Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
- Memo
- SOTU
- Fansler
- Salmon
- McCabe
- Wahoo
- Jury
- Memo. The House Intelligence Committee voted to release the Nunes memo to the general public. It was sent to the WH for final review before it was released Friday. The memo documents the use of the Hillary / DNC-funded Steele / Fusion GPS memo (which contained mostly Russian lies about President Trump, then a candidate) as the essential piece of evidence presented to the FISA Court to obtain a surveillance warrant on Carter Page, who at the time worked for the Trump campaign as a foreign affairs advisor. This warrant was renewed three times over the subsequent year and a half. The FBI intentionally withheld information from the Court that the dossier was fundamentally a Hillary / DNC – funded piece of opposition research. Partisans in the leadership of the FBI and DoJ then used surveillance authorized under the FISA Warrant as an excuse to surveil President Trump and those near him. They used the tools of counterintelligence against a political opponent. Essentially the FBI, DoJ, and the intelligence community committed a fraud upon the court, something that will eventually get no small number of the participants some up close and personal time in Club Fed. Additionally, the dossier was at the heart of the Russian collusion (not illegal, BTW), Jeff Sessions recusal, and appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor, something done by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who also signed one of the FISA Warrant extensions. This is as big of a deal as I have seen in my lifetime, and yes, I remember Watergate. And this is not the last word either. Rather it is the opening bid, as there will be a letter out of Charles Grassley of the Senate, and the DoJ IG will release its results here in the next couple weeks. I predict a real leadership housecleaning in the FBI, DoJ, and the intelligence community. For his part, fired former FBI Director James Comey, also involved in the FISA Warrant, was happily running his mouth, taunting Republicans and Nunes with “Is that all there is?” questions. Given that Comey lied through his teeth about both what he knew about the dossier and assisted in committing a fraud upon the Court in pursuing the warrant, he ought to watch himself, and not let his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird arse. You can find a link to the actual memo at the following link. https://www.lawfareblog.com/nunes-memo-and-law-unintended-consequences
- SOTU. During the Clinton and O’Bama years, I got myself into the habit of referring to the State of the Union speech as the STFU, which was their body language and words as they taunted their political opposition. President Trump gave his first speech last Tuesday. And it has been a long time since I have enjoyed a political speech as much. Democrats were just as cranky and surly as expected, with the Congressional Black Caucus perhaps the surliest. Unlike SOTUs over the last few decades, this speech was not a shopping list of new programs, new promises, and new demands. Rather it was a demonstration (at least to me) of how much he actually loves this nation. And he invited a number of people to attend the speech demonstrating the individual greatness of America. Best line of the speech was “Americans are dreamers too” his response to the democrats putting the interests of their brand new voters over the interests of everyone else in the nation. You always watch Trump waiting for him to go off script and say something fun and commit Truth in public. Sadly, that didn’t happen as he kept on script, staying pretty close to what he intended to do. He also rolled out his primary persuasion weapons, as the speech and the words he used in it were top line persuasion. Watched it a second time. Been a long time since I’ve done that. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-state-union-address/
- Fansler. Another one bites the dust, as a newly elected democrat from Bush Alaska got himself run out of the legislature for hitting a woman in a hotel room hard enough to break her eardrum. The guy’s name is Zach Fansler, and he was one of Bill Walker’s hand-picked replacements for Bush legislators that caucused with Republicans. Fansler is out of Bethel, District 38. He is single and enjoys rough sex (BSDM). Fansler’s campaign was run by Walker’s campaign manager, now a state paid advisor, John henry Heckendorn of the Ship Creek Group. Fansler replaced long-term Bethel legislator and family man, Bob Herron. This is the second swinging single democrat who had to step down for doing nasty things to women. The attack took place on January 13. Fansler marched in the Women’s march a week after the attack. Like all democrats, Fansler had his tail feathers all extended last May and blasted away at Republican David Eastman who made “insensitive” remarks about rural Alaska women and abortion. He was shocked, simply shocked. Nice to see Walker, democrats, the House majority, and their young campaign mongers selecting nothing but the very best to replace long-time elected democrats who do not hew to the newly defined party line. Fansler among other was featured in a Politico story about Heckendorn’s and other young democrats’ efforts to take over Alaska. It only took him one day from the publication of the piece before partying on down with his victim. http://mustreadalaska.com/fansler-womens-right-marcher-day-smacking-around-night/
- Salmon. The most recent anti-development ballot initiative to hit the ballot here in Alaska is entitled Stand for Salmon. It casts itself as a common-sense update of permitting for development, resource extraction, and infrastructure construction. Like most other wolves in sheep’s clothing, this one hides a hideous change in permitting behind warm, fuzzy rhetoric, kind of like clothing Strategic Air Command’s iron fist in puppy dog fur. Essentially this ballot initiative proposes a new permitting regime applicable to anyone or anything that touches waters where salmon swim, spawn, or otherwise resides in. As salmon are relatively gregarious, this new requirement applies to all flowing waters in the state, in addition to the sources of that water, and where the water flows into. Given that this is a wet state, this applies to everything in the state. If your project – whatever it may be – think mines, logging roads, oil drilling or exploration, tunnels, bridges, culverts, airports, buildings, houses, waste water treatment plants, buildings, etc., literally every single thing that has been done or will be done in Alaska. The ballot initiative sets up a new permitting system under the complete control of the Commissioner of Alaska Department of Fish and Game that requires a permit for anything that will in any impact flowing waters that salmon swim in. The permit carries with it all the associated costs including bonding for any damages perceived or real. The bad news comes with the persistence of the permit, for once issued, it can be pulled at any future time should the next Commissioner decide the project or operation is not living up to their end of the deal. This means that a new road or bridge that was approved and permitted can lose that permit if the next Commissioner and his (or her) boss the Governor decide they don’t like what they are doing or where they are doing it. The initiative is written in such a way that existing infrastructure or operations can be hauled into the permitting process any time after the fact. Anyone going to invest in any construction in such a climate? Hardly. The writers of the initiative (along with the legislation it is based upon), also introduced a racial component into the festivities absolving any tribal or tribally connected entity from bonding requirements. Apparently, there are some perks with being one with Mother Gaia here in Alaska. There will be quite a fight over this one. We will hope the Good Guys carry the day. I am linking to the actual legislation. http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/statutes.asp#16.05.887
- McCabe. Deputy FBI Director Andrew (Andy) McCabe resigned from the FIB last week on the Monday before the WH decided to release the Nunes memo to the general public. McCabe has demonstrated that he is little more than a political hack, someone who has used his position of trust as a public servant to fight the political wars as part of his day job. McCabe was an active participant in the efforts of FIB lead investigator Peter Strzok and his FIB lawyerette girlfriend to execute a Plan B to chase President Trump from office, or to orchestrate unending investigations into him, his business dealings, and associates so as to dig up enough to impeach him and remove him from office. McCabe signed at least one of the FISA extension filings, knowing full well that they were intentionally misleading the FISA judge. McCabe was the snake that told Reince Priebus that he knew for a fact that a NYT story reporting unnamed sources claiming that Trump campaign aides and associates had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence was complete BS. When Priebus said, great, tell the media and correct the record, McCabe declined. Instead he leaked to the very same lying media that Priebus tried to pressure him to support the WH position, while McCabe was the guy who started the discussion in the first place. McCabe is suspected of ordering agents to modify their records of interrogation after the fact, something otherwise known as obstructing justice. I would suspect McCabe is going to spend no small portion of this initial retirement figuring out how to pay for the criminal defense lawyers he is about to need. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/29/fbis-mccabe-now-stepping-down-suspected-in-leak-against-white-house.html
- Wahoo. Just when you thought that sports PC couldn’t get any worse comes the news that the Cleveland Indians will be retiring their logo, Chief Wahoo by 2019. You see, it is demeaning, racially insensitive, and carries with it all manner of additional Politically Correct violations. The news was greeted by celebration by all the Usual race baiting Suspects, who instantly pivoted and aimed their pseudo moral outrage at the Washington Redskins. (MS)ESPN led that early charge, perhaps forgetting that their ratings were in the tank and intent on accelerating the slide south. Problem with this retirement is that Chief Wahoo is on ALL the Indians gear, meaning that it is all but impossible to retire until everything in the pipeline is already sold, which will be many, many years from now. Damned shame that MLB is following the NFL down the PC rabbit hole. https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2018/01/29/while-cleveland-indians-retiring-chief-wahoo-new-products-with-him-not-going-away/#7ac4aac72dc3
- Jury. Speaking of political correctness, the Coast Guard got themselves into a bit of pickle by selecting a jury full of committed feminists in a rape cast. A military appeals court overturned the 2012 rape conviction of a Coast Guard enlisted man because the admirals and prosecutors packed the 7-member jury with five women, four of which held jobs as advocates for victims of sexual assault. The ruling was 5-0 to overturn. The appeals court opinion, written by a female judge said the four admirals who assembled the jury pool produced an illegal “gender-based court stacking” which amounted to unlawful command influence. The trial judge failed to conduct even a rudimentary investigation into defense attorneys’ complaints of an unfair jury. The unfair command influence was so bad that and so obvious that it adversely affected the fairness and ultimate integrity of the military justice system. As an aside, the way the military justice systems works is that if you are caught up in it for whatever reason, you are toast. The Coast Guard Commandant was one of the convening authorities and did his best Sergeant Schultz“I know nothing” routine in response to the charges. The jury pool was 70% women. This is the way the Coasties responded to WH (O’Bama WH) demands for sexual assault scalps on a regular basis (at least Chief Wahoo – previous item). https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/28/women-packed-court-gets-coast-guard-rape-convictio/
More later –
– AG