We Got the Memo

Devin Nunes: A look of complete shame
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"FISA warrants are typically big thick documents - 50-60 pages. If the Nunes memo about one is just 4 pages, you can bet it's a carefully picked bowl of cherries. Made all the more dishonest by holding back the minority rebuttal report. A real debate needs both. Someone fears that."

 

Former CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin

 

Robert Mueller

The "memo" (such as it is) that the right wing SCREAM machine has been freaking out about for damned-near two weeks finally came in. The best reaction, as far as I can tell, came from former FBI Director James Comey:

 

"That's it?"

 

Some memo. It might as well have been written on a little yellow post-it-note with a tiny smiley-face drawn on the back, pasted onto Devin Nunes' clueless forehead -  just for good measure, you understand.

 

If the Republicans were hoping to expose some major political scandal by releasing this four-page collection of nothingness, they were in for a bit of a let down. Their claim that it is proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a hotbed of left ring radicals who were in the tank for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton is too weird to articulate a coherent response. Surely they haven't forgotten that it was Comey, after all, who reopened the investigation into Hillary's emails a mere week-and-a-half before Election Day 2016 - a move that cost her the election, by the way.  My belief is that they're hoping that the pitiful attention span of the American public will allow them to follow this line of accusation. Sadly, that hope is more-than-justified.

The Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have their own memo, three times longer than the GOP's, which points out the discrepancies, errors of fact, and intentional omissions of the Nunes memo. The Republicans on the committee, naturally, voted to keep that one under cover of darkness. Is there anyone reading this who is still unable to understand what is going on here? Call me please. We need to talk.

The right wing's major beef is that the infamous dossier handed over by British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, was compiled when he was working for a conservative organization called "Fusion GPS" which was doing negative research on Trump on behalf of another Republican primary candidate in 2016. Steele was concerned that Trump could be blackmailed by a hostile foreign government (you know which one I'm taking about, don'cha?) and took what information he had to the American authorities. Devin Nunes and friends are claiming that, since Steele's research was possibly politically motivated, they had no business seeking a FISA warrant. They're wrong. Christopher Steele's reputation within international intelligence circles is impressive and long-standing. They had every reason to look into what he was saying and no good reason not to. Nice Try, kids.


This is not - by any means - a sinister plot engineered for no other reason than to bring down Donald Trump by what are inarguably some of the most conservative departments of the Federal government. This investigation began in the spring of 2013 - two years before the Donald announced his candidacy. The  juicy fact of the matter is that Trump - and many in his inner circle - are into this thing up to their bloodshot little eyeballs - including, possibly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president's scheme, as anyone paying attention  has easily figured out by now, is to use this silly little memo as an excuse to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and replace him with a nodding sycophant who will then put an end to the Mueller investigation at Donald's behest. If that happens, the remaining supporters of this clown would do well to hang on to their tin-foil hats. The country will explode in a way it hasn't exploded since the Saturday Night Massacre of October 1973.

Somewhere, I am almost certain, Oliver Hardy is laughing. Donald J. Trump has gotten himself in to another fine mess. There are too many Republicans in both the house and the senate who know that their chances of being re-elected in November are a fraction less than zero. As a result a whole helluva lot of them are retiring - "to spend more time with their families". Of course they are. And now that tooting the idiotic party line is no longer beneficial to their reputations, they're speaking their minds - to the utter detriment of Trump. One of these soon-to-be retirees is Trey Gowdy, an excitable right wing congressman from South Carolina. He will be bolting the congress next January after serving eight years. He said in no uncertain terms yesterday that that release of Devin Nunes' pathetic little memo should have no bearing on the Mueller investigation, and that the Feds were correct in their decision to peruse the Steele dossier. He's not the only one speaking his mind. Trump's political fortunes are devaluating by the day. Isn't this oodles of fun to watch?

And hats off to poor old Devin Nunes. Obviously this clown is blissfully unaware that he will be remembered by posterity as one of congress's more pathetic water-carriers. Or perhaps not. Is it my imagination, or does he look rather tormented and ashamed in recent photographs issued for public consumption? When his term is up in eleven months, he ought to retreat to a monastery in the Himalayas and spend the rest of his days praying that the history books misspell his name.  
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It was said after the fall of Dick Nixon forty-four years ago, that it was the cover-up that was worse than the crime. In this case I believe the crime will prove to be far worse than the cover-up. During the Watergate affair, no one seriously suggested that the Trickster was guilty of treason (although he did commit a horrendously treasonous act during the campaign of 1968 that we only found out about decades later - but that's another story for another day, boys and girls). Treason is a pretty serious charge, one that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for sixty-five years ago. I don't advocate the penalty of death for anybody - not even a demented thug and common pervert like Donald Trump; but it would seem to me that, if he  has nothing to hide, why is he wasting so much time (which is always precious for any sitting president) throwing one monkey wrench after another into this investigation? Why not let it continue unimpeded and let the chips fall where they will?  If he were truly innocent of any wrong doing he could emerge from this storm politically stronger than ever, making fools of we who doubted him in the process. Why would he go as far as demeaning and slandering the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Justice? What gives?

This smells, folks.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I believe that we are within less than a decade of (PLEASE, GOD) a nonviolent revolution, where the people of this doomed republic finally wake up and understand something I figured out decades ago:

The Democrats and the Republicans are beyond redemption.

Why are we governed by political parties? Why are we not governed by human beings?

Just a thought....

peace,