Author Archives: oinsketta

Meanwhile, as Bill Barr remains determined “to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal.”

Today, in other breaking news, as Trump gunsel and body man Bill Barr continues to rail against what he strongly suggests was “likely” “criminal” “spying” on Trump and associates by the Obama administration:

Mr. Barr told a congressional committee last month that he was determined “to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus ‘Russiagate’ scandal.” He has appointed a criminal prosecutor, John H. Durham, to review the investigation and the actions of intelligence and law enforcement officials trying in 2016 to understand the Kremlin’s interference and possible links to Trump associates.   

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the final, 966 page, volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election (and the grounds for reasonable suspicions and the investigations into it) was released today. 

The Senate intel committee is made up of 9 Republicans and 6 Democrats (the chairman has recused himself, due to an investigation into possible pandemic-related insider trading, but he apparently endorsed the final report).   In spite of that majority, the report contained some very compromising information that Mr. Trump will find infuriating, for example: 

“While the GRU and WikiLeaks were releasing hacked documents, the Trump Campaign sought to maximize the impact of those materials to aid Trump’s electoral prospects,” the report said. “To do so, the Trump campaign took actions to obtain advance notice about WikiLeaks releases of Clinton emails; took steps to obtain inside information about the content of releases once WikiLeaks began to publish stolen information; created messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following their release; and encouraged further theft of information and continued leaks.”

… “Russia and other countries took advantage of the Transition Team’s inexperience, transparent opposition to Obama Administration policies, and Trump’s desire to deepen ties with Russia, to pursue unofficial channels through which Russia could conduct diplomacy,” the report said. “The lack of vetting of foreign interactions by Transition officials left the Transition open to influence and manipulation by foreign intelligence services, government leaders, and co-opted business executives.”

It added, “Russian officials, intelligence services, and others acting on the Kremlin’s behalf were capable of exploiting the Transition’s shortcomings for Russia’s advantage. Based on available information it is possible — and even likely — that they did so.”

The report’s “detailed review of Vladimir Putin’s campaign to elect then-candidate Donald Trump reveals damning and illuminating facts about the actions taken by President Trump, his family, and his most senior campaign advisors, and it goes beyond the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., said in a statement. “It shows how much the Trump campaign relied on hacked Russian information for its own political gain, while courting multiple connections with Moscow’s operatives.”

The report portrays Stone as the campaign’s go-between with WikiLeaks, which was receiving the hacked emails from Russian intelligence officers. Trump, in written responses to the special counsel, said he did not remember discussing WikiLeaks with Stone, “nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks. with individuals associated with my campaign.”

The report says, “Despite Trump’s recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.”

This last reference to “Trump’s recollection” is in connection to the president’s sworn written answers to the Mueller “witch hunt”.  Answers drafted by Trump’s legal team that Mueller tactfully called “inadequate” (in one case, the final question, that inadequate answer was NO ANSWER WHATSOEVER [1]).

The majority Republican Senate Intelligence Committee, author of the report, is currently headed by acting chair Marco Rubio (R-Florida).   Its website contains a link to the report, as well as Marco Rubio’s cherry-picked partisan spin on Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities, volume five of its massive Russian Active Measures, Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 Election.  

The Grey Skank (NY Times) reported today:

The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 American election to help Mr. Trump become president, and some members of Mr. Trump’s circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.

source

The president must be spitting mad today.   Traitors on all sides!!

On the other hand, his people on the committee stood up for him being a victim of liberal fascists (also from the failing NYT):

Senators split along partisan lines over whether to absolve or condemn the Trump campaign.

A Republican appendix to the report:

“After more than three years of investigation by this Committee, we can now say with no doubt, there was no collusion.”

A Democratic appendix:

“The committee’s bipartisan report unambiguously shows that members of the Trump campaign cooperated with Russian efforts to get Trump elected. … Paul Manafort, while he was chairman of the Trump campaign, was secretly communicating with a Russian intelligence officer with whom he discussed campaign strategy and repeatedly shared internal campaign polling data. … This is what collusion looks like.”

This on the same day that Trump mega-donor Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reversed his mail slowing policies including closing post offices and cutting all overtime (no word yet about restoring mailboxes taken off the streets or the hundreds of high-speed sorting machines taken off-line) until after the election.   DeJoy backed down in the face of concerted resistance by several state AGs who were initiating legal actions against DeJoy and Trump.  Trump’s new postmaster general be on the hot seat in front of the Senate and House next week.  Stay tuned.

[1]

SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE:

b. Following the Obama Administration’s imposition of sanctions on Russia in December 2016 (“Russia sanctions”), did you discuss with Lieutenant General (LTG) Michael Flynn, K.T. McFarland, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Jared Kushner, Erik Prince, or anyone else associated with the transition what should be communicated to the Russian government regarding the sanctions? If yes, describe who you spoke with about this issue, when, and the substance of the discussion(s).

c. On December 29 and December 31, 2016, LTG Flynn had conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about the Russia sanctions and Russia’s response to the Russia sanctions.

i. Did you direct or suggest that LTG Flynn have discussions with anyone from the Russian government about the Russia sanctions?

ii. Were you told in advance of LTG Flynn’s December 29, 2016 conversation that he was going to be speaking with Ambassador Kislyak? If yes, describe who told you this information, when, and what you were told. If no, when and from whom did you learn of LTG Flynn’s December 29, 2016 conversation with Ambassador Kislyak?

iii. When did you learn of LTG Flynn and Ambassador Kislyak’s call on December 31, 2016? Who told you and what were you told?

iv. When did you learn that sanctions were discussed in the December 29 and December 31, 2016 calls between LTG Flynn and Ambassador Kislyak? Who told you and what were you told?

d. At any time between December 31, 2016, and January 20, 2017, did anyone tell you or suggest to you that Russia’s decision not to impose reciprocal sanctions was attributable in any way to LTG Flynn’s communications with Ambassador Kislyak? If yes, identify who provided you with this information, when, and the substance of what you were told.

e. On January 12, 2017, the Washington Post published a column that stated that LTG Flynn phoned Ambassador Kislyak several times on December 29, 2016. After learning of the column, did you direct or suggest to anyone that LTG Flynn should deny that he discussed sanctions with Ambassador Kislyak? If yes, who did you make this suggestion or direction to, when, what did you say, and why did you take this step?

i. After learning of the column, did you have any conversations with LTG Flynn about his conversations with Ambassador Kislyak in December 2016? If yes, describe when those discussions occurred and the content of the discussions.

f. Were you told about a meeting between Jared Kushner and Sergei Gorkov that took place in December 2016?

i. If yes, describe who you spoke with, when, the substance of the discussion(s), and what you understood was the purpose of the meeting.

g. Were you told about a meeting or meetings between Erik Prince and Kirill Dmitriev or any other representative from the Russian government that took place in January 2017?

i. If yes, describe who you spoke with, when, the substance of the discussion(s), and what you understood was the purpose of the meeting(s).

h. Prior to January 20, 2017, did you talk to Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, or any other individual associated with the transition regarding establishing an unofficial line of communication with Russia? If yes, describe who you spoke with, when, the substance of the discussion(s), and what you understood was the purpose of such an unofficial line of communication.

TRUMP:

(No answer provided.)

source

Criminal Conspiracy to Make Vote by Mail as problematic as possible

The president says out loud that he won’t give “Democrats” the money the United States Postal Service needs to continue its constitutionally mandated public service. Trump and his loyal mega-donor appointee, new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy (annual salary $291,650) — who, among other efforts to hobble the Post Office is removing mail boxes and high speed mail sorting machines in heavily Democratic voting areas — appear to be criminally conspiring to flagrantly violate a federal law — as well as numerous state laws. The federal law, we learn, is:

18 U.S. Code § 1703. Delay or destruction of mail or newspapers

full text here

Glenn Kirschner, recently retired 30 year federal prosecutor, conducts a clinic on the use of this law, and related state laws, to rein in this illegal attempt to influence the outcome of an election the embattled Donald J. Trump and his dead-enders keep insisting will be rigged and massively fraudulent. You can watch Kirschner’s short, cogent presentation below.

18 U.S. Code § 1703 reads, in pertinent part:

Whoever, being a Postal Service officer or employee, unlawfully secretes, destroys, detains, delays, or opens any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail entrusted to him … by authority of the Postmaster General or the Postal Service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

If the Roy Cohn-like Bill Barr was not the Attorney General, a criminal investigation of chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service Louis DeJoy for violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1703 would have already begun. The Postal Inspector General is currently investigating DeJoy, but that IG will join the list of recently fired IGs (who serve at the pleasure of the president, as we know) if the investigation begins to turn up anything unwelcome to Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign. Countless mailboxes taken off the streets and roads of our country and 671 high volume mail sorting machines taken off line by DeJoy? Uh?

Fortunately, the states are beginning to line up in their legal efforts to ensure free and fair elections by mail, in spite of the lack of federal enforcement of laws to protect the integrity of those elections. As Glenn Kirschner describes.

And tomorrow’s newspapers and other media should contain details of the late-Friday filing the Trump campaign and the RNC made in the case of Trump v. Boockvar.

You’ll recall the Trump-appointed judge in that case ordered plaintiffs to submit proof of mail-in voting fraud or state that they have none. Pittsburgh Public Radio station WESA confirmed:

We are tracking this case and I have been told there was a filing very late Friday, though we have yet to see it. It may take a day or two to sort it out, but we (and other local media too, I am sure) will be reviewing it.

Hold on to your hats, boys and girls, this fight for the preservation of democracy is getting good and nasty.

Best Case Scenario

Only four years accelerating the doomsday clock,
melting all the arctic ice,
giving the greediest ever more,
a few strong new laws needed to prevent a repeat

no violent second Civil War to save the Leader

fought by the same passionate men who waged —

— and never lost —

the first bloody uprising against

the tyranny of angry,
lawless
slaves.

first email to local news director

The National Public Radio station in Pittsburgh (site of the federal court where Trump v. Boockvar — the president’s lawsuit to restrict mail-in voting in Pennsylvania —  is being battled out)

Patrick,
 
I’m writing from NYC, concerned that an important news item about the upcoming election, federal Judge Ranjan’s Thursday’s order to Trump 2020 and the RNC to produce evidence of mail-in voting fraud or state they have none, is not being followed up by any news outlet that I can find. 
Google produces no results for updates on what happened when the judge’s Friday deadline came and went.   
 
I thought your station reported on the order yesterday, but, as I didn’t find anything recent about the case on your website, I seem to have been wrong.   Here is the troubling issue in a nutshell.
 
The NY Times reported on Friday afternoon:
 
Screenshot_20200815-003724_Messages
a few hours later, a search of the NYT online edition, even using parts of the quoted article, yielded zero results — nothing found — the article itself, not found.   
CNN, UPI, Bloomberg and others also reported on the story when the judge made his order, it’s a potentially huge federal lawsuit for the future of our democracy — no follow up?
 
I know things are crazy now in the USA, but have we actually entered the Twilight Zone, Patrick? 
only “update” I’ve been able to find online today, from the J. Nicholas Ranjan Wikipedia page:
In August 2020, Ranjan ordered the Trump campaign to produce evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania by Friday, August 14. The Trump campaign must answer questions from Democratic groups, or admit to having no proof of election fraud. A hearing about the evidence is set for late September.[9]
 
I’d be grateful for a little light on this important case,

What happened to this fairly important news story?

I read a short piece in the New York Times this afternoon that contained these eye-popping lines, which I texted to a friend:

Screenshot_20200815-003724_MessagesDistrict Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan was appointed by President Trump in 2019, presumably off of the list of Federalist Society vetted judges that all of McConnell’s judicial appointments are drawn from.  The judge basically ordered the plaintiffs, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee most prominent among them, to provide some proof of their allegations or admit that they had no proof of widespread fraud in mail-in voting.  A rather remarkable development, I thought, and one of great public interest and concern during a pandemic, at a time when an utterly fictitious fear of massive vote-by-mail fraud is being constantly stoked by the president, his AG and all of his other surrogates.

As Bloomberg reported:

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee sued Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and local election boards on June 29 over their plan for mail-in balloting for the November 3 elections. Trump’s team claimed the plan “provides fraudsters an easy opportunity to engage in ballot harvesting, manipulate or destroy ballots, manufacture duplicitous votes, and sow chaos.”…

… “Plaintiffs shall produce such evidence in their possession, and if they have none, state as much,” said Ranjan, who took his seat on the bench in August 2019. He gave the campaign until Friday.

source

This evening I followed up on the story, since reporting the judge’s order the news media (UPI and CNN as well as CBS local in Pittsburgh all reported the story) has been unanimously silent about this case.   

A search for the story a few hours later, on the NY Times website where I’d read the piece hours earlier (using their own quote — which turned up nothing) as well as multiple searches on Google, YouTube and elsewhere, provided no update.   It was almost as if the federal judge had not ordered a party to comply in a case of great national importance, involving the right to safely vote in the presidential election, by the end of business today. 

As CNN reported yesterday:

The judge’s order, in a high profile case about vote-by-mail in the battleground state, essentially forces the Trump campaign to try to back up President Donald Trump’s false claims about massive voter fraud in postal voting. 

source

A high profile case?  Seems that way to me, though it’s keeping a pretty low profile so far, for such a high profile case.  

Plaintiffs DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT, INC.; REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE; et al sued the Attorney General of Pennsylvania and the elections board of every county in the state, making a passionate argument for limiting mail-in voting in Pennsylvania.  Here is a taste of the serious allegations made by lawyers for Mr. Trump, from their rip-snorting 75 page complaint:

The result is that a significant portion of votes for elections in Pennsylvania are being cast in a fashion that denies any procedural visibility to candidates, political parties, and the public in general, thereby jeopardizing the free and fair public elections guaranteed by the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions. The most recent election conducted in this Commonwealth and the public reaction to it demonstrate the harm caused by Defendants’ unconstitutional infringements of Plaintiffs’ rights. The continued enforcement of arbitrary and disparate policies and procedures regarding poll watcher access and ballot return and counting poses a severe threat to the credibility and integrity of, and public confidence in, Pennsylvania’s elections.

full amended complaint here

“Denies procedural visibility?”   No idea.  The judge ruled Thursday that horrible, arbitrary, disparate and unconstitutional as all that may sound, he would need a few shreds of evidence of actual voter fraud to support the case, to allow it to go forward as if it were an ordinary federal lawsuit, brought in good faith, during normal times, by parties that were not rabidly litigious. What happened at the end of business today when the evidence was due?

Did the plaintiffs simply have a senior Federalist Society judge call Judge Ranjan and tell him to get the hell back in line?   

Did they provide the evidence of massive mail-in voter fraud that he ordered to be produced?   

Did they go over his head to the appellate court and seek a writ of mandamus to force him to do his job as a political appointee serving at the pleasure of the president, obey the “presumption of regularity” and not try to illegally usurp the legitimate powers of the Executive branch and the campaign arm appurtenant thereto?  

What happened at five pm today when the federal court closed for business in Western Pennsylvania?   What the hell?  I guess I’ll be calling some newsrooms tomorrow.

In other news, Georgia governor Brian Kemp quietly dropped his baseless political theatre case against the Atlanta mayor for mandating the wearing of face masks in public during the pandemic.   Check out this peach of a news item from the good state of  Georgia.

Things Are Looking Good for the Feral Five

Sad as we felt the last few days, knowing we’d have to part with these beautiful, trusting, affectionate little souls, that sorrow is fading as we know they’re in good hands.    We brought them to a great cat shelter in Freeport yesterday, spent a sad night missing them, but today was much better.

A reminder that doing the right thing might sometimes hurt for a while, but it passes, the thing was worth doing and what remains is having done a good thing.  This case was the literal living out of the old saying  — if you love somebody set them free.  

The sudden withdrawal from that unlimited tender playfulness on demand that these little cats gave us whenever we spent time with them (when they weren’t napping) was painful, true, but our plan all along was to give them long lives of affection and safety we couldn’t provide them, much as we may have wanted to.

They are all being well cared for at an excellent shelter (where they’re all currently sleeping together and being treated for roundworm — they’ll be roaming the rooms with the others in a few days).   They will shortly become pets, sharing tenderness with humans who will fall for them quickly.

As they deserve.

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The particular genius of Donald J. Trump

Last night Sean Hannity, during an exclusive interview with the president on FOX following Joe Biden’s pick of Kamala Harris as his running mate, apparently asked Mr. Trump about Harris’s previous critical comments about Biden and race. 

Mr. Trump answers this way, as only President Donald J. Trump can:

Trump answer to Hannity.png

source

Do not depend on fake news, who knows where this “transcript” comes from, hear Mr. Hannity and the president for yourself — cued up HERE

To be honest, I spotted a couple of inaccurate transcriptions in this rush transcript that made the president’s comments a bit harder to understand reading this than they were listening to it on air, but… still.  Pure genius.  You have to give him that.

The heartbreak of trying to save a tiny life

Yesterday I chased a rogue male cat who’d been aggressive toward the little feral colony we feed.  This cat, who we call Grey Guy, is usually quick to leave the garden when threatened, but yesterday, though I sprayed him with the garden hose, he hardly moved.   He didn’t move away very far, got a bit wet, looked back at me, reproachfully.   When Sekhnet encountered him a few minutes later, he was determined to make contact with her, though she at first sprayed him too.   

“He’s dying,” she told me afterwards, with tears, “he figured he had nothing to lose.”   She brought him a meal, and as she led him to it I saw for the first time how sick he looked, skinny, mangey, sad, with a distended stomach hanging to one side.  His eyes were barely open, he moved with difficulty.  He seemed clearly close to death.  He ate a bit of his last meal, before an opportunistic intruder named Giovanni made off with the last of it.   He was too weak to fight off the much younger challenger and Sekhnet was not guarding him at the moment.  We’ve taken to pegging the aggressive Giovanni with small stones when he hops the fence looking for food.

The cats we feed are Mama Kitten (so named because she gave birth to at least 20 kittens over the course of about three years, from a very young age) her three surviving daughters, Paint Job, White Back and Little Girl, and their probable father, Spot.   We watched almost every one of Mama Kitten’s offspring die or disappear.   We learned not to get too attached to the kittens, who tended to have very short lives in the wild.  Recently we trapped Mama, Spot and the three surviving daughters (who were old enough to get pregnant) and took them to a vet to be “fixed.”   Here is Mama with her first litter, back in September 2015.

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That big kitten toward her back legs we named Grey Guy.  He also disappeared after a few months, we assumed a hawk got him.  Hawks circle overhead here during kitten season.  They are circling today.

This stable little group protects their turf from intruders and we help them enforce their claim whenever we see another cat trying to get in on their action.  Giovanni (likely another of Spot’s offspring) has been a particularly insistent interloping pain in the ass, he bullies White Back and Paint Job and I’ve changed my attitude toward him.  It’s true he’s only trying to survive, but still, chasing our cats across the speeding traffic in the service road is a one way ticket to somewhere else.

About a year ago a haggard looking grey cat stood watching me on a street a couple of blocks from the house.   He didn’t run, or even back away, when I approached him.  He seemed to know me, and he was clearly hungry.   He appeared to be the grey kitten from Mama’s first litter, Grey Guy, a cat we assumed had died along with the others who all disappeared within a few months.   I called Sekhnet, and Grey Guy stood by, waiting with me until she brought a can of food and he ate it from a spoon, like he did as a wee pup.

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It was, in fact, Grey Guy.   He’d been living a rough life on his own and the years had not been kind.   After feeding him a couple of times we saw he was often savage with the other cats and we eventually drove him away.   He apparently came back the other day for one last visit before he died.

His presence reminded us how hard life is for a feral cat living on the street.  “He came as a harbinger,” Sekhnet said.  His poignant farewell came as we are completing the process of domesticating five feral kittens another mother cat dropped off in the garden, introducing them to big-hearted Sekhnet and the greatest cat buffet in the area.  Grey Guy’s appearance was a reminder of the short, brutal lives these affectionate little animals face in the wild. At five years-old he was ancient.  A house cat typically lives two or three times that long.

We became determined to find homes for these kittens, to give them full lives as beloved pets.   The boldest of them (and the runt of the litter) we named Alpha Mouse.  He was ready to be a pet right away.   His brother Beta was not far behind.  Both liked being petted from the start.  The other three were wary, as stray cats tend to be.   Here’s two shots of Alpha, then Beta:

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We found a shelter twenty miles from here that would take them, we caught them and brought them inside, into a large cage Sekhnet bought online.  We couldn’t bring them to the shelter for adoption until they are calm and happy being handled by humans.  A volunteer at the shelter gave us some good tips, the rest was just time spent with them, petting them in the cage, feeding them by hand, gaining their trust.

The patience and tenderness you need to show to get a feral kitten to trust you is repaid with a tender affection that can’t be explained.  The little creature who was afraid to be touched now solicits your caress, cranes her neck to be stroked just right, pushes her little face into the palm of your hand, purring in contentment.   They all sit on our laps now, after only a few days of adjustment.   

We are doing the right thing trying to find them homes, as hawks continue to circle outside looking for their little tidbits of delicious prey, as all of the hardships that oppose any animal’s existence rage out there at a moment when we humans are also hunted during this pandemic.   The right thing, the kind thing, turns out to not be easy sometimes.

I’m waiting for a call back from the small shelter that they have room at the inn for these five (they do).  A friend is on hold to do us a tremendous favor, renting a cargo van so we can drive them out to the shelter in their cage tomorrow, rather than stuffing them into the single cat carrier we have for a fairly long trip, their first in a car.

Meanwhile, Alpha sometimes cries and is only consoled by being petted a bit.  Sekhnet and I are crying all the time.   They are so affectionate with each other, it makes Sekhnet cry every time she thinks of them being separated.   

Every moment with them is a reminder of the relentless inevitability of separation, the pain of eternal leave-taking.    Having this constant reminder is hard work, particularly during this depressing pandemic, I can tell you for sure.  Operation Poignant, I told my friend’s voicemail yesterday, my voice cracking.

Here’s one of the last feral hold-outs, Devilhead, who now likes nothing more than the feeling of human fingers brushing lightly along the underside of her jaws.

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Bravo Fortune (on USPS story)

Fortune, unlike NPR and other news outlets analyzing the current, corrupt- smelling Postal Service situation (slow-down in deliveries ordered by leading Trump donor/Postmaster General to “increase efficiency”), reported (in its July 24 edition):

But the agency has been rapidly losing money since a 2006 law, passed with the support of the George W. Bush administration, required USPS to pre-fund employee retiree health benefits for 75 years in the future. That means the Postal Service must pay for the future health care of employees who have not even been born yet. The burden accounted for an estimated 80% to 90% of the agency’s losses before the pandemic. 

Critics call the law “draconian” and say that it was created with the intention of leading the Postal Service toward privatization. No other federal agency bears this burden.  

source

Bravo.  Thank you.   

What about the rest of you news sources?