America’s Rise and Fall among Nations

A review of America's Rise and Fall Among Nations, by Angelo M. Codevilla 
(Encounter, 288 pages, $30.99)

Angelo Codevilla’s final critique of our ruling class’ corruption.

America’s Rise and Fall among Nations: Lessons in Statecraft from John Quincy Adams is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary man. Angelo Codevilla, a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, died in an automobile accident last year near his northern California vineyard. He was a first-generation immigrant, born in Italy, who shared with so many from a similar background a fierce love for his adopted homeland. A political scientist with far-ranging interests in comparative politics, international relations and strategic studies, and political philosophy, Codevilla also served in the United States government as a diplomat, naval officer, and congressional staffer.

An iconoclastic spirit runs through all his books—whether on arms control, war, nuclear strategy, or the intellectual history of American foreign policy. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, as a senior staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he became a formidable critic of the American intelligence establishment. The book that resulted from that experience, Informing Statecraft: Intelligence for a New Century (1992), remains the most trenchant study of the complex, poorly understood world of U.S. intelligence. His The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It (2010) was the most important book by an American conservative to foreshadow Donald Trump’s emergence on the political scene and the larger moment in which we now live.

Codevilla’s posthumous book reprises many of the themes of his earlier works. Readers unfamiliar with his distinctive rhetorical style might be put off by his self-assured assertiveness, reinforced in the present volume by the almost complete absence of footnotes. This man of wide and deep learning—he taught at Georgetown University, was a senior research fellow for the Hoover Institution, and was professor emeritus of International Relations at Boston University—neither advertises that learning nor boasts of the academic credentials meted out by America’s intellectual elite. But America’s Rise and Fall Among Nations is not an academic work; rather, it’s a thundering jeremiad reminiscent of the prophetic tradition of ancient Israel.

Codevilla approaches the history of the United States from some unusual angles. America’s “rise” coincides with its first century; its “fall” with the Progressive movement’s emergence at the end of the 19th century and its triumph in our own day. It might seem odd that the nation’s “fall” includes its imperial excursion after the Spanish-American War, its contribution to the Allied victory in two world wars (and the great power status that flowed from it), its unparalleled economic prosperity in the postwar era, and, not least, its successful orchestration of the peaceful end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet the logic of Codevilla’s argument is simple: In its first century, the guiding star of our statecraft was “America First.” In its second, under the impact of Progressivism and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, America’s ruling class sought to lead the world and spread the benefits of democracy to all nations through the creation of diplomatic mechanisms (the League of Nations, the United Nations) that would achieve “perpetual peace” on earth. Thus has America fundamentally lost its way. Instead of a hard-headed concern with the nation’s interests, including a non-interventionist posture toward the world, America’s elites were captured by woolly-headed idealism in various forms and an arrogant conviction of their own inherent virtue and right to lay down the law to others.

The result: since the end of World War II, though the United States has fought numerous wars, its stake in these conflicts has rarely been clear, the meaning of victory has been left uncertain, and the outcomes almost uniformly unfavorable to Americans . . .

Read the rest of this article at the Claremont Review of Books. 

X22, Christian Patriot News, and more- Sept 14

 

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The Regime’s ‘Operation MAGA Fascist’ Gains Ground

The only good news is that Joe Biden and the ruling class have a lousy track record at winning wars.

by Julie Kelly for American Greatness

After nearly two years of lies related to the events of January 6, 2021, the regime finally has admitted the truth: The widening legal dragnet to scoop up Donald Trump, his associates, and his voters has nothing to do with the four-hour disturbance on Capitol Hill that afternoon. It is, rather, a thus-far successful crusade to criminalize wrongthink about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

A barrage of subpoenas issued recently by the Department of Justice—U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves’ office specifically—against Trump aides is not seeking  information about the Capitol protest but personal communications discussing what happened with the election and plans to fight the results. Graves wants records dating back to October 2020 “constituting any evidence (a) tending to show that there was fraud of any kind in or relating to the 2020 Presidential Election, or (b) used or relied upon to support any claim of fraud in relation to the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Targets must produce correspondence detailing “any strategies or options for ensuring the certification of Donald J. Trump.” Graves also is demanding information about how Trump raised money from “efforts to contest the 2020 election.”

Of course, this is what the January 6 hysteria has always been about. As the chaos unfolded on January 6, Joe Biden and his apparatchiks immediately denounced believers of the so-called “Big Lie”—the claim the election had been rigged, if not stolen, by powerful interests who wanted nothing more than to defeat Trump—and vowed revenge would come swiftly. “The totalitarian company line is any suggestion that election fraud exists is tantamount to sedition,” I wrote on January 11, 2021. “Americans who dare doubt the results, a popular political sport for Democrats over the past four years, are now vilified as ‘insurrectionists’ and plenty of our fellow countrymen want it punished accordingly.”

Oh, how their dreams have come true. Nearly 900 Americans face criminal charges for mostly nonviolent participation in the Capitol protest; lives have been destroyed, even ended, as a result of this cruel, vengeful prosecution recently rebranded the “Capitol Siege” investigation by Graves’ office. The weapons used in the first war on terror—secret surveillance, invasive investigation, armed raids, torture, and political prisons to name a few tactics—have been aimed at Trump supporters across the country in a show of force and intimidation.

“Operation MAGA Fascist” appears to be the commander-in-chief’s unofficial name of the regime’s war on terror against millions of Americans, which now is reaching a version of the Battle of Fallujah but without the bloodshed. (Let’s hope.) The unprecedented FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago on August 8 ratcheted up the fever of the war by a considerable measure—the regime’s desired response. 

Political leaders and media figures over the weekend remembered 9/11 and equated that attack with the events of January 6 in another brazen comparison between murderous jihadists and Trump supporters. Bragging that the West won the first war on terror, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Sunday urged Americans to unify in the same post-9/11 “spirit” to defeat “election deniers [and] the insurgency that took place on January 6.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned on the 21st anniversary of 9/11 that “anti-government” domestic violent extremists now pose the greatest threat to the nation. Vice President Kamala Harris reminded “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that she has taken an oath to protect the country from “all enemies, foreign and domestic” on numerous occasions. “We know they can exist and we must defend against it,” Harris solemnly pledged.

The inflammatory rhetoric is provably false—aside from January 6, Mayorkas could only point to three recent mass shootings perpetrated by lone gunmen with no ties to Donald Trump as alleged examples—but serves the purpose of fueling the raging political fire. Democrats want nothing more than for “MAGA terrorists” to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Far from trying to prevent political violence, the Biden regime is turning up the slow, steady burn hoping for an event they can label “Insurrection 2.0” before the midterm elections.

Look no further than Biden’s laughable “Soul of the Nation” speech. Screaming from a set drenched in red light, Biden devoted much of his angry address to those who still won’t support his ill-begotten presidency. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden ranted from the stage at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park. “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution, do not believe in the rule of law. They did not recognize the will of the people and refuse to accept the results of a free election. MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards.”

MAGA Republicans, Biden claimed, “embrace anger,” “thrive on chaos,” and “live—in the shadow of lies,” descriptions loaded with irony coming from an angry inveterate liar who has thrown the nation into chaos. Without evidence, Biden further warned that MAGA Republicans have “fanned the flames of political violence.”

Yet that is precisely what Democrats hope to see as a consequence of fixating on January 6. In just the next few weeks, the January 6 select committee will hold another primetime performance as it threatens to compel testimony from Trump and former Vice President Michael Pence; the seditious conspiracy trial of several Oath Keepers, an alleged militia group involved in the Capitol protest, will begin in Washington, D.C.; and the committee’s final report is set for an October 18 release—all to provide fodder to again show how Trump’s base is populated with “insurrectionists” who tried to “overthrow democracy.”

Now, with the possibility that a third party will scrutinize the Justice Department’s assertions that classified documents were illegally housed at Trump’s residence, House Democrats suddenly announced that the national archivist staffers told Congress the agency isn’t certain it has all required presidential records.

Will this result in another raid of Mar-a-Lago? Or Trump’s summer residence in Bedminster, New Jersey?

But the MOAB in Operation MAGA Fascist will detonate after a D.C. grand jury, working in secret with Biden’s Justice Department, hands down a criminal indictment against Donald Trump. It isn’t a question of if that will happen, but when. Will Democrats drop the bomb before Election Day or after? How long can they drag out the dramatics before their own base turns on them?

Either way, the goal is to stoke a political uprising in much the same way these interests accomplished what they wanted on January 6, 2021. It follows a familiar pattern of name-calling, false accusations, and blatant cover-ups in the reckless pursuit of power.

One upside is that Joe Biden and the ruling class have a lousy track record in winning wars. This may end the same but for now there’s little doubt these bloodthirsty war-mongers are gaining ground.

Los Angeles County Proposes 'Common Sense' Gun Laws—Completely Lacking in Common Sense

Jerry Wilson reporting for RedState 

In its never-ending effort to do anything other than what might possibly work, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is working on passing a parcel of gun control laws guaranteed to do nothing but fatten assorted lawyers’ bank accounts during the inevitable legal challenge. From Los Angeles radio station KNX:

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today directed its attorneys to draft a series of ordinances aimed at regulating gun sales and possession in the county, including a ban on the sale of .50-caliber handguns and ammunition in unincorporated areas.

One might point out how all this does is have people wishing to purchase .50-caliber handguns and ammunition travel a short distance to one of Los Angeles County’s incorporated areas. But let’s not get technical. They’re doing something!

Another proposed ordinance would require “buffer zones” between gun/ammunition dealers and “sensitive areas” such as schools, day care centers and parks in unincorporated areas. Another would ban the possession of firearms on all county property.

Let us review. In California, there is a 10-day waiting period in-between purchasing a gun — any gun — and when the purchaser can take possession. This greatly reduces the possibility of someone waking up, deciding shooting up any given location is on the top of today’s to-do list, and dashing into the local gun shop to pick up a firearm. Therefore, the store’s location matters not. Perhaps the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors worries about schoolchildren mistaking the local gun shop for a candy store.

Although come to think of it, that’d be an interesting retail opportunity — a combination candy shop and gun store, where kids are taught from day one how to respectfully and responsibly handle firearms. As to banning having a gun on county property, given the tremendous success rate of gun-free zone laws elsewhere, surely this will solve all gun violence issues. Just like vaccines solved COVID.

The board also directed county staff to draft within 90 days a series of other regulations, including requiring ammunition dealers to obtain a county business license; restricting minors’ access to gun and ammunition stores; requiring such stores to submit annual sales reports to the county licensing agency and to submit weekly reports on inventory. The rules would also require weapons and ammunition stores to maintain a fingerprint log, install security cameras and notify all of its customers about “gun owner responsibilities and gun laws along with options for nearby gun safety classes,” according to the motion.

In case you wanted proof no one involved with these potential laws has ever set foot inside a gun store, this is it. 99.44% of the above is already on the books; the rest is basic sound business practice. Gun shop owners are not retro cowboys hankerin’ to shoot up the local saloon on Saturday night. For that matter, neither are their customers. Responsible gun owners walk the talk when it comes to gun safety. But, let’s not let reality get in the way of a good politically correct pose.

The story notes how all of the above came from a confidential study requested by the Board. Given that should there have been public hearings on the matter, people might have mentioned some icky truths, of course they did it in secret. But it’s okay; these are common-sense laws. They must be. Supervisor Janice Hahn, she of impeccable character judgment, said so!

“If we move forward with implementing these four common-sense gun regulations, I hope others in our county will follow suit,” Hahn said.

Or, maybe they’ll actually do something about the drug and mental health crises that are the actual problem. Don’t hold your breath.

Crime Runs Rampant In Democrat Strongholds, With Shootings, Beheading Last Weekend

While 2021 was the deadliest year the city has seen, Philadelphia is set to surpass last year’s record this year .

Sophia Corso reporting for The Federalist

In Democrat-run cities with defund the police initiatives, gun control policies, and illegal immigrants, crime has dramatically increased. While most crime that the leftist media covers at length is done to further their political narrative, much more crime that does not garner the same coverage makes these cities a dangerous place to live.

This weekend was no exception, as crime ran rampant in Democrat strongholds across the nation. Here are just a few highlights.

Philadelphia, PA

Over the weekend, 20 people were shot in the city of Philadelphia, four of whom were pronounced dead. There were an additional four stabbings this weekend in the east coast city. This deadly weekend put the city at 380 homicides for the year so far as of Saturday. While 2021 was the deadliest year the city has seen, Philadelphia is set to surpass last year’s record this year if this murder rate continues.

The four fatalities included a 64-year-old man who was repeatedly shot then pronounced dead at the hospital, according to a local news outlet. Joseph Durpee, a man who was in the area when this shooting occurred, stated, “It’s exhausting.” Like other Philadelphians, he wants “to walk around and not fear for [his] life.”

As a result of this rise in crime, reports show that the people of Philadelphia, specifically women, are increasingly becoming gun owners. According to Breitbart, “women began flooding into concealed carry classes as crime rose last year” and “outpaced men ’51 percent to 49 percent’” in concealed carry permit applications.

Former police firearms instructor Terrance Lappe stated, “I’ve been living in Philadelphia for almost 64 years and have never seen anything like this.” She added, “That’s why I carry a gun.”

Chicago, IL

Six people were shot and killed in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago this past weekend, with an additional seven teenagers wounded among the 28 total non-fatal shootings. The shootings occurred between 5:00 p.m. Friday and 5:00 a.m. Monday.

Among the fatal attacks over the weekend included a 45-year-old man who was found in Washington Park on the South Side with a gunshot wound to the chest Friday evening. He was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center.

Four minors were shot within a six-hour span on the South Side, including a 17-year-old boy who was wounded in a drive-by shooting and taken to the hospital in critical condition. A 14-year-old boy was also wounded in a drive-by shooting but was in “good condition” when taken to the hospital.

While shootings are down from last year in Chicago, overall crime has risen to upwards of 45 percent in some districts, driving businesses out of the crime-ridden city. Despite this major uptick, Lightfoot stated last month that Chicago is making “progress” on crime. Violence committed and shootings of multiple Chicago residents each weekend, including teenagers, does not “scream” progress to people outside of Lightfoot’s line of thinking.

San Carlos, CA

Illegal immigrant Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta is in custody on murder charges for the brutal beheading of his ex-girlfriend Karina Castro this past Friday. Castro, who was also a mother of two, had placed a restraining order against Landaeta in April, according to law enforcement sources. Landaeta also “has criminal priors,” a report stated.

Castro’s grandmother stated that Landaeta was “a diagnosed schizophrenic on meds” and “would use that as an excuse for his behavior.”

Unfortunately, this murder is not the only crime states have seen as a result of mass illegal immigration. Just last month, two Mexicans who entered the United States illegally were charged with the murder of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy.

Another illegal immigrant was just sentenced 29 years in a U.S. prison for “violent” and “sadistic” home invasions in Texas. Not only are legal U.S. residents shelling out massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to provide for lawbreaking migrants, their cities see crimes committed by this population rising as well.

According to reports, the Biden administration has allowed several hundred suspected terrorists inside the United States as part of its poorly vetted Afghanistan refugee pool.

Carlson Talks with a MAGA Supporter Targeted by the Biden Regime

In this interview with Tucker Carlson, Lisa Gallagher recalls being woken up by federal law enforcement after voicing her support for former President Trump on Facebook.  You do not have to be a high profile American to be targeted by the Biden regime and the people behind him.

In the background of Joe Biden are the domestic Marxist/Communist activists who hate our nation.  They generationally flowed from the Weather Underground (Ayers/Dohrn) to Occupy Wall Street, to Black Lives Matter (Obama/Holder), Antifa and now without pretense into the mainstream Democrat party.  They are all essentially jackboots orgs. “Swatting” is the activity from those outside government, “FBI targeting” is the activity from those inside government.  The intents of both are the same. WATCH:

Comrade Gallagher’s experience will become increasingly familiar to a wider audience.  The people behind Joe Biden are only doing what the Mitch McConnell, Bill Barr and Bush republican apparatus are willing to let them do. It’s a whole of government approach.

Joe Biden Holds Surreal 'Celebration' as Stock Market Crashes and Inflation Soars

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

In one of the more surreal moments in presidential history, the Biden administration held a “celebration” on Tuesday to mark the passage of the falsely-named Inflation Reduction Act.

That “celebration” took place on the same day a debilitating inflation report dropped, showing core inflation rising and a month-over-month increase in the topline number. Increases in food prices helped drive that home despite decreasing demand putting a crunch on gas prices. In response, the stock market crashed, losing the most points since the pandemic caused a massive sell-off in 2020. As of this writing, the Dow Jones is down -1276 points and looks to close around that level.

That led to some incredible side-by-sides from Joe Biden’s event.

Things don’t get any less farcical when you actually watch the clips of the event. Hilariously, things opened with an acoustic act by James Taylor singing a song about suicide. No, I’m not kidding. Perhaps he was channeling the economic downfall we are currently witnessing?

Then there was the president himself. We’ll get to some of his moments of senility soon enough, but I’ll start with a few of the blatant lies he told.

The Inflation Reduction Act is an $800 billion spending bill, of which half of it is a giveaway to the “green” sector. Nothing in that bill has lowered inflation, not a single thing. To suggest such is true “lie of year” material. Will the media fact-check the president? That’s a rhetorical question because we all know the answer.

To put the cherry on top of his absurd claim, Biden also claimed that government spending has nothing to do with inflation because Democrats “pay” for their spending. In reality, the 2022 fiscal year is projected to have a deficit of nearly $1 trillion.

Biden also decided to talk about “assault weapons” for some reason, claiming “there is no Godly reason for them.”

I mean, there pretty clearly is a reason for them. In fact, there are many reasons for them. Self-defense is one. Hunting is another. Sport shooting is yet another. But most of all, the biggest reason I should be able to own an AR-15 or the like is…because I want to. I do not need the president’s permission to own a firearm of my choice.

The ramblings only got more incoherent from there.

Be sure to watch that last clip until the end. It’s scary to see how feeble the president is. He finishes his speech and seems to be confused as to what to do. He picks up his jacket off the ground (why was it on the ground?) before stumbling off to his right, where he holds his hand out as if to shake hands with no one. We then see Jill Biden begin to approach the side of the stage to escort him away. Even the way he walks is disturbing, and the senility is impossible to ignore.

Regardless, the overarching problem with this event remains the timing. What genius in the White House thought today of all days would be a good day to hold a “celebration” over an act that was ostensibly supposed to significantly bring down inflation? And to not cancel it even as the stock market collapsed? I’d have to think they were expecting a better report than they got but had already painted themselves in a corner.

This was a “fiddling while Rome burns” moment. I said it was surreal at the beginning of this piece and I think that’s the best descriptor. We are witnessing a president and a White House that exists in an alternate universe of their own making. That they are so arrogant in denying reality only makes it worse, and one can only hope voters see through the facade in November.

Despite Temporarily Lower Gasoline Prices, August Inflation Skyrockets with Biggest Jump in Food Prices Since 1979

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) has released the August inflation data today [DATA HERE] with a top line at 8.3 percent year over year.  Unfortunately, things are unfolding exactly as we previously shared.  [Modified Table 1 at left]

Despite the temporary drop in gasoline prices (-12%), the costs of food (+13.5%), electricity (+15.8%) and housing (+6.7%) are crushing U.S. consumers.  The stock market is responding accordingly.  We can only imagine the inflation data if the heavily weighted gasoline factor was not pushing overall toplines down.  Estimation of inflation would be well over double digits.

Keep in mind, as you read this review the price of the current harvest (prior field costs) is only right now coming into the food supply chain.

Food inflation is running at its highest rate since 1979 (+11.4%) and it will go higher as the third wave in this sector hits.

To give you an example, margarine increased in price 7% in August alone, that’s an annualized rate of 94% [Table 2 details].  Flour is also on pace for another 22.8% increase right as the holiday baking season begins.

We cannot eat gold, silver or durable goods.  Electricity, home heating (natural gas), food and housing costs are priorities right now.  Main Street USA is being crushed by Joe Biden overall economic and energy policies.  It’s bad now, and going to get worse – much worse, as the third wave of food inflation has only just begun.

¹Before sharing a MSM perspective I want to draw your attention to the BLS notation for 2023.  This innocuous footnote tells us just how manipulative the governmental bureaucracies are:

In order to give the statistical appearance of things being better than they are, the BLS is going to reset their weighting for the CPI to only compare against 2021.  This is being done with purpose to give the illusion next year that things are not as bad.  2021 was when Joe Biden’s inflation policies first surfaced. By comparing consumer prices to the timing when those prices first increased, the scale of future price increases will be statistically diminished.  We are in an abusive relationship with our government.

The Looming Crisis that Could Cost the Country and Sink Dems Chances in Midterms

Nick Arama reporting for RedState 

We saw in our earlier report about the inflation numbers that the news was not good for the American consumer — that core CPI went up sharply in August, even with gas prices dropping. That’s not a good sign and an indication that the rosy picture that the Biden team would like to paint of inflation is not reality.

The report has many economists concerned, and stock futures took a tumble Tuesday morning at the news, as the markets reacted to the new CPI data. Economists had predicted a lower annual inflation rate for August, and the 8.3 percent finding sent future tied to the S&P 500 down 1.4 percent, while contracts tied to the tech-oriented Nasdaq fell 1.9 percent.

Unfortunately, there’s another problem coming up that may make it worse, if inflation weren’t bad enough.

There’s a potential railroad strike that may hit on Friday that could cost the country $2 billion a day and throw transportation of goods and people into a mess.

Biden is trying to head it off. He knows that if it hits, it could be toast for the Democrats in the midterms because it would further drive the economy into the dumper. Biden has been making calls and his team has been holding meetings with the union heads but it hasn’t worked so far.

The freight industry has warned that the strike would shut down 30 percent of the country’s freight and “halt most passenger and commuter rail services.” A freight railroad shutdown could “devastate” Amtrak operations, according to the Association of American Railroads, with roughly half of commuter rail systems running at least partially on tracks or rights of way owned by freight railroads. Hundreds of thousands of daily commuter trips would be disrupted, the association said earlier this month. [….]

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, a division of the Teamsters, on Sunday announced a tentative agreement with national rail carriers, leaving only two of the 12 unions without a deal in place. Those two groups, representing engineers and conductors, are politically powerful and the two largest rail unions in the country. The remaining 10 unions are expected to refuse to work in solidarity. [….]

The Federal Railroad Administration, a part of the Transportation Department, has estimated that failure to reach an agreement could cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion per day in lost economic output. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark on Monday said a strike would be an “economic disaster” with “catastrophic economic impacts,” calling for urgent action to resolve the standoff.

This would just make supply chain issues even worse. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it would mean a “damaging supply shock to the economy.”

So best to stock up on whatever you might need before this hits because who knows what it might affect and what shortages could result if they do in fact strike. Add that to the thousands of nurses going on strike and we may have some big problems on the horizon.

The Machiavellian Intent of John Durham Surfaces inside His Court Filing, Outlining the FBI Hiring of Igor Danchenko as Confidential Informant

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

This is sickening to read, and perhaps even more sickening to accept.  CTH has long outlined the belief that Bill Barr was the Bondo application to cover the DOJ and FBI institutional rot, and John Durham was the ongoing spray paint application.

The bottom line is an ongoing DC operation to preserve the institutional credibility of the justice system. A credibility, which is – at this point, entirely destroyed – yet the effort continues.

In a court motion today [pdf HERE], special prosecutor John Durham outlines the case against Christopher Steele’s primary source, Igor Danchenko.  For more granular information about the filing itself, visit Techno Fog [review article HERE].

The basic legal case brought by Durham is predicated on the notion that Christopher Steele’s source for his dossier, Igor Danchenko, willfully and intentionally lied to the FBI, and therefore Danchenko is guilty of purposefully misleading FBI investigators assigned to the Trump-Russia/”crossfire hurricane” investigation.

This is where we must stop pretending.  The Durham premise of a “duped FBI” is laughable on its face. No one in the FBI or DOJ-NSD was “duped” by false information from Igor Danchenko.

The lies, as they were with Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman, were well known to be false, yet materially beneficial to the unspoken intention of the DOJ/FBI, which was to target Donald Trump.   The corrupt intent of the DOJ and FBI is the basic rot John Durham was appointed to cover over.

John Durham is running a Deep State cover operation to protect the institutions of the DOJ and FBI from evidence of their prior activity. The bulls**t of pretending this is not his motive is, well, quite simply nonsense and needs to stop.  Look at today’s filing itself, overlay the timeline and you can see the corrupt intention of the FBI and John Durham’s clear objective is to cover for them.

The big picture takeaway is on the second page.  Pay attention to the dates.

CONTEXT – From January 2017 through October 2020 the FBI was using Danchenko as part of its investigation.  This includes the entire timeline of the Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann special counsel operation which took place from May 2017 to April 2019.

Danchenko was Christopher Steele’s primary source for information he put into his “dossier”.   The DOJ-NSD and FBI used the Steele Dossier in lieu of a valid ‘wood’s file’ to support the FISA surveillance and search warrant application against Carter Page.  The title-1 warrant gave the DOJ-NSD and FBI the ability to conduct surveillance over Donald Trump as a candidate and as a President.  The warrant was issued in October 2016 and renewed thrice in 2017 (Jan, April, June).

The warrant was used to conduct electronic surveillance of President Trump during the time he was in office.  Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann renewed the warrant to support their targeting of Trump and officials in his orbit.  Most of the evidence gathered by Weissmann/Mueller was captured using surveillance legally authorized by the FISA warrant.

Without the Steele Dossier, there wouldn’t be evidence to support the FISA application.  Without the FISA warrant there wouldn’t be legal surveillance of Trump.  This is the importance of the Steele Dossier and as a consequence the importance of Igor Danchenko who provided the fabricated material within the dossier.

♦ We already knew from the Inspector General report on the Carter Page FISA application, the FBI had interviewed Danchenko in January of 2017, within days of filing for the first renewal of the Carter Page Title-1 surveillance warrant.   However, we learn today -for the first time- the FBI hired Danchenko as a “paid confidential human source” following that interview.

According to Durham, Danchenko remained a paid informant of the FBI all the way to October 2020.  Not coincidentally the same time when John Durham was officially appointed by Bill Barr.

So, let’s just stand back and look at this bulls**t scheme for what it is….

The FBI interviews and questions Igor Danchenko in January 2017 about the information in the Steele Dossier.  Danchenko tells them the material he provided to Chris Steele was all hearsay, word-of-mouth, said in jest, bar talk.  Essentially, nonsense [OIG report on those encounters]

Danchenko tells the FBI the material in the dossier was crap.  Therefore, the underlying information that supported the FISA application was crap.

The FBI knows the information is crap, yet the FBI still used the dossier to get the first renewal of the FISA warrant (January 2017).  The original application (Oct. ’16) and the first renewal (Jan. ’17) are word-for-word and page-for-page identical. The FBI and DOJ added nothing; they simply re-filed the exact same documents for the warrant renewal.

AFTER the January 2017 interview, the FBI hires Igor Danchenko as a paid confidential human source.  This move can only be seen for what it was, the DOJ/FBI needed to mitigate the damage Danchenko could bring to their surveillance warrant authority, so the FBI hired him.

AFTER hiring Danchenko the DOJ/FBI then reinterviewed him before refiling the second renewal in April.   With Danchenko on their payroll they don’t need to worry about him undermining the narrative or speaking the truth about the dossier.  This approach protects their warrant.  The surveillance warrant is renewed.

AFTER Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel in May 2017, with Danchenko still on the FBI payroll and under control…  Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann now submit the FISA application for another renewal on June 29, 2017.

The reason to keep Danchenko on the FBI payroll is to mitigate any risk he might present if he were to speak.

As you can see from the Durham filing, Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll throughout the Robert Mueller investigation and the special counsel also interviewed him several times.  When Danchenko is interviewed on June 15, 2017, he is being interviewed as part of the Mueller operation.   That interview was before Mueller renewed the FISA application on June 29th.

Igor Danchenko was kept on the FBI payroll from March 2017 through October 2020.

So, what happened in October 2020?

John Durham was officially appointed as Special Counsel by Bill Barr.

Follow the timeline:

Danchenko interviewed by FBI in January 2017. Tells FBI dossier is junk.

FBI hires Danchenko in March 2017 just before renewing the FISA they now know is based on junk.

May 2017 Robert Mueller appointed to cover up all of the DOJ/FBI corruption that existed in the Trump targeting.

June 2017 Mueller interviews Danchenko, then renews the FISA.

February 2019, Bill Barr enters as Attorney General.

April 2019 Robert Mueller completes investigation.

May 2019, Bill Barr appoints Durham just to look into things.  Immediately then begs Trump not to declassify any documents.  Trump writes executive order giving Bill Barr ability to review and declassify documents.

October 2020, Bill Barr officially (and quietly), makes John Durham a special counsel.  We don’t find out until December (after the Nov election).

October 2020, FBI drops Igor Danchenko as paid informant.

Put it all together and you see the continuum.

(1) Donald Trump was being targeted by a corrupt DOJ and FBI.  (2) Robert Mueller was installed in May 2017 to cover up the targeting.  (3) When Mueller is nearing his completion, Bill Barr steps in to mitigate institutional damage from 1 and 2. (4) Barr maintains damage control and installs Durham. (5) Durham takes over the coverup operation from October 2020 (Danchenko safe to exit) through today.

Main Justice kept a bag over Danchenko until they needed a scapegoat, created by Durham, to sell a narrative that Main Justice was duped. John Durham is charging Danchenko (working outside govt) with lying to the FBI while simultaneously avoiding drawing attention to the FBI/DOJ officials (inside govt) who knew Danchenko was lying and were willfully blind to it in order to continue attacking and investigating President Donald Trump.

James Comey, Robert Mueller, Bill Barr, John Durham, the Mar-a-Lago raid…  it’s all one long continuum of the same targeting and coverup operation.

Bill Barr was the Bondo application and John Durham is the spray paint.

The entire system is corrupt.