Strzok Out, and Other Musings

In this installation, the Curmudgeon will address the Peter Strzok circus, the Mueller indictments of Russian officials for meddling in our election, and other related buffoonery.

First, to Peter Strzok. The public hearings were indeed a three-ring circus, as many of the Dem Congresspersons noted during their questioning.

Yet - ya notice how none of them refrained from contributing to the circus?

It's as if the Dems and the GOP got together beforehand and said, "Okay, so after 11 hours of grilling this neophyte, we've learned nothing more than that he hated Trump, cheated on his wife, and apparently didn't influence the election one way or the other. But hey, we gotta keep the people divided. So let's have another nine hours of public hearings. On the GOP side, we'll rake this punk over the coals, and on the Dem side, you all can sing from the same sheet of music:

"Three thousand babies have been ripped from their mothers' arms at our southern border, yet we're not holding hearings over that. Our nation has been tragically affected by gun violence from San Bernardino to Las Vegas to Orlando, yet we're not holding hearings over that. (Note that they didn't suggest we should have hearings over the gun violence in Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, which sees hundreds of African-American youth gunned down by gun violence every year - no, they don't count.) Yet, here we are, holding hearings over this nonsense."

The theatre of the absurd from the left continued: "Mr. Strzok, this Republican said this about Donald Trump - was that the result of a coordinated conspiracy planned by you?"

("No," because it's doubtful Strzok could plan a conspiracy with any more success than the Three Stooges.)

"Mr. Strzok, that Republican said that about Donald Trump - was that the result of a coordinated conspiracy planned by you?" (Again, the answer was no; again, for the same reason.)

I'm surprised no Dem asked Strzok whether he plotted to assassinate JFK, or to kill JR.

The low points came when one Dem Congressman invoked "my personal hero, Bruce Springsteen" (really??) and another suggested that Strzok should receive a Purple Heart.

A Purple Heart? I would respectfully submit that the Congressman who suggested that be issued a rifle, sent to the front lines, and allowed to experience what it's like to risk one's life to defend one's country. He'd probably be shot in the back by his own men.

Indeed, at one point, Strzok pointed to his 26-year career of "defending his country." No, Pete, you didn't defend your country. You spent 26 years playing bureaucrat while others put their lives on the line. You're an insult to the fine men and women of the FBI who do their jobs without bias, and to the men and women in uniform who truly do defend this country.

Speaking of bias, anyone who can read the words, "We will stop him" from being elected and not see bias, couldn't see a basketball if it was flying at their face. The suggestion that Strzok was not biased is an insult to the intelligence of any reasonable person.

Strzok became incensed at the notion that anyone would suggest he had an integrity issue. Hey, Pete, you cheated on your wife - dude, that alone is indicative of an integrity issue. I just hope she takes you to the bank. Reading her resume vs. yours, she's certainly smart enough to do it.

Someone should have asked Strzok whether, given his obvious bias, he could work for his Commander in Chief and support his agenda. The answer would have been interesting, and should form the basis for whether he should keep his job.

The high point of the day came when Strzok, being questioned by Trey Gowdy, protested vigorously that he didn't appreciate having his integrity called into question, to which Gowdy replied:

"I don't give a damn what you appreciate, Agent Strzok, I don't appreciate having an FBI agent with an unprecedented level of animus working on two major investigations during 2016."

Boom.

The bottom line is that this putz had a strong bias against a candidate for President and pledged to his girlfriend that he'd do whatever was within his power to stop that candidate from becoming President. While he was involved with not one, but two investigations related to that candidate and his opponent, during an election year. You read between the lines.

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On to the Mueller indictments. So Russian officials meddled in our elections?

News flash: governments have been meddling in each others' elections for a damn long time, it's just that the interwebs have made it more interesting.

Remember when Barack Obama tried to influence Israel's elections to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu from getting elected? Or how about when the U.S. used to drop flyers out of airplanes to spread disinformation to try to influence elections in Communist countries?

More to the point, election meddling has been rampant within the U.S. for generations. Remember the intimidation tactics employed by Obama supporters at inner-city polling locations? Or how about the dumping of ballot boxes by JFK operatives? Gerrymandering, anyone? Opening our borders to bring in more potential Democrat voters? Attempts to manipulate election results have been going on for decades, if not centuries, on both sides of the aisle.

But now that Russia is doing it to us (which they likely have been since Stalin and Kruschev, along with China), it's suddenly worth worrying about.

It's like the lines from Animal House when Boon and Otter are watching Niedermeyer haze Flounder:

Otter: "They can't do that to our pledges."
Boon: "Only we can do that to our pledges."

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In the wake of the Russia indictments, Chuck Schumer (who never met a camera he didn't love) and Nancy Pelosi (who's just plain bat-poo crazy and probably doesn't know which end of a fork to use) have "advised" President Trump not to meet with Vladimir Putin.

Should our President take the advice of two people who couldn't get elected as dog-catcher in most jurisdictions? And if he did, you can bet your IRA that they'd criticize him for not meeting with Putin.

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Finally, to the UK protests against President Trump. I have to wonder how many of those signs and protesters were placed by Americans. I did hear one interview with a protester who didn't have a British accent.

And I found it ironic that one news report noted a street sweeper in the background, cleaning up the aftermath of the protest, which left thousands of pieces of trash strewn across the streets of London.

In the foreground was a sign held up by a protester that had a hand-drawn picture of Trump's face along with the words, "Stop air pollution."

O, the irony. Dude, you have forfeited your right to protest air pollution when you've left your trash all over the streets of your city for the street sweeper to clean up.