Source: The Hill
“A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted attorney Michael Sussman on a charge of lying to the FBI during the 2016 campaign, marking the second prosecution brought by John Durham, the special counsel tapped by former President Trump to investigate the FBI’s probe into Russian interference. … Prosecutors in Durham’s office say that Sussman falsely claimed to investigators at the time that he was not acting on behalf of any client when he had actually been representing Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and an unnamed tech executive. ‘Sussman’s false statement misled the FBI General Counsel and other FBI personnel concerning the political nature of his work and deprived the FBI of information that might have permitted it more fully to assess and uncover the origins of the relevant data and technical analysis, including the identities and motivations of Sussman’s clients,’ the indictment reads.” (09/16/21)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/572662-grand-jury-indicts-attorney-on-charge-of-lying-to-fbi-in-durham
Source: Reason
by Brian Doherty
“The Biden administration is on target to approach a historical fiscal-year record for apprehending migrants on the U.S./Mexico border. We are likely to have seen 1.64 million such apprehensions by this month’s end of fiscal 2021, even as opponents absurdly accuse the president of pursuing ‘open borders’ policies. Keep that in mind as you see scenes of a border crossing point being overwhelmed today by would-be migrants. Such moment are not happening despite the clampdown, but because of it. … There is a simpler, better way that would avoid these disconcertingly large crowds awaiting the rough justice of U.S. border policies. Those huge crowds in those drone videos are only there because it isn’t conveniently legal for would-be migrants to buy a bus or plane ticket and go anywhere in the U.S. that they want to.” (09/16/21)
https://reason.com/2021/09/16/how-immigration-clampdowns-create-border-crises/
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
“Matt Taibbi, Nadine Strossen, and Amna Khalid respond to ‘On the Media’ free speech critiques.” [various formats] (09/16/21)
https://www.thefire.org/so-to-speak-podcast-matt-taibbi-nadine-strossen-and-amna-khalid-respond-to-on-the-media-free-speech-critiques/
Source: Canadian Broadcast Corporation [Canadian state media]
“Haiti’s government is starting to crumble as Prime Minister Ariel Henry faces increased scrutiny from authorities investigating the president’s slaying, with Henry firing the justice minister late Wednesday, just hours after another top official resigned and accused Henry of obstructing justice in a sharply worded letter. Henry’s dismissal of Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent came a day after he fired Port-au-Prince’s chief prosecutor, who had linked the prime minister to a key suspect in the killing of President Jovenel Moise. Meanwhile, Renald Luberice, who served more than four years as secretary general of Haiti’s Council of Ministers, said he could not remain under the direction of someone who is under suspicion and who ‘does not intend to co-operate with justice, seeking, on the contrary, by all means, to obstruct it.'” (09/16/21)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/haiti-government-justice-minister-fired-1.6177647?cmp=rss
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Stacey Rudin
“‘Give me liberty or give me death’ was our original rallying cry. Oppressed by British rule, Americans rebelled. They fought for independence, for the right to live their own lives in their own way. … You cannot betray the concept of ‘give me liberty or give me death’ any further than by adopting the premise that no one can disagree with you and still be a reasonable person. When you are on board with a plan that includes subverting your neighbors’ autonomy and violating their bodies as you deem necessary to satisfy the people on TV, you’ve rejected the American experiment. You’re a collectivist, and I wonder: have you looked into how well collectivist systems have worked out for regular people lately?” (09/16/21)
https://brownstone.org/articles/are-you-ready-and-willing-to-be-free-again/
Source: NBC 5 News
“Earlier today, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Texas law enforcement would shut down six points of entry from Mexico but a short time later he reversed that order. The governor said he was acting at the request of the federal government and said in a statement ‘the Biden administration has now flip-flopped to a different strategy that abandons border security.’ But that’s not the story a customs and border patrol spokesperson told The Texas Tribune who said there was never a plan to shut down entry points they operate.” (09/16/21)
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/gov-abbott-walks-back-plan-to-shut-down-points-of-entry-thousands-of-haitians-arrive-in-del-rio/2744530/
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Garry M Galles
“The unconstitutional CDC eviction moratoria made every renter a huge potential financial loss for the owner, because they could evade their agreed-to contractual obligations, with no assurance that landlords would ever be made whole. However, when landlords are faced with very large, and often crippling, government-imposed losses, they try to protect themselves from such damage. Reducing such risks is the reason for landlord demands such as paying rent in advance. Of course, greedy-bastard economics practitioners then pile on still more blame for landlords trying to avoid being robbed of their property rights, rather than recognizing the problem for what it is (after all, renters who can avoid their obligations are the ones being stolen for, and the government is sponsoring it, making neither group particularly interested in such recognition).” (09/16/21)
https://www.aier.org/article/hating-landlords-misplaces-the-blame/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatar state media]
“Argentina’s centre-left [sic] President Alberto Fernandez is battling a spreading cabinet rebellion, sharpened by criticism from his powerful Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The crisis comes in the wake of a bruising primary election loss by a spate of resignations tendered by left-wing [sic] ministers allied with the more hardline ‘Kirchnerist’ wing of the ruling party. … The government was badly beaten on Sunday in an open primary election, seen as a reliable indicator before a mid-term congressional vote in November in which the Peronist ruling party could lose its grip on Congress. Fernandez now faces a stark choice of doubling down on populist [sic] measures or taking a more moderate approach to attract middle-class voters who rallied behind the conservative opposition.” (09/17/21)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/17/argentina-cabinet-rebellion-flares-as-vp-kirchner-slams-president
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“The Biden administration apparently is ‘seriously considering’ a request from Tsai Ing-wen’s administration to change the name of Taiwan’s diplomatic entity in the United States from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) to the Taiwan Representative Office. If that move takes place, little would change in terms of substance, but the potential symbolic impact is another matter entirely. When the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1979, it severed such ties with the Republic of China — Taiwan’s official name. … TECRO and a new nonprofit corporation, the American Institute in Taiwan, were promptly established in the two capitals. In reality, TECRO and AIT are de facto embassies, but their ‘unofficial’ status and labels help maintain the fiction that Taiwan is not really a country.” (09/16/21)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/09/16/a-simple-name-change-or-flirting-with-disaster/
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Thousands of health workers across France have been suspended without pay for failing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of a deadline this week, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Thursday. France’s national public health agency estimated last week that roughly 12 percent of hospital staff and around six percent of doctors in private practices have yet to be vaccinated. ‘Some 3,000 suspensions were notified yesterday to employees at health centres and clinics who have not yet been vaccinated,’ Veran told RTL radio. He added that ‘several dozens’ had turned in their resignations rather than sign up for the jabs.” (09/16/21)
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210916-france-suspends-3-000-unvaccinated-health-workers-without-pay
