Interesting Items 11/18

Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information.  Enjoy –

In this issue:

  1. Elections
  2. Epstein
  3. Ciaramella
  4. NY
  5. CDC
  6. Cartels
  7. Vindman

  1. Elections. In the most recent reminder that elections have consequences, we have results out of Virginia, Kentucky and the Philly suburbs.  Generally, it was not the best of nights for Republicans, as VA clanged hard blue, with the first majority of democrats in the majority in over two decades.  KY elected Republicans statewide up and down the ticket all except for Governor.  And the Philly suburbs elected democrat supervisors.

Needless to say, the media was ecstatic with these results, particularly in VA, where a combination of state Republican party ineptitude and the growth of the federal bureaucracy in DC combined to turn over control of the state to Ralph “Blackface” Northam who immediately announced plans to start seizing AR-15’s.  How quaint.  Leftists in VA celebrated the victory claiming it was all due to immigration, and I expect no small amount of what went on in the counties surrounding DC was due to illegals that the O’Bama regime settled in those counties.  Local Republican ineptitude was so rank that democrats elected a guy as a state senator who spent time in jail in 2014 for contributing to the delinquency of a minor because of a sexual relationship with a 17-year old office assistant at his law firm.  I have no explanation for Matt Bevin’s loss, other than stories about him being prickly.  He was best I can tell doing what he promised voters he was going to do.  Most important fallout from these elections?  You gotta take care of business at the local level.  And you gotta do it every single day of the week, month and year.

 

  1. Epstein. The general public is extending its middle finger to both the media and corrupt government agencies including law enforcement with the “Epstein didn’t kill himself” meme.  This has shown up on hundreds (thousands?) of hilarious internet memes.  It has even started showing up on the bottom of beer cans and cups at fast food joints.  The meme went so far that even Bashar al-Assad picked up on it.  Americans love the good conspiracy theory.  Combine that with a complete lack of trust for media and government especially at the federal level (thanks, democrats), and you set the stage for this sort of thing to spread like wildfire.  Looks like the first mention was Oct. 2.

 

  1. Ciaramella. Trump Ukraine phone call whistleblower Eric Ciaramella has become the new Voldemort, one whose name must not be mentioned.  The media and democrats are falling all over themselves to make sure his name is not mentioned.  Even Big Tech is in the game with FakeBook, Twitter and Goolag doing their level best to remove everything that mentions him.  Turns out that Ciaramella is a registered democrat who worked in the O’Bama WH, worked with Biden and CIA Director John Brennan, and was also involved in initiating the Russia collusion investigation.  He worked closely with a DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa, who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 campaign, inviting her into the WH.  They know one another.  Sometimes the worm does turn, as someone filed a whistleblower complaint against Ciaramella last week, accusing him of profiting from a Go Fund Me campaign that has so far raised over $227,000 from over 6,000 donors.  The concern is that these are solicited gifts to a current intel official.  The complaint wants to know how many foreigners have contributed to a fund controlled by a currently active intelligence operative.  Ciaramella’s lawyer, Mark Zaid has been in the middle of the anti-Trump efforts since 2016.  He also has a mouth and is too arrogant to keep it closed.  He has been Tweeting anti-Trump stuff for years.  One of the most foolish was:

#coup has started. First of many steps. #rebellion. #impeachment will follow ultimately. #lawyers https://t.co/FiNBQo6v0S

Zaid is likely the guy who wrote up the whistleblower complaint with Ciaramella.  He is also one of the guys who has been working closely with Schiff’s lawyers on the House Intel Committee.  He is up to his ears in this.  And it is not going to go well for either one of them.  Final little observation is Adam Schiff (D, CA) denied in front of the cameras Friday that he knew or ever met with the whistleblower (Ciaramella).  This should be very interesting.

 

  1. NY. President Trump changed his primary residence from NYC to Palm Beach County in FL.  His stated rationale was high taxes and bad treatment at the hands of local and state governments.  I expect the ongoing effort by state and local governments to get his tax returns via local and state courts so they can leak them to Trump enemies is also a reason.  For their part, Governor Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio responded to the news with some version of “good riddance” and “don’t let the door hit you on the backside on your way out.”  Classy as ever, guys.  When NYC is so hostile to business that lifelong, proud New Yorkers no longer feel home there, they have a real problem, one they don’t care about as they do their Snoopy Dance celebrating his departure as he leaves town forever.

 

  1. CDC. Another example of the problem you get with politicized government agencies is the reaction of the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) to the lung disease epidemic tied to vaping.  The CDC used to moderately decent work until the early 1990s when they along with the EPA were dragooned into Bill Clinton’s payoff to trial lawyers who supported his election in 1992, aka the anti-tobacco jihad.  For 25 years, they have strongly come down on the anti-smoking side of every single conversation, which means they have been at best skeptical and at worst extremely hostile to the growth of vaping.  It is smoking after all, at least to the Tobacco Nazis.  This is why the CDC was fully on board whipping up the anti-vaping panic this year as reports of lung damage and deaths blamed on vaping hit the news.  As it turns out, the deaths have nothing to do with legal vaping products.  Rather, it looks like the problem is with vitamin E acetate oil used to cut THC vape cartridges to increase profits.  This is why the problem has been entirely in states with legal marijuana products, and why it has been concentrated on black market vaping products rather than commercially available ones.  The CDC examined lung tissue samples from 29 patients across 10 states and found all of them contained vitamin E acetate oil.  The problem is that it is difficult for lungs to eject ingested oils.  They tend to persist and damage the healthy tissue.  So far, there have been over 2,000 cases of lung illnesses and 39 deaths associated with vaping.  The most common factor among those who have fallen ill has been that they have vaped black market THC products.  Just a reminder that vaping has been around for over a decade and the outbreak did not occur until this year.  And the outbreak is not taking place in either Canada or Europe despite e-cigs being widely available.  We Americans are doing something wrong.  And the CDC finally found out what.  The problem with all this is that the CDC still hedged its bets, releasing advice on Nov. 1, when they already knew what the cause was, that “because the specific compound or ingredient causing lung injury is not known, and while the investigation continues, persons should consider refraining from the use of all e-cigarettes, or vaping products.”  This is intentional and dangerous, as the CDC knowingly is sowing public confusion.  This is not merely a mistake or botched investigation.  It is the opportunity for their internal prohibitionists, the anti-smoking jihadis working on the federal dime, to tell the general public “I told you so” about vaping.  It also gives various anti-smoking non-profits fuel for their ongoing political and fundraising campaigns.  Finally, it harms the national effort to get the maximum number of people off tobacco.

 

  1. Cartels. News out Mexico regarding the cartels has continued to deteriorate, most recently with the murder of a family of Mormons living south of the border.  Add that to the news about cartel soldiers defeating Mexican military in pitched battles to release captured leadership and family members.  Mexico is starting to look a lot like Somalia, a failed state run by warlords.  President Trump offered Mexico’s president military assistance in solving their problem after news of the attack on the Mormons.  ALMO declined the assistance.  This was not the first offer.  It will not be the last.  Sooner or later, the US military, likely Special Ops in concert with drones will be in combat operations in Mexico, doing much the same that they did to ISIS in Syria.  I don’t think it will take as long to mop up the cartels in Mexico as it did ISIS.  Do it away from the cameras, and this problem will disappear quickly and completely.

 

  1. Vindman. Army LtCol Alex VIndman is an NSC detailee who passed along his “concerns” about President Trump’s second call with newly elected Ukraine president to Adam Schiff’s whistleblower.  As such, he is up to his ears in all the festivities.  Democrats paraded him around in dress uniform on his way to and from his secret deposition a week or two ago so as to get the maximum PR impact.  Problem is that Vindman has a few problems.  First, is that beyond his opinions, he has no new facts to offer.  Second is that he withheld important information from investigators.  Third is that there were notable gaps in his testimony.  Finally, and most importantly, is that he is a creature of the bureaucracy that has often opposed Trump.  Quite bluntly, it is NOT the job of ANY LtCol detailed to the NSC to make or even comment on policy.  That policy is set by his superiors, starting with the Commander in Chief.  It is Vindman’s job to execute his Oath of Office, which is quite similar to that of the Commander in Chief.  The moment he decides he can no longer serve that CinC, he is honor and duty bound to resign his commission.  As a well-connected leftist spook, he will not be unemployed for long, that is until the swamp draining is a lot farther along than it currently is.  Vindman is living, breathing proof that the Deep State not only exists, but he and the people he works for have shown both their true colors as self-appointed elites who think they run this country.   Today, the game in DC is rigged in favor of the Deep State.  Politicians come and go but the permanent bureaucracy chugs along unchanged.  Vindman’s prepared testimony gives the game away.  He believes that the permanent bureaucracy must continue to reign supreme.  If a politician gets crossways with that bureaucracy, he believes he is duty-bound to step in.  He called President Trump’s emissaries to Ukraine people who undermine the consensus views of the interagency working group and as a result, “harmful to US government policy.”  Finally, Vindman, like the people he works with and for, believes in using the permanent bureaucracy as a weapon of politics.  We are very close to basic definitions of sedition and treason here.  The boy should be careful.

More later –

– AG

 

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