If I Were A Fan Of Conspiracy Theories - George Papadoupolos, Fall Guy...

If I were a fan of conspiracy theories (If?!?) I would have a deep-dive New Year's weekend. My launch point would be this in-the-nick-of-time story about the background to the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign which began last summer.

How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt

WASHINGTON — During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.

Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

Oh, well, the so the FBI was inspired by Australian (and presumably British) intelligence agencies. Whew! We were worried that their launch point, as hinted but not directly claimed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, had been the Steele dossier, bought and paid for by Team Clinton.

However! As noted by Paul Mirengoff at Powerline and Byron York, the timing seems off - the FBI didn't actually interview Papadopoulos until February 2017.

But let's have some fun, starting here - why do we believe that George Papadopoulos's contact, the mysterious Professor Misfud, was working for the Russians? The professor was more or less a nobody from Malta claiming to have Russian contacts, and had a vague affiliation with a Russian university. Everything we see in his bio would be perfectly consistent with an MI6 attempt to promote one of their contacts as a Russian go-between. If I remember my Le Carre, and George Smiley, that would mean that MI6 could use the professor as a contact point for coat-trailing operations where they try to draw the attention of other spies, defectors, malcontents or any else interested in reaching out to the Russians. Its a fly-trap - people who want to reach out to the Russians meet the Maltese Stool Pigeon and end up unwittingly chatting with MI6. Impossible? No. Probable? Who can say?

As to the notion that in April 2016 the professor had early inside knowledge about the DNC hack which had only struck e-gold the month before, well, maybe. But if I were a self-promoter I would have been well aware that months of speculation had swirled around the question of whether the Russians had hacked Hillary's secret email server, the existence of which had been revealed in 2015. So, a lucky guess by the professor? Again, who knows?

In any case, the Trump/Putin bromance had been a matter of interest going back to 2015. So as a matter of protecting themselves and their ally, MI6 (with a wink from the US intelligence community) might have mounted an operation against George P. This LOL article about how the recruitment of George P. has all the earmarks of a Russian operation would read exactly the same if MI6 were substituted into it.

So sure, Prof. Misfud could have been part of a Russian operation to get a guy into the Trump campaign. OK, the Reds allegedly had Manafort, who joined the campaign in late March, but maybe he wasn't their guy so they needed to add a nobody with no connections to Team Trump out on the periphery of the campaign. Maybe!

Or maybe George P. was targeted by Western intelligence as, well, an insurance policy in case they needed a pretext to investigate Trump. What, am I suggesting the Western establishment was anti-Trump? Hard to imagine, right?

So now with the Steele dossier emerging as an indefensible pretext for the Trump investigation the FBI throws us George P.

Or not. George P. may well have been speaking to an authentic Russian contact point. That still doesn't mean this FBI-philic leak to the Times accurately describes the real impetus for any warrant applications.

Hall of mirrors stuff.

DO LET ME ADD: One of my 2016 resolutions was "No more crazy theories this year." Almost made it! Now, where's my apple pie and ice cream for breakfast? Next week, The Diet!

Comments

[Extraneus]

Here’s hoping 2018 brings more ethical leadership, focused on the truth and lasting values. Happy New Year, everybody.

— James Comey (@Comey) December 31, 2017

I hope the big guy is reading the responses to that.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/james-comey-i-hope-2018-brings-more-ethical-leadership/article/2644692

[Extraneus]

Since his firing, Comey landed a book deal reportedly worth millions of dollars. His book, titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” will detail what he believes effective leadership looks like.

[Threadkiller]

Let me show you how "inappropriate" is done:

https://youtu.be/0QTRW7zpCYM

::ducks::

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Wictor got on a roll last night and did an epic take-down of Bret Stephens. You will notice that he got so incensed he didn't realize he went from 13 to 24 when numbering the posts. However, it is well worth reading.

https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/947710828664438784

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Wictor got on a roll last night and did an epic take-down of Bret Stephens. You will notice that he got so incensed he didn't realize he went from 13 to 24 when numbering the posts. However, it is well worth reading.

https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/947710828664438784

[DebinGA]

Thank you, Burt Reynolds, for cementing the national image of Georgians as lawbreaking, racist imbeciles with serious dental issues via "Deliverance" and "Smokey and the Bandit I-eleventy.

[Momto2]

Happy New Year to all!

I'm with you RG - cheering for the SEC all around today. My son and girlfriend are at the Peach Bowl in the beautiful new Mercedes-Benz stadium. My niece works there and is giving them the grand tour! War Eagle!

Hope you are staying warm, MM!

For those who feed the birds - remember they also need water when it is this cold.

[Momto2]

Yes, DebinGA - that image is seared into minds and re-enforced by media types whenever possible.

"Can't you find someone with bad teeth and worse grammar for me to interview?" (reporter)

[Jim Eagle]

Hilary Rose: Winter Olympians, vegans and what else to avoid this year

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/hilary-rose-winter-olympians-vegans-and-what-else-to-avoid-this-year-cjsdx3gj5

Really a funny piece. Requires you to have lived or travelled extensively in England or the UK or Europe but you'll get the humor. I know Joan and I will:)

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Wictor got on a roll last night and did an epic take-down of Bret Stephens. You will notice that he got so incensed he didn't realize he went from 13 to 24 when numbering the posts. However, it is well worth reading.

https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/947710828664438784

[Threadkiller]

I thought they were from Texas?

How did Georgia racists get impugned?

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Darren Rovell‏Verified account @darrenrovell

Despite being closed on Sundays, Chick fil-A is the highest grossing per store restaurant chain the U.S.
==========================
Someone on Twitter commented, "Worst boycott ever."

[Man Tran]

A lot of real world engineering can be done with 3 decimal places.

Prolly one of the most consequential constants in ingineering is the modulus of elasticity, E. I've done numerous tests that suggest the published value for steel is off by 15 pct. Never found a modern refinement to suggest, for instance, that it is affected by alloy or carbon content. The slide rule is more accurate than that. :)

[Captain Hate]

Burt Reynolds was perfectly cast as a porn producer in Boogie Nights.

The Farsi Ferret must be apoplectic over this:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-us-gives-israel-go-ahead-to-kill-powerful-iranian-general/

[Jane]

Do you guys ever think about what you lead with? After I asked the question I realized I lead with the wrong thing, and my 2018 resolution is to not do that anymore.

So what do you lead with?

[Threadkiller]

I lead with "remember when the afterbirters..."

[Threadkiller]

...afterbirthers...

[mad jack]

"don't let my blinding good looks intimidate you in any way":-)

[hoyden]

Temp up to -6F from -11F. Sunny. Great window forecast in MN. Just don't go outside.

Also checking in as an engineer of electrical keeping in mind the first law of system programming: never test for an error you can't handle. Don't know if that has a political equivalent.

Regarding the glass half full or half empty, Afn engineer will tell you it's twice as big as in needs to be.

[boris]

"Regarding the glass half full or half empty ..."

Inadequate margin for overflow ...

[DebinGA]

Indianapolis weather says currently 4, low -10, but clear. Hope MM's snow ploy/HVAC guy has come and gone, leaving heat in his wake.

[JimNorCal]

What is an "afterbirther"?
Also, since I am not very informed in this area, what is the key premise of the Birther argument? Did Obama's mother renounce her US citizenship? Else wouldn't BHO be a US citizen regardless of the place of birth?

[Man Tran]

Well, all this techie talk may be for naught. Go read the AT article LUN. Purdue's Engineering School just got flushed. Ugh.

[Threadkiller]

Also, since I am not very informed in this area, what is the key premise of the Birther argument?

I will need to switch to my desktop and unlock my cut and paste files...

This is panning out to be a great year!

#HoldOnToYourHats

[henry]

Man Tran, these people say math is too hard for "people of color", LGBTetc, women. And the people they just called too stupid to live outside of caves applaud. Strang place, academia.

Plus: New Thread.

[mad jack]

Noooooooooo!

[mad jack]

i meant to add- very funny tk!

[Threadkiller]

New thread???

:-(

I will keep it brief.

An afterbirther is someone who used ridicule to form all of their arguments as to why the POTUS should be allowed dual allegiance. They also made the claim that a birther would never be POTUS. Smart crowd.

The key premise is that the Founders created an eligibility requirement for POTUS that mandated that the office can only be held by persons that had a single allegiance at birth. (With the exception of the first presidents who fell under the grandfather clause.)

[Threadkiller]

LOL,mad jack!

[The Gipper Lives]

Here's another crazy conspiracy theory:

Seth Rich was assassinated for leaking DNC files to WikiLeaks; Sudden Onset Arkancide Syndrome.

Crazy, huh?