Exclusive: The U.S. mainstream media is touting a big break in Russia-gate, emails showing an effort by Donald Trump’s associates to construct a building in Moscow. But the evidence actually undercuts the “scandal,” reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There is an inherent danger of news organizations getting infected by “confirmation bias” when they want something to be true so badly that even if the evidence goes in the opposite direction they twist the revelation to fit their narrative. Such is how The Washington Post, The New York Times and their followers in the mainstream media are reacting to newly released emails that actually show Donald Trump’s team having little or no influence in Moscow.
President Trump discusses his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. (Screenshot from Whitehouse.gov)
On Tuesday, for instance, the Times published a front-page article designed to advance the Russia-gate narrative, stating: “A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.”
Wow, that sounds pretty devastating! The Times is finally tying together the loose and scattered threads of the Russia-influencing-the-U.S.-election story. Here you have a supposed business deal in which Putin was to help Trump both make money and get elected. That is surely how a casual reader or a Russia-gate true believer would read it – and was meant to read it. But the lede is misleading.
The reality, as you would find out if you read further into the story, is that the boast from Felix Sater that somehow the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow would demonstrate Trump’s international business prowess and thus help his election was meaningless. What the incident really shows is that the Trump organization had little or no pull in Russia as Putin’s government apparently didn’t lift a finger to salvage this stillborn building project.
But highlighting that reality would not serve the Times’ endless promotion of Russia-gate. So, this counter-evidence gets buried deep in the story, after a reprise of the “scandal” and the Times hyping the significance of Sater’s emails from 2015 and early 2016. For good measure, the Times includes a brief and dishonest summary of the Ukraine crisis.
The Times reported: “Mr. Sater, a Russian immigrant, said he had lined up financing for the Trump Tower deal with VTB Bank, a Russian bank that was under American sanctions for involvement in Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracy in Ukraine. In another email, Mr. Sater envisioned a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Moscow. ‘I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,’ Mr. Sater wrote.”
But the idea that Russia acted “to undermine democracy in Ukraine” is another example of the Times’ descent into outright propaganda. The reality is that the U.S. government supported – and indeed encouraged – a coup on Feb. 22, 2014, that overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych even after he offered to move up scheduled elections so he could be voted out of office through a democratic process.
After Yanukovych’s violent ouster and after the coup regime dispatched military forces to crush resistance among anti-coup, mostly ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the east, Russia provided help to prevent their destruction from an assault spearheaded by neo-Nazis and other extreme Ukrainian nationalists. But that reality would not fit the Times’ preferred Ukraine narrative, so it gets summarized as Moscow trying “to undermine democracy in Ukraine.”
Empty Boasts
However, leaving aside the Times’ propagandistic approach to Ukraine, there is this more immediate point about Russia-gate: none of Sater’s boastful claims proved true and this incident really underscored the lack of useful connections between Trump’s people and the Kremlin. One of Trump’s lawyers, Michael Cohen, even used a general press email address in a plea for assistance from Putin’s personal spokesman.
The New York Times’ connect-the-dots graphic showing the Kremlin sitting atop the White House.
Deeper in the story, the Times admits these inconvenient facts: “There is no evidence in the emails that Mr. Sater delivered on his promises, and one email suggests that Mr. Sater overstated his Russian ties. In January 2016, Mr. Cohen wrote to Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, asking for help restarting the Trump Tower project, which had stalled. But Mr. Sater did not appear to have Mr. Peskov’s direct email, and instead wrote to a general inbox for press inquiries.”
The Times added: “The project never got government permits or financing, and died weeks later. … The emails obtained by The Times make no mention of Russian efforts to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign or the hacking of Democrats’ emails.”
In other words, the Russia-gate narrative – that somehow Putin foresaw Trump’s election (although almost no one else did) and sought to curry favor with the future U.S. president by lining Trump’s pockets with lucrative real estate deals while doing whatever he could to help Trump win – is knocked down by these new disclosures, not supported by them.
Instead of clearing the way for Trump to construct the building and thus – in Sater’s view – boost Trump’s election chances, Putin and his government wouldn’t even approve permits or assist in the financing.
And, this failed building project was not the first Trump proposal in Russia to fall apart. A couple of years earlier, a Moscow hotel plan died apparently because Trump would not – or could not – put up adequate financing for his share, overvaluing the magic of the Trump brand. But one would think that if the Kremlin were grooming Trump to be its Manchurian candidate and take over the U.S. government, money would have been no obstacle.
Along the same lines, there’s the relative pittance that RT paid Gen. Michael Flynn to speak at the TV network’s tenth anniversary in Moscow in December 2015. The amount totaled $45,386 with Flynn netting $33,750 after his speakers’ bureau took its cut. Democrats and the U.S. mainstream media treated this fact as important evidence of Russia buying influence in the Trump campaign and White House, since Flynn was both a campaign adviser and briefly national security adviser.
Green Party leader Jill Stein and retired Lt. General Michael Flynn attending a dinner marking the RT network’s 10-year anniversary in Moscow, December 2015, sitting at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the actual evidence suggests something quite different. Besides Flynn’s relatively modest speaking fee, it turned out that RT negotiated Flynn’s rate downward, a fact that The Washington Post buried deep inside an article on Flynn’s Russia-connected payments. The Post wrote, “RT balked at paying Flynn’s original asking price. ‘Sorry it took us longer to get back to you but the problem is that the speaking fee is a bit too high and exceeds our budget at the moment,’ Alina Mikhaleva, RT’s head of marketing, wrote a Flynn associate about a month before the event.”
Yet, if Putin were splurging to induce Americans near Trump to betray their country, it makes no sense that Putin’s supposed flunkies at RT would be quibbling with Flynn over a relatively modest speaking fee; they’d be falling over themselves to pay him more.
So, what the evidence really indicates is that Putin, like almost everybody else in the world, didn’t anticipate Trump’s ascendance to the White House, at least not in the time frame of these events – and thus was doing nothing to buy influence with his entourage or boost his election chances by helping him construct a glittering Trump Tower in Moscow.
But that recognition of reality would undermine the much beloved story of Putin-Trump collusion, so the key facts and the clear logic are downplayed or ignored – all the better to deceive Americans who are dependent on the Times, the Post and the mainstream media.
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).
USA…GREAT AMERICANS…1776-1865-1968
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=15
[George Washington’s Farewell Address]
http://goodreads.com/quotes/151579-with-malice-toward-none-with-charity-for-all-with-firmness
[Abraham Lincoln…with-malice-toward-none…]
http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy
[Martin Luther King, Jr.]
USA…RUSSIA…1776-1863-1867-1945
https://www.quora.com/What-was-Russias-reaction-when-America-declared-its-independence
[…In practice, Russia’s backing of the First League of Armed Neutrality meant that other countries could engage in peaceful trade with the United States without having to worry about being blockaded or attacked by the British navy. This meant that the American rebels could keep getting crucial supplies from Europe, a factor that enabled them to stay in the war until defeating Great Britain….]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLB1umCHaqw
[Civil War…Paducah…Russians…]
http://knowledgenuts.com/2015/02/01/how-the-russian-navy-saved-the-union-in-the-civil-war/
[…Fortunately, Britain and France backed down before the Russian presence. The Laird rams never made it into Confederate hands, and the Union was saved.]
https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1597970549
[The Russian Navy’s Landmark Visit to Civil War San Francisco]
http://www.arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us/member-states/united-states-of-america
[…The United States of America became an Arctic nation upon the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867….]
http://worldcat.org/title/marshal-zhukov-the-man-who-beat-hitler/oclc/49785424
[MARSHAL ZHUKOV – THE MAN WHO BEAT HITLER “Georgi Zhukov was a great general in the most devastating war in history. General Eisenhower said the world owed a greater debt to Zhukov than to any other military figure for the victory over Nazi Germany.”]
Let’s be honest, this is not about collusion. It is about catching the Trump administration in a web of lies. The whole cover-up is worse than the crime routine. Normally, I would not be in favor of this kind of journalism, but since Trump ran with the whole anti-Hilary theme I gotta say, he deserves all of this. It does weaken the state of journalism though. But I wouldn’t be quick to blame the Times for everything. After Benghazi politics moved into the mainstream media and now it has become a battle of fake narratives.
Robert,
May a naive chemistry professor from Ohio ask, what happens when you attempt to contribute your always well reasoned commentaries to Consortium News to the NYT or WP mainstream. Of course there are copyright considerations, but if these behemoth shapers of American public opinion are what they are said to be by others, could they actually be fearful of printing “non-accepted narrative” points of view? Aren’t we all trying to prevent our country from digging us into a still deeper hole after all? Maybe these things are just “academic questions”?
Thank you immensely for your integrity and persistence in the face of a public steamroller and a deep state pulling everyone’s strings. Your energy stands as a beacon in a darkening storm.
remember, hillary started the russia rumor but 2 days after she lost the election to trump. if she could de-legitimize the election and have the results thrown out, she would get a second bite at the apple.
sounds far-fetched i know. but, we’re in crazyland now. nothing is real. the matrix exists.
I am glad Perry is trying to cure those on this site of acute far-right McCarthyism. This Russia scare is actually attacking Trump from the right, painting him as a stooge of Putin. Considering that we now know that Russia most likely did not hack the DNC and that Russian oligarchs handed over millions to the Clinton Foundation, this is the strongest piece of evidence we have:
“If the Russians could hack my subconscious, they’d find a long list.”
– Crooked Hillary
Any relation of Dominic Sater…?? You know.. The owner of urban moving systems… Owner of the van with the painting of the plane crashing into a building seen driving around lower Manhattan on that day when the planes actually did do what the painting depicts.. I wonder if the Times will bother to check that possibility…?????
Robert Parry was not acting as an investigative reorter when he pinned this propaganda commentary.
He commits the same sins Fake Media alledgedly commits.
How about some elucidation to go along with your slander.
Every newspaper report is aiming to be sensational, in order to attract readers. Farthermore each reporter toots his own horn. The article reminds me of a lawyer defending his guilty client. If I, as an individual, committed acts attributed to Trump, I would most certainly, as US citizen, be charged with treason.
The previous comment also apply for those (like me) who believe in evolution (natural or accidental). In this case it is Nature which is fed up with humen’s behavior…
World’s powers leadership is really falling down ! Look at what kind of leaders main nations like America and France have founded. This mean also than those countries are getting sicker and sicker by the day. Sometimes I Wonder if God himself has not concluded than having creating the human specie was a big mistake. So he let us take care of our own self destruction. America being the example and leader to follow in the matter…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/social-media-is-a-tool-of-the-cia-facebook-google-and-other-social-media-used-to-spy-on-people/5606170 your observation confirmed.. amazing how most of my post here never get posted..
”… democracy in Ukraine.” (sic) There are occasions when words simply fail one. This is one of those occasions.
Thank you, Mr. Parry, for applying deductive reasoning to the evidence. All I wish to add to the discussion is that the President of the Russian Federation is (a) no fool and (b) has available, and seems to listen to, a brilliant advisor who knows the USA and its politics very well. I refer, of course, to his Foreign Minister, Lavrov, who was a distinguished career diplomat before being elevated to his current position “in cabinet” and who spent several years at the UN in New York.
And, I thank you Allan Millard in turn, for that insight. I have been fascinated with Sergey Lavrov for some time and I did not know that about him. A truly pliant media would have presented us with dense information on Mr. Lavrov by now but apparently that is beyond Media at this point… I’ll provide a link for the curious.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Lavrov
It seems like the MSM has overlooked the events that have recently occurred in Rostov-on-the Don involving the one and only Tony Podesta
Over my head… Not making any connections with Rostov-on-the Don & or Tony P…. Maybe a few hints or clues for a slow guy before his 1st. cup of Jo…. And what events were these, to which you allude… In a place where every falafel kiosk has events…????
Help me out here Sandpiper…
The states of America have lost control …..The federal government has over the years hijacked your country….they are aiming for total control…..foreign interest are closing in on your sovereignty.
HaHaHa…hahahah…. “Foreign interests closing in…..??????” Surely you jest…!!!!! The deal was closed long ago… Are you just waking up to it now….????? You have a lot of research ahead to get up to speed on this. Our country is run to profit those that OWN us, our persons, our politicians, our ports, and especially our money and very important, our public debt!! It’s run by those that OWN US. Because they control everything we do.
Our elections are like auctions for them, and, well, if someone sneaks in and goes a bit too far off script, well just ask the Kennedys… Has been this way almost forever, since the deal at Jekyll island when the noose really tightened.. when we lost control of the dollar….!!!!!
Yeah, I *definitely* would have voted for Trump if there had been a Trump tower in Moscow!
In our post-modern, post-truth, post-reality present we are treated to the latest in “ultimate irony!” MSM outlets like the NYTs, Washington Post, NPR, etc. tell us we must be vigalant to watch out for “fake news,” apparently blissfully unaware that if we took them up on their warning we’d never spend another minute listening or reading the non-stop propaganda of empire which they spew 24/7!
I’m with you on this!
At nearly 71 yrs of age, I have been astounded by the morning news every damned day since Barack Hussein took his oath. This story proves to me that Satan has tunneled deeply into our systems and populations. AntiFa, for instance, says it stands against everything it then goes and does – stopping speech, violence over debate. Is that insane or what? The Dem. Gov and Mayor of Charlottesville intentionally provoked the violence there (they actually planned it and told the cops to Back Off), all to smear Trump for being a racist. It worsened when the MSM took his “I object to violence on all sides” as a grant of immunity to the Righties because White Power wasn’t precisely named in Trumps’ objection. Today, Black is White, Truth is Fiction, there is no professionalism in government. Can anyone but me see what the HELL is happening here? Come Lord Jesus!
to =>An American
The Americans I know wish we had someone as level headed as Putin at the helm of the USA. so there must be something you know, most Americans don’t? .
Putin leads a nation of Russian speaking people in a place on the other side of the earth. What exactly did Putin do to you? What I saw was Putin stopped the carnage in Syria, circumvented the trap set for him in Ukraine, developed the NORDII pipeline from Russia into Germany to deliver to Europe oil and gas at prices lower than otherwise available, and in so doing, indirectly contributed to lower oil and gas prices here at the pumps in America (a very good thing), signed on to the OROB (one road one bridge project to open trade with China). Putin has pledged to develop to maturity state backed cybercurrency to replace ever inflating fiat currency, something the entire world needs.
Frankly, considering the leadership, corruption and loss of democracy in USA since JFK was murdered, my plate would favor Netanyohu see http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.805112)
Putin has not taken American taxpayer money that I am aware of from America, but the Israelis have taken trillions of taxpayer money from America;. By comparison, I cannot find real fault with Mr. Putin, he seems quite professional as the leader of a nation that is not mine and a nation about which I know so little. Russia, under Putin looks more like a corporation doing business as a nation.
I have had occasions to work with several Russian people and they have all been quite professional, quite friendly, very well trained, very strong practicing Christians, and more honest with me than many Americans. have been. You say the Kremlin’s lies but what lies? Be explicit.
YOU HAVE THE FORUM: tell me what has Mr. Putin done to you or to anyone in America; yes, I agree he has advanced the cause of Russia at every opportunity, just as all of the mega monopoly America corporations advance their causes, every day, but as near as I can see, Putin’s opportunism has not been at the expense of, or on account of, abuse against Americans? Seems the salaried, elected members of the USA, their Beltway friends, and a few foreign lobbyists operating in the USA are angry with Putin, but I cannot find out why? Apparently the fake news has a black out. Give me some facts and I might change my mind. A domestic problem bigger than have Putin for dinner is found in http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-21/one-statistics-professor-was-just-banned-google-here-his-story and the fact that oil and gas including gas produced by fracking is excluded from export taxes is another, those exports should be taxed heavily enough to pay off the national debt.. basically to me, exempting oil and gas from export taxes is USA sponsored corporate theft of the natural resources that belong to Americans.
Fudmier-
Thanks for that very thoughtful rebuttal to “An American”. As for the few foreign lobbyists angry at Putin, I’m pretty sure they’re angry at him for disrupting their plans of rape, pillage, and plunder of his “mother Russia”. Between 60 and 80+ percent of the Russian population have been supporting him during his entire tenure; he must be doing something right.
Despite the facts debunking our bullshit being proven repeatedly we are going ahead with our false narrative which makes us war criminals according to the definition of the decision of the Nuremberg court in the trial Julius Streicher, the Nazi era editor of its party paper der Stuermer during the third Reich we are going ahead with this crap no matter what the results of this end up being. Frankly I think the editors and owners of the paper deserve a similar fate to Streicher’s.
Btw: that NY Times illustration does *not* depict the Kremlin. I hope that Consortium News will show a little more cultural literacy than the Times, Time Magazine, and the other media hacks that don’t know the difference between the Kremlin and the extraordinary St. Basil’s Cathedral on the other side of Red Square.
Examining materials published by the NYT takes a lot more “intestinal fortitude” than I have, and I’m glad Mr. Parry and other authors do that for me. Isn’t it a little unreasonable to expect them to also “fact-check” the wretched publication’s illustrations, especially when they’re incidental to the main piece?
Nope.
Robert Parry is fighting the good fight against the Russiagate Big Lie, hoax, propaganda, or whatever label you want to apply to a real conspiracy to overthrow an elected U.S. president on the basis of smears and fabrications. If you’ve ever wondered how it feels to be on the receiving end of a U.S. black op, now you know. The only way to counteract the non-stop lies emanating from our neocon oligarchs and their wholly-owned news media is the ugly (worse than ugly—hideous) truth. It’s not pretty to see what some people are capable of for a few dollars more, or for a homeland other than the U.S. (Zionists hold up your hands!). A year after the election, the neocons and other deep-staters have yet to produce a shred of evidence to back up their allegations, but that doesn’t faze them, nor will it, because knowledgeable witch/Russky hunters all know that witches/Russkies (and their helpers) are too diabolically clever to leave evidence lying around, so when the accused assert lack of evidence as a defense, it’s not a defense at all but rather proof of their cleverness (and guilt). Every day brings a new carefully-crafted/calibrated lie, smear, or innuendo. By the time you’ve disproved one lie, a dozen new ones have taken its place.
With all of the recently disclosed evidence exposing the fraudulence of the “Russiagate” propaganda effort, it is time to shut down the Mueller witch hunt.
Yes, agreed. Of course, that would touch off a political firestorm that would make any “fire and fury” Trump might unleash against N. Korea pale by comparison. Neocons and the Deep State would scream bloody murder, claiming that firing Mueller constitutes obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. But we’re talking about obstruction of a farcical witchhunt/fishing expedition, not obstruction of justice. That subtle distinction might escape our representatives, all knee-jerk stooges of the neocons and Deep State.
One mans investigation, another mans witch hunt…and visa versa.. Where is the beef…???? There is no there in their investigation… Its a chimera.. The hacking tools released by Wikileaks show how it was or easily could have been a spoof…
Very sobering info on the lie factory…. Not only political.. Why would. Lynch cover their tracks…..???? Really gotta wonder what’s going on… Certainly a Lotta loose ends to pull though….and see what cums out… Lotta folks to sweat… Certainly want to look into goings on in the place from where she emminated…
Isn’t it it where Aaffia got 86 years for shooting at her guards inside a wood walled room, but no 1 was hit & no bullets found.. Seems like a nest of N#0(0n intrigue to me… Dangerous place for those not part of their plan…
I wonder where this fine-no-time seal-da-deal event occurred…. Any guesses..???
Just a minute ago on MSNBC (I know: it’s just one of my bad habits), Chuck Todd actually brought up the point that Robert Parry makes here: the obvious lack of Trumpian pull in Moscow that this supposedly big story reveals.
Of course, the guest he addressed it to dodged it, and Chuck was glad to promptly drop the inconvenient truth.
From Felix Sater’s Wiki page:
“In 1991, Sater got into an argument with a commodities broker at the El Rio Grande restaurant and bar in Midtown. He stabbed the man’s cheek and neck with the stem of a margarita glass, breaking his jaw, lacerating his face, and severing nerves, creating a wound that would require 110 stitches to treat.
In 1998, Sater was convicted of fraud in connection to a $40 million penny stock pump and dump scheme conducted by the Russian Mafia involving his company White Rock Partners. In return for a guilty plea, Sater agreed to assist the FBI and federal prosecutors as an informant in organized crime.
In 2009, he was sentenced to pay a $25,000 fine and served no prison time. As a result of his assistance, Sater’s court records were sealed for 10 years by Loretta Lynch, then the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Lynch’s decision to seal his records was discussed at her 2015 Congressional confirmation hearings to become attorney general; she stated that Sater provided ‘information crucial to national security and the conviction of over 20 individuals, including those responsible for committing massive financial fraud and members of La Cosa Nostra.'”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Sater
So Sater sets these people up? And how nice of Loretta Lynch to seal his records for 10 years.
“The Times reported: “Mr. Sater, a Russian immigrant…” He left Russia when he was eight years old. His family moved to Israel, then on to the U.S. Sounds like he had a colorful father:
“According to the FBI, Mikhail Sheferovsky [Sater’s father] was an underboss for Russian Mafia “boss of bosses” Semion Mogilevich and convicted of extorting local restaurants, grocery stores, and a medical clinic.”
Nice addition to the U.S. (not).
backwardsevolution: Now Mr. Sater is New York Times agent. He must have had lot of training during his stay in Israel. Just about all of them at New York Times are of the same type as Mr. Sater.
Thanks, Robert. I have been away for 10 days and really didn’t understand what this new wrinkle in the Putingate affair was about and what Rachel was gleefully nattering on about. Now I do and you have also given me the “weapon” (your article to forward) to send my lovely but frighteningly ignorant family and friends to try to disabuse them of their current beliefs. “But everybody says so” isn’t really a valid argument anymore – particularly after Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
God, Rachel. She gets more pathetic every day as she tries so hard to please the boys with the money and influence. I used to think she was so smart and witty, and as a gay woman I was so proud of her achievements. But now, I got a gag reflex that just won’t quit. How could she do this? Or conversely, how could I have been so stupid? It’s like having yer girlfriend dump you for a guy.
Thank you Robert Parry for pulling my head out.
You are persistent, truthful & always on story’s proper angle. Thank you, Robert Parry.
Pathetic efforts by the MSM to make a story. Why do people read this stuff, let alone believe it?
I bet it feels good to get money from Russia. You are not a journalist but a propagandist. There is a bullet waiting for people like you. You who praise Putin’s strength while internally a large portion of Russia can see that he is evil. Crimia is not Putin’s play toy. But if he continues on this path, it would not be hard to imagine the piles of dead brainwashed Russian citizens on the easter front of Ukraine. Putin may have brainwashed YOU, but the rest of the world see’s through the Kremlin’s lies.
You are a loony propagandist, fooling no one at all.
Jeez! And…to think that this stuff flies, but MY comments get moderated!
F.G., I was thinking the same thing when I read it. It seems the trolls pass through unmolested, and the quality commenters like yourself, Realist, Joe Tedesky, and other regulars deal with moderation all the time. I just don’t get it.
I think “An American” may be the most effective post to illustrate the mindset of a big part of the intended audience of the msm. How do you argue with someone like that?
I don’t get it at all. Not so long ago a reader could come here and enjoy relevant and lucid commentary for good long stretches in ways that really enhanced the original articles.
I understand that CN does not want to have to put a lot of time and effort into “policing” this site, but it seems to me that some “trust factor” should be allocated and that a simple occasional perusal would identify “problems”. CN is allowing trolls to denigrate things here at the expense of people who care to constructively engage.
“Moderation” has become immoderate, counterproductive, and useless against trolls.
I’m at the point of my life where I’m even willing to learn how to live with the trolls, but that moderation thing got to go.
My ideal comment board wouldn’t censor anything. I’d hope commentators would be polite and civil, but if not so what. No signing in through a social website account, like Facebook, and besides who needs a middleman/woman?
This site is pretty easy going, it just needs to scrap the moderation mode.
The moderation software appears to catch links, and sometimes very long posts.
I don’t think you are being moderated deliberately, F.G., as your posts have been moderate and sensible.
Putting links in a separate post under your main post seems to work.
I have been moderated on short, simple posts on occasion, perhaps due to server overload.
Definitely worth a try!
Now quoting from the loon:
I’m seeing more and more of this – little people whose guns make them feel ten feet tall. There are reports out of Houston telling of the good Second Amendment folks shooting at rescuers in boats if they feel they aren’t getting the proper amount of attention.
This bodes ill for future disasters, for the US is now an extremely heavily armed place and the numbers of 2-digit IQ types with weapons and the belief they’re something special on that account hints that future disorders & disruptions will be worse than historical ones.
Most of them threaten just to feel better, and know that violence will get them in trouble.
Let’s hope that the armed ignorant can be assembled with others under an enlightened nationalist like FDR when the critical depression comes in 20-60 years, likely due to foreign embargoes and financial scamming in the US. But with modern mass media propaganda, surveillance, suppression of dissent, and military suppression of disturbances, a Hitler with a few changed phrases might win a depression “election” with the armed ignorant at his service.
One has to be careful what to wish for, but the USA decimating itself in ‘friendly fire’ is a pleasing prospect for other humans on earth
> but the rest of the world see’s through the Kremlin’s lies.
I don’t know where you get your ideas about what “the rest of the world” thinks, but…
“It aint necessarily, aint necessarily, aint necessarily so!”
In fact, even in many NATO countries, public-opinion polls show the majority of the population now considers Washington the biggest threat…
There has been a dark side to the human story since our beginnings. Those who create that negative dimension serve it with their greed, lying, and violence. Unfortunately over our long history this dark side has had great success in imposing itself on our culture, and at this point it threatens to destroy all of us. Those who practice and believe in goodness, sharing and peace are losing the struggle to make these the controlling factors of our human story. As a result of the increased powers our growing intelligence has made available to them, those who represent the dark side of humans now threaten to destroy our life supporting systems on Earth in the near future, and thus insure our own human extinction. Our unwillingness to champion our better possibilities is now triggering the physical processes that will soon destroy us. Denying this reality is a deep psychological mechanism that keeps us in a trance of unconscious ignorance as we march towards the precipice of our final end.
Very well said. New technology always empowers the destructive, long before it can be controlled by the good. The rapid introduction of nuclear weapons, aircraft, communications, and computers in the 20th century severely damaged civilization, which has barely begun to regulate and adapt government to the changes.
We have corresponding advances in medicine, living standards, travel and communications, but the mechanisms of government have not advanced in this country since 1785 and are completely subverted by savages, incapable of achieving their purposes. Now “goodness, sharing and peace are losing the struggle” because the very tools of democracy (mass media and elections) are controlled by a prehistoric oligarchy, abusing our new technology to serve their selfishness, ignorance, hypocrisy, and malice.
Fuck America (most of all her leaders). Even God and nature are sick of it. After tornados, fooding storms, soon Yellowstone super volcano will wake up and destroy the whole new nazi empire of this planet…Decent US people; please wake up and fixe the whole mess before it is too late !
We are awake. The Sleeping Giant is awake and we want Putin’s Head on a plate.
Those who are awake agree with you; the others are controlled by mass media, controlled by oligarchy. Pitchforks and muskets won’t do it this time around. External sanctions and isolation of the US are the beginning. Please consider this an invitation to bring down the US oligarchy, to help us restore democracy.
That recent hurricane in Texas does put our government spending priorities in perspective: they are insane. The hundred billion bucks that the pentagon recently received to enhance and update its capabilities won’t cover the financial aid that will be required to rebuild several devastated major cities from Corpus Christi to Houston. Yet something far short of what is required will be only grudgingly given (as was the case with Hurricane Sandy in NY & NJ) to repair the lives of American citizens. No amount of spending is too much when it comes to leveling cities in the Middle East (or Serbia, or Ukraine), but American victims of natural disasters will be given short schrift by their government and even be cheated by their insurance companies when the final ledger sheets are toted up. (With most of the refineries shut down, I wonder how much they will now be gouging for gasoline in a few weeks.)
Realist – yes, the war machine takes precedence, unfortunately. Was just reading how an assistant to FDR asked him if World War II would be good for the country. FDR replied something like, “War is always good for the country. The arms and weapons sales will bring in a lot of money.” Or something along those lines. “Gouging for gasoline” made me laugh, but it’s so true.
As a US Expat, I see this ALL THE TIME from ostensibly well connected “players” down here. It is another variation of the Nigerian wire money to claim your lottery winnings scam, but a little more sophisticated. The expat will send an email back home to some “big-wig” saying that they have an in with some Argentine senator (who only speaks Spanish) who wants to co-sponsor a project down here, when they don’t have an “in” at all, just his contact info and business card. Then they send the Argentine senator an analogous message that some big-wig in the United States (who only speaks English) that they know is interested in co-financing a project in Argentina. So the guy in the middle is playing off two of his casual acquaintances, hoping to hit the jackpot land as the middleman of such a deal. One of the few ways to strike it rich down here, where economic prospects are far and few between. (Probably the same in Russia.) This scenario is so “old hat” to any experienced pol, that they immediately call up the US big-wig (using a translator) and ask them directly, do you have an interest in co-financing a project in Argentina? The big-wig responds he was only interested because he heard the Argentine senator was offering matching financing. So, once the two figure out what is going on, the guy who started the interaction is scratched from both their reputable contacts lists. I see this at least once a year… it is so common (with HOTELS in particular). If the NYT had any reporters that actually ventured outside their metropolitan bubble and lived for a while in a second or third world economy, they would have recognized this common scenario… but that is too much to ask.
“So, what the evidence really indicates is that Putin, like almost everybody else in the world, didn’t anticipate Trump’s ascendance to the White House.”
Yeah, who saw that coming? You might have put a little money down on Trump as a long shot, but you certainly wouldn’t have expected any return.
And as Mr. Parry has stated so many times on this site, there is no way that Putin would have favored Trump in any way, for fear of retaliation from Hillary, the person who 99.9% of the world thought would win.
I will continue to believe that Vladimir Putin is too smart to get himself that deep into U.S. Elections. Only think what if he did do some back channeling maneuver to get Trump in the Oval Office? I say, we’ll join the crowd of corrupt special interest who pad the politicians with high priced speaking fees, or look at what the DNC did to the Sanders Campaign, and then let’s make a spread sheet to see who gets hung out to dry first. Hypocrites all of them, yet in plain view these scoundrels single out another world leader, while ignoring as they pass by the many other offenders who deserve their day in court.
I know you are pulling for Trump’s success, well Thierry Meyssan who views the U.S. from the outside, has some interesting things to say about Trump’s Afghanistan & his ending our support of the terrorist in the Middle East, and Meyssan’s reporting sounds better than anything you will hear from the American press. I might have to read it again, just to make sure I understand it, but read it….
http://www.voltairenet.org/article197618.html
Joe Tedesky – thanks, Joe. I will read it. Funny thing is, I am pulling for Trump, but only because he is pulling for the American people. I actually believe that he truly cares about the country, about its people, and wants to do right by them. I think he would end all wars tomorrow if he could. That’s why I support him. It’s for the people that I do.
Thierry Meyssan ends with:
“This brief overview of the facts enables us to conclude that President Trump has not changed his strategy and adopted the policy of Bush Jr. and Obama. He pursues his own plan against the jihadists without deviation, in obvious concertation with Moscow and Beijing.”
I sure do hope he’s right, Joe. If Trump stops the Middle East wars and turns Afghanistan around (with the help of Pakistan), then he will have done a very good thing and his time spent as President will have been worthwhile.
I’m glad you found the article uplifting. The important thing is, is that you who voted for Trump, and me who is someone who voted against Trump, can unite and get along. This all by itself is Breaking News.
Thanks for the link, Joe. I surely hope Meyssan is right. I too, didn’t vote for Trump. I was a Bernie supporter, and then a Jill supporter after he caved to the Clinton machine. I have never trusted Trump’s bombastic personality, and thought him lacking in intelligence, and of questionable moral character in lieu of his “pussy grabbing” and multiple bankruptcies. However, I am hopeful that he can put an end to these regime change wars, renew our infrastructure, and return us to bi-lateral trade negotiations that benefit both country’s citizens, and not just multi-national corporations and western banks. If he actually succeeds in these pursuits, he just might get my vote in 2020. I always value B.E.’s input as well. He is a very astute commenter, and you are both men of sound moral fiber.
Hey Skip maybe because we both have inhaled the scent of the ocean breeze we kind of think a like. What you wrote here, could have been written by me. I guess Skip at least you and I don’t act like spoiled children over the fact that our candidate (whoever it was) didn’t win. I do think some of the noise is due to people crying over spilt milk. Me, I would just be happy to see these worldwide wars of ours end, and people get some decent jobs here at home. It doesn’t matter who is the president, or any of that, but it does matter to what gets done in a positive way. There ya go shipmate, see ya later. Joe
“More Misleading Russia-gate Propaganda”
Well, it is a Tuesday. Lol.
Thank you Mr. Parry for this important work. Everyone needs to read this.
Ah, filthy rich neocons have come up with another sleezy, phony Browden/Natalia Veselnitskaya type connection with Trump’s people and the evil Russians. Or, at least, are publishing exaggerated meanings (they’re huuuuge in publications) to a US carpetbagger in Russia and his attempt to get Putin to back one of his balley-hooed schemes. Never has big money bought so much crassness in such little time!
It is nice to see this information laid out in a time line that makes sense and is relatively easy to follow. I haven’t bought the Russians are coming for a long time, at least since the wall came down. It has been obvious for a time they were too wrapped up in their own problems at home to seriously consider undermining our sacred, for sale , Democracy. In fact, with laws being what they are thanks to Citizens United, if Russia wanted to undermine our democracy all they would have had to do is put up around a billion and let the dogs in the political arena go at it. They could have disrupted the election more or less legally, by disguising the money like our billionaires already do. It isn’t a state secret and is available to anyone wanting to spend the money. I noticed an article yesterday about a Trillion Dollar upgrade of our nuclear forces. That is why someone decided the Russians needed to be coming. It takes a real threat to pry a Trillion out of Congress.
Felix Sater has the fingerprints of intelligence all over him. How do we know? Just listen to his Rabbi giving him the Man of the Year award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSpFtCmoD5o
People must see this video!!! Hollywood Mark, you have come up with THE smoking gun of the 21st Century – Zionism/CIA!!! The Rabbi was right. He probably did say “too much, already.” It was a mouthful!
occupy on – yeah, “too much” is right! Zionism/CIA (or what used to be the OSS – Office of Strategic Services) ruled the 20th Century too. Allen Dulles joined the OSS during World War II, and would have fit in well with Churchill, who was also, I am discovering, a scheming, conniving person. In fact, the Zionists gave Churchill the sum of 50,000 pounds in 1936, at a time when Churchill was starving for money, to smear and slander Hitler as much as he could.
When you read about events leading up to World War I and World War II, you can see the hands of the Zionists, the British and the OSS.
Zionists and the CIA are one.
That thought, that “Zionists and the CIA are one” hit me as demanding much further exploration.
If the CIA or any major compartment of it’s operations division or related entities are substantially zionist controlled, that would explain an awful lot of phenomena with no other clear explanation:
1. The oligarchy/intel policies behind secret wars in Latin America;
2. The zionist/intel control of mass media;
3. The zionist/intel support of Clinton and opposition to Trump;
4. The zionist/intel operations supporting wars in the Mideast;
5. Some zionist/intel connections to Ukraine and NK provocations;
6. The zionist/intel control of Congress;
7. The zionist control of State Dept.
A surprisingly large fraction of zionists in DC seem to have intel connections.
US intel sources also claim to have special relations with Israeli intel, unlike most other nations.
Such a connection could be concealed far more easily than any other form of major corruption.
It would also explain the zionist/intel control of Amazon, Google, and other large businesses.
Sam F – yes. Great points. All major points of power in place.
Hollywood Mark – good video. The rabbi describes being invited to a special event at a federal building, only immediate family members allowed (special permission for the rabbi to attend). The rabbi describes getting there and seeing dozens of U.S. intelligence officers from all of the various 3-letter intelligence agencies of this country, and listens as they all praised Felix for his work.
Felix Sater said, “My wife says that living with me is like reading next week’s newspaper today.”
That’s because they’re busy engineering today exactly what is going to take place next week. All manufactured.
Hollywood Mark: First they looted Russia for more than a decade, and took the loot to Israel, U.S., U.K. . .. And now they are collaborators in the project to overthrow their President, get back there to loot again.
And now all this Russia-Gate nonsense going on for a year, and all this Media, TV, Congress, and the whole Country involved in this debate based on falsehoods. What kind of Orwellian World and times we are living in?
Dave P. – yeah, they’re just angry that Putin shut their decade-long looting down. Thank goodness Putin stepped in when he did, otherwise Russia would have been stripped to the bone by the Zionists.
backwardsevolution: Yes. That is exactly their plan – to loot Russia again. Overthrow Putin, establish complete control over their Finance, and Media; make the Russian population into zombies, as they have done it here, and loot Russia again. That is the Zio-NeoCon’s recipe for Russia in a nutshell.
the money line — “Putin, like almost everybody else in the world, didn’t anticipate Trump’s ascendance to the White House, at least not in the time frame of these events.” . . .And many still can’t accept it. How could Hillary have lost when every expert and every pollster was saying that her election was a foregone conclusion? There must be a reason why so many smart people were so ignorant. . . .Yes, it was the dastardly Russians who were to blame for Trump’s election, along with the US military losses in Afghanistan and Syria, the turmoil in Ukraine, etc. and perhaps the violence in US cities is next?
Yes. There is a bias inherent in the human mind that, when faced with what it perceives as a momentous event (such as Trump’s astounding election), wants to ascribe a correspondingly momentous cause. When combined with the general predisposition of the U.S. establishment to vilify Russia, you get the incredibly fertile soil in which the Russia-gate fiction has thrived.
Skip Scott – “We are truly living in Orwellian times.”
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It’s devastatingly amazing how so many are so willingly and so easily deceived.
Or have they been praying, hoping and waiting quietly for their acrimonious ‘savior’?
Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America
Book by John Nichols
An essential examination of the the dirty dealers and defenders of the indefensible who are “making America great again”
Donald Trump has assembled a rogue’s gallery of white nationalists, alt-right hatemongers, voter-suppression schemers, immigrant bashers, and climate-change deniers to run the American government. If we are going to navigate the next four years and have the tools to resist this presidency, we need to know whose hands will be on the levers of power. And we need to know how to challenge their excesses. John Nichols, veteran political correspondent at the Nation, has been covering many of these deplorables for decades. Sticking to the hard facts and unafraid to dig deep into the histories and ideologies of the people who make up Trump’s inner circle, Nichols delivers a clear-eyed and complete guide to who these people really are.
Two weeks ago today, President Trump signed a widely overlooked executive order to revoke Obama-era standards that required federal infrastructure projects like hospitals to factor in scientific projections for the effects of climate change, such as increased flooding.
Critics say the reversal will put more lives in danger by exposing U.S. infrastructure to the kind of damage inflicted by hurricanes and superstorms including Harvey, Sandy and Katrina. Obama’s order marked a rare climate change measure that was praised by both conservative and progressive groups.
Trump announced the reversal during the now infamous press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower that was largely overshadowed by his remarks defending the white supremacist protesters behind the violent rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.
I think that is because many of the Climate Change doubters are now coming out the woodwork since Trump’s election:
For example, a former colleague and co-author of/with James Hansen (the father of Climate Change) is now claiming his old boss is a fraud:
Dr. Duane Thresher
Researcher, tree ring climate proxy modeling, University of Alaska (ARSC and SNRAS).
Guest Scientist, ocean climate proxy modeling, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany.
PhD, Earth & Environmental Sciences (climate modeling/proxies), Columbia University and NASA GISS (working for Dr. James Hansen, the father of global warming, and Dr. Gavin Schmidt).
NSF research cruise, RV Nathaniel B. Palmer in Mertz Glacier region of Antarctica; CTD operator, MOCNESS.
MS, Atmospheric Science (climate modeling/tree rings/chaos), University of Arizona and NCAR.
BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT and NASA.
columbia-phd.org/RealClimatologists/AboutUs/index.html
That leaves the old climate change warriors/scientists. Are they committing fraud? At the risk of being sued I would have to say yes. For example: James Hansen is the father of global warming. He became the father of global warming through fraud.
columbia-phd.org/RealClimatologists/Articles/2017/08/03/Is_Global_Warming_Really_A_Fraud/index.html
My guess is that Trump wants to see how this all plays out before embarking the entire US economy on a remediation.
Mild-ly Facetious – “…his remarks defending the white supremacist protesters behind the violent rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.”
This is how history gets rewritten. He wasn’t defending the handful of so-called “white supremacists” left in the U.S. He was saying there was blame on “both sides”. People who wanted to exercise their right to free speech and who got a permit should not be violently opposed and shut down. They were protesting the removal of a statue and trying to exercise their right to free speech. The fascist Antifa wasn’t going to let that happen.
You know what? I think there were more than just the Nazis and the KKK at the rally and I think some of them were not there for violence or because they are racist. I think they are wrong defending a statue of Lee, but I don’t think all of them there were racist.
Saying that is not the same thing as saying some Nazis are good people. I think that is what Trump was saying.
Too many people have embraced the notion that it is permissible to say anything about Trump whether it is true or not. That makes it quite impossible to arrive at fair objective solutions to the problems that have this country bound up in gridlock.
Trump hasn’t assembled “a rogues gallery” for a government. By and large the government is still made up of the same insiders who served Obomber and Dubya before him. Whether Trump is truly enamored of his generals, I dunno, but most of his cabinet picks were constrained by the politicians from both parties, and their media mouthpieces, circling and threatening him since election night. Trump might personally know, and even like, the Wall Street insiders he picked, but did he really know the military well enough to focus in on those specific generals, or were they “suggested” to him? They seem really at odds with his actual philosophical guru Steve Bannon who was banished from the White House on the recommendation of McMaster. So far, I don’t see Trump being allowed to leave his mark on the presidency in any way, unless total public capitulation to the Deep State is now being formalised and will henceforth be expected of every chief executive carrying the nominal title of president. What was once implicit has now become explicit. At least Trump has served as teaching moment for the electorate who should now know better than to expect much in the way of “hope and change” from the White House ever again.
Realist – see Joe Tedesky’s link down below (Thierry Meyssan’s article). He says that Trump IS ending his support for terrorists in the Middle East and he’s following through on his own plans, not following Bush or Obama. Anyway, read the article. Meyssan appears to be hopeful re Trump.
Mild-ly Facetious – “John Nichols, veteran political correspondent at the Nation, has been covering many of these deplorables for decades.”
You just said the magic word: deplorables. Keep it up if you want to see a civil war.
This story is old hat and I wouldn’t have paid it much attention to it were it not for Mr Parry’s efforts to sweep it under the carpet. As always, Mr Parry’s argument is that “the defendant cannot be convicted of murder inasmuch as he didn’t shoot the victim as alleged. He stabbed him”! Since none of this affects the credibility of the other Russiagate evidence, one way or the other, I don’t see how it “undercuts” the investigation. That Mr Parry might hope that it would merely reflects his own commitment to Putin’s cause. Also, the fact that Mr Parry also offers us the umpteenth repetition of his version of events in Ukraine suggests that he is far less convinced of his “undercutting” argument than he cares to admit.
Mr Parry might care to address in a future article why he thinks that Putin didn’t just restore Yanukovych to power. Yanukovych wasn’t actually overthrown, whether violently or otherwise. He simply fled into the night, to everyone’s surprise, and popped up some time later, safe and well, in Russia, where he is believed to be still. Instead of restoring the democratically-elected president to office, Putin simply sent in what appear to have been private contractors to seize Crimea, which was then annexed without the consent of the Ukrainian authorities, in violation of the Helsinki Final Act. If Yanukovych had been restored to power he most probably would have obtained the necessary consent from parliament. Why did Putin grab illegally what he could have had served up to him in perfect legality?
Bringing up Flynn’s Moscow speech, which isn’t even mentioned in the NYT article, also suggests panic on Mr Parry’s part. The speech was in December 2015. Flynn joined Trump’s campaign only in 2016. Moreover, Flynn was not removed from his position because of the speech. Thus, Mr Parry’s claim that the quibble over fees proves that Russians didn’t interfere in the election is nonsense. At the time of the photo, Putin had no way of knowing that Flynn would join the Trump campaign and therefore had no reason to fall over himself to pay Flynn more. Thus, the Flynn speech proves nothing, one way or the other, as to Putin’s intentions in regard to the election. On the other hand, Jill Stein’s presence at Putin’s table suggests that he was indeed planning to interfere in the election, since she was already an announced candidate at the time of the dinner. Maybe Mr Parry should take a look at the sources of her campaign finance.
Your propaganda has no rational basis as always, Mr. Kenny. Try looking at the Hillary campaign finance: top ten were all zionists, and both they and KSA were major Clinton foundation donors. When you seek truth, your arguments will be better.
Nice that your AIPAC teleprompter comes complete with transcription software. Jill Stein (I voted for her) was a space-filler candidate for those of us who couldn’t vote for the lesser of two evils (Deplorable vs. Despicable). It is ludicrous to claim Putin thought he could elevate her as a part of his “election interference”strategy.
A different angle can add a lot to a balanced picture of a subject, but not if it is simple lies, whether on purpose or the result of a absence of ability to think critically.
There was a coup in Kiev in Feb 2104. The change of government happened in violation of law and constitution. Yanukovich and many parliament memebers fled in the face of the advance of armed paramilitary groups under the command of the Maidan.
Since Mr Kenny’s lie also appeared in Swedish media this spring, I checked it with two academic researchers, doctors in recent Ukrainian history. Both, of course, confirmed that it was a coup, violating the Ukrainian constitution.
I propose you check facts before employing your and our precious time, Mr Kenny.
“Yanukovych wasn’t actually overthrown, whether violently or otherwise.”
Yanokovych and other members of the government fled because there were credible death threats. How will you call this something else than a violent coup? He did not resign, but was declared ousted without even a semblance of a constitutionally correct procedure by a parliament under the watch of armed paramilitary groups.
“Since none of this affects the credibility of the other Russiagate evidence”
Yes, this mysterious “other Russiagate evidence” that is never shown… What Parry did is to show that the new story that was brought up because it was presented in a way as if it bolstered ther Russiagate conspiracy theory does not really show what it was intended to show and rather demonstrates the opposite – that Trump did not have good connections to Russia and therefore – in contrast to many other places where he succeeded – could not build a tower there. If there was so much “other evidence”, why would the media constantly bring up such weak stories in order not to give up the failed Russiagate conspiracy theory?
The only thing I wonder is whether you really believe the propaganda you write all the time or whether this is just a job – and, of course, even for the weakest case you can always come up with something.
I think it must be a job for Mr. Kenny. If he were a true believer in the MSM BS he constantly spouts, he would reply to rebuttals of his arguments. If he is not a paid troll, then his arrogance is such that he sees himself as above needing to engage his fellow commenters.
M. Kenney – google the House Ukraine Freedom Support Act – 2014 that passed alarmingly out of the House by only 3 people voting unanimously “aye”. You’ll go through (depending on the size of the print) five long pages of the Russian names of business people who become sanctioned in this bill. Don’t fall asleep! On the 6th page you’ll read, basically, a “declaration of war on Russia” (quotes from Dennis Kucinic and Ron Paul – opposites on the political spectrum). It gave the President the power to #1. surround Russia’s western border with ‘defensive’ intercontinental missiles sites #2. help the new government of Ukraine make ‘reforms’ (privatize natural resources [coal, oil, natural gas – fracking] #3. urge the World Bank to loan US oil companies for ‘exploring’ energy sources in Ukraine and #4. allow US NGO’s, who could only operate apolitically in Russia to this date, now to work with Putin’s political adversaries.
Don’t pretend US hands are clean in this Ukrainian tragedy of a peaceful people turned upside down by fascists backed by the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland and a neocon-controlled Congress.
All excellent, well-structured responses to Mr. Kenny by individuals from several different countries. The readership of this blog is as impressive as the authors who publish in it.
The MSM continues with the stale narrative of Russia-gate. But as far as Michael Flynn is concerned, even though the Russia connection was flimsy at best, there was overwhelming evidence that he was in fact a foreign agent…evidence that his opponents conveniently ignored because it didn’t fit in with their narrative.https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-18/flynn-s-turkey-connection-is-the-case-worth-pursing
wiki– In 1998, Sater pleaded guilty to his involvement in a $40 million stock fraud scheme orchestrated by the Russian Mafia.[7][8] In exchange for his guilty plea, he agreed to become an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors, assisting with organized crime. In July 2017, it was reported that Sater had agreed to cooperate with investigators concerning an international money laundering scheme.[9]
Thank you. Twenty years later and he was still involved in major financial fraud despite his conviction: one wonders whether he was on the FBI payroll. Perhaps he was “cooperating” in stating that he could influence Putin to get Trump elected, without even having an email contact for his request. Fraudsters are certainly not reliable sources, and cooperative convicts even less so.
It is a shame that the MSM has become a lapdog rather than a watchdog. And they have infiltrated publications and outlets that used to challenge the powerful. We are truly living in Orwellian times.
Money, alas, turns out to be the universal solvent. It buys – literally – anything. Although some people, much to their credit, can resist the lure of money there is always someone who can’t or won’t.
And any nation or culture that abandons all values in favour of money as the only value, soon finds that it has no values at all.
Because money is not a value.
The corrosive influence of economic power upon US mass media, elections, and government is our fatal flaw, which cannot be supported with any western value, but only the human defects of selfishness, ignorance, hypocrisy, and malice.
Once more Mr. Parry gives us an essential counterpoint to the mass media propaganda.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.
Well said, Skip!
What is truly fascinating is the US jolly road to self-destruction. Whoever is in charge of the US oligarchy right now, this collective senescent ‘decider’ has been losing his marbles for everyone to marvel. The games of Divide et Impera have finally infected the US Borg’s commanding centers, mortally. Hence the apparent and omnipresent intellectual degradation of MSM and the DC “government,” these nests of the mimicking opportunists.
It seems that the US Borg is made of sclerotic psychopaths, the walking dead, who want to grab and smother everything living in order to preserve their hold on power and money. The psychopaths are not able to feel others’ pain and they are also not able to imagine the painful demise of their children and grandchildren. Even if they were able to imagine, his demise would be totally unimportant as compared to the profiteering schemes they are involved in. Here are just two of such schemes, a la Petraeus and a la Cheney
1. http://www.voltairenet.org/article197144.html
“Since the beginning of the Arab Springs, a gigantic arms traffic was organised by the CIA and the Pentagon in violation of a number of resolutions by the UNO Security Council. All the operations that we will be mentioning here are illegal under international law, including those organised publicly by the Pentagon. … All of this traffic was under the personal control of General David Petraeus, first of all via the CIA, of which he was the director, then via the financial investment company KKR, for which he worked thereafter. He benefited from the assistance of senior civil servants, sometimes under the presidency of Barack Obama, and then – massively – under that of Donald Trump.” Please, take a note that Petraeus, the US army General, has been supposedly fighting terrorists “there” to defend the US “here.” But the facts show that the US army general Petraeus has been doing a lucrative business of providing the ISIS/AL Qaeda with arms and more. All while the poor American soldiers were getting blown, traumatized, crippled by the same “moderate” kind jihadis that Petraeus was arming.
2. http://www.trueactivist.com/cheney-rothschild-and-fox-news-murdoch-violate-international-law-by-drilling-for-oil-in-syria/
The despicable warmonger and war profiteer Cheney has been involved in the illegal scheme in the Golan Heights:
“Cheney, Rothschild, And Fox News’ Murdoch Violate International Law By Drilling For Oil In Syria”
Having seen how the U.S. has been in the business of undermining democracies in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and many other points around the globe for decades, it defies belief that an astute player like Putin would not consider that the Deep State was capable of undermining a president at home, should that president not meet with their approval. And we all know the people that count were counting on Hillary. Whether Putin supported one or other candidate would make not a jot of difference in the long run, so it was pointless supporting either.
If Putin didn’t seen what the U.S. had been doing all over the rest of the world, the idea that the U.S.-funded coup in neighbouring Ukraine escaped his eagle eyes, is preposterous.
The election of Trump, and the way he is being undermined, at this very moment only serves as is further proof of how far the real powers that be, and their media minions, are prepared to go. And let’s not forget that the undermining of Bernie Sanders in the primaries is now on public record. Though a Florida court under the auspices of Judge Zloch – appointed by none other than Republican Ronald Reagan – dismissed the fraud lawsuit against the D.N.C. and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he did not judge that fraud had not taken place. In fact the judge clearly accepted that it had. The dismissal was made on the grounds that it was not a case for the judiciary to decide but an internal affair for Democrat Party members.
Whether you think Trump makes a good president or not, it is very hard not to see that virtually the entire coporate media is trying to get shot of him on behalf of a lot of very powerful people, who would rather remain anonymous. If I can see that, you have to bet your bottom dollar Putin would’ve been able to see it.
Bryann Hemming: Your assessment is correct. It is certain that people in charge in Russia knew it. However, if there was even an iota of doubt in their minds, it is gone now. In fact, it is finally became crystal clear to the entire World, who are the actual rulers in this country, and who dictates it’s economic and foreign policy.
Donald Trump was just the bait fish the media used to grab all the corporate Super Pac cash unleashed by Citizens United vs FEC and McCutcheon vs. FEC which nobody likes to talk about but you can bet that those two landmark decisions are what the big battle over Supreme Court Nominees was all about.
Now media has to get rid of him especially since he has turned on them like a Frankenstein monster eager to destroy his creators..
Having the microphone is a great gig if you can get it and it wields tremendous power. The problem is everything is just run for money and as long as we are trashing every rule and regulation designed to curb greed and vice and corruption we will only see the problem get worse.
The root cause of the problem is that corporate and wealthy individuals have way too much influence and have bent our democracy over and are riding it all the way to the bank.
Trump is fairly safe as long as the herders keep him on the defensive over Russia and he keeps turning tricks for them to escape their wrath. It’ll be interesting to see what comes from tax reform. If Trump loses on this one he will be out.
I am in complete agreement. If Trump does not eliminate the inheritance tax and essentially exempt the Oligarchs from paying any portion of the expenses of the Empire Trump will either resign, being allowed to return to his life as an elderly pussy groping TV Star or if he chooses to fight the 45th President will die in an ADX prison cell in Florence, Colorado.
If Bernie Sanders had played ball harder than he did, going in the primaries all guns blazing against the pre-selected candidate of the establishment and won the nomination and then faced successfully a run-of-the-mill, neoliberal warmongering Republican, say Jeb Bush, he would face as a POTUS the same or even worse hostility from the MSM. The entire establishment of both parties would be mobilized to undermine such a presidency and the Russia-gate would emerge in an even more virulent manner. After all, the Wikileaks revelations, Russia’s supposed attack against Hillary, were directly about Bernie’s campaign, that is the DNC’s undermining of it.
That’s what many people don’t get about the tumult of these elections and the subsequent events: they revealed the authoritarian, fascistic really, mentality of the neoliberal establishment and its mouthpieces. Unfortunately, a significant number of leftists (actual ones, not frauds, regressives and closet neoliberals) is stack to outworn tropes of state authoritarianism and cannot perceive the danger that lies in the insidious propaganda against the rather inept Trump (who, in any case, has already has backtracked in many of his campaign promises).