This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Truth or fiction?”

  • “Curiouser and Curiouser”, Said . . . Pretty Much Everyone

    By now, I’d guess everybody has heard about former SECSTATE Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business email.

    While Clinton’s private email server appears to have been wiped clean of data before being turned over to Federal authorities, copies of many emails it formerly stored were apparently transferred to a USB “thumb drive”. That thumb drive was in turn apparently transferred to Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall in December of last year.

    A sample of email stored on that thumb drive was later reviewed by Intelligence Community (IC) officials. Those IC officials determined that some of those emails were contained classified information.

    That determination happened on 22 May of this year. But it wasn’t until early July that Federal authorities delivered a GSA-approved safe allowing proper storage of classified information to Kendall’s offices.

    So, riddle me this. How and where was that classified thumb drive stored between 22 May and early July? Why wasn’t that thumb drive turned over to the government – perhaps in a sealed envelope after a joint inspection by Clinton’s and the Federal government’s lawyers – on or about 23 May in order to ensure it was properly stored and safeguarded?

    And, perhaps most importantly – besides Clinton and her Kendall, who else had access to the device between 22 May and early July?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

     

    FWIW: it also appears that Clinton’s aide and confidante extraordinaire, Huma Abedin, also had and used an account on that email server. And it still remains unclear whether the internet hosting service from which Clintoon rented the server – Platte River Networks – did or did not maintain a backup server that might shed further light on these . . . somewhat unusual goings on.

    I just don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.  Stay tuned.

  • Clinton Comes “Clean” on Benghazi

    Well, she’s finally done it. Former SECSTATE Hillary Rodham Clinton has come clean!

    She recently provided another 2,000 emails from her private email system to the House committee investigating Benghazi. So she must have released everything!

    Yes, there’s a two-month gap in the emails released by Ms. Clinton to that House Committee. That’s because there simply weren’t any relevant emails from that private account from the months of May and June, 2012, in the material released. Per the State Department, “only those emails related to the security of the consulate or to the U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya were made public”.

    It’s irrelevant that May and June 2012 were a time of escalating security issues in Libya. What does it matter now that on 22 May 2012, the IRC office in Benghazi was struck by RPGs? Or that on 6 June 2012, an IED blew a 12 foot hole in the US Consulate’s wall?  Those incidents weren’t something about which Clinton corresponded with anyone from here “private” account.  In fact, that must mean there simply was nothing of note “related to the security of the US consulate or to the U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya” about which she corresponded with anyone from her private account during  those two months – unlike the months immediately preceding and afterwards. Isn’t that obvious?

    The fact that the pre-release review of those email messages recently released appears to have been done by Clinton’s lawyers and not by the State Department or Congress is a mere coincidence.  It’s understandable that they’d conduct such a review, since emails from her private account for that time are particularly sensitive; this was also the time that Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin was obtaining her “special exemption” to work for Clinton as both a government employee and an employee of the Clinton foundation.  We all know that was completely legit and aboveboard.  Besides – Clinton’s lawyers would never put protecting their client’s interests ahead of fully disclosing the truth!

    No, chicanery, political CYA, or obstruction couldn’t possibly have been the reason for the lack of independent review, or for the gap covering May and June.  No Clinton would ever withhold information, fail to testify fully, or shade the truth about a material issue of fact.  Her husband’s conduct while POTUS proves that.  So does her own past conduct while First Lady and afterwards – as well as while a member of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate Scandal.

    No, nothing to see here at all; we’re done here. Next topic!

    In fact, how about everybody just leave the lady alone.  I mean, really – she barely has time to get a $600 hairstyle in NYC these days due to all of these impertinent questions!   And because of the crush, her doing so requires so much security that it means a rather large building has to be put on virtual lockdown!  But like her husband proved at the LA International Airport years ago:  getting a reasonably-priced haircut of is necessary from time to time, so she simply has to do it!

     

    (Yeah, the above is sarcasm.  Anyone who’d swallow all of that at face value has my sympathy.)

  • Yer Friday Funny, Part 2: You Ain’t Gonna Believe This Sh. . . .

    It looks like we may now have a verified, actual occurrence of what the late Kurt Vonnegut referred to in Cat’s Cradle as a “pool-pah”.

    Literally.

    As the article points out: at least the party was memorable. (smile)

  • Doesn’t Surprise Me One Bit

    As Jonn’s previously noted, it seems that a guy named Seymour Hersh – a longtime investigative reporter well-known for his work regarding the US military and Intelligence Community – has looked into the bin Laden raid. His conclusion?

    Well, Hersh says that the POTUS did order the raid. He also says that US Navy SEALs carried it out.

    He also says damn near everything else the current       gang of fools and tools running the show in DC       Administration has said about the raid is . . . well, pretty much bull. From a very long (approx 10,000 word) article Hersh recently published in the London Review of Books:

    This spring I contacted Durrani and told him in detail what I had learned about the bin Laden assault from American sources: that bin Laden had been a prisoner of the ISI at the Abbottabad compound since 2006; that Kayani and Pasha knew of the raid in advance and had made sure that the two helicopters delivering the Seals to Abbottabad could cross Pakistani airspace without triggering any alarms; that the CIA did not learn of bin Laden’s whereabouts by tracking his couriers, as the White House has claimed since May 2011, but from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer who betrayed the secret in return for much of the $25 million reward offered by the US, and that, while Obama did order the raid and the Seal team did carry it out, many other aspects of the administration’s account were false.

    “Kayani and Pasha” here were Pakistan’s two most senior military leaders at the time of the bin Laden raid.

    Yeah, Hersh is a liberal; I don’t much care for his politics either. But he’s also quite good at what he does. He the guy in the press who first went bigtime public with the My Lai scandal. He beat Jack Anderson to the Glomar Explorer story (Anderson only gets credit for breaking that one because the CIA Director convinced the New York Times – who Hersh worked for at the time – to sit on Hersh’s story about same that was ready considerably earlier than Anderson’s). He’s also gone public with a number of other stories related to various national intel communities and/or governments blatantly lying to the public.

    Jonn’s take on Hersh’s latest is quite different than mine.  FWIW:  best I can tell Hersh has been far closer to right over the years much more often than he’s been wrong when he’s writing about clandestine and/or intel matters. Believe him or not about this one as you like.

    I’d not recommend dismissing out-of-hand his main points here, though. Hersh is one reporter who truly knows how to do his “homework” on this kind of subject – then actually does it before he publishes. Plus, he’s been raising questions about the “official” account of the bin Laden raid for approaching 2 years – and calling out the media for not raising more questions about that account.

    Again:  I don’t agree with Hersh’s politics, but the man knows his business.  And when writing about the intel world, he’s got a pretty good track record.

    As I said earlier, the article is quite long (about 10,000 words) – but if you have some time, IMO it’s damn well worth a read.

    Yeah, IMO your leg was wet again, courtesy of the current Administration, circa mid-2011.  And I’m pretty sure that wasn’t rain.

     

    (PS:  no taradiddles were utilized during the preparation of this article. [smile])

  • Who Can It Be Now?

    Thru the “majik” of the Internet, I ran across some youthful photos of . . . well, that’s the problem. The link went down before I could read the bio info.

    So, folks – we need your help. Who might these two photos be at age 15 or so? Does anyone know them?

    No, neither of them is me. I didn’t comb my hair in a pompadour when I was that age, and still don’t.

    And I’m pretty sure neither is a youthful Colin Hay from Men at Work, either. (smile)

    Remember, please keep it clean. At least mostly. (smile)

  • Surprised? Nah, Me Neither.

    Well, our good SECSTATE has been at it again.

    It seems that the good John Forbes Kerry has been running his yap again – this time about “global climate change”. And here’s what he had to say:

    “Climate change is an issue that is personal to me, and it has been since the 1980s, when we were organizing the very first climate hearings in the Senate…. Al Gore, Tim Wirth, and a group of us organized the first hearings in the Senate on this, 1988. We heard Jim Hansen sit in front of us and tell us it’s happening now, 1988.”

    –Secretary of State John F. Kerry, remarks to the Atlantic Council, March 12, 2015

    Yep – Kerry claims he was right there with Gore, helping to organize the “first” hearings on the matter.

    He’s made very similar claims on multiple previous occasions. And, finally, someone decided to fact-check him on it.

    Specifically, Glenn Kessler – the guy who write’s the Washington Post “Fact Checker” column – fact checked the SECSTATE’s claim. And here’s what Kessler had to say about that claim:

    Yeah, that means what you think it does: Kerry lied. Through his teeth. With a straight face.

    Raise your hand if this caught you by surprise. Yeah, didn’t think so.

    Kessler’s WaPo article on the subject is well-worth reading. If you have about 5 minutes, it’s worth taking the time to look it over. It documents a multi-year pattern of Kerry telling this particular lie.

    If you “love” the man as much as I do, I think you’ll find it a very enjoyable 5 minutes.

  • What A Crock!

    Among those trying to make a buck by screwing over GIs, add . . . the freaking Girl Scouts???

    Well, according to the Girl Scouts – no.  Rather, it’s the company with whom they’ve contracted to ship Girl Scout Cookies.

    As you might expect, Girl Scout Cookies can now be ordered online.  However, if you have them shipped to a “military address”, there’s a slight surcharge – as in $20 per order.

    The surcharge applies to military addresses overseas, including AK and HI.  Well, I can understand that – to an extent.  Shipping to those locations does often cost a bit more.

    But the extra fee also applies to military addresses in CONUS.

    I wish I was kidding – but I’m not.  I’m dead serious.

    Talk about an example of pure, outrageous bullsh!t.  Think about it: USPS is available at every installation in CONUS.  APO service is available overseas.  And any reputable shipping company can access US military installations in CONUS, AK, and Hawaii to deliver packages.

    Hey, I can see an extra fee for AK/HI/OCONUS.  But hell:  even in AK and HI, actual cost plus a fixed handling fee should be the norm – not some bogus $20 per order “surcharge”.

    Not convinced?  OK, then you tell me: why should a package delivered to, say, Fort Hood, TX, cost any more than one delivered to the adjacent community of Kileen?

    The answer: it shouldn’t – because it freaking doesn’t.  Shippers typically operate on a zone pricing basis.  Whoever is adding that extra fee for CONUS military addresses is simply generating profit via screwing over the troops and their dependents.

    As I said above: the Girl Scouts are blaming their “shipper” for this blatantly outrageous fee.  Maybe that’s actually true.

    However, given some of the other stuff I’ve seen lately about the Girl Scouts, their policies, and their political agenda . . . well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they’re getting a hefty chunk of that “surcharge”.

  • “C’mon, Helga – From Now On, We Do It In the Dark!”

    Be glad you’re not in Germany, folks. Let’s just say that the Environmental minister has some, um, interesting ideas about how to “save the planet”. Oh, and in case you’re wondering: yeah, she’s a Socialist.

    The comments to the linked article make good reading.


    (Hat tip to Drudge for an indirect link to the source.)