Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Trumped

Sorry I was away for a day. Let's run through some stories.

First, I owe you folks an apology. When the "Comey bombshell" hit eleven days before the election, I stood with those who theorized that the FBI director had been mousetrapped into making that declaration. I honestly believed that the real miscreants were a cabal of pro-Trump agents in New York. Well, if you've followed the news at all, you know that Comey is now looking...

Hm. How did that famous Doonesbury cartoon put it? Oh yes: Guilty guilty guilty!

There was no probable cause to lead the FBI to believe that there was anything incriminating involving Hillary Clinton on that laptop. Actually, the phrase "no probable cause" covers the entire email controversy. All of Clinton's work-related emails existed in multiple copies outside the control of Hillary and her lawyers. Hillary hid nothing. The FBI already had everything they needed.

Comey apparently issued that letter for psy-war purposes: He linked Hillary (in the public's mind) to the Anthony Wiener underaged sexting scandal. This, in turn, helped pave the way for Pizzagate. If you examine the original Pizzagate stories, you'll see Weiner's mug plastered right next to Hillary's.

Should Comey be fired? Sorry, but no. Trump would simply replace him with someone even worse.

The Nazi International. You want a conspiracy? Here's a real one: A worldwide fascist conspiratorial cabal.
Trump’s security advisor met with leader of Austrian party founded by Nazis and loyal to Putin
How's that for a headline? Naturally, Alex Jones will never talk about this matter. He prefers to point to scarecrows like the Illuminati, the Freemasons and the Great Clinton Conspiracy.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who the president-elect has tapped to coordinate national security in his administration, met several weeks ago with the head of Austria’s Freedom Party, which reached a cooperation agreement with Russia’s ruling party, reported the New York Times.

The agreement was seen a clear signal that the Kremlin is forging bonds with right-wing political parties across Europe as part of a coordinated effort to weaken Western democracies — including the United States.
It’s not clear what Flynn and Strache, the Austrian political leader, discussed during their meeting.

The Freedom Party’s candidate, Norbert Hofer, barely lost the presidential race in May, but it’s gaining public support over the two mainstream parties that have governed Austria since World War II.
By the way: The May election was not only close -- it was tainted. See here:
Austria's Constitutional Court ruled that because some ballots and voting results had been handled improperly, the result should be annulled and the election held again.

The re-run is scheduled for December 4
Hofer lost that revote. I wish our system allowed for a revote.

Speaking of dubious elections... Those of you who think that there is no evidence of hugger-mugger in the 2016 vote should check out this Bradcast.
Friesdat shares her short, disturbing new video released on Friday, revealing what appear to be machine mistallies noted by observers during the statewide "recount" of ballots by computer optical-scanners in Racine County, WI, and a stymied attempt by one observer there, Liz Whitlock, to get a hand-count of the paper ballots in question. Citing the 5% error rate by the machines that observers tallied in one small precinct in WI, Friesdat notes: "A similar error rate applied across all of Wisconsin’s 2,976,150 votes --- could produce an error of 140,000 votes. Trump won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes."
Mnuchin. This NYT story on Trump pick Steve Mnuchin -- headlined Trump’s Treasury Pick Moves in Secretive Hedge Fund Circles -- contains some fascinating nuggets
A case in point is a Delaware company that he owns, Steven T. Mnuchin Inc., whose existence has not been reported outside of official records.

Mr. Mnuchin set up the company months before Goldman went public in May 1999. It had a Goldman mailing address and at least one Goldman director. It stayed that way years after he left the Wall Street bank in 2002 to start his hedge fund career.

Its purpose is a mystery. The only clue is in a description on corporate filings in Delaware calling the entity an “investment in partnerships.”

Barney Keller, a representative for Mr. Mnuchin, said the company “held small legacy Goldman Sachs investments” and “hasn’t made any new investments since 2002.”
Mr. Mnuchin shares a network with some of the biggest names in the $3 trillion hedge fund industry, but his work with Mr. [John A.] Paulson is of particular interest.

An adviser to Mr. Trump, Mr. Paulson, who is best known for making a $15 billion wager that the housing market would collapse, has managed some money for the president-elect.
Nobody makes a $15 billion "wager." One makes an investment based on inside info. Today, Paulson has "wagered" heavily that Fannie and Freddie will be privatized, because that trick worked so well pre-2008. Mnuchin seems very willing to make that happen.
And Mr. Mnuchin’s remark may have benefited someone else: Mr. Trump has invested $3 million to $15 million with Mr. Paulson’s hedge fund, according to the financial disclosure statement filed during his run for president.

To date, the Trump transition team has not commented on whether Mr. Trump continues to own stakes in Mr. Paulson’s firm and other hedge funds listed on the disclosure statement. “We’re not sharing any additional information at this time,” said Jason Miller, a Trump representative.
I'm not the first to say it, and I certainly won't be the least: Trump will run his presidency as a personal enrichment scheme. Even if he gets kicked out of office during his first term, he will emerge far wealthier than he is now.

Salon. Naturally, after reading that NYT piece, I went looking for links between Mnuchin (or Paulson) and hedge fund billionaire Bill Hambrecht, the fellow who funds much of Salon.com, the once-progressive online publication. The editor of Salon is Betsy Hambecht, formerly of Goldman. Naturally, Salon tried very hard to link Hillary Clinton to Goldman Sachs and hedge funds. The hypocrisy was, and is, sickening.

After a very cursory search, I can't tie the Hambrechts in with Paulson or Mnuchin. But I do want to take note of a piece in Politico (published at the end of last May) which I somehow missed:
Salon contributor H.A. Goodman has written several columns for the publication with titles like “I wouldn’t vote for Dick Cheney, so I won’t vote for Hillary Clinton: An unrepentant only-Sanders voter fires back at critics” and “Please, FBI — you’re our last hope: The Democratic Party’s future rests upon your probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails.” (The columns spurred a debate in Salon’s newsroom after a staffer sent an email to colleagues saying Goodman’s articles reflected badly on the company.)
The more stinging critique is about the quality of what Salon publishes – and Goodman’s pieces in particular have reignited lamentations about the site’s downward spiral. Walsh and Miller have been outspoken on Twitter about some of the stories from the site, as have many others. Two guys even created a vicious parody account, @salondotcom, to mock Salon’s increasingly strident brand of leftism, with fake tweets like “Ten signs your cat might be racist” and “Should GMOs come with trigger warnings?”
The Hambrechts must have been bright enough to see Goodman for what he obviously was: A ratfucker hireling of the Trump campaign.

If you look at Goodman's YouTube channel, you'll see Alex Jones and "End Times Prophecies" listed as "related channels." A few recent Goodman headlines:
NEW CLINTON EMAIL SCANDAL: FBI Comey Cites Probable Cause For Weiner Laptop Search Warrant

BILL CLINTON BLAMES ANGRY WHITE MEN FOR HILLARY'S LOSS: Clinton Used Racism Against Obama

WIKILEAKS PROVES CLINTON WANTED PRESIDENT TRUMP: Clinton's Pied Piper Strategy Elected Trump
This guy is poison.

The real Pizza scandal: I had considered popping on down to Comet Pizza (the epicenter of the Pizzagate rumors) until I saw the prices. Seventeen bucks for a personal pizza? Isn't that a little steep?

I'm used to Little Toni's on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, where you can get a large three-item combo if you hand them a green-tinted picture of Andrew Jackson plus a few quarters. The extra cheese is worth it. Since the place is a beloved institution located near the studios, you might even spot a celebrity or two -- for example, after the deep-dish double-cheese special gives you a heart attack, you'll see Jesus.

Also, pizza places are not supposed to be bright and cheerful and artsy. They are supposed to be dark. Red-checked tablecloths. Cushy maroon vinyl booths. Lots of wood. Flickering candles in round amber-colored glass holders. The kind of place where you go to discuss retaliation against the Tattaglia family. C'mon, whatever happened to tradition

9 comments:

Michael said...

I don't think enough has been said about how this has been a clusterf**k going all the way back to the tarmac.

1. Attorney General Lynch should NOT have allowed Bill Clinton to board her plane. It was HER responsibility ro protect HER appearance.

2. Having f**ked it up at step one, she should NOT have delegated PROSECUTORIAL discretion to the FBI (much less Comey). At most, she should have handed the job to one of her deputy AGs or maybe a "special" prosecutor borrowed from elsewhere.

3. She should NOT have given Comey the job of announcing the PROSECUTORIAL decision. She or someone else in DOJ (not FBI) should have announced it.

4. Comey didn't just announce the decision. He went way beyond the call of duty and gave us all his gratuitous and unrelated opinion of Hillary's email & computer management skills, in colorful terms, leaving us to wonder if maybe he wanted to prosecute but his boss wouldn't let him.

Yes, Comey's FAIL was spectacular, but Lynch's was too. Maybe more so since our expectations should be higher for someone higher in the management chain. Fortunately, she WILL be fired in a few days.

Alessandro Machi said...

Background info. Comey was on the Whitewater Investigation team back around 1997 and he apparently wanted charges filed against the President and his wife even though his higher ups said no. Comey shoulid have recused himself regarding the email investigation. Although the farther one goes down the food chain the more likely some young whipper snapper will want to make a name for themselves.
But Comey's second subpoena was apparently bogus.

gerry-troll said...

Joseph-yes i'm a Troll.

However you are missing the thing you should harp on.

Rex Tillerson is TOO close to Putin period. If your side really wants to do the country a service-getting Tillerson stopped would be the way.

The Russians are our 'biggest foe'.

Alessandro Machi said...

Not to nitpick, but, your "by the way, I should have been more cognizant of Comey's role" (paraphrasing), is somewhat annoying to me simply because I had blasted my DailyPUMA site with demands that Comey come out of hiding before the electors vote and answer 14 questions. Questions that if Comey had answered would have opened the floodgates on the favoritism the FBI showed Trump and maybe, just maybe, if the press had picked up on it, could have given some of the electoral college reasons to reflect on their vote.
I even started a Change dot org petition demanding that Comey answer questions before the electoral college electors voted and plastered a link between DailyPUMA and the Petition. Not sure why you avoided the concept of Comey coming out of hiding.

Alessandro Machi said...

If you want an idea as to how deranged the meanstream conservative media has become, the day before election day, they were claiming that Comey's second press conference and then absolution just two days before the election was a conspiracy to vindicate Hillary Clinton and hand her the presidency!
No matter what the story, the mean stream media will pervert it so that the Clinton's look bad.

gerry-troll said...

Alessadro Machi

I am an equal opportunity troll. I went to dailypuma site,

Your the first one to say that that you suspect that Trump has a server linked to russia and that 6 language speaking Melania is maintaining it.

Sounds like something Alex Jones would have on his site.

Anonymous said...

Michael, Lynch did not give the job of announcing the results of the investigation to the press. Comey took this job upon himself without seeking permission or guidance from the DOJ.

"This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say."

https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system

b said...

Oh FUCK! Israeli "consular officials" went round Berlin hospitals after the terror attack in Berlin. That's exactly what they did in London after the 7/7 attacks. (I suspect in London they may have lost contact with one of their operatives.)

Who in Germany, I wonder, has the guts to say that following a terrorist attack hospital authorities should tell ANY foreign power that sends its guys round hospitals asking for information TO FUCK RIGHT OFF?

Meanwhile, the US advised its citizens in November to avoid Germany’s Christmas markets.

And the German authorities have said their security service had the truck driver under surveillance.

Truck driver Anis Amri is said to have had passports of three different countries. Why would ISIS need such a level of organisation to carry out such an attack?

This stinks to high heaven.

b said...

If we want to keep abreast of what Chabad have been saying and doing in connection with the Berlin attack, all we need to do is go to Breitbart's website.