Briefly Noted: Political And Geo-Political Roundup
Lots of big stories out there. Well, they would be big stories if the Western world order weren’t up for grabs, but let’s do some catching up anyway.
The collapse of the case in the Whitmer “kidnapping plot” has got a lot of coverage, most directed at the FBI—and rightly so. I won’t comment on that directly. However, Doc SWC makes a point that’s always worth remembering. Yes, the FBI remains a highly competent organization, which causes one to be reflexively suspicious of major screwups, but there’s another side to that that’s worth remembering:
Of course it’s more complicated than just one tweet and a response. Each has its merits.
People who rise to the top in public life or bureaucratic organizations (military, intel, LE) aren’t necessarily the best and the brightest—you would probably never go broke betting against such a presupposition, although you’d have your losses. Consider this—and, of course, it’s a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, since we are talking GOPe, but the guy is leading in the polls yet, as Bonchie at Red State says, he decided to burn his campaign to the ground. Nowadays you can do that with a single tweet:
Who does he actually think will elect him? You do the math! OTOH, he’s probably not much less smart than most FBI managers.
The Psalmist tells us,
Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss.
In the American political system it’s at least as likely, if not more so, that stupidity and crookedness will meet in a warm embrace.
That’s not a general rule, of course, and we have before our eyes a prominent example of smarts meeting and embracing utterly shameless crookedness and disregard for the well being of America:
Listen to the brief out-take from this Rudi interview, because he ends it by calling on Bluto to give up his law license:
This leaves you wondering where stupidity begins and ends, where does the calculation enter in that you can get away with exposure of criminal conduct—because that’s what Bluto’s and Wray’s conduct really amounts to, or would amount to in any basically honest system. That’s where the difficulty lies in judging all these events: how much is stupidity, how much greed, how much cunning, how much is ideologically driven evil. Consider another example:
Obviously it didn’t take a lot of courage or moral fiber for the 95—less than half of the House GOP—to vote for basic decency and honor. It doesn’t mean those 95 are great human beings; their votes may in part have been based on simple political electoral calculus. However, one is left wondering as to the motives of the majority who didn’t sign on. You know that those 209 seats are almost universally safe seats for the GOP, and that standing against gross political corruption isn’t going to cost them a thing come November. So … what were they thinking? Am I stupid, or is this some big mystery? Is it a conscientious stand for self interest and against prosecutors prying into political corruption? But we’re relying on these people to do at least a few of the right things when they’re part of the majority!
The other side is mostly not stupid, so one supposes great evil behind their actions. And their actions are transparently aimed at suppressing all dissident views. They’re not afraid of objectively making fools of themselves, since they largely control the media that should be exposing them:
Still, one is left a bit breathless at the stunning hypocrisy. The evil of it is so palpable as to defy attempts of normal people to fathom the workings of minds like these.
There was a SCOTUS confirmation this week—another new low in our public life, but maybe it serves a purpose in the big picture of things. The tweets below link to a NYT article in which the two—presumably lefty—writers actually seem to see a few things straight on:
And Jonathan Turley has been writing about the obvious endgame for the J6 Event Project:
Turley has also, of course, been following the Sussmann pre-trial maneuvering, which raises lots of issues to interest criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors:
What is interesting about this fight is that the Clinton campaign is accused of using Perkins Coie and both Sussmann and Elias to conceal its secret campaign to push the Russian collusion story. The FEC recently fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating election rules in hiding that funding as legal costs.
Now the campaign and Perkins Coie are using attorney-client privilege to withhold evidence in a case where the former partner is accused of using his status of counsel to conceal information from the government.
…
In this case, you have third parties raising privilege arguments in refusing to allow Durham to see what was discussed in the effort to push the false Russian collusion claims. Durham argues:
“Many, if not most, of the actions taken by the employees of [Fusion GPS] thereafter do not appear to have been a necessary part of, or even related to, [Perkins Coie’s] legal advice to HFA and the DNC. Instead, contemporaneous communications and other evidence make clear that the primary purpose of the [Fusion GPS’] work relating to the U.K. Person-1 dossier, the [Alfa Bank] allegations, and other issues was to assemble and publicize allegations that would aid the campaign’s public relations goals.”
Notably, Durham also argues that any privileges, if they existed at all, were waived by the public statements of these parties. The filing cites the publication of a book and other public statements, including disclosures where “the authors appear to expressly suggest that [Perkins Coie] purposefully structured the [Fusion GPS] relationship with [Perkins Coie] to maintain confidentiality over their work.”
If Durham loses on this issue, you’ll know the fix is in—even if Sussmann takes a fall to avoid Arkancide.
Finally, on The Real War’s Monetary Front, a lucid article—much appreciated:
A Once in a Century Opportunity
“The era of liberal globalization is over. Before our eyes, a new world economic order is being formed”
Wow! How rapidly the wheel of fortune turns. It seems like only yesterday that a French Finance minister was touting the imminent the collapse of the Russian economy, and President Biden celebrated the Rouble being “reduced to rubble” – the collective West having seized foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia; threatened to seize any Russian gold it could lay its hands on; as well as imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russian individuals, companies and institutions. Total fin-war!
Well, it didn’t work out that way. It scared the bejesus out of Central Bankers around the world that their reserves might be up for seizing too if they strayed from ‘the line’. Nonetheless, Team Biden’s hubristic decision to try again to collapse of the Russian economy (first ‘go’ was 2014) may yet come to be viewed as a major geo-political inflection point.
Delightful:
https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2022/04/09/new-book-reveals-pelosi-bitterness-disdain-for-ron-klain-queen-bee-aoc-and-of-course-donald-trump-n547825
I don’t want to diminish the importance of the other stories that you highlight for us on a daily basis Mark, but I have got to say that this crapola that Barr is trying to pedal right now has me boiling mad. I can’t even begin to express the absolute contempt that I have for this pathetic excuse of a man!! Many of us are constantly frustrated by our inability to “DO” something about what has and is happening in this country and to see someone who COULD have done a great deal but chose to do nothing now attempt to absolve himself of any kind of responsibility for the mess we are in is just despicable. Bill Barr is a disgrace who, as far as I am concerned, violated his sworn duty and oath of office as AG by his actions, or inaction in this case. The unmitigated gall of the man makes Adam Schiff seem like a saint! How does this happen, I mean, where are the staunch Republicans who are calling Barr out, where?