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Home » The bigger picture on Obamagate

The bigger picture on Obamagate

The New Neo Posted on by

Speculation, but interesting speculation (hat tip: AesopFan):

That satchel that Acting DNI Ric Grenell personally delivered to the Department of Justice on May 7, 2020 was far too big for just a list of the 39 Obama administration officials, including his chief of staff and ambassador to Italy. Those higher ups have been exposed as requesting the unmasking of General Flynn. But there must have been a lot more inside, and that material was voluminous to require a briefcase-sized container, and that is the key to exposing the real extent of the spy operation that President Obama carried out on his political enemies, and the unmasking of General Michael Fynn is just the tip of the iceberg.

That is the basic message of this long and fascinating post by retired naval officer J.E. Dyer at Liberty Unyielding. I urge those who take a keen interest in the subject to read the whole thing, for it is full of technical points and complexities…

The key message is that for years the Obama administration was mining the incomparable database of the National Security Agency (NSA), which captured virtually all electronic communications – emails, text messages, everything – launched into the ether. The potential for abuse is breathtaking. Everything that political enemies said to each other, except in private in-person conversations or in snail mail letters, could have been spied upon. And now it looks like staggering numbers of intercepts were monitored…

The principals who directed the spying never on their own logged requests for unmasking, at least until the very end of the Obama administration, when 39 names urgently needed access to the means to discredit and get rid of Flynn, who alone among the incoming Trump crew, had the knowledge of the intelligence community to blow up the conspiracy and reform the gargantuan spy apparatus. They were protecting the much larger spy operation that lasted for years under Obama.

I don’t know whether the above is true, but I suspect and fear it is. I think it’s possible we may find out some day. If so, I hope that happens soon, because it’s very important to know.

I have no doubt, though, that with the advances in eavesdropping and information-gathering in the last twenty years or so, these things can be done. And as often happens, if it can be done it will be done by unscrupulous people. Power is enticing and seductive, and it takes people of integrity to resist. Those who go into politics probably cannot resist that temptation unless they have strong principles against it, which is not common (especially on the left, where the ends justify the means), and they probably have no trouble at all enlisting confederates with access to the material who are ready and willing to hand it off.

I believe that this recent article by Andrew C. McCarthy, not a man ordinarily given to large conspiracy theories, may tie into the same phenomenon:

…[T]here remains a gaping hole in the story: Where is the record showing who unmasked Flynn in connection with his fateful conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak?

There isn’t one…

I suspect that’s because General Flynn’s identity was not “masked” in the first place. Instead, his December 29 call with Kislyak was likely intercepted under an intelligence program not subject to the masking rules, probably by the CIA or a friendly foreign spy service acting in a nod-and-wink arrangement with our intelligence community.

“Unmasking” is a term of art for revealing in classified reports the names of Americans who have been “incidentally” monitored by our intelligence agencies.

Curiouser and curiouser.

In this next paragraph, McCarthy explains much the same things that Francey Hakes discussed in the Tucker Carlson video I included in an earlier post today:

If, upon reviewing intel reports, an official with national-security or foreign-relations responsibilities believes that the reporting is critical, and that the identity of the U.S. person must be known in order for our government to reap the full benefit of the intelligence, then that official may request unmasking. Decisions on such requests are made by specialists assigned to the agency that reported the intelligence in question — usually the FBI or the NSA for intelligence collected, respectively, inside or outside the United States. Our intelligence agencies, led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), keep records of these requests.

That’s more or less what Hakes was saying.

McCarthy continues:

For three years, we’ve been led to believe that Flynn’s December 29 conversation with Kislyak was intercepted because the latter was “routinely” monitored…

I no longer buy this story. If it were true, there would be a record of Flynn’s unmasking. DNI Grenell has represented that the list he provided to Senators Grassley and Johnson includes all requested unmaskings of Flynn from November 8, 2016 (when Donald Trump was elected president) through the end of January 2017 (when the Trump administration had transitioned into power). Yet, it appears that not a single listed unmasking pertains to the December 29 Kislyak call…

…[W]e know that participants in that [January 5] meeting already knew about Flynn’s identity as Kislyak’s interlocutor. The exhibits attached to the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case relate that Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, knew about it no later than January 3, the day he briefed Mary McCord, who ran the Justice Department’s National Security Division. Plus, Yates recalled being surprised that Obama already knew about the Flynn–Kislyak call (and, in fact, is the one who told Yates about it). Clearly, the news had been percolating at the highest levels of the Obama administration for at least a couple of days…

McCarthy points out another interesting fact, which is that subsequently on May 8, 2017, when Lindsay Graham was questioning Clapper and Yates in the Senate, Strzok wrote to Lisa Page:

F*CK! Clapper and Yates through Graham questions are all playing into the “there should be an unmasking request/record” for incidental collection incorrect narrative.

Now, why would “incidental collection” be an incorrect narrative? McCarthy’s explanation is long and I’m only going to excerpt a little of it, but I suggest you read the whole thing. What it amounts to, though, is that the surveillance of Trump and people connected with him was massive, and began long before the waning days of the Obama administration, and was not the least bit inadvertent or incidental:

I believe there were several strands of the Trump–Russia probe, and that they trace back to 2015, around the time of Donald Trump’s entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The CIA played a central role. The agency collaborated — I’m tempted to say colluded! — with a variety of friendly foreign intelligence services, especially NATO countries that Trump made a habit of bashing on the campaign trail…

This is not just about unmasking. It is about how pervasively the Obama administration was monitoring the Trump campaign.

I believe McCarthy may be referring to the same sort of thing to which J. E. Dyer is referring. Just now, looking at some of the comments to the McCarthy article, I see this one, which expresses my own reaction pretty well:

This stuff makes my head swim…there is no flipping way that this was done because they were concerned for “what was best for the country”. At least not the country you and I are talking about. This was all about self interest, power, control, hate and hubris.

That’s also what Victor Davis Hanson is talking about here, I believe:

[ADDENDUM: Much more here.]

Comments

The bigger picture on Obamagate — 57 Comments

  1. I have little doubt (given what’s happened in this country since Lois Lerner’s name was learned by a broader public) that Democratic voters will have no reaction to this. I have little doubt that the bulk of the media will be working to see to it they have no reaction to this. The question is what the swing voters do. Alas, the swing voters are the people who evaluate a politician with random criteria (“she reminds me of my 1st wife”).

  2. I wondered about the sheer, three-dimensional volume of the case. In these days of computers, would not a thumb drive have sufficed? Or an email with attachment? The effort to acquire and organize the information was substantial. Why add printing it out?
    I’d have estimated maybe two packages of copy paper in there. Was the point drama? Certainly, his stride was not at all laid back. He was, as seems to be the case in DC, accompanied by one or two…guards, go-fers, tech experts, ?
    Did he have a plan to have enough copies to lay on one each desk of the congresscritters involved?
    From the outside, if only viscerally, this may have been a signal to the guilty that there’s no getting around this; there’s far too much, and it’s covered three sixty by three sixty. Who rats first?

  3. Richard Aubry:

    The two guys with him were security. I’m very glad they’re there, as I think his life is very much in danger now.

    I think the FBI should start sweating Strzok. As cocky as he was, I think he might just sing. Or Comey. I’d love to see both of them in an orange jump suit. Or ratting out higher ups. Well we can dream, can’t we?

  4. I made a long comment on the previous post about this. Short version: repeal FISA, new law to prohibit such collections of communications by governments at any level, set draconian punishments for those found guilty under the new law, investigate, indict and try and punish those who are guilty now of such violations as FISA prohibits and sentence them to the maximum now allowed for their crimes. Nothing less will root out this cancer from out federal government and even this may be insufficient.

  5. Ike:

    As a one-time consumer of intelligence information, I will say that I do not want to see such collection stopped.

    That said, I recognize the risk of damage to American citizens (who should never be the subject of intelligence collection) when people see what they can do with the information in their hands. (When I say never be the subject of intelligence collection, I mean by our intelligence agencies; I am not talking about our law enforcement agencies, like the FBI).

    The problem with allowing our intelligence services to spy on Americans is that it smacks too much of the KGB or the Stasi, state intelligence agencies with all the power of the government, being used to spy on and control citizens. And that is pretty much what we are seeing right now with the latest revelations of what Obama’s inner circle was up to in the last days of that administration. And if he was doing it in the waning days, what are the chances he was doing it a lot sooner? Very good, I’d say.

    I’m frankly tired of hearing Lindsey Graham and Sean Hannity saying “we’re closing in.” I wanna see Susan Rice in handcuffs. I wanna see James Comey being led off in a jump suit. I even wanna see a few big name journalists admit — in print — that they had it all wrong and that they apologize.

    I know — pipe dreams. Well, yeah. But I can hope.

  6. Somewhere in the last few days I ran across a comment asserting that this surveillance actually began way back in 2014.

    BTW–I am always amazed that people just assume that the Deep State people involved in the various aspects of the attempted coup against Trump and his Administration care anything for the Law, or will adhere to it; that while they might violate this or that ethical standard, procedure, or even law, they generally abide by the rest of of those ethical standards, procedures, and laws.

    As I see it, these actors do what they want–and cloak it as acting according to that Law and our Constitution–but they are not bound by any of the constraints or barriers that they both establish.

    We have certain standard expectations, and are just assuming they are playing within certain boundaries, while they are quite often playing outside of them, and in total disregard of them.

    Thus, with these standard expectations, many of us are surprised–cannot even conceive of–such vicious and underhanded actions, and such comprehensive lawbreaking.

  7. Our corrupt Deep State is a symptom. The corrupt Obama administration was a symptom. A seditious and treasonous Congress and judicial system is a symptom. Our seditious media is a symptom. Our seditious ‘educational’ system is a symptom. Tyrannical democrat governors are a symptom.

    Symptoms of a body public infected with the Marxist cancer that posits that coercion is necessary to the creation of a socially just society. And that whatever degree of coercion is needed is justified by the end sought.

  8. I think that there may be a plan in introducing the evidence gradually. I think that the whole conspiracy to take down Trump was so widespread and pervasive that if the whole thing were released at once no one would believe it. Only by letting people wrap their minds around it a little at a time will it be possible for most people to accept it as real.

  9. Snow on Pine just posted:
    “We have certain standard expectations, and are just assuming they are playing within certain boundaries, while they are quite often playing outside of them, and in total disregard of them.
    Thus, with these standard expectations, many of us are surprised–cannot even conceive of–such vicious and underhanded actions, and such comprehensive lawbreaking.”

    And such naivete, such trust, is the Achilles heel of conservatives. We are beset, surrounded by, evil wearing a pious cloak. Led by our first black Prez. Why trust him at any point in his career? Because he’s black and says nice things? We saw what he was in Illinois: sly, crafty, corrupt, and full of sin. A baby-killer. Nice church he attended for 20 years, with the hating and hateful Rev. Wright.

    We must become neo-John Birchers.

    It is not nearly enough to hope, to pray, that the evildoers will turn into nicely law-abiding neighbors. Every time we give an inch, they seize a mile, by hook or by crook.
    We must seize our pitchforks and drive them into dungeons.

  10. 1. So Americans finally figured out P Hussein was spying on Americans, the same way Nixon was being spied on and setup for a fall.

    2. So this American Republic was dead but now people can see that it is.

    GB: good to see you still alive. You won’t want to miss this 2020 and 2021. Since my last hat trick went so well for the false flag Planned Demic that was supposed to kill millions but didn’t, want to see my next hat trick?

  11. If those two were closing in on the rabbit, for real, they would end up like Andrew Breitbart or Vince Foster. “Sudden heart attack”

    This is the True Power of the Deep State. It’s not some fantasy villain people dreamed up. It is far more powerful than people here wanted to believe. But not more powerful than I disclosed.

  12. F – I have also worried somewhat about out new un-Caped Crusader.
    Grenell may have been making it obvious that the data is out of his hands and into others’ precisely to show that taking him out won’t gain any advantage.

  14. Dan Bongino is to be commended for discovering a “4th way” of spying on someone, but really there are probably six more – and so what?! The real bottom line is that the Obama regime was completely lawless, and finding a legal way to do something was merely a feint toward lawfulness on the way to doing whatever the hell they wanted to.

    Obama was a committed leftist, an entitled affirmative-action star of little talent, and as a black Democrat, he was immune to media scrutiny.

    Elect someone like that as President, and he will immediately be shocked to find find that being President is hard work. But his type can always find a way around such work, a way that was usually immoral, unethical, dishonest or illegal… things Obama had no problem with embracing.

    I guess I’m saying we may be outsmarting ourselves, trying to figure out all the details. Obama was a crook, and so were most of the people he gathered around him. We have to start shaking the tree hard, and grab the crooks as they fall out!!

  17. The latest outrage.
    Although facially unrelated to ObamaGate it helps build the picture of our Deep State-powerful and oppressive. When the hammer is brought down on a barber in Owosso, MI and on that hairdresser in TX and now this lady in OR we see how the little people are treated so much more savagely than an illegal or a violent Antifa thug.

    Lindsey Graham reopened her hair salon to feed her kids and OR Gov Brown had OSHA show up and fine her $14,000 and sent Child Protective Services in to check on her kids while she was at work.”
    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/05/15/outrage-oregon-governor-targets-fines-salon-owner-who-opened-against-orders-sends-cps-after-her-kids-n393886

  18. JimNorCal – IMO the mood of Deplorable America in re immigration turned from (1) annoyed at people breaking the law but accepting their desire to leave failed countries for the US therefore perfunctory objections to border crashing, to (2) close it up and send them back — when it became obvious that Democrats in state and federal government were allowing more privileges to the illegals than to the citizens, and the illegals were blatantly ungrateful for being in America.

    The contrast of police/mayor treatment of Antifa rioters vs conservative lockdown protesters is also rather remarkable.

  19. Geoffrey Britain on May 16, 2020 at 9:30 pm said:
    …Symptoms of a body public infected with the Marxist cancer that posits that coercion is necessary to the creation of a socially just society. And that whatever degree of coercion is needed is justified by the end sought.
    * * *
    It has always escaped me how a socially JUST society can be built on any foundation of coercion.
    Probably why I never fell into the clutches of the Left in college.

  20. The Constitution provides checks and balances to prevent—and not just in theory—such abuses and perversions—especially such extraordinary abuses and perversions as these.

    The question, therefore, is how they got around the Constitution.

    This may be clear to some people and not at all to others because, as mentioned above, some people saw Obama for what he is, while others were so mesmerized by his [fill in the blank]—abetted by a fawning, hagiographic, furiously spinning utterly dishonest media—that they couldn’t see it.

    And still can’t (courtesy of same preconceptons combined—disastrously— with a fawning, hagiographic, dishonest, furiously spinning media).

    But it seems to me that to save the Republic, to salvage the idea of America (as opposed to the Gray Lady’s et al.’s idea of America), the Constitution has to be strengthened, reinforced, buttressed.

    Otherwise, the pervert, criminal abusers win.

    Having said all that, it is imperative that the so-called “Keepers of the Gate” (who are not elected) be, somehow, continuously vetted. This is, in fact, the biggest problem.

    Perhaps, one should say, “continuously vetted without compromising their effectiveness” but that’s precisely the balance that’s the problem. The Founders purposely, intentionally, by design, hobbled the political process in the US (“checks and balances”) to attempt to prevent the abuses and corruption such as the ones we are currently “waking up to” (though many of us have known this for years already). Such as the ones which they, in their awesome wisdom, common sense and intuition, understood were always—potentiall—“on the doorstep”, humankind being what it is….

    However, the CIA, FBI, DOJ, IRS are NOT elected….

    Perhaps, this is how the Unicorn with the Constitutional Law degree—-that Claudius in the WH—knew exactly where to pour his poison?

  21. One mistake that Gingrich made–eliminating any chance that Bill Clinton would self-immolate–was putting it all out there at once. After you read about his hedonistic, creepy interactions with a 22 year old, what was there left to learn? Team Clinton quickly switched to “old news, let’s move on, everyone lies about illicit sex, let the president get back to running the country, he’s working hard for the American people, etc.”

    Watergate, by contrast, was a study in death by a thousand cuts. There was something new (and bad) every week. There were leaks all the time–drip, drip, drip. After three or four months of steady, constant new news about “White House horror stories”, Nixon and a lot of others were gone.

    The Democrats have tried this on Trump–Russia collusion hoax, Mueller investigation, impeachment, coronavirus dictator, coronavirus incompetent, the walls are closing in–but the problem for them was their horror stories weren’t true, so it blew up in their faces. It was partisan blather, amplified by shifty characters appearing nonstop on cable channels that nobody much watches.

    Trump and team are about to return the favor. Through the election, there will be a steady drip, drip, drip of horror stories–a lot of which will be true–about the shenanigans, lawlessness, and thuggery of the Obama administration. Biden, whose tenuous grasp on reality has been clear for years, is going to melt away.

    It is too late to create an alternative to Biden, who was in the room when some of this happened, and who in his senility will become increasingly flustered as his jibes and japes–which have sustained him in high office since 1972–no longer work. Angry voters may well obliterate the Congressional Dems that way the GOP got blasted in 1974. By election day, the Obama brand is going to be mud. Not even the most idealistic liberals are going to be able to defend what happened here.

  22. I even wanna see a few big name journalists admit — in print — that they had it all wrong and that they apologize.

    Lee Smith’s book names all those media types and with dates and quotes. It’s heavy reading and, of course, the media will not mention it, but it has the data.

  23. And they STILL lost the election, which must have chapped SO BAD. It’s a wonder they didn’t all stroke out on the spot.

  24. Just how much domestic spying was the Obama Administration doing, not just on General Flynn, but on everyone else as well?

    As the evidence finally starts to come out–and when it is all revealed–I’m wondering if we aren’t going to find out that such domestic spying–such illegal surveillance of all sorts of people who the Obama Administration thought of as it’s opponents/enemies–was done so many times, against so many diffeerent “targets,” was so widespread and comprehensive, that it’s scope was starting to approach STASI-like levels.

    Then, of course, there is the quite separate matter of all of the other “operations” –outside of the one that the Obama Administration ran against General Flynn–all of the “leverage,” and other political and other types of “dirty tricks” such illegally gathered information could have facilitated and made possible, against a whole range of possible “targets.”

    Let that thought sink in for a couple of minutes.

  27. The Flynn set up is just one of many criminal actions taken by the Obama administration. Just off the top of my head I can think of the spying on James Rosen and his parents, the crushing of Tea Party groups by the IRS, punitive IRS audits of commentators such as Wayne Allen Root, the firing of -and the failure to appoint Inspector Generals, Fast and Furious Gun running, etc.

  28. Hmm….cannot get link to work….that’s weird..

    Maybe this, which will take you to the interesting vid;

    Maxine Waters Confirms ‘Obama’s Big Brother’ Database 2013

    Can search YouTube for this title as well. I remember seeing this back in 2014 and I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it makes a lot more sense now.

  29. What if–as many on the Left are arguing–you viewed the Constitution as a fossil–as an antiquated document–and, moreover, one written by “dead old white men” who were, as well, slave owners; an ancient document no longer applicable to these advanced, “enlightened,” and modern times?

    What if, in addition, you’ve convinced yourself that you were “on the side of the Angels,” and that the things you did, you did “for the greater good.”

    Well, given this situation, what couldn’t/what wouldn’t you do with what you have convinced yourself is a clear conscience?

  30. Bob Hayes–Yes, I do remember seeing a clip of this–at the time–puzzling statement by Waters, which I just assumed was just crack-brained nonsense on her part.

    But perhaps Waters was far more tuned in to what was actually happening than I thought.

  31. om, thanks for the link, but as I am a steady Bongino watcher, I had seen his “Obama did it” episode before I wrote the comment. My comment should in no way be interpreted as criticizing Dan… I am criticizing President Trump’s administration for slow-walking the attack on the Obama criminal administration.

    To be specific, Dan correctly identified that Obama as President could legally wiretap Flynn. But it quickly developed that the FBI used a “pen register” in combination with their ability to monitor a government-issued phone, and did so in a technically legal manner (as far as I know at this point). So guess what the MSM can say? We falsely accused Obama! Even though Obama probably ordered the FBI to get the call, we didn’t exactly get the mechanism right (but note Strozk’s oblique reference to “the pen” in the linked Redstate article!).

    I enjoy sleuthing, which is why I watch Dan Bongino every weekday, but we need President Trump and his administration to get this up out of the weeds, and throw down the gauntlet, instead of leaving folks like Dan to dig up the dirt! That’s the way to get Obamagate onto the front page for America, literally and figuratively!

  32. Trump lit it up on Maria Bartiromo this morning.

    I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he is telegraphing to Team Obama that you can run, but you can’t hide. On the other hand, it is going to be very tough to argue that he isn’t tainting the jury pool.

    I’m sure he is driving Barr crazy, if Barr really wants to get convictions that stick. But that is all down the line in an appeals stage, assuming that any Dem can get convicted of anything in and around the District of Columbia.

    This is going to end up a name and shame operation with punishment via lawyer’s fees (offset by go-fund-me collections) and wasted years as a professional defendant for most of these folks, but maybe Trump realizes that is the likely outcome anyway, so he is getting his licks in early. Trump is campaigning for re-election.

  33. Funny thought, Trump tainting a jury pool in Wash., D.C. where 95% of the resident population would deny they ever, no never! watch that ghastly Fox News Channel . . . Heaven forfend.

    Still, of course he is (they’ll say). So they’ll immediately vote to acquit anyone charged, because Trump!

    America. What a country.

  34. F: As a former retail user of intel info, on the ground, I’m not impressed with the accuracy or utility of most of it. That said, something must be done to prevent the abuses and outright evil we’re seeing more and more evidence of. The other issue is this: when law enforcement demands and gets if it hasn’t already access to the same databases as a matter of routine LE evidence gathering and case handling.

  35. Ray:

    I posted the link to Dan’s 5/15/20 podcast on another Neo comment thread as well as a link to Andrew McCarthy’s article on the masking/unmasking Obamagate. AesopFan has also posted links to J.E. Dyer’s work on this BHO atrocity. I hope they have the orange jumpsuits ready in bulk.

  36. Amadeus—As we’ve seen demonstrated–in the current extremely partisan and poisonous political atmosphere–it’s easy to twist or ignore the law in the U.S. District Court in Washington, and to apparently get away with it–see Judges Amy Berman Jackson, and Emmett Sullivan.

    Easy to empanel a deliberately biased jury, to impose, or to get a guilty verdict against someone who is a Conservative and a Trump supporter on the basis of little or of cooked evidence, and to impose ridiculous restrictions and draconian sentences on them—see Roger Stone and General Flynn.

    In contrast, I’d say it would be almost impossible to convict someone in that same U.S. District court system who was a major figure on the Left.

    So, yes, while AG Barr and Durham are trying to do what they are supposed to do and build cases, President Trump–more of a realist–may have decided that such cases are never likely to be brought, to result in guilty convictions, or—if they miraculously do—to result in any jail time—any actual punishments.

    So, for his audience, President Trump is laying out the cases that the MSM will not present, and the court will not view with any honesty, objectivity, even-handedness, and dispassion.

  37. Holman Jenkins, Jr. got it right in the Wall Street Journal on April 7, 2020:

    “For what it’s worth, my assessment of the Trump political character: Its defining feature is his colossal and thorough cynicism about the game of politics and the people who play it. When he hears himself called a racist or a traitor he rolls his eyes and thinks: I can play this game better than these schlemiels because I don’t deceive myself about the moral character of what I’m doing.

    “And guess what? He has a point. I might even say he’s the moral superior of some of his critics.”

    Trump is playing a different game from all of his GOP predecessors. Trump is the right man for his time. Adhering in policy to essentially American conservative principles regarding enterprise and deregulation, he is playing smash-mouth politics with the Dems, who for far too long have resorted to projecting onto Republicans their own moral failings and treating American businesses as a herd to be milked. Team Obama and the Demmie Party are about to reap a bitter harvest from the seeds they have sown.

    It cannot happen to a more deserving crew.

  38. There’s also the real possibility that Flynn’s name did not need to be unmasked in the Kislyak call because it was already revealed. Flynn was at the time the subject of a CI investigation so very probably his name was not masked in the raw intelligence cut of the call. Thus, no unmasking.

    That’s the simplest explanation. US citizens’ names are not masked if they are the subject of an ongoing investigation that is relevant to the call being monitored.

  39. Art Deco, on “swing voters are the people who evaluate a politician with random criteria”:
    Maybe, but this time they may not count for as much, as *new* voters, moved to the polls by fear of the Dems’ and their recent draconian approaches, esp. on the lockdowns.

    Charlie Kirk was on Steve Hilton tonite, going so far as to outright charge, that the technocrats (pushing lockdowns) “hate you, hate me”, *hate* all who stand in their way (or some such).
    I’d not have expected such mainstream righties as Kirk, to be so very blunt.

  40. Ed Snack – Andrew McCarthy addressed the “not masked in the first place” idea.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/michael-flynn-unmasking-real-story-is-when-he-was-not-masked-in-the-first-place/

    Sundance at CTH has suspected this for several years, but had to rely on indirect analysis and “hunches” – now we have some evidence.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/11/prepare-to-discover-that-michael-flynn-was-not-unmasked-but-everyone-else-was/

  41. Pretty clever.

    Pretty goshdarn clever.

    Claiming that Flynn was a “security risk” so that the Obaminables could spy on everyone and everything that Flynn came in contact with.

    Everyone! (Who could then be—LEGALLY!?—unmasked!)

    Astoundingly clever. (Wingman Holder?)

    And one couldn’t—nosssir—let Trump know about this “spy”—this extraordinary security risk—in his midst, in the inner sanctum, in the HOLY OF HOLIES (this FLYNN-fox in the chicken coop, as it were) because, well, because, well, um, uh. BECAUSE WE HAVE TO PROTECT AMERICA!!!!

    (Actually, because then the Obaminables would LOSE surreptitious access—don’t forget! “LEGAL” surreptitious access—to everything Trump did and said. And ate and drank, which toothpaste he used, which toilet paper…. AKA the Obaminables would not be able to spy on Trump “LEGALLY”!)

    Pretty clever those Obaminables!!

    Breathtakingly clever!

    (Ah, but DON’T forget—it’s for THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY. The Obaminables were oh-so-terribly concerned about the SECURITY of the country! Imagine that!
    A R-R-R-RAHSSIAN SPY in the White House!!)

    And so ONE HAS TO spy—MUST SPY—on Trump and his administration. (Does one have a choice????)

    And one HAS TO unmask everyone with whom Flynn comes into contact—EVEN UNTO THE NTH GENERATION!

    (I mean, wouldn’t any responsible adult—WHO LOVES HIS OR HER COUNTRY—come to the same conclusion?)

    And it’s all “LEEEEGAL”!!

    And “BY THE BOOK”.

    Oh man! AMAZINGLY, GOBSMACKINGLY clever!!

    Gotta hand it to ’em. Plus, with Hizzoner Justice Sullivan and his Golden Gavel in the driver’s seat, they have an ironclad ADDITIONAL INSURANCE policy that not even Peter Stzrok & Ms. Lovestruck could—Oh Callooh Callay—ever possibly have dreamt of!!

    (Um, just one thing Ms. Rice: It was all “LEGAL”. So WHY OH WHY DID YOU HAVE TO write that freakin’ email to yourself again, remind us why you had to do that, why don’t you….)

  42. Having said all that, it’s not really fair to call this ingenious escapade “Obamagate”, with all the deleterious baggage that such a designation implies.

    No, this is the stuff of genius; of “insanely great” innovation; of American INITIATIVE, TALENT and GUTS; of extraordinary derring-do; of showmanship taken to dizzying heights.

    This is the stuff of dreams! (And Dreamers!!)

    Not sure that Trump can give Obama an “Oscar” for such a monumental achievement, though he certainly deserves one (along with all his supporting cast—even you, Ms. Rice).

    (Doubtful that Hollywood would allow Trump even to touch an “Oscar”.)

    But maybe, just maybe Trump can devise a new award, mint a new national coin, cast a new statuette for this kind of creativity and imagination. And SKILL.

    I got it! How about the “Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy” award for awesome ingenuity and excellence, for amazing planning and execution, for unstinting devotion and dedication, and not least for inspiring ideals and values!

    (Or maybe just call it “The Obama”….)

  43. Oops…. made a mistake(!)
    In my comment of 3:40 a.m.,
    ‘ …AKA, the Obaminables would not be able to spy on Trump “LEGALLY”! ‘
    …should be…
    ‘ …AKA, the Obaminables would be able to spy on Trump “LEGALLY”! ‘

    Sorry about that….

  44. Aaaargh, actually, maybe the original was/is correct…
    (Well, it’s a bit early in the a.m….)

  45. Apropos of my writing yesterday about those on the Left who have convinced themselves that our Constitution is an antiquated and outmoded document–the outdated creation of a time of powdered wigs, travel by horseback, log cabins cut out of the howling wilderness, Indian attacks, flintlocks, bloodletting, leeches, and slavery.

    This conviction seems to rest on the idea that, as our knowledge and capabilities have grown, our human nature has also changed–evolved–and that over the last 250 or so years our basic human nature has undergone some kind of “fundamental transformation,” one which requires that we be governed by new principles and a vastly modified and expanded Constitution; one more suited to our new enlightened views, needs, and behaviors.

    I, on the other hand, would argue that while the means to achieve our ends have changed, expanded, and grown—as have some of those ends—our basic needs, drives, and motives, what directs us, our basic human nature, has not changed, nor can it (absent some ill-considered and catastrophic “fundamental transformation” of the genetic basis of our nature as human beings), and that the Constitution that was crafted to govern us then, is the same Constitution that we need to govern us now, because our basic nature and fundamental needs, motives, and behaviors have not changed.

    Knowledge and technology can evolve and expand, certain fundamental principles don’t change, and neither does basic human nature.

  46. Breaking news: “EXCLUSIVE: The Treasury Department Spied on Flynn, Manafort, and the Trump Family [for years], Says Whistleblower”

    Jaw dropping abuse of constitutional rights, another corruption of another fed department to feed the Obamunist political machine. This whistleblower filed complaints with Obama’s IG pick at Treasury. He’s still there. What’s happened? Another nada?

    Via Instapundit
    https://theohiostar.com/2020/05/18/exclusive-the-treasury-department-spied-on-flynn-manafort-and-the-trump-family-says-whistleblower/

  47. Corruption Palpable!

    Or what should have been “Corruption palpable” was alchemized by a seduced and hypnotized MSM into “Seething Corruption Invisible”….

    There was so much corruption in fact, that—with the sedulous assistance (make that, “participation”) of the MSM—no one could see any of it.

    (Hence no malarkey!! BINGO!)

    Oh, the AUDACITY!!…

    …and it certainty looks like we’ll have to rechristen the MSM, “MSCM”.

  48. P.S.–Destroying and banishing those fundamental principles, and the view that they are worthy, unchanging, and always applicable, was one of the main tasks of the Gramscian Long March through our institutions and culture, and to accomplish this central task, one of the primary goals of that Long March was the Left’s takeover and subversion of our Education, Religious, Media, the Arts, and Entertainment (Entertainment already pretty much a natural ally of the Left, and its viewpoint and ideas) Establishments; what we might characterize as the main organs of propaganda.

  49. With reference to the phrase, “absent some ill-considered and catastrophic “fundamental transformation” of the genetic basis of our nature as human beings” I wrote above, I note the disturbing indications—reported here and there in the media– that scientists in China are treading on dangerous ground—allowing research banned in other countries around the world, such as Chinese scientists working on creating human-pig and human-monkey genetic “chimeras,” and China allowing a team there to proceed with preparations for the first total head transplant, and who knows what else.

    Then, of course, there is the Chinese Coronavirus, which may or may not have been manipulated in some way that made it more dangerous and more easily spread from human to human i.e the reports of Chinese scientists working on bat Coronavirus “Gain of Function research.”

  50. Turley. Again.
    Stating the obvious.
    Stating that which must NOT be stated.
    Stating the obvious which must be blacked out by the MSCM at all costs….

    Key grafs (of many):
    “For three years, many in the media have expressed horror at the notion of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 election. We know there was never credible evidence of such collusion….Yet none of this matters as the media remains fully invested in the original false allegations of collusion….

    “…A Democratic administration using a secret court to investigate the opposing political campaign does not matter to many in Congress or in the media anyway. An investigation continuing despite the lack of credible information supporting collusion does not matter to them either. A president and a vice president who take personal interest in the surveillance of their political opponents also does not matter.

    “There was a time, however, when all of this did matter. There was once a time when this would be viewed as the story of the century, including the unmasking of Biden himself in this investigation. But these are not those times, and this cannot be the story. Russian collusion is the story and, as Biden stressed, the rest is just a diversion.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/turley-unmasking-joe-biden

  51. Ah, the rituals of childhood…
    “Get Smart” on a Saturday night was an absolute must for me and my family (though I’m not certain that it’s aged all that well).

    Be that as it may, there was a memorable episode called “The Farkas Fracas”.

    It appears that Mel Brooks has proven himself to be a prophet (but of what?)…and we now have a sequel:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/obama-staffer-scrambles-salvage-political-campaign-after-russia-lies-exposed-implies-zero

  52. The Left, the MSM, and Democrat’s conspiracies, attacks, and “resistance” (with the help of a lot of supposed Republicans and conservatives) against President Trump, his Administration, and President Trump’s policies have created a series of major, time-wasting distractions, and diverted a lot of attention and energy that could have been much more profitably spent on dealing with real and pressing national problems.

    These Leftist actions have also undoubtedly limited and weakened the U.S. position Internationally.

    Given this current situation, it is wise to take a look at this long and interesting overview and analysis concerning our chief enemy (not competitor, enemy)–China–and how the Chinese Communist Party leadership views China’s position in the world, its goal of becoming the world’s preeminent power–once again the “Center of the World” that they were a few centuries ago–and what Chinese Communist Party leaders see as a long “ideological struggle” with the West; an ideological struggle that is focused on discrediting the West, and its ideas of “universal human rights,” “free markets,” and Democratization.”

    See https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/china-plans-global-order?

  54. Bob Hayes on May 17, 2020 at 10:14 am said:
    I’m thinking the surveillance was much earlier, based on this little snippet;

    https://m.youtube.com/watchv=kggz5m6kmt8

    I’m betting she had a serious talk after this by the Obama guardians ensuring she never mentioned this topic again.

    The link does not work because there are two errors in it.
    1: There needs to be a “?” after “watch” and before the “v=”
    2: The video ID is all lower case (kggz5m6kmt8) but the correct ID is mixed case (KGgZ5M6KMt8). It depends on the web server but in general everything after the first single “/” should be considered case sensitive.

    Maxine Waters Confirms ‘Obama’s Big Brother’ Database 2013:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGgZ5M6KMt8

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