Exclusive: President-elect Trump is fending off a U.S. intelligence leak of unproven allegations that he cavorted with Russian prostitutes, but the darker story might be the CIA’s intervention in U.S. politics, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The decision by the U.S. intelligence community to include in an official report some unverified and salacious accusations against President-elect Donald Trump resembles a tactic out of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s playbook on government-style blackmail: I have some very derogatory information about you that I’d sure hate to see end up in the press.
Legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
In this case, as leaders of the U.S. intelligence community were pressing Trump to accept their assessment that the Russian government had tried to bolster Trump’s campaign by stealing and leaking actual emails harmful to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Trump was confronted with this classified “appendix” describing claims about him cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.
Supposedly, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan included the unproven allegations in the report under the rationale that the Russian government might have videotaped Trump’s misbehavior and thus could use it to blackmail him. But the U.S. intelligence community also had reasons to want to threaten Trump who has been critical of its performance and who has expressed doubts about its analysis of the Russian “hacking.”
After the briefing last Friday, Trump and his incoming administration did shift their position, accepting the intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government hacked the emails of the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign chief John Podesta. But I’m told Trump saw no evidence that Russia then leaked the material to WikiLeaks and has avoided making that concession.
Still, Trump’s change in tone was noted by the mainstream media and was treated as an admission that he was abandoning his earlier skepticism. In other words, he was finally getting onboard the intelligence community’s Russia-did-it bandwagon. Now, however, we know that Trump simultaneously had been confronted with the possibility that the unproven stories about him engaging in unorthodox sex acts with prostitutes could be released, embarrassing him barely a week before his inauguration.
The classified report, with the explosive appendix, was also given to President Obama and the so-called “Gang of Eight,” bipartisan senior members of Congress responsible for oversight of the intelligence community, which increased chances that the Trump accusations would be leaked to the press, which indeed did happen.
Circulating Rumors
The stories about Russian intelligence supposedly filming Trump in a high-end Moscow hotel with prostitutes have been circulating around Washington for months. I was briefed about them by a Hillary Clinton associate who was clearly hopeful that the accusations would be released before the election and thus further damage Trump’s chances. But the alleged video never seemed to surface and the claims had all the earmarks of a campaign dirty trick.
President-elect Donald Trump. (Photo credit: donaldjtrump.com)
However, now the tales of illicit frolic have been elevated to another level. They have been inserted into an official U.S. intelligence report, the details of which were leaked first to CNN and then to other mainstream U.S. news media outlets.
Trump has denounced the story as “fake news” and it is certainly true that the juicy details – reportedly assembled by a former British MI-6 spy named Christopher Steele – have yet to check out. But the placement of the rumors in a U.S. government document gave the mainstream media an excuse to publicize the material.
It’s also allowed the media to again trot out the Russian word “kompromat” as if the Russians invented the game of assembling derogatory information about someone and then using it to discredit or blackmail the person.
In American history, legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was infamous for using his agency to develop negative information on a political figure and then letting the person know that the FBI had the dirt and certainly would not want it to become public – if only the person would do what the FBI wanted, whether that was to reappoint Hoover to another term or to boost the FBI’s budget or – in the infamous case of civil rights leader Martin Luther King – perhaps to commit suicide.
However, in this case, it is not even known whether the Russians have any dirt on Trump. It could just be rumors concocted in the middle of a hard-fought campaign, first among Republicans battling Trump for the nomination (this opposition research was reportedly initiated by backers of Sen. Marco Rubio in the GOP race) before being picked up by Clinton supporters for use in the general election.
Still, perhaps the more troubling issue is whether the U.S. intelligence community has entered a new phase of politicization in which its leadership feels that it has the responsibility to weed out “unfit” contenders for the presidency. During the general election campaign, a well-placed intelligence source told me that the intelligence community disdained both Clinton and Trump and hoped to discredit both of them with the hope that a more “acceptable” person could move into the White House for the next four years.
Hurting Both Candidates
Though I was skeptical of that information, it did turn out that FBI Director James Comey, one of the top officials in the intelligence community, badly damaged Clinton’s campaign by deeming her handling of her emails as Secretary of State “extremely careless” but deciding not to prosecute her – and then in the last week of the campaign briefly reopening and then re-closing the investigation.
FBI Director James Comey
Then, after the election, President Obama’s CIA began leaking allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin had orchestrated the hacking of Democratic emails and provided them to WikiLeaks to reveal how the DNC undermined Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign and what Clinton had told Wall Street bigwigs in paid speeches that she had sought to keep secret from the American people.
The intelligence community’s assessment set the stage for what could have been a revolt by the Electoral College in which enough Trump delegates could have refused to vote for him to send the election into the House of Representatives, where the states would choose the President from one of the top three vote-getters in the Electoral College. The third-place finisher turned out to be former Secretary of State Colin Powell who got three votes from Clinton delegates in Washington State. But the Electoral College ploy failed when Trump’s delegates proved overwhelmingly faithful to the GOP candidate.
Now, we are seeing what looks like a new phase in this “stop (or damage) Trump” strategy, the inclusion of anti-Trump dirt in an official intelligence report that was then leaked to the major media.
Whether this move was meant to soften up Trump or whether the intelligence community genuinely thought that the accusations might be true and deserved inclusion in a report on alleged Russian interference in U.S. politics or whether it was some combination of the two, we are witnessing a historic moment when the U.S. intelligence community has deployed its extraordinary powers within the domain of U.S. politics. J. Edgar Hoover would be proud.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
Bob, surely you remember a previous time in the past when “we witness[ed] a historic moment when the U.S. intelligence community has deployed its extraordinary powers within the domain of U.S. politics”.
November 22, 1963.
All of this commentary about the CIA vs. the Presidency carefully omits how the CIA removed President Kennedy from office for calling off the Cold War and nuclear arms race.
Upvote.
By the way, didn’t I meet you in 1984?
Many liberals fail to understand that Hillary was the chosen candidate of the deep-state and international finance capital. Unlike the unwashed masses — these forces don’t care if politician has a ‘D’ or ‘R’ next to their name. It is how well they will serve capital.
“Capital” serves so well, it very much deserves to BE served.
But not THIS way. You’re conflating everyone’s/anyone’s capital with THEIR capital. Your remark is correct as to THEIR capital, and terribly wrong with respect to capital as such. You might as well have written “greed,” or “selfishness.”
“They,” of course, are those who’ve gained access to the levers of power. In fact, it’s (political, armed) POWER that should be demonized, NOT capital.
I’m sorry Brad. With your EIR’s reference, the first story I saw concerned Obama-care connected to some Nazi policies. Next they claim global warming is fake. The US was the only western nation without a national health program. People die because they haven’t the money to pay for drugs or health care. The health of a labourer is more important to them that a rich bloke sitting at a desk. And excuse me but back in the late 60s I studied astronomy besides my major, another science, and even then learned that both CO2 and methane each trap the sun’s energy and cause temperatures to rise. That was long before global warming came to peoples attention. Sorry, your story is pure fiction.
Also, Trump hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about as far as global warming is concerned. Take a look at the temperatures in the far north. They have been warmer than ever while we down here are having huge cycles of heat and cold and are experiencing the fury that those changes can induce.
As a scientist you ought to know that CO2 and methane do not trap the sun’s energy but absorb upward IR radiation from Earth part of which they radiate back towards Earth’s surface part out into space. The blanket I use on my bed at night does not trap the heat generated by me either. If it did it might catch fire?
Dieter I was just trying to make it simple, not write an article for Nature. The point being so many people don’t believe that we are altering the earths climate through burning fossil fuels. We take down our forests, and plants are a big reason we are here as they take in carbon dioxide, utilize the suns energy through photosynthesis and create organic compounds thus setting the stage for further developments. There is so much irrationality out there brought on by job losses through technology, and this creates huge divisions within society and that can lead to awful consequences as history has shown.
I not sure some would understand the true science behind it. The subject was a reliance on a web site that promoted climate change denial and a mentioned link between Obamacare and Nazism. Is that a firm foundation of reliance ?
Just to clarify, I said astronomy wasn’t my major, it was microbiology and medical sciences. I had an interest in star gazing and following the planets.
EIR – Lyndon Larouche cult. They’re even nuttier than Trump’s advisors. They promote a weird mix of bits of truth surrounded by BS. The true parts are tarnished by association.
“Bits of truth surrounded by BS.” Sounds like the Holocaust to me.
In fact, it sounds like the much-greater part of history in general.
The War on Climate is the same as the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Poverty – ALL those Wars.
It’s just War. Fought by most of us for the benefit of an elite few. And no one else’s benefit.
Pay, fight and die. For them.
This is also reminiscent of Hoover and JFK. When JFK attended Hoover’s office, he was handed the President’s file. JFK read some of the file while Hoover waited. When JFK stood up to leave, Hoover told the President that the file remains with him. No wonder JFK and Bobby hated this dangerous psychopath.
At times like this I miss the wise words of the late Chalmers Johnson. Chalmers was not encouraged by the possibility of America stepping back from her efforts to control the entire world. He felt the deep state was too committed to America’s Full Spectrum Dominance. Is this the sloppy end to the legacy of the Sole Super Power? Or, is this just the middle of the play before curtain call?
When Russia came to the aid of Syria, I believed that we were entering the Multipolar World Order. Hopefully that is still possible but better sooner than later before we enter the No World Order of endless chaos. Does the American deep state really want to play Russian Roulette with live nucs?
I wish Chalmers Johnson were still with us, and able to comment on our current events…good of you to bring his name up.
It’s all slime, Americans let their political system fall into the trap of big money (lobbying system and PACs) and neo-liberalism. I have no faith that Trump has the capabilities to be a good president. His dialogue is simple, his temper easily aroused as are his feelings of hurt. He shows little historical knowledge or political skills and speaks in a petty childish way. Who is going to pay for the southern border wall ?! What is going to replace Obama’s medical care programs, more big business institutions ?! To me it looks like the Palestinians are on the Titanic run by captain Trump and his son-in law, and only minutes to go. What real in depth policies has Trump ever stated ?! Look out because Trump has a habit of passing on the bills be it cash, broken promises or a road you never thought he would take.
And yes we need a calming down and discussion between the US, Russia and China, but I don’t see any hope in the line of folks Trump has chosen or Clinton. To me, Trump is like passenger on an aircraft in which the pilot has expired and he is relying on others to tell him what to do because he has no idea or understanding.
I think this and a world where jobs have been taken by microprocessors and robots, is a very dangerous place and we don’t need a blind narcissist leading the way. Sadly Bernie Sanders got burnt on the stake.
What if the intelligence community wasn’t choosing between HRC and Trump, but, in stead, between HRC and Pence. So no matter who won, wouldn’t this hedged election mean business as usual?
Sorry, HRC, but for this downward neoliberal/fascist spiral thingy to work, you lesser-of-2-evil conservaDems are just going to have to learn to share with the equally-corrupt conservatives. See ya in 4 (or maybe 8 (naw, 4)).
Hail to the de facto Chief. da dada da dada dada dada da.
As a non-citicen one has to wonder about the mind boggling machination the US politic is capable of.
After WW2 the European countries looked upon the USA as the beacon of democratic values.
How bitter for the young generation to find, bit by bit, that behind the American facade lurked a system
of smoke and mirrors. As ruthless as the very system they replaced in Europe. Slowly sugarcoating
their deep aims of domination. Under words like freedom,liberty and equality there is the underlying
unbelievable lust for money and with it power. From a human point of view, and the thinking person,
the politics and aims of the United States of America is an abomination for all the worlds people.
I certainly agree with you, but also I am really saddened that this pattern is far from being unique and repeats itself all over and over again. The power corrupts, and it is true for states as well as for people. But the US are indeed a sad champion in hypocrisy. Their predecessors were not as skilled in hiding their true intentions behind the screen of freedom and all other very attractive values. This makes it especially hard to accept.
You’ve fingered the wrong culprits, or rather indicted fellow victims. It’s the same bloody, titled ruling class and their managerial elites in business and banking from old-line European/British families who’ve been playing their Imperial games…and still are. THEY created the late 19th century Synachist Movement for Empire (SME) that gave birth to Fascism and its’ feverish twin NAZIism,really just movements to update the workings of the old-fashioned European Empires. It’s also the Cecil Rhodes/Milner RoundTable Group that dove-tailed with SME machinations to update old Empires, campaigning strenuously, through their managerial elites on Wall Street, to recapture their “rogue colony” USA and bring it into the British version of Empire. Right at the moment of FDR’s death (may have been assassination), the tables were turned on us, with Churchill leading stupid Truman around by the nose speaking of iron curtains and Red Scares and Cold Wars. FDR’s intelligence community was taken over by Anglophile RoundTable allies in the post-war 40s. Having helped win the battles, we lost the War to the fascist/NAZI SME and RoundTable groups who never received so much as a scratch from all the bombs and bullets. Have you seen the show Hunting Hitler?… WWII never ended, the methods of fighting just changed.
P.S. Not only did WWII never end, just a change in fighting methods, BUT the SME/RoundTable Groups managed to get the two most powerful allies turned against each other: USSR and USA, so that we, together, couldn’t focus on the REAL enemy; SME/RoundTable group of elites (which would have happened under FDR in post-war. He would have been President until January 1949 if he hadn’t died/been killed, Stalin told FDRs son that “that Churchill gang killed him” been trying to do the same to Stalin)…and THIS is why Trumps’ Russophilia is such a grave and real threat to our Establishment.
Brad you hit the nail on the head with your comments here….bravo!
Where on earth did you get this fable. Roosevelt had polio and needed a wheelchair, he was a heavy smoker, had high blood pressure, angina followed by congestive heart failure all finalized by a stoke. He had been weakening over a long period. This is all before the days of polonium the USSR uses to kill its foes today.
Russia wasn’t following the agreements drawn up in Yalta and fair free elections were not provided in Poland and many Poles who fought for the allies in the war felt betrayed. The Soviets went their own way, so were we to tell the Poles, tough.
Allied convoys, mainly British, at great cost in ships and men, supplied the Russians with war supplies. They faced U-boats and heavily armed German battle-cruisers in freezing arctic waters. After the war Germany got assistance in rebuilding, but the British were held to paying off debts for US build liberty ships used to replace ships lost on the Atlantic convoys. I had an uncle who’s ship was sunk and very luckily, after much time in a life boat, was picked up. Many Americans sat back and watched until Pearl Harbour. The British had warned the Americans some time before, that they had lost contact with one of the Japanese fleets they were following, and you can guess the consequences.
Britain saw what was coming when Germany attacked Poland and declared war on Germany. We didn’t have much. My father was almost killed assisting surgeon in a Liverpool hospital and luckily had to leave to go out in an ambulance. When he came back the OR was gone. Bombed out. Luckily on another occasion, the day staff had been told to stay on duty with the night staff and the nursing residence was flattened. We had rationing until 1950, and had to grow food in our small back garden, sprouts, peas, cabbage. We had 6 chickens and a rooster, a source of much needed nutrition from eggs. I remember my mother weeping terribly after telling the police she had lost her ration books. As a young lad I went on a search and eventually found them in the folds of a chair. You may never have had to live through something like that.
And if you think America is any better than others, read “What is America?” by Ronald Wright. Learn about the Trail of Tears and traders knowingly giving natives blankets used by whites with small-pox.
You relate the manufactured cover story, thanks to the anglophile Intel community that took over in post-war forties, and did their typical change of the narration, much like they do today with the phony crap about Russian aggression. This kind of sh!t has been going on since the revolution, as the wealthy and powerful Imperial Tories never left and never relented. I got this”fable” from EIR and Tarpley.net. It makes more sense to me than the current fable we call history. Check it out for yourself, it amounts to mountains of articles and essays. It took me years to piece it all together and relay it adequately in brief paragraphs. Choose to believe there is no over-arching Imperial ruling class inimical to the interests of commoners if you want. I refuse to be blind to it anymore.
This is no “deep state” this is rather in-plain-sight US Government at work.
Trivial task:
1) Create a dense smoke screen by broadcasting on every single TV channel non-stop anti-Russian and anti-Trump*** hysteria (they know it can’t go wrong – they know Trump would try to reply to every single fake thus making their task easier and the picture even more colorful)
2) Behind that smoke screen ship few thousands of US troops and tanks over to Poland and to those parasitic micro quasi-states in Baltic and by doing that de-facto lay foundation for 4-5 new military bases,
which (yet another NATO expansion) otherwise would not be approved and likely axed by Trump. But now it went through s-m-o-u-ht-ly, like a butter. Highest class of the old Shell Game. Where CIA, FBI and other spook shops are used as shills and the population of the US are total losers (everyone’s taxes will be used to pay for that yet another NATO expansion).
3) Behind the same smoke screen Obamacare has just been demolished late last night, congrats 20 million of poor folks!
*** Just wait till grainy videos surface showing some naked figures – one of them would be vaguely resembling Trump.
That’d be no hard task for talented movie makers from either PSYOP or/and PAG (just remember their masterpieces featuring Jessica Lynch and other ones featuring fat “Osama bin Laden”-looking dude).
Note: Authorization to create and finance state Propaganda apparatus, S.2943, was quietly passed late Friday night Dec.23 behind the smoke screen of the same anti-Russian and anti-Trump hysteria, thus what we are seeing now is perfectly lawful – propaganda machine at full throttle, who said bureaucracy is slow(?)
is not it nice that Obama is leaving office while being decorated with salacious fake stories which he is promoting… Petty and dishonest in everything.
I tried to watch his good riddance speech last night, but couldn’t get through the half of it. For relief I turned to this video:
http://youtu.be/F5K7UmYkD1I
There is little doubt that the obvious blackmail will never be covered in that light by main stream media. To those of us who are historians or are natural skeptics or have actually lived through those times, this is all fairly obvious. They are trying to put Donald Trump in a corner so he can be controlled.
I suspect that is why Trump retained Steve Bannon for. Not just a house racist but someone who can get down and dirty on those that dish up dirt on Trump. We’ll have to see if it works. Headlines: “Donald unleashes TwitterBomb on CIA”. But he’ll have to go on the internet since the CIA owns the press in the USA.
He has two choices. Listen to the CIA and do their bidding which is the requirement to start WWIII with Russia or resist and be smeared in the press. It’s an uphill battle too. Unlike Silvio Berlusconi or Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump does not actually own the press. That will make it especially hard to do.
This thing is shaping up to be a geopolitical oil war. Rex and the Russians vs the Saudi/CIA Team USA.
All I can say is fine America. Don’t give a damn about privacy. Don’t give a damn about anything. But one of these days this massive spying ring gathering every shred of any and all traces of your life and filing them away forever cannot be good. It will most certainly not end well.
When AI has us all pinned up against a wall threatening to out all of us if we do not do exactly what it wants then what will we do?
We need some privacy laws. Also we need to throw the main stream media out with the trash. It is pure evil. Back in the day, the press wouldn’t run the stories about MLKs extramarital affairs it recorded secretly. The press demanded to know the source of the B.S. and the FBI did not want to tip their hand so the Mexican standoff led to the suicide letter which said “if you accept the Nobel Prize, we will shame you and ruin you and you should consider preserving you legacy by killing yourself instead. At least the MSM had some ethical standards and smelled a rat and refused to run the stories. Imagine that. If MLK was alive today we and we still had segregation, people and the media would fight to keep it! MLK would be a portrayed in the press as a philandering bad guy. A sexual predator. The Civil Rights movement would end in a quagmire of gossip surrounding its leader.
The Republicans have certainly had their fun with it too making Monica Lewinsky describe to a court the distinctive features of the president’s privates. I bet they were rolling in the aisles when that happened. Now it’s their turn. Will they defend Trump or will they hope that perhaps Mike Pence would make a better leader.
All this tawdry B.S. really gets old fast. I could care less what people do in private as long as nobody gets hurt.
One person abroad when asked what they thought about Bill Clinton’s circumstances replied they were confused since after all we were not electing the Pope. Amen. I feel the same way about Trump. It’s all B.S.
The problem is America can’t remember what happened yesterday. We are collectively like terminal Alzheimer patients. Two seconds after we see something, we forget it and are completely susceptible to B.S.in two seconds after we forgot what just happened which ignores the facts which occurred a mere two seconds earlier but we are none the wiser since we can’t remember what happened more than two seconds ago. That means there are a lot of opportunities each day to fool us.
What ever happened to the story about James Comey influencing the election? We just forgot it. What ever happened to all of the other historically “likely suspects” thought to have been likely suspects in vote rigging schemes. They are all absent and not presented as possible influencers of the election by our CIA owned press. Instead we are presented with a fake narrative filled with salacious gossip and naughty bits designed to turn public opinion into a weapon for further increases in militarization and military spending while preserving foreign relationships which benefit wealthy investors.
We need to wake up and start taking some strong medicine to ward off the Alzheimer disease that is affecting us in order to put the daily snow job presented by the MSM and the CIA into perspective. That perspective would include what just happened two seconds ago.
Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen since the medication would have to include administering it to the MSM too.
The ability of the MSM to erase our collective memory and present us with a new fake narrative on any given day should ring alarm bells that we are obviously vulnerable to being fooled.
We are being fooled. Every day. Time to start taking the meds.
What I Learned From the Intelligence Report on “Russian Hacking”
By James Corbett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ecxu7EStgs
Russia is the half naked female in the magic show……The real slight of hand is the relationship with the American oligarch and china….wow !!!……. talking about messing with the bottom line……some of you big brain folks will get this in……4…..3……2…..lol
Is this the face of the “DEEP STATE”?
It is controlling, deceptive, organized, bloody and does not give a “rat ass” about the needs of any other human being on earth who does not belong to it!
It neither tolerates opposing views from anybody who does not belong to its members nor allows the outsiders to organize . It is determined to be the lens through which everybody under its control see the rest of the world; any conclusion drawn by the besieged population, based on what it is forced to see, must conform to the “DEEP STATE” norms; otherwise, you are in deep trouble. The POTUS or the Congress must toe lines dictated by the members of this organization, (the Deep State). We are observing that no effort is being spared to see to it that President-Elect toes the “DEEP STATE” line; it is deep and scary indeed!
When it comes to cavorting with prostitutes JFK was the undisputed champion. Given the high regard JFK is held in in some circles maybe Trump’s alleged misbehaviour is a positive sign. Also, now that Trump’s behaviour has been made public isn’t the Russian threat to expose him now worthless and their alleged hold/influence gone?
Its not about the hookers. That’s useless drivel. It’s about the potential of illegal financial dealings with Russia prior to the election. Just show the damn tax returns. What the hell is he afraid of? What could possibly go wrong?
Are you keen on asking Clintons to reveal their financial dealings with Saudis, the sponsors of 9/11?
How about the Kagans’ clan being currently “supported” financially by Qatari?
And this is much more interesting than tax return: “The NYT skirts around the issue of who paid the huge sums for the research that produced the story of Trump’s alleged sexcapades in Moscow. They never say the funders are unknown, but instead use devices like the passive tense to avoid saying. But it would be very interesting to know who signed the checks. Apparently, there was a Republican funder during the primaries who stopped payment when Trump prevailed, whereupon Fusion found a Clinton backer to write their checks. It would be very interesting to know who these funders were and why the MSM seems so keen to avoid saying.”
I read it was Rubio commissioned the dirt.
Look at day 69 of eric braverman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwKhbsASDhI
The NYT skirts around the issue of who paid the huge sums for the research that produced the story of Trump’s alleged sexcapades in Moscow. They never say the funders are unknown, but instead use devices like the passive tense to avoid saying. But it would be very interesting to know who signed the checks. Apparently, there was a Republican funder during the primaries who stopped payment when Trump prevailed, whereupon Fusion found a Clinton backer to write their checks. It would be very interesting to know who these funders were and why the MSM seems so keen to avoid saying.
Robert, Could it not be true that the real losers in the neocon push to extend the American dominion might actually be the intelligence services? They have become so politicized in domestic politics since the Iraq War build up (a la Rice, Chaney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Powell) that they figure they can shape American public opinion to support any war, no matter how “unthreatening” the enemy (say Russia) might actually be. Originally they were basically “fact collectors” (objective) – at first from around the world, but since 9/11’s Patriot Act, at home also. Then, they became “interpreters and analyzers of motives” which takes a bit of a weed-gee board (subjective!) on the part of the “experienced eye”. When whatever these very effective (and appreciated) fact collectors opine suddenly becomes gospel in their “estimates” (interpretation), we have lost the ability to even influence the fate of our nation. Is this the country I grew up in? Or, has it been this way since we were led so effectively to support World War I? Take care, HM
Absurd. Who is this “they” everyone is talking about? How many are/is this ‘they’? 5, 10 20? Who is in control of ‘they’? Who’s in charge? The political elite? Do they have a club and do they meet for bridge every Tuesday? Do they have a secret handshake? Are they all really Mason’s?
This conspiracy holds no credibility because ‘they’ is just an ‘idea’. That is all. Until someone can give names of those who are responsible and running this political elite then its all storybook conjecture. We should be more concerned with the obvious psychological dementia affecting the president elect. He was a total looney tune in that press conference.
Here are the names.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/meet-the-80-people-who-are-as-rich-as-half-the-world/
What you are saying with this list then, Wendi, it is not the political elites, intelligence agencies or career politicians whoTrump continuously rails against as the cause for the end of the American Empire. It is the financial hierarchies that Trump so desperately wants to be a part of. Putin is obviously at the top of this list and Trump sees him as a way to become a player in this club. That makes sense to me.
“THEY” are the people who control the MONEY. They are referred to as the BANKERS. Those are a mafia that runs the political circus BEHIND the scene. The parties and elections are a diversion to keep the idiots busy arguing with each other like the crazy fans of sports teams. The BANKERS always make sure that the “idiots” are choosing between alternatives that ultimately BOW to the BANKERS. Read for example the following:
– “All the President’s Bankers” by Naomi Prins.
– “Memoirs” by David Rockefeller.
– “The Crisis of Democracy” a publication of the Tri-Lateral Commission on their website.
-Here’s How Goldman Sachs Became the Overlord of the Trump Administration
http://wallstreetonparade.com/
-Goldman, Wall Street and Financial Terrorism | The …Inline image 2
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-whetten/goldman-wall-street-and-f_b...
Jun 19, 2010 · The most disturbing aspect of the recent Goldman Sachs lawsuit isn’t just the legal violations involved … Goldman, Wall Street and Financial Terrorism.
-Goldman Sachs Are Financial Terrorists | FacebookInline image 1
http://www.facebook.com/Stop.Goldman
Goldman Sachs Are Financial Terrorists. 95,662 likes · 6,188 talking about this. Get the Honest truth on the economy, this page sponsors no organization
Those will give you a good start…..Good Luck.
Perhaps you do not mean the ridicule you suggest. The effects of economic aristocracy and political conspiracy are of course not “storybook conjecture” but the combined deductions of experienced observers. That would become conjecture only if specific persons were accused, which is seldom done without evidence.
The demand for detailed evidence of an old-fashioned conspiracy to effect societal trends is not valid. It becomes propaganda when used to attack the means by which we all deduce that events are driven by cabals, or loose organizations of interested parties. While we are occasionally surprised by the detailed evidence that emerges long after events, even that is incomplete and not very relevant.
The means of ridicule shows its invalidity. There is no reason to speculate upon clubs, meetings, or handshakes, as there is no need for such specific or antiquated organization. No modern organization works that way, no one has suggested that, and no one here has reasoned from such nonsense, but rather from well documented effects of cabals. So I hope that you merely overstated a wish for more evidence.
Bravo.
There’s an article at ABC News today about US tanks rolling into Poland. This reminds me of Nazis rolling into Austria in 1938 and then Poland on Sept 1, 1941 to start WWII. “American soldiers rolled into Poland on Thursday, fulfilling a dream some Poles have had since the fall of communism in 1989 to have U.S. troops on their soil as a deterrent against Russia. Some people waved and held up American flags as U.S. troops in tanks and other vehicles crossed into southwestern Poland from Germany and headed toward the town of Zagan, where they will be based. …”
Like Poland, Ukraine is eager to express its devotion to the Reich, er, its “Euro-Atlantic aspirations”.
If only for the sake of NATO “cooperation” and “capacity building”, Poland and Ukraine have much to forgive and forget:
http://observer.com/2016/09/from-friends-to-bitter-rivals-poland-and-ukraine-accuse-each-other-of-genocide/
Of course, reports of Russian “euphoria” remain “unconfirmed”.
It’s more doublethink logic from the Intelligence heads. It would require a tremendous leap of faith for anyone with a brain to think that Russia/Putin/Lavrov would use this info, if it existed at all, in public manner. To do so wouldn’t help them achieve a goal and it would only hurt Russia .. The tape would never become public even if it existed. That means this rumor is clearly slander and was aimed at some political end. . Where is the smoking gun?, sorry. By the way , Putin is friends with Bertoloscini , Sarkozy and other notorious womanizers and is known to like women himself. This is not something he would do. He is not a mobster. This is puerile and it is coming from the Democrats although the word is that George Bush initially hired the guy, the former MI5 spy, who wrote the dossier/smear piece on Trump in the first place. . Hoover would have kept it in shop and tried to leverage Trump himself.
We must organize beyond cyberspace as this is a coup in action. CIA is greatest meddler of all nations, coups and assassinations well documented. DC is the Aegean stable that must be cleaned, a truly Herculean task and We the People have to get organized because this planet is imperiled. Agree with Dan that whole sordid mess is beyond a swamp, a stinking pit and pitchforks are necessary!
Funny how these “leaks” work, isn’t it? If there really were an “insider” able to provide insight on the deepest, darkest secrets that had been gathered by Russian intelligence, why would any responsible intelligence agency completely destroy that asset only to expose a mundane fetish like “golden showers”? But don’t anybody dare leak “The Torture Report”. Don’t even consider leaking information about war crimes, election fraud, financial crimes, murder, state corruption or state sponsorship of terrorism.
Just my opinion, but here’s how it really went. The “hack” scenario is a diversion from the “leak” scenario. The “deep state” didn’t really want Hillary. While she may superficially represent their interests, the Clinton machine is too knowledgeable, too experienced and too selfish and self-centered to predictably execute their programs. The Clintons have plenty of dirt on them. But they had enough dirt on her to compromise her electability. They don’t want Trump either, but they can manufacture or dig up enough dirt to compromise his Presidency. Their first choice was Jeb Bush. Their second choice is Mike Pence.
The DNC stuff was leaked by an insider, and the Podesta stuff was hacked by the NSA. The only plausible alternative points to hacking attempts by the neo-Nazi Ukrainian hacking outfit “RuH8”, not the Russians.
A bunch of recent articles seek to analyze Barack Obama’s legacy, personality and motivations. That’s all superfluous. The “real deal” has been well documented. His grandparents were CIA. His mother was CIA. His first job after law school was with Banking international Corporation, a CIA “front company”. He was groomed and thoroughly vetted.
Nobody wants to hear the truth or look at real evidence. The circumstantial – though well documented – evidence connecting Ted Cruz’s father to the anti-Castro Cubans, the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald is actually much more plausible and substantial than the evidence for “Russian hacking” of the election, yet the general public has no problem dismissing that as a “conspiracy theory”.
Between the two, Trump was perceived – mistakenly – as the lesser threat to the “deep state”. Just a guess, but we may be about to see all hell break loose.
It’s about time some journalists and researchers started naming names and making lists. The “New McCarthyism” uses lists to good advantage. It creates the perception of a vast subversive network dedicated to destroying our “democracy”. Until some names are named and fingers pointed, the “deep state” and its intelligence community enforcement arm will continue to control the “democracy” we don’t really have. Blackmail is just one of their methods, and it’s far from the worst.
Funny how these “streams,” er, “leaks” work:
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.764452
Buzzfeed’s “explosive and unverified” golden shower (guess that’s not highlighter on the documents):
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984/Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf
And someone has been paying for this crap? If anything, this report exposes its authors much more than anybody else.
The “authors” dominate a post-truth regime that demands popular attention to and participation in its discursive games.
Are you not entertained?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs
My favorite quotes from the “Company Intelligence Report”:
“However, he and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow…” (Is this a pun?)
“PUTIN angry with senior officials who “overpromised” on TRUMP and further heads likely to roll as result. Foreign minister LAVROV may be next” (What…Putin is going to make him change the sheets in Trump’s hotel room?)
“…TRUMP has paid bribes and engaged in sexual activities there but key witnesses silenced and evidence hard to obtain” (Were the “key” witnesses the same ones that claim Putin shot down MH-17?)
I think they dug up the script writers from “The Man from Uncle” and put them back to work. This sounds like a Quinn Martin Production straight out of a Hollywood “B Movie”.
First Draft coalition “partner” BuzzFeed is leading the charge to make fake news, hybrid war propaganda, and hoaxes “more shareable and more social”
https://firstdraftnews.com/buzzfeed-wants-use-social-media-might-take-hoaxers/
Funny how that “leak” worked:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb565-Was-U.S.-Nuclear-Weapons-Fuel-Diverted-to-Israel/
“OK, but I doubt advisability of getting into this (redacted).” – FBI Director J. Edgard Hoover
Funny how that other “leak” worked:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/
FG, I’m not gay, but I always scroll down to find your comment. You are always looking into the big picture, not the big illusion.
Gregory – I agree. His comments are always very good.
Me three.
Thanks to all – sometimes I wonder if it’s worth putting in my two cents. We’re probably a statistically insignificant group of readers on the world’s stage, but I like to think at least it’s worth a try.
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
— said to have been said by redhat richelieu
what is known is that the nsa/cia/fbi have all the dirt on everyone, and that they use it … on the leaders of the eu, for instance.
if the only thing that comes out of this filthy little exercise is the death of the nsa/cia/fbi – superpower america’s superstazi – by executive fiat it will have been worth trump’s election.
it’s either that or another dead president. … with pence playing lbj.
American journalist and activist Chris Hedges noted a key purpose of the declassified report “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election” from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI):
“to justify the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization beyond Germany, a violation of the promise Ronald Reagan made to the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Expanding NATO in Eastern Europe opened up an arms market for the war industry. It made those businesses billions of dollars. New NATO members must buy Western arms that can be integrated into the NATO arsenal. These sales, which are bleeding the strained budgets of countries such as Poland, are predicated on potential hostilities with Russia. If Russia is not a threat, the arms sales plummet. War is a racket.”
The Real Purpose of the U.S. Government’s Report on Alleged Hacking by Russia
By Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi
Israeli arms sales to Europe more than doubled from $724 million in 2014 to $1.63 billion in 2015. http://jfjfp.com/?p=83806
Israel is the leading arms exporter in the world per capita (2014), and ranks 11th among the top 20 exporters of military equipment and systems (2011-15).
75-80% of Israeli military exports are generated by just three companies — the state-owned Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries and the publicly traded Elbit Systems.
The largest categories of Israeli military exports are upgrading aircraft and aerospace systems (14%), radar and electronic systems (12%), drones (11%), and intelligence and information systems (10%).
In 2015, the Russian government described Israel’s delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine as “counterproductive”. There is a close arms trade and production co-operation between Israel and Poland. Israeli companies have invested in building arms manufacturing facilities in Poland.
Anyone in Washington seeking a golden shower from a couple of Russian prostitutes just has to hop on one of those all-expenses-paid AIPAC junkets to Israel.
It’s truly amazing how streams of urine help elevate one’s anxiety about Iran’s nuclear energy program.
Best comment, Abe!
I am really surprised to no end. Why are you in the US so keen on destroying any credibility of your government? I do not really know what would happen in the US but in Russia there would be riots. Any leader in Russia can govern only until he/she is trusted. Think Tsar Nicholas II, Gorbachev… I hope it will not get to this and some sanity will prevail in your country.
Why are you in the US so keen on destroying any credibility of your government?
What credibility? Oleg, if you check the graphic at the top of the right sidebar on this page you will see a reference to “I. F. Stone” who was one of this nation’s great journalists of the 20th Century. He is noted for a dictum that says, “All governments lie.” All governments certainly include the U.S. government. You can get plenty of examples of lies with a little effort.
Lies out of government agencies and elected politicians are not the only problem. Hypocrisy is another and has been part of American governance since the writing of the Declaration of Independence by slave owners who said that all men are created equal with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now hypocrisy is rampant with politicians decrying alleged Russian intervention is U.S. elections with the claim that it is wrong for any nation to interfere in the elections of another nation. There is no nation on the planet that interferes in the governments of other nations than the United States.
Well, I certainly agree, but a government can still be largely trusted even if they resort to some petty lies. As we all do too sometimes. But this… this is not a petty thing, this is an intentional attack on the whole institution of elections and democracy when they try to impeach the elected President because some part of the establishment, not the people, dislike him. This has a potential to really get very dangerous, and having any kind of uprisings (as was also mentioned by other commenters above) in a country like the US is extremely dangerous for the whole world.
As I have just learned from another reader’s comment on another article, David Spring has augmented his earlier article to an 85-page expose. Seems it was both a leak and a hack, but in neither case by “the Russians.”
I hope Ray McGovern and especially Wm Binney (and some Trump guy) read this and tell us what they think!
https://turningpointnews.org/hack-everything-special-report
I read it last night. Very much worth the couple of hours it took.
Well, that’s THE comprehensive treatment in a nutshell. Everything documented chronologically. Nothing important left out. Everything explained clearly and concisely. As organised as possible and argued like a philosopher rather than a lawyer. The man has exceptional writing skills as well as incredible computer knowledge. I’d like to see him question Clapper on the witness stand. I hope that President Trump puts the Justice Department on this case to do a thorough investigation, including potential indictments of spooks that perjured themselves and/or engaged in partisan activities during the election and its ugly aftermath.
You don’t mention President Obama, but it certainly seems likely that he’s involved with this. Who told Brennan and Clapper to go on TV to hype the intelligence reports and bad-mouth the next President?
And were the leakers within the agencies acting on their own, or were they given orders from above? There’s a conspiracy going on and it’s not my imagination.
Does the behavior rise to the level of treason or espionage?
While others laugh and make jokes, those of us who study Intel know that what just happened with the leaked report was that the CIA has involved itself in U.S. politics, which it is forbidden to do. How did the alliance between the Democratic Party and CIA begin? President Truman had allowed 200 Nazi Intel agents to come into the U.S. – including the men who created the blueprint for the holocaust. Fearing Joe McCarthy would discover this, the CIA faked an Intel report and has spent decades ever since lying about Joe. They actually confessed that his 2 lists were correct, so they had to fool him with a fake dossier right before the Army hearings to shake his confidence. Just search CIA AND THE POND and you will find on their website STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE in the last third of the article a full confession of framing Joe. This Facebook photo album THE REAL JOSEPH McCARTHY is packed with forbidden information and can be viewed with this link by anyone whether they are on FB or not. The alliance between the Democratic Party and CIA began by hiding the people responsible for the holocaust. ( We should keep in mind Truman was KKK and forbade the bombing of the train tracks to the death camps. The reason soldiers were not prepared for the camps was that none had been told about them. Truman did not want our troops wasting time on them). Interesting to note that absolutely no one has ever done an article or book on the impact of the beliefs of the KKK on the 5 Democrats who were Presidents and Klansmen in the 20th century. That would reveal the true nature of the Democratic Party.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153995222685986.1073741929.695490985&type=1&l=6dd1544b9d
All this turmoil and a dysfunctional Congress insures that nothing will change. The 1% loves the status quo and will do anything to preserve it. Simply a smokescreen to keep US from dealing with the corporate stranglehold on our government.
An Empire in decline.
The motive I see is to “soften” him up for his impeachment. Given Trump’s temperament, it could be a winning strategy for the people who prefer President Pence. In my barely informed opinion, that would include a majority of both parties in both houses of the US congress.
Read section 4 of the 25th amendment….
“Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
I’m wondering if we are seeing the beginnings of a President Pence. Although Donald Trump may give one some consternation to his being a qualified person to sit in the Oval Office, Mike Pence may bring down the house with his religious leanings inside of his political philosophy. Either way we Americans are in for a most interesting time of it in our country’s brief history. We should all probably prepare ourselves for the worst, and hope that the best will happen.
Zachary wasn’t Mike Pense your governor, or do I have you in the wrong state?
Fascinating and disturbing at the same time. That section was surely MEANT to apply to the president’s health and physical capacity to do the job. However, a declaration by the VP (supported only by a simple majority of the cabinet or the congress) “that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” can be based in an insurrection, a coup, or simply the erosion of political capital. Gerald Ford could have argued that Richard Nixon no longer had the support to govern (which is what Nixon himself conceded as the basis for his resignation). It basically gives the VP and whatever insurgents he can muster the ability to quickly overthrow the sitting president without the inconvenience of an impeachment and trial in the Senate. It could be the Maidan without the messy blood all over the pavement. How wonderful.
Very resourceful of you in looking that up, Joe. I would never have imagined the seeds for a coup existed right in the constitution.
I have a saying: For the people in law-enforcement, law is a fringe benefit. Those who control law always use it as a tool. Have you ever heard of a coup which was not based on some law, even if it was the one written post-festum by the coup plotters? In other words, a coup is never difficult to justify by the winners.
I have no doubt that the coup that Joe describes is possible. But the issue for the coup plotters has always been: what happens with all the Trump voters after such a coup, the millions of them? Will they sit and just watch the destruction of their social contract?
To some extent such US coup dilemma is not dissimilar to the nuclear war dilemma: easy to start, difficult to finish.
KIza, nice to hear from you it’s been awhile.
Read this link. Trump got 26.8% of the total citizenry to vote for him. In all honesty I haven’t seen any polls on how the American populace shakes out on these controversies such as this most recent fake news story, but I would imagine that a clever beat down campaign would be able to soften the blowback….but then again I agree with you to some extent, that by pushing Trump out of office this would have to have some kind of consequence that would not be pretty.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/12/bringing-trump-nation-down-to-size/
Joe, in general I am trying to highlight that it is one thing to bamboozle sheeple with a talk of democracy (which does not exist) and another to openly crush even this reassuring lie. I just cannot see the end game of a US coup and Trump is but a minor obstacle if they want to start it.
Therefore, they really want to make a Trump a lame and controllable President, not to take over. Maintaining a reassuring lie of democracy is a much more sophisticated and efficient control mechanism than direct control. I may we wrong but I do believe that Trump is just being house trained/broken by TPTB in front of our eyes.
You write: I have not seen any polls how American populace shakes out on these controversies.
My reading of the online beat is that the Trump voters are not swayed, whilst the Clinton voters use the “controversy” as confirmation that they were right all along about Trump. But then Clinton voters would receive a confirmation even from an oily rag thrown in their direction. In other words, a mountain shook and a mouse was born – almost no change at all on either side.
KIza your comparing Trump’s attackers to how the MH17 story was spun is right on.
http://journal-neo.org/2017/01/11/trump-and-mh17-just-one-step-too-far/
Trump is an easy target since his nature is certainly different than that of the usual norm of our politico class who are cookie cutter politicians on the whole. I’m disappointed by how people such as Michael Moore are going out of their way attacking Trump, while they completely ignore how corrupt and dishonest the Clinton’s are.
I wouldn’t go so far as to predict that Trump supporters won’t rebel against his impeachment, but there again I believe the Trump supporters would be out numbered due to an over aggressive media who could sway the majority into believing we must get Trump out of office. Any other method other than impeachment is to horrible to even contemplate, so let’s hope that all of our concerns turn to ashes, and that for the good or bad of it that Trump finishes out his first term in good health.
Yes, Joe, those 26.8% of citizenry who voted for Trump are built into 75-76% of citizenry who do not believe in the MSM any more and in the John Brennan’s two kitchen sinks, that is, his two top secret but leakable kompromat dossiers on Trump – the first one apparently from an MI6 agent and the second one promoted by the BBC (source unknown yet).
But this is not about Clintons any more, this is about the owners of the Clintons training/braking Trump to be like the Clintons. If they cannot have a Clinton as a President, they want to have a President as Clinton. If kompromat does not work, maybe a billet will, their patience is limited.
Always enjoyable to exchange thoughts with you Joe.
Realist, considering how our country’s founders were a bunch of slave owners declaring how all men are created equally…well need I say more?
Words are just words, that is until lawyers interpret these legal words into a reality, which doesn’t always fit into our own personal definition of a certain word usage. You and I deal with this stuff all the time. Whether it be a traffic ticket, or an ordinance summons, we read one thing, and the judge administers another thing. Prisons are filled with people who swear with, ‘yeah but’ explanations which give these prisoners no relief what so ever…so I do think these crafty legislators could pull a fast one, and install Mike Pence into the White House. Let’s you and I hope that I’m the one out in left field with my 25th amendment comment, and that we won’t end up with a Christian whack job as our president.
Yeah, Pence was elected Governor of Indiana. But despite this state being one of the most conservative in the nation, Pence was too “nutty” and “far-right” for Mississippi North, and would have surely been defeated. Now the man is one heartbeat/one impeachment conviction from becoming President of the United States.
Quote: “From his denial of climate change to his belief in creationism, Pence is the most hard-right radical to ever appear on a national ticket. Just this week a federal court had to block his atrocious bill barring Syrian refugees from his state because his reasoning that Syrians scare him is discriminatory.”
Quote: “it is a literal truth, Mr. Speaker, to say that I am in Congress today because of Rush Limbaugh, and not because of some tangential impact on my career or his effect on the national debate; but because in fact after my first run for Congress in 1988, it was the new national voice emerging in 1989 across the heartland of Indiana of one Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III, that captured my imagination.””
It’s a fact we are very, very close to having a Rush ‘druggie’ Limpaugh clone as President. In my opinion, Pence is Trump’s worst mistake up till now. If they can’t have Hillary, for the neocons and neo-liberals and the Christian End-Timers there remains Worse-Than-Hillary Mike Pence.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/mike-pence-will-be-the-most-powerful-christian-supremacist-in-us-history/
Zachary I looked forward to your reply, since you always have references to your level headed comments….so thanks for getting back to me.
In my world I don’t even like bringing up the word God, or religion, since I believe a government should be governed in a truly secular way. Who I pray to, and who I pay taxes to, are two completely different things. My devotion to God is a very private matter, and I don’t need some politician interpreting God’s greatness to me in anyway. So with that if Mike Pense wants to preach the gospel to me, then he should resign from public office and become a full fledged preacher…and even then I will not go to his mean spirited church. Amen.
What a troubling coincidence that Hulu is releasing its production of “the Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood this April, which tells the story of the United States government being taken over by extreme Christian fundamentalists and the consequences, especially to women and religious dissenters. Read the book by Atwood and you’ll see where Isis/Daesh got many of their ideas on punishment and control of the masses. The Spanish Inquisition was six hundred years ago, but its urges lie just beneath the veneer of our civilised modern world. Human nature hasn’t changed, only technology has. I thought this country was in danger of playing out the novel during Dubya’s administration, as 9-11 was exactly the kind of pretext for such a takeover in the book’s plot narrative and the Islamic world was portrayed as the great global adversary just as many Americans believe in the real world. Trump has never struck me as a religious man, certainly not a zealot, but Pence, with a little help from the Deep State, he could bring this disturbing novel to life.
I’m wondering if we are seeing the beginnings of a President Pence.
A very plausible and ominous possibility.
Seriously Bill even taking into consideration how some like Glenn Beck along with Rick Santelli ridiculed an early President Obama back in 2009, I can’t recall a more hostile media such as the likes of how this current day corporate media is going after Trump. True, that Donald Trump by just being Donald Trump can be an outrageous person with his words and actions, but still I just can’t get over the 24/7 media coverage, and how most of it isn’t good coverage at that. This leaves me to wonder if we all are not being setup for something big.
With Trump’s winning streak putting away a whole herd of Republican primary candidates, and how he sent ‘low energy Jeb’ packing, and then to go on and beat Hillary by his winning the Electoral vote, he has had a great run. Now Donald Trump is battling not only the CIA/FBI/NSA, but he is also bumping up against the congressional establishment. You know that McCain and Graham hate him, but you can only bet that there is yet much more to come.
I’m sorry, but I don’t sense there is much good to come with all of this. Thanks for the reply.
Joe, I wonder if people missed the crazy similarity of the media campaign on the Trump “report” and the one on MH17 ?
It appears that the TPTB have decided that if they generate enough media screaming, the lack of proof does not matter any more.
Thus, I have become a strong proponent of the theory that whatever TPTB use outside, it is only a practice for what they will use (more productively) inside. Drones anyone?
KIza read my comment above, it pertains to what you brought up here.
Weaponized drones anyone?
http://youtu.be/1sK5mDTCNEU
The Saker writes in “The Neocon’s Declaration of War Against Trump”:
“After several rather lame false starts, the Neocons have now taken a step which can only be called a declaration of war against Donald Trump. […] All of the above further confirms to me what I have been saying over the past weeks: if Trump ever makes it into the White House (I write ‘if’ because I think that the Neocons are perfectly capable of assassinating him), his first priority should be to ruthlessly crack down as hard as he legally can against those in the US “deep state” (which very much includes the media) who have now declared war on him. I am sorry to say that, but it will be either him or them – one of the parties here will be crushed. […]
As I predicted it before the election, the USA are about to enter the worst crisis in their history. We are entering extraordinarily dangerous times. If the danger of a thermonuclear war between Russia and the USA had dramatically receded with the election of Trump, the Neocon total war on Trump put the United States at very grave risk, including civil war (should the Neocon controlled Congress impeach Trump I believe that uprisings will spontaneously happen, especially in the South, and especially in Florida and Texas). At the risk of sounding over the top, I will say that what is happening now is putting the very existence of the United States in danger almost regardless of what Trump will personally do. Whatever we may think of Trump as a person and about his potential as a President, what is certain is that millions of American patriots have voted for him to “clear the swamp”, give the boot to the Washington-based plutocracy and restore what they see as fundamental American values. If the Neocons now manage to stage a coup d’etat against Trump, I predict that these millions of Americans will turn to violence to protect what they see as their way of life…
If a coup is staged against Trump and some wannabe President à la Hillary or McCain gives the order to the National Guard or even the US Army to put down a local insurrection, we could see what we saw in Russia in 1991: a categorical refusal of the security services to shoot at their own people. That is the biggest and ultimate danger for the Neocons: the risk that if they give the order to crack down on the population the police, security and military services might simply refuse to take action. If that could happen in the “KGB-controlled country” (to use a Cold War cliché) this can also happen in the USA.”
At Kent State the National Guard was quite willing to shoot “their own people”. The increasingly militarized Police of the US have been getting lots of practice shooting at “their own people”. I suspect that’s why a great many of them joined up in the first place. Finally, carefully chosen drone operators thousands or tens of thousands of miles away won’t have the slightest problem slaughtering evildoers. That’s what they do all the time in their regular jobs.
Don’t forget veterans, millions of them. When THEY stepped up to the North Dakota pipeline, security forces backed off. Backwards’ described scenario could be our “1991” moment to break free and break the Deep State, and reinstating Glass-Steagall would break their Imperial paymasters in The City and The Street. A new World could suddenly come about, faster than even the USSR/Warsaw Pact disappeared.
At Kent State the National Guard was quite willing to shoot “their own people”. The increasingly militarized Police of the US have been getting lots of practice shooting at “their own people”.
Police departments all over the U.S. and other nations have a long history of acting as goon squads and occasional firing squads for their local establishments. Lots of examples in labor histories.
KILLING OUR OWN PEOPLE….
Special thanks to Zachary Smith.
In the US it’s called “heroism”, patriotism” and the rest. But if we are
inconvenienced to kill our own people, we can kill other peoples’
people. Gigantic weapons deals to Saudi Arabia and Israel
are proof of that.
By the way, did anyone happen to notice in the NDAA (Defense Authorization
Act) the increase of funds to rebels in another country whose goal is to
defeat the Syrian Government?
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
PS For those who object to our killing our own people in the US join
Black Lives Matter.
At the very least, the US should get rid of this prolonged waiting period between the elections and actual assuming power by the president-elect. It was meant to facilitate the orderly transition of power, but as we see now it is serving just the opposite goals. I cannot believe Obama is so keen on hurting Trump he is ready to badly hurt his own country as well.
Unless Trump killed a prostitute on film, how could whatever is on the alleged video be any worse than the pussy-grabbing debacle and all the other accusations of sexual predation? I don’t think you can embarrass Trump. He would just brush it off, and his base would probably think he was a super stud.
Oh, I don’t know, they could well have much worse stuff to leak, given Mr. Trump’s complete lack of control of his desires.
I collected a lot of “stuff” on Trump from the internet in the past year, and was surprised to see virtually none of it used against him. My best guess is that Hillary & Co. didn’t think it was necessary against their carefully selected “easiest” opponent. That “stuff” is still available, and might well be used to buttress wilder and unverifiable claims.
Yesterday on anther site i wrote how Hillary was complicit in a very serious charge.
Please watch video titles, where is Eric braverman on you tube . I have watched some and most of the material gives you the reality of what is occurring. A example is this. A fact is Gaddafi wanted to have some kind of gold backed Dina money policy. Fact. So Libya had a lot of gold maybe hundreds of tons. Where is it now. Did the “invaders’ get it with their usual cut out Libyan man?
In the spirit of trying to make a better world i put this up, it seems political unbiased however it shows the Clinton as they are?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vam6qxfQrgA
day 70
“For over four decades, Gaddafi promoted economic democracy and used the nationalized oil wealth to sustain progressive social welfare programs for all Libyans. Under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyans enjoyed not only free health-care and free education, but also free electricity and interest-free loans.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/libya-from-africas-wealthiest-democracy-under-gaddafi-to-terrorist-haven-after-us-intervention/
“Libya’s Qadhafi (African Union 2009 Chair) conceived and financed a plan to unify the sovereign States of Africa with one gold currency (United States of Africa). In 2004, a pan-African Parliament (53 nations) laid plans for the African Economic Community – with a single gold currency by 2023.
“African oil-producing nations were planning to abandon the petro-dollar, and demand gold payment for oil/gas…Qaddafi had done more than organize an African monetary coup. He had demonstrated that financial independence could be achieved. His greatest infrastructure project, the Great Man-made River, was turning arid regions into a breadbasket for Libya; and the $33 billion project was being funded interest-free without foreign debt, through Libya’s own state-owned bank.
That could explain why this critical piece of infrastructure was destroyed in 2011. NATO not only bombed the pipeline but finished off the project by bombing the factory producing the pipes necessary to repair it.”
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2987399/why_qaddafi_had_to_go_african_gold_oil_and_the_challenge_to_monetary_imperialism.html
Speaking of “leaks”, isn’t the specific accusation in this case that Trump paid a prostitute to “take a leak” on the bed where he believed the Obamas had spent the night? (So I guess it was the prostitute that had “worse stuff to leak”!)
And while no one at Trump’s press conference mentioned the specifics, Trump stated, “Does anyone really believe that story? I’m also very much of a germaphobe, by the way, believe me.”
Check Chan4
Anna, do you mean the British television programme?
Very interesting column. I guess Mr. Trump is getting a lesson in who really runs things around here.
Trump could end all this by releasing his tax returns but he won’t do it. I believe the intelligence community had fears that once inaugurated, Trump would squash the whole thing. The Russian connection is the only theory that connects all the dots. I’m waiting t see what happens with Assange. Will he suddenly be able to go to Sweden?
As far as Trump’s behavior, don’t forget he was accused of raping a 13 year old girl but the woman had to withdraw the suit because her life was threatened.
Why is your post such a strong reminder of Pizzagate?
If Trump & Co. accept “the intelligence community’s assessment that the Russian government hacked the emails,” they are only saying that, as is common knowledge, everybody hacks everybody. This is not, as Parry says, an acceptance of the intelligence “assessment” that Putin or Russian hackers released the emails, or even got them. Assange and Murray have said unequivocally that the source was inside the DNC, which means it cannot have been the Russians.
Assange and Murray might be right, and they might not. There is a term being tossed around – “cutout”. Just because an intermediary claims to be a DNC leaker doesn’t mean he actually was such.
Under the circumstances I just don’t care. Now if the Russians or Chinese or Ugandans or anybody else had done more than facilitate the release of true information useful to voters, I’d be agitated myself. Not that I’d expect anybody else to be. US votes have been hacked ever since the no-verify touchscreen devices were first introduced, and nobody in authority has given a hoot about it.
Zachary–you are so right. It drives me crazy that Bush got away with stealing the voting system and all the Damn Dems care about is using it themselves. And now it drives me crazy that the Clintonistas took down Bernie and are getting away with it. With that cat’s paw Obusha hanging around to “work” on rebuilding the DNC, we’ll never see democracy again.
We must indeed Dump the Dems. We need a progressive party.
There is a strong progressive majority everywhere which is being deliberately fragmented by the Dems. In the US, Clinton supporters must unify not only with the critics of Dem warmongering for Israel and KSA, but also with the Trumpers who want economic security in a rapacious oligarchic state. Clinton supporters will have to admit their mistake and abandon the Dems as a scam of oligarchy serving only as a backstop for the Repubs.
The solution is for a third party to align moderate progressives (national health care, no wars of choice, income security) with parts of the traditional right (fundamentalists, flag-wavers, make America great) leaving out only the extreme right (wars, discrimination, big business imperialism), use individual funding, and rely upon broad platform appeal to marginalize the Dems as the third party.
Sam F. I agree with you but you have to stop using the term “progressive.” The Clinton faction of the demo party owns that term. It arose with John Podesta’s Center for American Progress. Podesta is the ideologue of contemporary progressivism. It has nothing to do with the Progressive movement of the early 20th century.
The right term is Sander’s term: Democratic Socialism. I know socialism is a problematic term, too, but at least it is now claimed by the right people.
RMDC: Do you think “Progressive” can be brought back to its original meaning, or given a better one, despite people falsely claiming to be progressive? Sanders’ term might be incorporated into that. It would be nice to deny the fakers the use of it.
“we’ll never see democracy again.”
Humm? When did we last see that “democracy” thing?
Didn’t Trump just acknowledge that attacks on cyber US infrastructure including the DNC takes place, in a general way? That is what his statement read and to me that does not sound like “Trump acknowledges Russian DNC hack” at all.
So is it me, or…?
No, LGJ, it’s not just you who can read through MSMB[ullsh t.]
A “new phase” in Intelligence meddling with presidential candidates, yes – but only in how openly they stand behind it as the source. Campaigns to scandalize unwanted primary challengers have been alleged before. Senator Gary Hart, for one, has said in interviews he believes he was caught in a honey trap, which cost him his candidacy.
Gary Hart, a potentially strong contender, was also [like Trump] not up to Deep State’s standards in Russophobia.
What’s going on here? I think Julian Assange may be on to something. (my bold)
Thanks, Lin [for your ‘bold.’ Assange and Snowden are two voices “in the wilderness” always worth listening to.
Brilliant– as always. No matter how vilified JA is and no matter how much he’s lied about, he still is a force for reason and subversion, both of which we desparately need. Thanks for the quote.
Curious to me in the two-pronged attack on Trump (a. demonizing to delegitimize and replace with Pence coming from the political establishment; b. hysterical fear of Trump coming from left wing journalism sources including left-oriented alternative news sites) is why the hysteria in the left continues so virulently. Assange’s comment, to me, is balanced and sober. We don’t know what will happen out of Trump and his collection of “idiosyncratic personalities,” we don’t know what will turn out “change for the worse and change for the better,” and all the fear-mongering from people like Robert Reich, appearing regularly in Truthdig, is entirely speculative. I then question–would these same people on the left, that I once thought to be colleagues, prefer Hillary Clinton and “consolidation of power in the existing ruling class”? This fracturing in what I had thought was an intelligent left opposition is disturbing.
As an “old leftie” myself, I’d have to agree with Paul Craig Roberts that there IS no left anymore. It was co-opted and bought by Big Money. Maybe we need to forget about “left” and “right” and operate according to our own minds rather tha taking our cues from apologists for the establishment like Robert Reich. But it sounds like you’re already doing that.
Change that will undoubtedly benefit the privileged in a big way.
I don’t give a crap about if Trump had prostitutes. That’s between he and his wife. What I do care about is if there are Trump financial threads to Russia and if his team had illegal meetings with Moscow before the election. There are too many questions that need to be answered.
Why does Trump continue to dote on Putin? He’s a vicious killer who has no qualms of eliminating his opponents. Those are facts.
Why won’t he release his tax returns? It could only mean he is hiding something.
What benefit does the world intelligence community gain in smearing a president elect? Is it financial? idealogical? Power? Are they not tied and beholdened more to the entrenched financial hierarchies then to the ever changing political landscape?
What advantage did this operative from British intelligence gain from compiling this info? Money, fame, a 2nd home in Portugal?
How does anyone watching that press conference not come away with the chilly realization that our president-elect is psychologically impaired? My god you don’t have to be a trained psychologist to see the guy has some serious mental health issues.
“He’s a vicious killer …” – this is a music for the Kagans’ clan
“What advantage did this operative from British intelligence gain from compiling this info?”
Reportedly he asked his neighbours to feed his cats and he went into hiding. Bizarre.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article126129709.html
‘Why does Trump continue to dote on Putin? He’s a vicious killer who has no qualms of eliminating his opponents. Those are facts.’
Facts? I’m pretty familiar with Putin’s career and I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Putin is a killer at all.
Can you provide links to evidence? Not just links to other people making assertions without evidence, please.
“Why does Trump continue to dote on Putin? He’s a vicious killer who has no qualms of eliminating his opponents. Those are facts.”
You talking about Trump or Putin? In any case has Russia or Putin killed as many people as America or Obama. The “facts” say no, not even close.
vicious killer? since when is that a bad thing? jinkies, obama of nobel fame
sends missiles and drones around the planet, bombing and killing for fun and
profit. why, he even orders the assassination of citizens of his own country,
without trial even. meanwhile, putin has, umm……look! a squirrel!
Nobody said it was a bad thing. You’re inferring things. Stick to squirrels…. Ah yes, the door….
Obama and Bush are also “vicious killers”. What do you say to the millions of people who continue to “dote” on them?
George Orwell predicted our current mess in his classic, “1984”. Interestingly, that was the year that the neocons took over the Pentagon’s Office of Risk Assessment, the State Department, and the whore-house American media.
The entire sordid mess needs to be dismantled brick by brick and rebuilt from the ground up. Washington should be razed to the ground. It is beyond rescuing. it is beyond saving. It is rotten from the foundations to the pinicle of the obilisk. The American People should declare war on Washington DC and invade the place and clean house. Bring the Guillotine along with them and the baskets for the heads.
The stench is overwhelming. It needs to be cleaned up. No it needs to be wiped from the face of the earth. One of the founding fathers said that periodically, the tree of democracy had to be watered with blood. That time has arrived.
A friend of mine, a liberal dimwit — but a good-hearted fellow — when I told him I liked Trump said, almost exasperated, “He likes Putin!” I was taken aback momentarily, because I thought to myself, “Well, yeah. What’s not to like?” Then I realized that of course, there is another point of view. The old anti-Commie Kool-Aid-saturated point of view, spiffed up and rebranded for the post-Soviet era: Putin the new boogieman, same as the old boogieman. Gotta have a boogieman.
Then I told him what I was looking for from Trump, I roared “I want him to burn down Washington!”
Since he’s a take-no-prisoners bad boy mentored by Roy Cohn to utterly annihilate his enemies, I have to think he’s biding his time, holding back. Keeping his powder dry until he is in the big chair. Then, with the reins of power in his (little?) hands — in particular, the DoJ — he will drop down on the leadership of the intelligence community, and the Neocon-infested State Dept like the wrath of god.
For the CIA I’m hoping he will release the full 6700 page torture report unredacted and fully in the clear, and then, in compliance with the laws against torture, indict every one involved for crimes against humanity.
He’s got the balls for it, but equally important, he must realize that if he doesn’t crush them — I mean utterly — then he stands a real good chance of ending up like JFK.
The saddest part of this entire debacle is that the intelligence agencies, as well as main stream media, the president and most members of Congress have destroyed their own credibility. Lacking credibility, they cannot be believed; and when they cannot be believed, they cannot be trusted; and a government that cannot be trusted is doomed.
Trump proved more feisty than expected at his first press conference as President-Elect, hitting back at both Buzzfeed (‘You’re fake news” and CNN (“you’re organization is terrible”) And went on to say that “If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks? That’s called an asset, not a liability,” describing the urgency of cooperation in defeating terrorism. Lost in the shuffle however was the source of the lies — British intelligence agencies.In fact, the NYTimes reported Jan. 6 that the official report released last week by the US intelligence agencies, which accused Putin of subverting the U.S. election, also came from British intelligence, which “raised an alarm that Moscow had hacked into the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers, and alerted their American counterparts.Talk about foreign interference.
friends of Israel in action in the UK
Get with the program! We are supposed to believe that all we have heard from and about the CIA in this century was pure and innocent incompetence, and should therefore continue to put all of our faith in their motives and methods.
Do you know which major government is the most trusted by its citizens?
The Edelman Corporation does. They’ve been doing ‘government trust’ surveys for decades. Check it out. http://www.slideshare.net/EdelmanAPAC/2016-edelman-trust-barometer-china-english.
Hint: China
Excuse the mixed metaphors, but this looks like another entirely predictable nail in the coffin of US democracy, as the chickens come home to roost. For some time it has been quite obvious the CIA has been pulling strings from behind the scenes to make whatever puppet occupies the White House dance to its tune. But it won’t end there. Only when the CIA climbs completely out of the coffin can the epic finale between the CIA, FBI and NSA begin.
The big question is as to how long the people of states like Texas and Florida stand by in the wings as the theater catches fire.
There are moments in history when it seems almost the entire population of a nation has been struck with deafness and blindess. This maybe one such moment for the United States as a political elite begins the process of tearing the Union apart.
Don’t mix your metaphors before they are hatched. ;-)
There are moments in history when it seems almost the entire population of a nation has been struck with deafness and blindess. This maybe one such moment for the United States as a political elite begins the process of tearing the Union apart.
The United States has been accused of decadence for decades by Americans and non-Americans without much concern being shown by anyone not in a certain minority. The great tragedy of a decadent way of life is its durability.
In 1961 William Lederer’s book, “A Nation of Sheep” revealed the abuse of American power and the ignorance of the American people regarding this misrule. Nothing much has changed since then except the names of the aggressors and their primary geographic areas of intended domination. The mass of people are essentially clueless and content to believe whatever lies and salacious tales are told them from the nation’s Towers of Babel. This is in line with human history that shows people of authoritarian dispositions tend to be more aggressive and dominant in politics and commerce and the masses accept their lot as long as they get enough crumbs from establishment’s plate..
(The title of the book was also an insult to sheep, but that is another story.)
The saying goes, “power corrupts,” but i believe that it is the corrupt who seek power to begin with.
Most people are content to live and let live, to live by the golden rule, mind their own and reciprocate kindness etc., etc.
Then there are those who get a thrill from exercising control over others. Those are the ones who shoot straight to the top.
An interesting and clear observation. As an australian I note our system is dominated by two major parties (and I mean dominated) similar to the US. The two parties are vehicles for ambitious and corrupt individuals to fast track political careers. The power rests in these organizations and attracts the corrupt like bees to honey.
Bill, regarding your sense of human history I might add that for many centuries people couldn’t read, except for the aristocracy and the religious sects mostly. The reformation produced a 100 year war and literacy was at an all time low in Luthers time but something motivated them to fight for such a long time, and it wasn’t information nor intellect.
Where has our literacy gone which would prevent a repeat of endless war and violence these days? Oh yes, corporate controlled media hiring people who are certain to have no critical thinking skills, no moral rudder, nor worldly experience to shed the scales from their eyes. We are almost in pre-Gutenberg times of short attention spans and 140 character ‘news truths’ covering the landscape of the ignorant. One can only hope the Tower of the oligarchs Babel has rapidly decaying clay feet. We certainly know how to reduce cultures more ancient than ours to ashes without so much as a second thought regarding the sanctity of life. Where are all the pro-lifers now? Oh yeh, that’s only in the womb, and after the umbilical cord is cut they are fair game for destruction. The US values we rave about will really hurt when other cultures treat us as they have been treated.
Or better yet, we are in Gutenberg times where the “type” is set by the big players and the papers around the country keep the same type and only add ink. It’s their only function now at the national level to inhibit discourse, excluding this site of course.
Or better yet, we are in times of the early press machines, where the “type” is set by the big players and the papers around the country keep the same type and only add ink. It’s their only function now at the national level, meant to inhibit discourse and ideas. (excluding this site of course)
In its Hoover relation, this article reprises the passage in The Craft of Intelligence, by Allen Dulles, (1965, if memory serves; alas, that book’s text seems unavailable on the internet).
It describes the power struggle involved post-FDR, during-HST 1946-48, at the institution of the CIA. (The Agency was not legislatively enacted, only instituted through Executive Order.)
Hoover opposed the creation of an intelligence collection that would compete with the FBI’s monopoly of spies snoops and snitches.
The compromise settlement set the FBI with domestic coverage and the CIA with international haunts for its spooks.
Come the the present day, they still have turf wars in power rivalry for budget money.
However, in effect, after the budget shuffle the two legions merge their ‘assets’ — making each one double its real size. They join in advocating for (the oxymoronic) ‘authoritarian morality,’ gaining both the unlawfulness funded in the Judiciary with same unlawfulness, (or, being ‘outlaw,’ ‘above the law’), funded by the Executive.
You can depend that they employ the same techniques. Coercion, extortion, blackmail, assassination, torture, defamation, slander and Press Release aspersion. The polity is hung pendant on those strings the outlaws pull. Or, ‘hanged’ pendant.
As Hoover, so Clapper et al.
Trump seems to have reconsided, maybe recanted, his defiance of ‘intelligence’ after he has seen some truth in it regarding things he knows he did in places he knows he was. He knows he dare not let the public see him through the cyclopian ‘eye’ of the intelligentia illumination.
_____
My wit sez, Lo! That explains his undocumented wife — he heard about Russian mail-order brides and flew off to visit the showroom. And brought back some capital equipment, manufactured in foreign lands.
The Craft of Intelligence, by Allen Dulles, (1965, if memory serves; alas, that book’s text seems unavailable on the internet)
Try alibris or abebooks dot coms. They have copies.
There’s a Kindle edition available.
Good comment Bryan, but I wonder if we should pay attention at all to this decline of everything, not only of democracy. Yet, I wish to highlight two humorous comments which best characterise the situation.
The first one was a title I saw on Russia-Insider website: “Trump watch out! John Brennan throws even a kitchen sink at Trump in desperation.”
The other was a comment by a zero-hedge reader: “Trump could have had sex with a goat in a Moscow hotel room and be videod as much as I care if he only delivers on his election promises. I voted based on his policy promises, not on his sexual preferences.”
The sexual smear is so 20th century, the same as the CIA – obsolete.
To continue on the humorous side, the vile RT has one on the Pornhub reporting a huge increase in searches for “Golden Showers”. Perhaps the kiddies are adding a new term to their vocabularies.
https://www.rt.com/viral/373545-pornhub-golden-showers-trump/
It seems that Trump supporters are many and varied, and very loyal. To pretend that all these shenanigans were needed to help elect him against such a faulty candidate as Hillary is pathetic in the extreme. The terrible results, when we see how the new Administration is being gently helped by the Senate including Democrats, will be bad for us all if their warlike statements lead to facts. However, Obama’s sending of 2800 tanks and 4000 troops to help Germany(!) and Poland against “Russian aggression” right now, plus Hillary’s promises, do not give a hopeful alternative scenario for the “land of the free” or peace on earth.
in reference to your statement that a whole nation can be struck deaf is exactly what happen in dec 7 1941.the public wile stile coherent on dec 6 1941 were 90% against any war in the european and japanese theaters of war.on dec 8 1941 they were 100% BEHIND A WAR IN EUROPE AND ASIA. THE SMALL MINDED AMERICAN PUBLIC CAN BE MANIPULATED LIKE A BLOCK OF MODELING CLAY.THEY HAVE NO ABILITY TO DISCERN ANYTHING THAT IS NOT IN THEIR REALM OF THEIR EXISTENCE. AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED IF NOT FOR THE WORST.THINK MILLENNIUM S AND THEIR TOY DEVICES PRETENDING THEY KNOW WHAT IS REAL. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOE!!!!! .