Dan Bongino: It Was Brennan

—Ace of Spades

Lee Smith pointed the finger at Brennan in February as being the first mover of the Russia Hoax. That would have made a nice journalistic coup for the Weekly Standard, if they hadn't had fired him soon after he submitted a piece about Fusion GPS that might have been a journalistic coup for them.

Brennan has himself previously taken credit for initiating the inquiry. While on Meet the Press, Brennan suggested that the British sent their intelligence on to the FBI, in his May testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he indicated it came from him directly.

"I was aware," Brennan said in May, "of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons that raised concerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians, either in a witting or unwitting fashion, and it served as the basis for the FBI investigation to determine whether such collusion-cooperation occurred."

Brennan continued: "I wanted to make sure that every information and bit of intelligence that we had was shared with the bureau [FBI] so that they could take it. It was well beyond my mandate as director of CIA to follow on any of those leads that involved U.S. persons. But I made sure that anything that was involving U.S. persons, including anything involving the individuals involved in the Trump campaign, was shared with the bureau."

In other words, the FBI investigation didn't start when the Australians, according to the Times--or the Brits, according to Brennan’s most recent version of the story--contacted the FBI after the Papadopoulos-Downer meeting. No, it started when the director of the CIA decided to start an investigation, when Brennan passed on information and intelligence to the FBI, and signaled that the bureau better act on it.

It's cute that some Conservative Geniuses still believe the ever-shifting stories of when and why this investigation started. Hey, they've only changed the story three times already, but sure, go ahead believing their fourth version.

Now here's Dan Bongino:

Trump is quoting Bongino on Twitter. He adds this to the quotes:

As Richard Fernandez notes, America hasn't had to deal with the consequences of a failed coup before. (Perhaps with Aaron Burr, but he didn't have the power that Obama and Brennan do.)

The Morning Rant: J.V. Edition

—CBD

One would assume that with so many guns we would have an astronomical murder rate, and that is what the senile old fool from California wants you to believe. But it isn't actually true! I know...shocking.
Map: Here are countries with the world's highest murder rates

...most of the top countries with the highest homicide rates are in Africa and Latin America. The homicide rates, defined as the number of deaths by homicide per 100,000 people, of the top 20 countries are showed in the chart below. The US was ranked 107 out of 218 countries, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

As for that "epidemic" she is spouting about? Really? Because gun violence has been decreasing for a generation in this country. And the number of school shootings is also suspect. They tend to count two gang-bangers killing each other on a school playground at 3:00am as a school shooting. So what did the harpy get right? Well, the United States does have about 4% of the world's population!

******
As far as I can tell, Germany is racing with Venezuela to become the biggest shithole on the planet.
Germany will now train asylum seekers to become truck drivers
I want to meet the bureaucrat who first suggested this in a meeting. Was there no one around the table who looked up and said, "You can't possibly be this fvcking stupid!"
******
This is a week or so old, but it's both amusing and illustrative of the Left's fear of guns, and the unintended consequences of the push-back against their overreach. The comments are a hoot.

Now that I graduated from @KentState, I can finally arm myself on campus. I should have been able to do so as a student- especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus. #CampusCarryNow pic.twitter.com/a91fQH44cq

— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 13, 2018

******
Putin claimed a new nuclear-powered missile had unlimited range -- but it flew only 22 miles in its most successful test yet

The U.S. assessed that the longest test flight lasted just more than two minutes, with the missile flying 22 miles before losing control and crashing. The shortest test lasted four seconds and flew for five miles.

******

[Hat Tip: @aggierican]
******
My Twitter Feed

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The House Maid
William McGregor Paxton

[Hat Tip: Bluebell]

The Morning Report 5/22/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Top story is one that is continuing from last night, a group of masked gunmen brandishing AK-47s opened fire on a crowd of young people in Marseille. There are reports that a pitched gun battle occurred with gendarmes shortly afterwards and that there may be a hostage. Considering there is no right to bear arms in France, I would like to ask Camera Hogg, Shaved Guevara et al what law(s) are not on the books in France that would have prevented this from happening? I'm sure London Mayor Sadiq Khan will derogate us for missing the obvious - we need common sense mask control. Prayers for the victims, but I guess the Left is sick and tired of that as well.

Moving on to the Mueller Witch Hunt and the Deep State coup against the President and the citizenry who elected him, more and more evidence is stripping away the onion to reveal what we had all surmised, that John Brennan engineered the entire Russian collusion myth via the fabricated dossier and a spy - or spies as Michael Caputo is alleging - within the campaign to sabotage the campaign. But since Hillary's loss, which they gambled would never happen, the plan now is to attempt to destroy the Trump presidency in order to save their hides from being exposed. This too has failed and sooner or later, we will indeed learn that while Brennan engineered this whole thing, it was Obama who gave the order to do it. He needed Hillary in not just to cover up the crime but to preserve his eight years of poisonous ruin and seal the fate of the Republic.

This entire thing just boggles the mind on many levels. We are living through an historic and terrifying phase of our nation's history. But the thing to remember, as Ace alluded to yesterday evening in citing Richard Fernandez's piece at PJ Media, and Clinton Pollster Mark Penn's essay, all of this just didn't happen overnight. It took years, decades to corrupt an entire Federal Bureaucracy to such an extent as to make this possible. A couple of things that I think are worthy of keeping in mind; first on a granular level, as the Agitprop Media reveals names and details, they are doing this not out of journalistic integrity; they are doing this intentionally as a means to shield their political allies/fellow travelers.

The real criminals/masterminds will never be exposed, not by them anyway. And that means Obama and Clinton. Speaking of the Bollard that Ate the Pavement, see the links about Awan and Rush's take on all of this vis a vis her servers, but I digress. Along with Mark Levin openly calling for the vacating of everything that has come out of Mueller's "investigation," keeping in mind everything I have just noted, take a look at that link about the 1996 election. Forgetting Bob Dole as a candidate and his personality, how many candidates r even elections has the Deep State sabotaged if not thrown in the past 50 or more years? Richard Fernandez in his piece at PJ Media is spot on. We are at the phase of this where it's for all the marbles, baby. And even if the President does come out on top, will vermin like Comey, Clapper, Brennan and their deputies let alone Obama and Clinton actually face imprisonment let alone even be indicted?

Along with the complete polarization of the populace vis a vis cultural rot, demographic changes (natural and otherwise [mostly otherwise]), and the anti-American indoctrination that has poisoned the minds of at least two generations of children - and continuing - taking all of the above into consideration, I really don't see how we can continue as a group of united states. Without a set of common values and ideals, and now without the rule of law to punish the wicked and criminal no matter who they are, and especially those we elect to the highest offices in the land, it's over.

On that cheerful note, let us continue, shall we? In Amnesty news, Steve King has introduced a bill to punish elected officials who aid and abet illegal aliens avoid deportations; five years in jail. And that made the inspiration for this bill (and its namesake, heh!) Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff react in a generally not nice way. Meh. Considering the leadership in Congress, I doubt this has a chance. In any case the President is not backing down on his use of the mild and understated adjective of "animals" to describe MS-13 and has released a fact sheet that highlights the raison d'etre for that appellation.

On the political front, as Keith "X" Ellison prances about in a blonde wig (any imam Morons in the house can tell me if that's kosher?), the DNC coffers are sucking fumes and the great Bernardo Sandersnista, who will lead the youthful masses in raising the red banner above the White House once he has a lie-down and an Ensure, has an organizing arm that is falling to pieces. A Democrat wife-beater won't say if he's still beating his wife and won't step aside, and 114 conservatives in the House are backing Jim Jordan in a bid for Speaker of the House. And yet, the schmuck who lost the West Virginia GOP primary is going to go third party. Putz.

Internationally, speaking of stolen elections, Venezuela. More than just hintng at a goal of regime change, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is promising the toughest sanctions ever against Iran while the Euro-peons are promising to stab us in the back over them (a day ending in 'Y"). And while the Chi-Coms have seemingly flinched over tariffs, the US is negotiating with them about the Chinese telecom company EZE. In related news, while alarming reports of the PLA Navy being twice the size of the US Navy by 2030, we also see have a link to China's lifting of its "one child" policy, indicating it knows that it too is facing a crisis with low birth rates.

Moving around the horn, is Justice Kennedy staying or going, Kamala-Toe talks out the side of her mouth about the death penalty, the problem with schools is not lack of money, an interesting take on cronyism in Michigan and finally the nail in the coffin for Netflix.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

IN THE LEAD, DEVELOPING

• Masked Gunmen Armed with AK-47s Open Fire on Group of Children in Marseille; Shootout with Gendarmes Ensues
  
• Video Footage Emerges of the Shooting
  
  MUELLER WITCH HUNT, DEEP STATE COUP
  
• Former Trump Advisor Michael Caputo Makes Claim About a Second Informant/Spy
  
• Levin: Mueller's Appointment Was Unconstitutional - "And Every Subpoena, Indictment, and Plea Agreement Should Be Null and Void."
  
• Brennan's "Vicious" Tweet Means He's Worried About Being Exposed
  
• John Brennan's Plot to Infiltrate the Trump Campaign
  
• PDT Needs to Confront, Not Appease, Mueller's Posse as to Demand for Live Testimony
  
• Lord: Deep-Stategate - The Sweetheart Leaks
  
• 9 Ways Mueller's Witch Hunt Epitomizes a Legal System in Crisis
  
• How the FBI, CIA and Slim's NY Slimes Colluded to Sway the 1996 Election
  
  CLINTON SCANDALS, DEMOCRAT SCANDALS
  
• Witness Said Awan Wiretapped Her, Then Bank Account She Controlled Was Drained
  
• Rush: Pakistan Hacked the DNC Server and Maybe Hillary's Illegal Server Too
  
  AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION
  
• Steve King Introduces Bill to Imprison Politicians Who Help Illegal Aliens Evade Deportation
  
• White House Triples Down on "Animals" of MS-13 with New Fact Sheet
  
• Prager: Why the Left Won't Call Anyone "Animals"
  
  SECOND AMENDMENT
  
• Students Safer in School Than Out Despite Shootings, Statistics Show
  
  FIRST AMENDMENT, MEDIA
  
• Treasury Sec Mnuchin Urges DoJ to Review Power of Google, Other Massive Tech Firms
  
• Leftists Slowly Turning Off the Faucet of Free Speech
  
• As Evidence Piles Up, the Media Ignore the "Other" Trump-Russia Scandal
  
  POLITICS, 2018 MIDTERMS
  
• Are-You-Still-Beating-Your-Wife? Dept.: Front Runner in Key Dem Primary Refuses to Drop Out Over Wife-Beating Allegations
  
• Bernardo Sandersnista's Organizing Arm is "Falling Apart"
  
• DNC Fundraising Woes Continue Ahead of Midterms
  
• 114 Conservatives Urge Jim Jordan to Run for Speaker
  
• Ugh: Blankenship Plans Third Party Run After Losing WV GOP Primary
  
• How Republicans Can Help the Dems Win the Midterms... for the GOP
  
  FOREIGN POLICY, INTERNATIONAL
  
• Administration Slams "Sham" Election in Venezuela, Imposes New Sanctions
  
• SoS Pompeo Threatens Farsis with "Strongest Sanctions in History," Outlines New Nuke Demands
  
• Eurabians Plotting to Undermine New US Sanctions on Iran
  
• US, Chi-Coms Agree on Outline to Resolve ZTE Issue
  
• The Real Agenda Behind the "Right of Return"
  
  DEFENSE, MILITARY AFFAIRS
  
• Chi-Com Navy Will Be Twice the Size of US Navy by 2030, Says Expert
  
• Short-Circuiting the Electromagnetic Threat
  
  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA, DHIMMITUDE
  
• Jihad via the Ballot Box
  
• A Russian's Devastating Verdict on Norway; Outsiders See How Islam is Devouring a Nation
  
• Mogadishu, Minnesota
  
  THE ECONOMY, STUPID
  
• Michigan Think Tank Looks Into Scope of States Crony Capitalism - It's Not Pretty
  
  DOMESTIC POLICY, COURTS, BUREAUCRACY
  
• Justice Kennedy Retirement Rumors Swell to Fever Pitch
  
• There is No Substitute for Work
  
• Kamala-Toe Crows About "Fierce Opposition to Death Penalty"... Yet Defended it Fiercely in Federal Court Just 4 Years Ago
  
  HEALTHCARE
  
• Here's How to Take Down Planned Parenthood Now That PDT Landed a Punch
  
  EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
  
• Number 1: NYC Public Schools Spent $24,109 Per Pupil, Yet 72% Not Proficient in Reading, 72% Not Proficient in Math
  
  CULTURE WARS, HITHER and YON
  
• Obama's Launch "Higher Ground Productions," Sign Netflix Deal
  
• Too Rate? Chi-Coms Might Scrap Birth Limit Policy
  
• The Left and the Right Aren't Hearing the Same Jordan Peterson

Monday Overnight Open Thread (5/21/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

Among the biggest obstacles to educating children in many ghetto schools are disruptive students whose antics, threats and violence can make education virtually impossible. If only 10 percent of the students are this way, that sacrifices the education of the other 90 percent.

The idea that Eric Holder, or anybody else, can sit in Washington and determine how many disciplinary actions against individual students are warranted or unwarranted in schools across the length and breadth of this country would be laughable if it were not so tragic. Thomas Sowell

Quote II

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote III

“What a slut time is. She screws everybody.” John Green

******

How do you say SHIT Ooops in Russian?

*****

Opioid crisis? What crisis?

A Peabody [Massachusetts] man found with more than half an ounce of heroin hidden in a secret compartment of his Volvo three years ago won’t have to serve time in prison after pleading guilty to charges of drug possession with intent to distribute.

That’s because, a Salem Superior Court judge reasoned on Tuesday, Manuel Soto-Vittini was just trying to support his family, and was not an addict himself.

“This was basically a money crime,” Judge Timothy Feeley concluded, rejecting a prosecutor’s request for one to three years in state prison.

*****

If you don't succeed at first, try, try, try, try, try, try again.

Samuel Goldstein is determined to become an attorney.

But there's one big stumbling block.

The 2013 graduate of Arizona Summit Law School has failed the bar exam six times: five times in his home state of California, which has one of the highest cut scores in the nation.

He flew to Illinois in February to take the exam because he heard it was easier to pass there. He needed a score of 266 out of 400 to pass. He fell short with 239 points, he said.

The years-long struggle has been draining for the 33-year-old.

"It's kind of like torturing yourself," said Goldstein, who has amassed $285,000 in student-loan debt.

Or, it sucks to suck.

*****

We had Obama our Canadian friends have PM Justin Trudeau.

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

May 21, 1980, Joe Strummer of The Clash was arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he was released after an alcohol test proved negative. via thisdayinmusic.com

***

May 21, 1941, Born on this day, Ronald Isley, from American group The Isley Brothers who first came to prominence in 1959 with their fourth single, 'Shout', and then the 1962 hit 'Twist and Shout. The Isley Brothers also scored the hits 'This Old Heart Of Mine', 'Summer Breeze' and 'Harvest for the World'. Sixteen of their albums charted in the Top 40. via thisdayinmusic.com

******

To my knowledge Muldoon didn't write tonight's story of the Genius Award Winner.

Stephen Lawrence woke up like that on a day back in November 2015.

Couldn’t remember much of anything from a four-sheets-to-the-wind drinking session with a booze buddy the previous evening.

Sent a text to his pal saying, heck, didn’t know how he’d got home but hoping he hadn’t been “a super a--hole last night.”

He had.

The friend — likely no longer — responded rather tetchily that Lawrence had bitten off his ear, which he might now lose altogether. Gives a whole new, and literal, meaning to chewing someone’s ear off.

The severed auricle had been deposited into a zip-lock bag and reattached at the hospital.

Lawrence: “Oh, f--k me.”

Indeed.

******

He doesn't stand for the National Anthem. He has a good reason and is Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Outstanding Customer Service.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. The use, acceptance of the ONT yadda, yadda, yad....

Close it up

Tater Tut: It's Offensive to Claim I'm an Anti-Trump Democrat

—Ace of Spades

Via Ed Driscoll of Instapundit, CNN's Tater is claiming he's not on either side of the political aisle.

Does Brian Stelter even listen to himself talk? The same man who compared Donald Trump to "authoritarian" "strongmen" is now "offended by the idea that top White House aide Kellyanne Conway sees the CNN journalist as an anti-Trump Democrat. While talking about Russia on Sunday's Reliable Sources, Conway referred to "people on your side of the aisle."

Stelter huffed, "I'm not on a side of an aisle. That's an offensive remark." Conway pounced: "Well, tell America. Did you vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? How did your wife vote? Tell America."

The media wants to lie to your face about fundamental things and then demand that you believe everything they say.

Hello, they lied.

That's Our Tater! Tater's too stupid to be any good at lying.

Also, I heard that there might be some news broken on Tucker Carlson's show tonight.

Eh, it looks like he's just debating a Democrat who claims he has "proof" of collusion. Seems like theater, but not news.

Derek Hunter: I Used to be Skeptical of the Existence of a "Deep State." I'm All Out of Skepticism Now.

—Ace of Spades

Extraordinary claims require extraodinary proofs.

We now have extraordinary proofs.

The Deep State Is Real, And Much Bigger Than You Know

I used to be a doubter who would cringe, just a little, at any mention of "the deep state." I admit it, it all seemed a little far-fetched to me that there was this cabal of careerists conspiring from within the government to harm President Donald Trump when I first heard it. I never doubted there were individuals doing it, but a wide net of conspirators seemed like something out of a bad movie more than anything that could actually happen in the United States.

I was wrong, very wrong, the deep state is real. But there is much more than just this small group of powerful people working toward a common goal, there is an entire infrastructure created by the left not only to destroy Trump, but to indoctrinate unsuspecting Americans into their agenda.

As the curtain is pulled back on the Obama administration's unprecedented efforts to spy on the Trump campaign, there is a good possibility many of the perpetrators could face criminal charges, or at least should. But it's important to understand that liberals didn’t just create this out of the blue in 2016, it's the culmination of everything they've worked toward for decades.

The infrastructure they used to spy on the Trump campaign was something inherently governmental, simply planting a mole in the campaign couldn't tap phones or access emails. But the ability to cover up that fact requires a level of media complicity that takes time to create.

Getting the desired message out is only part of the battle, it has to be believed by a significant percentage of the public for it to really matter. Conditioning the public to be receptive to that message, without questioning how it came about or why they should care required subtle indoctrination over a lifetime.

As it stands, liberals have that infrastructure in place, they had that support system ready to go. And, not to get all Scooby-Doo on you, they would've gotten away with it were it not for the existence of conservative media.

....

None of this is by accident, and it didn’t start on November 8, 2016, it just sprang into action. Nearly every aspect of life, to one degree or another, has been or is ready to be weaponized against anyone who dares to stand up to the liberal agenda. And none have stood up to it in a more threatening way than Donald Trump.

But the clock is ticking, the fuse is burning down low.

Derek's got a book coming out called Outrage, Inc.: How the Liberal Mob Ruined Science, Journalism, and Hollywood, available June 19th. I just got an advanced copy and will be reading it soon.

Andrew C. McCarthy has also seen the light on the Deep State. Months and months ago, he was largely taking the line that the Armed Wing of the Democratic Party was just a bunch of great ethical heroes who should be trusted in their judgment.

Since then, he has been a steadfast critic of Mueller and the Russia Narrative. He constantly points out that the special counsel law requires the factual statement of an actual crime to be investigated, which Rosenstein and Mueller have completely ignored, instead basing their authority -- lawlessly -- on the premise of a counterintelligence investigation.

But the Special Counsel law says that a crime must be named. You can't evade that requirement by just saying "It's a counterintelligence operation." A Special Counsel cannot be appointed to conduct such an investigation.

Chuck Grassley has picked up on that, and is now demanding that Wray and Rosenstein explain what part of what law they rely on for the proposition that a Special Counsel can be appointed in absence of a named crime:

he regulations authorizing the appointment of a special counsel state that the Attorney General (or Acting Attorney General) may appoint a special counsel "when he or she determinations that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted." The Appointment Order proscribes the Special Counsel's jurisdiction by citing specifically "the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017." In his March 20 testimony, former Director Comey referred to "the investigation" as a counterintelligence investigation -- not a criminal investigation.

Please explain which portion of which regulation authorizes the appointment of a Special Counsel to conduct a counterintelligence investigation.

That letter also has some other "bombshells" in it, btw:

McCarthy also wrote a good column recently comparing the kids-glove treatment of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, who obviously lied to the FBI -- Hillary claiming she didn't know what (C) meant in a classified report (hint: It stands for "confidential"), and Cheryl Mills claiming she didn't know about Hillary's secret server, despite ample evidence that she did, compared to the Squeeze Their Family Members and Threaten Them With Jail pressure put on former Trump associates.

You can either read that, and/or read Hot Air's John Sexton's take on it.

More:

The reference to the "spy" seeking a job in the Trump campaign is from Axios.

IG Report Expected to Fault FBI Leadership For Sitting on Email Investigation in 2016

—Ace of Spades

Apparently the AP has a "glimpse" of the report. I guess it leaked. This link is actually to FoxNews.

The report is said to criticize Comey and, get this, Andrew McCabe for sitting on information about the Hillary emails discovered on the pedophile Anthony Weiner's laptop, and waiting a month to get a warrant to examine them.

A highly anticipated report from the Justice Department's internal watchdog reportedly is expected to hit FBI leaders for moving too slowly to review a batch of Hillary Clinton emails discovered toward the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Offering a glimpse at the contents of the closely held inspector general review, The Associated Press cited people familiar with the findings in reporting Monday that the investigation would criticize the bureau for its handling of that incident.

...

Some FBI officials, like then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, knew as early as September 2016 of the emails, but the bureau did not obtain a warrant to review them until the following month.

The IG report, which is examining a broad range of FBI actions during the email investigation, is expected to criticize officials, including Comey, for not moving fast enough to examine the email trove and for a weeks long delay in getting a warrant, sources told the AP.

...

There are suspicions about whether there was an effort to delay pursuing those Clinton files. The Washington Post first reported in January that Horowitz was investigating whether McCabe wanted to avoid taking action on the laptop findings until after the presidential election.

Ironically, given that Comey was just set to say that nothing new was in that trove of emails, despite finding them on the unsecure computer of a known sexter and pedophile who was, therefore, highly susceptible to kompromat himself, McCabe could have avoided any impact on the election had he acted promptly and whitewashed it sooner, when it first came to his attention.

I actually don't think it had a big impact on the election -- remember, Comey once again cleared her, as is his habit/as was his orders, almost immediately after announcing a brief re-opening of the case.

However, if it had any impact on the election, obviously there would have been less impact if McCabe and Comey had investigated the Sexter's Stash of Emails when they became known to them in September, instead of delaying it until October.

Trump Demands Rosenstein, Wray Investigate Any "Irregularities" in "Tactics" Used by the DOJ Against the Trump Campaign

—Ace of Spades

This seems to be a clarification of his original order: He doesn't just want a report on crimes, but on irregularities, deviations in protocol or accepted practices which may not be criminal but nevertheless are a deviation from routine.

Oh, and he also wants to review this allegedly too-dangerous-to-be-revealed-to-Congress information himself. (Or rather, by his Chief of Staff John Kelly.)

A friend points out that the White House put this out immediately itself, instead of waiting for Rosenstein or his pals to start leaking their version of it.

I have to make a point about the Deep State simultaneously leaking all biographical details necessary to identify the spy as Stefan Halper (or someone who just happens to share every key biographical detail with Stefan Halper) while also claiming that to leak his name would put a trusted undercover NOC in grave danger.

The leaks are either authorized by someone high up at Justice -- someone on the level of Rosenstein or even Sessions -- spat out to give a Modified Limited Hang-Out to friendly media forces, or they are unauthorized, and therefore criminal, leaks.

I hope Trump told Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray the following:

Either these leaks are authorized or unauthorized.

If they are authorized leaks, then you are simultaneously telling me the name is too sensitive to release, while releasing information to your media friends that all but confirm the name. In which case, you are liars, and you are protecting this name not to defend national security but to stop further inquiry (such as asking when Halper was asked to begin spying, and who asked him to spy, and on what authority or pretext), and I therefore demand your resignations by tomorrow morning.

If they are unauthorized leaks, then, by your own claims, someone has leaked out dangerous information that can literally result in the death of a highly confidential NOC operator, in which case I want you to open a full and fulsome investigation to find these leakers of sensitive NatSec information, and then prosecute them, and then jail them.

If you are not doing that already, then you are liars regarding the sensitivity of this name, and this probably was an authorized leak (or at least a tolerated leak), and in that case, I want your resignations by tomorrow morning.

This name cannot be so serious a natsec secret that the Top-Secret-clearance House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee cannot have it, and yet simultaneously so LOL No Big Deal that high ranking DOJ sources can leak everything about this guy except his name to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN.

These contradictory claims amount to a lie -- there is a lie somewhere in here, on one end or the other, or maybe on both ends, and the officials at the DOJ refusing to give Congress information about this spy are therefore lying to both Congress and the President they ostensibly served and therefore should be fired for cause.

Former Clinton Pollster Mark Penn: To Save the Republic, Robert Mueller and the Deep State Must be Stopped and Defeated

—Ace of Spades

A sensible opinion, coming from a completely unexpected speaker.

The "deep state" is in a deep state of desperation. With little time left before the Justice Department inspector general's report becomes public, and with special counsel Robert Mueller having failed to bring down Donald Trump after a year of trying, they know a reckoning is coming.

At this point, there is little doubt that the highest echelons of the FBI and the Justice Department broke their own rules to end the Hillary Clinton "matter," but we can expect the inspector general to document what was done or, more pointedly, not done. It is hard to see how a yearlong investigation of this won't come down hard on former FBI Director James Comey and perhaps even former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who definitely wasn't playing mahjong in a secret "no aides allowed" meeting with former President Clinton on a Phoenix airport tarmac.

No seriously, this is coming from Bill Clinton's former pollster.

With this report on the way and congressional investigators beginning to zero in on the lack of hard, verified evidence for starting the Trump probe, current and former intelligence and Justice Department officials are dumping everything they can think of to save their reputations.

But it is backfiring. They started by telling the story of Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat, as having remembered a bar conversation with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. But how did the FBI know they should talk to him? That's left out of their narrative. Downer's signature appears on a $25 million contribution to the Clinton Foundation. You don't need much imagination to figure that he was close with Clinton Foundation operatives who relayed information to the State Department, which then called the FBI to complete the loop. This wasn't intelligence. It was likely opposition research from the start.

Note that Bill Clinton's former pollster is more skeptical of the Deep State's current story than alleged Bad Boy of Conservatism Ben Shapiro.

In no way would a fourth-hand report from a Maltese professor justify wholesale targeting of four or five members of the Trump campaign. It took Christopher Steele, with his funding concealed through false campaign filings, to be incredibly successful at creating a vast echo chamber around his unverified, fanciful dossier, bouncing it back and forth between the press and the FBI so it appeared that there were multiple sources all coming to the same conclusion.

Time and time again, investigators came up empty. Even several sting operations with an FBI spy we just learned about failed to produce a DeLorean-like video with cash on the table. But rather than close the probe, the deep state just expanded it. All they had were a few isolated contacts with Russians and absolutely nothing related to Trump himself, yet they pressed forward. Egged on by Steele, they simply believed Trump and his team must be dirty. They just needed to dig deep enough.

Mark Penn concludes that stopping Mueller isn't about party or politics or any particular president, but necessary to preserve the normal functioning of democracy itself.

Obviously, worth the read.

Richard Fernandez has previously written that we are now experiencing what we had long avoided in America -- a deadly fight of a King vs. another King (the current president versus the Deep State embeds of the previous president), and that this fight may change America forever.

He now elaborates on that idea, as he watches two scorpions with a death-grip on each other trying to kill each other before the other kills first.

The Deep State understands that either they must find some claim that Trump is a criminal, or else they'll be prosecuted for their own rampant criminal acts.

The invaluable timeline of the investigations compiled by Sharyl Attkisson seems to confirm what Lee Smith of Tablet Magazine has already suggested: that the roots of domestic spying predated the Trump candidacy. He notes that "Obama officials vastly expand[ed] their searches through NSA database for Americans and the content of their communications. In 2013, there were 9,600 searches involving 195 Americans. But in 2016, there are 30,355 searches of 5,288 Americans."

...

On January 20, 2017, "Fifteen minutes after Trump becomes president, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice emails memo to herself purporting to summarize the Jan. 5 Oval Office meeting with President Obama and other top officials. She states that Obama instructed the group to investigate 'by the book' and asked them to be mindful whether there were certain things that “could not be fully shared with the incoming administration."

In response to Trump's demand, Rod Rosenstein has asked the DOJ inspector general to review the possible infiltration of the Trump campaign. The hunters have themselves become the hunted. For better or worse, two major American political factions are trying to jail each other. The outcome of their struggle may determine not only who occupies the White House, but what future role the intelligence agencies play in public life.

The specifics of the individual accusations may be fake, but the struggle over the control of the bureaucracy is frighteningly real. Concern over the independence of powerful bureaucracies has long been paramount for a reason. The biggest problem with weaponizing intelligence agencies is it CREATES a pathway for the foreign takeover of the system. If a once hostile power takes over the White House and that president corrupts the agencies, an unfettered secret police will have the ability to remain in power indefinitely.

That seems to have been Obama's plan all along.

Three O'Clock High: Trump Summons Wray and Rosenstein to White House; Will Discuss His Demand for Investigation Into Spying and Release of Information About Spying Efforts

—Ace of Spades

Showdown? The meeting's scheduled for three pm Eastern.

President Trump will meet with top Justice, FBI and intelligence officials Monday to discuss congressional requests for information on the investigation into Russian collusion, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

The meeting comes a day after Trump demanded that the Justice Department investigate whether the FBI improperly infiltrated his campaign for president in 2016.

The president has been urging his administration to turn over information to congressional Republicans demanding the identity of sources in the probe. Law enforcement and intelligence officials have resisted, saying it could compromise their investigation and imperil covert sources.

In the Oval Office Monday, Trump will meet with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Sanders said.

PJMedia's Morning Briefing says Trump should declassify the documents on his own authority instead of asking underlings to do it.

Trump is getting bad advice. He should not have asked the DOJ, a subject of the investigation, to investigate itself. With all the DOJ stonewalling and slow-walking of documents to comply with congressional oversight, there's no doubt a mountain of bad behavior is being covered up. What Trump should have done, and can still do, is DECLASSIFY ALL THE DOCUMENTS in question. He has the power to do this and after the documents are declassified, then we can look at further steps depending on what they reveal.

Maybe that will be discussed -- giving these guys one last chance to make their case why a name we already know, and which the DOJ pretty much gave to the Washington Post and New York Times, cannot be openly mentioned.

OUT: Trump's a Liar and Lunatic For Saying Obama and Brennan Spied on Him
IN: Of Course Obama and Brennan Spied on Trump; It Would Have Been Dangerous NOT To!

—Ace of Spades

Yes, this is what I imagined you would say next.

Blowjob Queen Nina Burleigh Calls Dana Loesch "Fat"

—Ace of Spades

#FakeNews from Newsweek, as usual.

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"So, if you can believe the latest Rasmussen poll numbers, President Trump's approval rating is 50%. Now here is a curious thing. With all the viciously and relentlessly negative media coverage that Trump has received since his election, the deliberate non-coverage of anything positive he has done and the magnification of his every last miniscule fault and mistake, and you'd expect his job approval rating to be in the low 20's or maybe even the teens. That's obviously what the MSM would like to see, anyway. And yet it's at 50%. That's kind of amazing. Especially when you contrast this with all the fawning, dripping, slobbering coverage given to Obama, the constant fluffing, primping, pimping, and boosting, the forced applause given to his dubious achievements and the aggressive ignoring of his manifold failures, and yet his approval rating was 50% or below for most of the time he was in office. One can only speculate what this country would be like if the MSM had covered Obama like they're covering Trump, and Trump like they covered Obama."

Shot:

.@AnaNavarro accuses President Trump of "dehumanizing people" by referring to "animals" during a discussion on immigration: "It's what the Nazis did. It's what slave owners did. It's not what Americans do," she says, advising him to "measure his words" pic.twitter.com/FUUEtLpFxb

— New Day (@NewDay) May 17, 2018

Chaser:

For those of you who aren't familiar with Ana Navarro, she's a media commentator who claims to be a Republican, but who really is pretty much a Democrat. MSM fake news outlets such as CNN use her as a fig leaf so they can claim they're not re stacking their panels with Democrat liberals and progressives. She gets air time because she can be reliably counted on to spout the Democrat talking point(s) du jour.

Heh:

TFW your grandson marries a foreigner who has a history of divorces and you might have to deal with her like the last one who tried to leave. #RoyalWedding pic.twitter.com/LF22X8QRWR

— KNN (@KekNewsNetwork) May 19, 2018

Once Again, Here's Florida Man:

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Calling Of St. Matthew
Hendrick ter Brugghen

The Morning Report 5/21/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Monday again and yet again we're forced to deal with the aftermath of another school shooting; two actually. Not to diminish the tragedy that befell the victims, their families and friends, but horrible as it is, in the cold light of day it is a local crime story. Nothing more, nothing less. Unfortunately, the Democrat-Left-Media complex has yet another opportunity to trample on the barely cold bodies of the victims to use them as props in their bid to disarm the millions of law-abiding, responsible and decent gun owners by demonizing them and the NRA as the cause of the carnage. Yet again.

Any sane, rational and logical examination of the facts surrounding this case and every case like this, especially over the course of the past 20-50 years when Democrat-Leftist social policy was ramped up in every corner of our society, would reveal that that was 99 44/100% no relation to what happened. I hinted (well more than a hint, really) at the cause when I said 20-50 years of Democrat-Left social policy. The destruction of the nuclear family, the dissolution of morality, the rise of radical feminism and the concomitant demonization of the male gender, the dismantling of the traditional social order, the abandonment of ethics, morality and individual responsibility and the war on Judeo-Christianity (which are all part of the overall scheme to create a populace of dumbed-down compliant sheeple) have in no small part played a significant role in probably every single school shooting incident in the aforementioned time span. And yet its guns; fully automatic, semi automatic, manually automatic, with bump stocks, muzzle brakes, disc brakes chainsaws and scary pop-up things that go pew-pew-pew and give the cognoscenti a case of the willies. Worse, it's us bitter clingers who refuse to give them up.

Meh. What more can I say that has not been said before and that you all don't know? At least this time, the Democrat-Socialist-Media complex is more and more open about it. That's fine with me, especially with the midterms just five months away and the Dems energizing the base with this - that would be ours not theirs. You all go right ahead and run on this as well as impeachment, raising taxes, defending Hamas and MS-13 because of their "spark of divinity" which evidently does not exist in an unborn child. By the way, you'll be pleased to know that Hillary Clinton has publicly announced to the Democrat party that she ain't going anywhere, so there's your mouthpiece. And take Camera Hogg along for the ride.

Moving along to the Mueller Witch Hunt, that is now become more and more part of the effort to cover up the truly blockbuster revelations that the Obama DoJ and intelligence services were involved as far back as the 2016 primaries to covertly spy on the Trump Presidential Campaign to derail it and then post election to use whatever information - factual or fabricated - to remove him from office or cripple his agenda. And I hope and pray that someone like Rudy Giuliani who is no dope is just yanking Mueller's and the MFM's collective chain about PDT sitting down for an interview. The whole rotten thing is crumbling from within, faster and faster with each passing day so don't interrupt while your enemies are shooting themselves in the face.

On the political front, while Nancy Palsi does her "Norman, coordinate!" schtick, Hillary orders another round for the room, John Kerry smears PDT and America in Abu Dhabi and Keith "X" Ellison is stiffing Dem candidates, Jim Jordan may be trying to make a play for House Speaker. I can't see him winning considering the numbers and forces arrayed against him. But here's hoping. He's solid.

Meanwhile, talk of a trade war with China is quieting down as the Chi-Coms have evidently blinked and agreed to allow even more US imports into their country. And as the Administration prepares for the upcoming summit with Whoa, Fat!, they are also ramping up pressure on the Mullah's in Iran. A couple of good links on that regime vis a vis will it be around to celebrate its 40th anniversary as well as how does it stack up against the Climate-Changing Money-Changing-Shapeshifters in Jerusalem should a shooting war break out.

Meanwhile, as Mahmoud Abbas does his third Fred Sanford impression in a week, parents even here in the Leftist paradise of New York City were outraged at a moment of silence at a city school for the Gaza "victims," the son of a Boston police captain pleaded guilty to plotting an ISIS attack and one year ago, Islamist terror expert Robert Spencer was poisoned in Iceland before a lecture and yet there have been no arrests, unexpectedly (sarc).

Going quickly around the horn, PDT's quietly shaping the judiciary, a CBS poll shows a large majority of Americans credit the President for the economic boom (and that could be a harbinger for November) and reflections on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

MUELLER WITCH HUNT, DEEP STATE COUP

• PDT Orders DoJ to Investigate Obama Administration for Surveillance
  
• E-Mail Referring to "Collusion" Sheds Light on Cambridge Prof's Interactions with PDT Aide
  
• The Latest Whopper - The FBI Was, Get This, Actually Trying to Protect Trump
  
• Hemingway: DoJ Frets About Source Outing While Deliberately Outing Source
  
• York: Does the DoJ Have to Tell Congress What Mueller is Doing?
  
• H-A-L-P-E-R Spells Game Up for Obama's Spies
  
• Rudy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good Idea About PDT Sitting for a Mueller Interview to Speed Things Up
  
  SECOND AMENDMENT
  
• Dem Senator Warner: No "Single Piece of Legislation" Would Have Stopped TX School Shooting
  
• TX Lt. Governor to Levin: Injured Students Told Me "We Need to Arm Our Teachers"
  
• Obama Ed Sec Arne Duncan: Pull Kids Out of School Until Gun Laws Change
  
• Gov. Cuomo Under Fire for Politicizing TX School Shooting for His Own Political Gain
  
• Incoming NRA Prexy Oliver North Blames TX School Shooting on "Culture of Violence," Ritalin
  
• Yes, They Do Want to Take Away Your Guns; At Least Now They Admit It
  
  FIRST AMENDMENT, MEDIA
  
• The "Jawbreakers" Comics Outrage is a Ginned Up Controversy Between Book-Banners
  
• The Net Neutrality Neutering Zombie Lives!
  
• Greenfield: The Lying Media Never Stops Lying About Israel
  
  POLITICS, 2018 MIDTERMS
  
• Did Jim Jordan Just Preview His Bid for House Speaker?
  
• Dems vs. DA and DNA: Nazi Collaborator George Soros Funds Opponent of Sacramento DA Who Busted Golden State Serial Killer
  
• Hillary to Dems: You're Never Getting Rid of Me
  
• How Far Left Will the Democrats Go in November?
  
• No Joy in Botox-ville - The Mighty Palsi Has Stroked Out: Gibberish, Bizarre Laughter, Stares Off During Brain Freeze
  
• DNC Vice Chair Keith "X" Has Not Donated to Dem Candidates for Midterms
  
  FOREIGN POLICY, INTERNATIONAL
  
• Chi-Coms Pledge to Buy More American Products, Reduce Trade Deficit
  
• Mnuchin Reveals "Trade War" with Chi-Coms is "On Hold"
  
• Kerry Takes Ham-Fisted Swipe at PDT During NYU-Abu Dhabi Commencement Spiel
  
• Israel vs. Iran: Who Holds the Advantage in an Increasingly Looming War?
  
• Who Done It? Huge Explosions at Iranian Missile Depot in Syria - Bit No One Being Blamed
  
• Will the Mullah's Regime See its 40th Anniversary?
  
• PDT Works with RoK Prexy to Keep Summit with NorKs on Track
  
  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA, DHIMMITUDE
  
• Parents Enraged at Moment of Silence for Gaza Dead Held at School
  
• Boston Police Captain's Son Pleads Guilty to Plotting ISIS-Inspired Attack
  
• Georgetown Spins Muslim Self-Criticism into "Islamophobic Muslims"
  
• Mahmoud Abbas Taken to Hospital for Third Time in a Week with Chest Pains (get him a nice Jewish NHS doctor - jjs)
  
• Leftist Privilege: One-Year Anniversary of Robert Spencer's Poisoning in Iceland and Still No One Arrested
  
  THE ECONOMY, STUPID
  
• CBS Poll: Two-Thirds of Americans Give PDT Credit for the Economy
  
• States Get a Windfall from GOP Tax Cuts, But Will They Return the Money to Taxpayes?
  
  DOMESTIC POLICY, COURTS, BUREAUCRACY
  
• Trump's Stealth Victory: Reshaping the Courts
  
• GOP Helps Dems Kill Conservative Amendments to Farm Bill
  
• The Trucking Industry, Regulatory Mishaps and Self-Governance
  
• Crime Plague in the Alamo City
  
  HEALTHCARE
  
• Medicaid and the Democrat War on Work
  
  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE, LYSENKOISM, ETC.
  
• Alien Animals in the Kingdom of Man
  
  CULTURE WARS, HITHER and YON
  
• Honoring Cuba's Ladies in White and Remembering Victims of Communism
  
• The Firesign Theater Media
  
• Dear Conservatives: The Enlightenment is Not the Enemy
  
• Profane Reality, Sacred Memory: Reflecting on RFK 50 Years After His Assassination

Overnight Open Thread (05-20-2018 )

—CBD

If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that collossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

******

******
Neat, clean, simple...and almost perfect.

***
Lots of people love to criticize the Beatles for their many real or imagined flaws. This ain't one of them.

***
Would this be popular in 2018 America?

******
Go fvck yourself.
Cherry Hill East Principal Apologizes to Black Students for 'Party Like It's 1776' Prom Tickets
******

The rate of extinctions is dropping. Bird and mammal extinctions peaked at 1.6 a year around 1900 and have since dropped to about 0.2 a year. The extinction rate has fallen farther in rich countries, where people can afford to pay for a cleaner environment https://t.co/oG5tcrxAYj

— HumanProgress.org (@HumanProgress) May 20, 2018

Why, it's almost as if market economies are a good thing!

******

******
Top 10 commenters:
1 [477 comments] 'Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Slavic Customer Service Rep.' [67.01 posts/day]
2 [472 comments] 'Miklos, just Miklos'
3 [467 comments] 'ScoggDog'
4 [425 comments] 'rickb223'
5 [356 comments] 'J.J. Sefton'
6 [334 comments] 'Monk'
7 [327 comments] 'runner'
8 [325 comments] 'Tom Servo'
9 [299 comments] 'Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler'
10 [296 comments] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [436 names] 'Miklos, just Miklos' [61.25 unique names/day]
2 [64 names] 'Hands'
3 [57 names] 'Axeman'
4 [40 names] 'Adirondack Patriot'
5 [38 names] 'PD; gg channel'
6 [36 names] 'Cuthbert the Witless'
7 [36 names] 'Notorious BFD'
8 [36 names] 'Duncanthrax'
9 [34 names] 'andycanuck'
10 [33 names] 'Steve and Cold Bear'

******
©2021 by AceCorp LLC. All Rights Reserved. Do not taunt proprietor with Makita, DeWalt or Milwaukee products. Shelves are non-weight-bearing and are for decoration only. Dehydrating room is closed. Platinum members to the right, all others please use rear entrance. Please wash girth-measuring calipers after use. Send all unwanted Browning Hi Powers to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com
******
My Twitter Feed

Close it up

Weekend Gun Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Food Thread: Sheep, Organic Chemistry And Marbles

—CBD

Herb-crusted rack of lamb is one of those foods that I will eat whenever I can, but it is ridiculously expensive in restaurants, and so easy to make at home that I rarely (read: never) order it anymore. I saw it on the menu last night at a French restaurant in Manhattan. It was something like $48, which is just silly. I can go to Costco and buy excellent quality Australian lamb and make enough for six people for $48.

Sear the rack. Coat it with an herb mixture. Roast in a medium oven with a temperature probe set to your preferred doneness.

See? I told you it was easy. Just don't serve it with mint jelly, which is worse than serving French Toast with syrup.

******
This looks interesting, and he isn't charging an obscene amount of money for his whiskey. It's about $50 at discount, which is a reasonable price for an interesting experiment.
20-Year-Old Whiskey in 6 Days: Will This Self-Taught Chemist Upend the Liquor Industry?

Why does a well-aged glass of smokey whiskey taste so good? It's all about the chemistry of sitting in a barrel for decades. "The polymer structures make the wood slowly fall apart," says Bryan Davis, a pioneering distiller who learned the science of liquor production by watching MIT classes on YouTube. "They shed all of these precursor chemicals that turn into different stuff that tastes really good." This time-consuming process is the reason distillers have to charge five figures for a top-shelf bottle.

I am however deeply suspicious of his explanation of the chemistry behind the transformation from raw whiskey to finished product. I think that there are too many variables for him to proclaim with any scientific confidence that he knows what's going on in his reaction vessels. Video lectures does not an organic chemistry expert make!

Any PhDs in organic chemistry out there who can weigh in on this?

******
These kinds of articles are ubiquitous. Most are just click-bait, but one can find a few valuable nuggets. This one has a couple that are good ideas. The tomato-cutting hack is a good one. 20 Cheap Kitchen Hacks That Will Make You Master of Your Domain But mostly when I see these hacks I think, "Yeah, but there are a bunch of different ways to achieve the same result." I think most people find ways to streamline the few chores in the kitchen that are truly irritating or unpleasant to do, and simply manage the rest as part of the cooking process. Personally, I don't mind cutting grape tomatoes one by one. I rarely have to cut more than a cup or so of them, and unless I am in a big rush, the simple and satisfying process of using the correct tool (a sharp serrated blade) is part of the simple pleasure of cooking.
******
Yeah....no.
Thermal Shock Porterhouse Steak
I really, really enjoy Alton Brown, but sometimes he gets too wrapped up in fine-tuning technique, and loses sight of the fact that changing technique is not always a good thing. Another way to make a porterhouse is to cook it the identical way Brown does in this recipe, only easier: in a cast-iron pan. You know, how cooks have been doing it for years and years, with marvelous results.
******
I may have mentioned once or twice or 800 times that "fat is flavor." And that's why beautifully marbled prime beef is so good, and often prohibitively expensive for non trust-fund folk. It costs lots of money to fatten cattle, and only a small percentage of them turn out to be well-marbled enough to be graded as prime beef. But there are huge variations in that grade, and sometimes we at the retail end of the food chain get beef that is the equal of the best and most expensive stuff that is usually found only at great steakhouses and obscenely expensive boutique butchers.

A few weeks ago I wandered past the butcher counter at my local supermarket and discovered an entire short loin of beef that, believe it or not, was even more beautifully marbled than the glorious stuff in the photo! I was a fool, and only got two steaks, which were perhaps the best beef I have ever eaten.

What's my point, besides that I was a idiot for not buying the whole thing? Use your eyes when you are shopping for meat. It is entirely possible that your local market's huge sale on steaks will include a few that are significantly better than the rest. Be particular...be picky...be a bit of a jerk if necessary. Poke through all of the packages. Ask to see the loin underneath the one on display. You will eventually get lucky and find a great steak at a manageable price. And this is true of pork too! For chicken? I have no idea. Is there some visible difference between good and great chicken?

Beuller?

******
The Last Word is a cocktail, and until this morning I had never heard of it. It seems like it would be quite good, and I love the name...it is apropos for The Horde.
******
I have been revisiting some of my well-used recipes, ones that I have posted here; sometimes more than once! So I will be, for the near future, a bit more selective in what I post as the recipe of the week, and sometimes, like today, skip it.
******
Food and cooking tips, good mustard, Oakland style BBQ sauce, gefilte fish replacements, thick and fluffy pita and Browning Hi Powers: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com. Recipes for low-carb Pop-Tarts will be deleted with extreme prejudice.

Close it up

Trump: I'm Ordering the DOJ to Investigate Whether Obama Ordered Spying for Political Purposes

—Ace of Spades

Greenwald notes, as many others have, that the DOJ is simultaneously leaking all the biographical details needed to identify Stefan Halper, while claiming that it would endanger his life to identify him:

Last night, both the Washington Post and New York Times -- whose reporters, like pretty much everyone in Washington, knew exactly who the FBI informant is -- published articles that, while deferring to the FBI's demands by not naming him, provided so many details about him that it made it extremely easy to know exactly who it is. The NYT described the FBI informant as "an American academic who teaches in Britain" and who "made contact late that summer with” George Papadopoulos and "also met repeatedly in the ensuing months with the other aide, Carter Page." The Post similarly called him "a retired American professor" who met with Page "at a symposium about the White House race held at a British university."

In contrast to the picture purposely painted by the DOJ and its allies that this informant was some of sort super-secret, high-level, covert intelligence asset, the NYT described him as what he actually is: "the informant is well known in Washington circles, having served in previous Republican administrations and as a source of information for the C.I.A. in past years."

Despite how "well known" he is in Washington, and despite publishing so many details about him that anyone with Google would be able to instantly know his name, the Post and the NYT nonetheless bizarrely refused to identity him, with the Post justifying its decision that it "is not reporting his name following warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that exposing him could endanger him or his contacts." The NYT was less melodramatic about it, citing a general policy: the NYT "has learned the source"s identity but typically does not name informants to preserve their safety," it said.

In other words, both the NYT and the Post chose to provide so many details about the FBI informant that everyone would know exactly who it was, while coyly pretending that they were obeying FBI demands not to name him. How does that make sense? Either these newspapers believe the FBI's grave warnings that national security and lives would be endangered if it were known who they used as their informant (in which case those papers should not publish any details that would make his exposure likely), or they believe that the FBI (as usual) was just invoking false national security justifications to hide information it unjustly wants to keep from the public (in which case the newspapers should name him).

Update: The left's new rules, as summarized by Adirondack Patriot:

It's all academic because this is how the left thinks:

1. It is illegal to defeat a Democrat.

2. Anything we do to stop an illegal act is legal and a morally necessary.

3. The only way a Democrat can lose is if someone (in this case, Donald Trump) did something illegal, such as collude with Russians, because no Republican is qualified to legally defeat a Democrat.

4. Everything we do to stop Trump is legal, regardless of the law.

Ben Shapiro, Deep State Defender.

Correction: Red-faced embarrassment -- I got the timeline screwed up here myself. I conflated Misfud's mention of the emails with Halper's (Halper's mention was several months later).

The timeline goes something like this:

April 2016: MISFUD, not Halper, mentions the Russians hacking the emails to Papadoplous

May 2016: Papadoplous mentions this to Downer (the Australian diplomat)

September 2016: Halper asks Papadopolous about the emails (Papadopolous says he doesn't know anything)

I confused the dates and who it was (Misfud, Halper) doing the talking.

I still don't see how mentioning the emails to anyone could be grounds to begin an investigation -- everyone was speculating about the idea that Russians had the emails for months; it was one of the reasons people said Clinton should be indicted -- and I'd like Ben Shapiro to explain that to me.

If talking about the Russians having Hillary's emails is grounds for an official counterintelligence investigation, then the NSA should have been monitoring me and this blog as well. And pretty much everyone I knew.

Who knows, maybe they were/are.

But my jibe about the timeline was all wrong. I'm the one who had to do more research into the specific timeline here.

I also suspect that when all is done we'll find out that Misfud was actually involved in this "investigation," but that's not in evidence yet. It's just my private supposition.

Oh: The FBI has repeatedly lied about the origins of this "investigation." First it was sparked by the Steele Dossier. When the highly dubious and partisan nature of the document was revealed, they edited their story to claim it all originated with this Papadopolous mention of the emails to Downer.

With the FBI and DOJ crabwalking and changing their stories, why should anyone have any faith in their current claims?

Who can say what the FBI's current claim actually is? Have they made an official statement, or does it continue to be put out via not-under-oath leaks to the media?

The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect: A Wikipedia Corollary

—CBD

When I was a wee lad, cutting my conservative teeth baiting hippies and fighting with communists on the streets of Berkeley, I lived in student cooperative housing. Since placement was based on seniority, I lived for the first two years in the least desirable and largest place, called Barrington Hall. It has been closed for years; a result off awful management on the part of the socialist organization that ran it, and dumb ass college students being allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted.

In its defense, I met a lot of very interesting and intelligent people there, one of whom is a dear friend. And there was also a lot of free sex and nudity and punk rock and booze and all sorts of other stuff that appealed to the less high-minded part of my psyche. Anyway, I wanted to look up one of my acquaintances from Barrington, so I started poking around the internet, and discovered that there is a Wiki page devoted to it. As I read it I was immediately reminded of this:

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

I am as guilty as many of turning to the easy research of Wikipedia for many things. And while I am aware of its crowd-sourced nature, and its political bent, and most of all its famous inaccuracies, it is an effortless and lazy shortcut.

But the absolute drivel written about a place in which I lived for two years was astounding. Dates were wrong, events were reported badly, or ignored or made up from whole cloth. And this is not an overtly political topic, one that I assumed would have some passing familiarity with the truth! It was an amazing experience, having the world's portable encyclopedia revealed to be completely full of shit.

Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-20-2018

—OregonMuse

Library of Jake Holenhead

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Oh, and we've got a new category of readers, escaped oafs and oafettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, and publishing by people who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these hideous-looking pants, which look like an explosion in a hippie factory.

Pic Note

Jake tells me:

Hope this photo size isn't too large. I took photos of the individual shelves then stitched them together. It drives me nuts to see someone's personal library and not able to read the book titles.

I know the library pic looks tiny, but click on it, and you'll see how yuuuge, classy, and luxurious it is. You can, indeed, read every title on Jake's shelves.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

Something that is BOMBYLIOUS is buzzing like a bee.

Usage: Muhammad Ali bombyliously defeated George Foreman.

Bonus:

A MUCK-ROBIN is a child who deliberately enjoys annoying or disturbing adults.

Yes, but isn't that a description of pretty much every child?

EMT 5/20/18

—krakatoa

How many EMT would a woodchuck chuck?

Saturday Night Open Thread (5/19/18 )

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Via my email this past week.

Ford Airplane - History Time

A Ford Airplane - AMAZING

This was 6 months BEFORE Pearl Harbor! Henry Ford was determined that he could mass produce bombers just as he had done with cars, so he built the Willow Run assembly plant in Michigan and proved it. It was the world's largest building under one roof at the time.

This film will absolutely blow you away - one B-24 every 55 minutes. . . and Ford had their own pilots to test them. and they had no recalls


ADOLF HITLER HAD NO IDEA THE U.S. WAS CAPABLE OF THIS KIND OF THING.

***

The Saturday Night Joke

Kind of a cool way to take a casket to the cemetery.

A funeral procession pulled into Pressley Cemetery in South Carolina. Several car loads of family members followed a black truck towing a boat with a coffin in it.

A passer-by remarked, "That guy must have been a very avid fisherman.”

"Oh, he still is," remarked one of the mourners. "As a matter of fact, he's headed off to the lake as soon as we bury his wife."

***

Well that is certainly one way to get rush hour traffic rolling again. The police don't care for rush hour traffic either, apparently.

Peters lost control of his vehicle after striking two other vehicles on the ramp. He emerged naked from his disabled vehicle and ran into the northbound lanes of I-95/64, police said. Witnesses said they saw him dancing and rolling around on the interstate before running back to the on-ramp.

Police said Peters then charged the Richmond officer who deployed his Taser in an effort to disable Peters. The Taser was ineffective, police said, so the officer fired his service weapon, striking Peters, who was unarmed.

Well, we know who won that pissing contest.

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

***

*****

Be careful in the woods of Michigan. h/t redc1c4

*****

Meet Fred Garvin, male prostitute Genius Award Winner.

*****

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Lotters.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC.

Close it up

Saturday Evening Movie Thread 05-19-2018 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]

—OregonMuse

Number Five

So, here I am with the next installment of "Let's go through my personal top ten movies of all time because it's all about me!"

Moving chronologically after Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

The Seventies

In terms of the 1970s of American cinema, in my opinion, the most imposing individual was Francis Ford Coppola. Beyond his own creative output, which was obviously significant, he helped foster some of the most prominent filmmakers of the generation with relationships from mentor to collaborator with people like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Schrader. He was at the center of the new movement of American cinema that we're still seeing the effects of today (most are still making movies, although generally just not at the same level of quality as when they first started).

But back in the seventies, Coppola was king. From '72 to '79, he made four movies. All four were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. He won for two of them (The Conversation's loss was to his own The Godfather Part II). The second loss was to Apocalypse Now, which lost to Kramer vs. Kramer Now, I do really like Kramer vs. Kramer, but it's nothing compared to the mad odyssey into the depths of the jungle that is Apocalypse Now.

A Difficulty

With the other movies on my list, I had little difficulty explaining to myself why I loved them individually. The disparate parts of each film assembled so easily together into something often beautiful that I found the experience of writing about them easy. Apocalypse Now is very different. I really see it as a work of genuine madness. Coppola went into the jungle and lost his mind on the way out, the perfect mirror of the main character's journey, and I really do feel like the movie captures that amazingly well.

But then that leads to the question: How does madness lead to great art? How do you read an art born of madness?

I think the only way to really approach it in an abstract sense. Its effect on the viewer as he watches it. There are arguments that all art should be approached that way, but I do personally feel that formal structural and character based approaches are important to both creating and taking in art, but Apocalypse Now largely forbears any formal approach. Long story short, this post is going to be messy. Let's roll!

Apocalypse Now

Rewatching the movie for this post, I was struck by something that I've seemingly never really processed before. The movie is gorgeous to look at. The colors are vibrant with the wide range of greens of the jungle and the great palate of colors that fill in the gaps. The framing of every shot is beautiful, especially around the flight of the helicopters during the "Ride of the Valkyrie" scene. Even during smaller moments, like when Kilgore walks out of frame, it's perfectly shot.

Kilgore is crouching down, talking to Willard, ending on a melancholy note, and then proceeds to stand up and just walk to the right. We never see him again. He just disappears into the war. It's such a perfect end for him, and it's done through simple and effective framing.

Besides, the movie is filled with shots like these:

Themes

As with my other favorite films, Apocalypse Now isn't terribly explicit about what the movie is actually about. The closest it gets, I think, is this line from General Corman near the beginning of the film:

Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and irration, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.

That quote outlines the idea at the heart of the film. The conflict between the rational and irrational and good and evil. What we end up seeing during Willard trek up the river into Cambodia is the increasing madness.

Is that madness specific to the Vietnam War? The surface of the movie? Is that all there is?

I don't think so. I think that the surface is part of the equation, but also the least interesting part. As with all great art, Coppola uses the subject of his film to talk to more immediate and relatable concerns. Not much of the audience lived through Vietnam in country, but most of the audience has seen madness. They've understood obsession. They've understood being lost. They've also understood making a choice to turn back from madness.

The Journey's End

Many people consider the journey to Kurtz to be great, but once Willard actually gets there, for the movie to peter out. I disagree, the ending is my favorite part of the whole thing.
I believe that part of the issue people have is with Marlon Brando. It's not that he plays the part badly, but that he's pretty obviously fat. He promised to show up lean and mean to the set, but he just loved eating too much to actually do what he promised. Coppola panicked. Kurtz wasn't going to be the highly mobile killing machine as he was in the script. Instead, Coppola had to find another solution, choosing to shoot Brando mostly in shadow and turning what was supposed to be a thin man of action in a bulking heavy threat. I actually think that the combination of shadows that the man's size, along with his insane ramblings makes him a rather terrifying figure.

I consider the threat of madness infecting others to be a more imposing threat than a single man swinging through the jungle as some great killer, and by stripping Kurtz of the physicality of the character's original ideal and leaving him with only the madness makes the madness all that much stronger in my mind.

And besides, the actual death scene is fantastic, using the sacrificial bull to imply that Kurtz himself is a sacrifice, but to what? Is Willard killing Kurtz out of orders? He says no in the voiceover. I think that it's a rejection of the madness in its entirety. What solidifies that in my mind is how Willard could obviously take Kurtz's place, but he simply grabs Lance, the last member of the boat crew, and walks away.

In Conclusion

The movie is both a hard watch and an easy one. It's hard because of the inhumanity on display and the questions that it raises. It's easy to watch because of the magnificent cinematography on display and the great performances by everyone involved.

In regards to the two versions of the film, I've only ever seen the original cut. I actually own the Redux version (the DVD I bought years ago came with both on the same pair of discs), but I've simply refused to watch it. I'll probably do it one day. I've heard both good things (people saying that it finally completes the package of the movie and makes it great) and bad things (those saying that, in particular, the French plantation isn't worth the price of admission and doesn't add to the movie in any significant way).

In the end, though, this work of madness by a madman who lost himself in the jungle is one of the most significant and greatest films made. A great companion piece, by the way, is Hearts of Darkness, the movie that Coppola's wife made about the making of the movie.

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:
Deadpool 2
Book Club
Show Dogs

Next in my Netflix Queue:
Danton

Movies I Saw This Week:
Bullhead (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) Poster blurb: "A compelling story of immasculinity with one very hard scene to watch." [Netflix DVD]
Paths of Glory (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Absolutely devastating portrait of the abuse of power. Kubrick's most emotionally affecting movie." [Personal Collection]
Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Very funny satire." [Personal Collection]
A Clockwork Orange (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) [Rewatch] "Alternating Kubrick's easiest and most difficult movie to understand." [Personal Collection]
Barry Lyndon (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Kubrick's other greatest movie ever." [Personal Collection]
The Shining (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Pure cinematic horror." [Personal Collection]
Full Metal Jacket (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) [Rewatch] "I've never quite understood the love for this movie. The first half is great, but the second half feels muddled." [Personal Collection]
Eyes Wide Shut (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Seriously underappreciated. This movie is biting and great." [Personal Collection]
Airplane! (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) [Rewatch] "Just…so funny." [Personal Collection]
Airplane II: The Sequel (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) [Rewatch] "Another victim of 'not as good as the original' being equated with 'bad'." [Personal Collection]
Apocalypse Now (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "What he said." [Personal Collection]
Galaxy Quest (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) [Rewatch] "One of the best Star Trek movies ever." [Personal Collection]
Avengers: Infinity War (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) "Large, bombastic entertainment. Pretty good stuff." [Theater]

Contact

Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.

I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.

And, please, visit my website.

My first collection of short stories is on sale now.

Close it up

Chess Thread 05-19-2018

—OregonMuse

Spock Plays Chess

As always, the chess/dress pr0n thread is an open thread, so there is no such thing as an off-topic comment.

Easier Problem - White To Play (672)

Hint: Win material with a pin

2kr3r/p1q3p1/2nb4/2p2p2/4p3/2B1P1Pb/P1P1Q2P/1R2R1KB w - - 0 1

Continue reading

A Moron's Chess Table

(Click for larger view)

WOPR writes:

My wife, the garage sale and auction shopper, found the table for me when I told her I wanted to make a chess table. From there it became a grim reminder of shop class back in high school. Stripping and staining were fairly straightforward. Instructions from online sites have you painting or staining in the squares. After considering that, I realized that with my skills it probably wasn't a good plan. So, I decided to get wood squares and solve my problem. The squares are 2" x 2" x 1/4". Of course, laying out the squares did not go quit as planned and they are off a bit at points. It is not bad if you do not look to closely. Overall, it is probably a C in shop class.

The chess pieces are a hand carved, weighted, House of Staunton set. They were on clearance with free shipping. House of Staunton has a piece sizing feature that matches the pieces to square size. The pieces have a good feel to them.

More Challenging Problem - White To Play (624)

Hint: e7 is vulnerable

r1q1k1r1/ppp1n1p1/5p1p/5P2/1PN5/2P1Q3/P5PP/3R1RK1 w q - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For the 'Ettes:

This striking red dress is made even more bold by being placed in a summery boardwalk setting. "Woman Descending Stairs to the Beach" by Peruvian artist Albert Lynch, c1900. https://t.co/PidrUyQpT4 #arthistory pic.twitter.com/mYrPxqtfhk

— Ephemeral Elegance (@drapedinhistory) May 7, 2018

It's great to have a First Lady who can really rock a pantsuit.

...and A Little Shoe Pr0n:

Circa 1938 peep-toe velvet heels with leather appliqués. https://t.co/uABfZjAGmq #vintage #shoes pic.twitter.com/PLDaBlw9y9

— Ephemeral Elegance (@drapedinhistory) February 27, 2018

___________

Solutions Update

Easier Problem - White To Play

2kr3r/p1q3p1/2nb4/2p2p2/4p3/2B1P1Pb/P1P1Q2P/1R2R1KB w - - 0 1

1.Qa6+ Kd7

Not 1...Qb7?? 2. Qxb7#

2.Rb7

White pins and wins Black's queen for a rook. With the pin, he pulls just slightly ahead in material. Did you notice that White started out this problem down a piece? Now the material is Q v. R+N, so he's up by about a pawn.

More Challenging Problem - White To Play

r1q1k1r1/ppp1n1p1/5p1p/5P2/1PN5/2P1Q3/P5PP/3R1RK1 w q - 0 1

White can force a mate in 7 moves:

1.Rfe1! ( not 1.Rde1? Qd7 and the win slips away. Maintaining control of the d-file is crucial)

1...Qd7
2. Rxd7 Kxd7
3. Qxe7+ Kc6
4. Qe6+

Or 4.Qc5+ Kd7 5.Re7+ Kc8 6.Qxc7#

4...Kb5
5.Qd5+ c5
6.Qxc5+ Ka4
7.Qa5#

Hope to see you all next week!

___________

Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.

___________

So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.

Close it up

Posted by OregonMuse at 05:05 PM Comments