Notes about the Russians packing up and going home

First, and most important, it is not the hacking the DNC that is the issue.  It is what they are doing that is not reported.  The DNC is old news.  Yahoo is old news.  OPM is old news.  VA is old news.  You do not know what they have been attacking.  Those attacks are why the GRU/FSB/SVR are booking flights home this weekend.  Getting them out of the D.C. region is the key.

Second, many of those kicked out were getting to be a pain in the ass.  Not much more is needed to explain their departure.

Third, which could be first, is to box the floater in.  If the orange lunatic wants to turn around and invite the GRU/FSB/SVR back in to reestablish spy operations he would be very close to treason.  This is as much for his “enjoyment” as poking Putin in the eye (sort of like closing down one of his eyes on the U.S.)

I do not know what is going on other than what is reported in the news.  But, I can guess there is something more behind this.  Most likely is a lot more going on to reach this point.  The DNC thing is a nice cover. (don’t worry, the Russians already know that)

Of interest to me is that Putin did not kick out any U.S. operatives at this time.  It is not out of the goodness of his large intestine.  He is KGB and does not have a heart (just wondering what another heartless soul, Cheney, thinks of his party leader kissing up to the Soviets KGB).  Why would he not follow tradition?  I can only guess that he expects this example of “good” will make his saddle buddy allow the GRU/FSB/SVR to come back in and start local spying again.

This action also wipes the slate a little bit clean so that the GRU/FSB/SVR will have to reestablish their networks.  That will take time.  Perhaps longer than four years and the floater will be out of office by time Putin gets operatives back in and doing the nasty.

The best of this is that the Soviets/Russians get kicked in the groin.  A few U.S. assets have been given to the GRU/FSB/SVR, but the loss may not be in the same scale as what was accomplished.

Next note:  GRU is military intelligence, a mix of NSA, CIA and local folk; FSB is local (Russian) intelligence but with some external contacts and SVR is spy service, sort of like CIA.  Be happy you do not have to deal with these people.

Next note:  Putin, and the FSB/SVR would rather have known operatives stay in Russia than to kick out those they know which are there.  This is a multi-layer poker game.  Do you keep what you know?  Or do you remove what you know to wait for a new deal of cards?  Take a card on 16 or take a card on 17.  Hustling the orange lunatic seems to be a running joke.

And, I am sure you are starting to build a question as to why I know this.  I am just like you, except I had been exposed to this stuff a long time ago.

 

It’s Discouraging To Think How Many People Are Shocked By Honesty

And how few by deceit.  Noel Coward

Something occurred last year about  this time that set me curious and with a questioning of what is going on in this world.  It was repeated this last Friday in another business exchange.  I do not know if it is my generation and those earlier which caused the disruption to my value system.  Or if it was my early religious experiences, of which too affected me.

I drive a truck with a diesel engine.  If you have one you understand the need to replace two batteries, not just one.  As winter was approaching, or perhaps was knocking, it was time to replace batteries which barely made it through summer.  I drove over to one of the big box discount stores and purchased two new batteries.  Asked for the used batteries I said those were still in the truck and I would bring them back the next day.  That was fine and I was not charged a battery fee.

As promised I showed up the next day with the two used batteries.  As I they were being transferred to a storage rack a comment came to me as “Thank you for your honesty.”  At first I thought nothing of it.  I was happy not to have two nasty old batteries laying around.  And more important I gave my word to bring them back.

But over the hours of the afternoon and since I think of that comment and wondered why the clerk felt he needed to say it.  Was theft that rampant?  Were the customers of this store and perhaps all stores, dishonest?  It has been bothersome.  A nit in the drawers.

A singular statement until Friday.

I placed an order with a gigantic online retailer last Saturday for a new mouse and a murder mystery novel.  The mouse was to be delivered on Monday.  Excellent.  Monday, no delivery.  Okay, a mistake was made but of minor consequences.  Tuesday, delivery schedule was to have a mouse and book to my door by eight p.m.  Tuesday, no delivery.  Wednesday, the delivery schedule was to be by eight p.m.  No delivery after eight p.m.  So I called the retailer and they could not get anyone at the delivery office to answer the phone.  I cancelled the order.

Thursday morning there was a box in my door.  It arrived, but was no longer mine.  I did not have time to deal with it that day but I did on Friday.  I called and it took a while for the customer service to understand that the articles were delivered and I would pay for them rather than send them back.  In fact about thirty minutes of customer service trying to figure out how to accomplish such a feat as reopen the order and pay for it again.

Several times during this ordeal I was told by the CS person “Thank you for your honesty”.  What?  I had no idea that agreeing to buy what had been bought, cancelled and now paid for again required honesty.  I do not understand.  I find it hard to comprehend that honesty was what I did.

Put these two experiences together, along with the current discourse of our country from the election and I am still unable to come to any valid conclusion.  “Thank you for your honesty”.  A phrase that is so unusual outside of someone returning a wallet without taking the contents, that it catches with me.  “Thank you for returning these batteries” is what I expected first.  The second time I expected “thank you for your order (even if it is the second time)”.  And now we have someone who might be the most dishonest person ever elected to be president leading by example.  I do fear for these United States.

We don’t propose to sit here in our rocking chair with our hands folded

and let the Communists set up any government in the Western Hemisphere.

Lyndon Baines Johnson

All the deep brotherly air kisses and love between the old guy wearing a shedding rat as a hairpiece and the old KGB agent keeps bringing one thing up.  The old Soviet wants to destroy America.  Whatever the bloater has in mind, and his mind is one thing that could use a bit of chemical treatment, thinking Putin is going to make a favorable deal is nuts.

He is old enough to know how the Cold War went, and how it destroyed many countries around the world.  His business dealings also show he is stupid too.  The blowhard is being played by Putin and the Russian mob.  As he will not release his tax papers we can assume that he his more Russian than American.

Give me people who distrust the Communists. People who were not fooled when Putin said he was all for democracy, as long as he was elected.  People who have seen the real world and not one created in the vacuum of an orange covered cranium.

Hillary, has seen much of the world, starting with her Republican youth.  I still cannot understand why the Republicans hate her so much.  Is it because she stood by her husband, unlike the fifty percent plus divorce rate of the Republican states?  Is it because she is smart? Maybe because she is everything they are not?

A side effect of being a Boomer is to have lived through the Cold War.  The constant propaganda of both sides.  How horrible the Russians/Soviets are compared to your average criminal.  Those godless people, how could we not hate them.  McCarthy assuring us that the Commies are everywhere and only he can protect us from them.

Today we have a McCarthy wanna be.  But is more dangerous.  McCarthy drank too much and died before running for president.  The bloater does not drink, whether or not we can trust that as he lies about anything and everything, so lying about drinking does not rise above anything else he states.

The problem is nothing like Obama bringing an end to the most foolish of embargoes in history.  That Cuba is going to the world, actually Cuba went to the world decades ago, and America finally recognizes the problem of holding an embargo for Miami votes is nothing like taking the Soviets into America through the White House.

No sleeper cell is the bloater.  He admits to being under the influence of the Kremlin in his campaign word salad.  Having been in the U.S. military I was trained to be ready to fight in Europe against unnamed forces which probably had a big red star on their uniforms. Although I could not and would not mix up the Soviet star and the Macy’s star (yes there are people who do not shop at Macy’s because they think it is a Soviet store).

I do not trust Putin.  I do not like Putin and his minions.

Is The Pope Catholic?

 

So this is how the worm turns.  A Jewish Socialist goes to Rome to visit a Catholic Pope.  Just the sentence sets off days of late night jokes.  And that is nothing to what is happening in politics.

“What the hell is he doing?  No Jewish politician will ever meet a pope!”  Overheard outside someone’s office whose initials might be HRC.  “He might as well be selling wiernerschnitzel in Bethlehem.”

And so another episode of the “Bernie Loves Hilly” program begins.  It seems they might be nearing a divorce or at least a separation.  The last show sounded like the Trump warming up in the shower radio hour.  Not that he would yell at himself in the shower, maybe just in the car and only at the hired help.

Although my time has been spent on things not politic, I have tried to find a daily diary from which to catch up on the various raging super egos.  The best I have come across is a brief read of the TrailMix.CC.  The rest of the world is filled with too much . . . let’s just say wiernerschnitzel.

Of more interest to me is my found family member.  My third cousin once removed.  Please do not ask what that means.  I have no clue.  We do know our great-great-great grandmothers were sisters.  That makes us cousins.  We found each other in the Great Salt Lake City DNA match, or one of the Great Salt Lake City ancestry companies.  That’s okay.  They will save what’s left of my sole.

It is so exciting.  We most likely met in the 1950’s or early 60’s, but did not know the significance of those meetings other than meeting another kid my age.  Iowa farm life, lots of cousins roaming around.

I wonder what the Pope got out of meeting the Bern?  A “feel the burn” T-shirt?  An offer of free college if he moves to Vermont?  Maybe a Senate gallery pass.

All I know is that whatever he did it was nothing compared to the high school debate teams refusing to go to Liberty “University”.  Those kids did something incredible and brave.  My hat is off to them and if I was ever in a position to hire one of them it would on the spot.

Those Who Are Too Smart To Engage In Politics

Are governed by those who are dumber.  Plato

What a feeling I awaken with this morn.  Friday evening was the Anne Arundel County Central Committee annual dinner.  A meeting of the most political of political people in politics.  People who are the unseen forces behind the every Democratic Party Member running for any office.  The people who watch CSPAN and listen to NPR, or are on NPR or CSPAN.  The people who watch Prime Minister’s Questions.

Plato
Plato

Oh, and there were the elected too.  Anne Arundel County provides the high power to the Maryland Assembly.  The fight to keep Governor Hogan from going all Republican on Maryland rests with the Speaker of House, Rep. Busch.  A few miles away is the now blinding white dome over the Congress. Several Maryland members of the Congress came to the dinner too.  Rep. Steny Hoyer was great as usual. Our candidates to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski spoke well and gave good reasons to vote for either of them. Sen. Mikulski was not at the dinner to my disappointment.

The night was even more exciting because of the key note speaker, Rep. Elija Cummings.  Oh the deep feelings he brought out.  His speech was full and heartfelt, from his poor childhood and that of his parents, to today.  He is the one man who destroyed Republican attempts to blame Ms. Clinton for Benghazi and pretty much everything else that has happened since the Romans left England.

He reminded us of what we are – Democrats.  We can see what Mr. Weird Hair is doing, and why those voting for him do so.  We are Democrats and we must never forget why so many are falling for the bluster and wild talk.  It is up to us to make life better for all Americans.

For all the political power in the room, and there was a lot, we enjoyed a nice night together.  In politics one often gives everything to achieve the win, or preventing someone else from winning.  Long hard hours, constantly promoting your candidates, often calling people asking for money.  You make the relaxation time your fun time.

Okay, politics is still in the air. Rather, politics is the air.

You have slogged through so far and want the candy.  Today, there is no candy.  Today is the “ask”.  The point of all this is to lure you into getting involved in politics.  Politics is the putting a stamp on an envelope.  It is getting a nice walk on a weekend to meet fifty or one hundred people at their homes to hand them literature about a candidate.  It is driving a candidate from one house party to another house party (you get to eat campaign food doing this).  It is doing whatever you feel comfortable doing to help elect a woman or man you want to represent you.

A dinner, you pay a lot for, is a reward.  No awards are given out.  Maybe a shout out, but most likely not.  The dinner is how political people take a break from politics.  More politics.

A side effect is you might want to run for office too.  That is a blast, at least for some of us.  For others, not so much a blast as a drudge through the mud.

 

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