Snakes in the grass
In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed James Comey as FBI Director. I have had my experiences with Presidents and their appointments. In my years of Army service, I learned and had it reinforced multiple times through service secretaries, defense secretaries, joint chiefs, and major command generals is that they closely mirror the President in ideology and worldview. I certainly understand that. If I was picking people for my team, I would certainly pick people with a similar worldview as mine. At least we would be in the same neighborhood of thinking. Following the Army, during federal government service, if I knew the President I never had to wonder about incoming Secretaries or, in Comey’s case, Directors because I knew them and I knew their views and policies would closely mirror the President’s. One should not expect anything different. For what other reason would any President select someone? So my view of Comey does not differ from my view of any other administration Secretary or Director. My view of Obama, by default, is my view of Comey. Just as it is my view of Lynch, Holder, Clinton, Kerry, et al. I know Comey is supposedly a registered Republican, but so are many others who would rather see Trump fail. This is why President Trump needs to thank him for his service and send him on his way – and if Trump is to survive he is but one of many who need to be shown the door.
Comey’s recent work history puts him as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003. From there he was appointed as Deputy Attorney General of the US under Attorney General John Ashcroft. In this capacity, he appointed friend Patrick Fitzgerald as Special Counsel to investigate and prosecute the Valerie Plame lie. It was an almost endless investigation that failed to prosecute the person who actually leaked CIA agent Plame’s name. It was common knowledge that Colin Powell’s man Richard Armitage leaked the identity of Plame and not anyone in the Bush Whitehouse. At the end of this political fishing expedition, Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby was sacrificed for fibbing to the FBI. From there, Comey moved to a job as General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Lockheed Martin, a mega defense contractor who also likes to spread a lot of political cash including to the Clinton Foundation while Comey was there. He then became General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates, billed as the world’s largest (and maybe weirdest by some accounts) global hedge fund managing more than a $150 billion in assets. His next adventure in public life, excluding his College Professorship, was a seat on the Board of Directors for HBSC Holdings also a Clinton Foundation donor during his tenure. This Swiss bank gained much notoriety for laundering drug cartel money (Bloomberg, The Guardian, Reuters, Rolling Stone, Financial Times). He held that position until July 2013 just prior to his appointment as FBI Director.
A September 2016 Breitbart article laid out Comey’s connections to the Clinton Foundation through his former employers and his brother. This information was also placed into the Congressional Record. Since Washington is big on demanding recusals these days, maybe the question should have been asked of the FBI Director relating to Mrs. Clinton.
To the legacy news media that most Americans still rely on these days, Hillary Clinton’s violations of federal law involving conducting government business and mishandling classified material on an unsecured private server is old news, except for their attempts to pin everything to Trump/Russian collusion. The alternative media (Daily Caller, Huffington Post, Hot Air – Mark Levin) and others view it differently. The investigation was closed as nothing to see here by Director Comey. Still most people, including legal scholars on all sides, but not the legacy media of course, believed and still do that Mrs. Clinton should have been held accountable for breaking federal laws but, according to Director Comey:
Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.
I guess. Maybe what he meant was that a reasonable prosecutor would appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate a lie called a leak only to let the known leaker walk. Amazingly, the FBI gave immunity to Clinton Aides, in return for nada which also amazed some legal scholars and prosecutors. So Attorney General Lynch met with Bill Clinton (CNN, Washington Times) to discuss their grandchildren after which Director Comey schooled us on what a reasonable prosecutor would do.
It is not just the mail server and mishandling of classified information, but also questionable corruption of the Clinton Foundation itself. It is the Uranium One deal and more cash to the Clintons (World Net Daily, New York Times) and we didn’t even make it down the bribe, or speech fee list. Damn Russians have been working hard to make the Clintons look bad. Sure would like to know how they did that.
And, make no mistake. Comey is knee deep in the surveillance of Trump and associates as far back as July 2016. How could he not be aware? He would be an incredibly stupid FBI Director if he wasn’t.
Mr. President you have over 2000 appointments to fill. Git jiggy widdit.
© 2017 J. D. Pendry
Category: Politics
If we had a media who were not whores, who were not in the pocket of the Clintons and who did not have such hatred for Conservatives, the Clintons would be in prison, along with many of their cronies. But, no, the MSM are apologists for the liberals. After all, the Clintons ‘feel our pain’. I don’t understand what the MSM feels is ‘in it’ for them. They are merely pawns for the liberals.
“I don’t understand what the MSM feels is ‘in it’ for them.”
Power. They thrive on power and have the ability to create it for themselves while destroying it for their enemies.
Until now.
Well, the trolls who man the desks at the LSM have been thoroughly indoctrinated in liberalism at the so-called institutions of higher learning. They have to mouth the talking points given them by the heads of the “news” divisions, or they end up back in Paradise, Michigan covering opening day of whitetail deer season, or parking meter installation and maintenance in Fargo, North Dakota, forever.
While there might be an implied threat of exile to Paradise or Fargo, it’s also somewhat empty and points to, ironically, a kind of parochial myopia. As if the MSM would have everyone think nothing ever happens in those places except whitetail season and parking-meter maintenance. Which is not true.
If you’re the kind of journalist who can’t find something interesting to write about in a small town, it doesn’t mean the town is uninteresting, it means you’re not a very good journalist. A few years ago, the Washington Post tried to launch an edition called Loudon Extra in Loudon County, Virginia. It failed badly. During a postmortem discussion, somebody made the comment that the Post, “didn’t know anything about horses.” Which apparently made perfect sense to the locals.
Yet another problem with MSM myopia is that Paradise and Fargo usually have more in common with places like Boise, Tampa, Modesto, or a thousand others than they do with NYC, which is where the MSM usually gets its own perspective.
You are talking about the childish, immature, moronic, ignorant, brainwashed in ALL our colleges and universities!!
OK, honest question time – why is it that you think the MSM is so liberal? I mean, don’t get me wrong, that’s the common assumption, but when I look at the network numbers, Fox has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined:
http://deadline.com/2016/12/fox-news-channel-2016-most-watched-basic-cable-network-1201871574/
Total primetime viewers are ~2.44M (Fox) vs. ~2.37M (CNN + MSNBC). For day-time, Fox also wins. They also have 14 of the 15 most-watched shows.
I certainly don’t think you’re implying Fox is an apologist to the Clintons, so on measure, it looks like conservative news is more watched than liberal news. And even if there’s twice as much liberal programming, if nobody watches it, well, … does it matter?
Again, not trying to stir shit, I just was pretty surprised when I saw those numbers, and I think it questions the whole ‘liberal MSM’ notion.
Fox news is no less leftist than CNN or MSNBC or the NYT.
Opinion shows on Fox are less liberal, but they all go to the same schools, learn from the same lefties, and parrot the same weak sauce canards.
Where the real power of the media is felt is inside DC where idiots carve empires out for themselves at the expense of taxpayers.
Pro tip: the left is not, nor ever was, liberal. The left cannot be liberal and also neo-feudal.
LC – so you are saying the MSM is made up of MSNBC and CNN only? I think you are leaving out quite a bit, starting with the big three networks. I suspect by the time you add CNN, its stepchild HNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the multiple large publishing houses, etc. you will get a far higher number than CNN/MSNBC vs. Fox would.
Saw a good analysis once where the conclusion was that the MSM was, in fact, left-wing biased- but staunchly swore they were not. The basis for this was that most of the MSM is owned and operated by liberal-schooled, upper class (as in rich inherited money) white guys…and their friends and associates were also mostly old-school liberal Ivy -League types. So in their own view they considered themselves middle-of-the-road because everyone they knew was the same middle-of-the-road, notwithstanding that they were firmly in the left lane. But when everyone you associate with has the same views, you think “everyone” is in the same centrist place.
Comey can’t be replaced. He has a 10-year term w/ 6.5 years remaining. No matter. The real power is with the AG’s office, w/o which the FBI can play tiddly-winks all day. As for the nearly 2000 appt’mts, to Trump’s credit, these are empty desks, not occupied by his predecessor’s picks. There’s time. It’s the Dems who have to do it now or else.
So? Comey is a republican? yeh right, just like McCain is a republican, they are RINOS! You can sit in a garage all week long calling yourself a volkswagen, but it ain’t so!!
Personally, I tend to go beyond the question of whether or not the news media is biased, and into the more complicated question of why that’s true, and how to fix it.
A big part is financial. For example, a current flawed online revenue generator, usually called adtech, doesn’t lend itself to balanced, thoughtful, and longer-form reporting. When people such as YouTube star Pew Die Pie are those most likely to make money, quality journalism becomes less attractive as a business model. Google, owner of YouTube, is also an issue.
Another big part is that as older local forms of news media have collapsed, it’s meant an unhealthy concentration of the remainder in New York City, which also tends to be liberal. The MSM itself is aware of this, although the issue is usually framed as the problem of the MSM having lost touch with a large portion of the rural and suburban demographic.
I’m also not in agreement that the need to grab or retain political power is the news media’s biggest motivator. While that may be true on the opinion and commentary side of things, the motivation of those who generate content for news side tends to be more about personal brand building. Being a celebrity might be an entry point to political power, but it’s not a given.
He’s a lawyer, what more do you expect. The director of the FBI should be a cop.
And he is 0’s and the Clintons’ bitch, irrespective of being a RINO.
How about Trey Gowdy? Liars don’t seem to have a chance when he gets hold of them…has them babbling all over themselves…I would love to see him as Director of the FBI…and watch the cockroaches scramble for their rocks to hide in!!
The Government and Military needs to be purged of Clintonistas and Obamites.
Hahahahaha! Comey is a bad guy until
he wasn’t and now he is. Wrecked hildecankleas campaign and was “good” until he started digging around in the whole Pooty poot and the Trump / Russia commie nightmare. Now he’s a fifth columnist? Yeah, good times, for the Manchurian candidate, at least. Let’s just go play golf at Margo-Legos.
If I was picking people for my team, I would certainly pick people with a similar worldview as mine.
And this my friends is entirely what’s wrong with our politics today. No offense intended to anyone Mr. Pendry but when we exclude those who might offer some dissent, respectful dissent I might add for those who today don’t know such an option actually exists, then we expand our worldview and our options for far more effective leadership. We all need that one person or two people who we know will not agree with us and who will be comfortable stating why they don’t agree.
Nothing makes a leadership group more useless than an echo chamber of ass kissing yes men.
We all laugh at the folks at DU because of their wildly oddball sense of the world, but they represent exactly what happens when everyone shares the same world view without question. I have often voiced a contrarian position here, I hope to have done so with some measure of respect for all of you when I am at odds with the majority and we’ve had some excellent back and forth. Some of that has certainly opened my mind to alternate possibilities and I hope some of my rants have done the same for others here.
The Obama administration was all yes men, and we saw how terribly ineffective they were. It appears thus far that much of Trump’s administration is also mostly friends and ass kissing yes men….
Here’s hoping we see something different under Trump. I remain as yet unconvinced that besides the rhetoric there is much actual difference to be had under the current administration. Some small measure of ideology perhaps, but again I remain to be convinced.
Old saying in business: In a partnership, if you agree on everything, one of you is unnecessary.