Buckle up, my fellow Americans, as thumbs-down Senator John McCain used to say so endearingly!
Shit just got real.
On August 12, 2019 the Deep Throat secret agent of our times emerged from the slippery shadows of the ever-elusive inner circle of sludge, and turned the first page of the final chapter of Trump- Russia, filing an anonymous complaint concerning allegedly a conversation where Trump made a promise to a foreign power.
This is it!
“They’re doing it as we sit here,” sounds so fittingly prophetic, as Mueller testified under oath to the United States House Intelligence Committee.
No exoneration for Russia. Not now, not in Helsinki, not until hell freezes over.
Yes I acknowledge this particular illegal conspiracy with a foreign power this time doesn’t appear to be Russia itself on the surface, but bear with me as we delve deeper and back track to the first time President Trump cheated illegally, placing this double-down treason in proper context.
The current Inspector General recipient of the “urgent and credible” mystery whistleblower message allegedly implicates founding member of the United Nations, Ukraine, unmistakable Russia-related foe. In fact, one could imagine if Russia wants to invade Ukraine, Ukraine’s national security risk level is highly contingent on military aid from United States.
Per WSJ, Trump bullied Ukraine 8 times to work with henchman Rudy Giuliani to unearth dirt on a political opponent (aka manufactured bullshit that will make the Hillary playbook look like a coloring book).
Trump is evil-eyeing an all-too-familiar and repulsive path to electoral victory based on illegal precedent. A treasonous Biden takedown might be his last Hail Mary hope for freedom from prison time and asset forfeiture, Trump Towers a tumbling down to the ground, lower than the ash of the World Trade Center buildings.
Trump hopes he can parlay more of his fake news Sloppy-Joes into some kind of palpable electoral victory in the general election, any kind of mystery meat will do.
Even a squeaker re-election win effectively delays indictment, as DOJ policy not to charge a sitting President has put Trump above the law, like no other President in history.
We can’t let that happen Nancy because if we do we’re in deep shit.
PBS reports
In the letters, Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who is the internal watchdog for the intelligence community, details his concerns and states he believes the complaint being kept from Congress is both urgent and “relates to one of the most important and significant of the (Director of National Intelligence)’s responsibilities to the American people.”
So what exactly does Director of National Intelligence (DNI) do to keep America safe? Recently resigned Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats did a bang up job as babysitter watchdog over wannabe dictator Donald Trump. The former Senator from Indiana was confirmed by overwhelming majorities in the Senate, his reputation nearly universally accepted as truthful and credible.
Let’s take a look at his track record and further build consensus.
Lord knows we’re freaking out right now and need someone in the Intelligence Community besides Mueller to trust, someone with a spine willing and able to beat back big baby blimp Trump.
How did Coats handle Trump’s insistence that the Mueller probe was a witch hunt, a hoax manufactured by angry Democrats and perpetrated on him by a bitter, disgraceful Robert Mueller?
Coats slammed the door on dumping Mueller, as documented in the redacted Mueller Report. Outside of the White House, plus Trump and Barr, perhaps only Coats knows everything Mueller gathered from our top spy official during the Russia investigation.
Lodestar meets Mother Load.
Fellow Hoosier Mike Pounce likes to use that word, ‘Lodestar’
Tribune Star (Indiana) reports: Mueller report: Dan Coats declined to help end probe / DNI, former Hoosier senator, advised Trump to let it run its course
On March 22, 2017, Trump asked for Coats and CIA Director Michael Pompeo to stay after a White House meeting, according to the Mueller report. Coats recalled that he was asked to state publicly that no link existed between the president and Russia...
Coats declined, saying his job was to provide intelligence and not get involved with investigations. He told the president that the fastest way to “get it done” was to let the investigation run its course, according to the report.
Source: Tribune Star (Indiana)
Not a bad first impression for DNI Dan Coats, stood his ground. We might expect something more traitorous from a true Trump sympathizer sellout to Russia like Moscow Mitch, NRA and the rest of the short-selling Republicans doubling down on treason, fascism and racial divisions, and general disdain for their country’s real voters.
Coats was called by the House to discuss Trump’s obsession with the Mueller probe, but the juiciest tidbits are likely classified in closed session and buried as his testimony was given to a GOP-controlled House in 2017. What does he know that might truly concern him, however limited in his ability to alert the public?
Donald Trump spent a great deal of time and Tweets obsessing over Russia. DNI Dan Coats expressed an urgency to invest resources in protecting the security of our 2018 midterms. It’s almost as if he were rooting for a blue ripple of balance, a check on a President who looked more and more like a national security risk.
(February 13, 2018) The Atlantic Reports: Trump’s Top Intelligence Officials Contradict Him on Russian Meddling
“There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations,” Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, said during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s annual worldwide-threats hearing on Tuesday.
“We need to inform the American public that this is real … and that we are not going to allow some Russian to tell us how we’re going to vote,” Coats said. “There needs to be a national cry for that.”
Source: The Atlantic
Yes while his boss Donald Trump called the Mueller probe a “scam”, DNI Dan Coats considered all along the very real threat of Russian election interference, so much so that Mueller seemed to echo Coats’ sentiments in Mueller’s final public statement preceding his appearance before House Judiciary and Intelligence.
"As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers who are part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization Wikileaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate."…
I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American.
Dan Coats is no fan of Russia. In fact, I would go so far as to assert he classifies the foreign power as hostile enemy. When word surfaced Russia poisoned a spy in Britain, Coats called a code red and joined our allies in expelling Russian agents from our borders. Note: Coats uses the word “malign” here to describe Russian behavior in world politics. We will circle back to this word, guided by lodestar.
(April 4, 2018) VOA reports: Top Spy Official: US Will Take More Steps Against Russia
Coats said the U.S. agrees with British Prime Minister Theresa May who said that Russia is the only nation state capable of using the nerve agent in such an attack.
"They [the Russians] either instituted it themselves or they lost control of it and somebody else did it. When you look at the history of it — the Russian malign activities and so forth — it's not hard to come to the conclusion that the Russians were out to send a signal to their other spies who have come out of the cold. Or [it was] just a continued power play by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin just prior to his election," Coats said.
Source: Voice of America Radio Network
Malign. Evil in nature. Yes it’s safe to say Coats knows his enemies. His enemies are ours. He is our undeniable friend and fellow patriot, established long before Mueller’s final referendum on Putin according to the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering our country has to offer.
(July 13, 2018) CNN reports: 12 Russians indicted in Mueller Investigation
Washington (CNN) — The Justice Department announced indictments against 12 Russian nationals as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, accusing them of engaging in a "sustained effort" to hack Democrats' emails and computer networks.
Source: CNN
I repeat. No exoneration for Russia. Furthermore!
Bloomberg reports: Russian Hacks on U.S. Voting System Wider Than Previously Known
Details of the wave of attacks, in the summer and fall of 2016, were provided by three people with direct knowledge of the U.S. investigation into the matter. In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states, one of them said.
Source: Bloomberg
Trump political hack job Rudy Giuliani agreed with me. Check it out for yourself:
Nice effort, creepy critter.
Contain the findings to Russia alone. Stick with total exoneration for the Trump campaign, no collusion, no obstruction. It’s not like Trump officials had over 100 contacts with Russian operatives and lied about it.
But Trump couldn’t resist, of course. He had to go full serial Siberia on our star spangled sweetheart.
President Trump ignored Rudy and continued to war with Mueller, DNI Dan Coats and our Intelligence Community, choosing Russia over America, despite documented proof of malign behavior, literally days before he sided with Putin in Helsinki after a secretive closed door meeting where only interpreters could enter.
This next news clip highlights a stark contrast between Putin’s stance, Trump’s and Coats’. It’s both damning and revealing. We can plainly see who’s on the right side of history and who to this day plays for the wrong team like only a sellout can. Trump is the epitome.
(July 16, 2018) CNN reports: Trump sides with Putin over US Intelligence
Russia has never interfered in and is not going to interfere in US internal affairs, including the elections," Putin said during the news conference…
"I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said during a joint news conference after he spent about two hours in a room alone with Putin, save for a pair of interpreters.
"We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security," Coats said.
Source: CNN
Only on Fox News can facts archived with federal courts be misconstrued as Fake News. With their help and Twitter’s, Trump doubled down on attacks against the Intelligence Community, anchored by Dan Coats.
Former Director of CIA classified Trump’s Helsinki moment as an offense of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, knowing Trump’s siding with the enemy, disregard for and weakening of our Intelligence Community endanger national security. Coats followed up on the Russian indictments, adding detail and putting a face on the 2016 attack that undermined our voting rights, the very thing that makes us a free country.
(July 18, 2018) — NPR reports: Dan Coats Warns The Lights Are 'Blinking Red' On Russian Cyberattacks
In regards to the state actions, Russia has been the most aggressive foreign actor — no question. And they continue their efforts to undermine our democracy. In regards to the upcoming midterm elections, I think there may have been some confusion between what we are seeing now compared to what we saw in 2016. As the Department of Homeland Security noted, we are not yet seeing the kind of electoral interference in specific states and voter databases that we experienced in 2016. However, we fully realize that we are just one click of the keyboard away from a similar situation repeating itself. Therefore, and moreover, we are seeing aggressive attempts to manipulate social media and to spread propaganda focused on hot-button issues that are intended to exacerbate socio-political divisions. Despite public statements by the Kremlin to the contrary, we continue to see individuals affiliated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency creating new social media accounts, masquerading as Americans, and then using these accounts to draw attention to divisive issues. We have learned, just before this meeting, about the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officials relative to their role in 2016.
Source: NPR
If not Dan Coats, someone has been a watchdog for America, as far as we know, for over one year. Let’s rewind to the infamous anonymous Op-ed from NYT where a senior level Trump employee revealed him/herself as a member of the Resistance. The media scrambled and, save for Lawrence O’Donnell, got sideswiped by use of the word Lodestar.
Some online commentators are leaning toward Vice President Mike Pence based on just one word in the piece.
Source: Huffington Post
The mystery member of the Resistance sounds like the whistleblower currently being muted by AG Barr and muzzled by Trump’s totalitarian DOJ.
Could it be?
Notice use of the word ‘malign’ in the following passage of the anonymous Op-ed, retrieved for description once again of Russian behavior in matters like the poisoning of a Russian spy in Britain.
Malign.
Evil in nature.
(September 5, 2018) NYT publishes Anonymous Op-ed: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations...
...On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel many of Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
Source: NYT (paywall)
The whisteblower blew the whistle on August 12, 2019, just three days before Dan Coats officially left his office.
Let’s check his official resignation letter for confirmation.
Washington Post publishes DNI Dan Coats Resignation Letter: Effective August 15, 2019
Source: Washington Post
Dan Coats is a name we should all know.
If you wish to hear more from him, simply do this.
Contact Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep Adam Schiff and ask Schiff to subpoena former DNI Dan Coats, based on his several mentions in the Mueller report. He’s fair game as a witness on the obstruction charge.
Let’s find out what else Coats knows that Trump, Barr, Giuliani and Putin don’t want us to know.
Also, let’s ask our Senators, to pressure Moscow Mitch to pass those election security bills, and prepare to road trip to Kentucky in protest, and to campaign on behalf of his opponent.
#NeverRussia #VoteBlueNoMatterWho