Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is as big a hawk as any member of the Trump administration, says John Kirikaou.
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
Neoliberal, fake progressive Rep. Adam Schiff (D-C) showed his true colors yet again last week. He said in response to President Donald Trump’s saber-rattling and threats to attack Iran that,
“Iran is a thoroughly malign actor, a cause of deep instability in the region, a profound contributor to the violence and misery in Yemen, and one of the most dangerous regimes in the world. Through the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and its proxies, it is also a state sponsor of terror. The threat it poses is real.”
That certainly wasn’t the position of the Obama Administration. Schiff instead has decided to jump into the Trump foreign policy with both feet. He’s made similar threatening statements about Venezuela and China, too.
Let’s look at this one issue at a time. First, Schiff is the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That’s the committee that’s supposed to oversee the CIA and other intelligence services, but which acts more as a clubhouse for CIA cheerleaders.
Schiff has watched Trump tear up the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA; he’s watched the U.S. send additional troops to the Middle East to step up pressure on Teheran; he’s watched war-lovers John Bolton, national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, promise in public to violate international law by attacking Iran. Schiff has also watched a naked U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.
And what is his response? It’s to tell us, “I’ve read classified documents. If you’ve seen what I’ve seen you would want to attack Iran too. You would want to overthrow Venezuela too. Just take my word for it.” Thanks, but no thanks. I know from first-hand experience how much the CIA lies. I don’t believe a word they say.
Schiff: Fake progressive. (Flickr/DonkeyHotey)
Second, Schiff has indeed maintained just as hard a line on Venezuela as he has on Iran. Just two months ago, he called President Nicolas Maduro an “authoritarian” and a “disastrous dictator,” and said he, Schiff, “stands with the opposition in calling for free and fair elections and the restoration of democracy. Maduro must refrain from escalating the situation through violence, which will only further the suffering of the Venezuelan people.”
What the esteemed chairman decided to utterly ignore was the fact that Venezuela hadfree and fair elections that the opposition boycotted in order to try to delegitimize them; Venezuela already is a functioning democracy; and it was actually the Trump Administration and the self-appointed “president,” Juan Guaidó, who resorted to violence by initiating a coup attempt against Maduro that failed. Schiff is either dangerously misinformed here or he’s a tool of Bolton’s foreign policy.
Dangerous China
Third, Schiff is as staunchly anti-China as any Republican hawk. In a recent on-the-record talk before the Council on Foreign Relations, he said,
“China’s a very dangerous and influential part of that (antidemocratic) trend. It’s certainly true that, you know, Russia has been undermining democracies in Europe and elsewhere. But China has been undermining democracy in a very different way. China’s been undermining democracy in a—in a powerful, technological way, with the promulgation of these so-called safe cities and the safe-city technology where CCTV cameras are ubiquitous. And Chinese citizens now are facially recognized by the software in these cameras. That ties into a database that includes information about their social scores, their credit history, their use of social media. It is big brother come to life. And this is obviously not only a grave threat to the freedom and privacy of the Chinese people and their ability to associate or communicate their freedom, but it also—to the degree that China is now exporting this technology to other authoritarian countries—allows them to perpetuate their autocratic rule. And this, under the masquerade of safety and security.”
The funny thing is that Schiff never bothered to mention that it is actually the UK that is the most surveilled country in the world, with London having more CCTV cameras than any city, anywhere, in any period of human history. He never brought up the fact that China, in its entire history, has never promoted an imperialist foreign policy, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesn’t invade other countries, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesn’t interfere in foreign elections, like the U.S., U.K., Russia, and others. But the position does say a lot about Schiff. It says that he doesn’t care about facts, relying instead on pseudo-patriotic stereotypes. Remember, this guy is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
If there was any doubt at all that Schiff is in the grip of the military-industrial complex, one doesn’t have to rely just on his stated positions on Iran, Venezuela, and China to make the situation any clearer. Just take a look at his donors. The defense contractors love him. Northrop Grumman ($16,217), SAIC ($11,005), Lockheed Martin ($10,298), Boeing ($10,208), Honeywell ($10,025), Raytheon ($7,040), and General Dynamics ($7,038) are all among his major donors.
The sad truth, though, is that we’re stuck with him. Schiff represents Hollywood, California in the House. He usually runs unopposed, and when he does have opposition, he wins with more than 75 percent every time. Another sad truth is that this is the Democratic Party of 2019. Its leadership is neoliberal. It’s interventionist. It ensures that, come election time, none of us has a real choice.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.
If you enjoyed this original article, please consider making a donation to Consortium News so we can bring you more stories like this one.
Great proof of what I say about Americans being too self absorbed to recognize the truth. Seems many comments today come from individuals pretty much void of America’s actual history since WWII. Nothing new there.
When one believes CIA’s B.S. their problem is obvious.
Brain washing works very well on some, others not so much. I always figured those who thought JFK and RFK were terrorists supported the Israeli government with unconditional love.
Just how well does that seem to be working for the U.S.?
Now about this birthday coming up . . . . . . I guess the Banks are going to make certain the ruling “Corporate Oligarchy” prostitutes the Ole Red White and Blue commercially on the Fourth!
It all seems so perverse, this celebration, especially with the country holding children in concentration camps.
Keep up the great work Mr. Kiriakou.
Why would you put your thoughts in quotation marks? Incredibly asinine.
You are the type that is likely too young to know the terror that Iran became after the government was overthrown. You know nothing about the families that had to flee their country knowing they would NEVER be able to come back again to see family.
I despise reading comments, this is a comment written in article form, from people who truly haven’t a clue. Everything is rainbows, sunshine and unicorns in your world. It will be a sad day when your generation sees exactly how many monsters are out there. They grow and take over more area until the world is so unstable that you can’t fly to another Country across the world without fear your plane will be shot down. Or fly to another State without fear of your plane exploding.
People like you believe in one world. So under whose rule do you want this world to be? An authority that makes women cover their faces, a husband allowed to beat his wife-as long as the stick isn’t too long. Where men can kill their daughters if they feel shame is brought upon them, or even worse-direct their sons to stone her to death. An authority that believes in one religion and you HAVE to follow that religion or die. Think about that.
You can not fight for abortions and scream about people in cages at the border while saying we should leave other countries alone that create instability in regions and commit atrocities that you can not fathom. All those people want is to live a quasi normal life. It is the definition of hypocrisy. How can you not see that? They have no rights. Forget fighting about abortions. The atrocities in their “cages” make ours look like a four star hotel.
You will read this, if you read it at all, and shut down your brain and go into attack mode. Not stopping to think about what I am trying to convey to you. Find someone who has sought asylum here from Iran. Ask them how they feel about that government and if they feel like they are a threat to the world. Then you will see what people of Iran think. The ones that matter the most. Ask what they would like to see happen. Which carries a hell of a lot more clout than you typing your “feelings” on this website.
Barbara H,
Which Iranian govetnment “overthrow” are you talking about?
The one in 1953, during which the elected Mossedegh was removed from office by the CIA, who installed the Shah and st up Savak, the secret police, which murdered and imprisoned many thousands under the Shah’s violent and corrupt rule?
Or the one where the people tired of the Shah and his repressions and the Religious rule came to power?
Remember, under Mossedegh, Iran was essentially secular and a generally open and far more egalitarian society.
In fact, Mossedegh was ousted because he wanted to nationalize the oil resources for the benefit of Iranian society and not to enrich Brit and U$ oil corporations.
There is truth to what Barbara is saying, but she is living with the aftermath of a CIA playbook destabilization policy. Dulles did this to the Soviets under Stalin in which countless number of innocent people were killed or destroyed.
Turkey was headed down the Iran path after the July 2 2016 coup, which was likely orchestrated by the CIA, when Erdogan became understandably paranoid. Thankfully, Turkey seems to have turned the corner after the last election in which some semblance of a balance of power seems to have been restored.
The UK and the US have been deliberating targeting responsible, secular movements in Muslim countries to divide and conquer the region for quite some time. A country is much easier to overthrow if it is ruled by an inherently unstable an autocratic theocracy than a responsible government.
“The UK and the US have been deliberately targeting responsible, secular movements in Muslim countries to divide and conquer the region for quite some time.”
This is the crux of the matter. Barbara seems to be under the illusion that our goal is to install freedom and democracy, and to replace a despotic theocracy in Iran. In fact, we empower those she decries. We are the ones creating the refugee crisis as innocents flee formally stable, secular governments. Barbara does not go back in time enough to realize that Iran was on quite a different path before our CIA ousted Mossedegh. Afghanistan’s capital Kabul was known as the Paris of Central Asia before we introduced the mujahideen. I challenge her to name a single country where life improved for the average citizen after US military or CIA intervention in the last 1/2 century or so. Whatever the answer is to improving the life of the average Iranian, I am quite sure it doesn’t involve our MIC.
Well and truly said, Skip Scott!
Adam Schiff is an evil person. Lets face it.
Good one John.
I didn’t realize what a fake progressive and big D democrat Schiff was until I saw him on TV foaming at the mouth about Russian interference in the election.
“The left wing of the Hawk.” Absolutely. Both wings would also fit on a buzzard.
Surely the explanation for Schiff’s bloodthirsty and arrogant belligerence lies in his upbringing.
“I’ve read classified documents. If you’ve seen what I’ve seen you would want to attack Iran too. You would want to overthrow Venezuela too. Just take my word for it.”
I’m getting feed back in my group for that quote. Does anyone have a link to it. I can’t seem to find where me made that statement. And I’d really like to stick this issue up a confrontational members ass in my group.
John provides documentary evidence for all else which he says about Adam Schaffer, so I hope he will provide the source of that quote as well, William, as it was the specific object of one of my
comments. I have searched quite widely since reading your comment, however as yet, I cannot find reference to that quote, though I have little reason to doubt Schiff fully capable of such assertion.
BS!
An excellent expose of Schiff’s true neocon commitments. A full expose could go on much longer, and it would include Schiff’s blatant and repeated lies in support of the still evidence-free Russiagate hoax and his current misinformation campaign about the highly partisan, mistake-riddled, and often evidence-free Mueller-Weissmann Report. Moreover, he is in charge of Dem fundraising for the 2020 campaign, so his prostrations before the military-industrial-surveillance complex are likely to become even more frequent. Schiff is one of the prominent reasons I am thinking of quitting the Dem Party. His constant calculated lies are an insult to every thinking American. This article needs to be widely read.
John, I’d like to question the following sentence: “…[China] doesn’t interfere in foreign elections, like the U.S., U.K., Russia, and others.” What you say about China is important and should be known by all Americans, but your assertion about “Russia” seems dubious. If you had written “the USSR,” you would be very correct, but could you please give hard evidence to back up this claim about Russia since 1991? I don’t know about central Asian elections, but as far as the US is concerned there is so far no evidence that Russia has interfered in our elections, even though we intervened massively in and changed the outcome of the 1996 Russian presidential election, something Schiff and the House Intel Committee are failing miserably to investigate. Given the current ridiculous mass hysteria about alleged but still unproven Russian “hacking” of the 2016 US elections, one of which (the Dem primary) was actually rigged by Hillary and the DNC, I think it would be a good idea to mention the actual country you are referring to when you allege “Russian” election hacking. Thank you.
Thank you Dao Gen. Excellent comment. I too would like John to address the subject of “Russian interference” and support his claim.
I would encourage you to depart from the democratic party asap. The best they will ever offer you is non gender specific restrooms with your “Forever War”. I am constantly switching my voter registration in order to vote for a peace candidate in the primaries, since Arizona does not have open primaries. Then I vote 3rd party (usually Green) in the General Election in order to not vote for a “lesser” evil.
Superb comment, Dao Gen.
Thanks John, for the heads up. I have never liked Schiff; I always thought he seemed smarmy, but the MSM loves him. Yet try as I would to like him, I just couldn’t. So thank you for telling me why my gut feeling was accurate. Your list of military industrial donors is enough to give a thinking person reason enough to start wondering who he is. It also makes one wonder once again about the MSM who so wholeheartedly praise him.
But he’s so sweet and cuddwy! Like a caricature of a caricature of a caricature. Who doesn’t believe him?! Born to be a liar, er I mean, a politician.
Put that POS in fatigues and an empty parachute on his back and kick him out of the plane! It wasn’t lost on me at least that his district is Hollywood, CA. Are there any humans there or just more caricatures? Sorry, couldn’t resist that cheap and all-to-easy shot.
He may be a fake progressive, but he is a genuine Zionist.
Adam Shit is working to help Iran
Schiff’s description of Iran is one of the best examples of the cosmically hypocritical
US technique of projecting its own (criminally unfavorable) description onto others.
The quote follows but put sensitive electronics safely out of the way of likely
projectile vomiting:
” xxxxxx is a thoroughly malign actor, a cause of deep instability in the region, a profound contributor to the violence and misery in Yemen, and one of the most dangerous regimes in the world. …. it is also a state sponsor of terror. The threat it poses is real.”
Fair enough. He is a hawk on China, Iran, and Venezuela. That is a shame. I disagree in particular with the stance toward Iran and Venezuela and with regard to China I think US “diplomacy” is a lost art. I think China is quite undemocratic but I don’t believe in our bully-boy ways of interacting with them.
Schiff as head of the Intelligence Committee should investigate Trump. If Trump’s campaign manager and son are at a meeting with government figures from Russia, that’s a problem. It should at least be investigated. Trump and co have not been co-operative with Mueller or with House investigations. If they have done nothing wrong why aren’t they co-operating?
Read Stephen F. Cohen’s “War with Russia?” to get a different take on Mannafort’s and others dealings. Trying to do business in Russia is a red herring. Are Exxon/Mobil and McDonalds guilty of collusion?
There is a difference between not cooperating with an investigation and not cooperating with a political witch hunt. There are many excellent articles here at CN on the real intent of Mueller’s investigation, and Mueller’s history of protecting power. Why didn’t Mueller investigate Clinton’s cooperation with Russia on the uranium deal?
Ds and Rs are the left and right wings of the hawk. Both have waged constant warfare for the whole of my lifetime
Perhaps, Zhu, the Ds and Rs are both right wing (always overlapping each other, policy-unwise).
Which might explain why the U$ eagle
(“Iggle” in Pittsburghese) always moves to the right and behaves like a dick.
That was quite the courtesy by Mr. Kiriakou to use that caricature of Mr. Schiff rather than an actual photograph of his visage.
It’s hard to further parody what’s already absurd. Schiff himself is a caricature of his type, the leftist warmonger with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
“It doesn’t interfere in foreign elections, like the U.S., U.K., Russia, and others.” Russia? Has someone been drinking the Kool-Aid? Or is this just poor sentence construction?
“The funny thing is that Schiff never bothered to mention that it is actually the UK that is the most surveilled country in the world, with London having more CCTV cameras than any city, anywhere, in any period of human history.” It blows me away that John Kiriakou would brush off China’s terrifying social credit system this way. And it has nothing to do with the fact that Londoners are crazily surveilled in public (a bad thing). Does the UK use a social credit system? (Maybe it does things that are tantamount to that, Still…) Only the US empire is rampaging all around the planet, which it acts as though it owns. But that doesn’t mean that the Corporatocracy States that the US leads don’t do their own imperialism. (Canada certainly does. Read Todd Gordon’t “Imperialist Canada.”) I don’t believe for a minute that Russia and China don’t do some limited imperialism. That’s because those are not righteous actors. They are just far less powerful than the US and have to step carefully because, although less powerful than the US, the US ruling class sees those (relatively powerful) powers as being rivals, within the globe-straddling Corporatocracy, for dominance.
This dark world’s operating principle, or organizing principle (heartily embraced by neoconservatives) is: Riches For The Strongest. That ‘strongest’, not ‘second strongest’.
https://www.corbettreport.com/sesame-credit-chinas-creepy-new-social-engineering-experiment/
“No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business.”
— President John F. Kennedy
“Let them see what they’ve done.”
— Mrs. Jacqueline B. Kennedy
John and Robert Kennedy were terrorists. Michael Klare (in “War Without End”) quotes General Maxwell Taylor who referred to JFK as the father of modern day counterinsurgency. I assume readers here know what that means. It means State terrorism.
“There is nothing inherent in either insurgency or guerilla warfare that requires the use of terror.”
http://www.terrorism-research.com/insurgency/
Adam Shiff(ty) is just another “Pay for Play”crooked American Politician with his hand out like a Mafia don, waiting for his tribute payment from his Corporate Masters? Be they Republicans or Democrats, this immoral, Corporatised, Privatised Political System masquerading as a Democracy & its corrupt Politicians epitomises Cronyism in its purest form? Public service? What a joke? Its personal enrichment service not Public service by these crooks who claim they serve the People?
Peace O’Schiff gets his (fake) progressive image the same way as Killery (and many “enlightened” corporate CEOs) do: by using Identity Politics to burnish his image and get the Love from the MIC and MSM.
John Kiriakou is an honorable and insightful professional who knows the ways of the CIA better than almost anyone else. Yet, he is putting Russia on the same list with the US and UK when it comes to interference in other nations’ elections. Too much credit!
We know thanks to Snowden’s revelations that the CIA can attribute all kinds of malware to any enemy of its choosing, but it didn’t even demonstrate any such “finds” to prove Russian interference.
All we were presented with is some obscure Petersburg-based internet farm, which posted some lame political material in 2016-2018 on the world-wide-web. Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know nobody volunteered any specific evidence that these postings were done to advance any particular candidate, or that they had any other intentions other than click-baiting, or that they were posted on the orders of Russian government officials.
People seem to forget that early on in the primary season Putin was asked numerous times by the American media who he thought should be the preferred candidate for president, with special attention given to Trump. Putin would not allow himself to be baited into showing any favoritism, knowing he would have to (try to) work with whomever was elected to the office. This back and forth between Putin and the American media went on repeatedly with Putin not budging in his response.
Trump was also repeatedly asked whether and why he admired Mr. Putin, and if he could work with him. Trump said that Putin was a good leader because he was firm, a stronger leader than any of his Republican primary opponents–nothing more specific as Trump had probably never even analysed the man’s record. As to working with him, he said there were no guarantees, that events would answer that question.
The American media seemed to be trying to give Trump the rope with which to hang himself well before he won the nomination, but the fish weren’t biting on that one probably because Putin was mostly off Trump’s radar, not in collusion with him. None of us save old news clips, but there is plenty of evidence there that Russiagate was a stillborn campaign tactic by Clinton and the media which mostly supported her and treated Trump like an amusing side show routine. Most of the focus and amusement centered on what funny nicknames he would come up with for his primary adversaries today, as he picked them off one by one.
Trump started getting massive attention from the media when the winning just would not stop, including from the liberal-biased MSNBC which would pre-empt its own programming to show his victory rallies and speeches at length. They obviously thought it was a good trade off to sacrifice some of Hilary’s face-time in order to set up a palooka like Trump as her opponent in the generals. Besides her visage was as big a turn-off as Mr. Schiff’s, coupled with the dystrophic grimaces, grins and occasional loss of consciousness.
Adam Schiff is unbelievable, in all ways and is a prime candidate for term limits. Who watchdogs him and his cronies?f
Tragically, he is a standard post-Clinton Democrat.
Wikipedia: “… Schiff had made 227 television appearances from January 2017 to February 2018, totaling over 26 hours of airtime.[62] Schiff logged 111 MSNBC appearances and 87 CNN appearances. In 2017, Schiff spoke on the House floor ten times for about 36 minutes total. ”
Apparently, wannabe watchdog can watch Rep. Schiff for days… too bad (or a blessing?) he is out of energy when back in the House.
Not only is he a hawk but he is also enamoured of censorship and virtual book burning, wanting the government (via social media– https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/congressman-posey-writes-mark-zuckerberg-weighing-in-on-the-facebook-censorship-debate/) to limit what information we are allowed to read, view, share. The man is dangerous in many ways.
“He never brought up the fact that China, in its entire history, has never promoted an imperialist foreign policy, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesn’t invade other countries, like the U.S. and U.K. It doesn’t interfere in foreign elections, like the U.S., U.K., Russia, and others.”
In an otherwise fine piece Kir fumbles the ball in succumbing to the group-think on the Kremlin interfering in the U.S. election. Nothing of the sort occurred. It’s hardening into such orthodoxy that we now have Jimmy Carter asserting that Russia put Trump in the White House.
DeBlasio gets the biggest cheers of the night from the Maddow deluded audience on Wednesday when he declared that Russia’s the biggest threat that America faces.
This is all outrageous madness and claptrap that must stop!
not everything begins and ends with 2016. russia in its current form and as ussr had countless times interfered in foreign elections
Please give one example when Russia interfered in any elections. Unlike USSR, it doesn’t have an ideology, which needs to be defended/promoted.
Of course Russia has interfered and continues to do so …. in Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet Union countries.
Support your assertions. Or just present them as opinions. Please and thank you. I too do not believe that Russia is pure. But I will never join with the establishment in lying about Russia. And the big lie about Putin electing Trump, which John did not (and should have, since he brought up Russian interference in others’ affairs) denounce, is not one that I accept or tell others.
@ Virginia,
Wrong.
Don’t you feel embarrassed drinking the Russphobic kool-aid?
No evidence suggests the Russian Federation interfered in the political process of the US or any other countries — what Washington did and continues doing scores of times in the post-WW II era.
Yes, but who needs facts when we have memes? That is the real tragedy of this era. When Democrats lose 2020, as they are certain to do (for several reasons that party loyalists steadfastly ignore), we’re going to go through this all over again.
Amen Drew-
I wish there was more critical thinking among the US electorate, but unfortunately (probably from watching too much TV) most of them have Schiff for brains.
Now our presstitutes are saying that Tulsi’s surge in google searches during the debates was due to Russian bots. I kid you not. They will use every possible tool to keep a non-interventionist message from gaining traction. I suppose the applause she got from the audience was from a bunch of planted Russian Agents. Here’s an article from Caitlin that has a clip of Tulsi and Ryan during the debates.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-forever-war-is-so-normalized-that-opposing-it-is-isolationism-8b4062aed18b
When members of Congress say, “If you knew what I know …”
They should be immediately asked. “Why don’t we know? If what you claim to know, is sufficient to take the nation to war, then the people have every right to learn what it is you claim to know. Otherwise, you have to explain, and justify, why it remains “secret”.
Now, of course I realize that both “the adults in the room” and the media mesmerized, will say, “It is secret for a reason.”
“Okay, then what IS the reason?”
The point is, that for far too long, power has never been “truthed” sufficiently, either by the pitiful, compliant, complicit cheerleading “Fourth Estate” or, even more importantly and critically, BY the people.
No wonder the public are treated like children, when they continue to behave as credulous children.
My appreciation, John, for your continuing exposure of idiots, thugs, buffoons, and murderous psychopaths.
DW
Another thing the Oligarchy never explains is what it means by “National Security”. They throw the word around endlessly without ever defining it. From their actions it apparently involves the USA being boss of the entire planet. It is another useful propaganda tool to discourage thought and manufacture consent.
“Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” — Barack Obomber
Exactly. That word–like “American Exceptionalism”–has always seemed nothing more than a verbal gimmick meant to slip one past the listener, the way “freedom and democracy” are routinely used to justify any manner of moral atrocities. All these examples are undoubtedly found in the American Newspeak Dictionary, available for perusal only by members of the Inner Party.
“National Security” is a verbal talisman, Skip Scott. Once invoked, all discussion, all questions, all critical thinking, are immediately to cease.
The term casts a paralyzingly powerful and effective spell of hallowed respect which all true patriotic souls dare not sully with doubt or aspersion.
Along with other terms of the all-encompassing MYTH of U$ uniqueness, it requires neither definition nor justification, only quiet, reverent acceptance.
All are articles of faith and ritualistic mesmerization, the stuff of Manifest Destiny, Full Spectrum Dominance, and Indispensability..
The “Homeland”, a most ludicrous term, conjuring vague tribal and religious superiorities, embraceable by neocon and neolib alike, is another manifestation of the anti-thought mentality foisted on the credulous many by media and academia in service to the (how did Obama put it?) “astute” elite.
Love how you remove my comments because I called the author a moron, and the article a hack job full of the author’s opinion and not fact. Also love how the commentators call the neo leftists in their parties conservatives because they see them for the idiots they are and god forbid they be connected to their out of control party. The real sickness in this country is people who blindly follow a party that thrives on the misery of it’s constituents, and propagates open borders and encourages people to enter this country illegally, then when they can use the death of a man and his daughter as fodder for a reason to claim this country needs no borders only to push their “control” agenda is straight bs. Wake the hell up, the democratic party is dead…the rise of the socialist party is here. As for you that don’t see iran for the enemy it is, I say talk to the families of those held as hostages and murdered back in the70’s and 80’s and see what they have to say. P.S. ; Jimmy Carter was and still is a moron.
Your comment remains.
As do some other things.
Ad hominem attacks, attacking the person and not addressing what a person says, or writes reflects not an interest in honest discussion, but intemperate hostility.
I am sorry that you are so very frightened of Iran and do wonder how many dead Iranians would comfort your blood lust.
Presumably, you do not mind if the world economy is collapsed when the Iranians, IF ATTACKED, shut down the Strait of Hormus and a gallon of gas costs you give to ten times more, and as the body bags start coming back to the “Homeland”?
That is what you ask for.
Or, would you just nuke the whole place “back to the Stone Age”?
You do know enough geography to know which BIg country is to the East, right?
Do you expect that the “Homeland” will not experience this war, up close and personal?
How many nukes are you prepared to swallow?
Do you think the U$ would be safe from actual destructive consequence in what would swiftly become WWIII?
What makes you think the commenters, here, are Democrats?
You might find that most agree with your description of that half of the war and money Party, the I other half being the Republicans.
Leaping to conclusions, without any check of the lay of the land may well find you going off the deep end.
Do try to relax a bit, don’t blow a gasket.
Thanks for trying, DW. I’m still scratching my head over Mr Redhorse’s missive. Kinda all over the place is the best I can come up with.
You said what needed to be said as well or better than I could have, considering the parsecs that verbosity traversed. Sure can tell a newbie around here. That was particularly pre-judgmental though.
To civil discourse!
You’re not making sense. Who can engage you?
“Why exactly does the US government go to war with so many of Israel’s enemies? Why has the US destroyed Iraq and half of Syria? The costs were enormous, the results horrible, the rewards imperceptible. The Iraq war not an outlier; it was the second in a long series of US invasions, bombings and destructions of majority-Muslim states. It’s still going on now, with Israel the only obvious beneficiary. How does this happen? Is the Israel lobby that powerful, and even if it is, why has the rest of the US establishment gone along?
“The explanation lies in the MIC and a deeply sinister marriage that has grown between them and Israel. Israel’s wars have become major parts of the MIC’s business plan. Every bomb Israel drops; every missile the US fires, every Muslim country the US invades makes money for the MIC. Israel receives over $3 billion in military aid from Washington every year. Most of this money immediately returns to US military corporations to buy weapons. They’re partners. […]
“The alliance is now lying the US into attacking Syria and Iran, along with Venezuela, using the same strategy used in Iraq, demonizing a country’s rulers and grossly underestimating the difficulties. After Iran, perhaps Russia? The corporate media present whatever pro-war forces say as facts. No matter how many times their predictions turn out absurdly wrong or their facts are exposed as lies, they keep being hired as commentators, experts, or pundits on corporate media platforms including NPR and PBS. This is true for retired Generals as well as Zionist intellectuals.
“Their linked goals of American world dominance, Israeli regional dominance, and MIC profits are moving ahead. The US military and the IDF hold joint military maneuvers. Each new American administration deepens US connection with and support for Israel and its wars. The neocon playbook for regime change is being applied in Latin America as well. What will it take to stop them?”
A Match Made in Hell: Israel and the Military Industrial Complex
By David Spero Rn
https://medium.com/@davidsperorn/a-match-made-in-hell-israel-and-the-military-industrial-complex-34c9d76b789c
Excellent points. Here’s a fascinating analysis of the financial relationship between Israel and the U.S., by former financial investigator Jake Morphonios. (It’s a scam.)
“The Perfect Explanation of How the War Industry Works”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/tYJpzNrSsQY/
Note: Morphonios is such a good investigator that he is being savaged on YouTube in an effort to discredit him.
Schiff represents the left wing of the pro-Israel Lobby in the United States.
Schiff’s stated positions reflect the “special relationship” between the Israel and the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Schiff is every bit as much a pro-Israel “tool” as Bolton, Pompeo, and Trump, not to mention Hilary Rodham Clinton.
The “funny thing” that Kirikaou and all these other veteran intelligence professional never bother to mention:
“The U.S.-Israel special relationship is rooted in preferential arms trade agreements as a way to subsidize the U.S. military industry and reinforce support for Israeli colonialism. This special relationship is locked into an arms trade cycle where both the Israeli and American elite class benefits, at the expense of the indigenous population.
“The U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over occupied territories provides a boost for Israeli colonialism.”
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/04/09/us-israel-arms-sales-opinion/
Exactly, you’ve nailed it. Bravo!
While at interesting article, the esteemed Mr. Kirakou failed to provide any evidence for one point. That Schiff is in anyway “left” or “progressive”. Of course to me, Hillary and Obama slandered the term “progressive” away from any real meaning. They redefined “progressive” as to be people in the banker’s employ who love to kill people and maintain kill list. The word progressive came back into popular use when the Clintons and the DLC slandered the word “liberal” into uselessness by also redefining it as people in the banker’s employ who love to kill people.
I do know that in all the times I’ve ever seen Schiff’s name in the news, nothing about him or his positions has ever struck me as anything to do with progressive, and I wouldn’t even put him into the general category of “Left-of-Reagan”, which these days is of course a minority among Democrats, and exceedingly rare among Democratic leaders.
It is part and parcel of propaganda to hijack the meaning of words. “Progressive” has been hijacked. “Democracy” has been hijacked. It is one of the tricks they use to keep people from thinking.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
The author of this article is either a moron, or a nincompoop and is making crap up as he goes. First everything in this article is opinion with no source to back it up. He can neither quote a source nor does he have any first hand knowledge of the intelligence community reports on anything he claims here. I am in no way a fan of Schiff for brains, but to just side with the likes of that idiot in Venezuela shows what a hack piece this is. That guys is as bad as Sadam Hussein was, and is a murdering fool who refuses to put his country’s well-being ahead of his own thirst for power and wealth. With bs articles like this being the norm today, there is a reckoning coming and you can believe that. The news and how it is reported by hacks like this guy is dead in my book. The people of this country better wake up and see that they are trying to shape public opinion and control the destiny of America. So to the author of this hack piece I say FY and the rag you write for.
The author appears to use as sources the official website of unRepresentative Schiff and the Council for Foreign Relations page presented as an ‘interview’ with the CFR’s chairman. There are links within the article to both, along with quotes from both. Very interesting to say that it is wrong to criticize a person by using his own words and official websites as sources.
You clearly don’t know your South and Central American history, do you Redhorse? Nor do you seem to be the slightest bit interested in your beloved USA’s sordid role in any of these sovereign nations’s affairs. If the type of shady, corrupt characters the author of this fine article describes strike fear into me, it’s the ignorant like you who give me no cause for hope that it might be set right in the end. Write with wit, knowledge, and sound intellect and save your sophomoric barbs for Breitbart.
Schiff is also a likely Zionist, as opposed to just being an American Jew. The ideology of Zionism is to provide 100% support for any activity, worldwide, that provides support for the State of Israel over that of an individual irrespective of whether it involves human rights, international law or war crimes.
I commend you for the clarity, power, and timelines of this piece!
In this era of neo-fascism and proto-totalitarianism that we are suffering, it’s important, imo, to be reminded what the Democratic party has become in recent decades!
Schiff plays the media well because the level of intellectual debate has been brought to the lowest level. Any praise or concern for the “liberal rules-based international order” or condemnation of “authoritarianism” is seen as Serious Thinking, which is why the New York Review of Books, at one time in its history a journal of serious thought that supported the the New Left and put instructions for a Molotov on its cover, actually had a Daily Beast writer as one of their print contributors praise Schiff. They’re so gullible and stupid I almost don’t blame him for taking advantage of the grift the way he did. He’s not very intelligent, any other person with a similar lack of morality could have done the same thing. There is a precedent: Joe McCarthy, who also became an anti-Russian demagogue out of opportunism, was taken seriously by Irving Kristol at the CIA-funded Encounter Magazine. A shame that the media and political classes appear to have learned nothing.
There has *not* been a left wing in American politics since Ronald Reagan took office back in ’80-something. Bill Clinton and his minions are all right-wing politicians. Yes, Obama and HillBillary and Joe Biden too.
https://osociety.org/2018/10/01/the-left/
We need a left wing party and an anti-war administration in America before the wheels fall off the wagon completely. Duh!
https://osociety.org/2019/01/04/a-candidate-doesnt-deserve-our-trust-unless-they-are-anti-empire/
Global warming will probably kill us all first, O Society.
In America, we don’t have the vocabulary skills to discuss global warming, the left, or neoliberalism.
https://osociety.org/2018/09/27/where-do-the-terms-right-and-left-wing-come-from-conservative-moral-hierarchy/
This is by design. People don’t share a common language, a common reality, or a common sense. This is why I no longer engage the majority of people to discuss politics, Zhu. When people say “The Left,” >90% of them are talking about neoliberals, which are not the same thing as left-wing politics at all.
It is a waste of time to engage anyone who calls Adam Schiff “The Left.” Again, this is by design. Propaganda degraded our conversations to babble. Schiff is a neoliberal and a neoconservative and a corporate whore, just as are the majority of memembers of the democratic party, which has nothing to do with socialism or any left-wing agenda.
Check out Schiff’s latest shenanigans over NSA reform
https://restorethe4th.com/nsa-reform-blocked-by-schiff-pelosi-again/
After his performance on the Russian collusion theory, and all the threats with contempt of court, it’s hard to believe anything he rattles on about
Thank you very much for writing this illuminating article on Schiff. You have added very forcefully, if sadly, to a history of a time when neoliberals and neoconservatives joined forces with the military industrial corporate media infotainment complex, the only difference being over who was the more hawkish party.
well said, John!
grateful for a sane voice in this bad theater, we call the us government. bad scripted neoliberal theater.
The RNC and DNC, like the corporate state media, equally, mere illusions, projections of force: the force of global generational wealth and power.
The Mont Pelerin Society’s (Austria 1940’s) favorite “economist” F. v Hayek proposed path of “liberty” and “freedom” [only for the inbred 1% (Neoliberalism)] (Friedman, Buchanan, “Chicago School”, were later disciples)
1) Deregulate global financial markets – DONE
2) Deregulate global trade – DONE
3) Create the illusion and urgency of national bankruptcy with fake (fiat) debt (thereby neuter a nation’s capability to enforce laws – eliminate the people’s ability to defend against being overwhelmed and consumed by the 1%) – DONE
then lastly, the kill shot:
4) Privatize Everything. recreate us ALL as permanent rent payers of even the most basic necessities of life (Air, water, food, shelter). – Almost COMPLETE
#PrivatizationIsTheft – privatization today is STRICTLY about prioritizing money away from the commons and general welfare and giving it to the inbred 1% rent-seeking parasites (Extreme Redistribution of wealth from the people TO the Billionaires, NOTHING for the people)
the use of “liberal” in this context, describes the “liberal” (freely used, as one would “liberally” spread butter on toast) projection of any and all force available to maintain, enhance, and grow, a condition of monopolized wealth and power, in the hands of a small group of generational feudal lords.
Very well-said.
Donald Turner, thank you for a concise and cogent comment on the grand scale theft from the common man and woman. You nailed it.
Superb comment, Donald Turner.
It is hard for a foreigner to understand how such a warped, wicked, disastrous liar can be elected by sane citizens and actually get to head any “intelligence” group in a modern country (I cannot pretend to believe the USA is a democracy). Evey word he says is full of venom and hatred, none of it is true.
The only disagreement I have is with John’s inclusion of Russia as interfering in others’ elections.
Russian intrusive behavior is beyond debate. Ask Chec’s and Hungarians, for starters.
This in no way mitigates American behavior, but let’s be real.
I am sure that’s why both Hungarian and Check presidents are extremely popular at home.https://www.ft.com/content/8e5aad84-02f7-11e9-99df-6183d3002ee1; http://praguemonitor.com/2018/12/04/zemans-approval-rating
Russiagate is as fictional and stupid as Birthergate or Flat Earth belief.
Well. rosemerry, any nation worth its salt has at least some stake in hoping to influence other nations in their interests.
The fact the Dems went hog-wild in promoting this conflated Red-Scare scenario to the extent they did does not mean there were not efforts expended by Russia, but relative to Israel and likely (formerly) Great Britain? And how many others? Statecraft such as it is, such as all nations practice it.
The U.S. has been running unipolar wild and so much more egregiously in toppling governments for so long now has bred a haughty and tragically undeserved contempt for Russia, and our “Exceptionalism” so touted incessantly that in our advanced state of *perfection* (as per propagandized perception) and as self-appointed purveyors of democracy… er, neoliberal capitalism, it’s little wonder the masses fell to the assault of the msm upon our nation’s collective ‘senses’ such as it has proven to be. And of course, shitbirds like Schiff are ever-opportunists and indeed it does deflect attention from Israel, his pet like so many others of his ilk in Congress.
For Clinton Inc and the DNC had to keep their narrative aflame and hysteria propped up as it fit both Hillary’s butt-hurt excuse-making and the neoliberal/neocon long range plan of continuing the 100 year ongoing attempt to bring first the USSR and then Russia down for its multiple treasures of resources. Wall Street and British ‘lebensraum,’ as it were. After all, they started WW II for that purpose by financing and propping up the Nazis in the 30s and into the 40s.
But since Obama and the neocon wing of the Dem party re-invented the Cold War—following in the footsteps of the previous Presidents going back to GHWBush/James Baker’s blatant double-cross as articulated by Bill Clinton’s, ‘W’s’, then Obama’s NATO-Go-East policy, I fear the American public has slid right back into being so easily fear-mongered and overbrimming with falsely-held notions of self-righteousness that even minor, ‘normal’ foreign actorship was turned into “This is war! by idiots from Rob Reiner to Gimme a break–Morgan Freeman!
And along with the WaPo, NYT and every other “Putin! Russia!”snot rag came that pompous blowhard Keith Olbermann and Rrrrrrachel being the highly-paid reinforcing embalming fluid for the American mind.
I didn’t mean to run off the tracks here, but my point is, John is right, it’s how it’s played. But only “we” can do it anywhere near as grossly as we have up until now. And I think Trump’s little cheap shot to Putin in Japan was essentially meaningless and of course, a political currying of opportunism in itself.
All told, the Dems have done the world a great disservice by their antics, but hey—like their Republican counterparts, it’s mostly about them as long as they keep getting elected. But this time the Dems have gone way out of bounds. Indeed, pushing up against a nuclear nightmare.
It appears what Trump’s comment was as I first heard it was out of context as I first heard it on CBC early this morning:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/450817-trump-flashes-a-grin-tells-putin-not-to-meddle-in-us-election-during?fbclid=IwAR2Ete1LTZx0N2cHGRDvJZfP6bnOts6goJEQsAZM8DYWo524T_WIW2IOBLs
What citizens? John just explained that Schiff runs unopposed, so he is in even only 5 dead cats show up to vote for him. He is elected by MIC and AIPAC.
Thank you, Mr Kiriakou, for this timely reminder about the realities of the individual members of the ruling elites. While here you focus on the allegiances of single Congressman, he is representative of the majority in his profound neo-liberalism, warmongering – lusting even, MIC comradeship.
I would only add that Schiff – akin to very many in Congress and elsewhere throughout the corridors of power and in both (so-called) parties – is beloved by AIPAC-Israel. Indeed I would suggest that underlying his deep antagonism to Iran lies his pro-Zionist affiliations. I don’t doubt that that antagonism also derives from the American sentiments toward 1979 and oil, but his support for Zionism and Israel is at least an equal cause of his hatred of Iran as the former.
And one might posit that the Iran business is not unrelated – at this precise moment in time – to China and its BRI.
well, he’s a member of the chosen tribe. And he must support what Bibi wants. Listening to him is a chore, so I never do!
Wow! well said, short and too the point. The democratic party and corporate media will never allow the public to choose a non interventionist anti imperialist leader. That is American democracy. As the biosphere collapses the last card of the power structure will be world war. I hope I have the courage to join the group stopping this future.
Schiff’s Military Industrial trash mouth sounds more like John McCain every day with one exception, he Schiff had no credibility at anything!
Schiff and his ilk are all owned not only by the MIC, but also by the terrorist state of Israel. Is Schiff a duali?
For some reason the comments are only showing if you post one. I went back to them and couldn’t access them and it shows 0 comments.
China invaded Tibet
I caught that one too.
China did invade Tibet, Victor.
The back story. Not an excuse for the invasion, merely a short history.
1904 – Brits invade Tibet. Killing thousands.
1906 – China buys Tibet from Brits for 2 million rupees.
1912 – Dali Lama returns to Tibet. Chinese Qing dynasty collapses, Qing troops in Tibet easily defeated.
1950 – China, under Mao, invades.
1951 – Dali Lama, through representatives, signs treaty with China.
Apparently, China has always regarded Tibet to be their equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase, and were just reclaiming what they believed they owned.
I don’t necessarily agree that was proper, yet do wonder what would happen were the previous “owners” of the LP to take it back?
Would the U$ invade?
Clearly, in this tale, the Brits look no more noble in their acts than does their bloody role in Oman, more recently.
Generally, however, the Chinese have not annexed other nations. Which, in our present world, might lend credence to their claim of the Belt and Road as actually being more about mutual benefit than hegemony.
Nonetheless, always inscrutable, Cathay always takes the long-range view (rather than sweating the quarterly report) when enacting policy.
Great article about an extremely dangerous man who personifies the degradation of the Democratic Party. Another betrayal from Shiff was encouraging the social networking sites to censor alternative health sites as well as anyone challenging pharma lies about their horrible products. Hopefully someone will mount a powerful challenge against him in the next election.
You are stuck with a Russian troll IQ-45 and his regime of Ratpukicans. That’s what you need to write about. This racist unqualified moron is a pathetic white supremacist. Tariffs, tax cuts, destroying the environment. The rat senate MITCH the bitch refusing to past bills sent by Congress.
I can’t stand Adam Schiff, but at least he isn’t as ignorantly illinformed as the writer of this article.
Hey Miller, get a grip…you obviously don’t know who John Kiriakou is and what he has done to defend our Constitution.
No kidding and Amen, John Hawk!
A number of been asleep since December of 2008 people showing up today.
you’re not half the man he is, though
Being the chairman of the Intelligence Committee Schiff either gets the straight stuff from the spooks and then twists it to deceive the American public, or he is directly fed bushwah by the spooks, believes it and dutifully passes it on to you. But there is no way that his dangerous assertions and demands are accurate or in the best interests of anyone but those entrenched in the Washington power structure.
I want to see his head on a pike, among plenty of others, when the people finally storm the Capitol Building to topple the oligarchy. He seems to take a special glee in shafting the people and usurping their rights. He’s in the club with every fascist in DC, whether identifying as a Dem or a GOPer. I vote the full Najibullah treatment for Mr. Schiff. He’s earned it.
I’d happily travel to DC to see 99% of their heads on pikes!
Truer words were never spoken. Come election time we will not have a real choice.
The only thing our politicians agree on is that we NEED to bomb the hell out of people. This country is sick, and it’s a fatal illness for other people.
How many anti-war Democrats are there in Congress? Very very few.
Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard are at least non-interventionist. That’s all I can think of. Kucinich when he was around.
Here in Ohio ours was gerrymandered out of office. Dennis Kucinich.
Surveillance I think surveillance is great I wish I had more cameras on my farm to find out where all my belongings have gone to.
America needs more cameras just like the UK If you’re doing nothing wrong what are you afraid of
Ah, the old (mindless) riposte: “if you’ve nothing to hide, why are you afraid of the government watching you?”
Are you absolutely certain that you have *never* broken even the most minor of laws? (Or minor so far as you are concerned?)
So far as I know I’ve not broken any laws – however, I have NO interest, wish, desire to have government in *any* of its guises monitoring me and my behavior, actions, life. And my late husband was the same. Nor did we want corporate capitalists doing it either – adblockers, the more the merrier and so on.
In the UK it isn’t the farmers (agri-business these days – very few “farmers”) with CCTV all over the shop, it’s the government and its forces of so-called “law and order.” They’re the ones watching you.
WHO is watching the watchers?????
Just as importantly AnneR (and you’re comments are great) is who is deciding what is “wrong.” And when constitutionally protected – nay, guaranteed – rights become wrongs. When will the dictates of the Sultan of Oman become the new normal? The social credit scheme in China is just an intermediate measure.
It is all too believable in this day and age that someone so obviously beholden to the MIC serves on a committee charged with overseeing our “Intelligence” agencies. “Industry capture” strikes again. The FDA allows dangerous drugs into the market, the FAA allows planes to crash due to lack of oversight, the EPA is toothless against continued air and water pollution, and on and on. Corruption has become so rampant it is the norm.
Washington DC is a cesspool. The rest of the country would be better off if it were removed from the map.
“Washington DC is a cesspool. The rest of the country would be better off if it were removed from the map.”
Sadly, true, Skip Scott… And we, as members of a post-Democracy, are left with sorting out the motivation of each member of our new non-democracy’s body politic. Adam Shiff is a particularly odious such member, but at least he”s transparent enough to instantly recognize. It is the more practiced members that are truly harmful. It will probably be necessary to break the whole dysfunctional system?…
As always thanks to John Kiriakou and Consortiumnews for highlighting Adam Shiff, in the cesspool
Here is an article that looks at one key incident in Iranian history that the Western media seems to have conveniently forgotten:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/06/irans-forgotten-history-why-iran-must.html
Iran knows that it stands alone when it comes to protecting itself from Washington.
Schiff is projecting:
“[The US] is a thoroughly malign actor, a cause of deep instability in the region, a profound contributor to the violence and misery in Yemen, and one of the most dangerous regimes in the world. Through the [Pentagon and CIA] and its proxies, it is also a state sponsor of terror. The threat it poses is real.”
Schiff’s from the party of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so it’s all OK.
Absolutely right on Stephen Morrell. I would only add the party also of: the Gulf of Tonkin and deepening the war against Vietnam, destroying Yugoslavia and Libya, the murderous economic sanctions against Iraq, economic warfare against Venezuela, North Korea (they certainly have never done anything to alleviate that, nor to end the Korean War). And I’m sure that one could go on… The USA is a rogue terror state – one with far too much global power.
Let’s face it, America’s government is run by organized criminals (otherwise known as wealthy businessmen) in it to milk the system for all its worth and they pay goons like Schiff to lie, cheat and steal at their behest. The con should be well understood by just about anyone with an IQ above room temperature.
Constantly provoke and demonize the other major powers on our planet, stage a few false flag incidents in which innocent civilians are killed or injured and much property is destroyed, invade and attack their allies either directly with American troops or by proxy and then loudly and incessantly blame the other side for creating the mess. Dominate the American air waves with propaganda supporting the charade and shut off all access to the truth or any other version of actual events because the same organized criminals also hold a monopoly on the media. Finally claim the only remedy is to send out more carrier task forces, to station more missile batteries on Russia’s borders and to build billions of dollars worth of new weapons, much of which America strong arms its putative “allies” to purchase. (With friends like us our vassals don’t need enemies.)
Schiff is but one cog in a large elaborate mechanism composed of many such goons. If he were run over in traffic tomorrow his replacement would be mouthing the same lies on the House floor within hours. This system is not going to be broken by defeating these assholes individually in “fair” elections. They are going to have to crash and burn as the organized mafia they represent, sort of like La Cosa Nostra did fifty years ago. (Actually, the Scicilian mob probably had more integrity than these guys and gals do.) It will take either a vast scandal that envelopes most of these scoundrels, or they will be forced to take the blame when their catastrophic policies either crash the economy or finally administer the major defeat the military so richly deserves. Is it any wonder that the likes of Hillary Clinton rose to the top of an organization made up of moral wretches like Schiff. That’s never to say that the likes of McConnell and McCain were ever paragons of virtue either.
What may make this impossible even if every member of Congress is as dirty as a grazed cow pasture is who is empowered to investigate these guys? Probably only fellow congress critters. Sometimes we would see a single miscreant exposed and excoriated by the group. (Adam Clayton Powell anyone with a memory?) Sometimes we used to see the Dems and GOPers taking pot shots at the other side’s pecadilloes without really sanctioning them (Wilbur Mills in the Tidal Basin anyone?) You never see that anymore. Robert Menendez as filthy as sin doesn’t even get a cross look from his colleagues. The two parties are so in cahoots they will never investigate one of their own or from the other side of the aisle. The only way this swamp gets drained is pursuant to a failed economy or a military route.
Word, Realist.
Actually Menendez was prosecuted by DOJ (only because it is Repub and he is Dem) for taking a bribe of 40-50K which was admitted by both sides. The briber merely said that he always gives such gifts to his friend Menendez and the judge accepted that and let him off the hook. It is the criminally corrupt judiciary that prevents all prosecution of corruption.
I tried to get the FBI/DOJ to prosecute Florida Rep politicians who had given themselves about $90 million, and even sent them hundreds of pages of hard evidence, but they refused to investigate. They don’t prosecute Repubs at all, regardless of evidence.
John,
To take a narrow point of your good article around what ‘Schiffty’ says I might add something which I haven’t seen often repeated. Forget the mass news, they are now a version of sheep about to become lemmings, but let me quote something about Venezuela which is often overlooked.
_________________________________________________________
Here I quote our ex-president Carter who spent a lot of time looking at elections in other countries over the years.
Quote: Former US President Jimmy Carter claimed Venezuela’s electoral system is “the best in the world” (agencies).
Mérida, 21st September 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Former US President Jimmy Carter has declared that Venezuela’s electoral system is the best in the world.
Speaking at an annual event last week in Atlanta for his Carter Centre foundation, the politician-turned philanthropist stated,
“As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”
Venezuela has developed a fully automated touch-screen voting system, which now uses thumbprint recognition technology and prints off a receipt to confirm voters’ choices.
______________________________________________________________________
This is much more of an advanced system than even the US citadel on the hill boasting of “Democracy”. I know the CIA lies and Schaffer’s is no exception, but how does one take Carters’ view of the best system I the world and turn it around to a dictator with nothing to do with democracy except for the person 80% of the country had never heard about declaring himself president, when he wasn’t even on the election ballot to begin with. Just because of oil?
Lies I understand, but Bolton and Pompous can get away from hard facts proven since 2012 and no one seems to question them. I continue to be baffled at the arrogance combined with sheer falsehoods in a world where the internet was supposed to educate people rather than narrow their thinking down to garbage beliefs.
Surly the ‘enlightenment’ of the net has become a myth, especially when the paper editors continue the lies. It’s all very troubling.
I suppose nobody in the US establishment would consider that the Brazilian election, which also took place last year, deserved any sort of mention, although it was obvious to fair observers that the whole thing was completely corrupt, and the people in Brazil are now rising up in huge numbers against the draconian measures now being taken by the “elected government” which is supported, of course, by Trump and Netanyahu. Venezuela is targeted because the population is generally supporting and supported by the elected government. This will never do for the USA, Dems or Repugs.