Reeling from Russiagate

House Intelligence Committee Release Summary of Findings in RUSSIA Probe Ace has some thoughts 

Findings #11-#4 discuss the insufficiency/inadequacy of the government's response to Russian trouble-making. Finding #14 says "The Executive Brach's post-election response was insufficient," which references both Obama's administration and Trump's.

In Finding #15, the House Intel Committee says most of the Intelligence Community's judgments "employed proper analytic tradecraft," but in Finding #16, they say the IC's judgments as to Russia's motives -- the IC declared they wanted to help Trump -- "did not employ proper analytic tradecraft."

We already had that finding tipped, as members mentioned that in interviews.

Finding #20 notes that thusfar none of Mueller's indictments relate to any "collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian government."

Interestingly, Finding #21 is blank, and simply says "[classifed]."

I'm pretty sure it's something damaging to the Democrats' theory or else Adam Schiff would have leaked it to his palz at CNN already.

 Dowd Out At Team Trump After Mueller Rant. Dowd Out At Team Trump After Mueller Rant but I repeat myself.

Dowd declined to discuss his decision when reached Thursday. “I love the President and wish him well,” he wrote in an email.

But privately, Dowd was “blindsided” when the president interviewed Flood and again when Trump announced he was adding conservative lawyer and attack-dog Joseph diGenova to the team last week.
. . .
A huge bone of contention between Trump and his team has been over testifying in front of Mueller’s team, these people said. Trump wants to do so, thinking he can talk his way out of it, while his lawyers are far more wary, these people said. Dowd and Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s former lawyer whom he still occasionally consults, have told Trump he could damage himself by testifying. His chief White House counsel, Donald McGahn, also has chafed at Trump granting an interview and has criticized others on the team.

MSNBC thinks Trump legal team shake-up clears path for possible Mueller interview As long as Trump puts Mueller under oath and asks him a bunch of questions too.

Ann Althouse features Jeffrey Toobin vs. Alan Dershowitz and scores it for Dershowitz, unlike the Washington Post.



This sort of thing is why long-time liberal Alan Dershowitz is no longer invited to liberal dinner parties

The Deep State Update: House Probe Accuses Clapper of Misleading Congress. If only Congress was worthy of honesty. 

A House Intelligence Committee investigation of Russian election meddling has concluded that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper misled Congress about disclosing information to CNN.

Give him the Michael Flynn treatment. John Brennan, Obama’s Head of the Innuendo Community Him too.

We know that if the Brennans and Steeles had any real evidence they would have leaked it by now. Let’s cut through the nonsense: Brennan wasn’t in the business of collecting intelligence but rather maximizing politically useful innuendo — specifically, his own feverishly anti-Trump speculation that he shared with others in the innuendo community, both domestically and abroad.

One of the richest ironies in this Russian farce is the extent to which Brennan colluded with foreigners to smear Trump, collusion that made Brennan the biggest and easiest dupe for Russian disinformation. Brennan, after all, instigated the Obama administration’s Trump-Russia investigation on the basis of “tips” from Estonian spies, British spies, and other assorted “intelligence counterparts.” That wasn’t solid intelligence but fragments of innuendo, planted at least in part by gleeful Russians who no doubt are still laughing their “asses off” (as Trump once tweeted) by the spectacle of an imaginary “pee tape” upending the American political system.

Just remember what John Brennan really is..., Asshat of the Day: John Brennan

John Brennan has been an ineffectual on Islamic terror, helped Obama create a crisis in Syria, and has been a partisan bully for a long time. Brennan is an insubordinate spook. That is what Trump was responding about at the CIA. I am so glad Brennan is out at the CIA. Good riddance. Of course, Brennan has to be chidey and snarky right to the end.

Remember in 2014 when 20 press watchdog groups pleaded with President Obama to fire @JohnBrennan because he hacked Senators computers, filed criminal charges against staffers and lied to the IG? Yet now his wild accusations are biblical to the press? #Memories #Obamagate

John Brennan’s Thwarted Coup The jury is still out on whether it's been thwarted, but it hasn't gone as smoothly as they hoped.

What an amazing collection of entitled creeps, who long ago convinced themselves that the “rule of law” is identical to what they see as their sacred right to exercise power in any way they see fit. All the blather about Trump’s violation of the law is simply a projection of their own lawlessness. So far the coup has been thwarted. They had hoped to stop him in the campaign through political espionage. But that didn’t work. Then they tried to upend him through spying during the transition, holding out hope until the very last moment, as evidenced by Susan Rice penning her sham exculpatory note only after Trump’s swearing-in. Now they join Brennan in seeking to bury Trump in Mueller’s dustbin.

John Brennan Shouldn’t Be Lecturing America, He Should Be The Focus Of A Congressional Inquiry I think it's a bad idea to subject members of a past administration to a criminal trial, but I'd make an exception for Brennan.

Between Brennan And McCabe It Does Appear There Is A Politicization Problem In Our Agencies Ya think?

Rod Rosenstein’s Wife Represented Bill Clinton Shortly After Rod Cleared Hillary As A Prosecutor, but no conflict of interest I'm sure.  “Small Group” Leadership Andrew McCabe Coordinated Investigations of Incoming Trump Administration Officials…



‘It’s taken partisanship to a place it’s never been.’ Inside the House Intelligence Committee. To do otherwise would be to unilaterally disarm.  Hannity Digs Up Dirt On Mueller’s Past And Finds He’s Not So Clean After All

“Robert Mueller’s career has been anything but impeccable,” Hannity said. “One of the worst stains on his record comes from his time Boston, where he served as assistant U.S. attorney and acting U.S. attorney in the ’80s. During this time notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, he was actively engaged by the FBI as an informant. The relationship between Bulger and the bureau was wrought with nothing but corruption and criminal collusion.”

“Bulger’s FBI handler, guy by the name of John Connolly covered up for many of the horrific crimes that were committed by Bulger and his associates, including one instance where four men were wrongfully framed and convicted and imprisoned for decades — all for a murder it turns out they did not commit,” Hannity continued. “The men were ultimately exonerated. A judge awarded $101 million in damages, but not before two of the men actually died in prison. Robert Mueller was the U.S. attorney in charge while these men were rotting in prison while certain agents in the FBI under Mueller covered up the truth.”

OK, I didn't know that.

Liberals, NeverTrumpers Freak Out About Americans' Belief in a "Deep State" Just part of a world class rant from Ace:

The reaction from the left and the Establishment right is one of near horror: They seem to view this idea that unelected bureaucrats have a lot of power in making policy -- much more than their charter actually grants them -- as a conspiracy theory almost the equal of Trutherism.

Is it? Hasn't this been, oh what's the right word, a standard Republican claim made for about 40 years or so?

For those conservative-identifying people who sniff that a belief in a determined, liberal/progressive cadre which rigs the game to favor the liberal/progressive cause, let me ask a few questions.

I won't ask these questions of liberal/progressives, who are unapologetic about their support for a maximally powerful hyperstate. I ask them only of conservative-leaning people now aghast at the "conspiracy theory" of a Deep State, precisely because those people have generally agreed that unelected bureaucrats have far too much (unconstitutional) power over policy for quite some time.

From around 1948 to just last year, as a matter of fact.

So here then, some questions:

1. Do you believe that the EPA is heavily staffed by activist liberals who wish to interpret or even invent laws to favor the radical environmentalist side of things?

I know most conservative-identifying people have expressed support for this proposition, or at least pretended to believe it in their daily job as spokesmen for Conservatism, Inc.

If you still believe in this proposition -- why do you claim it's conspiratorial nuttiness to claim that the upper echelons of the DOJ, FBI, IC and even military high command, ponds stocked with Obamaite fish for 8 years straight, could similarly have a strong political interest and might push their agenda, without constitutional authority to do so, through their bureaucratic and managerial decisions?

2. Do you believe that the Office of Civil Rights in the Justice Department is a pond stocked with very liberal fish, who push their politics, again without constitutional authority to do so, through their bureaucratic and managerial decisions?

If you believe the OCR has been stocked with Obamaites, why is it insane to think that the higher ranks of the DOJ might have been similarly stocked?

Even among career bureaucrats, promotions in the top positions not the result of blind testing or a strict seniority system, are they? Nope.

3. Do you believe the Department of Education has been stocked with liberal/progressive bureaucrats who push for things like sex ed and bizarre quasi-judicial rape courts?

This is another case where I've gotten the distinct impression that the conservative Establishment believes this, or at least pretends to in public utterances.

If the DOEd can be captured, why not the DOJ? Do you believe that "prosecutors and LEOs are almost always conservative?" Well, if you believe that, you're flat-out wrong, and kinda embarrassingly so.

‘Lone DNC Hacker’ Guccifer 2.0 Slipped Up and Revealed He Was a Russian Intelligence Officer If true, I don't think this is really a surprise, or that it really changes anything. If the democrats hadn't tried to make so many secret deals, there wouldn't have been any to reveal.

Only tangentially related:

How Huma told Hillary reopened FBI probe was Weiner’s fault Did she at least soften her up with a bottle of Grey Goose first?

How Facebook Went From ‘Ideal Way’ to Reach Voters to Being ‘Weaponized’ (Hint: a Republican won)

Imagine a political campaign using social media to learn your spending habits, look at your web browsing history, get your cell phone number, and ultimately knock on your door. What if that campaign used a third party app to trick their supporters into giving you the keys to everything about them and, in turn, millions of their friends?

What would the media say?

Naturally the team behind it would be the "geek squad." The campaign would be celebrated for its "Big Data Brains." The media would applaud these "digital wizards" at the "forefront of campaign technology."

That, of course, was the praise heaped on Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign. It wasn't nefarious for Obama to have the head of Google recruiting talent, choosing technology, and coaching Obama's campaign manager. Nor for Facebook to be on their "side."

But when a consulting firm—not even the Trump campaign itself—does essentially the same thing, and a Republican wins the White House? "Launch a criminal investigation!" "Mark Zuckerberg must testify!" "Regulate social media!" "Delete your Facebook!"

While the Obama campaign had a database that was a "powerful tool," Cambridge Analytica was "harvesting" your personal info.

"Target sharing" became "data abuse."

Data went from being "crunched" to "stolen."

Facebook went from the "ideal way" to reach voters to being "weaponized."

Genius became "evil genius."

What changed? It's almost as if the media think everything Democrats do is virtuous, and everything Republicans do is nefarious.

I've always said that if you want a political activity banned, catch a Republican at it.

Russian Panic: The Russia Conspiracy Is Now Joined by... John Bolton Respect the 'stache.