What Comey Left Out

Former FBI director, James Comey, has been getting well deserved comeuppance from the American left for not taking responsibility for the Hillary email fiasco, late campaign, that may have cost her the White House. The standard complaint is that Comey was playing Republican politics when he announced the email investigation while not disclosing the investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. How do you rationalize the two?

Here's my guess. Comey was trapped by agents at the FBI's New York field office who were cooperating with Trump campaign ally and former New York mayor, Rudi Giuliani.

Giuliani was all over the Hillary email scandal. One night I saw a clip of Giuliani appearing on CNN. He was grinning like the Cheshire Cat when he let slip some details of the New York FBI investigation into Clinton. At the time I wondered how Giuliani could possibly have access to that information? FBI investigations are not open for inspection to outsiders. Before long it seemed to dawn on Giuliani that he had just put himself and his FBI collaborators in a terrible spot and he desperately but unconvincingly tried to back peddle.

In the days and weeks that followed, reports came out about some rogue agents in the New York field office who were determined to get Hillary and hints that Giuliani might have been orchestrating their efforts.

Did those New York guys have something on Comey? Who knows? Did he announce the Clinton email investigations to head them off at some pass? Is he to be believed when he claims he kept silent about the Trump campaign investigation into Russian ties because he assumed Hillary would win in November?

One thing I've been hoping for is that Mueller will, at some point, find the evidence needed to indict Giuliani. Perhaps that's too much to hope for.

Schiff Lifts the Carpet, Gives the Public a Glimpse of What Lies Beneath.

The ranking minority member on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, says they've uncovered an abundance of evidence of collusion with the Russians and obstruction of justice involving Donald Trump.

Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Wednesday that the panel had seen an “abundance” of evidence of collusion with Russia and obstruction by Donald Trump’s campaign and administration that is not yet public.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Schiff said a lot of information was already in the public domain that pointed to extensive contacts between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin, and later efforts by the Trump entourage to cover up those contacts. But Schiff said there was much more to come out.

He said: “There is certainly an abundance of non-public information that we’ve gathered in the investigation. And I think some of that non-public evidence is evidence on the issue of collusion and some … on the issue of obstruction.”

Committee chairman, Devin Nunes, rushed to release a report that seemed aimed at undermining the FBI and the Mueller investigation. Trump didn't hesitate to authorize its release even over the objections of the FBI and national security agencies. The Democrats, including Schiff, ridiculed the Nunes report as cherry-picked and deliberately misleading. The Dems on the committee drafted a minority report, one that Trump has predictably buried.

Adam Schiff has to be one of the most soft-spoken, understated members of Congress I can recall. He's not given to hyperbole. If he's said there's an abundance of evidence against Trump within the House intelligence committee it's a safe bet that Robert Mueller and his team of A-list investigators are sitting on something very special indeed.

Another FBI Investigation to Worry Trump. This Time It's Whitefish.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI has launched an investigation into the incredibly smelly $300 million no-bid contract given to Montana company, Whitefish Energy, to rebuild Puerto Rico's shattered electricity grid.

Whitefish is basically a shell company incorporated just two years ago that had, prior to hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico just two full-time people on staff. It's also based in the small town of Whitefish, Montana, which just happens to be the home of Trump Interior Secretary, Ryan "Scorched Earth" Zinke.

Ricardo Ramos, CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), announced Sunday the agency will cancel its contract with Whitefish Energy after the company “finish(es) what they started.” The announcement comes a day after the island’s governor, Ricardo Roselló requested that the deal be torn up. Whitefish Energy, a two-person outfit out of Whitefish, Mont., raised eyebrows when it landed the $300 million, no-bid contract in the weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and left the U.S. territory largely without power.

At "Coincidence Central," a.k.a. the Trump White House, officials indignantly deny there could be any possible connection between Whitefish Energy, a Trump donor, and the favourite son of Whitefish, Interior Secretary Zinke, and the Trump administration. Who would even imagine such a thing?

Grifters, they're just a bunch of damn grifters.

So Much for Democracy

We now know that Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by well more than 2.5-million ballots. Perhaps as many ballots again were not counted due to Republican efforts to disqualify eligible voters. - Strike One.

We now know that investigations by the Central Intelligence Agency determined that Russia meddled in the election by leaking Democratic emails to Assange's WikiLeaks that then spread the damaging material into the election campaigns. - Strike Two.

Then there was the FBI director's curious announcement, less than two weeks before voting day, of yet another criminal investigation into Clinton's emails. Just a few days before the vote the director, Comey, cleared Mrs. Clinton only the damage was done. - Strike Three.

Now it's suggested that the FBI knew about Russia's skulduggery, knew that the Russians also had Republican emails that they were withholding, but said nothing. Outgoing senate minority leader Harry Reid argues that Comey was every bit as bent as J. Edgar Hoover. - Strike Four???

Meanwhile Trump hasn't even waited for his inauguration to tell the Gullibillies who were stupid enough to vote for him that all those election promises that got them so hot and bothered - well that was just malarkey to suck them in. That swamp? It stays, in fact it's going to be worse than ever. "Lock her up" Hillary? Hey, he was only screwin' with ya. - Strike Five.

Then there's the unhinged, unwashed horde who did support Trump while deep in an alternate reality.


Over the course of the campaign we found there was a cult like aspect to Trump's support, where any idea he put forth a substantial share of his supporters would go along with. We see that trend continuing post election. 60% of Trump voters think that Hillary Clinton received millions of illegal votes to only 18% who disagree with that concept and 22% who aren't sure either way.

A couple other findings related to the vote in this year's election:

-40% of Trump voters insist that he won the national popular vote to only 49% who grant that Clinton won it and 11% who aren't sure.

-Only 53% of Trump voters think that California's votes should be allowed to count in the national popular vote. 29% don't think they should be allowed to count, and another 18% are unsure.

There's been a lot of attention to the way fake news has spread and been believed especially by Trump supporters and that's borne out in our polling:

-73% of Trump voters think that George Soros is paying protesters against Trump to only 6% who think that's not true, and 21% who aren't sure one way or the other. (I personally had to explain to my Grandmother that this wasn't true a few weeks ag0 after someone sent her an e-mail about it.)

-14% of Trump supporters [and Trump's pick for national security advisor] think Hillary Clinton is connected to a child sex ring run out of a Washington DC pizzeria. Another 32% aren't sure one way or another, much as the North Carolinian who went to Washington to check it out last weekend said was the case for him. Only 54% of Trump voters expressly say they don't think #Pizzagate is real.

There's also been a lot of discussion recently about how we might be in a post-fact world and we see some evidence of that coming through in our polling:

-67% of Trump voters say that unemployment increased during the Obama administration, to only 20% who say it decreased.

-Only 41% of Trump voters say that the stock market went up during the Obama administration. 39% say it went down, and another 19% say they're not sure.

The research plainly shows that a good many Trump supporters were mentally fogged in. They are Gullibillies in the most pejorative sense of the term. Utterly misled, incapable of properly exercising their democratic franchise. - Strike Six.

This, then, is beyond argument the least legitimate government in American history and in the postwar western world. The whole thing is a sham built on layer upon layer of deceit and contrivance by Trump, his backers, a foreign power, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

So Many Emails, So Little Time.

It's the favourite food of conspiracy theorists and their zookeeper, Donald J. Trump. "The fix is in." The proof - the massive number of emails the FBI would have had to read in order to clear Hillary Clinton of any criminal conduct.

By some accounts there were upwards of 650,000 emails. In standard copy paper that would be a stack of emails just over 400 feet in height. Yes, there are online calculators for this sort of thing.

Clinton was secretary of state for almost four years which, at 650,000 emails, would mean a hundred foot stack of paper generated each and every year. Busy lady. That would mean writing a rough average of 160,000 emails each year. If she was really, really diligent that would mean about 440 emails Hillary would have to write each and every day, 7 days a week, 12 months a year, year upon year. She would probably have to read at least as many more. Hmm, that doesn't sound right.

But that's the number that Trump & Shills bandy about so let's go with it. How do you go through a 400 foot high stack of emails in just over a week? Easy. You don't. That's the magic of emails, they're electronic. They're made up of computer food commonly known as data. Which means computers can digest them about as fast as the programmers can unleash them to the job.

They can quickly identify which emails were sent by Clinton, which came from her server, and those gosh darn amazing computers can scan those emails can use search parameters to scour the messages for critical words or phrases. Sort of like those TV shows where a mystery fingerprint is fed into a computer and, within minutes, the match is found.

This is a good time to recall the theory of the crime. Hillary was thought to have acted carelessly, recklessly endangering government information by using a less than secure email server. No one has ever said that she set out to harm the US government, just that she was unacceptably insecure. That's still a crime when, through conduct in the range of careless to reckless, secret information is leaked even if inadvertently.

So the computers, and a dedicated brigade of FBI specialists, did their work, pored over the emails, and came up with nothing approaching criminal culpability. Easy, peasy. Which is why the beached whale and his coterie were left with nothing to say except the investigation was rigged, the results pre-ordained and Hillary is still a crook who got away with the greatest crime perpetrated on the United States since the secrets of the atom bomb were leaked to Stalin.

So, I'm sorry Trumpeteers, but you're left with the cold reality that you're supporting a narcissist, misogynist, fascist, racist, lecher with a serial sexual assault history (self-admitted), no experience of government, a sterling record (Cheney standard, no less) of ducking military service in his time, and an unrivalled record of massive financial disasters from which he alone walked away with pockets of cash leaving his fellow investors, suppliers and creditors to feast on his ruins. Oh, did I mention that he's also a sociopath and a pathalogical liar? Yeah, he's the guy who stands for everything you believe in. I'm not sure who's creepier, you or him.

Now They Tell Us. The FBI Says Latest Clinton Email Controversy Much Ado About Nothing.

Hillary Clinton is off the hook, again. The FBI, whose director sprang a late election surprise by revealing a further investigation into Clinton emails, now has given the "all clear" to the Democratic nominee.

From The New York Times: "James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in a letter to members of Congress that “based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.'”

Let the conspiracy theories continue, apace.

UPDATE:

The FBI announcement threw the Trump camp into an apoplectic tizzy.  Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, turned on FBI director Comey claiming he had "mishandled the investigation" from the outset.

Moments before the FBI announcement, Trump running mate Mike Pence was heaping praise on the FBI:
I'm confident that they'll handle the investigation in a timely and professional manner."

Wouldn't You Like to See This Bastard Behind Bars?

Has Rudy Giuliani tripped himself up?

There's Definitely a Book In This - The FBI File on Ted Kennedy

The Washington Post has the first of what is bound to be a cornucopia of stories bursting out of 2,200 pages of recently uncovered FBI documents on the late Senator Ted Kennedy. First up is an account of how Kennedy lived under constant death threats. Read more here.

Not surprisingly, the gnarled hand of J. Edgar Hoover, is prominent in these documents. The FBI even suspected Kennedy of involvement with communist radicals in Central America.

The paper notes that, among the documents, are 77-pages dealing with the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

FBI Says CIA FIBs About Waterboarding

It sounded like facile sophistry. "We waterboarded the guy and, viola, a few days later he spilled his guts. See, waterboarding works. And, best of all, we saved the world." That was the line the CIA was peddling about its use of torture on Abu Zubaida, who the agency claims was a really, really important, al-Qaeda kingpin.

Yeah, sure.

The FBI has come out in reply with what's been known about this guy for a long time - he's a mentally disturbed loudmouth. From the Washington Post:

While CIA officials have described him as an important insider whose disclosures under intense pressure saved lives, some FBI agents and analysts say he is largely a loudmouthed and mentally troubled hotelier whose credibility dropped as the CIA subjected him to a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding and to other "enhanced interrogation" measures.

Bush has sided publicly with the CIA's version of events. "We knew that Zubaida had more information that could save innocent lives, but he stopped talking," Bush said in September 2006. "And so the CIA used an alternative set of procedures," which the president said prompted Abu Zubaida to disclose information leading to the capture of Sept. 11, 2001, plotter Ramzi Binalshibh.

But former FBI officials privy to details of the case continue to dispute the CIA's account of the effectiveness of the harsh measures, making the record of Abu Zubaida's interrogation hard for outsiders to assess.

There is little dispute, according to officials from both agencies, that Abu Zubaida provided some valuable intelligence before CIA interrogators began to rough him up, including information that helped identify Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla.

Retired FBI agent Daniel Coleman, who led an examination of documents after Abu Zubaida's capture in early 2002 and worked on the case, said the CIA's harsh tactics cast doubt on the credibility of Abu Zubaida's information.

"I don't have confidence in anything he says, because once you go down that road, everything you say is tainted," Coleman said, referring to the harsh measures. "He was talking before they did that to him, but they didn't believe him. The problem is they didn't realize he didn't know all that much."