Sandy Leaves

I was fortunate to watch in person many of the great National League hurlers of the 1960s - Spahn, Marichal, Drysdale, Gibson, Seaver, but never saw the greatest of them all, Sandy Koufax.  Fifty five years ago this month, Sandy announced his retirement at the age of 30, due to severe elbow problems.  Though I knew about it at the time, I'd never seen his actual announcement until a couple of days ago.  

In response to questions, Sandy is quite blunt about why he is retiring:

"I don't know if cortisone is good for you or not but to take a shot every other ball game is more than I wanted to do.  To walk around with a constant upset stomach because of the pills, and to be high half the time during the game because you are taking painkillers, I don't want to have to do that."

In response to a question about the impact of losing income from his decision:

"Well, the loss of income.  Let's put it this way.  If there was a man who did not have use of one of his arms and you told him it would cost a lot of money to buy back that use, he'd give them every dime he had."

Today In 1966: Choosing his health over the money, Los Angeles #Dodgers superstar pitcher Sandy Koufax shocks the baseball world by announcing his retirement at the age of 30! #MLB #Legend #Baseball #History pic.twitter.com/yTmChEwSZe

— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) November 18, 2021

During the 1964 season, Koufax experienced severe pain in his left elbow, a condition for which he was told there was no cure.  Prior to the 1965 season he asked his doctor to tell him when his condition got to the point where continuing to pitch would cause him to lose the use of his arm.  During the 1965 and 1966 seasons, in which he went 26-8 and 27-9, leading the Dodgers to the World Series in both years, Koufax's regimen included cortisone shots, powerful steroids, taking two codeine pills (one before each start and one in the 5th inning), and smearing his body with an ointment with high levels of capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers.  At the end of the 1966 season he was advised that to continue pitching would cause permanent damage to his arm.

Sandy Koufax turns 86 on December 30.

Harnessing Talents

From Caesar's Footprints by Bijan Omrani.

The Gauls were renowned in Rome for their eloquence, cleverness and bravery: what better way of harnessing their talents than to give them access to a system of education that revered rhetorical excellence as the apogee of its attainment, before paving the path for Gauls to enter the Roman system of government and the Roman courts?

Moreover, like Roman gods and Roman religion, the Roman identity was not exclusive.  Just as long as the reverence due to Caesar and Rome was paid, Roman citizenship, or else presence as a resident in the empire, allowed loyalties and other identities.  Ausonius himself (1), the most Roman of Gauls, wrote that 'I love Bordeaux, Rome I venerate; in this, I am a citizen, in both a consul; here was my cradle, there my curule chair'.(2)

The genius of Rome was to allow both identities to coexist, and to show that acquiescence to Rome not only benefited an individual in a material sense or in the Roman scheme of things, but also allowed that individual to succeed better within the framework of his original cultural identity; to be a more committed Roman gave a Gallic aristocrat the chance to be better and more successful within the old hierarchy of Gallic society as well.

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(1) Decimius Magnus Ausonius (310-395) was a native of Bordeaux and poet, teacher, and tutor to the Emperor Gratian, who named him consul.

(2) A curule chair was the foldable and transportable chair used by high Roman dignitaries.

Have A Bite

Babe Ruth being fed Thanksgiving dinner by a group of orphans pic.twitter.com/O5FF304Bk3

— Baseball In Pics (@baseballinpix) November 25, 2021

 

Yes, it's obviously staged but does reflect the real Babe Ruth.  According to his biographers, including his most recent, Jane Leavy, the Babe felt a real bond with children, particularly orphans, most likely because of the nearly twelve years he spent at the St Mary's Industrial School for boys in Baltimore, a reformatory and orphanage.  Babe himself was not an orphan.  His parents placed him at St Mary's when he was seven because he was ungovernable even as a small child, though it should be added that both his parents were rough characters themselves.  

It was at St Mary's that Babe came under the tutelage of Brother Matthias Boutlier, a huge man and Prefect of Discipline at the school.  Brother Matthias was also the baseball coach and the only man who could ever instill at least some minimal sense of discipline on Babe, who admired him beyond all other men in his life.  Once Babe became famous and well-paid he became a steady and large financial supporter of St Mary's.

For that reason, Babe regularly visited orphanages as he traveled, both in and out of baseball season.  According to Leavy, despite the advice of his business manager, to whom he usually deferred, Babe made it a practice to visit black, as well as white, orphanages.

A Thanksgiving Proclamation

Washington, D.C.

October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. 

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

 

Well-Laid Plans

My friend in Bucharest, Titus Techera, just had a piece published on the Steve Martin - John Candy movie from the 80s, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which makes for a good read as we reach Thanksgiving.  Some excerpts;

Still, Steve Martin is the protagonist of the story. For all his failures, he does get home for Thanksgiving. He eventually learns that throwing his money around is not enough, that he should share in some way what he most loves in his life­—his family. At that point, the movie becomes quite Christian and reveals that the whole ordeal only made Martin miserable and terrified so as to teach him a moral lesson, to remind him how precious that love is and how much human beings always need one another. Yes, successful men of business give America its character, people can’t be free unless they work for a living. But without charity, there’s no America in the first place, and charity is not about rich people paying poor people, it’s about admitting we are all human beings. That’s what Candy shows, a love of other people based on equality.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is a comedy. It’s not work and it’s not religion either, but it reminds us that we need to put the two together. By ruining the well-laid plans of a cautious man, the story reveals that caution is not enough, that the only safety we have, ultimately, is in being together. The worst thing, the movie suggests, is loneliness, not knowing that there is anyone who would love you or help you in your time of need. Tocqueville called this individualism, a sickness of the heart, a fearful retreat from America as people come to feel too small to be able to achieve anything. A shared faith that reminds us of humanity’s greatness may be needed to adventure together.

Read the whole thing.

Atrani From The Sea

By Josef Rebell (1787-1828).  Born in Vienna, from 1811 to 1815 Rebell was the Court painter for Joachim Murat, King of Naples and Napoleon's brother in law.  Rebell's time as court painter ended when Murat was overthrown and executed after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.

Atrani is a small town on the Amalfi Coast, just east of the town of Amalfi.  The painting shows Atrani when it was a poor town clinging to the cliff side.  Later in the 19th century, the Amalfi Coast Drive was built along the coast, starting the area's path toward being a destination tourist spot.  This is what modern Atrani looks like.  On the cliff above Atrani is the beautiful town of Ravello, perched 1,000 feet above the sea, about which I've written before.

Think About It

But not too hard . . . 

 

😂 pic.twitter.com/97P75Pnjb6

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) November 17, 2021

Who Knew What When?

There's an aspect of the Russia collusion story I've stayed away from since 2017, since it is very  speculative and no one has seen even a redacted version of the document upon which it is based.  I'm going to write about it now because the Russia saga has gotten even more convoluted and strange than I ever thought it would.  Even with that, the information and what it means needs to be treated carefully, both in terms of credibility and what it means, whether true or not.  More than anything this is a note to myself when going back through all of the Russia collusion posts and is specifically prompted by the article in today's Wall St Journal by Holman Jenkins Jr.  Below is the story according to Holman, which is consistent with what I've read elsewhere [because it is behind a paywall I won't bother providing the link], with the exception of one new piece of information.

In March 2016 Dutch intelligence provided a document intercepted from Russian sources to the FBI.

It cited an alleged email exchange between Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then head of the Democratic National Committee, and a George Soros-employed activist named Leonard Benardo.(1)

The email, in turn, cited an alleged conversation between Hillary Clinton campaign aide Amanda Renteria and then-US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in which Ms Lynch promised to corral the email investigation and clear Mrs Clinton's path to the nomination.(2)

According to Holman, the document also predicted "that Comey, as a Republican, would drag out the investigation to damage Mrs Clinton".

The FBI viewed the document as false, planted by the Russians, and did not even inform DOJ of its existence.  However, Comey, worried the document might leak, eventually moved to announce that he, not DOJ, would make the determination on the legality of Clinton's conduct, a highly unusual approach (as to the timing of this move, see footnote 2).

Holman also mentions something of which I was previously unaware: 

Russian journalist Ivan Vorontsov, in a related lawsuit in the U.S., testified this year that the FBI had sought him out and questioned him in June 2016 about his ties to Mr Danchenko, six months before the FBI linked Mr Danchenko to the Steele dossier. [Emphasis added by me, and this is also two months before the FBI even knew of the existence of the Steele document.]

Holman then asks if the FBI's interest in Danchenko was prompted by a suspicion he may have been involved in the document intercepted by the Dutch.

Startled by this new information, I tracked down Vorontsov's statement.  It's in the form of a Declaration by Vorontsov, made in May 2021, as part of a defamation action against Glenn Simpson and FusionGPS (Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and German Khan v Bean LLC a/k/a Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson filed in Federal Court in the District of Columbia).  Danchenko told the FBI that Vorontsov was one of his sources for the Steele Dossier, a claim denied by the journalist in his Declaration.  As to the timing of his interview with the FBI, he states:

In June 2016, I attended a reception at Spaso House, the U.S. ambassador's residence in Moscow where, to my surprise, I was suddenly whisked away and invited to have a discussion with representatives of the FBI about Mr Danchenko.

Vorontsov's statement does not elaborate on the specifics of the discussion.

Holman says, and I agree, that it is time for this document to be publicly released, just as the Steele dossier was.  As he points out:

The information is not withheld from the American people to protect national security but to spare the FBI, the national intelligence establishment and former members of the Obama administration embarrassment or worse.

I lean towards agreeing with Comey that the document intercepted by the Dutch was disinformation and would like to know more about its possible origin and purposes.  And I would very much like to know if the assertion in Vorontsov's declaration that the FBI interviewed him in June 2016 about Danchenko is correct because, if it is, many new questions would need answering.

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(1) Bernardo is currently executive VP for programs for the Open Society Foundations (founded by Soros).  He began his work with the organization at the Soros Foundation Moscow.

(2) The Phoenix airport encounter between AG Lynch and Bill Clinton did not occur until June 2016 and it was only after it became public that Comey announced he would be the decider, though according to this CNN article, Comey had made the decision that he would make the announcement weeks previously.

The Expendables Return!

Good news!  At least for me.  Just found out The Expendables 4 is beginning production with a 2022 release date!

Returning from the previous adventures are Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Antonio Banderas.  I'll miss Terry Crews, Jet Li, and Wesley Snipes but maybe they'll sneak back in.  And new cast members include Andy Garcia, Meghan Fox, and 50 Cent.

Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford Mel Gibson, and Chuck Norris appeared in one or more of the previous films but no word on whether we will see them in 4.

The Expendables are built on a solid foundation of ridiculously unrealistic action, lots of shooting and fighting, and minimal dialogue.  Let's hope they can maintain the formula for success.  An indication they are on the right track is every article I've found so far says the plot is unknown at this time.  Since the previous movies look like they wrote the script about 30 minutes before filming began this is a good sign.  Don't overthink it guys!

While promoting The Expendables 2, Stallone remarked,

"Doing a film like this is like having a dinosaur as a house pet - you know it's going to be extinct pretty soon, so enjoy it while it's here."    

That still holds true.

For my reviews of previous installments read:

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3: Morons Need Friends

Wichita Lineman

 I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main roads
Searching in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the wires
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation
But it don’t look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south won’t ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line

I first wrote about Wichita Lineman in my Songs I Didn't Like to Admit I Liked series.  It's a magnificent composition lyrically and melodically while Glen Campbell's vocal and the accompanying arrangement fit it so well.  This is Glen's original.

Recently, I came across composer Jim Webb's solo version of it which is as good as Campbell's.

And here is a different, and very good, recent cover by Black Pumas, a group I wrote about last year.

Some Things Don't Change

 

"The petty thieves support Marcus Cerrinius Vatia for the aedileship!"

"Elect Vatia as aedile, all the late drinkers support him!"

Local politicians in Pompeii had fake endorsements painted for their opponents by undesirable supporters like criminals, gamblers and prostitutes. pic.twitter.com/NpVWgaAOfv

— Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) May 29, 2021

Judge Harold Haley

Harold Haley was born on this date in 1904.  He died on August 7, 1970.  At the time he was a Marin County Superior Court judge.  Haley was married to his high school classmate Gertrude Ahern with whom he had three daughters and had been appointed to the court by Governor Pat Brown (D) in 1965.

On August 7, while presiding over a trial, Judge Haley was the subject of an attack by Jonathan Jackson and three accomplices (one of whom was on trial).  Along with Haley, the attackers took a deputy district attorney and three jurors as hostages.  A shotgun was taped to Judge Haley's neck.  The attackers demanded the release of several radicals held at San Quentin prison.

As the attackers drove the hostages away in a van, one of them began firing at the police.  In the ensuing melee, Judge Haley and three of the attackers were killed and the deputy district attorney was hit in the spine and permanently paralyzed.  Haley was hit by both the shotgun tied to him and a pistol shot to the chest.

Two days before the assault, Angela Davis purchased the shotgun for the 17-year old Jonathan Jackson.  Two years later, Davis who became a fugitive after the attack, was tried and acquitted of being an accomplice.

Davis went on to a notorious career as an outspoken communist and opponent of human rights.  In a sign of the degradation of the American academic community she held a series of prestigious academic appointments.

More recently, Davis has been hailed as a forerunner of the Woke movement in publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Vanity Fair.  Judge Haley has been dead for 51 years.  There would be many more dead if Angela Davis had her way.  There may still be.

For more on Angela Davis read Normalizing Mass Murder and Repression, Part 2.

UPDATE:  Well, what have we here?  Just discovered that George Washington University recently had Prof Davis keynote its Diversity Summit.  The article describes the communist and human rights opponent as "a distinguished civil rights activist".

Veterans - A Personal Remembrance

Joseph "Pippy" D'Arrigo

My dad taught me to respect our service veterans.  Maybe it's more accurate to say he insisted upon it.  He was one himself, serving in the Army Air Corps during WW2, though not overseas.  His two best friends died in the war, one on a destroyer sunk by the Japanese, the other in an airplane crash in the U.S. (about 10,000 servicemen died in the States in air crashes during the war - the most well known incident a B-25 bomber flying into the Empire State building in July 1945).

Dad's father was a veteran of two armies.  He deserted from the Russian army, escaped to the U.S. and promptly enlisted in the U.S. army, serving two 3-year enlistments, spending time in the Philippines, discharged as sergeant in 1912, obtaining his citizenship the same year, and always proud of his service in the army of his adopted country.  I told his story here.

In the late 1950s, while at the family store in Noroton Heights (a neighborhood in  the town of Darien, CT), dad introduced me to a short, slim, older and somewhat taciturn man.  I've always spelled his name as Pippi Dirigo.  Pippi was friendly with my dad and I encountered him several more times over the years.  My dad told me Pippi's story on a number of occasions.  Pippi served in WW2, was one of the first American soldiers to enter Germany, at the border city of Aachen, receiving medals for his bravery.  After the war, Pippi re-enlisted, was sent to South Korea as advisor to its new army, and was on the border on June 25, 1950 when the surprise invasion by the North Koreans began.  Narrowly escaping and getting out of Korea, Pippi later returned to conduct dangerous missions, caught encephalitis which affected his memory, and was forced to leave the service.

Dad always emphasized that Pippi was a true American hero and lamented that many in town didn't know his story and treat him with the respect he deserved.  For more than 60 years I've remembered what dad told me about Pippi.

Veteran's Day got me thinking about Pippi.  Over the years I tried a couple of times to see if I could find anything about him on the internet but drew a blank.  This time I was smarter, and contacted my sister who's an expert in researching family histories.  With her help, we figured out Pippi's real name was Joseph "Pippy" D'Arrigo.  Once we had his name right, finding information on him followed quickly.

In the 1920s and 30s the D'Arrigo and Stoler families were neighbors in Noroton Heights.  Pippy was one of seven children and the only boy. Dad and Pippy may have been in the same grade or, at most, separated by one year.  Joseph D'Arrigo was drafted in 1942 and served in the European theater.

According to an interview he granted to the Norwalk Hour and published on July 24, 1986, at the end of the war Pippy was a first lieutenant, commanding Company C in the 335th Infantry Regiment.  The 335th was part of the 84th Infantry Division, which entered action in November 1944 in Belgium and then participated in the advance on Aachen (just like dad told me!).  In early January 1945, the 84th moved south to help repel German attacks in the Battle of the Bulge; brutal fighting in winter conditions.  After more engagements crossing the River Roer, the 84th crossed the Rhine, driving into Germany and liberating two satellite concentration camps.  The 84th incurred more than 7,000 casualties and was in combat for 170 days.

The Hour reports Pipi received a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster and Purple Heart and quotes from his Silver Star citation:

When the advance of his platoon was stopped due to constant fire from an enemy strong point . . .  he unhesitatingly led the unit in an assault which resulted in the reduction of the fortification, the killing of approximately 18 Germans and capture of 52 prisoners . . . a courageous action and superior performance.

The Hour reporter confirmed Pippy's assignment to Korea, his presence during the North Korea attack and narrow escape along with his bout with encephalitis (the reporter noting that "his memory wanders at times").  He was a Captain at the time of his discharge.

A 2010 article in The Darien Times tells of Pippy's Korean adventures in a bolder style.

Then came the bloody Korean strife and a Darien soldier had the unique distinction of being first as well as last. Joe "Pippy" D'Arrigo was the last American still in the demilitarized zone when the Chinese horde charged across the North Korean border. Describing him as "the shirtless captain from Connecticut," a New York Times dispatch hailed the Noroton Heights native as "the first American hero" of the war.

I've seen other references to the Times article though I have not read it myself.  Also, in June 1950 there was no "Chinese horde" as the Chinese did not enter the war until October, it was the North Koreans in June.

A 2018 Memorial Day section in the Darien Times contained the photo at the top of this post, with this legend:

Capt. Joseph D'Arrigo.  World War II, Germany; Korea 1950.  Lookout at 38th parallel.  First American to see invasion by North Koreans.  Honored in Washington D.C., during 50th anniversary of Korean War. 

A webpage about the efforts by high school student Joseph DeVito to raise funds for the National Museum of the United States Army, inspired by the story of his great uncle Joseph D'Arrigo, includes this unlabeled photo of what looks to be Pippy D'Arrigo in his later years.  According to my sister's research he passed in 2004.

I'm glad what dad told me proved so accurate and, as usual, he was right.  Joseph D'Arrigo is an American hero.

Sir Duke

Had my iPhone on shuffle while driving recently and this came on.  Stevie Wonder wrote incredible music before and after the 70s but his output was remarkable during that decade.  Unlike some other of his recordings from this decade where Stevie plays most of the instruments, he's got a full group of session players on this one. With shout outs to Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.  And one of the best riffs in pop music history which you hear for the first time starting at 1:03. 

Remembering

Honoring all the veterans who served in peace and war.  And a special nod for the fast passing generation of WW2 vets who spent their time in the less well known campaigns; slogging up the Italian peninsula in 1944-45, at the Hurtgen Forest in the fall and early winter of 1944, in any number of island campaigns in the Pacific, in those final endless months of the fighting on Luzon.

And for those who went through the final two years of stalemate in the Korean War or the countless small and forgotten actions in Vietnam.

As a Civil War Roundtable member, I'll add this account from a Union veteran who survived the war.

From the Civil War memoir of Private William Fisk of the 2nd Vermont, recounting his experience at The Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House.

But the most singular and obstinate fighting that I have seen during the war, or ever heard or dreamed of in my life, was the fight of last Thursday [May 12] . . . The rebels were on one side of the breastwork, and we on the other.  We could touch their guns with ours.  They would load, jump up and fire into us, and we did the same to them . . . Some of our boys would jump clear up on to the breastwork and fire, then down, reload and fire again, until they were themselves picked off. . . . I visited the place the next morning and though I have seen horrid scenes since this war commenced, I never saw anything half so bad as that.  Our men lay piled one top of another, nearly all shot through the head.  There were many among them that I knew well . . . On the rebel side it was worse than on ours.  In some places the men were piled four or five deep, some of whom were still alive . . . I have sometimes hoped, that if I must die while I am a soldier, I should prefer to die on the battle-field, but after looking at such a scene, one cannot help turning away and saying, Any death but that.

After returning from the war, Fisk became a Congregational minister.

Elvis

As the second step in my reintroduction to live music, last night I saw Elvis Costello for the ninth time since 1977.  We go back a long way.

Elvis was backed up by the three-piece band, The Imposters, two-thirds of whom (Steve Nieve on keyboards and Pete Thomas on drums) have played with him since 1977.  We all go back a long way.

First time at Arizona Federal Theater, a large venue with 5,000 seats.  It wasn't a sellout but was pretty full.  Good venue and I'd definitely go see other shows there.

No opening act.  No encore.  In between, Elvis and the Imposters played for 2 1/2 hours with more than 30 songs.  A real hard rocking show.  Eight of the songs were in the set list of that 1977 show:

Watching the Detectives (probably the finest version I've heard him do)

Alison

Mystery Dance

I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea

You Belong To Me

This Year's Model

Radio Radio

Pump It Up

Elvis' voice has lost some range and fullness since we last saw him in April 2016.  Possibly attributable to age and/or his 2018 bout with aggressive prostate cancer requiring surgery and treatment, but he can still deliver a song.

Here's a clip from his Philadelphia show a couple of weeks ago.  He closed with the same songs last night: Radio Radio, Alison, Pump It Up and What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding?  Sound quality is poor, it was much more powerful in person last night.

United States v Igor Danchenko

The indictment last week of Igor Danchenko by John Durham contains some surprises.  More than anything it reinforces THC's belief that his theory about what really happened in the Russia Collusion matter is correct.  Does it presage more indictments?  Probably.  Will it reach into the agencies and the Clinton campaign?  I don't know. There are clearly many shady and unethical actions by a lot of players here but to what extent they are also illegal is to be determined, as well as Durham's willingness to go there.  This recent column from former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy puts it this way:

. . . many things that smack of abuse of power are not prosecutable crimes. The law necessarily gives government officials a wide berth to use aggressive investigative measures based on dubious suspicions. It is easy to see the abuse, but much harder to establish it as a crime. That is why a system that fails to hold abusive officials politically accountable will be a failed system. Establishing their criminal guilt is much harder.

However, I have noticed something recently - several key players in the matter have gone silent on twitter.  Andrew Weissmann, Robert Mueller's ventriloquist, was a prolific poster but has been absent since early July.  John Brennan was a frequent tweeter but since early March has only posted twice, in April and May, and been otherwise quiet.  James Comey, another frequent voice on twitter, last posted in January (other than a Sept 11 memorial post).  Have they been advised by counsel to be quiet?

Before discussing the specifics of the indictment and, more importantly, where it fits into the overall picture let's review the key cast of characters using their designations in the indictment, in which only Danchenko is directly named.

Cast of Characters In Order of Appearance In The Indictment

Starring Igor Danchenko.  Born in the Soviet Union in 1978, Danchenko emigrated to the U.S. in the early 2000s where he graduated from the University of Louisville, with a degree in Political Science.  Shortly thereafter he obtained a job at the Brookings Institution (a Democratic think tank) in DC and also got a master's degree from Georgetown.  In 2009 the FBI opened an investigation on him "after he had reportedly told two associates from the Brookings Institution that he knew of a way they could 'make a little extra money' if they were able to 'get a job in the government and had access to classified information'".  The investigation revealed he had prior contacts with Russian intelligence officers but in 2011 the investigation was dropped when he left the country.  When Danchenko later returned to the U.S., the FBI was unaware and did not restart the investigation.  Hired by Steele in 2016, Danchenko became the primary source for the Steele Dossier.  Danchenko is a Russian citizen, lawfully residing in the U.S.

Christopher Steele as UK Person 1.  Former British intelligence.  Worked for several Putin connected Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska.  Retained by Glenn Simpson at FusionGPS to investigate Trump-Russia ties.  Hated Trump.  Loved Hillary.  You know the rest.

Perkins Coie as Law Firm 1.  An international law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers, headquartered in Seattle.  Formerly the home of Marc Elias, counsel and fixer to the Clinton Campaign and virtually every other significant national Democratic organization, and who hired FusionGPS to investigate Trump-Russia times.  Formerly the home of Michael Sussmann, recently indicted by John Durham for making false statements to federal officials related to the fake story allegedly connecting the Trump Organization with the Russia owned Alfa Bank.  Sussmann also oversaw the investigation of the alleged Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, after being brought into the situation by Elias.

FusionGPS as US Investigative Firm 1. Headed by Glenn Simpson, former investigative reporter who opposed Trump.  Hired Christopher Steele and worked for Marc Elias at Perkins Coie.  Also worked for Putin connected Russian oligarchs including Oleg Deripaska, on whose behalf he lobbied American legislators to revoke the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on a number of Putin connected figures. In this connection he worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who set up the June 2016 meeting with Donald "Fredo" Trump Jr at the Trump Tower.  Simpson met with Veselnitskaya the day before and day after the Trump Tower meeting. In his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, Rinat Akhmetshin, a dual Russia/U.S. citizen who accompanied Veselnitskaya to the Trump Tower meeting, described Simpson as an "old acquaintance".  According to his testimony, Akhmetshin's business colleague Edward Lieberman, was married to Evelyn Lieberman, White House assistant to Hillary and later Deputy Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton who later became Director of Voice of America.  Akhmetshin had been to the Lieberman's home on several times and met Hillary on more than one occasion there.

Carter Page as Advisor 1.  The previously obscure Page, appointed to Trump's National Security Advisory Board in 2016, was portrayed in the Steele Dossier as the key go between the Russians and the Trump campaign, despite the fact the Board only met once, Page missed the meeting, and was never consulted on any foreign policy or security issue by the Trump campaign.  It was the October 2016 FISA warrant allowing surveillance of Page, subsequently renewed three times, that has been the subject of so much controversy and criticism by the Inspector General of DOJ.  Refusing to retain counsel and volunteering to be interviewed by the FBI and the Mueller Gang, Page emerged as the Most Innocent Man in America, never charged and free.

Sergei Millian as Chamber President 1.  Former president of Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.  Born in the Soviet Union, he moved to the U.S. in 2001 and had ties to Trump and the Trump Organization.  Described in the Steele Dossier as a "close associate" of Trump and widely reported to be one of the sources for the allegations in the Dossier.  Millian denied being a source and, according to the indictment, Danchenko lied and never spoke with him.

Special Guest Appearance by:

Fiona Hill as Think Tank Employee 1.  Hill, who also played a supporting part in the Ukraine Impeachment reality show, worked closely with Danchenko at Brookings, co-authoring an article with him and introducing her colleague to Christopher Steele and Charles H Dolan Jr.

And Introducing!

Charles H Dolan Jr as PR Executive 1.  Former executive director of the Democratic Governors' Association.  Virginia state chair for the Clinton-Gore campaigns in 1992 and 1996.  Senior communications consultant to the Kerry campaign in 2004.  Hillary Clinton campaign aide in 2008, in her run to gain the Democratic presidential nomination.  Was Senior VP for International Affairs where, from 2006 to 2014, he handled global public relations for the Putin government and for Gazprom, interacting with (according to the indictment) "senior Russian Federation leadership", including close relationships with Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, former Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kisylak (the guy Michael Flynn got indicted for speaking with) and with the head of the Russian Embassy's Economic Section.  Also, according to the indictment, a major source for Danchenko in assembling the Steele Dossier.  Dolan is currently employed as Senior VP at the PR firm of KGlobal which has recently removed all reference to him from its website.

Olga Galkina as Russian Sub-source 1.  Former schoolmate of Danchenko and, allegedly, a major source for the Steele Dossier.  Was working in Cyprus for a web-service company owned by Russian internet entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev.  Reportedly, Galkina was the source for the alleged trip of Michael Cohen to Prague and that Gubarev was involved with the hackers who broke into the DNC.  Galkina has denied any link to the Dossier, a link first reported by the Wall St Journal in October 2020.  According to the indictment in 2016 Galkina sent a message to a Russia based associate that Dolan had written a letter to Peskov supporting her candidacy for a position in the Russian Presidential Administration.  Around the same time, Galkina sent an email to Dolan after he informed her he would be attending a reception for Hillary Clinton that, "Tell her please she has a big fan in Cyprus".  A month later she sent a message to a Russian associate describing Dolan as a Clinton advisor, adding, "When Dolan take me off to the State Department [to handle] issues of the former USSR, then we'll see who is looking good and who is not."

The Alleged Crime

According to the indictment, "the FBI relied substantially on the Company Reports [Steele Dossier] in these FISA applications to assert probable cause that [Carter Page] was a witting agent of the Russian Federation."

Danchenko is charged with five counts of making false statements to agents of the FBI between March and November of 2017.  One of the counts involves denying that he knew Charles Dolan, while the other four all relate to alleged false statements regarding interactions with Sergei Millian.

The Implications

It was well-known before the indictment that Danchenko was Steele's primary source and that the Steele Dossier itself was garbage.  What the indictment does is add a few previously unknown elements and provide additional context to the biggest domestic political scandal in American history.

We had not previously known of the involvement of Charles H Dolan Jr in the creation of the dossier.  It is significant since he is a figure with connections to both the Clintons and the current Russian government and oligarchs (that he and Olga Galkina were in direct contact is startling). I also read the indictment as implying that Dolan is now cooperating with the Durham investigation - because Dolan's fabricated statement were made to Danchenko, not to a government official, he is in less legal jeopardy. 

There is this curious, and recurring theme, with the Russia collusion matter, where individuals keep popping up with these dual connections - Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele, Rinat Akhmetshin, Danchenko, and now Charles Dolan.  It's gotten to the point where even on matters where I was inclined to go along with the conventional wisdom, as in that it was the Russians who hacked into the DNC, I now don't know what to think with the revelation of Sussmann's role in creating the false Russia collusion narrative.

It goes back to an issue I raised back in 2019.  I think it understandable why the original investigation into the Trump campaign was opened in July 2016, given the allegations, though it is also true that by early 2017 enough was known to shut it down and there was never any justification for appointing Special Counsel.

But given what we now know, why didn't the FBI ever open an investigation of the Clinton campaign?

At some point, the FBI became aware that the Clinton campaign had paid for the Steele Dossier.  It was using the Steele Dossier, which purported to contain information from Russian intelligence sources damaging to Clinton's opponent, to get the FBI to begin an investigation, while at the same time parts of it were being leaked to the media in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.

The FBI was unable to corroborate the contents of the Dossier and the Mueller gang essentially disavowed the entire document, not even mentioning it in the Russian influence section of its report.  Further the mix of suspicious Russian connections of many of the participants (see above) became known to the FBI.

And given what the FBI was finding out, let's provide some more historical context.

Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State to President Obama, who was openly endorsed by the Kremlin in 2008 and 2012 as Putin made it clear he hated McCain and Romney.

In 2009, SoS Clinton announced the Russian "reset" in which she blamed all the problems in the US-Russia relationship on George Bush.

During her time as SoS, the Clinton Foundation took in tens of millions in contributions from Russian oligarchs and Bill Clinton was paid $500,000 to give a speech in Moscow.

During the 2012 campaign Barack Obama was caught on an open mic telling Russian Prime Minister Medvedev to let Putin know he'd "have more flexibility after the election".

In 2015 the FBI learned that when Hillary became SoS in 2009, that rather than follow government security requirements she set up her own email and server system, leaving it open to penetration by foreign governments such as Russia and China.  In summary, given a choice that her emails might one day be available to the public under FOIA or risk that Russia and China might end up with them, she chose Russia and China.

Given this record how could there have not been enough indicia to open an investigation of the Clinton campaign?

Of course, I'm asking a rhetorical question.  We know the answer.

On July 5, 2016 James Comey announced Hillary Clinton would not face charges in the email matter.  To do so, he converted a strict liability statute into one requiring negligence which was simply irresponsible as a legal matter. But he needed to do so to enable Hillary to beat Trump.  That took precedence over everything.  We know that Comey's deputies, McCabe and Strzok were on board with the program.  Beating Trump was everything and nothing would interfere with that agenda.  The decks needed to be cleared.  Three weeks later the FBI started the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

I've seen some discussion that the allegation that Danchenko lied to the FBI somehow absolves the FBI and the Mueller Gang.  It doesn't and one of the reasons for that is embedded within the indictment itself.  Page 17 contains a long verbatim passage from the FBI's questioning of Danchenko on June 15, 2017 in which he is specifically asked about Charles Dolan and his connection to the Steele Dossier.  Danchenko denies Dolan was a source, but the real significance is by that point the FBI knew or suspected that Dolan was involved in some way.  That interview was conducted under the auspices of Mueller, who, by that time, was Special Counsel and in combination with the failure to authenticate the Dossier over the prior months, as reported by Horowitz in his IG Report, demonstrates that, when later that month, Mueller and his team filed for renewal of the Page FISA Warrant and certified to the truthfulness and reliability of the Steele Dossier, they were lying.

What is more apparent than ever is that one thread (1) of the events in 2016 was a Clinton directed effort to create a collusion narrative, helped along by Trump's own idiotic statements which gave it a surface plausibility.  For the FBI it fit into how its senior people in DC thought about the election and Trump.  But after the November election, and Trump's unexpected victory, it became about something else, covering their tracks and undermining the new administration.

For Hillary Clinton it was about refusing to acknowledge the results of the election and her humiliating defeat.  A new narrative needed to be created and her supporters were willing to put a lot of money into that effort, the media was willing to play along and as were significant elements within the federal government.

In April 2020 I wrote that the purpose of the Mueller investigation was:

Try to entrap the President into an obstruction of justice case.

Cripple the ability of the administration to govern.

Provide occasional irrelevant indictments that would generate news hooks for the Trump-hating media.

Provide copious leaks to the friendly news media to create the illusion that the investigation was so very, very close to cracking the case against these horrible people, all to provide a continuing stream of stories helpful to the Democrats leading up to the 2018 mid-terms.

I still think that correct, but now believe I also underestimated how much of this was about ensuring the actual story of what happened in 2016 would not surface.

It's why the Mueller investigation let stories run wild with their media allies even when they knew they were false.  The Mueller Report was released in April 2019 and many were baffled because of the absence of the Steele Dossier, which they anticipated would be the centerpiece.  Mueller knew two years earlier about the failure to verify the Dossier.  His team knew they needed to stay away from it because the deeper anyone looked the more they would realize how tainted it was and how connected to the Clinton campaign.  But, in the meantime they would do nothing to undermine the Dossier and encourage the press to run with it.

The same thing happened with the Trump Tower meeting.  Within a few days of it becoming public in 2017, Mueller interviewed Anatoli Samachornov, the interpreter and only credible participant in that fiasco.  His story was consistent with Donald "Fredo" Trump Jr's.  With that the Mueller team lost interest but not only left the story out there for the next two years, but then Andrew Weissmann wrote a long section in the report about the meeting, skillfully implying with the use of adjectives and adverbs, that something shady must have occurred but never actually accusing anyone while ignoring Samachornov's testimony supporting Trump Jr. 

The pattern goes all the way back to the beginning of 2017 when, on January 27, Trump and James Comey had their private dinner at the White House. This is what transpired:

The President brought up the Steele report that Comey had raised in the January 6, 2017 briefing and stated that he was thinking about ordering the FBI to investigate the allegations to prove they were false. Comey responded that the President should think carefully about issuing such an order because it could create a narrative that the FBI was investigating him personally, which was incorrect.  

With that, Trump backed off.  The quote above is taken directly from the Mueller report and it is sourced to James Comey's own account, written immediately after the dinner.

At that point all Trump knew was that on January 6, Comey had told him about the Dossier, specifically mentioned the alleged hotel romp with prostitutes and peeing on the bed, which prompted an outraged response from Trump.  Three days later the media suddenly began reporting on the Dossier using the hook that the President had been briefed on it, prompting a public firestorm.

Why would the FBI Director try to persuade the President not to order an investigation?  Because Comey knew many things Trump did not.

Comey knew that the Dossier had been the key to getting the FISA Court to allow surveillance of Carter Page in October 2016.  As part of that process, Comey signed a statement supporting the reliability of the assertions made in the warrant application.  In fact, just two weeks prior to the dinner with Trump, Comey had signed a renewal application for the warrant, containing the same statement of reliability.  Yet Comey also knew by that time the FBI had not yet been able to validate the Dossier.  So the FBI was actually investigating the Dossier but it would be untenable for Comey to be in a situation where reports had to be made to Trump, or more specifically his then National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who statutorily had to be read into national security investigations.  To do so would have led to the entire plot would be unraveled, the origins of the Dossier revealed, and Clinton's role exposed.

For all the talk of dangers to democracy let's do a compare and contrast.

The January 6 events in DC were an embarrassment and disgrace.  I would have supported more force by police to keep protestors from entering the building and wrote that the 25th Amendment should be invoked to remove Trump during the last two weeks of his term but the protestors themselves were naive, easily manipulated fools.  What was the plan?

1.  Enter the Capitol

2.  Mill around

3. ??

4.  Trump reelected!

Now let's look at Russia Collusion.  What started as an effort to create a fantasy story to ensure Trump was not elected morphed into an effort to cover the tracks of those involved, while at the same time furthering the fantasy narrative in order to disrupt and discredit the Trump administration, possibly cause the removal of the President, and to impact elections.  The three year effort included unelected bureaucrats from inside the government, leading politicians from one of our parties, and most of the self-proclaimed "watchdog" media.  I don't expect much from politicians of either party but the active collaboration of the media in this fraud is a definite danger to democracy as is the realization of the power of the federal administrative state if it disagrees with the electoral choices of Americans.

If, as noted at the top of this post, there is not a political or societal accounting for what happened from 2016-19, it will constitute another major blow to the credibility of our institutions and democracy.

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(1) The second thread is the Josef Mifsud/George Papadopolous matter which led to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.  This seems to have originated independently of the Clinton campaign, probably with the American or a friendly intelligence service.  In Ghostbusters' terms the two "streams crossed" in the late summer of 2016.  I hope Durham reveals what really happened.  And maybe I'm wrong.  The Australian diplomat and former intelligence director whose report triggered Crossfire Hurricane was also involved with the Clinton Foundation.