A funereal stain

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I’ve had numerous opportunities to weigh in with my thoughts about John McCain, here on the blog and on my radio show. Until now I’ve deferred. But no longer. When I heard the above persons — and more — turn the McCain enshrinement into nothing more than a partisan offensive against President Trump, the gloves are now off.

Barack Hussein Obama, George Bush and daughter Megan McCain decided purposely to utilize use the funeral of Senator John McCain as the platform from which to slam the current President of the United States.

Thank you all, thusly, for allowing me to remove my gloves and cease my silence, allowing me to speak and write freely. Because, after all, you and John McCain went there first. Not me. Remember: John McCain had this event planned to the gnat’s eyelash months ago. There wasn’t an extemporaneous element in the entire shebang.

First this: let there be no mistake. John McCain served the US Navy with honor and sacrifice. He was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese in 1967 after having his A-4E Skyhawk shot down over Hanoi. He was kept prisoner from 1967 to 1973 at the infamous Hanoi Hilton where he was tortured, beaten, and eventually made an anti-US “confession.” Still, he refused to meet with any number of anti-war groups where he could have curried favor with his captors.

Five and a half years later following release, and for the rest of his life, McCain’s wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head.

There is no denying: McCain held his mud and was, beyond any doubt, one tough motherfucker in captivity. I would be shockingly in remiss if I failed to mention his numerous military decorations and awards which would include the Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal.

Then came politics. And the McCain funeral on Saturday.

The John McCain funeral became #Resistance itself. How does that happen? How? Easy.

When the person who planned the funeral meticulously for months — John McCain himself — insisted that it do so. Whom to include. Whom to exclude.

So now I am free. Free to point out the obvious and the manner and fashion in which I shall be judged at my funeral. Not what I did in my 20s. But what I’ve done most recently. And perhaps properly so because, I freely admit, I am no one’s patsy and, through life, I’ve been rather harsh and judgmental. Just as Life has been harsh and judgmental towards me. Translated: “what have you done for me recently?”

“Recently,” John McCain has shat the GOP bedsheets for about the past two decades and made it not about anyone else but him. And just as his military history was the truth, here come some more unfortunate truths about John McCain.

McCain’s funeral planning was punctilious, detailed and purposeful. From MSNBC:

President Trump was specifically not invited. Purposely. So when you heard from the Fake News sources that “President Trump failed to attend,” etc, that was the result of McCain’s wishes, not Trump’s. So Trump went golfing. Just like Obama did during Scalia’s funeral. And Obama was invited to Scalia’s funeral.

From the BusinessInsider.com:

John McCain wanted Obama and Bush to speak at his funeral, but Trump’s not invited

by Ellen Cranley

Americans from Arizona to Washington, DC, will have the chance to pay their respects to Sen. John McCain at multiple memorials honoring the six-term senator and war hero who died from brain cancer on Saturday at the age of 81.

But President Donald Trump will most likely not be among the attendees.

The New York Times reported in May that Trump would not be invited to McCain’s funeral. Two White House officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the president was asked not to attend.

It didn’t stop at Trump. Sarah Palin and some of McCain’s campaign advisors were also asked not to attend. From my good friend Susan Katz Keating’s article at People magazine:

John McCain’s 2008 Running Mate Sarah Palin Is Not Invited to His Funeral: ‘It’s Sad’

by Susan Keating, 8-29-18

President Donald Trump and former John McCain presidential running mate Sarah Palin are not invited to memorial services for the iconic Arizona senator, multiple sources tell PEOPLE.

“Two names you won’t see on the guest list: Trump and Palin,” says a Capitol Hill source with knowledge of funeral plans for McCain, who died of brain cancer Saturday at age 81.

“Invitations were not extended” to the two political figures, confirms Carla Eudy, a fundraiser who has worked with and been friends with the McCain family for decades.

A source with knowledge of the funeral arrangements adds that several longtime McCain staffers were also removed from the invite list in recent days by Eudy.

And more “disinvites” from Politico.com:

Top 2008 campaign aides shut out of McCain funeral

by Eliana Johnson

Campaign manager Steve Schmidt, senior adviser Nicolle Wallace, and longtime strategist John Weaver were snubbed, as was former running mate Sarah Palin.

John McCain’s funeral will spotlight some of the late senator’s political rivals — but some of his closest campaign aides are being excluded from the proceedings.

Three of the most prominent members of his 2008 presidential campaign — campaign manager Steve Schmidt, senior adviser Nicolle Wallace and longtime strategist John Weaver — were not invited to any of McCain’s services, according to three people familiar with the guest list.

But let’s go back a bit. Because John McCain is clearly inviolate. Just ask the American Media Maggots.

From TruePundit.com:

NO MERCY: John McCain’s First Wife Speaks Out; McCain Dumped Her After Crippling Car Wreck, Angering Ronald & Nancy Reagan

Let’s harken back to 2008 to cover some important background intelligence about Sen. John McCain who has been lashing out at President Trump and others from his apparent deathbed.

McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.

But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.

And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

What happened? Kicked to the curb. Carol married one of McCain’s midshipman classmates in 1958, then divorced as a single mother and married John McCain in 1965. But when McCain returned from Vietnam, Carol was either in a wheelchair or in crutches due to her accident. McCain’s marriage, however, began to falter due to his partying away from home and extramarital affairs. He was young and fine. She was not so much.

In 1979, McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley. He filed for divorce in 1980. The uncontested divorce became official in April of 1980. Carol never remarried.

But wait, there’s more.

All wasn’t butter and honey during McCain’s POW era. There were “issues” with McCain’s POW-MIA stance.

Again: why was McCain an obstructionist with regards to the POW – MIA issue?

So how do I remember John McCain? I remember him primarily in two ways, first from my own blog on June of this year:

Who urged the IRS under Lerner to pummel Conservative groups? That’s right: John McCain’s office.

Yes, certainly, I knew John McCain was pretty much an unmitigated asshole who customarily made any issue about him and should have simply been honest and changed his (R) to a (D) and been done with it. It’s no secret that McCain threatened to step across the aisle to the Demorat side.

Hell, John McCain has essentially been a functional Demorat for years.

So this should truly come as not much of a surprise, from the WashingtonTimes.com:

McCain’s office urged IRS to use audits as weapons to destroy political advocacy groups

by Larry O’Connor

A new report from Judicial Watch reveals a concerted effort from Sen. John McCain’s office to urge the IRS under Lois Lerner to strike out against political advocacy groups, including tea party organizations.

Thanks to the results of an extensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that has been delayed for many years, Judicial Watch has obtained several key emails from 2013 that chronicle McCain’s and Democrat Sen. Carl Levin’s efforts to reign in the advocacy groups that sprouted immediately following the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court.

Wondrous. John McCain keeping his end of the bargain to ensure his application to the Demorat Party isn’t round filed.

The documents uncovered by Judicial Watch include notes from a high-level meeting on April 30, 2013 between powerful members of McCain’s and Levin’s staffs and Lerner, then-director of tax exempt organizations at the IRS under Barack Obama. The notes reveal the suggestions from McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner who urges Lerner to use IRS audits on the advocacy groups to financially ruin them.

From JudicialWatch.com:

Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.  Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the “worst decisions I have ever seen.”

Except, well, it was the law.

In the full notes of an April 30 meeting, McCain’s high-ranking staffer Kerner recommends harassing non-profit groups until they are unable to continue operating. Kerner tells Lerner, Steve Miller, then chief of staff to IRS commissioner, Nikole Flax, and other IRS officials, “Maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous.” In response, Lerner responded that “it is her job to oversee it all:”

Judicial Watch continued:

“The Obama IRS scandal is bipartisan – McCain and Democrats who wanted to regulate political speech lost at the Supreme Court, so they sought to use the IRS to harass innocent Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama IRS scandal is not over – as Judicial Watch continues to uncover smoking gun documents that raise questions about how the Obama administration weaponized the IRS, the FEC, FBI, and DOJ to target the First Amendment rights of Americans.”

The truth? McCain was every bit the political backstabber and underminer — and more so — than Trump will ever be, because McCain has had so much more training, education and experience in the field.

You recall that in July of 2017, in direct contravention of his campaign, he voted NO on the ObamaKare repeal:

We conveniently forget that. We also somehow conveniently forget this, from TruePundit.com:

McCain illegally fed Classified FBI intelligence to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to Set Up Trump Tower Meeting; FBI Brass Helped Plot Scheme

Sen. John McCain brokered a clandestine and illegal deal, feeding Classified FBI intelligence to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to discredit Donald Trump prior to the 2016 election, according to federal law enforcement insiders.

McCain, a sitting GOP Senator, was provided names of “problematic Russians” the FBI had recently investigated or were in the process of investigating. Top FBI executives worked with McCain to provide the names of the Russians, FBI insiders confirmed. Then McCain, handed the list off to Fusion GPS who was working with Christopher Steele.

One of the names on the list was embattled Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya who was considered an international security risk and prior to the June 2016 sit down at Trump Tower was not even allowed entry into the United States or the UK, federal sources said.

Veselnitskaya also set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower weeks after her name was handed off to McCain. The same meeting was used as an excuse to wiretap Trump associates.

A new and quite disturbing wrinkle in the FBI, Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, and John McCain saga.

FBI insiders said the new McCain and Fusion GPS revelations clearly detail a conspiracy within the FBI to railroad Donald Trump’s presidential aspirations.

And it is all quite illegal.

FBI agents are calling for Congress to investigate McCain’s involvement with the FBI prior to the 2016 election. Specifically, FBI insiders point to meetings McCain attended in March and April 2016 when it is believed the FBI supplied names of Russians to McCain who then handed the classified Intel off to Fusion GPS.

I wrote about that on my own blog in January of 2018 when I published:

BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith: “I’m proud we published the Trump-Russia dossier”

Exactly one year ago BuzzFeed published what’s now known simply as “the dossier”: a set of reports put together by a former British intelligence officer named Christopher Steele during the 2016 presidential campaign. The 35-page dossier suggested that the Russian government had both compromised and colluded with President-elect Donald Trump.

Our choice to publish the dossier was greeted by outrage from two sources. Journalistic traditionalists didn’t like the idea of sharing an unfiltered, unverified document with the public, whatever the caveats and context. NBC’s Chuck Todd told me on air, “You just published fake news.” Mr. Trump agreed. He described CNN’s reporting on the dossier as “fake news” and called BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage.”

Then said:

And from Breitbart.com:

Fusion GPS Admits They Used John McCain to Pass Anti-Trump Dossier to Obama-Era Intel Agencies

by Aaron Klein

EILAT, Israel — The founders of the controversial opposition research firm Fusion GPS admitted that they helped the researcher hired to compile the infamous, largely discredited 35-page dossier on President Donald Trump to share the document with Sen. John McCain.

The goal of providing the dossier to McCain, the Fusion GPS founders explained, was to pass the information contained in the questionable document to the U.S. intelligence community under the Obama administration.

The disclosure raises questions about whether McCain knew that the information he delivered to the intelligence community was actually an opposition document reportedly funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

McCain’s office did not reply yesterday to a Breitbart News request for comment on the matter.

Last December, it was revealed that it was McCain who notoriously passed the controversial dossier documents produced by the Washington opposition research firm Fusion GPS to then FBI Director James Comey, whose agency reportedly utilized the dossier as a basis for its probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Writing in a New York Times oped last Tuesday, Fusion GPS founders Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritch relate that they helped McCain share their anti-Trump dossier with the intelligence community via an “emissary.”

But what’s happening now?

From MintPressNews.com:

Former Clinton Foundation Donors Flocking To The McCain Institute

by Whitney Webb

In years past, the Clinton Foundation enjoyed significant donations from individuals and countries that sought to purchase influence in Washington. But now, the McCain Institute is their new darling, having received large sums from the likes of George Soros and Saudi Arabia.

How odd.

WASHINGTON, D.C.– With the Clinton Foundation standing at the heart of the many scandals that dogged Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, it was no small wonder that donations to her family’s controversial charity began to dry up soon after her loss last November. Just weeks after the election, donations to the foundation from foreign governments plummeted, some as much as 87 percent, while donations from the corporate sector dropped by 37 percent.

While this was clearly devastating news for the Clintons – essentially signaling a drastic decline in their political clout – it has now become clear that the foundation of another former U.S. presidential candidate has gained the favor of many of the Clinton Foundation’s former donors. Republican Senator John McCain (R-AZ), current chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, has seen donations to the McCain Institute surge, particularly donations from ostensibly “liberal” donors such as George Soros and other long-time Clinton backers.

The McCain Institute is meant to serve as the senator’s “legacy” upon his eventual retirement and claims to be “dedicated to advancing human rights, dignity, democracy, and freedom.” Like the Clinton Foundation, the McCain Institute is a tax-exempt, non-profit foundation with approximately $8.1 million in assets.

Of which you’ve heard nothing from the LDAMM, the Leftists, Demorats and American Media Maggots. Even TheAtlantic.com wrote:

When John McCain Was a Democrat (Almost)

by Joshua Green

Over the weekend, John McCain led the fight against repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (unsuccessfully) and the Dream Act (successfully), the latter of which McCain himself originally sponsored. Afterward, Joe Klein unloaded both barrels on him–“a troglodyte,” “puerile and feckless”–bitterly wondering what became of the man he once admired.

It’s a good question. McCain has gotten a lot of richly deserved criticism for abandoning a whole host of what had seemed to be staunchly held positions for reasons of political expediency–to fend off a primary challenge from the right. But to my mind, even this criticism doesn’t capture the full distance of the ideological journey McCain has traveled over the last six or seven years. I’m particularly sensitive to this journey because I wrote a big piece about McCainright around the time he was at his leftward-most extreme, in mid 2002–a time when Democrats were still suffering through the hangover of Al Gore’s loss and McCain seemed a mighty and principled war hero, the “maverick” who had just confronted his party’s right wing and almost prevailed.

Then:

As a war hero who’s hawkish on foreign policy, he more than matches Bush on the military front. As a reform-minded foe of corporate welfare, Big Tobacco, and the Republican right, he is peerless. McCain is Bush’s most vociferous critic, voted against the president’s tax cut, forced his hand on campaign finance reform, and federalized airport security in the face of White House opposition. He has co-sponsored numerous bills with Democrats–many of them in the presidential-aspirant class–requiring background checks at gun shows (Lieberman), a patients’ bill of rights (Edwards), better fuel-efficiency standards in cars and SUVs (Kerry), and expanded national service programs (Bayh). He is even drafting a bill with Lieberman to reduce greenhouse gasses and mitigate global warming.

John: just be honest. Clear.

At least we straightened out the Bush Legacy. They too, like McCain, should have been honest and clear and placed a (D) after their name instead of an (R). Every Bush is dead to me. Hell. I live in California. Where every bush, literally, is dead to me due to drought and forest mismanagement.

So: civility, bi-partisanship and compromise. That’s what we got out of the McCain funeral, was it not?

Eh, sorry, no.

Precisely the opposite. The DC elites and the Leftists, Demorats and American Media Maggots all drooled over the McCain funeral because McCain pissed all over the Conservative Cake many times. McCain was no Conservative. McCain was all about McCain. McCain was no saint. McCain was no god. He was just another armored DC politician who ultimately voted his own benefit. No more, no less than so many others. That he got cancer was due to life span. I’ve had cancer three times. I’m still here. Does that make me a saint? When I kak will I be knighted and revered? Hell no.

“It was less a eulogy than it was a call to arms.”

When John McCain was proffered the opportunity to take the proverbial “high road” as complained-about regards Trump, McCain took the opposite path. As did many of the people in attendance who spoke at the McCain funeral.

John McCain, in his final influential hours, had a chance to make it all not about division. But he failed. And divided. He was no saint. He was no paragon of virtue. He was just a flawed little man who happened to step into DC politics, enjoyed it, enjoyed the power, drew lines, set boundaries, and made it all about him. Just. Like. Every. Other. DC. Politician.

The LDAMM embraced John McCain, quite frankly, because he was a useful tool at various moments. McCain embraced them on many occasions, and he opposed Trump. If there were such a thing as a classic, ingrained-like-a-tick “Republican” in DC, it was John McCain. Trump stepped in to blow that paradigm up. Hence the McCain/Trump controversies. McCain was all Deep State. Trump was an advocate for the disassemblage thereof.

Those who were proscribed from the event had no opportunity. Even those who were predominantly inoffensive.

And, truly, isn’t that McCain’s real legacy?

One bitter dude who didn’t sit in the Oval Office.

BZ

 

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California, kids, milk, straws and water: be careful, you could go to jail

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Fig. 1: Soon, you could go to jail in California for serving this iced tea to a child. And for two separate and distinct violations.

No. I’m not kidding.

Straws are already “illegal” to serve in certain California jurisdictions. From SFGate.com:

Santa Barbara approves jail time for straw ban violators

by Filipa Ioannou

As bans on plastic straws are cropping up in municipalities up and down the West Coast, Santa Barbara has escalated things with a ban that includes the possibility of jail time for repeat plastic straw-distributing offenders.

The Santa Barbara ordinance makes it illegal for businesses to hand out plastic straws, and they’re also forbidden from handing out plastic cutlery without first confirming the customer wants it.

Each individual straw distributed reportedly counts as a separate violation, and a second violation can trigger fines from $100 up to $1,000, and six months in jail. Assistant City Attorney Scott Vincent told Reason that in practice, jail time would only be considered for repeat offenders under especially egregious circumstances.

Okay, so let the memes commence:

This is not a statewide ban yet. Yet. But hell. You know it’s coming.

Reason.com weighed in, the Libertarian journal.

But moreover, why is that solitary plastic tumbler of iced tea so offensive, and why would it possibly warrant two — count ’em, two — distinct and separate offenses in the eyes of Fornicalia lawmakers?

Here’s a law that is about to be passed. From SacBee.com:

KIDS’ MEALS WOULD HAVE TO BE MARKETED WITH WATER OR MILK UNDER CALIFORNIA BILL

by Alexei Koseff

Would you like water or milk with that?

In an effort to combat childhood obesity and other diseases linked to sugar consumption, California may soon require restaurants to serve water or unflavored milk as the default beverage for children’s meals that pair a food item with a drink.

Senate Bill 1192, which passed the Assembly on Thursday, would allow customers to specifically order alternatives, such as soda or juice. The bill is silent on whether the restaurant would have to change extra for the substitute.

“Kids’ meals shouldn’t come with a side order of diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease,” said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, who carried a cup with nine packets of sugar draped over the side to demonstrate how much sugar is in a small soda.

AYFKM? Of course not. No one in California has a sense of humor.

Certainly none of the CARG, or what I term the California Reich Gestapo.

BZ

 

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The retired Intelligentsia Elites are threatened

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Intelligentsia Elite bromance: Comey, Brennan and Clapper. Isn’t it somehow fitting and appropriate that Brennan wears the red tie that day?

Those threatened include John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, Susan Rice, and a host of individuals — some of whom, in retrospect, possibly shouldn’t have been issued a security clearance in the first place: think Communist John Brennan.

That said, the Intelligentsia Elites are up in arms at the impertinence of President Donald Trump! Fie, they say! How can the guy with the dead orange cat on his head determine who keeps a security clearance? The temerity of this interloper! They are the DC Intel cognoscenti, the highbrows, the literati.

First, the predicating August 15th event as covered by the WashingtonTimes.com:

Brennan first to fall as Trump kicks off review of Obama officials’ access

by Dave Boyer

President Trump on Wednesday personally revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director John O. Brennan, a bitter and vocal Trump critic, citing his “erratic conduct and behavior” as their clashes escalated over the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

It was the first move in a White House review of access of top Obama-era intelligence and law enforcement officials, and it is believed to be the first time a president has taken such a direct and public role in shutting off a security clearance.

In a statement, Mr. Trump declared that Mr. Brennan has “a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”

Agreed.

However: time to fight back! they say. Let’s watch one of these Hoovering IEs try to justify their clearance as the lunatic silver threads of liquid spittle are flung all about the CNN studio. Even the Floor Director was disgusted, and the janitor was certainly less than pleased upon cleanup later that night. Those camera lenses are expensive.

Good old Phil Mudd. A liar then and a liar now. We’ll get back to him. Trust me.

In the meantime, from the PatriotChronicles.com:

THE TRUTH COMES OUT ABOUT HOW PROFITABLE THE SECURITY CLEARANCES ARE

by Simon Daly

It has become more and more apparent that it was a good move to take away the security clearances. Hannity talked about the book “Compromised,” on his radio show.  Peter Schweizer, President of The Government Accountability and Institute, gave the forward for the book by Seamus Bruner. In the Forward Schweizer clued us all into how intelligence agents, like Comey and Mueller, were working the system. But this was not meager connections. They made millions.

But wait. Isn’t it Phil Mudd who insisted, at the highest decibel levels possible, that he receives no remuneration from the government? And wasn’t it Paris Dennard who continued to insist that wasn’t necessarily the case? With, ahem, private contracts?

Yes to both. Private contracts.

“James Comey’s net worth has skyrocketed 4000 percent. By the time he left [the Department of Justice] in 2005 and came back in 2013, Comey made 6.1 million dollars after [Robert] Mueller granted his employer, Lockheed Martin — the largest contractor in history — a billion-dollar boondoggle. Under Mueller’s direction, the FBI granted multiple spy contracts to Lockheed Martin while Comey was advising them on the legality of their operations. Comey also received another six million dollars working for one of the world’s largest hedge funds and an additional $500,000 for unused vacation time.”

“Mueller cashed in, as well. In 2013, when Comey took over the FBI while Mueller left to start consulting at a consulting firm, he made more than $3.5 million dollars in about a year, giving speeches and representing clients who had previously enriched his FBI director; clients like the world’s most profitable spy corporation.”

But wait. Let’s visit Hypocrisy Central for a moment.

“Two of Mueller’s former clients are cooperating with the special counsel, Facebook [and] Apple. Mueller’s former client, the paragon of privacy Apple Inc. provided the special counsel with access to Paul Manafort’s iCloud despite making a public spectacle protecting the San Bernardino terrorist’s privacy.

Doesn’t one hand wash another’s back once government service is concluded? Of course. It’s the Gravy Train. “The spice must flow.”

“Jim Comey and Robert Mueller are very close friends,” said Schweizer. “They met each other in the 1990s at the Justice Department and have really been sort of this tag team from the beginning. When one of them is in the private sector and one is in government, they steer contracts in the direction of people they’re affiliated with and vice-versa. It’s a very troubling story that shows the revolving door applies every bit as much to these gentlemen, and crony capitalism applies every bit as much as it does to other people in Washington.”

Security clearances are under the gun like never before. Thank God. Were you aware that roughly 5 million people have various federal security clearances in the US? And mustn’t you ask: just how many of those are totally unwarranted?

Trump, intelligence officials clash over ‘golden ticket’ security clearances

by Ben Wolfgang and Guy Taylor

They’re prestigious, fiercely held and often highly valuable — and they’re under the microscope like never before.

Led by President Trump, critics have zeroed in on the proliferation of security clearances and cast them as “golden tickets” to high-paying jobs and positions of power and influence, holding them up as shining examples of the Washington carousel that allows the most exclusive establishment insiders to benefit from their status long after they have left public service.

Mr. Trump’s defenders say past administrations have gone far beyond the pale in their broadsides against his policies and have leveraged their security clearances to make partisan critiques seem more authoritative.

The offended IEs fire back.

Former officials say that any effort to systematically revoke the clearances of such political opponents could undermine the continuity of defense and national security contacts by upending an institutional memory pipeline.

But some concede that those who hang on to their clearances can gain “vast sums of money,” and there is a growing push in the White House and on Capitol Hill to overhaul the system.

“I think there’s no doubt that security clearances are a golden ticket in D.C.,” said Rick Manning, president of the conservative nonprofit group Americans for Limited Government, who argued in favor of revoking Mr. Brennan’s security clearance.

“But it’s not necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “People who get security clearances have earned them. The challenge we have right now, however, is that there are some former Obama administration officials, including Brennan, who seem to be using information they have access to for partisan political purposes and to carry out score-settling.”

D’ya think? And I would ask, what happened to ol’ BZ the microsecond he left the embracing arms of the FBI or the US Marshal? That’s right. His security clearances were de-rezzed right out of the system along with every password or access point he once possessed. AND RIGHTLY SO. It’s a need to know vs a need to share. My needs had ceased. Properly. Rightfully. Logically.

White House National Security Adviser John R. Bolton suggested recently that he offers a personal example of how a clearance can benefit an individual and a company.

“In my case, my clearance was active at the time when I was a member of a board of directors of a company that did classified work for the government and it was felt important that some of the directors be able to access that information,” he told ABC News on Sunday. “There were other times when I was a civilian that my classification was dormant, my security clearance was dormant, and I think that’s appropriate, too.”

Mr. Bolton suggested a review of the entire system of deciding who has access to sensitive information. High-level officials also have said the approval and review processes take entirely too long.

There’s another serious problem.

“When John Brennan makes unsubstantiated allegations like Vladimir Putin could blackmail the president of the United States, and he says those things while he’s still holding a top-secret clearance, foreign spies upon whom the U.S. intelligence community relies to steal secrets on our behalf … might assume Brennan knows something the rest of us do not,” said Daniel Hoffman, a retired CIA senior clandestine services officer. “In my view, Brennan has been wildly irresponsible, but it would be [up to] the security experts to determine whether he, in fact, mishandled classified [information] or should no longer be trusted with classified information.”

Senator Richard Burr asked Brennan to put up or shut up.

Sen. Richard Burr, who leads the Senate Selective Committee on Intelligence, issued a sharp rebuke of former CIA Director John Brennan, saying that if he has evidence of Russian collusion he should have presented it to his panel.

The North Carolina Republican’s statement was remarkable in that he has adhered to a strict nonpartisan approach as the committee pursues a more than yearlong investigation into Russia’s hacking Democratic Party computers and other interference.

After President Trump revoked Mr. Brennan’s security clearance Thursday, the ex-top spy claimed there is no doubt candidate Trump colluded with the Kremlin. On Twitter, Mr. Brennan has accused the president of committing felonies, such as treason. He has asserted Mr. Trump is being blackmailed by Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Burr suggested Mr. Brennan has become a partisan ex-director whose statements are “purely political and based on conjecture.”

Even James Clapper wasn’t a lockstep friend of Brennan. From TheHill.com:

Clapper: Brennan’s rhetoric is becoming an issue

by Megan Keller

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Sunday that he thinks former CIA Director John Brennan‘s rhetoric is becoming an issue “in and of itself.”

“John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself,” Clapper said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “John is subtle like a freight train and he’s gonna say what’s on his mind.” 

Clapper’s comments came in response to an op-ed penned by Brennan in The New York Times this week, in which he wrote that President Trumpcolluded with Russia during the 2016 election. 

Clapper said he empathized with Brennan, but voiced concerns for Brennan’s fiery rhetoric toward Trump and his administration.

“I think that the common denominator among all of us [in the intelligence community] that have been speaking up … is genuine concern about the jeopardy and threats to our institutions,” Clapper said.

But isn’t it odd how the “17 intelligence agencies” that came out against Trump tried to brand themselves as “apolitical” and “unbiased” when, in fact, they were the most politically biased? To the point where even Clapper is having misgivings?

Then we have the issue of James Clapper himself leaking material to CNN, his “new” host network upon retirement. From the WashingtonTimes.com:

Obama DNI Clapper leaked dossier story on Trump: House intel report

by Rowan Scarborough, 4-28-18

James Clapper, while the nation’s highest ranking intelligence officer, leaked to CNN sleazy anti-Trump information contained in the Christoper Steele dossier that was privately briefed to the president-elect, according to a new House intelligence report.

Now a paid CNN analyst, Mr. Clapper had denied he was the leaker. He is an ardent Trump critic and has predicted his downfall.

President Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence, Mr. Clapper admitted to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in private testimony that he briefed CNN’s Jake Tapper in early January 2017.

He had pressed FBI Director James Comey to present to Mr. Trump at Trump Tower on Jan. 6, 2017 the dossier’s salacious parts, according to Mr. Comey’s own memos.

CNN then ran a story on Jan. 10, 2017 about the briefing which said the Russians own compromising material on the new president concerning prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.

The report gave the dossier instant legitimacy. Its unverified charges have dogged the Trump White House ever since.

Here is more from the Federalist.com:

Declassified Congressional Report: James Clapper Lied About Dossier Leaks To CNN

by Sean Davis, 4-27-18

A newly declassified report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections reveals that former intelligence chief James Clapper lied to Congress about information he shared with CNN on the infamous Steele dossier.

Buried within a newly declassified congressional report on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections is a shocking revelation: former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper not only leaked information about the infamous Steele dossier and high-level government briefings about it to CNN, he also may have lied to Congress about the matter.

In one of the findings within the 253-page report, the House intelligence committee wrote that Clapper leaked details of a dossier briefing given to then-President-elect Donald Trump to CNN’s Jake Tapper, lied to Congress about the leak, and was rewarded with a CNN contract a few months later.

Back to John Brennan. Remember the Brennan v Feinstein wars? Where Brennan insisted his CIA didn’t spy on Congress? Except that, uh, it did?

Inquiry by C.I.A. Affirms It Spied on Senate Panel

by Mark Mazzetti & Carl Hulse

WASHINGTON — An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program.

The report by the agency’s inspector general also found that C.I.A. officers read the emails of the Senate investigators and sent a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on false information, according to a summary of findings made public on Thursday. One official with knowledge of the report’s conclusions said the investigation also discovered that the officers created a false online identity to gain access on more than one occasion to computers used by the committee staff.

The inspector general’s account of how the C.I.A. secretly monitored a congressional committee charged with supervising its activities touched off angry criticism from members of the Senate and amounted to vindication for Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee’s Democratic chairwoman, who excoriated the C.I.A. in March when the agency’s monitoring of committee investigators became public.

Demorats lost confidence in Brennan way back in 2014? What happened since then? Oh yeah: Trump.

But anger among lawmakers grew throughout the day. Leaving a nearly three-hour briefing about the report in a Senate conference room, members of both parties called for the C.I.A. officers to be held accountable, and some said they had lost confidence in Mr. Brennan’s leadership. “This is a serious situation and there are serious violations,” said Mr. Chambliss, generally a staunch ally of the intelligence community. He called for the C.I.A. employees to be “dealt with very harshly.”

How soon we forget. What happened to Brennan? Nothing.

Back to James Clapper. I’m going to be honest and clear, the two things I value most. James Clapper lied baldly, nakedly, abjectly, to the American public and to Congress. Does anyone remember:

By the way, this is classic, textbook body language displayed by Clapper to indicate lying. His right hand is on top of his head. He refuses to look Ron Wyden in the face as he answers, glances down and up, and rubs his head as an affectation. You could — and instructors do — utilize this video in classes on interview and interrogation. As in: here’s the quintessential example of public lying.

Here is another example of James Clapper lying in March of 2017 because, in retrospect, we know this to be false because of Flynn, Stephanopoulos, Manafort and Cohen prosecutions, as in: how’d they get the information otherwise?

Anyone besides me starting to see something of a thread or a pattern or a trend here? Perhaps why I presented the old “contrast and compare” back-and-forth method used by my various professors in college?

Now let’s go back to Phil Mudd. Remember when Paris Dennard said “it’s profitable for them after they leave government because if you have a security clearance your contracts and your consulting pay you more money because of the access you have.”

Mudd then testalies and says he has no contracts with the government that pay him anything. Really? Mudd completely deflects and fails to answer Dennard’s question. I began to think: here we have the meat of the matter. Mudd’s meal tickets are being threatened: his power, connections and cash.

A few facts. Mudd joined the CIA in 1985. He was an analyst, and then worked for the CTC in 1992. In 2005, Mudd was appointed by then-FBI Director Robert Mueller to the FBI’s newly-created National Security Branch as Deputy Director. See the connection?

Mueller and Mudd worked together a little over four years. He was later promoted to the office of Senior Intelligence Adviser at the FBI. He served in that position until he retired from government service in March of 2010. All due his good friend Robert Mueller.

So I did a little digging. Remember when Phil Mudd says he doesn’t get a government dime for anything? Number one, I don’t really believe that for a moment, and number two? I wonder what he does now after retirement?

What if I were to tell you that Phil Mudd created his own security consulting firm called — wait for it — Mudd Management, and that he is its president, would you be shocked? From his Mudd Management bio page at PhilMudd.com:

Mr. Mudd is the President of Mudd Management, a company specializing in security consulting; analytic training; and public speaking about security issues.

Mudd also sells T-shirts. Sort of like the bodega/segunda of retired intelligence officers. You can get your security consulting as well as T-shirts that say:

So did Phil Mudd lie? How can I count the ways? His very checkbook depends desperately on holding onto his security clearance. His security clearance is monetized. He loses cash, power and prestige if its ripped from his cloying little hands.

Finally, there’s this from Lee Smith at RealClearInvestigations.com:

Privately, Intel Officials Back Shutting Out Brennan, Clapper

President Trump has been criticized for politicizing the intelligence community by threatening to strip the security clearances of former top officials including John Brennan and James Clapper. But numerous past and present senior intelligence officials say that the Obama administration started the politicization — and that revoking the clearances of those who abuse the privilege for partisan purposes may help right the ship.

“As is often the case with the Trump administration, the rollout of the policy is bad, but the idea driving the policy is sound,” said one senior intelligence official who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke to RealClearInvestigations only on condition of anonymity. “Under some Obama-era intelligence chiefs, intelligence was used as a political weapon. We need to root that out, not reward it.”

Thank you very much.

But: shhhhh. Don’t tell anyone that most of the intelligence community secretly thinks that Comey, Brennan and Clapper are outright boobs that are tarnishing the profession.

Take away security clearances from those who retired and/or fired or resign? Hell yes. All of them. Make everyone prove that they have a need to know again.

Who’s next up to bid for removal? Read this.

BZ

 

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BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 8-30-18 with JEFF DUNETZ

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Featuring Right thinking from a left brain, doing the job the American Media Maggots won’t, embracing ubiquitous, sagacious perspicacity and broadcasting behind enemy lines in Occupied Fornicalia from the veritable Belly of the Beast, the Bill Mill in Sacramento, Fornicalia, I continue to proffer my thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to utilize their studio and hijack their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, thanks to my shameless contract — as well as appear on the Sack Heads: Against Tyranny Show every Wednesday night.

Hour 1: BZ spoke with JEFF DUNETZ of LidBlog.com. “An act we’ve known for all these years,” Jeff is great people and he proved it during this interview.

Hour 2: BZ And so much more. Listen to find out.

If you care to listen to the show in Spreaker, click on the yellow button at the upper left.

Listen to “BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon Radio Show, Thursday, 8-30-18” on Spreaker.

If you care to watch the show on the SHR Media YouTube channel, click on the red start button below. We kindly ask you to SUBSCRIBE to the SHR Media channel. Please NOTE: For DISH subscribers: your Hopper has recently been wired to play YouTube videos. You can now toss ol’ BZ onto your massive flatscreen TV and watch him in all of his obese, biased and politically-egregious, lamentable goodness — for free!

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Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin (on Twitter @BZep, Facebook as Biff Zeppe and the Bloviating Zeppelin, and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.

As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening later via podcast.

Please remember we only monitor the chat room at SHRMEDIA.COM — though there is chat available on both Facebook and YouTube. Come on over to the SHR chat room where you’ll meet great friends!

  • Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives on Spreaker? Go here.
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Thank you one and all for listening, watching and supporting the SHR Media Network: “Conservative Media Done Right.”

BZ

 

 

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