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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Very Brief: Meet The New DAG

 Lisa Monaco, Deep State apparatchik extraordinaire:



Read her full Wiki bio. Super tied in with Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann.

ADDENDUM: And speaking of DoJ, Emerald Robinson is on a roll:


13 comments:


  1. Biden’s Sanctions Binge represents the high-water mark of the ‘Putin Whisperers’
    , an article by Scott Ritter.

    Ritter describes developments that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991:

    Inside the CIA, the once all-powerful Office of Soviet Analysis (SOVA), the largest and most prestigious fiefdom within the Directorate of Intelligence, was dissolved, replaced by the more generic sounding “Office of Slavic and Eurasian analysis”, and later, the Office of Russian and European analysis. Old-time analysts who had spent decades studying the Soviet Union were dismissed or reassigned, replaced by a new breed, who viewed Russia not as an adversary to be respected, but a victim to be exploited.

    Moscow Station – the CIA operation inside the Soviet Union – was likewise gutted, transforming overnight from the premier posting for the agency’s most capable case officers into a backwater where new officers were sent to cut their baby teeth and old officers to retire. The CIA’s approach to Russia in the 1990’s was one of negligent incompetence, where analysis was lazy and operations virtually non-existent. The demand for high quality intelligence simply did not exist in an environment where the Russian government, in the form of an alcoholic president named Boris Yeltsin, had completely subordinated himself to the will of his American masters, and the Russian national security establishment was more than happy to sell its secrets to anyone willing to pay a price.

    As the old cadre of Soviet-era specialists were pushed to the side, they were replaced by a new breed of activist-analysts, people who viewed Russia as a laboratory for Western notions of democracy, and the Russian people as little more than guinea pigs to be experimented with. The buy-in to this approach to US-Russian relations was absolute, with little or no examination as to its wisdom, or its long-term viability in post-Soviet Russia. The “experts” that emerged during this time – personalities such as Michael McFaul, Anne Applebaum, Susan Glasser, Fiona Hill, and others – were intellectually lazy, if for no other reason than their theses went unchallenged.

    The rise of Vladimir Putin took this universe of self-minted “new Russia” experts by storm – they literally did not know what hit them. Their buy-in into the artificial reality of Boris Yeltsin was so strong that these so-called experts had no real foundation upon which to assess the Putin phenomenon. Rather than seeing Putin’s rise as part of a natural reaction on the part of the Russian state and people to the abject failure of the Yeltsin years, these “experts” viewed Putin as an alien being, a foreign object which had intruded upon their exclusive playground and was disrupting their nation-building fantasies. Anti-Putin literature became par for the course, and these so-called Russian experts helped found a new school of Russian studies, where the Russian nation was simplified into the person of a single man, whose life and politics were simplified into a cartoon-like caricature far removed from reality.

    These “Putin whisperers” infiltrated every aspect of American culture and politics, their writings achieving near-scripture-like reception in the pages of American newspapers and political journals, and the authors of this intellectual dreck being offered prime seats at the table of national security policymaking, either on the National Security Council, or as a National Intelligence Officer.

    [The article continues at length.]

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  2. Perhaps the most depressing part of Monaco's confirmation is the Looney Toonz Parallax: the left ceaselessly wail about every so called conservative nominee bringing ruin and death when we know the nominee will do nothing at all of consequence, whereas the right say nothing of even the most radical nominee who, after confirmation, goes on to do widespread damage to the nation.

    -Basic Draining

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  3. When I read your note about Lisa Monaco, Mueller’s chief of staff, being appointed Deputy Att. Gen. I had a negative feeling about the insidious nature of our so called justice system.

    And then I noted her Italian last name, which caused me to click on your Wiki bio link. Which in turn lead me to footnoted articles about the depths of her Italianita, which lead me to a Google search of her ancestral Italian town in Southern Italy.

    In short, by the time I had finished this bio journey my negative political feels had disappeared and I felt a sense of kinship with a women whom a few minutes before I considered something akin to an ‘abhorrent fascist’.

    Finally, I still felt cerebrally negative about her politics, but at the same time a positive sub-cortical emotional sense of common ethnicity; she was Italian – southern Italian no less – ‘Paisan’ no matter what her politics.

    A fascinating and totally surprisingly lesson in the power of ethnic bonds!

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    Replies
    1. I too have Italian roots and even lived for a while in Italy and learned to speak Italian. Italian immigrants were ridiculed when they came here, but they assimilated, and now we are called white supremacists and assimilation is a bad word. Even though our country is the most diverse nation all people talk about is systemic racism. I wish "ethnic studies" did actually mean what its proponents say it means, but it is not even clear what "ethnicity" means, and the whole project has been distorted by leftist ideology to be unintelligible, unless you are a believer.

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  4. Unfortunately for you Tom, that bond binds only one, Italian is not a recognized ethnicity long ago having been subsumed into "White American", Lisa understands not to celebrate her ancestry, but instead to furtively accumulate power and standing whilst stamping her ticket for the bright diversified global village of the future. She will have no time for chumps... Mark A

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  5. Only no votes were Ted Cruz and Rand Paul

    Why?

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    Replies
    1. @Ray...

      Unfortunately I believe we know the *why* to that. ๐Ÿ™„

      Delete
  6. The Emerald Robinson tweet is spot on. Yes, she's been on a roll lately...

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  7. @Devilman

    I am in a bit of shock that only 2% of US Senators voted no. The forces against Trump were / are even worse than I I thought.

    And Ted Cruz have a pass on Nuland. And there were no recess appointments during the Trump administration, since not one Senator objected. It requires unanimous consent to keep the Senate in session during breaks.

    A Swag - the reason Trump is not supporting the useful idiots that trespassed in the capital, is the threat they will go after Trump if he does. Some type of aiding and abetting, or collusion charges. I’m not a lawyer, so may be my swag is totally off base.

    >Unfortunately I believe we know the *why* to that. ๐Ÿ™„

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  8. Mark,

    Thanks for your posts that are demolishing my world view.

    Just when I think I have a handle on the state of our system, you come along and show it’s even worse.

    Your blog is the most thought provoking I read.

    I feel my head is spinning with a mixture of shock, anger, denial, and some acceptance. What a strange world we live in.

    Respectful,

    Ray

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  9. https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/22/senate-republicans-just-handed-matches-to-arsonist/

    Julie Kelly writing on the 98-2 vote, and other failures of the eGOP going back to the Trump administration.

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    Replies
    1. I read that. It really shows that the GOPe was out to get Trump from the start. Ask yourself this: What are the chances that a consummate insider like Bluto Barr didn't know this? My new theory is that Barr was put in to replace Sessions because the GOP had realized the benefits for them from Trump, but wanted to "tame" him. Barr's job was to "tame" but Trump insisted on being Trump, so the GOPe allowed what happened.

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    2. The writing was on the wall for Sessions after the midterms. Everyone knew Trump was going to fire him.

      So the eGOP selected the most insider friendly candidate that Trump would nominate.

      Barr had credibility with Trump since he had signaled with his memo about the independent counsel being problematic.

      And Bush even suggested Barr to Trump.

      I wonder if Trump could have gotten anyone tougher confirmed at the time.

      Agree 100% with the eGOP being out to get Trump from the start. It’s amazing Trump got anything done.

      Delete