Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Quick Hits: Volume CCCXIII

 - If you were justifiably outraged over the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 yet can't muster the same energy over John Durham's "Russiagate" report, you're a fraud. It's just that simple


National Review's Andrew McCarthy points out that the FBI actually indulged Hillary Clinton's efforts to paint Donald Trump as a Russian stooge. 


According to Durham, it appears that FBI headquarters withheld the information from some investigators who should have had it. No surprise there. We learned during Durham’s unsuccessful prosecution of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann that headquarters concealed from the bureau’s own investigators that Sussmann was the source of the Alfa Bank data. But this information about a Clinton strategy to smear Trump wasn’t ignored. Rather, it was echoed. At the same time that the FBI had this information, the bureau nevertheless went to the FISA court and swore under oath to the Steele dossier claim that Trump and Putin were in a “conspiracy of cooperation.”

To make Trump look like Putin’s puppet, which is exactly what Clinton wanted, the FBI departed from the most elementary investigative steps, especially the duty to verify information before presenting it to a court. FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith (who later pled guilty) altered a document that would have undercut false claims the FBI was making to the FISA court. As the FBI gathered information proving that the allegations it had made to the FISA court were false, it concealed that information from the judges and kept re-alleging the false claims.

There is not a chance that the FBI — or anyone in America — was unaware that the Clinton campaign wanted Trump to be seen as a Russian operative. But the bureau expected Clinton to be the next president. That was her Trump strategy, so it became the FBI’s Trump strategy.


Our Republic is set up in a way that it can survive the whims of a President, even someone as unstable as Trump. But instead of letting that process play out, what is supposed to be a radically nonpartisan institution (i.e. the FBI) abused its power and authority to undermine the democratically (and legitimately) elected POTUS. 


Trust in our major institutions seems to be irreparably broken. That is definitely not a good place in what is supposed to be a civilized society. 



- Former Chappelle Show writer Neal Brennan with a brilliant idea for a new game show. 





Ideally the contestant selection pool would start in elitist, lily white Minneapolis neighborhoods like Kenwood and Linden Hills. 



- NBA star Ja Morant is likely to face another suspension after a second incident of him flashing a handgun on Instagram live. The first incident resulted in an 8-game banishment. Given the tone of NBA commish Adam Silver Tuesday night, Morant will be fortunate if he receives merely a 40-game involuntary vacay. 


Given how the NBA as a whole embraces left wing values, they relish any opportunity to take a firm anti-gun stance. But as Black Guns Owner founder Maj Toure asserts, the league doesn't have a lot of moral high ground on this. 





Depending upon where in the country he was brandishing his firearm, Morant may not have been breaking any laws. However, as a gun owner myself, I can't begin to tell you how absolutely foolish it is to wave around a loaded gun in an enclosed a area like a friggin' car. And I guarantee that if any of my employers caught wind of my doing something similar, I would at best have a stern talking to. Then again, my employers can concern themselves with how they're perceived since they don't play footsie with a brutal, tyrannical regime.


------------------------------------------

No comments: