Saturday, January 27, 2018

It's not just the three-letter agencies; it's the entire American ruling class


I've referenced Angelo Codevilla's landmark article 'America’s Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution' in these pages before.  In it, he observed:

Today’s ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters — speaking the “in” language — serves as a badge of identity. Regardless of what business or profession they are in, their road up included government channels and government money because, as government has grown, its boundary with the rest of American life has become indistinct. Many began their careers in government and leveraged their way into the private sector. Some, e.g., Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, never held a non-government job. Hence whether formally in government, out of it, or halfway, America’s ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government.

There's much more at the linkHighly recommended reading.

In a later article, 'After the Republic', Prof. Codevilla expanded on his vision of our future.

Because Republicans largely agree with Democrats that they need not take seriously the founders’ Constitution, today’s American regime is now what Max Weber had called the Tsarist regime on the eve of the Revolution: “fake constitutionalism.” Because such fakery is self-discrediting and removes anyone’s obligation to restrain his passions, it is a harbinger of revolution and of imperial power.

. . .

In today’s America, a network of executive, judicial, bureaucratic, and social kinship channels bypasses the sovereignty of citizens ... If you are on the right side of that network, you can make up the rules as you go along, ignore or violate any number of laws, obfuscate or commit perjury about what you are doing (in the unlikely case they put you under oath), and be certain of your peers’ support. These cronies’ shared social and intellectual identity stems from the uniform education they have received in the universities. Because disdain for ordinary Americans is this ruling class's chief feature, its members can be equally certain that all will join in celebrating each, and in demonizing their respective opponents.

Again, more at the link.

I think those two excerpts sum up the arrogance displayed by the leadership of the FBI and the NSA towards Congress and the American people, which we discussed earlier this week.  Remember, the leaders of the so-called "Deep State" are drawn from what Prof. Codevilla calls the "ruling class" of America.  They seem to genuinely believe that they know better than we do what we need, and they're determined to give it to us, good and hard.

Only when they're caught red-handed do they change their tune - and then it's never with apologies, but only with implausible excuses.  If anyone really believes that the FBI suddenly, magically "recovered" the "missing" 50,000-odd text messages, they're living in cloud cuckoo land.

Karl Denninger sums it up.

The FBI "lost" tens of thousands of text messages.

Then they "un-lost" them.

Remember, this is the "agency" that is charged with never losing anything, and having legally-defensible forensic evidence to prosecute crimes.

. . .

The FBI knows all of this and in fact it's their procedure and policy.  They didn't just have one copy and they certainly did not fail to verify that their imaging, backups and integrity checks work.  To do so would be to render all of their cyber-based prosecutions worthless as they'd never get another conviction -- ever.

So no, they didn't "lose" anything.

The FBI intentionally deleted the messages in question after making damn sure they had good archival copies in an attempt to corruptly cover up the outrageous actions of their own agents, virtually all of which meets the legal definition of obstruction of justice and some of which may even rise to the level of a seditious conspiracy -- and then lied about their actions.  It was only when faced with the inevitability of being caught in said lie (and yes, they were going to get caught) that they "decided" to "un-lose" the messages.

The FBI must be dismantled and everyone involved in that crap imprisoned right here and now, and if Trump does not direct Jeff Sessions to do so forthwith then he and the remainder of the DOJ is a knowing and willing part of it.  The bureau is intentionally, internally and irrecoverably corrupt.

Period.

More at the link.

It's almost impossible to argue with Mr. Denninger's conclusions.  Having worked in the field of Disaster Recovery Planning for information technology systems, I know from first-hand experience that his assertions about computer archival and recovery procedures are correct.

The question is thus, what is President Trump going to do about it?  I don't believe he can afford to let this slide.  I believe all those responsible, by commission or by omission, must be punished, at the very least by dismissal from their jobs and the loss of their pensions.  Anything less would be a betrayal of the Constitution and the trust of the American people.

What say you, readers?

Peter

20 comments:

  1. I think at this point it's a race... Mueller vs. Trump against Trump vs. Deep State (FBI, et al)... NOT sure who is going to win.

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  2. At this point in my muttering about... the only thing I can clearly say is, "it would be a start".

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  3. I don't think the FBI recovered them. Not from backup.

    I've heard a few different things, and knowing the press, not sure how much to put on each one, but either another section recovered them, or they were recovered from the actual devices...

    In other words, not off backups.

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  4. The problem is, Where do we find replacements? Those capable of doing surveillance and intelligence analysis - to include commercial applications - already are tainted by education and by their social surroundings. Even military gumshoes are shakey.
    Mellonta tauta.

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  5. Anyone who believes that Mr. Denninger's suggested solutions will even be remotely implemented is hopelessly naive.

    It will not happen.

    The most that will happen, if anything, is a circumscribed and interminable "Congressional Investigation" that will last until the embers of any possible public outrage cools. Maybe, just maybe, one or two scapegoats will be bloodied, but the organizations will be untouched, and will retrench and solidify to indemnify against getting caught again.

    What world does Denninger live in to expect such utopian justice? It is surely not this one.

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  6. i pray for the president. and for justice. only God can clean out the nest of vipers.
    it is so deep and so corrupt that it is outside human ability to combat without divine intervention.

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  7. Them being fired and them losing their pensions would be nice. Their behavior is treasonous, in my opinion, and definitively felonious.

    Do I believe anything is going to happen to any of them? Nope! They are going to close ranks and cover each others asses. Why? Because if any one of them has or develops a conscious they will be Vince Fostered. To stay alive, it would take a substantial group to go public at the same time about the shenanigans of the ruling class/deep state.

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  8. A suggestion I haven't heard yet is to send in the Texas Rangers...
    And the Nebraska State Patrol, and a coalition of state investigative agencies that could take a fresh, outside look at all that is happening at the FBI.

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  9. I LIKE Scott's suggestion. The whole DOJ needs to be scrubbed down with those stainless-steel scrubby pads..

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  10. Yesterday, it was noted that the DOJ (?) recovered the info directly from the agent's phones that had been seized. At least 4 items (phones, IIRC) were mentioned in the report. Can't remember where I saw this. The FBI was not listed as the agency that recovered the info.

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  11. @unix-jedi and Will: Be very careful about believing the "official" narrative.

    The FBI didn't announce the specifics of how the messages were first lost, then recovered. They merely announced the of the loss, and later the recovery. Explanations of precisely how they were lost and/or recovered have not yet been provided. Mr. Denninger is absolutely correct in speaking of generational backups, working on copies rather than originals, etc. This is all basic, elementary security stuff. If the FBI did not follow it, then, as he suggests, they were at best criminally negligent.

    Knowing something about computer and communications security as I do, I'm afraid the entire FBI chain of excuses stinks to high heaven. It makes no sense. Either they were so incompetent as to defy belief - and justify the firing of anyone and everyone involved in this mess - or they were so competent that they figured they could get away with "losing" the messages, and then competent enough to realize that their excuses were not satisfying Congress or the public, and fast enough on their feet to "recover" the situation - and the messages - in a way that they hope will be convincing to their audience. It isn't.

    This entire chain of events, coincidences and excuses is so ridiculous as to defy belief. I no longer trust anything the FBI has to say about this situation. I think anyone with any education and/or experience in the field will say the same. This stinks.

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  12. The FBI never did recover the missing messages, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG) did, using "forensic tools." The letter from Inspector General Michael Horowitz to the inquiring senators may be found online.

    https://www.citizenfreepress.com/column-2/heres-the-letter-from-oig-horowitz-describing-recovery-of-missing-texts/

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  13. Anony above had it right regarding the criminals.

    Prosecution. Will. Not. Happen.

    Another way to put it: they will be prosecuted after Hillary is prosecuted.

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  14. Oh jeez.... any body but the Neb state patrol......soapweed










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  15. Peter:

    I think the problem is that we're dealing with a lot of faces, and the press confuses 'em.

    "They merely announced the of the loss, and later the recovery. Explanations of precisely how they were lost and/or recovered have not yet been provided."

    I haven't seen anybody say that the *FBI* recovered 'em. I've seen a couple of different agencies mentioned.

    It's possible, but I think highly doubtful.

    But more importantly was what supposedly happened. Supposedly, the devices were used to recover them... Which means that the "backups" are still, "lost".

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  16. Well, I can't speak to this, but I gave my daughter Take The Star Road and she's read her way through the whole series.

    I hope you can keep book one in hard copy. There's a bunch of libraries I want to give it to.

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  17. Coupla things: In a previous life I designed and implemented complex data systems, clients were primarily government agencies, but management incompetence was indistinguishable between gummint and private sector.
    There were frequent questions - mostly cost-related - regarding remote real-time mirrored data sites, the need to maintain impeccable backup and multiple safe backup storage procedures, network connection speeds between mirrors, how much RAID was really needed, do we really need multiple duplicate WORM optical storage for document images, etc. I never gilded the lily but my standard was "what happens if your primary site gets nuked, for all definitions of "nuked"?

    Government was actually easier to manage than private: slide a copy of the state records law across the table and ask when how friendly the media and courts would be to massive data loss or corruption at the next election. For private, it was "how will you stay in business without the data and what will your stock options be worth then"?

    Regarding the Deep State, it really, really needs to be nuked - financially, not atomically - by abolishing its base of government agencies and drastically shrinking those that are absolutely necessary. EX: Nothing in the Constitution references "housing" or "mortgage" yet we have HUD, Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, et al. We have laws against discimination, a (supposedly) functioning DOJ to enforce them, so why do we have the EEOC? The list goes on.

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  18. "The question is thus, what is President Trump going to do about it? I don't believe he can afford to let this slide... What say you, readers?"

    I say he should contact Karl Denninger for a sit-down with his speech writer, and work up a good old fashioned Regan-esque radio address. You know...something along the lines of:

    https://youtu.be/oCBpkhbLNjs?t=7

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  19. Special prosecutor.
    Grand jury indictments.
    Everyone culpable, and the entire senior leadership, down 5 levels from the top At FBI and any other agency linked via investigation, thrown out with prejudice unless they can prove absolute integrity, examined proctologically.

    Prison terms for all guilty parties.
    And not a year or two in Club Fed Makework Pretend Prison;
    5, 10, 20 year sentences for corruption, violation of constitutional rights under color of authority, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, sedition, etc., served in general population in Pound-Em-In-The-Pants hardcore federal prisons.

    Any conviction on any count is a total forfeiture of all federal pension and benefits.

    Anyone who confesses and makes a full allocution ahead of prosecution gets a 50% sentence reduction only.
    Everyone convicted at trial does 100% of time of sentence.
    Anyone convicted has all sovereign and qualified immunity revoked, and is subject to full civil process for all crimes.
    If that means senior management loses their houses too, and their kids are reduced to picking up cans and bottles to eat, so be it.
    If anyone dies as a result of their official perfidy, they get prosecuted for murder/manslaughter at the federal level.
    Starting with every federal agent involved at Malheur, related to the death of LeVoy Finicum.

    When I see work crews pounding up some 5-place gallows in Lafayette Park across from the White House, and testing them with sandbags, we'll know this is serious, and not kabuki theater.

    Anything short of that is a total farce.

    Then, take away badges, guns, SWAT teams, and enforcement authority from every federal civilian agency except the US Marshals, the FBI, ICE, and the Coasties. And maybe the DOE security guys at nuke plants.
    That's it.

    All anyone else can do is issue a citation and a court summons.
    No gun, no badge, no fining authority, no black ninja teams.
    If whatever they're selling won't fly in federal court with lawyers present, it doesn't happen.

    And we don't wink at potential terrorists crossing the borders, while sending a SWAT team to raid a guitar manufacturer in Appalachia for illegal wood. Because the wood inspectors have to get a real search warrant, have it served by real US Marshals if it holds water, and has to defend the charges in front of a real judge, in federal court, with all the legal trimmings of a federal case with opposing counsel present.

    Then remove all rule-making authority from every federal agency and entity, and require that all such laws must be passed by the Congress in the usual manner, including floor debate.
    Everything to date not originally passed by Congress in that way is henceforth null and void.
    Say goodbye to 59 feet (out of 60) of the Federal Register.

    Y'know, like in the rules.

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  20. Iy isn't Just the American Ruling Class, it's all ruling classes, ever. They American Ruling Class isn't unique. It isn't even very interesting. They are mostly vapid little twits.

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