May 8: VE Day (Victory in Europe Day)
May 8: MBAH (more bullshit and hypocrisy in Washington day.)

Today, folks, for those of you with the fortitude to watch it, was the epic non-informative Senate hearing starring James Clapper, known perjurer, and Sally Yates, the secret seer. This thing actually went of for 3.5 hours, although I could only handle half. I guess I am getting to fatigued trying to deal with evasions, lies, and hypocrisy. All of these Washingtonian virtues were on full display. The only thing lacking were Democratic and Republican civil war re-enacters.

The battle cries were different, so you knew who each side was on.
Democrats: "Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia"
Republicans: "unmasking, unmasking, unmasking"

The testimony was, in a word, underwhelming. I did make an informal transcript as they went along. I quit because there were no new wrinkles in the plot line. However, the intricate details of the two intertwined narratives were clarified for me, not that it provided new substantive information.

Here are the direct videos from the hearing itself:

Full event - Sally Yates testifies on Russia investigation in Senate 5/8/17 (3:28:50). No, I did not watch this in its entirety.

Sally Yates Senate testimony May 8, 2017 (43:49)

Sally Yates testimony before Senate May 8, 2017 Part 2 (57:25)

Al Franken questioning during Sally Yates and James Clapper testimony (8:28)

Diane Feinstein questions Sally Yates and James Clapper on Trump’s ties to Russia (8:38)

Sally Yates testifies on Flynn-Russia contacts (11:32)

Please feel free to avoid reading my transcript if you have received your day's quota of Confidentiality, deflection, diversion and general nonsense.

Opening remarks by Graham and Whitehouse:

Graham: believes in pre-emptive attacks

Whitehouse: anti-Russian rant full of hypocrisy but no facts about political collusions. Mentions multiple incidences of Trump financial dealings as a private citizen; making no mention of Hillary Clinton’s multimillion deal with the Russians.

Clapper chimes in (sorry, couldn't resist)

Russians hacked into DNC.
Defines unmasking: can be legal if authorized by the collecting intelligence office. It is illegal for anyone but the person requesting the unmasking to release this to anyone else but unmasked info can be released to an appropriate investigating organization.
Section 702 is vital. It is used to collect actions of non-US persons overseas.
702 cannot be used to surveille Foreign individuals in the US; there are other means to do this.
Leaks: always illegal.

Yates, typical response = I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you = zero

Not authorized to address currently on-going investigations within the DOJ

DiFi, my beloved (choke) senator:

Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election is a “foregone conclusion”.
Obama warned Trump about Flynn 95 days before Flynn resigned.
Yates informed WH about Flynn 3 weeks before he resigned.

Clapper then responds contradicting his previous statement:

No evidence of Collusion between Trump and Russia
Doesn’t know how Flynn’s meeting with Kisylak got to WaPo
He occasionally asked for unmasking. Focus was on target, not on the US person.
Release of the unmasking is a crime.

Yates: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Miss Sally doesn't monkey around:

Refuses to answer question about Trump/Russia collusion because “classified”
But Comey also testified yet the answer was still classified
Refused to answer whether anybody requested Flynn’s unmasking.
Doesn’t know how Flynn’s meeting with Kisylak got to WaPo
Didn’t tell WH counsel McGahn what Flynn actually said in Feb. 2017
Office of legal counsel DOJ approved Trump’s executive order which Yates did not wish to enforce. She said the Counsel did not consider “intent”.
DOJ is supposed to enforce US presidents and government. But Yates concluded that the order was not lawful, inconsistent with DOJ purposes.
Nothing about Flynn’s other contacts with Russia other than with Kisylak.
Yates did not consider legality of one WH official to another.
Yates did not advise McGahn to fire Flynn, stating it was internal WH matter.

Dem. Senator whom I did not recognize:

calls for more resources and independent executive or congressional investigators.
Flynn continued as Foreign policy adviser 18 days before his resignation and participated in official meetings and appointments.

Clapper:

Was concerned about Flynn’s 18 day retention before resignation but he was out of the government.
Concerned about secret information being transmitted over unsecured email. . [Do you think that maybe he was talking about Hillary?] DNI would file a crimes report if they knew about it.
Is not aware of any intercepted information in 2016 about Trump campaign.

Yates then does an about face with this, changing her prior testimony:

Is not aware of any intercepted information in 2016 about Trump campaign or any other 2016 campaign.

Cruz questions why Yates refused to enforce valid US code section on immigration:

Cited a portion of 8 US code, section 1182, the statutory authority Yates refused to pursue; refers to entry of aliens into the US, being banned along with the others of the kind.

Yates replied but...but...but...

Still held that a subsequent ordinance was contravening. The ban was unlawful because of religious freedom. She doesn’t know of any other DOJ AG ever reversing an opinion of DOJ legal counsel deemed lawful.

Klobuchar mentions immigration EO and Flynn:

3 courts denied the EO, Trump revised the EO.
Flynn talked to Kisylak on the same day Obama tightened sanctions.

Yates does her duty:

She gave “heads up” to WH counsel, more than informal warning about Flynn before Flynn resigned.

Clapper:

Russia achieved a goal to spread discord and dissension.
RT is a propaganda mouthpiece.

In my opinion the Democrats have doing the sowing of discord and dissension, but whadda I know?

Klobuchar, in covert reference to Trump and his family's real estate deals:

50% of all real estate transactions are done in the names of shell corporations.
Calls for independent panel of experts.

Clapper:

Agrees with independent panels.
Congressional sources are a target of several foreign governments, including documents which could be sensitive.

Yates does ropa-dope with security claims:

Due to security concerns, cannot reveal what Flynn actually said to Kisylak. If she remained at DOJ, she would have recommended that WH seek criminal charges against Flynn.
Was looking at EO intent to target religious groups, feeling it was unconstitutional.

Sen. Kennedy with best question of the day addressed to Yates regarding non-enforcement of EO:

who appointed you to the Supreme Court? Who decides that something is unconstitutional?

Yates defends her actions:

DOJ can decide an EO is unconstitutional.
Never leaked classified information to reporters.
Doesn’t know of any DOJ member that has done so.

Clapper:

Never leaked classified information to reporters.

Yates bows out of further involvement with this issue:

Not going to advise her successor at DOJ as to seeking independent process.

Clapper:

Only 3 intelligence agencies concurred on Russian collusion: FBI, CIA, NSA

Franked makes statement about Obama and Flynn, which later comes back to bite him in the butt (Fox News analysis):

Discusses the criteria for security clearances. Obama advised Trump not to hire Flynn. Accuses others besides Flynn who coordinated with Russia.
Appearing on RT is bad.

Yates with some inside baseball, if you will:

The 4 topics of discussion with WH counsel McGahn on her second briefing of him:
1. Does it matter if one WH official lies to another
2. Applicability of criminal statutes and whether DOJ would pursue a criminal case
3. Concern that taking action might interfere with a Flynn investigation
4. McGahn’s request to see the underlying evidence
All topics were satisfied. Logistics remained unknown
Very concerned about Flynn’s susceptibility to blackmail.
Yates doesn’t know if Flynn’s further 18 days in office harmed America

Clapper:

In 2015 other countries passed along information about Trump’s connection to Russian officials
FBI instigated investigation into this connection began in July, 2016.

For those who would like a brief overview of the Flynn conversations:

A nice summary by H.A. Goodman: Sally Yates, James Clapper lying about Trump Russia evidence: Yates refuses to give evidence. (3:58)

Fox news calls out Franken's hypocrisy, although not by name. If Obama was so worried about Flynn's reliability before he left office, why didn't he revoke Flynn's security clearance?

Coming soon to a Kabuki theater near You, a solo performance by Susan Rice.