Law, Power, and Justice

WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2024

House Notes:

• It’s cold, or cold for Georgia.  Every joint and bone in my body hurts.  I’m going to have to move to Florida, no wait, the Florida legislature was trying to pass a law allowing them to use Florida taxpayer money to pay off Trump’s legal bills.  How, the f..k is this possible.  The brief news report last night was that they dropped the idea when DeSantis threatened to veto it.
• I can hear the train whistling in the distance.  It’s the same whistle I heard every day for the first 20 years of my existence.  I love the sound of the train whistling.  And in this house (I’m 72) it’s roughly the same distance from the house I grew up in, about a mile.  I love the sound of the train whistling.  Adventure, promise, comfort, change, regularity, challenge, everything wrapped into one.
• The cats are all outside at least those who were willing to brave the cold.  My little gray cat, Hiram Bernard, waited for me at the bottom of the stairs while I was making coffee, to put me back to bed.  He usually can tell when I don’t feel well.  We think he is the reincarnation of Burmese cat, little Neal, who spent 22 years at my side.  Literally, every time I was at home for twenty-two years he was within reach.  We think Little Neal, also solid gray, shopped around for a body and found Hiram’s.  Neal arranged to have this five-week-old kitten body dumped in our front yard so he could continue to take care of me.  It’s a gift, what a gift from God would feel like.
• Hiram just walked back into the bedroom from HIS upstairs patio to make sure I’m alright.  I can hear him thinking: “If she’s typing, she’s alright.”
• And, then, there’s the political reality.

News Notes

MSNBC

• The FBI informant story does not make sense to me.  How did the FBI allow this guy to pump information into an important Senate Committee for years knowing he was lying?
• (Note: What on earth has Katty Kay decided to do to her hair?)
• Alexander Smirnoff, the FBI informant, was in court yesterday with some members of his family speaking Russian.
• He told the FBI (after he was arrested and in handcuffs) that he had been colluding with Russian intelligence about the story about Hunter Biden.  He lied about a series of meetings with Russian officials.  There is nothing about whether the information is true.
• The detention memo unfiled yesterday revealed previously classified information.  A ten-year source for the FBI, this guy was.  Tom Winter is reporting that he had been “run out” of another field office?  What’s that about?
• Form 1023, which I think contained the bogus information about Hunter Biden, was just a form recording what Smirnoff told the FBI, that’s it.  In the Spring last year, there was a big fight over that form being released.  Congressional Republicans threatened Christopher Wray over its release.
• “There’s no legal vetting.”  Tom Winter is talking about the Russians feeding information directly into a Congressional Committee.  They were feeding information with no legal vetting.  The Russians realized they didn’t even have to feed bogus information to the FBI.  They could just go directly to Conress.
• (Note: Who leaked the information to Congress about the 1023?)
• (Tom Winter, usually logical, informative, seems especially rattled this morning, over this story.  What’s that about?) 
• (Note: Last night, this morning, they never show photographs of Smirnoff, just Hunter Biden.)  (Note: Thursday night they showed Smirnoff leaving the courthouse with masks on.)
• Winter reports that Smirnoff had contacts with Russian organized crime.  Organized crime is the grease in the wheels of the Russian government.
• In Munich, European government officials are terrified about what is going on in the US.  How much more effective Russian spying has become in the past few years.  Once again, they are interfering with the 24 elections. 
• Question asked on the show: Why don’t Americans see this, the connection with Russia?  (Note: SOME OF US HAVE FOR 8 YEARS and we have been screaming about it.  Mueller Report, Sarah Kenzior).
• What does this do to the Republicans?  They are going to just deny it.
• Winter: This (unattributed) has been going on for a long time.  (Note: The planting of Russian disinformation).  Bill Barr talked about information coming in from Ukraine about the Bidens.
• Joe Scarborough: Republicans hate Biden more than they fear Putin.  The US has been played once again.  “Putin has Republicans on a string.”  They depended on an “international fugitive” to take down Joe Biden.
• Republicans are relying on the Russians to get them back into power again.
• Trump last night on Fox News: “We are turning into a Communist country.”  “I never even heard of being indicted.”  (Note: I am sure that Trump couldn’t even tell you what Communism is.)

FOX NEWS

• Passenger with video of defective wing on airplane.  (Note: There’s no connecting these stories with the war on regulations conducted by the Republicans for decades).

Ukraine

• More hostages taken by Russia for benefit.