What did the FBI know and when did they know it? Plenty, and early.
Additional information released on Wednesday shows exactly when in 2017 the FBI received evidence that Russian intelligence operatives fed Steele with disinformation.
The FBI obtained information on Jan. 12, 2017, two days after BuzzFeed News published the dossier, Steele’s allegation that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague in August 2016 was likely the product of Russian disinformation.
The FBI received evidence on Feb. 27, 2017 that Russians may have fed disinformation to Steele regarding his most explosive claim: that Donald Trump used hookers during a 2013 trip to Moscow. (RELATED: The FBI Knew The Steele Dossier Contained Russian Disinformation Three Years Ago — And Somehow That Never Leaked)
The footnotes declassified on Wednesday say that the FBI’s Transnational Organized Crime Intelligence Unit sought a validation review of Steele as an FBI source in 2015 because of his links to five Russian oligarchs.
The footnote says that the FBI unit found that five Russian oligarchs who sought meetings with the FBI that year had intermediaries who contacted Steele.
I doubt many people are paying attention to this, with COVID-19 dominating everything. And even if there was no pandemic, I very much doubt the news would make a particle of difference to most (perhaps all) of the Trump opposition.
It was a sure thing.
It was in the bag.
All those cover-ups of cover-up of cover-ups.
It was beautiful. A work of art.
It was perfection.
No one was going to figure it out. Wasn’t possible.
It was fool proof—everyone protecting everyone else.
Besides, all the juicy stuff was redacted.
Anyone who would raise any question, any doubt would be ridiculed from here to eternity as a freaking conspiracy theorist, and if he or she persisted, that person would be hung up to dry. Accused of being a total maniac. Of trying to reveal state secrets. Of attempting to destroy the public trust (heh). Of betraying the country. They’d be publicly shamed with non-stop vitriol and slander. Run out of town. Tarred and feathered. Incarcerated with no hope. Their reputation shattered.
And ruined financially.
(“Ve hev our vays, you knaw.”)
Besides, Hillary was going to win. Hands down.
A landslide.
And the MSM, fast and furious, was churning out the BS 24/7.
Yes, that mega-decibel echo chamber was firing on all cylinders. All the time. Glorious to behold.
Most importantly, the Clintons, their cronies, the Democratic Party (I’m looking at you, POTUS44) and the DNC, all up to their eyeballs in—oh, let’s call it “patriotism”—had to be protected.
At all costs.
And besides “Tomorrow was theirs” (as they kept reminding us)
So there was absolutely no problem. Zippo. Nada.
Nothing to worry about…because what, after all, is “Insurance” for?
It will serve to jerk the chains of the trumphaters. To let them know we know they’re either lousy liars are dumb as a box of rocks. Or both to think the lies would stand.
To let them know we think they’re Traitors and we will never, ever trust a word they say.
And they’re lower than pond scum. I’m not referring to the DoJ–not right now–but the goons who insisted Trump was illegitimate, a cheater, not a real POTUS.
I’m not sure if I am evil enough to insist that the completely ignorant, the innocently easily led. actually knew better and were evil instead of really, really stupid.
It won’t be necessary to get them to agree. We need only point out the reality and that their disagreement is meaningless. There’s nothing they can say.
I feel better now.
Unrelated to this topic but relevant to today:
Does anyone remember when China tried to smuggle in 1 million pounds of pork likely contaminated by African swine fever into New Jersey and the Feds seized it in the “biggest agricultural bust in history”?
Many thought that this was an attempt from China to cripple the US economy by biologically decimating our livestock supply (much in the way China’s had recently been).
This happened last March.
That story sure disappeared down the wormhole before it ever became known how much of the smuggled pork really was contaminated with the virus. Considering almost all of China’s pigs/pork supply was infected by this outbreak at the time, there’s a good chance that a huge smuggled load of it was too.
And before you start claiming that this didn’t happen (it was difficult to find much on it with a google search), here’s a short article from the NY Daily News right after the bust. Funny I can’t find any articles that are follow-ups to this initial reporting.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-pork-smuggled-china-new-jersey-port-20190317-story.html
So, if the coronavirus (engineered or not) was sent to infect the world, and specifically the US, it likely wasn’t even China’s first major attempt to do engage in biological warfare with us this year.
metaps.
Good catch.
I hope for, but increasingly don’t really expect, indictments. I’m glad to read Nunes is asking for 8 more criminal investigations, but it seems that the goosestepping Dem deep state DOJ lawyers, those supposed to do the work of prosecuting crimes, can easily find excuses to NOT prosecute, not even indict. McCabe’s treatment is what we all should be preparing for.
I hope I’m wrong.
“Hope for the best.
Expect the worst.” (You could be Tolstoy. Or Patty Hearst)
On another thread, there is discussion about gov’t failure as “Trump Admin” failure — but it’s not really fair if the gov’t workers who are supposed to be doing the Trump policy are actually against that policy and undercutting it so that it doesn’t get done, or done so poorly it fails to get any positive results.
Did you all know about the rich commie Chinese sending pregnant wives to the US so as to give birth, and get citizenship for their kids?
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2020/04/outrage-of-day.html#more
Birth tourism in So. Cal.
Disgusting.
One of the sad realities of capitalism, and entrepreneurs, is that it does reward people who are able to provide desired services, even if the desired services are illegal.
But the inability of the US DOJ to indict criminal deep staters is even worse.
And sadder.
China is on verge of global dominance. It is run by evil men. It stops at nothing. Good thing the incarcerated Uighurs are pork-despising, 2 million of them imprisoned in “camps”. Can we see what’s coming? China is barring export of medical products and masks from US companies with China factories, like 3M.
Where the H is Durham’s investigation? When will there be indictments???
Comey & McCabe knew; and probably Obama did too, in general.
They really are traitors.
But they really believed Trump is “so terrible”, that getting rid of him is an “end that justifies the means.”
Now, time for the Medici on TV in Slovak (and thus my Slovak lesson; only very slowly getting better. Need to do grammar homework, but don’t want to.)
But again I say Nothing Will Happen.
If this can be drawn out until Nov, and Biden wins (which he does have a good chance of doing) it will all go away.
What, me Cynical?
I generally take the view that when it gets complicated, justice is an uncommon accident. I do not expect this will be different. The decay will continue. We don’t have the social antibodies to dispose of creatures like Andrew McCabe and Adam Schiff.
China is on verge of global dominance. It is run by evil men. It stops at nothing.
At least two of these statements are false.
So Hillary and the FIB collided with Russia.
Maybe I was wrong about Obergruppenfuhrer Müller. He wasn’t just a Nazi gestapo leader, he also was Stasi
Trump might be able to manage it (with Barr and Durham).
It’s the reason why they have to be stopped (and/or removed) at any and all cost.
So there is—or ought to be—some hope (for all ye who dare enter here…).
In other words, as long as the Democrats and their MSM phalanx continue to do their best to upend and/or deep-six the Trump presidency, there is hope. Counter-intuitive? Delusional? Perhaps.
But first things first. The country is calling for leadership and there are at the moment, alas, more pressing issues.
But no, Trump hasn’t forgotten. Nobody ought to.
To be sure, the latest crisis will be exploited to the core by the usual suspects to distract and deflect and derail the wheels of justice—and governance itself—from the task at hand.
he also was Stasi
He’s in the midst of cognitive decline or is pleased to leave that impression. The smart money says the investigation was Weismann’s and Mueller watched television in his office.
Ah, but those wheels do grind ever so slowly….
Anyway, here’s a rather prophetic tidbit (more entertainment than brimstone, depending on one’s inclination) from almost a year ago.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/05/02/joe_digenova_john_brennan_isnt_going_to_need_one_lawyer_hes_going_to_need_five.html
Related:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/fbi-received-repeated-warnings-about-steele-informant
H/T Powerline blog
In which John Solomon describes just why Hillary Clinton had to lash out so aggressively, so desperately, so hysterically against the Trump presidency and against the deplorables who voted support him.
Tear the country apart? Sure, why not? Just to save your own skin? What a dumb question….
Indeed, the utter fear of being revealed—finally, after being having been in the driver’s seat, of being “in charge” of shaping the narrative that is allowed to drip out for public consumption—will often make people who sorely wish not to be found out do desperate things.
Desperate and ugly and criminal things.
It’s a crushing realization.
And it’s no different for the Chinese regime, who are so terrified of the truth that the only thing they know is to attack—oOf course, they’ve had over a half century of experience.
(Because we all know that the best defense is a take-no-prisoners offense….?)
“(Because we all know that the best defense is a take-no-prisoners offense….?)” — Barry
The really sad thing (for the Democrats and Chinese) is that their offense-defense is driving the news that is revealing what they tried to cover-up.
Trump might still have gone after China economically, because that was something he cared about long before the election, but I think he would have left Hillary and the Democrats alone.
If you don’t stir up the hornet’s nest, you don’t get stung.
Tom Grey,
I worked in the Czech Republic for nearly a year. I’ve worked in almost twenty foreign countries, and always make an effort to try to learn some of the local language. On short trips, at the very least, “please,” “thank you” and, “do you speak English?”
Czech was quite a struggle for me. First, none of the locals could understand why I was bothering. “We all want to speak English,” they would say, and, “Czech is a waste of your time.” So it was hard to find help. I learned the basics quickly, so I could order in restaurants, count… but it was rote, phonetic. Finally, after several weeks of struggle I spent a weekend locked in my hotel room memorizing the alphabet and its pronunciation. That was the key!
Art Deco @ 6:47pm:
Keep your head under a carpet, that’s a good boy.
Which two of my three statements do you deem false?
And why?
But keep it monosyllabic, as is your wont.
Where has saint Mueller disappeared to? He’s obviously the only one who can get to the bottom of this
Can a date be given, where evidence was clear and conclusive, the whole thing was wrong, no collusion, no Russians. Everything after that was misappropriation of government funds.
Some pretty clear dates were known fairly soon; we are just getting the corroborating evidence now.
Representative stories:
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/457628-new-evidence-shows-why-steele-the-ohrs-and-tsa-workers-never-should-have
New evidence shows why Steele, the Ohrs and TSA workers never should have become DOJ sources
BY JOHN SOLOMON — 08/15/19 07:00 PM EDT
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/04/16/big-declassification-begins-documents-from-senate-judiciary-committee-including-bucket-five-documents-and-less-redacted-carter-page-fisa/
No doubt that certain elements within the US govt. attempted to thwart the election of Trump and subsequently, attempt a coup d’etat.
These perpetrators need to be executed (see pics of the gallows for Lincoln’s assassination conspirators).
But frankly, there is a greater chance of an individual winning the PowerBall Lottery, than seeing any of the coup d’etat plotters going to jail.
Yep, there may be some indictments, which will be followed, perhaps, by fines, suspended sentences, or one or two years in the pokey.
The realization of justice, IMHO, will never happen.
Tom and Rufus,
I speak a bit of Polish, having lived there for a year. Polish shares a lot of vocabulary and grammar with Czech and Slavak.
Aside from pronunciation (compound consonants up the wazoo…) these languages have noun cases. Like verb conjugations in the romance languages change with the person and tense, nouns change depending on the context. Often the differences are quite subtle. Honestly, I never mastered it. Every time I thought I was getting it, it turned out that I wasn’t.
Roy,
Latin and German (which I have studied) also have noun cases. I’ve heard Japanese does also. I imagine all the Romance languages must have had them at some point, including English (and I assume the Germans picked it up when Caesar crossed the Rubicon heading north), but all the rest had the good sense to dump them.
If you try to reason it out as you speak you’ll never get it. Even though it follows simple rules, you have to master it by ear. English pronouns have cases. Why do we say, “I am going to my car, which is mine?” Rather than, “My is going to mine car, which is I?” A teacher will tell you it’s because, in the first sentence, “I” is the nominative case, “my” is the genitive and “mine” the accusative. However, 97.38% of native, English speakers will answer, “because it sounds better that way.” I found it easiest to repeat clauses and substitute nouns to develop an “ear” for the proper cases in their proper places. Of course it’s made even tougher by the fact that nouns also have gender and the cases differ by gender.
Although not easy to master proficiency, the concept of noun declensions made instant sense. We grow up learning nouns are different depending on their use in a sentence; subject, direct object, indirect object, possessive (and the no longer used “vocative”). So that was easy for me to understand. But gender still makes no sense. How or why do nouns have sexual characteristics?! Somehow that concept is completely natural to most all humans but English speakers.
A few of my favorite examples from German. “Mädchen” means girl. Has to be feminine, right? Wrong. Neuter! “Junge” means boy but is also plural for more than one child. When used as boy it is masculine, der, but as a plural, die, which is also, confusingly, the singular feminine article. But “Kinder” which also means a group of children is neuter! “Zug” means train. Ah, trains are big, heavy machines. Must be masculine, right? Yes, it is! Of course! But “Bahn” also means train and it is feminine!
If you have to stop to think about any of it you’ll take 5 minutes speaking a seven word sentence. Best to speak and hear over and over until it “sounds better.”
Roy,
I grew up in an area of Chicago with a lot of Polish and Czech immigrants (but the Czech’s referred to themselves as, “Bohemians”). The languages do share a lot of cognates. To my ear Polish sounds a little more French when spoken and Czech a bit more Russian. Many of their foods are indistinguishable.
Will DA Durham (instructed by AG Barr) proceed his “investigation” on the criminal conspiracy basis, working his way up the chain of culpability with an aim toward the “directing” top of a command structure, cutting “deals” in exchange for testimony and evidence against those most legally responsible for instituting this crime against American governance?
Or will he dissatisfy justice through piecemeal prosecutions of small-fry, thus failing the unprecedented task set before him?
This is all I want to know.
However, I don’t expect any answer until indictments begin to rain down, and perhaps not even at that moment. The whole skein may not be clear even then, though some visible anxiety in Pseudonym and his associates may suggest guilty foreknowledge aplenty.
Rufus:
Enjoyed that. Thanks
If the indictments ever do come, just imagine the Dems and the MSM…
“Purges”
“Witchhunt”
“Consolidating ultimate power”
“Settling grudges”
“Vindictive”
“Abuse of authority”
“Political prisoners”
Etc, etc, etc…
sdferr:
Durham is running out of time. And a new Dem. president will fire him and can his work. Pray for movement and pray for Trump!
“just imagine”
All too well, Roy, though I can say I had precisely these imagined objects of Democrat/MSM turpitude in mind as early as Jan. 2017. So also, I believe, did Trump and his inner circle as they considered how to proceed: hence the extremely prolonged process we are witness to. This is political prudentiary decision making in action. It’s a knife edge, akin to traversing Charibdis-Scylla.
rufus, cicero. Vietnamese is a tonal language. It’s monosyllabic. Each syllable has up to five different meanings, depending on tone. High to low, low to high, etc. For example, best I remember, a syllable most likely pronounced “bahng”, swallowing the “g”, means “friend” or “shoot”. Depending. I”ve heard Chinese has four tones. Which is why Chinese opera sounds like somebody swallowing a cat.
rufus, cicero. Vietnamese is a tonal language. It’s monosyllabic. Each syllable has up to five different meanings, depending on tone. High to low, low to high, etc. For example, best I remember, a syllable most likely pronounced “bahng”, swallowing the “g”, means “friend” or “shoot”. Depending. I”ve heard Chinese has four tones. Which is why Chinese opera sounds like somebody swallowing a cat.
I’m not counting on any of these people going to jail BUT I think there is more than enough evidence for a grand jury to indict. Let them have their day in court. That’s how the system is supposed to work and lets hope that will play out.
Oh and make sure each one knows the first to flip gets the best deal! That’s also how the system works.
Sdferr,
Man, I hope you are right.
Roy, Rufus – noun declinations are a problem with the cases; plus the sexes; plus the plurals; plus the adjectives follow the nouns (a feminine noun makes the adjective feminine; or masculine, or neuter.) It’s somewhat harder/ more cases than German, but German is harder in their word constructions.
I can’t think of the rules fast enough — so yes to the “it sounds right”. Or not.
When I started (in 1991), all those who could speak English did want to practice their English. I did get a lovely young Slovak woman to “teach” me, but we soon were mostly speaking English. She’s been my lovely wife since 1994; and she’s still beautiful. Too bad we couldn’t visit Neo, but almost 10,000 miles of driving in 2 months was far more than wife wanted, when we visited last summer.
Funny, I was born in Chicago, to German – English+Irish parents, who moved to L.A. When my wife had a conference in Chicago a few years ago, I took vacation and visited her and my cousins & uncle Ken – who is a Knights of Columbus active Catholic. And goes to a Polish & Czech & a little Slovak Catholic church nearby. It was nice to visit.
On indictments – DOJ should have indicted McCabe. Better to indict and go to trial and get “not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt”, rather than no trial. DOJ deep state folk, plus Barr? plus Durham? disagreed, and stop investigation/ prosecution.
At this point, I’ll believe indictments when I see them. Right now I see these main possibilities:
1) dribbles of nothing before the election, with Trump claiming unfair persecution of him and double standards.
1a) after Trump wins, bigger investigation and indictments
1b) after Trump wins, “new procedures” are put into place so it “won’t happen again!”
1c) after Trump loses, (1b) but with lots of old guilty folk coming back into power
2) big push by Durham to get some indictments before the election; (1a) but before election, with more coming.
3) small push by Durham to get a few indictments, but mostly letting it peter out.
Can’t avoid thinking about it, often – so we might as well write some of out thoughts down.
Rufus T. Firefly —
“Czech-” never referred to a geographical entity until 1918. The modern Czech Republic is made up of the old provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. So if your neighbors’ families originally emigrated to the US before the Great War, they would think of themselves as “Bohemians”, who spoke a language that called “Bohemian” or “Czech”.
Richard Aubrey,
Another of my partial knowledge of languages is Thai. It also has five tones. You can say, “Dang dang dang dang dang.”, each word having a different tone. It means, “Wet wood burns well, doesn’t it?”
Other than the tones, Thai grammar is fairly simple. A basic vocabulary, and you are on your way…
What happens to Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese who are born tone-deaf?
Does that even occur?
A lot of people who think they are tone-deaf and thus can’t sing, have just never been properly trained. Is anyone really for real unable to distinguish tones?