Poland is becoming more and more interesting. They hate Russia, yet hate the Banderites (effectively Zelensky) in Ukraine and consider western Ukraine territories theirs. Yet they seem to be slaves to the U.K. and the U.S. Which way will they go?
The return was long scheduled for most companies. I was hoping that developments would allow my guy to extend his December in Germany before rotating home in the spring, but not to be. Praying for peace generally and, specifically, on the Romanian/Transnistria side of things.
With every new revelation it would appear that we have been lied to and misled by the entirety of our government. I can’t remember a time when I’ve been quite so disheartened and seeing all of the blue smoke and mirrors going on for the House leadership, well, seems like the Keystone Cops go to Washington. And they wonder why we don’t trust anyone or anything in DC.
Makes Nero seem like Churchill, and at least he could play a fiddle, these guys are totally useless.
Yep, gonna be a very interesting year to say the least.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busibodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some time be satisfied; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own consciences."
"39.It all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor."
Mark, of all things you have ever put up, I think one surprises me the most. Not that the government paid, but that it paid so little. Did they have something on someone?
I'll make a prediction. When Musk sells, and I think he eventually will have to sell, one the problems the IC will face is how to funnel money to Twitter. In all probability, no one can make it profitable, but they need to at least keep it solvent after the Left gets it back, because you don't want to go through another set of revelations like this.
And another thing. Paper can be lost, stolen, or simply be inherited by the wrong people. And yet they created this paper trail. (Shades of the text messages between Strzok and whatsherface, my memory is shorting out today) I guess you can be this careless spying on your fellow Americans but if you're trying to spy on the Russians or the Chinese this kind of stuff will get somebody killed.
My impression was that Twitter was afraid of regulation by Congress, and that's why they gave in. Note that the pressure that they bowed to and which set them on the slippery slope came from the Senate Intel committee--not the Intel agencies per se. Of course, Twitter would have understood that the Senate Intel was part of that cabal.
You're probably right. I've always subscribed to the late Angelo Codevilla's interpretation of the Russia Hoax, namely that it was like Watergate. It began small, escaped everyone's control, and became huge. Remember that Trump was expected to lose the 2016 election, and if he had none of this would have mattered, or so the authors of the Russia Hoax supposed. Once he was elected, there were people in the IC looking at hard time, so whatever had to be done was going to be done. There was no shortage of MSM figures who would push the official narrative, but the sort of media operation they needed now had to include Twitter, which would have to be brought under close government control.
I've come to the conclusion that the "Intel Community" is not really a community of equals but a pyramid. It's the CIA at the top, with the other agencies as mere foot soldiers. As the CIA is allegedly forbidden to conduct intel operations within the US, it relies on the FBI, NSA, DHS, State and the other domestic agencies who are empowered to act within the US to carry out its wishes. The CIA's role remains hidden.
Casting its outsized influence further afield, the CIA holds foreign intel operations like the UK's GCHQ in its thrall to do what the CIA cannot under the Constitution. Hence, the ultimate work-around.
I think the General Flynn hoax was a pre-emptive strike to prevent Flynn from taking over the CIA (or becoming the DNI) and cleaning out the Augean CIA stables.
Read this paragraph in light of current fight over who will be Speaker of the House:
“To guarantee both its authority and funding, the bureaucracy operates with the support of, and in consultation with, the senior leadership in Congress—which has in key respects ceased to be a partisan institution. Leaders of both parties are deeply attached to their power to supervise the administrative state. Of course, it is the Democrats who have long been the party of big government, and they are truly in charge over the long term. Nominal Republicans in Congress send out spirited fundraising letters invoking the Constitution, but in practice the gop leadership remains firmly within the bounds of establishment opinion.”
“Now let's see if Congress does anything about it. If Congress fails to act, we're kaput as a constitutional republic.”
I don’t see how we can expect the Congress critters to act when the electorate showed as much ambivalence as it did in the last election. The Republic is dead… we the people killed it. Franklin was entirely correct to wonder whether we would be able to “keep it.”
I did not know that, but I'm not surprised. You can't swing a cat without hitting a relationship (either by blood - the Rhodes brothers and the Cuomo brothers or by marriage - too many examples to list) between our government officials and our "free press". It's almost incestuous. The revolving door between government "service" and media talking head doesn't help either.
101st is back in Romania
Poland calling up 50,000 reserves
Hmm…
Poland is becoming more and more interesting. They hate Russia, yet hate the Banderites (effectively Zelensky) in Ukraine and consider western Ukraine territories theirs. Yet they seem to be slaves to the U.K. and the U.S. Which way will they go?
https://www.rt.com/news/569313-poland-react-ukraine-nazi-collaborator/
The return was long scheduled for most companies. I was hoping that developments would allow my guy to extend his December in Germany before rotating home in the spring, but not to be. Praying for peace generally and, specifically, on the Romanian/Transnistria side of things.
With every new revelation it would appear that we have been lied to and misled by the entirety of our government. I can’t remember a time when I’ve been quite so disheartened and seeing all of the blue smoke and mirrors going on for the House leadership, well, seems like the Keystone Cops go to Washington. And they wonder why we don’t trust anyone or anything in DC.
Makes Nero seem like Churchill, and at least he could play a fiddle, these guys are totally useless.
Yep, gonna be a very interesting year to say the least.
Fr. Hunwicke quotes CSLewis today:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busibodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some time be satisfied; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own consciences."
Or as Mark Twain famously noted, “Nuthin needs reformin so much as other people’s habits.”
Senate Intel Committee (SSCI) Was up to their eyeballs in the Russia hoax to take out Trump.
"39.It all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor."
Mark, of all things you have ever put up, I think one surprises me the most. Not that the government paid, but that it paid so little. Did they have something on someone?
I'll make a prediction. When Musk sells, and I think he eventually will have to sell, one the problems the IC will face is how to funnel money to Twitter. In all probability, no one can make it profitable, but they need to at least keep it solvent after the Left gets it back, because you don't want to go through another set of revelations like this.
And another thing. Paper can be lost, stolen, or simply be inherited by the wrong people. And yet they created this paper trail. (Shades of the text messages between Strzok and whatsherface, my memory is shorting out today) I guess you can be this careless spying on your fellow Americans but if you're trying to spy on the Russians or the Chinese this kind of stuff will get somebody killed.
My impression was that Twitter was afraid of regulation by Congress, and that's why they gave in. Note that the pressure that they bowed to and which set them on the slippery slope came from the Senate Intel committee--not the Intel agencies per se. Of course, Twitter would have understood that the Senate Intel was part of that cabal.
You're probably right. I've always subscribed to the late Angelo Codevilla's interpretation of the Russia Hoax, namely that it was like Watergate. It began small, escaped everyone's control, and became huge. Remember that Trump was expected to lose the 2016 election, and if he had none of this would have mattered, or so the authors of the Russia Hoax supposed. Once he was elected, there were people in the IC looking at hard time, so whatever had to be done was going to be done. There was no shortage of MSM figures who would push the official narrative, but the sort of media operation they needed now had to include Twitter, which would have to be brought under close government control.
More on that comparison later.
I've come to the conclusion that the "Intel Community" is not really a community of equals but a pyramid. It's the CIA at the top, with the other agencies as mere foot soldiers. As the CIA is allegedly forbidden to conduct intel operations within the US, it relies on the FBI, NSA, DHS, State and the other domestic agencies who are empowered to act within the US to carry out its wishes. The CIA's role remains hidden.
Casting its outsized influence further afield, the CIA holds foreign intel operations like the UK's GCHQ in its thrall to do what the CIA cannot under the Constitution. Hence, the ultimate work-around.
I think the General Flynn hoax was a pre-emptive strike to prevent Flynn from taking over the CIA (or becoming the DNI) and cleaning out the Augean CIA stables.
Interesting perspective. Probably overall correct.
https://twitter.com/Cadence4Trump/status/1610397912244314113
Thanks for sharing that...excellent analysis!
Fantastic read!
Read this paragraph in light of current fight over who will be Speaker of the House:
“To guarantee both its authority and funding, the bureaucracy operates with the support of, and in consultation with, the senior leadership in Congress—which has in key respects ceased to be a partisan institution. Leaders of both parties are deeply attached to their power to supervise the administrative state. Of course, it is the Democrats who have long been the party of big government, and they are truly in charge over the long term. Nominal Republicans in Congress send out spirited fundraising letters invoking the Constitution, but in practice the gop leadership remains firmly within the bounds of establishment opinion.”
Thanks!
“Now let's see if Congress does anything about it. If Congress fails to act, we're kaput as a constitutional republic.”
I don’t see how we can expect the Congress critters to act when the electorate showed as much ambivalence as it did in the last election. The Republic is dead… we the people killed it. Franklin was entirely correct to wonder whether we would be able to “keep it.”
Just finished the Ellmers article--been otherwise occupied. Terrific.
I believe this is true.
I did not know that, but I'm not surprised. You can't swing a cat without hitting a relationship (either by blood - the Rhodes brothers and the Cuomo brothers or by marriage - too many examples to list) between our government officials and our "free press". It's almost incestuous. The revolving door between government "service" and media talking head doesn't help either.