Exclusive: Establishment voices are escalating their calls for President Trump’s impeachment, even without any public evidence that his campaign colluded with Russia, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The Russia-gate affair has taken a strange turn as advocates for President Trump’s removal say his ouster should take precedence over completing the investigation and actually seeing how much there is there – whereas at least one target of the inquiry wants the U.S. government to put its cards on the table.
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who is reportedly under an FBI counterintelligence investigation for his contacts with Russians, has called on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation, to immediately release “any documents related to [the Obama administration’s] alleged wiretapping of me.”
In Page’s view, it was the Obama administration’s spreading of allegations about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia that represented “government meddling in the 2016 election,” rather than Russia’s alleged hacking Democratic emails and publicizing them via WikiLeaks, a claim made by President Obama’s intelligence chiefs but denied by WikiLeaks and Russia.
Yet, what has been perhaps most remarkable about the entire Russia-gate affair is that it has been conducted with almost no evidence being shared with the American people. Thus, we have the prospect of a duly elected President of the United States being targeted for removal by the political and media Establishment without the citizens being let in on exactly what evidence exists and how significant it is.
The impeachment spotlight has already shifted from the underlying issue of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to President Trump’s inept firing of FBI Director James Comey, who played a key role in sinking Hillary Clinton’s campaign by reopening an investigation into possible security breaches in her use of a private email server while Secretary of State — before Comey took another star turn in pursuing the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.
Trump, whose fitness for the presidency was always a profound concern to many American voters, again displayed his incompetence in firing Comey. You might have thought that Trump — as a former reality-TV star whose trademark line was “you’re fired!” — would have had the process down, but apparently not.
Trump didn’t even fire Comey face to face, but rather clumsily at long distance. Then, Trump had his subordinates justify Comey’s abrupt removal as a response to the FBI director’s violation of Justice Department protocols in announcing the politically sensitive investigation of Clinton in a way that appeared to influence a national election. But Trump undercut that rationale by blurting out comments that seemed to tie Comey’s removal to his lack of loyalty and to the Russian inquiry.
This latest botched move again showed that Trump can’t follow one of the most elementary rules of politics: stick to your own talking points. When one considers what Republicans did with the Obama administration’s initial confusion about the causes for the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, you might think that Trump would have learned the lesson about getting a story straight before telling it, but apparently not.
Whatever the justification for Comey’s firing, what Trump did was shift the Russia-gate “scandal” from the actual facts of the case to the process of the investigation. One of Official Washington’s favorite slogans is “the cover-up is worse than the crime” – although that’s usually a cop-out for journalists and members of Congress who don’t have the skills to investigate the underlying crime or determine if one even exists.
A ‘Soft Coup’
While the Establishment’s outrage over Comey’s firing has been widespread, one might have thought there would be a countervailing concern about the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies intervening to affect electoral outcomes, whether that was torpedoing Clinton or now sinking Trump.
FBI Director James Comey
The curious role of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI in spearheading the Russia-gate investigation – including having handpicked “senior analysts” from the three agencies produce a clearly biased and nearly evidence-free report on Jan. 6 – has raised concerns of a “soft coup” or “deep-state coup” to negate the 2016 election.
Considering the seriousness of such a move in a constitutional republic that prides itself as the gold standard of democracy, it might have been expected that the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies would go the extra mile in sharing their evidence with the American people whose electoral judgment would, in effect, be made meaningless: both by Comey’s late intervention against Clinton and now the pressure to impeach Trump.
Yet, instead of a commitment to openness, the intelligence community is telling the citizens that we must accept the fact of Russian “meddling” as “a given,” sans evidence. In addition, influential voices are emerging to declare that Trump’s impeachment should proceed even without the results of the Russia-gate investigation of possible Trump-Russia collusion being known to the public.
On Sunday, The Washington Post published an opinion article by Harvard University law professor Laurence H. Tribe declaring: “The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice. … Now the country is faced with a president whose conduct strongly suggests that he poses a danger to our system of government.”
Tribe continued: “Ample reasons existed to worry about this president, and to ponder the extraordinary remedy of impeachment, even before he fired FBI Director James B. Comey and shockingly admitted on national television that the action was provoked by the FBI’s intensifying investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia.”
Grave Threat
According to Tribe, Trump’s threat to the system is so grave that his removal should precede any conclusions from the Russia-gate investigation. Tribe wrote that immediate impeachment could have been fashioned around other issues, “even without getting to the bottom of what Trump dismissed as ‘this Russia thing’,” though Tribe acknowledged that such an extreme step might have seemed premature at the time.
A wintery scene in Moscow, near Red Square. (Photo by Robert Parry)
“No longer,” Tribe continued. “To wait for the results of the multiple investigations underway is to risk tying our nation’s fate to the whims of an authoritarian leader. Comey’s summary firing will not stop the inquiry, yet it represented an obvious effort to interfere with a probe involving national security matters vastly more serious than the ‘third-rate burglary’ that Nixon tried to cover up in Watergate.
“The question of Russian interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign go to the heart of our system and ability to conduct free and fair elections.”
Like many mainstream “experts,” Tribe doesn’t seem to understand what Watergate was really about; recent historical discoveries show it to be an outgrowth of Nixon’s cover-up of his 1968 sabotage of President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks, a maneuver that secured Nixon the presidency but extended the war for four more years. Nixon’s fear that his dirty trick might get leaked led to formation of the Watergate “plumbers.”
Tribe also ignores the fact that the “Russian interference” still remains a “question,” not a proven fact, and no investigator has cited any evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion. To skirt that problem, Tribe focuses on the firing of Comey as the grounds for impeachment:
“To say that this does not in itself rise to the level of ‘obstruction of justice’ is to empty that concept of all meaning. Obstruction of justice was the first count in the articles of impeachment against Nixon and, years later, a count against Bill Clinton. In Clinton’s case, the ostensible obstruction consisted solely in lying under oath about a sordid sexual affair that may have sullied the Oval Office but involved no abuse of presidential power as such.
“But in Nixon’s case, the list of actions that together were deemed to constitute impeachable obstruction reads like a forecast of what Trump would do decades later — making misleading statements to, or withholding material evidence from, federal investigators or other federal employees; trying to interfere with FBI or congressional investigations; trying to break through the FBI’s shield surrounding ongoing criminal investigations; dangling carrots in front of people who might otherwise pose trouble for one’s hold on power.
“It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president’s own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry. It would be a terrible shame if only the mounting prospect of being voted out of office in November 2018 would sufficiently concentrate the minds of representatives and senators today.
“But whether it is devotion to principle or hunger for political survival that puts the prospect of impeachment and removal on the table, the crucial thing is that the prospect now be taken seriously, that the machinery of removal be reactivated, and that the need to use it become the focus of political discourse going into 2018.”
Lay Out the Evidence
There is, of course, another alternative: the FBI and other intelligence agencies could expedite whatever investigations they’re doing and let the American people in on the evidence.
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Phoenix, Arizona. Oct. 29, 2016. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)
The key question, as Russia-gate was first being formulated as a political scandal, was whether some member of the Trump campaign colluded with Russian intelligence operatives to deliver, by memory stick or other means, hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks.
Yet, beyond the fact that the Jan. 6 report offered no government evidence that the Russians even hacked the Democratic emails, there also seems to be no rush to question the “usual suspects” from the Trump campaign – Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Page – about what they might know regarding the possible delivery of the emails to WikiLeaks.
Nor has there been any public testimony regarding another source of the Russia-gate allegations, ex-British spy Christopher Steele who prepared a series of opposition research reports on Trump and Russia apparently funded by Clinton supporters. It’s still not even known who paid for the Steele dossier.
Typically, the FBI and Justice Department refuse to discuss investigations until they’ve reached a conclusion, but that rule has already been broken by Comey, who justified announcing both the Clinton and Trump investigations because of their political significance.
In the Clinton case, Comey was urged to expedite his work so Clinton could be cleared before the election and he appeared to do so, terminating the reopened investigation of her email server two days before the Nov. 8 election. Today, the public interest in wrapping up the Russian inquiry is arguably even stronger.
In congressional testimony, Comey announced that the FBI began the Russia investigation last July, so it’s not as if the investigators haven’t had time to assess the evidence and decide what to do.
An Open Process
Carter Page’s suggestion – in effect waiving his privacy rights to get out in the open whatever evidence was used by the Obama administration to justify a reported Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against him – could be a start.
Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
Congressional committees also could call as many willing Trump campaign people as possible to testify about their knowledge of any collusion with Russia. So far, the only witnesses have been law enforcement and intelligence officials appointed by President Obama, who have presented various allegations while refusing to offer back-up on the grounds that the evidence is “classified.”
While Professor Tribe and other advocates for impeaching Donald Trump may not care whether the Russia-gate evidence is ever released, they should recognize that – for better or worse – nearly 63 million Americans voted for Trump and – under the U.S. political process – he won the election (although Clinton got about 3 million more votes nationwide).
For the past several days, I’ve been traveling through Trump country of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio and have talked to several Trump voters along the way. Some indicated that they voted more against Clinton and the “elites” than enthusiastically for Trump. And some criticized Trump for his egotistical excesses. But they wanted him to be given a fair chance to govern.
It’s hard to know how angry these citizens would be if their judgment is overturned by the same “elites” whom they blamed for foisting on them the unpopular choice of Clinton versus Trump.
Reversing – or “correcting” – the result of the presidential election may seem like an obvious move for the editors of The New York Times and for Professor Tribe, but it is a deadly serious proposition that demands as full a release of evidence as possible, not long-running secret investigations or an impeachment based on an alleged “cover-up” of a crime that may or may not exist.
Negating the will of the voters as expressed through the constitutional process – as flawed as that process may be – requires its own process that is perceived as open and fair, not some star chamber or kangaroo court where the intelligence community gets to hide the evidence as “classified” and tells the citizenry to “trust us.”
As unfit and inept as Donald Trump may be, he was elected – and no one should underestimate how dangerous it could be for Washington insiders and other Establishment figures to undo the electoral choice through a process cloaked in secrecy.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup” and “The Soft Coup of Russia-gate.”]
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).
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/22/medea_benjamin_congress_should_halt_trumps
Yeah, just go ahead and tell all those Presidents and Prime Ministers of all those foreign countries that he just visited that you’re gonna impeach President Trump. You’ll have 19 Intelligence agencies laughing at you. Go Ahead…..tell it to Mossad! I dare you!
CRITICAL READING
Trump, Comey, & the crisis in the US ruling class
How capitalism undermines social justice
iPhones aren’t why we can’t afford healthcare
Women workers began the Russian Revolution
What’s behind Trump’s Muslim ban
http://www.socialistworker.org
That’s the beginning of a long essay by Mark Ames about the not-very-pretty history of the FBI. This part is interesting because it highlights how NPR is another of those Great American Institutions I no longer trust.
But back to the article. It is a doozy of a read for people like myself who thought they knew something about recent US history, but don’t. The FBI is an institution which needs to be put on a sound legal footing and at the same time drastically reformed.
Finally, Trump did exactly the right thing in firing Comey. Why he chose to botch the job so badly remains a mystery to me.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/05/mark-ames-fbi-no-legal-charter-lots-kompromat.html
Very few actually believe Russia is the problem. All this is smoke to hide what the billionaire class can no longer hide.
Wealthy people are afflicted with insatiable want and they are willing to destroy life on Earth in a vain attempt to stave off the pains of their mental illness.
Trump is showing the insanity of insatiable want to a nation that consumes at about a five Earth level. If everyone on Earth lived like the US the world economy would require five Earth planets.
The super wealthy in the US are consumption zealots. They cannot be cured and Trump is exposing their disease.
but doesn’t he want to save the world from vacillation and virus/and or disease,or, atomic bombings by growing numbers of *terrorists?
is Mr Trump not a savior in america?
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/22/medea_benjamin_congress_should_halt_trumps
I covered this article by my comment in the previous one. Trump’s only redeeming quality during the campaign was his tendency towards opening a dialogue with Putin. His Cabinet appointments and bombing Assad ended that illusion. Nevertheless, he was elected President and should only be stripped of the office if he commits an impeachable offense. That matter is moot unless and until convincing evidence of that is presented.
Dear Mr. Parry
I first read an article of yours at Personal Liberty last week,,,,,I must tell you it was great ,
You mentioned The Likud Party and Trumps connection, with Netanyahu I agree,,
JMO, but that is what is happening in Washington today,,,,Right Wing Likud Party vs. The Left Wing Labor Party.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out,,,
Thanks for your Articles
Ben
“…instead of a commitment to openness, the intelligence community is telling the citizens that we must accept the fact of Russian “meddling” as “a given,” sans evidence.”
“We cannot wait for a smoking gun, which might come in the form of a mushroom cloud” (Bush Jr.)
Actually, that second quote was from the lips of the un-estimable* Condoleezza Rice.
*not a typo
I agree that it would be a dangerous and disruptive move to force Thump out with no evidence of wrong doing, How would this help We the People?. The Constitution states that we have the right to change the Government if it harms us. We did at the ballot box according to the rules.
Basically we would not have a Constitution anymore.No Rule of Law. Frankly, it would be suicide for the Republicans to go along with this and risk alienating their base. As fast as they gained a dominant position vs. the Democrats they could lose theirs. Ir would be real stupid. They will not force Trump out in an extra Constitutional manner. Bank on it. They are in control they need to quit playing footsie with the Democrats on Russia bashing and start using their power to govern, hopefully in a prudent manner/ I don’t think a whole lot of the Donald but I like the Russian bashing deep state puppets even less. The Republican Senate and Congress need to quit talking to the W Post and New York Times like they are the Roman Senate sharpening their knives before the Ides of March
From Black Agenda Report: “Purported ‘progressives’, apparently driven mad by Donald Trump, demonstrated this month in support of former FBI director James Comey. It was disheartening to see ‘left’ forces so anxious to combat Trump, they were actually supporting Comey,” said United National Anti-War Coalition activist Sara Flounders. “This strange strain of ‘leftists’ seem to have forgotten the oppressive history and practices of US spy outfits.”
I am astonished at the relentlessly fierce onslaught. We are truly back in the Cold War and the McCarthy era in particular.
Watergate, according to Lamar Walden who wrote the book on it, was all about “that Cuban thing” or the Bay of Pigs and how Nixon tried to coverup his involvement with assassinations of Fidel and his wo9rk with the mafia, Nix that is.
Either way, calling for an impeachment of Trump will suck the air out of any organizing for social change. The corporate demops will use it to grandstand and the nation, asi it already has, will come to a screeching halt.
Either way, America seems embalmed in a Constitutional Crisis of obscene proportions.
It’s hard to see the Hype about President Trump, talking ,I mean absolute minor things to Mr Lawrow.They should share all the political “Secrets” of our evil time to solve the Problems together.People want to impeach Mr.President?Are These specialist still able to eat everything or do they Need help???
You guys @ Consortium have been great to stay off the rush to judgement bandwagon, solid analysis, thank you for that. The constitution protects President Trump just like the rest of us. It would be good to see you flesh out some of the grand jury in VA , possible DJT and the Kushners’ moving family and business $$$ offshore.
http://www.newsweek.com/after-comey-firing-trump-hour-reckoning-606862
Superb piece!
Hail President Orrin Hatch!
The opposition to the election outcome has reached hysterical proportions, threatening our democracy and threatening peace with Russia. We are being thrown into a new Cold War for partisan reasons. We are being led to reject the election outcome because the losers were shocked by it. It has even become suggestions for a “soft coup” of our National Security State against the Administration.
I don’t know if Trump has it in him to respond to this. But if he is going to, he’d better act soon. This can’t go on and on with the whole Establishment battering away at our own government and the peace of the world.
I’d suggest that we start with the basic that Obama avoided — Lock Her Up, which Obama did not do to the neocons of Bush who then became the neocons of Hillary.
Along with Hillary, lock up some of her key agents. Make a clean sweep.
What to do about the media? It is a wholly owned part of the Hillary campaign now. Sweeping away Hillary would fix the media too.
In the latest impeach Trump story “Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador” in today’s Washington Post, there are a key couple of paragraphs that reveal what has gotten official Washington so riled:
“Trump has repeatedly gone off-script in his dealings with high-ranking foreign officials, ….
U.S. officials said that the National Security Council continues to prepare multi-page briefings for Trump to guide him through conversations with foreign leaders, but that he has insisted that the guidance be distilled to a single page of bullet points — and often ignores those.
“He seems to get in the room or on the phone and just goes with it, and that has big downsides,” the second former official said. “Does he understand what’s classified and what’s not? That’s what worries me.”
In other words the President is supposed to follow the script given to him by officials and not actually make any policy decisions.
The impeach Trump movement seems to be following the Paraguay and Brazil playbook.
Apparently, at some point in time, the US Constitution received a secret re-write and the new job description of the presidency specifies that the office holder will function as a puppet of the CIA under all circumstances.
Many great posts, show that we’re at a point of crisis because of about 40 years of subversion of whatever democracy was in existence. Trump thought business and employment should be restored for the sake of people who have lost out, but the permanent war machine of the US government prevails. Stopping Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their neocon cabal just couldn’t be done, though not for lack of trying, and the ME wars intensified the permanent military state. Trump obviously did not understand the power of the MIC and now he’s finding out. I think Bryan’s statement about armed citizens ought to be taken seriously by elitists who live protected lives and do not seem concerned about the millions of lives lost because of the US permanent war machine as long as they are comfy. And the people who want to see restoration of regular jobs, not war-related ones, are pretty darned pissed off. Another civil war might be possible.
Donald Trump is like a guy in a crowded venue who suddenly reveals he is wearing a vest of powerful explosives. How do you handle such a guy? Very carefully. Cursing him and threatening him are not recommended.
Comey gets his payout for a job well done the US tax payer will suffer again from the media elected drongo.
It won’t be the first time I’ve suggested on this site that the biggest security problem the U.S. might face in the coming years is most likely to be on the domestic front.
It’s the height of irresponsibilty to talk about impeachment without producing even a sliver of evidence when there are so many discontented folk out there; a very large proportion of them armed, and some very heavily armed. All the surveillance in the world can’t stop an insurrection, should those people take to the streets. When it is borne in mind a massive number police officers and the military will have voted for Trump the picture gets even worse.
America’s leaders have truly lost touch with the people and are lighting the fuse to a keg that could tear their country apart.
Bryan – if they keep this up, those heavily-armed people will take to the streets and then all hell will break loose. They are playing with fire.
Good points. Coups can produce disastrous consequences. Coups are a form of violence, and violence spawns more violence.
So, you are saying you’d resent the establishment elites essentially stealing political power from the people who have already spoken at the ballot box. That’s not very magnanimous of you. [sarcasm]
Donald Trump is not only obnoxious and insulting, he is growing increasingly more dangerous. He thinks as President he can do whatever he wants, which includes conducting business – including business with Russian leaders – behind closed doors, skipping intel briefing sessions, keeping out the press when he feels like it, firing an FBI Director for not promising him complete loyalty, refusing to turn over his tax records, and promoting himself and his family at the expense of the American people. His arrogance is insulting as he continues to push his limits and escape responsibility. He should have been stopped long ago, and it is time he is taken out before he takes our nation down.
The little matter of evidence should be more than just a nicety if you really want to “take him out.” Or, do you merely want to take him out to dinner?
From what I understand the Steele report was first financed by Jeb Bush. When he dropped out, it was financed by Hillary Clinton.
I do not know if that is accurate, but that is what I have read. IMO, it should never have been released by Buzzfeed.
I read that as well. Don’t know why Jeb didn’t use it.
Please let me ask a simple question. I have reserched the following topic extensively and I apologize for not provididing links. In today’s world links can be a trip down bad paths.
My question is this: I have witnessed Trump borrrowing money from a China, Russian, and many other countries for his hotel projects. Simply, is there any president we know in memory who has borrowed from countries to progress his personal wealth? I know the issues with the Emollients Clause and those inherent conflicts, but have we have a president ever who bends the Constitution the way Mr Trump has? Ever?
Emoluments, please. Emollients are skin lotion ingredients.
Thank you, auto correct is sometimes not my friend.
Why were American voters not informed of the dangers of a Trump presidency before Nov 7, 2017? Why light the world on fire now?
By the way, I neither voted for Hillary nor Donald Trump?
Are you implying that he borrowed money directly from the governments of those countries? Borrowing money from private banks, businesses or even individuals in those countries is a completely different kettle of fish and not at all out of line in a capitalist universe. Would you be all bent out of shape if he had taken out a loan from Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland or Banque nationale Suisse to name a few examples? We wanted Russia and China to become capitalist countries. Now they are, completely. You still want to blackball them even when they play by our rules?
You may want Russia and China to be capitalist countries if you wish. There are not many left who do not see capitalism as outlaw pirates receiving welfare grants from a crooked government they have bought.
Capitalist free markets are for poor people who would be put in jail if they polluted Earth with cancer causing chemicals. Coddling economic welfare through backroom deals is for the rich.
I can’t take Laurence Tribe seriously. I don’t care if he wrote a Constitutional Law text book, or other books on the Constitution and Constitutional Law.
He was Barack Obama’s mentor at Harvard- Obama researched for him for one or more articles – for which Obama may have gotten a pass from writing any articles himself for the Harvard Law Review.
But where in heaven’s name was Tribe when Obama announced and later implemented his targeted assassination program. Why no call for impeachment then? Dual standard? Mother love for a protege who had previously been groomed for bigger and better things?
And then there is the little matter of Tribe’s ‘unintentional plagiarism’ (in his case, the use of material without attribution) for which Tribe later issued an apology. And who was the Dean of the Harvard Law School at the time (and a former professor at the University of Chicago)- who also gave a pass to Charles Ogletree, Jr. and, in a much more egregious case, one to Alan Dershowitz- why Elena Kagan, of course- lauded for not only her fundraising prowess, but also her coup in hiring the notorious Cass Sunstein, (husband of the notorious Samantha Power) away from the University of Chicago.
So if one is talking ‘swamp’, or endorsing the old adage, ‘vice is nice, but incest is best’, well, in this case, you’ve got the best of all possible worlds.
Tribe obviously does not think evidence and truth are important. What can you learn from a professor like that – political lying?
I really do not care who brings down Donald j trump. Mr. Gameshow host, and all his grifter followers. I give a —- if it is the deep state, the democrats, the republicans, Isis, Wall street , the international banks, Russia, the Mossad, M15 or 16, or even Anna Wintour, as long as someone brings Djt down. Our Emporer is naked, and he is ugly naked. I mean not outside naked, he is naked from the inside.
Don’t throw the truth away because you hate somebody. Not a good trade. To gain revenge, and lose your own Soul?
Thank you Mike for staying on track. Too tired to post much today, but I am appreciating the many wonderful from others. They are giving me hope that, whatever happens, not all will be lost.
Very lyrical post. Were you thinking of a song by Loggins and Messina titled Golden Ribbons:
“What does it to avail a man
To gain fortune
And lose his soul?”
Such is the case with Tina’s post obviously blinded for the need for truth and not caring if dishonesty perpetrated by the media is the weapon to bring down a presidency.
I agree with you mike K.
We have lived through dark times where the truth was placed on the stand and a lying government and an obsequious sycophant press obligingly spreading propaganda and lies to engineer consent of the people to burn witches. Witch hunts are real and never have a good outcome.
To the extent we have recently seen that anyone who opposes the interests of the corporate media whether they are democrats in the case of the Clinton’s or Obama or now a republican in Donald Trump will face a witch trial by the media is reason enough to put aside Comey’s transgressions and focus on the megaphone which stuffed a microphone in his mouth days before an election and now wants to blame the Russians for interfering in the election.
It did not used to be like this. The media unanimously did not broadcast the FBI’s demands to publish damning information about Martin Luther King Jr’s dalliances without evidence and without the source for the information which was J Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Back then the FBI refused to reveal their sources and the media following journalistic principles refused to publish leaked gossip from “unknown sources”
Today, we have a lie factory in the press which was established during the Bill Clinton presidency which has been called “The Hunting of the President” in a documentary. It might as well be called the burning of the Bill Clinton witch after the witch trial by the House impeachment managers with Henry Hyde presiding.
It has been a long road from Selma Alabama and a press which stood for justice and published the stories of civil rights abuses which led to the Civil Rights Act to today where the media is a corporate entity entwined with the lobbyists and which spins the news in any way to succor favor from their paymasters. It doesn’t even matter if it leads to war for these folks since their sponsors are the MIC and the Defense Industry.
So now we have an epic battle between DJT and a crazed media which simultaneously created him, funded his victory, extorted billions from Super PACs and now wants to bury him because he is not the kind of compliant go along to get along president like Obama who gave them everything they wanted including instigating wars in Libya, Syria, Ukraine under the guise of liberation not to mention free range drone missile attacks in many other countries in the permawar against an idea.
I am personally glad that we have a president who calls BS on the main stream press. Their hysterical attacks based on nothing at all over alleged classified information given to the Russians and whether he is guilty of outing the sources, means and methods by which the USA gained the information that ISIS was planning to put bombs in computers while simultaneously announcing likely sources of where the information came from and the likely methods by which the USA got the intelligence televised over national broadcast networks is hypocrisy on steroids while smoking crack on the part of the media.
It is clear that the media is trying their best to redo a Howard Dean scream with massive big lie propaganda and a 24/7 news cycle which will endlessly obsess over everything “Russian” in an attempt to turn the tide away from Trump in an effort to end his presidency.
Why? Is it in the national interest? No. It is now down to a brawl over who will win the day over the opinions of Americans. The fake news or Trump calling the news a fake.
Since that is the case and since the media is the bigger devil than any rogue president as evidenced by the last thirty years of propaganda aimed at presidents who go against the economic interests of the corporate media and their corporate sponsors who seek to turn this nation into a serfdom led by an oligarchy I hope Trump wins the battle over the media.
It is time for the Cold War to end and it is time for a Washington elite who make their fortunes by launching wars and killing to come to an end. Trump is facing the gun of the media right now which is aimed at ending his presidency because he is “friendly” with the Russians as though like in North Korea where the USA is the perennial enemy here at home the Russians are the perennial enemy. This is is the battle he needs to win.
No more war mongers!
Gonzo strategy
Words are only pearls before swine…we can turn them into impotent sloats by using their fear against them. That is main principle of judo.
“I have consumed them in mine anger.” Ezekiel 43
So a Harvard educated and tenured professor wants to have impeachment proceedings without any tangible evidence only hearsay, essentially a witch-hunt, then maybe we should also have an investigation into Lawrence Tribe as an agent for China. He was born in communist China, which is more proof of his threat to the U.S. than any Trump accusations.
In Tribe’s editorial he calls Trump an “authoritarian leader” because of Comey’s firing. While I might not agree or like Trump, as president, he has the power to fire Comey without explanation to the likes of Tribe or his friends in the Democrat party or those in China.
There is NO real evidence of Russian complicity in the DNC “hack”, which is more likely a leak. The DNC would not allow the FBI to inspect their server and only relied on the review done by CrowdStrike a for-profit company employed by the DNC and founded by an anti-Putin Russian.
This call for an impeachment, before any evidence is presented, by a Harvard professor is just another sad example of the quality of that institution. We have other examples like G.W. Bush and the Nobel Prize winner Obama who is quite comfortable being a war criminal.
I’ll take a corrupt president over a corrupt media any day. In America, there is a big difference between Russia and Putin and the Russian press. Over there, there is little doubt that Putin owns the press. He has had reporters killed.
Over here, we have a corporate press and there is no direct linkage to the government.
Our US press have been used to a kind of synergistic control effect since compliant go along to get along presidents like Obama gave them little reason to fear any challenge to their corrupt fake news bureau lie factories which they have believed for a long were safe from criticism. They thought no one would have the balls to dare criticize them.
I welcome Donald Trump calling the media a fake news factory because that is what they are. That is what happens ABC and CBS and NBC and NYT and WaPo when you think your Emperors New Robes are too beautiful to be criticized. The MSM have become as craven and deranged as the crazy fringe groups. You think you can just make it up and the World will believe you.
It’s a tossup over whether or not it will be Donald Trump who destroys America or the Media. My bet is the Media. Have we just thrown out the rule of law? Doesn’t there need to be some shred of evidence and by the way, before any impeachment, a majority of congress which happens to be a majority of republicans would have to agree to subject Trump to a witch trial which they most certainly will not.
Or is this just the media providing the convenient stage prop as the arrogant critic which the king will teach a mighty lesson.
All I know is we have officially come off the rails.
You have evidence that President Putin himself had reporters killed? With all these loose charges being hurled at Putin, I would like to see some real evidence. Please don’t believe everything somebody has told you about Putin. That does not fly about him anymore than the lies being told about president Trump. The Truth is more important to me than either Putin or Trump.
Well you know how it is, if anyone in Russia dies and that person is a reporter, well then Putin killed that person.
Thanks for not letting that pass, Mike. Stephen F. Cohen who knows Russia inside and out states that there is not a shred of evidence that Vladimir Putin has had anyone assassinated, let alone news reporters. But Americans will seemingly believe anything said about foreign leaders. Most of the killings in question, just like the downing of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and the gas attacks in Syria, seem to be staged by third parties meaning to frame Putin and the Russian government. They are not actions any rational leader (and Putin is hyper-cautious) would take, and the “cui bono” principle promptly suggests looking elsewhere for the culprits.
Sorry, my bad. I burped or regurgitated the status quo fed to me by the media.
Must remember…. do not believe what they tell you.
At this point the circus is so laughable I wish there were a way to trade credit default swaps on the truth in the media. We would clean up.
Yep. And characterizing Obama as “compliant, go along to get along prez” is pretty much the best description I’ve heard of him. It worked! He’s collected his $65M book deal / payoff, plus some $400k Wall Street speeches.
Oh, but no! The reason Obama couldn’t do anything was becuz of Repub Congress blocking him! Hmm. He still managed to start 5 new wars, coup Ukraine and Honduras, and bomb Libya back to stone age, plus weekly drone murders. And drive up national debt to $20 Trillion. All while blocked by Repubs.
But couldn’t be bothered to prosecute banksters or war criminals from Bush admin. Chose to stock his cabinet with them instead. “Go along to get along,”– being a compliant yes-man to Wall St., MIC, Saudis, Israel, has paid off very well for Mr. Obama.
Maybe this is too long to post, but here is the full memorandum from the Assistant Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein to the Attorney General, regarding the Subject: Restoring Public Confidence In The FBI. If you read this you will see that Comey absolutely had to be fired, whether skillfully or clumsily. He had overstepped this authority in numerous ways, and in the opinion of nearly every senior official of the Justice Department over the last 3 decades from both parties, had done real damage to the FBI and the Justice Department, and it wasn’t going to stop.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
FROM: ROD J. ROSENSTEIN
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
SUBJECT: RESTORING PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN THE FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has long been regarded as our nation’s premier federal investigative agency. Over the past year, however, the FBI’s reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice. That is deeply troubling to many Department employees and veterans, legislators and citizens.
The current FBI Director is an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice. He deserves our appreciation for his public service. As you and I have discussed, however, I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken. Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.
The Director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution. It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement. At most, the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors. The Director now defends his decision by asserting that he believed Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict. But the FBI Director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department. There is a well-established process for other officials to step in when a conflict requires the recusal of the Attorney General. On July 5, however, the Director announced his own conclusions about the nation’s most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders.
Compounding the error, the Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation. Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of criminal investigations and prosecutions, but we never release it gratuitously. The Director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument, but without a trial. It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.
In response to skeptical questions at a congressional hearing, the Director defended his remarks by saying that his “goal was to say what is true. What did we do, what did we find, what do we think about it.” But the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference. The goal is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a federal criminal prosecution, then allow a federal prosecutor who exercises authority delegated by the Attorney General to make a prosecutorial decision, and then if prosecution is warranted — let the judge and jury determine the facts. We sometimes release information about closed investigations in appropriate ways, but the FBI does not do it sua sponte.
Concerning his letter to the Congress on October 28, 2016, the Director cast his decision as a choice between whether he would “speak” about the decision to investigate the newly-discovered email messages or “conceal” it. “Conceal” is a loaded term that misstates the issue. When federal agents and prosecutors quietly open a criminal investigation, we are not concealing anything; we are simply following the longstanding policy that we refrain from publicizing non-public information. In that context, silence is not concealment.
My perspective on these issues is shared by former Attorneys General and Deputy Attorneys General from different eras and both political parties. Judge Laurence Silberman, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President Ford, wrote that “it is not the bureau’s responsibility to opine on whether a matter should be prosecuted.” Silberman believes that the Director’s “performance was so inappropriate for an FBI director that [he] doubt[s] the bureau will ever completely recover.” Jamie Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General under President Clinton, joined with Larry Thompson, Deputy Attorney General under President George W. Bush, to opine that the Director had “chosen personally to restrike the balance between transparency and fairness, departing from the department’s traditions.” They concluded that the Director violated his obligation to “preserve, protect and defend” the traditions of the Department and the FBI.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who served under President George W. Bush, observed that the Director “stepped way outside his job in disclosing the recommendation in that fashion” because the FBI director “doesn’t make that decision.” Alberto Gonzales, who also served as Attorney General under President George W. Bush, called the decision “an error in judgment.” Eric Holder, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President Clinton and Attorney General under President Obama, said that the Director’s decision “was incorrect. It violated long-standing Justice Department policies and traditions. And it ran counter to guidance that I put in place four years ago laying out the proper way to conduct investigations during an election season.” Holder concluded that the Director “broke with these fundamental principles” and “negatively affected public trust in both the Justice Department and the FBI.”
Former Deputy Attorneys General Gorelick and Thompson described the unusual events as “real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation,” that is “antithetical to the interests of justice.”
Donald Ayer, who served as Deputy Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush, along with other former Justice Department officials, was “astonished and perplexed” by the decision to “break[] with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections.” Ayer’s letter noted, “Perhaps most troubling … is the precedent set by this departure from the Department’s widely-respected, non-partisan traditions.”
We should reject the departure and return to the traditions.
Although the President has the power to remove an FBI director, the decision should not be taken lightly. I agree with the nearly unanimous opinions of former Department officials. The way the Director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong. As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them. Having refused to admit his errors, the Director cannot be expected to implement the necessary corrective actions
Thanks Steve. Sure makes it clear why he was fired. The witch hunters will continue limping on, but they don’t really have a leg to stand on. I would like to see them all prosecuted and put in prison where they belong. Just like McCarthy, they pretend to be defending our freedoms. Goddamn liars I call them.
Speaking of the most dangerous situation, that would be the Bush-Cheney years, the world has become the worst ever seen since WWII. A supine Congress went along with it. We have Trump today since the US went right off the rails then.
I really don’t see how the impeachment can fly. As is indicated, Trump’s voters still support him and would view this as phony and in their minds (though perhaps they would not use the term) a color revolution. It is also unlikely that any republican house members would support impeachment, so it’s dead in the water except as a propaganda effort. For one thing, there are statements on record by key democrats including establishment senator Diane Feinstein that there is no merit to the charges. I just don’t see how this goes beyond the obvious propaganda bullshit level. If it does, we are in serious trouble because it would involve potential nuclear confrontation were this effort to succeed. I don’t see it going anywhere other than as a propaganda effort.
Please tell me what I can do and what to sign and I’m telling you that I will put in 110 percent of myself where I can if it means mr trump. No caps were on purpose. No title because he is NOT my president. I would be over the moon to say I was a participant in getting
Stiv – “And how was putting a mentally ill, unstable,lying,immoral, physically and intellectually bankrupt clown in the office of the president going to make things better?”
Like that doesn’t describe every President for the last 30 years? The difference is that those Presidents did what they were told, and they acted in concert with a bought-and-paid-for Congress and Senate who did what they were told too.
Talk about bankrupt! You probably still believe that Lincoln freed the slaves out of a sense of morality.
And I guess today’s revelations from the WAPO are “fake news”, right you Trumpist bozos?
You’ll never get off the “Hilary” thing, will you? Hey, I disliked Hilary as well but I voted for her…because there was no other choice. That’s it. I believe my judgement has been vindicated…as vile as it was/is. This two party “system” isn’t new to most people here. Sure, it’s fucked. And how was putting a mentally ill, unstable,lying,immoral, physically and intellectually bankrupt clown in the office of the president going to make things better? Trump works for his ego and little else. Money is only another way to stroke his ego.
As it is, we have a very dangerous situation…with people acting as apologists for someone who feels he can do anything he wants with impunity.
There are a couple intelligent voices of reason here at CN but most have left. Hell, in this writing of Parry’s, it appears maybe even HE is finally waking up. Fuck Clinton. That’s over with. What isn’t over with is Trump and the damage he does every day.
No one on this thread is a Trump apologist. No one on this thread is a Hillary or Obama apologist either.
Today’s revelations from WaPo are more basura aka US propoganda. Sorry that’s upsetting you. Yes, US government is corrupt and bankrupt. Sorry you can’t deal with that without reflexively trying to seek shelter in supporting Hillary.
Interesting that you are unable to spell her name correctly, even tho you voted for her.
If voting changed anything it would be illegal
“There are a couple intelligent voices of reason here at CN but most have left.”
It’s been over two years since I began reading CN on a nearly daily basis. I haven’t noticed any of the many intelligent voices “leaving”, and in fact am grateful that there has been such a consistency of regular contributors. In fact, much to our benefit, over the past 6-8 months quite a few more”intelligent voices of reason” have regularly added a good deal of intellectual and ethical asset to these threads.
Stiv, you consistently complain about CN, consistently misrepresent others’ views, and seem to think your flailing attempts to make sense are a superior product as compared to most of the rest of us. Why bother?
Good luck on making any kind of case that Hillary would have been the preferable evil. Not to me, and not to most others here. Sure there were other quite acceptable choices but no electable ones were on the final ballot.
Even if you succeeded in dislodging Trump from the office, that would not give you Hillary (thank god!), it would give you Mike Pence. Does he meet your standards of the “lesser evil?” Once again, not to me.
If you posited a really fanciful scenario of impeaching Trump and Pence simultaneously, that would give you Paul Ryan. Is that whom you are angling for? That outcome is an even longer shot than Trump getting elected.
This Stiv, just like many of the MSM watching zombies, thinks that it has to be either/or with Trump and Hillary. He can’t get it through his head that most of us commenters thought they were both horrible choices. I don’t know why he continues to read and comment here, when he thinks Parry is obsessing and we’re a bunch of dunderheads. The damage that Trump does every day is nothing compared to the damage the Deep State has been inflicting on us for decades. My one hope through all this is that all this hubbub about “Russia gate” will get a larger portion of the general population to question the MSM, and finally see that it’s the Deep State that is our biggest problem.
I said to my son a few days ago, “I think the elite are going to try to shut down the Internet.” My son said, “Get a grip. They’d have a worldwide riot on their hands.” I then said, “Yeah, but people are beginning to understand what’s really going on, and the elite will want to shut that down.”
Well, the other day there was a huge attack on the Internet. What if the elite don’t shut it down, but they use a proxy again – some nefarious hackers – to do it for them? Of course, it would be them, but we’d never know it.
Funny that it was reported to be an NSA tool that was “stolen”, doing the damage. But this isn’t the type of “shutdown” that would achieve what “they” want. It’s already been taken care of by the corporate media…they sold Trump and braindead amerikka went for it. I’m not necessarily talking about WAPO or NYTimes but even they had a part. It’s that .1% that really runs amerikka whove gotten what they want/need. From grabbing the spoils of the financial crash to tax “reform” ( raping the country of every last cent they can wring out of American’s pockets ), they are getting everything they want and need.
I see that the dreaded “white American Male” demographic has finally come around to see they’ve been conned….sold a used car that isn’t going to make it around the block.
The “elite” only have their vote and a ever so large pulpit. Anyone who wants to open their mind and close down their emotional baggage should have seen that making the government dysfunctional is the plan. They don’t care about anything other than Corporate hegemony. In other words, they will work with any tyrant as long as they make a buck ( or billions of them). That’s why we have Trump..the easiest way there..
Stiv – “That’s why we have Trump..the easiest way there.” Stiv, these guys are working overtime and going all out on a frontal attack on Trump. Nothing easy about it.
Obama let the 1% grab the spoils from the financial crash. No one went to jail (thanks to Eric Holder), except for Bernie Madoff, and only because he hurt the 1%. Had he just scammed us, he would still be walking around.
As Trump said, “The U.S. is in terrible shape.” The debt that Obama left is absolutely staggering. Not much that Trump can do to rectify the situation. If he stops the wars, we’ll have to be thankful for that.
b-e, it’s going to be absolute pandemonium when someone (either a foreign power or, just as likely, our own devils in a false flag) shuts down the entire power grid, and it stays down indefinitely, with no explanations and no promises to fix it. The effects will be as bad, if not worse, than any military siege. Bone up on your survival skills by watching the zombie apocalypse movies… not versus zombies, but your fellow citizens.
Most Consortiumnews readers already know or suspect exactly what, or I should say, who is behind this impeachment nonsense. Let us begin by pealing back time and return to 1946. Churchill wrote to Truman that Germany’s biggest mistake was to move away from the existing World Finance Group he meant; the Rothschild’s, Bank Of England, Warburg, Stamp, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Mellon, English and US Central banks ET AL and to develop their own Independent Exchange System. Trump wants to engage, do a rewrite, on what constitutes fair trade and adjust military deployments (a global re-posturing, perhaps) all this to be negotiated with the two new and ever rising “Germany s” of this world- the recent alliances between Russia and China. Trump wants to encourage business dealings with countries that have attempted to circumvent whatever remains of the Bretton Woods system US dollar, example with PIIGS , alternatives to the SWIFT inter-bank transaction methods and overtaking a fiat for a commodity currency based on sovereign state holdings of same. Trump, by nature is a business man and for political reasons is locking horns with the Private Central Bank Board members, or in common parlance, all of Satan’s earthbound lieutenants. I LOL when Trump forgot the North Korean leaders name, Prez Reagan once quipped, I don’t know that particular leaders name, but he better know mine!
Whoever it is will just about always be a “Kim.” More than half the folks in that country carry that surname (which always comes first, just as in China).
If the movement for impeachment were to drop the Russia-gate thing
entirely I would be in favor of it. Trump has committed impeachable
offenses in his refusal to divest. No one with such extensive
business interests all over the globe could avoid conflict of interest
even if he or she tried and Trump gives the impression that advancing
his own and his families financial interests is the main point of
being president. This will set a precedent for allowable behavior for
future presidents unless he is stopped somehow. So I don’t think the
concern about what comes after is valid. No one in the line of
succession is in a position to become that corrupt. And Trump is
allowing the worst policy positions of the extreme right Republicans to
become administration policy anyway. It can’t get much worse. I
object to Russia-gate over the scapegoating of Russia which could
conceivably lead to a disastrous new war with a nuclear armed power
over behavior that is commonplace in international circles, not over
the desire to get rid of Trump. But I don’t think firing Comey
qualifies as an impeachable offense since it clearly within his power
as president.
Leslie F – read Realist’s post (above) of 4:15 p.m. Here’s just a part of it:
“If business ties should be the standard on which to overturn a presidential election, why were Dubya and Cheney not both impeached on day two of their administration? They were as thick as fleas with not only the American oil industry but also the British, the Dutch and the Saudi oil moguls. Cheney instigated and conducted two wars of choice essentially to benefit his old business ties in Halliburton, KB&R and a bevvy of other corporations that soon became independent contractors in the prosecution of those wars. But you want to reflexively throw Trump under the bus because he MAY know some Russian businessmen (which are made more sinister by calling them “oligarchs”–do you call Bill Gates and Warren Buffet “oligarchs?”) with whom he has yet to even publicly shake hands let alone swing any “deals” advantageous to himself and detrimental to “American” interests.”
If we want to be fair, then let’s investigate them all, including the Clinton’s. How much time do you have? It could take decades. :)
I thought many of us were all for investigating Bush, Cheney, Clinton, etc…. or am I missing something?
Andrew – a lot of us agree to investigating the lot of them, but there are many here who only want Trump investigated. To them, he is the only crooked one or the only one trying to hide something. Of course, they really just want him gone.
I am for treating all these guys by the same standards. As you say, b-e, the media seems to think that Trump is the first candidate to ever win the office with some “baggage,” much of it obviously contrived, without evidence and of little consequence. Of course, they also ignore that Hillary carried more baggage throughout the campaign than the Kardashians on a junket to Vegas.
I’m with you Leslie, precedent is important. Precedent is the off spring of accountability, and with that the U.S. is lacking. Precedent often gets used in some kind of spin leading up to more war, but why doesn’t our foreign policy leaders do a Cuban Missile Crisis agreement where each side scales back it’s nuclear arms capabilities? But I agree Washington DC needs to start setting better precedents set for future U.S. Leaders. If we could only live up to our American mythology.
Leslie here’s an idea; all we peaceniks should book rooms at Trump owned property….all the same week, and then make our demands. If the population were represented in dollars it would buy a lot of influence.
“Evidence”?? What evidence?? Since when Americans care about evidence?? JFK was murdered and the whole thing was pinned on Oswald with no evidence!! Should I continue or you know already where I am going with this?! “Fiction” is the trade mark of America and the entire American Culture, with very tine exception, is built on Hollywood …………….The Deep State runs America and has been doing that for a long time………
There once was a man named Mikhail, who appeased Poppy Bush with a smile-
“We will tear down this wall for appeasement quite small, you must promise us not to Sieg Heil!”
The tale started back a few years. At the start it got plenty of cheers.
Few realized what the deal compromised and The Empire realized our fears.
Ronnie Reagan gave Nazis some jobs, new recruits from Ukrainian mobs,
That book by Russ Bellant tells tales quite repellent, of goose-stepping Reagan heartthrobs!
James Baker was on Poppy’s team. In his eye was a treacherous gleam.
“The deal is a cinch, we will not move an inch, no matter how greedy we seem!”
George Kennan was still quite alive. He suspected that Bush might connive,
But now that he’s dead, the refrain in his head is that Baker sold Ribbentrop’s jive!
“We’ll surround Mr. Putin with rockets, till his eyeballs fall out of their sockets.
The Baltic warlords and corrupt Balkan hordes will buy arms and they’ll help line our pockets!”
The Trotskyites climbed on the train. Leo Strauss had a plan, they’d explain,
“With chaos inspired, regimes will get tired – we can change them with minimal strain!”
But Gaddafi’s demise wasn’t easy. The regime changing scam became cheesy-
With a bayonet jam for a rectal exam, and a cackling wench it got sleazy!
In Benghazi were plenty of arms, but poor Hillary missed the alarms-
Susan Rice rolled the dice with excuses concise, even Blumenthal offered his charms!
Erdogan would supply the jihadis, and Assad would get blamed for dead bodies.
Head chopping ghouls would be our willing fools and the bills will be paid by the Saudis!
The Neocons jumped at the chance. With Barack their big plans would advance.
“With a coup right next door posing Crimean War, Putin’s sure to abandon his stance!”
“We can false-flag an airline disaster, poison gas will get sympathy faster,
We’ll rely on our spooks to create fear of nukes, Rachel Maddow will be our broadcaster!”
But first, there’s that big email scandal. It’s too hot for the Lynch team to handle.
But with Bill on the Tarmac, Loretta will draw back, and Comey will put out the candle!
He’d snuff out the investigation. It would guarantee Trump team’s castration!
With Hill in the House, thanks to old Leo Strauss, there would soon be Assad’s abdication!
Those Ukrainian Nazis were cheering. Soon Putin would be disappearing.
Their fairy godmother, they soon would discover, might get busted for fraud racketeering!
The Neocons went in a funk. They resorted to red-baiting bunk.
With Trump in the seat their demise was complete, so their next plan was Watergate spunk!
Joe and Mika went almost insane. Never mind Lindsey Graham and McCain!
Al Franken’s jowls and Chuck Shumer’s bowels made noises they couldn’t restrain!
When Gorby was asked to weigh in, he opined on that DNC sin-
“They rigged the primary to pick Typhoid Mary, now look at the trouble we’re in!”
Gee, I sure hope this one doesn’t get “awaiting moderation” treatment!
F. G. Sanford – a masterpiece! What a great job, bang on! Thank you for that.
Magnificent.
Amazing….this one belongs in a time capsule to be opened in 2000 years. Excellent. Can you tell I liked it, okay I’ll go now.
Great stuff F.G.!
I read about Harvard University law professor Laurence H. Tribe awhile back, and I didn’t like what I read. Garbage in, garbage out.
“No longer,” Tribe continued. “To wait for the results of the multiple investigations underway is to risk tying our nation’s fate to the whims of an authoritarian leader.”
Or to wait for the results might prove there are no “results” there, and we wouldn’t like that, would we, Mr. Tribe? That would destroy Tribe’s credibility and hopefully his career.
Might point out too strongly that we have authoritarian educators at Harvard who are pushing their own agenda.
I read about Harvard University law professor Laurence H. Tribe awhile back, and I didn’t like what I read. Garbage in, garbage out.
Laurence Tribe spoke favorably of Obama before his first election to the presidency, so there is something to be said for regarding his opinions with caution.
But since your second post came on quickly, I would agree with you, David Cordle, about the “contrived” or phoniness of many discussions. In fact, we have been downright lied to for a very long time, and there’s no reason to believe it’s going to stop.
Now, Mr. Cordle, if the main point here to you is proper or improper use of language, you should have said “at its worst”, not “at its worse”.
The whole system (government-journalism) that has been in place since was I born in 1955 at least, seems a bit contrived. The journalist feed off of the politicians and the politicians feed off the journalist. They play for each other on a stage built on false self importance where every aspect of society and the people in it must be micro managed down to their very thought patterns. I do not think that they are even self aware of the damage they cause.
Oh there it is ! I have been awaiting some simpleton to use the phrase (…gate) so misused over the past 40+ years. The lack of base intelligence and originality at its worse.
He coulda been a champion…..
Exactly right, Realist. The elitists did not approve of The People’s Choice, and the Deep State did not want an end to their endless wars. There was talk of impeaching Trump before his inauguration.
This guy could be the first real Peace President ever! But, unfortunately………not. Sigh.
The only way I could see Trump saving his presidency is for him to turn and go directly at his enemies. I am really surprised how half-hearted and mild his retorts are against those who are bating him. If he calls them out for who they are and what they are doing and why in no uncertain terms, perhaps in a speech to the American people, it would help. Next he should spell out his program for peace and act to carry it out – Russia, Syria, and North Korea – the works.
OK. Maybe this is my “if I were Trump” fantasy. But he is acting like a fighter who knows he is going to lose, and just doesn’t want to get beat up too bad before going down. If it wasn’t for these evil neocon bastards who are attacking him, I would say go ahead and finish him. But to see those guys win – I just can’t stomach that.
That pretty much sums up my fantasy, mike. Trump is not known for half measures and he knows who his political enemies are. So why isn’t he putting up more of a fight? One weapon he has in his arsenal, as others have pointed out, is that he can declassify as much as is needed to expose the deep state counter-coup that is taking place. It is so strange that he is using a rope-a-dope strategy.
Standard disclaimer: I am the opposite a Trump supporter. I am a #demexit independent, anti-war, pro-LGBTQ, egalitarian, dirt-worshipping tree-hugger, who has watched with dismay the cancerous cold war unfolding for all of my life, and by gosh we sure could have used that Peace Dividend that was promised.
Desert Dave – my impression is that Trump still believes in peace, but has to tread lightly around the neocons. I think Trump still wants to get things done, so he’s probably keeping the declassification documents in a drawer, signed, and ready to go. Why play those cards now? Could be the only leverage that Trump has at the moment. Plus, if he goes that route, he’s a dead man.
Thierry Meyssan of Voltaire Network said on April 18, 2017:
“In appearance, the Trump administration is roaring its power and throwing bombs around, but in reality, it is taking great care not to cause any irreparable damage. The worst and the best are therefore possible.”
He also said re Tillerson’s visit to Moscow:
“The meeting, behind closed doors, lasted for more than 4 hours, which seems fairly long for people who have nothing to say to one another. Finally, the two men requested an audience with President Putin, who received them for 2 extra hours.”
Their press conference declared that all Tillerson and Lavrov did was take note of each other’s grievances, yet:
“However, the next day, the same Lavrov, addressing the Russian Press, indicated that he had concluded an agreement with his guest. Washington had agreed not to continue their attacks on the Syrian Arab Army, and the military coordination between the Pentagon and the Russian army for circulation in Syrian airspace had been re-established.”
IMO, I think Trump is trying to appease the neocons by tossing bombs around, but they’re doing very little damage – on purpose!
Desert Dave – here’s the link, but I don’t know if it’ll get posted.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article196048.html
I think Trump has to declassify all the dirt and get it out now. I think it would be harder to kill him after he did it. Killing him after would so obviously be a coup from the Deep State that it could lead to revolution. As it is now, they could kill him and still get to keep all their dirty secrets. The question is, how could he do it? He would have to do it on national TV, and the MSM is controlled by the Deep State. It would have to be a complete surprise. Would the MSM just pull the plug mid-speech? Even preparing such a speech would be hard to do without getting discovered.
Also one has to ask about this whole Russia thing, what is so bad about the Russians? Even if they did provide the leaked info about the DNC (which they almost assuredly didn’t), they did us a favor. When is knowing the truth not a good thing?
I think this whole hubbub is about the MIC possibly losing their “Russian boogeyman”, and also distracting us from the real subversion of our democracy, which was the DNC sabotaging Bernie. Heaven forbid peace should break out.
I just wish I had more faith in the Donald’s intelligence. I think he is way out of his depth.
You are right, I value and respect this blog more than almost any other every day, but it is too narrow of an argument. Trump is a criminal prior to office, ran a fascist campaign of hate and lies and violence, was “elected” by voter suppression, Hillary’s treason, $2 billion in MSM free time and Comey/Guliani/NYC FBI and other undemocratic scams. He broke the constutuons emolients clause instantly in a massive way. He just threatened and insulted the man and agency investigating him on tv. The Russia stole the election is a DNC lie. I’m not a Democrat. His and RNC corruption is global and massive. Your valid excellent points don’t cover us independents who are watching and on’t have security clearances. Emolients alone should mean jail. He and Bush weren’t elected. It’s not a democracy. It wasn’t an election. Oligarchy with Deep State and Mighty Wurlitzer of BS. Thank you for an excellent job all your life.
Gregory: Your charges are valid, but they or similar could have been applied to several presidents in recent memory before Trump. Corruption is rampant in thought and deed not only in Washington, DC but throughout the nation so that logic no longer obtains. The United States is supposed to be a constitutional republic. What constitution? It is adhered to and ignored according to political expediency making it a big sham.
Very true, the US is not a democracy of any kind. Much the same charges are true of Hillary, and Sanders would likely have proved a Hillary on foreign policy.
There might be hope that a president will get cornered by the oligarchy in this way, and have the courage for the executive overreach that really is needed to restore democracy. The fastest path is to investigate Congress and the judiciary, toss out the bribed and influenced, appoint new judges and hold new elections, demand the constitutional amendments and throw out Congress militarily until they are passed. Of course the executive would have to purge many agencies including the military.
If Trump has the foresight and courage, such reform would make him a national hero unlike any other. So far I do not see enough preparation.
At this moment, the conclusion that democracy in the United States is in a very bad state can hardly be avoided. A fundamental prerequisite of a functioning democratic system is that supporters of different parties and candidates respect the outcome of the elections, wthether the candidate they supported won or lost. When those who lost the elections don’t accept the outcome of the elections and want to oust the person who won the elections on the basis of mere suspicions (or rather on the basis of allegations that seem increasingly implausible, since even after ten months of investigations, no concrete evidence has been found), without any proof of an impeachable offense, this is an attack against the core of democracy.
Since it is unlikely that enough Republicans would support an impeachment of Trump, there will hardly be an impeachment, but these attempts to undermine a political culture with respect for the outcome of elections, constitutional procedures, and the rule of law could have grave consequences for the future of the political system in the United States.
Since most of the resistance against Trump seems to be based on the fear that he may be too far away from neoconservative foreign policy doctrines – after the Tomahawk missile attacks against the Syrian army, he was applauded for some time and called “presidential” across the political spectrum, and Hillary Clinton said there should be more such attacks, and the Russians should not be warned beforehand (which could mean starting a large-scale war against Russia) -, the prospect of a Pence presidency should not be seen as harmless. The case in which an impeachment of Trump would be most likely to go forward would be if Republican members of Congress like John McCain, who are closest to the neoconservative foreign policy ideology, came to the conclusion that a replacement of Trump by Pence would serve their foreign policy goals. In domestic policy, the left could hardly expect something better from the ultraconservative religious extremist Pence, but in the case that, in addition to Democrats, neoconservative Republicans would agree to the replacement of Trump by Pence because they are convinced that it serves their goals, there would be a grave danger of an escalation of wars and international tensions.
WaPo calls for impeachment proceedings for obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump. Funny we never heard of any such proceedings for 8 years for the numerous flagrant obstruction of justice committed by obama .
I was impressed with a story I found at the Naked Capitalism site yesterday.
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeached-comey-fired-fbi-608708
The author argues that Trump has already done enough illegal stuff to fully justify impeachment. If this is indeed the case, Congress – no matter how disgusting a crew it is – must rein him in if it is to retain any credibility OR power. Otherwise Trump is going to continue down the path of becoming a law unto himself – an All American Dictator.
Oddly enough, I suspect Trump is OK with either outcome. He is simply not willing to behave in either a traditional or legal fashion, but would be quite happy to become Emperor in all but name or maybe President For Life.
I expect President Pence to happen sooner rather than later, probably as a result of some secret negotiations. I dread the prospect, for those of us in Indiana have some experience with this horrible person.
Congress – no matter how disgusting a crew it is – must rein him in if it is to retain any credibility OR power.
Congress. What a useful sack of stuff.
Congress. What a useful sack of stuff.
Big oops. That should have been USELESS sack of stuff.
No oops! “Useful” will be read as irony. Rather as when people say “I could care less.”
But they are useful, useful to their owners, the plutocrats who own this nation.
Zachary, one must consider:
1. The effect of an impeachment:
a. promoting control by the dark state rather than the people;
b. putting confirmed Repub tyrants of oligarchy in place of the candidate the people elected to stop them;
2. Creating tyranny by raising above the will of the people:
a. oligarchy mass media speculation;
b. secret agency/political cabals;
3. Congress is even worse:
a. almost 100% are bribed by zionist/MIC/WallSt oligarchy, very few represent the people;
b. nearly all should be impeached themselves;
c. they would impeach only to install a worse oligarch yet;
Many people voted for Trump exactly because they want to stop foreign wars-for-bribes and oligarchy exploitation of themselves. They would have dumped our corrupt Congress and judiciary on the same grounds. So impeachment is not an act of the people; it is an act of the zionist/MIC/WallSt oligarchy acting through the corruption of the dark state, media, and Congress.
I agree that it’s an awful mess, and I can’t dispute anything you say. This is of course an opinion issue, but if Trump continues to get away with completely lawless behavior, I figure he is the worst danger of all.
Remember his missile strike on Syria? That was a lawless act in every way imaginable, but Congress applauded. If and when they tackle Trump it’ll almost certainly be for the wrong reasons. But tackle him they must.
His legacy is already almost unimaginable. From Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/home/articles/long-term-damage-media-made-trump-s-rot-will-outlast-him-04042017.html
Buckle up, for I can foresee a bumpy ride ahead.
Interesting article by Mr Parry, that I believe raises questions:
“The curious role of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the FBI in spearheading the Russia-gate investigation…”
————————————————————————————–
One wonders if the “Deep State” and its handmaidens have much to hide, and are worried that Trump might let it all hang out? Therefore I ask:
“Is Blaming Russia a Diversion, Designed to Hide the Treachery of Western War Criminals?”
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/03/is-blaming-russia-diversion-designed-to.html
In order to make sense of any of this, we would first need to tell, and hear the truth. The truth in America is now a rare commodity in and of itself. If you hear the truth, then you must question the agenda for this truth telling, for it’s that strange when the truth does comes out.
In a right thinking nation Hillary Clinton’s crime committed against the Sanders Campaign would be all the rage, but instead we are talking about some evidence lacking Russian interference into our election processes. Although the Democrat’s who get behind Hillary with her identity politics, are the first ones to condemn a transgender who revealed the many crimes our leaders have committed, including Hillary’s Honduras betrayal, that this truth teller is only demonized all the more for her courageous actions. BTW Chelsea gets out of jail on Wednesday.
It’s all a big joke, and we are the audience the comedy skit is scripted to entertain. Where are these Constitutional scholars when we need them? Why not go after Trump for going unilaterally against Syria with his 59 missiles strike? Why not go after a president who invades another nation based on false intelligence? Why is the AUMF still used, when it’s validity is surely over due it’s shelf life? Seriously people, this government of ours is gasping for air, and apparently the one Deep State can’t except the other Deep State for whatever their reasons, so the world suffers for it.
I see nothing about Trump et al ranting on the campaign trail about locking up Hillary as a criminal, especially as a pedophile, while the Russians were hacking for evidence of it in emails relating to her that they were being tipped off about.
And stop pushing your Iran-Contra stuff as it never really got on to its East-West dimension, especially after Oliver North tried to push those 80 HAWK missiles through Sweden, aka Country Eight by Special Counsel Lawrence Walsh, without its Prime Minister’s approval on their way to iran, and resorting to Olof Palme’s assassination to get Reagan out of possible impeachment by getting rid of the Soviets in its planned non-neclear conclusion, as Joseph Nye was recommending in Nuclear Ethics.
Right on Paul G.! To what extend has this “Make America Great Again,” corporate billionaire dude used public office to add another billion dollars or so to the Trump fortunes by way of making “great, out of sight deals” with Russian billionaire parasites?
Where is your evidence? Would you obscure the proven Hillary/DNC corruption and control by zionists, by shrill speculations without evidence? No one here is fooled.
The question of collusion has to be taken with a grain of salt. Unless Trump & Co conspired with whoever hacked the DNC and Podesta, “collusion” with Russians or anyone is not as such a crime. What laws are broken by colluding? If not a shred of evidence exists that Trump collude in the commission of some crime, “collusion” has no legal significance.
“Sentence first – verdict afterwards!”
America has plunged so far down the rabbit-hole that otherwise intelligent people have no idea how absurd they’ve become.
An expedited removal of the elected president would indeed be a serious rebuke to all who voted for him, which in turn would intensify the systemic crisis. A version of destroying the village in order to save it. Which is its own absurdity.
Well….thats how we bring democracy in foreign countries right?
We’ll said. And this impeachment call is coming from a professor of what is said to be an “elite” university. But then again Harvard produced George W. Bush and Barry Obama, birds of a feather?
I agree with Paul G that those investigating Trump should be looking at his financial ties to Russian oligarchs and dodgy funds from well connected people in Indonesia, the Philippines, Azerbaijan, Turkey and elsewhere. Aside from possible money laundering, foreign funds are not permitted in US elections.
If business ties should be the standard on which to overturn a presidential election, why were Dubya and Cheney not both impeached on day two of their administration? They were as thick as fleas with not only the American oil industry but also the British, the Dutch and the Saudi oil moguls. Cheney instigated and conducted two wars of choice essentially to benefit his old business ties in Halliburton, KB&R and a bevvy of other corporations that soon became independent contractors in the prosecution of those wars. But you want to reflexively throw Trump under the bus because he MAY know some Russian businessmen (which are made more sinister by calling them “oligarchs”–do you call Bill Gates and Warren Buffet “oligarchs?”) with whom he has yet to even publicly shake hands let alone swing any “deals” advantageous to himself and detrimental to “American” interests.
What you are suggesting is nothing more than an hysterical witch hunt premised on a current data base of zero information. These charges were first made by Hillary Clinton herself back in July, just before the Democratic convention as a cheap campaign ploy. Trump’s enemies have been chewing on this bone for 10 months already (nearly a year!) and there has proven to be no “there” there. There has not be a shred of actual concrete fact to prove any of the hyperbolic allegations made against him by his political enemies and by the powers that be within the Deep State that were shocked when he won the election and absolutely refuse to accept that reality.
Sorry, but the risible excuse that “we can’t show you the actual evidence because it is ‘classified’ ” does not fly. That is not open and free constitutional democracy at work. That is star chamber type stuff. That is governing this country out of Room 101. It is a preposterous notion that any citizen of this country should accept that we change our elected government by such backroom collusion.
It is also a preposterous notion that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government could ever hatch such an outlandish fanciful long-shot project as to try to subvert America’s electoral system. They are not nearly as stupid as the people who believe such foolish ideas in this country. That’s why Putin and Lavrov laugh when confronted with the asinine questions about this fiasco by the American media. They simply cannot believe that the most advanced, wealthy and powerful country on the planet can be so easily led down the garden path by the mind manipulators in Washington who are willing to tell you the most absurd nonsense to get their way.
Realist – good response; I agree. If these guys are worried about business ties, let’s bring “all” business ties out in the open, starting with the Clinton’s. I’d be dead before the list was finished.
very much agreed…This is a US problem…not a Russian problem…
While foreign funds should not be permitted in US elections, presently most US elections funds do come from foreign governments directly or via sympathizers here, or from the MIC having a profit interest in foreign wars that injure the US. All of those sources are injurious to the people of the US. Because they amount to economic war against the US, they could be construed as treason.
But certainly all such funding must be prohibited by constitutional amendments restricting funding of elections and mass media to limited individual contributions. It is precisely that present corruption that prevents the restoration democracy.
There is less reason to suspect such influence upon Trump than Hillary, all of whose top ten donors were zionists. Why would you not seek the foreign influence upon the candidate who promised more foreign wars on behalf of her bribery sources, versus the one who promised to end them?
The issue is Israel-gate, not Russia-gate, and the media madness is nothing at all but a coverup of Israel-gate.
Did you say the same thing about Clinton?
Or is Israel not considered s foreign country by most of the apologetics theses days?
A joke by any means.
I’m more interested in foreign funds in US elections than insider leaks from DNC and Clinton campaign.
Does Sheldon Adelson count?
And, will Hillary ever just go away??
#HillaryGoAwayPlease
Foreign funds are not permitted in US elections….Tell that to the Israelis!!!
Many people who deplore Trump’s presidency so far will be okay with getting rid of Trump even if his exit is for the wrong reason. But there is something else to consider when it comes to replacing a national leader whether it be Assad, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, or Trump. Who will replace him? VP Pence? No improvement there if for different reasons. In fact, he could be worse because of his knowledge of how our corrupt political system works. Pence, McConnell, and Ryan as the ruling triumvirate? What a thought!! Washington, the MSM, and their supporters among the American people have created a monstrous scenario from which there is no good relief.
Impeaching Trump may also weaken Pence, like Ford he will be seen as a weakened and un-elected leader. He is much more professional, though just as reactionary, as Trump so is less likely to be as extreme; and hopefully his personality is much less erratic and volatile. Anyway we can’t afford four years of Trump. Kicking the Donald out will gut his sick program, making it much harder for Pence to continue it.
Let me add a successful impeachment effort will be unimaginatively disruptive Which, considering the ongoing train wreck that is Trump, would be a good thing.
Trump was elected to disrupt the warmongering agenda of the Deep State, which was supposed to be the good thing. The Deep State has responded by bringing their war home, as there will be a civil war if they succeed in their coup attempt.
Realist – yes, I think there would be civil war if they succeeded in a coup. This is when the Berkeley snowflakes would learn what it means to bring down a government.
I remember this same rational being used to convince the US to topple Saddam. Something along the lines of, ” a successful toppling of Saddam will be unimaginatively disruptive Which, considering the ongoing train wreck that is Saddam (and safe zones, and etc), would be a good thing.”
I wasn’t sold on toppling Saddam. But what did I matter. Saddam’s constituency did matter though – go figure. Want to bet that Trump’s constituency will matter when he is toppled by a campaign built up on as flimsy evidence as the evidence used to topple Saddam?
I’m waiting for the Dems and Repubs to accuse Trump of having a cache of WMD hidden at Mar-a-Lago. They’ve brought their obession with regime change to our home turf.
It’s not Trump’s sick program, it’s standard Republican boilerplate and Pence is thoroughly onboard with it. Admittedly Trump is our three- legged horse in the Kentucky Derby, but the REAL problems are the bought-off Rs and Ds, the Elite Establishment and its Deep State apparatus for negating democracy and the civic will of the people. Trump is of a mind to crush this, if he can stay focused. He needs help in this and NONE is forthcoming. He’s already isolated and alone, in retreat. He needs to be reminded of his campaign promises that caused many of those 63 million people to vote FOR him (many of them were voting AGAINST the war criminals and Hillary). I’m no cheerleader, as I voted Bernie, then Jill.
Not sure that your logic holds. Trump is seriously flawed, but he doesn’t seem to posses a private and public persona. Pence and his cohorts are accomplished, fork-tongued language litigators who manipulate and distort with sophistication. Pence is in the league of Ronald Reagan for oozing pseudo-sincere quips and utterances. I would argue that he is more extreme but not as politically raw as Trump. The “sickness” of Trump’s program would have some revisions, but most aspects, draconian tax cuts, law and order on steroids, immigration law enforcement with vengeance and catering to the evangelical extremists…these would remain. The challenge for the post-Trump Republicans will be to sell to everyone the idea that they don’t send out racially charged messages, which they have done since Nixon lost to Kennedy.
I’ve read where Pence is a Dominionist. This is real danger for the Republic. This assclown is the Christian version of the Ayatollahs in Iran, and is against modern, secular, non-sectarian government that upholds the principle of separation of churches from any official State status, a lesson that Wesern Civilization learned the extremely hard way in the 30 Years War (1618-1648), of Protestant vs Catholic, proportionally more bloody than the World Wars.
Indeed, Bill. Republican voters in the primaries chose Trump, purposefully as an outsider, to avoid insider cronies such as you listed. There were 16 other candidates from whom to choose, all well-connected with the Deep State and the insider power structure. This ongoing attempt at a soft coup is the revenge of the Deep State that really wanted Hillary and just tried to use Trump as their propped-up Palooka intended to take the fall. Well, their crafty little conspiracy did not work, and being privileged characters within or supporting the top 0.01% they just won’t have it.
Everyone knows that Trump did not start all these fires that are raging around the world. In fact, he promised to put them out, but the Deep State WILL NOT ALLOW IT. They demand that their glorious ongoing slaughters around the planet continue. So, they are using the same device of character assassination they have used since the days of Joe McCarthy–probably since before the days of Andrew Jackson.
As always, they have used the thoroughly mercenary and never independent press, which THEY own, as their tool. In fact, with all the modern electronic and digital tech at its disposal, the media is more sleazeball than ever before.
This transparent attempt to dump Trump at all costs is nothing new in our embarrassing American governance. Trump’s alleged “sins” are certainly no worse than the preposterous allegations, along with the special prosecutor, brought against Slick Willy Clinton. His “crimes” are certainly no comparison with the lying, false flags, and military slaughter perpetrated by Dubya and Cheney. He has yet to establish that he is anywhere near as duplicitous or unfaithful to his words as Obomber was. For chrissake, Mr. Hope and Change was given a full eight years to overtly abrogate every principle he ever stood for.
Trump in turn is being crucified right out of the gate merely for his style, his attitude, his quips, his strained relationships with other self-important people in government, politics, the media and behind the scenes power centers. This fiasco is nothing more than an attempted coup being carried out because the true “powers that be” did not approve of the people’s decision at the ballot box. What a disgusting model we “exceptionals” are to the world, or should I start saying to the “free world,” which is NOW the outside world, not here.
Good one. I agree 100%. This whole world scene is basically about rich people against poor people, If you understand that, you’ve got it all. You don’t need a lot of fancy economics or Karl Marx philosophy to understand that it’s just dirt simple.
Yep. Can’t help but notice that several of my liberal Dem friends who are the most self-righteously outraged re Trump have trust funds. Or rich dads. Often both. Grr.
Realist – good rant! “This fiasco is nothing more than an attempted coup being carried out because the true “powers that be” did not approve of the people’s decision at the ballot box.” Exactly right, it is an attempted coup.
That’s regime change, buckeroo. For humanitarian reasons! Get with the program!!
Pence, McConnell, and Ryan as the ruling triumvirate?
We shouldn’t be surprised if these three politicians are sharpening the knives, greasing the skids, or whatever it might take to get rid of Trump.
Your last sentence especially sums it all up.
Does anyone feel any safer since the election? Instead of draining the swamp, it seems more like a stirring of the pot, daily turmoil.
Never mind talking to Russians, so what. What needs to be investigated is Trumpenfuhrer’s financial ties and past, present and future financial obligations to any foreign entity; one example is the loans he has gotten from the bankster Deutche Bank. The best case for his impeachment is the emoluments clause as he has refused to divest from his empire. The Trump Hotel near the White House itself is benefiting from his position as foreign officials and corporados flock to it to curry favor with POTUS. Other hotels and restaurants are complaining of unfair competition because of this marketing advantage-even if unstated.
Of course are we forgetting how the crosscheck voter elimination process, orchestrated by Repugnant Party secretaries of state eliminated hundreds of thousands of traditional Democratic voters? We also should not forget how the corrupt DNC screwed Sanders, an act they are now having to defend in civil suit.
As for the information that was allegedly hacked – it was most likely leaked from inside the Party – the public deserved to know all about that, as well as Hillary’ sucking up to the Street for 200k a pop.
I say impeach the scum, but do it for something real; and send Hillary to the Hague for Libya.
Impeach Trump. Lock up HILLARY and Obama.
This makes sense to me. Go after Trump on emoluments clause, not Russia b.s. that damages U.S.-Russia relations–and Hillary in the dock at the Hague, along with Obama, to explain how Libya was not a war crime.
All hail President Pence. Let Armageddon now commence. Look up Dominionism and Pence.
Makes me wonder now if Trump picked Pence as insurance against impeachment, because he knew his campaign speeches and promises would rock the Establishment boat, leading to this very situation we are now discussing.
It’s getting harder and harder for anyone to pretend that we have a just, free, non-criminal government in the US. It has always been an Oligarchic Mafia controlled by the rich and powerful, and now the curtains hiding all this are fraying and being ripped apart, to reveal the ugliness behind the huge secrecy and propaganda apparatus.
Societies and empires collapse from within, as the inner corruption and evil so sedulously hidden eats away the supporting structures, and they begin to collapse. The hubris and rottenness of empire is a cancer that destroys it from within – the outer collapse is only a symptom, but a final, fatal one.
Well said, mike
Quote Wikileaks Updates on Facebook: « When asked for comment, #Assange reiterated his earlier criticism of the US intelligence agency.
The CIA is the world’s most dangerously incompetent spy agency. It has armed terrorists, destroyed democracies and installed and maintained dictatorships the world over,” he said in an email. “There are good men and women at the CIA but if our publications are any guide they work for Wikileaks.” »
We can only hope that Assange keeps on getting encrypted Mail, and stays safe.
Great column as usual.
But what should we do?
I think the key now is twofold.
First, to call for a shutdown of all this Russia-gate nonsense as the libertarian Justin Raimondo states here:
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2017/05/11/shut-down-the-russia-gate-farce/
Second, we should be praising whatever steps Trump makes on the road to Detente 2.0 with Russia – and China. There is too much defensiveness on this point from the antiwar community IMO. Perhaps we fear being labeled “Deplorable.”
While I agree that an investigation that had started last July and has, as representatives of the intelligence servicesDiane Feinstein recently confirmed, not lead to any evidence should sooner or later stop – it just does not make sense if an investigation that has not discovered anything leads to a constant flood of news in which the absence of evidence is embellished with innuendo -, there is the danger that many people will claim that many people will claim that something could have been found if the investigation had continued. Therefore, I think it might be better to continue the investigation, make as much as possible public and to expand the investigation to the question how the Russiagate allegations came about. It is quite remarkable that allegations for which no evidence has ever been presented to the public have come to play such a big role in the media. This could include the questions why the DNC did not allow the FBI to inspect its servers and instead used the services of Crowdstrike, a private company with connections to the neoconservative think tank Atlantic Council, what role DNC member Alexandra Chalupa with connections to Ukrainian nationalists played in spreading the allegations about Russia, who payd Steele for his dossier and how he worked, how that dossier with unverified and partly false claims was leaked to the public, how surveillance of the telephone conversation between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador was leaked – these are questions about which the public should have the right to know more.
Adrian – all of the questions you posted above must be investigated. We need to follow the trail right back to where this all started, who the players were, who leaked, everything. Good post, Adrian.
Yes, an investigation should promptly conclude or present sufficient evidence for continuing. But if there is not now sufficient evidence of some Russian control of Trump, there cannot be any reason to investigate that, and that should be off the table. At this point, the mass media should be investigated and charged with libel for such protracted, baseless, and self-serving accusations.
As to who leaked the DNC emails, that does not matter at all. They should have been leaked, and perhaps it should be unlawful to keep political party communications private. The only reason that the Dems make an issue of that is that the emails showed them to be entirely corrupt.
I have seen several cases in which thieves and vandals caught by security cameras at a charity, actually tried to maintain in court that the charity had no right to invade their privacy while committing crimes against the charity on its own property. That is exactly the preposterous argument of the Hillary Dems, and they should be thrown in jail the more promptly for it.
The political parties should agree to let an independent agency keep their emails and all financial accounts on a special server facility where they belong, in the custody of the people.
They should be charged with more than libel; the charges should be sedition and treason. Credible evidence indicates that murdered DNC operative Seth Rich was the source of the leaks, as was indicated last July by Julian Assange.
Yes; while normally the mass media must have much freedom to criticize, when it does so much damage the standard of evidence is sufficient for libel charges. But it is more serious when the mass media are controlled by oligarchy, because they are no longer within their protected role as impartial sources of news and public debate.
Presently the mass media are controlled almost entirely by zionists, and beyond that by the WallSt/MIC/wealthy oligarchy. Their actions amount to information war upon the United States, sufficient grounds for the use of sedition and treason violations to enact controls.
Mass media companies must be defined, and their funding restricted to limited individual contributions, and their operations regulated to ensure balanced representation at all administrative levels. The same should be done with political party funding.
The path to the solution requires temporarily placing the mass media into the hands of boards at the public universities, until Congress passes the amendments needed. But Congress must be purged of bribed persons to do that, which requires that new elections be held while the mass media are run by the universities. So an overreaching executive is needed to do all of that during a state of national emergency.
I am glad you mentioned Wikileaks, as it is important to note that considering the capabilities of the CIA recently published by Wikileaks, they could be using this “investigation” time to manufacture cyber evidence that they will at a time of their choosing reveal to the public to “prove” Trump’s guilt. When this happens there will be no mention by the MSM, that the CIA could have fabricated the entire body of evidence.
Hear hear! And how strange that neither the NYT nor WaPo has asked these very obvious, imprtant questions.
Excellent post, thank you. I wish you could get it to the NYT…
I suppose there is still the possibility that Trump and Putin will meet at the G20.
If there were to be impeachment proceedings against Trump surely any evidence that is now secret would have to be put out in the public domain. The truly feigned outrage by the DNC about the sacking of Comey is hypocrisy at it’s best. The DNC were castigating Comey when he was investigating the Clinton emails affair. I bet my mortgage that had Hillary Clinton won Comey would have been the first to be chucked out.
I think you missed Robert Parry’s concern. There are going to be no facts on exhibit in the impeachment proceedings against Trump. The information is classified, and revealing it would endanger national security, so nothing can be revealed. Trump is going to be tried and impeached on “obstruction of justice” charge(s), although after ten months of investigation no criminal indictments have been produced and never will be produced no matter who leads the FBI. So the calls for special prosecutor, are really calls for a “impartial” public executioner, (read “either a Democrat or a NeverTrumper Republican,”) who will facilitate the delivery of the doomed US president for impeachment vote.
Star Chamber
There is no shame in being deplored by elite war criminals, who are endangering our lives, killing innocents by-the-million, ripping off the taxpayers and trashing the Constitution in the name of “national security”. They are the true deplorable power-whores.
Preach it, Brother Brad!
“no one should underestimate how dangerous it could be for Washington insiders and other Establishment figures to undo the electoral choice through a process cloaked in secrecy.”
True. But equally no one should underestimate the damage an American Berlusconi could do.
I would say a Berlusconi is much less of a risk than the former nominal anti-war party going into full-on conspiracy theory war monger role. Our survival is at stake and those on this bandwagon are traitors to civilization and survival.
Notice how the former nominal anti-war party all of a sudden is throwing in with the likes of Gen. Michael Hayden, Glenn Beck, George W. Bush and various and sundry CIA agents as if they were always the good guys?
Does anyone still seriously believe that the US is not hacking Russia and everyone else?
Why bothering impeaching T only to replace him with Pence? Why? To distract citizens from meaningful movements and to inflate the Red boogeyman.