Biden-related. Also: Schiff's complaint.

As readers know, I believe that Joe Biden must not be the nominee. He has a minor scandal in his past which will be treated as THE WORST THING EVER if it comes out at the right time.

For a while, I was in the Kamala Harris camp, until she insisted on playing the game of "make the old white guy apologize because he opposed busing." As if forced busing were the magic ingredient that's going to win over those fickle purple state voters. As if there were all sorts of farmers in rural Wisconsin who spent 2016 telling each other: "Well, I can't vote for Hillary. She hasn't said one word in favor of forced busing!"

So I guess you can call me an Elizabeth Warren man at the moment. Although I also like Cory Booker, who struck exactly the right note in the last debate -- a big, friendly, relatable, really smart guy. And it must be admitted that Beto O'Rourke helped his cause tremendously. Even if this election is not his to win, he'll probably be on the ticket one day.

That said, Joy Reid's antipathy toward Biden has made her unwatchable. I used to think the world of Reid -- hell, I doubt that I could have survived 2016 without her. But she really pisses me off now.

There's also this shit. As usual, white-n-woke progs insist on proving their anti-racist credentials by going after the candidate favored by black voters. If black voters say "Hey, I like this guy!", the white-n-woke types will scream racist racist racist incessantly, like one of those old-fashioned car alarms that never stops blaring. Progs did this same thing in 2016. And where did that get us? 

Here's a strong hint of what's about to hit us:

#Russia's state TV names Joe Biden as "Trump's most dangerous rival," host Dmitry Kiselyov says Trump should keep digging in Ukraine for "the sweetest" kompromat of all: "proving that Ukraine—not Russia—interfered in the U.S. elections." pic.twitter.com/EJiXiwZiZZ

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) September 15, 2019

The "blame Ukraine" ploy will fit right in with the Trumpian propaganda barrage regarding FISA warrants, Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe and Michael Flynn. As I've said before: The Trumpists are going to turn Russiagate against the Dems, and they are going to do so via a Chewbacca defense. It goes without saying that the rightwingers will buy into all of this; those guys were born to be bamboozled by the Chewbacca defense.

What bothers me most of all are the lefties who will give credence to this revisionist drivel. I'm not just talking about known assholes like Greenwald and Taibbi; we're also going to get a lot of horse manure from people like Reid, Virginia Heffernan, Krystal Ball, Michael Moore, and the whole Bernie-or-bust crowd. (Maher? Colbert? I hope not.)

Of course, that same crowd will also buy into the Epstein/Clinton Big Smear when it is unveiled. It's gonna hit us at the psychologically (or politically) perfect moment. The perfection of the timing will indicate the falsity of the charge.

(Don't forget: For a good long while, lefties bought into the Whitewater canard. That smear might be considered a Chewbacca offense.)

About that complaint. As most of you know, Adam Schiff officially complained that Trump's intelligence apparat is deliberately hiding an important whistleblower complaint.  I was surprised at the lack of speculation as to what the whistlebower might be blowing the whistle about.

Come on. This is the internet. Speculation is what we do.

Finally, Rayne on Emptywheel gives us some good old-fashioned tea-leaf reading. I thought that the matter might have something to with that Iranian satellite photo, but Rayne's timeline proves that things were a-stir before that sorry business occurred. These would be the key dates:

28-JUL-2019 — Coats’ departure and John Ratcliffe nominated as replacement announced by Trump via Twitter.

02-AUG-2019 — Ratcliffe withdraws from consideration. [UPDATE-2b]

08-AUG-2019 — Primary Deputy Director DNI Sue Gordon resigned effective 15-AUG-2019, without additional prior notice, as ordered. Resignation letter without handwritten note.

Copy of former PDDNI’s resignation letter with handwritten cover: ODNI_LTR_08AUG2019

12-AUG-19 — ICIG received the whistleblower compaint, via Schiff’s 10-SEP letter [UPDATE-1]

So perhaps the weird vacancy in the DNI's office has some link to what's going on. Marcy Wheeler also seems to be thinking along these lines.

Note the whistleblower complaint the Acting DNI is suppressing would date to not long after Susan Gordon was tired.

I think she means "fired" or "retired." We've all been tired since Trump took the oath of office.

A couple of response tweets are worthy of note:

Maybe not? I thought this report was weird at the time, but it makes sense now. Coats barged into Gordon’s meeting and encouraged her to resign. Possibly he knew of the whistleblower and didn’t want Gordon take the blame? She left the same day he did.

My theory is Trump found out that Coates knew about whatever so he fired him. Coates had told Gordon about it so he then told her to quit before Trump found out she knew too and fired her.

This still doesn't tell us what "whatever" is. It may have to do with North Korea; it may have to do with Saudi Arabia; it may have to do with Russia.

Iran? Hm. Maybe. Maybe that is why John Bolton resigned or was fired.

Or maybe this has more to do with the likelihood that Trump asked Coats, Ratcliff and Gordon for personal loyalty oaths. Right now, that's the simplest and most logical theory.

All I know is, we have a number of people involved with that scramble for the DNI's chair, and so far they haven't blabbed about what really happened. Someone is going to have to go on the record, and damn the consequences.