Sic Semper Tyrannis

What does "humanitarian crisis" mean for the Democrats?"

The Democrats in the US Congress claim they support "Border Security."  Apparently they believe that the public will accept the idea that they support the US government's right to limit immigration however it chooses to do so.  Their unwillingness to reinforce the CBP on the border and to change the Asylum Law to make treatment of Central Americans equal to that of all others, including Mexicans, makes that assertion an absurdity.

The truth IMO is that with few exception. the national Democrats seek the collapse of US government control of immigration and an inundation of illegal immigrants that they hope will give them permanent voting majorities in elections across the country. 

The tactic used in California of illegally voting illegal immigrants through control of local election boards and devices like "motor voter" registrations was shown to be effective in HC's popular vote win in California.  This is why California resisted so strongly the proposal for an audit of the election after 2016.

The Democrats have become a minority and left Globalist Party hostile to the traditional American structure of government and to the people who built this country, and I don't mean by laying bricks when the WH was built.

The behavior and statements of the Democrats demonstrate that what they really want in the SW is a collapse of US government authority.

Seeking agreement with them is futile.  pl

HARPER: ISLAMOPHOBES REINVENT THEMSELVES AS SINOPHOBES

On March 25, a group of fringe neocons and alt-rightists surfaced in Washington to declare propaganda war against China.  The group, led by Steve Bannon, Frank Gaffney, Fred Fleitz, General Jerry Boykin and a handful of others, announced the formation of the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC).  The original Committee on the Present Danger was launched in the mid-1950s to spread the call for a Cold War arms buildup, but was soon shut down when President Eisenhower, an opponent of the group, coopted several leading members into his administration and effectively ended it.  A second iteration of CPD surfaced in 1976 and did play a role in electing Ronald Reagan as President.  A mid-2000s version never got off the ground.  Not much chance of the current version--CPD 4.0--faring any better. 

Frank Gaffney, founder and guru of the Center for Security Policy, made a name for himself peddling an extreme version of Islamophobia.  The new outfit's goal is to use its close ties to National Security Advisor John Bolton to turn President Trump into a full-blown China hater.  The second goal is to shape American public opinion sharply against China.  While it is way too soon to forecast the outcome of this effort, the extremism of their message and the personalities associated with its launch suggest that it will remain on the fringe.

Nevertheless, it should not go unnoticed that the usual neocon hate-mongers are at it again.  Likely that Gaffney, Fleitz (former Bolton National Security Council chief of staff until January), and Bannon have received a generous pile of cash from their long-time benefactor Robert Mercer.  Mercer bankrolled Bannon's Cambridge Analytica, poured $4 million into the John Bolton Super PAC and was a long-running financial angel to Gaffney's CSP.  To paraphrase an old Beatles song: Money can't buy you hate.  But watch out for the hate propaganda to flourish at a time when US-China relations are already on shaky ground.

A few thoughts

1.  My gums have healed nicely.  I had NY Strip steak and eggs with grits for breakfast this day at Bob and Edith's Diner.  That was about $15.  A good day.The temperature in the back yard is around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and my chipmunks have come back to the surface.

2.  Trump ought to consider trying to get GM to sell or lease Lordstown to General Dynamics as a place to build some of the Army's new family of vehicles.  The place employs 4500 people from all over that part of Ohio when at full capacity.

3.  A border closure will hut Mexico badly and might force Mexico to impede these migrants but the back-pressure from businesses in the US is going to be very tough to face up to.  Cutting off aid to Central America won't do much.  We have been funding CA economic development since 1960 with n0 visible effect.  The local elites just soak up the money.  That is unlikely to change.  The elites are glad to see these people leave.  They are a distraction from the process of stealing American money.  Since the Congress will not change the asylum law, we have no choice but to build a barrier system strong enough to keep a lot of them outside the country until the poss arrives.  The Democrats want open borders so that a flood of illegals can be voted eventually after they are disguised by things like motor voter laws.

4.  Trump should follow the advice he is getting and de-classify and disclose every single thing that Barr, Mueller and Rosenstein can manage to do.

5.  The Deep State villains in the US and the UK should be pursued and punished.  pl

Interview transcripts from Congress on Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, G. Papadopoulos, and B. and N. Ohr

By Robert Willmann

Courtesy of U.S. Representative Doug Collins (Repub. Georgia), transcripts have been released of committee interviews of five people about the attempt to de-legitimize the election and inauguration of an elected president, and to create conditions for his removal.  They can be viewed and downloaded for reading.

Interview on 27 June 2018 of Peter Strzok, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, 312 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/strzok

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/06.27.18%20Interview%20Of%20Peter%20Strzok.pdf

Interview on 13 and 16 July 2018 of former FBI in-house attorney Lisa Page, 165 pages on day one and 205 pages on day two--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/page

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Lisa%20Page%20interview%20Day%201.pdf

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Lisa%20Page%20interview%20Day%202.pdf

Interview on 28 August 2018 of Justice Department attorney Bruce Ohr, 268 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/ohr

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Ohr%20Interview%20Transcript%208.28.18.pdf

Interview on 19 October 2018 of Nellie Ohr (wife of Bruce Ohr), 137 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/nellieohr

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/10.19.18%20Nellie%20Ohr%20Interview.pdf

Interview on 25 October 2018 of George Papadopoulos, 239 pages--

https://dougcollins.house.gov/Papadopoulos

https://dougcollins.house.gov/sites/dougcollins.house.gov/files/Papadopoulos%20l10.25.18%20Interview%20Transcript_Redacted.pdf

 

Open Thread 29 March 2019

pl

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 28 MARCH 2019 (by Patrick Armstrong)

MUELLER. One half of the lie has been exploded with the finding that no one connected with Trump colluded with any Russians. The other half of the lie – created by the same people for the same reasons – lives on. Again I tell you: Russia did not/not interfere in the US election, Mueller's indictment of a Russian clickbait farm notwithstanding. (Again: read MoA and learn today what the NYT will discover (admit to) tomorrow.) Neither official Russia nor unofficial Russia. Why not? Simple deduction: if Moscow had wanted to damage Clinton, it would have used its most powerful weapon; it didn't; QED.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. Will continue – somewhat diminished by the hard kick of reality to be sure – but they've too much invested in it and some will double down while others try to slither away. We see the goalposts being moved. The winner so far: Mueller Report Has Moscow in Ecstasy, Opening the Way for More Putin Plots... expect Vladimir Putin to be more aggressive than ever. Schiff (Mr Pillow Man) digs his hole deeper; Swalwell and Peters dive into it.

MEDIA. "[Did you] receive bad information throughout this process like so many of us did?" asks whathishair – remember that moment: a "Big Journalist" admits that they're just typists. Followed by the admission from the boss of CNN that they're not investigators. NYT blubbers not just we, but you too. Taibbi is correct: "death-blow for the reputation of the American news media." Last week I wrote "A poll shows that “hardly any confidence at all in the press” is the winning answer." What's next week's answer going to be? A free, sceptical and challenging media is important; what happens when it's just a big typing pool waiting for Big Brother's Dictaphone? Time to learn from the Soviets.

SCHADENFREUDE COMPENDIUM. Here. And there'll be more: make your choice for the biggest liar. Schadenfreude is enjoyable (I do enjoy it – earliest I could find, but I always knew it was BS). Hannity rant. Carlson ditto.

RUSSIA RELATIONS. Immense damage has been done. Will it be repaired? Can it be repaired? Russia is not a joke country in Disneyland and we're not characters in a Marvel comic. How idiotic it would be if the Earth were destroyed because Hillary Clinton lost, couldn't accept it and invented a story for lying liars to lie about. Much will depend on whether Trump starts a real investigation so that the falsity is exposed. (Conrad Black has the best exposition of the conspiracy for people who are just tuning in.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

CALVEY ARREST. I have no worthwhile opinion and I defer to John Helmer who is sceptical.

CRIMEA. Five years ago. What's been done. A lot.

SANCTIONS. A sentence from Awara's latest struck me: "Russia’s imports from China (26% of total) are now three times bigger than those from Germany (7.8%). Total imports from the EU now make up only 30% of all Russia’s imports." I don't think the EU is going to get much of that market back, do you?

GOLAN HEIGHTS. Bingo! There goes the Western case on South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Karabakh, Transdnestr and, of course, Crimea. (One yuuuge difference being, of course, that in the other cases the locals were consulted.) But maybe Trump knows that: "Crimea is part of Russia because everyone there speaks Russian"; which, if you've taken the trouble to learn Trumpian, is quite a profound statement.

EUROPEANS ARE REVOLTING. Italy joins BRI; wavers on the obligatory F-35 buy. (They're still duds, BTW.) Germany won't spend the money and won't block Huawei.

KAZAKHSTAN. Nazarbayev has constructed a smooth changing of the guard.

VENEZUELA. Moscow warns, Washington warns, Beijing clears its throat. Russian troops and aid appear, S-300s deployed. I keep thinking about this video – Kalibres lurking in commonplace containers.

NEW NWO. Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian Chiefs of Staff meet in Damascus. Don't remember seeing this in the PNAC manifesto. But it's a result, all the same.

CHICKENS. HOME. ROOST. "[T]he G7 group is concerned by extreme political movements in Ukraine...". Whoa! Weren't these people just Putin's "fabricated claim", "revanchist policy", "lying"? FBI: Neo-Nazi Militia Trained by US Military in Ukraine Now Training US White Supremacists. Azov-Christchurch?

UKRAINE. Lowest confidence in their government in the world. Comedian still in front: someone hopes that things will get better. Sorry: Kiev has to burn the last bit of the Galician fantasy to ashes and understand that the right people won the Second World War. Then, maybe, some hope.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Saved by Zero. A review by Fred

How dare they! How dare they. Yes, how dare they vote on the bill written by veteran United States Senator Bill Markey of Massachusetts, which is word-for-word identical to the one written by the Boss of the House. The Green New Deal.

Chasing after my dreams, disown me, loaded with danger....

AOChe, America's Other Communist, is outraged. That the US Senate held the vote. Here's zero some facts.

The Monroe Doctrine Revisited - TTG

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - A Russian military contingent that arrived in Venezuela over the weekend, drawing U.S. condemnation, is believed by the U.S. government to be made up of special forces including "cybersecurity personnel," a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still assessing the Russian deployment, which Washington has called a "reckless escalation" of the situation in Venezuela.

Two Russian air force planes landed outside Caracas on Saturday carrying nearly 100 Russian troops, according to local media reports, two months after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump disavowed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela's government has confirmed two planes landed from Russia at the weekend and were authorized by Maduro but has given no more details.

The Trump administration has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country's legitimate president and demands that Maduro step down. Russia has described this as a U.S.-backed coup against the socialist government.

The U.S. determination that the Russian contingent includes cybersecurity specialists suggests that part of their mission could be helping Maduro's loyalists with surveillance as well as protection of the government's cyber infrastructure.  (Reuters)

——————

The Antonov-124 transport and Ilyushin-62 passenger jet landed in Caracas with 100 Russian troops and technical specialists and 35 tons of equipment. The group was led by General Vasily Tonkoshkurov, the Chief of Staff of the Russian ground forces. I would imagine the Russian troops include a contingent of the polite green men to advise Maduro’s security forces and perhaps assist in conducting counterterrorist operations as needed against any mercenaries in country associated with Guaido and the US-backed coup attempt. The Russians may also include specialists to train and assist the recent Venezuelan S-300 deployments at an airbase just south of Caracas. 

Naturally Pompeo and Bonkers Bolton are raising holy hell about the Russian presence and making all manner of bombastic threats. It doesn’t appear they are doing this on their own. “You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything,” Trump said in a speech at Florida International University in Miami on 18 February. “We seek a peaceful transition of power, but all options are open.” On the same day he tweeted “I ask every member of the Maduro regime: End this nightmare of poverty, hunger and death. LET YOUR PEOPLE GO. Set your country free! Now is the time for all Venezuelan Patriots to act together, as one united people. Nothing could be better for the future of Venezuela!” At a White House photo op with Guaido’s wife today, Trump said “Russia has to get out.” He continued “If Russia doesn't leave Venezuela, we'll see. We'll see. All options are open ... all options are open." Trump appears to be all in on this one.

I doubt the tough talk from Washington is going to sway Putin. Moscow has decided that Venezuela and Maduro’s government are important and is acting accordingly. Lavrov has scheduled coordination meetings in Moscow on 3 April to sign some 20 accords in the fields of defense, energy, the economy, trade and education. They are not about to let things fester as they did in Ukraine and Syria. This Guaido thing is going to be nipped in the bud. 

TTG   

http://news.trust.org/item/20190326190043-kd9u0

Time for Clapper to Go Under Oath by Larry Johnson

Here is the bottomline up front--When the tale of the plot to destroy Donald Trump's candidacy and Presidency is told, Jim Clapper will be proven as a key player in the conspiracy. Clapper was not a passive observer. I am told by friends who had direct dealings with Clapper during his tenure as the Director of National Intelligence that he was helping coordinate the activities of the CIA, the NSA and the FBI in the collection and dissemination of information on Trump and his associates.

Clapper is a proven, congenital liar in my opinion. His denial that NSA was spying on Americans is the best known example. Now there may be a new example. Fox News' Catherine Herridge reported this week that Clapper was talking with Peter Strzok in December 2016:

Newly obtained text messages between former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and bureau lawyer Lisa Page reveal a high-level meeting among senior intelligence officials was held weeks before President Trump’s inauguration – during a critical period for the Russia probe.

In a Dec. 12, 2016, text reviewed by Fox News, Page wrote to McCabe: "Btw, [Director of National Intelligence James] Clapper told Pete that he was meeting with [CIA Director John] Brennan and Cohen for dinner tonight. Just FYSA [for your situational awareness]."

Yet, someone who was at that dinner claims Clapper doesn't know Strzok. :

The GOP will be "the party of health care?"

"“Secretary Azar fully supports the Administration’s litigation position in the ACA case, which bears his name,” HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said in a statement. “Any insinuation that Secretary Azar has ‘butted heads’ with Mulvaney on this issue is false.”

Barr also opposed the decision, and now finds himself in the uncomfortable position of running the department that leads the new charge against Obamacare. His opposition was based in part on skepticism among conservative lawyers about the wisdom of seeking to overturn the law, officially known as the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual mandate, which the current lawsuit is once again challenging. The attorney general, who was confirmed only a month ago, was overruled by the White House.

The lawsuit at issue seeks to invalidate the entire health care law. Previously, the Trump administration had only supported challenges to parts of Obamacare without backing its complete invalidation — an outcome that would throw the U.S. health care system into chaos if an alternative system is not put into place by Republicans who have so far been unable to agree on a plan. The current challenge to the law was brought by a group of state GOP attorneys general.

Monday's Justice Department letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said federal lawyers would file a brief in support of a district court judge’s finding that the individual mandate included in the Obama-era law is now invalid as a tax because the GOP Congress reduced to the fine to zero dollars, and the government cannot levy a zero-dollar tax."  Politico

-------------

Secretary Azar and AG Barr opposed this statement that the United States will not seek to defend the ACA against the decision of a US district court that the disappearance of the personal mandate in the ACA invalidates the whole law constitutionally.

I can see why they opposed this policy.  Azar is the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  He and Barr know that the GOP does not have a substitute law waiting to take the place of a fallen ACA.  For Trump to say that the Republicans will take charge of health care as an issue seems an act of bravado motivated by the Democratic Party's effective use of this as a weapon in the 2018 election.

Well, pilgrims, if the Republicans cannot produce on this over the objections of the Democratic House of Representatives, they will be hurt badly in 2020.  pl

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/26/trump-obamacare-reversal-cabinet-1238359

Mueller Madness at the New York Post

" ...  Wittes is followed, in the second spot, by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, who traded his stellar academic reputation for anti-Trump crankery. In July 2017, he tweeted that when senior Democrats say, “There is evidence of both collusion and obstruction, you can take that to the bank. Trump beware!” But Tribes’ collusion checks bounced.

Finally, there are the Network collusion peddlers. The top seed is Alec Baldwin. Baldwin’s cringey impersonations of a clueless, jail-bound Trump revived his battered career and kept hope alive for liberals and Trump haters across the land. Will he reprise the role now that Trump isn’t heading for jail or impeachment?

The second seed goes to Joy Behar, who confidently predicted that Trump is “going to end up in prison.” The live audience at “The View” cheered. They should ­demand a refund."  NY Post

------------

Donna Brasile, somehow now of Foxnews, said today that the Dems believe that the Barr/Rosenstein letter to Congress should be read for its esoteric meaning rather than the plain text.  This seems reminiscent of the neocon/Leo Straussian view of Platonic textual exegesis.  Perhaps this is just coincidence.

The exoteric words of the Barr/Rosenstein letter state that evidence could not be found of treasonous conspiracy with the Russian government and obstruction of justice.  Pivoting off that, the Straussian/Brasile view is that Barr and Rosenstein were signalling that the hidden meaning in the text is that guilt can still be found in the data by the adepts now in charge of the House of Representatives.  All the world wonders!

There seem to be missing names in the Posts's chart above.  Where is Chris Matthews?  Where are Brennan, Clapper and Comey?

I told SWMBO the other day that Jimmy Clapper would quickly cave under pressure and seek to throw someone under the bus to save himself from the possibility of being expelled from USAF if eventually sentenced to confinement.  Flynn faces the same possibility.  Clapper would be a big prize for prosecutors from Barr's DoJ.  He was Director of National Intelligence, Obama's third or fourth choice, but, nevertheless...  Such a big prize would require a large substitute as a distraction "under the bus."

Soo ... Jimmy the Clap has now stated on world TeeVee that Obama ordered him, Brennan and all the other Midgets on Horseback who headed the IC back then to make a study of Russian attempts at intervention in the election, and that this "study" led to a resolve to investigate Candidate Trump as a potential traitor and a Russian agent of influence.  pl

https://nypost.com/2019/03/25/mueller-madness-the-media-pundits-who-got-it-most-wrong/

http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section1161&num=0&edition=prelim

Authorship

Any and all articles not signed are written by me.  pl

Thoughts on the Mueller-Barr report.

1.  Trump and his people did not conspire with the Russian government to fix the outcome of the 2016 election.

2.  In the absence of a conspiracy there could not have been obstruction of justice by the president.  There was nothing to obstruct because there had been no crime.  Trump knew that. 

3.  IMO a great opportunity has been lost for improving relations with the Russian thermonuclear power.  Only hyper-nationalist madmen like Brennan and Clapper and ignorant Jingos like Bolton and Pompeo can imagine that an improvement in relations with a country which can destroy you was not a good idea. Trump hoped for that and the Russiagate hoax blocked any possibility for improvement.  The Russian government unsuccessfully sought to tinker with our election?  Yes, and they will again.  That is part of the Game of Nations.  Grow up, Americans!  It is our responsibility to foil such attempts. We have done similar things since we first emerged on the world stage.  We can make a list of those events if you like.

4.  I will say again that Barr should hold a presser at which he stands Mueller and Rosenstein up next to him to outline the report themselves and to answer extensive press questions. 

5.  Nadler,  Schiff and Elijah Cummings wish to continue the farcical pursuit of Trump on all sides of earth until he "spouts black blood and rolls fin out."  As has been said, the House committees headed by these people lack the funds, personnel and authorities to dig up the masses of data which Mueller's office possessed.  It is for this reason that they want all the Mueller data.  They hope to sift through it to find things that they can claim constitute grounds for a plausible bill of impeachment.  Well pilgrims, Barr would be wise to remember that the Mueller report AND all its supporting documents are Executive Branch assets, not assets of the Congress.   There is no reason to give the Congress anything that is classified (secret), Grand Jury testimony or information that should be concealed to allow for the functioning of the presidency (Executive Privilege).  So, don't give it to them!  Let them sue you.  Let the Supreme Court decide.

6.  The Mueller investigation and the Barr/Rosenstein review and summary stated that their conclusions were reached without regard for the constitutional controversy over whether or not a sitting president could be indicted.

AG Barr's Letter to Judiciary Committees, March 24, 2019

 

Decameron

“The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As the report states: `[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.' |”

                                From page one of the Barr letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

https://www.scribd.com/document/402973432/AG-March-24-2019-Letter-to-House-and-Senate-Judiciary-Committees#from_embed

 

Some call this merely the "end of the beginning."  Further revelations will be emerging, including from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz. "Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed Thursday his office is still investigating possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the DOJ and FBI in their investigation into President Trump and associates of his 2016 campaign," reported the Washington Examiner this week. 

 

Speaking of Delusions, Russia, Russia, Russia by Larry C Johnson

Move over Wile E. Coyote. Your feckless, futile efforts to kill the Roadrunner have been displaced by Jim Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper and legions of faux journalists. One of the leaders of this parade of bewilderment and buffoonery is my old pal, Chris Matthews (I did his show multiple times). How can such a smart guy be such a dummy?

 

If you want to get to the heart of the matter of whether or not Donald Trump was in bed with Putin and received vast, secret Russian help to vanquish Hillary Clinton in 2016 you only need to ask one person--FELIX SATER. Go back and read my previous pieces on Felix. He has been an FBI informant since December 1998. His specialty? HELPING THE FBI MAKE CASES AGAINST RUSSIAN MOBSTERS AND RUSSIAN SPIES.

 

" ... the accountability that must follow Mueller's report." The Hill

      " 1.President Trump was not indicted, nor did Mueller recommend an indictment against him for collusion or obstruction.

2. There were no major disagreements between Mueller and his managers at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

3. The Russians who tried to interfere in the 2016 election were exposed and charged — but no American was charged with any effort to conspire with Moscow and hijack the election.

4. While nearly three dozen people were charged, including a few close to the president or who worked for his campaign, no one in proximity to the president was formally charged with colluding with Russia. Most, such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn or campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, were charged with process crimes or felonies unrelated to the main case, as in Paul Manafort’s secretive, multimillion-dollar foreign lobbying spree through Ukraine.

*********

• the “Steele dossier” that was the main FISA evidence was paid for with funds from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party;
  
  
• Christopher Steele, the dossier’s author, had told a senior DOJ official he was desperate to defeat Trump;
  
  
• most of the dossier was not verified before it was used as evidence of alleged Trump-Russia collusion; and
  
  
• agents collected statements from key defendants such as Papadopoulos and Carter Page during interactions with an FBI informant that strongly suggested their innocence.

Such omissions are so glaring as to constitute defrauding a federal court. And each and every participant to those omissions needs to be brought to justice.

An upcoming DOJ inspector general’s report should trigger the beginning of that accountability in a court of law, and President Trump can assist the effort by declassifying all evidence of wrongdoing by FBI, CIA and DOJ officials. "  The Hill

------------

Pilgrims, the seditious conspiracy to depose the elected president of the United States for conspiracy to commit treason with the Government of the Russian Federation has been defeated.

The bent cops at the FBI and the madmen like Brennan, Clapper and Comey, who treacherously used the government's forces against the Constitution, must be punished so severely as to make an example that will dissuade other midgets on horseback from making similar attempts to overturn the results of elections.

At the bottom of the cauldron overflowing with political misdeeds shines the face of Hillary Clinton and the army of clever people who ran her 2016 campaign.  They devised the clever, clever idea of creating the Steele Dossier in cahoots with Washington co-conspirators and the even more clever idea of marketing it back into the US political bloodstream through British intelligence channels by feeding it to the  erratic and spiteful senator from Arizona whose staff peddled it all over Washington and New York.  There must be retribution for this.

The leftist press is already discounting the results of Mueller's investigation while gloating over how long the Democratic held House of Representatives can continue to search through Trump's life trying to find criminality.

AG Barr should stand Mueller up next to him at a press conference to make clear the results of his report and to answer questions about it.  After that the prosecutions should begin.  pl

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/435394-the-wisdom-of-trumps-lawyers-and-the-accountability-that-must-follow

"Russian Army is Radically Upgraded" * by Sergei Shoigu - TTG

In his latest Russian Federation Sitrep, Patrick Armstrong mentioned a speech given by Sergei Shoigu to a Duma committee. In this speech Shoigu reels off a litany of new weapon systems now in the hands of Russia’s defense forces. Impressive, but still just a list. A few days ago, Colonel Lang asked me to take a closer look at the speech. Clearly he saw something I missed in my initial cursory reading. I read it again. It is one hell of a speech. Shoigu says a lot more than merely listing what new weapons are in the hands of Russian soldiers. “SouthFront” offered an English translation of the speech which first appeared at “Red Star,” the official newspaper of the Russian Federation MOD. The “SouthFront” article begins as follows.   

“Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu took part in the extended meeting of the Defense Committee of the State Duma. The head of the defense ministry gave a detailed update to those in attendance about the results of the six-year large-scale work to strengthen the defense capability of the Russian state by increasing the combat power of our Armed Forces. In fact, Russia now has a completely different army compared to the one it had prior to 2013. Today we are publishing the full text of a speech by Army General Sergei Shoigu at an expanded meeting of the Committee on Defense of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.”

The speech is filled with numbers and facts and is blessedly short of propagandistic hyperbole. Who needs propaganda when the facts speak for themselves. First some of the facts. Improvements to the strategic rocket forces include 12 RS-24 Yars MIRV ICBM regiments (109 missiles), 108 submarine launched ICBMs, probably the new Bulava missiles and 3 Borei class missile submarines built to use the new Bulava missiles.

 

Perpetuating the Syrian Delusion by Larry Johnson

I wish we could say that the lies and self-deception that are the core of U.S. policy and actions in Syria are an isolated incident. Sadly, no. On almost every issue--from the Russian threat to the 12 doom countdown on climate change--Americans are being fed a steady stream of bullshit and there is virtually no pushback or derision.

I bring this up in light of the media's current coverage of the "defeat" of ISIS in Syria. According to the media and punditry meme, this is the result of vigorous and persistent action by U.S. ground forces in Syria and that 2000 brave men (and very few women) have flushed ISIS into the bowels of history. No one dare mention the fact that the United States is violating international law by carrying out military operations on Syrian territory. Nope. Don't fit the meme.

The Washington Post piece is representative of the nonsense being reported:

HARPER: PRESIDENT TRUMP NEEDS A GOOD PLUMBER

President Donald Trump is more isolated than at any time since taking office.  And the prime cause of that isolation is John Bolton.  Since taking over as National Security Advisor to the President in April 2018, Bolton has purged everyone with area expertise from the National Security Staff and replaced them with sycophants whose primary qualifications are long decades of collaboration with Bolton.

The day after he took over as National Security Advisor, Bolton demanded--and got--the resignation of Tom Bossert, who was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to President Trump, holding equal rank to Bolton and having direct access to the President.  Soon after Bossert caved in to Bolton's power grab, his deputy Rob Joyce, a top NSA cyber security section head, left the White House and returned to his old job at Fort Mead.  Ricky Waddell, the Deputy National Security Advisor was also fired by Bolton, as were NSC strategic communications head Michael Anton and Nadia Shadlow, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy.  Shadlow was the principal author of the December 2017 National Security Strategy of the United States.

Having removed the top level of the NSC staff, Bolton installed his former chief of staff at the UN Fred Fleitz as his chief of staff.  Fleitz departed in January 2019 to take over the Center for Security Policy from founder Frank Gaffney.  Bolton initially hired Mira Ricardel as Deputy National Security Advisor, but she only lasted until November 2018, when First Lady Melania Trump publicly demanded her removal after she was caught leaking negative stories on the First Lady to rightwing media.  Bolton replaced Ricardel with Charles Kupperman, who has been a close ally of Bolton since the Reagan era and served on the board of the CSP. 

Sarah Tinsley, who ran the John Bolton Super PAC and was Bolton's aide at the State Department and the UN, took over strategic communications for the NSC along with another Bolton longtime underling Garrett Marquis.

The purge and installing of loyalists was only half the picture.  Under President Trump's April 2017 national security policy memorandum, the NSC continues to work through the Principals Committee, made up of most Cabinet members; the Deputies Committee; and the Policy Coordination Committees, which do the day-to-day work preparing policy options for the Principals and the President and Vice President.

Since coming in, Bolton has virtually shut down the entire deliberative process.  Rarely are there Principal meetings, Deputy meetings or even working sessions of the PCCs.  Instead, Bolton maintains a padlock on the Oval Office and brings in individual Cabinet members on specific policy issues.  Bolton is omnipresent in all those Oval Office sessions.

Since the December departures of John Kelly and James Mattis, Bolton has had near total control over the flow of policy recommendations into the President.  Better said:  The lack of flow.  The pipeline is shut down to a dangerous degree.  In that void, Bolton has the President's ear more than anyone else.  

Bolton walks a fine line between influencing Presidential decisions and sabotaging them when Trump goes off message.  When the President ordered the withdrawal of the 2,200 US troops from Syria, Bolton--not Secretary of State Mike Pompeo--went to Turkey and Israel to undermine the President's decision by assuring that no viable exit plan could be carried out.  When the media started leaking stories that the President had reversed course--a lie countered by Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford within moments of the Wall Street Journal story appearing--there were few who doubted that Bolton or one of his mice was the source of the Administration leak.

Not a good situation campers.

The McCains - re-posted 21 March, 2019

In the context of the recent remarks by President Trump and the state funeral given to Senator (Captain, USN) John McCain this earlier piece is worth a re-read.  pl

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 "Since his birth, it had been assumed that John Sidney McCain III would follow his ancestors' paths, something he sought to do for 23 years following his graduation from the Naval Academy, until shortly after his father's death in 1981. As he has risen in elective politics toward the Republican presidential nomination, his speeches and writing have illuminated the careful attention his parents paid to planning his life's mission: No other presidential standard-bearer during the past half-century ever had an early adulthood as thoroughly mapped out for him as John McCain.

His Navy career, like his choice of college, was a function of his parents' wishes, and his early life had a foreordained quality rare even among precocious political wunderkinds."  Michael Leahy

--------------

The McCains are an interesting family, interesting in the sense of the Chinese aphorism.  This essay appeared in the Washington Post in April, 2008.  It is worth reviewing.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/30/AR2008083001786.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._McCain,_Sr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._McCain,_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_McCain

Flash! US Gives Syrian Golan Heights to Israel

"President Donald Trump on Thursday overturned longstanding US policy regarding the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, announcing "it is time" for the US to "fully recognize Israel's sovereignty" over the region.

"After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability," Trump tweeted."  CNN

 

_______

 

This sounds like the Mustachioed Menace (Bolton) and his All Star team at work.   1. Help Bibi. 2. Weaken the Syrian government.  3.  Demonstrate to the Lebanese that parts of their strange little country could experience something similar in the south.  4.  Show everyone that the US is in charge of  - everything.

 

State sovereignty means nothing to these people.  The post-Westphalia international system means nothing to them.

 

Trump does not have a clue about the ME but Ivanka and Jared are pleased I am sure.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/21/politics/trump-golan-heights-tweet/index.html

Trump Backs Public Release Of Mueller Report - NPR

"Amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller will soon complete his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, President Trump says he looks forward to seeing the report and that it should be made public.

Answering questions from reporters on the South Lawn of the White House prior to traveling to Ohio Wednesday, Trump said of Muller's report, "let it come out. Let people see it, that's up to the attorney general."  NPR

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Well, he has to say that the AG is in charge.  The Democrats are waiting for an opportunity to accuse Trump of suppressing the report or parts of t.  Having watched Barr testify I would say that he will not take orders from Trump in this matter if it is clear that Trump wishes to suppress evidence.

On the other hand if Trump chooses to direct a somewhat reluctant Barr to de-classify it all, including US classified information IMO he will be entirely within his legal power to do so and should do so.  So far as I can understand the Russiagate collusion and conspiracy fraud would be exposed by such exposure to the light of public knowledge.

Indictments for conspiracy to commit sedition might result?  Good!

Foreign intelligence relations may be damaged because of their cooperation in this fraud?  So what!  Everyone involved in this fraud should pay a high price for their duplicity.  pl

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705162788/trump-backs-public-release-of-mueller-report

Saudi Arabia - an absolutist tyranny

"The Rapid Intervention Group also appears to have been involved in the detention and abuse of about a dozen women’s rights activists, who were detained last spring and summer. The activists, who had campaigned for lifting the kingdom’s ban on driving by women, included several well-known figures: Loujain al-Hathloul, who had been jailed for trying to drive her car into the kingdom from the United Arab Emirates; Aziza al-Yousef, a retired computer science professor; and Eman al-Nafjan, the linguistics lecturer.

At first, the women were not held in a prison, but were detained informally in what appeared to be an unused palace in the Red Sea port city of Jidda, according to Ms. al-Hathloul’s sister, Alia. Each woman was locked in a small room, and the windows were covered. Some of the women were frequently taken downstairs for interrogation, which included beatings, electric shocks, waterboarding and threats of rape and murder.

In an Op-Ed article for The New York Times, Alia al-Hathloul wrote that Mr. al-Qahtani was “present several times” when her sister was tortured, and that he threatened to kill her and throw her body in the sewer.

Loujain al-Hathloul, who was jailed for trying to drive her car into the kingdom from the United Arab Emirates.CreditReuters

Image

The treatment was so harsh that Ms. al-Nafjan tried to commit suicide, according to a United States intelligence assessment.

The women were later moved to the Dhahban Prison in Jidda, where the physical abuse stopped and their relatives were allowed to visit, Ms. al-Hathloul said.

Their trial opened in Riyadh on Wednesday, but journalists and diplomats were not permitted to attend, and the government did not announce the charges against them."   NYT

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Hello?  Trump thinks that a government that treats women like this is a desirable ally?  I understand that the Israelis will stop at nothing in seeking allies against their favorite demons, the Iranians.  You remember them, pilgrims, they haunt the dreams of Israelis, neocons and evidently the Trump family.  Should they so haunt the dreams of us ordinary folk that we link our fates to that of a medieval tyranny like Saudi Arabia?  I think not.  pl

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/middleeast/khashoggi-crown-prince-saudi.html?emc=edit_th_190318&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=4051510318

The Black Velvet Band

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Irish+music&&view=detail&mid=18F6F35EB8A883CD003918F6F35EB8A883CD0039&&FORM=VRDGAR

pl

HARPER: THE DIALECTICS OF STUPIDITY

Someone astute once said "history repeats itself--the first as tragedy and then as farce."  Oh, yes, it was Karl Marx in his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon.  Quite relevant to the subject.

I have followed the beginning of the 2020 presidential campaign undecided whether to cry or laugh.  That is to say, I am undecided whether to view the unfolding season as a tragic or farcical circumstance.

Of particular agony is the back-and-forth between President Trump and his sycophants on the one side and the nominal Democratic wunderkind AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for those living on another planet) on the other.  Trumpers label her as a dangerous socialist and vow to defend America against a resurgence of socialism.  AOC returns the volley by declaring that she is, indeed a socialist, and the socialistic redistribution of billionaire fortune is what's best for the United States.  Mainstream Democrats are terrified that AOC and her Millennial fans will hijack the 2020 primary campaign and once again allow the Democrats to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.

Between AOC and The Donald, I doubt that a single page of the writings of Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, or Mao Zedong have been read and digested.

There were serious revolutions in the 19th and early 20th century.  Marx's writings on class warfare, the theory of surplus value and related topics were once seriously studied and gave some foundation to serious revolutionary thinkers.  There were ferocious debates, particularly in Bolshevik Soviet Union post-1917 that led to firing squads and other serious consequences.  Socialism in one country of Stalin versus permanent revolution of Trotsky was a core issue in shaping world revolution in the 1930s.  The Popular Front Against Fascism was Stalin's approach to align with the United States and others to defeat the Nazis.  20 million Russians and 23 million Chinese died in the fight.  16 million Americans were sent to battle in Europe and the Pacific during World War II.  But the moment the war ended, the new Cold War started.  It was a struggle between Soviet Communism and Western Democracy, led by the United States.  It had real consequences.  It led to the rise of what President Eisenhower warned of as the "military-industrial complex" in his Farewell Address.

Relative to these genuine battles over ideas, I find the current debate worse than farce.  If the best that the two major parties can come up with in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections is a debate over "socialism for dummies," then the real losers will be the American people.

I hope this thread sparks some response.  I am touching on a big subject in a few words.  Is there a genuine emergence of Millennial Socialism?  AOC's self-proclaimed Green New Deal has nothing to do with FDR's actions in 1933, which were aimed, in part, at preparing the United States for the next war that was already looming in Europe.  Reichstag Fire was February 27,1933.  FDR was inaugurated March 4, 1933--not even a week later.  Serious times demand serious ideas and rich debate.  Not kindergarten name calling from the peanut gallery.

Manafort's Ukrainians were actually pro-West? - Habakkuk

Unfortunately, I have been taken up with the doings of another Christopher – surnamed Donnelly – whose antics with the ‘Institute for Statecraft’ and ‘Integrity Initiative’ seem just as ludicrous as those of Steele, and equally destructive.

I hope to come back to the implications of what has been coming out on your side about the dossier attributed to Steele in more depth in the none-too-distant future, particular if in fact the depositions made by him and David Kramer are unsealed reasonably promptly, but some background remarks may be worth throwing into the discussion.

It cannot be repeated often enough that an enormous amount of damage has been done as a result of people forming their impressions of MI6 from David Cornwell, aka John Le Carré, rather than Graham Greene.

A critical point is that, while if ‘humint’ is pursued by competent people, it can be invaluable, if pursued by incompetents, like so many of those Greene had known in his time in the wartime MI6, and portrayed so marvellously in ‘Our Man in Havana’, it is common for an ‘echo chamber’ to be set up, where people are told what they want to hear.

Those providing the ‘echo’ may genuinely share the delusions involved – or they may cynically exploit these, as part of a deliberate strategy of making the incompetents instruments of their own agendas (as MI5 and the Naval Intelligence Division did with the Abwehr during the war. MI6, largely incompetent apart from the section Philby ran, was marginal.)

That precisely this kind of ‘echo chamber’ had been set up by the Berezovsky group with people like Steele was the thrust of a pointed remark made by Andrei Lugovoi in the press conference on 31 May 2007 where he responded to the Crown Prosecution Service request for his extradition.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 14 MARCH 2013 (By Patrick Armstrong)

TIME AND PREDICTIONS. Gorbachev became GenSek 34 years ago on Monday. I remember Dr Leonid Abalkin saying first stage six months, second stage three years, third stage 30 years. And I've kept that in the back of my mind ever since. Well, here we are, plus or minus: 1985.25+33.5=2018.75 years. (Remember that he said this back when people were babbling about how you can't cross a chasm in two steps, shock therapy, 500 days and similar feel-good bromides. Read Janine Wedel's book and go back to the day when some American operator knocked on a door in St Petersburg, recognised his doppelganger, and they realised how much they could steal. Now Russian luxury cars in Swiss car shows which is a sign of something.) I met him again when I was a dip on Moscow: I think he didn't become world-famous because he didn't speak English but, truth to tell, English fluency probably wouldn't have helped because what he was saying didn't Fit The Story. But the people who were proved wrong well before he was proved right are still out there gilding turds; for example.

ARMS CONTROL. Of the four important arms control treaties left to us, only one remains and it probably won't survive. Washington has killed them (although, typically, blaming Moscow as it did).

TAXI! Is Russia going to lose its monopoly as the Only Taxi Service to the ISS?

SANCTIONS. RUSAL profits up and Russia’s European gas market share up. Not working. Three reasons: the West's so-called world community isn't that large; Russia is not just a "gas station" – it's a full-service economy; Russians don't give in. (And a fourth – Washington's "shallow bench" on Russia.)

GUNS. Shoygu addressed a Duma committee: 316 weapons tested in Syria. In six years 217 new nuclear missiles; 3 SSBNs; 57 spacecraft; 7 submarines; 3,712 new and upgraded tanks; more than 1,000 planes and helicopters; 161 surface ships. See below and below.

YET ANOTHER NEW WEAPON. A large version of these. UK media gets another fit of the vapours.

WAR GAMES. Some attention has been given to the findings of RAND that the US has "its ass handed to it" in war games with Russia and China. (In their home ground, of course: the USA remains almost 100% safe from foreign attack.) No news to some of us (I here and here) but somewhat of a shock at home. But, you'll be happy to hear, the problem can be fixed with a few billion dollars. (The US already outspends the next eight countries but just a few more bucks and it'll be done.) What is striking about this sort of thing is that there is never any consideration of what diplomacy could do or that the US should stay out of Russia and China's home ground. Reminds one of Einstein's supposed remark about insanity, doesn't it?

HOW WE LOST RUSSIA. US Ambassador explains. Haven't read it but a colleague has so I don't have to: "our junior partner" "post-traumatic stress disorder" "little inclination to concede much to a declining power." "Putin has a remarkable capacity for storing up slights and grievances, and assembling them to fit his narrative of the West trying to keep Russia down." Poor Americans! What can you do with such an sulky neighbour?

LEXUS AND VOVAN DO VENEZUELA. They catch both the puppeteer and the puppet. These two produce more truthful revelations than a year's subscription to the NYT.

TRUMP AND THE GORDIAN KNOT. Washington is said to be considering charging hosts for US bases (at 150%); threatens Turkey; threatens Germany; threatens Italy. I still like my theory that Trump's doing it on purpose to make them cut the knot.

US MEDIA. A poll shows that "hardly any confidence at all in the press" is the winning answer.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. The bottom is still far away: Dostoevskiy and measles.

NATO. Creating new enemies wherever it goes. "They’re terrorists because their orange groves have been destroyed and they’ve got nothing to do."

PROBLEMS WITH THE NARRATIVE. The OPCW report of the alleged CW attack in Douma (used as the excuse for an attack by FUKUS – love that acronym!) says no nerve agent. MSM does its best (there are many traces of chlorine in your house) and the US State Department sticks to its line. Its new line that is: yesterday's line was "Douma symptoms consistent with nerve agent: U.S. State Department".

UKRAINE. We're now told that Ukrainian troops in Crimea were ordered to shoot and refused orders. As few in the West remember, most of them either joined the Russian Armed Forces or quit.

UKRAINE ELECTION. The actor is presently leading; nazi groups are taking sides. 17 days to go.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

Singer's clients actually received discounts on admissions

Well, pilgrims.  It has always been the case that if you give a college or university a lot of money or real estate for some purpose like a building or an endowed chair, you acquired a lot of leverage with that school in the matter of admissions of interest to you.  Higher education is a form of business.   A wag recently said that Harvard is basically a hedge fund with a university held as a subsidiary.  How big is the Harvard endowment?  How many Harvard Clubs are there in the Boston area? 

It matters not if the schools is public or private.  They all want the money.  The service academies don't need the money but they still want it in order to gold plate their athletic programs. Students at the academies are chosen for admission by the institutions, not by the people who nominated them.

A building given as gift will cost you millions.  An endowed chair will cost you millions.  

The people who participated in Singer's scheme paid far less than that.  They actually got a discount compared to the more traditional way of paying for admissions.  pl

The Paul Manafort sentence and the notorious and diabolical federal sentencing guidelines

By Robert Willmann

Crime is a legal definition. This means that to commit big crime you make it legal.  Or, you can try to enhance your commercial business or money making organization by getting conduct made into a crime that is competition to your activity, like is found in copyright law, and is done by state governments that make gambling illegal but have state-run lotteries in which the odds of winning are so remote they make the negative percentage in Las Vegas casino games look like a paragon of virtue.   This also means that the concept of a crime is created by a government, even though it is commonly thought to be bad behavior (or a failure to act), as described by social relations, culture, religion, and human biology (with murder opposed by the instinctive act of self defense).  Conduct that is said to be bad enough is defined as a crime and involves the government using force directly against the actor at least in the form initially of an arrest, possible imprisonment, or later if an order from a criminal court case is not followed.

The ongoing jabbering in the mass media -- starting in November 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president -- declared that all sorts of conduct was illegal, as a civil or criminal case, or should be the subject of charges for impeachment.  A lot of that talk can be described as horse manure, but it has had a real effect on the public, which effect has been and is the intent.  It reached a fever pitch last week when Judge T.S. Ellis III, an American hero, in a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, sentenced Paul Manafort in one of his two criminal cases to 47 months in prison, which was noticeably below the "sentencing guidelines range" of 235 to 293 months--

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/files/manafort_court_sentencing_minutes.pdf

Television talkers expressed shock and dismay that Manafort received such a "low" sentence below the guidelines and they look forward with glee to his second sentencing on 13 March, beginning at 9:30 a.m., eastern time, in federal court in Washington DC, with Judge Amy Berman Jackson presiding.  Her rulings can be described as statistically matching to a degree those requested by government prosecutors in cases brought by "special counsel" Robert Mueller, who was tasked to investigate "interference" in the 2016 presidential election by the Russian government, with attention to "collusion" by the Trump campaign, but mysteriously not involving possible collusion with Russia by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Bruce Ohr, Liar or Moron? by Larry C Johnson

Sorry to have been out of pocket (I've fled the wintry north for a new home in Florida). I am back, so to speak, and ready to write a bit. Last week's release by Congressman Collins of the interview transcript of Bruce Ohr, who appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last year is quite damning of the FBI and the DOJ. If our system of justice is truly blind and committed to fairness, there is little doubt that former FBI and DOJ officials--Comey, McCabe, Yates and Rosenstein--will be facing serious legal jeopardy. They have lied.

The biggest "revelations" from Ohr are as follows:

1. Christopher Steele, a "former" MI-6 officer, had been a paid FBI informant for several years.
2. Bruce Ohr met with Glenn Simpson in August 2016, which totally contradicts Simpson's previous sworn testimony that he did not meet with Ohr until after the 2016 election.
3. Ohr informed FBI and senior DOJ officials, who signed off on the FISA application in October 2016 to spy on Carter Page, that the "dossier" had a tainted political history.

I put "revelations" in quotations because we already knew most of this--specifically Steele's status as a paid informant and the failure of the FBI and DOJ to verify the accuracy of the so-called dossier. The new meat on the bone is Ohr's claim that he met with Simpson in August 2016. Simpson swore under oath that no such meeting took place. That's a substantive lie and, if the Flynn case is a guide, Mr. Simpson will be looking at prison.

 

"Bad Blood" - Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou - Observations by Walrus.

I wrote in 2010 at SST on the characteristics and dangers associated with  narcissistic leadership. "Bad Blood' by John Carreyrou chronicles the rise and fall of Theranos, a Silicon Valley healthcare startup founded and run by Elizabeth Holmes, a card carrying narcissist if ever I saw one. This book, in my opinion, paints such a detailed and comprehensive picture of the way these creatures operate that I thought it worthwhile to bring it to the attention of SST members who may doubt my warnings of the dangers of allowing such folk near the levers of power in business and, worse, Government. I read this book over two nights and it unfortunately brought back my own experiences of working for a narcissist to the point of causing sleeplessness and indigestion.

Under the direction of the charismatic Holmes, Theranos burned through some $900 million in investors funds before being found out in 2015. Their blood testing business was a sham that endangered patients. The company's key business strengths were the "reality distortion field" Elizabeth Holmes projected over investors and  directors and the twin weapons of secrecy and fear they wielded over their employees.

Disbelievers my argue that start up companies sometimes require desperate measures to stay afloat and that you cannot make an omelette, etc. etc. However the pattern of behavior at Theranos was ingrained and consistent - "an orchestrated litany of lies" as a judge has said in another matter.

If you wish to perhaps be a little forearmed against the day that you perhaps must engage with one of these creatures it would be well to understand the cautionary tale of Theranos.

https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Blood-Secrets-Silicon-Startup/dp/152473165X

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2010/05/walrus-on-narcissistic-leaders-.html

Senator, Colonel (ret.), Martha McSally vs the rapists

"UCMJ art. 43(a). Offenses without a statute of limitations include: absence without leave, missing movement in a time of war; murder, rape and rape of a child, and any offense punishable by death. In Willenbring v. Neurauter, 48 M.J. 152 (C.A.A.F. 1998), aff’d, 57 M.J. 321 (C.A.A.F. 2002), the Court found that the statute of limitations under Article 43 does not bar trial for rape, as any offense “punishable by death” may be tried at any time without limitation, even if it is referred as a no..."  Michael Waddington

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"On March 6, 2019, during a hearing on Sexual Assault and Misconduct in the Military at the United States Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, McSally informed her colleagues that she had been raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force: "I also am a military sexual assault survivor, but unlike so many brave survivors, I didn’t report being sexually assaulted. Like so many women and men, I didn’t trust the system at the time. I blamed myself. I was ashamed and confused. I thought I was strong but felt powerless. The perpetrators abused their position of power in profound ways. In one case I was preyed upon and raped by a superior officer." McSally did not name the officer, but said she shares the disgust at the failures of the military system and many commanders to address sexual violence. Her revelation came over a month after fellow Senator Joni Ernst revealed that she was raped while in college."  wiki on McSally

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_McSally#Military_career

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Well, pilgrims, Colonel (ret.) Martha McSally is a US Air Force Academy graduate (USAFA).  In other words she was not just another pilot/aviator.  She was an insider in the USAFA insiders club in the USAF.  Just as there is a West Point graduates insiders club in the Army, the same thing is true in the Air Force. 

She is now an appointed US Senator from Arizona and a member of the powerful Armed Services Committee of the US Senate. 

There is no statute of limitations with regard to the crime of rape in the system of US military justice as created by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Well???  Where is it?  Where is the criminal prosecution for the person or persons (her plural) who she says abused her and in one case raped her?  Where is it?  The man or men involved are probably either retired from the USAF or dead.  That would mattes not.  Retired officers can be recalled to active duty for prosecution.  That is what it means to be "retired" as opposed to "former."  Was the alleged rapist her rater, i.e., the man who wrote her ticket for advancement?  Curious minds want to know.  pl

" ... higher pay and better jobs." Washpost

"Workers are receiving the fattest wage increases since the Great Recession as employers struggle to find enough people to fill their ranks and employees have more leverage to demand higher pay and jump to better jobs.

Wages grew 3.4 percent in the past year, the government reported Friday, the fastest pace in nearly a decade and well above inflation, suggesting that employers are hustling to lure and retain workers. Many are slashing requirements for jobs and are hiring workers quickly to prevent them from being scooped up by competitors, a far cry from the days when job seekers felt lucky to even get a callback.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent in February, marking one year of sitting at or below 4 percent, a level many economists regard as “full employment” — when there are few people left who want jobs and cannot get them."  Washpost

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Interestingly, the Washington Post print and online editions seem to be run by two quite different groups of people.  This article was above the fold and right side in today's print paper.  This indicates the editorial staff's opinion as to what is the most important story in the paper.  In contrast the online edition does not even mention the story.  I had to go to the print edition to recover the story.

I do not know what you were taught, but in Economics 101 or whatever it was I was taught that 4% unemployment is FULL EMPLOYMENT because the 4% or less of those still unemployed have significant structural obstacles to employment, health, age, etc.

It seems to me that both Trump and Obama should get some credit for this situation in the minds of working men and women.

Do they?  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/workers-suddenly-have-more-power-to-demand-higher-pay-and-better-jobs/2019/03/08/6668659c-41bc-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html?utm_term=.24450d0f9161

Chapter Meeting in New Guinea

Our correspondent, "The Virginian" now resident in Papua, New Guinea sends us this scene from a meeting he recently attended in Hela Province.  The old SF men here will find the scene familiar.

Download IMG_0089

pl

Crew Dragon has returned.

NASA TV

"SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule splashed into the Atlantic Ocean after completing its test flight for NASA.

SpaceX splashed its Crew Dragon capsule into the Atlantic Ocean safely on Friday morning, completing the company's test flight to the International Space Station and moving the U.S. one step closer to being able to launch astronauts again.

This was the first time a privately-built spacecraft capable of carrying humans has visited the space station. Additionally, it has been nearly 50 years since the splash down of Apollo 9, which was the last spacecraft built for humans to return to the Atlantic Ocean.

Known as Demo-1, the mission is one of the final steps for Elon Musk's space company to receive NASA approval to fly astronauts on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon. While Demo-1 did not have any crew, in one of the seat's was a "lifelike" test device called Ripley in a SpaceX flight suit. Ripley, named after the main character of the 1979 movie "Alien," was equipped with sensors to provide SpaceX and NASA data about the spaceflight experience.

Scheduled for July, SpaceX mission Demo-2 will carry the company's first two NASA astronauts. The U.S. has not launched its own astronauts since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, relying on Russian rockets and capsules instead.

Under NASA parameters, SpaceX has one hour to recover Crew Dragon from the ocean. The capsule will then be returned to Port Canaveral, Florida, where inspections will begin ahead of SpaceX's next key test: an "in-flight abort," which will happen before the Demo-2 mission."  CNBC

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Enough said.  pl

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/spacex-crew-dragon-splashdown-in-the-atlantic-ocean-for-nasa.html

Just gone fishin' ...

"Nadler on Monday issued the first round of document requests as part of a sweeping investigation into President Trump's campaign, business and administration. The investigation will focus on three key areas, Nadler said: obstruction of justice, public corruption and abuses of power.

Trump, who over the weekend railed against Democratic oversight efforts, said Monday that he cooperates "all the time with everybody," when asked if he would comply with Nadler's requests. He went on to decry the investigation as a "hoax."

Nadler defended his committee's actions, arguing it's part of the panel's constitutional duty to conduct oversight. 

"We’re simply exercising our oversight jurisdiction, and he doesn’t understand it, or he’s not willing to concede to Congress that we have an oversight jurisdiction," Nadler said. 

He reiterated that he believes Congress is still "far from" impeachment proceedings. Nadler would oversee such proceedings as chairman of the Judiciary Committee." The Hill

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"Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation."  wiki on Congressional Oversight

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"Executive privilege is the power of the President of the United States and other members of the executive branch of the United States Government to resist certain subpoenas and other interventions by the legislative and judicial branches of government in pursuit of information or personnel relating to the executive. The power of Congress or the federal courts to obtain such information is not mentioned explicitly in the United States Constitution, nor is there any explicit mention in the Constitution of an executive privilege to resist such requests from Congress or courts."  wiki on Executive Privilege

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Eric Trump is not a government employee or official.  Neither is his brother, Donald Junior.  Eric Trump said on Fox today that Gerald Nadler, the Captain Ahab of the Judicial Committee of the House, sent him a letter asking for all transcripts of his telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin.  He states that he has never spoken to Vladimir Putin.

I ask YOU, pilgrims, by what legal right does Nadler demand private records from someone who is not a government official or consultant?  Eric's sister Ivanka and her husband Jered Kushner ARE a dollar a year type consultants for President Trump.  The record of their government actions are, I think, fair game for Nadler's inquisitional proceedings.  Ah, that is probably not a reference he would like. "You never know when to expect the Spanish Inquisition!"  But, I question whether or not Nadler will be too interested in the record of Ivanka and Jared's interventions in the ME in Saudi Arabia or Israel.

This "oversight" proceeding reminds of the old, old, Tee Vee show called "This is your life" in which some hapless victim was seated supposedly unexpectedly on stage while various figures from his youth and maturity came out from behind the curtain to tell all about him.  A lot of it was acutely embarrassing to an adult.  I, for one, do not want the world to be told of my youthful boorishnesses however stupid they may have been. Trump's high school and college conduct is now called into question.  He evidently sought to protect the privacy of school records by suppressing them.   He didn't want his high school grades to pass into the hands of his enemies?   What a surprise!  He probably was a poor student.  I was an excellent student but I don't want my transcripts to be made public.

What the Democrats led by Nadler are doing reminds of "Moby Dick."

For Captain Ahab cried,  "Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave." pl

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/432575-nadler-says-ivanka-trump-others-could-quite-conceivably-be-contacted-in-house

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_oversight

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_privilege

“Watch the film the Israeli lobby didn’t want you to see” - TTG

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has caught intense flak over her comments questioning the influence of the Israeli lobby in US foreign policy and the split allegiances of some Jewish-Americans. The vociferous attacks on the Congresswoman coalesce around one theme, criticism of Israel equals antisemitism. This is a consistent theme. Walt and Mearsheimer endured the same accusations when they wrote their essay, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” in 2006. The attacks did not let up with the publication of their book of the same name in 2007. At that time, Mearsheimer and Walt described the Israel lobby as a loose coalition. Perhaps at that time it largely was a loose coalition brought together as a counter against the ugliness of antisemitism. I think it was more than that back then and it is certainly more than that now. It is a far reaching and powerful phenomena largely consisting of a coordinated information operation run out of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs to further Israeli government policies.

Al Jazeera has put together an excellent series on this phenomena. The first piece of in depth investigative reporting examined the activities of the Israel lobby in Britain entitled “The Lobby.” They followed this series up with “The Lobby - USA” covering the lobby’s actions in the US in 2016. So far I watched the first part of this four part series focusing on the campaign to derail the BDS movement on the UC Davis campus and in Washington DC. This is how modern information operations are conducted. The series was released by the Electronic Intifada rather than Al Jazeera because Qatar censored the series after being pressured by Washington, Tel Aviv and probably Riyadh. 

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"The Electronic Intifada has obtained a complete copy of The Lobby – USA, a four-part undercover investigation by Al Jazeera into Israel’s covert influence campaign in the United States. We are releasing the leaked film simultaneously with France’s Orient XXI and Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar, which have respectively subtitled the episodes in French and Arabic. The film was made by Al Jazeera during 2016 and was completed in October 2017. But it was censored after Qatar, the gas-rich Gulf emirate that funds Al Jazeera, came under intense Israel lobby pressure not to air the film. Although Al Jazeera’s director-general claimed last month that there were outstanding legal issues with the film, his assertions have been flatly contradicted by his own journalists."

"In March, The Electronic Intifada was the first to report on any of the film’s specific content. We followed this in August by publishing the first extract of the film, and shortly after Max Blumenthal at the Grayzone Project released others. Since then, The Electronic Intifada has released three other extracts, and several other journalists have watched the entire film and written about it – including Alain Gresh and Antony Loewenstein. Now The Electronic Intifada can reveal for the first time that it has obtained all four parts of the film."  (Electronic Intifada)

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The first episode of the series offers a graphic portrayal of a a modern information operation. It largely centers on the activities of one Julia Reifkind, an American employed first by AIPAC and then by the Israeli Embassy. She reported to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs (MSA) with its office in the same building as the Israeli PM. On a daily basis she monitored BDS social media communications and activity using pseudonyms. She gave the collected info to her Embassy boss who transmitted the info back to the MSA. The MSA would pass instructions back to Rifkind through the DC Embassy. She also conducted activities including direct IO action on the UC Davis campus at the direction of the MSA. Dual allegiance my ass! She’s an American citizen employed as an Israeli intelligence and action agent. Her only allegiance is to Israel.

In all of Reifkind’s pro-Israeli activities, she probably didn’t break any US laws, just Facebook TOS in using her pseudonyms. What Al Jazeera did is what we should do. Expose this activity to the light of day. At a minimum, we could be aggressively publicizing this Al Jazeera documentary. I don’t blame the Israeli government for conducting these intelligence and IO activities any more than I blame Russia, China and others for undertaking these activities in their own interests. It’s not war, but we shouldn’t sit back and let this stuff go on unchallenged. We should officially encourage more of this kind of investigative reporting and commence a vigorous public awareness campaign concerning this threat. Expose the vampire to sunlight and holy water. Beyond that, LEA, IC and CYBERCOM elements should be tearing into foreign country’s activities and capabilities in this area without mercy. After all, it’s not war.

In the case of Israeli IO, we must work to break the idea that opposition to Israeli governmental policies and actions is equivalent to antisemitism. Given the persistence of that idea and the lengths the Israeli government goes to reinforce that persistence, this is a tall order. However, it must be confronted. In this vein, I welcome those voices in the Democratic Party who are speaking out in defense of Ilhan Omar. If it causes strife within the Democratic Party, so be it. Some fights are worth the price.

TTG

https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSjXhMUVKE  (The Lobby - USA, episode 1 - The Covert War) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XytkI7afHcQ  (The Lobby - USA, episode 2 - Managing Elites)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-Dm4pO0xY  (The Lobby - USA, episode 3 - The Witch Hunt)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1OgxfCT044  (The Lobby - USA, episode 4 - Marketing Occupation)

Looks like the Democrats are falling apart.

" ... other lawmakers, including a group of Jewish members who pushed to pass the resolution focused on anti-Semitism, remain convinced that the House needs to act in response to Omar’s remarks. Twice in the previous two months, Omar has apologized for past remarks perceived as anti-Semitic, but she has publicly defended the most recent episode as a valid criticism of Israel’s influence in American politics.

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who is among the Jewish members involved in crafting the initial resolution, rose to defend the resolution and, according to one member present, grew emotional. He said his colleagues needed to understand that these sort of words were hurtful to people like himself who had dealt with them all their lives.

Hanging over the internal debate among Democrats is political pressure from Republicans eager to position their party as the more reliable ally of Israel — and a more appealing choice for Jewish voters who have long trended Democratic.'

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Will Rogers once said from the stage (presumably while doing rope twirling tricks) that he belonged to no organized party, because he was a Democrat. 

FDR revolutionized the Democratic Party.  He managed to combine Southern conservative segregationists with Union Labor and Northeastern liberals into one voting mass.  That was a neat trick, but the season for that coalition seems to be ending.

Bernie Sanders "screwed the pooch" on that by appealing directly to the Millennial crowd and wistful Leftists with a platform that was openly marxist in its assumptions about money, banking and the economy in general (I wish I had taken that particular course).  This was naturally appealing to youngsters saddled with a mountain of college debt who had spent several years as captive audiences for professors who were basically refugees from the '60s and still unfulfilled in the hope of realization of the kind of wisdom displayed in the stage production "Hair" which blighted the country's dinner theaters in those long ago times. 

Malcontents of all kinds have flocked to the Bernie Banner.  These include; ethnic minorities still searching for 4,000 acres a mule  and someone who will buy them, people like Ilhan Omar who evidently think movements like Shabab deserve sympathy, people like AOC who somehow graduated in economics without absorbing much of anything except the Labor Theory of Value.  She is cute but funny.  She evidently thought that incentives for Amazon, NYC would be paid out of a pot of Leprechaun's Gold hidden somewhere ,somewhere...  Having negotiated with state governments over such incentives I believe she should be told that what they were talking about were future reductions in taxes to be paid by Amazon. 

The caucus revolt described in this argument is impressive.  IMO Pelosi and Chucky boy will preside over the destruction of the donkey party.  No more can it be said that the GOP is the special province of disunion.

And, of course, the Republicans are doing everything they can to pour fuel on the fire.  Lin Cheney?  Puhleese!  pl

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-democrats-erupt-in-protests-over-indirect-sanction-of-rep-omar-for-alleged-anti-semitism/2019/03/06/c06bcd18-4022-11e9-85ad-779ef05fd9d8_story.html?utm_term=.32dbc76a6e6f

What is HAMAS?

"When Hamas was created, with the aided influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization was not at first much of an armed group, that came five years later in the form of the Izz Ad-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades (Armed wing of Hamas).

Hamas however was far more radical than the Mujamma, had a Palestinian nationalist flavor to its Islamic ideology and attempted to follow in the footsteps of the likes of the Islamic revolution in Iran.

A famous speech, delivered by former US representative for Texas, Ron Paul, is often used as reference point for claiming that Hamas was an invention of Israel and hence prompting the idea that Hamas must be controlled by them still.
Ron Paul stated that, “if you look at the history, Hamas was encouraged and really started by Israel, because they wanted Hamas to counteract Yasser Arafat”.

This speech seems to be the reference point for many today, when it comes to their allegations of Israelis controlling and starting Hamas.

Although what Dr. Paul said, was very close to the truth, it was extremely broad and is often misinterpreted into something entirely false.

For some time, Israel still allowed for Hamas to operate, taking a hands off approach as it did with the Mujamma. It is completely true that Israel was utilizing Hamas as a counterweight to the Fatah movement, although there is no proof of any further cooperation with Hamas than this.

In 1984, the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, had already been imprisoned – until his release a year later as the result of a prisoner swap – for weapons smuggling. Israel was not the same partner that it had been to the Mujamma and was a lot more aware of its [Hamas] ambitions to reclaim Palestine."  AMN

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I was the head of liaison between DoD (DIA) and IDF General Staff intelligence for nine years (1985-1994).  As such I was the "minder" for the IDF reps in Washington based in their embassy.  The CIA tried continuously to acquire this task but without success.  They were not content to nurture their long standing relationship with Mossad, the Israeli civilian intelligence service.  In Israel, IDF intelligence is the senior service and the national estimator.

The brigadiers who seriatim were the chief military attache in the embassy spent a lot of time in my office consulting, being given guidance as to their sometimes arrogant and unacceptable behavior with regard to the DC police, and just chatting.  There were a lot of lunches and dinners with wives.  It was a very friendly set of relationships.  I used to take them to WBS battlefields both for the educational benefit for them concerning the US and to have a day in which to study them as individuals.

One day, sitting in my Pentagon office, the head man from the embassy began to tell me of his concern with regard to what was happening in the 2nd Intifada, then ongoing.  He told me that Israel had sponsored the growth of Hamas as a rival to the PLO, then in exile in Tunisia, believing that a religiously based resistance movement would attract many Palestinians, splitting them off from the PLO and generally weakening the Palestinian resistance.  Instead, the al-Qassem Brigades of Hamas were proving to be daunting opponents in the rebellion.  "Sometimes we outsmart ourselves," he said with a sad smile.  He was a very skilled man.  He was one of a small number of IDF officers trained as an Arab affairs specialist from secondary school onward. At one point he was Military Governor of the occupied West Bank.  I believe him.  pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/was-hamas-really-created-by-israel/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Liberation_Organization#Tunis

Nadler is the kangaroo in chief?

"House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who would eventually lead any impeachment proceedings, on Sunday signaled a significant escalation into congressional inquiries into the President.

The New York Democrat plans on Monday to request documents from 60 people and entities close to Trump, including from the Department of Justice, the White House and the Trump Organization.

The document trawl will be used "to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, about corruption and abuse of power," Nadler said on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday.

Nadler stuck to the House Democratic position that impeachment "is a long way down the road," apparently in order to avoid Republican arguments that the decision has already been made to try to oust Trump. The document requests are not taking place under the auspices of an official impeachment investigation."  CNN

 

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Nadler could not be more clear.  He and the other kangaroos in the Democrat herd (flock?) will search through every aspect of Trump's life for the purpose of finding something that will cause a revulsion against Trump among the American people.  If they can find that, their allies among the press and TeeVee agitprop apparatchiks will make judgments evident as to whether or not a bill of impeachment would result in a conviction in the senate.

 

This method is reminiscent of the attempt to impeach President Andrew Johnson.  Remember him? The Radical Republicans hated this Southern War Democrat simply because he was Southern without regard for his well demonstrated hatred for the planter class in the greater South as opposed to his east Tennessee anti-slavery home.

 

So, pilgrims, American tradition is to be reversed.  The Democrats will seek for confirmation bias of Trump's "crimes" because of their "progressive" hatred of his perhaps cynical leadership of a popular revolution against them and the idiot college kids.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/trump-mueller-report-nadler-investigation-impeachment/index.html

Trump Advisor Calls Congresswoman "Filth" on Fox TV's Varney & Co By DECAMERON

Jeff Ballabon is a not-so-high-level advisor to the Trump Election Campaign, but he's out to climb higher in the 2020 Campaign by denouncing US Representative Ilan Omar (D-Minnesota) as "filth," "disgusting" and "filthy."  She and her criticisms of Israel,  "got to go," he says. "So what if she's in Congress."  Does that mean "so what if American voters elected her?"  Ballabon's hurling was on the Varney & Co. show on Fox Business TV.

A bullyish loudmouth, Ballabon exemplifies what's wrong with the Israel Lobby, the Netanyahu-lovers, and Israel-firsters in America -- they don't really believe in democracy, and when American voters reject the candidates that get the "Benjamins" and other currency that the likes of Sheldon Adelson throw into election races every cycle, operatives like Ballabon snarl and gnash like rabid animals.  Preferably in front of TV cameras.

VARNEY: "Insulting language there."

BALLABON:  "Yes."

VARNEY: "Insulting to Ms. Omar. You've used it."

BALLABON:  "Yes."

VARNEY:  "I don't hear other Jewish members of Congress saying the same thing. They're not making the same demands and they're not using the same language."

BALLABON:  "Absolutely correct. They're still playing politics...."

Using vile, violent language, Ballabon called Omar "a filthy, disgusting hater. So what if she's in Congress? That's the problem."  Her beliefs "got to go."  Her tweets scare him, Ballabon said.

But in the same Varney & Co. show, Ballabon also bellowed against American Jewish voters, denouncing them as "this ghetto of Jewish voters in the Democratic Party," who don't understand that Republicans like himself, as opposed to Jewish politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer, are their real friends.

The future of aviation

"The drone was developed in connection with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the Defence Science & Technology (DST) Group. Boeing further partnered with other defense firms such as BAE Systems Australia, Ferra Engineering, RUAG Australia, Micro Electronic Technologies, AME Systems, and Allied Data System, for the ATS development program.

“The partnership will produce a concept demonstrator of a low cost unmanned ‘Loyal Wingman’ aircraft, capable of operating in concert with Air Force’s fifth generation air combat capability,” Minister Pyne said in a statement.

“There is significant value investing in innovative, future leaning initiatives like this, particularly in the early conceptual stages where Defence can explore concept  s and define the role such capabilities can play in our national security framework.”

The first version of the ATS will employ electronic warfare sensors. Boeing said future versions of the drone would incorporate various types of advanced weaponry."  Mister Pyne

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I would suppose that USAF is not supportive of this development.  USAF, for all its blather about "the future," is a club for pilots, a club in which they are paid to do what they most want to do in life.  This flying automated beast is a vision of the real future, a future in which pilots are people who fly the airplanes from seats in air conditioned rooms that can be thousands of miles from the action.  Or perhaps they have very little role at all because the airplanes will fly themselves.  In a 5G world, the various airplanes will be talking to each other yet further reducing the need for wild blue yonder flights of fancy. "Reached up and touched the face of God," etc.

Australia, OTOH, has a much smaller and less powerful aviator club and finds the idea of reduced pilot training and maintenance programs attractive.  After all, UAVs do not have survivor families.  Nor do they have downstream financial costs like retired pay and medical benefits.  pl

https://southfront.org/boeing-unveils-wingman-combat-drone-that-supports-stealth-jets/

First Crew Dragon flight is a success!

"After the rocket’s first stage landed at sea, the Crew Dragon was on course to arrive early Sunday at the space station 250 miles overhead. Flight computers aimed to guide the craft directly into a docking port, unlike cargo versions of the Dragon that astronauts capture with a robotic arm.

Hours later, three Expedition 58 crew members including NASA’s Anne McClain planned to open the capsule’s hatch and welcome its sole occupant and some 400 pounds of supplies and experiments.

Wearing a white-and-black suit designed by SpaceX, Ripley was wired with numerous sensors to measure the temperatures, vibrations and pressure that real astronauts eventually will feel.

The six-day test mission anticipates the Crew Dragon undocking and firing thrusters to drop back to Earth for a Friday morning splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida."  USA Today

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Flight Officer Ripley is on this trip eh?  That was a great film.  I enjoyed it muchly. 

Apparently the Falcon 9 rocket, and the Drew Dragon passenger capsule performed flawlessly.

Take that Chinese!

Musk is an amazing fellow.  He is a little unstable as genius often is, but, so what!

I wonder where you take a leak in this thing?  It is, after all a two day trip up to the ISS.  pl

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/03/02/spacex-crew-dragon-kennedy-space-center/3038681002/

https://www.space.com/41365-how-spacex-crew-dragon-works.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_2

1 March, 2019 news

1.  The Democrats in Congress are going to waste more time and money investigating the manner of Trump's grant of access to classified information to Jared Kushner, his son in law and counselor.  As I have tried to explain before, the system of classification  of US government information and access to that information is not created by law.  It is altogether an aspect of regulation by the Chief Executive of the US, i.e., the president.  The system is an artifact of various executive orders, renewed in each new administration.  Therefore, the president can grant access to US classified information to anyone he thinks should have it.  The Democrats are wasting their time on this one.

2.  Bibi Natanyahu is going to be indicted for corruption even as he tries to tun for re-election against Benny Gantz, a former chief of staff of the IDF.  How entertaining!  Gantz was the big loser in in the 2006 Lebanon War against Hizbullah, but he is looking good against Bibi.  It is sad to see that Israeli Jewish political parties are now declaring their unwillingness to form governing coalitions with Israeli Arab political parties.  This gives the lie to Israeli claims that Arab citizens of Israel are not as much an occupied people as the Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank.  And, BTW, why is there not a corresponding indictment for Sarah Natanyahu?

3.  Cohen told the House Oversight Committee that he did not think Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians.  He whined a lot about his search for redemption but could not come up with anything against Trump that was illegal.  What Schiff, the Trump obsessed chairman of the HPSCI, thinks he can get from Cohen after that statement by Cohen is a mystery to me.

4.  Trump did the right thing in Hanoi.  He walked to demonstrate to everyone that he WILL NOT accept a bad deal just to have a deal.  This should have a salutary effect on the prospects for all the other pending deals.  pl