All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Reviews of books, movies, tv shows and other items
Hopefully all red states will follow their lead.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/12/13/ohio_cracks_down_on_voter_fraud_141951.html
The numbers of individuals being prosecuted is small but if the consequences are broadcast it might prevent even worse abuses in the future when even small numbers will count.
In her recent post “William Barr Has Suddenly Become Chatty—and He’s Provided Quite an Information Dump” Sharyl Attkisson summarizes Barr’s recent interviews. It’s very well put together and even has some schedule info on Durham’s investigation (won’t end before Spring or Summer). If you’re interested in what Barr says here is a good summary.
Professor Charles Lipson wrote an article on Real Clear Politics called “Unraveling the Criminal Web at Comey’s FBI and Beyond.” In it he discusses the way that the FBI conspirators falsified the facts in the Carter Page and other Russiagate fishing expeditions in order to obtain FISA Court warrants and maintain them.
His opening sentence lays out what I also think is how this investigation is being handled:
“The way to unravel a criminal conspiracy is to begin with the weakest links, the ones already doomed by convincing evidence. Knowing they face serious jail time, these “weak links” have powerful reasons to cooperate with law enforcement. Flipping on their fellow conspirators is the best way, perhaps the only way, to lessen their own sentences.”
And then he pinpoints who that weakest link is:
“So, who are the weakest links as Durham’s investigation moves forward? One is surely Kevin Clinesmith, a lawyer in Comey’s FBI who is highlighted in the Horowitz Report (pages 186-190). Sen. Lindsey Graham mentioned those pages in his Tuesday press conference. In them, Horowitz presents evidence that Clinesmith not only altered official documents, he completely changed their meaning. The altered documents painted Carter Page as a foreign spy; the originals said there was no evidence for that. The exculpatory evidence was hidden from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts. The lies helped gain a secret warrant to spy on Page.”
The essay ends with some advice for Clinesmith and his associates:
“Clinesmith, for one, has compelling incentives to say who knew what and when. He was apparently caught red-handed changing official documents. His lawyer ought to be seeking ways to lessen the criminal consequences. The only way to do that is to come clean.
Anybody who worked with Clinesmith should be thinking the same thing. It would be good for them and it would be good for the country.”
This fellow Clinesmith sounds like he is in for a world of hurt. Will he flip on his buddies? Gee, I hope so. Man, I hope he gives up Comey.
Taibbi is a progressive through and through. But he’s actually a journalist! He’s honest about the lack of objectivity or even reality that the Left has embraced. Good for him.
‘Corroboration Zero’: An Inspector General’s Report Reveals the Steele Dossier Was Always a Joke
Here is the text of Durham’s reaction to I.G. Horowitz’s report:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 9, 2019
Statement of U.S. Attorney John H. Durham
“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department. Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”
For me the informative statement is, “last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.” Durham has the evidence and he’s going to find out who will be forced to take responsibility for abusing the FISA mechanism. I wonder how soon the grand jury will be empaneled? My longer-term readers know I am a vindictive so and so. It would give me the greatest pleasure to hear that the lucky recipient of the Grand Jury’s attention decided to sell his fellow conspirators down the river. Is it too much to hope for some action as a Christmas present? Sigh. Time will tell.
But the bigger picture is how this will impact the Democratic Primaries, the Impeachment Fraud and the 2020 Election. Once again, I think we have to assume the Democrats are depending on the Media to downplay any negative impact from the investigation.
With respect to the primaries the biggest risk is for Biden. If the overseas investigation touches on the Ukraine crimes then he won’t be the Democrat candidate in 2020. I’m not sure Ukraine will actually show up in the investigation. We’ll have to depend on Rudy Giuliani and the Senate to play up that angle.
As far as the Impeachment nonsense, it’s clear that the Attorney General’s investigation (through Durham) is what really caused the impeachment decision. Possibly the Ukraine call was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Clapper and Brennan must be pretty scared. But the Impeachment will be finished off pretty soon because if they don’t start soon it’s going to knock the various Senators running for president out of the race. So possibly the investigation won’t get into high gear until the Senate exonerates the President. Waiting that long is really annoying so I hope it’s not the case.
Finally, with respect to the 2020 election, if the investigation uncovers a true smoking gun, e.g., if one of the mid-level or higher conspirators turns state’s evidence, then President Trump will win in a landslide and the Republicans will end up with sizable majorities in the Congress. If the investigation is only the normal trial of overambitious bureaucrats then the President will still win but more in line with his 2016 win.
So, let me end with an exhortation to Durham and Barr. Hey boys, get to work! Life is short and as one of my friends always says to me whenever I get excited about the Durham investigation, “it’s not enough unless they frog-march Comey and company out of their houses at 3am like they did to those poor guys whose only crime was they wouldn’t lie about Trump.”
The IG’s Russiagate Report has been published and is available
https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf
Two of the recommendations seem to point at who Durham will be starting with:
The Department’s Office of Professional
Responsibility should review our findings related
to the conduct of Department attorney Bruce Ohr
for any action it deems appropriate. Ohr’s
current supervisors in CRM should also review
our findings related to Ohr’s performance for any
action they deem appropriate.
The FBI should review the performance of all
employees who had responsibility for the
preparation, Woods review, or approval of the
FISA applications, as well as the managers,
supervisors, and senior officials in the chain of
command of the Carter Page investigation for
any action it deems appropriate.
The first recommendation is specific to Bruce Ohr.
The second one is for the Carter Page FISA team. Looks like those are the sacrificial lambs. Barr and Durham, go get ’em.
post script – Durham says he has more and better info than the IG:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/statement-us-attorney-john-h-durham
Go get ’em Mr. Durham!
post post script
And Barr also says “not so fast!”
Go get ’em Mr. Barr.
How can you beat this title? Vote For Me You Lying Racist!
David Catron had this article in the American Spectator. Well written, true and sardonically funny. What else do you need?
Limitless was a 2011 movie starring Bradley Cooper. The movie is about Eddie Morra, a young man in New York City struggling to write a novel. On the day we meet him, he is dumped by his girlfriend and is trying to fend off his literary agent. Eddie has blown through the advance he was paid for the book but so far hasn’t written a single word of the book.
By coincidence Eddie meets his former brother in law who used to be a drug dealer but alleges that now he markets a legal pharmaceutical called NZT that alters brain chemistry in a way that turns the user into a super genius for a day. Although reluctant to use it Eddie tries it and it is everything promised. He writes half his novel in a few hours and finds himself able to navigate his real-world problems, like his angry landlady, effortlessly and successfully.
He goes back to his brother in law to get more of the drug but after going to perform some gopher errands for him Eddie finds his brother in law shot to death in his living room and the apartment ransacked. Eddie calls the police but spends the ensuing arrival time finding and taking the large supply of NZT that the killer had missed.
Now Eddie harnesses his abilities by becoming a securities trader. But he needs capital to get going so he borrows $100,000 from a frightening Russian mafioso. Eddie quickly makes several million dollars and comes to the attention of a Wall Street giant, Carl Van Loon played by Robert De Niro, who gives him the opportunity to become a major financial player. But now he starts running into the side effects of NZT. Continued use encourages neglect of the body such as forgetting to eat for days and overuse of the pills leads to violent impulsive actions. And as he finds out from his ex-wife withdrawal from the drug can be fatal or at least permanently debilitating.
The climax of the story combines crises combining the Russian gangster, Eddie’s work with Van Loon and the NYPD.
The science fiction element of the story is restricted to the unbelievable effects of NZT. In fact, the story reminds me of a decidedly non-science fiction story that I saw long ago. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Tom Cruise’s first big hit “Risky Business.” We have a man taking a dangerous chance to change his life and dealing with the consequences of that decision. Of course, this story is much darker but the resemblance occurred to me. While I think the story is a little over the top, especially with respect to the Russian gangster portion of the story, I thought it was pretty good. If it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.
So, the set-up is the Enterprise hears a Morse Code distress signal out in space (somehow) and follows it back to a planet that is identical to Earth. The landing party includes Kirk, Spock, Bones and, for no explicable reason, Yeoman Janice Rand. I’ve got to stop here for a moment, and comment on the fact that even though we’re only a quarter of the way through season one it should be noted that finding themselves on a planet that inexplicably resembles Earth and responding to a distress signal, which implies danger, the Chief Medical Officer, the First Officer and the Captain are being sent down into an unknown and possibly lethal emergency. But at least they brought the pretty girl with them for back up. Okay, end of rant.
The upshot is that a virus that was meant to bestow practically endless longevity to the whole population instead killed everyone but the prepubescent children. Three hundred years later the Enterprise crew finds the “children” still young but terrified of grownups that they call grups. Apparently, the dying adults went crazy and attacked everything in their path as they were dying. The children call themselves “onlies” but as each of the older children eventually reaches puberty the disease covers him in hideous sores, rapidly ages him, drives him mad and kills him. The Enterprise landing party is infected immediately and has a week to find the cure before they will die on the planet quarantined from the Enterprise. Only Spock is immune because of his green blood.
They find a teenage girl named Miri, played by True Grit actress Kim Darby, who has a crush on Kirk and in typical Kirk fashion he creepily smirks as she moons over him. It’s pretty bad. The other onlies are a weird collection of random children and stunted former child actors, one of whom, Michael J. Pollard, was closing in on thirty years of age. The actor who played Dill in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” John Megna, is in the cast as a supposedly little kid but he was fifteen years old and although he was still extremely short his head had grown disproportionately so his appearance was truly disconcerting. Anyway, the sympathy we’re supposed to feel for the onlies doesn’t happen because they are creepy and vicious and weird looking.
The kids steal the communicators from the landing party and this hampers the search for a cure. Kirk, Bones and Janice begin to show signs of the disease and they become extremely short tempered with each other. One particularly embarrassing scene has Janice Rand pulling back the collar of her blouse to show a sore on her chest and then admitting to Kirk that she has always wanted him to notice her legs but now they were disfigured with sores. Careful Janice, those kinds of things can’t be unsaid and Kirk doesn’t forget.
Finally, Kirk gets Miri to bring him to the onlies. She adds her voice to his story that they are all in danger. At first the onlies attack him and beat him with large crescent wrenches and odd-looking clubs. Kirk makes some of his patented looks of pain. But eventually he convinces them to return the communicators and trust the Enterprise crew to help them.
Meanwhile Bones throws caution to the wind and injects himself with the vaccine. He immediately keels over and we have to wait as his unconscious body slowly fights off the virus and the sores on his face mercifully disappear.
As an epilogue Janice tells Kirk that Miri really was in love with him and he agrees but gives a creepy leering smile which probably should have been reported to the FBI’s Pervert Investigation Unit for evaluation.
Okay, so the scene where the onlies beat up Kirk is kind of funny and Janice’s comment about her legs is wonderfully embarrassing but other than that, meh.
Let’s rate it 5//5. Right in the middle on both axes.
It’s always nice to see some numbers that confirm what you think is going on. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan don’t seem to think Schiff is doing the country any favors.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/03/impeachment-is-backfiring-in-the-midwest/