade on from Fukushima, the northern Japanese region that became globally synonymous with the dangers of nuclear power, Tokyo seems ready to embrace atomic energy once more. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to push not just for the restart of operations including Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the largest nuclear power facility in the world — he’s also looking to reverse...

The sworn affidavit presented to secure the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago used by the FBI to raid Donald Trump’s home had what appears to be a crucial error in it, one that could be easily debunked. If the facts detailed by independent journalist Paul Sperry are accurate, this could be enough to obliterate the Department of Justice’s case against Trump. In a post on Gettr, Sperry said: BREAKING: The FBI affiant who swore to the Mar-a-Lago search warrant appears to have made a critical factual error by stating in the unsealed affidavit: “I do not believe that any spaces within...

Former US basketball star Shaquille O'Neal will help Australia's new government implement reforms for an Indigenous voice to parliament, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday (Aug 27) said, standing alongside NBA Hall of famer. Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party government is seeking a referendum, needed to change the constitution, on recognising Indigenous people in the constitution and mandating consultation with them on decisions that affect their lives. Details on the so-called Indigenous voice to parliament will follow the national referendum on the question, which the government wants to hold in the parliament’s current term.