Streetwise Professor

I’d like to say that the Tulsi Gabbard disclosures of what should have been very old news lit a bombshell under the media and DC. But that would be wrong. They are doing their best to minimize it and denigrate it.

As you would expect from accessories before, during, and after the fact.

Yes, most of us knew the basic contours of the story, despite the media’s concerted attempt to bury it: Obama ordered and orchestrated the abuse of the intelligence community to kneecap the presidency of Donald Trump. And kneecap is probably putting it far too mildly, although the mafia connotations do fit him and his cabal. He and his minions wanted to destroy Trump. They did succeed in devastating his presidency.

The facts are fairly straightforward. Despite myriad rumors–spread most by the world’s sorest loser, Hillary Clinton–that Putin had interfered in the 2016 presidential election in order to help Trump, on December 6, 2016 the intelligence community stated in a draft Presidential Daily [Intelligence] briefing” that it had failed to find credible evidence of that.

Recall that Hillary and others were bleating that “Russian hackers” had swung the election to Trump, by various means, including hacking emails (but not those on her sekret server because that was impenetrable!) and perhaps even altering vote counts. By December 6, 2016 the CIA had concluded, and was prepared to tell Obama in the PDB, that Russia had not done so.

Stop the presses! And that’s exactly what the FBI, under the direction of Mr. 86 himself, James Comey, did: they refused to sign on to that briefing, leading it to be deep-sixed.

This is important particularly when the next phase is considered. That deep-sixing gave Obama plausible deniability for knowing about Russian non-shenanigans. Though I would bet you dimes to donuts that Comey did that at behest of the White House–precisely to preserve Obama’s patina of ignorance.

Immediately thereafter, Obama held an all hands meeting that directed the IC to perform an “analysis” of Russian interference. That effort was controlled down to the last jot and tittle by the loathsome John Brennan, Obama’s loyal and thuggish creature, who proceeded to cook the intelligence books in a way that would put George Tenet of Iraq infamy to shame.

Brennan had a preconceived conclusion. A mission, really–a mission ordered by Obama. To show Putin wanted to get Trump elected, and assisted in doing so.

This required him to exclude myriad evidence (more on this below), and to include dubious “intelligence.” It all came down to a single Russian source. A “Russian” source who had worked in the Russian government years before but was in 2016 ensconced in the DC suburbs. Who told the CIA that Putin was “counting on” Trump winning–based on his alleged conversations with alleged Russians.

What does that even mean? CIA analysts didn’t know, and thought of multiple interpretations. SOP is for the multiple interpretations of ambiguous information to be made explicit. Ape Man Brennan grunted no. He also mused, “doesn’t it have the ring of truth?” And ordered that the ICA report only the single interpretation that it meant Putin was pulling for Trump.

Brennan also ensured that the Steele Dossier was front and center in the version of the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that went to Obama–but was excluded from the sanitized versions provided to Congress and the public.

Brennan’s main–and by “main” I mean “only”–source makes the Curveball of Iraq infamy look like Richard Sorge (“Stalin’s impeccable spy”). And even goddam news reporters are not supposed to rely on a single source for a story, let alone the head of the CIA for a document going to the president–and soon to be leaked to the media.

Further, at best Brennan’s ICA captured a Putin wet dream. But aspirations mean fuck all: did he actually accomplish anything to advance those aspirations? The ICA did not identify any, and again prior to the Obama command the CIA’s professional analysts determined he had not.

The initial Democratic reactions to Gabbard’s (first) document drop, mouthed by Senator Muck Warner of Virginia (a true swamp creature), were that Tulsi was “mixing apples and oranges.” Ya see, the CIA report was about hacking election infrastructure dontcha know, and the ICA was about other interventions. Like what? A piddling sum on lame Facebook memes?

In fact, the switch from apples to oranges demonstrates that the fix was in. Apples–“RUSSIAN HACKERS!!!”–was obviously a no go. So Obama et al had to switch to oranges–“PUTIN WANTED TRUMP TO WIN!”

You can argue all day whether Brennan was lying about the stuff that actually went into the ICA–an ICA, I will remind you, that was almost immediately leaked (according to the plan, no doubt) and which formed the basis for the Russian conspiracy hoax that roiled the nation for the next 3 years (at least). But you cannot dispute at all that Brennan lied promiscuously by omission, which can be–and was, in this instance–as misleading and manipulative as outright falsehoods: when testifying in court you don’t have to take an oath to “tell the whole truth” for no reason.

What was left out? The list is long, starting with what was in the abortive PDB. Then there is the omission of details about the source of the “counting on” statement, and the disagreement about the meaning of that statement. And crucially, the omission of other evidence, likely far more credible, that completely undercut the “Putin❤️ Trump” narrative.

Specifically, the Russians supposedly believed–based on hacked Democratic emails (isn’t that just too ironic for words?)–that Hillary was a medical mess, and an emotionally unstable, heavily medicated bitch on wheels. (Talk about credible! I got your credible right here!)

So if they wanted Trump to win, why hold back on this?

Well, kompromat, obviously. Which would be a reason for them to want Hillary to win. Couldn’t blackmail Trump with golden showers BS, but could blackmail her with all the credible dope about her vicious temperament and poor health. (Remember the 911 ceremony fiasco?)

Maybe it’s true. Maybe it isn’t. But the sourcing is evidently far more solid than one dude in Virginia several degrees from Vladimir Putin and the Steele confection. So, the ICA should have included this to give a full picture. But it didn’t.

So what we have is not apples vs. oranges, but cherries. Namely cherry picked (alleged) intelligence intended not to inform, but to deceive. A full accounting of the information available to Brennan and the IC would have made the narrative risible and utterly unbelievable.

And Trump’s first presidency would have been completely different, and American history would have been completely different.

If I were to give Obama a Homeric epithet, it would be “the mendacious.” And here he lived up to it. Rather his “office” did: Mr. Mendacious didn’t bother to issue a statement in his own name, or make a recorded denial.

The statement is gaslighting of a like seldom, if ever seen. It starts out: “Out of respect for the office of the presidency. . .” Yeah. So much respect for the office of the presidency that President Mendacious ordered an intelligence confection, and oversaw its leaking to the media, with the express intent of damaging and indeed destroying the presidency of his successor.

“[O]ur office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House.” Uhm, who was the producer of nonsense and misinformation in 2016-7? Obama and his minions.

So what should happen? Well, unfortunately not what will likely happen.

In a world of cosmic justice Obama and those he directed would be brought before the bar and made to pay for their egregious conduct, although it is hard to think of a penalty that fits such appalling mendacity.

From a politically pragmatic angle, going after Obama is unwise. Yes, the Democrats went hammer and tong after Trump post-presidency one, but two wrongs don’t make a right. And I remind you that that move likely boomeranged: Trump would have probably ebbed into relative obscurity if he did not have to fight for his freedom against vengeful prosecutors. Going after Obama wouldn’t boomerang in the same way, but it could boomerang in other ways.

But by all means go after Brennan, Comey, and Clapper. And follow the usual mob prosecution handbook. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Starting with the 5 CIA analysts Brennan handpicked to cook the intel.

And don’t leave out Brennan’s successor, Gina Haspel, who disobeyed orders to release in 2018 the House Permanent Subcommittee on Intelligence report that was the basis for most of Gabbard’s revelations. Haspel is an accessory after the fact.

But even that’s probably too much to expect. The Swamp looks out for its own.