Hillary again? NO

Comment:

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

Make sure family and friends see IG report: Clinton didn't just invite foreign influence in 2016; she paid for it. Her team funneled Russian dossier lies to the FBI, for her political gain. Americans deserve free and fair elections. If only press would hold her accountable. https://t.co/1CGlB6DHlN

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 13, 2019

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.

For anyone looking for the IG Report in audio format, @AdamBaldwin is doing a great job and released another chapter of it today "The Opening of Crossfire Hurricane"

Check it out for free here:https://t.co/9jdglZcbCY

— Shem Horne (@Shem_Infinite) December 12, 2019

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.

Fox News confirms SSA 1 is Joe Pientka.

Confirmation is nice, but many of us already knew this fact. https://t.co/ssdnRC56uK

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) December 14, 2019

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.

Carter Page Explains He Was "Decades Long" Source for FBI and CIA... https://t.co/zUd8dvSBBO via @thelastrefuge2

— Greg Meadows (@BootsandOilBlog) December 15, 2019

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.

The Inspector General's Report on 2016 FBI spying reveals a scandal of historic magnitude: not only for the FBI but also the U.S. media https://t.co/TWnpIGrrQZ by @ggreenwald

— Greg Meadows (@BootsandOilBlog) December 14, 2019

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.

Impeachment as Sideshow Bob

Comment:

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

Impeachment as Sideshow Bob: HMM: House Democrats gave Trump ‘everything he wanted’ on a $738 billion defense bill while on the b… https://t.co/MIex4TqCT1

— Greg Meadows (@BootsandOilBlog) December 13, 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?

THOSE IMPEACHMENT ARTICLES WILL MAKE GREAT STUMP PROPS FOR TRUMP:
But whether it’s two articles o… https://t.co/h9uf5ygfjS

— Greg Meadows (@BootsandOilBlog) December 11, 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.

All in all, the dossier was shameful episode. But what now? Certainly those responsible--Steele, Comey, Fusion GPS--should suffer disgrace. 7/9 https://t.co/IWOUnOV7Gi

— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 10, 2019

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.

Just how bad was the FBI’s Russia FISA? 51 violations and 9 false statements, appendix shows https://t.co/96tZ1BusnT

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) December 9, 2019

Woe upon the FBI

Comment:

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

BREAKING: IG report officially released. It reveals FBI "fell far short" in vetting accuracy of FISA applications, knowingly withheld exculpatory information, used 'defensive briefings' to secretly asses the Trump campaign, used known illegitimate sources, and more.

— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019

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.

BREAKING: FBI withheld exculpatory evidence from Halper's recorded convos w FISA target Carter Page of Page denying meeting w Kremlin officials, denying knowing anything about DNC hacks or having anything to do with GOP's Ukraine platform & instead relied on Steele dossier rumors

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) December 9, 2019

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.

DOJ IG confirms the FBI never corroborated *any* of Steele's allegations against Carter Page: "The FBI did not have information corroborating the specific allegations against Carter Page in Steele's reports when it relied upon them in the FISA applications." pic.twitter.com/uXqOZ1gfFF

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 9, 2019

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.

So John Brennan lied ! https://t.co/uEINRcGHjn

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) December 9, 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.

Poll: Fewer Americans Care About Impeachment, Could Spell Trouble for Democrats https://t.co/O1p7feuiFh via @epochtimes

— Greg Meadows (@BootsandOilBlog) December 8, 2019