Chickens Coming Home and Hunting White Whales.

My goodness, what a strange couple of weeks it has been.  Open warfare occurring within the White House staff (ah … this perpetual three-ring circus known as the Trump Administration), North Korea and Iran continuing to develop their long-range missile capabilities, the health care legislation debacle in the U.S. Senate, and the continuing melodrama of collusion/leaking/obstruction investigations that has consumed WDC and the media.  Where to begin?

Democrats … be very careful what you wish for; your chickens are coming home to roost.  After spending over six months in breathless pursuit of something…anything…that might lend credence to the idea that the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russian Government and coming up empty, it is now beginning to look very much like the accusers are the ones guilty of the crime.   Karma does take some funny turns and how ironic would it be to find that this GPS Fusion business is nothing less than a sophisticated, complex attempt by the Democrats, with acquiescence from the media, to collude with the Russians to insure Hillary Clinton’s election?  Stay tuned to this one @ http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/getting-a-fix-on-fusion-gps.php

As for going through the looking glass, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (along with several other elected Democrats) episodes with the Pakistani Awan Family Enterprises is becoming stranger by the moment; you can’t write fiction more weird than this.  The ball of twine to beginning to unravel, but here is a good short release on the topic, @ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449983/debbie-wasserman-schultz-pakistani-computer-guys-bank-fraud     

This certainly seems like one of those mysteries that will ultimately be solved by following that old, sage advice of “follow the money”.  Somebody, for some reason, wanted these folks out of this country in the worse way.  Wonder why?

As each day and week rolls by and we get further away from the days of the Obama Administration, facts continue to reveal how corrupt and self-serving this outfit was.  I have said before that in my humble opinion, the absolute worst transgression of Obama’s folks was the invasion of privacy and the weaponization of federal agencies for that purpose, driven by purely partisan motivation.  That these idiotic ethic-less individuals such as Powers, Rice, Brennan, and Rhodes were given free rein to savage the personal privacy of U.S. citizens in sophomoric attempts to further their idealistic agenda is not only nauseating, it is very likely illegal.  If there is any justice in this world, there will be a perp walk or two come out of this mess.  Here are some recent developments on this front, but it is far from over … @ http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/344226-intelligence-chairman-accuses-obama-aides-of-hundreds-of-unmasking

Sarah Palin is a very galvanizing figure and she has certainly said and done some things that have not burnished her public persona.  However, with the exception of Donald Trump, it is difficult to think of any recent politician who has been more personally savaged by the media than Palin.  The media have been playing fast and loose with their own misconceptions of self-importance for some time now and their boldness in printing whatever they like for whatever reason they want has morphed to astounding levels.  The NY Times, hardly a shell of its once vaunted self, may have stepped into it deeply with their last shot at Palin.   I doubt that I would be alone in celebrating their comeuppance should they lose this little legal contest, @ http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/palin-to-subpoena-23-witnesses-in-nyt-defamation-suit.php

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Republican Senator Grassley, along with support from Democrat Feinstein, are moving the Senate Judiciary Committee closer and closer to finally taking a good, hard look at the nexus of Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, and James Comey.  Maybe there is nothing there, maybe there is something there; but given the constant Trump/Russia drumbeat, it is without a doubt far beyond time for an equally discerning examination to be given to the shenanigans that these players likely perpetrated.  If he so desires, Grassley has the respect and position to push this issue to the top of the page; perhaps even leading to another Special Counsel Investigation.  And judging from his comments over the past couple of weeks, he certainly seems to have a bee in his bonnet about it.  Read more @ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/23/loretta-lynch-hillary-clinton-probe-senate-judiciary-239905

A recent development that makes this matter even more intriguing is the recent report that ex-FBI Director Comey’s General Legal Counsel James Baker is likely being investigated for leaking information to the press; @ http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/fbi-lawyer-allegedly-investigation-leaking/

How truly bizarre and disappointing is it that the ex-FBI Director and his General Counsel were both apparently leaking data (quite likely, some of it classified) to the media for political purposes?  This is the F, B, freaking I we are talking about!   Is there literally no integrity left in WDC?  And Comey, this fount of wisdom and decency, is the lead witness in Special Counsel Mueller’s  investigation of Trump obstruction?  Really?

And finally, there is the Republican’s Captain Ahab imitation of making Obamacare their white whale and obsessively pursuing it with no regards for the consequences.  Since the ‘90’s Clinton Chronicles, both political parties have disgraced themselves with partisan ambitions that have steadily eroded any semblance of legislative integrity.  It is difficult to blame one or the other for implementing the “next” extraordinary legislative stunt in order to get even for their opponent’s “last” extraordinary legislative stunt.  One thing is crystal clear: the Republicans are just as obsessed with repealing Obamacare as the Democrats were with passing it.  Neither side can see the space in between outright repeal and unqualified allegiance to the original mandate/tax penalty concepts of Obamacare.  As unsavory as the process was, it is really hard to understand how Murkowski and McCain can square their rhetoric from past campaigns with their votes this week on the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill.  Methinks that Murkowski is somewhat of a ditz and McCain is extraordinarily full of himself.  Regardless of the finality announcements being made by some on both sides of the political aisle, I don’t believe that we have seen the last of the “repeal and replace” effort in the U.S. Senate.  With the Herman Melville entrenchment of the political parties regarding fundamental health care principles, it is difficult to see any civil end to this matter and the only ultimate solution is likely to be the product of “power play” politics.   Once again, Congressional legislating imitates sausage manufacture.