"We’re going to bring them before a committee. I’m going to have them have a hearing, bring them and subpoena them before a committee. Why did they sign it? Why did they lie to the American public?... Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you … but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?"
Said Kevin McCarthy, the likely Speaker of the House, come January, quoted in the NY Post.
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Those people deserve to be publicly dragged, but the letter contained enough weasel words that there will be no formal consequences.
Good. I'd like to know.
I noticed at the time that they did not come out and say it was Russian, just that it had the same characteristics of something the Russians would do. How is that different from a conspiracy theory?
It's called the inevitable immorality of politics and human weakness in a totalitarian state. Levinas on Heidegger suggests a defense that would put them one up instead of one down
"All the rest could, if necessary, still be attributed to the inevitable immorality of politics - haven't all states been responsible for wars? Consequently, all forms of compromise and servility, self-serving contacts and suspect friendship, unworthy statements and acts, and the pure opportunism of the citizens of totalitarian states could still, if necessary, be ascribed to a lamentable self-interest - cowardice or caution - and as human weaknesses appeal to some indulgence on our part."
by reminding McCarthy that his posturing is the same.
McCarthy is a squish. Abandon all hope.
John McCain, a naval veteran, former prisoner of war, senator, and presidential candidate was the person of record who shared the fictional Trump "Pee and Prostitutes" Dossier with James Comey. Never mind that the dossier had been passed around for ages and was the product of political operatives inside the clique.
The 51 intel agents were revealed as either Keystone Cops incompetent non-experts promoted above their abilities (a VERY REAL possibility), or flagrant political operatives in nominally non-political roles. They should -- per longstanding federal rules and laws -- be stripped of the security clearances and debarred from federal service. If proven to lie, some actions may call for imprisonment too. They should be forced to repay all federal pay or federal contract money received from the date of the Hunter Biden letter too.
Trump promised to drain the swamp so the establishment swamp creatures decided to drain the Trump.
"in the United States you are innocent until alleged to have committed a crime" - John Brennan
John Henry
In 2016, top US Intelligence officials were convinced that Russian Intelligence would carry out an "October Surprise" to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the Presidential election. Specifically, Russian Intelligence would reveal to the public many of Clinton's computer files and e-mails. Many of the files and e-mails would be altered in order to disgrace her even more.
This October Surprise did not happen in 2016.
However, these "Intelligence experts", who were totally wrong in 2016, persisted in their wrong-headed stupidity in 2020.
And the liberal journalists, who had fallen for that stupidity in 2016 and then through Trump's Presidency, fell for it yet again at the 2020 election.
McCarthy is talking butch here; but when he wakes up and finds that he's Speaker of The House (probably will happen, but may not) will he follow through? And if he follows through, will the New York Times and the WaPo report the results? The answer is maybe, but probably not.
They all belong in prison with the Obamas, the Clintons and the Bidens. But that will never happen, so why even bother talking about their corruption?? The Media hasn't even covered twittergate, so why would they bother covering this. So, the masses stay as ignorant as they have been since at least 2015.
Strong letter to follow. smdh
Fauci's record for "I don't recall", 174 times, is in peril.
Good. People with a security clearance shouldn't use it to give weight to lies they are telling for political purposes. Every one of them should lose their clearance.
How many of those 51 are going to say f-you to Congress? How many of those 51 are beholdered to “by any means possible?”
Because they wanted Trump defeated by any means necessary?
They signed it because they are corrupt and this is actually nothing compared to the depth of their real crimes.
"Well, it looked authentic, and the Russians would try to make something that looked authentic, so we didn't think it could be authentic."
Theater. It seems to me McCarthy has already set himself up to fail at holding anyone accountable. Can you call someone a liar for expressing an opinion? It would be very difficult to prove it wasn't their actual opinion, even if it wasn't.
Why isn't McCarthy calling for or conducting an investigation into the laptop and the Biden family shenanigans? Instead, we get this distraction.
It's like the media arguing endlessly about what happened at Twitter as if that's the issue. They're all basically still doing what Twitter did. They're burying the laptop in a mountain of discussion about burying the laptop.
and we really mean it this time
I did see a disturbing interview with one of the so-called experts, David Press, a former CIA employee. That man said that he and others never alleged that the laptop itself was a result of Russian interference. He maintained that all the group said was that the sudden appearance of the laptop story close to an election "looked like" classic - perhaps 'historic' would be better - Russian disinformation.Press said in the interview that their conclusions remained accurate, that being the laptop story resembled Russian meddling. When confronted that the allegation was false, he said something like "It's not my fault if people don't look up definitions." Press is a former briefer for the CIA, a former State Department employee, a frequent "expert" for CNN, etc. He's clearly partisan, as is another signer, John Sipher, who made much the same point. That both made the same weasel point seems telling. They knew...
"looks like", "what the Russians would do" and similar judgments are not, I suspect, legally assailable.
What it would be useful for the public to know is that all these "mistaken" opinions went one way.
Going forward, the intel community needs to have the trust level Fauci deserves.
So, opinions or flat-out assertions with implied existence of evidence...mox nix.
It's to let the public see who these guys are and what their agencies are.
By the logic of the 51, they have the characteristics of a pack of lying shitweasels.
I, like others, would like some investigations of the identity of the Big Guy and where the money went rather than a stupid show trial. This is a distraction from actual, provable corruption and better not be the best that the R's have to offer.
They don't care if you bring them in.
They don't care if you put them under oath.
They will still lie.
James Clapper lied under oath. Committed blatant perjury before the Congress claiming US intelligence agencies don't spy on Americans.
They know they won't be prosecuted. So they aren't scared in the least. And McCarthy isn't going to do anything about it when they lie as expected. It's all political theatre only.
Oh boyoboy. This is getting real! Orville Rickenbacker is dancing in his grave.
They signed it for the same reason Mitt Romney is calling for an end to investigations into Hunter Biden.
There might be 1000 people in DC that don't belong in jail.
I think that is incredibly generous.
Bob Boyd said...
Theater. It seems to me McCarthy has already set himself up to fail at holding anyone accountable. Can you call someone a liar for expressing an opinion? It would be very difficult to prove it wasn't their actual opinion, even if it wasn't.
Why isn't McCarthy calling for or conducting an investigation into the laptop and the Biden family shenanigans? Instead, we get this distraction.
It's like the media arguing endlessly about what happened at Twitter as if that's the issue. They're all basically still doing what Twitter did. They're burying the laptop in a mountain of discussion about burying the laptop.
This is just like McConnell holding off voting for Garland until Hillary won.
Nothing will happen.
Nobody will go to jail because half of them would be "Republicans" and there would be no hiding what is really going on in DC.
Mike Sylwester said...
However, these "Intelligence experts", who were totally wrong in 2016, persisted in their wrong-headed stupidity in 2020.
And the liberal journalists, who had fallen for that stupidity in 2016 and then through Trump's Presidency, fell for it yet again at the 2020 election.
They weren't "wrong."
They were corrupt.
They were not acting in good faith. They knew what they were doing and they knew why they were doing it.
Some people complain when the Republicans hold hearings. Some people complain when the Republicans DON'T hold hearings. Make up your minds, folks.
In either case, bear in mind that the prosecution of crimes is an executive branch function. Trump used to be the head of the executive branch. I sure wish he'd put people in charge who would investigate and prosecute the sort of corruption we have seen in the FBI and other agencies. He didn't do that and we are all paying the price.
The next Republican president needs to take seriously the staffing of the DOJ. Very, very seriously.
"Those people deserve to be publicly dragged, but the letter contained enough weasel words that there will be no formal consequences."
Bingo.
Read the damn letter. The actual letter was (barely) "Does this smell bad to you? It smells bad to me, but I have a head cold."
But, after being filtered through the media it came out as if they had clear evidence of Russia, Russia, Russia.
And their audiance was happy to say, SEEeeee - Russia-Russia-Russia!"
"Why?" Because Democrats corrupt everything.
Oh Yes, Please, that would be an excellent use of your limited time and resources, please do haul in those terrible partisans and make them feel awful and embarrassed for being such politically-driven partisan animals. Oh, Thank you, thank you. Heaven forbid you devote your time to decreasing the national debt, or cleaning up our elections, or closing the borders, or stopping the graft flowing like Niagra Falls to the Ukraine. Instead, you must focus on the really important things: Losing elections while keeping your sinecure.
Dark Helmet: "The next Republican president needs to take seriously the staffing of the DOJ. Very, very seriously."
Which is why Democrats will pull out the stops to insure we will never have another Republican president. They can create over 80 million votes at will.
"God of the Sea People said...
Good. People with a security clearance shouldn't use it to give weight to lies they are telling for political purposes. Every one of them should lose their clearance."
thread winner.
actual trials would require Garland to charge. That would happen only in fantasy.
It doesn't say much for the agency that nobody got the letter, was skeptical, and went public with a dissenting opinion. Groupthink still prevails in Washington. The conclusions to be drawn are that there's little room for disagreement or dissent in the CIA and that current and former CIA officers will stick to an unproven or false story if it suits the agency's agenda.
One way or the other, the agency will go full Fauci. Either the 51 will tell Congress (to the applause of the media) that it doesn't know what it's talking about, or they'll just say 147 times that they didn't know what happened (and the story won't be covered). Nixon was taken down because the media wanted his scalp and because his subordinates had trouble sticking to the official story. These CIA guys won't have those problems.
mikee nailed it at 8:38am.
John Brennan and James Clapper, who are shoulder-deep into enough domestic skullduggery to last 3 lifetimes, have already appeared before and lied to Congress more at least twice. How is this time going to change anything?
Frankly, Brennan should be hanging by his ankles somewhere. If I can say that here.
The 51 deep staters will never be punished because they used to correct weasel words.
They'll never be charged with anything, let alone indicted or convicted of anything.
It's fucking D.C.
Somebody in the next R administration needs to figure out a way to have grand juries and trials in the panhandle of Idaho.
In other words, they changed history by using Covid to rig elections and sealed the deal (just in case) by lying about the laptop.
They got away with it.
Dems always lie. Republicans always lie. Politicians always lie. Bring in the functionaries. Do a show trial, then they can all go to a party at someone’s house later that day/evening. There is enough information being published that shows government suppression of information now that folks need to wake up that their government is working against their interests. If they do not, then the country slides down the slope and into the ditch.
Just doxx them. All 51.
Just doxx them. All 51.
JAORE at 9:35: Read the damn letter. The actual letter was (barely) "Does this smell bad to you? It smells bad to me, but I have a head cold."
The letter writers characterize their views in somewhat different ways. They are “suspicious” and so on. Here is what I think is their most definitive statement: “Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue…”. That was the language that enabled journalists to assert that the 51 were claiming the emails were a Russian information operation and were not just implying that that might be the case. The letter writers surely knew the press would take that line. There was also weasel language. Perhaps is worth quoting from the CYA paragraph: “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement -- just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case”. You might think that people who began a letter ringing the alarm bells over thesis X by saying they have no evidence for X might be regarded with a degree of skepticism, but that is not where we are at. It all depends on what X is.
The letter is easy to find online and is worth rereading.
Just a couple of points...
I believe that Congressional committees/sub-committees are only empowered to investigate factual things insofar as they need to consider any effect on past or potentially future legislation. The only exception is for impeachment inquiry. Congress has no other inherent investigative authority. Of course, this is stretched beyond reasonable interpretation on a regular basis. So, for instance, Congress demanded (and got) otherwise privileged Trump tax returns by claiming they needed to see the returns before potentially crafting new tax legislation.
Likewise, persons subpoenaed by Congress can ignore those if the Department of Justice refuses to prosecute. This practice of selective enforcement is considered the sole prerogative of the executive branch. As we saw in a number of cases, people ignored such subpoenas during the Obama Festivities with impunity, because then AG Eric Holder refused to honor Congressional requests for criminal referral. Compare that to, say, the way AG Garland has treated the right wing.
So all the talk from the GOP is probably an exercise in futility. They will be stonewalled, ignored by the media, and left to pretend-rage to an empty room.
The next Republican president needs to take seriously the staffing of the DOJ. Very, very seriously.
For me this is the main selling point for Trump. It seems to be his main focus in planning for a 2024 Presidency. And I can't imagine anyone more motivated to clean out the stables. Maybe DeSantis would try, but I haven't heard anything along those lines from him yet and I'm not sure he would be willing to mess with that bag of snakes in a first term. Forget about any Congress Critters. If they make noise about it while campaigning they are flat out lying.
There's gotta be at least 51 lampposts in DC that aren't yet decorated for Christmas. These people could make them festive with a little rope and perhaps some Garland.
Will he really do it?
He won't do it in the totalitarian Pelosi style, so the Democrats will make a mockery of the hearings, and of course, the networks won't carry them.
But even a flawed investigation is better than no investigation at all.
McCarthy is a squish. Abandon all hope.
========
is McCarthy trying to do a redux of McCarthy-ism
writing letters is 1A freedom.
what others do about it is not letter-writers' problem
McCarthy is a squish. Abandon all hope.
========
is McCarthy trying to do a redux of McCarthy-ism
writing letters is 1A freedom.
what others do about it is not letter-writers' problem
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