The Coming Mushroom Cloud Over Washington
The View from the Middle
Many of you may soon be asking, “Who is Michael Horowitz, and what has he been doing for the last year?” Well, Michael Horowitz is the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, who has been investigating the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe for the last year or so. He was the guy who discovered the mile long texting trail of FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that exposed their anti-Trump bias and plans to prevent him from becoming President or destroying his Presidency if he won. As a result of his revelation, Peter Strzok was removed from the Mueller Special Counsel team and Lisa Page has recently resigned from the FBI. And Michael Horowitz hasn’t even delivered his long-anticipated report.
Horowitz also revealed that Andrew McCabe, Jim Comey’s #2 at the FBI, committed perjury by lying to the FBI at least four times resulting in his removal from his office. Yet all of this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of questionable behavior committed by FBI leadership in their investigation into the Hillary Clinton email “matter”. And the revelations should go to the very top of the Dept. of Justice.
The Inspector General’s report will have to make a judgement of at least two controversial actions taken by then Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Why did she, for example, insist that James Comey, then FBI Director, call the Hillary Clinton email investigation “a matter”. It was, in fact, an investigation, but “a matter” sounds much less ominous. Then, Ms. Lynch met with Bill Clinton just days before his wife was to be interrogated by the FBI. What was she thinking? I can tell you what most Americans were thinking! This meeting was at best ill-advised and at worst illegal, depending on what was discussed, and the real problem is…we’ll never know.
Another bombshell Horowitz will have to defuse is Hillary’s destruction through a program called “bleach bit” of over 30,000 emails THAT WERE UNDER SUBPEONA. Let me be perfectly clear. If you or I had destroyed even one email under subpoena, we would be going to jail.
Also, after testifying that she didn’t send any confidential information over her private server, it was discovered that Hillary sent dozens of messages that were not only confidential, but in some cases, actually top secret. Is Michael Horowitz expected to believe that Hillary Clinton, who positioned herself as the most qualified candidate ever to run for President, didn’t understand that the “C” inserted into the emails she received stood for “Classified”? Is he to believe her story that she thought this was an alphabetical order notation? If that was so, didn’t she at least wonder where “A” and “B” were?
Finally, Mr. Horowitz will have to decide if the handling of Hillary’s case and in particular her final interview was legitimate. Was it reasonable, for example, to give immunity deals to six members of Hillary’s support staff. Here’s a list of the people who received immunity: Huma Abedin (Hillary’s wing woman), Cheryl Mills (Hillary’s chief of staff and attorney), Heather Samuelson (Clinton aid and lawyer), John Bentel (Info. Manager), Paul Combetta (actually deleted the emails) and Bryan Pagliano (built and installed Clinton home server). Why? Was the same practice used in the investigation of the Trump campaign? I can’t remember ANY immunity deals for Trump associates.
Also, what was up with Hillary’s final interview with the FBI? The FBI did not put Hillary under oath and didn’t record her interview. Really? Cheryl Mills, an FBI witness in this investigation if not a “subject” of the investigation, was allowed to be with Hillary throughout the interview, which is unusual if not improper. In addition, Hillary was allowed to say “I don’t remember” or “I don’t recall” 39 times during this interview claiming some sort of memory loss as a result of a head injury. I don’t remember this memory issue being a subject of any news reports despite the fact that she was running for President of The United States. Shouldn’t the public know about something like this?
With all of this questionable, improper and probably illegal activity going on during Hillary’s email investigation (or was it a matter?) I expect Michael Horowitz’s report to be a real bombshell. I predict that the big losers will be James Comey, Peter Strzok and Robert Mueller (some of his key witnesses may be in jail). Big winners will be Donald Trump and the American people. Any time we can expose hypocrisy and falsehood, the American people win.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Obama TV
Obama TV
The View from the Middle
Hallelujah!! Praise the Lord!! Our Republic is saved. Barack Obama and Michelle have signed a multi-year contract with Netflix to create some cringe watchable programming to drive wedges between Americans instead of building bridges of compromise to unite them. I am, however, giving you all a “spoiler alert”. The View From the Middle has received the scoop of a lifetime. I have uncovered the plans for the first four episodes of “Obama TV” or whatever they end up calling this series. If you don’t want to know what’s coming, stop reading right now. If you are curious at all, read on!!
The first episode will be called “How to Weaponize the Federal Government” and will be starring the likes of Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey with a special guest star appearance by Loretta Lynch. Lois Lerner will reveal how she frustrated Obama’s political opponents through her operation “death by a thousand paper cuts” which prevented conservative voices from speaking indefinitely. Jolly good fun!
Brennan, Clapper and Comey, who lead the leaking “dream team”, will talk about the effectiveness of selective leaking especially when truth doesn’t even have to be a consideration. While their storylines would have to appear in the fiction section on Amazon, they didn’t feel compelled to let the consumers of their fairy tales know that. Holder and Lynch will finally reveal how President Obama gave them their marching orders without the inconvenience of traceable formal communications. We’ll learn that cocktail party conversations, long walks on the beach and in the rose garden and side by side stalls in the men’s restroom were particularly productive. Lynch will finish with a skit suggesting that she and Bill Clinton actually talked about their grandchildren on the tarmac in Phoenix.
The second episode will be entitled “Demean, Dehumanize and Demonize Fellow Americans Who Disagree With You”. This episode will serve a double purpose. First, it will explain how a strategy like this is effective at gaining power while dividing the country into combatant camps based on race, economics and even sexual orientation (divide and conquer). Sure, this is terrible for the country and will encourage Americans to hate each other, but as long as they win the election, what the heck!
This episode will double as a tribute to Obama’s hero, Saul Alinsky. Remember Saul? He’s the author of “Rules for Radicals”, which he dedicated to Satan (yep, that’s right the devil, Lucifer). His favorite tactic is ridicule, a real divisive technique for sure, but as long as it recognizes his “ends” then it’s a prudent “means”. What a guy!!
The third episode is planned to be “The Low Road is Easier, It’s Downhill”. Hillary Clinton will be the star, of course, for her “basket of deplorables” comment at her LGBT fundraiser in New York. In one crisp, vicious sentence she demeaned and demonized tens of millions of American citizens. They are currently arguing if this statement should also appear in episode two.
The entire Congressional Black Caucus will have a cameo appearance for their refusal to stand for Trump’s “lowest black unemployment in history” statement in his first state of the union. I mean, that is low, right? Nancy Pelosi will have to play a major role at this juncture just for her sheer number of fatalistic gaffes. We’ll all be reminded of how she called Trump’s tax bill “Armageddon” and likened the middle-class bonuses and tax cuts to “crumbs”. Her latest comment that Kim Jung Un must be having a “giggle fit” at the cancelation of the North Korean summit will have to get a mention just for its poor taste. She is the gift that just keeps on giving. She may appear in a later segment called “Age is Just a Number…of How Many Years You’ve Been Alive”. Is she a hundred yet?
One of the first five episodes will have to be “Damn That Hillary Clinton”. This is, however, so obvious they are considering giving this title to the entire series. The point being that if Hillary had just won, like she was supposed to, we wouldn’t be finding out about all the corruption in the FBI, CIA, DOJ or the NIA. She’s taking a lot of flak for the mismanagement of her campaign, but in real life, America owes much to Hillary. If she had won, all the depravity that is being exposed every day now would have been swept under the gigantic federal government rug. Hillary, you go girl!!!
The View from the Middle
Hallelujah!! Praise the Lord!! Our Republic is saved. Barack Obama and Michelle have signed a multi-year contract with Netflix to create some cringe watchable programming to drive wedges between Americans instead of building bridges of compromise to unite them. I am, however, giving you all a “spoiler alert”. The View From the Middle has received the scoop of a lifetime. I have uncovered the plans for the first four episodes of “Obama TV” or whatever they end up calling this series. If you don’t want to know what’s coming, stop reading right now. If you are curious at all, read on!!
The first episode will be called “How to Weaponize the Federal Government” and will be starring the likes of Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey with a special guest star appearance by Loretta Lynch. Lois Lerner will reveal how she frustrated Obama’s political opponents through her operation “death by a thousand paper cuts” which prevented conservative voices from speaking indefinitely. Jolly good fun!
Brennan, Clapper and Comey, who lead the leaking “dream team”, will talk about the effectiveness of selective leaking especially when truth doesn’t even have to be a consideration. While their storylines would have to appear in the fiction section on Amazon, they didn’t feel compelled to let the consumers of their fairy tales know that. Holder and Lynch will finally reveal how President Obama gave them their marching orders without the inconvenience of traceable formal communications. We’ll learn that cocktail party conversations, long walks on the beach and in the rose garden and side by side stalls in the men’s restroom were particularly productive. Lynch will finish with a skit suggesting that she and Bill Clinton actually talked about their grandchildren on the tarmac in Phoenix.
The second episode will be entitled “Demean, Dehumanize and Demonize Fellow Americans Who Disagree With You”. This episode will serve a double purpose. First, it will explain how a strategy like this is effective at gaining power while dividing the country into combatant camps based on race, economics and even sexual orientation (divide and conquer). Sure, this is terrible for the country and will encourage Americans to hate each other, but as long as they win the election, what the heck!
This episode will double as a tribute to Obama’s hero, Saul Alinsky. Remember Saul? He’s the author of “Rules for Radicals”, which he dedicated to Satan (yep, that’s right the devil, Lucifer). His favorite tactic is ridicule, a real divisive technique for sure, but as long as it recognizes his “ends” then it’s a prudent “means”. What a guy!!
The third episode is planned to be “The Low Road is Easier, It’s Downhill”. Hillary Clinton will be the star, of course, for her “basket of deplorables” comment at her LGBT fundraiser in New York. In one crisp, vicious sentence she demeaned and demonized tens of millions of American citizens. They are currently arguing if this statement should also appear in episode two.
The entire Congressional Black Caucus will have a cameo appearance for their refusal to stand for Trump’s “lowest black unemployment in history” statement in his first state of the union. I mean, that is low, right? Nancy Pelosi will have to play a major role at this juncture just for her sheer number of fatalistic gaffes. We’ll all be reminded of how she called Trump’s tax bill “Armageddon” and likened the middle-class bonuses and tax cuts to “crumbs”. Her latest comment that Kim Jung Un must be having a “giggle fit” at the cancelation of the North Korean summit will have to get a mention just for its poor taste. She is the gift that just keeps on giving. She may appear in a later segment called “Age is Just a Number…of How Many Years You’ve Been Alive”. Is she a hundred yet?
One of the first five episodes will have to be “Damn That Hillary Clinton”. This is, however, so obvious they are considering giving this title to the entire series. The point being that if Hillary had just won, like she was supposed to, we wouldn’t be finding out about all the corruption in the FBI, CIA, DOJ or the NIA. She’s taking a lot of flak for the mismanagement of her campaign, but in real life, America owes much to Hillary. If she had won, all the depravity that is being exposed every day now would have been swept under the gigantic federal government rug. Hillary, you go girl!!!
Thursday, May 10, 2018
The Saga of Gina Haspel vs Kamala Harris
Is Waterboarding Immoral?
The View from the Middle
The View from the Middle
Since the Senate confirmation hearings for Gina Haspel started about mid-morning yesterday and the public portion ended about noon, most Americans were unable to watch Gina Haspel “school” our pompous, pathetic and pitiful senators. And I use the word “school” intentionally. She clearly was the teacher in the room and the senators were the unruly students being put in their place. She was cool, calm and knowledgeable. Her 33 years of experience at every level of the CIA allowed her to answer any realistic question asked by the senators and even politely correct those who didn’t even come with their homework assignments done.
At one point, 84-year-old Diane Feinstein (what is the mandatory retirement age in the Senate?) asked about the tapes of interrogations that were erased. Diane was outraged that tapes of 92 people being questioned had been destroyed, until Ms. Haspel calmly informed her that it was 92 tapes of one person. This is something that Ms. Feinstein should have known as her stumbling, bumbling response quickly indicated. Yet Gina Haspel was composed and even kind in her handling of this obvious gaffe.
And then, of course, the Senators (at least the Democrat Senators) ran out of legitimate questions so they had to resort to hypothetical and even trick questions. One Senator asked her what she would do if Donald Trump asked her to waterboard some detainees tomorrow? Now, he already knew the answer to the question. She, in fact, had already said that she would not use that technique anymore, but she wouldn’t even put the CIA back into the interrogation business again. But this Senator just wanted to thump Trump, and she handled it perfectly. She suggested that she had met with President Trump several times and she was extremely confident that he would never ask her to do that, but she restated her plan to never use that technique again.
Finally, Kamala Harris, Senator from California, asked Ms. Hasper if she believed that waterboarding was “immoral”. The easy answer is “yes”, but then later on Ms. Harris would accuse Ms. Hasper of knowing committing an immoral act. But Gina Hasper didn’t fall for this cheap shot and simply stated that she supports America’s higher standard in the area of interrogation. This, of course exasperated Kamala who will now claim that Hasper would not admit that waterboarding is immoral. For Kamala, this was a win-win question since she planned to criticize Gina Hasper no matter what her answer was.
But here is the flaw in Kamala Harris’ line of questioning. First of all, Gina Hasper didn’t suggest the use of waterboarding or approve of its use. At the time she was put in charge of the interrogation station in Thailand, she was a low-level manager in the CIA, just following legal orders. If anyone should be asked that question it would be Nancy Pelosi or Jay Rockefeller, Democrat Senators who were briefed about all of the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT’s) back in 2002.
If anyone should have taken the heat for the use of these EIT’s, it should have been John Brennan, who was the #4 guy at the CIA when they were approved and implemented in 2002. But instead, 49 out of 53 Democrat Senators voted to confirm John Brennan for the very job they are trying to deny to Gina Hasper. Total Hypocrisy!
Someone also needs to remind Kamala Harris that the likes of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had just plowed three airplanes into the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC, killing over 3,000 Americans. Also, KSM had videotaped his beheading of Daniel Pearl for all the world to witness. I certainly would define those things as immoral. Kamala, here’s a history lesson for you. Terrible things happen during war. Men, women and children get killed. Is that immoral? Would it have been immoral for our military or CIA to not use these EIT’s and thus allow thousands more of Americans to be murdered in follow-up attacks after 9/11. When the enemy is beheading our people, drowning them in cages and setting them on fire, I’m not sure if I would qualify splashing some water in KSM’s face as immoral.
Get off your high horse, Kamala, and get down in the trenches with Gina Haspel who just wanted to protect Americans from further violence. And tell your other Democrat Senators to get off their “resist, insist, persist and throw hissy fits” train long enough to confirm this very capable and qualified person to be our next Director of the CIA.
A final note that everyone should know. Hundreds of men in our military have been waterboarded as part of their training, and only three terrorists have experienced the same treatment. Kamala, get some perspective before you attack good people like Gina Haspel.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Michelle Wolf at The White House Correspondents' Dinner
Michelle Wolf’s Sad Commentary on America
The View from the Middle
In case you missed it, Michelle Wolf was the “comedian” (and I use that term loosely) who performed at this year’s White House Correspondents’ dinner this last Saturday night. In my opinion, the only thing funny in her routine was her voice, which even she made fun of, so I’ll give her credit for that one funny joke. The rest of her performance was vile, disgusting, slanted and decidedly unfunny!
And it was not just the political right who was offended, but this time even the left leaning media called it “mean”, “bullying” and just plain not funny. The list of liberal media heavyweights who condemned Wolf’s act is long and distinguished and includes the likes of Andrea Mitchell from NBC News, Peter Baker of the NY Times and Pulitzer Prize winner Judy Miller, also from The Times. How clear does it have to be before the left admits that they went too far? This total arrogance and misunderstanding of average Americans is what is going to bring down the Democrat Party and continue to erode lame stream media ratings, unless they wake up.
But there are a few of the self-appointed elites who have confused wealth with wisdom and fame for judgement who are actually defending Wolf’s bit on Saturday night. Seth Meyers actually defended Michelle Wolf by calling her “filthy” and “mean”, just the kind of qualities you need when you are trying to bring people together as Margaret Talev (President of the event) said she was trying to do. Stephen Colbert said, “grow a pair” as if he has a pair and Trevor Noah said…well who cares what he said since no one watches him. The combined viewership of these “giants” is about five million per week which, for perspective, compares unfavorably to Rush Limbaugh’s 14 million listeners each week. Maybe it is Stephen, Seth and Trevor who need to rethink their definition of “funny”.
Some of her supporters actually tried to suggest that she was “balanced” in her critical humor. Well, let me pour a cold dose of reality on those claims. Once you subtract the four jokes she told of herself (she should have done more of that) Wolf made 67 jokes at other people’s expense and of abortion (yah, abortion is such a funny subject). A full two thirds (66%) of those jokes were about Republicans and a total of four jokes or 6% of the total were about Democrats. That’s more than ten times the focus on Republicans vs Democrats. Only the lame stream media could define that as balanced. And even one of those Democratic jokes actually took a swipe at Republicans. She quipped that Democrats could even lose to “Jeff Pedophile Nazi Doctor” who I’m assuming is the Republican candidate. I’ll call that a draw if not even more offensive to Republicans. Considering that the Democrats are the party of Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken and John Conyers, I would tread carefully on the sexual abuse jokes if I were Ms. Wolf.
I’m hoping that the broad-based outrage for Michele Wolf’s performance at the WHCD is a sign that Americans are getting tired of the divisive, demeaning and dehumanizing rhetoric that the pompous, arrogant elite in this country accept for humor. If you want to see how it is really done, watch the Don Rickles roast of Ronald Reagan during his second inaugural in 1985. I’ve supplied a link below that you can click on or copy into your browser. I’ll give the progressive media a hint on finding a good person to roast anyone. First, find a person who likes, or even loves, the target of the roast. That’s how you “singe, but don’t burn”, and end with a classy close as Don Rickles did just 33 years ago.
The only hope we can draw from the response to Michelle Wolf’s disappointing performance Saturday night is that America is bouncing off the bottom of the civility barrel and it’s time to lift our rhetoric and behavior up. If we do, America will be a better place for it. Maybe we could all acquire the class of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who took the abuse with a quiet dignity and even suggested that she would pray for Michelle Wolf. So Michelle, you got that going for you, which is nice.
Link to Rickles Roast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3kJ7VPJnmI
The View from the Middle
In case you missed it, Michelle Wolf was the “comedian” (and I use that term loosely) who performed at this year’s White House Correspondents’ dinner this last Saturday night. In my opinion, the only thing funny in her routine was her voice, which even she made fun of, so I’ll give her credit for that one funny joke. The rest of her performance was vile, disgusting, slanted and decidedly unfunny!
And it was not just the political right who was offended, but this time even the left leaning media called it “mean”, “bullying” and just plain not funny. The list of liberal media heavyweights who condemned Wolf’s act is long and distinguished and includes the likes of Andrea Mitchell from NBC News, Peter Baker of the NY Times and Pulitzer Prize winner Judy Miller, also from The Times. How clear does it have to be before the left admits that they went too far? This total arrogance and misunderstanding of average Americans is what is going to bring down the Democrat Party and continue to erode lame stream media ratings, unless they wake up.
But there are a few of the self-appointed elites who have confused wealth with wisdom and fame for judgement who are actually defending Wolf’s bit on Saturday night. Seth Meyers actually defended Michelle Wolf by calling her “filthy” and “mean”, just the kind of qualities you need when you are trying to bring people together as Margaret Talev (President of the event) said she was trying to do. Stephen Colbert said, “grow a pair” as if he has a pair and Trevor Noah said…well who cares what he said since no one watches him. The combined viewership of these “giants” is about five million per week which, for perspective, compares unfavorably to Rush Limbaugh’s 14 million listeners each week. Maybe it is Stephen, Seth and Trevor who need to rethink their definition of “funny”.
Some of her supporters actually tried to suggest that she was “balanced” in her critical humor. Well, let me pour a cold dose of reality on those claims. Once you subtract the four jokes she told of herself (she should have done more of that) Wolf made 67 jokes at other people’s expense and of abortion (yah, abortion is such a funny subject). A full two thirds (66%) of those jokes were about Republicans and a total of four jokes or 6% of the total were about Democrats. That’s more than ten times the focus on Republicans vs Democrats. Only the lame stream media could define that as balanced. And even one of those Democratic jokes actually took a swipe at Republicans. She quipped that Democrats could even lose to “Jeff Pedophile Nazi Doctor” who I’m assuming is the Republican candidate. I’ll call that a draw if not even more offensive to Republicans. Considering that the Democrats are the party of Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Al Franken and John Conyers, I would tread carefully on the sexual abuse jokes if I were Ms. Wolf.
I’m hoping that the broad-based outrage for Michele Wolf’s performance at the WHCD is a sign that Americans are getting tired of the divisive, demeaning and dehumanizing rhetoric that the pompous, arrogant elite in this country accept for humor. If you want to see how it is really done, watch the Don Rickles roast of Ronald Reagan during his second inaugural in 1985. I’ve supplied a link below that you can click on or copy into your browser. I’ll give the progressive media a hint on finding a good person to roast anyone. First, find a person who likes, or even loves, the target of the roast. That’s how you “singe, but don’t burn”, and end with a classy close as Don Rickles did just 33 years ago.
The only hope we can draw from the response to Michelle Wolf’s disappointing performance Saturday night is that America is bouncing off the bottom of the civility barrel and it’s time to lift our rhetoric and behavior up. If we do, America will be a better place for it. Maybe we could all acquire the class of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who took the abuse with a quiet dignity and even suggested that she would pray for Michelle Wolf. So Michelle, you got that going for you, which is nice.
Link to Rickles Roast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3kJ7VPJnmI
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)