Update from the Sunland
No.862
9.7.18 – 15.7.18
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- I watched and listened with keen attention to the public announcement on Friday, by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, of the indictment of 12 named Russian GRU officers for the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers. The 29-page indictment obtained directly by the Special Counsel [804 & sub] is unusually detailed, considering it is dealing with the penetration of U.S. computer infrastructure by foreign state operatives. I was genuinely impressed by Rosenstein’s statement for his succinct clarity and especially for his calm, careful and respectful delivery. He knows quite well how sensitive the topic is and he did not waiver or waddle. Well done, Rod!
Surprisingly, the BIC did not jump to his usual tweeting. I suppose the BIC was too unease criticizing his good buddy Volodya before their next bromance love-fest on Monday. This time, it was one of the BIC’s small army of attorneys, Rudi Guiliani:
“The indictments Rod Rosenstein announced are good news for all Americans. The Russians are nailed. No Americans are involved. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent.”
9:53 AM - Jul 13, 2018
That is a really bizarre assessment on the part of a licensed attorney, since the indictment makes not one mention of the BIC as an object of investigation. The White House issued an official statement:
"Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result. This is consistent with what we have been saying all along.
“There is no allegation in this indictment that Americans knew that they were corresponding with Russians. There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.”
At least the White House communications staff got their statement factually correct. This indictment contained no direct implications or accusations of any American citizen, including the BIC. On the same day as the indictments, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats publicly declared, “The warning lights are blinking red again. Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.” Coats also said, “These actions are persistent, they are pervasive and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy.” How much more evidence do we need?
Bottom line: the Special Counsel investigation is NOT a witch hunt; it is very real. It is the BIC that is FAKE NEWS.
The BIC nominated Circuit Judge Brett Michael Kavanaugh of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to fill the seat on the bench of the Supreme Court vacated by the retirement of Associate Justice Kennedy.
An odd little supplemental factoid, Kavanaugh’s boss on the DC Circuit is none other than Chief Circuit Judge Merrick Brian Garland—the same jurist stonewalled by Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell. His argument was: let the people decide (since an election was just 11 months away. Well, Mitch, another election is a mere three months away, so quid pro quo, let us allow the people to decide.
On the way out the door for his journey to Europe, the BIC held an impromptu news conference with the Marine One Auxiliary Power Unit running in the background. It was very difficult to hear the questions put to him. He was asked something about the illegal immigration issue. He said, “Well, I have a solution: Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That’s the solution. Don’t come to our country illegally. Come like other people do; come legally.” I am precisely in agreement with the BIC on this one. We must generously welcome legal immigrants, while simultaneously we must seriously discourage illegal entry or exceedance of visitor visa constraints. I agree with the objective and even the BIC’s solution; yet, I strongly disagree with the BIC and his administration when we get to the methods to achieve the objective and solution. Enforcing our laws does not require inhumanity. I will also say, I am more than a little concerned about the bad men who are among the people crossing our borders illegally without a proper visa. However, not all the people crossing illegally are members of the violent MS-13 gang or are they human traffickers of minor children. I would bet a dollar to donuts that some of those minor children among the illegal border crossers are not genetically related to the adult minders with them; if true, that particular situation requires a fundamentally different law enforcement response than just misdemeanor entry. Like so many major actions by the BIC and his administration, this latest faux pas was well intentioned, but grossly bungled by knee-jerk reaction, piss-pour-prior-planning, and seriously insensitive execution. Yet again, we need to BIC to be successful, but his ineptitude almost precludes success. Once again, we have chaos . . . and only public protest and judicial intervention to draw order from the chaos he created. And then, the real topper . . . he blames all their misfortunes on President Obama. That’s rich!
When a reporter at a NATO press conference asked the BIC whether he might change his mind about spending level threats once he boarded Air Force One, the BIC answered, “Oh, that’s other people that do that. I’m very consistent. I’m a very stable genius.” What sort of person thinks such a thing, set aside saying it aloud with a straight face in an international press conference at a summit of NATO national leaders? You know, a life lesson I learned a long time ago: the loudest fellows at the bar were quite often the most insecure, least skilled and least confident; they were far from the best, as they usually claimed. It was the quiet ones we needed to watch. I would never utilize the word ‘stable’ or ‘genius’ in any reference to the BIC; he is repeatedly demonstrated that he is neither.
To my earlier point, the BIC just could not resist stacking up more untruthful falsehoods in yet another of his infamous tweets.
“President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!”
10:37 PM - 15 Jul 2018
The amount of false statements (FAKE news) in these 53 words is hard to count in the short amount of time I have left to get the Update on the wire. When he says things like this, and then insists there is no record of his talks with his good buddy Volodya Putin, how are we supposed to believe anything he says or does? He has done his best to create misinformation, confusion, subterfuge and obfuscation. This Grand Republic is NOT his private company to run as he wishes.
Comments and contributions from Update no.861:
“The Trump tweet you quoted certainly shows a runaway ego. Do you think it's possible he believes he has prevented a war with North Korea by the force of his personality? I understand that mental health diagnoses are best left to professionals, but the evidence piles up, and many psychological terms have been applied to Trump by experts in that field (not merely ‘followers’ of someone.)
“The phrase ‘cult of personality’ comes from political science rather than psychology (background at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality). That phrase fits Trump's apparatus neatly, but I have not seen that particular concept used elsewhere in reference to 45.
“I find it difficult to believe that ‘proper, legal means’ would avail to combat classified criminal conduct. That's just plain silly. Put simply, law enforcement supports authority over law when they conflict. Law enforcement at any level will react to the classified nature of the material rather than to the content. Only the kind of pressure available to the media or to higher authority figures forces them out of that position. In Ms. Winner’s case, media pressure has not prevailed.
“Mike Pence is doing his share of damage, but much more quietly than Trump. Remember two things: (1) he is President of the Senate and that gives him a tie-breaking vote as well as other formal and informal powers, and (2) he can travel and make nefarious deals much more easily than Trump. His lesser media coverage gives him opportunities Trump cannot have that we cannot evaluate from our ‘general public’ information.”
My response:
Runaway ego, indeed! “Do you think it's possible he believes he has prevented a war with North Korea by the force of his personality?” Yes, absolutely! I see no evidence to the contrary, or to contradict that assessment. The snake-oil salesman truly believes in his miracle elixir to cure everything that ails you; it is the key to his ability to sell his worthless liquid to hapless believers. It is a reality of the personality flaw; he genuinely believes his own hype.
I do not see how anyone could level a cult of personality accusation at Barack Obama; from my perspective, he was the anti-thesis of cult of personality. It is a perfect descriptor for the BIC, as it was for Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Kim (DPRK), and at least partially to Ho Chi Minh, although he had a decidedly different persona.
Perhaps you missed or overlooked the rest of my explanation, specifically regarding the culpability of other governmental elements. From my perspective, Winner made bad choices, presumably as a consequence of her political beliefs. When any individual considers the decision to disclose classified material, s/he must be extraordinarily careful, meticulous and precise, because s/he is literally placing their view, their opinion, their perspective above the law and the government. I do not the justification for Winner’s action—her decision was based on political not criminal behavior. History is replete with biased political actions by all parties and politician—nature of the beast.
I cannot share your assessment of Mike Pence. I do not like his social positions, but he is far more stable and predictable than his boss.
. . . along with a follow-up comment:
“I disregarded your explanation because it's based on the idea that the people responsible for misbehavior will act to correct that misbehavior. That is a flawed premise.”
. . . my follow-up response:
In last week’s Update [861], I said, “The genuine difficulty arises when Congress and the Justice Department are culpable in such criminal conduct. When the government has broadly betrayed the People, perhaps there comes a threshold when a person’s only choice is to turn to the People via the Press.” I recognize that the law enforcement elements of the government might be a party to criminal conduct, which would contaminate their prosecution of the law. Congress is intended to be an independent relief valve in such circumstances. I fully recognize that we currently have a situation where even Congress has been compromised, e.g., Representative Devin Nunes of California. That is precisely why I noted turning to the People via the Press. In the Winner case, it appears to me that she intentionally wanted to be discovered to become a martyr for the cause. At the end of the day, the matter was political, not criminal, and her actions were wrong and prosecutable.
. . . with a closing comment:
“You appear to be saying what I said except you seem to find it important to judge Ms Winner's motivation. I don't.”
. . . and my concession:
So be it!
Another contribution:
“Mind you the government is in turmoil and starting to look scorched. The cabinet minister in charge of Brexit from the EU had resigned and today our foreign secretary has quit. There is great discomfort at the arrangements that the PM is proposing to put to the EU. These plans have to go through parliament before they are put onwards, what if parliament rejects them, after all we are a democracy. This may cause the downfall of our PM or even the government itself. Happy days Cap.
“We shall see.”
My reply:
I have been watching the latest developments with HMG and Brexit. We do not get a lot of the political details without searches of the British Press. I imagine Johnson wanted a hard break and the PM is seeking a soft break. If so, I’m with the PM. The deadline is less than a year away and so much yet to be done.
Good luck to everyone in this difficult time.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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