Briefly: FISA As Deep State Joke; Housekeeping

I'm embedding this excellent and important Maria Bartiromo interview from yesterday. Featured are Devin Nunes and Kash Patel--former federal prosecutor and defender, investigator for Nunes on the HPSCI, NSC official, and most recently a top official at DoD. 

The interview begins with the Clinesmith wrist-slap-a-doodle last Friday. For anyone who was less than appalled by Shipwreckedcrew's ill-informed and frankly absurd gaslighting of that travesty of justice, please listen to this interview. I've made my views known in comments: SWC either doesn't understand or misrepresents the nature of extensions of FISA warrants. Since these extensions authorize the collection of new data 'going forward' they are essentially new warrants--which is why each application for an extension must stand on its own and cannot merely reference the 'original' application. Any mistakes or omissions in the 'original' must be corrected and all new information made known to the FISC. To suggest, as SWC does, that Clinesmith's forgery only affected the final 'extension' but not the 'original' misconceives the nature of the whole process. It also ignores what I've stressed--the nature of Carter Page's probably 10 year long cooperation as an intelligence asset of the US government (both CIA and FBI) was known by all relevant FBI personnel before the 'original' FISA application was submitted. It was not fully disclosed and, in fact, the extent and nature of Page's cooperation was deliberately misrepresented--that was a lie to the FISC.

Now, however, we learn that the FISC--under the direction of John Robert's Obama-judge appointee--is openly in bed with the Russia Hoaxers and the Uniparty Resistance. That's the obvious takeaway from this interview, which gives a frankly dismaying picture of the demise of constitutional order in the United States. Listen and consider what's being said. That FISA has turned out to be a sick Deep State joke perpetrated on the American people and their republic is perhaps the least of what's now known.

One interesting omission from the discussion is the true role played by Bluto Barr and John Durham. It's possible that Maria held back because she's angling to maybe entice Barr to appear on her show. I doubt he'll do it. On that score, I've seen sundance's argument that Barr was an agent of a vast coverup from the beginning. I personally doubt that and believe that he simply blinked when push came to shove. I base that on Barr's public statements going back some years--including before his memo to Rosenstein. It's enough for me to understand that Barr betrayed his own oath of office, and then had the gall to accuse Trump of that offense--on the flimsiest of pretexts. Here's the interview:

On the housekeeping front, I need to make known that I'll be appearing in a documentary on the Hanssen spy case. Whether it's of interest will depend on your views on a number of topics. I was interviewed extensively for the documentary--like, perhaps four hours--but naturally have no clue what use will have been made of all that I had to say. Will it all amount to another hagiographical narrative? I can't tell you. The web site for the documentary is here--A Spy In The FBI--and includes a brief trailer in which I make a cameo appearance uttering the words 'ultimate betrayal' (and a few more if you listen carefully). If you watch the trailer you'll see why I have some reservations about the project (including the dramatization of salacious content). In my very lengthy interview I had absolutely nothing to say about that--I spoke only about work matters.

Here's the information I was provided:

A Spy in the FBI will premiere on the REELZ channel on Sunday, February 14th at 8:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm CT. REELZ is channel 692 HD on Verizon FIOS, channel 238 on DIRECTV, channel 299 on Dish Network, and channel 799 on AT&T U-verse. It's also available in HD on other cable systems nationwide.

I have no cable service so I won't be watching the show.

UPDATE: Read Angelo Codevilla's article today and, if you watch the documentary described above, decide whether you can discern any common elements:

How Our Oligarchy Crushes Terrorism

The FBI’s increasing preference for political action over bona fide investigations is part of its overall decadence—laziness, incompetence, and eagerness to integrate with the ruling class.

Obviously the US government must take some interest in "enemies foreign and domestic". In this American Imperial Age--in which oligarchical Big Money interests supported by the Big Media/Tech complex play such a dominant role--the question of who defines who those enemies are becomes fraught with interest. It also directly affects the health of our constitutional order. What to do about this situation--and, indeed whether anything can be done beyond informing and reforming our lives and those of others near to us--must occupy the thoughts of serious people.