Former DNI Clapper Says Russians Swung the Vote

For John, BLUF:  And did it on his watch.  Shame!  Shame!  Shame!  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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James Clapper Says Russia DECIDED the 2016 Election: Swung at Least '80,000 Votes in Three States’

From Pajama Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 24 May 2018.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

On Wednesday night, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper argued that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was responsible for Donald Trump's victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In his book "Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence," Clapper wrote that he had "no doubt" of this.

"Of course, the Russian effort affected the outcome. Surprising even themselves, they swung the election to a Trump win," Clapper wrote in his book. "To conclude otherwise stretches logic, common sense, and credulity to the breaking point."

Why should we doubt the former top Intel guy in the Obama Administration?  Aside from decades of Democrats telling us these kinds of things just don't happen.

On the other hand, why didn't DNI Clapper and others in the Intel Community know this was going on?  Isn't this worse than the 9/11 Intel failure?

And why wasn't something done?  That is where investigations should focus.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Frank About TARP

For John, BLUF:  Barney isn't always wrong.  Always brash but not always wrong.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From Salon, we have writer David Dayen talking about former Representative Barney Frank and his new book, Frank.  The focus of the article is TARP and how it failed to help the people with mortgages while it was helping the banks who were foreclosing on the mortgage holders who had fallen behind.  The headline is "Barney Frank drops a bombshell: How a shocking anecdote explains the financial crisis".

The anecdote comes on page 295 of “Frank,” a title that the former chair of the House Financial Services Committee holds true to throughout the book. The TARP legislation included specific instructions to use a section of the funds to prevent foreclosures. Without that language, TARP would not have passed; Democratic lawmakers who helped defeat TARP on its first vote cited the foreclosure mitigation piece as key to their eventual reconsideration.

What happened?  Per the article, the Bush Administration Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson said for tranche two he would pressure the banks to reduce the pressure if incoming President Obama asked.  The President balked.  Understandably, Representative Frank was and is not happy about that.

Read the article.  Maybe even read the book.

Hat tip to Memeorandum.

Regards  —  Cliff

Norelco Fails

For John, BLUF:  Not every upgrade is an improvement.

I own, and have owned for quite some time, a Norelco Model 5810 XL cordless electric razor.  It is great.  Nothing fancy.  A plain gun metal gray case.

For reasons now lost in the mists of time I purchased a second cordless electric razor, a Philips / Norelco Model 7310XL. It has a fancy black and white case, with contours, to make it easier to grip.  The cut seems as good.  The problem is, the button for opening the head for cleaning to on a hair trigger.

My Model 5810 has never had the head pop off when I didn't want it to.  On the other hand, the Model 7310 is always popping open and depositing those little beard hairs in places they should not be.  While "disgusting" might be too strong, "annoying" is not.  This is a design defect and should have been found during product testing.  Philips / Norelco failed with this product.

Regards  —  Cliff