Yay! The deeply redacted Carter Page FISA court surveillance application shows what we all hoped. The FBI just threw a bunch of mish-mash together from press reports and the Steele Dossier and dumped it on the FISA court.
Of Course, the liberals and the MSM and the deep state are going to be telling us that there is nothing to see here.
When it is all as plain as day. The Obama Justice Department used partisan opposition research -- obtained from a non US citizen in collaboration with, wait for it, RUSSIANS! -- as a justification for doing government surveillance on the opposition party.
It doesn't get more banana republic than that. But wait! "Banana republic" would be racist, because of the race of the last US president. But you get the point. Using the government police power to spy on the opposition party campaign is a real no-no. Unless Democracy! is at stake.
Well, I'd say that surveillance of the opposition party is a no-no unless it was emulating the revolutionary parties of yesteryear, Bolsheviks or Nazis, and was using street violence to advance its interests.
Oh wait. The Democrats have AntiFa, a masked street gang, to provide a bit of muscle on the political stage.
But here is my take. Maybe this is a chance for us racist sexist homophobes to talk to the American people about the "administrative state." Conservatives have had a beef with the administrative state for a while, because we see it as a way that liberals and the left enact their agenda without getting the consent of the governed.
Also, of course, the administrative state is inevitable when you have big government, because the legislatures just don't have the bandwidth to legislate away all the cock-ups and injustices that crop up in the wake of big government. So the legislature has to farm out the details of legislation to unelected administrative courts and tribunals within the bureaucracy to prevent the whole creaking government establishment from grinding to a halt.
Enter Ludwig von Mises: "socialism cannot work because it cannot compute prices." And that goes for the administrative state too, snowflake.
Apart from the bandwidth problem, there is the corruption problem. A big bureaucracy naturally tends to gravitate towards taking care of itself rather than doing its job. And, being lazy and idle, it tends towards identifying with the people it is designed to regulate. There is settled science about this: it is called "regulatory capture."
You can see the problem with respect to the DOJ, the FBI and the Intelligence Community. These chaps have identified, over the years, with the bipartisan ruling class. It is perfectly natural that these folks should regard the growing populist movement from the "right" as a threat to their power. And the natural, instinctive thing for them to do is surveillance on the growing populist movement, which is, after all, a genuine threat to the power of today's bipartisan globalist ruling class.
Only, of course, the administrative state is not supposed to take sides. It is supposed to be a non-partisan elite of experts and thinkers that advise and "nudge" the politicians to do the right thing. The lie about this was exposed back in the Eighties with the British TV show Yes, Minister. It showed the bumbling politician, the Minister Jim Hacker, totally dominated and manipulated by his civil service Permanent Secretary from the deep state, Sir Humphrey Appleby.
The problem with Donald Trump, from the point of view of the Sir Humphreys of our deep state, is that he does not seem to be house-trained, that he is not a dumb cluck like Jim Hacker, but a fearless warrior that might have the courage and the smarts to destroy their deep state. Imagine the rage and the terror that that his election must send through the corridors of power. Why, imagine! There might come a day when all the deep staters are banished from their lifetime sinecures, pensioned off before their time, and not given the honor and respect that is their due. Only today, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is suggesting that maybe President Trump should revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. What could be worse than that? I'd say that a deep-stater's security clearance is the modern equivalent of the "stars" of the various orders of knighthood that monarchs and the like used to display on their army uniforms back in the day.
Another thing I am thinking. Do you think that, maybe, the release of the heavily redacted FISA application on Carter Page is part of the President Trump's midterm election strategy? After all, if I were Trump and I knew that the whole Russia Collusion business was deep-state skullduggery, what would be best for me? It would be to expose all the deep-state skullduggery in the runup to the midterms, to demoralize the deep state and the #Resistance and add members in both the House and the Senate. You don't want to drop that bombs too early, because the voters might forget about it by election day. And you don't want to do it too late, after the election: that would never do.
So here we are, at the end of July, and the Carter Page FISA application has dropped. What is going to drop in mid-August? And what in mid-September, right after Labor Day? And what October Surprise do the Trumpers have in mind?
You might think that the Trumpers have it all set up ready to roll. I couldn't possibly comment.
And then, with bigger majorities in Congress, and Steve Scalise, shot by a Bernie Bro, as Speaker of the House? Well, maybe we could do a number on the administrative state and reduce its powers.
Maybe.
Of Course, the liberals and the MSM and the deep state are going to be telling us that there is nothing to see here.
When it is all as plain as day. The Obama Justice Department used partisan opposition research -- obtained from a non US citizen in collaboration with, wait for it, RUSSIANS! -- as a justification for doing government surveillance on the opposition party.
It doesn't get more banana republic than that. But wait! "Banana republic" would be racist, because of the race of the last US president. But you get the point. Using the government police power to spy on the opposition party campaign is a real no-no. Unless Democracy! is at stake.
Well, I'd say that surveillance of the opposition party is a no-no unless it was emulating the revolutionary parties of yesteryear, Bolsheviks or Nazis, and was using street violence to advance its interests.
Oh wait. The Democrats have AntiFa, a masked street gang, to provide a bit of muscle on the political stage.
But here is my take. Maybe this is a chance for us racist sexist homophobes to talk to the American people about the "administrative state." Conservatives have had a beef with the administrative state for a while, because we see it as a way that liberals and the left enact their agenda without getting the consent of the governed.
Also, of course, the administrative state is inevitable when you have big government, because the legislatures just don't have the bandwidth to legislate away all the cock-ups and injustices that crop up in the wake of big government. So the legislature has to farm out the details of legislation to unelected administrative courts and tribunals within the bureaucracy to prevent the whole creaking government establishment from grinding to a halt.
Enter Ludwig von Mises: "socialism cannot work because it cannot compute prices." And that goes for the administrative state too, snowflake.
Apart from the bandwidth problem, there is the corruption problem. A big bureaucracy naturally tends to gravitate towards taking care of itself rather than doing its job. And, being lazy and idle, it tends towards identifying with the people it is designed to regulate. There is settled science about this: it is called "regulatory capture."
You can see the problem with respect to the DOJ, the FBI and the Intelligence Community. These chaps have identified, over the years, with the bipartisan ruling class. It is perfectly natural that these folks should regard the growing populist movement from the "right" as a threat to their power. And the natural, instinctive thing for them to do is surveillance on the growing populist movement, which is, after all, a genuine threat to the power of today's bipartisan globalist ruling class.
Only, of course, the administrative state is not supposed to take sides. It is supposed to be a non-partisan elite of experts and thinkers that advise and "nudge" the politicians to do the right thing. The lie about this was exposed back in the Eighties with the British TV show Yes, Minister. It showed the bumbling politician, the Minister Jim Hacker, totally dominated and manipulated by his civil service Permanent Secretary from the deep state, Sir Humphrey Appleby.
The problem with Donald Trump, from the point of view of the Sir Humphreys of our deep state, is that he does not seem to be house-trained, that he is not a dumb cluck like Jim Hacker, but a fearless warrior that might have the courage and the smarts to destroy their deep state. Imagine the rage and the terror that that his election must send through the corridors of power. Why, imagine! There might come a day when all the deep staters are banished from their lifetime sinecures, pensioned off before their time, and not given the honor and respect that is their due. Only today, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is suggesting that maybe President Trump should revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. What could be worse than that? I'd say that a deep-stater's security clearance is the modern equivalent of the "stars" of the various orders of knighthood that monarchs and the like used to display on their army uniforms back in the day.
Another thing I am thinking. Do you think that, maybe, the release of the heavily redacted FISA application on Carter Page is part of the President Trump's midterm election strategy? After all, if I were Trump and I knew that the whole Russia Collusion business was deep-state skullduggery, what would be best for me? It would be to expose all the deep-state skullduggery in the runup to the midterms, to demoralize the deep state and the #Resistance and add members in both the House and the Senate. You don't want to drop that bombs too early, because the voters might forget about it by election day. And you don't want to do it too late, after the election: that would never do.
So here we are, at the end of July, and the Carter Page FISA application has dropped. What is going to drop in mid-August? And what in mid-September, right after Labor Day? And what October Surprise do the Trumpers have in mind?
You might think that the Trumpers have it all set up ready to roll. I couldn't possibly comment.
And then, with bigger majorities in Congress, and Steve Scalise, shot by a Bernie Bro, as Speaker of the House? Well, maybe we could do a number on the administrative state and reduce its powers.
Maybe.
Great reading. Right on target. Will share. Thank you!!
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