Since it appears we are going to have lots of political news breaks over the next few weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to do some more political posting, which I have not been doing much of lately. The IG report on how the FBI oversaw the Clinton e-mail crimes is due out this week or next. Trump is laying the groundwork to fire Mueller and possibly behead his own Justice Department. It is midterm season and there will be a summer battle over the next round of government budgets. Lots on tap this summer.
The first item is what we see happening with the FBI spying scandal. I must admit that I initially followed it because I liked boasting about having predicted it. Then I moved into cynical mode, assuming it would be swept under the rug like all of the crimes perpetrated by our rulers. I may have been wrong on that score. The people slowly unearthing the details and revealing them to the public appear to be extremely savvy political operators. I see now why the Democrats tried to assassinate Devin Nunes. He is a dangerous man.
One of the rare things in American politics these days is the smart politician who is not desperate to ham it up for the cameras. Nunes, Grassley, Goodlatte and their staffers have conducted this probe in a way we just never see. They took turns nibbling away at bits of the story, working with IG Horowitz, while quietly confronting the FBI and DOJ each step of the way. The level of coordination is what I find intriguing. It feels like maybe there is an inside player making sure everyone is on the same page and working their role.
On the other side of the ledger, the insane things coming from the Brennan camp are jaw-dropping. For the former CIA head to not-so-subtly threaten the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader on social media is incredible. Either the guy is insane, or he really feels he is bullet proof. That would be an incredibly ballsy move to make behind closed doors with no witnesses. This guy is basically telling the political class they better remove the sitting president or else. It is not the sort of thing I ever expected to see in my lifetime.
What it could mean is that off-camera, there is a change in opinion. This assault on Trump was led by a well-known group of people, the same people who ran the phony-baloney NeverTrump campaign. Brennan’s nutty public statements may reflect his sense that the tide is now running against him and his cronies. He is not taking twitter because people are taking his calls. You have to think that the leaders of both parties would like to get away from this whole thing and the easy way to do that is turn on the conspirators.
The other aspect to this is Trump has played his hand about as well as possible. The press will focus on his handling of the Mueller stuff, but what Trump has managed to do is much more strategic. Look at his polling. Normally, even saints lose support after waves of bad press. Trump has managed to bob along around 50%, slowly creating an image of himself as David fighting Goliath. The Mueller problem, in light of the spying scandal, now looks like part of an elaborate scheme to thwart the will of the people by Washington.
That is going to give him enormous amounts of political capital in the coming months. You do not want to be on the wrong side of a popular president. The Ryan faction, which is bottling up all reform efforts in the House, has to be wondering if they picked the wrong team at this point. With their leader quitting to cash in as a lobbyist, we may see that coalition within the GOP start to fracture this summer. The tell will be if Ryan steps down early and we get a new Speaker. My guess is that the is gone by Labor Day.
A long-forgotten element of the intrigue in Washington is the Clinton e-mail scandal. That is supposedly the next item IG Horowitz will report on, and it is the reason he has been digging around in all of this stuff. Many of the characters involved in the spying scandal participated in the cover-up of the Clinton e-mail scandal. The main target is Andrew McCabe, so we probably learn just how much jeopardy he is in over this. Whatever caused Mr. Magoo to fire him, despite not wanting to do it, is in those reports.
Something Chuck Schumer said two years ago should be revisited. He publicly warned Trump that “Intel officials ‘have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you'” meaning Trump should not take on the FBI. Maybe it was just Schumer flapping his gums, but maybe there is more to it. It is safe to assume that guys like Brennan were abusing their power for a long time. There may be another game afoot, behind the scenes, to rein in an intel community that has been out of control for longer than the public currently knows.
Finally, I used to compare Trump to the Asimov character “The Mule” because I saw him as the destroyer of the current order. That is largely true. The one thing common in all of these scandals is the participants operated on the assumption that Trump can never win. It is not just that he could not get elected. They have been playing the game assuming that he had to fail eventually. The body of official Washington would expel him like a foreign object. Instead, everything is falling to pieces and Trump keeps winning.
It is going to be a fun summer.
Once the momentum builds to collapse the empire, it makes no difference who’s wearing the purple. We are riding the slide and all these players, white hats and black hats, are merely personalities. Grim but as sure as the sun rises.
Obama, Val Jarrett, the Hillary crew around her, DWS, Pedostas, (where in the world is Sid “Vicious” Blumenthal???), all keeping a low profile these days…
You know what *I* want to know about?
What the UK has done w/the Skripals. Where are they?.
Also, Cody Shearer’s name has not come up in a month. Funny how his former brother-in-law Strobe Talbott has remarkably not been brought in as an expert witness in the Russia collusion saga. Strobe’s late wife Brooke Shearer (Derek’s sister, also) served as a kind of body-guard (eye-bleach needed here) for Hillary back in the 90s. Also, was a famous “dumpster diver” for a private investigation firm then.
An aside: Strobe and former President “W” Bush have not yet registered for their Yale 50th Reunion, which takes place in New Haven late next week.
The goalposts recently moved from “Trump must be removed” (active) to “Trump might not run for a second term” (passive) Story in there somewhere…
Here are my thoughts on the coming events: The population elected Donald Trump to do the following three things: 1. The public restoration of the Republic. 2. The public announcement of the US Treasury note. 3. Get all of the Indictments unsealed now.
Test run
Re: “On the other side of the ledger, the insane things coming from the Brennan camp are jaw-dropping. For the former CIA head to not-so-subtly threaten the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader on social media is incredible. Either the guy is insane or he really feels he is bullet proof. That would be an incredibly ballsy move to do behind closed doors with no witnesses. This guy is basically telling the political class they better remove the sitting president or else. It is not the sort of thing I ever expected to see in my lifetime.”
ZMan, with all due respects, aren’t you being just a bit naïve? The CIA have been overturning foreign governments, enacting coups and generally causing trouble for our enemies (actual or perceived) all over the world since the heyday of the Dulles brothers back in the 1950s. The spooks down at Langley have been masters of wet work, black bag ops and dirty tricks for more than sixty years. Some people even believe that the agency is responsible for killing JFK.
Given their track record, and the fact that the deep-state is no longer loyal to the United States or its people, but to itself and its perpetuation, it seems like it would be just a matter of time before the CIA turned those talents against subjects, well, let’s just say against targets nowhere approved in its charter.
That is not to say that there aren’t committed and patriotic Americans working for the CIA and similar agencies, but it is to state that many of the senior people in these agencies – like John Brennan, James Clapper, and James Comey – have forgotten the oaths they swore a long time ago, if they ever believed them in the first place.
It is known that some years ago, as a younger man working for the agency and living in Saudi Arabia, John Brennan was the target of a special influence operation on the part of Saudi intelligence whose aim was to “turn” Brennan by getting him to convert to Islam. Ever since that time, Brennan has been, de facto, a sleeper agent/mole inside Langley on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Cold-blooded functionaries like Brennan, Clapper and Comey are all ideological true believers, men who believe that the “deep state” is the United States, and that the nation and people around them exist to serve them and the government, and not vice versa.
In the late 1940s, at the dawn of the Cold War, renowned Canadian spymaster Sir William Stephenson – reflected on the victory against fascism so recently won and at such high cost. While noting the achievements of the vast secret intelligence and espionage apparatus he and his colleagues had done so much to build in the Anglo-American nations, Stephenson worried that such a powerful tool would be turned against the very people it was created to serve and protect. From today’s vantage point, his fears seem remarkably prescient.
Sundance at Conservative Treehouse yesterday made an observation that did catch my eye and I spent part of this morning confirming it:
When you read through the Page/Strzok text messages, the redactions are voluminous, and from the positions, it is clear that little or none of it is being redacted because it is just non-work related chat between the two. This can be frustrating if you are trying the understand the meaning of the pieces that are not redacted (see Andrew McCarthy’s essay from last Monday discussing his analysis of the texts from July and August of 2016 for a feel of how frustrating it can be). However, Sundance pointed out that among the complaints about redactions to subpoenaed material from the Congressional committees, none of the committee leaders have complained about the redactions in the texts. Sundance suggested that the redactions are not from Rosenstein’s side of the DoJ, but are being done by the IG and whichever US Attorney is doing the criminal investigation, and that the committee chairmen know this and are thus OK with it for the time being.
Brennan realizes his corruption can’t be buried any longer. Halper is just the tip of the iceberg, in my opinion- he wasn’t the only person put up to try to infiltrate and spy on Trump Campaign officials- it is all but certain that Joseph Mifsud, the man who first suggested to Papadopoulos that the Russians had Clinton’s e-mails was also part of the “informant” operation.
So, what does Brennan have as a defense at this point? The only defense to be seen as such a vehement and unbalanced Trump hater that any prosecution of him will immediately be argued to be retaliation for “speaking his mind”. He isn’t the only one engaged in this sort of field of battle prep- Yates is doing the same thing.
Thank you for your analysis, great white pills. Caught you on TDS, if you can it would be great if you could get a guest spot on FTN, with Jazzhands & Halberstram and Ethnarc if possible. I think you might be able to complete a sentence and even get a point out without being interrupted and talked over.
Trump is playing poker and his opponents are playing chess. He has house money and 50% or so of the white electorate who hate the current democrats. A good bet to to hold serve come November.
Zman, if you want to compare Trump with someone, I think Cromwell is the man most like the God Emperor (historically).
“Mr. Cromwell, you are impertinent”
“The issues, your Majesty, are beyond good manners”
I hope and pray you are right, sir.
However it plays out, love the optimism. I can supply my own pessimism. But I gotta say, Z, you have been all over the map on Trump, and recently too. Referring to comments you make on other sites.
Jeff Sessions has had a Fed Prosecutor working on “matters” for about a year and a half or so. The guy is based in Utah. THIS PROSECUTOR is the one who released the Strzok/What’s Her Sweet Ass texts–when nobody had asked for them.
The real problem is the Deep State. Note that Halper was way, way, deep into GHWBush’s …ahh….business, working FOR Reagan/Bush by stealing Carter’s policy documents during the 1980 campaign. So it ain’t really “the Democrats”–it’s really the Deep State.
Who stole the DNC data? The Pakistani IT criminals hired by BlabberBlubber Wasserman-Schultz. They also relayed the entire contents of the (D) Congressional server to the Paki government–and speaking of dogs that haven’t barked lately, have you heard from BlabberBlubber?
So looks like the outcome of the Trump etal powwow today was Congress gets everything unredacted and John Kelly is hosting the reveal party. What was that comment about Praetorian guards?
Given that the DOJ IG’s investigation into the FBI’s Clinton email investigation will have taken almost 15 months, with the report due by the end of May, this whole mess is going to play out over a very, very long period of time…well into Trump’s 2nd term. And that’s a good thing as right now, the ‘public’ is being warmed up to the idea of the FBI and Justice committing nefarious acts. This long warm-up is pretty important.
Someone has good taste in movies.
I am not sanguine. All roads lead to Obama and that would lead to hot Civil War with the military and police and Feds fracturing on racial lines. McConnell, Koch Bros, Murdoch, Graham, and the Deep or Derp State are just as likely to remove Trump to protect the Sacred Lightworker.
Also there is a ton of money invested in the Iran Deal. And as noted the Trigglypuff faction of the ruling class is ascendant. In the PRC it’s all “for immigrants ” Literally that’s all AG candidate Eleni says in her commercials.
I don’t think Trump has enough forces among the people, Whites are a minority here in California, or govt and his own party.
You worry too much about silly shit. No one is going to start a civil war to keep jug head out of the slam. He has 0 friends.
With all due respect, we are already in a civil war, roughly in a position anomalous to the period from November 1860 to February 8, 1861. We have not formalized the sides and the actual combat has not started yet; but we very much are not one country anymore.
One of the key factors in every civil war is that a significant fraction of the population reject and nullify the laws made under the previous social and political contract. Right now, all Democrat controlled polities in the country have functionally declared the right to nullify any Federal law and the Constitution at will. Either the Clinton Archipelago will be brought to heel, they will separate, or they will conquer us. They are TWANLOC.
Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen
(And Subotai, a patriotic LEO, is not a nice man. No, not nice at all)
Nice guys finish last,and soyboys never finish. The Republican “nice guys” we all kept diligently voting for over many years to stop & fix the Prog madness were in on the deception all along. No Longer Our Countrymen, indeed.
Subotai may not be a “nice guy”, but he’s an astute historian and wordsmith of reality.
Given we are already in a civil war, putting obama in prison won’t set off a new-new-civil war. My point was that obama is not important, he is just an old newspaper lying on the floor.
If the police and military fracture along racial lines … don’t we win? Whites are still a majority overall, and more militarily effective in history.
Take a trip out of CA. Here in Midlandia, it’s not even an issue, esp since we showed “them” what’s what with the election and plan on more in Nov. Red wave.
Z – you wrote:
“The level of coordination is what I find intriguing. It feels like maybe there is an inside player making sure everyone in on the same page and working their role.”
I have my more-than-educated guess – which riles some commenters at various sites, but facts are fact, and dates are dates.
Do you have a candidate in mind as the “coordinator?
How about Mike Rogers? Knows a LOT, tipped Trump to the spying/wiretaps, haven’t heard a peep from him since he quit.
Details on your guess, please.
Methinks the key in all of this is how Enemedia-Pravda (The Ministry of Propaganda) spins whatever comes next. Never underestimate the power of The Megaphone – especially when the Obama-worshipping, Hillary-worshipping, Comey/Deep$tate-covering holders of The Megaphone realize that what comes next will leave them with beaucoup egg on their propaganda-gushing, lying faces.
Nunes and Grassley are both farmers. And have been publicly ridiculed for it. Remember how some idiot Democrat leading with the campaign line “could you imagine some farmer being in charge of the Judiciary Committee”? Farming is not a business where and excess of hubris or impatience does well. Both are smart, tough and underneath the quiet exterior, seriously hacked off at the other side. But they’ll focus on getting even.
PS. Remember the video circulating of Grassley getting challenged to push ups by a high school kid. At 81 he dropped and banged out about 25-30 reps and beat the kid.
Grassley’s giving it to that spoiled kid reminds me of an old saying: “Before you go after an old man, you’d better find out what kind of young man he was.”
Totally OT I know but can I just say thank you America for Meghan Markle or should I say princess affirmative action, she is just what we needed….honest!
If Prince Charles had any balls, he’d shut down the monarchy when his mother passes. She has been great for the country in her own way, but what is coming after her appears just ridiculous. Charles claims to hate the responsibilities of the job, so he should exercise his opportunity to simply shut it all down. Close the monarchy out with a more than worthy occupant of the throne. If he hates it now, wait until a bunch of subjects are booing and jeering the king wherever he goes. I would not be surprised to see that happen.
Prince Charles is literally a cuckold. I wouldn’t count on much from him except full-blown SJW idiocy.
It is all moot anyway when the U.K. goes under Sharia Law.
Not going to happen.
Your post has been reported to the UK authorities for Islamophobia.
Why don’t you post under your real name?
No fear of being reported in the good ol’ US of A!
Which will,according to the stats on UK/US demography,be several decades after your country has ceased to exist.
I’m with you buddy. My post may not have conveyed it, but it was meant in the spirit of beleaguered camaraderie. I am not a smug Yank. I want you Brits to win back your country.
Prince Charles is a moron and will probably preside over his nation’s subjugation to Islam. He may have already said the shahada and convert to the one true faith himself, who knows? Sad to say, of the two, his mother Queen Elizabeth is by-far the more-sensible of the two of them, but given her advancing senility, that isn’t saying much.
Better yet, skip over Charles and William and make George King. Who could boo that little charmer?
The writing is on the wall. We can’t keep going like this. The people that have put us here have to be stopped. Not only that, the damage they’ve done has to be repaired or we won’t have country.
I think its going to be a long, hot summer this year, both figuratively and literally. Trump is going to be up to his neck in trying to reign in or bring down the deep state. The deep state will fight back with every means possible. Of course we need Trump to win. If he fails, this world is going into darkness for a long time to come. I really do not want this to happen.
The Guardian memorializes 1968 here:
1968: the year of revolt
1968: The year that changed history
https://www.theguardian.com/observer/gallery/2008/jan/17/1
now it’s 50 years on. The rebels of 1968 are the establishment of 2018, and another year of revolt is growing. Maybe we will change history, again.
The FBI/DOJ leaking the identity of their informant to the WaPost and NYT smacks of a group of people in panic. 8 days ago they were screaming about how they would not be blackmailed…and then they leak it ham-handedly to the press after refusing to hand it over to the United States Congress. That’s a sign of leadership in full disarray. As was Brennan’s ill-advised tweet.
Then you have the Dems in Congress who have been truly inept. They made it sound like declassifying the Nunes memo would be like giving the Russians the nuclear launch codes. Then we got the memo – which was devastating – and it contained ZERO classified information and ZERO sources and methods. The Dems were simply trying to keep the public from finding out. Bye-bye Adam Schiff, we hardly knew ye.
This has been a three pronged attack. IG does the heavy lifting in terms of the internal investigations. Congress gets everybody under oath. Trump yells really loudly so that everybody is looking at him, and not at what is going on at the IG or to a lesser extent Congress. And, Trump keeps the band all marching together (polling matters).
I just wonder what comes next. I think people are overstating things when they think we’re going to see guys like Brennan and Clapper jailed for sedition. That is what is needed, but I don’t know if it will happen. It would do a lot to restore public confidence in the institutions to see half a dozen government officials handcuffed and tried for treason.
I suspect misdirection is still in play. Nunes pointed out overnight that there may be multiple informants, and the black hats seem a bit too quick in laying down a trail of breadcrumbs to Halper.
Brennan seems as crazy as a March Hare. I am more concerned about the ones operating silently in the background. I would like to see them exposed and named.
I agree…they outed him way too fast. I think there are others.
Welp, Halper was on the government payroll.
So we have the CIA and FBI using a government contractor to spy on a presidential campaign.
Yeah but they were doing it to help Trump.
bahahahaha!
Hok;
Agreed that they give up Halper waaay too easily. My guess is that he is a distraction, thrown from the sledge to lighten the load and busy the wolves.
He is an old, mostly unsuccessful agent-provocateur with little to any actual legal jeopardy if what we know now is most of it. Any crimes he committed largely happened on UK soil, greatly hindering any prosecution.
An actual inside spy is likely who’s being given cover.
What must Brennan and McCain have hidden in their closet to become so vile in public?
Well McCain *is* a power bottom…
Quick – would you rather stay at the Hanoi Hilton or be his power top?
I’d skull fukk that old bastard straight into the grave.
The Watergate timeline is worth remembering. The game that is about to start, and may already be in motion, is charging the small players who have a lot of exposure and few options. My guess is there is a war for the soul of Andrew McCabe right now. That K-Street firm did not raise all that money for him by accident. That was a message. On the other hand, Huber has him dead to rights for perjury. McCabe is either negotiating a deal right now or getting financial commitments from people in the event he goes to prison.
I’m fairly sure that the so-called “insurance policy” that was discussed was to leave all of this at the feet of Comey, who is a world class dufus. It’s shocking that this prig got to this position.
They’ve got him, in the sense that McCabe and Comey are basically calling each other liars. Both of their stories cannot be true. McCabe needs to spill, and it’s probably why the IG split out the McCabe criminal referral from the main IG report.
I still think the insurance policy was impeachment. That was the original take on things that the NeverTrumpers and many Democrats had. Yeah, maybe Trump gets elected, but he won’t last 6 months.
Comey has more or less disappeared from the headlines the last 2 weeks. He’s no longer useful, and I think those TV interviews did a lot of damage to his credibility, so he’s at risk now too.
Comey’s ace in the hole is that he had direct meetings with Obama, Rice, Brennan, etc. If they cooked this whole mess up, that’s where this goes from taking out a few career bureaucrats to an overt act of sedition.
McCabe also had direct contact with Loretta Lynch on these matters. Her testimony under oath also contradicts Comey and McCabe.
We are beginning to see the outlines of the “Who’s Who For Getting Thrown Under The Bus”; what will the furthest reaches be for the limited hangout? What do the upper players have to do to avoid being among those exposed? THAT is what is going on behind the scenes, and has been for months now. We are just now seeing the public tide turned, but the inside crowd has known for some time which facts are “certain” to come out, and which ones are “optional”.
Always thought the clue with Comey was the “faint praise” from Dalios.
Leaking it to the press was not ham-handed. They knew the information was going to come out and wanted it brought out by friendly sources. They may be incompetent, but they are not stupid. There’s a big difference.
Keep in mind, that the people “reporting these revelations” are buddies with the principles. Odds are, the Times and Post have been working with Halper and other plants for a long time. The Post and Times have people with long time connections to the CIA and FBI. Then there is the fact that Fusion/GPS was run by former Wall Street Journal reporters.
The truth is, the news media is just as much of this scandal as the FBI and DOJ.
For those who don’t know: WSJ editorialists are right; WSJ “news” people are left.
By “right” you mean in favor of open borders and sending all our non-elite jobs out of the country.
That would be corporate conservatism.
They’re all corporate, that’s all.
Yup. Kimberley Strassel seems to be operating in contravention to her own WSJ editorial colleagues, who claim they can smell a rat, but don’t seem much interested in tracking him down.
The press is in on the plan. They are probably the only ones not freaked out right now, because their careers are not in jeopardy and they don’t face jail time. They just get to do what they do, which is to pass along what they are told to pass along, in the sequence and format laid out for them. They can hide behind the “anonymous source” press privilege, to avoid any chance of perjury.
Oh I think that there are very few clean hands in the press corps — and in the executive suites of media companies. They should be sweating bullets, as they are going to be squeezed first and hardest.
No, it sort of leaked in a way that blew any chance for them to pin it on Nunes. A week ago Resenstein was calling it extortion. They look like idiots. Nobody was ever supposed to know about any of this. The cover story up to now is that they kept it secret because it could do great damage to the Trump campaign. What it looks like now is that they kept it secret because it was really damn illegal.
Everything since then, Mueller included, has been an attempt to cover it all up. Really, the only person in the Obsma Admin who hasn’t been directly implicated…is Obama.
Nunes, Grassley & co. were supposed to be meeting with the DOJ right about the time all of this came out in the press. The white hats cancelled the meeting at the very last second. The Nunes story is that the meeting was potentially a set-up to blame Nunes & co. for the leak. Could the wires have gotten crossed, and it was too late to call off the leak when the meeting was cancelled? Suggests two things. One is that the game is truly afoot and things are in motion (confirmation of something we knew already). Two is that Halper was a sacrificial decoy to be thrown over the side, to hide the more important elements of the scam.
Nunes also mention this setup meeting from two weeks ago. They were invited to review the source material for the FISA warrant and then not shown it. As they are leaving. someone in DOJ leaked to CNN that Nunes refused to look at the documents.
I’ve been saying for almost two years that Rosenstein is dirty. He is the John Dean of this caper. He is the most likely source of the leak to CNN.
Interesting. I heard (talk radio again) that the meeting WAS held and that they DID use the meeting to frame Nunes as a leaker…Either way….same thing.
Yet
People love winners. Could there be a preference cascade brewing for the White Hats? It would be nice to think so. A preference cascade would also clearly establish the battle lines for whatever comes next.
No longer is the USA a “young republic” in the same vein Silicon Valley now is associated with mature business models instead of bleeding edge technology. Our country is just like the others — few folks actually believe the bullsh*t narratives anymore. US historians, if they wish credibility, are going to need to dose on the strong medicine after events of the next several years.
A nice, reassuring post to start Monday off with. 🙂
As I remember my Asimov, the Mule was taken out by someone more powerful that no one expected.
But only after the First Foundation is destroyed.
You need to leave open the possibility that I am Hari Seldon.
The second foundation mind zapped the mule. A really crappy ending to a great character.
The foundational question is . . . once the extent and severity of the corruption is revealed, what will the American people do? Will it be business as usual (temporary voting shift toward whomever is perceived as the White Hats), or will it spawn a grassroots soft rebellion against the core rot that has infested DC in toto? What is needed is to eliminate professional (lifelong) politics via term limits. That is the core disease. It is a cancer of corruption and it is relentless.
Term limits will change nothing. The donor-class political apparatus thrives regardless of who serves or for how long. If anything, newbies will be even easier to control, having needed money to get elected and not knowing the ropes to defy these forces once they’re in office. Need to ban money from politics so dirt people can choose who’s on ballot rather than the donor class cloud people.
Nope, we need to prohibit politicians from being able to touch/influence anything of importance, as much as possible. Because politics is full of, um, politicians. Controlling money in politics to get a good result is as much of a pipe dream as is gun control to get a good result. I wish politician money control would work, but it just won’t.
Because we as a people are unable to come up with creative, intelligent fixes in critical areas (such as campaign finance and organizing/building dissident right movement), we will fail. So your thinking is: “we need to prohibit politicians from being able to touch/influence anything of importance, as much as possible.” Talk about pipe dreams.
It’s not simple to ban money from politics. If I like Trump and want to make an advertisement or write an article or pay someone to make signs then you could say I’m donating to his campaign. That gives the government license to stifle speech. If you allow those things then all sorts of “independent” organizations make ads effectively avoiding contributions.
I’m not sure there’s a solution that isn’t worse than the problem. The candidate that spends less wins quite often.
Swearing to uphold the US Constitution is what they are required to do. Going too far afield from this is what gets politicians into trouble.
With the power and reach that technology affords us with social media, a person wanting to run for office should not need to gather millions of dollars for a local, regional, state or federal office. The money is kept in politics because that is the lifeblood of the corruption and corporate control of our country, “legislative capture” they call it and it’s 100% effective. The defeatist thinking that, Nope, this is the way it is, is simply a lack of will and thought to remedy the problem. It remains as it is because Americans are largely unaware how this system works, and have no desire to know, let alone change it. I saw how all this works when I worked at a prominent DC trade association in the 90s, which was a fascinating experience, but also unsettling as I got to see the movements first-hand. Back then, the country was still healthy enough that we could sustain functionality with some corruption, but the corruption spread like a cancer throughout our government and institutions, past the tipping point, to become the dysfunctional mess we see before us today. It’s corruption, not rocket science, and will require eternal vigilance to control. We seem unable to do “vigilance” any more.
Could anything have prevented the corruption from spreading past the tipping point?
Yes, basic, common-sensical campaign finance reform might have done the trick. But they danced around the issue, doing everything but directly attacking the corruption, making it a complicated issue when it’s not. No reform happened, corruption flourished. Now we have billion-dollar elections and sociopathic corporate jackal politicians. I do like Zman’s idea about limited years of service for unelected government workers, though. This might have prevented the current deep state from forming and calcifying. Personally, I think that some kind of work in the private sector should be required of anyone seeking government jobs or political office. I’m full of pipe dreams!
Expecting the people who care most about rigging campaigns to write laws on campaign finance reform. Sure, what could go wrong?
The problem I see is human nature. What cut in the percentage of the money supply to the political realm will keep the politicos from selling out to the highest bidder? My argument is that anything less than 100% has no real effect at all. And at 100%, Louie in the men’s room with a bag of cash gets to call the shots. It is not the number of the dollars, it is the presence of them, and the transactional and fungible nature of the dollar bills. Better to minimize the damage by dispersing and minimizing the political levers of power, which the founders well understood.
This is a key concept, that of limiting and minimizing. Texas & other state’s legislatures only meet every-other-year, and for a proscribed number of days. These kinds of restrictions tend to limit the damage legislators can wreak.
Dutch, yes, in my pipe dream there is a ban on all monies or gifts for politicians. I guess I still hold out hope we can turn this thing around in a more civilized way by using the law to recapture our government. When I’m confronted with reality of human nature, I get bitter because you’re probably right and it’s too late to use our wonderful legal framework to change our course rather than bloody insurrection and chaos. In my fantasy, we trim our Congresscritters WAAAY down, from the silk-suit-wearing weasels inhabiting their marble palazzi on Capitol Hill to closely monitored public servants. We treat them as untrustworthy teenagers and allow zero money, gifts, trips, dinners, etc. They must hold all meetings in their Congressional offices (DC and at home) and our wonderful advanced technology must be used to keep track of all meeting participants and subject matters, which would be posted publicly 24/7 so everyone sees what they’re up to. They can still meet with lobbyists and corporate representatives, but these people shall have the same access to their office as John Q. Public. No ridiculous benefits like insider stock trading, pensions and great health-care-forever plans. After serving their moderately paid term in office, they must return to the private sector so they can work and live under the laws they wrote for us. As for elections, simply put forth a certain amount of public funding for each candidate to spend on their campaign as they see fit and no private donations allowed. How the candidates manage their allotted campaign money would be the first test of their abilities and resourcefulness for us to consider.
I like your fantasies;) I would be preparing though for the “bloody insurrection and chaos” just to be on the safe side though…You have to understand that most people prefer comfortable slavery rather than dangerous freedom so they will leave what needs to be done until the last minute and then usually it’s to late to be anything but the above…
Ursula, I think that all looks great. Every element helps. Combine it with Arch Stanton’s ideas, and I think things get as good as they can get in this area, which is a whole lot better than what we have now.
Ursula;
Another unlikely possibility would be to make office less lucrative. That *might* attract a better class of ‘public servant’. The (likely temporary) end of earmarks was a step in that direction.
The key would be to change the overall incentive structure so that a man/woman would have to make their money before they came to The Swamp instead of looking for it after they arrive.
Drying up the NGO world parallel economy would be a good thing for many reasons. So, taking a hard look at grants might have some leverage. For example, any agency making a grant for something that it was supposed to do itself has it’s budget cut by the grant amount next year, etc.
A man can dream.
Term limits don’t work. The problem isn’t actually the elected but the permanent state itself. Mass elimination of agencies and life bans from any political job of any kind for people are the only thing that will slow them down
If it gets to emergency members things like private clubs and schools and universities would also have to be purged . You can’t do this lawfully at least through direct means in ordinary time of course but corruption that deep has been burned out root and branch
However no matter what you do you will have a substantive state if only to prevent other states and corporations from getting power
A power vacuum is not a good thing and you don’t want Chinese State Industries or Nestle running the country
Basically you need a Nationalist takeover of some kind with loyalty oaths, a rigid Constitution with fixed interpretations and removal of big money from the system
That won’t be easy and the risk of subversion or your guys naturally becoming just like the last guys is high
The Founding Fathers who were smarter than we are had the Republic they build start to fail by around 1792 withe the Whiskey Rebellion and with the Marbury vs Madison power grab which should tell you how hard this would be
Its not impossible though
Term limits are only a tiny portion of the “fix”. The only way to cure the Deep State is to end lifelong government employment. The corruption won’t end until we see the elimination of Civil Service and public unions (or their proxies, the “professional associations”), and elimination of all job protections for any Federal worker.There are good people, but this corruption is endemic to the workforce – and they quickly hook elected reps into it. Move them all onto Social Security, return to the “spoils system” where the party in power gets the jobs – all of them, down to local postmaster – and allow every new appointed department head to fire at will and without cause.
Term limits won’t do anything to deal with the real threat to our once-great republic – the vast unaccountable permanent bureaucracy of unelected government employees who comprise so much of the deep-state.
A number of high-profile agencies have thrown into question whether they continue to hold the trust of the American people. These include the IRS, which allowed itself to be used as a partisan political weapon; as did the FBI and CIA. Corruption is endemic at the Secret Service, whose agents were busted a few years back partying with hookers and blow at taxpayer expense. And the list continues.
At a minimum, one or more of these agencies should be, rhetorically and legally-speaking, burned down as an example for the others of the costs of betrayal of the public. Senior executives and leaders charged, tried and if convicted, sent to prison and stripped of all pensions and benefits. Other employees fired and put out on the street, and barred from working in government again.
“Reform” in official Washington-speak, is often a synonym for sweeping incriminating things under the rug or hiding them in the closet until the news cycle moves on. If real reform and meaningful change are to come to Sodom on the Potomac, someone – and something – will have to pay the price in public, and take the fall.
Of course, there is a more-drastic solution: simply turn off the tap which permits funding to flow into Washington’s coffers in the first place. That would certain get some attention, wouldn’t it?
On up coming events- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzwlhHdhOcc
Witch hunts inevitably end with the accusers on the rack. That’s what’s so great about witch hunts — when you see one, you know things are going very poorly for the Powers That Be, and you know that the worst hysterics will get the worst of it eventually. You can see the implosion everywhere. I’m retired now, but it’ll be fun to watch #MeToo take over the academic Clown Quarter — once they realize Hillary will never be President, they’ll lash out indiscriminately at everyone…. and **everyone** in academia has heard stories. Grab the popcorn.
Things were sure easier to figure out during the Polk administration, were’nt they, Severian? 😉
The donks tried to assassinate Devin Nunes? Link?
If I remember correctly, they tried to get him off of the committee and accused him of leaking confidential information.
Zman may have been referring to the shoot-up of the Republiscams beisbol game…
6 months long “ethics investigation’ over him, tied his hands for awhile. Easy to find on the net.
I’ve had the thought that the President brought in Mattis and Kelly and kept Dunford (three Marines, who have fought the wars together as generals, and are tight) as the JCS Chairman to take on the FBI/CIA/DOJ, using military intelligence and a trusted network of loyalist officers. When Trump moved Kelly to Chief of Staff, it seems the tide began to turn. Its the Marine Connection as a praetorian guard.
Never underestimate Trump, the highway is littered with those that did, when slow and steady wins the race having a turtle for an AG might just get it done.
I’d say. Though one must wonder where he’ll find the support to execute the prosecution of any swamp residents. The deep state meme will have true meaning if Trump somehow manages to conjure up a few patriots in the imperial beuracratic city to do his bidding without undermining the process. Every visible arm of the imperial coalition is arrayed against him.
I keep expecting to wake to the news that one of those TLA SWAT teams has taken the White House, Trump was “killed in the crossfire,” and that Brennan has declared himself interim President.
Much more likely that Brennan falls out a 10th story window, while hailing a cab.
Yeah my thoughts too.. Trump might want to deputize some seals and bring in Federal marshals from texas as security. I am shocked at Brennan’s recent comments. These guys have monitiored *every* communication for 20-30 yrs now. Guess they figure they have enuf blackmail to get representatives to stand down. Nunes better buy a wheelbarrow to haul his balls around.
If I were him, I would have a QRF on a 30 second string.
I may do a post on the dogs that are not barking. I don’t consume a lot of main stream news, so I’d need to do some research to be sure, but when was the last time the Podesta brothers were seen in public? Team Hillary seems mighty quiet. Often, you can tell a shit storm is brewing by how quiet it gets in Washington.
That would be a good one.
In the end, the Clinton Syndicate will give up Comey/Brennan/McCabe for a pass for Hilary. Obama will float above it all but will be de-balled.
That’s their goal, and maybe the way to bet, but we’ll see. Once these sorts of things get rolling, it is hard to tell where it will all end up. We live in interesting times.
No, I think obama will be pardoned but shown to be a criminal.
“de-balled”? That’s funny, assuming Michael the Mooch doesn’t already have those in a jar of formaldehyde somewhere.
If Trump and his people are smart, they’ll turn the underlings to catch the truly big dogs – Obama and the Clintons, along with a handful of other key figures in the Obama era machine and present slow-motion coup attempt against the President. There’s no honor among thieves, and once the hammer falls, the folks lower down the totem pole will be begging for deals in return for immunity or leniency in sentencing.
The “big dogs” are over at Langley and a few other places…
Hi Z,
Ive been following Q
from November. I read you too
but not everyday like I used too.
I have come to terms with the fact
I might be a fool. Im in 100%. with Q.
The planning you notice is metculous.
I wouldnt know but I imagine its the same
planning that goes into overthrowing a foreign country
or engineering a color revolution.
I think its all legit. I would love your regular brilliant
insight into it. Too many accurate predictions to ignore.
Truly historic for all of us. 24 years of Clinton about
to be exposed. Tbe rest of it is
icing on the cake.
You hit the nail on the head. Q team working the plan. Comey, Brennan, Clinton et al are no match for military intelligence. They just needed the office of the presidency to make it all work.
What is Q? Why are you a fool?
If you’re not following Q on 8chan, you’re way behind the curve. Been there since the beginning and the fact that Q is military intelligence and on team Trump is undeniable.
Read the drops and you’ll get an idea of what’s coming next.
Thanks, but why is he hiding his identity if it’s so undeniable?
I was all into Q for awhile, but he has said “here it is,” “it’s happening,” “it begins” about a hundred times and after awhile, when nothing happens…meh.
HRC was recently in New Zealand, ostensibly raising money for the CF. That was the distraction for the nosy. I wonder what else she was really doing there.
Does NZ have an extradition treaty?
No.
Isn’t that where they snatched Kim dotComs bubble ass? Is NZ really safe?
Ever read a full account of that bavarian fuster cluck? NZ Courts make our 9th Circuit all look like Antonin and Clarence.
There is no official extradition treaty except to say neither “must” extradite. Their Crown Court can apparently over-rule the non-extradition matters, as happened with DotCom. The matter is hardly done.
Ask Kim Dotcom about that…
I’ve enjoyed visiting New Zealand. One thing you notice is that all humanly habitable territory would be conveniently reachable by athletic, equipped men like DevGru. Those guys could be in and out pretty darn quickly from a submarine parked just off the Kiwi coast without formal acquiescence of the Kiwi govt. A fantastic direct action training experience even.
Hillary just gave a commencement address yesterday at Yale. Next week Harvard is giving her a medal for something. Two weeks ago she was giving a speech in New Zealand, and a few weeks before that in India. I wouldn’t say she’s seemed quiet. she’s out there making her barking sounds all the time.
You are right about the Podesta bros. They seem to be hiding out from the world. Today Judicial Watch got their first batch of records concerning the Podesta’s from FedGov. They show collusion between the two brothers on some issues, when one was in govt. and the other was a lobbiest.
Trump tweeted asking why Tony Podesta hasn’t been indicted along with Manafort.
Seems the dog that’s not barking is the entirety of the DoJ. Would expect to see a few emails surfacing suggesting that “hey maybe this isn’t such a good idea”. But so far zip. Been ringside or in the ring for enough serious regulatory investigations. Invariably more than one insider throws a flag and usually more than one.
I suspect Trump is aware of that risk and has contingencies in place for just such an attempt likely private trusted security with layers of protection
No open topped cars and grassy knolls for that man.
Yes, I have been wondering though about the next engineered “surprise” that will trip up Trump. The forces allied against him seem to be unable to hurt him, but his staff and immediate supporters are open to attack. How good a president he will become will be determined how well he can protect those around him.
I think covering up for allies was what got Nixon in such hot water.
I wouldn’t equate covering up illegal acts by associates with protecting and defending allies against scurrilous attacks in the media. The latter is what I am referring to.
A while back, I heard through the grapevine – can’t recall the exact source – that President Trump is relying almost totally on handpicked private security personnel, as well as personnel from the U.S. Marine Corps, for his personnel and family protection details, in preference to the services of the U.S. Secret Service – the implication being that Trump doesn’t much trust the Secret Service or the FBI to do the job.
Georgiaboy61, I hope that is true. If not before, then certainly he would not have relied on the “official detail” after that Secret Service female’s keycard & her laptop containing the plans for Trump Tower & other “security” info about our President was stolen from her car by a thief who hopped out of an Uber, went over to her car, grabbed her backpack and walked away.
That’s been the case since the beginning – and even before he was elected. He’s not stupid, and although he might have been partially compromised – substituting Kushner, a neocon, for Bannon, to set foreign policy – the soft coup has not succeeded. JFK wore a back brace, I’ll bet Mr Trump wears ceramic body armor.
I heard that, too…I think it was Limbaugh..saying that his people have been with him for years and include retired NYPD.