{"id":30934,"date":"2020-10-20T12:07:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=30934"},"modified":"2020-10-20T12:07:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T17:07:09","slug":"reading-coffee-leaves-pine-leaves-whoever-they-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/10\/20\/reading-coffee-leaves-pine-leaves-whoever-they-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Coffee Leaves &#8211; Pine Leaves &#8211; Whoever They Are"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Erick Erickson, far right pundit and purveyor of email, has allied with some group called <em><strong>The First<\/strong><\/em>, who is also now sending me emails. While I was intending to mark them as spam, it actually turns out they&#8217;re useful for getting the latest misleading stories from the right, such as this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>What&#8217;s Up<\/strong>: Possibly the biggest story of the last two weeks in the 2020 campaign swirls around Joe Biden, his son Hunter,\u00a0and claims that the former VP&#8217;s son was peddling access to his father and charging millions of dollars to entities in foreign countries. Democrats have floated the theory the entire thing is a Russian disinformation campaign. Today, the Director of National Intelligence debunked that theory.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quote<\/strong>: &#8220;&#8216;Let me be clear, the intelligence community doesn\u2019t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports and we shared no intelligence with chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign,&#8217;\u00a0he continued. &#8216;It\u2019s simply not true.'&#8221; \u2014 DailyWire.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>The First take<\/strong>: Monday&#8217;s &#8220;October Surprise&#8221; is one we believe Rep. Adam Schiff and the Democrats will not appreciate. DNI John Ratcliffe&#8217;s shooting down of the Dem&#8217;s latest attempt to push the Hunter Biden story off the front pages is not just big news, we believe it to be one of he most consequential stories of the 2020 election. We suggest you follow the timeline in the bonus story below.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Notice the adroit separation of the man from his title, and in reverse order:<\/p>\n<p><em>Director of National Intelligence<\/em> in the first paragraph.<br \/>\n<em>John Ratcliffe<\/em> in the third paragraph.<\/p>\n<p>The responsibility of the sober citizen in the <em>Internet Age of Disinformation<\/em> is to check one&#8217;s source. That evaluative phase not only includes facts, but how they weave together.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s begin with what I&#8217;ve pulled out. Start with the fact that the selection of words is an integral part of communications &#8211; and <em>emotional response control<\/em>. When it comes to Director of National Intelligence, or <strong><em>DNI<\/em><\/strong> for short, that&#8217;s really an impressive title, isn&#8217;t it? Even if you don&#8217;t know that the intelligence community is supposed to be non-partisan, it should be apparent that the intelligence community provides facts and analysis to our leaders, who then take actions based on them.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah?<\/p>\n<p>Well, ideally, <em>yeah<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>But, uh (<\/em>you say<em>), who&#8217;s the <strong>DNI<\/strong>? Oh, yeah. John Ratcliffe. OK, now that I&#8217;ve connected those dots, who&#8217;s he?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former Rep John Ratcliffe (R-TX).<\/p>\n<p>Former rejected nominee for <strong><em>DNI<\/em><\/strong> John Ratcliffe.<\/p>\n<p>Partisan John Ratcliffe, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/projects.fivethirtyeight.com\/congress-trump-score\/john-ratcliffe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>TrumpScore<\/em> of 92.5%.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/03\/02\/the-big-dog-is-peeing-on-the-little-dogs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Liar John Ratcliffe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So much for the trustworthiness of the <em><strong>DNI<\/strong><\/em>, and thus do we explode the assertions that are supposedly foolproof.<\/p>\n<p>All of a sudden, <em><strong>The First&#8217;s<\/strong><\/em> pushing of the story seems less dignified, even frantic. You gotta remember, the <em><strong>GOP<\/strong><\/em>, with names such as Trump, Pruitt, McConnell, Ernst, Sasse, and many others of like dismal reputation in the leadership, is burdened with people who have proven themselves mendacious and dishonorable.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30937\" style=\"width: 233px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30937\" class=\"wp-image-30937\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?resize=223%2C107&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?w=720&amp;ssl=1 720w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?resize=300%2C143&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?resize=150%2C72&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/gallup-party-affiliation.jpg?resize=250%2C119&amp;ssl=1 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-30937\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;<em>Declining conservative membership<\/em>&#8220;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/317771\/democratic-edge-party-affiliation-shrinks.aspx?utm_source=alert&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=morelink&amp;utm_campaign=syndication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Gallup<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Therefore, it&#8217;s necessary to paint the Democrats as being the same<\/em>. If the Republicans find themselves as the only party with a bad rep, they may continue experiencing membership loss, they might even have a schism and find a second, more credible conservative party, devoted to real conservative principles, such as honesty and competency, taking them out of the limelight.<\/p>\n<p>But if they can paint the Democrats as being just as corrupt, then maybe they can survive as a credible national force.<\/p>\n<p>And doing this in an honest manner isn&#8217;t even a factor. The mud need only be applied, and if it requires a corrupt <strong><em>DNI<\/em><\/strong>, so be it. I&#8217;ll bet it doesn&#8217;t even sting their conscience any longer.<\/p>\n<p>So, when evaluating this bit of mud, it&#8217;s best to ask:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>Do you trust a highly suspect <\/strong><\/em><strong>DNI<\/strong><em><strong>, or the honesty and stated policies of Joe Biden?<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erick Erickson, far right pundit and purveyor of email, has allied with some group called The First, who is also now sending me emails. While I was intending to mark them as spam, it actually turns out they&#8217;re useful for getting the latest misleading stories from the right, such as \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/10\/20\/reading-coffee-leaves-pine-leaves-whoever-they-are\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30934"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30938,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30934\/revisions\/30938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}