Thursday, March 01, 2018

Mueller Indictment Deception

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

I was in a tense discussion with a family member who is so far the the left politically that he might as well admit, right now, that he's a communist.  He yelled at me about how civilians should not be allowed to own guns, how the States can't be trusted (making my position of supporting "state sovereignty dog and pony act as dangerous as supporting slavery"), Christianity is the "true mental disorder and all people who believe in a magical invisible being somewhere in the sky ought to be committed and never let out - especially if they say that fictional being is talking to them", and when it comes to Trump I might as well shut up because "Mueller is finding the truth, and has already gotten one Trump campaign team member to plead guilty about colluding with the Russians."

What?  All of what he said was nuts.

My responses were as follows:

"Civilians should not be able to own guns?  Yeah, let's take all guns from the people, and allow only government to walk around with them.  What could go wrong?  Hang on, let's ask the German people or the Russian people, after their bouts with dictatorships that took guns as their first priority."

"The States created the federal government to handle the external issues, and for the States to handle their own issues.  Do you really want a federal official in an office on the other side of the country who knows nothing about your local culture or local needs determining the rules of your own community?"

"So you want to lock away people who disagree with you religiously even though they are the same people who promotes peace and love through Christ and believes in the God of Adam, Abraham, and Isaac?  And you call who the NAZIs?"

And finally . . .

"Who pleaded guilty to Russian collusion?"

He got excited.

"Gotcha!"

"No, it's not a GOTCHA," I responded.  "There is no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians.  Besides, if there was any meddling by Russia in the American election, why would they want Clinton to win?  She's practically an ideological ally with the Russians.  On the very surface the Trump collusion claim is ridiculous."

He grinned.  "Look up Rick Gates."

"Trump campaign aide," I quickly quipped.  "So?"

"He pleaded guilty."

"Not to Russian collusion.  What he pleaded guilty to, which is a whole list of things, were all unrelated to what Mueller is supposed to be investigating.  It turns out the guy was a dirty player with his hands in a lot of illegal pots, including pots that may have been connected to Russian and Ukrainian interests . . . but it was the result of his greed and opportunism.  He wasn't colluding with Russia to help Trump win the election."

A large part of the problem with the opposition is that liberal left Democrats don't look very deep into any information given to them.  They don't read details unless they think the details will assist them in their argument.  Instead, they tend to only read headlines, and perhaps a sentence or two, and then decide what the whole article was about based on their own assumptions.

The liberal left media knows the tendencies of their sheep, and use it to the max. . .

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-trump-campaign-aide-rick-gates-set-plead-guilty-n849256
The assumption, if you are a liberal, and you are not willing to read beyond the first sentence, is that Gates, whoever he is, must be connected to Trump, and he must have plead guilty to collusion with Russia.  Game Over.  Let's go smoke a marijuana joint.

But ... that's not what was said in the article.

If you read further, the article explains what Mueller has been looking for, and what the investigators believe happened, but not that they actually got anything they wanted.  "Former campaign aide Rick Gates, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to investigators."

No details.

"In a statement of offense attached to the plea agreement, Gates admits he conspired with Manafort 'in a variety of criminal schemes,' including moving millions of dollars from offshore accounts without paying taxes on the money, which was disguised as loans."

Nothing about Russian collusion, only a lot of illegal movement of money.  Was there Russian meddling in the election?  Is it possible that infiltrators or dishonest people played along?  Both are possible, but as Trump tweeted:

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!
4:33 AM - Feb 18, 2018

There is much more than meets the eye, as well.  As the Democrats think they are getting closer with each battle, they are losing the Russian collusion war.  General Mike Flynn's conviction is looking like it may be thrown out.

As Judge Andrew Napolitano notes, the judge who sentenced Flynn — Rudolf Contraras — was the same jurist who sits on the FISA court for Washington, D.C. Judge Contraras unexpectedly recused himself from further involvement in the Flynn case, without explanation. Napolitano speculates that Contraras might have been the judge who signed off on the FISA warrant that was based on the dossier. (Contraras is one of three judges on the FISA court for Washington, and one of those three signed the warrant).

Judge Sullivan took over the case after Contraras’ recusal.

So, the entire basis of the Mueller probe may come crashing down.

As Judge Napolitano said, it only takes one “courageous judge.”

Is the investigation even about what we are being told?

According to a report by FOX News' Tucker Carlson, the Podesta brothers and Paul Manafort are the "central figures" Robert Mueller's investigation, not President Trump.  The source, Carlson said, told him about events that implicate Manafort, the Podesta brothers, Hillary Clinton and her State Department, and Russian oligarchs. The source has been interviewed by Mueller's independent investigators.

"If true," Carlson said, the story weaved by the source shows the media is focusing on the wrong Russia story.

The source tells Tucker Carlson that Paul Manafort worked extensively with the Podesta Group as far back as 2011 on behalf of Russia. Manafort's Russian associates wanted to influence Washington and sought the Podesta brothers because of their ties to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a meeting with the Podestas that included a representative of the Clinton Foundation that specifically was about how to assist Uranium One in a deal that reportedly netted the foundation $100 million in donations.

"Sometimes, our source said, ties between The Podesta Group and the Clintons were explicit," Carlson explained. "Tony Podesta spoke regularly to Hillary Clinton while she ran the State Department. Our source remembers Podesta's assistant announcing that 'Secretary Clinton is on the line.'"

"At one point in either 2013 or maybe early 2014 our source says a meeting was held that included both Tony Podesta and a representative of the Clinton Foundation. The explicit subject of that meeting? How to assist Uranium One, that's the Russian-owned company that controls 20% of American uranium production, and whose board members gave more than $100 million to the Clinton Foundation. As our source put it, Tony Podesta was basically part of the Clinton Foundation," Carlson shared.

"'They are more focused on facilitators of Russian influence in this country,' says our source, than they are on election collusion," Carlson said. "The Podesta Group he says, 'is in their crosshairs.' We should note the obvious, that many of the lobbying efforts our source described to us today are not yet illegal necessarily and that tells you a lot about modern American politics."

"If true, the story we heard overturns much of what we think we know about Russian attempts to influence American policy. We believe our source is telling the truth. We don't think he has reason to lie to us. The facts we've been able to check have turned out to be accurate. We believe our source has exposed behavior that undermines this country.

There's a lot more to the story than fake news is reporting. . . but we knew that.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

No comments: