Fake News, Real News, Hot News
On the Fake News front we have some depressing real news--or, as real as polling gets:
John Hinderaker at Powerline, in The Ultimate Fake News , digs down into a poll run by The Economist/YouGov during the first week of November. The poll asked: Did Russia “tamper with vote tallies in order to get Donald Trump elected President?” Hinderaker points out what every sentient human person now knows for fact:
There is no evidence–I repeat, none–that Russia “tampered with vote tallies.” To my knowledge, no one has claimed that Russia tampered with vote tallies. I am not aware of any plausible theory on which a foreign power could tamper with vote tallies. To say that Russia tampered with vote tallies is as credible as asserting that the moon is made of green cheese.
Nevertheless.
The poll reveals, paraphrasing Hinderaker's summary, that
Two-thirds of Democrats say it is either “definitely true” (31%) or “probably true” (36%) that Russia tampered with vote tallies;
48% of women, across all party lines, have fallen for this fake news.
70% of blacks have bought it hook, line and sinker.
In the Northeast, the country’s most ignorant region, 47% have fallen for the hoax.
The knavery of a major political party that would base two years of politicking on a concerted and extremely well funded effort to deceive the American people into an hysterical fear of Russia is little short of dumbfounding. The fact that, as Hinderaker does not fail to point out, our intelligence agencies--specifically the FBI and CIA--were all in on this deception operation is simply chilling.
On the Real News front, Jeff Carlson at themarketswork points out some background on exactly who Alexander Downer is. Downer, of course, was the former Aussie High Commissioner to the UK and a funneler of $25 million dollars to the Clinton campaign, who saw it as part of his job to scrape acquaintance with George Papadopoulos and lure him to a Kensington wine bar, where he claims Papadopoulos told him that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. This supposed information then found its way to the FBI by decidedly non-standard channels and, at one point in time, was supposed to have started the whole FBI investigation of the Trump campaign (fake news).
So who is Downer? This is who:
Downer is not just an Australian diplomat. For eleven years, Downer served as Australia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), a direct counterpart to the CIA, is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Director of ASIS reports directly to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Downer personally oversaw all the intelligence operations of Australia for eleven years and is uniquely positioned to know of what he speaks of.
That's some guy to be reaching out to a Trump campaign official!
Finally, on the Hot News front, Joe DiGenova was definitely hot this morning on WMAL . The 8 minute interview is a must listen. DiGenova puts names to the "Republican opposition to Trump" that I recently alluded to, and then proceeds to trash any remaining optimism regarding the House investigation. Specifically, DiGenova
States that the Goodlatte subpoenas of Comey and Lynch are a "joke" and will amount to nothing;
In fact, the issuance of these subpoenas at such a late date is "victory for (Speaker) Ryan and (Leader) McCarthy," who did everything in their power to prevent their issuance for the past year and a half ago--but Goodlatte "buckled" to pressure from NeverTrumper Paul Ryan;
States that the new Minority Leader and protege of Ryan, Kevin McCarthy is "a political and legal idiot," a "California moron," who was part of the opposition to Trump;
Maintains that the two reasons the Republicans lost the House were 1) failing to issue subpoenas when they should have, and 2) John McCain voting against ObamaCare repeal;
Calls Goodlatte and Gowdy "embarrassments," but lauds Jordan and Meadows;
Calls Rosenstein "the single most dishonest public official in the 21st century;" adds that Rosenstein is "a mole in the Justice Department" who was at the center of the conspiracy to remove Trump, and has multiple conflicts that should have led him to recuse;
Says that the appointment of Whitaker is the most important decision for the investigation;
Calls the "absence of Jeff Sessions from that department" "fabulous;"
Calls the appointment of John Huber a "head fake" that was never seriously about getting to the truth, in particular about the Uranium One case (DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing represent the FBI's informant in that case).
Well!
I will say I'm gratified to learn that a savvy Washington DC insider like DiGenova regards Rosenstein as a "mole." My thesis all along has been that Jeff Sessions made a corrupt bargain with Democrat and NeverTrump senators: confirmation as AG in return for recusal and the handoff to Rosenstein. Sessions absolutely stabbed Trump in the back.
As for the rest? It makes total sense to me.