Rebane's Ruminations
March 2017
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

ARCHIVES


OUR LINKS


YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

George Rebane

This morning NPR again alerted the nation to the manufactured Russian threat, still very much a work in process.  They devoted the major segment of their Morning Edition to “reviewing” Russia’s impact on last year’s election by interviewing two ‘experts’ who turned out to be another pair of pot boiling reporters.

We were again breezily informed of the “general agreement” that Russia was the hacker even though “no direct evidence” has yet surfaced to support that.  But the general conclusion spoonfed the listener was that there is indeed something to the “allegation of collusion” between the Trump campaign and whatever nefarious acts by the Russians that NPR was busily constructing in your imagination.  Again, the “no evidence yet” from “ongoing investigations” was the quick codicil wedged into the spray of incidental and immaterial “what we know” items.

The whole affair was another professional hit job that concluded with the Flynn-Sessions ‘double tap’, as if those immaterial conversations really did serve to enable and coordinate the now popularly acknowledged Russian attack on our democratic system.  Here we glossed over the fact that no evidence whatsoever exists to condemn AG Sessions in any wrongdoing during his very routine contacts with the Russian ambassador (lamestream’s “spy master”), or mention that the tapped Flynn telecons contained nothing that could be considered culpable.

The only way that the Trump administration can be convicted in this continental kangaroo court is if the rules of evidence can been reduced to the requirement for a preponderance of allegations, innuendo, and emotions.  However, to date that appears to be more than sufficient, given the agenda of the leftwing lamestream and their Democrat handlers in the federal government.  But here’s what everyone continues to miss.

There can be no reasonable discussion, let alone accusations, of Russia impacting America’s election until some plausible means are at least identified by which they could have accomplished anything to materially affect the election’s outcome.  And this is what no one (apparently including RR readers) in the land seems to grasp.  Without plausible means the whole affair is moot.

As an example, consider Bugsy Jones paroled from prison with the proviso that he not wander more than a mile from his designated residence without permission.  Bugsy’s longtime protagonist Mugsy wants him back in prison and concocts a story of how Bugsy violated his parole – he accuses Bugsy of having circumnavigated the moon last Wednesday night, a trip taking him more than a mile from home.  As evidence Mugsy points to the science fiction paperbacks that Bugsy has been seen reading and from which he must have gotten the idea.  In this case we can be fairly certain that the parole board will dismiss Mugsy’s allegations on their face for the obvious reason that Bugsy had no plausible means by which he could have accomplished the forbidden circumnavigation.

And yet, no one seems to be able to either identify, let alone connect the same dots in the ongoing Russian imbroglio.  I know why the Left does not want to bring up the question of ‘plausible means’, but I have no idea why no one on the Right (save possibly Limbaugh) has introduced this overwhelmingly important factor into the national debate about Trump’s supposed love of Russia and Hillary’s disastrous defeat at the polls.

Postscript: To really understand this baseless and fraudulent attack on Trump we need to recall the national yawn that China’s bought and paid for love affair with President Clinton elicited in 1996.  All governments do their best to influence the internal affairs of other governments when the opportunity exists and it serves their national interests.  The educated know it was ever thus.  Holman Jenkins reprises President Clinton’s role (here) in how the Democrats accepted more than $2M from China to support his and fellow Democrats’ re-elections.  

Posted in , , ,

219 responses to “No Plausible Means in the Lamestream’s Inflated Russian Bubble”

  1. ScenesFromTheApocalypse Avatar
    ScenesFromTheApocalypse
  2. ScenesFromTheApocalypse Avatar
    ScenesFromTheApocalypse

    re: W @ 3:20PM
    Here’s a good example of how the Mr. Newsmen of the world do their bit.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6ut6JouUv8

    Like

  3. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Well walt using stolen materials for your own gain is also illegal so perhaps Trump should be arrested for exploiting for his benefit the stolen emails from Wikileaks.

    Like

  4. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    So our Liar in Chief lies again. It’s been revealed that indeed he did have personal contact with the Russians during the campaign
    Donald Trump Met Russian Ambassador During The Campaign, Despite Repeated Denials
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-kislyak-russia_us_58bf087ee4b0e6e6ccb56870?ks0x2e97iy3ng3c8fr&

    Like

  5. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Oh Paul Emery. Walt stumped you and put your argument in the trash. So you try and make some point about Wikileaks. That was sent into the public square not by Trump was it? Of course not. So once again apples and oranges. And if the spooks want to arrest Assuage, then do it and stop crying that he is releasing more emails.

    Like

  6. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Stolen material used for personal gain.

    Like

  7. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Man that is pathetic, even for poor ol’ PE @ 333, 355. Our resident fakenewsman has now turned country lawyer. Love your comic stylings there ya poor ol’ pollhead.;-)

    Like

  8. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Stolen material used for personal gain? PE, what gain did Trump receive from stolen material?? Please clarify. Quantify please. What personal gain exactly?? How much money? How did Trump gain. You assume he gained, please PROVE IT?
    Also, please prove that Obama did not bug Trump’s phone. Otherwise, your assumptions are up to your pathetic normal.
    You make a statement that stolen material was used for personal gain. Put up or shut up. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Back up that wild off the wall statement.

    Like

  9. Gregory Avatar
    Gregory

    Paul, perhaps you can tell me how anyone intent on treason would discuss their conspiracies again and again with enemy agents, sometimes in sight and earshot of Democrats, yet no one heard anything? Multiple continual contacts throughout the campaign?
    One might also wonder why Pelosi loudly denied ever meeting that Russian ambassador… until shown the photo of a group meeting over a jolly nice meal, sitting eye to eye with the very same fellow across a narrow table. Why would she lie about that, Paul, unless she had something to hide?
    If you need some mansplaining about human memory and, in addition, why one needs to be hyperspecific and careful about the language used when making wild claims of criminal conspiracy or treason, just ask.

    Like

  10. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Very simple answer Bill. He took information from the stolen emails and used it o enhance his campaign against Clinton. That’s a no brainier. Try again.

    Like

  11. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    PE has lost it.

    Like

  12. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Trump admits defeat on this one. Tail is between his legs.
    SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday said it would voluntarily dismiss its own appeal of a Seattle federal court ruling that had suspended President Donald Trump’s first executive order concerning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

    Like

  13. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Sounds like our resident very fakenewsman is a no brainer @ 516, 521. The President signed a new immigration EO so the 9th circuit case is mooted mr country lawyer or did you miss that poor ol’ PE? 😉

    Like

  14. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    It’s a substantially different from the One that the courts threw out.

    Like

  15. Walt Avatar

    Just not your night Paul. Every one of your “breaking news” is pretty much round filed
    on arrival.
    But from what was on the tube tonight, Sen. Tom Cotton knows what’s going on with the Trump Tower leak. The facts will come out soon enough.

    Like

  16. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Thanks fault for following up on this I’ll look forward to seeing your information that proves Obama wiretapped trumps tower

    Like

  17. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Poor ol’ democratic parrot PE- You were quick to abandon your earlier no brain claims. The EO is not substantially different just nuanced and Iraq made a side deal to give us more data on people. 😉

    Like

  18. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    That’s Thanks Walt Poor speech recognition

    Like

  19. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Paul Emery @ 5:16 pm.
    Paul, please quantify or qualify Trump’s enchancement. Nice try. You said Trump enchanted his campaign against Clinton. What proof do you have that Wikileaks enchanced the Trump campaign???? Seriously, I would like to know. Whether you switch the word ‘gain’ for ‘enhance’ , you still have not backed up your statement. Please try again and prove your statement. Thank you

    Like

  20. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Don’t hold your breath BT@ 636. 😉

    Like

  21. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Well look at all the Wikileaks information that Trump used in his campaign especially the information about the DNC. If that private information hadn’t been stolen it would not have been known. Therefore Trump used stolen material to enhance his campaign message that Hillary and the Dems were crooks.

    Like

  22. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Don.
    Question. Is there any proof that a FISA request was filed? Need exact date and copy and name of person who signed off on the request. Or name of person who signed off that the alleged FISA request was indeed submitted. Otherwise, it was just another story printed by the NYT. Been away today and it was nice.
    Also Don, is there any proof Russia hacked Podesta’s computer? The FBI was not allowed to examine Podesta’s computer, only the Hillary Campaign hand picked third party. The Intel reports did not claim the Russia hacked the computer as fact. No definitive fact. A lot of legalize, but no conclusion as fact that anyone in Intel put their John Hancock on.

    Like

  23. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Bill
    What you are writing about is exactly why we need an independent investigator. Thanks for making my point.

    Like

  24. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    No investigation needed. No facts, no proof, nothing at all. Simply a ploy by the democrats and lamestream media hacks.

    Like

  25. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    I think some of us see BT’s post a little differently ya poor ol’ pollhead PE. 😉

    Like

  26. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Another one from our liar in chief
    “122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!” Trump tweeted — from both his personal account and the official White House account, @POTUS.
    So in the 15 years between when Guantanamo opened in 2002 and when the latest data was collected in 2016, 122 detainees were transferred out of the prison who the government believes have returned to some sort of terrorist activity.
    However, just nine of those transfers happened during the Obama administration. The remaining 113 — or over 92 percent — happened under Bush.
    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/mar/07/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrongly-blames-barack-obama-former-gu/

    Like

  27. ScottM Avatar
    ScottM

    A friendly reminder that the Trump/Russia scandal is only in the top of the 2nd. The various details from the Steele Dossier are slowly being confirmed, a little bit more and more every day.

    Like

  28. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    There is no Russian-Trump connection, thus no scandal. Just about everything printed in lamestream media on the topic has been, to date, proven false, unsubstantiated, and wishful thinking on the part of the Establishment insiders such as our local Establishment Parrot.
    Absolutely no Russian connection outside of the direct line of Hillary Clinton-Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta-Clinton Foundation-Russian connection. Too many direct ties and connections to list. This involves sitting on the board of the largest oil company in Russia, ties to Russian banks, direct ties to Russian owned companies, 140 million dollar donation to the Foundation, Bubba receiving $500,000 for speaking to Russian owned banking interests while HRC was Sec of State and said foreign interests having submitted applications for pending approval by the US Gov’t.
    Crooked Hillary.
    The Democrat Party is the biggest threat to democracy.

    Like

  29. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    PE @ 6:59 pm
    Are you saying we need an independent investigation because the CIA, NSA, FBI, Justice Department, and all intelligence agencies have found no concrete evidence of Russian hacking of the DNC, the DCCC, the Clinton Campaign, or proving Russia-Trump collusion?
    I remember you decrying that Trump did not have full faith in our Intelligence agencies, including the Directors of the CIA and NSA. You were not incredulous that Trump brushed aside their findings?
    So, Paul, what changed your mind? Has new conclusive concrete information been brought to light that you are privy to that the US government with our best and brightest (with unlimited budgets) have not found?
    Paul, what has changed your mind? You aren’t partaking of the opiate of the masses again are you? Did your fake news feeds say it was the one armed man on the grassy knoll who convinced you to say there is something there that all our spooks, investigators, and Inlel collectors have not found??? Did Botox Nancy or Maxine Waters or other such pillars of intellectual giants convince yo that there’s sometig there?

    Like

  30. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    https://patriotpost.us/articles/47836
    Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, writing for National Review, explains:
    First, as Obama officials well know, under the FISA process, it is technically the FISA court that “orders” surveillance. And by statute, it is the Justice Department, not the White House, that represents the government in proceedings before the FISA court. So, the issue is not whether Obama or some member of his White House staff “ordered” surveillance of Trump and his associates. The issues are (a) whether the Obama Justice Department sought such surveillance authorization from the FISA court, and (b) whether, if the Justice Department did that, the White House was aware of or complicit in the decision to do so. Personally, given the explosive and controversial nature of the surveillance request we are talking about — an application to wiretap the presidential candidate of the opposition party, and some of his associates, during the heat of the presidential campaign, based on the allegation that the candidate and his associates were acting as Russian agents — it seems to me that there is less than zero chance that could have happened without consultation between the Justice Department and the White House.
    And as talk radio host Mark Levin, a constitutional attorney and former chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese III in the Ronald Reagan administration, put it, “The issue isn’t whether the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign or transition of surrogates; the issue is the extent of it.”

    Like

  31. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    But Paul Emery qt 915, Trump is as hard on Bush as he is on Obummer. I thought you were having O’s with Trump’s criticism’s matching your BDS!

    Like

  32. ScenesFromTheApocalypse Avatar
    ScenesFromTheApocalypse

    It appears that Wikileaks isn’t quite done with the Green Libertarian Intelligence Agency yet.
    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839475557721116672
    The Germans are getting into a bit of a tizzy.
    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839486272523669504
    and Google might be miffed with their partners-in-crime.
    https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/839498697553608705

    Like

  33. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Liar in Chief Todd Did you read Trumps Tweet?

    Like

  34. Russ Avatar
    Russ

    Good Morning Paul, this is for you:
    BILL BINNEY’S NOT JUST ANY WHISTLEBLOWER: NSA Whistleblower Backs Trump Up on Wiretap Claims.
    President Donald Trump is “absolutely right” to claim he was wiretapped and monitored, a former NSA official claimed Monday, adding that the administration risks falling victim to further leaks if it continues to run afoul of the intelligence community.
    “I think the president is absolutely right. His phone calls, everything he did electronically, was being monitored,” Bill Binney, a 36-year veteran of the National Security Agency who resigned in protest from the organization in 2001, told Fox Business on Monday. Everyone’s conversations are being monitored and stored, Binney said.
    Binney resigned from NSA shortly after the U.S. approach to intelligence changed following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He “became a whistleblower after discovering that elements of a data-monitoring program he had helped develop — nicknamed ThinThread — were being used to spy on Americans,” PBS reported.
    It’s not really a “wiretap” except notionally — I think basically they just store everything, then query a database about what they’re interested in.
    Plus: “Binney did say events such as publication of details of private calls between President Trump and the Australian prime minister, as well as with the Mexican president, are evidence the intelligence community is playing hardball with the White House.”
    https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-03-07/nsa-whistleblower-bill-binney-says-trump-is-absolutely-right-about-wiretap-claims

    Like

  35. BradC Avatar
    BradC

    BillT – Mark Levin, now there is an unbiased echo chamber source! Snopes does not agree with your, 2:43AM, post. The last line of the Snopes Clinton/Uranium link says it all: “for the sake of accuracy it’s crucial to differentiate between partisan accusations and what we actually know about it — however little that may be.”
    http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-uranium-russia-deal/

    Like

  36. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Russ
    The “expert” referred to in your 8:40 is hardly a credible source in this matter. He was last with the NSA in 2001, 16 years ago.

    Like

  37. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    For the first time in many years the “right direction” is in positive territory. Paul Emery will have a cow.

    Like

  38. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    BradC | 08 March 2017 at 08:57 AM
    Snopes has been outed as a democrat operative source. So we don’t use them for anything of consequence.

    Like

  39. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 08 March 2017 at 09:13 AM
    Bill Binney was the guy Paul! Knew the NSA inside and out.
    Got the bums rush for caring about……psssst…..constitutional limits on surveillance and your right to a shred of privacy on this ball of dirt we all share.
    From his Wikipedia entry

    Binney was a Russia specialist and worked in the operations side of intelligence, starting as an analyst and ending as a Technical Director prior to becoming a geopolitical world Technical Director. In the 1990s, he co-founded a unit on automating signals intelligence with NSA research chief Dr. John Taggart.[6] Binney’s NSA career culminated as Technical Leader for intelligence in 2001. Having expertise in intelligence analysis, traffic analysis, systems analysis, knowledge management, and mathematics (including set theory, number theory, and probability),[7] Binney has been described as one of the best analysts in the NSA’s history.[8]

    Glowing review of his prowess from another article
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-30/creator-nsa’s-global-surveillance-system-calls-bs-russian-hacking-report

    Binney is the NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency and the NSA’s best-ever analyst and code-breaker, who mapped out the Soviet command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so predicted Soviet invasions before they happened (“in the 1970s, he decrypted the Soviet Union’s command system, which provided the US and its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and Russian atomic weapons”).

    You would do well to not dismiss him out of hand.

    Like

  40. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Fish
    He’s been out of the agency for 16 years. Not a credible source.

    Like

  41. fish Avatar
    fish

    Posted by: Paul Emery | 08 March 2017 at 09:59 AM
    Sure Paul….whatever you say.

    Like

  42. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Trump trailing in 9 of 11 polls. Historic lows for first 100 days.
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/

    Like

  43. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Still President there Pauly

    Like

  44. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Yep Todd He is but without much support

    Like

  45. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Oh he has a lot of support. You just can’t see what we see.

    Like

  46. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    That is an understatement. At last we agree on something

    Like

  47. Paul Emery Avatar
    Paul Emery

    Todd, what is your speculation as to why he is doing so poorly in the polls, the worst in recorded history at this stage?

    Like

  48. Don Bessee Avatar
    Don Bessee

    Gaaawd, More of the trite, poor ol’ pollhead PE chatter. 😉

    Like

  49. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Trump is doing great Paul Emery. You just can’t agree. I understand.

    Like

Leave a comment