Exclusive: The hysteria over “Russia-gate” continues to grow – as President Trump’s enemies circle – but at its core there may be no there there while it risks pushing the world toward nuclear annihilation, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There may be a turn-about-is-fair-play element to Democrats parsing the words of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump administration officials to hang them on possible “perjury” charges. After all, the Republicans made “lock her up” a popular chant citing Hillary Clinton’s arguably illegal use of a private email server as Secretary of State and her allegedly false claim under oath that her lawyers had hand-checked each of her 30,000 or so emails that were deleted as personal.
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
But there is a grave danger in playing partisan “gotcha” over U.S. relations with the world’s other major nuclear superpower. If, for instance, President Trump finds himself having to demonstrate how tough he can be on Russia — to save his political skin — he could easily make a miscalculation that could push the two countries into a war that could truly be the war to end all wars – along with ending human civilization. But Democrats, liberals and the mainstream news media seem to hate Trump so much they will take that risk.
Official Washington’s Russia hysteria has reached such proportions that New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has even compared the alleged Russian hacking of Democratic emails to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, two incidents that led the United States into violent warfare. On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, Friedman demanded that the hacking allegations be taken with the utmost seriousness: “That was a 9/11 scale event. They attacked the core of our democracy. That was a Pearl Harbor scale event. … This goes to the very core of our democracy.”
But what really goes to “the very core of our democracy” is the failure to deal with this issue – or pretty much any recent issue – with the sobriety and the seriousness that should accompany a question of war or peace. Just as Friedman and other “star” journalists failed to ask the necessary questions about Iraq’s WMD or to show professional skepticism in the face of U.S. propaganda campaigns around the conflicts in Libya, Syria or Ukraine, they have not demanded any actual evidence from the Obama administration for its lurid claims about Russian “hacking.”
Before this madness goes any further, doesn’t anyone think that the U.S. intelligence community should lay its cards on the table regarding exactly what the evidence is that Russian intelligence purloined Democratic emails and then slipped them to WikiLeaks for publication? President Obama’s intelligence officials apparently went to great lengths to spread these allegations around – even passing the secrets around overseas – but they never told the American people what the evidence is. The two official reports dealing with the issue were laughably short on anything approaching evidence. They amounted to “trust us.”
Further, WikiLeaks representatives have indicated that the two batches of emails – one from the Democratic National Committee and the other from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta – did not come from the Russians but rather from two different American insiders. That could be wrong – it is possible that Russian intelligence laundered the material through some American cutouts or used some other method to conceal Moscow’s hand – but Obama’s intelligence officials apparently don’t know how WikiLeaks obtained the emails. So, the entire “scandal” may rest upon a foundation of sand.
No ‘Fake News’
It’s also important to note that nothing that WikiLeaks published was false. There was no “fake news.” Indeed, a key reason why the emails were newsworthy at all was that they exposed misconduct and deception on the part of the Democrats and the Clinton campaign. The main point that the DNC emails revealed was that the leadership had violated its duty to approach the primary campaign even-handedly when instead they tilted the playing field against Sen. Bernie Sanders. Later, the Podesta emails revealed the contents of Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street bankers, which she was trying to hide from the voters, and the emails exposed some of the pay-to-play tactics of the Clinton Foundation.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
In other words, even if the Russians did reveal this information to the American people, how does knowing relevant facts regarding a presidential campaign translate into an attack on “the core of our democracy”? Usually, journalists believe that getting the truth out, even if it embarrasses some politician or some political party, is healthy for a democracy. As an American journalist, I prefer getting information from people who have America’s best interests at heart, but I’m not naïve enough to think that people who “leak” don’t often do so for self-interested reasons. What’s most important is that the information is genuine and newsworthy.
Frankly, I found the WikiLeaks material far more appropriate for an American political debate than the scurrilous rumors that the Clinton campaign was circulating about Trump supposedly getting urinated on by Russian prostitutes in a five-star Moscow hotel, claims for which no evidence has been presented.
Also, remember that no one thought that the DNC/Podesta emails were significant in deciding the 2016 election. Clinton herself blamed FBI Director James Comey for briefly reopening the FBI investigation into her private email server near the end of the campaign as the reason her poll numbers cratered. It’s relevant, too, that Clinton ran a horrific campaign, which included breathtaking gaffes like referring to many Trump supporters as “deplorables,” relying way too heavily on negative ads, failing to articulate a compelling vision for the future, and ignoring signs that her leads in Rust Belt states were disappearing. In other words, the current effort to portray the disclosure of Democratic emails as somehow decisive in the campaign is revisionist history.
Yet, here we are with The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and almost the entire mainstream media (along with leading liberals and Democrats) panting every time they discover that someone from Trump’s circle met with a Russian. We are supposed to forget that the Russian government for many years was collaborating closely with the U.S. government – and particularly with U.S. national security agencies – on vital issues. Russia assisted in supplying the U.S. military in Afghanistan; President Putin played a crucial role in getting Iran to curtail its nuclear program; and he also arranged for the Syrian government to surrender its stockpiles of chemical weapons. The last two accomplishments were among President Obama’s most important foreign policy successes.
But those last two areas of cooperation – Iran and Syria – contributed to making Putin a target for Washington’s powerful neoconservatives who were lusting for direct U.S. military strikes against those two countries. The neocons, along with the Israeli and Saudi governments, wanted “regime change” in Tehran and Damascus, not diplomatic agreements that left the governments in place.
Neocons inside the U.S. government – including Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Sen. John McCain and National Endowment for Democracy president Carl Gershman – then took aim at “regime change” in Ukraine, realizing its sensitivity to Russia. Gershman, whose NED is funded by the U.S. government, called Ukraine “the biggest prize” and a key step toward ousting Putin inside Russia; McCain cheered on Ukraine’s ultranationalists who were firebombing police in Kiev’s Maidan square; and Nuland was conspiring with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt on how to “glue” or “midwife” a change in government.
This neocon strategy worked by overthrowing Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych and causing Putin to intervene on behalf of threatened ethnic Russians in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. That, in turn, was transformed by the Western media into a “Russian invasion.”
Partisan Interests
Instead of standing up to this neocon troublemaking, Obama fell in line. Later, the Democrats saw political advantage in becoming the super-hawks standing up to Russia, essentially maneuvering to the right of the Republicans, especially when Donald Trump unexpectedly won the nomination, in part, by calling for better relations with Russia.
Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. (Photo from Russian Embassy)
As the 2016 presidential campaign sank into infamy as one of the ugliest in U.S. history, Clinton hammered Trump over Russia, calling him a Putin “puppet.” But the Russia-bashing didn’t seem to help Clinton very much. Although it was calculated to pull in some “moderate” Republicans, it also alienated many peace-oriented Democrats.
Still, despite the shaky foundation and the haphazard construction, Official Washington is now adding more and more floors to this Russia “scandal.” Obama holdovers slapped together a shoddy pretext for going after Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn – citing the never-prosecuted Logan Act of 1799 and then trapping Flynn because he didn’t have total recall of a phone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29 while Flynn was vacationing in the Dominican Republic.
Similarly, the mainstream media and Democrats are framing in a “perjury” case against Attorney General Sessions because of a sloppily worded response during his confirmation hearing about contacts with Russians. He had met twice with Kislyak (as many others in Washington have done). The heavy-breathing suspicion is that perhaps Sessions and Kislyak were plotting how the Kremlin could help the Trump campaign, but there is zero evidence to support that conspiracy theory.
What’s actually happening here should be obvious. The Obama administration, the Democrats and the mainstream media were horrified at Trump’s election. They understandably were offended by Trump’s personal behavior and his obvious unfitness for the presidency. Many Clinton supporters, especially women, were bitterly disappointed at the failure of the first female major-party presidential nominee who lost to a lout who boasted about how he could exploit his fame and power by grabbing the genitals of vulnerable women whom he assumed couldn’t do anything to stop him.
There was also alarm about Trump’s policies on the environment, immigration, education and the courts. Among the neocons and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks, there was concern, too, that Trump would not continue their “regime change” strategies in the Middle East and their hostility toward Russia.
So, these anti-Trump forces grabbed at the most potent weapon available, the suspicions that Trump had somehow colluded with Russia. It didn’t matter that the evidence was weak to non-existent. It would be enough to spread the allegations around under the cloak of U.S. intelligence “assessments.”
Nobody important would demand to review the evidence and, surely, with the availability of National Security Agency intercepts, people’s memories could be tested against the transcripts of conversations and be found wanting. Verbal missteps could become perjury traps. There could be a witch hunt against anyone who talked to a Russian. Any pushing back from the Trump people could be construed as a “cover-up.”
Having worked in Washington for nearly four decades, I have seen political investigations before, both in steering away from real crimes of state (such as Nicaraguan Contra cocaine trafficking and Republican collaboration with foreign governments to undercut Democrats in 1968 and 1980) and in fabricating scandals that weren’t there (such as the fictional offenses of Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, Chinagate, etc. under Bill Clinton who was finally cornered for the heinous crime of lying about sex). So far at least, “Russia-gate” fits much more with the latter group than the former.
What I also have learned over these years is that in Official Washington, power – much more than truth – determines which scandals are taken seriously and which ones are not. “Russia-gate” is revealing that the established power centers of Washington arrayed against Trump – the major news media, the neoconservatives and the Democratic Party – have more power than the disorganized Trump administration.
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).
Your story might hold water, Except for the direct actions of Trump and his appointee,s They are doing there best to help the wealthy and harm the poor With no reguard for the countrys well being So I find you are a Dupee of this POS !
I just watched (gagging, since Amy et al’s pro White Helmets crap) the Deocracy Now interview of Scott Horton and Rober Parry and I have to say, Horton gave it away when he stated, as though it’s conclusive, that 17 intelligence reports said that Russia hacked the US election. I will no longer pay any attention to him.
And neither guest pointed out the nonsense of fretting over a possible wire-tap in this era of no privacy, following sick policies that people like the fascist Donald Trump, who can’t complete sentences and has the English skills of the Rain Main, supports.
A voice from Russia, for a change. I’ve been a witness to US-Russia(Soviet) relations for over 50 years. They’ve never been worse. My dear Americans, have you gone crazy?
great article but will have to re-read it a few time to grasp all that information.
I am praying that Russia-Gate will stop this corrupt administration along with the GOP!!!
Rose,
You know nuclear war has a tendency to do that.
All good except this:
“…a lout who boasted about how he could exploit his fame and power by grabbing the genitals of vulnerable women whom he assumed couldn’t do anything to stop him.”
Go back to the “Access Hollywood”tape and listen carefully, stepping back from the salacious and disparaging context of hyperbolic campaign negativity. Here’s the key point, and I quote:
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
Notice the “…they let you…” They let you, as in “they are consenting”, “they are agreeable”.
There’s no violation here. No sexual assault (as CNN repeated so many times). No molestation. No unwillingness. The women Trump is talking about aren’t office subordinates trapped by a powerful man in a position of power over them. This is not butt ugly Robert Ailes forcing himself on the women of Fox network. This is not a powerful corporate mogul perpetrating sexual harassment in the work environment or any other inappropriate context.
*** The women Trump is talking about aren’t “vulnerable” victims of a powerful man who “assumes” they can’t “do anything to stop him”. They are groupies of a rock star personality who is rich, famous, and sexy, who loves women and loves sex, and these women throw themselves at their idol, wanting nothing more — wanting it passionately — than to have this man-god of their dreams grab them, dispense with the preliminaries required of lesser men, and ravish them with abandon. These are groupies in a hyper-sexualized culture who have reached ground zero of their most powerful fantasy, and “stopping him” is not anywhere in the picture. And god bless these truly liberated honeys for their magnificent libidinous enthusiasm. Donald Trump is the man Hugh Hefner would want to be if he wasn’t Hugh Hefner.***
(The whole “scandalous” conversation on the bus was textbook locker room talk. Only the priggish and hypocritical could be “shocked, shocked I tell you” at this sort of thoroughly conventional masculine banter. To take it seriously is to be taken for a fool.)
For the full treatment of this sillyness, see Fred Reed:
http://fredoneverything.org/trump-to-build-death-camps-for-trans-gendered-people-of-color-will-deport-all-woman/
Everybody ignores Greg Palast’s investigation of CrossCheck and the purging of 7 million votes. Think that might have had any effect? Anyone?
Bueller?
https://politicalfilm.wordpress.com/2017/01/20/the-best-democracy-money-can-buy-my-review/
Yes. Had an effect. We were spared immediate WWIII by one set of Fascists (Clinton), by “war later on” group of Fascists (Trump). All for the reason that the Money Power of the Westren Empire of The City and The Street is collapsing. Coyote Trickster owns this Game of Thrones.
Coyote is saving us (and the planet) from annihilation by thermonuclear fire. We are left to struggle with our own moral degeneracy. The friendly Chinese fascists have found another occupation instead of war-fighting: Nation-Building. That is our way out from Imperial collapse.
Sorry, that’s Kim Jong-un, got the wrong North Korean leader!
Who was it said the Republican and Democrat parties are two wings of the same bird of prey? Was it Chomsky? Anyway, it fits. This last pathetic election finally shows the massive corruption of this government which cares not a whit for its own people unless they’re rolling in money, also cares nothing for their own lifesource the earth, and will stoop to nothing. The cyberage has aided them very well to pull off their shenanigans, and corrupt corporate media is part of this kabuki theater. Where will it all end? Maybe a gigantic earthquake in California, and I don’t wish that on anyone but I would prefer that to someone using nuclear weapons, such as Kim il Sung, who is more likely to use them than Vladimir Putin!
If the US is a bird, that would explain why we are unable to learn from our mistakes.
A bird with two right wings can only fly in circles…
So, trying again. The entire national crisis is a rubbish.
DNC servers were not examined by ANY federal agency. FBI was declined access. Three times. The only “investigation” performed inly by Hillary’s acquaintance, a known Russiaphobe. All 17 agencies have NO first hand knowledge, but were to rely on this private report. The report was strange, as it contained very little technical data, and a lots on presumed motivation of the hacker. How is it then that a “consensus” was formed by 17!agencies, that is the real story. They should have all declined to speculate on the basis of acreport that nobody can vouch fot its content. Strange world indeed.
through propaganda they prime the pump for aggression
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_us_is_playing_with_fire_on_iran_20170207
So, it is not posting.
It now appears that the most effective response to the Red Baiting nonsense is Trump’s Gaslighting nonsense about Obama wiretaps.
They deserve each other.
In fact, that is how this all started. They picked two candidates for a race to the bottom, and sure enough they got there.
“herald” in American English
See all translations
Herald
verb US ? /?her·?ld/
?
to announce or signal that something is approaching:
The trade agreement heralded a new era of economic development.
::
The part of harbinger is played by NYT columnist/reporter Linda Miller
Scott Ridder played the herald/examiner and true herald.
At this point the anti-Russian propaganda hysteria looks like agit-prop for actual war. the US NATO has Russia surrounded in the West by land and sea…
Surrounded or not, an attack on Russia (as Parry explained) is the end of human civilization.
Russia gate is the stupidest fucking name I’ve ever heard. How about some originality.
What does it tell you about who controls the MSM when average Americans remain unaware that Israel (through AIPAC) has, more or less, openly bought and bribed US presidents and members of congress for the past 30 years?
QUOTATION “What’s actually happening here should be obvious. The Obama administration, the Democrats and the mainstream media were horrified at Trump’s election.
*** They understandably were offended by Trump’s personal behavior and his obvious unfitness for the presidency. ***
Many Clinton supporters, especially women, were bitterly disappointed at the failure of the first female major-party presidential nominee who lost to a lout who boasted about how he could exploit his fame and power by grabbing the genitals of vulnerable women whom he assumed couldn’t do anything to stop him.
… there was concern, too, that Trump would not continue their “regime change” strategies in the Middle East and their hostility toward Russia.”
These comments are quoted from Mr. Parry’s and are the part of Robert Parry’s comments
that I not only strongly Disagree with– but find really disturbing; they are ones which Sabotage an otherwise excellent piece of fine journalism, with special reference to the current cacophony of vicious attacks against President Trump by the Liberals, Democrats, and the Main Stream Media of TV and Press. I am a lifelong Progressive Democrat, and activist in C.O.R.E. during the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1960’s, and later a strong opponent and activist against the Viet Nam War and other later wars. But in 2014 onward, I could no longer tolerate or accept the bad policies of Obama & Hillary– (& Bush, Jr. earlier) — the Warmongering and the Killer Drones, and all the destruction of small countries in the Middle East– including Iraq, Libya, Syria and several others that have been reduced, intentionally, by U.S. Foreign Policy, to “Failed States”.. Also the unconscionable cost of TRILLIONS of Dollars, and the terrible burden that has placed upon the vast majority of the ordinary American people. This, and Benghazi, and the wreckage of Libya AND Obama & Hillary allowing the Libyan Head of State, Muammar Qaddafi, to be murdered by opposing terrorists. Then the unjustified continuing attacks against Bashar al-Assad, the legitimate President of Syria, with the U.S. & Britain & NATO joining up to attempt to Kill or Overthrow this duly-elected President, thrice voted for by the majority of Syrian people– a Foreign Policy that is so clearly illegal– and an impeachable war crime — as declared by the U.S. Constitution. All of the above, including all the vicious attacks against President Trump, as if HE were the problem, as if HE were the fascist and racist, when in reality he is not guilty of either of these accusations, and in fact, Hillary Clinton IS a Hardcore Neo-Con, a major advocate of the Project for the New American Century, aka PNAC, and Hillary is not even a moderate Liberal Democrat, but a Globalist Neo-Con, and one of the most terrible of Presidential Candidates in living memory. FOR You, Mr. Parry to say: *** { “They understandably were offended by Trump’s personal behavior and his obvious unfitness for the presidency.} *** That is THE “Loaded Statement” of your entire article.. It brings everything that you said in this comment– about Donald Trump’s “obvious unfitness for the Presidency” — into a central position that contradicts the several facts in this case — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both have “obvious unfitness” for the Presidency. So I end up with real praise for a large portion of your “Politics Behind ‘Russia-gate.”but with a truly harsh criticism of this part– of Donald Trump’s “obvious unfitness”. And WE are not even mentioning the wire-tapping by Obama of Donald Trump, done in October of 2016…………
The denials by the Neo-Cons and friends are empty and without Evidence — the truth of Trump is that He has the Proof that Obama wiretapped Trump shortly before the Election– and many other creatures of the Sea. Will prevail, not the bad circles of Neo-Cons, allied with Obama and Hillary and McCain & Cheney and a cast of “Thousands.”. President Trump is not a racist; not an anti-Semite, and not Anti-Muslim, or any other ethnic group. Obama is about to be Exposed, and Trump is about to be vindicated…. 3.5.17 -rbb-
I pretty much am standing where you are. I want to see the FDR New Deal brought back. I was a Dennis Kucinich guy, making monthly donations. I voted Bernie in the primaries, went Green with Jill in the General…still make monthly donations to G.P.U.S. To me, it was War Criminal vs pussy-grabbing lewd crude dude with attitude for the main parties. I like Trump’s wanting to establish friendly relation with Russia and China. This opens the door to permanently slaying the dreadful Beast of War, starting a new era of global nation-building…Reconstruction after an insane, literal era of a “Hundred Years War” of world wars, cold war, post-colonial miniwars (Korea, Vietnam, the Dutch, Brit, French wars of the fifties and sixties), corporate wars etc… I oppose Trump’s every method pursued for solving domestic problems, but I think I understand his “CEO” mentality for solving problems in “his Company”. There is a great difference between a businessman and a Statesman; different skillsets involved. Bernie has them. the others do not.
I agree that the theory that the Russians are responsible for the election results which have reached hysterical levels are not counterbalanced with serious journalism by the main stream press
As examples of the main stream media’s amnesia consider the following:
What was the influence of FBI Director James Comey in the election results when he suddenly reopened the case about Hillary Clintons emails? The idea that emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer could contain new information was ridiculous from the beginning. Emails travel over the internet and leave signatures which are tracked by NSA and other vacuum cleaner operations like AT&T with Operation Hemisphere. Surely there would be some corroboration from the spy networks that some new information was available only on one laptop. In fact, no new evidence was found but Comey did the damage by reopening a closed investigation two weeks before a National presidential election against the Department of Justice’s stern warnings that such a move would be tantamount to influencing the election. Have you heard anyone questioning the FBIs role in influencing the election?
What was the influence of the republican led investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails which dragged on for four years and was a daily feature of major news outlets? Is anyone questioning this as a possible source of election influencing?
Has anyone raised the question of how the major media questioned the US citizenship of Obama with Trump as chief Birther in Charge? He apparently has gotten off the hook for years of telling lies about Obama’s Birth Certificate with a simple statement he was wrong on that one. How did that influence the election? Why has he not been singled out about his multiyear campaign to paint Obama as an illegitimate president which he later stated he was totally wrong about not been questioned as a possible influence on the election or the result of fake news spouted by the “official” or “serious” US media?
The media never likes to examine itself. What was the role of the media in giving Trump three billion dollars in free advertising to defeat fourteen republican candidates? Were they giving Trump all that free airtime seeking the billions of dollars in republican Super PACs by putting a puppet and a bait out on their news sites to stimulate republican Super PAC spending essentially making themselves rich by using a hand picked outsider candidate and then producing endless hours of pro-Trump airtime to get advertising money? How did that influence the election? I bet the CEOs of major media outlets won’t run that story.
How is it that Russia has been singled out as the chief influence in the election results without mentioning other possible causes?
How is it that there are demands to investigate any website which challenges official intelligence reports that challenge the official intelligence conclusion that Russia and Russia alone influenced the election as possible sources of fake news when Fox News and other news agencies which spewed fake news are not questioned about their honesty and integrity? I surely don’t think Fox News is a reliable source for accurate information. Fox is all about spin which might be considered fake news disguised as opinion. Is anyone investigating Fox News like the Russians?
What about all of the decades long efforts by billionaires like the Koch Brothers to stack all of the courts in the land with Judges favorable to republicans with their well funded PACs? Anyone asking questions about that? Did any of these Koch appointed judges pass laws that could have influenced the election?
What about republican redistricting efforts to marginalize democratic votes by gerrymandering? Any news outlets questioning this as a possible source of election influencing? My take is that Gerrymandering was a significant influence on the elections and that many redistricting efforts fall outside of the Constitution but then one would have to find a sympathetic judge to overturn any of these efforts. Here is where the Koch Brothers shine by stacking the courts. Has any major media outlet questioned redistricting as a possible influence on the election?
I guess you see where I am coming from. Numerous potential influences on elections are being ignored right now. I propose that the recent obsession with Russia as the sole entity responsible for rigging the election is nothing but a giant smoke screen which has been invented by the powers in government and the media to distract us and cause us to forget all of the other reasons that Trump won.
Stories about the Electoral College, electronic ballots, voter Id laws, the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United vs. FEC and McCutcheon vs. FEC have either been under-reported or have disappeared just as Comey’s reopening of the Hillary Clinton emails as possible influences of the election have disappeared in the new effort to place blame on potential sources of election influencing on the Russians.
The entire Washington establishment and the major media have embarked on a McCarthy like campaign to single out Russia as the only possible entity that might have had a hand in tilting the election to Trump.
When one considers the potential sources of fake news and possible influence sources of the recent election outcome consider the monopolistic power of Washington and the Media to ignore all that we know were potential sources of election influencing that actually happened and to instead, in a unified campaign, create a Russian boogeyman as the single cause of election influencing without any evidence while simultaneously ignoring everything else.
Consider then that this diversion and smoke screen is also by no coincidence self serving for the Military Industrial Complex, the Neocons and the War Hawks in Washington. Creating a Russian enemy justifies their main cause to expand the military.
We have seen this self serving deception before with the main stream media creation of the “Tea Party” to distract us from the risk takers on Wall Street who bankrupted the big banks and instead turn public anger into a tool for creating tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations and turning angry voters into republicans. Where is the Tea Party today? More appropriately what happened to it? Just gone. As swiftly as it appeared, it is gone and just as swiftly a new international threat has been reborn. It is simply brilliant. You can do anything when you own the microphone.
Just as McCarthyism was an attempt to fan flames of American Jingoism and justify expansion of the Military Machine, The main stream media and Washington have now united in an effort to expand the military machine again with the rebirth of anti Russian blame for our current political situation which was actually caused by the corporate oligarchy which runs Washington which also created the current political outcome in Washington.
They are laughing all the way to the bank as they lead us by our noses. It’s win-win as they clean up on campaign money, elect republican majorities in all three branches that will give them everything they want and invent a new reason to spend more billions on the defense industry.
Classic.
Thank you, CitizenOne
— Berkeley?
Help…why are all mainstream journalists using the “knock down” asin Comey wants DOJ to knock down story of Trump’s wiretap claim…There are plenty of ways to say shut down or stop or desist, why did everyone decide to use “knock down”
Info at link below:
———————————————————————————-
Trump, Sex Trafficking & How It Ties To Russia
Liz Crokin
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Posted: Mar 05, 2017 12:01 AM
https://townhall.com/columnists/lizcrokin/2017/03/05/trump-sex-trafficking–how-it-ties-to-russia-n2294220
1. To suggest that the wikileaks scandal had nothing to do with the outcome of the election is absurd, whatever other foci happen to be at the center of matters at the moment.
2. Based on the current record, everyone should be skeptical of Russian/Trump election collusion, but a series of lies by relevant parties is more than sufficient to justify further inquiry.
3. Lying to Congress is in fact a crime. Calling it “sloppy wording” is entirely appropriate for Sessions’s defense counsel, but that the lie was so easily resorted to, and in fact volunteered as opposed to required by a question, makes the matter a legitimate focus of investigation. Sessions should be required by a special prosecutor to answer questions concerning his apparent criminal conduct, or lawyer up and get ushered out of office.
Sessions failed to make the essential distinction which isn’t “lying” exactly: a) as senator on the armed forces committee; vs. b) as representative of Trump. But what happened to Comey at the crucial moment once the lid was off, the leaks spilled, DNC corrupted, hints of Foundation fraud, and Comey is suddenly honest? I’m referring to his “re-opening” the Hillary email problem which upset her so much, right before the election. But now we know he had no analysis of his own whatever on Russian hacking the election. So what did he do? He went with crowdstrike the intell outfit hired by Clinton to investigate the leaks and clean them up. Investigate yourself with your hired hands. Then he gave their biased intelligence a “high” assessment. Is Comey now working for Trump?
“the U.S. intelligence community should lay its cards on the table regarding exactly what the evidence is that Russian intelligence purloined Democratic emails ”
Joint Intelligence Analysis Report JAR-16-20 296 A –“ The U.S. Government confirms that two different RIS (Russian Intelligence Services) participated in the intrusion into a U.S. political party.”
Simply put – the FBI and other intelligence Agencies ARE RELYING UPON THE ADMINISTRATION (NOT vice versa !) – just like they did with Iraq and WMD !!
It sounds as if your fear of a possible war between US and Russia is directing your line of reasoning. There may not be substantial proof of the allegations yet, but there are ongoing investigations. Do you really have such low regard for our intelligence agencies?
Who cares about the hacking claims. We only care about the child trafficking. Why does the alt media give two shits what MSM spouts? They’re dying media.
[Interesting video at link below]
Intel community trying to undermine Trump’s presidency?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j_ZfKmcnSk
A well-reasoned column, yet…
“What’s actually happening here should be obvious. The Obama administration, the Democrats and the mainstream media were horrified at Trump’s election. They understandably were offended by Trump’s personal behavior and his obvious unfitness for the presidency. Many Clinton supporters, especially women, were bitterly disappointed at the failure of the first female major-party presidential nominee who lost to a lout who boasted about how he could exploit his fame and power by grabbing the genitals of vulnerable women whom he assumed couldn’t do anything to stop him.”
Yeah, unfitness is an accurate word for this guy. He’s unhinged, and appears already at the “talking to the paintings” stage at Mar-a-Lago. He’s crazed about the leaks coming out from his administration, but this isn’t a vertical tyranny, such as his company is, at least, not yet.
People within the government are scared shitless by this guy and his creepy cohorts. They have every right to be.
It now seems that Trump’s answer is a counter attack.
Pushing hard back on weakly supported speculation might work. His critics know the limits of their “proof” and are worried for good reason that Trump just might have some proof of his own. It is exactly the sort of crazy thing the surveillance state has been doing.
Now that we know who is really calling the shots in the US in terms of policy: namely, the MIC, NSA, Pentagon, MSM, assorted celebs, film stars and so forth, it seems justified to argue that the US peoples’ elected representative is simply a front-person who signs whatever is put in front of him by the real powers-that-be (PTB). For some time past we have believed that US democracy was simply a sham, there was the show of democracy (spectacle politics), but not the substance. Now we know with some certainty that in light of the ongoing coup, the whole set up is a criminal farce. It is the same in Europe. In the UK the PTB will simply not accept the leave vote in the Brexit referendum, and there is an ongoing campaign to annul the result and have a re-run. Please note that there were no constitutional anomalies or irregularities either before, during or after the vote; it was perfectly legal, and yet the upper-echelons of UK’s class structure continues to campaign for a repudiation of the result, on the sole basis that they were not enamoured of the outcome.
This is something quite new – and dangerous – in what are considered to be ‘mature’ democracies. In this day and age we would be foolish to take anything for granted – particularly when it issues from mainstream or ‘authoritative’ sources.
Yes we live in an Empire managed by the 1 per centers, for the 1 per centers residing in City-London, and Wall Street. UK and USA are no longer sovereign Nation-States, just mere Provinces in a new Roman Empire.
Russia as boggy man is now playing live 24/7 as propaganda reporters with repeated sheep like bleating, sell another big lie with America’s ruling elites, echoing their resentment at the upstart crow President, leading to resorting to Shakespearean staging with remembering that “All the worlds a stage” (Note: “White Hats” winning an Academy “Oscar” for best documentary film with agency players going for the the best propaganda film with the least truth.), as they share “As You Like It” with one another, while having seasoned actors present “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Excellent observation! Must say, I get so tired of all these articles about “The Trump Era” or “Trump’s America” as if everything was hunky-dorie before the election!
However, I got this info from Wikipedia. Ironic, right? (my bold)
*Adams is thought to have been the first president to belong to a political party, but like George Washington, he thought himself above any particular party. He ran for president on the Federalist ticket. He beat Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party.
I get so tired of listening to the pot calling the kettle black. This rant about Russian interference in our election is totally overblown and is an extreme case of hypocrisy and an (apparently successful) effort to divert attention away from our own much more serious problems.
Any interference or influence the Russians might have had in the last election pales in comparison to the rigging of elections through gerrymandering and voter suppression which is done by our own political parties along with the damage the DNC did to itself by rigging the primary for Clinton.
Furthermore, Russian influence in our elections pales in comparison with Israeli influence in our elections which pales in comparison with U.S. influence and intervention in elections in every democratic country in the world. Furthermore, not only does the U.S. interfere in other countries’ elections, it conducts “regime change” whenever it doesn’t like the outcome of those elections.
Thomas Friedman is a flaming bumbling fool and the NYT and all the MSM that publish his bullshit are a disservice to the public. They are trying to sell mass hysteria by goading an infantile, idiot president into starting another war just like they did with Bush. Unfortunately, these infantile, idiot presidents are easily goaded into anything because they lack any kind of judgment and their egos are so fragile that they bend whichever way the wind blows. I would have thought that Americans would have learned their lesson about electing stupid people for president, but it appears that MSM can sell anything.
Robert Parry asks,
“In other words, even if the Russians did reveal this information to the American people, how does knowing relevant facts regarding a presidential campaign translate into an attack on “the core of our democracy”?”
If Eliot Abrams wiretapped your phone and then published every instance in which you or your family said something that could be interpreted amiss, and that cost you a job, would that not be an attack on the core of your life?
So I think it’s fair to say that the publication of the material was an attack on a core institution of US democracy, namely one of its two parties. We are already dangerously close to a one-party state, so we should take the damage done to the Democrats as an attack on us all. And we should treat it–not with hysteria like Tom Friedman, but soberly–as a matter to be thoroughly investigated and punished.
At this point, enough circumstantial evidence exists to believe that the Trump circle has an unusual degree of closeness with Russia, closer than any Administration has had with any nation except the UK. And Russia, unlike the UK, is not even an approximation of democracy. It is run by strongmen and oligarchs, and it has imperial pretensions. Isn’t the US already too close to that style of government? Do we want to normalize it by embracing Russia?
The focus on Putin is probably excessive, but the thought that an American president might be in some way beholden to a foreign power should not be tolerated. The Russiaphobia is outrageous–but (if it’s anyone other than the government), the Russians have the means to prove their goodwill by exposing who is responsible for the hacking. Even if they did the hack, they could apologize. There’s been a lot of complaining about the US not being forthcoming about its evidence, but this is a two way street. The stakes are so high that someone needs to start acting like an adult.
Robert Parry says,
“So [because they were offended at Trump and his policies], these anti-Trump forces grabbed at the most potent weapon available, the suspicions that Trump had somehow colluded with Russia. It didn’t matter that the evidence was weak to non-existent. It would be enough to spread the allegations around under the cloak of U.S. intelligence “assessments.””
Talk about conclusions without substantiating evidence! It’s like alleging that someone must have robbed a bank simply because they said they wanted more money.
What is truly remarkable is that the intelligence agencies and the White House are leaking like a sieve. What that means is that a lot of ordinary people are willing to risk the Wrath of Don to get information out and to protect those who leak. I am encouraged to think that there are people of conscience inside the government who recognize that they owe an allegiance to the Constitution above an allegiance to a president or to their pension. The Consortium has contacts inside the intelligence community. Why not use them to ask–honestly, without any agenda, and without any effort to compromise the leakers–why these leaks are occurring. My guess is that an honest answer would be that a lot of people believe that the Trump Administration is a threat to this country.
“…so we should take the damage done to the Democrats as an attack on us all.”
You mean that self-inflicted damage, right?
“So I think it’s fair to say that the publication of the material was an attack on a core institution of US democracy, namely one of its two parties.”
Well, the publication of the material was committing an act of journalism, which night be construed as an attack the institution of controlled media, which marginalized journalism. As to being an “attack” on a political party? Truth hurts, eh? And just how did said political party respond? As something worthy of being a “core institution”? I think not.
“…the thought that an American president might be in some way beholden to a foreign power should not be tolerated.”
I haven’t seen anything to make me think of Trump as being beholden to Russia, but your point could apply to Israel and the Saudis much more readily.
All speculation and “I believes” to support the most obvious propaganda lies in modern history.
The improper influence you are concealing is that the Dems and mass media are agents of Israel/MIC/KSA.
No one here thinks that Trump will do anything good beyond foreign policy, and that looks ever less likely.
IRobert Parry should dig into the sale of 19.5 percent of the Russian state owned Rosneft oil holdings just after Trump won the Presidential election. Supposedly, Trump’s former advisor Carter Page was told that Trump would be sold 19% of Rosneft if he won the election. Is the date of the sale a coincidence? Perhaps, but why aren’t we paying attention to that instead of the legality or illegality of Trump team contacts with Russia before the election?
Oh, and if Sessions is so innocent, why was his Russian trip paid for out of Trump campaign funds. It certainly can’t be called a visit in his capacity as a US senator.
“Trump is honest” ? Please …
Then explain why he screws his contractors when pay up time comes. Oh, that’s just good business you say ? And you think this guy is going to ‘bring all those jobs back’ when he has no clue as to what modern automated manufacturing looks like and doesn’t realize coal is dead?
Give me a break.
For me the big question is: Why did it have to be Wiki-leaks in the first place to reveal important facts about American presidential candidates. Shouldn’t it have been the job of American journalists to do so? Surely it could not have been to difficult for them to find out?
Cheryl Hartogh Heys
When you consider the campaign against Trump began before his inauguration speech and has picked up momentum since you are reminded of the color revolutions in targeted countries. The angry tone and wild accusations and the hysteria all seem more fitting in Ukraine or Venezuela. Friedman’s idiotic and inflammatory statement fits in to what feels like a full course press to make Trump another Yanukovich(sp?). That his enemies seem willing to shred our democracy,s hereto fore relatively civilized transition of power smacks of desperation. Since the voices of reason are in on the riot, where will voices of sanity that might be heard come from.
Unless it could be verified that the Russians directly influenced the actual vote count then the whole stream of accusations is a farce. The Clintons problems with the truth were already well documented and the entire election process was a disgrace. Could our national election have been reduced to any lower common denominator? I guess the elite intend to wait it out in their underground cities while the deplorables are eliminated. I wonder who will pay the taxes for their extravagant lifestyles after our demise? And who will do the labor required to maintain their illusions of power? I did not vote for either candidate in the last election and the Russians certainly did not influence my choice. As for Friedman and his ilk-send in the clowns should be their theme song. As “journalists” they have certainly failed the American citizenry.
Robert Parry and curious readers might like to follow up on an extraordinary development which — although deposited in the public domain a month ago — has only just received a little coverage during the past few days or so.
Vide: Adam Carter, “Guccifer2.0: Game Over – (Metadata Shows DNC Contractor & G2’s Activity Only 30 Minutes Apart on Significant Date [June 15, 2016])”. — g-2.space/rev1.html
In short, the author demonstrates by close scrutiny of hitherto misreported & overlooked metadata that Guccifer 2.0’s DNC documents were created by a Canadian-born geek working for the DNC, one Warren Flood — who, by the way, has since married the Obama cheerleader and teary-eyed Biden-groupie, Alice McAlexander [= @AliceMcAlex] @ LaGrange, Georgia — just 30 minutes or so before Guccifer 2.0 dumped them all in the public domain.
Carefully examining the content of those documents, several of which had actually been leaked years before, the author maintains that they were, if anything, more damaging to Trump than to Clinton, given that a strategic DNC assessment of Trump featured prominently among them; and otherwise what was truly new — a listing of the names & addresses etc. of a number of Democrat donors — was pretty innocuous.
It is alleged, then, that this last-mentioned DNC $ listing was included in a bid to render kosher (and this in a psy-ops manner) the entire deposit, which was also decked out — and even absurdly so — with spurious metadata in cyrillic contrived to lure suckers into reflexively drawing the conclusion that a DNC hack had occurred of a Russian (read: #putinoid) provenance. But what’s going on here?
During the few days prior to the computer-dating on the documents, Assange had indicated publicly that Wikileaks would imminently be publishing materials concerning HRC. In due course, Assange would assert that he knew nothing at all of Guccifer 2.0. But in dumping the documents on-line Guccifer 2.0 claimed (in his own dildo Russian-writes-English-speak, at that) that he had actually handed over to Wikileaks the bulk of the stuff that he had (putatively) hacked from the DNC.
Conclusion of the author:- That Guccifer 2.0 was actually a false-flag creation of senior members of the DNC who, working pretty much overnight, sought desperately to delegitimize the impending Wikileaks materials (i.e., the Podesta emails, etc.) by (mis)attributing them [not to an internal ‘leak’ but, instead:] to a ‘hack’ perpetrated by the evil Russians (read: Putin, as in #putinoia), and to the benefit of Trump, of course.
Much food for thought.
Thanks! I got the link easily via your info and am pleased the researcher qualifies the info carefully. I had thought G2 was possibly Russian, although that did not automatically mean putinoia warranted. Now we have the plausible scenario not only the leaks came from within the DNC but the Guccifer 2.0 stuff was false flag plant–the connection between these two. I had the impression Assange had warned (joyfully) about the coming leaks well in advance of the four days mentioned here, but I could be wrong on that. I waited and found DNC corrupted, Debbie Wasserman out (immediately hired by Clinton), but apparently not much of a big deal about that. Sanders meekly sheepdogged aside and onward we go to the glorious future–but not expecting Trump to prevail. Hence to thickening and exponentially expanding the smoke (I read yesterday by somebody it can now be seen from the moon), and yes this criminal fiasco probably is bigger than Watergate.
BTW apparently a large portion of the US public STILL does not believe this Russia-demonizing story. It was 71 percent back in December and I believe remains at about the same figure.
Early, early Monday morning:-
Late this weekend, the link to the explosive G.2 = DNC article got taken down.
Instead of my link, as above, go here:- archive.is/qA6Do
Very helpful thread, thank you Geoffrey de Galles.
Thanks Robert Parry and all the commenters for this stimulating post.
What Mr Parry – thanks for the article, Robbert ! – should keep in mind is that when newsish outlets as the New York Time (can one imagine anything more newsish than Thomas Loren Friedman ?), the Washington Post, and CNN report on the indiscretions committed by Messrs Sessions and Flynn (and no doubt others as well, like Mr Schumer and Ms Pelosi), they merely have in mind the unfortunately little-known 10½ Amendment to the US Constitution, otherwise known as Amendment XS (don’t ask !) : «No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under the United States, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, engage in speech or writing with any Person holding any such Office under the Empire of Russia.»), which, upon diligent searching, is to be found sandwiched between Amendment X : «The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.») and Amendment XI : «The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.») to the US Constitution….
The people calling this a witch hunt simply have forgotten all they learned – or should have learned – about the US Constitution in elementary school. Besides, the fact that Mr Sessions is a racist son of a bitch doesn’t disqualify him from serving as US Attorney General – that certainly isn’t unconstitutional, as a quick perusal of the document will suffice to show – so if one wants to get rid of him, one has to come up with something, like talking to the Russian ambassador, that demonstrably is….
Henri
“They understandably were offended by Trump’s personal behavior and his obvious unfitness for the presidency”.
And here we go. The inevitable “demonstration of even-handedness”.
Mr Trump has many deplorable features, but even so I would take him over almost any other US president. Why? Because he has a tendency to be honest and open.
For example, which is preferable? A president who says nasty things about Muslims and tries to prevent some of them, temporarily, from entering the USA; or a president who says glowing things about Muslims while deliberately, but covertly, laying plans to kill thousands of them and destroy their countries?
Most Westerners seem to prefer the latter. The triumph of appearance over reality.
Yes, Robert, it is strictly because Trump is an outsider with little backing and loyalty from the Republican regulars that he has been so easily assailed by the gang of insurrectionists mentioned in your article. If Trump were backed to the hilt by the GOP, perhaps the insurrectionists would not be getting any traction, as they are still a major power center with chits to call in. Perhaps they wouldn’t have attempted their soft coup to begin with. I have a hard time conceiving that Obama, Clinton and the rest of the Dems would be willing to die on the beach in a civil war against a President Rubio or a President Cruz even though both of those gentlemen would pose greater dangers to this republic than Trump does. I still contend he was the best of a bad lot, except for Bernie Sanders. The disparate power centers in the Democratic Party, the neoconservative movement, the Deep State and the corporatist mainstream media can focus on his proferred policies, and defeat them, or they can focus on the man and try to discredit and remove him, as they are doing, and destroy our constitutional republic in the process. The American government and the elites that support and exploit it are losing credibility throughout the world when it becomes totally transparent to all that everything said in this power struggle against the elected president is a flimsy confection, just like the cheap fabrications against Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in earlier years.
Here we Americans are a deeply divided nation where individuals opinion is schooled by whatever media data they take in. What we are experiencing in America currently didn’t just happen. No it took a long time to get here, and depending on your knowledge of American history you could be the judge to when it all did get started.
With six weeks in office Trump didn’t get us to this uneasy spot all on his own. No, not yet, but he now is on the clock, and let’s hope history judges him well.
America’s modern day involvement in the Middle East officially may have started with Carter employing Tim Osmon (Osama bin Laden) in Afghanistan. Although the official real American soldier fight some would say was Desert Storm Iraq. That might work if you don’t include the 241 Marines who died in Beirut, and I’ll leave Allen Dulles name out of this for now….do you see what I’m saying?
Have you see the headlines where the U.S. is now in Yemen? So now President Trump, let’s learn from our failed past, and drawback these foreign wars. The best way to end war, is to quit fighting them. Now would be a most perfect time to join Thersa May and end world colonization. If there were ever an important time in human history to learn from our aged history, now is that time,
http://journal-neo.org/2017/03/04/has-britain-started-listening-to-the-words-of-reason/
Your Ace in your pocket to these charges of Russian influence you should take public, and appeal to the electoral how you and your team were trying to avoid WWIII. You could round up NATO leaders who are sounding like Thersa May and pull out the nukes aimed at Russia and do no more, and become a hero to the world. If there must be a NATO then guide NATO towards becoming a big humanitarian aid army. Silly I know, but that’s what the world needs….not another casino, but if all goes well then why not a casino. But before any of that you President Trump could actually do some good. So go to the public, and you might have a chance …otherwise your out numbered.
Don’t make me say this twice!
” If there must be a NATO then guide NATO towards becoming a big humanitarian aid army.” If only, Joe. NATO has been obsolete since the USSR and the Warsaw Pact disappeared. If Russia were included, plus others, as a real peacekeeping force, perhaps agreements could be negotiated, but the arrogance of the US-led NATO would not allow this. I live in France and remember de Gaulle pulling France out of NATO; puny Sarkozy let the country go back into NATO now it has no purpose but mischief.
I would rather live out of what’s left of my life being laughed at for my peaceful wishful thinking, as opposed to aiding in creating a battle plan to attack Russia and end life on this planet as we know it.
Rosemary your bringing up de Gaulle’s pulling out of NATO is a great reference to our learning from history. If more Americans were to learn of how JFK was back channeling with Kruschev in order to map out a plan for peace, rather than dwell on Kennedy’s womanizing, his history could inspire us to go down the road that he and Kruschev were attempting to go down.
In fact when it comes down to it since WWII all of these proxy wars of colonization have only elevated one industry, and that’s the weapons manufacturing empire of America. Rather than dismantle this monster of death we celebrate it for keeping us safe. It’s celebration is a direct result of a mass media campaign which was developed in order to keep us scared. Fear will produce weapons and bombs, and there I go again demonizing the very industrial complex which has kept us safe for all these years…or has it?
If you ask that question ‘has it kept us safe’ my high school friends who either came home from Vietnam after losing they’re legs, or mentally scarred with PTSD, or they died while destroying a village, the answer would be no the MIC didn’t keep them safe. This example should never leave out the millions of innocents who were so dismissed from the news, that their names were never even mentioned. So this wonderful industry of death has done quite the opposite of what all the praise has been given to them for what they supposedly do.
Take care Rosemary ……Joe
This was a commendable and entirely reasonable statement that you made, Joe: “If there must be a NATO then guide NATO towards becoming a big humanitarian aid army. Silly I know, but that’s what the world needs…” After all, why not transform NATO into such a useful beast, since it’s original task, to defend North America and Western Europe against military attack by the Soviet Union, was obviated as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed and dissolved?
Noam Chomsky was recently asked by David Gibbs, in a current article in Counterpunch, what is the extant purpose for NATO, considering the above historical reality? After recapitulating in detail the promises that George H.W. Bush made to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO not expand one inch towards the East, he answered the question thusly: “So what’s the purpose of NATO? Well actually we have an official answer. It isn’t publicized much, but a couple of years ago, the secretary-general of NATO made a formal statement explaining the purpose of NATO in the post-Cold War world is to control global energy systems, pipelines, and sea lanes. That means it’s a global system and of course he didn’t say it, it’s an intervention force under US command, as we’ve seen in case after case.”
Got that? It’s to control energy systems, pipelines and sea lanes on a global scale, using an intervention force under US command. Now, I don’t know who EMPOWERED NATO to so change its mission (what was the bill in congress named and why didn’t the media discuss it?), and in a way that was for all intents and purposes COVERT, if the fact was not made plain to the world, but now it all becomes clear why the American armed forces, along with a token posse from other NATO members, have been riding roughshod over the entire Middle East for the past decade and a half, plus have been making moves to put the screws to Russia, an additional major force in the energy sector. It’s just all part of their “mandate” to control “energy systems and pipelines.” Keep in mind the pipelines that go through Ukraine, the pipelines from the Persian Gulf they want to install through Syria, and the Russia pipelines they want to prevent from being built to Europe. Somehow the NATO prime directive became shut Russia out of all commerce with Europe, especially the energy sector, Russia’s most important product. You’ll notice also the reference to controlling global “sea lanes.” This is the excuse being used to confront and encroach on China’s plans to expand its world trade through its “One Belt One Road” initiative, which includes both land and sea lane trade from its eastern ports to the westernmost European ports–“from Shanghai and (including Russia) Vladivostok to Lisbon.” The United States wants to kill that baby in its crib and is using NATO as the assassin.
You, Joe, as you usually do, offered a sensible role for NATO, but Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama begged to differ with you on what that role should be and think it should be to choke off the economic development of Russia and China (and with it their cultural, political and military influence in the world as well). With the assistance of the esteemed Professor Chomsky, we now know what has been hidden from us for so many years, the real new official purpose of NATO. And all this time we were simply blaming Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Kagan, Richard Perle, PNAC and the “Wolfowitz Doctrine” for what seemed to be the systematic destruction of Russian interests throughout the world when somewhere along the line the secretary-general of NATO got new official marching orders! This is NATO’s job, Joe, you don’t have to find a new one for them!
Realist thank you for the treasure trove of information, I actually learned a lot from your comment here. At the rate we are all going none of what you mentioned will matter, because it will all be turned into ashes. Man’s final epithet just maybe ‘well some tried’ and that won’t matter either, because no one will be left to read it.
Thanks again, always enjoy reading what you have to say….Joe
It just scares the crap out of me how easy it still is to make something like that out of pure lies. They could start WW3 if they wanted and they can easily destroy the lives of every normal human they dislike. Maybe thats why so many people are on their side? They really are afraid of them?
McCain cheered on Ukraine’s ultranationalists who were firebombing police in Kiev’s Maidan square; and Nuland was conspiring with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt on how to “glue” or “midwife” a change in government.
How do McCain and his fellow warmongering senators and neocon friends get away with criminality?
Bill I too am confused to how overlooked the recent visit to whip up the hate in Ukraine by McCain, Graham, and Klobuchar went unnoticed. I guess it’s like Robert Parry mentioned Washington has it’s own unique way of deciding what’s scandalous and what’s not by their perverted standards. The worst part is, that when it comes to the adventures of John McCain unless you are an avid reader of the news released by quality sites such as this one you probably have no idea of what terrible things McCain has been up to.
I’m hoping by leaving this link below that this comment doesn’t go into moderation, but here is an article written by Tony Cartalucci about McCain in Benghazi. Notice the date and how Cartalucci presented this piece some five months before the attack occurred in Benghazi where four American lives were lost.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-mccain-founding-father-of.html
Mr Jefferson and his friends would be severely disappointed to see what their country has become. Would they be surprised? I don’t think so.
What we are seeing is very simply explained. Most people do not behave like intelligent, educated, conscientious citizens. They do not scrupulously seek out the truth, ponder what is best for their nation, and vote accordingly. Instead, they act just like members of a troop of apes or monkeys: the only important thing to them is to prove that they are members of the troop in good standing, and followers of the leader. The real leader, that is; not someone who has been chosen by an elaborately artificial process of “elections”.
Perhaps the most satisfactory (and easy) way of proving your loyalty to “Us” is to demonstrate your hatred of “Them”. So members of the Democrat tribe jump up and down, scream, chatter, and hurl feces at the Republican tribe; while both tribes unite to do the same to Russia.
I found the WikiLeaks material far more appropriate for an American political debate than the scurrilous rumors that the Clinton campaign was circulating about Trump supposedly getting urinated on by Russian prostitutes in a five-star Moscow hotel,
As deplorable as Trump in the White House may be, we would probably be worse off with the Clintons defiling the place.
You know what makes me happy at times like this in America ….Hillary isn’t our President!
Is Nuclear War in the cards?
———————————————————————–
British NATO General wants cyber-attacks to trigger article 5 collective response
Published time: 3 Mar, 2017 17:47
https://www.rt.com/uk/379371-nato-cyber-attack-war/
I’m disappointed (but not very surprised) to discover that a British general is so profoundly ignorant of the basic elements of modern warfare that he thinks the UK can consider the possibility of war against Russia.
A single Russian ICBM carries numerous independently targetable warheads, mostly of 150-300 kiloton yield. One such warhead would utterly destroy the centre of London or any other city. One ICBM would deal with the South-East of England, the heart of the UK. Another four or five missiles would literally return the UK to the Stone Age – if there were any survivors at all. (After long-term radiation sickness, disease, starvation, etc. has their effects).
It is literally true that Mr Putin could annihilate the UK in 30 minutes, with a single command. I don’t for a moment believe he would do that if he had any alternative, but if the UK were to launch a thermonuclear attack on Russia he wouldn’t have an alternative.
It is also literally true that, for anyone who has the UK’s security and safety at heart, only one thing must be avoided: war with Russia.
Russia has the distinction among all these “Western good guys” of actually having its country using defence ie defensive weapons NOT like the others, threatening and being willing to attack other countries which are not a threat. Russia is defended (unlike the USA, as we saw when 9/11 led to the formation of the Dept of Homeland Security; Chalmers Johnson reminded us that the Dept of Defense had no defense when this happened).
Now we see threats by the USA to Iran, to North Korea, and this from the POTUS who wanted good relations! I wonder how Hillary would have been acting by now had she been elected.
Yes, the Trump administration has been threatening Iran, now it is threatening North Korea:
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46583.htm ]
The question becomes, is it being goaded into doing so by the Deep State and the rest of the collection of insurrectionists assailing it with charges of collusion with Russia? Are they doing this to appear tough? Are they perhaps even doing this as part of an agreement to remain in power and not be overthrown via impeachment?
In any event, it’s bad, even worse for South Korea, and perhaps Japan, than for the United States. North Korea cannot strike back at the US mainland, but even with their limited power projection they can take out our Asian “allies” with their nukes. Perhaps Mr. Trump should make a phone call to Seoul to get their input before he starts bombing Pyongyang.
Another interesting piece of the puzzle: the number of prominent Republicans such as McCain, L. Graham, D. Issa and others who have been publicly aligning themselves with the Spy agencies, the Dems, and the mainstream media. One can sketch out at least 3 theories of that: A) The “Gomer Theory” – Russia is just so evil and menacing that a good USA Patriot has to pounce on even a hint of extra sympathy thrown their way; B) The “Cynic Theory” – Trump is a political goner with those forces arrayed against them so it helps Republicans to cut their losses by getting rid of him and making Pence President; C) The “Conspiracy Theory” – these Republicans basically work for the CIA first, and that is more important than Republican politics, patriotism, or actual truth. Other ideas? A) looks a lot weaker to me and than B) and C).
An example here of Paul Ryan trying to have it all 3 ways: claiming Russian meddling with no specific allegations (backing CIA nonsense, non-specifically), claiming Trump people were not involved, and admitting with a non-denial that Obama twice tried and once succeeded to get a FISA court order to listen to Trump communications. Baier describes it as tapping a computer at Trump Tower:
https://youtu.be/GNw3Y2rcb_E
Assuming that’s true, it makes weasly lawyer words out of Obama’s recent denial.
Don’t forget Ryan was McCain running mate. Ryan would have to be a hater to get the VP gig. McCain knows it was a Soviet missile that got him and I lament that …… If any man could be the father of ww3 it would be him.
” McCain, L. Graham, D. Issa and others” keep getting star treatment in the “news”, and have for decades, despite their constant moaning and interfering, never on the right side of any issues. (Remember when Lindsey and McNasty also had Joe Lieberman . They never learn, but get quoted all the time. Most of the rest of the Senate support Israel on every issue as well.
I always thought Lieberman should have changed his citizenship, it was that blatant.
Beyond the present chaos… what is the outcome these dual citizen agents, politicians and “star journalist” are seeking…..It is to strip the USA citizens of being a “USA Patriot”….Patriots are very hard to control……How about the phrase “Live Free Or Die” by general John Stark a patriot. He proclaimed that statement because of the inside influence of foreign governments….hello “Israel First People”. And so lets take a look under the hood of illegal immigration …….Do the USA citizens know about the ruthless killer gangs that are in their country from Mexico and Central America lol…..of course you don’t….The MSM narrative is “let them all in”….why? to strip the US citizens of the idea of being a patriot…..remember patriots are hard to control. Next they will try to take away your right to bear arms for protection against the illegals they allowed in your country…..It’s a bad dream …..right?
It is all planned and it could end badly for everybody.
“I believe what we are seeing daily is a dirty diversion designed to hide the treachery of western war criminals. And this diversion is aided and abetted by the corporate media.”
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/03/is-blaming-russia-diversion-designed-to.html
Thank you Stephen for your work and Persistence…
The fake US government is coming apart at the seams, revealing all it’s ugly contents. The collapse of the American Empire is going to be truly psychotic. In spite of all the pain and disaster this will entail, it is better than holding it together on it’s mad course would be. If we are incredibly lucky there just might be some tiny remnant of real values remaining among the ashes. But better the silence following human extinction than deeper phases of the genocide of all values now in progress.
Yes, we should all pray that the dissolution of US goes about similar as the dissolution of Soviet Union – without the Big Bang. But somehow I feel that some loser in US may press the button, to take the rest of the World with him. It is a matter of difference in the psychological make up between the people of SU and the West.
We’ll be OK, as long as we don’t start WWIII with Russia, then we really will be ‘ashes’.
I am starting to really like this man….Robert Parry !
Parry hasn’t said anything new in months. Even worse, he’s become a depleted apologist for the new regime’s ways. Pretty certain he’ll find a new way to blame everyone BUT Trump for what’s coming.
People who have been reading here for some time have noticed the change..especially in the comments section. Trumpies have arrived. As a matter of fact, Trumps “blow” sounds JUST LIKE PARRY! Check it out..the same old “deep state” drivel being used by Trump as a misdirection is part and parcel of the Parry modus operandi.
RP has accomplished much in his career but he’s spent as a investigative reporter. If you’re looking for opinion, there are better sources with better background sources than Parry. Still do like McGovern and some of the ex-CIA here…just to see their take on specific happenings.
You misrepresent Mr. Parry. He has not apologized for Trump, but sought to get Trump to do the one thing he promised that Hillary would never have done: end the foreign wars and provocations. It appears ever more certain now that Trump will not do that, and you can see Mr. Parry giving up on that.
You “Trump apologist” accusers were extremely wrong to try to close off the one Trump possibility we so badly needed. Is endless war so important to you that you had to scream lies about Russia and Trump to get your way?
“I will tell you this: Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
Donald Trump Press Conference July 2016
“40 percent of the steel created so far was manufactured in Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz, a company 31-percent owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is a close ally of Putin and a Trump family friend. Evraz has also actively lobbied against provisions which would mandate that Keystone XL’s steel be made in the U.S.”
desmogblog
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
Those two quotes are going to be heard more as this Dump Trump train gains more traction. Like Robert Parry points out some scandals are more scandalous than others, and this Trump Russia scandal seems to me to be traveling much faster than one can imagine. CNN and MSNBC are nonstop anti-Trump news. Flynn is out, and Sessions is spoiling away, which leaves one to speculate who’s next to get the Russia treatment.
One can only hope the Russians can see through this, and be somehow thick skinned enough to blow it off. Only who in DC is being fair and balanced when it comes to our two countries having a diplomatic relationship? I mean it’s as though we are already at war with Russia, and for some reason there is a large enough constituency that this Russia threat is real….is it? I think the Russians are no more guilty in involving themselves in our U.S. election than by their having an opinion. Remember Hillary shook her fist high, and called Putin the new Hitler. Now that might make a Russian worry to who the next American president may be.
I don’t think Russia did the email hackinf for Julian Assange. Like how no one in America knows the name Victoria Nuland, no one knows of Craig Murray. Ambassador Murray has written and spoken out about WikiLeaks receiving their email information from two American insiders who leaked the information. Seth Rich should probably in a right thinking nation be the focus of any investigation, but poor Seth will now be forgotten in the pages of history, and that’s too bad.
Now I better run because CNN has breaking news….Trump’s angry over treatment of Sessions! Pretty soon CNN will be reporting Donald Trump bathroom breaks.
I imagine that those quotes will be ignored by all but those who already attack Trump. It just doesn’t matter that there may be indirect connections between USG officials and other powers, unless the official is influenced improperly, which cannot be assumed. Since Russia is not an enemy except to the Dems, most will wonder why we don’t investigate Dems for connections to Israel and even Russia. No doubt there are many. There should be international connections and communication.
The Dems are screaming to conceal their serving as foreign agents of Israel and Saudi Arabia!
Sam F this whole affair of singling out Russian interference in our election is only more proof to how hypocritical our DC brats have become. Do some google searches on Ukraine Hillary election ties, Saudi donations to the Hillary campaign, and less we forget the outward display of our politicians (except Bernie) kneeling to the powers of AIPAC, and then let’s talk about foreign interference. I’ll even go a step further, take all four the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Saudis, the Israelis, and I’d pick partnering up with Russia over the other three any day of the week. Out of the four I believe Russia is the only nation that has its head screwed on properly, plus I think Russians in a global sense would have more in common with us rational minded Americans…not Neocon’s.
No Sam, this is a witch hunt if there ever was one. I’ll say it again, I’m not a Trump supporter, but I’m even a bigger nonsupporter of the Deep State. What we are watching unfold right in front of our very eyes is the second biggest junta ever to go down in American politics. JFK was a covert assassination, this assault on Trump is a death by a thousand knives. Regardless the measurement of standards what we are all witnessing is a coup played out by the MSM/CIA democracy assassins.
If there were not a scheme then why not allow Trump to govern, and when or if he screws up then start the impeachment proceedings. No Trump is the only interference going on in DC, and due to his nature of bazaar the unseen powers have declared that he must go. So we are all to be entertained by our media as the MSM drowns us in 24/7 Trump Russian escapades of intrigue, while we invade Yemen and Kiev tramples all over Minksk II.
Yes, I quite agree and meant that in my comment. But I doubt whether the anti-Trumpers will persuade anyone but themselves with the quotes or any of their other excuses for evidence.
The Dems were horrified that their serving as agents of Israel and Saudi Arabia was exposed. That is why they have to scream lies about Russia and the Repubs. They also need to share excuses for their loss, rather than admit that the majority don’t care at all for their endless wars, propaganda for sexual deviance, and Jewish racism.
Probably the Trumpers will dump their opponents in the Executive branch, unplug the opposition media from government, appease the right wing factions, and stabilize the majority. But they will sell blather to their supporters, who will flee left. So the real question is whether there will be leftwing parties in 2018 and 2020 to catch them, or whether the Duopoly will win again, selling us fear wars and transgender bathrooms and austerity as they grow fatter at the top.
The corporate legacy media in the USA is a sad joke and has been for decades:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries. —David Rockefeller, Speaking at the June, 1991 Bilderberger meeting in Baden, Germany (a meeting also attended by then-Governor Bill Clinton and by Dan Quayle)”
Is that quote for real? Can you cite a “neutral” source for it?
Madeira I’ll post a Wikipedia link to “Conspiracy Theories” and you will find the David Rockefeller aspect under the category of “Round Table” which is the one that I personally buy into especially after reading much of Professor Quigley’s work including “Tragedy And Hope”.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(conspiracy_theory)
https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Hope-History-World-Time/dp/094500110X
“Trying to find what you might say would be an acceptable source might be like finding a needle in a haystack. (If you look you will see that this first appeared in the French Press after the meeting at issue years ago….). Look at the fact that this meeting is just now reaching public scrutiny even though they have been meeting for years/decades. Look at the level of apathy of the general public towards moral outrage…. Look at the arrogance of the open collaboration of people with nefarious agendas now because they have reached an untouchable status. Then look at the previous list of Bilderberg attendees and ask yourself if it seems rational that this statement was made.
Furthermore David Rockefeller’s own words are basically in the same vein when he penned this–Written in his 2002 autobiography ‘Memoirs’ [pp 405]
“For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as “internationalists” and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
Do you think he could have said the quote you question? (You will find the corporate media has been in attendance at the Bilderberg meetings….)
In fifty years there will come a Carroll Quiley who will tell us which oligarch owned which politician, and how all the politicians basically worked for the same master. The NWO Masters have better regard for commodities than they do humanity. Humanity is not cost effective, and well yes they are nothing but cattle in the eyes of not all but a few of the very wealthy. I sometimes wonder though if the one percent could not be held at bay by a huge military bureaucracy…like a few high ranking generals or intelligence directors. But, yes there is an order, and I would love to be a fly on the wall and overhear what a Rockefeller or Rothschild might say about President Trump or Hillary for that matter. Regardless both Trump and Hillary are expected to play ball…so life goes on.
Nice thread of conversation.
My current notions are 1) “the major news media” are totally under the thumb of the neoconservatives and Intelligence agencies 2) the neoconservatives want Pence so badly they’re wetting their pants with anticipation and 3) the Democrats have gone insane and are burning all their bridges.
Regarding #2, I was amazed to see an article in Jeff Bezo’s Washington Post throwing Hillary under the bus to protect Pence in a comparison of their email situations. Israel really, really, really wants Pence.
google “Why Mike Pence’s private email account is way different from Hillary Clinton’s”
Interesting we know how important LBJ was for JFK and Spiro Agnew had to go first before Nixon was targeted.
Interesting linkage London Bob; l have a theory that starting with Vice President Truman’s selection over Henry Wallace, every VP selection has been made with “Deep State” approval as a potential “solution” to Presidential power…
How does that theory explain Dan Quayle?
Thanks Brian. I think that H.W., the most inside (meaning Deep State) President of the lot since Truman, picked him precisely because he wasn’t a threat, and wouldn’t be a threat.
‘Burning’ indeed. 45 years of voting for Democrats, but I will never do so again.
Talking about 911, just recently the White Helmets department of this organization which did 911 got an Oscar. All in plain sight for everyone to see, that is stellar chutzpah.
It shows the Orwellian nature of the yankee power structure: first el qaeda is demonized, then an el qaeda branch is toasted with a propaganda film favoured by so-called progressives. I’m a bit less pessimistic than Parry. Since he came out with this article, which has serious implications, the last day or so has seen the beginning of the counter attack, which will be based on the Obama regime’s wiretapping of the Trump campaign. My guess is that Flynn was sort of like Libya. Sessions was Syria, and there’ll be no surrender on this one. It also may blow back on the Soros democrats since the yankee justice ministry can thoroughly go after the Clintons for their various crimes, and go after the Epstein fantasy island and other pedogate issues which may result in serious blowback among democrats and quisling GOP neocons like Lindsay Graham and John McCain. Just like Parry states, there is no substance to the Russia charges, and the threat of nuclear war is magnified seriously by them.
What is quite astounding is the response of leading Democrats to the Obama wire-tapping allegation. The denials pouring out seem like some nightmarish déjà vu as much as anything. The same “where’s the evidence?” demands are frothing from Democrat mouths as frothed from Republican mouths at allegations Trump colluded with Putin to interfere with the U.S. elections. Is this really what things have come down to? Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burned, we seem to have the entire string section of an orchestra playing in Washington.
U.S. politicians from both sides have brought American politcs and the nation into disrepute throughout the world. Bad enough that mindlesss wars that have brought death and destruction throughout the globe, now the nation makes itself a cause of derision as well as hatred.
When both sides of the house call each other liars what are we in the rest of the world left to think but that all U.S. politicians are liars. For that’s what they’re telling us.
We could wish a plague on both your houses, but the ship has already sailed on that one.
I got this link from a lady who posts here as well sometimes, but not this time. The link is to a Deplorable site which list an interesting sequence of events around the time of the election. In essence, it suggests that the coup against Trump has been put in motion around the time of the announcement of the election results on Nov 9. The boss of the NSA may have tried to warn the President Elect Trump on Nov 17 that he is being electronically tapped and this is why the Obama admin wanted to sack Adm. Rogers during the transition.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/03/03/occams-razor-did-nsa-admiral-mike-rogers-warn-trump-on-november-17th-2016/
Interesting link! Recommended reading.
Probably the best summary of what has transpired with electronic tapping of Trump Tower can be found in this article: https://www.rt.com/op-edge/379495-wiretap-trump-obama-intelligence/
I hate to have to tell you sweetheart, but the NSA has been doing this for some time; Obama and the Dems didn’t have to lift a finger. Breitbart has been claiming taps on Trump and associates for a while and Bannon probably told his puppet Donald that it’s time to tweet.
Question is, will the NSA, FBI, etc, do more this time than the trick they pulled on Hillary just before the election.
“…the trick they pulled on Hillary just before the election.”
Harder by the day to extract the truth from the tsunami of lies, but re this “trick”, my two cents:
Comey found himself in an impossible ***political*** position. Hillary was clearly indictable, but was politically “protected” by he rules of the old boy’s club, and by her prominence as the Dem party presidential candidate.
To indict the Dem Presidential candidate would have been to “fix” the election for the Repubs, thus taking the electoral decision out of the voter’s hands (like Scalia did in 2000). So in a situation where he had no good choices, to preserve his membership in the old boy’s club, he did what he calculated was the least bad option: he excoriated her with the evidence, but refused to indict. (Interesting point: As the head of the FBI the indictment decision was not his to make. But he made it just the same. He, the loyal DC insider, took the hit, rather than wuss out and pass it on to the Dem prosecutrial staff of the Lynch/Obama DoJ.)
No “trick” just a very tough choice.
The counterstrategy poses some risk to topple the entire Trump presidency.
By directly attacking a former president, trump may be throwing red meat to his Obama loathing base, but he’s aligning the majority against him. People may hate politicians but they adore the presidency. This alone will start the pressure on republicans to get their uncouth pawn to resign. It’s actually over for trump. Few will feel sorry for him of course. No one minds when a bully trips. The question is what psycho with greater skill will take over and complete the job of exploiting and enslaving the masses next
“…but he’s aligning the majority against him. People may hate politicians but they adore the presidency.”
“Aligning the majority”… hahahahahahahaha. You wish. Utter nonsense. They “adore” the presidency when they have their guy in the big chair, and hate it when “the other” is in it.
“It’s actually over for trump.”
Snowflake fantasies. The show has just begun. Three years ten-and-a-half months to go. I’m lovin’ it!
I don’t like the term ‘snowflakes.’ I think it is an unwarranted insult to turn any disagreement into an ad hominem attack. I want to make that clear before I comment here.
But the gist of this comment of Jeff Davis is that the cultural liberal community thinks the entire nation is aghast at Trump and it’s only a matter of time until he is gone and that they are wrong.
I think there is a lot of validity in this. Here’s the deal. From the start the liberal community and its tamed media has been laughing at and mocking Trump with lots of horror at him and those who support him thrown in the mix. They all talk to each other and the cultural liberals out in the rest of the nation listen to them on CNN, MSNBC, and read them in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the other newspapers that just repeat what’s in the ‘flagships.’ They also get inundated with the same point of view constantly on their social media.
The result is they have always thought the point of view they share about Trump was the consensus of the nation.
But then something would happen over the campaign to show they are wrong.
First in the pre-contest part of the campaign they were brought up to reality when polls consistently showed that the public thought Trump won the debates. Again and again that would pop their balloons that everyone thought the same as them about Trump.
But despite this they still were convinced he was a loser and a nut and soon he’d be out. But then the contests began and over and over again reality would slap them in the face and he’d win.
Finally he’d won enough to remove any other candidates for the nomination and so the contests and the debates were done. That left them a window of a quite a few weeks were nothing could slap them in the face about the truth. So they went on and on secure in their bubble that it was impossible that Trump could be the nominee and went from entertaining the idea that it was possible the convention would get rid of him to being sure. Until the convention was a love fest for Trump.
Then they had not long period where nothing could impede their narrative. From the end of the convention until the election is was non-stop as they repeated over and over all their horror at what buffoon Trump was. Why there were statues put up around the country mocking his supposed short comings. People started calling him a cheeto. More and more reports were made about how bad a business man he was, how he was a phony, how he was a con, and how he was a sexual predator. By the time the election happened they thought he was dead and buried.
They were in shock for the longest time when the reality that enough people in this country liked Trump to win him the presidency. They couldn’t believe it.
But soon they recovered from that shock and began again sharing their revulsion with him with one another and only listening to each other. By the time of the actual electoral college election they’d convinced themselves it was totally possible that the college would wise up and not elect him. Once more reality blew their minds.
Then it was the idea that he might be arrested before the inauguration. But of course he did become president.
Since then they haven’t had any slaps in the face. They only have their own reporting and shocked reaction. Why he had less people attend his inauguration than Obama. Why millions marched against him in pink hats. Why meme after meme that mocks him fills their Facebook feed. Why MSNBC and CNN continues to report how terrible he is. Surely his base is turning on him too and he’ll be gone soon.
As long as they keep this up and don’t start looking at themselves, they’ll be absolutely convinced by November 2018 that the country will show the Republicans the door in the biggest mid-term repudiation of a president ever as they will think that their horror at Trump infects everyone.
They will be shocked when the opposite happens.
They need to wake up.
The evidence is overwhelming that the Israelis control America’s “free” press and most politicians. “Let’s talk about Russian influence”
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/about-russian-influence/
I suspect they’re afraid all that evidence on 9/11 could soon start coming out. Hence all their agents are in this crazy scramble mode.
Scrambling by giving an Oscar to the outfit which supposedly did 911? Perhaps they believe that hiding things in plain sight is the best policy – if the link is so obvious then the conspiracy becomes illogical.
It was not enough that White Helmets are being funded by US and UK taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars because Israel’s interest is, as always, the US and UK interest, then they had to give White Helmets an Oscar as well. If the regime change in Ukraine has cost $5B then the regime change in Syria must have cost at least 10x as much (even though KSA may be paying a nice share of it). Which goes to prove that tens of billions of US assistance to Israel annually is just a tip of an iceberg of how much Israel costs the “Western democracies” it controls.
Yes, they control the US mass media. No doubt their schemes are disrupted by Trump. It is their control of the Dems that they wish to hide with nonsense Russophobia, but they have only made their control of the mass media more obvious.
JWalters, how about a small change in wording? When you say, “The evidence is overwhelming that the Israelis control America’s “free” press and most politicians,” that comes across a lot like painting all the people of Judea with a broad brush. I do not approve of Likud Party policies, but just as here in the U.S. many Israeli citizens feel appalled by what has been done in their name. We see such “guilt by association” comments all the time whether its Islam, Mexicans or . . .! I’m always reading stuff like, “Merkins are uneducated, jingoistic warmongers and arrogant.” Generally, I don’t reply because I figure that “I do not resemble that remark!” However, I will admit that a large portion of the .001% of our wealthiest are Jewish, but lots of non-Jews are also members of that very exclusive club. Greed taints all cultures, but the majority of earth’s people have higher priorities in life than accumulating extravagant wealth for its own sake.
Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
How about a wolf who killed about 3,000 US people and blamed this on completely innocent Iraq and Saddam Hussein in order to kill a million Iraqis and return this relatively prosperous country to stone age? Or the same wolf destroying an even more prosperous Syria, killing again many, many people and pillaging the wealth?
What a rural idile! You only missed to mention that the Cherokee grandfather to grandson story was going on around a camp fire.
He did not accuse all Israelis; only the phrase “the Israelis” needed correction. But otherwise your comment is fair.
Marvelously decent — good wolf — comment. If you happen to be Jewish it’s even astonishing.
A sad note: Beautiful story, but a very sad ending: the bad wolf of the white man has long since devoured those Cherokee.
Official Washington’s Russia hysteria has reached such proportions that New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has even compared the alleged Russian hacking of Democratic emails to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, two incidents that led the United States into violent warfare.
That the New York Times and Thomas Friedman continue to publish their mendacious commentary after their criminality related to the war on Iraq is testimony the the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the mainstream media and the American people who believe their lies. Julius Streicher was hung after the Second World War for something similar.
Remember the call by PNAC for “a new Pearl harbor” which miraculously came after the election of the most uninspiring POTUS after a campaign riddled with interference. After the Dubya years Obama managed to help the Dems lose huuuge numbers of seats in the House and Senate, plus most State governorships over 8 years, then the Dems “chose” a terrible candidate and pushed out the one person (Bernie) who cared about the people. To even consider that evildoers from Russia or elsewhere were needed to lose the election so badly takes real power of self-deception, and if the US citizens believe it they deserve their fate.
Hillary won by 2.9 million votes, and lost battleground states by Kris Kobach’s blue voter disenfranchisement schemes. This indicates to me that she’s not as flawed as is commonly suggested. Energy should be focused on how the election was tipped to Trump, including Russian hacking and leaks favoring exclusively Republicans, and voter disenfranchisement. That’s the real story. Spies will always be spies and the deep politics will always be a deep rudder stearing the ship of state, but elections were manipulated aggressively, and that would have shafted Bernie just as badly, and will shaft any future Bernie.
“This indicates to me that she’s not as flawed as is commonly suggested.”
Unless you consider consistently polling historically high negatives a flaw.
It’s sad that the reaction to exit polling not matching vote tallies causes people to conclude that the polling is flawed rather than considering vote counting is being manipulated.
By the way, if you are unaware of the long game of sabotaging HRC’s public political persona, creating these historically high negative numbers, you have a lot of reading to do.
I honestly feel like you are paid to say these things.
That argument relies on belief that there was ‘Russian hacking and leaks favoring exclusively Republicans’, which to me is absolute and utter nonsense, with the origin of the story a clear attempt to distract attention from the real Hillary revealed by the leaks.
The Republican email servers were also hacked. A second reveal of their emails hasn’t materialized.
I think you are living in a bubble as we are all prone to at times. Her dislikes relate directly to corporatism and economic cronyism which people are turning away from. Her vote for Iraq has also continued to haunt her particularly after doubling down and making the same mistake in Libya (which she taunted as a success and Trump crushed her on the subject in debates). Instead of looking at these you seem preoccupied with FoxNews-ish tabloid crap which is regurgitated only by those who are never going to vote blue to begin with.
Hillary did ***NOT*** win. You need to get over it.
The Dem party threw their working man/woman “base” overboard thirty years ago in favor of neoliberal corporate money and now the chickens have come home to roost. The Dem party now sits in the dust bin of history waiting for the garbage truck to transport them to the landfill of history. If Trump can deliver — YUUUGE “if” — on his jobs promise, the working man/woman will belong to a new centrist Trump Party and we will have a new one party paradigm.
The times they are a changin’.
Correct The Record is still operational? I would have thought that would have closed shop after Hitlery lost.
What makes you think that The Queen of Chaos is popular with anyone other than the low information types that, in true Stepford fashion, are incapable of a modicum of critical thought?
Did the “vast right-wing conspiracy” make her call black kids “superpredators”? Did they force her to support the dismantlement of welfare, the mass incarceration system, NAFTA, TPP, the overthrow of Honduras, the looting of Haitian relief funds, the wars of regime change in Iraq, Libya, etc?
It is not the “vast right wing conspiracy” that fabricated lies about Lady Macbeth that caused her unpopularity, but it was her own statements and actions that showed her to be a far right-wing bloodthirsty hawk who prostrated herself to the banks and the House of Saud, while covering herself in the blood of Libyan, Iraqi, and Palestinian children.
I must wonder how ignorant of her record one would have to be to support her. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be so completely amoral as to support her for reasons other than ignorance.
Bill, must admit I was not familiar with the name, Julius Streicher, so I conducted a search. Apparently the man was an outspoken hater of anything Jewish. He even wrote children’s book to indoctrinate and spread the hate! That should not be a hanging offense, but, if true, Streicher deserve the moniler, “deplorable”!
More like despicable as both major parties have become, and their motto should be “Lets make America Hate again”