☕️ TAMPERING ☙ Thursday, February 29, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
Loaded roundup: final thoughts re CIA in Ukraine; sudden Ukraine peace move; friendly fire incident; Supremes to hear 2nd Trump case; Delaware bans early voting; McConnell to retire; Fani update; more
Good morning C&C, it’s Thursday! Today is also a wrap for February, propelling us further into this wild, historic year. Your roundup this morning includes: final thoughts about the CIA disclosures and subsequent developments in Ukraine; Zelensky suddenly and unexpectedly goes to Saudi Arabia to talk about peace with Russia; friendly fire close call highlights NATO weaknesses; good legal news as Supreme Court takes Trump presidential immunity case; more good legal news as Delaware court bans early voting; Mitch McConnell announces his retirement — in November; and an update from the Fani Willis trial after key witness turns his coat and gets instant amnesia.
🗞💬 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 💬🗞
🚀 In yesterday C&C’s post, Burn Notice, I posited that the CIA preemptively burned its massive Ukraine operation to the ground before it could be revealed by one of the CIA’s enemies. But two competing theories meriting a response developed yesterday, and there was an even more breathtaking development.
First, longtime CIA watcher Mike Benz agreed with me that the 34-page Times’ article was an obvious CIA plant, but one paragraph convinced him the disclosure was actually just an effort to pressure Congress to pass the $61 billion Ukraine aid package by selling what terrific work the CIA was doing in Ukraine and how it needs funding to continue.
I disagree with Mike for four reasons.
One: the CIA could have much more easily assigned an attractive analyst with a compelling pair of visual aids to directly persuade Speaker Johnson (and anyone else in Congress) in a classified briefing without burning its network; it does that kind of thing all the time. Second, the CIA, like cockroaches, never do their scurrying out in the open. The network is useless to the CIA now its cover is blown, so there is no longer any need for CIA funds. Third, Ukrainian officials seemed deeply upset by the disclosures, rather than salivating over chances for a new plane-load of cash pallets. Fourth, though the reporters tried to squeeze the disclosures into a strappy dress, they wound up looking more like a balding, middle-aged, trans NATO general trying to pull off a tight skirt look.
Eww.
In other words, the article profoundly damaged the CIA. Presumably the voluntary disclosure caused less damage than the CIA’s enemies would have done.
The second, more interesting theory, offered by alert C&C commenters, speculated that the CIA terminated Operation Ukraine anticipating Trump’s re-election. In other words, since Trump well knows exactly what those burrowing rodents have been up to in Ukraine, the CIA needed to bury the body before Trump takes office. In other words, it was a limited hangout combined with a disappearing of the operational corpse. I liked this theory much better than Benz’s.
And so it got me thinking.
In 2017, President Trump made a single phone call to former comedian, penis pianist, Ukraine president, and likely CIA asset Vladimir Zelensky — to ask him about what was going on in Ukraine. The call panicked the deep state, prompting Trump Impeachment No. 1. But not long before that, in November 2016 — two weeks after President Trump’s election — then vice-president Biden called Ukraine’s then-president Poroshenko, and warned him to not help Trump figure out what was happening in Ukraine.
CLIP: OAN Report — Biden re Trump Getting ‘Too Sophisticated’ About Ukraine (1:08).
Here’s a short, lightly-edited transcript of Biden’s brief call to President Poroshenko:
“This is getting very, very close to what I don’t want to have happen. I don’t what Trump to get in a position where he thinks the financial system is going to collapse, and he’s being asked to pour more money into Ukraine. That’s how he’ll see it, before he gets sophisticated enough to know the details.
So anything you can do to push the Privat Bank to closure so that the IMF loan comes through, I would respectfully request is critically important to your economic as well as physical security.”
Physical security?? When OAN ran that clip, they thought it was just evidence of the Biden Crime Family’s worldwide bribery operation. But in light of the new CIA disclosures, Biden’s loquacious rambling sounds much more ominous. Obviously, when Biden warned against Trump getting “sophisticated enough to know the detail,” he meant Trump finding out about what’s happening in Ukraine. And when Biden dropped the reference to Poroshenko’s “physical security,” he meant if Trump finds out, Poroshenko could get arrested or worse.
The Times’ CIA story sheds a different light on everything about Ukraine. Now that we know Ukraine was hosting nearly as much CIA infrastructure as the United States, and all Ukraine’s top leaders were probably CIA assets, Hunter’s deep connections to Ukraine look significantly different. Darker. More sinister.
Like Hunter’s board seat on Burisma, Ukraine’s biggest energy company. Or Hunter’s partnership in virus-developing company MetaBiota, which built the illegal biolabs in Ukraine. Incidentally, “meta” plus “biota” means beyond biology. You could also say it translates to transbiology, as in “transhuman.” Grok agreed:
If the CIA were using the Biden Crime Family similar to how it probably used Jeffrey Epstein, as a criminal front for intelligence objectives, it would explain a whole lot about why it is has been so hard to prosecute Hunter Biden for even the easy stuff like drug possession, illegal weapons, or having child porn on his laptop. Hunter is no criminal mastermind. Neither was Epstein, though he was a bit brighter bulb.
It was hard to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein, too. He was protected. Does Hunter enjoy CIA protection?
Anyway, it’s something to think about. But wait till you hear the latest developments from Ukraine. There will be some sad Horseys today.
🚀 Like a smaller, gayer, dumber Nixon, who went to China, Zelensky went to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. This morning, the Jerusalem Post covered the fast-moving story headlined, “Ukraine's Zelensky holds talks with Saudi prince to push for peace plan with Russia.”
Peace plan! According to the article, on Tuesday Zelensky and a team of Ukrainian support staff went to Saudi Arabia to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and a whole lot of other Saudis.
The Saudis gave Zelensky the royal treatment. Literally, in this case. The day before, on Monday, the Saudis coincidentally hosted a delegation of Russian officials.
The timeline suggests there would have been just enough time to put the two meetings together if the Ukrainians started working on it late last week, either after the New York Times story broke on Wednesday or possibly right after CIA Director Burns’ visit. Either way, the Ukrainians are now seeking a peace deal from the Russians through one of its closest allies and new BRICS member, Saudi Arabia.
Did CIA Director Burns fly to Ukraine on Thursday to deliver some bad news? Did that prompt an immediate call from Zelensky’s office requesting mediation for peace? Did Director Burns tell the Ukrainians they’d better make a deal with the Russians?
How times change. At the very end of November, the Biden Administration pledged there would be no peace in Ukraine before the 2024 elections:
That’s what Biden said. On the other hand, Putin told Tucker Carlson just two weeks ago he would discuss peace anytime.
The Jerusalem Post’s sub-headline nutshelled yesterday’s official story: “Zelensky presented a 10-point peace formula that seeks the expulsion of all Russian forces from Ukraine and accountability for war crimes, as well as the return of prisoners of war and deportees.”
Russia has no reason to agree to that, of course, but if the official report holds any truth at all, it was almost certainly Zelensky’s opening bid. For instance, the demand for “accountability for war crimes” is clearly something with which the Russians would never agree. That was almost certainly included so it could be traded away.
No other discussion details leaked, except Zelensky seemed, perhaps not giddy or anything, but satisfied about the progress of discussions after the day’s end.
To recap the last week: the key strategic town of Avdiivka fell; then the CIA’s country-wide spy network essentially collapsed; Speaker Johnson masterfully kept the Ukraine aid bill off the floor; and then Zelensky and the Russians met (one day apart) in Saudi Arabia to discuss peace.
All in one week.
🚀 Maybe this story had something to do with it; you never know. Almayadeen reported a close friendly-fire call in the Red Sea between Germany and the U.S., raising pretty serious questions about NATO’s current ability to wage war with anybody. Almayadeen’s story was headlined, “Big round of applause to Germany: fires at US drone twice, fails twice.”
The gist was the German battle frigate Hessen, pictured above, lobbed two missiles at a US MQ-9 Reaper drone (worth hundreds of millions), because the drone was “unidentified.” It’s kind of like the military version of shooting at your sleepwalking husband in the middle of the night because it was dark in the bedroom.
In a marvelous example of the pitiful state of NATO’s military and its appalling lack of leadership ability, the German Ministry of Defense’s spokesman actually claimed the friendly-fire incident was successful: "The situation resolved itself in the sense that it was not a hostile drone, as it was determined only afterward," spokesman Stempfle explained.
Not only did the Germans fail to recognize a NATO ally’s most commonly used surveillance drone, and the electronic ally-identification systems obviously failed, but the Germans also failed to shoot down the undefended drone — twice — even though the drone was slow, unmanned, and unarmed. Then, ze Germans further proved their incompetence by refusing to directly accept it was a mistake, so they didn’t even learn anything useful.
Is this the combined-forces army that is supposed to take on the Russians? The Russians won’t need to fire a shot; NATO forces will shoot each other first accidentally. Russia will eat them for breakfast with its oladyi.
🔥 The Hill ran a story yesterday headlined, “Toobin: SCOTUS ruling is a ‘gift to Trump’ regardless of outcome.” The news gave corporate media the sads. Liberal legal experts cried in their soup yesterday after the Supreme Court officially accepted Trump’s presidential immunity appeal. Law professor Toobin’s gloomy conclusion reflected the consensus: Trump has already won. Thanks a lot, Supreme Court. To liberals, even though the Supremes agreed to expedite the appeal, it still won’t matter. It’s useless. There’s no longer enough time to finish the appeal and hold Trump’s trial before the election.
Adding insult to injury, liberal legal experts also fear that, even if Trump loses, the trial can’t happen until his term is complete. The President is pretty important to everybody. You can’t be distracting Presidents with goofy criminal prosecutions. It would almost certainly be deferred.
Incidentally, Toobin also ratified the consensus view that the Supreme Court is likely to rule overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor in the Colorado elections case, as well. So.
🔥 Fox News ran a story this morning headlined, “Court strikes down early voting law in Biden’s home state: 'A little bit of irony.’” Yesterday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Mark Conner issued a 25-page opinion striking down a law allowing early voting and unlimited mail-in voting, because those things were barred by the plain language of the state’s constitution.
The relevant part of Delaware’s constitution provides that a "general election shall be held biennially on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November." That’s it. Pretty simple. But Democrats tried arguing that what the constitution’s language really means is that elections must be finished by the first Monday in November.
Judge Conner rejected the democrats’ creative argument. So.
🔥 The Hill ran a surprising story yesterday headlined, “Gaetz: ‘We’ve now 86’d McCarthy, McDaniel, McConnell.’” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 103, announced plans to step down and retire this November — after the election — due to his advanced age. (Actually, I was joking about the 103, but McConnell, 82, is the about same age as the former vice-president).
Anyway, Mitch has recently grown increasingly unpopular. He tried to push through an awful border bill and an Ukraine aid package that most Republicans hated. He recently has been agreeing with White House occupant Joe Biden on nearly everything. And it seems like Mitch had at least two on-camera strokes this year, never mind tumbling down the stairs last year.
Don’t get me wrong, Mitch McConnell runs mental rings around John Fetterman. And Mitch has done some great stuff in the past. But still. There are only 100 Senators. There’s only one Minority Leader slot. Surely we can do better.
Just to recap the RINO carnage in the last couple years. Deleted: Paul Ryan, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, Kevin McCarthy, GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel, and now Mitch McConnell. So.
🔥 Somebody got to Fani Willis witness Terrance Bradley. Fox News updated readers on the electrifying case yesterday in an article headlined, “Key witness in Fani Willis case testifies he may have lied in texts about friends' affair.” Corporate media wildly celebrated yesterday after expected star witness, Nathan Wade’s former law partner Terrance Bradley, developed sudden adult amnesia on the stand Tuesday afternoon. He couldn’t remember squat. CRS disease. When confronted by text messages he wrote just weeks ago that contradicted his alleged memory loss, Terrance could only say he was lying then.
This would be a good time to commend Trump defendant Mike Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant. I don’t know Ashleigh, but my legal contacts in Atlanta do and say great things about her. And she proved them right on Tuesday, when she skillfully handled an unexpected setback during her trial: a defecting witness.
The trouble with Terrance began right away. He sounded just like Sergeant Schulz from Hogan’s Heroes. “I do not have knowledge of (the affair) starting or when it started,” Terrance terribly testified Tuesday. “I never witnessed anything. So, you know, it was speculation.”
Uh huh.
But Ashleigh is a smart gal. She did not go into trial unprepared. Good trial lawyers always prepare for the unexpected, which is very difficult — by definition. Before trial, Ashleigh developed a great written record, and she even sent Terrance a copy of her original motion to disqualify Fani Willis. The motion included all the allegations about the dates of the affair and Nathan Wade’s employment. Terrance confirmed in writing (a text) that he agreed with the motion.
Here’s an example text that Ashleigh kept and then presented to Terrance at trial on Tuesday after he tried to deny knowing anything about the affair:
Nor did the other defense lawyers let Terrance off lightly. They did a professional job of educating the judge — as best they could with a difficult, uncooperative witness — about what was really going on. Somebody got to Terrance, who obviously had been willing to testify back when he was texting and emailing with Ashleigh, but somehow changed his mind by the time he reached the stand.
This kind of thing seems frustrating, but good trial lawyers never accept an apparent setback as a defeat. Every setback creates an opportunity, if you can find it. There’s an obvious one here. The defense lawyers now have a massive opportunity. They should file a motion today that argues, “hey Judge, we now have a giant contradiction between Terrance’s current and prior statements. So now we need to see all his text messages and emails with Nathan Wade and Fani Willis.”
Up till now, the Judge has not let them get that evidence, citing the defense hasn’t shown sufficient cause to overcome Terrance’s claims of privilege — which the judge has now partly overruled — relevance, and privacy. But now that there is a huge contradiction in Terrance’s trial testimony, it constitutes good cause for more discovery — discovery which they’d previously been precluded from taking before since the prosecution improperly claimed privilege and because it wasn’t relevant then.
The motion is so simple it practically writes itself. Three pages, tops. “Emergency Motion for Accelerated Limited Discovery and to Continue Closing Arguments.”
There are other possibilities. Judge MaCafee could just say, you know what, I’m going with Terrance’s clear statements in his texts and emails, and I do not accept his attempts to recant now. Or Judge MaCafee could get upset about the obvious witness tampering that’s going on and issue some kind of strong order. A lot of things could happen. So we’ll stay tuned.
Have a terrific Thursday! Get back here tomorrow morning for more insightful and moderately disrespectful Coffee & Covid.
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The war in Ukraine is based on lies — lies about how it started, how it’s going, and how it will end.
We are told that Ukraine is winning when in fact it is losing. We are told that the war makes NATO stronger when in fact it is depleting it. We are told that Ukraine’s biggest problem is a lack of funds from the U.S. Congress when in fact the West can’t produce enough ammunition — a problem that will take years to fix. We are told that Russia is suffering greater casualties when in fact Ukraine is running out of soldiers — another problem money can’t fix.
We are told that the world is with us when in fact the Global Majority believes U.S. policy is the height of folly. We are told that there is no opportunity to make peace when in fact we have rejected multiple opportunities for a negotiated settlement. We are told that if Ukraine keeps fighting, it will improve its negotiating position when in fact the terms will only get much worse than what was already available and rejected.
Nevertheless the lies will succeed in dragging out the war. Congress will appropriate more funds. Russia will take more territory. Ukraine will mobilize more young men and women to feed into the meat grinder. Discontent will mount. Eventually there will be a crisis in Kiev and the Zelensky government will be toppled.
And then, when the war is finally lost, when the whole country lays in smoldering ruins on a funeral pyre of their own making, the liars will say “well we tried.” Having prevented any alternative, having smeared anyone who told the truth as puppets for the enemy, the liars will say “We did our best. We stood up to Putin.”
In fact, they will claim, we would have succeeded but for the fifth column of Putin apologists who stabbed the Ukrainians in the back. Then, having shifted blame and patted themselves on the back, they will blithely move on to the next war, as they moved onto Ukraine after their disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The lies are comprehensive — but they will work.
David Sacks
I am thinking that all of your articles should be printed yearly into a book, what a History lesson that will be in the future!