Flotsam and Jetsam - It's DIY Monday

 Not much material, but I have a good excuse, trust me.

Electoral Politics, as Usual

Endorsed

Biden and Harris both weak going into 2024 - Washington Examiner
Biden's FAA director nominee withdraws as Senator Sinema objects to his nomination – HotAir
Althouse: "The abuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of government will go down as among the most shameful, corrupt and depraved chapters in all of American history."
2016 All Over Again? - American Greatness
Political Pundit Mark Simone Admits Team Bush and Karl Rove are Group Behind Ron DeSantis Effort.... - The Last Refuge
So, That's Why John Fetterman's Hospital Stay Got Extended Another Two Weeks
Suprise: Inflation Reduction Act subsidies will cost 3X what Dems claimed – HotAir
Instapundit - ENDORSED:

January 6

The FBI had more people in the Proud Boys than the Proud Boys – HotAir
The FBI and the Proud Boys - Power Line
Prosecutor Admits DC Police Officers Acted as Provocateurs at US Capitol on Jan. 6

Twitter, Musk and Social Media 

Elon Musk tells employees to get back in office with 2:30 am memo - Fox Business
AOC Simped for TikTok, and Walked Right Into an Unbelievable Corruption Scandal – RedState

The Culture Wars 

Riley Gaines

NOT a Babylon Bee Headline : The Other McCain

Can’t EVEN make this up: Trans woman leaves JFK airport SOBBING after TSA agent hit HER testicles – twitchy.com
Libs of TikTok on Twitter: "“Her testicles” https://t.co/bPDp0Njah8" / Twitter
West Texas A&M hit with lawsuit after blocking student drag show
Riley Gaines harassed by librarians over politics
Library director fired for behavior undermining faith-based story hour with Kirk Cameron – HotAir
NPR Laughably Claims 'Limited Scientific Evidence' That Men Beat Women at Sports - Newsbusters
Instapundit - I IDENTIFY AS TIRED OF BULLSHIT: Queer prof realizes she also identifies as disabled.
‘Critical Consciousness’ certificate offered to Stanford STEM students - The College Fix
US Judge gives a lecture on free speech at Notre Dame after being shouted down at Stanford - Just The News
Eastern Florida State College civil rights lecture canceled
'The View' host Ana Navarro 'upset 24 hours a day' in Florida
Instapundit - FLASHBACK: Ban AC for DC: If our rulers think global warming is a crisis, let them be a good examp

Russiagate, Again!

So, it appears that US Attorney John "Bull" Durham is poking around in dark corneres. Capt. Ed at Hot Air reads the NYT so you don't have to NYT: Durham Probing Brennan’s Role In Steele Dossier Assessment.

If Brennan lied to Congress, Durham might be inclined to prosecute — even though Brennan’s boss James Clapper got away with lying about surveillance programs earlier. However, Brennan might be a secondary target in this case. Reading further into the report by the NYT’s Katie Benner and Julian Barnes, it appears that Brennan had been skeptical all along of Steele and his dossier.

Ace, Is Durham Investigating Whether Brennan Lied About His Interest In Using the Steele Dossier to Frame Trump?

Interesting thread on Twitter by The Last Refuge compiled at Twitchy.

The short version is this: Brennan testified to Congress that the CIA -- including himself, of course -- did not at all rely on the Steele Dossier. And yet Comey testified that Brennan "insisted" on including "the crown material," which is almost certainly the Steele Dossier, in the Intelligence Community Assessment given to Trump in early January 2017.

Comey claims he insisted that "crown material" not be included, as it was unverified. The compromise, apparently, was that the "crown material" was not included in the ICA itself, but was instead paperclipped to the ICA as some kind of unofficial addendum. Then Trump was briefed on both the real ICA and the fake news addendum.

And this briefing was leaked to CNN, which was the plan all along. In fact, CNN might actually have conspired with government officials to perform a criminal act (leaking classified information to unauthorized persons).

From  Sundance at CTH, Bad News For Coup Crew – Former NSA Director Mike Rogers Working With John Durham For Several Months… and  John Sexton at Hot Air, more bad news for the cabal, Former NSA Director Is Cooperating With The Durham Investigation

It’s a bit hard to tease out but it appears that there is some bad blood between Rogers and former Defense Secretary Ash Carter as well as former director of national intelligence James Clapper. In November of 2016, after Trump’s election, the NY Times reported that Obama was considering firing Rogers from his post at NSA and was being urged to do so by Carter and Clapper:
. . .
So the plan was to split off US Cyber Command from the NSA and both Carter and Clapper supported that plan. However, that got scuttled when Trump won the election. Trump wound up keeping Rogers on and firing Clapper. All that to say that you probably shouldn’t assume Rogers is the type who wants to circle the wagons with his old colleagues Clapper and Brennan. On the contrary, if he has a story to tell he might be eager to tell it.

Dunham is expected to interview Clapper and Brennan as part of his investigation but the Intercept reports it’s not clear if that has happened yet.

Targets come last. It has long been speculated that Rogers tipped Trump off to the wiretapping and attempted Russiagate set up. Also from sundance, Lisa Page Email Shows Direct Evidence of Investigative Leaking and Bias IG Horowitz Said He Could Not Find…. More likely, he had no leverage over Lisa Page, since she was already gone from DOJ. Ace, AG Barr: James Comey is a Serial Liar, "He didn't put it so bluntly -- he said instead that what James Comey says "is simply not true" -- but the import is the same."

Insty DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE IG’S NEW FBI INVESTIGATION? 

Probably not because the MSM was too wrapped up trying to spin the Horowitz report as a vindication of the FBI Russia hoax against President Donald Trump. But, as Jeff Carlson explains in this interview with The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek, the new IG probe means continued critical oversight and pressure for reform of the FBI.

ET, Horowitz Report & Testimony Provide Historic Condemnation of FBI’s Surveillance Actions—Jeff Carlson



And news from the FISA court via Techno-Fog, NEW - FISC Declassified Order

1) ID all FISA cases involving Clinesmith (FBI lawyer who altered evidence)
2) ID steps taken by DOJ/FBI to verify the Clinesmith cases
3) Asks if Clinesmith has been referred to Bar Assoc. for "disciplinary action"

And from Sara Carter, @charlie_savage  reports Judge Rosemary Collyer stepping down as presiding judge of FISC early. "He says health issues - maybe damage control too - Do you believe FISA should be renewed in March? What do you think should happen?" Stephen McIntyre claims to have identified another mover and shaker in the coupe. I've identified the ASAC in FBI Philadelphia Office who was in the daisy chain of Papadop information: from Downer to Dibble to FBI Legat (Boetig) to Philadelphia ASAC to Cyber Section Chief (McGonigal) to Strzok et al. It was Michael Driscoll.

This could explain a lot; from State Dept Watch, SMOKING GUN: ADAM SCHIFF DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO $7.4 BILLION BURISMA CORRUPTION SCANDAL… DETAILS DEVELOPING

Via In The Mailbox: 12.20.19 (Afternoon Edition), American Greatness: Durham Zeroing In On Brennan’s Role In Russia Hoax, Da Tech Guy: How Well Do You Understand The Bill Of Rights? also, Shut Down The FISA Court, Volokh Conspiracy: Crossfire Hurricane – What Went Wrong At The FBI? American Thinker: Secretary Hillary Clinton & The Deep State – A RICO Criminal Conspiracy and on the "impeachment: Twitchy: Rosie Meme-Gloating Over Day 2 of Trump’s Impeachment Does NOT Go Well For Her, American Conservative: Five Most Hyperbolic Impeachment Moments, American Power: Pelosi’s Impeachment Disaster, Don Surber: Democrats Impeach, America Yawns, Legal Insurrection: Murder Turtle Sneers – Dems “Too Afraid” To Hand Senate “Shoddy Work” On Impeachment Articles? also, Rep. Tlaib Posts Giddy Video On Her Way To Vote For Impeachment, Power Line: Impeachment Without A Crime, This Ain’t Hell: Putin Opines On Trump Impeachment, Victory Girls: McConnell Roasts Impeachment In Senate Speech, Weasel Zippers: More “What The Heck Is Nancy Pelosi Saying?“, also, ABC Report – The Bipartisan Vote Was Against Impeachment Mark Steyn: Getting A Jump On Next Decade’s Russia Investigation, 

and from his In The Mailbox: 12.20.19 (Evening Edition), Twitchy: Ted Cruz Drops Chuck Todd’s Old Tweet Defending Comey & Steele Dossier Right On His Head, Vox Popoli: The Secret Federal Stasi, American Thinker: The Justice Department’s High Crimes & Misdemeanors, and impeachment bullshit, American Conservative: Impeachment Is Already Backfiring On The Democrats, Legal Insurrection: Yang Zings 2020 Democrats – “Stop Being Obsessed With Impeachment”, Power Line: Is It Really About The Supreme Court? and Volokh Conspiracy: An Impeachment Counterfactual

Oh screw it:

Adrian Vermeule on Twitter: "I’m supremely confident that the Never Trump lawyers, who declaimed for years about norms and procedural regularity, will swiftly condemn Pelosi’s unprecedented gamesmanship about transmitting the articles to the Senate. Waiting ...." / Twitter

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HAHA ADRIAN, YOU CRACK ME UP: Although, to be fair, there is this from the anti-Trump Lawfare…

The real impeachment scandal | Spectator USA

Four Tests for Impeachment | National Review

Pelosi: By the power of this gavel, Trump is impeached forever

House Dem Judiciary hearing witness: Actually, the House hasn't impeached Trump ... yet

Schumer's "impartial jurors": Here's how we will sell impeachment and removal

Two Reasons Pelosi Will Probably Delay Impeachment Until After the Election | News and Politics

Want to Understand the Impeachment? Watch “Richard Jewell”

Some Democrats apparently think that the impeachment vote means that Trump is out of office – The New Neo

‘No Confidence!’ Pelosi Opens Door For Parliamentary System

Franklin Graham, Evangelicals Slam Christianity Today Over Impeachment Op-Ed

New York Times Discovers Voters Are Paying Little Mind To Impeachment

House Dems Cannot Force the Senate Into a Fair Trial - The Atlantic

Jonathan Turley: Sorry to break it to you but Trump has been officially impeached

The Senate Is About to Neuter Impeachment - The Atlantic

Liberal Lawyer: SCOTUS Just ‘Ripped the Rug’ From Under the Democrats’ Trump Impeachment Push

JustOneMinute: Real Men (And Women!) Of Genius

Supreme Court ruling pulls rug out from under article of impeachment | TheHill

Ginsburg hints: Senators who can't be impartial in Trump's trial should be disqualified

So Fox Released Some of the Strzok/Page Pillow Talk

And the Ace of Spades has a run down, but my particular favorite is:

"PS – Just went to a southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support…

LP – Yep. Out to lunch with (redacted) We both hate everyone and everything."

Nice to know what your rulers think about you.

But this one might be the most damning:

Strzok/Page texts

LP – And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace. (links to NYT article)

PS – ... I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) December 13, 2017

Instapundit (all caps, natch) had this amusing and yet infuriating exchange with the Just Us Department:

SO I JUST HAD AN INTERESTING EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH THE SPECIAL COUNSEL’S PRESS OFFICE:

Me:

I’m hearing from a source that Lisa Page was involved in approving Peter Strzok’s warrant requests to the FISC and possibly elsewhere. Can you confirm or deny if this was the case? And please tell me what her job title and function are in your office. Thanks.

Them (via spokesman Joshua Stueve):

Lisa Page, who was an attorney on detail to the Special Counsel’s office, returned to the FBI’s Office of the General Counsel in mid-July.

Me again:

Thank you but that doesn’t answer my question. What role did Lisa Page have in the handling of warrant applications, and in particular those involving Peter Strzok?

Them again:

I’ll decline to comment further.

Well, then.

Page, remember, is the FBI lawyer with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair and exchanging anti-Trump texts. Perhaps someone with more resources than I will be able to get to the bottom of this.

On other Trump/Russia related news, we just found out that the wife of another DOJ bigwig sidelined by the Mueller team, worked for Fusion GPS, doing Russian stuff.

A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump “dossier” had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than has been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official’s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.

Contacted by Fox News, investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G. Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise nature of Mrs. Ohr’s duties – including whether she worked on the dossier – remains unclear but a review of her published works available online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.

But totally objective I'm sure.

WE’RE GONNA FIND OUT HE WAS A PARTNER IN FUSION GPS, AREN’T WE? Politico: Justice Department won’t disclose details on Mueller ethics waiver.

A massive purge is needed at the DOJ.

O'Malley: WiFi a Human Right

Right up there with eating, sleeping and breathing:

Good news from would-be president Martin O’Malley: “WiFi is a human right”

Jon Ward of Yahoo News wonders if the next human right is the right to Frosted Flakes.

“Baby boomers and older were often told that if we specialize in terms of our skills, we will be more secure and prosperous, that the definition of ‘making it” was living out in the suburbs as far way as possible with the biggest lawn possible,” he said. “Young people have flipped that on its head. Younger people are choosing to live in cities. They realize that connections to each other are making us better. That WiFi is a human right. That proximity is important to entrepreneurship, access to capital and talent and diversity. There is an opportunity there for us as a nation to embrace that new perspective.”

I don’t follow Maryland politics so I can’t say whether O’Malley might be capable of believing something this stupid on the merits. Let’s be charitable, then, and assume that it’s just his goofy way of getting liberals’ attention while he’s busy trying to decide whether to primary Hillary. . . .

I'm kind of forced to follow Maryland politics, and I assure you that O'Malley is indeed stupid progressive enough to imagine that anything that could he could steal tax from one group (usually a rural group who doesn't vote for him)  to give to another group, particularly an urban group who votes for him, is indeed, a "human right", while it serves its purpose. Governors in Maryland, and O'Malley in particular have acted essentially as governors for the urban core of the state, and the plantation owner of the rural fringe.

The point isn’t really to propose WiFi as a human right, it’s to signal in an unusually clumsy way that he’s to the left of the Clintons; and since it’s young progressives who are most likely to drive a left-wing primary challenge to Hillary in 2016, it’s young progressives whom he’s most eager to pander to. He did something similar on immigration a few months ago. At the height of the border crisis, Hillary called for sending young illegals back to their families in Central America as soon as possible after they crossed the border. O’Malley pounced on that, arguing that we should give them every procedural opportunity to make their case for asylum in the U.S. Maybe that’ll win him one percent of the Latino vote against her instead of the expected zero. And hey, if Clinton ends up passing for whatever strange, surprising reason, this sort of hyper-progressive slobbering will leave O’Malley well positioned in the primaries — until Elizabeth Warren jumps in and sends him to the back of the pack again.

Really? Can he make Hillary look better? He just might.