Motivation Monday

The Shooting

I'm weary.  It happens too much.  I'm not going to write much because so many others have.  So many think there are easy solutions.  When something like this happens the so-called experts come out of the woodwork.  Ban guns!  Fund more mental health care!  Get rid of "assault rifles".  Open more institutions.  The NRA is responsible.  Ban high capacity magazines.  Parents have failed their children and are not fulfilling their parental responsibilities.  Trumps fault.  Obama's fault.  Bush's fault.  Ban bump stops.  Get rid of concealed carry.  That creates a violent society.  Baby boomers have created a lax society so what do you expect? Teachers are given no respect.  Violent TV and movies have created a violent society.  Death means nothing to some of these kids.  Ban violent TV.  Kids are allowed to run free.  Prosecute parents for the sins of the children.  Ban violent video games.  Ban video games.  Social media is at fault.  Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and all the others have fomented the problem.  Ban them all.  Anyone can buy a gun.  Ban gun stores.  Ban gun shows.  Create a gun turn in program.  Ban handguns.  Tobacco is the country's biggest killer.  Ban that.  Mental illness is a national tragedy.  If you see something, say something.  If you don't, it's your fault.  Climate change is going to kill millions so we need to focus more on that.  It's Congress' fault.  Those lowlife's can't do anything.  Vote them all out.  Enact term limits.  It's the FBI's fault.  They know who the nuts are and won't do anything.  Give more power and money to localities to attack the problem.  Toughen the requirements to buy a gun, even though they are already tough.  Create a national gun registry, even though there already is one.  Abortion kills far more people than guns, so don't talk about guns until you talk about abortion.  Same with drunk driving.  Put our energies into stopping people from driving while drunk.  Turn to God for solutions.  Forget appealing to God.  Seek logical solutions.  This doesn't happen in other countries.  Become like Australia, Norway, Singapore, Japan, etc, etc, etc.  Arm teachers.  Put an armed guard in every school.  Lock down every school.  Give teachers concealed carry ability.  Schools need to be free and open.  Put up signs creating a "gun-free zone".  Have a memorial service and send "thoughts and prayers".  Deluge the site with flowers and candles to show we care.  Have politicians offer condolences.  Blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, 17 families in Florida will never be the same.  17 young lives snuffed out.  I can't even imagine.  And the kids, teachers, first responders, government representatives, and really everyone in Parkland, FL will never be the same.  And that's true for Columbine, Sandy Hook, Sutherland, and so many others.

It's a difficult subject to even discuss because of two things.  Passion and misinformation.  The statistics are powerful, convincing and mindboggling on both sides.  The memes resonate.  Each side doesn't even want to listen to the other.  After the loss of life, and especially young life, people want to "do something".  But read or listen to people discussing this issue.  There are very few in the middle.  Most 2nd Amendment zealots won't even discuss further controls.  They say we've already gone too far.  And their arguments have some validity.  There are very few gun ban advocates who will even discuss a compromise.  They want them all gone.   But frequently many of those people have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to guns.  There's a pretty good article on this issue here.  And once again, it's from a position of passion, from caring, from pain.  And their arguments have some validity.    

So we seem to remain in a weird sort of purgatory where nothing gets done and we are doomed to suffer these horrible incidents over and over and over...  And not only is it a national tragedy, but it's a national embarrassment.  

So what do we do?  I wish I knew...  

Friday Funnies

No Friday Funnies this week.  Somehow I'm not in the laughing mood.

Let's Have a Parade!

President Trump is just radioactive for some folks.  He cannot say anything without raising the ire of a certain segment of the population.  It's really pretty sad and is getting very tiresome.  It seems that almost every day there is something else that causes a certain segment of the population to go apoplectic.  As I've previously written, He wasn’t my guy but he’s now my President.  I get that some are opposed to him.  And that's as it should be.  But the blind resistance that results in paralysis is  just not good for any of us.   One of the latest things is that in the last week he has made the comment that he'd like to have a military parade.  This idea has met with resistance from many quarters.  The usual suspects are mightily against it, but some who you wouldn't expect to raise objections are doing just that.

Here's the back story (at least how I see it).  Trump went to military school as a young man.  He credits that experience for instilling a lot of traits that he has carried through his life.  Discipline, a certain dedication to a regimen (he doesn't drink or smoke), an appreciation for order, an appreciation for the military, and an admiration for people who step up to the call.  Since becoming President there can be no denying his admiration for the military.  He has been to bases and ships and has had interactions with all kinds of military people.  He has picked for a Secretary of Defense someone who is widely admired in the military.  Last summer he felt honored to be invited to France to witness their Bastille Day parade, which is a glorious site. As the military units march down the Champs D'Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe there is a majesty to it.  The feeling of pride is unmistakable.  There are similar parades in the UK but they are more situational.  The Queen's Jubilee or a Royal Marriage can bring out the best in them.  For my money, the Brits are the best at pomp and ceremony, but the French do it pretty well also.  And there are others.

The point is, military parades are pretty recognized as providing the populations with a chance to admire and thank their military men and women who have stepped up to service, give the military a real sense of pride, show the population what their tax dollars are going toward, and show the world what we can bring to the fight, both from a hardware and personnel perspective.

So I think Trump thought, let's have a parade.  After all, we haven't had one since 1991 after Desert Storm.  The country has been at war for 17 years and the military has done a great job in keeping us safe.  Or at least the very small portion of the population that has served has done that.  So let's acknowledge that.

But...as we see with almost everything that Trump tries to do, the first reaction is for the resistance to resist.  They don't want us to look like a Communist country that routinely parades their hardware in military parades while their people starve.  Of course, many of these same people support Bernie Sanders who would take us down the road to Communism.  Or they think it would be too expensive citing all kinds of stats on how much it would cost.  Of course, these stats might as well be pulled out of the air because this kind of thing could be measured in all sorts of ways.  Or they say let's spend the money on our homeless vets citing the need for housing for them.  Of course, in the course of their everyday comings and goings, they don't give a shit about homeless vets.  And never will.  And they don't or won't see that in an economy of trillions of dollars if we wanted to solve the homeless vets problem, we'd do it.  We'd elect people who would fix it.  And they'd never acknowledge that under Trump the VA has improved tremendously.  Or if they do acknowledge it, they'd say that Obama really started it.  So there are a ton of people who oppose it just to oppose it because Trump wants to do it and that's just the way it is.

The surprising thing to me is all the retired and active military folks I see opposing it.  I assume they've been a part of parades in their lives.  Is it a hassle?  Generally.  But it also (at least for me) sparks a real pride.  Pride in country.  Pride in service.  Pride in fellow shipmates.  Etc.  So I don't see the big reason to not do it.  Oh, I understand that we probably shouldn't have a big emphasis on rolling tanks and missiles and other bit hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue.  That's not us.  But a good old fashioned parade of people and bands and some cool equipment accompanied by an impressive flyover would, at least for me, be great.  I think it should be coupled with some significant holiday and the logical ones are July 4, Memorial Day or Veteran's Day.  I think any of those would work.

Secretary Mattis has said that they are sending over some options for the WH to consider.  I trust Mattis to provide options that are reasonable and would be impressive.  I hope my fellow citizens will take a breath, realize a couple things.  Rather than ascribe the worst possible motive to the President's idea to have a military parade, see it for what it is.  An attempt to thank those in uniform, to acknowledge their sacrifice and our indebtedness to them, and a hope that it might bring people together and result in a renewed pride in the country.  Quit counting all the things wrong with it and see the things right with it.  Give up looking for all the little reasons why it's a bad idea when in reality they just don't like Trump and it was his idea.  Stop being a cynic.  The best definition of a cynic I've heard is that it's someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.  We have way too many cynics these days throwing up roadblocks and denigrating everything that someone that they don't agree with proposes.  A popular watchword these days is diversity and I'm all for it.  But I'm more for unity.  We can be hugely diverse, but if we're not unified we're doomed.  Because that's what makes us who we are.  

Dueling Memos

Last week I had a post about the memo that the Republican's authored and came out of the House Intelligence Committee.  In a nutshell, it succinctly told the story of the Democrats funding some opposition research from a shady character who made a lot of stuff up, the FBI got ahold of it and then used it as a part of the justification for spying on a member of the Trump campaign.  That member is a U.S. Citizen.  Pretty shoddy.  You can read more as well as the memo here.  

So inevitably the Dems launched their own memo.  When the Republican memo surfaced, every Dem voted against releasing it.  But here every Republican voted to release it.  Of course, that fact got glossed over by our stellar, inquisitive journalist corps.  So they followed procedure and sent it up the White House for release.  And in what is probably the least surprising thing in history, the WH sent it back and said to take out some stuff, and redact some stuff, and change a few things.  In case you have any doubt, this was hugely predictable.  What was also hugely predictable is that the Dems are now crying hypocrisy.  It really is sort of beyond belief that they can be so stupid.  I mean, that was obviously their intention all along.  So their memo hasn't been released.  But you can take this to the bank.  It will not be of substance.  I'm not sure what they'll say but there are two undeniable facts.  The Republican memo uncovers serious wrongdoing by the Dems and Hillary's campaign that can't be explained away.  Secondly, there is no reasonable excuse that will make this outrageous behavior okay.  Simple as that.

Motivation Monday

This is one of the best things I've seen in a long time.  It's all simple, but very powerful.  The last two items say it all...

Friday Funnies

I think I've seen this weather report more than once this Winter...

Guys Will Get This...

Dating

It's been quite a while, but from what I remember...yeah.

Cool Pic

Dogs are Cool!

And good buddies!

Cats

If you've been reading, you know I'm a dog person.  A dog might knock a drink on the floor with his tail.  But a cat?  Yeah, this is totally a cat.

Nailed It

Good Advice

Saw this over on FB.  Makes a lot of sense.  Sometimes it would be nice if he'd just ignore the jerks.

Labs

We've had a Lab in the house for decades.  Wonderful dogs.  But they all have some common traits.  They are gluttons for fun.  They will run until they drop.  They are hugely loyal.  And if there is food, any kind of food, anywhere near them...it's gone.

Learning Early

Pay attention and you'll see it.  Another one I'll probably get in trouble for...

Coincidence?

Seems to be a bit much for a coincidence.  I know, I know.  I'm a shameful asshole who is making fun of single Moms, disfunctional families, and the breakdown of society.  Okay.  Whatever.  It's still sorta funny.

Motivation Monday

The Memo

Those who pay attention to this kind of stuff have been waiting with baited breath for "the memo" to be released to the general public.  Well, today they got their wish.  It was pretty interesting and for some, it was a bombshell.  Of course, the Dems call it a nothing burger.  Like everything else these days, it is political theater.

For those not paying attention, here's the Reader's Digest version of what happened.  In 2016 the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign paid a company called GPS Fusion to produce opposition research on the Trump campaign.  Part of that research was a "dossier" authored by a Brit named Christopher Steele.  Steele seems like a sleaze bag and there is no doubt that he was strongly anti-Trump.  So he made up a bunch of stuff that portrayed Trump in the worst light. And I mean the worst light.  One of the things (among others) he claimed was that Trump hired prostitutes in Moscow to piss on beds that Obama slept in.  Nice, huh?  Only trouble is, it was all bullshit.  Anyway, meanwhile there was the low level, unpaid Trump advisor (and it is questionable how close he really was to the campaign) named Carter Page who supposedly had some Russian connections.  So here's what the FBI and the DOJ did.  They used this opposition research dossier to go to the FISA Court (this is the super secret court that issues warrants for wire-tapping) and got a warrant to tap Page's phone.  And since this warrant needs to be renewed every 90 days, they didn't just do it once.  They did it multiple times.  And several very high-level FBI and DOJ people signed off on this.  You've heard all the names.  Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, etc.  They are all implicated.

If you've not read the memo and are interested, here it is:

January 18, 2018

To: HPSCI Majority Members

From: HPSCI Majority Staff

Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Purpose

This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.

Investigation Update

On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.

The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §,1805(d)(l)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.

Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard—particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.

1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.

b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.

2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.

a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.

b) Steele’s numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling—maintaining confidentiality—and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.

3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files—but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.

a) During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.

4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was—according to his June 2017 testimony—“salacious and unverified.” While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.

5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an “insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.

Now, you might say what's the big deal?  No harm, no foul.  Trump was elected anyway.  The thing is that we have this document that guides every thing we do in this country called the Constitution.  We believe in government by, of and for the people.  Of course we want to uphold the law, but we generally don't countenance spying on American Citizens.  And we especially are against that kind of thing going on as a result of politics.  That goes on in many, many countries around the world that don't believe in rights of their citizens.  Not here.  That the FBI and DOJ would use opposition research funded and produced for a political party to spy on members of the political opposition is quite simply appalling.  And it should result in not only some major firings, but criminal prosecution.  Simple as that.

I don't know where we're going from here.  One side says they have more damning info.  I hope that's not the case because it's already pretty terrible.  And unsavory.  And I don't want to believe that the FBI and DOJ would do further terrible things.  The other side is in the deny and blame mode.  But no matter how much they deny and blame, at some point most people who are interested are going to see what's gone on and the reality will be easy to see.   Laws were broken.  The Constitution was trampled.  High level FBI and DOJ people should be ashamed.

People talk about the resistance.  They go around blithely throwing around accusations about the worst things they've heard from this or that media source without ever getting substantiation.  Hashtags are very popular to indicate outrage or support.  #resistence is the word of the day.  They protest, they utter unbelievably foul accusations, they repeat obscenities about the other side as if they are carved in stone and there is no question as to accuracy, and they seem willing to go to radical lengths to undermine and even harm their political opponents.  And yet...the rhetoric on the other side doesn't seem to match the vitriol.

I remember very clearly when Obama was elected.  He wasn't my guy but I was willing to give him a chance because he was the President.  I think most people were.  It didn't take very long for him to show his true colors.  He was quite simply an incompetent, inexperienced, naive, divisive, horrible President.  It had nothing to do with race.  It had to do with him as a person.  And there were a ton of people who believed and still believe that.  There is no doubt that we were much worse off after his 8 years in office.    But we didn't resort to violence.   We didn't trample on the Constitution.  We didn't resist things that might have been good for the country just because he was for it.  We didn't think of our little world instead of the country as a whole.  But that's what's happening.  I just hope they wake up.  We can all move forward together.  Or there will be some dark days ahead.

Friday Funnies

A little golf humor...

While golfing, I took a quick turn to avoid hitting a chuck hole and accidentally overturned my golf cart.

A very beautiful and attractive young lady, who lived right there on the edge of the golf course, heard the noise, came running out of her villa and shouted, "Are you okay?"

As I looked up I noticed she was wearing only a silky see through bath robe which was partially open, revealing what appeared to be a VERY nice figure.

"I'm okay I think," I replied as I pulled myself out from under the twisted cart.

She said, "Please follow me to my villa so I can clean and bandage that nasty scrape on your head, then you can rest a while, and I'll help you upright the cart later.”

"That's mighty nice of you," I answered, “but I don't think my wife will like me doing that!”

"Oh, come on now," she insisted. "We need to see if you have any more scrapes and treat them if so".  Well, after all, she was really pretty, and very, very persuasive.

Being sort of shaken and weak, I finally agreed, but repeated, "I'm sure my wife won't like this."

We walked to her place and after a couple of Scotch and waters and the bandaging, I thanked her and said, "I feel a lot better now, but I know my wife is going to be really upset, so I'd better go now."

"Don't be silly!" she said with a smile, letting her robe fall even more open "Stay for a while. She won't know anything, and by the way, where is she?"

I replied, "Still under the cart, I guess."