Funny stuff happens when a judge tells a plaintiff she has to
pay $341,500 for the legal expenses of a lawsuit she lost. All of a sudden
Stormy Daniels is saying her CPL, Michael Avenatti, was acting against her wishes:
Skripal events probably helped to advance this line of investigation. So in a way UK intelligence services put their own
stooge on the line of fire.
Notable quotes:
"... Russian prosecutors on Monday claimed that Magnitsky and several other people familiar with Browder's illicit activities in Russia may have been killed on his order. They said a new criminal case has been opened against Browder in Russia, and that Moscow will seek his extradition as an alleged ringleader of an international criminal enterprise involved in money laundering ..."
"... The prosecutors identified four people who were suspects in the Browder case, all of whom died over the course of less than two years as the investigation against him unfolded. Oktay Gasanov was the first of the four, dying in October 2007; while Magnitsky's death in November 2009 was the last. By the time of his death, Magnitsky had spent almost a year in pre-trial detention. The two others were Valery Kurochkin and Sergey Korobeinikov, who died in April 2008 and September 2008, respectively. ..."
"... Considering that the three individuals, with the exception of Magnitsky, died within months of each other while being investigated as part of Browder's case, "it is highly likely that they were killed to get rid of accomplices who could give an incriminating testimony against Browder," a senior official with the Russian General Prosecutor's office told journalists. The same may be true for Magnitsky, he said. The prosecutor stressed that Russia didn't conduct detailed studies into how the suspected poison affects living organisms, but several research institutions based in the US, France and Italy did. ..."
"... The prosecutors claim that Browder was the party who benefited most from the death of Magnitsky. They cited journalist Oleg Lurie, who shared a prison cell with Magnitsky before the latter's death. Speaking under oath during a court hearing in New York, Lurie said that his cellmate had complained to him that Browder's lawyers were pressuring him into signing a false statement. Magnitsky's testimony claimed that he had uncovered a conspiracy to embezzle taxpayers' money involving Russian officials. ..."
"... The Russian prosecutors said Browder allegedly wanted to silence his employee after obtaining the false claim. The statement itself was used to blame Russian officials for Magnitsky's death and accuse the Russian government of a cover-up. ..."
"... Described by critics as a 'vulture capitalist,' Browder seemed quite comfortable earning millions of dollars in the financial wild west. In 2005, as fallen oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was standing trial for tax evasion, Browder scolded him on the BBC for using personal wealth to grasp at political power, and for leaving "in his wake aggrieved investors too numerous to count." He was also a staunch public supporter of the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. ..."
"... The investor then reinvented himself as an anti-Putin figure, using the death of Magnitsky to lobby various countries to impose sanctions on the Russian officials he blamed for his employee's death. The US Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012, allowing people accused by Washington of human rights violations to be targeted. However, it is perceived by the Kremlin as just a tool to restrain Russia for the sake of global political and economic competition. ..."
"... Among Browder's latest exploits is playing a role in the 'Russiagate' story. A key part of the elusive search for collusion between US President Donald Trump and the Russian government is a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. The meeting was apparently organized with a view to lobbying for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Its architect, Browder, has therefore been eager to lend his expertise on 'Russian machinations' to US lawmakers and media outlets. ..."
"... If you like this story, share it with a friend! ..."
Kremlin
critic Bill Browder may have given the order for his employee Sergei Magnitsky to be poisoned
with a rare toxin in a Russian prison cell, along with other suspects in a tax-evasion probe
against him, prosecutors have said. British financier Browder was once a well-connected
investor in post-Soviet Russia, but he became a fugitive from the law in the country after
being accused of financial crimes. In the West, however, he is best known as the employer of
Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian accountant who died in police custody while being investigated in
connection to the Browder case. Magnitsky's death became an international scandal, with Browder
accusing Russian officials of killing him.
Russian prosecutors on Monday claimed that Magnitsky and several other people familiar with
Browder's illicit activities in Russia may have been killed on his order. They said a new
criminal case has been opened against Browder in Russia, and that Moscow will seek his
extradition as an alleged ringleader of an international criminal enterprise involved in money
laundering.
The prosecutors identified four people who were suspects in the Browder case, all of whom
died over the course of less than two years as the investigation against him unfolded. Oktay
Gasanov was the first of the four, dying in October 2007; while Magnitsky's death in November
2009 was the last. By the time of his death, Magnitsky had spent almost a year in pre-trial
detention. The two others were Valery Kurochkin and Sergey Korobeinikov, who died in April 2008
and September 2008, respectively.
Korobeinikov died after falling off a high-rise building, while the others had health
complications. The Russian prosecutors believe all four of them may have been killed with a
rare water-soluble compound of aluminum. Each of the men showed symptoms consistent with being
poisoned by the toxin prior to their deaths, while Korobeinikov had traces of it in his liver,
according to a post mortem. An investigation into four possible murders has been
opened.
Considering that the three individuals, with the exception of Magnitsky, died within
months of each other while being investigated as part of Browder's case, "it is highly likely
that they were killed to get rid of accomplices who could give an incriminating testimony
against Browder," a senior official with the Russian General Prosecutor's office told
journalists. The same may be true for Magnitsky, he said. The prosecutor stressed that Russia
didn't conduct detailed studies into how the suspected poison affects living organisms, but
several research institutions based in the US, France and Italy did.
The prosecutors claim that Browder was the party who benefited most from the death of
Magnitsky. They cited journalist Oleg Lurie, who shared a prison cell with Magnitsky before the
latter's death. Speaking under oath during a court hearing in New York, Lurie said that his
cellmate had complained to him that Browder's lawyers were pressuring him into signing a false
statement. Magnitsky's testimony claimed that he had uncovered a conspiracy to embezzle
taxpayers' money involving Russian officials.
The Russian prosecutors said Browder allegedly wanted to silence his employee after
obtaining the false claim. The statement itself was used to blame Russian officials for
Magnitsky's death and accuse the Russian government of a cover-up.
Last year, Browder was sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison for tax evasion.
The trial was held in absentia and Moscow failed to have him extradited to serve the term. The
prosecutors said that they will renew attempts to get custody of Browder as part of the new
criminal case, using a UN convention on fighting transnational crime to have him arrested.
Browder is a US-born British financier, whose change of citizenship had the benefit of
allowing him to avoid paying tax on foreign earnings. However, he claimed the switch was
prompted by his family being persecuted in the US during the McCarthyism witch hunt, while the
UK seemed like the land of law and order.
He made a fortune in Russia during the country's chaotic transition to a market economy,
having invested before there was a stock exchange in Moscow. His Hermitage Capital Management
fund was a leading foreign investment entity in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Described by critics as a 'vulture capitalist,' Browder seemed quite comfortable earning
millions of dollars in the financial wild west. In 2005, as fallen oil tycoon Mikhail
Khodorkovsky was standing trial for tax evasion, Browder scolded him on the BBC for using personal
wealth to grasp at political power, and for leaving "in his wake aggrieved investors too
numerous to count." He was also a staunch public supporter of the policies of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
The transformation of his public image from a financial shark into a human rights crusader
started when Browder himself entered the spotlight of Russian law enforcement. In 2007, the
foundation he ran was targeted by a probe into possible large-scale embezzlement of Russian
taxpayers' money. Magnitsky, who worked for Browder and had knowledge of his firms' finances,
was arrested and held in pre-trial detention until his death in November 2009. The British
businessman insisted that the entire case was fabricated and that Magnitsky had been
assassinated for exposing a criminal scheme involving several Russian tax officials.
The investor then reinvented himself as an anti-Putin figure, using the death of
Magnitsky to lobby various countries to impose sanctions on the Russian officials he blamed for
his employee's death. The US Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012, allowing people accused by
Washington of human rights violations to be targeted. However, it is perceived by the Kremlin
as just a tool to restrain Russia for the sake of global political and economic
competition.
Browder's new-found status as a rights advocate and self-proclaimed worst enemy of Putin
helps him deflect Russia's attempts to prosecute him. On several occasions, Russia filed
international arrest warrants against him with Interpol, which even led to his brief detention
in Spain last May.
Among Browder's latest exploits is playing a role in the 'Russiagate' story. A key part
of the elusive search for collusion between US President Donald Trump and the Russian
government is a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. The meeting was
apparently organized with a view to lobbying for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Its
architect, Browder, has therefore been eager to lend his expertise on 'Russian machinations' to
US lawmakers and media outlets.
"... Trump wasn't finished, however, and during the same gaggle, he suggested he could pull press credentials from other reporters who don't show him "respect" two days after the president suspended the press pass of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta after a contentious exchange during a news conference. ..."
"... "I think Jim Acosta is a very unprofessional man," Trump explained and when asked how long Acosta's credentials will be suspended, the president replied: "As far as I'm concerned, I haven't made that decision. But it could be others also." ..."
"... On this one Trump needs to take a hint from Obozo, stop doing daily press briefings... Hold them once a month ..."
"... the stooge press/talking heads have made a cottage industry off of the press conferences. the msm sends stooges to sell their product. trump is 100% correct- the msm doesn't have the guts to cull their stooge legions- oh dear- the white house will do their job for them. ..."
Having barred his CNN arch nemesis Jim Acosta from the White House,
on Friday the president lashed out at another CNN reporter at the White House over his
appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting AG as well as Whitaker's views towards the special
counsel investigation.
During a Friday morning gaggle with White House reporters before Trump's trip to Paris,
CNN's Abby Phillip asked the president if he was hoping Whitaker, who previously criticized
Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, would "rein in" the Russia probe. " Do you want
[Whitaker] to rein in Robert Mueller?" Phillip asked.
Trump's response left the stunned reported speechless. "What a stupid question that is,"
Trump said and, just in case it was lost, repeated "what a stupid question."
"But I watch you a lot," Trump continued. "You ask a lot of stupid questions."
Trump then demonstrably walked away, leaving the shocked reporters screaming more questions
in his wake.
Earlier, Trump said he has not spoken to acting AG Matt Whitaker about the Russia
investigation, which Whitaker now oversees. Trump defended Whitaker as a "very well respected
man in the law enforcement community" but claimed he does not know him personally. "I didn't
speak to Matt Whitaker about it. I don't know Matt Whitaker," Trump told reporters at the White
House before leaving for a trip to Paris.
While Trump sought to place personal distance
between himself and Whitaker, he made it clear he stood by his decision to place a loyalist in
charge of the Justice Department, a move many see as an effort to seize control of special
counsel Robert Mueller's probe. The president also rejected suggestions that Whitaker is
ineligible to serve as attorney general, a position held by some legal experts who say the
Justice Department leader must be confirmed by the Senate.
The acting AG has raised eyebrows, and in some cases prediction of a constitutional crisis,
because before joining the DOJ, Whitaker was an outspoken critic of Mueller's investigation and
many Democrats and legal scholars have said he should recuse himself from leading the probe.
Whitaker also claimed there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian
interference efforts in the 2016 election, which is the central question of the Mueller
probe.
Trump lamented the criticism of Whitaker's past commentary, saying "it's a shame that no
matter who I put in, they go after him."
Trump then reiterated his plans to have Whitaker serve in an acting capacity, but declined
to reveal who might be Sessions' permanent replacement. He said he likes Chris Christie, who is
under consideration , but said he has not spoken to the former NJ governor about the post.
Christie was at the White House on Thursday for an event on prison reform but Trump said he did
not speak to him.
* * *
Trump wasn't finished, however, and during the same gaggle, he suggested he could pull press
credentials from other reporters who don't show him "respect" two days after the president
suspended the press pass of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta after a contentious
exchange during a news conference.
"I think Jim Acosta is a very unprofessional man," Trump explained and when asked how long
Acosta's credentials will be suspended, the president replied: "As far as I'm concerned, I
haven't made that decision. But it could be others also."
Trump also went after April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks as a "loser" who "doesn't
know what the hell she is doing."
Keyser 15 minutes ago
On this one Trump needs to take a hint from Obozo, stop doing daily press briefings...
Hold them once a month, then hand-pick which reporters you want in the room... And if a
reporter publishes a story you don't like, prosecute them... What we have now is what happens
when the lunatics are given free reign...
dcmbuffy 55 minutes ago remove
the stooge press/talking heads have made a cottage industry off of the press conferences.
the msm sends stooges to sell their product. trump is 100% correct- the msm doesn't have the
guts to cull their stooge legions- oh dear- the white house will do their job for them.
United States District Judge S. James Otero issued an order and ruling today dismissing
Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against President Trump. The ruling also states that the
President is entitled to an award of his attorneys' fees against Stormy Daniels. A copy of
the ruling is attached. No amount of spin or commentary by Stormy Daniels or her lawyer, Mr.
Avenatti, can truthfully characterize today's ruling in any way other than total victory for
President Trump and total defeat for Stormy Daniels. The amount of the award for President
Trump's attorneys' fees will be determined at a later date.
Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti responded to the dismissal, tweeting: "We will appeal the
dismissal of the defamation cause of action and are confident in a reversal," while stating
that Daniels' other claims against Trump and Cohen "proceed unaffected."
Re Judge's limited ruling: Daniels' other claims against Trump and Cohen proceed
unaffected. Trump's contrary claims are as deceptive as his claims about the inauguration
attendance.
We will appeal the dismissal of the defamation cause of action and are confident in a
reversal.
Last week Trump's legal team argued that it made no sense for them to keep fighting in court
over a $130,000 hush payment received by Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, as she
invalidated the non-disclosure agreement she signed with Trump's longtime fixer and lawyer,
Michael Cohen.
The lawsuit is moot because Trump has consented that the agreement, as she has claimed,
was never formed because he didn't sign it and he has agreed not to try to enforce it, Trump
said in his court filing. The company created by Cohen to facilitate the non-disclosure
agreement, which initially said Clifford faced more than $20 million in damages for talking,
said in September that it wouldn't sue to enforce the deal. -
Yahoo
Michael Avenatti's terrible October
This month has not treated Stormy's attorney well. Michael Avenatti went from Democrat
darling during his representation of Daniels, to scapegoat over Justice Brett Kavanaugh's
nomination to the Supreme Court after he introduced an 11th hour claim by a woman who said
Kavanaugh orchestrated gang-rape parties in the early 1980s - an allegation thought by many to
have derailed otherwise legitimate claims against the Judge.
Less than two weeks later Avenatti came under fire after he launched a now-deleted
fundraising page for Texas Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke.
In the fine print, O'Rourke supporters discovered that half the proceeds went to Avenatti's
Fight PAC , which he formed a little over
seven weeks ago .
Avenatti called the criticism "complete nonsense," noting that Senators Elizabeth Warren and
Kamala Harris "do the same thing." Perhaps sensing he'd made a huge mistake, Avenatti deleted
the page - telling the Daily Beast in a text message: "It wasn't worth the nonsense that
resulted from people that don't understand how common this is."
The question now is; after three strikes, is Avenatti out?
Given his free $50 million in publicity, and the amount of GoFundMe he's gonna get or has
gotten, I'd say "losing" is entirely in the eye of the beholder, lol.
Avenatti is the best thing that has happened to Trump.
It's almost like he is intentionally doing stupid and outrageous things to make the dems
look even more unhinged than they are.
I wouldn't be surprised if we find he has been secretly working for Trump all along. Trump
did run a reality show after all so that would be a great plot twist ;)
The best thing about Avenatti and the Clintons is that they won't stop until they bring
the entire Democratic Party down. It reminds me of Anthony Weiner and Elliot Spitzer,
scumbags who keep coming back and discredit the entire party because of their own glorious
egos.
An interesting hypothesis. CIA definitly became a powerful political force in the USA -- a rogue political force which starting from JFK assasination tries to control who is elected to important offices. But in truth Cavanaugh is a pro-CIA candidate so to speak. So why CIA would try to derail him.
Notable quotes:
"... I think I've figured out why they had to go to couples counseling about an outside door and why she came up with claim that she needed an outside bedroom door because she'd been assaulted 37 years ago. The Palo Alto building codes for single family homes were created to make sure single family homes remained single family and weren't chopped up into apartments. ..."
"... An outside door into a master bedroom with attached bathroom is a red flag that it's intended for an illegal what's called in law apartment ..."
"... So she wants the door. Husband says waste of money and trouble. Contractor says call me when you're ready. So they go to counseling Husband explains why the door's unreasonable. Therapist asks wife why she " really deep down" needs the door. Wife makes up the story about attempted rape 35 years ago flashbacks If only there were 2 doors in that imaginary bedroom she could have escaped. ..."
"... Kacanaugh was nominated. CIA searched for sex problems in his working life. Found nothing Searched law school and college found nothing. In desperation searched high school found nothing. Searched CIA personnel records which go back to grade school and found one of their own employees was about Kavanaugh's age and attended a high school near his and the students socialized. ..."
"... She's 3rd generation CIA. grandfather assistant director. Father CIA contractor who managed CIA unofficial band accounts. And she runs a CIA recruitment office. ..."
I think I've figured out why they had to go to couples counseling about an outside door and why she came up with claim
that she needed an outside bedroom door because she'd been assaulted 37 years ago. The Palo Alto building codes for single family
homes were created to make sure single family homes remained single family and weren't chopped up into apartments.
Outside doors enter public areas kitchen sunroom living rooms not bedrooms. An outside door into a master bedroom with
attached bathroom is a red flag that it's intended for an illegal what's called in law apartment
There's a unit It's a stove 2 ft counter space and sink. The stoves electric and plugs into an ordinary household electricity.
It's backed against the bathroom wall. Break through the wall, connect the pipes running water for the sink. Add an outside door
and it's a small apartment.
Assume they didn't want to make it an apartment just a master bedroom. Usually the contractor pulls the permits routinely.
But an outside bedroom door is complicated. The permits will cost more. It might require an exemption and a hearing They night
need a lawyer. And they might not get the permit.
So she wants the door. Husband says waste of money and trouble. Contractor says call me when you're ready. So they go to
counseling Husband explains why the door's unreasonable. Therapist asks wife why she " really deep down" needs the door. Wife
makes up the story about attempted rape 35 years ago flashbacks If only there were 2 doors in that imaginary bedroom she could
have escaped.
Kacanaugh was nominated. CIA searched for sex problems in his working life. Found nothing Searched law school and college
found nothing. In desperation searched high school found nothing. Searched CIA personnel records which go back to grade school
and found one of their own employees was about Kavanaugh's age and attended a high school near his and the students socialized.
She's 3rd generation CIA. grandfather assistant director. Father CIA contractor who managed CIA unofficial band accounts.
And she runs a CIA recruitment office.
The FBI is also investigating allegations by Christine Blasey Ford, the psychology professor
at Palo Alto University in California, whose tearful dramatic testimony before the Senate
Judiciary Committee this week nearly derailed Kavanaugh's nomination - that is, until he
stepped up and delivered an impassioned denial that satisfied President Trump and Senate
Republicans. Ford claims that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the early 1980s when they
were in high school in Maryland. Ramirez told the New Yorker that Kavanaugh pulled out his
penis and shoved it in her face during a drunken dorm room party during their freshman year at
Yale.
Ramirez's lawyer confirmed that she would cooperate with the investigation, but declined to
comment further.
"We can confirm the FBI has reached out to interview Ms. Ramirez and she has agreed to
cooperate with their investigation," the attorney, John Clune, said in a statement. "Out of
respect for the integrity of the process, we will have no further comment at this time."
In addition to at least two of Kavanaugh's named accusers (two women more women have
anonymously accused him of misconduct though their claims are widely viewed as not credible),
several of the alleged witnesses whom Ford said also attended the party where the assault
allegedly occurred have agreed to cooperate.
But already, two potentially crucial witnesses have said they will cooperate with the FBI,
raising the possibility that at least more statements and recollections will be added to the
record, even if they're not ultimately definitive.
An attorney for Leland Keyser, a friend of Ford's who Ford says was at the party, said
Keyser also was willing to cooperate with the FBI investigation. But the attorney emphasized
that Keyser has no recollection of the party where Ford alleges Kavanaugh assaulted her.
"Notably, Ms. Keyser does not refute Dr. Ford's account, and she has already told the
press that she believes Dr. Ford's account," the attorney, Howard J. Walsh III, wrote in an
email to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "However, the simple and unchangeable truth is that
she is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in
question."
Judge, the high school friend of Kavanaugh who Ford says was in the room during the
alleged assault, has also agreed to cooperate with the FBI. His account has been particularly
sought after because, unlike Kavanaugh, Judge has not denied Ford's allegations but has said
he has no memory that such an assault occurred.
Ford told the Judiciary Committee that some weeks after the alleged assault, she ran into
Judge at a local grocery store where he was working for the summer.
As WaPo reminds us, the FBI's investigation is merely a background check, not a criminal
probe. Notably, sex crime prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, who questioned both Kavanaugh and Ford on
Thursday, said she wouldn't be able to pursue an investigation or even request a search warrant
given Ford's testimony.
A background investigation is, by its nature, more limited than a criminal probe, and FBI
agents will not be able to obtain search warrants or issue subpoenas to compel testimony from
potential witnesses. The FBI's interviews, which will take a few days to conduct, won't turn
into a sprawling inquest of everyone Kavanaugh went to a party with in high school, said a
person familiar with the investigation.
The paper also reminded readers, perhaps with a dash of tongue-in-cheek irony, that the
results of the investigation would only be shared with a small group of senators and would not
become public (though we imagine they will almost inevitably leak).
The FBI's findings will not necessarily become public. When investigators have completed
their work, anything they've discovered will be turned over to the White House as an update
to Kavanaugh's background check file. The White House would then likely share the material
with the Senate committee.
At that point, all senators, as well as a very small group of aides, would have access to
it.
The White House or the Senate would decide what, if anything, should be released publicly.
The bureau's work will likely consist mostly of reports of interviews with witnesses and
accusers. The bureau will not come to a conclusion on whether the accusations are credible
and will not make a recommendation on what should become of Kavanaugh's nomination.
While Democrats heralded the probe as an unmitigated win for their stalling strategy,
there's still a solid chance that it could backfire. As Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs revealed,
high school friends of Ford and Kavanaugh say the investigation could uncover some "fairly
unpleasant things" about Ford's behavior. Despite the dramatic footage teased to the media by
Showtime, which recorded an interview with Michael Avenatti client Julie Swetnick, the third
woman to publicly accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct (she claimed that Kavanaugh and Judge
participated in the "gang rapes" of disoriented young women at parties back in high school),
NBC News and
the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday afternoon that the White House has limited the
FBI investigation to Ramirez and Ford, and has not permitted the FBI to interview Swetnick.
While some accused the White House of "micromanaging" the FBI probe, and a spokesperson for the
White House said the parameters of the investigation were actually set by the Senate, which
said it wanted to limit the probe to only "credible" accusers,
NBC reported that it isn't unusual for the White House to set these types of boundaries for
background-check investigations, since the FBI is conducting the investigation on behalf of the
White House.
Avenatti was, understandably, less than pleased.
"I don't know how this investigation could be called complete if they don't contact her,"
Avenatti said.
Here's the teaser of the Swetnick interview, which is set to air Sunday night:
Regardless of what Ramirez tells the FBI - whether it's stunningly revelatory or utterly
mundane - we imagine it will leak to WaPo or the New York Times by mid-week.
CNN: Former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo weighs in on who he believes wrote the
anonymously authored op-ed published in the New York Times that was highly critical of
President Donald Trump.
Caputo also said the real writer of the piece is a ghostwriter in terms of looking for the
person behind the piece. Caputo said he believes the person is a woman.
"The language of the op-ed is useless to look at because it's a ghostwriter," he said.
"I think, first of all, this person will never admit it. In my mind, the author of this
op-ed believes that she is a hero to the American people," Caputo also said.
MICHAEL CAPUTO, FMR. TRUMP ADVISOR: I'm fairly certain I know who it is. I've been going
through this parlor game like everybody else has and I am also completely 100% certain that
the person who wrote this is on the list of people who said they didn't write it.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Alright. So who do you think it is?
CAPUTO: I'm not going to go into that. My attorney tells me it's a bad idea. But I can
tell you think...
WHITFIELD: You consulted your attorney. You said I think I know who this is based on
certain language that was and you consulted your attorney and your attorney says don't reveal
it?
CAPUTO: Right. Based on language. Based on the fact that I believe these kinds of people
leave a trail of crumbs when they are trying to deceive people around them. This is the way
it is always is. And if the president looks at key departments of his government that has
been purged of all Trump supporters that is a good place to start, and that actually exists.
Trump supporters have been purged from this government for 18 months. Last week I spent the
evening with several friends of mine from the Trump campaign: all of them have been forced
out of the Trump administration. ...
I don't think this person is in the White House... this person really has to be high up.
It's got to be a deputy, secretary-level, or higher, otherwise The New York Times is
misleading people.
WHITFIELD: Do you believe it is someone who has taken an oath?
CAPUTO: I believe so...
The White House political office and others have kind of shrugged off the idea about
losing the House and maybe being impeached because the Senate won't do anything. They won't
convict the president on the charges of impeachment. But I think when we find out who this
person is, and the president team should find out, we're going to find out this person has
real deep and abiding ties to Congress and this op-ed is one step closer not just to
impeachment but conviction...
I started with this. Who is the person who I believe hates the president the most? Who is
the person in the administration who has screamed about him in their own private office and
gone forward and purged their entire office of Trump people? ...
I think, first of all, this person will never admit it. In my mind, the author of this
op-ed believes that she is a hero to the American people.
First, let me say I voted for Trump as a "Disrupter" and to that end he has exceeded
expectations.
The book starts out great through the first 5 or 6 chapters, but then becomes a bit
convoluted. The bottom line of the book and reality is that Trump is surrounded by apprentice
scoundrels, and that he is the boss scoundrel.
He demands loyalty but gives none. As a Former Marine I would not follow him into battle;
I would never have the opportunity because he and his sons would never go into harm's
way.
The best of the book was the hinted forthcoming bombshells, that never exploded. Woodward
dropped the ball on this one, and as an author myself, it's nice to see even the big boys,
Simon & Schuster, have editing issues.
None of the Times' sources are named - except one: Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, or rather his memos about the
meetings with Rosenstein and other officials.
The number two official at the Justice Department wanted to secretly record President Donald Trump so as to impeach him, claims
the New York Times. Spoiler Alert: Rod Rosenstein denies the claim, but does it matter in the swamp?
"Rod Rosenstein Suggested Secretly Recording Trump and Discussed 25th Amendment" the Times blared in a breaking news headline
on Friday afternoon, adding that the deputy attorney general also discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the
constitutional provision for removing Trump from office.
The Times would have its readers believe that Rosenstein was surprised when Trump used his memo to justify the firing of FBI
Director James Comey in May 2017, and sought to enlist AG Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly now the
White House chief of staff to support him in ousting Trump.
Hard to know the truthfulness of anything coming from the NYT. Rosenstein denies the story and says there is no basis for
invoking the 25th amendment against Trump. The story might be disinformation to provoke a response from Trump.
Still Rosenstein has been slow walking the release of FISA related documents, and it's hard to trust him. This Russia
investigation is a witcvh hunt , and Rosenstein has been right at the center of it. If Rosenstein was fair minded he would have
shut this yard sale down a long time ago. In the meantime, Trump is looking more and more like a victim. I'd probably wait for the
documents to come out and let the pressure build on Sessions and Rosenstein.
If this latest revelation from the New
York Times doesn't drive President Trump to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or
convince Congress to impeach him, then we can't imagine what would.
In a shocking report citing a bevy of anonymous DOJ officials, the NYT recounted on Friday
an aborted mutiny attempt organized by Rosenstein, who allegedly tried to organize members of
Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment to oust Trump from office. In an attempt to
persuade the clearly reluctant members of Trump's cabinet, Rosenstein suggested that he or
other officials should secretly tape Trump "to expose the chaos" he said was engulfing the West
Wing. According to NYT, the sources were either briefed on Rosenstein's plans, or learned about
it from the files of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired after being
disgraced by an inspector general investigation.
ABC News, which also reported the story, cited sources familiar with McCabe's files. A
grand jury is also weighing whether to press charges against McCabe for allegedly misleading
the inspector general.
Mr. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Mr. Trump and about the 25th
Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and F.B.I. officials.
Several people described the episodes, insisting on anonymity to discuss internal
deliberations. The people were briefed either on the events themselves or on memos written by
F.B.I. officials, including Andrew G. McCabe, then the acting bureau director, that
documented Mr. Rosenstein's actions and comments.
None of Mr. Rosenstein's proposals apparently came to fruition. It is not clear how
determined he was about seeing them through, though he did tell Mr. McCabe that he might be
able to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John F. Kelly, then the secretary of
homeland security and now the White House chief of staff, to mount an effort to invoke the
25th Amendment.
According to the NYT, this all happened during the spring of 2017, shortly after Trump cited
a letter that Rosenstein had penned criticizing former FBI Director James Comey's handling of
the Clinton probe as justification to fire Comey. Rosenstein reportedly felt he had been "used"
by the president as an excuse to fire Comey. Rosenstein soon began telling colleagues that he
would ultimately be "vindicated" for his role in Comey's firing. Around the same time, he began
to express his displeasure with Trump's handling of the hiring process for Comey's
replacement.
The president's reliance on his memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became
angry at Mr. Trump, according to people who spoke to Mr. Rosenstein at the time. He grew
concerned that his reputation had suffered harm and wondered whether Mr. Trump had motives
beyond Mr. Comey's treatment of Mrs. Clinton for ousting him, the people said.
A determined Mr. Rosenstein began telling associates that he would ultimately be
"vindicated" for his role in the matter. One week after the firing, Mr. Rosenstein met with
Mr. McCabe and at least four other senior Justice Department officials, in part to explain
his role in the situation.
During their discussion, Mr. Rosenstein expressed frustration at how Mr. Trump had
conducted the search for a new F.B.I. director, saying the president was failing to take the
candidate interviews seriously. A handful of politicians and law enforcement officials,
including Mr. McCabe, were under consideration.
Rosenstein also tried to recruit some of his would-be co-conspirators to surreptitiously
record Trump in the Oval Office.
Mr. Rosenstein then raised the idea of wearing a recording device or "wire," as he put it,
to secretly tape the president when he visited the White House. One participant asked whether
Mr. Rosenstein was serious, and he replied animatedly that he was.
However, although Rosenstein "appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional" during what can
only be described as a coup attempt against a sitting president, even the paper admit that his
conduct in attempting to solicit the illicit wiretapping of a sitting president was extremely
reckless and unwarranted, and that, if uncovered, it could be used as grounds to fire
Rosenstein.
If not him, then Mr. McCabe or other F.B.I. officials interviewing with Mr. Trump for the
job could perhaps wear a wire or otherwise record the president, Mr. Rosenstein offered.
White House officials never checked his phone when he arrived for meetings there, Mr.
Rosenstein added, implying it would be easy to secretly record Mr. Trump.
The suggestion itself was remarkable. While informants or undercover agents regularly use
concealed listening devices to surreptitiously gather evidence for federal investigators,
they are typically targeting drug kingpins and Mafia bosses in criminal investigations, not a
president viewed as ineffectively conducting his duties.
In the end, the idea went nowhere, the officials said. But they called Mr. Rosenstein's
comments an example of how erratically he was behaving while he was taking part in the
interviews for a replacement F.B.I. director, considering the appointment of a special
counsel and otherwise running the day-to-day operations of the more than 100,000 people at
the Justice Department.
The Times and ABC reported that Rosenstein told McCabe that he believed Attorney General
Jeff Sessions and then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly would go along with the plan.
Another source said they believed Rosenstein was being sarcastic when he made the comment about
recording Trump
One source who was in the meeting confirmed that Rosenstein did make a remark about
recording Trump with the use of a wire. But the source insists: "The statement was sarcastic
and was never discussed with any intention of recording a conversation with the
president."
Rosenstein has decried the story as "factually incorrect" and said that "based on my
personal dealings" with the president, that there isn't any basis to invoke the 25th amendment.
This, of course, is tantamount to a deep state insider admitting that there is no factual basis
to impeach Trump.
Mr. Rosenstein disputed this account.
"The New York Times's story is inaccurate and factually incorrect," he said in a
statement. "I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are
obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let
me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis
to invoke the 25th Amendment."
A lawyer representing McCabe told CNN and the Times that his client had documented his
conversations in Rosenstein in a series of memos, which he later turned over to Mueller more
than a year ago. However, a set of those memos was left at the FBI when McCabe departed.
McCabe's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, said in a statement to CNN that his client "drafted
memos to memorialize significant discussions he had with high level officials and preserved
them so he would have an accurate, contemporaneous record of those discussions."
"When he was interviewed by the special counsel more than a year ago, he gave all of his
memos - classified and unclassified - to the special counsel's office. A set of those memos
remained at the FBI at the time of his departure in late January 2018. He has no knowledge of
how any member of the media obtained those memos," Bromwich added.
The
Washington Post reported that FBI lawyer Lisa Page (the former lover of disgraced FBI
special agent Peter Strzok) was also at the meeting where wiretapping was discussed. WaPo also
said that McCabe had pushed for the DOJ to open an investigation into the president, to which
Rosenstein replied, "what do you want to do Andy, wire the president?"
While Rosenstein and Trump clearly never saw eye to eye, the level of resentment that
Rosenstein harbored toward the president was not previously known. Unsurprisingly, the story
has already fired up speculation that Rosenstein may have been the anonymous administration
official who penned a critical op-ed that was published earlier this month in the New York
Times. Underscoring the seriousness of these allegations, CNN
reported that the McCabe memos that were described to ABC and the Times have been turned over
to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
iinthesky , 13 minutes ago
Try to remember this is the New York Times. This is suspect and there is a motive in
publishing this now.. they want Trump to fire Rosenshmuck before the elections.
Debt Slave , 12 minutes ago
Recall Strzok's behavior during his testimony. It couldn't be more obvious if they took
out a full page ad in the New York Times.
LaugherNYC , 1 hour ago
This is coming from McCabe.
Trying to get a deal. Remember what he screamed when he heard that he was under
investigation: "If they **** with my pension I will burn this place to the ground!!"
Well, he's got the gas and the matches. He doesn't want to go to prison where Hillary's
people can shank him. He's letting some tidbits out now to convince Huber he will do more
damage from outside than inside.
I say **** HIM. Let him burn it down. Sessions is recused - not his fault.
McCabe needs to do 3-5 in a FedPen for his lies and cover-ups. Tried to quash the Weiner
laptop and impede a Federal investigation. Repeatedly leaked information to misdirect and
interfere with a Federal investigation.
A top, trained intel officer. Lock him the hell up. This is the kind of "patriot" who
comes up through the Deep State system to run the alphabet agencies that work day and night
to protect America from the sunlight its intel community so desperately needs on those who
sell out the rank-and-file, hardworking true patriots for their own boundless ambition.
Strzok and Page come next.
Burn out the poison vipers' nests.
1970SSNova396 , 1 hour ago
Read the article and you better understand why the NYT is throwing Rosenstein under the
bus.
Holy shite. I'm getting a feeling that this is ready to EXPLODE on the world stage. And
implicate Britain and Australia as in on the scam. I'm getting the sense, the Brits called
Trump and begged him not to let this come completely to light. Trump has ALL these
motherfuckers by the balls now. I just hope and pray that ******* arrogant poser Obama is
sweating bullets right now.
I cant even imagine how this all plays out. These arrogant ******* Nee World Order pieces
of ****,especially both Clinton's, Obama and most if not ALL of his senior administration
just felt entitled to do whatever the **** they wanted, the ends justify the means, the
Constitution and the people be damned. These people really to need to endure a special type
of hell. If this charade doesn't warrant it, what does? To Big To Fail comes to mind, though.
This might be SO big, Trump actually has to manage the shitshow...or the train goes off the
rails.
This guy quit the week before The Don took the keys to the white house.....Imagine that.
As you might recall Judge Nap at Fox stated that the Obama Cabal used the brits to spy on
Trump and then was place in timeout for 2 weeks. He returned and double downed on his
statement.
KimAsa , 16 minutes ago
The swamp turning on each other. Love it.
dems will lose 5 senate incumbent seats at midterms and offset one. The dems will not win
over the Senate.
the dem running in AZ has a bit of a past that is catching up to her now.
The dems will lose the House handily.
Keyser , 25 minutes ago
Enough is enough... Time to drag rat-faced Rosenstein out of the FBI in chains, then put
him on an airplane to Gitmo and charge him with sedition... This scum sucking ****** needs a
refresher course in the LAW, military law that is...
iinthesky , 23 minutes ago
Not now.. after november
pelican , 13 minutes ago
**** it
iinthesky , 13 minutes ago
Try to remember this is the New York Times. This is suspect and there is a motive in
publishing this now.. they want Trump to fire Rosenshmuck before the elections.
bigrooster , 14 minutes ago
Hmm the last name seems like a Tribe member. I am sure that there is no connection. But
Trump's daughter and granddaughter are now members of the Tribe. I would die before taking
that mark. I guess we now know what the Number of The Beast is...join the Tribe or die/starve
in the near future. Good thing we of faith know who wins in the end.
SunRise , 15 minutes ago
"Fired", That's all? No jail? They're attempting to frame the conversation, so a low
penalty for High Treason seems normal in the minds of the Public.
Goldennutz , 16 minutes ago
HAHAHAHAHA!!
NOTHING will happen to ANYONE!!!
Ohhh...they might get someone to fall on the sword for a few mill in a Swiss account but
that's about it!
All these career uncivil serpents will walk away with a fat goobermint pension with free
lifetime bennies courtesy of us suckas , get a fat self-serving book deal and a cushy million
dollar job with some firm.
Meantime us ZH-ers will still be here typing away and blubbering about how unfair this all
is.
BWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
inosent , 28 minutes ago
"public servant"? puhleeez, give it a rest!
Shelby cobra , 28 minutes ago
The news just keeps getting worse each day for these swamp monsters ,but there is a better
chance of hell freezing over than any of them going to jail!
Is-Be , 38 minutes ago
From an outsiders perspective, this is not a Jewish problem. It is a monotheist
problem.
How can anyone blame the Jews and worship his God?
Are we all Semites now?All Jews? With you-know-who in charge being the font of all our
troubles.
Soon we will all be one.
Soon each will know his place.
Indeed, Dr. Jacobs.
All is clear to Odin. But what of Thor?
No wonder Mrvl comix is keen to abuse our Gods and Goddesses. It's what they do.
Of cause they'll let loose their Muslims upon us as enforcers if we stray from their
plan.
Secrecy, dear Goy. No light please.
It was not for nothing that Odin hung for 9 days on Yggdsdril, the tree of life.
And the squirrel runs up and down the Sacred tree, telling tales.
romanmoment , 35 minutes ago
Rosenstein needs to be fired, right now.
Debt Slave , 33 minutes ago
You can't trust one of them. The truth may be inconvenient and unacceptable in our
current, political climate, but you can not trust a god damned one of them.
If it is a bad thing to recognize the facts of life, then proceed at your own peril.
The Swamp Got Trump , 35 minutes ago
Please fire this **********.
debtserf , 23 minutes ago
He will only fire him if he doesnt do exactly as he is told from now till November.
Hass C. , 52 minutes ago
Putin must be getting irritable bowel from too much popcorn.
Aerows , 49 minutes ago
What a big flaming bag of dog **** on the doorstep of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Except this isn't a prank, it affects our government at the highest of levels.
Harvey's-Rabbi , 49 minutes ago
I made up mind that today my posted comments will contain as much relevant materiel as
possible, other than that which may implicate legendary destroyers of their host culture. I
have kept this in mind while commenting on this guy and what he as attempted to do, even
trying to enlist other sectors of the nation's leadership.....
Thank you for reading.
Debt Slave , 25 minutes ago
I think you are doing a fine job of it.
History and the study of pathological behavior are .the greatest of endeavors. Only then
can a man recognize the reality of his world without any artificially induced delusions.
It really is an exercise of maturity.
divingengineer , 56 minutes ago
Yeah, they knew enough about Trump this early in his term to justify spying and
impeachment/removal?
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure.
apocalypticbrother , 1 hour ago
Rod Rodentstein is a dirty rat.
Debt Slave , 22 minutes ago
He certainly does resemble one.
EscondidoSurfer , 55 minutes ago
NYT wanted to get ahead of Trump before he released this and other sensitive information,
sources and procedures.
Hass C. , 1 hour ago
Are they setting Trump up for some sort of confrontation? After all, the NYT is not
exactly a Friend of Trump these days.
Vigilante , 1 hour ago
High time the evil kikester gets the boot. Isn't he who also hired Mueller to start his
bogus investigation?
Debt Slave , 21 minutes ago
I believe he did, yes. Odd that Trump can't seem to get rid of him.
Victory_Garden , 1 hour ago
Of course this is a firable evil deed.
Like, phuck! This evil ziobot phuckin phaggot phucker pile of shat should have been
phuchin french fried and thrown out the phucking building shiteter years ago. Phuckin-A,
PERIOD!
Question is, will the Sir Pres fire this cikesucxker?
Take a look at the commie news networks view of this and be darn sure to keep this bfore
they erase it. This will make good eatin for this costa crow and wolfie bafaronizer and all
the, they suck hitlery cunthags big plastic kak purple hippie tie wareing dweebs of drool.
Phuckin phaggots.
Speaking of isreall. What the phuck are those phuckin crazy arsehole woarmongers up to
now?
chinese censorship SUCKS!
.
GoingBig , 1 hour ago
The drivel that you people post is hilarious!
1970SSNova396 , 1 hour ago
You should file a complaint.....try door FU2....closed at 5 PM...
Walking Turtle , 54 minutes ago
You should file a complaint.....try door FU2....closed at 5 PM...
Ah but even after hours, there is STILL the Secret Access Complaint Department.
That office is open 18/7/365\6, right there behind that selfsame door (FU2 iirc) with
generous seating and several magazines to share. Just buzz the buzzer for admittance.
But there is a secret, which shall herein be disclosed forthwith. To wit, the
Secret Password. Because without it one will never be admitted. Turns out, the Secret
Password is (and always was) the Office Manager's name. Know that name and you can
expect satisfaction in due full course!
Her name is Helen Waite. Those with After-Hours Complaints such as this one really should
go to Helen Waite, now shouldn't they? "Always there for YOU !" is the Standing Motto.
Servicing that nasty complaint and smiling while doing so...
Just stay seated and don't lose your Number. Remember Herself's Name. And that is all.
0{;-)o[
GoingBig , 20 minutes ago
LMAO!
Ranger7676 , 1 hour ago
Trump did not go to Princeton, Harvard or Yale and rape children and drink their blood
like Hillary, Obama and the Bush's, so you know the deep state is out to get him. Drain the
swamp and expose these assholes Mr. President.
Buck Shot , 1 hour ago
Worried about his reputation? Is he afraid the other cheerleaders will say he is a slut?
What a ******* *****. I bet he has never been in a fistfight in his life.
novictim , 1 hour ago
Wow. I may have reached a peak now. I don't think I could be anymore cynical about the FBI
and DOJ at this point.
GoingBig , 1 hour ago
lmao, I think most people would gasp in horror if they actually heard Trump go on one of
his famous Trumptantrums, which happens every 3-4 minutes. This is freaking hilarious.
NoPension , 1 hour ago
Haha!
You're right...you're hilarious.
Hass C. , 58 minutes ago
More wishful thinking from you.
1970SSNova396 , 57 minutes ago
The best part of you ran down your mothers leg
GoingBig , 19 minutes ago
That's a ******* new one! LMFO. What are you 100 years old! FLMAO
cheech_wizard , 41 minutes ago
Here, have another soy latte.
vintage512 , 1 hour ago
lmao... this is outrageous....this generation should be in the streets.. they get into the
streets to wait in line for the new iphone but not for their civil liberties...priorities...a
nation of pathetic eunuchs
DingleBarryObummer , 1 hour ago
like the liberty of having sound money... which we don't have?
Ranger7676 , 1 hour ago
I have several young 30's friends who went from liberal to Trump supporters. They see
whats going on with the Deep State and don't like it.
Is-Be , 56 minutes ago
iPhones and eunuchs go together like hookers and blow.
Keep them away from your gonads if you are worth breeding from.
Megaton Jim , 1 hour ago
Get rid of the ******* kikes in government, Wall St and the media. Jooz are Satanic
vermin!
DingleBarryObummer , 1 hour ago
Trump's going to be mighty lonely in his white house.
moman , 1 hour ago
'Get rid of the ******* kikes in government,' ....get rid of the DUMB-*** Goyim that alow
this ****!
GoingBig , 1 hour ago
somebody needs some milk and cookies....
Hass C. , 54 minutes ago
Actually, you have a point, moman. To hell with the whole pack. But who's going to send
them there?
Victory_Garden , 1 hour ago
Oh my, he said, ****!
So, has the ships Tyler lifted the chinese censorship?
Curious crew member wanna know and if indeed this be the truth, then let the good rants
roll!
Testing: ****! Holy...****!
So OK, back to the farkin grind.
All hands forward for leave.
Ding...ding...ding.
+
True Historian , 1 hour ago
Sessions and Trump are together, a team. Session's recusal will be rescinded after the
2018 election. Then the real "deep state" removal process will begin. Trump has played them
all; and is in the process of destroying them.
Sessions-Trump secret deal is that Sessions will take the verbal assaults until the
Mueller investigation goes down in flames.
Notice that Mueller has gone quiet. He knows he is through; he is cutting a deal with
Trump so that he doesn't go to jail over the "Uranium One" deal.
The Kav anaugh hearings with Feinstein are just to incite all anti-democrats to vote.
1970SSNova396 , 1 hour ago
If not for LBJ's great slacking society the dems would never win another election. Blacks
will do what they always do and vote for dems. They fuq up everything they touch.
Nunny , 55 minutes ago
I hate the LBJ ********, and we all see what he did there. I talk to mill working blacks
everyday that have got 'woke'....and not in the stupid snowflake way.
Hass C. , 48 minutes ago
A man on the cusp of winning such a chess game is not having tweet tantrums every morning.
Those pathetic tweets are a sign of powerlessness, not the opposite.
When this is said, i wish you were right.
JoeTurner , 1 hour ago
In diverse, multicultrual America competency will soon be a crime
Seems pretty clear by now that the reason Trump doesn't fire these 5th-columnists
is because he can't . The rot in the system is far more deeply entrenched than most
imagined: We are seeing a system openly and contemptuously ignore the wishes of the elected
Chief Executive, and he seems to have no power to do anything but launch a few acerbic tweets
at his tormenters.
So why isn't Hillary Clinton in jail? Because the Clinton cabal is still in control,
that's why. Which explains all sorts of things, including Rosenstein's display of arrogance
before the Congress: He knows well who runs things and it ain't Congress or the President. He
knows that it's a matter of time before Trump is either completely broken, or run out of
town, or both, and isn't a bit concerned about showing what he thinks of the "deplorables"
who dared question his divine right to do what the corporations goddamn please.
And I don't even have much hope for these grand jury hearings on worms like McCabe and
Comey, either. A prosecutor has pretty unlimited control over a grand jury in the real world,
and they almost always do what the prosecutor wants. I have not heard anything that tells me
that the government agents in charge of these grand jury investigations aren't just more
Clintonites. In which case, look for no-bills for the Clintonist criminals. It's the classic
way corrupt prosecutors get rid of cases without fading the heat: "We presented the cases,
but the grand jury no-billed, nothing we can do. Next case..."
Corrupt to the bone. Wish I were wrong, but sure doesn't look like it.
debtserf , 1 hour ago
Trump is the big dog. He looks for leverage. Why fire Slippery Rod if he has all the
leverage over him to secure his own insurance policy against impeachment - and crush the Dems
in the midterms. If Rod doesnt do this and pronto, then Bubba will be telling him to "get on
ma body".
Looks like Big T has this one covered.
Debt Slave , 12 minutes ago
Recall Strzok's behavior during his testimony. It couldn't be more obvious if they took
out a full page ad in the New York Times.
debtor of last resort , 1 hour ago
They have put the left on the altar to make the right start the war.
LaugherNYC , 1 hour ago
This is coming from McCabe.
Trying to get a deal. Remember what he screamed when he heard that he was under
investigation: "If they **** with my pension I will burn this place to the ground!!"
Well, he's got the gas and the matches. He doesn't want to go to prison where Hillary's
people can shank him. He's letting some tidbits out now to convince Huber he will do more
damage from outside than inside.
I say **** HIM. Let him burn it down. Sessions is recused - not his fault.
McCabe needs to do 3-5 in a FedPen for his lies and cover-ups. Tried to quash the Weiner
laptop and impede a Federal investigation. Repeatedly leaked information to misdirect and
interfere with a Federal investigation.
A top, trained intel officer. Lock him the hell up. This is the kind of "patriot" who
comes up through the Deep State system to run the alphabet agencies that work day and night
to protect America from the sunlight its intel community so desperately needs on those who
sell out the rank-and-file, hardworking true patriots for their own boundless ambition.
Strzok and Page come next.
Burn out the poison vipers' nests.
NoPension , 1 hour ago
All these ******* vipers are go to start eating other. As I think about it...Mr.Trump
should just stay out of their way...and poke the hornets nest every so often, get them all
stirred up!
McCabe...muh Pension. Haha! All those years...carrying scumbag water...and he gets to end
up in the graybar hotel, while they skate? I do not think sooooo......
Man, this is going to make a great movie some day.
debtserf , 1 hour ago
Sopranos meets Veep.
NoPension , 1 hour ago
House of Cards is going to look like Sesame Street when this thing winds up....
debtserf , 54 minutes ago
It's a perpetual Muppet Show.
Nunny , 50 minutes ago
I was thinking the same thing. Why watch 'fiction' when you can watch it in real time. I
told my husband, if Trump gets in, one thing I know, it will be ENTERTAINING. And BTW, hubby
had never registered to vote in all his 60+ years....but he did just to vote for Trump. THAT
is how much we hate the status quo of a government that hates it's own citizens.
And as a side bar....we also did it to throw a big fat middle finger to the press, the
'celebrities' the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
Cobra Commander , 1 hour ago
NYT and "anonymous sources;" sounds like the Left is trying to goad President Trump, or at
least sow more discord in the White House.
That said, how is it that President Obama gets a self-described "wingman" for an attorney
general (Holder), and President Trump gets bird feces for his?
Holy shite. I'm getting a feeling that this is ready to EXPLODE on the world stage. And
implicate Britain and Australia as in on the scam. I'm getting the sense, the Brits called
Trump and begged him not to let this come completely to light. Trump has ALL these
motherfuckers by the balls now. I just hope and pray that ******* arrogant poser Obama is
sweating bullets right now.
I cant even imagine how this all plays out. These arrogant ******* Nee World Order pieces
of ****,especially both Clinton's, Obama and most if not ALL of his senior administration
just felt entitled to do whatever the **** they wanted, the ends justify the means, the
Constitution and the people be damned. These people really to need to endure a special type
of hell. If this charade doesn't warrant it, what does? To Big To Fail comes to mind, though.
This might be SO big, Trump actually has to manage the shitshow...or the train goes off the
rails.
This guy quit the week before The Don took the keys to the white house.....Imagine that.
As you might recall Judge Nap at Fox stated that the Obama Cabal used the brits to spy on
Trump and then was place in timeout for 2 weeks. He returned and double downed on his
statement.
I for one am shocked that's a *** would try to subvert America's political system.
ObiterDictum , 2 hours ago
Watch how the media puts this story into its magic hat and poof!, it disappears. Meanwhile
those two investigative journalistic corpses known as Woodward and Bernstein, heroes of J
schools everywhere, will shake off their mothballs of irrelevance and swill cocktails with
their fellow elitist nitwits and talk about Watergate and Trump while this open corruption
accelerates. The truth does not matter anymore - just repeat a lie over and over again and
the moronic media reports it as a "competing fact." Or, just call up WaPo and say, "I will
speak to you as an anon. government official" and THEY PRINT IT with a line that they
asked you for a comment and you declined. The media becomes the publicist/lap dog of the
corrupted politicians. The majority of people reading the comment thinks, " hey, it must
be true if they are afraid to be named. I am sure the paper verified it." The lack of an
independent media has killed Truth. Truth is now a concept. And, then the media blame Trump
for the fact that 50% of the population does not trust them. A bit like the old story of the
person who kills his parent and says, ' oh, feel sorry for me, I am an orphan ."
Endgame Napoleon , 1 hour ago
Back in the Watergate days, the American people cared about the 4th Amendment, which is
why an audible gasp was heard in the congressional hearings, when it was revealed that Nixon
taped people in the WH.
Today, the American people have ceded their 4th Amendment rights in many ways, including
when agreeing to be taped and filmed in the maze of paperwork signed in any
$10-to-$12-per-hour office job that will not even cover the cost of rent for those with no
spousal income and no womb-productivity-based welfare and progressive tax-code welfare.
'We've come a long way, baby.'
High-ranking, highly paid people in the WH, too, are already being taped, hence the Flynn
incident.
There is a word for it when you try to wiretap a head of State... now what was that? Oh,
yes. Espionage , and pieces of **** like Julius and Ethel Rosenberg fried in the
electric chair for it. Why should this particular dual citizen be any
different? Fry his *** extra crispy -just like a chicken.
RictaviousPorkchop , 2 hours ago
Rosenberg...Rosenstein.....Hmmmmmm
Jackprong , 2 hours ago
Rosenstein orchestrated a COUP ATTEMPT! Rosenstein needs to pay for this Banana Republic
move on his part. Before he pays, he should spill his guts about his relationships with Obama
and Mrs. Bill Clinton.
blindfaith , 2 hours ago
Is the New York Times and ABC beginning to see the light? Are they awakening to the
deception? Will they become actual news reporters?
So many questions.....
RictaviousPorkchop , 2 hours ago
No. The media is merely cashing in on the chaos, AND in hopes that Trump will fire the
Jewish Lad.
"... Rather than being a revelatory, shocking look behind the curtain of an administration run by the single dumbest man to ever hold his office, the book just confirms the stories we've already heard, mixing in additional commentary from people in or close to the White House, mostly former employees who clearly still agree with Trump's agenda, even if they could no longer stand the man himself. ..."
"... Woodward presents anecdotes from these individuals--people like Sen. Lindsay Graham, a renown proponent of endless wars in the Middle East, and Steve Bannon, former Chief Strategist, an out-and-proud xenophobe and fascist--without commentary or context, which has the odd effect of presenting these people only in contrast and comparison to Trump himself. ..."
A frustratingly neutral collection of accounts from morally questionable people.
Trump is really, really bad at being President. This isn't news to anyone who has been
following the leaks, rumors, announcements, policies, and tweets coming out of the White
House for the last nineteen months.
Rather than being a revelatory, shocking look behind the
curtain of an administration run by the single dumbest man to ever hold his office, the book
just confirms the stories we've already heard, mixing in additional commentary from people in
or close to the White House, mostly former employees who clearly still agree with Trump's
agenda, even if they could no longer stand the man himself.
Woodward presents anecdotes from
these individuals--people like Sen. Lindsay Graham, a renown proponent of endless wars in
the Middle East, and Steve Bannon, former Chief Strategist, an out-and-proud xenophobe and
fascist--without commentary or context, which has the odd effect of presenting these people
only in contrast and comparison to Trump himself.
One unfamiliar with Bannon, for example,
could come away from the book thinking that he was a fairly reasonable person (rather than a
racist, white nationalist) because he is only ever shown as a foil to the ongoing circus of
incompetence that is the Trump administration.
This is Woodward's style, of course; he
presents himself as an almost entirely neutral presence, merely transcribing the things he
learned, but when discussing such dangerous and reprehensible people, a paragraph here and
there dedicated to reminding readers what, exactly, these people claim to believe would have
been appreciated additional context.
Essentially, this book is just Michael Wolfe or Omarosa's stories, only drier and with
more footnotes.
Uncovered text messages reveal that FBI agent Peter Strzok wanted to use CNN's
"bombshell" report about the infamous "Steele Dossier" to interview witnesses in the
Trump-Russia probe
CNN used leaked knowledge that Comey briefed Trump on the dossier as a trigger to
publish
The FBI knew of CNN's plans to publish, confirming a dialogue between the FBI and
CNN
This is particularly damning in light of revelations of FBI-MSM collusion against the
Trump campaign
Newly revealed text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney
Lisa Page reveal that Strzok wanted to use CNN's report on the infamous "Steele Dossier" to
justify interviewing people in the Trump-Russia investigation, reports CNN
.
911bodysnatchers322 ,
So now CNN is complicit in illegal leaking, (dis)information laundering, citizen
targetting, conspiracy against rights, subversion, sedition and treason?
No wonder it's a nonstop Trump hate fest. They aren't just trying to get Trump impeached
in the court of public opinion, they're desperate to get rid of him before he 100% destroys
him
Well it's too late. Impeach away. But we'll still hold CNN for treason. The two things
aren't related. You can't steal from a store just because Trump set the one next to it on
fire
BGO ,
Fatigue is setting in with this charade. Soon the (((pundits))) will respond with the
obligatory ***yawn*** troll to all future allegations.
If Trump cannot or is unable to respond to this non-sense in the harshest terms possible,
he should not be president. It's amazing no one in this drama has met their maker Hitlery
style. If that cunt was in charge and dealing with this shit, bodies would have already hit
the floor.
J Mahoney ,
This whole situation has to piss off anyone that is even 10% objective. How could any
elected representative or senator still spew shit like "Leave Mueller Alone"
BOTTOM LINE -- If we do not get to work quickly to elect non establishment republicans in
the midterms NOTHING will EVER be done and Trump may be forced out if Dems make gains
apocalypticbrother ,
All old news. No one in jail except Manafort. It really seems like Trump is powerless
against agencys. He must hate being a powerless president.
squid ,
If, and I do mean IF, the GOP holds onto both houses of congress.....
Everyone of these fucks has to be indited with sedition, PERIOD.
its slam dunk. And, if the elected houses ever wants to get hold of the CIA, FBI and NSA
and gain some control over those rogue agencies 20-50 agents from each will have to go down
to spend the rest of their lives in Leavenworth.
These uncollected asshats have tried to change the government of the United States.
The only person on the left that appears to understand this is Glen Greenwald.
Squid
Save_America1st ,
the problem is that in my opinion the majority of the GOP is also so fucking corrupt that
I don't think most of them actually want to hold control of the House. They never even wanted
Trump to win in the first place. On top of that, I would say many of those treasonous
scumbags probably actually wanted Hitlery to win the fucking thing even if Trump wasn't going
to be her opponent!
Look at all the resignations. Never seen before in history. Why? Two reasons...Trump is
using the evidence to push many of them out or they end up in Guantanamo for life. And others
in the beginning were quitting in order to give up part of the majority in order to flip the
House to the even more evil, treasonous Demoscums so that it would restrict Trump's full
majority.
Just look how "No Name" McStain acted when voting down against repealing O-Fuck-You-Care,
right???
He was a traitor, plain and fucking simple. We all know it. Fuck their bullshit funeral.
That was a cathedral full of traitors to this country. Psychopaths and sociopaths. Except for
General Kelly and General Mattis keeping a close eye on that room full of demons.
"... What I do find absurd is the reception of Bob Woodward's book. It seems that most Trump haters don't seem to have any problems with thinking Trump is unhinged because he threatened to kill the president of a country that is allied with Russia and that he is a Russian puppet and that therefore the investigation about "collusion" is necessary. ..."
"... Bob Woodward's book also stands in a strange relationship to the anonymous NYT piece. The author of that piece seems to be a hardcore neoconservative and free-trade neoliberal -- he wants deregulation, more money for the military, but he dislikes that Trump does not escalate tensions against Russia enough and has to be pressured in order to expell enough Russian diplomats, and also the tentative support of peace efforts for Korea go against his neoconservative desires. ..."
"... Although it is not mentioned explicitly, the piece is at least compatible with "Russiagate" -- Trump's desire not to escalate international tensions against countries like Russia and North Korea too much is seen as a "preference for dictators and authoritarian leaders", which is an interpretation that is typical of neoconservative ideologues. In contrast, Woodward's main point for accusing Donald Trump of being unhinged is that he wanted to have Assad killed -- something many of the hard-core neocons would hardly object. ..."
What I find interesting in the case of Bob Woodward's book is that many anti-Trumpers seem to
celebrate it without even taking into account that, if its contents were to be believed, it
would completely discredit the whole "Russiagate" story that has been the main line of attack
against Donald Trump.
As far as I can judge from the excerpts that have been published, most of the book deals
with issues of style -- it is certainly nothing new that many people in the establishment
strongly dislike Trump's style -- and about people in important positions in Trump's
surroundings have a negative opinion of him and sometimes try to work against him -- that is
hardly something new, either.
The only piece of information that could really make Trump look like someone unhinged and
dangerous is the claim that he demanded Assad to be killed. Of course, I don't know whether
that claim is true and if Trump said something like that, it was meant as an assignment or he
just wanted to know what others thought about the idea. But Trump certainly would not have
said anything like that if he was a Russian puppet. Although Russia hardly has absolutely
loyalty to Assad as a person, killing the president of a government with which Russia is
allied and thereby causing more instability is certainly not something Russia might want. So,
not only does Bob Woodward's book that claims to report things that happened behind the
scenes not show any hints that the Russiagate conspiracy theory might be true, but -- if it
is to be believed -, it shows quite strong evidence against that theory.
I don't know whether Bob Woodward spells this out anywhere in the book -- I doubt it
because the main target audience of the book is probably Trump haters who like to hate Trump
for any conceivable reason and might be upset if one such reason, which had been heavily
promoted, was taken away from them. But at least, Bob Woodward seems to be consistent on this
to some degree -- after the report by a few handpicked agents from three agencies and
Clapper's bureau in January 2017, Woodward criticized the politicization of the secret
services. Apart from a few excerpts, I have not read Bob Woodward's book, and I cannot judge
its merits, but I think that he is probably somewhat less dishonest than many of Trump haters
-- this strange coalition of pseudo-leftists with the deep state.
What I do find absurd is the reception of Bob Woodward's book. It seems that most
Trump haters don't seem to have any problems with thinking Trump is unhinged because he
threatened to kill the president of a country that is allied with Russia and that he is a
Russian puppet and that therefore the investigation about "collusion" is necessary. I
think that once more demonstrates the irrationality of the base of that "Anti-Trump
Resistance" (not, of course, of people from the Clinton campaign, the FBI and CIA who
invented Russiagate, they just exploit the irrationality of large parts of the public).
Bob Woodward's book also stands in a strange relationship to the anonymous NYT piece.
The author of that piece seems to be a hardcore neoconservative and free-trade neoliberal --
he wants deregulation, more money for the military, but he dislikes that Trump does not
escalate tensions against Russia enough and has to be pressured in order to expell enough
Russian diplomats, and also the tentative support of peace efforts for Korea go against his
neoconservative desires.
Although it is not mentioned explicitly, the piece is at least compatible with
"Russiagate" -- Trump's desire not to escalate international tensions against countries like
Russia and North Korea too much is seen as a "preference for dictators and authoritarian
leaders", which is an interpretation that is typical of neoconservative ideologues. In
contrast, Woodward's main point for accusing Donald Trump of being unhinged is that he wanted
to have Assad killed -- something many of the hard-core neocons would hardly object.
@Adrian E. What I find interesting in the case of Bob Woodward's book is that many
anti-Trumpers seem to celebrate it without even taking into account that, if its contents
were to be believed, it would completely discredit the whole "Russiagate" story that has been
the main line of attack against Donald Trump.
As far as I can judge from the excerpts that have been published, most of the book deals
with issues of style - it is certainly nothing new that many people in the establishment
strongly dislike Trump's style - and about people in important positions in Trump's
surroundings have a negative opinion of him and sometimes try to work against him - that is
hardly something new, either.
The only piece of information that could really make Trump look like someone unhinged and
dangerous is the claim that he demanded Assad to be killed. Of course, I don't know whether
that claim is true and if Trump said something like that, it was meant as an assignment or he
just wanted to know what others thought about the idea. But Trump certainly would not have
said anything like that if he was a Russian puppet. Although Russia hardly has absolutely
loyalty to Assad as a person, killing the president of a government with which Russia is
allied and thereby causing more instability is certainly not something Russia might want. So,
not only does Bob Woodward's book that claims to report things that happened behind the
scenes not show any hints that the Russiagate conspiracy theory might be true, but - if it is
to be believed -, it shows quite strong evidence against that theory.
I don't know whether Bob Woodward spells this out anywhere in the book - I doubt it
because the main target audience of the book is probably Trump haters who like to hate Trump
for any conceiveable reason and might be upset if one such reason, which had been heavily
promoted, was taken away from them. But at least, Bob Woodward seems to be consistent on this
to some degree - after the report by a few handpicked agents from three agencies and
Clapper's bureau in January 2017, Woodward criticized the politicization of the secret
services. Apart from a few excerpts, I have not read Bob Woodward's book, and I cannot judge
its merits, but I think that he is probably somewhat less dishonest than many of his haters -
this strange coalition of pseudo-leftists with the deep state.
What I do find absurd is the reception of Bob Woodward's book. It seems that most Trump
haters don't seem to have any problems with thinking Trump is unhinged because he threatened
to kill the president of a country that is allied with Russia and that he is a Russian puppet
and that therefore the investigation about "collusion" is necessary. I think that once more
demonstrates the irrationality of the base of that "Anti-Trump Resistance" (not, of course,
of people from the Clinton campaign, the FBI and CIA who invented Russiagate, they just
exploit the irrationality of large parts of the public).
Bob Woodward's book also stands in a strange relationship to the anonymous NYT piece. The
author of that piece seems to be a hardcore neoconservative and free-trade neoliberal - he
wants deregulation, more money for the military, but he dislikes that Trump does not escalate
tensions against Russia enough and has to be pressured in order to expell enough Russian
diplomats, and also the tentative support of peace efforts for Korea go against his
neoconservative desires. Although it is not mentioned explicitly, the piece is at least
compatible with "Russiagate" - Trump's desire not to escalate international tensions against
countries like Russia and North Korea too much is seen as a "preference for dictators and
authoritarian leaders", which is an interpretation that is typical of neoconservative
ideologues. In contrast, Woodward's main point for accusing Donald Trump of being unhinged is
that he wanted to have Assad killed - something many of the hard-core neocons would hardly
object. Very good observations. Maybe the "kill Assad" ploy is not intended for domestic
consumption but rather to further undermine Trump's working relationship with Putin –
just as with the of the phoney Russian agent indictment which wast timed precisely to disrupt
the Helsinki summit.
History is very clear who runs the media for those who are in the know.
9/23/1975 Tom Charles Huston Church Committee Testimony
Tom Charles Huston testified before the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental
Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, commonly known as the Church Committee,
on the 43-page plan he presented to the President Nixon and others on ways to collect
information about anti-war and "radical" groups, including burglary, electronic surveillance,
and opening of mail.
September 1, 2015 THE CIA AND THE MEDIA: 50 FACTS THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW
Since the end of World War Two the Central Intelligence Agency has been a major force in
US and foreign news media, exerting considerable influence over what the public sees, hears
and reads on a regular basis.
President Trump's greatest legacy will be his exposing how corrupt the American government
has become. Almost every branch of Government has been exposed as corrupt but the absolute
worst is the FBI. This attempted coup should be met with the hangman's rope for traitors.
Historians know that very few people understand great historical events when they happen.
My idea is that this now is the case.
Never before in history did the leader of an empire understand that that empire could not
survive, and act accordingly.
The British empire was already not sustainable, financially, before 1914. Britain had to
give up the two fleet standard, the situation where the British fleet was superior to the
next two biggest fleets. Obama had to give up the two war standard, the USA went to one and a
half war. What a half war accomplishes one can see in Syria.
The British empire fell apart through WWII, Churchill the undertaker. For this reason, I
suspect, are the peace proposals that Rudolf Hess brought to Scotland in May 1941 still
secret. France got a generous peace, logical to assume that Hitler would propose the same to
Great Britain, the empire he admired.
The British example makes two things clear: what should have been clear prior to 1914 was
not clear, or was ignored, and the price of unwilling, or not capable of understanding
history at the moment it happens becomes clear. Britain did not have a Deep State, one might
say, on the other hand, one can be of the opinion that the British Deep State did exist. A
conflict as now in the USA never existed in Great Britain.
What would have happened if say Chamberlain would have acted as Trump does know, anybody's
guess. Chamberlain did not want war, but he also did not want to end British imagined power,
he belonged to the Thirtyniners, those with the illusion that Great Britain was ready for war
in 1939.
As in 1917, the USA had to rescue Britain, but this time the price was high: opening the
empire to foreign competition, on top of that, FDR's lofty statements, the Atlantic Charter,
in fact the end of all colonial European empires.
@Buckwheat President Trump's greatest legacy will be his exposing how corrupt the
American government has become. Almost every branch of Government has been exposed as corrupt
but the absolute worst is the FBI. This attempted coup should be met with the hangman's rope
for traitors.
President Trump's greatest legacy will be his exposing how corrupt the American
government has become. Almost every branch of Government has been exposed as corrupt but
the absolute worst is the FBI. This attempted coup should be met with the hangman's rope
for traitors.
The media controls the minds of the mob, and presents itself as vox populi .
Corruption has been exposed, and the media admits to it, endorses it, and encourages
more.
So, whaddya figure? 20 years to total economic collapse? Who's gonna feed the messicans?
Oh! The humanity! Oh, Rome, do not burn!
"Shining city on a hill" and all that bullshit. Turn out the lights.
@Deschutes I didn't like Clinton, but I think Trump is as bad, probably worse. Look at
the EPA under Trump, it's a fucking joke with fossil fuel shills like Pruitt gutting much
needed laws to protect environment and people. Look at Education secretary DeVoss: it does
NOT get any worse: a billionaire christian fundamentalist wacko billionaire who bought her
way into that post funding the GOP/Trump ticket!? She's the epitome of what the 'Trump
voters' ostensibly hate: a billionaire class aka 'Rome on the Potomac' as this author calls
it, the plutocracy who own and run the show while the proletariat slave away at their office
temp jobs, or worse yet amazon.com sweatshop, etc. DeVoss is privatizing education so that
christian fundies can have their kids taught 'gawd made the world in 7 days' instead of
Darwin's evolution. Look at Trumps Atty General Sessions: he's a reactionary fossil from the
1950s who wants to illegalize weed? Roll back sensible drug policy? He's a fucking disaster.
And look at what Trump is doing for Israel!? Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and
Kishner sucking up to Netanyahoo, doing his bidding like an Israel firster? This is all good?
This is what the disenfranchised Trump supporter voted for and had in mind??
Trump is a fucking awful trainwreck. ' Moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, '
If this makes Netanyahu happy for some time, at negligible cost to the USA, smart move.
At the same time, Trump can claim 'see how I love Israel'.
For me the same as the fake attacks on Syria.
Show.
@Wizard of Oz You seem to be using language like Alice's Humpty Dumpty. "Zionism" is at
least a little bit constrained in meaning by its being a movement to restore the Jewish
people as currently understood to the land of Israel (Judea and Samaria principally which
creates special difficulties...) with Jerusalem as it's capital, and, I suppose to maintain
them there. You are absolutely correct.
But it also includes protection of Israel.
And what is the best protection of Israel?
..
To control the most powerful country in the world ergo USA
..
And what is even better protection of Israel?
To to rule the world.
..
What is wrong or evil in this plan?
Nothing! it is good plan.
..
So where is the snag?
..
Complications in executing this plan.
According to the Washington Post, Barbara K. Olson called her husband twice on September
11, 2001 in the final minutes of Flight 77. Her last words to him were, "What do I tell the
pilot to do?"
"She called from the plane while it was being hijacked," said Theodore Olson -- 42nd
Solicitor General of the United States. "I wish it wasn't so, but it is."
However, prosecution exhibit P200054 (attached) in United States v.
Zacarias Moussaoui -- http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov/notablecases/moussaoui/
exhibits/prosecution/flights/P200054.html -- shows that Barbara Olson made only one phone
call -- it did not connect, and it lasted for 0 seconds!
Both accounts of Barbara Olson's phone calls -- the Solicitor General's and the
prosecution's in United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui -- cannot be correct.
Media lies and fabrications have been going on ever since there were "journalists" (I use
that term loosely). The difference today, is that "professional journalism" is now blatantly
showing its liberal communistic bias.
From "Remember the Maine" in the Spanish-American war (actually a powder magazine
explosion–not an attack) to walter duranty's extolling the "virtues" of communism while
one of the greatest artificially-engineered (by communists)famines in the Ukraine was taking
place, in order to force the "collectivization" of privately-held farms, to walter cronkite
outright lying about the American military's effectiveness during the 1968 Vietnam "Tet
offensive" (in which much enemy life was lost) journalism has always been a "nasty craft". In
cronkite's case, the North Vietnamese were ready to settle (and capitulate) until cronkite's
lies about the supposed American "defeat" were publicized. Cronkite's lies gave the North
Vietnamese new resolve, as they realized that they had the American "news media" on their
side. There has always been a certain sympathy for communism and totalitarianism in the
so-called "mainstream media". All one has to do is to look at the journalists fawning over
Cuba's Fidel Castro and how wonderful life is in that communist "paradise".
Journalists HATE the internet because it exposes their "profession" for what it really is
with the internet, anyone can be a true journalist. This is why the same "mainstream media"
is calling for the "licensing" of journalists–something that would have been unheard of
(and treasonous) in previous decades
Professional journalism is its own worst enemy
We're surprised the tools of the Oligarch Class remain loyal to their paymasters? Comey and
Müller both received very lucrative board-seat assignments for looking the other way
when appropriate, or digging a little deeper when asked.
"In the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our
national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of
national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry -- in an
informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic
government. For this reason, it is perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free
most vitally serves the basic purpose of the First Amendment. For, without an informed and
free press, there cannot be an enlightened people."
"... Retired USAF Col. Fletcher Prouty revealed that the "Pentagon Papers" were a planned CIA leak to shift blame for the failed war in Vietnam from the CIA to the Pentagon. The documents were real, but only certain documents were released. ..."
"... Nixon was ousted with the help of covert CIA agent Bob Woodward, working undercover as a reporter at the CIA co-founded "Washington Post". Gerald Ford became President, who just happened to be a member of the discredited Warren Commission that engineered the cover-up of the JFK assassination! ..."
He graduated from the CIA university (aka Yale) then went to CIA basic training as a naval
intelligence officer for five years, then to the Washington Post. This is why he was allowed
White House access by the Trump Neocons, despite is record as a back stabber to those who
oppose the Neocon agenda. The Washington Post itself was co-founded by the CIA. Woodward was
a key player in the last CIA coup when Nixon was ousted, not too long after they disposed of
troublesome President Kennedy. I noted some of this in my 2010 blog:
Retired USAF Col. Fletcher Prouty revealed that the "Pentagon Papers" were a planned
CIA leak to shift blame for the failed war in Vietnam from the CIA to the Pentagon. The
documents were real, but only certain documents were released. Prouty wrote the other
reason for this "leak" was to upset the Nixon administration, which it was trying to
destabilize in hopes of ousting Nixon.
That President was upset that the CIA refused to provide him with requested documents
concerning the Bay of Pigs and the JFK assassination. Nixon also angered the "Power Elite" by
withdrawing American troops from their profitable business venture in Vietnam and improving
relations with Red China.
Nixon was ousted with the help of covert CIA agent Bob Woodward, working undercover as
a reporter at the CIA co-founded "Washington Post". Gerald Ford became President, who just
happened to be a member of the discredited Warren Commission that engineered the cover-up of
the JFK assassination!
This piece makes Trump look like a credible president – that is, if he is to be judged
by his campaign promises to the American electorate who voted him in. This is only partly
true. Recall that Trump did make unequivocal promises: "We will stop racing to topple foreign
regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with,". and "We will stop
racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved
with," Not long after such promises, he announced he would be sending more troops to
Afghanistan. His bombing of Syria and illegally keeping American boots in that country surely
flies in the face of such promises especially in light of statements that American troops
will not leave that country any time soon, in keeping with America's zeal for fighting
Israel's wars. This piece portrays Trump as intrepid and true to his word. Yet, like many of
his predecessors, the morbid fear of the pro-Israeli lobby remains a defining feature of US
foreign policy matters. Neither can Trump exonerate himself from the ongoing tragedy in Yemen
emboldening the Saudis and their Emirati allies with the sale of billions of dollars of arms
to these medieval monarchies, not to mention the logistical support given them by the US.
"Leaking Like Mad": FBI-DOJ-MSM Collusion Went Far Deeper Than Previously Known
by Tyler Durden
Wed, 09/12/2018 - 15:30 637 SHARES
The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a "media
leak strategy" which was first
first revealed Tuesday , goes far deeper than first reported, according to
Fox News , which obtained "new communications between the former lovers."
A December 15, 2016 email appears to discuss a "political" leaking operation, in which
others were " leaking like mad " amid the Trump-Russia probe.
"Oh, remind me to tell you tomorrow about the times doing a story about the rnc hacks,"
Page texted Strzok.
"And more than they already did? I told you Quinn told me they pulling out all the stops
on some story " Strzok replied.
A source told Fox News "Quinn" could be referring to Richard Quinn, who served as the
chief of the Media and Investigative Publicity Section in the Office of Public Affairs. Quinn
could not be reached for comment.
Strzok again replied: " Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and
worried, and political, they're kicking into overdrive. "
In one passage, Strzok apparently misreads a reference to "rnc" as "mc," and then,
realizing his error, blames "old man eyes."
It is unclear at this point to whom Strzok was referring when he used the term "sisters."
-
Fox News
"Sisters" may refer to sister agency.
"Sisters is an odd phrase to use," retired FBI special agent and former FBI national
spokesman John Iannarelli told Fox News Wednesday. " It could be any intelligence agency or any
other federal law enforcement agency. The FBI works with all of them because, post 9/11, it's
all about cooperation and sharing. "
The US intelligence community is comprised of 17 agencies, including the CIA, the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the National Security Agency.
Fox News notes that the "leaking like mad" reference was texted the same day that several US
news outlets reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved - and
personally approved, Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Then, on January 10, 2017,
The Times published another article which suggested that Russian hackers had "gained
limited access" to the Republican National Committee (RNC) - the same day that BuzzFeed News
published the "Steele Dossier" accusing President Trump of a variety of salacious and unproven
ties to Russia.
Following the text about "sisters leaking," Strzok wrote to Page:
" And we need to talk more about putting C reporting in our submission. They're going to
declassify all of it "
Page replied: "I know. But they're going to declassify their stuff, how do we withhold
"
" We will get extraordinary questions. What we did what we're doing. Just want to ensure
everyone is good with it and has thought thru all implications," Strzok wrote. "CD should
bring it up with the DD."
A source told Fox News that "C" is likely in reference to classified information, whereas
"CD" is Cyber Division, and DD could refer to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in March for making an unauthorized
disclosure to the news media, and "lacked candor" under oath on multiple occassions.
It is unclear what "submission" Strzok and Page were referring to. -
Fox News
A source also told Fox News that the messages were part of the newly released batch of
Strzok-Page communications obtained by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who uncovered
them as part of his investigation into the FBI's conduct in the Russia investigation.
LaugherNYC ,
Dead silence in the media about the entire FBI DOJ scandal for months. Only the occasional
piece on conservative blogs. EIther Huber has Grand Jury true bills coming October 1 to slam
on the Dems just before the midterms, or this coverup of Deep State malfeasance will go on
until the Dems get the House and impeach Trump. The plan seems to let them all get away with
their betrayal of the country.
McCabe should already be in prison, yet it seems like there has yet even been a decision
to indict him... he might be in front of a gran d jury, or he might just be chillin waiting
for his grievance with the union to be heard and be awarded back pay and pension vesting, a
if what he did is equivalent to a guy driving his forklift into a wall at Costco after a
beer.,
MrBoompi ,
Now "It's all about cooperation and sharing." What a crock of shit. They still want us to
believe the government agencies didn't communicate with each other, or work together, before
911. That's high level propaganda that's still being used to cover up what happened on 911
and justify the anti-constitutional Patriot Act.
Stan522 ,
"The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a
"media leak strategy" which was first
first revealed Tuesday , goes far deeper than first reported, according to
Fox News , which obtained "new communications between the former lovers." "
Questions arise....
The media obviously knows who is leaking and they also know who's been in the news
relating to this investigation, yet, they still refuse to connect the dots and write about
the uncontrollable sieve of leaks
The media also refuses to put any focus on the drip by drip bits of information about how
there was bias. The devilcRAT talking heads are in contortions trying to excuse all of this
and the MSM are allowing it.
The Inspector General apparently conducted an investigation on all of this shit's and
concluded there was no bias, yet every day there seems to be more evidence that there was
extreme bias. What more needs to be shown to get the media talking about it?
Last weeks breaking news had shown that Andrew Weisman (yes, the same clown that now works
for Mueller's hit squad) as colluding with Bruck Ohr and Christopher Steele during the
creation of that fake news Dossier and Weisman was feeding information to Mueller. When will
Mueller drop this scam investigation?
There are still republicans that hold the opinion that Mueller must be allowed to finish
his investigation. With the fact that Weisman was part of the hit squad creating dirt about
Trump, at what point are these idiot politicians are going to grow a pair and start talking
about all of this? It seems they are the same lazy thinkers that go along with the man caused
global warming hoax.
Yesterday's breaking news was about what DeGenova stated about the meeting in obama's
office with Rice, Yates, Biden, Comey, and Obama. He says "It was a meeting to discuss how
Sally Yates was going to get Michael Flynn. And the President of the United States, Barack
Obama, was directly involved in these discussions." Yet NOTHING was shown on CNN, MSNBC, NBC,
CBS, ABC and the rest about this.
asscannon101 ,
That first pic in the article- the one of Strzok- that is a 'peyote face'. The crazy eyes
and the grotesque, exaggerated facial grimacing. Mescaline will do that to you. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. Just lucky that he didn't spaz out, shit in his pants, flop
around on the floor squawking like a seagull and start chewing his own lips off. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. A lot of books. Over and over again. A lot of fucking
books.
troutback ,
Get a Fucking Rope and an Oak Tree. That's how I feel. It's fucking Treason!
Sheesh
tb
bobdog54 ,
The swamp aka the deep state is not only not a conspiracy theory but a real seditionous
conspiracy against our Constitutional Laws and Way of Life. And much much deeper than most
can imagine.
Automatic Choke ,
why are they not incarcerated?
this shit is an affront to all of us who follow the laws, respect election results, pay
taxes, and try to be good citizens.
PUT THEM AWAY!!!!!
navy62802 ,
So we already know that these people committed sedition against the government based on
the known evidence. One more tape doesn't prove the crime any more than the other evidence.
All this does is drive home the fact that there were additional conspirators who protected
these criminals from justice. It's fucking sickening.
Call me when someone in the government gets the balls to finally charge these criminals
with the crimes they have obviously committed. Until then, new evidence is moot.
bobdog54 ,
Wish I could give you 100 up arrows!
All Risk No Reward ,
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being
oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
― Malcolm X
The above is true, but only tangentially related to this topic in that it expresses the
media LIES.
The TRUTH is that the BankstObama FBI worked overtime to get BankstoTrump "elected" as one
of the Bankster financed "selections." Banksters "select" based on money and promotion, then
you "vote" on their selection in an "election."
Let freeDUMB rain!
Here's how it worked...
1. Mid 2016, FBI became aware of Hellary's criminal activity.
2. Mid 2016, Comey sent memo stating Hellary would not be prosecuted. He did not say this
is because she's a Money Power Sith Lord front woman who has a KMA card. Nick Rockefeller
explained this to Aaron Russo, as told by Aaron himself when he was interviewed by Alex
Jones. Oh, and Rockefeller told him the details of the post 9/11 Afghanistan invasion in
advance, too. The interview is worth watching.
3. October, 2016, Comey announced an investigation into Hellary's criminal behavior. Uh,
it was already determined she wouldn't be prosecuted, right? Yup. So why publicly imply she
could be charged and convicted IF NOT TO AID AND ABET DONALD "HE'S WORTH MORE TO US
(BANKSTERS) ALIVE THAN DEAD" TRUMP INTO THE WHITE HOUSE?
By the way, that's an accurate and real quote from an attorney that represents something
like 50+ banks against Trump. He said it to describe why the Banksters didn't force Donald
into bankruptcy and take all his stuff. Donald OWES the Banksters FOR EVERYTHING HE HAS TODAY
THAT IS NOT POVERTY!
This is called an October Surprise, and they are rarely good.
4. After the elections, Comey announces that Hellary committed the crimes, was caught red
handed, but wouldn't be prosecuted because she didn't intend to commit the crime. Try that at
your next court date for running a stop sign you didn't see, serfer boys and girls.
5. Propaganda depicting Comey and Trump as enemies ensued immediately, lest the mindless
rabble formulate the most obvious question in their wittle minds...
"Why did the Obama FBI create a phony October Surprise to hurt Hellary and promote
Trump's election as President?"
That's not in the Money Power Matrix programming!
The reason is that the Banksters wanted Trump in office, because their debt-based money
system bubble (largest in human history) is set to implode AND THERE IS NO PERSON ON PLANET
EARTH THAT IS MORE CAPABLE OF MAGNETICALLY TAKING ALL THE BLAME ONTO HIMSELF THAN DONALD J.
TRUMP.
Nobody.
The name of the game is to shield the Banksters and their debt-money system from criticism
as the fraudulent ROOT CAUSE of the debt-money bubble bust cycles that asset strips entire
societies and leads to systematic global oppression of all ordinary people. At least for
those not directly or indirectly murdered by the Bankster anti-ordinary human agendas.
And, being promoted as an outsider, the Banksters get to save their two controlled
privately incorporated "politically parties in the minds of Muppets" from taking full blame,
therefore, all the Muppets will continue to think they have freedom because they get to
"vote" for Bankster quisling #1 or Bankster quisling #2.
Let freeDUMB rain!
PS - The Banksters don't even care that I spill the beans on their plans because they know
the masses, even the ZeroHedge masses, simply lack the imagination to envision the reality
they Banksters have financed into existence.
alfbell ,
Wake me up once the handing out of prison sentences starts. If they never do, I don't want
to wake up.
WarAndPeace ,
Only a politician would not recognize that they are criminals.... ah apply that whichever
way you want.
LaugherNYC ,
Dead silence in the media about the entire FBI DOJ scandal for months. Only the occasional
piece on conservative blogs. EIther Huber has Grand Jury true bills coming October 1 to slam
on the Dems just before the midterms, or this coverup of Deep State malfeasance will go on
until the Dems get the House and impeach Trump. The plan seems to let them all get away with
their betrayal of the country.
McCabe should already be in prison, yet it seems like there has yet even been a decision
to indict him... he might be in front of a gran d jury, or he might just be chillin waiting
for his grievance with the union to be heard and be awarded back pay and pension vesting, a
if what he did is equivalent to a guy driving his forklift into a wall at Costco after a
beer.,
MrBoompi ,
Now "It's all about cooperation and sharing." What a crock of shit. They still want us to
believe the government agencies didn't communicate with each other, or work together, before
911. That's high level propaganda that's still being used to cover up what happened on 911
and justify the anti-constitutional Patriot Act.
Captain Nemo de Erehwon ,
Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. It is what prevents people from doing real
damage. It is the sole hope for the world.
It was not hard-nosed intelligence and legal professionals running a secretive op to
overturn the election. If it were there would not be this trail of text messages describing
each step in detail. The amateurish execution, given all the assets at their disposal
including Australian Ambassadors, mysterious European Professors, and other premiere
intelligence agencies, even perhaps other US government agencies is like spoilt rich kids
ruining their parents' ...hmm is that offensive nowadays? ...legal guardians' ...!@$# it ...
father's company.
All Risk No Reward ,
>>Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. <<
You don't comprehend the milieu.
The agendas include, but are not limited to:
1. Produce more debt - private, corporate, and governmental. Incompetence? On what planet?
They are AMAZING!
2. Prevent the plebs from realizing #1. Again, they have you duped - and you aren't
alone.
3. Pretend inferiority, so that concerted malevolent intent is not discerned. Art of War
101.
The are doing a stellar job at their true agendas.
Dare I say, so good that I can't exclude supernatural guidance.
Muddy1 ,
Why show the attractive pictures of Lisa Page? I liked the ones where she looked like the
dimwit she is.
Pons Asinorum ,
She's more attractive with her mouth shut.
Yog Soggoth ,
"Sisters" may refer to sister agency.
"Sisters is an odd phrase to use," retired FBI special agent and former FBI national
spokesman John Iannarelli told Fox News Wednesday. " It could be any intelligence agency or
any other federal law enforcement agency. The FBI works with all of them because, post 9/11,
it's all about cooperation and sharing. " Witches perhaps? Cotton Mather was right!
fulliautomatix ,
There's another William - "it's all about cooperation and sharing." Oh, and telling the
truth.
Remington Steel ,
Treasonous fucks. They should all hang in D.C.'s National Mall.
SnatchnGrab ,
Hang them in the public square so that we may spit on them.
I am Groot ,
They should be staked down to the ground out in the desert, covered in honey and have ants
poured all over them.
SaulAzzHoleSky ,
Strzok's lawyer will say that this refers to problems with his Depends, not the
media.....
WTFUD ,
Down down deeper and down - that's pretty deep.
There's very little deep about the F-uk-us Political Establishment; empty suits,
treasonous filth, cowardly, and yet, wholeheartedly believe they are principled.
S.H.O.C.K.I.N.G
motoXdude ,
Just like enlightened, educated Liberals... those working in these agencies (and most
likely the agencies themselves) are above the law and here to govern the great unwashed and
deplorables! This IS THE DEEP STATE aka THE SWAMP! Time to drain it or drop a high tension
power line in it!
Anunnaki ,
Leaking must not be a crime for Keebler Sessions
Mzhen ,
Wasn't it fortunate that Seth Rich was involved in transporting DNC data to WikiLeaks?
Without the "hacking" link in the chain, the rest of the plan could not have been set into
motion. Characterized as an ardent Bernie supporter, Seth Rich was actually scheduled to go
to work at Hillary's campaign headquarters a few weeks after the date of his murder.
WTFUD ,
The Classic Clinton Foundation ENTRAPMENT.
The job offer being a ruse just in case they didn't get him 1st Time.
SirBarksAlot ,
According to this news clip, there are secret military tribunals going on and John McCain
was executed for his treason.
His 3 remaining brain-cells were targeted with magnetic pulses like the one's going down
at the US Embassy in CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBA.
HominyTwin ,
That's right! Powerful people are taking care of everything, and making sure all will be
right with the USA once again, in the very near future, without effort or sacrifice or
thinking on our part. That is wonderful news!!!!
south40_dreams ,
Build the gallows.
missionshk ,
my understanding is that there were 14 people from various agencies, in a chat room all
committing treason, but dont here about that any more
This is a coup, plain and simple, and the coup is winning.
Prosource ,
Not sure the coup is winning, but it's been almost 2 years and we are only this far in
investigations and prosecutions ???
fulliautomatix ,
Trying to keep some of the legal community alive.
Dickweed Wang ,
Does Lisa Page have tits or are those mutant mosquito bites?
NewHugh ,
In my limited experience flat girls figure out a way to "compensate"...
I am Groot ,
Have you seen her smile ? She's all gums. I'll bet Stzrok loves when the vet takes her
teeth out to clean them and she blows him.
GUMMY ! GUMMY ! GUMMY !
SirBarksAlot ,
It hasn't been determined if she has tits or not.
However, she certainly has balls.
cosmyccowboy ,
she needs the crocodille dundee test... the dept of injustice is trannies on parade!
Collectivism Killz ,
Just in case Qanon is wrong about Keebler Elf Sessions, can someone at least gently remind
him that failure to prosecute will give creeps like Joe Biden a second shot at his
Granddaughters? Not sure if he cares, but I would think an old hound dog such as Sessions
would at least consider his final legacy on earth. All that Fried Chicken and chitlins have
to catch up with him at some point.
Yog Soggoth ,
Everyone up on the Hill feels the fire burning below their feet, those who succumb will
embrace the everlasting heat. Where is Billy? Can you clean this up for me?
Stan522 ,
"The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a
"media leak strategy" which was first
first revealed Tuesday , goes far deeper than first reported, according to
Fox News , which obtained "new communications between the former lovers." "
Questions arise....
The media obviously knows who is leaking and they also know who's been in the news
relating to this investigation, yet, they still refuse to connect the dots and write about
the uncontrollable sieve of leaks
The media also refuses to put any focus on the drip by drip bits of information about how
there was bias. The devilcRAT talking heads are in contortions trying to excuse all of this
and the MSM are allowing it.
The Inspector General apparently conducted an investigation on all of this shit's and
concluded there was no bias, yet every day there seems to be more evidence that there was
extreme bias. What more needs to be shown to get the media talking about it?
Last weeks breaking news had shown that Andrew Weisman (yes, the same clown that now works
for Mueller's hit squad) as colluding with Bruck Ohr and Christopher Steele during the
creation of that fake news Dossier and Weisman was feeding information to Mueller. When will
Mueller drop this scam investigation?
There are still republicans that hold the opinion that Mueller must be allowed to finish
his investigation. With the fact that Weisman was part of the hit squad creating dirt about
Trump, at what point are these idiot politicians are going to grow a pair and start talking
about all of this? It seems they are the same lazy thinkers that go along with the man caused
global warming hoax.
Yesterday's breaking news was about what DeGenova stated about the meeting in obama's
office with Rice, Yates, Biden, Comey, and Obama. He says "It was a meeting to discuss how
Sally Yates was going to get Michael Flynn. And the President of the United States, Barack
Obama, was directly involved in these discussions." Yet NOTHING was shown on CNN, MSNBC, NBC,
CBS, ABC and the rest about this.
lookslikecraptome ,
Just put up the link to fox news that ran this story. Talk about a cut and paste.
"As Communists, we work in the elections not just for a candidate but strategically to
build and strengthen the movement and our Party for the long term. The situation varies
greatly from one state and election district to the next so tactics have to be developed
locally. The more we share our concrete experiences, the more we can learn and get ideas from
each other. Here are thoughts for consideration:
1. Where to concentrate?
Clubs: the neighborhood or election district where the club is located;
Districts: election districts that can be flipped; election districts where
working-class champions who are incumbents are under attack; election districts with a
progressive primary candidate.
2. What goals?
• build a voter base to change the political balance of forces;
• strengthen relationships with unions, left/progressive electoral forms like Our
Revolution (OR) and Working Famlies Party (WFP), etc;
• raise the level of class consciousness, unity and solidarity;
• enlarge the CPUSA diverse working-class membership and readership of People's
World;
• identify among our members potential candidates for local office.
3. What methods?
Voter registration: laws differ from state to state. Where there is postcard
registration, door-to-door work with voter cards and issue petitions and sign-ups are a great
way to identify people who want to become engaged and who we can follow up with to vote and
get involved. Tabling with voter cards, issue petitions, People's World and literature is
another way, but harder to follow up with people in scattered geography. Increasing voter
turnout in working-class communities can win elections and create the base for organizing to
win a people's program. It is a direct challenge to the corporate right-wing that depends on
depressing and suppressing the vote.
Participate with allies: Unions, progressive community groups and left/progressive
electoral forms are the best way to participate in campaigns and build the movement for the
long term. Organizations vary from place to place. Labor 2018 is the AFL-CIO program and
anyone can take part in phone banks and visits to the homes of union members. Each union also
has its own election program that union members should prioritize. Local issue coalitions or
ballot initiatives are also important venues, for example Jobs with Justice, Planned
Parenthood, Fight for 15, the Poor People's Campaign, Millions of Jobs etc. Left and
progressive electoral organizations that have endorsed candidates with strong programs are a
strategic way to participate such as Our Revolution, Working Families Party, Indivisible,
etc. If you are just getting started this is a great way to reach out.
Chupacabra-322 ,
They really thought Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath Hillary Clinton
would win.
And, with it. Complete destruction of Conservatism, Libertarian Values, &
Ideology.
Her Crimes would have never been uncovered or bought out into the open as we're
witnessing.
Much was at stake. Everything was lost.
The Presidency LOST.
Weaponized Intelligence Community with Agents, Assets & Operatives. LOST.
Complicit, Criminal Loyal CIA, FBI, DOJ. LOST.
Supreme Court. LOST.
No doubt, the censorship & Gas Lighting would have been turned on fully.
And, with it Tyrannical Lawlessness.
mc888 ,
How about the "Free Press"? Exposed as nothing but a corrupt propganda outlet for the
DS.
"Free Independent Journalism" LOST.
All these MSM propaganda outlets need their FCC licenses revoked for broadcasting false
information and hoaxes.
Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast. The War of
theWorlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology seri...
Operation Mockingbird lives on, just as we, the "conspiracy theorists" said.
And look who was wrong about reality in the end:
The ones pretending nothing was/is wrong, and that we were/are crazy.
Well who's crazy now motherfuckers?
Looks like it's you lot over there, desperately clinging to your MSM/DNC/GOP idols, asking
for FB/Twitter/Google to ban everything too inconvenient for your "reality".
Face the truth for once: the collusion is and has always been between the
MSM/DNC/GOP/Alphabet Agencies and the DEEP STATE. And you perpetuate the oppression by being
party to it.
Yippie21 ,
And to sell the Russia-crap, the Obama administration purposely kicked diplomats out of
the country and laid on sanctions in December. I'm curious enough to wonder how much of the
White-helmet gas attacks in Syria ( that Trump reacted to ) were indirectly done to further
the anti-Russia narrative by Obama folks.... After all, the whole Syria mess has his
fingerprints all over it.
surf@jm ,
Big wow......
Clear and convincing evidence of a crime, obviously isn't a crime in Washington D.C.,
unless, of course, you are a conservative.....
fulliautomatix ,
little wow - Strzok deliberately documented the crimes on his and Page's phones.
thetruthhurts ,
It is unclear at this point to whom Strzok was referring when he used the term
"sisters."
_______________________________
CIA, NSA etc.
PrivetHedge ,
I see what they are afraid of now.
The 'russiagate' stuff is now starting to reveal the very structure and organisation of
the Deep State: once only suspected by the sheep, now it's coming into plain sight for all to
see to the horror of all the pharisee jew vampires who are now seeing the first signs of
dawn.
asscannon101 ,
That first pic in the article- the one of Strzok- that is a 'peyote face'. The crazy eyes
and the grotesque, exaggerated facial grimacing. Mescaline will do that to you. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. Just lucky that he didn't spaz out, shit in his pants, flop
around on the floor squawking like a seagull and start chewing his own lips off. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. A lot of books. Over and over again. A lot of fucking
books.
troutback ,
Get a Fucking Rope and an Oak Tree. That's how I feel. It's fucking Treason!
Sheesh
tb
bobdog54 ,
The swamp aka the deep state is not only not a conspiracy theory but a real seditionous
conspiracy against our Constitutional Laws and Way of Life. And much much deeper than most
can imagine.
Automatic Choke ,
why are they not incarcerated?
this shit is an affront to all of us who follow the laws, respect election results, pay
taxes, and try to be good citizens.
PUT THEM AWAY!!!!!
navy62802 ,
So we already know that these people committed sedition against the government based on
the known evidence. One more tape doesn't prove the crime any more than the other evidence.
All this does is drive home the fact that there were additional conspirators who protected
these criminals from justice. It's fucking sickening.
Call me when someone in the government gets the balls to finally charge these criminals
with the crimes they have obviously committed. Until then, new evidence is moot.
bobdog54 ,
Wish I could give you 100 up arrows!
All Risk No Reward ,
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being
oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
― Malcolm X
The above is true, but only tangentially related to this topic in that it expresses the
media LIES.
The TRUTH is that the BankstObama FBI worked overtime to get BankstoTrump "elected" as one
of the Bankster financed "selections." Banksters "select" based on money and promotion, then
you "vote" on their selection in an "election."
Let freeDUMB rain!
Here's how it worked...
1. Mid 2016, FBI became aware of Hellary's criminal activity.
2. Mid 2016, Comey sent memo stating Hellary would not be prosecuted. He did not say this
is because she's a Money Power Sith Lord front woman who has a KMA card. Nick Rockefeller
explained this to Aaron Russo, as told by Aaron himself when he was interviewed by Alex
Jones. Oh, and Rockefeller told him the details of the post 9/11 Afghanistan invasion in
advance, too. The interview is worth watching.
3. October, 2016, Comey announced an investigation into Hellary's criminal behavior. Uh,
it was already determined she wouldn't be prosecuted, right? Yup. So why publicly imply she
could be charged and convicted IF NOT TO AID AND ABET DONALD "HE'S WORTH MORE TO US
(BANKSTERS) ALIVE THAN DEAD" TRUMP INTO THE WHITE HOUSE?
By the way, that's an accurate and real quote from an attorney that represents something
like 50+ banks against Trump. He said it to describe why the Banksters didn't force Donald
into bankruptcy and take all his stuff. Donald OWES the Banksters FOR EVERYTHING HE HAS TODAY
THAT IS NOT POVERTY!
This is called an October Surprise, and they are rarely good.
4. After the elections, Comey announces that Hellary committed the crimes, was caught red
handed, but wouldn't be prosecuted because she didn't intend to commit the crime. Try that at
your next court date for running a stop sign you didn't see, serfer boys and girls.
5. Propaganda depicting Comey and Trump as enemies ensued immediately, lest the mindless
rabble formulate the most obvious question in their wittle minds...
"Why did the Obama FBI create a phony October Surprise to hurt Hellary and promote
Trump's election as President?"
That's not in the Money Power Matrix programming!
The reason is that the Banksters wanted Trump in office, because their debt-based money
system bubble (largest in human history) is set to implode AND THERE IS NO PERSON ON PLANET
EARTH THAT IS MORE CAPABLE OF MAGNETICALLY TAKING ALL THE BLAME ONTO HIMSELF THAN DONALD J.
TRUMP.
Nobody.
The name of the game is to shield the Banksters and their debt-money system from criticism
as the fraudulent ROOT CAUSE of the debt-money bubble bust cycles that asset strips entire
societies and leads to systematic global oppression of all ordinary people. At least for
those not directly or indirectly murdered by the Bankster anti-ordinary human agendas.
And, being promoted as an outsider, the Banksters get to save their two controlled
privately incorporated "politically parties in the minds of Muppets" from taking full blame,
therefore, all the Muppets will continue to think they have freedom because they get to
"vote" for Bankster quisling #1 or Bankster quisling #2.
Let freeDUMB rain!
PS - The Banksters don't even care that I spill the beans on their plans because they know
the masses, even the ZeroHedge masses, simply lack the imagination to envision the reality
they Banksters have financed into existence.
alfbell ,
Wake me up once the handing out of prison sentences starts. If they never do, I don't want
to wake up.
WarAndPeace ,
Only a politician would not recognize that they are criminals.... ah apply that whichever
way you want.
LaugherNYC ,
Dead silence in the media about the entire FBI DOJ scandal for months. Only the occasional
piece on conservative blogs. EIther Huber has Grand Jury true bills coming October 1 to slam
on the Dems just before the midterms, or this coverup of Deep State malfeasance will go on
until the Dems get the House and impeach Trump. The plan seems to let them all get away with
their betrayal of the country.
McCabe should already be in prison, yet it seems like there has yet even been a decision
to indict him... he might be in front of a gran d jury, or he might just be chillin waiting
for his grievance with the union to be heard and be awarded back pay and pension vesting, a
if what he did is equivalent to a guy driving his forklift into a wall at Costco after a
beer.,
MrBoompi ,
Now "It's all about cooperation and sharing." What a crock of shit. They still want us to
believe the government agencies didn't communicate with each other, or work together, before
911. That's high level propaganda that's still being used to cover up what happened on 911
and justify the anti-constitutional Patriot Act.
Captain Nemo de Erehwon ,
Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. It is what prevents people from doing real
damage. It is the sole hope for the world.
It was not hard-nosed intelligence and legal professionals running a secretive op to
overturn the election. If it were there would not be this trail of text messages describing
each step in detail. The amateurish execution, given all the assets at their disposal
including Australian Ambassadors, mysterious European Professors, and other premiere
intelligence agencies, even perhaps other US government agencies is like spoilt rich kids
ruining their parents' ...hmm is that offensive nowadays? ...legal guardians' ...!@$# it ...
father's company.
All Risk No Reward ,
>>Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. <<
You don't comprehend the milieu.
The agendas include, but are not limited to:
1. Produce more debt - private, corporate, and governmental. Incompetence? On what planet?
They are AMAZING!
2. Prevent the plebs from realizing #1. Again, they have you duped - and you aren't
alone.
3. Pretend inferiority, so that concerted malevolent intent is not discerned. Art of War
101.
The are doing a stellar job at their true agendas.
Dare I say, so good that I can't exclude supernatural guidance.
Muddy1 ,
Why show the attractive pictures of Lisa Page? I liked the ones where she looked like the
dimwit she is.
Pons Asinorum ,
She's more attractive with her mouth shut.
Yog Soggoth ,
"Sisters" may refer to sister agency.
"Sisters is an odd phrase to use," retired FBI special agent and former FBI national
spokesman John Iannarelli told Fox News Wednesday. " It could be any intelligence agency or
any other federal law enforcement agency. The FBI works with all of them because, post 9/11,
it's all about cooperation and sharing. " Witches perhaps? Cotton Mather was right!
fulliautomatix ,
There's another William - "it's all about cooperation and sharing." Oh, and telling the
truth.
Remington Steel ,
Treasonous fucks. They should all hang in D.C.'s National Mall.
SnatchnGrab ,
Hang them in the public square so that we may spit on them.
I am Groot ,
They should be staked down to the ground out in the desert, covered in honey and have ants
poured all over them.
SaulAzzHoleSky ,
Strzok's lawyer will say that this refers to problems with his Depends, not the
media.....
WTFUD ,
Down down deeper and down - that's pretty deep.
There's very little deep about the F-uk-us Political Establishment; empty suits,
treasonous filth, cowardly, and yet, wholeheartedly believe they are principled.
S.H.O.C.K.I.N.G
motoXdude ,
Just like enlightened, educated Liberals... those working in these agencies (and most
likely the agencies themselves) are above the law and here to govern the great unwashed and
deplorables! This IS THE DEEP STATE aka THE SWAMP! Time to drain it or drop a high tension
power line in it!
Anunnaki ,
Leaking must not be a crime for Keebler Sessions
Mzhen ,
Wasn't it fortunate that Seth Rich was involved in transporting DNC data to WikiLeaks?
Without the "hacking" link in the chain, the rest of the plan could not have been set into
motion. Characterized as an ardent Bernie supporter, Seth Rich was actually scheduled to go
to work at Hillary's campaign headquarters a few weeks after the date of his murder.
WTFUD ,
The Classic Clinton Foundation ENTRAPMENT.
The job offer being a ruse just in case they didn't get him 1st Time.
SirBarksAlot ,
According to this news clip, there are secret military tribunals going on and John McCain
was executed for his treason.
His 3 remaining brain-cells were targeted with magnetic pulses like the one's going down
at the US Embassy in CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBA.
HominyTwin ,
That's right! Powerful people are taking care of everything, and making sure all will be
right with the USA once again, in the very near future, without effort or sacrifice or
thinking on our part. That is wonderful news!!!!
south40_dreams ,
Build the gallows.
missionshk ,
my understanding is that there were 14 people from various agencies, in a chat room all
committing treason, but dont here about that any more
This is a coup, plain and simple, and the coup is winning.
Prosource ,
Not sure the coup is winning, but it's been almost 2 years and we are only this far in
investigations and prosecutions ???
fulliautomatix ,
Trying to keep some of the legal community alive.
Dickweed Wang ,
Does Lisa Page have tits or are those mutant mosquito bites?
NewHugh ,
In my limited experience flat girls figure out a way to "compensate"...
I am Groot ,
Have you seen her smile ? She's all gums. I'll bet Stzrok loves when the vet takes her
teeth out to clean them and she blows him.
GUMMY ! GUMMY ! GUMMY !
SirBarksAlot ,
It hasn't been determined if she has tits or not.
However, she certainly has balls.
cosmyccowboy ,
she needs the crocodille dundee test... the dept of injustice is trannies on parade!
Collectivism Killz ,
Just in case Qanon is wrong about Keebler Elf Sessions, can someone at least gently remind
him that failure to prosecute will give creeps like Joe Biden a second shot at his
Granddaughters? Not sure if he cares, but I would think an old hound dog such as Sessions
would at least consider his final legacy on earth. All that Fried Chicken and chitlins have
to catch up with him at some point.
Yog Soggoth ,
Everyone up on the Hill feels the fire burning below their feet, those who succumb will
embrace the everlasting heat. Where is Billy? Can you clean this up for me?
Stan522 ,
"The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a
"media leak strategy" which was first
first revealed Tuesday , goes far deeper than first reported, according to
Fox News , which obtained "new communications between the former lovers." "
Questions arise....
The media obviously knows who is leaking and they also know who's been in the news
relating to this investigation, yet, they still refuse to connect the dots and write about
the uncontrollable sieve of leaks
The media also refuses to put any focus on the drip by drip bits of information about how
there was bias. The devilcRAT talking heads are in contortions trying to excuse all of this
and the MSM are allowing it.
The Inspector General apparently conducted an investigation on all of this shit's and
concluded there was no bias, yet every day there seems to be more evidence that there was
extreme bias. What more needs to be shown to get the media talking about it?
Last weeks breaking news had shown that Andrew Weisman (yes, the same clown that now works
for Mueller's hit squad) as colluding with Bruck Ohr and Christopher Steele during the
creation of that fake news Dossier and Weisman was feeding information to Mueller. When will
Mueller drop this scam investigation?
There are still republicans that hold the opinion that Mueller must be allowed to finish
his investigation. With the fact that Weisman was part of the hit squad creating dirt about
Trump, at what point are these idiot politicians are going to grow a pair and start talking
about all of this? It seems they are the same lazy thinkers that go along with the man caused
global warming hoax.
Yesterday's breaking news was about what DeGenova stated about the meeting in obama's
office with Rice, Yates, Biden, Comey, and Obama. He says "It was a meeting to discuss how
Sally Yates was going to get Michael Flynn. And the President of the United States, Barack
Obama, was directly involved in these discussions." Yet NOTHING was shown on CNN, MSNBC, NBC,
CBS, ABC and the rest about this.
lookslikecraptome ,
Just put up the link to fox news that ran this story. Talk about a cut and paste.
"As Communists, we work in the elections not just for a candidate but strategically to
build and strengthen the movement and our Party for the long term. The situation varies
greatly from one state and election district to the next so tactics have to be developed
locally. The more we share our concrete experiences, the more we can learn and get ideas from
each other. Here are thoughts for consideration:
1. Where to concentrate?
Clubs: the neighborhood or election district where the club is located;
Districts: election districts that can be flipped; election districts where
working-class champions who are incumbents are under attack; election districts with a
progressive primary candidate.
2. What goals?
• build a voter base to change the political balance of forces;
• strengthen relationships with unions, left/progressive electoral forms like Our
Revolution (OR) and Working Famlies Party (WFP), etc;
• raise the level of class consciousness, unity and solidarity;
• enlarge the CPUSA diverse working-class membership and readership of People's
World;
• identify among our members potential candidates for local office.
3. What methods?
Voter registration: laws differ from state to state. Where there is postcard
registration, door-to-door work with voter cards and issue petitions and sign-ups are a great
way to identify people who want to become engaged and who we can follow up with to vote and
get involved. Tabling with voter cards, issue petitions, People's World and literature is
another way, but harder to follow up with people in scattered geography. Increasing voter
turnout in working-class communities can win elections and create the base for organizing to
win a people's program. It is a direct challenge to the corporate right-wing that depends on
depressing and suppressing the vote.
Participate with allies: Unions, progressive community groups and left/progressive
electoral forms are the best way to participate in campaigns and build the movement for the
long term. Organizations vary from place to place. Labor 2018 is the AFL-CIO program and
anyone can take part in phone banks and visits to the homes of union members. Each union also
has its own election program that union members should prioritize. Local issue coalitions or
ballot initiatives are also important venues, for example Jobs with Justice, Planned
Parenthood, Fight for 15, the Poor People's Campaign, Millions of Jobs etc. Left and
progressive electoral organizations that have endorsed candidates with strong programs are a
strategic way to participate such as Our Revolution, Working Families Party, Indivisible,
etc. If you are just getting started this is a great way to reach out.
Chupacabra-322 ,
They really thought Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath Hillary Clinton
would win.
And, with it. Complete destruction of Conservatism, Libertarian Values, &
Ideology.
Her Crimes would have never been uncovered or bought out into the open as we're
witnessing.
Much was at stake. Everything was lost.
The Presidency LOST.
Weaponized Intelligence Community with Agents, Assets & Operatives. LOST.
Complicit, Criminal Loyal CIA, FBI, DOJ. LOST.
Supreme Court. LOST.
No doubt, the censorship & Gas Lighting would have been turned on fully.
And, with it Tyrannical Lawlessness.
mc888 ,
How about the "Free Press"? Exposed as nothing but a corrupt propganda outlet for the
DS.
"Free Independent Journalism" LOST.
All these MSM propaganda outlets need their FCC licenses revoked for broadcasting false
information and hoaxes.
Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast. The War of
theWorlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology seri...
If the FBI really would have put its muscle behind it HRC would be president.
Instead Comey was waffling, re-opening the email investigation and writing a mealy-mouthed
letter to Congress just before the election.
It's pretty funny to watch the Tyler Kremlin boys try to contort this into a Deep State
conspiracy to prevent Trump and get HRC elected. If so this would have been the most inept
conspiracy ever.
debtserf ,
News Flash: It was (inept).
How else are we finding all this out?
"Trump won therefore there cannot have been a conspiracy" is not a cogent argument.
Paralentor ,
We all knew it. What the Soros owned Social Media and Rothschild AP/Reuters owned
mainstream choose to tell the sleeping public is an entirely different story.
justyouwait ,
So if we didn't live in a banana republic these guys would all be in prison or at least
going through some court proceedings for what they did. Not here though. No sir, we live in a
full blown, first world banana republic where the power elite are truly far better off than
the peons that pay their way but we offer enough distractions on so many levels that most of
the peons don't realize they are being played and many that do throw up their hands and say
ho hum, I have nothing to worry about (as long as they can have their entertainment &
distractions).
The whole FBI has to be tore down and redone from the ground up. Sure the Deep State would
want total control of the national and most powerful police force. This is how you control
government and the peons. It has shown itself to be beyond corrupt. Yes there may be many
good ones still out there but how do we know anymore? Wipe it out and start again. Yes, I
know it won't happen because it is far too huge a labyrinth to dismantle & reassemble but
the point is still valid. I guess the best we can hope for is to take down some at the top
and then make them squeal on the others. Won't happen until we reform the DOJ first
though.
DRTexas ,
What? Sorry, I wasn't listening. I was thinking about the bread, circuses, and the bit of
meat and cake they are allowing me to have.
Mercuryquicksilver ,
Cults have "Sisters".
Chupacabra-322 ,
Mocking Bird, Presstitute, Deep State "Sister" appendages.
chubbar ,
No question these folks are committing treason/sedition and it goes directly to Obama,
that fucking traitor. God, I hope these fuckers swing!
Itdoesntmatter ,
fuck you people are fucking stupid....The people writing this shit are laughing at you
idiot sheeple...
Totin ,
Riiiiiight. You are a dumb phuck if you don't think this kind of news makes a huge
difference.
1970SSNova396 ,
I will have to wait until Strzok's Jew lawyer tells us the real deal. They don't lie for
sure. There is a golden calf joke in there somewhere.
Hadenough1000 ,
Comey will be in jail when this is over
1970SSNova396 ,
That can't happen! The entire US government will be jail if that were to happen including
half the house and 80% of the senate past and present.
NMmom ,
I have no problem with that. Do you?
fulliautomatix ,
They ought to be happy they're only going to jail.
Stan522 ,
Comey was following orders....
A fish stinks starting at the head
No one at the top ever pays the price, they usually find an underling to take the fall, so
don't expect jail time for obama.....
1970SSNova396 ,
Hillary wasn't joking when she said " we all will hang from nooses if the fuking bastard
wins"
To be continued.
Hadenough1000 ,
This is why anyone paying attention KNOWS that this makes watergate look like a
kindergarten party
ISIS Barry weaponized the hell out of our government
just like they do in third world dumps where that Muslim pig was raised
all the felons this time are obamas boys
MedTechEntrepreneur ,
I want these two Yay-hoo's Waterboarded and Propofal'ed tonight! Live streamed nationwide.
I want the truth...all of it!
peippe ,
to learn what? that these lovers loved hillary & thought they were doing 'god's
work'?
please, it's like listening to francis the leader of the catholic church these days.
Gitmo for all of them.
Kosher meals till they quit lying.
All the other detainees get Egg McMuffins.
SHADEWELL ,
Gums and Butter
Page and the balding weirdo dickhead...match made in hell
Strzok has to be the most fucked up individual I have ever seen...a 50 yr old that acts
like an effeminate weirdo
Fucking scary that a weirdo like that can obtain a position that high in
"intelligence"
Truly fucked up...must have been servicing folks like Brennan
topshelfstuff ,
Sure Previously Known, But Not Previously Believed To Be
r0mulus ,
Operation Mockingbird lives on, just as we, the "conspiracy theorists" said.
And look who was wrong about reality in the end:
The ones pretending nothing was/is wrong, and that we were/are crazy.
Well who's crazy now motherfuckers?
Looks like it's you lot over there, desperately clinging to your MSM/DNC/GOP idols, asking
for FB/Twitter/Google to ban everything too inconvenient for your "reality".
Face the truth for once: the collusion is and has always been between the
MSM/DNC/GOP/Alphabet Agencies and the DEEP STATE. And you perpetuate the oppression by being
party to it.
JoeTurner ,
I sometimes lose sleep wondering how horrific things would be if the Clinton Crime Cabal
was in power. All over the TV in New York demorats are running insane political ads for
Cuomo, Nixon, Teachout and all the rest of the wild eyed communist wack jobs. Not one of them
has any proposals to govern better or improve the life of the middle class. Its all about
aggrieved minorities sticking it to whitey for 'mo gimmies'
Hadenough1000 ,
If that fat drunk and her raping Pig hubby had won then
MS13 Killers would be in the streets with their amnesty papers and new welfare checks and
voter Registration
weinstein would be in the cabinet
Rapist clinton and ISIS Barry would be on the Supreme Court
we would be losing 200,000 jobs a week again like with Barry
thank God for Trump
Prosource ,
And Mike Rogers.
And Bill Binney.
And Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.
1970SSNova396 ,
New York is a shithole country ...a lost cause....JewVille
Zappalives ,
nyc is a parasite on the real America and must be destroyed.
Prosource ,
Babylon will fall..
Count on it..
Just hope we can survive the tumor removal.
Yippie21 ,
And to sell the Russia-crap, the Obama administration purposely kicked diplomats out of
the country and laid on sanctions in December. I'm curious enough to wonder how much of the
White-helmet gas attacks in Syria ( that Trump reacted to ) were indirectly done to further
the anti-Russia narrative by Obama folks.... After all, the whole Syria mess has his
fingerprints all over it.
surf@jm ,
Big wow......
Clear and convincing evidence of a crime, obviously isn't a crime in Washington D.C.,
unless, of course, you are a conservative.....
fulliautomatix ,
little wow - Strzok deliberately documented the crimes on his and Page's phones.
thetruthhurts ,
It is unclear at this point to whom Strzok was referring when he used the term
"sisters."
_______________________________
CIA, NSA etc.
attah-boy-Luther ,
16 more 'sisters eh?
yipper....pedos love like a set of arkansas cousins as well...lol.
PrivetHedge ,
I see what they are afraid of now.
The 'russiagate' stuff is now starting to reveal the very structure and organisation of
the Deep State: once only suspected by the sheep, now it's coming into plain sight for all to
see to the horror of all the pharisee jew vampires who are now seeing the first signs of
dawn.
valerie24 ,
God, I hope you're right.
insanelysane ,
Still want to see the communication between the lovers at the time Seth Rich was
murdered.
So...under the ruse of consolidating agencies under Homeland Security to effectively
coordinate against terrorism, they now are organized to effectively coordinate a battle
against anyone of their choosing.
i think we've been had.
consider me gone ,
It was only a matter of time. Thing is, is that it took almost no time at all. Go figure.
So much for that Constitution thingy. What did Franklin say again, when he left the
Constitution Convention?
Chupacabra-322 ,
The Deep State collects blackmail data on all Democratic & Republican members that are
in positions of power. That is how they are able to keep secrets and control politicians.
The entire Surveillance Infrastructure Is & was being used for one thing. .. To build
blackmail 'Control Files' on thousands if not millions of Americans. ... An Extortion Tool.
.. NOTHING legal about it.
The Awan Case is the biggest Criminal, Treasonous, Seditious Intelligence Political
Espionage Operation of our lifetime.
And, the Awans were let off the Hook. That alone is telling of how far down the Tyrannical
Lawless Espionage rabbit hole it is.
Idiocracy's Not Sure ,
FBI-DOJ-MSM Collusion Went Far Deeper Than Previously Known ..Never Underestimate The
Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups.....NUTPOSPILG
valerie24 ,
Agree, but will the real culprits be convicted? I'm talking about the dual citizens that
have kept us in endless wars in the Middle East, some of whom have active roles in the White
House.
No doubt Rosenstein, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Ohr, Strozk, Page, etc. Should be in jail.
Hell, Sessions should probably be in jail just for failing to act.
What about the rest? The 9/11 conspirators - Silverstein, Bush, Cheney, the CIA and
Mossad, the dancing fucking Israeli's?
What a shit show
conraddobler ,
It's all just a show, even Q says constantly to "Enjoy the show"
I haven't liked this show for about 10 plus years and it wasn't that good before and on
top of all that, the illusion to which I have awoken from about that time seems to have
shattered any illusions that were concurrent to it.
In reality, our country was taken from us at least 100 years ago "if not much more, and if
we ever really had one" and if anyone thinks that they will ever "give it back" then you are
in fact suffering from a severe reality gap.
There are no "good guys" when they want to put the ring on to save us all they still
unfortunately will have to put the damn ring on to do it.
No one is advocating what actually needs to be done, namely finding a band of hobbits to
toss it into the fire from whence it came.
Just because some honorable people want to stop dishonorable people from doing
dishonorable things does not mean when they are elevated to such positions of power that they
won't turn themselves, they always do.
Until the MIC collapses we will forever be slaves to someone, doesn't matter who, bankers
or the military, either way we will not be free.
Restoring the rule of law would mean public trials, not military tribunals, a fact which
people aren't discussing at all.
The way they caught these people was the spying on everyone. The very power that most
threatens our liberties will restore our liberties?
What are the odds of that?
I'm not blind, the world is a dangerous place, maybe liberty is just too tough or
impossible to exercise in the modern world?
Clearly we were nearing a horrible fate and I am grateful for being saved form something
worse even if it only flips us out of one pan to the next the other pan was intolerably
hot.
What I most want to point out above all else is that human freedom is exceedingly fragile
and tough to win, it should be guarded much more closely and absolute power will always
corrupt so anything we do to navigate as a nation needs to adhere to the constitution as
closely as possible.
I don't like being told there have to be secrets, I don't like military tribunals, I'm not
saying that we don't need a military.
We need a military and we need it badly and we need to get out money's worth out of
it.
I can only ask that instead of a show, give me the real damn thing, I want, along with
millions upon millions of other Americans, REAL DAMN LIBERTY!
asscannon101 ,
That first pic in the article- the one of Strzok- that is a 'peyote face'. The crazy eyes
and the grotesque, exaggerated facial grimacing. Mescaline will do that to you. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. Just lucky that he didn't spaz out, shit in his pants, flop
around on the floor squawking like a seagull and start chewing his own lips off. I've read a
lot of books about that shit. A lot of books. Over and over again. A lot of fucking
books.
troutback ,
Get a Fucking Rope and an Oak Tree. That's how I feel. It's fucking Treason!
Sheesh
tb
bobdog54 ,
The swamp aka the deep state is not only not a conspiracy theory but a real seditionous
conspiracy against our Constitutional Laws and Way of Life. And much much deeper than most
can imagine.
Automatic Choke ,
why are they not incarcerated?
this shit is an affront to all of us who follow the laws, respect election results, pay
taxes, and try to be good citizens.
PUT THEM AWAY!!!!!
navy62802 ,
So we already know that these people committed sedition against the government based on
the known evidence. One more tape doesn't prove the crime any more than the other evidence.
All this does is drive home the fact that there were additional conspirators who protected
these criminals from justice. It's fucking sickening.
Call me when someone in the government gets the balls to finally charge these criminals
with the crimes they have obviously committed. Until then, new evidence is moot.
bobdog54 ,
Wish I could give you 100 up arrows!
All Risk No Reward ,
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being
oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
― Malcolm X
The above is true, but only tangentially related to this topic in that it expresses the
media LIES.
The TRUTH is that the BankstObama FBI worked overtime to get BankstoTrump "elected" as one
of the Bankster financed "selections." Banksters "select" based on money and promotion, then
you "vote" on their selection in an "election."
Let freeDUMB rain!
Here's how it worked...
1. Mid 2016, FBI became aware of Hellary's criminal activity.
2. Mid 2016, Comey sent memo stating Hellary would not be prosecuted. He did not say this
is because she's a Money Power Sith Lord front woman who has a KMA card. Nick Rockefeller
explained this to Aaron Russo, as told by Aaron himself when he was interviewed by Alex
Jones. Oh, and Rockefeller told him the details of the post 9/11 Afghanistan invasion in
advance, too. The interview is worth watching.
3. October, 2016, Comey announced an investigation into Hellary's criminal behavior. Uh,
it was already determined she wouldn't be prosecuted, right? Yup. So why publicly imply she
could be charged and convicted IF NOT TO AID AND ABET DONALD "HE'S WORTH MORE TO US
(BANKSTERS) ALIVE THAN DEAD" TRUMP INTO THE WHITE HOUSE?
By the way, that's an accurate and real quote from an attorney that represents something
like 50+ banks against Trump. He said it to describe why the Banksters didn't force Donald
into bankruptcy and take all his stuff. Donald OWES the Banksters FOR EVERYTHING HE HAS TODAY
THAT IS NOT POVERTY!
This is called an October Surprise, and they are rarely good.
4. After the elections, Comey announces that Hellary committed the crimes, was caught red
handed, but wouldn't be prosecuted because she didn't intend to commit the crime. Try that at
your next court date for running a stop sign you didn't see, serfer boys and girls.
5. Propaganda depicting Comey and Trump as enemies ensued immediately, lest the mindless
rabble formulate the most obvious question in their wittle minds...
"Why did the Obama FBI create a phony October Surprise to hurt Hellary and promote
Trump's election as President?"
That's not in the Money Power Matrix programming!
The reason is that the Banksters wanted Trump in office, because their debt-based money
system bubble (largest in human history) is set to implode AND THERE IS NO PERSON ON PLANET
EARTH THAT IS MORE CAPABLE OF MAGNETICALLY TAKING ALL THE BLAME ONTO HIMSELF THAN DONALD J.
TRUMP.
Nobody.
The name of the game is to shield the Banksters and their debt-money system from criticism
as the fraudulent ROOT CAUSE of the debt-money bubble bust cycles that asset strips entire
societies and leads to systematic global oppression of all ordinary people. At least for
those not directly or indirectly murdered by the Bankster anti-ordinary human agendas.
And, being promoted as an outsider, the Banksters get to save their two controlled
privately incorporated "politically parties in the minds of Muppets" from taking full blame,
therefore, all the Muppets will continue to think they have freedom because they get to
"vote" for Bankster quisling #1 or Bankster quisling #2.
Let freeDUMB rain!
PS - The Banksters don't even care that I spill the beans on their plans because they know
the masses, even the ZeroHedge masses, simply lack the imagination to envision the reality
they Banksters have financed into existence.
alfbell ,
Wake me up once the handing out of prison sentences starts. If they never do, I don't want
to wake up.
WarAndPeace ,
Only a politician would not recognize that they are criminals.... ah apply that whichever
way you want.
LaugherNYC ,
Dead silence in the media about the entire FBI DOJ scandal for months. Only the occasional
piece on conservative blogs. EIther Huber has Grand Jury true bills coming October 1 to slam
on the Dems just before the midterms, or this coverup of Deep State malfeasance will go on
until the Dems get the House and impeach Trump. The plan seems to let them all get away with
their betrayal of the country.
McCabe should already be in prison, yet it seems like there has yet even been a decision
to indict him... he might be in front of a gran d jury, or he might just be chillin waiting
for his grievance with the union to be heard and be awarded back pay and pension vesting, a
if what he did is equivalent to a guy driving his forklift into a wall at Costco after a
beer.,
MrBoompi ,
Now "It's all about cooperation and sharing." What a crock of shit. They still want us to
believe the government agencies didn't communicate with each other, or work together, before
911. That's high level propaganda that's still being used to cover up what happened on 911
and justify the anti-constitutional Patriot Act.
Captain Nemo de Erehwon ,
Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. It is what prevents people from doing real
damage. It is the sole hope for the world.
It was not hard-nosed intelligence and legal professionals running a secretive op to
overturn the election. If it were there would not be this trail of text messages describing
each step in detail. The amateurish execution, given all the assets at their disposal
including Australian Ambassadors, mysterious European Professors, and other premiere
intelligence agencies, even perhaps other US government agencies is like spoilt rich kids
ruining their parents' ...hmm is that offensive nowadays? ...legal guardians' ...!@$# it ...
father's company.
All Risk No Reward ,
>>Moral of the story: Cherish incompetence. <<
You don't comprehend the milieu.
The agendas include, but are not limited to:
1. Produce more debt - private, corporate, and governmental. Incompetence? On what planet?
They are AMAZING!
2. Prevent the plebs from realizing #1. Again, they have you duped - and you aren't
alone.
3. Pretend inferiority, so that concerted malevolent intent is not discerned. Art of War
101.
The are doing a stellar job at their true agendas.
Dare I say, so good that I can't exclude supernatural guidance.
Muddy1 ,
Why show the attractive pictures of Lisa Page? I liked the ones where she looked like the
dimwit she is.
Pons Asinorum ,
She's more attractive with her mouth shut.
Yog Soggoth ,
"Sisters" may refer to sister agency.
"Sisters is an odd phrase to use," retired FBI special agent and former FBI national
spokesman John Iannarelli told Fox News Wednesday. " It could be any intelligence agency or
any other federal law enforcement agency. The FBI works with all of them because, post 9/11,
it's all about cooperation and sharing. " Witches perhaps? Cotton Mather was right!
fulliautomatix ,
There's another William - "it's all about cooperation and sharing." Oh, and telling the
truth.
Remington Steel ,
Treasonous fucks. They should all hang in D.C.'s National Mall.
SnatchnGrab ,
Hang them in the public square so that we may spit on them.
I am Groot ,
They should be staked down to the ground out in the desert, covered in honey and have ants
poured all over them.
SaulAzzHoleSky ,
Strzok's lawyer will say that this refers to problems with his Depends, not the
media.....
WTFUD ,
Down down deeper and down - that's pretty deep.
There's very little deep about the F-uk-us Political Establishment; empty suits,
treasonous filth, cowardly, and yet, wholeheartedly believe they are principled.
S.H.O.C.K.I.N.G
motoXdude ,
Just like enlightened, educated Liberals... those working in these agencies (and most
likely the agencies themselves) are above the law and here to govern the great unwashed and
deplorables! This IS THE DEEP STATE aka THE SWAMP! Time to drain it or drop a high tension
power line in it!
Anunnaki ,
Leaking must not be a crime for Keebler Sessions
Mzhen ,
Wasn't it fortunate that Seth Rich was involved in transporting DNC data to WikiLeaks?
Without the "hacking" link in the chain, the rest of the plan could not have been set into
motion. Characterized as an ardent Bernie supporter, Seth Rich was actually scheduled to go
to work at Hillary's campaign headquarters a few weeks after the date of his murder.
WTFUD ,
The Classic Clinton Foundation ENTRAPMENT.
The job offer being a ruse just in case they didn't get him 1st Time.
SirBarksAlot ,
According to this news clip, there are secret military tribunals going on and John McCain
was executed for his treason.
His 3 remaining brain-cells were targeted with magnetic pulses like the one's going down
at the US Embassy in CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBA.
HominyTwin ,
That's right! Powerful people are taking care of everything, and making sure all will be
right with the USA once again, in the very near future, without effort or sacrifice or
thinking on our part. That is wonderful news!!!!
south40_dreams ,
Build the gallows.
missionshk ,
my understanding is that there were 14 people from various agencies, in a chat room all
committing treason, but dont here about that any more
This is a coup, plain and simple, and the coup is winning.
Prosource ,
Not sure the coup is winning, but it's been almost 2 years and we are only this far in
investigations and prosecutions ???
fulliautomatix ,
Trying to keep some of the legal community alive.
Dickweed Wang ,
Does Lisa Page have tits or are those mutant mosquito bites?
NewHugh ,
In my limited experience flat girls figure out a way to "compensate"...
I am Groot ,
Have you seen her smile ? She's all gums. I'll bet Stzrok loves when the vet takes her
teeth out to clean them and she blows him.
GUMMY ! GUMMY ! GUMMY !
SirBarksAlot ,
It hasn't been determined if she has tits or not.
However, she certainly has balls.
cosmyccowboy ,
she needs the crocodille dundee test... the dept of injustice is trannies on parade!
Collectivism Killz ,
Just in case Qanon is wrong about Keebler Elf Sessions, can someone at least gently remind
him that failure to prosecute will give creeps like Joe Biden a second shot at his
Granddaughters? Not sure if he cares, but I would think an old hound dog such as Sessions
would at least consider his final legacy on earth. All that Fried Chicken and chitlins have
to catch up with him at some point.
Yog Soggoth ,
Everyone up on the Hill feels the fire burning below their feet, those who succumb will
embrace the everlasting heat. Where is Billy? Can you clean this up for me?
Stan522 ,
"The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a
"media leak strategy" which was first
first revealed Tuesday , goes far deeper than first reported, according to
Fox News , which obtained "new communications between the former lovers." "
Questions arise....
The media obviously knows who is leaking and they also know who's been in the news
relating to this investigation, yet, they still refuse to connect the dots and write about
the uncontrollable sieve of leaks
The media also refuses to put any focus on the drip by drip bits of information about how
there was bias. The devilcRAT talking heads are in contortions trying to excuse all of this
and the MSM are allowing it.
The Inspector General apparently conducted an investigation on all of this shit's and
concluded there was no bias, yet every day there seems to be more evidence that there was
extreme bias. What more needs to be shown to get the media talking about it?
Last weeks breaking news had shown that Andrew Weisman (yes, the same clown that now works
for Mueller's hit squad) as colluding with Bruck Ohr and Christopher Steele during the
creation of that fake news Dossier and Weisman was feeding information to Mueller. When will
Mueller drop this scam investigation?
There are still republicans that hold the opinion that Mueller must be allowed to finish
his investigation. With the fact that Weisman was part of the hit squad creating dirt about
Trump, at what point are these idiot politicians are going to grow a pair and start talking
about all of this? It seems they are the same lazy thinkers that go along with the man caused
global warming hoax.
Yesterday's breaking news was about what DeGenova stated about the meeting in obama's
office with Rice, Yates, Biden, Comey, and Obama. He says "It was a meeting to discuss how
Sally Yates was going to get Michael Flynn. And the President of the United States, Barack
Obama, was directly involved in these discussions." Yet NOTHING was shown on CNN, MSNBC, NBC,
CBS, ABC and the rest about this.
lookslikecraptome ,
Just put up the link to fox news that ran this story. Talk about a cut and paste.
"As Communists, we work in the elections not just for a candidate but strategically to
build and strengthen the movement and our Party for the long term. The situation varies
greatly from one state and election district to the next so tactics have to be developed
locally. The more we share our concrete experiences, the more we can learn and get ideas from
each other. Here are thoughts for consideration:
1. Where to concentrate?
Clubs: the neighborhood or election district where the club is located;
Districts: election districts that can be flipped; election districts where
working-class champions who are incumbents are under attack; election districts with a
progressive primary candidate.
2. What goals?
• build a voter base to change the political balance of forces;
• strengthen relationships with unions, left/progressive electoral forms like Our
Revolution (OR) and Working Famlies Party (WFP), etc;
• raise the level of class consciousness, unity and solidarity;
• enlarge the CPUSA diverse working-class membership and readership of People's
World;
• identify among our members potential candidates for local office.
3. What methods?
Voter registration: laws differ from state to state. Where there is postcard
registration, door-to-door work with voter cards and issue petitions and sign-ups are a great
way to identify people who want to become engaged and who we can follow up with to vote and
get involved. Tabling with voter cards, issue petitions, People's World and literature is
another way, but harder to follow up with people in scattered geography. Increasing voter
turnout in working-class communities can win elections and create the base for organizing to
win a people's program. It is a direct challenge to the corporate right-wing that depends on
depressing and suppressing the vote.
Participate with allies: Unions, progressive community groups and left/progressive
electoral forms are the best way to participate in campaigns and build the movement for the
long term. Organizations vary from place to place. Labor 2018 is the AFL-CIO program and
anyone can take part in phone banks and visits to the homes of union members. Each union also
has its own election program that union members should prioritize. Local issue coalitions or
ballot initiatives are also important venues, for example Jobs with Justice, Planned
Parenthood, Fight for 15, the Poor People's Campaign, Millions of Jobs etc. Left and
progressive electoral organizations that have endorsed candidates with strong programs are a
strategic way to participate such as Our Revolution, Working Families Party, Indivisible,
etc. If you are just getting started this is a great way to reach out.
Chupacabra-322 ,
They really thought Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath Hillary Clinton
would win.
And, with it. Complete destruction of Conservatism, Libertarian Values, &
Ideology.
Her Crimes would have never been uncovered or bought out into the open as we're
witnessing.
Much was at stake. Everything was lost.
The Presidency LOST.
Weaponized Intelligence Community with Agents, Assets & Operatives. LOST.
Complicit, Criminal Loyal CIA, FBI, DOJ. LOST.
Supreme Court. LOST.
No doubt, the censorship & Gas Lighting would have been turned on fully.
And, with it Tyrannical Lawlessness.
mc888 ,
How about the "Free Press"? Exposed as nothing but a corrupt propganda outlet for the
DS.
"Free Independent Journalism" LOST.
All these MSM propaganda outlets need their FCC licenses revoked for broadcasting false
information and hoaxes.
Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast. The War of
theWorlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology seri...
If the FBI really would have put its muscle behind it HRC would be president.
Instead Comey was waffling, re-opening the email investigation and writing a mealy-mouthed
letter to Congress just before the election.
It's pretty funny to watch the Tyler Kremlin boys try to contort this into a Deep State
conspiracy to prevent Trump and get HRC elected. If so this would have been the most inept
conspiracy ever.
debtserf ,
News Flash: It was (inept).
How else are we finding all this out?
"Trump won therefore there cannot have been a conspiracy" is not a cogent argument.
Paralentor ,
We all knew it. What the Soros owned Social Media and Rothschild AP/Reuters owned
mainstream choose to tell the sleeping public is an entirely different story.
justyouwait ,
So if we didn't live in a banana republic these guys would all be in prison or at least
going through some court proceedings for what they did. Not here though. No sir, we live in a
full blown, first world banana republic where the power elite are truly far better off than
the peons that pay their way but we offer enough distractions on so many levels that most of
the peons don't realize they are being played and many that do throw up their hands and say
ho hum, I have nothing to worry about (as long as they can have their entertainment &
distractions).
The whole FBI has to be tore down and redone from the ground up. Sure the Deep State would
want total control of the national and most powerful police force. This is how you control
government and the peons. It has shown itself to be beyond corrupt. Yes there may be many
good ones still out there but how do we know anymore? Wipe it out and start again. Yes, I
know it won't happen because it is far too huge a labyrinth to dismantle & reassemble but
the point is still valid. I guess the best we can hope for is to take down some at the top
and then make them squeal on the others. Won't happen until we reform the DOJ first
though.
DRTexas ,
What? Sorry, I wasn't listening. I was thinking about the bread, circuses, and the bit of
meat and cake they are allowing me to have.
Mercuryquicksilver ,
Cults have "Sisters".
Chupacabra-322 ,
Mocking Bird, Presstitute, Deep State "Sister" appendages.
chubbar ,
No question these folks are committing treason/sedition and it goes directly to Obama,
that fucking traitor. God, I hope these fuckers swing!
Itdoesntmatter ,
fuck you people are fucking stupid....The people writing this shit are laughing at you
idiot sheeple...
Totin ,
Riiiiiight. You are a dumb phuck if you don't think this kind of news makes a huge
difference.
1970SSNova396 ,
I will have to wait until Strzok's Jew lawyer tells us the real deal. They don't lie for
sure. There is a golden calf joke in there somewhere.
Hadenough1000 ,
Comey will be in jail when this is over
1970SSNova396 ,
That can't happen! The entire US government will be jail if that were to happen including
half the house and 80% of the senate past and present.
NMmom ,
I have no problem with that. Do you?
fulliautomatix ,
They ought to be happy they're only going to jail.
Stan522 ,
Comey was following orders....
A fish stinks starting at the head
No one at the top ever pays the price, they usually find an underling to take the fall, so
don't expect jail time for obama.....
1970SSNova396 ,
Hillary wasn't joking when she said " we all will hang from nooses if the fuking bastard
wins"
To be continued.
Hadenough1000 ,
This is why anyone paying attention KNOWS that this makes watergate look like a
kindergarten party
ISIS Barry weaponized the hell out of our government
just like they do in third world dumps where that Muslim pig was raised
all the felons this time are obamas boys
MedTechEntrepreneur ,
I want these two Yay-hoo's Waterboarded and Propofal'ed tonight! Live streamed nationwide.
I want the truth...all of it!
peippe ,
to learn what? that these lovers loved hillary & thought they were doing 'god's
work'?
please, it's like listening to francis the leader of the catholic church these days.
Gitmo for all of them.
Kosher meals till they quit lying.
All the other detainees get Egg McMuffins.
SHADEWELL ,
Gums and Butter
Page and the balding weirdo dickhead...match made in hell
Strzok has to be the most fucked up individual I have ever seen...a 50 yr old that acts
like an effeminate weirdo
Fucking scary that a weirdo like that can obtain a position that high in
"intelligence"
Truly fucked up...must have been servicing folks like Brennan
topshelfstuff ,
Sure Previously Known, But Not Previously Believed To Be
r0mulus ,
Operation Mockingbird lives on, just as we, the "conspiracy theorists" said.
And look who was wrong about reality in the end:
The ones pretending nothing was/is wrong, and that we were/are crazy.
Well who's crazy now motherfuckers?
Looks like it's you lot over there, desperately clinging to your MSM/DNC/GOP idols, asking
for FB/Twitter/Google to ban everything too inconvenient for your "reality".
Face the truth for once: the collusion is and has always been between the
MSM/DNC/GOP/Alphabet Agencies and the DEEP STATE. And you perpetuate the oppression by being
party to it.
JoeTurner ,
I sometimes lose sleep wondering how horrific things would be if the Clinton Crime Cabal
was in power. All over the TV in New York demorats are running insane political ads for
Cuomo, Nixon, Teachout and all the rest of the wild eyed communist wack jobs. Not one of them
has any proposals to govern better or improve the life of the middle class. Its all about
aggrieved minorities sticking it to whitey for 'mo gimmies'
Hadenough1000 ,
If that fat drunk and her raping Pig hubby had won then
MS13 Killers would be in the streets with their amnesty papers and new welfare checks and
voter Registration
weinstein would be in the cabinet
Rapist clinton and ISIS Barry would be on the Supreme Court
we would be losing 200,000 jobs a week again like with Barry
thank God for Trump
Prosource ,
And Mike Rogers.
And Bill Binney.
And Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.
1970SSNova396 ,
New York is a shithole country ...a lost cause....JewVille
Zappalives ,
nyc is a parasite on the real America and must be destroyed.
Prosource ,
Babylon will fall..
Count on it..
Just hope we can survive the tumor removal.
Yippie21 ,
And to sell the Russia-crap, the Obama administration purposely kicked diplomats out of
the country and laid on sanctions in December. I'm curious enough to wonder how much of the
White-helmet gas attacks in Syria ( that Trump reacted to ) were indirectly done to further
the anti-Russia narrative by Obama folks.... After all, the whole Syria mess has his
fingerprints all over it.
surf@jm ,
Big wow......
Clear and convincing evidence of a crime, obviously isn't a crime in Washington D.C.,
unless, of course, you are a conservative.....
fulliautomatix ,
little wow - Strzok deliberately documented the crimes on his and Page's phones.
thetruthhurts ,
It is unclear at this point to whom Strzok was referring when he used the term
"sisters."
_______________________________
CIA, NSA etc.
attah-boy-Luther ,
16 more 'sisters eh?
yipper....pedos love like a set of arkansas cousins as well...lol.
PrivetHedge ,
I see what they are afraid of now.
The 'russiagate' stuff is now starting to reveal the very structure and organisation of
the Deep State: once only suspected by the sheep, now it's coming into plain sight for all to
see to the horror of all the pharisee jew vampires who are now seeing the first signs of
dawn.
valerie24 ,
God, I hope you're right.
insanelysane ,
Still want to see the communication between the lovers at the time Seth Rich was
murdered.
So...under the ruse of consolidating agencies under Homeland Security to effectively
coordinate against terrorism, they now are organized to effectively coordinate a battle
against anyone of their choosing.
i think we've been had.
consider me gone ,
It was only a matter of time. Thing is, is that it took almost no time at all. Go figure.
So much for that Constitution thingy. What did Franklin say again, when he left the
Constitution Convention?
Chupacabra-322 ,
The Deep State collects blackmail data on all Democratic & Republican members that are
in positions of power. That is how they are able to keep secrets and control politicians.
The entire Surveillance Infrastructure Is & was being used for one thing. .. To build
blackmail 'Control Files' on thousands if not millions of Americans. ... An Extortion Tool.
.. NOTHING legal about it.
The Awan Case is the biggest Criminal, Treasonous, Seditious Intelligence Political
Espionage Operation of our lifetime.
And, the Awans were let off the Hook. That alone is telling of how far down the Tyrannical
Lawless Espionage rabbit hole it is.
Idiocracy's Not Sure ,
FBI-DOJ-MSM Collusion Went Far Deeper Than Previously Known ..Never Underestimate The
Power Of Stupid People In Large Groups.....NUTPOSPILG
let freedom ring ,
Trump is fucking nuts get over it!
Westcoastliberal ,
Go back to the Huffington Post. It's where idiots like you belong.
MsCreant ,
Nuts or not does not make this right.
You're putting too much "dumb" in your free-dumb.
valerie24 ,
The entire US population should be nuts over it and at the ready with their pitchforks.
This shit has gone on way too long and thankfully Trump's election has exposed these deep
state scumbags.
r0mulus ,
If you don't make an argument supported by facts, you lose by default. Loser.
Got The Wrong No ,
let freedom ring. That's funny coming from a 1 month Media Matters Commie.
Trump is nuts.....the new war cry of the failed Demrat losers. Everything from Russiagate
to Stormy has failed. Let's try the 25 Amendment. You and your masters are a fucking
joke.
debtserf ,
There's an orange nutter living rent-free in your head. Maybe you need to get over it son.
He won. Nearly 2 years ago now. You really need to let it go.
Breathe....and relax.
Snout the First ,
Isn't there more than enough evidence disclosed already to have a dozen or two of them
behind bars for life? What the fuck is Trump waiting for?
GaryLeeT ,
I think he's waiting so he can deliver an October surprise with a massive
declassification.
Yippie21 ,
That and he may want to wait to get Kavanaugh seated on the court. Trump is a long-game
thinker so, might at well get a judge first, and then start kicking ant hills.
navy62802 ,
It might take a while, but I think the full truth will eventually emerge. What has been
done here is a betrayal of the United States by career bureaucrats. It appears to be a
campaign of sedition.
Westcoastliberal ,
Coup de 'tat is what it is. Double whammy: Treason AND Sedition!
valerie24 ,
Agree, but will the real culprits be convicted? I'm talking about the dual citizens that
have kept us in endless wars in the Middle East, some of whom have active roles in the White
House.
No doubt Rosenstein, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Ohr, Strozk, Page, etc. Should be in jail.
Hell, Sessions should probably be in jail just for failing to act.
What about the rest? The 9/11 conspirators - Silverstein, Bush, Cheney, the CIA and
Mossad, the dancing fucking Israeli's?
What a shit show
debtserf ,
Hasn't it already emerged enough? You couldn't make this shit up. Even LeCarre would be
hard pushed to concoct such a labyrinthine plot as this. And no doubt there's much much more,
much deeper sub-plots, but you get the gist.
conraddobler ,
It's all just a show, even Q says constantly to "Enjoy the show"
I haven't liked this show for about 10 plus years and it wasn't that good before and on
top of all that, the illusion to which I have awoken from about that time seems to have
shattered any illusions that were concurrent to it.
In reality, our country was taken from us at least 100 years ago "if not much more, and if
we ever really had one" and if anyone thinks that they will ever "give it back" then you are
in fact suffering from a severe reality gap.
There are no "good guys" when they want to put the ring on to save us all they still
unfortunately will have to put the damn ring on to do it.
No one is advocating what actually needs to be done, namely finding a band of hobbits to
toss it into the fire from whence it came.
Just because some honorable people want to stop dishonorable people from doing
dishonorable things does not mean when they are elevated to such positions of power that they
won't turn themselves, they always do.
Until the MIC collapses we will forever be slaves to someone, doesn't matter who, bankers
or the military, either way we will not be free.
Restoring the rule of law would mean public trials, not military tribunals, a fact which
people aren't discussing at all.
The way they caught these people was the spying on everyone. The very power that most
threatens our liberties will restore our liberties?
What are the odds of that?
I'm not blind, the world is a dangerous place, maybe liberty is just too tough or
impossible to exercise in the modern world?
Clearly we were nearing a horrible fate and I am grateful for being saved form something
worse even if it only flips us out of one pan to the next the other pan was intolerably
hot.
What I most want to point out above all else is that human freedom is exceedingly fragile
and tough to win, it should be guarded much more closely and absolute power will always
corrupt so anything we do to navigate as a nation needs to adhere to the constitution as
closely as possible.
I don't like being told there have to be secrets, I don't like military tribunals, I'm not
saying that we don't need a military.
We need a military and we need it badly and we need to get out money's worth out of
it.
I can only ask that instead of a show, give me the real damn thing, I want, along with
millions upon millions of other Americans, REAL DAMN LIBERTY!
valerie24 ,
Excellent post!!
fulliautomatix ,
faded a bit toward the end, nice one.
Freedom is a property that can be taken from you? How do you come by this "freedom"?
RubberJohnny ,
Why are these people still on the OUTSIDE?
WHY!!!!!
Rubicon727 ,
"Why are these people still on the OUTSIDE?
WHY!!!!!"
Why? Because the greedy corporations, banks, and the entire financial system has corrupted
every federal/regional and local institutions from the US Senate/The Military Complex all the
way down to the local politician.
It only stands to reason the US would come to this. With millions of zombified American
citizens, and the bought off media - they are all participants watching this nation DIE!
I Am Jack's Macroaggression ,
#RUSSIAHOAX
Hey, Stockman outlined this well over a year ago. It would be great to see an updated
article:
Brennan used the Ukrainians to launder the dossier to Steele.
Oldwood ,
The "deep state" is anyone who attempts to direct our government in contradiction to the
constitution or the will of the people as represented by democratic process. They have been
shoving this notion of the sanctity of "democracy" while willingly subverting it in every
case that its result contradict THEIR AGENDA. It knows no party or specific affiliation
beyond its own self interests.
Trump, as the outsider, is forced to work in league with many of these people as "they"
will not allow anything else. People openly opposed to them are destroyed by their media and
courts, and as such, Trump's roster of potential team is severely limited. The ONLY means of
putting people devoted to the destruction of deep state is through elections, as all others
(and even then) will be run through the gauntlet.
We can Trash Trump all we please, but find me another, ANYONE who will stand in his place,
someone who will gain enough support to win an election against otherwise insurmountable
odds, and will then stand and face them and take their withering unending attacks. We hear
the complaints of his tweets, when in consideration of what he faces hourly, seems tiny in
response....while knowing he is attacked for that in full knowledge that doing anything more
would bring about more investigation, legal action and the inevitable impeachment.
Trump is the impossible man, the one who is willing to do what no other will, and ALL
constitutional, within the law. Accusations of tyranny when he has done nothing extraordinary
other than to simply act within his constitutional powers to advance his stated agenda.
We can dislike what he does and how he does it but no rational person can suggest he is
doing it illegally or immorally (beyond the standards that progressives have established
themselves).
fulliautomatix ,
Hey Oldwood - I've enjoyed your posts for a while now.
I'd argue that the deep state is more usefully defined as that part of the governing body
that exercises sovereign rights with regard to exemption to consequences at law. It is
probably worth noting that these sovereign rights evolved from a claimed divine right as the
divine was based in Rome (for the model of "the democratic west") and the claim was no longer
useful. Where others are more than willing to employ murderous tactics such a recognised body
is a pragmatic tool - but one to be used by the state as a whole. No consequences at law does
not mean no consequences at all - and it does not mean that the people who have employed
murderous tactics in order to benefit themselves are immune to reaction to their behaviours.
Arguing that you are immune to consequences at law, at the same time as seeking the
protection of the law, is no argument.
brushhog ,
Does anyone believe that these two were acting on their own? You think they masterminded
the whole conspiracy? They were two low-level foot soldiers in a much deeper conspiracy...the
real questions that need to be addressed is who were the generals? Whose orders were they
operating under?
107cicero ,
Hillary's, Obama, Soros', Rice's, Brennans' and Comey's.
But I think that Crooked Hillary double crossed Comey in the last two weeks, reneging on a
post presidential promise I would guess, and Comey 'restarted' the investigation which deep
sixed her presidential hopes.
Thieves and whores fight among each other just as hard......
brushhog ,
Forgot Clapper.
FreedomWriter ,
That's why waterboarding is still legal and Trump is OK with it.
AsEasyAsPi ,
The only evidence of "Collusion" exists with Hillary, the DNC, Fusion GPS and the
Obamite-Leftovers in the DOJ/FBI.
beenlauding ,
Stories about How Corrupt Us government is: 6million
What is interesting that the first eight reviews were all written by neocons.
The book looks like an implicit promotion of Pence. Which is probably not
what Dems want ;-).
Notable quotes:
"... I fell in love with Woodward's writing with "All the President's Men." It inspired me to work in journalism. But Woodward has lost his touch. His "reporting" feels second-hand and arm's length. Each Chapter in his Source Notes leads with this disclaimer: "The information in the chapter comes primarily from multiple deep background interviews and firsthand sources." We have no way of knowing what firsthand sources even means an article he read in the New York Times whose author he's friends with? ..."
"... The review mentions biography of Mike Pence, "The Shadow President ..." by Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner . For former Harvard alumni this is an extremely naive review, that is completely devoid of understanding of political forces that are shaping the country and first of all the crisis of neoliberalism. ..."
"... Mike Pence, the "Shadow President" and Trump's hand picked successor, will from many indications become president in the months following the November 6 election. ..."
I went into this book thinking that it would confirm all of my deepest fears about Trump and give me more reasons to
dislike him. At the end of the book, I had the distinct impression that Trump's presidency is not as bad as it is often
portrayed.
Some of Trump's ideas are not so bad -- for example, the book spends a lot of time on Afghanistan. Trump has for a long
time believed the war was a mistake, that there is no way to "win," and that it is a perpetual loss of our country's
treasures.
The book spends a lot of time showing how Trump fought the "swamp" to come up with a strategy to get out -- and failed.
Of course, many other stories in the book confirmed my belief that he is a disaster for a president.
The book jumps around in time and topic a lot, making it difficult to follow. Kind of like Trump himself.
Melanie Gilbert, September 12, 2018
Deep Fear
My Kindle book loaded at 12:30 Tuesday morning , and I stayed up until 6:30 a.m. reading this fascinating and alarming
story. The scariest part of this massive tome is the sheer hubris of everyone in President Trump's orbit including the
author, famed Watergate reporter, Bob Woodward. They all think they are more presidential than the actual president, and that
sense of entitlement and arrogance drives this tell-all narrative.
Even though I agree that Trump is mentally unfit to be Commander-in-Chief and Woodward cites many troubling incidents that
point to a memory-impaired leader it feels as if Woodward operated under the theory of selection bias, finding sources who
would confirm his thesis. I don't know what's scarier, a president who is off the rails, or a staff that helps keep him there
while they are busy running the country the way they see fit (except when the crazy uncle escapes his handlers and spouts off
on Twitter.)
Woodward, a veteran reporter, and the man (with Carl Bernstein) who broke the Nixon-era Watergate crime with a source the
known only as "Deep Throat" falls for and magnifies their conceit. The real story isn't Trump, it's his unelected and
unconstitutional enablers (senior staff, family, media, lobbyists, rogue governments) who act like they are running a shadow
government (surreptitiously taking papers off his desk, screening his briefing materials.) Woodward's story will feed Trump's
main argument that there's a Deep State at work in this country.
I fell in love with Woodward's writing with "All the President's Men." It inspired me to work in journalism. But Woodward
has lost his touch. His "reporting" feels second-hand and arm's length. Each Chapter in his Source Notes leads with this
disclaimer: "The information in the chapter comes primarily from multiple deep background interviews and firsthand sources."
We have no way of knowing what firsthand sources even means an article he read in the New York Times whose author he's
friends with?
This book is beneath Woodward's skill and reputation. You can basically retrieve the same message in "Unhinged" a much
briefer and far more readable format - though no less disturbing account - of working in the Trump White House.
NOTES: The review mentions biography of Mike Pence, "The Shadow President ..." by
Michael
D'Antonio and Peter Eisner
. For former Harvard alumni this is an extremely naive review, that is completely devoid of
understanding of political forces that are shaping the country and first of all the crisis of
neoliberalism.
Donald Trump's Demotion & Mike Pence's Promotion! When and How?
Bob Woodward has done it again. "Fear" is a remarkable and important book, especially
because it is so current and revealing and is vouched for by this very credible reporter.
Woodward's book confirms in much greater detail many earlier and less credible reports, plus
many others --- establishing clearly that Donald Trump is not fit to be the US president ---
politically, intellectually, psychologically or morally. Moreover, his erratic behavior is a
threat to US national security, as Woodward's book and recent TV interviews make very clear.
Of course, most of the media attention on this book has been and will continue to be on
Woodward's many shocking scoops. The most important question, however, that the book raises,
for me at least, is "When and how will Trump's reckless rule be retired?"
Mike Pence, the "Shadow President" and Trump's hand picked successor, will from many
indications become president in the months following the November 6 election. That seems
to be a high probability, even without Special Counsel Robert Mueller's likely devastating
report on the Russian conspiracy to influence illegally the 2016 presidential elections and
the related cover up obstructing Mueller's investigation of this conspiracy . The only
unknown now is when and how Trump goes--- by the impeachment process or by simple resignation
like Nixon did.
We can expect Pence will then give Trump a full pardon, after Trump fully pardons some
family members and close associates. Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort need not hold their
breath waiting for a pardon. Trump, some of his family members and close associates will, of
course, still be at risk of state law prosecutions, expecially in NY.
Trump has long used fear to exercise power over others. Fear, as Machiavelli strongly
recommended five centuries ago to a corrupt pope's nephew, is preferable to and more
effective than kindness. Paradoxically, Trump's own deep personal fear of failure still
drives him desperately--- any means are justified to reach Trump's top goals of personal
profit and glory forever. Any means is OK, including even orphaning innocent infants at the
Mexican border, while other immigrants are welcomed to work temporarily at Mar-a-Lago.
Woodward's book just reinforces these observations many have already made.
It is amazing to me that many of the so-called "adults in the room" cannot see that Trump
is misbehaving as he always did. He cannot be changed, certainly not now and not by the many
handlers selected seemingly because Trump can dominate them. That said, Trump still has more
than two years remaining on his term!
I have strong reactions to Woodward's many disturbing disclosures, as (1) a former Harvard
Law assistant to Archibald Cox (prior to his being the unforgettable Watergate Prosecutor and
nailing Nixon), (2) a former high school chum of Rudy Guiliani (now an unimpressive key Trump
advisor), (3) a former law firm colleague of Bob Khuzami (now the impressive head of NYC
federal investigations of Trump criminal matters) and (4) a father and grandfather.
... ... ...
At 75 years old, Woodward clearly had a purpose in this voluntary and prodigious effort to
research and write this book--- to flush out the true Donald Trump and show the danger he
poses for US national security. Woodward, a Navy veteran like John McCain before him, is also
a patriot. To paraphrase Trump, Woodward shows vividly that Trump's behavior is "very sad and
really disgusting".
The media will have a field day with some of the troubling Trump episodes Woodward
reports. Many persons cited in the book will challenge some of his reports. To be expected
and perhaps understandable, given Trump's fiery temper about those he thinks are in any way
disloyal to him. The facts will nevertheless prevail, as they have mostly for Woodward's
earlier books about the many presidents who immediately preceded Trump.
More important, however, than specific episodes, is what the confluence of these troubling
episodes clearly shows --- Trump is clearly unfit to be president! The longer he remains, the
greater the risk in our nuclear age for the US, and the world as well. It is well to recall
the near catastrophe last January when a Hawaiian technician pressed the wrong button
indicating a non-existent "imminent" North Korean missile attack, following Trump's reckless
rhetoric about the real North Korean threat. This must have sent a real chill down the spines
of the leaders of all nuclear nations, and many others as well.
Will Trump then finish his first term? Very doubtful, it appears.
If the Democrats win a House majority in less than two months, prompt impeachment
proceedings and numerous House investigations of Trump and his corrupt cronies appear to be
inevitable. That dooms Trump.
Even if the Democrats remain the minority, impeachment is still likely to occur in my view
as Mueller's efforts continue --- they cannot be stopped now. They will continue even if
Mueller is fired as they continued after Nixon fired Archibald Cox. Moreover, there is a
reasonable prospect that one or more of Trump's children and/or in-laws could soon be
indicted.
Trump will after November be an increasingly unnecessary liability for Republicans, the
GOP. Only 32% of voters currently polled even think Trump is honest. He has already done what
the GOP and its billionaire backers like the Kochs and Devoses most wanted --- a major tax
cut for the wealthiest, reckless deregulation, insuring a right wing judiciary majority,
reducing drastically Federal revenues needed to fund the social safety net, et al.
Moreover, it seems unlikely that Trump will be able to handle the steadily growing
pressure he faces. He may even elect to resign as Nixon did. Pence can finish up to the
cheers of the Kochs, Devoses, et al.
For a fuller picture of what to expect from Pence when Trump "retires", please see the new
comprehensive, readable and detailed biography of Mike Pence, "The Shadow President ..." by
Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter, Michael D'Antonio, and by his co-author, Peter
Eisner. This book's findings dovetail nicely with the findings in "Fear".
Unlike Woodward, D'Antonio even got, for his recent excellent Trump biography, hours of
direct interviews of Trump before the 2016 elections, until Trump abruptly ended the
interviews apparently concerned that D'Antonio was writing a truthful book based on facts,
not on Trump's limitless lies and specious spin. We now know from this important book on
Pence why it is very unlikely that Pence will ever be able to clean up Donald Trump's mess.
We also can understand much better why Trump recently predicted that stock markets would
crash if he were to be impeached. Not too great an endorsement of his successor, Pence, by a
reckless and incompetent boss who has now witnessed up close for almost two years the
non-stop cheerleading of the "Shadow President", Mike Pence.
Pence successfully strived during the last two years behind the scenes, with Trump's
apparent blessings, to advance his repressive and regressive fundamentalist Christian
remaking of American society, including through administration and judicial right-wing
appointments and adoption of fundamentalist social policies, like curtailing legal abortions
and even limiting contraception access. Significantly, these policies mostly benefit in the
end the already "uberrich" top 0.01% of Americans at the expense of the 99.99 % less
fortunate--- how Christian is that?
Trump's and Pence's unfair tax cuts and excessive deregulation can readily be fixed by
Democrats when they regain power. But Trump and Pence have already changed the Federal
judiciary with their many right wing judges appointed for life. That is not so easily
fixed.
This is scary stuff for a religiously diverse nation with constitutional safeguards of
religious freedom that were extremely important for good reason to our Founding Fathers. They
rejected a theocracy as well as a monarchy !
By providing a brisk and insightful history of Pence's personal and political journey, we
are able with this book to see behind Pence's perpetual smile and smooth style. It is not a
very pretty picture.
All, even Trump supporters, should read this book to understand better the threat Pence
poses even for Trump. After the midterm elections, the "uberrich" will know they can fulfill
all their remaining political and economic dreams through Pence, without having to put up any
longer with Trump's erratic and at times almost bizarre policies and behavior. By
mid-November, Trump will need Pence more than Pence will need Trump.
It is not surprising the Omarosa recently observed on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" show that
she thinks one of Pence's staff was the author of the unprecedented and anonymous New York
times Op Ed column that further undercuts Trump and re-inforces some of Woodward's
revelations. As to be expected, Pence offers to swear under oath that HE did not write the Op
Ed column, which denial leaves room that one of his staffers wrote it, no?
"Fear" and "The Shadow Presidency" raise a very ironic possibility in my mind. If Special
Counsel Robert Mueller's report, after the midterm elections in November, indicates that
Trump and Pence were both implicated in Russian election conspiracy and/or in the subsequent
cover-up, both of them could be removed from office or worse by a Congress forced by public
outrage to act on Mueller's report. Even Nixon's base abandoned him once the true facts were
widely known.
Pence often played a key role in the 2016 campaign, as well as during the two years since.
Who knows what he said and did in secret? Who knows if Pence was recorded by Amarosa, an
evangelical pastor, or Michael Cohen, a "tell all" third rate lawyer or someone else at the
White House, including possibly Trump himself. I suspect that by now, Mueller knows!
If that happens, Nancy Pelosi could succeed after next January to the presidency as
Speaker of the House, third in line after the President and Vice President. So much then for
the great Trump/Pence strategy.
The Pence book makes very clear why Pence is to be feared, perhaps even more than Trump.
The "god" of Trump is Trump --- in that sense, he is obvious and usually predictable. Pence's
"god" is much darker and more dangerous, as well as unpredictable, as this book has confirmed
for me. It may be that a needy and greedy Trump is a safer bet than a surreptitious and
smiling religious zealot, Pence.
Pence legitimated Trump with the important and united fundamentalist voter base, who voted
by over 80% to elect Trump! Trump also won 52% of Catholics' votes, while only 46% of the
national vote. Who will legitimate Pence? This book suggests "good" fundamentalists should
now vote against Pence if they ever find their Christian moorings again!
Pence appears determined to advance a repressive and regressive fundamentalist evangelical
theocracy, even though most Americans, including most Christians, have no interest in a
theocracy, Christian or otherwise. Our Founding Fathers were well aware of the brutal
post-Reformation religious wars that some of their not too distant relatives had fled Europe
to avoid.
Interestingly, Pence was a Catholic altar boy and Trump attended for two years a Jesuit
college, Fordham. And the current four male Supreme Court conservative Catholic Justices and
the newly nominated likely to be Justice, Brett Kavanagh, were also raised Catholic. Four of
these five also went to Catholic schools --- Clarence Thomas to Jesuit Holy Cross College,
Neil Gorsuch and Kavanagh to Jesuit Georgetown Prep and John Roberts to La Lumiere School.
Samuel Alito was raised in a traditional Italian American Catholic family environment.
Looks like this "Iago" op-ed injected the poison of mutual suspicion into Trump administration: "Cabinet secretaries quickly
lined up to plead their innocence of any involvement, playing Bukharin to Trump's Stalin. Who wrote the op-ed? Someone by the name
of "Not Me." An internal administration manhunt (womanhunt?) has allegedly launched to unmask the
evildoer."
The op-ed itself was a jejune and mediocre example of
a time-honored American pastime, talking smack about one's boss behind his back. On its own
terms, it deserved at most a brief period of public mockery before fading away to something less
than an historical footnote.
But then Trump responded swiftly and decisively from his favorite bully pulpit, Twitter.
As for the alleged internal "resistance" the anonymous writer claims to belong to, it seems
to have fled the scene. Cabinet secretaries quickly lined up to plead their innocence of any
involvement, playing Bukharin to Trump's Stalin. Who wrote the op-ed? Someone by the name of
"Not Me." An internal administration manhunt (womanhunt?) has allegedly launched to unmask the
evildoer.
"... kind of psy-op. The problem I've had all along with this and the continued blaming of the "deep state" for preventing Trump from being the next coming of Jesus is that it creates sympathy for Trump, which is very dangerous. As I've said many times, none of them are on our side, Trump and his included. ..."
"... @Big Al ..."
"... "With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits, the big banks have made out like bandits during the post-crash period." ..."
"... "With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits, the big banks have made out like bandits during the post-crash period." ..."
"... @WoodsDweller ..."
"... @WoodsDweller ..."
"... to take criminal action, ..."
"... @Unabashed Liberal ..."
"... to take criminal action, ..."
"... Leaks to the media are equated with espionage. ..."
"... Leaks to the media are equated with espionage. ..."
This, according to author Paul Craig Roberts. In his urgent and compelling essay, he breaks the discovery down piece by piece.
You'll want to follow the link below and read it yourself for the full effect of the logic in action. Here are a few of his key
assertions:
The op-ed is a forgery. As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can state with certainty that no
senior official would express disagreement anonymously. Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor of it
undermines the character of the writer.
The New York Times' claim to have vetted the writer lacks credibility, as the New York Times has consistently printed
extreme accusations against Trump and against Vladimir Putin without supplying a bit of evidence. The New York Times
has consistently misrepresented unsubstantiated allegations as proven fact. There is no reason whatsoever to believe the
New York Times about anything.
Roberts is convinced that this obviously forged op-ed is an attempt to break up the Trump administration by creating suspicion
throughout the senior level. Unfortunately, Trump has fallen for the hoax and may not realize his mistake before significant damage
is done.
The New York Times motive for this deception, and the reason for the op-ed in the first place, is to serve the interests
of the military/security complex, which has long been the newspaper's primary objective. They desperately seek to compel a paranoid
nation to hold on to the enemies with whom Trump prefers to make peace.
For example, the alleged "senior official" misrepresents, as does the New York Times , President Trump's efforts
to reduce dangerous tensions with North Korea and Russia as President Trump's "preference for autocrats and dictators, such
as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un" over America's "allied, like-minded nations."
This is the same non-sequitur that the New York Times has expressed endlessly.
Why is resolving dangerous tensions a "preference for dictators" and not a preference for peace? The New York Times
has never explained, and neither does the "senior official."
How is it that Putin, elected three times by majorities that no US president has ever received, is a dictator? Putin stepped
down after serving the permitted two consecutive terms and was again elected after being out of office for a term. Do dictators
step down and sit out for 6 years?
The "senior official" also endorses as proven fact the alleged Skripal poisoning by a "deadly Russian nerve agent," an event
for which not one scrap of evidence exists. Neither has anyone explained why the "deadly nerve agent" wasn't deadly. The entire
Skripal event rests only on assertions. The purpose of the Skripal hoax was precisely what President Trump said it was: to
box him into further confrontation with Russia and prevent a reduction in tensions.
If the "senior official" is really so uninformed as to believe that Putin is a dictator who attacked the Skripals with a
deadly nerve agent and elected Trump president, the "senior official" is too dangerously ignorant and gullible to be a senior
official in any administration. These are the New York Times' beliefs or professed beliefs as the New York Times
does everything the organization can do to protect the military/security complex's budget from any reduction in the "enemy
threat."
Roberts points out another favorite attack on President Trump used by the New York Times, that he is unstable and
unfit for office. He notes that even the wording of the attack is reproduced in the fake op-ed:
"Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which
would start a complex process for removing the president," writes the invented and non-existent "senior official."
Americans are an insouciant people. But are any so insouciant that they really think that a senior official would write
that the members of President Trump's cabinet have considered removing him from office? What is this statement other than a
deliberate effort to produce a constitutional crisis -- the precise aim of John Brennan, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, the DNC,
and the New York Times . A constitutional crisis is what the hoax of Russiagate is all about. The level
of mendacity and evil in this plot against Trump is unequaled in history.
This op-ed hoax puts people in grave danger, all for the financial gain of the war profiteers. There is not a politician left
in America that has the nerve to stand up against this atrocity. They are all owned and fearful; they know full well a factual
and moral criticism against these inhumane wars and designated enemies will instantly destroy their careers. They will be banished
from the Capitol. It is up to the people themselves to denounce the coup government that is waging these illegal wars and destabilizing
the world.
In America today, and in Europe, people are living in a situation in which the liberal-progressive-left's blind hatred of
Donald Trump, together with the self-interested power and profit of the military security complex and election hopes of the
Democratic Party, are recklessly and irresponsibly risking nuclear Armageddon for no other reason than to act out their hate
and further their own nest.
This plot against Trump is dangerous to life on earth and demands that the governments and peoples of the world act now
to expose this plot and to bring it to an end before it kills us all.
...in a democracy. But according to recent polls, more than 75 percent of Americans have no one to represent them in ending
the wars. No one to vote for in upcoming elections because no one in Congress will take a stand against the deep state Coup government
that is pushing military aggression and intervention around the world.
The headline findings show, among other things, that 86.4 percent of those surveyed feel the American military should be
used only as a last resort, while 57 percent feel that US military aid to foreign countries is counterproductive. The latter
sentiment "increases significantly" when involving countries like Saudi Arabia, with 63.9 percent saying military aid -- including
money and weapons -- should not be provided to such countries.
The poll shows strong, indeed overwhelming, support, for Congress to reassert itself in the oversight of US military interventions,
with 70.8 percent of those polled saying Congress should pass legislation that would restrain military action overseas
@Pluto's
Republic
When was the last time the US Congress declared war, as required by the Constitution ?
Many assume it was Dec.8, 1941 against Japan or maybe Dec.11, 1941 against Germany and Italy.
Actually, it was June 5, 1942 against Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
I had to look that up: wikipedia
...in a democracy. But according to recent polls, more than 75 percent of Americans have no one to represent them in ending
the wars. No one to vote for in upcoming elections because no one in Congress will take a stand against the deep state Coup
government that is pushing military aggression and intervention around the world.
The headline findings show, among other things, that 86.4 percent of those surveyed feel the American military should
be used only as a last resort, while 57 percent feel that US military aid to foreign countries is counterproductive. The
latter sentiment "increases significantly" when involving countries like Saudi Arabia, with 63.9 percent saying military
aid -- including money and weapons -- should not be provided to such countries.
The poll shows strong, indeed overwhelming, support, for Congress to reassert itself in the oversight of US military
interventions, with 70.8 percent of those polled saying Congress should pass legislation that would restrain military action
overseas
I'm not as amazed as I might have been before I learned about the establishment of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1921
for the sole purpose of forcing US involvement in wars around the world.
The people refused to do it, saw no point in it, so the bankers had to do it themselves.
#1
When was the last time the US Congress declared war, as required by the Constitution ?
Many assume it was Dec.8, 1941 against Japan or maybe Dec.11, 1941 against Germany and Italy.
Actually, it was June 5, 1942 against Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
I had to look that up: wikipedia
Insouciant - showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent.
PCR overuses the word, but it is basically a dig at "the exceptional nation". He means we are so arrogant that we can't be
concerned to inform ourselves about the facts or their implications. I guess you could say it means ignorant, but its a kind of
willful, fingers in the ears ignorance.
Not out of ignorance, but because he's too damned polite.
but particularly after the NYT put out a response to over 23,000 reader inquiries. The answers to those inquires simply did
not ring credible.
I laid out two scenarios in a comment
on wendy davis' essay yesterday. In the beginning of the second scenario, I wrote of my belief that this op ed was not what it
was purported to be. It did not pass the smell test to me.
The more I am learning about this op ed and particularly as a result of the Times explanation of how it came to be, I am
beginning to think this op ed was concocted as a way of poisoning the well by those who wish Trump out of office. Two red flags
jumped out for me in the Times response to reader inquiries.
While this op ed may not have been written in house by Times staff, it was probably written by someone who has worked closely
with the Times in the past and may have even been written at the request of the Times editor in chief or publisher.
The op-ed is an obvious forgery. As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can state with certainty that
no senior official would express disagreement anonymously. Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor
of it undermines the character of the writer. A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his high position
to lend weight to his dissent.
This is exactly why I used William Ruckelhaus' resignation from the Nixon Administration as an example of an insider using
his reputation and honor to call attention to what Nixon wanted to do by firing Archibald Cox.
Another aspect of Roberts' essay is something that is very important to me personally and that is what would be the long term
damage done to the country by those calling for Trump's impeachment or removal via the 25th Amendment. And that does not take
into consideration the frightening prospect of Pence becoming President.
The level of mendacity and evil in this plot against Trump is unequaled in history. Have any of these conspirators
given a moment's thought to the consequences of removing a president for his unwillingness to worsen the dangerously high tensions
between nuclear powers? The next president would have to adopt a Russophobic stance and do nothing to reduce the tensions
that can break out in nuclear war or himself be accused of "coddling the Russian dictator and putting America at risk."
but particularly after the NYT put out a response to over 23,000 reader inquiries. The answers to those inquires simply
did not ring credible.
I laid out two scenarios in a comment
on wendy davis' essay yesterday. In the beginning of the second scenario, I wrote of my belief that this op ed was not what
it was purported to be. It did not pass the smell test to me.
The more I am learning about this op ed and particularly as a result of the Times explanation of how it came to be, I
am beginning to think this op ed was concocted as a way of poisoning the well by those who wish Trump out of office. Two
red flags jumped out for me in the Times response to reader inquiries.
While this op ed may not have been written in house by Times staff, it was probably written by someone who has worked closely
with the Times in the past and may have even been written at the request of the Times editor in chief or publisher.
kind of psy-op. The problem I've had all along with this and the continued blaming of the "deep state" for preventing Trump
from being the next coming of Jesus is that it creates sympathy for Trump, which is very dangerous. As I've said many times, none
of them are on our side, Trump and his included.
"Personifying a serious and unfortunate division on the left, progressive-libertarian journalist Glenn Greenwald has focused
his ire on the individuals in the administration who seek to undermine Trump's presidency, and his anger at these alleged "deep
state" bureaucrats has been echoed by numerous leftists I've spoken with in recent days. While admitting that Trump "may be a
threat," Greenwald responds: "but so is this covert coup" within the White House, which represents "an unelected cabal that covertly
imposed their own ideology with zero democratic accountability, mandate or transparency."
"Greenwald is an important figure for leftists considering his work with Edward Snowden to expose the federal government and
NSA's illegal spying in the "War on Terror." But his message here badly misses the mark. The claim that Trump "may be a threat"
to the country is perhaps the understatement of the century.And his willingness to focus on turmoil within the administration
as a major threat to democracy is strange. It's akin to complaining that your lawn is slowly turning brown when your house is
burning down in front of you. This is not a critique that's unique to Greenwald, as I've engaged with numerous individuals on
the left over the last week who see the White House op-ed as an example of the "deep state's" assault on civilian political rule.
I don't see it this way. The stakes are far higher than some monkey wrenchers in the White House undermining the president. If
we cannot separate the real threat to the nation fascism in the White House from the marginal "problem" of intra-administrative
discord within that fascist administration, then we are in serious trouble."
I'm not clear if, with your extensive quotations, you are endorsing the Counterpunch article. To me, that article is busy attacking
Greenwald for defending the Constitution and the political process. The author perverts defending the law into defending Trump.
Even murderers are supposed to be given a fair trial. The author, DiMaggio, does not seem to be in favor of that.
This article fits a pattern at Counterpunch. They print some leftwing stuff, but when the chips are down, they will publish
an article that supports the Deep State. I judge Counterpunch on an article by article basis. This article gets an F.
kind of psy-op. The problem I've had all along with this and the continued blaming of the "deep state" for preventing Trump
from being the next coming of Jesus is that it creates sympathy for Trump, which is very dangerous. As I've said many times,
none of them are on our side, Trump and his included.
"Personifying a serious and unfortunate division on the left, progressive-libertarian journalist Glenn Greenwald has focused
his ire on the individuals in the administration who seek to undermine Trump's presidency, and his anger at these alleged "deep
state" bureaucrats has been echoed by numerous leftists I've spoken with in recent days. While admitting that Trump "may be
a threat," Greenwald responds: "but so is this covert coup" within the White House, which represents "an unelected cabal that
covertly imposed their own ideology with zero democratic accountability, mandate or transparency."
"Greenwald is an important figure for leftists considering his work with Edward Snowden to expose the federal government
and NSA's illegal spying in the "War on Terror." But his message here badly misses the mark. The claim that Trump "may be a
threat" to the country is perhaps the understatement of the century.And his willingness to focus on turmoil within the administration
as a major threat to democracy is strange. It's akin to complaining that your lawn is slowly turning brown when your house
is burning down in front of you. This is not a critique that's unique to Greenwald, as I've engaged with numerous individuals
on the left over the last week who see the White House op-ed as an example of the "deep state's" assault on civilian political
rule. I don't see it this way. The stakes are far higher than some monkey wrenchers in the White House undermining the president.
If we cannot separate the real threat to the nation fascism in the White House from the marginal "problem" of intra-administrative
discord within that fascist administration, then we are in serious trouble."
internal or external? I really don't have an opinion on which, but I think both are a threat to our rapidly disappearing democracy.
Trump is a threat too and easy to hate. It makes him such a great foil for a coup.
@dkmich
target of a coup, doesn't it? The more I see of this stuff the more I cannot help but think that Trump WAS part of their plan
and not just Hers plan that she would win against him but maybe the perfect plan to dismantle what's left of our pathetically
termed "democracy."
Trump is dangerous as hell in his own right, what he and his idiots are doing to the climate is something we'll all live with,
or rather, die with, but he's doing what our owners want there and it is so easy to blame it all on him when I think we all know
our fossil fuel psychos are as much a part of the deep state as is the MIC.
This is a coup alright and what they want is nothing less than totalitarianism. By using Trump to get there it is the same
damned game of dupe, divide and conquer. Trump is no hero either, he's not going to "save America" but drive it into a ditch,
and really, I think that's been the plan all along.
internal or external? I really don't have an opinion on which, but I think both are a threat to our rapidly disappearing
democracy. Trump is a threat too and easy to hate. It makes him such a great foil for a coup.
Trump was the plan all along. He is doing much of the same things that Obama was doing but people weren't noticing because
of his so called 'charm'. It looks like Trump is rolling back a lot of Obama's policies where it comes to the environment, but
many of those policies were done just before Obama left office and wouldn't take affect for months or years. But it makes it look
like Obama was more progressive than he was and Trump is the one destroying the country.
Hillary wouldn't have been able to appoint the type of people Trump has in order to get to where we are now. And I see that
the only thing that has changed when it comes to our foreign interventions is that Trump has relaxed the rules of engagement and
isn't even bothering to protect the civilians who are in our way. Trump is still supporting ISIS and AQ who Obama and Hillary
armed and funded to do our dirty work.
Then there's the economic issues that the GOP are ramming through and the poor democrats are in no position to defend against
them. How convenient, eh?
People are going to pissed when Trump cuts the social programs, but lets not forget that they were cut during Obama's tenure
too and he even put SS on the table. Rumor is that McConnell stopped him, but why did he? SO that he could take credit for it?
Hmmm. Fishy that.
"With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits, the big banks have made out like bandits
during the post-crash period."
The 2008 financial meltdown inflicted devastating financial and psychological damage upon millions of ordinary Americans,
but a new report released by Public Citizen on Tuesday shows the Wall Street banks that caused the crash with their reckless
speculation and outright fraud have done phenomenally well in the ten years since the crisis.
Thanks to the Obama administration's decision to rescue collapsing Wall Street banks with taxpayer cash and the Trump administration's
massive tax cuts and deregulatory push, America's five largest banks -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo,
and Goldman Sachs -- have raked in more than $583 billion in combined profits over the past decade, Public Citizen found in
its analysis marking the ten-year anniversary of the crisis.
"With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits," said Robert Weissman, president of Public
Citizen, "the big banks have made out like bandits during the post-crash period. Like bandits."
What a surprise,
According to a Washington Post analysis published on Saturday, many of the lawmakers and congressional aides who helped
craft the Democratic Congress' regulatory response to the 2008 crisis have gone on to work for Wall Street in the hopes of
benefiting from big banks' booming profits.
Not
#5 target of a coup,
doesn't it? The more I see of this stuff the more I cannot help but think that Trump WAS part of their plan and not just Hers
plan that she would win against him but maybe the perfect plan to dismantle what's left of our pathetically termed "democracy."
Trump is dangerous as hell in his own right, what he and his idiots are doing to the climate is something we'll all live
with, or rather, die with, but he's doing what our owners want there and it is so easy to blame it all on him when I think
we all know our fossil fuel psychos are as much a part of the deep state as is the MIC.
This is a coup alright and what they want is nothing less than totalitarianism. By using Trump to get there it is the same
damned game of dupe, divide and conquer. Trump is no hero either, he's not going to "save America" but drive it into a ditch,
and really, I think that's been the plan all along.
@snoopydawg
You always put it so much better and in better detail than I do. I've felt from the beginning with Trump the more repulsive and
stupid the policy, they better for our owners. They're fine with all that, but they will not tolerate dissent on overall American
dominance of the entire world and Trump, for whatever greedy reasons, is bucking them there. And I do not believe Her could have
gotten away with his more egregious things and our owners were certainly aware of that. The mask is off, let the final gutting
commence openly.
And the more they "fight" Trump the more "credible" Trump looks. I find that personally terrifying.
Trump was the plan all along. He is doing much of the same things that Obama was doing but people weren't noticing because
of his so called 'charm'. It looks like Trump is rolling back a lot of Obama's policies where it comes to the environment,
but many of those policies were done just before Obama left office and wouldn't take affect for months or years. But it makes
it look like Obama was more progressive than he was and Trump is the one destroying the country.
Hillary wouldn't have been able to appoint the type of people Trump has in order to get to where we are now. And I see that
the only thing that has changed when it comes to our foreign interventions is that Trump has relaxed the rules of engagement
and isn't even bothering to protect the civilians who are in our way. Trump is still supporting ISIS and AQ who Obama and Hillary
armed and funded to do our dirty work.
Then there's the economic issues that the GOP are ramming through and the poor democrats are in no position to defend against
them. How convenient, eh?
People are going to pissed when Trump cuts the social programs, but lets not forget that they were cut during Obama's tenure
too and he even put SS on the table. Rumor is that McConnell stopped him, but why did he? SO that he could take credit for
it? Hmmm. Fishy that.
"With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits, the big banks have made out like bandits
during the post-crash period."
The 2008 financial meltdown inflicted devastating financial and psychological damage upon millions of ordinary Americans,
but a new report released by Public Citizen on Tuesday shows the Wall Street banks that caused the crash with their reckless
speculation and outright fraud have done phenomenally well in the ten years since the crisis.
Thanks to the Obama administration's decision to rescue collapsing Wall Street banks with taxpayer cash and the Trump
administration's massive tax cuts and deregulatory push, America's five largest banks -- JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America,
Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs -- have raked in more than $583 billion in combined profits over the past decade,
Public Citizen found in its analysis marking the ten-year anniversary of the crisis.
"With no jail time for executives and half a trillion in post-crisis profits," said Robert Weissman, president of Public
Citizen, "the big banks have made out like bandits during the post-crash period. Like bandits."
What a surprise,
According to a Washington Post analysis published on Saturday, many of the lawmakers and congressional aides who helped
craft the Democratic Congress' regulatory response to the 2008 crisis have gone on to work for Wall Street in the hopes
of benefiting from big banks' booming profits.
By that I'm saying that both major legacy Parties always managed to nominate Party candidates who were acceptable to the Deep
State and the One Percent--until DT came along, and won the Republican nomination in 2016.
Blue Onyx
"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong." ~~W. R. Purche
#5 target of a coup,
doesn't it? The more I see of this stuff the more I cannot help but think that Trump WAS part of their plan and not just Hers
plan that she would win against him but maybe the perfect plan to dismantle what's left of our pathetically termed "democracy."
Trump is dangerous as hell in his own right, what he and his idiots are doing to the climate is something we'll all live
with, or rather, die with, but he's doing what our owners want there and it is so easy to blame it all on him when I think
we all know our fossil fuel psychos are as much a part of the deep state as is the MIC.
This is a coup alright and what they want is nothing less than totalitarianism. By using Trump to get there it is the same
damned game of dupe, divide and conquer. Trump is no hero either, he's not going to "save America" but drive it into a ditch,
and really, I think that's been the plan all along.
leading to a Pence administration. Trump's main qualification is that he's incompetent. What this op-ed (I also think it is
fake, perhaps written by someone at an intelligence agency) is supposed to do is to tie the Trump White House in knots and keep
them from functioning. A Democratic wave in November, even if it does no more than retake the House, will put a stop to Trump's
initiatives. If the Democrats take the Senate they will be able to hold up appointments, in particular of judges.
And how many Democratic candidates have an intelligence or military background? What voting block would be calling the shots?
Delay and befuddle for just a few months more, and the worst of the Trump threat will be disarmed. I don't think this is any more
complicated than that.
the biggest Dem Congressional voting block will be a military/intel/national security/State Dept cabal--or, a 'shadow Deep
State.' Probably, one reason that the DCCC and Dem Leadership recruited scores of these candidates to run in open seats.
On November 7, it will be a piece of cake to take out (figuratively) DT.
Blue Onyx
"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong." ~~W. R. Purche
leading to a Pence administration. Trump's main qualification is that he's incompetent. What this op-ed (I also think it
is fake, perhaps written by someone at an intelligence agency) is supposed to do is to tie the Trump White House in knots and
keep them from functioning. A Democratic wave in November, even if it does no more than retake the House, will put a stop to
Trump's initiatives. If the Democrats take the Senate they will be able to hold up appointments, in particular of judges.
And how many Democratic candidates have an intelligence or military background? What voting block would be calling the shots?
Delay and befuddle for just a few months more, and the worst of the Trump threat will be disarmed. I don't think this is any
more complicated than that.
...on domestic issues, but don't expect improvements.
As for foreign policy, the Dems will vote with the Deep State every time.
The trajectories of the past 50 years are not going to change.
leading to a Pence administration. Trump's main qualification is that he's incompetent. What this op-ed (I also think it
is fake, perhaps written by someone at an intelligence agency) is supposed to do is to tie the Trump White House in knots and
keep them from functioning. A Democratic wave in November, even if it does no more than retake the House, will put a stop to
Trump's initiatives. If the Democrats take the Senate they will be able to hold up appointments, in particular of judges.
And how many Democratic candidates have an intelligence or military background? What voting block would be calling the shots?
Delay and befuddle for just a few months more, and the worst of the Trump threat will be disarmed. I don't think this is any
more complicated than that.
Greenwald. The CP piece is factually incorrect--the Admin is not asking for an investigation of the author to
take criminal action, per the NYT & LA Times. They're wanting assistance to "root out the source of the
Op-Ed." Not to prosecute, or jail him/her.
After all, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that OPM wouldn't have a Department that can suss out 'who' the author
is. So, in order to discipline the author, some other agency would have to identify him/her.
No doubt, we're witnessing an attempted coup d'ιtat.
Now, if it's a 'single' official--my money's on Jon Huntsman. I've also wondered if the Op-Ed could be a collective effort
(by a cabal of officials ).
OTOH, it could very well be the Editorial Board of the NYT, considering the way the author(s) wove in so many verbal
expressions that could point to various 'officials.' IOW, it seemed very contrived.
(Pence uses 'lodestar' a lot. Read that a couple other terms/expressions were common to John Kelly, and one other person--whose
name I can't recall, right now.)
Anyhoo, who'd be better equipped to throw out 'BS' like that, than a bunch of newspaper editors. After all, they'd have a great
deal of familiarty with politicians'/officials' verbiage.
Guess I'll need to amend my comment in WD's essay, now!
Blue Onyx
"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong." ~~W. R. Purche
have attributed this excellent essay to Pluto. My apologies!
(Nancy's comments were great, too. )
Blue Onyx
"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong." ~~W. R. Purche
Greenwald. The CP piece is factually incorrect--the Admin is not asking for an investigation of the author
to take criminal action, per the NYT & LA Times. They're wanting assistance to "root out the source
of the Op-Ed." Not to prosecute, or jail him/her.
After all, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that OPM wouldn't have a Department that can suss out 'who' the
author is. So, in order to discipline the author, some other agency would have to identify him/her.
No doubt, we're witnessing an attempted coup d'ιtat.
Now, if it's a 'single' official--my money's on Jon Huntsman. I've also wondered if the Op-Ed could be a collective effort
(by a cabal of officials ).
OTOH, it could very well be the Editorial Board of the NYT, considering the way the author(s) wove in so many verbal
expressions that could point to various 'officials.' IOW, it seemed very contrived.
(Pence uses 'lodestar' a lot. Read that a couple other terms/expressions were common to John Kelly, and one other person--whose
name I can't recall, right now.)
Anyhoo, who'd be better equipped to throw out 'BS' like that, than a bunch of newspaper editors. After all, they'd have
a great deal of familiarty with politicians'/officials' verbiage.
Guess I'll need to amend my comment in WD's essay, now!
Blue Onyx
"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong." ~~W. R. Purche
Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans' phone records, the Obama administration
was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers
and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.
President Barack Obama's unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has
received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments
and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments.
It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of "insider threat" give agencies latitude to pursue and
penalize a range of other conduct.
Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures
of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch
for "high-risk persons or behaviors" among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to
report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.
"Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States," says a June 1, 2012, Defense
Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.
Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans' phone records, the Obama
administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer
tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.
President Barack Obama's unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It
has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal
departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and
Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of "insider threat" give agencies
latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.
Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized
disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors
must watch for "high-risk persons or behaviors" among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for
failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.
"Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States," says a June 1, 2012,
Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.
I haven't seen Trump behave in any way but in a way consistent with this op-ed. I watched Omarosa on The View (on youtube)
yesterday, and she was completely convinced of the op-ed's truth and had her own theory about who in the administration wrote.
She also played a recording of Trump spewing terrible lies (I forgot the subject matter out a need for tranquility) and Sara Huckabee
was there backing up the lies, ready to spew them at her next press conference.
I mean, come on: Trump University? The President
was born in Kenya? Bankruptcies, inability to condemn a deadly nazi parade? etc etc et fucking cetera. This is real and it's Trump
and maybe Putin. The evidence is getting overwhelming.
We know Trump is a liar. The public knew that when they elected him. That's actually a better deal than the suckers who voted
for Obama the "peacemaker" but got Obama the war starter, drone bomber, and coup instigator. That's a better deal than the people
who voted for Obama to undo the Bush/Cheney damage, and got Obama the bailer-out of Wall St, Obama the prosecutor of whistleblowers.
Lying is not an impeachable offense. Politicians do it all the time.
The constant undermining of the office of the President by intelligence agencies who abuse their access to classified information
is a crime - although one that we have never been able to prosecute the CIA for since the day it was founded.
I haven't seen Trump behave in any way but in a way consistent with this op-ed. I watched Omarosa on The View (on youtube)
yesterday, and she was completely convinced of the op-ed's truth and had her own theory about who in the administration wrote.
She also played a recording of Trump spewing terrible lies (I forgot the subject matter out a need for tranquility) and Sara
Huckabee was there backing up the lies, ready to spew them at her next press conference. I mean, come on: Trump University?
The President was born in Kenya? Bankruptcies, inability to condemn a deadly nazi parade? etc etc et fucking cetera. This is
real and it's Trump and maybe Putin. The evidence is getting overwhelming.
@arendt
That was the point I was making, since this is an article that seems to imply the op-ed is part of a conspiracy. So you agree
with me about the character of Trump and that the op-ed could very well be real?
We know Trump is a liar. The public knew that when they elected him. That's actually a better deal than the suckers who
voted for Obama the "peacemaker" but got Obama the war starter, drone bomber, and coup instigator. That's a better deal than
the people who voted for Obama to undo the Bush/Cheney damage, and got Obama the bailer-out of Wall St, Obama the prosecutor
of whistleblowers.
Lying is not an impeachable offense. Politicians do it all the time.
The constant undermining of the office of the President by intelligence agencies who abuse their access to classified information
is a crime - although one that we have never been able to prosecute the CIA for since the day it was founded.
Of course I think the op-ed is part of the plot to overthrow a legitimately elected president.
Trump's a bum. But so was George W. Bush, and Nancy Pelosi said "impeachment is off the table". The Clintons are crooks who
TPTB refuse to prosecute. Maybe the NYT should start a smear campaign against Hillary.
You seem to not care about the process of government. You seem to think that all that matters is getting rid of Trump, not
how that is done, not how much of the Constitution we tear up to do it. You seem not to care that impeaching Trump brings us Mike
Pence, who may be even worse.
This is the same game as Jose Padilla and Habeus Corpus. You find some loathsome character and use him as a test case to get
rid of some basic rights from everyone, forever.
If you can't see the plot by this point, I can't help you.
#9.1
That was the point I was making, since this is an article that seems to imply the op-ed is part of a conspiracy. So you agree
with me about the character of Trump and that the op-ed could very well be real?
@arendt@arendt
Democracy requires:
1) A readiness to debate honestly, in a civil manner, with people who disagree.
2) An openess to facts and expert opinion about such things as climate change.
3) A respect for due process and fairness.
4) A respect for non-partisanship in reference, to say, what the attorney general can investigate.
There's a lot of other things a democracy requires but first and foremost Trump has no respect for honest debate. How the hell
are we going to solve climate change when Trump's only response is to insult scientists and the intelligence of every American?
You seem to not care about the process of government. You seem to think that all that matters is getting rid of Trump, not
how that is done, not how much of the Constitution we tear up to do it.
I never said the word "impeachment" until this reply. Quit putting words in my mouth. Everybody needs to vote against Trump
this November because it's critical as hell.
Of course I think the op-ed is part of the plot to overthrow a legitimately elected president.
Trump's a bum. But so was George W. Bush, and Nancy Pelosi said "impeachment is off the table". The Clintons are crooks
who TPTB refuse to prosecute. Maybe the NYT should start a smear campaign against Hillary.
You seem to not care about the process of government. You seem to think that all that matters is getting rid of Trump, not
how that is done, not how much of the Constitution we tear up to do it. You seem not to care that impeaching Trump brings us
Mike Pence, who may be even worse.
This is the same game as Jose Padilla and Habeus Corpus. You find some loathsome character and use him as a test case to
get rid of some basic rights from everyone, forever.
If you can't see the plot by this point, I can't help you.
You have to wait for 2020 when you will be able to vote for Biden if you can stop throwing up on your way to the polls.
#9.1.1.1#9.1.1.1
Democracy requires:
1) A readiness to debate honestly, in a civil manner, with people who disagree.
2) An openess to facts and expert opinion about such things as climate change.
3) A respect for due process and fairness.
4) A respect for non-partisanship in reference, to say, what the attorney general can investigate.
There's a lot of other things a democracy requires but first and foremost Trump has no respect for honest debate. How the
hell are we going to solve climate change when Trump's only response is to insult scientists and the intelligence of every
American?
You seem to not care about the process of government. You seem to think that all that matters is getting rid of Trump,
not how that is done, not how much of the Constitution we tear up to do it.
I never said the word "impeachment" until this reply. Quit putting words in my mouth. Everybody needs to vote against Trump
this November because it's critical as hell.
That was the point I was making, since this is an article that seems to imply the op-ed is part of a conspiracy.
In other words, you have difficulty acknowledging that PCR has been on record for months claiming there is a conspiracy. Are
you really that unwilling to acknowledge he thinks there is a conspiracy? What is your objection to acknowledging the man's stated
position?
In this second response, you jump on the word "impeachment" as if that is an unjustifiable stretch from the facts on the table.
I never said the word "impeachment" until this reply. Quit putting words in my mouth.
To many of us, including the OP writer, this op-ed is just the latest stirring of the pot in an ongoing campaign to get rid
of/impeach/remove Trump well before 2020. Such provocations have been occurring since before Trump was sworn in. To claim, as
you do, that this op-ed was done only to influence this election is a classic "broken clock is right twice a day" argument. Its
true it might influence the election, but its purpose is to further the coup attempt that is underway.
That you react so strongly ("I never said") to the word impeachment is part of a pattern. You want to wall off the issue of
the conspiracy (which you still only acknowledge with a "seems to imply") from the issue of Trump's behavior and only focus on
the latter. This is exactly the pattern of the corporate Dems.
I refuse to adhere to your compartmentalization. The op-ed and impeachment ARE related.
#9.1.1.1#9.1.1.1
Democracy requires:
1) A readiness to debate honestly, in a civil manner, with people who disagree.
2) An openess to facts and expert opinion about such things as climate change.
3) A respect for due process and fairness.
4) A respect for non-partisanship in reference, to say, what the attorney general can investigate.
There's a lot of other things a democracy requires but first and foremost Trump has no respect for honest debate. How the
hell are we going to solve climate change when Trump's only response is to insult scientists and the intelligence of every
American?
You seem to not care about the process of government. You seem to think that all that matters is getting rid of Trump,
not how that is done, not how much of the Constitution we tear up to do it.
I never said the word "impeachment" until this reply. Quit putting words in my mouth. Everybody needs to vote against Trump
this November because it's critical as hell.
"It's Time for the Press to Stop Complaining -- And to Start Fighting Back"
Chuck Todd SEP 3, 2018 in "The Atlantic"
Two days later the NYT article hit. That was my reaction to the piece, Chuck called for this.
What deep state conspiracy? There's your proof right there! So, Trump was right?
"It's a witch hunt!" Trumps seemingly paranoid ejaculations, do not seem so paranoid with every passing day of nothing but backfires.
"Fake News!" Strzok-Page's "media leak strategy" Not so crazy after all?
Trump is so unpredictable. The tweeting maniac is impossible to handle. Is that such a bad thing?
I think we can afford it, there is a benefit.
Some people just wanted Washington shook up, they are getting what they wanted.
I don't know that there's a better way to bring actual change.
The means are not conventional that's for sure, what are the results we want?
If he achieves them, will he be credited?
If all his fantastic assertions keep coming true, he'll be around for some time.
No? Why not, because of anonymous articles like this? Another deep state back fire; keep digging.
"... The op-ed, perhaps by no coincidence whatsoever, appeared one week before the release of the new book by Bob Woodward Fear: Trump in the White House , which has a similar tale to tell and came out on Amazon today. ..."
And there is always Iran just waiting to get kicked around, when all else fails. Haley,
always blissfully ignorant but never quiet,
commented while preparing to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council last
Friday, that Russia and Syria "want to bomb schools, hospitals, and homes" before launching
into a tirade about Iran, saying
that "President Trump is very adamant that we have to start making sure that Iran is
falling in line with international order. If you continue to look at the spread Iran has had in
supporting terrorism, if you continue to look at the ballistic missile testing that they are
doing, if you continue to look at the sales of weapons we see with the Huthis in Yemen -- these
are all violations of security council resolution. These are all threats to the region, and
these are all things that the international community needs to talk about."
And there is the usual hypocrisy over long term objectives. President Donald Trump said in
April that "it's time" to bring American troops home from Syria -- once the jihadists of
Islamic State have been definitively defeated. But now that that objective is in sight, there
has to be some question about who is actually determining the policies that come out of the
White House, which is reported to be in more than usual disarray due to the appearance last
week of the New York Timesanonymous
op-ed describing a "resistance" movement within the West Wing that has been deliberately
undermining and sometimes ignoring the president to further Establishment/Deep State friendly
policies. The op-ed, perhaps by no coincidence whatsoever, appeared one week before the
release of the new book by Bob Woodward Fear: Trump in the White House , which has a similar tale to tell and came out on
Amazon today.
The book and op-ed mesh nicely in describing how Donald Trump is a walking disaster who is
deliberately circumvented by his staff. One section of the op-ed is particularly telling and
suggestive of neocon foreign policy, describing how the White House staff has succeeded in
"[calling out] countries like Russia for meddling and [having them] punished accordingly" in
spite of the president's desire for détente. It then goes on to elaborate on Russia and
Trump, describing how " the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin's spies as
punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about
senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he
expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for
its malign behavior. But the national security team knew better – such actions had to be
taken to hold Moscow accountable."
If the op-ed and Woodward book are in any way accurate, one has to ask "Whose policy? An
elected president or a cabal of disgruntled staffers who might well identify as
neoconservatives?" Be that as it may, the White House is desperately pushing back while at the
same time searching for the traitor, which suggests to many in Washington that it will right
the sinking ship prior to November elections by the time honored and approved method used by
politicians worldwide, which means starting a war to rally the nation behind the
government.
As North Korea is nuclear armed, the obvious targets for a new or upgraded war would be Iran
and Syria. As Iran might actually fight back effectively and the Pentagon always prefers an
enemy that is easy to defeat, one suspects that some kind of expansion of the current effort in
Syria would be preferable. It would be desirable, one presumes, to avoid an open conflict with
Russia, which would be unpredictable, but an attack on Syrian government forces that would
produce a quick result which could plausibly be described as a victory would certainly be worth
considering.
By all appearances, the preparation of the public for an attack on Syria is already well
underway. The mainstream media has been deluged with descriptions of tyrant Bashar al-Assad,
who allegedly has killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. The rhetoric coming out of
the usual government sources is remarkable for its truculence, particularly when one considers
that Damascus is trying to regain control over what is indisputably its own sovereign territory
from groups that everyone agrees are at least in large part terrorists.
Last week, the Trump White House approved the
new U.S. plan for Syria, which, unlike the old plan of withdrawal, envisions something like
a permanent presence in the country. It includes a continued occupation of the country's
northeast, which is the Kurdish region; forcing Iran plus its proxies including Hezbollah to
leave the country completely; and continued pressure on Damascus to bring about regime
change.
Washington has also shifted its perception of who is trapped in Idlib, with
newly appointed U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey arguing that
". . . they're not terrorists, but people fighting a civil war against a brutal
dictator." Jeffrey, it should be noted, was pulled out of retirement where he was a fellow with
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), an American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) spin off. On his recent trip to the Middle East he stopped off in Israel nine
days ago to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The change in policy, which is totally in
line with Israeli demands, would suggest that Jeffrey received his instructions during the
visit.
Israel is indeed upping its involvement in Syria. It has bombed the country 200
times in the past 18 months and is now threatening to extend the war by attacking Iranians in
neighboring Iraq. It has also been providing
arms to the terrorist groups operating inside Syria .
As Doug French
noted last July , this result would surprise no one familiar with F.A. Hayek's Road to
Serfdom. As Hayek wrote in his chapter dedicated to the question "Why the Worst Rise to the
Top:"
Advancement within a totalitarian group or party depends largely on a willingness to do
immoral things. The principle that the end justifies the means, which in individualist ethics
is regarded as the denial of all morals, in collectivist ethics becomes necessarily the
supreme rule. There is literally nothing which the consistent collectivist must not be
prepared to do if it serves 'the good of the whole', because that is to him the only
criterion of what ought to be done.
Donald Trump is a man that is guilty of a great many sins, but at the end of the day he's no
worse than your average – overpaid
– Federal senior staffer. The elites that make up the professional political class and
their cheerleaders in the mainstream media have no moral high ground here. Their aim is not to
restore "civility" or "decency" to American politics, after all their desire to expand the
reach of government power is precisely what undermines such values .
No, their goal is simply to reverse an election they didn't expect to lose. It's quite possible
they may end up succeeding.
Hopefully the takeaway for those who relished the idea of "draining the swamp" is the
realization that this can't be accomplished by simply changing the name of the person who
occupies the top office. The Federal government can't be fixed; it must have its powers taken
away.
Political decentralization is the only way to truly make America great again.
Newly released text messages between disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page regarding a "media leak
strategy" have come under intense scrutiny, as they were exchanged one day before and one day after a bombshell Washington Post article
during a critical point in the Trump-Russia investigation, reports
Sara Carter
and the Daily Caller 's Chuck Ross.
Photo: Daily Caller
The text messages, revealed Monday by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and sent the day before and after two damaging articles about former
Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, raise " grave concerns regarding an apparent systematic culture of media leaking by high-ranking
officials at the FBI and DOJ related to ongoing investigations."
Recall that Strzok's boss, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, was fired for authorizing self-serving leaks to the press.
Also recall that text messages released in January reveal that Lisa Page was on the phone with Washington Post reporter Devlin
Barrett , then with the New York Times , when the reopening of the Clinton Foundation investigation hit the news cycle - just one
example in a series of text messages matching up with MSM reports relying on leaked information, as reported by the
Conservative Treehouse .
♦Page: 5:19pm "Still on the phone with Devlin . Mike's phone is ON FIRE."
♥Strzok: 5:29pm "You might wanna tell Devlin he should turn on CNN, there's news on."
♦Page: 5:30pm "He knows. He just got handed a note."
♥Strzok: 5:33pm "Ha. He asking about it now?"
♦Page: 5:34pm "Yeah. It was pretty funny. Coming now."
The review of the documents suggests that the FBI and DOJ coordinated efforts to get information to the press that would potentially
be "harmful to President Trump's administration." Those leaks pertained to information regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court warrant used to spy on short-term campaign volunteer Carter Page.
The letter lists several examples:
April 10, 2017: (former FBI Special Agent) Peter Strzok contacts (former FBI Attorney) Lisa Page to discuss a "media leak
strategy." Specifically, the text says: "I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about
media leak strategy with DOJ before you go."
April 12, 2017: Peter Strzok congratulates Lisa Page on a job well done while referring to two derogatory articles about
Carter Page. In the text, Strzok warns Page two articles are coming out, one which is "worse" than the other about Lisa's "namesake"."
Strzok added: "Well done, Page." -
Sara
Carter
Meadows says that the texts show " a coordinated effort on the part of the FBI and DOJ to release information in the public domain
potentially harmful to President Donald Trump's administration. "
lisa page...why do i get the sense she was strzork's agency handler and not his fbi lover? is it because his mannerisms scream
homo, or is it because he speaks to her as a subordinate to a superior? those texts were far more focused on the dissemination
and control of information than they were about arranging trysts. strange. and speaking of homos, did you guys catch the conversation
about kasich? seems he's been in the closet for a long time. seems his long-time advisor/'roommate' is more than just that.
another lisa that should pique your interest is Lisa Barsoomian. who is lisa barsoomian? who is she married to? what is her
connection with lynch, holder, strzok, ohr, steele, obama, priestap, comey, etc?
anyone else think a FISA declass docu-drop perfectly apropos for the 9/11 anniversary?
i sure do.
janus
jeff montanye ,
i never get tired of realizing peter strzok, regarded as absolutely the top of the line in counterintelligence, thought ("I
had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you . . .") he could avoid the nsa by his choice of phone. priceless.
insanelysane ,
Look the un-bias IG reviewed the FBI's action and found no bias. How can that happen? Who does a review to see if the IG is
biased? Who does a review to see if the person that finds that the IG has no bias has bias?? Who does a review....
Someday Sessions and Rosenstein may get sacked or the people responsible for the sacking will get sacked.
If the Dims take back Congress in the mid-terms, none of these revelations will matter one iota as the Dims will bury these
investigations and start their own into everything Trump... Time for Trump to drop the hammer on all of these people, BEFORE the
mid-terms...
novictim ,
And what is the reason for the people REALLY in charge going after Trump? It has always been about his Anti-Neoliberal agenda.
Specifically, TARIFFS on CHINA. The oligarchs behind the establishment have made fantastic amounts of money off the strip-mining
of American industry and Capital. They want the cheap labour of Asia and the 3rd world yet also want to sell the sh#t back to
the USA even though that trade imbalance will lead to ruin.
If not for President Trump, there would be no hope for the American people.
ipud ,
April 12, 2017: Peter Strzok congratulates Lisa Page on a (hatchet) job well done...
From FBI's "Protected Voices" website, on "Safer Campaign Communications"-
"To secure communications channels -- such as email, messaging apps, and social media -- use encryption, disable archiving
, use access controls, disable remote wiping, use account lockout, and patch your systems."
If campaigns should disable archiving, would they not be in violation of federal e-mail retention laws?
rosiescenario ,
It is interesting that all of the "reporters" at the MSM do not care that the entire (excluding FOX) news organization is behaving
exactly as Tass and Pravda used to behave under communist Russia. These folks are too dense to see the irony that a read of RT
today is more factual than anything coming out of the U.S. media.
I guess when you are a liberal Dem you do not have anything honest and factual to discuss....you resort to calling Benghazi
"a wild conspiracy".
migra ,
They aren't too dense. They know exactly whats going on and they are happy with it as long as it helps there cause.
Stan522 ,
So, what the fuck was the Inspector General looking at and reviewing when he declared there was no bias.....?
migra ,
Because IG Horowitz is one of, "them".
Anunnaki ,
Horowitz. Nuff said
enough of this ,
It was a deep-state whitewash just like his next report is going to be.
By the way this new commenting system and specifically the lack of ability to follow up on a conversation since there are no
links to a user's history of comments really sucks.
sgorem ,
i agree.........
ThinkerNotEmoter ,
Yep.
I blame Trump.
Indelible Scars ,
It is waaaay better.
SmallerGovNow2 ,
agree with you. it is the way it used to be when you could really have a common thread and people were not jumping the thread
just to get their comments at the top...
Nunny ,
It was so tiresome to respond to a thread and have to wade through 3 pages+ to see if someone responded. I like this much better.
Sanity Bear ,
True, glad to see the comment-jumping thing gone.
However, now you have to remember which articles you posted on and hunt for them yourself in order to check for followup, which
is worse user-wise than having to click through a bunch of pages to see how far down your comment got pushed.
pops ,
Yes. It sucks big time.
Sanity Bear ,
Hanging offense treason, and there is not even the slightest ambiguity that that is what this is.
Empire's Frontiers ,
Why does it seem obvious that the sitting administration used all its levers to aid Hillary in her election, and further, destroy
Trump in his victory?
Ink Pusher ,
That'll be 6 orders of SEDITION with a side order of COLLUSION for each and a Diet TREASON for everyone to drink please.
Long Live The Donald ,
Trump is fucking nuts! Get Over it!
cheech_wizard ,
So you're still sodomizing your children?
Yen Cross ,
Yen is older, and looks 1o years younger than than that pile of shit!
Guilt has away of destroying people
Yen Cross ,
Faggot libtard snowflake?
American Snipper ,
This cocksucker Rosenberg needs to be fired, as is everyone on Trumps short list of leakers. Drain the fucking swamp! Redact
all Russian docs, speed it up, Mr. President!!!
I am Groot ,
When you say "fired" , I'm thinking he should be strapped to missile and fired into the sun, Wiley coyote style.....
Yen Cross ,
Pro facto**** Never ever once, ever has Yen cheated on a Woman.
Many opportunities, but yen used the bigger head.
Yen will never cheat on the Woman he's dedicated to.
Cursive ,
Lisa should really stick with the straight hair. Much better than that headshot with the cheesy perm that was first circulated.
Her credentials as a nasty Deep State dick gobbler aside, She rises from a 2 to a 5 (on a scale of 10).
Htos1 ,
3, with a bag. If she's not fat.
bookofenoch ,
Nope. Lisa Page is a filthy whore. Imagine sharing her front and back holes with Strzok. Or Kissing her Strzok jizz drinking
hole.
Repulsive. Forever disgraced. The woman is dogshit.
I am Groot ,
It's really hard to rate animals on a scale of 1 to 10. Tough choice between her and a goat.
rbianco3 ,
Released in January- this is September WTF?
This is seriously important information - could have exonerated the President almost a year ago - and had he been impeached
would have no recourse. Those that did not release until now are co-conspirators.
justyouwait ,
They are co-conspirators and more. They were placed to do the job they are doing. Rotten Rodney is the head of the snake in
the DOJ. He was positioned to slow down or if possible totally hold back key information from congress (his boss). Old man Sessions
was co-opted right from the start. He looks & acts like a guy taking orders. I don't know what they have on him (use your imagination)
but he was neutered right from day 1. He should be charged with dereliction of duty and fired. I think if a true investigation
is ever done and all the facts come out, Rotten Rodney could very well be charged with treason along with a large number of other
Deep State operatives and more than a few in the Democratic Party.
Htos1 ,
Depends on what was in all those bankers boxes of FBI files trucked over to the WH from Reno and Holder in the 90's.
Chupacabra-322 ,
♦Page: 5:19pm "Still on the phone with Devlin . Mike's phone is ON FIRE."
♥Strzok: 5:29pm "You might wanna tell Devlin he should turn on CNN, there's news on."
♦Page: 5:30pm "He knows. He just got handed a note."
♥Strzok: 5:33pm "Ha. He asking about it now?"
♦Page: 5:34pm "Yeah. It was pretty funny. Coming now."
At 5:36pm Devlin Barrett tweets:
These Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths & Sociopaths get off on Gas Lighting the Public through their
own manufactured, Scripted False Narratives & Psychological Operations.
Sick, twisted, Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths deserve to be hung with Piano wire. Them, Breanan, Clapper, Lynch, Rice, Obama
& last but not least the ring leader Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath at Large, Hillary Clinton.
stubb ,
CRUSH HIS SKULL NOW
1970SSNova396 ,
The CrossRoads have been reached.........Saddle up
Can't wait for the release of all the MSM person that were paid via GPS to spin this shit!
Yen Cross ,
That little prick, needs to be knocked down, an notch?
His cum guzzling adultress pretty much sums things up?
Calvertsbio ,
What we need is a 100% republican DOJ, FBI, CIA, politicians... wipe out the democrats for a better society... That should
work, then we won't need Zerohedge to spread all this propaganda !
Robert of Ottawa ,
The repubs and dementocrats are on the same team, the uniparty swamp where all congressman and senators get equal bribes if
they wish
1970SSNova396 ,
They're all whores for a buck.How else can you make less than 200k per year
yet retire with millions ...just in the House.
Calvertsbio ,
Yes, we are doomed, for sure it is every FAMILY for themselves... Glad I only have one kid to work thru this mess, I can keep
an eye on her...
My sister, brother, father all are week too week people.. They never listened, prepared, etc... Just glad Pops has the SS and
post office pension... Otherwise, would be living here... Also kind of glad they are 1200 miles away... Too bad they ignored all
the signs... They will be begging in a few years.. Beans and RICE
Htos1 ,
90% of the repugs are ON the team! Otherwise billary would be a warm memory and no 9/11.
sniffybigtoe ,
Never fear! The GOP is ready and willing to do fuck all about it.
r0mulus ,
Yep- can't have a fake two party system without a fake second party to collude with...
candyman ,
After 3 hrs... ABC,CBS,NBC, CNN - nothing on the web pages.
thetruthhurts ,
November can't come fast enough for Democrats and the Corporatist deep state.
enough of this ,
It was a deep-state whitewash just like his next report is going to be.
This is seriously important information - could have exonerated the President almost a year ago - and had he been impeached
would have no recourse. Those that did not release until now are co-conspirators.
justyouwait ,
They are co-conspirators and more. They were placed to do the job they are doing. Rotten Rodney is the head of the snake in
the DOJ. He was positioned to slow down or if possible totally hold back key information from congress (his boss). Old man Sessions
was co-opted right from the start. He looks & acts like a guy taking orders. I don't know what they have on him (use your imagination)
but he was neutered right from day 1. He should be charged with dereliction of duty and fired. I think if a true investigation
is ever done and all the facts come out, Rotten Rodney could very well be charged with treason along with a large number of other
Deep State operatives and more than a few in the Democratic Party.
Htos1 ,
Depends on what was in all those bankers boxes of FBI files trucked over to the WH from Reno and Holder in the 90's.
Chupacabra-322 ,
♦Page: 5:19pm "Still on the phone with Devlin . Mike's phone is ON FIRE."
♥Strzok: 5:29pm "You might wanna tell Devlin he should turn on CNN, there's news on."
♦Page: 5:30pm "He knows. He just got handed a note."
♥Strzok: 5:33pm "Ha. He asking about it now?"
♦Page: 5:34pm "Yeah. It was pretty funny. Coming now."
At 5:36pm Devlin Barrett tweets:
These Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths & Sociopaths get off on Gas Lighting the Public through their
own manufactured, Scripted False Narratives & Psychological Operations.
Sick, twisted, Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths deserve to be hung with Piano wire. Them, Breanan, Clapper, Lynch, Rice, Obama
& last but not least the ring leader Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath at Large, Hillary Clinton.
Dre4dwolf ,
Fbi leaks fake story to media -> Media reports fake story-> Fbi uses fake story as evidence in Visa Court - > Fisa court grants
a Fisa warrant that would of otherwise been denied -> rinse repeat till all your political enemies are crippled by fake investigations
??? profit???
Fufi007 ,
Deep State and Shadow Government Clowns.
They all burning in Hell. Let's give them goodbye.
In due course of time, they will be sucked out of here and taken far into Space into a gross Planet where the Monkeys are seeing
that Black Stone next to their pot hole and going like crazy for the marvel just discovered.
The more shit you intake the heavier and difficult lift to better zones.
Miserables. Hasta la Vista Fools. They took it deep and swallowed the whole Enchilada !!!!
OccamsCrazor ,
these fbi and doj f*ckers will roast in hell.
WAY worse than Watergate.
MuffDiver69 ,
That Strzok is one fudge packer. Having an affair my ass...not with any women.
devnickle ,
Shall be hung by the neck until deceased. That is the penalty for Treason. Hillary, Bill, Obama, Lynch, Jarrett, Podesta's,
Holder, Awans, Whatshername Shitz, et al. The list is endless. McStain is dead, he bailed before the purge.
devnickle ,
Saddam was powder puff compared to these assholes. If it was good enough for him.....
arby63 ,
If they worked for me, they would be facing a grand jury now.
janus ,
lisa page...why do i get the sense she was strzork's agency handler and not his fbi lover? is it because his mannerisms scream
homo, or is it because he speaks to her as a subordinate to a superior? those texts were far more focused on the dissemination
and control of information than they were about arranging trysts. strange. and speaking of homos, did you guys catch the conversation
about kasich? seems he's been in the closet for a long time. seems his long-time advisor/'roommate' is more than just that.
another lisa that should pique your interest is Lisa Barsoomian. who is lisa barsoomian? who is she married to? what is her
connection with lynch, holder, strzok, ohr, steele, obama, priestap, comey, etc?
anyone else think a FISA declass docu-drop perfectly apropos for the 9/11 anniversary?
i sure do.
janus
Normal ,
Hey, that's worse than rootin tootin putin. Putin didn't do it. The FBI did it.
flyonmywall ,
Whaaat? The FBI and CIA colluding to undermine a sitting US President?
Oh come on, that's just silly !!
GotEmAll ,
Yes these people are leaking, and they will leak again, again and again etc. Until these Leakers get shown the inside of a
Jail cell, tell me why would they be afraid to leak?
Look at strzok, what did he get lose his job (by the way some leftist will hire him somehwere) and what else......nothing;
heck it didn't even cost him anything really considering all the donations he got from his go fund me.
You want the leaks to stop, its time for Sessions, to start laying the hammer down on these candyasses.
wafm ,
besides having a totally unfuckinpronouncable name, Zok is obviously a complete incompetent. Hang the cunt.
DJ the Tax Man ,
Whether they know it or not the FBI and DOJ have a very limited life cycle left in the workings of our country. The American
people will take over soon and the justice will be delivered swift and viciously.
DOJ and FBI you have a choice step-up and do your job or just step aside.
For the sake of the saving of America every one of the Deomocrats better end up behind bars for the rest of their life including
Mueller
Tunga ,
<)
Tunga ,
"A meme is a cognitive or behavioral pattern that can be transmitted from one individual to another one. Since the individual
who transmitted the meme will continue to carry it, the transmission can be interpreted as a replication : a copy of the
meme is made in the memory of another individual, making him or her into a carrier of the meme. This process of
self-reproduction (the memetic life-cycle ), leading to spreading
over a growing group of individuals, defines the meme as a replicator, similar in that respect to the gene (Dawkins, 1976; Moritz,
1991.
No known source but still a favorite Tunga talking point: NOT!
Karl Marxist ,
But Hurrican Florence, everybody! Trump's gonna release those documents ... but ... Hurricane Florence! Israel's gonna commit
that Idlib false flag, hurl banned white phosphorus weapons at US funded "terrorists" who are Syrian Christians but Hurricane
Florence! Everything's gonna get crunched. Just what the media is waiting for. 24/7 on Hurricane Florence!
Tunga ,
Stop making sense!!!
jeff montanye ,
i never get tired of realizing peter strzok, regarded as absolutely the top of the line in counterintelligence, thought ("I
had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you . . .") he could avoid the nsa by his choice of phone. priceless.
deus ex machina ,
YEP.
pelican ,
Stan Beeman level of skill.
Makes one wonder if all the FBI is this sloppy.
FBaggins ,
Hey look at this. More than 28 ZH articles on domestic and financial issues and finally one from earlier today something on
Syria.
Now let me see. The elite and imperious commissars of the US high command in their caution to protect vital US propaganda interests
and save the people from the truth, have banned all coverage of the Syrian conflict on Youtube - out of fear that their next planned
false-flag attack will blow up in their faces - which means that they have likely also "cautioned" with severe sanctions any alternate
media site directors in the same way.
Ms No ,
For all we know we could become rice crispies within 24 hours. Its not immanent but not at all out of the question. I think
people are desensitized to this already.
People should be on the edge of their seats, if not shitting their pants. Russian media is pretty quiet too. Al Jazeera is
now an atrocity similar to Hufpo (since the mad prince hung everybody upside down and surrounded Qatar and nabbing Jazeera).
Its eerie when this happens. People seem to be desensitized to the idea of conflict with Russia already.
I am Groot ,
Forget the rope and the bullets. It's time to take a fucking axe to all of these Deep State scumbag traitors.
insanelysane ,
Look the un-bias IG reviewed the FBI's action and found no bias. How can that happen? Who does a review to see if the IG is
biased? Who does a review to see if the person that finds that the IG has no bias has bias?? Who does a review....
Someday Sessions and Rosenstein may get sacked or the people responsible for the sacking will get sacked.
Enough already gaaddammit! You swamp creatures need to fess up that you've tried to unseat Trump from Day 1. End this bogus
"investigation" that y'all know, and have known, is nothing short of treason. Everyone caught in your snares should be released
regardless of guilt or innocence. Everyone involved in your conspiracy should get mandatory 25 years with no parole. Yeah, that
means you too Brennan!
truthseeker47 ,
Disagree: Commie traitor Brennan should be in front of a firing squad.
consider me gone ,
I'd be okay with that too. But swinging from a noose having vacated his bowels on national TV would be more degrading.
Tunga ,
Big love rules.
;)
Tunga ,
Maybe you should stick to T#++r?
Jk.
Tunga ,
"These people, are not people." - Bill Clinton to AG Lynch on the Tarmack.
navy62802 ,
Conspiracy. Not "collusion."
navy62802 ,
I will never forget that freak Strozk testifying before Congress. I get chills just thinking about it.
Yeah, there's a comment. Vlad in Syria building up forces to allow Iran to install missile sites to protect Nordstream 2 and
Assad regime while threatening Israel. Do Israel and its allies stand by and let this happen or do they tell Vlad the game is
on, and if it's war he must have, then war he will have,
So this Moscow Messiah has become the enabler of the wonderful mullahs of Iran and the humanist Assad of Syria. These
are the quality of scum with which the Tsar of Russia has chosen to align. All you proud Russians stand and sing an anthem
to the butcher of Damascus and the most repressive and dangerous force in the Middle East, the Murderous Mullahs of a Muzzled
Iran. What an Axis of Pigs. For alleged muslims, they snortle like pork around in the shite and mud with Vlad an awful lot.
Putin drives the Middle East and the world toward Armageddon because his intellectual and moral poverty can devise no strategy
for the spread of Russian power except at the tip of missiles.Maybe he wants to accelerate the war before it becomes nuclear,
so he cannot push Israel to the edge of extinction.
Perhaps he will ride in as the Great Reconciliator once he has allowed Iran's expansion throughout Syria. The Jews will either
concede, or they will treat us to a true test of the Russian super AAs. It may be a really good show, or it could be time for
Amazon and Apple to relocate to a zip code 100 feet below Wellington, new Zealand.
MrAToZ ,
Why is there no perp walk? There is a conga line of law breakers and not a single arrest. Either there is something going on
that we are not allowed to know or this is going to drag on till it fades away. This is the longest quietest investigation into
largest crime and scandal in U.S. history and all that is on display is arrogance. Hang someone in the town square.
dubsea ,
Were two years in. ..and you wonder..does our democracy run a machine...out of control government...or does the machine run
democracy... goddam we voted ...let him do his job....
navy62802 ,
The machine runs the "democracy." If you have not realized that yet, you are willfully blind.
Keyser ,
If the Dims take back Congress in the mid-terms, none of these revelations will matter one iota as the Dims will bury these
investigations and start their own into everything Trump... Time for Trump to drop the hammer on all of these people, BEFORE the
mid-terms...
Oldwood ,
Not only that, but our hot air economy will pop like a cheap Chinese balloon.
The only thing keeping it going is public and business confidence that they might have a chance. That chance will dissipate
like a baby fart if Trump faced a Democrat majority.
It should make many here yearning for their dream "reset" wet with anticipation.....the ultimate in ignorance.....getting exactly
what they hope for.
LaugherNYC ,
Every single shred of evidence points to a powerful conspiracy between the DOJ, FBI, HRC and Democrat machine to smear Trump
with the cooperation of all those Russians supposedly totally riding the Trump train. Yeah, that's how I help get an American
et elected, create a whole smear story that he's a Russian puppet.
If they're not gong to prosecute these lying scum, there needs to be a for real investigarion
devnickle ,
And the shooting will commence.
BankSurfyMan ,
Dry humping Lisa with a bit of Hedge off the wall, Thanks Peter... Fucktard Man of the year 2018 and beyond! SEXY!
MozartIII ,
Can we just shoot all of them already? The Clintons as well??
goldenbuddha454 ,
dumb and dumbererer
WarAndPeace ,
If these two get off without being sentenced for criminals, Americans are gonna actually start a revolution with guns.
commiebastid ,
you can bet it won't be covered in the 'news'
devnickle ,
Enough is enough.
Old Poor Richard ,
Democratic operative codename "Keebler Elf" is furiously scrambling to bury and distract. Maybe call friends in the White Helmets:
"Now would be a great time for that fake gas attack!"
The Terrible Sweal ,
Stzork should go up the river for a very long time.
CheapBastard ,
That'll be hard to do when he's disenboweled.
I am Groot ,
When he's cremated, I mean buried at the stake, they can send his remains to Gitmo.
claytonmoore50 ,
I hope they have had to surrender their passports.
They are so done...
oDumbo ,
You can just "smell" the Starbucks shitcan on these pukes. Hang them at noon.
Imagine clicking on a short url in a comment section in the current year .
Fedtacular ,
#CancelAllAgencies FBI CIA DOJ ATF DHS TSA EPA DOE FAA FDA. fuck it. They are all filled with Union loving liberal pensioners.
Cutting the heads off won't kill the deep state.
captain whitewater ,
Hang all of these criminals from lamp posts along the capital streets.
GoingBig ,
Here on Conspiracy Hedge.... The news nobody else is reporting because its conjecture.
Nunny ,
Have another drink and stumble to bed Hillary.
wisefool ,
they stink. we dont. The church will always find the high ground.
It is a metitroucious society if you take the long view.
ZIRPdiggler ,
Would you do Lisa Page? I would. She's not super hot but she kinda looks like she would be fun in bed
booboo ,
If she had as many dicks sticking out of her that were stuck in her she would look like a porcupine.
Scuba Steve ,
too gummy when she smiles ...
I am Groot ,
She must have a good vet to get her teeth that clean.
Anunnaki ,
She has DSL
novictim ,
And what is the reason for the people REALLY in charge going after Trump? It has always been about his Anti-Neoliberal agenda.
Specifically, TARIFFS on CHINA. The oligarchs behind the establishment have made fantastic amounts of money off the strip-mining
of American industry and Capital. They want the cheap labour of Asia and the 3rd world yet also want to sell the sh#t back to
the USA even though that trade imbalance will lead to ruin.
If not for President Trump, there would be no hope for the American people.
Anunnaki ,
No one goes to jail
Won Hung Lo ,
T minus ZERO. Here it comes......
pine_marten ,
Strzok's member seemed alive with a dark malfeasance that sent her deep into an underworld where her orgasms were tectonic.
ipud ,
April 12, 2017: Peter Strzok congratulates Lisa Page on a (hatchet) job well done...
Thethingreenline ,
Page looks kinda hot in that pic
WTFUD ,
Hot's OTT however, she looks like she's handled a cockatoo.
Thethingreenline ,
Kinda........hot
I am Groot ,
I'm sure Eva Braun said Hitler "looked kinda hot" too.......
From FBI's "Protected Voices" website, on "Safer Campaign Communications"-
"To secure communications channels -- such as email, messaging apps, and social media -- use encryption, disable archiving
, use access controls, disable remote wiping, use account lockout, and patch your systems."
If campaigns should disable archiving, would they not be in violation of federal e-mail retention laws?
paul20854 ,
This guy needs incarceration.
I am Groot ,
You meant to say "incineration". There, fixed that for ya......
CatInTheHat ,
They are ALL in on it. This whole fucking shit show slow walked in a bunch of Kabuki for the plebes
Trump, as the most powerful man in the world could have fired Sessions ages ago and had every single document DECLASSIFIED
to where this shitshow would have ended long ago and cankles, Obama Rice Holder, Powers, Lynch
et.al , would be doing a perp walk
And where are the investigations into true Russian collusion with Cankles having sold our yellow cake to them for a few bucks
donation to the Clinton money washing machine foundation? And her emails, many of which have been discovered and we're highly
claddified sent on that bitch's blackberry & on and on it goes
They are ALL IN ON IT. INCLUDING TRUMP. And none of this shit is going to end until the American people overthrow their government
Chupacabra-322 ,
It's absolute, complete, open, in our Faces Tyrannical Lawlessness .
Shue ,
And there's fuck all any of you can do anything about it.
Chipped ham ,
Some Donkeys gonna get kicked.
Better happen real soon. I can't take it. Just when I can't scream anymore about why someone's not in jail, out comes another
nugget like this.
Drip. Drip. Drip. I can't take it anymore. When will the dam break?
Htos1 ,
We need a couple of dam busters to come rolling in........Q and Trump come to mind.
Heroic Couplet ,
What laws should Republicans be able to break? How does Trump have seven-to-ten indicted campaign and transition staff? Where
was Trey Gowdy, the Faux News attorneys, the RNC attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, Mitch McConnell, Mark Meadows, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon
Adelson, and Rupert Murdoch when Trump was vetting ha-ha and appointing his team? Faux News has succeeded in dumbing down Republicans
to the point their long term memory is whatever Hillary did last.
Fishthatlived ,
"seven-to-ten"......what a maroon.
ChiangMaiXPat ,
Run away troll...the sedition is mind numbing. What your failing to grasp on purpose I might add is the entire investigation
against Trump is specious "tainted fruit" illegal, it is a Coup in any iteration. Monastic cognitive dissonance only gets you
so far....
Tzanchan ,
Gowdy spent lord knows how many hours/years looking to string up HRC...The select committee itself was created by House Republicans
in May 2014. The committee issued its final report on the Benghazi attack a little more than two years later in June 2016 and
was officially shut down in December 2016. The select panel spent $7 million during the course of the probe.
The committee ultimately issued an 800-page report, which faulted the Obama administration on a number of fronts, and lawmakers
questioned Clinton for 11 hours in an October 2015 hearing. Zero indictments and a piss away of taxpayer money. Yes 4 noble and
patriotic Americans were killed and the administration bumbled the reasons, but crimes committed, well, none. Talk about double
standards.
Nunny ,
Yes indeedy....who shut down the Bengazi investigation?
xcct ,
Build the fucking gallows! Time for bullshit talk is over. Arrest, try and execute all these fuckers.
Htos1 ,
We need a "neutral" 3rd party as the DOJ is corrupt, and the house has no bollocks. Say, oh, the military? AND their gallows.
goldenbuddha454 ,
All these Washington elites run in the same circles. Term limits on all of Congress. On all civil servants too. Noone who has
worked in gov. can be a lobbyist. Its so incestuous. The door revolves continuously in favor of the connected.
bookofenoch ,
Page and Strozk are disgusting. Hideous.
They will die screaming, and nobody will mourn them.
Fedtacular ,
They will be sent off McCain style.
Ban KKiller ,
George Webb covers this pretty well...and more. How come he can keep naming names and live? Or not be sued for libel? Anyhoo...his
show is pretty amazing.
Shill me.
JimZin ,
my Popcorn with extra butter is hot and ready to go...let the mid-term shit show begin! hanging is way to nice for these deepstate
fuckturds. yes a noose is right, but they should be dragged behind a Ford truck on a gravel road by a couple of Deplorables that
smell like Walmart
Htos1 ,
I remember that Texas based campaign commercial from 1996!
"If you vote Republican, another brother is dragged behind a pickup truck"!
Only then it actually worked on the low infos.
Indelible Scars ,
The Honorable Rod RosenSTEIN? Alrighty then....
rosiescenario ,
It is interesting that all of the "reporters" at the MSM do not care that the entire (excluding FOX) news organization is behaving
exactly as Tass and Pravda used to behave under communist Russia. These folks are too dense to see the irony that a read of RT
today is more factual than anything coming out of the U.S. media.
I guess when you are a liberal Dem you do not have anything honest and factual to discuss....you resort to calling Benghazi
"a wild conspiracy".
migra ,
They aren't too dense. They know exactly whats going on and they are happy with it as long as it helps there cause.
Stan522 ,
So, what the fuck was the Inspector General looking at and reviewing when he declared there was no bias.....?
migra ,
Because IG Horowitz is one of, "them".
Anunnaki ,
Horowitz. Nuff said
enough of this ,
It was a deep-state whitewash just like his next report is going to be.
By the way this new commenting system and specifically the lack of ability to follow up on a conversation since there are no
links to a user's history of comments really sucks.
sgorem ,
i agree.........
ThinkerNotEmoter ,
Yep.
I blame Trump.
Indelible Scars ,
It is waaaay better.
SmallerGovNow2 ,
agree with you. it is the way it used to be when you could really have a common thread and people were not jumping the thread
just to get their comments at the top...
Nunny ,
It was so tiresome to respond to a thread and have to wade through 3 pages+ to see if someone responded. I like this much better.
Sanity Bear ,
True, glad to see the comment-jumping thing gone.
However, now you have to remember which articles you posted on and hunt for them yourself in order to check for followup, which
is worse user-wise than having to click through a bunch of pages to see how far down your comment got pushed.
pops ,
Yes. It sucks big time.
Sanity Bear ,
Hanging offense treason, and there is not even the slightest ambiguity that that is what this is.
Empire's Frontiers ,
Why does it seem obvious that the sitting administration used all its levers to aid Hillary in her election, and further, destroy
Trump in his victory?
Ink Pusher ,
That'll be 6 orders of SEDITION with a side order of COLLUSION for each and a Diet TREASON for everyone to drink please.
Long Live The Donald ,
Trump is fucking nuts! Get Over it!
cheech_wizard ,
So you're still sodomizing your children?
Yen Cross ,
Yen is older, and looks 1o years younger than than that pile of shit!
Guilt has away of destroying people
Yen Cross ,
Faggot libtard snowflake?
American Snipper ,
This cocksucker Rosenberg needs to be fired, as is everyone on Trumps short list of leakers. Drain the fucking swamp! Redact
all Russian docs, speed it up, Mr. President!!!
I am Groot ,
When you say "fired" , I'm thinking he should be strapped to missile and fired into the sun, Wiley coyote style.....
Yen Cross ,
Pro facto**** Never ever once, ever has Yen cheated on a Woman.
Many opportunities, but yen used the bigger head.
Yen will never cheat on the Woman he's dedicated to.
Cursive ,
Lisa should really stick with the straight hair. Much better than that headshot with the cheesy perm that was first circulated.
Her credentials as a nasty Deep State dick gobbler aside, She rises from a 2 to a 5 (on a scale of 10).
Htos1 ,
3, with a bag. If she's not fat.
bookofenoch ,
Nope. Lisa Page is a filthy whore. Imagine sharing her front and back holes with Strzok. Or Kissing her Strzok jizz drinking
hole.
Repulsive. Forever disgraced. The woman is dogshit.
I am Groot ,
It's really hard to rate animals on a scale of 1 to 10. Tough choice between her and a goat.
rbianco3 ,
Released in January- this is September WTF?
This is seriously important information - could have exonerated the President almost a year ago - and had he been impeached
would have no recourse. Those that did not release until now are co-conspirators.
justyouwait ,
They are co-conspirators and more. They were placed to do the job they are doing. Rotten Rodney is the head of the snake in
the DOJ. He was positioned to slow down or if possible totally hold back key information from congress (his boss). Old man Sessions
was co-opted right from the start. He looks & acts like a guy taking orders. I don't know what they have on him (use your imagination)
but he was neutered right from day 1. He should be charged with dereliction of duty and fired. I think if a true investigation
is ever done and all the facts come out, Rotten Rodney could very well be charged with treason along with a large number of other
Deep State operatives and more than a few in the Democratic Party.
Htos1 ,
Depends on what was in all those bankers boxes of FBI files trucked over to the WH from Reno and Holder in the 90's.
Chupacabra-322 ,
♦Page: 5:19pm "Still on the phone with Devlin . Mike's phone is ON FIRE."
♥Strzok: 5:29pm "You might wanna tell Devlin he should turn on CNN, there's news on."
♦Page: 5:30pm "He knows. He just got handed a note."
♥Strzok: 5:33pm "Ha. He asking about it now?"
♦Page: 5:34pm "Yeah. It was pretty funny. Coming now."
At 5:36pm Devlin Barrett tweets:
These Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths & Sociopaths get off on Gas Lighting the Public through their
own manufactured, Scripted False Narratives & Psychological Operations.
Sick, twisted, Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths deserve to be hung with Piano wire. Them, Breanan, Clapper, Lynch, Rice, Obama
& last but not least the ring leader Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath at Large, Hillary Clinton.
stubb ,
CRUSH HIS SKULL NOW
1970SSNova396 ,
The CrossRoads have been reached.........Saddle up
Can't wait for the release of all the MSM person that were paid via GPS to spin this shit!
Yen Cross ,
That little prick, needs to be knocked down, an notch?
His cum guzzling adultress pretty much sums things up?
Calvertsbio ,
What we need is a 100% republican DOJ, FBI, CIA, politicians... wipe out the democrats for a better society... That should
work, then we won't need Zerohedge to spread all this propaganda !
Robert of Ottawa ,
The repubs and dementocrats are on the same team, the uniparty swamp where all congressman and senators get equal bribes if
they wish
1970SSNova396 ,
They're all whores for a buck.How else can you make less than 200k per year
yet retire with millions ...just in the House.
Calvertsbio ,
Yes, we are doomed, for sure it is every FAMILY for themselves... Glad I only have one kid to work thru this mess, I can keep
an eye on her...
My sister, brother, father all are week too week people.. They never listened, prepared, etc... Just glad Pops has the SS and
post office pension... Otherwise, would be living here... Also kind of glad they are 1200 miles away... Too bad they ignored all
the signs... They will be begging in a few years.. Beans and RICE
Htos1 ,
90% of the repugs are ON the team! Otherwise billary would be a warm memory and no 9/11.
sniffybigtoe ,
Never fear! The GOP is ready and willing to do fuck all about it.
r0mulus ,
Yep- can't have a fake two party system without a fake second party to collude with...
candyman ,
After 3 hrs... ABC,CBS,NBC, CNN - nothing on the web pages.
thetruthhurts ,
November can't come fast enough for Democrats and the Corporatist deep state.
Dre4dwolf ,
Fbi leaks fake story to media -> Media reports fake story-> Fbi uses fake story as evidence in Visa Court - > Fisa court grants
a Fisa warrant that would of otherwise been denied -> rinse repeat till all your political enemies are crippled by fake investigations
??? profit???
Calvertsbio ,
Of course it is, profit for the republican party. works every time... Always blame others for your own misgivings.
danl62 ,
Obama perfected that strategy. When you are guilty blame the other party. When someone else does something right take credit
even though you had nothing to do with it. Than have a press conference with I,I,I me, me,me ...
Mr. Bones ,
Alinsky rules numbers 5, 6, 8, 11, and 13.
1970SSNova396 ,
The Obama dik sukers meeting has been canceled for today....try again on Tuesday Sport
stubb ,
I always blame your mother for my misdoings. Quite appropriate, as she is balls-deep involved in most of them.
HenryJ ,
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe,
Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a
Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take
a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the
Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At
what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot
come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live
through all time or die by suicide."...........Abraham Lincoln, a Portion of his Lyceum address
BrokeMiner ,
FBI and DOJ are just a bunch of dudes in a circle jerk that get nothing done and cover up a bunch of illegal shit. what a joke
stubb ,
They look good doing it, though.
Lord JT ,
Rod Rosenstein? more like Rod Rosenasshole, if you ask me.
Pigeon ,
Errr...Dr. Rosen Rosen...
aaahhhhh Dr. Rosenpenis
Lost in translation ,
UPVOTED!
I still use that line, myself - it was a great movie!!
Yen Cross ,
Two peas in an pod.
For the life of me, I don't understand why dudes cross swords.
Women are so beautiful.
Men are very handsome, and women are beautiful.
Yen gets confused sometimes???
The clown is 48, and an professional cheater. His wife has the sex drive of the last CAT balance sheet.
Yen is taking a nap. Fuck you very much
Yen Cross ,
Was it the CAT balance sheet, or me pile driving your trophy wife?
MoreFreedom ,
Pretty soon these conspirators will be doing plea deals that they were doing what Obama told them to do. And they'll have evidence
to back it up. Otherwise Obama wouldn't be working so hard attacking Trump, along with the other guilty acting members of his
administration. Strzok showed he thought he was still untouchable.
Pigeon ,
Vee ver juscht following orders
Htos1 ,
Hence, the need for tribunals at Gitmo!
RICKYBIRD ,
I think Page flipped way, way back. That's why we have her emails. Emails which the FBI tried to withhold from Congress. There
are still bombshells among the Page-Strzok emals that haven't been released. The FBI has pleaded a "glitch" (that's the word it
has the huzpah to use) already to excuse the slow production.
MuffDiver69 ,
Many sources for FBI investigative reports are actually media articles that were written based on leaks from the FBI investigators.
>This is one of the reasons the media are dug-in to a position of alignment with the corrupt DOJ and FBI officials.
Inasmuch as the truth is adverse to the interests of the corrupt officials, so too is that same truth toxic to the media corporations
who engaged in the collaboration.
Additionally, many of the journalists who keep showing up amid the population of this ongoing story are likely connected to
the Fusion-GPS network.
This creates even more motive for ongoing media obfuscation.
True Blue ,
It is a neat little circle-jerk; the FBI lacks probable cause to get the secret courts to give them a writ because their
'evidence' is obviously from a paid off source within one political party trying to undo their opposition; so they 'leak' a massive
pile of steaming bullshit to the friendly presstitutes, who promptly write a 'news' article based on it, which the FBI then takes
to their 'secret court' judge as 'probable cause' to spy on their patron's opposition...
This is beyond banana republic level of corruption, malfeasance and abuse of power.
TeethVillage88s ,
There are many books Non-Fiction and Fiction that indicate that the Nazis were not rooted out after WWII. Of course in hind
sight there is little benefit from USA from joining WWI or WWII other than securing a position as Super Power and Financial and
Trading/Industrial Giant... to assume the Anglo Empire... But to my point: I'd guess we have secrets upon secrets, we create 1000s
of secrets a day, and have huge secrets industries. 17 Intel Agencies. I would guess CIA, NSA, SEC, FINRA, FDIC, Comptroller of
the Currency, Federal Reserve... all have secrets and can act against Trump as Gary Cohn and Mnuchin, John Bolton, might. Lots
of room for adding Mockingbird Sources.
Many sources for FBI investigative reports are actually media articles that were written based on leaks from the FBI investigators.
thebigunit ,
I'm not so sure about that.
We're sure Rosenstein will get right on it...
Rosenstein seems to me like kind of a slimy reptile.
just the tip ,
for the 10,000th time.
it is not treason god damn it.
it is sedition.
Not Too Important ,
Wrong. The dossier starts in London, with MI6. This is international involvement, which makes it all treason, and because it
is against the 'Head of State', it is accurately defined as 'High Treason'.
Hillary's actions regarding her server involved the 'US Nation', which makes her crimes 'High Treason', and every single person
who used that server, or knew about that server and stopped any action, is also guilty of 'High Treason'.
These are crimes punishable by death, as outlined in the US Constitution. Now you can see why there is such a massive attempt
at avoiding indictments and trials. And you can see why Trump made it clear, through EO, that these widespread crimes of 'High
Treason' should be handled by military tribunals.
Both sides have to play for keeps, there's only going to be one victor. And they will kill billions to avoid punishment. Or
just simply take as many as they can with them, they are all psychopaths.
RICKYBIRD ,
Joe DiGenova today says Susan Rice's self-serving email memorandum to herself, which she sent literally minutes before she
left the WH, concerning a recent meeting at the WH on, I think, Jan 5th, was the meeting at which the FBI ambush of General Flynn
was planned. Obama, Lynch, Comey, and others, including Sally Yates were in on it.
nmewn ,
That mental image is almost as bad as Bruth Ohr & Nellie or...Bill & Hill ;-)
So, where are we at here?
Looks to me like...
Strzok...FIRED.
Comey...FIRED.
McCabe...FIRED.
Ohr...DEMOTED.
Yates...FIRED.
Nellie...fluent in Russian, a student in Russia 1989 & a CIA op before & now, walking the streets...lol.
Rybicki...RESIGNED.
Page...RESIGNED.
Finally, history will show Mike Rogers as a patriot in the entire affair, how he could just sit there, next to Comey and not
stand up and garret him (knowing what he had done) in front of that Senate Committee (and the cameras) is a testament to his honor,
his integrity and his commitment to the rule of law as a free man.
I couldn't have done it, it would have been over in five seconds.
"... Top Trump aides like chief of staff John Kelly, national security advisor John Bolton, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly met with Trump Thursday in an effort to convince him that none of them was the author of the op-ed and that he could still trust his inner circle. Some two dozen top officials issued formal denials that they were the anonymous writer. ..."
Every day last week brought new demonstrations of an unprecedented crisis within the Trump
White House and US state apparatus. The Trump administration is torn by internal divisions,
amidst palace coup conspiracies involving the corporate media and sections of the
military-intelligence apparatus, as well as the Democratic Party.
On Tuesday, initial reports on the new book by Bob Woodward portrayed top Trump aides
deriding his intelligence and even sanity, working behind the scenes to derail his most
inflammatory orders -- such as a demand for the assassination of Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad. Trump administration officials were carrying out what Woodward characterized as "an
administrative coup d'état," i.e., disobeying his wishes and carrying out their own.
The next day, the New York Times made public an op-ed, written for its Thursday
print edition, in which an unnamed "senior administration official" presented himself as the
spokesman for a cabal of top officials working to keep Trump in check. "We are the real
resistance," the official claimed, making clear his support for the main elements of the
administration's right-wing program.
On Friday, Barack Obama weighed in with a campaign-style speech -- unusual for an
ex-president in the first election after leaving office -- in which he described the Trump
administration as "radical" and "not normal." He called on Republicans, conservatives and
Christian fundamentalists to vote for Democratic candidates in November, to "restore sanity" in
Washington and allow a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to provide an
institutional check on Trump.
President Trump responded in kind. On Monday, he attacked his own attorney-general, Jeff
Sessions, for not quashing Justice Department investigations into two Republican congressmen
indicted on criminal charges of stock market swindling and theft. On Tuesday he denounced the
Woodward book as a fabrication, and on Wednesday he called the New York Times op-ed an
act of treason. On Thursday, he told a campaign rally in Montana that they had to vote
Republican in November to prevent his impeachment. On Friday, he tweeted his demand that
Sessions have the Justice Department investigate the New York Times op-ed and identify
the anonymous writer.
Top Trump aides like chief of staff John Kelly, national security advisor John Bolton, press
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly met with Trump
Thursday in an effort to convince him that none of them was the author of the op-ed and that he
could still trust his inner circle. Some two dozen top officials issued formal denials that
they were the anonymous writer.
There is simply no precedent in modern American history for such a level of political
conflict and dysfunction within the leading institutions of the capitalist state. How is this
to be explained? What direction will the crisis take?
It is entirely superficial to root such an explanation in the personality of Donald Trump.
Even Obama in his Illinois speech admitted that Trump is not the cause, but merely the symptom,
of more profound processes. But Obama, of course, covered up his own role, depicting his
presidency as eight years of heroic efforts to repair the damage caused by the 2008 financial
crash. At the end of those eight years, however, Wall Street and the financial oligarchy were
fully recovered, enjoying record wealth, while working people were poorer than before, a
widening social chasm that made possible the election of the billionaire con man and demagogue
in November 2016.
This social crisis underlies the political convulsions in Washington. There are, of course,
political differences within the two factions fighting it out within the ruling elite. They are
deeply divided over foreign policy, particularly over how to deal with the failure of US
intervention in Syria and the Middle East more broadly, and over whether to target Russia or
China first in the struggle to maintain the global dominance of American imperialism. The most
significant passage in Obama's speech was his criticism of the Republican Party for having
retreated from its Cold War, anti-Communist roots by tolerating Trump's supposed "softness"
toward Putin.
More fundamental, however, is the growing concern within all sections of the ruling elite
over the possibility of a renewed economic crisis under conditions of mounting social
opposition from below, following the initial stirrings of the American working class this year
-- the series of statewide teachers' strikes, the mounting resistance of industrial workers to
sellout contracts imposed by the unions, and the buildup of anger over super-exploitation by
giant employers like Amazon and Walmart.
Facing an impending eruption of the class struggle, there is little confidence in corporate
boardrooms, on Wall Street, or at the Pentagon and CIA that the current chief executive of the
American government can meet the test of great events.
One of the premier institutions of big business, JP Morgan Chase, issued an internal report
on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 2008 crash, which warned that another "great
liquidity crisis" was possible, and that a government bailout on the scale of that effected by
Bush and Obama will produce social unrest, "in light of the potential impact of central bank
actions in driving inequality between asset owners and labor."
The report went on to note that political explosions on the scale of 1968 could develop,
facilitated by the role of the internet as a means of dissemination for radical political views
and a means of political self-organization. "The next crisis is also likely to result in social
tensions similar to those witnessed 50 years ago in 1968," the bank report warned. "Similar to
1968, the internet today (social media, leaked documents, etc.) provides millennials with
unrestricted access to information In addition to information, the internet provides a platform
for various social groups to become more self-aware, polarized, and organized."
The ruling class response to this danger is to prepare domestic repression on a massive
scale. In that respect, there is no difference between Trump and his opponents, except the
ferocious disagreement over who should be in control of the forces of repression that will be
unleashed against the American working class. Trump, of course, is an authoritarian through and
through, organizing a fascistic attack on immigrant workers and developing tools that will be
used against the entire working class.
However, his opponents, utilizing of the methods of the palace coup -- intrigues, leaks,
media smears, special prosecutors and other provocations -- are no more wedded to democratic
forms than Trump. The essence of the drive to censor the internet, spearheaded by the
Democratic Party, is revealed by the JP Morgan report: it is the platform for "social groups,"
above all, the working class, "to become more self-aware."
As one of Trump's leading media critics, Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum,
a frothing anti-communist, wrote Sunday, "Maybe we have also underestimated the degree to which
our Constitution, designed in the 18th century, has proved insufficient to the demands of the
21st."
Trump's political opponents seek to use the Democratic Party campaign in the November
elections both to further the preparations for repression and to disguise them from working
people. The disguise is provided by a handful of self-styled leftwing and even "socialist"
candidates for the House of Representatives, many aligned with Bernie Sanders, like Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.
The substance is provided by the much larger number of Democratic candidates drawn directly
from the military-intelligence apparatus, nearly three dozen in all, who will hold the balance
of power if the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives. The policy the Democrats
will pursue if they win the election has already been demonstrated by the anti-Russia campaign
and the accompanying demands for internet censorship.
Whatever the outcome of the elections, it will not resolve the crisis in Washington nor
alter the basic trajectory of politics, which is bringing the working class into explosive
conflict with the ruling class, the entire state apparatus, and the capitalist system.
Responding to an anonymous Op-Ed in the New York Times detailing an active resistance within
the Trump White House, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told
Reuters that President Trump is facing a "coup" the likes of which haven't been seen since
the American Civil War.
... ... ...
" This is a crisis . The country has only ever had such a crisis in the
summer of 1862 when General McClellan and the senior generals, all Democrats in the Union Army,
deemed that Abraham Lincoln was not fit and not competent to be commander in chief ," said
Bannon - whose departure from the White House was in large part over a fallout with Trump's
"establishment" advisers. Bannon said at the time that the "Republican establishment" sought to
nullify the results of the 2016 election and effectively neuter Trump.
"There is a cabal of Republic establishment figures who believe Donald Trump is not fit to
be president of the United States. This is a crisis," Bannon said in Rome.
Anonymous IX ,
The naivete of so many astounds me. Do you really think that Trump cannot get the name of
the person who wrote the op-ed? In the old days, you sent your operatives to break into the
Watergate. With today's computers and backdoors everywhere into any computer system [open
your reading horizons... https://www.rt.com/op-ed/437895-privacy-five-eyes-encryption/
], anyone can obtain this information if they so desire. Why is Trump being portrayed as a
poor "rich guy" who only wants the best for the country while valiantly fighting a nefarious
coup...whose members, by the way, are so clever and clandestine that they write an op-ed in
the friggin' New York Times! Sorry...don't have much time to continue discussing op-eds in
the NYT, gotta go re-insert ourselves into an independent sovereign nation, called Syria,
where our 1%-ers have deemed we need to go!
I like Trump's bravado and I like his partner, Melania. Designers should definitely bring
back slits in skirts! Scroll down. Here's a lady with class and style. She doesn't have to
show you her entire bosom for you to get the idea that she's hot! https://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2018/09/03/melania-trump-labor-day-looks/
thebigunit ,
Silicon Valley comes full circle:
Apple's famous "1984" ad.
How ironic.
The guy on the TV screen is Tim Cook. He's saying "WE MUST SUPPRESS ALEX JONES!"
The anonymous leaker might not exist. Maybe the oped was written by someone at the new
york times. The reason for lying such might be to make Trump start hunting for his own
subordinates, that could turn some of his subordinates against him who then become an actual
leaker. I think this is their plan.
Moe Howard ,
Of course it is a coup in progress. So obvious it is beyond a question.
The fake op-ed was just the latest shot.
Seems to me that we need to break up and destroy these MSM and interweb monopolies.
No more dual national control over media outlets.
DEDA CVETKO ,
Yes, Steve Bannon. This is a coup. And it is a bad, bad, bad nazi-style,
beer-putsch kind of coup, the night of long knives and all.
But this is the coup you and your party (as well as your technical adversaries, but
friends in real life - the "democrats" - have been preparing for decades . This is the
coup you have been paving the way for with bombbombbomb Iran, with "export of
democracy" to Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Russia (and pretty much
everywhere else); with weaponization of dollar and global finance and militarization of media
and the police, with colored and rosey and khaki revolutions, with vulture hedge funds as the
primary instrument of the foreign policy and with 1% distribution of the 99% of national
wealth.
Yes. Steve Bannon. These are all proud accomplishments of the Republican and
Democratic party.
This is the coup your party (as well as the other one) has been funding for almost
three decades by voting for $1 trillion-per-year war budgets and never-ending wars across the
globe and by vigorously bankrolling the nazi merchants of death a/k/a/
military-industrial-financial-academic-media complex. And now you are shocked to learn that
nazis have fondness for putcshes? No kiddin', Sherlock!
This is the coup your party ideologically, theologically and morally justified in
terms of divine national exceptionalism, messianic narcissism, arrogant group-think and
never-ending pursuit of national might-makes-right and peace-through-strength.
Yes, Steve Bannon, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right when he said that the chickens are
coming home to roost, er...roast. But this time, they are not coming home as McDonalds'
Chikken McNuggets or Kentucky Fried Chicken Shit. This time they are returning as chicken
guts'n'bones for the gigantic globalist chicken soup called New World Order.
You and your party should be rejoicing, not bemoaning. For, after all, this is your
proudest achievement and your finest hour.
God is The Son ,
Bannon is a retard, Trump is a retard, both Zionists. The only hope is Mattias to a Order
Coup De Ta. Military General needs to recognize that how Israel, Jews, Rothschilds have taken
over Banking Politics and Media in US and have hijacked US and are looting it. He also needs
to realize that they run the Left and the Right of Politics's. Arrest Trump, Alex Jones,
Zionists, ABC, FOX, Re-Investigate 9/11 findings will probably come to that the CIA and
Zionists did it, and that JFK killing was also CIA and Zionists. The CIA gets destroyed into
Thousand pieces and Israeli influence is removed entirely from all parts of American Society.
Federal Reserve, gets taken and turned into Public Central Bank of America under eye of US
Military. Rothschilds then told to leave or Arrested.
Peter41 ,
Well, correct up to a point. The established world order elites "saved" the system in
2007-08, by propping up the moribund banks (Citibank, JP Morgan, and others) by massive
injections of liquidity. Rather than removing this liquidity after the debacle, the Fed kept
the accelerator to the floor with continued "quantitative easing." Now presiding over a
$4Trillion balance sheet, the Fed is in the famous "liquidity trap" which Lord Keynes avoided
describing a solution for, by opining, "in the long run we are all dead."
Well, the elites are now in the position of watching the whole shitteree come unglued as
the Fed's policies framed by the elites will soon come unwound. Then, the elites will be
exposed as powerless.
Griffin ,
The old world order was not so organised, and the main ideology the ruling elites had in
common was transfer of wealth and wealth control,.
Using ideas like privatisation to get control of strategic assets like natural resources,
energy etc.
Using scams like pump and dump to suck wealth out of economies and then investing outside
the economy or planting it in a tax haven.
In Iceland there was roughly a 5 year interval between crashes. I called it the bubble
crash machine.
The msm and bank analysts were a important tool for politicians to keep this scam running,
but its dead now.
The new world order was supposed to be far more advanced and more organised, a tool to
eliminate all kinds of problems for large corporations, like the sovereign rights of states
for instance.
This was supposed to be a fusion between the superstate in Europe, where Merkel was at the
helm, and the liberal globalist friendly USA where Hillary was supposed to lead.
If this would have materialised it would have enabled multinational corporations to sue
nation states for imposing inconvenient laws that could suppress hopes of future profits for
instance, giving the corporations a indirect control over state politics, overriding
democracy and constitutions.
Abraxas ,
Coup, my ass. These guys turn everything upside-down. What a bunch of hyaenas.
Just look, these are the people that will drag us all down to the depths of hell with
them, telling us how nice and prosperous ride we'll have getting there. Stop this train, I
want to get off!
shortonoil ,
Having worked around DC I can tell you that the place collects nutcases, screwballs, and
sociopaths like fresh dog fresh shit collects flies. The Deep State is not the problem, the
problem is the DC State! DC is the epicenter of power hungry, greedy, self centered, self
serving, backstabbing, backbiting lunatics, and every one of them is looking for a gimmick to
advance their own personal agenda. The welfare of the nation is number 101 on their list of
100. Too much money, in too small a place with too many people trying to climb the same
ladder at the same time leads to anarchy. Give the power to collect money, and regulate back
to the States where it belongs, and let DC sink back into the swamp it was built on. The
Federal Government is out of control. The States have the Constitutional power, and
responsibility to regulate, and control the Federal government, and they had better start
using it before this dog and pony show breaks down into a lynching party.
Herdee ,
U.S. under Trump interfering in the internal affairs of Venezuela. The CIA goes around the
world overthrowing governments. American hypocrisy is so phony, especially their Washington
NeoCon/NeoNazi politicians:
These uniparty hacks are the same who claim Trump has disemboweled the Obama agenda, which
he has. Some nutcase... doing what he ran on. The only things he can't get done are because
of the career uniparty hacks.The op-ed was nothing more then carryover from the McCain
funeral. It's all transparent and meaningless, but a useful tool for Trump now.
DingleBarryObummer ,
"To some people the notion of consciously playing power games-no matter how indirect-seems
evil, asocial, a relic of the past. They believe they can opt out of the game by behaving in
ways that have nothing to do with power. You must beware of such people, for while they
express such opinions outwardly, they are often among the most adept players at power. They
utilize strategies that cleverly disguise the nature of the manipulation involved. These
types, for example, will often display their weakness and lack of power as a kind of moral
virtue. But true powerlessness, without any motive of self-interest, would not publicize its
weakness to gain sympathy or respect. Making a show of one's weakness is actually a very
effective strategy, subtle and deceptive, in the game of power" -Robert Greene '48 Laws of
Power'
chumbawamba ,
What results though? So far, the results are in and the swamp is still pretty full.
As Dinglebutt pondered: deception, but for what purpose? Have you considered that you
might be being lulled into a safe landing right into the heart of totalitarianism?
Don't think for one moment Trump isn't capable of selling you out for his own
interests.
-chumblez.
Dilluminati ,
correction demonic coup (re-posted) but the Pizza gate it seems to be real, all the fake
news for generatons and the one story the globalists couldn't get to uncovering ~~~ YOU MUST
DECIDE!!
Sweden tonight.. Europe tomorrow. The left lives in fantasy land. Where Kapernick is some
NFL hero and the guy sucked at QB, I mean looking at the record, he sucked, he didn't win
anything. He ran like Mike Vick and that is about that.. and like Mike he suddenly realized
that EVERYBODY runs fast in the NFL unlike college. Then there is IMMIGRATION notice how the
globalists love three things above all others: profits for the 1%, paying no taxes, and they
love them some open borders and immigrant cheap labor. Take for example the imaginary op-ed
fake news from the NYT, or the CNN fake news story with leftist Lanny Davis, or lets drag
that whore Stormy out on stage for another trailer park runway dollar bill, or how about the
hearings on SCOTUS and Spartacus? Pocahontas? Abolishing Ice to fight crime, getting rid of
the 2nd amendment to make us safer, Or more gun legislation in Chicago or Baltimore doubling
down on stupid.. And now the ghouls who run the Democratic party have to go and try and sell
the Obama myth, talk about fantasy.. what the fuck was Obamacare? Where was the $ saved and
could people keep their doctor if they wanted? Each and every idea the Democrats and left
have come up with is proof that what the left doesn't fuck up it shits upon instead, and
now.. after being globally discredited the GLOBALISTS cocksuckers are done. Name a single
promise that the Globalists kept to any but the 1% the cocksuckers!
But turn on any globalist media, the NFL, ESPN, CNN, and of the Globalist monopoly news or
media outlets, the same lies are told. These Globalist cocksuckers cannot stop telling these
lies so instead they need to be removed by ballot, laws, and if need be FORCE!
The rudeness and desperation of the 1% is astonishing, but their boldness is like that of
the Pedophile Catholic Church! They get up on stage and do their empty virtue signalling and
then rape their communities cynically and with methodical efficiency, yes they are the 1% and
they do not care, yes they are the 1% and there is now no laws to confront them. There is
only the ballot. They intend to run to New Zealand as they know their days are numbered, they
skip the hearings like Google when called to account by Congress, and still you turn on the
media and see:
I'm sure Madeline has brokered some deal to service some 1% benefactor somewhere. But
again the rudeness, they come into your home under the guise of sports, under the guise of a
legitimate news source, and then they spread their LIES and distortions.
Watch Brexit and Google pissing in the face of Congress.. they do not respect the ballot
though they clamor about democracy, they but care about the 1% like the Pedophile Catholic
Church and do not care about your laws, they want to abolish Ice, they want to disarm you so
that they can more efficiently abuse you. That is your globalists not some loser on a Nike
ad, who has less of a career than say Tim Tebow (who could run) but wasn't the apologist and
hate America first Cunt stooge of the globalists. Watch Brexit and Google as they piss in the
face of democracy and remember.
This brief comment became the biggest headline news to come out of the third debate, as
many saw it as Mr Trump threatening to shatter a 240-year-old electoral tradition, one of the
cornerstones of US democracy: the losing candidate must always concede defeat, regardless of
the result.
Presidential rival Hillary Clinton called his stance "horrifying", saying it "was not
the way our democracy works".
Barack Obama labelled Trump's comments as "dangerous", and damaging to
democracy.
You see how that works? The left is like the Pedophile Catholic Church all worked up about
the plastic in the ocean, one set of laws and democracy for you, and another for them..
The lies, the globalist lies.. vote for your freedom.. What does the NFL and the Pedophile
Catholic Church have in common? NEITHER PAYS TAXES! Them globalists them silly globalists:
love three things above all others: profits for the 1%, paying no taxes, and they love them
some open borders and immigrant cheap labor.
The real PIZZA GATE my friends is the Globalists. The 1% with their laws, unaccountable to
ours which they twist against us.
I'm watching Bob Woodward being pimped by the Globalists media this morning, and I have to
think that in this guy's lifetime the largest scandal in the Church, the global abuse and
coverup, never warranted an op-ed. Need I say more? When you look at the fabled globalist Bob
Woodward, remember that he missed the abuse, the cover-up, the complete and orchestrated
abuse of power globally, he missed that story!
It took the state of Pennsylvania and a Grand Jury to tell that story that the globalist
and Bob Woodward would not, instead he peddled rumors, similar to Stormy trotted out for a
dollar bill on the trailer park runway.
notfeelinthebern ,
Been nothing but a coup since before day one even.
iinthesky ,
Started right after the Trump stepped off the escalator
Jim in MN ,
If the globalist elite neolibcon blackmail files ever see the light of day a lot of folks
are going to swing from nooses...where have I heard that phrase before....
This is still our last peaceful chance for change.
iinthesky ,
I think most historically competent folks quickly come to the conclusion that ''Kompramat"
as the Russians call it is without a doubt how the government governs itself.. hence an
'outsider' is rarely ever seen and never allowed to govern
Regarding that mysterious New York Times op-ed: I don't claim to know the truth of the
matter, but I'm mildly surprised that so few people are thinking out of the box-- or should I
say "outside the frame"?-- in which this curious op-ed was presented.
These days, I shouldn't be surprised that any old sensational "bombshell" is taken at face
value, especially by extreme anti-Trumpers.
The largely unexamined assumption that the mysterious op-ed is legitimate has triggered a
rush of whodunit fantasising; it's reminiscent of a pack of racing dogs chasing after the
mechanical bunny used on the racetrack to give the critters a reason to run. (Or the endless,
churning amateur espionage screenplay-writers' discussions of the Skripal diversion.)
I don't want to get pulped in the stampede, so I've held off expressing the obvious
thought that this agitprop gem could've easily been fabricated right in the NYT newsroom.
Why not? Never mind the conventional pious blather asserting that the prestigious
Newspaper of Record would never stoop to such chicanery.
Actually, I realize that this is a little too cut-and-dried; it's probable that the
NYT poobahs would be more inclined to "let it happen" rather than "make it happen"-- they
need a measure of deniability.
OTOH, the NYT is a major Big Lie fulfillment center. It essentially demands that the
public trust its explanation of the circumstances under which the op-ed was published; once
the "bombshell" is detonated, and the whodunit controversy is off and running, only rigorous
skeptics (ahem) would even think to question whether the NYT itself launched this IED of
self-sealing infoganda.
This possibility is too mind-blowing for Normals, of course. But why assume that the NYT's
carefully-staged and veiled assertions about the op-ed's origins are credible? It certainly
pushes all of the right "Resistance" buttons; whether it's perceived as a righteous
"whistleblower" attempting to Save Us from the ongoing horror of a Trump presidency, or a
treacherous stab in the back from some insider, it doesn't reflect well on Trump.
If one accepts these sources as credible and reliable, one must perforce conclude that
Trump is either seriously deranged, or is so hamstrung by his own megalomania and narcissism
that he's intolerably incompetent and out of control. He is simply too mad, or bad, or both,
to be allowed to remain on the Oval Office Throne.
I just saw a column by a progressive-liberal columnist, Will Bunch, at philly.com with the
headline " President Trump is not well. Congress must curb his power to start a nuclear
war. ". It almost sounds sympathetic, but the message is that both the mysterious op-ed
and Woodward's book conclusively "prove" that Trump is either ethically or mentally unfit to
hold office, or both.
Hmmm... these days, no matter where one looks, it's all about the "bombshells"!
Pepe Escobar has a wonderful new article today in which he discusses the Resistance
warrior in the NYT op-ed, as well as the Resistance hit piece from Bob Woodward, and reprises
Nixon and Kissinger from the old days of the "golden age of journalism", as Seymour Hersch
calls it in his latest memoir, Reporter , and as Escobar details.
The spookiness of the age we live in today couldn't be more resonant with the spookiness
exposed back in the golden age. It's all one piece. The only questions are, which is the side
to be on? And how are we supposed to leak these secrets anyhow? It's a gripping thriller of
an article from Pepe:
I said something similar to your quote from the link a couple of days ago. Its part of the
show
Frankly the whole Trump show is psyops theater. While the show is going on in public, in
the the wrecking crew in the shadows is working to dismantle every aspect of government that
works for the benefit of the population, whats left of it anyways.
I remember the Watergate hearings. They dared to interrupt soap operas which allowed me to
grab the TV from my mother some summer afternoons and I found it more entertaining than the
50's shows in UHF stations. Pure entertainment. Maybe we see something similar soon to liven
up the show
Of course this time they might give us a civil war to have an excuse to declare martial
law.
Cant really predict these things though . Stay tuned.
Pft @57: Frankly the whole Trump show is psyops theater.
Yup.
Pepe reinforces the narrative that Trump is a nationalist who peace initiatives are
thwarted by the nasty deep state. But Trump proved his love for the establishment in the
years before he ran for President and no real populist can be elected in USA.
It should be noted that the NYT oped cruise missile happened to be exactly timed with the
big splash of the Bob Woodward 'book' that trumpets the same meme ie the Trump administration
is dysfunctional and in a state of mutiny
'There is credible evidence that the American Deep State of the military-intelligence
apparatus used the Watergate scandal as a way to get rid of Nixon whose febrile mental
state was becoming a concern to them. Woodward, who had a background in Navy intelligence
was suspiciously a prodigy journalist who rapidly rose to cover what became the scandal
that ended Nixon's presidency.'
I would disagree only about Nixon's 'febrile mental state' as the reason for the deep
state wanting him gone the real reason was in fact that Nixon moved against neoliberalism and
expelled Milton Friedman and the 'Chicago School' from the white house he in fact turned
toward socialism on the economy
'Nixon's purge of Friedman from his administration was not merely symbolic. Facing a
serious economic downturn, Nixon utilized huge amounts of government spending, spending
$25.2 billion to stimulate the economy in 1972.
Nixon went as far to openly propose a plan to provide a universal basic income of $1,600
(the equivalent of $10,000 present day) to every American family of four.'
This was a step too far for the Rockefellers and the plutocracy that runs the United
States
as Caleb Maupin explained presciently back in May in his superb historical parallel
between the war on Trump and the Nixon offing
Now we see that the deep state 'journalist' Woodward is here attempting to reprise his
Watergate role in bringing down a sitting POTUS the claims in the Woodward book about an
'administrative coup' in the Trump white house, and this 'oped' are so obviously part of the
same ploy that it is way beyond coincidence
Now it is interesting to note that we have on record THREE very astute commentators saying
the same thing about the provenance of the 'anonymous' hit piece that it is a creation of the
NYT itself PCR was first out of the blocks, yesterday Mr Cunningham, one of the few honest
and capable writers on the REAL left and now Ms Johnstone
And here's where things get curioser yet even the neoliberal standard bearer, the New
Yorker magazine ran a scathing piece by none other than Putin [and Trump] hater Masha Gessen
condemning the 'media corruption' embodied in the NYT oped
'But having this state of affairs described in print further establishes that an
unelected body, or bodies, are overruling and actively undermining the elected leader
An anonymous person or persons cannot govern for the people, because the people do not
know who is governing.'
Clearly there is a civil war going on behind the scenes inside the executive branch of the
United States government what the results will be nobody can know but we must realize that
when even one link in the chain of command is broken, the whole thing falls apart
I predicted right after the Singapore Trump-Kim summit and the fierce media backlash that
resulted that the media and their deep state partners in crime would overplay their hand and
shoot themselves in the foot
They have now done exactly that we will see how the people react, but I suspect that even
those who might not otherwise support Trump will in fact rally round the embattled president
by firing this cannonade now the treasonous media have nailed their on coffin tightly
shut
For the "Full Spectrum Dominance " crows even neutered and bitten down Trump is unacceptable. They want him out.
Notable quotes:
"... I have no idea how deep this amorality charge goes, but coming from people who actually support killing children in the womb, that men and women are the same and marriage is the same dynamic between two people of the same sex as it is for the traditional dynamic, that relations out of wedlock are the same, that illegal immigrants are in fact entitled, that criticizing a foreign state is a crime, that have cheerlead for no less than the four military interventions or destabilizing state actions of the same . . . ..."
"... They don't need him gone, they just need him weak enough to destroy his ability to govern, his agenda and or him personally -- I think they prefer all four. ..."
"... This NYT op ed is a classic forgery, from the scammer NYT posing as a "conservative" (another common scam) to attacking Trump. ..."
This comes as no news. The NYT has been after part of the "get the president" for anything
and everything camp since the nomination.
I have no idea how deep this amorality charge goes, but coming from people who actually
support killing children in the womb, that men and women are the same and marriage is the
same dynamic between two people of the same sex as it is for the traditional dynamic, that
relations out of wedlock are the same, that illegal immigrants are in fact entitled, that
criticizing a foreign state is a crime, that have cheerlead for no less than the four
military interventions or destabilizing state actions of the same . . .
just does not have the weight to make much headway with me. It's like the supposedly
wonderful kobe beef from Japan I had today -- spoiled and sour.
The NYT reputation was tainted long before the current president took office. I think that
the compromise made by the president to adopt in full the intel report has serious
repercussions. The issue here is not whether the Russians engage in espionage or influence, i
take it for granted that they do. But thus far the evidence has been mighty thin that they
actually have done so and did so to any effect.
Something rather nasty has been seeping out of US polity and if Trump is anything he
represents that polity with all its veneer of integrity swept aside.
Not all of the members he chose for his staff are self seeking aggrandizers, making the US
safe for democracy is but a disguise. Some are honorable men and women who simply should not
have been selected because they openly rejected the current executive for political, policy
and personal reasons. I think that was a managerial mistake.
They don't need him gone, they just need him weak enough to destroy his ability to govern,
his agenda and or him personally -- I think they prefer all four.
This article about who, wrote or said what is just a side show.
@Rational DEAR
JUDAISTS -- PLEASE STOP LYING AND SCAMMING, PLEASE. BECOME CIVILIZED PLEASE.
Thanks for the excellent article, Sir. Great points!
This NYT op ed is a classic forgery, from the scammer NYT posing as a "conservative"
(another common scam) to attacking Trump.
Anonymous sources -- fabricated conversations that cannot be verified, because the source
is non-existent. It is all fabricated.
... ... ... You're being Rational again: "please stop these childish scams. This is
juvenile." You're appealing to hardened criminals.
I commend you for moderation and compassion, but if these people were to be redeemed it
would have happened before the FED, the Great Depression (read Wayne Jett), the assassination
of JFK and RFK, Tonkin, 911, 2008 and God know what more.
The neocon crowd wants a revenge. Badly. "Full Spectrum Dominance" is a a religion for them. And they uses all dirty tricks
intelligence agencies are know for.
In a speech Friday at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, former President Barack Obama publicly joined the escalating
offensive against President Trump being mounted by sections of the ruling class and the state. The speech, directed at channeling
both popular and ruling class opposition to the Trump administration behind the Democrats in the fall midterm elections, marked Obama's
first direct attack on his successor.
Obama's speech came as the culmination of a series of extraordinary events over the past two weeks that have brought the acute
political crisis in the US to a new and explosive level of intensity.
First came the week-long spectacle of bipartisan hypocrisy and political reaction occasioned by the death of Republican Senator
John McCain, one of the most ferocious war-mongers in the US political establishment. Democrats sought to outdo the Republicans in
eulogizing McCain as an "American hero" and model statesman. Within two days of McCain's burial, the media was ablaze with revelations
from the forthcoming book on the Trump White House by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward. Woodward, citing anonymous interviews
with high-ranking Trump officials, paints a picture of turmoil and dysfunction in which figures such as Defense Secretary James Mattis
and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly call Trump an idiot. Woodward recounts incidents of Trump administration officials countermanding
orders from the president, a situation Woodward characterizes as an "administrative coup d'ιtat."
This was followed by the New York Times ' publication of an op-ed piece by an anonymous "senior official" in the Trump
administration describing the activities of an internal "resistance" to Trump within the White House. The piece cited discussions
among Trump aides about seeking his removal on the grounds of mental incompetence, as stipulated in the 25th Amendment to the US
Constitution. It made clear that the "resistance," promoted by the Times and the Democrats, supports Trump's tax cuts for
the rich, removal of corporate regulations and increase in military spending. It attacks Trump for his "softness" toward Russia and
North Korea and his overall impulsiveness, unpredictability and recklessness.
Obama's speech was along similar lines. He presented an absurdly potted history of American progress on the basis of the "free
market," with, he acknowledged, some imperfections -- such as the wars in Vietnam and Iraq (which killed millions of people). His
administration was supposedly part of this march of progress.
... ... ...
The reality, of course, is that Obama presided over the funneling of trillions of dollars to Wall Street to rescue the financial
oligarchy, carrying out the greatest redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in history. This was paid for by wage cuts
and the destruction of decent-paying jobs, replaced by poverty-wage, part-time and temporary employment, the gutting of health benefits
for millions of workers under "Obamacare," pension cuts, the closure of thousands of public schools and layoff of tens of thousands
of teachers, and a general lowering of the living standards of the working class.
Trump's attacks on democratic rights were prepared by Obama's brutal policy of deportations, his continuation of indefinite detention
and the Guantanamo torture camp, his support for mass domestic spying and his program of drone assassinations, including of US citizens.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were continued and new wars were launched in Libya and Syria.
"... The methodology is familiar. After a years-long assault on the White House and president by a special prosecutor's office, the House takes up impeachment, while a collaborationist press plays its traditional supporting role. ..."
The campaign to overturn the 2016 election and bring down President Trump shifted into high
gear this week.
Inspiration came Saturday morning from the altar of the National Cathedral where our
establishment came to pay homage to John McCain.
Gathered there were all the presidents from 1993 to 2017, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and
Barack Obama, Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney, Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton,
John Kerry and Henry Kissinger, the leaders of both houses of Congress, and too many generals
and admirals to list.
Striding into the pulpit, Obama delivered a searing indictment of the man undoing his
legacy:
"So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and
petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It's
a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear."
Speakers praised McCain's willingness to cross party lines, but Democrats took away a new
determination: From here on out, confrontation!
Tuesday morning, as Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's
nomination to the Supreme Court began, Democrats disrupted the proceedings and demanded
immediate adjournment, as scores of protesters shouted and screamed to halt the hearings.
Taking credit for orchestrating the disruption, Sen. Dick Durbin boasted, "What we've heard
is the noise of democracy."
But if mob action to shut down a Senate hearing is the noise of democracy, this may explain
why many countries are taking a new look at the authoritarian rulers who can at least deliver a
semblance of order.
Wednesday came leaks in The Washington Post from Bob Woodward's new book, attributing to
Chief of Staff John Kelly and Gen. James Mattis crude remarks on the president's intelligence,
character and maturity, and describing the Trump White House as a "crazytown" led by a fifth-
or sixth-grader.
Kelly and Mattis both denied making the comments.
Thursday came an op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous "senior official" claiming to
be a member of the "resistance working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his
(Trump's) agenda."
A pedestrian piece of prose containing nothing about Trump one cannot read or hear daily in
the media, the op-ed caused a sensation, but only because Times editors decided to give the
disloyal and seditious Trump aide who wrote it immunity and cover to betray his or her
president.
The transaction served the political objectives of both parties.
While the Woodward book may debut at the top of The New York Times best-seller list, and
"Anonymous," once ferreted out and fired, will have his or her 15 minutes of fame, what this
portends is not good.
For what is afoot here is something America specializes in -- regime change. Only the regime
our establishment and media mean to change is the government of the United States. What is
afoot is the overthrow of America's democratically elected head of state.
The methodology is familiar. After a years-long assault on the White House and president
by a special prosecutor's office, the House takes up impeachment, while a collaborationist
press plays its traditional supporting role.
Presidents are wounded, disabled or overthrown, and Pulitzers all around.
ORDER IT NOW
No one suggests Richard Nixon was without sin in trying to cover up the Watergate break-in.
But no one should delude himself into believing that the overthrow of that president, not two
years after he won the greatest landslide in U.S. history, was not an act of vengeance by a
hate-filled city that ran a sword through Nixon for offenses it had covered up or brushed under
the rug in the Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson years.
So, where are we headed?
If November's elections produce, as many predict, a Democratic House, there will be more
investigations of President Trump than any man charged with running the U.S. government may be
able to manage.
There is the Mueller investigation into "Russiagate" that began before Trump was
inaugurated. There is the investigation of his business and private life before he became
president in the Southern District of New York. There is the investigation into the Trump
Foundation by New York State.
There will be investigations by House committees into alleged violations of the Emoluments
Clause. And ever present will be platoons of journalists ready to report the leaks from all of
these investigations.
Then, if media coverage can drive Trump's polls low enough, will come the impeachment
investigation and the regurgitation of all that went before.
If Trump has the stamina to hold on, and the Senate remains Republican, he may survive, even
as Democrats divide between a rising militant socialist left and the Democrats' septuagenarian
caucus led by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi.
2019 looks to be the year of bellum omnium contra omnes, the war of all against all.
Entertaining, for sure, but how many more of these coups d'etat can the Republic sustain before
a new generation says enough of all this?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and
Broke a President and Divided America Forever."
Just for the record -- not that we're keeping one -- I strongly suspect that that NYT Op Ed
by an "insider" is almost entirely fraudulent. OK, there might be an assistant to the
assistant undersecretary in charge of cutting the grass at the White House who will be
willing to put her name at the bottom of this thing, thereby giving the Times an "out" in
terms of committing outright journalistic perjury.
But who's going to call these people on it? The Times themselves? CNN? The Washington
Post? The Huffington Post?
What consequences will they suffer? Will the rabid dog leftists who read the
aforementioned periodicals suddenly do an about-face and abandon their leftist religion
because of journalistic fraud?
Of course not.
They'll just move on to the next "scandal" (almost certainly based on anonymous sources or
triple hearsay).
I think Trump is his own worst enemy. It is his incompetence that is fueling all these calls
for impeachment. He should have fired Mueller long time ago. The screaming could not have
been any worse. I don't think he comprehends the seriousness of the current situation. He
doesn't realize that he is the president. He has fallen into the trap of anti-Russian
rhetoric while I know he does not believe any of it.
He should never have hired John Bolton or Pompeo. For God's sakes; he appointed all these
heads of Departments, CIA, FBI, DNI, etc. and none of them can control his own department. He
is letting others control his agenda and his foreign policy. If it weren't for Pence, I would
prefer impeachment at this time because he is making the US a laughing stalk of the world.
But Pence scares me even more.
Acts 3:25 "He said to Abraham, 'Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be
blessed.'"
By the way, God's covenant with Abraham included Ishmael, who was also his offspring. The
Jews have altered the bible to make the covenant with Isaac only, as they have done with the
sacrifice of the "only son."
So far the only 2 senior officials who have not come out to deny writing the op-ed are John
Kelly and Nikki Haley, both are highly suspect at this point. John Kelly gave all those
disparaging accounts of the president to Bob Woodward then tried to deny it. Nikki Haley's
been running her own dog and pony show at the UN for two years, clashing with Trump more than
once for wanting to take out Assad. She takes her orders directly from the Prime Minister of
Israel, Trump who?
This NYTimes hit piece shows clearly the existence of a Deep State that is actively
working to subvert and overthrow a democratically elected POTUS. The Deep State must be
defeated for America to survive, but the only way to defeat the Deep State is through a
functioning DOJ. Jeff Sessions must now be considered part of the Deep State, along with
Pence and all the people Pence brought into Trump's cabinet when he was in charged of setting
up the interim government, from John Kelly to Mattis, Haley, Bolton, Kirstjen Nielsen,
Christopher Wray, Mike Pompeo, and above all Rod Rosenstein -- all are neocon Deep State
stooges and big time swamp creatures.
U.S. President Donald Trump continued his
attacks Wednesday on an explosive book about his administration.
Trump said the book, written by U.S. veteran investigative journalist Bob
Woodward, "means nothing" and called it "a work of fiction" during a photo op with
visiting Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the White
House.
Woodward's book -- "Fear: Trump in the White House" -- is to be released next
week.
According to excerpts obtained by media outlets, Trump's aides describe him as a
"liar" and an "idiot" who is running a "crazytown."
"Isn't it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up
stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the
fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost," Trump tweeted earlier in
the day.
He also tweeted out written statements of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, both of whom denied uttering quoted
criticisms of the president in the book.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Woodward said, "I stand by my
reporting."
The book was based on hundreds of hours of conversations with direct players,
according to the author.
Woodward has been a reporter at the The Washington Post since 1971 and remains
an associate editor there.
He is most famous for breaking the story of the Watergate scandal, which
promoted the resignation of Richard Nixon from the presidency in 1974.
First of all as Diana
Johnstone noted this can be attempt to saw discord in Trump administration and anonymous
author iether does not exist or is a former official fired by Trump. See The New York Times as Iago, by Diana
Johnstone . She suggested that it was written by NYT staff " The letter by Mister or Ms
Anonymous is very well written. By someone like, say, Thomas Friedman. That is, someone on the
NYT staff. It is very cleverly composed to achieve quite obvious calculated aims. It is a
masterpiece of treacherous deception." ... "The "resistance" proclaimed is solely against the
facets of Trump's foreign policy which White House insiders are said to be working diligently to
undermine: peaceful relations with Russian and North Korea." The letter amounts to an endorsement
of future President Pence. Just get rid of Trump and you'll have a nice, neat, ultra-right-wing
Republican as President.
She continues: " Isn't it obvious that all this is designed to make Trump distrust everyone
around him? Isn't that a way to drive him toward that "crazy" where they say he already is, and
which is fallback grounds for impeachment when the Mueller investigation fails to come up with
anything more serious than the fact that Russian intelligent agents are intelligent agents?"
AS Daniel Larrison points out the dishonesty of anonymous author is evident: " They want
credit for "resisting" Trump when their "resistance" amounts to manipulating the policies of the
government to their own liking. ". And they so far succeeded in manipulating Trump foreign
policy to the extent that he does not differ from Bush II.
Notable quotes:
"... The New York Times ..."
"... They want credit for "resisting" Trump when their "resistance" amounts to manipulating the policies of the government to their own liking. ..."
"... There are legitimate political and constitutional remedies for an unfit president, but the anonymous "resistance" official isn't interested in any of that. He prefers to keep the administration from completely imploding because it also happens to be advancing a mostly conventional Republican agenda that he likes. There is nothing particularly admirable about that, and he should not have been granted anonymity to write his self-congratulatory article. ..."
The
New York Timespublished
a strange op-ed purportedly written by a "senior official" in the Trump administration:
The dilemma -- which he does not fully grasp -- is that many of the senior officials in
his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda
and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular "resistance" of the left. We want the administration
to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more
prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a
manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
The author of the op-ed flatters himself by claiming to be acting in the best interests of
the country, but there is something very wrong with having self-appointed guardians assuming
that they have the right to sabotage certain policies of the elected president. For one, they
have no authority to do what they're doing, and no one voted for them. It is one thing to argue
that professionals should be willing to serve a bad president in the interests of public
service, and it is quite another to argue that the officials working for the president are
entitled to disregard and override the president's decisions because the president happens to
be an ignorant buffoon. The "two-track presidency" that the official boasts about is an affront
to our system of government. It is not reassuring that U.S. foreign policy continues as if on
autopilot no matter what the electorate votes for.
Perversely, the more that Trump administration officials "frustrate parts of his agenda,"
the more likely it is that Trump remains in power longer than he otherwise would. The official
says that the core of the problem is the president's "amorality." That raises the obvious
question: how can someone acknowledge that the president has no principles or scruples of any
kind and still in good conscience try to help him succeed? These officials are not only
enabling a president whose behavior they consider to be "detrimental to the health of our
republic," but they are helping to make sure that he stays in office instead of hastening his
defeat. They want credit for "resisting" Trump when their "resistance" amounts to
manipulating the policies of the government to their own liking.
There are legitimate political and constitutional remedies for an unfit president, but
the anonymous "resistance" official isn't interested in any of that. He prefers to keep the
administration from completely imploding because it also happens to be advancing a mostly
conventional Republican agenda that he likes. There is nothing particularly admirable about
that, and he should not have been granted anonymity to write his self-congratulatory
article.
If this official feels so strongly that the president endangers the health and well-being of
the country, he should put his name on a statement to that effect when he announces his
resignation.
"... No doctor that has examined him says he is insane. All that's presented are third-party anonymous accusations of incompetence shot through with gossip. A book written by a Hollywood trash reporter is otherwise held up as critical evidence of the inner workings of the president's mind. ..."
"... We might instead look at the actual decisions Trump has made, and those of his predecessors. One president used nuclear weapons to decimate two cities' worth of innocents , and a set of presidents squandered hundreds of thousands of American lives washing Vietnam with blood. Ronald Reagan was famously caught on an open mic saying he was going to start bombing the Soviet Union in the next few minutes. Another president spread false information about WMDs to launch an invasion of Iraq and mocked North Korea's leader as a pygmy. Obama said he "will not hesitate to use our military might" against the North, knowing that meant Armageddon. Historical psychiatrists say half of our past presidents may have suffered from some sort of mental illness. If Trump is dangerous as president, he would seem to have company. ..."
"... In the minds of the "Trump is Insane" crowd what matters most is that never-used fourth subsection, the incapacitation clause. People claim because Trump is insane he is unable to carry out his duties, and so Mike Pence, et al, must step in and transfer power away from him. Trump would legally exist in the same status as Grandpa Simpson in the nursing home, and Pence would take over. Among other problems, this imagines that the 25th Amendment's legally specific term "unable" means the same thing as "unfit." An unconscious man is unable to drive. A man who forgot his glasses is unfit, but still able, to drive. The 25th Amendment only refers to the first case. ..."
The media chatterati seems to be of one mind: Donald Trump is mentally incompetent and may
have to be removed from office before he blows us all to hell.
The solution, to their minds, lies in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which creates
a mechanism outside of impeachment to remove an "incapacitated" president. Trump's mental
state, some believe, qualifies him. Is there a case?
Dr. Bandy Lee , one of the
editors of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump ,
says yes. Her evidence includes tweets that Trump sent threatening Kim Jong-un. She really
has no other ammunition: no doctor who says Trump is insane, including Lee, has examined him.
No doctor that has examined him says he is insane. All that's presented are third-party
anonymous
accusations of incompetence shot through with gossip. A book written by a Hollywood trash
reporter is otherwise held up as critical
evidence of the inner workings of the president's mind.
So is there a case without the tweets? Not really. Lee
adds that while Trump has not committed violent acts against himself or others, his "verbal
aggressiveness, history of boasting about sexual assault, history of inciting violence at his
rallies, and history of endorsing violence in his key public speeches are the best predictors
of future violence," and thus concludes he will destroy the world. Lee also weakly
points to Trump "being drawn to violent videos." Oh my.
We might instead look at the actual decisions Trump has made, and those of his predecessors.
One president used nuclear weapons to decimate two
cities' worth of innocents , and a set of presidents squandered hundreds of thousands of
American lives washing Vietnam with blood. Ronald Reagan was famously caught on an open mic
saying he was going to start bombing the Soviet Union in the next few minutes. Another
president spread false information about WMDs to launch an invasion of Iraq and mocked North
Korea's leader as a pygmy. Obama said he
"will not hesitate to use our military might" against the North, knowing that meant Armageddon.
Historical psychiatrists say
half of our past presidents may have suffered from some sort of mental illness. If Trump is
dangerous as president, he would seem to have company.
But how can we know? Trump will never voluntarily undergo a mental competency exam, though
courts can order people to submit. But even Lee, who met with congressional representatives to
press the case that Trump is insane, admits this is unlikely to happen. "Many lawyer groups
have actually volunteered to file for a court paper to ensure that the security staff will
cooperate with us," Lee
said . "But we have declined, since this will really look like a coup, and while we are
trying to prevent violence, we don't wish to incite it through, say, an insurrection."
Still, those arguing Trump is insane and must be removed from office will point to the 25th
Amendment as just what the doctor ordered.
The framers did not originally include rules for what happens if a president dies or becomes
incapacitated. It was just assumed the vice president would serve as "Acting President." The
25th Amendment, passed after the Kennedy
assassination , created the first set of protocols for this sort of situation.
The amendment has four short
subsections. If the presidency goes vacant (for example, after a fatal heart attack), the vice
president becomes president. If the vice presidency goes vacant, the president chooses a new
VP. If the president knows he'll be incapacitated (due to scheduled surgery, for example), he
can voluntarily and temporarily assign his duties to the vice president. If the president is
truly incapacitated (unconscious after an assassination attempt) and can't voluntarily assign
away his duties, the VP and cabinet can do it for him, with a two-thirds majority confirming
vote of the House and Senate.
In the minds of the "Trump is Insane" crowd what matters most is that never-used fourth
subsection, the incapacitation clause. People claim because Trump is insane he is unable to
carry out his duties, and so Mike Pence, et al, must step in and transfer power away from him.
Trump would legally exist in the same status as Grandpa Simpson in the nursing home,
and Pence would take over. Among other problems, this imagines that the 25th Amendment's
legally specific term "unable" means the same thing as "unfit." An unconscious man is unable to
drive. A man who forgot his glasses is unfit, but still able, to drive. The 25th Amendment only
refers to the first case.
The use of the 25th Amendment to dethrone Trump is the kind of thing non-experts with too
much Google time can convince themselves is true. But unlike much of the Constitution, where
understanding original intent requires the Supreme Court and a close reading of the Federalist
Papers, the 25th Amendment is modern legislation. We know the drafters' intent
was an administrative
procedure, not a political thunderbolt. The 25th Amendment premises that the president will
almost always invoke succession himself, either by dying in office or by anticipating that he
will be unable to discharge his duties, as in 2007 when George W. Bush went under anesthesia
for his annual colonoscopy and signed things over to his vice president for a few hours.
The reason the 25th Amendment is not intended to be used adversarially is the Constitution
already specifies impeachment as the way to force an unfit president out against his
will, his unfitness specifically a result of "high crimes and misdemeanors." The people who
wrote the 25th Amendment did not intend it to be an alternate method of impeachment or a
do-over for an election.
The Constitution at its core grants ultimate power to the people to decide, deliberately,
not in panic, every four years, who is president. Anything otherwise would mean the drafters of
the 25th Amendment wrote a backdoor into the Constitution that would allow a group of
government officials, many of whom in the Cabinet were elected by nobody, to overthrow an
elected president who they simply think has turned out to be bad at his job.
Accusations of mental illness are subjective, unprovable in this case, and alarmist --
perfect fodder to displace the grinding technicalities of Russiagate. Denouncing one's
political opponents as crazy was a tried-and-true Soviet and Maoist tactic, and a movie trope
where the youngsters try to get the patriarch shut away to grab his fortune. We fear the
mentally ill, and psychiatric name calling against Trump invokes that fear
. "The 25th Amendment would require, for mental incapacity, a major psychotic break,"
said one former Harvard Law School professor. "This is hope over reality. If we don't like
someone's politics we rail against him, we campaign against him, we don't use the psychiatric
system against him. That's just dangerous."
Trump's time in office is finite, but what happens around him will outlast his tenure. It is
dangerous to mess with the very fundamentals of our democracy, where the people choose the
president and then replace him with a cabal called into session by pop psychologists. This is
an attack on the process at its roots: you yokels voted for the wrong guy so somebody smarter
has to clean up.
Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author ofWe Meant Well : How I Helped Lose the Battle for the
Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People andHooper's War : A Novel of WWII Japan. Follow him on Twitter@WeMeantWell.
Judging by the fact that he's still the only president after the end of the Cold War who
hasn't yet dragged the country into any new costly and unnecessary war, it indeed must be
that either he's a genius or his predecessors are mentally challenged. Your choice.
" . . . and a set of presidents squandered hundreds of thousands of American lives washing
Vietnam with blood."
Total US losses in the Vietnam War/conflict: 58,300
It is sad that plans were made to remove the Pres. even before he was elected. It has been
the use of a special prosecutor has certainly been a factor
in damaging our republics democracy.
I remember hearing a reporter comment upon Obama and Bush meeting on inauguration day that
the "Peaceful transition of power is what makes our Democracy great." Now 8 years later those
same people are saying we need to oust the Democratically elected candidate. The danger here
is not against the offices of our government but against the press itself. As the media
continues down this path they paint themselves as lunatics, hypocrites and partisans. I think
our institutions will survive this and much worse. But I don't think the media as we know it
will. Trust is at an all time low in most all of the media outlets. The question that needs
to be asked is will our Democracy survive the death of the press and what if anything will
replace what used to be called investigative and informative journalism?
There's a NeverTrump and Resistance checklist that's being worked through, and this was the
next gambit if Russiagate failed, which was the gambit if the Electoral College revolt didn't
work The next in line will be something along the arc of a politicized MeToo They're making a
list, and they're checking it twice
There's a NeverTrump and Resistance checklist that's predictably being worked through, and
this was the next gambit if Russiagate failed, which was the gambit if the Electoral College
revolt didn't work The next in line will be something along the arc of a politicized MeToo
They're making a list, and they're checking it twice
Reading this only serves as a reminder that the ones whom we really need to fear are the
masses of the great Unwashed Elite (Vox, CNN, etc.), not Trump.
Slightly off topic, but "the youngsters try to get the patriarch shut away to grab his
fortune" is, sadly, no movie trope; my family is living it right now. Trying to right this
outrageous wrong on behalf of the forcibly shut-away patriarch is costing us non-grabby
siblings tens of thousands of dollars in legal and court fees. Justice has a crippling price
in modern America and those who can't pay don't get much justice.
In East Germany, Stasi leader Markus Wolfe took things a step further with the "zersetzung"
tactic.
The idea was to *induce* a "personal crisis" through clandestine harassment, including at
the hands of acquaintances secretly recruited by the Stasi.
In other words, while the Frankfort School was content to merely *label* their opponents
mentally ill ("Authoritarian Personality", "Paranoid Style", etc.), Markus Wolfe was actively
trying to cause *real* mental illness by relentlessly gaslighting selected individual
dissidents until they cracked.
How many centuries will it take for the reputation of the mental health profession to
recover from their association with various repressive left-wing regimes and
pseudo-scientists such as the Freudians and the Frankfurt School?
HRC warned us of all the dumb white male deplorable's , as being a major threat. Wonder where
the pop psychologist have these Americans slotted, possibly not allowed to vote ?
What's insane is that a married FBI agent and an FBI lawyer hooked up and conspired to bring
down a President, yet both still work for the FBI! That's really insane.
It's just silliness re. Mr Trump. He's perfectly sane.
We had a former governor- whom I actually admire- but his behavior was authentically erratic.
If Pres. Trump ever acts even half this way, then we should take a serious look at his mental
health 🙂 :
" Long spent ninety minutes ranting and lashing out against his opponents. Spotting
Rainach in the crowd, Long launched into the salacious details of the murder of Rainach's
uncle, killed by a black man who had caught him in bed with the man's wife. In one of Long's
most famous remarks, he told the crowd, "After all this is over [Rainach will] probably go up
there to Summerfield, get up on his front porch, take off his shoes, wash his feet, look at
the moon, and get close to God." Pointing and shouting at Rainach, he continued, "And when
you do, you got to recognize that n**gers is human beings!" When he concluded his tirade,
Earl was rushed to the governor's mansion and locked in a bedroom where he grew violent. At
one point, he stood in the smashed bedroom window shouting, "Murder!"
Concerned about his mental health, Long's family had him institutionalized in Texas before
transferring him to the Louisiana State Hospital in Mandeville. With the assistance of his
subordinates, however, Long won release from the asylum, firing the director in the process,
and proceeded on an interstate buying spree trailed by national press agents. Many have
speculated on the cause of Long's apparent breakdown, with at least one biographer convinced
the politician suffered from bipolar disorder. Others speculate that Long's all-night
escapades in New Orleans, including dalliances with dancer Blaze Starr, coupled with the
regular ingestion of large amounts of alcohol and the powerful stimulants Dexedrine
undermined Long's perception of reality. Regardless of the cause, it was clear to many,
including the national press, that Long needed an extended vacation."
If one day Trump wakes up and decides it's a good day to launch nuclear missiles at some
country because their leader said disparaging remarks against him, then the 25th should be
invoked. But not before then.
One of the hallmarks of mental illness is that a person's personality or behavior change and
people close to them that love them are most alarmed by it and want them to get treated. None
of this holds in Trump's case. His behavior is the same as it's always been, which is what
people voted on. And the ones trying to use it are his enemies which don't care about
treatment, but simply as a machination to depose him.
The author has made several errors. He assumes that discussing the possibility of a
psychiatric disorder making Trump unfit means proving insanity. In reality, the most likely
disorder does not meet the legal definition of insanity, but does make a person incapable of
competently or faithfully performing the duties of office.
The suggestion that this is some type of superficial soviet style political maneuver
ignores the fact that good diagnosis is done nowadays based to a large extent on observed
behavior, history, and the reports of third parties. This is especially important when the
individual shows signs of being a pathological liar. In these cases, information gained in a
face-to-face interview may be virtually useless.
The condition that Mr. Trump should be assessed for is Antisocial Personality Disorder
with Psychopathic Features. (Alternative PDOs in DSM-5, pg. 761-765 Some of the signs and
symptoms which make such a person unfit for office include-
Dishonesty and fraudulence
Embellishment or fabrication when relating events
Anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults
Mean, nasty, or vengeful behavior
Boredom proneness and thoughtless initiation of activities to counter boredom
Lack of concern for one's limitations
Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli
Acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes
Disregard for -- and failure to honor–financial and other obligations or
commitments
No one imagined that someone with this possible disorder would ever make it to the White
House, however, the 25th Amendment provides an avenue for him to temporarily be removed from
power while he can undergo proper evaluation by military psychiatrists and neurologists. This
is all mental health professionals are requesting. These individuals can do tremendous damage
when give power over others.
"The condition that Mr. Trump should be assessed for is Antisocial Personality Disorder
with Psychopathic Features. (Alternative PDOs in DSM-5, pg. 761-765 Some of the signs and
symptoms which make such a person unfit for office include-
Dishonesty and fraudulence
Embellishment or fabrication when relating events
Anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults
Mean, nasty, or vengeful behavior
Boredom proneness and thoughtless initiation of activities to counter boredom
Lack of concern for one's limitations
Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli
Acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes
Disregard for -- and failure to honor–financial and other obligations or
commitments "
An Orwellian comment like the above just proves the point of the article, and then some.
As if there isn't anyone in the world who couldn't be shoehorned to fit such a diagnoses,
with a crafty narrative reconfiguring of their actions.
If there are indeed any witch doctors (excuse me, "psychiatrists") pathologizing people on
the basis of a laughable list like the above, then I consider them to be far more undeserving
of the power they have, and far more toxic to society, than Trump in any of the actions or
utterances that he has made.
Susan Dawkins, who claims my article has mistakes, didn't read it. Her amateur diagnosis that
Trump has "Antisocial Personality Disorder with Psychopathic Features" does not make him
UNABLE to be president, which is what the 25th Amendment is for.
She claims he is UNFIT. Fitness is judged primarily by the people, who elected him. If a
president somehow becomes unfit while in office it must be because of "high crimes and
misdemeanors." That's the only reason the Constitution provides for. And impeachment is the
only answer.
Sorry kiddies, the 25th is a not-over for an election Rachael Maddow doesn't like.
This is all mental health professionals are requesting."
"All"? That's rich.
Indeed, is that all that they're requesting? My goodness -- what a modest
request! -- a request merely to have complete veto power over America's entire citizenry, in
terms of who is allowed to be President; a request merely to be able to remove any President
who is not to their liking.
In short, a mere request to be able to legally perform a coup d'etat at will, to overturn
any election that does not yield their desired result.
How gratified we all should be that their request for power is such a small one. Imagine
if they asked for something just a bit more ambitious. "Omnipotence" comes to mind.
Trump is the one who messes with the very fundamentals of our democracy. Remember his voting
commission and the crap they wanted? Force states to provide all the 2016 voter information
to his CosaNostra buddies. And remember when they wanted all Americans to fill out a
registration form similar to the one used when purchasing a gun? They said they wanted to
make sure only those qualified were on the voter registration lists.
Trrump's as sane as any other 71 year old man-baby.
Obviously saner and infinitely more mature than a 70 year old woman-baby, who wrecked a
havoc all over the Middle East, was laughing like a bloodthirsty child when watching an old
man's violent death in the hands of a barbaric crowd as one of the results of that havoc and
then, out of a sheer infantile negligence, caused an American ambassadors similarly violent
death in the hands of likely the same crowd as another result of the same havoc.
***
Susan Dawkins,
So, you claim that something that something that doesn't meet the legal definition of
insanity is somehow a basis to invoke a legal mechanism that would require someone to be
legally defined as insane ? How pathetic. Do you know that this mere writing of yours
can be a sign of at least three mental disorders, assuming it was written in good faith and
not as an umpteenth attempt of a comically maladroit political hackery? Note that I have
certain knowledge in psychiatry and can highlight the signs of these disorders step by step,
not by hysterical shrilling "I'm an MD, you philistines", which can be a sign of yet another
mental disorder.
Though the most comical part of your hackery is that every point of your list meant to
"describe" Trump perfectly fits Hillary Clinton. You should try better. Seriously. You have
just shown that your knowledge of psychiatry is abysmal, no matter the degrees you
might have.
Ultimately to the leftists everybody is mentally ill because they don't understand the
necessities of history and they don't possess "secret" knowledge.
Susan Dawkins, that list of symptoms reminds me of most all of the people that run for
political office or spend a majority of their lives up on the hill. I immediately thought of
several people on both the left and the right. Let's see how HIllary does:
1&2: embellished/lied in saying she was personally shot at by a sniper in Bosnia?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1582795/Hillary-Clintons-Bosnia-sniper-story-exposed.html
. Might I add that she said this while other Americans were on battlefields half a world away
actually getting shot at.
3&4: Calling American Citizens deplorable 5&6&8: Voted for Iraq, pushed for
action in Libya.
Hmm, I guess there is a reason voters didn't pick her.
What matters in this narrative is not law, not ethics or sanity, not anything else but
power.
If those who want Trump removed will have the power to do so, they will do so. Whatever
law is invoked will merely be an excuse, a cover story, if you will.
"The suggestion that this is some type of superficial soviet style political maneuver ignores
the fact that good diagnosis is done nowadays based to a large extent on observed behavior,
history, and the reports of third parties. This is especially important when the individual
shows signs of being a pathological liar. In these cases, information gained in a
face-to-face interview may be virtually useless."
So what happens when the third parties or the psychiatrist in question are pathological
liars? Would a face-to-face interview help in that case?
President Trump and those close to him have challenged the narrative of Bob
Woodward's new book, which portrays him as "a 5th-grader" ready to make rash decisions, such as
ordering the assassination of Assad.
"The Woodward book has already been refuted and
discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John
Kelly," Trump tweeted on Tuesday afternoon, after excerpts from the book were published by
the Washington Post and other publications. The manuscript, which is scheduled for release next
week, contains many quotes that were "made up frauds," Trump said, calling the book's
narrative "a con on the public."
The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of
Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up
frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative?
Notice timing?
Rejecting the claims that senior aides have been plucking sensitive documents off his desk
to prevent him from making rash decisions, Trump noted in an exclusive interview with
the Daily Caller that the bulk of the stories in the book were just a compilation of "nasty
stuff" totally "made up" by the famed Watergate Washington Post reporter.
Trump was not the only one to slam Woodward's claims, which present the US leader as an
impulsive decision-maker, who is sometimes called an "idiot" and a "liar"
even by those closest to him:
Trump ordered Mattis to 'f**king kill' Assad
One of the excerpts from the book claims the president ordered Secretary of Defense Jim
Mattis to assassinate the Syrian leader following the 2017 Idlib chemical incident. "Let's
f**king kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f**king lot of them," Trump allegedly told
Mattis. "We're not going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured," the
defense secretary allegedly told one of his senior staffers after that.
Following the controversial claim, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley denied that Trump
ever planned to assassinate Assad. "I have not once ever heard the president talk about
assassinating Assad,"
she told reporters at UN headquarters.
"Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with
Secretary Mattis or anyone within the DOD," a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning,
added.
Mattis compared Trump to '5th or 6th grader'
Woodward claims that Trump once asked Mattis why the US backs South Korea militarily and
financially, prompting the defense secretary to tell close associates afterward that Trump had
the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader. "Secretaries of defense don't always get to
choose the president they work for," Mattis allegedly said in another instance.
Mattis personally rejected the claim made in the book. "In serving in this
administration, the idea that I would show contempt for the elected Commander-in-Chief,
President Trump, or tolerate disrespect to the office of the President from within our
Department of Defense, is a product of someone's rich imagination," he said.
Chief
of Staff described Trump as an 'unhinged idiot'
"He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the
rails. We're in crazytown," Woodward quotes White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as
saying at a staff meeting in his office. "I don't even know why any of us are here. This is
the worst job I've ever had."
Kelly, however, has firmly
denied the allegations, dismissing the chapter about him as "total
BS."
Staff snatched documents from Trump's desk fearing he might sign them
Former Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, according to Woodward, once saw a draft letter on
the Oval Office desk that would have withdrawn the US from a trade agreement with South Korea.
"I stole it off his desk," Cohn told an associate, allegedly terrified Trump might
sign it. "I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect
the country." Former staff secretary Rob Porter, who handled the flow of presidential
papers, allegedly used similar tactics on several occasions.
However, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, the entire book is nothing
more than a bunch of "fabricated stories" told by "disgruntled" former
employees to make the president "look bad."
Egypt's president wondered if Trump
was 'going to be around' for long
According to Woodward, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is one of the world leaders
who was worried the infamous Mueller probe might eventually result in impeachment. "Donald,
I'm worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?" al-Sisi allegedly said.
Trump supposedly later told his lawyer that the question was "like a kick in the
nuts."
Amid the barrage of firm denials by Trump and his team, Woodward
reiterated that he "stands by" his reporting and the book's contents.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
"... "This is very different from Watergate. This is gossip. Much of it is anonymous gossip, so it feeds this neverending reality television show political drama that cable news channels like CNN are making quite a bit of money off of," ..."
"... "It's always something, it's endless burlesque, and this feeds into this kind of narrative." ..."
"... "a little more likely to side with Woodward on this one," ..."
"... "At the same time, 70 percent of the people in this country are in pretty severe economic distress, and their voices are not being heard at all, and I think that that's why Trump's base remains firm, because these people have been rendered invisible by the press... that has just become a giant carnival act," ..."
"... "shady world of anonymous sources" ..."
"... "Institutions like the New York Times... use language about the president that would've been wholly unacceptable when I was there. Calling him a liar day in and day out – that doesn't mean he didn't lie, but presidents lie all the time, and every administration I covered lied, starting with the Reagan administration. This is really a war on the part of the establishment press, the Washington establishment, to take down Trump." ..."
The paradoxical era of anonymous anti-Trump reporting has turned once-solid journalism into
a carnival of unverifiable accusations. True or not, they distract from real issues, says
Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges. A new bombshell book about the horrors of
Trump's White House is about to hit the shelves. This time it's not penned by a disgruntled
former official, but the world-famous Bob Woodward – the investigative journalist who
uncovered the 1970s Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. Only this
time, instead of doing solid, verifiable journalism, he is peddling damning claims by anonymous
sources, says Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and author.
"This is very different from Watergate. This is gossip. Much of it is anonymous gossip,
so it feeds this neverending reality television show political drama that cable news channels
like CNN are making quite a bit of money off of," – Mr. Hedges told RT. "It's
always something, it's endless burlesque, and this feeds into this kind of narrative."
This doesn't mean accusations against Trump are necessarily false – in fact, Mr.
Hedges says he's "a little more likely to side with Woodward on this one," – but
it does draw attention from America's real issues, and thus further entrenches Trump's voter
base.
"At the same time, 70 percent of the people in this country are in pretty severe
economic distress, and their voices are not being heard at all, and I think that that's why
Trump's base remains firm, because these people have been rendered invisible by the press...
that has just become a giant carnival act," Mr. Hedges says.
The "shady world of anonymous sources" has enabled phenomena like the recent New
York Times op-ed by a supposed anonymous White House insider, claiming there's a 'Resistance'
hotbed within the heart of the presidency. Chris Hedges, who has worked at the NYT for 15 years
himself, says the media's war on the president is like nothing he has seen before.
"Institutions like the New York Times... use language about the president that would've
been wholly unacceptable when I was there. Calling him a liar day in and day out – that
doesn't mean he didn't lie, but presidents lie all the time, and every administration I covered
lied, starting with the Reagan administration. This is really a war on the part of the
establishment press, the Washington establishment, to take down Trump."
More plausible theory is that it was written by NYT staff in Iago-style operation to saw discord in Trump administration
and promote Woodward's book
Notable quotes:
"... might be just what the NYT wants the Trump Whitehouse to waste time on. ..."
"... It could very well be a trap. In fact, the timing almost guarantees it. The other alternative is that the NYT is very desperate and the Deep State in dire straights. ..."
"... I don't think the op-ed piece came from anyone in the WH. It's fake but rest assured Trump can still use it to his advantage. ..."
"... The "op-ed" was likely either a set-up fabrication / amalgam from the CIA Toilet Paper of Record or some deluded over ambitious piece of shit like Nikki Haley. ..."
1) The NYT OpEd was actually written by one of the people who were fired during the very
EARLY days of the Trump administration because they turned out to not be so good (like
Bannon, Preibus, Walsh, Yates, Comey, Spicer, Gorka, Tillerson, McMaster, etc). This also
makes sense because they are describing (very exaggerated) the early days of the Trump admin
which were known to be somewhat chaotic before Trump got a good chief of staff (because
Preibus was useless)
2) The NYT has been holding onto the letter for almost two years as a weapon to use during
the mid-term elections
3) Looking for them inside the current administration is useless, because they are already
long gone
4) The NYT is probably stretching the truth about them being "senior" official which they
have a history of stretching the truth on for sources
5) It is also the exact same person as the (primary/only) source for all the accusations
in Woodward's book
Assuming this was written recently is a HUGE tactical oversight and might be just what the NYT wants the Trump
Whitehouse to waste time on.
Brazen Heist II ,
It could very well be a trap. In fact, the timing almost guarantees it. The other alternative is that the NYT is very desperate and the Deep State in dire
straights.
FreeEarCandy ,
"Issue Of National Security" and "looking into legal action".
If its a "REAL" issue of national security looking into legal action is non sequitur. You
raid the NYT and send all the usual suspects to Guantanamo Bay for a little water
boarding.
This whole stunt is pure political mind fuckery. Since when does the justice department
determine if we can legally defend our national security?
Kreditanstalt ,
Trump, like the rest of the Deep State elite, detests and is enraged more by "disloyalty"
among fellow elitists than by the opposition!
Dangerclose ,
I don't think the op-ed piece came from anyone in the WH. It's fake but rest assured Trump
can still use it to his advantage. I'll bet he gets EVERYONE to show a little more support
and less resistance. Hmmmmmm?
benb ,
The "op-ed" was likely either a set-up fabrication / amalgam from the CIA Toilet Paper of
Record or some deluded over ambitious piece of shit like Nikki Haley.
In any event it doesn't
matter. It's all about subversion. The Communist Party USA (Democrats) and Deep State know
they are about to get their asses handed to them in November.
They're are a bunch of desperate assholes at this point. Heads up. Be ready for anything
from here on out.
"... The letter by Mister or Ms Anonymous is very well written. By someone like, say, Thomas Friedman. That is, someone on the NYT staff. It is very cleverly composed to achieve quite obvious calculated aims. It is a masterpiece of treacherous deception. ..."
"... This anonymous enemy of amorality claims to approve of all the most extreme right-wing measures of the Trump administration as "bright spots": deregulation, tax reform, a more robust military, "and more" – cleverly omitting mention of Trump's immigration policy which could unduly shock the New York Times' liberal readers. The late Senator John McCain, the model of bipartisan bellicosity, is cited as the example to follow. ..."
"... The "resistance" proclaimed is solely against the facets of Trump's foreign policy which White House insiders are said to be working diligently to undermine: peaceful relations with Russian and North Korea. ..."
"... Trump's desire to avoid war is transformed into "a preference for autocrats and dictators". (Trump gets no credit for his warlike rhetoric against Iran and close relations with Netanyahu, even though they must please Anonymous.) ..."
"... The purpose of this is stunningly obvious. The New York Times has already done yeoman service in rounding up liberal Democrats and left-leaning independents in the anti-Trump lynch mob. But now the ploy is to rally conservative Republicans to the same cause of overthrowing the elected President. The letter amounts to an endorsement of future President Pence. ..."
"... This is the Iago ploy. Shakespeare's villain destroyed Othello by causing him to distrust those closest to him, his wife and closest associates. Like Trump in Washington, Othello, the "Moor" of Venice, was an outsider, that much easier to deceive and betray. ..."
"... The New York Times is playing Iago, whispering that Putin in the Kremlin is surrounded by secret "informants", and that Trump in the White House is surrounded by people systematically undermining his presidency. Putin is not likely to be impressed, but the trick might work with Trump, who is truly the target of open and covert enemies and whose position is much more insecure. There is certainly some undermining going on. ..."
"... Was the New York Times oped written by the paper's own writers or by the CIA? It hardly matters since they are so closely entwined. ..."
"... The military-industrial-congressional-deep state-media complex is holding its breath to breathe that great sigh of relief. The intruder is gone. Hurrah! Now we can go right on teaching the public to hate and fear the Russian enemy, so that arms contracts continue to blossom and NATO builds up its aggressive forces around Russia in hopes that this may frighten the Russians into dumping Putin in favor of a new Boris Yeltsin, ready to let the United States pursue the Clintonian plan of breaking up the Russian Federation into pieces, like the former Yugoslavia, in order to take them over one by one, with all their great natural resources. ..."
"... When dialogue is impossible, all that is left is force and violence. That is what is being promoted by the most influential media in the United States. ..."
The New York Times continues to outdo itself in the production of fake news. There is no
more reliable source of fake news than the intelligence services, which regularly provide their
pet outlets (NYT and WaPo) with sensational stories that are as unverifiable as their sources
are anonymous. A prize example was the August 24 report that US intelligence agencies don't
know anything about Russia's plans to mess up our November elections because "informants close
to Putin and in the Kremlin" aren't saying anything. Not knowing anything about something for
which there is no evidence is a rare scoop.
A story like that is not designed to "inform the public" since there is no information in
it. It has other purposes: to keep the "Russia is undermining our democracy" story on front
pages, with the extra twist in this case of trying to make Putin distrustful of his entourage.
The Russian president is supposed to wonder, who are those informants in my entourage?
But that was nothing compared to the whopper produced by the "newpaper of record" on
September 5. (By the way, the "record" is stuck in the same groove: Trump bad, Putin bad
– bad bad bad.) This was the sensational oped headlined "I am Part of the Resistance
Inside the Trump Administration", signed by nobody.
The letter by Mister or Ms Anonymous is very well written. By someone like, say, Thomas
Friedman. That is, someone on the NYT staff. It is very cleverly composed to achieve quite
obvious calculated aims. It is a masterpiece of treacherous deception.
The fictional author presents itself as a right-wing conservative shocked by Trump's
"amorality" – a category that outside the Washington swamp might include betraying the
trust of one's superior.
This anonymous enemy of amorality claims to approve of all the most extreme right-wing
measures of the Trump administration as "bright spots": deregulation, tax reform, a more robust
military, "and more" – cleverly omitting mention of Trump's immigration policy which
could unduly shock the New York Times' liberal readers. The late Senator John McCain, the model
of bipartisan bellicosity, is cited as the example to follow.
The "resistance" proclaimed is solely against the facets of Trump's foreign policy which
White House insiders are said to be working diligently to undermine: peaceful relations with
Russian and North Korea.
Trump's desire to avoid war is transformed into "a preference for autocrats and
dictators". (Trump gets no credit for his warlike rhetoric against Iran and close relations
with Netanyahu, even though they must please Anonymous.)
The purpose of this is stunningly obvious. The New York Times has already done yeoman
service in rounding up liberal Democrats and left-leaning independents in the anti-Trump lynch
mob. But now the ploy is to rally conservative Republicans to the same cause of overthrowing
the elected President. The letter amounts to an endorsement of future President Pence.
Just get rid of Trump and you'll have a nice, neat, ultra-right-wing Republican as
President.
The Democrats may not like Pence, but they are so demented by hatred of Trump that they are
visibly ready to accept the Devil himself to get rid of the sinister clown who dared defeat
Hillary Clinton. Down with democracy; the votes of deplorables shouldn't count.
That is treacherous enough, but even more despicable is the insidious design to destabilize
the presidency by sowing distrust. Speaking of Trump, Mr and/or Ms Anonymous declare: "The
dilemma – which he does not fully grasp – is that many of the senior officials in
his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and
his worst inclinations" (meaning peace with Russia).
This is the Iago ploy. Shakespeare's villain destroyed Othello by causing him to
distrust those closest to him, his wife and closest associates. Like Trump in Washington,
Othello, the "Moor" of Venice, was an outsider, that much easier to deceive and
betray.
The New York Times is playing Iago, whispering that Putin in the Kremlin is surrounded
by secret "informants", and that Trump in the White House is surrounded by people
systematically undermining his presidency. Putin is not likely to be impressed, but the trick
might work with Trump, who is truly the target of open and covert enemies and whose position is
much more insecure. There is certainly some undermining going on.
Was the New York Times oped written by the paper's own writers or by the CIA? It hardly
matters since they are so closely entwined.
No trick is too low for those who consider Trump an intolerable intruder on THEIR power
territory. The New York Times "news" that Trump is surrounded by traitors is taken up by other
media who indirectly confirm the story by speculating on "who is it?" The Boston Globe (among
others) eagerly rushed in, asking:
"So who's the author of the op-ed? It's a question that has many people poking through the
text, looking for clues. Meanwhile, the denials have come thick and fast. Here's a brief look
at some of the highest-level officials in the administration who might have a motive to write
the letter."
Isn't it obvious that all this is designed to make Trump distrust everyone around him? Isn't
that a way to drive him toward that "crazy" where they say he already is, and which is fallback
grounds for impeachment when the Mueller investigation fails to come up with nothing more
serious than the fact that Russian intelligent agents are intelligent agents?
The White House insider (or insiders, or whatever) use terms like "erratic behavior" and
"instability" to contribute to the "Trump is insane" narrative. Insanity is the alternative
pretext to the Mueller wild goose chase for divesting Trump of the powers of the presidency. If
Trump responds by accusing the traitors of being traitors, that will be final proof of his
mental instability. The oped claims to provide evidence that Trump is being betrayed, but if he
says so, that will be taken as a sign of mental derangement. To save our exemplary democracy
from itself, the elected president must be thrown out.
The military-industrial-congressional-deep state-media complex is holding its breath to
breathe that great sigh of relief. The intruder is gone. Hurrah! Now we can go right on
teaching the public to hate and fear the Russian enemy, so that arms contracts continue to
blossom and NATO builds up its aggressive forces around Russia in hopes that this may frighten
the Russians into dumping Putin in favor of a new Boris Yeltsin, ready to let the United States
pursue the Clintonian plan of breaking up the Russian Federation into pieces, like the former
Yugoslavia, in order to take them over one by one, with all their great natural
resources.
And when this fails, as it has been failing, and will continue to fail, the United States
has all those brand new first strike nuclear weapons being stationed in European NATO
countries, aimed at the Kremlin. And the Russian military are not just sitting there with their
own nuclear weapons, waiting to be wiped out. When nobody, not even the President of the United
States, has the right to meet and talk with Russian leaders, there is only one remaining form
of exchange. When dialogue is impossible, all that is left is force and violence. That is
what is being promoted by the most influential media in the United States.
"... Taken together, the two are the equivalent of a stiff left jab followed by a roundhouse right. The president has been left reeling, staring into the political abyss. ..."
"... The president is betrayed, openly, in the pages of America's paper of record and, according to the activist, "the senior people in the [administration] do nothing about it." ..."
"... A report of mine in the National Interest last year relayed the hiring procedures, or lack thereof, of Trump appointees on the campaign and in the administration; prospective employees were rarely asked about their policy preferences. Said Scott McConnell , founding editor of TAC , on Wednesday: "Trump's biggest weakness is lacking knowledge of the policy people who might have helped him with a realist/populist agenda. But he never evinced any interest in finding smart realists to staff his administration." ..."
"... "We're Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold," says David Graham in The Atlantic . "How the 'resistance' in the White House threatens American democracy . ..."
"... There's more than one path to authoritarianism," posits Damon Linker in The Week. ..."
"... But it's also true that Trump openly ran on detente . Should actual voters' preferences just be tossed aside in the name of, as the author suggests, the preservation of democracy? "So let's see: Trump ran on closer relations with Russia," Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined on Wednesday night. "Voters agreed with that. And so they elected him president of the United States. And yet, the tiny and incompetent Washington foreign policy establishment -- the very same people who brought you Iraq and Libya -- do not agree with that. So they subvert his views, which are also the views of voters." ..."
The Coup Against TrumpOne of his advisors tells TAC a plot is afoot. How far will
the president go to ensure his political survival?
... ... ...
Donald Trump rose from pariah to president through politics, and now may be on the brink of
being returned by the same means, the result of Bob Woodward's searing testimonial in
Fear and a scathing New York Times op-ed from someone in his own ranks.
Taken together, the two are the equivalent of a stiff left jab followed by a roundhouse
right. The president has been left reeling, staring into the political abyss.
A former senior administration official tells me that Wednesday's
op-ed in the New York Times , by an anonymous senior administration official, is
nothing short of an attempt at a "coup" against Trump himself. A veteran conservative activist
who is close to the White House says the story here is one insiders have been identifying since
the early days of the Trump administration (and that I've reported on
ad nauseum ): personnel.
The president is betrayed, openly, in the pages of America's paper
of record and, according to the activist, "the senior people in the [administration] do nothing
about it."
Something tantamount to a national game of "Clue" is underway. It was Mike Pence, with an
email to the Times , in the Naval Observatory. It was Ambassador Jon Huntsman, Jr.,
with the phone, in the bathroom of his Moscow apartment. This reporter is loathe to delve into
conjecture, but the author of the op-ed seems clearly to be, first, interested in national
security, and second, a traditional conservative. A preponderance of my sources argue that the
simplest explanation is usually the correct one. "[National Security Advisor John] Bolton would
shock me," a State Department veteran says.
The op-ed author writes: "This isn't the work of the so-called deep state. It's the work of
the steady state." He (or she) maligns the president as "amoral" and devoid of "first
principles." A veteran watcher of Secretary of Defense James Mattis tells me that "'steady' is
a favorite Mattis word. I think the McCain funeral hit Mattis hard." Yet even if the president
suspected his defense chief, he would be loathe to quickly dispatch him -- and anyway Mattis
may leave on his own after the midterms.
♦♦♦
A case of seismic duplicity -- or needed patriotism, depending on who you talk to -- is, of
course, only half the story.
The other half is one that has been recurrent throughout this administration: the president
and his apparatchiks expended little initial capital on staffing the White House with genuine
loyalists, or true believers. They appointed neither longtime personal friends of the president
nor policy hands faithful to anything resembling a populist-nationalist agenda. News reports
abound of the president's surprising and depressing paucity of genuine friends.
As I relayed last week
in TAC : "A former senior Department of Defense official [being considered] for top
administration positions recalls meeting Jeff Sessions after the election. After hitting it
off, the future AG asked the candidate: ' Where have you been? '"
A report of mine in
the National Interest last year relayed the hiring procedures, or lack thereof, of
Trump appointees on the campaign and in the administration; prospective employees were rarely
asked about their policy preferences. Said Scott McConnell ,
founding editor of TAC , on Wednesday: "Trump's biggest weakness is lacking knowledge of
the policy people who might have helped him with a realist/populist agenda. But he never
evinced any interest in finding smart realists to staff his administration."
The president suggested that the op-ed was perhaps "TREASON?" He routinely conflates
national interest and personal interest, and thus now demands that the Times betray its
source. In doing so, he denigrates a founding ideal of the republic, prepared to erode civic
support for the First Amendment to dull the pain of an atrocious but largely self-inflicted
news cycle.
The personal nature of the president's complaint convulses the persuasive authority of the
arguments against his opposition. Since the publishing of the op-ed, there has been a steady
trickle of concern, particularly among left-liberal writers, about the precedent being set.
"We're Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold," says David Graham in The Atlantic .
"How the 'resistance' in the White House threatens American democracy .There's more
than one path to authoritarianism," posits Damon Linker in The Week.
And indeed there are parts of the op-ed that are cause for genuine concern:
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin's spies
as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks
about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and
he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country
for its malign behavior.
Treating Russia as the adversarial power that it is and proportionately punishing its malign
behavior smacks of sound policy. But it's also true that Trump openly ran on detente
. Should actual voters' preferences just be tossed aside in the name of, as the author
suggests, the preservation of democracy? "So let's see: Trump ran on closer relations with
Russia," Fox News host Tucker Carlson opined on Wednesday night. "Voters agreed with that. And
so they elected him president of the United States. And yet, the tiny and incompetent
Washington foreign policy establishment -- the very same people who brought you Iraq and Libya
-- do not agree with that. So they subvert his views, which are also the views of
voters."
Beyond the substantive criticisms from both sides, of Trump and of his critics, is the
diagnostic nature of the conspiracy -- and it is a conspiracy -- against the president. First
and foremost, Trump, they say, is unwell or unfit. The case for invocation of the 25th
Amendment is being made plainly in the pages of the United States' most-read newspapers.
What's truly remarkable is that, to a certain extent, the U.S. is already functioning as
though the 25th Amendment has been invoked -- at least if the reporting of Bob Woodward, the
premier journalist of his generation, is to be believed. In spring of 2017, after Syrian despot
Bashar al-Assad reportedly murdered citizens in rebel-held territory with chemical weapons,
Trump, according to Woodward, told Defense Secretary Mattis: "Let's f**ing kill him! Let's go
in. Let's kill the f**king lot of them." Mattis replied, "We're not going to do any of that."
(Mattis denies Woodward's accounts.) As the author of the op-ed gloats, this is "is a two-track
presidency. Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is
operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and
punished accordingly."
The debate, then, isn't about policy. It isn't as though Trump is trying to decimate the
civil service, or staff the State Department with "realists" on Russia, or halve legal
immigration. If he leaves office, his legacy will be tax cuts and (likely) two conservative
Supreme Court justices; on policy, it's unlikely that a President Cruz or Rubio would have done
much differently. But the paranoid style that Trump has mainstreamed is, of course, a separate
matter and not a small one. Neither is the fealty, or at least feigned fidelity, to a
populist-nationalism that is now likely a prerequisite to becoming the Republican presidential
nominee for the foreseeable future. That's even though, at their core, the president's
protestations of "treason" and a "deep state" are about personal survival, not the
implementation of a nationalist revolution.
For his supporters, Trump's continued occupancy of the White House is more about cultural
grievance -- a middle finger to a failed establishment -- than about a knock-down, drag-out
fight over real political change.
As Steve Bannon told the Weekly Standard after his ouster last year: "The Trump
presidency that we fought for, and won, is over."
Curt Mills is the foreign affairs reporter at The National Interest, where he covers
the State Department, National Security Council, and the Trump presidency.
Striding to the pulpit, Obama delivered a searing indictment of the man undoing his legacy.
"So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and
petty," he said, "trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured
outrage. It's a politics that pretends to be brave and tough but in fact is born of fear."
Speakers praised McCain's willingness to cross party lines, but Democrats took away a new
determination: from here on out, confrontation!
Tuesday morning, as Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's
nomination to the Supreme Court began, Democrats disrupted the proceedings and demanded
immediate adjournment, as scores of protesters shouted and screamed.
Taking credit for orchestrating the disruption, Senator Dick Durbin boasted, "What we've
heard is the noise of democracy."
But if mob action to shut down a Senate hearing is the noise of democracy, this may explain
why many countries are taking a new look at the authoritarian rulers who can at least deliver a
semblance of order.
Wednesday came leaks in the Washington Post from Bob Woodward's new book,
attributing to Chief of Staff John Kelly and General James Mattis crude remarks on the
president's intelligence, character, and maturity, and describing the Trump White House as a
"crazytown" led by a fifth or sixth grader.
Kelly and Mattis both denied making the comments.
Thursday came an op-ed in the New York Times by an anonymous "senior official"
claiming to be a member of the "resistance working diligently from within to frustrate parts of
his [Trump's] agenda."
A pedestrian piece of prose that revealed nothing about Trump one cannot read or hear daily
in the media, the op-ed nonetheless caused a sensation, but only because Times editors
decided to give the disloyal and seditious Trump aide who wrote it immunity and cover to betray
his or her president.
The transaction served the political objectives of both parties.
While the Woodward book may debut at the top of the New York Times bestseller list,
and "Anonymous," once ferreted out and fired, will have his or her 15 minutes of fame, what
this portends is not good.
For what is afoot here is something America specializes in -- regime change. Only the regime
our establishment and media mean to change is the government of the United States. What is
afoot is the overthrow of America's democratically elected head of state.
The methodology is familiar. After a years-long assault on the White House and president by
a special prosecutor's office, the House takes up impeachment, while a collaborationist press
plays its traditional supporting role.
Presidents are wounded, disabled, or overthrown, and Pulitzers all around.
No one suggests Richard Nixon was without sin in trying to cover up the Watergate break-in.
But no one should delude himself into believing that the overthrow of that president, not two
years after he won the greatest landslide in U.S. history, was not an act of vengeance by a
hate-filled city for offenses it had covered up or brushed under the rug in the Roosevelt,
Kennedy, and Johnson years.
So where are we headed?
If November's elections produce, as many have predicted, a Democratic House, there will be
more investigations of President Trump than any man charged with running the U.S. government
may be able to manage.
There is the Mueller investigation into "Russiagate" that began before Trump was
inaugurated. There is the investigation into his business and private life before he became
president in the Southern District of New York. There is the investigation into the Trump
Foundation by New York State.
There will be investigations by House committees into alleged violations of the Emoluments
Clause. And ever present will be platoons of journalists ready to report on the leaks from all
of these investigations.
Then, if the media coverage can drive Trump's polls low enough, will come the impeachment
investigation and the regurgitation of all that went before.
If Trump has the stamina to hold on, and the Senate remains Republican, he may survive, even
as Democrats divide between a rising militant socialist left and a septuagenarian caucus led by
Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi.
2019 looks to be the year of bellum omnium contra omnes, the war of all against all.
Entertaining, for sure, but how many more of these coups d'etat can the Republic sustain before
a new generation says enough of all this?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That
Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever . To find out more about Patrick
Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
website at www.creators.com.
On NBC's Thursday morning broadcast of the "Today" show, former CIA director John Brennan
repeatedly praised the unknown author of the New York Times's recent anti-Trump op-ed as a
supreme example of "courageous" American patriotism. While admitting that the anonymous writer
was committing "active insubordination" with the piece, Brennan justified his or her actions by
claiming that because Trump is too "unfit" to be President, the writer is admirably trying to
"prevent disasters" in the future.
"I think there are two major takeaways," Brennan told "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie in
relation to the op-ed. "One is, what the author wrote is wholly consistent with all the reports
that we have seen over the last year, the reports within Bob Woodward's book, and other things
about just how unfit, reckless, irresponsible Donald Trump is. But secondly, it shows the depth
of concern within the administration, within the senior ranks of the administration, about what
is happening and the extraordinary steps that individuals are willing to take, such as this
op-ed, to prevent disasters."
Sara h
Huckabee Sanders has a tiny request: Please stop asking her about that pesky little
New York Times op-ed written by an anonymous White House official.
... ... ...
On Thursday, Sanders tweeted a message addressed to all the people "asking for the identity
of the anonymous coward" (basically, everyone).
The media's wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly
tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who
proudly serve our country and work for President Trump. Stop. If you want to know who this
gutless loser is, call the opinion desk of the failing NYT at 212-556-1234, and ask them.
They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act.
We stand united together and fully support our President Donald J.Trump.
Whoever it was, this "gutless" person seems pretty craven, opportunistic neocon of McCain
flavor. Most neocons are chickenhawks. And there are plenty of neocons in Trump
administration.
It might well be that anonymous "resistance" op-ed in NYT is CIA operation to promote Woodward's book ( Woodward is definitely
connected to CIA from the time of Nixon impeachment)
Notable quotes:
"... You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions ..."
During an interview with Fox and Friends, conducted onstage prior to Trump's rally and set
to air on Friday, the president called the paper's decision to publish the column "very
unfair".
"When somebody writes and you can't discredit because you have no idea who they are,"
Trump said. "It may not be a Republican, it may not be a conservative, it may be a deep state
person that's been there a long time.
It's a very unfair thing, but it's very unfair to our country and to the millions of
people that voted really for us."
Since the editorial was published, the highest-ranking officials in Trump's administration
have come forth to
publicly deny any involvement. Those distancing themselves from the column have included
the vice-president, Mike Pence, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, along with much of
Trump's cabinet. The first lady, Melania Trump, also condemned the author and called on the
individual to come forward.
"You are not protecting this country, you are sabotaging it with your cowardly actions," she
wrote.
The editorial was published as the White House was contending with yet another
firestorm.
A book authored by the famed journalist
Bob Woodward , poised for release next week, chronicles the chaos and dysfunction within
the Trump administration.
Excerpts released on Tuesday provided an unflattering portrait of the
president, who was described by aides in disparaging terms that included being likened to a
schoolchild.
Most probably this anonymous official does not exist and this is Iago style disinformation operation by the NYT to saw
discord in trump administration.
Notable quotes:
"... Does the so-called "Senior Administration Official" really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? ..."
Meanwhile, First Lady Melania Trump said: "If a person is bold enough to accuse people of negative actions, they have a responsibility
to publicly stand by their words."
Why does it matter?
The White House is already on the defensive amid questions over Mr Trump's suitability for office raised in a book by revered
political journalist Bob Woodward.
Fear: Trump in the White House also describes staff deliberately undermining the president, with some hiding sensitive documents
from him to prevent him signing them, and other aides calling him an "idiot" and a "liar". Mr Trump has called the book a "con".
Image deleted (copyright REUTERS) Image caption Bob Woodward is one of the most respected journalists in the US
One of the most explosive passages in the New York Times article says there were "early whispers within the cabinet of invoking
the 25th Amendment", which would allow Mr Trump to be forced out of office.
"What the author has just done is throw the government of the United States into even more dangerous turmoil," he wrote. "He or
she has enflamed the paranoia of the president and empowered the president's willfulness."
So much puzzles me about Mr/Ms Anon in @ nytimes - if you really
think best interests of state are served working covertly inside to thwart president, why blurt out what you're doing? Aren't
you making @ realDonaldTrump case of a
# DeepState ? Surely resign or keep schtum?
Donald J. Trump✔ @realDonaldTrump
Does the so-called "Senior Administration Official" really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another
phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her
over to government at once! 2:54 AM
- Sep 6, 2018
End of Twitter post by @BBCJonSopel
A former CIA director, John Brennan, who has been strongly critical of Mr Trump, called the article "active insubordination" although
he said it was "born out of loyalty to the country".
Looks like this Iago-style false flag operation by NYT: the anonymous author does not exists and the the plot is to saw
discord and mutual suspicion
Notable quotes:
"... The more I study US politics, the less useful I find it to think of it in political terms. The two-headed one party system exists to give Americans the illusion of choice while advancing the agendas of the plutocratic class which owns and operates both parties, yes, but even more importantly it's a mechanism of narrative control. ..."
"... If you belonged to a ruling class, obviously your goal would be to ensure your subjects' continued support for you. In a corporatist oligarchy, the rulers are secret and the subjects don't know they're ruled, and power is held in place with manipulation and with money. As such a ruler your goal would be to find a way to manipulate the masses into supporting your agendas, and, since people are different, you'd need to use different narratives to manipulate them. You'd have to divide them, tell them different stories, turn them against each other, play them off one another, suck them in to the tales you are spinning with the theater of enmity and heroism. ..."
"... As a result of the New York Times op-ed, if this administration engages in yet another of its many, many establishment capitulations (let's say by attacking the Syrian government again ), Trump's supporters won't see it as his fault; it will be blamed on the deep state insiders in his administration who have been working to thwart his agendas of peace and harmony. ..."
"... Would a billionaire WWE Hall of Famer and United States President understand the theater of staged conflict for the advancement of plutocratic interests, and willingly participate in it? I'm going to say probably. ..."
If any evidence existed to be found that Donald Trump had illegally colluded with the
Russian government to rig the 2016 presidential election, that evidence would have been picked
up by the sprawling surveillance networks of the US and its allies and leaked to the Washington
Post before Obama left office.
Russiagate is like a mirage. From a distance it looks like a solid, tangible thing, but when
you actually move in to examine it critically you find nothing but gaping plot holes,
insinuation, innuendo, conflicting narratives, bizarre mental contortions to avoid
acknowledging contradictory information, a few arrests for corruption and process crimes, and a
lot of hot air. The whole thing has been held together by nothing but the confident-sounding
assertions of pundits and politicians and sheer, mindless repetition. And, as we approach the
two year mark since this president's election, we have not seen one iota of movement toward
removing him from office. The whole thing's a lie, and the smart movers and shakers behind it
are aware that it is a lie.
And yet they keep beating on it. Day after day after day after day it's been Russia, Russia,
Russia, Russia. Instead of attacking this president for his many, many real problems in a way
that will do actual damage, they attack this fake blow-up doll standing next to him in a way
that never goes anywhere and never will, like a pro wrestler theatrically stomping on the
canvass next to his downed foe.
What's up with that?
... ... ....
As you doubtless already know by now, the New York Times has made the wildly controversial
decision to publish an anonymous op-ed
reportedly authored by "a senior official in the Trump administration." The op-ed's author
claims to be part of a secret coalition of patriots who dislike Trump and are "working
diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." These
"worst inclinations" according to the author include trying to make peace with Moscow and
Pyongyang, being rude to longtime US allies, saying mean things about the media, being
"anti-trade", and being "erratic". The possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment is briefly
mentioned but dismissed. The final paragraphs are spent gushing about John McCain for no
apparent reason.
I strongly encourage you to read the piece in its entirety, because for all the talk and
drama it's generating, it doesn't actually make any sense. While you are reading it, I
encourage you to keep the following question in mind: what could anyone possibly gain by
authoring this and giving it to the New York Times ?
Seriously, what could be gained? The op-ed says essentially nothing, other than to tell
readers to relax and trust in anonymous administration insiders who are working against the bad
guys on behalf of the people (which is interestingly the exact same message of the right-wing
8chan conspiracy phenomenon QAnon, just with the white hats and black hats reversed). Why would
any senior official risk everything to publish something so utterly pointless? Why risk getting
fired (or risk losing all political currency in the party if NYTAnon is Mike Pence, as
has been
theorized ) just to communicate something to the public that doesn't change or accomplish
anything? Why publicly announce your undercover conspiracy to undermine the president in a
major news outlet at all?
What are the results of this viral op-ed everyone's talking about? So far it's a bunch of
Democratic partisans making a lot of excited whooping noises, and Trump loyalists feeling
completely vindicated in the belief that all of their conspiracy theories have been proven
correct. Many rank-and-file Trump haters are feeling a little more relaxed and complacent
knowing that there are a bunch of McCain-loving "adults in the room" taking care of everything,
and many rank-and-file Trump supporters are more convinced than ever that Donald Trump is a
brave populist hero leading a covert 4-D chess insurgency against the Deep State. In other
words, everyone's been herded into their respective partisan stables and trusting the
narratives that they are being fed there.
And, well, I just think that's odd.
Did you know that Donald Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame ? He was inducted
in 2013, and he's been enthusiastically involved in pro wrestling for many years, both as a fan
and as a performer .
He's made more of a study on how to draw a crowd in to the theatrics of a choreographed fight
scene than anyone this side of the McMahon family (a member of whom happens to be part of the Trump
administration currently).
You don't have to get into any deep conspiratorial rabbit hole to consider the possibility
that all this drama and conflict is staged from top to bottom. Commentators on all sides
routinely crack jokes about how the mainstream media pretends to attack Trump but secretly
loves him because he brings them amazing ratings. Anyone with their eyes even part way open
already knows that America's two mainstream parties feign intense hatred for one another while
working together to pace their respective bases into accepting more and more neoliberal
exploitation at home and more and more neoconservative bloodshed abroad. They spit and snarl
and shake their fists at each other, then cuddle up and share candy
when it's time for a public gathering. Why should this administration be any different?
I believe that a senior Trump administration official probably did write that anonymous
op-ed. I do not believe that they were moved to write it out of compassion for the poor
Americans who are feeling emotionally stressed about the president. I believe it was written
and published for the same reason many other things are written and published in mainstream
media: because we are all being played.
The more I study US politics, the less useful I find it to think of it in political terms.
The two-headed one party system exists to give Americans the illusion of choice while advancing
the agendas of the plutocratic class which owns and operates both parties, yes, but even more
importantly it's a mechanism of narrative control. If you can separate the masses into two
groups based on extremely broad ideological characteristics, you can then funnel streamlined
"us vs them" narratives into each of the two stables, with the white hats and black hats
reversed in each case. Now you've got Republicans cheering for the president and Democrats
cheering for the CIA, for the FBI, and now for a platoon of covert John McCains alleged to be
operating on the inside of Trump's own administration. Everyone's cheering for one aspect of
the US power establishment or another.
If you belonged to a ruling class, obviously your goal would be to ensure your subjects'
continued support for you. In a corporatist oligarchy, the rulers are secret and the subjects don't
know they're ruled, and power is held in place with manipulation and with money. As such a
ruler your goal would be to find a way to manipulate the masses into supporting your agendas,
and, since people are different, you'd need to use different narratives to manipulate them.
You'd have to divide them, tell them different stories, turn them against each other, play them
off one another, suck them in to the tales you are spinning with the theater of enmity and
heroism.
As a result of the New York Times op-ed, if this administration engages in yet another of
its many, many establishment capitulations (let's say by
attacking the Syrian government again ), Trump's supporters won't see it as his fault; it
will be blamed on the deep state insiders in his administration who have been working to thwart
his agendas of peace and harmony. Meanwhile those who see Trump as a heel won't experience any
cognitive dissonance if any of the establishment agendas they support are carried out, because
they can give the credit to the secret hero squad in the White House.
Would a billionaire WWE Hall of Famer and United States President understand the theater of
staged conflict for the advancement of plutocratic interests, and willingly participate in it?
I'm going to say probably.
* * *
The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish
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Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers .
What is interesting is that Wolffe links the op-ed and publishing Bob Woodward's latest
book: "Woodward has cornered the panicked Trump rats into screeching about all the ways they
prevented
World War Three , or a massive trade war, by ignoring the ranting boss or snatching papers
off his desk."
Notable quotes:
"... Nothing proved, unnamed sources, claims about this, claims about that. Until someone is prepared to step forward and reveal themselves this is a non story. Still, it gives the Trump haters comfort. ..."
"... Personally, I am not surprised or impressed by this White House insider's account. Nothing he or she has said should be a real revelation to anyone who has cast a critical eye on the Trump presidency. And whoever it is, this person is so enamored with tax cuts, deregulation, ramping up military spending and the usual Republican horse shit that he or she does not seem prepared to risk further discrediting the administration by identifying him/herself and resigning publicly. ..."
If you really believe your boss is a threat to the constitution which you've
taken an oath to protect, perhaps you should consider quitting or going public. As in: going on
Capitol Hill to hold a press conference to urge impeachment.
In this regard, and only in this regard, our anonymous whistleblower has handed the crazy
boss a degree of righteous indignation.
"If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist," tweeted the madman in the
attic, "the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at
once!"
Donald, we feel your pain, albeit briefly. Your internal enemies are indeed gutless, and if
you feel better putting that in ALL CAPS, that's fine. Let it out.
But that bit about turning people over to you for national security reasons is kind of the
point here. If you'll allow us to summarize the GUTLESS person's arguments: you are
fundamentally a threat to democracy and national security yourself. You are indeed, as your
lawyers have pointed out repeatedly, your own worst witness.
This much we know from this week's other bombshell in the shape of Bob Woodward's latest
book. Woodward has cornered the panicked Trump rats into screeching about all the ways they
prevented
World War Three , or a massive trade war, by ignoring the ranting boss or snatching papers
off his desk.
... ... ...
Mr or Ms GUTLESS describes Trump's decisions as "half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally
reckless", while chief of staff John Kelly says Trump is "an idiot" living in a place called
"Crazytown". This revelation led to the priceless statement from Kelly where he had to deny
calling the president an idiot.
Somewhere in Texas, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson is swirling a glass of bourbon
muttering that he lost his job for calling Trump a moron.
Second, Trump's staffers are enabling the very horrors they claim to hate, while grandiosely
pretending to be doing the opposite.
Mr or Ms GUTLESS says there were "early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th
amendment" in what he imagines is a clear sign they can distinguish reality from reality
TV.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Trump cabinet: please know that you will not be accepted into
the next edition of Profiles in Courage for your early whispers. If you truly believe the
president is incapacitated, you should perhaps consider raising your voice to at least
conversational level, if you're not inclined to bellow from the mountaintops. Library rules are
inoperative at this point.
Given the weight of evidence, even the most diehard Trump defenders are now conceding the
obvious, by signing up to the GUTLESS gang's self-promotion. Brit Hume, a Fox News veteran, let
the cat out of the bag when he tweeted that it was a "good
thing" they were restraining Trump "from his most reckless impulses".
This is how the pirate ship Trump eventually sinks to the ocean's floor. You can fool some
of Fox News's viewers all of the time, and you can fool all of them some of the time.
But no fool wants to drown with the captain we all know is plain crazy.
It's someone high up that makes policy decisions, brags about everything they have done to
help America despite Cheetos interfering. Why now? Pence wants it known that he is running
the government not useless trump whom has passed nothing. Pence will come out as the author
when Don is removed from office. Which could be nearing since this OPED is likely to expose
him. Maybe he planned it that way.
What's most remarkable to me is how closely the Michael Wolff's White House, Omarosa's
White House, Bob Woodward's Whitehouse, and Anonymous Staffer's White House reflect each
other.
Clearly a massive conspiracy. And one which Trump is helpfully participating in by
constantly saying and doing stuff which accords with the pictures they're all painting.
What's most remarkable to me is how closely the Michael Wolff's White House, Omarosa's White
House, Bob Woodward's Whitehouse, and Anonymous Staffer's White House reflect each other. All
these sources come together to display a rather coherent image of a chaotic White House led
by a man who's not bright enough to realize he's in over his head.
The New York Times attack piece was anonymous. It is therefore completely unverifiable and
could have been written by anyone, including any of the politically biased NYT editorial
team, or by Bob Woodward to publicize his new book. It's junk news.
I'm firmly convinced that when it's all said and done we'll be able to represent his
presidency as an MMO boss fight. This is the bit where everyone concentrates fire on the
glowy spot until the enrage mechanic kicks in. In fact it looks like the mad flailing has
started and now everyone will try not to stand in the AoE as they DPS him down.
Mussolini was in power for twenty years before his functionaries deposed him to keep the
regime intact while removing its newly-a-liability head. Mussolini was the legal (if
abhorrent) premier of a coalition government in a liberal-democratic (both words with a pinch
of salt) regime for his first two years, until winning a parliamentary majority of his own;
indeed, after the leader of the Socialist Party was killed by his supporters, his coalition
partners almost pulled out of government: that's not a totalitarian dictatorship, but what
was then called "pre-fascism", and today we'd call it an 'illiberal democracy'. The
dictatorship was informal (result of a supportive majority) until the constitional reform of
1928 - five years into his government.
Thinking that all will turn out fine because American democracy is under strain but
generally intact, is a dangerous complacency. All interwar autocrats went through a
transition of first governing under the old constitution, slowly undermining opposition, then
installing a new organic law. Perhaps all will turn out well in the US, and Trump will leave
office with the old 'rules of the game' untouched - but that can't be assumed, and we won't
know until after he is gone.
Pepperoni Pizza is absolutely correct. We DON'T know his staff are going behind his back
- we have this anonymous bollocks as the totality of our evidence.
Truckloads of "anonymous bollocks" reported by credible, highly respected journalists with
excellent reasons to protect their sources.
"Anonymous" bollocks" which syncs perfectly with events and pronouncements by the
president himself - including numerous firings of so many of the "best people" he hired.
"Anonymous bollocks" confirmed in evidence/testimony presented publicly and under oath in
court.
Nothing proved, unnamed sources, claims about this, claims about that. Until someone is
prepared to step forward and reveal themselves this is a non story.
Still, it gives the Trump haters comfort.
There is a segment of this country that is willfully ignorant because a con man told them
to be. We really need to ignore this shrinking number of fuck-nuts and just out vote
them.
We live in a democracy. If you choose to use facebook as your only source of news about the
world, it is not because a con man told you to, it is because you are just too plain stupid
to go looking elsewhere.
I'm surprised that no one has compared the author of the anonymous article in the New York
Times with "Deep Throat", who anonymously met Bernstein and Woodward in an underground
parking garage in Washington to spill the beans about Watergate. Deep Throat turned out to be
Mark Felt, a high-ranking official in the FBI who kept working against Nixon under cover and
whose name was revealed only a few years ago.
Personally, I am not surprised or impressed by this White House insider's account. Nothing he
or she has said should be a real revelation to anyone who has cast a critical eye on the
Trump presidency. And whoever it is, this person is so enamored with tax cuts, deregulation,
ramping up military spending and the usual Republican horse shit that he or she does not seem
prepared to risk further discrediting the administration by identifying him/herself and
resigning publicly.
Screw whoever it is, they are obviously no hero to the American people.
So now we know what 'the resistance' really is. It's the establishment. It's the old
political order. It's that late 20th-century political set, those out-of-touch managerial
elites, who still cannot believe the electorate rejected them. That is the take-home message of
the bizarre political spectacle that was the burial of John McCain, where this neocon in life
has been transformed into a resistance leader in death: that while the anti-Trump movement
might doll itself up as rebellious, and even borrow its name from those who resisted fascism in
Europe in the mid 20th-century, in truth it is primarily about restoring the apparently cool,
expert-driven rule of the old elites over what is viewed as the chaos of the populist Trump /
Brexit era.
The response to McCain's death has bordered on the surreal. The strangest aspect has been
the self-conscious rebranding of McCain as a searing rebel. In death, this key establishment
figure in the Republican Party, this military officer, senator, presidential candidate and
enthusiastic backer of the exercise of US military power overseas, has been reimagined as a
plucky battler for all that is good against a wicked, overbearing political machine. 'John
McCain's funeral was the biggest resistance meeting yet', said a headline in the New
Yorker , alongside a photo of George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and
soldiers from the US Army, the most powerful military machine on Earth. This is 'the
resistance' now: the former holders of extraordinary power, the invaders of foreign nations,
the Washington establishment.
The New Yorker piece, like so much of the McCain commentary, praises to the heavens the
anti-Trump theme of McCain's funeral. McCain famously said Trump couldn't attend his funeral.
And that in itself was enough to win him the posthumous love of a liberal commentariat that now
views everything through the binary moral framework of pro-Trump (evil, ill-informed,
occasionally fascistic) and anti-Trump (decent, moral, on a par with the warriors against
Nazism). Even better, though, was the fact that orators at the funeral, including McCain's
daughter Meghan and both Bush and Obama, used the church service to slam Trumpism, without
explicitly mentioning it, and in the process to big-up what came before Trumpism, which of
course was their rule, their politics, their establishment. The Washington political and media
set might seem bitterly bipartisan, said the New Yorker writer, but it is also 'more united' in
one important sense - 'in its hatred of Donald Trump'.
Hatred of Trump has become the moral glue of the bruised elites who have been either pushed
aside or at least dramatically called into question by the populist surge taking hold in the
West. And so motored are these people by the shallow moralism of Anti-Trumpism that they are
happy to marshal even a life as complex and interesting and flawed as McCain's to the service
of hurting Trump. A former Al Gore adviser, Carter Eskew, wrote in the Washington Post: 'In
death, John McCain is about to exact revenge on Donald Trump.' Unwittingly revealing the Old
Testament streak to the new elite religion of Hating Trump, Eskew said that as 'McCain ascends
to heaven on an updraft of praise, Trump's political hell on Earth will burn hotter'. On why it
suddenly started to rain when McCain's coffin was brought into the Capitol, a CNN journalist
said: 'The angels were crying.' What century is this?
The religious allusions, the talk of vengeance against Trump, the misremembering of McCain's
life so that it becomes a moral exemplar against the alleged crimes of Trumpism, exposes the
infantile moralism of the so-called resistance. Albert Burneko, assessing some of the madder
McCain commentary, says there is now a 'condition' that he calls 'Resistance Brain', where
people display an 'urge to grab and cling on to anything that seems, even a little bit, like it
might be the thing that Finally Defeats Donald Trump'. Even if the thing they're grabbing on to
is actually a bad thing. Like a seemingly endless FBI investigation into the elected
presidency. Or George W Bush, whose moral rehabilitation on the back of Anti-Trumpism has been
extraordinary. Or neoconservatism: this was the scourge of liberal activists a decade ago, yet
now its architects are praised because they subscribe to the religion of Anti-Trumpism. Being
against Trump washes away all sins.
Some on the left have criticised the moral rehabilitation of McCain. 'Let's not forget that
he wanted war with Iran and lots of other places too!', they cry. Yet the truth is they paved
the way for his posthumous rebranding as one of the great Americans of the late 20th century.
Since 2016 they have talked about Trump as a uniquely wicked president, a shocking aberration,
the closest thing to Hitler since the 1930s. Their anti-Trump hyperbole, driven by their own
political disorientation and increasing sense of distance from the electorate, has allowed any
politician who is not Trump to mend their reputations and gloss over their own destructive
behaviour. The transformation of Trump into the bête noire of all right-minded
people, a pillar of unrivalled wickedness that we all have a duty to protest against in our
pussy hats and orange wigs, has been a boon to the wounded pre-Trump political class keen both
to whitewash its own crimes and to prepare for its return to the position of power it enjoyed
before the electorate was corrupted by 'post-truth' hysteria.
'The resistance' is the fightback of the establishment against the people. As it is in
Britain, too, where the rich and influential people fuelling the war on Brexit - the largest
act of democracy in British history - like to refer to themselves as 'insurgents'. It is the
height of Orwellianism for these acts of elitist reaction against democratic dissent to dress
themselves up as forms of resistance. But it is not surprising. From the get-go, the so-called
resistance has been more a pining for the old establishment, for Hillary's rule and for the
continued domination of Britain by the EU, than it has been any kind of daring strike for a new
politics. Look closely at the funereal elitism of McCain's burial and you will see one of the
saddest and most striking political developments of our time: how self-styled radicals
preferred to throw their lot in with the old establishment under the umbrella of 'the
resistance' rather than heed ordinary people who were saying: 'Let's tear up the old
order.'
Brendan O'Neill is editor of spiked. Find him on Instagram: @burntoakboy
Nice post and well put.
I am currently sitting in an office where 30% are blaggers of the highest order. They talk
and kiss ass - but ultimately - deep down - know they cannot do they do not know the job. The
responsibiltiy they have will make you shudder. I have told friends and they are visibly
shaken that this can happen. But I think it is the way of the world at the moment. They dare
not argue with me for full knowledge they will be sent packing, they already have been but on
"minor" non work related items.
"Fake it til you make it" is the slogan they clutch tight to their heart the consequences
however are far far reaching. My only hope is that should any of them leave here - they will
get found out in a week.
Yes the likes of Trump are a reflection of just that.
The mad thing is - I now am of the belief that I could do that job ie President of the US.
That is madness.
to foil the wishes of the elected members of government.
No. Just one member. And that one member isn't a supreme leader. You need to look
elsewhere for those types of leaders - they're usually standing next to Trump while he fawns
over them.
Personally I'm grateful for a bureaucracy that frustrates bad ideas - wherever they
come
from. That's part of their role.
Everything, with the exception of Steve Bannon in Michael Wolf's book, has been anonymous.
These people write things, attribute them to, say, John Kelly, then Kelly says I NEVER SAID
THAT and we're left to believe whom?
If there is genuine resistance inside the White House to Trump- If it is at all like
anybody says- then I would imagine that a genuine top level appointee would go on camera,
throw themselves on their sword, and speak to the American people. Until such a time I
question what is Woodward's agenda? Do I trust Omarosa? Is Michael Wolf credible? What are
their goals? I'm not blind but I want to see more than anonymous. And until then... I don't
believe it.
I agree, I'd hate to defend him either, but you can't help thinking he has a point by
calling this person gutless. Either stand up in public and say it or, if s/he really is
working in the background to save us from Trump's excesses, then surely you're better off
(and the country as a whole) staying there and not alerting him?
It's the New York Times, and no, they certainly haven't been against Trump since his
election.
Their lead White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman, still writes extremely
understanding pieces of Trump. And she's been covering the man for almost 15 years, so one
would think she had the measure of the man long ago.
More importantly, the NYT threw the election for Trump by first exonerating Trump of any
Russian collusion - which was false - and by covering the last-minute Comey statements on the
Clinton emails in the worst negative light possible for the Democratic candidate. The NYT
turned out to be wrong, but the damage was done.
The NYT even tried to put new faces on their opinion staff with close connections to
actual American neo-Nazis (!) and only failed when old tweets came to light.
I'm not quite sure what the NYT is playing at - I guess it's easy to play the devil's
advocate in artsy-fartsy, liberal New York - but they most certainly have not been
against Trump from January 2017 at all.
Trump is not a freedom fighter, he is not your Great White Messiah, he's not an advocate
for blue collar American citizens. Trump is a stupid, vulgar, greedy old fat racist who
conned his way into the White House. There has been a lot of talk in all mediums about his
unsuitability for the office, and his obvious ties to the Kremlin, but there has been no
organized effort to remove him from office, no matter what you might have read on Qanon.
You think the entire population is incapable of thinking about serious issues because there's
some tittle-tattle on twitter? When did that happen? No-one would work because there's always
fluffy kittens on YouTube.
"He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the
rails. We're in crazytown," Kelly is quoted as saying at a staff meeting in his office. "I
don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."
(CNN) WARNING: This story contains graphic language.
President Donald Trump 's
closest aides have taken extraordinary measures in the White House to try to stop what they saw
as his most dangerous impulses, going so far as to swipe and hide papers from his desk so he
wouldn't sign them, according to a new book from legendary journalist Bob Woodward.
Woodward's 448-page book, " Fear: Trump in the White
House, " provides an unprecedented inside-the-room look through the eyes of the President's
inner circle. From the Oval Office to the Situation Room to the White House residence, Woodward
uses confidential background interviews to illustrate how some of the President's top advisers
view him as a danger to national security and have sought to circumvent the commander in
chief.
Many of the feuds and daily clashes have been well documented, but the picture painted by
Trump's confidants, senior staff and Cabinet officials reveal that many of them see an even
more alarming situation -- worse than previously known or understood. Woodward offers a
devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump White House, detailing how senior aides -- both
current and former Trump administration officials -- grew exasperated with the President and
increasingly worried about his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying.
Chief of staff John Kelly describes Trump as an "idiot" and "unhinged," Woodward reports.
Defense Secretary James Mattis describes Trump as having the understanding of "a fifth or sixth
grader." And Trump's former personal lawyer John Dowd describes the President as "a fucking
liar," telling Trump he would end up in an "orange jump suit" if he testified to special
counsel Robert Mueller.
Sounds like a palace coup to me: first, news of the forthcoming Woodward book (and excepts);
then-coincidentally-today's "anonymous" and 'Gutless' article in the Times.
As far as I'm concerned, this entire hellish administration is sheer "madness" and a very
clear indication that this country is in its agonizing twilight.
Each and every senior official in this administration is an enabler of this "shithole"
human being and current president, so there is no such thing as bravery here, just covering
one's tail if a coup were to occur.
Not once, as has been mentioned here and elsewhere, has this 'Gutless' wonder decried the
immorality of family separation, employing white racists as policy makers, shredding the
social safety net for millions of this nation's most vulnerable; an outlandish Pentagon
budget and etcetera.
What is solidly on display in this unfolding miasma is a firmly entrenched kleptocracy,
enabled and supported by U.S. corporations and the death of democracy.
The Woodward book seems to me just more kiss and tell stories of the Michael Wolff ilk
(remember him?). The juiciest quotes - Trump being called an idiot by Kelly - is denied by
Kelly himself and most of the others are ex-employees.
A better - more objective - book would
get past the unconventional, apparent chaos of the Whitehouse and perhaps investigate whether
Trumps methods have or will bear fruit.
That perhaps, as David Lynch said, traditional
politicians can't take the country or the world forward - they can't get things done anymore
because they are afraid of political consequences or media backlash. Trump and his ego
doesn't seem to care about that - is that a good thing or a bad thing? Trump has turned
everything on it's head and liberals find themselves allying with establishment politicians
and business groups. It is a fascinating period of political change and time - and better
journalism - will eventually judge Trump more objectively.
'Pence... not a dangerous, mentally ill megalomaniac'
Pence is more dangerous – make that outright terrifying – than Trump. Yes.
Trump is a senile vulgarian oaf – but he doesn't really believe in anything and is
motivated only by his greed and pathological need for self-aggrandizement. He's mentally
incompetent in a very obvious way, which renders him laughably inept at trying to bring his
more odious policy objectives to fruition (in fact, inept at everything, pretty much).
Pence is far more sinister, because he's a dementedly fanatical believer in a
fundamentalist and authoritarian mutation of religion – a crazed zealot. While
sometimes able to imitate the superficial demeanour of a person of sound mind, he is in truth
utterly deranged.
While Trump lies and denies obvious specific facts almost as a reflex, he doesn't really
sustain his warped world view consistently or with conviction that lasts longer than it takes
to play his next round of golf.
Pence vehemently espouses a whole alternative reality based
upon his religious fantasies, and believes he has a mission to impose his delusional ideas in
a punitive and repressive manner on his country's entire population, permanently. He may have
the cunning to be chillingly effective at realising his most ghastly ambitions.
Trump represents a temporary aberration; a collective brain fart. Pence could be the
instigator of a new dark age for the USA
Having seen this type of character assassination visited on Bill and Hillary Clinton,
character assassination before any reported crimes have been proven against them or for that
matter any sexual misdemeanors as president are proven, what exactly is going on here?
I totally disagree with this type of thing even if the person is someone I don't
understand much. The world has come to a dangerous place where digital lynching without
reference to law seems to be the prevailing modus operandi.
A little word of warning. Be careful what you wish for. If Don can be removed prior to the
next election, (and I don't believe that would happen), then Mike Pence takes the reins. He
has just as many crazy notions as his current boss, but is an experienced politician who
knows the ins and outs of Congress. He may get more of the programme through than little Don
can. And that would not be good.
He's done it before. Lots of times.
Example: one of his posts back in April:
"Trump is a genius. Nobody can take him down, the man is a fighter, you punch him and he'll
punch you back 10 times harder. The FBI, Democrats and MSM have tried to take him down since
he decided to run for president, yet he's standing tall and with a 50% approval rating."
There's no point in engaging in discussion with folks like that ...
Welcome to postmodernist politics folks. It will continue to degenerate until, in despair,
people turn toward an orderly system of politics; the Chinese system, the Russian system or
even a coherent religious system. Counsellors will be on hand for those who feel hurt or
upset by the return to authoritarianism -- they will be able to get great treatment in
re-education centres. Just a matter of time before our current system just crumbles from
within.
Yeah they're sucking it direct from Ayn Rand's teat. Bunch of sociopaths. And I think most
political scientists are well aware that citizens united was the death of American democracy
as a representative political system. The illusion of functionality has collapsed under the
weight of corruption. Trump is really just a symptom of that. A giant orange enema of the
state.
LOL. The west is about to collapse. There is no more money to finance the Ponzy Scheme of the
everlasting growth you seem to think is natural. while everyone is distracted in this
dualistic BS, the planet is slowly shutting down her ressources.
The Russia after years of
sanctions have developed an economy that make them less dependant on other countries. So
They will probably less affected by what is coming.
Unless you live in you own bubble, maybe
you noticed that Occidental countries have become empty shells...gutted from their skills at
making stuff. It is all virtual production now...all banking stuff, numbers insurance...most
skilled stuff are either in Germany or in Asia...what is going on?
Trump is a megalomaniac I agree, but he is not dangerous and is not mentally ill.
Mental illness is a real thing and you shouldn't casually trivialize it in this way.
Finally anyone who runs for office as President of the USA is by very definition a pretty
extreme megalomaniac. So you have two points that are not real and/or could be considered erroneous
discrimination and one point that is a prerequisite for any POTUS candidate.
Looking for a reason to impeach him is a ridiculous back to front thing to do and is itself
proof that any impeachment will fail. To impeach someone you must first start with a very
obvious reason.
It's simply not possible to impeach a president because you don't like their politics or
their personality. This whole searching for a reason to impeach is itself evidence that any
impeachment is politically motivated and the very optics of this serve only to strengthen
Trump's own political support in direct opposition.
Trump is President because the DNC was captured by very stupid and deeply corrupt
people.
Many say Mike Pence could have been the one behind the op-ed, because the unidentified author
singled out the late John McCain as "a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our
national dialogue." The word isn't that commonly used. But Pence has used the word with some
regularity. Yet the word could have been a ploy to divert attention from the real author, who
claimed to support many of the GOP policies – "effective deregulation, historic tax
reform, a more robust military and more."
No doubt the current crisis works for Pence: "Given the instability many witnessed, there
were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a
complex process for removing the president." Of course he and the GOP didn't want to
"precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration
in the right direction until -- one way or another -- it's over." But they don't want Trump
to finish his term and hope that he'll soon be gone.
Pepperoni Pizza is absolutely correct. We DON'T know his staff are going behind his back - we
have this anonymous bollocks as the totality of our evidence.
This op-ed is going to absolutely confirm, in the eyes of Trump supporters, all his whines
about being thwarted by the Deep State. It's going to increase his support among the crazies,
and it's also useful for the Republicans who want to ditch him in favour of Mike Pence.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven and for the Democrats or the 'resistance' to see it
as some kind of bonus is insane. Even if you take it at face value it's a disgusting piece of
authoritarian, we-know-best hypocrisy. If you look at its actual effects, the net result is
not likely to benefit the forces of sanity in any way.
The media's complacency about all of this, and their failure to actually report on the
Republican trajectory and the bigger picture, is criminal. Instead we get YET ANOTHER bit of
'oh look the wheels are just about to come off the bus!', and all the while the Republicans
are gerrymandering and purging voter rolls like crazt before the midterms, and of course
refusing to change their unaccountable electronic voting machines and - did you read THIS one
in the news? - blocking a bill which would have audited the election results.
Tl;dr: The US, and by extension the planet via environmental destruction and possibly war
on top, is utterly fucked.
"... Mr anonymous also concedes that the administration has done some good things .. like .. a robust military. Now call me old fashioned, but having a military with twice(three times .. four times) the capability of the rest of the world put together and spending enough yearly to run the whole of Africa .. probably India too, just on a means of killing .. and this even before the US military became .. robust?.. ..."
Mr anonymous also concedes that the administration has done some good things .. like .. a
robust military. Now call me old fashioned, but having a military with twice(three times ..
four times) the capability of the rest of the world put together and spending enough yearly
to run the whole of Africa .. probably India too, just on a means of killing .. and this even
before the US military became .. robust?..
What is wrong with you people .. national security?.. Laughable .. when is your security
ever, ever, ever threatened! And yet people starve, people don't have clean water to drink
..
Perhaps were the US to help lift the basic burdens of millions who have bugger all, then
there wouldn't be so many suposed 'enemies'. I do believe film maker Michael Moore has voiced
this very same thing .. but then, what purpose all those shiny new expensive killing
machines?..
Something is seriously wrong in America .. and it ain't just Trump!
This is a very poor op-ed piece. Simply calling the President "a crazy loon " isn't political
analysis, or at least not the sort of political analysis I would be willing to pay for. Nor
do I think the thesis that certain members of the administration are busy trying to shore up
their reputations in the face of a sinking presidency holds water. Firstly, unless the
current investigations provide incontrovertible evidence that the President was engaged in
criminal activity I don't think there is any change that he will be impeached. Secondly, if
you wanted to protect your reputation surely the thing to do would be to resign and maintain
a dignified silence while you are writing your memoirs. Or if you really were part of a
secret clique protecting the American constitution against a reckless President you would
keep quiet and get on with your important business. It seems to me that this anonymous piece
was either a clumsy attempt to further damage the President or a sophisticated attempt to
galvanise his support base by "proving" that the President is being undermined by unelected
traitors. Or something else completely might be going on. That's why I would like to read a
thoughtful opinion piece by an informed observer.
Sounds like there's a treasonous public servant there, doing their best to subvert the will
of the people. And of course loudly supported by the squealing hard left guardian mob.
Looking at the type of far left fascists crawling out of the woodwork, I would say
Trump is provoking utter derangement in all the right people.
"the corrupt metropolitan elites have swindled them again"
-Who appointed these 'corrupt metropolitan elites' if it was not Trump himself? Who are these
people-Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin- quite apart from Jeff Sessions and the now
disgraced Michael Flynn? Trump appointed them, they weren't forced on him by the "corrupt
metropolitan elites". Is Trump to be given a free pass for his own mistakes?
What many commentators here seem to fail to recognise, because of their political bias I
suppose, is that there is a ground swell of dissatisfaction with the political consensus that
has seen the working class and lower middle class disenfranchised or at least their perceived
interests ignored. As a result, populist ideologies, as espoused by Steven Bannon, and
others, and exemplified by leaders like Donald Trump have thrown away the rule book with all
its aims to support the extremely wealthy and have reached out to those that want jobs before
green policies, law and order before gender diversity programs and so on.
I doubt that many of the readers here will receive the message but we are witnessing a
revolution that I see as significant as the rise of the sans-culottes in the early part of
the French Revolution. That didn't end well for the sans-culottes or their aims but we can
hardly blame them for trying. Today the retrenched car worker in the US can hardly be blamed
for being unhappy that the CEO of a car company receives a huge pay rise and bail outs from
the government and similar stories in other areas.
Vive la revolution.
Some of this stuff is clearly nonsense. Example: the insider claimed Trump is an admirer of
dictators:
"In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators,
such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, and
displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded
nations."
And yet the forthcoming Bob Woodward book claims Trump told his defence secretary he
wanted to kill Assad:
Donald Trump ordered his defence secretary to assassinate Syria's president Bashar
al-Assad and "kill the f****** lot of them" in the leader's regime, in the wake of a chemical
attack against civilians, according to a new book.
Defence secretary James Mattis is said to have told the president during a phone call he
would "get right on it" before hanging up the phone and instead telling an aide: "We're not
going to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured." In the wake of the chemical
attack in April 2017, the president's national security team developed options that included
the more conventional airstrike that Mr Trump eventually ordered.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The anti-Trump lot can't have it both ways. He can't be a fan of dictators but also want to
kill them! It's clear there is lying or exaggeration on both sides. The people out to impeach
Trump (or sell books!) will lie too.
This is plausible as McCain was involved in Steele dossier saga
Notable quotes:
"... In this sense, the author may well have felt the need to plant the red herring in question in this very part of the letter so as to create the 'Pence diversion' in the very place that one might otherwise being looking for someone associated with John McCain. ..."
"... The next logical question would then be: how did he do it? The answer to this is quite simple. Just as he meticulously arranged his own funeral prior to his death, apparently down to the seating arrangements for guests, McCain could have easily handed the letter to a highly trusted associate or family member who would then present the letter to an ideological ally at the infamously anti-Trump New York Times. ..."
"... It is therefore not beyond the realm of the possible to consider that the infamous letter was not actually drafted by a Trump White House official but instead was drafted by John McCain as the final salvo in his long war against Donald Trump. Stranger things have happened and this without a doubt is a strange era in American political life. ..."
Not only was John McCain never in the Trump administration but at
the time when the infamous anonymous New York Times op-ed from a reportedly disgruntled senior
Trump White House official was published, John McCain had been dead for eleven days. Therefore
to suggest that McCain wrote the letter isn't to suggest a belief in time travel or the
supernatural. Instead it is to suggest a calculated scheme from beyond the grave by a man who
famously choreographed every detail of his own funeral during his final weeks or possibly
months of life.
Whoever wrote the letter was clever enough to include in the text a red herring designed to
convince the public and possibly Donald Trump himself that the letter's author was none other
than Vice President Mike Pence. But as Andrew Kroybko
rightly illustrates in his piece on the subject in Eurasia Future, Pence would never be so
foolish as to include in the letter the word "lodestar" as the highly obscure word is
frequently used by Pence while not being a part of the daily vocabulary of most English
speakers anywhere in world. Such an obvious giveaway could have only been planted by design
considering that whoever did write the letter most likely penned the most important epistle in
his or her life.
Making matters more curious, the word "lodestar" appears in the ed-op in the paragraph where
the author negatively compares Trump with John McCain. This itself is an indication that McCain
and his much anticipated death were clear sources of inspiration for the content of the letter
and the timing of its publication. The paragraph in question reads as follows:
"We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example -- a lodestar
for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such
honorable men, but we should revere them".
In this sense, the author may well have felt the need to plant the red herring in question
in this very part of the letter so as to create the 'Pence diversion' in the very place that
one might otherwise being looking for someone associated with John
McCain.
While not casting judgment on the reality that John McCain was indeed a surviving prisoner
of war, it is factually true that unlike many prisoners of war, McCain tended to publicly revel
in his status as a survivor and even used the fame derived from his harrowing experience to
launch a long political career. Because of this, it is not by any means unreasonable to think
that the kind of egotism one associates with McCain might have led him to devise such a
'parting shot' at his powerful and more politically successful rival. This was after all the
man who flew to all corners of the earth even in old age to rally various armed rebellions of
one sort or another from Georgia and Ukraine to Syria and Iraq. It is also instructive to
realise that McCain is the man who without a second thought handed the hoax Steele dossier to
then FBI Director James Comey and later
said the following about his actions:
"I discharged that obligation, and I would do it again. Anyone who doesn't like it can go
to hell".
The next logical question would then be: how did he do it? The answer to this is quite
simple. Just as he meticulously arranged his own funeral prior to his death, apparently down to
the seating arrangements for guests, McCain could have easily handed the letter to a highly
trusted associate or family member who would then present the letter to an ideological ally at
the infamously anti-Trump New York Times.
While Donald Trump has suggested that he will use legal pressure to force the New York Times
to divulge the source of the letter, such a matter could take years of back and forth in the
courts, by which time the relevance of the letter would have been greatly reduced by the
passage of time. In any case, as the drafting of the letter may well be a seditious or
treasonous act, unlike an actual member of the Trump White House staff, McCain is currently in
a place where no judge, jury or executioner can reach him.
It is therefore not beyond the realm of the possible to consider that the infamous letter
was not actually drafted by a Trump White House official but instead was drafted by John McCain
as the final salvo in his long war against Donald Trump. Stranger things have happened and this
without a doubt is a strange era in American political life.
"... The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution. ..."
The Mainstream Media's latest reports that internet sleuths think that Vice President Pence
probably wrote yesterday's "Resistance" op-ed in the New York Times because of the anonymous
writer's use of the word "lodestar" is nothing more than a red herring by the "deep state" to
provoke a showdown between Trump & Pence ahead of this November's midterms and possibly
even push the President to trigger a constitutional crisis by trying to fire him.
Everyone in the world is wondering which high-level official in the Trump Administration
penned yesterday's
"Resistance" op-ed in the New York Times, but the Mainstream Media is running with the
story that internet sleuths think that it's Vice President Pence because of the anonymous
writer's use of the word "lodestar", which he's publicly used on
at least five separate occasions before. He probably wasn't behind the piece, however, but
his idiosyncratic use of a relatively uncommon word was likely picked up by the "deep state"
well in advance and deliberately inserted into the preplanned infowar provocation that was just
published in order to pin the blame on him as part of a larger scheme to sow discord in the
White House.
The "deep state" wants to provoke Trump to unleash one of his famously scathing and
unscripted tweets against Pence, which would irreparably ruin their professional relationship
but also throw the President into a constitutional conundrum because he can't
legally fire his Vice President no matter how much the two might come to hate each other as
a result of this devious psy-op. Running with this scenario for a moment, whether Trump tries
to fire a publicly insulted Pence or seethes with rage because he can't, the resultant turmoil
that would play out in the Mainstream Media would be enough to seemingly confirm all of the
accusations of chaos that Bob Woodward alleged in his upcoming book, therefore potentially
tipping the midterm electoral scales to the Democrats' favor.
Reviewing the fast-moving developments of the past couple of days, it's inarguable that The
Establishment planned for all of this to happen far in advance as part of their plot to
undermine Trump ahead of the midterms, with the phased escalation of their infowar campaign so
far moving from Woodward's book to the anonymous "Resistance" op-ed and finally to the claims
that Pence is somehow involved because the unknown author cleverly inserted a very uncommon
word that he's known to occasionally use. While Trump will probably display more common sense
that he's regularly given credit for and likely won't fall for the trap of jumping the gun and
publicly condemning Pence, he's in a dilemma when it comes to identifying who's behind the
scandalous op-ed.
Trump has no choice but to order an immediate investigation on national security
grounds after it was revealed that a high-ranking official in his administration is
supposedly conspiring with others to sabotage the policies of the democratically elected and
legitimate President of the United States, but this is predictably being framed by the
Mainstream Media as a "witch hunt" that they'll soon try to compare to a "Stalinist purge" (if
they haven't done so already). Actually, they seem to secretly hope that Trump becomes paranoid
to the point of overreacting and punishes or publicly embarrasses innocent members of his staff
in order to counterproductively create an internal "Resistance" where there might not have even
really been one to begin with.
Whatever ends up happening, and the latest "deep state" coup attempt against Trump has only
just begun, this much is certain, and it's that the inclusion of the word "lodestar" was a red
herring designed to manipulate the President's mind after he finds out that the Mainstream
Media is promoting internet sleuths who apparently "discovered" that Pence used this uncommon
word on several occasions. The whole point at this stage is to provoke Trump, who they
mistakenly believe to be an unhinged maniac incapable of controlling his actions and prone to
lashing out at whoever and whenever at the slightest hint of an affront, to publicly attack
Pence and then trigger a constitutional crisis by trying to fire him, all of which would be
taking place in front of the entire nation ahead of the upcoming
midterms.
Trump's much too clever to fall for this trap, and the fact that something so blatantly
obvious has been attempted speaks to just how much his opponents underestimate him, but he
nevertheless needs to be careful that he doesn't take action against any innocent members of
his administration who might get caught up in the current investigation to find the traitor and
their ilk, if they even exist. This means that he has to trust whoever it is that he's
dispatched to dig up evidence on this issue and won't doubt the findings that they present to
him, after which he'll have to determine whether they're also being set up just like Pence is
or if they're actually guilty as charged. Trump's toughest tests are therefore ahead of him and
could make or break his presidency in the coming days.
DISCLAIMER:The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which
is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing
written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions
of any other media outlet or institution.
he reversed the war in afghanistan? drones? did he prosecute bankers? does he favor
increasing offshore drilling? now it looks like he's renegotiating clinton's nafta and
pushing for some version of obama's trade treaties. trump is the invading python, and the
democrats and establishment republicans are the alligators; whichever wins, the small furry
animals get eaten. i just hope they don't start world war 3 while they're settling
things--trump looks to be doubling down on obama's syria policy too, and support of the
current ukrainian government.
'Fraid so. Every new generation of neocons regurgitates the same discredited lies from the
previous generation, and suckers believe them all over again. Even the title "neocon" or
"neoliberal" is a lie: there's nothing new about them.
Trump was not only openly attacked during the nomination process, the Republican Party
nominee who was selected to fight Obama in 2012 -Mitt Romney- delivered a savage attack in
which he described Trump as a con-man and a chronic liar -yet the same people who could,
there and then have told Trump to get lost backed him. Trump has been attacked from the start
and every time and all of the time said to his attackers: so what? I dare you to remove me
from the nomination, I dare you to remove me from the Office of President. This is a man who
is challenging the governance of the US in a manner no other President has done before, and
so far, he is still winning. That is the scary part.
Trump is threatening Deep State corruption by placing his own family members in positions of
power and profiting from charging the nation for his and his staff's repeated use of Trump
Tower and Mar-a-Lago? That's a bizarre way of draining the swamp.
The US political system has many flaws, not least that the President can be elected on an
apparent electoral college landslide while losing the popular vote. But then again no
country's political system is perfect, human nature being what it is.
However, Trump is clearly not up to the job. Not by intellect, understanding of world
affairs, honesty, temperament, respect for the law, nor constitution. The list goes on
frankly.
The system has gone bad. Trump hasn't "drained the swamp", he's made it far deeper. That
said, "the system" such as it is should work in the hands of honest men and women of
integrity. The trouble is they're few and far between in the GOP as it wilfully ignores
issues in which they would be clamouring for a Democrat president to be impeached.
I sincerely hope the GOP get a thrashing in the mid-terms which may, just may, give them
pause for thought. A Democrat Congress might also actually hold Trump to account. The only
danger there is that he lashes out with even less self control.
Dangerous times.
"... Dear Readers: Your website needs your support. It cannot exist without it. ..."
"... When you read my column below, you will read what you cannot find anywhere else–a clear, concise, correct explanation of who the author is of the New York Times op-ed falsely attributed to a "senior Trump official." ..."
"... Anonymous dissent has no credibility. ..."
"... A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his high position to lend weight to his dissent. ..."
"... thwart his and his fellow co-conspirators' plot by revealing it! ..."
"... This forgery is an attempt to break up the Trump administration by creating suspicion throughout the senior level. If Trump falls for the New York Times' deception, a house cleaning is likely to take place wherever suspicion falls. A government full of mutual suspicion cannot function. ..."
"... Why is resolving dangerous tensions a "preference for dictators" and not a preference for peace? ..."
"... removing a president for his unwillingness to worsen the dangerously high tensions between nuclear powers? ..."
Dear Readers: Your website needs your support. It cannot exist without it.
When you read my column below, you will read what you cannot find anywhere else–a
clear, concise, correct explanation of who the author is of the New York Times op-ed falsely
attributed to a "senior Trump official."
I know who wrote the anonymous "senior Trump official" op-ed in the New York Times. The New
York Times wrote it.
The op-ed ( http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50194.htm
) is an obvious forgery. As a former senior official in a presidential administration, I can
state with certainty that no senior official would express disageeement anonymously.
Anonymous dissent has no credibility. Moreover, the dishonor of it undermines the
character of the writer. A real dissenter would use his reputation and the status of his
high position to lend weight to his dissent.
The New York Times' claim to have vetted the writer also lacks credibility, as the New York
Times has consistently printed extreme accusations against Trump and against Vladimir Putin
without supplying a bit of evidence. The New York Times has consistently misrepresented
unsubstantiated allegations as proven fact. There is no reason whatsoever to believe the New
York Times about anything.
Consider also whether a member of a conspiracy working "diligently" inside the
administration with "many of the senior officials" to "preserve our democratic institutions
while thwarting" Trump's "worst inclinations" would thwart his and his fellow
co-conspirators' plot by revealing it!
This forgery is an attempt to break up the Trump administration by creating suspicion
throughout the senior level. If Trump falls for the New York Times' deception, a house cleaning
is likely to take place wherever suspicion falls. A government full of mutual suspicion cannot
function.
The fake op-ed serves to validate from within the Trump administration the false reporting
by the New York Times that serves the interests of the military/security complex to hold on to
enemies with whom Trump prefers to make peace. For example, the alleged "senior official"
misrepresents, as does the New York Times, President Trump's efforts to reduce dangerous
tensions with North Korea and Russia as President Trump's "preference for autocrats and
dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un"
over America's "allied, like-minded nations." This is the same non-sequitur that the New York
Times has expressed endlessly. Why is resolving dangerous tensions a "preference for
dictators" and not a preference for peace? The New York Times has never explained, and
neither does the "senior official."
How is it that Putin, elected three times by majorities that no US president has ever
received, is a dictator? Putin stepped down after serving the permitted two consecutive terms
and was again elected after being out of office for a term. Do dictators step down and sit out
for 6 years?
The "senior official" also endorses as proven fact the alleged Skripal poisoning by a
"deadly Russian nerve agent," an event for which not one scrap of evidence exists. Neither has
anyone explained why the "deadly nerve agent" wasn't deadly. The entire Skripal event rests
only on assertions. The purpose of the Skripal hoax was precisely what President Trump said it
was: to box him into further confrontation with Russia and prevent a reduction in tensions.
If the "senior official" is really so uninformed as to believe that Putin is a dictator who
attacked the Skripals with a deadly nerve agent and elected Trump president, the "senior
official" is too dangerously ignorant and gullible to be a senior official in any
administration. These are the New York Times' beliefs or professed beliefs as the New York
Times does everything the organization can do to protect the military/security complex's budget
from any reduction in the "enemy threat."
Do you remember when Condoleezza Rice prepared the way for the US illegal invasion of Iraq
with her imagery of "a mushroom cloud going up over an American city"? Iraq had no nuclear
weapons, and everyone in the government knew it. There was no prospect of such an event.
However, there is a very real prospect of mushroom clouds going up over many American and
European cities if the crazed Russiaphobia of the New York Times and the other presstitutes
along with the Democratic Party and the security elements of the deep state continue to pile
lie after lie, provocation after provocation on Russia's patience. At some point, the only
logical conclusion that the Russian government can reach is that Washington is preparing
Americans and Europeans for an attack on Russia. Propaganda vilifying and demonizing the enemy
precedes military attacks.
The New York Times' other attack on President Trump -- that he is unstable and unfit for
office -- is reproduced in the fake op-ed: "Given the instability many witnessed, there were
early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex
process for removing the president," writes the invented and non-existent "senior
official."
Americans are an insouciant people. But are any so insouciant that they really think that a
senior official would write that the members of President Trump's cabinet have considered
removing him from office? What is this statement other than a deliberate effort to produce a
constitutional crisis -- the precise aim of John Brennan, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, the DNC,
and the New York Times. A constitutional crisis is what the hoax of Russiagate is all
about.
The level of mendacity and evil in this plot against Trump is unequaled in history. Have any
of these conspirators given a moment's thought to the consequences of removing a president
for his unwillingness to worsen the dangerously high tensions between nuclear powers? The
next president would have to adopt a Russophobic stance and do nothing to reduce the tensions
that can break out in nuclear war or himself be accused of "coddling the Russian dictator and
putting America at risk."
The reason that America is at risk is that the CIA and the presstitute media have put
America -- and Europe -- at risk by frustrating President Trump's intention to reduce the
dangerous level of tensions between the two major nuclear powers. Professor Steven Cohen,
America's premier Russian expert, says that never during the Cold War were tensions as high as
they are at this present time. As a former member of The Committee on the Present Danger, I
myself am a former Cold Warrior, and I know for a fact that Professor Cohen is correct.
In America today, and in Europe, people are living in a situation in which the
liberal-progressive-left's blind hatred of Donald Trump, together with the self-interested
power and profit of the military security complex and election hopes of the Democratic Party,
are recklessly and irresponsibly risking nuclear Armageddon for no other reason than to act out
their hate and further their own nest.
This plot against Trump is dangerous to life on earth and demands that the governments and
peoples of the world act now to expose this plot and to bring it to an end before it kills us
all.
This is a classic color revolutions trick, usually called "Diplomats letter". Used many times
in many color revolutions worldwide. In EuroMaydan it preceded "sniper massacre".
Notable quotes:
"... I think he has to do it ASAP because the NYT editorial looks like an act of desperation and I expect Mueller to pile on soon, so beat them to the punch and put them on their heels for a change. No doubt, this is hardball. ..."
Now that ridiculously juvenile NYT's "op-ed" starts to make sense...they were given a
heads up on the GJ proceedings against this "stellar public servant" and wanted to knock it
off the front page.
What's in my head is declassifying a bunch of nasty shit.
Either way, if NYT made up fake news pretending to be a senior white house official, OR,
there really is somebody in his inner circle anonymously stabbing POTUS in the back, it is
very bad news and there should be serious hell to pay. I do not like nor trust a single one
of his appointees so I'm guessing it's somebody. It would be suicide for NYT getting caught
making this all up, that would be risky business IMO.
This isn't a complicated timeline of he said, she said over this piss dossier that glosses
people's eyes over. This is very simple stuff people can understand and Trump could make a
very rational case that the swamp is so damn deep he can't even put together a staff without
it being infiltrated and say "here look" and declassify shit that would encompass ALL the
recent scandals and ensnare the fake news experts colluding to make this happen.
That would light a big fire in DC that would be very hard to put out.
Well personally I don't believe for one second that the "op-ed" was anything other than
Fake Nuuuz.
As far as ordering the release/declassification of everything the DoJ & FBI has on the
Hillary Dossier I believe it's getting close but it's a hardball kind of swamp, it would be
before the midterms for maximum effect I would think.
I think he has to do it ASAP because the NYT editorial looks like an act of desperation
and I expect Mueller to pile on soon, so beat them to the punch and put them on their heels
for a change. No doubt, this is hardball.
As was no doubt their intent, the mainstream media has succeeded in overshadowing the Kavanaugh
confirmation hearing with a flurry of stories about a mutiny allegedly brewing inside the West Wing
that has set
more than a
few
tongues
wagging
about the
possibility of Trump's cabinet invoking the 25th amendment
(an eventuality that was once reportedly discussed by former White House Chief Strategist
Steve Bannon
). But while White House officials have already vehemently denied the quotes
gathered by Bob Woodward
in the strategically leaked (to his own newspaper) excerpts from the
Watergate reporter's upcoming book, speculation is shifting to
who might be the mystery author
of a scathing NYT op-ed reportedly penned by a "senior
administration official" that portrays Trump as unfit for office.
Fortunately for Trump, several voices of moderation have come forward to condemn the attacks
(amid speculation that the Times' "senior" source may not be so senior after all).
But this
incipient backlash didn't deter Axios (a media org that, like the Times, is notoriously critical of
Trump) from piling on with a story about President Trump's intensifying distrust of those in his
inner circle.
Trump, Axios claims, is "deeply suspicious of much of the government he
oversees" from federal agency grunts all the way up to those privileged few with unfettered access
to the Oval Office. The piece even goes so far as to quote yet another anonymous "senior
administration official" as saying that "a lot of us are wishing we'd been the writer."
"I find the reaction to the NYT op-ed fascinating - that people seem so shocked that there is
a resistance from the inside," one senior official said.
"A lot of us [were] wishing
we'd been the writer, I suspect ... I hope he [Trump] knows - maybe he does? - that there are
dozens and dozens of us."
And in case you couldn't figure out why this is important, allow
Axios
to elaborate:
Why it matters:
Several senior White House officials have described their
roles to us as saving America and the world from this president.
A good number of current White House officials have privately admitted to us they consider
Trump unstable, and at times dangerously slow.
But the really deep concern and contempt, from our experience, has been at the agencies -- and
particularly in the foreign policy arena.
In what was perhaps the most bombastic claim included in the piece, Trump reportedly once
carried around with him a list of suspected leakers.
"The snakes are everywhere but we're
getting rid of them,"
he reportedly told
Axios.
For some time last year,
Trump even carried with him a handwritten list of people
suspected to be leakers undermining his agenda.
"He would basically be like, 'We've gotta get rid of them.
The snakes are everywhere
but we're getting rid of them,'"
said a source close to Trump.
Trump would often ask staff whom they thought could be trusted.
He often
asks the people who work for him what they think about their colleagues, which can be not only
be uncomfortable but confusing to Trump: Rival staffers shoot at each other and Trump is left
not knowing who to believe.
And just in case you haven't read enough about Trump's purported obsession with "snakes" -
here's some more.
"When he was super frustrated about the leaks, he would rail about the 'snakes' in
the White House,"
said a source who has discussed administration leakers with the
president.
"Especially early on, when we would be in Roosevelt Room meetings,
he would sit down
at the table, and get to talking, then turn around to see who was sitting along the walls behind
him."
"One day, after one of those meetings, he said, 'Everything that just happened is going to
leak. I don't know any of those people in the room.' ... He was very paranoid about this."
All of this reinforces the idea that Trump truly believes that there is an organized "deep
state" conspiracy to take him down.
Of course, what Axios neglects to say,
is that he's
not wrong.
"Trump flopped as an owner of a professional football
team, effectively killing not only his own franchise but
the league as a whole... He bankrupted his casinos five
times over the course of nearly 20 years. His eponymous
airline existed for less than three years and ended up
almost a quarter of a billion dollars in debt. And he has
slapped his surname on a practically never-ending
sequence of duds and scams (Trump Ice bottled water,
Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks,
Trump
magazine, Trump
Mortgage, Trump University -- for which he settled a
class-action fraud lawsuit earlier this year for $25
million)."
And Kruse didn't even mention The Donald's sixth
bankruptcy, the one he filed for the debt-ridden Plaza Hotel
in 1992.
So, people, what do you think Trump, the
bankrupter-in-chief, is gonna do to the good old US of A?
That's one of my major hopes for this presidency. That
Trump can get us through the coming bankruptcy without
a large scale war/depression breaking out.
"one senior
official said"... oh really, why should I believe
that? When something is obvious BS, repeating it
just makes you look foolish, it doesn't make it
true, Hitlers propaganda play book is dated and no
longer functions in the age of the internet. At
least we know that Operation Mocking Bird is alive
and well.
This just shows us how they keep recycling
the same shit bureaucrat's over and over
again and they become an animal that lives
within and outside of whomever is POTUS.
Perhaps it's time to burn the whole thing
down and start over again.....
We the People are not so
schooled in the finer points.
We have rope and can see
treason with our own eyes, and
figure to do our part, be
civic minded for the greater
good and all.
If he has the power to do it, the time is
right to declassify some major bombs on the
swamp.
It sounds sensational but it's also
a step in the right direction to move the
capital out of DC. It really is the nerve
center of raunch, deceit, fraud and an
irredeemable shit hole.
Agreed, but moving won't help. The problem
is the concentration of money and power.
You could move the capitol every day and
the swamp would follow like remoras follow
a shark
The only way to deal with the Debt, is to grow the
economy and shrink it on a relative basis. So much
of the past debt was incurred on non-productive
expenditures that yield no returns.
Trump knows
that. Amazing what he gets done with all the
snipers outside and all the cockroaches inside. A
lesser man would have said fuck it a long time ago.
Its as if they think the people actually support
the Deep State Establishment and don't loath them.
Please tell me how I should really love John McCain
again now that he's dead.
"Trump, Axios claims, is
'deeply suspicious of much of the government
he oversees'
"
Again, if people believed the corporate
media Trump wouldn't be president right now,
HIllary would be, so that fight is pretty
much over.
Also, just because you are paranoid and
think they are all out to get you doesn't
mean it isn't true!. Of course the deep
state hates Trump. It's all just a circus
and a show until it's not. I really don't
know what Trump is waiting for. Call Bill
Binney in and get your heads together and
take down all the deep state.
PUT THEM ALL IN PRISON.
Yes, it will wipe out the whole government
as we know it.... but that is why Trump was
elected in the first place.
a very big part. rub is, i don't think he
knew. i think wray came in on a "if you
don't appoint him, the FIB is going to be
without a director" sort of threat. i think
sessions totally ass raped trump.
as for the remainder of his
administration, if you turn the white house
into goldman south, what exactly do you
expect for an economic plan.
as for the pre-election dumbfucks saying
trump is an executive, he will appoint good
people, and let them do their jobs. i
haven't seen one good appointment yet out of
trump. out of all of his appointments, scott
pruitt was the best and trump should have
backed him up, but didn't. he was sacrificed
to the environmentalists.
holee shit!!!!!
have i got an off topic comment to make.
i clicked on the globalintelhub link at
the top of the page about the possible source
of the op-ed.
what i found about one fourth of the way
into the article stopped me dead in my
tracks. this is the comment that did it:
But what is news in this disclosure
are the
newly
released emails
between Mark Mazzetti,
the New York Times's national security and
intelligence reporter, and CIA spokeswoman
Marie Harf.
you see it? do you see it? MARIE
HARF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
does that name ring a bell? it damn well
should. she was a long time spokeshole in
the HNIC state department. she is the one
who uttered the phrase:
We need in the medium to longer term
to go after the root causes that leads people
to join these groups, whether it's a lack of
opportunity for jobs,
jobs for jihadists!!!! and this whore
still has a job in gov't? as a CIA
spokeshole? RUFKM
my fucking gawd get rid of these fucking
people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So if they go 25th Amendment on him will
Trump supporters chimp out or wait for the
proof to be presented and evaluate if his
staff have a vaild point?
Edit: I mostly
agree with your post and thats why I have
been so critical. What I saw early on, and
since, has been one big clusterfuck of
"you keep making decisions that in no way
reflect a person who is as awesome as you
promised."
Figures. When you are blocked from pillaging foreign
nations, you of course turn to the idea of bankruptcy.
You people just don't seem to understand that you are
not kings and queens, but common folk and you should
pay your debts, and tighten your belts. It would be
relatively short term pain for long term gain.
That,
more than anything else, speaks to the absence of any
character in the American make up.
I'll not believe it until Woof Shitzer and/or
Rachel Madcow confirm these rumors.
Radical Left
Plagiarist Farheed Diarrhea has evidently been
preoccupied by being dumped by his wife after 21
years of hardship so we won't be hearing his inane
comments bashing Trump for awhile.
Zakaria was suspended for a week in August
2012 while Time and CNN investigated an allegation
of plagiarism
[46]
involving an August 20 column on gun control with
similarities to a New Yorker article by
Jill Lepore
. In a statement Zakaria apologized,
saying that he had made "a terrible mistake."
Go back to Chinese Tire and buy some "made in
Canada" crap. Tell me again how the "Canadians"
co-opted the British in 1812 . Watch some more
Franz Kafka on the CBC, the Chinese Broadcasting
Corporation and explain to the CAW in southern
Ontario how Justine Twinklesocks traded auto worker
jobs for the Quebec Milk Quota.
There are
Canadians with character, but you ain't one of
them.
The US went into receivership in 1933, so I guess
"make it bankruptier?"
I have no problem with this,
since it's going to be interesting to see how the
debtors (The US and its employees) are going to pay
the creditors (that would be the Citizens) back for
the $17 trillion they owe us.
Going to have to be one helluva bake sale.
But my guess is they will just throw another woar
and kill off another generation of Creditors like they
have done for the past century. (And collect the
insurance premiums, since Social Security Insurance
pays out to the primary beneficiary first..and that
would be...The US GOv).
What? You thought Social Security was for YOUR
benefit?! Hahah, silly wabbits.
The author clearly supports a neocon foreign policy. just look at his stance about Russia. Can this me MI6 false flag designed
to paralyze Trump administration by sowing suspicion among the top officials.? British clearly resent Trump attempt to shrink the US
led global neoliberal empire created by his predecessors.
Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for
ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these
ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the "enemy of
the people," President Trump's impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.
Don't get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative
coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust
military and more.
But these successes have come despite -- not because of -- the president's
leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior
officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief's comments and actions. Most are
working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive
rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to
be walked back.
"There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to
the next," a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president
flip-flopped on a major policy decision he'd made only a week earlier.
The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren't for unsung heroes in
and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have
gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always
successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there
are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when
Donald Trump won't.
The result is a two-track presidency.
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference
for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, and
displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is
operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly,
and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant
to expel
so many of Mr. Putin's spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He
complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and
he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign
behavior. But his national security team knew better -- such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
This isn't the work of the so-called deep state. It's the work of the steady
state.
Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet
of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted
to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right
direction until -- one way or another -- it's over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather
what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be
stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain put it best in his
farewell letter
. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim
of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example -- a
lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but
we should revere them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put
country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across
the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.
The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.
I assumed it was an effort at creating some sort of record of resistance. Does anybody
really believe Paul Ryan is retiring from the 3rd most powerful position in the US Government
to "spend more time with family"? The rats are fleeing a sinking ship. Even if Trump serves
out a full four years, anybody too closely tied to this stupid shit-storm of an
Administration will be tarred in public eyes. But, American voters are notoriously forgetful,
and getting out before the ship goes down will probably work.
Funny shit. "the mole" wrote an Op/Ed piece, that contains no information of a sensitive
nature. S/he wrote of their own personal observations working in the White House. There is
nothing illegal in that.
I get that you might not have any functional understanding of
US law, but it is deeply disturbing that the President of the United States is calling for
the arrest of a citizen exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The op-ed piece being anonymous makes me wonder if Mr Trump himself put someone up to do it.
What better way of stirring up the base ahead of the mid-terms than talk of undemocratic
factions within the administration and fifth columnists to be rooted out for the cause. It
also offers the president another cudgel against the press that will appeal to his core
constituencies.
Even if Mr Trump isn't capable of coming up with such a scheme, there are certainly those
around him who are.
The statements in the opinion piece are horribly anti-pluralist anti-democratic in
themselves. The writer's nationalist appeal to 'American' unity at the end is based on
everyone uniting around US Republican principles of neo-liberalism, inequality and
militarism. S/he would use a false unity against Trump to impose the worst kind of
conservative fundamentalism and eliminate anything more progressive from the political
spectrum.
Maybe this is mainstream neo-liberal thinking but it's the end of a plural, democratic
state. There would be no more room to discuss inequality, climate change, race or gender
discrimination or new welfare provisions. Just an offer of false unity around hard neoliberal
principles. I guess it's a very similar game to Brexit, which is a choice between
life-threatening asset striping of the UK or May's 'hard right soft Brexit' super
Thatcherism.
Is Vice President Mike Pence trying to pull off a "House of Cards"-style scheme to undermine Trump
and increase his own chances of assuming the presidency?
Apparently, more than a few journalists
believe that might be the case. According to the Huffington Post, some believe that
the use
of a single word - "lodestar" - is a crucial tell
pointing toward Pence as the op-ed's
author. During the op-ed's final paragraphs the mystery author refers to John McCain as "a lodestar
for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue."
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter.
All Americans should
heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our
shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example - a
lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.
Mr. Trump may
fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put
country first.
But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above
politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one:
Americans.
Pence has, of course, categorically denied these allegations and affirmed his loyalty to the
president.
Still, one video circulating on twitter shows Pence using the word in eight different speeches
dating back to 2001, when he was a Congressman from Indiana.
At the very least, there's some evidence to suggest that the author is a man. As Bloomberg's
Jennifer Jacobs pointed out yesterday, the Times' official Twitter feed may have inadvertently
revealed their gender.
For those who aren't familiar with the word, Merriam-Webster defines "lodestar" as
"a
star that leads or guides"
or a person who
"serves as an inspiration, model, or
guide."
To be sure, the Pence theory isn't without its holes. Trump staffers have said previously that
they pay attention to the idioms employed by others as a defense mechanism when speaking to the
press under the guise of anonymity.
"To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers' idioms and use that in
my background quotes.
That throws the scent off me," one White House official told
Axios
.
But online betting markets have put Pence at the top of the list of suspects, with MyBookie
currently
reflecting 2-to-3 odds
on Pence as the culprit, per the
New
York Post
. The favorite right now, at 1-3 odds, is "the field" - i.e. someone not listed among
the 18 most likely senior admin officials, according to the Costa-Rica-based betting operation.
Still, at first brush, the theory makes a degree of sense:
As first in line for the
throne, Pence undoubtedly has the most to gain from the collapse of the Trump presidency.
But it's equally likely that a more junior official could've intentionally included these cues to
sow discord in the ranks.
As the Trump administration has proved time and time again, anything is possible in the West
Wing.
not sure pence is entirely a team member ... he has been told
to wait for more ... being around the trump tower, you can see
why pence would believe it besides the fact that he must have
been talking to real players that he knows they are real
players ...
having said all that, 100% this is coordinated ... it is no
coincidence it comes out at the same time with Bob Woodwards
book, Theresa May verdict on assailant of the failed attempt to
kill in salisbury soil, big offensive in Idlib (where trimp is
doing a 180 degrees and being a team member again ... to name
just a few ... it is the end of the line ... that economist
magazine "prediction" from 1988 on 30 years later comes to mind
... time for the US to come down hard i suppose ...
No way is the op-ed writer VP Pence. It
doesn't have his boring Midwestern tone.
It seems much more likely that the
letterbomb was written by a group --
not
in
the administration.
Rather, a
group of Deep State crybabies who aren't
getting their way and have devised this
lame, transparent effort akin to
Valley girls passing notes in homeroom ...
"like, I mean, um, whatever" ... because
they're too dumb to do anything else. And
the NYTimes ate it up.
But he IS a moron. All the war mongering pharisees are
morons.
Pence is a pro war psychopath who is very much
disconnected from his tortured soul and is a simple
biological robot devoid of higher levels of thought.
Pence is literally a moron. Only humans have souls and
access to imagination, inspiration, intuition, empathy:
pharisees DO NOT. They are all robotic machines: morons.
There being so many convoluted theories floating around,
here's mine. Trump, Pence and friends arranged this whole
editorial/reaction incident. As you point out, many other
stories were suddenly demoted to by-the-way status. This
gives Trump another reason to urge his supporters to be
enraged. It also could provide courage for purges within the
administration, someqthing it has long needed. Diverse
elements of the MSM are even attacking each other.
Ultimately, ask yourselves: cui bono? Who benefits?
It is
all too confusing. I'm getting a headache. Back to munching
on dark chocolate and watching cat videos.
Millions were beginning to think that that Trump wasn't
really leading the charge against the NWO and that he was
really
part of the NWO himself
--just like the NYT and the
person who wrote the op-ed, but by attacking Trump, these
NWO stooges
proved
Trump is leading the charge
against the NWO, and
proved
(after the
Sarah Jeong scandal
) to just as many others that the
NYT really is the most trustworthy institution in America
... just when both the NYT and Trump needed some street
cred the most ... and there's no way we are getting
played ... and there's no way this could be just theater
... or a psyop ... oh wait ...
Wasn't there a ZH article a few weeks ago about an algorithm that
could predict the author of a text, to a very high 90's percentile,
based on speech patterns?
I say we try it out and root out this
"saboteur".
However, I think we'd find that they are a fake.
Something about it feels contrived, why would a deep spate
functionary expose the apparatus that controls power regardless of
who is elected? What is the first rule of Fight Club?
I have a suspicion it is a plant, in an effort to convince the
masses that the deep state does exist. They are preaching to the
choir here at ZH, but 98% of the country has absolutely no idea what
the fuck Deep State even means. This makes it real for the common
man, In that respect, I guess it's a good thing. It just feels fake
though.
This whole year is playing out like the script from "House of Cards."
Now the MSM is calling for Trump to be removed as "unfit to hold
office." Liberals have hated Donald Trump since he first appeared on the
scene oil the 1970s as a loudmouth trust fund developer. They fought
every project he undertook and mocked him. Famously, "Spy" Magazine
belittled him as a "short-fingered vulgarian and Queens-born casino
operator" every time they mentioned his name, which was often. The
magazine's editor, Graydon Carter, despised Trump. Trump predicted the
magazine would fail within a year. So Carter put a calendar in the back
of the magazine, tearing off the days to prove Trump wrong. Alas, Trump
was right, and Spy shuttered before the year was out. It was a shame,
because the magazine was terrific and funny, but it had that typical
liberal New York Ivy League snottiness and superiority.
As
embarrassing as Trump may be, and he is certainly that, he is not
insane, nor unable to do the job. You may hate the job he is doing, but
this country has laws. If Mueller proves Trump committed real crimes
that mandate his indictment and removal, then so be it. But until then,
just because he runs a chaotic ship doesn't mean he can simply be taken
out.
The op-ed represents a shocking critique of Trump and is without precedent in modern
American history. Former CIA Director
John Brennan , who has sparred fiercely with the president, called the op-ed "active
insubordination born out of loyalty to the country, not to Donald Trump".
"This is not sustainable to have an executive branch where individuals are not following the
orders of the chief executive," Brennan told NBC's "Today" show. "I do think things will get
worse before they get better. I don't know how Donald Trump is going to react to this. A
wounded lion is a very dangerous animal, and I think Donald Trump is wounded."
In it, the anonymous author describes Trump as amoral, "anti-trade and anti-democratic" and
prone to making "half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions".
The writer claims aides had explored the possibility of removing Trump from office via
the 25th amendment , a complex constitutional mechanism to allow for the replacement of a
president who is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office", but had decided
against it.
An op-ed written in the New York Times by an anonymous "senior official in the Trump
administration" has drawn harsh rebuke from both sides of the aisle and beyond - after everyone
from President Trump to Glenn Greenwald to the
Los Angeles Times
chimed in with various
criticisms.
The author, who claims to be actively working against Trump in collusion with other
senior officials in what they call a "resistance inside the Trump administration," has now been
labeled everything from a coward, to treasonous, to nonexistent.
Trump, as expected,
lashed out
at the "failing" New York Times - before questioning whether the the mystery
official really exists, and that if they do, the New York Times should reveal the author's identity
as a matter of national security.
Trump supporters, also as expected, slammed the op-ed as either pure fiction or treason - a
suggestion Trump made earlier Wednesday.
What we don't imagine the anonymous author or the
Times
saw coming was the onslaught of
criticism coming from the center and left - those who stand to benefit the most from Trump's fall
from grace, or at least probably wouldn't mind it.
In an op-ed which appeared hours after the
NYT
piece, Jessica Roy of
the
Los
Angeles Times
writes: "
No, anonymous Trump official, you're not 'part of
the resistance.' You're a coward
" for not going
far enough
to stop Trump and in
fact enabling him.
If they really believe there's a need to subvert the president to protect the country,
they should be getting this person out of the White House. But they're too cowardly and
afraid of the possible implications
. They hand-wave the notion thusly:
"Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of
invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But
no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis."
How is it that utilizing the 25th Amendment of the Constitution would cause a crisis,
but admitting to subverting a democratically elected leader wouldn't?
...
If you're reading this, senior White House official, know this: You are not resisting
Donald Trump. You are enabling him for your own benefit. That doesn't make you an unsung hero.
It makes you a coward. -
LA
Times
Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald - the Pulitzer Prize Winning co-founder of
The Intercept,
also
called the author of the op-ed
a "coward" whose ideological issues "voters didn't ratify."
Greenwald continues; "The irony in the op-ed from the NYT's anonymous WH coward is glaring and
massive:
s/he accuses Trump of being "anti-democratic" while boasting of membership in an
unelected cabal that covertly imposes their own ideology with zero democratic accountability,
mandate or transparency.
"
So who is the "coward" in the White House?
While the author remains anonymous, there are a couple of clues in the case. For starters,
Bloomberg
White
House reporter Jennifer Jacobs points out that the
New York Times
revealed that a man
wrote the op-ed, which rules out Kellyanne Conway, Nikki Haley, Ivanka and Melania (the latter two
being
CNN's
suggestions
).
A second clue comes from the language used in the op-ed, and in particular "
Lodestar
"
- a rare word used by Mike Pence in at least one speech. Then again, someone trying to make one
think it's pence would also use that word (which was oddly Merriam-Webster's
word of the day
last
Tuesday).
A pence-theory hashtag has already emerged to support this theory;
#VeepThroat
Given the Op-Ed's praise of the late Senator John McCain, never-Trumper and Iraq War
sabre-rattler Bill Kristol tweeted that it was Kevin Hassett, the Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisers. Of course, Kristol and whoever wrote the op-ed are ideologically aligned, so one
might question why he would voluntarily work against this person.
So while we don't know who wrote the op-ed, it appears to be backfiring spectacularly on its
author(s) amid wild theories and harsh rebuke from all sides of the aisle.
We're sure Carlos Slim - the largest owner of the
New York Times
and once the richest
man on earth, is having a good laugh at Trump's expense either way... for now.
Perhaps Trump can push the "fabrication" angle longer than NYT can retain the moral high ground
- especially after they hired, then refused to fire,
Sarah Jeong
- a new addition to the NYT editorial board who was revealed in old tweets to be an
openly bigoted, with a particularly deep hatred of "old white men."
The
New York Times
stood by Jeong - claiming she was simply responding to people
harassing her for being an Asian lesbian - only to have their absurd theory shredded within hours
.
Jeong
in fact has a multi-year history of unprovoked and random comments expressing hatred towards white
men.
And now she's right on the front lines of perhaps the greatest attempt to smear Trump yet. Not
exactly a good look for the
Times
at a time when MSM credibility has already taken a hit.
How many
broke bread
with the Clinton campaign leading up to the 2016 election?
Vote up!
158
Vote down!
2
Coup d'etat, in every sense of the word.......Constitution? What's that?
Roaches aren't even scurrying when you turn the lights on anymore. Trying to overthrow an elected standing government is the very definition of
treason.
That is an interesting angle. . . Trump creating his
own narratives by using agents to leak to the
blatently bias NYT. Jeebus, but the trouble that
strategy could cause. Millions out there are wound
tight across Amerika. Wouldnt take much of a spark to
get a good fire going. .
These are all staged irrelevances designed to distract
people...the few remaining people who are not addicted to
their screens. Remember - all media, all members of both
parties, all white house employees and especially Trump
work for the same cabal. No one can step out of line and
stay alive. The cabal knows everything.
If people yell loud and often enough, many will
actually forget that they are now knee deep in
ice-cold saltwater.
#Titanic
Let's focus on the important things, like a
scripted reality show fight, versus, idk, the fact
that we are again on the precipice of yet another
meltdown, only this time the Fed is fucked cause
nobody can borrow anymore $$, interest rates are still
way too low, and we are on our way to a Maunder
Minimum.
I could go on and on with REAL issues, but it seems
we just don't talk about them anymore. No need to see
how medical is bankrupting us, pensions are fucked,
"students" are quickly on their way to being
skullfucked with no way out.
We are setup for a calamity that will be 10x worse
than 2008, and the only thing I hear is the ever
increasing volume of "Everything is Awesome."
My dear, you don't really quite realize what you have
given the Trump Administration.
What the Times have
done is assured their readers that there is a counter
coup currently underway to bring down this sitting
President.
Back up and let that reality marinate.
Understand that now any failings or short comings that
come out of this administration can be laid at the feet
of the saboteurs working to bring down the government.
So if the economy rolls over and dies, it's the
saboteur's fault. If gas prices spike, it's the
senator's fault. If a nuke goes off in an American city,
it's the saboteur's fault. If the President is
impeached, it is the saboteur's fault. Any opposition to
this President from this point on is the result of a
concerted effort on the part of a gang of saboteurs to
bring down the government.
Merry Christmas, you have
just added the raison d'eter for a purge of all Obama
appointees in every executive agency.
President Trump thought that he could 'go along
to get along'. He is a slow learner. Taking credit
for a ginormous stock market bubble created by
cheap credit and buybacks, no real effort to build
a wall, massive tax cuts to
millionaires/billionaires, kissing Israel's ass,
the list goes on and on. The man hasn't done much
of anything to really help the middle class. And,
he hasn't done enough to even protect himself. The
op-ed is a hit piece. So what. But, Trump better
get up to speed sooner rather than later.
Are you really this stupid? The Trump administration
is owned by the banksters, every bit as much as the
'saboteur'. You really don't understand the game at
all.
CIA hit piece to discredit Trump and
sow division in the cabinet shortly before midterms.
If Trump fires half of his cabinet, or locks everyone down
hunting for the mole - "Seee?! We told you he was tyrannical!"
If he doesn't react or address it, it hangs out there,
continuing to make everyone believe he's an unstable bumbling
moron. And as he's stated previously, he's a "very stable
genius".
Either way, what may have been a clever ploy is a ham-fisted
CIA plot that misjudged it's audience (like they've never done
THAT before) and will continue to backfire. People are so sick
of the virtue signalling horseshit (Nike and Kuntpaernik come
to mind) that it's almost a guaranteed backfire when you try to
do it.
Imagine for a moment that you win the lottery and are appointed the
director of the CIA. Do you have any idea what the CIA does? Do you have
any inkling beyond what you have read in the media and the alternate media
of what agendas are afoot? Do you have any idea of what's at stake? Do
you have a clue about who you can trust? Are the lower echelons for you or
against you? Who do you talk to just to find out what is going on? Once
you are informed can you trust the information? Are the options you are
offered real options or are the serving someone's private agenda?
Now
imagine that you are President of the United States and half the electorate
wants to remove you from office. Who do you tap on the shoulder to
initiate the purge? How do you know they won't purge you?
I never said I was smart but I worked for one of the most corrupt
bureaucracies in the world for about a decade, and I learned a few
things about political tools and how to manipulate the narrative. What
the Times has done is publicly assert that there are saboteurs working
in the Trump administration who are actively attempting to bring down
this President. The Resistance i.e. the Democratic Party through its
mouth piece has openly stated that they are participating in an ongoing
coup to bring down the government. Do you not realize what kind of club
that has just been handed to Trump to beat down his opposition? Any
opposition is now aiding and abetting the attempted coup.
As for
government, the banks lent the money to purchase it in 1913. The banks
running the show is old news.
CIA hit piece to discredit Trump and sow division
in the cabinet shortly before midterms.
If Trump fires half of his cabinet, or locks everyone down hunting for
the mole - "Seee?! We told you he was tyrannical!" If he doesn't react or
address it, it hangs out there, continuing to make everyone believe he's an
unstable bumbling moron. And as he's stated previously, he's a "very stable
genius".
Either way, what may have been a clever ploy is a ham-fisted CIA plot
that misjudged it's audience (like they've never done THAT before) and will
continue to backfire. People are so sick of the virtue signalling horseshit
(Nike and Kuntpaernik come to mind) that it's almost a guaranteed backfire
when you try to do it.
syria had a legitimately elected government too, and look what's gone on
for the last seven years there.
you think these fuckers at CIA see any
difference between what they are able to do there and here in the US?
over there they drop pallets of weapons from the sky. over here they
drop what passes for information from their mockingbird operations.
same difference.
most america haters here at ZH are laughing because they think this
is the US getting their comeuppance. the comeuppance we are getting is
for challenging those who have been doing this to others for all these
years. it's not other nations turning around and doing this to the US.
it is those who have done this to others, are now doing it to the
citizens of the US. those america haters better hope we citizens win,
if not, that hell trump said would be unleashed on iran, will be
unleashed on the world. and all the hyperweapons invented or dreamed of
will not be able to stop it.
Government , its representatives and its agencies are unscrupulous
and immoral beyond the imagination of a normal person.
Northwoods,
Iraq WMD, Vietnam chemical weapon campaign, The Lusitania, Grenada,
Tonkin, kennedy assassinations.
The amazing thing is how people swallow all that and trot off to
the polls and never ask for any murderous corrupt bastard to be held
to account.
Meanwhile we lost the free press so now no lone voice questions
the moves of the real powers. The waste their voice on partisan
bickering over people who are only puppets leaving real power to play
its global killing games un remarked.
"... "When you think about it it's an amazing statement of their willingness to make themselves bigger than the entire American system," ..."
"... "extremely self-indulgent." ..."
"... "You should not be lapping up the benefits of being a senior administration official, no doubt while scouting for lucrative opportunities for when you leave your post," ..."
"... "If you are this person, you really should resign tonight." ..."
"... "just made things worse," ..."
"... "Anonymous leaking won't take down Trump. A person of honor speaking openly would have far more impact." ..."
"... "The thing about the op-ed is that reading its text, you can think the writer is 'principled,' as the NYT did. But in context, the author is a coward confessing to a coup and daring Trump to get worse," ..."
"... "Trump will go nuclear, making the efforts of this 'internal resistance' far harder," ..."
"... "What is the point of a secret cabal if you don't keep it secret?" ..."
"... "We all know Putin wrote the op-ed and the NYT claimed it's a senior Trump official because they think that's true," ..."
"... Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! ..."
Press Pundits are lining up to
weigh in on a salacious New York Times op-ed allegedly penned by an anonymous #Resister in the
Trump administration, with some experts on television calling the piece an all-out coup against
the president. The opinion piece in question, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump
Administration," has spawned a level of frenetic punditry not seen since George W. Bush was
spotted
sneaking Michelle Obama a cough drop. Only this time the stakes are allegedly much higher.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said on Wednesday the stunning claims made in the anonymous op-ed
– for example, that there is a group of "adults" in the White House who believe
Trump is unfit to hold office and are trying
to shape policy behind the president's back – are akin to "a coup."
"In other countries... they sometimes call this a coup," Wallace said on MSNBC's
Deadline: White House, referring to the article's assertion that there is a
"resistance" made up of administration officials which aims to protect the republic
from Trump's "amorality."
Another MSNBC talking head, Howard Fineman, said that he was troubled by the fact that the
op-ed appears to describe how "unelected aides have staged a slo-mo coup." Impeachment
– not "frenzy, mutiny and rumors" – is the antidote to Trump's criminal
unfitness for public service, he added.
The @nytimes
essay is troubling. Why? 1. The dangerous, ignorant volatility of @realDonaldTrump . 2. The claim
by UNELECTED aides to have staged a slo-mo coup. 3. The NYT letting the accuser hide.
#Trump 's unfit, but
caution: impeachment -- not frenzy, mutiny and rumor -- is the answer.
But others were even less impressed by the anonymous scoop-provider. Fox News host Sean
Hannity called the author of the op-ed a "swamp sewer creature who can't stand that there
is a new sheriff in town."
Hannity calls the senior Trump administration official who wrote the NYT op-ed a "swamp
sewer creature."
Speaking with Hannity on his program, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said
that the anonymous author had "repudiated our whole constitutional process."
"When you think about it it's an amazing statement of their willingness to make
themselves bigger than the entire American system," Gingrich
said .
Dana Perino, the former White House press secretary under George W. Bush, called the
mysterious author of the op-ed "extremely self-indulgent."
"You should not be lapping up the benefits of being a senior administration official, no
doubt while scouting for lucrative opportunities for when you leave your post," she
said .
"If you are this person, you really should resign tonight."
Almost all of the nation's sharpest political minds were in agreement on one point, however:
This mystery senior government official should reveal him/herself, in order to save America
from fascism, or hokey #Resistance claptrap, depending on whom you ask.
The op-ed "just made things worse," conservative commentator and National Review
senior fellow David French said. "Anonymous leaking won't take down Trump. A person of
honor speaking openly would have far more impact."
1) The guy is real (no way the NYT puts forth a fake source);
2) His story is likely largely true (perhaps exaggerated at the margins);
3) He's just made things worse.
4) Anonymous leaking won't take down Trump. A person of honor speaking openly would have
far more impact
"If you are the author of this and you truly want to effectuate change... you want to do
something in service to the nation, you have to come forward and sign your name to this..
Come forward. You could change the fate of the country..."- @DavidJollyFL w/ @NicolleDWallacepic.twitter.com/d9l7PMnzkj
"The thing about the op-ed is that reading its text, you can think the writer is
'principled,' as the NYT did. But in context, the author is a coward confessing to a coup and
daring Trump to get worse," veteran journalist Dan Froomkin said. He added that he thought
it was wrong of the Times not to identify the piece's author.
The thing about the op-ed is that reading its text, you can think the writer is
"principled," as the NYT did. But in context, the author is a coward confessing to a coup and
daring Trump to get worse. They shouldna granted anonymity.
Much has also been discussed about Trump's reaction to the article.
"Trump will go nuclear, making the efforts of this 'internal resistance' far
harder," predicted Washington Post contributor Carlos Lozada. "What is the point
of a secret cabal if you don't keep it secret?"
Gut reaction to NYT oped:
1) Feeds/confirms Trump's worst fears about the deep state plots
2) Trump will go nuclear, making the efforts of this "internal resistance" far harder
3) What is the point of a secret cabal if you don't keep it secret?
Not everyone is calling for the anonymous author to come forward, however: At least one
pundit claims to already know who penned the troubling opinion piece.
"We all know Putin wrote the op-ed and the NYT claimed it's a senior Trump official
because they think that's true," Ben Shapiro tweeted.
We all know Putin wrote the op-ed and the NYT claimed it's a senior Trump official because
they think that's true.
This really smells with coup d'état. Trump may be a threat but so is this covert coup
to impose these policies. The op ed suggests the existence of anti-Trump 'sleeper cells' within
the government"
The author also claimed that the administration's achievements had included some "bright
spots" such as "effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and
more".
Notable quotes:
"... The New York Times ..."
"... is required by their own oath ..."
"... If Anonymous=Deep State, then Trump brought this Deep State with him. These are his appointees ..."
The New York Timespublished
a strange op-ed purportedly written by a "senior official" in the Trump administration:
The dilemma -- which he does not fully grasp -- is that many of the senior officials in
his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda
and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular "resistance" of the left. We want the administration
to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more
prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a
manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.
The author of the op-ed flatters himself by claiming to be acting in the best interests of
the country, but there is something very wrong with having self-appointed guardians assuming
that they have the right to sabotage certain policies of the elected president. For one, they
have no authority to do what they're doing, and no one voted for them. It is one thing to argue
that professionals should be willing to serve a bad president in the interests of public
service, and it is quite another to argue that the officials working for the president are
entitled to disregard and override the president's decisions because the president happens to
be an ignorant buffoon. The "two-track presidency" that the official boasts about is an affront
to our system of government. It is not reassuring that U.S. foreign policy continues as if on
autopilot no matter what the electorate votes for.
Perversely, the more that Trump administration officials "frustrate parts of his agenda,"
the more likely it is that Trump remains in power longer than he otherwise would. The official
says that the core of the problem is the president's "amorality." That raises the obvious
question: how can someone acknowledge that the president has no principles or scruples of any
kind and still in good conscience try to help him succeed? These officials are not only
enabling a president whose behavior they consider to be "detrimental to the health of our
republic," but they are helping to make sure that he stays in office instead of hastening his
defeat. They want credit for "resisting" Trump when their "resistance" amounts to manipulating
the policies of the government to their own liking.
There are legitimate political and constitutional remedies for an unfit president, but the
anonymous "resistance" official isn't interested in any of that. He prefers to keep the
administration from completely imploding because it also happens to be advancing a mostly
conventional Republican agenda that he likes. There is nothing particularly admirable about
that, and he should not have been granted anonymity to write his self-congratulatory article.
If this official feels so strongly that the president endangers the health and well-being of
the country, he should put his name on a statement to that effect when he announces his
resignation.
Who knew the Deep State (tm?) included Trump's political appointees? (see Times guidelines on
who that attribute as "senior administration officials" )
Donald: Yes, but that Deep State was brought in by Trump and is trying to keep their jobs. I
agree with Daniel's analysis, but I am not at all confident that our Constitution is equipped
to deal with a sociopath as President when you also have a legislative branch that knows it
but refuses to do it's constitutional duty.
It is my understanding from carefully listening to Trump Supporters (I am not one) that this
is exactly the reason why he was elected. There is a feeling (particularly strongly felt
among Trump supporters, but a lot of Bernie supporters felt a version of it too) that
although we continue to have elections in this country, that we are ceasing to be a democracy
because decision-making is increasingly being taken away from or being delegated away from
elected officials.
Supporters of a very powerful Executive Branch might argue "hey, it's not exactly the way
that our Founder Fathers envisioned our Federal System to work, but if the Executive takes
decision-making power away from unelected bureaucrats, lifetime-appointed judges, and a
deadlocked Congress, then at least we get to vote every 4 years on kicking the bum out of the
White House or not".
A White House that has decision-making taken power away from the person of the Executive,
thus devolving power back to unelected officials, is a true crisis for democracy. Impeachment
or the 25th Amendment are Constitutional remedies for a corrupt or incapacitated Executive
because they take power away from an elected official and invest them in a new official
subject to election. White House officials secretly undermining the President doesn't pass
Constitutional muster, no matter how bad the President is.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get
it good and hard." – H. L. Mencken
It's a remarkable editorial. It appears to be a confession of treason. Similar words, written
in response to a popular president, would hopefully trigger an investigation leading to
conviction and imprisonment of those involved.
Every indication is that the writer is correct: Trump is a disaster. But if the writer
wants to live up to his/her claim of putting country first, s/he and the other cafeteria
Republicans (i.e., selective co-conspirators) should stop trying to have it both ways,
keeping their salaries and their positions of power in the name of the Trump administration
while simultaneously reserving the right to undermine it. Instead, they should find the
courage to step forward en masse.
An independent investigator could help them to find that courage. The process of exploring
and publicizing what has gone on, in that White House, may help to push the nation toward a
serious discussion of an appropriate replacement for its present corrupted and dysfunctional
form of democracy.
I have some reservations about this so called 'Resistance' Op-Ed in the NYT. This whole
'resistance' affair sounds hollow and not very authentic to me. I also have reservation about
the new book 'Fear' by Bob Woodward. The book as such probably is needed, but naming who said
what is counterproductive, to put it mildly. I do not think B. Woodward got permission to
assign names to who said what because if he had permission the people to whom some statements
are assigned would not deny them. I suspect that B. Woodward in reality conscientiously works
for D. Trump. Why I do think so: because I can not imagine that he in his book could not
anticipate what D. Trump will do next with those named. The book by B. Woodward will only
help to purge the rest of the moderate people from trump administration and put in their
place his favorites so he will have free hand to do whatever he wants probably until 2024.
I suspect this op-ed is nothing more than someone trying to establish their own personal
defense for when the whole thing comes crashing down. "No no no – don't blame me! I
wasn't really part of it. In fact I was really trying to stop it the whole time." If what
this person is writing is true, then there is a constitutional remedy that he or she is
required by their own oath to implement. Failing to do that, and just trying to
undermine Trump secretly is making them just as guilty. I despise Trump as much as anyone,
but this is not the way to deal with him.
I agree up to a point. If Trump got up one morning and decided he was tired of arguing with
North Korea and ordered a first nuclear strike, I'd hope that there'd be people around him
who would stop him, as that would, no doubt, be in the best interest of the country. To
assume that they'd have time to go through the constitutional removal procedure in time to
stop the needless deaths of millions of people is absurd.
Now, I'm not saying what they are doing is preventing nuclear war. I'm just making the
point that there are limits to your principled position.
"They want credit for "resisting" Trump when their "resistance" amounts to manipulating
the policies of the government to their own liking. "
Yes. Creepy. Especially in light of Trump's about-turn on foreign policy, in which this
administration has used our money and military power to serve Israeli and Saudi Arabian
interests instead of America's.
Now we know where the "America First" policy of the campaign went. It went down the Deep
State rabbit hole. We're still mired in the Middle East, still doing favors for Israel and
Saudi Arabia. Things didn't get better. They got far worse.
Hiding behind anonymity I believe shows a lack of courage and conviction. I am surprised a
genuine "newspaper" would even publish the article. How can anyone be believed when they
don;t have the courage to sign their name?
This basically confirms what many have suspected and feared. Neocon Establishment types
worked their way into the White House and have been pursuing their own foreign policy agenda,
exploiting the President's ignorance, stupidity, and impulsiveness.
"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron" – H. L.
Mencken
Some at TAC have suggested for quite a while that Trump was "hijacked" by his staff at some
point. While most of what he's done is clearly down to Trump himself, those who have
suggested that he has been manipulated and controlled by advisors just got whopping
corroboration from the Woodward book and NYT op/ed.
Under the circumstances, there's obviously concern that foreign countries have been
exploiting the situation. FBI counterespionage agents, a small army of them, should be
checking and re-checking the foreign connections of his current staff, to the extent that
isn't already being done by Mueller.
And it isn't just Russia. China, Israel and Saudi Arabia are obvious suspects, if for no
other reason that they spy on and attempt to influence us with at least the same intensity as
Russia. The investigators should look where Trump has been spending his time in the foreign
policy arena. He has been threatening and pressuring some countries, but he is also doing
favors for others. For what countries has he been doing favors? And in threatening certain
countries is he doing the will of others?
Reminds me of the story of the last days of the Nixon White House, when the pressure was
driving him to drunken wanderings punctuated by near unhinged rants. Senior officials became
so worried that they contacted the pentagon and told them to ignore nuclear launch orders
unless confirmed by someone else.
In all seriousness though, this is less some kind of "deep state" and more of what you get
when you run the White House the way Trump apparently has. He's packed his administration
with people of dubious ability for the most part, with the highest qualification apparently
being how he perceives their loyalty to him. Then he sets them all at odds against each
other, fighting for the scraps of his attention to get their own agendas enacted.
In that kind of environment it's inevitable that someone will believe that One, the
emperor has no clothes, and Two, the agenda they are fighting so hard to shepherd through
this administration is more important than the administration itself. So why not just do an
end run around the moron and do whatever they want.
Ray Woodcock: " It appears to be a confession of treason. "
Only if you regard the US president as a monarch to whom his minions owe a duty of
personal allegiance. Because that is the way treason is typically defined in monarchies. (For
example, in the UK.) In the United States treason has a very different definition. You can
find it in section 3 of article 3 of the Constitution. There allegiance is not to any one
person but to the United States as a whole, and more specifically to the Constitution.
In other words, in the US it isn't treason to betray a president, although I will grant
you many Americans do treat treason as if that WERE the case. But then just how many of them
have even read their nation's Constitution?
Re treason : "There allegiance is not to any one person but to the United States as a whole,
and more specifically to the Constitution."
Yes. There may be treason if a foreign country has infiltrated Trump's staff with
operatives who persuaded Trump to do things against the national security interests of the
United States – actions on behalf of a foreign country that imperil American persons or
property, civilian or military.
The idea that the ethical problem at the White House is not Pr. Trump is pretty odd.
Pr. Trump says GOP legislators shouldn't be prosecuted by DOJ, voting is rigged, FBI is
corrupt, 3 million Mexicans voted, orders economic deal with S. Korea to end, apparently
forgets about it, and etc, and somehow Mr. Larison, David Frum, and David Graham think a
bureaucrat ratting on the President and other bureaucrats frustrating the President's desires
is a constitutional crisis?
When members of the President's own cabinet are taking the same actions as these
bureaucrats, because they think the President is immature, not stable, or immoral?
They work with the President. They would know.
Apparently no one wants to work for Pr. Trump. Why can't he find people who agree with him
and respect him?
Go after Pr. Trump's cabinet members for a deep state, not petty bureaucrats who could be
fired and replaced any time.
Ask yourself why the President can't find good people to work for him.
The answer is tweeting at you every day and the finger should be pointing back at him.
"It's a remarkable editorial. It appears to be a confession of treason. "
But Trump has been spectacularly disloyal to the people who work for him. Is there anyone
other than family members who he hasn't belittled and attacked? Hell, he's even betrayed
those who voted for him (see long list of broken promises).
Given his own treacherous nature, how much loyalty can he reasonably expect? He must have
already fired half of those he hired, so it's not too surprising that many are now writing
books or telling tales to the NYT or WaPo.
That said, there are probably some real traitors in there. I'd guess most of the real
traitors are spies working for foreign countries, taking advantage of the chaos to get things
done for their foreign masters. That's a real cause for concern.
Clearly this is an admission of a Deep State. Many of you might agree with the politics of
the Deep State operative below but keep in mind he is phrasing the issue in the most
political way possible but that's the point. We don't resolve political disagreements by
using the power if the bureaucracy to tie the President up in say, 'collusion investigations'
in combination with what entrenched agencies want. If we did so we would still be enemies of
Great Britain. Those rogues burned down the White House and armed the Confederates.
The Deep State is trying to get us into battle against the Russians in Syria to create
Iraq 2.0 and is cheering on his mania against Iran for Iraq 3.0.
"Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for
autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea's
leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to
allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on
another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished
accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed
as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin's
spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for
weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with
Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions
on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better -- such
actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable"
All of this is well and good as the expression goes. The anonymous author of the Op Ed piece
should come forward and cease serving in an administration which is at odds with his or her
sensibilities except for one thing that above all else must be considered in this respect:
The Chief Executive has his finger on the button.
The case made by Mr. Larison is correct except for this one major consideration. One
individual can launch a nuclear strike and that individual no matter who it has been and no
matter who it is today and will be tomorrow has that power. Perhaps the time is past due to
reconsider granting one individual with this capacity to act which with one directive sent
directly to our nuclear warhead tipped missile silos may bring the end to our species on this
planet.
Many of the complaints from the NYT's anonymous WH coward - not all, but
many - are ideological: that Trump deviates from GOP orthodoxy, an ideology he didn't
campaign on & that voters didn't ratify. Trump may be a threat but so is this covert
coup to impose these policies. pic.twitter.com/4Qf54JJHN9
Replying to @ggreenwald The irony in the op-ed from the
NYT's anonymous WH coward is glaring and massive: s/he accuses Trump of being
"anti-democratic" while boasting of membership in an unelected cabal that covertly imposes
their own ideology with zero democratic accountability, mandate or transparency
"... "Within 24 hours of her concession speech, [campaign chair John Podesta and manager Robby Mook] assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn't entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument." ..."
"... The investigation is based on a lie. Therefore it is unconstitutional and nothing more than an attempt to cover up MASSIVE crimes committed by the pplayers now losing their security clearance and their puppet masters ..."
"Within 24 hours of her concession speech, [campaign chair John Podesta and manager Robby
Mook] assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case
that the election wasn't entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack
containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and
the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument."
The plan, according to the book, was to push journalists to cover how "Russian hacking was
the major unreported story of the campaign," and it succeeded to a fare-thee-well. After the
election, coverage of the Russian "collusion" story was relentless, and it helped pressure
investigations and hearings on Capitol Hill and even the naming of a special counsel, which
in turn has triggered virtually nonstop coverage.
And now you want to talk about trying to shoe horn reality into your fantasy outcome.
Anyone with with 2 brain cells to rub together is laughing at you and your ilk pushing this
complete horse chit.
The investigation is based on a lie. Therefore it is unconstitutional and nothing more
than an attempt to cover up MASSIVE crimes committed by the pplayers now losing their
security clearance and their puppet masters.
Do yourself a favor and turn off that freak Rachel Madcow!
Cohen / Manafort mess creates a whole other level of problems for the current
Administration. So Mueller got Trump in an old fashioned way by digging the
personal and business related dirt and going after people who were close to
Trump. This is how prosecutors approach mafia cases ;-)
Notable quotes:
"... Cohen claims he and Trump thus conspired to violate federal law. But paying girlfriends to keep past indiscretions private is neither a crime nor a campaign violation. And Trump could legally contribute as much as he wished to his own campaign for president. ..."
"... Hence the high-fives among never-Trumpers are premature. ..."
"... But if Cohen's guilty plea and Tuesday's conviction of campaign manager Paul Manafort do not imperil Trump today, what they portend is ominous. For Cohen handled Trump's dealings for more than a decade and has pledged full cooperation with prosecutors from both the Southern District of New York and the Robert Mueller investigation. ..."
"... Also, Manafort, now a convicted felon facing life in prison, has the most compelling of motives to "flip" and reveal anything that could be useful to Mueller and harmful to Trump. Then there is the Mueller probe itself. ..."
"... Twenty-six months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon had resigned. Twenty-six months after the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails, Mueller has yet to deliver hard evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Putin's Russia, though this was his mandate. ..."
"... However, having, for a year now, been marching White House aides and campaign associates of Trump before a grand jury, Mueller has to be holding more cards than he is showing. And even if they do not directly implicate the president, more indictments may be coming down. ..."
"... And as this Congress has only weeks left before the 2018 elections, it will be the new House that meets in January, which may well be Democratic, that will receive Mueller's report. ..."
"... Trump is not going to resign. To do so would open him up to grand jury subpoenas, federal charges and civil suits for the rest of his life. To resign would be to give up his sword and shield, and all of his immunity. He would be crazy to leave himself naked to his enemies. ..."
"... No, given his belief that he is under attack by people who hate him and believe he is an illegitimate president, and seek to bring him down, he will use all the powers of the presidency in his fight for survival. And as he has shown, these powers are considerable: the power to rally his emotional following, to challenge courts, to fire Justice officials and FBI executives, to pull security clearances, to pardon the convicted. ..."
"... if Democrats capture the House, then they will be the ones under intolerable pressure from their own media auxiliaries to pursue impeachment. ..."
"... Instead, he's embarked on a massively ambitious nation-building project in northeast Syria and is otherwise scouring the globe for new wars to start, while mostly catering to his rich friends at home. And Israel, Israel, Israel all the time. ..."
"... What has he done that's actually useful? Ditching TTIP? OK let's grant him that one. Meeting Kim? Mayyybe, but at the same time he chose to appoint Bolton and Pompeo who are predictably sabotaging the Singapore understanding. Meanwhile, American finances are going off the cliff at an ever-accelerating pace. ..."
"... All of which is the perfect mirror image of an equally true statement: if Obama hadn't been such a lousy president (which his supporters are in denial about), a known charlatan like Trump would've never had a shot at the office. ..."
"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer," said President Donald Trump ruefully, "I would
strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen." Michael Cohen is no Roy
Cohn.
Tuesday, Trump's ex-lawyer, staring at five years in prison, pled guilty to a campaign
violation that may not even be a crime. Cohen had fronted the cash, $130,000, to pay porn star
Stormy Daniels for keeping quiet about a decade-old tryst with Trump. He had also brokered a
deal whereby the National Enquirer bought the rights to a story about a Trump affair with a
Playboy model, to kill it.
Cohen claims he and Trump thus conspired to violate federal law. But paying girlfriends
to keep past indiscretions private is neither a crime nor a campaign violation. And Trump could
legally contribute as much as he wished to his own campaign for president.
Would a Democratic House, assuming we get one, really impeach a president for paying hush
money to old girlfriends?
Hence the high-fives among never-Trumpers are premature.
But if Cohen's guilty plea and Tuesday's conviction of campaign manager Paul Manafort do
not imperil Trump today, what they portend is ominous. For Cohen handled Trump's dealings for
more than a decade and has pledged full cooperation with prosecutors from both the Southern
District of New York and the Robert Mueller investigation.
Nothing that comes of this collaboration will be helpful to Trump.
Also, Manafort, now a convicted felon facing life in prison, has the most compelling of
motives to "flip" and reveal anything that could be useful to Mueller and harmful to Trump.
Then there is the Mueller probe itself.
Twenty-six months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon had resigned. Twenty-six
months after the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails, Mueller has yet to deliver hard
evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Putin's Russia, though this was his mandate.
However, having, for a year now, been marching White House aides and campaign associates
of Trump before a grand jury, Mueller has to be holding more cards than he is showing. And even
if they do not directly implicate the president, more indictments may be coming down.
Mueller may not have the power to haul the president before a grand jury or indict him.
After all, it is Parliament that deposes and beheads the king, not the sheriff of Nottingham.
But Mueller will file a report with the Department of Justice that will be sent to the
House.
And as this Congress has only weeks left before the 2018 elections, it will be the new
House that meets in January, which may well be Democratic, that will receive Mueller's
report.
Still, as of now, it is hard to see how two-thirds of a new Senate would convict this
president of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Thus we are in for a hellish year.
Trump is not going to resign. To do so would open him up to grand jury subpoenas,
federal charges and civil suits for the rest of his life. To resign would be to give up his
sword and shield, and all of his immunity. He would be crazy to leave himself naked to his
enemies.
No, given his belief that he is under attack by people who hate him and believe he is an
illegitimate president, and seek to bring him down, he will use all the powers of the
presidency in his fight for survival. And as he has shown, these powers are considerable: the
power to rally his emotional following, to challenge courts, to fire Justice officials and FBI
executives, to pull security clearances, to pardon the convicted.
Democrats who have grown giddy about taking the House should consider what a campaign to
bring down a president, who is supported by a huge swath of the nation and has fighting allies
in the press, would be like.
Why do it? Especially if they knew in advance the Senate would not convict.
That America has no desire for a political struggle to the death over impeachment is
evident. Recognition of this reality is why the Democratic Party is assuring America that
impeachment is not what they have in mind.
Today, it is Republicans leaders who are under pressure to break with Trump, denounce him,
and call for new investigations into alleged collusion with the Russians. But if Democrats
capture the House, then they will be the ones under intolerable pressure from their own media
auxiliaries to pursue impeachment.
Taking the House would put newly elected Democrats under fire from the right for forming a
lynch mob, and from the mainstream media for not doing their duty and moving immediately to
impeach Trump.
Democrats have been laboring for two years to win back the House. But if they discover that
the first duty demanded of them
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, "Nixon's White House Wars: The
Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever. "
President Pence would do little to undo the political polarization that America has
experienced over the past two decades since his voting record suggests that he leans rather
heavily to the right side of the political spectrum.
Maybe this is payback for the other impeachment attempt 20 years ago. Perhaps some dems
have been waiting two decades for vengeance. Whatever Clinton's faults, the GOP should not
have opened that can of worms back then.
Either the Republicans come out ahead in which case the left will say it was because of
"Russian" interference and the election results are thus illegitimate. Or the Democrats will
and they will not only be under pressure to impeach Trump but also to punish the deplorables
who voted for him.
Well, this would constitute a real civil war. All because Obama and Hillary failed at
rigging an election and failed at launching a coup. Good Times. Keep your powder dry.
Well, this would constitute a real civil war. All because Obama and Hillary failed at
rigging an election and failed at launching a coup. Good Times. Keep your powder dry.
Meh. Who are you going to shoot at? Your neighbors? The local messican ghetto? Cops in
general?
IMO, just like always throughout history, the key is to nab "elected representatives" from
local, state and federal positions, and hang them. You don't have to hang very many --
they're smarter than they look; they're merely corrupt slimebags. Kill a few, and the rest
scatter, awaiting future opportunity.
Mr. Buchanan somehow manages to make it through the entire article without reminding us
that, in fact, the GOP did impeach a president over a blowjob–what goes around,
comes around. And while I doubt that Pat is among his fans, Bill Clinton at the time was a
good deal more popular than Trump is now.
Which brings us to something basic: Democrats and liberals in general have jumped the
shark for everyone to see, they're stark raving mad. Granted, the GOP is not exactly Trump's
party, but in an environment where Republicans face no substantial opposition, Trump could
potentially do something for his voters and there would be no possibility of a blue wave.
Instead, he's embarked on a massively ambitious nation-building project in northeast Syria
and is otherwise scouring the globe for new wars to start, while mostly catering to his rich
friends at home. And Israel, Israel, Israel all the time.
What has he done that's actually
useful? Ditching TTIP? OK let's grant him that one. Meeting Kim? Mayyybe, but at the same
time he chose to appoint Bolton and Pompeo who are predictably sabotaging the Singapore
understanding. Meanwhile, American finances are going off the cliff at an ever-accelerating
pace.
All of which is the perfect mirror image of an equally true statement: if Obama hadn't
been such a lousy president (which his supporters are in denial about), a known
charlatan like Trump would've never had a shot at the office.
For an outsider, the
sentimental attachment of this supposedly forward-looking country to its two officially
allowed parties which haven't served their stated purpose for decades already is a curious
thing to behold.
Although I lean conservative, I despair for my country. If Trump's election "unauthorized by the real powers that be" proves to be the match that
sets alight the country then we're all in for a form of Hell that few of us have seen.
Note that someone whose supposed level of intimacy with violence is someone who would not
know the first thing to do if war actually broke out. Exactly why you, the armchair warrior,
who waits with bated breath to jackboot your "enemies", will be staying at home rather than
being on the front lines, just like yourself, dear.
Now, onto Patrick's post.
"Michael Cohen is no Roy Cohn."
Patrick is partially right. They are both Jewish, and they both engaged in illegal
activity, but one was a closet homosexual.
"But paying girlfriends to keep past indiscretions private is neither a crime nor a
campaign violation "
Obviously if that was the case, Cohen would not have pled guilty. And clearly Patrick has
not been keeping up with the Mueller investigation on this particular development.
"Cohen claims he and Trump thus conspired to violate federal law."
No, Cohen is offering to corroborate the evidence collected by prosecutors as to what
constitutes illegal activities.
"No, given his belief that he is under attack by people who hate him and believe he is an
illegitimate president, and seek to bring him down, he will use all the powers of the
presidency in his fight for survival."
Well, we know for a fact that if Shitlery or Obama was in the SAME SITUATION, Patrick
would NOT be advocating this course of action. Rather, he would call for either of them to
step aside.
"Twenty-six months after the Watergate break-in, President Nixon had resigned. Twenty-six
months after the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta emails, Mueller has yet to deliver hard
evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Putin's Russia, though this was his mandate."
The Mueller investigation is a sore spot for Buchanan, who had to endure an eerily similar
experience with Nixon. So it is other than surprising that Buchanan is defending Trump.
Patrick ought to know better here, as Mueller is carefully gathering evidence from one of the
most complex cases in our nation's political history.
Justice in this instance has no time
table. Mueller is under no obligation to show his cards, that is not how prosecutions
work.
"... "Perhaps the greatest political damage came not from the felony charges, all of them related to various forms of financial chicanery, including five counts each for Cohen and Manafort of income tax evasion, but from Cohen's public statement in the courtroom of Judge Kimba Wood. In confessing his guilt to the eight counts, Cohen declared that in two instances, violating federal laws by using personal funds to suppress politically inconvenient statements by Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, he was acting "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office." ..."
"... My point is that Cohen's admissions implicating Trump in carrying out either himself or in concert with others willful ongoing acts violative of Federal Campaign Finance laws are CLEARLY sufficient-if substantiated-to oust him from office. ..."
"... "Mueller's strategy of focusing on Cohen and Manafort's white-collar crimes is perfectly reasonable, even in a probe directed at Russian interference in the 2016 election. "It's not unusual for prosecutors to use charges -- Al Capone is the primary example -- to bring down a criminal conspiracy in any way they can," Waxman pointed out." ..."
"... Cohen's guilty plea effectively makes Trump an unindicted co-conspirator. Current Justice Department guidelines say a sitting president cannot be indicted -- but building a legitimate criminal case against Trump would make it harder for Republicans to stand united in opposition to impeaching the president ..."
"... Cohen would be a prosecutor's "dream cooperator: one who had special insider access to the leader of a powerful, closed, corrupt organization," former prosecutors Mimi Rocah and Elie Honig wrote last month. "We used to prosecute mafia cases. We both know that in the mob -- and perhaps in this White House -- the right cooperator can bring down the entire hierarchy." ..."
"Perhaps the greatest political damage came not from the felony charges, all of them
related to various forms of financial chicanery, including five counts each for Cohen and
Manafort of income tax evasion, but from Cohen's public statement in the courtroom of Judge
Kimba Wood. In confessing his guilt to the eight counts, Cohen declared that in two
instances, violating federal laws by using personal funds to suppress politically
inconvenient statements by Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy
Daniels, he was acting "in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal
office."
My point is that Cohen's admissions implicating Trump in carrying out either himself
or in concert with others willful ongoing acts violative of Federal Campaign Finance laws are
CLEARLY sufficient-if substantiated-to oust him from office.
Don't think so??
If the following transgressions were sufficient to 'nail' their intended targets -which is
what happened - then Trump's acts in attempting to hush up Stormy (supra) COULD achieve the
same result. Whether or not some faction of TPTB has the WILL to impeach him is another
matter.
"Mueller's strategy of focusing on Cohen and Manafort's white-collar crimes is perfectly
reasonable, even in a probe directed at Russian interference in the 2016 election. "It's not
unusual for prosecutors to use charges -- Al Capone is the primary example -- to bring down a
criminal conspiracy in any way they can," Waxman pointed out."
Yup!!!
" Cohen's guilty plea effectively makes Trump an unindicted co-conspirator. Current
Justice Department guidelines say a sitting president cannot be indicted -- but building a
legitimate criminal case against Trump would make it harder for Republicans to stand united
in opposition to impeaching the president .
When President Richard Nixon was named an unindicted co-conspirator by a grand jury, he
opted to resign instead of face impeachment proceedings. Trump seems unlikely to step down,
however. Any further efforts on his part to block the investigation into his campaign would
put the Justice Department in uncharted territory"
Cohen would be a prosecutor's "dream cooperator: one who had special insider access to
the leader of a powerful, closed, corrupt organization," former prosecutors Mimi Rocah and
Elie Honig wrote last month. "We used to prosecute mafia cases. We both know that in the mob
-- and perhaps in this White House -- the right cooperator can bring down the entire
hierarchy."
From links I've already posted , getting a USC Title 18 conviction of Trump is not
necessarily that required to charge him with "High Crimes and Misdemeanors". Although there
is some dispute in legal circles as to what exactly constitutes a sufficent basis of facts
upon which impeachment can be based.
But it will establish an unsavory precedent – that any sitting president can be taken
out merely by selecting one of his/her aides and then threatening them with crushing
penalties for some silly transgression or other or they can turn state's evidence. Anyone who
ever dreamed of ascending to the nation's highest office would have to know that, by
facilitating this process, they were handing the lawmakers the means to remove any future
president.
But, as I said, I don't care. Hillary can't win it now, Pence is a dink, The Donald would
dig in his heels and fight all the way out, probably causing great damage, but if he went, so
what? He's a dreadful president. And the USA would be in political chaos.
Trump should have fired Sessions for recusing himself from this Congress instituted
witch-hunt. The job of Sessions is to be over-seer of the Special Counsel investigation.
Mueller cannot have special rights, he must follow the rules. Shaking down people around
Trump for tax evasion or assorted other unrelated crimes is not following the rules. It is
pure Inquisition tactics.
I would not be so quick to write Trump off as dreadful. He basically sabotaged the two
hyped up cruise missile attacks on Syria. Even though his hands are tied and his mouth is
gagged by US corporate-run "freedom", he managed to make both those attacks totally
ineffective. If he was a loyal servant of the US elites, he would have kept sending more and
more missiles and actually ordered NATzO or "coalition" jets to bomb Syrian targets
seriously. The sporadic Israeli and coalition attacks have been basically irrelevant.
He is rocking the boat as much as he can. This creates are sorts of noise. This noise is
not a metric of his efforts and success.
We'll see. If the Democrats are successful at having him impeached, they will probably create
a special holiday recognizing Stormy Daniels, or give her the Presidential Medal of Freedom
or something. I frankly don't care – he beat Hillary, and that's something she can
never erase or cover up.
I imagine they sweated him with the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison;
all the newspaper accounts of his testimony spoke of his shaky voice, and it's typically
pretty hard to scare a lawyer. They likely told him that he could just disappear into the
prison system and that there would be nothing at all he could do about it.
Thursday, the New York Times decried Trump's accusation that the media are "the enemy of the
people." "Insisting that truths you don't like are 'fake news' is dangerous to the lifeblood of
democracy. And calling journalists 'the enemy of the people' is dangerous, period," said the
Times .
Fifteen years ago, on February 5, 2003, against the backdrop of worldwide mass
demonstrations in opposition to the impending invasion of Iraq, then-US Secretary of State
Colin Powell argued before the United Nations that the government of Saddam Hussein was rapidly
stockpiling "weapons of mass destruction," which Iraq, together with Al Qaeda, was planning to
use against the United States.
In what was the climax of the Bush administration's campaign to justify war, Powell held up
a model vial of anthrax, showed aerial photographs and presented detailed slides purporting to
show the layout of Iraq's "mobile production facilities."
There was only one problem with Powell's presentation: it was a lie from beginning to
end.
... ... ...
...War against Iraq, the WSWS wrote, was not about "weapons of mass destruction."
Rather, "it is a war of colonial conquest, driven by a series of economic and geo-political
aims that center on the seizure of Iraq's oil resources and the assertion of US global
hegemony."
The response of the American media, and particularly its liberal wing, was very different.
Powell's litany of lies was presented as the gospel truth, an unanswerable indictment of the
Iraqi government.
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who rushed off a column before he could
have examined Powell's allegations, declared, "The evidence he presented to the United Nations
-- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove
to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a
doubt still retains them. Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude
otherwise."
The editorial board of the New York Times -- whose reporter Judith Miller was at
the center of the Bush administration's campaign of lies -- declared one week later that there
"is ample evidence that Iraq has produced highly toxic VX nerve gas and anthrax and has the
capacity to produce a lot more. It has concealed these materials, lied about them, and more
recently failed to account for them to the current inspectors."
Subsequent developments would prove who was lying. The Bush administration and its
media accomplices conspired to drag the US into a war that led to the deaths of more than one
million people -- a colossal crime for which no one has yet been held accountable.
Fifteen years later, the script has been pulled from the closet and dusted off. This time,
instead of "weapons of mass destruction," it is "Russian meddling in the US elections." Once
again, assertions by US intelligence agencies and operatives are treated as fact. Once again, the
media is braying for war. Once again, the cynicism and hypocrisy of the American government --
which intervenes in the domestic politics of every state on the planet and has been relentlessly
expanding its operations in Eastern Europe -- are ignored.
"... But it is worth noting that, particularly in recent decades, and under the auspices of Editorial Page editor James Bennet, there has been a remarkable integration of the Times ..."
Less than four days after the Parkland school shooting, the New York Times has
found a way to turn a national tragedy that claimed the lives of 17 high school students into
an opportunity to escalate its unrelenting campaign of anti-Russian propaganda, involving the
continuous bombardment of the public with reactionary lies and warmongering.
Against the backdrop of a major escalation of military tensions between the two countries,
the Times seized upon the Justice Department indictment of Russian nationals over the
weekend to claim that Russia is at "war" with the United States. Now, the Times has
widened this claim into an argument that Russia somehow bears responsibility for social
divisions over the latest mass shooting in America.
Its lead headline Tuesday morning blared: "SHOTS ARE FIRED, AND BOTS SWARM TO SOCIAL DIVIDES
- Florida School Shooting Draws an Army Ready to Spread Discord"
According to the Times , Russian "bots," or automated social media accounts, sought
"to widen the divide" on issues of gun control and mental illness, in order to "make compromise
even more difficult." Russia sought to exploit "the issue of mental illness in the gun control
debate," and "propagated the notion that Nikolas Cruz, the suspected gunman" was "mentally
ill."
The absurd claim that Russia is responsible for the existence of social divisions in America
is belied by the shooting itself, which is a testament to the fact that American society is
riven by antagonisms that express themselves, in the absence of a progressive outlet, in
outpourings of mass violence.
The aim of this campaign is to target anyone who would criticize the underlying social
causes of the shooting -- the violence of American society, the nonexistence of mental health
services, or even the social psychology that gives rise to mass shootings -- as a "Russian
agent" seeking to "sow divisions" in American society. The Times lead is based
entirely on a "dashboard" called Hamilton 68 created by the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for
Securing Democracy, whose lead spokesman is Clint Watts, the former US intelligence agent and
censorship advocate who declared in November that social media companies must "silence" sources
of "rebellion."
Without naming any of the accounts it follows, Hamilton 68 claims to track content tweeted
by "Russian bots and trolls." But most of the trends leading the dashboard are news stories,
many posted by Russia Today and Sputnik News , that are identical with the
trending topics followed by any other news agency. Thus, Hamilton 68 provides an instant
New York Times headline generator: Any major news story can be presented as the result
of "Russian bots."
The New York Times is making its claims about "Russian meddling" with what is known
in the law as "unclean hands." That is, the Times practices the very actions of which
it accuses others.
Here is not the place to deal with the long and bloody history of American destabilization
campaigns and their horrific consequences in Latin America and the Middle East, or to review
the fact that many American journalists serving abroad had dual functions -- as reporters and
as agents.
But it is worth noting that, particularly in recent decades, and under the auspices of
Editorial Page editor James Bennet, there has been a remarkable integration of the
Times with the major operations of the US intelligence agencies.
This is
particularly true with regard to Russia, in regard to which the Times acts as an
instrument of US foreign policy misinformation, practicing exactly what it accuse the Kremlin
of.
Take, for example, the so-called political "dissident" Aleksei Navalny. This proponent of
extreme nationalism and xenophobia, with deep ties to Russia's fascistic right, and extensive
connections to US intelligence agencies, has been championed by the Times as the voice
of social dissent in Russia. Despite his miniscule support within Russia, Navalny's activities
generate front-page headlines in the Times , which has mentioned him in over 400
separate articles.
Another example is the Times ' promotion of the "feminist" rock band Pussy Riot,
which makes a habit of getting themselves arrested by taking their clothes off in Russian
Orthodox churches, and whose fate the Times holds up as a horrific example of Russian
oppression. The very name "Pussy Riot," which in typical usage is not even translated into
Russian, expresses the fact that this operation aims to influence American, and not Russian,
public opinion.
In 2014, the Times met with members of Pussy Riot at their editorial offices, and
have since extensively promoted the group, having mentioned it in over 400 articles. The term
"anti-Putin opposition" is mentioned in another 600 articles.
The logic of the Times ' campaign was expressed most clearly by its columnist
Thomas Friedman, the personification of the pundit as state intelligence mouthpiece whose
career was aptly summed up in a biography titled Imperial Messenger . In a column
published on February 18 ("Whatever Trump is Hiding is Hurting All of US Now"), Friedman
declares a "code red" threat to the integrity of American democracy.
"At a time when the special prosecutor Robert Mueller -- leveraging several years of
intelligence gathering by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. -- has brought indictments against 13
Russian nationals and three Russian groups -- all linked in some way to the Kremlin -- for
interfering with the 2016 U.S. elections," Friedman writes, "America needs a president who will
lead our nation's defense against this attack on the integrity of our electoral democracy."
This "defense," according to Friedman, would include "bring[ing] together our intelligence
and military experts to mount an effective offense against Putin -- the best defense of all."
In other words, war.
The task of all war propaganda is to divert internal social tensions outwards, and the
Times ' campaign is no different. Its aim is to take the anger that millions of people
feel at a society riven by social inequality, mass alienation, police violence, and endless
war, and pin it on some shady foreign adversary.
The New York Times ' claims of Russian "meddling" in the Parkland shooting set the
tone for even more hysterical coverage in the broadcast evening news. NBC News cited Jonathan
Morgan, another collaborator on the Hamilton 68 project, who declared that Russia is "really
interested in sowing discord amongst Americans. That way we're not focused on putting a unified
front out to foreign adversaries."
The goal of the ruling class and its media accomplices is to put on "a unified front"
through the suppression of social opposition within the United States. Along these Lines, NBC
added, "Researchers tell us it's not just Russia deploying these attacks on social media,"
adding "many small independent groups are trying to divide Americans and create chaos."
Who are these "small independent groups" seeking to "create chaos"? By this, they no doubt
mean any news or political organization that dares question the official line that everything
is fine in America, and that argues that the horrendous levels of violence that pervade
American society are somehow related to social inequality and the wars supported and justified
by the entire US political establishment
"... Peskov made a statement about how unfriendly this action was after the two presidents met and got on is this guy for real? The Americans are aiming to crush Russia and Peskov thinks it's unfriendly. This is what I mean by pandering ..."
"... What was the cost to Russia? Nada. What did it do to the US more comical flailing, posturing and noise. Russia clearly understood what they were doing and the repercussions to the US political system more dysfunction and misdirection. Score: Russia 1, USA 0. ..."
When I used the term pandering I mean the following
Agreeing to meet in Helsinki with no agenda.
The meeting btw Lavrov and Pompeo was cancelled.
But Russia went along and has now escalated the Russophobia attacks against itself this behaviour by Russia is
pandering let's meet with America whatever the cost, since at least 2014 and the latest Ukrainian coup; USA has
proved untrustworthy yet Russia turns up when the USA asks. Putin was even going to Washington.
Is the Kremlin living in a bubble?
Putin lavrov Shoigu have been there for years and yet they seem to wear rose coloured glasses when it comes to
America
Now with the latest sanctions there is a protest and vague threat to respond
Peskov made a statement about how unfriendly this action was after the two presidents met and got on is
this guy for real? The Americans are aiming to crush Russia and Peskov thinks it's unfriendly. This is what I mean
by pandering
I really think the government needs fresh people doing what they have been doing is not working.
What was the cost to Russia? Nada. What did it do to
the US more comical flailing, posturing and noise. Russia clearly understood what they were doing and the
repercussions to the US political system more dysfunction and misdirection. Score: Russia 1, USA 0.
If the situation eventually resolves itself without a major war, and things go back to something more like
normal, when American manufacturers like Caterpillar and Ford are looking to expand into Russia, they will say
"Waaahhhhh!!! Why do they hate us?"
Media: "We would like to have better relations with the Russian government. And sanctions are one tool
from a whole set, through which we can try to set up some kind of government that shows an improvement in its
behavior", the head of the State Department press service has said.
What kind of tool-set is this, "through which governments are set up to improve their behaviour for the
betterment of their relations with the US":
?
And I should like a couple of examples of where and how this "set" has worked.
I daresay there are a few countries in the world which would like to use various tools against the United
States until those countries managed to set up a government in America which showed an improvement in its
behavior. Would that be regarded as just another avenue of diplomacy by America? Surely not, in the Shining
City On A Hill? Then what's all this talk of 'meddling' in America's democracy? Either the people of the
country get to pick its leader, or the international community decides who would be appropriate and then uses
the tools at its disposal to maneuver a satisfactory government into power. Make up your mind, but stop
babbling about 'democracy', what say?
Amazingly enough, some people believe this nonsense. There are a
handful of Russian liberals who allow that the country deserves to be sanctioned, and express hope that there
will be more until the government is cast down, and a new American-style possibly even American-picked
government takes power. This, to the US State Department, is the very distilled essence of democracy and
freedom. However, the electoral process in America is evidently flawless, as no tampering with it is either
required or permitted, and any result which does not meet with the approval of the corporate lobbyists is
obviously an engineered takeover attempt by Russia.
"... STEPHANOPOULOS: And I gave you a chance to explain all the irregularities you thought you saw in the investigation. I asked you about that. You said no collusion. At first the White House said that there were no contacts with Russians. We now know there were at least 80 contacts. If the White House or anyone connected to the Trump campaign accepted information from the Russians, that could potentially be collusion. That would be -- that could be considered collusion, could be considered participating with a conspiracy. ..."
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I gave you a chance to explain all the irregularities you thought
you saw in the investigation. I asked you about that. You said no collusion. At first the White
House said that there were no contacts with Russians. We now know there were at least 80
contacts. If the White House or anyone connected to the Trump campaign accepted information
from the Russians, that could potentially be collusion. That would be -- that could be
considered collusion, could be considered participating with a conspiracy.
So that's also -- that's also the possibility of a legal violation there as well. But I do
want to ask you about --
(CROSSTALK)
SEKULOW: -- in that allegation, though, you'd have to -- the -- the so-called collusion,
which by the way is not a legal term, that's now what results in a -- a-- a issue of
criminality. I mean, that's just one theory (ph). And by the way, you know, the phrasing here,
especially at this late date is very important. So everyone is still talking about this
collusion concept. And when Rudy Giuliani said collusion's not a crime, that was again rather
unremarkable.
What was the fact? I mean what was the fact? Well the facts that we know is what is the
violation or what violation has anybody put forward of an actual federal statute that's been
violated by the – by the president of the United States?
And we've yet to seen (ph) it, and as I said, we've seen an awful lot of it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well that's one of the things that Robert Mueller's investigating. I agree
with you on that.
"... I'm somewhat puzzled why Trump and his people, when referring to the "fake news" and answering questions from hostile journalists, especially about the idea that the media are "enemies of the American people", fail to bring up the fact that the "fake news" and the "enemies of the people" are not the journalists themselves, but rather the management and ownership of the media. ..."
I posted this one to my facebook page three or four days ago. It's brilliant. I have a few comments. First, I disagree with the
analysis given by the fellow from the Duran in the introduction, something along the lines of "even Anderson Cooper was smirking
because Cohen was demolishing Boot so badly".
If you pay attention to the questions and statements, you find that Cooper is equally as unhinged as Boot is, first hammering
on the point that nobody knows what was discussed in the meeting, then after Cohen rattles off a list, Cooper shifts to the "you're
believing Vladimir Putin on this" tactic, a nail that Cohen wisely smashes with a hammering statement, "I don't want to shock
you, but I believe Vladimir Putin on several things."
Cooper continues to insist that the content of the meeting is unknown and unconfirmed, regardless of what Putin and Trump say.
The sheer hubris of journalists today is unprecedented and outrageous.
I do admit that Cooper shuts up after being schooled by Cohen a second and third time and after Boot makes the mistake of calling
Cohen an apologist for Putin and Russia. This leads me to a second point.
I'm somewhat puzzled why Trump and his people, when referring to the "fake news" and answering questions from hostile journalists,
especially about the idea that the media are "enemies of the American people", fail to bring up the fact that the "fake news"
and the "enemies of the people" are not the journalists themselves, but rather the management and ownership of the media.
\This would accomplish two important things, both necessary, in my opinion. First, it would put the front line journalists
into their correct place, telling them that they are really nothing but mouthpieces, and we know that the real decisions on content
are not made by them.
What a blow to their narcisstic self-esteem that would be!
Second, it would give the American people more information on how their consent is engineered, how the media has owners
who have an agenda, and that agenda is not related to improving the lives of the American people, or even keeping them informed
with accurate information.
"... I'm somewhat puzzled why Trump and his people, when referring to the "fake news" and answering questions from hostile journalists, especially about the idea that the media are "enemies of the American people", fail to bring up the fact that the "fake news" and the "enemies of the people" are not the journalists themselves, but rather the management and ownership of the media. ..."
I posted this one to my facebook page three or four days ago. It's brilliant. I have a
few comments. First, I disagree with the analysis given by the fellow from the Duran in
the introduction, something along the lines of "even Anderson Cooper was smirking because
Cohen was demolishing Boot so badly".
If you pay attention to the questions and
statements, you find that Cooper is equally as unhinged as Boot is, first hammering on
the point that nobody knows what was discussed in the meeting, then after Cohen rattles
off a list, Cooper shifts to the "you're believing Vladimir Putin on this" tactic, a nail
that Cohen wisely smashes with a hammering statement, "I don't want to shock you, but I
believe Vladimir Putin on several things."
Cooper continues to insist that the content of
the meeting is unknown and unconfirmed, regardless of what Putin and Trump say. The sheer
hubris of journalists today is unprecedented and outrageous.
I do admit that Cooper shuts
up after being schooled by Cohen a second and third time and after Boot makes the mistake
of calling Cohen an apologist for Putin and Russia. This leads me to a second point.
I'm somewhat puzzled why Trump and his people, when referring to the "fake news" and
answering questions from hostile journalists, especially about the idea that the media
are "enemies of the American people", fail to bring up the fact that the "fake news" and
the "enemies of the people" are not the journalists themselves, but rather the management
and ownership of the media.
\This would accomplish two important things, both necessary,
in my opinion. First, it would put the front line journalists into their correct place,
telling them that they are really nothing but mouthpieces, and we know that the real
decisions on content are not made by them.
What a blow to their narcisstic self-esteem
that would be!
Second, it would give the American people more information on how their
consent is engineered, how the media has owners who have an agenda, and that agenda is
not related to improving the lives of the American people, or even keeping them informed
with accurate information.
So the US neoliberal establishment tried to sabotage Trump-Putin summit in doer to pursue "business as usual". In other words military-industrial
complex is in control of the USA government...
Notable quotes:
"... It's no coincidence that, at the very moment when the President of the United States was about to meet with the President of Russia, special prosecutor Robert Mueller III charged twelve Russians with having manipulated the US presidential elections by hacking into the data networks of the Democratic party in order to hinder candidate Hillary Clinton. The twelve Russians, accused of being agents of the military secret services (GRU), were officially defined as " conspirators ", and found guilty of " conspiracy to the detriment of the United States ". Simultaneously, Daniel Coats, National Director of Intelligence and principal advisor to the President in these matters, accused Russia of working to " undermine our basic values and our democracy ". He then sounded the alarm about the " threat of cyber-attacks which have arrived at a critical point " similar to that which preceded 9/11, on behalf not only of Russia, " the most aggressive foreign agent ", but also China and Iran. ..."
"... At the same time, in London, British " investigators " declared that the Russian military secret service GRU, which had sabotaged the Presidential elections in the USA, is the same service which poisoned ex-Russian agent, Sergueο Skripal and his daughter, who, inexplicably, survived contact with an extremely lethal gas. ..."
"... The political objective of these " enquiries " is clear to maintain that at the head of all these " conspirators " is Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom President Donald Trump sat down at the negotiating table, despite vast bi-partisan opposition in the USA. After the " conspirators " had been charged, the Democrats asked Trump to cancel the meeting with Putin. Even though they failed, their pressure on the negotiations remains powerful. ..."
"... In opposition to the easing of tension with Russia are not only the Democrats (who, with a reversal of formal roles, are playing the " hawks "), but also many Republicans, among whom are several highly-important representatives of the Trump administration itself. It is the establishment, not only of the US, but also of Europe, whose powers and profits are directly linked to tension and war. ..."
"... Even if an agreement on these questions were reached between Putin and Trump, would the latter be able to implement it? Or will the real deciders be the powerful circles of the military-industrial complex? ..."
While the International Press distorted the content of the NATO Summit, the US establishment perfectly understood the unique
issue the end of enmity with Russia. Thus disturbing the bilateral summit in Helsinki between the USA and Russia became its priority.
By all means possible, it had to prevent any rapprochement with Moscow.
We need to talk about everything, from commerce to the military, missiles, nuclear, and China " - this was how President Trump
began at the Helsinki Summit. " The time has come to talk in detail about our bilateral relationship and the international flashpoints
", emphasised Putin.
But it will not only be the two Presidents who will decide the future relationships between the United States and Russia.
It's no coincidence that, at the very moment when the President of the United States was about to meet with the President
of Russia, special prosecutor Robert Mueller III charged twelve Russians with having manipulated the US presidential elections by
hacking into the data networks of the Democratic party in order to hinder candidate Hillary Clinton. The twelve Russians, accused
of being agents of the military secret services (GRU), were officially defined as " conspirators ", and found guilty of " conspiracy
to the detriment of the United States ". Simultaneously, Daniel Coats, National Director of Intelligence and principal advisor to
the President in these matters, accused Russia of working to " undermine our basic values and our democracy ". He then sounded the
alarm about the " threat of cyber-attacks which have arrived at a critical point " similar to that which preceded 9/11, on behalf
not only of Russia, " the most aggressive foreign agent ", but also China and Iran.
At the same time, in London, British " investigators " declared that the Russian military secret service GRU, which had sabotaged
the Presidential elections in the USA, is the same service which poisoned ex-Russian agent, Sergueο Skripal and his daughter, who,
inexplicably, survived contact with an extremely lethal gas.
The political objective of these " enquiries " is clear to maintain that at the head of all these " conspirators " is Russian
President Vladimir Putin, with whom President Donald Trump sat down at the negotiating table, despite vast bi-partisan opposition
in the USA. After the " conspirators " had been charged, the Democrats asked Trump to cancel the meeting with Putin. Even though
they failed, their pressure on the negotiations remains powerful.
What Putin tried to obtain from Trump is both simple and complex to ease the tension between the two countries. To that purpose,
he proposed to Trump, who accepted, to implement a joint enquiry into the " conspiracy ". We do not know how the discussions on the
key questions will go the status of Crimea, the condition of Syria, nuclear weapons and others. And we do not know what Trump will
ask in return. However, it is certain that any concession will be used to accuse him of connivance with the enemy. In opposition
to the easing of tension with Russia are not only the Democrats (who, with a reversal of formal roles, are playing the " hawks "),
but also many Republicans, among whom are several highly-important representatives of the Trump administration itself. It is the
establishment, not only of the US, but also of Europe, whose powers and profits are directly linked to tension and war.
It will not be the words, but the facts, which will reveal whether the climate of dιtente of the Helsinki Summit will become reality
- first of all with a de-escalation of NATO in Europe, in other words with the withdrawal of forces (including nuclear forces) of
the USA and NATO presently deployed against Russia, and the blockage of NATO's expansion to the East.
Even if an agreement on these questions were reached between Putin and Trump, would the latter be able to implement it? Or
will the real deciders be the powerful circles of the military-industrial complex?
One thing is certain we in Italy and Europe can not remain the simple spectators of dealings which will define our future.
Manlio Dinucci
The conflict between transnational financial capitalism and productive national capitalism has entered into a paroxystic
phase. On one side, Presidents Trump and Putin are negotiating the joint defence of their national interests. On the other, the major
daily newspaper for the US and the world is accusing the US President of high treason, while the armed forces of the US and NATO
are preparing for war with Russia and China.
You have attacked our democracy. Your well-worn gamblers' denials do not interest us. If you continue with this attitude, we will
consider it an act of war." This is what Trump should have said to Putin at the Helsinki Summit, in the opinion of famous New
York Times editorialist Thomas Friedman, published in La Repubblica . He went on to accuse the Russian President of having
"attacked NATO, a fundamental pillar of international security, destabilised Europe, and bombed thousands of Syrian refugees, causing
them to seek refuge in Europe."
He then accused the President of the United States of having " repudiated his oath on the Constitution " and of being an " asset
of Russian Intelligence " or at least playing at being one.
What Friedman expressed in these provocative terms corresponds to the position of a powerful internal and international front
(of which the New York Times is an important mouthpiece) opposed to USA-Russia negotiations, which should continue with the
invitation of Putin to the White House. But there is a substantial difference.
While the negotiations have not yet borne fruit, opposition to the negotiations has been expressed not only in words, but especially
in facts.
Cancelling out the climate of dιtente at the Helsinki Summit, the planetary warmongering system of the United States is in the
process of intensifying the preparations for a war reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific:
After the landing of an US armoured brigade in Anvers, totalling a hundred tanks and a thousand military vehicles, a US aerial
brigade landed in Rotterdam with sixty attack helicopters. These forces and others, all of them USA/NATO, are deployed along the
borders of Russian territory, in the framework of operation Atlantic Resolve , launched in 2014 against " Russian aggression.
" In its anti-Russian function, Poland asked for the permanent presence of an armoured US unit on its own territory, offering
to pay between 1.5 - 2 billion dollars per year.
At the same time, NATO is intensifying the training and armament of troops in Georgia and Ukraine, candidates for entry into
membership of the Alliance on the frontiers with Russia.
Meanwhile, the US Congress received with all honours Adriy Parubiy, founder of the National-Social Party (on the model of
Adolf Hitler's National-Socialist Party), head of the neo-Nazi paramilitary formations employed by NATO in the Maοdan Square putsch.
NATO command in Lago Patria (JFC Naples) under the orders of US Admiral James Foggo, who also commands the US naval forces
in Europe and those in Africa is working busily to organise the grand-scale exercise Trident Juncture 18 , in which will
participate 40,000 military personnel, 130 aircraft and 70 ships from more than 30 countries including Sweden and Finland, which
are NATO partners. The exercise, which will take place in October in Norway and the adjacent seas, will simulate a scenario of
" collective defence " - naturally enough, against " Russian aggression. "
In the Pacific, the major naval exercise RIMPAC 2018 (27 June to 2 August) is in full swing - organised and directed
by USINDOPACOM, the US Command which covers the Indian and Pacific oceans with the participation of 25,000 sailors and marines,
more than 50 ships and 200 war-planes.The exercise in which France, Germany and the United Kingdom are also participating
is clearly directed against China, which Admiral Phil Davidson, commander of USINDOPACOM, defines as a "major rival power which
is eroding the international order in order to reduce the access of the USA to the region and thus become hegemonic."
When Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, Friedman will no doubt accuse him of connivance not only with the Russian enemy,
but also with the Chinese enemy. Manlio Dinucci
"... The vilification of alternative, dissenting views or linking those views to a foreign power -- in many people's views, an implacably hostile foreign power -- is the degradation of our political media culture. When Rand Paul, who is interesting on foreign policy, reminds, as The New York Times has over the last -- you know, that America has meddled in other countries' elections, has interfered, has overthrown countries' governments, and MSNBC contributors tweet "traitor"? ..."
"... - it's dangerous when you have a suffocating consensus instead of a full, robust debate. ..."
"... But I think what -- the tweeting, to call someone a traitor because they have a point of you don't agree with, we're in a dangerous territory. ..."
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL : I think what Trump did on this trip, between Europe and the Helsinki
summit, is he played to his base. He's reconfiguring the Republican Party so that it becomes
more consistent with its isolationist roots, its roots as going it alone, not tethered by
international institutions, and also sympathetic to strongmen. I mean, I think Trump is more a
con man than a strongman, but he certainly has an affinity. I don't have much use for those who
say, "Look, he's guilty, because he never says a bad word about Putin." Problem is, he never
says a bad word about Bibi Netanyahu, doesn't say a bad word about the Saudi leaders, nor does
he say a bad word about the murderous Duterte in the Philippines. So he does have an affinity
for those strongmen, which I think does lead him and guide a kind of foreign policy. So we
need, as small-D democrats, to counter and not accept -- what I talked to Amy about last week
-- the failed bipartisan foreign policy establishment as our default. We should not go back to
policing the world, indispensable nation, but instead have a demilitarized foreign policy that
truly deals with the challenges of our time, which most of are not going to be met with a
military solution.
... ... ...
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL : The vilification of alternative, dissenting views or
linking those views to a foreign power -- in many people's views, an implacably hostile foreign
power -- is the degradation of our political media culture. When Rand Paul, who is interesting
on foreign policy, reminds, as The New York Times has over the last -- you know, that
America has meddled in other countries' elections, has interfered, has overthrown countries'
governments, and MSNBC contributors tweet "traitor"?
And I would also mention Glenn Greenwald.
We talked of him earlier. Malcolm Nance, a very ubiquitous commentator on MSNBC on intelligence
and other issues, said Glenn was -- I'm going to read it, because it's so outrageous -- "an
agent of Trump & Moscow deep in the Kremlin's pocket." This is -- we've seen this in our
history before. And I think it is -- it's dangerous when you have a suffocating consensus
instead of a full, robust debate.
And it should be about issues. Juan is right. When we fix so much on personalities, we're
feeding the beast, we've seen, of media malpractice, this obliteration of the line between news
and entertainment, the conglomeratization, the decimation of local news.
These are issues which
collide with an administration which does want to delegitimize public accountability, if they
know public accountability journalism, delegitimize any check on abuses. And we, as
representatives of a media which seek to speak to the issues, seek debate, to foster, not
police, debate, need to stand up and continue to do our work despite these fake news and --
people are despairing about the issue of news, about facts, about -- anyway.
But I think what
-- the tweeting, to call someone a traitor because they have a point of you don't agree with,
we're in a dangerous territory.
"... Authorities are investigating whether Mr. Cohen engaged in unregistered lobbying in connection with his consulting work for corporate clients after Mr. Trump went to the White House, according to people familiar with the probe ..."
"... Investigators are also examining potential campaign-finance violations and bank fraud surrounding, among other deals, Mr. Cohen's October 2016 payment to Stephanie Clifford , the former adult-film star called Stormy Daniels, to keep her from discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the probe. Mr. Trump denies any encounter took place. - WSJ ..."
Authorities are investigating whether Mr. Cohen
engaged in unregistered lobbying in connection with his consulting work for corporate
clients after Mr. Trump went to the White House, according to people familiar with the
probe .
Investigators are also examining potential campaign-finance violations and bank fraud
surrounding, among other deals,
Mr. Cohen's October 2016 payment to Stephanie Clifford , the former adult-film star called
Stormy Daniels, to keep her from discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump,
according to people familiar with the probe. Mr. Trump denies any encounter took place. -
WSJ
"... It is a sham since no evidence of election influence by the Russians was provided and no preventive or corrective measures our government is taking to prevent Emmanuel Goldstein (The Russians) from further attacking and usurping our elections was put forth. ..."
Today on ABC Martha Raddatz hosted "This Week" which featured James Lankford a Republican
from Oklahoma describing how Russia and Putin were actively trying to ruin our democracy and
also were trying to influence elections at every possible turn. The Russian Bear and Putin
according to Lankford were also trying to rewrite the Constitution, trying to upend every
election and were seeking to disrupt our national electrical grid not to be confused with our
national election grid which they were also trying to destroy as well as to control the most
local elections by a means of electronic control that was beyond any means to control.
Of course no mention was made about possible solutions to thwart the Russians was
mentioned and it is doubtful that there are any serious efforts to counteract the alleged
Russian hacking of US elections since not one single preventive action to stop the Orwellian
monster of Russia, like Emmanuel Goldstein in Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty Four" was put
forth.
Apparently ABC and the other media are trying to convince Americans that there is an
overwhelming force in Russia that is somehow able to infiltrate and control all our national
elections. Apparently the Russians are unstoppable.
It is a sham.
It is a sham since no evidence of election influence by the Russians was provided and
no preventive or corrective measures our government is taking to prevent Emmanuel Goldstein
(The Russians) from further attacking and usurping our elections was put forth.
Instead the publishers of "This Week" on ABC were content to provide evidence-free
incriminations of Russia and attribute all manner of influence in our elections to the
incredibly sneaky and unstoppable Russian-Putin election Influencing machine which is
unstoppable by our intelligence agencies.
What is missing from Martha Radditz's show? There will never be any admission that they
have jobs because of Citizens United, their corporate benefactors (Koch Industries),
Gerrymandering, Dark Money, Media Bias which ensures that the Iron Triangle of corporate
election dark money flows to hand picked political candidates that will support conservative
causes or that these are the real election influencing mechanisms which have the most power
in our country to influence elections.
As long as ABC, NBC, CBS and other cable news shows fail to correctly identify the real
reasons of election corruption which is our very near and dear corporate money funded
political organizations we will continue to be duped by the free press to believe that Russia
has control over our national elections and not believe that US Corporations hold all the
power.
Thanks to Norman for reminding us of the continued waste of time and effort on the
'russiagate' stories based on allegations and indictments, NOT evidence or possible reasons
for such behavior. The USA is fully capable of unfair election practices, helped by the
undemocratic system of electoral college, partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression, lack of
response to voter desires .plus of course Israel being the very large external factor.
Trump's influence on workers, environment, USA's reputation are negative, but blaming Russia
when this is in nobody's real interest is hardly the way forward for the Democratic
Party.
Realist , July 27, 2018 at 9:26 pm
All those loons you mentioned are effectively practicing a religion, in which there is a
dogma everyone must believe to be virtuous and a set of commandments every believer must live
by to gain salvation. Don't toe the line on every bit of it and you are rejected as an
apostate.
I'm surprised that some of those folks, notably Thom Hartmann, choose not to practice what
they preach -- you know, the platitudes about studying the facts and coming to your own
conclusions rather than following the herd. They rightly condemn acting on prejudice, out of
pure self-interest, without verifiable facts (indeed at odds with empirical fact) and using
group intimidation, as per McCarthyist tactics, and then they go ahead and embrace those
vices to their own ends.
It is my process on everything in this life to learn as much as I can on my own, without
being brainwashed by any group or movement, and only backing a cause if it is congruent with
my own conclusions. Unfortunately, most people do the opposite: they are joiners first and
analysts only if their biases are not threatened.
I feel entirely justified in agreeing with movements on some things and not others. I
doubt that human beings have arrived at definitive answers about most phenomena in the real
world or that any single organised group of us has it all down accurate and pat on
everything. Listen to any casual debate on the questions big and small in science: the give
and take, back and forth, can go on as long as the participants have the interest and energy.
I never give my interlocutors any respite, because there is always one more thing to be
considered or one more way of looking at a problem. I'm sure I would have been burned at the
stake in many previous lives and so would a lot of the readers here.
Eddie , July 27, 2018 at 11:26 pm
Yes, good points Drew. I view Maddow as a liberal Rush Limbaugh, trying to win a Leni
Riefenstahl award from the DNC, and having to be satisfied with her purported $9M/yr salary
(which definitely DOES buy a LOT of co-opting).
In support of your argument, I would add that ultimately we should be voting for a
candidate based on his/her POLICIES, as evidenced by their prior political voting record and
whatever political actions they've taken, NOT based on what they SAY they believe -- that's
1st period high school civics as I recall. It's too easy for candidates to say this or that
during a campaign. Trump's policy of detente w/Russia, is -- like the proverbial 'blind
squirrel who occasionally finds a nut' -- probably random chance or perhaps a way to
penetrate a relatively untapped market with his hucksterism. But so what?? For something as
IMPORTANT as NOT having a nuclear war, I'm all for any honest, significant efforts in that
direction. Even Nixon, whose presidency I disliked greatly, did a good thing by 'going to
China' -- I don't recall anybody on the liberal side at that time saying he was Mao's dupe or
foolishness like that. Did Nixon do it as a cynical ploy to draw attention away from other
political problems, and did he previously help aggravate/perpetuate a lot of the conflict
w/China? Sure, but the act of rapprochement w/China was in-and-of-itself desirable and
laudable in that it moved the world a major step AWAY from possible nuclear war. And
full-scale nuclear war trumps (no pun intended) virtually all other problems, with the
possible exception of climate change, so a POTUS should devote extra energy to that task.
Ideally, they should be ramping down the militarism and nationalism, but unfortunately those
are campaign tactics that are too easy for either major party to set aside (with 1/2 the
fault lying in the electorate who too often endorses those 'isms).
Re-reading this today for some reason really popped a few things up for me. The first one
right in my face was: "Now, after a remarkable 46-minute news conference on foreign soil
where Trump stood side by side with a former KGB agent to praise his 'strong' denials of
election interference and criticize the FBI, those strategists believe the ground may have
shifted."
Can someone explain to me what the hell "foreign soil" has to do with the price of tea in
China? Trump has given plenty of pressers "on foreign soil" but that phrase nor anything like
it is ever mentioned. Trump stood side by side with a former KGB agent.
Talk about a lack of respect and blatant bias. He stood side by side with the
democratically elected President of the Russian Federation who, by the way, won his election
by a clear majority of the vote unlike Mr. Trump who would have lost the election had it been
held in Russia. One wonders what would have happened had WaPo and the NYT said something like
Russian President Gorbachev stood side by side with the former head of the KGB I mean CIA
without ever saying President Bush?
It's also blindingly obvious how screwed we are. We really only have one political party
in the US -- the US Corporate Party. There is, indeed, very little reason to vote as a recent
survey pointed out Congressional votes correspond to the people's preferences as determined
by polling only about 5% of the time.
Gregory Herr , July 27, 2018 at 12:08 pm
Progressives, particularly those few taken tokens the Democrats allow for, should have
realised long ago that MSNBC is all in on the corporatist controlled economy and leans
heavily forward in the quest for War and Profits.
FAIR is correct to point to the "traditional centers of power" that MSNBC services, but
the farcical "coverage" of Russiagate inanity certainly doesn't "preserve" a "progressive
image" and is not "elegant" in any way.
The war on Yemen and the weapons contracting with the Saudi terrorist regime was already
"steroidal" during Obama's Administration. In October 2016, warplanes bombed a community hall
in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, where mourners had gathered for a funeral, killing at least 140
people and wounding hundreds. We should note that the U.S. provided intelligence assistance
in identifying targets and mid-air refueling for Saudi aircraft and helped blockade the ports
of Yemen during Obama's tenure.
"... Improving the relationship with Moscow has been and continues to be a worthwhile goal, but Trump has made it politically impossible to pursue that goal in the near term. ..."
"... I do think the credit for this goes to the Clinton campaign, the "intelligence" agencies, the neoconlib biparty and individuals like McCain, who have gone to McCarthyite lenghts since before the GOP primaries ended to prevent Trump from attempting *any* change of the status quo on foreign policy. Granted, the man might be ineffectual no matter what, but we will never know. The US establishment and the retainees of the war profiteering classes have made any negotiations with Russia impossible long before Trump even announced his campaign. ..."
"... We also should not forget to credit the GOP for test-driving the whole "weak on Russia" playbook during the Obama years. ..."
"... Additionally there has yet to be any actual evidence presented re significant election interference. Indictments are accusations, not evidence. ..."
"... I'm no Trump fan, but he was just saying he believed Putin rather than the people who are clearly trying to bring his administration down. Can't really blame him. ..."
"... CNN even used Putin's dearly departed Labrador, Konni making her look like Cujo stating that Putin use her to terrorize Angela Merkel. A U.S. Congressman fumed that the 50,000 children died in Syria because this fiend supported Assad when Syria was about to be liberated (a number suspiciously close to the true number of Yemeni children we helped to kill). ..."
"... As flawed as Trump may be, he is merely holding up a mirror to what we have become. Had we elected a conventional candidate it would just be business as usual with these seething hatreds buried just below the surface. ..."
"... No one better suggest that we should tarnish ourselves talking to the likes of a Russian leader unless we are discussing terms of surrender. We want Yeltsin or maybe Medvedev. ..."
Improving the relationship with Moscow has been and continues to be a worthwhile goal, but Trump has made it politically impossible
to pursue that goal in the near term. The U.S. and Russia could and should have a more constructive relationship, but it can't
be based on the denial of reality and ignoring the genuine disagreements that exist between our governments.
If there is to be genuine improvement in U.S.-Russian relations, it will come from facing up to these disagreements and finding
a way to work through or around them.
"Trump has made it politically impossible to pursue that goal in the near term."
I do think the credit for this goes to the Clinton campaign, the "intelligence" agencies, the neoconlib biparty and individuals
like McCain, who have gone to McCarthyite lenghts since before the GOP primaries ended to prevent Trump from attempting *any*
change of the status quo on foreign policy. Granted, the man might be ineffectual no matter what, but we will never know. The
US establishment and the retainees of the war profiteering classes have made any negotiations with Russia impossible long before
Trump even announced his campaign.
We also should not forget to credit the GOP for test-driving the whole "weak on Russia" playbook during the Obama years.
I agree with b. While Trump may not be savvy enough to calibrate his engagement with Putin in a way that would allow a proper
dialogue with Russia in spite of the political backdrop in the US, the primary blame for any failure to allow such dialogue rests
for those responsible for creating that political backdrop that makes it so difficult in the first place (hint: it's not Trump,
unless you blame him for winning the election rather it is the unholy alliance of Democrats looking for an excuse for them losing
the election and Cold War hawk neocons who have Russia-hate in their DNA (and their stock portfolios)).
That Putin talked up the Iran deal in the press conference makes me wonder what was said in the one-on-one. Couldn't have pleased
the Adelson/Bolton wing.
Additionally there has yet to be any actual evidence presented re significant election interference.
Indictments are accusations, not evidence.
I saw nothing particularly wrong with the press conference. I'm no Trump fan, but he was just saying he believed Putin
rather than the people who are clearly trying to bring his administration down. Can't really blame him.
The embarrassment was the reaction in the MSM showcasing how they are now CIA state run media.
They trot out former high ranking CIA officers now employed by them recycling every meme to reinforce that we are the forces
goodness and light and anyone strong enough to oppose us is evil.
CNN even used Putin's dearly departed Labrador, Konni making her look like Cujo stating that Putin use her to terrorize
Angela Merkel. A U.S. Congressman fumed that the 50,000 children died in Syria because this fiend supported Assad when Syria was
about to be liberated (a number suspiciously close to the true number of Yemeni children we helped to kill). These are just
two random examples in a very long day. It was
a show worthy of the priests of Baal who confronted Elijah.
As flawed as Trump may be, he is merely holding up a mirror to what we have become. Had we elected a conventional candidate
it would just be business as usual with these seething hatreds buried just below the surface.
No one better suggest that we should tarnish ourselves talking to the likes of a Russian leader unless we are discussing
terms of surrender. We want Yeltsin or maybe Medvedev.
The summit was announced by the White House and the Kremlin on June 28. The Finnish hosts probably knew about it a few days earlier.
That leaves only three weeks for preparation.
The summit itself lasted one day. Putin arrived late and after lunch and diplomatic niceties there was only 2-3 hours for actual
talks.
That's not a problem if everything is already carefully negotiated and the presidents just sign documents and smile for the
cameras. But it seems very little was agreed on beforehand.
I'm all for world leaders meeting and talking. The more the better. But I really don't see the point of hastily calling a summit
where nothing is agreed upon. At least not that we know of.
The "uncivil war" within the US neoliberal elite is getting a lot hotter... The problem for the American establishment is that it
doesn't like the way democracy worked out.
The bloated US intelligence industry fears that Trump may slash its budgets, power and perks.
Notable quotes:
"... Written by Eric Margolis ..."
"... But after the presidential meeting, Trump replied to reporters' questions by saying he believed Russia had no role in attempts to bug the Democratic Party during the election. Outrage erupted across the US. 'Trump trusts the Russians more than his own intelligence agencies' went up the howl. Trump is a traitor, charged certain of the wilder Democrats and neocon Republicans. Few Americans wanted to hear the truth. ..."
"... In fact, so intense was the outrage at home that Trump had to backtrack and claim he had misspoken. Yes, he admitted, the Russians had meddled in the US election. But then he seemed to back away again from this claim. ..."
"... Hillary Clinton did not lose the election due to Russian conniving. She lost it because so many Americans disliked and mistrusted her. When the truth about her rigging of the Democratic primary emerged, she deftly diverted attention by claiming the Russians had rigged the election. What chutzpah (nerve). ..."
"... Besides, compared to US meddling in foreign politics, whatever the Ruskis did in the US was small potatoes. Prying into US political and military secrets is precisely what Russian intelligence was supposed to do. Particularly when the US Democratic Party was pushing a highly aggressive policy towards Russia that might lead to war. ..."
"... For the US to accuse Russia of meddling is the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. The neocon former US Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, admitted her organization had spent $5 billion to overthrow Ukraine's pro-Russian government. US undercover political and financial operations have recently been active in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, to name but a few nations. ..."
"... It's also clear that Trump's most ardent foes are the big US intelligence agencies whose mammoth $78 billion combined budget exceeds total Russian military spending. The bloated US intelligence industry fears that Trump may slash its budgets, power and perks. ..."
"... The uproar over Putin has revealed just how fanatic and far to the right were the heads of the US national security state operating under the sugarcoating of the Obama administration. Straight out of the wonderful film, 'Dr. Strangelove.' We now see them on CNN, snarling away at President Trump. ..."
"... Speaking of far right generals, one is also reminded of the brilliant film, `Seven Days in May,' in which a cabal of generals tries to overthrow the president because of a peace deal he made with Moscow. Could there be a real plot against the president? Watching US TV one might think so. ..."
"... Now, completing the childish 'Reds Under Our Beds' hysteria comes the final touch, the evil Russian temptress-spy who managed to infiltrate the National Prayer Breakfast, of all silly things. This dangerous Jezebel is now in the hands of the FBI. If this is the best KGB or GRU can come up with they need urgent help from Congolese intelligence. ..."
Comedy? Disaster? Mental disorder? Hearing loss? Even days after President Donald Trump's bizarre appearance in Moscow alongside
a cool, composed President Vladimir Putin, it's hard to tell what happened. But it certainly was entertaining. In case anyone in
the universe missed this event, let me recap. Trump met in private with Putin, which drove bureaucrats on both sides crazy. So far,
Trump won't reveal most of what was said between the two leaders.
But after the presidential meeting, Trump replied to reporters' questions by saying he believed Russia had no role in attempts
to bug the Democratic Party during the election. Outrage erupted across the US. 'Trump trusts the Russians more than his own intelligence
agencies' went up the howl. Trump is a traitor, charged certain of the wilder Democrats and neocon Republicans. Few Americans wanted
to hear the truth.
In fact, so intense was the outrage at home that Trump had to backtrack and claim he had misspoken. Yes, he admitted, the
Russians had meddled in the US election. But then he seemed to back away again from this claim.
The whole thing was black comedy. Maybe it was due to Trump's poor hearing or to jet lag and travel fatigue.
Hillary Clinton did not lose the election due to Russian conniving. She lost it because so many Americans disliked and mistrusted
her. When the truth about her rigging of the Democratic primary emerged, she deftly diverted attention by claiming the Russians had
rigged the election. What chutzpah (nerve).
Yet many Americans swallowed this canard. If Russia's GRU military intelligence was really involved in the run-up to the election,
as US intelligence reportedly claimed, it's alleged buying of social media amounted to peanuts and hardly swung the election.
Back in the 1940's, GRU managed to penetrate and influence Roosevelt's White House. Now that's real espionage. Not some junior
officers and 20-somethings on a laptop in Moscow.
Besides, compared to US meddling in foreign politics, whatever the Ruskis did in the US was small potatoes. Prying into US
political and military secrets is precisely what Russian intelligence was supposed to do. Particularly when the US Democratic Party
was pushing a highly aggressive policy towards Russia that might lead to war.
For the US to accuse Russia of meddling is the ultimate pot calling the kettle black. The neocon former US Assistant Secretary
of State, Victoria Nuland, admitted her organization had spent $5 billion to overthrow Ukraine's pro-Russian government. US undercover
political and financial operations have recently been active in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Somalia,
Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, to name but a few nations.
Democrats and Republican neocons are in full-throat hysteria over an alleged Russian threat Russia, whose total military budget
is smaller than Trump's recent Pentagon budget increase this year.
What we have been seeing is the fascinating spectacle of America's war party and neocons clamoring to oust President Trump. Included
in their ranks are most of the US media, led by the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and TV's war parties, CNN and
NBC.
It's also clear that Trump's most ardent foes are the big US intelligence agencies whose mammoth $78 billion combined budget exceeds
total Russian military spending. The bloated US intelligence industry fears that Trump may slash its budgets, power and perks.
The uproar over Putin has revealed just how fanatic and far to the right were the heads of the US national security state
operating under the sugarcoating of the Obama administration. Straight out of the wonderful film, 'Dr. Strangelove.' We now see them
on CNN, snarling away at President Trump.
Speaking of far right generals, one is also reminded of the brilliant film, `Seven Days in May,' in which a cabal of generals
tries to overthrow the president because of a peace deal he made with Moscow. Could there be a real plot against the president? Watching
US TV one might think so.
Now, completing the childish 'Reds Under Our Beds' hysteria comes the final touch, the evil Russian temptress-spy who managed
to infiltrate the National Prayer Breakfast, of all silly things. This dangerous Jezebel is now in the hands of the FBI. If this
is the best KGB or GRU can come up with they need urgent help from Congolese intelligence.
"... After Bush I's James Baker's verbal agreement with Russia to not expand NATO was proven "inoperative", the Russians should be very skeptical of American verbal promises/agreements, anyway. ..."
"... BILL MAHER: All our intelligence agencies said that Russia attacked us in 2016. Yes, it was cyber. It wasn't with armaments. But it was still-. ..."
"... not the only time Wilkerson has failed to stop the discussion cold until such points can be countered and clarified ..."
"... no examples or links to ..."
"... left sites will fade if the left doesn't get it's act together. The liberals are about gone already -- and the conservatives are riding a temporary wave ..."
"... and the conservatives are riding a temporary wave. Capitalism is dying. Everything in the empire is falling apart as contradictions of thesis and antithesis transform into some foggy synthesis, or destruction ..."
Yves here. As Lambert might say, the behavior of the enforcers of Liberal Goodthinking has
been wonderfully clarifying. Despite the fact that there is a catalogue-full of reasons to be
deeply disturbed about the Trump presidency, prominent media figures are regularly resorting to
the screeching, pearl-clutching, straw manning, and other forms of "any stick to beat a dog"
strategies even faced with people like Lawrence Wilkerson, who is expressing only mild
opposition to their views. That sort of behavior is usually the behavior of someone who does
not have astrong case. Of course, on RussiaRussia! that is par for the course. The fact that
Wilkerson was effectively silenced by Bill Maher is a disgrace. Don't invite people on your
show if you aren't prepared to let them have their say.
This Real News Network segment reviews the particulars.
Note that Wilkerson was ridiculed for making what should have been an utterly
uncontroversial point: that US leaders need to, and always have, had a dialogue with our
strategic opponents. Wilkerson doesn't add, perhaps because he does not have corroborating
information, or alternatively, does not want to appear to be talking Russia's book, that Putin
announced that Russia has weapon systems that the US appeared to have been unaware of, such as
a nuclear-powered missile that can fly over the South Pole. If even half of them are real, they
are game changers.
There's a sour note at the very end, where Wilkerson says he expects the Democrats to
impeach Trump if they win both houses of Congress in the fall. As regular readers know,
Nancy Pelosi
has taken that off the table .
SHARMINI PERIES: Now, Larry, from what I understand from this
morning's announcement that the invitation that Trump had issued to Vladimir Putin to come to
Washington is now rescinded, or it's off. Apparently there was no movement on either side to
make sure this happens. Now, are you surprised by that move?
LARRY WILKERSON: Not at all, politically. Because most of everything Donald Trump has
done of substance since he was elected is based on his reading of his domestic political needs.
As the German foreign minister said so aptly, I think, about his withdrawal from the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement with Iran, it was all based on domestic
politics in the United States. It had nothing to do with strategy, nothing to do with security,
nothing to do with NATO or the security of Western Europe. It had everything to do with Donald
Trump and his political base. I think the German foreign minister was absolutely correct.
So I have to look at everything that Trump does from that perspective, because that's his
first consideration. So what he saw was what you cited at the beginning; 46 percent thought he
was treasonous, and he said, ooh, John- talking to John Bolton, his national security adviser-
walk this bit back about a meeting, and put it out that we're walking it back because we want
the brouhaha about the meeting to subside. We want the accusations about the meeting to subside
a bit before we invite Mr. Putin to come to Washington. This is bad on two levels. One, Mr.
Putin should come to Washington, and we should continue the talks, and hopefully, in the way
that I describe, good meaningful talks earlier. That's how we should continue them,
particularly the nuclear issues. And two, because we do not need a war in Europe. And it's
increasingly apparent that both sides are looking very hard at the potential for that war.
And if you want a war that will pale- make all the other prospects, Iran, Syria, North Korea
and everything else, pale in comparison, let's have one break out in Europe, and let's have one
go nuclear. This is bad stuff. So I really would like to see Mr. Putin come to Washington and
meaningful talks take place. But to answer your question, and to reiterate, the reason this
delay or maybe even cancellation altogether has occurred is because Trump read the domestic
political signals and said, oop, can't get caught in this mess. The midterms are coming up.
These midterms, Sharmini, are going to determine the fate of the Republican Party. If the
Democrats were to win both houses of the U.S. Congress in November, I think impeachment would
be on the table for a majority of Republicans, and certainly Democrats, almost instantly. So
Trump has got to start thinking about these midterms. And so I think that's the reason he
canceled it, or at least told John Bolton to tell the Russians that it'll be later.
A word about that video. I couldn't play it at first but the clip can also be on YouTube
found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79oymCf_pRk
I noticed that when Larry Wilkerson stated that the US had also interfered in countries since
1947 the audience agreed as there was a lot of clapping about that. Maybe the audience was
getting jack over Maher's obstinacy.
I also note that it was not Maher that said in reply "But that doesn't make it right" but
Michael Moore who until then had said nothing (How the mighty have fallen). Maher's comment
was basically that it was "it's still us" which of course made it different.
You just wish that they had a speaker that would be more direct and say something like:
"Well Bill Maher, should we attack and sink a Russian ship in the Black sea to show them
who's boss? Maybe attack that Russian airbase in Syria to show how hurt our feelings are?".
Probably find that footage like that would hit the editing floor in the same way that guest
that give opinions that don't agree with the main stream get cut off and the same happens
even with their own reporters.
There is a reason why newspapers are dying of irrelevancy over the past few decades and I
would not be surprised if the same fate followed television if this performance is typical
fare. The good ones on TV end up like Phil Donahue so all you get left with are the shrills
or neocons like Rachel Maddow.
If one goes to Youtube and looks at the readers' comments, there is little support for
Bill Maher. An occasional "Trump should not have had secret conversation with Putin".. I may
be naive, but I still do not understand why a private conversation with Putin was a
problem.
Even if Trump made some concession with Putin during this private talk, wouldn't it have
to be backed up with formal written agreements?
After Bush I's James Baker's verbal agreement with Russia to not expand NATO was
proven "inoperative", the Russians should be very skeptical of American verbal
promises/agreements, anyway.
I worked at a company that advocated for "Management by walking around". Part of the
advantage of the higher ups talking with workers well down the organization chart was that
the entire organization knew there was an alternate path for information to flow outside of
the hierarchy.
I believe this improved the accuracy of information flowing in the normal management path
as a consequence.
Trump's wandering to Russia might have the same positive effect. The
Democrats/Republicans/MIC seem to want to control the Russia narrative by telling Trump,
"trust us, you should not try to determine anything about Russia on your own, we will tell
you what to do".
Trump, to his credit, ignored them and did not cancel the trip.
Maher has a particularly severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. The condition seems to
have seriously impaired that part of the brain where his sense of humor resides, not to
mention perspective, at least insofar as the topic of Trump is concerned. His calling for the
U.S. intelligence community to save us from Trump is particularly unfunny.
That may be, but irrespective of Trump, Maher has always been sneaky, underhanded and
whiney. He is at his most palatable when he covers a topic where one tends to be of the same
mind, (which, of course, gets one to wonder about objectivity in general) and even then just
barely. Scratch beneath superficial agreements and he is but one self indulgent spoiled
brat.
IMNSHO, Maher has never been funny, nor particularly bright. I've never understood the
appeal, and ever since the whole anti-science anti-vax campaign nonsense (which he pushed)
I've come to feel Maher is dangerous, every bit a part of the problem. Certainly he's no
friend of the left.
BILL MAHER: All our intelligence agencies said that Russia attacked us in 2016. Yes,
it was cyber. It wasn't with armaments. But it was still-. -Idiot
As far as I know, ONE: this, "Russia attacked us in 2016" claim is still only claimed by
three (3) agencies, not all of them, and TWO: the claim is still simply a set of
allegations regarding origin and not hard established facts.
Because people like Wilkerson do not call Macarthyites out on such claims, the allegations
have taken on the aspect of established fact to most Americans. If it's still allegations and
not facts (that is, if I haven't missed important updates), then much as I like Wilkerson, I
fault him for this kind of acquiescence to weapons of mass deception. Perhaps not so much
with such a slimy shill as this particular comedic disease, who doesn't let Larry get a word
in edgewise and is brain dead enough to think he's being clever, but the Maher episode is not
the only time Wilkerson has failed to stop the discussion cold until such points can be
countered and clarified.
well he is a conservative, he was colin powell's chief of staff when powell was lying to
the u.n. about wmd's in iraq. he tells the truth sometimes, and admits some responsibility,
but i don't really trust him.
He has done a number of interviews for The Real News Network that were quite good where he
has seemed far more impervious to spin (I think the experience with weapons of mass
destruction fiasco, including Powell, represented a sea-change for him). I'm pretty sure that
includes the realization that Ukraine was a US backed coup, that Syria and Assad wasn't so
cut and dry, that Putin is a remarkable strategist, our part in the horrible fiasco in
Lebanon, the brutal nature of Saudia Arabia, Israel criminality and on and on. But I may well
be giving him more credit than he is due (by process of projection from a given interview I
saw to a topic I thought I had heard him discuss).
And for sure, every now and then, it's as if his military training or background kicks in
and he goes into obtuse mode though still making sense.
As to the Maher incident, I suspect he avoids (and/or gets put off balance by) cat claw
scrabbles, as undignified.
> not the only time Wilkerson has failed to stop the discussion cold until such
points can be countered and clarified
perhaps the colonel needs to milk the system for a bit. Any company boards clamouring for
his services? That's the whole point: many returns, much clarification for as long as
possible, with suitably deep yellow hip waders.
"The Russians attacked us." Depending on what parts of the 'attack' you are talking about
there is little doubt about who did it.. For example – you can read interviews in the
Russian newspapers with people who worked in the Internet Research Agency about what they did
in the US social media. I don't really see the big deal. We have done it to many other
countries. There was blow back and we got the same thing done to us. The real issue is that
we where not very well prepared.
Many years ago, when I was a college freshman, there was one fraternity on campus that was
looked down upon as a collection of losers. But it had at least one very sharp and
enterprising brother named Jack, who was a counselor in the freshman dorm. As pledge time
approached, he would talk to the most popular freshmen, one by one, and tell us that he had a
proposition for us. Why, he asked, would we want to join one of the cool frats and find
ourselves at the bottom of the pecking order? Why not instead join his struggling frat, en
mass, take it over, and run things ourselves? If we did so, he assured us, this loser frat
would become the coolest one on campus, and new students would be beating down the doors to
join. Believe it or not, his scheme actually worked, and, one by one, the most popular
freshmen agreed to go along with the concept. The key to his success was that he would put it
to us this way: Look, I know this is a difficult choice to make, and I'm not asking you to do
it on your own. But would you do it these other guys did it? If Jim and Steve and Pete and
John and Bill, etc., all agreed to pledge with you, will you now give me your promise that
you'd join them? That's all I want you to promise right now, that if these other guys do
this, you will too. And by God, it worked, and at pledge time he had a huge group of popular
freshmen lined up to join his loser fraternity. Had his conscience not bothered him and
caused him to release us from our promises right before pledge day, the greatest and most
sudden transformation in my college's frat history would have occurred. I tell this true
story because I don't see why it couldn't apply to the Green Party, if only it had enough
Jacks in its ranks, with the insight and savvy to reach out in similar fashion to
progressives and minorities, one by one or group by group.
We stopped watching his show when he let his guests talk over each other on a regular
basis, and besides that, he's slower on the uptake of what's really going on, as opposed to
any NC reader.
I watch Bill Maher's show regularly. I normally watch just the beginning and the end. The
opening monologue and the New Rules segment at the end. I normally skip the panel in the
middle of the show because it's so one-sided. Two or three liberals versus one conservative
plus Bill Maher. So the conservative constantly gets drowned out and interrupted. He has
little to no airtime because he can barely get a sentence in before the panel devolves to a
hysterical shouting match. And this was before Trump even ran for President. Now, it's even
worse. They don't even allow anyone else to have a contrarian opinion to the Beltway
consensus.
I find Maher odious in general. However, it does puzzle me as to why he was a strong
Sanders supporter (kind of the opposite of a Libertarian) and he also clearly wasn't thrilled
about Hillary, although he supported her over Trump.
What ever scruples Maher may have, they come along with a heaping helping of
playing to what he thinks his perceived public wants to hear. It's possible that he actually
does have a soft spot for Sanders (though that could be influenced by shared religious
tribe).
Network TV is still a thing ?? Guess I've been missin out .. well, not really. It's such
that whenever I happen to be in proximity to a set that's 'on', which is rather rare, it just
seems loud, obnoxious, and stupifying .. whether it be the programmed 'entertainment', or the
commercial klaxons whailing away. If one thinks of Corpse-rated TV as a virus, then maher et.
al. are the phomites of obsfucation, psychopathy and spite !
Wilkerson was in with Powell when the phony reasons for the attack on Iraq were being
mounted, and was deep into the military, and MIC. Maher, and Moore are both psychopaths,
which Wilkerson, for all his faults, is not. The Republicans and conservatives are insane.
The Democrats and liberals are even worse now. It's like watching two groups of insane,
childish, drug-crazed, chimps flinging feces at each other as they both set the jungle on
fire. The level of stupidity, ignorance, and lunacy is astounding. None of this makes
sense.
I think I understand why elves and flying saucer people are not seen: "What? You want to
try to contact these creatures? Are you on drugs? They would kill you without thinking twice.
Better to interact with hyenas or grizzly bears."
Help! I've fallen into this insane nightmare and can't wake up. The best I've been able is
to ignore some of it and hide in my 'cave' with the cats while I still can. It's hard to even
find a good reason for thinking or talking about it any more: pissing into the wind.
He sums it up in the last three paragraphs:
"
This troubling trend of the Western public gravitating toward and supporting individuals like
McFaul and Browder solely out of their perceived hatred for President Trump and Russia is
pushing Western political discourse further from rational debate and deeper toward
hysteria.
That powerful special interests can easily manipulate sections of the Western public to
support virtually anyone or anything, including unsavory characters like McFaul and Browder
or the notion of expanding NATO or continued war abroad in nations like Syria simply by
invoking "Trump" or "Russia" represents a predictable but dangerous Pavlovian phenomenon
likely to leave deep scars, permanently disfiguring American politics and society much in the
way the so-called "War on Terror" has.
The increasing lack of political sophistication in America is a reflection of a much wider
deterioration of American economic and geopolitical strength both at home and around the
globe. While one would expect sound leadership to begin preparing America for an orderly
transition from a once global hegemon to a constructive member of a more multipolar world
order, history has proven the lack of grace that generally accompanies an empire's
decline.
"
I've thought since 2011 that "Tony Cartalucci" is a Kremlin writers-group operation thing,
or something like that. Those writings are always group projects of some sort, not just one
dude, kind of like "Tyler Durden" at zerohedge, but much, much higher quality. I'm
not saying to not listen to or to disregard everything "Cartalucci" says. There's a
lot of genuinely insightful and useful information in there. But be aware of how "not exactly
for America's 99%" the bias is. "They" seem to think we should all give up on democracy and
become preppers and wait on techno-utopian solutions to solve all of our problems.
I see at https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Tony_Cartalucci
he is
"Tony Cartalucci is a geopolitical researcher and writer based in Bangkok, Thailand. His work
covers world events from a Southeast Asian perspective and promotes self-sufficiency as one
of the keys to true freedom."
I see no reason to doubt that right now, but I don't care. I read things for content, and
his content is often good, so I pay attention when I see something from him. Other names I
recognize as rubbish and don't wast my time or energy with it. I take no one without
skepticism, fact checking, etc. Sometimes I could learn something from an idiot, but it's
generally not worth the effort to try.
I also read some, such as Paul Craig Roberts, who has some good material and also some blind
spots and obvious bias or flaws.
It all goes into the box from which I assemble my own take on the probabilities of which
models and narratives are most accurate and useful.
"Sex is Funny, but Love isn't." Hence it is that shopping cart traffic conflict is funny,
but empty shelves isn't. Most I've done as a stand-up is the pro set time of 45 minutes. I've
heard of Maher doing 2 hours. Someone like Eddie Murphy did movie length stand-up. People pay
to see Maher live. Carlin was better at being serious. There is the Lenny Bruce tradition for
which few can handle, and the Will Ferrell silly genus. If you want to see fine comedy watch
Kate McKinnon do Kelly Ann Conway on SNL. I understand Bill Maher as a successful
producer.
What do we mean by "BiPartisan". What it best means is neither Left or Right. Best it
means American, Eclectic, Ethical, Pragmatism. In fact this is easiest achieved when it is an
issue of Defense in Foreign Policy. GOP domestic policy is essentially selfish and mean.
Makes the right answer hard to get near. Philosophy of leading GOP figures like Paul Ryan who
has terrific power as Speaker is Objectivism not American Pragmatism. Ayn Rand makes what
would be wonderful bleak.
You will have reasons to feel safer when you hear that the US & NATO have put 3
thousand Tanks along the Fronts where Russian Tanks would roll into Europe. It is either that
or you know that Russian Tanks can all be bazooka blasted away by lots of mobile tank killing
crews and their missiles. Nukes exist to kill tanks and their crews. US doctrine is still to
use nukes to kill tanks.
When Carter saw he was going to fail to "rid all nuclear weapons from the face of this
earth." -Inaugural Address) he came up with the neutron bomb. For some unfathomable reason
this flipped people out. We would prefer the Neutron bomb since it would not destroy
farmland.
In the time of Trump and the open assault on Democracy characterized by failures of the TV
Press distorted by profits and personalities I look at the famines that are associated with
One Party Rule, and the Dictators such as Stalin and Mao. Maybe there is a way to make it
funny in how I might say "Democracy & a Free Press, No Famine!. One Party Rule & a
Dictator & Famine. Don't vote for Famine Folks!"
If I was even negotiating with Russia and China I would be pointing out they are Food
Insecure and the US is not. Russia and China need to be wary and fair if they want the US to
sell them food at a price the US can maintain its farmers from.
Soybean Tariffs threaten to cause farmland in the US to be taken out of food production
making the US take one turn itself towards less food insecurity. It is too much to expect
that US Grants to Farmers would prevent some good high number of farmers selling their land
for other uses when they are forced to fail on price competition.
William Burroughs who gave us sci fi phrases like "Heavy Metal", & the art he produced
from heroin, Scientology's E Meter, pills, guns, spiritually justified murder? and Methadone
in Kansas, ended his life saying all he cared about were his 11 cats.
I understand that very few Americans have any objectivity left or imagination, but let's
try a thought experiment. Substitute Hillary Clinton and Clinton Advisor for every time we
hear Trump or Trump Advisor and tell me that the rabid right would not be foaming at the
mouth, demanding impeachment (along with waterboarding and lynching) and threatening to round
up all registered democrats as a precaution.
Hillary Clinton is a terrible thing. She should never have been allowed to run or even
held any position in anyone's administration for a variety of reasons. But that does not
absolve Trump from being everything HE is. And it does not absolve Trump from appearing to
collude with Russia and be Putin's puppet. I cannot and will not buy the 9 Dimensional Chess
argument or the He's a Business Genius Argument when both are patently false. He is
admittedly incredibly ignorant and lacking any attention span. He is a narcissistic liar. A
proven racist. A misogynist. A womanizer. A serial cheater. An unfaithful husband and
business partner.
How have we gotten to the point where we are defending Donald Trump? How are we giving him
the benefit of the doubt in anything when every past lie and action indicates he is
incompetent and merits no trust whatsoever.
The Trump Spin Team has done an amazing job turning a megalomaniac serial liar into a
victim. And America rolls over and takes it again.
With all due respect, you have this wrong. Please tell me for starters who this "Trump
spin team" is. The media is united against him, as is all of the Democratic party and big
swathes of the GOP. Helsinki is a case study. Trump does something which every president has
done, including the sainted Ronald Reagan, when "Russia" was not Russia but the far more
threatening USSR, and no one got bent out of shape about it. All Trump did was high five
Putin. He didn't make any commitments. And even when Trump makes commitments, he reneges on
them a high proportion of the time. Oh, and Saint Ronnie also got on personally with
Gorbachev.
The Republicans made clear they would impeach Hillary. They had both her server and the
Clinton Foundation taking foreign cash as issues. They could get her alone on what amounted
to taking kickbacks for brokering uranium to Russia.
As for RussiaRussia, you totally misrepresent the issue. What readers and many on the left
are upset about is:
1. Disregard for facts or evidence. No one has yet to provide any solid evidence against
Trump regarding his supposed dalliance with Russia. The stuff coming from Team Dem is on the
order of the birther charges re Obama. Just read this discussion of the Steele dossier as an
example:
If you don't demand accuracy from the press, you are volunteering to be propagandized all
the time.
2. The effort to demonize Trump has moved into New McCarthyism. And you are actively
promoting it. Standing up for the idea of integrity of information and accurate reporting is
now being mischaracterized as defense of Trump. This is tantamount to a loyalty test and is
crass authoritarianism.
3. In case you missed it, various parties are now treating the left as a threat and using
RussiaRussia to up the ante. See this telling Comey tweet as an example,
I'm usually more or less immune to groupthink and propaganda, at least compared to many,
but even I had to take a few days away from all internet communications last week and just
re-read old Orwell essays to get my mind straight again regarding Helenski.
"One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the
familiar Marxist claim that 'bourgeois liberty' is an illusion, there is now a widespread
tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods. If one loves
democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who
are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and
consciously, but those who 'objectively' endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines. In
other words, defending democracy involves destroying all independence of thought."
"These people don't see that if you encourage totalitarian methods, the time may come
when they will be used against you instead of for you. Make a habit of imprisoning Fascists
without trial, and perhaps the process won't stop at Fascists. Soon after the suppressed
Daily Worker had been reinstated, I was lecturing to a workingmen's college in South
London. The audience were working-class and lower-middle class intellectuals -- the same
sort of audience that one used to meet at Left Book Club branches. The lecture had touched
on the freedom of the press, and at the end, to my astonishment, several questioners stood
up and asked me: Did I not think that the lifting of the ban on the Daily Worker was a
great mistake? When asked why, they said that it was a paper of doubtful loyalty and ought
not to be tolerated in war time. I found myself defending the Daily Worker, which has gone
out of its way to libel me more than once. But where had these people learned this
essentially totalitarian outlook?"
What am I missing? Why does a guy like Wilkerson lower himself to appear on this show?
Once maybe. More than that, why? No one is perfect including Wilkerson and he has a "past"
but don't we all?
There is a possibility that Maher's behavior reflects an expanded role of the BBG
(Broadcasting Board of Governors), who controls it, concentration of media ownership in a few
large corporate hands, and the recent modifications of the Smith-Mundt Act to allow domestic
propaganda. IMO "RussiaRussia!" and "IranIran!" would not have been and continue to be
relentlessly injected into our MSM diet for the past year and a half without the table having
been set.
Unfortunately, as other readers have noted, this misdirection is also damaging in the
sense that it serves to divert attention away from issues of genuine public concern such as
climate change, the sad state of our nation's infrastructure, public education, erosion of
civil liberties, transitioning from a war-based economy, extreme economic inequality,
meaningful campaign finance reform, etc.
Where did Wilkerson pick up that it is now Russian military doctrine to use nukes? Every
analysis I've read is that Putin's aim in weapons development, real or imaginary, is to
restore deterrence, which the U.S. has been steadily eroding.
Russia's latest edition of its nuclear doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons in
response to a nuclear attack against Russia or its allies, or to a conventional attack that
threatens the existence of Russia.
Only the "or its allies" bit isn't straightforward deterrence doctrine. That would be
"extended deterrence", a contradictory doctrine that the U.S. has adopted since virtually the
start of the Cold War. McNamara's "ladder of escalation" doctrine was its explicit
formulation. ("Full spectrum dominance" is its lineal descendant). And the fact of the matter
is that the U.S. military has never really fully accepted the straight-forward notion of
deterrence, but has always been pressing further, seeking some obscure advantage or leverage.
I think it's clear from his statements over many years, that Putin is attempting to respond
to the erosion of deterrence by the U.S., (while the Soviet Union itself never explicitly
embraced deterrence doctrine, originally crudely understanding nukes as just high powered
artillery).
Here is yet another 'liberal' or 'leftist' who has fallen into Trump Derangement Syndrome,
complete with hurling names and insults at any who disagree with him and spouting a host of
logical and rhetorical fallacies -- and another who has fallen out of list of people who I
think are worth listening to.
"It's true that the number of self-professed "analysts" and dementia-addled lefties
spouting the Trump-as-peacenik line is relatively small
Indeed, because of the Dotard's doting on Putin, we should all sing hosannas as we erect
cheaply made gold-plated monuments in his honor.
But back on Planet Earth, even the specious notion that Trump is somehow a peacemaker
cannot fake news its way into being true. In fact, if anything, Trump has been the most
bellicose president in recent memory. But don't tell those Trumpy lefties that. "
Counterpunch itself is teetering on the edge of that 'worth reading' list such that I
rarely bother going there any more. Have these clowns been listening to what Clinton and the
Dems have been saying and doing? -- "treason" for a president to talk to Russian leaders
("doting on Putin")? They think Clinton, who laughed when she destroyed Libya, would be
better?
Adding, I just reread the thing, and I found no examples or links to these
supposed "Left Trumpists." So it's a smear, plain and simple, left lying about for future
use.
Re: "Left Trumpists" If anyone from the left agrees with *any* of the hundreds, if not
thousands, of policies opinions espoused by Trump. Is a "Left Trumpist". He is evil, to give
support to evil in any way is evil. It's politics driven almost purely by ad hominem fallacy.
Therefore any person of the left who is capable of independent thought will necessarily be
presumptively labeled a "Left Trumpist" by the absurd definition of the #resistance. I won't
even bother pointing out to them that always disagreeing with someone puts you in their
complete control. if I can make you always contradict me, I can make you think or say almost
whatever I like.
The world is full of Trump mind readers .wish I had their extra sensory powers.
And some of us who consider ourselves "leftists" do hope Trump makes peace with Russia and
others. Since these are things he talked about before he was president it's not impossible.
If you think Trump's main goal in life is to build his brand it's also not illogical.
Starting a war with, say, Iran would be very unpopular–one new poll says 23 percent
support–and bad for brand building. The public now wants peace IMO. Most of Trump's
current mayhem is grandfathered in from Obama or at least too much under the radar to be
noticed (except for those trash talking tweets of course).
Counterpunch publishes all sorts of views. I don't think we should condemn the site
because of one article. However they do publish authors who like to say things like "dotard."
Name calling is so childish (unless it's about Hillary).
A view is one thing; this is something else: a tirade of insults is not a view. I
regularly listen to Crosstalk, for example, and appreciate Lavelle and most of his guests,
even if I disagree with the conservative positions, but they don't rant and rave and insult
me with phrases such as "depraved" or "dementia-addled". This is not just unpleasant to read,
but demonstrates a fundamental weakness in his analytical, and his writing, ability. If
that's the best Draitser can manage then I don't want to take time to see what he has to say
-- and there is really not much more there, but a litany of complaints about Trump which most
everyone not in the matrix are aware of. It's not just name-calling which is childish, but
his thinking and perception. And that's something I find increasingly common in Counterpunch,
and other western publications. I have no need or time for more crude propaganda.
The idea of defending Trump is not defending Trump and his ogrish ways, but defending law,
legitimate process, open inquiry and dialogue, sophisticated analysis, and even truth. That's
not about Trump; that's about us.
If it helps I agree they do accept some articles that aren't very good. I think they may
be struggling since Cockburn died. I don't think they actually pay people to write there.
But that site has been around a long time and it would be a shame to see it go. Too many
lefty sites have bitten the dust.
It started with Alexander Cockburn's weird "Climate Science is a fraud! A man on the
Nation cruise told me this!" and achieved its defining moment with Andrew Levine, who went on
endlessly as to how Trump was necessarily, inevitably, "unelectable in American Democracy,"
but could be a source of wry amusement to the enlightened liberal.
I suspect an upcoming merger between Counterpunch and the Guardian.
Cockburn was a contrarian who liked to provoke. He was also a vehement opponent of nuclear
power and thought the AGW warnings were a Trojan horse to restart nuclear power–which
is to say even if true the proposed cure could be worse than the disease.
And while AGW is now more widely accepted it's hard to say that much is being done about
it. It's not so much an inconvenient truth as a problem from hell. Bandaid solutions make us
feel better but may not change the outcome. Fortunately nuclear still seems to be on the
skids.
Whether global warming is a hoax or not, nuclear is expensive and dangerous, and can be
replaced with solar, wind, hydro, etc. with some good side effects for employment and other
economic factors. Beat your swords into plowshares and your soldiers into energy technicians.
Just do it -- make the investment (and remember MMT) -- and the survival of the ecology and
civilization could well be a nice side effect. There is enough with that to make a decision
with. Other countries are managing it.
The old Counterpunch was worth saving, I guess, but for the new one it isn't so clear.
Many more left sites will fade if the left doesn't get it's act together. The liberals are
about gone already -- and the conservatives are riding a temporary wave. Capitalism is dying.
Everything in the empire is falling apart as contradictions of thesis and antithesis
transform into some foggy synthesis, or destruction.
It's a place to begin where there is a not a crowd of climate change deniers and
proponents breaking out into avoidable fights which would derail plans and efforts to go
sustainable.
It doesn't matter whether the sun goes around the earth and actually sets, or if the earth
rotates out of the light, to decide that when it gets dark one needs to light a lamp to see
and not fall down the steps. It is being in the dark which is sufficient reason for the
decision to light it.
A sufficient decision to do away with coal fired plants is that the pollution makes us
sick -- we don't need to consider CO2 or albedo warming effects to not want to breath in the
junk.
left sites will fade if the left doesn't get it's act together. The liberals are about
gone already -- and the conservatives are riding a temporary wave
you shouldn't ignore the belly of the beast, the working class, losing their divide that was
the big risk to the status quo from sanders, he could have bridged that divide
and the conservatives are riding a temporary wave. Capitalism is dying. Everything in
the empire is falling apart as contradictions of thesis and antithesis transform into some
foggy synthesis, or destruction
the only quibble I have with this perfect description is that many democrats are
conservative, and the democrat conservatives got, well, served, and the compass is kind of
spinning right now
Eric Draitser is a deeply, deeply meretricious commentator. In the essay you linked to,
Blue, note how he tries to have it both ways. First, he criticizes us for, in effect, being
the dupes of Russian propaganda:
Left Trumpists focus their ire on the opponents of Trumpism. Ostensibly, it's because
the anti-Trump activists are hypocrites who only form political opposition against
Republicans while letting Democrats eat live babies on YouTube and roll wheelchair-bound
pensioners into oncoming traffic. But, seen from a more realistic perspective, it seems
this chorus of silliness is based more on Trump's words, and those of openly pro-Putin
media , than on reality. [Emphasis mine]
Next, he himself begins to spout what–only a few short months ago–would have
been roundly dismissed by the MSM as Russian propaganda:
Well, it wasn't particularly inspiring when the Trump Administration decided to escalate
Obama's already insane policy vis-à-vis Ukraine by providing lethal weapons to the
US-backed Kiev regime which continues to be partnered with, and in some ways captive to,
Ukrainian Nazis and other fascist, er um, "ultra-nationalist," forces.
Nazis in Ukraine! Why, that's so very RT of you, Eric.
So, to recap: Eric Draitser can switch sides in an argument whenever he wants, while still
claiming that we are the ones who are being inconsistent.
Draitser, along with the rest of the 'Gang of Four' (Louis Proyect, Yoav Litvin, Jeffrey
St. Clair), is the reason I now find CounterPunch to be basically unreadable. Sad for years
it was my absolute favorite website–head and shoulders above the other alt-left sites
back then. But I guess it was just Alexander Cockburn who made it what it was. Over the past
two years, they've lost so many of their best writers that I've taken to calling it
CounterPurge. Not to worry, though: most of their best writers have turned up at Unz.com.
I'm far to the left of Bill Maher, but in a general way I agree with him more often than
with Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. However on what is apparently an attempt at a show with
thoughtful discussion from a variety of perspectives, the way Col. Larry Wilkerson was
treated was not helpful for any side. Col. Wilkerson is one of the last republicans on the
national stage who is reasonable, or even rational at this point in time. And certainly one
of the very few who have the backbone to stand up even for what they personally believe is
"right". A real lost opportunity by Mr Maher. And regarding "tRump derangement syndrome" how
SAD is it that we live in a world where we have to discuss whether it is worse to have a
willfully ignorant and egomaniacal dotard with his finger on the nuclear button or whether
the real problem is a country where forty per cent of the voters support an authoritarian
party willing to steal elections so that they can pass laws to steal wages and savings at
home and abroad, destroy the biosphere, and wage war for profit.
On a related note at 51 minutes into this video by the excellent journalist Egberto
Willies,Col. Larry Wilkerson, says that the military is being told that the worst case
scenario (and IPCC "worst case" scenarios are routinely exceeded) is that "by the end of
2100" there will be less than enough arable land on the planet for 400 MILLION people.
https://egbertowillies.com/2015/09/25/lawrence-wilkerson-the-travails-of-empire-lone-star-college-kingwood-video/
"No such thing as bad publicity" is one of those truisms that isn't true. For example,
this interview was very bad publicity indeed for Donna Brazile. https://youtu.be/GQtu1VsH_0s?t=47s
It looks as though the Pentagon is agreeing with the War Hawks in the Administration
(Bolton) and Legislature (Graham) that nuclear war is the way ahead. They must disbelieve the
Russian revelation of new weapons. That's a bold position to take when your entire country
and its population is likely to be bombed.
I disagree with Colonel Wilkerson's apparent expectation that the war will be restricted
to Europe. The day something falls on Russia is the day something falls on the continental
USA.
The survivors will be those hundreds of thousands of US soldiers serving in Asia and
Africa and South America. The recruiting offices might be able to make something of that but
how will they keep the PXs supplied?
"... I'll second Rod Rosenstein, I couldn't stand his performance before Congress. He played it both ways, 'we are working day and night to get you the documents', same as saying, I don't have enough people and then said he didn't know because ..., 'I can't watch everyone, I have thousands of people working under me'. A first class weasel. ..."
"... It appears that some senior FBI Cybersecurity leaders are retiring. Just when they are needed most - to explain how they let China run rampant through the Secretary of State's email server. They should be fired rather than allowed to collect a retirement check. ..."
"... https://www.wsj.com/article... ..."
"... I wonder which one of the three is Sy Hersh's source for the Seth Rich report. Because that came directly from the FBI cyber division and clearly would have been so explosive that anyone senior at that division would have been aware of it and had access to it. Of course, it could have come from some other agency but Hersh was clear that his source was very good. "I have somebody on the inside who will go and read a file for me. This person is unbelievably accurate and careful. He's a very high level guy. He'll do a favor." ..."
"... Since Globalization and President Obama giving out "get out of jail" cards, the Elite can do what they want. Government is secondary. The rule of law for Multinationals is dead. Fines are the cost of doing business. Courtiers use the revolving door to climb the ladder and accumulate power ..."
"... Chris Christie and Wray- two Jersey Republicans. Sessions knew Rosenstein from DoJ and the courts. This tells me that Trump did not know government people. ..."
The government of the United States is not a parliamentary government. There are three
co-equal branches in the federal government; the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary.
The president is the "line and block chart" boss of everyone in the Executive Branch. All of
the categories of political appointees listed above plus the actual department heads in the
cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president acting as head of the Executive Branch of the US
Government. He does not have such a free hand in disposing of civil servants who are below
these political appointees and whose employment is protected by law. They generally work for
the political appointees. For the record - I was a career SES after retirement from the army
and not a presidential appointee. The Department of Justice is part of the Executive Branch of
the federal government and all its political appointees are subject to presidential discipline
as are all others in the Executive Branch. Presidents, like the heads of all executive teams
have the right to expect the loyalty of the subordinates below them. It is expected that these
subordinates should carry out all policies that are not illegal, nor grossly contrary to the
interests of the United States. If an Executive Branch civilian employee believes that a policy
is illegal or so contrary to US interests then this person should resign his or her position.
In no instance should an Executive Branch employee act as a member of a "resistance" to the
lawfully elected president. With that in mind I would suggest that the following officials
should be dismissed by President Trump:
DNI Dan Coats - He has made it clear by his utterances at the Aspen security conference
this week that he is not loyal to the president. For a supposed member of the president's
inner team to communicate in public by words or body language his rejection of presidential
policy is a firing offense.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. This man is an obvious affiliate of the
"resistance." His arrogance in dealing with the Congress clearly indicates that he thinks
that all power is rightfully in the hands of the lawyer bureaucrats at the DoJ and that both
the Congress and the president will get what he chooses to give them.
FBI Director Christopher Wray. His performance at Aspen indicates that he thinks that as
head of the FBI he is the consecrated protector of the Knights of the Round Table reborn as
the FBI. IMO that comes before loyalty to the president for him. The FBI is in no legal or
constitutional sense independent of presidential authority.
Others are candidates for this list, but time will develop the case. IMO it is clearly
suicidal to retain such people in office when they are proceeding through action or inaction to
undermine the administration. The argument will be made that there will be cries of Obstruction
of Justice. So be it. pl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_appointments_in_the_United_States
The US Armed Forces are headed by commissioned officers whose appointments at each level of
rank are confirmed by the US Senate. They can be removed at will from positions by superiors
including of course the president/commander in chief but cannot be deprived of rank or
expelled from the services except by court-martial. The armed forces understand very well
that within the limits of US law they are completely subordinated to the commander in chief
and will not speak against him or his policies unless they wish to risk conviction under the
Punitive Article in UCMJ that forbids such speech. (Article 88)
I'll second Rod Rosenstein, I couldn't stand his performance before Congress. He played it both ways, 'we are working day and night to get you the documents', same as
saying, I don't have enough people and then said he didn't know because ..., 'I can't watch
everyone, I have thousands of people working under me'. A first class weasel.
It appears that some senior FBI Cybersecurity leaders are retiring. Just when they are
needed most - to explain how they let China run rampant through the Secretary of State's
email server. They should be fired rather than allowed to collect a retirement check.
I wonder which one of the three is Sy Hersh's source for the Seth Rich report. Because
that came directly from the FBI cyber division and clearly would have been so explosive that
anyone senior at that division would have been aware of it and had access to it. Of course,
it could have come from some other agency but Hersh was clear that his source was very good.
"I have somebody on the inside who will go and read a file for me. This person is
unbelievably accurate and careful. He's a very high level guy. He'll do a favor."
You are correct. Except at this point the only people the President can trust are his
family members. He went off to Helsinki and did his thing without senior staff.
Since Globalization and President Obama giving out "get out of jail" cards, the Elite
can do what they want. Government is secondary. The rule of law for Multinationals is dead.
Fines are the cost of doing business. Courtiers use the revolving door to climb the ladder
and accumulate power .
Donald Trump slammed that door shut. Climbers can not work for him and risk pissing off
future bosses. Andrea Mitchell (Mrs. Greenspan), Don Coats, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher
Wray were at the Aspen Security Forum bonding and networking. If they lose their jobs and
power, they face Paul Manafort's fate; jail before trial.
Donald Trump was elected because of American voters lost their jobs and homes,
immigration, plus the endless wars. The Aspen Four's mission is to elevate VP Mike Pence and
avoid a second Civil War while allowing the continued exploitation of the American people and
environment to get richer. Will the global corporate propaganda and coup succeed? We are
Americans. "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."
Maybe I'm painting with too broad a brush but I honestly don't understand why President Trump
didn't demand the resignations of all of the Obama political appointees the moment he took
the oath of office.
but who does he replace them with? because i think it's this, primarily - the fact that he
has no bullpen - that's his single biggest problem afa this issue's concerned...
I think you are right but this seems to be changing. He was not part of the Borg (in it's
wider sense i.e not just re. FP) and therefore was not the GOP's man. As such it must have
been a problem to find enough like minded people to fill all these positions who were not
part of the status quo and had the experience to effectively operate within the beltway. Had
any of the GOP's boys won they would have been able to dip into the establishment think-tank
pool and pick the clones they wanted - not so easy for a boat rocker like President Trump.
The unrelenting attacks from the Dems seem to be rallying more of the old Republicans in line
behind the President.
We have a very similar problem here in the UK. Corbyn won an overwhelming victory from the
Labour party rank and file but Blair had been PM for so long almost all of the senior
positions were held by Blairites (AKA 'New Labour') and Corbyn is having a hard time finding
'Traditional Labour' ideologues with experience. Again, like Trump, he is having to try and
restructure his party while under constant attack from the MSM and backstabbing from the
Blairites. It is not easy trying to steer a Juggernaut like Westminster or Washington on a
new course when all the existing crew only know, or want, the old way.
Should our current Brexit meltdown end PM May's Government we could end up with a
Trump/Corbyn 'special relationship'. Now that really would be something very interesting to
watch, preferably from a safe distance.
There are a lot of lawyers in the DOJ and FBI. DNI wouldn't be too hard either. Maybe he
should recall Martin Dempsey to active duty and give him the job.
yeah, i'm not saying that there aren't any, i'm sure there're a number of very qualified
people. but trump, personally, has no background in government, & just doesn't seem to
have any kind of substantial, trustworthy inner circle who's judgments he can rely on when it
comes to separating the wheat from the chaff, & filling positions like these...
Rosenstein is a member of SES. I wonder if that is having an effect. Comey was also an SES
member, but he was fired, although I guess that was for malfeasance. Or was Comey fired
simply because DOJ members can be fired by the president? BTW, a cursory search showed that
Jeff Sessions, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Bill Priestap, Valerie Jarrett, and Bruce Ohr are
also members of SES.
That is not correct. A cabinet member cannot be a member of the SES. What is the citation for
your assertion that these people were members of the SES? I think you are lying.
I completely concur with you and will add AG Sessions and DCIA Ms. Gina to the list.
Anyone recommended by the traitor and avowed Communist Brennan should go. Jeff Sessions is a
disgrace for hiding under his desk. If he had any decency he would have resigned long
ago.
Are all SES employees of the federal government, "at will" employees? Or can they only be
fired for "cause"?
IMO, a significant purge of the top echelons of the intelligence and law enforcement
agencies is required to restore the rule of law and confidence in the integrity and
competence of these institutions.
If guys like Andy McCabe, Peter Strzok, Sally Yates can rise up to the levels they did
something is wrong with these institutions. I would even go further and shut them all down
and re-build from scratch. These agencies are a bigger threat to our constitutional republic
than our foreign adversaries.
To get rid of a career SES you either have to remove him for malfeasance and make it stick or
give him a poor annual rating three years in a row. The president can remove them from
position and let them sit in a bare office with a telephone until you have three poor
ratings. That was always true.
I for one and all in favor. My favorite possible action which I am sure we will never see is
the complete closure of the CIA, but we all know how that idea yielded unfortunate results
the last time it was proposed by a President.
At what point do we declare Treason? My personal redline is Trump's Presidency. I don't
pretend to know what Trump faces everyday. I do not like his rudeness, his incivility, and
several of his policies, but I also don't doubt that he cares about America. And I know that
he was legally elected.
Right after the election we saw an incredible social media push against the electoral
college, the Constitution. It was the beginning of a coup d'etat here in the USA. That
attempt has not ended.
The Constitution will stand or not, but it will not go easy and not without the blood of
Patriots. Millions can moan whatever blather the TV tells them but it was a few that created
this country and it will be a few that defend it and continues it into the future.
A few passionate and moral people can outweigh millions.
Not advocating revolution here but if needed and and we can get 1% to show up in
Washington that is 3.3 million people. 5X current population. D.C. rolled out the tanks and
used Patton for only 17,000 vets in 1932.
From where I sit and knowing the absolute disgust I am hearing from so many people around me,
both those who are old moderates, those who are avid Trump supporters, and the ones around
here who always vote for what I call "white 'bread" Republicans all the time, it's time for
draining and hosing out the swamp. Even a few of the Democrats I know are a little
embarrassed about what is going on in D.C.
I think you would be able to hear the cheering from the West clear out there in D.D. if
your recommendations were put into place.
The Saker suggests he do what Putin did. (Maybe this is something the two of them talked
about) "When Putin came to power he inherited a Kremlin every bit as corrupt and
traitor-infested as the White House nowadays."
https://www.paulcraigrobert...
BTW what did they talk about? There's asyory going around that VVP gave him terabytes of
coded US messages by and about the conspirators and the key to reading the codes. Don't know
what to make of that but we should be alert for sudden revelations.
I humbly suggest that Trump supporters can stop hyperventilating. Your required reading
should be the series of ten articles on the 2016 election by surely the most astute pollster
on the political scene, Nate Silver. Among many, many money quotes, here is one of the most
brutal,
""Coverage rarely mentioned the parallels between Clinton and Al Gore, for instance, who
had failed to win a third consecutive term for Democrats in 2000 under similar conditions to
the ones Clinton faced."
-- Nate Silver
Realistically, we're looking at eight years of Trump... and the transformation of U.S.
society under malign Russian rule, because I firmly believe the bromance between Trump and
Putin is based on one of the two things that Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards said could
defeat him.
This is a reverse Yeltsin if you will. What goes around comes around. Given that it may
end the horror of American military adventure across the globe, I intend to sit back and
enjoy it. States' rights is thankfully a two-edged sword.
Trump has very limited support among the GOP establishment in the House and Senate. Just look
at the response to the meeting with Putin from Flake, Corker, McCain and Rubio. Who does he
have in the White House that shares his views on foreign policy? At least on trade policy he
has Ross, Navarro and Lighthizer.
He clearly needs another team to lead the intelligence and law enforcement functions. I
think he realizes it but it seems from recent interviews that he feels constrained due to
Mueller and the obstruction of justice charge. Maybe he acts after the mid-terms. In the mean
time the assault by the TDS crowd will continue.
while i agree with your sentiment that these people all need the axe, it seems like a trend
where presidents putting key official in places where they sabotage themselves.
i mean i don't like obama, but what ever good instincts he had, were totally derailed by
his own appointments. particularly on the foreign policy side of things.
Dan Coats was pushed for DNI by Mike Pence. You have to wonder where Pence now stands in
regards to Coats' statements? Wray was pushed for his job by NJ governor Chris Christie. Not sure who was Rosenstein's patron. My guess is Sessions.
Yes. Coats and Pence - two Hoosiers. Chris Christie and Wray- two Jersey Republicans.
Sessions knew Rosenstein from DoJ and the courts. This tells me that Trump did not know
government people.
"... This is the proverbial case where the real " action is in the reaction " and, in this case, the reaction of the Neocon run US deep-state and its propaganda machine (the US corporate media) was nothing short of total and abject hysterics. ..."
"... What Trump is facing today is not a barrage of criticism but a very real lynch mob! And what is really frightening is that almost nobody dares to denounce that hysterical lynch mob for what it is. ..."
"... Even such supposed supporters of President Trump like Trey Gowdy who has fully thrown his weight behind the "Russia tried to attack us" nonsense . With friends like these... ..."
"... What has been taking place after this the summit is an Orwellian "two minutes of hatred" but now stretched well into a two weeks of hatred. And I see no signs that this lynch mob is calming down. In fact, as of this morning, the levels of hysteria are only increasing . ..."
"... By the way, these are typical Neocon-style tactics: double-down, then double-down again, then issue statements which make it impossible for you to back down, then repeat it all as many times as needed. This strategy is useless against a powerful and principled enemy, but it works miracles with a weak and spineless foe like Trump. ..."
"... The process which is taking place before our eyes splits the people of the US into two main categories: first, the Neocons and those whom the US media has successfully brainwashed and, second, everybody else. That second group, by the way, is very diverse and it includes not only bona fide Trump supporters (many of whom have also been zombified in their own way), but also paleo-conservatives, libertarians, antiwar activists, (real) progressives and many other groups. ..."
"... I am also guessing that a lot of folks in the military are watching in horror as their armed forces and their country are being wrecked by the Neocons and their supporters. Basically, those who felt "I want my country back" and who hoped that Trump would make that happen are now horrified by what is taking place. ..."
"... I believe that what we are seeing is a massive and deliberate attack by the Neocons and their deep state against the political system and the people of the United States. Congress, especially, is now guilty of engaging on a de-facto coup against the Executive on so many levels that they are hard to count (and many of them are probably hidden from the public eye) including repeated attempts to prevent Trump from exercising his constitutional powers such as, for example, deciding on foreign policy issues. ..."
"... By now there is overwhelming evidence that a creeping Neocon coup has been in progress from the very first day of Trump's presidency and that the Neocons are far from being satisfied with having broken Trump and taken over the de-facto power in the White House: they now apparently also want it de-jure too. ..."
"... From the Russian point of view, it matters very little whether Trump is removed from office or not – the problem is not one of personalities, but one of the nature of the AngloZionist Empire. ..."
"... the infighting of the US elites does and, if not, then at the very least the current crisis will further weaken the US, hence the Russian willingness to participate in this summit even if by itself this summit brought absolutely no tangible results: the action was in the reaction. ..."
"... The Deep State has opposed him at every turn, choosing to favor the policies of the Neocons and their enablers in the Democratic Party. Hence, having no team of his own, he has been saddled with personnel from the ranks of his most virulent enemies at every level. ..."
"... the Neocons and the Clinton gang are willing to say anything, no matter how destabilizing, to hurt Trump even if the US political system by itself is also put at risk. ..."
"... Saker, something is not adding up. If Trump is truly as pathetic a pushover, as "weak and spineless," as you say, why all the hysteria? If, on the other hand, he is a rather successful wrecking ball, already having put in jeopardy half the key resources of the empire, that's another story. ..."
"... He's laying waste to the Empire in the most peaceful process possible – in large part by so embarrassing the Empire's elites, allies and vassals that they withdraw first their active support, and then finally even their consent. Inducing hysteria, both foreign and domestic, is a non-trivial component of the forces giving the wrecking ball an extra push as it heads for the edifice. ..."
"... I don't think that Trump is the fool on the hill. I think that mostly all those around him are. The latest hysteria over Russia is not about any "meddling" in any "democracy". It's about throwing tantrums that Russia won't submit to US hegemony. In my opinion, they don't deserve to be in charge of their own country, let alone to be asking to be in charge of Russia. ..."
"... It is not just "unanimity of hatred and chaos", "abject hysterics", "hate-filled hysteria", "two minutes of hatred stretched well into a two weeks of hatred" etc. It's something else and, I feel, simply much worse and dangerous. ..."
Oh sure, there were a number of general statements made about "positive discussions" and the
like, and some vague references to various conflicts, but the truth is that nothing real and
tangible was agreed upon. Furthermore, and this is, I believe, absolutely crucial, there never
was any chance of this summit achieving anything. Why? Because the Russians have concluded a
long time ago that the US officials are "
non-agreement capable "
(недоговороспособны).
They are correct – the US has been non-agreement capable at least since Obama and Trump
has only made things even worse: not only has the US now reneged on Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (illegally – since this plan was endorsed by the
UNSC ), but Trump has even pathetically backtracked on the most important statement he made
during the summit when he retroactively changed his "
President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be " into "
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia " (so much for 5D chess!).
If Trump can't even stick to his own words, how could anybody expect the Russians to take
anything he says seriously?! Besides, ever since the many western verbal promises of not moving
NATO east "
by one inch eastward " the Russians know that western promises, assurances, and other
guarantees are worthless, whether promised in a conversation or inked on paper. In truth, the
Russians have been very blunt about their disgust with not only the western dishonesty but even
about the basic lack of professionalism of their western counterparts, hence the
comment by Putin about " it is difficult to have a dialogue with people who confuse
Austria and Australia ".
It is quite obvious that the Russians agreed to the summit while knowing full well that
nothing would, or even could, come out of it. This is why they were already dumping US
Treasuries even
before meeting with Trump (a clear sign of how the Kremlin really feels about Trump
and the US).
So why did they agree to the meeting? Because they correctly evaluated the
consequences of this meeting. This is the proverbial case where the real "
action is in
the reaction " and, in this case, the reaction of the Neocon run US deep-state and its
propaganda machine (the US corporate media) was nothing short of total and abject
hysterics. I could list an immense number of quotes, statements and declarations accusing
Trump of being a wimp, a traitor, a sellout, a Putin agent and all the rest. But I found the
most powerful illustration of that hate-filled hysteria in a collection of cartoons from the
western corporate media posted by Colonel Cassad on this page:
What we see today is a hate campaign against both Trump and Russia the likes of which
I think the world has never seen before: even in the early 20th century, including the pre-WWII
years when there was plenty of hate thrown around, there never was such a unanimity of
hatred as what we see today. Furthermore, what is attacked is not just "Trump the man" or
"Trump the politician" but very much so "Trump the President". Please compare the following two
examples:
The US wars after 9/11: many people had major reservations about the wars against
Afghanistan, Iraq and the entire GWOT thing. But most Americans seemed to agree with the "we
support our troops" slogan. The logic was something along the lines of "we don't like these
wars, but we do support our fighting men and women and the military institution as such". Thus,
while a specific policy was criticized, this criticism was never applied to the institution
which implement it: the US armed forces. Trump after Helsinki: keep in mind that Trump made no
agreement of any kind with Putin, none. And yet that policy of not making any
agreements with Putin was hysterically lambasted as a sellout. This begs the question: what
kind of policy would meet with the approval of the US deep state? Trump punching Putin in the
nose maybe? This is utterly ridiculous, yet unlike in the case of the GWOT wars, there is no
differentiation made whatsoever between Trump's policy towards Putin and Trump as the President
of the United States. There is even talk of impeachment, treason and "high crimes &
misdemeanors" or of the "KGB" (dissolved 27 years ago but nevermind that) having a hand in the
election of the US President.
What Trump is facing today is not a barrage of criticism but a very real lynch mob! And what
is really frightening is that almost nobody dares to denounce that hysterical lynch mob for
what it is. There are a few exceptions, of course, even in the media (I think of Tucker
Carlson), but these voices are completely drowned out by the hate-filled shrieks of the vast
majority of US politicians and journalists. Even such supposed supporters of President Trump
like Trey Gowdy who has
fully thrown his weight behind the "Russia tried to attack us" nonsense . With friends like
these...
What has been taking place after this the summit is an Orwellian "two minutes of hatred" but
now stretched well into a two weeks of hatred. And I see no signs that this lynch mob is
calming down. In fact, as of this morning, the levels of hysteria are
only increasing .
By the way, these are typical Neocon-style tactics: double-down, then double-down again,
then issue statements which make it impossible for you to back down, then repeat it all as many
times as needed. This strategy is useless against a powerful and principled enemy, but it works
miracles with a weak and spineless foe like Trump. This is particularly true of US politicians
and journalists who have long become the accomplices of the deep state (especially after the
9/11 false flag and its cover-up) and who now cannot back down under any circumstances or treat
President Trump as a normal, regular, President. The anti-Trump rhetoric has gone way too far
and the US has now reached what I believe is a point of no return.
The brewing constitutional crisis: the Neocons vs the "deplorables"
I believe that the US is facing what could be the worst crisis in its history: the lawfully
elected President is being openly delegitimized and that, in turn, delegitimizes the electoral
process which brought him to power and, of course, it also excoriates the "deplorables" who
dared vote for him: the majority of the American people.
The process which is taking place before our eyes splits the people of the US into two main
categories: first, the Neocons and those whom the US media has successfully brainwashed and,
second, everybody else. That second group, by the way, is very diverse and it includes not only
bona fide Trump supporters (many of whom have also been zombified in their own way), but
also paleo-conservatives, libertarians, antiwar activists, (real) progressives and many other
groups.
I am also guessing that a lot of folks in the military are watching in horror as their
armed forces and their country are being wrecked by the Neocons and their supporters.
Basically, those who felt "I want my country back" and who hoped that Trump would make that
happen are now horrified by what is taking place.
I believe that what we are seeing is a massive and deliberate attack by the Neocons and
their deep state against the political system and the people of the United States. Congress,
especially, is now guilty of engaging on a de-facto coup against the Executive on so
many levels that they are hard to count (and many of them are probably hidden from the public
eye) including repeated attempts to prevent Trump from exercising his constitutional powers
such as, for example, deciding on foreign policy issues. A perfect example of this can be found
in Nancy Pelosi's official statement about a possible invitation from Trump to Putin:
"The notion that President Trump would invite a tyrant to Washington is beyond belief.
Putin's ongoing attacks on our elections and on Western democracies and his illegal actions
in Crimea and the rest of Ukraine deserve the fierce, unanimous condemnation of the
international community, not a VIP ticket to our nation's capital. President Trump's
frightened fawning over Putin is an embarrassment and a grave threat to our democracy. An
invitation to address a Joint Meeting of Congress should be bipartisan and Speaker Ryan must
immediately make clear that there is not – and never will be – an invitation for
a thug like Putin to address the United States Congress."
Another example of the same can be found in the unanimous 98-0 resolution by the
US Senate expressing Congress's opposition to the US government allowing Russia to question
US officials. Trump, of course, immediately caved in, even though he had originally declared
"fantastic" the idea of actually abiding by the terms of an existing 1999 agreement on mutual
assistance on criminal cases between the United States of America and Russia. The White House
"spokesperson", Sarah Sanders, did even better and stated : (emphasis
added)
"It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump
disagrees with it. Hopefully, President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to
the United States to prove their innocence or guilt "
Talk about imperial megalomania! The US will not allow the Russians to interrogate anybody,
but it wants Putin to extradite Russian citizens. Amazing
Every single day, I find myself asking: what do the Russians have on @realDonaldTrump
personally, financially, & politically? The answer to that question is that only thing
that explains his behavior & his refusal to stand up to Putin. #ABetterDeal.
Pretty clear, no? "Trump is a traitor and we have to stop him".
By now there is overwhelming evidence that a creeping Neocon coup has been in progress from
the very first day of Trump's presidency and that the Neocons are far from being satisfied with
having broken Trump and taken over the de-facto power in the White House: they now
apparently also want it de-jure too. The real question is this: are there any forces
inside the US capable of stopping the Neocons from completely taking all the reins of power
and, if yes, how could a patriotic reaction to this Neocon coup manifest itself? I honestly
don't know, but my feeling is that we might soon have a "President Pence" in the Oval Office.
One way or another, a constitutional crisis is brewing.
What about the Russian interests in all this?
I have said it many times, Russia and the AngloZionist Empire (as opposed to the United
States as a country) are at war, a war which is roughly 80% informational, 15% economic and
only 5% "kinetic". This is a very real war nonetheless and it is a war for survival simply
because the Empire cannot allow any major country on the planet to be truly sovereign.
Therefore, not only does the AngloZionist Empire represent an existential threat to Russia,
Russia also represents an existential threat to the Empire. In this kind of conflict for
survival there is no room for anything but a zero-sum game and whatever is good for Russia is
bad for the US and vice-versa.
The Russians, including Putin, never wanted this zero-sum game,
it was imposed upon them by the AngloZionists, but now that they have been forced into it, they
will play it as hard as they can. It is therefore only logical to conclude that the massive
systemic crises in which the Neocons and their crazy policies have plunged the US are to the
advantage of Russia.
To be sure, the ideal scenario would be for Russia and the US (as opposed
to the AngloZionst Empire) to work together on the very long list of issues where they share
common interests. But since the Neocons have seized power and are sacrificing the US for the
sake of their imperial designs, that is simply not going to happen, and the Russians understand
that. Furthermore, since the US constitutes the largest power component of the AngloZionist
Empire, anything weakening the US also thereby weakens the Empire and anything which weakens
the Empire is beneficial for Russia (by the way, the logical corollary of this state of affairs
is that the people of the US and the people of Russia have the same enemy – the Neocons
– and that makes them de-facto allies).
It is not my purpose here to discuss when and how the Neocons came to power in the US, so I
will just say that the delusional policies followed by the various US administrations since at
least 1993 (and, even more so, since 2001) have been disastrous for the United States and could
be characterized as one long never-ending case of imperial hubris (to use the title of
here
). The long string of lost wars and foreign policy disasters are a direct result of this lack
of even basic expertise. What passes for "expertise" today is basically hate-filled hyperbole
and warmongering hysterics, hence the inflation in the paranoid anti-Russian rhetoric.
The
US armed forces are only good at three things: wasting immense sums of money, destroying
countries and alienating the rest of the planet. They are still the most expensive and bloated
armed forces on the planet, but nobody fears them anymore (not even relatively small states,
nevermind Russia or China). In technological terms, the Russians (and to a somewhat lesser
degree the Chinese) have found asymmetrical answers to all the key force planning programs of
the Pentagon and the former US superiority in the air, on land and on the seas is now a thing
of the past. As for the US nuclear triad, it is still capable of accomplishing its mission, but
it is useless as an instrument of foreign policy or to fight Russia or China (unless suicide is
contemplated).
[Sidebar: this inability of the US military to achieve desired political goals might explain
why, at least so far, the US has apparently given up on the notion of a Reconquista of
Syria or why the Ukronazis have not dared to attack the Donbass. Of course, this is too early
to call and these zigs might be followed by many zags, especially in the context of the
political crisis in the US, but it appears that in the cases of the DPRK, Iran, Syria and the
Ukraine there is much barking, but not much biting coming from the supposed sole "hyperpower"
on the planet] The US is now engaged in simultaneous conflicts not only with Iran or Russia but
also with the EU and China. In fact, even relationships with vassal states such as Canada or
France are now worse than ever before. Only the prostituted leaders of "new Europe", to use
Rumsfeld's
term , are still paying lip service to the notion of "American leadership", and only if
they get paid for it.
The US "elites" and the various interest groups they represent have now
clearly turned on each other which is a clear sign that the entire system is in a state of deep
crisis: when things were going well, everybody could get what they wanted and no visible
infighting was taking place. The Israel Lobby has now fully subordinated Congress, the White
House, and the media to its narrow Likudnik agenda and, as a direct result of this,
the US has lost all their positions in the Middle-East and the chorus of those with enough
courage to denounce this Zionist Occupation Government is slowly but steadily growing (at least
on the Internet). Even US Jews are getting fed up with the now openly
Israeli apartheid state (see
here or
here ). By withdrawing from a long list of important international treaties and bodies
(TPP, Kyoto Protocol, START, ABM, JCPOA. UNESCO, UN Human Rights Council, etc.) the United
States has completely isolated themselves from the rest of the planet. The ironic truth is that
Russia has not been isolated in the least, but that the US has isolated itself from the rest of
the planet.
In contrast, the Russians are capitalizing on every single US mistake – be it the
carrier-centric navy, the unconditional support for Israel or the simultaneous trade wars with
China and the EU. Much has been made of the recent revelation of new and revolutionary Russian
weapon systems (see here
and here
) but there is much more to this than just the deployment of new military systems and
technologies: Russia is benefiting from the lack of any real US foreign policies to advance her
own interests in the Middle-East, of course, but also elsewhere. Let's just take the very
latest example of a US self-inflicted PR disaster – the following "tweet" by
Trump: (CAPS in the original)
To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL
SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE
ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE
CAUTIOUS!
This kind of infantile (does he not sound like a 6 year old?) and, frankly, rather demented
attempts at scaring Iranians (of all people!) is guaranteed to have the exact opposite effect
from the one presumably sought: the Iranian leaders might snicker in disgust, or have a good
belly-laugh, but they are not going to be
impressed .
The so-called "allies" of the US will be embarrassed in the extreme to be "led"
by such a primitive individual, even if they don't say so in public. As for the Russians, they
will happily explore all the possibilities offered to them by such illiterate and
self-defeating behavior.
Conclusion one: a useful summit for Russia
As a direct consequence of the Helsinki summit, the infighting of the US ruling classes has
dramatically intensified. Furthermore, faced with a barrage of hateful attacks Trump did what
he always does: he tried to simultaneously appease his critics by caving in to their rhetoric
while at the same time trying to appear "tough" – hence his latest "I am a tough guy with
a big red button" antics against Iran (he did exactly the same thing towards the DPRK). We will
probably never find out what exactly Trump and Putin discussed during their private meeting,
but one thing is sure: the fact that Trump sat one-on-one with Putin without any "supervision"
from his deep-state mentors was good enough to create a total panic in the US ruling class
resulting in even more wailing about collusion, impeachment, high crimes & misdemeanors and
even treason. Again, the goal is clear: Trump must be removed.
From the Russian point of view, it matters very little whether Trump is removed from office
or not – the problem is not one of personalities, but one of the nature of the
AngloZionist Empire. The Russians simply don't have the means to bring down the Empire, but the
infighting of the US elites does and, if not, then at the very least the current crisis will
further weaken the US, hence the Russian willingness to participate in this summit even if by
itself this summit brought absolutely no tangible results: the action was in the reaction.
Conclusion two: the Clinton gang's actions can result in a real catastrophe for the
US
Trump's main goal in meeting with Putin was probably to find out whether there was a way to
split up the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership and to back the Israeli demands for Syria.
On the issue of China, Trump never had a chance since the US has really nothing to offer to
Russia (whereas China and Russia are now locked into a
vital symbiotic relationship ). On Syria, the Russians and the Israelis are now negotiating
the details of a deal which would give the Syrian government the control of the demarcation
line with Israel (it is not a border in the legal sense) and Trump's backing for Israel will
make no difference. As for Iran, the Russians will not back the US agenda either for many
reasons ranging from basic self-interest to respect for international law. So while Trump did
the right thing in meeting with Putin, it was predictable at least under the current set of
circumstances, that he would not walk away with tangible results.
For all his very real failings, Trump cannot be blamed for the current situation. The real
culprits are the Clinton gang and the Democratic Party which, by their completely irresponsible
behavior, are creating a very dangerous crisis for the United States: the Neocons and the
Clinton gang are willing to say anything, no matter how destabilizing, to hurt Trump even if
the US political system by itself is also put at risk. Furthermore, the Neocons have now
completely flipped around the presumption of innocence – both externally (Russian
"attack" on the US elections) and internally (Trump's "collusion" with Putin). As for Trump,
whatever his good intentions might have been, he is weak and cannot fight the entire US deep
state by himself. The Neocons and the US deep state are now on a collision course with Russia
and the people of the United States and while Russia does have the means to protect herself
from the Empire, it is unclear to me who, or what could stop the Neocons from further damaging
the US. Deep and systemic crises often result in new personalities entering the stage, but in
the case of the US, it is now undeniable that the system cannot reform
All of this seems profoundly depressing, but it appears to be how things are. I was
disappointed by Trump's efforts to cave into the deep state on his statements. The fact he
can't even control his justice ministry reveals his weakness. I'm of the view history shows
that once spy agencies reach a critical mass in power they become the absolute rulers of a
structure and the rule of law becomes a facade, then is sidelined completely.
Trump was a complete outsider to politics when he decided to run for the presidency in
2015. He had no team or political allies. He really didn't have much of a philosophy of
governance, a solid foundation of history and facts, a first rate vocabulary or the debating
skills of an 8th grader. He has consistently failed to win over any Democratic and probably
not even a majority of Republican politicians.
The Deep State has opposed him at every turn, choosing to favor the policies of the
Neocons and their enablers in the Democratic Party. Hence, having no team of his own, he has
been saddled with personnel from the ranks of his most virulent enemies at every level.
His lack of knowledge and primitive persuasive skills, which might work in big business
but not under the microscope of politics, have not won him any converts but only encouraged a
vicious escalation of antipathy from his opponents, who, controlling the media from top to
bottom, are openly calling him a traitor on no objective grounds, unless trying to do the job
of the office, maintain the peace, and explore possible avenues for reducing international
tensions is now considered treasonous. The charge of treason is clearly bombastic but with
virtually everyone of influence nodding in agreement, it's difficult for the man to retain
his credibility before the public.
Actually, a smidgen south of half the public are the only base of his support. And a very
eclectic base they are, including numerous liberals, progressives, intellectuals and
peaceniks, in addition to conservatives, Republicans and Libertarians, who prefer to deal
with the real world rather than Hillary's deliberate misrepresentation of it.
Will that be enough for him to survive? The way the maniacs are raving in the media,
expect the country to throw a big celebration if he gets "taken out" one way or another
tomorrow. The situation is really dangerous and utterly shameful. Most of the blame goes to
Hillary Clinton and her insurrectionists for not accepting the outcome of our system of
ersatz "democracy." Her husband won with something like 43% of the popular vote in 1992. I'm
pretty sure Trump had a higher number. Cry me a river, Hillary, but stop trying to destroy
what you can't have like a petulant child.
the logical corollary of this state of affairs is that the people of the US and the people
of Russia have the same enemy – the Neocons – and that makes them de-facto
allies
I think it would be more accurate to say that the people of Russia had the same
enemy.
By the way, these are typical Neocon-style tactics: double-down, then double-down again,
then issue statements which make it impossible for you to back down, then repeat it all as
many times as needed.
It's like trial lawyers say: if the facts are on your side and the law is not, then argue
the facts; if the law is on your side and the facts are not, then argue the law; and if
neither the facts nor the law are on your side, then bang your fists on the table and shout
as loud as you can! That's exactly what the neo-clowns are doing here.
the Neocons and the Clinton gang are willing to say anything, no matter how
destabilizing, to hurt Trump even if the US political system by itself is also put at
risk.
All of which just helps to further discredit the empire. Even with all the insanity in the
media, I still thank God every day that Hellary did not become president.
The above h0moerotic caricature of Putin and Trump is quite revealing in what it tells us
about what drives the emotional life of White Liberals and White Leftist. They are driven by
powerful urges to impose homosexuality-pedophilia-pederasty on both Christian Russia and the
Working Class Native Born White American Christians.
Saker, something is not adding up. If Trump is truly as pathetic a pushover, as "weak and
spineless," as you say, why all the hysteria? If, on the other hand, he is a rather successful wrecking ball, already having put in
jeopardy half the key resources of the empire, that's another story.
I think because Trump postulated himself as a candidate, then got nominated the Republican
candidate and worst of all, despite the huge campaign against him, won the elections, without
the blessing of the Deep State and the neocons. So now they want to teach him (and anyone
else who might think about doing the same) a lesson: "Anyone who tries to become president
without our approval will be crushed", so it never happens again.
something is not adding up. If Trump is truly as pathetic a pushover, as "weak and
spineless," as you say, why all the hysteria?
And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around
That Trump is a wrecking ball is a hypothesis I've held since the first GOP debate, when I
also realized he would (probably) win not only the election, but may even succeed at the far
more difficult challenge of bringing the Empire to a sufficiently soft landing that the
nation survives. I'm less convinced of the latter now, largely because I underestimated the
centrifugal forces driving the fault lines in the American body politic. The nation,
tragically may not survive the Empire's twilight, but I've seen nothing that makes me want to
change my hypothesis.
He's laying waste to the Empire in the most peaceful process possible – in large
part by so embarrassing the Empire's elites, allies and vassals that they withdraw first
their active support, and then finally even their consent. Inducing hysteria, both foreign
and domestic, is a non-trivial component of the forces giving the wrecking ball an extra push
as it heads for the edifice.
As for the summit, I frankly wouldn't be surprised to learn that much of it was staged for
maximum hysteria-inducing effect. Their 2hrs spent alone probably was little more than
comparing notes. After all, what can Trump promise that he can also deliver under the
circumstances? He can only promise to keep doing what he's doing.
In any case, they both know the Empire has to go, and they both want the American nation
to be a player after it goes. A vibrant America is as critical to the multipolar world as it
is to Americans. Maybe more so.
Collusion? Maybe, but the Trump phenomena, IMHO, has all the earmarks of regime change
done right. With or without collusion, the hystericals can't quite put their finger on
what happened, which drives further hysteria, which pushes the wrecking ball even faster,
which drives....
now undeniable that the system cannot reform itself
Yes, Saker and that puts US politics behind European fascism of 70+ years ago. Mussolini was booted out by a fascist committee, Franco paved the way for a constitutional
monarchy, but all Americans get is Bozo the Clown/President.
The destruction of the US working class amazes me in its absence from all serious debate.
First subverted by the CIA then rendered null by outsourcing (which is still undercounted)
the "deplorables" have no mechanism for resistence except the unthinkable one: Hope for total
breakup of the United States. Or hope for a foreign invasion.
Makes one wonder. When Egyptians greeted Alexander the Great as a liberator as he
conquered them, it was a fairly pungent comment on the ruling Persians. Will blue-collar
former-Yanks be cheering for liberating Chinese or Russian troops anytime soon? Henry
Kissinger once predicted something of the sort.
Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
He never listens to them
He knows that they're the fools
They don't like him
I don't think that Trump is the fool on the hill. I think that mostly all those around him
are. The latest hysteria over Russia is not about any "meddling" in any "democracy". It's about throwing tantrums that Russia won't submit to US hegemony. In my opinion, they
don't deserve to be in charge of their own country, let alone to be asking to be in charge of
Russia.
All they come up with is terrible ideas which they in their generosity are way too eager
to share with the world – against the wishes or the best interests of the world. Like
the multiculturalism. It's bad enough that they came up with that awful idea, but then they
had to force it down the throats of the stupid Europeans.
Then when Merkel showed enough brains to challenge their idea, they forced her to make 180
turn and to welcome over a 1 million refugees from the imperial misadventures.
Well, Saker did put, this time, some good points here.
Of course, they were well mixed with the usual Kremlin propaganda, but that's now like "good
morning" with his writing. Probably all public members of "Team Russia" have that clause in
their contract.
The usual spin "Russia is great, winning, and all is not only good but simply getting better
for Kremlin and the Great Leader".
He does point to this "thing" with MSM and public figures in West re the summit.
I agree, it's surreal. If I were watching this in a serious movie I'd change the channel/walk
out. If I were reading a serious book with the "thing" as a part of the plot I'd stop
reading. I think there IS something there.
It is not just "unanimity of hatred and chaos", "abject hysterics", "hate-filled
hysteria", "two minutes of hatred stretched well into a two weeks of hatred" etc. It's
something else and, I feel, simply much worse and dangerous.
I guess we have entered a zone beyond geopolitics into mass psychology. Not my area of
expertise at all, but simply feel there is something there. It feels as watching, hard to express it, hysterical people? Now, on my level, whenever I dealt with such people I simply walked away, most of the
time. A couple of times, when I couldn't walk away I simply floored them (or so I say). Both
men and women (talking about being a gentleman , a). With women, it's even easier, just one
strike, weak hand even. With men a full combination, even with a takedown and
..anyway. Joking. Sort of. Besides, I was younger then. But how can you take out people who control, in essence, US power, nuclear weapons in
particular? You simply can't . That is what makes, IMHO, this so dangerous. I simply can't recollect anything similar in relationship between superpowers. I am not so optimistic re the collapse of The Empire, multipolar world etc.
This "thing" can, I concede, deliver a couple of goods:
People, at last, realizing who, or better what, are our "betters".
The real power of The Empire diminishing because of the mess and chaos those species
..created.
Those two things creating an opportunity to, somehow, do something about this
abomination.
But, and a big but, there is the flip there.
People simply not paying attention. And, those hysterics really getting the levers of power
in their hands. While they are in that state, that is.
As I've said several times here so far (doesn't matter a bit, of course) Trump supporters
fucked up.
Not him; he didn't expect to win and when he did he found himself in a really bad
position.
His supporters. As soon as he won they walked home. A mistake.
A terrible mistake. I feel we'll all pay, dearly, for it.
We continue careening towards more conflicts which can always lead to unintended
consequences, ever closer to nuclear war. Meanwhile efforts for a dialogue with Russia are
thwarted by our internal politics and dysfunction in Washington.
Sifting through the cacophony of commentary from the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, here
are four key points missed, ignored or glossed over by the Washington establishment and
mainstream news coverage - and they require a good airing.
They are:
1) It's clear now that Europeans will increase their contributions to NATO. But Big Media
totally ignored the trillion dollar gorilla in room: Why does anyone have to spend so much on
NATO in the first place?
Are we planning a ground attack on Russia because we really think the former Soviet Empire
will invade Poland or the Baltic nations? Are we planning for a land war in Europe to
intervene in the Ukraine? What for is the money? The Trump administration and Big Media, for
all their noise, mainly argue that more spending is good. There is no debate about the
reasons why. Meanwhile
Russia is cutting its military spending.
Washington is so dominated by our military-industrial-congressional complex that spending
money is a major intent. Remember when Washington first insisted that putting up an
anti-missile system in Poland and Romania was supposed to protect Europe from an Iranian
attack? Of course, it was really directed against Russia. Washington was so eager to spend
the money that it didn't even ask the Europeans to pay the cost even though it was supposedly
for their defense. As of 2016 Washington had spent $800 million on the
site in Romania. Now it appears that Poland and Romania will pay billions to the Raytheon
Corporation for the shield to comply with their commitment to increase military spending to 2
percent of gross national product.
2) There was no focus on the real, growing threat of nuclear war, intentional or
accidental. No one, including journalists at the joint press conference, spoke about the
collapsing missile treaties (the only one who reportedly seemed keen to discuss it was
ejected beforehand).
Scott Ritter details these alarming risks here on TAC .
The U.S. is now funding new cruise missiles with nukes which allow for a surprise attack
on Russia with only a few minutes of warning, unlike the ICBMs which launch gives a half an
hour or more. This was the reason Russia opposed the anti-missile system in Eastern Europe,
because they could have little warning if cruise missiles were fired from the new bases.
Americans may think that we don't start wars, but the Russians don't. The old shill argument
that democracies don't start wars is belied by American attacks on Serbia, Iraq, Libya, and
Yemen.
3) For all the Democratic and Big Media attacks on Trump for supposedly caving in to
Putin, he gave Putin nothing. His administration is still maintaining an increasingly
stringent economic attack on Russian trade and banking, announcing (just days after his
meeting)
$200 million of new aid to Ukraine's military and threatening Europeans with sanctions if
they go ahead with a new Baltic pipeline to import Russian natural gas. Consequently, some
analysts believe that
Putin has given up on wanting better relations with the U.S. and instead is just trying
to weaken and discredit America's overwhelming power in the world. In a similar vein Rand
Paul writes how we never think
about other nations' interests.
4) The release of intelligence agency findings about Russians' intervention in the last
election just a day before the conference precisely shows the strength of the "Deep State" in
dominating American foreign policy. An article by Bruce Fein in TAC argues we should
"Forget Trump: The Military-Industrial Complex is Still Running the Show With Russia, "
showing how Washington wants to keep Russia as an enemy because it's good for business.
Furthermore, releasing the accusations and indictments via a press already out for Trump's
blood is explained away by pointing out that the special prosecutor has separate authority to
that of the president. But the timing, a day before the Helsinki meeting, obviously shows
intent to cause disarray and to prevent meaningful dialogue with Russia. It's interesting to
note that TAC has been criticizing the "Deep
State" since at least 2015.
The casualness with which much of Washington regards conflict and starting wars is only
comparable to the thoughtlessness of Europeans when they started World War I. Like now, that
war followed nearly a century of relative peace and prosperity. Both sides thought a war would
be "easy" and over quickly and were engulfed in it because of minor incidents instigated by
their small nation allies. It was started with a single assassination in Serbia. The situation
is similar now. America is hostage to the actions of a host of tiny countries possibly starting
a war. Think of our NATO obligations and promises to Taiwan and Israel.
America has become inured to the risks of escalation and Congress has ceded its war powers
to the president. The authority of war power was one of the most important tenets of our
Constitution, designed to prevent our rulers from irresponsibly launching conflicts like the
European kings. Witness now how casually Trump talks about starting a war with Iran, with no
thought of possible consequences, including blowing up oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, oil
and gas vital for the world economy.
For most Americans, war means sitting in front of their TVs watching the bombs fall on small
nations unable to resist or respond to our power. "We" kill thousands of "them" in easy battles
and then worry if a single American soldier is harmed. We don't viscerally understand the full
threat of modern weapons because they've never been used against us. This is not unlike World
War I, for which the countries engaged were wholly unprepared for a protracted siege war
against the lethality of new modern artillery and chemical weapons. All had assumed the war
would be over in weeks. I wrote about these issues after visiting the battlefields of the
Crimean war. (See " Lessons in
Empire")
And so we continue careening towards more conflicts which can always lead to unintended
consequences, ever closer to nuclear war. Meanwhile efforts for a dialogue with Russia are
thwarted by our internal politics and dysfunction in Washington.
The Washington establishment came to their own conclusions about Russia and NATO --
but this is what they missed.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during the recent
summit in Helsinki. (Office of the Russian Presisdent/Kremin.ru) Sifting through the cacophony
of commentary from the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, here are four key points missed,
ignored or glossed over by the Washington establishment and mainstream news coverage -- and
they require a good airing.
They are:
It's clear now that Europeans will increase their contributions to NATO. But
Big Media totally ignored the trillion dollar gorilla in room: Why does anyone have to spend so
much on NATO in the first place?
Are we planning a ground attack on Russia because we really think the former Soviet Empire
will invade Poland or the Baltic nations? Are we planning for a land war in Europe to intervene
in the Ukraine? What for is the money? The Trump administration and Big Media, for all their
noise, mainly argue that more spending is good. There is no debate about the reasons why.
Meanwhile
Russia is cutting its military spending.
Washington is so dominated by our military-industrial-congressional complex that spending
money is a major intent. Remember when Washington first insisted that putting up an
anti-missile system in Poland and Romania was supposed to protect Europe from an Iranian
attack? Of course, it was really directed against Russia. Washington was so eager to spend the
money that it didn't even ask the Europeans to pay the cost even though it was supposedly for
their defense. As of 2016 Washington had spent $800 million on the
site in Romania. Now it appears that Poland and Romania will pay billions to the Raytheon
Corporation for the shield to comply with their commitment to increase military spending to 2
percent of gross national product.
There was no focus on the real, growing threat of
nuclear war, intentional or accidental. No one, including journalists at the joint press
conference, spoke about the collapsing missile treaties (the only one who reportedly seemed
keen to discuss it was ejected beforehand).
Scott Ritter details these alarming risks here on TAC .
The U.S. is now funding new cruise missiles with nukes which allow for a surprise attack on
Russia with only a few minutes of warning, unlike the ICBMs which launch gives a half an hour
or more. This was the reason Russia opposed the anti-missile system in Eastern Europe, because
they could have little warning if cruise missiles were fired from the new bases. Americans may
think that we don't start wars, but the Russians don't. The old shill argument that democracies
don't start wars is belied by American attacks on Serbia, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.
For
all the Democratic and Big Media attacks on Trump for supposedly caving in to Putin, he gave
Putin nothing. His administration is still maintaining an increasingly stringent economic
attack on Russian trade and banking, announcing (just days after his meeting)
$200 million of new aid to Ukraine's military and threatening Europeans with sanctions if
they go ahead with a new Baltic pipeline to import Russian natural gas. Consequently, some
analysts believe that
Putin has given up on wanting better relations with the U.S. and instead is just trying to
weaken and discredit America's overwhelming power in the world. In a similar vein Rand Paul
writes how we never think
about other nations' interests.TAC argues we should
"Forget Trump: The Military-Industrial Complex is Still Running the Show With Russia, "
showing how Washington wants to keep Russia as an enemy because it's good for business.
Furthermore, releasing the accusations and indictments via a press already out for Trump's
blood is explained away by pointing out that the special prosecutor has separate authority to
that of the president. But the timing, a day before the Helsinki meeting, obviously shows
intent to cause disarray and to prevent meaningful dialogue with Russia. It's interesting to
note that TAC has been criticizing the "Deep
State" since at least 2015.
The casualness with which much of Washington regards conflict and starting wars is only
comparable to the thoughtlessness of Europeans when they started World War I. Like now, that
war followed nearly a century of relative peace and prosperity. Both sides thought a war would
be "easy" and over quickly and were engulfed in it because of minor incidents instigated by
their small nation allies. It was started with a single assassination in Serbia. The situation
is similar now. America is hostage to the actions of a host of tiny countries possibly starting
a war. Think of our NATO obligations and promises to Taiwan and Israel.
America has become inured to the risks of escalation and Congress has ceded its war powers
to the president. The authority of war power was one of the most important tenets of our
Constitution, designed to prevent our rulers from irresponsibly launching conflicts like the
European kings. Witness now how casually Trump talks about starting a war with Iran, with no
thought of possible consequences, including blowing up oil facilities in the Persian Gulf, oil
and gas vital for the world economy.
For most Americans, war means sitting in front of their TVs watching the bombs fall on small
nations unable to resist or respond to our power. "We" kill thousands of "them" in easy battles
and then worry if a single American soldier is harmed. We don't viscerally understand the full
threat of modern weapons because they've never been used against us. This is not unlike World
War I, for which the countries engaged were wholly unprepared for a protracted siege war
against the lethality of new modern artillery and chemical weapons. All had assumed the war
would be over in weeks. I wrote about these issues after visiting the battlefields of the
Crimean war. (See " Lessons in
Empire")
And so we continue careening towards more conflicts which can always lead to unintended
consequences, ever closer to nuclear war. Meanwhile efforts for a dialogue with Russia are
thwarted by our internal politics and dysfunction in Washington.
Mr. Utley is the publisher of The American Conservative 15 Responses to What
Everyone Seemed to Ignore in Helsinki
"And so we continue careening towards more conflicts which can always lead to unintended
consequences, ever closer to nuclear war. Meanwhile efforts for a dialogue with Russia are
thwarted by our internal politics and dysfunction in Washington."
Careful with such cavalier use of the truth. Someone is sure to point out Vlad said just
the same, which means according to D.C. war profiteer sponsored consensus we should do
exactly the opposite.
Lovely article. One aspect of going to war for conquest over and over, is that it leads to
moral deterioration. Defensive wars aren't that bad. I am not sure why we haven't seen any
articles on TAC about this aspect -- is it that it's not a popular idea?
"1) It's clear now that Europeans will increase their contributions to NATO."
No, they are not. Defense budgets are increasing -- very different, and it was happening
already before Trump's tweets came along.
"2) There was no focus on the real, growing threat of nuclear war, intentional or
accidental."
How do you know, since Trump hasn't told anyone what was discussed in Helsinki?
"3) For all the Democratic and Big Media attacks on Trump for supposedly caving in to Putin,
he gave Putin nothing."
Trump abased himself before Putin. That's not nothing. And who knows what else he gave Putin
behind closed doors. One must assume a lot since Trump is not out bragging about
particulars.
"4) The release of intelligence agency findings about Russians' intervention in the last
election just a day before the conference precisely shows the strength of the "Deep State" in
dominating American foreign policy."
Trump personally approved the release of that intelligence.
The myth that NATO has kept Europe at peace since WWII (except for the Balkan war) is still
alive and well. But really, it was the fear of nuclear weapons that kept the peace.
It is the risk of war vs. the hidden agenda of trying to break Russia a second time.
The people who want to break Russia a second time really do believe that Russia is weak and
unwilling to risk war under any circumstances. So they want to expand NATO, get into another
arms race and wait for Russia to go bankrupt again. Rinse repeat China.
If we expand NATO, pull out of INF and even START, we can build missile bases near Russia's
borders, reduce or eliminate their exports, we can drive their economy into overdrive. But this
requires an information war to make it look like they are the aggressors while we are the ones
implementing this strategy.
By 'we' I mean our entrenched Foreign Policy Establishment that blathers about the 'rules
based world order' while we bomb any country we want whenever we want. Queue up another story
on how they encroached on NATO airspace while flying to their enclave in Kaliningrad, look at a
map, it's impossible not to so so.
Tying it back, they do not believe that there is any risk of war. They are wrong.
"The release of intelligence agency findings about Russians' intervention in the last
election just a day before the conference precisely shows the strength of the 'Deep State' in
dominating American foreign policy Releasing the accusations and indictments via a press
already out for Trump's blood a day before the Helsinki meeting, obviously shows intent to
cause disarray and to prevent meaningful dialogue with Russia."
To be sure, the 6-4-3 (Mueller to Rosenstein to Mainstream Media) double play appeared at
first to be a real beauty. However, the video replay showed that the pitcher had not yet
pitched the ball to the batter and that the shortstop Mueller, the second baseman Rosenstein,
and the MSM first baseman had carried out their double play with a ball that Mueller had pulled
out of his hip pocket. ("Hip pocket" is a polite euphemism for the proximate area of the
Mueller anatomy from whence the ball was actually pulled.)
The real question is what did Putin give Trump? Nothing, as far as can be seen. Efforts for a
dialogue with Russia are thwarted by Putin's continued occupation of Ukrainian territory, with
its implicit denial of the principle of the sovereign nation-state, which has been the building
block of the European political order since the French Revolution. For Americans, given the
history of the American continent, European nationalism and the nation-state are wholly
incomprehensible concepts but they're very real to us in Europe. Those Americans who promote a
poorly-understood European nationalism in the hope of destroying the EU are promoting the very
war they so piously claim to oppose.
It's clear now that Europeans will increase their contributions to NATO. But Big Media
totally ignored the trillion dollar gorilla in room: Why does anyone have to spend so much on
NATO in the first place?
Why would you top post a commentor who so clearly doesn't understand the details of what
he's discussing?
I mean -- such fundamental misunderstanding of the issues might qualify him to be the
Republican nominee for President (and thanks to the Electoral College, the President) but it is
beneath your editorial standards.
Enough of this "Deep State" nonsense: stop lambasting U.S. Federal law enforcement and
intelligence professionals for calling out Trump's willful ignorance/intentional lies about
Russia's malicious actions. Russian belligerence against the U.S. is a predictable and
manageable problem, but only by a President (e.g., Reagan, Bush 41) who grasps the complexity
of the issue and who can balance targeted confrontation and selective cooperation with Russia.
Trump is inherently incapable of striking that balance, as Putin clearly understands, therefore
U.S.-Russian relations will remain (usefully for Putin) confrontational for the near term.
Why is it up to the media to address the elephant in the room? Shouldn't the media simply
report what happened? Why doesn't Trump address the elephant in the room?
Our grandparents and parents fought the Commies.
GOP throws that away in search of lower taxes and less regulation.
GOP elites belong to the international elite, namely the highest bidder.
Shame.
"The release of intelligence agency findings about Russians' intervention in the last election
just a day before the conference precisely shows the strength of the 'Deep State' in dominating
American foreign policy"
Others have already pointed out that the facts might not back up that the timing was some
elaborate plot, but even if this was a Derp State conspiracy on full display, it would probably
be proof of the opposite -- this would have not been an indication of influence, control,
domination, but a sign of weakness.
Like all conspiracy theories, "Deep State" implies competence, coordination, capability. Our
problem appears to be that we have too many bureaucracies infighting with each other, and
filled with too many shallow minds. Indeed, one could argue that 9/11 happened precisely
because of this.
That said, the first half of the article makes a compelling case of the foreign policy
aspect of the manufactured "Russia!" hysteria, and the existential threat originating with the
nuclear sector of the war profiteering presidential-congressional-military-industrial complex
-- "We end the world for money!" -- and the Great Gambler faction of the nelibcon biparty --
"We can win nuclear war!".
The other half of the national, collectivized insanity that is "Russia!" is the domestic
fraud: the biggest threat to the integrity of our elections and the functions of our
institutions of government is not Russia, but ourselves.
The semi-organized biparty mob -- the "Derp State" -- that is pushing the "Russia!"
narrative as the Grant Unified Theory of US American Home-Made Failure is systematically
destroying whatever is left of The People's confidence in our processes and institutions --
confidence in our ruling class had to have died before anybody considered voting for Trump --
and soon, we will find ourselves in a nation in which nobody can profess any trust in any
elected representative without being accused of being a traitor or useful idiot.
Putin, for one, could never accomplish that. American Excess: Hamstring your political
opponent? Worth It. Destroy democracy to protect it from The People? Priceless.
I wasn't aware that the U.s. Is finding new niclear-armed cruise missiles that would give
Russia only minutes to respond to an attack, as opposed to a half hour with ICBMs. Russia only
has to recalibrate its fully automated Doomsday Machine to target Warsaw, Berlin, and Cracow
along with U.S. cities, and to shorten the time of response.
We have to ask whether the exponentially greater likelihood of nuclear holocaust by
accident, which is what the U.S. would be bringing about by nuclear-arming cruise missiles,
proves that the Deep State's lust for power is irrational bordering on madness.
07/23/2018 Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Republican representative, Trey Gowdy from South Carolina said that in 18 months, he has not
seen "one scintilla" of evidence that Donald Trump colluded with Russia. He added that if that
evidence existed, we could all be rest assured that it would have been leaked by now.
Since leaks from the White House are not few and far between since Donald Trump has taken
office, Gowdy is likely onto something here. There are leaks about everything and regarding
everything.
Leaks to the media have plagued Trump's presidency since his first day in office, and a
new report on leakers' motives opens a window into the extent of the subterfuge. "To be
honest, it probably falls into a couple of categories," one White House official
told Axios 's, Jonathan Swan . "The first is personal vendettas. And two is to make sure
there's an accurate record of what's really going on in the White House." Many of those with
ties and puppet strings connecting them to the deep state are actually in Trump's White
House, according to
The Washington Post.
A former White House official who, according to Swan, "turned leaking into an art form,"
said that "leaking is information warfare; it's strategic and tactical -- strategic to drive
[the] narrative, tactical to settle scores." –
SHTFPlan
And Gowdy seems to see the writing on the wall. Who was that said, "a lie told often enough times
becomes the truth?" (It was infamous Marxist Vladimir Lenin, FYI). That appears to be
exactly what Democrats and their lapdogs in mainstream media continue to propagate. If they
just repeat that Trump and Russia colluded enough times, the people will eventually buy that
lie without any evidence.
" I have not seen one scintilla of evidence that this president colluded, conspired,
confederated with Russia, and neither has anyone else, or you may rest assured Adam Schiff
would have leaked it, " Gowdy said on
Fox News Sunday as reported by The Daily Wire.
Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, has been among the most vocal of Trump haters.
As head of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff is privy to a lot of information that
others are not and leaks of information have streamed out of the committee. "That's why they've
moved off of collusion onto obstruction of justice, which is now their current preoccupation,"
Gowdy added alluding to the fact that if there was evidence of collusion, the public would have
seen it months ago
Gowdy, though, noted that after 18 months, there's been no evidence of any crime
committed. And now, the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller appears to moving into
the sex realm. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly recorded a conversation with
Trump about a former Playboy model who claims Trump once had an affair with her.
That latest revelation, of course, has already leaked. So it does make sense: If anyone
had anything on Trump, it'd already be out there. –
The Daily Wire
The attorney for President Trump's former longtime personal attorney has given
CNN
a copy of a secretly recorded conversation between Trump and Cohen, in which they
discuss purchasing the rights to a Playboy model's claim that she and Trump had an affair.
McDougal, claims to have had a nearly yearlong affair with Trump in 2006, right before Melania
Trump gave birth to their son Barron. McDougal sold her story to the National Enquirer for $150,000
as the 2016 presidential campaign was in its final months, however the tabloid sat on the story
which kept it from becoming public in a practice known as "catch and kill."
Cohen told Trump about his plans to set up a company and finance the purchase of the rights
from American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer.
"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our
friend David,"
Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head
David Pecker.
Trump interrupts Cohen asking,
"What financing?"
according to the recording.
When Cohen tells Trump,
"We'll have to pay."
Trump is heard saying
"pay
with cash"
but the audio is muddled and it's unclear whether he suggests paying with
cash or not paying. Cohen says,
"no, no"
but it is not clear what is said next.
-
CNN
The Enquirer's chairman, David J. Pecker, is a personal friend of Trump's, and McDougal has
accused Cohen of taking part in the deal.
By burying Ms. McDougal's story during the campaign in a practice known in the tabloid
industry as "catch and kill," A.M.I. protected Mr. Trump from negative publicity that could have
harmed his election chances, spending money to do so.
The authorities believe that the company was not always operating in what campaign finance
law calls a "legitimate press function," according to the people briefed on the investigation,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity. That may explain why prosecutors did not follow typical
Justice Department protocol to avoid subpoenaing news organizations when possible, and to give
journalists advance warning when demanding documents or other information. -
New
York Times
While Trump never paid for the rights, Lanny Davis says that the recording, made in 2016, shows
Trump knew about the payment.
On Saturday, President Trump broke his silence over the recording, tweeting: "Inconceivable that
the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even
more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The
good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!" Trump tweeted.
Meanwhile, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani confirmed with the
New York Times
last week
that Trump and Cohen had discussed payments - and that "
there was no indication on the tape
that Mr. Trump knew before the conversation about the payment from the Enquirer's parent company,
American Media Inc., to Ms. McDougal
."
"
Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance
,"
said Giuliani, adding that Trump had previously told Cohen that if he were to make a payment
related to the woman, to write a check instead of sending cash so that the transaction could be
properly documented. "In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence," Giuliani
added.
Cohen made a similar payment of $130,000 to porn star and stripper Stormy Daniels, whose real
name is Stephanie Clifford. Cohen said at the time "In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own
personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford."
Clifford - whose husband
just
filed for divorce
, is suing Trump over a nondisclosure agreement so that she can "tell her
story" (in the form of a book, we imagine), while she is also suing both Trump and Cohen for libel
after Trump called her statements "fraud" over Twitter, while claiming that Clifford fabricated a
story that she was threatened by a man after she went to journalists with the story of her affair.
Shortly before the 2016 election, former Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that
McDougal's allegations were "totally untrue."
Honestly, no one cares except the libtards and democrats
if there is a difference. The men and women I know love
Trump because, among other things, he is not limp-wristed
like Bush and Obama were.
Americans care about jobs,
immigrants and terrorists.
"pay with cash" probably is just a response to the
word "financing". Just my guess of course, but
from the dialogue it flows logically, as in Trump
saying to himself "why finance it, just pay her
cash". Doesn't necessarily mean pay with currency
just means don't borrow the money. Besides, it
doesn't matter much in this context since the
lawyer said no, and there is no crime here unless
he said "pay her with campaign contributions".
Clinton paid Paula Jones, what, $850,000? And he
didn't even get the rights to the story.
Trump's negotiating genius on display lol.
"'pay with cash' probably is just a response to
the word 'financing'."
I would say 99%
probability that's what he meant. Lawyer: "we
need to talk about financing" Trump: "pay with
cash." He didn't mean a suitcase full of
bills. He meant "just write a check." Anyone
in business knows the terminology. Plus it's
not even clear WTF they are talking about.
I have no love for Trump, in fact I think
he's an asshole. But this is all so much ado
about nothing.
I have to admit I'm confused as to why he should
pay anything at all. Why not let the smoking hot
model tell the world you scored with her? What's
the downside here?
So this is the tape that Trump said he doesn't give a
crap about the release of, outside of the larger
question of EVERYONE'S RIGHT of lawyer-client
privilege?
Well just damn, it must be a smoker
that will finally lead to his impeachment ;-)
Well yeah...but these days ya just roll with what
they present, like..."past and former government
officials who are in a position to know have
confirmed that"...which invariably leads to, abuse
of authority, presenting falsified/manufactured
evidence to a court, withholding exculpatory
evidence to a court, stolen classified documents
after being fired, obstruction of justice,
perjury...ya know, the normal regular things progs
do to put their heads in the noose ;-)
It was FBI that raided Cohen's office so I'll
presume that's where this tape came from.
I'm
not going to start sticking up for the
maverick's lapses in fidelity, but holy crap,
the FBI/DOJ have been blatantly weaponized
against him and in charge of those outfits
are....Sessions and Wray?
Well yeah...but these days ya just roll with what
they present, like..."past and former government
officials who are in a position to know have
confirmed that"...which invariably leads to, abuse
of authority, presenting falsified/manufactured
evidence to a court, withholding exculpatory
evidence to a court, stolen classified documents
after being fired, obstruction of justice,
perjury...ya know, the normal regular things progs
do to put their heads in the noose ;-)
It was FBI that raided Cohen's office so I'll
presume that's where this tape came from.
I'm
not going to start sticking up for the
maverick's lapses in fidelity, but holy crap,
the FBI/DOJ have been blatantly weaponized
against him and in charge of those outfits
are....Sessions and Wray?
At least DJT has shown generosity toward his, um, friends. What did JFK do
to Marilyn? What did Teddy do to Mary Jo? LBJ had at least one mistress.
What did Bill Clinton call the gal in the blue dress, wasn't it "that
woman"? What did Obama call his wife, Michael if I recall correctly.
Poor
Jimmy Carter. All he ever had was a killer rabbit. He may have been totally
incompetent, but at least he was a decent guy while in office. Afterward,
unfortunately, not so much.
Broadcast of a recording that falls under attorney-client priviledge,
which is specifically exempted from use by anyone, period
recorded with single-party consent
from records siezed by a surprise raid by the FBI of the standing
president's attorney
as part of an investigation predicated on evidence completely
fabricated by the other party
discovered by a special group tasked
specifically keep privledged
information from being passed on,
by court order
the investigation is still ongoing so presumably all evidence is
sensitive
leaked by special counsel
Any one of these is a federal felony. The people behind this are willing to
break a
lot
of laws to make it happen. All to release a
recording that on the face of it is regarding a legal activity (a forebearance
contract.)
"... Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He's a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today , especially for the online magazine " New Eastern Outlook ." https://journal-neo.org/2018/07/21/russiagate-the-comedy-of-errors/ ..."
NEO: Russiagate, the Comedy of Errors - Veterans Today | News - Military Foreign Affairs Policy
The 2018 Helsinki summit has left Americans puzzled, some terrified, others feign outrage but few
have stood back and taken a breath. Always stand back, always take a breath, always keep the mouth shut and
the hand off the keyboard.
A quick review of the facts, such as they are, such as we can assume
them to be, is a place to begin. Donald Trump, despite his denials and obfuscation, really did side with
Russia against America's intelligence agencies.
Let's take a breath, on one hand you have the CIA, NSA and 14 other agencies, all heavily politicized,
all with long histories of abuses, of lying, of even drug trafficking, rigging elections, assassinations
this is the "one hand."
On the other, you have Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, "I didn't do it."
Then you have Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller telling us he has evidence of Russian wrongdoing
evidence he got from the CIA, NSA and 14 other agencies.
Then again, I forgot to mention that these agencies generally get their intelligence from Israel, about
half of it a nation that is seldom an unbiased or disinterested party or from open source intelligence.
They see it on TV.
Then again, they have been accused, from time to time, of making it all up.
Add to this Donald Trump
, a man who would lie about what day it was; he doesn't seem to
be able to help himself the mouth opens and out they come an endless stream of them, many of them
bizarre and quite unnecessary. It is as though he is testing us.
There is a simple answer here. Based on reason, Trump may well have been quite correct in his assessment
that Putin wasn't lying. Putin was right there; Trump only told the audience what he was told. Trump wasn't
making that part up.
As you can note, we are now testing one or more hypotheses, hoping we might end up with something
resembling truth, a lonely effort in the best of cases.
Robert
Mueller
We can assume Robert Mueller
was telling the truth also. He
said, through indictments of Russian intelligence personnel, that he had "evidence" received from
"intelligence sources" and "witnesses," some of whom are already convicted criminals, that support his
hypothesis. Mueller says his evidence proves "the Russians did it."
This doesn't mean Putin lied. It doesn't even mean Trump lied, though in his recent denials, he has begun
lying, and quite embarrassingly; nothing new there.
Here is what it hinges down to the American judicial system, an adversarial system that can be
manipulated and in many cases, as Trump has claimed over and over, can be used to target innocent victims.
Then again, we aren't saying Trump is an innocent victim, only that Putin didn't lie.
Then we ask, is it possible for Russian intelligence officers to do exactly what Mueller has claimed
steal identities, hack computers, pay off stooges the normal things intelligence officers are paid to do
anyway, without Putin knowing?
The answer to this is yes; but the answer is also mitigated, in that
the likelihood of "yes" being correct is poor. Putin should have known. He says he didn't and, thus, based
on his character, or at least his history of blatant fearlessness, he is unlikely to lie over something
where he has little or nothing to lose nor does lying serve the interests of the Russian people and their
welfare.
Then we look at the real weak link, the sources of the evidence, witness statements from admitted
criminals and reports from intelligence agencies.
Past this
, we look at who has something to gain in destroying American institutions,
discrediting President Trump even more than usual, and worsening relations between the US and Russia.
It isn't Iran. It isn't Syria. It isn't Germany.
We then step back again and assess which nations have the power to fake evidence or corrupt the output of
American intelligence reports even more than they are usually faked or corrupted.
Three nations come to mind, in order; Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Each have powerful lobbies in Washington, each could potentially gain through weakening both Russia and
the United States, and each has a long history of using black propaganda and even false flag terrorism to
achieve gains.
I like this list.
We then take an anecdotal look
at a couple of minor aspects of the Mueller inquiry. We
begin with internet manipulation of fake news stories attacking Hillary Clinton.
It is one thing putting out a fake story; it is quite another featuring it on Facebook with extremely
strong preferences and making sure any and every Google search, for cabbage recipes or vacation spots, gives
results that attack the Clinton campaign.
Assuming that "Zuckerberg" of Facebook would work with Israeli intelligence, simply because of his name
might well be considered anti-Semitism. However, when examining how Zuckerberg dealt with Cambridge
Analytica during an election year and his relationship with Israeli spy contractor, Black Cube, Israel comes
to the top of the list.
Jared
Cohen at Google Ideas
Google
also has things to hide. Behind Google
is a regime-change organization, formerly known as Google Idea Groups, now called Google Jigsaw.
Jigsaw, a powerful military and intelligence contractor owned by Google Corporation, is headed by former
Bush White House clandestine intelligence chief, Jared Cohen.
Cohen has been active in operations against Russian interests in Crimea, he has run operations inside
Iran and has a number of organizations under his command in Turkey aimed at ousting President Assad of
Syria.
After all
, Cohen's job is "regime change" and Russia, Iran and Syria are long targets of
the "Russia bashers" in Washington, many of whom, if not most, are also powerful members of the Israel lobby
as well.
We will let Saudi Arabia off the hook this time.
Time to step back again. Note that even if Russia were guilty, but guilty of what? Spying is not illegal.
There is no international convention against spying.
America's troops in Syria are illegal. Drone killings are illegal. Recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol
of Israel is illegal. Russia rigging an American election is not a violation of international law.
It's not nice, but then again, American sanctions against Russia aren't nice either. America's rightist
coup against Ukraine wasn't so nice. America's invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a few other countries,
wasn't so nice.
America's efforts to flood Russia with heroin from Afghanistan isn't nice either, but we don't have to
get into that right now.
What we are saying, and a case we are making, there was no reason for Putin to lie. However, there is
reason for a nation, let's take Israel for instance, to fake Russia as a "bad guy," putting an American
president in office who, as Trump has proven, does what Israel tells him to do 100% of the time.
Does Israel have the muscle, the capability or, using the legal term, the "means" to fake evidence?
We already established
they have a motive and they have opportunity.
We then have it Mueller told the truth, Putin told the truth, even Trump told the truth before he
started lying.
Should the Russian people take solace in the fact that America is poorly governed? America has hurt
Russia, over and over, though few Americans realize it.
Peace could and should have broken out decades ago, except America has been ruled by
Russia-haters for a hundred years Russia-haters that are alive and well and in control in Washington,
even now.
I am not saying Putin is perfect or above sin. I am only saying he would not have bothered lying about
anything this stupid or minor; it isn't worth it. He has nothing to gain. Putin is not stupid, though he may
well be poorly informed. Is he so poorly informed that his own intelligence agencies might well have acted
with blatant stupidity against the United States and gotten caught?
The Russia of the Cold War, the old Soviet Union, would never have been so stupid.
Then again, how much has Russia gained from Trump?
As the ire of the first 48 hours after Helsinki dies down, and some real rage among a population of
Americans no one knows how big burns on, we ask why?
To many Americans
, perhaps a majority that ebbs and flows according to fake pollsters,
Russia foisted a dangerous clown into the Oval Office as a sick joke perhaps a punishment for some crime
Americans would never admit to anyway.
"Why have you done this to us?"
When asked, Vladimir Putin simply said,
"Look elsewhere."
"... Congress wasted no time jumping on the Treason bandwagon, led by Chuck Schumer conjuring the spectre of the KGB, Marco Rubio as neocon point-man (one imagines Barbara Bush rolling in her grave at his usurpation of Jeb's rightful role) proposing locked-and-loaded sanctions in case of future "meddling," and John McCain , still desperate to take the rest of the world with him before he finally kicks a long-overdue bucket, condemning the "disgraceful" display of two heads of state trying to come to an agreement about matters of mutual interest. The Pentagon has invested a lot of time and money in positioning Russia as Public Enemy #1, and for Trump to put his foot in it by making nice with Putin might diminish the size of their weapons contracts – or the willingness of the American people to tolerate more than half of every tax dollar disappearing down an unaccountable hole . Peace? Eh, who needs it. Cash , motherfucker. ..."
"... The Intelligence Community believes it is God, and it hath smote Trump good. Smelling blood in the water, the media redoubled their shrieking for several days, and crickets. ..."
The Helsinki hysteria shone a spotlight on the utter impotence of the establishment media
and their Deep State controllers to make their delusions reality. Never before has there been
such a gaping chasm visible between the media's "truth" and the facts on the ground. Pundits
compared the summit to Pearl Harbor and
9/11 , with some even reaching for the brass ring of the Holocaust by likening it to
Kristallnacht , while
polls revealed the American people reallydidn't care .
Worse, it laid bare the collusion between the media and their Deep State handlers –
the central dissemination point for the headlines, down to the same phrases, that led to every
outlet claiming Trump had "thrown the Intelligence Community under the bus" by refusing to
embrace the Russia-hacked-our-democracy narrative during his press conference with Putin.
Leaving aside the sudden ubiquity of "Intelligence Community" in our national discourse –
as if this network of spies and murderous thugs is Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood – no one
seriously believes every pundit came up with "throws under the bus" as the proper way of
describing that press conference.
The same central control was apparent in the unanimous condemnations of Putin – that
he murders
journalists , breaks
international agreements , uses bannedchemical
weapons ,
kills women and children
in Syria , and, of course,
meddles in elections . For every single establishment pundit to exhibit such a breathtaking
lack of insight into their own government's misdeeds is highly unlikely. Many of these same
talking heads remarked in horror on Sinclair Broadcasting's Orwellian "prepared statement"
issuing forth from the mouths of hundreds of stations' anchors at once. Et tu, Anderson
Cooper?
The media frenzy was geared toward sparking a popular revolt, with tensions already running
high from the previous media frenzy about family separation at the border (though only one
MSNBC segment seemed to recall that they should still care about that, and belatedly included
some footage of kids
behind a fence wrapped in Mylar blankets). Rachel Maddow , armed with the crocodile tears that
served her so well during the family-separation fracas, exhorted her faithful cultists to
do something.
Meanwhile, national-security neanderthal John Brennan all but called for a coup, condemning the
president for the unspeakable "high crimes and misdemeanors" of seeking to improve relations
with the world's second-largest nuclear power. He called on Pompeo and Bolton, the two biggest
warmongers in a Trump administration bristling with warmongers, to resign in protest. This
would have been a grand slam for world peace, but alas, it was not to be. Even those two
realize what a has-been Brennan is.
Congress wasted no time jumping on the Treason bandwagon, led by Chuck Schumer conjuring
the spectre of the KGB, Marco Rubio as neocon point-man (one imagines Barbara Bush rolling in
her grave at his usurpation of Jeb's rightful role) proposing locked-and-loaded sanctions in
case of future "meddling," and John McCain , still desperate to take the rest of the world with
him before he finally kicks a long-overdue bucket, condemning the "disgraceful" display of two
heads of state trying to come to an agreement about matters of mutual interest. The Pentagon
has invested a lot of time and money in
positioning Russia as Public Enemy #1, and for Trump to put his foot in it by making nice
with Putin might diminish the size of their weapons contracts – or the willingness of the
American people to tolerate more than half of every tax dollar disappearing down an unaccountable
hole . Peace? Eh, who needs it. Cash , motherfucker.
Trump's grip on his long-elusive spine was only temporary, and he held another press
conference upon returning home to reiterate his trust in the intelligence agencies that have
made no secret of their utter loathing for him since day one. When the lights went out at the
climactic moment, it became clear for anyone who still hadn't gotten the message who was
running the show here (and Trump, to his credit, actually joked about it). The Intelligence
Community believes it is God, and it hath smote Trump good. Smelling blood in the water, the
media redoubled their shrieking for several days, and crickets.
On to the Playmates .
Sacha Baron Cohen 's latest series, "Who is America," targeted Ted Koppel for one segment.
Koppel cut the interview short after smelling a rat and expressed his
high-minded concern that Cohen's antics would hurt Americans' trust in reporters. But after
a week of the entire media establishment screaming that the sky is falling while the heavens
remain firmly in place, Cohen is clearly the least of their problems. At least he's funny.
*
Helen Buyniski is a journalist and photographer based in New York City. She covers
politics, sociology, and other anthropological/cultural phenomena. Helen has a BA in Journalism
from New School University and also studied at Columbia University and New York University.
Find more of her work at http://www.helenofdestroy.com and http://medium.com/@helen.buyniski .
This screaming comes not only from the US mainstream, but also from that European elite
which has been housebroken for seventy years as obedient poodles, dachshunds or corgis in
the American menagerie, via intense vetting by US trans-Atlantic "cooperation"
associations.
"... If Trump is serious about a dramatic realignment of US relations with Russia, why did he surround himself with people who are implacably opposed to his approach: Nikki Haley, John Bolton, Mad Dog Mattis, Pompeo Maximus, Bloody Gina Haspel, Christopher Wray, and Dan Coats, who undermined him before Air Force One lifted off from Helsinki? Either Trump should fire them for insubordination or they should resign. Otherwise, this is all psychology not politics ..."
"... What kind of tyrant would appoint all of his own "deep state" coup plotters? ..."
"... Trump's doltish prevarications have done more to boost Mueller's deflating investigation than 1000 hours of the hyperventilating Rachel Maddow . ..."
"... Trump didn't do Putin any favors. The political over-reaction to Trump's obsequiousness will almost certainly prevent the removal of sanctions on the Russian economy. It may even prompt the imposition of more onerous measures. Russian civilians will almost certainly bear most of the price. ..."
He is pathologically narcissistic and supremely arrogant. He has a grotesque sense of entitlement, never doubting that he can
do whatever he chooses. He loves to bark orders and to watch underlings scurry to carry them out. He expects absolute loyalty, but
he is incapable of gratitude. The feelings of others mean nothing to him. He has no natural grace, no sense of shared humanity, no
decency.
He is not merely indifferent to the law; he hates it and takes pleasure in breaking it. He hates it because it gets in his way
and because it stands for a notion of the public good that he holds in contempt. He divides the world into winners and losers. The
winners arouse his regard insofar as he can use them for his own ends; the losers arouse only his scorn. The public good is something
only losers like to talk about. What he likes to talk about is winning.
He has always had wealth; he was born into it and makes ample use of it. But though he enjoys having what money can get him, it
is not what excites him. What excites him is the joy of domination. He is a bully. Easily enraged, he strikes out at anyone who stands
in his way. He enjoys seeing others cringe, tremble, or wince with pain. He is gifted at detecting weakness and deft at mockery and
insult. These skills attract followers who are drawn to the same cruel delight, even if they know that is dangerous, the followers
help him advance to his goal, which is the possession of supreme power.
His possession of power includes the domination of women, but he despises them far more than desires them. Sexual conquest excites
him, but only for the endlessly reiterated proof that he can have anything he likes. He knows that those he grabs hate him. For that
matter, once he has succeeded in seizing the control that so attracts him, in politics as in sex, he knows that virtually everyone
hates him. At first that knowledge energizes him, making him feverishly alert to rivals and conspiracies. But it soon begins to eat
away at him and exhaust him.
Sooner or later, he is brought down. He dies unloved and unlamented. He leaves behind only wreckage.
Donald Trump? Not exactly. This is Stephen Greenblatt's psychological profile of Richard the Third in his briskly readable new
book, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics
.
Based on Trump's infantile performance in Helsinki, we'd probably all be better off if Putin just went ahead and annexed the
US.
If Trump is serious about a dramatic realignment of US relations with Russia, why did he surround himself with people
who are implacably opposed to his approach: Nikki Haley, John Bolton, Mad Dog Mattis, Pompeo Maximus, Bloody Gina Haspel, Christopher
Wray, and Dan Coats, who undermined him before Air Force One lifted off from Helsinki? Either Trump should fire them for insubordination
or they should resign. Otherwise, this is all psychology not politics
What kind of tyrant would appoint all of his own "deep state" coup plotters?
Trump's doltish prevarications have done more to boost Mueller's deflating investigation than 1000 hours of the hyperventilating
Rachel Maddow .
Trump was momentarily on track when he wanted to draw a moral equivalence between the brutish global political games of Russia
and the US. But instead of lashing Hillary over her stupid emails, which have nothing to do with antagonizing Russia, why didn't
Trump attack her for her nefarious activities in Ukraine and the decimation of Libya? I know, I know. He's a dotard.
Will Mueller subpoena that soccer ball?
Trump didn't do Putin any favors. The political over-reaction to Trump's obsequiousness will almost certainly prevent
the removal of sanctions on the Russian economy. It may even prompt the imposition of more onerous measures. Russian civilians
will almost certainly bear most of the price.
Trump should have consulted with his Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon. She could have told him from her experience
running the World Wrestling Federation that you have to at least put up a little fight during the Hoedown in Helsinki to make
a fixed outcome look if not real, at least entertaining
For those of us anxious for a de-escalation in tensions between the US and Russia, Trump's petulant display probably ensured
that the opposite will happen
Putin and Trump both sought Bibi's blessing before the summit. Bibi has become the new Billy Graham, who all politicians have
on direct dial for consultation in fraught political moments. Graham always considered him a top notch military strategist, once
urging Nixon to bomb the dikes in North Vietnam which would have killed a million people.
Trump: "What is the server saying?"
The Server: "This subpoena is for you, sir ."
Did QE2 ask Putin to show up 30 minutes late for his huddle with Trump as payback for Trump's tardiness at Windsor?
Ari Melber, MSDNC: "Today, July 16, 2018, will go down in the history books as an inflection point in US-Soviet relations."
The Cold War may be over, as Putin declared, but not the Cold War mentality
"... After the Creation of the "CIA" Unelected, Unconstitutional CIA Intelligence Agency Interfered In Foreign Presidential Elections At Least 81 Times In 54 Years. The US was found to have interfered in foreign elections at least 81 times in 31 countries between 1946 and 2000 – not counting Libya, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, The US-backed military coups or regime change efforts, Proxy-Wars. Just saying ..."
"... Tucker Carlson has been analyzing policies/ideas on a deeper level this year. He is painting US a big picture for us to see. It's quite refreshing to see Fox News actually allow objective truth be aired on on occasion. ..."
"... The Intelligence Agencies are the Praetorian Guard in the United States. ..."
"... Party politics is a means of control. When you come to realize that we all have a tendency to agree that the major issues have no party loyalty, and we're all on the same side, you can look past minor differences and move forward to working for the greater good... ..."
"... I just saw another Tucker Carlson news clip that Tony Podesta is offered immunity to testify against Paul Manafort? WTF? Why aren't Podestas charged?! ..."
"... Neocons, military industrial complex and liberal leftists have penetrated deeply into the government intelligence communities, wall street banking, both houses of Us congress, mainstream media as well as Hollywood people, even in an academia. This country is deep sh*t. I am surprised liberal leftists have not crucified Tucker Carlson yet for speaking out. ..."
"... Russiagate is DemoKKKrat horse cookies. Putin is correct. DemoKKKrats are bad losers. $1.2 billion gone, servers gone! ..."
Guys Did you know: After the Creation of the "CIA" Unelected, Unconstitutional CIA
Intelligence Agency Interfered In Foreign Presidential Elections At Least 81 Times In 54
Years. The US was found to have interfered in foreign elections at least 81 times in 31
countries between 1946 and 2000 – not counting Libya, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, The
US-backed military coups or regime change efforts, Proxy-Wars. Just saying.
¯\_(^)_/¯
Tucker Carlson is a special character. 95% of time i disagree with Tucker but 5% of time
he's just exceptionally good. In April his 8 minute monologue was epic. I love Jimmy Dore's
passion... specially when he pronounes "they're lying!!!" Jimmy clearly hates liars ;-) We
love you Jimmy for your integrity and intelligence.
Weapons of mass destruction, 9/11, Bin Laden, Lybia, Gulf of Tonkin, Opium fields in
Afghanistan, Operation Mockingbird, Operation Paperclip..... A few reasons not to trust your
CIA and FBI. I am sure you guys can name some more.
Tucker Carlson has been analyzing policies/ideas on a deeper level this year. He is
painting US a big picture for us to see. It's quite refreshing to see Fox News actually allow
objective truth be aired on on occasion.
Pulling off the partisan blinders is the first step toward enlightenment... Party politics
is a means of control. When you come to realize that we all have a tendency to agree that the
major issues have no party loyalty, and we're all on the same side, you can look past minor
differences and move forward to working for the greater good...
THE CIA HAS BEEN OVERTHROWING GOVERMENTS FOR DECADES,and you wonder why Trump doesn't
trust them? It's because he doesn't want war. He ain't no saint but at least we have an anti
war President.
Morning Joe's panel said today that the Democrats need to run on this Russia conspiracy
theory, and nothing else, in order to win the midterms. If they bring up free college or
medicare for all it will "weaken their message and confuse the voters". Once again the
corporate neoliberal warmonger Democrats and their rich TV puppets are setting us up for
failure, no voter gives a damn about Russia, MSNBC wants our progressive candidates to lose
instead of reform their corrupt party!
I think what has happened to the Liberals, is that for decades and decades they were the
most progressive, tolerant party. They really did want to do more for the people and tried to
introduce things that the right would instantly point to and call "socialist!!" Corporations
started to look at these liberals as representatives they could pay off but without suspect,
unlike Republicans, who were widely known to accept money from Corporations, Big Pharma and
huge construction companies (Haliburton anyone?).
Over time, Liberals saw the benefits of
being chummy with these same big $$ companies and voted on bills, etc in the ways that would
make these corps very happy and more profitable. No one wanted to believe that Liberals were
doing the same thing as Republicans but now we know they are. It's not a secret anymore. Most
politicians aren't in it to make their country, their state or their cities better; they're
in it to make their bank accounts unbelievably huge and that's it. They're greedy people with
no integrity, pretending to serve the people.
I'm a righty, and I'm so surprised to see a liberal agree with Tucker in all the things I
care about! Imagine what we could accomplish if we put aside our differences for a time and
work on what we agree on! No more immoral wars for Israel! TRY BUSH, CHENEY, AND ALL NEOCONS
THAT LED US TO WAR WITH IRAQ FOR TREASON!!
You are so right. Thank you for bringout the truth. Neocons, military industrial complex
and liberal leftists have penetrated deeply into the government intelligence communities,
wall street banking, both houses of Us congress, mainstream media as well as Hollywood people,
even in an academia. This country is deep sh*t. I am surprised liberal leftists have not
crucified Tucker Carlson yet for speaking out.
Russiagate is DemoKKKrat horse cookies. Putin is correct. DemoKKKrats are bad losers. $1.2
billion gone, servers gone! DmoKKKrats cannot even prove climate change
"... The Russians could do nothing to build support for Trump, and there is not a hint of evidence that they tried. They might have done something to harm Hillary, because there was so much there: the private server emails, the Clinton foundation, the murder of Moammer Gaddafi, the call for a no-fly zone in Syria they didn't have to invent it. It was there. So was the hanky panky at the Democratic National Committee, on which the Clintonite accusations focus, perhaps to cause everyone to forget much worse things. ..."
"... When you come to think of it, the DNC scandal focused on Debbie Wasserman Schultz, not on Hillary herself. Screaming about "Russian hacking the DNC" has been a distraction from much more serious accusations against Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders supporters didn't need those "revelations" to make them stop loving Hillary or even to discover that the DNC was working against Bernie. It was always perfectly obvious. ..."
Mass Dementia in the Western Establishment Diana Johnstone July 20, 2018 1,600 Words
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Where to begin to analyze the madness of mainstream media in reaction to the Trump-Putin
meeting in Helsinki? By focusing on the individual, psychology has neglected the problem of
mass insanity, which has now overwhelmed the United States establishment, its mass media and
most of its copycat European subsidiaries. The individuals may be sane, but as a herd they are
ready to leap off the cliff.
For the past two years, a particular power group has sought to explain away its loss of
power – or rather, its loss of the Presidency, as it still holds a predominance of
institutional power – by creation of a myth. Mainstream media is known for its herd
behavior, and in this case the editors, commentators, journalists have talked themselves into a
story that initially they themselves could hardly take seriously.
Donald Trump was elected by Russia ?
On the face of it, this is preposterous. Okay, the United States can manage to rig elections
in Honduras, or Serbia, or even Ukraine, but the United States is a bit too big and complex to
leave the choice of the Presidency to a barrage of electronic messages totally unread by most
voters. If this were so, Russia wouldn't need to try to "undermine our democracy". It would
mean that our democracy was already undermined, in tatters, dead. A standing corpse ready to be
knocked over by a tweet.
Even if, as is alleged without evidence, an army of Russian bots (even bigger than the
notorious Israeli army of bots) was besieging social media with its nefarious slanders against
poor innocent Hillary Clinton, this could determine an election only in a vacuum, with no other
influences in the field. But there was a lot of other stuff going on in the 2016 election, some
for Trump and some for Hillary, and Hillary herself scored a crucial own goal by denigrating
millions of Americans as "deplorables" because they didn't fit into her identity politics
constituencies.
The Russians could do nothing to build support for Trump, and there is not a hint of
evidence that they tried. They might have done something to harm Hillary, because there was so
much there: the private server emails, the Clinton foundation, the murder of Moammer Gaddafi,
the call for a no-fly zone in Syria they didn't have to invent it. It was there. So was the
hanky panky at the Democratic National Committee, on which the Clintonite accusations focus,
perhaps to cause everyone to forget much worse things.
When you come to think of it, the DNC scandal focused on Debbie Wasserman Schultz, not on
Hillary herself. Screaming about "Russian hacking the DNC" has been a distraction from much
more serious accusations against Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders supporters didn't need those
"revelations" to make them stop loving Hillary or even to discover that the DNC was working
against Bernie. It was always perfectly obvious.
So at worst, "the Russians" are accused of revealing some relatively minor facts concerning
the Hillary Clinton campaign. Big deal.
But that is enough, after two years of fakery, to send the establishment into a frenzy of
accusations of "treason" when Trump does what he said he would do while campaigning, try to
normalize relations with Russia.
This screaming comes not only from the US mainstream, but also from that European elite
which has been housebroken for seventy years as obedient poodles, dachshunds or corgis in the
American menagerie, via intense vetting by US trans-Atlantic "cooperation" associations. They
have based their careers on the illusion of sharing the world empire by following U.S. whims in
the Middle East and transforming the mission of their armed forces from defense into foreign
intervention units of NATO under U.S. command. Having not thought seriously about the
implications of this for over half a century, they panic at the suggestion of being left to
themselves.
The Western elite is now suffering from self-inflicted dementia.
Donald Trump is not particularly articulate, navigating through the language with a small
repetitive vocabulary, but what he said at his Helsinki press conference was honest and even
brave. As the hounds bay for his blood, he quite correctly refused to endorse the "findings" of
US intelligence agencies, fourteen years after the same agencies "found" that Iraq was bursting
with weapons of mass destruction. How in the world could anyone expect anything else?
But for the mainstream media, "the story" at the Helsinki summit, even the only
story, was Trump's reaction to the, er, trumped up charges of Russian interference in our
democracy. Were you or were you not elected thanks to Russian hackers? All they wanted was a
yes or no answer. Which could not possibly be yes. So they could write their reports in
advance.
Anyone who has frequented mainstream journalists, especially those who cover the "big
stories" on international affairs, is aware of their obligatory conformism, with few
exceptions. To get the job, one must have important "sources", meaning government spokesmen who
are willing to tell you what "the story" is, often without being identified. Once they know
what "the story" is, competition sets in: competition as to how to tell it. That leads to an
escalation of rhetoric, variations on the theme: "The President has betrayed our great country
to the Russian enemy. Treason!"
This demented chorus on "Russian hacking" prevented mainstream media from even doing their
job. Not even mentioning, much less analyzing, any of the real issues at the summit. To find
analysis, one must go on line, away from the official fake news to independent reporting. For
example, "the Moon of Alabama" site offers
an intelligent interpretation of the Trump strategy , which sounds infinitely more
plausible than "the story". In short, Trump is trying to woo Russia away from China, in a
reverse version of Kissinger's strategy forty years ago to woo China away from Russia, thus
avoiding a continental alliance against the United States. This may not work because the United
States has proven so untrustworthy that the cautious Russians are highly unlikely to abandon
their alliance with China for shadows. But it makes perfect sense as an explanation of Trump's
policy, unlike the caterwauling we've been hearing from Senators and talking heads on CNN.
Those people seem to have no idea of what diplomacy is about. They cannot conceive of
agreements that would be beneficial to both sides. No, it's got to be a zero sum game, winner
take all. If they win, we lose, and vice versa.
They also have no idea of the harm to both sides if they do not agree. They have no project,
no strategy. Just hate Trump.
He seems totally isolated, and every morning I look at the news to see if he has been
assassinated yet.
It is unimaginable for our Manichean moralists that Putin might also be under fire at home
for failing to chide the American president for U.S. violations of human rights in Guantanamo,
murderous drone strikes against defenseless citizens throughout the Middle East, the
destruction of Libya in violation of the UN mandate, interference in the elections of countless
countries by government-financed "non-governmental organizations" (the National Endowment of
Democracy), worldwide electronic spying, invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the
world's greatest prison population and regular massacres of school children. But the diplomatic
Russians know how to be polite.
Still, if Trump actually makes a "deal", there may be losers – neither the U.S. nor
Russia but third parties. When two great powers reach agreement, it is often at somebody else's
expense. The West Europeans are afraid it will be them, but such fears are groundless. All
Putin wants is normal relations with the West, which is not much to ask.
Rather, candidate number one for paying the price are the Palestinians, or even Iran, in
marginal ways. At the press conference, asked about possible areas of cooperation between the
two nuclear powers, Trump suggested that the two could agree on helping Israel:
"We both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu. They would like to do certain things with respect to
Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel. In that respect, we absolutely would like to
work in order to help Israel. Israel will be working with us. So both countries would work
jointly."
In political terms, Trump knows where political power lies, and is counting on the influence
of the pro-Israel lobby, which recognizes the defeat in Syria and the rising influence of
Russia, to save him from the liberal imperialists – a daring bet, but he does not have
much choice.
On another subject, Trump said that "our militaries" get along with the Russians "better
than our politicians". This is another daring bet, on military realism that could somehow
neutralize military industrial congressional complex lobbying for more and more weapons.
In short, the only chance to end the nuclear war threat may depend on support for Trump from
Israel and the Pentagon!
The hysterical neoliberal globalists seem to have ruled out any other possibility –
and perhaps this one too.
"Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia forwards the opportunity to open
new pathways toward peace and stability in our world" Trump declared "I would rather take a
political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics."
That is more than his political enemies can claim.
This is a frightening, accurate commentary on what we face as a result of an unaccountable
power structure resorting to any and all means to retain power which, if this structure
continues to exercise it, will lead to our extinction.
In the establishment, it's not dementia as such, it's just serving the highest bidder. You
can accuse only the elites of dementia: they forgot that to enjoy the fruits of your thievery
you have to be alive. If only they die, it would be a great service to the humanity.
Unfortunately, the way things go, they might take us all with them.
Thank you, this is an excellent summary of the situation right now. It's worth noting too
just how disconnected the establishment is from the wider public. They have enormous
financial resources and access to the entire legacy media but seem to have almost no real
base of support. Remember how the Never Trumpers had no one more prominent and well-known
than Evan McMullan (!!) to run as their candidate? Note too the tiny number of views the
YouTube videos of the Aspen Institute get: https://www.youtube.com/user/AspenInstitute/videos
.
On its own, these things aren't conclusive proof but together they add up. The Aspen
Institute crowd is an almost entirely self-contained subculture. They seem to have no base of
support, beyond their stacks of money, job titles and the power that come with the various
offices they hold. That's probably why they can never stop calling their opponents
"populists" or why Bill Kristol keeps tweeting about encountering scrappy shoeshine boys who
shout "give Trump hell, Mr Kristol!" as he goes about his urban peregrinations.
Diana Johnstone is not alone. Others on the alt-Left are starting to wake up, too. This is
Joaquín Flores:
People are seeing through dishonesty, and the old language traps are used up and done
for. If reconquista is the goal, then we need to have an honest conversation about that. If
there's a Latino nation with self determination in the south-west US, or rights 'back' to
the south-west US, then let's speak of it in such terms. Because then we'd be looking at a
Euro-American nation also. Now of course there's issues of interpenetrated peoples, and
identities we carry in our minds in diverse urban centers. But the point here is that we
have to have an honest discourse, and stop hiding reconquista sentiments under the rubric
of 'human rights'. Because European-Americans don't have right of return to Europe, so the
left is promoting what will ultimately be a race war, full scale, if they don't chill the
fuck out and back off this disingenuous approach to policy-wonkism on immigration.
The paradigmatic question today is, how is wealth made, and where does wealth come from?
What is the balance of trade and debts, and how is that is no longer manageable? The US
empire and NATO is no longer manageable. Trump is unwinding NATO. That can't be a bad
thing.
"... Maybe we can stop with the apologetics and demand he stop funding nazis in Ukraine, terrorists in Syria, "color revolutionaries" in Venezuela and Nicaragua and mostly secret "dirty wars" in Africa. Maybe we can demand he actually serve the interests of the 99% in the US, and not the globalist banksters, MIC contractors and extraction industries who are his real beneficiaries. ..."
"... Who knows? Maybe we can even force him to stop "Making Greater Israel Again" at great cost to the US in prestige, blood and gold. ..."
"... "Admittedly, Trump has many flaws and much of his foreign policy is in keeping with the usual criminal conduct of American imperialism." "The problem for the American establishment is that it doesn't like the way democracy worked out." ..."
"... USA deep state's Russian gambit expires on November 4th when the embargo on Iran goes into effect. It is already clear that China will support Iran. ..."
"... Anyone noticed how much personal wealth Obama has gained since he was president? Someone, anyone, please grab a clue... ..."
"... Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Surely the Borg understand this? ..."
"... Mark Blyth is one of my favorite economists. He coined the great phrase, that once the 0.01% screw us bad enough, "The Hamptons is not a defensible position." ..."
"... " The weapon industry and the military recognize that the 'war of terror' is nearing its end. To sell more they need to create an new 'enemy' that looks big enough to justify large and long-term spending. " ..."
"... Trump is being given way too much credit. If Russia would have flown all their jets home right after the fake chemical attack in eastern Ghouta, Damascus and the rest of Syrian government controlled areas would lay in rubles by American bombs with jihadi scum committing the most unimaginable atrocities. ..."
"... The whole idea of splitting Russia and China sure, maybe 20 years ago but those days are long gone. The two nations now have deep wide and strategic agreements and interests. Besides, what does the US have to offer? ease sanctions wow how kind. A project to split them can only fail. ..."
"... LOL! Do you really think the US is a democracy? Do you think a real "outsider" populist can be elected via the money-centered US election process? Do you think Obama kept his campaign promises? Do think Trump has? (Prosecute "crooked" Hillary? Eliminated Obamacare "on day one"? Build a wall (and have Mexico pay for it)? Drained the swamp? Pull US troops out of the Middle East?) ..."
"... Consider: The US is NOT a democracy and "the borg" controls the narrative AND the counter-narrative. Obama and Trump were selected and made into the most appealing choice ("lesser evil"). ..."
"... Within days of this press conference, Trump OK'd another $200 million in military aid for the neo-nazis we planted on Russia's border. ..."
"... But all I see is Trump executing the policies of the 0.01% sponsors of the US duopoly. ..."
"... I'm not sure that the borg haven't already won long ago. The hysterical verbal attacks against Trump by the MSM and the swamp are worrying, but I'm starting to notice a similarity between this and Trump's own rhetoric. Trump's "fire and fury," his attacks on journalists, European allies, and "very unfair trade" make a lot of people uncomfortable. ..."
"... The US political circus has been cranked up to maximum volume. The question is whether there are any real actions happening to justify this noise. ..."
"... I would like to see Trump fire some people, but I'm not sure it's necessary (from Trump's perspective) because I'm not sure that the level of conflict is as serious as what is portrayed. Same thing with impeachment. It won't happen, because pretty soon the people would realize that their lot hasn't improved, that Trump wasn't the problem, and the MSM and the swamp would end up with even less credibliity. And if one president can be impeached, the calls for impeachment will continue with the next president and the next... ..."
"... Was it Rosenstein who ordered the arrest of the Russian gun lobbyist woman the day after the summit? ..."
"... There is much to suggest that Special Counsel Mueller takes his orders from Rosenstein, but who does Rosenstein answer to, and is he untouchable within the USA legal system? How much cognitive dissonance is the public supposed to handle in relation to Rosenstein not being held accountable for his crimes, including high treason? ..."
"... regarding your last line - i am not so sure.. it looks dicey to me and he is creating a lot of uncertainty with the countries - europe - that typically go along with everything the usa says.. maybe his stirring up stuff is a part of his plan, but he doesn't seem to have a genuine plan... he comes across like a loose cannon mostly.. ..."
"... No one in their right-fucking mind would willingly drag themselves through the festering piles of all possible mammalian fecal matter that DJT has had to endure since the start of his presidency. You're gonna tell me that he didn't mind that they were going to drag his philandering ass through the mud so that his YOUNG BOY and family would know what kind of a real piece of garbage this two-timer is? ..."
When I interviewed him a week ago on Air Force One, Trump explained why he's getting in the
room with traditional US enemies like North Korea and Russia.
'I'd like to see peace. A lot of people thought we're going to be at war with Trump as
President. Well here it is - we're getting rid of wars. We're actually getting out of
wars.'
'Look, if we can get along with Russia that's a good thing. For the United States to get
along with Russia and China and all these other places . Piers that's a good thing, that's
not a bad thing. That's a really good thing.'
For 8 years, I argued with Obama-bots who remained convinced that President CareBear really
wanted to do all these wonderful things he said, but was forced to do the opposite by
"Republican Obstructionism" (ignoring the Democratic super-majority in his first years), and
by threats against him and his family by the very agencies now branded by the MSM as the
"Deep State."
When I pointed out that CitiBank picked his Wall Street revolving door Cabinet, I was told
that this was a "4-D Chess move," and that the brilliant Obama had to hire insiders who knew
how "the system" worked so that he could dismantle that system and bring rainbows and
unicorns to the 99%.
Now we are almost 1/2 way through the (first) term of President Trump®, and even b is
promoting this exact same narrative for the Orange Führer.
Well, I was only able to win over a small percentage of Obama-bots with my pleas to look
at what he was actually doing, and not the pretty words he spoke. Let alone my insistence
that if he was really being threatened then the right thing to do would have been to say so,
and either call for the people to rise up to overthrow the PTSB or resign. If a President is
afraid to serve USAmerican interests, he doesn't deserve to be President.
So maybe I should change tacks for those sucked into either pole of this Trump Derangement
Syndrome. Maybe I should jump on the wagon barreling down the abyss, but try to help steer
that wagon towards the conclusion that we must push our beloved leader (or despised Putin
Puppet) to actually execute those "mumbles, such are promises All lies and jests."
Maybe we can stop with the apologetics and demand he stop funding nazis in Ukraine,
terrorists in Syria, "color revolutionaries" in Venezuela and Nicaragua and mostly secret
"dirty wars" in Africa. Maybe we can demand he actually serve the interests of the 99% in the
US, and not the globalist banksters, MIC contractors and extraction industries who are his
real beneficiaries.
Who knows? Maybe we can even force him to stop "Making Greater Israel Again" at great
cost to the US in prestige, blood and gold.
Yeah, I know. All we'll see is another round of the copyrighted "You're Fired" trope of
our first Reality TV Show President.
A couple of quotes from the Finian Cunningham piece b has linked to.
"Admittedly, Trump has many flaws and much of his foreign policy is in keeping with
the usual criminal conduct of American imperialism."
"The problem for the American establishment is that it doesn't like the way democracy worked
out."
The only two choices the world faces in US leadership is the Russia hating fanatics that
may quickly bring on WWIII, or an imperialist realist US that goes back to attacking
countries that are no match for US military power.
The longer this internal war in the US lasts, the better off the world will be.
Daniel 4
When Trump announced the Goldman boys in his group - after campaigning against Wall Street -
I pointed this out to friends only to have them tell me the exact same thing, that Trump had
to have insiders to help him do what he needed to do. Bah! A pox on both their houses R and
D.
Alternative theory: Trump got NOTHING from Putin and that angered the deep state. The
peace initiative known as "Trump" will be withdrawn (impeach/resign) if Putin doesn't come
around by this fall. The late invitation for Putin to visit Washington - coming after (not before) the
firestorm of deep-state protest is the tell.
USA deep state's Russian gambit expires on November 4th when the embargo on Iran goes into
effect. It is already clear that China will support Iran.
<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
One more thing. MIC wants weapons contracts, sure. But that doesn't mean that US and Israel doesn't have strategic
goals that go beyond enriching MIC.
really good post b.. thank you! grieved posted a link on the Helsinki thread that aligns with
your view in many regards... others would enjoy watching it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUK5g6v5zrg
@1 virgile.. good quote from trump.. thanks for that.. a moment of sanity and clarity from
the unpredictable usa president!
@3 peter.. good comparison / analogy! and i agree with your last paragraph @5 too.
thanks..
@4 daniel.. some aspects of trumps presidency look very promising... check out that video
grieved shared if you haven't already.. it conforms to your thinking and it especially
interesting coming from a russian! opps - it must be a russian set up!!
Such naivete b, it's very alarming. DJT, despite all his rhetoric, is just another empire
puppet. He'll do what he must to further his, and his families ambitions, throwing the
workers and the "little people" under the bus, along with the rule of law, the constitution,
and anything else that gets in his way. The globalists own him, just like rest of our modern
day presidents. His increase in personal wealth, is just the price he charges for being
"owned" by them.
Anyone noticed how much personal wealth Obama has gained since he was president? Someone, anyone, please grab a clue...
instead of mic, pl likes 'globalist corporate bankster elites.' i can't see the difference
frankly...
@13 ben... on the one hand i agree - another empire puppet, but on another level he
isn't... now, just what is intentional and what isn't is hard to say.. see virgiles quote
@1.. is that the voice of an empire puppet? well - maybe it is and he is fooling his base and
plans to start ww3 sometime soon... why would he want to piss off the globalist corporate
bankster elites - or mic as others refer to it here? okay.. maybe he isn't going to, but
whatever one wants to say about trump, i think the most outstanding thing about him is his
unpredictability and the fact he doesn't appear to give a shit what the msm - that
brianwashing channel - thinks.. he does his own thing and for that - i admire him.. i still
think he is a creep, but i admire that aspect of his.. he does lead, even if one doesn't like
his style..
But I come back to the voter. Part of the reason O-Bomber and the Dems were elected was
due to US public weariness of W's non-stop wars after pronouncing 'Mission Accomplished'.
Part of the reason Trump got in (apart from it was a change election) was the same. The
Borg wants what the Borg wants, but if Trump and his base is the symptom, and Trump is
neutered, what will voters do? The Dems aren't offering anything compelling apart anti-Trump
guff.
Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Surely the Borg understand this?
Mark Blyth is one of my favorite economists. He coined the great phrase, that once the
0.01% screw us bad enough, "The Hamptons is not a defensible position."
But to imagine that Trump is all alone with just his family is to be blind to the big
money interests that have propped him up and promoted him at least since the Rothschilds (who
are never to be called "globalists") pumped $billions into his failing real estate and
gambling businesses back in the 1980s.
Mercers. Adelson. Princes (including the de Vos branch). It goes on and on.
james @ said in part:"even if one doesn't like his style.."
IMO "his style", is nothing more, nothing less than distraction. Everything of any substance he's done has benefited the giant corporate forms he
serves.
"Globalists" are nothing more than the huge multi-national corporations. Through their
massive profits they buy the politicians like DJT and others that do their bidding. It's not
rocket science. They now own the U$A.
When DJT and his minions propose ANYTHING that benefits the working classes, maybe I'll
change my mind, but, as of now, that hasn't happened.
@18 jsn - ivan @12 spoken like a typical jack ass American - talking to other Americans and
probably thinks this is an American website too.... the freak could start by getting up to
speed..
@20 ben... trump talking with putin and suggesting that peace would be a good thing is a
start! But i hear what you are saying.. Watch peoples actions, not their words.. fully
concur..
Nice appraisal, b.
I'm still in Recovery Mode after the shock of reading Pat Lang's "Political Appointees who
should be fired" musings. I expected to be waiting for Trump's 2nd term before any serious
slime-removal began. But PL makes a persuasive case that time's a-wasting and Trump needs to
grab a fire hose ASAP and flush some muck from the stables, now.
" The weapon industry and the military recognize that the 'war of terror' is nearing its
end. To sell more they need to create an new 'enemy' that looks big enough to justify large
and long-term spending. "
I bet Donald John Trump being such a douchebag bigot will go
for Iran (or else Venezuela) just like his Republican predecessor went for Iraq. To be honest
I don't believe Trump will go for Iran but the "shadow government" (if I can call it like
that) will effectively go for a hot war with Iran. USA presidents are just some nice faces on
a plutocratic system who need to sell policies to the masses and make them feel they have a
say.
" Trump does not buy the nonsense claims of 'Russian meddling' in the U.S. elections
and openly says so. " Imagine he does believe it and says it out loud. "Dear US citizens,
the Russians have tampered with our beloved free and fair democratic voting system so now you
have me!" Of course there was no Russian meddling. But if it were so, who would ever admit
it?
Trump is being given way too much credit. If Russia would have flown all their jets home
right after the fake chemical attack in eastern Ghouta, Damascus and the rest of Syrian
government controlled areas would lay in rubles by American bombs with jihadi scum committing
the most unimaginable atrocities.
The whole idea of splitting Russia and China sure, maybe 20 years ago but those days are long
gone. The two nations now have deep wide and strategic agreements and interests. Besides,
what does the US have to offer? ease sanctions wow how kind. A project to split them can only
fail.
On another point, it has been my understanding that Pentagon policy sinse WWII assumed war
with one would mean war with the other even when they were at odds.
You are right, this is a reality TV intended to try to implant in the US a Nazi regime
through a military junta.
As soon as they have tested that people has become increasingly aware that everything remains
the same, they are willing to throw the American people against each other as a last resort
to impose the so pursued martial law which will allow cutting all rights and liberties at
root, to be able to requisition funds, at whatever price the US workers would have to pay,
and go after the needed wars, for US continuing hegemony, against Iran, Russia and
China....
This is why Trump is playing the card of opposing the DS policies and the others the
role of fighting back to the limit of asking his impeachment, so as enrage his followers
enough to get them rising in arms....In fact there are some "alt-media" just calling for this
online at unison....These was the outcome wished since the beginning of the election campaign
and such aggressive stance by Trump and Nazi and KKK followers, and this is what lays behind
the attack and intends of slamming and undermining every and each US institutions, so as that
people gets enraged and disoriented enough, unable to trust the government or any of its
agencies, and this way easy to fall into chaos and the arms of extremists armed gangs...
That the US is calling for a genuine revolution of the people to the shouts does not mean
that this one in the making has anything to do with genuine US people at all. I bet that it
is the MIC ( which Pat Lang denies existing, btw...!!!) which directs the scene from
behind...
Just found this video posted at other blog in which a man tells it as it is...This is the
perception of the people around the muslim world...( and no muslim as well ), also
increasingly aware...and they know it....Notice that the message Sheik Sudair is advancing
follows the same script than Trump and his, at least part, administration....But so as that
not permeate anybody any more...
LOL! Do you really think the US is a democracy? Do you think a real "outsider" populist
can be elected via the money-centered US election process? Do you think Obama kept his
campaign promises? Do think Trump has? (Prosecute "crooked" Hillary? Eliminated Obamacare
"on day one"? Build a wall (and have Mexico pay for it)? Drained the swamp? Pull US troops
out of the Middle East?)
Consider: The US is NOT a democracy and "the borg" controls the narrative AND the
counter-narrative. Obama and Trump were selected and made into the most appealing choice
("lesser evil").
=
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be
the truth.
I just want to say that the phrase "cold war" or "new cold war" has far outlived its
usefulness and meaning. If there is an indecisive battle and the sides return to base then it
becomes a cold war it just has no meaning in relation to current events. That was then this
is now.
Well, I have to say there is no better person than Karen Shakhnazarov to promote the
standard narrative of our first Reality TV Show President to a Russia audience. He is, after
all a famous TV and film director who brags about being able to sway huge masses of people to
do his bidding.
And he presented quite a performance. He had few, if any actual evidences to back up his
soliloquy, but he presented it with the force of a true believer.
I would have liked to hear the rebuttals of the other guests, but they don't seem to be
online.
For no matter who is promoting it, I find the standard narrative to be specious. Trump is
not, and never was an "outsider." He is not opposing the PTSB, but enriching them.
I don't care what he, or anyone says; I watch what they actually do. Within days of this
press conference, Trump OK'd another $200 million in military aid for the neo-nazis we
planted on Russia's border.
I don't know why some in Russian media promote the US MSM narrative about this "war"
between Trump and "the establishment" and "Deep State." I want to keep believing that
President Putin is acting in the best interests of the Russian people and their allies.
Perhaps they believe that promoting the narrative gives Trump some room to actually
execute the policies which I think Shakhnazarov is correct in saying the US public backs.
But all I see is Trump executing the policies of the 0.01% sponsors of the US duopoly.
I'm not sure that the borg haven't already won long ago. The hysterical verbal attacks
against Trump by the MSM and the swamp are worrying, but I'm starting to notice a similarity
between this and Trump's own rhetoric. Trump's "fire and fury," his attacks on journalists,
European allies, and "very unfair trade" make a lot of people uncomfortable.
The US political
circus has been cranked up to maximum volume. The question is whether there are any real
actions happening to justify this noise.
Trump's public opponents have offered endless predictions of doom and gloom which have not
come to pass. Pulling out of the Iran deal and the climate deal, the nomination of BK for
SCOTUS, and the tariffs have all been condemned but we are still waiting to see how these
situations play out.
The Trump administration's internal dissenters have cried about his gestures toward peace
and nonintervention, at the same time the "defense" spending and the drone strikes continue
as strong as ever.
I would like to see Trump fire some people, but I'm not sure it's necessary (from Trump's
perspective) because I'm not sure that the level of conflict is as serious as what is
portrayed. Same thing with impeachment. It won't happen, because pretty soon the people would
realize that their lot hasn't improved, that Trump wasn't the problem, and the MSM and the
swamp would end up with even less credibliity. And if one president can be impeached, the
calls for impeachment will continue with the next president and the next...
xor @24, "Of course there was no Russian meddling. But if it were so, who would ever admit
it?"
Actually, The Donald has said publicly on several occasions that the accepts the story
that Russia meddled in our election. He just says (as did the Republican committee) that they
didn't change the results.
I believe they're keeping that story alive so they can impose even more draconian
restrictions on voting, and install even more opaque election systems so future rigging is
even less obvious.
Thanks, this is an important post. The coup will be a success when Dissidents are labeled
Russian Collaborators and the internet goes black. Even if Donald Trump doesn't resign or
isn't impeached, the splintering apart will continue. Money making chaos is spreading across
Europe and North America. The counter is to restore government by and for the people and
secure borders.
Who is actually in charge over there, among the Borg? And how much in charge? They cannot
function yet as the collective electronic mind of science fiction, can they?
Was it Rosenstein who ordered the arrest of the Russian gun lobbyist woman the day after
the summit? That looks very much like an act of desperation. There is much to suggest that
Special Counsel Mueller takes his orders from Rosenstein, but who does Rosenstein answer to,
and is he untouchable within the USA legal system? How much cognitive dissonance is the
public supposed to handle in relation to Rosenstein not being held accountable for his
crimes, including high treason?
Who are the 'globalists' actually and which is their chain of command? Which positions do
Soros, Bezos, CIA-MI6 have? What is the role of Mossad?
As it appears, after the ascendance of Trump, the actors are not sure themselves anymore
about any of this, that is about who is in charge, or in particular about how much authority
and insurance their actual real-life handlers do possess and vouch for. They waver, in the
case of media hysterically so.
"The Intelligence Community", in particular CIA, is a central executive force in the
circus, in collaboration with MI6 and the obedient assets in the NATO sphere, but they have
grown so incompetent due to incessant politicizing and sycophantism that they are perhaps
little more a paper tiger by now? If this fact, with the help of Trump and allies, would be
perceived clearer by the political classes of the USA, much good would be the result.
Nah, Trump shouldn't sack them yet but give them more rope to hang themselves.
The only thing he must do is beef up his security detail with some really mean mofos.
Spetsnaz or Hezbollah main force might be best but would be politically unacceptable. I
suspect he could get enough ex-US SF volunteers willing to die for him to ensure his safety
when the Washington Borg goes postal as they will in the next year or so when it dawns on
them how completely Trump has fucked them over. The last week or so has done much to convince
me that Trump is a revolutionary.
@29 ivan.. you're a bit of a lun - short for lunatic.. henceforth, i am skipping your
inanities..
@30 daniel.. i hear what you are saying.. he was and probably still is, a real estate
developer.. he dreams trump towers around the world.. but, he was never a politician until
very recently.. that he won the election came as a surprise to many.. yes - he had powerful
backing - just how much he owes to that, i don't know.. but it is a plutocracy as i see it..
he has very little wiggle room.. he is also a live wire and unpredictable.. i can't think of
a president who was this off script, forthright, ignorant and on and on the characteristics
go.. but i don't see him towing the line exactly... so, maybe i am wrong on trump..
as for the interview, yes - would have been nice to hear some of the other guests rebut
his comments.. the host did a very small bit, but that wasn't much... yes - the guy is in
entertainment - he shares that with trump, lol... but the guy wasn't fickle.. i find trump
quite capricious..
regarding your last line - i am not so sure.. it looks dicey to me and he is creating a
lot of uncertainty with the countries - europe - that typically go along with everything the
usa says.. maybe his stirring up stuff is a part of his plan, but he doesn't seem to have a
genuine plan... he comes across like a loose cannon mostly.. i know one when i see one,
lol... he is more of an outsider then an insider as i see it, but time will tell.. obviously
people and politicians have to be a bit of both to move forward..as with so much - a simple
black and white breakdown is impossible as i see it..
I don't know what the United States is. A quilt? ;)
Trump simply shouldn't have been elected in the first place if the system of political
filtration was working properly. The Borg appears to have done some deft footwork since it
became clear he was a serious contender and prepared for him becoming President. The
Christopher Steele Dossier, courtesy of the UK, looks like just one strand of this.
I'm just not ready to call it. I don't know what will happen. Traditionally it takes two
terms for a President to leave a clear mark, but I don't know if this applies anymore.
I'm also wary of treating the voter as an easily managed moron as much of the media and
many pols do. I think that is an error. There will be fallout.
My head is pessimist, my heart it optimist. Does not compute.
Sasha @26. That's an amazing video! Thanks. The people are awakening.
Frank Zappa observed 30 or 40 years ago that the facade of "democracy" in the US will be
dropped whenever it becomes expedient to do so. And that facade became a lot thinner 3 days
after "the event that changed everything."
The US has been under a form of "Martial Law" since President Bush II signed Executive Order 13223 on
September 14, 2001.
Exactly what this EO established is classified, but even the changes since 9/11 that are
public are horrifying. No more habeas corpus. US military permitted to police the streets.
"Kill lists" of US citizens, even on US territory. Imagine what powers are still
classified!
Since then, every year, each President has extended it for another year.
President Trump extended, and expanded it last year , giving him the authority to recall
into service any "retired member of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, or
RegularMarine Corps."
Starting with some posts at 4-Chan, some in the "alt-right" were claiming that the purpose
of this power to confiscate private property is Trump's "4-D Chess Move" to eviscerate the
Clinton "Deep State" Globalists.
That 4-Chan thread evolved into "Q" and QAnon which are serving to keep Trump fans chasing
squirrels, and ignoring what this Administration is actually doing.
b has the courage (finally) to admit that passing a summary judgment against Trump at
this juncture is absurd and would exhibit symptoms of TDS and immediately people are here to
remind us (program us) into thinking that this is all theatre and there is no daylight btw
Obama and Trump.
Bullshit.
No one in their right-fucking mind would willingly drag themselves through the festering
piles of all possible mammalian fecal matter that DJT has had to endure since the start of
his presidency. You're gonna tell me that he didn't mind that they were going to drag his
philandering ass through the mud so that his YOUNG BOY and family would know what kind of a
real piece of garbage this two-timer is? You're going to tell me that he willfully signed on
for death threats and to be publically shamed and turned on by all his orchestrated
advisor-elections?
For what? So he could sell more steaks post-presidency or build towers in Pyongyang?
So this is all theater and it doesn't even matter, huh?
Poor DJT. The loneliest dumbass in the world right now. His wife even "shooed" his hand
away on camera at a tarmac meet-and-greet. Gosh...who wouldn't sign up for that?!
And surely he must really be having a lot of fun backstage sniggering at all the gullibles
in his deplorable army. Gosh, do I feel like a twit.
I wouldn't say "the borg have won," because that means the game is over. I'd say this borg
are in power, and are playing us with awesome finesse.
But I still believe that once enough of us see through the deceptions, and unite to take
them down, that we can beat them. The real PTSB are a tiny percentage. Additionally, they
have a few percent of enforcers (cops/militaries/paramilitaries). And a few more percent who
believe that they're benefiting from this borg-dominance enough to support it.
But it really won't take that many dedicated revolutionaries to topple their house of
cards. Once we convince even a significant minority of the enforcers to refuse orders and
stand with us, I expect their rule will fall quickly, as it has in other instances.
Ben @20: said "When DJT and his minions propose ANYTHING that benefits the working classes,
maybe I'll change my mind, but, as of now, that hasn't happened."
I'd have thought that proposing peace with Russia, rather than risking nuclear war with
them as his would-be deposers seemingly want, is a policy that benefits the working
classes.
You seem to have good instincts, but continue to fall back into the MSM narratives.
"i can't think of a president who was this off script,"
Have you seen the script? I haven't. I just watch what his Administration actually does.
The only change in US policies have been escalations of the worst and stripping of the better
ones.
"he doesn't seem to have a genuine plan... he comes across like a loose cannon mostly"
Yep. That is precisely what we see our First Realty TV Show President doing. Especially
through those Tweets that we're told he writes, his character is all those things you say.
But again, what is his Administration actually doing?
" but time will tell.. "
We're almost halfway through his (first) term, and what have we seen? We've seen war
escalated. We're up to one bomb every 12 minutes! That's 3x as many as Obama and 6x as many
as Bush II. We now have unknown thousands of regular troops occupying more than 1/3 of the
sovereign state of Syria, replacing a few hundred Special Ops guys Obama had.
We're still working to overturn countries that displease the 0.01%/globalists/elites/Deep
State/borg or whatever one wants to call them. Within weeks of his Administration floating
the idea that we may need to send troops into Venezuela, we welcome their neighbor, Colombia
into NATO. Article V anyone?
Continuing to "wait and see" benefits whom?
Really, you do see it. You're just letting yourself get swept up into the squirrel cage.
Almost everyone out there is. Heck, even our beloved b is chasing that squirrel today.
But you see it, and several barflies are describing it quite well.
For some reason my screen confused 12&13, it still reads that way on my monitor while the
numbers shift one on my hand held. It was Ivan's content with which I agreed while not liking
his tone.
As far as I could tell, the EO to confiscate property is to mitigate the loss of
funds/assets "instantaneously" transferred by bad guys to unreachable destinations by the US
Treasury. It is a way to beat tipping off confiscations with a warrant. The people affected
by this EO would still have recourse to prove their legitimate and lawful holdings of those
assets.
Daniel, the Federal Gov't already has the law on its side to confiscate your private
property: your gold. Please provide more than this paltry EO to prove DJT's fascist-cred.
"Because many American banks wouldn't lend money to Trump's debt-soaked company, he had to
look elsewhere, like Russia. "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a
lot of our assets," Donald Trump Jr. said in 2008, specifically mentioning projects in SoHo
and Dubai.
Trump could clear up this issue by releasing his tax returns. That he has not, unlike
every other modern presidential candidate, means that he deserves no benefit of the doubt.
The fairest assumption is that he has Russian business ties he wants to keep hidden.
By the looks of the war that has been going on in the US that involves the intelligence
agencies, if there was dirt in trumps tax returns or any other part of his business career,
it would have been 'leaked'. There would have been no need for a fictional 'dossier'.
US to alert public to foreign operations targeting Americans
The question should be whether the US would alert the US public of domestic operations,
disguised "cleverly", by keyboards and spoof IP's as foreign, especially Russian entities.
The best cover for US intelligence, particularly if politically motivated and even if it is
for testing purposes, is to hide behind Russian identities if only to stay out of legal
problems. The argument that every country hacks and steals, so therefore no big deal, misses
the most obvious reasons of motivation. Elements of US intelligence would and logically
should have the biggest motivations to meddle in US politics. Seriously, if you were Pootin,
would you really be interested in getting involved in US electoral politics? I'd run the
other way.
The people you see are marionettes; the people you don't see are pulling the strings.
If you don't know who's running the marionettes, you can't stop the show...
Trump and Deep state... what is it about NA people who analyse NA politics/power that they
almost always resort to dualisms?
Recently (a couple years ago) in N. Syria there were 4 or 5 different factions all
supported by rival power centers in the US, all fighting each other - ignoring their stated
enemy - the SAA, and fighting each other in order to gain points back in Washington!
It is meaningless to talk about either the US, the US government, the US military, The
Corporate world, etc, as if they are single actors. Even the bankers will at times square off
against each other.
Before Obama, each president had a relative stable configuration of power-factions backing
him (in exchange for special access to the public trough). With Obama, they all were all at
the trough, each of them trying to elbow another couple groups out of the way. That is why
there was little ideological coherance to what he actual did legislatively (other than buying
off the faction-flavor of the day for a limited bounce in the polls). Still, the factions
gave nominal assent to Obama as an icon of US power.
With Trump, the factions that under Obama consolidated their control over a sector of
power (Pentagon, Neo-Cons, CIA, Special Ops, Media, Tech/Silicon Valley, Finance, Oil, Health
Care, DHS/FBI, State, EPA, etc) have come out from the shadows and fight for dominance. Why
at this time? Is it the perception of pending collapse that propels them? If so they hasten
their own end.
Trump's antics (ie Verbal welcome to Putin while immediately sending 200 million of
offensive arms to Ukraine) are all a smokescreen, distraction from the real changes to law
that benefit the elite and punish the wage earner. Don't listen to what he says, or what the
media says he says, or what the media says about him. It is all a con.
Look at what is done. By way of example look at the world military scene. Trump talks
withdrawl. What did he do?
- highest budget ever for the Pentagon, more than they asked for!
- more US troops on the ground in Syria
- more US funds for Ukraine
- more US/Nato forces & $costs on the border with Russia
- more confrontation with China in the south China sea
- more US involvement in Yemen
- expanded special ops role in Africa
- expanded economic-military role against Venezuela
Notice too that each of those actions benefits a different power faction
- Pentagon budget rewards republican/conservative supporters
- Syria rewards the Neo-cons/Israel, while controlling EU access to ME energy.
- Nato patrols in Estonia etc play to the anti-Russia MSM and the US as world policeman
meme.
- Confronting China is all about US dollar dominance - which is why the trade war will evolve
into a currency war
- US involvement in Yemen is about supporting the Saudi's
- Like Big Pharma, special ops get a whole continent to play games in & test their
toys.
- Venezuela is ultimately about controlling the worlds second largest oil resource.
My point is that like many presidents before him, Trump actually controls very little.
What he does control is rapidly being eroded by both his actions and the actions of others.
The net effect invariably benefits US elites and penalizes all others.
@45 daniel.. maybe so.. i dunno.. i can tell you i don't partake of any msm, so my sources
are limited, lol.. lets use syria as an example.. how has it worked out since trump has been
in power? now, how much of that is trumps doing, or as a consequence of russia and irans
doing and etc. etc.? i don't know if i see it, but it seems to me trump, or the usa - are not
in the same position they were around the time trump got the presidency... i don't doubt more
bombs and drones are being released... i am not sure how much of that falls at trumps
doorstep.. i would like it if he stopped the madness on yemen, thanks saudi arabia.. he seems
partly paralyzed with regard to ksa, but i too liked the video that @26 sasha linked to..
as for continuing to wait and see... i don't know what other options i have! i don't
believe waxing eloquent on moa is going to make any difference! i am happy to consider others
ideas and explore the possibilities.. no one so far as i know has made a convincing argument
that trump is the consummate insider... i think he is more of a mix of both.. i guess that is
the basis for my wait and see approach here..
@49 ben.. that is the constant insinuation on trump - needed money so he went to russia...
what if we find out he got it from the mercers, sheldon adelson, the rothchilds, ksa, israel
and etc etc? it is only that he could get it from russia that gets repeated ad nauseam in the
msm.. i have a problem with that..
@55 viviana... thanks, but it is in russian with no english subtitles.. that is the video
both daniel and i would like to see more fully and that grieved shared on a previous thread -
but only part of it.. if an english translation comes available, let us know.. thanks.
Did I read this correctly? Fire Mattis and keep Bolton? How someone can be so perceptive in
their foreign policy thoughts but so off the reservation on US politics is incredible.
... immediately people are here to remind us (program us) into thinking that this is all
theatre and there is no daylight btw Obama and Trump .
Allow me to clarify. It's true that Trump isn't "like" Obama as in facing the same issues
and obstacles. It would be foolish to make that claim.
Instead, what Daniel and I (and I think ben and a few others) have pointed out is that
they both follow a similar faux populist political model. They make populist appeals
(which appears genuine because we are told they are "outsiders") but govern for the
benefit of the establishment.
= = = = = =
hopehely @44:
It is kinda double negative . :-D
Yes. And just how a native speaker would say it.
= = = = = =
ben @49:
The fairest assumption is that he has Russian business ties he wants to keep
hidden.
No. There are many other possibilities.
>> Doesn't want crazed antifa/anti-Russians to attack his business interests
It is certainly an act of great courage for a POTUS to go against the PTB. The Kennedy's fate
pops into ones mind.
Standing up against his party's opinion, against the MSM narratives is truly a
remarkable thing.
We live in doxocracy and what governments or leaders do normally is create news that will
entail a reaction from the masses that will implore the government to do exactly what the
Government wanted to do in the first place.
IN other words, as Rove says, the (empire) government creates a reality that the people
gets to study and this entails a reaction which favours the entity taking the action it
wanted to take.
Say for example you want dictatorial powers, you create 9/11 and you get to have all the
dictatorial powers you dreamed off with the blessing and the urgings of the oppressed.
All PsOTUS since G.W.Bush have been granted absolute power by acts of Congress through the
war on terror legislation.
So, Trump can arrest anybody he wants without any process in any form, sequester anybody
he wants to, kill anyone who stands in his way, all this absolutely legally. The legislation
authorises it. Nobody in and out of the US is above it or beyond what Congress has adopted.
He can seize any property, any assets of anyone including and not limited to the Rockefellers
et al and all the banksters.
To do this he only needs a loyal battallion commander.
So the swamp is planning a coup? DT can act swiftly and in his one night of the long
knives do away with his critics, detractors, pursuers, the Clintons, the Soroses etc.
He and his loyalists must prepare a list of enemies and in one night round all of them up
including the newspapers and TV editors, broadcasters et al.
DT's night of the long knives. He might not have the courage to do it. but it's either him
or them.
He has the Congress legislation to back him up. He only needs to prepare a good Speech to
the Nation afterwards.
People believe what they want to believe. Trump of course has many personal business reasons
to want sanctions removed from Russia since quite of lot of money looted from Russia and the
FSU ended up in his pocket by way of loans or investments in his projects. Tracing this money
puts his Empire at risk. He is what they call "Kompromat" in Russia, so he must do the
bidding of the Cold War forces. To say he is sabatoged by people he himself appointed is
curious.
Part of the reason for all this is the drying up of capital flight from Russia and FSU
since 2005 or so. Over a trillion USD flowed into Eurodollar accounts from 1990-2005 and much
of it ended up in the US as multiples of this as these dollars in offshore banks were loaned
10-20 times this amount to the US and European clients/banks. Some of it flowed directly into
US via these tax havens, legally or otherwise. This huge source of cash fueled asset
inflation in that period and when it dried up we had the Great Recession starting in 2006
-2007, and coincidentally that was shortly after Browder was kicked out of Russia
Browder may be an MI6/CIA/Mossad agent that helped facilitate and track this looting in
partnership with the Israeli Safra who owned the Republican Bank of New York and was said to
be Mossad/Mafia connected. At the same time Hermitage Capital began operations Safras bank
was selling up to 1 billion dollars a day in 100 dollar bills to Russian "entities" and
flying it to Russia in what was called the "Money Plane". This obviously was with the support
of the Fed Reserve and Clinton administration which helped to get Yeltsin reelected with IMF
money. Funny how billions of that IMF money still ended up getting sent to the Bank of New
York and Safras Republican Bank before Safra blew the whistle as he neared a deal to sell his
bank and Hermitage holdings to the notorious HSBC
He was killed days after agreeing to sell under mysterious circumstances (fire) in Monaco
despite using a top security company that used ex-Mossad agents, similar to the company he
used in Moscow to protect his "Money Plane" and Browder. Someone was obviously unhappy about
his blowing the whistle. Perhaps Semyon Mogilevitch, who was implicated and is reportedly the
top Don of the Russian mafia
Trumps ex-partner Felix Sater and a number of tenants in the Trump Tower have been
connected to Semyon Mogilevitch
So anyways , now the Fed and ECB plan to end the QE of the last 8 years and must find a
way to replace toxic assets on the balance sheet with quality assets . Otherwise the next
crash, and they seem to happen every 10 -11 years now, will be a whopper.
Thats where Browder and the Magnitsky Act come in. Cold War II besides propping up the MIC
and replacing the fizzling GWOT may be an excuse to seize assets to prop up the Fed
Putin however might like to recover some of those assets from enemy oligarchs in exile for
Russia and himself, and must protect the oligarchs in his camp who have a lot to lose, not to
mention the RCB , Gazprom and oil companies who keep a lot of reserves /assets offshore .
Thats why he has requested interviews with Browder associates and officials that know about
such transfers so he can recover them, or at least provide some leverage as protection
Putin like Trump has his own Deep State he must satisfy.
"Now let's connect all the dots: there is a pro-western (in realty, western-controlled)
faction inside the government which is financing those who are attempting to overthrow Putin
by making him unpopular with the Russian general public (which overwhelmingly opposes
"(neo)liberal" economic policies and which despises the Russian liberal elites) by constantly
forcing him into (neo)liberal economic policies which he clearly does not like (he declared
himself categorically opposed to such policies in 2005) and the so-called "patriotic media"
is covering it all up. And Putin cannot change this without shedding blood........
Just like in the West, in Russia the media depends first and foremost on money. Big
financial interests are very good at using the media to promote their agenda, deny or
obfuscate some topics while pushing others. This is why you often see the Russian media
backing WTO/WB/IMF/etc policies to the hilt while never criticizing Israel or, God forbid,
rabidly pro-Israel propagandists on mainstream TV (guys like Vladimir Soloviev, Evgenii
Satanovsky, Iakov Kedmi, Avigdor Eskin and many others). This is the same media which will
gladly criticize Iran and Hezbollah but never wonder why the Russian main TV stations are
spewing pro-Israeli propaganda on a daily basis.
And, of course, they will all mantrically repeat the same chant: "there is no 5th column
in Russia!! None!! Never!!"
This is no different than the paid for corporate media in the USA which denies the
existence of a "deep state" or the US "Israel Lobby".
And yet, many (most?) people in the USA and Russia realize at an almost gut-level that
they are being lied to and that, in reality, a hostile power is ruling over them."
By the looks of the war that has been going on in the US that involves the intelligence
agencies, if there was dirt in trumps tax returns or any other part of his business
career, it would have been 'leaked' .
Good point!
It actually helps to make the case that Trump is part of the establishment. They protect
his business interests by not leaking his tax returns and other info.
This is an insight akin to when Qanon started promoting war with Irran.
Trump and the people behind realize that to be a great power in the coming era, the US must
once again become a manufacturing power. This I believe is behind Trump's push, tarrifs and
so forth, to rebuild US manufacturing. He is pushing for a lower US dollar which means
imported items will be more expensive compared to domestically produced goods.
although there is a lot of automation in todays manufacturing, this overall effort will
create a lot of jobs within the US.
In looking into domestic oil production in the US, one field is held up from expanding output
until a second pipeline is completed. Trucking the oil out in the interim was also a problem
as US trucking is now very busy and in short supply with all sectors in the US.
This is far more than giving money to banks trickle down crap. It is physical rebuilding of
US domestic manufacturing capability.
Trump wants peace my ass! What about IRAAAAAN??? Did you all conveniently forget about
his obsession with Iran, or is everyone back on the Trump juice?
_________________
He wants to pull Russia out of the alliance with China, neutralize it in a political sense,
to then be able to better tackle China which is the real threat to the American (economic)
supremacy.
To neutralize China in any sense is a fool's errand and failed mission from the
get-go.
China is a threat to the Empire? And that's a bad thing?...exactly why???
I, for one, will not compromise my soul, and sell out Iran and China and the well-being of
this planet for a fantasy peace with Russia that will never last or come to fruition with the
devious, duplicitous Zionist American Empire.
I ridiculed the "Show Us Your Tax Forms" protests as diversionary and useless. He's not
going to listen to a bunch of "liberals" and his fans have already accepted he's not
releasing them.
But let us remember that he promised his fans several times during the campaign that he
would release them. He made up the excuse of being audited, but he (or his handlers) felt it
necessary to make that promise.
Yet he hasn't. Why? Is it because he's so shy about his wealth? Doesn't want to rub in our
faces how much income he makes? Hardly.
It should be pretty clear there's stuff in there he doesn't want to make public. Chances
are, it's stuff that might turn off some of his fan base (because Trump haters gonna hate no
matter what).
So, the point that the "Deep State" hasn't leaked them came up. That's absolutely true,
and should tell us something.
It tells us that this "Deep State" has chosen not to hurt Trump by releasing them. Maybe
there really is this "war" the MSM shows us daily, and they're waiting for the right time. Or
maybe, this "war" is a psyop.
Thanks James @56 for a reasoned and reasonable reply.
First, we are all enmeshed in the MSM narrative even if we don't read or watch MSM
outlets. Even here at MoA, we are given samples of them, and discuss their meaning. In fact,
personally exposing oneself to the MSM directly may give one a better idea of what narratives
they're trying to sell.
What's happened in Syria since Trump came in is that SAA and its allies have retaken most
of the south, and the US has firmly militarily taken the north, while NATO ally Turkey has
conquered significant portions along their border.
What's happened is the US has killed as many as 200 Russians for daring to get too close
to the US proxy fighters on "their" side of the country. That's separate from the at least 4
times the US has bombed Syrian forces, and the Syrian jet it shot down.
By some accounts, the US coalition killed 40,000 civilians in "liberating" Raqqa, while
firing more artillery shells than any time in the past 1/2 century. We've established about
12 military bases.
Which all boils down to an escalation of Obama's war, with the apparent admission that the
"regime change" failed (which even during Obama's reign, was an on again/off again
issue).
But I grant you that you and I are not in positions to do much about any of this. You
could try to affect your government, and i mine, but we know we have no influence. So,
perhaps just accepting that sitting back and watching the horror show is all we can do
anyway.
"... When Trump himself calls the establishment's attitude toward Russia a " rigged witch hunt ," the question must arise: What is going on ..."
"... China is the world's second-largest economy and the top US creditor. It owns 19% of the US debt, more than any other nation. China's military expenditures are almost four times Russia's. Most experts agree that China is about to displace the US as the world's largest and most influential economy. Why Russia, and not China, is being painted as America's chief geopolitical foe is hard to grasp. ..."
As expected, the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki produced a media circus across the Atlantic.
Western commentators were hell-bent on insulting President Donald Trump as a traitor and
denigrating President Vladimir Putin as an "
autocrat ," "dictator" and the "enemy" of the free world, the United States in
particular.
Never mind that Putin is an elected president and the whole of Russia is dreaming about
normalizing relations with the United States. Never mind that with all Robert Mueller's
indictments there's a long way to go to make a case for a Trump/Putin conspiracy. The point is,
Putin has become the Western media's devil incarnate, and Trump the same media's favorite
whipping boy.
When Trump himself calls the establishment's attitude toward Russia a " rigged witch
hunt ," the question must arise: What is going on and why does Russia have the honor
of being singled out in a world of dozens of real autocrats who hate the West and murder their
political opponents?
Yes, Russia is a big country with nuclear weapons, which allows it to shoot above its weight
in international politics. Yes, it openly supported the pro-Russian referendum in Crimea and
annexed the peninsula soon thereafter. And yes, it does provide military support to the
pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. But given all the secessionist movements supported by outside
forces across the world, none of this (save nuclear weapons) is remarkable enough to merit the
special treatment.
At the same time, be it in politics or in the economy, Russia's real impact on the United
States is minuscule. Hacking or not, nobody can seriously claim that Moscow could sway the
outcome of the US presidential elections.
Russia does not make it to the list of the top 10 economies in the world, trailing South
Korea and Canada. The value of US goods exports to Russia in 2017 was less than US$7 billion,
while goods imports from Russia were valued at slightly more than $17 billion. The total trade
turnover was barely above 0.1% of the US gross domestic product.
China is the world's second-largest economy and the top US creditor. It owns 19% of the
US debt, more than any other nation. China's military expenditures are almost four times
Russia's. Most experts agree that China is about to displace the US as the world's largest and
most influential economy. Why Russia, and not China, is being painted as America's
chief geopolitical foe is hard to grasp.
Why Russia, and not China, is being painted as America's chief geopolitical foe is hard to
grasp. It is also hard to grasp the intensity of vilification of either Putin or Trump in
Western media
It is also hard to grasp the intensity of vilification of either Putin or Trump in Western
media. The Obama-era director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, calls the
summit "
nothing short of treasonous " – an accusation never applied to Trump's admittedly
one-sided concessions to Kim Jong-un. The Washington Post talks of
appeasement . The Daily Mirror calls Trump "
Putin's poodle ." The New York Times has muddied itself enough to carry a cartoon depicting
the two leaders as gay
lovers .
Such a level of hostility was not even demonstrated against the Soviet Union at the height
of the Cold War. It is clearly unimaginable with regards to Communist Party-led China or even
one-man-ruled North Korea. Yet it is acceptable and encouraged with respect to the third-rate
capitalist country that Russia has now become.
And it is here, perhaps, where the key to the puzzle lies. It is not wise to hurl
street-level insults at a country that is your real geopolitical competitor and has enough
power to make you regret your behavior. That was the case with the USSR yesterday, and this is
the case with the People's Republic of China today.
The ideological challenge presented to freewheeling capitalist individualism by stern
communist collectivism also helped to maintain a modicum of respect throughout the Cold War
years. It was only when Russia went capitalist, and conspicuously failed to advance into the
ranks of the top economies, that former respect gave way to contempt. It was only after Russia
abandoned its communist ethics that it became subject to the Western media hooliganism
exemplified by The New York Times' distasteful satire.
Western hatred of Putin cannot be explained by Crimea, or Donbass, or the alleged poisoning
of four individuals of no interest to the Kremlin by a military-grade nerve toxin with a
recognizably "Russian" signature. It can be explained by one thing only – Russia's
successful opposition to the US world-domination machine.
Were Russia still a Soviet socialist state, this hatred could yet be complemented by
respect. But a capitalist Russia trying to oppose the world's leading capitalist nation, while
falling ever further behind in trade and economy – such a Russia can only elicit hatred
complemented with contempt. Which makes for ever more vitriolic Russophrenia.
We're at a point now where it's really difficult to have an intelligent conversation, a
serious discussion, a rational debate about this stuff.
The reason being that the John Brennans of the world and the lib-Dem-media-neocon mob of
which he is a member, which now routinely traffic in hyperventilating accusations of treason,
have forfeited any claim to credibility or respect.
Having concocted the conspiracy-fantasy of Trump being a puppet of Putin and having
contrived a farcical criminal investigation of imaginary "collusion," that same mob staged
the latest ludicrous meltdown -- over Trump's bumbling, stumbling press conference in
Helsinki with the Evil Monster Putin.
The only appropriate response now to people like John Brennan and his cabal of fools is
sarcasm, mockery, and contempt. They are beyond the reach of reason or evidence or facts.
Indeed, they have zero interest in evidence or facts. They simply emote and spew.
The main question in my mind is this: are the John Brennans of the world really stupid
enough to believe their vicious nonsense or are they so hopelessly dishonest and lacking in
conscience that they propagate poisonous falsehoods for the simple reason they know it
advances their political agenda of delegitimizing Trump's presidency.
I'm guessing more the second than the first.
And if in the process, they whip up an atmosphere of venomous hysteria and damage
U.S.-Russia relations to the point where scholars like Stephen Cohen and John Mearsheimer
call the environment as dangerous as that which existed at the time of the U.S.-Soviet Cuban
missile crisis and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves their Doomsday Clock to two
minutes before midnight (as recently happened) well, you gotta break some eggs to make an
omelette, right?
Honest to God, the dimension and character of this vast circus of corruption and lies is
breathtaking. It's downright freaking biblical.
"... The borg, financed and sworn to the agenda of globalists and the military-industrial-media complex, has its orders and is acting on them. The globalists want more free trade agreements, no tariffs and more immigration to prevent higher wages. Capital does not have a national attachment. It does not care about the 'deplorables' who support Trump and his policies: ..."
"... Nearly three-fourths, or 73 percent, of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who responded to a Pew Research survey out this week said they felt increased tariffs would benefit the country. ..."
"... Donald Trump is, indeed, a kind of traitor to the Washington Consensus, a hyper-militarized capitalist utopia of corporate dominated global supply chains that doubled the international wage-slave workforce in the last two decades of the 20th century and herded these desperate billions into a race to the bottom. The leadership of both corporate parties conspired to force U.S. workers into the global meat-grinder. ..."
"... The weapon industry and the military recognize that the 'war of terror' is nearing its end. To sell more they need to create an new 'enemy' that looks big enough to justify large and long-term spending. Russia, the most capable opponent the U.S. could have, is the designated target. A new Cold War will give justification for all kinds of fantastic and useless weapons. ..."
"... Trump grand foreign policy is following a realist assessment . He sees that previous administrations pushed Russia into the Chinese camp by aggressive anti-Russian policies in Europe and the Middle East. He wants to pull Russia out of the alliance with China, neutralize it in a political sense, to then be able to better tackle China which is the real thread to the American (economic) supremacy. ..."
President's Trump successful summit with President Putin was used by the 'resistance' and
the deep state to launch a coup-attempt against Trump. Their minimum aim is to put Trump into a
(virtual) political cage where he can no longer pursue his foreign policy agenda.
One does not have to be a fan of Trump's policies and still see the potential danger. A
situation where he can no longer act freely will likely be worse. What Trump has done so far
still does not add up to the
disastrous policies and crimes his predecessor committed.
The borg, financed and sworn to the agenda of globalists and the
military-industrial-media complex, has its orders and is acting on them. The globalists want
more free trade agreements, no tariffs and more immigration to prevent higher wages. Capital
does not have a national attachment. It does not care about the 'deplorables' who support
Trump and his policies:
[P]olls show that Trump appears to still have the support of the bulk of Republican voters
when it comes to tariffs. Nearly three-fourths, or 73 percent, of Republicans and
Republican-leaning independents who responded to a Pew Research survey out this week said
they felt increased tariffs would benefit the country.
Donald Trump is, indeed, a kind of traitor to the Washington Consensus, a
hyper-militarized capitalist utopia of corporate dominated global supply chains that doubled
the international wage-slave workforce in the last two decades of the 20th century and herded
these desperate billions into a race to the bottom. The leadership of both corporate parties
conspired to force U.S. workers into the global meat-grinder.
The weapon industry and the military recognize that the 'war of terror' is nearing its
end. To sell more they need to create an new 'enemy' that looks big enough to justify large and
long-term spending. Russia, the most capable opponent the U.S. could have, is the designated
target. A new Cold War will give justification for all kinds of fantastic and useless
weapons.
Trump does not buy the
nonsense claims of 'Russian meddling' in the U.S. elections and openly says so. He does not
believe that Russia wants to attack anyone. To him Russia is not an enemy.
Trump grand foreign policy is following a
realist assessment . He sees that previous administrations pushed Russia into the Chinese
camp by aggressive anti-Russian policies in Europe and the Middle East. He wants to pull Russia
out of the alliance with China, neutralize it in a political sense, to then be able to better
tackle China which is the real thread to the American (economic) supremacy.
Former CIA chief John Brennan denounced Trump as a "traitor" who had "committed high crimes"
in holding a friendly summit with Putin.
It can't get more seditious than that. Trump is being denigrated by almost the entire
political and media establishment in the US as a "treasonous" enemy of the state.
Following this logic, there is only one thing for it: the US establishment is calling for
a coup to depose the 45th president. One Washington Post oped out of a total of five
assailing the president gave the following stark ultimatum: "If you work for Trump, quit
now".
Some high ranking people working for Trump followed that advice. His chief of staff John
Kelly rallied
others against him:
According to three sources familiar with the situation, Kelly called around to Republicans on
Capitol Hill and gave them the go-ahead to speak out against Trump. (The White House did not
respond to a request for comment.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker
Paul Ryan held televised press conferences to assert that Russia did meddle in the election.
Others who attacked Trump over his diplomatic efforts with Russia
included the Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats who used an widely distributed
interview for that:
The White House had little visibility into what Coats might say. The intelligence director's
team had turned down at least one offer from a senior White House official to help prepare
him for the long-scheduled interview, pointing out that he had known Mitchell for years and
was comfortable talking with her.
Coats was extraordinarily candid in the interview, at times questioning Trump's judgment
-- such as the president's decision to meet with Putin for two hours without any aides
present beyond interpreters -- and revealing the rift between the president and the
intelligence community.
FBI Director Wray also
undermined his boss' position:
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday defended Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a
"straight shooter," and said the Russia investigation is no "witch hunt."
Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Wray said he stood by his view that
Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election in some capacity and that the threat
remained active.
A day latter Secretary of Defense Mattis also issued a statement that contradicted his
president's policy:
Secretary of Defense James Mattis took his turn doing the implicit disavowing in a statement
about new military aid to Ukraine:
"Russia should suffer consequences for its aggressive, destabilizing behavior and its
illegal occupation of Ukraine. The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish
to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other options than to turn to
Russia, thereby undermining a once in a generation opportunity to more closely align nations
with the U.S. vision for global security and stability."
Pat Lang
thinks that Trump should fire Coats, Wary and Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General who
is overseeing the Mueller investigation.
My advice is to spare Rosenstein, for now, as firing him would lead to a great uproar in
Congress. The Mueller investigation has not brought up anything which is dangerous to Trump and
is unlikely to do so in the immediate future. He and Rosenstein can be fired at a latter
stage.
But Wray and Coats do deserve a pink slip and so do Kelly and Mattis. They are political
appointees who work 'at the pleasure of the President'.
The U.S. has the legislative and the judicative as a counterweight to the president who
leads the executive. The 'deep state' and its moles within the executive should have no role in
that balance. The elected president can and must demand loyalty from those who work for
him.
Those who sabotage him should be fired, not in a Saturday night massacre but
publicly, with a given reason and all at the same time. They do not deserve any warning. Their
rolling heads will get the attention of others who are tempted by the borg to act against the
lawful policy directives of their higher up.
All this is not a defense of Trump. I for one despise his antics and most of his policies.
But having a bad president of the United States implementing the policies he campaigned on, and
doing so within the proper process, is way better than having unaccountable forces dictating
their policies to him.
It will be impossible for Trump to get anything done if his direct subordinates, who work
'at his pleasure', publicly sabotage the implementation of his policies. Either he fires these
people or the borg will have won.
After another week saw leading Republicans accosted in public places, many on the left are
arguing that harassment is legitimate
The day after Sarah Sanders was asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Virginia, Maxine
Waters, the representative for the California 43rd who has become a leader of the anti-Trump
resistance within Congress, addressed a rally in Los Angeles. Up until that point, national
Democratic leaders had mostly urged respectful protest in response to the Trump
administration.
"Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up," she said to cheers from the crowd.
"And if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline
station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them
they're not welcome any more, anywhere."
In the days that followed, other leading Democrats, among them Nancy Pelosi and David
Axelrod, distanced themselves from the comments and called for civility. Trump personally
attacked Waters, calling her an "extraordinarily low IQ person". But Waters gave voice, and
perhaps legitimacy, to what has become a prominent form of activism since Trump took office:
accosting members of his team in public places.
Over the weekend, Steve Bannon was called "a piece of trash" by a heckler at a bookstore; a
bartender gave Stephen Miller the middle finger, apparently causing Miller to throw away $80 of
sushi he'd just bought in disgust; and Mitch McConnell was chased out of a restaurant in
Kentucky by protesters, who followed him to this car yelling "turtle head" and "we know where
you live".
These follow similar encounters for other members of Trump's top team. The homeland security
secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, was confronted by protesters chanting "shame" while she ate at a
Mexican restaurant. Last week, Scott Pruitt was accosted by Kristin Mink while he was eating
lunch. Mink, a teacher, held her two-year-old child as she asked him to resign "before your
scandals push you out". Days later, Pruitt did resign, and although he was probably asked to do
so by Trump, in his letter he cited "the unrelenting attacks on me" as his reason for
leaving.
After each case, the merits of such an approach have been debated – many have called
for civility or argued that protesters leave themselves open to attack if they pursue
Trump-like techniques. There has been some consensus that encounters like Mink's, which are
eloquent and non-aggressive, are more acceptable than when protesters chant personal attacks or
use threatening language
... you don't stand with most of C99 and most of progressive society. He is wrong, on this
and many other things. Where was his (and your) outrage when Obama was droning American
citizens, destroying Libya and creating Europe's current refugee crisis, and helping Saudi
Arabia wreak havoc on Houthi civilians? How many pies did he throw then? How many Obama
administration officials did he publicly shame?
administration too? He did many of the same things that Trump is doing to immigrants. He
deported more of them then any president including 56% of them who hadn't committed any crimes.
How about shaming them for his drone policies, killing 3 Americans without due process, bombing
wedding parties and then the people who came to their rescue? Or the many, many other things he
and his admin members did that were absolutely heinous?
Should we have done that to the people in the Bush administration too or how far back should
we have been shaming people who worked in a president's administration?
Maybe we should be shaming the democrats who have been voting with the republicans to pass
Trump's legislation, cabinet picks and justices? Where would it stop?
Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Thu, 07/19/2018 - 5:49pm
Maybe we should be shaming the democrats who have been voting with the republicans to
pass Trump's legislation, cabinet picks and justices? Where would it stop?
Where it should -- with the non-voluntarily-complicit.
the publicly harassing, embarrssing, and running off the oposition then we're really fucked.
Or do you seriousy think those tactics won't be repaid in kind?
on public shaming.
#7
Especially in public restaurants.
There is no better way to protest this admin than to shame them in a public place, confront
them while they attempt to swallow a bite of pork chop.
up 0 users have voted. --
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes,
okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa Submitted by gulfgal98 on
Thu, 07/19/2018 - 12:00pmCritical thinking skills seem
to be non-existent over there.
Again, Markos and his staff refuse to discuss policy from a positive perspective. Instead,
they focus their readers on the outrage de jour and tribalism. The entire purpose of that site is
a massive propaganda push designed to keep us divided. And the narrative they keep pushing are
not only divisive, but extremely dangerous.
I rarely go there any more, mostly because I would like to keep as many of my remaining brain
cells intact. But when I have visited that place, it is a very frightening place to see how
Markos (post purge) has herded the remaining members into a small corral, all of them nodding in
agreement with whatever gruel Markos and his front pagers are serving up. Submitted by
snoopydawg on Thu, 07/19/2018 - 6:29pmDaily Kos should change its name
to
@gulfgal98
BAR Book Forum: Jeremy Kuzmarov's and John Marciano's "The Russians are Coming, Again"
"The American people have been constantly manipulated and made to fear the Russian threat when
it is the United States that has been the aggressive power."
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This
week's featured authors are Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano . Kuzmarov is Jay P. Walker
Assistant Professor of American History, University of Tulsa. Marciano is Professor Emeritus at
SUNY Cortland. Their book is The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy,
the Second as Farce.
Roberto Sirvent: How can your book help BAR readers understand the current political and social
climate?
Jeremy Kuzmarov and John Marciano: Our book provides a historical perspective on
contemporary affairs by showing how the Russo-phobia that has been prevalent in our political
discourse over the last four to five years has deep and long historical roots, and has often
been used by government leaders to turn public attention away from domestic inequalities by
channeling societal resources towards the military sector. During the early Cold War, a period
of labor militancy and momentum for the expansion of the New Deal was destroyed by McCarthyism
and the Cold War.The Korean War brought on huge military budgets that have never left us and an
expansion of the U.S. overseas military base network. These policies were underlain by
exaggerated views about the Soviet Union which were stoked by political elites, who had worked
for companies that reaped enormous profit from the permanent warfare state. The same forces are
behind the renewed efforts to demonize Russian President Vladimir Putin and exaggerate the
Russian threat, with serious adverse consequences for society that have already been evident.
The consequences include a revitalization of the arms race, waging of proxy wars, and a further
poisoning of the domestic political culture through the reinvigoration of a McCarthyist
discourse and tactics.
"During the early Cold War, a period of labor militancy and momentum for the expansion of
the New Deal was destroyed by McCarthyism and the Cold War."
So it appears America and democracy have miraculously survived the dreaded Trump-Putin summit or Trump's meeting with his Russian
handler, as the neoliberal ruling classes and their mouthpieces in the corporate media would dearly like us all to believe. NATO has
not been summarily dissolved. Poland has not been invaded by Russia.
So it appears America and democracy have miraculously survived the dreaded Trump-Putin summit or Trump's meeting with his
Russian handler, as the neoliberal ruling classes and their mouthpieces in the corporate media would dearly like us all to believe.
NATO has not been summarily dissolved. Poland has not been invaded by Russia.
The offices of The New York Times , The Washington Post , CNN, and MSNBC have not been stormed by squads of jackbooted Trumpian
Gestapo.
The Destabilization of the Middle East, the Privatization of Virtually Everything, the Conversion of the Planet into One Big Shopping
Mall, and other global capitalist projects are all going forward uninterrupted. Apart from Trump making a narcissistic, word-salad-babbling
jackass of himself, which he does on a more or less daily basis, nothing particularly apocalyptic happened.
And so, once again, Western liberals, and others obsessed with Donald Trump, having been teased into a painfully tumescent
paroxysm of anticipation of some unimaginably horrible event that would finally lead to Trump's impeachment (or his removal
from office by other means) were left standing around with their hysteria in their hands. It has become a sadistic ritual at this
point like a twisted, pseudo-Tantric exercise where the media get liberals all lathered up over whatever fresh horror Trump has just
perpetrated (or some non-story story they have invented out of whole cloth), build the tension for several days, until liberals are
moaning and begging for impeachment, or a full-blown CIA-sponsored coup, then pull out abruptly and leave the poor bastards writhing
in agony until the next time which is pretty much exactly what just happened.
In the days and weeks leading up to the summit, the global capitalist ruling class Resistance deployed every weapon in its
mighty arsenal to whip the Western masses up into a frenzy of anti-Putin-Nazi fervor. While continuing to flog the wildly popular
baby concentration
camp story (because the Hitler stimulus never fails to elicit a Pavlovian response from Americans, regardless of how often or
how blatantly you use it), the corporate media began hammering hard on the "Trump is a Russian Agent" hysteria. (Normally, the corporate
media alternates between the Hitler hysteria and the Russia hysteria so as not to completely short-circuit the already scrambled
brains of Western liberals, but given
the
imminent threat of a peace deal , they needed to go the whole hog this time and paint this summit as a secret, internationally
televised assignation between Hitler and well, Hitler).
Consortiumnews Volume 24, Number 199
-- Independent Investigative Journalism Since 1995 -- July 18, 2018
US Media is Losing Its Mind Over Trump-Putin Press Conference July 16, 2018
316 Comments
The media's mania over Trump's Helsinki performance and the so-called Russia-gate scandal reached new depths on Monday, says Joe
Lauria
By Joe Lauria Special to Consortium News
The reaction of the U.S. establishment media and several political leaders to President Donald Trump's press conference
after his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday has been stunning.
" There are exactly two possible explanations for the shameful performance the world witnessed on Monday, from a serving American
president.
Either Donald Trump is flat-out an agent of Russian interests -- maybe witting, maybe unwitting, from fear of blackmail, in
hope of future deals, out of manly respect for Vladimir Putin, out of gratitude for Russia's help during the election, out of
pathetic inability to see beyond his 306 electoral votes. Whatever the exact mixture of motives might be, it doesn't really matter.
Or he is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, and narcissistic that he did not realize that, at every step, he was advancing the
line that Putin hoped he would advance, and the line that the American intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement agencies most
dreaded.
Conscious tool. Useful idiot. Those are the choices, though both are possibly true, so that the main question is the proportions
never before have I seen an American president consistently, repeatedly, publicly, and shockingly advance the interests of another
country over those of his own government and people."
As soon as the press conference ended CNN cut to its panel with these words from TV personality Anderson Cooper: "You have been
watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader, surely,
that I've ever seen."
David Gergen, who for years has gotten away with portraying himself on TV as an impartial political sage, then told CNN viewers:
" I've never heard an American President talk that way but I think it is especially true that when he's with someone like Putin,
who is a thug, a world-class thug, that he sides with him again and again against his own country's interests of his own institutions
that he runs, that he's in charge of the federal government, he's in charge of these intelligence agencies, and he basically dismisses
them and retreats into this, we've heard it before, but on the international stage to talk about Hillary Clinton's computer server
"
" It's embarrassing," interjected Cooper.
" It's embarrassing," agreed Gergen.
Cooper: "Most disgraceful performance by a US president."
White House correspondent Jim Acosta, ostensibly an objective reporter, then gave his opinion: "I think that sums it up nicely.
This is the president of the United States essentially taking the word of the Russian president over his own intelligence community.
It was astonishing, just astonishing to be in the room with the U.S. president and the Russian president on this critical question
of election interference, and to retreat back to these talking points about DNC servers and Hillary Clinton's emails when he had
a chance right there in front of the world to tell Vladimir Putin to stay the HELL out of American democracy, and he didn't do it."
In other words Trump should just shut up and not question a questionable indictment, which Acosta, like nearly all the media,
treat as a conviction.
The Media's Handlers
The media's handlers were even worse than their assets. Former CIA director John Brennan
tweeted : "Donald Trump's press conference
performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors,.' It was nothing short of treasonous. Not
only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???"
Here's where the Republican Patriots are, Brennan: " That's how a press conference sounds when an Asset stands next to his Handler,"
former RNC Chairman Michael Steele tweeted.
Representative Liz Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president, said on Twitter: " As a member of the House Armed Services
Committee, I am deeply troubled by President Trump's defense of Putin against the intelligence agencies of the U.S. & his suggestion
of moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia. Russia poses a grave threat to our national security."
All these were reactions to Trump expressing skepticism about the U.S. indictment on Friday of 12 Russian intelligence agents
for allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election while he was standing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at
the press conference following their summit meeting in Helsinki.
" I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be" Russia, Trump said. "I have great confidence in my intelligence people,
but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."
The indictments, which are only unproven accusations, formally accused 12 members of the GRU, Russian military intelligence, of
stealing Democratic Party emails in a hacking operation and giving the materials to WikiLeaks to publish in order to damage the candidacy
of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. The indictments were announced on Friday, three days before the summit, with the clear intention
of getting Trump to cancel it. He ignored cries from the media and Congress to do so.
Over the weekend Michael Smerconish on CNN
actually said the indictments proved that Russia had committed a "terrorist attack" against the United States. This is in line
with many pundits who are comparing this indictment, that will most likely
never produce any evidence, to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. The danger inherent in that thinking is clear.
Putin said the allegations are "utter nonsense, just like [Trump] recently mentioned." He added: "The final conclusion in this
kind of dispute can only be delivered by a trial, by the court. Not by the executive, by the law enforcement." He could have added
not by the media.
Trump reasonably questioned why the FBI never examined the computer servers of the Democratic National Committee to see whether
there was a hack and who may have done it. Instead a private company, CrowdStrike, hired by the Democratic Party studied the server
and within a day blamed Russia on very
dubious grounds.
" Why haven't they taken the server?" Trump asked. "Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social
media. Where is the server? I want to know, where is the server and what is the server saying?"
But being a poor communicator, Trump then mentioned Clinton's missing emails, allowing the media to conflate the two different
servers, and be easily dismissed as Gergen did.
At the press conference, Putin offered to allow American investigators from the team of special counsel Robert Mueller, who put
the indictment together, to travel to Russia and take part in interviews with the 12 accused Russian agents. He also offered to set
up a joint cyber-security group to examine the evidence and asked that in return Russia be allowed to question persons of interest
to Moscow in the United States.
" Let's discuss the specific issues and not use the Russia and U.S. relationship as a loose change for this internal political
struggle," Putin said.
On CNN, Christiane Amanpour called Putin's clear offer "obfuscation."
Even if Trump agreed to this reasonable proposal it seems highly unlikely that his Justice Department will go along with it. Examination
of whatever evidence they have to back up the indictment is not what the DOJ is after. As I
wrote about the indictments in detail on Friday:
" The extremely remote possibility of convictions were not what Mueller was apparently after, but rather the public perception
of Russia's guilt resulting from fevered media coverage of what are after all only accusations, presented as though it is established
fact. Once that impression is settled into the public consciousness, Mueller's mission would appear to be accomplished."
Still No 'Collusion'
The summit begins. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
The indictments did not include any members of Trump's
campaign team for "colluding" with the alleged Russian hacking effort, which has been a core allegation throughout the two years
of the so-called Russia-gate scandal. Those allegations are routinely reported in U.S. media as established fact, though there is
still no evidence of collusion.
Trump emphasised that point in the press conference. "There was no collusion at all," he said forcefully. "Everybody knows it."
On this point corporate media has been more deluded than normal as they clutch for straws to prove the collusion theory. As one
example of many across the media with the same theme, a New York Times
story on Friday , headlined, "Trump Invited the Russians to Hack Clinton. Were They Listening?," said Russia may have absurdly
responded to Trump's call at 10:30 a.m. on July 27, 2016 to hack Clinton's private email server because it was "on or about" that
day that Russia allegedly first made an attempt to hack Clinton's personal emails, according to the indictment, which makes no connection
between the two events.
If Russia is indeed guilty of remotely hacking the emails it would have had no evident need of assistance from anyone on the Trump
team, let alone a public call from Trump on national TV to commence the operation.
More importantly, as Twitter handle "Representative Press" pointed
out: "Trump's July 27, 2016 call to find the missing 30,000 emails could not be a 'call to hack Clinton's server' because at that
point it was no longer online . Long before Trump's statement, Clinton had already
turned
over her email server to the U.S. Department of Justice." Either the indictment was talking about different servers or it is
being intentionally misleading when it says "on or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for
the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clinton's personal office."
This crucial fact alone, that Clinton had turned over the server in 2015 so that no hack was possible, makes it impossible that
Trump's TV call could be seen as collusion. Only a desperate person would see it otherwise.
But there is a simple explanation why establishment journalists are in unison in their dominant Russian narrative: it is career
suicide to question it.
As Samuel Johnson said as far back as 1745: "The greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions than that they
are in fashion since vanity and credulity cooperate in its favour."
Importance of US-Russia Relations
Trump said the unproven allegation of collusion "has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers
in the world. We have 90 percent of nuclear power between the two countries. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous what's going on with
the probe."
The American president said the U.S. has been "foolish" not to attempt dialogue with Russia before, to cooperate on a range of
issues.
"As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or Democrats
who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct," Trump said. "Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia forwards
the opportunity to open new pathways toward peace and stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of
peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics."
This main reason for summits between Russian and American leaders was also ignored: to use diplomacy to reduce dangerous tensions.
"I really think the world wants to see us get along," Trump said. "We are the two great nuclear powers. We have 90 percent of the
nuclear. And that's not a good thing, it's a bad thing."
Preventing good relations between the two countries appears to be the heart of the matter for U.S. intelligence and their media
assets. So Trump was vilified for even trying.
Ignoring the Rest of the Story
Obsessed as they are with the "interference" story, the media virtually ignored the other crucial issues that came up at the summit,
such as the Middle East.
Trump sort of thanked Russia for its efforts to defeat ISIS. "When you look at all of the progress that's been made in certain
sections with the eradication of ISIS, about 98 percent, 99 percent there, and other things that have taken place that we have done
and that, frankly, Russia has helped us with in certain respects," he said.
Trump here is falsely taking credit, as he has before, for defeating ISIS with only some "help" from Russia. In Iraq the U.S.
led the way against ISIS coordinating the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces. But in the separate war against ISIS in Syria, Russia,
the Syrian Arab Army, Kurdish forces, Iranian troops and Hizbullah militias were almost entirely responsible for ISIS' defeat.
A grand deal? (Photo: Sputnik)
Also on Syria, Trump appeared to endorse what is being
reported as a deal between Russia and Israel in which Israel would accept Bashar al-Assad remaining as Syrian president, while
Russia would work on Iran to get it to remove its forces away from the northern Golan Heights, which Israel illegally considers its
border with Syria.
After a meeting in Moscow last week with Putin, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he accepted Assad remaining in power.
" President Putin also is helping Israel," Trump said at the press conference. "We both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu. They would
like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel. In that respect, we absolutely would like
to work in order to help Israel. Israel will be working with us. So both countries would work jointly."
Trump also said that the U.S. and Russian militaries were coordinating in Syria, but he did not go as far as saying that they
had agreed to fight together there, which has been a longstanding proposal of Putin's dating back to September 2015, just before
Moscow intervened militarily in the country.
" Our militaries have gotten along probably better than our political leaders for years," Trump said. "Our militaries do get along
very well. They do coordinate in Syria and other places."
Trump said Russia and the U.S. should cooperate in humanitarian assistance in Syria.
" If we can do something to help the people of Syria get back into some form of shelter and on a humanitarian basis that's what
the word was, a humanitarian basis," he said. "I think both of us would be very interested in doing that."
Putin said he had agreed on Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron on a joint effort with Europe to deliver humanitarian
aid. "On our behalf, we will provide military cargo aircraft to deliver humanitarian cargo. Today, I brought up this issue with President
Trump. I think there's plenty of things to look into," Putin said.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former correspondent for T he Wall Street
Journal, Boston Globe , Sunday Times of London and numerous other newspapers. He can be reached at
[email protected]and followed on Twitter @unjoe .
If you enjoyed this original article please consider
making
a donation to Consortium News so we can bring you more stories like this one.
I'm really hard pressed to come up with anything to be optimistic about given the dire nature of our current global and national
predicaments combined with the bat-sheet crazy nature of our current version of the mass psyche. About the only bright spot I
can find is that it is really encouraging to read the overall high quality of the comments here at CN, which suggest that I can
look forward to taking part in some wonderful future conversations in "the camps."
"The Reuters/Ipsos poll gathered responses from 1,011 registered voters throughout the United States, including 453 Republicans
and 399 Democrats. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points."
Independents/anaffiliated make up more than 42% of the registered voters currently in the USA.
irina , July 17, 2018 at 11:09 pm
"medium = Social / source = Twitter"
Babyl-on , July 17, 2018 at 9:35 pm
I think we should take heart that they are such a small group loud yes, they have the corporate press, but it is not a big
group and they have already lost the narrative. This has to be the end for them, they have no political support for impeachment
after all this screeching articles can't even get introduced mostly the "resistance" isn't even trying they know they don't
have evidence.
The scream these words TREASON and COLLUSION but they are powerless politically to do anything. So a "treasonous" president
goes on. Clearly they are at their wits end their heads have actually exploded. The powerful "liberal" cabal which has run Washington
for decades is disintegrating before there very eyes. Clinton is the witch Trump is the water.
A , July 17, 2018 at 11:33 pm
Okay , I get it, I will go down , but I am not going down by the orange shit head. You guys win, you wanted your Cheeto to
give us some love, and tax breaks , favorable trade deals, get rid of people like me , be besties with Russia, kill everyone from
central America. Cool. You guys win. I hope you are happy , apparently you have achieved what you wanted.
Thanks, Drew and Realist, i just read Finian Cunningham's essay at Information Clearing House. Yes, this is indeed scary. It
does appear a coup is being planned. All the more reason for us to speak up. The thought of Mike Pence is scarier than Trump.
willow , July 17, 2018 at 9:30 pm
I was a Sanders supporter and donor who voted for Trump because he promised diplomacy, whereas Hillary wanted a no-fly zone
in Syria, and her proven track record of supporting illegal regime change in Iraq, Honduras, Libya, Ukraine and Syria. She was
a faux progressive and ultimate racist in that she has the blood of countless brown people (mostly women and children) on her
hands. What is really scary and disheartening is that the pro-WW3 propaganda seems to be working if the reader comments from the
NYT and WaPo are accurate gauges of public perception. The verdict of commenters in corporate media websites is unanimous: Trump
is a traitor for committing the crime of dιtente. Consortium news readers are informed because we search truth in alternative
media. I hope it's not naοve to believe we are the silent majority and most Americans still possess the common sense and critical
thinking skills necessary to see through the hysteria even if they don't venture to sites like Consortium news.
AnthraxSleuth , July 17, 2018 at 10:19 pm
Don't worry yourself too much. The highest rated MSM news shows only garner about 1.2 million viewers. That's far less than
1% of the American population.
The MSM fancy themselves what they have not been in decades; Relevant.
That was good, mrbt (not enough vowels for me). Yes, we are in a jalopy headed for a cliff. Instead we get a cliffhanger with
this Mueller intel fiasco. I misspoke with the bank bailout, of course, it was 2009 just after Obama got into office; he told
those banksters, "I'm the only one between you and the pitchforks". Now it seems like we're on a roller coaster ready to jump
the track!
mrtmbrnmn , July 17, 2018 at 7:33 pm
This disgraceful and obscene display of pants-wetting by the MSM over the Trump-Putin meeting and press conference was pre-planned
and essentially pre-scripted to advance the deep state regime change op against Trump (and ultimately Putin). I was trying to
imagine these journalistic malpracticers prepped to embarrass and humiliate Obama in a similar setting by asking questions like:
"Mr Obama, which do you prefer, watermelon or chicken bones?"
It is clear beyond doubt that we are helpless passengers in the back seat of the out of control jalopy that is America, barreling
helter skelter down the highway bound to hell and total collapse. The Dementedcrats need to get off the crack pipe and the unconscionable
CIA thug John Brennan might benefit from a frontal lobotomy to get him to chill out.
irina , July 17, 2018 at 8:32 pm
the best description i've read of this insanity is : 'the MSM is (p-faced) drunk on its own p . . . " with appreciation
to the commentor who wrote that !
It sounds like Lisa Page is, unlike Strzok (remember him, from late last week ?) cooperatively providing information which
might implicate China as the 'party which got the 30,000 emails'. Perhaps this is what Trump & Putin talked about ? In which case,
The Donald's walking back his press conference comments may be only a temporary feint. If true, Lisa will need excellent protection
and a new name !
Something big may be in the works, as Stephen says. Now Veterans Today says that a move on Iran by the US was discussed at
Helsinki, and they think that Putin would capitulate in some sort of trade-off -- what, to get off their backs? Putin is much
smarter than that. Zero Hedge just reports that Russia has dumped all their US Treasury bonds, further stating that Russia's close
ties to China indicate a trial run on the market preparatory to China dumping their pile, too. What many feel the big event is
really another economic meltdown, as nothing was done in the 2008 Obama crisis except bail out the banks, which went right back
to their chicanery. The western Deep State always sets up for war to divert attention from internal crisis.
Deniz , July 17, 2018 at 6:59 pm
I get far more concerned when the press, intelligence agencies and various other DC gangsters lavish praise on Trump. Judging
by their reactions, it seems likely that Trump must have actually brought us closer to peace.
Stephen J, excellent verse as usual, "Blame It On Putin". It was reported that "the lights went out" in the White House when
Trump did his U-turn on Russian election meddling. Was that supposed to be symbolic of something?
Thanks Jessika. I believe something big is in the works. The powers that be have had things their own way for so long. The
corporate media monopoly are their mouthpieces and are barking like dogs in a frenzy in case they lose their bones. The bones
being the millions dead from planned wars and blood soaked profits that attained to the corporate cannibals. Enemies are needed
to continue the corrupt system. The War Criminals are getting desperate, the gangsters war is just starting. Unfortunately we
are all Prisoners of "Democracy" https://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-prisoners-of-democracy.html
Antiwar7 , July 17, 2018 at 6:22 pm
David Gergen says Trump acts "against his [Trump's] own country's interests of his own institutions [including] these intelligence
agencies."
There's the rub, isn't it? The interests of our country and of those institutions: are they the same?
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 6:59 pm
Also worth, sorry for broken record but, using Trump's unique "awfulness" as justification for vigilante-style "trial in the
press" or manipulated/propagandized "public opinion" there's a deep deep antidemocratic anti-due process or rule-of-law desperation
here which has had "liberal" (or "illiberal") precedent we've already seen in "political correctness" and #metoo (emanating from
the "progressive camp" often justified by the awfulness / despicable-ness of those they despise.
This is a very very sad devolution (or arguably the unmasking) of the Democratic Party (I vote the latter).
mike k , July 17, 2018 at 6:13 pm
Trump mumbled some sort of half maybe apology about questioning Russian meddling. But he will contradict that apology just
as quickly. They are really having trouble pinning this guy down on anything. His enemies want to nail him, but he just keeps
moving. For a fat guy, he is pretty nimble.
Now, Trump says he misspoke and "accepts US intel on Russian election meddling"! I guess he got anothet 'trip to the woodshed',
as Skip Scott has often said. James Howard Kunstler is right, it's a "Clusterfuck Nation". Well, the Russians are smart enough
never to trust the US.
irina , July 17, 2018 at 9:49 pm
He got the truth out first and for that I have to give him kudos.
He probably knew backtracking and its attendant issues was
Inevitable. Very nice that power went out while he said he misspoke.
as WaPo itself says, "Truth Dies in Darkness".
Drew Hunkins , July 17, 2018 at 5:18 pm
Look, this is getting frightening.
Never in my lifetime have I witnessed a group think/mob mentality like what's occurring over Russiagate and the overriding
Russophobia fueling it all. This is washing over virtually all planks of the political spectrum. We just had a damaged and awful
president try to do one of the very few things he actually gets right: make rapprochement with Moscow; he was subsequently browbeaten,
smeared and viciously attacked by every single mainstream Western media outlet on the planet. Not just news media, but also the
entertainment media are completely on board -- Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert, Maddow, etc.
To say one kind word about Putin or the modicum of detente that Trump just unsuccessfully tried to pull off is to be mocked,
ridiculed, scoffed at and laughed at by liberal leaning friends, colleagues and acquaintances.
The militarist-corporate propaganda during the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War pales in comparison to this new and scary McCarthyism
that has permeated everything.
I'm 47 y.o. and never experienced anything like this.
The liberal intelligentsia who are falling for this and propagating this have some of the hottest places in heII waiting for
them.
Deniz , July 17, 2018 at 5:31 pm
If you think the overwhelming majority of the US cares about what the press and politicians think, then I would suggest you
spend less time with Democrats. I dont agree with many Republican platforms, but on the reliability of media, they are far more
prescient than the Democrats. I wonder if it is because they have more first-hand knowledge than the Democrats because they tend
to send their kids to the meat grinder oil, wars more frequently than Democrats.
Drew Hunkins , July 17, 2018 at 5:40 pm
The best thing we have going right now Deniz is the cynical and skeptical attitude of much the hardworking American population.
The Russians certainly aren't the ones who foisted this unconscionable inequality on the U.S. population, nor was it the Russians
who caused the American heartland to deteriorate into a wasteland of service sector employment and Oxy dependence. It wasn't Putin
who mired recent American college grads in deplorable debt in the range of $30,000 to $400,000, nor was it Putin who demanded
that millions of Americans go without adequate healthcare coverage.
It's economic inequality and it's political enablers who are stalking the towns and cities of America, not the Russian military.
John P , July 17, 2018 at 6:37 pm
That is the real problem, so why arn't kids, their parents and the poor out on the streets like those of my generation during
the Vietnam war stiring things up. Is it social media which kills the urge to go out and protest and make yourself heard? Get
the money and business influence out of modern day politics, Raise hell !
irina , July 17, 2018 at 8:15 pm
There was a DRAFT during the Vietnam war. That made a huge difference.
And, I think we were actually better informed than today's young people.
Bringing the war live into people's living rooms was New Thing back then,
and we paid attention. Now, we are habituated and just tune out bad news,
unless it happens to be a domestic shooting spree or other home turf stuff.
willow , July 17, 2018 at 9:36 pm
Irina below is right. The draft was the difference. People would wake up and engage if we had the draft. We have an economic
draft today. It's the only option for poor and lower class kids who will never afford college. It's unfortunate that identity
politics doesn't include the socioeconomic bias of targeting of poor kids being used as cannon fodder
irina , July 17, 2018 at 11:12 pm
And moreover, the draft was based on a birthdate lottery.
All in the luck of the draw. (And of course, economic standing
since there were college deferments, etc. etc.)
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 5:49 pm
I'm 71, Drew, and can tell you that the darkest days of the Vietnam War were not as scary. Our power structure has taken McCarthyism
as practiced during the Korean Conflict and doubled down on it, directing its kinetics at the office of the presidency. This is
as close to a civil war or an actual coup d'etat that I have ever seen, much more divisive and explosive than Nixon and Watergate.
Someone claiming authority they do not have may soon make a move against Trump. They've stirred up enough hate by the mob to mask
their motives.
Drew Hunkins , July 17, 2018 at 6:02 pm
Thanks for kicking some historical info to this Gen Xer. You make some very interesting (and quite scary) points.
Over at 'Information Clearing House' the always excellent Finian Cunningham has just penned a dynamite and trenchant essay
on a possible pending coup against Trump.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 6:32 pm
Thanks. I always read your spot-on posts at the ICH website, Drew.
Drew Hunkins , July 17, 2018 at 8:36 pm
Thanks Realist.
In solidarity,
Drew Hunkins
Madison, WI
Dave P. , July 17, 2018 at 7:13 pm
Yes. This excellent article by Finian Cunningham really nails it.
Monoloco , July 17, 2018 at 6:49 pm
Trump derangement syndrome is so powerful, it turns liberals into neocons.
KiwiAntz , July 17, 2018 at 7:27 pm
Drew your absolutely correct, this is a unprecedented groupthink & dangerous propaganda on a scale that's never existed before!
It's mass hysteria on steroids! And all because of the simple fact that Trump, a man who was never supposed to win the Election
over the anointed candidate, crooked Hillary Clinton occurred! Trump must be removed by a slow motion coup by any means possible?
Whether it's by undermining his authority or belittering his character. If that doesn't work they will take the JFK removal method?
As Stalin stated, death is the solution to all problems, no man, no problem? It's frightening where all this fake Russiagate nonsense
is going to lead us, it's almost as if they want to start the next great extinction event by starting WW3 & a Nuclear War with
Russia? The arrogance of America & its Deepstate, Propagandist MSM & political system is going to be the death of us all!
I don't know that to say. Whatever was left of the republic is either gone or doomed. If we have a mainstream media that is
so nakedly attempting a coup d'ιtat or calling for one with such universal fury based on little evidence and just embroidering
one myth over another then I will have to just focus my energy elsewhere. My comrades on most of the left have, despite decades
of proof that the media is deeply dishonest and constantly howling for one war after another the only hope is to batten down the
hatches and just survive the next decade through local efforts. The sad part is I oppose many of Trump's policies but this isn't
about policiesthis is about re-invigorating American militarism and imperialism.
I've been around a lot of crises but nothing like this madness.
As usual the "media impostors" and propaganda pushers blame Putin.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
January 10, 2017
"Blame It" On Putin
There is endless wars and devastation around the world
Western war criminals have their war banners unfurled
Millions dead and many millions uprooted
And the financial system is corrupted and looted
"Blame it" on Putin
The war criminals are free and spreading bloody terror
And their dirty propaganda says Putin is an "aggressor"
These evil plotters of death and destruction
Should be in jail for their abominable actions
But, "Blame it" on Putin.
The American election is won by Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton loses and gets politically dumped
The media is frenzied and foaming at their mouths
They are crying and lying, these corporate louts
They "Blame it" on Putin
Hollywood, too, is getting in on the act
The B.S. merchants are able to twist facts
In their fantasy world of channel changers
They do not approve of a political stranger
They "Blame it" on Putin
The spymasters and their grovelling politicians
All agree that "their democracy" is "lost in transmission"
Their comfortable and controlled system is now in danger
And these powerful parasites are filled with anger
They "Blame it" on Putin
One loose canon talks and babbles of "an act of war"
Could nuclear hell be started by a warmongering whore?
If the madmen of the establishment get their way
Could we all be liquidated in the nuclear fray?
"Blame it" on Putin
There is no doubt that the ruling class
Are all worried about saving their ass
Could there be huge changes and still more coming?
Is the sick and depraved society finally crumbling?
Hey, "Blame it" on Putin
[more info at link below] http://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2017/01/blame-it-on-putin.html
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 3:46 pm
This just in: (NYT headline / top of page)
Trump Backtracks on Russian Meddling
Under Fire, He Says He Accepts U.S. Intelligence Reports
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 4:03 pm
and then
Guardian:
Trump flips then flips again a day after downplaying Russian interference
President says he supports US intelligence consensus on 2016 election but then says 'it could be other people also'
I heard him say that. He meant that Russia did it and others could also have been involved.
Will , July 17, 2018 at 3:30 pm
Perhaps New York magazine has it right? "The president isn't a traitor: He's just constitutionally incapable of processing
simple information, or prioritizing the national interest above his own egoistic desires." or more maybe New York's earlier article
from last week suggesting Trumpkin has been a Russian intelligence asset since 1987 is true.
One thing's for sure: Trumpkin borrowed 100's of millions from shady Russian bankers and other oligarchs, some of whom seem
to have laundered a bunch of money through Trump's real estate holdings by buying condos for dollars on the penny. If you foliks
don't see that as being at least somewhat on the same level as Dick Cheney holding those un-exercised Halliburton stock options
at the time Haliburton was servicing the Iraq invasion
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:06 pm
Or Hillary exchanging access to the State department for donations
Gregory Herr , July 17, 2018 at 7:40 pm
"Cheney has pursued a political and corporate career to make himself very rich and powerful. He is the personification of a
war profiteer who slid through the revolving door connecting the public and private sectors of the defense establishment on two
occasions in a career that has served his relentless quest for power and profits."
Profiting from the death and destruction of a heinous war of aggression that Cheney himself played a key role in instigating
can in no way be compared with shady business dealings. I harbour disdain for shady businessmen who cheat property owners, honest
contractors or workers. But that type of wrongdoing pales in comparison to the wicked malfeasance of Cheney (or the Bush family
for that matter).
Before you "process" any more simple "information" from New York magazine Will, I suggest you take note of the GIGO truism
and check yourself for leakage.
It seems President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador might have the perfect solution for his "problem" in London.
Free Julian Assange, Allow him to walk out of the Ecuadorian Embassy with all the proper rights available for any innocent
man or woman on Earth.
Immediately upon Mr. Assange's exit, allow William (Bill) Browder to enter and occupy the same room at the Ecuadorian Embassy
whereupon Mr. Browder will reside at that address until July 2024, punished under the identical treatment and conditions as
Julian Assange.
"Problem solved" President Moreno!
David Otness , July 17, 2018 at 2:50 pm
Not much to say but the USA has gone bat-shit cray-cray.
I'm going to be delighted to be excised from many so-called "friends" friends of mob mentality.
The US media and Intel complex have induced a national psychosis and a likely Constitutional crisis.
Keep yer powder dry.
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 3:04 pm
I'd guess half the country considers this -- in the end -- just more partisan theatrics sad to suspect that they actually are
the "sane ones" It's ennui versus cynicism as to which is more deadly .
KiwiAntz , July 17, 2018 at 7:47 pm
The scary thing is, Americans second amendment right to bear arms against enemies both domestic & foreign! There's a Edward
Abbey saying that a days "a Patriot must always be ready to defend his Country against his Govt"! How long will it be before American
citizens reach a tipping point where they recognise that it's enemies are its own domestic leaders & institutions such as the
false corporate propagandist MSM & corrupt Politicians in both Republican & Democratic Parties who are undermining & sabotaging
their human rights as free people! How long will it be before they say enough's enough we can't stomach this anymore?
Larry Gates , July 17, 2018 at 2:37 pm
In the Odyssey a witch-goddess named Circe turned Odysseus' men into pigs. I think Trump is a modern day sorcerer. In the GOP
primaries he turned his more intelligent and more experienced competitors into incoherent cartoon characters. He has done the
same to the entire Democratic establishment, and he has done it to the entire mainstream press. There is no effective opposition
because politicians and the media have become stark-raving mad wild swine, just as dangerous as the monster they oppose. We
are in America's darkest hour and only half the blame goes to the vulgarian in the White House.
The Ministry of Truth has declared that seeking dιtente with Russia is an act of treason. And peace is war. Long live Oceania!
jsinton , July 17, 2018 at 6:14 pm
I love it.
BobS , July 17, 2018 at 2:37 pm
The POTUS stood on foreign soil and announced to the world that the leader of one of our historical adversaries was more credible
than the US intelligence services.
If it walks like a traitorous duck, and quacks like a traitorous duck, ..
anon , July 17, 2018 at 4:25 pm
Then it is a traitorous troll.
Gregory Herr , July 17, 2018 at 7:47 pm
That's rich! Do please grace us with an explanation as to why "credible" is an adjective aptly applied to either the FBI or
the CIA.
Dario Zuddu , July 17, 2018 at 2:33 pm
Excellent piece. Fortunately, there is still someone here retaining sanity.
The only thing I have to add is that, most regrettably, it is not only the media and opportunistic politicians that have lost
their minds on this matter.
Large segments of the public appear to have too.
Just take a look at the readers' comments on the very same type of press coverage that is indicted by Mr. Lauria.
They overwhelmingly level the same one sided, unbalanced, shallow, wrong-headed and hysterical attacks on Trump as the press articles
they comment and for the same completely questionable reasons.
Accusations of Trump "surrendering to Putin", being a "traitor" for siding with Russia instead of the US intelligence community
(on a totally unproven matter, by the way; and since when the US intelligence community is necessarily more reliable than foreign
leaders on these matters?) are the norm in the readers' comment (as well as in the mostly recommended ones).
Incredibly, the same public that lambasted at the intelligence community for its appalling record on Iraq, now does not even want
to consider that same community's obvious self interest in Russia-bashing.
In the USA, who stands the most to loose from a possible pacification of foreign relations with the biggest military counterpart,
i.e., well, Russia?
This question just rings as troubling now as it did at the onset of the cold war.
Yet, nobody seems to wonder it.
It's just over for those of us on the old left. The Orwellian nature of the media has taken hold and we are powerless against
it. We have a population utterly uncurious of facts or history, logic or science, rationality or erudition. It's over. People
want to belong, want to share their anger at whatever enemy there is no matter how ludicrous is that threat from the enemy. This
is how the oligarch has decided to use Trump's electionfirst to divide us on tribal grounds and second to invent some enemy that
uses all the mythology of Hollywood villains with Russian accents. It's working and it means the oligarchs are unassailable and
now are able to control public opinion with a bunch of gestures on the screen and the population will bark on command. Goebbels
is, somewhere, cackling with delight.
We will be lucky if we avoid war, fortunately the professional military understands the situation much better than the civilian
leaders and have put brakes on our drift into permanent major war everywhere.
Paula Densnow , July 17, 2018 at 2:19 pm
The US media tries to browbeat Trump into saying that he stole the 2016 election with the help of Putin, and when he refuses
to do that, they call him a traitor.
We live in an insane asylum.
Will , July 17, 2018 at 3:31 pm
No, trump is clearly a traitor.
Beard681 , July 17, 2018 at 9:07 pm
To who? The military industrial complex? Bill Browder who renounced his citizenship to avoid Taxes? Certainly not average US
people for whom Russia poses no credible threat.
Robin Harper , July 17, 2018 at 10:31 pm
Gee, if this is all made up, explain this: (And keep in mind, to get an indictment, you MUST have proof.)
The full list of known indictments and plea deals in Mueller's probe:
Total of indictments (so far) 35.
1) George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, pleaded guilty in October to making false statements
to the FBI.
2) Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, pleaded guilty in December to making false statements to the FBI.
3) Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chair, was indicted in October in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy, money
laundering, and false statements -- all related to his work for Ukrainian politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He's
pleaded not guilty on all counts. Then, in February, Mueller filed a new case against him in Virginia, with tax, financial, and
bank fraud charges.
4) Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort's longtime junior business partner, was indicted on similar charges
to Manafort. But in February he agreed to a plea deal with Mueller's team, pleading guilty to just one false statements charge
and one conspiracy charge.
5-20) 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on conspiracy charges, with some also being accused of
identity theft. The charges related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to interfere with the 2016 campaign. The companies
involved are the Internet Research Agency, often described as a "Russian troll farm," and two other companies that helped finance
it. The Russian nationals indicted include 12 of the agency's employees and its alleged financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
21) Richard Pinedo: This California man pleaded guilty to an identity theft charge in connection with the Russian indictments,
and has agreed to cooperate with Mueller.
22) Alex van der Zwaan: This London lawyer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Rick
Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine.
23) Konstantin Kilimnik: This longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates, who's currently based in Russia, was charged
alongside Manafort with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses in Manafort's pending case this year.
24-35) 12 Russian GRU officers: These officers of Russia's military intelligence service were charged with crimes related to
the hacking and leaking of leading Democrats' emails in 2016.
Two ex-Trump advisers lied to the FBI about their contacts with Russians:
Michael Flynn Mario Tama/Getty
No, Trump didn't 'steal' the election. The presidency was handed to him by Putin.
skipNclair , July 17, 2018 at 2:01 pm
The US media lost its mind long ago.
didi , July 17, 2018 at 1:46 pm
What has happened on this trip of President Trump is simple. The axis Washington-EU/NATO has been thrown under the bus., It
has been replaced by the axis Washington-Moscow. Whether that is a cause to rejoice remains to be seen. Rejoicing now is wildly
premature. Axes can break.
There will be expectations of better lives by the Russian people. What if that does not happen? There have been far more uprisings
and revolutions in Russian history than in ours.
lizzie dw , July 17, 2018 at 1:34 pm
To respond to one commenter's suggestion that the US get rid of the electoral college; if one looked at the map of the US on
post-election morning, one saw that practically the entire country was coloured red only the coasts were blue. If we went the
"popular vote" route, every president would be elected by the coastal states because that is where most of the people live. The
coastal population does not represent the country. In my opinion, since we want to have a representative government we need the
electoral college so that each state gets to vote. The people in each state can direct the vote of their state.
didi , July 17, 2018 at 1:51 pm
Sorry Lizzie. The population of all states represent our nation. That is why the vote count, while it does not elect the President
and Vice President, is not wholly without meaning. Governing totally against the views of the majority of voters implies that
they are wrong and stupid. That is my view. It is also arrogant.
strngr-tgthr , July 17, 2018 at 2:32 pm
Thanks you! The MAJORITY should ALWAYS rule. There should be no acceptions especially for President of the United States. Too
few people speak this TRUTH! In this day an age there is no reason to have any system or institutions in place that does not speak
for the MAJORITY! Electoral College down!
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Never heard of the "tyranny of the majority", eh? It's a genuine problem with democracy it's quite possible that many issues
would never have reached majority status -- slavery would never have been abolished (so much fuss about a regional "peculiar institutution"),
""The notion of the tyranny of the majority was popularised by the 19th century political thinkers Alexis de Tocqueville (Democracy
in America) and John Stuart Mill (On Liberty). It refers to a situation in which the majority enforces its will on a disadvantaged
minority through the democratic process.""
The vote of far too many would be rendered irrelevant if there were no proportional representation mechanism in place too much
of those disenfranchised by the elimination of the electoral college are already amongst the have-nots of our country, at the
further hungry end of income inequality (some do better than other by providing "services" -- vacation homes/destinations and
cheap labor -- to the oligarchs. -- those coasts are where the money and jobs are wealth
The electoral college DOES NOT prevent the "tyranny of the majority" because you do not have equal voting. If every state cast
the same number of votes then you have equal voting. Because each state has different number of electoral votes based on their
populations, candidates can spend their time in a few states while ignoring others.
A national popular vote restores equality
A national popular vote means 3rd party candidates can win because there is no more electoral strategy or asinine argument
of red state / blue state.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 5:12 pm
We've never had such a system, wise guy. The Senate is inherently undemocratic, based on states' rights, not one man one vote.
Moreover, judges are not elected but appointed by the executive and confirmed by the legislature. Having the president chosen
by the Congress, as is done in all parliamentary systems, would be "tidier" ("fairer?") than the present system, but we've lived
with this mess since 1789 and several times have been governed by a "minority president" without the world coming to an end. The
rules were no excuse for a coup d'etat then, nor are they now.
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:22 pm
The Constitution allows Amendments to change with changing times. The vote has been given to free men without property, freed
slaves and women. More than 10% of Presidents did not win the plurality of votes. If people truly want their votes to count more,
they can work to amend the Constitution, or vote with their feet and move to states where their votes count more.
A much bigger issue is the lack of proportional voting practiced by most real Democracies around the world. Gerrymandering districts
can result in the party getting the least votes (of the two) in a state still winning the most representatives. Proportional voting
would eliminate this problem, but was outlawed by LBJ in favor of first-past-the-post, winner takes all Districts.
Sorry, Didi, but our federal constitutional republican form of government is neither stupid nor arrogant.
It is a well designed construct that binds together the entire nation, not only the people but the states, into an organic
being. The electoral college consciously factors in the fact that we are a union of states, not only a union of "demos" (people).
That is why the "New Jersey plan" at the Federal Convention was a high point in your high school civics class. The states are
intended to mean something in our federal republican form of government.
Indeed, for those who view the massive growth of our federal government into an imperial hegemon over the past century or so,
it is no small coincidence that the balance constructed by the founders was tipped in favor of Washington, and BIG MONEY, by the
passage of the 17th Amendment in 1912. That amemdment (for the popular election of Senators instead of their being appointed by
state legislatures as written in the constitution) inexorably led to the growth of our imperial state; immediately thereafter
came the passage of the Federal Reserve Act, enactment of a the personal income tax to replace import tariff's to fund the federal
government, our engagement in WW 1, and increasing alliance with the British Empire that lasts today in our "special relationship",
the NATO alliance, and the Anglo American hegemon.
It is also no coincidence that the root source of "Russia-gate" and "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is a sustained effort by British
Intelligence, in cahoots with US deep state intelligence that works not for the people of the US but for the Anglo-American empire
of western capital centered on Wall Street and the medieval City of London. That is why the "golden shower dossier" was written
by a British intelligence officer (Steele), that the basis for the deep state rat Strzok to spy on Trump was an Australian "diplomat"
(read spy) Downer, friend of the globalist Clintons, and US deep state intelligence operatives attempted entrapment of Trump campaign
supporters (such as by Stefan Halper, an Mi-6 and CIA asset).
The entire attack to undermine the results of the Electoral College triumph of Donald Trump is directed by Anglo-American deep
intelligence assets, working for the globalist western capitalist cabal, that cannot permit a mere president to alter their globalist
plans; ergo, deep state rats Brennan and 10 hand picked analysts come up with "Russian collusion", unleasigh Mueller (protector
of the Whitey Bulger Winter Hill Gang), Strzok, Rosenstein, etc. to to find a basis to neuter, if not impeach, the constitutionally
elected President.
Indeed, Pres. Washington foresaw such an eventuality of foreign influence tainting our Republic; see his Farewell Address at
Paragraphs 32-39. Indeed, his prescience amazing; read these warnings:
"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite
nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing
into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without
adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which
is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained,
and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And
it
gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or
sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of
a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or
foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened
and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of
seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards
a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people
ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence
to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another
cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on
the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its
tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."
Indeed, if any nation can be found to be interfering in our domestic politics and seeking to influence the actions of the President,
or more precisely to have him removed from power, it's not Russia, its the United Kingdom.
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 3:59 pm
Interesting, thank you. I will read up on the 17th. I've blamed the "federalization" of politics for a lot of the apparent
decline in citizen interest in Democracy as state and local influence "on people's lives" seemed to have been ceded over to the
fed not entirely a bad thing (when it comes to civil rights, equal opportunity and federal funding for stuff states could never
afford) still, I think something encouraged a complacent electorate even if the educational values of unions (voting for your
interests rather than against) signifies.
backwardsevolution , July 17, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Jim in NH brilliant post! Thank you. Everybody should read it.
Fred , July 17, 2018 at 10:08 pm
If three million more voted for Hillary than Trump, then majority of voters are wrong and stupid. Good thing the Electoral
College saved us from ourselves.
" one saw that practically the entire country was coloured red only the coasts were blue."
Right, "only the coasts". The ones where nearly 50% of the US population live.
irina , July 17, 2018 at 8:09 pm
And that 50% mostly live in big cities which would not survive long
without the rural areas which provide the resources to support them.
Fred , July 17, 2018 at 10:09 pm
They actually think food comes from the supermarket Irina.
irina , July 17, 2018 at 11:17 pm
And you buy it with EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards.
JoeD , July 17, 2018 at 3:06 pm
The coasts were not blue. Clinton got the west coast. Trump won most of the east: FL, GA, SC, NC and they split Maine. Trump
won 30 out of 50 states. There were also less people who voted in 2016 than did in 2012 and in 2008.
So it does not follow Clinton would win if there was a National Popular vote.
Our electoral system(s) have very serious problems voter access (and apathy) and gerrymandering probably top the list, but
that "neoliberal income inequality" appears to color/overlay everything
Bob Van Noy , July 17, 2018 at 1:33 pm
Great article and commentary CN, many thanks. There is an excellent comment by Craig Murray at his site and one should not
miss the commentary there either
Liberals should be ashamed of themselves. They voted a Russian bribery hag Hillary and now go far-right John Birch in drumming
up war with Russia -- just because Trump hurt their feelings by beating Hillary. Sad!
I was impressed on the eve of 2016 election how ineffective Clinton's constant beating on Obama's drum wrt to Russia-Russia-Russia
had been I don't remember the polls but the numbers for "major concern" iirc were low, around maybe 12% (after months and months)
I think the media is drunk on their own piss . I remember feeling frustrated when Gore (who had a better case for "stolen electoin"
imho) walked away my suspicion is that on completion of the Mueller inquiry this is going backfire badly . even if Manafort gets
decades in prison for money laundering
Anon , July 17, 2018 at 12:22 pm
Debate: Is Trump-Putin Summit a "Danger to America" or Crucial Diplomacy Between Nuclear Powers?
Glenn Greenwald and another thoughtful dude, Joe Cirincione. All substance and strong disagreements without shouting or personal
attacks.
Greenwald:
I also think that that last point that Joe made is actually an important one, and it does put people like me into a difficult
position, which is, you know, on the one hand, of course I don't think that Donald Trump is well intentioned and is going to have
the diplomatic skill to negotiate complicated new agreements of trade and of arms control with very sophisticated regimes like
the one in North Korea, or at least complicated regimes in North Korea, or in Russia. On the other hand, as we've been discussing,
unfortunately, he's the only game in town. There is nobody else who's saying that we ought to question NATO. Democrats, when you
say we ought to question NATO, act like you've committed blasphemy. There is nobody else talking about tariffs and the unfairness
of free trade agreements, except for a couple of fringe people within the Democratic Party. Just like this week, when he said
that the European Union was a foe, what he said was something that for a long time on the left was really kind of just uncontroversial
orthodoxy, which is that of course the European Union is an economic competitor of the U.S., and a lot of what their trade practices
are do harm the American worker. We put up barriers against Chinese products entering the U.S., and yet the EU buys them and then
sells them into the U.S., indirectly helping China circumvent those barriers in a way that directly harms U.S. workers. This is
something that people like Robert Reich and Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders have been talking about for a long time. So it does
make it very difficult when the only person who's raising these kinds of issues and talking about these things-we need to get
along better with Russia and China, we need to reform these old, archaic, destructive institutions-is a megalomaniac, somebody
who's completely devoid of any positive human virtue, which is Donald Trump. So it puts you in the position of kind of trying
to agree with him, while knowing that he's really not going to be able to do anything about those in a positive way.
On the other hand, I don't feel comfortable being aligned with people like Bill Kristol and David Frum and all of those Bush-era
hawks who are now the best friends of MSNBC and the Democratic Party, either, because they're not well intentioned, either. And
so, what I try and do is use Donald Trump and the kind of shifting alliances, that we started off by talking about, to open up
a lot of the debates, that will remain closed if you only look at U.S. politics through the prism of the 2016 election and Republicans
versus Democrats. And I think the most important point is the one that, as I said, Joe made just this week, which is that until
the Democratic Party figures out-and this is true not just of Democrats but of center-left parties all throughout Europe and here
in Brazil-until they figure out how again to reconnect, not with the highly educated class and the rich and the metropolitan enclaves,
but with the working class of these countries, that feel trampled on and ignored, and for that reason are turning to demagogues,
we're going to have more Donald Trumps and worse Donald Trumps, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. And that
is, for me, the greatest problem that we face politically
This is the best article I've read on the topic, hands down.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 11:38 am
No question about that, TIEDE, but considering the pitifully low standards applied to what emanates from the wreckage of the
American mass media, Mr. Lauria really didn't have much competition to beat. Of course, no matter how deserved, he will not be
winning any Pulitzers, since mediocre groupthink, especially of the warmongering variety, is the new standard of excellence in
American letters.
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 12:45 pm
As others have noted, it "treason" isn't impeachable, what is? If not now, when?
Should we go off and invade Somalia in retaliation? The anti-Trump/Democrats are undermining their own credibility -- not to
mention the press, whose credibility might reach nosedive if they still had much of an audience .
More ridiculous than GWB after 09/11 . which reminds me that Trump keeps reminding me of want-to-share-a-beer-with GWB but
stupider and with less "fund of knowledge"
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 5:26 pm
And how are these "others" defining "treason?" Whatever they say it is, and without any evidence that it genuinely occurred?
This is not a case of treason, it is a case of attempted mob rule, like the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. The
vile media acts as the bull horn of the seditionists, they show some insurrectionists making a hullabaloo on your television screen,
and the coup plotters point and say, "see, it's treason, off with his head!" Meanwhile, your government has been stolen yet again
because some insiders didn't like the results.
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:42 pm
To have treason you must have a declared war and a declared enemy. If you look at the list of people convicted of treason in
the US, there are what, a dozen?
The President has broad powers of foreign policy (and immigration) which may be a bad thing, but I applaud Trump's peace overtures
to North Korea and Russia as well as Obama's (reviled by many of the same warmongers) deal with Iran. Unfortunately all these
deals are President-specific and undercut by un-elected Intelligence agencies with agendas of their own, and politicians taking
money from the MIC and foreign lobbyists with war profiteering agendas. No one can believe a President no matter how well meaning
and sincere. Clinton abrogated Reagan's deal with Gorbachev, almost destroying Russia, as did Obama reneging on the deal with
Gaddafi, destroying Libya. Clearly the best option is to build up a cache of nuclear arms and to use them if necessary to protect
sovereignty.
gailstorm , July 17, 2018 at 10:53 am
At least Cooper used a small window there haven't been many U.S. Russia summits but Fallows? Uh, 9/11 and the Saudis anyone?
More evidence there than Russian collusion and three Presidents including Trump have given that a pass.
Treason-schmeason, Dave! You don't seem to know much about the real history of the US government, only the manufactured one
of the powers in charge. Pick up a copy of Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick's book "The Untold History of the United States".
As for the vaunted democracy these talking bobbleheads and puppet politicians go on about, we don't hear them speaking about
lobbying, do we, or Citizens United or McCutcheon vs Buckley decisions of the Supreme Court? It's not even the Electoral College
that skews the vote and takes democracy out of the citizens' decisions -- it's lobbying, which is legalized fraud and bribery.
No, they go on and on about Russia, Russia, Russia, all to make sure folks look somewhere else while they continue the hijacking.
Dave , July 17, 2018 at 10:35 am
What is amazing is how you and so many GOP are actually defending Russia! This was treason!
Deniz , July 17, 2018 at 10:53 am
What is amazing is the extent that the Democrats are lied to, and the extent that they believe those lies. I am awestruck by
the complete and utter brainwashing of a democratic, educated country by the CIA. Getting Republicans, who are inclined to think
negatively of foreigners is one thing, but Liberal Democrats, who profess to believe in education and equality becoming the brown
shirts, it never occurred to me that was possible.
By the way, i am speaking as a former Democrat, Obama voter.
gailstorm , July 17, 2018 at 10:58 am
Yes, it is quite frightening. I think Trump is dangerously inept but reading the intelligence report on Russia released Jan.,
2017 was the most frightened I have ever been as an American. It provided no evidence (apparently keeping things top secret is
more important than alleged election tampering which should give cause to thought right there) and instead laid out a game plan
for attacking dissenters of U.S. foreign policy.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 11:18 am
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, because I am one too, but it seems the country must be full of former Democrats (and thoroughly
disillusioned Obama voters), or at least we should be if we want to survive over the long term. Hillary was just another pack
of lies (and threatened violence) too far, which is why she lost. Had NOTHING to do with Russians hacking elections, influencing
the vote or stealing our democracy. That is simply the revisionist bullshit in the aftermath of her self-inflicted debacle, as
she persists in dragging down the party, the country and maybe the world out of self-centered petulance.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 11:24 am
Unless you are trying to be sarcastic, Dave, you added an extraneous letter to the word you should really want. What Mr. Lauria
has written here is pure "reason," not "treason." Go back and consider all the relevant issues again, this time accurately.
Daniel , July 17, 2018 at 1:12 pm
I guess Dave forgot that our intelligence agencies have lied us into war in the past.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 5:29 pm
And YOU are prosecuting Russia on what EVIDENCE? None! That is madness and the ticket to war. You are just the sort of pawn
to make Goebbels tremble with delight, Dave.
Samuel , July 18, 2018 at 12:34 am
I am not American but like so many out there, am concerned by what is going on in your once beautiful country. It amazes to
realize that people have chosen to bury truth and reason for hatred's sake. How can one hope to build a secure, prosperous democracy
based on a fraudulent lie? If one can pick a leaf from the Iraqi war it is that one should never believe unquestioningly everything
that comes from the intelligence community. That deception resulted in perhaps millions dead. This time round it might result
in billions dead including Americans. Is that what people like Dave want? Could this be a secret conspiracy to bring destruction
to the entire universe? To what ends?
David G , July 17, 2018 at 10:00 am
Trump's actual treason:
-- turning environmental policy over to the biggest polluters
-- turning financial regulation over to parasitic elites
-- turning education policy over to anti-public, pro-charter grifters
-- turning the FCC over to the big telecoms
-- turning the Iran-nuke deal over to Netanyahu
What gets Trump called a traitor by the Beltway blob:
-- wanting to talk with Russia, and holding a Soviet/Russia summit just like every president since FDR
Wotta country!
Karen , July 17, 2018 at 11:06 am
Exactly!
BrianS , July 17, 2018 at 7:54 pm
Don't relish the me too, or "same here" moniker, but: Exactly!
mike k , July 17, 2018 at 9:39 am
The enemies of Peace, having failed to prevent the Putin/Trump summit, are now busy saying that it was a disaster, and that
it was meaningless two seemingly discordant observations. The real religion of America is WAR. Anything that smacks of peace
is Heresy!
David G , July 17, 2018 at 10:08 am
"The stories of how North Korea is now violating an imaginary pledge by Kim to Trump in Singapore are even more outrageous,
because big media had previously peddled the opposite line: that Kim at the Singapore Summit made no firm commitment to give up
his nuclear weapons and that the 'agreement' in Singapore was the weakest of any thus far."
Yeah. The lunatics would have the world believe that Trump was a cowardly traitor because he didn't i) berate President Putin
to his face for rigging the election in his favor (as did the impertinent network goon Chris Wallace whom Putin totally pwned,
though absolutely unbeknownst to the American jingoist corp) and ii) summarily declare war on the Russian Federation to cap everyone's
day of fun and games. Insults and war seem to be what the imbeciles so passionately want. I wish I could give them their suicidal
war that didn't involve me, my relatives, friends and other innocent bystanders, but that's not how it works and they will eagerly
take us all down if given the chance. We are seeing war fever sweep across a crazed nation led astray by the worst demagogues
to come down the pike since the "Greatest Generation" got an invite from Uncle Sam to Hitler's big dance. Everybody is a flag
waving blood-lusting maniac, from the corporate boardrooms, to the residue of what is left skulking around the fake newsrooms,
to the cocky stand-up comedians now inhabiting every late night channel spewing trash and attitude without having the first clue.
Must be as invigorating as sucking in the cordite-perfumed air of Berlin circa 1939. The pity is that this time the glorious experience
will be so short once the rockets are launched. Almost seems a waste to squander the experience on a bunch of lame brains who
probably assume they can get their ticket price back if they don't fully enjoy the show.
Realist, As always, your comments are stunningly accurate, and have literary flavor as well. It is really getting there as
you have described.
As Gore Vidal wrote long ago, this brainwashing started long time ago during the nineteenth century when they started inoculating
the innocent American population against socialism and all that, the ideas which were sweeping across Europe in that century.
Here we are now, it is almost a crazed Nation. My wife reads L.A. Times religiously and being a Hillary fan has been watching
CNN, MSNBC, Judy Woodruff and other channels like these.
It is not going to end up pretty, the atmosphere is frightening.
Doran Zeigler , July 17, 2018 at 9:32 am
I consider my politics as beyond progressive, and I am definitely not a Trump cheerleader, but I must say that this article
by Consortium News is by far the most balanced and fair article I have read on the Trump/Putin press conference. Did the Russians
hack Clinton's emails? Most likely. Were the hacks responsible for Clinton's defeat -- not on your life. Hillary offered nothing
other than the same old tired rhetoric and hostilities toward Russia. She basically defeated herself.
The fact that Clinton won the popular vote by three million should dispel any notion that the Russian hacks were effective.
What this does say is that we should get rid of the antiquated and unfair Electoral College. The press conference was not the
venue to grill or attempt to embarrass Putin, besides, Putin could hurl those same accusations at the US for not only interfering
in the Ukraine election, but also contributing millions of dollars to it. Putin, if he wanted, could point to NATO creeping up
to Russian borders when NATO had promised years ago not to go beyond unified Germany. The Russians have a multitude of complaints,
but are more diplomatic than the provocative Americans and would rather not solve these problems in the press.
Is Trump a bumbler -- no doubt. The conference was not the place to air America's dirty laundry or bring up his usual complaints.
All of this hoopla is a dog and pony show, a theatrical media event to distract the American people from their real problems like
a collapsing economy made worse by Trump's tariffs, like the bloated military budget, the horrific income inequality, the rise
of poverty, and an endless stream of worsening problems of which neither party has a solution. It is the old sleight of the hand
trick -- watch the hand I wave in front of you face, but pay no attention to the hand that is stealing you blind.
I am at least happy to see a media outlet that has broken from the pack of running lemmings that are not heading for a cliff,
but are running in a small circle.
Daniel , July 17, 2018 at 1:16 pm
Where is the evidence that Russia, rather than an insider like Seth Rich, released the emails?
Assange has all but verbally confirmed it was Seth Rich, not Russia.
Zinny , July 17, 2018 at 1:44 pm
Begs the question; Why doesn't the NSA either confirm or deny the download?
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:50 pm
Why doesn't Mueller offer Assange immunity to testify? Sounds like Mueller may offer the Podestas (Manafort's partners in crime
in the Ukraine) immunity to testify against Manafort.
TragiCom , July 17, 2018 at 9:28 am
You'd be forgiven if you thought Brennan's rant was an episode from 'Who is America'!!
Brennan & co. behaving absolutely like unaccountable gangsters. Very dangerous gangsters. Nuclear armed gangsters.
"The indictments, which are only unproven accusations, formally accused 12 members of the GRU, Russian military intelligence,
of stealing Democratic Party emails in a hacking operation and giving the materials to WikiLeaks to publish in order to damage
the candidacy of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. The indictments were announced on Friday, three days before the summit, with
the clear intention of getting Trump to cancel it. He ignored cries from the media and Congress to do so."
The most blatant and desperate effort to date to sabotage dιtente, any effort to cooperate on crucial issues. The media and
its sources are hysterical but scary as hell. Using words like treason without a peep from the media or anyone in Washington is
also scary as hell.
Didn't watch much of the news but curious about CNN, turned it on to watch Blitzer and Rand Paul exchange. Last question do
you trust our security folks or Putin. The patriots versus the devil. Rand Paul ignored it and earlier pointed to our less than
Simon pure history of trying to meddle in elections. Hell we ran the campaign of the greatest thief in Russian history, Yeltsin.
Bottom line, folks will do anything to stop the President's efforts to improve relations with Russia. It began before the inauguration
and has not let up since.
There is reason to use the word treason but it is not Trump's.
It's a bizarre world when Donald Trump is actually the voice of reason in the USA. The corporate media (including our "public"
networks) are running around with their hair on fire at the thought of the two nuclear nations having a rational relationship.
Why can't the public see the insanity of what's going on?
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:53 pm
Sedition is the more accurate word for those in the Intelligence agencies seeking a soft coup.
richard vajs , July 17, 2018 at 8:54 am
The US Media lost its mind about two years ago. After all this time they are still trying to change the 2016 election. It was
plain then a dirt-bag vs. a fool. The US Media had a dog in that fight the dirt-bag. What is driving them insane is that the
"fool" has survived their best efforts to destroy him should have been easy, but it is not. So the insane manipulators are going
for the throat now TREASON. It is all ridiculous America has deep economic problems that need to be addressed, namely the
terminal income inequality that exists. Killing the fool and re-elevating the dirt-bag will accomplish nothing but give the U
S Media and the elites they represent another fifteen minute stroll on the decks of the Titanic
Charron , July 17, 2018 at 8:24 am
The corporate press has been shocked that President Trump would not believe the findings of his own intelligence. Never once
has anyone in the Corporate press ever noted that out intelligence sources, the CIA in particular lied when they said Iraq had
WMDS. It was a terrible lie. And even if you prefer to believe that the intelligence community had merely made a mistake, our
invasion cost us over 3trillion dollars, cost thousands of American soldiers their lives, and ended up causing the death of hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and has ignited the middle east, resulting in the rise of ISIS. But no one in the corporate press
sees fit to even mention the fact that the CIA claimed were a "slam dunk." Nor has anyone in the corporate press mentioned the
fact that James Come, when he was in the FBI, who headed up the Anthrax investigation fingered the wrong man, though he had said
when questioned if he had the right man, said he was absolutely certain that Hatfiield was the man who spread the Anthrax. The
government settled the false charges against Hatfiled for 5.82 million, as it turned out a fellow named ivans. P.S. Robert Mueller
was the head of the FBI during most of the investigation. And let me make this clear, I also think Trump is a scoundrel, but the
members of our corporate press are scoundrels too.
gailstorm , July 17, 2018 at 11:09 am
That the parroted information that got us into Iraq was a lie was widely reported and the intelligence debunked in independent
media at the time. There was no mistake. The information was out there but went ignored by the mainstream media. But it goes back
further. Yugoslavia, the first Gulf War erroneous reporting on such issues has been consistent at CNN.
AnthraxSleuth , July 17, 2018 at 3:18 pm
You could not be more wrong about the Anthrax.
Comey and co. ignored a material witness in that case (me) that caught Hatfill snooping around my house in November of 2001. Approx.
a month and a half after I received an anthrax letter. Mr Comey's Anthrax investigation was no such thing. It was just like Hillary's
email investigation. It was a "matter" not an investigation.
An investigation would have included having agents pay a visit to the man (me) that gave them Hatfill's last name 7 months before
his name became public. I was able to do that b/c I when I caught him snooping around my house he was arrogant enough to wear
his army jacket. Guess what is on your army jacket? Your last name.
MR. Comey's Anthrax matter also ignored when I informed the FBI that Ottillie Lundgren and Cathy Nugyen had posted on the same
internet message board at the same time and to the same article that I did.
Mr. Comey and Mr. Mueller lied then and are lying now.
For kicks and giggles you can hear Hatfill admit that he was in North Carolina at the time I caught him snooping around my
house in NC here . https://youtu.be/fSfcIh1WCdg?t=1640
Mike , July 17, 2018 at 8:01 am
"The queen of diamonds the queen of diamonds"
padre , July 17, 2018 at 7:41 am
You ain't seen nothing yet, wait till your allies come tot their senses!
Well now I feel silly. I just saw the ZeroHedge piece and understand that Robert Parry wrote often about Browder, so presumably
most visitors of this site are familiar with the name. I'll have to look for those articles. Is Browder in the same league as
Soros?
Alcuin , July 17, 2018 at 1:25 pm
Webb: "Trump and Putin are closing in on this Brennan/Browder gang; that's why you had that incredible reaction from Brennan
"
Putin tried to make the point that private citizens are not the state in a country. A private citizen doesn't speak official
government words.
Russian billionaires perhaps poured money into election campaigns. If so, the head of state is not to blame, nor is the crime
done by authority of the government.
Putin said Browder evaded Russian taxes and laundered $1.2 bn into USA, and moved one-third = $400 mn to Clinton's campaign.
Netted him $800 mn. With one-eighth of that Browder bribed Congress to enact Magnitsky (sp) proclamation to spur sanctions.
Russia filed criminal warrants with US under the 1999 treaty (Putin cited) to question Browder and bring charges; unlawfully
ignoring them, US violated treaty.
Browder money 'meddling' in 2016 campaigns is NOT 'Putin dunnit' and NOT 'Kremlin dunnit' and NOT 'Russia dunnit.' Only truthfully,
'Russian Browder dunnit.'
Trump's right for peace, but deplorable (almost) every other way.
If he did 'collude and conspire' that seems the least of his crimes. Impeach him for being morally unfit. Cripes, he was named
in Florida court indictments as co-defendant against charges of rape and abuse of 13- and 14-yo girls; his partner Jeffrey Epstein
was convicted and did time. Forget Russia, Trump's is a sex pervert, racist, and fascist -- unfit for office.
https://www.justice-integrity.org/1445-welcome-to-waterbury-the-city-that-holds-secrets-that-could-bring-down-trump
No link but find July 10 item at ClubOrlov.com titled, Taking Refuge in Insanity. It may be solace for Joe, in a way, and moreover
a general understanding of media cohort insanity.
If understanding is possible.
And MOST I stopped to say Thank You, thank you Joe Lauria. Your work brought me deep relief and it's refreshing.
_____
PS, I predict the 12 indicted Russians do get their day in US courtroom to defend themselves with lawyers rightfully allowed
to question (Mueller's) prosecution witnesses and testimony, and to present defense , and (Mueller's) prosecution loses there.
PPS, any rich moneybags domestic or foreign who aimed to spend in 2016 to hurt Hillary or help Donald be elected,
put all the money into Bernie's campaign: split the left vote and the rightist candidate skulks into office. Vice versa, Dems
in 2020 may prop up a Republican candidate on the left of Trump; split the R's vote between soft and hard rightwingers.
exiled off mainstreet , July 17, 2018 at 2:25 am
Who are the traitors? Those who seek war with a nuclear power or those who wish to solve the problems. What about Browder's
$400,000,000 to the Clinton campaign. Putin wouldn't make such a statement if there were nothing to back it up, though Mueller
is willing to lay unsubstantiated charges which go against proven evidence that the DNC leak was from a thumb drive, not internet
transmission. In any event, why is it so bad that the crimes of the DNC were revealed? I guess the truth is dangerous to the yankee
form of "managed democracy."
Alcuin , July 17, 2018 at 2:10 am
I don't know if it's true or not, but I once read that Nicholas II actually ordered the de-mobilization of the Russian army
on the eve of WWI, but that his order was ignored by his subordinates who were eager for war. Trump in his interview with Hannity
implies at one point that he doesn't have full control over the military -- that the belligerent rhetoric has been having practical
and dangerous consequences. Frightening. Starting at ca. min. 5. https://youtu.be/dRMW4knpiUo
Zhu Ba Jie , July 17, 2018 at 1:22 am
Just for sh*ts & giggles, try listening to prophecy preachers like Bro. Stair at
http://www.overcomerministry.org (Do NOT belive them!) Such folks
have radically different assumptions. Listening will clear your intellectual pallette, so to say.
David G , July 17, 2018 at 1:11 am
Others may not feel the connection strongly, but watching today's (yesterday's now) media meltdown flashed me back to the day
of Colin Powell's Iraqi WMD presentation to the U.N.
I watched that live, and even at the time before the specific fabrications were exposed it was such a self-evidently lame
effort that I was genuinely surprised and confused when all the media people instantly hailed the its supposedly irresistible
power in making the case for the coming war. And it's not like I went into the day with such a high opinion of the corporate media.
As with Trump in Helsinki, it was clear the media was activating a pre-arranged narrative (approval then, opprobrium now) rather
than genuinely reacting to what they had seen and heard.
Jared , July 17, 2018 at 6:48 am
That is an excellent assesment.
That is the dumbfound aspect the blatantly preconceived and coordinated attack on the public dialog.
I feel certain the media is being required to sacrifice its reputation for the purpose of distracting the public from some issue.
I dont thing the anderson coopers realise that this is the purpose they belive they are simply acting as political assasins of
the enemy.
Maybe is niave of me but is it possible this is simply to defray discussion of dnc communications and dnc conspiring by which
they pretty much destroyed the democratic brand? Of course there are also the globalists concern with nationalism and populism
and mic with concern fear of outbreak of peace.
gailstorm , July 17, 2018 at 11:23 am
The average journalist, mostly print but even regional TV, statistically makes less money than school teachers. It's quite
different at the national TV level. They are paid ridiculously well and maybe coincidentally (maybe not) removed from the ground
work among the masses. The system has rewarded them so there is natural bias toward the status quo (something that exists to a
degree in objective journalism to begin with). They likely aren't aware but they are hired and keep their jobs based on questions
they are not likely to ask. It's corporate America. Just as in low level administrative job hiring at large companies, blandness
and safe get the jobs.
Chumpsky , July 16, 2018 at 11:23 pm
"Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia forwards the opportunity to open new pathways toward peace and
stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics."
A page taken out of JFK's playbook.
No wonder the democrats/MSM/Deep State are so disturbed and ready to shoot the messenger. He's encroaching on their sanctified
turf!
"As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or Democrats
who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia forwards the opportunity
to open new pathways toward peace and stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to
risk peace in pursuit of politics."
Question for those who have seen the video: were these prepared remarks, or were they spontaneous?
I appreciate them either way, but if Trump crafted those lines on the fly I really might have to give the cheeto-faced, ferret-wearing
shitgibbon (thank you, Scotland!) a fresh look.
Nora De Groote , July 17, 2018 at 3:44 am
I was thinking the exact same thing when reading that quote. That doesn't seem like his rhetoric at all. The "good thing bad
thing" is where you have his level of "eloquence" again. Regardless, even if he had to memorize the statement beforehand, he still
scored in my book.
Vivian O'Blivion , July 17, 2018 at 7:10 am
"cheeto-faced, ferret-wearing, shitgibbon" as a Scotsman I can only apologise for my compatriots sickeningly sycophantic language.
We are normally less diplomatic in our appraisals. In Scotland, if you hear the word "f**k", it's just to let you know a noun
is coming.
Zim , July 17, 2018 at 9:00 am
It's hard to believe that statement came out of Trumps mouth. But I believe it to be spot on.
To Chumpsky : A very courageous statement of Trump! He is no fool . You can't tell a bonk from its cover,
David G , July 16, 2018 at 11:12 pm
Lauria: "The media's handlers were even worse than their assets."
Zing! Props to you, Joe.
David G , July 16, 2018 at 11:00 pm
I haven't read the article or the comments yet, but I want to chime in now:
I've been watching MSNBC on and off all day, and the summit has clearly caused their brains (already in parlous condition)
to completely liquefy.
"Treason! Worse than Watergate *and* 9/11!!"
Demented.
tom , July 17, 2018 at 10:07 am
+1
Lois Gagnon , July 16, 2018 at 10:38 pm
Once again, the hypocrisy of the media is on full display. Every president including this one pays total fealty to the criminal
state of Israel which we know has interfered in the US political process, not to mention sinking a US naval vessel. But heaven
forbid there be diplomatic talks with Putin who has bent over backwards to accommodate the US when he can. So far all he's gotten
is sand kicked in his face.
The behavior of the media and its fellow juvenile delinquents in Washington are an embarrassment. They are without realizing
it, making Trump look presidential. You can't make this sh*t up.
mike k , July 16, 2018 at 10:35 pm
The Evil Monsters destroying our world with their greed and violence are being flushed into the open. But will the brainwashed
masses be able to see this? That is the crucial test that humanity faces at this time. The Rulers will go all out to spin this
in their favor, and if that fails, they will probably try to assassinate this dangerous man, President Donald Trump.
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 10:33 pm
Meanwhile, while everyone is focused on Trump and Putin's summit, the real power of collusion is hard at work.
I'm posting this, because while it's appropriate we talk at length about the disgraceful reception Trump got for his trying
to wage peace, we should not lose sight to what country is using the U.S, as it's useful idiot.
Besides that, an article such as what Phil Giradi wrote should not go unnoticed thank you once again MSM for being the jerks
you are. Did the MSM ever hear of the word 'reporting'? Thank you Joe Lauria & the Parry family for being here when we need you
the most. I don't know what I'd do without the Consortium. Hey kudos to you too Robert Parry, your still number one with me.
For trying to restore a note of sanity and balance in the crucible of journalistic/political dialogue between Russia and the
US centers of power, where we sense the truth will be lost in white hot bombast, and the accepted narrative of reality will be
decided by the heads pushing the correct emotional buttons to fit their nationalistic needs, and their needs for continued employment.
Who can forget the last time all 17 intelligence services were of one mind on weapons of mass destruction that turned out to
be nonexistent! Let's hope we can catch our breath before we trip into a patriotic war that destroys civilization.
John P , July 16, 2018 at 11:20 pm
Excuse me, but the intelligence service was turned upside down by Bush and his team inserting their own officials to sensor
what was released. The Agencies were very upset that the truth wasn't coming out, and you had the Valerie Plame incident also.
From Slate: "Trump and Putin Met in Helsinki's Hall of Mirrors. Here Are the Highlights." ends with the following:
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
On a related note, Rob Goldstone, the British publicist who set up that Trump Tower meeting by promising Trump's son that it was
"part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump," just tweeted that Putin had lied earlier in the day when he said
he did not know that Trump would be in Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
Rob Goldstone @GoldstoneRob
President Putin just stated that he had no idea Donald Trump was in Moscow in 2013. I know for sure that he did and tell the full
story in my soon to be released book "Pop Stars, Pageants & Presidents: How an Email Trumped My Life"
1:16 PM Jul 16, 2018
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
There may not have been collusion but I think we can say there probably was interference, voting machines and misinformation spread
by agents throughout the social communications media of today. And Putin did admit late, that he was for Trump not Hillary.
If there was funding from Russia to the Democrats as some say, and Putin is truthful that he preferred Trump then why did they
give money to the Democrats? Was it to designed to undermine Hillary through its exposure.
Others complain about the timing of the 12 Russian agents, but that was no different from the timing of the Hillary email story
release shortly before the election.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 17, 2018 at 1:44 am
"Putin Stole the Election" is fantasy fiction, just like "Obama is a Kenyan" was.
Typingperson , July 17, 2018 at 1:46 am
So you're OK with Hillary using an illegal, off-the-books email server to do pay-to-play arms deals with shitty countries like
Saudi Arabiathat gave millions of $$ to Clinton Foundation in return?
If lawfully using a govt server, Hillary"s emails would be subject to FOIA petitions. By USA citizen taxpayers and reporters.
Her emails as Sec of State are the property of the American people, who paid her salary. That's what people still don't get.
She used a private server to keep secret the illegal, pay-to-play arms dealsin return for payola bucks to Clinton Foundation.
And Obama turned a blind eye for 4 years. His specialty: Suck-up talking while turning a blind eye.
To Hillary"s incompetence and murderous corruption, to his weekly drone-murders, and to accelerated deportation of innocent
immigrantsand ICE separating parents from kids.
While starting 5 new wars on top of Iraq and Afghanistanincluding ongoing genocide of Yemen.
Obama was a good boy for the deep state / war profiteers. And he collected his $60M "book contract." Bribe.
Bill , July 17, 2018 at 3:59 pm
"So you're OK with Hillary using an illegal, off-the-books email server to do pay-to-play arms deals with shitty countries
like Saudi Arabiathat gave millions of $$ to Clinton Foundation in return?"
How is that different from Trumpkin or Bush doing much the same thing?
Tony Frede , July 17, 2018 at 1:50 am
Maybe it doesn't make sense because Russia never really worked for either side.
Ron Johnson , July 17, 2018 at 6:48 am
Tracing who, exactly, did the hacking is always difficult because the evidence left behind is usually impossible to trace.
In the case of the hacking or attempted hacking of certain states' data, the only evidence that it was the Russians came from
Russian language characters in the code. Slam dunk, right? Well no, since our CIA/NSA admitted to using exactly such techniques
to misdirect researchers away from their own hacking.
If you read deeper into the story of how the Russians funded Clinton, you'll find that it was not the Russian government. Putin
pointed out that the money was made 'illegally' in Russia and sent out of the country 'illegally', ending up in Clinton's campaign.
There are a number of differences between the indictments of the Russians and the release of information in the Hillary e-mail
investigation. First, there is no chance the Russians will ever end up in a U.S. court so it is an indictment with no future.
Second, Comey, a supporter of Hillary, made the announcement and subsequently cleared her, probably to save his own career because
the field office that was doing the investigating was about to go public with his dereliction of duty in the Clinton investigation.
Subsequent investigations have revealed how the highly politicized FBI and DOJ went out of their way to protect Clinton. Mueller's
indictments, on the other hand, are just pure political malfeasance.
John P , July 17, 2018 at 7:20 pm
Zhu Ba Jie, I never said that Russia influnced the results of the election. It probably didn't. But what I do think is that
the Russians are probably laughing at how didvided America has become. Neoliberalism which caters to busines rather than liberalism
which caters to the people and the country as a whole is destroying society. People need to get on the streets and voice their
concerns, Get together and form rallies like those who spoke out against the Vietnam War.
Is it social media that makes people babble and rave rather than be active out there getting the much needed attention?
Gather fo support a greener world, a fairer more benevolent world. To get local economies going putting money in needy people's
pockets is far better than trickle down or financing and support for big business. The poor will spend it locally and that's good.
Get out there and make a stir. Trump ain't going to help you. Get rid of PACs, superPACs and other big donor money pots for a
start start. Bernie Sanders and now some new young people are seeing the light. Get in there and help them along. Get out on the
streets and shout for change!
Throw away the smart phone and get marching!
John P , July 17, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Also, Ron Johnson , I'm not American, I didn't know the full story of the mob money and Hillary. My choice was Bernie Sanders
never Hillary or Trump. My fear is, the way things are going, it's like the period between the great wars and the effects of poverty
and big business. Support for the needy and the busting up of big business were two steps which helped the world climb out of
the mire. Perhaps we need to add robotics to the list. People need work and a purpose.
Larry Gates , July 16, 2018 at 9:59 pm
Donald Trump is a vile human being, and I disagree with 98% of what he says and does, but today he was right and everyone else
was wrong. I've been on a trip in my car most of the day, listening to public radio. It was an endless orgy of misinformation
and deep-state propaganda. PRI was as insane and dangerous as Fox News on a really bad day. I'm starting to think that nuclear
war is a more immanent danger than global warming. It isn't just Rachel Maddow who has gone off the deep end. It is the entire
national media. What kind of country have we become? Pray for peace.
strngr-tgthr , July 16, 2018 at 10:45 pm
Larry Don't buy the Trump CoolAid He is completely wrecking are world order. Last month was Kim, this month was Putin and
now this! Look:
White House Orders Direct Taliban Talks to Jump-Start Afghan Negotiations
He is meeting with all the dictators of the world now! Guaranteed he will have Assad at the White House before we can get him
impeached. This is 100% out of Putin's play book. He is a trader to American Values. Never have we sunk so low, dissing are true
allies and honoring thugs, killers and despots! 110% vile!
Joe Lauria , July 16, 2018 at 11:00 pm
Do you mean like Pinochet, Somoza, Galtieri, Rios Montt, Suharto, Mobuto, shall I go on?
Joe Lauria , July 16, 2018 at 11:02 pm
And it is about time there are direct talks with the Taliban. The U.S. has lost in Afghanistan. It has to try to get something
out of it.
strngr-tgthr , July 16, 2018 at 11:23 pm
We are in Afghanistan for woman's rights! "Hillary: justified by the desire to emancipate Afghan women." And we have all seen
the concern that Trump has for woman (Billy Bush Babies at the Border, shall I go on?) 120% vile!
You are totally deluded, Mr. Man Without Vowels in His Name, if you think we are in Afghanistan to promote women's rights.
I'm sure you still faithfully watch the Jay Leno Show to stay apprised of Mrs. Leno's featured assessment of that crusade. Ranking
light years ahead of your purported reason for the last 17 years of war in the Hindu Kush are i) the planned oil and gas pipelines*,
ii) the proven deposits of rare earth elements essential to modern electronic devices, and iii) the immediate proximity to Iran,
Russia, China and Pakistan giving Washington the ability to raise hell from its many military bases in Afghanistan on a moment's
notice (all part of Obama's infamous "Pivot to Asia," which implied far more than a new cadre of Peace Corp workersmore like,
we can buy any locals we need with the pallets of Franklins we now air drop on a routine schedule).
* Read "Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden" by Brisard and Dasquie, it's
still relevant 17 years later, while Hillary's "feminist" credentials remain completely irrelevant.
Gene Poole , July 17, 2018 at 5:48 am
An analysis of this contributor's writing style reports a 98.3% likelihood that he/she is Donald Trump.
Larry Gates , July 17, 2018 at 8:04 am
The United States has been "honoring thugs, killers, and despots" at least since Allen Dulles became the director of the CIA
in the 1940s. America is an expansive empire, controlled by our corporate oligarchy. It's all about their money and power. They
talk about human rights, but that is just a cover for their greed. Much of Trump's foreign policy is bad, but it is simply a logical
continuation of the foreign policies of Obama, Bush, and Clinton. Negotiations with Putin is a step in the right direction and
the Orange Beast deserves credit for it. It looks to me like it is you, not me that has swallowed the Kool-Aid.
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 11:02 am
The Taliban, in the last week 10 days, has said they will not negotiate as long as the USA occupies Afghanistan This was
abbreviated in most headlines to say that the Taliban refuse to negotiate.
The Americans have launched the "time to negotiate with the Taliban" trial balloon before -- "tragically" coming to nothing.
We (USA) interfere when the Baghdad government attempts their own negotiations. (or simply do things that encourage retaliatory
attacks) . Now ISIS in the mix.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 17, 2018 at 1:47 am
We've become a theater state. A powerful performance is what matters.
Susan Sunflower , July 17, 2018 at 11:08 am
Indeed. The histrionics of the last 48 hours have been beyond belief and credulity. The hardcore news-as-scandal-addicted will
stay tuned, but I lost respect for some "stars" of the news in ways that won't be forgotten I keep expecting Maddow to either
use hand puppets or present "crime reenactment" videos, along with her other show-and-tell visual aids.
BBC is just as bad in terms of prejudice but at least present a professional facade .DW and France 24 are alternatives as is
the (much too short, almost every hour on the hour) RT headline news. RT's interview and talk shows are excellent and quite sober.
It's not that they aren't slanted, they're just not insulting to the audience.
HiggBo , July 17, 2018 at 10:10 am
Maybe now you will think about the things these very same people said about him. Maybe they arent true either.
Hint: The vast majority arent.
Deniz , July 16, 2018 at 9:59 pm
They are losing their minds over Putins announcement of the $400 milion that was transferred Clinton through Browder.
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:01 am
Seems Hillary learned a lot from Chinagate (where the Clintons paid the illegal donations from a foreign nation back AFTER
winning the Election). And China only received military technology, offshored jobs and permanent favored nation trading status
in return. Win-win.
You can be sure Hillary will claim that $400 million, if ever traced to her despite bleach bitting all her records, was for the
Clinton Foundation Campaign and it was just an inadvertent mixup.
PuddinNTain , July 16, 2018 at 9:54 pm
Thank you for this reasoned piece amidst a plethora of madness. Most of my friends and colleagues who identify as Democrats,
liberals, progressives, haters of Trump, etc, people I have the most in common with, politically speaking, have completely lost
their freaking minds over this stuff. Critical thinking? Who needs it! Mueller and the intelligence community have surely seen
the light since the "Iraq has WMDs" days.
Exactly when did the intelligence community, the sellers of lies and perpetrators of regime change world-wide, become a friend
to the American people?
Drew Hunkins , July 16, 2018 at 9:49 pm
"He had a chance right there in front of the world to tell Vladimir Putin to stay the HELL out of American democracy,.."
What democracy? 99% of the candidates' campaigns have been almost completely funded by Wall Street, the blood thirsty giant
defense contractors, or paranoid and hegemonic Zionist sociopaths.
It's been proven in a recent academic study by Princeton political scientists (and long lamented before these guys got on the
case by such luminaries as Michael Parents, S. Wollin, James Petras, N. Chomsky, Vidal, Hedges) that the American citizenry has
absolutely no influence whatsoever regarding poltico-economic decisions that emanate from Washington, they're drowned out by big
business and the imperialist ruling elites.
So I ask this warmongering Russophobic talking head once again: what democracy? What democracy do you speak of? The same democracy
that mires millions of newly college grads with $30,000 to $500,000 in student loan debt, or the same democracy that's witnessing
close to 50% of the entire population living close to the poverty level, or that has tens of millions of its denizens without
adequate healthcare coverage
Drew Hunkins , July 16, 2018 at 9:55 pm
typo: such luminaries as Michael Parenti, S. Wollin, James Petras
The editor regrets the error.
John P , July 16, 2018 at 11:26 pm
Trump ain't going to help you on that one. You need to get together with others work to get rid of PACs and Super PACs. In
most western countries they wouldn't be allowed.
Sam F , July 17, 2018 at 7:20 am
The political parties are also corrupt, taking donations fed back directly or indirectly from government funding of contractors.
These are extensive rackets supported by half the population, who have never worked for anything but a political gang operation,
and really believe in gangs.
michael , July 17, 2018 at 7:11 am
Why are you bringing up "ponies" that we will never have, when Hillary's private club (or so the judge ruled when Bernie's
supporters tried to fight their fraud, saying private clubs can do what they please, particularly picking potential presidents)
was hacked into by those supercompetent Russians? Much akin to the Nigerian guy who's been trying to help me collect money from
some dead rich relative I didn't know I had. Still waiting, but I'm sure if this was a fraud Mueller and our Intelligence agencies
would be all over it, just like Hillary's Private Club, the DNC. The Russians didn't steal any money from Hillary, as far as I
know, or there would have been War!
gcw919 , July 16, 2018 at 9:29 pm
These media "pundits" are truly an embarrassment. They become apoplectic about "possible" Russian hacking in our elections,
but one can search in vain for their comments about our own interference in Ukrainian politics, and many other countries around
the globe. (eg, Victoria Nuland, Hillary's pit bull, gloating about the US spending $5 billion in "support" of Ukrainian democracy).
Its as if real concerns, such as nuclear annihilation, or catastrophic climate change, were afterthoughts. We are certainly living
in mystifying times.
Mike From Jersey , July 16, 2018 at 10:16 pm
I think the same thing. The whole "election meddling" hoopla, even if it was true, pales to insignificance in light of what
we are actually doing.
We have a base a military base in Syria. We weren't invited. We didn't get permission to set up a base. But we set up a
military base in another country while announcing that that country's leader "must go." And now with a total absence of evidence
we have the gall to condemn Russia for "meddling in our democracy."
What is wrong with these people? Can't they see the utter hypocrisy in it all?
AZ_bob , July 16, 2018 at 11:29 pm
I tell people all the time, if Russia did put their thumb on the scale, then hey I guess "What Goes Around, Comes Around"
huh? If you CAN'T take it, DON'T dish it out. Quite simple, really
irina , July 17, 2018 at 1:28 am
The US media's hysterical (in the unfunny sense) response to "Russian meddling"
is very like the husband who catches his wife cheating on him and goes totally postal,
although he himself has been cheating on her ever since their courting days . . .
Tony Frede , July 17, 2018 at 1:53 am
No they don't see the hypocrisy. A large percentage of the population suffers from a severe Irony Deficiency and that can't
be cured.
Layne , July 17, 2018 at 6:55 am
I beat my head against the wall with the very same question! Thanks for sharing..
Tristan , July 16, 2018 at 9:26 pm
Thank you for doing the real journalism needed for readers to gain perspective and understanding. It is important to call out
propaganda in the face of facts. One thing that stands out significantly is the statement by Trump, "I would rather take a political
risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics." Even if only partially pursued, the goal of peace is indeed
a very worthy endeavor. In fact, this is one of the first times in recent memory that a US president has used the word "Peace".
I don't like the majority of what the Trump administration is doing, it is important to stick to the facts and support efforts
that could lead to a reduction of the tensions and hostility which dominate current US / Russia relations.
F. G. Sanford , July 16, 2018 at 9:22 pm
"A productive dialogue is not only good for the United States and good for Russia, but it is good for the world."
I could hear in the inflection of that sentence the profoundly courageous and confidently certain voice of John F. Kennedy.
Gergen, Amanpour, Cooper, Cheney, Brennan, Clapper and the rest of them be damned. The usual suspects, the bought and paid-for
mouthpieces of the "deep state" raised their reptilian ire in the expected reprehensible fashion. War is what keeps them on the
"payroll", and they'll tell any lie it takes to keep those checks rolling in. Despicable. It seems likely that their vitriol may
stem as much from fear of exposure as anything else.
I think President Trump gave a laudable and compelling performance. It's a tragedy that this article will probably not get
the circulation it deserves. Thanks to Joe Lauria for having the guts to write it.
Litchfield , July 16, 2018 at 9:43 pm
Amen.
jaycee , July 16, 2018 at 10:15 pm
Cheers. I noticed the same JFK echo in that sentence.
Brennan and the whole lot of those pundits sound exactly like the paleolithic right from the 50s and 60s, the ones who insisted
MLK was a communist and were so effectively personified by Sterling Hayden in the Dr Strangelove film.
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 10:35 pm
Here ya go F.G. your on par with Paul Craig Roberts.
I recall about 16 years ago when the U.S. media almost unanimously reported, with absolute certainty, that Saddam Hussein was
harboring numerous weapons of mass destruction. I also recall their fervent calls for regime change because Hussein was a threat
to our national security. There were a few voices who spoke against it, but they were drowned out by MSM. It would appear that
U.S. media is adamantly against anyone who is opposed to war. Is it because war is so profitable for the media, or is it because
war is so profitable for their masters?
Hey, Johnmichael, you must know that the US is headed by an oligarchy, UK too, France, etc. What runs the world is banks and
multinational corporations. The US could actually be called a corporatocracy, because the people have very little say in their
government. Yes, media bashers do bash media when they lie because they are supposed to ferret out facts but they don't, they
serve their money masters. They all use "Goebbels style" messaging, Putin the least, i notice. It's a western script.
Steve , July 16, 2018 at 9:08 pm
Everything the Main Stream media says about Trump applies ten times over to themselves, the presstitutes that they are useful
Idiots of the Corrupt New World Order.
Bob In Portland , July 16, 2018 at 9:03 pm
A look at Mueller's career will go far in explaining why Mueller is handling this and what he won't see while investigating:
I did Bob, and I'm encouraging more to read it. Joe
Dave P. , July 17, 2018 at 3:30 am
Bob Yes, I have read the article about Mueller's career.
backwardsevolution , July 17, 2018 at 5:08 am
Bob in Portland excellent read! Thank you. Mueller is like a fixer, a sweeper, someone who cleans up and, as you said, moves
investigations away from the CIA.
"He knew where to look and where not to look."
No doubt he's a valuable asset to the Deep State. Not a nice man.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 8:39 am
Great work!
Yes, Mueller's a master of misdirection. Was it Parry who noted (likely others as well) that reporting is now less about lying
than deliberate omission. Hard to fact-check what ain't there (vs. a lie which lays out data which can be tested) Knowledge IS
power: we are not to have knowledge.
Bob Van Noy , July 17, 2018 at 9:34 am
Thanks to all in this thread. I filed this statement recently here, and it was edited out. I'll try again because it's appropriate.
A relatively vibrant Press was modified violently in the days and weeks following November 22, 1963. Some careers were enhanced,
some lives were lost. If some contemporary student of History or Journalism wanted to study the decline of American Democracy
they might begin by reading all of the linked article below about a Journalist named Penn Jones
As much as I loathe Trump, I have to admit this is one time I agree with him. No matter how much Trump screws up, the simple
fact is that no one is 100% wrong, and it's important to recognize when they are not wrong.
I don't agree that the Russians are our enemy. I don't believe they are our friends, but there's a large gap between an enemy
and a friend and I place the Russians somewhere in that gap. I don't deny that they hacked into the DNC database, but that doesn't
rise above my threshold of significance and certainly doesn't hold a candle to all the U.S. interference in the politics of most
of the world's nations (which includes deposing democratically elected presidents). And finally, I don't believe in gunboat diplomacy
and I agree that it's better to talk with the Russians than it is to beat the war drums and seek more confrontation.
Having said that, I deplore Trump's behavior toward our European, Canadian and Mexican friends, and his domestic policies are
the worst of any in the last 100 years. But as much as I deplore this buffoon, I believe that he is right in attempting to normalize
relations with Russia.
Litchfield , July 16, 2018 at 9:49 pm
"I don't deny that they hacked into the DNC database,"
Well, you should, because there is zero evidence of a Russian hack.
On what basis in the world do you so confidently assert that you "do not deny" something that is untrue?
The evidence is of an inside leak.
Please, learn the difference between the two, a hack and a leak.
Another indication of the insidious power of the media over common sense.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 3:22 am
Of course it is entirely within the interests of America to have free and friendly relations with Russia. Why? Not only because
peace beats the hell out of war, especially the nuclear variety, but because we, along with the rest of the world, need Russia's
vast resources in a planet rapidly being depleted of everything essential to modern technology. If they don't sell their products
to the West on the open market because Washington thinks it can steal them after some kind of "regime change," all those essential
goodies will go to China, India and the other peoples of the East whom we look down upon, and are also fixing to mess with.
From all I have gleaned, Russia has always aspired to be a part of the West, ever since Peter the Great opened Russia to Europe,
but Washington thinks that being a member of team West means being a totally subservient vassal to it and only it. Look at how
shamelessly Washington has abused the interests of the EU in its efforts to subjugate Russia. There is mostly one party that threatens
the future of Western prosperity and moral values: the United States, or rather its government. Its motives are uncontested power
and greed to benefit its small clique of decadent aristocrats.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 8:51 pm
Why would anyone believe the Liars' Club (the CIA) about anything? Their successes are more shameful than their failures.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 8:43 am
Ah, but successes and failures are not ours to judge, no, it is for the ruling elite to judge, and given that their power and
wealth has but steadily increased it is safe to say, under their measuring, that the CIA has been quite successful.
Johnmichael2 , July 16, 2018 at 8:45 pm
Putin brilliantly heads an Oligarchy. Trump obsequiously admires Putin because he too, by all of his actions to date, aspires
to the same power. To all of you media bashers, who are on a very strange campaign of denial, don't forget that Trump and his
Goebbels style messaging received prime time from the electronic media throughout the campaign and was probably key to the win.
The real Deep State is the multinational world order of capitalism, which doesn't care what type of government it owns. Yet
CN seems totally oblivious to their existence. If the media is to blame for anything, it is that their coverage tends to be controlled
by ratings; in other words, by money, and the Deep State controls the money.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 8:52 pm
The US has oligarchic since 1789.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 8:53 pm
Goebbels was far smarter and articulate than Trump.
Danny , July 17, 2018 at 9:57 pm
the free $2B from the same media now screeching for his head? (Fox excepted) the 35-40 minutes dedicated to his empty podium
while Sanders talked? I have some REALLY bad news for you 'bout who was behind that
I highly recommend reading James Howard Kunstler's piece on Russia Insider, "Idiotic Russia Meddling Hoax Kept Alive by Trump-Putin
Summit". On his blog 'Clusterfuck Nation' he titles it "12 Ham Sandwiches with Russian Dressing". Kunstler is a great cynicist
humorist called a dystopian by the NYT. This piece he just published is one of the best and will undoubtedly be picked up by others.
Has a funny cartoon on Russia Insider for a musical based on the Mueller never-ending saga. At least it's a few cynical laughs
for this sorry affair.
Mass hysteria is a frightening spectacle to behold. The power with which it grips the minds of virtually everyone is beyond
belief. As I watched the media coverage of Helsinki unfold, it seemed the media minions were perceptibly working themselves into
a collective frenzy, a totally berserk, bonkers group who were bidding the price of tulips up to a million each. The ironic aspect
of all this to me is that even if the commie bastards did what we say they did would it have made any difference? And if indeed
it was they who hacked HC's "personal" email files and made them available to Wikileaks, I'm glad as Hell they did.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 8:56 pm
It would not make any difference. We Americans are to blame for our own follies and mistakes.
KiwiAntz , July 16, 2018 at 9:03 pm
It's Washington & the MSM's mass hysteria, not the common folk who couldn't give a rats ass about this lunacy? Ask the ordinary
citizen in the US or Worldwide what they care about? It's not the never ending Russiagate BS spewed out by the MSM or corrupt
DEMS! It's about, how will my Family be housed, Fed, & cared for! How will I support myself & my Family's needs & wants! THATS
WHAT WE CARE ABOUT, WE DON'T CARE ABOUT THE FAKE RUSSIAGATE NONSENSE & it's BS! But what do these MSM idiots know, they think
their smarter than those who voted for change & are getting that with Mr Trump!
David G , July 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Right on, Lester D.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 8:39 pm
I'm starting to get hopeful about Trump after a lot of doubts.
Whatever his limitations, he at least has some common sense. This is something we would never have seen happen with Crooked Hillary
Clinton, ever. Somebody had to listen to Putin, who actually has quite a lot of sensible things to say about this, and is a very
intelligent and articulate politician.
Given enough time, Trump might actually figure things out in Washington before he leaves office and sees all the treasonous forces
in the permanent security state. I didn't vote for either Clinton or Trump in '16 but if he listens to Putin and gives peace a
chance, this will mend all cracks with me.
Maybe they should put up a fence around CNN headquarters and call in a battalion of psychs to provide mental health treatments
to the war profiteers and talking heads.
I voted for peace. I want to see peace. Kudos to Trump and Putin for bringing an oasis of sanity to the world. Nuclear war is
bad for our kids. I am very relieved to see this happening. Even General Eisenhower could not buck the Military Industrial Complex
in 1959 when he tried to reach detente with Khrushchev. Trump will go down in history as a great president if he can pull this
off.
mike k , July 16, 2018 at 8:38 pm
The incredible ugliness of the media, spy agencies, military figures, and politicians is unfortunately only the tip of a huge
iceberg. Underneath all that is the deep state oligarchs, who are willing to sacrifice billions of lives and the very continuation
of life on our precious planet just to fulfill their insatiable greed for wealth and power. These evil monsters are the real
enemies of Humanity.
Lolita , July 16, 2018 at 8:29 pm
Not only the U.S. Media, but also the Canadian, French, British etc that is, the agitprop tools for NATOland/Soros, ready for
selective and well rehearsed indignation, on cue.
Tonight CBC The National managed to invite a "balanced" panel to discuss the Trump-Putin press conference: a researcher from
Stratfor and a journalist from the Washington Post!!!! LOL
Lolita , July 17, 2018 at 5:32 pm
And when CBC's narrative and their fake-debate in the National is challenged in the comment section the CBC sycophants know
only one action:
"Your account has been banned until 10/15/2018. Reason: We have banned this account for 90 days because we believe it is in
violation of our Terms of Use, specifically repeated off-topic comments, uncivil comments, and personal attacks. For more information,
please visit: http://www.cbc.ca/aboutcbc/discover/submissions.html
."
All of this to mask political censorship
In my last posts, I quoted Joe Lauria and they did not like it one bit:
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
Good Bye ICIJ
KiwiAntz , July 17, 2018 at 2:16 am
And add NZ's Media to that shameful list of Propagandists telling lies & expecting us to belithis tripe!
The calls of President Trump being a traitor mimic those of the calls that President Eisenhower was a traitor back in the 1950s.
But what can you expect from the cult followers of the former Goldwater girl who have done their best to turn the Party of Gene
McCarthy into the Party of Joe McCarthy?
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 8:59 pm
Dems have GOP lite for a long time, at least since Reagan.
Pandas4peace , July 16, 2018 at 8:22 pm
Americans need to turn off their damn television sets.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 8:45 pm
I canceled my cable subscription three months ago and haven't missed it one bit.
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 2:53 am
One needs to keep apprised of the lies that the enemies of humanity so effectively spread through their propaganda in order
to counter them.
Besides, if you ever need a good emetic, there is always the opportunity to tune in Rachel Maddow until your stomach upchucks
its contents.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 8:51 am
Ha ha! The Rachel Maddow weight loss program!
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 9:01 pm
Good idea. I quit watching regularly in the '70s. But does make one somewhat alienated from everyone else.
Freedom lover , July 16, 2018 at 10:32 pm
Actually I have Direct TV and for a change I can tune in to channel 321 RT America and listen to some real news instead of
the 24-hr fake news on the rest of the channels.
Skip Scott , July 17, 2018 at 6:55 am
Last night I blocked CNN on the TV where I am currently forced to reside. I am the only one with the p/w to unblock it. Take
that CNN!!!
Well said, as always, Realist, but the scary part is to read the vitriolic anti-Trump responses indicating the 'liberals' would
actually rather risk war! I just read a few of them and honestly wonder if there's any hope for this country, maybe we will have
to take some harsh lessons that will be meted out. They do not realize that they are assisting in bringing down every one of us
with their hate. The controllers who play them love it.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 8:47 pm
The danger is that they will bring their war hysteria into the next election and get someone elected that is even worse than
Hillary would have been.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 9:02 pm
I'm not convinced that anyone is control. "Time and chance come to them all."
Realist , July 17, 2018 at 2:46 am
My, how we have come full circle, Jessika. So, now it's the "liberals" who would rather be "dead" than "red?" That used to
be the far right John Birchers back in my youth. (Not that anyone anywhere on the planet is a genuine "communist" any longer,
not even in Cuba or North Korea.) I just wish there was some mechanism to allow them to self-immolate without killing or harming
the rest of us nearly 8 billion human beings. They have some potent demons colonizing what passes for their minds. Perhaps they
could use a convincing exorcist to drive the Hillary entity out of their system.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 8:54 am
All comes in cycles. Dixiecrats, anyone?
Brad Owen , July 17, 2018 at 12:09 pm
EXACTLY. Actually, FDR was the "Bernie Sanders" of his day, and completely turned the Party upside down with his "New Deal
for the forgotten man" (Labor and farmers). The traditional D-Party was the party of southern plantation aristocracy and their
money handlers on Wall Street, and the original R-Party contained the fire-breathing radicals within its ranks.
jose , July 16, 2018 at 8:10 pm
It is my understanding that Russia and US are holding approximately 90% of nuclear weapons worldwide. In a sane world, The
US media should be commending Trump for trying to reach an agreement regarding denuclearization with Putin. Nonetheless, Trump
is being grilled for doing what almost the entire planet is seeking: a world free of nuclear weapons. Indubitably, US national
media are very busy undermining Trump's efforts to reduce the scorch of nuclear war. Do the US media think that in a nuclear exchange
humans will survive? We will all lose.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 8:54 pm
No, the elites on both sides of the political spectrum are living in a mythical Hollywood rich man's fantasy world believing
that the worst that can happen to them is they will retreat to their luxury underground cities and live out the nuclear war, communicating
with their nuclear subs, while the rest of us paeons fry. They don't care about us, at all. They are congenital psychopaths.
It sounds crazy because it is, and it is hard for the rest of us to believe they could be so foolish. They are fatally misguided
in their beliefs that this would ever work and be good for them.
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 9:34 pm
I think your right. Joe
Jean wyman , July 16, 2018 at 9:53 pm
Good comment Jose. In answer to your observations, I'd pose a question: what was Obusha thinking when he proposed a 3TRILLION
dollar upgrade of America's nukes? Who exactly was it that he was placating and that T-rump isn't.
Skip Scott , July 16, 2018 at 8:09 pm
When the talking heads said that Trump trusted Putin more than his own Intelligence Agencies, I screamed at the TV, "ME TOO!".
I can think of no clearer sign that the CIA is still embedded with the MSM. Discussion of the history of our Intelligence Community
in both the near and distant past, and it's utter lack of trustworthiness, is a forbidden topic. My only hope is that enough people
actually listened to what Putin said, instead of the talking heads' rantings, and saw for themselves that Putin is a rational
and fair-minded leader. The near hysteria of Anderson Cooper and his ilk is a sure sign that their grip on the narrative is slipping.
jose , July 16, 2018 at 8:15 pm
I concur with your post. Personally, I rather listen to Putin than the US national media. You are correct to assert that "Putin
is a rational and fair-minded leader" You would have to be mentally retarded to pay any heed to US national media that have proven
to be a tool of those controlling the livers of power. Well done, Skip.
Joe Lauria , July 16, 2018 at 9:04 pm
"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:07 pm
Anderson Cooper, the grandson of Gloria Vanderbilt, and great-grandson of robber baron railroad mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt
is CIA trained in Operation Mockingbird. https://youtu.be/w8NTLVOjas8
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 9:33 pm
I said that once, and got booed out of the room. Joe
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 9:28 pm
Skip I hear ya, but allow me to tell you what I saw, and heard today. So after Trump made his remarks about trusting, or not
trusting, certain intelligence data, I while driving in my car heard callers calling in to the local talk show. The callers who
expressed themselves the way we do on this comment board were berated by the callers who thought this kind of talk (like we here
on CN talk) was treasonous by all known treasonous standards. The callers who sounded like we do here were labeled as their being
crazed Trump supporters, and yet all of them said of how they don't even necessarily like Trump, but right is right and left is
now warmongering. None of the other opposing callers bought this denial of Trump, as they just fluffed it off, as Trump supporters
hiding behind whatever it was their suppose to be hiding behind. Facts are painfully ignored, especially when it comes to analyzing
Trump.
I see the MSM pundits and the strongly patriotic lying legislators taking Trump's remarks while calling him a trader, as the
launching of a great American vs American social confrontation. This new confrontation will pit brother against brother, child
against parent, and wife against husband . just ask my wife. The discontent is about where we were back during the Vietnam years,
as the only thing missing are the peace marchs. This time our civil war will be fought strictly on a social level, aided by an
instigating MSM, as division messes up any real citizen advocacy as the citizen may require to straighten out any of this disconnection
of their society or that's at least the way I see it.
We citizens are officially at war with each other. We will all look back upon this period of our evolvement, and laugh over
the Facebook censorship, and dream of a time when it was merely just about politics, and taxes. We are moving in a direction where
the National Security Deep State is beating up an outsider maverick, and this maverick is now in the Deep States crosshairs. It's
darn strange, and I swear if something awful were to happen to President Trump that the MSM would encourage us Americans to make
Trump's ugly fate a new national holiday . I think there are many among this Deep State cabal who still celebrate with joy the
sad happenings of November 22nd, 1963.
The empire is finally going down, and we are all witnessing it first hand. Joe
Dave P. , July 17, 2018 at 4:14 am
"I see the MSM pundits and the strongly patriotic lying legislators taking Trump's remarks while calling him a trader, as the
launching of a great American vs American social confrontation. This new confrontation will pit brother against brother, child
against parent, and wife against husband . just ask my wife. . . ."
Good observation Joe. It already started happening some time back in our home. A truce was reached with a compromise that my
wife would not watch CNN, MSNBC . . . when I am around the house and I will not read CN and make comments, at least when she is
around. This morning my wife went to our retired neighbor's house to watch these channels with her. Both of them have been feeling
today as if some tragedy has happened.
That is what this two years of Russia Gate hysteria fueled by the Media and Politicians has done to the people. Today was probably
the worst day; they are really messing up the population. It is even worse than those cold war days of 1950's which I have read
about. And there is no end in sight.
Killary had a crap platform. That is why she lost. If the platform was something progressives could support, then people would
come out and vote for her. Her record of dependability is crap; just a double talking republican liar. No good. That's why she
lost. I didn't vote for her and won't vote for her if she is forced on us again. Lyle Courtsal
http://www.3mpub.com
jose , July 16, 2018 at 8:20 pm
You are correct Lyle about Hillary's lost. I would like to add the following:Vladimir Putin has not meddled in the US election,
Hillary Clinton has. Leaked emails reveal that the popular socialist Bernie Sanders had his chance of becoming president stolen
from him by Hillary Clinton and her associates at the Democratic National Committee. If defrauding democracy is worth going to
war over, certainly it is worth going to jail over. Millions of Americans had their votes stolen.
Litchfield , July 16, 2018 at 10:34 pm
Yes, I listened to some of her campaign speeches, and they were embarrassingly awful, and empty of ideas except inciting horror
of "Le Trump"! She was truly pathetic in her confidence that she was in the in-group, addressing others in the "in-group," thus
not needing to actually campaign.
Recently Hillary was awarded the Radcliffe medal, and she spoke at Radcliffe Day. I was horrified that she was given this honor.
I heard that she read from a Teleprompter. That indicates to me that she was and is indeed not physically up to the challenges
of the office, quite apart from her many other deficits.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 9:07 am
I wouldn't vote for a mass murderer. If you cannot fundamentally be for peace then all else, no matter how wonderful it sounds
(it could be) has nowhere to anchor.
John V. Walsh , July 16, 2018 at 8:05 pm
Great column.
There is no doubt that the Summit moved us away from confrontation with Russia which holds the grave danger of going nuclear.
Bravo for Trump and the brave words he spoke.
Now it is up to us.
If we wish the process to continue which these meetings with Putin initiated, let us raise our voices in support.
If we wish to let the neocons, "Deep State," Dem and GOP elites to stop the process, let us stay silent.
I read the New York times and the comments to the editorial. This is my comment.
The comments here sound like a lynch mob working themselves into a frenzy to hang someone. Proof? Who needs any dang proof.
Clapper the guy who admitted lying to Congress under oath said Trump was guilty and thats good enough for the people who commented
here. The Intelligence Agencies that lied to get the USA to invade Iraq with their WMD claims say he is guilty, well that must
be proof then.
This goes to show that Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every minute. But a whole nation suckered into believing this
nonsence about Russia having Trump elected with not one shred of evidence presented? Even Barnum would have been shocked and surprised
at that one.
Well, I guess that influential people on the inside figure that the "reign of terror" worked out so well in effecting regime
change during the French Revolution that they'd give it another go approximately two centuries later approximately a hundred years
after the Bolshevik Revolution, so maybe this is a natural phenomenon with a periodicity of about 100 years. Perhaps Hillary thinks
she's gonna pick up the pieces as the next Napoleon after the revolution burns itself out. More like her fate will be as the next
Robespierre, hoisted on her own guillotine.
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 9:11 am
Yes, the cycle is tied to the controlling currency, the USD in current day form. That control is rapidly slipping away. The
crooks are pulling the fire alarms in the bank and running out the back door and the public is looking for safety from the crooks'
army (MSM, "authority figures" etc.).
There is nothing left to say.
The summit only leaves one to speculate.
Realist , July 16, 2018 at 7:57 pm
It would seem that there is not a single independent, unbought, honest, objective journalist left working for the corporate
mass media in America. They are all mere puppets delivering the propaganda and fake analysis demanded of them by the oligarchy
that owns them. It's absolutely stunning how lock-step they all are in maintaining the false narrative cooked up by the careless
and arrogant tyrants who threw away a sure thing (Hillary's coronation) by pressing too hard to give her what they thought was
the biggest patsy (Trump) in the clown show called the presidential election. They were so confident they actually allowed the
ballots to be counted and have been scrambling to undo the results using every possible mechanism and pretext ever since. If there
is one thing the American people can count on in the future, it is that no election will ever again be semi-free, fair and not
rock-solid rigged with the contrived results agreed upon months before the charade of elections ever goes on.
A rational mind might say, well, give us more reasonable candidates, those in tune with the problems of the voters (mostly
caused by government), and give us more of them, more parties, more platforms, more options. That is exactly what they intend
to avoid. They tried to force feed us Hillary as the only acceptable figure running for the position, but enough people saw through
that and chose the fellow they wanted us to abhor after they deliberately built him up to help the despised Hillary. Now absolutely
every loyal apparatchik in the elite establishment, and most especially the mediathe essential propagandists, are working 24/7
for regime change in Washington, what they perceive as the necessary first step towards regime change in Moscow and later Beijing.
Only then will the NWOin which they give all the orders and control everything and everybodybe complete.
I tell you, the reach of their tentacles and the uniformity of response amongst their minions is impressive in a most foreboding
way. They will brook NO peaceful co-existence with any geopolitical "partners" or competitors and will not give even the slightest
iota of respect to our own elected leader, not even to his office out of formal courtesy. Rather than "going high" when he "goes
low," they choose to up the ante in ad hominem insults and political thuggery. The power structure in this country has become
irretrievably warmongering neo-con and ruthlessly imperialistic. The most catastrophic consequence will be to see the dissolution
of civilisation itself as the myriad of environmental, population and resource crises hit the planet full on as the century unfolds,
for thuggery, tyranny and simplistic political slogans are not the solutions for escaping the impending bottleneck with an actual
future still remaining for humanity.
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 8:42 pm
Hey Realist you brought back memories of the 2016 presidential election to when Trump was given 4.9 billion dollars worth of
free air time (JP Sottile quoted the 4.9). As it has been written about of how early on the Clinton campaign thought Trump was
the best to run up against, because who in their right mind would take the Trumpster serious, was the go to mindset among the
DNCer's. So the MSM turned on the cameras at Trump rallies believing that given enough rope that Trump would hang himself. The
backlash that came from this, was mind boggling on many levels. One no one likes Hillary, number two no one likes the MSM. So
with that the MSM, and Hillary's bend strategy was what loss the election for the Democrats, and oh yeah then there's Bernie.
I don't think in total we Americans are all living on the same planet. Joe
Mike From Jersey , July 16, 2018 at 8:55 pm
I am absolutely appalled by the behavior of the American media. They are acting like Trump is a disgrace to the country but
the MSM is a disgrace to journalism.
I don't even like Trump but to me he is coming out better in this exchange.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:17 pm
Excellent statement.
Sam F , July 16, 2018 at 9:29 pm
Indeed the US mass media are no more than propagandists for the arrogant tyrants of its government. But despite US bluster
and economic arm-twisting, educated people know that BRICS cannot be dominated so imperialism is theater not policy. Over 20-40
years, the US can only choose cooperation or self-embargo. Few educated people believe the recycled hysteria of invisible threats.
The enmity of the PTB toward Russia and Korea always starts with and returns to the Mideast and centers upon Israel, which
controls the US mass media and both political parties, and thereby appoints the politicians who control the military budget and
agenda. Indeed "no election will ever again be semi-free." The MIC is large and will attack small countries anywhere, but it is
the servant of Israel.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 17, 2018 at 2:22 am
People who complain aboutIsrael somehow never mention Dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, etc.
Sam F , July 17, 2018 at 6:26 am
Thank you for mentioning those; I did not have room in that comment.
Israel also substantially controls the Christian z leaders.
I thought Mueller was playing politics to announce the indictments of 12 Russians mere hours before Trump met Putin more and
more I'm losing faith in Mueller and the Democrats who have damn near destroyed their party themselves
Seer , July 17, 2018 at 9:17 am
If the fact that the Dems managed to undermine the people's choice for president (Sanders) isn't enough to convince you that
the Dems are destroyed then I don't know what to tell you.
I'm almost certain that the CIA had a hand in that: consider their infiltration into the MSM (ensuring that Sanders was not
talked about). Not only was the CIA involved in trying to derail Trump, but it was active in preempting Sanders. For sure, having
meddling in BOTH parties would likely bring out real pitch forks: when it's just one party it's easy to use the other party to
offset the anger. Joe, if you're reading these comments (still), I'd love to get your take on this "theory."
Thanks for this report, Mr. Lauria; you're certainly of stronger mettle than me. I would not have withstood the noxious exhalations
of the US newsmedia (which itself now openly includes newly "retired" intelligence agents as commentators) you've described in
this article; the anecdotes alone almost had me hurling my phone across the room.
Thank you for performing a valuable public service with this report. Peace.
Welcome to what passes for "reality" in 2018 America. If the stakes for humanity were not so frightfully high these bizarre,
slapstick, nonsense comments from the MSM talking heads would be knee-slapping hilarious in their total off the charts lunacy
and patent absurdity. What can one say? Wow off the freaking charts! You simply can't make this stuff up! Words are inadequate
in an age of mass delusion posing as sanity!
Gregory Herr , July 16, 2018 at 7:34 pm
I think your words "total off the charts lunacy and patent absurdity" are as adequate as they come in this situation.
Litchfield , July 16, 2018 at 10:42 pm
Not only absurd, though, but also deeply isulting, treasonous, really horrendous that our national-level journalists arrogate
to themselves the right to diss, insult, accuse, charge, condemn, vilify, etc. the president of the United States. I don't like
trump either, I hate waht he is doing in Israel, supporting the rabid Zionists there and here. BUT, standing up to the media and
intelligence onslaught took guts, and he came out of the meeting looking pretty good, I think. The meeting also gave Putin an
opportunity to score a few points for reason, thus an international platform he might otherwise not have had.
I LOVE the Putin points re Browder $$$ (rather, rubles) to Hillary. I do so hope that this topic is taken up and richly sucked
and considered and tasted and finally chewed and swallowed and digested and the real . . . finally is delivered to the AMerican
people regarding Hill's $$$ shenanigans. If that happens it could point once again to an investigation of her emails and those
of her assistant Huma Abedin. Remember her? When do we get the full investigation of this very compromised woman?
These people have no shame, as they take their massive paychecks for lying to keep the fools in line. Well, thanks to websites
like this one and others, there aren't so many fools anymore. They are pathetic, and days of Cronkite, Murrow et al who reported
news objectively are dead and buried.
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 9:38 pm
Probably they believe their own nonsense, at least when they say. Much as crooked preachers do.
Jean , July 16, 2018 at 10:30 pm
Cronkite wasn't so objective, Jessika. He was pretty bought into the glory of our Viet nam adventuring until the war protesters
(whom he did not represent objectively either) opened Amerika's eyes.
mike k , July 16, 2018 at 7:01 pm
FOR ONCE, I AM PROUD TO STAND WITH OUR PRESIDENT.
irina , July 16, 2018 at 7:17 pm
Roger That.
Mike From Jersey , July 16, 2018 at 8:14 pm
Ditto
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:21 pm
Me, too. An act of extraordinary political courage.
mike k , July 16, 2018 at 6:59 pm
That took guts, Mr. Trump. I didn't know you had it in you. Congratulations for standing up to your (deadly) opponents. They
are now showing themselves to be the evil scum they really are.
Rohit , July 16, 2018 at 6:57 pm
There is one small problem with this article. While I trust Consortium News far more than the New York Times, there are those
who trust the latter. And the article is far too long for those who already believe that Trump is guilty of collusion with Russia.
A shorter article by Consortium News with a one two punch is what is needed.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Oh, go pound sand, would you?
Zhu Ba Jie , July 16, 2018 at 9:40 pm
People don't change their minds because of rational arguments. Russiagate will go on, in spite of logic and evidence, much
as Birther nonsense does.
mike k , July 16, 2018 at 6:54 pm
I just listened to NBC nightly news, and CNN. They are screaming treason! And the end of America! They are absolutely aghast
that Trump is making peace moves with Putin. Doesn't he know that America is a Warfare State?? To talk peace is against everything
we hold sacred. Beware Mr. Trump, the CIA hit squads will be champing at the bit to field one of their "lone assassins on you".
Pray for the Donald not being gunned down for doing the right thing (for once).
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:37 pm
I still fear someone will do the president harm as a result of this. Trump is taking chances with the mafia that runs this
shadow permanent government, given this level of hysteria. They just have too much at stake. They are used to getting their way.
I hope I'm wrong. The last time a president took on the entire establishment to this extent was JFK. I wish I could be more optimistic.
Litchfield , July 16, 2018 at 10:44 pm
"They are screaming treason! "
How dare they???
they are the treasonous ones.
These crazed zombies are terrifying.
Gregory Herr , July 16, 2018 at 6:52 pm
"I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace, than risk peace in pursuit of politics."
Bravo Mr. President.
Joe Tedesky , July 16, 2018 at 8:27 pm
Great quote Gregory. Joe
Bruce Dickson , July 16, 2018 at 8:51 pm
A JFK-worthy quote, that.
And, to quote its deliverer, "Who would think..?"
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:23 pm
That one statement will go down in history, mark my words.
Jeff Harrison , July 16, 2018 at 6:40 pm
"never before have I seen an American president consistently, repeatedly, publicly, and shockingly advance the interests of
another country over those of his own government and people."
Really? You obviously haven't been paying attention to the US's obeisance to Israel. I can think of no other country that puts
another country's wishes ahead of their own the way the US does with Israel.
"he had a chance right there in front of the world to tell Vladimir Putin to stay the HELL out of American democracy, and he
didn't do it."
And he was wise not to do so. The United States has far more blatantly interfered with Russian elections than what the idiots
in our alphabet soup of intelligence agencies are accusing Russia of now. The reason you call Putin a thug is not because he is
one but because he won't let you get away with that kind of crap. Putin has made it clear that American regime change is off the
table and he intends to see to it that it stays off the table.
Rohit , July 16, 2018 at 7:30 pm
""never before have I seen an American president consistently, repeatedly, publicly, and shockingly advance the interests of
another country over those of his own government and people.""
Is that why he wants NATO to beef up? Is that why he complained about Germany's energy dependence on Russia?
He is not putting Putin above the American people. He is just not accepting the lies told by the FBI which is really pretty
much still controlled by Obama.
JesseJean , July 16, 2018 at 10:33 pm
Bravo, Jeff!
David Hamilton , July 16, 2018 at 6:34 pm
If the allegations are true of GRU officers successfully phishing for HRC campaign dirt from Chairman Podesta's emails
then the officers are guilty as charged. As I understand it, this was the avenue through which Wikileaks obtained the content
of Hillary Clinton's speeches to Goldman Sachs. That confirmation of what most already suspected to be true that Hillary had
been pledging fealty to Wall Street bankers at the expense of the people probably contributed to Hillary's defeat at the polls.
So, I say "more power to 'em". Those officers show common cause with the common man and woman in America. Hillary was never going
to release those transcripts on her own!
And that same phishing if true was certainly no "terrorist attack" or "act of war' or other hyperbolic nonsense like "the
undermining of democracy in America". We have no democracy only an oligarchy much like the Russians under Boris Yeltsin. Maybe
the phishing undermined oligarchy here, which would be a good thing. Oligarchy is at the heart of the cruel neo-liberal order
which tyrannizes the people.
Jeff Harrison , July 16, 2018 at 6:42 pm
Julian Assange has consistently said he did not get the files from Russia. Assange has yet to be caught in a lie. The US is
a serial liar and doesn't even look embarrassed when caught in a lie.
David Hamilton , July 16, 2018 at 6:49 pm
Thanks Jeff, maybe I don't understand the transfers to Wikileaks very well. I wonder if the FBI/Justice Department really knows,
like they say they do.
LarcoMarco , July 16, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Well, if DNC's servers and Hillarious' stealth servers and Podesta's email were hacked, the NSA has Hooverd up all the evidence
(if it exists). The Dumpster should demand this material be revealed and also demand disclosure of proof that RussiaGate is more
than Deep State designs.
Something must be done to release Assange! Trump: do something.
backwardsevolution , July 16, 2018 at 8:57 pm
Frederike I think Trump will release Assange. Patience.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:33 pm
911 ushered in the post-truth era.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:25 pm
Maybe they got the information because Hillary took home classified documents and recklessly-knowingly exposed them to hackers
in her private basement server?
Freedom lover , July 16, 2018 at 10:56 pm
"If the allegations are true". Well we probably will never find out will we. Putin was shrewd to offer to have Mueller and
his investigators come to Russia to investigate the indited GRU officers and offering full cooperation with Russian Law enforcement.
Putin and Trump both know that Mueller will make every excuse in the book of why that can't happen. Mueller must be craping his
pants wondering if he will somehow be forced to take his investigation to Russia and have it publically exposed for the fraud
that it is.
backwardsevolution , July 17, 2018 at 3:42 pm
Freedom lover yes, what a great move by Putin! "Come on, let's work together to get to the bottom of this." Mueller must
just be dying! Unfortunately, Trump is really in danger now.
"I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people." Translation: He has little confidence in Obama and Bush intelligence people.
Good for him.
JRGJRG , July 16, 2018 at 9:32 pm
Wow, that was explosive! Just imagine how bad things would be right now if someone other than Putin were in charge of Russia.
We should count ourselves as lucky.
James Cook
Verified account @BBCJamesCook
3h3 hours ago
BREAKING Under intense pressure, accused of treachery, President Trump now says he accepts the conclusion of US
intelligence that Russia 'meddled' in the US election. A lot of damage has already been done though.
----------
however....
Trump meets Putin officially in a summit: he's called traitor. By media. So what do we call Russia's opp filing into US
embassy 2012 an election year ?
In my last post, I mentioned the fake news that suddenly appeared to undermine President
Trump's peace effort with North Korea. I now learn the sole source of this "news" is Ken
Dilanian, the former national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He was
fired for having a "collaborative relationship" with the CIA . Ken Dilanian was publicly
fired from a major newspaper for inventing fake news in collaboration with the CIA, yet was
hired by NBC News! Now NBC allows him to write national security articles citing unnamed
intelligence sources! The worst part is that dozens of other corporate news organizations cite
his NBC stories. If they insist on repeating fake news, they should print this disclaimer at
the beginning of his articles:
Warning: This writer was fired by the Los Angeles Times for producing fake news in
secret cooperation with the CIA.
=>
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Technically, this is flag desecration--but Olbermann has hate America for years.
Of course, this begs
an obvious question. Traitor to
what?
In an "America" which no longer has a definable culture,
language,
ethnos
, history, identity or rule of law, what is there left to betray?
The open celebration of what any other
generation would have called "treason" reveals how fully self-discrediting is the Russian "interference"
narrative.
John Harington
famously quipped: "Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why, if it prosper,
none dare call it treason." The "Russian interference" narrative is false because the fact it can be loudly
denounced without being shut down for being the equivalent of "racist" or "xenophobic" shows Russia isn't
very powerful within our government and society.
In contrast, our government and media
seem to not only tolerate openly subversive or even hostile actions by foreign governments against the
United States, but celebrate them.
To criticize any of these countries, or
to suggest dual loyalty on the part of their supporters in this country, is political death. Of course, that
is because such dual loyalty is sufficiently strong that it is dangerous to broach the topic.
Indeed, for some in our Congress, dual
loyalty would be a massive improvement.
The only reason we can't call men like
these traitors is because there's no evidence they ever considered themselves Americans in any meaningful
way. What could be more ridiculous than considering
Chuck Schumer
"a fellow American" with some imaginary "common interest" he shares with me?
It's not double loyalty; that would be
giving Maher too much credit. And it's not treason, because Maher just isn't part of my people, by his own
standards. When Bill Maher refers to "us," I know that doesn't include me or my readers, and I know "the
Russians" hate me a lot less than he does.
Of course, there is a Trump associate
who has disturbing ties with a country doing just that. The main focus of the investigation into "Russian
collusion" is focusing on former
National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
. But Flynn's strongest ties to a foreign power seem to be to be
increasingly extreme and anti-European Turkey
of the autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Incredibly, Flynn
even wrote an editorial demanding more support for Turkey
on election day itself.
[
Our
ally Turkey is in crisis and needs our support
, by Michael Flynn, The Hill, November 8, 2016]
As Turkey is quite openly facilitating
the migrant invasion of Europe and helping ISIS, there's a far better case to claim our NATO "ally" is a
threat than Russia. And yet Flynn's ties to Turkey go all but unmentioned outside evangelical Christian
websites [
Best-selling
author predicted Flynn's departure
, WND,
February 14, 2017]. The MSM is utterly
indifferent to Flynn's ties to Erdogan, even when they seem to be utterly dedicated to destroying General
Flynn personally.
Part of it simply could be the defense
industry and the
"Deep State"
need an enemy with a powerful conventional military to justify their wealth and power. As
it can't be China (that would be racist), Russia will do.
The real reason Russia is hated is
because it is a
media threat.
Russia is funding, or at least is tied to, several alternative media
sources such as
RT,
possibly
Wikileaks, Sputnik etc.
Contrary to MSM claims,
RT
is hardly friendly to the "Alt-Right," instead promoting progressive hosts such as Thom Hartmann. But there
is at least a slightly different point of view than the monolithic Narrative promoted on every late night
comedy show, network news broadcast, cable news broadcast, newspaper headline, and Establishment website [
The
Hard Road For Putin
,
by Gregory Hood,
Radix,
July 22, 2014].
There is also an undeniable,
and openly articulated
, sense of racial hatred expressed against Russians by Jewish members of the
media. Russians are hated both as a specific
ethnos
and as a white nation which does not seem to be
fully committed to "our values," which, as defined by Weimerica's journalist class, consists of various
forms of degeneracy. [
Welcome
to Weimerica
,
by Ryan Landry,
Daily Caller,
May 5, 2017].
John Winthrop's "City Upon A Hill"
we are not.
It's not just idiotic but obscene that
the same journalists gleefully involved in deconstructing the American identity now demand Middle America
rally round the flag out of some misplaced Cold War nostalgia. Needless to say,
these same journalists loved Russia back when it was Communist
and killing millions of Orthodox
Christians.
For immigration patriots, it's
especially obnoxious because the eradication of the American identity is a result of mass immigration. And
immigration is more important than every other issue for two reasons.
Immigration cuts to the heart of what a country is, of who you mean when you say "my people." Are
Americans still one people? Indeed, it's hard to claim America is even a geographic expression: referring
to the United States shorthand
as "America" is now designated as offensive
. The replacement of existing American citizens is
celebrated
by the media and
funded
by our own government.
And even citizenship means nothing, The
MSM constantly promotes
Jose Antonio Vargas
and his illegal friends or the protesters who parade under foreign flags not just as
"Americans" but as people somehow more American than us.
It's a strange definition of patriotism
where wanting peaceful relations with Russia is "treason" but banning the American flag in public schools
because it might offend Mexicans
is government policy
.
Naturally, Leftist intellectuals and the
reporters who parrot their ideas do have some vague idea of "American" identity -- that of a "proposition" or
"universal" nation which exists only to fight a global struggle for equality [
Superpowers
,
by James Kirkpatrick,
NPI,
June 24, 2013].
But can you betray a "proposition
nation?" How exactly does someone turn against a "universal nation?"
Actually, you can. If you are part of
the historic American nation, one of those European-Americans who actually think of this country as a real
nation with a real culture, you are in a strange way the only people left out of what it means to be a
modern "American." To consider America a particular place with a specific culture and history that not
everyone in the world can join simply by existing is treason to a "universal nation." Everyone in the world
can be an "American," except, you know, actual Americans.
This is why the MSM is insistent that
the governing philosophy of "
America
First
," which should simply be a truism for any rational American government, is instead
something subversive and dangerous
.
The hard truth is that "our" rulers
aren't the guardians of our sovereignty, but the greatest threat to our independence.
And this isn't an unprecedented
circumstance in history. During the Napoleonic occupation of Prussia, Carl von Clausewitz
violated
his king's orders to join the invasion of Russia and instead joined the Tsar's forces in the
hope of someday liberating his own country. After all, it wasn't Tsar Alexander that was occupying Prussia;
it was Napoleon. And in the end, he won, Prussia was restored, and eventually it was Prussia that would
unite all of Germany.
The same situation applies today. Today,
those actively pursuing the destruction of my people, culture and civilization aren't in Moscow. I don't
even concede those are enemies at all.
Our enemies are in New York, Washington,
and Los Angeles, in "our" own media companies, government bureaucracies and intelligence agencies.
The real America is under occupation
and resistance to collaborators is patriotism to our country. We elected Donald Trump because we thought he
could help disrupt and perhaps even end that occupation so we could have a country once again.
The attempt to destroy the President has
ripped the mask off
the forces behind this occupation
. And we owe no loyalty to the collaborators who are trying to destroy
his administration, dispossess our people, and destroy our country.
Because in the end, "treason" to the
occupation is loyalty to America.
(Republished from
VDare
by permission of author or representative)
I concur completely. The Russians are not our enemies. The Russians have never been our enemies. The Soviet
behemoth may have harnessed the captive Russian bear, but, to paraphrase St. Paul, "Our battle was not with
flesh and blood Russians but with the the powers and principalities of international Jewry and its ugly and
deadly spawn, Judeo-Communism." Once it cast off those chains, Russia became a natural ally of the American
people, but not, of course, of the Atlanticist Zionist empire which the American deep state serves.
Orthodox Christian Russia and the United States had a true compatibility of interests, until the advent of
Roosevelt I and his war party of would be empire builders.
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
That saying - often misattributed to Euripides - comes to mind most mornings when I pick
up The New York Times and read the latest "Russiagate" headlines,
which are frequently
featured across two or three columns on the front page above the fold. This is an almost daily
reminder of the hysteria that dominates our Congress and much of our media.
A glaring example, just one of many from recent months, arrived at my door on February 17. My
outrage spiked when I opened to the Times'
lead
editorial
:
"Stop Letting the Russians Get Away With It, Mr. Trump."
I
had to ask myself:
"Did the Times' editors perform even the rudiments of due diligence before they climbed on
their high horse in this long editorial, which excoriated 'Russia' (not individual Russians) for
'interference' in the election and demanded increased sanctions against Russia 'to protect
American democracy'?"
It had never occurred to me that our admittedly dysfunctional political system is so
weak, undeveloped, or diseased that inept internet trolls could damage it. If that is the case, we
better look at a lot of other countries as well, not just Russia!
The New York Times, of course, is not the only offender.
Their editorial
attitude has been duplicated or exaggerated by most other media outlets in the United States,
electronic and print. Unless there is a mass shooting in progress, it can be hard to find a
discussion of anything else on CNN. Increasingly, both in Congress and in our media, it has been
accepted as a fact that "Russia" interfered in the 2016 election.
So what are the facts?
It is a fact that some Russians paid people to act as online trolls and bought
advertisements on Facebook during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. Most of these were
taken from elsewhere, and they comprised a tiny fraction of all the advertisements purchased on
Facebook during this period. This continued after the election and included organizing a
demonstration against President-elect Trump.
It is a fact that e-mails in the memory of the Democratic National Committee's computer were
furnished to Wikileaks. The US intelligence agencies that issued the January 2017 report were
confident that Russians hacked the e-mails and supplied them to Wikileaks, but offered no
evidence to substantiate their claim. Even if one accepts that Russians were the perpetrators,
however, the e-mails were genuine, as the US intelligence report certified. I have always
thought that the truth was supposed to make us free, not degrade our democracy.
It is a fact that the Russian government established a sophisticated television service (RT)
that purveyed entertainment, news, and -- yes -- propaganda to foreign audiences, including those in
the United States. Its audience is several magnitudes smaller than that of Fox News. Basically,
its task is to picture Russia in more favorable light than has been available in Western media.
There has been no analysis of its effect, if any, on voting in the United States. The January
2017 US intelligence report states at the outset, "We did not make an assessment of the impact
that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election." Nevertheless, that report has
been cited repeatedly by politicians and the media as having done so.
It is a fact that many senior Russian officials (though not all, by any means) expressed a
preference for Trump's candidacy. After all, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had compared
President Putin to Hitler and had urged more active US military intervention abroad, while Trump
had said it would be better to cooperate with Russia than to treat it as an enemy. It should not
require the judgment of professional analysts to understand why many Russians would find Trump's
statements more congenial than Clinton's. On a personal level, most of my Russian friends and
contacts were dubious of Trump, but all resented the Clinton's Russophobic tone, as well as
those made by Obama from 2014 onward. They considered Obama's
public
comment
that "Russia doesn't make anything" a gratuitous insult (which it was), and were
alarmed by Clinton's expressed desire to provide additional military support to the "moderates"
in Syria. But the average Russian, and certainly the typical Putin administration official,
understood Trump's comments as favoring improved relations, which they definitely favored.
There is no evidence that Russian leaders thought Trump would win or that they could have a
direct influence on the outcome. This is an allegation that has not been substantiated. The
January 2017 report from the intelligence community actually states that Russian leaders, like
most others, thought Clinton would be elected.
There is no evidence that Russian activities had any tangible impact on the outcome of the
election. Nobody seems to have done even a superficial study of the effect Russian actions
actually had on the vote. The intelligence-community report, however, states explicitly, "the
types of systems we observed Russian actors targeting or compromising are not involved in vote
tallying." Also both former FBI director James Comey and NSA director Mike Rogers
have
testified
that there is no proof Russian activities had an effect on the vote count.
There is also no evidence that there was direct coordination between the Trump campaign
(hardly a well-organized effort) and Russian officials. The indictments brought by the special
prosecutor so far are either for lying to the FBI or for offenses unrelated to the campaign such
as money laundering or not registering as a foreign agent.
So, what is the most important fact regarding the 2016 US presidential election?
The most important fact, obscured in Russiagate hysteria, is that Americans elected
Trump under the terms set forth in the Constitution.
Americans created the Electoral
College, which allows a candidate with the minority of popular votes to become president. Americans
were those who gerrymandered electoral districts to rig them in favor of a given political party.
The Supreme Court issued the infamous Citizens United decision that allows corporate financing of
candidates for political office. (Hey, money talks and exercises freedom of speech; corporations
are people!) Americans created a Senate that is anything but democratic since it gives
disproportionate representation to states with relatively small populations. It was American
senators who established non-democratic procedures that allow minorities, even sometimes single
senators, to block legislation or confirmation of appointments.
Now, that does not mean that Trump's presidency is good for the country just because Americans
elected him. In my opinion, the 2016 presidential and congressional elections pose an imminent
danger to the republic. They have created potential disasters that will severely try the checks and
balances built into our Constitution. This is especially true since both houses of Congress are
controlled by the Republican Party, which itself represents fewer voters than the opposition party.
I did not personally vote for Trump, but I consider the charges that Russian actions
interfered in the election, or - for that matter - damaged the quality of our democracy ludicrous,
pathetic, and shameful.
"
Ludicrous
" because there is no logical reason to think that anything
that the Russians did affected how people voted. In the past, when Soviet leaders tried to
influence American elections, it backfired -- as foreign interference usually does everywhere. In
1984, Yuri Andropov, the then Soviet leader made preventing Ronald Reagan's reelection the
second-most-important task of the KGB. (The first was to detect US plans for a nuclear strike on
the Soviet Union.) Everything the Soviets did -- in painting Reagan out to be a warmonger while
Andropov refused to negotiate on nuclear weapons -- helped Reagan win 49 out of 50 states.
"
Pathetic
" because it is clear that the Democratic Party lost the
election. Yes, it won the popular vote, but presidents are not elected by popular vote. To blame
someone else for one's own mistakes is a pathetic case of self-deception.
"
Shameful
" because it is an evasion of responsibility. It prevents
the Democrats, and those Republicans who want responsible, fact-based government in Washington,
from concentrating on practical ways to reduce the threat the Trump presidency poses to our
political values and even to our future existence. After all, Trump would not be president if
the Republican Party had not nominated him. He also is most unlikely to have won the Electoral
College if the Democrats had nominated someone -- almost anyone -- other than the candidate they
chose, or if that candidate had run a more competent campaign. I don't argue that any of this
was fair, or rational, but then who is so naive as to assume that American politics are either
fair or rational?
Instead of facing the facts and coping with the current reality, the Russiagate
promoters in both the government and the media, are diverting our attention from the real threats.
I should add "dangerous" to those three adjectives. "Dangerous" because making an enemy of
Russia, the other nuclear superpower -- yes, there are still two -- comes as close to political insanity
as anything I can think of. Denying global warming may rank up there too in the long run, but only
nuclear weapons pose, by their very existence in the quantities that are on station in Russia and
the United States, an immediate threat to mankind -- not just to the United States and Russia and not
just to "civilization." The sad, frequently forgotten fact is that since the creation of nuclear
weapons, mankind has the capacity to destroy itself and join other extinct species.
In their first meeting, President Ronald Reagan and then General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev
agreed that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought." Both believed that simple and
obvious truth and their conviction enabled them to set both countries on a course that ended the
Cold War. We should think hard to determine how and why that simple and obvious truth has been
ignored of late by the governments of both countries.
We must desist from our current Russophobic insanity and encourage Presidents Trump and
Putin to restore cooperation in issues of nuclear safety, non-proliferation, control of nuclear
materials, and nuclear-arms reduction. This is in the vital interest of both the United States and
Russia. That is the central issue on which sane governments, and sane publics, would focus their
attention.
Vote up!
8
Vote down!
2
"... According to Giuliani, setting up shell companies is a trick people of wealth learned from either the Israeli Mafia or the CIA. Though it could be the other way around. ..."
"... Rhetorical question: What could somebody do with $250,000? Answer: pay off two prostitutes! ..."
Donald
Trump's sex life is nobody's business but his own. And maybe Melania's, if her Pre-Nuptial
Agreement (PNA) stipulates that she can sue his fat ass for divorce and receive a huge
percentage of his rumored wealth if he cheats on her, too often.
Like the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) Trump's fixer, Michael Cohen, signed with porn star
Stormy Daniels (who had a quickie with Trump in 2006), prenups and private goon squads are
standard fare for people of wealth.
But is Trump wealthy? And if so, where did he get his cash?
Some people say he laundered about $400 million in drug money for the Israeli Mafia's
Russian franchise back in the early 1990's, in exchange for everything he ever wanted. I don't
know if that's a fact. That's what I hear. People say it. Maybe somebody like Robert Mueller
should investigate?
Fox News says the president isn't mobbed up, that everyone in New York City has to work with
the Mafia if they want a hotel constructed on time. And that could be true.
But what is Truth? It's impossible to tell anymore.
The Truth could be that either the Deep State or the Israeli Mafia is forcing Trump to do
many terrible things he doesn't really want to do. Like deep-sixing the Iran deal. Somebody's
fingerprints are all over that baby's behind. Maybe Michael Cohen knows? Somebody should ask
him.
Trump is obviously a victim of either the Deep State or the Israeli Mafia and its American
franchise. You choose. But consider this: On the same day Trump scrapped the Iran deal, someone
said that Russian billionaire Victor Vekselberg (who just happens to be Putin's BFF) wired
$500,000 into a bank account that hatchet man Cohen (who doubles as Trump's real estate broker)
set up for the purpose of issuing the $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels.
I don't know if that's true. Sean Hannity says it isn't true. Rudy Giuliani says it might be
true, and that it doesn't matter even if it is True, because people of wealth often set up
shell companies to hide their business dealings from the Public Eye, which is their right as
people of wealth.
According to Giuliani, setting up shell companies is a trick people of wealth learned from
either the Israeli Mafia or the CIA. Though it could be the other way around.
Another one of Trump's prerogatives as a person of wealth is the right to charge people
money to play with him. Trump's business consultant, Michael Cohen (who may work for the
Israeli Mafia, I don't know), funnels such "pay to play" money into the same bank accounts he,
Cohen, uses to pay off the women Trump has casual and unsatisfactory (for them ) sex with.
BTW, I forgot to mention it, but Vekselberg's cousin, American citizen Andrew Intrater,
donated $250,000 to Trump's inauguration fund.
Rhetorical question: What could somebody do with $250,000? Answer: pay off two
prostitutes!
Somebody in the Deep State (which, according to Hannity, is the code name for the Justice
Department) knows about this, but let's it happen, because Trump is, after all, a person of
wealth with certain rights to privacy.
... ... ...
Stormy, who whipped Trump's fat ass with a copy of Trump Magazine back in 2006, is an
eyewitness to The Thing. When asked by Penthouse to compare his penis size to "his fingers,"
Daniels said, "I don't want to shame anybody."
Attention
Hookers : Special Counsel urgently needs your stories. We pay top dollar. Big tits, role-play,
and lying required. Television experience preferred. No drug screening. No background check.
Transportation included.
Call 1-800-George-Soros or contact the Law Offices of Wray, Mueller, and Rosenstein,
LLC.
Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner, billed as a celebration of the
First Amendment and a tribute to journalists who "speak truth to power," has to be the worst
advertisement in memory for our national press corps.
Comedian Michelle Wolf, the guest speaker, recited one filthy joke after another at the
expense of President Trump and his people, using words that would have gotten her kicked out of
school not so long ago.
Media critic Howard Kurtz said he had "never seen a performance like that," adding that Wolf
"was not only nasty but dropping F-bombs on live television." Some of her stuff was grungier
than that.
The anti-Trump media at the black-tie dinner laughed and whooped it up, and occasionally
"oohed" as Wolf went too far even for them, lending confirmation to Trump's depiction of who
and what they are.
While the journalistic elite at the black-tie dinner was reveling in the raw sewage served
up by Wolf, Trump had just wrapped up a rally in Michigan.
The contrast between the two assemblies could not have been more stark. We are truly two
Americas now.
"Why would I want to be stuck in a room with a bunch of fake-news liberals who hate me?"
said Trump in an email to supporters, adding that he would much rather "spend the evening with
my favorite deplorables who love our movement and love America."
Stormy Daniels' legal team - led by lawyer Michael Avenatti - must be getting bored since a federal judge in Los Angeles
ordered a 90-day delay of her lawsuit against President Trump and his former personal attorney Mike Cohen (who has promised to
plead the fifth during the proceedings). Because Stormy has filed another defamation lawsuit, this time exclusively against
President Trump, as
Reuters
reports.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in New York on Monday, seeks damages from Trump for a
tweet he sent earlier this month where he criticized a composite sketch that, Daniels said,
depicted a man who had threatened her in 2011. He reportedly demanded that she stay quiet about her
sexual encounter with Trump. That would've been around the time she gave an interview about her
affair with Trump to In Touch magazine which wasn't published until recently.
Her previous lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, sought to have her released from an NDA she signed
shortly before the 2016 vote where she also accepted a $130,000 "hush money" payment from Cohen.
"A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job,
playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!," Trump
said.
According to the filing, cited by the
Associate Press
and Reuters, the tweet was "false and defamatory"
arguing that Trump knew what he was saying out Daniels' claim was
false and also disparaging.
The lawsuit also claims Daniels has been exposed to death threats
and other threats of "physical violence."
Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, is seeking a jury
trial and unspecified damages.
"We intend on teaching Mr. Trump that you cannot simply make
things up about someone and disseminate them without serious
consequences," Avenatti said.
As the
Associated Press
points out, Daniels, aided by Avenatti, has
sought to keep her case in the public eye. She revealed the sketch
that Trump mocked during an appearance on the View earlier this
month. Trump is facing another defamation lawsuit in New York, this
one filed by Summer Zervos, a former "The Apprentice" contestant who
says Trump made unwanted sexual contact with her in 2007. She sued
him after Trump dismissed her claims.
0
" Now, that your tastes at this time should incline
towards the juvenile is understandable; but for you to marry
that boy would be a disaster. Because there's two kinds of
women. There are two kinds of women and you, as we well
know, are not the first kind. You, my dear, are a slut. "
"We intend on teaching Mr. Trump that you cannot simply make things up about
someone and disseminate them without serious consequences," Avenatti said.
"We intend on teaching
THE PRESS
that you cannot simply make
things up about someone and disseminate them without serious consequences,"
Avenatti said.
"... "He doesn't even understand what DACA is. He's an idiot," Kelly said in one meeting, according to two officials who were present. "We've got to save him from himself." ..."
"... According to NBC's sources, Kelly has been hiding behind his public image as a four-star, while in truth operating in an "undisciplined and indiscreet" manner. "The private manner aides describe may shed new light on why Kelly now finds himself -- just nine months into the job -- grappling with diminished influence and a drumbeat of questions about how long he'll remain at the White House . ..."
Update 2: President Trump has now responded directly, blasting the "fake news making up
false stories" as "totally unhinged."
Update 1 : Bloomberg's White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs reports that John Kelly has responded to MSNBC's claim he calls Trump an "idiot.
"I spend more time with the president than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid
and strong relationship.
He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS. I am
committed to the president, his agenda, and our country."
"This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump..."
* * *
White House chief of staff John Kelly has reportedly been undermining morale in the West
Wing in recent months - commenting to aides that President Trump is an idiot, while touting
himself as the "savior of the country,"
reports NBC News , citing "eight current and former White House officials."
The officials said Kelly portrays himself to Trump administration aides as the lone
bulwark against catastrophe , curbing the erratic urges of a president who has a questionable
grasp on policy issues and the functions of government. He has referred to Trump as "an
idiot" multiple times to underscore his point , according to four officials who say they've
witnessed the comments. -
NBC News
NBC notes that three White House spokespeople say the "idiot" thing just isn't true, and he
may have spoken in jest about saving the country.
In one heated exchange between the two men before February's Winter Olympics in South
Korea, Kelly strongly -- and successfully -- dissuaded Trump from ordering the withdrawal of
all U.S. troops from the Korean peninsula , according to two officials.
For Kelly, the exchange underscored the reasoning behind one of his common refrains, which
multiple officials described as some version of " I'm the one saving the country. "
"The strong implication being ' if I weren't here we would've entered WWIII or the
president would have been impeached ,'" one former senior White House official said. - NBC
News
"He doesn't even understand what DACA is. He's an idiot," Kelly said in one meeting,
according to two officials who were present. "We've got to save him from himself."
According to NBC's sources, Kelly has been hiding behind his public image as a four-star,
while in truth operating in an "undisciplined and indiscreet" manner. "The private manner aides
describe may shed new light on why Kelly now finds himself -- just nine months into the job --
grappling with diminished influence and a drumbeat of questions about how long he'll remain at
the White House ."
"He says stuff you can't believe," one senior White House official tells NBC News . " He'll
say it and you think, 'That is not what you should be saying. '"
According to presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Kelly's comments about Trump vs.
prior White House chiefs of "suggest a lack of respect for the sitting president of a kind that
we haven't seen before," adding that the closest would have to be President Ronald Reagan's
chief of staff, Don Regan, who "somewhat looked down on" The Gipper, and eventually lost
Reagan's support - having been replaced after two years by Howard Baker.
Meanwhile, insults or not, Trump is said to have soured on Kelly - and is aware of some,
"though not all" of Kelly's comments. And as NBC News points out, " The last time it became
public that one of Trump's top advisers insulted his intelligence behind his back, it didn't go
over well with the president . White House aides have said Trump never got over former
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling him a "moron" in front of colleagues , which was first
reported by NBC News. Trump later challenged Tillerson to an IQ test and fired him several
months after the remark became public."
Current and former White House officials said Kelly has at times made remarks that have
rattled female staffers . Kelly has told aides multiple times that women are more emotional
than men , including at least once in front of the president, four current and former
officials said.
And during a firestorm in February over accusations of domestic abuse against then-White
House staff secretary Rob Porter, Kelly wondered aloud how much more Porter would have to
endure before his honor could be restored , according to three officials who were present for
the comments. He also questioned why Porter's ex-wives wouldn't just move on based on the
information he said he had about his marriages, the officials said.
So in addition to Kelly allegedly calling Trump an idiot, he's also a misogynist, according
to NBC.
Kelly is expected to leave by July - his one-year mark, according to sources, however others
say it's anyone's guess. That said, "what's clear is both Trump and Kelly seem to have tired of
each other."
" Kelly appears to be less engaged, which may be to the president's detriment ," a second
senior White House official said. If NBC is correct, we're about to once again play White House
Musical Chairs.
That said, when reached for comment, Kelly that it's all more fake news:
"He and I both know this story is total BS. I am committed to the president, his agenda,
and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump...
"
One hopes that is the case, then again one also remembers the Rex Tillerson incident...
"... Cohen acknowledged that he paid porn star "Stormy Daniels" $130,000 two weeks before the 2016 election in exchange for her staying silent about her 2006 affair with Trump. No one pays for silence unless there is something to hide. The payment was made 10 years after the alleged dalliance. ..."
"... The obvious purpose was to influence the outcome of the election by concealing damaging information about Mr. Trump's character. That made Mr. Cohen's payment an undisclosed campaign "contribution" to Mr. Trump vastly exceeding the individual statutory limit of $2,700. ..."
"... Maybe you should have picked an example where the defendant wasn't acquitted. It's easy to see how an expansive definition of the term "campaign contribution" could be dangerous. ..."
So what of these charges against Cohen and could they really hurt the president?
Federal election laws define a campaign contribution as "anything of value given to
influence a Federal election." It is common knowledge that Mr. Cohen acknowledged that he paid
porn star "Stormy Daniels" $130,000 two weeks before the 2016 election in exchange for her
staying silent about her 2006 affair with Trump. No one pays for silence unless there is
something to hide. The payment was made 10 years after the alleged dalliance.
The obvious
purpose was to influence the outcome of the election by concealing damaging information about
Mr. Trump's character. That made Mr. Cohen's payment an undisclosed campaign "contribution" to
Mr. Trump
vastly exceeding the individual statutory limit of $2,700.
Similarly, Democrat John Edwards was prosecuted (later acquitted) for soliciting and
spending nearly $1 million in his 2008 presidential campaign to conceal his affair with Rielle
Hunter, so this is not a crime normally brushed under the rug. The public record also
establishes probable cause to believe Cohen was behind the payment of $150,000 to Playboy Bunny
Karen McDougall to kill her story about a protracted extramarital relationship with Mr. Trump
that could have torpedoed his presidential ambitions. The question remains, of course, how much
this will implicate and hurt Trump, who has denied the affair with Daniels and any other
"wrongdoing." Cohen said he paid Daniels out of his own pocket and was not reimbursed by Trump
or the campaign.
John Edwards was acquited on one charge and a mistrial on five others w/o retrial. So there
was no conviction there, these actions are not business as usual, and the DOJ lesson from
that case should have been to cease such abusive prosecutorial misconduct, not to repeat it.
These examples show why campaign finance restrictions are an unconstitutional burden on
freedom of association. Trump is a rich man, so could afford to pay the hush money if he
believed it necessary without it being a crime. As it appears, Cohen believed it important to
pay w/o asking Trump, thinking he's helping a friend. Now what of Edwards? Maybe Edwards
couldn't afford to pay hush money, so he needed and solicited help from friends. By making it
a crime for friends to help him, the law favors rich candidates like Trump that can afford to
do things others can't without breaking the law.
There is zero chance of a jury conviction here, so DOJ shouldn't have pursued it given the
incendiary effect of conducting raids on someone's attorney. Furthermore, there's zero chance
of Muller getting jury convictions on the pile of horse manure prosecutions he's pursuing.
The only convictions Muller is getting is from people buckling under the fiduciary extortion
inherent in his tactics and copping a plea even though a jury would never convict them.
Similarly, Democrat John Edwards was prosecuted for soliciting and spending nearly $1
million in his 2008 presidential campaign to conceal his affair with Rielle Hunter, so this
is not a crime normally brushed under the rug.
Maybe you should have picked an example where the defendant wasn't acquitted. It's
easy to see how an expansive definition of the term "campaign contribution" could be
dangerous.
History repeats itself. An investigation motivated by some alleged abuse deploys drift nets,
finds nothing so it changes the focus to the sexual history of the target. Hush money for
consensual sex is legal as far as I know -- I do not know the law, but it became known and
studiously ignored by the special prosecutor. So he tries to discover any possible past deal
that is somehow illegal, and recorded as illegal? A bit of a fat chance.
Looks like Rosenstein is after Trump. he authorized this action.
Notable quotes:
"... Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who personally approved the move to seek a search warrant for Cohen's records, which included raids Monday on his home and office, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation. ..."
Federal prosecutors investigating President Trump's personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, are seeking records
related to two women who received payments in 2016 after alleging affairs with Trump years ago -- adult-film star
Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The interest in both Daniels and McDougal indicates that federal investigators are trying to determine whether
there was a broader pattern or strategy among Trump associates to buy the silence of women whose accounts could harm
the president's electoral chances and whether any crimes were committed in doing so, the person said.
... ... ...
The high stakes of the case were underscored by the involvement of Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who
personally approved the move to seek a search warrant for Cohen's records, which included raids Monday on his home
and office, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.
Rosenstein's role has infuriated Trump, who was left "stunned" and "livid" by the aggressive move by prosecutors
Monday, according to an outside adviser in frequent touch with the White House.
Cohen, Trump's longtime attorney, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign
finance violations, The Washington Post
reported
Monday.
This is probably the most vicious attack on Trump trangressions that i encountered so far...
Notable quotes:
"... The problem for Trump is that what his accusers are saying puts him in legal and political jeopardy. They are claiming, in effect, that he has committed a variety of unlawful and impeachable offenses from obstruction of justice to violations of campaign finance laws. ..."
"... The Clinton-Lewinsky dalliance led to a series of events that prevented Clinton from doing even more harm to our feeble welfare state institutions than he would otherwise have done. ..."
There is no doubt about it: Stormy Daniels is a formidable woman. Karen McDougal is no slouch either, though she is hard to admire
after that riff, in her Anderson Cooper interview, about how religious and Republican she is; she even said that she used to love
the Donald. Stormy Daniels is better than that.
How wonderfully appropriate it would be if she were to become the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.
Even in a world as topsy-turvy as ours has become, there has to be a final straw.
To be sure, evidence of Trump's vileness, incompetence, and mental instability is accumulating at breakneck speed, and there are
polls now that show support for him holding fast or even slightly rising. Trump's hardcore "base" seems more determined than ever
to stand by their man.
But even people as benighted as they are bound to realize eventually that they have been had. Many of them already do, but don't
care; they hate Clinton Democrats that much. This is understandable, but foolish; so foolish, in fact, that they can hardly keep
it up indefinitely.
To think otherwise is to despair for the human race.
What, if anything, can bring them to their senses in time for the 2018 election?
Stormy Daniels says she only wants to tell her story, not bring Trump down. But her political instincts seem decent, and she is
one shrewd lady. Therefore, I would not be the least surprised if that is not quite true. It hardly matters, though, what her intentions
are; I'd put my money on her.
A recession might also do the trick. A recession is long overdue, and Trump's tax cut for the rich and his tariffs are sure to
make its consequences worse when it happens.
To turn significant portions of Trump's base against him, a major military conflagration might also do -- not the kind Barack
Obama favored, fought far away and out of public view, but a real war, televised on CNN, and waged against an enemy state like North
Korea or Iran. It would have to go quickly and disastrously wrong, though, in ways that even willfully blind, terminally obtuse Trump
supporters could not fail to see.
Or the gods could smile upon us, causing Trump's exercise regimen (sitting in golf carts) and his fat-ridden, cholesterol rich
diet to catch up with him, as it would with most other sedentary septuagenarians. The only downside would be that a heart attack
or stroke might elicit sympathy for the poor bastard. No sane person could or should hope for a calamitous economic downturn or for
yet another devastating, pointless, and manifestly unjust war, especially one that could become a war to end all wars (along with
everything else), on the off-chance that some good might come of it. And if the best we can do is hope that cheeseburgers with fries
will save us, we are grasping at straws.
These are compelling reasons to hope that the accusations made by Daniels and McDougal and Summer Zervos and other consensual
and non-consensual Trump victims and "playmates" gain traction. If the several defamation lawsuits now in the works can get the
president deposed, this is not out of the question.
The problem for Trump is not that his accusers' revelations will cause his base to defect; no matter how salacious their stories
and no matter how believable they may be. Trump's moral turpitude is taken for granted in their circles; and they do not care about
the myriad ways his words and deeds offend the dignity of the office he holds or embarrass the country he purports to put "first."
If any of that mattered to them, they would have jumped ship long ago.
Except perhaps for unreconstructed racists and certifiable sociopaths, white evangelicals are Trump's strongest supporters. What
a despicable bunch of hypocrites they are! As long as Trump delivers on their agendas, his salacious escapades don't faze them at
all. Godly folk have evidently changed a good deal since the Cotton Mather days.
What has not changed is their seemingly limitless ability to believe nonsense.
And in case light somehow does manage to shine through, Trump has shown them how to restore the darkness they crave. When cognitive
dissonance threatens, all they need do is scream "fake news."
The problem for Trump is that what his accusers are saying puts him in legal and political jeopardy. They are claiming, in
effect, that he has committed a variety of unlawful and impeachable offenses from obstruction of justice to violations of campaign
finance laws.
In this case as in so many others, it is the cover-up, not the underlying "crime," that could lead to his undoing especially
if the stories Daniels and the others are telling shed light upon or otherwise connect with or meld into Robert Mueller's investigation
of (alleged) Russian "meddling" in the 2016 election.
Trump could and probably will survive their charges. His base is such a preternaturally obdurate lot that there may ultimately
be no last straw for them. We may have no choice, in the end, but to despair for a sizeable chunk of the human race.
Stormy Daniels would not be any less admirable on that account. She took Trump on and came out on top. For all the world (minus
the willfully blind) to see, she, the porn star, is a strong woman who has her life together, while he, the president, is a discombobulated
sleaze ball who is leading himself and his country to ruin.
***
It was different with Monica Lewinsky, another presidential paramour who, almost two decades ago, also held the world's attention.
There was nothing sleazy or venal about Lewinsky's involvement with Bill Clinton; and, for all I know, unless chastity counts,
she is as good and virtuous a person as can be. But personal qualities are not what made her affair with our forty-second president
as historically significant as it turned out to be.
It would be fair to say that of all the women who have ever had intimate knowledge of that old horn dog's private parts, there
is no one who did more good for her country. If only for that, if there were a heaven, there would be special place in it just for
her.
The Clinton-Lewinsky dalliance led to a series of events that prevented Clinton from doing even more harm to our feeble welfare
state institutions than he would otherwise have done.
Who knows how much progress he would have turned back had he and Monica never done the deed or at least not been found out. Building
on groundwork laid down by Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush, he and his wife had already terminated Aid to Families With Dependent
Children, one of the main government programs aimed at relieving poverty. This was to be just the first step in "ending welfare as
we know it."
With their "donors" pushing for more austerity, those two neoliberal pioneers were itching to begin privatizing other, more widely
supported social programs, including even Social Security, the so-called "third rail" of American politics.
The "Lewinsky matter" put the kybosh on that idea, leaving the American people forever in Monica's debt.
Back in the Kennedy days, Mel Brook's two-thousand year old man got it right when he said: presidents "gotta do it," to which
he added " because if they don't do it to their wives and girlfriends, they do it to the nation."
Stormy Daniels made much the same point ten years ago, while flirting with the idea of running against Louisiana Senator David
Vitter. Vitter's political career had been almost ruined when his name turned up in the phone records of the infamous "DC Madam,"
Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Daniels told voters that, unlike Vitter, she would "screw (them) honestly."
What then are we to make of the fact that Trump screws both the nation and his wife (maybe) and his girlfriends (or whatever they
are)?
Blame it on arrested development, on the fact that despite his more than seventy-one years, Trump still has the mind of a teenage
boy, one with money and power enough to live out his fantasies.
The contrast with Bill Clinton is stark. Clinton is a philanderer with eclectic tastes, a charming rascal with a broad and mischievous
mind. Honkytonk women from Arkansas appeal to him as much as zaftig MOTs from the 90210 area code.
Trump, on the other hand, goes for super-models, Playboy centerfolds, and aspiring beauty queens -- standard teenage
fantasy fare.
He seems to have had little trouble living his dreams not thanks to his magnetic face, form and figure, and certainly not to
his refinement, wit or charm, but to his inherited and otherwise ill-gotten wealth.
It is money and the power that follows from it that draws women to his net.
Henry Kissinger understood; recall his musings on the aphrodisiacal properties of power. Even in his prime, that still unindicted
war criminal (and later-day Hillary Clinton advisor) was even more repellent than Trump. But that never kept him from having to fight
the ladies off.
This fact of life puts a heavy responsibility on the women with whom presidents hook up.
Consider Melania. She made a Faustian bargain when she agreed to become Trump's trophy bride; in return for riches and a soft
life in a gilded tower, she sold her soul. She might have thought better of it had she taken the burdens she would incur as First
Lady into account, but why would she? The prospect was too improbable.
She has, it seems, a very practical, old world view of marriage, and is therefore tolerant of her husband's womanizing. At the
same time, as a mother and daughter, she is, like most immigrants, a strong proponent of old world "family values."
Too much of a proponent perhaps; insofar as her idea was to "chain migrate" her parents out of Slovenia and onto Easy Street,
or to raise a kid who would never want for anything, there were less onerous ways of going about it. After all, there are plenty
of rich Americans lusting after supermodels out there, and it is a good bet that many of them are less repellent than Trump.
She was irresponsible as well. She ought to have realized that the man she married had already spawned two idiot sons, along with
other fruit from the poisonous tree, and that four bad apples in one generation are enough.
And so now she finds herself a single mother not in theory, of course, but very definitely in practice. Unlike most women in
that position, she is not wanting for resources. But it must be a hard slog, even so. To her credit, Melania seems to be handling
the burden well. More power to her!
She also deserves credit for her body language when the Donald is around; the contempt she shows for him is wonderful to behold.
Best of all is her sense of the absurd. The way she plagiarized from Michelle Obama had obvious comic validity, and making childhood
bullying her First Lady cause all First Ladies have causes -- was a stroke of genius.
On balance, therefore, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. Of all the women in Trump's ambit, she deserves humiliation the least.
The rumor mill has it that with all the publicity about Daniels and the others , she has finally had enough. This may
be the case; the old world ethos requires discretion and a concern with appearances. That is not the Donald's way, however, and now
she is paying the price.
What a magnificent humiliation it would be if she and Trump were to split up on that account. This could happen soon. I would
expect, though, that through a combination of carrots and sticks, Trump and his fixers will find a way to minimize the political
effects. More likely still, they will channel Joe Kennedy and Jackie O, and figure out a way to head the problem off.
Then there is poor forgotten Tiffany. Her Wikipedia entry lists her as both a law student and a "socialite." I hope her studious
side wins out and that, despite the genes from her father's side, she is at least somewhat decent and smart.
I'd be more confident of that if she would do what Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patti, did: use her mother's, not her father's, name.
Unless she is a sleaze ball too, a Trump in the Eric and Don Junior mold, that would be a fine way to make a political point.
It would also pay back over the years. With the Trump administration on its current trajectory, who, in a few years' time, would
take a Tiffany Trump seriously? A Tiffany Maples would stand a better chance.
Her half-sister, the peerless Ivanka, the Great Blonde Hope, is, of course, her father's sweetie. Let's not go there, however.
Her marriage to Jared Kushner is already enough to process.
What a pair those two make; and what a glorious day it will be when the law finally catches up with Jared, as it did with his
Trump-like father, Charles. Perhaps he will take Ivanka down a notch or two with him. Despite an almost complete lack of qualifications,
Trump made his son-in-law his minister of almost everything; a pretty good gig for a feckless, airhead rich kid. Among other things,
Trump enabled him to become Benjamin Netanyahu's ace in the hole. Netanyahu is a Kushner family friend. Netanyahu has more than his
share of legal troubles too. Let them all go down together!
Ivanka and Jared are well matched they share a "business model." It has them exploiting their daddies' connections and money.
Jared peddles real estate; his efforts have gotten his family into serious debt, while putting him in solid with Russian and Eastern
European oligarchs, Gulf state emirs, and Mohammad bin Salman people in comparison with whom his father-in-law seems almost virtuous.
Ivanka sells trinkets and schmatas to people who think the Trump name is cool. There actually are such people; at two
hundred grand a pop, Mar-a-Lago is full of them. Ivanka's demographic is made up mostly of their younger set.
Two other presidential women bare mention: Hope Hicks and Nikki Haley. Surely, they both have tales to tell, but it looks, for
now, as if their stories would be of little or no prurient interest. Neither of them appear to have been propositioned or groped.
Even though Hicks is said to be like a daughter to the Donald we know what that could mean! it is a safe bet that there was
nothing of a romantic nature going on between them. For one thing, Hicks seems too close to Ivanka; for another, she is known to
have dallied with two Trump subordinates, Corey Lewandowski and Rob Porter. The don is hardly the type to let his underlings have
at his women.
Haley had to quash a spate of rumors that flared up thanks to some suggestive remarks Michael Wolff made while hawking Fire
and Fury . The rumor caught on because people who hadn't yet fully realized what a piece of work Trump is, imagined that something
had to be awry inasmuch as her main qualification for representing the United States at the United Nations was an undergraduate degree
in accounting. Abject servility to the Israel lobby also helped.
But the Trump administration is full of ambitious miscreants whose views on Israel and Palestine are as abject and servile as
hers, and compared to many others in Trump's cabinet she is, if anything, over qualified. Think of neurosurgeon Ben Carson heading
the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is qualified because, as a child, he lived in public housing.
With the exception of Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, Summer Zervos and whoever else comes forward with a juicy and credible tale
to tell, the women currently in the president's ambit, though good for gossip and interesting in the ways that characters on reality
TV shows can be, are of little or no political consequence.
This could change if any of them decides to "go rogue," to use an expression from the Sarah Palin days. But, while neither Melania
nor Tiffany can yet be judged hopeless, it would be foolish to expect much of anything good to come from either of them.
Stormy, Karen, Summer, and whoever else steps forward are a better bet. They are the only ones with any chance of doing as much
for their country and the world as Monica Lewinsky did a generation ago.
Among the president's women, they are a breed apart. This is plainly the case with Stormy Daniels; it is already clear that she
deserves what all Trump's money can never buy honor and esteem. To the extent that the others turn out to be similarly courageous,
they will too.
As the porn star's allegations show, discourse in Washington is shifting to something more
tawdry and celebrity-oriented
... The idea of a porn star appearing on network television to share details of a sexual
encounter with the US commander in chief would have been intellectually confounding at any
other moment in time. Instead, the interview, which took place only few days after
a former Playboy playmate, Karen McDougal , talked about her affair with Trump, seemed a
part of the everyday political landscape in 2018.
... Trump may seem like an aberration but instead he may be an inflection point. It's
possible that after over two centuries of presidential campaigns with governors, senators and
the occasional general, American politics is shifting to something more tawdry and more
celebrity-oriented. The often spoken and rarely met ideal in the United States is that
political debates should be about issues. But, after a political campaign where candidates
debated penis size on a debate stage, it may be the legacy of Trump that politics has
permanently descended to locker-room talk.
The "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday night, devoted to rehashing allegations of sexual
impropriety and bullying against Donald Trump, marked a new level of degradation for the US
political system. For nearly half an hour, an audience of 23 million people tuned in to a
discussion of a brief sexual encounter between Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels
(Stephanie Clifford) in 2006.
Trump was then a near-bankrupt real estate and casino mogul, best known for reinventing
himself as a television personality. By her account, the proffer of a possible guest appearance
on Celebrity Apprentice was the only attraction the 60-year-old Trump had for Daniels,
then 27. Trump made promises, but as usual did not deliver.
Earlier in the week, the same interviewer, Anderson Cooper, appearing on CNN instead of CBS,
held an hour-long discussion with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy magazine
centerfold, who described a year-long relationship with Trump, also in 2006, the year after his
marriage to Melania Knauss.
White House officials flatly denied both accounts, but Trump himself has been conspicuously
and unusually silent, even on Twitter. His lawyers filed papers with a Los Angeles court, in
advance of the "60 Minutes" broadcast, claiming that Daniels was in violation of a
confidentiality agreement and could be liable for damages of up to $20 million.
Last Tuesday, a New York state judge turned down a motion by lawyers acting for Trump and
refused to dismiss the lawsuit for defamation brought against him by Summer Zervos, a former
contestant on another Trump "reality" show, The Apprentice . One of nearly a dozen
women who made public charges of sexual harassment against Trump during the final weeks of the
2016 campaign, Zervos alone has sued Trump over his repeated public claims that the women were
all liars.
There is little doubt that the accounts by Zervos, McDougal and Daniels are substantially
true. Trump has already demonstrated this by attempting to suppress their stories, either
through legal action or by purchasing their silence, directly or indirectly. A Trump ally,
David Pecker, owner of the National Enquirer tabloid, bought the rights to McDougal's
account of her relationship with Trump in 2016 for $150,000, in order not to publish it.
Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, admitted last month that he had paid $130,000 to
Daniels in October 2016, only weeks before the election, to guarantee her silence.
The bullying tactics of Cohen and other Trump allies add credibility to the claim by
Daniels, during her "60 Minutes" interview, that a thug, presumably sent by Cohen, had
threatened her with violence in 2011, when she first sought to sell her story about Trump to
the media. Daniels offered no evidence to back her claim, but her attorney Michael Avenatti
dropped broad hints that Daniels would be able to corroborate much of her account.
Cohen may himself face some legal jeopardy due to his public declaration that he paid
Daniels out of his own funds. Given the proximity of the payment to the election, this could
well be construed as a cash contribution to the Trump campaign far beyond the $3,500 legal
limit for an individual.
The Zervos suit, however, may present the most immediate legal threat, since the next step,
after New York Supreme Court Justice Jennifer G. Schecter rejected Trump's claim that he has
presidential immunity, is to take discovery. In other words, Trump and his closest aides could
be required to give sworn depositions about his actions in relation to Zervos and many of the
other women.
Justice Schecter cited the precedent of the Paula Jones case against President Bill Clinton,
in which the US Supreme Court held that a US president had no immunity from lawsuits over his
private actions. While cloaked in democratic rhetoric at the time ("No one is above the law"),
that decision actually gave a green light to an anti-democratic conspiracy by ultra-right
forces who used the Jones lawsuit to trap Clinton into lying about his relationship with Monica
Lewinsky.
Unlike the 1998-1999 conflict over impeachment, there is no issue of democratic rights
involved in the sexual allegations against Trump. Some of the same legal tactics (using sworn
depositions to set a perjury trap), are being employed as weapons in an increasingly bitter
conflict within the US ruling elite, in which both factions are equally reactionary.
Trump is a representative of the underworld of real estate, casino gambling and reality
television, elevated to the presidency because he had the good fortune to run against a deeply
unpopular and reactionary shill for Wall Street and the military-intelligence agencies, Hillary
Clinton. Under conditions of mounting discontent among working people with the Democratic
Party, after eight years of the Obama administration, Trump was able to eke out a narrow
victory in the Electoral College.
The Democratic "opposition" to Trump is focused not on his vicious attacks on immigrants,
his promotion of racist and neo-fascist elements, his deregulation of business and passage of
the biggest tax cut for the wealthy in decades, or his increasingly violent and unhinged
foreign policy pronouncements. The Democrats have sought to attack Trump from the right,
particularly on the question of US-Russian relations, making use of the investigation into
alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections, headed by former FBI Director Robert
Mueller.
Trump has sought to mollify his critics within the US national security establishment with
measures such as a more aggressive US intervention in Syria, the elevation of Gina Haspel, the
CIA's chief torturer, to head the agency, and, most recently, the expulsion of dozens of
Russian diplomats as part a NATO-wide campaign aimed at whipping up a war fever against
Moscow.
As Trump has made concessions on foreign policy, his opponents have shifted their ground,
attacking his behavior towards women. They have sought to link these exposures with the broader
#MeToo campaign, which is aimed at creating a witch-hunt atmosphere in Hollywood, the US
political system, and more generally throughout American society, in which gender issues are
brought forward to conceal and suppress more fundamental class questions.
In both the Russia investigation and now the allegations of sexual misconduct, the Democrats
have sought to hide their real political agenda, which is just as reactionary and dangerous as
that of Trump and the Republicans. While Trump is pushing towards war with North Korea or Iran,
and behind them China, the Democrats and their allies in the national security apparatus seek
to maintain the focus on Russia that was developed during the second term of the Obama
administration, particularly in Syria, Ukraine and Eastern Europe as a whole, posing the danger
of a war between the world's two main nuclear powers.
Beyond the immediate foreign policy issues, the whipping up of sexual scandals is invariably
a hallmark of reactionary politics. Such methods appeal to social backwardness, Puritanical
prejudices or prurient interest. They contribute nothing to the political education of working
people and youth, who must come to understand the fundamental class forces underlying all
political phenomena. The political basis for a struggle against Trump is not in designating him
as a sexual predator, but in understanding his class role as a front man for the American
financial oligarchy, which treats the entire working class, including the female half, as
objects of exploitation.
"The happy song of the US media accompanies another oddly totalitarian trend, the constant
blaming of discontent on foreign powers. In the aftermath of the school shooting in
Florida, Russia was blamed for allegedly fomenting what was already probably the biggest
political gap among the US public, the question of gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment. Russia
was accused of both opposing and promoting gun ownership, in order to sew confusion among the
public."
" the US [MSM] ... accuses those who disagree at home of being Russian bots"
Notable quotes:
"... the commercially-owned mainstream American press has always had another role: crafting public opinion. A huge amount of US government funds are devoted to handling and managing the media. The government and the political establishment is deeply worried about making sure that the US public thinks in ways that are conducive to their overall goals and strategies. The CIA's project mockingbird, and the cozy relationship between reporters, newspaper owners, and various Presidential administrations is the most blatant example. US Military intelligence agencies have sponsored over 1,800 hollywood films. School textbooks in California and Texas have their academic standards set in a highly politicized process. ..."
"... it also serves a political purpose as a public relations wing of the American elite, a recent trend in US mainstream mass media should be quite disturbing, when carefully analyzed. ..."
"... A dull "everything is OK, calm down" message is suddenly being put forth in an American media that has nothing to gain from it in terms of ratings or newspaper sales. A lengthy article in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Review by Harvard Psychology Professor Steven Pinker criticized both the political left-wing and right-wing in the USA for their pessimism, and argued in terms of "the big picture" across centuries, that the western liberal democratic capitalist system has proved itself to be very successful. ..."
"... Not only is the US media singing a happy song, but it is now demanding, along with elected officials, that everyone else do the same thing. Russia isn't accused of putting out a particular position, but rather of simply "sewing discord." ..."
"... the US whistles a happy tune, and accuses those who disagree at home of being Russian bots ..."
"... In our high tech world, framing international economic policies as a zero sum game cannot be be expected to have fruitful results. ..."
"... Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook" . ..."
The understanding that the American press, both TV and print media, thrives on negativity is
deeply embedded in the culture, so much so that the theme music to the popular 1990s American
TV sit-com "Family Matters" began with the couplet:
Its a rare condition this day and age,
to read any good news on a newspaper page
The US media is a for-profit industry. TV outlets depend on advertising revenue, the value
of which depends on ratings. The drive of mainstream American TV news networks is to increase
ratings, and make profits. Bad news, scandal, and sensationalism is a way to do that.
However, the commercially-owned mainstream American press has always had another role:
crafting public opinion. A huge amount of US government funds are devoted to handling and
managing the media. The government and the political establishment is deeply worried about
making sure that the US public thinks in ways that are conducive to their overall goals and
strategies. The CIA's project mockingbird, and the cozy relationship between reporters,
newspaper owners, and various Presidential administrations is the most blatant example. US
Military intelligence agencies have sponsored over 1,800 hollywood films. School textbooks in
California and Texas have their academic standards set in a highly politicized
process.
So, with the understanding that negativity and sensationalism are US media's focus, while
it also serves a political purpose as a public relations wing of the American elite, a
recent trend in US mainstream mass media should be quite disturbing, when carefully
analyzed.
The US media, long known for its negativity intended to grab ratings, is suddenly printing
articles, publishing widely circulated books, and featuring commentators all echoing the
message: "Don't worry, everything is going to be OK."
This uncharacteristic behavior of American media almost perfectly fits the stereotypical
portrayal of government propaganda in supposedly "totalitarian states." Many dystopian science
fiction films feature some dark, high tech police state where the controlled press harps on
with the message: "Things are going very well, don't worry, just obey."
A dull "everything is OK, calm down" message is suddenly being put forth in an American
media that has nothing to gain from it in terms of ratings or newspaper sales. A lengthy
article in the Wall Street Journal Weekend Review by Harvard Psychology Professor Steven Pinker
criticized both the political left-wing and right-wing in the USA for their pessimism, and
argued in terms of "the big picture" across centuries, that the western liberal democratic
capitalist system has proved itself to be very successful.
Meanwhile, on February 20th, Public Affairs Books has released a text by Gregg Easterbrook
entitled "Its Better Than It Looks." The book has been widely reviewed by the US press. The
text assures us that we need to be more positive in our assessment of world events. National
Public Radio described the book's message: "Between threats of nuclear war, devastating natural
disasters, violence and political division at home, it might feel like things are really bad
right now. But not necessarily so, says Gregg Easterbrook. He argues that by a lot of important
measures, the United States and the world are on an upward trajectory."
Similar messages have been dancing across American TV screens and radio waves in recent
weeks, in a pattern that any careful observer would find peculiar.
A Growing Economic Bubble
Meanwhile, economic news continues to be selectively reported. For example, retail stores
across the USA are closing. While US media was previously reporting on the decline of suburban
malls and the elimination of retail jobs, suddenly the press is reporting about a rise in
retail profits, and hope for the retail sector.
However, all the reports saying that the retail sector is doing well admit that the increase
in retail purchases is not taking place at stores, but rather in online sales. The glowing
reports about an increase in retail spending all point toward facts that have no bearing on
saving the jobs of retail workers, as stores continue to close down. Despite all the talk of a
retail boom (on the internet), stores continue to close across the USA, the latest being
H&M clothing which closed scores of outlets across the country. Thousands of retail workers
have lost their jobs.
Household debt is at record levels, and a lot of purchasing now taking place in the retail
market is being done with credit cards. Furthermore, student debt is rising, and with a number
of students unable to repay their debt. The student debt markets now face a specter of a
potential crash.
Positive numbers on the stock market are certainly a good economic indicator, however, as
the stock numbers rise, the population is not seeing an overall rise in its spending power. If
Wall Street and Main Street are not rising together, a rise on the stock market simply
indicates that the gap between the financialized, fictional Wall Street Casino, and the actual
economy is getting larger.
Real economic growth involves the financial sector getting stronger as the population gets
richer along with it. The USA hasn't experienced real, sustainable financial growth since the
1950s. "Jobless Recoveries" and other peculiar anomalies show the extent to which Wall Street
has insulated itself from the actual conditions of the American people. The result has been the
gap between the financial and the real economy expanding for much longer than in the natural
boom-bust cycle, making downturns far larger and dramatic.
Artificial growth only lasts so long, and these bubbles tend to burst. As Trump deregulates
Wall Street, and rolls back government oversight of the financial sector, all while lowering
taxes on corporations, another financial bubble is emerging.
The tone of the press, echoing the mantra of "everything is alright" is oddly reminiscent of
2007 and 2008 as the US economy was moving toward catastrophe. Desperate attempts by the press,
politicians, and others to assure us that the economy is fine, while urging us to keep spending
money we do not have, should have millions of Americans shouting "We've seen this movie
before!"
Blaming Russia for Dissent
The happy song of the US media accompanies another oddly totalitarian trend, the constant
blaming of discontent on foreign powers. In the aftermath of the school shooting in Florida,
Russia was blamed for allegedly fomenting what was already probably the biggest political gap
among the US public, the question of gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment. Russia was accused of
both opposing and promoting gun ownership, in order to sew confusion among the public.
Not only is the US media singing a happy song, but it is now demanding, along with
elected officials, that everyone else do the same thing. Russia isn't accused of putting out a
particular position, but rather of simply "sewing discord." The message behind the endless
talk of "bots" and "trolls" is that it is disloyalty and treason to hold dissident or negative
assessments of the US political or economic situation. Doing so is allegedly aiding the
Russians efforts to harm loyalty and confidence. The insinuation is that all nay-saying and
complaint can be traced, somehow, back to Moscow. In order to be a good American, one is
expected to simply repeat the media's upbeat and positive message.
Meanwhile, the US media is giving voice to oddly pointed FBI announcements that Americans
shouldn't buy Chinese cellphones, and should be suspicious of Chinese University students as
potential spies. While China is establishing strong economic ties with France and other
countries, the United States is imposing steel tariffs and increasingly cutting itself off from
the second largest economy in the world.
At the UN Security Council, the USA and its allies are desperately attempting to prevent the
Syrian government from reclaiming the city of Eastern Ghouta. This enclave of Islamic
extremists is very near the capital city of Damascus, which is densely populated with
pro-government Syrians, many of whom have fled from other parts of the country.
Now that ISIS has been driven from Syria, there is a real fear that the government could win
the war, and the longstanding US regime change operation could end in defeat.
As the US whistles a happy tune, and accuses those who disagree at home of being Russian
bots , those they deem competitors on the global stage are getting stronger.
The Chinese state controlled machinery of production is marching ahead. Oil prices, a key
factor in securing state revenue in Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Angola and Ecuador, are
rising.
Political Fallout of a Potential Crash?
If a new financial crisis erupts, as is likely based on indicators, the political
implications most likely would mean the demise of the Trump administration. Trump would be
voted out of office in 2020, or perhaps even impeached, blamed for the mismanagement that
created the fallout.
However, the slim possibility remains that Trump could make such a catastrophic economic
situation work in his favor. If Trump were to respond to a financial crash by swiftly pushing
his base of supporters into action, pushing forward his proposals for infrastructure, and
giving a free hand to his allies in the policing agencies, as he often publicly advocates, the
results could be a very swift resolution of the crisis.
In the event of a financial crash, a combination of street authoritarianism and economic
arm-twisting, both of which Trump clearly does not oppose, could ultimately let him come out of
the rubble looking like a savior. Trump could utilize a crash to become a figure like France's
Louis Bonaparte and his "Party of Order" who seized power in 1851.
Regardless of hypotheticals, the "don't be afraid, everything is alright" tone in American
media is not a good sign. It indicates that we should all be concerned about what will happen
in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the absence of China's concept of "win-win" relations in global trade, and human
centered development is deeply disturbing. In our high tech world, framing international
economic policies as a zero sum game cannot be be expected to have fruitful results.
Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political
science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street
movement, especially for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook" .
Sources close to the couple
told the New York Times
that Melania was "blindsided" by the reports of her husband's supposed
cover-up -- which included $130,000 in hush money, paid out to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
She has been trying to stay out of the public eye ever since, the sources said.
Trump's alleged tryst with Daniels, if true, would have taken place just months after Melania gave
birth to their son, Barron, in March 2006.
It was first reported by the Wall Street Journal
on Jan. 18. In Touch magazine published a follow-up
piece a day later, featuring an interview with the porn vixen from 2011, in which she confessed to the
hookup.
Since then, Melania has canceled an overseas trip with the president, made an unplanned visit to the
Holocaust Memorial Museum and even enjoyed some R&R at Mar-a-Lago.
The first lady was reportedly in Florida on Friday while Trump was in Davos, Switzerland, for the
World Economic Forum. The impromptu stop in the Sunshine State wound up costing taxpayers about $64,000,
according to the Times.
Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, blasted the affair allegations, saying, "The laundry list of
salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications & TV shows has seeped into
'main stream media' reporting She is focused on her family & role as FLOTUS -- not the unrealistic
scenarios being peddled daily by the fake news."
The first lady is expected to reappear alongside her husband Tuesday during his State of the Union
address.
Stormy Daniels was "truthful about having unprotected vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump in July 2006," according to a polygraph
test report from 2011.
The report states that the "probability of deception was measured to be less than 1%." It was given to CNN by Michael Avenatti,
Daniels' attorney, and contains three pertinent questions: "Around July 2006, did you have vaginal intercourse with Donald Trump?,"
"Around July 2006, did you have unprotected sex with Donald Trump?" and "Did Trump say you would get on 'The Apprentice'?"
Another
Trump attorney involved in Stormy Daniels case Daniels replied yes to all three questions. The first two were analyzed to be
truthful and the third question was "inconclusive," according to the polygraph examiner, Ronald Slay. Polygraphs are generally inadmissible
in court.
The polygraph was performed at the request of Bauer Publishing, which owns Life & Style and InTouch magazines, according to the reporter
who interviewed Daniels in 2011. Reporter Jordi Lippe-McGraw initially interviewed Daniels for Life & Style magazine. The interview
was not published at the time, but Bauer Publishing released it in InTouch magazine earlier this year.
Avenatti confirmed to CNN that he purchased the video and file of the polygraph test for $25,000. "We did so to ensure that it
would be maintained and kept safely during the litigation and not be altered or destroyed," Avenatti said in a statement. "We did
so after learning that various parties, including mainstream media organization, were attempting to acquire the video and the file
and either destroy it or use it for nefarious means."
RELATED: The shaky science
of lie detectors Daniels tweeted about the encounter Tuesday afternoon following the release of the polygraph, defending herself
and saying she's "not going anywhere."
"Technically I didn't sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (hehe) and he was just a goofy reality TV star.
But I digress...People DO care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up, etc.
And PS...I am NOT going anywhere. xoxoxo," she wrote.
Technically I didn't sleep with the POTUS 12 years ago. There was no sleeping (hehe) and he was just a goofy reality TV star.
But I digress...People DO care that he lied about it, had me bullied, broke laws to cover it up, etc.
Lippe-McGraw told CNN on Tuesday that Daniels passed the test in a broader sense. "Based off of the interview, we had her take the
polygraph test to confirm the details of what she was telling us. There wasn't much in the way of physical evidence, per se," Lippe-McGraw
said, adding that the big-picture question they wanted to confirm was that the affair happened, and that Daniels passed.
Lippe-McGraw said that Daniels told her she had unprotected sex with Trump, because Daniels is allergic to latex and didn't have
condoms at the time. Earlier Tuesday, Avenatti tweeted out a photograph of Daniels being administered the test.
The Wall Street Journal
first released the details of the polygraph questions and answers. Also on Tuesday, Daniels' friend Alana Evans told CNN's Brooke
Baldwin that she and Daniels have received threats over the allegations from people who had previously been in the adult industry.
"I have not been made aware that Cohen had physically threatened her. I know in the last few weeks, and the last couple of months,
that Stormy and myself have received threats from people in the outside world completely trying to defend Trump and Cohen and calling
us liars and threatening us with physical harm, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's stemming from there as well," Evans said. Evans
said this included threatening emails, threats to their families and their safety, and threats to release private information.
NYT became a yellow publication. And their hate of Trump is really visceral (Not that Trump
is an ideal President). Which is strange because Trump folded and with hiring of Bolton now is
really Hillary in foreign policy (the only difference is sex, but that can be fixed with the sex
change operation)
They write about this prostitute with such a sympathy that I suspect that they are involved
in the industry too.
She is the actress in pornographic films who is suing a sitting
president , with whom she said she had a consensual affair, in order to be released from a
nondisclosure agreement she reached with his lawyer just before the 2016 election. Over the
past two months, she has guided the story of her alleged relationship with President Trump --
and the $130,000 she was paid to keep silent -- into a full-fledged scandal. If Ms. Clifford's
court case proceeds, Mr. Trump may have to testify in depositions, and her suit could provide
evidence of campaign spending violations. She is scheduled to appear on "60 Minutes" on
Sunday.
And if her name has seemed ubiquitous -- repeated on cable television and in the White House
briefing room, and plastered on signs outside nightclubs, where her appearance fees have
multiplied -- there is this to consider: Unlike most perceived presidential adversaries, about
whom Mr. Trump is rarely shy, Ms. Clifford has not been the subject of a single tweet.
To many in the capital, Ms. Clifford, 39, has become an unexpected force. It is she, some in
Washington now joke, and not the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who could topple Mr.
Trump.
... ... ...
The false-start campaign coincided with a turbulent moment in her personal life, exposing
her to scrutiny in the mainstream press. In July 2009, Ms. Clifford was arrested on a
misdemeanor charge of domestic violence after hitting her husband, a performer in the industry,
and throwing a potted plant during a fight about laundry and unpaid bills, according to police
records. The husband, Michael Mosny, was not injured, and the charge was later dropped. Ms.
Clifford had previously been married to another pornographic actor.
She has since married another colleague in the business, Brendon Miller, the father of her
now 7-year-old daughter. He is also a drummer and has composed music for her films.
... ... ...
Ms. Clifford has not shown up at competitions since news broke in January that she accepted
a
financial settlement in October 2016 -- weeks before the election -- agreeing to keep
quiet about her alleged intimate relationship with Mr. Trump. She has said the affair,
which representatives of Mr. Trump have denied, began in 2006 and extended into 2007, the year
she married Mr. Mosny.
Earlier this month, she escalated public attention by filing suit, calling the 2016 contract
meaningless given that Mr. Trump had never signed it and revealing that the president's
personal lawyer had taken further secret legal action to keep her silent this year.
The masses don't care about Stormy Daniels. Of course, Trump used his "art of the deal" to
score with likely a hundred of bimbos. Who cares? It preceded him being Prez.
Is like the Facebook article about privacy... most people know the truth and don't need
the media view. We know Trump cheated. We know FB is corrupt. By far, Trump is better than
the corrupt criminal Clinton's.
Melania
Trump has spent a number of nights at a posh D.C. hotel away from President Trump following
allegations of a fling with porn star Stormy Daniels, White House sources told
DailyMail.com.
Melania , 47, is
terrified that more women could emerge with tales of her husband's infidelity. "Melania is
unprepared for more women to come forward with allegations of affairs with Donald. Melania
wants to leave, but she is paralyzed with fear. She is bracing the worst and is unsure how to
move forward," a Washington D.C. insider tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. Barron , now 11.
"Melania feels stuck with a sinking presidency and she wants to get out before Trump's house
of cards comes crashing down around her. She fears what embarrassing revelations Stormy might
reveal in her 60 Minutes interview and Melania's greater worries is what impact the
revelations may have on the presidency," our source reveals.
...
Trump himself crudely joked about Melania being the
next person to leave the White House during a speech at the Gridiron Club Dinner on March
3. Unfortunately, divorcing a sitting president would be unheard of and history making.
Melania's pretty much stuck with him as long as he's in the White House, and she still fears he
could be cheating on her to this day! "Melania has wanted to divorce Donald, over fidelity
issues, since before they landed in the White House. She has long suspected that he has used,
and continues to use, Mar-a-Lago as a rendezvous spot for his secret affairs. The Florida
location is completely under Donald's control, he is always there, and it is much easier for
him to enjoy private meetings at the resort rather than try to meet his mistresses at the White
House or around DC or NYC. Melania has pleaded with Donald to stay away
from his many trips to Mar-a-Lago , disguised as golfing holidays, but he refuses to give
in to her requests," our insider adds.
Thanks to Barron Trump his parents are not heading for divorce just yet.
When the news broke that U.S. President Donald Trump had an affair with adult star Stormy
Daniels, many people assumed that his wife, first lady Melania Trump was going to divorce him.
The FLOTUS has been noticed for allegedly refusing to hold her husband's hand in public. Others
also spotted her rolling her eyes while the POTUS was greeting a few cheerleaders during the
Super Bowl party on February 4. However, the Slovenia native is far from divorcing her husband
of 13 years while he is still in the presidential seat for a good reason.
An insider close to Melania Trump recently told Hollywood Life that she is not
thinking about making a move to divorce her husband while he is in office because of
their son Barron .
According to the source, the 47-year-old former model wants to focus only on the young boy
and his well-being. She doesn't want to get distracted with the alleged affair between the
POTUS and Stormy Daniels. She apparently wants her family intact for the sake of her
11-year-old son.
... ... ...
Because
of her recent actions that didn't go unnoticed, many people believe that Melania Trump is only
trying to save her marriage for her son and not just because of being the first lady of the
United States. The alleged extramarital affair of her husband and Daniels in 2006 may have
caused their marriage to hit a snag. The adult star, though, has been inconsistent with her
statements, which is one reason that some Republicans are not convinced that the president had
an affair with the 38-year-old Louisiana native.
An alleged statement from Daniels surfaced on January 30 with her signature, saying that she
denies the affair. Howbeit, during her interview during Jimmy Kimmel Live , the adult
film star said that she is not aware of the denial statement that
surfaced earlier that day.
Stormy Daniels, an adult entertainer who's considering running
for Senate from Louisiana, was arrested Saturday on a domestic violence charge in Tampa, Fla.
Daniels was charged with battery after she allegedly hit her husband, Michael Mosny, over
the head with her hands. According to the police report , she
was angry about a bill Mosny hadn't paid and about the way his father had done the laundry. She
broke a flower pot and a few glass candle holders, threw their wedding album on the floor and
allegedly hit her husband while struggling to get the car keys from him. She denied hitting him
intentionally.
Neither
Mosny nor Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, were injured. Daniels was held
overnight and released on $1,000 bond.
The porn star
formed an exploratory committee in May, the first step in a possible Senate run against
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), whose social conservative reputation was tarnished by the D.C. Madam
prostitution scandal.
On Thursday, the former Playboy Playmate sat down with Anderson Cooper at 6 Columbus Hotel
and poured her heart out in a detailed account of what she says was a 10-month fling with the
President.
His reps have denied the affair.
McDougal said in the interview that she and Trump had been in love -- and that she now
deeply regrets helping him cheat on his wife.
When cameras stopped rolling, she was asked how she felt about the confessional.
"Well, aside from the fact I have a headache and a cold -- I'm my own worst critic -- I
think I came across as credible," she said, according to a source. "But I'm not an
attorney."
When assured by her handlers that she'd done a great job, a source who was present said
McDougal argued she could have been more succinct in explaining why she decided to come forward
more than a decade later.
"A friend of mine leaked the story and now that it's out I want to tell my side," she
explained.
McDougal also wasn't expecting a marathon grilling.
"I thought this was going to be 20 minutes, I didn't know it would be over an hour," she
admitted.
McDougal and her team watched a playback of the interview, which featured an old photo of
her that was taken prior to her breast implant removal in January. The model told People
magazine in February that the implants were causing her illness.
"That's me on the end," she pointed. "That's when I had breasts."
McDougal cried when watching the part of the interview where Cooper asked what she'd say to
Melania, sources told The News. "I'm sorry," she told Cooper. "I wouldn't want it done to me."
Tears turned to laughter when a member of the production asked McDougal if she was aware that
Hillary Clinton taped an interview in the same hotel suite.
"I didn't know that, but I can tell you I didn't have the questions in advance," she
joked.
One member of the production crew asked McDougal if she'd met porn star Stormy Daniels, who
also claims she had an affair with the President and is hoping to be released from a
confidentiality agreement that could see her punished for speaking up. She said that she has
not, nor does she plan to.
"... Meadows said that since it dealt with a foreign leader, the leak "had to" come from the president's national security staff, headed by McMaster. ..."
The White House national security team, already facing calls for the ouster of top adviser
H.R. McMaster, was tagged by a key lawmaker with leaking confidential notes ordering President
Trump not to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin for his election win.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a conservative leader and foreign policy expert, expressed
outrage at the leak and suggested that it and others thought to come from the national security
council are crimes.
"Here's the big deal. If you've got the national security council team leaking to the press,
that's a big deal," he told reporters at a Heritage Foundation-sponsored "Conversations with
Conservatives" on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
"Quite frankly, some of the other stuff they've leaked is actually a crime," he added.
The Washington Post reported that Trump was pressured by top aides against calling Putin. He
was even given a paper that
read in all caps, "DO NOT CONGRATULATE."
Trump called anyway.
Washington Examiner 's White House correspondent
Gabby Morrongiello reported earlier Wednesday that the president is angered at the
leak.
Meadows said that since it dealt with a foreign leader, the leak "had to" come from the
president's national security staff, headed by McMaster.
McMaster has been under fire inside and outside the White House, and there have been reports
that he will be dumped. But every time a report surfaces, the administration denies it.
Meadows shrugged off the call, and said that there is no evidence it will impact U.S.-Russia
policy. He also noted that former President Barack Obama called foreign leaders approved in
questionable elections.
"I'm probably more concerned about leaks within the administration. You have to understand
that it would be like my chief of staff leaking information that we had in a conversation on
anything. Whether it's [Trump's call] appropriate or not appropriate, there's a bigger concern
there within the West Wing if you've got people on the national security team that have leaked.
That's where it had to have come from. It's a very small group of people that would of even had
any knowledge of that," he said.
A porn star, a playmate and a contestant who washed out on his reality TV show have become exemplars for doing battle with a president
for whom practically nothing is out of bounds. They are showing that the most effective way to deal with him is on his own terms.
The three --
Stormy Daniels
,
Karen McDougal
and
Summer Zervos
-- are suing for the right to tell their stories about him. The headaches and unforeseeable turns that these legal
fights present would be well understood by a man who,
according to a USA Today
tally, has filed at least 3,500 lawsuits of his own, for grievances real and imagined. When Trump goes
low, go low - The Washington Post
Adult entertainer Daniels has outmaneuvered the president and his inept lawyer Michael Cohen at nearly every turn. They apparently
believed they had bought her silence about the year-long extramarital affair she claims to have had with the future president a decade
ago.
But it turns out they had only rented it. When Trump goes low, go low - The Washington Post
When Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement in the weeks before the 2016 election, hardly anyone thought Trump had much chance
of winning, especially after the furor over comments he had made about women on the now-famous
"Access Hollywood" tape
. So $130,000 to stay quiet must have looked too good for Daniels to pass up. (Cohen said the money came
from his personal home equity line of credit.)
With her alleged paramour in the Oval Office, however, there is surely much more to be gained from her account, so she is trying
to slip free from the agreement on the technicality that Trump never signed it.
Backing out of a deal if there's a better one to be had? Trump did it for decades. "I've made a fortune by using debt, and if
things don't work out I renegotiate the debt. I mean, that's a smart thing, not a stupid thing," he
boasted to CBS
during his presidential
campaign. As president, he has reversed himself so many times that his befuddled allies on Capitol Hill are never sure where or if
he will land on most issues.
Now, instead of Daniels, it is Trump who is remaining silent -- conspicuously so. No tweets, no vicious nicknames, no threats.
She, meanwhile, is going on "60 Minutes," where viewership is likely to be some of its highest ever. Count that as another blow to
a president who measures the import of every event by its television ratings.
Daniels seems to be having a great time. She has become a ninja master in Trump's own medium, smiting trolls on Twitter with
a verve that my colleague Monica Hesse
compared to "a very smart cat batting off a series of very dumb mice, who come at her
under the delusion that the relationship is reversed." When one man tweeted that she was a "scank," she responded by correcting his
spelling.
McDougal, who was Playboy's 1998 Playmate of the Year, claims to have had an affair with Trump around the same time as Daniels.
But in her case, the arrangement that she is trying to escape is the one she made with the National Enquirer's parent company, whose
chief executive, David Pecker, is close to Trump. In her lawsuit, McDougal claims American Media was working secretly with Cohen
to keep her quiet; the company says it contacted Trump's lawyer only to vet her story.
A takedown by a former playmate would be a sour endnote indeed, given how assiduously Trump styled himself as Playboy's ideal
of libidinous masculinity. In 1990, the magazine's cover featured the married real-estate developer posing with another playmate,
Brandi Brandt. She wore only his tuxedo jacket.
When Trump goes low, go low - The Washington Post
He hung a framed copy of that Playboy in his Trump Tower office. "I was one of the few men in the history of Playboy to be on
the cover," Trump once
boasted
to a Post reporter.
Zervos, a former contestant from "The Apprentice," presents a different kind of threat, and potentially the most serious one.
She is one of more than a dozen women who have accused the president of unwanted sexual advances, in her case that he kissed her
and groped her breasts when she met with him to discuss a job. During his presidential campaign, Trump called them all liars, and
threatened to sue.
But Trump never did, empty threats being another of his favorite tactics. It was Zervos who went to court, charging defamation.
On Tuesday, the same day McDougal filed her lawsuit, a New York judge
ruled
that Zervos's case can go forward. It was lost on no one that the precedent cited was the one in the sexual harassment
lawsuit that ultimately led to the
impeachment of Bill
Clinton
.
The Zervos lawsuit opens the possibility that Trump's other accusers, and maybe even more women, will return to tell their stories
under oath. And that the president himself will have to as well.
When Zervos was on the fifth season of "The Apprentice," Trump
fired her
because she interrupted him. It turns out she
may get in a last word after all.
xxx
Scratch #2 is the playmate lawsuit. Scratch #3 is Summer Zervos.
xxx
What's up with powerful men who can't keep it in their pants? Then they lie... What cowards!
xxx
The blame must be shared evenly... if the men cant keep it in their pants, why are women allowing it to happen? Are they being
forced against their will? If so, call the police!
xxx
Wow! What a savage piece! And very well written.
xxx
Yawwwwnn..
Why even bother with this. It just makes everyone look bad. Daniels is a low-life. The media lowers its standards by reporting
it. Nobody believes Trump didn't have sex with Daniels but nobody cares. It's actually expected of someone like Trump to have
an affair now and then.
You might find it unfortunate that a guy named Cohen was involved. I suggest its also unfortunate that a guy named Cohen got
stuck reporting this.
xxx
Trump is a dirtbag, but the last time I checked, having an affair was not criminal offense. I don't care who he slept with, but
I do care who he is screwing - which in this case is 99% of the American people. The other 1% are doing well thanks to him.
xxx
(Edited) What has stormy Daniels done for America????? Just some porn movies for money for herself and now she is blackmailing
the US president. And these readers actually enjoy it????? Trump must be protected. He is our President.
xxx
Now any hooker can come and sue any guy she has slept with for money.......is this what men want???? I dont think so.
xxx
People can't arbitrarily sue people for no reason. His lawyer paid her $130,000. She obviously has something on him. And most
sane men want her to win so Trump can be impeached and sent out to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement... in Antarctica.
xxx
Cant believe men are siding with adult porn actor......... a hooker.... Daniels.........who is out to make money by hook or crook.
Men in America are doomed.
xxx 4 days ago
If the U.S. is such that this horrifically warped man and his monstrously greedy and incompetent cabinet are taken down by
a stupid sex scandal rather than being judiciously removed by responsible people for being criminals, then the U.S. is in even
more serious trouble than even rational thinkers would want to believe.
"[Trump] deducted somebody else's losses," said John L. Buckley, who served as the chief of staff for Congress's Joint
Committee on Taxation in 1993 and 1994. Since the [stiffed] bondholders were likely declaring losses for tax purposes, Trump
shouldn't be able to as well. "He is double dipping big time," Buckley told the Times.
Surely, the IRS can't be too happy about multiple taxpayers taking the same ~$1 billion-loss deduction? I therefore look
forward to Mueller's audit of Trump's tax returns.
And now the Dumpster finds his yacht "Trumpy!" is caught in "Stormy Weather" off the Seychelles -- LOL
But, never fear Dumpsters, we all know that the usual rules don't and never have applied to the "bouffanted buffoon" -- or so he
thinks! -- LOL
Doubtless, the results of Mueller's investigations into Trump's various activities will make this crass, arrogant charlatan
(and his family/associates) sorely regret he ever threw his "bouffanted hairpiece" into the political ring. Hopefully, he will
ultimately be indicted and convicted for egregious financial/taxation crimes and the courts will penalize him to the extent
that all of his and his family's ill-gotten assets will be expropriated, and he'll get to wear one of those ill-fitting orange
jump suits too
Still, the thought of the Rev. Pence becoming POTUS fills me with equal dread.
A man who claimed without evidence that he had sex with former President Barack Obama says the
media is showing a "sickening" double standard with coverage of an alleged affair between
President Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels.
Larry Sinclair's allegations involving Obama, cocaine, and a limo -- set in 1999, when Obama
was a state senator -- failed to gain broad coverage for a variety of reasons, including lack
of corroboration and Sinclair's record of crimes involving deceit.
But Sinclair says the media is giving too much attention and too little skepticism to claims
of a 2006 affair between Daniels and Trump.
"Stormy Daniels is being pimped and pimping the media now and it's lining her pockets,"
Sinclair told the Washington Examine r. "I believe she had sex with him. Do I believe
she's trying to twist and add to it to benefit her interests? You're damn right I do."
An interview with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is set to air Sunday on
the CBS program "60 Minutes." The performer staging a national strip club tour has given other
recent interviews, including to "Inside Edition" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Sinclair said he views Daniels' coyness about details -- as she sues to invalidate a
$130,000 nondisclosure agreement -- as well as her attempt to sidestep the deal, as reasons to
doubt her truthfulness. He said he watched with suspicion as she declined to say if a signature
was hers.
"I do believe that there are enough contradictions by Ms. Daniels to justify questioning her
motive and truthfulness," Sinclair said, citing "her statements or nonstatements in subsequent
interviews implying that her signature was not her signature [and] her back-and-forth on
whether Trump paid her."
"I find this whole double standard sickening, and no I am not a bigger supporter of Trump,
but I am a supporter of fair and unbiased media coverage," he said. "I find the whole NDA and
accepting money and then later coming back and using a completely legal incident for political
and personal gain questionable."
Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Daniels, declined to address Sinclair's suggestion that
the media be more skeptical of her claims.
"Is this a joke? Am I being punked?" Avenatti wrote in an email.
Sinclair -- who runs a neighborhood revitalization nonprofit in Cocoa, Fla., where he's
considering a run for mayor -- said he believes the media also gives too much credence to
affair claims by ex-Playboy bunny Karen McDougal and women alleging misconduct by Trump.
There are many distinctions between the allegations made by Sinclair and those made by
Clifford and McDougal. For example, Sinclair lacks a photo of himself with Obama, who was
married to future first lady Michelle Obama at the time of the alleged two-day
relationship.
Trump has denied cheating on first lady Melania Trump, but he did pose for photos with
Daniels and McDougal.
Daniels passed a polygraph in 2011, her team said this week. Sinclair allegedly failed a
polygraph in 2008, but he says the tests don't mean much.
Daniels told her story to some journalists, including from Slate and In Touch magazine,
before signing the October 2016 NDA, though neither published her account. She and McDougal do
have a degree of corroboration from friends who attest to contemporaneous
conversations or, in the case of McDougal, provided the media with a letter she allegedly wrote
documenting the claims.
Sinclair's allegations, by contrast, lack documentary evidence or corroboration from third
parties. And whereas Trump has a decadeslong history of romantic relationships with women,
Sinclair's gender does not match Obama's reported preference.
"It seems to me that there is a world of difference between the two stories and that there
is no double standard," said Joel Kaplan, associate dean for professional graduate studies at
the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
"Sinclair is making a singular allegation without any support," Kaplan said. "Ms. Daniels'
allegation is backed up by the fact that there was a settlement and a nondisclosure agreement,
which certainly lends credibility to her allegations. If Mr. Sinclair was just one of 14 men
making these allegations against President Obama that would be one thing and probably worthy of
a story. In President Trump's case, there are multiple women who came forward. So, no I see no
double standard."
The high point of Sinclair's press exposure came when he rented a room at the National Press
Club in June 2008, prompting an unsuccessful campaign to block the event by journalists fearful
that the venue would lend credibility to his claims.
A dueling press conference was planned by Whitehouse.com, then a pornographic website whose
owner Dan Parisi had paid Sinclair $20,000 to take the polygraph that Sinclair allegedly
failed. Parisi later sued Sinclair unsuccessfully for libel for saying the results were
doctored.
"It wasn't until after the fact I was told the Whitehouse.com press conference didn't take
place," Sinclair said, recalling that police arrested him at the press club and sent him to
Delaware to face theft charges. He also had an open warrant for his arrest in Colorado for
allegedly signing someone else's tax return check.
Sinclair said the Delaware and Colorado cases were misunderstandings, but admits he was
convicted in Arizona for forgery in 1981, then in Florida for using a friend's credit card
before getting a 16-year sentence in Colorado in the late '80s in a similar case. He was
released in 1999, the same year he allegedly met Obama through a limo driver in Chicago.
In one similarity between Sinclair's allegations and those made by Daniels and McDougal,
significant amounts of money changed hands, resulting in legal action and claims of wrongful
gagging of the accuser.
Sinclair negotiated a deal in which he ultimately was paid $20,000 by Parisi to consent to a
polygraph. A copy of the check is an exhibit in the libel case Parisi brought against Sinclair.
At one point, another $10,000 was supposed to be split between two charities.
Daniels is suing to get out of nondisclosure agreement prepared by Trump lawyer Michael
Cohen, who like the president says Daniels is lying about an affair, and McDougal is suing to
get out of an NDA in which she was paid $150,000 for the rights to her story by the company
that publishes the Trump-friendly National Enquirer, which didn't print the claims.
Sinclair said his Whitehouse.com deal required that he give exclusive rights for
polygraphing to the company for a period of four weeks during the 2008 campaign, a claim that
appears to be consistent with an email cited in court documents, and he suggests Parisi may not
have acted independently in the libel lawsuit, which was dismissed by a federal judge in
2012.
Sinclair said he lost money on his 2009 book Barack Obama & Larry Sinclair: Cocaine,
Sex, Lies & Murder? in which he associates a Chicago-area killing with his affair
claims.
"To journalists I would say take your time, compare statements and call out contradictions
in statements and previous interviews," Sinclair said. "When it comes to polygraphs be very
sure you vet the examiners conducting them and always ask for the computer scoring results as
well as the examiners findings."
Parisi did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Obama's office.
A
former Playboy model who says she had an affair with President Trump is suing the National
Enquirer's parent company, American Media, so that she can be released from a legal agreement
barring her from discussing the relationship.
Karen McDougal filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to the New
York Times , after she claims the Enquirer paid her $150,000 for the story of her
nine-month-long affair between 2006 and 2007, but did not publish it when she gave the account
in August 2016, several months before the 2016 U.S. election.
McDougal says that Trump's personal attorney, Michael D. Cohen, was secretly involved in her
negotiations with A.M.I., and that both the media company and her lawyer at the time misled her
about the arrangement. After speaking with The New Yorker last month after it obtained notes
she kept on her alleged affair, McDougal said she was warned by A.M.I. that " any further
disclosures would breach Karen's contract," and "cause considerable monetary damages ."
Cohen reportedly
paid another Trump accuser, adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels),
$130,000 in exchange for signing an NDA barring her from discussing her experiences with
Trump.
Trump joined a legal effort last week suing Clifford for $20 million over what they claim is
a breach of her NDA. Meanwhile, both women's claims against Trump are being construed by
federal watchdog group Common Cause as illegal campaign contributions - arguing that they could
constitute in-kind contributions to the Trump campaign.
Ms. Clifford and Ms. McDougal tell strikingly similar stories about their experiences with
Mr. Trump, which included alleged trysts at the same Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006,
dates at the same Beverly Hills hotel and promises of apartments as gifts.
Their stories first surfaced in the The Wall Street Journal four days before the election
, but got little traction in the swirl of news that followed Mr. Trump's victory. The women
even shared the same Los Angeles lawyer, Keith Davidson, who has long worked for clients who
sell their stories to the tabloids . - NYT
"The lawsuit filed today aims to restore her right to her own voice," McDougal's attorney,
Peter K Stris told the Times . "We intend to invalidate the so-called contract that American
Media Inc. imposed on Karen so she can move forward with the private life she deserves ."
As the Wall Street Journal reported in November, 2016;
The tabloid-newspaper publisher reached an agreement in early August with Karen McDougal,
the 1998 Playmate of the Year. American Media Inc., which owns the Enquirer, hasn't published
anything about what she has told friends was a consensual romantic relationship she had with
Mr. Trump in 2006. At the time, Mr. Trump was married to his current wife, Melania.
Quashing stories that way is known in the tabloid world as "catch and kill." - WSJ
In a written statement, American Media Inc. claims it wasn't buying McDougal's story for
$150,000 - rather, they were buying two years' worth of her fitness columns, magazine covers
and exclusive life rights to any relationship she has had with a then-married man. "AMI has not
paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump," reads the statement.
American Media Inc. CEO David J. Pecker is a long-standing friend of President Trump.
It was just a little thing, a scratch, that he failed to treat and gangrene set in and it
was killing him. They were on safari, in Africa, and their truck had broken down and the rescue plane was never going
to make it in time. This is the way Harry died in Ernest Hemingway's "
The
Snows of Kilimanjaro
." I reread it the other day because of President Trump. I think of him as Harry. Stormy
Daniels is the scratch.
The saga of the adult-film star and the juvenile president has become a rollicking affair. Each step of the way,
Daniels has out-Trumped Trump. She is as shameless as he, a publicity hound who adheres to the secular American
religion that, to be famous, even for nothing much, is to be rich. By and large, that's not true, but then there is
Kim Kardashian to prove otherwise.
Daniels alleges she and Trump
had an affair
beginning in 2006. The president's lawyer and his press secretary allege that the allegations are
not true. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, does admit to
paying Daniels $130,000
, apparently to keep her silent about an affair that, according to Cohen, did not happen.
To do this, Cohen set up a
private Delaware company
and concocted false names for everyone involved -- the allegation-maker and the
allegation-denier. Only the name Delaware is legit.
Media promotion of old Trump affairs in full swing. Part of the demonization campaign which
is essential for color revolution. What you can expect with Brennan hired as analyst for NBC
?
On Thursday, CNN's Anderson Cooper had an exclusive interview with former Playboy model
Karen McDougal, who claims that she had a 10-month relationship with Donald Trump a decade
before he became President.
CNN, which is always anxious to paint Trump in the worst possible light, most likely did not
get quite the response they were looking for from McDougal. While affairs cannot and should not
be ever cast in a positive light, it is worth noting that McDougal spoke highly about the way
Trump treated her and her friends noticed the same thing.
Speaking of Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape, McDougal said, "I had not seen that in him at
all... [that's] not the man that I knew." McDougal said that her friends would tell her how
they were impressed with how respectful he was toward her when they were out in public.
On the issue of whether or not she is coming out to hurt Trump, McDougal said, "I voted for
Donald. Why would I want to damage him? That's my party, Republican Party. That's my president.
I did not want to damage him or hurt him in any way, shape, or form but I also didn't want to
put out the story because I didn't want my reputation to be damaged."
McDougal suggested that the reason she came forward is, according to her
lawsuit , because she claims she was paid off to keep quiet and was given a "false promise
to jumpstart her career as a health and fitness model."
WATCH:
"I voted for Donald. Why would I want to damage him?" Former Playboy model Karen McDougal
says her intention in telling her story isn't to damage President Trump https://t.co/fpLyorn15Cpic.twitter.com/V6tLUOVDkw
The main problem for Melania is Trump. Not so much attacks by the media.
Notable quotes:
"... "What can you say except I'm sorry?" [McDougal] told CNN's Anderson Cooper , apologizing for the alleged affair to Melania Trump. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't want it done to me." ..."
"... McDougal admitted that she knew Donald Trump was married during the alleged affair, saying she was reluctant to bring it up because "she felt guilty." ..."
"... She also said that Donald Trump offered to pay her after they had been intimate for the first time in 2006 and that it made her cry. ..."
"... "After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and I actually didn't know how to take that," McDougal said. "I've never been offered money like that. I looked at him and said, 'I'm not that type of girl." ..."
"... "And he said, 'Oh,' and he said, 'You're really special,'" McDougal said, adding: "It hurt me that he saw me in that light." ..."
"... According to McDougal, the relationship lasted for about 10 months. She says she broke it off in April 2007 because she felt guilty. She recalled traveling to meet Trump at his properties in New York, New Jersey and California and said she had sex with him "many dozens of times." ..."
"... McDougal had feelings for Trump, but the affair was "just tearing me apart," she said. "There was a real relationship there. There were real feelings," she added. "He would call me baby or he would call me beautiful Karen." ..."
"... quite simply efforts to publicly humiliate and shame of Melania, not to mention attacking the very essence of her marriage to her husband itself. ..."
"... Oh, wait. Isn't that also media bullying? ..."
"... I am well aware that people are skeptical of me discussing this topic. I have been criticized for my commitment to tackling this issue, and I know that will continue. But it will not stop me from doing what I know is right. I am here with one goal: helping children and our next generation." ..."
Media sets double standards for itself as it tries to condemn the First Lady for
standing up against bullying, all the while bullying her and her husband through infidelity
allegations
... ... ...
In seemingly unrelated stories through the rest of the week attack pieces were printed by
various women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with the President during the time
of his marriage to Melania. The headlines are anything from accusatory to salacious. Here are
some examples:
The attack is the basest sort of hit possible, as these pieces highlight the accusation and
"apology" offered by former Playmate model Karen McDougal. In the pieces this lady offers an
apology to Melania for the affair with her husband, with the core of the story essentially as
shown here (this is from the USA Today version):
"What can you say except I'm sorry?" [McDougal] told CNN's
Anderson Cooper , apologizing for the alleged affair to Melania Trump. "I'm sorry. I
wouldn't want it done to me."
McDougal admitted that she knew Donald Trump was married during the alleged affair,
saying she was reluctant to bring it up because "she felt guilty."
She also said that Donald Trump offered to pay her after they had been intimate for
the first time in 2006 and that it made her cry.
"After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and I actually didn't know how to
take that," McDougal said. "I've never been offered money like that. I looked at him and
said, 'I'm not that type of girl."
"And he said, 'Oh,' and he said, 'You're really special,'" McDougal said, adding: "It
hurt me that he saw me in that light."
According to McDougal, the relationship lasted for about 10 months. She says she broke
it off in April 2007 because she felt guilty. She recalled traveling to meet Trump at his
properties in New York, New Jersey and California and said she had sex with him "many dozens
of times."
McDougal had feelings for Trump, but the affair was "just tearing me apart," she said.
"There was a real relationship there. There were real feelings," she added. "He would call me
baby or he would call me beautiful Karen."
Okay, so here we have a great way to humiliate a devout Slovenian Roman Catholic, who is
actually quite a traditional woman, even while she was a red-hot model, by making "apologies"
that are not apologies at all, but quite simply efforts to publicly humiliate and shame of
Melania, not to mention attacking the very essence of her marriage to her husband
itself.
Oh, wait. Isn't that also media bullying?
It would seem so. And on Tuesday, Mrs. Trump wasn't having it. She fought back with her own
gifts, those being her characteristic elegance, but with her amazing personal strength.
But, praise aside, this is what the First Lady had to say:
I am well aware that people are skeptical of me discussing this topic. I have been
criticized for my commitment to tackling this issue, and I know that will continue. But it
will not stop me from doing what I know is right. I am here with one goal: helping children
and our next generation."
"... Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, ..."
"... . To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com. ..."
Consider. To cut through the Russophobia rampant here, Trump decided to make
a direct phone call to Vladimir Putin. And in that call, Trump, like Angela Merkel,
congratulated Putin on his re-election victory.
Instantly, the briefing paper for the president's call was leaked to the Post . In
bold letters it read "DO NOT CONGRATULATE."
Whereupon the Beltway went ballistic.
How could Trump congratulate Putin, whose election was a sham? Why did he not charge Putin
with the Salisbury poisoning? Why did he not denounce Putin for interfering with "our
democracy"?
Amazing. A disloyal White House staffer betrays his trust and leaks a confidential paper to
sabotage the foreign policy of a duly elected president, and he is celebrated in this capital
city.
If you wish to see the deep state at work, this is it: anti-Trump journalists using First
Amendment immunities to collude with and cover up the identities of bureaucratic snakes out to
damage or destroy a president they despise. No wonder democracy is a declining stock
worldwide.
And, yes, they give out Pulitzers for criminal collusion like this.
The New York Times got a Pulitzer and the Post got a Hollywood movie
starring Meryl Streep for publishing stolen secret papers from the Pentagon of JFK and LBJ --
to sabotage the Vietnam War policy of Richard Nixon.
Why? Because the hated Nixon was succeeding in extricating us with honor from a war that the
presidents for whom the Times and Post hauled water could not win or end.
Not only have journalists given up any pretense of neutrality in this campaign to bring down
the president, ex-national security officers of the highest rank are starting to sound like
resisters.
Ex-CIA director John Brennan openly speculated Tuesday that the president may have been
compromised by Moscow and become an asset of the Kremlin.
"I think he's afraid of the president of Russia," Brennan said of Trump and Putin. "The
Russians, I think, have had long experience with Mr. Trump and may have things they could
expose."
If Brennan has evidence Trump is compromised, he should relay it to Robert Mueller. If he
does not, this is speculation of an especially ugly variety for someone once entrusted with
America's highest secrets.
What's going on in this city is an American version of the "color revolutions" we have
employed to knock over governments in places like Georgia and Ukraine.
The goal is to break Trump's presidency, remove him, discredit his election as contaminated
by Kremlin collusion, upend the democratic verdict of 2016, and ash-can Trump's agenda of
populist conservatism. Then America can return to the open borders, free trade,
democracy-crusading Bushite globalism beloved by our Beltway elites.
Trump, in a way, is the indispensable man of the populist right.
In the 2016 primaries, no other Republican candidate shared his determination to secure the
border, bring back manufacturing, or end the endless wars in the Middle East that have so bled
and bankrupted our nation.
Whether the Assads rule in Damascus, the Chinese fortify Scarborough Shoal, or the Taliban
return to Kabul, none are existential threats to the United States.
But if the borders of our country are not secured, as Reagan warned, in a generation,
America will not even be a country.
Trump seems now to recognize that the special counsel's office of Robert Mueller, which this
city sees as the instrument of its deliverance, is a mortal threat to his presidency.
Mueller's team wishes to do to Trump what Archibald Cox's team sought to do to Nixon: drive
him out of office or set him up for the kill by a Democratic Congress in 2019.
Trump appears to recognize that the struggle with Mueller is now a political struggle -- to
the death.
Hence Trump's hiring of Joe diGenova and the departure of John Dowd from his legal team. In
the elegant phrase of Michael Corleone, diGenova is a wartime consigliere.
He believes Trump is the target of a conspiracy, under which Jim Comey's FBI put in the fix
to prevent Hillary's prosecution and then fabricated a crime of collusion with Russia to take
down the new president the American people had elected.
The Trump White House is behaving as if it were the prospective target of a coup d'etat. And
it is not wrong for them to think so.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, Nixon's White House Wars: The
Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever . To find out more
about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators website at www.creators.com.
"... An antidote to all my Dem liberal Clinton-supporting "friends" on FB who insanely slaver for Russiagate nonsense because they hate Trump. Nevermind that his impeachment would get us Pence. They pat themselves on the back for being good, liberal Trump-hating, Russia-gate believers. ..."
"... Nary a word from them while Obama cowardly ducked prosecuting torturers or banksters -- or started new illegal wars and drone-murdered so many innocent people. Much less the bogus ACA handout to Big Insurance. So much for American Values. ..."
"... They all believe in all this nonsense about Russia-Gate which is being fed nonstop on major networks; and also this latest incident in U.K. I was the only one who was questioning it and it can become unpleasant. ..."
"... It is sad to see all this happening. It is very dangerous. Newspapers, L.A. Times here, keep the public completely in the dark about the consequences that it may accidentally or knowingly lead to nuclear war with Russia. ..."
Thanks for that link, Joe. The article's authors, Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, are
long-time political activists, codirectors of PopularResistance.org. https://popularresistance.org/ That organization seems
to be taking a very determined approach to social change, supplying not only articles tightly
focused on issues but also organizing resources for activists.
I've been watching the group closely because I'm seeing signs that its anti-war work just
may become the tip of the spear of a revitalized anti-war movement. (It's been a very long
time since the anti-war movement in the U.S. had effective leadership.)
Kevin knows how to play the long game. He was for at least two decades director of NORML
and can now watch his earlier work come to fruition as state after state legalizes
marijuana.
Typingperson , March 20, 2018 at 12:36 am
Thanks, Paul, for flagging that Kevin Zeese is the former head of NORML. I remember him
well from this role -- and how effective he was.
I will check out PopularResistance.org.
An antidote to all my Dem liberal Clinton-supporting "friends" on FB who insanely
slaver for Russiagate nonsense because they hate Trump. Nevermind that his impeachment would
get us Pence. They pat themselves on the back for being good, liberal Trump-hating,
Russia-gate believers.
Nary a word from them while Obama cowardly ducked prosecuting torturers or banksters
-- or started new illegal wars and drone-murdered so many innocent people. Much less the
bogus ACA handout to Big Insurance. So much for American Values.
Dave P. , March 20, 2018 at 2:29 am
Joe, you are right. I do not have to go too far to see what it has done to the citizens of
this country, I just look in my own home. This soap opera as you called it, is going on
almost two years now; and it has completely messed up the people. We had a visitor, somebody
very close to me, a week before this weekend, and invited some other friends. They all
believe in all this nonsense about Russia-Gate which is being fed nonstop on major networks;
and also this latest incident in U.K. I was the only one who was questioning it and it can
become unpleasant.
It is sad to see all this happening. It is very dangerous. Newspapers, L.A. Times
here, keep the public completely in the dark about the consequences that it may accidentally
or knowingly lead to nuclear war with Russia.
"... in reality -- the security services have the skills-sets and the abilities, to do damage anyone they want to do damage to -- and to probably get away with it. ..."
"... Fast forward to January, 2017 and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer telling MSNBC's Rachael Maddow that President-elect Donald Trump is "being really dumb" by criticizing the intelligence community and its assessments on Russia's cyber activities: Shumer: "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he's being really dumb to do this." No, Shumer wasn't joking. He was serious. ..."
"... Fast forward again to yesterday, March 17, 2018: Former CIA Director John Brennan wasn't joking when he reacted to the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe -- and President Donald Trump's tweeted celebration of it -- by tweeting this attack against Trump ..."
"... When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America. America will triumph over you. ..."
"... Obama UN Representative Samantha Power followed up on the Brennan tweet with this: "Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan." ..."
Does Peter Van Buren's criticism of the CIA's Haspel put him at risk?
In the 2003 film "Love Actually" the British Prime Minister (played by Hugh Grant) jokes with a Downing Street employee Natalie
(Martine McCutcheon):
"PM: You live with your husband? Boyfriend, three illegitimate but charming children? --
"NATALIE: No, I've just split up with my boyfriend, so I'm back with my mum and dad for a while.
"PM: Oh. I'm sorry.
"NATALIE: No, it's fine. I'm well shot of him. He said I was getting fat.
"PM: I beg your pardon?
"NATALIE: He said no one's going to fancy a girl with thighs the size of big tree trunks. Not a nice guy, actually, in the end.
"PM: Right You know, being Prime Minister, I could just have him murdered.
"NATALIE: Thank you, sir. I'll think about it.
"PM: Do -- the SAS are absolutely charming -- ruthless, trained killers are just a phone call away."
It's just a film. It's just a joke. But the joke works because the public knows that -- in reality -- the security services
have the skills-sets and the abilities, to do damage anyone they want to do damage to -- and to probably get away with it.
Fast forward to January, 2017 and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer telling MSNBC's Rachael Maddow that President-elect
Donald Trump is "being really dumb" by criticizing the intelligence community and its assessments on Russia's cyber activities:
Shumer: "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, So even
for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he's being really dumb to do this." No, Shumer wasn't joking. He was serious.
Fast forward again to yesterday, March 17, 2018: Former CIA Director John Brennan wasn't joking when he reacted to the
firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe -- and President Donald Trump's tweeted celebration of it -- by tweeting this attack
against Trump :
" When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your
rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy
America. America will triumph over you. "
Obama UN Representative Samantha Power followed up on the Brennan tweet with this: "Not a good idea to piss off John Brennan."
When public officials and former public officials -- like Shumer, Brennan and Power -- make such public statements it must
necessarily have a chilling effect on public criticism of the security services.
After all, none of the three are joking. They're serious. And the American people know that they're serious.
Does Peter Van Buren's criticism of CIA operative Haspel put him at risk?
The US State Department is spending millions of dollars spreading its own disinformation and
propping up NGOs to destroy any individual or organization that does not toe the official US
government line on the US global military empire. Through its "Global Engagement Center" the
State Department establishes in fact -- in the open -- what it accuses the Russian government
of doing without any evidence. Social media companies are colluding with the US government to
make organizations who oppose the US global military empire disappear.
RPI's Daniel McAdams joins the
Corbett Report to discuss the neocon/Washington war on dissent in America:
"... A recent Gallup poll found that while 84% of Americans see media as "critical" or "very important" to democracy, only 28% see the corporatist mainstream news media (MSM) as actually supporting democracy. They're right on both counts of course. The quality of a democracy is only as good as the information people have to make informed judgments about public policy and politicians. ..."
"... Even as the mainstream news media continue to lose street cred, they persist in a rumor-saturated full court press against the "Trump-Putin presidency," which only further exposes their lack of professionalism and increasing vulgarity. ..."
"... Washington Post ..."
"... But it's not a new game, because despite their "free press" claims, American major news media have long been instruments of state propaganda. In the 1970s, Carl Bernstein exposed the fact that the overseas branches of US MSM had long served as eyes and ears of the CIA's "Operation Mockingbird," and it's very likely than many amongst their ranks remain agency assets. ..."
"... During the GW Bush presidency, the Pentagon recruited over 75 military generals to spread propaganda in the mass media, fed in camera ..."
"... In February 2018, former CIA director John Brennan, the man who fed the Russian "hacking" story to the House Intelligence Committee, became a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC in what has become standard revolving door practice between government and the corporate world. ..."
"... And he certainly knows something about hacking, as he was forced to admit, after first lying about it, that his CIA hacked the computers of Senate staffers who were investigating the agency's role in torturing prisoners. A man the MSM apparently regard as having impeccable credentials for truth telling. ..."
"... Facebook's vice president for advertising Rob Goldman said that in fact most of the total Russian ad buys occurred after ..."
"... The Peacemaker, The Saint, Rambo III, Red Dawn, Red Heat, the James Bond flicks, and the 2018 Oscar for documentaries, Icarus. ..."
"... There are a few signs of life in mainstream journalism. New York Times ..."
"... pledge to be truthful ..."
"... Consortium News ..."
"... The intelligence agencies "have been playing games with us. There is no factual evidence to back up any charge of hacking here." It was likely no more than a USB transfer, he said. ..."
"... Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS, spoke for the media establishment: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS . The money's rolling in . It's a terrible thing to say. But bring it on, Donald." ..."
"... Gerald Sussman is professor of urban studies and international and global studies at Portland State University. He is the author and editor of several books, including The Propaganda Society: Promotional Culture and Politics in Global Context (2011). ..."
Despite all the smoke and mirrors, most Americans seem to see where the stenographers of
corporate capitalism are taking us. A recent Gallup poll found that while 84% of Americans
see media as "critical" or "very important" to democracy, only 28% see the corporatist
mainstream news media (MSM) as actually supporting democracy. They're right on both counts of
course. The quality of a democracy is only as good as the information people have to make
informed judgments about public policy and politicians.
Even as the mainstream news media continue to lose street cred, they persist in a
rumor-saturated full court press against the "Trump-Putin presidency," which only further
exposes their lack of professionalism and increasing vulgarity. MSM management and their
boardroom bosses have long understood that as long as they spice up their "nothing burger"
news, ratings and advertising rates will keep them in business and please their commercial and
government clients. Tabloid journalism, which can describe most American mainstream media these
days, even when wrapped up as "all the news that's fit to print," is in constant search of
sensation, scandal, gossip, and profit – and only occasionally in public-oriented
investigative integrity.
What else does the citizenry have to say? A mere 18% have "a lot" of trust in the MSM, while
74% see them as "biased" (Pew Research, July 2016). A study by the Harvard-Harris polling
organization in May 2017 confirmed this, finding that 65 percent of Americans consider the
so-called "free press" biased, obsessed with scandal, and full of "fake news" and therefore
cannot be trusted. Among the concurring are a majority of both Democrats (53%) and Independents
(60%) as well as 80% of Republicans. Amongst the "informed public," trust in American
institutions in general, that is, the government, business, NGOs, and the MSM, is
going through the worst crisis in recorded history, according to the marketing firm Edelman in
2018. The US is the lowest rated of the 28 countries surveyed by the firm on this measure. This
is not consistent with the image of a serious "democracy."
On the MSM coverage of national politics, Americans are equally skeptical. A June 2017
Rasmussen survey of likely American voters indicated that 50% think most reporters are
prejudiced against the president, and only 4% believe most reporters are biased in Trump's
favor. Although this is weighted by the 76% of Republicans who support this view, the study
also found that 51% of independent voters and even 24% of Democrats also agree. Aided by the
billions of dollars of free, almost all negative, publicity the MSM provided, with apparent
reverse effect during the presidential campaign, Trump's standing is also supported by the 47
million American shock troops that faithfully follow him on Twitter.
On January 27, 2018, the Washington Post editorial board issued this statement: "A
foreign power interfered in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. law enforcement is trying to
get to the bottom of that story. Congress should be doing everything possible to make sure the
investigation can take place." Obviously referring to Russia, the Post's declaration,
as the late investigative journalist Robert Parry and many other independent and respected
writers have pointed out, was and remains without a shred of evidence. It's WMD time all over
again, only this time the propaganda is being trumpeted mainly by the Democrats. It would
better serve the cause of democracy to investigate the Post for its covert coalition
and collusion with the deep state and the Clinton (right) wing of the Democratic Party. The
Post and the rest of their pack have constructed a wicked Russia foil in order to
undermine Moscow's presumed ally Trump and boost bigger Pentagon budgets. It's an extremely
dangerous game that is headed toward military confrontation and massive annihilation by the
yahoos in government and the liberal media.
But it's not a new game, because despite their "free press" claims, American major news
media have long been instruments of state propaganda. In the 1970s, Carl Bernstein exposed the
fact that the overseas branches of US MSM had long served as eyes and ears of the CIA's
"Operation Mockingbird," and it's very likely than many amongst their ranks remain agency
assets. Back then, Philip Graham, publisher of the Post , ran the agency's media
industry operations, a fact not mentioned in the currently showing eponymous film. During
the GW Bush presidency, the Pentagon recruited over 75 military generals to spread propaganda
in the mass media, fed in camera by leaders at the Defense Department, the State
Department, the Justice Department, and the White House. Their responsibilities included their
employment as "objective" foreign policy and war analysts for major network and cable news
channels, many of them concurrently receiving pay by military contracting firms. The Pentagon
referred to the on-air military propagandists as "surrogates" and "message force
multipliers."
The Russians are Coming
In February 2018, former CIA director John Brennan, the man who fed the Russian
"hacking" story to the House Intelligence Committee, became a senior national security and
intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC in what has become standard revolving door practice
between government and the corporate world. Brennan was a well-known advocate for the
CIA's rendition and torture program, spying on its critics, and its use of drone bombings and
assassinations in the Middle East. And he certainly knows something about hacking, as he
was forced to admit, after first lying about it, that his CIA hacked the computers of Senate
staffers who were investigating the agency's role in torturing prisoners. A man the MSM
apparently regard as having impeccable credentials for truth telling.
If the Russia "hacking" story has no legs, the more interesting piece of news is the
organized efforts of the Democrats and some Republicans to bring down Trump and turn over the
White House to theocrat Mike Pence. Mainstream pundits and reporters are churning out
unsubstantiated speculations about Russia and Trump by the hour. A number of Democrats,
military brass, and mercenary journalist (and former country club caddy) Thomas Friedman have
characterized alleged Russian intervention as a new "Pearl Harbor" or "9/11," thereby building
a case for war and for treason against the president. There's no downside to making even the
most absurd claims about Russia and Trump, no penalty for fabrications, misrepresentations, or
getting facts wrong. If they were honest, their ledes might read: "This fictional news report
is loosely based on a true story." Or: "Any resemblance in this story to real people and events
is merely coincidental."
There's room in the inferno for the Democrats' deep state allies. Starting in mid-2015,
Peter Strzok, the FBI's H. Clinton personal email scandal investigator before taking the lead
in the probe of Russian election interference, sent emails to his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page,
which clearly revealed that both of them were actively working for the Clinton campaign to
undermine Trump in any way possible. The pair also exchanged references to a "secret society"
that was operating within the Department of Justice and the FBI to block a Trump victory. Until
their exposure, Strzok had been Robert Mueller's right hand man on the Trump-Russia
investigation.
Meanwhile, two years later, the hunt for the smoking Kalashnikov continues. The best the MSM
have come up with is that a St. Petersburg outfit called Internet Research Agency (IRA) placed
$100,000 in ads on Facebook (compared to the $81 million Facebook ad spending by the Trump and
Clinton campaigns), some of the Russian ads actually directed against Trump. As Jeffrey St.
Clair pointed out in the pages of CounterPunch, in the key states where Clinton lost the
election, the traditional Democrat strongholds of Michigan ($832 spent on token IRA buy ads),
Pennsylvania ($300), and Wisconsin ($1,979), all but $54 of this amount was spent
before the party primaries even started.
Facebook's vice president for advertising Rob Goldman said that in fact most of the
total Russian ad buys occurred after the presidential election. "We shared that fact,"
he tweeted, "but very few [news] outlets have covered it because it doesn't align with the main
media narrative" about Trump's election victory. Winning the election for Trump was simply
not the Russian objective, Goldman says. Alex Stamos, Facebook chief security officer,
concurred. The ads, he said, were more about sowing discord, with messages about guns,
immigrants, and racial strife, than on pushing a particular candidate. Think about all the
blockbuster American (and British) movies that portray Russians as sinister, violent, and
criminal. For starters, remember über-teutonic Ivan Drago, Sgt. Yushin, the many sadistic
"Russian" mafia nogoodniks, along with the Cold War-for-children cartoon characters, Boris
Badanov and Natasha Fatale? Among the many Russophobic films and TV shows over the decades:
The Americans , Air Force One , The Peacemaker, The Saint, Rambo III, Red
Dawn, Red Heat, the James Bond flicks, and the 2018 Oscar for documentaries, Icarus.
Soviet and Russia-era films, not well tutored in ethnic caricatures, have no comparable
stereotypical American counterparts.
There are a few signs of life in mainstream journalism. New York Times
correspondent Scott Shane was one of the few journalists who happened to notice that the US
intelligence agency (the CIA, NSA, and FBI) report of January 6, 2017 on Russian "hacking"
actually offered no evidence. "Instead," he said, "the message from the agencies essentially
amounts to 'trust us.'" It took the mainstream media 6 months before they acknowledged that the
Obama administration claim that 17 intelligence agencies backed the hacking claim was false,
the real number was only 3, and even the NSA had only "moderate confidence" in the finding.
Last January, the NSA made a significant alteration in its mission statement: it removed the
words "honesty" and the pledge to be truthful from its list of priorities.
Even if there were genuine evidence that Russian officials had hacked the Democratic
National Committee and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta emails, as originally claimed by
the intelligence agencies, one should put this in context of the long history of the CIA's
efforts to overthrow many democratically elected leaders who had the temerity to stand up to
the superpower. These would include Allende, Arbenz, Mossadeq, Lumumba, Chavez, Goulart,
Ortega, and others. The list of US interventions in foreign elections just since 1948 (Italy)
is voluminous. Do the mainstream media suffer amnesia about Victoria Nuland and John McCain's
presence in the Maidan, egging on the coup against Yanukovych or her infamous leaked phone call
to the US ambassador in Kiev in which she dictated the ousted president's successors? And is it
reasonable to expect Russia to be passive about a hostile NATO putting troops along its borders
and reacting to efforts to install an anti-Russian regime next door in the Ukraine? In this
recent historical context, US accusations of Russian political interference smack of complete
hypocrisy.
A study by Carnegie Mellon professor Dov Levin found that between 1946 and 2000 alone, the
US intervened in foreign elections 81 times, which does not include its invasions, blockades,
sanctions, assassination attempts, and other regime change initiatives. "The U.S. is no
stranger to interfering in the elections of other countries," he wrote. In 1996, the US
intervened in the Russian election to prevent the Communist Party from returning to power. Have
the MSM also forgotten the lies the government and the CIA told about Saddam Hussein's WMD and
connections to terrorist movements? Or that, thanks to Edward Snowden's exposés, we know
that Obama's NSA bugged the phones of 35 foreign political leaders?
If the MSM are still confused, perhaps they should listen to former CIA director James
Woolsey. Interviewed by Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Woolsey was asked directly whether the US
ever interfered with other countries' elections. He initially said, "probably, but it was for
the good of the system in order to avoid the communists from taking over." Ingraham followed up
with the question, "We don't do that now?" To this Woolsey responded, "nyum, nyum, nyum, nyum,
nyum, only for a very good cause," a rather frank admission that merely amused Ingraham, who
failed to follow up with this obvious statement of US double standards. After leaving the CIA,
Woolsey became chairman of Freedom House, a right-wing government-supported private NGO that
putatively supports human rights causes and has been active in regime change operations around
the world – far more actively than merely doing Facebook postings.
William Binney, formerly with NSA as a high-level intelligence operative, subsequently
becoming a whistleblower on the agency's illegal surveillance operations, called the alleged
Russian attacks on the DNC "a charade." Speaking to Daniel Bernstein at Consortium
News , Binney said that had any bulk transmissions come from across the Atlantic, the NSA
would have known about it, as they tap every communication from abroad. The data from "Guccifer
2.0," was a download "not a transfer across the Web," which "won't manage such high
speed." The intelligence agencies "have been playing games with us. There is no factual
evidence to back up any charge of hacking here." It was likely no more than a USB transfer, he
said.
Is there any hope for the mainstream media to change? It would take a revolution to get the
MSM to become more democratic. A Harvard Shorenstein Center report found that media coverage of
the 2016 US party conventions contained almost no discussion of policy issues and instead
concentrated on polling data, scandals, campaign tactics, and Trump and Russia bashing.
Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS, spoke for the media establishment: "It may not be good for
America, but it's damn good for CBS . The money's rolling in . It's a terrible thing to say.
But bring it on, Donald."
"... Especially, once American policy-makers who saw and experienced war (Ike, George Marshall's generation) departed things started to roll down hill with Reagan bringing on board a whole collection of neocons. ..."
"... Unawareness is always dangerous, a complete blackout in relations between two nuclear powers is more than dangerous--it is completely reckless. Again, the way CW 1.0 is perceived in the current US "elites" it becomes extremely tempting to repeat it. Electing Hillary was another step in unleashing CW 2.0 by people who have no understanding of what they were doing. ..."
"... Obama started crushing US-Russian relations before any campaigns were launched and before Trump was even seriously considered a GOP nominee, let alone a real contender. New confrontation hinged on HRC being elected. In fact, she was one of the major driving forces behind a serious of geopolitical anti-Russian moves. Visceral Russo-phobia became a feature in HRC campaign long before any Steele's Dossier. This was a program. ..."
- If they have read the important books at all... The ongoing scandal has been revealing a stunning incompetence of the "deciders."
Too often they look comical, ridiculous, undignified. This is dangerous, considering their power.
My coming book is precisely about that. Especially, once American policy-makers who saw and experienced war (Ike, George
Marshall's generation) departed things started to roll down hill with Reagan bringing on board a whole collection of neocons.
Unawareness is always dangerous, a complete blackout in relations between two nuclear powers is more than dangerous--it
is completely reckless. Again, the way CW 1.0 is perceived in the current US "elites" it becomes extremely tempting to repeat
it. Electing Hillary was another step in unleashing CW 2.0 by people who have no understanding of what they were doing.
Obama started crushing US-Russian relations before any campaigns were launched and before Trump was even seriously considered
a GOP nominee, let alone a real contender. New confrontation hinged on HRC being elected. In fact, she was one of the major driving
forces behind a serious of geopolitical anti-Russian moves. Visceral Russo-phobia became a feature in HRC campaign long before
any Steele's Dossier. This was a program.
John McCain is a war veteran and a policy maker, who has seen war closer than Marshal or Ike
still he will shy away from any war even with nuclear Russia.
While McCain is a war veteran, his career was not in any way distinguished - rather he pretty
clearly was given "hall pass" after "hall pass" given his father and grandfather. It also
seems pretty clear his time as a POW has probably significantly influenced his view of the
world.
"The Nightingale's Song" has an excellent treatment of his Naval Academy and service time,
along with and in contrast to Ollie North, Jim Webb, admiral Poindexter and Bud MacFarlane.
Not a pretty picture..
John McCain is a war veteran and a policy maker, who has seen war closer than Marshal or
Ike still he will shy away from any war even with nuclear Russia.
Seeing generations of your close and remote relatives killed and your property destroyed
as a result of war is usually a very sobering collective experience. McCain, apart from being
a rather exceptional warmonger, doesn't know what it is, despite experiencing some serious
trials while being a POW. Ike saw, for starters, concentration camps and, unlike, McCain was
mostly on the ground. This is a crucial distinction.
"It also seems pretty clear his time as a POW has probably significantly influenced his view
of the world."
I agree, and, that was the point I tried to make, not all veterans are necessary qualified
MINDS for deciding future of the coming generations. I have the same suspicion for General
Kelly, having lost a son in Afghanistan and having power to influence the war in Afghanistan,
I think is this situation, like judges, one has to recuse him/herself to be part of planers.
The sad but reasonable conclusion from all those Russiagate events is that an influential part of the US elite wants to
balance on the edge of war with Russia to ensure profits and flow of taxpayer money. that part of the elite include top
honchos on the US intelligence community and Pentagon (surprise, surprise)
The other logical conclusion is that intelligence agencies now determine the US foreign policy and control all major political
players (there were widespread suspicions that Clinton, Bush II and Obama were actually closely connected to CIA). Which neatly fits
into hypotheses about the "deep state".
This "can of worms" that the US political scene now represents is very dangerous for the future on mankind indeed.
Notable quotes:
"... Most objective observers would concede that the DNI has been a miserable failure and nothing more than a bureaucratic boondoggle. ..."
"... "The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow -- the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities." ..."
"... More telling was the absence of any written document issued from the Office of the DNI that detailed the supposed intel backing up this judgment. Notice the weasel language in this release ..."
"... If there was actual evidence/intelligence, such as an intercepted conversation between Vladimir Putin and a subordinate ordering them to hack the DNC or even a human source report claiming such an activity, then it would have and should have been referenced in the Clapper/Johnson document. It was not because such intel did not exist. ..."
"... "We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election," Clinton said. "I find that deeply disturbing." ..."
"... The basic job of an analyst is to collect as much relevant information as possible on the subject or topic that is their responsibility. There are analysts at the CIA, the NSA, the DIA and State INR that have the job of knowing about Russian cyber activity and capabilities. That is certain. But we are not talking about hundreds of people. ..."
"... Let us move from the hypothetical to the actual. In January of 2017, DNI Jim Clapper release a report entitled, " Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections " (please see here ). In subsequent testimony before the Congress, Clapper claimed that he handpicked two dozen analysts to draft the document . That is not likely. There may have been as many as two dozen analysts who read the final document and commented on it, but there would never be that many involved in in drafting such a document. In any event, only analysts from the CIA, the NSA and the FBI were involved ..."
"... This report includes an analytic assessment drafted and coordinated among The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The National Security Agency (NSA), which draws on intelligence information collected and disseminated by those three agencies. ..."
"... That is how the process is supposed to work. But the document produced in January 2017 was not a genuine work reflecting the views of the "Intelligence Community." It only represented the supposed thinking (and I use that term generously) of CIA, NSA and FBI analysts. In other words, only three of 16 agencies cleared on the document that presented four conclusions ..."
"... Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations. ..."
"... We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. ..."
"... We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. ..."
"... We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes. ..."
"... It is genuinely shocking that DNI Jim Clapper, with the acquiescence of the CIA, the FBI and NSA, would produce a document devoid of any solid intelligence. There is a way to publicly release sensitive intelligence without comprising a the original source. But such sourcing is absent in this document. ..."
"... The Intelligence Community was used as a tool to misinform the public and persuade them that Russia was guilty of something they did not do. That lie remains unchallenged. ..."
"... "The Intelligence Community was used as a tool to misinform the public and persuade them that Russia was guilty of something they did not do. That lie remains unchallenged.'" Yes it was and so remains the lie unchallenged. ..."
"... Conjectural garbage appears first to have been washed through the FBI, headquarters no less, then probably it picked up a Triple A rating at the CIA, and then when the garbage got to Clapper, it was bombs away - we experts all agree. There were leaks, but they weren't sufficient to satisfy Steele so he just delivered the garbage whole to the Media in order to make it a sure thing. The garbage was placed securely out there in the public domain with a Triple A rating because the FBI wouldn't concern itself with garbage, would it? ..."
"... Contrast this trajectory with what the Russian policy establishment did when it concluded that the US had done something in the Ukraine that Russia found significantly actionable: it released the taped evidence of Nuland and our Ambassador finishing off the coup. ..."
"... To be precise, CrowdStrike did provide the FBI with allegedly "certified true images" of the DNC servers allegedly involved in the alleged "hack." They also allegedly provided these images to FireEye and Mandiant, IIRC ..."
"... Of course, given the CrowdStrike itself is a massively compromised organization due to its founder and CEO, those "certified true images" are themselves tainted evidence. ..."
"... In addition, regardless of whether the images were true or not, the evidence allegedly contained therein is painfully inadequate to confirm that APT28 or APT29 were involved, nor that the Russian government was involved, or even that there was a real hack involved, and even less evidence that any emails that might have been exfiltrated were given to Wikileaks as opposed to another leak such as that alleged by Sy Hersh to have been done by Seth Rich. ..."
"... My interpretation is: In 1990 +- Bush 41 sold us the 1st Iraq war using fudged intelligence, then Bush 43 sold us the second Iraq war using fabricated intelligence. And now the Obama Administration tried to sell us fake intelligence in regard to Russia in order to get Clinton elected ..."
"... Mueller has had 18 months and has proceeded to reveal exactly nothing related to either Trump "collusion" with Russia nor Russia as a state actually doing anything remotely described as "meddling." ..."
"... His expected indictment of some Russians for the DNC hack is going to be more of the same in all likelihood. I predict there will be next to zero evidence produced either that the Russians named are in fact members of APT28 or APT29 or that they had any direct connection with either the alleged DNC hack or Wikileaks or the Russian government. ..."
"... It's a witch hunt, nothing more. People holding their breath for the "slam dunk" are going to pass out soon if they haven't already. ..."
"... Mueller is investigating some aspects. But there is another aspect - the conspiracy inside law enforcement and the IC. That is also being investigated. There are Congressional committees in particular Nunes, Goodlatte and Grassley. Then there is the DOJ IG. And today AG Sessions confirms there is a DOJ prosecutor outside Washington investigating. ..."
"... But such evidence (corroborating the Steele dossier) was not forthcoming. If it had existed than Jim Comey could have claimed in his June 2017 testimony before Congress that the parts of the "Dossier" had been verified. He did not do so. Testifying under oath Comey described the "Dossier" as "salacious and unverified." ..."
"... ... was UK Intelligence, or an ex-UK intelligence officer, used to get material through the US evaluation process, material that would not have got through that US evaluation process had it originated within the US itself?" I would say yes and especially yes if the contact for this piece of data was conducted at the highest level within the context of the already tight liaison between the US IC and Mi-6/GCHQ ..."
"... Was it Hitler or Stalin who said "show me the man and I will find his crime?" As I have said before, Trumps greatest vulnerability lies in his previous business life as an entrepreneurial hustler. ..."
"... Re 'baby adoption' meeting between Trump, Jr. and Veselnitskaya, I recall a comment here linking to an article speculating the email initiating the meeting originated in Europe, was set up by the playboy son of a European diplomat, and contained words to trip data-gathering monitors which would have enabled a FISA request to have Trump, Jr. come under surveillance. ..."
"... "We don't have the evidence yet because Mueller hasn't found it yet!" is a classic argument from ignorance, in that is assumes without evidence (there's that pesky word again!) that there is something to be found. ..."
"... The fact is Flynn has pled guilty to perjury. Nothing else like collusion with the Russians. ..."
"... Manafort has been indicted for money laundering, wire fraud, etc for activities well before the election campaign. Sure, it is good that these corrupt individuals should be investigated and prosecuted. However, this corruption is widespread in DC. How come none of these cheering Mueller on to destroy Trump care about all the foreign money flowing to K Street? Why aren't they calling for investigations of the Clinton Foundation or the Podesta brothers where probable cause exist of foreign money and influence? What about Ben Cardin and all those recipients of foreign zionist money and influence? It would be nice if there were wide ranging investigations on all those engaged in foreign influence peddling. But it seems many just want a witch hunt to hobble Trump. It's going to be very difficult to get the Senate to convict him for obstruction of justice or tax evasion or some charge like that. ..."
"... What does "hacking our elections" mean? Does it means breaking into voting systems and changing the outcome by altering votes? Or does it mean information operations to change US voters' minds about for whom they would vote? ..."
"... As for McMasters, I am unimpressed with him. He displays all the symptoms of Russophobia. He has special information? Information can be interpreted many ways depending on one's purpose. pl ..."
"... IMO the perpetrators in the Steel Memo case are and were merely hiding behind claims of sources and methods protection in order to protect themselve. ..."
"... So now we are supposed to believe unquestioningly the word of torturers, perjurers and entrapment artists, all talking about alleged evidence that we are not allowed to see? Did you learn nothing from the "Iraqi WMD" fiasco or the "ZOMG! Assad gassed his own peoples ZOMG!" debacle? Funny how in each of these instances, the intelligence community's lies just happened to coincide with the agenda of empire. ..."
Americans tend to be a trusting lot. When they hear a high level government official, like former Director of National Intelligence
Jim Clapper, state that Russia's Vladimir ordered and monitored a Russian cyber attack on the 2016 Presidential election, those trusting
souls believe him. For experienced intelligence professionals, who know how the process of gathering and analyzing intelligence works,
they detect a troubling omission in Clapper's presentation and, upon examining the so-called "Intelligence Community Assessment,"
discover that document is a deceptive fraud. It lacks actual evidence that Putin and the Russians did what they are accused of doing.
More troubling -- and this is inside baseball -- is the fact that two critical members of the Intelligence Community -- the DIA and
State INR -- were not asked to coordinate/clear on the assessment.
You should not feel stupid if you do not understand or appreciate the last point. That is something only people who actually have
produced a Community Assessment would understand. I need to take you behind the scenes and ensure you understand what is intelligence
and how analysts assess and process that intelligence. Once you understand that then you will be able to see the flaws and inadequacies
in the report released by Jim Clapper in January 2017.
The first thing you need to understand is the meaning of the term, the "Intelligence Community" aka IC. Comedians are not far off
the mark in touting this phrase as the original oxymoron. On paper the IC currently is comprised of 17 agencies/departments:
Air Force Intelligence,
Army Intelligence,
Central Intelligence Agency aka CIA,
Coast Guard Intelligence,
Defense Intelligence Agency aka DIA,
Energy Department aka DOE,
Homeland Security Department,
State Department aka INR,
Treasury Department,
Drug Enforcement Administration aka DEA,
Federal Bureau of Investigation aka FBI,
Marine Corps Intelligence,
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency aka NGIA or NGA,
National Reconnaissance Office aka NRO,
National Security Agency aka NSA,
Navy Intelligence
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
But not all of these are "national security" agencies -- i.e., those that collect raw intelligence, which subsequently is packaged
and distributed to other agencies on a need to know basis. Only six of these agencies take an active role in collecting raw foreign
intelligence. The remainder are consumers of that intelligence product. In other words, the information does not originate with them.
They are like a subscriber to the New York Times. They get the paper everyday and, based upon what they read, decide what is going
on in their particular world. The gatherers of intelligence are:
The CIA collects and disseminates intelligence from human sources, i.e., foreigners who have been recruited to spy for us.
The DIA collects and disseminates intelligence on the activities and composition of foreign militaries and rely primarily
on human sources but also collect documentary material.
The State Department messages between the Secretary of State and the our embassies constitutes the intelligence reviewed and
analyzed by other agencies.
NGIA collects collects, analyzes, and distributes geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national security. NGA was
known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) until 2003. In other words, maps and photographs.
NRO designs, builds, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government, and provides satellite intelligence
to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA,
and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA.
NSA analyzes signal intelligence, including phone conversations and emails.
Nine of the other agencies/departments are consumers. They do not collect and package original info. They are the passive recipients.
The analysts in those agencies will base their conclusions on information generated by other agencies, principally the CIA and the
NSA.
The astute among you, I am sure, will insist my list is deficient and will ask, "What about the FBI and DEA?" It is true that
those two organizations produce a type of human intelligence -- i.e., they recruit informants and those informants provide those
agencies with information that the average person understandably would categorize as "intelligence." But there is an important difference
between human intelligence collected by the CIA and the human source intelligence gathered by the FBI or the DEA. The latter two
are law enforcement agencies. No one from the CIA or the NSA has the power to arrest someone. The FBI and the DEA do.
Their authority as law enforcement agents, however, comes with limitations, especially in collecting so-called intelligence. The
FBI and the DEA face egal constraints on what information they can collect and store. The FBI cannot decide on its own that skinheads
represent a threat and then start gathering information identifying skinhead leaders. There has to be an allegation of criminal activity.
When such "human" information is being gathered under the umbrella of law enforcement authorities, it is being handled as potential
evidence that may be used to prosecute someone. This means that such information cannot be shared with anyone else, especially intelligence
agencies like the CIA and the NSA.
The "17th" member of the IC is the Director of National Intelligence aka DNI. This agency was created in the wake of the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks for the ostensible purpose of coordinating the activities and products of the IC. In theory it is the
organization that is supposed to coordinate what the IC collects and the products the IC produces. Most objective observers would
concede that the DNI has been a miserable failure and nothing more than a bureaucratic boondoggle.
An important, but little understood point, is that these agencies each have a different focus. They are not looking at the same
things. In fact, most are highly specialized and narrowly focused. Take the Coast Guard, for instance. Their intelligence operations
primarily hone in on maritime threats and activities in U.S. territorial waters, such as narcotic interdictions. They are not responsible
for monitoring what the Russians are doing in the Black Sea and they have no significant expertise in the cyber activities of the
Russian Army military intelligence organization aka the GRU.
In looking back at the events of 2016 surrounding the U.S. Presidential campaign, most people will recall that Hillary Clinton,
along with several high level Obama national security officials, pushed the lie that the U.S. Intelligence agreed that Russia had
unleashed a cyber war on the United States. The initial lie came from DNI Jim Clapper and Homeland Security Chief, Jeb Johnson, who
released the following memo to the press on
7 October 2016 :
"The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails
from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on
sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed
efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow
-- the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.
We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these
activities."
This was a deliberate deceptive message. It implied that the all 16 intelligence agencies agreed with the premise and "evidence
of Russian meddling. Yet not a single bit of proof was offered. More telling was the absence of any written document issued from
the Office of the DNI that detailed the supposed intel backing up this judgment. Notice the weasel language in this release:
"The USIC is confident . . ."
"We believe . . ."
If there was actual evidence/intelligence, such as an intercepted conversation between Vladimir Putin and a subordinate ordering
them to hack the DNC or even a human source report claiming such an activity, then it would have and should have been referenced
in the Clapper/Johnson document. It was not because such intel did not exist.
Hillary Clinton helped perpetuate this myth during the late October debate with Donald Trump, when she declared as fact that:
"We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks,
come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election," Clinton said. "I find that deeply
disturbing."
What is shocking is that there was so little pushback to this nonsense. Hardly anyone asked why would the DEA, Coast Guard, the
Marines or DOE have any technical expertise to make a judgment about Russian hacking of U.S. election systems. And no one of any
importance asked the obvious -- where was the written memo or National Intelligence Estimate laying out what the IC supposedly knew
and believed? There was nothing.
It is natural for the average American citizen to believe that something given the imprimatur of the Intelligence Community must
reflect solid intelligence and real expertise. Expertise is supposed to be the cornerstone of intelligence analysis and the coordination
that occurs within the IC. That means that only those analysts (and the agencies they represent) will be asked to contribute or comment
on a particular intelligence issue. When it comes to the question of whether Russia had launched a full out cyber attack on the Democrats
and the U.S. electoral system, only analysts from agencies with access to the intelligence and the expertise to analyze that intelligence
would be asked to write or contribute to an intelligence memorandum.
Who would that be? The answer is simple -- the CIA, the DIA, the NSA, State INR and the FBI. (One could make the case that there
are some analysts within Homeland Security that might have expertise, but they would not necessarily have access to the classified
information produced by the CIA or the NSA.) The task of figuring out what the Russians were doing and planned to do fell to five
agencies and only three of the five (the CIA, the DIA and NSA) would have had the ability to collect intelligence that could inform
the work of analysts.
Before I can explain to you how an analyst work this issue it is essential for you to understand the type of intelligence that
would be required to "prove" Russian meddling. There are four possible sources -- 1) a human source who had direct access to the
Russians who directed the operation or carried it out; 2) a signal intercept of a conversation or cyber activity that was traced
to Russian operatives; 3) a document that discloses the plan or activity observed; or 4) forensic evidence from the computer network
that allegedly was attacked.
Getting human source intel is primarily the job of CIA. It also is possible that the DIA or the FBI had human sources that could
have contributed relevant intelligence.
Signal intercepts are collected and analyzed by the NSA.
Documentary evidence, which normally is obtained from a human source but can also be picked up by NSA intercepts or even an old-fashioned
theft.
Finally there is the forensic evidence . In the case of Russian meddling there is no forensic evidence available to the IC because
the Democratic National Committee did not permit the FBI to investigate and examine the computers and the network that was allegedly
attacked.
What Do Analysts Do?
Whenever there is a "judgment" or "consensus" claimed on behalf to the IC, it means that one or more analysts have written a document
that details the evidence and presents conclusions based on that evidence. On a daily basis the average analyst confronts a flood
of classified information (normally referred to as "cables" or "messages"). When I was on the job in the 1980s I had to wade through
more than 1200 messages -- i.e., human source reports from the CIA, State Department messages with embassies around the world, NSA
intercepts, DIA reports from their officers based overseas (most in US embassies) and open source press reports. Today, thanks to
the internet, the average analyst must scan through upwards of 3000 messages. It is humanly impossible.
The basic job of an analyst is to collect as much relevant information as possible on the subject or topic that is their responsibility.
There are analysts at the CIA, the NSA, the DIA and State INR that have the job of knowing about Russian cyber activity and capabilities.
That is certain. But we are not talking about hundreds of people.
Let us move from the hypothetical to the actual. In January of 2017, DNI Jim Clapper release a report entitled, "
Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent
US Elections " (please see
here ). In subsequent testimony before the Congress, Clapper claimed that he handpicked
two dozen analysts to draft the document . That is not likely. There may have been as many as two dozen analysts who read the
final document and commented on it, but there would never be that many involved in in drafting such a document. In any event, only
analysts from the CIA, the NSA and the FBI were involved :
This report includes an analytic assessment drafted and coordinated among The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and The National Security Agency (NSA), which draws on intelligence information collected and disseminated
by those three agencies.
Limiting the drafting and clearance on this document to only the CIA, the NSA and the FBI is highly unusual because one of the
key analytical conclusions in the document identifies the Russian military intelligence organization, the GRU, as one of the perpetrators
of the cyber attack. DIA's analysts are experts on the GRU and there also are analysts in State Department's Bureau of INR who should
have been consulted. Instead, they were excluded.
Here is how the process should have worked in producing this document:
One or more analysts are asked to do a preliminary draft. It is customary in such a document for the analyst to cite specific
intelligence, using phrases such as: "According to a reliable source of proven access," when citing a CIA document or "According
to an intercept of a conversation between knowledgeable sources with access," when referencing something collected by the NSA.
The analyst does more than repeat what is claimed in the intel reports, he or she also has the job of explaining what these facts
mean or do not mean.
There always is an analyst leading the effort who has the job of integrating the contributions of the other analysts into
a coherent document. Once the document is completed in draft it is handed over to Branch Chief and then Division Chief for editing.
We do not know who had the lead, but it was either the FBI, the CIA or the NSA.
At the same time the document is being edited at originating agency, it is supposed to be sent to the other clearing agencies,
i.e. those agencies that either provided the intelligence cited in the draft (i.e., CIA, NSA, DIA, or State) or that have expertise
on the subject. As noted previously, it is highly unusual to exclude the DIA and INR.
Once all the relevant agencies clear on the content of the document, it is sent into the bowels of the DNI where it is put
into final form.
That is how the process is supposed to work. But the document produced in January 2017 was not a genuine work reflecting the views
of the "Intelligence Community." It only represented the supposed thinking (and I use that term generously) of CIA, NSA and FBI analysts.
In other words, only three of 16 agencies cleared on the document that presented four conclusions:
Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow's longstanding
desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness,
level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.
We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.
Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability
and potential presidency.
We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.
We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign aimed at the US presidential election to future
influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes.
Sounds pretty ominous, but the language used tells a different story. The conclusions are based on assumptions and judgments.
There was nor is any actual evidence from intelligence sources showing that Vladimir Putin ordered up anything or that his government
preferred Trump over Clinton.
How do I know this? If such evidence existed -- either documentary or human source or signal intercept -- it would have been cited
in this document. Not only that. Such evidence would have corroborated the claims presented in the Steele dossier. But such evidence
was not forthcoming. If it had existed than Jim Comey could have claimed in his June 2017 testimony before Congress that the parts
of the "Dossier" had been verified. He did not do so. Testifying under oath Comey described the "Dossier" as "salacious and unverified."
It is genuinely shocking that DNI Jim Clapper, with the acquiescence of the CIA, the FBI and NSA, would produce a document devoid
of any solid intelligence. There is a way to publicly release sensitive intelligence without comprising a the original source. But
such sourcing is absent in this document.
That simple fact should tell you all you need to know. The Intelligence Community was used as a tool to misinform the public and
persuade them that Russia was guilty of something they did not do. That lie remains unchallenged.
Good summary argument, PT. Thanks. Helpful reminder.
But, makes me feel uncomfortable. Cynical scenario. I'd prefer them to be both drivers and driven, somehow stumbling into the
chronology of events. They didn't hack the DNC, after all. Crowdstrike? Steele? ...
********
But yes, all the 17 agencies Clinton alluded to in her 3rd encounter with Trump was a startling experience:
One other point on which Tacitus and I differ is the quality of the analysts in the "minors." The "bigs" often recruit analysts
from the "minors" so they can't be all that bad. And the analysts in all these agencies receive much the same data feed electronically
every day. There are exceptions to this but it is generally true. I, too, read hundreds of documents every day to keep up with
the knowledge base of the analysts whom I interrogated continuously. "How do you know that?" would have been typical. pl
"The Intelligence Community was used as a tool to misinform the public and persuade them that Russia was guilty of something they
did not do. That lie remains unchallenged.'"
Yes it was and so remains the lie unchallenged.
Conjectural garbage appears first to have been washed through the FBI, headquarters no less, then probably it picked up a Triple
A rating at the CIA, and then when the garbage got to Clapper, it was bombs away - we experts all agree. There were leaks, but
they weren't sufficient to satisfy Steele so he just delivered the garbage whole to the Media in order to make it a sure thing.
The garbage was placed securely out there in the public domain with a Triple A rating because the FBI wouldn't concern itself
with garbage, would it?
Contrast this trajectory with what the Russian policy establishment did when it concluded that the US had done something in the
Ukraine that Russia found significantly actionable: it released the taped evidence of Nuland and our Ambassador finishing off
the coup.
The whole sequence reminds me in some ways of the sub prime mortgage bond fiasco: garbage risk progressively bundled, repackaged,
rebranded and resold by big name institutions that should have known better.
I have only two questions: was it misfeasance, malfeasance, or some ugly combination of the two? And are they going to get away
with it?
Re this: " In the case of Russian meddling there is no forensic evidence available to the IC because the Democratic National Committee
did not permit the FBI to investigate and examine the computers and the network that was allegedly attacked."
To be precise, CrowdStrike did provide the FBI with allegedly "certified true images" of the DNC servers allegedly involved
in the alleged "hack." They also allegedly provided these images to FireEye and Mandiant, IIRC.
All three allegedly examined those images and concurred with CrowdStrike's analysis.
Of course, given the CrowdStrike itself is a massively compromised organization due to its founder and CEO, those "certified
true images" are themselves tainted evidence.
In addition, regardless of whether the images were true or not, the evidence allegedly contained therein is painfully inadequate
to confirm that APT28 or APT29 were involved, nor that the Russian government was involved, or even that there was a real hack
involved, and even less evidence that any emails that might have been exfiltrated were given to Wikileaks as opposed to another
leak such as that alleged by Sy Hersh to have been done by Seth Rich.
The "assessment" that Putin ordered any of this is pure mind-reading and can be utterly dismissed absent any of the other evidence
Publius points out as necessary.
The same applies to any "estimate" that the Russian government preferred Trump or wished to denigrate Clinton. Based on what
I read in pro-Russian news outlets, Russian officials took great pains to not pick sides and Putin's comments were similarly very
restrained. The main quote from Putin about Trump that emerged was mistranslated as approval whereas it was more an observation
of Trump's personality. At no time did Putin ever say he favored Trump over Clinton, even though that was a likely probability
given Clinton's "Hitler" comparison.
As an aside, I also recommend Scott Ritter's trashing of the ICA. Ritter is familiar with intelligence estimates and their
reliability based on his previous service as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq and in Russia implementing arms control treaties.
This is a wonderful explanation of the intelligence community. And I thank you for the explanation. My interpretation is: In 1990
+- Bush 41 sold us the 1st Iraq war using fudged intelligence, then Bush 43 sold us the second Iraq war using fabricated intelligence.
And now the Obama Administration tried to sell us fake intelligence in regard to Russia in order to get Clinton elected. However
inadequate my summary is it looks like the Democrats are less skilled in propaganda than the Repubs. And what else is the difference?
Mueller has had 18 months and has proceeded to reveal exactly nothing related to either Trump "collusion" with Russia nor Russia
as a state actually doing anything remotely described as "meddling."
His expected indictment of some Russians for the DNC hack is going to be more of the same in all likelihood. I predict there
will be next to zero evidence produced either that the Russians named are in fact members of APT28 or APT29 or that they had any
direct connection with either the alleged DNC hack or Wikileaks or the Russian government.
It's a witch hunt, nothing more. People holding their breath for the "slam dunk" are going to pass out soon if they haven't
already.
Mueller is investigating some aspects. But there is another aspect - the conspiracy inside law enforcement and the IC. That is also being investigated. There are
Congressional committees in particular Nunes, Goodlatte and Grassley. Then there is the DOJ IG. And today AG Sessions confirms
there is a DOJ prosecutor outside Washington investigating.
IMO, the conspiracy is significantly larger in scale and scope than anything the Russians did.
Yes, indeed we'll have to wait and see what facts Mueller reveals. But also what facts these other investigations reveal.
Thank you for setting out the geography and workings of this complex world.
Might I ask how liaison with other Intelligence Communities fits in? Is intelligence information from non-US sources such as
UK intelligence sources subject to the same process of verification and evaluation?
I ask because of the passage in your article -
"But such evidence (corroborating the Steele dossier) was not forthcoming. If it had existed than Jim Comey could have claimed
in his June 2017 testimony before Congress that the parts of the "Dossier" had been verified. He did not do so. Testifying under
oath Comey described the "Dossier" as "salacious and unverified." "
Does this leave room for the assertion that although the "Dossier" was unverified in the US it was accepted as good information
because it had been verified by UK Intelligence or by persons warranted by the UK? In other words, was UK Intelligence, or an ex-UK intelligence officer, used to get material through the US evaluation process,
material that would not have got through that US evaluation process had it originated within the US itself?
" ... was UK Intelligence, or an ex-UK intelligence officer, used to get material through the US evaluation process, material
that would not have got through that US evaluation process had it originated within the US itself?" I would say yes and especially
yes if the contact for this piece of data was conducted at the highest level within the context of the already tight liaison
between the US IC and Mi-6/GCHQ. PT may think differently. pl
Was it Hitler or Stalin who said "show me the man and I will find his crime?" As I have said before, Trumps greatest vulnerability
lies in his previous business life as an entrepreneurial hustler. If he is anything like the many like him whom I observed in
my ten business years, then he has cut corners legally somewhere in international business. they pretty much all do that. Kooshy,
a successful businessman confirmed that here a while back. These other guys were all business hustlers including Flynn and their
activities have made them vulnerable to Mueller. IMO you have to ask yourself how much you want to be governed by political hacks
and how much by hustlers. pl
hy this socialist pub would fing it surprising that former public servants seek elected office is a mystery to me. BTW, in
re all the discussion here of the IC, there are many levels in these essentially hierarchical structures and one's knowledge of
them is conditioned by the perspective from which you viewed them. pl
Re 'baby adoption' meeting between Trump, Jr. and Veselnitskaya, I recall a comment here linking to an article speculating the
email initiating the meeting originated in Europe, was set up by the playboy son of a European diplomat, and contained words to
trip data-gathering monitors which would have enabled a FISA request to have Trump, Jr. come under surveillance.
Also, the Seymour Hersh tape certainly seems authentic as far as Seth Rich being implicated in the DNC dump.
You insist (I guess you rely on MSNBC as your fact source) that Manafort, Page, etc. all "have connections to Russia or Assange."
You are using smear and guilt by association. Flynn's so-called connection to Russia was that he accepted an invite to deliver
a speech at an RT sponsored event and was paid. So what? Nothing wrong with that. Just ask Bill Clinton. Or perhaps you are referring
to the fact that Flynn also spoke to the Russian Ambassador to the US after the election in his capacity as designated National
Security Advisor. Zero justification for investigation.
Stone? He left the campaign before there had even been a primary and only had text exchanges with Assange.
Your blind hatred of Trump makes you incapable of thinking logically.
The most sarcastic irony was intended. This is what the real left looks like, its very different from Clintonite Liberals, not that I agree with their ideological
program, though I believe parts have their place.
And to your second comment, yes I agree about the complexity of institutions and how situationally constrained individual experiences
are, if that was the point.
I'll also concede my brief comments generalize very broadly, but it's hard to frame things more specific comments without direct
knowledge, such as the invaluable correspondents here. I try to avoid confirmation bias by reading broadly and try to provide
outside perspectives. My apologies if they're too far outside.
I suppose it would be interesting to see a side by side comparison of how many former IC self affiliated with which party in
choosing to run. I'm just guessing but I'll bet there's more CIA in the D column and more DIA among the Rs.
"We don't have the evidence yet because Mueller hasn't found it yet!" is a classic argument from ignorance, in that is assumes
without evidence (there's that pesky word again!) that there is something to be found.
That said, I have no doubt that Mueller will find *something*, simply because an aggressive and determined prosecutor can always
find *something*, especially if the target is engaged in higher level business or politics. A form unfiled, an irregularity in
an official document, and overly optimistic tax position.
If nothing else works, there's always the good old standby of asking question after question until the target makes a statement
that can be construed as perjury or lying to investigators.
My perspective, after reading that linked article by the WSWS, is that both, the IC and the DoD, are trying to take over the
whole US political spectrum, in fact, militarizing de facto the US political life....
Now, tell me that this is not an
intend by the MIC ( where all the former IC or DoD people finally end when they leave official positions )to take over the
government ( if more was needed after what has happened with Trump΄s ) to guarantee their profit rate in a moment where
everything is crimbling....
Btw, have you read the recently released paper, "WorldWide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community" by Daniel R.
Coats ( DNI )? You smell fear from the four corners....do not you?
Those immortal words are attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, Colonel and you are not the first to draw the comparison re Mueller's
investigation. For those who do not know Beria was head of the NKVD under Stalin.
The BBC reported this morning that a police officer who was amongst the earliest responders to the "nerve gas" poisoning of Col.
Skripal is also being treated for symptoms. How was it that many "White Helmets" who were filmed where the sarin gas was dropped
on Khan Sheikhoun last April suffered no symptoms?
That's a good way to present it political hacks vs hustlers. The fact is Flynn has pled guilty to perjury. Nothing else like collusion with the Russians.
And his sentencing is on hold
now as the judge has ordered Mueller to hand over any exculpatory evidence. Clearly something is going on his case for the judge
to do that.
Manafort has been indicted for money laundering, wire fraud, etc for activities well before the election campaign. Sure, it is good that these corrupt individuals should be investigated and prosecuted. However, this corruption is widespread
in DC. How come none of these cheering Mueller on to destroy Trump care about all the foreign money flowing to K Street? Why aren't
they calling for investigations of the Clinton Foundation or the Podesta brothers where probable cause exist of foreign money
and influence? What about Ben Cardin and all those recipients of foreign zionist money and influence? It would be nice if there
were wide ranging investigations on all those engaged in foreign influence peddling. But it seems many just want a witch hunt
to hobble Trump. It's going to be very difficult to get the Senate to convict him for obstruction of justice or tax evasion or
some charge like that.
The select group of several dozen analysts from CIA, NSA and FBI who produced the January 2017 ICA are very likely the same group
of analysts assembled by Brenner in August 2016 to form a task force examining "L'Affaire Russe" at the same time Brennan brought
that closely held report to Obama of Putin's specific instructions on an operation to damage Clinton and help Trump. I've seen
these interagency task forces set up several times to address particular info ops or cyberattack issues. Access to the work of
these task forces was usually heavily restricted. I don't know if this kind of thing has become more prevalent throughout the
IC.
I am also puzzled by the absence of DIA in the mix. When I was still working, there were a few DIA analysts who were acknowledged
throughout the IC as subject matter experts and analytical leaders in this field. On the operational side, there was never great
enthusiasm for things cyber or info ops. There were only a few lonely voices in the darkness. Meanwhile, CIA, FBI and NSA embraced
the field wholeheartedly. Perhaps those DIA analytical experts retired or moved on to CYBERCOM, NSA or CIA's Information Operations
Center.
I predict there will be next to zero evidence produced either that the Russians named are in fact members of APT28 or APT29
...
Richard, over here the type of software is categorized under Advanced Persistent Threat, and beyond that specifically labeled
the "Sofacy Group". ... I seem to prefer the more neutral description 'Advanced Persistent Threat' by Kaspersky. Yes, they seem
to be suspicious lately in the US. But I am a rather constant consumer, never mind the occasional troubles over the years.
APT: Helps to not get confused by all the respective naming patterns in the economic field over national borders. APT 1 to
29 ...? Strictly, What's the precise history of the 'Bear' label and or the specific, I assume, group of APT? ...
Ever used a datebase checking a file online? Would have made you aware of the multitude of naming patterns.
******
More ad-hoc concerning one item in your argument above. To what extend does a standard back-up system leave relevant forensic
traces? Beyond the respective image in the present? Do you know?
Admittedly, I have no knowledge about matters beyond purely private struggles. But yes, they seemed enough to get a vague glimpse
of categories in the field of attribution. Regarding suspected state actors vs the larger cybercrime scene that is.
Even mentioning those is just further evidence that something really did happen.
I appreciate you are riding our partially shared hobby horse, Fred. ;)
But admittedly this reminds me of something that felt like a debate-shift, I may be no doubt misguided here. Nitwit! In other
words I may well have some type of ideological-knot in the relevant section dealing with memory in my brain as long-term undisciplined
observer of SST.
But back on topic: the argument seemed to be that "important facts" were omitted. In other words vs earlier times were are
now centrally dealing with omission as evidence. No?
General McMaster has seen the evidence and says the fact of Russian meddling can no longer be credibly denied.
That doesn't stop the right-wing extremists from spinning fairy tales.
The right wing (re: Hannity and Limbaugh) have been trying mightily to discredit this investigation by smearing Mueller's reputation,
even though he is a conservative republican.
They are doing this so that if Mueller's report is damning, they can call it a "witch hunt."
I would think that if Trump is innocent, he would cooperate with this investigation fully.
You are insinuating that McMaster is a liar even though he has access to information that you don't.
"omission as evidence. " Incorrect. Among the omissions was the fact that the dossier was paid for by a political campaign
and that the wife of a senior DOJ lawyer's wife was working for Fusion GPS. Then there's the rest of the political motivations
left out.
If you have seen the classified information that would be necessary to back up your conclusions, it should not be discussed in
this forum. As you are well aware sources and methods cannot be made public so I fail to see how you believe this should have
been publically done. Having said that, I pretty much agree with your conclusion except for the indication that the analysts lied.
What does "hacking our elections" mean? Does it means breaking into voting systems and changing the outcome by altering votes?
Or does it mean information operations to change US voters' minds about for whom they would vote?
If the latter you must know
that we (the US) have done this many times in foreign elections, including Russian elections, Israeli elections, Italian elections,
German elections, etc., or perhaps you think that a different criterion should be applied to people who are not American.
As for
McMasters, I am unimpressed with him. He displays all the symptoms of Russophobia. He has special information? Information can
be interpreted many ways depending on one's purpose. pl
PT does not have access to the classified information underlying but your argument that "As you are well aware sources and
methods cannot be made public so I fail to see how you believe this should have been publicly done." doesn't hold water for me
since I have seen sources and methods disclosed by the government of the US many times when it felt that necessary. One example
that I have mentioned before was that of the trial of Jeffrey Sterling (merlin) for which I was an expert witness and adviser
to the federal court for four years.
In that one the CIA and DoJ forced the court to allow them to de-classify the CIA DO's operational
files on the case and read them into the record in open court. I had read all these files when they were classified at the SCI
level. IMO the perpetrators in the Steel Memo case are and were merely hiding behind claims of sources and methods protection
in order to protect themselve. pl
Mueller cleared his ridiculous indictment relating to the Russian troll farm, a requirement that at one time would have been
SOP for any FBI Office or USAtty Office bringing an indictment of this kind.
Not aware of this. Can you help me out?
No doubt vaguely familiar with public lore, in limited ways. As always.
So now we are supposed to believe unquestioningly the word of torturers, perjurers and entrapment artists, all talking about alleged
evidence that we are not allowed to see?
Did you learn nothing from the "Iraqi WMD" fiasco or the "ZOMG! Assad gassed his own peoples ZOMG!" debacle? Funny how in each of these instances, the intelligence community's lies just happened to coincide with the agenda of empire.
Ok, true. I forgot 'Steele'* was used as 'evidence'. Strictly, Pat may have helped me out considering my 'felt' "debate-shift". Indirectly. I do recall, I hesitated to try to clarify
matters for myself.
Depends on what crime the "hack" committed. Fudging on taxes or cutting corners? Big whoop. Laundering $500 mil for a buddy of
Vlad's? Now you got my attention and should have the voters' attention.
This is a political process in the end game. Clinton lied about sex in the oval Office and was tried for it. Why don't we exercise
patience in the process and see if this President should be tried?
I ain't a lawyer but don't prosecutors hold their cards (evidence) close to their chests until the court has a criminal charge
and sets a date for discovery?
Linda,
You betray your ignorance on this subject. You clearly have not understood nor comprehended what I have written. So i will put
it in CAPS for you. Please read slowly.
THIS TYPE OF DOCUMENT, IF IT HAD A SOURCE OR SOURCES BEHIND IT, WOULD REFERENCE THOSE SOURCES. AN ANALYST WOULD NOT WRITE "WE
ASSESS." IF YOU HAVE A RELIABLE HUMAN SOURCE OR A RELIABLE PIECE OF SIGINT THE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ASSESS. YOU SIMPLY STATE, ACCORDING
TO A KNOWLEDGEABLE AND RELIABLE SOURCE.
GOT IT. And don't come back with nonsense that the sources are so sensitive that they cannot be disclose. News flash genius--the
very fact that Clapper put out this piece of dreck would have exposed the sources if they existed (but they do not). In any event,
there would be reference to sources that provided the evidence that such activity took place at the direction of Putin.
I notice other Intelligence Community Assessments also use the term "we assess" liberally. For example, the 2018 Worldwide
Threat Assessment and the 2012 ICA on Global Water Security use the "we assess" phrase throughout the documents. I hazard to guess
that is why they call these things assessments.
The 2017 ICA on Russian Interference released to the public clearly states: "This report is a declassified version of a highly
classified assessment. This document's conclusions are identical to the highly classified assessment, but this document does not
include the full supporting information, including specific intelligence on key elements of the influence campaign. Given the
redactions, we made minor edits purely for readability and flow."
I would hazard another guess that those minor edits for readability and flow are the reason that specific intelligence reports
and sources, which were left out of the unclassified ICA, are not cited in that ICA.
As far as I know, no one has reliably claimed that election systems, as in vote tallies, were ever breached. No votes were
changed after they were cast. The integrity of our election system and the 2016 election itself was maintained. Having said that,
there is plenty of evidence of Russian meddling as an influence op. I suggest you and others take a gander at the research of
someone going by the handle of @UsHadrons and several others. They are compiling a collection of FaceBook, twitter and other media
postings that emanated from the IRA and other Russian sources. The breadth of these postings is quite wide and supports the assessment
that enhancing the divides that already existed in US society was a primary Russian goal.
I pointed this stuff out to Eric Newhill a while back in one of our conversations. He jokingly noted that he may have assisted
in spreading a few of these memes. I bet a lot of people will recognize some of the stuff in this collection. That's nothing.
Recently we all learned that Michael Moore did a lot more than unwittingly repost a Russian meme. He took part in a NYC protest
march organized and pushed by Russians. This stuff is open source proof of Russian meddling.
TTG
Nice try, but that is bullshit just because recent assessments come out with sloppy language is no excuse. Go back and look at
the assessment was done for iraq to justify the war in 2003. Many sources cited because it was considered something Required to
justify going to war. As we have been told by many in the media that the Russians meddling was worse or as bad as the attack on
Pearl Harbor and 9-11. With something so serious do you want to argue that they would downplay the sourcing?
"... According to Mayer, Trump defenders argue that Steele is "a dishonest Clinton apparatchik who had collaborated with American intelligence and law enforcement officials to fabricate false charges against Trump and his associates, in a dastardly (sic) attempt to nullify the 2016 election. According to this story line, it was not the President who needed to be investigated, but the investigators themselves." ..."
"... I could not help but think that Mayer wrote her piece some months ago and that she and her editors might have missed more recent documentary evidence that gives considerable support to that "dastardly" story line. But seriously, it should be possible to suspect Steele of misfeasance or malfeasance – or simply telling his contractors what he knows they want to hear – without being labeled a "Trump supporter." I, for example, am no Trump supporter. I am, however, a former intelligence officer and I have long since concluded that what Steele served up is garbage. ..."
"... Mayer reports that Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, described Steele as "superb." Personally, I would shun any "recommendation" from that charlatan. Are memories so short? Dearlove was the intelligence chief who briefed Prime Minister Tony Blair on July 23, 2002 after a quick trip to Washington. The official minutes of that meeting were leaked to the London Times and published on May 1, 2005. ..."
"... Worse still, he displays a distinct inclination toward the remarkable view of former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who has said that Russians are "typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever." If Mayer wanted to find some ostensibly authoritative figure to endorse the kind of material in Steele's dossier, she surely picked a good one in Sipher. ..."
"... Mayer notes, "It's too early to make a final judgment about how much of Steele's dossier will be proved wrong, but a number of Steele's major claims have been backed up by subsequent disclosures. She includes, as flat fact, his claim that the Kremlin and WikiLeaks were working together to release the DNC's emails, but provides no evidence. ..."
"... It was, of course, WikiLeaks that published the very damaging Democratic information, for example, on the DNC's dirty tricks that marginalized Sen. Bernie Sanders and ensured that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic nomination. What remained to be demonstrated was that it was "the Russians" who gave those emails to WikiLeaks. And that is what the U.S. intelligence community could not honestly say. ..."
'Progressive' Journalists Jump the Shark on Russiagate March 7, 2018
A lack of skepticism has characterized much of the reporting on Russiagate, with undue
credibility being given to questionable sources like the Steele dossier, and now progressives
like Jane Mayer and Cenk Uygur are joining the bandwagon, Ray McGovern observes.
By Ray McGovern
Russiagate reporting has increasingly taken on a tabloidish and sensationalist
character.
Jane Mayer of The New Yorker and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks are the latest
progressives to jump on the anti-Trump, pro-Russiagate bandwagon. They have made it crystal
clear that, in Mayer's words, they are not going to let Republicans, or anyone else, "take down
the whole intelligence community," by God.
Odd? Nothing is too odd when it comes to spinning and dyeing the yarn of Russiagate;
especially now that some strands are unraveling from the thin material of the "Steele
dossier."
Before the 2016 election, British ex-spy Christopher Steele was contracted (through a couple
of cutouts) by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee to dig up dirt on
candidate Donald Trump. They paid him $168,000. They should ask for their money back.
Mayer and Uygur have now joined with other Trump-despisers and new "progressive" fans of the
FBI and CIA – among them Amy Goodman and her go-to, lost-in-the-trees journalist, Marcy
Wheeler of Emptywheel.net. All of them (well, maybe not Cenk) are staying up nights with needle
and thread trying to sew a silk purse out of the sow's-ear dossier of Steele allegations and
then dye it red for danger.
Monday brought a new low, with a truly extraordinary one-two punch
by Mayer and Uygur .
A Damning Picture?
Mayer does her part in a New Yorker article, in which she – intentionally or
not – cannot seem to see the forest for the trees.
In her article, Mayer explains up front that the Steele dossier "painted a damning picture
of collusion between Trump and Russia," and then goes on to portray him as a paragon of virtue
with praise that is fulsome, in the full meaning of that word. For example, a friend of Steele
told Mayer that regarding Steele, "Fairness, integrity, and truth, for him, trump any
ideology."
Now, if one refuses to accept this portrait on faith, then you are what Mayer describes as a
"Trump defender." According to Mayer, Trump defenders argue that Steele is "a dishonest Clinton
apparatchik who had collaborated with American intelligence and law enforcement officials to
fabricate false charges against Trump and his associates, in a dastardly (sic) attempt to
nullify the 2016 election. According to this story line, it was not the President who needed to
be investigated, but the investigators themselves."
Can you imagine!
I could not help but think that Mayer wrote her piece some months ago and that she and her
editors might have missed more recent documentary evidence that gives considerable support to
that "dastardly" story line. But seriously, it should be possible to suspect Steele of
misfeasance or malfeasance – or simply telling his contractors what he knows they want to
hear – without being labeled a "Trump supporter." I, for example, am no Trump supporter.
I am, however, a former intelligence officer and I have long since concluded that what Steele
served up is garbage.
Character References
Mayer reports that Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, described Steele as
"superb." Personally, I would shun any "recommendation" from that charlatan. Are memories so
short? Dearlove was the intelligence chief who briefed Prime Minister Tony Blair on July 23,
2002 after a quick trip to Washington. The official minutes of that meeting were leaked to the
London Times and published on May 1, 2005.
Dearlove explained to Blair that President George W. Bush had decided to attack Iraq for
regime change and that the war was to be "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons
of mass destruction." Dearlove added matter-of-factly, "The intelligence and facts are being
fixed around the policy."
Another character reference Mayer gives for Steele is former CIA Deputy Director John
McLaughlin (from 2000 to 2004) who, with his boss George Tenet, did the fixing of intelligence
to "justify" the war on Iraq. State Department intelligence director at the time, Carl Ford,
told the authors of "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq
War" that both McLaughlin and Tenet "should have been shot" for what they did.
And then there is CIA veteran spy John Sipher who, Mayer says, "ran the Agency's Russia
program before retiring, in 2014." Sipher tells her he thinks the Steele dossier is "generally
credible" in "saying what Russia might be up to." Sipher may be a good case officer but he has
shown himself to be
something of a cipher on substance.
Worse still, he displays a distinct inclination toward the remarkable view of former
National Intelligence Director James Clapper, who has said that Russians are "typically, almost
genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever." If Mayer wanted to find some
ostensibly authoritative figure to endorse the kind of material in Steele's dossier, she surely
picked a good one in Sipher.
Mayer notes, "It's too early to make a final judgment about how much of Steele's dossier
will be proved wrong, but a number of Steele's major claims have been backed up by subsequent
disclosures. She includes, as flat fact, his claim that the Kremlin and WikiLeaks were working
together to release the DNC's emails, but provides no evidence.
Major Holes
Mayer, however, should know better. There have been lots of holes in the accusation that the
Russians hacked the DNC and gave the material to WikiLeaks to publish. Here's one major gap
we reported
on Jan. 20, 2017: President Barack Obama told his last press conference on Jan. 18, that the
U.S. intelligence community had no idea how the Democratic emails reached WikiLeaks.
Using lawyerly language, Obama admitted that "the conclusions of the intelligence community
with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or
not in being the conduit through which we heard about the DNC e-mails that were leaked."
It is necessary to carefully parse Obama's words since he prides himself in his oratorical
constructs. He offered a similarly designed comment at a Dec. 16, 2016 press conference when he
said: "based on uniform intelligence assessments, the Russians were responsible for hacking the
DNC. the information was in the hands of WikiLeaks."
Note the disconnect between the confidence about hacking and the stark declarative sentence
about the information ending up at WikiLeaks. Obama does not bridge the gap because to do so
would be a bald-faced lie, which some honest intelligence officer might call him on. So, he
simply presented the two sides of the chasm – implies a connection – but leaves it
to the listener to make the leap.
It was, of course, WikiLeaks that published the very damaging Democratic information, for
example, on the DNC's dirty tricks that marginalized Sen. Bernie Sanders and ensured that
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic nomination. What remained to be
demonstrated was that it was "the Russians" who gave those emails to WikiLeaks. And that is
what the U.S. intelligence community could not honestly say.
Saying it now, without evidence, does not make it true.
Cenk Also in Sync
Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks at once picked up , big time, on
the part of Mayer's article that homes in on an "astonishing" report from Steele in late
November 2016 quoting one "senior Russian official." According to that official, "The Kremlin
had intervened to block Trump's initial choice for secretary of state, Mitt Romney." Steele's
late November memo alleged that the Kremlin had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be
prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions and cooperate on security issues like Syria.
Mayer commented, "As fantastical as the memo sounds, subsequent events could be said to
support it." Fantastical or not, Uygur decided to run with it. His amazing 12-minute video is
titled: "New Steele Dossier: Putin PICKED Trump's Secretary of State." Uygur asks: "Who does
Tillerson work for; and that also goes for the President."
Return to Sanity
As an antidote to all the above, let me offer this
cogent piece on the views of Joseph E. diGenova, who speaks out of his unique experience,
including as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (the Church
Committee). The article is entitled: "The Politicization of the FBI."
"Over the past year," diGenova wrote, "facts have emerged that suggest there was a plot by
high-ranking FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials in the Obama administration, acting
under color of law, to exonerate Hillary Clinton of federal crimes and then, if she lost the
election, to frame Donald Trump and his campaign for colluding with Russia to steal the
presidency."
He pointed out that nearly half of Americans, according to a CBS poll, believe that
Mueller's Trump-Russia collusion probe is "politically motivated." And, he noted, 63 percent of
polled voters in a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll believe that the FBI withheld vital information
from Congress about the Clinton and Russia collusion investigations.
This skepticism is entirely warranted, as diGenova explains, with the Russiagate probe being
characterized by overreach from the beginning.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the
Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served in Army and CIA intelligence analysis for 30 years
and, after retiring, co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
"... The deep state (the oligarchs, MIC, and intelligence community, which controls the media and most politicians) whether or not it actually helped Trump by harming Hillary is immaterial. The election is over and there was never any real resolve in the deep state to impeach Trump or to jail Hillary and their never will be. The reason should be obvious. ..."
"... The only thing consistent in the Russian collusion and election rigging nonsense is the groundless and unrelenting vilification of Russia, blaming Putin for everything. Just as we see grandiose deep state theatrics for the US to obtain access to strategic rare-earth resources in North Korea, we see the similar deep state orchestrated theatrics falsely alleging that Russians rigged or interfered in the US Presidential election. Russia's Putin is the main obstacle to the Western bankster-corporate cabal obtaining resource and geopolitical hegemony over the entire planet. That is the main fact. It is the main reason to subject that nation to constant vilification, sanctions, and military aggression and provocation. ..."
"... The deep state cabal will likely spend tens, if not hundreds, of billions of US dollars interfering in the Russian election. Presently they are most likely bribing, blackmailing, and intimidating thousands of people to swing and rig the election to ensure Putin does not win. "You did it to us." Will be their justification when Putin complains. ..."
Well of course there are. We've been told repeatedly that the Obama administration was on the job and focused like a laser
on Russia collusion and meddling.
Unfortunately, the hard drive all that was stored on crashed and it was all lost.
If we really want the truth then we have to stop relying on what people say just because we like them, or we think they are
on our side, and instead we have to examine the interests of the various sources. Only then we can make better decisions. At this
stage of the game the deep state can no longer blame with any credibility Russian hacking as the source of the alleged leak. The
know it came directly from the DNC. However, the deep state has a priority (a very strong interest) to keep the heat on Russia.
The deep state (the oligarchs, MIC, and intelligence community, which controls the media and most politicians) whether
or not it actually helped Trump by harming Hillary is immaterial. The election is over and there was never any real resolve in
the deep state to impeach Trump or to jail Hillary and their never will be. The reason should be obvious.
The only thing consistent in the Russian collusion and election rigging nonsense is the groundless and unrelenting vilification
of Russia, blaming Putin for everything. Just as we see grandiose deep state theatrics for the US to obtain access to strategic
rare-earth resources in North Korea, we see the similar deep state orchestrated theatrics falsely alleging that Russians rigged
or interfered in the US Presidential election. Russia's Putin is the main obstacle to the Western bankster-corporate cabal obtaining
resource and geopolitical hegemony over the entire planet. That is the main fact. It is the main reason to subject that nation
to constant vilification, sanctions, and military aggression and provocation.
The disproportionate ongoing emphasis on the fake story that Russia meddled in the US election, not only serves to stir up
suspicions and fears regarding Russia in the generally brain-numbed population, but mainly at this stage, and by the sheer fact
that the deep state has carried this rouse so far down the field, the only rational conclusion one can make is that the deep state
is going to interfere in the Russian elections in a very major way to ensure that Putin and his cronies - those wicked oil and
gas nationalizers, those heinous enemies of the Rothschild banksters and their plans for an expanded US Fed to the auspices of
their proposed One World Bank; those upstart renegades who support nations which choose to trade oil without US petrodollars;
those evil monsters who oppose globalism and defend their own nation's sovereignty and other nations like Syria which call for
help.
The deep state cabal will likely spend tens, if not hundreds, of billions of US dollars interfering in the Russian election.
Presently they are most likely bribing, blackmailing, and intimidating thousands of people to swing and rig the election to ensure
Putin does not win. "You did it to us." Will be their justification when Putin complains.
"... The evidence is damning. And the silence underscores the arrogance. ..."
"... More than seven weeks after a devastating report from the media watch group FAIR, top executives and prime-time anchors at MSNBC still refuse to discuss how the network's obsession with Russia has thrown minimal journalistic standards out the window. ..."
The evidence is damning. And the silence underscores the arrogance.
More than seven weeks after a devastating report from the media watch group FAIR, top executives and prime-time anchors at
MSNBC still refuse to discuss how the network's obsession with Russia has thrown minimal journalistic standards out the window.
"An analysis by FAIR has found that the leading liberal cable network did not run a single segment devoted specifically to
Yemen in the second half of 2017. And in these latter roughly six months of the year, MSNBC ran nearly 5,000 percent more segments
that mentioned Russia than segments that mentioned Yemen."
"Moreover, in all of 2017, MSNBC only aired one broadcast on the U.S.-backed Saudi airstrikes that have killed thousands of
Yemeni civilians. And it never mentioned the impoverished nation's colossal cholera epidemic, which infected more than 1 million
Yemenis in the
largest outbreak in recorded history ."
"All of this is despite the fact that the U.S. government has played a leading role in the 33-month war that has devastated
Yemen, selling
many billions
of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia, refueling Saudi warplanes as they relentlessly bomb civilian areas and providing
intelligence
and military assistance to the Saudi air force."
Meanwhile, MSNBC's incessant "Russiagate" coverage has put the network at the media forefront of overheated hyperbole about the
Kremlin. And continually piling up the dry tinder of hostility toward Russia boosts the odds of a cataclysmic blowup between the
world's two nuclear superpowers.
In effect, the programming on MSNBC follows a thin blue party line, breathlessly conforming to Democratic leaders' refrains about
Russia as a mortal threat to American democracy and freedom across the globe. But hey -- MSNBC's ratings have climbed upward during
its monochrome reporting, so why worry about whether coverage is neglecting dozens of other crucial stories? Or why worry if the
anti-Russia drumbeat is worsening the risks of a global conflagration?
FAIR's report, written by journalist Ben Norton and published on Jan. 8, certainly merited a serious response from MSNBC and the
anchors most identified by the study, Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes . Yet no response has come from them or network executives. (Full
disclosure: I'm a longtime associate of FAIR.)
In the aftermath of the FAIR study, a petition gathered 22,784 signers and 4,474 individual comments -- asking MSNBC to remedy
its extreme imbalance of news coverage. But the network and its prime-time luminaries Maddow and Hayes refused to respond despite
repeated requests for a reply.
The petition was submitted in late January to Maddow and Hayes via their producers, as well as to MSNBC senior vice president
Errol Cockfield and to the network's senior manager in charge of media relations for "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "All In with Chris
Hayes."
Signers responded to outreach from three organizations -- Just Foreign Policy, RootsAction.org (which I coordinate), and World
Beyond War -- calling for concerned individuals to "urge Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, and MSNBC to correct their failure to report
on the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and the direct U.S. military role in causing the catastrophe by signing our petition." (The
petition
is still gathering signers.)
As the cable news network most trusted by Democrats as a liberal beacon, MSNBC plays a special role in fueling rage among progressive-minded
viewers toward Russia's "attack on our democracy" that is somehow deemed more sinister and newsworthy than corporate dominance of
American politicians (including Democrats), racist voter suppression, gerrymandering and many other U.S. electoral defects all put
together.
At the same time, the anti-Russia mania also services the engines of the current militaristic machinery.
It's what happens when nationalism and partisan zeal overcome something that could be called journalism.
"The U.S. media's approach to Russia is now virtually 100 percent propaganda," the independent journalist Robert Parry
wrote at the end of 2017 , in
the last article published before his death. "Does any sentient human being read the New York Times' or the Washington Post's
coverage of Russia and think that he or she is getting a neutral or unbiased treatment of the facts?"
Parry added that
"to even suggest that there is another side to the story makes you a 'Putin apologist' or 'Kremlin stooge.' Western journalists
now apparently see it as their patriotic duty to hide key facts that otherwise would undermine the demonizing of Putin and Russia.
Ironically, many 'liberals' who cut their teeth on skepticism about the Cold War and the bogus justifications for the Vietnam
War now insist that we must all accept whatever the U.S. intelligence community feeds us, even if we're told to accept the assertions
on faith."
Across a U.S. media landscape where depicting Russia as a fully villainous enemy is now routine, MSNBC is a standout. The most
profound dangers from what Rachel Maddow and company are doing is what they least want to talk about -- how the cumulative effects
and momentum of their work are increasing the likelihood that tensions between Washington and Moscow will escalate into a horrendous
military conflict.
Even at the height of the Cold War during the 1960s, when Soviet Communists ruled Russians with zero freedom of speech or press,
most U.S. political and media elites recognized the vital need for dιtente. They applauded the "
Spirit of Glassboro
" when the top leadership of the United States and Russia met at length. Now, across most of the U.S. media spectrum, no such overtures
to the Kremlin are to be tolerated.
The U.S. government's recently released "
Nuclear Posture Review "
underscores just how unhinged the situation has become.
Consider the assessment from the head of a first-rate research organization in the nuclear weapons field, the Los Alamos Study
Group. Its executive director,
Greg Mello,
said :
"What is most 'missing in action' in this document is civilian leadership. Trump is not supplying that. In part the fault for
this comes from Democrats -- who, allied with the intelligence community and other military-industrial interests, insist that
the U.S. must have an adversarial relationship with Russia. There is no organized senior-level opposition to the new Cold War,
which is intensifying week by week. This document reflects, and is just one of many policies embodying, the new and very dangerous
Cold War."
But -- with everyone's survival at stake
-- none of that seems to matter much to those who call the shots at MSNBC.
*
Norman Solomon is the coordinator of the online activist group RootsAction.org.
"... So, you and I don't agree on a lot of issues but I think we share the same concern about this story, and that is that American journalists are being manipulated for whatever reason by the intelligence community in the United States, and I'm wondering why after years of having this happen to American journalists, they are allowing this to happen again. ..."
"... Well, that's the thing I would refrain that a little bit. I don't actually think so much that journalists are the victims in the sense of that formulation that they're being manipulated. I think at best what you can say for them is they are willingly and eagerly being manipulated. ..."
"... Because what you see is over and over they publish really inflammatory stories that turn out to be totally false and what happens in those cases? Nothing. They get enormous benefits when they publish recklessly. They get applause on social media from their peers, they get zillions of re-tweets, huge amounts of traffic, they end up on TV. They get applauded across the spectrum because people are so giddy and eager to hear more about this Russia and Trump story. ..."
Tucker
Carlson interviews Green Greenwald of The Intercept about journalists "willingly" being
taken advantage of by the intelligence community on stories about Russia to reap the benefits,
even when they know what they are publishing is "totally false."
From Tuesday's broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight on the FOX News Channel:
TUCKER CARLSON: So, Glenn, just to get to the facts of this story, it is conclusively shown
that the story about the 21 voting systems being hacked is untrue, correct?
GLENN GREENWALD, JOURNALIST: It's false in two ways, one is that several of the states
included in the list, such as Wisconsin, California, and Texas, said that the websites that
the Homeland Security Department cited had nothing to do with voting systems, they are
entirely unrelated.
And it's false in a second way, which is a lot of the stories, in fact, most of them said
that Russia tried to hack into the voting systems when in fact even Homeland Security, it can
only show that what they did was scan those computer systems, which is basically casing
something to say for vulnerabilities and made no attempts to actually hack into them. So, it
was false on various levels.
CARLSON: So, you and I don't agree on a lot of issues but I think we share the same
concern about this story, and that is that American journalists are being manipulated for
whatever reason by the intelligence community in the United States, and I'm wondering why
after years of having this happen to American journalists, they are allowing this to happen
again.
GREENWALD: Well, that's the thing I would refrain that a little bit. I don't actually
think so much that journalists are the victims in the sense of that formulation that they're
being manipulated. I think at best what you can say for them is they are willingly and
eagerly being manipulated.
(LAUGHTER)
Because what you see is over and over they publish really inflammatory stories that turn
out to be totally false and what happens in those cases? Nothing. They get enormous benefits
when they publish recklessly. They get applause on social media from their peers, they get
zillions of re-tweets, huge amounts of traffic, they end up on TV. They get applauded across the spectrum
because people are so giddy and eager to hear more about this Russia and Trump story.
And when their stories get completely debunked, it just kind of, everybody agrees to
ignore it and everyone moves on and they pay no price. At the same time, they are feeling and
pleasing their sources by publishing these sources that their sources want them to publish.
And so, there is huge amounts of career benefits and reputational benefits and very little
cost when they publish stories that end up being debunked because the narrative they are
serving is a popular one, at least within their peer circles.
CARLSON: Gosh! That is so dishonest. I mean, I think all of us and journalism have gotten
things wrong, I certainly have. If you feel bad about it, I mean, you really do and there's a
consequence. Do you really think there's that level of dishonesty in the American press?
GREENWALD: I think what it is more than dishonesty is a really warped incentive scheme
bolstered by this very severe groupthink that social media is fostering in ways that we don't
yet fully understand.
CARLSON: Yes.
GREENWALD: Most journalists these days are in Congressional Committees or at zoning board
meetings or using -- they're sitting on Twitter talking to one another and this produces this
extreme groupthink where these orthodoxies arise in deviating from them or questioning them
or challenging, believe me, results in all kinds of recrimination and scorn. And embracing
them produces this sort of in group mentality where you are rewarded, and I think a lot of it
is about that kind of behavior.
CARLSON: That is really deep. I mean, you live in a foreign country, I'm not on social
media, so maybe we have a little bit of distance from this, where do you think the story is
going? What's the next incarnation of it?
GREENWALD: Well, the odd part about it, and about the inpatients that journalists have in
trying to just jump to the finish line is that there are numerous investigations underway in
the city, including by credible investigators, including Senator Burr and Warner and the
Senate Intelligence Committee, which most people seem to trust and certainly Robert Mueller
who is armed with subpoena power, and everyone is really eager to lavish with praise.
So, we are going to find out presumably one way or the other soon enough. I guess that one
thing that is so odd to me Tucker, is that, this has been going on now for a year, this
accusation that the Trump administration or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to
hack the DNC and John Podesta's email and we know that there are huge numbers of people
inside the government who are willing to leak, even at the expense of committing crimes in
order to undermine Trump and yet, there has been no leaks so far showing any evidence of that
kind of collusion leading one to wonder why that is.
So, I hope that everybody is willing to wait until the actual investigation reveals
finally the real answers. But it doesn't seem that will be the case.
CARLSON: Bravery is when you disagree in public with your peers. And by that definition,
you are a very brave man. Glenn Greenwald, thanks for joining us tonight. I appreciate
it.
So this pro-Hillary bastion of Neoliberal innuentndo -- Guardian -- does not not like Hicks.
As onecommneter noted " The poisonous Guardian which is so toxic I would advise folks not to use
it even as an ass wipe, did not allow comments as is their custom now."
Source
What is despicable pressitute is this guy: "The Washington Post has
found that "members of the Trump campaign interacted with Russians at least 31 times
throughout the campaign" in "at least 19 known meetings"."
Hicks, 29, had the high-pressure job last summer of
crafting , with the president, an explanation for his son Donald Trump Jr's secret
meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in New York in 2016 – an explanation later
revealed as false. More recently, Hicks was said to have run the botched White House response
to domestic abuse allegations
against former aide Rob Porter, with whom she has been linked romantically.
... ... ...
Hicks aggressively defended the president-elect and his team against charges of
inappropriate ties to Russian figures.
"The campaign had no contact with Russian officials," she said. Two days after the
election, she said: "We are not aware of any campaign representatives that were in touch with
any foreign entities before yesterday, when Mr Trump spoke with many world leaders."
The Washington Post has
found that "members of the Trump campaign interacted with Russians at least 31 times
throughout the campaign" in "at least 19 known meetings".
Discrepancies such as those have perhaps accelerated Hicks' political education. On
Tuesday, the House intelligence committee questioned her for close to nine hours about the
campaign's Russia ties.
Hicks refused to answer some of the most sensitive questions, including about the
explanation for Trump Jr's meeting with Russians, according to House Democrat Adam
Schiff.
But Hicks was said to have made one concession, admitting to having told, on an
unspecified number of occasions, certain "white lies" on the president's behalf.
In the darkest days of World War II, Hollywood went to bat for Russia -- our ally then -- by
adapting Soviet propaganda films for the American audience and making some of its own on their
behalf. This amazing documentary, a paean to the heroism of the Russian people and the Red
Army, was shot before, during, and after Hitler's siege of Moscow. Filmed between October 1941
and January 1942 during a time of invasion, privation, agony and death in the depths of the
Russian winter, Moscow Strikes Back (Russian version
here ) may be a
little hard to take in spots, but is well worth an hour of your time. Should the following
video start in the middle, rewind by dragging the red button all the way to the left. Makes me
think: wouldn't it be nice to be able to rewind America away from the right?
... ... ...
Hollywood's famous tough guy (also fine art collector and philanthropist)
Edward G. Robinson narrates over a sound track featuring spirited scores by Russian composers.
Directed by Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin, it won the 1942 Academy Award for Best
Documentary. Then, as soon as the war ended, along with thousands of government and private
employees, Hollywood directors and screenwriters were purged for suspect loyalties. Robinson was among
those who paid a steep price's for their idealism and activism.
Now fascism is back in fashion. Who has the temerity advocate for Russian-American
solidarity, given that Russia is once again on our rulers' shit list and World War III wish
list? We aren't allowed to say good things about it or even that our countries once worked
together, however mistrustfully. Thanks to several generations of hawkish propagandists, few of
our countrymen remember or appreciate what the Russian people suffered in that war and how
thankful they were for the goods the US shipped to them that helped them struggle through it,
but it was their own fortitude that won the day. That and a regime that took civil defense
seriously and directed the public's efforts.
As Nazi forces encircled Moscow, Marshal Zhukov mobilized Moscow's women to fortify the
city. According to the WWII Multimedia Database , the women had to
slog and dig through freezing muck to excavate their redoubts. With little more than shovels
and wheelbarrows, they "emplaced or dug 201 miles (323.4 kilometers) of anti-tank obstacles and
ditches, 158 miles (254.2 kilometers) of anti-infantry obstacles, and laid minefields. 3,800
prepared bunkers and fire bases were built. 37,500 metal 'hedgehogs' were set up to stop
vehicles." I hope they at least got medals.
Could today's Americans match Russia's Greatest Generation or even our own? Take it on the
chin and go on to collectively mobilize ourselves to prevail? We have sufficient tools and
wealth, but have we enough will and leadership? Anesthetized by the H-Bomb, our government let
preparedness and civil defense institutions wither. Lacking action plans for what to do in an
extreme emergency, we're apparently expected to tough it out (use firearms responsibly and no
looting, please). Of course, the government stocks bunkers for top officials and members of
Congress, and our moneyed elites will repair to their hideaways and lock the gates at the first
sign of mortal danger. Those of us who aren't armed preppers will go first. As civil society
collapses, militias will battle over whatever resources are left. And then, depopulated,
America will be great again.
But I digress. Back to Eddy Robinson's
politics . In 1952, HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee) plunged into ignominy
Edward Goldenberg Robinson for being duped by fifth-columnists into assailing fascism and
advocating peace and cooperation among the great powers. The anti-fascist Jewish Romanian
immigrant film star had served in two world wars. Fluent in six languages, he narrated Allied
propaganda broadcasts for which the American Legion honored him. His anti-fascist bona fides,
left-wing Hollywood connections, and support and advocacy for several hundred civic, cultural,
philanthropic, and political organizations only served to target him as postwar red-baiting and
housecleaning proceeded apace.
On April 30, 1952, Robinson sat before HUAC for the third time. He hadn't been subpoenaed;
just harassed until he decided the time had come to clear his name. Through 20
pages of testimony (plaintext here ),
he states his opposition to communism over and over:
My conscience is clear. My loyalty to this Nation I know to be absolute. No one has ever
been willing to confront me under oath free from immunity and unequivocally charge me with
membership in the Communist Party or any other subversive organization. No one can honestly
do so. I now realize that some organizations which I permitted to use my name were, in fact,
Communist fronts. But their ostensible purposes were good, and it was for such purposes that
I allowed use of my name and even made numerous financial contributions. The hidden purposes
of the Communists, in such groups, was not known to me. Had I known the truth, I would not
have associated with such persons, although I would have and intend to continue to help to
the extent of my ability in worth-while causes, honestly calculated to help underprivileged
or oppressed people, including those oppressed by Communist tyranny.
Robinson closed his prepared testimony by saying:
Anyone who understands the history of the political activity in Hollywood will appreciate
the fact that innocent, sincere persons were used by the Communists to whom honesty and
sincerity are as foreign as the Soviet Union is to America. I was duped and used. I was lied
to. But, I repeat, I acted from good motives, and I have never knowingly aided Communists or
any Communist cause.
I wish to thank the committee for this opportunity to appear and clarify my position. I
have been slow to realize that persons I thought sincere were Communists. I am glad, for the
sake of myself and the Nation, that they have been exposed by your committee.
While you have been, exposing Communists, I have been fighting them and their ideology in
my own way. I just finished appearing in close to 250 performances of "Darkness at Noon" all
over the country. It is, perhaps, the strongest indictment of communism ever presented. I am
sure it had a profound and lasting effect on all who saw it.
During questioning, he doubled down on his anti-communism:
To me, communism is abhorrent. Certainly I supported Russia during the war but, as an
ally, and no more than as an ally. What I did for Russia was relatively negligible, compared
to what I did for our other allies.
Upon being pressed, he named film industry colleagues he had come to believe were
communists: Albert Maltz; Dalton Trumbo; John Howard Lawson; Donald Ogden Stewart. This of
course was not news to anyone, but as he had "named names," the witch-hunters refrained from
branding him with the Red Star label. But when Robinson asked members of the committee why they
shouldn't certify him as a loyal American, the best he could get was Rep. Morgan Molder (R-MO)
telling him:
Mr. [Donald L.] Jackson [R-CA16] has made the statement that this committee is not in a
position to exonerate or to vindicate any person who has been wrongfully accused of being a
Communist or who has been smeared as a result of such false accusations. I will agree with
him to a certain extent. However, I believe that when, as a result of any proceedings or
functions of this committee, someone has been unjustly smeared or injured it is our duty to
aid that person and give that person an opportunity to appear before the committee to explain
and defend himself as you have done.
In other words, he was potentially guilty until proven innocent, which the committee refused
to do. Instead, they treated him like a student in a dunce cap scratching out "I will not be a
commie dupe" over and over. His penitence extended to publishing "How the Reds Made a Sucker
Out of Me," in American Legion Magazine (October 1952), paraphrased in 2011 by USC historian
Steven J. Ross:
Robinson told readers that while he had "never paid much attention to communism in the
past," he now knew how they went about duping loyal Americans. "They do not reveal themselves
as communists," but pose "as fine American citizens who are for 'peace,' or 'decent working
conditions,' or 'against intolerance.' " These were lies; their real aim was "world domination,
oppression, and slavery for the working people and the minorities they profess to love." The
contrite actor ended by swearing, "I am not a communist, I have never been, I never will be
– I am an American ."
It must have been soul-crushing for someone so allergic to fascism to prostrate himself
before that jingoist tribunal. Thank Mother of Mercy, that wasn't the end of Rico . Robinson
returned to the stage for several years and then went on to act in more than 40 films. Somehow
befittingly, his last role came in the cult classic b-movie Soylent Green ( 1973 ). He died soon after in Mount Sinai
Hospital and was buried in Brooklyn. He was 79.
In that article,
Little Caesar and the McCarthyist Mob , Ross observes, "The internationalist pronouncements
of Robinson and other Hollywood activists soon came to haunt them as HUAC began portraying
anti-fascists as the allies of Communists bent on destroying America." And so it is today as
anti-Russia hysteria paves the way to a fascist-style America-first militarism, cheered on by
compliant corporate media and political opportunists from both sides of the aisle. Whoever
objects to the gathering storm is apt to be fingered as soft on Putin and entered into watch
lists.
Meanwhile, the corporate takeover of the Federal Government and more than several states is
nearly a fait accompli . Our elections are rigged, not by Russian trolls but minions
of the GOP. The First Family mixes governing with business and pleasure and the Bozo-in-Chief
can't get his wealth-addled mind around anything for more than a New York minute. Generals and
billionaires have been placed in charge of arming and corrupting the republic, respectively.
Democrats won't take on the Electoral College or Republican stratagems to rig elections, even
though reforms would be win-win for them.
We're going down folks, and if Edward G. were around and still in the game he would
understand where we're heading. The old anti-fascist would be plunging right in to keep America
safe for democracy. Since he can't, I reckon we've got to.
Bonus Feature
Another pro-Soviet propaganda production from 1942, this one all-American, is Miss V from Moscow .
Directed by Albert Herman and starring Lola Lane and Noel Madison, it is regarded as one of the
cheesiest spy films ever to grace the silver screen. Lane plays Vera Marova, an untrained
Soviet spy apparently fluent in German, French, and English. She slips into occupied France
pretending to be a dead German spy whom she closely resembles. In an absurd sequence of
implausible events, she and Steve Worth, a downed American airman, hook up and collaborate with
Free French partisans in Paris. After she romances a Gestapo Captain and worms war plans from
him, they send secret radio messages to Moscow from the back room of a bistro that enable
American convoys bound for Russia to elude German submarines. As the film ends, instead of
having Vera and her plucky American comrade Steve romantically embrace (that would be a bit too
much bilateral solidarity) we get to cheer on American supply ships steaming through the Baltic
to deliver the goods.
Geoff Dutton is an ex-geek turned writer and editor. He hails from Boston and writes
about whatever distortions of reality strike his fancy. Currently, he's pedaling a novel
chronicling the lives and times of members of a cell of terrorists in Europe, completing a
collection of essays on high technology delusions, and can be found barking at
progressivepilgrim.review.
"... Sheldon Richman , author of America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited , keeps the blog Free Association and is a senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society , and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com . He is also the Executive Editor of The Libertarian Institute. ..."
Closely observing the grammar of the Official Russiagate Narrative is revealing and
instructive. It provides clues to the (language-)game being played.
Consider what I call the insidious article, the . In the public prints and official
pronouncements, it's not enough to say Russians tried to muck around in the American
election. It's almost always the Russians . This is a subtle way to convey the idea
that Vladimir Putin and his intel agencies were responsible. If a
second-tier Russian oligarch who wishes to help Putin hires, on his own initiative, "a
bunch of subliterate-in-English trolls," in
Masha Gessen's words, and pays them the minimum wage to (again Gessen) "post[] mostly
static and sort of absurd advertising," that is treated as the equivalent of Putin's executing
a plan to destroy the American political system.
There's a big difference between Russians and the Russians , even if the
grammar seems inconsequential.
Then there's the similar case of synecdoche , "a figure of speech in which a part
is made to represent the whole or vice versa." This is one of the few things I learned in
college that I actually remember. (Thank you Mark Isaacs, professor of journalism at Temple
University, who also introduced me to the work of H. L. Mencken.)
When you read in the newspaper or hear it said on CNN that Russia or
Moscow or the Kremlin did such and such, you should call out, "Who exactly?"
Countries, cities, and citadels cannot act. Only individuals do. Moreover, there's a big
difference between the GRU (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije) and the IRA (Internet
Research Institute), between Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin. But their acts are equally
attributed to Russia . St. Petersburg (where the IRA is located) even becomes
subsumed by Moscow . The Kremlin could refer to someone directly ordered by
Putin or a rogue actor. But those distinctions are of little interest to those formulating or
promulgating the Official Narrative.
Finally, let's turn to the word alleged . I can't stress how important this word
figured in my journalism training in the 1960s and 70s, both in school and on the job. It was
drilled into me by teachers and editors that an allegation is just an allegation until it is
confirmed. And to drive this home, my teachers' favorite line was, "If your mother says she
loves you, check it out."
Alleged was the obligatory qualifier before murderer , thief,
rapist , kidnapper , etc. -- until the suspect was convicted or his guilty plea
was accepted by a judge. We'd never dream of not using it before that point. News
organization were of course protecting themselves from libel actions, but it was more than
that, namely, fairness and acknowledgment of the presumption of innocent/burden of proof. Even
an initial confession was not proof of guilt: people sometimes confess to offenses they did not
commit, and sometimes people think their actions are illegal when they are not.
At least one young newsman either learned the lesson about alleged too well or
thought it would be fun to mock the obsession with the word. Don Folsom, a rookie Buffalo, NY,
radio newscaster in the 1960s began
his Easter morning report thus: "Today millions of Christians around the world are
celebrating the alleged resurrection of Jesus Christ." He was fired.
The word alleged seems almost completely lacking in the Russiagate conversation.
The New York Times and other major news outlets have many times referred merely to
"Russian interference in the 2016 election." No alleged ? Have those reporters
actually seen the evidence the general public has been denied? If so, they haven't said
informed us of that fact. Remember, the infamous January 2017 National Intelligence Assessment
contained no evidence, as the same Times explicitly acknowledged at the time. In his
Jan. 6, 2017, article, "Russian Intervention in American Election Was No One-Off,"
Times reporter Scott Shane wrote
:
What is missing from the public report is what many Americans most eagerly anticipated:
hard evidence to back up the agencies' claims that the Russian government engineered the
election attack. This is a significant omission .
Instead, the message from the agencies amounts to "trust us."
I thought reporters weren't supposed to trust even their own mothers! Why are they trusting
the lying James Clapper's "handpicked" intel personnel who made this assessment? Do they not
remember the Big Lie about Iraqi WMDs, not to mention the entire lying history of the U.S.
intel complex?
The Times and the other major news companies have forgotten what Shane reported
more than a year ago: that the government has not disclosed the evidence again Putin and
the Russians . If you think the indictment of 13 Russians patched up this hole, reread
this column. Note also that the IRA is not charged with hacking the DNC and Podesta email
accounts and giving the authentic contents to Wikileaks, which is how the big fuss got
started.
So there you go. I can only conclude that the mainstream media were so traumatized by
Trump's win (a traumatizing event, to be sure) and by Hillary Clinton's loss (not so much) that
they have dropped the grammar of detached reporting and embraced the grammar of those who seek
confrontation with Russia.
Leaked: Secret Documents From Russia's Election Trolls
An online auction gone awry reveals substantial new details on Kremlin-backed troll farm efforts to stir up real protests and
target specific Americans to push their propaganda.
The Kremlin-backed troll farm at the center of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election has quietly suffered a catastrophic
security breach, The Daily Beast has confirmed, in a leak that spilled new details of its operations onto obscure corners of the
internet.
The Russian "information exchange" Joker.Buzz, which auctions off often stolen or confidential information, advertised a leak
for a large cache of the
Internet Research Agency's (IRA) internal documents. It includes names of Americans, activists in particular, whom the organization
specifically targeted; American-based proxies used to
access Reddit
and the viral meme site 9Gag; and login information for troll farm accounts.
Even the advertisement for the document dump provides a trove of previously unknown information about the breadth of Russia's
disinformation effort in the United States, including rallies pushed by IRA social media accounts that turned violent.
While special counsel Robert Mueller's recent
conspiracy
indictment against the IRA showed a sophisticated organization aimed at targeting U.S. voters with disinformation, the seller
appears not to have understood the implications of the auction.
The listing was titled "
Savushkina 55
," the physical address in St. Petersburg from which the troll farm used to operate. The date on the auction is listed as
Feb. 10, 2017 -- seven months before Facebook and Twitter identified and pulled down Internet Research Agency accounts from Twitter.
It received no bids. The seller, "AlexDA," has not posted any other listings, and was unable to be reached. In Russian, the listing
promised "working data from the department focused on the United States."
"The leaks show that Russian imposter accounts targeted activists for specific causes the Kremlin-backed troll farm wanted
promoted. On the target list: the daughter of one of Martin Luther King's lieutenants."
While the date of the auction could not be independently confirmed, the authenticity of the leak can. The leaked documents
list screen names connected to a number of American citizens who were used as unwitting proxies by the Russians. The Daily Beast
was able to track down four of those citizens, whose names have not been previously revealed. The leak contains precise dates
in 2016 in which the IRA-created account Blacktivist reached out to those U.S. citizens, plus a short description of the conversations.
The Daily Beast spoke to those citizens, and confirmed they interacted with the Blacktivist account in the ways described by the
IRA in the document. In one case, the American even provided screenshots of his interactions with the Russian troll trying to
dupe him.
In short, the leaked document contains details of the Russian disinformation campaign that have not been previously made public
-- details which The Daily Beast was able to confirm. .....
"... Maybe there is a clear and present danger in the White House? Kushner's Business Got Loans From Companies After White House Meetings ..."
"... For Kushner's vulnerability to foreign manipulation, there seems to be a lot out there beyond this one WAPO story. This month old article lays out the problems existence over the last year with China. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/jared-kushner-is-chinas-trump-card ..."
"... I think what TTG is alluding to is that the source may be from another SIGINT establishment, not the USA. Correct me if I'm wrong. Given the vague nature of the allegations against Kushner, for all we know, it's Turkey, Brazil, or the UK leaking. ..."
Maybe there is a clear and present danger in the White House?
Kushner's Business Got Loans From Companies After White House Meetings
Apollo, the private equity firm, and Citigroup made large loans last year to the family real estate business of Jared Kushner,
President Trump's senior adviser.
I think the attacks on Kushner are particularly evil and calculating.... And they could pose a real danger to the country! Look: The reason Trump's enemies want Kushner gone is because Trump does not have a wide circle of friends he can trust, so
his enemies want to further isolate him so he can be controlled BY THEM.
The danger is that he will get increasingly embattled, erratic and paranoid.
Then what?? Maybe they think that's a reliable way to control someone like Bill Clinton or Richard Nixon, but Trump??? No way.
Trump has shown time and again that he does not respond to situations like other people. I think that creates a potentially grave
situation for the country, the country these deep-state vermin never think about. They only think about themselves.
I think what TTG is alluding to is that the source may be from another SIGINT establishment, not the USA. Correct me if I'm wrong. Given the vague nature of the allegations against Kushner, for all we know, it's Turkey, Brazil, or the UK leaking.
The reason why Jeff Sessions isn't prosecuting anyone is because he has no evidence against an American who is leaking.
I do hope that this is a rhetorical question - nothing will be done because the Deep State, the Borg, whatever you want to call
it, does not particularly want Kushner involved in policy.
I do not want Kushner involved in policy either, but I am not leaking anything to get him forced to the side.
This past September, in one of his regular interviews with the newspaper Parlamentnν Listy, retired Czech Major General
Hynek Blako commented on the possibility of a conflict between Russia and NATO with a following anecdote:
"I have seen a popular joke on the Internet about Obama and his generals in the Pentagon debating on the best timing to
attack Russia. They couldn't come to any agreement, so they decided to ask their allies.
The French said: " We do not know, but certainly not in the winter. This will end badly. "
The Germans responded: "We do not know, either, but definitely not in a summer. We have already tried."
Someone in Obama's war room had a brilliant idea to ask China, on the basis that China is developing and always has new
ideas.
The Chinese answered: "The best time for this is right now. Russia is building the Power of Siberia pipeline, the North
Stream Pipeline, Vostochny Cosmodrome Spaceport, the MegaProject bridge to Crimea; also Russian is upgrading the Trans-Siberian
railroad with a new railway bridge across Lena River and the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline. Russia is also building new sports facilities
for the World Cup and athletics, and has in development over 150 production projects in the Arctic Well, now they really need
as many POWs as possible!"
"... Democracy only works when the losers relinquish the reigns of the state, i think that's over, the base of both parties are alienated and the elites of both parties drunk on power. ..."
"... Could you please refer to articles which discuss US intelligence penetration of Russian diplomatic and GRU communications? ..."
"... The penalty for a US official or government contractor for breaching that security is 20 years in prison and IMO that penalty is richly justified. ..."
"... Two propositions can be true at once: that the constant drumbeat against Russia is [very dangerous] nonsense and that Kushner, like the Trumps, cannot and will not separate his personal financial interests and his position in the USG. ..."
"... I find it absurd that anyone is making it news that foreign governments are trying to find ways to manipulate White House connected officials. Surely this is the nature of the beast. Both in the US and in foreign governments. Why would anyone expect anything different. Ah, yes, because everyone in the US government is supposed to be honest, honorable, and of impeccable character (and brilliant to boot) - whereas anyone in a foreign government is a scumbag capable only of nefarious intentions and criminal methods. ..."
"... So, yes, our leakers are revealing our SIGINT capabilities - without revealing how it's done. But since Snowden, my guess is most foreign government officials have already been told by their intelligence people that nothing they say is really secure unless it's face to face in a SCIF. ..."
"... If you have ever worked in the intelligence field at a high level, you know that very few countries are capable of breaking into high level Russian government cipher systems. In your mini-list only the UK would be a possibility. ..."
"... Corruption, not corporations, and the problem is beyond the parties. Both parties have a NeoCon hawk wing that wants permanent war everywhere and both parties have dissenting wings that are more interested in domestic agendas. ..."
"... But the corruption at play is beyond that of the parties, corrupt though they truly are: the real legal problems that have ensnared Kushner are ones Trump has to worry about also and they don't originate in politics, they originate in Trump's and Kushner's roles as Oligarchs in America. ..."
"... One of the defining characteristics of Trump is that as an Oligarch he is the first to have disintermediated the political classes of both parties in his assent to power and now holds power independent of them. Most of the S Show we've been watching for the last year is the already deeply divided, and corrupt, political class trying to impose the the order Trump's voters voted him in to overthrow onto Trump. ..."
"... So the secret security state is incrementally expanding its control of allowable political discourse until such time as someone forces the issues into the courts. Sessions, as the dog that didn't bark, is thus far looking more part of the problem than solution. ..."
"... I agree 100%. The next three years are incredibly dangerous. As the Colonel indicates someone high enough to get classified Russian Ambassador SIGINT purposefully used it to catch General Flynn in a FBI perjury trap to remove him as National Security Advisor. ..."
"... We have always had massive SIGINT capabilities and foreign powers including the USSR always believed that we could not break into their systems unless it was proven to them as in this case that they were wrong. ..."
Jeff Sessions is busy napping and don't count on the "career" lawyers (mostly Democrat and
Trump-haters) to do anything;the same bunch that passed on prosecuting Lois Lerner and
contributed heavily to Clinton's campaign.
"Secret" has become just another meaningless word in the swamp.
Democracy only works when the losers relinquish the reigns of the state, i think that's
over, the base of both parties are alienated and the elites of both parties drunk on
power.
they are harming America they are harming "trump's america"
i think this will be our new status quo for the foreseeable future.
Yes, none of the compromises of US penetrations of encrypted Russian government
communications should ever have been made public. The penetration of such systems is an
enormous enterprise and is vital to our (NATO) knowledge of Russian intentions on the world
scene. I worked for three years in an activity that policed the security of our successes.
The penalty for a US official or government contractor for breaching that security is 20
years in prison and IMO that penalty is richly justified. pl
as far as I'm concerned watching these compromises is akin to being worried about an active
burglary ring in your neighborhood......while in the mean time your house is being taken
away--unscrupulously-by your new mortgage company. It is not unreasonable to worry about the
ring...but the main threat is an 'elite', bi-partisan, ruling class that is selling out the
Nation because the profits are better overseas. And has been since the Soviet Union fell and
that threat of ideological betrayal lost its meaning.
This is the manure that the DC 'Consulting' Class has been grown with....to its Olympian
Heights.
"I do wonder how much of this is a compromise of active SIGINT capability. I think the
Russian were well aware something was up when Obama confronted Putin and Brennan did the same
to his Russian counterpart after the election."
Unless you had access to the products under
discussion and saw a major drop in the productivity of these operations, you are guessing.
pl
Yes, I am guessing. I have no idea if or when there was a major drop in the productivity
of those operations. If i knew for sure, I wouldn't be saying so on the open internet. If
anybody here does know of any drop in major productivity, they ought not to confirm or deny
it either. But I would assume the Russians would reevaluate their security after the
President and CIA Director personally told them that we knew exactly what they were doing as
early as September 2016 at the G20 Summit. IMO Obama should have quietly taken actions
through IC and CYBERCOM capabilities and not say anything to anybody. Stuff has been going on
in the shadows for many years. That's where it can be most effective and that's where it
should stay.
I do hope that this is a rhetorical question - nothing will be done because the Deep State,
the Borg, whatever you want to call it, does not particularly want Kushner involved in
policy.
I do not want Kushner involved in policy either, but I am not leaking anything to get him
forced to the side.
Bingo. Thank you. There is nothing ambiguous or subjective about these leaks, the damage
they can do, the lack of prosecution of the leakers, or the penalties for those breaching
security.
The loss of access seems likely to be profound and regaining it very expensive both in
dollars and lost intelligence.
How about the multi-million dollar donations to the foundation run by the daughter of the
Secretary of State of the United States and bribes speech fees paid to the husband of
the Secretary of State of the United States for talks given in front of -omg- Russians - in
Moscow! LOL. Just business as usual payments? kind of like spouse of suspect under criminal
investigation walking down a set of stairs rolled out to his jet, walking across tarmac,
walking up stairs on other jet with armed guards posted, and speaking to the Attorney General
of the United States. Business as usual. No clear and dangerous precedent to the principles
of social justice for all in that conduct. No sir.
"when obama confronted putin and Brennan did the same to his Russian counterpart after the
election.".. i think i figured it out...those Hillary Clinton emails threw the election for
trump and obama/cia had to get back at Russia for doing this.. this is the basis for the
Russia meddling in the usa election... meanwhile no proof necessary! and, it remains totally
partisan..
Apparently 30 -- 30! -- staffers had their security clearance downgraded. If there are 30
unreliable people on staff....is ANYONE surprised about leaks????
The competing corporations are the parties. You reminded me of this prescient bit from
George's Farewell Address:
"The common and continual mischief's [sic] of the spirit of party are sufficient to make
it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always
to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the
community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part
against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign
influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through
the channels of party passion."
Two propositions can be true at once: that the constant drumbeat against Russia is [very
dangerous] nonsense and that Kushner, like the Trumps, cannot and will not separate his
personal financial interests and his position in the USG. Case in point: Kushner's Dad goes
to Qatar and asks HBJ for $500 million to refinance that Fifth Avenue property. HBJ says
conditionally, "Yes, IF you can raise the other $400+ million he needs from another
investor."
He goes off to talk to the Chinese bank, but they turn him down. That means that Kushner
Pere gets nothing for his efforts. Just shortly afterwards, Kushner Fills' BFF in Saudi
Arabia, MbS, launches the campaign against Qatar for supposedly supporting terrorism, etc.,
along with their other buddy in the UAE.
President Trump jumps immediately on the Saudi-UAE bandwagon and blasts Qatar. SecState
and SecDef among others remind POTUS of the importance of our base in Qatar and take it upon
themselves to do damage control themselves. After their "clarifying statements" Trump doubles
down against Qatar. Coincidence? Even if it were, I doubt you would be able to convince
people in that region of the world that it was not. Complain as you will about the leaks, not
to mention the failed presidential candidate and her party who just can't accept that she
lost for very solid reasons, but combined thus far with the performance of the winners, has
brought our governance to new lows.
The leaks are troublesome, but more troubling to my mind is the trend now accepted by both
parties that the government must fight against "alternative information" [facts or ideas it
does not like]. The latest complaint is that the Russians are messing with US agriculture
imports because of RT/Sputnik coverage of the GMO controversy and that it is a way to promote
Russian Ag products to take its place. The fact that the issue of GMO and "big Ag" are major
topics AMONG AMERICANS and resulted in modification of policies even within the Food Lobby
seems not to cross the critics minds.
I think the attacks on Kushner are particularly evil and calculating.... And they could
pose a real danger to the country!
>>>>>>>>>
LOL...I think Kushner is a danger to the country. I don't want a guy who shared his
bedroom with Netanyahu and who's father is a jailbird and uber funder of illegal Israeli
settlements any where near the WH much less privy to the presidents daily intelligence
briefings.
As the saying goes....if Trump wants a friend let him get a dog.
I find it absurd that anyone is making it news that foreign governments are trying to
find ways to manipulate White House connected officials. Surely this is the nature of the
beast. Both in the US and in foreign governments. Why would anyone expect anything different.
Ah, yes, because everyone in the US government is supposed to be honest, honorable, and of
impeccable character (and brilliant to boot) - whereas anyone in a foreign government is a
scumbag capable only of nefarious intentions and criminal methods.
Well, the latter might be true - but it's also true of the former.
As for SIGINT leaks, I suspect anyone in any government who isn't assuming their most
encrypted conversations are immediately revealed to the NSA are idiots. If they don't know
how it's being done, I would imagine they've already ordered their intelligence people to
find out how. In the meantime, they're resigned to speaking over any communication link only
information that isn't "Eyes Only" military technology secrets.
And even that isn't necessarily true. Yesterday Putin revealed no less than FIVE major
Russian military breakthroughs in a speech.
So, yes, our leakers are revealing our SIGINT capabilities - without revealing how
it's done. But since Snowden, my guess is most foreign government officials have already been
told by their intelligence people that nothing they say is really secure unless it's face to
face in a SCIF.
I have a meme I use in computer security: "You can haz better security, you can haz worse
security. But you cannot haz 'security'. There is no security. Deal." It would behoove most
people to take that to heart.
However, the Colonel is certainly correct in that our leakers appear intent to reveal our
secrets for political purposes - and they should be arrested and imprisoned for that.
If you have ever worked in the intelligence field at a high level, you know that very
few countries are capable of breaking into high level Russian government cipher systems. In
your mini-list only the UK would be a possibility. Wherever the data came from
originally the number of US people who would have had access is very small and known by name
in the bigot list for that series of COMINT. To disclose that data is a felony. pl
Corruption, not corporations, and the problem is beyond the parties. Both parties have a
NeoCon hawk wing that wants permanent war everywhere and both parties have dissenting wings
that are more interested in domestic agendas.
But the corruption at play is beyond that of the parties, corrupt though they truly
are: the real legal problems that have ensnared Kushner are ones Trump has to worry about
also and they don't originate in politics, they originate in Trump's and Kushner's roles as
Oligarchs in America.
One of the defining characteristics of Trump is that as an Oligarch he is the first to
have disintermediated the political classes of both parties in his assent to power and now
holds power independent of them. Most of the S Show we've been watching for the last year is
the already deeply divided, and corrupt, political class trying to impose the the order
Trump's voters voted him in to overthrow onto Trump.
The thing is, they're all so sleazy that no one can act honestly and so we get
interminable innuendo, leaking, inconclusive memos and counter memos always screening real
secretes no one involved wants out in public which ultimately result in charges of
"Defrauding America" that now hang in the air like a Sword of Damocles threatening any
dissenting voice with indictment.
So the secret security state is incrementally expanding its control of allowable
political discourse until such time as someone forces the issues into the courts. Sessions,
as the dog that didn't bark, is thus far looking more part of the problem than
solution.
I agree 100%. The next three years are incredibly dangerous. As the Colonel indicates
someone high enough to get classified Russian Ambassador SIGINT purposefully used it to catch
General Flynn in a FBI perjury trap to remove him as National Security Advisor. There is
nothing more corrupt than this. It also shows how untouchable General Officers think they
are. Even with the President's Tweets, there still hasn't been a special prosecutor appointed
to investigate it. My take, also, is that this is an oligarchs' fight over power and they are
trying to keep it hidden. The corrupted bicoastal credentialed class that provides the
support for the oligarchs haven't realized quite yet that they are just as much losers in the
new world order as the deplorables.
America on purpose recently killed between five and a hundred Russian mercenaries in
Eastern Syria. It is total luck so far that a shooting war with Russia has not broken out.
With this gang it will go nuclear immediately.
None of the articles you linked to provided any clear indication that Russian secure
communications were compromised or that there was a drop in productivity of any USI
penetration operations. The most recent account talks about intelligence briefings provided
to McMaster. These briefings could have referred to SIGINT outside of secure diplomatic
communications or even diplomatic cocktail party chitchat. Much of the reporting about
Kislyak referred to conversations with Trump associates. Certainly that wasn't secure
communications systems.
The common denominator in all this reporting is the SS7 exploitation that was known for a
long time and was publicly explained at the 2014 Chaos Computer Communications convention in
Berlin. This was probably how Nuland's "F the EU" conversation was picked up. This is no
longer a technical breach of secure communications. It's a breach of human behavior. These
smartphones are ubiquitous and open everyone around them to 24/7 surveillance.
Having said all that, I agree with you in considering these disclosures felonious.
You have never been in the intelligence business and have no idea what you are talking
about. We have always had massive SIGINT capabilities and foreign powers including the USSR
always believed that we could not break into their systems unless it was proven to them as in
this case that they were wrong. pl
Paul Craig Roberts' invective against the "riggers:"
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/03/01/washington-sufficiently-intelligent-trusted-independent-foreign-policy/
"The stupid Samantha Vinograd [who served as a staffer on Obama's National Security Council]
repeats the lie that Russiagate was Putin's plot "to destabilize the United States." So, how is
the US a superpower when Russia controls US elections? Doesn't this mean that Americans are of
no relevance whatsoever in the world? ... With intelligence levels this low on Obama's National
Security Council, no wonder the neoonservatives were able to run over the Obama regime and
resurrect the Cold War, thus returning the world to a high chance of nuclear Armageddon."
The "riggers" have exposed their incompetence again and again and again...
This migration to truthful analysis of the situation to FOx is paradoxically true
phenomenon.
Greenwald definition of Rachel Maddow transformation is really brilliant: " "I used to be
really good friends with Rachel Maddow," Greenwald told
New York magazine. "And I've seen her devolution from this really interesting, really smart,
independent thinker into this utterly scripted, intellectually dishonest, partisan hack."
Notable quotes:
"... The Nation, Counterpunch, Consortium News ..."
Greenwald
has emerged as one of the prominent skeptics of the investigation into collaboration between
the Trump campaign and the Russians. Once a fixture in the progressive media for his dissection
of the national security state, he is now more frequently cited by the far right in its efforts
to discredit the investigation run by Robert Mueller. The journalist used to chat regularly
with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, but now he's more likely to appear with Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
"I used to be really good friends with Rachel Maddow," Greenwald told
New York magazine. "And I've seen her devolution from this really interesting, really smart,
independent thinker into this utterly scripted, intellectually dishonest, partisan hack."
Wow, that's harsh.
Greenwald is not alone. You can find skeptical articles about Russiagate at The Nation,
Counterpunch, Consortium News , and many other progressive outlets. And these articles can
be equally scathing about the journalists, mainstream or otherwise, that take the investigation
seriously.
Over at The Nation , Russia specialist Stephen Cohen regularly challenges the
emerging narrative, most recently suggesting that
the intelligence community essentially fabricated Russiagate, which has generated in turn a
different scandal -- he calls it "Intelgate" -- even larger than Watergate.
"... "to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe." That's pretty rich, coming from a country and from people who actually genuinely, and in proven ways, have subverted democracy in Europe since the late 1940s - Italy being one of the clearest cases. ..."
"... For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia. I can't believe it has to do with the economy. There's got to be a far better nefarious reason. Even during the real cold war we tried to avoid conflict. Absolute insanity. ..."
"... The cleverest trick used in propaganda against a specific country is to accuse it of what the accuser itself is doing. ..."
"... Clearly, this entire psyop was premeditated and its design was hastily done contemporaneously with Russia's Syria intervention. NSA/CIA/FBI knew of HRC's security breeches and rightly assumed their contents would find their way into the election, so the general plan was ready to go prior to WikiLeaks publications. b has uncovered much, and I hope he's planning to publish a book about the entire affair. ..."
"... Ken @ 4: There doesn't necessarily need to be One Major Reason for going to war. There may be several reasons all feeding and reinforcing one another and creating a psychological climate in which Going To War is seen as the only solution and is inevitable. The reasons are not just economic and political but cultural and historical. ..."
"... In some countries allied with the US, the politicians in power are the ideological descendants of those who collaborated with Nazi Germany - so in a sense they are committed to "correcting" what they see as wrong. In the case of current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he is the grandson of a former prime minister who once served in General Tojo's World War II cabinet. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/12/26/national/formed-in-childhood-roots-of-abes-conservatism-go-deep/#.WoyZCG9uaUk ..."
"... The idea is to keep piling the pressure on to countries like Iran and Russia in the hope that their populations will rise up and demand the freedoms that we enjoy in the West....things like uncensored wardrobe malfunctions and transgender washrooms. ..."
"... Media have long agitated for War in US History. Nothing sells newspapers like a good ole war! Demonizing is a way to achieve it. What is sure is that this is a one way street. Once over the cliff, there is no turning back. ..."
"... In that The Narrative is tightly controlled in the corporate media, not matter how strong the proofs or arguments about the falsity of these propaganda campaigns are, little or no circulation of those proofs or arguments wlll reach the general public. ..."
"... Thanks Jen. It still makes no sense. As a veteran of the Vietnam fiasco, I was pretty much government oriented until McNamara outed the whole thing whining about haw sorry he was. 59,000 dead and he's sorry. They were able to hide the Gulf of Tonkin BS until then. After that I researched the reasons for each war/conflict the USA started and could find no logical reasons except hunger for power. But the little sandbox wars won't destroy the world like a major war/conflict with Russia and it goes nuclear. ..."
"... The warmongering is not intended to make any sense - not many people are trained in critical thinking and logic, and even when they are, they can be swamped by their own emotions or other people's emotions. Propaganda is intended to appeal to people's emotions and fears. You can try reading works by Edward Bernays - "Crystallizing Public Opinion" (1923) and "Propaganda" (1928) - to see how he uses his uncle Sigmund Freud's theories of the mind to create strategies for manipulating public opinion. https://archive.org/details/EdwardL.BernaysPropaganda ..."
"Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News
The U.S. mainstream media are going nuts. They now make up and report stories based on the
uncritical acceptance of the outcome of an algorithm they do not understand and which is know
to produce fake results.
SAN FRANCISCO -- One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week,
Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the
gun control debate.
The accounts addressed the news with the speed of a cable news network. Some adopted the
hashtag #guncontrolnow. Others used #gunreformnow and #Parklandshooting. Earlier on
Wednesday, before the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
Fla., many of those accounts had been focused on the investigation by the special counsel
Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In other words - the "Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia" were following
the current news just as cable news networks do. When a new sensational event happened they
immediately jumped onto it. But the NYT authors go to length to claim that there is some
nefarious Russian scheme behind this that uses automated accounts to spread divisive
issues.
Those claims are based on this propaganda project:
Last year, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, in conjunction with the German Marshall Fund,
a public policy research group in Washington, created a website that tracks hundreds of
Twitter accounts of human users and suspected bots that they have linked to a Russian
influence campaign.
The "Alliance for Securing Democracy" is run by military lobbyists, CIA
minions and neocons. Its claimed task is:
... to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in
the United States and Europe.
There is no evidence that Vladimir Putin made or makes such efforts.
The ASD "Hamilton 68" website shows graphics with rankings of "top items"
and "trending items" allegedly used by Russian bots or influence agents. There is nothing
complicate behind it. It simply tracks the tweets of 600 Twitter users and aggregates the
hashtags they use. It does not say which Twitter accounts its algorithms follows. It claims
that the 600 were selected by one of three criteria: 1. People who often tweet news that also
appears on RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik News , two general news sites
sponsored by the Russian government; 2. People who "openly profess to be pro-Russian"; 3.
accounts that "appear to use automation" to boost the same themes that people in group 1 and 2
tweet about.
Nowhere does the group say how many of the 600 accounts it claims to track belong to which
group. Are their 10 assumed bots or 590 in the surveyed 600 accounts? And how please does one
"openly profess" to be pro-Russian? We don't know and the ASD won't say.
On December 25 2017 the "Russian influence" agents or bots who, according to NYT, want to
sow divisiveness, wished everyone a
Merry Christmas.
The real method the Hamilton 68 group used to select the 600 accounts it tracks is unknown.
The group does not say or show how it made it up. Despite that the NYT reporters, Sheera
Frenkel and Daisuke Wakabayashi, continue with the false assumptions that most or all the
accounts are automated, have something to do with Russia and are presumably nefarious:
Russian-linked bots have rallied around other divisive issues, often ones that President
Trump has tweeted about. They promoted Twitter hashtags like #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem
and #takeaknee after some National Football League players started kneeling during the
national anthem to protest racial injustice.
The automated Twitter accounts helped popularize the #releasethememo hashtag , ...
The Daily Beast reported earlier that the emphasized claim is definitely
false :
Twitter's internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not
Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo. There are no preliminary
indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is
either predominantly Russian.
The same is presumably true for the other hashtags.
The Dutch IT specialist and blogger Marcel van den Berg was wondering how Dutch keywords
and hashtags showed up in on the Hamilton 68 "Russian bots" dashboard. He found (
Dutch ,
English auto translation) that the dashboard is a total fraud:
In recent weeks, I have been keeping a close eye on Hamilton 68. Every time a Dutch hashtag
was shown on the website, I made a screenshot. Then I noted what was playing at that moment
and I watched the Tweets with this hashtag. Again I could not find any Tweet that seemed to
be from a Russian troll.
In all cases, the hash tags that Hamilton 68 reported were trending topics in the
Netherlands. In all cases there was much to do around the subject of the hashtag in the
Netherlands. Many people were angry or shared their opinion on the subject on Twitter. And
even if there were a few tweets with Russian connections between them, the effect is zero.
Because they do not stand out among the many other, authentic Tweets.
Van den Berg lists a dozen examples he analyzed in depth.
The anti-Russian Bellingcat group around couch blogger Eliot Higgins is sponsored
by the NATO propaganda shop Atlantic Council . It sniffs through open source stuff to
blame Russia or Syria wherever possible. Bellingcat were recently a victim of the
"Russian bots" - or rather of the ASD website. On February 10 the hashtag #bellingcat trended
to rank
2 of the dashboard.
Bellingcat was thus, according to the Hamilton 68 claims, under assault of hordes
of nefarious Russian government sponsored bots.
The Bellingcat folks looked into the issue and found
that only six people on Twitter, none of
them an automated account, had used the #bellingcat hashtag in the last 48 hours. Some of the
six may have opinions that may be "pro Russian", but as Higgins himself says :
[I]n my opinion, it's extremely unlikely the people listed are Russian agents
The pro-NATO propaganda shop Bellingcat thus debunked the pro NATO propaganda shop
Alliance for Securing Democracy.
The fraudsters who created the Hamilton 68 crap seem to have filled their database with
rather normal people who's opinions they personally dislike. Those then are the "Russian bots"
who spread "Russian influence" and divisiveness.
Moreover - what is the value of its information when six normal people out of millions of
active Twitter users can push a hashtag with a handful of tweets to the top of the
dashboard?
But the U.S. media writes long gushing stories about the dashboard and how it somehow shows
automated Russian propaganda. They go to length to explain that this shows "Russian influence"
and a "Russian" attempt to sow "divisiveness" into people's minds.
This is nuts.
Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the
only site critical of it. It
predicted :
The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad
light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.
It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that
the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are
normal people.
The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence"
into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false
"Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy
contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are
by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the
venom and spread it to the public.
How long will it take until people die from it?
Posted by b on February 20, 2018 at 03:15 PM |
Permalink
Rufus T. Firefly: I'd be unworthy of the high trust that's been placed in me if I didn't
do everything in my power to keep our beloved Freedonia in peace with the world. I'd be only
too happy to meet with Ambassador Trentino, and offer him on behalf of my country the right
hand of good fellowship. And I feel sure he will accept this gesture in the spirit of which
it is offered. But suppose he doesn't. A fine thing that'll be. I hold out my hand and he
refuses to accept. That'll add a lot to my prestige, won't it? Me, the head of a country,
snubbed by a foreign ambassador. Who does he think he is, that he can come here, and make a
sap of me in front of all my people? Think of it - I hold out my hand and that hyena refuses
to accept. Why, the cheap four-flushing swine, he'll never get away with it I tell you, he'll
never get away with it.
[Trentino enters]
Rufus T. Firefly: So, you refuse to shake hands with me, eh?
[slaps Trentino with his glove]
Ambassador Trentino: Mrs. Teasdale, this is the last straw. There's no turning back now!
This means war!
Rufus T. Firefly: Then it's war! Then it's war! Gather the forces. Harness the horses.
Then it's war!
"to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in
the United States and Europe." That's pretty rich, coming from a country and from people who
actually genuinely, and in proven ways, have subverted democracy in Europe since the late
1940s - Italy being one of the clearest cases.
For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia. I can't
believe it has to do with the economy. There's got to be a far better nefarious reason. Even
during the real cold war we tried to avoid conflict. Absolute insanity.
Gee, what could go wrong formulating policy founded upon a series of Big Lies? Kim Dotcom says he has
important info the FBI refuses to hear. At the Munich
Security Conference , neocon Nicholas Burns, former US Ambassador to NATO, details my
assertion's factual basis that current policy is being formed on a series of Big Lies: "Will
NATO strengthen itself to contain Russian power in Eastern Europe giving what Russian
[sic] has done illegally in Crimea, in the Donbass, and in Georgia ?" [Bolded text are
the Big Lies.]
Clearly, this entire psyop was premeditated and its design was hastily done
contemporaneously with Russia's Syria intervention. NSA/CIA/FBI knew of HRC's security
breeches and rightly assumed their contents would find their way into the election, so the
general plan was ready to go prior to WikiLeaks publications. b has uncovered much, and I
hope he's planning to publish a book about the entire affair.
Ken @ 4: There doesn't necessarily need to be One Major Reason for going to war. There
may be several reasons all feeding and reinforcing one another and creating a psychological
climate in which Going To War is seen as the only solution and is inevitable. The reasons are
not just economic and political but cultural and historical.
In some countries allied with the US, the politicians in power are the ideological
descendants of those who collaborated with Nazi Germany - so in a sense they are committed to
"correcting" what they see as wrong. In the case of current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, he is the grandson of a former prime minister who once served in General Tojo's World
War II cabinet.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/12/26/national/formed-in-childhood-roots-of-abes-conservatism-go-deep/#.WoyZCG9uaUk
That's why pinning down the reason for wanting a war against Russia is so difficult.
Since the FBI never inspected the DNC's computers first-hand, the only evidence comes from
an Irvine, California, cyber-security firm known as CrowdStrike whose chief technical
officer, Dmitri Alperovitch, a well-known Putin-phobe, is a fellow at the Atlantic Council,
a Washington think tank that is also vehemently anti-Russian as well as a close Hillary
Clinton ally.
Thus, Putin-basher Clinton hired Putin-basher Alperovitch to investigate an alleged
electronic heist, and to absolutely no one's surprise, his company concluded that guilty
party was Vladimir Putin. Amazing! Since then, a small army of internet critics has chipped
away at CrowdStrike for praising the hackers as among the best in the business yet
declaring in the same breath that they gave themselves away by uploading a document in the
name of "Felix Edmundovich," i.e. Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret
police.
As noted cyber-security expert Jeffrey Carr observed with regard to Russia's two main
intelligence agencies: "Raise your hand if you think that a GRU or FSB officer would add
Iron Felix's name to the metadata of a stolen document before he released it to the world
while pretending to be a Romanian hacker. Someone clearly had a wicked sense of humor."
muddy waters.. paid for propaganda.... look at all the russian bots, lol... cold war 2 /
mccarthyism 2 is in effect... the historic parallels are marked. thank you neo cons! it's
working... the ordinary person in the usa can't be this stupid can they? when does ww3 kick
in? is that really what these idiots want? or is it just to prolong the huge defense
budget?
This is about conditioning voters in Europe and the United States for a long war with Russia
and China. In other words, a return to the 1950s. It is not working and becoming increasingly
hysterical because societies are not nearly as cohesive as they once were, and the mainstream
political parties, while better funded and more top-down organized, are basically hollow. The
collapse is coming. Four years or ten, take your pick.
@4 "For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia."
Most Americans probably don't. Just the chosen few with the deepest fall-out shelters.
The idea is to keep piling the pressure on to countries like Iran and Russia in the hope
that their populations will rise up and demand the freedoms that we enjoy in the
West....things like uncensored wardrobe malfunctions and transgender washrooms.
let's imagine that we have the pyramid of evilness, by which we measure bestiality of one
regime and its constituency. my firm belief is that us would be on the top of that pyramid.
Only dilemma would be between Zionist entity and the US.
"How could the masses be made to desire their own repression?" was the question Wilhelm
Reich famously asked in the wake of the Reichstagsbrandverordnung (Reichstag Fire Decree,
February 28, 1933), which suspended the civil rights protections afforded by the Weimar
Republic's democratic constitution.Hitler had been appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933
and Reich was trying to grapple with the fact that the German people had apparently chosen
the authoritarian politics promoted by National Socialism against their own political
interests. Ever since, the question of fascism, or rather the question of why might people
vote for their own oppression, has never ceased to haunt political philosophy.2 With Trump
openly campaigning for less democracy in America -- and with the continued electoral
success of far-right antiliberal movements across Europe -- this question has again become
a pressing one.
An American people is in perfect harmony with its regime.
Media have long agitated for War in US History. Nothing sells newspapers like a good
ole war! Demonizing is a way to achieve it. What is sure is that this is a one way street.
Once over the cliff, there is no turning back.
How do you tell people that, at the flick of your magic switch, Putin is in fact a swell
guy and wonderful human being? Once love is gone who goes back to the filthy, abhorrent and
estranged spouse?
Surely the US establishment is playing with fire thinking they will successfully ride out
any conflict and come out on top secure in their newly reestablished hegemony on the
smoldering ruins of Humanity.
Make no mistake, we are all on the road to hell. Better enjoy todays peace as tomorrow
word will be filled with the sweet music of cemeteries.
@15 "An American people is in perfect harmony with its regime."
I'm not so sure. I think there are many Americans who deeply distrust their government.
But of course they don't want to appear unpatriotic. There are also many who are apathetic
and many simply don't know how to change things.
It's horrible I know to quote a Nazi, but Goring had this right:
Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm
want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his
farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in
England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or
a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter
through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare
wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they
are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country
to danger. It works the same way in any country.
American media has graduated from simply repeating the lies of "unnamed government sources"
to repeating the lies of any organization unofficially blessed by the powers that be. The
skills required to repeat the text verbatim serve them well in both cases. Skepticism is only
reserved to anyone who tries to introduce logic or facts into the equation--such as when Jill
Stein was interviewed on MSNBC recently. How dare Ms. Stein try to bring FACTS into the
discussion!
In that The Narrative is tightly controlled in the corporate media, not matter how strong
the proofs or arguments about the falsity of these propaganda campaigns are, little or no
circulation of those proofs or arguments wlll reach the general public.
Thanks Jen. It still makes no sense. As a veteran of the Vietnam fiasco, I was pretty
much government oriented until McNamara outed the whole thing whining about haw sorry he was.
59,000 dead and he's sorry. They were able to hide the Gulf of Tonkin BS until then. After
that I researched the reasons for each war/conflict the USA started and could find no logical
reasons except hunger for power. But the little sandbox wars won't destroy the world like a
major war/conflict with Russia and it goes nuclear. Almost every politician, and major
news organizations are pushing for a war/conflict with Russia. This is insanity as no one
will win a war like this and I am sure they know that,,, but they keep the war drums beating
anyhow. It simply doesn't make sense. But Thanks again.
Same for dh, #14. Things are soooo stupid, your joking may be closer to the truth than you
know. :-)
Thank you for the post. I will save it and use it liberally, with proper attributions.
When one challenges the tribe on places like Twitter, it is hard to tell who is a real idiot
and who is a bot. How do you know? Maybe that the bots go away fairly quickly and the idiots
hang around to argue ad infinitum.
The thing that bothers me, is the fact that the MICGlobalists dont care what we think or how
poor their deceptions are. The public perception that "russia did it!!" continues to rise. I
wonder what the public acceptance level needs to be for them to execute a MAJOR false flag
event. They seem to think they are still on target, and its just a short matter or time...
They are going to do this when the perception management is complete...
We really do not need another one of their disasters
The bully pushes and pushes until stopped by the first serious push back. The dynamic of the
west and the neocon/Zionists at the core is essentially that of the bully. Nations like
Venezuela and the Philippines have started to push back, and I hope and feel fairly confident
that they will both survive the rage of the US. In some part, they have begun to show the
actual powerlessness of the bully.
But the really killer nations - Russia and China - are holding their water as they
strengthen their force. I believe that one very serious push back from either of them in the
right circumstances will stop the bully. And yet, as they bide their time, we see a curious
phenomenon wherein the US is destroying itself from the inside.
It's as if all of the forces that exist to control the country - the lockstep media, the
fully rigged markets, the hysterical military, the bought legislature and the crooked courts
- are all acting far more strongly than should be necessary. The entire system is
over-reacting, over-reaching, over-boiling. And in the course of this, the US is actually
shedding power, and at an amazing rate. But not from the action of Russia but from its
non-action, the empty space that that allows the bully's dynamic to over-reach, all the way
to complete failure.
Is it possible that deep in the security states of Russia and China there's even a study
and a model for this? Is the collapse of the US actually being gamed by Russia and China -
and through the totally counter-intuitive action of non-action?
Hey b,
Just wanted to let you know that Joe Lauria mentioned your blog and the article you wrote on
the indictment of the 13 Russians. He was on Loud and Clear (Sputnik Radio, Washington DC)
today and brought you up at the start of the program.
Glad to see you get some recognition for all the great work you've been doing :)
Ken @ 24: The warmongering is not intended to make any sense - not many people are
trained in critical thinking and logic, and even when they are, they can be swamped by their
own emotions or other people's emotions. Propaganda is intended to appeal to people's
emotions and fears. You can try reading works by Edward Bernays - "Crystallizing Public
Opinion" (1923) and "Propaganda" (1928) - to see how he uses his uncle Sigmund Freud's
theories of the mind to create strategies for manipulating public opinion. https://archive.org/details/EdwardL.BernaysPropaganda
Bernays' books influenced Nazi and Soviet propaganda and Bernays himself was hired by the
US government to justify in the public mind the 1954 US invasion of Guatemala.
You may be aware that Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation which owns the Wall Street
Journal, FOX News and 20th Century Fox studios, is also on the Board of Directors of Genie
Energy which owns a subsidiary firm that was granted a licence by an Israeli court to explore
and drill for oil and natural gas in Syria's (and Israeli-occupied) Golan Heights.
Many of my thoughts as well.The U.S.'s greatest fault is its tacit misunderstanding of
just what russia is in fact. They utterly fail to understand the Russian character; forged
over 800 years culminating with the defeat of Nazi Germany, absorbing horrific losses; the
U.S. fails to understand the effect upon the then Soviets, become todays Russians. Even the
god's have abandoned the west...
@4 "For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia."
Ever since US Crude Oil peaked its production in 1970, the US has known that at some point
the oil majors would have their profitability damaged, "assets" downgraded, and borrowing
capacity destroyed. At this point their shares would become worthless and they would become
bankrupt. The contagion from this would spread to transport businesses, plastics manufacture,
herbicides and pesticide production and a total collapse of Industrial Civilisation.
In anticipation of increasing Crude Oil imports, Nixon stopped the convertibility of
Dollars into Gold, thus making the Dollar entirely fiat, allowing them to print as much of
the currency as they needed.
They also began a system of obscuring oil production data, involving the DoE's EIA and the
OECD's IEA, by inventing an ever-increasing category of Undiscovered Oilfields in their
predictions, and combining Crude Oil and Condensate (from gas fields) into one category (C+C)
as if they were the same thing. As well the support of the ethanol-from-corn industry began,
even though it was uneconomic. The Global Warming problem had to be debunked, despite its
sound scientific basis. Energy-intensive manufacturing work was off-shored to cheap
labour+energy countries, and Just-in-Time delivery systems were honed.
In 2004 the price of Crude Oil rose from $28 /barrel up to $143 /b in mid-2008. This
demonstrated that there is a limit to how much business can pay for oil (around $100 /b).
Fracking became marginally economic at these prices, but the frackers never made a profit as
over-production meant prices fell to about $60 /b. The Government encourages this destructive
industry despite the fact it doesn't make any money, because the alternative is the end of
Industrial Civilisation.
Eventually though, there must come a time when there is not enough oil to power all the
cars and trucks, bulldozers, farm tractors, airplanes and ships, as well as manufacture all
the wind turbines and solar panels and electric vehicles, as well as the upgraded
transmission grid. At that point, the game will be up, and it will be time for WW3. So we
need to line up some really big enemies, and develop lots of reasons to hate them.
Thus you see the demonisation of Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela for reasons that don't
make sense from a normal perspective.
I watched bbc news this am in the hope that I would get to see the most awful creature at the
2018 olympics cry her croc tears (long story - a speed skater who cuts off the opposition but
has been found out so now when she swoops in front of the others they either skate over her
leading to tearful whines from perp about having been 'pushed', or gets disqualified for
barging. Last night she got disqualified so as part of my study on whether types like this
believe their own bullshit I thought I'd tune in but didn't get that far into the beebs
lies)
The bulk of the bulletin was devoted to a 'lets hate Russia' session which featured a
quisling who works for the russian arm of BBC (prolly just like cold war days staffed
exclusively by MI6/SIS types). This chap, using almost unintelligible english, claimed he had
proof at least 50 Russian Mercenaries (question - why are amerikan guns for hire called
contractors [remember the Fallujah massacre of 100,000 civilians because amerikan contractors
were stupid] yet Russian contractors are called mercenaries by the media?) had been killed in
Syria last week. The bloke had evidence of one contractor's death not 50 - the proof was a
letter from the Russian government to the guy's mother telling her he didn't qualify for any
honours because he wasn't in the Russian military.
The quisling (likely a Ukranian I would say) went on to rabbit about the bloke having also
fought in Donbass under contract - to which the 'interviewer (don't ya love it when media
'interview' their own journos - a sure sign that a snippet of toxic nonsense is being
delivered) led about how the deceitful Russians had claimed the only Russians fighting in
Donbass were contractors - yeah well this bloke was a contractor surely that proves the
Russians were telling the truth.
It's not what these propagandists say; they adopt a tone and the audience is meant to hate
based on that even when the facts as stated conflict with the media outlet's point of view.
Remember the childhood trick of saying "bad dog" ter yer mutt in loving tones - the dog comes
to ya tail wagging & licks yer hand. This is that.
The next item was more Syria lies - white helmets footage (altho the beeb is now mostly
giving them an alternative name to dodge the facts about white helmets) of bandaged children
with flour tipped on their heads.
The evil Syrians and Russians are bombarding Gouta - nary a word about the continuous
artillery barrage Gouta has subjected the citizens of Damascus to for the past 4 years, or
that the Syrians have repeatedly offered truces and safe passage for civilians. Any injured
children need to ask their parents why they weren't allowed to take advantage of the frequent
offers of transport out. Maybe the parents are worried 'the resistance' will do its usual and
blow up the busloads of children after luring them over with candy.
Anyway I switched off after that so never did learn if little miss cheat had a cry.
"Russian bots" - How An Anti-Russian Lobby Creates Fake News
The U.S. mainstream media are going nuts. They now make up and report stories based on the
uncritical acceptance of the outcome of an algorithm they do not understand and which is know
to produce fake results.
SAN FRANCISCO -- One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week,
Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the
gun control debate.
The accounts addressed the news with the speed of a cable news network. Some adopted the
hashtag #guncontrolnow. Others used #gunreformnow and #Parklandshooting. Earlier on
Wednesday, before the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
Fla., many of those accounts had been focused on the investigation by the special counsel
Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In other words - the "Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia" were following
the current news just as cable news networks do. When a new sensational event happened they
immediately jumped onto it. But the NYT authors go to length to claim that there is some
nefarious Russian scheme behind this that uses automated accounts to spread divisive
issues.
Those claims are based on this propaganda project:
Last year, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, in conjunction with the German Marshall Fund,
a public policy research group in Washington, created a website that tracks hundreds of
Twitter accounts of human users and suspected bots that they have linked to a Russian
influence campaign.
The "Alliance for Securing Democracy" is run by military lobbyists, CIA
minions and neocons. Its claimed task is:
... to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in
the United States and Europe.
There is no evidence that Vladimir Putin made or makes such efforts.
The ASD "Hamilton 68" website shows graphics with rankings of "top items"
and "trending items" allegedly used by Russian bots or influence agents. There is nothing
complicate behind it. It simply tracks the tweets of 600 Twitter users and aggregates the
hashtags they use. It does not say which Twitter accounts its algorithms follows. It claims
that the 600 were selected by one of three criteria: 1. People who often tweet news that also
appears on RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik News , two general news sites
sponsored by the Russian government; 2. People who "openly profess to be pro-Russian"; 3.
accounts that "appear to use automation" to boost the same themes that people in group 1 and 2
tweet about.
Nowhere does the group say how many of the 600 accounts it claims to track belong to which
group. Are their 10 assumed bots or 590 in the surveyed 600 accounts? And how please does one
"openly profess" to be pro-Russian? We don't know and the ASD won't say.
On December 25 2017 the "Russian influence" agents or bots who, according to NYT, want to
sow divisiveness, wished everyone a
Merry Christmas.
The real method the Hamilton 68 group used to select the 600 accounts it tracks is unknown.
The group does not say or show how it made it up. Despite that the NYT reporters, Sheera
Frenkel and Daisuke Wakabayashi, continue with the false assumptions that most or all the
accounts are automated, have something to do with Russia and are presumably nefarious:
Russian-linked bots have rallied around other divisive issues, often ones that President
Trump has tweeted about. They promoted Twitter hashtags like #boycottnfl, #standforouranthem
and #takeaknee after some National Football League players started kneeling during the
national anthem to protest racial injustice.
The automated Twitter accounts helped popularize the #releasethememo hashtag , ...
The Daily Beast reported earlier that the emphasized claim is definitely
false :
Twitter's internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not
Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo. There are no preliminary
indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is
either predominantly Russian.
The same is presumably true for the other hashtags.
The Dutch IT specialist and blogger Marcel van den Berg was wondering how Dutch keywords
and hashtags showed up in on the Hamilton 68 "Russian bots" dashboard. He found (
Dutch ,
English auto translation) that the dashboard is a total fraud:
In recent weeks, I have been keeping a close eye on Hamilton 68. Every time a Dutch hashtag
was shown on the website, I made a screenshot. Then I noted what was playing at that moment
and I watched the Tweets with this hashtag. Again I could not find any Tweet that seemed to
be from a Russian troll.
In all cases, the hash tags that Hamilton 68 reported were trending topics in the
Netherlands. In all cases there was much to do around the subject of the hashtag in the
Netherlands. Many people were angry or shared their opinion on the subject on Twitter. And
even if there were a few tweets with Russian connections between them, the effect is zero.
Because they do not stand out among the many other, authentic Tweets.
Van den Berg lists a dozen examples he analyzed in depth.
The anti-Russian Bellingcat group around couch blogger Eliot Higgins is sponsored
by the NATO propaganda shop Atlantic Council . It sniffs through open source stuff to
blame Russia or Syria wherever possible. Bellingcat were recently a victim of the
"Russian bots" - or rather of the ASD website. On February 10 the hashtag #bellingcat trended
to rank
2 of the dashboard.
Bellingcat was thus, according to the Hamilton 68 claims, under assault of hordes
of nefarious Russian government sponsored bots.
The Bellingcat folks looked into the issue and found
that only six people on Twitter, none of
them an automated account, had used the #bellingcat hashtag in the last 48 hours. Some of the
six may have opinions that may be "pro Russian", but as Higgins himself says :
[I]n my opinion, it's extremely unlikely the people listed are Russian agents
The pro-NATO propaganda shop Bellingcat thus debunked the pro NATO propaganda shop
Alliance for Securing Democracy.
The fraudsters who created the Hamilton 68 crap seem to have filled their database with
rather normal people who's opinions they personally dislike. Those then are the "Russian bots"
who spread "Russian influence" and divisiveness.
Moreover - what is the value of its information when six normal people out of millions of
active Twitter users can push a hashtag with a handful of tweets to the top of the
dashboard?
But the U.S. media writes long gushing stories about the dashboard and how it somehow shows
automated Russian propaganda. They go to length to explain that this shows "Russian influence"
and a "Russian" attempt to sow "divisiveness" into people's minds.
This is nuts.
Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the
only site critical of it. It
predicted :
The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad
light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.
It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that
the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are
normal people.
The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence"
into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false
"Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy
contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are
by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the
venom and spread it to the public.
How long will it take until people die from it?
Posted by b on February 20, 2018 at 03:15 PM |
Permalink
Rufus T. Firefly: I'd be unworthy of the high trust that's been placed in me if I didn't
do everything in my power to keep our beloved Freedonia in peace with the world. I'd be only
too happy to meet with Ambassador Trentino, and offer him on behalf of my country the right
hand of good fellowship. And I feel sure he will accept this gesture in the spirit of which
it is offered. But suppose he doesn't. A fine thing that'll be. I hold out my hand and he
refuses to accept. That'll add a lot to my prestige, won't it? Me, the head of a country,
snubbed by a foreign ambassador. Who does he think he is, that he can come here, and make a
sap of me in front of all my people? Think of it - I hold out my hand and that hyena refuses
to accept. Why, the cheap four-flushing swine, he'll never get away with it I tell you, he'll
never get away with it.
[Trentino enters]
Rufus T. Firefly: So, you refuse to shake hands with me, eh?
[slaps Trentino with his glove]
Ambassador Trentino: Mrs. Teasdale, this is the last straw. There's no turning back now!
This means war!
Rufus T. Firefly: Then it's war! Then it's war! Gather the forces. Harness the horses.
Then it's war!
"to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin's ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the
United States and Europe."
That's pretty rich, coming from a country and from people who actually genuinely, and in
proven ways, have subverted democracy in Europe since the late 1940s - Italy being one of the
clearest cases.
For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia. I can't
believe it has to do with the economy. There's got to be a far better nefarious reason. Even
during the real cold war we tried to avoid conflict. Absolute insanity.
How much time might the "Alliance for Securing Democracy" spend on uncovering voter
suppression and purges, dis-enfrancisement of felons, the closing of polling places,
restrictions of early voting, the influence of billionaires, gerrymandering and so on?
Gee, what could go wrong formulating policy founded upon a series of Big Lies? Kim Dotcom says he has
important info the FBI refuses to hear. At the Munich
Security Conference , neocon Nicholas Burns, former US Ambassador to NATO, details my
assertion's factual basis that current policy is being formed on a series of Big Lies: "Will
NATO strengthen itself to contain Russian power in Eastern Europe giving what Russian
[sic] has done illegally in Crimea, in the Donbass, and in Georgia ?" [Bolded text are
the Big Lies.]
Clearly, this entire psyop was premeditated and its design was hastily done
contemporaneously with Russia's Syria intervention. NSA/CIA/FBI knew of HRC's security
breeches and rightly assumed their contents would find their way into the election, so the
general plan was ready to go prior to WikiLeaks publications. b has uncovered much, and I
hope he's planning to publish a book about the entire affair.
Ken @ 4: There doesn't necessarily need to be One Major Reason for going to war. There may be
several reasons all feeding and reinforcing one another and creating a psychological climate
in which Going To War is seen as the only solution and is inevitable. The reasons are not
just economic and political but cultural and historical.
In some countries allied with the US, the politicians in power are the ideological
descendants of those who collaborated with Nazi Germany - so in a sense they are committed to
"correcting" what they see as wrong. In the case of current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, he is the grandson of a former prime minister who once served in General Tojo's World
War II cabinet.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/12/26/national/formed-in-childhood-roots-of-abes-conservatism-go-deep/#.WoyZCG9uaUk
That's why pinning down the reason for wanting a war against Russia is so difficult.
Since the FBI never inspected the DNC's computers first-hand, the only evidence comes from
an Irvine, California, cyber-security firm known as CrowdStrike whose chief technical
officer, Dmitri Alperovitch, a well-known Putin-phobe, is a fellow at the Atlantic Council,
a Washington think tank that is also vehemently anti-Russian as well as a close Hillary
Clinton ally.
Thus, Putin-basher Clinton hired Putin-basher Alperovitch to investigate an alleged
electronic heist, and to absolutely no one's surprise, his company concluded that guilty
party was Vladimir Putin. Amazing! Since then, a small army of internet critics has chipped
away at CrowdStrike for praising the hackers as among the best in the business yet
declaring in the same breath that they gave themselves away by uploading a document in the
name of "Felix Edmundovich," i.e. Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret
police.
As noted cyber-security expert Jeffrey Carr observed with regard to Russia's two main
intelligence agencies: "Raise your hand if you think that a GRU or FSB officer would add
Iron Felix's name to the metadata of a stolen document before he released it to the world
while pretending to be a Romanian hacker. Someone clearly had a wicked sense of humor."
This is about conditioning voters in Europe and the United States for a long war with Russia
and China. In other words, a return to the 1950s. It is not working and becoming increasingly
hysterical because societies are not nearly as cohesive as they once were, and the mainstream
political parties, while better funded and more top-down organized, are basically hollow. The
collapse is coming. Four years or ten, take your pick.
@4 "For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia."
Most Americans probably don't. Just the chosen few with the deepest fall-out shelters. The
idea is to keep piling the pressure on to countries like Iran and Russia in the hope that
their populations will rise up and demand the freedoms that we enjoy in the West....things
like uncensored wardrobe malfunctions and transgender washrooms.
let's imagine that we have the pyramid of evilness, by which we measure bestiality of one
regime and its constituency. my firm belief is that us would be on the top of that pyramid.
Only dilemma would be between Zionist entity and the US.
"How could the masses be made to desire their own repression?" was the question Wilhelm
Reich famously asked in the wake of the Reichstagsbrandverordnung (Reichstag Fire Decree,
February 28, 1933), which suspended the civil rights protections afforded by the Weimar
Republic's democratic constitution.Hitler had been appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933
and Reich was trying to grapple with the fact that the German people had apparently chosen
the authoritarian politics promoted by National Socialism against their own political
interests. Ever since, the question of fascism, or rather the question of why might people
vote for their own oppression, has never ceased to haunt political philosophy.2 With Trump
openly campaigning for less democracy in America -- and with the continued electoral
success of far-right antiliberal movements across Europe -- this question has again become
a pressing one.
An American people is in perfect harmony with its regime.
Media have long agitated for War in US History. Nothing sells newspapers
like a good ole war!
Demonizing is a way to achieve it. What is sure is that this is a one way street.
Once over the cliff, there is no turning back.
How do you tell people that, at the flick of your magic switch, Putin is in fact
a swell guy and wonderful human being? Once love is gone who goes back
to the filthy, abhorrent and estranged spouse?
Surely the US establishment is playing with fire thinking they will successfully
ride out any conflict and come out on top secure in their newly reestablished
hegemony on the smoldering ruins of Humanity.
Make no mistake, we are all on the road to hell. Better enjoy todays peace as
tomorrow word will be filled with the sweet music of cemeteries.
@15 "An American people is in perfect harmony with its regime."
I'm not so sure. I think there are many Americans who deeply distrust their government.
But of course they don't want to appear unpatriotic. There are also many who are apathetic
and many simply don't know how to change things.
It's horrible I know to quote a Nazi, but Goring had this right:
Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm
want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his
farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in
England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or
a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter
through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare
wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they
are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country
to danger. It works the same way in any country.
American media has graduated from simply repeating the lies of "unnamed government sources"
to repeating the lies of any organization unofficially blessed by the powers that be. The
skills required to repeat the text verbatim serve them well in both cases. Skepticism is only
reserved to anyone who tries to introduce logic or facts into the equation--such as when Jill
Stein was interviewed on MSNBC recently. How dare Ms. Stein try to bring FACTS into the
discussion!
In that The Narrative is tightly controlled in the corporate media, not matter how strong the
proofs or arguments about the falsity of these propaganda campaigns are, little or no
circulation of those proofs or arguments wlll reach the general public.
Thanks Jen. It still makes no sense. As a veteran of the Vietnam fiasco, I was pretty much
government oriented until McNamara outed the whole thing whining about haw sorry he was.
59,000 dead and he's sorry. They were able to hide the Gulf of Tonkin BS until then. After
that I researched the reasons for each war/conflict the USA started and could find no logical
reasons except hunger for power. But the little sandbox wars won't destroy the world like a
major war/conflict with Russia and it goes nuclear. Almost every politician, and major news
organizations are pushing for a war/conflict with Russia. This is insanity as no one will win
a war like this and I am sure they know that,,, but they keep the war drums beating anyhow.
It simply doesn't make sense. But Thanks again.
Same for dh, #14. Things are soooo stupid, your joking may be closer to the truth than you
know. :-)
Thank you for the post. I will save it and use it liberally, with proper attributions.
When one challenges the tribe on places like Twitter, it is hard to tell who is a real idiot
and who is a bot. How do you know? Maybe that the bots go away fairly quickly and the idiots
hang around to argue ad infinitum.
The thing that bothers me, is the fact that the MICGlobalists dont care what we think or how
poor their deceptions are. The public perception that "russia did it!!" continues to rise. I
wonder what the public acceptance level needs to be for them to execute a MAJOR false flag
event. They seem to think they are still on target, and its just a short matter or time...
They are going to do this when the perception management is complete...
We really do not need another one of their disasters
The bully pushes and pushes until stopped by the first serious push back. The dynamic of the
west and the neocon/Zionists at the core is essentially that of the bully. Nations like
Venezuela and the Philippines have started to push back, and I hope and feel fairly confident
that they will both survive the rage of the US. In some part, they have begun to show the
actual powerlessness of the bully.
But the really killer nations - Russia and China - are holding their water as they
strengthen their force. I believe that one very serious push back from either of them in the
right circumstances will stop the bully. And yet, as they bide their time, we see a curious
phenomenon wherein the US is destroying itself from the inside.
It's as if all of the forces that exist to control the country - the lockstep media, the
fully rigged markets, the hysterical military, the bought legislature and the crooked courts
- are all acting far more strongly than should be necessary. The entire system is
over-reacting, over-reaching, over-boiling. And in the course of this, the US is actually
shedding power, and at an amazing rate. But not from the action of Russia but from its
non-action, the empty space that that allows the bully's dynamic to over-reach, all the way
to complete failure.
Is it possible that deep in the security states of Russia and China there's even a study
and a model for this? Is the collapse of the US actually being gamed by Russia and China -
and through the totally counter-intuitive action of non-action?
Hey b,
Just wanted to let you know that Joe Lauria mentioned your blog and the article you wrote on
the indictment of the 13 Russians. He was on Loud and Clear (Sputnik Radio, Washington DC)
today and brought you up at the start of the program.
Glad to see you get some recognition for all the great work you've been doing :)
Ken @ 24: The warmongering is not intended to make any sense - not many people are trained in
critical thinking and logic, and even when they are, they can be swamped by their own
emotions or other people's emotions. Propaganda is intended to appeal to people's emotions
and fears. You can try reading works by Edward Bernays - "Crystallizing Public Opinion"
(1923) and "Propaganda" (1928) - to see how he uses his uncle Sigmund Freud's theories of the
mind to create strategies for manipulating public opinion. https://archive.org/details/EdwardL.BernaysPropaganda
Bernays' books influenced Nazi and Soviet propaganda and Bernays himself was hired by the
US government to justify in the public mind the 1954 US invasion of Guatemala.
You may be aware that Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation which owns the Wall Street
Journal, FOX News and 20th Century Fox studios, is also on the Board of Directors of Genie
Energy which owns a subsidiary firm that was granted a licence by an Israeli court to explore
and drill for oil and natural gas in Syria's (and Israeli-occupied) Golan Heights.
Many of my thoughts as well.
The U.S.'s greatest fault is its tacit misunderstanding of just what russia is in fact.
They utterly fail to understand the Russian character; forged over 800 years culminating with
the defeat of Nazi Germany, absorbing horrific losses; the U.S. fails to understand the
effect upon the then Soviets, become todays Russians.
Even the god's have abandoned the west...
@4 "For the life of me I cannot figure why Americans want a war/conflict with Russia."
Ever since US Crude Oil peaked its production in 1970, the US has known that at some point
the oil majors would have their profitability damaged, "assets" downgraded, and borrowing
capacity destroyed. At this point their shares would become worthless and they would become
bankrupt. The contagion from this would spread to transport businesses, plastics manufacture,
herbicides and pesticide production and a total collapse of Industrial Civilisation.
In anticipation of increasing Crude Oil imports, Nixon stopped the convertibility of
Dollars into Gold, thus making the Dollar entirely fiat, allowing them to print as much of
the currency as they needed.
They also began a system of obscuring oil production data, involving the DoE's EIA and the
OECD's IEA, by inventing an ever-increasing category of Undiscovered Oilfields in their
predictions, and combining Crude Oil and Condensate (from gas fields) into one category (C+C)
as if they were the same thing. As well the support of the ethanol-from-corn industry began,
even though it was uneconomic. The Global Warming problem had to be debunked, despite its
sound scientific basis. Energy-intensive manufacturing work was off-shored to cheap
labour+energy countries, and Just-in-Time delivery systems were honed.
In 2004 the price of Crude Oil rose from $28 /barrel up to $143 /b in mid-2008. This
demonstrated that there is a limit to how much business can pay for oil (around $100 /b).
Fracking became marginally economic at these prices, but the frackers never made a profit as
over-production meant prices fell to about $60 /b. The Government encourages this destructive
industry despite the fact it doesn't make any money, because the alternative is the end of
Industrial Civilisation.
Eventually though, there must come a time when there is not enough oil to power all the
cars and trucks, bulldozers, farm tractors, airplanes and ships, as well as manufacture all
the wind turbines and solar panels and electric vehicles, as well as the upgraded
transmission grid. At that point, the game will be up, and it will be time for WW3. So we
need to line up some really big enemies, and develop lots of reasons to hate them.
Thus you see the demonisation of Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela for reasons that don't
make sense from a normal perspective.
I watched bbc news this am in the hope that I would get to see the most awful creature at the
2018 olympics cry her croc tears (long story - a speed skater who cuts off the opposition but
has been found out so now when she swoops in front of the others they either skate over her
leading to tearful whines from perp about having been 'pushed', or gets disqualified for
barging. Last night she got disqualified so as part of my study on whether types like this
believe their own bullshit I thought I'd tune in but didn't get that far into the beebs
lies)
The bulk of the bulletin was devoted to a 'lets hate Russia' session which featured a
quisling who works for the russian arm of BBC (prolly just like cold war days staffed
exclusively by MI6/SIS types). This chap, using almost unintelligible english, claimed he had
proof at least 50 Russian Mercenaries (question - why are amerikan guns for hire called
contractors [remember the Fallujah massacre of 100,000 civilians because amerikan contractors
were stupid] yet Russian contractors are called mercenaries by the media?) had been killed in
Syria last week. The bloke had evidence of one contractor's death not 50 - the proof was a
letter from the Russian government to the guy's mother telling her he didn't qualify for any
honours because he wasn't in the Russian military.
The quisling (likely a Ukranian I would say) went on to rabbit about the bloke having also
fought in Donbass under contract - to which the 'interviewer (don't ya love it when media
'interview' their own journos - a sure sign that a snippet of toxic nonsense is being
delivered) led about how the deceitful Russians had claimed the only Russians fighting in
Donbass were contractors - yeah well this bloke was a contractor surely that proves the
Russians were telling the truth.
It's not what these propagandists say; they adopt a tone and the audience is meant to hate
based on that even when the facts as stated conflict with the media outlet's point of view.
Remember the childhood trick of saying "bad dog" ter yer mutt in loving tones - the dog comes
to ya tail wagging & licks yer hand. This is that.
The next item was more Syria lies - white helmets footage (altho the beeb is now mostly
giving them an alternative name to dodge the facts about white helmets) of bandaged children
with flour tipped on their heads.
The evil Syrians and Russians are bombarding Gouta - nary a word about the continuous
artillery barrage Gouta has subjected the citizens of Damascus to for the past 4 years, or
that the Syrians have repeatedly offered truces and safe passage for civilians. Any injured
children need to ask their parents why they weren't allowed to take advantage of the frequent
offers of transport out. Maybe the parents are worried 'the resistance' will do its usual and
blow up the busloads of children after luring them over with candy.
Anyway I switched off after that so never did learn if little miss cheat had a cry.
"... As the days since Mueller's latest indictment have passed, the failure of his investigation to make any claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia has begun to sink in, even amongst some of Donald Trump's most bitter enemies. ..."
"... Even the Guardian arguably the most fervid of Donald Trump's British media critics, and the most vocal supporter of the Russiagate conspiracy theory has grudgingly admitted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "once again failed to nail Donald Trump" ..."
"... In fact the latest indictment when considered properly is a further huge nail in the coffin of the Russiagate conspiracy theory and in the already disintegrating credibility of the Trump Dossier, which is the foundation document for that theory ..."
"... Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, the Russiagate conspiracy theory is laid out in its most classic form in the Trump Dossier, and it is the Trump Dossier which remains the primary and indeed so far the only 'evidence' for it ..."
"... This theory holds that Donald Trump was compromised by the Russians in 2013 when he was filmed by Russian intelligence performing an orgy in a hotel room in Moscow, and he and his associates Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen subsequently engaged in a massive criminal conspiracy with Russian intelligence to steal the election from Hillary Clinton by having John Podesta's and the DNC's emails stolen by Russian intelligence and passed on by them for publication by Wikileaks. ..."
"... The Trump Dossier never mentions Jared Kushner's four conversations with Russian ambassador Kislyak, including the famous meeting between Kislyak and Kushner in Trump Tower on 1st December 2016 (which Michael Flynn also attended) over the course of which the setting up of a backchannel to discuss the crisis in Syria is supposed to have been discussed (Kushner denies that it was). ..."
"... The last entry of the Trump Dossier is dated 13th December 2016 ie. twelve days after this meeting took place, and given its high level a genuinely well-informed Russian source familiar with the private ongoing discussions in the Kremlin might have been expected to know about it. ..."
"... Nor does the Trump Dossier mention the now famous meeting in Trump Tower between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Junior which Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner also attended which took place on 9th June 2016. ..."
"... Now Special Counsel Mueller has provided further details in his latest indictment of actual albeit unknowing contacts between members of the Trump campaign and various Russian employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency, LLC, apparently both in person and online. ..."
"... The Trump Dossier has however nothing to say about these contacts either, just as it has nothing to say about the Internet Research Agency, LLC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, or the entire social media campaign set out in such painstaking detail by Special Counsel Mueller in his indictment. ..."
"... I only remembered Helmer's 18th January 2017 article about the Trump Dossier after I wrote my article about Senator Grassley's and Senator Lindsey Graham's memorandum to the Justice Department on 6th February 2018. ..."
"... This is most unfortunate, not only because Grassley's and Lindsey Graham's memorandum resoundingly vindicates Helmer's reporting, but because it shows that a genuine expert about Russia like Helmer was able to spot immediately the holes in the Trump Dossier, which only now a whole year and months of exhaustive investigations later are starting to be officially admitted. ..."
"... Heroic efforts to elevate Papadopoulos's case and the meeting between Donald Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya into 'evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia which exists supposedly independently of the Trump Dossier fail because as I have discussed extensively elsewhere (see here and here ) they in fact do no such thing. ..."
"... With the Trump Dossier the lynchpin of the whole collusion case not just unverified and discredited but proved repeatedly to have been completely uninformed about events which were actually going on, why do some people persist in pretending that there is still a collusion case to investigate? ..."
As the days since Mueller's latest indictment
have passed, the failure of his investigation to make any claim of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia has begun to sink
in, even amongst some of Donald Trump's most bitter enemies.
Even the Guardian arguably the most fervid of Donald Trump's British media critics, and the most vocal supporter of the
Russiagate conspiracy theory has grudgingly
admitted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has "once again failed to nail Donald Trump"
There will be understandable disappointment in many quarters that the latest indictments delivered by Robert Mueller, the special
counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, once again failed to nail Donald Trump. Although
the charges levelled against 13 Russians and three Russian entities are extraordinarily serious, they do not directly support
the central claim that Trump and senior campaign aides colluded with Moscow to rig the vote.
The Times of London meanwhile has
admitted
that the latest indictment contains "no smoking gun"
The Department of Justice, however, offered no confirmation to those still smarting from the election in November 2016, who
believe that, in the absence of Russian interference, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House today. Friday's allegations
offered no evidence that the outcome had been affected. Sir John Sawers, former head of MI6, said yesterday that Donald Trump's
victories in the key swing states were his own.
There was further comfort for Mr Trump, which he was quick to celebrate with a tweet. The investigation uncovered no evidence
"that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity". That includes, so far, anybody involved in the
Trump campaign. If there is a smoking gun it has yet to emerge, though Robert Mueller's investigation will grind on. President
Vladimir Putin is a malign and dangerous mischief maker. It has not been proved that he is an evil genius with the ability to
swing a US election.
In fact the latest indictment when considered properly is a further huge nail in the coffin of the Russiagate conspiracy theory
and in the already disintegrating credibility of the Trump Dossier, which is the foundation document for that theory.
Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, the Russiagate conspiracy theory is laid out in its most classic form in the Trump
Dossier, and it is the Trump Dossier which remains the primary and indeed so far the only 'evidence' for it
This theory holds that Donald Trump was compromised by the Russians in 2013 when he was filmed by Russian intelligence performing
an orgy in a hotel room in Moscow, and he and his associates Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen subsequently engaged in
a massive criminal conspiracy with Russian intelligence to steal the election from Hillary Clinton by having John Podesta's and the
DNC's emails stolen by Russian intelligence and passed on by them for publication by Wikileaks.
Belief in this conspiracy dies hard, and an interesting
article in the Financial Times by Edward
Luce provides a fascinating example of the dogged determination of some people to believe in it. Writing about Mueller's latest indictment
Luce has this to say
Mr Mueller's report hints at more dramatic possibilities by corroborating contents of the "Steele dossier", which was compiled
in mid-2016 by the former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele -- long before the US intelligence agencies warned
of Russian interference. Mr Steele, who is in hiding, alleged that the Russians were using "active measures" to support the campaigns
of Mr Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic runner-up to Hillary Clinton, and Jill Stein, the Green party nominee. Mr Mueller's
indictment confirms that account.
Likewise, Mr Mueller's indictment confirms the Steele dossier's claim that Russia wished to "sow discord" in the US election
by backing leftwing as well as rightwing groups. Among the entities run by the IRA were groups with names such as "Secured Borders",
"Blacktivists", "United Muslims of America" and "Army of Jesus".
What is fascinating about these words is that none of them are true.
Christopher Steele is not in hiding.
The actua l
Trump Dossier does
not allege "that the Russians were using "active measures" to support the campaigns of Mr Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic
runner-up to Hillary Clinton, and Jill Stein, the Green party nominee".
Bernie Sanders is mentioned by the Trump Dossier only in passing. By the time the Trump Dossier's first entries were written Bernie
Sanders's campaign was all but over and it was already clear that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party's candidate for the
Presidency.
Jill Stein is mentioned again in passing only once, in a brief mention which refers to her now infamous visit to Russia where
she attended the same dinner with President Putin as Michael Flynn.
Nor does the Trump Dossier anywhere claim that "Russia wished to "sow discord" in the US election by backing leftwing as well
as rightwing groups".
On the contrary the Trump Dossier is focused exclusively and obsessively on documenting at fantastic length the alleged conspiracy
between the Russian government and the campaign of the supposedly compromised Donald Trump to get him elected US President.
Supporters of the Russiagate conspiracy theory need to start facing up to the hard truth about the Trump Dossier.
At the time the Trump Dossier was published in January 2017 little was known publicly about the contacts which actually took place
between members of Donald Trump's campaign and tranisiton teams and the Russians during and after the election.
Today a full year later and after months of exhaustive investigation we know far more about those contacts.
What Is striking about those contacts is how ignorant the supposedly high level Russian sources of the Trump Dossier were about
them.
Thus the Trump Dossier never mentions Jeff Sessions's two meetings with Russian ambassador Kislyak, or the various conversations
Michael Flynn is known to have had with Russian ambassador Kislyak, some of which apparently took place before Donald Trump won the
election.
The Trump Dossier never mentions Jared Kushner's four conversations with Russian ambassador Kislyak, including the famous
meeting between Kislyak and Kushner in Trump Tower on 1st December 2016 (which Michael Flynn also attended) over the course of which
the setting up of a backchannel to discuss the crisis in Syria is supposed to have been discussed (Kushner denies that it was).
The last entry of the Trump Dossier is dated 13th December 2016 ie. twelve days after this meeting took place, and given its
high level a genuinely well-informed Russian source familiar with the private ongoing discussions in the Kremlin might have been
expected to know about it.
Nor does the Trump Dossier mention the now famous meeting in Trump Tower between the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
and Donald Trump Junior which Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner also attended which took place on 9th June 2016.
This despite the fact that the Trump Dossier's first entry is dated 20th June 2016 i.e. eleven days later, so that if this meeting
really was intended to set the stage for collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia as believers in the Russiagate conspiracy
theory insist a well informed Russian source with access to information from the Kremlin would be expected to know about it.
Nor does the Trump Dossier have anything to say about George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign aide who had the most extensive
contacts with the Russians, and whose drunken bragging in a London bar is now claimed by the FBI to have been its reason for starting
the Russiagate inquiry.
In fact George Papadopoulos is not mentioned in the Trump Dossier at all.
This despite the fact that members of Russia's high powered Valdai Discussion Club were Papadopoulos's main interlocutors in his
discussions with the Russians, and Igor Ivanov Russia's former foreign minister, and a senior albeit retired official genuinely
known to Putin was informed about the discussions also, making it at least possible that high level people in the Russian Foreign
Ministry and conceivably in the Russian government and in the Kremlin were kept informed about the discussions with Papadopoulos,
so that a genuinely well-informed Russian source might be expected to know about them.
By contrast none of the secret meetings between Carter Page and Michael Cohen and the Russians discussed at such extraordinary
length in the Trump Dossier have ever been proved to have taken place.
Now Special Counsel Mueller has provided further details in his latest indictment of actual albeit unknowing contacts between
members of the Trump campaign and various Russian employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Internet Research Agency, LLC, apparently both
in person and online.
The Trump Dossier has however nothing to say about these contacts either, just as it has nothing to say about the Internet
Research Agency, LLC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, or the entire social media campaign set out in such painstaking detail by Special Counsel
Mueller in his indictment.
The only conclusion possible is that if the Trump Dossier's Russian sources actually exist (about which I am starting to
have doubts) then they were extraordinarily ignorant of what was actually going on.
That of course is consistent with the fact recently revealed in the heavily redacted memorandum sent to the Justice Department
by Senators Grassley and Lindsey Graham that many of the sources of the Trump Dossier were not actually Russian but were American.
John Helmer the most experienced journalist covering Russia, and a person who has a genuine and profound knowledge of the country
made that very point that many of the Trump Dossier's sources were American rather than Russian in an
article he published on 18th January 2017, ie. just days after the Trump Dossier was published.
In that same
article Helmer also made this very valid point about the Trump Dossier's compiler Christopher Steele
Steele's career in Russian intelligence at MI6 had hit the rocks in 2006, and never recovered. That was the year in which the
Russian Security Service (FSB) publicly exposed an MI6 operation in Moscow. Russian informants recruited by the British were passed
messages and money, and dropped their information in containers fabricated to look like fake rocks in a public park. Steele was
on the MI6 desk in London when the operation was blown. Although the FSB announcement was denied in London at the time, the British
prime ministry confirmed its veracity in 2012.Read more on Steele's fake rock operation
here , and the attempt by the Financial Times to cover it up by blaming
Putin for fabricating the story.
Given that Steele was outed by Russian intelligence in 2006, with his intelligence operation in Russia dismantled by the FSB that
year, it beggars belief that ten years later in 2016 he still had access to high level secrets in the Kremlin.
What we now know in fact proves that he did not.
I only remembered Helmer's 18th January 2017 article about the Trump Dossier after I wrote my
article
about Senator Grassley's and Senator Lindsey Graham's memorandum to the Justice Department on 6th February 2018.
This is most unfortunate, not only because Grassley's and Lindsey Graham's memorandum resoundingly vindicates Helmer's reporting,
but because it shows that a genuine expert about Russia like Helmer was able to spot immediately the holes in the Trump Dossier,
which only now a whole year and months of exhaustive investigations later are starting to be officially admitted.
For my part I owe Helmer an apology for not referencing his 18th January 2017 article in my article of 6th February 2018. I should
have done so and I am very sorry that I didn't.
I have spent some time discussing the Trump Dossier because despite denials it remains the lynchpin of the whole Russiagate scandal
and of the claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Heroic efforts to elevate Papadopoulos's case and the meeting between Donald Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
into 'evidence' of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia which exists supposedly independently of the Trump Dossier fail
because as I have discussed extensively elsewhere (see
here and
here ) they in fact do no
such thing.
Despite Edward Luce's desperate efforts to argue otherwise, Mueller's latest indictment far from corroborating the Trump Dossier,
has done the opposite.
With the Trump Dossier the lynchpin of the whole collusion case not just unverified and discredited but proved repeatedly
to have been completely uninformed about events which were actually going on, why do some people persist in pretending that there
is still a collusion case to investigate?
The idea of reporters as soldiers of the state (or state intelligence agencies, or a Political Party) is alive and well...
It is now the dominant paradigm. It is said the
Notable quotes:
"... CIA has infiltrated MSM for DECADES. Bernstein (also on CIA payroll despite All The President's Men narrative) wrote a great Rolling Stone piece suggesting 400+ on payroll @ WaPo and that was in '77. ..."
"... In Congressional hearings former CIA Dir. Colby admitted to broad media infiltration - CBS, NYT, Newsweek, Time, AP, MANY others. ..."
"... Operation Mockingbird really does explain everything where MSM is concerned. And yet 95% of the US population thinks it is tin foil hat territory even to suggest that the media is in bed with the Deep State, which is why we're doomed. ..."
"... "The emails the CIA provided to Johnson were redacted , leading him to question why he was not allowed to see the same information that had been given to uncleared reporters." ..."
"... The CIA leaks to to main stream reporters who were always on their payroll. Their CIA day job is pretending to be reporters. CIA mouthpiece The Washing Post is correct in its slogan: "Democracy dies in darkness." Only now, all we have left is the rotting corpse of Democracy in the USA. ..."
"... It is the gas-lighting of statements like "Democracy dies in darkness" that is so hard to swallow. I imagine in NK the people are told daily they are traitors if they don't believe that Kim is a living God. But the American version is far more effective because it has all of the trappings of legitimacy, complete with "competing" ideologies among the likes of say Fox vs. MSNBC. I hand it to TPTB for creating such an effective matrix. ..."
"... No they are not member of the public, they are part of the machine and play a role either on team A or team B.... you are supposed to rot for one of them ... or i guess both if one completely trust it. ..."
"... bush/clinton/bush/obama was One Administration ..."
In a motion filed in New York federal court, the
CIA claimed that limited disclosures to reporters do not waive national security exemptions to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests . Intelligence and law enforcement agencies frequently deny records requests on the basis of protecting sensitive national
security information, one of nine exemptions written into the federal FOIA law.
The case stems from lawsuit against the CIA by New York-based independent journalist Adam Johnson, who had used FOIA to obtain
emails between the agency's public information office and selected reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and
The New York Times. The emails the CIA provided to Johnson were redacted, leading him to question why he was not allowed to see the
same information that had been given to uncleared reporters.
Johnson challenged the redaction in court, arguing that the CIA, once it has selectively disclosed information to uncleared reporters,
cannot claim the same information is protected by a FOIA exemption.
The judge in the case appeared to find Johnson' argument compelling. In a court order last month, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon
of the Southern District of New York said FOIA laws do not authorize limited disclosure, to favored journalists or otherwise.
" In this case, CIA voluntarily disclosed to outsiders information that it had a perfect right to keep private, " she
wrote .
"There is absolutely no statutory provision that authorizes limited disclosure of otherwise classified information to anyone,
including 'trusted reporters,' for any purpose, including the protection of CIA sources and methods that might otherwise be outed.
"
McMahon also said it didn't matter if the journalists in question published the information they received, only if the CIA waived
its right to deny the information.
" The fact that the reporters might not have printed what was disclosed to them has no logical or legal impact on the waiver
analysis, because the only fact relevant to waiver analysis is: Did the CIA do something that worked a waiver of a right it otherwise
had? " she wrote, asking CIA lawyers to come up with a stronger defense for non-disclosure.
The CIA's response on Wednesday centered on the contention that the information disclosed to favored reporters had not actually
entered the public domain. As such, the limited disclosure did not constitute a waiver of the FOIA exemption, government lawyers
said.
"The Court's supposition that a limited disclosure of information to three journalists necessarily equates to a disclosure
to the public at large is legally and factually mistaken," the CIA motion stated. "The record demonstrates beyond dispute that
the classified and statutorily protected information withheld from the emails has not entered the public domain."
Selective disclosure of classified information to uncleared reporters is a fairly common practice recognized by Congress, which
requires briefings by the CIA on such disclosures ,
according to Steven Aftergood, the
director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Johnson's case, if decided in favor of the CIA,
could end up ratifying the practice via the courts, Aftergood says.
Johnson has until March 1 to reply to the government's motion, which asks for a summary judgement in favor of the CIA.
FOIA folly. DS cut that shit down back in the 80s.
CIA has infiltrated MSM for DECADES. Bernstein (also on CIA payroll despite All The President's Men narrative) wrote a
great Rolling Stone piece suggesting 400+ on payroll @ WaPo and that was in '77.
In Congressional hearings former CIA Dir. Colby admitted to broad media infiltration - CBS, NYT, Newsweek, Time, AP, MANY
others.
It would be nice to see all money spent on domestic propaganda since Obama legalized it a few years ago. And to find out if
officially Operation Mockingbird is on going to this day, I believe it is.
Operation Mockingbird really does explain everything where MSM is concerned. And yet 95% of the US population thinks it
is tin foil hat territory even to suggest that the media is in bed with the Deep State, which is why we're doomed.
"The case stems from lawsuit against the CIA by New York-based independent journalist Adam Johnson, who had used FOIA to obtain
emails between the agency's public information office and selected reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post
and The New York Times."
Now wait for it...
"The emails the CIA provided to Johnson were redacted , leading him to question why he was not allowed to see the same
information that had been given to uncleared reporters."
Got that? Unredacted emails to WSJ, WaPo & the "Gray Lady" were redacted before given to another journalist who had to avail
himself of FOIA to even get that.
Now, it would behoove us to all understand that this is not the same as a federal prosecutor like say, an Andrew Weissmann
intentionally withholding exculpatory evidence from defense counsel in order to get his conviction.
This is moar along the lines of say, the CIA using a fawning Alinsky press corps reporters at the WSJ, WaPo & NYT's to intentionally
mislead the public and...not wanting to show the public what they were misled on ;-)
Increasingly the spooks seem to be "outing themselves", which begs the question, if these things they are now copping too ,
laid on the table, how bad is what is being withheld, and what new agenda in so doing, is being served ..
Our Masters have spoken. The CIA leaks to to main stream reporters who were always on their payroll. Their CIA day job
is pretending to be reporters. CIA mouthpiece The Washing Post is correct in its slogan: "Democracy dies in darkness." Only now,
all we have left is the rotting corpse of Democracy in the USA.
It is the gas-lighting of statements like "Democracy dies in darkness" that is so hard to swallow. I imagine in NK the
people are told daily they are traitors if they don't believe that Kim is a living God. But the American version is far more effective
because it has all of the trappings of legitimacy, complete with "competing" ideologies among the likes of say Fox vs. MSNBC.
I hand it to TPTB for creating such an effective matrix.
i dare anyone to watch tomorrow's sunday morning weeklys and not crack up. every channel now has its own paid retired cia talking
spookhead. plus mockingbird was before propoganda was legalized- this is some new revolving door level shit ... and you wouldn't
want these "journalists" revealing their sources now, would you?
Time for Trump to close down the FBI, DoJ, NSA, CIA and the other 17 or so spy operations and rebuild a few of them from scratch
with appointed rotating Citizen oversight.
The current traitors can not ever again be trusted.
reporters are member of the public, they are not arbiters of fact and do not have any special rights above and beyond those
of any other member of the public.
the fact that the WSJ, NYT and WaPo have proven to be liars, instigators of wars and guity of "spinning" news to suit their
own political agendas need not be used as evidence - though it is damning.
disclosure to reporters is disclosure to the public.
the case made by the CIA is false - on its face.
it is beyond belief that the legal profession would defend this hypocrisy. what is wrong with them? we already know that the
CIA thinks americans are not smart enough to handle the shaded truth or lies it spins.
i suppose assuming this you are wrong. if anything the last year experience with CNN or FOX you pick your side should have
made it clear there is no free press. No they are not member of the public, they are part of the machine and play a role either
on team A or team B.... you are supposed to rot for one of them ... or i guess both if one completely trust it.
i suppose the idea is that reporters know how much to tell the public and how to spin it. plus they got internal control before
publishing anything. it implies there is no free press, basically the press is the same as the institution which let them see
the information.
on the other hand giving it directly to the masses is different. i suppose some sophisticated people would do the hard work
to translate it for the "unwashed masses" or the regular Joes as the sayings go.
Reporters have no more right to information than ordinary citizens. Officials who release information to reports who are not
officially cleared to see it are violating the law. And should be prosecuted without delay.
The Secret Police will be dismantled, it's just a matter of time. They will do themselves in with hubris and arrogance. The
arrogance is really pissing people off right about now. They shouldn't even be involved in issues within US borders. Of course
they shouldn't be trafficking drugs, human beings or destroying nation states all over the world either.
People laugh but the Stasi was omnipotent and omnipresent in its domain and then like a wisp of smoke it was gone. The pretense
of legitimacy is gone. These agencies are rogue and enemies of the body politic. We really are very close to the collapse.
HAfuckinHA! The CI fuckingA didn't leak (((classified))) information to their reporters...They distributed classified information
to their respective agents within the MSM.
Breitbart is a Zionist mouthpiece. Steve Bannon is a mouth.
Robert and Rebekah Mercer (not Jewish) decided to shift their
allegiance and money from Cruz to Trump. They met with Jared
and Ivanka to discuss. The Mercers threw Bannon into the
deal. Once Bannon had infiltrated the campaign, and later the
WH, maybe the Zionists were still pulling his strings. Bannon
was also colluding with Chinese nationals, so Mueller does have
the leverage to twist Bannon to his will.
"... One objective is to keep in place an anti-Russian policy. The coup's instigators want to prevent Trump from letting up on the pressure (sanctions) on Russia and from cooperating with Russia. The coup forces are all anti-Russia, and that serves to unite them. A second objective is to maintain the positions, power, and influence of the coup's seekers. ..."
"... This is a "seed crystal" coup. The model for the seed crystal coup is the Watergate scandal. The operational goal is to crystallize and solidify the disunited Trump opposition into a movement that has irresistible momentum. In much the same way that seed crystals can accelerate a phase change from liquid to solid, the coup perpetrators introduce reports, accusations, and leaks over time in order to create the impression that a widening scandal is occurring. Each component has no merit but the media accept them at face value and provide publicity that creates new adherents and coherence among the anti-Trump forces. The anti-Trump forces are anxious to replicate the success in getting Nixon to resign. ..."
"... The anti-Trump media are critical in this effort. The anti-Trump media keep up a drumbeat of anti-Trump reporting. They slant the news, manufacture stories, repeat them and create fake news. ..."
"... The media must paint Russia and Putin as enemies for this propaganda effort to succeed. The media provide a focal point that coordinates the coup's backers even if they never sit down and conspire with one another. Everyone can observe the media stories and through that the effects of their anti-Trump leaks, reports, and innuendos. This allows them to plan their next moves. ..."
"... Social media have played a role in uprisings during the Arab Spring. The same thing can happen in America. There is a host of groups who are anti-Trump on grounds other than Russia. They can coordinate through social media. These groups seek to de-legitimize Trump so as to maintain items on their agenda. Aides to Hillary Clinton's failed campaign are now piling on to the effort. ..."
"... Positing a coup attempt is the simplest and most comprehensive hypothesis that ties together and explains a host of known facts that we know have occurred. Being a model of events, it is imperfect; but it's better than no model because it still helps us to understand what's going on. We are not seeing a train of unconnected events that just happen to be anti-Trump. It is easier to understand it as a concerted effort going on to emasculate the Trump presidency and possibly see him replaced; and that effort is centered in the CIA. ..."
"... The second victim of the coup is Michael T. Flynn, who resigned as Trump's National Security Advisor after only three weeks in that post. Leaks of tapped phone calls showed that intelligence operatives were behind this shark attack ..."
"... Mainly, unnamed intelligence officials and operatives who are in the CIA or recently retired from such. A number of media outfits are exceptionally active in propagating negative headlines and stories about Trump and his administration. Elements of other intelligence agencies and departments of government are possibly involved. We do not know the names of those operating against Trump, and this is a weakness of the coup hypothesis. ..."
Q. Will the coup succeed in removing Trump from office?
A. Not in its present form. It is currently destined to fail because the investigating
agencies and enemies of Trump haven't found a smoking gun against him on the basis of Russian
ties or influence. No one can prove that Trump is being controlled by Putin, and so he won't
resign for that reason. The coup will peter out unless it comes up with new and more explosive
anti-Trump material that's not obviously specious or doubtful as much of the current material
is. Furthermore, Trump hasn't yet counterattacked and he has plenty of ammunition.
Q. What are the objectives of the coup?
A. One objective is to keep in place an anti-Russian policy. The coup's instigators want
to prevent Trump from letting up on the pressure (sanctions) on Russia and from cooperating
with Russia. The coup forces are all anti-Russia, and that serves to unite them. A second
objective is to maintain the positions, power, and influence of the coup's seekers.
Q. How is the coup being conducted?
A. This is a "seed crystal" coup. The model for the seed crystal coup is the Watergate
scandal. The operational goal is to crystallize and solidify the disunited Trump opposition
into a movement that has irresistible momentum. In much the same way that seed crystals can
accelerate a phase change from liquid to solid, the coup perpetrators introduce reports,
accusations, and leaks over time in order to create the impression that a widening scandal is
occurring. Each component has no merit but the media accept them at face value and provide
publicity that creates new adherents and coherence among the anti-Trump forces. The anti-Trump
forces are anxious to replicate the success in getting Nixon to resign.
Q. What is the role of the establishment media in the coup?
A. The anti-Trump media are critical in this effort. The anti-Trump media keep up a
drumbeat of anti-Trump reporting. They slant the news, manufacture stories, repeat them and
create fake news. They try to convince the public that the coup's promoters are on the
side of the angels (as in protecting national security and the election system's purity) and
Trump is on the side of the devils (as in making concessions to a dangerous foe and being too
respectful to Putin). The media must paint Russia and Putin as enemies for this propaganda
effort to succeed. The media provide a focal point that coordinates the coup's backers even if
they never sit down and conspire with one another. Everyone can observe the media stories and
through that the effects of their anti-Trump leaks, reports, and innuendos. This allows them to
plan their next moves.
Q. What is the role of social media in the coup attempt?
A. Social media have played a role in uprisings during the Arab Spring. The same thing
can happen in America. There is a host of groups who are anti-Trump on grounds other than
Russia. They can coordinate through social media. These groups seek to de-legitimize Trump so
as to maintain items on their agenda. Aides to Hillary Clinton's failed campaign are now piling
on to the effort.
These groups are distinct from the coup's perpetrators. They might launch a coup attempt of
their own or they may become a front line of the existing coup, that is, merge with it as a
force to reckon with that Trump has to address.
Q. How do you answer those who deny that there is an ongoing coup attempt?
A. Positing a coup attempt is the simplest and most comprehensive hypothesis that ties
together and explains a host of known facts that we know have occurred. Being a model of
events, it is imperfect; but it's better than no model because it still helps us to understand
what's going on. We are not seeing a train of unconnected events that just happen to be
anti-Trump. It is easier to understand it as a concerted effort going on to emasculate the
Trump presidency and possibly see him replaced; and that effort is centered in the CIA.
The people behind the coup are operating partly openly and partly covertly. They are not so
far using military means or physically threatening means so that the coup is not clearly
recognizable as such. They are more like sharks circling their intended victims, with each one
being hungry and attacking its own, as opposed to making pre-arranged attacks. Their
coordination is achieved through publicity and a common goal.
We can see these attacks, and they show a pattern, a common goal and a recognizable origin,
primarily among U.S. intelligence agencies, especially the CIA.
Q. What attacks are you referring to?
A. The first victim was Paul Manafort who resigned in mid-August 2016 as Trump's campaign
chairman. His lobbying efforts on behalf of the ousted head of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych,
resulted in a dirt campaign against him. That attack stemmed from anti-Russian sources in
Ukraine whom the U.S. government supports. Attacks from foreign origins conceal their true U.S.
origins. They are a sign of a CIA operation behind the scenes.
The second victim of the coup is Michael T. Flynn, who resigned as Trump's National
Security Advisor after only three weeks in that post. Leaks of tapped phone calls showed that
intelligence operatives were behind this shark attack .
Q. Who is behind the coup attempt ?
A. Mainly, unnamed intelligence officials and operatives who are in the CIA or recently
retired from such. A number of media outfits are exceptionally active in propagating negative
headlines and stories about Trump and his administration. Elements of other intelligence
agencies and departments of government are possibly involved. We do not know the names of those
operating against Trump, and this is a weakness of the coup hypothesis.
It's an illustration of how this phony investigation of Trump is a danger to national security. The latest polling shows that
the government has about an 18% approval rating as of the commencement of Trump's presidency. That is the lowest point in recorded
history. The guys in Washington need to either resign or do their job instead of fighting each other.
The article states that the FSB is in charge of the operation. As it deals with intelligence and espionage activities outside
the Russian Federation, it should be the responsibility of the SVR, not the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service). Strange.
"... Rachel Maddow, the top-rated cable-news host who covers Russiagate more than all other issues combined , has speculated that Putin was responsible for the hiring of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; is inducing Trump to "weaken" the State Department and " bleed out " the FBI; and, via the infamous "pee tape" alleged by Steele, may blackmail Trump into withdrawing US forces near Russia's border . ..."
"... The Washington Post ..."
"... Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ..."
"... The Wall Street Journal ..."
"... Far beyond Israelgate, Russiagate allows them to oppose Trump while obscuring key areas where they either share his priorities or have no viable alternative. Democrats can claim to be Trump's opposition without having to confront many of the failings that handed them one of the most stunning defeats in US political history. ..."
"... The DP is a neoliberal party which has been able to distinguish itself from Republicans by campaigning like progressives, but governing as neoliberals. ..."
"... Trump ran his campaign as a populist who would "drain the swamp." He opposed trade deals, and corporations relocating their factories outside the US. The Clinton campaign ran mostly negative personal attacks at Trump's failed marriages, his university, business bankruptcies, abuse of women, and his Russian connection. ..."
"... The DP has a real problem, how can they continue to be a neoliberal party, and cooperate with the RP, while pretending to support progressive causes when more and more people realize the charade and are demanding real progressive change? ..."
"... This whole "we lost the election because of Russian interference" argument appears to be roughly on the same level as "the dog ate my homework" dodge. ..."
"... The bottom line of any Trump association is financial - whether or not an association will protect and increase his wealth. Trump most likely believed that Russians were hacking the DNC (and the RNC) and favored him over Clinton, but that is a far cry from proof that he was colluding with a foreign government that committed crimes. The Democrats knee-jerk obsession with Russia serves to inoculate Trump from any real crimes that the Mueller investigation uncovers. Mostly those crimes will be financial, money laundering being the foremost. Democrats, in a 'the sky is falling' tone, breathlessly proclaim the latest revelation that Trump wanted a reset of Russia relations, or that some Trump official actually talked to a Russian official, as proof positive that Trump is a traitor. That Russia is the enemy is a fait accompli. ..."
"... To go on any liberal forum and point out that we really do need a better foreign policy with Russia than demonizing Putin is to bring forth a cascade of vituperation. Russia is the enemy and Trump colluded with the enemy, end of story they say. It's really way more complicated than that. It goes to the heart of the financialization of governments, including ours, to the point where finance can no longer be separated from government, and everything in government becomes a business transaction. Trump views the presidency as just another tool for self-enrichment, on a continuum from his global wheeling-dealing working on the boundaries of the law. The Russian state works in much the same way, a government that is run by a confederation of oligarchs and mob figures. ..."
"... In indulging themselves in Russiagate, Democrats have solidified the current provocative foreign policy that benefits the arms industry while putting civilization in danger. They are closing out all the sane options, and engaging in the same asinine fearmongering that Republicans do. On foreign policy, both parties deserve contempt. ..."
Both scenarios also call into question another foundation of Russiagate, the series of Clinton-campaign-funded intelligence reports
written by former British spy Christopher Steele. The premise of the Steele dossier is of a "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation"
in which Russia has been "cultivating, supporting and assisting Trump for at least five years," beginning back when Trump was hosting
The Apprentice . Russia gives Trump "and his inner circle a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on
his Democratic and other political rivals." As an insurance policy, Steele contends, at least two years after their conspiracy began,
the Russians collected a videotape of Trump hiring and watching prostitutes "perform a 'golden showers' (urination) show," in a Moscow
Ritz-Carlton hotel room.
This questionable narrative is perhaps why, according to the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner,
after one year and multiple investigations, the dossier's allegations remain neither "proven nor, conversely, disproven" -- in other
words, not proven. According to Fox News, "when pressed [in recent congressional testimony] to identify what in the salacious document
the bureau had actually corroborated [thenFBI Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe cited only the fact that Trump campaign adviser Carter
Page had traveled to Moscow." It would not have been difficult for the FBI -- or Steele -- to figure that out, given that it was
reported
in The Washington Post and Russian media in early
July. (Steele reports it only on July 19.)
"Missing Hard Evidence"
The shaky evidentiary basis for collusion extends to Russiagate's other central pillars. It has been over a year since the release,
shortly before Trump's inauguration, of a US intelligence report alleging a Russian-government campaign to elect Trump through e-mail
hacking and covert propaganda. Amid the ensuing uproar, some quietly noted at the time that the public version of the report "does
not or cannot provide evidence for its assertions" (
The Atlantic
); contained "essentially no new information" (
Susan Hennessy , Lawfare );
and was "missing what many Americans most eagerly anticipated: hard evidence to back up the agencies' claims" (
The New York
Times ).
If "hard evidence" is what "many Americans most eagerly anticipated" in January 2017, they have continued to wait in vain. The
Russian government may well have hacked Democratic Party e-mails, but evidence of it beyond unsubstantiated claims has yet to arrive.
In its place is a bipartisan fearmongering campaign that recalls the height of the Cold War. The nation is said to face "an ongoing
attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic
process" (
Democrats Representative Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein ); in which "Russia continues to disseminate propaganda designed
to weaken our nation" (
former acting CIA director Michael Morell and former Republican Representative Mike Rogers ); which means that we cannot "simply
sit back and hope that we do not face another attack by a hostile foreign power" (Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator
Chris Van Hollen).
A credulous national media has helped disseminate the panic. When news of Russian-linked Facebook ads (in reality,
Russian troll farms ) broke open,
The
Daily Beast calculated that the "Russian-funded covert propaganda posts were likely seen by a minimum of 23 million people
and might have reached as many as 70 million," meaning that "up to 28 percent of American adults were swept in by the campaign."
National audiences were soberly informed of covert Russian attempts to dupe them via
Pokemon Go . CNN
reported
-- and multiple
outlets repeated -- that
"highly sophisticated" Russian Facebook ads targeted "the states that turned out to be pivotal," including "Michigan and Wisconsin,
two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November." The New York Times consulted with "analysts"
to ponder over the mysterious significance of a Russian-linked "Facebook group for animal lovers with memes of adorable puppies":
The goal of the dog lovers' page was more obscure. But some analysts suggested a possible motive: to build a large following
before gradually introducing political content. Without viewing the entire feed from the page, now closed by Facebook, it is impossible
to say whether the Russian operators tried such tactics.
We may never know if vulnerable American dog-lovers were compromised by the Russian puppy-gandists. But "analysis" and "exclusives"
like these have drowned out the actual evidence. In brief, more than half of the relatively paltry $100,000 in Facebook ads bought
by "Russian-linked" accounts ran after the election. They were mostly related not to the election but to social issues and were often
juvenile and written in broken English. Those that were "geographically located" came mostly during the primaries. The ads that ran
in battleground states were, as
one study noted , "microscopic": Fewer than a dozen ran in Michigan and Wisconsin combined, and the majority were seen fewer
than 1,000 times. Purported Russian ad spending amounted to $1,979 in Wisconsin -- all but $54 of that during the primary -- $823
in Michigan, and $300 in Pennsylvania.
Summarizing available data, The Washington Post 's Philip Bump
concludes : "what we actually know about the Russian activity on Facebook and Twitter: It was often modest, heavily dissociated
from the campaign itself and minute in the context of election social media efforts."
"Theories With Virtually No Fact"
The impact of Russiagate panic has been magnified by a preponderance of influential exponents wading into imaginative territory.
And their audience happens to be millions of people aggrieved by Trump's presidency and seeking hope that it can be reversed.
The Russian influence theory is so ingrained that Democrats see no irony in invoking it to dismiss the conspiracy theories of
Republicans. Denouncing the current right-wing uproar over alleged anti-Trump bias at the FBI, Senator Chuck Schumer
cautioned that in pushing
"conspiracy theories with virtually no fact," the Republicans "wittingly or unwittingly are acting as allies of Russia's disinformation
campaigns," ultimately "playing right into Putin's hands."
Such is our Trump-era political spectrum: a Republican Party that has graduated from birtherism to now pushing fears of an anti-Trump
FBI "secret society," versus a Democratic Party whose counterattack is to accuse its foes of doing Putin's bidding.
... ... ...
As it ramps up its armed presence near Russia, the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy declares that the US military advantage
over Russia and China is "eroding," and that reversing it is now more of a priority than stopping ISIS or Al Qaeda. "Great power
competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,"
Defense Secretary James Mattis declared. Russia is the top threat invoked in Trump's Nuclear Posture Review. The plan's centerpiece
is the development of smaller, so-called "low-yield" nuclear weapons, small enough to ensure that Russia fears their actual use.
The review attributes this to the "deterioration of the strategic environment" -- "a nod toward existing tensions with Russia in
particular,"
The Washington Post observes .
Tensions between the world's two major nuclear powers have helped lead the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to move
its Doomsday Clock to its highest point since 1953. "Nuclear risks have been compounded by US-Russia relations that now feature more
conflict than cooperation," the Bulletin warns . "Coordination on nuclear risk reduction
is all but dead. For the first time in many years, in fact, no US-Russian nuclear arms control negotiations are under way."
The nuclear risks may also be compounded by a US opposition party that has made "more conflict than cooperation" a defining trait.
"Never before has a U.S. president so clearly ignored such a grave threat, and a growing threat, to U.S. national security," declares
Senator Ben Cardin . In not imposing new sanctions, Trump has "let Russia off the hook yet again," says
Representative Eliot Engel . In releasing the House Republican memo, Trump has "Vladimir Putin there smiling like he gave Donald
Trump the script" (
Representative Jackie
Speier ) and has "just sent his friend Putin a bouquet" (
Representative Nancy
Pelosi ). It is difficult to imagine Democrats leading the charge to reduce nuclear tensions with Russia when they expend more
energy urging Trump to be confrontational.
With Trump's actual Russia policies receiving less attention than Russiagate, it also makes sense that his administration has
begun to take advantage of the opportunities that the distraction provides. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has
warned that there
are "initial signs" of Russian "subversion and disinformation and propaganda" in
Mexico's upcoming presidential election . McMaster did not cite any evidence, but perhaps he had in mind the multiple polls that
show leftist candidate Andrιs Manuel Lσpez Obrador as the front-runner
so far .
Top Priorities
The focus on still-absent evidence of Trump-Russia collusion while ignoring increasing US-Russia tensions coincides with the indifference
that has greeted the most concrete case of Trump collusion with a foreign government so far: the Trump transition's effort to undermine
President Obama's abstention on a United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements in December 2016. Undertaken
at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "derailing the vote was Mr. Trump's top priority at that time,"
The Wall Street Journal reports
.
But for Democrats and thought leaders to oppose the Trump transition's "top priority" would mean challenging one that they uphold.
"While [the UN effort] might have otherwise given the Democrats a welcome political opportunity to underscore the perfidy of the
Trump team," Stephen Zunes
observes , "they are hindered by the fact that the majority of Congressional Democrats opposed Obama and supported Trump's position
on the vote."
It is here that Russiagate performs a critical function for Trump's political foes. Far beyond Israelgate, Russiagate allows them
to oppose Trump while obscuring key areas where they either share his priorities or have no viable alternative. Democrats can claim
to be Trump's opposition without having to confront many of the failings that handed them one of the most stunning defeats in US
political history.
In focusing on a foreign villain, there is also little need for Democrats to challenge the powerful sectors of US society that
many Trump voters were duped into thinking that they were voting against -- and whose interests many Democrats have deftly served.
In fact, the outside enemy offers Democrats new opportunities to cater to powerful donors: increased militarism towards a nuclear
power is a boon for the military-security establishment, and lawmakers who promote it have been
duly rewarded .
After more than one year of its engulfing our politics, perhaps that could be Russiagate's most helpful contribution: guiding
us to the challenges that it helps us avoid.
Victor Sciamarelli says: February 10, 2018 at 2:35 pm
An interesting article especially the conclusion under "Top Priorities" where it states, "It is here that Russiagate performs
a critical function for Trump's political foes. Far beyond Israelgate, Russiagate allows them [democrats] to oppose Trump while
obscuring key areas where they either share his priorities or have no viable alternative."
This is important and I largely agree, but the observation could have gone further. The DP is a neoliberal party which has been
able to distinguish itself from Republicans by campaigning like progressives, but governing as neoliberals.
Trump ran his campaign as a populist who would "drain the swamp." He opposed trade deals, and corporations relocating their factories
outside the US. The Clinton campaign ran mostly negative personal attacks at Trump's failed marriages, his university, business
bankruptcies, abuse of women, and his Russian connection. Jill Stein was attacked and brought before the Senate Intelligence Committee because the dossier claimed, falsely, that she accepted
payment from Russia to attend a RT event in Moscow. And we all know what happened to the Sanders' campaign.
None of this would matter because Clinton was expected to win. Trump is a hypocrite and a fake populist but the populist message
resonated with voters. Bernie Sanders, the real deal populist, remains the most popular politician in America and he is the most
popular democratic politician among Republican voters.
The recent FISA reauthorization bill passed with 65 House Democrats who joined Trump and the Republicans. In 2002 the DP controlled
the Senate, but 29 Dems joined Republicans to pass the Iraq War Resolution along with 82 House Dems. And was the Republican regime
change in Iraq better than the Democratic regime change in Libya? And recall that Hugo Chavez, who was democratically elected,
governed constitutionally, and complied with international law, and if he ever crossed a line it was trivial compared to the lines
Bush crossed, was labeled a dictator and attacked much like Putin is today.
The DP has a real problem, how can they continue to be a neoliberal party, and cooperate with the RP, while pretending to support
progressive causes when more and more people realize the charade and are demanding real progressive change?
Maintaining a neoliberal course on behalf of elite interests is more important than winning elections. Thus, while Trump is investigated,
the DP and supportive media are preparing to demonize progressives and any alternative voices as nothing more than Russian puppets.
Jeffrey Harrison says: February 10, 2018 at 12:12 pm
Articles like this one on The Nation surprise me. The Nation seems to be in the pockets of the DNC and their Hillary-bots.
While this is a great article, I'm left with a sense of dissatisfaction based on what was missing from it. Nobody seems to see
the forest for the trees.
The first thing missing is the reality that Three Names won the election by about 3 million votes. Mr Matι does a good job
of pointing out the weaknesses of the whole facebook/twitter meme but leaves out that Three Names' problem was not a lack of votes
but a lack of breadth of votes. She won the major population centers but not the countryside and thus lost the state. Folks in
the countryside are much less likely to be on facebook and twitter than their city cousins and thus will be relatively immune
from the influence of ads on those platforms. If you want to see real meddling, take a look at what AIPAC is doing.
The other thing that's missing is the danger behind sanctions. There's another name for sanctions - economic warfare. These
are actually forbidden by the UN charter unless authorized by the UN but the US has never let its promises keep the US from doing
exactly what it wanted to. In the past, sanctions have, in fact, led to shooting wars. What we are doing is perpetrating economic
warfare on the only country capable of destroying the United States.
In what way could this be considered wise?
Matthew Walsh says: February 10, 2018 at 11:30 am
I appreciate this article--and I agree with many of its arguments--but it contains some layered irony that is important to
address. The author is correct in asserting that there is irony in the Democrats' claim that Republicans' opposition to the investigation
is not based in fact.
But I find it ironic that the author is accusing the Democrats of using Russiagate to empower the military-security complex.
It's a highly plausible prospect, but it's certainly no more plausible than Russian collusion accusations.
Dan Swanson says: February 10, 2018 at 8:36 am
Superb article. My only quibble is that Trump probably did collude with Russians -- not over the election, but over his business
interests, and that exposing this will damage his overall popularity, even among some of his supporters. But the article's major
point still stands -- putting all the opposition eggs into the Russiagate basket is a big risk, especially now that the Republicans
will take aim at Social Security and Medicare. Among major politicians, only Bernie Sanders has recognized that Russiagate distracts
from Trump's true evils.
Robert Borneman says: February 10, 2018 at 2:29 am
Kudos to Mr. Matι for keeping a clear eye out on the facts and evidence of the case against Russia having thrown the election
to Hillary (which is paltry at best, and falsely exculpatory of HRC's own disaster on the simple surface). Kudos to The Nation
for not swallowing the same establishment DNC pill which seeks to provide cover for the neo-liberal wing of the Democratic Party
by blaming Russia instead of their own (DNC's own) anti-democratic machinations and poor decisions.
Philip Gerard says: February 9, 2018 at 5:16 pm
This whole "we lost the election because of Russian interference" argument appears to be roughly on the same level as "the
dog ate my homework" dodge. The democrats just can't admit that they blew the 2016 election . If they did they would have to look
for answers and this is something they really do not want to do. Why? I suspect that they all ready know what they need to do
to win but that would mean cutting ties with their corporate "constituents" and that is something they simply can not bring themselves
to do.
Michael Robertson says: February 9, 2018 at 3:39 pm
The bottom line of any Trump association is financial - whether or not an association will protect and increase his wealth.
Trump most likely believed that Russians were hacking the DNC (and the RNC) and favored him over Clinton, but that is a far cry
from proof that he was colluding with a foreign government that committed crimes. The Democrats knee-jerk obsession with Russia
serves to inoculate Trump from any real crimes that the Mueller investigation uncovers. Mostly those crimes will be financial,
money laundering being the foremost. Democrats, in a 'the sky is falling' tone, breathlessly proclaim the latest revelation that
Trump wanted a reset of Russia relations, or that some Trump official actually talked to a Russian official, as proof positive
that Trump is a traitor. That Russia is the enemy is a fait accompli.
To go on any liberal forum and point out that we really do need a better foreign policy with Russia than demonizing Putin is
to bring forth a cascade of vituperation. Russia is the enemy and Trump colluded with the enemy, end of story they say. It's really
way more complicated than that. It goes to the heart of the financialization of governments, including ours, to the point where
finance can no longer be separated from government, and everything in government becomes a business transaction. Trump views the
presidency as just another tool for self-enrichment, on a continuum from his global wheeling-dealing working on the boundaries
of the law. The Russian state works in much the same way, a government that is run by a confederation of oligarchs and mob figures.
To say that the Russians hacked the election is to say nothing. There is nothing that they have putatively done that we haven't
done to them. The Facebook posts that are evidence of high-level psychological manipulation are indistinguishable from Republican
spin. In indulging themselves in Russiagate, Democrats have solidified the current provocative foreign policy that benefits the
arms industry while putting civilization in danger. They are closing out all the sane options, and engaging in the same asinine
fearmongering that Republicans do. On foreign policy, both parties deserve contempt.
Brian Cairns says: February 9, 2018 at 1:43 pm
Excellent job, Aaron! And thanks to The Nation for not getting swept up in the Russiagate hysteria like so many other progressive
outlets have.
"... Steele also gave the dossier to Winer, who flagged to his superiors at the State Department, according to the source. Kerry was eventually briefed on its existence, and that it wasn't known how much was true. ..."
Shearer, an independent journalist, decided to investigate potential Trump-Russia connections after seeing stories about the hacking
of the Democratic National Committee, the source said.
Shearer's so-called dossier is actually a set of notes based on conversations with reporters and other sources, according to the
person who spoke to CNN, and he circulated those notes to assorted journalists, as well as to Blumenthal.
Blumenthal then passed the notes to Jonathan Winer, who was a State Department special envoy for Libya under former Secretary
of State John Kerry, the source said. Winer had a previous relationship with Steele, and he passed it along to Steele in order to
get his assessment.
Carter Page struggles to explain how he could advise both Kremlin and Trump team
Related Article: Carter Page struggles to explain how he could advise both Kremlin and Trump team
Blumenthal, according to the source, did not know that Winer would consult Steele on the Shearer document, and said Winer made
that decision on his own.
After Winer gave Steele the notes from Shearer, Steele wrote that he found it interesting and it tended to corroborate some of
what he found, but he also noted that it was uncorroborated, the source said.
Shearer's notes, a copy of which were obtained by CNN, make uncorroborated allegations involving Trump and Russia, and they cite
unnamed Russian intelligence and Turkish sources.
Steele provided Shearer's notes to the FBI in October 2016.
What are the GOP allegations? Steele was being paid for his research by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was
hired by a law firm on behalf of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. A key allegation
in last week's Nunes memo was that Steele's political connections to Democrats were not told to the FISA court, and Republicans are
charging that Shearer's involvement could show Steele was receiving information from Clinton associates that went into the dossier
he gave to the FBI. The criminal referral from Grassley and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham --
which was unclassified with some redactions this week -- states that Shearer's notes went to Steele through an official at the
State Department and another person who was a "friend of the Clinton's." "It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded
Mr. Steele's work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele's allegations raises additional concerns
about his credibility," the senators wrote in the criminal referral, which does not accuse Steele of wrongdoing but urges the Justice
Department to investigate the matter. Winer worked with Steele from 2014 through 2016, according to another source familiar with
their interactions. Steele provided Winer with reports related to the conflict in Ukraine and Russia as a courtesy, which was not
unusual and considered one source among many used for assessing the situation on the ground in Ukraine, the source said.
Former
CIA Director Brennan says Nunes 'abused his office'Steele also gave the dossier to Winer, who flagged to his superiors at
the State Department, according to the source. Kerry was eventually briefed on its existence, and that it wasn't known how much was
true.
Senior State Department officials showed the dossier to Kerry once it was clear the document was in wide circulation around Washington,
according to the source. Kerry was not briefed on the Shearer document, the source said. Lee Wolosky, an attorney for Winer, said
in a statement that Winer was "concerned in 2016 about information that a candidate for the presidency may have been compromised
by a hostile foreign power." "Any actions he took were grounded in those concerns," Wolosky said.
"Today's attacks are nothing more than a further attempt to undermine the independence and credibility of special (counsel Robert)
Mueller's ongoing investigation into those and related issues." What are Republicans saying? Republicans haven't come out
and accused Blumenthal of any wrongdoing, but they've hinted in public appearances that raw intelligence may have been distributed
for partisan purposes. Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Oversight Committee and is a senior Republican on the House Intelligence
Committee, discussed Nunes' State Department investigation a Fox News interview Tuesday, saying he was "troubled" by the role the
State Department played. Gowdy read the classified FISA documents that the Justice Department gave congressional committees access
to on the condition that only one member of the majority and minority would view them. "When you hear who the source, or one of the
sources of that information is, you're going to think, 'Oh, my gosh, I've heard that name somewhere before. Where could he possibly
have been?'" the South Carolina Republican said.
Gowdy:
Memo has no impact on Russia probe "A domestic source. I'm trying to think of Secretary Clinton defined him. I think she said
he was an old friend who emailed her from time to time," Gowdy continued. "Sidney Blumenthal?" Fox News' Martha MacCallum asked.
"That would be really warm," Gowdy concluded. Nunes made headlines over the weekend when he predicted more memos would be coming
from his committee, but he says that the investigation into the State Department has already been in the works. "We have an active
investigation into the State Department. That has been ongoing for a while now," Nunes told Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Nunes has repeatedly declined to discuss his investigations with CNN, saying he doesn't discuss committee business "in the halls."
Graham declined to discuss Blumenthal's role in the committee's investigation into Steele, but said the State Department is one element
of it. "There's some connections outside the Department of Justice and the dossier that we're looking at. One of them goes to the
State Department," Graham told CNN. "It's clear to me he was using the dossier for political purposes and that should have been more
alarming than it was."
Who are the players?
Blumenthal is no stranger to congressional investigations, playing a role in the House Benghazi Select Committee investigation
that was led by Gowdy.
Blumenthal testified behind closed doors as part of the Benghazi investigation, and
he
provided the committee with emails he exchanged with Clinton , who was secretary of state when the 2012 Benghazi attack occurred.
Blumenthal sent Clinton dozens of emails while she was secretary of state on various foreign policy topics, some of which were unsolicited
and others that were requested by Clinton.
A former journalist, Blumenthal has known the Clintons for more than 30 years, and he worked in the Clinton White House as senior
adviser from 1997 to 2001. He's been by the family's side during difficult moments, including President Bill Clinton's impeachment
trial.
Pressure on White House chief of staff John Kelly was intensifying on Saturday after a series of missteps, most notably his
defence of a senior official accused of domestic violence.
Ominously Donald Trump has been grumbling about Kelly's performance and weighing up possible replacements, according to media
reports.
Reports in the New York Times suggested that Kelly told staff on Friday
he was willing to resign over his mishandling of the domestic violence allegations that led
to staff secretary Rob Porter's resignation, and that simultaneously Trump was now considering
Mick Mulvaney, currently White House budget director and head of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, as a possible successor. But a third chief of staff in just over a year,
along with the rapid turnover of other officials, would only fuel perceptions of
mismanagement.
"... Trump: Democrats 'Un-American,' 'Treasonous,' During State of the Union ..."
"... National Review ..."
"... Is Trump Serious about 'Treasonous' Democrats? ..."
"... But Trump's "joke" really should be taken seriously. The likes of Nancy Pelosi are traitors in the most literal sense -- in that they openly and explicitly oppose the interests of American citizens ..."
"... Pelosi is entranced by 3 million 'Dreamer' illegals, insults Americans' children ..."
"... This year kicks off the new 3.8 billion yearly to Israel up from 3.1 billion and another 775 million for Israel missile defense and undoubtly more incremental aid bills as the year goes on. ..."
President Trump, allegedly humorously, later described the [neoliberal] Democrats' behavior
during his State of the Union speech as "treasonous" and "un-American," prompting the usual
hysteria [ Trump: Democrats 'Un-American,' 'Treasonous,' During State of the Union,
by Jessica Taylor, NPR, February 5, 2018].
The chutzpah is breathtaking
considering how journalists and their pet elected officials in the Democrat party have waged a
nonstop insurgency against the President of the United States
since his inauguration , accusing him of being a puppet of Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
But Trump's "joke" really should be taken seriously. The likes of Nancy Pelosi are traitors
in the most literal sense -- in that they openly and explicitly oppose the interests of
American citizens and advocate their replacement with foreigners. Pelosi's ludicrous claim that
the Founding Fathers (who created the Naturalization Act of 1790
) would support the mass influx of "Dreamers" and that illegals are "more American than
Americans" is as definitive a statement of hatred for American citizens as can be imagined [
Pelosi is entranced by 3 million 'Dreamer' illegals, insults Americans' children, by Neil Munro, Breitbart, February 7, 2018].
That's 376 bills, more than one a day and I haven't even gotten into the trade and
appropriation categories where they bury other bills for Israel that would take several days
of reading. This year kicks off the new 3.8 billion yearly to Israel up from 3.1 billion and another
775 million for Israel missile defense and undoubtly more incremental aid bills as the year
goes on.
Throughout Donald Trump's campaign and relentlessly chaotic presidency, the single constant presence at his side, outside of his
family, has been the 29-year-old former Ralph Lauren model and White House communications director Hope Hicks.
While aides and advisers fall in and out of favor, Hicks has remained Trump's Oval Office gatekeeper, companion and sounding board,
offering consistent loyalty.
But now Hicks has herself been cast into two plotlines currently playing out in the presidential daytime reality-soap.
In one, Hicks features as a likely target in the special counsel Robert Mueller's effort to acquire cooperating witnesses in the
investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Hicks has
reportedly
been interviewed by Mueller's investigators.
Publicly, Trump has offered his support for Hicks, saying: "Hope is absolutely fantastic. She was with the campaign from the beginning,
and I could not ask for anything more. Hope is smart, very talented and respected by all."
But in private, the president is believed to have issued rare criticism of a woman who by some estimates is the most influential
figure in the administration after Trump himself.
At issue is whether Hicks, who also served as communications director during the campaign, relaxed her judgment owing to her relationship
with Porter.
White House officials have said Hicks knew that an ex-girlfriend of Porter's had informed aides that both of Porter's ex-wives
had said he was violent. Hicks continued to see him and did not tell the president. Porter denies the allegations against him.
If the unfolding episode calls into question the maturity of Hicks' judgement, she clearly is invaluable as a personal assistant.
In his campaign memoir, Let Trump Be Trump, Corey Lewandowski, the early campaign strategist with whom, coincidentally, Hicks also
had an affair described her steaming Trump's suit while he is wearing it.
"She's really quite talented and able," Christopher Ruddy, a close friend of the president and chief executive of the conservative
website Newsmax,
told the Washington Post .
But her professional experience, especially where is comes to matters that carry potentially legal consequences, is limited. Hicks
came to the Trumps through a PR firm that represented the Trump Organization. The family later hired her away to work exclusively
for them, furnishing her with responsibilities that included working on Ivanka Trump's fashion line.
A GQ magazine profile in June
2016 described her: "She is a hugger and a people pleaser, with long brown hair and green eyes, a young woman of distinctly all-American
flavor the sort that inspires Tom Petty songs, not riots."
But her looks and fashion background can cause people to underestimate her. She has a background in PR and is a graduate of Dallas'
Southern Methodist University.
Another CIA disinformation operation? Typical and convenient source for NYT leaks: anonimous
intelligence officials. Part of neo-McCarthyism campaign by NYT?
The idea of "buying back" hacking tools is definite disinformation. Why one should do so in
unclear: the software that CIA developed still exists within CIA. Malware can't be "bought back"
like a gun as soon as it was distributed in the open. It just fuel the nest turn of the spiral of
arm race being incorporation in new tools of states and cybercriminals. The same process that
already happened with Stuxnet and Flame before.
Is this some Russian hacker who have stolen 100K using cheap trick to get CIA guys interested. Or may this another false flag operation. Can this "Russian" be a Ukrainian ?
Notable quotes:
"... The Russian claimed to have access to a staggering collection of secrets that included everything from the computer code for the cyberweapons stolen from the N.S.A. and C.I.A. to what he said was a video of Mr. Trump consorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in 2013, according to American and European officials and the Russian, who agreed to be interviewed in Germany on the condition of anonymity. There remains no evidence that such a video exists. ..."
"... Early in the negotiations, for instance, he dropped his asking price from about $10 million to just over $1 million. Then, a few months later, he showed the American businessman a 15-second clip of a video showing a man in a room talking to two women. ..."
"... "In December, the Russian said he told the American intermediary that he was providing the Trump material and holding out on the hacking tools at the orders of senior Russian intelligence officials." ..."
"... There's something not right about this story. The "Russians", if they represented the Russian government would never negotiate for $1M, nor would they provide "kompromat" on Trump, since (according to all the western MSM anyway) Trump represents the best path for a relaxing of tension (and sanctions) between the USA and Russia. ..."
"... What a wild story! The most interesting factor is that the promised compromising information on Trump tracked with material in the Steele Dossier, yet the US agents easily detected its source as FSB and its apparent fabrication. Much was simple non-incriminating rehashes of publicly available information, including easily debunked falsities. ..."
"... Yet the FBI has used the Dossier as the guide for investigating Trump, as have multiple committees in Congress and the MSM - without questioning that the stories were also fed to Christopher Steele by agents of the Kremlin or derived by him from open source materials available in the media. It's what spies do. Especially spies whose Russian contacts have grown cold after a 7-year absence from Russia. He was ripe for snookering. ..."
"... The same can be said of anything sourced by the disreputable Cody Shearer via Sid Blumenthal that was fed to the FBI through the unwitting Winer, Kerry, and Nuland at State Department. ..."
"... Plain as the nose on your face, yet NYT commenters are so wedded to their desire to defenestrate Trump, that they just don't care. Putin knows that and his efforts continue unabated, assisted by the Blind Resistance. ..."
"... "Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data." It it's unverified and possibly fabricated, why are we wasting news space? Stop giving voice to unverified junk! We want (or I want) an objective investigation that should take no more than 6 months given the money we are paying Mueller and the FBI to investigate. Are there any facts in DC or is DC now Putin's puppet. ..."
"... Remember the "Fake News" of a Ballistic "Missile Gap" which mimicked today's politicization of Intel by Democrats, that the Russians endorsed with a Red Face and Americans swallowed hook, line and sinker with enormous help by the MSM. The Intel was bad, of course, but it was a huge part of the 1960 election and contributed to the Nuclear Arms race, at a terrible cost to America and threatened the whole world with Thermonuclear Armageddon by Mutual Assured Destruction. All of this was satirized by Stanley Kubrick in "Dr. Strangelove" with a hysterical General fearing Russian "meddling" with bodily fluids and another General denying the President nuclear war plans due to classification. The irony with today's Intel scandal is rich. ..."
"... I agree. It's terrifying that people being paid by taxpayers to protect our citizens and our country have turned on both in order to put their own political agenda in power. In other countries, that's called a coup d'etat - the overthrow of a legitimate government. ..."
"... The Times reinforces the Nunes memo ... that the deep state was trying to get Trump with Russia stuff... ..."
After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000
last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he
insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and
European intelligence officials.
The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the
first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and
communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking
tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full
inventory of what was missing.
Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the
Trump material from the Russian, who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence
and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and
his associates to Russia. Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced
unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank
records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.
The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary
of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government.
They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying
scurrilous information on the president.
The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment on the negotiations with the Russian
seller. The N.S.A., which produced the bulk of the hacking tools that the Americans sought to
recover, said only that "all N.S.A. employees have a lifetime obligation to protect classified
information."
The negotiations in Europe last year were described by American and European intelligence
officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a clandestine operation, and the
Russian. The United States officials worked through an intermediary -- an American businessman
based in Germany -- to preserve deniability. There were meetings in provincial German towns
where
John le Carré set his early spy novels, and data handoffs in five-star Berlin
hotels. American intelligence agencies spent months tracking the Russian's flights to Berlin,
his rendezvous with a mistress in Vienna and his trips home to St. Petersburg, the officials
said.
The N.S.A. even used its official
Twitter account to send coded messages to the Russian nearly a dozen times.
The episode ended this year with American spies chasing the Russian out of Western Europe,
warning him not to return if he valued his freedom, the American businessman said. The Trump
material was left with the American, who has secured it in Europe.
The Russian claimed to have access to a staggering collection of secrets that included
everything from the computer code for the cyberweapons stolen from the N.S.A. and C.I.A. to
what he said was a video of Mr. Trump consorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in
2013, according to American and European officials and the Russian, who agreed to be
interviewed in Germany on the condition of anonymity. There remains no evidence that such a
video exists.
The Russian was known to American and European officials for his ties to Russian
intelligence and cybercriminals -- two groups suspected in the theft of the N.S.A. and C.I.A.
hacking tools.
But his apparent eagerness to sell the Trump "kompromat" -- a Russian term for information
used to gain leverage over someone -- to American spies raised suspicions among officials that
he was part of an operation to feed the information to United States intelligence agencies and
pit them against Mr. Trump. Early in the negotiations, for instance, he dropped his asking
price from about $10 million to just over $1 million. Then, a few months later, he showed the
American businessman a 15-second clip of a video showing a man in a room talking to two
women.
No audio could be heard on the video, and there was no way to verify if the man was Mr.
Trump, as the Russian claimed. But the choice of venue for showing the clip heightened American
suspicions of a Russian operation: The viewing took place at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, the
businessman said.
This article makes it seem like our intelligence service is an oxymoron - and I don't just
mean our current administration. Offered stolen hacking tools from a Russian? All those red
flags around this person and still they handed over money? Because they couldn't verify the
video they decided to go ahead? And why so desperate to get hacking tools back? Isn't it
already too late if they've been compromised?
As for Trump? He's spent his entire adult life in the tabloids, not a lot of secrets left.
An intern with a computer can compile a credible dossier. Instead, everyone got dirty hands
from the hired consultants dossier which is now used by both sides as a weapon. Instead, no
matter what it tells about Mr. Trump, we probably already know it. His supporters don't care
and the rest of us are appalled. I don't think all the Russian meddling in the world will
change that.
Senator Warner, one of the Democrats' Congressional leaders, was ready to fly to London to
chase down Trump kompromat. Representative Schiff was also prepared to meet with Russians to
obtain Trump kompromat - following in the footsteps of Donald Jr. When will Mueller interview
these two corrupt politicians?
I'm utterly sure it wasn't intentional. The Obama administration's spies WERE NOT after
anti-Trump, defamatory, incendiary information, in order to help compile a dossier that they
intended to use to obtain from the FISA court the permission to spy on an American citizen.
It was not their intention! And the NYT is doing an excellent job trying to preempt any such
notion through this piece.
The distribution of of American cyberweapons resulted in a short term international
crisis. But is the international community safer long term, now that defensive solutions to
CIA hack tools were engineered?
The American obsession with Russian election interference in US politics is likely born
out of frustration that Russian 'elections'are riggeg by Putin. Putin has ensilured he has
nothing to fear about Americans influencing Russian elections.
Final point... American media collectively lose their minds with outrage about espionage
efforts from countries like Russia & China. Western media downplay the fact that American
intelligence efforts are equal in every way to Russia & China.
The public gets it... the CIA grieved both the loss and exposure of their cyberweapons.
The CIA loss was a long term win for international prvacy and security efforts.
"The cyberweapons had been built to break into the computer networks of Russia, China and
other rival powers. Instead, they ended up in the hands of a mysterious group calling itself
the Shadow Brokers, which has since provided hackers with tools that infected millions of
computers around the world, crippling hospitals, factories and businesses."
Very, very stupid. You can never fully recover a stolen computer code, you can never
exclusively buy and own a hacking tool. Obviously, NSA was going after "kompromat" on Trump.
The NSA is right to want to know what compromising info a foreign intelligence agency has on
a key US official, let alone a person occupying the WH. But we should be more concerned with
incompetence of the NSA in not discerning quickly enough that the Russian was a fraud.
Putin wins, again. I bet he's having a pretty good laugh.... Putin has exposed the very
large and soft underbelly of American democracy.
Don Jr. takes a meeting with a Russian under the assumption she has dirt on HRC, then
spends 23 hours explaining the meet to Congress. Schiff tells anyone who will listen it's
smoking gun or collusion. Previously he takes a phone call from two Russian comedians, where
he appears intent on getting compromising photos on Trump. Now we find out a US Senator wants
a private face to face with Steele in London, who had been in contact with the State
Department on false Trump info.
Now the CIA is paying for the same type of dirt?. Do they go before Congress? It appears a
lot of people did unethical things to delegitimize the President.
Am I missing something here or American spies are really that stupid (which I doubt they
are) trying to buy back stolen cyberweapons? These so called cyberweapons are with a doubt
software which makes it very likely that whoever stole these made copies and anyone claiming
that they can return these intact is lying. So that makes me wonder where my tax dollars
really go?
Surely we aren't trying to retrieve hacking tools as if there were no other copies.
My guess is that we would want to know as best as possible what exactly they stole and
hopefully something useful about the people and organization that stole the tools in order to
try and diminish their capacity to do further harm. The tools are clearly out in the wild now
and we have them too.
I would say that the choice of wording in this article is probably more the fault of the
journalists, than an actual failure to understand how technology works by our intelligence
agencies.
"In December, the Russian said he told the American intermediary that he was providing the
Trump material and holding out on the hacking tools at the orders of senior Russian
intelligence officials."
There's something not right about this story. The "Russians", if they represented the
Russian government would never negotiate for $1M, nor would they provide "kompromat" on
Trump, since (according to all the western MSM anyway) Trump represents the best path for a
relaxing of tension (and sanctions) between the USA and Russia.
"The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency
was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing." "Hacking tools" are software.
You mean to tell me the CIA is paying to get back their software that was stolen?
What's wrong with doing a computer backup if you have irreplaceable data?
Conclusion: They were looking for dirt on Trump but didn't have any.
So they made up a story about paying to get their software back.
This reads like the Witchcraft material. Deliberately fed chicken feed by a supposed
double in the hopes of luring the information-hungry, desperate and unsuspecting towards a
greater intelligence coup.
What a wild story! The most interesting factor is that the promised compromising
information on Trump tracked with material in the Steele Dossier, yet the US agents easily
detected its source as FSB and its apparent fabrication. Much was simple non-incriminating
rehashes of publicly available information, including easily debunked falsities.
Yet the FBI has used the Dossier as the guide for investigating Trump, as have multiple
committees in Congress and the MSM - without questioning that the stories were also fed to
Christopher Steele by agents of the Kremlin or derived by him from open source materials
available in the media. It's what spies do. Especially spies whose Russian contacts have
grown cold after a 7-year absence from Russia. He was ripe for snookering.
The same can be said of anything sourced by the disreputable Cody Shearer via Sid Blumenthal
that was fed to the FBI through the unwitting Winer, Kerry, and Nuland at State Department.
More Kremlin attempts to destabilize the democratic institution in the US with tall
tales.
All bought and paid for by the DNC and Clinton Campaign, through the partisan opposition
research and smear merchants at Fusion GPS, using their well-developed ties in the media.
Plain as the nose on your face, yet NYT commenters are so wedded to their desire to
defenestrate Trump, that they just don't care. Putin knows that and his efforts continue
unabated, assisted by the Blind Resistance.
I don't see how the U.S. could be so stupid. These are cyberweapons which means they are
files on a computer...which means they've probably been copied to numerous places. And once
they've been copied to somewhere else, getting them back doesn't matter. They should have
been created with self-destructing keys such that if the wrong key to execute them was used,
they would self-destruct. Clearly there was no key protection. The NSA is wasting U.S.
taxpayer money with one blunder after another. How many millions went down the drain with
these weapons?
I would suggest to all the trump supporter commenters here that you watch the "Dirty
Money" episode "Confidence Man" before defending your Leader. The CIA, FBI or the NSA doesn't
need secret dossiers on tump. It's all public record.
USA today, one of the first three Sundays in December 2017 gave a pretty itemized story
regarding trumps financial ties with Putin and his crew. It's been amazing that the national
media hasn't picked up on the story. But maybe that's the string Mueller's team is
investigating. And verify.
Why are we giving a voice to Russian spies, and ultimately, Putin? Does the US have the
ability to investigate real Russian infiltration or are they being used as puppets?
"Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly
fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and
purported Russian intelligence data."
It it's unverified and possibly fabricated, why are we wasting news space? Stop giving
voice to unverified junk! We want (or I want) an objective investigation that should take no
more than 6 months given the money we are paying Mueller and the FBI to investigate. Are
there any facts in DC or is DC now Putin's puppet.
Patience is a virtue. There is so much dirty dealing and conspiracy here that six months
would never, under the best of circumstances, be enough. I would estimate another6 at least,
and well worth the price. It costs more for Trump's golf outings!
What a total waste of taxpayers money. How alarming is it that the recent hacks and
viruses of so many companies and individuals costing them billions of dollars was the result
of our own doing - a lackadaisical NSA who allowed their tools to be stolen. And now we have
spies and agents running around the globe paying millions to pranksters and gangsters for
some obtuse data. Let's all stop trying to make reality out of a James Bond movie as it is
actually making Trump a suitable commander to oversee this clown show of a government.
Putin must be pleased with America's political disarray that grows greater by the day. If
the "Russian Ruse" continues for another year, there could be riots in America. Russia would
be happy to continue to meddle with US politics.
We've been here before with the "Russian Ruse" in an election year.
Remember the "Fake News" of a Ballistic "Missile Gap" which mimicked today's
politicization of Intel by Democrats, that the Russians endorsed with a Red Face and
Americans swallowed hook, line and sinker with enormous help by the MSM. The Intel was bad,
of course, but it was a huge part of the 1960 election and contributed to the Nuclear Arms
race, at a terrible cost to America and threatened the whole world with Thermonuclear
Armageddon by Mutual Assured Destruction. All of this was satirized by Stanley Kubrick in
"Dr. Strangelove" with a hysterical General fearing Russian "meddling" with bodily fluids and
another General denying the President nuclear war plans due to classification. The irony with
today's Intel scandal is rich.
It appears the CIA investigation morphed from identifying what hacking tools were in the
hands of the Shadow Brokers and the names of people in that network to the role of Russia in
the theft of the NSA software. The handoff from Carlo to the Russian is unexplained.
These "important institutions" are destroying themselves from within with the help of the
Democratic deep state. You should stop buying the party line.
This entire saga really is like a Jean le Carre novel, or something right out of "Berlin
Station".
What is so obvious here is that we are, as usual, being played by foreign powers. How many
times have we been duped by countries in the Middle East, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Africa,
Viet Nam, Pakistan, etc., etc., ad infinitum.The second Gulf War (which we are still fighting
forever 15 years) started over Bush's reaction to false intelligence of WMDs in Iraq.
Trump, through his ignorant, egotistical actions, has alienated most of our allies and now is
trying to destroy any credibility that our intelligence agencies still have, all to avoid
conviction on collaboration and treason charges with Russia. Russia is having a hay day; we
are dupes and fools, and we have already lost this battle. Until we take this seriously, and
act accordingly, we might as well run Putin against Trump in 2020 - and he would probably win
if he aligns with the Republican Party.
Sadly our intelligence community seems to be incredibly naive and poorly trained... way
before Trump ... how much do we spend on all of these intelligence agencies ... aren't there
about 16?
c harris is a trusted commenter Candler, NC
9 hours ago
Just as with the atomic bomb monopoly this NSA creation has been taken by international
bad actors. At least with the atomic bomb technology it was extremely expensive to acquire at
the time and prohibitively dangerous to utilize. This NSA stuff is now being inflicted on the
world. These "intelligence" people reported are obsessed with Russian intelligence and their
as yet unproven involvement in the 2016 elections.
Graham Greene, a former British MI agent, wrote several excellent novels concerning the
price of human intelligence, one set in S Africa, three other in the Caribbean.
For quality human Intel you need to start with the highest quality youth who have access.
You have to research and court them carefully with the hope that they will rise over the
decades to the highest levels of government. They have to have superb, yet vulnerable,
judgment of intent and credibility of what they feed you.
Noriega is a classic example. We groomed him well. His country paid the price.
In the Caribbean, island after island, and in Africa and South and Central Americas, in
the 1950s and 60s onward, if not perhaps earlier, the Brits, Americans, French, Germans,
Belgians, E Germans, Czechs, Chinese, and Russians all searched for the best and the
brightest and seduced or 'assisted' and in the decades to come the developing world has paid
a terrible price of corruption and loss of leadership and integrity.
(European colonial nations started it way back as soon as they entered their future
colonies.)
Technical intelligence is rarely, perhaps never, enough. But human Intel has a terrible
price now, the past, and the future.
I bet Mircosoft gets offers daily to learn which of their holes has been penetrated and
what holes the competition has yet to fill. A tool costs a fortune to make, but a hole is
just there for the taking.
I'm a NPR kinda gal, and that's where I learned one hole can get you $30K from Microsoft
just for catching it. Imagine what the crooks might pay for it.
MORE TAX PAYER MONEY. Why are government employees using my tax money to try to "Find dirt
on the POTUS" How many millions of dollars have been spent on this ridicules SHAM of an
investigation. It's just a stupid distraction and that money could be spent on more useful
things.
I guess you didn't read the article. They refused to accept the intel on Trump and kept
demanding they were only interested in retrieving what intelligence tools had been stolen and
compromised. They cut ties with this individual when he only produced info on Trump and his
campaign. It's in the article multiple times and stated very clearly.
@ Bill Klink
"The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary
of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government.
They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying
scurrilous information on the president."
So your comment of "why are government employees using my tax money to try to "find dirt
on the POTUS" may be your opinion but has nothing to do with the particulars of what is
mentioned in this article.
And I for one am happy to have my taxpayer money spent on finding information on the POTUS
when such fact-finding exposes any legal or ethical wrongdoing in his business and political
affiliations. His business ties are dubious at best, and at worst may affect the security of
our nation.There is enough evidence to suggest this is the case and that such connections are
harmful to our country and all of our citizens, even the ones that support him. Let's hope
that in the end. law and justice matter more than a tax break.
It's not clear that officials involved in the effort to "recover" the hacking tools are
really aware that the sources can keep copies of them that are just the same as the
originals. It looks like the spy movies early in the digital age where the goal was to
recapture some computer "disk".
And it's not even as though you can insist on a return of the negatives.
Duh. Of course they know that. They want them because: "The theft of the secret hacking
tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full
inventory of what was missing."
We are now getting close the the endgame. Democrats had better hope Mueller finds
something on Trump. Otherwise there is mounting evidence that some people were using
government institutions for political purposes. I'm inclined to believe Trump would not be
stupid enough to run for President if he had dangerous skeletons in his closet however we
will likely know soon enough. If Trump can't be brought down then the spotlight shifts to
very unorthodox activities aimed against him.
Oh, Trump is definitely stupid enough to run for office despite an array of skeletons in
his closet -- among them, the sexual harassment of multiple women, hush money to Stormy
Daniels, use of his real estate properties to launder money for Russian oligarchs, not to
mention more prosaic things like six business bankruptcies, cheating a long line of
contractors who have worked for his businesses, a scam for-profit "university," a sham
charitable foundation used to bribe politicians and buy personal items for himself -- the
list goes on. It's just that none of them seem to stick because congressional Republicans see
an advantage to themselves in keeping him in office.
Maybe not "stupid" enough, but certainly "arrogant" enough. This is a man who has never
been held responsible for any of his crimes, why would he think he would be now?
I am not buying the overall story in this article. If you read between the lines, I think
this article is a message from the intelligence agencies in the US and Europe to the Trump
team that they coordinated together and obtained the kompromat.
(1) The sources identified for the story include American intelligence, European
intelligence, and the Russian at the center of the story.
(2) The Russian was supposedly ordered to go back to Russia and never return, yet his
interview was conducted in Germany on the condition of anonymity?
(3) The article indicates that several CIA agents from the US and in Berlin worked this
investigation - plenty of witnesses.
(4) The article teases the information that has been obtained: the video, Russian
intelligence reports, emails, bank records.
(5) The article makes clear that the NYT was provided with a sample of 4 intelligence
reports that implicate Carter Page and the Mercers behind the Republican machine. (No wonder
the Republican Congress has been in overdrive trying to discredit the investigation).
(6) Fox News (Trump TV) has been silent. If the overall story is to be believed, they
would be all over it.
If you read tea leaves my grandmother, or between the lines in the article, you come to a
very different conclusions. Nothing has been found and the Democrats have spared no expense
in trying to obtain some dirt they can leverage.
This article shows why we need to continue and encourage Mueller's investigation. Russia
is making serious and repeated efforts to disrupt the democratic process in this country, and
neither the president nor the political party which presently runs this government seems
interested in addressing the problem, probably because they see it as benefiting them. The
more we know about what the Russians did, and are continuing to do, and who here is helping
them, the more able we will be to save ourselves from becoming like Russia itself, a
powerless, cynical populace governed by a kleptocratic oligarchy.
My country is becoming a laughing stock, but the tax money of average people being wasted
on this corrupt, incompetent government is no laughing matter.
Why, exactly, are our intelligence agencies trying to buy hacking software that they
already have? This software was apparently stolen from the CIA and NSA in the first place. It
is not as if you cannot make copies of software.
The only reason I can see is that it would confirm exactly what software they have stolen.
But even that is of limited value, since there is no guarantee that they would provide copies
of all the software they have.
Obviously the intelligence agencies cannot pay for dirt on the Republicans. But isn't
there a liberal billionaire out there somewhere who might find it interesting?
Just substitute President Obama for DT in this story and it becomes laughable like late
night parody. And that is THE problem - DT has NO legitamacy and the russians will exploit it
as much as they can to divide and weaken our country. Thank you republicans for voting in
this disaster.
I'm amazed at the comments for this article. So many people speak as if they know what
they're talking about. As if they understand the process of gathering intelligence. As if
they really know the full story here. The great unraveling continues.
It Is amazin', ain't it? I also adore the logical gymnastics; it's like watching people
spin cotton candy out of "therefore," and "it's logical that," and, "obviously."
Beyond generally thinking that no, folks, you're not a brain surgeon because you saw a
Science Channel special or an astronomer because you saw somethng about thatfake Face on
Mars, a fancier statement from Wittgenstein comes to mind:
"About that which we can have no knowledge, we should fall silent."
The most informative paragraph in this long article about almost nothing is:
"Reached by phone late last year, Mr. Shearer would say only that his work was "a big deal
-- you know what it is, and you shouldn't be asking about it." He then hung up."
Because, you know, "the president will not be questioned."
As this comment section indicates, Trump supporters -- each of whom has exactly 34
recommendations at this moment -- are desperately struggling to secure Trump's
legitimacy.
And the entire house of lies built around attacking the Mueller investigation has among
its foundation a claim that everything in the dossier is fake news. Clearly it isn't.
So I found this to be a really long article to inform us that our spies paid a Russian spy
$100,000 to let Russia know what lengths we'll go to to secure the Trump Kompromat
material.
Just for clarification, D.A.Oh, could you point out which parts of the "dossier" are fake
news and which parts are real news? Steele himself said that he thought 70% to 90% of his
dossier was correct. It would be helpful to know which 10-30% is fake.
The tools have probably been copied by all the parties who actually had control of them,
which makes me ask: Are we seeking to 'recover' these tools because WE didn't have back-ups
of them?
It's time to clean out the entire building at the F.B.I. and start over. When our
country's Top Cops and Top Prosecutors are caught violating the civil rights of Americans,
spying without legitimate warrants, and attempting their own coup d'etats, it's time for them
to go.
The F.B.I. took a beating after 9/11 for its failure to locate terrorists in our country
who were using their VISA credit cards and found in the phone books. They had to send
information via FEDEX to field offices the days following 9/11 because they didn't know how
to use computers and email.
Clearly, whatever glory days the F.B.I. has been living since J. Edgar Hoover, are over.
It's time to clean out that nest of traitors, liars, and schemers.
There's a certain irony in stuff like this that supersedes even righteous outrage. It
reinforces what Mad magazine spoofed decades ago: our spies are just as dumb as theirs;
perhaps even more so. And when you wade in the swamp, expect to attract leeches.
"By last April it appeared that a deal was imminent. Several C.I.A. officers even traveled
from the agency's headquarters to help the agency's Berlin station handle the operation."
So, that was after Mike Pompeo was at CIA. And, having watched his confirmation hearing
& interviews since, pretty sure he's way more interested in getting the kompromat video
of Trump for Trump than he is in stolen NSA hacking tools.
This pathetic story shows the sleaze that is the CIA, NSA, all US, European, and Russian
"intelligence" activity. Let's STOP FUNDING ALL "INTELLIGENCE" AGENCIES. And while we're
being reasonable, let's stop thinking "the Russians" are The Bad Guys like in today's
superhero movies aimed at little boys. The time for John Le Carre games is over. We should be
ashamed they ever happened. Let's start assuming other countries are as honorable as
ourselves. Oh wait, first we would have to start being honorable.
Whole lot of nothing here. This kind of thing happens all of the time. Fortunately, in
this case, no one was hurt, unlike what Curveball supposedly provided us in the prelude to
the Iraq War. Oh and note to right-wing posters here--as soon as you say "deep state" you
lose.
Compared to the sums that went missing in the Pentagon recently or in Iraq years ago,
$100K is chump change for the chumps who elected this swarm of swamp creatures.
It is about the right time, according to the agitprop playbook, to start letting a slow
seep of kompromat into the public domain. Kompromat is worthless unless the victim is
absolutely sure that it exists in quantity and quality. This exact scenario had been repeated
over and over by the USSR/Russia since the 1930's.
Are our intelligence agencies truly that gullible? Why would they continue to work with
people who had tricked them after the first time? And why would you give them $100,000 on the
third go round? And, is the purpose of this article to try to lend excuses for the FBI and
others for why they've been carrying on this Trump investigation? I'm not sure which one it
is. Either the FBI, CIA and NSA are very naive and gullible and desperate to believe any bad
stories about Trump or they all have known from the start that this whole thing is a made up
spy tale supplied by Sidney Blumenthal and they just thought they could get away with
continuing it long enough to get Trump impeached. Either way, it's disgusting and
terrfying.
I agree. It's terrifying that people being paid by taxpayers to protect our citizens and
our country have turned on both in order to put their own political agenda in power. In other
countries, that's called a coup d'etat - the overthrow of a legitimate government.
... The New York Times is helping Trump and the Russians out by focusing on the Trump junk in
the headline. The Times reinforces the Nunes memo ... that the deep state was trying to get
Trump with Russia stuff...
My guess is that he is a very highly paid lackey for the Rothschilds, much as was J. P.
Morgan. The world would be better off without him, obviously, but the "darkside" globalist
remain, and ultimately they are the real eminence gris control freaks working for
instability, corruption, financial manipulation, fiat money, violence, strife, illegal
immigration, drug epidemics, human trafficking and bad economics, such as mercantilistic,
false capitalism cronyism, among other anti-middle class and anti-liberty movements/phenomena
occurring around the world. G. Edward Griffin might be right! Wikipedia has one of the most
negative bios of him that I've ever read, to his credit, I suppose!
Being a genuine psychopath (they are not quite human due to brain differences) Soros
certainly enjoys his sense of power. They cannot experience conscience nor empathy and that
emotional vacuum can only be filled by a sense of P O W E R over others. Psychopathy used for
political purposes for evil is called Political Ponerology. We watch the movies and think
psychos are out killing prostitutes - we never consider Snakes In Suits! Despite all this
Soros is working for the Zionist World Domination plan (check out the Protocols of the
Learned Elders of Zion).
No, Soros is not just a threat to the 'American way of life'. He organizes color
revolutions around the world including Asia so he is a threat to all nations' sovereignty but
then national sovereignty is to be 'removed' for the Neoliberal World totalitarian goal.
Soros is a front man for the Rothschilds. Plain and simple. That's where he gets the
billions he needs to engage in global activities that destroy religion, morals, values,
gender, nationalism and society. This is the agenda of the Rothschilds, the private central
bankers, and the New World Order.
Do you really think Soros is some kind of investing genius who's made billions on his own,
who is then willing to give it all away for so called "philanthropic" reasons? Bullshit. He's
a hired gun. A front man. A cover for the Rothschilds who have spent two hundred years hiding
in the shadows while others go about doing their dirty work to reshape society for their own
selfish ends – a private, worldwide financial system they own and control.
Just like he pimped for the Nazis, Soros is now pimping for the Rothschilds. He has no
moral center or compass, and has admitted as much in a televised interview. (He said if he
hadn't turned in Jews to the Nazis for money, someone else would have done it.) Wake up
people. Soros is the Sammy the Bull Gravano for the Rothschilds. The Luca Brasi to the
Godfather. He needs to be brought to justice. And so do the Rothschilds.
"... Only two ways in which Trump candidacy could be destroyed once he was nominated. Official: Trump is charged with conspiring with a foreign government to materially damage America. Public: Trump is maligned as being an tool of the Russians. ..."
"... Official is unlikely as no evidence to date has any chance of being used for an indictment. Not saying that the charges are false just that what was released prior to election was insufficient. ..."
"... Public: most likely avenue. But the details released were not impressive or determinative to the majority of Trump supporters who I see as being more anti-establishment than anti-Russian. True, you could expect the GOP elite to be disturbed but they were anti-Trump before his nomination and wedded to him after. ..."
Addendum: can we all agree that if the STEELE intel was a genuine attempt to ensure
Trump's failure in the election then the effort was the most inept operation in a long
time?
Only two ways in which Trump candidacy could be destroyed once he was nominated.
Official: Trump is charged with conspiring with a foreign government to materially damage
America. Public: Trump is maligned as being an tool of the Russians.
Official is unlikely as no evidence to date has any chance of being used for an
indictment. Not saying that the charges are false just that what was released prior to
election was insufficient.
Public: most likely avenue. But the details released were not impressive or
determinative to the majority of Trump supporters who I see as being more anti-establishment
than anti-Russian. True, you could expect the GOP elite to be disturbed but they were
anti-Trump before his nomination and wedded to him after.
But the "assessment" served a useful purpose for the never-Trumpers: it applied an official
imprimatur on the case for delegitimizing Trump's election and even raised the long-shot hope
that the Electoral College might reverse the outcome and possibly install a compromise
candidate, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in the White House. Though the
Powell ploy fizzled, the hope of somehow removing Trump from office continued to bubble, fueled
by the growing hysteria around Russia-gate.
Virtually all skepticism about the evidence-free "assessment" was banned. For months, the
Times and other newspapers of record repeated the lie that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies
had concurred in the conclusion about the Russian "hack." Even when that falsehood
was belatedly acknowledged , the major news outlets just shifted the phrasing slightly to
say that U.S. intelligence agencies had reached the Russian "hack" conclusion. Shane's blunt
initial recognition about the lack of proof disappeared from the mainstream media's approved
narrative of Russia-gate.
Doubts about the Russian "hack" or dissident suggestions that what we were witnessing
was a "soft coup" were scoffed at by leading media commentators. Other warnings from
veteran U.S. intelligence professionals about the weaknesses of
the Russia-gate narrative and the danger of letting politicized intelligence overturn a
constitutional election were also brushed aside in pursuit of the goal of removing Trump from
the White House.
It didn't even seem to matter when new Russia-gate
disclosures conflicted with the original
narrative that Putin had somehow set Trump up as a Manchurian candidate. All normal
journalistic skepticism was jettisoned. It was as if the Russia-gate advocates started with the
conclusion that Trump must go and then made the facts fit into that mold, but anyone who noted
the violations of normal investigative procedures was dismissed as a "Trump enabler" or a
"Moscow stooge."
The Text Evidence
But then came the FBI text messages, providing documentary evivdence that key FBI officials
involved in the Russia-gate investigation were indeed deeply biased and out to get Trump,
adding hard proof to Trump's longstanding lament that he was the subject of a "witch hunt."
"... Here's the real deal: FISA, the notion of what is essentially a Federal secret police force, most of our post-9-11 infrastructure and our pathetic lack of regulation of information technology has been a problem built by both parties for decades. ..."
We know that FISA knew the dossier was politically motivated and unconfirmed. Even Nunes
acknowledges this . now.
And this is the issue, and the irony of this article. 'Wasn't it nice before journalists
stopped reporting and pushing narratives?' Yes, it was narrative pusher.
Here's the real deal: FISA, the notion of what is essentially a Federal secret police
force, most of our post-9-11 infrastructure and our pathetic lack of regulation of
information technology has been a problem built by both parties for decades. I find it
literally impossible that the most scandal free 'weak kneed' administration was doing
anything other than business as usual in this increasingly dystopian context .
. but now here comes the GOP to try to turn this in to a partisan weapon, and journalists
like you to help them do it increasing division over an issue that should be the people
versus the elites into democrats versus republicans.
And, frankly that was so blatantly the intent given the manner this whole thing has been
handled that only a true hack wouldn't note it in the context of an article like this.
But here's the thing I think deep down you are just too blind to acknowledge that all this
security apparatus, tough on terror,
'freedom-isn't-free-but-I'll-sell-it-for-a-security-from-attacks-less-likely-than-lightning-strikes'
cowardice is the problem.
OF COURSE FISA'S BEING ABUSED (along with the whole intelligence apparatus) it was custom
designed by decades of elites to be so!
What fits the facts more? That the FBI simultaneously conspired to help, and then hurt the
Clinton campaign, all the while saying that they are all just doing their jobs .
Or
That they were just doing their jobs, and this kind of stuff happens all the time.
Why do you dummies believe this junk? ...because Hannity said so?
The "memo" is an altogether ridiculous idea, it's just a piece of
paper of what all these liars thought about something,....it has no
weight on anything anymore than if someone came on tv and gave their
opinion..........and in this case it's just the opinion, like all the
rest, of an incompetent group of people that have no business being
in their positions.
This isn't the usual Dems' vs Repuplican stuff
where they fight about issues ........ this is our government taken
over by reality tv personalities, rich housewives and greedy leeches
of the worst kind.
They're the dummy at the McDonalds counter that
can't understand your order and should all be working some harmless
minimum wage job where they aren't responsible for anything important
or that requires any sort of intellect.
Why do you, dummy, not believe this junk? ...because Don Lemon
and Rachel Maddow said so?
The "memo" is an altogether review
of the evidence at hand that uses what has been derived from
evidence found much through the Inspector General's report and
the testimony from witnesses (that means documented in
writing), both in the House and Senate, plus what has been
released by the DOJ and FBI through both lawsuits and
Congressional requests... Again, it's all documented and
irrefutable.
The dem memo is just a piece of paper of what all
these dem liars thought about something,....it has no weight on
anything anymore than if someone came on tv and gave their
opinion..........and in this case it's just the opinion, like
all the rest, of an incompetent group of people that have no
business being in their positions in the dem party and the left
leaning dem carrier pigeons in the MSM.
This isn't the usual
Dems' vs Repuplican stuff where they fight about issues
........ this is the democrat party desparately trying to block
EVERYTHING because they fully realize what the outcome will be
if all id disclosed.
It will be the end of their party for
decades (similar to republicans during Watergate - I was in DC
then and I know). The dem sycophants like you are the dummy at
the McDonalds counter that can't understand your order and
should all be working some harmless minimum wage job where they
aren't responsible for anything important or that requires any
sort of intellect.
"... Trump doesn't wear the pretty face mask that most recent Presidents had. In that, he is showing that the Emperor has no clothes (and the Empire no morals). This could be a good thing as people realize the one truth he campaigned on – "the system is rigged" is still true. But this Administration's faux "war" with the Establishment is serving to blind many from the reality that it is continuing and even expanding the horrible NeoCon foreign policies and Neoliberal economic policies that the Establishment desires. ..."
"... This Reality TV Show Presidency is sweeping up most USAmericans. Like all Reality TV Shows, we in the audience cheer our favorites and jeer their opponents as if it was real, and not a fully-scripted performance. ..."
"... I feel your pain cmp thank you for your post. For you and others interested in this combination of Student Anti-War activism and Government Surveillance, I'd like to recommend a truly insightful book entitled, "Subversives": The FBI's War On Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise To Power by Seth Rosenfeld. Matt Taibbi remarked in a review of this book which now seems understated, that "Domestic intelligence forces will tend to use all the powers they're given (and even some that they're not) to spy on people who are politically defenseless, irreverent from a security standpoint and targeted for all the wrong reasons". ..."
"... "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's push to force the DOJ to open a criminal investigation into ex-British spy and 'Trump dossier' author Christopher Steele is being met with resistance from the bureau, the latest sign that it doesn't want information about its relationship with Steele to be shared with the public." ..."
'Deep State' Veterans find New Homes in Mainstream Media February 5, 2018
NBC News' hiring of former CIA Director John Brennan is the latest in a wave of intelligence
community stalwarts being given jobs in the media, raising concerns over conflicts of
interests, reports Caitlin Johnstone.
"Former CIA director John Brennan has become the latest member of the NBC News and MSNBC
family, officially signing with the network as a contributor," chirps a recent
article by The Wrap, as though that's a perfectly normal thing to have to write and not a
ghastly symptom of an Orwellian dystopia. NBC reports that the former head of
the depraved ,
lying, torturing ,
propagandizing , drug
trafficking , coup-staging , warmongering Central
Intelligence Agency "is now a senior national security and intelligence analyst."
Brennan, who
played a key role in the construction of the establishment's Russia narrative that has been
used to manufacture public consent for
world-threatening new cold war escalations , is just the latest addition in an ongoing trend
of trusted mainstream media outlets being packed to the gills with stalwarts from the U.S.
intelligence community. Brennan joins CIA and DoD Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash on the NBC/MSNBC lineup, who is
serving there as a national security analyst, as well as NBC intelligence/national security
reporter and known
CIA collaborator Ken Dilanian.
Former CIA analyst and now paid CNN analyst Phil Mudd, who
last year caused Cuomo's show to have to issue a retraction and apology for a
completely baseless claim he made on national television asserting that
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is "a pedophile", is once again
making headlines for suggesting that the FBI is entering into a showdown with the current
administration over Trump's decision to declassify the controversial Nunes memo.
More and more of the outlets from which Americans get their information are being filled not
just with garden variety establishment loyalists, but with longstanding members of the U.S.
intelligence community. These men got to their positions of power within these deeply
sociopathic institutions based on their willingness to facilitate any depravity in order to
advance the secret agendas of the U.S. power establishment, and now they're being paraded in
front of mainstream Americans on cable news on a daily basis. The words of these "experts" are
consistently
taken and
reported on by smaller news outlets in print and online media in a way that seeds their
authoritative assertions throughout public consciousness.
The term "deep state" does not refer to a conspiracy theory but to a simple concept in
political analysis which points to the undeniable reality that (A) plutocrats, (B) intelligence
agencies, (C) defense agencies, and (D) the mainstream media hold large amounts of power in
America despite their not being part of its elected government. You don't need to look far to
see how these separate groups overlap and collaborate to advance their own agendas in various
ways. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, for example, is deeply involved in
all of the aforementioned groups : (A) as arguably the wealthiest
person ever he is clearly a plutocrat, with a company that is
trying to control the underlying infrastructure of the economy ; (B) he is a CIA contractor ; (C) he is part of a
Pentagon advisory board ; and (D) his
purchase of the Washington Post in 2013 gave him total control over a major mainstream
media outlet.
Bezos did not purchase the Washington Post because his avaricious brain predicted
that newspapers were about to make a profitable resurgence; he purchased it for the same reason
he has inserted himself so very deeply into America's unelected power infrastructure – he
wants to ensure a solid foundation for the empire he is building. He needs a potent propaganda
outlet to manufacture support for the power establishment that he is weaving his plutocratic
tentacles through. This is precisely the same reason other mass media-controlling
plutocrats are stocking their propaganda machines with intelligence community insiders.
Time and again you see connections between the plutocratic class which effectively
owns America's elected
government , the intelligence and defense agencies which operate behind thick veils of
secrecy in the name of "national security" to advance agendas which have nothing to do with the
wishes of the electorate, and the mass media machine which is used to manufacture the consent of the people to be
governed by this exploitative power structure.
America is ruled by an elite class which has slowly created a system where money
increasingly
translates directly into political power , and which is therefore motivated to maintain
economic injustice in order to rule over the masses more completely. The greater the economic
inequality, the greater their power. Nobody would willingly consent to such an oppressive
system where wealth inequality keeps growing as expensive bombs from expensive drones are
showered upon strangers on the other side of the planet, so a robust propaganda machine is
needed.
And that's where John Brennan's new job comes in. Expect a consistent fountain of lies to
pour from his mouth on NBC, and expect them to all prop up this exploitative power
establishment and advance its
geopolitical agendas . And expect clear-eyed rebels everywhere to keep calling it all what
it is.
Yeah, I noticed this too and it disgusts me. It doesn't surprise me, though. Ever since
Oliver North got his own show and has been a regular contributor at Fox News, this has been
the trend. CNN also gives plenty of Air Time to the disgraced John Dean of Watergate
Infamy.
It underscores how vital it is We The People take back The Media from the Corporate
Thieves who now own it. We need to reverse consolidation in the Media Industry and in fact,
reverse the trend of Media as an Industry.
Ol' Hippy , February 5, 2018 at 1:58 pm
There appears to be two types of media these days. The first type plays by the "rules" of
the corporate/banking/military state and gets prestigious jobs with all the perks, i.e. Nice
house, good salary, steady work, etc. The second type works independent from the power
structures. They have integrity; Robert Parry being a prime example. They also become media
pariahs. They work hard for less pay, get denigrated, marginalized, called liars, etc.
Without them we would all be as clueless as those that only read and watch MSM. Thank
goodness for these brave people.
They work hard for less pay, get denigrated, marginalized, called liars, etc. Without
them we would all be as clueless as those that only read and watch MSM. Thank goodness for
these brave people.
Yes, I agree. Thank goodness for the few of us who still remain and persist against all
odds with no support.
Joe Tedesky , February 5, 2018 at 10:48 am
The culture in DC being described recently as 'critters in the swamp', does not nearly
come close to describing the choking filth that has taken our government over. To be clear,
this coup toke place a very longtime ago, but don't announce that to any good red blooded
American Patriot, that is unless you want to be titled 'un-American'.
My hesitation to get excited over the 'Nunes Memo', is my frustration over what all is
missing from this Congressional members flaming Memo. Like where is Brennan, Clapper, or any
DNC Operatives, as if we should have expected the MSM to be mentioned? Why, just go after a
couple of cheating lovers?
Seeing Brennan join the NBC staff, is like watching him walk across the hall at Langley
only to start his mischief in another CIA department. I'd love to wish the old spook good
luck on his first day at his new job, but then that would be like condoning that pain be
inflicted upon more unsuspecting poor souls, so I won't.
Inserting guys like that into the center of the storm within the corporate media whose job
it *should* be to expose the truth to the public is clearly a conflict of interest (because
they themselves are prime suspects in the purported criminal activities) and obvious
obstruction of justice because we know they are actually snow-jobbing the public and hiding
the truth to protect themselves and their puppetmasters.
In all fairness, when does General Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page or Jared Kushner get
to have a regular segment on the Rachel Maddow show? Why doesn't the media interview Barack
Obama himself to find out what he knows and when he first knew it, or to force him into
self-incriminating or at least highly-suspicious obfuscations? It was his justice department
that targeted the Trump campaign on highly problematic grounds. Or, put a microphone in front
of Hillary's face and ask her how the administration (of which she was an organic outgrowth)
interfaced with the FISA court, allegedly on her behalf to spy on the competition.
This caper is not only worse than Watergate (Watergate was conducted in the shadows), this
crime and subsequent cover-up are being carried out in broad daylight with the full
complicity of the media. They don't care who knows because those people, regardless of their
substantiated facts, will never get a hearing in the media which now creates our
moment-to-moment reality, as far as 99% of Americans know or care about.
Joe Tedesky , February 5, 2018 at 3:48 pm
Our MSM is lacking the honor and truthfulness of Robert Parry.
Realist, I always like reading your comments, and with this comment of yours you don't
disappoint. I too would like to know when the truth will be broadcast over our airways, and
printed in our national news outlets. Although, I could watch the grass grow, or the snow
melt, and have better results to jump up and down about, before the MSM will shoot straight
with us viewers. I have come to the conclusion that what hurts our nation most, is we have to
much corporate control, like our infamous corporate owned MSM. These pundits, and news
anchors only do what they do best, and that is they promote themselves. I mean, the omissions
of facts, and the over the top characterizations of world leaders and national political
opponents goes to the degree of slander, and yet life goes on. I know it would be an
impossible task, but wouldn't it be great to if we news junkies could sue the MSM for
fraud?
Realist , February 5, 2018 at 8:44 pm
I could have been more strident than I was, Joe. I might have called the FISA court
outright illegal and unconstitutional like Jimmy Dore did yesterday. I mean, what the hell is
its role in America today? It serves as a SECRET COURT which gives permissions to
intelligence agencies to SPY without limits on any American citizen they choose to target,
including, apparently, their supposed boss, the president of the United States. As if the
carte blanch, full spectrum eavesdropping done by DARPA on every American weren't enough of a
violation of our constitutional rights, they have to dress up some of their spying with
special judicial privilege. Useful tools like Brennan, Clapper, Mueller and Comey have been
justifying or fallaciously LYING about this imposition on our citizens for years now.
Remember when the KGB was disbanded and folks were publicly rooting through the files in a
carnival atmosphere after the Soviet Union collapsed? This country needs a dose of the same
thing. We need more of our freedoms back and less of the so-called "order" imposed by the
Deep State and its string pullers. I don't believe for a moment that the Russians, the
Chinese, ISIS, Al Queda, Kim Yung-Un, the Ayatollahs or a squadron of Klingon battle cruisers
are waiting just outside our borders preparing to attack the United States and we all must be
defended by the "Intelligence Community" by living like Winston Smith.
Joe Tedesky , February 5, 2018 at 9:57 pm
The U.S. is so shallow at even their attempting to address its citizens with the
appropriate truth, that after 50 years to prepare for the public more information on the JFK
Assassination that when the time come the government wasn't even ready for the release. What
an insult to the nation.
The purge you spoke of Realist is a dream in this purist eye. I really do welcome a much
broader investigation of panoramic proportions of our nation's massive bureaucracy, and the
discovery of the elements who only conspire to enact their agendas could then be exposed.
You are right about our freedoms. We Americans are in the end going to need to put our
foot down to our governments police state rules, and all of us will need to brave it out when
going into public places. (Oh boy what false flag bate) At some point it will be necessary to
say, enough is enough, and hopefully catch them while at their game. Joe
Ps that last part I doubt will ever happen.
Gregory Herr , February 6, 2018 at 12:52 am
I think you touched upon something really important referring to the "moment-to-moment
reality" that media "creates". A big problem with television "news" and the funny papers is
the failure to.contextualize what's going on today with related events or issues–even
from the relatively recent past. It's almost always about a myopic and usually distorted
focus on just one particularly vexing item that generates competing opinions that must be
paired and parsed to death–until there's something else to "talk" about. Yeah, yeah!
Pick a team–partisanship is entertaining don't ya know! Rachel's got ratings and
Hannity's one of us!
Just one for instance:
Obama relaxed constraints on sharing of NSA raw data as a parting blow to privacy that also
makes it easier to "leak" and cover up the leaking. He signed a Countering Disinformation and
Propaganda Act which essentially is a way for government to make it harder to "counter" their
disinformation and propaganda. Google and Facebook are are all in on the filter and censor
project. Yet with all this and much more there isn't a peep of a national discussion about
the First Amendment and the value of protecting free and diverse expression. Oh, I know why.
The Court says money is speech so all the "important" people can buy their freedom of
expression. Guess that will leave me out.
Bob Van Noy , February 5, 2018 at 11:16 am
Thank you Caitlin Johnstone!
I'm going to refer readers to an off-guardian article running now and specifically to the
comment pages where one can see Noam Chomsky's (as a young researcher) explain cointelpro.
This is an exceptional explination
Thanks, Caitlin. People need to learn more about Deep State and and also the One World
Order. There are lots of videos on the Internet, including some featuring former CIA
(whistleblower-type) agents who feel impelled to divulge the hidden government. Thanks for
your links, Bob. I'll take a look.
Erin , February 5, 2018 at 11:51 am
Don't watch, don't watch, don't watch!
Skip Scott , February 5, 2018 at 12:42 pm
Erin-
I agree. I think people need to turn off their TV sets. They are mind numbing. People like
Brennan belong in jail, not on television.
Nancy , February 5, 2018 at 2:24 pm
I don't think the majority of people are watching this crap anymore. It's mainly a bunch
of circle jerks mouthing off in an echo chamber. Problem is, the rest of the population is
either preoccupied with making a living or playing with their gadgets to find out what's
really going on. People seem to have given up on the idea of democracy, justice and fairness
and in a way I don't blame them.
It's kind of a curse to still have this notion that a better world is possible.
Good points. I agree. It's as though "The News" is intended for the Oligarchs and the
Political Class. The ads are a dead giveaway that's the target market. The products they are
selling are not for the Average Joe who can't afford such luxuries.
Bob Van Noy , February 5, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Now finally for the most adventurous of you I'll introduce you to a man I discovered in an
agonizingly slow way over the course of years. His name is Carl Oglesby and as a young worker
at a defense industry job he started doing research on the Vietnam War. He ultimately wrote a
book called "The Yankee and Cowboy Wars" that surprisingly accurately describes our current
condition. It is one of those books long out of print worth thousands of dollars in
resale.
I will post a link to Spartacus
Educational below but you can find it on your own..
I promise to now shut-up and listen
I saw that recent Mudd comment regarding President Trump = 13 months vs. Hoover Org. =
since 1908. The President needs to eliminate this agency. Then we can watch this asshole
cough up his spleen LIVE on t.v.! I guess these creatures have license to claim anything they
want and get away with it. His Assange accusation falls out of his mouth and gets repeated
endlessly. Then when the weak retraction occurs, it never gets the same press/traction and
the damage is already done.
Babyl-on , February 5, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Nothing particularly new here, this has been established practice for decades. What is new
about this issue and so many others now is that it is done openly, without any pretense that
there is a constitution. The Imperial institutions housed in the US now act openly for the
interests of an overarching transnational oligarchy.
Trump has destroyed the dominate narrative this is by far the deepest wound I have seen
the Empire receive. No one really believes Clapper any more – whether it is a plurality
or a majority is not the point, enough people don't believe them that the Empire has lost
control of the message. That is the source of their panic. Trotting out their apparatchiks
once worked and worked for decades but – "It's all over now baby blue."
Trump has exposed much of the ways things have been done behind the seines for many years
and unwittingly forced them into the open – this has been his biggest contribution to
the weakening of the Imperial structures. Leaving them naked in their policies of slaughter.
The Empire has nothing now but a huge military which it can't use without destroying
civilization so it goes around the world destroying countries and cities in its helpless
thrashing around slaughtering innocent people as it looses on every front. The last gasp of
Empire – kill them all if they will not submit. In its death throws the Empire will do
untold damage and create vast human suffering, it might very well destroy civilization with
its nuclear weapons rather that accept a place as one part of the human community not the
ruler of humanity.
Daniel , February 5, 2018 at 6:13 pm
Trump doesn't wear the pretty face mask that most recent Presidents had. In that, he is
showing that the Emperor has no clothes (and the Empire no morals). This could be a good
thing as people realize the one truth he campaigned on – "the system is rigged" is
still true. But this Administration's faux "war" with the Establishment is serving to blind many from
the reality that it is continuing and even expanding the horrible NeoCon foreign policies and
Neoliberal economic policies that the Establishment desires.
This Reality TV Show Presidency is sweeping up most USAmericans. Like all Reality TV
Shows, we in the audience cheer our favorites and jeer their opponents as if it was real, and
not a fully-scripted performance.
exiled off mainstreet , February 5, 2018 at 12:29 pm
Yankee media has degenerated into an echo chamber for the deep state structure. This is
just further proof of that salient fact.
No More Neos , February 5, 2018 at 1:35 pm
Maybe we should view this as a good sign that they need to "call in the National Guard"
for corporate media back-up reinforcements. The propaganda machine is sputtering and
sparking, overheated from working OT to push flimsy narrative, which only accentuates the
cartoonish spectacle of it all.
Neoliberalism rests on a fragile foundation of financial myths that are beginning to come
crashing down, aside from shooting itself in the foot in the 2008 crash. They had to admit
that:
Global banks are global in health and national in death. ~ Mervyn King
A growing number of economics students are demanding to be taught economic history and not
just neoclassical economics. Hayek, Friedman, Greenspan and the Apostles of Doublespeak in
the academic and corporate media realm have lost all credibility. Heterodox economists like
Steve Keen, Michael Hudson, Bill Mitchell and Stephanie Kelton are gaining popularity in
their blinders-off clarity of how the economy actually works, sans the political spin.
Even Russia and China have decided to not allow Monsanto to control the world's food
supply, have no desire to continue working with the IMF and World Bank and are wise enough to
see the futility in acquiescing to a unipolar world view. Ultimately, the US will be the
bigger loser by going it alone and not accepting the vast multipolar opportunities that
await, based on faulty principle. But that won't deter them from continuing provocations in
Ukraine, Venezuela (and other Latin American countries), etc., even though Western agenda's
neoliberal offerings are now considered to be an appalling joke internationally.
But this has been known for some time. It was just a matter of time before the "market
society" experiment crashed and burned:
"To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the fate of human beings and
their natural environment would result in the demolition of society." ~ Karl Polanyi,
1944
"In 1945 or 1950 if you had seriously proposed any of the ideas and policies in today's
standard neo-liberal toolkit, you would have been laughed off the stage or sent off to the
insane asylum." ~ Susan George
Do not confuse the economic -- oikos nomia -- the norms of running home and community with
chrematistics -- krema atos -- the accumulation of money. ~ Aristotle
Bob Van Noy , February 6, 2018 at 8:50 am
Many thanks No More Neos. I was unaware of most of what you wrote. I have noted the names
that you mentioned and I will pay more attention to them. I do know of Michael Hudson and
admire his work.
It has occurred to me that there will be Rich academic histories written about the
organized management of subject matter by TPTB. See my Response To cmp below.
Re, The Deep State and the "media."Do: "Birds of a feather produce propaganda
together?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
December 25, 2015
Are the Corporate Media and Others Covering Up The Treachery of The War Criminals?
There is plenty of evidence that people in positions of power planned and plotted a number
of "illegal" wars [1] in "defiance of international law." Unfortunately, this information is
suppressed and censored in most of the corporate monopoly media. Instead we are fed
propaganda that attempts to disguise the truth, and covers up the massive human suffering
caused by the warmongering criminals of these 21st century war crimes. This has resulted in
the creation of millions of refugees, [1a] many soldiers dead and maimed, countries
destroyed, millions dead, children dead and contaminated, and the war criminals are FREE.
[2]
[read more at link below] http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2015/12/are-corporate-media-and-others-covering.html
Bob Van Noy , February 5, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Thank you Stephan J. Here is a link that you provided from a Robert Parry piece.
If one goes through the commentary, you will see that comments have always been decent,
informative and educational on this truly wonderful site.
Man oh man I miss Robert Parry and F. G. Sanford where are you?
(Caitlin Johnstone you're our new leader, and apparently another fine journalist. Thank
You)
This article by Caitlin just helps me to be glad that I never bought cable TV. I didn't
realize how many former government criminals/ex-officials populated their polluted networks.
Former head spook Mike Morell on CBS doesn't seem like an anomaly any more. The hens are
fattening the foxes guarding the air and cable waves. No wonder those with little time, due
to work and family matters, know so little about what's actually going on.
j. D. D. , February 5, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Looks like the Obama/British connected warmongering intel agents have decided to eliminate
the "middle-men" (and women) and go directly on record. Rachel, Chris, Jim and Wolfe, your
jobs are in jeopardy, Not to be left out, I expect that Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and perhaps
Mueller, are filling out their own applications right now.
, , February 5, 2018 at 2:45 pm
Johnstone tells it like it is. It's a pure pleasure to read her ripping out the guts of
the oligarchic monster creating our present deepening dystopia. Wouldn't it be nice if every
American could read her little piece, and think about what it says? Maybe I can get a few of
my friends to read it. You have to start somewhere to wake people up. If enough of us gently
encourage our friends to take a brief dip into reality, who knows what might come from
it?
Realist , February 5, 2018 at 2:48 pm
Mainstream liberal pundits used to talk like this, blasting the privileged insiders
"feeding at the trough" and such. Now they have become just a bunch of crybaby spoilers and
haters because their push for power via the Hildebeast movement came crashing down. If they
can't have it, they'd rather break it. They couldn't beat the warmongering neocons or the
rapacious neoliberals, so they joined 'em. They became what they always professed to
hate.
Their followers, being just mindless tribalists rather than the perspicacious philosophers
they are told they are, leap in lockstep over the precipice. They can never give you a
coherent or logical reason why, just vapid slogans usually diametrically at odds with any
real truth. All that matters to them is receiving daily affirmation from their fellow ranks
of sloganeering nincompoops. In their newfound McCarthyism they've morphed into the lost boys
from "Lord of the Flies" who went so far as to kill Piggy, Piggy's counterpart being Al
Franken and his career as a champion of liberal causes in the U.S. senate.
But, in a world where one can purportedly choose any identity one pleases with no basis in
reality, these self-immolations merely win accolades from the right-thinking media clerics as
society in general goes into a death spiral. Living the "theatre of the absurd" has become
the new "American way of life." Now, if we could just quickly get out of the way of the rest
of the world, things might turn out all right for the rest of humanity. Unfortunately,
they've designed an "app" to prevent that, it's called the MIC, and it's not user
friendly.
We are all victims of the pernicious 24/7 scientifically-designed propaganda apparatus. It
has little to do with the victim's intelligence since almost all human opinions are formed by
emotional reactions that occur even before the conscious mind registers the input.
Through critical thinking, we can overcome these emotional impulses, but only with effort,
and a pre-existing skepticism of all information sources. And even still, I have no doubt
that all of us who are aware of the propaganda still accept some falsehoods as true.
It could be that having former Intelligence Agency Directors as "news" presenters, and
Goldman Sachs alum and Military/Industrial complex CEOs running important government agencies
makes clear to some the reality that we live in an oligarchy with near-tyrannical powers. But
most people seem too busy surviving and/or being diverted by the circus to notice the depths
of the propaganda.
Chris , February 5, 2018 at 3:43 pm
"America is ruled by an elite class which has slowly created a system where money
increasingly translates directly into political power, and which is therefore motivated to
maintain economic injustice in order to rule over the masses more completely. The greater the
economic inequality, the greater their power. " This is backwards. The elite does not create
economic injustice to maintain and solidify their power for then there would have been no
French, Russian, Cuban, Chinese revolutions. The capitalist system leads to economic
injustice because it steals unpaid labour power from the working class and puts into the
hands of the capitalists. The reason they keep wages lower is to increase the rate of profit
not to keep power thought they try to hold on to the power to maintain that system. And the
more that inequality is produced the weaker they become because the working class then
realises it has nothing to lose and revolts. This is basic marxism which the writer seems to
be unaware of. The greater the economic inequality, the greater the distress of the working
class is and greater the motivation to change their condition.
backwardsevolution , February 5, 2018 at 4:01 pm
Chris – you are right, conditions must be favorable for any action to take place. It
is when the crowd gets a taste of fear that they move.
Daniel , February 5, 2018 at 7:02 pm
Cold, you may know that the original use of the term "American Exceptionalism" was
Stalin's description of how the USAmerican working classes seem incapable of revolting
against capitalist exploitation, no matter how egregious it becomes. We are "the exception"
to Marx's theories about the tipping points for revolutions.
cmp , February 5, 2018 at 4:20 pm
Just what does democracy look like to these cowards who sell prejudice, discrimination,
hate and violence?
Here is an example of how much they think of their (our) own kids, if they even dare to
speak to the teachers & preachers:
On May 2nd 1970, Governor James A. Rhodes (R-OH), says of student protesters at Kent State
University:
"They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and
the vigilantes. They're the worst kind of people we harbor in America. I think that we're up
against the strongest, well-trained, militant revolutionary group that has ever assembled in
America. We're going to eradicate the problem, we're not going to treat the symptoms." Two
days later, on May 4th, National Guardsmen kill four unarmed students on the Kent State
campus and wounded nine others.
~ Jim Hunt; 'They Said What?'; 9/1/ 2009
On May 5th 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) says of the efforts to stop student
protests on university campuses:
"If it takes a bloodbath, then let's get it over with.."
~ Jim Hunt; 'They Said What?'; 9/1/ 2009
.. And, 10 years later, in 1980, America elected who??
Who will the sellers offer up in 2024? Are we closing in on the end of the era of the
puppet?
Perhaps it will be a pro. (with media experience on the resume, to boot) .. A John
Brennan-ite?
If there is a hell, then certainly there must be a special spot reserved for those who are
the worst of the guru's in greed. But, in the meantime, for America's own good, maybe someday
soon, the International Community will close Guantanamo.. .. And, do all of the citizens of
the planet a great justice by reopening it in the middle of the Mohave Desert. These cowards
that corporatize & commercialize prejudice, discrimination, hate and violence, they can
be the honorary members. And since it is they who have long killed their conscience, then
maybe that desert heat will serve as a small reminder for what a little heat really feels
like.
Bob Van Noy , February 6, 2018 at 8:31 am
I feel your pain cmp thank you for your post. For you and others interested in this
combination of Student Anti-War activism and Government Surveillance, I'd like to recommend a
truly insightful book entitled, "Subversives": The FBI's War On Student Radicals, and
Reagan's Rise To Power by Seth Rosenfeld. Matt Taibbi remarked in a review of this book which
now seems understated, that "Domestic intelligence forces will tend to use all the powers
they're given (and even some that they're not) to spy on people who are politically
defenseless, irreverent from a security standpoint and targeted for all the wrong
reasons".
cmp , February 6, 2018 at 4:43 pm
Bob, "Thank You!" I have made a note to look for Lansdale, Carl Oglesby, and now Seth
Rosenfeld. All of this I know, will be such great reading for me!
I also sent you some follow up on the 28th. Did you receive those two? Would you like for
me to send them again?
I look forward to all of your posts – Keep up all of your great work Bob!
backwardsevolution , February 5, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Sean Hannity on Fox is doing a stellar job of exposing the Department of Justice, FBI, and
all of the other characters re the Steele dossier and Russiagate. Every night more
information is revealed; it's like a spy novel. None of the other outlets are even talking
about this stuff. Crickets. If you want the latest on criminality, go there. Meanwhile, Zero
Hedge says:
"Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley's push to force the DOJ to open a
criminal investigation into ex-British spy and 'Trump dossier' author Christopher Steele is
being met with resistance from the bureau, the latest sign that it doesn't want information
about its relationship with Steele to be shared with the public."
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC had paid Steele for his dossier. But the FBI also
hired Steele, and just before they paid out $50,000.00 to Steele for his work, they
discovered he lied, didn't pay him, but still continued to spy on Trump and his team. With
Steele's dossier now discredited in the eyes of the FBI, they should have stopped their
spying, but they didn't. Russiagate has been based on this Steele dossier, and yet there was
"no there there", and the DOJ and the FBI knew it.
Zero Hedge goes on:
"Furthermore, a section on a second memo by Steele says he received information from the
State Department, which in turn got it from a foreign source who was in touch with 'a friend
of the Clintons.'
'It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele's work, but that these
Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional
concerns about his credibility,' Grassley and Graham wrote in their criminal referral."
So Steele was receiving information from the State Department and a friend of the
Clinton's? How impartial is that?
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
~ The Bard
The Reality TV Show Presidency has great ratings.
Do you think Nikki Haley got the red rose? Apparently Michael Wolf, the author of "Fire
and Fury," is backing down on that bit of salacious gossip "news."
backwardsevolution , February 6, 2018 at 4:39 pm
Daniel – and a line I like to quote from Shakespeare applies so well to the
Clinton's:
"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."
backwardsevolution , February 5, 2018 at 4:36 pm
John Brennan – "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." That
guy is evil, and nothing good will come of this.
Mark Thompson , February 5, 2018 at 8:13 pm
Really happy to see Caitlin writing on this forum. Keep up the good work Caitlin. You'll
never be short on material to write about. If what we're witnessing in this point in time is
any barometer, we're in for a world of hurt. Orwell is in his grave wishing he had two more
hands. He has to choose whether to cover his eyes or ears. What a sad state of affairs
Lois Gagnon , February 5, 2018 at 11:18 pm
It becomes more evident by the day that we live in a military dictatorship. One of the
incidents that brought this realization home to me was when John Kerry had negotiated a deal
with the Russians regarding military operations in Syria. The military took it upon
themselves to nullify that deal when it purposely attacked and killed 60 Syrian soldiers.
That was a clear case of insubordination that should have led to firings of the military
brass who ordered that strike. Instead, Obama just carried on as if nothing happened except
that the negotiated deal was null and void.
And of course the press said nothing about the blatant criminality of the military
action.
What president is willing to stand up to the military and the Department of Skullduggery
AKA the CIA anymore? Who is really calling the shots?
Thank you Caitlin! Good job! I especially like: "Nobody would willingly consent to such an
oppressive system where wealth inequality keeps growing as expensive bombs from expensive
drones are showered upon strangers on the other side of the planet, so a robust propaganda
machine is needed." I agree! NO ONE is "willfully ignorant". NO ONE chooses to be under the
influence of government mass mind control/propaganda. Mind control is something that is "done
to" people -- – whether the perpetrator is a psychopathic spouse or cult leader;
religious indoctrinator, military boot camp sargeant, and/or the voice of government control
of the media. Blaming victims of mind control for being mind controlled and therefore being
"willfully ignorant" is just another form of mind control used to discount the reality of
mind control.
"... You even had Eleanor Clift and Clarence Page on The McLaughlin Group emphatically stating that the Steele Dossier was 90% factual which is just repeating what Steele said just after the release of the dossier. The veracity has since tumbled as questions arose about the allegations and their sources. But, there is a Cabal that still hang their hopes on the "90%". ..."
"... Seriously, explain to me the difference between the two things. Trump may have sought out dirt on Hillary from Russia and Hillary may have sought out dirt on Trump from an former British spy. ..."
"... We will see what the other memo says but simply as speculation I think the chances are that Democrats probably would be better off cutting ties with Steele, GPS Fusion, Comey, Page, Ohr, Strzok, Lynch even and maybe more, than to parse out why this FISA warrant was not a bad idea. It really is never, ever too late to turn back, but the animus against Donald Trump is clouding a lot of otherwise clear thinking Democrats. "Yeah, that whole mess sure was a screw-up and now let's talk about how terrible Trump's immigration policies would be for the country." ..."
"... the Wall Street Journal calls "disturbing facts about how the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath." ..."
"... When is somebody going to read United states vs Leon that stands for the rule of law that if a cop (fbi) knowingly or recklessly includes facts in an application for a warrant that the cop knows are false or recklessly includes, then the warrant is quashed and and all evidence is suppressed ..."
"... This whole thing stinks to high heaven. The left is deliberately trying to steer discussion away from the elephant in the room -- the FBI under Obama was no longer neutral but was being used as a political tool to undermine the opposition. This is a serious threat to our democratic process and cannot be taken lightly. Jeff Sessions needs to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Nunes Memo allegations. Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller and Christopher Wray all need to be suspended while the investigation is ongoing. ..."
"... The NYT and the [neo]liberal media in general have lost all their journalistic integrity in the way they've been covering up for all of Democrats' corruption and abuse of power the last two decades. The way they fawned over Obama was downright sickening. Watergate was billed as the greatest scandal ever because it was done by a Republican president. What Obama did not just with the 2016 election meddling but with covering for Clinton's Uranium One pay to play scheme was far, far worse. ..."
"... The people aren't as stupid as the liberal elites think we are. That's why the fake news media is losing their stranglehold on news as people turn to alternative news sources thanks to the internet. The Times can print whatever they want, they are only further discrediting themselves as a legitimate news source with each passing day. The delirious, foam at the mouth reader comments that they deemed fit to print just show how hysterical and out of touch the left have become. ..."
You even had Eleanor Clift and Clarence Page on The McLaughlin Group emphatically stating
that the Steele Dossier was 90% factual which is just repeating what Steele said just after
the release of the dossier. The veracity has since tumbled as questions arose about the
allegations and their sources. But, there is a Cabal that still hang their hopes on the
"90%".
ArtR: "You even had Eleanor Clift and Clarence Page on The McLaughlin Group emphatically
stating that the Steele Dossier was 90% factual which is just repeating what Steele said."
Yeah, I caught that doozy over the weekend. Clift, a so-called journalist, also claimed
that Steele and the dossier had been funded by the GOP, which is a false statement that's
still widely circulated, for no good reason.
Katy Tur, another so-called journalist, was calling Nunes "treasonous" on par with Snowden
before the memo release, and is now laughing about it after the fact. When the press acts
like that, not in the public interest but in defense of government secrecy, you can bet
something rotten is going on in the bureaucracy.
Add to that Senators Blumenthal and Booker claiming the release of this memo, and by
extension the public's right to know, would constitute "obstruction of justice" and
"treason", essentially repackaging claims by the intelligence agencies that the release would
jeopardize national security. And again, this was all before the memo release.
Why so much fear-mongering and lying? It suggests there's something to hide. But that
could describe Trump's behavior, too.
"That you CAN'T combine the two speaks of a deeper rot. The opposition researcher was working
with agents of the exact same country and they knew it."
This makes sense to me. I am and continue to be somewhat agnostic and bemused by this
whole russiagate thing. Without defending Trump, who I just assume is corrupt and surrounded
by corrupt people, it is more than a little hard to believe that Steele and the Clinton side
was entirely innocent. On the one hand we are supposed to be scared to death of the mighty
Russian propaganda machine and yet on the other hand people on the left don't stop and ask
whether someone sent to Russia to gather dirt on Trump might have had contact, witting or
not, with Russian intelligence. If they wanted to sow confusion, wouldn't they try to do it
on both sides? Wouldn't they know what Steele was up to? It wasn't like anyone thought Trump
had a good shot of winning, so why wouldn't they play both sides if they wanted to sow
confusion?
Personally, I don't give a crap about any of this. Much of the outrage, I think, is being
fueled by people who want a new Cold War with Russia. Russiagate, true or false, helps keep
the all important fear and loathing of Russia on the front page.
One side collaborating with an adversary nation (Russia) that harms our national interests
is a threat to national security.
The other side is hiring an opposition researcher.
The fact that you can combine the two and compare them speaks of deep the rot is."
Well, I'm not a conservative, so there's that. Second, Russia wasn't an adversary nation
up until about two seconds ago when Democrats suddenly needed a scapegoat for Hillary's
flame-out. Russia wasn't an adversary nation for nearly the entirety of 20th century while
they were being run by a series of despots, but now they're an adversary nation. I think it
was Obama who said, "The 80's called and they want their foreign policy back."
Seriously, explain to me the difference between the two things. Trump may have sought out
dirt on Hillary from Russia and Hillary may have sought out dirt on Trump from an former
British spy.
We will see what the other memo says but simply as speculation I think the chances are that
Democrats probably would be better off cutting ties with Steele, GPS Fusion, Comey, Page,
Ohr, Strzok, Lynch even and maybe more, than to parse out why this FISA warrant was not a
bad idea. It really is never, ever too late to turn back, but the animus against Donald Trump
is clouding a lot of otherwise clear thinking Democrats. "Yeah, that whole mess sure was a
screw-up and now let's talk about how terrible Trump's immigration policies would be for the
country."
1. All reporters, FBI agents, intel agents and
congressional investigators -- Dem and GOP are so incompetent that they can't find
"collusion" after nearly 20 months.
2. Trump is a master genius who has engineered the most
successful cover-up in US history -- keeping all direct evidence of collusion hidden. or
3.
Hillary hated Trump so much she paid for phony Russian dirt and then spread it to law
enforcement and media to ensure that there would not a repeat of Obama snatching the
Presidency away from her.
Since no evidence of collusion has shown up, #3 is most obvious. Of
course, Democrats think "evidence" is "Joe lied about the perfectly legal act of drinking
milk, so that means he must have stolen some milk." Actually, they don't care; any old lie
will do.
what the Wall Street Journal calls "disturbing facts about how the FBI and the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and
its aftermath."
When is somebody going to read United states vs Leon that stands for the rule of law that if
a cop (fbi) knowingly or recklessly includes facts in an application for a warrant that the
cop knows are false or recklessly includes, then the warrant is quashed and and all evidence
is suppressed
The FBI should not be conducting political surveillance on opposition candidates in
national elections. If you want to talk about the real Putinization of America, that would be
it.
Further, the fact that the FBI was conducting political surveillance based on unvetted
opposition research which was so badly concocted even the media wouldn't run it for libel
fears, combined with a drunk quip, that is really pathetic.
On the other hand, Machiavelli noted something to the effect that the ends sometimes
justify the means, and its not clear that democracy dies in darkness, it dies in the kind of
anti-constitutional partisanship we are witnessing today, with the media in the Amen
corner.
"If the FBI obtained permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor
Trump aide Carter Page based on information from the Christopher Steele dossier, that in
itself is a monumental scandal." If the FBI knew that the allegations of Steele's now-famous
dossier remained unverified and used them anyway, that would constitute an abuse of power and
an effort to manipulate the FISA court [..] what the Wall Street Journal calls "disturbing
facts about how the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been
used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath."
Dodgy "intel" stovepiped through "dodgy intelligence?
FBI discredited for unconstitutional searches?
FISA secret court revealed as abuse of government power?
This whole affair must be a cunning liberal plot to turn Republicans against
themselves
I will never understand what satisfaction any citizen could draw from the joys of being a
"partisan" of either collection of half-wits that make for our schizoid duopoly of political
"parties". Those "parties", thrown – always – at our expense, are a lot more
educational and even entertaining if you have no dog in this fight, given the inbreeding on
the two lousy, rapid dogs involved.
This whole thing stinks to high heaven. The left is deliberately trying to steer discussion
away from the elephant in the room -- the FBI under Obama was no longer neutral but was being
used as a political tool to undermine the opposition. This is a serious threat to our
democratic process and cannot be taken lightly. Jeff Sessions needs to appoint a special
counsel to investigate the Nunes Memo allegations. Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller and
Christopher Wray all need to be suspended while the investigation is ongoing.
The NYT and the [neo]liberal media in general have lost all their journalistic integrity in the
way they've been covering up for all of Democrats' corruption and abuse of power the last two
decades. The way they fawned over Obama was downright sickening. Watergate was billed as the
greatest scandal ever because it was done by a Republican president. What Obama did not just
with the 2016 election meddling but with covering for Clinton's Uranium One pay to play
scheme was far, far worse.
The people aren't as stupid as the liberal elites think we are. That's why the fake news
media is losing their stranglehold on news as people turn to alternative news sources thanks
to the internet. The Times can print whatever they want, they are only further discrediting
themselves as a legitimate news source with each passing day. The delirious, foam at the
mouth reader comments that they deemed fit to print just show how hysterical and out of touch
the left have become.
"Robust regime of oversight" is a joke. Powerful intelligence agencies which are immanent feature of the national security state
tend to acquire control off MSM and never relinquish it.
Notable quotes:
"... There are heroes out there, Dobson of F&F, Binney, Drake, Snowden and others. But the majority of the ppl are kept in the dark via the enemedia. Those who make waves are sent to job Siberia ..."
"... So guilty or not, Carter Page is in the clear. And if the FBI's knowledge of Mike Flynns payment for "lobbying" for Turkey were discovered while the FBI was monitoring Page and his known associates, then the charges against Flynn will be dropped and he will be free and clear as well. ..."
It wasn't the bombshell everyone hoped for. But the release of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) memo did corroborate
what we already knew: the government is corrupt.
The FISA Memo Overview: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton Campaign paid Christopher Steele
$160,000 to dig up information on Trump team members including Carter Page. Steele also provided this information to the FBI.
The FBI and DOJ asked the FISC (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) for permission to surveil Page, using the Steele Dossier
as evidence. They did not disclose that Steele was paid by political opponents of their target to compile the information presented
to the court. Based on probable cause from the information amassed by a democrat operative, the court granted their surveillance
request.
So the Republicans are upset a government agency targeted a GOP ally based on information provided by political opponents. That
seems like a valid complaint.
We should note that the FISA memo specifically states that "DOJ and FBI sought and received a probable cause order (not under
title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from FISC."
That just means that are other parts of FISA that also use secretive proceedings to ignore due process.
So the GOP likes some mass surveillance that violates rights, just not when it targets one of their own.
They seem to think if we just had the right people in power then the government could work for good!
Basic logic says you could not have this level of corruption if they have this much access to everyones data. Unless it was
all being used by the corrupt only.
Its a fair point. It took years to find out "most of the truth" about Fast & Furious and the weaponizing the IRS (again)
against political opponents, surely if there were any "boy scouts believing in truth, justice and the American way", they would
have came forward. But they didn't.
There are heroes out there, Dobson of F&F, Binney, Drake, Snowden and others. But the majority of the ppl are kept in the
dark via the enemedia. Those who make waves are sent to job Siberia or have their homes raided as an example to future whistle
blowers. Just like the populace, too many followers willing to accept their 30 pieces of silver for quiet instead of standing
for principle.
Agreed. But are there enough is the question. People being what they are, they come with all sorts of personalities and belief
systems. There are those who blindly follow orders without any moral or ethical compass, just doing what they are paid for. Then,
there are those with that compass who follow orders anyways knowing its wrong in the hope someone else will straighten it out.
Then you have the Snowdens, Binneys etc of the world who are willing to face ostracization, the character assassination (or
real assassination), loss of family, liberty and possessions for what is a right for all of us.
I would hazard a guess that its less than 10% but on the optimistic side...I think that number is growing ;-)
Id like to see where they stand if there is no chance of a payday for them. A put up or shut up moment is needed. The boy scouts
to feral ratio looks pretty bad.
Ummm...wait...didn't we have Manning, Snowden and Drake? They came forward and told us the truth. All of them were branded
traitors and 2 out of the 3 were prosecuted for telling us.
Excellent article. One of the take aways is: if you think that this is going to manifest itself in any improvement in these
practices, you are sorely mistaken. Did Trump undo Obama's 11th hour executive order distributing the NSA US-surveillance information
to all other intelligence agencies? Not.
Secret police, secret courts, secret investigations, using secret police against political opponents, news media performing
as instruments of propaganda, widespread surveillance of all public communications, and conspiring with foreign agents to overthrow
a government. The U.S. has arrived at the Finland Station. To any clear thinking person in the U.S. government, these secret police
agencies, their endless abuses of the ability to "classify" information, their secret courts, and their secret investigations
must come to an end and be constrained by the rule of law and subject to some form of public of scrutiny. Therefore, why have
Trump and his junta and the Republicans in congress not begun legislation to end the totalitarian regime that Washington has become?
There can be only one reason. They have not ended these totalitarian measures because they seek to use them. Against who? Against
all the "enemies of the state." Who is an "enemies of the state?" Whoever the military decides is an enemy of the state. That
could be you. Get out of that country, right now.
Get out of the U.S.........and go where??? The U.S. is the last, best, hope of mankind in this fallen world. When we fall,
darkness will descend upon all of mankind.
Our constitution was designed to govern a moral and religious people. The U. S. was founded by geniuses. We are now being governed
and led by self-serving idiots.
......And we are no longer a moral and religious people.
Too many crooks in high positions. FISA is not Constitutional. Many years ago, pro wrestling champ Verne Gagne started out
a match with Mad Dog Vashon by viciously attacking him. He broke the rules. But Mad Dog Vashon readily broke the rules repeatedly
in all his matches. Sometimes the good guys break the rules to get rid of the bad guys who pay no attention to them. Same here.
It is NEVER right to do wrong...to do right! The ends NEVER justify the means. Once you go down that slippery slope as a man,
society, government, etc., you are DONE. It is only a matter of time, Mr. Lincoln.
trying to blame the GOP for the indiscriminate abuses of the Democrats is reprehensible. Appointing a chief of police does
NOT authorize the rampant lawlessness he may produce......... when the inofrmants lie to the cops, bad results occur....
+1, but having been involved with Repugnican politics, the memo shouldn't be used to reinforce the illusion that Repugnicans
are in true opposition to the DemonRats. In reality, we have a Uniparty system. The memo does expose .gov's total lack of credibility
because its own law enforcement agencies are corrupt.
In its deeper context, what the FISA Memo CONFIRMED is that.. the America you thought existed, if it ever did, is now just
a fantasy, a fond 'Norman Rockwell' memory... superceded by ZOG USSA, a Rogue Entity - beholden to a 5th Column Cabal of Mega
Criminals controlling over 5000 nuclear weapons - masquerading as a "Legitimate Government". JFK had his brains blown out
for even suggesting such an eventuality - that has now transpired - in his last public speech.
Fewer then 40% of Americans now trust the fbi. Unless Wray or Congress does something, their cred will drop further and crime
will increase since 90% of obeying the law is psychological respect for the law enforcement agencies. If they don't get that back,
people will just spit in their faces when they come to the door.
What planet are you on? "Spit in their faces"? Lol, that's funny right there. All over the western world, governments
are breaking laws, stomping on rights, invading their own countries with 3rd world, radical foreigners, taking out debt so they
can live off the backs of several generations that haven't even been born yet.......and what are the people doing about it? Not
one damn meaningful thing. All they know to do is trust in another goobermint agency to fix another goobermint agency.
What do you think happens when you find out your cook and butler have slowly been poisoning you for weeks? You think they say,
"Oh, gee, we're sorry and won't ever do it again."? No, the jig is up, and they pull out a revolver and shoot you in the head,
or wrestle you down and smother your weak ass. Either way, "finding out the truth" only hastens your demise, unless you or a brother
who just happened to show up can kill them before they kill you.
All we have done here is acquire the truth we are being killed by those who are supposed to serve us. You wait until they come
to your door, and you are dead already. "Spitting" or any action on that level is a joke.
It's not the Agencies that are corrupt, it's is the people in these Agencies that are Corrupt.
And it's these People the Public can not vote for or get rid of them. Even the President can't Fire anybody in these Agencies.
Just removing one or two bad Apples is not going to save the Bunch, and that's the real problem. Does the USA really need
all these, NOT so secret Spy Agencies ? But in true US Fashion, they will probably add another Spy Agency to Spy on the
other US Agencies.
"They are just fighting for the upper hand over their political opponents. This is not freedom versus tyranny.
It is a war of factions ."
Exactly right. It was hypocritical to withhold the FISA memo until after the vote on extending and expanding 702.
It's not just the FBI and DOJ who are corrupt. That said, Nunes provided a weapon to begin ferreting out these weasels.
It needs to be used with maximum effectiveness. Long live the Republic!
However, they need to keep it the way it is until they rout out the components of the government that are controlled by the
elite international power-brokers.
Just like J. Edgar Hoover had everyone in Congress blackmailed, the elite have evidence of everyone in the government they
need to control in compromised status. The elite lost control of the USA Corporation in 2016, when Puerto Rico filed bankruptcy.
Now there is a fight by the heads of that corporation to try to wrestle back control of our nation. Let them use whatever tools
they need to use until the wicked witch is dead!
A tid-bit that should not be lost on us when we consider the origins of the Clinton-Steele dossier is that Steele admitted
to PAYING his russian "informants" for the information that he included in his report. So not only is the information he used
"salacious and unverified", it is also inadmissible as evidence in US court...ANY US court. So even IF, the FBI did not know that
the DNC paid for the dossier, and even IF, the FBI believed the allegations to be true, the FISA warrant they obtained is invalid
and any evidence gathered as a result is inadmissible.
So guilty or not, Carter Page is in the clear. And if the FBI's knowledge of Mike Flynns payment for "lobbying" for Turkey
were discovered while the FBI was monitoring Page and his known associates, then the charges against Flynn will be dropped and
he will be free and clear as well.
I still haven't figured out why Trump hasn't blanket pardoned everyone in his administration. He can pardon a cocksucking illegal
immigrant slavelord, but can't pardon Manafort and Flynn for procedural crimes? WTF...
I don't think people are desensitized to the corruption. We just know that when the smoke clears, none of the big players are
going to jail, and it'll be business as usual. Trump needs an epic win against the swamp, with someone bigger than a deputy assistant
whatever going to prison.
'What the FISA Memo Reveals about the FBI, DNC, GOPand the sketchy timeline' That the rule of law is effectively, Dead.
Here, try this on for a headline, TDB: 'What the failure to prosecute Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals about the rule of law in
America'
" I do think Russia-gate is an over-hyped political campaign. The threat from Russia to
our electoral process is like a cult, in which belief is paramount to rational thinking.
Evidence. Let's see the evidence for all these things."
" The weight of evidence is on the side of the debunkers of Russiagate. This
"debate" is far from a wash, or a draw. The propaganda and spin are from the Russia blamers, not
their refuters."
Notable quotes:
"... Talking about the spin the New York Times is putting on the memo contents (The Nunes Conspiracy), please take a look at last night's PBS News Hour. Instead of what Judy Woodruff and Lisa Desjardins should have reported, they spun Andrew McCabe's "stepping aside" as yet another loss of an important high ranking FBI official causing still more vacancies in the many still unfilled offices due to Trump's failure to appoint people, etc. It was unbelievable! ..."
"... It's painful to say, but the PBS Newshour is a pathetically blatant propaganda outlet. I suspect Judy Woodruff, Mark Shields, etc have nights of troubled sleep. ..."
Talking about the spin the New York Times is putting on the memo contents (The Nunes
Conspiracy), please take a look at last night's PBS News Hour. Instead of what Judy Woodruff
and Lisa Desjardins should have reported, they spun Andrew McCabe's "stepping aside" as yet
another loss of an important high ranking FBI official causing still more vacancies in the
many still unfilled offices due to Trump's failure to appoint people, etc. It was
unbelievable!
Then Judy interviewed Mark Warner, and his spin was even more astounding -- that most
Democrats hadn't read it, implying it was unavailable; also implying that this "memo
creation" hadn't gone through proper channels. Nothing on the up and up with Warner! But, I
don't think they are going to be able to get by with it. Will the American people agree to be
duped by propaganda when the facts are on the table? I'm not seeing that friends of mine are
coming around, but do they really believe in Santa Claus? Is there integrity in the land, or
will truth continue to be trampled in the streets and sold in the shambles? The house of
cards is about to crumble, or will it?
JWalters , January 31, 2018 at 12:54 am
It's painful to say, but the PBS Newshour is a pathetically blatant propaganda outlet. I
suspect Judy Woodruff, Mark Shields, etc have nights of troubled sleep.
Regarding Congressman Nunes,
"The current chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-
California, is one of the few politicians who knows and cares about the attack on the
Liberty."
"... Free speech is one thing but this stuff shouldn't be allowed. Making up false allegations against someone should Not be protected speech! This guy should be fired immediately! ..."
"... The legal issue is libel and slander, but the laws are very specific and need to be read and understood carefully before launching into a lawsuit against Progressive demagogues. ..."
"... Mr Heileman is behaving in a very McCarthyism manner( I mean the cartoonish liberal version of McCarthyism not the real McCarthy) ..."
Free speech is one thing but this stuff shouldn't be allowed.
Making up false allegations against someone should Not be protected speech!
This guy should be fired immediately!
The legal issue is libel and slander, but the laws are very specific and need to be
read and understood carefully before launching into a lawsuit against Progressive
demagogues.
Yes, many top Democrats have publicly said there is no evidence of Trump/Russia
collusion...
even the melting-face woman Maxine Waters said so. But the fact the search continues IS evidence of Democrat desperation and
childishness.
It is about the spin - deflection - intimidation, or perhaps a hope that the democrats
can get a rise out of Trump or his Family via a tweet. The Administration really needs to
slap this stuff down - hard, and bury these false accusers. Incarcerate, confiscate
assets, freeze the accounts, and when the MSM starts spreading what is false crap, throw
them in too...it might improve the Journalistic standards while where at it. In essence,
make these people accountable for their accusations.
Maybe mr. Heilemann is having nancy Pelosi write up his talking points? Mr. Nunes
looks like a paragon of reason compared to any of the msnbc socialist parrots, and the
comparison is even more extreme when compared to adam shiff. Unfortunately, when your
main goal is to obfuscate and throw incredibly rude comments at your opposition, you
lose.
The Legacy media is always between 24 and 72hr behind what is really going on because
they have to clear their talking points through the DNC and Valarie Jarrett before going
on air.
The memo won't be released until after Trump has had a chance to bask in the glow of
his SOTU. And there's a lot to boast about: the economy is soaring, ISIS is destroyed,
record number of fed judges appointed, tax reform, companies repatriating billions of off
shore dollars. This is one SOTU the Democrats could only DREAM they could have.
Unfortunately, their policies won't allow them.
Well, dunno about any wires, but I did see Harry "the littlest mouse turd" Reid admit
that he got up in front of the senate and told the world the Romney was a tax evader to
the tune of many $millions. You understand that anything can be said on that floor
without legal consequence. Harry LMT told the interviewer it was ok to lie and malign a
person if that's what it took to win the election.
Thankfully, that scum bag is gone. Unfortunately, the Democrats have a limitless
supply of people to replace him. Whatever happened to honest debate and statesmanship?
There was a time when both sides could express opposition, without name calling and
outrageous accusations.
How about the 2005 photo just surfacing this week with Osucko smiling and shaking
hands with the biggest black racist on the planet, Farrakhan? A photo that has been
hidden for the last 13 years because the Congressional Black Caucus didn't want it
released so as not to damage his chances of being elected. If that had surfaced, he
wouldn't have won. Didn't hear about that? Oh, that's right, you only listen to the
ClintonNewsNetwork. Keep shoveling that s*#t down your gullet.
Veteran MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann should put up or shut up. Probably
wrote this to cover some breaking news that excoriates the Dems and Party
The Liberal media's uncontrollable disdain for Donald J. Trump has reached manic
proportions ...and it's going to devour them over the remaining 3-7 years of the Trump
presidency, as it already has THE LOS ANGELES TIMES and THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.
The 60th annual Grammy Awards went full anti-President Donald Trump on Sunday as the
awards show host James Corden enlisted singers Cher and John Legend, rappers Snoop Dogg and
Cardi B, music producer DJ Khaled, and failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
to read excepts from Michael Wolff's White House tell-all Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White
House.
"Trump won't read anything. He gets up halfway through meetings with World leaders because
he is bored," Legend read during the surprise comedy bit meant to introduce the Grammy Award
for Best Spoken Word Album.
"His comb-over: A product called 'Just for Men,'" Cher said.
"Trump did not enjoy his own inauguration, he started to get angry and hurt that stars were
there to hurt him and embarrass him," Snoop Dogg said.
"... It has long been known that the constitutional powers of the president are not as well defined as the powers of the other branches of government. And for many years now, Republicans and Democrats have been content to see the powers of the office increased, so long as it was to the benefit of their particular agenda. ..."
"... The Trump administration is the wake-up call both parties need. But whether they are willing to learn and change remains to be seen. ..."
"... "Wasn't MI-6 (British spies) working on behalf of the Democrats and their candidate? " ..."
"... Read The American War Machine by Peter Dale Scott for some idea of the FBI's role in undermining the US Constitution for decades. https://heavywatergate.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/american-war-machine-peter-dale-scott.pdf ..."
"... Are you going on record here saying that Hillary Clinton did not destroy 30,000 emails from her private server? There is a strange one-sided nature to all this - I support Clinton, therefore I will rewrite history to preserve her reputation. I hate Trump and I will write anything regardless of reality in order to attack him. ..."
"... Where was the author for in the last 50 years that she can write the FBI is the torch bearer of freedom and democracy. ..."
"... Attacking the FBI, CIA, Stazi, MI5, SIS and all other secret services and making them accountable to the people should definitely be something we all do. But for a President to attack the FBI, for a personal advantage is insupportable. ..."
"... Under McCarthyism which, let's face it, attacking the FBI should have happened and was about to happen under JFK, until his untimely death, it was deeply suspected that the FBI had a hand in silencing a President ..."
"... I remember acting CIA Director Mike Morell telling Charlie Rose "we need to start killing Iranians and Russians in Syria". Maybe they decided to use another tactic and started killing Russian's ambassadors: https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/24/europe/dead-russians/index.html ..."
"... Wasn't MI-6 (British spies) working on behalf of the Democrats and their candidate? Which foreign influence on US campaigns is acceptable? Is there a list? Or are we supposed to just buy into the concept that only Hillary's favorite bogeymen, the Russians, are worthy of interest? ..."
"... Let's not forget the J Edgar Hoover was a facist tool of presidents who ruined or tried to ruin many a career in Hollywood and academia during decades of secret unlawful espionage against MLK. ..."
"... For better or worse Trump was ELECTED and has a mandate. Separation of powers and checks and balances in America apply to the three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The FBI is strictly under control of the president. ..."
"... We have seen in Switzerland and in Italy in recent decades plots exposed where various people in security positions organized actual cabals and plots to subvert the elected governments. We now know that military officers and government employees in the time of JFK deliberately refused to follow presidential directives ..."
"... It is this kind of thing which is treason. And that is what the FBI was clearly doing, against Trump and illegally to further Hillary ..."
"... Bye, Bye, FBI? The Case for Disbanding the Federal Frankenstein's Monster https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/25/bye-bye-fbi-the-case-for-disbanding-the-federal-frankensteins-monster/ ..."
"Where is my Congress? This is the urgent question posed by these outrageous attempts by the president to subvert the constitution.
The legislative branch of government must hold an out-of-control president with authoritarian tendencies accountable."
Provided that Republicans and Democrats can think and act maturely (a very big 'if'), this may well be the principal benefit
of a Trump administration.
It has long been known that the constitutional powers of the president are not as well defined as the powers of the other branches
of government. And for many years now, Republicans and Democrats have been content to see the powers of the office increased,
so long as it was to the benefit of their particular agenda.
The Trump administration is the wake-up call both parties need. But whether they are willing to learn and change remains to
be seen.
Robert Mueller is NOT the FBI. He is a Special Prosecutor for the Justice Department, which is a far bigger entity than the
FBI. His position is similar, if not identical to any other US Prosecutor.
Mueller is using the FBI as his investigation team because . . . that is what Federal Attorneys do. The FBI is one investigative
branch of the Justice Department. I would be very surprised if Mueller is not using other investigating officers from other Departments,
such as the SEC, IRS for his investigation.
For those reasons attacking the FBI in an attempt to discredit Mueller is just plain stupid.
But then just look at the track record of Republican Congressmen and Senators who are attempting to discredit Mueller. Stupid may very well be their middle names.
So far Trump has said a lot about 'draining the swamp' but has done nothing to re-structure US institutions, or reform Congress
which he probably cannot do anyway. The genuine problem the US has is that in addition to the FBI and Military Intelligence and
the CIA, George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security, so there are these overlapping agencies that cost a lot of
money but at times are doing the same thing without communicating with each other.
Yes, the FBI has often had a dubious view that
Martin Luther King and John Lennon were security threats, but it has also played an important role in taking on organized crime
and murder cases that cross state lines. It remains to be seen if Trump is a real radical or just a loud-mouth, but maybe the
US needs to re-think is security apparatus, if only to save money; but as long as an independent body exists to investigate everything
inside the State.
Frankly, it's disturbing to see the rush of "liberals" to defend the FBI, simply because of Trump's opposition to the institution.
Let's not forget this is the same FBI that attempted to drive MLKJr. to suicide through harassing letters. The same FBI that has
initiated mass domestic surveillance on the Citizens of this country (USA), the same FBI that has generated tons of sting operations
goading people into committing "acts of terror", infiltrated environmental organizations in an attempt to turn them violent, and
been used by big corporate interests to spy on anti-fracking activists in Pennsylvania. And now they are Democratic heroes? That
tells you plenty about the heart of the Democratic Party!
Let's not forget that you're describing the FBI at least 50 years ago. MLK was assassinated in 1968. Hoover (1895-1972) tracked
MLK's friendships and love affairs in 1963-65. At this time, the British, West German, Canadian, and French domestic security
services did exactly the same thing, with more discretion than the FBI. That includes Canadian in the discretion dept. Parallel
East German, Czech, Hungarian, and Soviet domestic agencies were a different order of magnitude. They did far more than blackmailing
actresses or trailing human rights activists.
You don't think the FBI losing 5 months of texts between Strzok and Page due to 'software upgrades' is a little bit too coincidental?
just as Clinton's so-called missing emails were in 2016.
Pardon? So-called? Are you going on record here saying that Hillary Clinton did not destroy 30,000 emails from her private
server? There is a strange one-sided nature to all this - I support Clinton, therefore I will rewrite history to preserve her
reputation. I hate Trump and I will write anything regardless of reality in order to attack him.
I think what the author is missing here is the fact that the FBI have no constitutional role in politics yet throughout US
history of the last 60-70 years they have been heavily involved. This is the constitutional crisis - nobody elects the FBI to
tamper with elections, candidates, etc, and they aren't mandated to even play a role. How the author fails to see this is beyond
me.
Did the Guardian order the author to write this story or did you choose it yourself? Where was the author for in the last 50 years
that she can write the FBI is the torch bearer of freedom and democracy. It turns my stomach having lived through the '60s in
college to read anything about the FBI that whitewashes it's history.
Attacking the FBI, CIA, Stazi, MI5, SIS and all other secret services and making them accountable to the people should definitely
be something we all do. But for a President to attack the FBI, for a personal advantage is insupportable.
Under McCarthyism which, let's face it, attacking the FBI should have happened and was about to happen under JFK, until his
untimely death, it was deeply suspected that the FBI had a hand in silencing a President
But Trump is merely trying to muzzle the FBI to ensure his political survival despite some very murky dealings in his camp.
I always become indignant when people, Abramson (who should know better) or anyone else tries to put the FBI up on a pedestal.
No one familiar with the history of this political police agency could do such a thing. Look at the agency's disgraceful efforts
to discredit Dr. King and its role in the assassination of Fred Hampton. In the current context the agency's essentially political
orientation is evident in the anti-Trump text messages by the two FBI officials in formerly key positions.
Anybody with half a brain would figure out that insulting millions of voters might go badly. You are still bad mouthing the voters
a year after the election. Slow learner?
I remember acting CIA Director Mike Morell telling Charlie Rose "we need to start killing Iranians and Russians in Syria". Maybe
they decided to use another tactic and started killing Russian's ambassadors:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/24/europe/dead-russians/index.html
Wasn't MI-6 (British spies) working on behalf of the Democrats and their candidate?
Which foreign influence on US campaigns is acceptable? Is there a list? Or are we supposed to just buy into the concept that only
Hillary's favorite bogeymen, the Russians, are worthy of interest?
Let's not forget the J Edgar Hoover was a facist tool of presidents who ruined or tried to ruin many a career in Hollywood and
academia during decades of secret unlawful espionage against MLK. He blackmailed the Kennedys. They weren't thinking about the
constitution then. Now they're the whites in shining armor because it's a requirement to write anything against Trump. Please.
This is a worrying example of how hate for Trump results in damage to logical thought and utter misrepresentation of American
institutions. NB I am NOT a Trump voter.
For better or worse Trump was ELECTED and has a mandate. Separation of powers and checks and balances in America apply to the
three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The FBI is strictly under control of the president.
We have seen in Switzerland and in Italy in recent decades plots exposed where various people in security positions organized
actual cabals and plots to subvert the elected governments. We now know that military officers and government employees in the
time of JFK deliberately refused to follow presidential directives.
It is this kind of thing which is treason. And that is what the FBI was clearly doing, against Trump and illegally to further
Hillary.
Yes, of course Jill, we know how pristine and "constitutional" the FBI has always been...that is if we ignore the historical record
of shameful disgrace left behind by J. Edgar Hoover.
The press writes as if history started last week, and makes unfounded underlying assumptions.
"... The FBI of course has no place in the US Constitution. It could be argued that its very existence violates that document. Freedom of speech and assembly, etc, combined with the Stasi? ..."
Oh, I am very sorry, but I think you have that quite wrong.
I don't want to defend Trump. He's a nasty piece of work, but even a nasty piece of work can be correct sometimes.
The FBI of course has no place in the US Constitution. It could be argued that its very existence violates that document.
Freedom of speech and assembly, etc, combined with the Stasi?
But if its very existence doesn't violate the Constitution, its hideous lifetime record of behavior does.
And, again, ignoring what we think of Trump, we do have strong suggestions of highly inappropriate behavior by the FBI around
the election of Trump.
Does anyone really think secret police should be able to work against a proper election?
Keeping secret files on Congressmen. Helping Presidents do political spying. Hounding innocent citizens. setting up agent provocateur
operations.
If you want a clear brief history of this abysmal organization, see:
The evidence against the FBI is mounting, to list a few:
Texts between FBI lovers (one involved then fired from the Russian probe) regarding Trump " we cant take the risk" and " an insurance
policy" .
High level FBI employee involved with the Russian probe whos wife works for Fusion GPS.
Texts from the lovers mentioned above regarding Clintons FBI interview " don't go loaded for bear, she could be our president".
Comey writing his exoneration of Clinton months before all people involved were interviewed.
More texts from the lovers go missing, as claimed by the FBI, but are found and are now being released by the Inspector General.
These are all know facts that have been used by both the Oversight and Intelligence committees, you can watch the actual meetings
on YouTube.
The FBI has a trash history of locking up and framing leftists , black activists, native americans or anyone else who has threatened
the establishment. trump is filth but there is a lot lot lower.
If you want to shock yourself with the similarities between Nixon and Trump, try some Hunter S Thompson.
It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character that almost every
country in the world has learned to fear and despise. Our Barbie-doll president, with his Barbie-doll wife and his boxful of
Barbie-doll children is also America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde. He speaks for the Werewolf in us; the bully, the predatory
shyster who turns into something unspeakable, full of claws and bleeding string-warts on nights when the moon comes too close
Too much rhetoric and too little sourced information. Right off the bat, you need to dispense with appeals to the Pavlovian training
of your readers to accept the narrative of the villainous Russians and Chinese and North Koreans and Vietnamese and all things
related to Communism or even socialism - and start accepting that the political actors of all social entities - especially nations
which are the entities that decide what can be owned and who can be privileged to own it - meddle as much as they can in the selection
processes of all other social entities as much as they can. Certainly , even aside from Western Military interventions, the US,
UK, and the other partners in the Western Hegemony have been using all means possible to influence the political outcomes of other
nations - including the launching of viral autonomous and guided propaganda bots into the media and internet networks of foreign
nations. What would be surprising, and worth investigating, is any significant evidence that a foreign country was not meddling
in the internal affairs of other countries. Please - stop promoting fantasies yourself - and gain credibility by moving your platform
into the real world. I remember when all the Germans in comic books had green faces. It brought back memories when I saw pictures
of contemporary villains depicted on news sites with green faces. This vilification stuff is old. Very old. How about some new
tricks for a change.
This is ridiculous. There is ample evidence, before and after Trump, of FBI incompetence and disarray. Look at the inept handling
of the Boston bombing, the failure to vet the Tsarnov family despite a head's up from Russia that they had been in contact with
extremists. Then there was the failure regarding the Orlando nightclub killings, even though, again, there were ample warnings
ignored. The FBI and Comey are, in addition, extremely suspect for their bizarre handling of the Clinton 'investigation,' so-called:
a hand-picked group of investigators, side-stepping protocols for setting up a team; the fact that an exoneration was written
before the investigators interviewed key witnesses or Clinton herself; granting immunity to the witnesses; failure to impanel
a grand jury; failure to get a subpoena to examine the DNC computers that were breached; changing the wording of the exoneration
to 'extremely careless,' instead of 'reckless,' and of course, the fact that biased, pro-Clinton agent Strozak was the team leader.
If this is not sufficient for Jill, or anyone, to be alarmed about FBI impartiality, I despair. The fact she has made her bias
against Trump known, saying he is unsuitable for the presidency, merely adds to the known biases that permeate this piece and
its defense of the corrupted FBI.
The fogies these days think it is more appropriate to have the actual government intelligence agencies (all seventeen of them)
listen in on the rival party's Presidential campaign conversations, especially when the fogies' personal politics exactly match
those of the administration in power.
Why hire Watergate burglars when you have an alphabet soup of spooks with a trillion dollars in hardware at your disposal?
You'd have to be a complete fool, or a "democrat can do no wrong ever" to not think that Trump has some reason to be suspicious
of the FBI and DOJ. BTW, who the hell keeps on leaking, it's like hour by hour leaks? If I were Trump I'd get rid of Sessions
cuz he sure isn't doing his job. Soooo, why did Rod Rosenstein go to Speaker Ryan and plead with him not to release the "memo"
if there's nothing to hide?
***Even
This is a strange century where liberals and moderates are defending J. Edgar's old haunts. But must agree with the author that
the POTUS is a clear and present danger.
Preview of some upcoming Graun drivels: "Attack on NSA is attack on privacy", "Attack on CIA is attack on international law".
I am sure somebody will correct me, but none of these three letter agencies have anything in common with either the letter or
the spirit of US constitution.
As the Republicans continue their campaign to discredit the FBI, it's important to remember a piece of history. Without
Deep Throat, the Washington Post's secret source, the Watergate scandal might never have been exposed. Deep Throat, we learned
in 2012, was Mark Felt, the No2 official at the FBI.
Another Watergate reference. We hear a great many of them emanating from the US. It does seem as though the American media
is top heavy with old fogies who see every independent council investigation as an opportunity to LARP the glory days of the Watergate
Era.
Yes, CNN staffers have lost their minds. One year of Donald Trump's America and he's
defeated them as thoroughly the New England Patriots beat, well, just about anybody.
We're a year into the most-biased U.S. media in history – tracking at
90 percent biased against President Trump . But there appears to be lasting damage to
journalists, their professionalism and even their ability to pretend they are rational.
In just one week, CNN staffers blamed President Trump for a man who tried to harm people at
their headquarters, ran a piece celebrating
cuckolding (not kidding!) and questioned whether the president deserved "credit" for all of
the good corporate news of raises and bonuses – resulting from his tax cut.
Celebrity clown and CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta had
repeated run-ins with whoever the Trump administration put at the podium. In each case,
they smacked him down and showed the lack of depth of his reporting.
... ... ...
2. What FBI Memo? What Missing Messages? Journalists love to highlight the 18-minute
gap in one of President Richard Nixon's tapes. Give them 30,000 missing emails or 50,000
missing texts and they are less thrilled. Perhaps because both of those involved are
liberal.
It was all hands on deck in a desperate quest to control the narrative about the memo and
texts. MSNBC's "Morning Joe" host
Joe Scarborough claimed criticism of the FBI amounted to "conspiracy theories" that were
"making America less safe." CNN talked repeatedly about the effort to
"discredit" the Mueller investigation.
CBS and NBC tried to spin the story away from
the missing texts . But when ABC finally decided to chime in, it went full bore against the
GOP.
Anchor David Muir echoed Democratic talking points about the FBI text messages: "This is a
political battle, and ultimately, the American people will decide whether those personal text
messages were appropriate or not."
... ... ...
4. You Actually Thought Journalists Were Neutral? Part II: The New York Times
actually devoted some opinion space to Trump supporters. Naturally, it caused a
firestorm with its lefty readers and journalists who think those readers aren't left-wing
enough.
Journalistic operations like the Columbia Journalism Review and the Poynter Institute were
joined by HuffPost and others blasting the decision. How dare the Times run content from actual
Trump supporters and turn the page into a "welcome wagon" for his supporters, wrote
Poynter ?
CJR's attack: "The Times's pro-Trump
editorial page is patronizing and circular" at least admitted that the paper has no
pro-Trump voices. "In fact, the Times employs many conservative commentators. It just seems to
be a requirement that those commentators are never-Trumpers."
Is she a MI6 asset? Strong intelligence agencies (and FBI for all practical purposes is a
branch of CIA, when if comes to politics) are grave threat to republican form of government (then
make elections meaningless, as the winner need their support) and remnants of democracy. In
view of FISA memo bomb I like her statement "Comey's independence and ethics cost him his job
when Trump fired him" Such an ethical Comey, using falsified dossier to spy on one of contenders
in the Presidential race ;-)
As one commenter aptly noted:
"Wasn't MI-6 (British spies) working on behalf of the Democrats and their candidate?"
Notable quotes:
"... President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedein, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton [remember his surreptitious visit to Lynch's plane during the final days of the investigation?] conspired to compromise the independence of The Justice Department itself. ..."
The only person who can fire Mueller is Rod Rosenstein. From last June:
Amid reports that President Trump is considering firing the special counsel overseeing
the Russia investigations, a senior Justice Department official said Tuesday that he - and
not the president - is the only official empowered to dismiss the prosecutor and that he
sees no reason to do so.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-to-know-about-the-paul-manafort-indictment
/
"This is Mueller's first indictment resulting from his investigation into Russian meddling in
the 2016 U.S. election and any collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia. But
this indictment does not get to the heart of that matter."
This comment...if it was written by a journalist, would be the perfect example of what we are
discussing. The bias is obvious and it claims to offer facts under the veil of industry
standard sub part evidence (sources within the white house)....sadly, our journalists,
including the Guardian CNN FOX...all of them...now allow their journalists to cross these
ethical lines. The damage is that their audiences swallow it up rather than questioning the
bias and questioning the evidence....in a nut shell, society's critical thinking skills have
deminished and polarization (conquer and divide) has increased.....because dumb or lazy
people don't read and dumb/lazy people don't demand sources or evidence. If everyone took the
10 seconds to simply request that journalist follow their OWN STANDARD OF ETHICS across the
board, the political chaos and polarization we see in the world would be reduced.
Ha ha! Show me a fact, please! I'd love to see what a fact in the National Review looks
like.
Try CBS and other media:
"The FBI recently released records last month that detailed an interview with Clinton
adviser Huma Abedin, in which she was shown an email exchange between Clinton and Mr. Obama.
At first, she didn't recognize that it was the president because he was using a
pseudonym.
"Once informed that the sender's name is believed to be a pseudonym used by the president,
Abedin exclaimed: 'How is this not classified?'" the report said. "Abedin then expressed
her amazement at the president's use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the
email." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-hillary-clintons-email-servers-jeopardize-obama
/
America exists to serve the powerful and wealthy interests that have always called the
shots.. read the written record expressed by its founders, if you seek proof.
The difference at this current time, is that with trump being the "distractor in chief", there
is little effort to cover up the reality of who exists to serve whom. for those who don't like
it, be patient. Trump will be out on his ear once his usefulness has played out.
This isn't Watergate. I remember it well. Actual crimes were committed. A group of operatives
broke into Democratic headquarters at the Watergate hotel in the middle of the night going
through files. Then you had an unsolved crime seeking the criminals. This is the opposite.
You've decided Trump is a criminal, and now you're desperately seeking a crime to pin on him.
It won't work. Any obstruction charge will either fail at the Supreme Court or during
impeachment proceedings in the Senate. Democrats will claim a moral victory, in that they
actually got Trump charged, if not convicted. This is a farce. Just like the BS charges
against Bill Clinton. Back then we were treated to the ridiculous spectacle of grown men
raising a semen encrusted dress skyward in victory. It's just sad that this is what
government has been reduced to. It's pathetic.
Under Freedom of Speech President Trump has a democratic right to criticize the FBI,
judges, or any other subject he chooses. Just like the Guardian, and numerous other media
publications have a right to criticize the President. No one disputes that judges have the
legal right to render a decision, but you do have every right to criticize that decision.
Same goes for the FBI. They have the legal obligation to investigate and bring charges, but
you can criticize those charges and the impartiality of investigators. Unquestioned obedience
to authority is still fortunately not part of our democratic tradition. If that's what you're
looking for, move to China.
"As the Republicans continue their campaign to discredit the FBI, it's important to remember
a piece of history. Without Deep Throat, the Washington Post's secret source, the Watergate
scandal might never have been exposed. Deep Throat, we learned in 2012, was Mark Felt, the
No2 official at the FBI."
It also important to remember that Nixon was President at the time of the Watergate
break-in, seeking re-election.
It is Obama, Clinton and the serving FBI officers who are under scrutiny for abuse of power
before an election, not Trump.
The Author's selectivity is fascinating as well as ironic. While Trump's harangues are
potentially criminal the notion that they could do much more damage than already done by her
cadre is laughable.
President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedein, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill
Clinton [remember his surreptitious visit to Lynch's plane during the final days of the
investigation?] conspired to compromise the independence of The Justice Department
itself.
In fact against regulations not to speak of good investigative practice, an FBI agent
disclosed the name of Barack Obama as a knowing recipient of State Department Emails from her
home grown server, to Huma Abedein, herself a potential material witness and in all
likelihood a target of the investigation.
Who authorized that disclosure isn't documented, but it had to be a higher up.
"How is this not classified?" So exclaimed Hillary Clinton's close aide and confidante,
Huma Abedin. The FBI had just shown her an old e-mail exchange, over Clinton's private
account, between the then-secretary of state and a second person, whose name Abedin did not
recognize. The FBI then did what the FBI is never supposed to do: The agents informed
their interviewee (Abedin) of the identity of the second person. It was the president of
the United States, Barack Obama, using a pseudonym to conduct communications over a
non-secure e-mail system -- something anyone with a high-level security clearance, such
as Huma Abedin, would instantly realize was a major breach.
She recovered quickly enough, though. The FBI records that the next thing Abedin did,
after "express[ing] her amazement at the president's use of a pseudonym," was to "ask if she
could have a copy of the email." Abedin knew an insurance policy when she saw one. If
Obama himself had been e-mailing over a non-government, non-secure system, then everyone else
who had been doing it had a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The FBI is corrupt as is the Department of Justice. Why was Comey signing off investigations
into Hillary's wrongdoings before he's see the evidence?
The whole lot of them are totally anti-Trump and collude together to withhold information
from Congressional Hearings with Trey Gowdy exposing lie after lie..
Be assured, the Clinton's eil influence will be exposed for what it is.
Excellent. Now they've been recovered, which virtually anyone should have been able to do
with forensic software, maybe their contents will become publicly available through their use
in the courts/legal proceedings.
It was Page and Strzok who were the ones using the term 'secret society', from your
link:
Some GOP lawmakers in recent days have homed in on an exchange in recently recovered
texts in which Strzok and Page make reference to a "secret society." Johnson, one of the
senators who has voiced concerns about this exchange, acknowledged Thursday morning the
possibility that the "secret society" reference was made in jest. [note, this is his
speculation]
"Are you even going to give out your calendars?" Page asked Strzok in one of the
messages. "Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the
secret society."
That's about how long it would take an effective Intel analyst to access, sort, select,
prioritize, arrange, print, cover, staple, and deliver everything in the electronic inventory
of NSA intercepts. That they haven't done so is an indication that the concept of an ongoing
investigation is more important than the outcome.
The true attack on the US Constitution was Hillary Clinton's email management practices. Thank God we dodged that bullet, thanks to the wholly proportionate coverage from media
like Jill's former employer.
"... The Special Counsel Robert Mueller 's main evidence thus far in his "Russiagate" probe is not actually about possible Russian collusion with Trump to win the Presidency, but instead about definite Israeli collusion with Trump after Trump had already won the Presidency but before he became inaugurated. As a lawyer explained on the day when Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was indicted in a plea-deal: "Mr. Flynn has just become the prosecution's star witness." What Flynn had pled to was his trying to obtain Russia's support for Israel's Government, against the Palestinians. Russia said no; Putin said no to Flynn's request, which had been made on behalf of Israel. ..."
"... * Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity . ..."
If what Mr. Zuesse is writing, in the following, seemingly very well substantiated article,
is true, then extremely serious questions arise as to which forces have helped Mr. Trump become
the President in a country where anybody who challenged the establishment got assasinated (for
ex. the Kennedies) and which forces are controlling him.
Another extraordinary aspect of all that is also the way such forces have succeeded, up to
now, to be hidden behind Russia!
If things like those already revealed are true, then the same forces controlling Mr. Trump
can use the situation they helped engineer, to push him to implement their war agenda against
both Iran and North Korea, in exchange for help to the President to get out of all this mess.
If Mr. Trump will not agree to the war scenarios, then more disturbing revelations may
follow.
We hope that all these are simple suppositions and hypotheses, theories of conspiracies and
not description of real conspiracies.
But, unfortunately, nightmares tend now to happen more often when we wake up, than when we
slip. Maybe this is a reason we slip too much.
K.D.
"Russiagate" Is Actually "Israelgate": Trump as "Agent of Israel", Not of
Russia?
The Special Counsel Robert Mueller 's main evidence thus far in his "Russiagate" probe
is not actually about possible Russian collusion with Trump to win the Presidency, but instead
about definite Israeli collusion with Trump after Trump had already won the Presidency but
before he became inaugurated. As a lawyer explained on the day when Trump's former National
Security Advisor Michael Flynn was indicted in a plea-deal: "Mr. Flynn has just become the prosecution's star witness." What
Flynn had pled to was his trying to obtain Russia's support for Israel's Government, against
the Palestinians. Russia said no; Putin said no to Flynn's request, which had been made on
behalf of Israel.
The way that Mueller's investigation, to find reasons for Trump's impeachment, achieved on
December 1st the indictment and plea-deal with Flynn, was to get Flynn to admit (after his
first having lied to deny) that he had been asked by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner , who had
been asked by Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu , to communicate to Russia's
head-of-state Vladimir Putin through Russia's U.S. Ambassador, a request on behalf of the
incoming U.S. Administration of Donald Trump , for Russia to get Israel out of a jam at the
U.N. Security Council. Netanyahu didn't want to be alone in trying to pressure Putin to turn
against the Palestinians; he wanted the incoming Trump Administration also to be pressuring
Putin to do that -- for Russia to veto, this time, a resolution ( #2334 in 2016 ), which, every year in
the past, had been supported by Russia; or, failing to achieve that, to get Russia's support
for Israel's effort to delay the Security Council's vote, until after Trump would become
installed as the U.S. President on January 20th. That's what Putin was saying no to.
The initiative in this matter -- the matter that has oddly become the centerpiece of
Mueller's case for impeaching Trump -- came from Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
not at all from Russia's head-of-state, Vladimir Putin, such as is almost universally reported
to have been the Trump Administration's foreign master (if any). Trump's agent, Kushner, was
the supplicant, on behalf of Israel, for Putin's assistance to Israel. Kushner had been asked
by Netanyahu to do this, and Kushner assigned Flynn to do it, on behalf of Trump. According to
ABC News ,
"Trump phoned Flynn shortly after the election to explicitly ask him to 'serve as point
person on Russia,' and to reach out personally to Russian officials to develop strategies to
jointly combat ISIS."
But, apparently, Flynn accepted Kushner's instructions also (not only Trump's), and he
assumed that what Kushner wanted here (which was not against ISIS, but instead against the
Palestinians) was also what Trump wanted on this matter. In fact,
Eli Lake reported about Flynn, on the day of Flynn's indictment, December 1st,
"that during the last days of the Obama administration, the retired general was instructed
to contact foreign ambassadors and foreign ministers of countries on the U.N. Security Council,
ahead of a vote condemning Israeli settlements. Flynn was told to try to get them to delay that
vote until after Barack Obama had left office, or oppose the resolution altogether."
In other words: Russia refused to comply with the incoming U.S. President's son-in-law's
request that had been passed to Putin through Russia's U.S. Ambassador Sergey Kislyak , through
Flynn, through Kushner, who had received the request directly from Netanyahu (and the
indictment makes no allegation that President-Elect Trump even so much as knew about any
of this; there is no impeachable allegation made there against Trump). Possibly, but not yet
certainly, Kushner had received, from his father-in-law, instructions to comply with Israel's
'requests', so that Kushner didn't need to communicate with Mr. Trump specifically for
permission to pass along to Putin through Russia's U.S. Ambassador, Netanyahu's desire, as
being also America's desire. Not only was Trump not Putin's agent in this matter, but his
son-in-law was instead serving there as Netanyahu's agent, under some as-yet-undetermined
authorization from Trump, but the indictment doesn't even allege there to have been any such
authorization, by Trump, at all .
We can be certain that Kushner did have Trump's authorization, however, in
some form, because even now, Trump hasn't yet fired Kushner. Kushner's incompetence
might bring down Trump, but Trump still stands with Kushner, against Mueller, even though that
seems politically suicidal for Trump to be doing. No doubt, if Trump were to break from
Kushner, then Kushner might testify against Trump -- and so that path (Trump's turning against
Kushner) would also be politically suicidal for Trump. Perhaps Kushner will go to prison
if he becomes prosecuted and doesn't reach any plea-deal. Maybe that's the reason why Trump
doesn't fire Kushner.
The plea-deal with
Flynn has him admitting that his contacts with Kislyak were authorized only by Kushner
(referred to in Flynn's
indictment not by name but only by the vague phrase "a very senior member of the
Presidential Transition Team"). However, Flynn had earlier lied to the FBI and said that he "never
asked Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, to delay the vote for the U.N.
Security Council resolution." So: if, subsequently, it somehow does turn out to be Flynn's word
against Trump's word, then the ultimate decision will be made by Senate Republicans when they
either do or don't vote for Mike Pence to take over the remainder of Trump's term. In order for
that switch to be made, two-thirds of the entire U.S. Senate -- that's 67 of the 100 -- would
need to vote for Pence to take over. Whereas Democrats seem eager for Pence to complete Trump's
term, that's only 46 Senators, or 48
if both Independents vote with the Democrats , and at least 9 or 11 of the Senate's 52
Republicans would then also need to vote for Pence. The Vice President would not be the
presiding officer; instead, the Constitution makes the Chief Justice of the U.S. that, and only
the Senators are allowed to be counted in a Senate trial that would follow after the House's
majority-vote for a Senate trial to be held. The V.P. couldn't serve as any 'tie-breaker' in
this trial. And removal-from-office would be the only direct harm to Trump; the U.S. provides
no way to try the President on any charge via the courts -- the only way a U.S. President can
be punished for any crime is by being tried, and then convicted and removed from office, by a
two-thirds vote in the Senate. Other than that, a U.S. President is above the law.
The Flynn
indictment does make one other allegation which specifically concerns Russia:
"FLYNN falsely stated that he did not ask Russia's Ambassador to the United States to
refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had
imposed against Russia."
Flynn admitted now that that was a lie -- that he had made this request of
Kislyak.
"While the Israel lobby ran interference for Kushner, the favorite pundits of the liberal
anti-Trump 'Resistance' minimized the role of Israel in the Flynn saga. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow ,
who hasdevotedmore content this year to Russia than to any other topic, appeared to
entirely avoid the issue of Kushner's collusion with Israel."
Apparently, exposing Israeli control over the U.S. Government is, in effect, prohibited;
only Russian 'control' over us may be 'exposed'. The very possibility, that when
America's taxpayers pay (via U.S. taxes) annual donations of $3.8 billion per
year to the Government of Israel, which is a 'friend', instead of a master -- an enemy --
of the American people, seems to be prohibited to disprove, or even to question publicly. But
there it is, and Russia gets the blame, which Israel ( and the Sauds ) do not.
Such misdirection of the blame could cause WW III, especially if U.S. media continue calling
this 'evidence' 'against Trump', by such terms as 'Russiagate.' It's not that, at all; and
portraying it as if it were, could do the whole world a whole lot of harm. (I don't say this in
support of Trump, a President I loathe as much as I do his far slicker predecessor, but instead
to expose the current lynch-mob as being what they actually are: psychopathic inciters of the
most horrific -- and unwarranted -- war ever.)
The financialization of the American economy and continued slide of the lower 80% of
population standard of living might provide the impetus to scale back the MIC. And scaling back
MIC is long overdue
Notable quotes:
"... A thread here not long back with a bit about the Aussie diplomat giving some 'intel' to US IC for the Russia/Trump collusion meme. Now the Dutch are in on it too, hacking into a university beside red square in 2014 and watching Russia hack DNC/Hillary emails or whatever. (apparently no university beside red square) ..."
A thread here not long back with a bit about the Aussie diplomat giving some 'intel' to
US IC for the Russia/Trump collusion meme. Now the Dutch are in on it too, hacking into a
university beside red square in 2014 and watching Russia hack DNC/Hillary emails or whatever.
(apparently no university beside red square)
Ukraine for the Dossier, Australia and Netherlands chipping in with their bits of
'evidence'. The old MH17 crew back in action.
Tillerson/US holding Russia responsible for Syrian chemical weapons attacks, lots of new
sanctions on Russia etc etc.
Saker has an interesting article written for UNZ Review. Ukraine have official changed the
status of Donbass from being terrorist occupied to Russian occupied to dump the Minsk
agreement. US supplying javelin missiles etc.
US about to kick off the war in Ukraine again as revenge for Russia stuffing up their plans
for Syria?
Neoliberal MSM are hired presstitutes on a mission. Ideological soldiers of the neoliberal
Party, if you want to use the Bolsheviks term. To expect from them objectivity is like to expect
snow in hell.
But what is interesting is how Trump managed to undermine this neoliberal fake news industry,
especially WaPo, NYT, and CNN. Now even some neoliberal view those presstitutes with disdain:
they went way too far ion the war trial. Russiagate debacle is one such story.
Notable quotes:
"... This is, at bottom, a battle over the truth. Who owns it, who controls it, who can sell their version to a polarized public that increasingly cannot agree on basic facts. ..."
"... As paradoxical as it sounds, negative coverage helps Trump because it bonds him to people who also feel disrespected by the denizens of the mainstream press. The media take everything literally, and Trump pitches his arguments at a gut level. It is asymmetrical warfare. ..."
"... Every president gets pounded by the press. But no president has ever been subjected to the kind of relentless ridicule, caustic commentary and insulting invective that has been heaped on Trump. I have a name for this half-crazed compulsion to furiously attack one man. It's called Trump Trauma. ..."
"... by Howard Kurtz (Regnery Publishing, Jan. 29), copyright Regnery Publishing. ..."
"... This story appears in the Jan. 25 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe . ..."
This is, at bottom, a battle over the truth. Who owns it, who controls it, who can sell
their version to a polarized public that increasingly cannot agree on basic facts.
Everything you read, hear and see about Trump's veracity is filtered through a mainstream media
prism that reflects a lying president -- and virtually never considers the press' own baggage
and biases. Everything you read, hear and see from the Trump team is premised on the view that
media news is fake news, that journalists are too prejudiced, angry and ideological to fairly
report on the president. Trump and his acolytes use these attacks on the Fourth Estate to
neutralize their own untruths, evasions and exaggerations.
What many journalists fail to grasp is that Trump's supporters love his street talk and view
the media critiques as nonsense driven by negativity. They don't care if he makes mistakes.
As paradoxical as it sounds, negative coverage helps Trump because it bonds him to people
who also feel disrespected by the denizens of the mainstream press. The media take everything
literally, and Trump pitches his arguments at a gut level. It is asymmetrical warfare.
Every president gets pounded by the press. But no president has ever been subjected to
the kind of relentless ridicule, caustic commentary and insulting invective that has been
heaped on Trump. I have a name for this half-crazed compulsion to furiously attack one man.
It's called Trump Trauma.
"... Maybe they get their training from the CIA. ..."
"... Maybe they ARE CIA. ..."
"... Always keep in mind, when a source leaks an "exclusive" to one reporter, there is ALWAYS an ulterior motive, even if the leaked information is true. ..."
We've had people here arguing with each other on another thread about it. They( MSM ) know
how to spin a good story and spread propaganda/disinformation. Maybe they get their training
from the CIA.
It's not like Sundance hasn't been warning us
Sara Carter and Sean Hannity Are Being Played By James Comey Posted on June 13, 2017 by
sundance
Sundance
August 4, 2017: As we pointed out yesterday, the entire Sara Carter presentation of a
letter from current NSA McMaster to former NSA Susan Rice appears to be a propaganda
narrative. –DETAILS HERE– Toward that end, Carter appears with Sean Hannity and
misleads the audience about McMasters letter to Susan Rice.
Sundance 1/13/18 Sara Carter, plays the role of controlled opposition. Carter shiftily helps
Hillary Clinton deal with her "Dossier Problem". Unfortunately, but not unpredictably, Sara
Carter begins deploying deep state
Sundance 1/18/18 There are voices like Sara Carter and Dan Bongino who are rushing to the
motive behind the story and playing directly into the hands of the Swamp Dwellers who use
professional obfuscation (the Potomac two-step) to avoid accountability.
Always keep in mind, when a source leaks an "exclusive" to one reporter, there is ALWAYS an
ulterior motive, even if the leaked information is true.
Every leak has multiple consequences, and it is not clear what the primary motive was. For
example: TheHill leak to Soloman and Carter has:
-S&P leaking various things to various reporters. The one that caught my eye was the
reference to "throwing him under the bus" regarding the CF article (Clinton Foundation?). ie.
they are leaking to get back at superiors who do things re clinton that S&P don't like.
But there are many others, including the actual or likely identities of the reporters being
leaked to.
"... The first was that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be naming former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel and that the White House would be "blind-sided." The second would be a MSM news report on "MF" (Michael Flynn) to which they planned to "put MF back in the news" by drawing up "a memo on Turkey," stating that "with Erdogan thugs beating protesters on the streets, it fits the news cycle." ..."
"... During the beginning of the conversation it was stated that "I'm hearing Mueller, maybe by the end of the week." By the end of the conversation, someone with a little more knowledge said "RM is happening tonight," to which the original person that mentioned Mueller by name, says "Tonight. F*ck. Quicker than I thought." ..."
On May 17, 2017, a person that calls himself "FreshCamel," posted messages on multiple
forums across the Dark Web
(part of the Internet not included in search engines and requires special encrypted programs to
access it), asking for help to decipher a discussion he had witnessed between five people
communicating using the secure messaging platform
called Gliph .
The same day, the user also uploaded four screen shot links to a pastebin account which allegedly showed the conversation
"FreshCamel" witnessed on Wednesday, May 17, 2017, during a 45 minute period, from 2:31 pm to
3:15 pm.
That time range is incredibly important because the conversation detailed knowledge
and planning of events that had not occurred nor been reported at the time the conversation
took place, meaning those participating in the conversation had first hand knowledge of events
that wouldn't occur until hours later.
The first was that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be naming former FBI
Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel and that the White House would be "blind-sided." The
second would be a MSM news report on "MF" (Michael Flynn) to which they planned to "put MF back
in the news" by drawing up "a memo on Turkey," stating that "with Erdogan thugs beating
protesters on the streets, it fits the news cycle."
During the beginning of the conversation it was stated that "I'm hearing Mueller, maybe
by the end of the week." By the end of the conversation, someone with a little more knowledge
said "RM is happening tonight," to which the original person that mentioned Mueller by name,
says "Tonight. F*ck. Quicker than I thought."
Screen shots below, but first a couple points as to the timeline. The news of Mueller did
not hit the news until 6 pm ET on May 17, 2017 ( CBS
News ) and 7:32 pm (
ABC News ), both of which time stamp their articles, which was 3 1/2 hours after the first
mention in the chat log, and 3 hours after the second person said "RM is happening
tonight."
The second point is that the New York Times article on Michael Flynn and Turkey, and follow
ups by other organizations like
McClatchy , weren't published until 7:27 pm on Wednesday.
Parciat test recovered fromt he image (see the original article for the fuill text)
Dooku joined the group.
Dooku: RR isn't taking shit., and he knows our friends have stuff on him
Dooku: I'm hearing Mueller, maybe by the end of the week
SevernS: May 17 at 2: 37 pm
Hearing that too.. WH will be blind-sided. Let's put MF back in the news? Can have S
draw up
memo on Turkey With Erdogan thugs beating protesters in streets, it fits news cycle, and
I'm
sure we'll need a few more 'memos'' down the road. Good practice :-)
Huck
I'm in. S. you in here? Our friends in NY still have secure connection set up
waiting
Roger
MF was mentioned in company group too... Evidently their work on the limey is paying
off.
Roger
MF was mentioned in company group too... Evidently their work on the limey is paying
off.
Dooku
Paying off how?
Dooku
Getting to him?
Timelines aside, there are a number of other references that line up with the constant leaks
by the Deep State to the MSM.
For example, the reference in the log above, to how their work on "MF" was paying off,
saying he is "scared sh*tless," then the one that calls himself "Roger" stating "didn't AEWP
mention it when we gave him that tape."
Coincidentally, the original report on Michael Flynn, in February 2017, detailing his
conversation with the Russian ambassador to the United States, before Trump took office, was
published by the Washington Post, with one of the writers listed as "Adam Entous." Is that the
"AE" that is one of the Deep States "carrier pigeons?"
Another highly interesting reference is to the "Limey," where the person listed as "Huck,
states "our carrier pigeon said in debrief that they said something along the lines of "No
wonder no one in our business has called the Limey out, what's the point when you all keep
bringing us great stuff? It actually helps our pageviews when she gets all of her minions first
up with dumb sh*t first'."
According to The Third Estate New Group, who broke this story, the Limey reference could be
to "Louise Mensch," who just happens to be the one of the two people that put out the bogus
report that there had been a sealed indictment issued against President Trump, just last week,
and who also has been given space at the New York Times for op-eds.
Another thing that caught my eye was the reference to a "Camp Eagle," to which the user
Roger called an "asset." In the intelligence community an "asset" someone "within organizations
or countries being spied upon who provide information for an outside spy. They are sometimes
referred to as agents, and in law enforcement parlance, as confidential informants, or "CIs"
for short." (Source)
Third Estate also claims they have contacted the person that released these screen shots,
who said that while five people participated int he conversations, there were 13 present in the
message group.
ANP has also reached out to the dark web .onion email address "FreshCamel" posted on the
pastebin account, but have not heard back from him by the time of publishing, but we will
update if we do receive a response.
BOTTOM LINE
While anybody in the intelligence community could be leaking to the press, the specific
knowledge of Rod Rosenstein tapping Robert Mueller as Special Counsel, would have been known to
only a short list of people within the DOJ, and Mueller himself of course.
Since the information aligned so well with actual events that happened after the
conversation took place, this lends considerable credence to the veracity of the Third Estate
claim that they "independently reviewed and verified these screenshots and other information
provided by "FreshCamel."
This is a well planned coup attempt against not just president Trump, but against every
single voter and supporter that fought to get him elected.
Last, but not least, at the top of the first screen shot, it says "Palpatine's Revenge" as
the name of the chat..... which appears to be a reference to a Star Wars character, which has
"has become a widely recognized popular culture symbol of evil, sinister deception,
dictatorship, tyranny, and the subversion of democracy," according to Wikipedia.
Dutch media is trying to help the Russiagate plotters. nice...
Notable quotes:
"... Spying is like a recursive algorithm. Next Russia will announce that they ' spied on the Dutch spies who were spying on them '. Maybe we can skip the ' motivations ': they are all spying on each other, all the time, it is their job description. ..."
It's the summer of 2014. A hacker from the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD has penetrated the computer network of a university
building next to the Red Square in Moscow, oblivious to the implications. One year later, from the AIVD headquarters in Zoetermeer,
he and his colleagues witness Russian hackers launching an attack on the Democratic Party in the United States. The AIVD hackers
had not infiltrated just any building; they were in the computer network of the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. And unbeknownst
to the Russians, they could see everything.
That's how the AIVD becomes witness to the Russian hackers harassing and penetrating the leaders of the Democratic Party, transferring
thousands of emails and documents. It won't be the last time they alert their American counterparts. And yet, it will be months before
the United States realize what this warning means: that with these hacks the Russians have interfered with the American elections.
And the AIVD hackers have seen it happening before their very eyes.
The Dutch access provides crucial evidence of the Russian involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party, according to six
American and Dutch sources who are familiar with the material, but wish to remain anonymous. It's also grounds for the FBI to start
an investigation into the influence of the Russian interference on the election race between the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton
and the Republican candidate Donald Trump. 'High confidence'
After Trump's election in May 2017, this investigation was taken over by special prosecutor Robert Mueller. While it also aims
to uncover contacts between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government, the prime objective is bringing to light the
Russian interference with the elections. An attempt to undermine the democratic process, and an act that caused tensions between
the two superpowers to rise to new heights, bringing about a string of diplomatic acts of revenge.
Three American intelligence services state with 'high confidence' that the Kremlin was behind the attack on the Democratic Party.
That certainty, sources say, is derived from the AIVD hackers having had access to the office-like space in the center of Moscow
for years. This is so exceptional that the directors of the foremost American intelligence services are all too happy to receive
the Dutchmen. They provide technical evidence for the attack on the Democratic Party, and it becomes apparent that they know a lot
more.
(This is not a joke)
(Why is this being announced now)
(This is going to run and run)
(Is this even real, sounds quite fishy)
(Navy CSI levels of Drama!!)
According to de Volkskrant, AIVD in 2014 had established surveillance on Cozy Bear, the Russian state hacking group, and
observed its efforts to attack the US Democratic Party's email systems and American government servers.
AIVD was, we're told, able to compromise security cameras surrounding the building used by the Cozy Bear crew, to look out
for known Russian spies entering the joint. The Euro snoops duly tipped off the FBI that something was afoot.
"Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have provided the FBI with crucial information about Russian interference
with the American elections," reports the Dutch daily newspaper.
"For years, AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear AIVD [became] witness to the Russian hackers
harassing and penetrating the leaders of the Democratic Party, transferring thousands of emails and documents.
"It won't be the last time they alert their American counterparts. And yet, it will be months before the United States realize
what this warning means: that with these hacks the Russians have interfered with the American elections. And the AIVD hackers
have seen it happening before their very eyes."
today our secret service made public that they spied on Russian interference in the USA elections
Spying is like a recursive algorithm. Next Russia will announce that they ' spied on the Dutch spies who were spying on
them '. Maybe we can skip the ' motivations ': they are all spying on each other, all the time, it is their job description.
I am still waiting for someone to explain to us how is ' interference ' or ' meddling ' different from having
an opinion about an election. And we all know that Americans (or Dutch) have never, ever, expressed any opinions about other countries'
elections. Right. My democracy promotion is your meddling.
It is bad when you kill my cow. It is very good when I kill your cow. Monkey reasoning level?
"... "Inevitably there were questions about the strange names his company had given the Russian hackers. As it happened, "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" were part of a coding system Alperovitch had created. Animals signified the hackers' country of origin: Russians were bears, Chinese were pandas, Iranians were kittens, and North Koreans were named for the chollima, a mythical winged horse. By company tradition, the analyst who discovers a new hacker gets to choose the first part of the nickname. Cozy Bear got its nickname because the letters coz appeared in its malware code. Fancy Bear, meanwhile, used malware that included the word Sofacy, which reminded the analyst who found it of the Iggy Azalea song "Fancy." " ..."
My goodness, what a farce this muh Russia hoax is! I'm sure you're all familiar with Adam
Carter's Guccifer 2.0: Game Over exposing
Crowdstrike.
Besides the wonderful research linked above, here's a very quick retort one can use to
knock out the Dutch intel story (see bold):
In this 10-24-16 puff piece by
Esquire on Crowdstrike, we find a nugget – "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" are
names created by Crowdstrike . The purported Russian hackers do not call themselves
that. It's Crowdstrike's name for them!!! It's become so used by know-nothing "experts" in
the media that people believe that's what the hackers call themselves.
So, how did Dutch intel know anything about those names – the Russians aren't as
stupid as CNN* to put those names in their coding!
Excerpt from Esquire article:
"Inevitably there were questions about the strange names his company had given the Russian
hackers. As it happened, "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" were part of a coding system
Alperovitch had created. Animals signified the hackers' country of origin: Russians were
bears, Chinese were pandas, Iranians were kittens, and North Koreans were named for the
chollima, a mythical winged horse. By company tradition, the analyst who discovers a new
hacker gets to choose the first part of the nickname. Cozy Bear got its nickname because the
letters coz appeared in its malware code. Fancy Bear, meanwhile, used malware that included
the word Sofacy, which reminded the analyst who found it of the Iggy Azalea song "Fancy."
" __________
* CNN The Russian
Connection June 2017 video – at 19:00 – 19:11 shows fake computer screen with
the words "Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" and commentary by Hultquist, former senior US Intel
Analyst. CNN didn't have Crowdstrike people presenting that screen; they'd know better.
The whole video is one piece of amateur propaganda laughable puerile piece of .
"Fancy Bear" and "Cozy Bear" are names created by Crowdstrike.
Notable quotes:
"... I'm formerly a VP level IT security expert. The mickey mouse audit Crowdstrike did on the DNC server reads like a port-scan-log for any old box on the internet. So, this "Dutch surprise" is garbage, as is the report from Crowdstrike. That server was a victim of a LEAK, not a hack. ..."
"... IP's from all over the world scan for open and vulnerable ports 24/7/365. The best hackers don't use an IP you'll ever see unless they WANT you to see it – or it is a quick hit-and-run. They allege the activity was going for "years". ..."
"... The Dutch are throwing a pathetic lifeline of slippery dental floss to Obama and Hillary. Won't work. ..."
This is the next desperate grasp at straws. They put a pic of Trump next to Putin –
with no reference regarding Trump at all. Also, funny how this alleged activity is going on
while Obama is in charge of the FBI and Debbie Wasserman Shultz has a gang of Pakistani "IT
Admins" savaging congressional computers / servers.
I'm formerly a VP level IT security expert. The mickey mouse audit Crowdstrike did on the
DNC server reads like a port-scan-log for any old box on the internet. So, this "Dutch
surprise" is garbage, as is the report from Crowdstrike. That server was a victim of a LEAK,
not a hack.
IP's from all over the world scan for open and vulnerable ports 24/7/365. The best hackers
don't use an IP you'll ever see unless they WANT you to see it – or it is a quick
hit-and-run. They allege the activity was going for "years".
The Dutch are throwing a pathetic lifeline of slippery dental floss to Obama and Hillary.
Won't work.
The author has made several errors. He assumes that discussing the possibility of a
psychiatric disorder making Trump unfit means proving insanity. In reality, the most likely
disorder does not meet the legal definition of insanity, but does make a person incapable of
competently or faithfully performing the duties of office.
The suggestion that this is some type of superficial soviet style political maneuver
ignores the fact that good diagnosis is done nowadays based to a large extent on observed
behavior, history, and the reports of third parties. This is especially important when the
individual shows signs of being a pathological liar. In these cases, information gained in a
face-to-face interview may be virtually useless.
The condition that Mr. Trump should be assessed for is Antisocial Personality Disorder
with Psychopathic Features. (Alternative PDOs in DSM-5, pg. 761-765 Some of the signs and
symptoms which make such a person unfit for office include-
Dishonesty and fraudulence
Embellishment or fabrication when relating events
Anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults
Mean, nasty, or vengeful behavior
Boredom proneness and thoughtless initiation of activities to counter boredom
Lack of concern for one's limitations
Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli
Acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes
Disregard for -- and failure to honor–financial and other obligations or
commitments
No one imagined that someone with this possible disorder would ever make it to the White
House, however, the 25th Amendment provides an avenue for him to temporarily be removed from
power while he can undergo proper evaluation by military psychiatrists and neurologists. This
is all mental health professionals are requesting. These individuals can do tremendous damage
when give power over others.
"The condition that Mr. Trump should be assessed for is Antisocial Personality Disorder
with Psychopathic Features. (Alternative PDOs in DSM-5, pg. 761-765 Some of the signs and
symptoms which make such a person unfit for office include-
Dishonesty and fraudulence
Embellishment or fabrication when relating events
Anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults
Mean, nasty, or vengeful behavior
Boredom proneness and thoughtless initiation of activities to counter boredom
Lack of concern for one's limitations
Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli
Acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes
Disregard for -- and failure to honor–financial and other obligations or
commitments "
An Orwellian comment like the above just proves the point of the article, and then some.
As if there isn't anyone in the world who couldn't be shoehorned to fit such a diagnoses,
with a crafty narrative reconfiguring of their actions.
If there are indeed any witch doctors (excuse me, "psychiatrists") pathologizing people on
the basis of a laughable list like the above, then I consider them to be far more undeserving
of the power they have, and far more toxic to society, than Trump in any of the actions or
utterances that he has made.
Susan Dawkins, who claims my article has mistakes, didn't read it. Her amateur diagnosis that
Trump has "Antisocial Personality Disorder with Psychopathic Features" does not make him
UNABLE to be president, which is what the 25th Amendment is for.
She claims he is UNFIT. Fitness is judged primarily by the people, who elected him. If a
president somehow becomes unfit while in office it must be because of "high crimes and
misdemeanors." That's the only reason the Constitution provides for. And impeachment is the
only answer.
Sorry kiddies, the 25th is a not-over for an election Rachael Maddow doesn't like.
This is all mental health professionals are requesting."
"All"? That's rich.
Indeed, is that all that they're requesting? My goodness -- what a modest
request! -- a request merely to have complete veto power over America's entire citizenry, in
terms of who is allowed to be President; a request merely to be able to remove any President
who is not to their liking.
In short, a mere request to be able to legally perform a coup d'etat at will, to overturn
any election that does not yield their desired result.
How gratified we all should be that their request for power is such a small one. Imagine
if they asked for something just a bit more ambitious. "Omnipotence" comes to mind.
Trump is the one who messes with the very fundamentals of our democracy. Remember his voting
commission and the crap they wanted? Force states to provide all the 2016 voter information
to his CosaNostra buddies. And remember when they wanted all Americans to fill out a
registration form similar to the one used when purchasing a gun? They said they wanted to
make sure only those qualified were on the voter registration lists.
These terms must be immediately banned from US political discourse:
These are totally irresponsible statements. There must be absolute responsibility of
press. There must be also absolute transparency of press. Today press in US is a tabloid rug.
New York times and Washington post should be fired and replaced with people from this
website.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon once told Ivanka Trump: "You're just
another staffer who doesn't know what you're doing," according to a new book.
Related: Ivanka Trump's "special place in hell" for child predators comment trolls Roy Moore
rally
Bannon, who has long critiqued and clashed with Ivanka's and her husband Jared Kushner's
roles in the White House, tried to put the president's daughter in her place in one instance
detailed in the book.
"My daughter loves me as a dad...You love your dad. I get that. But you're just another
staffer who doesn't know what you're doing," Bannon said, The Washington Post reported when it
published excerpts on Monday.
The revelation is part of the latest book about life inside the White House. Howard Kurtz, host
of the Fox News show Media Buzz, wrote the book Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The
War Over The Truth, set to be released on January 29.
The new book, though perhaps not as sensational as the explosive tell-all Fire and Fury:
Inside the Trump White House, contains several new alleged revelations about the
administration. Along with reports of the turbulent relationship between Ivanka Trump and
Bannon, are claims that the president himself leaked information to journalists, that his aides
referred to his behavior as "defiance disorder" and that his staff was "blindsided" when he
accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones.
Beware of a strategist who watch how tigers fight in the valley from a safe top of the mountain ~ Shota Rustaveli (c. 1160-after
c. 1220
"Early in the administration, Kurtz describes White House aides waking up one Saturday morning in March, confused and "blindsided,"
to find that Trump had -- without any evidence -- accused former president Barack Obama on Twitter of wiretapping him during the campaign."
-- What a blatant lie, there are tons of evidence that this was the fact. the author desrctied himslef as an
establishment stooge.
Notable quotes:
"... Early in the administration, Kurtz describes White House aides waking up one Saturday morning in March, confused and "blindsided," to find that Trump had -- without any evidence -- accused former president Barack Obama on Twitter of wiretapping him during the campaign. ..."
"... "Nobody in the White House quite knew what to do," Kurtz writes. ..."
"... Priebus watched as his phone exploded with email and text messages, according to the excerpts. "Priebus knew the staff would have to fall into line to prove the tweet correct, the opposite of the usual process of vetting proposed pronouncements," Kurtz writes. "Once the president had committed to 140 characters, he was not going to back off." ..."
In late July, the White House had just finished an official policy review on transgender individuals serving in the military and
President Trump and his then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus, had agreed to meet in the Oval Office to discuss the four options awaiting
the president in a decision memo.
But then Trump unexpectedly preempted the conversation and sent his entire administration scrambling, by tweeting out
his own decision -- that the government would not allow transgender individuals to serve -- just moments later.
" 'Oh my God, he just tweeted this,' " Priebus said, according to a new book by Howard Kurtz, who hosts Fox News's "Media Buzz."
There was, Kurtz writes, "no longer a need for the meeting."
The White House -- and the politerati diaspora -- has just barely stopped reeling from author Michael Wolff's account of life
in Trump's West Wing, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," and now another life-in-the-White-House book is about to drop,
this one from Kurtz.
Like the books that came before it, and almost certainly like the ones still to come, Kurtz's book, "Media Madness: Donald Trump,
The Press, And The War Over The Truth," offers a portrait of a White House riven by chaos, with aides scrambling to respond to the
president's impulses and writing policy to fit his tweets, according to excerpts obtained by The Washington Post.
Kurtz, who worked at The Post from 1981 to 2010, writes that Trump's aides even privately coined a term for Trump's behavior --
"Defiance Disorder." The phrase refers to Trump's seeming compulsion to do whatever it is his advisers are most strongly urging against,
leaving his team to handle the fallout.
The book officially hits stores Jan. 29.
Early in the administration, Kurtz describes White House aides waking up one Saturday morning in March, confused and "blindsided,"
to find that Trump had -- without any evidence -- accused former president Barack Obama on Twitter of wiretapping him during the
campaign.
"Nobody in the White House quite knew what to do," Kurtz writes.
Priebus watched as his phone exploded with email and text messages, according to the excerpts. "Priebus knew the staff would have
to fall into line to prove the tweet correct, the opposite of the usual process of vetting proposed pronouncements," Kurtz writes.
"Once the president had committed to 140 characters, he was not going to back off."
WASHINGTON -- When President Trump mused last year about protecting immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children,
calling them "these incredible kids," aides implored him privately to stop talking about them so sympathetically.
When he batted around the idea of granting them citizenship over a Chinese dinner at the White House last year with Democratic
leaders, Mr. Trump's advisers quickly drew up a list of hard-line demands to send to Capitol Hill that they said must be included
in any such plan.
And twice over the past two weeks, Mr. Trump has privately told lawmakers he is eager to strike a deal to extend legal status
to the so-called Dreamers, only to have his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, make clear
afterward that such a compromise was not really in the offing -- unless it also included a host of stiffer immigration restrictions.
But, his favorite NYT reporter also can't help herself from insulting Trump.
... ... ...
Great strategy, NYT. The surest way to get Donald Trump to side with what you demand for the good of the Democratic Party electing
a new electorate is to insult his intelligence.
Your strategy is foolproof! There's nothing Trump like more than being played for a fool. What could possibly go wrong?
There's a lot of media focus on Miller atm, the thrust being that Miller is Bannon* 2.0, riding on the coat tails of The Great
Deal-Maker (formerly the New Hitler, but that didn't work) to push his own agenda.
They're hoping that Trump won't like a staffer getting more attention than he does and will say "you're fired". The same thing
will happen to any Trump appointment who looks like they want to implement the platform Trump ran on.
* AFAIK Bannon wasn't actually doing that, but it's the Narrative.
PS BBC only ever quote Flake or Ryan when they want a "Republican" view.
OT: while y'all rightly shake with apprehension at what the next skullduggery from the FBI, CIA, or NSA might be, cheer yourselves
up by contemplating the incompetence of the people involved. They're such mugs that a 15-year old can dance rings around their
security procedures.
Still, it doesn't seem to inhibit the FBI from murdering US citizens, staging a slow-motion coup against a President, or manfully
saving the USA from a terrorist attack on 9/11. Hang on; the latter would have called for competence
"... the recent influx of attack dog journalism has resulted in less investigative reporting and a misguided definition of news, both of which have serious, negative implications. ..."
"... All the President's Men ..."
"... The non-news news norm also includes what Larry Sabato referred to as attack dog journalism. That is, "the press coverage attending any political event or circumstance where a critical mass of journalists leap to cover the same embarrassing or scandalous subject and pursue it intensely, often excessively, and sometimes uncontrollably" (Sabato, 1991, p. 6). For instance, Obama's "you didn't build that" remark was immediately removed from context and spread by the mass media (so much so that the GOP then referenced it in their "We Built It" slogan at the Republican National Convention). His minor gaffe matters much less than his policy regarding taxes and social services. Even so, the media coverage did not focus on what his point was in the speech in which his misspoke. Rather, the attention was placed on the comment itself. The news should be what the President said he plans to do if he remains in office, not the poor wording choice. ..."
Journalists' role in the political process should be to serve as intermediaries between
politicians and the public. The average American does not have the means by which to get the
news directly from the White House and other bureaucrats. Therefore, there are reporters, who
exist to provide such information to the people. However, the recent influx of attack dog
journalism has resulted in less investigative reporting and a misguided definition of news,
both of which have serious, negative implications.
Woodward and Bernstein, as portrayed in All the President's Men , should be the
heroes of every news reporter in the country. By tirelessly digging up the dirt on the
Watergate, they discovered a government scandal. The pair adhered to their journalistic duty of
reporting the details to the public, despite hesitation from others and a warning from Deep
Throat that their lives may be in danger. They did not cease their searching once they had
enough to publish a story; rather, they kept probing until they got to the bottom of things.
According to lecture, their investigative journalism is indicative of a shift from lap dog
journalism to watch dog journalism.
Around the 1990s, American journalism lost its watch dog affiliation. Today's reporters are
rarely incited by the whispers of a government cover-up. For example, it took at least eight
years for the public to learn that Iraqi detector Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi lied about
weapons of mass destruction in an effort to influence Western war efforts (
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41609536/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/curveball-i-lied-about-wmd-hasten-iraq-war/#.UFzwiVGQTE0
). Reporters should not be expected to question every government decision. Nevertheless, when
the issue at hand is a war, they should be counted upon to look into why exactly one country
proposes going to war with another – reporting not only why the government is saying it
is time for war, but providing what evidence they are using to authorize their decision. This
is an enormous responsibility that is vital to our very democracy.
That is not to say that investigative journalism or watch dog reporting has died out (e.g.,
http://watchdog.org/about/ ). Rather,
their admirable tactics have been subsumed by the new news norm of non-news. In an effort to
attract an audience, countless news outlets have transitioned to offering non-news items as
news. For instance, the top story's headline on one of Tucson's local news station's websites
reads, "Donate hair this weekend to win tickets to "Disney on Ice." Another is, "Man jumps off
Bronx Zoo train, mauled by tiger." While a contest and a novel story might be interesting
enough for people to tune in, they are undoubtedly not the top stories of the day. One might
find the protesters' overtake of an Islamist group's headquarters in Benghazi more pressing,
especially considering the potential link to the recent attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya
(or perhaps Mitt Romney's tax release).
The non-news news norm also includes what Larry Sabato referred to as attack dog
journalism. That is, "the press coverage attending any political event or circumstance where a
critical mass of journalists leap to cover the same embarrassing or scandalous subject and
pursue it intensely, often excessively, and sometimes uncontrollably" (Sabato, 1991, p. 6). For
instance, Obama's "you didn't build that" remark was immediately removed from context and
spread by the mass media (so much so that the GOP then referenced it in their "We Built It"
slogan at the Republican National Convention). His minor gaffe matters much less than his
policy regarding taxes and social services. Even so, the media coverage did not focus on what
his point was in the speech in which his misspoke. Rather, the attention was placed on the
comment itself. The news should be what the President said he plans to do if he remains in
office, not the poor wording choice.
The trend away from watch dog journalism toward attack dog journalism, as well as the warped
definition of what is considered news, have serious implications for the country as a whole.
The current nature of political news coverage can serve to place importance on non-issues,
inspire and perpetuate misinformation, and leaves out what is not easily accessible. By giving
so much attention to minor gaffes, rumors, and unimportant issues, the media make such items
salient to the public and communicate that they are important. This can lead to skewed
priorities, as people might find insignificant items to be much more relevant than they
actually should be. Additionally, attack dog journalists' mongering about Obama's birth
certificate led approximately 25% of the country to believe Obama was not born in the United
States – according to 2011 polls, administered two to three years after the rumor's
origin. Finally, acting like attack dogs rather than watch dogs prevents journalists from
investigating stories. Reporters might not act as politicians' lap dogs but by attacking rather
than digging, they fail as watch dogs.
Such a sociological shift in news norms and journalistic tendencies is difficult to reverse,
but not impossible. In All the President's Men , Woodward and Bernstein did not act
alone. While met with hesitation from most, a few people offered invaluable support, such as
their executive editor and Deep Throat. The four of them (Woodward, Bernstein, Ben Bradlee, and
Deep Throat) prove that it does not take an army to reveal a scandal. Both the moral of the
film and the return to watch dog journalism is the belief that all it takes are a few people
impassioned by a desire to get the story and to get it right.
(Sabato's book is titled "Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American
Politics")
They would be definitely able to hook him for lying to FBI. That's really easy with Bannon.
Notable quotes:
"... He is expected to cooperate with the special counsel, the sources said. ..."
"... Bannon's attorney told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that Bannon would answer questions when he goes to the special counsel because executive privilege would not apply, according to one of the sources. ..."
"... Last week, the FBI attempted to serve Bannon with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury in the Russia probe. He referred agents to his attorney ..."
Steve Bannon has struck a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's team and will be interviewed by prosecutors instead of testifying
before the grand jury, two people familiar with the process told CNN. He is expected to cooperate with the special counsel, the sources
said.
The sources did not say when the interview will take place or if the subpoena would be withdrawn.
Bannon, the former White House chief strategist for President Donald Trump, is expected to talk openly to Mueller's team.
Bannon's
attorney told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that Bannon would answer questions when he goes to the special counsel
because executive privilege would not apply, according to one of the sources.
A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
Last week, the FBI attempted to serve Bannon with a subpoena to appear before the grand jury in the Russia probe. He referred
agents to his attorney, multiple sources said.
"Mr. President," Acosta shouted three times, finally getting Trump's attention, "Did you say
that you want more people to come in from Norway? Did you say that you wanted more people from
Norway? Is that true Mr. President?" Acosta barked at Trump.
" I want them to come in from everywhere everywhere. Thank you very much everybody ," Trump
replied while Acosta continued to interject.
" Just Caucasian or white countries, sir? Or do you want people to come in from other parts
of the world people of color ," Acosta asked - effectively calling Trump racist, to which Trump
looked Acosta directly in the eye and simply said:
Acosta spoke about the incident with Wolf Blitzer afterwards and said it was clear the
president was ordering him out of the room. Acosta said he tried to ask his questions again
when Trump and Nazarbayev gave a joint statement later on, but Deputy Press Secretary Hogan
Gidley "got right up in my face" and started shouting at him to block out any questions.
"It was that kind of a display," Acosta recalled. "It reminded me of something you might see
in less democratic countries when people at the White House or officials of a foreign
government attempt to get in the way of the press in doing their jobs."
Acosta and CNN were infamously humiliated after Trump called them "fake news" during a
January, 2017 press conference in which Acosta attempted to shoehorn a question in front of
another reporter:
Meanwhile, Acosta was shut down in December by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
after he tried to grandstand during a press briefing over being called "Fake News," telling her
that sometimes reporters make "honest mistakes."
Sanders shot back; "When journalists make honest mistakes, they should own up to them.
Sometimes, and a lot of times, you don't," only to be temporarily cut off by Acosta.
"I'm sorry, I'm not finished," Sanders fired back, adding "There is a very big difference
between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people... you cannot
say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely putting out information you know is
false."
The problem with Bannon is that he never have a realistic economic program, despite his claims of being the "economic
nationalist". The only thing I heard is the idea of this huge investment into infrastructure which is possible because
interest rate are so low.
That's why establishment Republicans were able to neutralize Bannon even before his self-immolation by talking too much to
Wolff, who was only too happy to push him under the bus to earn quick bucks.
Notable quotes:
"... Bannon still thinks of himself as a revolutionary. That self-perception won't change. It's just that now he has no vehicle, no staff, no platform, and no major donors funding his ambitions." ..."
"... Is the alt-right leaderless and destined for irrelevance? Is it a "movement" at all? Has the establishment all but won the Republican civil war? ..."
"... "What made Breitbart a must-read was the idea that by reading it you're getting insight into the president. That's gone now and there's no one at Breitbart that will have proximity to the president in the way Bannon did. They are a platform without any obvious political relevance or proximity to the president." ..."
He had been excommunicated by the president, the White House, his billionaire patron and now
his own company. "The guy loves history," the website Axios noted. "Well, this political
suicide is historic. Bannon still thinks of himself as a revolutionary. That
self-perception won't change. It's just that now he has no vehicle, no staff, no platform, and
no major donors funding his ambitions."
A giant of the populist base that helped propel Trump to victory has been toppled, raising
questions about the movement he left behind. Is the alt-right leaderless and destined for
irrelevance? Is it a "movement" at all? Has the establishment all but won the Republican civil
war?
... ... ...
Miller, 32, has emerged as the keeper of the nationalist flame. He is a hardliner on
immigration and a key architect of the controversial travel ban. Like Trump and Bannon, he also
revels in verbal combat. Last Sunday he clashed with CNN host Jake Tapper
... ... ...
Then came Thursday's tirade about "shithole" countries, which provoked a worldwide outcry.
But many on the right turned a blind eye or even endorsed the comments, providing a glimpse of
the stark polarisation in America and some potential heirs to Bannon's crown. Fox News host
Tucker Carlson told viewers Trump's point was "something that almost every single person in
America actually agrees with". Ann Coulter tweeted: "He's trying to win me back."
As for the post-Bannon Breitbart, it made its allegiance clear. After all, Breitbart is
still run by Bannon protégés. Matt Boyle, its Washington editor, has long been
close to Bannon and is shaping its political coverage. Alex Marlow, a longtime stalwart of the
website, is still its top editor and former Nigel Farage aide Raheem Kassam is still its London
editor. One source close to Bannon said: "Nothing is changing in terms of the coverage and what
it does is allow him to focus on the actual issues."
Even so, the site faces a struggle to remain relevant. Kurt Bardella, a political
commentator and former Breitbart spokesman, said: "What made Breitbart a must-read was the
idea that by reading it you're getting insight into the president. That's gone now and there's
no one at Breitbart that will have proximity to the president in the way Bannon did. They are a
platform without any obvious political relevance or proximity to the president."
"... It is true that Mr. Miller can come off as serious. After all he is a very serious guy. He does not play mental footsie with fools. The guy has studied U.S. immigration more deeply than just about the entire Washington press corps combined. He knows more about immigration than any of them. Mr. Miller is not going to get into intellectual soft-pillow fights with reporters and lawmakers wearing their silly, soft and fuzzy pajamas. ..."
CNN's Stephen Miller incident proves how fake news ignorantly smears conservatives
White House adviser does not play mental footsie with fools
White House adviser Stephen Miller appears on CNN anchor Jake Tapper Sunday
show. After an exchange, Mr. Tapper cut off Mr. Miller's mic, saying, "I think I've wasted enough of my
viewers' time." (CNN.com)
Behold, the anatomy of a "fake news" smear.
The latest drive-by character assassination of
White House
adviser
Stephen Miller
began, as it so
often does, in a fact-free live TV orgy of public posturing by a journalist eager to display his
virgin-snow virtue when it comes to unalloyed hatred of President
Donald Trump
.
This time it was CNN anchor Jake (
Mr.
Trump
calls him "Fake") Tapper, who invited
Mr. Miller
on his Sunday show to
respond to Mr. Tapper's complex conspiracy theory about how the president is somehow unfit or too
mentally unstable to occupy the
White
House
.
Obviously, Fake Tapper missed the report on Twitter that actually
Mr. Trump
is a "very stable
genius."
Anyhoo,
Mr. Miller
had no
intention of playing any of Fake Tapper's reindeer games. Instead, he wanted to talk about the
unrelenting unfairness of CNN and its coverage of
Mr. Trump
.
When
Mr. Miller
refused to
engage in Mr. Tapper's conspiracy fantasy, the anchor changed his mind and decided he no longer wanted
Mr. Miller
on his show.
"I think I've wasted enough of my viewer's time," he petulantly whined before cutting off
Mr. Miller
's mic.
It was a small, sad, silly moment in the death gurgles of American journalism. But enough to whip
up a little buzz on Twitter or some Internet echo chamber. Which is all Fake Tapper was going for in
the first place.
In all the frenzy, doddering old House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi clamored over to the bright
lights to declare through her unglued dentures that
Mr. Miller
-- a Jew -- is somehow a
"white supremacist."
And then she declared that the Jew be fired from the
White House
. How that does not make
Nancy Pelosi -- a Christian, despite her infatuation with abortion -- an anti-Semite?
Details. Minor details. Then, along comes a Washington reporter who announces that
Mr. Miller
is "standing in the
way of an immigration deal." Not clear if this "deal" is a good one or a bad one.
Mr. Miller
is just standing in
the way of it, which further proves he is a white supremacist. Her entire story was entirely based on unnamed "sources," according to the reporter. Another death
gurgle of American journalism. The story includes a link to a "very tense and loud exchange"
Mr. Miller
had last year with
another CNN reporter in which
Mr.
Miller
utterly eviscerated the reporter over his near total ignorance of immigration policy in
America.
All that matters to doltish reporters around here, though, is that the exchange was "very tense and
loud."
Mr. Miller
is not only a
(Jewish) white supremacist, he is an angry (Jewish) white supremacist. So, like Hitler, basically.
Only Jewish.
It is true that
Mr. Miller
can
come off as serious. After all he is a very serious guy. He does not play mental footsie with fools.
The guy has studied U.S. immigration more deeply than just about the entire Washington press corps
combined. He knows more about immigration than any of them.
Mr. Miller
is not going to get
into intellectual soft-pillow fights with reporters and lawmakers wearing their silly, soft and fuzzy
pajamas.
Rather,
Mr. Miller
-- and his
boss -- wants desperately to fix a horribly broken immigration system that created this whole
unfortunate class of illegal Dreamers in the first place and prevent a future generation of
"Dreamers."
If you have any doubt about the challenge
Mr. Miller
and
Mr. Trump
face in honestly
addressing illegal immigration in this country, consider this: During this week's bipartisan meeting
in the
White House
to begin
negotiations, the word "DACA" was uttered 61 times. The universal sentiment among lawmakers from both
parties was to pass some kind of "DACA" legislation that would legalize the illegal-immigrant
Dreamers.
Sixty-one times.
The word "American" was used just 20 times. "Worker" only twice. "Citizen" not once.
"Citizenship" was used three times -- as in the DACA bill should give Dreamers "citizenship." The words "miner," "unemployed," and "lawful" were never uttered during the 55-minute confab. Perhaps
Mr. Miller
is
"standing in the way of an immigration deal" with these people. But is that a bad thing?
Battered by the backlash from Michael Wolff's book, Steve Bannon is trying to make amends
with the Trump family, providing a statement to Axios that expresses "regret" to President
Trump and praises his son, Donald Trump Jr.
"Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his
advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around."
"My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda -- as I have shown daily
in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and
appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama."
"President Trump was the only candidate that could have taken on and defeated the Clinton
apparatus. I am the only person to date to conduct a global effort to preach the message of
Trump and Trump_vs_deep_state; and remain ready to stand in the breach for this president's efforts to
make America great again."
"My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a
Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines
to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of 'the evil
empire' and to making films about Reagan's war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton's
involvement in selling uranium to them."
"My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with
experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are
duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don
Jr."
"Everything I have to say about the ridiculous nature of the Russian 'collusion'
investigation I said on my 60 Minutes interview. There was no collusion and the investigation
is a witch hunt."
"I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has
diverted attention from the president's historical accomplishments in the first year of his
presidency."
The backstory ... In Wolff's book, Bannon is quoted as saying of Mueller's prosecutors:
"They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.'"
Be smart: While Bannon's statement may seem like a baby step, he's as stubborn as Trump when
it comes to apologizing and admitting he has made a mistake. He views any concession as a sign
of humiliating weakness.
What's next: Look for Don Jr. to accept the statement graciously. But Bannon has further to
go with President Trump: Axios has learned that POTUS has said that he wants surrogates who
appear for him on TV to "bury Steve."
Axios' Jonathan Swan
reported last night : Trump has been working the phones over the past several days,
telling allies they need to choose between him and Bannon.
P.S. "Fake book" ... Trump tweets as he leaves Camp David: "I've had to put up with the Fake
News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up
with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author."
"Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!"
IMHO they are viable: Wolff did numerous mistakes that can be exploited against him and his
publisher. Boasting about "taking the President down" in his interviews is one such blunder.
Bannon is another Wolff vulnerability. Should Bannon disclaim the quotes Wolff should iether
produce tapes or list losing his fortune. Actually Bannon is in better position to sue Wolff then
the President and that can be used.
But Wolff can be sued for behaviour outside NY libel statute. for example for illegal recoding as he boasted that he has
tapes. Whether they were obtained legally is a big, big question. His statements in emails and phone conversations such as
"I want to take Trump down" also might contain tidbit that can prove malice.
"There are no federal libel laws, so it will be difficult for Trump to 'open them up,' as he
called for during the campaign," said Alexandra Ellerbeck, the North America Program
Coordinator for Committee to Protect Journalists. "It seems like what he really objects to is
the Supreme Court decision New York Times v. Sullivan , which puts in place a standard
of 'actual malice' for libel suits brought by public officials."
In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that news publications could not be sued for libel by
public figures unless there was grounds for false reporting. While Trump may have difficulty
proving this with the media outlets he regularly disparages over Twitter -- he
announced his intentions to list the most "corrupt" media organizations on the onset of
2018 -- he could have legal grounds with Wolff. Numerous actors have contested the claims made
in Fire and Fury , including White House aides and Washington Post reporter
Mark Berman .
"We want fairness," the president said. "Can't say things that are false, knowingly false,
and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. We are going to take a very, very
strong look at that, and I think what the American people want to see is fairness."
A lawyer representing Trump sent Henry Holt and Co., Fire and Fury 's publisher, a
cease and desist letter to prevent the book's publication. Fire and Fury 's
publication date was moved up and is now a #1 New York Timesbest-seller
"... President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon will appear before the House Intelligence Committee to discuss Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A source familiar with the probe told Reuters on Thursday that the interview is likely to focus on Bannon's time during the campaign, rather than his brief stint at the White House. ..."
"... Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House ..."
President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon will appear before the House
Intelligence Committee to discuss Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A
source familiar with the probe
told Reuters on Thursday that the interview is likely to focus on Bannon's time during the
campaign, rather than his brief stint at the White House.
The Daily Beast reaffirmed
the report, confirming that Bannon had retained white collar attorney Bill Burck of the firm
Quinn Emanuel. Burck currently represents White House Counsel Don McGahn and former Chief of
Staff Reince Priebus for the Russia investigation.
Although Bannon has managed to avoid questioning by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team,
he has gone on-record criticizing the Trump team's handling of the Russia investigation.
After Bannon was ousted from the White House last August, the former aide called the
president's decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey the worst blunder "in modern
political history" during a 60 Minutes interview.
Bannon also called a Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump, Jr. and Russians claiming to
have damaging information on former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "treasonous" and
"unpatriotic." The remarks surfaced in reporter Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House , leading to Bannon's firing from
Breitbart and universal condemnation
from GOP leaders.
Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon's fall has accelerated into a plummet. A
conservative watchdog group helmed by Bannon worked to discredit President Donald Trump during
the onset of the 2016 presidential primary, according to opposition research obtained by
CNN.
Collected by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and author Peter Schweizer, the
document reportedly describes connections between Trump's companies and mafia figures,
allegations that have long circled the president's business enterprise. GAI was co-founded by
Schweizer and Bannon in 2012 and received heavy funding from the Mercer family -- one of
Trump's largest campaign contributors. Before backing Trump, the Mercer family publicly
supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz for the presidency.
"We research political figures from all political parties and our basic premise is follow
the money. That's what guides our research approach," Schweizer told CNN.
A source familiar with the organization confirmed to CNN that GAI collected research on all
Republican and Democratic candidates during the 2016 presidential election. Additional sources
confirmed that the document was shared with GOP donors during the primary, but made no
indication as to whether Trump was aware of its existence when he hired Bannon as his
campaign's CEO.
"... I'd say there is a similarity to the battle between Hitler and Rohm. Between the elite part of teh party that openly supports the capitalist elite (and that is exactly what trump does) and the plebian part that at least nominally thinks it supports those lower down (as long as they are the correct race, religion, etc). ..."
Now that's one lightweight Svengali. Not smart enough to outfox a journalist, too stupid to
believe in his own myths and not charismatic enough to convince the Mercers the dumb
technocrats who funded his pseudo christian nationalist politics to carry on paying for the
horseshit masquerading as an ideology.
"My experience with extremists on the right or left is that they will quickly turn on
former allies who dare to violate the standards of ideological purity"
George Orwell: `Homage to Catalonia`
Reds (Communists) turn on Blacks (Anarchists), fascists win.
I'd say there is a similarity to the battle between Hitler and Rohm. Between the elite
part of teh party that openly supports the capitalist elite (and that is exactly what trump
does) and the plebian part that at least nominally thinks it supports those lower down (as
long as they are the correct race, religion, etc).
It was far more than that. The SA wanted to replace the armed forces as a sort of people's
army. Crushing the leadership of the SA was one of the prices Hitler (willingly) paid for
support of the army, who also helped with the purge. Although the SA remained as an important
and powerful organisation after the night of the long knives it was never again a threat to
the more established parts of the German ruling elite.
On the other side of this the curtailing of the power of the SA was also used by the Nazi
regime to show foreign powers that really Nazism wasn't that radical or a threat to them
"... Last Thursday, resident media critic John Nolte penned a piece that included tweets from Don Jr blaming Bannon for the loss of the Alabama special Senate election. He called Bannon's tenure a "nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying and undermining the president". ..."
"... Jonah Goldberg at National Review, who opined that "no personality in modern political history has so completely squandered an opportunity to be an influential force in American life, particularly in so short a period of time" ..."
Most outlets haven't found the choice to be at all difficult. Not even Breitbart, the
website that until late on Tuesday, Bannon nominally controlled.
Over the last week, many of Breitbart's articles uncritically relayed the insults hurled at
Bannon by the president and his allies.
Last Thursday, resident media critic John Nolte penned a piece that included tweets from
Don Jr blaming Bannon for the loss of the Alabama special Senate election. He called Bannon's
tenure a "nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying and undermining the
president".
On Saturday, Charlie Spiering offered an unvarnished report on the president's remarks that
his boss was "sloppy" and was "dumped like a dog".
And just yesterday, Dylan Gwinn laid out an unsympathetic account of the way the White House
spurned Bannon's belated attempt to apologize.
But the brickbats for Bannon weren't just coming from his paid writers.
Last Wednesday on Infowars, Alex Jones's conspiracy swamp, Paul Joseph Watson gleefully
reported that Breitbart's readers were dumping on him in the comment threads of the site's own
articles.
On one of the main internet hubs of pro-Trump sentiment, the notorious "The Donald"
subreddit, Bannon's erstwhile status was also under threat. Among the general jeering were a
few expressions of ambivalence, or confusion: "Tough case. He does promote an America First
agenda, no doubt, but he is also fully responsible for bringing a SNAKE into the WH."
... ... ...
Some were lacerating, like Jonah Goldberg at National Review, who opined that "no
personality in modern political history has so completely squandered an opportunity to be an
influential force in American life, particularly in so short a period of time" . The Trump
skeptics at Redstate coined a new word, "Bannonfreude", to encapsulate its glee.
1: Promote Trump_vs_deep_state
2: Promote yourself as the brains and driving force behind Trump_vs_deep_state
3: Conspire behind the scenes to publicly undermine Trump_vs_deep_state and everything you are famous
for achieving
4: Make sure the book you secretly conspired to have written clearly names you as one of its
main sources
Bannon was an idiot. Talk about pissing in your own lounge room. He squandered the
opportunity of a life time. What a dumbass. The Wolff book is a joke. There is a lot more to
come out about the BS aspect of it. Yes the White House was dysfunctional at the beginning
but not to that extent. Wolff is another one who think he walks on water. Wait to see him
drown.
What Steve Bannon achieved with Breitbart is impressive and will have a huge impact on our
history, but he looks to have fallen victim to the same Washington hubris he spent years
railing against. Nobody is bigger than the movement, not even him.
Anarchic popularists, like Farage and Bannon, essentially seem to think that being verbally
clever, angry radicals reflects some profound knowledge only they have discovered and their
emotive displays reflect their gravitas and potency. Most onlookers, however, readily
recognise the desparation of their absurdity. Their blank statements always sound hollow and
the intensity of their massage only highlights complete vacuousness of their propositions
with little to indicate wider life experience to support their grasps for airtime. There is
almost no political support for their voices reflecting an wider public base. The crudity of
their manner wastes our time! We will wonder why the media gave them so much airtime. Its
like assuming global warming is an opinion, so let have the bonkers comments from Nigel
Lawson?
"... That's not to endorse the guy, who has played his hand badly. I don't think it's a coincidence that "Steve Bannon" rhymes and scans with "loose cannon." ..."
"... What I'm saying is that Bannon is a better Trumpist than Trump. I like Trump_vs_deep_state more than I like either guy. I dream fondly of a well-mannered, well-read politician of the traditional gray and boring type -- a Coolidge or an Eisenhower -- who is a dogmatic and unwavering Trumpist. ..."
"... ...I want my politicians and their advisers to have the right ideas, but I also want them to be firm, cunning, and effective in making those ideas national policy and law. I want a gray, boring, politically skillful Trumpist. ..."
Following reports that [Ivanka Trump's husband Jared] Kushner had tried to set up a
private communication channel with the Kremlin, Bannon called Ivanka a "f–king liar,"
in front of the President.
Trump responded only by telling her "I told you this is a tough town, baby" according to
Wolff's book.
That sounds true to me -- very Trumpish, even though it goes against the grain of other
things we've heard, and that Michael Wolff says, about the President's partiality to his
children.
That his children are, in their general sensibilities, metropolitan liberals seems to be one
of the main points of contention between Trump and Bannon. In the matter of not suffering fools
gladly, Bannon is easily Trump's match; but un -like Trump he regards all metropolitan
liberals, without qualification or favor, as fools.
Inevitably one finds oneself taking sides here: Trumpite or Bannonite. I'm going to declare
myself, with a major qualification, a Bannonite. I like
Bannon's strong nationalism and his skepticism of traditional postwar American
conservatism, with its missionary globalism and its fantasies about private-enterprise
healthcare provision.
That's not to endorse the guy, who has played his hand badly. I don't think it's a
coincidence that "Steve Bannon" rhymes and scans with "loose
cannon."
I'd add the same qualification to my support for Trump, though. The President does sometimes
come across as coarse and ignorant.
What I'm saying is that Bannon is a better Trumpist than Trump. I like Trump_vs_deep_state more
than I like either guy. I dream fondly of a
well-mannered, well-read politician of the traditional gray and boring type -- a Coolidge
or an Eisenhower -- who is a dogmatic and unwavering Trumpist.
...I want my politicians and their advisers to have the right ideas, but I also want
them to be firm, cunning, and effective in making those ideas national policy and law. I want a
gray, boring, politically skillful Trumpist.
"... I am sorry Ben but you have to realise that the columnist Michael Wolfe has been known for making up quote and spreading bullshit. I agree Bannon was stupid for not researching his interviewer. ..."
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Bannon just threw the Trump's family under the bus... and you got Benny Hill over here trying to
soft-shoe explain this away.... lol 3
If
Bannon wasn't a powerful figure, why did Trump name him Chief Strategist of his campaign and want to put him in the
National Security Council? Calling Bannon dumb is one thing but calling him unimportant is a really really far reach
Ben.
I
am sorry Ben but you have to realise that the columnist Michael Wolfe has been known for making up quote and spreading
bullshit. I agree Bannon was stupid for not researching his interviewer. Sorry but this seems a little terrible about your
researcher.
I
wish Ben would give us insight on how Steve Bannon was as a boss. It's seems to me that there is no love loss on that
account. He wouldn't be going nails to the wall against Bannon if he actually liked the guy.
Goat In A Boat On A Moat
6 days ago
If
Bannon is talking shit, why issue a cease and desist and why state he has broken a NDA?
It completes a spectacular fallout between Mr Bannon, who was credited with securing Mr
Trump the White House, and the president himself.
... ... ...
It is not clear whether Mr Bannon, at the heart of Mr Trump's administration less than a
year ago, will continue his attempt to unseat incumbent Republicans.
"... The real problem, in fact, was not the evil flowing into the American homeland from abroad -- whether imports, illegals or terrorists. Rather, it was the outward flow of Washington's monetary and military imperialism that was gutting capitalist prosperity domestically and generating terrorist blowback abroad. ..."
"... Reprinted excerpt with permission from David Stockman's ContraCorner . ..."
Good riddance to Steve Bannon. The last thing America needed was a
conservative/populist/statist alternative to the Welfare State/Warfare State/Bailout State
status quo. Yet what Bannonism boiled down to was essentially acquiescence to the latter --
even as it drove politicization deeper into the sphere of culture, communications and
commerce.
... ... ...
The real problem, in fact, was not the evil flowing into the American homeland from
abroad -- whether imports, illegals or terrorists. Rather, it was the outward flow of
Washington's monetary and military imperialism that was gutting capitalist prosperity
domestically and generating terrorist blowback abroad.
... ... ...
Nor did it grasp that the real cause of Flyover America's distress is the Fed's multi-decade
regime of financial repression and Wall Street price-keeping policies which: (1) deplete the
real pay of workers via the FOMC's absurd 2 percent inflation target; (2) savage the bank
balances of savers and retirees via ZIRP; (3) gut jobs, investment and real pay in the business
sector via the C-suites' strip-mining of corporate balance sheets and cash flows to fund Wall
Street-pleasing stock buybacks, fatter dividends and M&A empire building; and 4) impale the
bottom 80 percent of households on a un-repayable treadmill of (temporarily) cheap debt in
order to sustain a simulacrum of middle class living standards.
At the same time, these pernicious monetary central planning policies did fuel the greatest
(unsustainable) financial asset inflation in recorded history, thereby showering the top one
percent and 10 percent with upwards of $35 trillion of windfall wealth (on paper). At bottom,
Fed policy amounted to "trickle-up" with malice aforethought, and it was sponsored and endorsed
by the beltway bipartisan consensus.
Lose lips sink ships: "In the book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Bannon called Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with
Russians "treasonous" and said Ivanka Trump is "dumb as a brick."
Notable quotes:
"... CNN reported that there's a "hard push" to convince Breitbart CEO Larry Solov and Susie Breitbart, widow of founder Andrew Breitbart, to part ways with Bannon. ..."
"... Bannon has quickly lost his footing in the aftermath of his involvement of a soon-to-be-released book that casts Trump, his family and tenure in a wholly negative light. ..."
"... Conservative pundits took their shot at Bannon on Thursday; Matt Drudge tweeted about the Bannon-Breitbart fallout and Rush Limbaugh reminded his audience that Bannon was "the big leaker" while in the White House ..."
The board of Breitbart News Network LLC. is considering removing Steve Bannon as chairman, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Many of the board members -- including Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire financier Robert Mercer -- are supportive of such
a move, pending legal entanglements with Bannon that might have to get ironed out, the Journal reported.
CNN reported that there's a "hard push" to convince Breitbart CEO Larry Solov and Susie Breitbart, widow of founder Andrew Breitbart,
to part ways with Bannon.
Even the White House on Thursday said Breitbart should consider axing Bannon.
The Mercers distanced themselves from Bannon on Thursday, publicly rebuking the now disgraced former chief strategist to President
Donald Trump and yanking their financial support.
Bannon has quickly lost his footing in the aftermath of his involvement of a soon-to-be-released book that casts Trump, his family
and tenure in a wholly negative light.
In the book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Bannon called Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians "treasonous"
and said Ivanka Trump is "dumb as a brick."
Conservative pundits took their shot at Bannon on Thursday; Matt Drudge tweeted about the Bannon-Breitbart fallout and Rush
Limbaugh reminded his audience that Bannon was "the big leaker" while in the White House
"Once there was a collection of Judeo-Christian nation-states, Bannon argued, that practiced a humane form of biblical capitalism
and fostered culturally coherent communities."
The history of 18th and 19th century capitalism is rife with open Anti-Semitism. Jews were tolerated (barely) and periodically
subjected to everything from mild prejudicial social-shunning to exclusion from certain fields of endeavor to ...progroms.
"Judeo-Christian"
is mythological revisionism that is currently advantageous politically to the Right Wing since it features a pro-Israel, anti-Muslim,
and radical Christian "End-of-Days" cultism that relies on the "rise of Israel" fulfillment of prophecy.
As for the "humane form of biblical capitalism" that relied on slavery as an economic engine, famine as an expedient solution
(India during WW II) and other depredations such as intolerable working conditions and starvation wages--how is that better than
Davos-style Globalism?
Bannon is a proto-fascist opportunist -- dangerous, big-league. The day he gets Trump distracted from Meryl Streep and has
Trumps attention for that minute will be the first of many disasters. You can pine for the boiler-plate Paul Ryan version of predictable
and consistent management of Capitalism.
Judeo-Christian forces vs Islamofascism -- there's a faint whiff of Crusade in that juxtaposition, but don't be naive-
the real Crusade has already begun, besieging the fundamental values of honesty, decency, and humanism.
Dugin's contempt for human rights is consistent with his belief in a social order based on religion (likeiwse Bannon). Trump
could hardly care less about that, he's more of a libertine.
What Trump, Bannon, Dugin, and Putin can all agree on is consolidation of national government and corporate interests, a kind
of corporatism, similar to Fascism under Mussolini. Which had also a strong element of "Make Italy Great Again", with the Roman
Empire as its nostalgic anchor.
The uncertain economic and social times we are in make some people yearn for a strong leader. A large minority of Americans
seems to see that in Trump. What I see coming forward is not at all chaos, but rather the systematic and organized looting of
our economy under a government that puts corporate interests above all else.
A very perceptive column. This makes the mission of the Christian left very clear. Globalism at its best is the attempt to
harness the creative energy of humanity to build a world which is just, in harmony with itself, and advancing its understanding
of the natural world and human behavior for the benefit of all. The Christian left must provide the spiritual vision to energize
this effort, covering all of our efforts with compassion. Otherwise, Bannon's perception of a vacuum at the heart of what we are
doing will be proved true.
The suggestion that once in office, Trump and his acolytes will simply abandon their closely held philosophical and actual
prejudices and fall lovingly into the arms of more traditional, establishment advisors is ridiculous. There is nothing in the
history of either Trump or his fire-breathing true believers to indicate that compromise is a notion that comes easily, if at
all, to them. More likely, the gridlock disease that has long plagued Congress may be transmitted to the White House, where we'll
then find that an emotional and experientially ill-equipped president reaches into his resentment-filled gut to make a decision
that reflects not considered judgment, but his very own biases that can be communicated in a 140 character tweet.
Where we agree we can move forward where we disagree is the work we need to do. To move forward with disagreement leads to
anger, violence and ultimately war.
What's important to remember about Trump, as Brooks points out here, is that he is "basically uninterested in anything but
his own status at the moment." In 10 days, Trump's status at the moment will be subject to the opinions of all Americans. If things
turn south--and most times in a presidency things eventually turn south--who will Trump listen to in order to improve his "status
at the moment'? Remember, it was Steve Bannon who he turned to when his campaign was on the rocks, not General Mattis.
A problem for Trump the campaigner (though it may in fact have been a strength among his most ardent supporters) was his willingness
to say/do seemingly anything in order to get elected, i.e. jail his opponent, extra-constitutional surveillance of Muslims, mock
a disabled reporter, retweet white supremacists, etc.
To me, the question is, once in power, will Trump be willing to do anything in order to maintain or improve his "status at
the moment." For thin-skinned, needy leaders like Trump, when people at home turn on him, finding enemies abroad is usually the
answer. It's troubling to imagine who will have his ear then.
Bannon mentioning Christianity makes me wonder what he really thinks about Christ and his teachings. The same goes with his
boss, Donald Trump. I fail to see anything at all in their behavior that reflects what Jesus taught. All this makes me question
what supposedly Christian conservative Trump supporters think about their faith and how it matches up with the behavior of Bannon
and Trump.
How is globalism de-spiritualized? What about loving your neighbor as yourself? That is a fundamental teaching of Christianity,
and it doesn't stop at our borders.
I don't know how Mr. Bannon considers historical capitalism to have been humane. Child labor? Oppression of local workers across
the globe? Extreme pollution to the point of rivers burning (Cuyahoga River in Cincinnati) or choking smog (London, Los Angeles,
Mexico City, Delhi)? His version is history written by the victors.
"... Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked and ridiculed them. ..."
"... The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words. ..."
"... Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director, Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least. ..."
"... Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week, MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should be "investigated." ..."
"... I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in that during the Obama administration. ..."
"... Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill , in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything. . . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past." ..."
"... five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter . . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks. ..."
"... I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with that sentiment. ..."
Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the
CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked
and ridiculed them.
The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media
should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition
party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words.
Joel Simon, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told CNN that "this kind of speech not [only] undermines the work of the
media in this country, it emboldens autocratic leaders around the world." Jacob Weisberg, the head of the Slate Group, tweeted that
Bannon's comment was terrifying and "tyrannical."
Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director,
Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat
an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least.
Ever since Bannon's outburst, you can hear the media gears meshing in the effort to undermine him. In TV green rooms and at Washington
parties, I've heard journalists say outright that it's time to get him. Time magazine put a sinister-looking Bannon on its
cover, describing him as "The Great Manipulator." Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time , boasted to MSNBC that
the image was in keeping with a tradition of controversial covers that put leaders in their place. "Likewise, putting [former White
House aide] Mike Deaver on the cover, the brains behind Ronald Reagan, that ended up bringing down Reagan," he told the hosts of
Morning Joe . "So you've got to have these checks and balances, whether it's the judiciary or the press."
Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week,
MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in
the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should
be "investigated."
I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in
that during the Obama administration.
It wasn't until four years after the passage of Obamacare that a journalist reported on just how powerful White House counselor
Valerie Jarrett had been in its flawed implementation. Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill
, in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group
of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much
of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly
with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything.
. . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett
inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At
this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past."
Brill then bluntly told the president that five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter
. . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position
by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment
of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received
as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks.
I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that
if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with
that sentiment.
But the media's effort to turn Bannon into an enemy of the people is veering into hysterical character assassination. The Sunday
print edition of the New York Times ran an astonishing 1,500-word story headlined: "Fascists Too Lax for a Philosopher Cited
by Bannon." (The online headline now reads, "Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists.") The Times based this
headline on what it admits was "a passing reference" in
a speech by Bannon at a Vatican conference in 2014 . In that speech, Bannon made a single mention of Julius Evola, an obscure
Italian philosopher who opposed modernity and cozied up to Mussolini's Italian Fascists.
"... Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked and ridiculed them. ..."
"... The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words. ..."
"... Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director, Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least. ..."
"... Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week, MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should be "investigated." ..."
"... I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in that during the Obama administration. ..."
"... Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill , in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything. . . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past." ..."
"... five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter . . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks. ..."
"... I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with that sentiment. ..."
Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the
CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked
and ridiculed them.
The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media
should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition
party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words.
Joel Simon, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told CNN that "this kind of speech not [only] undermines the work of the
media in this country, it emboldens autocratic leaders around the world." Jacob Weisberg, the head of the Slate Group, tweeted that
Bannon's comment was terrifying and "tyrannical."
Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director,
Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat
an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least.
Ever since Bannon's outburst, you can hear the media gears meshing in the effort to undermine him. In TV green rooms and at Washington
parties, I've heard journalists say outright that it's time to get him. Time magazine put a sinister-looking Bannon on its
cover, describing him as "The Great Manipulator." Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time , boasted to MSNBC that
the image was in keeping with a tradition of controversial covers that put leaders in their place. "Likewise, putting [former White
House aide] Mike Deaver on the cover, the brains behind Ronald Reagan, that ended up bringing down Reagan," he told the hosts of
Morning Joe . "So you've got to have these checks and balances, whether it's the judiciary or the press."
Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week,
MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in
the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should
be "investigated."
I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in
that during the Obama administration.
It wasn't until four years after the passage of Obamacare that a journalist reported on just how powerful White House counselor
Valerie Jarrett had been in its flawed implementation. Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill
, in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group
of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much
of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly
with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything.
. . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett
inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At
this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past."
Brill then bluntly told the president that five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter
. . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position
by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment
of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received
as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks.
I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that
if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with
that sentiment.
But the media's effort to turn Bannon into an enemy of the people is veering into hysterical character assassination. The Sunday
print edition of the New York Times ran an astonishing 1,500-word story headlined: "Fascists Too Lax for a Philosopher Cited
by Bannon." (The online headline now reads, "Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists.") The Times based this
headline on what it admits was "a passing reference" in
a speech by Bannon at a Vatican conference in 2014 . In that speech, Bannon made a single mention of Julius Evola, an obscure
Italian philosopher who opposed modernity and cozied up to Mussolini's Italian Fascists.
"... In a wide-ranging interview with The New American magazine at his Florida studio, Stone offered insight into Trump -- and into his enemies [the deep state] and their tactics. " It's easy to forget that the shocking upset that Donald Trump pulled off has never been forgotten or acknowledged by the globalist cabal that has really infected both of our major parties, " he explained. "I say that as someone who is a sentimental Republican, but a Republican in the mold of Barry Goldwater who wanted government out of the bedroom, out of the boardroom, that believed in peace through strength, not, you know, neocons cruising the globe looking for expensive wars to profiteer in and stick our nose in." New American ..."
Longtime Trump advisor and confidante Roger Stone is warning America that the Deep State is getting desperate to find a way to
remove Trump from office and since Plan "A" and "B" are not working out, a horrific Plan "C" may have to be put into play.
In a wide-ranging interview with
The New American magazine
at his Florida studio, Stone offered insight into Trump -- and into his enemies [the deep state]
and their tactics. "
It's easy to forget that the shocking upset that Donald Trump pulled off has never been forgotten
or acknowledged by the globalist cabal that has really infected both of our major parties,
" he explained. "I say that
as someone who is a sentimental Republican, but a Republican in the mold of Barry Goldwater who wanted government out of the
bedroom, out of the boardroom, that believed in peace through strength, not, you know, neocons cruising the globe looking for
expensive wars to profiteer in and stick our nose in."
New
American
"He's a shock to the system," said Stone, a legendary political operative who, in addition to his longtime relationship
with Trump, has served as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Senator Bob Dole, and others. According to
Stone, Donald Trump's election represented the "hostile takeover of the old Republican Party, which we now hope to remake in
his image as a party that stands for economic nationalism, that stands for putting American interests ahead of globalist interests,
and re-affirms our sovereign rights as Americans."
"Now, I think the establishment, at this time, when the president has just passed his tax cut, has cut these regulations
-- so you see a record stock market, you see unemployment at all time lows, you see a booming housing market --
it's
easy to misread the deep enmity and hatred that the globalists and the Insiders have for this president, and to underestimate
their resolve to remove him
."
Stone believes the Deep State would, in fact, attempt to murder the president when Plan A and B fail, which seems the likely
scenario. "Having written books on the Kennedy assassination, having highlighted the attempted assassination of President Ronald
Reagan by people deeply associated with the Bush family, I think the establishment has Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C," he said.
"
Plan
A is very clearly a take-down by the illegitimate Special Counsel Robert Mueller,
who was appointed not by Jeff Sessions,
not at the direction of the president, but by this fellow Rosenstein, who is a close associate of Mueller and [disgraced former
FBI boss James] Comey, and who is a globalist Bush insider, a liberal Republican, who somehow got the number two position in
the Trump Justice Department," Stone warned, saying the establishment was now hoping Trump would fire Mueller to regain the
upper hand.
The other thing that is becoming more and more apparent, Stone said, is that "neither Mr. Mueller nor the House nor the
Senate Intelligence committees nor the Judiciary committees in those bodies have been able to find any evidence of Russian
collusion."
"Sorry, but Don Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer that provided nothing is perfectly legal and proper," Stone said. "There's
nothing wrong with it. She produced no evidence, but what we did learn is that she was in the country thanks to the Obama FBI,
without a visa, and she was popping up and being photographed at Hillary rallies and in John McCain's office. She's a Quisling!
It's a setup! She's a spy. She delivered nothing. It's an attempt to entrap Donny Jr. in a meeting that's perfectly innocuous
and perfectly legal."
But the deep state's Plan B is to invoke the 25th Amendment.
"So we'll see an uptick in all of this 'Trump is mentally imbalanced, Trump is insane, Trump must be removed,'" Stone warned.
"Now you have to examine the extent to which they can whip up that hysteria as a backdrop because, without that hysteria, such
a political move on the president will fail." And once Plan B fails, the globalists will move on to Plan C, which is simply
an assassination.
"We know Plan C. We saw it in the case of
President John F. Kennedy,
who had crossed the Central Intelligence Agency and the Deep State over both the Cuban Missile
Crisis and the Bay of Pigs, both, I think, central,"
he said.
Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged
collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: "They're going to
crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."
bannon hasn't lost his mind. he never had one. he is just another wacko evangelical
wingnut of the 4th turning theory who think they will witness the second coming of Christ
this turning if only they can make enough war in the Mideast with the goal of getting Israel
directly involved since their participation is a prerequisite.
"We have a triumvirate of the Democratic Party, New York Times, and FBI, that perfectly parallels their predecessors: the
Communist Party, Pravda, and KGB."
January 4, 2018 at 8:44 pm GMT
"Why was it felt necessary for a DNC-linked "journalist", in a politically-biased "newspaper", to obfuscate the rather obvious
fact that the Fusion GPS "dossier"was the pretext for the FBI investigation? "
Notable quotes:
"... This information has clearly been published in order to counter the increasingly widely circulating claim that it was the Trump Dossier which triggered the Russiagate investigation. ..."
Of much more interest is the new information which has been published about George
Papadopoulos. The information appears in an
article in the New York Times which reads in part as follows
During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George
Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling
revelation to Australia's top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary
Clinton.
About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of
emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her
campaign.
Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the
Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later,
when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online , Australian officials passed the
information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current
and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians' role.
This information has clearly been published in order to counter the increasingly widely
circulating claim that it was the Trump Dossier which triggered the Russiagate
investigation.
"... In totalitarian systems where the media does nothing but churn out propaganda, people learn to read between the lines. You understand what is really going on by inferring what they don't want you to know from what they do what you to know. ..."
"... Why would you not believe "unnamed officials"? But what we are seeing very obviously is some of the shape and texture of the war based on who is being targeted and why. While those doing the targeting are "unnamed", their targets are named. And that tells us also about those doing the targeting. ..."
In totalitarian systems where the media does nothing but churn
out propaganda, people learn to read between the lines. You understand what is really going on
by inferring what they don't want you to know from what they do what you to know.
The interesting thing about the current political conflict is which key anti-terrorist Trump
figures are being targeted. Flynn was a major target. Then Gorka. The case of Gorka made the
targeting obvious. You can tell the targeting when if the first attack fails, they come back
with a second one.
Now there's Ezra Watnick-Cohen. He showed up in the news recently when McMaster attempted
to replace him with an establishment infiltrator.
President Donald Trump has overruled a decision by his national security adviser, Lt. Gen.
H.R. McMaster, to sideline a key intelligence operative who fell out of favor with some at
the Central Intelligence Agency, two sources told POLITICO.
On Friday, McMaster told the National Security Council's senior director for intelligence
programs, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, that he would be moved to another position in the
organization.
The conversation followed weeks of pressure from career officials at the CIA who had
expressed reservations about the 30-year-old intelligence operative and pushed for his
ouster.
But Cohen-Watnick appealed McMaster's decision to two influential allies with whom he had
forged a relationship while working on Trump's transition team -- White House advisers Steve
Bannon and Jared Kushner. They brought the matter to Trump on Sunday, and the president
agreed that Cohen-Watnick should remain as the NSC's intelligence director, according to two
people with knowledge of the episode.
Cohen-Watnick was brought onto Trump's transition team and then the NSC by a leading
critic of the CIA: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was Cohen-Watnick's boss at the
Defense Intelligence Agency and preceded McMaster as national security adviser.
Cohen-Watnick and Flynn "saw eye to eye about the failings of the CIA human intelligence
operations," said a Washington consultant who travels in intelligence circles. "The CIA saw
him as a threat, so they tried to unseat him and replace him with an agency loyalist," the
operative said.
Two sources within the White House tell me that last week McMaster had interviewed a
potential replacement for Cohen-Watnick: longtime CIA official Linda Weissgold. Weissgold
apparently had a good interview with McMaster, as she was overheard saying as she left the
White House she would next have to "talk to Pompeo" -- as in Mike Pompeo, the director of the
CIA. But Weissgold was never offered the job; days later, Trump himself overruled the effort
to move Cohen-Watnick out of his senior director role.
During the Obama administration Weissgold served as director of the CIA's Office of
Terrorism Analysis. She was among those who briefed Congress following the Benghazi terrorist
attack in 2012, a team of intelligence and military experts who reportedly earned the
nickname "the dream team" within the administration.
In her position at OTA, she was also involved directly in drafting the now infamous
Benghazi talking points, which government officials revised heavily to include factually
incorrect assessments that stated the attackers were prompted by protests. According to the
House Select Committee on Benghazi's report, Weissgold testified she had changed one such
talking point to say that extremists in Benghazi with ties to al Qaeda had been involved in
"protests" in the Libyan city, despite the fact that no such protests had occurred there on
the day of the attack.
McMaster's interview of Weissgold last week raised eyebrows beyond the White House, with
members of the congressional oversight committees expressing concerns about Weissgold to top
officials in the White House and the intelligence community.
A Jewish security official has been named as the confidential source of House Intelligence
Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) following claims that US President Donald Trump and his
aides were swept up in surveillance by US intelligence agencies, The New York Times revealed
Thursday.
Citing unnamed US officials, the Times identified the White House official as "Ezra
Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council."
Why would you not believe "unnamed officials"? But what we are seeing very obviously is some of the shape and texture of the war based on
who is being targeted and why. While those doing the targeting are "unnamed", their targets are
named. And that tells us also about those doing the targeting. Any enemy action reveals
something about the enemy, his motives, his nature and his goals. That is how wars of this kind
must be understood.
It you need to read a singe article analyzing current anti-Russian hysteria in the USA this in the one you should read. This is
an excellent article Simply great !!! And as of December 2017 it represents the perfect summary of Russiagate, Hillary defeat and, Neo-McCarthyism
campaign launched as a method of hiding the crisis of neoliberalism revealed by Presidential elections. It also suggest that growing
jingoism of both Parties (return to Madeleine Albright's 'indispensable nation' bulling. Both Trump and Albright assume that the
United States should be able to do as it pleases in the international arena) and loss of the confidence and paranoia of the US
neoliberal elite.
It contain many important observation which in my view perfectly catch the complexity of the current Us political landscape.
Bravo to Jackson Lears !!!
Notable quotes:
"... Neoliberals celebrate market utility as the sole criterion of worth; interventionists exalt military adventure abroad as a means of fighting evil in order to secure global progress ..."
"... Sanders is a social democrat and Trump a demagogic mountebank, but their campaigns underscored a widespread repudiation of the Washington consensus. For about a week after the election, pundits discussed the possibility of a more capacious Democratic strategy. It appeared that the party might learn something from Clinton's defeat. Then everything changed. ..."
"... A story that had circulated during the campaign without much effect resurfaced: it involved the charge that Russian operatives had hacked into the servers of the Democratic National Committee, revealing embarrassing emails that damaged Clinton's chances. With stunning speed, a new centrist-liberal orthodoxy came into being, enveloping the major media and the bipartisan Washington establishment. This secular religion has attracted hordes of converts in the first year of the Trump presidency. In its capacity to exclude dissent, it is like no other formation of mass opinion in my adult life, though it recalls a few dim childhood memories of anti-communist hysteria during the early 1950s. ..."
"... The centrepiece of the faith, based on the hacking charge, is the belief that Vladimir Putin orchestrated an attack on American democracy by ordering his minions to interfere in the election on behalf of Trump. The story became gospel with breathtaking suddenness and completeness. Doubters are perceived as heretics and as apologists for Trump and Putin, the evil twins and co-conspirators behind this attack on American democracy. ..."
"... Like any orthodoxy worth its salt, the religion of the Russian hack depends not on evidence but on ex cathedra pronouncements on the part of authoritative institutions and their overlords. Its scriptural foundation is a confused and largely fact-free 'assessment' produced last January by a small number of 'hand-picked' analysts as James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, described them from the CIA, the FBI and the NSA. ..."
"... It is not the first time the intelligence agencies have played this role. When I hear the Intelligence Community Assessment cited as a reliable source, I always recall the part played by the New York Times in legitimating CIA reports of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's putative weapons of mass destruction, not to mention the long history of disinformation (a.k.a. 'fake news') as a tactic for advancing one administration or another's political agenda. Once again, the established press is legitimating pronouncements made by the Church Fathers of the national security state. Clapper is among the most vigorous of these. He perjured himself before Congress in 2013, when he denied that the NSA had 'wittingly' spied on Americans a lie for which he has never been held to account. ..."
"... In May 2017, he told NBC's Chuck Todd that the Russians were highly likely to have colluded with Trump's campaign because they are 'almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favour, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique'. The current orthodoxy exempts the Church Fathers from standards imposed on ordinary people, and condemns Russians above all Putin as uniquely, 'almost genetically' diabolical. ..."
"... It's hard for me to understand how the Democratic Party, which once felt scepticism towards the intelligence agencies, can now embrace the CIA and the FBI as sources of incontrovertible truth. One possible explanation is that Trump's election has created a permanent emergency in the liberal imagination, based on the belief that the threat he poses is unique and unprecedented. It's true that Trump's menace is viscerally real. But the menace posed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney was equally real. ..."
"... Trump is committed to continuing his predecessors' lavish funding of the already bloated Defence Department, and his Fortress America is a blustering, undisciplined version of Madeleine Albright's 'indispensable nation'. Both Trump and Albright assume that the United States should be able to do as it pleases in the international arena: Trump because it's the greatest country in the world, Albright because it's an exceptional force for global good. ..."
"... Besides Trump's supposed uniqueness, there are two other assumptions behind the furore in Washington: the first is that the Russian hack unquestionably occurred, and the second is that the Russians are our implacable enemies. ..."
"... So far, after months of 'bombshells' that turn out to be duds, there is still no actual evidence for the claim that the Kremlin ordered interference in the American election. Meanwhile serious doubts have surfaced about the technical basis for the hacking claims. Independent observers have argued it is more likely that the emails were leaked from inside, not hacked from outside. On this front, the most persuasive case was made by a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, former employees of the US intelligence agencies who distinguished themselves in 2003 by debunking Colin Powell's claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, hours after Powell had presented his pseudo-evidence at the UN. ..."
"... The crucial issue here and elsewhere is the exclusion from public discussion of any critical perspectives on the orthodox narrative, even the perspectives of people with professional credentials and a solid track record. ..."
"... Sceptical voices, such as those of the VIPS, have been drowned out by a din of disinformation. Flagrantly false stories, like the Washington Post report that the Russians had hacked into the Vermont electrical grid, are published, then retracted 24 hours later. Sometimes like the stories about Russian interference in the French and German elections they are not retracted even after they have been discredited. These stories have been thoroughly debunked by French and German intelligence services but continue to hover, poisoning the atmosphere, confusing debate. ..."
"... The consequence is a spreading confusion that envelops everything. Epistemological nihilism looms, but some people and institutions have more power than others to define what constitutes an agreed-on reality. ..."
"... More genuine insurgencies are in the making, which confront corporate power and connect domestic with foreign policy, but they face an uphill battle against the entrenched money and power of the Democratic leadership the likes of Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, the Clintons and the DNC. Russiagate offers Democratic elites a way to promote party unity against Trump-Putin, while the DNC purges Sanders's supporters. ..."
"... Fusion GPS eventually produced the trash, a lurid account written by the former British MI6 intelligence agent Christopher Steele, based on hearsay purchased from anonymous Russian sources. Amid prostitutes and golden showers, a story emerged: the Russian government had been blackmailing and bribing Donald Trump for years, on the assumption that he would become president some day and serve the Kremlin's interests. In this fantastic tale, Putin becomes a preternaturally prescient schemer. Like other accusations of collusion, this one has become vaguer over time, adding to the murky atmosphere without ever providing any evidence. ..."
"... Yet the FBI apparently took the Steele dossier seriously enough to include a summary of it in a secret appendix to the Intelligence Community Assessment. Two weeks before the inauguration, James Comey, the director of the FBI, described the dossier to Trump. After Comey's briefing was leaked to the press, the website Buzzfeed published the dossier in full, producing hilarity and hysteria in the Washington establishment. ..."
"... The Steele dossier inhabits a shadowy realm where ideology and intelligence, disinformation and revelation overlap. It is the antechamber to the wider system of epistemological nihilism created by various rival factions in the intelligence community: the 'tree of smoke' that, for the novelist Denis Johnson, symbolised CIA operations in Vietnam. ..."
"... Yet the Democratic Party has now embarked on a full-scale rehabilitation of the intelligence community or at least the part of it that supports the notion of Russian hacking. (We can be sure there is disagreement behind the scenes.) And it is not only the Democratic establishment that is embracing the deep state. Some of the party's base, believing Trump and Putin to be joined at the hip, has taken to ranting about 'treason' like a reconstituted John Birch Society. ..."
"... The Democratic Party has now developed a new outlook on the world, a more ambitious partnership between liberal humanitarian interventionists and neoconservative militarists than existed under the cautious Obama. This may be the most disastrous consequence for the Democratic Party of the new anti-Russian orthodoxy: the loss of the opportunity to formulate a more humane and coherent foreign policy. The obsession with Putin has erased any possibility of complexity from the Democratic world picture, creating a void quickly filled by the monochrome fantasies of Hillary Clinton and her exceptionalist allies. ..."
"... For people like Max Boot and Robert Kagan, war is a desirable state of affairs, especially when viewed from the comfort of their keyboards, and the rest of the world apart from a few bad guys is filled with populations who want to build societies just like ours: pluralistic, democratic and open for business. This view is difficult to challenge when it cloaks itself in humanitarian sentiment. There is horrific suffering in the world; the US has abundant resources to help relieve it; the moral imperative is clear. There are endless forms of international engagement that do not involve military intervention. But it is the path taken by US policy often enough that one may suspect humanitarian rhetoric is nothing more than window-dressing for a more mundane geopolitics one that defines the national interest as global and virtually limitless. ..."
"... The prospect of impeaching Trump and removing him from office by convicting him of collusion with Russia has created an atmosphere of almost giddy anticipation among leading Democrats, allowing them to forget that the rest of the Republican Party is composed of many politicians far more skilful in Washington's ways than their president will ever be. ..."
"... They are posing an overdue challenge to the long con of neoliberalism, and the technocratic arrogance that led to Clinton's defeat in Rust Belt states. Recognising that the current leadership will not bring about significant change, they are seeking funding from outside the DNC. ..."
"... Democrat leaders have persuaded themselves (and much of their base) that all the republic needs is a restoration of the status quo ante Trump. They remain oblivious to popular impatience with familiar formulas. ..."
"... Democratic insurgents are also developing a populist critique of the imperial hubris that has sponsored multiple failed crusades, extorted disproportionate sacrifice from the working class and provoked support for Trump, who presented himself (however misleadingly) as an opponent of open-ended interventionism. On foreign policy, the insurgents face an even more entrenched opposition than on domestic policy: a bipartisan consensus aflame with outrage at the threat to democracy supposedly posed by Russian hacking. Still, they may have found a tactical way forward, by focusing on the unequal burden borne by the poor and working class in the promotion and maintenance of American empire. ..."
"... This approach animates Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis, a 33-page document whose authors include Norman Solomon, founder of the web-based insurgent lobby RootsAction.org. 'The Democratic Party's claims of fighting for "working families" have been undermined by its refusal to directly challenge corporate power, enabling Trump to masquerade as a champion of the people,' Autopsy announces. ..."
"... Clinton's record of uncritical commitment to military intervention allowed Trump to have it both ways, playing to jingoist resentment while posing as an opponent of protracted and pointless war. ..."
"... If the insurgent movements within the Democratic Party begin to formulate an intelligent foreign policy critique, a re-examination may finally occur. And the world may come into sharper focus as a place where American power, like American virtue, is limited. For this Democrat, that is an outcome devoutly to be wished. It's a long shot, but there is something happening out there. ..."
American politics have rarely presented a more disheartening spectacle. The repellent and dangerous antics of Donald Trump are
troubling enough, but so is the Democratic Party leadership's failure to take in the significance of the 2016 election campaign.
Bernie Sanders's challenge to Hillary Clinton, combined with Trump's triumph, revealed the breadth of popular anger at politics as
usual the blend of neoliberal domestic policy and interventionist foreign policy that constitutes consensus in Washington.
Neoliberals celebrate market utility as the sole criterion of worth; interventionists exalt military adventure abroad as a means
of fighting evil in order to secure global progress . Both agendas have proved calamitous for most Americans. Many registered
their disaffection in 2016. Sanders is a social democrat and Trump a demagogic mountebank, but their campaigns underscored a
widespread repudiation of the Washington consensus. For about a week after the election, pundits discussed the possibility of a more
capacious Democratic strategy. It appeared that the party might learn something from Clinton's defeat. Then everything changed.
This was written almost a year ago. Not author demonstrated tremendous insight which was confirmed by subsequent events.
Notable quotes:
"... The decisive shift to 'regime change' at home has been a continual process organized, orchestrated and implemented by elected and appointed officials within the Obama regime and by a multiplicity of political action organizations, which cross traditional ideological boundaries. ..."
"... The outgoing President Obama mobilized the entire leadership of the security state to fabricate 'dodgy dossiers' linking Donald Trump to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Trump was a stooge or 'vulnerable to KGB blackmail'. The CIA's phony documents (arriving via a former British intelligence operative-now free lance 'security' contractor) were passed around among the major corporate media who declined to publish the leaked gossip. Months of attempts to get the US media to 'take the bite' on the 'smelly' dossier were unsuccessful. The semi-senile US Senator John McCain ('war-hero' and hysterical Trump opponent) then volunteered to plop the reeking gossip back onto the lap of the CIA Director Brennan and demand the government 'act on these vital revelations'! ..."
"... Under scrutiny by serious researchers, the 'CIA dossier' was proven to be a total fabrication by way of a former 'British official now in hiding !' Undaunted, despite being totally discredited, the CIA leadership continued to attack the President-Elect. Trump likened the CIA's 'dirty pictures hatchet job' to the thuggish behavior of the Nazis and clearly understood how the CIA leadership was involved in a domestic coup d'ιtat. ..."
"... CIA Director John Brennan, architect of numerous 'regime changes' overseas had brought his skills home against the President-elect. For the first time in US history, a CIA director openly charged a President or President-elect with betraying the country and threatened the incoming Chief Executive. He coldly warned Trump to ' just make sure he understands that the implications and impacts (of Trump's policies) on the United States could be profound " ..."
The norms of US capitalist democracy include the election of presidential candidates through competitive elections, unimpeded
by force and violence by the permanent institutions of the state. Voter manipulation has occurred during the recent elections, as
in the case of the John F. Kennedy victory in 1960 and the George W. Bush victory over 'Al' Gore in 2000. But despite the dubious
electoral outcomes in these cases, the 'defeated' candidate conceded and sought via legislation, judicial rulings, lobbying and peaceful
protests to register their opposition.
These norms are no longer operative. During the election process, and in the run-up to the inauguration of US President-Elect
Donald Trump, fundamental electoral institutions were challenged and coercive institutions were activated to disqualify the elected
president and desperate overt public pronouncements threatened the entire electoral order.
We will proceed by outlining the process that is used to undermine the constitutional order, including the electoral process and
the transition to the inauguration of the elected president.
Regime Change in America
In recent times, elected officials in the US and their state security organizations have often intervened against independent
foreign governments, which challenged Washington 's quest for global domination. This was especially true during the eight years
of President Barack Obama's administration where the violent ousting of presidents and prime ministers through US-engineered coups
were routine under an unofficial doctrine of 'regime change'.
The violation of constitutional order and electoral norms of other countries has become enshrined in US policy. All US political,
administrative and security structures are involved in this process. The policymakers would insist that there was a clear distinction
between operating within constitutional norms at home and pursuing violent, illegal regime change operations abroad.
Today the distinction between overseas and domestic norms has been obliterated by the state and quasi-official mass media. The
US security apparatus is now active in manipulating the domestic democratic process of electing leaders and transitioning administrations.
The decisive shift to 'regime change' at home has been a continual process organized, orchestrated and implemented by elected
and appointed officials within the Obama regime and by a multiplicity of political action organizations, which cross traditional
ideological boundaries.
Regime change has several components leading to the final solution: First and foremost, the political parties seek to delegitimize
the election process and undermine the President-elect. The mass media play a major role demonizing President-Elect Trump with personal
gossip, decades-old sex scandals and fabricated interviews and incidents.
Alongside the media blitz, leftist and rightist politicians have come together to question the legitimacy of the November 2016
election results. Even after a recount confirmed Trump's victory, a massive propaganda campaign was launched to impeach the president-elect
even before he takes office by claiming Trump was an 'enemy agent'.
The Democratic Party and the motley collection of right-left anti-Trump militants sought to blackmail members of the Electoral
College to change their vote in violation of their own mandate as state electors. This was unsuccessful, but unprecedented.
Their overt attack on US electoral norms then turned into a bizarre and virulent anti-Russia campaign designed to paint the elected
president (a billionaire New York real estate developer and US celebrity icon) as a 'tool of Moscow .' The mass media and powerful
elements within the CIA, Congress and Obama Administration insisted that Trump's overtures toward peaceful, diplomatic relations
with Russia were acts of treason.
The outgoing President Obama mobilized the entire leadership of the security state to fabricate 'dodgy dossiers' linking Donald
Trump to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Trump was a stooge or 'vulnerable to KGB blackmail'. The CIA's phony
documents (arriving via a former British intelligence operative-now free lance 'security' contractor) were passed around among the
major corporate media who declined to publish the leaked gossip. Months of attempts to get the US media to 'take the bite' on the
'smelly' dossier were unsuccessful. The semi-senile US Senator John McCain ('war-hero' and hysterical Trump opponent) then volunteered
to plop the reeking gossip back onto the lap of the CIA Director Brennan and demand the government 'act on these vital revelations'!
Under scrutiny by serious researchers, the 'CIA dossier' was proven to be a total fabrication by way of a former 'British
official now in hiding !' Undaunted, despite being totally discredited, the CIA leadership continued to attack the President-Elect.
Trump likened the CIA's 'dirty pictures hatchet job' to the thuggish behavior of the Nazis and clearly understood how the CIA leadership
was involved in a domestic coup d'ιtat.
CIA Director John Brennan, architect of numerous 'regime changes' overseas had brought his skills home against the President-elect.
For the first time in US history, a CIA director openly charged a President or President-elect with betraying the country and threatened
the incoming Chief Executive. He coldly warned Trump to ' just make sure he understands that the implications and impacts (of Trump's
policies) on the United States could be profound "
Clearly CIA Director Brennan has not only turned the CIA into a sinister, unaccountable power dictating policy to an elected US
president, by taking on the tone of a Mafia Capo, he threatens the physical security of the incoming leader.
From a Scratch to Gangrene
The worst catastrophe that could fall on the United States would be a conspiracy of leftist and rightist politicos, the corporate
mass media and the 'progressive' websites and pundits providing ideological cover for a CIA-orchestrated 'regime change'.
Whatever the limitations of our electoral norms- and there are many they are now being degraded and discarded in a march toward
an elite coup, involving elements of the militarist empire and 'in`telligence' hierarchy.
Mass propaganda, a 'red-brown alliance, salacious gossip and accusations of treason ('Trump, the Stooge of Moscow') resemble the
atmosphere leading to the rise of the Nazi state in Germany . A broad 'coalition' has joined hands with a most violent and murderous
organization (the CIA) and imperial political leadership, which views overtures to peace to be high treason because it limits their
drive for world power and a US dominated global political order.
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.
http://petras.lahaine.org/
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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'Treason or fake news?' Trump urges NYT to reveal its White House 'resistance' insider
?
