Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Alarming new direction in impeachment

CTH brought up the possibility of being dragged into a new war in the Middle East.  Such a war is a loser for Trump, and that is why he is being dragged into it.  All of this from the neo-cons, who are not that far removed from the Democrats.  In other words, while Trump is somewhat vulnerable to impeachment, he is also vulnerable to manipulation from the neo-cons who hold some Senate votes in reserve against him in this impeachment struggle.

This is alarming.  It is an angle that I completely overlooked.

As far as the Democrats are concerned, they are at least complicit in provoking this war.  Of course, they'll deny this.  But look at what happens and ask if impeachment might have had something to do with what may happen soon.  The impeachment weakens the Presidency.   It should be handled quickly, but Pelosi is dragging her feet for advantage.

Are the people in this country able to understand all these intricacies?   People might wake up one day to find things have changed for the worse in the most surprising way.

Yep, this looks like trouble.




Monday, December 30, 2019

Natasha Bertrand: Intel probe puts CIA’s Haspel in a bind



Bongino talked about this today on his show.    By the way, Bongino likes to pick on Bertrand.  So, I decided to have a look for myself.

It appears that she is making the assertion that the CIA is somehow "independent" of review unless it is done by the inspector general. 

What did I miss?  Do we now have another branch of government?  Even Congress-critters are not exempt from the law.  The Attorney General can look at anybody he sees fit.  If there is probable cause and an investigation is warranted, then an investigation is called for.  He doesn't have to wait for the Inspector General to clear it first.  He can even look at Congress-critters if he finds cause.

Still, the title of Bertrand's piece says that Haspel is in a bind.  How?  This doesn't involve Haspel at all.  It is about Brennan.

I suppose Bertrand thinks that the CIA has veto power over any release of documents.  Somehow, by Bertrand's theory, Haspel must refuse to release any information about Brennan, as if Brennan is somehow above the law.

If there's probable cause to investigate Brennan then Brennan should be investigated.  This is what is called the "rule of law".    Are Democrats and their accomplices now against the "rule of law"?




12 weeks paid leave

From the CTH website comes this...

From a political viewpoint, this will probably be a net plus, but...

The problems we are having with the Democrats boil down to this very thing, imo.  The government is just too damned big.  Making it bigger still cannot be the answer.

If it is too hard to go back to work after having a baby, then stay home, dammit.  That's the way it used to be.  It used to be a free country, too.




Friday, December 27, 2019

Rogue cops and Spygate--- what's the diff?

The cops in this movie abuse their position.  Supposedly, it is for the public good.  But anybody can say that.

The Spygate crew will say the same.  They'll deny it until they are caught, then they'll act like this scene.  The scene starts with the assertion of the difficulty of prosecuting a cop.  We are at that point with these rogue cops who falsified a FISA app to spy on Trump.  What can be done about it?

Maybe nothing, except shooting them.  Just like the movie.


Sharyl Attkisson: The Six Red Flags We Missed Regarding the FBI’s Abusive FISA Witch Hunt Against the Trump Campaign


This stuff is so insidious.  Horowitz says "no bias", but then he says yes there was.  But he said both.  The "no bias" was in the executive summary.  The actual bias was everywhere else, where nobody looks.

Try to simplify it.  Carter Page was falsely accused of being a spy for Russia.  In so doing, the bad cops got a warrant to electronically spy on Trump's communications through the two-hop rule.  That is it in a nutshell.

So what is "two-hops"?  The first hop is who Page talks to, and who that person talks to is the second hop. That could be Trump himself.


Thursday, December 26, 2019

Election odds


There are some who say this is better than polls.  That isn't saying much.

The trouble with polls is with who you ask.  Consequently, a poll can tell you anything you want it to say.

Bettors have to put their money where their mouth is.  That's something, I suppose.

I'm going to start following the odds a bit.  Maybe it might tell me something that the polls don't.

Rasmussen has Trump at about 50 percent.  The odds are about that too, so what does that tell you?

Incidentally, odds are expressed in percent.  You can calculate the odds from percentages with the following formula.

Let's say the odds are 50%.  Odds = 100 / (Percent Chance x 1.1066)

                                                        = 100/ ( 50 x 1.1066)

                                                        = 100/ 55.3

                                                       = 1.8

A ninety percentage odds will get you to 1, approximately.  Ninety percent odds is just about as close to certainty that you can get.




Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Comey or Corney? Stalking a Half-Popped Kernel of a Deep-State Kerning Conspiracy


The article notes that the pdf document doesn't seem to recognize Comey's name, oddly enough.  I noticed that as well, as the read-out-loud version of the text kept pronouncing Comey's name as "Corney".

The Mueller Report also has an issue with text searches.  You cannot do one on it.

A "conspiracy" indeed.  "Impeach the mofo."  That's the ticket.





Monday, December 23, 2019

More about conservapedia

There's a pretty good written source of info there.  It will tell you all about Spygate and so forth.

Let's see:  with what I saw about Spygate, the Steele Dossier is completely discredited.  As for Crowdstrike?  They are discredited as well.  Crowdstrike were the only ones who saw the DNC servers, and it may be the case that they didn't even examine them either.  But I can't back that up.  It is well-known that the FBI didn't, and the FBI completely relied 100% upon Crowdstrike.  Just like they did with the Steele Dossier to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page.  This is where the electronic SPYING took place- hence Spygate.  It had two hops, anybody who talked to Page was the first hop, and the next one down the line.  That could have included Trump himself.

At any rate, the "Russian hack" wasn't a hack.  It was a leak.  Conservapedia has all the details on why nobody should believe Crowdstrike, and by extension, the FBI/ Mueller crowd.

Since there was no hack, the only thing left is PappaD and Downer.  That too looks questionable.

Oh, dear.  It looks like the Democrats just made it all up.  Why?  In order to get out in front of Wikileaks' release of the emails back in 2016.  It was a preemptive attack on the Trump campaign by blaming it on the Russians and on Trump.  They haven't given up on it either.

The fact of the matter is that Hillary's lack of care for her email servers, and the DNC's for their own security, are the reasons for their own downfall.  They are compounding the error by impeaching the President.

Ukraine is just more of the same, so that is why it is lumped in.  They don't want Trump to look into it.  They have plenty to hide.  The Donald is getting too close.  He and Barr have got to go before they find the truth.




Winter Solstice

Update:

12.23.19:

I got a brainstorm to try my desktop keyboard which uses a usb connector.  It plugged in okay, and it works.  How 'bout dat?

12.21.19:

This computer keyboard is now fouled up.  If I wanted to do a post, it will have to be short.

Today is the winter solstice.  Can you tell I've waited all year to announce that?  But that is not why I am posting.  Today, I saw something on Conservapedia that I haven't seen anywhere else.  John Brennan is nuts.

Well, it was more than that.  It looks as if Brennan's role in Spygate needs to be exposed a bit more than what it has been.

Why didn't I know more?  Probably because the places that I go for information haven't made that case forcefully enough.

It is odd how many have been roped into this Spygate.  It is a closely-knit small group.  They might take down the whole ship.  What ship?   The Democrat ship, or the ship of state.

Something is going down.



Monday, December 16, 2019

Announcement

I am considering shutting this down.  I have closed my Facebook account.  Also my Twitter account.

For a long time now, I have been running on fumes.  The gas tank is empty.  There is very little readership here.  There is no feedback worth mentioning.

Blogging will be light for now until that time when I decide.  If something happens that makes me want to continue with this, then I will handle it then.


Sunday, December 15, 2019

How IG Report Impacts Flynn Sentencing

Comment:

At the very least, Flynn's attorney will once again file a motion to compel the release of the Brady materials.  If the government refuses this time, then what???  The government can't play this game forever.










Horowitz's claim of no bias won't hold up

Comment:

The evidence consists of the fact that all the errors and omissions furthered the advancement of the FISA towards approval--- not the other way around.

The odds of that happening is maybe one in a million.


Pientka lies

Comment:

Holy moly.   The government wanted to wait on the IG Report before the sentencing on Flynn could proceed.  So here's some evidence of why they were waiting.

Pientka was willing to allow false information to get by in order to obtain the FISA warrant against Carter Page.  Would he also be willing to allow false information to get by in order to prosecute Flynn?  Is that discovery the reason why the government asked Judge Sullivan to hold up on the sentencing?  Sounds plausible to me.

(  Note: The tweet uses the stronger word "lie", whereas I am a bit more restrained and use the phrase "get by".  Did Pientka lie?  Well, if the shoe fits...   The use of the phrase "get by" is the kind of way the IG Report is written.  Other folks may use another language. )



Big Picture Time

Comment:

Very interesting commentary.  Towards the end, he gave something of a guide on how to deal with people on the left.  For instance, if they call you "racist" for wanting a wall, point out that the members of the left are the ones with the walls around their own homes.

The left's behavior strikes me as a sort of permission to act like a racist if you denounce racism.  It is a sort of permission to be greedy while condemning greed.  In short, it is a sort of permission to act badly while condemning bad behavior--- as if one's own behavior is now exempt just because one condemns the behavior.  It is a systematic behavior syndrome that is a psychological defense mechanism known as projection.





Saturday, December 14, 2019

Hillary again? NO

Comment:

And Dick Morris said that Hillary could win the Democrat nomination if she ran again.  God forbid.








IG Report on audio

In audio format?

Then I just wasted my time, I guess.  I made dozens of audio files of the IG Report.



Who was SSA-1 in the IG Report?

Answer:

Joe Pientka.  This is the same guy who interviewed Flynn along with Strzok ( I think ).

Flynn will probably win his case.  It is currently on hold per government request pending the IG Report.

How does that look now to Judge Sullivan?  It can't be good for the government's case.



Carter Page was FBI and a Russian Spy? Huh?

Comment:

The IG Report did not mention that Carter Page was an FBI/CIA source at all.  The Report made it seem like he was somebody who happened to have been affiliated with another agency, and that the FBI just seemed to overlook that inconvenient fact in their FISA warrant applications.

If Page was an FBI source, how can they not know about him?

Hmmm.




Crossfire Hurricane starting date fudged

I missed the Bongino show yesterday.  That's because I was slogging through the IG Report.  On Bongino yesterday, he focuses on a footnote, which he says debunks the starting date claim for the Crossfire Hurricane counter-intel investigation.

How?  McCabe shut down a CHS ( Confidential Human Source), who was supplying information that was essentially the same as Steele's.  But how can this be?  Steele's Dossier wasn't supposed to have been known until September.  In other words, they had Steele's info a lot longer than what they are claiming.  Also, supporting this view, Bongino says that there's no way they don't know about Downer until July.  They knew about Downer almost immediately, back in May.  So the Downer info wasn't the cause of the opening for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Sundance at the CTH website has a theory about Downer as well.  If Sundance is right, that is even more reason to doubt that the starting date for Crossfire Hurricane was July 31, 2016.   No way they don't know about Downer.

The FBI might as well be called the Fudge Bureau of Inventions. 

Here's the footnote.


body of text in Inspector General Report


Footnote pointed to in the body of the text

Bongino says that the other CHS was probably connected to Steele's Company.  In other words, even though it wasn't Steele himself, it may as well have been Steele.  It was the same information.

Why change the dates?  They want everyone to believe that the Steele Dossier wasn't in their possession until much later, in September.  Why?  Because they weren't getting anywhere with Steele's info, that's why.  They needed the FISA warrant on Page.


Scandal of historic magnitude

Comment:

Greenwald is a liberal, so it might be questioned as to why I would embed a tweet from him.  Since I read the IG report myself, I found no fault in what he said with respect to what was on it, and what dangers this scandal poses for the Republic.

He goes a bit far though, in wanting to eliminate the FISA court entirely.  It may be hard to reform something that is "ex parte", but it may be possible to make it more like the adversarial system we are accustomed to.  For example, there was somebody who kept mentioning the problems with the FISA (Evans), and his concerns were overruled.   The following excerpt from the report illustrates the problem somewhat, but this is by no means the only example:


"potential bias?" of Steele's Research


If Evans could appear before the court with his concerns and argue the case as a defense attorney might, then maybe a few of the problems could have been avoided.  Unfortunately, the current rules do not require that the facts be as "scrupulously accurate" as the Woods Procedures claim.  The Woods Procedures could also be strengthened a bit that would raise the bar of accuracy a bit higher than what exists today.


Was the IG report a whitewash?

12.14.19:


I've read almost all of it now.  So, is it a whitewash?  I don't know if that is the right word.  It doggone sure doesn't answer all questions.  It doesn't even come close.

The one question above all is how does this thing get started?  They claim that it was what PapaD said to an "FFG", meaning Ambassador Downer.  That seems pretty doggone thin to end up with a Special Counsel investigation.

We'll have to wait until Durham and Barr completely checks out how this started in the first place.  This review doesn't answer that satisfactorily at all.


12.12.19:

There's maybe half of the report left to read.  I'm still reserving judgment on it until I finish, and even then I may take a while to give my thoughts.

12.11.19:

4:10 pm:

Still reading through the report.  Although this is rather cumbersome, I am also making recordings of the thing as it reads the pdf file aloud.  It could go into a video, but that would be cumbersome as well.

As for it being a whitewash or not, I'm still reserving judgment on that one.


8:34 am:

Initial reactions from the conservative side would answer that it was.

After reading through dozens of pages of the report, I am going to reserve judgment for the time being.

One thing is clear.  Without the Steele Dossier, there would not have been a FISA warrant on Carter Page.  It is clear why McCabe said as much in his testimony in Congress.

This is coming down to why the Steele Dossier played such a large part in this story.  It is clear that the Dossier is junk.

That's about it for now.


Friday, December 13, 2019

Impeachment as Sideshow Bob

Comment:

The sideshow keeps the lefty base riled up.  Not that it will do them any good.




Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Bongino does it again

Comment:

The slog through the IG report has caused me to miss the Bongino show for a few days.  His show is always outstanding.

The part about Rachel Maddow is especially good. 

Good stuff.


Karate Kid

Comment:

Political jiu-jitsu?

Isn't the idea to use the energy of your opponent against him?



Tuesday, December 10, 2019

York: "The Dossier was a shameful episode."

Comment:

Without the Dossier, there is no FISA warrant on Page.  Without that, there is no Mueller investigation.

Keep that in mind.



IG Report ( or is it CYA Report? )

This report is a tedious affair.  All of these government functions tend to be.  This isn't "reality Teevee".

One thing that makes it go a little easier is to use the read-out-loud function on the Edge browser.  Not only that, I'm using the recorder app to record the thing reading the pdf out loud.  The idea occurred to me to make a video out of this, but no.  Maybe I can just mention that you can do this if you find it useful.  In my case, yes.  Somehow, the tedium is less tedious.  For others, it may be more so, so it may not work for you.

But this comes at a cost.  It is at a much slower pace.  Today I may have covered about 40 pages of this report.  At this rate, I may finish reading it by Christmas.  By Christmas, everybody will have forgotten about it already.

The Woods Procedures interest me the most.  No comment on that at the moment.




Bad eggs

Comment:

But there was no bias, so says Horowitz.  That old dog won't hunt.

Let's say that someone is transporting a carton of eggs, and all the eggs get smashed, one would think that little care was taken in transporting those eggs.

"But it was an accident!  We didn't mean it!"  Yeah?  How do you unbreak a carton of eggs?   How do you make this good?

If only one egg got cracked, then the excuses might be accepted.  But you would still have to make good on the one cracked egg.  But ALL of these eggs were smashed.  It doesn't look accidental, you people.  It looks like someone took a sledgehammer to a carton of eggs.






Monday, December 9, 2019

Woe upon the FBI

Comment:

Even if nobody is prosecuted, this has got to have serious ramifications.


Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity? Not exactly.

Comment:

There seems to be a pattern of withholding exculpatory information.  It is almost like somebody was out to get somebody else.



Woods Procedures anyone?

Comment:

This would indicate a serious breach of procedure.  Is it the law?  Could someone be prosecuted for this?  The Woods Procedures should guarantee that something like this would never happen, but it did.


The truth will set you free, if that is what you want.

Comment:

One would hope that the public will learn the truth, but there's no guarantee of that.  Not only that, but the public may not care.



Sunday, December 8, 2019

Avoid sounding like a hick

Comment:

One thing I got out of this video is that I must sound like a hick.  Nobody should want to sound like a hick.  Unless you are happy sounding like a hick.

I think I'd be happier not sounding like a hick.  But don't tell anybody, okay?








Impeachment is getting to be a bore

Comment:

Hard to keep interested in this.  It ain't just your imagination if it doesn't interest you.







Saturday, December 7, 2019

More than 500 law professors say Trump committed impeachable conduct

Comment:

Evidently, they cannot read.  The CONUS says "high crimes and misdemeanors".  The professors said that no crime was necessary, but the CONUS says otherwise.

You could probably get 50 million people to say that these professors are jackasses.


Extortion

The Democrats are accusing the President of extortion.  It may help to understand what the word "extortion" actually means in the legal sense.

Here is a webpage that discusses the elements of extortion.   Most of the discussion was about the acquisition of money or property of another person by force or fraud.

Nothing in this article applies to the President.  In order to be guilty of extortion, one has to force something from someone that they would not give willingly.  A mere exchange of favors ( quid pro quo ) is not extortion.  Withholding military aid is not a threat to do harm.  The refusal of help is not a threat.  The harm is coming from Russia, not the USA.  Trump wasn't threatening the Ukrainians.  It is a big stretch to say that he was.

Zelensky could have given the President a statement willingly with no strings attached.  The aid question is coincidental as it wasn't necessary to Trump's request.  Each could be separate issues entirely.

Even if you accept that these elements do apply to Trump, you still have to prove them.  The Democrats haven't even done that.




Friday, December 6, 2019

A few thoughts on the political situation

As I write this, it appears to be a "go" on the vote on impeachment articles.  Given that, here are a few thoughts on the current state of this impeachment drive.


  • A lefty blogger said that they should go ahead even if the impeachment fails in the Senate.  It could have some political advantages, they seem to believe.
  • Extortion seemed to be the crime cited.  If you listen to the lefties, they'll say that Trump extorted a political favor in exchange for military aid.
  • The Democrats don't seem to want to argue the GOP's side of the issue.  When asked, Pelosi refused to discuss any of the GOP's objections.
  • They'll probably argue that the GOP won't let them make their case if McConnell limits them in any way.  This suggests that an adverse political trial in response to their accusations could be played for advantage.


How should the GOP handle this?  I'd make the case that this is a Bill of Attainder.  Without a fair process, and without clear evidence of a crime, the Democrats are attempting to punish an individual without the benefit of due process.  The case should be summarily dismissed as a Bill of Attainder.  If it is not, then they should absolutely make sure that they don't repeat what happened in the House.




Nunes reacts to Schiff releasing his phone calls

Comment:

Way the hell over the top now.  Schiff, Pelosi, and Nadler are out of control.  Unfortunately, that may include a lot of others as well.

What does Pierre Delecto think about this?  Do these Gestapo tactics meet his approval?



Dem Senator: "Handful" of GOP colleagues considering a vote to remove Trump

Comment:

If this was an honest statement, he wouldn't be talking about it, nor telling about it.  It isn't honest because "to consider" doesn't mean to pre-judge.  It means to "think carefully".  If you are thinking carefully, you don't talk about it before you hear the case.   If you "think carefully" about it, you don't go to partisan types who have already made up their minds in advance.

In other words, if this partisan Democrat said there are a "handful" of GOP senators willing to "consider" removal, then he is lying, or they may be lying to him.

About all he could possibly have here is a GOP type who is willing to take their Star Chamber BS seriously.  Yep, there could be a few GOP types who would remove the President if they thought they could get away with it.


Congressional abuse of power

Comment:

Getting phone records of journalists?


Ahab has a evolved sensibility

Comment:

There was a scene in the Star Trek flick, First Contact, which reminded me of Pelosi's reaction to a reporter's question.  Like Picard in this scene, she defends her higher sensibilities.  The reporter asked if she hated Trump.

Evidently, the mention of the word "hate" really gets these liberal types.  It is always directed outward toward the "deplorables".  Naturally, when the reporter asked that question, she has a rather snippy response.  Don't mess with me, she snaps.










Thursday, December 5, 2019

Turley: Under Democrats’ ‘Abuse of Power’ Standard, Obama Could Have Been Im…


Democrats have standards?




Impeachment fail

Trump's approval ratings are nearly as high as when this Ukraine story first emerged.  Back then, the Rasmussen poll peaked at 53 percent.  It is now at 52 percent.

The impeachment drive has failed to move the polls except for a brief time.








Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Bill of Attainder

Updated,

12.4.19:

A Bill of Attainder is defined as a legislative act intended to punish a person without the benefit of a trial.  The Democrats are trying to push the notion that crime isn't necessary in order to impeach.  Without a crime, then it is a Bill of Attainder.


11.26.19:

It seems that you can preserve the rule of law by actually observing it.  What a concept.



2.7.19:

There is a discussion about the Democrat's efforts at getting at Trump's tax records.  Someone in the comments section pointed out that this is a Bill of Attainder, which would mean that it is unconstitutional.

Actually, I think this is persuasive enough argument that it should be enough to stop them from doing this.

The Democrats are attempting many things besides this, that should be clear that they are not supporting the rule of law, as they so often like to claim.  Their allies in the GOP "establishment" are supportive of them in areas like this because it is clear that in matters relating to Trump are political, and they oppose Trump as the Democrats do.

The question is if there are enough actual conservatives in the Party, which also includes the Supreme Court, that the constitution itself can be preserved because these people are attempting to overthrow it in a number of ways.


  • They are attempting to go around the Electoral College in order to elect a president because they cannot live within the current law.  This includes any such effort to create compacts between the states that mean to subvert the law.  
  • For example, there are compacts with respect to the issue of AGW, which is an attempt to subvert Federal policy with regard to the defunct Paris accord.
  • There are calls to "pack the courts" when one in their faction wins the White House.
  • There are calls to change the number of Senators from two that we have at present to a proportional one such as the one in the House.


There is a  legal process to change the constitution if it is desired.  But the Democrats know that they cannot get the votes to do this, so they do these end runs around the constitutional government in order to get their way.  If they get away with this, then why would the Constitution matter anymore at all?  These efforts are extralegal and political and have no place if we are to be governed by the rule of law.


If we had a real opposition party...

12.4.19:

Is the Republic dying?  If so, then why?  Could it be the case that nobody is willing to defend it?

Words are not enough.  The wolf is not impressed with the sounds coming from his intended victim.



12.2.19:

...there would be no impeachment trial.  In fact, the trial should be of those who vote for impeachment.  The impeachment as such is nothing more than a Bill of Attainder, which is illegal.  Therefore, anybody who votes for it is a felon.

The Senate, which is controlled by the GOP, should declare this as such, and those who voted for it to be outlaws.

That would be the case if there was a true opposition party.  Since they are going to treat this otherwise, it would seem that the President is in some jeopardy.

That is why I suggested that people should organize.  It is the only way to keep these politicians honest.

We may need a second amendment solution to this problem.  The point isn't vigilantism, but to remind these politicians where sovereignty lies.  It is in "We the People", which is in the Constitution to which they gave an oath.  They act as if they are sovereign.  We don't have Kings and Royalty.  We don't have nobility.  We have the law.  They need to be reminded of that.  If they don't respect the people, it is only because of the power that they have has gone to their heads.  The power has been delegated to them  They do not own it.  It is theirs not by right nor by inheritance.  It is only in their hands because that power was given to them.  It can also be taken away.

They do not own us, not yet.  Slaves aren't allowed to have weapons.  Slaves have no say in the decisions that are made.  These politicians don't respect the people.  They are out of control.  Something has to bring them back into line.

The party of 19th-century slavery wants to bring it back.   Who will stop them?




Good stuff here

Comment:

12.4.19:

After reading this from his show notes, it seems to me that more concern should be directed at the incompetence within the government, as opposed to anything the Russians may or may not have done in 2016.  The fact is that these people wouldn't know one way or another if Russia did anything.  As Congressman Nunes said with respect to Russia--"we are flying blind".



12.3.19:

I can't imagine doing a show of an hour's length every day.  The show is good, too.  I'd say it is definitely worth posting the whole thing.

And here it is...


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Nunes sues CNN

Comment:

Interesting development.



Holy Clockwork Orange, Batman

Comment:

Did somebody glue his eyes wide open?






Monday, December 2, 2019

Is this that? You decide.

Comment:


Lisa Page says this is that. You decide!

This...





Now, here's "that".







Tell you what. I'm definitely convinced that one of them is a fake!





Sunday, December 1, 2019

Obligatory, 12.1.19

Somewhere along the line, the US must have crossed a threshold.  This threshold is a good kind of threshold.  It's like what Rush Limbaugh used to say about the Reagan years.  During that time, the liberals did goofy things.  The goofier they became, the more their defeat was assured.

Here are a few things I can think of in the news:

  1. Republicans are being accused of using the impeachment as an "offensive" weapon against Democrats, and consequently, are "bullying" Democrats.  Imagine a bad guy pulling a gun and telling his intended victim to stop bullying him.  This is so goofy that it is beyond comprehension.  If they can be this goofy, how can they be taken seriously?
  2. Some UN official is out there demanding a stop to the "war on nature".  See number 1.
  3. Rob Reiner said Christian evangelicals have made a pact with Putin.  This one doesn't require a signature like the one with the devil, says the Meathead.  How convenient it is not to need proof for an accusation.
  4. Cuba is the most sustainably developed country in the world.  Somebody out there has a sense of humor.
Yes, the goofiness has crossed the threshold.  Things must be going pretty well.  Will Trump have a Reaganesque landslide?  Maybe not, but 40 states might be possible.




Saturday, November 30, 2019

"Exhausted" former Congressman

He wants to convince some of his former colleagues to do the "courageous" thing and impeach Trump.

So he poses as a courageous fellow himself.  If he had run and won, he could have done what he claims that he would have done if he was still there.  But why isn't he still there?  Because he could not be elected when he acts the way he does.  He voted against Obamacare repeal.  He insults Trump supporters by calling them brown noses.  Evidently, he is not a loyal party man.

The other side of the coin is that some Democrats may be "exhausted" with their base as well.  ( Assuming that this guy was telling the truth. )  A dollar to a donut that a lot of them would just as soon not do this impeachment.  They are being pushed into it by the rabidly partisan base.

You have to wonder why this "courage" goes just one way.

Washington DC is 90% Democrat.  It would seem like the real courage is coming from Trump and his supporters, who are vastly outnumbered in a hostile zone.  The fakes who are "exhausted" should just go home and let the GOP base choose their replacements if they cannot in "good conscience" continue to support Trump.  They are not very good warriors, and would just as soon "brown nose" the Democrats who do not like them anyway.

If they vote to impeach, the Democrats will just say "thanks, sucker".




Answer to Nadler's deadline





Chic-Fil-A goes Judas

Comment:

If I may add to this, "love your enemy" does not mean becoming one of them!

Just like the Erikson types who go Benedict Arnold.







Songs on the radio

There's an interesting oldies station in the area.  It may be a new station since I don't think I heard of a format quite like theirs.  Anyway, the play about every kind of music there is.  One of them I heard just now was this one.

I think this is a bit of like Sympathy for the Devil, but with a sense of humor.  ( BTW, I'm not a Dead Head.)






I wasn't on the road but for a few minutes, and this one was playing on that station too.  Boogie Woogie.  Or just boogie on, partner.







This one is nice too.







What oldie mix would be complete without the Beatles?  All of this played in just a few minutes.  Cool.






Something rotten in Denmark, or is it Ukraine?

Comment:

11.30.19:

Crowdstrike was founded by a Soviet-born individual who became a naturalized US Citizen.  It has links to the Atlantic Council, which in turn has links to Burisma.  Hunter Biden served on Bursima's board.  In short, he is definitely fair game.

As I have written before, there is a big problem with how the alleged hacks have been deemed as evidence.  You have to inspect the original servers.  Otherwise, the "evidence" as such, is totally worthless.

There never should have been a Mueller investigation based upon this.

11.29.19:

8:14 pm:

The below Ukrainian reference appears to be incorrect.  Somebody has been smoking something.

False information is not helpful.  I don't like being the vector of it.

People need to get their shit together.


10:30 am:

Crowdstrike is Ukrainian owned.  I may have heard that before, but somehow the significance of that didn't register.  Why Ukrainian?  Why not American?

Somebody must have put something in the lemonade to cause me to miss that one.







Friday, November 29, 2019

Not what I heard

Comment:

I heard from a German-Swedish guy that the Swedes believe it is a matter of when, not if, the Russians attack.

Macron called NATO "brain dead".  So he wants to cozy up to the Russians and the Red Chinese.

How's Macron doing these days?  Last I heard, he was stifling protest from his own people due to his misguided policies.   Who's brain dead here?

Maybe someone should ask the Democrats what they think about Macron's statement.


We have tried getting along with the left. It doesn't work. Ask the Bushies.

There seems to be a pattern that I am seeing this morning as I scan the news.  Erik Erikson is calling for "grace" in response to the Democrats.   Then there is this latest one in the Hill site, from someone whose name I don't recognize, who seems to be blaming Trump for the division in the country.

Wait a minute, I thought.  Isn't it true that the left was doing the same thing when Bush was President?  As a matter of fact, they would have impeached Reagan over Iran/Contra if they could have.

I was not too sure what Erikson meant by "grace", so I googled it.  Courteous disagreement, it seemed to be saying.  Sure, that would be fine.  But this is useless if it is one-sided.  The conservative side needs to stop blaming itself for this "division" in the country.  That is how the left swindles us continually.  We are told to "get along", but if we play the game by the rules and win, there's a problem.  The problem gets worse after each election cycle.  At some point, it may well be illegal to disagree.  You can be as courteous as you wish in disagreement, but it won't matter if you are thrown in jail.  Trump has done nothing but oppose the Democrats and win at doing it.  We should not apologize for being victorious.

The problem is that the left simply will not accept conservatives.  Our "grace" is not reciprocated.  What do you do about that then?  Erikson said we should not depend on the strong man for protection.  Sure, I would agree.  But we should not put much faith in a weakling, either.  We all need to be stronger and assert our rights.  Grace should not be confused with weakness.  It is the siren song of surrender that we should guard against.  There is no cause for surrender when you should win, and all that is required to win would be to oppose them vigorously. 

Besides, I don't trust Erikson.  He might seem to be with us, but that "strong man" reference reminded me that he was a never-Trumper during the election, and might still be today.


Thursday, November 28, 2019

What could blow the whole case wide open

Updated,

11.28.19:

This April 2018 article linked to in the tweet is quite complex and lengthy.  The main thing that I get from it is the systematic abuse of a system that had extensive checks built-in.  These checks were willfully violated.  Yet these people like to preach to the rest of us about " the rule of law".

It is a scary thing that these people may escape justice for what they did.  The next time they are in power, it will be a lot worse.





4.30.19:

The last post shows that the NSA could determine for a fact whether or not that there was a Russian hack or a DNC leak of the Wikileak emails.  In addition, the NSA has already been audited, which found that the NSA was being used improperly, possibly for domestic spying on political opposition during the Obama Administration.   This would be probable cause for an investigation for violations of the Hatch Act.

In a very lengthy and detailed post, Sundance traces through the domestic spying angle, which began just prior to the 2016 election.

In summary, the Russian collusion angle is and continues to be, a cover story for this abuse.  Should this abuse be provable, it is a clear violation of the Hatch Act.  Indeed, the NSA is not supposed to be used for internal political advantage. 

Therefore, the NSA FISA 702's are key.


A bit more from the 702-Abuses from an earlier CTH post of Jan. 8 2018:

Early 2016, Admiral Rogers became aware of violations of FISA section 702 (17) surveillance act

As a result of an audit, NSA compliance officer briefed Admiral Rogers on October 20th, 2016




It appears that this isn't new news, as Senator Lankford has questioned Rogers about it already.  But now the Mueller Report is out, and they found no "collusion/conspiracy".  In addition, Barr wants to find the real predicate for the investigation.  Could this be the real predicate and not the PapaD disclosures mentioned in the Mueller report?

For the total background story, read all of the CTH links of Jan 2018 above.

To see how that fits together, read that link, plus the one from the embedded tweet at the top of the page.

Eighty-five percent noncompliance:

CTH: "All of this is laid out inside this 99-page opinion from FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer who also noted that none of this FISA abuse was accidental"

Again, the Twitter link and the background link are very lengthy reads, but they hold the key to blowing this whole thing open.  However, the fact that Clapper and Brennan are not in jail shows the difficulty in bringing this to justice.


Youth is wasted on the young

Comment:

Millennials want to get rid of Thanksgiving.  You know that they could not have given it much thought, because if they did, they would go live in the poorest regions of the world.

Kids are just full of "piss and vinegar" amongst other things.  Some of these kids will grow up, others will not, and those will become liberals.


Thanksgiving

Today was to be a day of travel, but that isn't going to happen.  It was kind of touch and go anyway.  My gi-track is giving me some trouble.  When that happens, any sort of travel becomes ill-advised.

So today is a day of thanks.  If there is anything I have to be grateful for, and that is for being alive.  Without the incredible bit of luck I had, I might well not be here right now.  It is inconceivable to me that I would have had surgery to remove the tumor.  If the radiation therapy wasn't available to me, I would have declined the surgery.  Nature would have taken its course, and I wouldn't be here to tell about it.

Of course, I could have taken some other radiation therapy.  Maybe that wouldn't have gone as well.  The best result is the one I got.  I can move around freely.  I am mostly normal, but not exactly.  But that is okay.  It is a lot better than the alternative.

Dick Morris is having some radiation therapy back in Houston.  I wonder if it is proton therapy.  If it is otherwise, then maybe it wasn't an option.

I had the option.  Options are good.  Better to have a choice than to have no choice.

People are scared of radiation.  But it seemed to have worked for me.  That is all.


Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Carter Page letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham

Comment:

If you have been living in a cave for the last three years, then maybe you don't know who Carter Page is.  His letter is about how he has been treated during that time, and why he is seeking relief from the wrongs committed against him.  The government basically used him to get at Trump.  Carter Page wasn't charged with any crime.  But without his name, there couldn't have been a FISA warrant.  Without a FISA warrant, there could not have been a Special Counsel investigation.  He is like the lynchpin to the whole thing, and he is an unwitting participant.

How does Lindsey Graham handle this letter?










Media malfeasance: Remember this one?

Comment:

11.27.19:

I could start a whole new category called media malfeasance.  Mollie Hemmingway has the latest pratfall.



10.26.19:

This is by no means the only one of these.  There was another one involving Dan Rather if you recall.

They have been busted for these kinds of frauds before, and they will be again.  Evidently, they never learn.







Michael Flynn conviction probably won't stand

Updated:

11.27.19:

One thing that may make sense is a dismissal with prejudice could be a possibility.  The government case is in severe jeopardy.   There could be ramifications beyond the case itself.  (BTW, this is my opinion, not the one stated in the tweet. )


11.6.19:

The government is now admitting errors in the case.  It appears that the balance has shifted in favor of Flynn.  It would be a surprise if the case is not dismissed now.  In fact, the prosecutors could be in some hot water before this is done.



10.31.19:

Evidence of fabrication of evidence against Flynn.  There was a report this morning that Flynn's attorney may ask the judge to throw out the conviction.


10.27.19:

Comment:

Given what has been disclosed recently, how can Gen. Flynn's conviction hold up now?




12.18.18:

The sentence will be delayed yet again.  This time, it was Flynn who asked for the delay.  Judge Sullivan gave Flynn an opportunity to withdraw his plea, but Flynn refused.

Does this mean that Sullivan won't toss the case?  Or won't toss the case unless Flynn withdraws his plea?

The case seemed to come down to having nothing to do with Trump.  Flynn was being threatened with prosecution over not registering as a foreign agent.

So, Flynn took a lesser charge in exchange for a guilty plea.  This allows Mueller and Co. to claim that it was about Russia when it clearly wasn't.  The case of lying to the FBI would get tossed if it went to court.  The real leverage against Flynn was the foreign agent for Turkey issue.

If Sullivan tosses the case now, I'd be surprised.  He clearly doesn't want to, but he also doesn't want to sentence Flynn for something he didn't do.

12.13.18:

Judge Emmet Sullivan is asking for additional information from the FBI, in its 2017 interrogation of Flynn, which is what got Flynn into trouble.

If Sullivan deems that abuses have taken place, he could conceivably throw out the conviction.

Of course, this comes too late to affect the control of the House.  Perhaps that is why Mueller delayed the sentencing.



5.8.18:

Rush Limbaugh likes to talk about low-info voters.  This isn't exactly new.  But, better late than never.

BTW, Mueller's team was given another delay for the sentencing fairly recently.  I suspect he knows that the case could be dismissed, and wishes to avoid a meltdown in his authority.

Originally posted 2.14.18, the original post follows:


Note: Exculpatory evidence was hidden from the defense....  "I have been wondering why Special Counsel Robert Mueller postponed the sentencing of Michael Flynn shortly after Judge Rudolph Contreras was (without explanation) recused from hearing the Flynn case and Judge Emmet G. Sullivan took over."

comment:

This appears to be a pattern.  It happened in the Cliven Bundy case, which has been dismissed.  The judge now on the case presided over the Senator Ted Stevens trial.  It happened there too.

Corruption, plain and simple.  There is a prosecutorial duty to provide exculpatory evidence to the defense.  Hiding it from the defense is at the very least unethical behavior.  It may even be against the law.

Furthermore, the delay in sentencing may be an effort by Mueller to hide misconduct in his own "investigation".  Mueller should be fired.  This is a political trial, and it probably isn't the first.  Such things should not be happening in America.