Exclusive: Official Washington is abuzz, comparing President Trump’s ouster of FBI Director Comey to President Nixon’s Watergate cover-up, but there is a darker “deep state” interpretation of these events, says Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday reflected a growing concern inside the White House that the long-rumored scheme by “deep state” operatives to overturn the results of the 2016 election may have been more than just rumors.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (right) talks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, with John Brennan and other national security aides present. (Photo credit: Office of Director of National Intelligence)
The fear grew that Comey and other senior officials in the U.S. intelligence community had concluded last year that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump was a suitable future president, albeit for different reasons. I’m told that Clinton was seen as dangerously hawkish and Trump as dangerously unqualified, opinions privately shared by then-President Barack Obama.
So, according to this account, plans were made last summer to damage both Clinton and Trump, with the hope of putting a more stable and less risky person in the Oval Office – with key roles in this scheme played by Comey, CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
When I first heard about this supposed cabal in the middle of last year, I dismissed it as something more fitting a Jason Bourne movie than the real world. But – to my amazement – the U.S. intelligence community then began intervening in the presidential campaign in unprecedented ways.
On July 5, 2016, Director Comey dealt a severe blow to Clinton by holding a press conference to denounce her use of a private email server while Secretary of State as “extremely careless,” yet he announced that no legal action would follow, opening her to a damaging line of attack that she jeopardized national security but that her political status gave her special protection.
Then, on Oct. 28, just ten days before the election, Comey reopened the investigation because of emails found on the laptop of disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the husband of Clinton’s close aide Huma Abedin. That move re-injected Clinton’s email controversy into the campaign, along with the unsavory issues surrounding Weiner’s sexting scandal, and reminded voters about the sex-related scandals that have swirled around Bill Clinton for years.
To make matters worse, Comey closed the investigation again just two days before the election, once more putting the Clinton email controversy in front of voters. That also reaffirmed the idea that Clinton got special treatment because of her political clout, arguably the most damaging image possible in an election year dominated by voter anger at “elites.”
Clinton herself has said that if the election had been held on Oct. 27 – the day before Comey reopened the email inquiry – she would have won. In other words, whether Comey’s actions were simply clumsy or possibly calculated, the reality is that he had an outsized hand in drowning Clinton’s candidacy, a point that Trump’s Justice Department also noted on Tuesday in justifying Comey’s firing.
Russia-gate Probe
And, we now know that Comey was leading a parallel investigation into possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, instigated at least in part by a dossier prepared by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, paid for by Clinton supporters and containing allegations about secret meetings between Trump aides and influential Russians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, 2015. (UN Photo)
Last July, the FBI reportedly secured a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Page was mentioned in the Steele dossier and gave an academic speech in Moscow on July 7 mildly critical of U.S. policies toward Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union, two apparent factors in justifying the FISA warrant.
Before the election, people close to Clinton also tried to get the U.S. media to publicize the Steele dossier and particularly its anonymous claims about Trump cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel while Russian intelligence agents supposedly filmed him. However, because media outlets could not confirm Steele’s allegations and because some details turned out to be wrong, the dossier remained mostly under wraps prior to the election.
However, after Trump’s surprising victory on Nov. 8, President Obama and his intelligence chiefs escalated their efforts to undermine Trump’s legitimacy. The Obama administration leaked an intelligence assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin had orchestrated the hacking of Democratic emails and their publication by WikiLeaks to undermine Clinton and help Trump.
The intelligence community’s assessment set the stage for what could have been a revolt by the Electoral College in which enough Trump delegates might have refused to vote for him to send the election into the House of Representatives, where the states would choose the President from one of the top three vote-getters in the Electoral College.
The third-place finisher turned out to be former Secretary of State Colin Powell who got three votes from Clinton delegates in Washington State. The idea of giving votes to Powell was that he might be an acceptable alternative to House members over either Clinton or Trump, a position that I’m told Obama’s intelligence chiefs shared. But the Electoral College ploy failed when Trump’s delegates proved overwhelmingly faithful to the GOP candidate on Dec. 19.
Expanding Russia-gate
Still, the effort to undermine Trump did not stop. President Obama reportedly authorized an extraordinary scheme to spread information about Russia’s purported assistance to Trump across the federal bureaucracy and even overseas.
FBI Director James Comey
Comey, Brennan and Clapper also set in motion a hasty intelligence assessment by hand-picked analysts at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, producing a report on alleged Russian electoral interference that was released on Jan. 6.
Though Clapper had promised to release a great deal of the evidence, the declassified version of the report amounted mostly to “trust us” along with a one-sided analysis of Putin’s alleged motive, citing his well-known disdain for Clinton.
But the report failed to note the other side of that coin, that Putin would be taking a great risk by trying to hurt Clinton and failing, given Clinton’s odds as the prohibitive favorite to defeat Trump. Putin would have to assume that the NSA with its powerful surveillance capabilities would pick up a Russian initiative and inform an irate President Hillary Clinton.
In other words, the Jan. 6 report was not some careful analysis of the pros and cons for believing or doubting that Russia was behind the WikiLeaks disclosures. It amounted to a prosecutor’s brief, albeit without any public evidence to support the Russia-did-it charge.
We learned later that the report’s classified appendix included a summary of Steele’s dossier that was then briefed to President Obama, President-elect Trump and to members of Congress, guaranteeing that its damaging but unproven allegations would finally get widely circulated in the mainstream media, as indeed promptly happened.
Hobbling Trump’s Presidency
So, going into the Inauguration, Russia-gate was dominating the front pages of newspapers as well as the endless chat shows on cable TV despite the fact that no real evidence was presented proving Russia was responsible for the WikiLeaks’ posts – and WikiLeaks denied getting the material from Russia. There was also no evidence that Trump’s campaign had colluded with the Russians in this endeavor.
President Donald Trump being sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
But those suspicions quickly hardened into a groupthink among many Democrats, liberals and progressives. Their hatred of Trump and their dread about his policies convinced some that the ends of removing Trump justified whatever means were employed, even if those means had more than a whiff of McCarthyism.
On Inauguration Day, many anti-Trump protesters carried signs accusing Trump of being Putin’s boy. Sensing a political opportunity, congressional Democrats joined the #Resistance and escalated their demands for a sweeping investigation of any connections between Trump’s team and Russia. Their clear hope was something might turn up that could be exploited in an impeachment proceeding.
As the principal intelligence holdover from the Obama administration, Comey assumed an essential role in this operation. It would be up to the FBI to secure the financial records from Trump and his associates that could provide a foundation for at least suspicions of a sinister relationship between them and Russia.
Trump may have thought that he bought some political space by complying with political pressure to fire National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Feb. 13 over what exactly was said in a pre-Inauguration phone conversation between Flynn and the Russian Ambassador. Trump also got the Russia-gate pressure to lessen when, on April 6, he fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria over an alleged chemical attack. But he soon came to realize that those respites from Russia-gate were brief and that an incipient constitutional coup might be underway with him as the target.
However, if those coup suspicions have any truth – and I realize many Americans do not want to accept the notion that their country has a “deep state” – firing Comey may fuel Trump’s troubles rather than end them.
Trump clearly is unpopular not only among Democrats but many Republicans who see him as an unprincipled interloper with a nasty Twitter finger. The Comey firing is sure to spark new demands for a special prosecutor or at least more aggressive investigations by Congress and the press.
Watergate Comparisons
Although Democrats had condemned Comey for his interference in the Clinton campaign, they now are rallying to Comey’s side because they viewed him as a key instrument for removing Trump from office. After Comey’s firing, from The New York Times to CNN, the mainstream media was filled with comparisons to Richard Nixon’s Watergate cover-up.
Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
One of the few voices commending Trump for his action, not surprisingly, came from Carter Page, who briefly served as a Trump foreign policy adviser and has found himself in the crosshairs of a high-powered counterintelligence investigation as a result.
“It is encouraging that further steps toward restoring justice in America have been taken with the termination and removal from office of FBI Director James Comey,” Page said in a statement.
“Although I have never met President Trump, his strength and judgment in holding senior officials accountable for wrongdoing stands in stark contrast to last year when ordinary private citizens outside of Washington like myself were targeted for exercising their Constitutional rights.
“Under James Comey’s leadership in 2016, I was allegedly the subject of an intensive domestic political intelligence operation instigated by the FBI and based on completely false allegations in a FISA warrant application.”
Yet, despite what Page and other Trump advisers caught up in the Russia-gate probe may hope, the prospects that Comey’s firing will end their ordeal are dim. The near certainty is that whatever Obama and his intelligence chiefs set in motion last year is just beginning.
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).
It really feels like the US has entered the twilight zone. No consensus among these groups except to destroy Russia. Which is key I think, to understanding what’s really going on. Novother way to explain it.
“I’m told that…” is the basis for this conspiracy theory. Robert Parry loves to castigate those of us with serious questions about 9/11 as being “conspiracy theorists”. Well at least a large number of us can point to substantial evidence that the official narrative is bunk.
Parry who told you? Can’t divulge this?
But the Deep State had nothing to do with 9/11 right Parry? Right? Right?
No questioning that! I mean even the Chairs of the 9/11 commission stand by their report! Right?
Obviously Trump is worried about financial dealings being exposed.
And you will get right on that!
Every human being has a blind spot, and every reporter seems to pan in on a narrow bandwidth of research (and related interest). There are levels of fraud associated with this Presidency that NO so-called “free” nation should tolerate. This article hardly gives them consideration.
Let’s start with the election itself. Through all of the following corrupted channels, a stooge ends up in the Oval Office. The list includes:
1. A corporate captured mass media that marginalized Bernie Sanders and gave Trump the equivalent of a billion dollars worth of free advertising and face-time.
2. DLC control of state primaries where in many instances, those who were not registered Democrats were prevented from voting.
3. The Super-Delegate debacle that handed the nomination to Clinton when it was Sanders who was attracting (in state after state, including “Red” States) the crowds.
4. As Journalist Greg Palast has documented, following the Florida tradition of eliminating thousands of eligible voters from the voting rolls, a process known as “Cross-check” did likewise across the nation. Mr. Palast estimates that several million legal voters were blocked from voting at all.
5. The Electoral College allotting disproportionate representation to states with low population numbers
6. The Dark Art of Gerrymandering as mastered by 30+ Republican governors/states where once again, the actual number of voters has little to do with which party “wins” the elections.
The “Russia-Gate” hysteria is an afterthought following items 1-6.
The above list is incomplete but it means that honest U.S. citizens/voters had very little to do with the Presidential outcome. And that’s why my patience is at its wit’s end with those likely paid meme-shapers who insist that “voters got what they deserved.” This is the Big Lie given the FACT that most aspects of the election process are vetted and controlled to arrive at narrow, manufactured outcomes.
These outcomes always keep corporate capitalism and War As Product front and central to any adminstration.
As to Trump, the combination of the following should be MORE than enough to get this reptile out of the Oval Office. The list includes, but is not limited to: his nepotism, refusal to share his former tax records, private hosting of dignitaries at the White House for deals that violate the emolument clause, incapacity to understand or speak truth, evisceration of the NECESSARY wall between church and state, choice of right wing cabinet picks, pushing through a right wing Supreme Court Justice (while robbing Dems. of their turn to place a more moderate individual into that lifetime role), attacks on the most vulnerable citizens, attacks on Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security, undermining the EPA and Climate Science when it matters most, squandering a fortune on a ridiculous border wall, opening State Parks to oils/gas polluters, adding $54 billion to the already PERMANENT make-war department budget, and eviscerating access to birth control for women. Taken TOGETHER this battery of insults and assaults have to constitute Impeachable Offenses. Clearly, the state of the modern world depends upon this.
I would have voted for Sanders as would have MILLIONS of concerned, caring, intelligent citizens… given the chance!
The choices were limited to the flawed Clinton dynasty with its neo-liberal goals, or one of the world’s best Con-Men who, for incredibly twisted reasons, the Christian Right supports. Everything Trump does–from stealing from the poor to give to the rich, to dropping the “Mother of all bombs,” to beefing up attacks on the Black & Latino & Muslim communities are NOT what Jesus would do. Where is the decency (on the part of the religious community) to call these obscenities out?
Among all of the insults to civilization and attacks on human rights, possibly the most dangerous is the reunification of church and state under this sociopath. After all, if 55 million people purchased Tim Le Haye’s “Left Behind” series and most believe in End times; and a substantial number of these “true believers” hold decorated positions inside any one of the Armed Forces… the greatest threat to human life ARE these deluded souls. And Trump has given THEM carte blanche. If that doesn’t scare the ca-ca out of anyone with half a brain, then no alarm clock in the world can wake them from their suicidal slumbers.
I read Lofgren’s book and The Deep State is real. So was Project Paperclip and the Nazis invited into the U.S. bastions of Academia and the MIC have done much to shape policy. Everything now serves war. Militarism has become a sort of religion where the vast landscapes of carnage are hidden behind the name of Jesus (or Allah).
With all that I’ve stated, it’s my view that Mr. Parry misses the forest for the trees. Focusing on minutiae, where is the outrage for the real dangers being unleashed? Where is any discussion of the implosion of Justice, itself, when all 3 branches (plus the corporate media) are essentially in the hands of right wing pro-business, pro-war, anti-nature, anti-women Republicans?
This group is the world’s greatest threat to life, liberty, and the capacity of the natural world to sustain ecosystems.
Heaven, help us!
Nice to see you SR! Miss you over at CD.
Posting ideas that went outside of their parameters got me banned. One of them was exposing the lie that vaccines are perfectly safe… similar to the lie that Monsanto’s gen-tech toxic combinations are also safe. Challenges to certain Official Narratives, mentioning esoteric topics and sources, and other non-generic commentary had the “community” decide that censorship was an appropriate response to freedom of discussion. That, after almost 9 years of faithful service… I still see a few people recycling ideas I introduced there.
Wow! A friend sent me a link to this article and I am stunned! My response to her is right-on for a reaction to this article, and to the comments on it, so I’m sharing it below. Is there really still some intelligent life on earth? Even more astonishing, is there actually thoughtful and independent journalism in the U.S. of A? This site seems suspiciously like that. I’ll be checking it for further evidence.
Here’s what I wrote to my friend about sharing this:
Thank you for your calm and sensible reaction to the prevailing wild political games
being played in our country. Really, it would be so much more useful to focus on dealing with the serious problems we face, especially financial and environmental.
Trump is a marvelous scapegoat for everything that is wrong today – but the system has really been pretty broken for quite a while. Ironically, the Resist Hate folks seem to have a main focus on hating the Donald. I’m certainly not a fan of his, he’s quite a wild man, but I don’t think he’s actually Satan, and some good things can be accomplished even with him in the White House.
Trump talking with Russians? Great, if it means we’re likely to have peace with them. Russians trying to influence our election? We do that in many countries, have invaded several and have been involved in a number of coups. Unless someone comes up with real evidence of messing with ballots, I don’t see “tampering” as meaningful.
How about we focus on who is or is not working for positive changes to the mess we’re in?
It’s hard for me to see any U.S. ties to Russia…except for:
the Flynn thing and the Manafort thing and the Tillerson thing and the Sessions thing and the Kushner thing and the Carter Page thing and the Roger Stone thing and the Felix Sater thing and the Boris Ephsteyn thing and the Rosneft thing and the Gazprom thing and the Sergey Gorkov banker thing and the Azerbajain thing and the “I love Putin” thing and the Donald Trump, Jr. thing and the Sergey Kislyak thing and the Russian Affiliated Interests thing and the Russian Business Interests thing and the Emoluments Clause thing and the Alex Schnaider thing and the hack of the DNC thing and the Guccifer 2.0 thing and the Mike Pence “I don’t know anything” thing and the Russians mysteriously dying thing and Trump’s public request to Russia to hack Hillary’s email thing and the Trump house sale for $100 million at the bottom of the housing bust to the Russian fertilizer king thing and the Russian fertilizer king’s plane showing up in Concord, NC during Trump rally campaign thing and the Nunes sudden flight to the White House in the night thing and the Nunes personal investments in the Russian winery thing and the Cyprus bank thing and Trump not releasing his tax returns thing and the Republican Party’s rejection of an amendment to require Trump to show his taxes thing and the election hacking thing and the GOP platform change to the Ukraine thing and the Steele Dossier thing and the Leninist Bannon thing and the Sally Yates can’t testify thing and the intelligence community’s investigative reports thing and the Trump reassurance that the Russian connection is all “fake news” thing and the Spicer’s Russian Dressing “nothing’s wrong” thing and the Chaffetz not willing to start an investigation thing and the Chaffetz suddenly deciding to go back to private life in the middle of an investigation thing and the The Lead DOJ Investigator Mary McCord SUDDENLY in the middle of the investigation decides to resign thing and the appointment of Pam Bondi who was bribed by trump in the trump university scandal appointed to head the investigation thing and the The White House going into full-on cover-up mode, refusing to turn over the documents related to the hiring and subsequent firing of Flynn thing and the Chaffetz and White House blaming the poor vetting of Flynn on Obama thing and the Poland and British intelligence gave information regarding the hacking back in 2015 to Paul Ryan and he didn’t do anything thing and the Agent M16 following the money thing And now the trump team KNEW about Flynn’s involvement but hired him anyway thing and The Corey Lewendowski thing and the Preet Bharara firing thing but before he left he transferred evidence against trump to a state level Schneiderman thing And the Betsy Devos’ Brother thing And the Sebastian Gorka thing And the Greg Gianforte from Montana thing And the pence actually was warned about Flynn before he was hired thing and the Pence and Manafort connection thing And the 7 Allies coming forward with audio where trump was picked up in incidental wire tapping thing and the carter Page defying the Senate’s order to hand over his Russian contact list AND NOW the trump fires the FBI Director heading up investigations of Team Trump!!!
SO yeah there’s probably nothing there!
People fired by Trump:
1.Preet Bharara
2.Sally Yates
3.James Comey
People investigating Trump:
1.Preet Bharara
2.Sally Yates
3.James Comey
I’m beginning to discern a pattern, if you will.
Robert, I like your work but you are starting to read like a Breitbart article. I take no pleasure in typing that.
There is no “coup” as Donald Trump is not a legitimate President. He’s a clown, a grifter, and on his own he wouldn’t have been elected for ANY office. Let it go, he’s gonna go down, and I, for one, will pay to piss on his grave. Suck on that.
I seem to have little doubt that Obama, Clinton and many entrenched Obama appointees as well as others selected for positions by Obama appointees.
The fact that Obama has remained in Washington DC is evidence of his presents there is to monitor and direct his deep shadow state government to try and hinder and destroy President Trumps agenda. Also involved with Obama is George Soros funding hate groups to keep our country divided.
Justice will be served when Obama, Clinton, Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch and the rest of this deep state shadow government are brought to justice and are behind bars.
Oh, so all the appointees of past presidential administrations sat on their hands when their president was voted out of office…except for the Black president. No, his appointees and devotees are surreptitiously undermining the Trump administration. That sounds like paranoia to me.
Just because you opposed Clinton doesn’t mean that the FBI should have “locker her up.” Comey is a seasoned attorney. He did not see a valid case. That happens. But I’m sure you read a Sean Hannity article the puts paid Clinton’s obvious felonies. No offense, but you sound like a bitter, misinformed Nixonian person who wants to lock up anyone without an R next to her name. That ‘R’ means republican and not Russian.
“What has Trump said about Russia’s role in the election?
Trump has not taken a clear public position.
“I will tell you this, Russia: if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a July 2016 news conference, in reference to a FBI probe into Clinton’s use of a private email system when she was secretary of state and emails that had possibly been deleted.
Trump subsequently dismissed reports, including from U.S. intelligence officials, that Russia had attempted to intervene in the election on his behalf.”
-Reuters, May 11, 2017
Kevin – if you want to find those 30,000 emails, the NSA has them all. They scoop up everything. I think Trump was just being silly there.
Trump was probably correct in not listening to the U.S. intelligence officials. Clapper lied under oath; Comey had grounds to charge Clinton, but didn’t; and Brennan – well, time will tell. The January 6, 2017 report from the intelligence community had lots of opinion, but was short on facts.
Everybody is spying on everybody. I think that’s a fact.
4-part article on “The Saker” website on how the neocons took over America, can’t remember exact title. The “USA-Soviet Union Tension” has been integral to American politics and propagandising the American people since WWII. Fill in “Soviet Union” with “Russia” for today’s chapter, same thing, have to have that tension. Especially since Uncle Sam has overstepped his economic bounds and has a gargantuan debt, almost $20tn. Russia is now a creditor nation despite the sanctions Obama threw on them, for “swiping” Crimea, the western narrative. Threat from Russia and Putin is a big militaristic huff and puff from the US, but Uncle Sam’s subjects have been fed that line of bull for so long that they believe it (unless they are open to some real facts). This whole thing is a massive tangle.
Folie-a-deux is a common problem of paranoia. I had never heard of folie-a-thousands.
It looks like there are people looking to take over America. Now with some of the subversion going on we also should look at who put the leaders of the NSA<CIA,FBI and leaders of the Military . They were all in the pic above. Stranger things have happened before in America .Americans got to stop saying I'm this party or the other and start demanding more real openness in government Trump has replaced most all in that meeting and as reported they were pushing against him . Also If you noticed Foreign agents were brought into play .
Obama was, and still is, a fraud, put in power by self described global elitists to bring America to her knees! The swamp is full of snakes, and rats! Soros is an evil, ruthless, and unnecessary problem, he should have his dual-citizenship revoked immediately! The entire, Democratic Party, is guilty of aiding, and abetting, foreign enemies to take America down! That, is treason!
I agree that President Obama was a right wing Wall Street president. That is undeniable.
Can I borrow the rest of your post? I want to show it to the guys at another forum…You sir have a future in comedy. Well done.
Looks like the swamp is draining Trump rather than the other way around. I had hopes, but no expectations, that he could turn this mess around.
This article is evidence-free conspiracy theory of the type Robert Parry so often criticises.
I’m not buying this analysis, for many reasons. The most plausible explanation for all of this is that someone actually did hack the Podesta/DNC emails and those hacks did have an effect on the election outcome. Another fact is that Trump and his associates do have many relationships all over the world with many unsavory types, some of which are Russian. Another fact is that Russia does spy and spread disinformation (as do we). There is enough here that is factual to warrant an investigation. To not investigate the hacks would be irresponsible. If blame is to be assigned it is at the media for speculating so much. They are not skeptical enough and they are not curious enough. Who would hack and leak those emails? What would be their motives? Why not do the same to Trump? All perfectly legitimate questions.
Another fact. Trump is either profoundly demented and unstable or brilliant psychopath. His public statements that are full of contradictions, half-truths, outright lies, and just plain nonsensical statements is not a product of the deep state.
OK, so we clearly have a president who in no way is fit to be president. Now for some context. remember Benghazi? Sure we do. Where was the talk about the deep state back then? Remember how it started when Rice said it may have been due to a video and everyone went crazy because Obama or Clinton may have told her to say that for nefarious purposes? Yup, that was, in essence, the substance of Benghazi. It was born out of that little peanut of a claim and grew into an industry. It then spawned the who email thing. What was emailgate? The hope that there was something sinister in the “missing” emails. That’s all. A mere hope or speculation. What did people hope to find? I’m not even sure but it must have been real bad. Again, no talk of a deep state here even though it paralyzed the whole damn government and prevented Clinton from being president.
So I’m not buying this “deep state” speculation. The reasoning is way too motivated. It does not pass Occam’s razor either. There are definitely people exploiting facts on the ground to score political points but that ain’t deep state, that’s just politics. Again, when Clinton and Obama got dragged through all this there was no deep state. Interesting. Another possible explanation is that the government is full of sane, moral people who are resisting Trump’s nonsense. Not by orchestrating a huge conspiracy, but to attack him at every turn the way they have been trained to by the Republicans in congress over the last 8 years. The manual was created by them. Start investigations, create innuendo and vague allegations, and then use those as a basis for subpoenaing people and hoping to catch them in a lie. It’s already paying off. Trump’s press secretary is already contradicting Trump over how Comey’s firing came about and those contradictions dwarf Susan Rice’s claims that Benghazi was caused by a video. In her excuse there was intelligence suggesting this and, after all, she wasn’t there. Trump was there and he can’t even stop contradicting himself.
“Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup?” Now there is an oozie-doozie of an oxymoronic title for you. Although it is not the final word on the subject, you still might want to take a look at Len Colodny’s classic work on Watergate that he wrote with Robert Gettlin over two decades ago. The title of their book is, “Silent Coup: The Removal of a President” or how the incapacitated drunken paranoiac, Trickty Dicky Nixon, was cold-coup’d by the ‘Deep State’. I suggest that readers of Mr. Parry’s thought-provoking article also read Evan Osnos’ recent article on Trump which appeared on-line in The New Yorker (May 8, 2107 issue), entitled “How Trump could Get Fired.”
Is there still anyone out there who is not themselves non compos mentis or lurching about on Guyanese Flavor-aid [q.v., “The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People’s Temple”, by Jeff Guinn] who still believes that the Don does not suffer from ‘malignant narcissism’, which is a severe presentation of ‘narcissistic personality disorder?’ Folks, let’s get real about our daffy wanna-be dictator, the Don – “More than fifty thousand mental health professionals have signed a petition stating that Trump is ‘too seriously mentally ill to perform the duties of president and should be removed’ under the Twenty-fifth Amendment'” (q.v., The New Yorker, op. cit.). I dunno about you, but that overwhelming proffesional judgment sends up more that 49,999 chilling red flags for me.
Go get him ‘Deep State’; our Clown in Chief can’t be driven from office soon enough for me. The utter humiliation of this arrogant poseur being deposed from the presidency would be supremely priceless. Beside public humiliation what alternative is there, when we have a total jerk who lacks any and all character that is capable of being assassinated? The old cuckoo clock is a-ticking and its about too strike midnight: Cuckoo, coup-coup, cuckoo, coup-coup. Yup, when there cuckoo, like Lady Macbeth Clinton and the Mirror Gazing Don, ordering a cold coup from the deep-state menu becomes an appealing choice. As for any of you innocents who still think that our republic is a democracy, I have one word for you, USOB (United States of Bananastan).
Dunno – I’ll take someone with a narcissistic personality disorder over someone with psychopathy any day. Narcissists are blow-hards, but they rarely kill or maim. Psychopaths, which many in the Deep State appear to be, are another story.
You don’t think Obama was a narcissist? Of course he was, but he was just more polished, suave, able to hide it better. He did as he was told, read a good teleprompter, shook a good hand. Same with Clinton.
See my article above: all Presidents are narcissists.
And these 50,000 mental health professionals, are you saying that 50,000 psychologists/psychiatrists signed this petition? I doubt that very much.
Dear Mr. Evolution:
Please allow me to make it painfully, if not totally and patronizingly, clear that I did not write the article which appeared in “The New Yorker” from above which I cited the quote about the fifty thousand mental health professionals. “How Trump Could Get Fired” was not written by me: It was written by Evan Osnos and you may read it on-line just like I did. I simply brought this well-researched article to the attention of this community.
Furthermore, if you care to do nothing more than the most cursory research into the diagnosis of ‘malignant narcissism’, you will soon learn that the diagnosis of malignant narcissism and that of psychopathy are considered by experts in these disorders to be virtually interchangeable. Got it – interchangeable! Incidentally, some historical figures also who are considered by mental health professionals to have been malignant narcissists are Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro. Therefore, please, accept my profound and abject apology for exposing your own far more benign level of narcissism; mea culpa et pace.
Best of luck,
Dunno
P.S. The last time that I checked, most of our presidents, at least since Wilson (and often before), have been mass-murdering war criminals. It’s the tao of the empire.
Dunno – I never said, nor thought you wrote that article. I don’t know where you got that from, accusing me of something I never said. Your condescending tone speaks to the fact that you think you’re better than me, as in how dare I possibly correct you.
Malignant narcissism isn’t even in the DSM.
“Developing their ideas further, the psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg pointed out that the antisocial personality was fundamentally narcissistic and without morality. Malignant narcissism includes a sadistic element creating, in essence, a sadistic psychopath. In his article, “malignant narcissism” and psychopathy are employed interchangeably. Kernberg first proposed malignant narcissism as a psychiatric diagnosis in 1984, but so far it has not been accepted in any of the medical manuals, such as the ICD-10 or the DSM-5.”
All of these diagnoses are on a spectrum, some more severe than others. Trump wanted to bring jobs back, end wars, end NATO, get rid of the TPP, secure the borders so Americans would have jobs. That doesn’t sound like a malignant narcissist/psychopath to me. He’s actually thinking of his fellow citizens. He appeared to show empathy towards people who had lost their jobs and veterans who were injured in war. He needs to reflect on things before he opens his big mouth, and he exaggerates way too much. I know quite a few people like that myself, though, and they’re hardly mentally insane.
We’re all just floating through this world, quirks and all. And we all have them. People never know what’s in the minds of others. Heck, they don’t even know what’s in their own minds.
“Therefore, please, accept my profound and abject apology for exposing your own far more benign level of narcissism.”
LOL. I’m narcissistic because I responded to your comment? You might want to look up the word “projection”.
“The importance of malignant narcissism and of projection as a defense mechanism has been confirmed in paranoia, as well as ‘the patient’s vulnerability to malignant narcissistic regression’.”
Cheers.
OMG, Backwards, and here I was under the mistaken impression that you were a supporter of that evil witch Lady Hillary “Macbeth” Clinton. Now I see that you are actually a supporter of “Jonetown” Donnie Trump, the pied piper of Manhattan, which just about explains everything.
If I may, I would just like to make one small correction to your grammar – please, don’t go ballistic on me friend. At the beginning of your missive you stated that “Your condescending tone speaks to the fact that you think you’re better than me…” In order for you to have been grammatically correct you should have stated, “…you think you’re better than I am…” I know full well that a person of your intellectual stature and piercing insight would certainly not be caught dead saying, “better that me is.” or better than me am.” Therefore, I just thought that you might want to know the proper way of stating such an abstruse and un-provable assertion as “better than I am.” By the way, do you know if there are any actual metrics for proving that someone is better than someone else? I dunno of any such metrics; perhaps someone who is as obviously intelligent as you are knows of some.
The point is that you would do well to read the article by Evan Osnos that I mentioned above. I shall also state unequivocally that as a matter of fact that I am, at the very least, far better-informed than you are about politics, which is not something about which I would ever need to brag: It is simply just a fact of life. I am sure that there are many folks out there who are far better- informed about politics than I am. That does not make me or them any better than you or me as a person, but it does mean that there are those who know far more than you or I do or ever will know about politics. We are all the victims of our own opinions; however, some opinions are simply better-informed than others and that is another fact of life.
Beginning in October of 2015, I started doing research on Trump because I thought that he had the potential to slay the “Dragon Lady” at the polls in 2016. In fact, I predicted a Trump victory over Hillary in July of 2016. I began to do my research on Trump by reading “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success”, by Michael D’Antonio. I followed that by reading “The Making of Donald Trump”, by David Cay Johnston. Then I began to do more serious research on the Don on the internet. That research led me to read “The Trumps”, by Gwenda Blair and “Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth”, by Wayne Barrett. So, you see Backwards I am something of a Trumpologist (not a Trump apologist) and I actually know quite a bit about that which I write concerning the Don.
I also did my due diligence by doing research on that unindicted war criminal Madame Hillary, whom I have detested and seen through ever since I saw her pathetic piece of acting in the 60 minutes interview that she did with “Lying & Cheating” Willy-Wanker in January of 1992 (I am sure that you will correct me, if I am wrong about the date). So, I read “Partners in Power”, by Roger Morris, “Queen of Chaos”, by Diana Johnstone, “The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton”, by Joyce Milton, and “Unlikeable” & “the Truth About Hillary”, both of which are written by Edward Klein. For the record, I am convinced by the evidence that Vince Foster was definitely murdered and that both Clintons were well-aware of the drugs and guns that were being run in and out of the airport in Mena, Arkancide.
Yes, Backwards, I am talking down to you because you decided to enter my world uninvited with your false assertions, when all that you really had to do is read the article by Evan Osnos. Did I ever once mention the warmongering Nobel Peace Prize winner Barry What’s-his-name? Did I ever state or imply that “fifty thousand psychologists/psychiatrists signed this petition?” NO, to both of your false assertions! As I have stated, I quoted Evan Osnos and I never once mentioned Barak O’Bummer. You need to get your facts straight and stop pretending that you can punch above your intellectual lightweight.
It appears that you panicked and attacked the one that brought you the message about the Don’s dicey mental health. But have you ever noticed who wins the contest every time that a fly gets entangled in a spider’ web? You need to read and learn more and write less, because you don’t really bring anything new, meaningful, or worthwhile to the conversation – the title of “The New Yorker” article is “How Trump Could Get Fired.”
Did you see the Don’s interview with Lester Holt? I was particularly taken aback by the part where the malignant narcissist goes all-Nixon on us. It’s the part where he says: “I said to myself [evidently while gazing longingly and lovingly in the mirror – they have these amazing mirrors in the White House], you know this Russia thing with Trump and Russia [OMG, did the Don just channel Richard M. Nixon- add medium to the Don’s many extraordinary talents] is a made up story…” Well, we shall see about that el president, won’t we?
Backwards, you need to face the fact that Donald John Trump, aka John Barron, is the leader of a dangerous personality cult and you are blindly and desperately following an unindicted criminal cult leader. What does that make you? I’m worried about you man. Wake up before you end up following the Don’s instructions to drink poisoned Flavor-aid and, while you are at it, read a copy of “The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People’s Temple”, by Jeff Guinn: It’s a cautionary tale for dupes like you.
“Trump wanted to bring jobs back, end wars, end NATO, get rid of the TPP, secure the borders so Americans would have jobs.”
Rantings of the bizarre Trump infatuated alt-left. They just love their fascist Trump.
Why doesn’t Perry state the obvious in the article. The whole Russia scare is a liberal tantrum and has no basis in reality. Liberals have only increased the chances for nuclear war with Russia.
Obama => Nixon
We will perhaps look back and conclude that the critical mistake was Trump’s firing of Flynn rather than stand his ground and take on the issue head on. The issue? Treating Russia as if we were at war with them, and making dealing with them suspicious even treasonous.. This explains a lot because it exposes a concerted effort to maintain a belligerent status quo with Russia to assure the continuation of all the benefits that flow from that belligerent posture. As to the charge that Russia was interfering with our elections, the impact of that follows from the contention that the rules of the Cold War are the same as a real war. That it is made by those who have openly done the same thing and more since the end of World War II, spending billions in doing so, is a form of dark humor.
Amazing … Director Comey seems to have omitted the security measures which his famous predecessor Director Hoover was so careful about: collecting COMPROMAT on important politicians on the upper level, esp. the President.
In light of Parry’s track record of discerning the truth, this cannot be dismissed, but I think Trump had to do it to retain any measure of control of the situation and, in the long run, may enable him to survive the deep state effort.
Let’s stop calling it the” Mainstream Media” (MSM). I think a better term would be:” Corporate Media.” ” Mainstream” is
too good a term for them. They don’t deserve it.
That would explain the weird situation between DNC and FBI concerning FBI access to DNC servers, and both arguing about who did what and who asked what.
I think the matter of possible collusion between Trump election officials and foreign governments regarding the 2016 election are entirely legitimate subjects of investigation. I’m not sure why anyone would give Trump the benefit of the doubt on any matter in which he is striving to get what he wants, namely, winning the election by any means necessary.
I believe we would have to go back to Carter, to find a president who should not have been thrown in jail.
It was under Carter (through National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski) that the support for jihadists to fight the Russian-supported Afghan government, and then the Russians, began. All the blowback rises from that initial policy-turn. This was later expanded by the Reagan Administration. On the whole, though, I’d venture to say,Carter was one of the least bellicose presidents. His actions after being president gained him redemption in my estimation.
They struck at the king and failed. Trump is far from helpless in this struggle. I suspect that Brennan is the next target. We’ll have to find out if he sees Autumn.
We will perhaps look back and conclude that the critical mistake was Trump’s firing of Flynn rather than stand his ground and take on the issue head on. The issue? Several come to mind. One, the monitoring and leaking of conversations of Trump appointees and then making them known to the media. Two, the issue of treating Russia as if we were at war with them, and making it a crime to appear so. Perhaps, that is the critical issue because it shows a concerted effort to assure a belligerent status quo with Russia to assure the continuation of all the benefits that flow from that belligerent posture. As to the charge that Russia was interfering with our elections, the impact of that follows from the contention that the rules of the Cold War are the same as a real war. That it is made by those who have openly done the same thing since the end of World War II, spending billions in doing so, is a form of dark humor.
Hmmm….so where has Colin Powell been since January? Any chance he and Obama have been meeting? What if the FBI comes out with information showing illegal activity by both the Trump and Clinton teams?
According to report from Internet: Medical experts believe that President Trump will be at the beginning of an Alzeihmer illness.
Is that information true ?
According to medical experts in Internet’s news, Trump will be at the beginning of an Alzeihmer illness. Is that Truth ?
All U.S. Presidents are narcissistic (see “The Most Narcissistic U.S. Presidents” by Pew Research).
“Kluger begins by listing the three behavioral traits commonly associated with narcissism.
First, there’s grandiosity: “a deeply felt belief that you are better than other people, that you’re more skilled than other people, more gifted than other people.” Those who are grandiose believe that they offer much to a world incapable of receiving their gifts and knowledge. As we’re soon to delve into the topic of narcissism and politics, you can definitely see how grandiosity would feel at home in Washington.
Next, there’s entitlement. Then a lack of empathy.”
Some are better at hiding it than others, and some wear it on their sleeve.
While Robert theory is compelling and with plenty of circumstantial evidence it has some major omittance.
namely what is POTUS office all about.
President of the United States is a used car salesman, sells broken, dilapidated trinket, illusory widget of America to gullible nations or rather herd of sheeple.
As in used cars business, anybody who cannot close the sale to as many sheeple as possible loose his/her job, it is that simple. Hillary could not close the sale so she was let go. Now Trump has having difficulty to close the sale of the same old dilapidated American clinker by failing the make it great again that never was so he will be let go soon until as salesman who can sale crap of American democracy can be found by the Deep state while they enjoy deepening divisions among US population about fate of Trump a farcical character of political B movie.
People wake up. Unite, do not engaged in phony partisan and Identity politics divisions that make our oligarchic oppressors stronger and American people weaker and more controllable by ruling elite.
“I know a college president who can be described only as a jerk. He is not an unintelligent man, nor unlearned, nor even unschooled in the social amenities. Yet he is a jerk cum laude, because of a fatal flaw in his nature–he is totally incapable of looking into the mirror of his soul and shuddering at what he sees there.
A jerk, then, is a man (or woman) who is utterly unable to see himself as he appears to others. He has no grace, he is tactless without meaning to be, he is a bore even to his best friends, he is an egotist without charm. All of us are egotists to some extent, but most of us–unlike the jerk–are perfectly and horribly aware of it when we make asses of ourselves. The jerk never knows.”
https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-a-jerk-by-sydney-j-harris-1692289
Now it’s like grad school for Trump University jerks who lost their minds and landed in Washington DC to drain the swamp. Maybe they’ll drown. It’s great for the bar association.
Lies, deception and more lies.
“Hillary Clinton seen as to hawkish even by Obama”!
And yet Obama endorsed her!
And yet Obama endorsed her!
He was in the Democratic party and had no choice.
The old party-line overrides the true feeling of a free thinking politician. Talking about us being sheep.
A deep Deep State operation does explain a few things. Bernie Sanders lame brand of socialism was a greater threat to the Deep State than either Clinton or Trump. Therefore Comey had to prevent the Democratic nomination defaulting to Sanders by preemptively declaring that charges would not be laid against Clinton for using a private e-mail server even though the FBI does not have this power. Had the results of the FBI investigation been passed on to those who do have the proper authority there was a danger that they might have asked and answered the obvious question: why did Clinton set up a private e-mail server? (so her e-mails would not be subject to FOIA requests). They might then have concluded that Clinton had formed criminal intent, necessitating the laying of charges.
When the CIA decides on regime change the first step is covertly sowing discontent in the target country. I was shocked when they did this openly to a domestic government. Was this a message to someone that they had things in hand? To whom? (Wall Street? City of London? The Knesset? Obviously someone they couldn’t contact directly.) Would somebody get the mockingbird off the mighty wurlitzer? I can’t hear the news for all the noise. The remaining JFK documents are due to be declassified this year. If the president has the power to declassify anything it would be in Trump’s best interest to declassify them immediately. It might not save his job but it could save his life since the CIA would then be the prime suspect in any assassination attempt.
WhoWhatWhy is a bit too enthusiastic in drawing a direct line between the New York Russian mafia and Vladimir Putin, but the timing of Comey’s dismissal could have to do with Trump’s ties to Felix Sater. If the Russian hacking story has hit a dead end the next phase might be to reveal Trump’s link to plain old Russian mobsters. Maybe Trump got a signal that the FBI was ready to abandon its cooperating witness even if that meant negating convictions based on his testimony.
Curiouser and curiouser! Stay tuned to your favourite fake news outlet to find out what is really happening!
Gerry – “If the president has the power to declassify anything it would be in Trump’s best interest to declassify them immediately. It might not save his job but it could save his life since the CIA would then be the prime suspect in any assassination attempt.”
Good call. The declassification papers are probably in his top drawer, signed and ready.
“…why did Clinton set up a private e-mail server? (so her e-mails would not be subject to FOIA requests). They might then have concluded that Clinton had formed criminal intent, necessitating the laying of charges.”
Of course she had criminal intent. I think Loretta Lynch already knew about the tarmac incident before it even happened; she was looking for a way out. I don’t think it was a shock that Bill Clinton showed up; all planned beforehand. She would have had to have sent Hillary off to a grand jury. This was her “out”. Comey took the heat. He’ll be rewarded for that in the future. Counsel for the next Clinton foundation.
Maybe I am a little naïve here – but I still think Comey is a decent guy. I don’t see him getting involved in some kind of plot to turn the election. He had the kahoones to block Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales from taking advantage of then AG Ashcroft.
He looked like a guy who did not want to be where he was for the last 8-10 months. To me – this firing is simply Trump clumsily trying to keep an investigation from occurring. He looks as guilty as hell now. When Eliot Richardson and then Ruckelhaus (sp?) after him resigned – the justice department and the Nixon administration in 1973 lost 2 of their best guys. I think Trump may have lost someone who could help him more than hurt him – if he truly is innocent. Betcha he isn’t!!! The Russian oligarths have their man in the WH.
A laughable Russian oligarch wishes he had a woman in the White House
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/8/mikhail-khodorkovsky-russian-dissident-hopes-donal/
Lest we forget, our foe — the faux president — lost by 2.9 million votes to a candidate who herself is a world-class loser, elevated to major-candidate status only by the cheating of her corrupt DNC cronies and then manipulating via “superdelegates”.
What a sad bunch of jerks on both sides.
The point is this: our Loser-in-Chief may certainly deserve to be booted out, and quickly. However — this is crucial — be careful what you ask for.
President Pence, anyone?
Mike Pence is arguably more dangerous even than the Loser. Smart, smooth, an extreme-right career politician who knows how to play the game, to look reasonable while screwing us all with his sociopathic ideology.
Given the situation, I would argue that it’s better to have a cartoon villain at the helm, an easy target, a reality-show blowhard who has no more sense how to govern than a kewpie doll — though this comparison may be unfair to kewpie dolls.
Mr. Parry… this is a poor article and you know better and more than you claim in this article. True there is no evidence of Puttin interfering in the elections but Trump has a grest deal of involvement with, shall we say, Russian business interests. Please do not become part ofthe MSM.
Specificly what business? His only attempt was never concluded, no money changed hands.
Earlier today before this essay was published I came to the same conclusion. Comey was engaged in hurting first Clinton, then Trump. Since Comey is a conventional right-wing Republican, I decided that replacing Trump with Pence was the only reasonable explanation based on the very little I know.
President Pence. Welcome back the TPP, and the damage this lightweight rightwingnut did to Indiana can be shared with the entire US of A.
A disciple of Rush “druggie” Limpaugh is precisely the man we need in the White House.
I decided that replacing Trump with Pence was the only reasonable explanation based on the very little I know. President Pence. Welcome back the TPP, and the damage this lightweight rightwingnut did to Indiana can be shared with the entire US of A.
A disciple of Rush “druggie” Limpaugh is precisely the man we need in the White House.
Anyone naive enough to believe it can’t get any worse, ponder why Zachary dislikes the idea of a President Pence.
Endgame: The Globalization of War?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-TRMobiiNQ
Quote
Endgame: The Globalization of War?
unquote
Yes! The command centers for that global war is ready; there is no turning back:
https://www.defense.gov/About/Military-Departments/Unified-Combatant-Commands/
“Look at our relationship.”
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/07/why-the-us-military-puts-israel-gaza-in-europe.html
How long do you think it will be before America falls into anarchy, another civil war, or have a Bolshevik-Style Revolution?!……..With the madness going on, I think it is about time to start talking about what is coming next……………”Crazy Like Us, The Globalization of the American Psyche” is a good book to read…………….
How long do you think it will be before America falls into anarchy, another civil war, or have a Bolshevik-Style Revolution?!
Anarchy is possible in the relative near term, but it will take much longer for the American people to shed their docility to create a Bolshevik-style revolution. The best we can hope for would be another Occupy-style protest by the other one percent at the bottom of the economic ladder, and that will most likely be crushed again on orders of the top one percent while the other 98 percent in between continue doing nothing – as usual.
Very bad timing on Trump’s part to fire Comey now, he should have done it early on, but waiting till Russiagate got so entrenched makes him look suspicious, which may get him impeached. The Democrat knives have been out for awhile, now they are sharpening them in earnest. And the GOP may think he’s too much of a hot potato. I wonder if he was set up to do this now or if he actually wants out, since it is obvious the swamp is full of gators and pythons. Or, whether he’ll weather this? I agree with Danny Well, we are at a Constitutional Crisis, but honestly we’ve been there for years.
Having been in the government myself for 32 years, at middle management level, I can attest, as a witness, to the internal politics, and devious ways of undermining people. I don’t believe that the contacts [and there were contacts] between the Trump team and relatives with Russian officials or intermediaries had anything to do with any interference with the U.S. 2016 election; the Republicans can – and did – take care of that on their own. Having followed Trump’s career and modus operandi here in NY since the 1980’s, I do think, however, the contacts had to do with securing certain preferential treatment & possibly funding for the Trump clan’s businesses. Although such would be in the realm of seriously corrupt practices, they do not in any way rise to the level of treasonous activity. So, the only way to get to the bottom of all this is to have an independent counsel appointed who would look into all aspects of all contacts uncovered. I’d venture to guess it would turn out to be what I have highlighted – furtherance of the Trumps’ wealth. There are two things Trump has demonstrated throughout his public career: his immense ego, and his enormous greed.
I would also take aim at the self-righteousness of so many in respect to allegations of the Russians interfering in our election. We have no cause to complain: turn-about is fair play – the U.S. has interfered hundreds of times in the internal affairs of numerous countries since the end of WW II, even going so far as to overthrow governments and destroy the proper functioning of whole societies, and causing untold numbers of deaths and other casualties…
Not to mention the knack for getting rid of the one decent leader to come along in a 100 years in each of these countries, Patrice Lumumba, Whitlam in Australia, Salvador Alliende. Even Mouamar Gadaffi was a leader that only comes along once in a very long time. When we take them down its because they’ve stepped out of line. I wonder what they will do to Tulsi if she wins.
Both entries well written…all legitimate criticisms that could form the core of a principled opposition to this administration. Not sure if I would support it (it would solely depend on the alternative proposals), but I could definitely understand why many people would. That’s a public ideological debate that can & should be had in the U.S.
Agree that the deviousness, self-righteousness & histrionics currently exhibited in full display does absolutely nothing to further the cause of their side (unless the sole cause is an authoritarianism with a neo-liberal ideology). They may win the battle but still lose the war (see Venezuela for a current example).
1. Investigate Trump
2. Investigate Hillary
3. Investigate Israeli influence
4. Investigate the Deep State
Given that both Trump and Clinton were both seen as unacceptable – although I find it hard to believe Clinton wasn’t much more acceptable to most parties – were would that have left Sanders? I voted for him, but realise he often toes the line on us foreign policy. Would he be more acceptable?
$Money$ makes the human world go around faster and faster and faster……until all fall down.
Nobody seems to be considering Trump’s debt, estimated at over three BILLION dollars. As mentioned in one of the above posts, he wore out his welcome with the banks in New York with his string of manipulated bankruptcies.
I contend that most of his debt is owed to Russian oligarchs/plutocrats. Hence, his interest in calming relations with Russia are purely personal, as is the interest on the Ruissian side, where the men he has dealt with are surely among those excluded from the U.S.A., and whose assets may be (or already are) threatened by a freeze.
The irony here is that that those oligarchs/plutocrats with whom Trump is in cahoots are exactly among those elements of the Russian power structure that Putin has been trying to bring to heel since 2000.
Tillerson’s appointment at the same time as the “down-sizing” of the State Department can plausibly be explained by a recognition that the Pentagon (including — and expecially — its annex, the Department of Energy) has been making foreign policy since 2001, hence the redundancy of most of the State Department’s real work. Tilerson, however, is useful as a front-man go-between for Trump and Russia (where Tillerson has considerable ties from his days of brokering oil deals with Russians.
In the end, Trump is about Trump, cleaning up his balance sheet and making more money. Everything else is pure opportunistic chatter. Jared Kushner is right behind him in making money, and so is Ivanka.
Milken (Family and friends) got away with more than that and how many decades ago was that. He only had to pay back 1 billion and now he’s respected in the Deep State . It must have been tough to not be able to wear his toupee in a Minimum Security establishment for almost a year. It must have been brutal but he got over it. 3 billion is nothing. T The Trump Brand gets licensed in China next year. It has been reported that there are deals to build as many as 300 hotels in China. That will be worth tens of billions. You may have read about his son-in-,law and Ivanka and how much love they are getting in China , well through Kushner’s sister and Ivanka’s line but Trump is not going broke, . Banks will continue to float his credit lines over and over that is how the system works it takes more than a Weekend at Bernie’s to bring down any billionaire. $50 billion of fraud maybe.
I’ve been in this type of situation before, albeit on a much, much smaller scale. You appease and appease, bend to the other side thinking that this will help, but it doesn’t help. It just makes matters worse, because, to your horror and surprise, often the other side just ups the attacks until you appease them again.
You must rip the Band-Aid off, get everything out in the open. This way it shows the other side for what they are. When you are appeasing, it just ends up hurting you (especially when you’re dealing with psychopathic-type people) and you end up looking guilty.
Call their bluff. Put everything out there. It’s how you have to handle people like this. It is the only way.
Trump tried to appease, when what he should have done (as Sam F has suggested) was to have drained the swamp on his very first day.
Bring it on!
Poor Trump is in over his head. He doesn’t have what it takes to call anybody out. He showed his true colors when he folded on Flynn.
mike k – well, I was over my head too, because I was trying to play fair, appease. That only works with like people, fair people. As soon as I realized they never wanted to play fair, wanted to crush me, I laid all the cards on the table. That made all the difference, and I won.
The media, the libs came out and said Trump is a dictator. He tried to prove them wrong, tried to be fair, when he should have drained every last one of these scum.
Trump has finally got his head ABOVE water. He’s finally realized these guys are out to drown him, and he’s going to fight back. Finally!
Mike, you don’t know what went on in the Flynn situation. For all we know, Flynn might have been the one who told Trump to let him go. It’s been done before. “They’re going to try to bury you, so just let me go. Yeah, I should have divulged I was taking money from the Turks. Let me go.”
Pull it all off. Let’s have a full investigation of Trump and Russia, and if nothing is found and it’s discovered that this was a witch hunt, that the accusers lied, that their intention all along was not the truth, but to try to impeach Trump, then every last one of them ought to spend the rest of their lives in jail.
And while we’re at it, I’m sure you’ll agree to investigate Hillary for the Clinton Foundation, her private email server, the erasing of emails, the destruction of hard drives, Benghazi, her Russian connection re selling U.S. uranium, and on and on.
Then let’s pull off the Band-Aid re Israel and how the Israelis and their lobbies own the U.S. government. Let’s inform the people about that. Let’s tell them that no matter who they vote for, the Israeli lobby will decide what’s important and what’s not. Let’s tell the people that almost all media, academia, the Federal Reserve, the banks, telecommunications, the State Department, Hollywood is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Zionists. How do you think that’s going to go down?
While there is some hope of instability in the swamp, it would require well-prepared executive overreach to drain it, given the zionist/MIC interests. Trump could simply expose the corruption if so inclined, perhaps after some investigation, but would likely also have to seize the mass media and give them temporarily to the universities (with advance preparation), and investigate and depose Congress as foreign agents, until properly-informed elections can be held. Only then would his reputation and tenure be secure. I have not seen that he is prepared for such major reform.
Of course such overreach would be positive only if it leads to constitutional amendments to restrict funding of mass media and elections to limited individual donations, provides for continuous monitoring of corrupt influences, and for mass media corporations regulated to ensure similar funding restrictions and balance of staffing and treatment at all levels.
Sam F – seizing mass media, investigating and deposing Congress as foreign agents – yikes! No wonder his heels are dug in. But, you’re right, if you want to drain the swamp, I guess that’s what has to be done. I don’t know that I could do it. In fact, I don’t know of anyone who could do it. That would take huge balls of steel!
Comey is a good start. Let’s hope there’s more. You cannot work with people who are trying to bury you.
Sam, imho, seizing mass media would only play right into the hands of the “authoritarian” meme. Such a tactic would lose the hearts & minds of many, expect for the hard-core followers, many of which have authoritarian streaks of their own. One thing that Trump has behind him at the moment is what’s being labeled as the “alt-middle”: the outsiders, the independent non-partisan thinkers, the anti-monopoly trust-busters, the ones who are unafraid to look objectively at the vast layers of corruption that serves as the modus operandi of American’s current ruling class. Trump alluded to this core in his “outsider” tweet yesterday.
Here’s an alternative proposal that would potentially accomplish a similar objective for your consideration : ban pharmaceutical advertising from the public airwaves under FCC jurisdiction, similar to what is currently done with alcohol & tobacco. Rationale — there is no valid reason for a product to be directly marketed to consumers when consumers can not purchase the product without a prescription from a physician. Doing so only contributes to abuse, widespread addiction, & out-of-control healthcare costs.
This most likely can be done without congressional approval (FCC is an executive agency) and would singlehandedly decimate the ad revenues of the large TV/radio conglomerates by 1/3 or maybe more (check out the yearly ad budgets for Big Pharma if you doubt this ratio. also listen to what RFK Jr. claims Roger Ailes told him).
It would not affect print and internet, but it would be a major blow to MSM, one that would most likely bleed them out financially, at least for the short-term, depressing their market capitalization, forcing them to pare down their operations and maybe put a few of them on the auction block.
It would also help to bring drug prices lower, or at least give justification for pharma to lower by taking out one of their major expenses. Not that they would, but this would be a great initial move in a larger war against them (that looks to be looming on the horizon).
Double double bonus : It would eliminate those obnoxious commercials from the TV screens of a large portion of the American public, who would most likely be very thankful not to be pimped drugs in their comfort of their own home, listening to a long list of side effects including death, while watching actors smile for the cameras oblivious.
Win Win Win
At least someone on this thread isn’t afraid to tell the truth. CHEERS and Hugs. Mr. Rick
Normally I admire all of Robert Parry’s articles, but I find the convolutions and risks in this account too overdone!! Hillary’s faults and the “electoral system” plus Republican vote-suppression were enough to lose her the race, and the whole Russia-blaming was ludicrous from the start, when there was no evidence or reason for Putin to interfere-that is a US speciality.
“Putin’s alleged motive, citing his well-known disdain for Clinton.” is nonsense- she was the offensive Putin-hater; he knew her, expected her to win and had confirmed his willingness to work with POTUS Clinton.
Of course both she and Trump were unsuited to the job-any sentient being can see that.
Sentience is becoming more and more rare among us Homo Sap Saps…..
Putin on Hillary Clinton
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/06/17/exp-gps-putin-on-hillary.cnn
If I had to write a screenplay for a blockbuster thriller starring Jesse Ventura, I’d have to create a scene where he’d say…”Give me Bill Moyers, a waterboard and fifteen minutes, and I’ll get you the entire plot to kill JFK.” Yep, as I recall, the guy wasn’t just a CFR member, he was actually the chairman for a while. Sure, he looks like a benevolent, geriatric cabbage patch doll, but looks can be deceiving. Note that he never covers a story that could send some rich and powerful crook to the slammer. It’s always some namby-pamby special interest identity politics peripheral issue, and no matter how socially relevant it plays to consumers, it never really causes a big scandal. Bill is a “Company” man – he works for the same “Company” as John Brennan. And yes, I think Mr. Parry is most likely correct. But solving this puzzle opens other cans of worms. It’s like one of those fractal geometry equations that provide an infinite number of solutions. For instance, Fast Eddie Snowden has come out in defense of Comey, which I’m sure will bolster the “limited hangout” hypothesis. Has anyone else noticed that Comey’s facial expressions never appropriately correspond to the contents of his speech? He smirks when he should frown, smiles when he should be stern, etc. All his public speaking lacks spontaneity; it has the ring of a carefully rehearsed dialogue. When interrupted, he can’t continue without returning to his scripted lines or answer any question extemporaneously. He’s got “puppet” written all over him. I’m old enough to remember watching Jack Ruby and Bobby Kennedy get shot on live TV…so there won’t be much that really shocks me. But there should be some good entertainment. This will probably be more like the OJ trial than the Watergate Hearings. Boy, I sure miss Johnny Cochran! “Now Mr. Comey, on that particular day, can you recall the particular email which stood out in your mind as a particularly incriminating indictment of the defendant’s actions in regard to this particular accusation?”
“I want to spend some time today explaining why we still love you.”
“You help us find terrorists all over this country and all over this world. For all of that we at the FBI are grateful. As an agency, for sure, but also all Americans.”
James B. Comey Jr. squats and spreads his cheeks for the Anti-Defamation League (8 May 2017)
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4668678/comey-speech&start=441
That should say “Lee Oswald”, not Jack Ruby. See…I really am that old.
But still sharper than cat’s claws.
Sanford – re Comey – yeah, somebody else is directing the Director. Re the tarmac affair, I’m sure this was all set up. Loretta Lynch probably informed Bill Clinton that she wasn’t going to lie, that she would have to find there was a case against Hillary Clinton. Solved by Bill Clinton meeting with her. She recused herself, and Comey took the wrap, telling the American people there was nothing to see, move along. It’s not up to him to do that; that’s not his job. His job is only to provide the evidence to the Attorney-General’s office. Comey has defended the Clinton’s since Arkansas. He’s part of the club, a small-time puppet.
And Bill Moyers, yes, I have lost all respect for him. I can barely read the Michael Winship and Bill Moyers articles. They are far too biased and not based on facts or truth.
F.G. Sanford: “Fast Eddie….” Is that supposed to somehow negate what Mr. Snowden revealed for us, our country and the world?
“Note that he never covers a story that could send some rich and powerful crook to the slammer. It’s always some namby-pamby special interest identity politics peripheral issue, and no matter how socially relevant it plays to consumers, it never really causes a big scandal.”
Well, during and in the aftermath of the financial meltdown he was the only one who had Bill Black and I think t was Simon Jones on his show, demanding that the TBTF banks be broken up and nationalized.
https://www.ted.com/talks/william_black_how_to_rob_a_bank_from_the_inside_that_is
Litchfield – it was good that he had Bill Black on his program, but he should have kept it up. Bill Black was everywhere, but he said the same things over and over, and I don’t remember Bill Black ever mentioning (I could be wrong) that these bankers should be prosecuted and jailed. Had he done that, had he stressed that every time he spoke and not stopped, people might have gotten the importance of what he was saying. He’d talk about control fraud, but that just went over most people’s heads.
Moyers, if he was serious about the criminal behavior, would have done program after program on the matter. He didn’t. These guys focus on the problem for one hour, look all shocked, add in a few “wow’s”, and then that’s it. It’s on to corruption in Bolivia in the next segment.
So I give him credit for speaking about it, but someone – anyone – should have kept it up, should have fought on behalf of the American people. It is criminal what these bankers got away with.
Black always spoke about prosecuting the bankers … he was a prosecutor.
Steve – I know Black always spoke about prosecuting the bankers. I know that. But it was never his central point. Believe me, I listened to him a lot. He would get into the details of what he did in the 90’s, what the bankers did, how he sent a lot of people to jail, but his central message was not that the bankers should be in JAIL!
I would have liked to have seen him say, “Look, the bankers broke the law AGAIN. I know this because I successfully prosecuted many bankers in the 90’s, and I’ve studied this stuff.” Enough said. All he should have said after that is we need to prosecute these bankers, they all need to be hauled in front of a judge. I want everybody to call their congressmen and let’s get this ball rolling. This is what I didn’t hear.
Oh, sure, he might have said the bankers need to be prosecuted, but it was not a strong call. He mainly talked about his past.
If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.
Trump’s stint as host of the original The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015 has been credited as a factor in his political success, since it greatly increased his fame, and showcased him as an authority figure.
One concept pioneered by, and unique to, reality competition shows is the idea of immunity, in which a participant can win the right to be exempt the next time participants are eliminated from the show. In one Apprentice episode, a participant chose to waive his earned immunity and was immediately “fired” by Donald Trump for giving up this powerful asset.
The reality television program “Trump Agonistes” retains massive ratings. Clinton at her most chaotic couldn’t deliver anywhere near the level of distraction that Trump generates. Whenever the ratings start to dip, Trump fires off a volley of Tweets, a barrage of Tomahawks, or some person.
Make no mistake, the American “deep state” loves Trump. And the feeling is mutual: the “deep state” made Trump Cheeto-In-Chief.
“Trump versus the ‘deep state'” is one more distraction for the politically clueless. Trump will retire when it suits both him and the “deep state”. Meanwhile, breathe deep the gathering gloom. War is coming bigly.
Indeed the forecast is for more bigger, better war. We have been at war since we came down from the trees (and before anthropologists tell us), but happily we have gotten better and better at destroying each other. Without our glorious progress, where would we be? (Good question….)
Hubris is a deep delusional process operating outside of it’s victim’s consciousness. When the inevitable karmic backlash hits, the recipient never sees it coming….
Thank you for the intelligent comments. It’s refreshing… gathering gloom, not withstanding.
More like Obama’s Stasi, then Obama’s McCarthy.
Great summary to date.
Please write an historical book after this episode is concluded.
More like Iva’s Stadi, then Obamas McCarthy.
Great summary to date.
Please write an historical book after this episode is concluded.
Sometimes, I think about the poor Irish bumpkin that said to his family in Ireland “I’m off to the States. ..goodbye..” .. And, then that poor plough jockey gets here to grow his spuds, and with his hoe in hand, he looks across the street at the mega farm with 100 black slaves and 400 white indentured servants turning up 1000 of times his effort for free labor to the Capitalist. .. Somehow, I can’t help but think that those conversations at the dinner table at night were a little quiet between him and the love of his life..
Today, the Western worker is told, “It’s a brand new world. .. Don’t cha know?” .. As he/she watches Warren Buffet make ($6 million/minute.) … But hey, at least he/she doesn’t have to witness the “…technological revolution…” of a 14 year old Chinese girl earning (6 cents/hour) for making blue jeans.
(.. when we so proudly (arrogantly) planted the American flag on the moon – maybe we should have hung around a little longer, in search of some cheaper labor and some more consumers..)
For 375 years in this country, the Establishment had us convinced that “People Were Property.” … And, for the last 150 years, the Establishment has now had us convinced that, “… Property Is People…”
On Tuesday November 6th, 2018, I will be at my voting precinct dressed in most obnoxious Billionaire’s outfit that I can put together. .. Voting day is now officially my Mardi Gras Day..
Should the title be changed to: “Watergate Redux and Another ‘Deep State’ Coup?”? Wasn’t Watergate also a Deep State coup? At least some of the plumbers were CIA. Did they bungle things on purpose in order to get caught? After all, besides Nixon being crazy and purposely extending the killing in Vietnam so that he could then get re-elected as the “peace candidate”, he was also the most liberal president we’ve had since then. He put in place so many good things that Republicans ever since have been trying to dismantle.
Per Russ Baker, in Family of Secrets, Nixon was also nosing around suppressed info regarding Dallas 11/22/63.
The real coup likely occurred in the midst of the 2016 election with Republican FBI Director Comey executing his October Surprise in opening up the Anthony Weiner email investigation. Late polling showed this late development was enough to swing the key states of Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Peter Dale Scott, a Canadian-born academic and diplomat, is best known for his critiques of deep politics and American foreign policy since the era of the Vietnam War.
Scott is the author of The American Deep State: Big Money, Big Oil, and the Struggle for U.S. Democracy (Updated Edition 2017).
From Scott’s Introduction to The American Deep State:
“those who saw the election as a contest between outsider Trump and a ‘deep state’ tended to give two different meanings to this new term. On the one hand were those who saw the deep state as ‘a conglomerate of insiders’ incorporating all those, outside and inside the traditional state, who ‘run the country no matter who is in the White House…and without the consent of voters.’ On the other were those who, like Chris Hedges, limited the ‘deep state’ to those perverting constitutional American politics from the margin of the Washington Beltway – ‘the security and surveillance apparatus, the war machine.’
“But both of these simplistic definitions, suitable for campaign rhetoric, omit the commanding role played by big money – what used to be referred to as Wall Street, but now includes an increasingly powerful number of maverick non-financial billionaires like the Koch brothers. All serious studies of the deep state, including Mike Lofgren’s The Deep State and Philip Giraldi’s Deep State America as well as this book, acknowledge the importance of big money.
“It is important to recognize moreover, that the current division between ‘red’ and ‘blue’ America is overshadowed by a corresponding division at the level of big money, one that contributed greatly to the ugliness of the 2016 campaign. In The American Deep State (p. 30), I mention, albeit very briefly, the opposition of right-wing oilmen and the John Birch Society ‘to the relative internationalism of Wall Street.’ That opposition has become more powerful, and better financed, than ever before.
“It has also evolved. As I noted in The American Deep State, (p. 14), the deep state ‘is not a structure but a system, as difficult to define, but also as real and powerful, as a weather system.’ A vigorous deep state, like America, encompasses dynamic processes continuously generating new forces within it”
http://whowhatwhy.org/2017/02/06/donald-j-trump-deep-state-part-1/
Well, yeah. The deep state resists simple definition. For me it just points to the major players in the power struggles that shape our history. You are a deep state actor, or group of actors to the degree that you can shape history. Referring to it in the singular can make it seem like some single, unified cabal – but that is not the case. Conspiratorial combinations form and dissolve within this vague but real category. There is an inherent competitiveness and duplicity constantly swirling around these power centers. The concern of these major players to keep their role in shaping our affairs secret is why they are characterized as ’Deep.’ Otherwise I would point out that some of the most powerful agents can be amazingly shallow and ignorant.
The “deep state”may be difficult to define but structures and evolving relationships can be identified.
Scott also discusses Trump in terms of “international deep state” dynamics: “In short, the Trump team connections to the Russian state and deep state — both overt (through Exxon) and covert (through Manafort and Alfa) would appear to link Trump to a shady larger network or networks connected also to the same Washington swamp he promised to drain.”
Scott mentions the influence of the “global power elite”: “Those at Davos do not need to give instructions to the American deep state, which is already structured around responsiveness to the requirements of extreme wealth in Wall Street and elsewhere.”
Scott speculates that Trump represents the efforts of elite factions to advance independent bilateral trade arrangements: “The ‘New, New World Order’ may be said to represent the mavericks of the international deep state, eager to dispense with the regulations of the old insiders. But they are still part of the nexus of uncontrolled big money, even if drawn more from the under-reported shady underside of that superclass.”
http://whowhatwhy.org/2017/02/07/donald-j-trump-deep-state-part-2/
Increased geopolitical friction with Russia and China may reflect efforts by old guard “big money” factions to sabotage efforts by newer “big money” supranational interests. That friction may shed sparks that set the world aflame.
Great link, Abe. Thank you
Thank you for this Abe. Your posts are very helpful. I’ve read some of his stuff but need to read what you’re citing.The following response isn’t directed at you but Parry’s article.
Deep State or not, DT is a sad case for a President and human being. I read the article twice and am left scratching my head. WHY should any of us accept the BS that’s swirling? DT is chaos on wheels, leaving me with a strange foreboding of “Shock Doctrine;” keep people off-balance. He’s a high maintenance male equivalent of a drama queen, either has ADHD or a nose candy problem (as evidence by his ranting, any time of the day or night Twitter-addicted posts) has the impulse control of a toddler, thumbs his nose at the rule of law, is doing the bidding of god-only-knows-who, and reverses his positions constantly. I wouldn’t trust him to take care of my dog. Nothing the man says or does gives me a sense of confidence. His behavior is crazy making and somehow I’m supposed to accept this. *Still, 36% of the population thinks he’s just grand.
If it’s true that DT has all this supposed wealth, well, then as far as I can tell from reading about how he got that wealth, all that “deal making” means he’s part of the problem; he is, in the words of another, a “bad hombre” who knows how to f- or manipulate everything and everyone in his path. Which is the TRUE art of his deal making.
The only up side to everything that’s transpired in the past 18 months is that we get to experience just how dysfunctional our political system is. Note* above. And the rest of the world gets to see the curtain pulled back, with the great “exceptional oz” of America exposed for what it truly is.
Nothing that is happening is healthy or “normal,” nor is it conducive to the well-being of the majority of citizens of this country or the rest of the beings that inhabit this planet. None of it. And I don’t feel like whistling along, pretending that it is. It’s past time to rip the band-aid off and clearly assess the festering wound underneath- let the light of day shine on it, then cleanse as needed and air out.
Rant finished.
The scary part is that I don’t envision any of this ending well.
Adrian E:
True: I’m 3 degrees of separation from Trump, via a cabinet member, and I’ve talked to actual Russians in the last 18 months. Therefore “they” run Trump.
Talked to Iranians and Tibetans too, and Chinese, hence…
Of course it’s preposterous, the Russian meddling claims, absent evidence, and there’s no evidence for the influence peddling implications either. (Bet Trump has some questionable investors in real estate projects, and some of them could be Russian.)
The idea that secrecy is essential and natural to the functioning of government is a lie. The masses have been led to accept this truly unacceptable idea as a way of preventing them from exposing the lies and criminal machinations and conspiracies that are the real lifeblood of governments as they are currently conducted. That conspiracies at the highest levels of power are rare or nonexistent is a falsehood which is blatantly obvious to all but the truly clueless and deluded. The scum rises to the top. Our Governors both overt and secret, represent the very worst of humanity. Realizing this is key to understanding our modern world.
Hey Russ Baker basically espouses the idea that Watergate, and the forced resignation of Nixon, was a “deep state coup”.
Of course the Baker website (whowhatwhy) has been mighty quick to push the “Russian hacking” garbage.
Sadly, I see Bernie Sanders is pushing the “Russian meddling in the election” of 2016 line on Facebook and on his Senate webpage.
What is it going to take for otherwise intelligent people to fall out of love with Bernie?
someone better has to come along
Tulsi Gabbard?
Seems Tulsi voted for the confiscate Russian and Chinese ships bill. So sad.
So some aides talked to Russians, big deal. Talk is cheap, money swears. What is important is whether Trump is financially involved with foreign entities of any kind or country. This would create a real conflict of interest as Trump has refused to divest his extensive holdings, and his relatives are very busy boosting his empire. An example is Deutche-Bank which has been in precarious financial condition and received TARP funds after the 2008 meltdown. The bank has made extensive loans to Trump. They could have a particular grip on The Donald as he has worn out his welcome in many US banks from his numerous bankruptcies. Deutche has been accused of extensive laundering of Russian mafia funds . Trump has had business dealings in Russia, so does he still have a stake there, and is he involved with the Russian oligarchs, a real dirty bunch which could color his foreign policy.
Of course, it all boils down to divestment, which every other President has done and he refuses. His behavior indicates he is using his Presidency (his wife said something about this too) to further his empire for his post White House days. This might be “The Art of the Deal” on steroids, which would be his greatest con yet, using the oval office as a marketing tool.
It is ironic and hypocritical that the Democrats are so bent out of shape about “Russia-gate”; after running an influencing peddling candidate who used her position as SOSUS to get donations to the Clinton Global Initiative. An example is the sale of 14 F-16’s to the Saudis, against her staff’s recommendation and after a hefty contribution from that mid-evil regime. Trump was correct when he labeled her “crooked Hillary”.
What I find most discouraging is not Trump, but the Democrat’s pathetic focus on Russia; ignoring their corrupt primary process that put forward a war criminal,”The butcher of Libya”, and influence peddler. They are ignoring crosscheck (see http://www.gregpalast.com/election-stolen-heres/) and voter ID laws that targeted Blacks and Latinos for disenfranchisement eliminating hundreds of thousands of traditionally Democratic voters. Instead of worrying about Putin, who would have been crazy to interefere, they should be going after the Republicans’ shanigans.
Going further into the “deep state” would be publicizing the role of the Kochtopus, the network of libertarian billionaires and millionaires the Koch brothers have organized into an extensive network political philanthropies, think tanks and university institutes that have been the cause of the national political turn to the right. (See Jane Mayer, Dark Money). It is no accident or change of culture that has resulted in the “party of no” and the broad influence of the likes of Paul Ryan and others, whose political rise has been due to the Kochs.
As Julian Assange said about the election, ” A choice between gonorhea and cholera”.
Good comment. Tks.
It seems unlikely thatTrump would be involved witjh both the Russian Oligarchy and Vladimir Putin. The oligarchs are Russia’s Deep State and would like noting better than to see Putin toppled. Then they could re-loot Russia, as they did under the alcoholic Yeltsin.
> Kochtopus, the network of libertarian billionaires and millionaires the Koch brothers have organized
> into an extensive network
“Libertarian”?? Who was their father, and what was the political group he founded, and what was its plan?
(Hint: it wasn’t encouraging individual liberties…)
As the German saying has it: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree-trunk.
I’ve read all the sources you’ve cited and you build a solid case as a result of this information. Too few know about all these links.
Be careful. Be very careful. A Pence Presidency is coming down the road. More wars, more Christian values, more transfer of wealth.
Someone should investigate Fusion GPS, the DC opposition research firm that hired Steele [Orbis] to put together this dossier.
my understanding (which I would love to see confirmed) is that we have only seen the Clinton-funded second half of Steel’s oppo research … which commenced after the GOP candidate’s funders dropped out in February / March (iirc) as noted by the “diary entry dates” in the dossier.
I’d really also like to know who in the Clinton campaign and elsewhere received updates and status reports prior to August when the dossier was shopped to Corn at Mother Jones and other and ultimately given to the FBI.
Clinton was banking on the video and the dossier to soundly sandbag Trump. I suspect much of their outrage at Comey predates the Weiner laptop 650,000 e-mails subpoena announcement, but that the “letter” came in addition to Comey not being a “helpful” as expected.
Today’s revelation that Comey had just — within hours or days — requested more funding to broaden the scope of the Russian investigation looks really really bad … as does Trump’s deliberate very public humiliation of Comey in front of a roomful off FBI agents … thought news of the firing was a prank, fake news… not even given the dignity of a personal notification prior to the MSN blaring the news …
The third-place finisher turned out to be former Secretary of State Colin Powell who got three votes from Clinton delegates in Washington State. The idea of giving votes to Powell was that he might be an acceptable alternative to House members over either Clinton or Trump, a position that I’m told Obama’s intelligence chiefs shared.
Colin Powell acceptable? After his vile and squalid speech at the UN in February 2003 to facilitate the war on Iraq? He and those House members who might have found him acceptable as president should be run out of town or, better still, exiled to Guantanamo.
We are now mired in the swamp.
Before Nixon was sent off in his helicopter the Deep State had to get rid of Spiro Agnew. Spiro was supposed to be Nixon’s impeachment insurance. He was replaced by Ford, a member of the Warren Commission and a trusted politician in the Deep State’s eyes.
And remember who Ford picked as his V.P.—Nelson Rockefeller, one of the big wheels in the international banker cabals. Here is the template for the V.P. as actual CEO in charge of things. Reagan/Bush (Bush in charge), Bush/Cheney (Cheney in charge), makes me think Biden was in charge (as chief representative for Bankster cartel). Bill Clinton, and Trump are threats to this arrangement, hence talk of impeachment.
“The Fighting Tigers of Ole’ Mizzou cast 16 votes for Ted Agnew”. A quote from the 1968 Republican National Convention that will forever remain in my head . It was burned into my impressionable brain like the advertising jingle from an Oscar Meyer Weiner commercial,, “Mikey will eat anything” and “Excedrin Headache #111”. I probably shouldn’t have been allowed to watch such pornography but my parents were no doubt distracted by whatever at the time. I use to get a kick out of William F. Buckley also. .Ah Bartleby, Ah Humanity, Wish I could go back in time and change almost everything.
The fear grew that Comey and other senior officials in the U.S. intelligence community had concluded last year that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump was a suitable future president, albeit for different reasons.
That same fear translated into despair among around a third of eligible voters who chose to vote “none of the above” in the form of votes for Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, or a write-in or no vote at all.
Clinton and Trump at the top of the presidential ticket were more than an abysmal choice. It was also a sign of the ethical and moral decadence of the American people. For generations they have accepted the lesser evil or voting for a crook because he or she was their crook. Consequently, the oligarchs of both major parties had no qualms about offering deeply-flawed individuals as candidates. So the candidates became progressively worse with each election until we got to this pair. There is no reason for optimism. We could still get worse in 2020.
yes the to the LePen v. Macron comparisons, Clinton should have disqualified herself (for the good of the party and the country) and Trump’s attempt at the nomination should have been nipped in the bud (for the good of the party and the country) if not by the GOP then by the Clinton campaign and their oppo research/dirty tricks squad … before June …
The rot is deep that either of these individuals “beat out” the competition … both further enshrining to the glossy magazine, air-brushed politician as celebrity/star/spokesmodel … rather than acting as corrective … society as spectacle (for your viewing pleasure.
Of course, they don’t have to actually “win” to win … they can just disgust and exhaust the audience until numbed …
Correct answer= Deep State Coup. Once again, I go to EIR website I type into their search box “British coup against the Presidency” and pop up some interesting articles that makes sense of these machinations. Why would Deep State be against Hillary AND Trump? Hillary has Bill as a back-door agent of influence, who might possibly revive his pro-“new financial architecture”, pro-FDR policies of cooperation with Russia and China, BEFORE he was crushed by all the insane operations to get him impeached, and caved in to that pressure back then. Trump sang the same tune during his campaign. Both are considered threats to London/Wall Street axis of financial/political/military/intelligentsia power. The British connection ties back to an earlier search on EIR search box: “Return of the Monarchs” and “Black Nobility”, and those 25 Dynastic Families (some still holding Crowns and Thrones, others still commanding Vast investment funds “The Fondi”). Upshot of it all is we had damn-well better enter into strong alliance with Russia and China, reinstate Glass-Steagall, revive Hamiltonian National (ie. Public) Banking, to put a stop to long-term plans pursued by the Synarchist Internationale of the “25 Families”. They intend to destroy us , Russia and China (via having us destroy one another in a total war), because we are the three great revolutionary Republics (“Traitors to The Crown”) who will bring an end to their machinations by our cooperation as inherit allies. This alliance will be unstoppable, if entered into.
Yesterday I listened to Steve Bannon’s Vatican talk in which he mentioned a wrong type of capitalism trying to use human as commodities. Thanks for the EIR link.
Yes I heard that talk too, made me have a completely different view of Bannon. He was speaking of the capitalism of the “Davos crowd” ( Mount Peleren, Bilderbergers, Trilateralists, CFR, Tavistock, the RoundTable group,etc…those people).
and “those people” are incorporated into the now 125-or-so years old Synarchist Internationale of the 25 Dynastic Families, and their minions. It’s an operation to restore “the Natural Order” of society, bringing back Monarchy, Titled Nobility, and a fascistic hierarchy to keep the “lower orders” in line as loyal subjects to The Crown. Our Revolution, and Russia’s and China’s Revolutions are seen together as gross, criminal perversions of the “Natural Order” of human society. They mean to nail our scalps to the Lodge’s wall-of-shame, and we had better hurry up and ally ourselves with our fellow Revolutionaries to stop this dead-in-its-tracks (Russia and China know this; WE are slow in picking up on it, unfortunately).
type in EIR’s search box “Dick Cheney has a French connection—to Fascism” an article written by Jeffrey Steinberg, chief of counter-intelligence at EIR.
What is EIR website?
Executive Intelligence Review, a private intelligence organization working on behalf of the institution of the Presidency to “know our friends and enemies” and work to shape the world according to FDRs grand strategic vision for the post-war World.
“”Comey, Brennan and Clapper also set in motion a hasty intelligence assessment by hand-picked analysts at the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, producing a report on alleged Russian electoral interference that was released on Jan. 6.””
Do we know the identity of those hand picked ? Their lineage from the early days of intel agencies? Their associations with any Senators (like McCain or Warner)?
Take a look at Booz Allen and their list of surrogates and paid ad men. You will find that Booz Allen is highly connected to Clinton. The company is owned by the Carlyle.
“The following was reported at Daily Paul, online on June 24th, 2013:
“Among the individuals involved in running the company, we have:
James Clapper – current Director of National Intelligence (DNI), head of NSA, the man who lied to Congress about the fact that NSA is actively spying on Americans, is a former executive
Mike McConnell – a current executive of the company, had Clapper’s job (DNI) during George W. Bush’s administration (keep it in the family, eh?) — he worked for Booz Allen before Bush, then worked for Bush, then back to Booz Allen after Bush
James Woolsey – former CIA Director, current executive (see Jan Helfeld’s interview of Mr. Woolsey where it becomes clear that Woolsey has no interest in discussing principles, only war)
Melissa Hathaway – former executive, also worked for McConnell during the Bush administration
Ian Brzezinski – former executive, son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, central figure in the NWO crowd, and mastermind of Operation Cyclone
Dov Zakheim – this character is … unbelievable:
1993 – His company, System Planning Corporation, had a subsidiary called Tridata Corporation, which was the company that “oversaw” the investigation of the 1993 WTC bombing
2000 – Part of the neo-con Project for a New American Century, he is co-author of “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” in which he is credited with the infamous line, “… some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”
2001 – He is appointed Comptroller of the Pentagon, in which $2.3 trillion promptly goes “missing” (http://www.dailypaul.com/290258/booz-allen-hamilton-what-you-dont-know-about-snowdens-fomer-employer).
These are the death merchants who trade in entrepreneurial violence at taxpayer expense while aggrandizing themselves and making millions if not billions from public funds.” (http://iissonline.net/booz-allen-hamilton-helping-the-government-insure-domestic-tranquility-edward-snowden/).
DannyWeil has listed a lot of shady, sinister operatives, from whom he has just pulled the curtain away. What truly needs to be revealed are the mysterious, classified dossiers, rushed assessments, inter alia, Doesn’t Trump have the right to view them? Even declassifiy them? If the Deep State is truly in control, those docs will never see the light of day.
I think the fact that Trump hasn’t declassified that kind of stuff shows that he has had his “trip to the woodshed”. DannyWeil, thanks for the dirt on Booz Allen, especially Dov Zakheim. Another piece of the puzzle.
Yes, this is a great contribution by DannyWeil. Thank you.
Wow ??
“President Obama reportedly authorized an extraordinary scheme to spread information about Russia’s purported assistance to Trump across the federal bureaucracy and even overseas.”
Really Robert? Can you verify that?
Robert has been pushing and seems to have this completely blind assumption that Trump is clean, has no connections of any kind to Russia in anyway at all, and it just another poor sap being bullied by the proverbial ‘deep state’. I say this after reading earlier articles where repeatedly Robert tries to support Trump and his ‘view’ that Russia is not bad and we need to reset our Foreign Policy towards them. Now I understand that’s what Robert wants, that is Robert’s world view, and I agree with it in many ways.
But to somehow someway not understand that Trump has no Foreign Policy views or ideas, is completely totally & ignorant of basic history, current events and world politics is amazing. The ONLY thing Trump cares about Russia (or anything for that matter) is that he has, and wants to continue, getting rich drinking from the that corrupt cesspool. The man is a scam artist of the highest level – for proof look no further than $25M he just paid We are not talking Nixon, Kissinger, Reagan, Kennedy, or any other numerous serious diplomats who have tried to engage and change our relations with Russia.
And the only thing Trump desperately wants and needs is NO investigation of any kind on anything related to Russia and/or himself and his money/business adventures. Good god – follow the money! Follow Trump’s money.
I wish Robert would put his excellent investigative skills to work instead of conjecture and speculation.
Where have you found that Trump “has no connections of any kind to Russia in anyway” in the above article? What is wrong for Trump’s attempt at having the business connections with a regional power which has been looking for rapprochement with the west and which is armed with nuclear weaponry? Is your response related to an irritation with the possible peaceful solution to the Syrian tragedy, which places a fat question mark to Israel’s rapacious plans for the Golan Heights?
You actually did put forth a good advice, “follow money.” Let’s see who is the greatest influence on the US Congress money-wise. What would be your prediction?
Trump certainly has contacts with many countries. He owes a lot of money to German banks, and he did business in Arabic countries. Russia is a country where Trump’s business was never really active (probably more because he did not achieve successful deals there than because he actively avoided it). Of course, it would be unlikely that Trump never had contact with any Russians, but when we think about potential conflicts of interest, there are certainly many other countries where an investigation would be more promising than in the case of Russia.
“Trump’s attempt at business” Exactly! What business? What connections? Has he profited, if so how much? Was it legal?
All good questions that we cannot find out since Trump hides any discover or knowledge. No tax returns that would give evidence. Do you really think the public should not have knowledge of his connections to Russia, or any country? My god – is he making decisions based on personal enrichment or for the good of USA? If you think he has your or USA best interests at heart, or would decide to help USA and hurt his own $$ then you must be speaking of another Donald Trump.
I have no idea what your reference is to Syria? Are you somehow saying that Trump has some knowledge, idea, plan for peace? A solution? 1st of all if anyone anywhere has a solution for ME or Syria I wish they would elucidate and help the world. But Trump – come on. You think maybe he has a plan – kinda like his plan/deal to ‘work out the Civil War’?
Yes follow Trump’s money and business. Everything everything is connected. It is his only concern in this world.
His only connection to Russia is $$. Not world peace, Syria, USA or anything else.
Trump attempted a business deal that his Russian negotiators rejected, no deal , no money changed hands, unlike the $50 million kickback the Saudi’s (ISIS financiers) gave the Clinton Foundation.
Not committing war crimes by invading sovereign nations and slaughtering it’s defenders is an easy first step to peace in the Middle East.
Oh, I dunno, that bit about supporting a one-state solution and moving the Isreali capital to Jerusalem sounds kinda solutionish to me. Panderish, even.
Trump has NO obligation to share his stack of tax returns.
N.S.A. Gets More Latitude to Share Intercepted Communications –
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets-more-latitude-to-share-intercepted-communications.html
and — bang — the transcript of Flynn’s phone call was “leaked” to member of congress by “someone” …
It was one of Obama’s parting shots.
And the crime was not remembering his conversation verbatim.
It’s interesting that you say that, that you can’t seem to buy into Parry’s (more than) theory. I buy it because I’ve been thinking for the last several days, “What if Obama really wanted Trump to win! What if he thought it would be easier to get rid of Trump than Hillary!” Obama seems to have a view of himself, his popularity and “entitlement,” that trumps anything I’ve ever witnessed. Just wait. Parry is right. If things start leaking, as Assange predicts, we all might be learning quite a lot.
Obama really wanted T to win? Come on! Our imaginations are running a little wild, yes?
Between Robert’s article and your comment I feel like I am reading an Oliver Stone screenplay – but instead of JFK it is called Trump. Our Presidential godsend beleaguered by Obama and deep state.
Trump is trying to stop any and all investigations into his actions before and during his 100 days. Stop. That’s it.
He does not want anyone to know or find out what he has done or is doing. This is his reality show where he is boss and you just watch in amazement – and say or do nothing. It’s his show and now his country and all of us citizens are fired.
Obama really wanted T to win? Come on! Our imaginations are running a little wild, yes?
There were plausible stories of ill feelings between the Obamas and the Clintons. If true, it could be Obama didn’t necessarily want Trump to win, but he would have been happy to see Clinton lose. Who knows what really went on in that cesspool?
I agree wholeheartedly with this assessment of Obama.
Unbelievable ego. Conceited to the max.
If Moyers is no angel (and I am surprised by the virulence of some of the commens about his here—but accept the possibility that I am naive), Obama is no angel and half.
No president can be an “angel,”—you don’t get there unless you have a lust for power—but we still get to judge how they use their power when they get there.
Obama especially had all the pieces in his hand when he started, and he threw them down one by one. Maybe now he feels bad that he was such a ninny in 2008 and is turning arouind to pull strings to make sure that his successor fails. Obama has a huge need for approval from the white caste. They might all be chuckling over this on Martha’s Vineyard this summer.
Maybe now he feels bad that he was such a ninny in 2008 …
I doubt it that Obama is feeling bad for any missteps or executions during his presidency. More than likely he is focusing on calling in his markers for services rendered and figuring out how to avoid paying taxes on his multi-million dollar book deals.
More than likely for sure.
Soros troll or what…? The fact Obama did this is clear in the order he filed on heading out the door for widespread dissemination of this type of “intelligence” information that was never allowed before–clearly his purpose was exactly this….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-18/jay-sekulow-obama-should-be-held-accountable-soft-coup-attempt-against-trump
No, I have seen no evidence that Mr. Parry supports Trump or Russia. Neutrality until sufficient evidence is in, is often seen as opposition by extremists, often by both opposing extremes. He has made no conjecture without declaring it to be that, and only in presenting all sides where the evidence is limited.
In some ways I find it amazing that so many Americans buy into this RussiaGate witch hunt. But then considering how easily fooled and ignorant most of my fellow citizens are, it’s not surprising at all. It’s the depth of their blindness that takes one’s breath away.
There have been those who want a full overt military takeover of the US for a long time. The time honored technique of comparing Trump to Hitler and also imply that he is dangerously insane might provide in some minds just the excuse for such a coup. People who think this way count on most people’s ‘it couldn’t happen here’ belief to lull them to sleep about this real possibility that what little pretention they have of living in a democracy could finally be snatched away from them.
It is scary that someone as weak and ill prepared as Trump may in a strange way be our last bulwark against a full fascist takeover of America.
Why must everybody on planet earth agree with your world views? Why do you want to stop other humans from observing things and arriving at different point of view? Why?
Right on and thank you! I’ve been saying this for some time and only get noise from the sycophants and Trumpies that currently troll CN. Let the investigations continue full force. Trump has ways of making things better for himself. The fact he doesn’t says to me there’s a lot of flame behind that smoke. Firing Comey won’t do it.
I don’t know why Parry continues to be an apologist for Trump. This is actually one of the more mild examples. I could deal with it if this was one of the few, but the fact he continues to spew the same old same old ( yea, I’ve doing it too in an attempt to get him on track ) instead of doing some REAL investigative work instead of this conjecture that leads nowhere except to cover over issues in from of us.
At this point, I’m glad Parry didn’t decide to become a fireman. He’s been unable to dicern flame.
I know, and implore him to do better. I have faith. That’s why I’ve contributed to CN in the past and present.
I concur with this statement and hope Parry reads it before it is erased from this site.
In reference to Stiv
Parry has never been an “apologist” for anyone. He is saying what the VIPS (Veterans of Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) all say, there’s no proof Putin/Russia interfered with the US election. If and when concrete proof..forensic evidence..is provided he will recognize it, as will the rest of us who want facts. One clear statement against Russian interference is Julian Assange’s oft repeated comment that it was not the Russians who gave him the leaks for Wikileaks. Parry is one of the best investigative journalists in the world. If we didn’t have him and others as honest we wouldn’t be informed. He helps us to recognize and eschew propaganda as it rains down upon us every day.
Thank you Rob Roy
Very careless attitude toward Mr. Parry’s journalism. Clearly you are not a contributor as you claim. Those on one extreme generally perceive the neutral or center journalist as the opposite extreme, and will only see neutrality at their own extreme.
I have seen no sycophants or Trump supporters here, so apparently you are a Hillary troll, hiding behind the false accusation of the opposite extreme. Your purpose is to damage any reasoned opposition, quite irresponsible.
Well said, Sam F
Showing the dangers of a ‘Deep State’ conspiracy that is working to overthrow a ‘democratically elected’ President does not necessarily make one an apologist of that President, but rather a guardian of democracy.
it is vitally important to be able to make distinctions if one wants to arrive at facts and truth.
One of the premises of this theory is problematic: namely, that the DeepState did not want war monger Clinton
Evidence suggests the DeepState WANTS war: with Syria, Iran, and Russia, not necessarily in that order.
The DeepState put its money on Clinton and is enraged that Trump ruined her disastrous ongoing regime change plans for Syria, including the NFZs that would lead straight to WW3 with Russia. So, yes, the DeepState wants a coup against Trump.
So, the overall theory that Comey was the remaining agent who could fulfill the “topple Trump” agenda is plausible, part of the rationale is not plausible.
I have also wondered about the Deep State not wanting Hillary part of this scenario. However, I find it very curious that Colin Powell got those 3 electoral college votes to put him in the running if it went to the house. Maybe the “Deep State” was a little nervous about Hillary’s hawkishness. Sure they want to keep making the big bucs, but getting blown to hell in a nuclear war is probably not on their agenda. Now they are probably thinking that Pence would be easier to handle than the Donald, so they will be prepared to get rid of him if they can’t continue to control him.
Yours is commonly referred to as the theory of controlled chaos – that the swamp dwellers want constant wars whilst still keeping the place where they can spend the moneys looted. Unfortunately, the natural laws have precedence over human desires, which means that there is a tendency for things to run out of human control. Therefore, I am convinced of “chaos” but not of “control”.
You have a good grasp of psychology.
Mythology can broaden Psychology’s frame considerably in that it’s clear to persons like myself that the Yin-Yang balance is off. And the extreme patriarchal context of the 3 Abrahamic religions has led to a disproportionate emphasis on all things Yang, i.e. male. The ensuing asymmetrical focus exalts aggression and the use of force and while Jesus’ name may be invoked in houses of worship, facts on the ground suggest that it’s really Mars/Ares, the old War God that is worshiped.
The good news is that there is a pantheon and in it, Mars is not the only god.
At essence what I’m saying in support of your pithy post is that the Gods hardly smile on hubris; and there’s no hubris quite as bold as that of the male warrior sitting atop an arsenal of killer toys and chomping at the bit to play god (of destruction).
With Comey out , and McCabe surely the next to go , those 650,000 emails and dirty pics on Weiner’s laptop are a lot more likely to get closer scrutiny. A lot of people will start sweating bullets if that happens , and I doubt that Trump would be one of them.
Trump is being blackmailed as are other members of his gang
Yes, fact filled allegation there….Go to the Huffington Post which will feel like home to you…..
Before Comey was canned, he claimed there were only two email threads sent to Wiener’s computer by Huma, unlioke the “hundreds of thousands” he said early on. Was Wiener’s laptop scrubbed?
This reasoning is indisputable. But it also is deeply troubling. Is there any hope for our democracy?
Is there any hope for our democracy?
The old saw would have us believe where there is life there is hope. Could be, but given authoritarian businessman Donald Trump and his family in the White, a Congress bought-and-sold by the plutocracy and the Israel lobby, an ill-informed populace addicted to consumerism and accepting of increasing militarism, there is next to no cause for optimism.
There are a lot of people out there who are not so stupid. But unfortunately 80% of the American Public has fallen for this one.
” But it also is deeply troubling. Is there any hope for our democracy?”
Well considering the fact that you have never had a democracy and still don´t have one I would have to say that there is no hope of a democracy showing up in the USA anytime within the next few centuries.
You have a Constitutional Republic. The voting is a sham and only gives the veneer of democracy because the Electoral College can override the will of the voters and elect who they want. This just happened in the last election with Clinton getting 3,000,000 more votes but the Electoral college voted for Trump. Not only the Electoral College but the Supreme Court can over rule the will of the majority and did so in the 2001 election. So I can´t understand why Americans continue to delude themselves into thinking that they live in a democracy. THEY DON´T. THE COUNTRY WAS NEVER SET UP SO THAT THE RABBLE COULD ELECT WHOM THEY WANTED. Now even the Deep State is getting in on the act, they are going to over rule the Electoral college and deep six Trump.
Dan Kuhn, well said. Thanks for highlighting the two awful examples of our past 20 years
Without knowing all the hidden players pulling the levers of power there seems to be a rift in the internal workings of the state power players. Democracy is a myth perpetrated in the fabric of American life which really means the capitalists are our rulers and the interests of the industrialists and government are essentially the same. This has been going on, behind the scenes, for at least since reconstruction of the civil war, if not sooner. So now we seem to be having a power struggle between at least two factions in the hidden, “deep state”. I believe most of the media noise are just diversions to keep people entertained whilst the real players are trying to consolidate their power bases. This will get ugly. Whether it leads to a world war remains to be seen, but I’m not holding my breath.
People believe what they want to believe. Our options, including Powell sucked BigTime in the last election. Sanders could have won a fair fight but what would be coming out of Senate and House investigations of him now? In short, none of the above. I just offended the hell out of a guy by not thinking much of this Comey firing then stating, “This country’s been going to hell ever since they got rid of Nixon.”. Well, it’s true. Remember the movie Hondo , Richard Boone asks Paul Newman’s character, “So just what do you think hell is going to look like?”. Well, maybe we can all find out. I see there is now talk of a first strike on Russia and China ( Deep State Ne0con Deep thinkers) . If all else fails, Why not? Personally, I thought Comey should have gone 2 months ago and speculated that this was inevitablein a previous comment here. Mr. Parry sounds like a Conspiracy Theorist here but the truth can be stranger than fiction. The obvious way out is Pence which is Business as Usual and Victory for the Deep State and the Two party system and the NeoCons and Russia bashers and Iran haters too. Seems probable, even logical but you have to know that Trump is not unaware of what is going on. The man has never had an alcoholic drink or a toke of medicinal weed in his life. He may be a reactionary but he can reason things out given time. He is obviously not stupid and can play the media well. . I believe when it plays out the Two Parties and the Neocons are going to lose. Do not ask me to swear to this under a FISA Indictment.
Sorry not Hondo that was John Wayne, Hombre was the film and a stinker indeed although Richard Boone could play the heavy well.
” I see there is now talk of a first strike on Russia and China ( Deep State Ne0con Deep thinkers)”
According to Rand and the rest of the Group Think Tanks, they are convinced that the US cannot only win a conventional war with Russia but an nuclear one as well. So given that information I would move the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 30 seconds to midnight. Remember how Iraq was going to take a cake walk be a slam dunk, take a few weeks, a couple of months at most and Iraquis would shower the roads the invading American troops would use into Iraq with flowers. Well it turned out that they showered the roads alright but with IEDs. Have Rand or the rest of the Group Think Tanks ever got a war right? i am 76 and I can´t remember one.
This time is different though. This time they are convincing themselves that they can have a cakewalk over a peer super power., better nuclear armed than the US to boot. Now that could just be the end of all of us.
What i fail to understand given the track record of Rand and the rest of the Group Think Tanks, is why the American people are not scared white when they listen to these groups. Common sence says that the members of these groups should be shut away in insane asylums, because they are a clear and present danger to all of mankind.
Interesting that the US would consider a real war with Russia, which if it were not entirely nuclear would be the first invasion since those of Napoleon and Hitler, with the same likely result. It is almost plausible, given the folly of the US invading Afghanistan after setting the trap of fundamentalist insurgency there for the USSR. A crushing defeat there for the US would be very therapeutic, as Marshal Zhukov’s cited General January and General February would end the US imperialist phase with a very fitting folly.
But in fact fears of Russia serve only the tyrants who serve oligarchy, who must create foreign enemies to pose falsely as protectors, and accuse their moral superiors of disloyalty, as Aristotle warned.
“Group Think Tanks” is a very useful concept; thank you.
If winnng the nuclear war is on the minds of all these power hungry US mad dogs, then many of us reading and writing here are likely to be vaporised within the next six months to pay for their folly. There are some unescapable parallels to the Yeltsin’s power struggle in his failing empire, except for the much, much more dangerous US twists. It is because of, y’a know, “we have the finest military in the world” US imbecility, in reality a ticking time bomb in the hands of the power hungry and delusional mad dogs.
O accepted the first strike option.
Obama also approved fracking something else Nixon banned , Obama also blew up détente with the Russians and restarted the Cold War . Obama was the anti-Nixon. Nixon had to impose wage and price controls . Obama endorsed QE3 . Obama spent %1 trillion upgrading our Nuclear capability. Strange days have found us. Daniel Ellsberg, I paraphrase, was quoted as saying what Nixon was accused of is legal now. Got to go, been triangulated again.
A comment like this, essentially normalizing someone like Pence is very frightening. One wonders if those who comment have the requisite empathy to understand what life was actually LIKE when church and state were bonded together.
A woman from Code Pink was arrested for LAUGHING when Sessions was sworn in. This right wing, small-minded racist is incapable of representing any form of Justice that is just.
Happening under the radar since the advent of Cable TV has been a powerful circle INTENT upon turning this nation into a Christian Theocracy. And if that doesn’t stun and frighten you, it ought to.
Followers of this agenda include Betsy De Vos who’s now positioned to gut public education funding.
Rick Perry is another.
Pence and Ben Carson and Sessions and Gorsuch are a few more.
Their right wing Christian views give them an exceptionally narrow concept of human rights, women’s rights, environmental protections, and basic Constitutional guarantees.
What is more mortifying than hearing and seeing alleged devout followers of Christ PUSH for Middle East Wars, bring Christian Chaplains into the U.S Air Force to over-ride the consciences of young drone pilots, and advocate FOR capital punishment?
In the name of the Prince of Peace they glorify in tearing Hispanic families apart, deny poor women birth control, and protect the police who treat Black boys’ bodies like recreational target practice.
Pence is diabolical.
These people are dangerous and delusional and anyone who thinks they are doing harmful things BECAUSE of Jesus (or Allah or Moses, etc.) is a THREAT to sentient life.
This has the unmistakable ring of plausibility. As it often does, consortiumnews makes sense of what otherwise seems a swirling mass of chaos. I hope a sequel will outline the steps the “Deep State” may take in retaliation to Trump’s firing of Comey.
Well, well, well.
I kept giggling whilst reading this article. Mr Parry has been fed some porridge by his “intelligence” contact(s). The principal claim of the article is one of the biggest jokes in the prevailing Washington madness. The claim is that the Scumbag Inc that is the US Deep State is all made of true patriots who understood that the two worst presidential candidates in the US history are bad for the country so they tried a double coup, against both party candidates. Regardless of their Democratic Party affiliation: Comey, Clapper, Brennan etc as American knights in the shining armour hiding under the skin of slimy, dirty, ruthless scumbags. They wanted Colin Powell as the national saviour, that is sooooooo funny.
US nation has clearly lost its mind, thus crap such as this can be sold to it. Or maybe it should be called a new twist to the old crap that Trump has a short expiry date as President. The only thing which is absolutely clear is that US is going through a terribly risky internal power struggle. It increasingly looks as a SHTF situation that the prepers have been preparing for – things spinning out of control.
Common Mr Parry, try to retain your sanity in the middle of the madness of this power struggle. If the US attack on North Korea does not cause a war with Russia and China, then the US dogs will just eat each other out.
It seems to me that this is just a matter of phrasing and alternative possibilities, as “ignorant armies clash by night.” It is not at all implausible that most in the deep state, like most others, felt that both candidates were unacceptable, and differed only in their lesser-evil estimates. We know that both were investigated for improprieties. I find no suggestion in the article that the dark state are “national saviours,” nor anything much less than your suggestions of “risky internal power struggle” and “things spinning out of control.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but it would be much harder to convince me that a manipulator like Comey, a liar like Clapper and a roughy like Brennan would be thinking only of what is best for US instead of what is best for them as apparatchiks of the Democratic Party. Obviously, a small challenge is to explain why Comey did what he did, but there is a much better and simpler explanation than the theory of the dual (bipartisan) coup that Mr Parry promotes here:
Comey was hedging his bets with both Clinton and Trump, in a bid to survive between administrations (would Hillary be blaming him for reopening the investigation if she won?); from the moment Comey exceeded his authority and exhonerated Hillary for hiding her pay-to-play home business within government secrets on a home email server, it appeared that Comey has been doing favours to both candidates instead of trying to sabotage both candidates, as per the new laughable claim.
The problem is that one can connect the factual dots in so many different ways that this usually allows for several different conspiracy theories. The theory of the dual coup is one, for me highly implosible, way to connect the dots. As explained, the key weakness of this conspiracy theory is the imputed benevolence of the familiar swamp dwellers.
It is too easy to lose common sense when too close to the swamp/asylum – usually the simplest explanation is the best.
As to things spinning out of control, I did not claim that this was in the article. SHTF is the natural and logical progression of the current situation. It is just shocking how quickly the US voters are getting used to someone else (hidden) deciding what is the right kind of democracy. What is going on at the moment is a soft normalisation of the rule of the Deep State, especially in the minds of the predominantly leftist audience madly desperate to replace Trump. If you still do not see where this is leading, then I cannot open your eyes more. Yet, I am not claiming that things must spin out of control then that it is likely they will.
Yes, your conclusion seems very likely to me, as well as the dangers of imputing benevolence in DC, and of the passivity of citizens. Of course, the mass media tell us that we are passive, while I see much anger afoot, with little means of change yet to command it.
I have this mental image of Washington that I just have to share with CN commenters. My image is of Washington as an asylum for the criminally insane, where all inmates are in the single huge room called MSM, all armed with slings and all of them constantly slinging their own turds at each other, at the staff of the asylum (the journos), at the walls and ceiling, at the neighbors and passersby through the windows and so on.
I am awaiting the next claim from the Sumbag Inc how they are going to save the nation.
I normally find your arguments persuasive. But I find your belittling of #Russiagate as a legitimate narrative strange. I find your claim that Clinton financed the opposition research on Trump bizarre, given that the dossier was financed by Jeb Bush initially, according to numerous sources. And pretending WikiLeaks is autonomous from Russia defies believe, especially in light of Roger Stone and Manafort machinations and in the case of the former, open bragging about WikiLeaks ties. Then there is Trump’s behavior towards Russia in general and his praise of Putin more generally. A quick glance at Trump appointees opens one’s eyes to a bizarre cast of characters with unusual Russian ties, from Ross at Commerce to Flynn at NSC (outed but defended by Trump) and then Exxon’s Tillerson. Meanwhile State is missing all kinds of appointments, Unprecedented hollowing out of the diplomatic agency. Now we have Comey’s firing under the bigot AG Sessions.
The never ending lies and deceit of Trump is suddenly much ado about nothing.
I don’t support American imperialism, but Trump is hardly anti-imperialist.
Trump is a crude corrupt man, treating the press and the public with contempt.
If the “deep state” fears the man, perhaps we should acknowledge some of their fears are also the fears of the majority of Americans.
Sometimes the Crazy Man is a greater threat to the damaged democracy than the institutional conservatives that reproduce the damaged democracy’s flaws no matter who’s in office.
Germany before Hitler was far from perfect. If only more of its military had resisted his power grab before it was too late.
I hope the “deep state” exposes how corrupt Trump really is, and gets to the bottom of what really happened in the 2016 Presidential election.
Your analysis is superficial and falls far short of journalistic seriousness.
You need to swallow your pride and dig deeper.
The verdict is still out. But it appears logical to assume the gist of this article is true. The skull-duggery of the coin operated politicians and the deep state cannot go understated.
Trump is no good,sure, but the forces behind the scenes, circumstantially shown by the actions of the players, most of them Clintonites, points to deep state shenanigans.
the arms industry wanted Clinton, they did not want Trump. Boones and Allen, banks, Lockheed, Rand and more all wanted the Clintons as did the Saudis and the Zionists.
No matter what the case, the US is suffering and will suffer a Constitutional Crisis of major proportions.
DannyWeil, I agree with your take. If I may expand on it –
This current round of conflict with Russia was started by the Neocons (Israeli agents) to block Obama-Putin cooperation in tamping down Mideast conflicts.
“What Neocons Want from Ukraine Crisis”
https://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/02/what-neocons-want-from-ukraine-crisis/
The Israelis control the U.S. MSM, forbidding all honest reporting and criticism of Israel,
“Rabbis want to criticize Israel but fear donors (and NYT buries the news)”
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/rabbis-criticize-donors
and now are using that control to direct the current false-flag Russia bashing.
The Israelis are primarily in the war business, and want conflicts in the Mideast.
“War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror”
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
Hillary’s principle funders were Israelis, and she was on board for more war, facts which she assiduously hid from most of her supporters.
“Let’s talk about Russian influence”
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/about-russian-influence/
The Israelis are currently moving to completely dispossess the remaining Palestinians, provoking more hatred against themselves and the U.S., and generating more conflict. A U.S. conflict with Russia distracts from this.
“A Republican plan for peacemaking: ‘break the will’ of the Palestinians and force them to ‘accept defeat’”
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/05/republican-palestinians-defeat
Despite Trump appearing to give the Israelis everything they want, they don’t trust him. For one thing, Trump has put the most egregious Israeli policies front and center.
“Legalizing the theft of Palestinian land has been Israeli policy since Day 1”
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/legalizing-palestinian-israeli/
“Palestinian Americans find Trump’s stance on Israel/Palestine, Friedman appointment ‘severely distressing’”
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/palestinian-israelpalestine-appointment
Still, the Israelis have managed to keep discussion of these crimes out of the American press. But Trump may still spill the beans on the Israelis. He knows about their crimes, about their control of the media, their control of the Deep State MIC/CIA apparatus.
“Still Waiting for USS Liberty’s Truth”
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/07/04/still-waiting-for-uss-libertys-truth/
“How The NSA Enabled Israel Military Intelligence To Politically Persecute Innocent Palestinians”
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140917/06334628549/how-nsa-enabled-israel-military-intelligence-to-politically-persecute-innocent-palestinians.shtml
Trump is a wild card who could break open the discussion the entire MSM and Congress has been bribed, beaten, and blackmailed from mentioning. They lie to everybody else, so maybe he’s lying to them? It does appear they’re out to get him.
The huge, obvious question that the Israelis are most desperate to avoid have go public is
Why Not a Probe of ‘Israel-gate’?
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/20/why-not-a-probe-of-israel-gate
There is nothing in the way of phenomena that occurs due to one singular causative agent.
There is no question that Israel is a player, perhaps a substantial player. However, a post like yours which hammers this point, and this point alone, forgets a lot of things.
For instance, what do you suppose is the number 1 department of investment in the U.S.A today–despite Eisenhower’s prophetic warnings? The $600 billion in annual MIC allotments doesn’t take into account the money spent on Veteran’s medical needs, the amount of Uniformed Domestic Soldiers who are now part of the gargantuan Homeland Security apparatus, the Black-ops and covert programs, or other items that need not pass snuff through anything so accountable as an audit.
Where do you suppose America’s armament merchants would be if the wars suddenly came to a halt?
In order to justify the enormous expenditures on something as deleterious as constant war, there must be manufactured enemies.
The Arab world has lots of oil. Any leader who’s threatened to make oil trades outside of the U.S. dollar’s hegemonic controls has suddenly become an Enemy of the State and assassinated.
The wars abroad lead to tyranny at home which is always great news for “law and order” types, business interests, and other right wing corporate controllers.
Israel may gain certain advantages, but it is hardly Israel that is arming the world or Israel that has 1000 bases situated all over the planet, or Israel that uses drones in 7 nations.
As Martin Luther King stated, it’s the U.S. government that’s the greatest purveyor or terror in the world today.
Unlike the outed anti-semite (sszorin) you mask your analysis more antiseptically. the Blame-Jews meme has never improved the world. Consider raising your consciousness.
The arms industry just got a $50 billion bonus check from Trump. Trump has shown zero inclination to tame the warfare’ state. This idea that Trump is a threat to the military industrial complex is beyond laughable.
Booz-Allen, DannyWeil?
There are hard evidence of collaboration and corruption between the US elected officials and the Saudi despots, whereas the Trump-Putin dossier is an easily-verifiable fake and hack job. Do you want yo learn more about the US-Saudis ties? Why not?
According to you, Clinton’s scandalously insulting behavior towards the legitimate president of RF is fine, but Trump’s usual banalities of an astute businessman towards Putin make a mortal sin.
If you are for serious journalism, why don’t you ask questions about Clintons’ Foundation, Clinton’s illegal (if not criminal) private server, her involvement into the putsch in Ukraine (which brought to power Ukrainian neo-Nazis), and her involvement in a murder of Gaddaffi. Bit most most important – why don’t you rise a question about the blatantly corrupt and open influence of Israel on the US policies?
You need to swallow your pride of an Israel-firster and to start looking for the interests of the US and humanity at large.
Excellent comment, Anna.
There is not a single piece of evidence connecting the Wikileaks publications with Russia.
Just look at the intelligence reports, mainly the one from January. They are quite open about having no concrete evidence, there are just “assessments”, i.e. guesses, in some of which the NSA only has “moderate confidence”, the FBI and the CIA stated “high confidence”. Most of the documents is not about alleged Russian hacking or collusion, at all, but a partially outdated description of the Russian international media network RT (mostly with things that can hardly be described as a scandal, e.g. that they reported about Occupy Wallstreet, protests against fracking and had debates with third party candidates). Another report contained lists of “suspicious” IP addresses, many of which were simply TOR exit nodes – so anyone who uses the TOR network could be behind a connection with that IP address. If the intelligence services had concrete evidence, but would have wanted not to reveal any identities, the reports – even the unclassified versions – certainly would have looked very different. The reason why the intelligence services released reports that reveal the lack of concrete evidence was probably that they rightly concluded that few people would read the reports themselves and that they could rely on the media to spin them in the desired way.
That is probably how effective propaganda can work. When an allegation is repeated over and over again, even if no evidence is presented, at all, some part of the population usually begins to thing that “there must be something to this” and “this just can’t be denied”.
Attribution of hacking is generally very difficult, and the DNC, like any high-profile organization with bad cybersecurity was probably targeted by many. Unless the people who gave the relevant documents to Wikileaks speak out (and provide credible evidence that it was really them), we may never know who it was.
Well Seth Rich has been silenced by three bullets in the back on a DC sidewalk ( Assange issued a $15,000 reward for murder information) and former British Ambassador Craig Muarry Has publicly stated he hand carried the leak from USA to Wikileaks ( he was ousted from his post in Uzbekistan for revealing state torture).
Also Podesta and Wikileaks both agree that his emails were obtained by Phishing not hacking. Shawn Lucas may be another murder victim.
…and there is the voice recording of Guccifer stating he received his info from “Seth.”
All valid points Adrian, you know this stuff well.
As Adrian says, attributing the hacking attacks is difficult even when the hacking has been done by amateur hackers, let alone when it has been done by the (top) professionals, as CIA Vault 7 shows. When someone quickly concludes that the Chinese or the Russians or the North Koreans did it, I lose any respect for such claimant – he is either making a deliberately false claim, or he has no idea what he is talking about, or both. Therefore, pinning DNC or some other vague “election hacking” on Russia is one of the above. This is the first strong clue that this story is pure (but dangerous self-defeating) propaganda.
I have not seen this admission by myself, but Podesta appears to have admitted that DNC emails have been phished from him, not hacked. A phishing attack can be done by a one man with little knowledge of computers sitting somewhere in Nigeria, that is by anyone. Hacking requires knowledge of both computers and the specific hacking techniques by the perpetrator, which is a much, much smaller group of potential suspects. Equating these two in the public is a second clear clue that this is all pure unadulterated propaganda bull.
Great comment and very true. Most people only remember the hysterical MSM headlines.
Furthermore, I find it absurd how many people write about “suspicious” ties to Russia. Yes, people in the US have contacts with other countries, and politically well-connected people, whether in the Trump campaign or people like the Podesta brothers have even more such contacts. You could probably choose any country (among them many that are far less democratic and have a much worse human rights record than Russia), and you would find many people who had in one way or another had contact with citizens and representatives of that country. At the moment, in the US, anti-Russian xenophoby is particularly en vogue, but looking at these questions rationally, there is hardly any reason why contacts with Russia (which also many people have, including the Podesta brothers) should be more suspicious than contacts with many other countries. For instance, I think there are good reasons to see the contacts of many US politicians with Saudi Arabia, a totalitarian theocratic dictatureship that supports terrorist groups in other countries as much more suspicious than contacts with Russians.
re “Furthermore, I find it absurd how many people write about “suspicious” ties to Russia.”
Hey, what about the idea of actually having a few Russian friends!
Or being interested in the geography of the country?
This is all so pathetically parochial, on top of being truly dangerous for this country.
I find it easy to believe that “smooth operator,” “gracious” Obama has had a hand in this.
Trump was absolutely right to terminate Comey.
And, he should resist the apointment of a special prosecutor.
Instead he should go directly to the AMerican people with an explanation of his desire to reduce tensions with Russia, and at the same time tell them that he has instructed his cabinet heads to start a process of extending Medicare to all Americans. And do so. It is an issue of national security.
And forget the Tweets. Hold a major press conference, and don’t take questions. This captain has to show who is running the ship.
Ludicrous. The “suspicious ties” of all of our politicos are to Israel.
Quite apart from the obvious string pulling being done by Israel and on Israel’s behalf,
It is known that, for example, Moshe Arens when Israeli ambassador and his wife hobnobbed socially with George Shultz and the latter’s wife, and with with top members of Congress and their wives.
Either there is something wrong with this, or there isn’t.
“I think there are good reasons to see the contacts of many US politicians with Saudi Arabia,”
The Carlyle Group comes to mind.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NEW304A.html
Truly there is so much wrong with your allegations that it is not even worth responding to….on this site every one of your statements has been shown to be false by the facts….To quote even Clapper “there is NO evidence” of collusion with Trump and the Russians in the election and to even claim that such was even plausible is loony given that no one thought at the time he was supposedly “colluding” that he had any chance of winning….This article finally puts it all together for us and the picture is nasty and very dangerous for us all….
Whom are you responding to?
They weren’t Obama’s intelligence chiefs. Follow the vectors of power.
Kevin Kresse, thank you, I agree with all you said. Everything on both sides is loose, including this article. Would be nice if we could follow the money, tax returns.
Even better if we finally use FARA towards the monster that charms ziocons.
Thank you, Kevin. Well said. On the mark.
~S
The Deep State is by definition, a criminal conspiracy. It is not merely the permanent bureaucracy. Don’t ask for the secret police to help you. If you remove Trump you get Pence, who is Dick Cheney on quaaludes. If Congress impeaches Trump this republic is over and the empire is in. This is in fact allready happened, but we still have the appearance of a democracy. Be careful what you wish for. We need democratic processes, not witch hunts of our enemies, no matter how distasteful they may be. Trump is a reaction to Clinton. Impeaching him invalidates his voters. I voted for Bernie/Jill (California).
“If you remove Trump you get Pence, who is Dick Cheney on quaaludes.”
Good one! Can’t stop chuckling. But the serious points you make about democratic processes and being careful for what we wish for are right on.
Let’s not forget that if Pence is impeached and convicted before a new vice-president is installed, Paul Ryan becomes president. That should send shivers of the spine for any American with a functioning brain.
I think you misintepret the situation. Trump’s rhetoric was anti-imperial on the campaign trail. Now, that he’s had multiple offers he cannot refuse he’s altered it and is realizing that he really has little power. Presidents have power only to the degree they are allowed to have it. Presidents can be frozen out or destroyed by the Deep State. JFK was the first victim, Nixon the next (the actual Watergate story is, largely, a fable), the next was Carter–he was frozen out and sabotaged. As I was told by a senior official “everybody” in Washington hated Carter for a variety of reasons that should be, by now, obvious. Reagan was nearly assassinated with possible Deep State involvement and though I haven’t looked at it deeply, some people think that was a “hit”.
As for Russia, here it becomes very complicated and demands an understanding of the current media environment which assumes that Russia is an enemy of the United States. But what USA are we speaking of here? We are speaking of the Deep State that occupies this country, now with complete control but also with edges of it in revolt. Some of these elements have common cause with Russia. The whole rhetoric in the Russia-gate story is that Russia manipulated the U.S. election through Wikileaks and Trump campaign associations with Russia. First, based on the record, I’m more likely to believe Wikilieaks than the propaganda organs which, it seems, you give way too much credibility to. They lie and have lied about every major event consistently and predictably for decades and have only gotten worse. Second, even if members of the Trump team and their Deep State faction did contact Russians what of it? Russia, technically, is another nation-state that we are not technically at war with other than in the media. We have no real differences other than the fact Russia seeks an independent life (from the Empire). It’s “aggressiveness” is usually defensive but, in our unconscious, from the decades of propaganda during the Cold War, from the decades of movies portraying Russians as brutish and violent and deceptive we have adopted certain stereotypes about Russian culture that don’t reflect only a vague echo of reality–yes, Russia and speak English with an identifiable accent. The worst that could be said about Russia is that it favored Trump as a candidate just as Obama favored Macron as a candidate. My problem with the whole Russiagate story is that there is no “there” there. What could the Russians have done? The Wikileaks story doesn’t add up. The tempest in a teapot syndrome I have observed in my life is in full force over, what to me, is nothing. How could the Russians have helped Trump? Said nice things about him—that would have surely backfired–given them info about Clinton not available on the internet? If they did, he didn’t use it. Implying that Russian hackers may have hacked voting machines? Sure, the American voting system is easily hackable by anyone but I haven’t seen any stories about that anywhere on the internet. The only hacking of votes was done by the mainstream Democrats to knock out Sanders in various locations but it was not that much.
The fact of the matter is that the Deep State or National Security State that has been able to operate in secret since 1947 MUST HAVE enemies to exist and be sustained year in and year out. No permanent war, no money for contractors who are the new rulers of Washington–how do I know this? I was a contractor and know how the system operates.
Well said.
Excellent analysis, CC.
Stone and Manafort machinations? You’re quaffing the Kool Aid tiger. The media is so full of it on those boys that they won’t even name them while using innuendo to slander them. Because then the media would be obligated to publish their denials.
What will it take for ya’ll to get off this canard since a lack of evidence or logic isn’t doing it? Nothing. So instead, you will just be ignored as conspiracy theory cranks.
See? We dug plenty deep today.
For six months the investigation has gone on with repeated calls from Congress for evidence, but still none offered. Only one week ago, Senator Feinstein stated that although she is the minority leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that meets regularly with the CIA, she has seen no evidence of Trump Administration involvement in Russian election meddling (the meddling itself remains unproven).
There are many,including me, who share your opinion that Trump is corrupt and dangerous. If so, he needs to be removed in a legal process on those terms, not by a secret cabal that cooks up sensationalized, dubious, and as yet, unproven issues.
One other note: I have no sympathy for Comey who is obviously a far right wing fanatic. In his most recent testimony to Congress, he stated that “Russia is the most dangerous country on earth,” not North Korea, nor ISIS, but Russia (A similar statement by former Presidential candidate Romney was widely derided by Obama.) Is this the kind of unbiased, objective agent you want investigating “Russian meddling?”
Et tu Bill Moyers?
Now even Bill Moyers is buying into the claptrap and baloney coming out of the NY TImes and WaPo opinion pages that Kremlin operatives “hacked the election” or “rigged the election” to steer it to Trump.
When an otherwise decent guy like Bill Moyers is peddling the nonsense — a nonsense that could lead to thermo nuclear war — it seems the group-think is hardening into a terrifying orthodoxy that’s spiraling out of control. It’s reminiscent of the congressional vote two weeks ago in which the vote was 450ish to 1 (one!) in favor of sanctions against North Korea.
Bottom line: the machinations and deceptions of the Washington militarists and Zionists and their state-corporate media nexus are almost indestructible.
Moyers and his ilk are fond of not infrequently citing Orwell in warning of the dangers of big brother. Yet big brother stares them in the face and they run with the propaganda giving it the veneer of liberal respectability.
Dispiriting and disheartening.
Yes, all of it.
I can’t believe that Moyers is caught up in this hysteria.
Makes me want to see Trump take more stern action to impress upon the peanut gallery that he is the president. Unfortunately he does not have the chops in operating the levers of power in Washington. So foolish to put Invanka in a position where he needs a VERY experienced political operative—one who know which skeletons are in which closets. Time for serious arm twisting to call off these rabid dogs in the media and Congress. But it doesn’t look like anyone know whose arm to twist and how. LBJ, where are you . . .?
Trump can and should go directly to the American People, an address on this despicable garbage, pulling no punches. His stupidity in bombing Syria, discouraged those who want to pull back from the endless empire wars, but he still can recover. Meeting with Lavrov was a good first step.
SteveK9 – “Trump can and should go directly to the American people.” Yep, lay it all out there.
yes , that will happen. Then Trump could tell us who shot JFK, who killed Marilyn Monroe, Who had the weapons of Mass Destruction, why is Bernie Madoff in prison, why there is no problem with Amway, no issue with Jared and Ivanka, no dealing with Chinese investors getting visas, and he finally could put Obama in his place, ” No room for you , you darkie.” Gotta love Trump. And of course, Andrew Jackson was the best negotiator, Jackson single-handedly could have avoided the civil war. Kudos to the tv president, Trump is number one in ratings.
@SteveK9…..You actually think Trump is some sort of anti elite politician???? LOLOLOLOLOL…..the cluelessness extends both Right and Left. LOL
I’m a liberal Democrat and I don’t believe this Russian nonsense. I don’t believe Russia hacked the DNC. I believe that meme was concocted to deflect from the damaging content of the leaked emails, in particular that the DNC had rigged the primary for Clinton and against Sanders.
I’m no Trump fan, but I disagree with this rabid, behind-the-scenes plot to take him down by manipulation, lies and Russian fairy tales. Most of my fellow Bernie Sanders voters do not believe the Russian nonsense.
These corrupt interlopers are overplaying their hand. Their schemes are so obvious. They’re going to turn Trump into a victim. Most Americans are angry at our government and they know that powerful players, corporate overlords and the media are running a party to which “We The People” are not invited. These ingrates just might unite the left and the right.
Although I don’t agree with most of Trump’s policies and stances, he was legitimately elected. That should be respected. I imagine the left understands that if Bernie had won, this same gang of criminals would be terrorizing him as well, and trying to undermine his presidency.
We need to stop thinking left/right or Democrat/Republican. We need to join forces against this UnAmerican band of power abusers who think they can run our government behind the backs of the people. I guarantee you that most of the left is upset by this and not buying the media narrative. Forget the Hillary Clinton fans in our party. They are warped sheep who are an embarrassment and less than half of the party.
We have to figure out a way to come together, join forces and make it known that the majority of this country does not appreciate this pathetic kabuki theater from aging corporatists and globalist who like to operate in the dark like cockroaches.
They have no right!
Well said.
Exactly.
Thank you! Where is the ‘somebody’ that can lead a third party and stand up to the layers of lies and total corruption that our political system represents?
Genevieve, you sound very intelligent and aware.
So why are you a Democratic-Liberal??????
You should be a Radical Anarchist!!!!!!!!
Very Well Spoken!! I am a progressive Democrat. I supported Bernie too. I have been appalled by the shenanigans of the Clinton Machine. The faster those guys go bury themselves – the happier I will be.
AMEN!
Genevieve for president.
Genevieve-
I am a non party centrist and voted for Trump. What you said in your comments-I applaud you and agree ,we as the American people must come together on both sides, join hands and tell the media or whoever these people are, enough is enough. Lets make this work for everyone-we all have a stake in this. This destroy Trump nonsense will not work and will simply backfire , as it already is. I turn on the news and feel that I am watching newstories being put on national TV by a bunch of 13 yr olds, it is so sickening and obvious , the hatred and downright distain the media has for this president. And you know what, they would be doing the same thing to Bernie Sanders if he won. Maybe the next time ,you will find them doing the same thing to your choice. They must be stopped and the swamp must be drained-for all of us!
Genevieve, your comments as a “liberal Democrat” and your statements that a large sector of liberals also think the way you do gives me great hope. I thought half the people of this great nation have lost their minds and are just sheeple buying into this propaganda based assassination. I agree the only salvation is for us to unite against those who have stolen the government from We The People. Thank you for your posting and suggestions.
I’m with you and appreciate most of what you say, Genevieve. That is, right up to where you state “he was legitimately elected.” We are all easily distracted from the Republicans’ now-standard and extensive voter suppression tactics that excluded many in perhaps key states that could have tipped it to Clinton. I’m not saying this as a sore loser, I’m actually a loather of Clinton Inc & Ilk and all that they stand for in their actions. But it needed saying.
It is now obvious that clapper and Brennan need to be fired also…partially cleaning the swamp
Moyers is not the saint he portends to be. He worked for LBJ, one of the most corrupt people ever to set foot in Washington.
As Peter Wehner noted earlier, a story in today’s Washington Post on the FBI’s interest in the sexuality of LBJ aide Jack Valenti contained an illuminating tidbit about Bill Moyers, the LBJ special assistant who went on to a brief career as publisher of Newsday before inflicting himself on the nation for decades as a Pecksniffian media liberal.
Moyers, according to previously confidential FBI files, trolled for information about the private lives of his colleagues in the Johnson administration. And while this news will no doubt disillusion those who have bought into Moyers’s carefully constructed image as a paragon of politically correct virtue, it comes as something considerably less than a bolt out of the blue.
Evidently, the president was concerned that Barry Goldwater would use that against him in the election. Another assistant, Bill Moyers, was tasked to direct Hoover to do an investigation of Goldwater’s staff to find similar evidence of homosexual activity. Mr. Moyers’ memo to the FBI was in one of the files.
When the press reported this, I received a call in my office from Mr. Moyers. Several of my assistants were with me. He was outraged; he claimed that this was another example of the Bureau salting its files with phony CIA memos. I was taken aback. I offered to conduct an investigation, which if his contention was correct, would lead me to publicly exonerate him. There was a pause on the line and then he said, “I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?” (https://www.commentarymagazine.com/american-society/re-the-real-bill-moyers/).
“Moyers is not the saint he portends to be. He worked for LBJ, one of the most corrupt people ever to set foot in Washington.”
Yep the “Great Society” and things like Medicare were a Commie plot, no?
No. He was just a war criminal for cooking up a false Tonkin Gulf incident resulting in 10s of thousands of US deaths and a magnitude greater number of Vietnamese.
As far as Medicaid, it results in out of control costs and too much health spending at end of life. It really comes out of the same hubris – that the all powerful state can spend any amount to reach any end.
I knew Winship was on the Russia-phobia train but I didn’t realize Moyers was too … Moyers goes back to 12/17/2016 as far as I’ve found
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/12/17/trumped-putin
Moyers refuses to discuss the Katzenbach Memo re the JFK assassination even though it was addressed to him. Also he refuses to discuss his role in the removal of route change in Dallas and the removal of bubbletop of the limo 11.22.63.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62268#relPageId=29
Bill Moyers has long been a tool of the faux left, a master of misinformation. Don’t forget, he was LBJ’s press secretary.
Isn’t Moyers on the CFR? “Decent guy”…I thought that disqualified you from membership there….
True, maybe I was too quick to deem him a decent guy. I leaned in that direction b/c he’s written and said quite a bit of great things on domestic populist economics. He gets kudos for this aspect of his career.
I’m sure this ‘decent guy’, Bill Moyers, didn’t call off the secret service detail from the back of JFK’s limo in Dealey Plaza on his own, but followed his boss’s orders. No amount of ‘mea culpa’s’ will wash away this treasonous deed.
Clarioncaller, I did not know this. Where did you get this information from? I am not a crackpot. I would simply like to know that he did this. I read James Douglas’ book on the JFK investigation. Lots of tenacles everywhere. I did not know it involved Moyers.
Had JFK lived and been president 8 years – this country would be very very different.
There was no conspiracy. Oswald acted alone and wasn’t a player in any conspiracy. Read Bugliosi’s ‘Reclaiming History ” for the authentic and true account of what went down on that fateful day in Dallas in 1963.
Drew,
No mate….No.
Now that you’ve read Bugliosi, I suggest you read James DiEugenio’s Reclaiming Parkland.
Drew, you’ve been drinking the Bugliosi Kool-Aid. How gullible can you
be ?????????????????
You forgot to mention St. Bugliosi received +$1M from the Association of Retired Intelligence Officers (founded by CIA agent David A. Phillips) to write his disingenuous book. You might like to see a letter from Phillips to Bugliosi; Also, in the letter he promotes books by cia hack writers Jean Davidson and Patricia Johnson McMillian. Whatever happened in Dealey Plaza you can be sure Bugliosi’s, “Reclaiming History” is not the authentic and true account.
http://www.prayer-man.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/rokc%20forum/www.reopenkennedycase.org/apps/forums/topics/show/13313566-david-phillips-letter-to-bugliosi.html
And there was no conspiracy to murder Caesar either – Brutus was the “lone assassin”. And there was no conspiracy in 1911, which led to the Jew communist takeover of Russia, to assassinate Pyotr Stolypin – Jew Dimitry [Mordechai] Bogrov was the “lone assassin’. And there was no conspiracy to assassinate Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 – Gavrilo Princip was the “lone assassin”. And there was no conspiracy in 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler and there was no conspiracy in 1943 to assassinate General Wladyslaw Sikorski and there was no conspiracy in 1953 to assassinate Stalin. Only conspiracy maniacs believe in conspiracies.
Wow! Drew. Yo — Leaving out the highly unlikely probability that Oswald if even ever pulling the trigger on that notoriously less than accurate Mannlicher Carcano surplus bin army rifle for that many accurate shots in that amount of time, simple physics x ballistics destroys the “lone assassin” cover-up. The back of Kennedy’s skull was blown off and sprayed onto the trunk and surroundings, a thing so physically improbable if shot from behind it. defies. logic. Period. That shot was an exit wound. Period.
I respected Moyers in the past but I am astonished that he has joined the hysterical and uninformed!
I fear the zionists may not be controlled-this link below is a very long summary of the birth of the neo con movement and how it has grown in strength-very long but worth at least a scan:
http://thesaker.is/the-history-of-the-neocon-takeover-of-the-usa-a-4-part-analysis/
Bill was captured by that narrative several weeks ago. It was a disappointment, to be sure.
I’m not going to say that every major U.S. network and media personality, even Moyers, is tied into the CIA but as most of us who have been following events since the death of JFK, we know that Operation Mockingbird was real and that it endures and has expanded to include almost everywhere in the world if you believe the late Udo Ulfkotte whose amazingly inflammable statements about the CIA basically controlling European media should have sent shock-waves around the world but I don’t think there are more than a few thousand people who know his name. Ulfkotte, of course died shortly after his book was published, describes in detail how the system works to entice journalists and it’s an amazing story. Most people do not understand how easy it is for a covert organization with almost unlimited funds can literally impose a mind-control regime on the majority of people in the West. This is why the current Deep State Empire is invulnerable to reform and cannot lose power.
There is only one way to change this since political change is virtually impossible. That one way is to change the culture through developing alternative institutions who can sidestep the mainstream culture. I’ve been saying this since 1968 when it was obvious that conventional politics cannot work. The only sphere we have to operate in is, in the broadest sense of the word–spirituality.
Excellent post; I’ll be sure to check out those writings.
I agree, Chris Cosmos, and have also been saying this for some time, that we must side-step the current system, where there is no longer any way to effect any change, in order to produce a different society; we must starve it of attention and let it wither and die as we work to replace it.
This also has the effect of relieving ourselves from the pressures imposed by today’s political climate and it’s media barkers. When I watch friends and family reacting in very emotional ways to world events as they understand them from the Empire’s Corporate Media, I shake my head and think: “what a waste of energy.” I implore all I know to turn off the TV and read the news – better for critical thinking skills to become engaged that way. And I do believe that’s what’s been lost in the many decades of deep state deceit and lazy TV-consuming. Were people to think for themselves and think of how their actions affect others, we would not be in this mess.
There are a lot of assumptions in your post.
First, a substantial number of citizens are indoctrinated–virtually from birth–into patriarchal religious conditioning and as the font of authoritarianism, its ethos is that things must be accepted on the basis of faith. In fact, to question said faith is seen in many fundamentalist sects as a form of sin or blasphemy.
Second: In a climate of dense obfuscation, lies told often, and subliminal messaging, how do you suppose individuals can find the necessary discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff?
I make a parallel analogy to genetically modified food. Once all of those Monsanto “goodies” become embedded into plant biology, the human body (with no experience in breaking down these toxic molecules) must cope with the onslaught.
Even atheists cannot escape the Judeo-Christian culture which has pushed the idea of personal responsibility for a long time. I believe that there is some personal responsibility; yet the cultures of our lives are shaped by larger forces that begin with filial conditioning, move through a largely controlled education system, and then rely on mass media for the unconscious shaping devices that have been honed to a high art since the days when Edward Bernays introduced them to Madison Ave.
The illusion of choice as presented by hundreds of Cable TV channels belies the fact that the majority are controlled by a handful of corporate content providers. Illusions are very powerful. That’s why nature uses them–camouflage, scents, and other devices to ensnare prey or the opposite sex.
Moyers was an LBJ scumbag of the highest order. He got whitewashed over decades of PBS bullshit programming. But he was a first order Democrat rat.
Drew, when Moyers peddled the non-sense of Sandy Hook and the alleged massacre of 20 school kids and 6 teachers it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize he is part of the propaganda cabal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxTafqejV6k
We Need To Talk About Sandy Hook shows the how and why and who is involved the largest fraud perpetuated on the american public since 9 / 11
Don’t you know that ‘the Synagogue of Satan’ is the hidden real power ? Removed from daily political circus and thus from public eye it runs the show from behind the scenes. The Synagogue of Satan does not like president Trump because he is too stubborn, because he has an inflated ego and therefore cannot be trained to be an obedient puppet of Jews. He is not a good fit for Jew-Freemasonic schemes and agenda. That is why we see orchestrated hysteria and attacks on D. Trump. The Synagogue of Satan removed a president from his office before, in Dallas in 1963, but this time a bullet in the head would be too obvious, it would be like leaving a calling card at the scene of a crime. So instead, a slow dismantling and sinking of Trump’s presidency is under way.
‘A decent guy like Bill Moyers’ ??
Front man press secretary for LBJ and his Viet Nam escalation ? Surely you jest.
You are so correct