So, the basic story is that the DNC (Democratic National Committee), in hopes of taking down Trump in the campaign and helping Hillary win....paid $5.6-million for the Fusion GPS dossier on Trump.
I sat there for about thirty minutes thinking over this and reading through the various accounts. They listed the payment as 'legal fees', and it's basically structured in this way.
Since we know that about 99-percent of the dossier is a fraud and fake....the question would lead back to the DNC....if you just wanted a fake dossier, why pay $5.6-million? You could have done the same dossier with some creative writer for $5,000.
Someone at Fusion GPS convinced the idiots at the DNC that they had the best people, the best writing, and the way of making the fake dossier seem truthful, and so the price-tag of $5.6-million makes sense.
Money flushed down the toilet? This is what amazes me. You could have bought 224 pick-ups with that money. You could have most of the home-ticket tickets for the University of Alabama football season, for the entire stadium. There are dozens of things that you could have done with $5.6-million. But with this money....all you got was a fake dossier on Trump?
It presents this image of the leadership of the DNC as being not only corrupted, but just plain stupid. Who authorized the payment? How was the money shifted over, via wire-transfer? Could Trump now sue the DNC for defamation of character?
So, I come to the last note of criticism....Hillary Clinton. When you start back in Little Rock with decisions made....like White Water, and then you go down the list with over a hundred significant screw-ups that should have derailed your public career (and never did)....now you come to the dossier story. She likely stood there after hearing the details of the dossier and felt absolutely sure that this would convince those stupid Republicans and moderates not to vote for some sex-fiend like Trump. And now?
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
This Uranium-One Story
This story of the sale of US uranium to the Russians has been brewing for months. Bill made $500,000 from a Russian syndicate by giving a speech. Hillary's foundation got some money after the deal was pushed through. There's probably enough on the story to write sixty pages of material.
I've looked this in the past week and come to three observations:
1. There's tons of uranium in Russia and it doesn't make any sense that some Russian billionaire folks would work up some deal with the Russian government to go out and buy more at inflated US-prices, and ship it to Russia. My belief? I think the Russians baited the Democrats, and Hillary....into getting deep into this deal, and at the right time (expecting Hillary to win), they would have disclosed more to the deal and probably gotten a Senate investigation into President Hillary (assuming she would have won), and maybe triggered her resignation from the Presidency with a threat of impeachment.
2. In 2009, Secretary of State Clinton directed Rober Mueller (our special prosecutor now) who was the head of the FBI.....to fly off to Russia personally and deliver a sample of some ''captured uranium" that the US had intercepted being sold by Russians to some middle-man. Was the FBI holding the uranium? I kinda doubt that. So the question....why Mueller? Why did he have to be this delivery guy?
3. Finally, what exactly did Bill know about this entire deal? Did this whole thing start up because of some European meeting that Bill attended and the deal originally pitched to him....not Hillary?
If you had come up in the 1980s and suggested that the US government would ever approve a uranium sale to the Russians....most everyone would have laughed...yet here we are, and eight years later, it's looking like bribery.
I've looked this in the past week and come to three observations:
1. There's tons of uranium in Russia and it doesn't make any sense that some Russian billionaire folks would work up some deal with the Russian government to go out and buy more at inflated US-prices, and ship it to Russia. My belief? I think the Russians baited the Democrats, and Hillary....into getting deep into this deal, and at the right time (expecting Hillary to win), they would have disclosed more to the deal and probably gotten a Senate investigation into President Hillary (assuming she would have won), and maybe triggered her resignation from the Presidency with a threat of impeachment.
2. In 2009, Secretary of State Clinton directed Rober Mueller (our special prosecutor now) who was the head of the FBI.....to fly off to Russia personally and deliver a sample of some ''captured uranium" that the US had intercepted being sold by Russians to some middle-man. Was the FBI holding the uranium? I kinda doubt that. So the question....why Mueller? Why did he have to be this delivery guy?
3. Finally, what exactly did Bill know about this entire deal? Did this whole thing start up because of some European meeting that Bill attended and the deal originally pitched to him....not Hillary?
If you had come up in the 1980s and suggested that the US government would ever approve a uranium sale to the Russians....most everyone would have laughed...yet here we are, and eight years later, it's looking like bribery.
Sunday, 22 October 2017
Fiction and History
In my senior year of high school....the history teacher required us to purchase (cheaply, I must admit) a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin and read it as a class history project.
I read the book in approximately two weeks. It's around 400 pages long, and a fictionalized piece on the period before the Civil War, and intended to be some explanation to the necessity of the Civil War.
As I wrapped up the book on a Sunday evening....I sat there quietly and contemplated...it was a decent book but it is entirely fiction. For a literature or English class, it would have been appropriate. For a history class? No.....it wasn't fitting because of the fictional nature.
The book was designed by Ms. Stowe to be some emotional piece.....bringing you to the cause of opposing the south and slavery. Even by age 17, I'd read well over a thousand pages of history material and non-fiction analysis of the period prior to 1865. I'll admit that UTC's slant on things is probably 95-percent correct, but there is little to cover the economics of America from the early 1600s to 1865, and how you got to this particular situation in life.
In simple terms, it's a lousy book on history but a decent book for getting your emotions to oppose southern values of that era.
The instructor? My general belief from a decade after this mandatory reading was that students were supposed to get a negative view of the south, and understand the pro-Union position. Slanted? Well.....yes.
The same behavior occurring today? My guess is that it's a common theme and repeats itself often.
The sad thing is that we actually had a test (maybe ten questions) which came at the end of the reading assignment, and you actually had to remember around six to eight major characters. I made up some cheat sheet, with three lines to each character and I had around four people who copied to sheet.....who obviously didn't read the book and needed background material to the test. The sad thing to this is that you are basically memorizing fictional names and events....for a history exam.
I read the book in approximately two weeks. It's around 400 pages long, and a fictionalized piece on the period before the Civil War, and intended to be some explanation to the necessity of the Civil War.
As I wrapped up the book on a Sunday evening....I sat there quietly and contemplated...it was a decent book but it is entirely fiction. For a literature or English class, it would have been appropriate. For a history class? No.....it wasn't fitting because of the fictional nature.
The book was designed by Ms. Stowe to be some emotional piece.....bringing you to the cause of opposing the south and slavery. Even by age 17, I'd read well over a thousand pages of history material and non-fiction analysis of the period prior to 1865. I'll admit that UTC's slant on things is probably 95-percent correct, but there is little to cover the economics of America from the early 1600s to 1865, and how you got to this particular situation in life.
In simple terms, it's a lousy book on history but a decent book for getting your emotions to oppose southern values of that era.
The instructor? My general belief from a decade after this mandatory reading was that students were supposed to get a negative view of the south, and understand the pro-Union position. Slanted? Well.....yes.
The same behavior occurring today? My guess is that it's a common theme and repeats itself often.
The sad thing is that we actually had a test (maybe ten questions) which came at the end of the reading assignment, and you actually had to remember around six to eight major characters. I made up some cheat sheet, with three lines to each character and I had around four people who copied to sheet.....who obviously didn't read the book and needed background material to the test. The sad thing to this is that you are basically memorizing fictional names and events....for a history exam.
Saturday, 21 October 2017
'Empty Barrel' Talk
I've sat and watched Florida Representative Frederica Wilson over the past week and comical sequences or bickering with the White House. Then this 'empty barrel' verbiage came up.
Military people will use the term once in a while....but it's mostly the guys with history degrees. I've probably heard this term used at least a dozen times in my life.
It tends to lead back to the 1600s/1700s and be used for a ship which has a high number of barrels onboard which are empty. So as the ship rocks back and forth....creaking with hundreds of noises....the empty barrels will bump against each other and simply add to the noise. A full barrel would have stability and not bump against the wall of the ship. Eventually the ship term made it's way to land-usage and people would identify others who talked a lot....as 'empty barrels'.
Representative Wilson went full turbo after that usage and claimed that this was racist in nature....mostly because she went to the dictionary and read it there. I think she made up her mind that 'empty barrel' meant something over the slave-trade but it just doesn't fit that way.
Back in 2009...the 17th district of Florida (Wilson's district) was a 50-50 blend of Republicans and Democrats. In 2008....Obama ran and only got around 48-percent of the local vote. In 2012, after the Census results and redrawing of the Florida map (for more representation)....Obama got 86-percent of the vote. Yes, it's a gerrmandered-district....heavily designed for someone like Wilson.
The problem I see here for the news media is that every time you get Frederica Wilson up for a national interview....some Democrats watch the exchange and just shake their heads. She's like some character dreamed up on WWE-wrestling. If the Democrats were all hyped up to show intellectual landscape....with Wilson, you lose confidence. I think the White House realizes that and will keep heat on her.
Military people will use the term once in a while....but it's mostly the guys with history degrees. I've probably heard this term used at least a dozen times in my life.
It tends to lead back to the 1600s/1700s and be used for a ship which has a high number of barrels onboard which are empty. So as the ship rocks back and forth....creaking with hundreds of noises....the empty barrels will bump against each other and simply add to the noise. A full barrel would have stability and not bump against the wall of the ship. Eventually the ship term made it's way to land-usage and people would identify others who talked a lot....as 'empty barrels'.
Representative Wilson went full turbo after that usage and claimed that this was racist in nature....mostly because she went to the dictionary and read it there. I think she made up her mind that 'empty barrel' meant something over the slave-trade but it just doesn't fit that way.
Back in 2009...the 17th district of Florida (Wilson's district) was a 50-50 blend of Republicans and Democrats. In 2008....Obama ran and only got around 48-percent of the local vote. In 2012, after the Census results and redrawing of the Florida map (for more representation)....Obama got 86-percent of the vote. Yes, it's a gerrmandered-district....heavily designed for someone like Wilson.
The problem I see here for the news media is that every time you get Frederica Wilson up for a national interview....some Democrats watch the exchange and just shake their heads. She's like some character dreamed up on WWE-wrestling. If the Democrats were all hyped up to show intellectual landscape....with Wilson, you lose confidence. I think the White House realizes that and will keep heat on her.
Friday, 20 October 2017
Vampire Story
Last year, I sat and watched some TV travel documentary on Malawi. It's one of those little countries in the east-central Africa.....mostly resting against Lake Malawi, and a fair amount of woods/forests and open plain. It reminded me of Michigan to some degree (well....without Detroit). To be honest, after watching the hour-long show, it kinda stuck out in my mind as a place that I'd prefer not to travel into.
They chatted for about five minutes on folks there, and their humble belief in spirits and ghosts. It would be safe to say that about 90-percent of the public believes in things like this.
I noticed that Malawi came up in the news this week. Over the past two months.....they've had this story going around the nation of vampires.
Yeah....vampires.
Mobs have gotten hyped up when accusations occurred and guys were pointed out as vampires (I assume this occurred at night), and the authorities say that eight guys are dead so far...dead over vampire accusations.
The authorities have discussed this problem. One side of the issue is that virtually everyone believes in witches and evil spirits. So it's not that hard to convince folks in the vampire story.
The dead guys? Well....if you just got pointed out and had bad teeth.....that might get an ass-whooping.
So the government has gotten involved and are discussing public media and advertising. How it would work? Anyone's guess.
We've been fortunate so far in America....with all the anti-Trump hype....no one has suggested vampire stuff going on and the need to get worried about a new Trump threat of biting folks.
They chatted for about five minutes on folks there, and their humble belief in spirits and ghosts. It would be safe to say that about 90-percent of the public believes in things like this.
I noticed that Malawi came up in the news this week. Over the past two months.....they've had this story going around the nation of vampires.
Yeah....vampires.
Mobs have gotten hyped up when accusations occurred and guys were pointed out as vampires (I assume this occurred at night), and the authorities say that eight guys are dead so far...dead over vampire accusations.
The authorities have discussed this problem. One side of the issue is that virtually everyone believes in witches and evil spirits. So it's not that hard to convince folks in the vampire story.
The dead guys? Well....if you just got pointed out and had bad teeth.....that might get an ass-whooping.
So the government has gotten involved and are discussing public media and advertising. How it would work? Anyone's guess.
We've been fortunate so far in America....with all the anti-Trump hype....no one has suggested vampire stuff going on and the need to get worried about a new Trump threat of biting folks.
Wednesday, 18 October 2017
My Opinion of the Russian Oligarch Troll Farms
For about ten months, I've followed this hyped-up story of the Russian Oligarch troll farms involvement in the 2016 election.
My observations?
1. This is absolutely NOT a Russian government operation. If it was, you would not have been so easily led back to the front door of the troll farm. It's a commercial operation, financed by one wealthy Russian billionaire. Putin might occasionally have lunch with the guy, but I don't see this as being a Russian government operation.
2. Based on everything said....less than one million dollars was spent on this whole thing. If you think about it....if you'd tried to do this same thing in the US....it would have cost you $300 million minimum.....which says a lot about them recruiting a couple of guys for a reasonable price and just giving them one single boss with simple instructions.
3. Do that many Americans even review news items off Facebook and Twitter? So far, no one can cite any evidence that five-percent or ten-percent of American society is paying attention to the troll-manufactured news bits. That's the odd thing about this whole story. It's hyped-up by CNN, the WaPo crowd, the NY Times, and MSNBC, with Sunday talk-show enthusiasts running scared. But there's simply not any real evidence that this effort by the Oligarch trolls has succeed at anything
4. Finally, what happens in the spring of 2020 during the primary period? Will the Oligarch trolls come out in force? Will they hype up Bernie Sanders? Will they hype Trump? Will they hype anything? It's a big unknown.
My observations?
1. This is absolutely NOT a Russian government operation. If it was, you would not have been so easily led back to the front door of the troll farm. It's a commercial operation, financed by one wealthy Russian billionaire. Putin might occasionally have lunch with the guy, but I don't see this as being a Russian government operation.
2. Based on everything said....less than one million dollars was spent on this whole thing. If you think about it....if you'd tried to do this same thing in the US....it would have cost you $300 million minimum.....which says a lot about them recruiting a couple of guys for a reasonable price and just giving them one single boss with simple instructions.
3. Do that many Americans even review news items off Facebook and Twitter? So far, no one can cite any evidence that five-percent or ten-percent of American society is paying attention to the troll-manufactured news bits. That's the odd thing about this whole story. It's hyped-up by CNN, the WaPo crowd, the NY Times, and MSNBC, with Sunday talk-show enthusiasts running scared. But there's simply not any real evidence that this effort by the Oligarch trolls has succeed at anything
4. Finally, what happens in the spring of 2020 during the primary period? Will the Oligarch trolls come out in force? Will they hype up Bernie Sanders? Will they hype Trump? Will they hype anything? It's a big unknown.
Saturday, 14 October 2017
Thirty Pages
I sat and read over three or four stories early this morning over the FBI, the Lynch-Clinton documentation from the tarmac meeting to discuss Hillary, and the likely review to come out of this.
Basically, the FBI kept saying for months that no documentation existed from the Lynch-Clinton tarmac meeting in late-June of 2016. Then in the last week, they found thirty pages of material and handed it over.
The basic story? Lynch said that the whole meeting was just a casual meeting with Bill coming out to her VIP jet sitting on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona....to discuss grandkids, golf and travels. Yeah, I know....it just sounds kinda hokey but she's more or less sworn to that story.
Why on board the jet? I'm guessing it was out of the way from the public and they suspected that no one would spot Bill entering it. It wasn't reported by national press (yeah, that's another odd part of the story). It was the local Channel 15 reporter who spoke to the story, that swept the nation.
The thirty pages? I'm guessing that there's three or four emails, with one final report over the entire trip that Lynch took, and the final report is likely a quarter of this entire thirty pages, with only three lines having to do with Clinton.
I seriously doubt that anything will come out of the thirty pages.
Why Bill had to meet face to face? He has some magnetic personality and thinks he can charm folks with that casual southern charm. So the face-to-face meeting had to be part of the whole game. Since there are no other witnesses to the meeting....you simply have to assume what Lynch wrote....is entirely true.
Ethically? Well, it's one of those episodes that really makes Lynch look bad. A regular person with ethnics would have looked at the potential troubles and just said 'no'.
So you can imagine the next couple of days while some folks pour over thirty pages and come to realize that there's really not much to say....Lynch bumped into Bill....maybe two lines of commentary about grandkids and golf, and she wished Bill good health. A lot of drama, over nothing much.
Basically, the FBI kept saying for months that no documentation existed from the Lynch-Clinton tarmac meeting in late-June of 2016. Then in the last week, they found thirty pages of material and handed it over.
The basic story? Lynch said that the whole meeting was just a casual meeting with Bill coming out to her VIP jet sitting on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona....to discuss grandkids, golf and travels. Yeah, I know....it just sounds kinda hokey but she's more or less sworn to that story.
Why on board the jet? I'm guessing it was out of the way from the public and they suspected that no one would spot Bill entering it. It wasn't reported by national press (yeah, that's another odd part of the story). It was the local Channel 15 reporter who spoke to the story, that swept the nation.
The thirty pages? I'm guessing that there's three or four emails, with one final report over the entire trip that Lynch took, and the final report is likely a quarter of this entire thirty pages, with only three lines having to do with Clinton.
I seriously doubt that anything will come out of the thirty pages.
Why Bill had to meet face to face? He has some magnetic personality and thinks he can charm folks with that casual southern charm. So the face-to-face meeting had to be part of the whole game. Since there are no other witnesses to the meeting....you simply have to assume what Lynch wrote....is entirely true.
Ethically? Well, it's one of those episodes that really makes Lynch look bad. A regular person with ethnics would have looked at the potential troubles and just said 'no'.
So you can imagine the next couple of days while some folks pour over thirty pages and come to realize that there's really not much to say....Lynch bumped into Bill....maybe two lines of commentary about grandkids and golf, and she wished Bill good health. A lot of drama, over nothing much.
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