I know, I know--people say they're getting tired of waiting. I'm telling you there are so many moving parts in this Russia Hoax investigation that to put it in a package without jeopardizing other aspects is far from simple. And it's time consuming.
Why should we pay any attention to Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock? Because he was caught up in the Mueller inquisition. That doesn't mean he has true insider info, but it does provide some insight. Perhaps. H/T GP:
Byrne was interviewed by the FBI for his involvement with Russian Maria Butina.
Byrne fired off a warning shot to the deep state.
Patrick Byrne: I ended up in the center of the Russian and the Clinton investigations. I have all the answers. I have been sitting on them waiting for America to get there. Last summer I figured out… what they all are is all about political espionage. It had nothing to do with law enforcement, it was all political espionage. Here’s the bottom line. There is a deep state like a submarine working just beneath the waves of the periscope depth watching our shipping lane. And a nuclear ice breaker called the USS Bill Barr has snuck up on them and is about to ram midship.
That’s about to happen and I think we’re about to see the biggest scandal in American history as a result. But it was all political. Everything you think you know about Russia and Clinton investigations is a lie. It’s all a cover-up. It was all political espionage.
David Asman: You think Bill Barr is going to get to the bottom of it.
Patrick Byrne: I think he has gotten to the bottom of it.
Morning, Mark
ReplyDeletehttps://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/08/11/ag-bill-barrs-other-problem-the-2018-doj-and-fbi-coverup-to-protect-the-senate-intelligence-committee/#more-168015
Have you seen CTH's post regarding Mark Warner/SSCI involvement in the 'soft coup' attempt? (Apologies if you already have and I'm late to the game...)
The plot is definitely thickening...
Yes, I've seen it and bookmarked it. It's a good illustration of why we need patience. I've tried to stress over these months that none of what happened--and especially not the Mueller inquisition--would have happened without the complicity of the WDC elites. Of both parties. That's part of why I flagged the revelation that McCain was involved with Steele FAR earlier than we previously knew.
DeleteAnd once again I'd like to stress that Barr's commitment is to the Executive. From his past he knows all about Legislative power grabs. While he may now understand the dangers posed by the administrative state and a radicalized Judicial Branch, his first concern is undoubtedly to protect the Executive Branch.
DeleteAs we've known for some time this is all so outrageously corrupt...for what purpose?
ReplyDeleteI know this will strike some as a naive question, but I'll ask it just the same...
Could this degree of criminality and corruption have stemmed merely from Trump Derangement Syndrome...or was this a carefully constructed conspiracy to avoid disclosure of Deep State actions and secrets so damaging that the conspirators resorted to extra-legal 'warfare' at whatever cost to save themselves?
I am haunted by Brennan's crazed invocations of 'treason', when he knew it was all a lie...I shudder to think what the man (and all of his co-conspirators) is trying to hide...
See my response to your second comment, below. I hope to at least reference the reason that progressive liberals see a commitment to truth--or "truth" as they might put it--is inimical to what they hope to accomplish.
DeleteI'll take a stab... The corruption is the waning end of Empire. Trump's election is a symptom, not a cause (TDS) of anything.
DeleteThe Deep State is comprised of insiders protecting their turf, their privileges as seat warmers and time servers and place holders. Their allegiance is to the system that employs them, not the people they serve--whom they despise.
Their arrogance and hubris is catching up to them because the cost and dead weight loss to carry them is too much. Top heavy organizations don't function (because they spend their time protecting their prerogatives), they tip-over and fail.
It not so much a carefully constructed conspiracy as it is a simple case of they protect their own, they take care of their own, by any means necessary, no matter the cost.
My experience with some leftists it that they believe in truth as they see it from their worldview. If the current situation is not in accord with their worldview, they will pursue it through persuasion. If persuasion doesn't work, they will pursue truth through deception or gaslighting. If that doesn't work, they will pursue truth through coercion, shaming, ridicule and, ultimately, force.
DeleteThey play for keeps. They are generally atheistic, irreligious or secular. But if you boil it down, they aren't atheists. They believe that they are gods. Not literally, but they are enlightened and they know the true path.
If you ever want to see true hatred, watch what happens when a leftist is exposed, shamed, or proven wrong. The response might be feigned sorrow, seething anger, denial or outright violence.
As others have said in the comment section, they play for keeps. Although I have always been a conservative, it took me a long time to learn to trust my own judgement. I would be swayed by liberal priests or sisters, whom I was taught to respect that my instincts were wrong. ((Here I am referring to articles published in the local Catholic diocesan paper.) Or I would be swayed by liberal editorialists because they are supremely confident in their convictions. I might even be swayed by the David Frenches of the world; supposed conservatives who would be the first to put up the white flag and surrender. By the way, French is aptly name when you consider the derision that the French military is subjected to for their legendary surrender.
I'm like a broken record here. From the old Kenny Rogers song "Coward of the County", the refrain was "Son, you don't have to fight to be a man." Were in an era where it's time to lock the doors to the tavern and fight the bullies.
"Dad, I hope you understand, sometimes you have to fight to be a man."
Yes, Forbes, the author I'll be quoting does view Trump and "populism" as symptomatic of the terminal contradictions in Democratic Liberalism, the consequences of which we see being played out in our national life.
DeleteJoe, taken down to the fundamental level, for them truth is simply power.
DeleteYes, I agree with that, but I think there's more to it. I worked with a real angry, hard leftist.
DeleteHe was one of the air traffic controllers that President Reagan fired. Until the day he retired, he had a bumper sticker on his cubicle wall that said "I stand with PATCO." When he talked about President Reagan, one would think that he had been fired within the last year.
He had a former coworker or supervisor with whom he clashed. The man's son got cancer. My colleague was glad that it happened. I asked why be happy? What did his son ever do to you? You never even met him."
I don't remember his exact words but it was either "Too bad; it's his son" or "He deserves it."
He would fight management over the smallest of topics. I asked him why he could never just except that sometimes in life we just have to accept things. "I'm right", he said.
Sounds like the guy who shot Scalise.
DeleteIt reminds me of a guy a knew in law school, with whom I generally got along. One day, though, he got started on the French Revolution. He vociferously defended the Terror and wanted to relate that to modern politics. He became extremely agitated about it.
Joe - I was one of the military "scab" (and that is the word they used) air traffic controllers that helped break the PATCO strike. To steal a line from Yevgraf Zhivago, "...the best day's work I ever did."
DeleteTom S.
"his first concern is undoubtedly to protect the Executive Branch."
ReplyDeleteNo disagreement, but if this is headed where it looks like its headed, Barr's job may well be to save the Republic.
Cassander, I have a series of posts in mind--I came up with the idea while reading in an auto dealership waiting room this morning--that will address that from the perspective of political philosophy. I think you'll like it. But I keep getting sidetracked.
DeleteNow analyze and project.
ReplyDeleteThe Deep State perpetrators number in the hundreds (if not thousands) and represent some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet. They have a great deal to lose; including enormous wealth, continuation of their political power, and the potential loss of personal freedom if convicted and sentenced to prison. As an example, see Jeffery Epstein.
Will they surrender meekly and quietly after being indicted? Epstein was caught off-guard while getting off an airplane and confronted by many large-bodied LEOs. That element of surprise no longer exists.
We've known since the July 2016 murder of Seth Rich that these people play for keeps. I hope Barr has a very large and robust security detail.
I understand and largely agree that Trump is the symptom.
ReplyDeleteI understand and largely agree that insiders will protect their turf and their privileges. I understand that their allegiance is to the system and not the elected politicians.
I understand and largely agree that their arrogance and hubris is catching up to them.
I get the Lefty play book...I get the lust for power and the reflexive hatred of the Right...
Its just that the unfolding events are suggesting knowing and intentional crimes by apparatchiks...guys who are not billionaires by a long shot...many of whom could have survived four or eight years in an opposition administration. Or could have made a nice living taking a paycheck from the opposition while their party is out of power. Just what they did for eight years of W Bush.
This...outright criminality and disloyalty to the 'country'... seems different in degree to me...and unprecedented in our national history. It suggests a cover up of crimes which they are terrified will see the light of day.
Maybe its eight years of FISA and counter-intelligence abuse. Maybe its hidden government corruption still to be uncovered.
Or perhaps my imagination is simply overheated today.
It not so much a carefully constructed conspiracy as it is a simple case of they protect their own, they take care of their own, by any means necessary, no matter the cost.
Maybe 8 years of Obama and liberal ascendancy in the media persuaded them that this was the irreversible wave of the future and that they needed to be riding that wave.
DeleteBut, Mark, there were plenty of ways to ride that wave without ending up in the MCC...
DeleteYou started this out by stating: "I am haunted by Brennan's crazed invocations of 'treason', when he knew it was all a lie ..."
DeleteI just read this by Dennis Prager:
"How can these people say such lies? Because lying is not an issue when truth is not a value. ... They use them as a cover for their real agenda: dismantling civilization as we know it."
At the risk of sounding preachy (yes, believe it or not I have been accused of that on occasion) I'll repeat an earlier comment:
Delete"Exactly. The Deep State Deep States. That is what it does. It exists to exist; not necessarily to govern or advance an agenda, though it will "push" an agenda because power, like money, must be spent to be enjoyed. Institutional cultures like this only have three rules:
1) Defend its existence, no matter the cost/moral compromise/sacrificial goat. (every cell contains the DNA to reconstitute the organism)
2) Grow larger, increase power, at every opportunity.
3) When in doubt refer to rule #1.
Nothing more subtle or complicated, there is no overarching ideology or plan. There are no Caesars, though it might be leveraged by a Napoleon, its existence depends upon the self-serving cunning and ambition of hundreds of "little Eichmanns", to borrow a phrase from Ward Churchill, Lois Lerner reproduced a thousand times."
None of them have proven particularly bright or creative.
The 2016 election was existential for the Deep State. Barak and Hillary were allies, would be Napoleons but no worse. The Bushes were benefactors, non-military .gov grew by 30% and hugely in overt power during their admin's.
The hubris of these people is not that they are riding the wave, they believe that they ARE the wave. They feel the power. Hopefully that power can be stripped from them as they roll in against the Barr.
Mr. Prager's quote implies a certain level of evil intent. My only quibble is: Do these people even have enough character to be evil?
Tom S.
I like that very well, Tom. Re Prager, I think that there are many of these people who think truth is a luxury and that they have more important things to be concerned with--like, running the world. And if that requires lying, it's no big deal.
DeleteI have several reactions, but I'll share just one for the moment.
ReplyDeleteThe Progressives insist that Trump is a racist or, perhaps, a white nationalist, or, even worse, a white supremacist. I listen carefully (as I can) to what Trump says and I detect none of the above. He seems an equal opportunity insulter to me.
But more than that, to me, Trump is the quintessential deal guy. He's fundamentally agnostic. (Perhaps not entirely true...I think he has some bedrock principles). He mostly just wants to win. When he emerged on the scene as a candidate I immediately recognized him as a deal guy, but I misunderstood him. Perhaps influenced to some extent by the barrage of negativity from the MSM, I concluded that Trump was a deal guy who was just out for himelf. When things get tough, I thought, he'll save...Donald.
I've changed my mind about that. I think Trump wants to cut a better trade deal with China for 'us' -- a deal where they don't win by cheating. He's open to win-win, but he certainly won't accept we lose, they win.
He wants all Americans to reap the potential rewards of living in our 'exceptional' nation. He's thrilled that Black and Hispanic unemployment is at historic lows. He wants to do even better. For 'us'.
But being, at heart, a deal guy, he is at some disadvantage in dealing with the Deep State. Those guys don't care whether we cut a better deal with China, or create more jobs or increase GDP or grow the market capitalization of the most dynamic stock market in economic history. In fact, they are outwardly rooting for Trump to fail.
Why? Because as Mark and Tom S. and others have said, its all about power to them. So in their upside down world Trump can succeed by all measures and Nadler and Schifty will still want to impeach him. The deal guy wins but he loses.
I guess it will be up to the American voter which kind of 'leadership' we're going to have. So, I might conclude that it is not only up to the Attorney General to save the Republic, but also up to 'us'.
Yikes! Fingers crossed.
Yes, it still is up to us. In the final analysis. That's the scary thing about democracy, and it's what the liberals want to change.
DeleteCassander, try to run this through the prism of what Deneen is saying.
"Cassander, try to run this through the prism of what Deneen is saying."
ReplyDelete--Will do.