... talk about whatever you want.
And remember the Althouse Portal to Amazon, where you can buy whatever you want.
The little video clip was taken in Blooming Grove, Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Waubesa, where we stopped as we were biking the Capital City Trail yesterday. It was quite windy, and the kiteboarders looked like they were having a great time. The wind made the biking much tougher than usual, but I flew along with my e-bike.
Posts
123 comments:
Trump is trolling the Iranians. What a magnificent bastard?
Arrrrrrrgh..... bastard! not bastard?
Does the WH have a mole at the NYT? That how the leaker was identified. Why would they burn their own mole in the WH?
Anybody see this picture of Hillary?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/portly-hillary-clinton-spotted-in-hamptons-looking-rough-wrapped-in-a-tent/
If she wants to come back and win the nomination, she's going to need a bigger cloud than the one I had envisioned before.
My theory is that the only part that is really Hillary is the head. Underneath the Fashions-by-Omar-The-Tentmaker exterior are the cryogenics, fuel cells, and pumps that keep the head alive.
Nice work with the cankles, though, for the realistic touch.
The WSJ weekend interview is on Camille Paglia, which I am now reading on another tab.
Sleepy Joe is so cute making up his story about awarding a medal,the spin Drs are saying.
But watching the unedited clip what came through is how totally sincere and deeply emotional the man was as he acted out his story. He has a career from learning to fake sincerity, but suddenly his old age is exposing him as a complete fake.
I know it's not her schtick, but I really hope that Althouse will analyze the OIG FISA report when it comes out. At least the conclusions.
Phidippus said...
Anybody see this picture of Hillary?
EGADS. Like Althouse, I'm a handful of years younger than Hillary. I've struggled with my weight over the years (but have actually lost quite a bit since I retired). I might print this off and paste it to my mirror for my morning reminder that I do NOT want to look like a blimp when they haul me off to the nursing home.
Does the e-bike require much maintenance?
The first 3 mph of headwind slows a bicycle 2 mph. It's a huge effect.
Anybody see this picture of Hillary?
She looks like she's hiding something under that dress. Something medical-related. Something that shape wear cannot hide. She and Bill make a nice Sprat couple.
Not as bad as an airplane. The first 3 mph of headwind slows an airplane 3 mph.
https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1167493371973255170
Twee(T)rolling across timespace continuum
After the assurance from Trump Iran now seeking investigation talent to assist.
Can we spare our ex FBI, CIA etc.
Asking for Ayatollah.
Trump should make offer.
e-bike riding in the wind - Humblebrag? I suppose poor Meade was out on his human-powered model trying to keep up.
Anybody see this picture of Hillary?
Cirrhosis will do that. We had a male cirrhotic with ascites admitted to OB one night.
And there is apparently not one but two iranian sex scandals.
I had this one in the oswald thread:
https://kaus.substack.com/
Via Conservative Tree:
Oh boy… how federal Judge Emmet Sullivan will handle this latest motion from Mike Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell is an unknown; however, the content is delicious.
In an explosive response filing today, which includes the phrase”sunlight is the best disinfectant”, attorney Sidney Powell has outlined the soup-to-nuts construct of the malicious government action taken during their targeting her client Michael Flynn.
In the 19-pages (full pdf below), Ms. Powell walks through the history of the DOJ, FBI and intelligence apparatus weaponization against Mr. Flynn and lays out the background behind everything known to have happened in 2016, 2017 through today....
“Oops!,” the page says. “This is awkward. You’re looking for something that doesn’t exist…”
‘Error’ Page On Trump’s Website Shows Hillary Clinton As President
https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/30/error-page-on-trumps-website-hillary-clinton/
Mumps has swept through 57 immigration detention facilities in 19 states since September, according to the first US government report on the outbreaks in the overloaded immigration system.
The virus sickened 898 adult migrants and 33 detention center staffers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its report Thursday.
It seems we’re alsnot measles-free anymore.
Thanks, anti-vaccers!
and while we're at it--
A plane carrying UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, one of the 20th century’s greatest peacemakers, fell from the air in the heart of Africa. More than a half century later, the truth is beginning to emerge. | from @StephenKinzer in @GlobeOpinion.
Not sure you can blame the anti-vaccers (unless the staff too were sickened). These people were never immunized because they lacked the basics. However, many of the kids are headed for free public schools which is where the anti-vaccer thing will be tested.
A plane carrying UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold, one of the 20th century’s greatest peacemakers, fell from the air in the heart of Africa.
Much to Chuck D's chagrin, he appeared on a stamp.
Best Comey analogy:
'...Rather than rave about who stole his strawberries, as Queeg did in “The Caine Mutiny,” Comey claims someone stole a reputation that he tossed away two years ago.'
The Hill
James Comey wants an apology? This is myth becoming madness
BY JONATHAN TURLEY
'Two years ago, former FBI Director James Comey came out with a book that celebrated himself as a paragon of “ethical leadership,” a subject that he later taught at the College of William and Mary. Comey declared, “Ethical leaders lead by seeing above the short term, above the urgent or the partisan, and with a higher loyalty to lasting values, most importantly the truth.” If that is the case, the new Justice Department inspector general report released on Thursday establishes that Comey is the very antithesis of the ethical leader he described. Comey was found to have violated both federal law and regulations for his own gain, and he made critical decisions that put personal over institutional interests.
Nevertheless, Comey released a statement portraying the scathing report as a type of victory and encouraged his critics to send their apologies to him. It was a “Captain Queeg” moment when myth borders on madness. Rather than rave about who stole his strawberries, as Queeg did in “The Caine Mutiny,” Comey claims someone stole a reputation that he tossed away two years ago. The report states that Comey not only knowingly violated rules governing all FBI employees, but his decisions “set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees.”...'
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/459320-james-comey-wants-an-apology-this-is-myth-becoming-madness
Brsaking news from 1960, i bet he pins it on the dulles bros,
Michael K said...Cirrhosis will do that.
Grey Goose and Chardonnay.
Sports bar has Wisconsin game on TV. If ever a game needed the mercy rule ...
"It was quite windy, and the kiteboarders looked like they were having a great time."
What a coincidence that that joy re what could be a sorta best of humanity thing-y is the equiv re posts and resulting threads here!
Ha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUHC9tYz8ik
Leftists Wage War on 'Dude Walls' in Pursuit of Socialist Utopia
NPR reported that MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was at Rockefeller University a few years ago to present a prize to a prominent female scientist. Upon entering the auditorium, someone heard her say, "What is up with the dude wall?" One side wall was covered with portraits of award-winning scientists from the university, and Maddow was distressed that they were all men.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/leftists-wage-war-on-dude-walls-in-pursuit-of-socialist-utopia/
Reading about vaping sickness. It seems that vaping can put fat particles in your lungs which leads to one kind of pneumonia. Vapers are saying that using THC oil, rather than nicotine, in vaping is causing the problems. But apparently you inhale gycerol when you vape nicotine so you get oil in your lungs with either product. Anyhow it's possible that after people have become addicted to nicotine and cannabis through vaping over the past few years, they'll have to smoke because it's safer. The whole subject sounds like a major disaster in the making but it's one I'll miss out on unless as I get older I read the smoked-bacon package-label as saying "Smoke Bacon" and start vaping it.
As the world grows wonderfully, this blog shrivels.
Do better.
Much.
IMHO.
@StephenFearby, in fairness what Comey did would have passed for “ethical” in a Clinton administration.
@Mock
More giant blue cowbell !!
She goes for Fashions by SPECTRE, from their Blofeld Collection
Wow, Valerie Harper was 80 -- when did *that* happen?
RIP Rhoda.
Lil' Hillary looks as if she has diabetes but perhaps she's just letting herself go. She misses Vince and Jeffrey.
GOP lawmakers’ attorney agrees to confidentiality deal (AP)
"(Wisconsin Attorney General) Kaul met behind closed doors with the committee on Tuesday and asked lawmakers to sign confidentiality agreements so they could discuss the lawsuits. The lawmakers refused, despite a warning from Kaul’s Department of Justice that the state must act by Friday on a “very urgent matter of tremendous importance to the state.”
"(Senate Budget committee co-chairs Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren) also said that Kaul’s demand for confidentiality agreements to be signed was “an obvious effort to undermine the law by delaying the committee’s work.”
Kaul said that reviewing confidential information and keeping that information private “is part and parcel of the review of settlements.”
The Google link to the article had a different headline, quoting Gov. Tony Evers saying “We need to have adults come to the table and figure it out”.
Kaul sounds like a used car salesman and Evers has taken the role of Scold-In-Chief.
ICTA: I deleted my post when I noticed that Phidippus used the Omar reference already. ;-)
in regards to Jo Biden...
Is it safe to say that Every Word he speaks, is a Lie: Including 'And' and 'The' ???
@Mock
U did the honorable thing ;-)
But re:Hillary-- looking at her, how could Comey not find "In Tent"??
in regards to Jo Biden...
Is it safe to say that Every Word he speaks, is a Lie: Including 'And' and 'The' ???
Maybe not.
Via Lucianne:
DENVER — Voters in Colorado will do something next year that hasn’t been done in more than 100 years: Decide on repealing a law passed by the general assembly and signed by the governor
The secretary of state’s office announced Thursday the repeal of the national popular vote law has made the November 2020 ballot after opponents of joining the national popular vote compact gathered enough valid signatures.
The law changes how Colorado would vote for president, requiring electors to cast ballots for the winner of the national popular vote and not the winner of the state.
The law only takes effect if enough states with at least 270 electoral votes join.
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact for a total of 196 electoral votes. Colorado currently has nine electoral votes.
https://koa.com/north-american-camping-report/
Read it and weep jimbino.
http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html
Y'all keep safe out there, say your prayers now. Vitamins.
"For the first time in the report’s history, in 2018 the percentage of new campers from multicultural groups outpaced the percentage of new caucasian campers."
WTF he's getting worse by the day.
In politics, is there a ref who can stop the fight for medical reasons?
BIDEN: “Some of the comments being made are close to rational. (…) Everybody, not just — not just one party — is this on? Not — can I turn this one on? I turned this one on, but I — there we go. Can you hear me now? Don’t do it, Joe. Go back to this one. (…) It’s not a joke. It’s not — not a joke. (…) His name was President Hu, not a joke, it was President Hu. (…) And what I did want to know is, is in fact our investment in your economy, is — is — is it okay? (…) No, I’m not being — I’m not being kidding here, okay? (…) In my state and yours they say, ‘The tree of liberty is watering the blood of tyrants’ — I mean, ‘Of patriots to take on the tyrants.’ (…) No, no, I’m not joking. (…) The Brady Bill, that’s the one with the background checks, I was able to get that passed early on. Mr. Brady, the guy who finally died, the guy who was shot with Reagan… (…) No, no, seriously. No, I really mean it. (…) I’m not joking. (…) So we should be sending social workers into poor communities and — and — and — and the communities… (…) No, I’m — I’m — I’m — I’m trying to be… polite about it. (…) Not a joke. It’s not a joke. (…) We now say, before we reach a point of no return in terms of making it irreverse — excuse me for standing in front of you, I apologize. By the way, my dogs, too, they don’t like him, man. She has ‘Dogs against Trump,’ I have two German shepherds. (…) …by the investments we can make and starting with just making sure we can — and we do it in terms of providing for charging stations in cities, towns, rural areas along highways. And — and the reason — anyway, because that’s, you know, Henry Ford what he most — he wanted to make sure there were gas stations. (…) You may recover — you may remember… (…) I’m — I’m not joking. (…) Since when is the E.U. our problem? I mean, I — I I didn’t — I mean, I don’t remember that happening. (…) And I can pay for everything, and that is — no, I’m serious.”
Why do we support the parasites of death and deceit?
"However, many of the kids are headed for free public schools which is where the anti-vaccer thing will be tested."
Tested? Should we also "test" that astrology thing?
Blogger anti-de Sitter space said...
As the world grows wonderfully, this blog shrivels.
Do better.
Much.
You could leave. Just a suggestion.
I think the plan is using Biden as a stalking horse for a left wing veep to come in and take his place when he predictably expires, but it looks like he might be self destructing early, like the bomb that blows up the terrorist at his own kitchen sink.
The picture of Hillary reminds me of Marlon Brando in “The Isle of Dr. Moreau”.
Blogger anti-de Sitter space,
What a coincidence you dropped by simply to critique (cafe) posters here..per usual.
Go fly a kite.
Splodey-dope.
@AAT
yes-- we go with the Wrapper to the Nutbar that they really want in.
He's the 'safe', tenuous covering to make the sale, then voila!
ADS is Titus.
Using a different persona.
But not exactly a different personality.
A tortured soul, one way or another.
He let the (rare) dog out of the bag a few weeks ago.
But re:Hillary-- looking at her, how could Comey not find "In Tent"??
;-D
He let the (rare) dog out of the bag a few weeks ago.
Interesting, buwaya, that you say, let the 'dog' out of the bag, whereas we say 'cat'.
Well, he did say it was rare.
Maybe it's because Titus has a dog?
Yes Mock,
He's referencing rare Clumbers.
Not that he's right re me re the "fellow Republican" [assuming this one is the real one, which is something I don't assume].
Anywho, I'm here to help.
POVs that don't get that need help.
IMHO.
I don't know if this got posted earlier today, but if not, it should have been.
Mark Steyn doing a great parody of Joe Biden, spinning fables.
Hillary's mother put on a lot of weight as she got older, too. Some photos here. She lived to the age of 92.
"Anybody see this picture of Hillary?
She looks like she's hiding something under that dress."
Yeah, the alien parasite that rides on her back.
Anywho, I'm here to help.
POVs that don't get that need help.
IMHO.
--
Nothing humble about your opinion.
Anywho....
now what are they peddling? A plug for eBikes?
Electric bikes soon to be humming along national park trails
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/apnewsbreak-coming-to-national-park-trails-electric-bikes/2019/08/30/92cff456-cb32-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html
winter's coming-- we're sticking with our iCycle
I think we need to, in fairness, cut some slack for professional h8ers like anti-de,Titus, and the rest. Word has come that Dorian is turning to the north, will surely miss Palm Beach and Mar-a-Largo, may miss Florida entirely, or perhaps just graze it. They were so looking forward to being to complain whether FEMA did well (Trump is looking after his own interests) or did poorly (what’s wrong with Trump’s FEMA?). And in a blink of an eye the opportunity to h8 is gone.
Walt,
I'm more Bayes than Bayes.
That makes me uber humble re almost all. Cause I'm laser re fact v opinion.
There are other benefits too. I.e., benefits other than precise but meaningless typing. E.g., dough is a good thing.
IMHO.
Big M, you type 'hate' in a cool way.
Yur funny.
OK-- this doesnt pass the smell test, but, hey-- you never know:
Fart Rape
Ashleigh Ingle a proud feminist and an anarchist argued that because of patriarchal gender norms women were not allowed to release gas in public because of men’s unreal expectations of women to be clean and feminine. Furthermore she articulated that if a woman was to fart in the presence of a man and the man responded by farting louder than the woman, then that would be rape.
By farting louder the man is using passive aggressive violence to position himself as dominant, this intimidates the woman to subconsciously not release as much flatulence and thus the woman fearing for her safety doesn’t fart as loud as a sign of submissiveness, this in turn contributes to rape culture and women being oppressed.”
(hopefully she's just a little stinker like Titania)
FTR,
That hot Yoga dude has been accused of stuff.
Just sayin'.
Some posses......
But, I don't think that's what the gals were fussing about. [FTR, I know one gal that he tried (unsuccessfully (as she told me (while I was succeeding))) to F.]
I dunno.
Bayes just turned in his grave.
Walt,
Since yur qualified to speak for him w/ metaphysical certitude, do you think he'd have liked ya to add something to yur comment?
Perhaps an 'IMHO' or an 'I dunno'?
I dunno.
No.
I'll bet he knew a pompous bullshitter like yerself when he saw one.
Anywho..
You can lose 5 mph wearing a circus tent and still win the popular vote.
I just did someone at Harvard business school and am totally lost. They have there own town here. The uber can’t find.me. The guy was hot though. From Venezuela We actually takked.
There are bunnies here. So rural in a urban place.
They have there own tennis courts with clubhouse
I am talking to the parking lot attendants. Real Boston guys. FYI. The business school is in Allston across the Charles from Cambridge for those flyovers in attendance.
In uber. Driver is black and hot
You have to learn a lot to understand how much you don’t know.
That truism explains the mechanics behind another truism: “a little education is a dangerous thing.”
https://lidblog.com/aoc-greatest-generation
We can’t do better (we may well continue to do worse) until we fix our education system.
Are people finding the embed code doesn’t work reliably on blogger? The last few months it has been rejecting me about half the time even though I know I’m doing it right.
Surprise;
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-29/trump-s-new-trade-war-weapon-might-just-be-antique-china-debt
Narciso—that’s a really interesting article about a historical detail I didn’t know about. It’s good too in that way that when I read the headline, I rolled my eyes, but by the end, I could see how this could prove to be a real problem for China if Trump chooses to make it one.
“The People’s Republic of China dismisses its defaulted sovereign obligations as pre-1949 Republic of China debt, but doing so contradicts the PRC’s claim that it is sole successor to the ROC’s sovereign rights,”
Not only is a huge amount of money on the line, there are implications for Taiwanese sovereignty. (I once could have included Hong Kong, but the British pissed that one away.)
It is fascinating when you comsider it, its not the script they handed miss westenhout to read, so the press wont touch that with a barge poll.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/08/the-week-in-pictures-labor-day-edition.php
Hurrican Dorian starting to skew north. May even stay out at sea.
Democrats most disappointed.
nice work
https://cloudtunez.com/sitemap_index.xml
Titus, do your victims know you refer to them as “fresh meat”?
Hurricanes always turn right of the path when it’s days out, except on the rare occasions when they don’t. Andrew was one such case. I don’t know why this is, but if my house is in the path four days out, I stop worrying. Once it equals my house in latitude still out to sea, I heave a sigh of relief. They very rarely turn left (south) except for when they do.
Andrew is instructive it came in around kendall, its primary impact was homestead, but it ciuld be felt as far away as miami beach.
I lived in Fr Lauderdale at the time of Andrew, passed the storm in West Palm Beach, and Ft Lauderdale was pretty beat up, downed trees, power out for a week, but compared to Homestead, it was untouched. WPB, it was just palm fronds in the streets.
I also remember the news saying it wasn’t that bad, before they got the choppers out there and saw the destruction. That’s why whenever there is an apparent disaster and they say things don’t look too bad, I wait a day.
We were right on the water back then, were about three miles now.
"e-bike riding in the wind - Humblebrag? I suppose poor Meade was out on his human-powered model trying to keep up."
He insisted on going back and forth across the long boardwalk twice to compare going into the wind and with the wind, with me telling him the mph (because only I have a speedometer). That was extra biking, apparently some sort of experiment he was doing. I would go any speed he wanted and he could also "draft" on me... In the pre-e-bike days, he would go as slowly as I needed him to go, and it was a big effort for me and maybe a bit boring for him. With the extra power on my side, it can be as challenging for him as he wants, and there's no boredom problem for me. I can turn down the power as much as I want if I want more challenge.
Here's an article about the boardwalk section of the trail — it's a mile of boardwalk across where Mud Lake becomes Lake Waubesa. The city spent $8 million building the thing. Was that extravagant? I don't know, but I wasn't the one who approved spending money that way. All I can do now is use the wonderful thing. And on Thursday that involved going across and back twice, experimenting with wind conditions and spectating kiteboarding. It was great!!
AAT@9:47PM/
THREAD WINNER!!!
The word spectating is a lot like the word garner.
Don’t ya think?
We may have dodged a bullet here in Mar-A-Lago Land but as I told my friends this morning, the track model could easily change again. AFAIK, it was only one model that shows the turn northward where it skirts the coast. I hope it's right, but we still will get horrid TS weather.
THEOLDMAN
It's sunny and beautiful here this morning. Imagine back in the day when they had no idea of what was coming.
There's a video of Biden entering through a side curtain to surprise the audience. He does this bizarre grandpa shuffle, and then opens his arms (like the Fonz going "aayyy"). If it were George Burns, it would be funny. But for Biden to behave this way non-stop is truly sad.
I can't locate that Biden video via Google. If you go to Benny Johnson's Twitter you can find it by scrolling down. Only 7 seconds long, but enough to demonstrate how far gone Biden has become. Also, he looks like Bob Barker (as the tweet comments point out).
https://mobile.twitter.com/bennyjohnson?lang=en
David Foster Wallace used “spectation” once in Infinite Jest and it was the perfect word. Never say never, but “watch” is usually good.
"Spectation" struck me as a Slip Mahoney stylization of the word.
Hurricanes always turn right of the path when it’s days out, except on the rare occasions when they don’t.
Maybe they follow the Gulfstream. If the path is too far south to pick up the Gulfstream, they stay south.
Just a guess.
Althouse - Thank you for the article on the boardwalk trail. I didn't know anything about it.
I too wonder about the expense. Seems like it would have been cheaper to just widen the train track structure where it runs parallel to the tracks.
Interesting article at CTH: Thunderstruck – Flynn Attorney Sidney Powell Drops Atomic Sledgehammer of Truth on DC Court….. Read the embedded PDF (why can’t anyone just put PDFs online and link to them, instead of using Scribd, which has a horrid interface AND costs money to use? Browser interface for reading raw PDFs is far superior).
Powell, Gen Flynn’s hits the government hard for withholding evidence in a memo filed yesterday (Friday). And pushes hard that this is a continuation of the sort of shenanigans that they have pulled off regularly in the past, and, in particular in previous high profile cases before this Judge, Emmet Sullivan, including the case against against AK Sen Stevens, that Sullivan dismissed for failure to disclose possibly exonerating information to the defense. It isn’t up to the prosecution to decide whether or not it is exonerating, but rather must disclose it if there is any possibility of such. And summaries don’t come close to fulfilling this duty, because they give the prosecution the ability to slant or edit the evidence in their favor. Then she threw in an example from the Stevens case (in front of Judge Sullivan, of course) where the prosecution had dropped the word “not” from its summary, completely changing the effect of the evidence from exonerating to neutral. Very hard hitting. Excellent lawyering.
But what I found interesting is that Powell has cleverly brought in the entire SpyGate scandal. She did it in several ways. One was that former FBI agent Peter Strzok was one of the two FBI agents sent by DDir McCabe to the White House to entrap Gen Flynn in the perjury trap that resulted in this prosecution. The prosecution failed to mention(as clearly exonerating evidence) that Strzok had been on the SC team, had been removed from it when his text messages with Lisa Page showed extreme bias, and was then fired by the FBI. She also questioned the source and legality of the transcripts of Flynn’s discussion with the Russian ambassador that they used as the basis for their perjury allegations. The transcript appeared (ultimately, after a lot of work by the defense) out of thin air, and the Court and defense are supposed to accept it as legally acquired on faith, alone. It’s provenance was classified, of course. (And while Judge Sullivan has a top Security clearance, the bureaucracy refusing to grant the defense sufficient clearance to view much of the evidence). Powell then listed four possible sources for the transcripts, all shown to have been compromised by the SpyGate scandal. She also pulled in, for some reason, that the original (Mueller) prosecutors had been involved in the neck door through ADAG Bruce Ohr between Steele and the FBI (involving the ubiquitous Strzok).
This article at the Times was the morning's amusement: Mr Trump's misspellings in his tweets are having a deleterious effect on our nation's politics and on the youth, or some nonsense like that. Mr 'Apolitical Liberal Republican' usage maven, my a....
For historians of these years 2000's J should be the hockey stick - fair warning by DOJ
"Spectation" struck me as a Slip Mahoney stylization of the word.”
Yeah, Sip could use that word to good effect too.
Several things top the defense’s demand list. One is the complete unredacted history of Strzok/Page text messages. Strzok, of course, is one of two potential witnesses against Gen Flynn, because he was one of the two FBI agents sent to the WH by DD McCabe to meet with NSA Flynn. Anything beyond their personal testimony about what they heard in that meeting is inadmissible, most likely as hearsay. He has already been discredited because of the bias he showed in their unredacted text messages, as well as having been removed from the SC investigation for that bias, and then fired from the FBI. Moreover the DD 302s that we’re supposed to officially memorialize their interview were shown in their unredacted text messages to be suspect, because of DD McCabe having to approve them, weeks after they were supposed to have been filed. As one of two fact witnesses for the prosecution, the defense has good reason to look for more adverse evidence in his text messages with his lover, Lisa Page. Moreover, there appears to be an admission in the text messages that the two FBI agents thought, at the time that Flynn appeared to be honest with them.
The other thing at the top of their demand list are the original DD 302s, along with their accompanying A1s, memorializing the interview by the two FBI agents of NSA Flynn. The text messages show that the official 302s were filed after approval by FBI Deputy Director McCabe. He set up the meeting with Flynn, told him that no attorney was needed, sent Strzok and another agent to the WH to meet with Flynn, then was ultimately fired from the FBI after OIG found that he had essentially lied. Peripherally related, he put together the SC investigation, as well as met with ADAG Ohr to set up the backdoor between Christopher Steele and the FBI (involving Strzok, again). In any case, because of his documented shady past, his insistence on approving the DD 302s filed puts in question their veracity. Esp the draft 302s, written almost contemporaneously to their Flynn interview are of interest to the defense.
I think that they have a decent case for demanding the provenance of the underlying transcript of the phone call between Flynn and the Russian ambassador. Absent provenance, it probably should be suppressed, and without admissibility of the document underlying the perjury charge, there is nothing to compare Flynn’s testimony to. The recollections of the two FBI agents involved are likely inadmissible hearsay.
My guess is that the reason that the conversation was recorded was that there has, essentially, been a standing FISA warrant for the Soviet/Russian ambassador’s phone since the enactment of FISA over 40 years ago. BUT that doesn’t end the debate on the issue. Flynn’s identity was unmasked. After having identified the other party as the incoming Trump NSA, his identity should have been deleted. It wasn’t. Instead, several weeks later it was used by DD McCabe (who probably had no legal reason to know of Flynn’s unmasked identity in that conversation) to set up the perjury trap that formed the basis for this prosecution. Arguably, the ubiquitous Peter Strzok May have had a legitimate reason to have seen the unmasked transcript (having been, by then, a senior member of the Counterintelligence Division, which would have been the organization doing the recording and unmasking). But using it against Flynn in a perjury trap likely went too far. The FBI can legally use information from legal FISA warrants that disclose crimes in criminal prosecutions. But this was used to create a crime. And, thus, justification for the defense’s demand for the provenance of the transcript.
But what I found interesting is that Powell has cleverly brought in the entire SpyGate scandal.
She is going after big game in this. Flynn has the argument that he was out of money for lawyers and had to plead or go to court without counsel.
Papadopoulis is also challenging his plea on similar grounds, prosecutorial misconduct.
These cases might lead top a serious investigation on plea deals nationally, which is a hell of a lot more pertinent than felon early release.
The other thing at the top of their demand list are the original DD 302s
My mind is thoroughly boggled now.
“The FBI can legally use information from legal FISA warrants that disclose crimes in criminal prosecutions. But this was used to create a crime. And, thus, justification for the defense’s demand for the provenance of the transcript.”
And then the lightbulb went off.
One of the changes to FISA with the PATRIOT Act was the provision that information from FISA intercepts could be used in criminal prosecutions, if they show that a crime had been committed. But with Flynn, the transcript of the intercepted conversation was used to create a process crime. That shouldn’t be legal, because the crime hadn’t been committed yet. What they needed, and didn’t appear to have, was a crime disclosed by the unmasked intercepted conversation. Or did they?
The answer, I think, is DAG Yates pushing the Logan Act.
A lot of people thought this was silly. The Logan Act had been used, in court, only twice, and both occasions were over 200 years ago. Neither resulted in a conviction. Besides, it is highly likely that it would be invalidated under 1st Amdt grounds in modern times. Which makes it likely that no federal prosecutor would try to charge anyone with a Logan Act violation and keep a straight face.
But I don’t think that mattered. FISA essentially requires that a crime be disclosed in the intercept to be used. And they had their crime - that Flynn violated the Logan Act with his conversation with the Russian Ambassador. They open the matter as a Logan Act violation, and they now have full, quasi-legal, access to the unmasked FISA intercept. It doesn’t matter that they would never take the Logan Act violation to court (they wouldn’t). What matters is that the criminal statute was on the books, had never been found unconstitutional, and that the conduct met the elements required by the statute. They did - a private individual (Flynn) was negotiating with a foreign power (the Russian Ambassador). And then it was mentioned positively by DAG Yates. This essentially gave the FBI DoJ approval for its use in situations like this.
To summarize my previous point, think of the Logan Act here as a mechanism to bootstrap the use of FISA intercepts for other uses by the FBI. If they can show that a lawfully intercepted conversation violated the text of the Logan Act, then they can use the intercepted conversation for almost anything they want to. The only real requirement is that someone who can plausibly be argued to be the agent of a foreign government is on one end of the call.
This may be why they so consistently claimed that both Page and Papadopoulis were Russian agents, despite knowing that they weren’t - this let them use the intercepts of their conversations (which was the purpose of the 4 Page FISA warrants) with anyone for any purpose.
Great set of comments, Bruce.
“The other thing at the top of their demand list are the original DD 302s”
“My mind is thoroughly boggled now.”
Not sure why. The basis for the Flynn case is in the DD 302s (and associated A1s) that supposedly document the conversation between NSA Flynn and the two FBI agents (led by the ubiquitous Peter Strzok) who went to the White House to meet with him (that is what 302s are for), and ultimately catch him in a perjury trap (they had a transcript of his call with the Russian Ambassador (whether that was legal or not is subject to several of my other posts) and he did not), on the orders of now disgraced and fired, then FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe then approved the 302s officially filed, and used in the prosecution, several weeks after FBI rules require them to be filed. Not only were they officially filed very late, but Deputy Directors don’t approve 302s unless they are personally acting as fact witnesses to conversations. Thousands of these are filed by the 15k or so FBI agents every day. McCabe was not present at the WH meeting with Flynn, so probably had no honest reason to be approving them. But because he could, he did.
The FBI has a computer system for controlling 302s. Every change is logged. We know that draft 302s were filed almost contemporaneously to the interview of Flynn. That is what FBI agents are trained to do. Across the country, and around the world, they do this thousands of times a day. The FBI has apparently only provided the McCabe approved final 302s to Flynn’s defense. There is some evidence that the 302s were massaged a bit between the almost contemporaneous draft copies filed within a day or so of the interview, and the McCabe approved versions filed weeks and weeks later. As noted, there is some evidence that the two agents thought at the time that Flynn was being truthful. That would be exonerating. That likely would have been in their draft 302s. It wasn’t in the final, McCabe approved, versions provided to the defense. What else was inserted, deleted, accentuated, or minimized between the original almost contemporaneous versions and the versions provided to the defense? Neither the defense, nor the Court know.
Not sure why.
Sarcasm?
IANAL, but shouldn't the defense have had copies of all pertinent records long ago? IIRC, Caspar Weinberger was indicted in part for not turning over all his calendars to Walsh.
It should be a national scandal that the FBI does not record interviews. Even in the field, it's so easy now.
"It should be a national scandal that the FBI does not record interviews."
This point makes me so effing mad. Does the FBI have an official reason why they don't? There is only one reason I can think; so they can get away with lying.
several weeks after FBI rules require them to be filed
You explained the reason. They were edited, which should make them inadmissible.
My daughter, the FBI, was tasked at one time with preparing FISA warrants as she is also a lawyer in CA and WA.
I'm going to send her a copy of Gregg Jarret's book, "The Russia Hoax." It is very legalistic, lots and lots of case law. She tends to be a lefty but was the oner who told me she would not vote for Hillary. I'll see if she is willing to read it.
It should be a national scandal that the FBI does not record interviews.
So, all those recorded interviews they did in "Mind Hunter" was just made-up Hollywood drama?
“You explained the reason. They were edited, which should make them inadmissible”
For the most part, they are not admissible, per se, by the prosecution. They would most typically be inadmissible hearsay. It can be used to refresh a witness’ memory, which is how it usually is utilized. The agent (LEO, etc) reads their notes (I.e. 302s), then is supposed to put them down, and testify from his memory. Rinse and repeat. This is necessary, since they may testify dozens, if not hundreds of times between when the notes were taken, and they were used to refresh his memory. At the extreme, think of a traffic cop testifying in court about one of his traffic cases. No way can he remember, for the most part, the specifics of any given case. Hence his notes being used to refresh his memory. But what is not supposed to allowed is the witness essentially reading his notes, even in part, while on the stand. That is most often inadmissible hearsay. Of course, opposing counsel has to object, and often they don’t, since a witness picking up his notes, refreshing his memory of them, putting them down, and then testifying, can become quite tedious for all concerned.
That is for the party with the witness who wrote the notes, and then using them to refresh his memory. It is different for the opposing party. They can typically use the notes to impeach the other party’s witness. That is because they are not trying to prove the matter asserted, but for a completely different purpose: impeachment. Thus, not hearsay. And that is why, here, it is critical for the defense to get ahold of the original drafts of the 302s.
Actually recording a conversation like this one is much better, all around. It. The recorded testimony can be typically used as if the parties involved were actually testifying. In this case, the recording could have been used against Flynn, or against one or both of the FBI agents involved.
The problem with the FBI’s practice of using 302s instead of recording interviews, is that it makes it too easy to fudge testimony. And, you have to ask why the FBI, one of the premier law enforcement agencies, hasn’t moved into at least the last half of the 20th century, by recording interviews? The obvious answe, of it allowing their agents to fudge testimony, is not a valid, defendable, answer.
Republicans should introduce a bill requiring the FBI to record interviews. Would be fascinating to hear the argument against. I can't think of a valid reason.
At the extreme, think of a traffic cop testifying in court about one of his traffic cases.
In my one traffic case, the cop wrote down the woman who hit me's name as Gary instead of Gay, so he was completely confused when confronted with a man and a woman. Plus he failed to note that I was stopped in traffic. In another accident, the cop had the vehicles reversed so my boss's insurance couldn't collect.
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