[The Federalist] These close connections between the Washington Post’s David Ignatius and people connected to U.S. and U.K. intelligence raise grave concerns about the deep state using media to push propaganda.
The Federalist has learned that the now-outed CIA and FBI informant Stefan Halper served as a source for Washington Post reporter David Ignatius, providing more evidence that the intelligence community has co-opted the press to push anti-Trump conspiracy theories. In addition, an email recently obtained by The Federalist from the MI5-connected Christopher Andrew bragging that his long-time friend Ignatius has the "’inside track’ on Flynn" adds further confirmation of this conclusion.
Svetlana Lokhova, the Russian-born English citizen and Soviet-era scholar, told The Federalist that she only realized the significance of her communications with and about Ignatius following the filing of attorney Sidney Powell’s reply brief in the Michael Flynn case.
In last week’s court filing, Powell highlighted how the CIA, FBI, Halper, and possibly James Baker used the unnamed and unaware Lokhova and the complicit Ignatius to destroy Flynn. This James Baker is not the one who worked under James Comey at the FBI, but a James Baker in the Department of Defense Office of National Assessment.
Powell wrote:
Stefan Halper is a known long-time operative for the CIA/FBI. He was paid exorbitant sums by the FBI/CIA/DOD through the Department of Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment in 2016. His tasks seem to have included slandering Mr. Flynn with accusations of having an affair with a young professor (a British national of Russian descent) Flynn met at an official dinner at Cambridge University when he was head of DIA in 2014. Flynn has requested the records of Col. James Baker because he was Halper’s ’handler’ in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon, and ONA Director Baker regularly lunched with Washington Post Reporter David Ignatius. Baker is believed to be the person who illegally leaked the transcript of Mr. Flynn’s calls to Ignatius. The defense has requested the phone records of James Clapper to confirm his contacts with Washington Post reporter Ignatius‐especially on January 10, 2017, when Clapper told Ignatius in words to the effect of ’take the kill shot on Flynn.’ It cannot escape mention that the press has long had transcripts of the Kislyak calls that the government has denied to the defense.
Lokhova has known of Halper’s role in targeting Flynn since Halper was outed as a CIA and FBI informant in May 2018. She then sued Halper and several media outlets for defamation after they falsely repeated Halper’s lies that she was a Russian spy engaged in an intrigue with Flynn.
This honey pot storyline originated with Lokhova’s mentor at Cambridge, the official MI5 historian, Professor Christopher Andrew, when on February 19, 2017, Andrew penned an article for the London Sunday Times, "Impulsive General Misha Shoots Himself in the Foot." That article portrayed the unnamed Lokhova’s brief meeting with Flynn during a dinner event two years prior at Cambridge as the beginning of a compromising relationship between Flynn and a Russian spy.
Heckuva mentor. One hopes she didn’t rely on him for much, including honest feedback.
It is interesting that General Flynn is a registered Democrat. The "powers to be" don't mind throwing anyone under the bus as long as it serves their interests.
[ASPENTIMES] Until Aspen’s mob shouted it down it, valet parking service was planned this winter at the base of the Aspen Mountain gondola. No longer.
Local politicos saw an opportunity to bash business, which they always find profitable, and to accumulate some political capital ‐ which is apparently the only kind of capital that is permissible to accumulate these days.
Take our mayor, a former tennis instructor. He whined: "I question the equitability and ethic of" the valet parking service.
Others politicians jumped in. With an analysis equaling her syntax, one councilwoman complained, "It had a huge insulting factor to locals. It was like separating the rich from the poor, and here you are going skiing and those rich people have something they can afford that you can’t."
Well, we certainly want to avoid a "huge insulting factor to locals" especially if "here you are going skiing." And it’s the government’s job to do that, whatever "that" is.
Emotions like envy being so useful to politicians, another councilwoman who was not armed with a pitchfork but could have been, grumbled, "I wish it was someplace else that it wasn’t quite in your face. It’s this equity thing."
Ah, this equity thing. That’s evidently shorthand for the "problem" of constituents feeling butthurt when they see people with more money. Constituents with hurt butts can mean only one of two things ‐ leaning back on their skis in descending Corkscrew or something inequitable and unethical.
I’m surprised that they didn’t find a way to say it’s racist too. And maybe Russian to boot, or at least Ukrainian. Is there perhaps an Electoral College angle? How about the Emoluments Clause?
Never mind that the spendy rich folks are spending their money on the very people who are whining about it. The whiners would prefer that the rich folks didn’t show up in Aspen at all, and just mailed their money in. That would be much more equitable and ethical.
But what do rich folks know about equity and ethics anyway? They’re all crooks, dammit it, because they stole their money from the rest of us. Except the Clintons, of course, because they’re Democrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Without greed and envy, the Democrat party could not exist.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/04/2019 11:54 Comments ||
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Like some nightmare Greek chorus sounding dolefully from the wings, San Francisco swamp thing Willie Brown is telling Democrats they're about to go down like the Titanic in their obsession with impeaching President Trump.
In his San Francisco Chronicle column, Brown writes:
If the goal was to damage President Trump by formalizing the impeachment inquiry, it's Mission Unaccomplished for House Democrats.
If anything, the vote solidified Trump's hold on power. There were zero GOP defections, meaning we have zero drama heading into the public phase of impeachment. Everyone is pretty much in the same lanes they've been in since the Russian-collusion investigation, the obstruction of justice investigation and every other investigation.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, that gives people little reason to be glued to their screens when House committees take public testimony. The basic story ‐ Trump pressured Ukraine to announce investigations into Democrats that would help Trump ‐ is out there already. People know how they feel about it, and if you believe the polls, they're pretty evenly split on whether the president deserves to be thrown out of office.
The 80-something retired machine pol, who served as state House speaker and San Francisco mayor, and basically made Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and Nancy Pelosi, is now like Batman trying to slap sense into Robin or else some miserable pud-knocker of his alliance.
Brown's conclusion is withering:
So the Democrats will spend the next few precious months acting out a pretend cliffhanger to which everyone actually knows the script and the ending. No plot twists in sight. Remember health care, the issue that won so many elections for Democrats in 2018? You might, but they don't seem to.
Come next year, Trump will have an impeachment victory and quite possibly a solid economy. The Democrats will have ‐ what?
#2
I do worry about the Trump economy. Even a slight dip (which would seem normal after such a run) will be played as a catastrophe. Heck latest polls showed people were unsure about the economy so the Dems and their lackeys are already trying to create a story there.
[PJ] Tulsi Gabbard, the marginally sane candidate in the Democratic presidential field, said Thursday that Saudi Arabia is "undermining our national security interests" and that "it is our government ‐ our own government ‐ that is hiding the truth" about Saudi involvement in the 9/11 jihad attacks.
Gabbard noted that "for so long, leaders in our government have said, ’well, Saudi Arabia is our great ally, they’re a partner in counterterrorism’ ‐ turning a blind eye or completely walking away from the reality that Saudi Arabia time and again, has proven to be the opposite."
The Hawaii congresswoman also broke ranks with the bipartisan conventional wisdom about exactly what side the Saudi government is on when she noted that the Saudis are "the number one exporter of this Wahhabi extremist ideology. They’re a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists, like al-Qaeda and ISIS around the world. They’re directly providing arms and assistance to al-Qaeda in places like Yemen and in Syria."
Fracking. Also offshore drilling, but fracking has got us to where we needn’t worry about harming the OPEC nations when the price of oil falls below the level they need to maintain subsidy levels for their population. If we need to, we can supply that part of the world we care about from what we pump domestically... and the ChiComs can take over coddling the Saudis.
Fracking in the short term. Nuclear power in the long term for base load. Solar/wind/biofuel for whatever niche usage that it is economically viable for ... and I am not expecting those niches to be anything that will make a serious impact on the total energy needs of our civilization.
#10
Not the decisionmakers among the royals. But the powerless branches, who would like to rule in their place? Sure. Bin Laden is Saudi. As were 15 of the 19 hijackers. Still, this is the kind of stuff you'd expect from only credible Hare Krishna presidential candidate, ever. Saying the Saudi royals were responsible for 9/11 is like saying that Nixon was responsible for the My Lai Massacre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
Posted by: sa ||
11/04/2019 19:13 Comments ||
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[DailyExcelsior] “Why is it that a Kashmiri Hindu never asks questions from his Kashmiri Muslim neighbor who drove him out of his home? Why don’t we ever ask what made him shout the slogans ‘convert or leave or die’ and ‘leave your women behind to create Pakistan’ from his mosques?”
Posted by: John Frum ||
11/04/2019 00:00 ||
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Thank you, John Frum. It's surprising anyone printed this, because even the Indian Govt doesn't usually allow the Pandits to vent.
The political class wanted the issue to remain in the 'accusation arsenal' for politicians, but in reality they see it all as an indictment of their cowardice and hypocrisy.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] After two weeks of popular protests in Leb against the country’s corrupt political class, Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri ...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.... has handed his resignation. While some see this development as a victory for the protesters, such assessments miss the mark. The same political barons will now consult to form a new government, a process in which Iran’s arm in Leb, Hezbollah, has final say. Far from signaling a change in the system, the episode will have marked its regeneration.
Leb’s serious economic crisis, meanwhile, will still be there. Hariri’s gambit is to return as the head of a new government, in partnership with Hezbollah, present a plan for some reforms, and hope for a bailout from international donors. For the United States, this is not a desirable outcome. The Trump administration should carry on with its sanctions policy while continuing to oppose a bailout for Beirut. Insofar as the new government will be formed in partnership with Hezbollah, bailing out such a government means bailing out Hezbollah.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/04/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Funny that I read it as LeBron and it still made sense.
It's himself, himself, Kurt Schlichter
[Townhall] Like the garbage French elite of long ago, our American garbage elite of today has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. For four years, it has been focused entirely on deep sixing Donald Trump for his unforgivable crime of demanding that our ruling caste be held accountable for its legacy of failure. Instead of focusing on not being terrible at their job of running America’s institutions, our elitists have decided that the real problem is us Normals being angry about how they are terrible at their job of running America’s institutions. So, let’s imagine that they finally vanquish Trump, though every time they come up against him they end up dragging themselves home like Ned Beatty after a particularly tough canoe trip.
What happens then?
What happens then is that it’s back to business as usual, and for decades, business as usual for our garbage elite has not merely been running our institutions badly but pillaging and looting our country for power, prestige and cash.
...The fact is that what they want to do is go back to the way it was before Trump, back to 2015, aka the year 1 BT ‐ Before Trump. Back then, progressive Democrats got their bizarre social pathologies normalized. Moderate Democrats got money, power and an open season on the local talent. Corporate types represented largely by squishy Republicans got globalism and the ability to ship our jobs out and import Third World serfs in. And the fake conservatives of Conservative, Inc., got to cash in without the necessity of actually conserving anything.
The only people that the old system didn’t work for were the American people.
#3
A fine effort as usual from the Schlichter... except maybe for this unfortunate implied analogy between Trump and Deliverance's "make you squeal like a pig" illiterate hillbilly bu--f---ers: though every time they come up against him they end up dragging themselves home like Ned Beatty after a particularly tough canoe trip...
#4
This is spot on-- nice summary of the Uniparty's grand Global Grift:
... Moderate Democrats got money, power and an open season on the local talent.
Look at how many Democratic Party top brass have become extraordinarily rich, post office thanks to their grafting:
Al Gore (100m or so that's to Silicon Valley baksheesh).
Clinton's shakedown act that's netted him $150 million.
Obama's $68 million sweetheart deal with yet another Silicon Valley beneficiary of lax regulatory treatment by his admin.
The Biden Family's multiple mega-million dollar scams involving MBNA, ChiComs, Ukrainian thieves...
Joe Manchin's daughter's payola.
Donna Shalala's revolving-door board position with that poster child of corruption in the health insurance biz, United Health.
A veritable parade of Obama and other Dem admin flunkies into highly paid cushy corporate posts for the virtue-signaling, left-leaning companies they were supposed to be regulating.
Corporate types represented largely by squishy Republicans got globalism and the ability to ship our jobs out and import Third World serfs in.
All those shitty libertarian moronic greedheads-- Koch most notoriously, also Romney and McCain and especially the shitty right-of-center editorialists like Bret Stephens-- who trash native-born Americans and praise imported helots who gave destroyed communities, schools, hospitals, good governance, public safety and rule of law across so much of the Southwest: f--- these shameless hypocrites.
And the fake conservatives of Conservative, Inc., got to cash in without the necessity of actually conserving anything.
What is left of this nation's cultural heritage, especially our admiration for the highest achievements of our European ancestors? The nation's schools breed illiteracy. Most of our university humanities and social science departments are a complete shitshow. Our entertainment industry is a swamp of stupidity, comic-book nonsense and moronic virtue-signaling.
The only people that the old system didn’t work for were the American people.
#6
Undermine the legitimacy of the government there won't be any gravy train. See the collapse of the Soviet Union. First gradually then all of the sudden.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Federalist] These close connections between the Washington Post’s David Ignatius and people connected to U.S. and U.K. intelligence raise grave concerns about the deep state using media to push propaganda.
[ASPENTIMES] Until Aspen’s mob shouted it down it, valet parking service was planned this winter at the base of the Aspen Mountain gondola. No longer.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] After two weeks of popular protests in 
