In doing further research on the Manafort trial, it appears that the federal prosecutors did realize the invoices they put on the screen were fake. Apparently, this was designed to show evidence of laundering funds. Since Manafort was simultaneously being accused of spending huge funds at the two firms in question, and then paying fake invoices to look like he spent even more.  That doesn’t seem to make sense. This may actually work to his advantage. I think prosecutors knew the documents were fakes but I still think this may have been a world class mistake.

This reminds me of an incident several years ago. I was the Risk Manager for a major corporation and was invited to participate in a think tank held at Hilton Head Island by one of the nation’s largest insurance brokers. There were about 30 risk managers there and this was designed to pick our brains regarding significant trends in the insurance industry. The first evening there was a presentation by a Risk Manager for a nationally known firm. He was a recent Harvard MBA and he spent about two hours showcasing his revolutionary approach to risk management.  This took over two hours and there were all kinds of graphs and charts masterfully illustrated in a professionally prepared PowerPoint Presentation.  This was indeed brilliant. This guy literally felt that the entire world was in some kind of cosmic balance where he could offset workers’ compensation claims in Texas with profits from soybeans in Iowa. He scorned the traditional risk managers who worked on old school methods of managing risk, like controlling claim costs. He considered that to be so yesterday, one just had to be in tune with international counterbalancing predictable trends obvious only to the chosen few. The chosen few obviously did not include me, because this didn’t make any sense to me.

When He was done I went to dinner with a close friend who was also a Risk Manager for a major corporation. He asked me what I thought about this. I hesitated to tell the truth, but I finally said: “either everything I have learned over the last 25 years is wrong or this guy is nuts and he will do great financial harm to his company with this idiotic scheme.”. He laughed and said: “that’s exactly the way I feel, and trust me, you’re not the one who’s delusional here.”

I felt much better after talking with my friend. He was a very good risk manager and I valued his opinion.  The point being that it was hard not to be impressed with all the charts and data and if I didn’t have 25 years’ experience, I might have believed it too.  By the way that meeting was in 2000 and that risk manager worked for Enron. By October 2001 it became obvious to the world that Enron, once one of the most respected companies in the world was a house of cards. In Mid 2000 Enron Stock was selling for $90.75 per share. By November 2001 it was worth less than $1.

By the way, this is how Wikipedia says the Risk Management strategy at Enron was a major factor in its downfall:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

Before its scandal, Enron was lauded for its sophisticated financial risk management tools.^[51] Risk management was crucial to Enron not only because of its regulatory environment, but also because of its business plan. Enron established long-term fixed commitments which needed to be hedged to prepare for the invariable fluctuation of future energy prices.^[52] Enron’s bankruptcy downfall was attributed to its reckless use of derivatives and special purpose entities. By hedging its risks with special purpose entities which it owned, Enron retained the risks associated with the transactions. This arrangement had Enron implementing hedges with itself.^[53]

Kenneth Lay, Chairman and CEO of Enron was indicted by a grand jury and found guilty of 10 counts of security fraud. He died three months before he was scheduled to be sentenced. I always thought that if I was on that jury I just might have voted for acquittal. If the presentation I saw in 2000 was anything like the reports being presented to Kenneth Lay it would be pretty easy to believe that he may not have realized what was really going on.

I have a similar reaction to the case against Paul Manafort. I suspect he hired people to handle things and probably didn’t even know a lot of regarding how specific things were being handled. He was probably too busy living the life of the rich and famous and making even more money.

Thus, the problem with the fake invoices. Who exactly made them and why. It seems unlikely that Manafort would do this. He had more than enough real purchases through both firms. This may end up being evidence that at least some of the time, it was Manafort who was being lied to. It may even turn out to be exculpatory evidence.

The question here is not really whether or not Manafort is guilty, it is rather whether or not the prosecutors can prove he was guilty. At best this is an extremely complex case with mountains of documents, some of which the prosecutors admit were fakes.

As I mentioned before, Arthur Anderson was prosecuted and found guilty of criminal charges with regard to the auditing of Enron. In 2005 that verdict was overturned by a unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court. That, of course was after Arthur Andersen surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accounts which ultimately led to bankruptcy.

TDM

For over a year the liberal left has been salivating over the prospect of the Mueller investigation closing in on Donald Trump. The longed for day has arrived, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager is on trial. CNN covered this with breathless anticipation. But instead of fireworks, they were treated with a big dud. There is no mention of Donald Trump at all. There is no mention of collusion with Russia or anyone else. There is no mention of the Trump Campaign. Zero, nada, zilch. Manafort is charged with bank fraud and tax evasion regarding events that took place long before he was working for Donald Trump.

In addition, the Judge has refused to let the prosecutors show pictures of Paul Manafort’s personal wealth. He won’t even let them use the term oligarchs. All these things add up to real problems for the Russian collusion myth. But there is more. The government planned on calling Rick Gates to testify against Manafort. Almost immediately his defense team worked to discredit him. They have a point. He already plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and to lying to the FBI. He was given immunity in order to testify against Manafort.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/01/paul-manafort-trial-testimony-day-2-756749

To top it off, the prosecutors destroyed their own credibility by showing an invoice from Alan Corture, L.L.C. on court room TV monitors. Almost immediately Maximillian Katzman, the store’s ex-manager quickly pointed out that the invoice was an obvious fake because, among other things, the zip code was wrong. Then Katzman poured salt on the wound by saying he knew the invoice was not authentic because “We have never billed to Global Endeavor, or had a client named Global Endeavor.” This borders on legal malpractice by Mueller’s ace team of prosecutors. This mistake ranks right up there with the prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case who asked Simpson to try on the bloody glove. Every time a federal prosecutor tries to present evidence the defense attorney is going to say something like: “how do we know this is a real document.”

It now seems likely that the Mueller investigation will primarily be remembered for gross incompetence. It is far from certain that Manafort will be convicted of anything. If he is convicted, there are already so many errors that it is likely to end up at the Supreme Court. Andrew Weissman, one of Mueller’s top prosecutors, knows all about this. He was responsible for obtaining a conviction, for a while, against Arthur Andersen regarding the Enron fiasco. That verdict was overturned by a 9-0 Supreme Court decision. That means even the most liberal judges on the Supreme Court ruled against him. The case was overturned because federal prosecutors pressed District Judge Melinda Harmon to set a ridiculously low hurdle for the Jury to reach a guilty verdict. This judge will not make that same mistake.

This begs the question. Why is Mueller trying Manafort? The obvious answer is that he has nothing else and he has to try somebody for something. But Manafort is not Michael Flynn or George Papadoplous. Both of them pled guilty to felony charges because they had no chance against a team of federal prosecutors. Neither of them could afford the cost of hiring legal counsel capable of withstanding such a legal assault. Paul Manafort is beyond rich and he can afford a world-class legal team. Odds are his team is far superior to the federal prosecutors for one simple reason. The really smart attorneys work for private firms, rather than the federal government because they can make a lot more money. Only very rich people can afford this talent, but the talent is always available for the right price.

The Manafort trial has already gone overboard and smart people will start abandoning ship. Even CNN realizes that this is beyond bad. The most likely thing now is that the MSM will stop reporting on the trial at all. The problem with that approach is that they have been promising big results for over a year. This reminds me of when Geraldo Rivera opened a secret vault at the Lexington Hotel allegedly linked to Al Capone. He did this live on TV, at the end of a two hour Television special broadcast on April 21, 1986. He even had a medical examiner on scene in case bodies were found and agents from the Internal Revenue Service to collect any found money. All he found was some empty beer bottles, which Rivera tried to claim was for moonshine bathtub gin. Geraldo finally admitted defeat and apologized to the viewers. I doubt that CNN will apologize, but they should.

TDM

The audio tape played by Lanny Davis on behalf of Michael Cohen is shocking. But not for the reasons anyone expected.The real shock was to liberals who were confronted with the reality that in a private conversation Donald Trump sounds absolutely normal and rational:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/07/25/opinions/michael-cohen-donald-trump-tape-strategy-zelizer/index.html

The liberal left and RINO Republicans were too focused on the public performances by Donald Trump to realize they were “public performances.“ Trump knows how to work a room. He, like Ronald Reagan, is an actor. There is a reason he was wildly successful with Celebrity Apprentice. Yet somehow the MSM assumed that Trump was not capable of carrying on an ordinary conversation. Apparently they were unable to distinguish between the actor and the executive.  The author is shocked to report:

“No, on this tape we hear a little bit of a methodical and controlled candidate who is trying to figure out how to handle a potential problem in his campaign — how to kill an embarrassing story. He listens, absorbs and responds. He knows what is going on, and he wants a workable plan.”

The author suddenly realizes, with horror, that both friends and foes have continually underestimated Trump. He now realizes that the man who built a billion dollar business is actually a competent executive. Talk about being fooled by your own delusions?

He even admits that:

“The tape allows us to hear a Trump who has a game plan that will allow him to pursue policy initiatives that matter to him and control and direct the media narrative about his presidency — all the while working toward re-election in 2020. Whether it works is an unknown, but there is a plan.”

He also admits that the liberal left made similar mistakes regarding both Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.  Notice the pattern here? It is astonishing to realize that anyone would underestimate the man who personally ordered the D Day invasion. It is easier to understand why a lot of people underestimated Ronald Reagan. Liberals have always assumed they are the brightest people in the room and they are always stunned to learn that some really smart people disagree with them. In addition to constantly underestimating their opponents, liberals have a hard time learning from their mistakes. It is harder to learn from your mistakes if you are too stupid to realize you were wrong in the first place.

I don’t know which is more amusing. That the liberal left could have so completely underestimated Donald Trump, or the panic they must be feeling now when they realize the price they will pay for this miscalculation.

TDM

The Last Days of Pompeii is a fictional novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1565/1565-h/1565-h.htm

It was based on a real-life event, when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.  There is actually a contemporary report on the event in a letter written by Pliny the Younger who saw the eruption from a distance.  Pliny the Elder, his uncle, was an admiral of the Roman fleet who died trying to rescue residents of Pompeii.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pliny-the-Younger

The homes and people of Pompeii were frozen in time when the eruption buried the entire town under volcanic ash.  Although the town was destroyed in AD79, no one realized the town had been largely preserved until 1748 when a group of explorers discovered that under the debris, Pompeii was still there. Today Pompeii is a tourist attraction.

In 63 A.D. there was a massive earthquake that modern scientists now believe to have been a warning that Mount Vesuvius was going to blow. No one living there at the time seemed to get the message.

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/pompeii

In many ways this was similar to the results of the testimony by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Democratic Senators and RINO Republican Bob Corker had been watching too much CNN. These arrogant, ignorant fools stupidly believed the irrational rants of the delusional liberal left. They clearly intended to “expose” the incompetent naivety of the Trump administration. Instead they ended up exposing only themselves. It was clear from the start that Mike Pompeo was the adult in the room and those people foolish enough to challenge him looked like spoiled incompetent children few would trust to run a Car Wash.

Those who ignored the force that is Mt. Pompeo ended up making asses of themselves and providing immortal examples of people, frozen in time, who should never be trusted with power. If you want to see this historical event for yourself, following is a link osted by Fox News.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pompeo+testimony+senate+foreign+relations+committee&view=detail&mid=60A2608597E98D0E2B0660A2608597E98D0E2B06&FORM=VIRE

TDM

The following article is very interesting. This may explain a lot:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/07/24/corrupt-republican-senate-intelligence-committee-chairman-richard-burr-defending-fisa-application-trying-to-hide-ssci-involvement-in-fisa-spygate/

On March 17, 2017, the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence (SCCI) was given a copy, possibly unredacted, of the FISA application used to authorize surveillance on Carter Page. The SCCI responded by supporting the people who prepared this FISA application.

At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee, the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee were literally threatening to sue the DOJ and the FBI to get the same document given willingly to the SCCI.

On the same day this FISA application was delivered to the SCCI, James Wolfe, security staffer for the SCCI took a picture of 82 pages and leaked them to Ali Watkins. The sting was on.

James Wolfe was indicted:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/08/james-wolfe-former-senate-intel-panel-security-director-indicted-for-allegedly-lying-to-fbi.html

Ali Walkins, the reporter involved, was publicly shamed by the New York Times and reassigned to a position where she will be closely supervised:

https://www.thewrap.com/new-york-times-reassigns-ali-watkins-reporter-sexual-relationship-source/

Some would assume that the NYT is doing the right thing for the right reasons. But, that would be totally inconsistent with the character of NYT management. Doing the right thing seems very low on their list of priorities. Odds are they did this because Ali Watkins made a huge mistake. She published an article based on a sting operation and the New York Times was humiliated. It seems likely that the copy of the FISA application leaked to the NYT has some very minor changes, probably dates, from the actual application designed to catch the leaker. It worked brilliantly.

Wolfe was charged with lying to the FBI. This means there has been some serious cooperation between the FBI and the intelligence committee. This could easily explain why Trump didn’t just declassify the FISA application in the first place. The current leadership of the DOJ and the FBI may actually be doing exactly what he wants them to do. Trump’s public display of frustration with Jeff Sessions and the FBI may have been a show designed to help them really drain the swamp.

This reminded me of a settlement conference I participated in years ago. The President of the Company involved asked to attend the settlement conference. He was very concerned about the case and wanted me to settle it for big bucks. I told him he could come and listen to the opening arguments, but he could not say anything. Later, I had him sit out in the lobby while the lawyer and I negotiated with the other party’s lawyer. I personally thought the company President would give off body language that showed too much interest in settlement, which is why I put him in the lobby. At one point we were in the final stages of the negotiation and were close to settling the case for about half of what the President of the Company was willing to pay. I went out in the lobby and told him we probably couldn’t get it settled. I knew he would be very upset. I was right. He turned beet red and started mumbling to himself stalking around the lobby. I knew the opponents would notice this. Then I went back in to the negotiations and told them that he was very upset and if we didn’t get this settled there could be serious problems. They dropped down to my last offer and settled. They totally misread why he was angry, which is exactly what I wanted to happen.

Consider this. Every single top FBI official out to get Trump is gone. Some of them are likely to be indicted. All of the top-level intelligence officials who hate Trump are gone. They may still technically have security clearances, but I can guarantee that none of the current leaders in the intelligence community care what they think about anything. This is further evidence that the intelligence community, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray are working together as a team. Remember that John Huber is conducting his own special investigation and absolutely nothing is leaking about that operation. You probably won’t hear from Mr. Huber until he announces some shocking indictments. There will be even fewer leaks out of the intelligence community.

It sure looks like Donald Trump put on a display of anger so that his team had a better chance of handling things. Things like setting up the sting operation that trapped James Wolfe and Ali Watkins. Trump is famous for trolling his opponents and this may be his best performance yet. His job was made easier because liberals believe everyone else, who has an ounce of intelligence, thinks just like them. There are none so vulnerable as those who delude themselves.

TDM

Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda specialist for Adolph Hitler. The following quote is attributed to him:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”

Most people think he was describing his own propaganda style. But that is probably not true. He was probably talking about political opponents.  On January 12, 1941, Goebbels wrote the following about “Churchill’s Lie Factory:”

The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.^[

Big lies are often told by people who have deluded themselves into believing things that are patently absurd. This is why the airheads on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and others are shrieking hysterically. They believe all the lies they have been telling about Trump.

It is no longer possible to watch any MSM news channel without being told that Donald Trump is a threat to humanity and guilty of treason. That is absurd, but the liberal left is too full of vile hatred to care. The problem is that a high percentage of people, or more accurately a high percentage of democrats, believe that Donald Trump did commit treason. They believe he is a racist. They believe he is a threat to national security. Some of them are likely to be incentivized to commit violence.

If you truly believed that, wouldn’t you feel compelled to take action? If these allegations are true, are not extreme measures not only justified but required. What makes this worse is that anyone who dares support Trump is considered to be equally guilty. This won’t be limited to insulting Sarah Sanders because she dares to eat out at a restaurant with her family. Someone is going to get seriously hurt.

When that happens, the MSM will blame Donald Trump. They believe that he is the one fermenting hatred. They obviously don’t believe in mirrors. They would be wise to read the final portion of that quote by Joseph Goebbels. : “The lie can be maintained only for such a time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie.”

It wouldn’t even be a surprise to see someone attempt to assassinate Trump or a member of his family. John Wilkes Booth seriously thought he would be a hero for assassinating President Lincoln. His problem is that he was reading the Richmond Newspapers. He was shocked to learn, following the assassination, that no one on either side of the issue thought of him as anything other than world-class villain. The same fate awaits those who foolishly listen to CNN and then decide it is time for action.

It is too bad those people Goebbling up the news are the ones least like to pay the price for their irresponsible behavior.

TDM

James Clapper dropped a huge bomb shell that may blow up the Mueller investigation. He was furious that Trump criticized Obama for not doing anything before he left office with regard to “the Russian Meddling.”  Clapper said:

“If it weren’t for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today – notably special counsel Mueller’s investigation.  President Obama is responsible for that, and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place.  I think that’s an important point when it comes to critiquing President Obama.”

“And it is not a witch hunt. It is a serious, serious investigation, the catalyst for which was the intelligence community assessment we did in the last administration.”

There is not and never has been evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.  The more information we get, the more obvious that the entire intelligence operation was targeted against the Trump campaign. Former intelligence officials, particularly John Brennan, have gone public with their bias against Trump. No investigation was done regarding collusion between the Clinton Campaign and Russia. Now, we have James Clapper, who was head of DNI, saying that Obama is the one who ordered this intelligence operation.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to have impeachment type hearings on whether or not Obama’s actions constituted an abuse of power. While Democrats are more than happy to cripple the Trump Presidency with a nutty witch hunt, Republicans are not nearly as enthusiastic about investigating Obama.

The establishment has to be terrified over this development. What should happen is a full-scale investigation of abuse of power during the Obama administration and the appointment of a second special counsel. But since the establishment in both parties almost never does the right thing for the right reasons, we should not expect that. What we can expect is some kind of secret deal.

In most cases this involves throwing someone under the bus. Hillary Clinton is the idea candidate. There is almost certain to be a deal to end the Mueller investigation with some cases turned over to regular prosecutors and a final report similar to what Rosenstein said last week. We came, we saw, we investigated, the Russians suck but there was no collusion. Thanks for watching.

Democrats will be furious because much was promised, and nothing was delivered. Republicans and Donald Trump will be relieved and want to move on. The Mueller investigation will be over, but the liberal left will continue to resist Trump in every way possible. They would be wise to pay close attention to how Trump is handling threats from Iran. At some point he is likely to say: “if you really want a war, I will give you one, but you will be destroyed. I will not allow you to threaten this country without consequences.” That is what he told North Korea and it is what he told Iran.

Donald Trump swore an oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. If the anti-Trump resistance crosses the line into insurrection, then one could argue that Trump is not only is justified in fighting back, he may have a duty to fight back. This is our strongest President since Abraham Lincoln and it would be unwise to underestimate him.

TDM

War is never funny.  But during the Iraq invasion, the news reports by Baghdad Bob were so bad they bordered on hysterical.  When reading these, remember that the U.S. Military was engaged in the most successful invasion of a foreign nation in world history.

There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!”

“My feelings, as usual, we will slaughter them all.”

“Our initial assessment is that they will all die.”

“No I am not scared and neither should you be!”

“We will welcome them with bullets and shoes.”

“They’re not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion … they are trying to sell to the others an illusion.”

“Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege. Therefore, in reality, whatever this miserable Rumsfeld has been saying, he was talking about his own forces. Now even the American command is under siege.”

“Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire.”

“They fled. The American louts fled. Indeed, concerning the fighting waged by the heroes of the Arab Socialist Baath Party yesterday, one amazing thing really is the cowardice of the American soldiers. we had not anticipated this.”

“God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis.”

“They tried to bring a small number of tanks and personnel carriers in through al-Durah but they were surrounded and most of their infidels had their throats cut.”

“I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly.”

It goes on:

‘We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels. We have driven them back.”

“We have them surrounded in their tanks.”

“We made them drink poison last night and Saddam Hussein’s soldiers and his great forces gave the Americans a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Truly.”

“On this occasion, I am not going to mention the number of the infidels who were killed and the number of destroyed vehicles. The operation continues.”

“We’re giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn’t accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted.”

“Today we slaughtered them in the airport. They are out of Saddam International Airport. The force that was in the airport, this force was destroyed.”

“Their forces committed suicide by the hundreds. … The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious. The fighting continues.”

“Yesterday, we slaughtered them and we will continue to slaughter them.”

“We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp.”

“We have retaken the airport. There are no Americans there. I will take you there and show you. In one hour.”

“We defeated them yesterday. God willing, I will provide you with more information. I swear by God, I swear by God, those who are staying in Washington and London have thrown these mercenaries in a crematorium.”

None of this was true. None of this was close to true. It was frankly, absurd. Everyone knew that the truth was Iraq was being overwhelmed by the greatest military in the history of the world. No one bought this nonsense.  I often wondered if Baghdad Bob really believed any of this himself? I still wonder what the point was, since his irrational rants had zero impact on results, other than to provide an amusing side note.

This week we saw the entire MSM go into full Baghdad Bob mode. It was so bad, it was hysterical. People posing as serious journalists were claiming, with a straight face that Trump committed Treason by failing to insult Putin adequately during their joint press conference. Once again, I asked myself why someone would do this.  Why put on such a public display of abject stupidity?  Do they really think anyone is buying this?

Then I realized something important. The MSM is acting like Baghdad Bob for the exact same reason. Both realize the myth has been shattered, their enemy is on the verge of an overwhelming victory and the end is near. In both cases we are watching the hysterical rants of the hopelessly delusional trying desperately to convince themselves that doubling down on stupidity and screaming at the top of one’s lungs will miraculously distract from the obvious.

In both cases the result is the same. During the invasion of Iraq, neither President Bush nor Prime Minister Tony Blair bothered to respond to Baghdad Bob. They didn’t need to. The hysterical rants of an idiot are not worthy of response. Donald Trump has not responded to the numerous shrieks of rage by the MSM accusing him of treason for the exact same reason. No response is necessary. The MSM is embarrassing themselves and Trump knows it. While a few fringe members of the liberal left, ready, willing and able to believe anything are thrilled the rest of America is watching this and saying: “Seriously?”

Robert Mueller could hold a press conference tomorrow with the ultimate smoking gun and it wouldn’t matter. No serious person would believe him. It is so over. The Russia collusion Unicorn is dead. The people investigating Trump are in far more legal jeopardy than anyone connected with the Trump campaign. Mueller is in a race to shut down his investigation before it collapses under its own weight.

In most cases, the party out of power gains big time during an off-year election. This year the Blue wave has crashed and burned far off shore and Republicans may just run the table. The only real hope for Democrats is to win one last election with patently illegal voters.  In San Francisco they are literally inviting illegal aliens to vote. That is beyond desperate. Few Democrats, except for people like Joe Manchin, will even survive. Watch for more Democrats running for the Senate in Red States to desperately try to distance themselves from the Democratic Party and the liberal left.

If you doubt this, ask yourself a simple question. Would you like to have your position represented by the raging lunatics on CNN, MSNBC or ABC? That would be like Republicans choosing Rosanne Barr as the face of the GOP.  I rest my case.

It has become increasingly obvious that the real problem facing this country is the politicization of intelligence. It started when Barack Obama either directed or at least tolerated our intelligence agencies interfering in a National election. I know of no previous case where this happened. There has always been a strong rule against the politicization of our DOJ and our intelligence services. Both Democrats and Republicans should have quickly responded to even the hint of this. Democrats ignored this because the President was the adored Barack Obama. Republicans have been hopelessly inept at pursuing this issue.

The main stream media should have been alarmed by even the hint of this, regardless of who was President. It is unthinkable. However, they ignored problems with Obama even more than they exaggerated problems with Trump.

The recent comments by John Brennan show extreme prejudice toward Donald Trump, including prejudice against him now as President. That is totally unacceptable. That should be really obvious, even to the airheads on CNN. The Director of the CIA reports to the President of the United States. It doesn’t matter whether or not the Director likes the President or not. If the Director doesn’t feel he or she can follows orders from the President of the United States, they should resign and inform congress of their concerns. Instead, Brennan is literally accusing the President of committing treason because he didn’t like the way Trump handled a press conference. Give me a break!

To make this worse, the investigation into alleged collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia was turned into a political circus. This is particularly true when documented collusion by the Hillary Clinton campaign appears to be ignored.

The appointment of Robert Mueller was not only unnecessary; it has seriously damaged our ability to deal with the real issue. If Russia was meddling, we should stop them. Both Democrats and Republicans should be in agreement on that. But this is not done by advertising our efforts in the Washington Post and the New York Times. Instead, our counter intelligence people should take on the assignment, quietly and without publicity. That is because if we catch foreign operatives, the last thing we want to do is alert our enemies regarding our tactics and what information we have on them. The single most important intelligence in this country is the knowledge we have regarding other countries. The Pueblo Incident set us back about 50 years with regard to our intelligence activities against the Soviet Union because it told them what we knew about them and how we went about gathering that information.

But Democrats were so pissed off that Donald Trump was elected instead of Hillary, that they turned a critical intelligence operation into a public joke with zero regard to the impact on national security. Every time there is a leak from Mueller’s committee, it damages national security. Mueller has indicted several Russian spies and has provided public details on what we know about them and how we obtained that information. Why? These people will never be brought to trial. Nothing will happen to them, other than a possible very private award from Vladimir Putin. Indicting them will have no impact on stopping other people from doing the same thing. It will just make their job easier, because they know exactly how we conduct investigations and what information we can obtain.

There is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. There are no allegations of any crimes committed by the Trump campaign and certainly no hint of any crimes by Donald Trump. We know this because the DOJ has told us that on several occasions. Even James Comey said that Donald Trump was NOT under investigation.  Insulting Democrats may be rude, but it is not a crime.

Because these indictments are public, Putin has gained critical information on how we operate and what information we know about Russian activities. He has to be laughing hysterically over the stupidity of this.  This is why he graciously offered to have his intelligence people sit in on the interviews of these alleged spies. This is insane. It is the worst possible response to Russian intelligence operations against this country.

Anyone who has actually worked for an intelligence agency knows this. Highly critical intelligence is always limited on a need to know basis. For example when I flew on combat missions, the pilot and other flight crew members were not allowed to know who was in the back of the plane or what we were doing. They didn’t have a need to know.

No one, not directly involved in stopping the Russians from meddling in our election has a need to know.  That includes the DNC, or any member of the MSM. One could argue that the gang of eight has a need to know, but, Incredibly, Democrats have appointed partisan hacks to our most important congressional oversight committees. This is one reason the DOJ has been so reluctant to give them access to critical documents.

The real issue is not whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Even if that was true, and there is no evidence it was true, it wouldn’t be a crime. The real crime is politicizing a critical counter intelligence operation because the liberal left can’t come to grips with the obvious fact that Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Resisting the President of the United States puts all of us, including the liberal left, at risk. If and when there is evidence that Donald Trump has potentially committed a crime, have at it. Having your feelings hurt is not grounds for impeachment. We get it, you don’t like Donald Trump. Guess what? We don’t like Hillary Clinton. Trump won, Hillary lost. Get over it and move on. This insanity is endangering us all.

In case anyone thinks I am exaggerating with regard to the damage to national security, read the following article:

https://theintercept.com/2018/07/18/mueller-indictment-russian-hackers/

Russia will try to hack us again.  Thanks to the help from liberal Democrats, Rino Republicans, the MSM, the Mueller investigation and Republicans in congress unable or unwilling to stop this fiasco, next time they will have a much easier job of beating the system. Congratulations!

While the main stream media was hyperventilating over the Helsinki press conference, real fireworks were going off in Washington, D.C. No one in the MSM even noticed. Lisa Page testified before congress in closed door sessions for two days. We obviously don’t have a transcript of this testimony, but there are some significant clues. There hasn’t been a single leak from the Democratic side of the house. That is proof positive that nothing she said supported the Democratic narrative. The only reports have been from Republicans who said she spoke candidly and that she admitted that the text messages between her and Peter Strzok meant exactly what they said.

A little research shows that Lisa Page is married with children. Unlike Peter Strzok, she looked genuinely embarrassed over the whole fiasco. She has obviously decided to cooperate and odds are she struck a deal to avoid being indicted. Smart woman. This is a devastating turn of events for several people including: Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, James Comey and all the other members of the self-righteous fraternity at the DOJ. At a minimum, Page threw Peter Strzok under the bus. While there have been no specific leaks regarding her testimony, Republicans are reporting they have several new leads to follow. In addition, she refused to answer some questions upon advice of FBI counsel. That means there is more information that will surface later.

This has to terrify a lot of people. There are few things more dangerous than an insider who turns state’s evidence. Lisa Page was an attorney working on Andrew McCabe’s staff, so she obviously had access to information resulting from her official position. When you add in the fact that Peter Strzok was telling her inside information on a daily basis, it is quite possible that Ms. Page knows where a lot of bodies are buried. The noose is indeed closing, not on Donald Trump but rather those involved in a conspiracy to resist him.

Don’t assume that Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray are obstructing Trump’s efforts to clean the swamp. Both the FBI and the DOJ had to be embarrassed by the actions of James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok. They just may be asking Trump for enough time to handle this themselves. No one really knows what John Huber is up to in Utah.

Trump personally approved the press conference by Rod Rosenstein revealing the FBI indictments. That means Trump knew what would happen, he wanted it to happen and the main stream media may have fallen into another Trump trap. He knew they would over-react and embarrass themselves. This whole thing may have been staged by the master showman. This is also strong evidence that Rosenstein and Trump have a better working relationship than most people realize. I noted that Rosenstein was very careful to state that there was zero evidence of collusion between the Russians and any U.S. citizen.

I couldn’t help but notice that during the Press conference Putin talked about the need to protect the security of Israel. I did some quick research and there are reports that he has agreed to stop Iran from having a presence in Syria and from coordinating with Hezbollah. That would be huge and would be a concession from Russia that few would have predicted.

There is evidence that is already in progress. The main stream media just missed it:

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-russia-team-up-to-keep-iran-out-of-syria-border-region/a-43979590

Putin talked about the Russian military cooperating with the U.S. military in Syria. The following article admits that there is at least some evidence of exactly that:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/world/middleeast/american-russian-military-syria.html

There are numerous reports that Putin has already taken steps to secure the border between Syria and Israel:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-16/putin-says-agreed-with-trump-to-secure-syria-border-with-israel

It is important to remember that Putin hates terrorists. That is how he came to power in Russia. Trump, unlike Bush and Obama does not care if Assad remains in power in Syria. He is primarily concerned that Syria is not a threat to us and not a threat to Israel. Bush and Obama both wanted to remove Assad, but never offered any plan for someone more responsible taking his place. If Assad is removed there is no guarantee that the person taking his place will be any better. Instead Syria would almost certainly descend into chaos, like Libya, and ultimately some terrorist group, probably sponsored by Iran, would take over. Trump just may have cut a deal with Putin that actually holds the promise of real peace in the Middle East. It is too bad the MSM is too busy accusing him of treason to notice.

TDM