Comey in a Coal Mine  

2017_5_12
13:05

I don't know if James Comey was the finest FBI director in the post-J. Edgar Hoover period, or if he was a bumbling incompetent political stooge.  Don't care all that much either.  But there is one thing I noticed during the last ten months, when his profile has been high.

He pissed off Republicans (when he recommended no charges against HDRC, in the breath following his reading of a convincing indictment of her criminal conduct wrt mishandling intelligence materials)*

He pissed off Democrats, when he publicly announced days before the election that classified documents were found during the investigation of sex fiend Anthony Weiner, on a computer used by his wife, Candidate Clinton's aide de camp Huma Abedin.

(I can't imagine there being less furor had Comey chosen not to announce the appearance of this pretty significant evidence; not only would that have been a substantial cover-up, it would've been a failed cover-up, as underlings in both the FBI and the NYPD made it very clear, via anonymous tips to members of the press, that if Comey did not announce this set of facts, they would.)

And, he pissed off Donald Thump.  I went ahead an assumed that anyone who could piss off that many people, across the board, must be doing something right.  Just gravy that I hate the politics of all these pissed off people, but, full disclosure (in case anyone has forgotten my strongest bias against all established political power structures and individuals, with rare exceptions.)

The blatant hypocrisy of the leading power structure Democrats, who were screaming for Comey to be fired in October, who now decry not only his firing by Thump, but those logically impaired to take this dismissal to be Proof! of Thump's guilt wrt da Rooskies.  And to invoke Nixon's firing of a prosecutor who was unravelling the felonious threads of the myriad illegal activities of that crew speaks to the idiocy of this outcry.

These Dem idiots praised Comey when he announced no charges in July 2016; pilloried him when he announced new evidence in October; and now sanctify him because Thump fired him.  Parallel to these twists of logic, they have periodically praised both the CIA and FBI as unassailable paragons of truth and virtue, in defiant ignorance of the dark histories of these spy institutions.  Except when criticizing the FBI because of the narrative of a given week.

I am probably being unfair, pairing the FBI with the forces of darkness based in Langley, unfair to both my own views as well as to the historic record.  While not perfect, the post-Hoover FBI is a completely different agency than what was before, and overall I respect and admire The Bureau.  I certainly trust them much more than nearly any other aspect of policing, investigation and enforcement at any level, local state and federal.  The FBI has legitimately foiled numerous terrorist plots pre-9/11, and came within a hairs breath of preventing that attack.  Without a further litany, and with recognition they have made some mistakes, I like the FBI and I think overall they do an admirable, competent job.  Further disclosure, I have friends in the Bureau, longtime pickup basketball partners.  Yeah, wrap your mind around that one, people who have known me long and well; I have friends in the FBI.

I was trying to spend minimal time and attention on the Comey firing, as I see this episode as trivial in the big picture.  My view is simply that Comey did not kowtow sufficiently to Thump, that recently confirmed by the Senate justice department official Rosenstein had a bug up his butt about Comey's letting Hillary off the hook, and the Bureau will continue doing its work despite a political change at the top.  But I came across an interesting analysis that put forth some of the deeper issues that are not trivial, and as usual phrase and present the analysis much better than I possibly could.  Most importantly, reminding me (and us) that should Comey be replaced by a partisan criminal (anyone remember L. Patrick Gray, the man who succeeded Hoover, who despite his loyalty to Nixon resigned after he could not stomach putting himself deeper into the criminal coverup than he already had, which was substantial and really should've resulted in a jail term, as he admitted to burning Watergate documents, knowing they were evidence, but somehow he skated by jumping ship very early, I could go on because I love the Watergate tale, but I'll stop, primarily because that was completely different as there was a bunch of real crimes, for which real evidence emerged immediately, like the arrest of an employee of the re-elect committee in Larry O'Brien's office, yet months after the "Rooskies Hacked The DNC and Elected Thump" nonsense began last summer, there is zero proof and zero hard evidence of any such thing man it feels good to spew all this onto the screen./barely_hinged_rant)**

Connor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic wrote a piece in The Atlantic a few years ago that outlined the danger of the surveillance state that came to maturity during the last administration:

All the Infrastructure a Tyrant Would Need, Courtesy of Bush and Obama
More and more, we're counting on having angels in office and making ourselves vulnerable to devils.

This week he has a vitally important article on Comey's firing, citing the views of an insider, Ben Wittes, who generally defends the actions and integrity of our federal security agencies, but has changed his tune.  As Friedersdorf says, "(Wittes) is as informed as anyone about the workings of the national-security bureaucracy and federal law enforcement. And his predisposition is nearly always to trust it."  But Wittes views this administration differently, and this piece cites some of his warnings published prior to Comey's dismissal.  Very good article by Friedersdorf, not too long.

Two Dead Canaries in the Coal Mine
If you’re not worried about FBI Director James Comey getting fired, this man might change your mind.

Once again, the focus on the superficial, the silly and the spurious, by the media and generally the public discourse, distracts attention from the huge dangers of this administration.  War.  Health care, and the amazing act of the House bill to take away the one single thing that Obamacare got right, the pre-existing condition coverage.  Surveillance and secrecy targeted at the mass of American civilians, as well as potential misuse of the Justice Department under AG Sessions as we go forward (for God's sake, they announced today cracking down on marijuana).  And missing the point of the simple banal evil of this President and his minions.***

Just a reminder.  Shit wasn't all peaches and cream on November 7, 2016, and suddenly we derailed with Thump.  The major themes of bad things in this nation were entrenched by Dubya and Obama, and we have not grossly deviated under Thump.  War.  Wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, with massive illegality gone unpunished.  Healthcare becoming worse and crappier, while the profits of Pharma and Health Insurance cartels ever accelerating.  War on Drugs and mass incarceration. The inevitable collape of the economic house of cards (simply when, not if), which has thus far screwed primarily the working people, the lower down the scale the worse the screwing.  Massive deportations - Thump has deported at a minuscule rate compared to Obama, but if he overcomes this area of incompetence, he may catch up.****

____________________________________


*Welcome back, Chelsea Manning, who is due to be released on May 17th from her literal tortured imprisonment.  She broke the same laws that there is clear evidence Secretary Clinton broke, according to Comey's presser last July.  One big difference, however, if not for the illegal murderous actions of the Obama administration, there were no secrets for Chelsea to make public.  But, equal justice under the law is just an ideal we are striving toward, or slouching away from.  And secrets are not kept only from our enemies, but the vast majority of secrets are to hide from us, the public, the illegal and/or immoral shit our government is doing.  You might even conclude that often, the 'enemy' of the government is not a foreign power, but is us.  Cue Pogo.

**This witch hunt for Russian influence has lasted for months, and yielded nothing whatsoever in the realm of logical proof or even hard evidence.  Here is where logic begins and should end regarding this silliness.  The DNC claimed their email hack was done by Russian government agents/entities.  The FBI investigated.  The FBI asked to look at the computer servers.  The DNC said no.  The FBI repeated this request, multiple times.  The DNC refused, repeatedly.  Should by End of story, right there.

But there is more.  The DNC instead offered a report from their computer security contractor, who blamed the Russians.  They insisted, 'trust our own investigation.'  Oh, that computer security contractor also issued finding in another high profile case, accusing the Russian government of hacking; their findings were subsequently proven to be false.  But, FBI you can't look at the evidence, you have to trust us.

You couldn't make up this bullshit.  Of course the media that most people consume ignores this sequence of facts, because 'everybody knows the Rooskies hacked the DNC and interfered with the election.'  Thank goodness the facts are readily available, albeit with a bit of effort, on the web.  I will remember these days when free access to facts and even some truth is available, because surely such access will be shut down in the future.  The crackdowns on 'fake news' by the US Government, by Facebook, by Google, are just censorship, and big giant steps toward that eventual shutdown.

There was no Russian interference in our election.  There is no Russian control or influence over Thump.  I say and think this confidently because so many empty words have been spilled to the contrary for many months now, yet zero evidence has been offered. This is not something that I 'believe' or that I 'feel'.  This is a conclusion based on the facts as presented to the public.  Of course I am eager to change my view in the face of new information, or even evidence.  That is kinda what I strive to do - figure out what is going on based on actual fact, reliable information, and rational thought.

 Further, the pernicious lies about Russian blame for all manner of crimes and misdeeds has been a regular feature for years now, again in the absence of any evidence to support US charges.  This informs my view of this issue.  As but one example, we're still waiting for the proof, the radar and satellite proof promised by Obama and Kerry of Russians shooting down the commercial airliner over Ukraine nearly three years ago.  (Dutch analysis of faked Twitter accounts and fraudulent photos on the internet don't count.) . And all the other routine lies from our government, regarding war, economics, law and justice, et al.  Amazing how people who say they recognize that the government/politicians routinely lie will embrace the particular lies that soothe their emotions or support their viewpoint.  Cue Carlin.

If you want easily provable foreign influence over our electoral politics, I humbly offer Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the biggest fish in that particular pond.  The long list of foreign entities registered to lobby Congress.  The Podesta Group activities in Ukraine, as well as the Biden boy.  But, Rooskies!!!!

***Once again, the mass media as well as some thinking people who should know better by now, are bending over backwards to parse and analyze Thump's words and actions, and are overcomplicating their reasoning and scrutiny.

We've seen this before, during this brief administration as well as in Thump's presidential campaign and in his public life over three prior decades.  He lies; he acts impulsively; he says something yesterday and says the opposite today.  His inner staff who function as direct extensions from the president to the public contradict one another, or when they speak in unison Thump soon thereafter contradicts their pronouncements.

Just last month, the Secretary of State said on Sunday that Syrian regime change was not a priority.  On Wednesday Thump bombed Syria with 60 cruise missiles.  And two days ago, Thump met with the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US, moving a step closer to consensus between the two nations on a plan for no-conflict zones in Syria.

You can be excused for missing the news of this really important (if you like peace) diplomatic action by Thump on Wednesday.  Because the media was too busy yammering about Comey and paid much less attention to the highest level meeting between the US and Russia since this administration began.  I went to Google News on Wednesday afternoon to learn about this summit; there were 19 headlines before I got to this story, most on Comey, the rest on the typical trash that passes for news.

But please, if you seek to find deeper meaning or strategy to Thump's actions much less the words spewed by him and his surrogates, you are gonna come up empty.  There is no there there.  Thump is a conman and a bullshitter.  He is not competent at this job, despite your opinion of his intellectual gifts or deficiencies.  He has not surrounded himself with particularly competent people, save for the competence of continuing the financial rape of this country and the continual concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few.  If you are not yet convinced, there will be plenty more of the same to come.

****There is a deepening completely false meme developing, that things were cruising along smoothly last year, as the wildly successful Obama administration wound down.  Then those evil Rooskies ruined our free and fair election (forget the screwing of Bernie Sander's run at the nomination), installing this usurper who has single-handedly initiated the decline of a great and good country, in a mere 110 days or so.  This complete garbage is setting in the thoughts, well more like in the emotions, of millions of people, thanks to the leadership of the Dems and the media, in sad parallel to the meme of the Socialist Kenyan who will take our guns and our Medicare, sincerely felt by millions of loyal GOP Americans.  This Russia shit, as well as the fake image of Obama in complete opposition of the actual record of his administration, is Birtherism and Bengazhi for millions of otherwise intelligent, functioning people on the so-called left.

Something else I'm gonna keep repeating, it takes a really insane country to nominate those two clowns, and ultimately to elect this joke of a man.  Thump is a symptom of a deeply dysfunctional country, as is the nomination of Clinton and all this current hysteria.

America is really insane right now.  It ain't boring, at least.


Hell, this belongs, it don't cost nothing extra, and it always belongs: