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Don’t forget the stinkin’ NBA. I’m done with them.
China seems to have assumed an extremely materialistic basis for decisions on the part of Trump’s rural supporters in ag country in 2018, despite three years of shrieking by Democrats and their backers in the media about how dangerous Trump’s nationalism was, and that of his supporters. The idea seems to be if China imposed high tariffs on U.S. ag products, the materialism of producers would turn them against Trump, as opposed to their support of nationalism causing them to put the blame for their lost revenues on the Chinese leadership.
That hasn’t worked out so hot, and Xi’s ensuing 2019 actions in Hong Kong, followed by China hiding the severity of the coronavirus and lying about its origins until it was too late to contain the spread, has only served to harden the feelings of those people against China, and expanded those feelings even past Trump supporters. Not a good strategy, though I’m assuming they’re still hoping Biden bails them out, and justifies all the $$$ they paid Hunter for his make-work job. (China’s belief that their anti-farm actions would rebound against Trump also sort of mirrors the actions of the Democrats in the U.S. right now, in terms of both the refusal to contain the worst of the rioting and the more draconian COVID-19 restrictions in Blue states. In both cases, they seem to feel their actions or inactions done very publicly and designed to lower peoples’ incomes and their quality-of-life will somehow rebound against Trump, as if people will suffer a collective round of Stockholm Syndrome and identify with the cause of their tormentors. Doesn’t seem like a winning move to me, but we’ll see what the voters think come November).
Make China a pariah. Fuse Biden and China in the public mind. That has to be a major theme of the Trump 2020 campaign.
I really have to question AG Barr. He can give a good talk here or there but “where’s the beef of indictments”?
Kevin Clinesmith the only Russian Hoax perp that has been indicted so far was given a ridiculously lenient plea deal where he will be given only 0-6 months jail time ( not a felony) for wholesale fraud and a $250,000 fine that will be paid by Soros in the end. You have got to be kidding me. This is not even in the Universe of being acceptable. This is an open invitation to wholesale government abuse by the Deep State.
Then we have announced the investigation announced today of Steve Bannon and his partner exiled Chinese Businessman Guo Wengei by the DOJ and the FBI.
Their real apparent crimes are described in the WSJ via Zerohedge:
“Guo, a wealthy Chinese businessman who fled the country in 2014 now lives in the United States, launched an aggressive campaign in 2017 to expose corruption by China’s business and political elites. As one might suspect, this triggered Beijing, which has attempted to have Guo extradited on charges which include bribery, kidnapping, fraud, money laundering and rape. Guo calls the charges part of a ‘misinformation campaign’ against him by CCP officials.”
“According to the report, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have frozen accounts linked to GTV, while Bank of America has closed an account for GTV’s parent company shortly after it was opened. The Journal claims that some investors began to push for refunds – claiming they never received official documentation verifying their investment in GTV Media. The SEC is reportedly reaching out to conduct interviews with investors who want refunds, some of whom have lodged complaints against Guo and his associates, according to the report.”
“GTV Media said in a statement that it carried out the private placement using legal guidance, and that “all of the raised funds are intact.” Moreover, they stand fully prepared to cooperate with any US agency that has questions about the private placement.”
Gee, after nearly four years after their very historically unbelievably serious and treasonous crimes were well known, Brennan, Comey, Mueller, Clapper et al are all running around free and making lucrative book deals, while Steve Bannon and Guo Wenger are threatened in a very short order with serious crimes apparently for angering the Deep State patron China.
The details of Clinesmith’s situation is unclear, but from what is know I expect that he has been or will certainly be disbarred, he separated from the FBI last September and will likely never work in government or law enforcement again barring extraordinary action by the opposition, his federal pension is likely history, and he may have cooperated beyond what is currently known.
In the current job market he will have difficulties. And he is radioactive, anyone doing him favors will receive unwanted attention. Even Soros would like to avoid being connected with the corruption of an FBI attorney.
Not if they’re paying attention.
I am amazed he didn’t just wait out the Trump Administration, hoping for it to end in January.
Obviously all charges against him would be dropped by an incoming Democratic administration. Heck, they might give him a medal!
It would be great if the plea bargain required him to testify against other FBI miscreants, but I’m not holding my breath.
Sisyphus:
“The details of Clinesmith’s situation is unclear, but from what is know I expect that he has been or will certainly be disbarred, he separated from the FBI last September and will likely never work in government or law enforcement again barring extraordinary action by the opposition, his federal pension is likely history, and he may have cooperated beyond what is currently known.
In the current job market he will have difficulties. And he is radioactive, anyone doing him favors will receive unwanted attention. Even Soros would like to avoid being connected with the corruption of an FBI attorney.”
Many of the worst Russian Hoax perps ended up with lucrative jobs on MSNBC or CNN. Clinesmith will be no different. He is a hero to the Totalitarian Left and will be treated as such.
Meanwhile Steve Bannon was hit with a $25million bail demand. Hillary for far worse – zip.
If this is allowed to stand we no longer operate under the Rule of Law. Barr appears to be just a stooge of the Left and will make clever noises on how terrible the Russian Hoax is but when the chips are down he caves to the Left so fast it makes your head spin. How can anyone expect any sort of justice anymore?
I’m going to echo @jon1979 regarding the agriculture assumptions by China. Academics and paper pushers are very good at reducing people to numbers and statistics. But that ignores the three-dimensional aspect of human nature in this case emotion, patriotism, loyalty, etc. The rural communities and farmers in Minnesota really drive a hard line for Trump, it’s the highly populated urban Twin Cities that voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. I think the same will happen this year, despite the media’s constant condescending attitude towards farmers that voting for Trump is actually very bad and against their self-interest. Gosh, sounds like the media and China are reading from the same script… Good post!
There were 75 active Confucius Institutes in the United States as of June 30, 2020, and another 45 recently closed or in the process of closing. The vast majority are attached to universities, one in Washington State is unaffiliated with a specific institution, and seven are affiliated with K-12 school districts, including one a couple of miles from me here attached to the College of William & Mary, the alma mater of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler, John Marshall, and John Blair, adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg.
From the first link:
The Hanban is Beijing’s controlling organization for the initiative. This is an international initiative launched by the CCP in 2004 with a CI in Seoul and at the University of Maryland in College Park. The CIs have paid millions to compliant faculty and administrators. The choir of “racists” responding to the use of the term “China virus” are echoing Xi and the CIs, for example. The CIs seem to get mentioned in espionage scandals as well.
Likely many of the younger staff shaping media stories are veterans of CI classes and handlers. I would love to see the stats on that. Certainly many were influenced by faculty taking hundreds of thousands or millions from the CCP through the CIs.