There are conflicting takes on the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last week. From the editors of the New York Daily News:
There aren’t many government documents we wouldn’t like to see; the press is hardwired to seek transparency. But there are solid reasons for a judge to keep sealed the affidavit behind a FBI search warrant to comb Donald Trump’s quarters at Mar-a-Lago looking for highly classified documents he had failed to return to the National Archives.
After the Aug. 8 search, Trump screamed bloody murder and breathlessly fomented conspiracy theories about political persecution run amok. Though in possession of the search warrant and inventory of seized items, the former president chose not to publish those until after Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling his bluff, moved for them to be unsealed.
It was important for those two documents to be released. They have shown a skeptical public confused by Trump’s nonsense what in broad strokes authorities were after, what laws they thought had been violated, and what boxes they removed.
The affidavit, which Trump and his allies are now demanding be made public in full, and which the Justice Department opposes releasing, is another kettle of fish. It contains specifics on why the feds think evidence of a crime might have been on site, as well as details about the ongoing investigation that could well compromise it. The information might include the identities of witnesses — including whoever in Trump’s circle may have tipped off the feds.
but the editors of the Wall Street Journal make an additional observation:
On Friday Judge Reinhart released the warrant for the search after Attorney General Merrick Garland and Mr. Trump urged its release. The public gleaned some general information from the warrant and what was gathered but not enough to conclude if the unprecedented search of a former President’s home was justified. The affidavit almost certainly includes more detail about the legal and factual basis for the search.
The rub this time is that the Justice Department wants to keep the affidavit secret lest its release compromise the criminal investigation. But that’s what Justice and the FBI always say. Mr. Trump has called for the affidavit’s release, so the judge can’t claim any risks to the former President’s privacy.
Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Senator, has also called for the affidavit’s release because “we’re flying blind in the dark.†He’s right. This is an extraordinary case, and the public interest is enormous. Mr. Trump may run for President again, yet he is vulnerable to leaks from the government that damage his reputation but may have little factual basis.
Last week someone told the Washington Post that Justice believes Mr. Trump had documents related to nuclear secrets, but the warrant revealed no such evidence. It did contain a reference to possible violation of the Espionage Act but again without evidence or elaboration.
We should add that Dow Jones & Co., the owner of this newspaper, has filed a motion with the court seeking the release of the affidavit. “Continued concealment is likely more injurious than disclosure,†the motion says, “as the nature of political discourse, which abhors a vacuum, has pumped all kinds of sensational suppositions into the informational void.â€
I am still forming my opinion on the matter. As I’ve said before I think searches of this sort of the private residences and offices of presidents leaving office should be so routine as to not draw comment. On the other hand I don’t think that either the FBI as an institution or AG Merrick Garland should just be trusted. And I find government and politics by official leak to the press objectionable. But so are threats of violence against public officials. I don’t know where to draw the line.
I remember, some time ago, Trump declassified and ordered the release of all the erroneous documentation dealing with the Russia scam and Crossfire Hurricane project. DOJ refused to do this saying something about having to go through the docs first. What is coming out about the Florida raid is that it was these docs the DOJ were there to recover, as they didn’t want any damning info to be available for the public to review. The cover-up story, though, promoted was they were looking for nuclear docs.
Obviously, the media is labeling anything other than their own narrative, and continual depiction of Trump as a contemptuous individual, as nothing but conspiracy theories. However, being categorized as a “conspiracy theory,†is the broad brush always used by the administrative state to white-out what is often the truth. For instance, the CDC is finally fessing up, about the misuse of their data, and the ineptness of guidance and protocols mandated by them, like social distancing and massive economy/educational-killing, leading to what is now being described as a restructuring of the CDC. Eventually, evidence of the unnecessary harms and deaths caused by the multiple doses of gene therapy injections will not be able to be held back either. Hopefully this will lead to them being pulled off the market – an action called for by a huge swath of physicians well over a year ago.
“an action called for by a huge swath of physicians well over a year ago.”
That’s a a lie. The percentage of physicians asking for this is small. You misrepresent what the CDC said. Gene therapy? Its so sad that you actually do represent most Trump supporters.
A nice piece on the FBI. It has been important to Trump supporters to portray the place as a bunch of liberals but like nearly all law enforcement it is a conservative institution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/opinion/trump-fbi-conservative.html
Steve
Jan: Trump declassified and ordered the release of all the erroneous documentation dealing with the Russia scam and Crossfire Hurricane project. DOJ refused to do this saying something about having to go through the docs first.
Trump issued the Memorandum on Declassification the day before he left office. It directed the Attorney General, Bill Barr, to implement redactions proposed by the FBI. That means “having to go through the docs first.” Nor can Trump bind his successor.
If Trump possessed the Crossfire Hurricane documents and they were unclassified, why didn’t he already release them?
Just to follow up (this will have numbers and data stuff so it wont interest jan) there have been a number of surveys. They pretty consistently show that about 95% of doctors have been vaccinated. There is a group that think all vaccines are bad and some that just think the covid vaccine is bad in some way. This polls at 8%-10% but I have only seen one poll about asking if the vaccine should be withdrawn and if memory serves it was less than 5%. Of note, the Rand Paul group that opposes vaccines is among the group that believes the measles vaccine causes autism, a belief thoroughly discredited. (Below is from Texas A&M, not really a bastion of liberal thought.)
https://today.tamu.edu/2022/04/05/the-1-in-10-u-s-doctors-with-reservations-about-vaccines-could-be-undermining-the-fight-against-covid-19/
Steve
https://doctorsandscientistsdeclaration.org/
There is a collaboration of physicians and scientists who have formed, with Dr. Robert Malone as president – 17,000 strong – who have repudiated the effectiveness, efficacy, and safety of these gene therapy injections. Yes, they are not real vaccines, but are synthetically derived, injected into bodies without the safety standards normally called for to be universally distributed. Today another epidemiologist, Dr Harvey Risch, was interviewed, calling out the malfeasance of the CDC, how they are only now admitting to errors they were aware of over a year ago. Dr. Scott Atlas, is another physician, who was on the earlier COVID Task Force with Fauci and Birx. He came to meetings with current data, studies, while the two having public face time had nothing but robotic responses mirroring the CDC who got almost everything wrong about this virus.
Yes, most health professionals have been vaccinated with threats that if not they would lose their jobs, or worse yet their licenses. In Canada recently something like 14 young doctors â€suddenly died,†in a very short time. That phrase “suddenly died†is being used more frequently as time goes on post these injections. Young athletes, mothers, teens are dying while doing sports or in their sleep. Insurance companies are reporting a 40% increase in all cause deaths among working age people 18-69. In the now revealed Pfizer clinical trials (which they and the FDA wanted hidden for 75 years, but were court-ordered to release now), 40% of vaccinated mothers in the trial ended up having miscarriages – Pfizer continues to encourage pregnant women to be vaccinated. Just look up some of Naomi Wolfs sub stacks and data gleaned from these trials.
You are simply either ignorant, Steve, or close-minded to how deceptive and dangerous these injections really are to both the short and long term health of those who allow them into their bodies – especially when it comes to the number of injections that have been taken – the higher the number the higher the possibility of disease and death.
Jan: Yes, they are not real vaccines, but are synthetically derived, injected into bodies without the safety standards normally called for to be universally distributed.
Realâ„¢ Vaccines? You mean like variolation, injecting people with actual live smallpox? What about cowpox vaccination? Is that a Realâ„¢ Vaccine? In fact, mRNA vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective.
Jan: Canada recently something like 14 young doctors â€suddenly died,†in a very short time.
You can’t determine whether the number of deaths is anomalous without considering the background rate of death. For an age of 35-44, about 140 per 100,000 can be expected to die in any given year. There are about 100,000 doctors in Canada.
Jan: 40% of vaccinated mothers in the trial ended up having miscarriages
That figure is based on a gross misunderstanding of the data. If 60% of pregnancies were completed during the trial, that doesn’t mean 40% ended in miscarriages. Some were still pregnant! Follow-ups show the rate of miscarriage after vaccination is consistent with the background rate of miscarriages. Also, see Magnus et al., Covid-19 Vaccination during Pregnancy and First-Trimester Miscarriage, New England Journal of Medicine 2021: “Our study found no evidence of an increased risk for early pregnancy loss after Covid-19 vaccination and adds to the findings from other reports supporting Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
†mRNA vaccines have been shown to be safe and effectiveâ€
That’s a slogan used everywhere commercially to dupe the masses into blindly taking these injections, with inadequate clinical trials, faulty info, and deriding those using any objective critical thinking that refutes big pharma’s claims.. However, considering just the government VAERS data, which is said to be understated, indicating around 30,000 deaths and well over a million harmed by this vaccine, it is hardly a safe way to combat a virus. Even the famously flawed CDC is backing off regarding it’s effectiveness bromides, as it does not protect against getting infected, doesn’t curtail viral replication or transmission of the virus to others. But especially troubling is it’s overall ever-dwindling efficacy rate, where whatever immunity is generated is short lived, getting shorter with every booster taken – lasting no more than 4 months vs natural immunity achieved by getting the virus and developing a stronger response lasting 14 months and longer. In fact it’s becoming common to refer to reoccurring COVID cases as being generated among the highly vaccinated, quadrupled dosed crowd, like the DC political crowd, even the POTUS & recently the FLOTUS.
The countries, usually 3rd world ones, using antivirals like HCQ and ivermectin, have fared much better – having far fewer cases, hospitalizations and deaths, in comparison to countries where mandated vaccinations were forced upon people, like the US, UK, Australia, even New Zealand, whose rigorous vaccine measures have seemingly backfired.
Finally negative side effects are often either hidden or denied by pharmaceuticals, or manifest themselves more in the long term rather than immediately. Currently we are being besieged by unexplainable “sudden deaths†and all cause deaths. Auto immune diseases such as Lyme disease and Gillian-barre syndrome are on the rise. MEs are reporting strange large blood clots being extracted during autopsies. Our unfree press, though, is silent as are many in the medical establishment, for fear of losing their hospital privileges or their medical licenses.
A correction regarding the spontaneous abortions noted in Pfizer’s clinical trials is honestly noted – something rarely seen in today’s journalism.
https://uncoverdc.com/2022/08/19/correction-eleven-mrna-subjects-suffered-spontaneous-abortions/
Jan: inadequate clinical trials
Phase 3 trials were completed successfully. And millions of doses have since been administered with minimal side-effects for the vast majority of people.
Jan: However, considering just the government VAERS data, which is said to be understated, indicating around 30,000 deaths and well over a million harmed by this vaccine
VAERS: “While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness.”
https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html
Jan: it does not protect against getting infected, doesn’t curtail viral replication or transmission of the virus to other
While the vaccine doesn’t prevent all infections, it reduces the severity of infection, and therefore the likelihood of transmission.
Jan: lasting no more than 4 months vs natural immunity achieved by getting the virus and developing a stronger response lasting 14 months and longer.
Antibodies to COVID wane after a few months, but long-term memory cells provide much longer lasting protection. That’s true of natural and artificially-induced immunity. The memory cells don’t prevent infection, but, because of previous exposure, they quickly mount a defense. That’s why COVID-19 is called a *novel* coronavirus. The body doesn’t have a memory of it. Once someone is exposed, however, whether naturally or artificially-induced, the virus is no longer *novel* to them.
The problem with natural immunity is that it requires getting sick, and that can lead to serious complications or death. And some people who survive have long-term health issues. Furthermore, with natural infection, you may or may not receive a substantial enough viral load to build a strong immune response. About a third of natural infections do not result in the development of protective antibodies.
Jan: The countries, usually 3rd world ones, using antivirals like HCQ and ivermectin, have fared much better
Drug trials have shown those drugs are ineffective against COVID.
Jan: even New Zealand, whose rigorous vaccine measures have seemingly backfired.
Country, deaths per million
New Zealand, 515
United States, 3150
@jan
God bless you, but like I told @Drew, it is pointless. On this topic, it is even worse. @steve is making a lot of money from the healthcare system, and he is not going to risk losing his two-hole outhouse by going against the system.
Because I have not studied the issue, I have no idea about any of this, but I find it a little strange that the pharmaceutical companies are evil money grubbers but that they have put aside their evil ways for COVID. (Just to be fair, it goes the other way.)
I expect to see lawyer’s commercials for class-action suits, shortly.
Other than aspirin and penicillin, I do not trust any medication, and I do not trust any aspect of the healthcare system. First and foremost, it is a money making racket. The motto should be, “Do no harm, but get every last dime.”
TastyBits: Other than aspirin and penicillin, I do not trust any medication, and I do not trust any aspect of the healthcare system.
Medicine has made stunning advances, and not just the invention of penicillin. These include vaccines, insulin, germ theory, anesthesia, epidemiology, and transfusion.
@Zachriel
I am not stupid. I am well aware that there are stunning advances, but aspirin, penicillin, and a few other medications have been long term tested. The older vaccines have been long term tested, as well.
I have never seen a commercial for a class-action suit over aspirin, and they keep finding new benefits from aspirin.
FYI: I am on more medications than should be legal. I take medications to counteract the side-effects of other medications, and I know how they work. I am vaccinated against things you have never dreamed existed, and I have taken more experimental medication than I care to remember.
All medications have adverse and side effects for somebody, and claiming otherwise is nonsense. Even aspirin and penicillin are not “perfectly safe”.
I suspect that there is more to “bleeding”.
1) You still dont know what VAERS is do you?
2) You need to have evidence to support all of your claims. No, it is not possible to hide problems at the rates you claim. Significant numbers of researchers and physicians are conservatives and Trump supporters. At my hospital among our leadership it is split about 50-50. If someone actually had evidence to support your claims that would instantly be famous and wealthy. There is a sizable percentage of people who have strong incentives to find the problems you claim, but they arent finding them. Remember that we notice small changes. Numbers are numbers and we pretty predictably see the same things over and over. Small changes int hat pattern are very noticeable. Covid was first picked up by Chinese doctors when they had 10-20 cases that seemed a bit different from the flu they were already seeing.
Money? We would actually make a lot more money by not vaccinating and having more business. If you decide to not trust someone because they get paid for what they do then that means you cant trust 90% of people including the people who make the pills you take. Not sure how that works. Makes a lot more sense to me to study problems, generate data you can analyze and come to data driven conclusions. You and jan and are in the “feelings” camp. I really, honestly dont know how to argue with that. Vaccinating is an old technique and well studied. Its hardly experimental.
No one would use their medical license if they reported finding big clots. We always have big clots. Ask the vascular surgeons and IR docs. 3rd world countries dont have old people and their record keeping generally sucks. There is no 3rd world country where you would want to have medical treatment electively unless someone set up a medical tourism site.
Steve
@steve
I have had vaccines that were not FDA approved, and to my knowledge, they have never been FDA approved. I would call that experimental. Furthermore, I doubt that the pharmaceutical companies just create the perfect drug or vaccine the first time, but maybe they do. You are the expert. So, tell me.
We know how to make cars, and we know how to make them safe. I guess the recalls are about “car safety deniers”. Are you driving a Ford Pinto? If not, why? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
It is funny (or pathetic). When the money grubber is in the healthcare industry, everything changes. I guess some money grubbers are better than others. I have a hard time distinguishing a money grubbing ER Doctor from a money grubbing finance guy. Like sheep, you all look the same, but I guess you all can tell each other apart.
Tasty Bits: The older vaccines have been long term tested, as well.
They were all new once. That’s why modern drug research requires blind, random trials, done in phases, and followup after general distribution.
As for aspirin, it can have side-effects, just like most everything in medicine.
https://www.rxlist.com/aspirin-side-effects-drug-center.htm
Tasty Bits: The older vaccines have been long term tested, as well.
They were all new once. That’s why modern drug research requires blind, random trials, done in phases, and followup after general distribution.
As for aspirin, it can have side-effects, just like most everything in medicine.
https://www.rxlist.com/aspirin-side-effects-drug-center.htm
Tasty Bits: I have never seen a commercial for a class-action suit over aspirin
Bayer Aspirin: Manufacturer Sued
Tasty Bits: I am on more medications than should be legal.
And yet you said, “I do not trust any medication, and I do not trust any aspect of the healthcare system.” In fact, even if you “do your own research,” all such knowledge depends on the expertise of thousands of scientists over generations.
Tasty Bits: All medications have adverse and side effects for somebody
That’s right, and mRNA vaccines are no exception. There are possible side-effects from mRNA vaccines, though the most serious adverse effects are rare.
@Zachriel
For many of the medications I take, I know the mechanics of how they work – chemical, biological, electrical, etc. I am not relying on “blind, random trials, done in phases, and followup after general distribution.”
Engineering is based on hard science, but you really do not want to fly in a newly designed plane.
TastyBits: For many of the medications I take, I know the mechanics of how they work – chemical, biological, electrical, etc.
And you know that how? By trusting the work of thousands of medical researchers over generations. And side effects? The biochemistry of the body is so complex that no one can know exactly what possible side effects may occur. That’s why drug testing involves multiple phases, with the third phase involving thousands of volunteers.
TastyBits: Engineering is based on hard science, but you really do not want to fly in a newly designed plane.
New planes are flown for hundreds of hours before passengers embark. If no one ever flew on new designs, then there would never be new designs, or planes for that matter.
Our point is that you trust more than you acknowledge.
â€I have a hard time distinguishing a money grubbing ER Doctor from a money grubbing finance guy. Like sheep, you all look the same, but I guess you all can tell each other apart.â€
Tasty, you always seem to put comments into plain language – a talent I especially like.
What I have found is that big pharmaceutical’s power is derived from not only the big money they spread around, but also through threats to people’s livelihoods should they not fall into line with the products they are pushing. They kind of remind me of Mexican cartels and the juggernaut they have over the illicit drug trade.
With regards to COVID, Pfizer and the medical industry “sheep†have blind-sighted the public by continuously promoting the deceptive selling point of these injections being “safe and effective,†despite important safety checks being ignored such as safety for pregnant women, efficacy/safety for COVID-recovered people, or efforts to determine long-term safety —- potential problems bubbling up currently because of the increasing number of sudden death among young people and overall all cause deaths denoted in working age demographics. Remember, Vioxx wasn’t taken off the market for over 5 years after it’s debut on the market, along with some 50,000 deaths associated with it’s use.
@Zachriel
The mechanics are not based upon “blind, random trials, done in phases, and followup after general distribution.â€
Short version: For some of my medical problems, my brain chemistry is “off”, and the medications change the salt content to alter the electrical impulses that occur.
google “737-max design flaw”
I assume that like my ER Doctor friend, you think the Ford Pinto recall was due to “car safety deniers”. You have a cartoonish vision of engineering design. Safety is achieved by correcting failures. So, you need failures to correct, and therefore, older designs are usually better tested.
Testing requires controlling variables, and this means that not all scenarios can be tested. The final phase of testing is done by the end users. “Best practices” and “lessons learned” require failures. Medicine is not exempt. Engineering is engineering.
@jan
Thanks. I try.
It would be nice to have some consistency from everybody. Depending upon the day of the week, the pharmaceutical industry is a hero or zero. I do not trust them anymore than any other industry.
TastyBits: Testing requires controlling variables, and this means that not all scenarios can be tested. The final phase of testing is done by the end users. “Best practices†and “lessons learned†require failures. Medicine is not exempt.
We agree. However, that’s a different claim than we addressed above.
@Zachriel
If the pharmaceutical industry produces a perfectly safe product, medication prices should be increased. Perfection should be rewarded.
You can drive to the airport in your Ford Pinto, board the 737-MAX, and marvel at the perfection of the modern healthcare system. I am a little more skeptical.
Our ,,, We …
There are medications that can help you. No matter how real they seem, those other people do not exist.
@Zachriel
However, that’s a different claim than we addressed above.
As usual, you addressed nothing. You threw shit at the wall and hoped something would stick. You need to begin making proper arguments. You declare your thesis, and then, you support it in a logical manner.
I am willing to accept that a fully formed logical argument is not really possible in the comments, but googling a few words and posting links is not an argument. Nor is it the Socratic Method.
TastyBits: You threw shit at the wall and hoped something would stick.
No point in getting upset. You had said, “Other than aspirin and penicillin, I do not trust any medication, and I do not trust any aspect of the healthcare system.” You also said, “For many of the medications I take, I know the mechanics of how they work – chemical, biological, electrical, etc.”
The latter statement is based, not on your personal experimentation with patients, but on your understanding of the findings of medical science, which appears to contradict your former statement. If you had said you are often skeptical, especially of new findings, then sure. Our point is that you trust more than you acknowledge. Everyone relies on expertise, including experts—even more so experts.
Then you reframed your position, saying, “Testing requires controlling variables, and this means that not all scenarios can be tested. The final phase of testing is done by the end users. ‘Best practices’ and ‘lessons learned’ require failures. Medicine is not exempt,” to which we agreed, believing we had found common ground.
@Zachriel
(This may be a little scattershot, and I did not proof-read it. About halfway through, I kinda lost interest, but I decided you deserved a reply.)
Thank you for a logical and well-laid out argument. A I stated, it is not realistic to expect a fully formed argument, and therefore shortcuts must be taken.
One place I take shortcuts is in defining terms. I try to limit myself to the conventional usage, but often, the conventional usage does not capture the underlying concepts precisely enough. I use quotes attempting to convey this imprecision, but this is imprecise, as well.
The preceding paragraph has several words that should be defined more precisely, but this forum is not conducive to this. I try to use quotes, but this upsets some people. The alternative is to risk being accused of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.
As a general rule, I do not trust anything that I do not understand the primary mechanics, and I get as close to primary sources as possible. For somethings, understanding those mechanics makes trust them even less.
You can call this skepticism, but I would argue that it is more. I am skeptical, but it is usually where I have limited knowledge of the primary mechanics.
(My psychiatrist, psychologist, and most mental health personnel dislike my saying, “I do not trust anybody.” When I remember, I say, “a person must earn my trust.”)
This distrust (or skepticism) is based upon my knowledge of the mechanics of the human thought process. Most people and most companies are not evil, but the human thought process is inherently flawed.
The 737-MAX, asbestos, First Gulf War burn pits, etc. were not designed to harm humans, but they have. Medicine is no different. The FAA is no different than the FDA, and yet, research and testing did not prevent a faulty product from being released.
When I was a road warrior, the 737 had earned my trust, but this was because its safety was established through real-world usage. At the time, I avoided the MD-80 because the rudder movement had a single point of failure. In theory, the science was sound, but engineering is not science.
Regarding the medications I mentioned, they are off-label usage, and since they were not designed to address my condition, there was no medical research for it. The chemical, biological, and electrical knowledge is not usually considered medical research, but if it makes you happy, whatever.
(There is medical literature, but basically, it is “tribal knowledge”. The doctors understand the underlying science, but the only research is on the patients.)
Regarding vaccines, I stopped caring after my shot card was lost. Actually, any injection is fine with me. As I stated previously, “I am vaccinated against things you have never dreamed existed, and I have taken more experimental medication than I care to remember.”
When I was in the US Marine Corps, you followed orders, but to be honest, I thought I would be dead long before any long term effects were discovered. When the VA called for me to get my COVID vaccine, I stood in line and sat in the chair for 15 minutes.
I mostly stay out of any healthcare debates. I know that I do not know much. My ER Doctor friend seems to be very knowledgeable, but I do not know enough to question his knowledge.
Because I am too involved in playing my game, I have avoided the vaccine debate, but I do know that there is far more research, testing, and actual usage of automobiles than medicine, but there are still safety recalls.
No matter how well intentioned, anything involving the human thought process will be flawed, and speeding up the development process does not make things better.
Bayer Aspirin: Manufacturer Sued For Marketing Drugs Without FDA Approval
The lawsuit is about marketing aspirin. It is possible that aspirin is affecting human genetics, and in 200 years, we may all have two heads.
No point in getting upset.
At this point in my life, not much gets me upset, but it is annoying to spend this much time on a topic that does not interest me.
Googling words and posting links is lazy, at best. You composed three original, multi-sentence, logical paragraphs without a single link. You are not stupid, and you seem smart enough to use primary sources. You might find that I am not quite as dumb as you think I am.