Let’s take bets on whether anything will come of this
Nunes makes a good effort. But will anything ever come of it? I very much doubt it.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Nunes makes a good effort. But will anything ever come of it? I very much doubt it.
Something will come of it in the limited sense that some of the named figures in Nunes list of 8 are already in jeopardy in a DoJ list of grand jury proceedings. Probably. Maybe. Who the hell knows, with the closed lipped proceedings evidently underway? Or, uh, fingers crossed. Yeah, like that.
Nothing at all will come of it. I have had a $50 bet with my wife that nothing will happen to any of the Dems. So far I have not had to pay out and never will have to pay out.
My knee-jerk reaction is that Neo is exactly correct. On the other hand, over the last 30+ years there have been many investigations, or audits by the IRS, that have happened purely because some Dem congressperson asked for it. Rarely does a Republican ask. Who knows, maybe the squeaky wheel will get the grease.
Given the fact that the Ukrainian prosecutor general has a prosecution file on a number of Democrats involved in corruption in Ukraine, and in fact Ukrainian officials did in fact meddle in the election to try to throw it to Hillary, and they can’t even get a visa from the U.S. embassy, I’d have to say no 90% no, just a slim chance of yes.
They want to give the file directly to AG Barr as the DoS personnel were/are actively obstructing the investigation they certainly aren’t going to hand it to the embassy personnel.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/437719-ukrainian-to-us-prosecutors-why-dont-you-want-our-evidence-on-democrats
Now is the time to fight.
Nunes and Graham are willing to combat the genuinely vicious left establishment.
I wish them well – whatever the odds.
Does anyone at DOJ look like they’re just itching to go after the DOJ/FBI Cabal members and others who tried to mount this coup?
I don’t.
Thus, I think that whatever rhetorical sound and fury might occur, absolutely nothing will happen.
I believe that Nunes will be faster / more effective than IG Huber (off in Utah?). And there might be enough critical mass to get an indictment of McCabe. It looks like he’s still “under investigation”, but not yet indicted. Please, tell me I’m wrong.
I’m expecting more talk, but w/o indictments.
Tho I’m hoping.
And in 2020, and 2021 with Trump re-elected and conservative Reps more in control, I’ll still be hoping that there actually ARE multiple indictments.
But I’m certainly NOT going to be watching TV to hear the latest news, bombshells, or the “walls closing in” on any Dems, until there are indictments.
The probable order of events seems to lay out: 1) Nunes’ referral later this week, 2) Barr’s submission of redacted Mueller report mid-month, 3) IG Horowitz’s report on DoJ/FBI shortly thereafter, 4) Huber/other prosecutors’ announcement of indictments (if any) sometime after the IG report.
All this affords time to bring popular support to bear. And there will be more than a little of that, won’t there?
What this couple of year long coup effort has done is pulled back the concealing curtains that usually mask the corruption at the highest levels of the DOJ, the FBI, in our Intelligence Agencies, at the State Department, and likely elsewhere in the government.
From what I have read, the only high ranking government official I can see as having behaved with honor, in line with his oath of office, and loyalty to the Constitution and to our Republic in this whole wretched affair was Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency.
It was he who apparently traveled to the White House, and warned President Trump that the President, his family, and his Administration were being massively spied upon.
Then, Rogers resigned his position.
The very conspicuous lack of enthusiasm by our law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies to find out what actually happened and in detail, to identify, and to prosecute those who ran this coup effort tells me that this corruption runs deep, and is probably systemic.
Moreover, that their institutions and these institution’s survival has top priority, comes first.
Just the DOJ/FBI reluctance to release documents repeatedly subpoenaed by Congressional Committees tells it all.
Thus, short of a massive purge and thorough, fundamental reorganization, I don’t think that this institutional corruption can be rooted out, or that these agencies can actually reform, and become trustworthy again.
Congress could do this but, as we have all too sadly and infuriatingly seen, Congress is, itself, also a very corrupt organization.
These extremely disturbing looks into the actual workings of these agencies and their top leadership, these highly alarming revelations, are why the Departments and Agencies involved–and the MSM–want what has been revealed to be covered up again. Want it to just go away. To be ignored as if it never really happened.
Nor to be seen and recognized for the deadly serious and unprecedented attack on our Republic and the Constitutional order that it really was, and continues to be.
The MSM used to throw around the phrase of a “Cancer on the Presidency,” this is a true Cancer, eating way at our Republic and destroying our confidence and trust in some of its extremely powerful and absolutely essential institutions.
This will not end well.
P.S.—This whole mess has also revealed just how unimpressive, how sub-par, how unintelligent, how uniformed and unbridled almost everyone in the top leadership in these agencies were, and makes you wonder just how in the world they attained the high positions that they did.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nunes-files-150m-lawsuit-against-mcclatchy-alleging-conspiracy-to-derail-clinton-russia-probes
Nunes appears to have tired of holding his fire.
Not on point ,but we need a laugh just about now.
See https://babylonbee.com/news/ocasio-cortez-suddenly-shifts-to-speaking-like-jar-jar-binks-while-addressing-crowd-of-gungans
With Barr, I think so.
As long as the president is reelected, the wheels will grind exceedingly fine.
This will all depend on the integrity of Barr, I will withhold judgment until I see how he reacts. But, it is important to remember the FBI has long been at times less than squeaky clean. For a few examples the unwarranted surveillance of MJK, Waco, and Ruby Ridge. Power corrupts, it is human nature after all. Our lives are nothing to DC. Somewhere around 70% of the bureaucrats need to seek jobs at Wallmart, Starbucks, or the local mall.
I’ll believe it when I see the indictments OR when I see some of the main players flying to countries where extradition would be difficult.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/hillary-contractor-described-cover-up-operation-work-ticket-in-newly-uncovered-email_2872102.html
Judicial Watch and their FOIA requests are doing far far more investigating than DOJ/ FBI.
The leaders are NOT stupid — they are boot-licking artists, always far more concerned about their organizations, and their own places in the org, than the service the org is for. The org first, not the mission. Those who work for the mission don’t get advancement in the org.
Those voting Dem were supporting the DOJ/FBI corruption.
Replace “DOJ/FBI” with “Executive Branch” or even better “Donald Trump” and you will be indeed telling it all.
An interesting (and somewhat amusing) thread on the FOIAed “Comey memos” which were to have been produced yesterday, but were not on account of their high sensitivity in containing “code named” agents and collection information. Foreign govts’ objections to the exposure of their own operations against Trump and his campaign also seems to be in play here. Stinks, of course, yet there appear to be ongoing investigations into the actions of Comey himself as well as the rest of the FBI/DoJ complex, so there’s that.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Shem_Infinite/status/1115447976011296768
Not expecting anything. When Mueller put his team together, 30% of them were Democratic Party donors, and three of them four-digit Democratic Party donors. The share of the population who give four-digit sums to political causes is tiny. I have a suspicion that you pick names out of a hat among lawyers emploiyed by the Department of Justice and that’s what you get. For a Democrat to get prosecuted for corruption or abuse of power, he has to do something fairly crude, like have a chest freezer full of bribe money in his basement.
I’m a participant in a couple of fora which have an ample supply of partisan Democrats. What hits you about them is that they simply adhere to no procedural principles anymore. It’s all about what they want. Proper procedure is what gets them what they want; improper procedure is what gets them what they do not want. (So, the duly confirmed Neil Gorsuch is occupying a ‘stolen’ seat on the Supreme Court). The other thing that gets you is that disputes over public policy are now MacGuffins. It’s all about contriving ways to take political office away from the Deplorables and use institutions of state to harass them.
Prior to the 2018 elections Pres. Trump made the Democrats a direct offer of investigatory truce: knock off the Russian collusion BS and the rest of the frivolous charges and in return I’ll let past abuses of Federal power be bygones. Otherwise, I won’t stop pursuing my tormentors, including the past adminstration along with Mrs. Clinton and will direct all lawful means to seek justice in these matters. The Democrats, as anyone can see, have imprudently refused the generous offer of an olive branch. Now, they will reap the whirlwind. Bet on that then. For why not?
Very occasionally and rarely peeking through, here and there, throughout the reporting on this coup attempt is the information that our supposed “Allies”– I’ve seen England specifically mentioned–played a role in furthering coup efforts.
According to reports, when coup members were prevented by law and procedure from spying on, from obtaining certain intelligence information on U.S. citizens—on Trump and on many others, coup members then circumvented these prohibitions by going to foreign members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing Agreement—they are the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand–and got intelligence, likely SIGINT intelligence—intercepted phone and other electronic communication intelligence—on U.S. citizen Trump and other U.S. citizens from one or more of these Five Eyes members, whose laws allow, and who could and do surveil U.S. citizens.*
I don’t have to point out that these foreign Five Eyes country’s governments and policies are far more Leftist/Liberal than those of Trump, and that officials/governments in these Five Eyes countries would have been, and were, “uneasy” about Trump and his policies, and likely loathe both.
Thus, no matter how “irregular” and normally out of bounds the request, they might conceivably have been receptive to such coup plotter’s requests for intelligence information on candidate, then President-elect, and finally President Trump, on his family, and on people in his Administration.
I have also seen one report that some of our “Allies” were urging Trump not to declassify certain of the coup documents. Documents which–if released–would presumably point to their involvement in the coup.
If I were Trump, and I found out that any Five Eyes members were involved in furnishing intelligence information to coup plotters, Ambassadors would be called in and a strip of hide torn off each one, with harsh and more painful—perhaps far harsher and more painful–consequences to come.
For one thing, I might narrow down the information that the U.S. shares with Five Eye members, and the Five Eyes Agreement would have to be rewritten—drastically changed—and iron-clad guarantees against this happening again would have to be put into place. I might also demand the certain foreign intelligence officials resign to “spend more time with their families.”
In this context, I note the reports about the mysterious, unexpected, and abrupt late January 2017 resignation of the head of the the UK’s Signals Intelligence organization, their GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, for “personal reasons” and apparently to “spend more time with his family.”
A major problem for Trump is, of course, that from the evidence–he cannot trust many parts/officials of the Left leaning Executive branch he nominally is in charge of and “commands” to follow his legitimate orders.
For example, in discussing the resignation/firing of the DHS Secretary last night on Tucker’s show, Kris Khobach said that he had been in the room with DHS officials when Trump told them what he wanted them to do, and while they gave lip service to, and agreed to follow his orders, a year later nothing that he ordered them to do had been done.
It appears that a lot of, perhaps a majority of the Executive branch is part of the “Resistance.”
As I’ve written here before, the President—any President and the limited number of appointees allowed to any President—at the head of and supposedly “running” these Executive branch Departments and Agencies, can order something done, but the millions of federal bureaucrats below them, tasked with actually implementing those orders, can simply ignore them, slow roll them, water them down, deliberately misinterpret them, implement some parts of them and not others—the obstructive techniques are many—in other words “Resist” them.
* See, for instance https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-30/trump-may-be-right-five-eyes-allies-do-spy-one-another
See also https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2017/03/14/judge-napolitano-three-intel-sources-say-obama-looked-to-brit-agency-to-spy-on-trump/
See also https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/89117970/donald-trumps-unpredictability-may-test-five-eyes-spy-allies-including-nz
See also https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/five-eyes-concern/
President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night for “refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” the White House said.
“(Yates) has betrayed the Department of Justice,” the White House statement said.
Dana Boente, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was sworn in at 9 p.m. ET, per an administration official. A few hours later, Boente issued a statement rescinding Yates’ order, instructing DOJ lawyers to “defend the lawful orders of our President.”
Trump didn’t call Yates to dismiss her, she was informed by hand-delivered letter, according to a different administration official.
The dramatic move came soon after CNN reported Yates told Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees.
The Supreme Court would later uphold the order.
No, LeClerc. Now isn’t the time to fight. By that I mean there is never a time to stop fighting. And I mean physically brawling. Never give up the ship, as John Paul Jones would put it and no matter how furiously the gender confused grads at Google scribble to rewrite history would have it.
BTW, you have a fine Main Battle Tank named after you, monsieur,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCgmW8jmUpw
As I’ve written here before, the President—any President and the limited number of appointees allowed to any President—at the head of and supposedly “running” these Executive branch Departments and Agencies, can order something done, but the millions of federal bureaucrats below them, tasked with actually implementing those orders, can simply ignore them, slow roll them, water them down, deliberately misinterpret them, implement some parts of them and not others—the obstructive techniques are many—in other words “Resist” them.
They are not resisting. They are waiting your elected officials out. Because the bureaucracy is the Power that rules the Empire and Superpower of America. Not your elected officials. keep that in mind, Dead American Republic.
> Somewhere around 70% of the bureaucrats need to seek jobs at Wallmart, Starbucks, or the local mall.
Not relevant to this conversation, but everyone should work retail at some point in their lives. I think it would give a lot of people some perspective because you have to deal with random people, as well as people skills. Even though I’m a software developer, I value the completely non-technical experience I had working retail back in high school. That experience helps keep you grounded.