Saturday, October 12, 2019

Some Saturday Morning Russiagate

Andrew McCabe made an interesting admission on air, Bonchie at Red State, Andrew McCabe Does An Interview And Makes A Stunning Admission.  Basically, we decided to investigate Donald Trump, and started looking for excuses.
Andrew McCabe, who’s currently facing a coming indictment for lying to the FBI (while also moonlighting as a CNN analyst of course), did an interview on his time at the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Along the way, he made a pretty important admission regarding the origins of the probe.
McCabe said the FBI opened its case in late July 2016 based on information about Trump adviser George Papadopoulos.
“We open the case, and then we think, ‘OK, now who are we actually going to investigate?’” McCabe said at the event, which aired Tuesday on C-SPAN.
“Who do we know who is associated with the campaign who has known, significant ties to Russian intelligence?” he asked rhetorically. “We quickly come up with four names that will not surprise you.”
Wait, so they started the investigation without even knowing who they were going to investigate? Why, it’s almost as if they were simply fishing around Trump’s campaign for political reasons.

There's a fair amount of chatter about The Donald imitating Page and Strzok at his campaign rally. Ace, Lisa, Lisa, I Love You Lisa: Trump Explains the Democrats' Campaign to Impeach Trump, Announced 19 Minutes After His Inauguration. Althouse invites you to consider the difference between that and what Adam Schiff did regarding the transcript in "So we released the transcript of the call, which was so good that that crooked Adam Schiff, this guy is crooked, he had to make up a fake conversation that never happened... and he delivered it to the United States Congress and the American people."
If Trump wants to take Schiff and Pelosi to task for their self-serving paraphrase of him, shouldn't he be careful about creating a dialogue like his highly amusing Page-and-Strzok shtick?

One answer is that Schiff was speaking in Congress, in his role as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, while Trump was speaking a political campaign rally. But if you think the line should be drawn there, what motivated you — neutral principles of line-drawing or a desire to find Trump right and Schiff wrong?
"We've got him this time, for sure", from Flopping Ace Dr. John, another attempt to identify whistleblower The CIA spy in White House identified- Updated. And from the DaBeast, More Potential Whistleblowers Are Contacting Congress, sure, why not, you can pass off heresay, and you won't be identified and taken to task for it? Care of the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 10.11.19, Mary Chastain at LI discusses the Report: Ukraine Whistleblower Worked With Biden When He was Vice President
The Democrats and the left have latched onto this phone call between Trump and Zelensky to impeach the president.

They still insist they have a case even though the transcript showed no threats. Zelensky has denied blackmail or pressure from Trump numerous times. New Neo wrote that the investigation into Biden may have started before Trump spoke to Zelensky.
On to the Ukrainian Debacle. At Ace, in The Morning Rant, the gorilla says:
You know, this whole Hunter Biden getting paid big bucks for a no-show job in exchange for his father wielding his influence on behalf of a Ukrainian energy company is not a new thing. That is, an elected official getting jobs for family members. It's not new, but it is bipartisan. According to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 82 members (40 Democrats and 42 Republicans) have paid family members through their congressional offices, campaign committees, and political action committees.

"As I said, this is bipartisan nepotism, and its been going on for a long time. And everybody just sort of looked the other way. For decades.

"Until now. "Until Donald Trump ripped the lid off of the corruption and held it up for everyone to look at. Did he plan this? It all happened because they went after him. The corrupt status quo might have remained in place had the Democrats simply accepted Trump's victory and moved on with their lives.

"So the Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves."
More bad news for Democrats as Zelensky Says He Will ‘Happily’ Investigate Ukrainian Meddling In 2016 US Election (Chuck Ross at Da Caller).  Thomas Farnan, AmGreat, How Republican Dupes Help the Hoaxers
Recently it was disclosed that the comedian president is getting the goods on the bad guys. President Trump called him in July to encourage his anti-corruption efforts.

Standing in the way are the West’s spy agencies, its diplomatic corps, propagandists in the media, Rep. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.), and a whole bunch of confused Republicans.
Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media repeats the claim that Giuliani Claims Joe Biden Was Paid $900K by Burisma, which is why SDNY prosecutors have developed a hankering for Giuliani.
Furthermore, it beggars belief that Joe Biden would be so careless as to accept such funds directly, especially when his son was already receiving a great deal of cash from Burisma.
He may be Slow Joe, but he's not that slow? Breitbart, Fact Check: No, the Indictments of 2 Rudy Giuliani Aides Did Not Stem from the Ukraine Call. Well, maybe not directly, see above.
The only thing the indictment and the phone call share in common is a mention of the effort to replace the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Paras and Fruman allegedly hoped donations to a “Congressman-1” — later identified in media reports as former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) — would influence him to ask the administration to replace the ambassador. In a statement, Sessions said he approached the State Department, but not because the businessmen asked him to: rather, he said, he was informed by other colleagues that the ambassador was trashing the president.
AP, Former envoy defies Trump, testifies he pushed to oust her. And just who does the consitution put in charge of selecting ambassadors? Sundance at CTH, Devin Nunes Discusses ‘whac-a-mole’ Chaos Amid Partisan House Impeachment Hearings – Predicts Marie Yovanovitch Will Build Narrative…



Matt Continetti, WaFreeBe, We Are All Ukrainians
What is real life? These days it is hard to tell. The impeachment drama commingles fact and fantasy, ineptitude and insinuation, in a plot that may be more familiar to Ukrainian audiences than to American ones. The opening scene of Servant of the People takes place on a balcony in Kiev overlooking the Maidan. Three oligarchs discuss the forthcoming elections and the rival candidates they support. At the end of the day, the trio concludes, all that matters is they maintain control of the political process. That's not how it works out.
NYPo, 6 facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China
1. Joe Biden met with Hunter’s Chinese partners days before they established a new investment firm.

In December 2013, Hunter landed in Beijing aboard Air Force Two, accompanying his father on an official visit to China. Less than two weeks later, Hunter’s company, Rosemont Seneca, became a partner in a new investment company backed by the state-owned Bank of China. . . .
They're only against US fossil fuel companies. Sister Toldja at Red State, Sen. Joni Ernst Piledrives Pelosi After House Speaker Takes Shot At Her Over How Elections Should Be Decided
CNN asked Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) earlier this week about whether or not she felt Trump acted inappropriately in the July call with Ukrainian president Zelensky. Instead of playing CNN’s “gotcha” games, Ernst took a wait and see approach, stating she needed to see all the facts first when the time comes for the Senate to play their part instead of just relying on (biased) media reports.

Watch:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took issue with Ernt’s comments, and chided Republicans like Ernst for having the audacity to want to see all information first before drawing any definitive conclusions. Here’s what Pelosi tweeted out Thursday:
Republicans are now refusing to answer the simplest question: whether it’s acceptable for a president to pressure foreign countries to undermine our elections.
American elections should be decided by Americans, not by “favors” from foreign governments.https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/10/08/joni-ernst-trump-question-foreign-interference-sot-kaye-ac360-vpx.cnn …
The irony of Nancy Pelosi talking about how elections should be decided by Americans rubbed Ernst the wrong way, and she absolutely let Pelosi have it:
Actually, American elections should be decided by ELECTIONS. Not politicians. I know you’re still upset about the results from 2016, but people here in Iowa would sure appreciate it if you spent less time playing political games and actually brought #USMCAnow up for a vote. https://twitter.com/speakerpelosi/status/1182282711953809408 …
The Impeachment circus continues to put out new acts. Matt Taibbi, no Trumpster, We're in a permanent coup - Americans might soon wish they just waited to vote their way out of the Trump era
My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.
Curt at Flopping Aces has the Blue State Blues: Nancy Pelosi’s Faithless Impeachment
Democrats like the latest polls on impeaching President Donald Trump, some of which show rising support. But in the long term, it is a losing issue. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made it so when she launched an “impeachment inquiry” without waiting for the evidence.
Althouse cites the Donald, "So they're pursuing an illegal invalid and unconstitutional bullshit impeachment." but Tom Nichols at The Atlantic thinks "Trump’s admissions on social media alone provide enough material for Congress to remove him" in The Impeachable Tweets

AllahPundit has a Question for Trump,  Is Rudy Giuliani Still Your Attorney? The fact that he's asking suggests yes.

Linked at Pirate's Cove in the usual Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links.
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