COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, December 15, 2017

Did The FBI Poke the Wrong Dog?

Unlike Nixon, Trump will not go quietly

Pat Buchanan figures Mueller's team is investigating the wrong campaign


THE SWAMP


WASHINGTON – On Aug. 9, 1974, Richard Nixon bowed to the inevitability of impeachment and conviction by a Democratic Senate and resigned. 

The prospect of such an end for Donald Trump has this city drooling. Yet, comparing Russiagate and Watergate, history is not likely to repeat itself. 

First, the underlying crime in Watergate, a break-in to wiretap offices of the DNC, had been traced, within 48 hours, to the Committee to Re-Elect the President.
In Russiagate, the underlying crime – the “collusion” of Trump’s campaign with the Kremlin to hack into the emails of the DNC – has, after 18 months of investigating, still not been established.

Campaign manager Paul Manafort has been indicted, but for financial crimes committed long before he enlisted with Trump.

Gen. Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about phone calls he made to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but only after Trump had been elected and Flynn had been named national security adviser.

Flynn asked Kislyak for help in blocking or postponing a Security Council resolution denouncing Israel, and to tell Vladimir Putin not to go ballistic over President Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats.

This is what security advisers do. 

Why Flynn let himself be ensnared in a perjury trap, when he had to know his calls were recorded, is puzzling.

Second, it is said Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI Director James Comey for refusing to cut slack for Flynn.

But even Comey admits Trump acted within his authority.

And Comey had usurped the authority of Justice Department prosecutors when he announced in July 2016 that Hillary Clinton ought not to be prosecuted for having been “extremely careless” in transmitting security secrets over her private email server. 

We now know that the first draft of Comey’s statement described Clinton as “grossly negligent,” the precise statute language for an indictment. 

We also now know that helping to edit Comey’s first draft to soften its impact was Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. His wife, Jill McCabe, a candidate for state senate in Virginia, received $467,000 in campaign contributions from the PAC of Clinton bundler Terry McAuliffe.

Comey has also admitted he leaked to the New York Times details of a one-on-one with Trump to trigger the naming of a special counsel – to go after Trump. And that assignment somehow fell to Comey’s predecessor, friend and confidant Robert Mueller.

Mueller swiftly hired half a dozen prosecutorial bulldogs who had been Clinton contributors and Andrew Weinstein, a Trump hater who had congratulated Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to carry out Trump’s travel ban.

FBI official Peter Strzok had to be been removed from the Mueller probe for hatred of Trump manifest in texts to his FBI lady friend.

Strzok was also involved in the investigation of Clinton’s email server and is said to have been the one who persuaded Comey to tone down his language about her misconduct, and let Hillary walk.

In Mueller’s tenure, still no Trump tie to the hacking of the DNC has been found. But a connection between Hillary’s campaign and Russian spies – to find dirt to smear and destroy Trump and his campaign – has been fairly well-established.
By June 2016, the Clinton campaign and DNC had begun shoveling millions of dollars to the Perkins Coie law firm, which had hired the oppo research firm Fusion GPS to go dirt-diving on Trump.

Fusion contacted ex-British MI6 spy Christopher Steele, who had ties to former KGB and FSB intelligence agents in Russia. They began to feed Steele, who fed Fusion, which fed the U.S. anti-Trump media with the alleged dirty deeds of Trump in Moscow hotels. 

While the truth of the dirty dossier has never been established, Comey’s FBI rose like a hungry trout on learning of its contents.

There are credible allegations Comey’s FBI sought to hire Steele and used the dirt in his dossier to broaden the investigation of Trump – and that its contents were also used to justify FISA warrants on Trump and his people.

This week, we learned that the Justice Department’s Bruce Ohr had contacts with Fusion during the campaign, while his wife actually worked at Fusion investigating Trump. This thing is starting to stink.

Is the Trump investigation the rotten fruit of a poisoned tree? 

Is Mueller’s Dump Trump team investigating the wrong campaign?

There are other reasons to believe Trump may survive the deep state-media conspiracy to break his presidency, overturn his mandate and reinstate a discredited establishment.

Trump has Fox News and fighting congressmen behind him, and the mainstream media are deeply distrusted and widely detested. And there is no Democratic House to impeach him or Democratic Senate to convict him.

Moreover, Trump is not Nixon, who, like Charles I, accepted his fate and let the executioner’s sword fall with dignity. 

If Trump goes, one imagines, he will not go quietly. 

In the words of the great Jerry Lee Lewis, there’s gonna be a “whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.”
✧✧✧✧✧
Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party's candidate in 2000. He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative. Buchanan served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national TV shows, and is the author of 11 books. His latest book is "Nixon's White House Wars."

48 comments:

  1. Where the hell is Jeff Sessions?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeff is not asleep. Jeff is playing possum. Jeff is waiting for the perfect kill moment.

      December 15, 2017
      What if Jeff Sessions is not asleep, but instead playing possum?
      By Brian C. Joondeph


      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/what_if_jeff_sessions_is_not_asleep_but_instead_playing_possum.html#ixzz51KbXlGi7

      Delete
    2. And if that isn't enough the IG is waiting for the proper moment -

      December 14, 2017
      Coming attractions: How the biggest political scandal in history will play out in 2018
      By Thomas Lifson

      ....The I.G., Michael E. Horowitz, is no political stooge. (For background on the inspectors general, see Ed Lasky here and here. There are unsung heroes of our constitutional republic among them, hero-federal bureaucrats.)

      And letting any of the I.G.'s cats out of the bag early could have serious consequences.

      Sundance of Conservative Treehouse has a must-read column today, analyzing the pattern of disclosures from the I.G. In Sundance's words, "It looks just like a prosecutor laying out his case."....


      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/coming_attractions_how_the_biggest_political_scandal_in_history_will_play_out_in_2018.html#ixzz51KcE2pf8

      All this spells D O O M for Hillary, Comey & Company !


      Delete
    3. 563 pissed off Comments so far, a record from my long reading of AT.

      Delete
  2. There are 23 million veterans in the US and half the population voted for Trump. Trump isn't going anywhere without a fight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The way things are going these days I wouldn't be surprised to see the Veterans forming an armed circle around The White House to protect the President.

      See Comments concerning Coming attractions: How the biggest political scandal in history will play out in 2018

      Delete
  3. “The Swamp” – will never fix itself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Today is Bill of Rights Day.

    Let's keep those.

    ReplyDelete
  5. .

    Pat World

    Did The FBI Poke the Wrong Dog?

    Naw.

    Pat Buchanan figures Mueller's team is investigating the wrong campaign

    I like old Pat but he is hardly a seer.

    Trump will not go quietly

    Hell, he won't even stay quietly. Nothing new here.

    There are 23 million veterans in the US and half the population voted for Trump.

    Old news. Today about 1/3 of Americans have a favorable view of Trump.

    Where the hell is Jeff Sessions?

    Good question. He's been harder to find than Roy Moore was in the weeks leading up to the Alabama election.

    The GOP has been pushing for a second prosecutor to investigate Clinton and the people and process currently involved on the Mueller team. It is unlikely Sessions will do anything on the second part until the IG investigation into the same thing is finished. If he's not satisfied with that report he can name a second special counsel. Even without that, he can name a second special counsel to investigate Clinton if he thinks he has cause.

    Nothing in those actions would justify stopping the Mueller probe now.

    Moreover, Trump is not Nixon, who, like Charles I, accepted his fate and let the executioner’s sword fall with dignity.

    :o)

    Pat, Pat, Pat.

    There are credible allegations Comey’s FBI sought to hire Steele and used the dirt in his dossier to broaden the investigation of Trump – and that its contents were also used to justify FISA warrants on Trump and his people.

    There are also credible allegations that the FBI didn't hire Steele. And there is no proof, so far, that the FBI used the Trump dossier to get a warrant.

    [Note: If you accept the hypothetical that the FBI used the Trump dossier to get a warrant, so what?

    If we dismiss all of the salacious parts in the dossier and the fact that Steele portrayed himself as the ultimate insider and source for all things Russian, we are still left with one claim that is true, that the Russians have been trying to influence Western elections for years including the 2016 presidential election in the US.

    This is backed up by all of our major intelligence organizations which raises the question of why would the FBI even need the dossier.

    In addition, the dossier has a claim regarding a quid pro quo regarding the Ukraine that while speculative is backed up by circumstances.

    From the Guardian…

    The deal on Ukraine

    What does the dossier say?

    It says that in return for hacking the Democrats, Trump agreed not to mention Russia’s covert invasion of Ukraine. The issued would be “sidelined”. Instead, Trump would focus on US/Nato defence commitments in the Baltics and eastern Europe. The aim: “to deflect attention away from Ukraine, a priority for PUTIN who needed to cauterise the subject”.

    Is it true?

    Trump said his administration might recognise Russian ownership of Crimea. He suggested that the US should not automatically honour its Nato commitment to defend the alliance’s members, including the Baltic states. He also urged the Kremlin to hack Clinton’s emails. In August, Republican party officials deleted a draft platform calling on the US to give weapons to the Ukraine’s government, which is fighting Kremlin-backed rebels.


    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/11/trump-russia-dossier-explainer-details

    The GOP is incensed that this type of speculation being used to get a warrant is a violation of every American’s basic rights. This is, of course, hypocrisy on steroids. These are the same people who continue to reconfirm the Patriot Law and Section 702 and in fact try to make it more intrusive. Section 702, the law that allows the NSA, FBI, CIA and others to get FISA warrants on people using algorithms to sort through private conversations of everyone in the world searching for trigger words that ‘might or might not’ suggest they could be involved in possible terrorist plots.

    It’s all political and depends on whose ox is being gored and how the information can be skewed, IMHO.]

    .

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. Better than a bunch of commies which is what we would have gotten from Comrade Hillary.

      Delete
    2. What needs changing is this idiotic idea of 'lifetime' appointments.

      Max it out at, well, maybe 20 years or so.

      Make it 25 then if you don't like 20.

      Look at the great grandmother we've got on the Supreme Court now, for instance.

      It's almost spooky.

      With the continual advances of modern medicine one day we may have a permanent unchanging Court.

      Delete
    3. Back when the Constitution was written most people were dead at 50.

      Delete
    4. .

      Better than a bunch of commies which is what we would have gotten from Comrade Hillary

      The Idaho Spud reverts to the atavistic fears and instincts of his rural past spreading tales of boogeymen and boo hags in trying rationalize the ciphers and nothingburgers Trump keeps nominating for lifetime posts to the federal bench.

      We can only hope that this is temporary insanity brought on by the season and that it will be over on
      December 21 when in anticipation of the winter solstice he and his fellow yokels tend their fires on the hillsides and pray to old gods that the sun will once again rise to start a new cycle.

      .

      Delete
  7. .

    Pence is cancelling his ME just in case he has to cast a deciding vote on the tax bill.

    Or, so he says.

    I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that more and more officials there from Egypt, Turkey, Palestine, etc. that he was supposed to meet with have now declined to meet with him over Trump's announcement on Jerusalem.

    It's tough when you throw a PR party and no one shows up.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saves jet fuel, saves the environment, the hell with Turkey and 'Palestine' anyway.

      All is well.

      Delete
  8. [Note: If you accept the hypothetical that the FBI used the Trump dossier to get a warrant, so what?


    Cause it's a fraud on the Court.

    That's a No-No.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Wake up and smell the coffee.

      .

      Delete
    2. OK, so it's a fraud on the Court.

      I'm cool with that.

      Delete
    3. Gohmert: If FBI Considered Trump Dossier, 'It's Corrupted Beyond J. Edgar Hoover Wiretapping MLK'

      Dec 07, 2017 // 7:47pm

      Gingrich: At the Very Top, the Justice Department and FBI 'Became Corrupted'

      House Judiciary Committee Member Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said that if the FBI used the controversial Trump-Russia dossier in order to get a FISA warrant to wiretap him, the bureau has been "co-opted and corrupted."

      Gohmert grilled current FBI Director Christopher Wray on Agent Peter Strzok's participation in the Trump probe, as well as the report that DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with the author of the dossier.

      He said that Congress must know if the bureau used a "politically-contrived and paid-for dossier" as a basis for a surveillance warrant against members of Trump's campaign team.

      "If that's the case, the FBI has been co-opted and corrupted... beyond perhaps even the sorriest days of the FBI's time when J. Edgar Hoover was wiretapping Martin Luther King," he said.

      He added that there will likely be more revelations to come in the FBI's and Robert Mueller's handling of the investigation.

      http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/12/07/louie-gohmert-fbi-trump-russia-probe-could-be-corrupted-beyond-hoover-wiretapping-mlk

      One of 39 million+ articles on the subject.

      I don't have time left in my life to list them all.

      Delete
    4. .

      "If that's the case, the FBI has been co-opted and corrupted... beyond perhaps even the sorriest days of the FBI's time when J. Edgar Hoover was wiretapping Martin Luther King," he said.

      Louis Gomert?

      Nitwit thy name be Gomert.

      .

      Delete
  9. Don't say "NO" to Andrea Ramsey -

    Kansas Dem Andrea Ramsey, accused of sexual harassment, will drop out of US House race

    http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article189931704.html

    She might cut your nuts off if you say no.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Replies
    1. .

      Too embarrassed.

      I give him credit. Better than some here who lack the capacity for it.

      .

      Delete
  11. .

    Better than a bunch of commies which is what we would have gotten from Comrade Hillary

    The Idaho Spud reverts to the atavistic fears and instincts of his rural past spreading tales of boogeymen and boo hags in trying rationalize the ciphers and nothingburgers Trump keeps nominating for lifetime posts to the federal bench.

    We can only hope that this is temporary insanity brought on by the season and that it will be over on
    December 21 when in anticipation of the winter solstice he and his fellow yokels tend their fires on the hillsides and pray to old gods that the sun will once again rise to start a new cycle.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it works.

      We know that.

      From long experience.

      I don't see your sorry ass out there doing anything to warm things up.

      Delete
    2. Wayne generally burns a few bales of dry alfalfa this time of year.

      Has always worked, so far.

      Delete
    3. Sometimes he even sacrifices a cow to the gods.

      After which, we feast, as is proper.

      Delete
    4. .

      Ah, the callow mind of the rural hayseed, green and artless.

      One can only look on in bemused reflection and sympathy.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      Although, a piece of that steer might be nice.

      .

      Delete
    6. You're full of enough bull, some steer might be good for you !

      You're certainly invited.

      Anything to be of help.

      As always, looking out for you.....

      Delete
  12. It seems that Q has engaged Goofy, keeping the Hoi Poloi occupied.

    Doug, he just doesn't want to be associated with tbat bitch, Spuds McKenzie


    ReplyDelete
  13. rat is back.

    Ciao

    Great day to all you others !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doug is here !

      I'll hang around a bit.

      He will soon put Quirk in his place.

      Delete
  14. "A 4 Minute Video Says it All About the Quality of the Trump/GOP Nominees for Lifetime Positions on the Federal District Court"

    One nominee.

    Quirkian "Logic"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Typical Quirkian fudging.

      Glad to see you again !

      Delete
    2. It's snowing like son bitch here in N. Idaho.

      You're lucky in location.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. .

      I wish I could say 'Dougian Logic' but that would be an oxymoron.

      This isn't the first one, old horse.

      There was another one I put up here within the last couple weeks, guy with no experience and unanimously judged 'not qualified' by the ABA.

      Trumps put them up with ethical concerns, others unqualified, you name it.

      I remember The Hill published a story a while back (before these latest ones) talking about 4 Trump judge nominees put up that were rated unqualified by the ABA.

      Try googling before commenting.

      .

      .

      Delete
    5. No lawyer worth a shit would desire to be a Judge in the first place.

      As a full time job, it really sucks.

      Delete
    6. The United States Supreme Court might be the exception.

      Delete
    7. IMHAO

      (in my humble agricultural opinion)

      Delete
    8. .

      Thanks.

      I thought that meant 'In my Humble Ass opinion.'

      .

      Delete
  15. Dems rail against release of Strzok-Page text messages - 12/15/17
    Democrats seem to be reading George Orwell’s 1984 as an instruction manual, taking to heart the injunction "ignorance is bliss." More


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/12/dems_rail_against_release_of_strzokpage_text_messages.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. Was rape common in the Middle Ages?
    December 14, 2017 - 06:20

    TV shows such as "Game of Thrones" on HBO and "Norsemen" depict rape as having been commonplace in the past. But is that correct?

    By: Nancy Bazilchuk, based on an article by BÃ¥rd Amundsen

    The television series "Game of Thrones" had shown at least 50 rapes and attempted rapes by 2015, according to a blogger who tallied them up. But that’s nothing compared to the books that the TV series is based on, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” which depicts about 200 rapes and attempted rapes in the first five books. (Photo: HBO screenshot)
    Blame the Italians: During the 1400s and the bloom of the Renaissance in Italy, people created the perception that the Middle Ages was a dark period in history.

    They used the name the Middle Ages to describe the long period between golden antiquity that ended with the fall of Rome around the year 500 and their own Renaissance (which literally means rebirth).

    Today, we are still telling the same stories that they told of a dark period of a thousand years.

    Part of this dark image of the Middle Ages is the idea that it was full of sexual abuse.

    Tracking rape in the Middle Ages

    "If we look at Scandinavia, there is no evidence that rape was more common in the Middle Ages than in the two centuries that followed," or the 1500s and 1600s, says Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist. Ljungqvist is a historian at Stockholm University and has conducted two separate studies of the Middle Ages.

    Hans Jacob Orning is an expert in the Middle Ages from the University of Oslo. He points out that researchers would have found far more evidence of rape in the extensive literature we have from the Middle Ages, if it had been common at that time.

    “The culture of the Vikings and the Middle Ages was a culture of honour,” he said. "Women were an integral part of this culture. Raping a woman would not only have been an assault against her, but also against the community around her.”
    Indeed, rapists were subject to the strictest possible punishment under the law of the time. Rapists were wanted criminals.

    “If you had raped a woman, anyone could kill you without risking punishment themselves,” Orning says.....

    http://sciencenordic.com/was-rape-common-middle-ages

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's insane that the Swedes are letting a rape culture enter their country.

      Delete