After more than two years of mania about Russia stealing the 2016 election for Trump and demonization of anyone who questioned it, an embarrassing end may soon be near for the Russia-gaters, says Caitlin Johnstone.
Mueller: Igniting another media brushfire. (Wikimedia Commons)
By Caitlin Johnstone
In a new article titled “Mueller report PSA: Prepare for disappointment”, Politico cites information provided by defense attorneys and “more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience spanning Watergate to the 2016 election case” to warn everyone who’s been lighting candles at their Saint Mueller altars that their hopes of Trump being removed from office are about to be dashed to the floor.
“While [Mueller is] under no deadline to complete his work, several sources tracking the investigation say the special counsel and his team appear eager to wrap up,” Politico reports.
“The public, they say, shouldn’t expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump?—not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths,” the report also says, adding that details of the investigation may never even see the light of day. “It will be up to DOJ leaders to make the politically turbo-charged decision of whether to make Mueller’s report public,” Politico reported.
So that’s it then. An obscene amount of noise and focus, a few indictments and process crime convictions which have nothing to do with Russian collusion, and this three-ring circus of propaganda and delusion is ready to call it a day.
This is by far the clearest indication yet that the Mueller investigation will end with Trump still in office and zero proof of collusion with the Russian government, which has been obvious since the beginning to everyone who isn’t a complete moron. For two years the idiotic, fact-free, xenophobic Russia-gate conspiracy theory has been ripping through mainstream American consciousness with shrieking manic hysteria, sucking all oxygen out of the room for legitimate criticisms of the actual awful things that the US president is doing in real life. Those of us who have been courageous and clear-headed enough to stand against the groupthink have been shouted down, censored, slandered and smeared as assets of the Kremlin on a daily basis by unthinking consumers of mass media propaganda, despite our holding the philosophically unassailable position of demanding the normal amount of proof that would be required in a post-Iraq invasion world.
As I predicted long ago, “Mueller isn’t going to find anything in 2017 that these vast, sprawling networks wouldn’t have found in 2016. He’s not going to find anything by ‘following the money’ that couldn’t be found infinitely more efficaciously via Orwellian espionage. The factions within the intelligence community that were working to sabotage the incoming administration last year would have leaked proof of collusion if they’d had it. They did not have it then, and they do not have it now. Mueller will continue finding evidence of corruption throughout his investigation, since corruption is to DC insiders as water is to fish, but he will not find evidence of collusion to win the 2016 election that will lead to Trump’s impeachment. It will not happen.” This has remained as true in 2018 as it did in 2017, and it will remain true forever.
None of the investigations arising from the Russia-gate conspiracy theory have turned up a single shred of evidence that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government to rig the 2016 election, or to do anything else for that matter. All that the shrill, demented screeching about Russia has accomplished is manufacturing support for steadily escalating internet censorship, a massively bloated military budget, a hysterical McCarthyite atmosphere wherein anyone who expresses political dissent is painted as an agent of the Kremlin and any dissenting opinions labeled “Russian talking points”, a complete lack of accountability for the Democratic Party’s brazen election rigging, a total marginalization of real problems and progressive agendas, and an overall diminishment in the intelligence of political discourse. The Russia-gaters were wrong, and they have done tremendous damage already.
In a just world, everyone who helped promote this toxic narrative would apologize profusely and spend the rest of their lives being mocked and marginalized. In a world wherein pundits and politicians can sell the public a war which results in the slaughter of a million Iraqis and suffer no consequences of any kind, however, we all know that that isn’t going to happen. Russia-gate will end not with a bang, but with a series of carefully crafted diversions. The goalposts will be moved, the news churn will shuffle on, the herd will be guided into supporting the next depraved oligarchic agenda, and almost nobody will have the intellectual honesty and courage to say “Hey! Weren’t these assholes promising us we’ll see Trump dragged off in chains a while back? Whatever happened to that? And why are we all talking about China now?”
But whether they grasp it or not, mainstream liberals have been completely discredited. The mass media outlets which inflicted this obscene psyop upon their audiences deserve to be driven out of business. The establishment which would inflict such intrusive psychological brutalization upon its populace just to advance a few preexisting agendas has proven that it deserves to be opposed on every front and rejected at every turn.
And those of us who have been standing firm and saying this all along deserve to be listened to. We were right. You were wrong. Time to sit down, shut up, stop babbling about Russian bots for ten seconds, and let those who see clearly get a word in edgewise.
This article originally appeared on Medium.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. This article was re-published with permission.
@Gregory Herr, October 27 @08:19:
Will science have a seat at the Administration’s policy table? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration strengthen and enforce environmental laws? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration adhere to its treaty obligations, including as to people seeking asylum? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration nominate for SC someone fond of unlimited executive power and more religion in public square? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration threaten a country with nuclear annihilation? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration undermine and even get rid of Obamacare? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration impose a travel ban on Muslims? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration consider growing income inequality a serious issue: C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration push a tax cut for the 1%? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration push a tax increase for the 1%? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration propose $27 billion for infrastructure, $9 billion for energy improvements, $27 billion for early education, and a rise in the national hourly wage? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration push to normalize the status of some 12 million undocumented aliens, many here for years? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration afford people seeking asylum legitimate due process as required by law? C: Y, T: N.
Will the Administration separate children from parents at the US border? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration push for the building of a wall on the border with Mexico, even though a wall exists? C: N, T: Y.
Will the Administration enforce civil rights laws? C: Y, T: N.
You are absolutely right and correct in sharing all of the concerns that your questions relate to. And I see as well particular cause for concern with the present Administration.
Ignoring the potential benefits that the use of “science”, including the study of history and humanities, and a scientific mindset or method could produce for human society writ large is a shame. Lots of things get ignored–like lead and other contaminants in the water supply, the basic needs of ecological renewal, the added value of labor, and the science that correctly forecasts heavy civilian deaths when bombing populated areas, for instance.
I wish our environmental laws were strengthened and enforced. But this isn’t a new failure.
The U.S.unilaterally drops out of its treaty obligations when it feels like it. It ignores conventions about weapons. And it has a hard time with lots of longstanding international agreements.
Growing income inequality has been a bipartisan project since at least 1981. So is the regression of the minimum wage. The nuclear threat is also a bipartisan project–people like Obama and Clinton helped set a dangerous stage for Trump with their Middle East chaos and Russian “encirclement”.
Obamacare sucks.
The Administration is in favor of a large infrastructure bill–Congress doesn’t appear to be ready.
Yep. A Republican Administration and Congress sucks. So you want to talk about how different “things” would be with Hilary? Knock yourself out.
LOL. Now you’re changing the game. You asked for differences in values between the two candidates, and I’ve provided some. That Republicans in Congress are cretins can hardly be ascribed to Clinton, just as you wouldn’t ascribe, in the same circumstance, the failures of a Sanders presidency to Bernie.
Clinton has paid lip service to progressive policy positions vaguely and without conviction when in campaign mode. But, as with the rest of her party, whether in majority or as opposition, they have managed to decimate our manufacturing base, shill for war after war, and contribute to the coarsening of political discourse.
Instead of rolling up her sleeves and fighting for progressive policies, all Clinton does is go on her pity party book tour and cry “the Russians are coming.” Her “values” are self promotion and money.
You take Hillary’s campaign stances as genuine. However, thanks to wikileaks, we know that Hillary felt it necessary to hold “private” positions that were often different from her “public” positions. In other words, she is a self-professed liar. She was just corporate sponsored warmonger from “column B”. Her actions as SoS are a much better predictor of what would have been in store for us and the rest of the world had she won.
Skip, here’s the real howler:
“Will the Administration threaten a country with nuclear annihilation? C: N, T: Y.”
C did precisely that vis a vis Iran.
Nor would Clinton do anything about income inequality, prevent tax cuts for the rich or raise their taxes. She would have pushed through TPP with perhaps minor changes, and the writer is apparently ignorant that children were being separated from their parents under Obama.
But none of that is the point of the article. The point is that while Ds have been screaming about Russia and Putin, they’ve been totally silent about Trump’s actual, deplorable policies and have forced him to abandon his stated desires to get out of Syria and Afghanistan and to get on better with Russia.
Kaitlin,
I appreciate your reporting, however, disagree on the overall message of your Op-Ed. Whereas some people consider Trump to be dumb, I don’t, and he has done a hell of a job insulating himself against a collusion charge. Fine, let’s say that Trump is not guilty of collusion. I’ll agree, that could be the case, but in what universe does it give the President a pass?
What about the massive amount of money laundering that has been uncovered? What about the fraud of the Trump foundation? What about the emoluments clause; since when does an American President have the right or law behind him in essentially selling “access” to the White House and the President himself? We have a mobster in the White House, and you’re concentrating on something that he may not be not guilty of while ignoring a litany of other crimes that he IS guilty of – yet not discussed. I don’t think minimizing his guilt is fair to the readership, especially when tens of millions of us do not want a criminal in the White House.
Are you suggesting that our President is innocent of all of the crimes that Mueller is investigating? That would be shocking, as well as highly unlikely. If he isn’t guilty of money laundering, fraud, violation of the emoluments clause, etc., perhaps he deserves a walk, but otherwise, it’s thumbs down to a POTUS that is a criminal and liar.
William Cormier
I guess you missed this part, “…sucking all oxygen out of the room for legitimate criticisms of the actual awful things that the US president is doing in real life.” Meanwhile, you demonstrated her point by yourself “moving the goalposts” to talk about all sorts of other complaints about the “mobster” while mentioning not one of the evil things Trump has done, many of them due to pressure from the Democratic Deep State, like bombing Syria twice under false pretexts.
Alternatively, the folks at Politico and on this thread could cut their addiction to straw-men by reading Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s “Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President”. It’s not as breathless or geared to induce arousal as what’s found here, but it is based on reality, outmoded as that is nowadays.
One of the problems with Jamieson’s analysis is she buys into the assumption because the Russian ads targeted divisive issues such as race, this was a pro-Trump campaign or had a pro-Trump affect.
Does discussing identity politics make you more likely to vote for Trump or Clinton? Does seeing an ad for Black Lives Matter or a gay pride parade?
Because the Russian ads were based in identity issues, I believe it is wrong to assume these ads were intended to or did help either candidate over the other.
Even the assumption these ads caused division amongst Americans is problematic. We’ve already done that to ourselves. Why would a handful of ads make a difference?
https://opensociet.org/2018/09/25/how-russia-helped-swing-the-election-for-trump/
@ O Society I disagree. First, as the title says, Russian efforts HELPED Trump. Nowhere does she claim that those efforts were the sole reason he won. (Surely you’re not suggesting that they hurt Trump?) Second, she makes no assumptions. She cites details as to the “synergistic relationship between the WikiLeaks releases [taken by many as gospel truth] and Moscow-backed social media content, and the Kremlin-authorized efforts [that] were designed to discredit … Clinton and help elect … Trump.” Third, ads were only one element of the equation. Most disconcerting was the echo chamber that the press created: journalists went to social media sites to see what was “trending”, i.e., what was being discussed by the public. Naturally, they focused on things with lots of “likes”, precisely what the Russians manufactured. Those likes then drove journalists’ coverage. Hence, the inane obsession with emails and, of course, Clinton’s alleged criminality. Jamieson provides the timeline as to how the various elements interacted at critical stages in the campaign. Finally, if you don’t believe ads make a difference, why would candidates continue to spend a fortune on them? They may simply reinforce, rather than change, people’s views. But they certainly motivate people to vote (or not), which is exactly what happened in 2016.
“Moscow-backed social media content” and “Kremlin-authorized efforts”? For crissakes, if Russian state actors under the authority of the government had been serious about political ads to influence American voters for Trump, they would have done a much better job of it. The ads in question are click-bait fare that had zero political impact. It’s asinine to claim otherwise.
There was next to zero coverage of the content of the e-mails. To claim “journalists” were “obsessed” with them is absurd.
Get a grip about how the election was “covered”, what questions were asked, who the MSM was pulling for, and the fact that people are responsible to separate chaff from wheat amidst many, many “influences” and opinions.
You are not very good at math, are you? The US propaganda industry is a 100 billion business. 50K of facebook ads enough to sway an US election? Please go back to elementary school for a refund.
Here. I demolished Jamieson’s article from Monday’s Guardian for you. So much for being based in reality…
http://opensociet.org/2018/10/24/kathleen-jamiesons-russian-claim-more-about-the-damned-emails/
It certainly redefines “demolition”. The citation to Binney is also amusing: “In other words, it means, the Russian GRU is hacking everybody to get information. But that’s what we are doing too!” Gucifer 2.0, a Russian pretending to be Romanian, admitted to the hack. Although Assange says that there is “no proof” that the Russian government did the hacking, i.e., that it IS Gucifer 2.0, various investigations conclude otherwise. You’re entitled to believe the version you wish, but whichever it is, it’s hardly the open-and-shut case you represent it to be. Ultimately, why does it matter so much to you? Assuming that the conspiracy you’re alleging in fact occurred, it didn’t work, and you got the president you preferred.
Gucifer 2.0 is a fabrication by our own intelligence agencies. Bill Binney unravels the whole ploy.
https://bwi.forums.rivals.com/threads/former-nsa-techinical-director-bill-binney-transfer-speeds-show-guccifer-2-0-files-weren’t-hacked.212090/
BTW, I didn’t get the president I preferred, I voted for Jill.
Amusing? How bout that time America rigged the Russian election and put Boris Yeltsin in charge?
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19960715,00.html
At this point, what’s more amusing is the notion an American presidential election can go off without being rigged, by Americans.
If Hillary Clinton were something other than a moderate Republican, neoliberal fraud, maybe someone would have voted for her.
As it was, she was a one trick pony of identity politics and political correctness. She felt entitled to win.
I am not – and no one else is – obligated to vote for Hillary Clinton just because “It’s Her Turn” or she has a “D” by her name or anything else.
Hillary lost to the *worst* presidential candidate in history. What does this ssy about *her*? Not Russians, not Sanders, not Comey, *her*
She should be hanging her head in shame hiding in the bathroom with Elvis, instead of going on some millions-making stadium tour with her husband, the other fraud.
https://opensociet.org/2018/10/27/the-problem-is-not-donald-trump-the-problem-is-hillary-clinton/
Great analysis. Thanks. Jamieson is just carrying water for the utterly corrupted DNC whose leaders seek to blame anyone except themselves. Bernie should be president today. It’s the DNC’s fault we have Trump, and those evil bas**rds will resort to anything to keep a progressive out of the White House, including marching us straight to Armageddon. I also wonder about GK’s inference that he doesn’t take wikileaks’ releases as “gospel truth”. No one with any credibility has ever attempted to make the claim that any of wikileaks’ releases are fabrications. GK is making a slanderous accusation with absolutely no proof.
(1) If my contention were defamatory, it would be libel, not slander. It’s unclear in any event whom I defamed. Further, your claim is curious given that it comes in the same breath as your allegation of Jamieson’s “just carrying water for the utterly corrupted DNC”. Proof? And while it shouldn’t need saying, here goes: views different from yours aren’t defamatory, just different.
(2) “It’s the DNC’s fault [that] we have Trump” is yet another case of projection; it’s a convenient way for Sanders voters “to blame anyone except themselves”. For what it’s worth, I voted for Sanders in the primary, on the logic that half the country was rabidly insane about Clinton and that Sanders might have a better chance. But once Clinton was the party’s candidate, and seeing who was on the other side, the choice was obvious. And this gets to the crux: (too) many Sanders voters, purely out of infantile spite, either didn’t show up or voted Stein because, as we often heard at the time, “there’s no difference between Trump and Clinton”. It’s a bit rich, then, to blame the DNC rather than the voters, as if elections ever were about an ideal candidate. All candidates are flawed, but Sanders voters couldn’t grow up and get past their rage to see that there were very real and tangible differences in worldview and values on offer. And so we are where we are. Your obsession — long after it’s relevant — with discounting Russian participation in the election by “proving” that it was the DNC who leaked the emails is part of that effort at self-exculpation.
(3) Your reliance on Binney is interesting given that his claim of an “inside job” PRECEDED his examination of the Guccifer 2.0 files. After he did examine them, he concluded that there was “no evidence to prove where the download/copy was done”.
Did you actually view the Binney video I linked? You defame Assange and Wikileaks by suggesting some of their releases are other than “gospel truth”. There is no evidence Wikileaks or Assange ever fabricated anything. I have no interest in “self exculpation”. Hillary and the Donald are different but equal evils IMHO. Stopping the Forever War is a moral imperative for me, and I voted my conscience. I will never again vote for “the lesser of evils.” Sipping on a latte in Starbucks checking my portfolio on my smart phone while our MIC drops bombs on innocents wherever they please is not for me. It is however SOP for Hillary fans. I think they are in need of some “exculpation”. Also please advise when discounting Russian participation in the election became irrelevant. IMHO the invention of RussiaGate was a major crime perpetrated by the Deep State to prevent us from seeking detente with nation capable of destroying the world with nuclear weapons. That’s no longer relevant? Those responsible for fabricating RussiaGate need to be prosecuted and jailed.
“Rabidly insane” isn’t the characterization I would use to describe “half the country” who would never vote for Clinton. Hilary’s track record as a warmongering, Wall Street loving, prevaricating politician and Secretary of State provides ample reasoning for distaste and disgust. And your claim that Sanders supporters (small minority) who ended up voting for Trump did so “purely out of infantile spite” brushes aside that fact and smacks of “infantile” armchair psychobabble.
What may seem like “an obvious choice” for you may have been quite the unwanted, forced, “God this sucks” bullshit of a “choice” that those Sanders voters felt they faced.
If you can describe Hilary Clinton’s “values” with examples of how she acts upon those “values” and show a clear-cut difference with Trump, I’m all ears.
I often misuse slander vs. libel. I tend to think of these interactions as spoken exchanges, and also often say “you said” when I really meant “you wrote”. I think it is “small potatoes”, since you obviously understood the gist of my comment.
I have answered the other aspects of your rebuttal, but that comment, although originally posted, has been lost. Seems to be happening a lot here lately.
I waited all day to see if my response to your rebuttal would be posted. I see no way that it violated CN policy.
I’ve had it. I’ll give Joe Lauria and this site a week to fix their comment section. If it doesn’t happen, me and my donations are outta here. There are other places to spend my time. Maybe I’ll find Joe Tedesky, Sam F, Backwardsevolution, Realist, and some of my other favorite commenters online somewhere else. It is a shame to leave such a great site with such good articles founded by my favorite journalist, but I’m done wasting my time typing reasonable comments only to have them disappear.
Once again a few of my comments were originally posted, and then deleted shortly thereafter. No mention of moderation. I haven’t seen anything from Joe Tedesky and several of my other favorite commenters in recent days. Either the moderator has gone rogue, or the comment section of this site has been hacked. I await an explanation.
Wow. I post this comment and when it loaded my other comments came back as well. Very weird!!!!
Anne noticed it too. This is not the first time she or I have seen this at CN. It isn’t censorship. It is some kind of glitch in the matrix.
I don’t know if or when you can see this. I too am bothered that we can no longer have a timely discussion and that possibly some commenters I love to hear from have been dissuaded from posting because of it. Each comment I have posted this week has disappeared only to reappear sometime the following day. I have noticed by time stamps (and when others’ comments appear to me) that many other comments are following this pattern.
This morning at 8:19 I posted, 2 new articles loaded, and all the comments for several articles appeared to be updated. Then the disappearing act struck again. The new articles have disappeared as well as a large number of comments.
A half hour ago I found the facebook page for consortium, scrolled down to articles and found if I used the URL there could access each article with comments that appear to be update. But through my usual method of accessing consortium that is not the case. Something is amiss and it is destroying our ability to communicate in a timely fashion.
You only need 50K to sway an US election? Please put me in contact with these people, I need their help. Badly.
Seriously, you are deranged.
It is difficult to know whether someone like Jamieson is a sincere academic who is deluded, or cashing in on the Trump circus, or just bad at objectivity.
For example, in the Guardian piece she wrote (linked above) she gives a lot if weight to a WikiLeaks email in which Clinton is not nice to Catholics.
OK… so what?
Clinton is pro-choice and Catholics are pro-life. Abortion has made many right wing conservative Christians (both Catholic and Evangelical) single-issue voters. I know a bunch of them.
In other words, why in the world would these Pennsylvania Catholics consider voting for “the abortion lady” in the first place?
Right. They didn’t. I know a bunch of them. Pater familias ain’t voting for no lady.
What Jamieson did in her book and these articles is not science, not science in the philosophically sound sense anyway.
It’s junk. I don’t care how many PhDs she has or where she’s a professor. It’s still junk.
Any experienced detective can tell you that if you suspect a conspiracy the order of the day is patience. If you move too fast you might have criminal intent, but no act to actually accomplish the crime. For conspiracy you need both and collusion which the press constantly confuses with conspiracy isn’t even a federal crime.
Unfortunately the Washington pundits jumped the gun and started this whole Russia Gate madness before Trump and his entourage had a chance to cut any quid pro quo deals.
I’m sure if they had just let the pot simmer greed would have risen to the surface. A hotel deal here, a bank loan there. Who knows what might have been. But in the chaos of the first few months of the Trump administration he simply didn’t have time to line his pockets or those of his family with any Russian loot. Instead he’s got Saudi’s who just happen to bring entourages to Trump’s hotel and they spend a fortune. All legal of course, at least until or unless the emoluments law suit says otherwise.
If you continue with articles by Caitlin Johnstone you will loose credibility as an independent news source. Her comments fly in the face of reality – I have studied Trump since his days in NY and being tutored by the likes of Roy Cohn, his ties to banks in Cyprus and the unexplained appointment of Wilbur Ross to Commerce Secretary. Why not get involved in stories about the Koch Brothers and the number of their top executives now working in Washington. The Russia story will eventually fan out to other leads I believe.
Lets get real the story in America is about a dysfunctional president and his sidekick. When I liven in Iowa I supported the Republicans – but no more. The Dems are not much better – WOW what choices.
Cite specific examples of how she “flies in the face of reality” or this is just a baseless smear. Caitlin is terrific.
Yes, Caitlin is terrific.
Caitlin doesn’t just speak truth to power, she shouts it from the rooftops with a megaphone. That’s why trolls like Aeron make slanderous comments with absolutely no specifics to back them up. CN has plenty of credibility, and so does Caitlin. The oligarchy is getting worried, and planning to silence the voices of dissent.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50438.htm
No one I’ve ever read, including Caitlin Johnstone, denies Trump is corrupt. Instead, like everyone else, Ms. Johnstone repeatedly asserts that Trump is corrupt. But so is every recent President and perhaps every President, period.
Do you not understand that Mr. Obama’s failure to prosecute any Wall Street figure is directly connected to making him a very wealthy man through post-Presidency “corporate speaking fees?” The same mechanism (and other kickback schemes) — for similar reasons — led to the Clintons’ vast wealth. Perhaps not prosecutable but massively corrupt and contrary to the interests of the American people, whom they promised to faithfully serve.
Corruption is ubiquitous. Trump is not significantly different from his predecessors. except, perhaps, in that his corruption revolves primarily around real estate rather than arms sales.
But the ideas that he improperly colluded with the Russians to defeat Clinton, and that Russia materially affected the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election, are unsupported by any publicly available evidence.
We need more voices like that of Ms. Johnstone.
Ah so that is why has-been politicians get paid ridiculous amounts of money to make speeches for corporate events. Considering the calibre of today’s politicians I am surprised they get asked at all.
I noted in an obit that David Wise just died. I’d never heard of him and have no idea why I read through the obit, but it made me look him up on Wikipedia which made me look up his book THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT (1964) which I instantly ordered and am close to finishing. He was a prominent journalist for the NY Herald Tribune. He won several awards for another book: The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power (1973)
I’ve been up to my ears in investigating who really runs the administrations and that someone in 1964 had intensely documented the genesis of the “intelligence agencies” creeping assumption of control over the administrations left me with my jaw dropping every few pages. Their level of incompetence staggers the imagination; The Russiagate idiocy came from Hillary back when she was Secretary, but it was not her idea, it was the CIA’s. They promised her the post-Obama presidency in 2006 or 7. When she was so terrible that Trump beat her, the CIA developed the Russia story since attacking Russia has long been part of their dreams. Mueller became part of the package. And the CIA is still tossing the unforeseen hot-potato, Trump, from one hand to the other. But they’re getting there.
Now, no one can get Hillary to just shut up, because that’s where the money is. People seem astounded that they are doing their worldwide speaking tour after the election. Duh! They will make more money on things like that than any ten people you know will make in a lifetime. Then it will be hidden in the Foundation, except for what Bill gives to girls and Hillary gives to Huma. Bill became President and Hillary Pretendant for one reason only – huge bucks.
I recommend THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT as well as THE DEVIL’S CHESSBOARD by David Talbot on the same subject, but treated very differently.
Thank you so much Anonymot. .On my reading bucket list and listed as first in line.What you are saying resonates with me as I have been thinking the same for some time.
Cheers from Canada.
The Deep State was set up by Kissinger, the Bush Crime family, and Dick Cheney. They called it the “Continuity of Govt’…The Oligharchs have been working since WW2 and FDR to rid this country of any citizen entitlements. They work only for the corporations, elites workwide. World wide dictatators, and leaders are all a part of the international criminal syndicate…Mueller isnt done…not sure why you think he doesnt have the prooof…ala Roger Stone…Roy Cohn taught him…wake up there is more than just your perception Trump isnt anything but a tool of the uber right, “nationalists”. Not sure I even read this site everyday since none of my comments are ever published.
The real power of the Deep State began way before Kissinger. Read “The Devil’s Chessboard”. BTW, Mueller is a tool of the Deep State, and has been for some time. His current job is to sabotage any hope for detente with Russia by selling “RussiaGate” to the sheeple.
The best part is the US military comes right out and says in a CRELMO report the plan is for NATO to harass Russia into war – maybe even WWIII – over a gas pipeline.
What do Americans do? We ignore it. We pretend Vlad the Impaler von Putin Evil peed on Hillary Clinton’s white pant suit instead.
The military tells us they’re going to war with Russia and we still don’t get it.
Because something something It’s Her Turn something Communists something something Trump is Hitler something RUSSIANS!!!!!
Unfortunately they will not go away. Two reasons. “Russiagate” or Russian hysteria or Russian xenophobia has become a kind of secular religious cult. The cult believes regardless. Second it is profitable. Outside of the billions in increased defense spending, evey pimp and miscreat can make money off of Russiagate if they play their angles right.
I love this part: “Mook wants to know whether and how the Russian government infiltrated the Trump campaign to influence the election outcome. He wants to know whether there was an effort in the White House or in the president’s orbit to cover up what happened.” Bless his heart. He’s still wondering.
Yes. It’s still a question for Robbie Mook.
Does anyone look back as Mueller’s disgraceful history earlier this century???? Now that the Dems think CIA, FBI, NSA etc are full of impeccable angels, nobody dares to check.
You mean the incompetent post 9/11 Anthrax investigation that took years to complete? Mueller ended up blaming not one but two people as responsible for the murders and the second person committed suicide. The first person he blamed got a settlement from the government for the false accusation. Mueller also is a perjurer on Iraq’s so called ‘weapons of mass destruction’ lie before Congress. I wouldn’t trust him in anything he does or says.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/05/21/when_comey_and_mueller_bungled_the_anthrax_case_133953.html
On the contrary, I’d trust Mueller completely, to do whatever evil and dishonest thing the establishment wants him to do.
Robert Mueller has been sued by the lead investigator in the Anthrax case for obstructing his work.
Back in 2016, in Georgia, the local tv news did a report on how the Georgia State Voter Registration Roll had been hacked. The local/state officials, with the help of computer experts, did a thorough investigation, which traced the IP address DIRECTLY to the Department of Homeland Security. At first, DHS denied the hacking – until provided w/irrefutable evidence, only then did DHS come clean. DHS’s excuse for the hacking was pure bs. When pressed for more info, they resorted to the usual mantra of “national security”. Folks, it doesn’t get anymore fascist than that. It’s been rigged all along.
Hooks
Thanks for your comment re DHS election hack in GA. Please provide cites
I followed the Presidential campaign of Ron Paul in the 2008 and 2012 elections. There was definite proof of rigging in those elections to jam Ron Paul. Media manipulation, opinion poll rigging and then finally vote tampering.
As probably implemented in Brazil in the last election and in the up and coming run off .
All electronic voting , no paper trail to my knowledge . If the system is integrated , there is massage opportunity for fraudulent results of the elections and the positioning of certain individuals in places of power.
(Maybe a third time will be a charm?)
Anyone else wonder why Cambridge Analytica never became THE focus of 2016 election meddling “investigation”?
It’s CEO has explained the strategy of, and AND revealed that the Trump campaign paid for, a sophisticated, perhaps successful, social media-based process that was everything Rootin’ Tootin’ Putin© (RTP) would like to have employed … IF he had wanted to try to influence the outcome of a US presidential election.
Jill Stein is the domestic media scapegoat for the failure of the HRC campaign. She had the unmitigated nerve to act as if the USA were a democracy, i.e. running for president — when it was Ms Clinton’s “turn.”
In one memorable browbeating, Stein pointed out that the media had given Trump the equivalent of several hundred $billions of free coverage, far outweighing any conceivable effect of Stein’s 1.5% of the vote. The media rep rose, like a trout to a perfectly presented fly: “Well, (harumph), the media is NOT Russia!”
The US media and Cambridge Analytica hardly comprise an exclusive club of institutions apparently entitled to manipulate a US presidential election. Clearly, RTP seems to be the rare, if not sole, exclusion from said club.
No. First was there a crime? If not, that does not give a Special Prosecutor a lot to work with. Then you move on to how others are using the data, from the Obama campaign to Universities to Cambridge Analytica all which would be brought up in discovery should Robert Mueller go forward with a flimsy indictment anyway. Oh, no you might say, not Obama, or the Democrats! Who are just too pure to do such a thing, despite having having fed Hillary Clinton all of the debate questions and rigged their primary against Bernie Sanders. No doubt Debbie Wasserman Schultz would have passed on the opportunity because it bothered her lily-white conscience. Most likely, as all the polls said that Hillary Clinton had a 97% chance of being elected, why would anyone bother?
The Problem Isn’t Cambridge Analytica: It’s Facebook
h**ps://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/03/19/the-problem-isnt-cambridge-analytica-its-facebook/
The Cambridge Analytica issue was really just a “Russia Gate Lite” – a half baked story, to get a whole bunch of ingénues to click on articles and tune in to the talking heads that drive advertising dollars for the MSM – and it worked – and it is still working – people are still talking about it today and clicking on links. Mission successful!
And all you are left with is: “Why did this story go nowhere?” Wakey-wakey.
So how, exactly, would the critical Russia Gate crime be described?
As far as I can decipher, and I haven’t spent a great deal of time on it, it goes like:
“Trump pays RTP to manipulate social media in his favor.”
So 1) how is “Trump pays CA to manipulate social media in his favor” intrinsically different?
or 2) how is “the crime” intrinsically different from the above? That is, how does RTP manipulate millions of potential US voters withOUT using social media?
“The problem is Facebook” because the GOP saw how it could use the Russia Gate investigation the Dems were squealing about as an excuse to shut down accounts of those who use said social media to criticize the GOP … and the Dems are hardly opposing that angle. For all anyone knows, the parties came to an agreement to appoint a Mueller precisely for that mutually beneficial reason.
The whole thing is circular isn’t it? Contact Oleg Deripaska through Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to manufacture dirt on Donald Trump. Then use it to launch the Mueller Investigation to massively destabilize the new Administration and force impeachment hearings. And it will never be detected because the perpetrators are in charge of the investigation. What a coup!
Putin did not even need to bother with the Trump Campaign and it was a great insurance policy for him, as 97% of the polls said Hillary was going to be elected; Putin showed he was a good Clinton soldier.
Furthermore, the Democrat’s claim on its face is really rich: they rigged the primary against Bernie Sanders and are upset that Putin rigged the election against them? If that was the case, one crook got outplayed by a smarter crook.
Meanwhile, the gullible sheep, who don’t read Consortium News get literally bombarded by Rachel Maddow for 2 years, 24/7 going on about “Russia, Russia, Russia!!!” and lap it up, to the boon of corporate advertisers everywhere.
Right. Rachel Maddow makes Infowars seem truthfull. 24/7 propaganda.
@John Puma
Because Obomber did the same thing with google and facebook in the infamous 2012 elections.
Its one big club and we ain’t part of it.
Fascism 101
Outstanding article.
Johnstone has been correct from the start. Russiagate was, is and always will be a hoax.
The Russiagate nonsense stunk from the first day. Anyone with a shred of common sense and not blinded by Clinton disease could easily see that blaming Russia for the DNC hack was too political after Trump voiced some admiration for Putin during the campaign.
Russia Gate is just a way of avoiding the need to self reflect. Apparently, if you were even vaguely in contact with Blue Collar & Rural America, you could have seen Trump coming a mile off: “the countryside was ablaze with the campfires of the enemy.”
Victor Davis Hanson, who works at Stanford University and lives on a rural farm outside of Fresno, CA said every Hispanic person on his farm that spoke English was going to vote for DJT. So he went with that against the pollsters and was one of the few to correctly predict the election.
Victor Davis Hanson – The Mythologies of the 2016 Election
h**ps://youtu.be/z7pQdqPzozc
It is painful to listen to, but at least a lot more edifying than trying to connect the dots between Trump and Russia in the most contorted way possible.
The nasty Deep State apparatchiks will go on demonizing Russia, whether “Russiagate” is deconstructed or not. Trump and company have managed to alienate every nation but their allied “5 Eyes”. Now the dangerous and deluded Bolton is trying to wield a coup by pulling out of the INF with Russia. Trump is not in charge, he is only the big mouth up front. How did he select two horrendous, arrogant, ignorant neocons like Bolton and Pompeo? (The vicious Haley is leaving, why?)
I just read Tucker Carlson’s “Ship of Fools: How an Arrogant Elite is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution”. Tucker, despite being on Fox, recognizes and harshly criticizes what has been done to Americans over decades of globalization. A good book, yet Chris Hedges has a bleaker book, “”America: The Farewell Tour”, I have just started, well written, sobering book. Hedges offers no salve, says America is ready to collapse. I think so, too. The Deep State wants to keep power, that’s what Russiagate is all about. Meanwhile, so many people live lives of quiet desperation. I know a few of them, I’m sure everyone does. The US has only weapons and a big strut on the world stage to sustain its power. Unless we get some people in charge who wish to try harmony, cooperation, we are doomed. Trump is a failure, the entire big government is a failure for its citizens. All America’s misleaders offer is a nasty, brutish mentality, and war.
Now what? Hillary?
Donald J. Trump was raised UP to bring the Empire DOWN. Until that task has been completed he isn’t going anywhere. The “oligarchy” is finished.
There’s some misunderstanding about the US election process. The primaries are controlled by DNC and RNC, respectively, that includes the candidate selection process.
DNC and RNC are private corporations and as such, Federal election laws do not apply to their primary elections. In another word, DNC/RNC is free to rig the candidate selection process the way it sees fit and had been doing that for a long time. A federal judge stated pretty much the same thing:
“A federal judge dismissed the DNC lawsuit on August 28. The court recognized that the DNC treated voters unfairly, but ruled that the DNC is a private corporation; therefore, voters cannot protect their rights by turning to the courts:
“To the extent Plaintiffs wish to air their general grievances with the DNC or its candidate selection process, their redress is through the ballot box, the DNC’s internal workings, or their right of free speech — not through the judiciary.”
Source: https://ivn.us/2017/05/02/courts-cant-protect-right-vote-private-corporations-control-elections/
This is a case precedent that would apply to any lawsuit filed against RNC by unhappy republicans.
By the time the federal election kicks in, with all of its related regulations/laws, the candidates are limited to people whom the respective party leadership deemed fit for office. The federal election laws enforces the two party system by pretty much no third-party presidential candidate has a chance to win the election.
In another word, if you are free to rig the primary, does the federal election really matter? The answer is no, not really, especially with the electorate voting system after the general election…
What I want to know is, if the primaries are run by the RNC and DNC, why the hell should we Independent taxpayers be on the hook for the primary elections? Since it’s clear that the primary elections are nothing more than a formality, anyway, the RNC and DNC should pay for their own damn sham primary elections. Or dispense with the sham altogether and just let their “superdelegates” choose their candidates. What a misuse of taxpayer money.
All patriotic Americans should leave the red and blue parties and become independents.
The primaries and the actual elections are paid for by the local governments, that receive federal subsidies to offset some of the costs of the elections. In another word, the private corporations’ primaries are subsidized by tax payers, regardless of their party affiliation:
https://www.quora.com/How-are-primary-elections-paid-for-and-how-much-do-they-cost
And by the DNC lawyer’s legal review of the primary process, “the party could go into a smoke-filled room, lock the doors and pick the nominee for their party. They have no formal obligation to honor the will of the voters.”
Source: https://www.quora.com/Why-should-taxpayers-pay-for-the-cost-of-primary-elections
I doubt that there had been smoked filled room for the DNC selecting the presidential candidate for the 2016 election, but otherwise, that’s pretty much how HRC picked herself to be the candidate. While this is clearly immoral, the current election process is perfectly legal. That explains why none of the shady acts of the DNC primaries are questioned much in the MSM, including the DNC emails.
Unless this duopoly is broken up, elections in the US is anything but fair and democratic…
Unfortunately, given our “winner-take-all” voting scheme, it will be almost impossible for a third party to gain traction. This Youtube video explains why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo
Now is the time for all good men and women to abandon their political parties and become independents. You’ll still be able to vote for blues and reds if you so desire. (Except, possibly, depending on your state, in primary elections–which is itself galling. As a taxpayer in California, I’m paying for the cost of the primary election whether I’m a member of a political party or not, but I can’t vote in the Red primary.) But if enough people leave both parties, it will at least send a message to them.
Here’s a quote from George Washington on the topic of political parties:
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Why should US taxpayers pay to blow up old people and children, and destroy whole societies, when opinion polls always show a majority of public opinion against starting any new wars?
If the establishment can get that, they can easily get people to pay for their “democracy”.
Because they don’t have opinions, and they don’t have any ideas,
They’re selected, endorsed, and elected. That’s how it has been now for years
Manicured and well presented, they play out their role on the stage
Working hard to protect the wellbeing of those few who just pay their wage.
Smooth and polished and handsome, with the face of a movie star
They rehearse every word that’s been scripted. That’s what politicians now are.
Overseeing their wide dominions, they allay the public’s worst fears
Can’t afford to have any opinions, and don’t have any ideas.
The judge ruled poorly. The issue isn’t about elections, it’s about fraud. The DNC accepted/accepts monetary donations by people who assume(d) that the DNC would abide by their own rules. And use their monies for an expected purpose. They didn’t, so they defrauded those people (depending on expectations).
Suppose Russia-gaters got what they want and Trump were forced from office? Then what? They’d’ve made Mike Pence President. Pence is a GW Bush type Fundamentalists, probably eager to speed up the Rapture and Armageddon via more Middle East wars.
Removing Pence along with Trump is a very feeble hope, which would pierce the hand of anyone leaning on it.
Unfortunately most of the DNC and the Democratic leadership in Congress would be more than happy to continue regime change wars in the Middle East and war with Russia in Ukraine and the deluded fools in the progressive just can’t see or accept that. By the way I voted for Stein only rational choice.
Russia-gaters are no more likely admit they were wrong than Obama-birthers have been. It’ll one more imortal conspiracy fiction, floating around the conspiracy sites for centuries to come.
The time has come for an “Emily Littella” moment: “Never mind.”
Case closed. Dems hail mary to the mid term elections has fallen way too short. Better luck next time, or should we say come back with another dumb lie to cover your losses.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Caitlin’s topics and the general direction if her reporting is useful. The loaded words and appeals to emotion are not. They are, in fact, counter productive and unfortunate to still see here, where Robert Perry did such a beautiful job of speaking truth to power without stepping down into the arena of insults.
That’s your opinion, but I for one don’t share it, and the number of comments seem to indicate she strikes a chord with the readers of this site.
Fuck Yeah!!!!
‘Murica
Time to brush off the Political Shoes and get to steppin!
Chess vs Poker – America is a population of Poker players. You win in dollars, not games, and “a sixshooter beats 4 aces every time”. The accomplishments trained and aimed for are bluffing and deceiving. There are no rules that cannot be broken as long as you WIN.
Dice. We keep hoping positive thinking & a lucky
throw will let us win, in spite of the odds
Russiagate and Trump-bashing are at the base of the regressive Democratic leadership platform. It is a major mistake and is not going to produce the results the Dems think.The energy for change is in the progressive movement. both within and without the party. Unfortunately these are the campaigns and the candidates the establishment on the left ignore or outright suppress.
The oligarchy controls both parties. It is ridiculous for progressives to think they have any chance within the DNC. The Corporate Dems have no real platform other than Russiagate , Trump bashing, and identity politics. The Forever War with politically correct gender pronouns is not a platform the average thinking person will go for. The MSM’s mission from the oligarchy is to subvert the “energy for change” in the progressive movement, and to convince them that forming a third party is somehow hopeless and counter-productive.
so I giuess we should all give up then? Sheesh…
No, we should give up on the DNC and go over to the Green Party where we will receive a much better reception, get to the 15% for the TV debates, and then undue the utterly corrupted two party system. Sheesh…
Oops, meant undo, not undue.
The point is continuing to consider yourself a D or an R is the same thing as giving up. We have to do something different because it isn’t going to be done for us.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/24/pers-s24.html
“The clearest demonstration of the political trajectory of the Democratic Party is the array of former CIA agents, military commanders and State Department officials who are its candidates in the congressional districts that the Democrats aim to capture from the Republicans. As an analysis posted Friday on the World Socialist Web Site detailed, in the 115 seats which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has designated as competitive, 30 are national-security operatives, the largest single group.
With only two exceptions, the CIA Democrats are not drawn from among the rank-and-file soldiers who comprised the bulk of those sent as cannon fodder to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and came back, in many cases, damaged in mind and body, and hostile to the wars in which they fought. Thirteen had roles as intelligence agents, war planners or diplomatic apologists for war. Fifteen were officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines—commanders, captains, majors, a lieutenant-colonel.
Not a single one is running as an opponent of the wars in which they fought/led, or of new wars against Iran, Russia, or China. One actually demands as part of his program, “an uncompromising victory over Russia and its tyrannical regime.””
The Democrats are completely co-opted by war planners and Wall Street.
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/10-10-18-patrick-martin-on-the-military-wing-of-the-democratic-party/
Amen! Except there ain’t no going back to sanity from this ginormous crime of national brain-snatching. The gen pop remains helplessly gullible to seduction by shiney objets and there is no bottom to stupid.
Exactly, Skip! Both the Democratic and Republican parties are for suckers.
http://opensociet.org/2018/10/22/america-needs-a-third-party-now-a-blueprint-for-a-new-party-1/
O.
Much appreciate this series of links.
I would like to imagine that the election of 2016 might have served an educational purpose, that many might have come to understand that political parties, in the US, are not public entities, but private clubs who write and change their own rules at a whim and to maintain control of the pectoral process itself.
Obviously, I speak of what I term the “legacy parties”, the Republicans and the Democrats.
(Some years ago, it dawned on me that the understanding most USians had about their political system, that is the parties and the electoral process, itself, was totally wrong, based on un-examined assumption and childish mythology.
At that point, for my own amusement and that of some of my friends, I began to spell the names of the legacy parties backwards.
Thus Democrats became Tarcomeds and Republicans became Nacibupers.
As well, since “lesser evil” voting was all the rage, (this during the Bush v. Gore debacle) I proclaimed that we should not vote for the “lesser” weevil but the greater weevil, merely to bug those who still believed voting was a right when, clearly, it has long been reduced to a rite, an essentially empty ritual designed to confer legitimacy upon a thoroughly controlled and contrived process that was mostly theatre and did nothing whatever to change or affect overarching policies that drearily continued regardless of who controlled the spoils, which was (and is) what the pretense of the “consent” of the governed really is all about.
I hope that many of the commenters here might read these articles, ponder them, and even discussion their revelations and suggestions.
It is one thing to respond to the daily outrages, that have been going on for decade, yet it is very much another thing to develop narratives about the social forms of societal systems, educational, legal, economic and so on, that would constitute the form of conscious human society our species (and others) desperately requires of extinction and tyranny are to be actually dealt with.
One wonders, what might such a sane, humane, and sustainable society look like?
More importantly, what would it feel like?
Again, O, thank you for these links and for the qualities of courage, tolerance, and understanding evidenced in your comments, an appreciation I extend to this site and the majority of those who comment and discuss things here.
Please forgive the typos, mine eyes are old and seeing around the cataracts (soon to be remedied) is difficult with the rather small print my phone provides for composing
(composting?) comments.
Thank you for these wonderful comments and for urging us all to affirm what a “sane, humane, and sustainable society” would look like. Yes.
I’ve posted this before in the last few months but I just have to gloat one more time. And it was with the spirit of all my fellow CN clear thinkers that I was able to put this letter together.
What follows is a letter I had published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper back in December of ’16 when the hysteria was really ramping up.
Hysteria over Russia
The absurd propaganda over Russia purportedly “hacking the election” is now reaching a fevered pitch. It’s this type of group think that ultimately hardens into orthodoxy after it’s repeated ad nauseam by all the “smart and most important people” in Washington and the mass media.
This hysteria we’re witnessing is genuinely disconcerting. Like him or not, Donald Trump’s recent riposte that ‘these are the same hucksters who assured you that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction’ was right on target. I’m certainly no fan of Trump, but right here he’s spot-on.
On one side is the small group of critical thinking citizens who haven’t been brainwashed along with Trump and members of his administration, elements of the FBI and Julian Assange; while on the other side sits the entire mainstream press along with the Marco Rubio types, Mitch McConnell, Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee, Rachel Maddow, and much of the CIA who are peddling this outlandish notion that the Kremlin hacked the election.
What we’re witnessing is a squalid demonstration of where intelligent critical thinking is among the public and Washington intelligentsia. That so many otherwise peace-loving and intelligent people are being manipulated on this issue has the potential to spiral out of control.
Drew Hunkins
Madison, WI
It feels so nice to have confirmation of what virtually every single regular reader of CN knew as commonsense. (I was a bit off base regarding the FBI but hey, can’t go 100%. And there were elements to this day in the FBI who are chagrined over the antics of Comey and others.)
We’ll have to come up with a list of those liberals and others who totally discredited themselves during this entire charade. Just off the top of my head: Robert Reich, David Corn, Maddow, Thom Hartman, Mother Jones magazine, Bill Moyers, and some others I’m forgetting at the moment. And of course we can never forget that the Kristol and Kagan crew were all on board the ‘Kremlin hacked the election’ idiocy.
Good post.
Thank you Eric32.
In solidarity,
Drew Hunkins
Madison, WI
Even Bernie
Unfortunately you’re 100% correct Becnel.
In solidarity,
Drew Hunkins
Madison, WI
Nicely done Drew, many thanks…
Great letter Drew. Thanks for sharing it.
Drew Hunkins – Excellent post. I always look forward to reading your informed comments.
If there is any justice in the world the day can’t be far off now when they drag Rachel Maddow kicking and screaming off her microphone. I have been predicting this since she started her
Russia Russia Russia nonsense.
It’s the Republicons their wealthy and corporate donors not the Russians that have been manipulating US elections. Since Nixon with his secret deals behind the scenes promising a better deal for Vietnam after he was elected, and Reagan similar machinations with Iran hostages, the right wing supreme court stopping the count in FL and installing Bush. Does anybody believe the Republicons haven’t perfected the art of changing votes when it is in their best interest not to mention their blatant voter suppression. The Dems (Pulosi?, Schummer, Reid etc.) have been complicit standing by and letting it continue unabated and by undermining progressive candidates like Bernie in favor of corporate Dems like Hillary. The US election system is corrupt and broken from the inside.
Right on, Steve!
Just like the economy, the election system is broken for the many, but working perfectly fine for the few. What else explains how the same clueless knuckleheads hold office year after agonizing year until they eventually drop dead? You already said the word: corruption!
Very true. Elections have improved nothing in my lifetime.
Exactly. It was Mercer.
https://opensociet.org/2018/08/02/why-arent-we-going-after-the-alt-right-kochs-the-mercers-rigged-the-2016-us-presidential-election-part-3/amp/
The US is on the way out; some predict it to happen by 2030. Things are accelerating. Who knows?
Chris Hedges predicts the “Empire” will crumble within 20/30 years – tops. The oligarchs are just fattening their bellies & saving for the eventual demise of capitalism. Some have resorted to buying up property in New Zealand & buy large amounts of land in southern part of Latin America (Uruguay/Paraguay). I might not live to see it, but the times of avarice greed, are numbered.
The US collapse will come much sooner than 2030….the stage is set…Trump is the Deep State’s fall guy, our Hoover…who will go down in history as the man who brought the US down…they put The Clown of Chaos in for a reason…if they had wanted more of the same (and a longer timeline), then they would’ve installed Hitlerly and not Trump…the global ponzi scam that is the global financial system needs a reset and a new global currency…the US has way too much debt and they can’t print enough money to cover it.
Following the collapse, Trump will go and Pence will remain to head up the police state needed to maintain order in a wrecked country.
Only if we begin creating a truly cooperative form of sustainable capitalism and subvert the financial capitalism now running rampant in the world, can we avoid catastrophe, subjugation and ecocide.
Reach out to your friends, family, neighbors…connect at a basic human level…the human spirit is the strongest force in the cosmos..refuse to get pulled into created conflict which only serves to divide us against ourselves.
We are the leaders we have been waiting for.
The time is NOW.
LOVE is the only way forward.
That’s right!
Ignore Russiagate, rigged 2016, Syria, Libya, the Bosnian War, The Repeal of Glass Stegal, NAFTA, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, Korea, dropping atomic bombs, the creation of the CIA and slavery.
It’s the Republicans!
There are no quoted sources in the Politico piece suggesting, as Caitlin Johnstone does, that Mueller has a weak case. The gist of the Politico piece is that many will be disappointed at *how few details of Mueller’s investigation will be made public,* because of the Special Prosecutor’s reporting requirements in this case. Johnstone has taken a poorly reported Politico and twisted it to fit her agenda.
I am not a Russiagater. I think entirely too much time and energy has been spent on Russian meddling, and on what so far looks like a thin or nonexistent case for collusion. I don’t know what Mueller has, but neither Politico nor Johnstone has increased the pool of accurate information about his investigation.
Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) has made this point … that Mueller may well let indictments speak for themselves (and referrals to other agencies on other not-Russian-interference matters) and that absent indictment there’s nothing to compel him to feed the media/rumor/conjecture mill (and protection of the unindicted/innocent to consider) ….
She’s dyed in the wool Russiagates and is busily going to town on the “latest” … still it’s a worthy point that the “mueller report” may well never materialize to satisfy the pundits’ two years of confabulation and conjecture and revenge fantasy or even to point-by-point rebut or bolster Steele.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/10/19/psa-dont-misunderstand-the-role-of-a-mueller-report/
anybody remember Fitzmas???
Marcy Wheeler (Empty Wheel) says there may well be no “Mueller Report” to satisfy or bolster/rebut 2 years of speculation that Mueller may well let the indictments speak for themselves and say no more … prior post with link rejected (apparently) but anyone anticipating point-by-point rebuttal/affirmation of, say, Steele is gonna be disappointed.
Yes but can’t you imagine that if Russians were accused without any doubt, with *wtf* proves in the report, the operations to impeach Trump would start the day after realising it ? So What is the project with this investigation if nothing can be done or release after its closing ? Did not they knew it before eating all that money, time, TV show, investigations in the investigation ? That’s what she is saying, the investigation is ending in a form that does not mark it as a big hoax, using legal excuse to justify it. All Russia Gaters must stay on something that leave them a bad taste in their mouth with eternal doubts. Libs will continue to doubt, Reps to say it’s a hoax, the country stills separate in 2 blocks. But once again, if Trump was a Kremlin puppet, he would never be able to continue his mandate. Simple.
Russiagate, or not; look at all the proven meddling in elections, not to mention assassinations, the US has been active in with countries all over the world. Can’t take it coming back at us? Grow up America.
Agreed, Steve Rendall.
Mueller has a long history as a Deep State fixer. Thus, whatever outcome he produces is what the Deep State will have designed. I think the primary objectives were to distract from the clear influence and meddling of Israel and to further polarize the American public, as well as another psyop on the unthinking “liberal” class which are wedded to the corporate Democrats.
The Clown of Chaos will plunder on as his masters stuff their pockets and head for the exits.
Trump is our Hoover and the crash of 2019 will be catastrophic for the US populace.
A great shift is coming.
You mean the clear influence of the British city of London and Wall Street cabal. You seem to forget the British oligarchy has never accepted the soverighnty of the United States
Yes, few get this. The British lost the War of 1812 to the upstart Colonies, who would not have won without the help of the Russian navy. I think the British have had it in for Russia ever since. But back to your comment, the British Empire required control over the USA with the inception of the Federal Reserve Charter of 1913.
Give me control of the nation’s money supply and I care not what puppet sits on the throne. And thus is our history and our future unless people break the money monopoly and create their own sovereign “Common Currency..”
The War of 1812 had nothing to do with the Russian Navy. Russia and Britain at that time were fighting the Napoleonic Wars and were allies.
You mean the American Civil War?
The worst “progressive” offender, by far – Rachel Maddow. But you are correct, she will suffer no consequence.
Maddow is a Cecil Rhodes Scholar, Carroll Quigley, the professor of another Rhodes Scholar, Bill Clinton, has the history of Rhodes, Milner, et all in Tragedy and Hope, and The Anglo American Empire.
BTW, an MSNBC show is hosted by the daughter of one of the founders of the Trilateral Commission, another host anchor is the wife of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.. You could say MSNBC is the international banksters’ own network.
Too late now. Hillary and her neoconservatives got what they wanted. The Cold War narrative is back on. Everybody come buy some bombs!
https://opensociet.org/2018/10/21/the-entire-system-of-arms-control-will-unravel-as-a-result-of-us-withdrawal-from-the-inf-treaty/
More like “progressives”, communists and globalists got what they wanted… to erode clear thinking in America so much so that groups/activists have been corralled into war tribes with no time for logic and full plates of emotion.
Now who’s running the insane asylum?
Best way to say it with something so complicated and devious… the devil’s in the details.
Like what happened when the US withdrew from the ABM treaty?
That one didn’t go so well, did it?
https://opensociet.org/2018/09/01/war-with-russia-part-3-implications-of-new-weapons-system/
Nice piece, as usual. Odd that this propaganda campaign is making the point of election interference by the Russians, all the while Saudis, Israelis, lobbyists for many foreign governments and others including multi national corporations are openly buying “legally” our politicians. The farce of democracy under the domination of capitalism is now laid bare. The United States only flirted with democracy, it has always been a nation of oligarchs and war mongers, profiteers and gangsters, it’s just that now the politicians don’t really try to hide this fact, yet they demand adherence to the “religion of freedom”, a twisted Hollywood propaganda dream. It is a dangerous delusion holding destruction that slouches toward us.
Yes, Cambridge Analytica showed what small potatoes the Russian Troll Farm (be very afraid) really was …. and how likely there were already operating armies of private sector and political analogs … It’s was always difficult to to take the Russian Troll Farms seriously as a credible threat to “our democracy” in light of Citizens United in the age of the great Globalization…
Thanks for the oft overlooked glance at reality.
Those who saw the onslaught begin before the inauguration and defended either Trump or the Office itself allowed the extremists to shape the narrative and define collusion as any contact with Russians. By doing so they were able to construct all sorts of narratives about what went on those meetings or discussions. The first casualty was Flynn, caught talking to Russians and even discussing what the new Administration might do. One of the things he was caught doing was carrying water for Netanyahu to persuade Russia not to support a particular UN action. The media and the entertainers missed that part which might be considered collusion but not with Russia.
Whatever the outcome, this will be raw meat for the Political Science and Foreign Service departments, schools and professors for years to come. The Red Scare revisited.
actually, on election eve, I saw a poll that showed that even Hillary supporters were not buying her constant harangue about Russian Interference even with Barack Obama standing behind her nodding and giving her the thumb’s up.
I’ve seen recent articles (last few days) marveling at the lack of traction “Russia-gate” has gained with voters over the last two years of persisting in selling a product that folks aren’t buying .. (It could be entirely “real” — doubt — but I’m guessing few could even define “it” or how Manafort’s money laundering is relevant or how Page and Kelly’s lies, loyalty, ass-covering and stupidity jeopardized anything …
Well, 1/2 of us never vote, because we believe nothing of the propaganda told us.
It’s come to the point that voting is an endorsement of the rigged system. Participation in the system gives it a whiff of credibility, which, of course, we know it does not have.
HIstorians, too, will have a lot of fun with Russia-gate nonsense, especially a couple of centuries down the road (assuming humanity still exists.)
Rosenstein’s timing of indictments just as Trump was travelling to Russia was no accident at all. It worked as intended and got the media worked into a frenzy.
The Grand Facade. The Great Charade. The Final Curtain.
People think the Trump-era is bad….wait until the post-Trump era, the 2020’s. The Time Of Reckoning.
Get strong folks. We’re talking about a power-struggle here.
It is the apex of capitalism, the only means to power is corruption, corruption is legalized, nothing is not worth destroying in the pursuit of power in the zero sum “win/lose” capitalist paradigm.
Accurately put. We shouldn’t forget that a Keynesian, anti-neoliberal candidate like Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders winning a general election is the prelude to the prelude of fighting. In office, anyone attempting to apply even moderate social democracy will face a massive and completely unprecedented tidal wave of media hysteria, party sabotage, and hourly pressure to pull a “Tsipras” or “Mitterand.” And such a government would do what, exactly? It definitely wouldn’t introduce basic socialism, let alone the program of complete expropriation, an end to NATO/WTO/IMF/NAFTA/MIC and an end to economic growth for the rich that is needed. What it would do is show that alternatives to the current system are possible. At that point, the real battle begins.
Global warming, too.
Global warming, what?
“…the news churn will shuffle on…”
excuse me for pointing out that what people call the “news” is in fact the olds.
it is the churning of the very old and perfectly predictable story of wealthpower giants DOing what wealthpower giants DO that people are witnessing – – and writing endless regurgitations of opinions about.
when humans are allowed to pursue unlimited fortunes, which they want because of the power to influence and control that comes attached, who in their right mind cannot predict that it is the least scrupulous humans who will always be going hardest after that carrot?
when do we get real enough to take action to stop the churn of the olds so we can survive? when does the necessary educational campaign to put a just cap on personal fortunes begin so we humans can survive and thrive? when does the human species wake up from our nightmare by waking up to what the cause of the nightmare IS?
I really don’t mean to sound rude,
but there is a much, much bigger picture virtually everyone is ignoring.
we simply cannot reverse the colossal destruction of everyone’s every good thing until we see the big picture, alas. so far, we humans are really good at keeping our brains away from the biggest picture of our reality.
so far, the human consciousness is at a level of immaturity that prefers a few to be gifted with free-gratis giga overwealth and the rest to be subjected therefore to the arbitrary whims of those wealthpowerful – prefers that lethal injustice over organizing ourselves to have the economic equality that is justice and breeds no strife while it eliminates the waste, fraud, corruption, usurpation of governments, wars, crime, violence…
“Only those who see the big picture are awake” – Heraclitus (Greek philosopher)
how hard is it to understand that money is power, that therefore tyranny/slavery IS where overwealth/underwealth is, that democracy is by definition impossible where concentration of wealth above a just amount possible to self-earn is not outlawed?
(btw, has anyone tracked the amount of wealth the wealthpower giants legally stole off us to fund the “investigation” that was from the beginning DESIGNED to accomplish precisely what the author notes has been accomplished in the very odd sentence that begins with “All that the shrill, demented screeching about Russia has accomplished…”)
Many times the comments are worth more than the article (no slight to Caitin intended).
The ancient Gnostics identified materialism as evil and spiritualism as good. I used to think they were a little too extreme in that belief, but more and more I’m starting to see the wisdom in their observations of innate human fallibility. J.R.R. Tolkien apparently made the same observations.
People need to understand there is a difference between collusion, which has not been proved, and general corruption, which has been found, and led to the indictments, and is discussed in this article. “Mueller will continue finding evidence of corruption throughout his investigation,….”
Mueller’s charge was to seek evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. The corruption that you mention was a side product of the investigation and was referred to other entities to investigate further and to prosecute. That Trump is thoroughly corrupt surprises no one, including many of his supporters, but paying off women to keep quiet about sexual affairs would not seem to involve Russia, unless you have a new conspiracy theory that explains how it does.
Thank you for pointing out this fact. In many ways, the Mueller investigation is parallel to Ken Starr’s investigation of Clinton.
Starr was tasked with finding evidence of financial crimes related to the Whitewater real estate investment scheme, and ended up parading a semen-stained dress in front of Congress.
Mueller was tasked with finding evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russian Government, and ended up parading a porn star in front of the media.
The point that in each case the special investigator exceeded his mandate and embarked on a witch hunt is willfully ignored by partisan hacks.
Exactly ‘M’ — I noticed that parallel too.
And just a side comment on Russia-gate: as Bob Parry had stated (paraphrasing) before his passing — for the sake of argument, even IF all the official accusations were true, it’d be hard for a person (at least a media/political-savvy person) to believe that these minor, foreign efforts would have had more than a minuscule (ie- .1%?) electoral effect, especially in contrast to 100’s of MILLIONS of $$ spent by domestic sources, which are SO ubiquitous and much more culturally knowledgeable about US politics. I find it virtually impossible to believe that full-time/highly paid political consultants in this country—-who have even been hired to screw-up other countries’ elections —- would be out maneuvered by a foreign country’s troll farm of social-media posters.
The Russian “troll farm” looks to me like a click-bait marketing company.
Please, Diane Rejman, tell us more about Uranium One and Mueller’s role in that deal.
The miscreant policies of this President and administration these past two years alone should be grounds for impeachment. Even if there is no collusion with Russia found by Mueller. I’m willing to bet there are people sitting in prison today just on the intent to committing espionage. Let alone trying to establish back channel contacts with foreign entities in order to acquire dirt on your political opponent. Then proclaim that the candidate who is a wannabe despot had no clue of his underlings actions. Right.!?
The wannabe you describe could easily be Hillary Clinton.
“Let alone trying to establish back channel contacts with foreign entities in order to acquire dirt on your political opponent.”
You mean like hiring a UK ex-spy to use his back channel contacts with Russia to acquire dirt on Trump?
When Maddow states that “Russians might be controlling our government “ Without submitting any evidence to back up her claim, I ask myself: how stupid one has to be to accept this diatribe? I reckon that whom ever believes in Russian culpability without demanding to see solid proof first; he or she must have a severe mental retardation.
All of this began with Hillary and the DNC fabricating that the “Russians” hacked their servers and wouldn’t hand them over for analysis, when that didn’t float they went on to accuse the Russians of influencing our General Election. And from there the lie snowballed. This is how lies are, you have to dump on lie after lie. I never believed it and lost a lot of social media friends over it. Which is actually fine with me, I don’t like gullible people.
I get the impression that the same people continue to read and listen to the same media sources day in and day out no matter what anyone is saying or how much sense anyone is making. How else can we explain why everyone in the country still doesn’t know that 911 was an inside job or that our elected officials have no intention to keep their oath of office or tell the truth about what they know in their hearts to be true. The problem is that we all think we’re more honest and more courageous than our leaders are which is the first and most important illusion we need to confront. https://www.gpln.com
Those who don’t know a controlled demolition when they see it are guilty of not caring to know and of not having a grasp of basic physics. Those who are smart enough to know what they are seeing but are scared of being called a conspiracy theorist are cowards. Those who outright fight back against truth with lies, like Maddow, are purely materialistic, power hungry cretins capable of the most darkest of evils.
These kinds of people, if articulate, populate the news media.
Please visit youtopia.guru
I visited your website. It’s great. I see you quit writing some years ago. I have the same sense of futility with my own site. However, my hiatus is about over and I will continue to write because it feels right and necessary to do so. I hope you do the same. Perhaps we can meet some day. We don’t live that far away from each other.
BTW, thanks Consortium News for providing a place for thoughtful people to share ideas and anxieties about our collapsing plutocracy.
well…ignoring that meeting between the Russians, Don Jr and Manafort, the latest charges out of the Virginia federal district and all those other issues CNs writers never mention. However, I do agree that at best Mueller served to put the more reliable Pence into the drivers seat but more likely yet, served to obscure real crimes and to keep angry people out of the street while they all wait for Mueller to save them. Merry Fitzmas, suckers!
Your reply demonstrates one of the most pernicious and insidious elements of Russiagate: conflating “Russian” with “the Russian Government.”
Russiagaters routinely discuss incidents in terms of individuals meeting with “the Russians” or actions by “the Russians.” When one refers to “the Russians,”, just like when one refers to “the Americans” or “the Chinese,” it is implied that the reference is to the respective government of the referenced nation.
Russiagaters try to resolve this error by stating that the actors involved were “believed” to be “linked” to the Russian government. This is how a statistically insignificant volume of social media posts and Twitter activity by a St. Petersburg-based click-bait marketing enterprise can be branded as “Russian” interference. Unfortunately the inability of Russiagaters to provide corroborating evidence of the links to Putin or the Russian government does nothing to dissuade the media from propagating the misinformation.
You are right about on thing Caitlin, those who perpetrated this Mueller fraud don’t give a rat’s ass about the truth, and they will just go on their merry way to promote the next major hoax, as if nothing really happened. Take responsibility for wrecking the final shreds of real democracy in America? No way – not their style.
Wow mike…you don’t think trumpkin and the Republicans are the larger threat to the taters of our former Democratic Republic?
h
Except how do you explain all of the indictments and convictions which have resulted from documented collusion with the Russian government?
This article reads more like a wishful thinking (gullibility) of supporter of Russian collusion than an objective citation of the fact.
Allan Hyde. Could you explain which indictments (a word that means accusation) and convictions (meaning in this context, plea bargains) show collusion by the Trump campaign and the Russian state to elect Trump by hacking the Democrats?
Steve, Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jeckyl’s dark side) obviously is a stranger to reasoned thinking. Your request will produce no proofs, since he has none.
‘Those of us who have been courageous and clear-headed enough to stand against the groupthink have been shouted down, censored, slandered and smeared as assets of the Kremlin on a daily basis’
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-20/judge-orders-mueller-prove-russian-company-meddled-election
Insightful and predictive essay by CJ. These neoliberals and neoconservatives discredited themselves completely after the Iraq War, Austerity, the Financial Crisis, Libya, Trade Deals, Project Fear and other disastrous policies supported by 95% of the media and pundit class at the time, but now the public universally agrees are total failures. Yet they haven’t been run out of DC and Westminister, and they probably won’t be run out of DC or Westminister following RussiaGate either. The ruling class can’t lose face, so the only way to finally end their corporate globalised system is end their power instead.
In my state, Arizona, we have two women vying for Jeff Flake’s Senate seat, Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema. McSally was the first woman fighter pilot in the Iraq invasion and is running on that claim to fame. Sinema actually protested the war at the time, but since entering politics is minimizing her opposition and has become a classic sellout emphasizing her support for the troops and the cops.
Do we really have such short memories?
I know, right? the smoke definitely shows a fire existed but if Reagan could get away with iran/contra why wouldn’t trump be allowed to get away with pretty much anything up to “shooting someone on 5th ave”?
and ,despite the protestations above, CNs comments section is surprisingly popular with the trump crowd. kind of mnice when the left and right agree on things isn’t it?
Ever hear of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority? Bill Clinton and his cronies can tell you all about it…so can the CIA. Just as Obama “looked forward” away from crimes of Bush, the Clinton White House argued for the right of the National Security Council under Bush Daddy to delete records pertaining to Iran-Contra (because the NSC isn’t an “agency” was the “reasoning”).
H.W. Bush got away with Iran-Contra because he pardoned Weinberger and the boys–and because Clinton wanted the can of worms shut as well.
If you spent more time understanding the commentary section of CN, you might realise that the Democratic Party is not here considered as anything approaching the “left”.
There is no “Trump crowd” here…many are disaffected former Democrats holding the party accountable for their treachery. The politicization of the intelligence agencies to subvert Constitutional processes and force demonization of Russia–as opposed to detente with Russia–is unconscionable.
The list of what has been “allowed” is long and bipartisan. Clinton destroyed Yugoslavia and “sanctioned” Iraq to death–literally. Obama catered to the CIA desire for terrorism to be inflicted upon the homes of a peaceable and socially-oriented people. Get off your partisan horse Will and see the D-R charade for what it is.
Great comment Gregory. Unfortunately Will’s tea cup is full, nothing more will go in.
So you said….”convictions which have resulted from documented collusion with the Russian government?” why didnt you name any then? hmmm? Thats because their arent any…
Again, for better or worse; we all know how unrelated criminal activity is used by drug enforcement police (perhaps most commonly) to obtain evidence and testimony related to other crimes. While this type of police work can (and perhaps is) being be abused (see Ken Star and his lackey Kavanaugh) we don’t actually know what they know or who may produce actual evidence of crimes committed by Trumpkin et all. it does seem clear that the time line shows trump’s statements about upcoming releases of damaging info about Clinton did in fact coincide with the Don Jr./Manafort Russian meeting and in the after math of being found out it seems pretty clear that Trumpkin prepared his son’s statement on that meeting. while I doubt Mueller exists to get ride of trumpkin or usher in a New Dawn ™ in American government, it’s pretty clear what happened. Trump’s campaign colluded with manafort who was sent pro bono by pro Russian Ukranians to whom he owed money and then the trump campaign adopted some of the very techniques Manafort was payed to come up with to influence various political activities in Ukraine and the Crimea. Nothing like what the Israelis do every day, but once again…this isn’t rocket science. Trumpkin colluded with the Russians, intentionally and received help from them, perhaps unintentionally. Whether it made a difference or not is a different argument( although the understanding of the potential impact of social media algorithms here at CN is seriously lacking). If one wants to know these things they can research it. people at CNs simply don’t want to.
Will, you say, “Trump’s campaign colluded with manafort who was sent pro bono by pro Russian Ukranians”, by which I think you mean business people wanting to do business in or with Russia. And as U.S corporations like Exxon are doing business in Russia, with the Russian government, and would lobby any and all U.S. political leadership to approve of, enhance, and increase the profitability of that work, would such lobbying be pro Russian? Would it be illegal? Is it unheard of? How long has it been going on?
Since none of the indictments involve collusion with the Russian government to effect the outcome of our election, your comments seem to imply that the motive to favor doing business with Russia, or to effect whether Ukraine has war with Russia or trade with Russia, is evidence of Russia trying to effect the outcome of our election. OK, have it your way. But have you asked yourself why Mueller hasn’t charged Manafort with that as a crime? I think it’s because it’s NOT a crime. It’s business as usual.
The Democrats and the Deep State are trying to convince you that it is a crime to want to do business with Russia instead of wanting to go to war with Russia. That, to me, is treason.
The fact is that there has not been one shred of evidence that would stand a snowball`s chance in hell in a court of law presented. You might keep in mind indictments are not convictions and do not even contain evidence. The entire charade is nothing but a smokescreen. Even a GULLIBLE person like you should be smart enough to know that if there was any evidence or even a smidgeon of concrete proof it would have been blasted all over the media.
Allan Hyde, in response to your question,
Manafort has been convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud crimes. He has worked for pro-Russian Ukrainian business interests, as have the Clintons and the Podestas. Exxon has worked in Russia with the Russian government, as have other U.S. corporations. Is all of this “collusion with the Russian government?” Collusion to do what?
Manafort worked for pro-EU, anti-Russia forces in Ukraine.
There have not even been any indictments, let alone proof or convictions, regarding collusion.
Antiwar7,
I agree with you about collusion, but I have read consistently that Manafort had worked for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. Is there information about pro-EU involvement as well?
Another Rachel Madcow Bot……i.e. Just Another Silly Sot.
Indictments aren’t evidence. And there have been zero convictions of “collusion with the Russian government” that I’m aware of. Maybe you can cite which specific conviction you’re referring to?
That’s weird, I didn’t see any replies until I’d already hit “post comment”. Sorry for the redundancy.
Allan, there’s been none. The indictments are unproven (and made by one of the guys who told us Iraq had WMDs). The convictions are all about corruption.
Go back and get granular. You are the gullible one, the wishful thinker.
Did Trump collude? No. Did the Russians do the same thing they as the Soviets have been doing for decades with foreign elections, including the ones in the US? Yes.
For example: The Soviets offered Adlai Stevenson money and support if he ran for President. Hubert Humphrey was offered money by the Soviets to help his presidential campaign. Service A [of the KGB] prepared a wide-ranging set of measures to discredit Senator Henry Jackson, sending forged FBI letters to prominent U.S. newspapers and journalists claiming that Jackson was a closeted homosexual. The KGB has a source that attended Carter Presidential Campaign strategy meetings where the candidate was present. Etc.
“Except how do you explain all of the indictments and convictions which have resulted from documented collusion with the Russian government?”
They are very easy to explain. A prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. Especially if that ham sandwich is located in Moscow, and will never be extradicted to face trial.
Indictments and allegations are not proof of anything. What is proven, is that Team Hillary thought that Hillary’s biggest weakness in the 2016 elections was Russia, and her sale of 20% of US uranium production to the Russian state owned Rossatom. Voters really didn’t like that. So she did what all Republicans do – attack her opponent on her own weakness.
Perhaps if you choose to post the actual details of “all of the indictments and convictions which have resulted from documented collusion with the Russian government” an explanation might be possible. I am having difficulty finding any, but I’m confident you can enlighten all of us with factual actual references,
In the toxic atmosphere of corporate and social media coming more and more under the control of Western intelligence agencies, which are now doing it openly, there is no reward for being right.
People really should Google Operation Mockingbird if they want to understand how the Intelligence Community views the free press and propagandizing the American people (which is now legal due to the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 … Thanks Obama!). The MSM has been thoroughly co-opted by the IC.
The fact that people blindly trust the FBI (COINTELPRO) and CIA (Mockingbird) as hallowed institutions that would never do wrong is mind-boggling considering their histories of undermining democracy and violating civil liberties both at home and especially abroad. The institutions themselves are a necessary evil in a world full of villains and scoundrels, but people should never forget that bad things happen when you fail to watch the watchmen, or when you allow those who are supposed to watch the watchmen and the watchmen themselves to become grotesquely co-dependent upon each other.
I used to think I was a Leftist, Radical even. I am 76 and the left progressives and dem leaders that get all the press and TV are embarrassing the Progressive Movement which is no longer on the move.
When will you and the rest of your “Progressive Movement” get around to abolishing the incorporation racket? Your sort of “Radical” has been hooting and hollering self-righteously for MORE THAN A CENTURY about the effects of corporations, but it’s obvious that the movement doesn’t object to the intense concentration of wealth, commercial power, and political power that corporations bring about. Rather, you have connived at incorporation perennially while planning how to concentrate ownership and power even more—and into your own hands.
Maybe it’s time for you and other members of the “Progressive” movement to admit publicly what you’ve always know privately among yourselves: Ye are a pack of poseurs, sybarites, looters, sentimental malcontents, and wannabe despots.
I notice you’ve resorted to slander, since you can’t actually answer the charges and questions in response to your first post. Here, unlike most MSM outlets, rational argument wins the day. You are out of your depth here at CN.
Why are my posts not getting posted?
They say posted.
This page currently shows 36 comments when viewed on my PC and 63 comments when viewed on my phone.
There is definitely something weird going on lately here with the comments. Joe Lauria needs to take a closer look rather than just republishing the comment policy.
It’s been a great circus show to distract us from what we really need to be examining – the corruption in our political system and the destruction of democracy (what there was of it) in our country.
If Clinton is NOT arrested for her OWN shenanigans then we are DOOMED. Even new Dem Presidential hopefuls want her to STOP talking…best way to do that is arrest her as she deserves, along with whole family and Clinton Foundation $$$ CONFISCATED and put that money to help build border wall.
An excellent commentary regarding this Russiagate, Collusion delusion farce & the coming, nothingburger results of Mueller’s investigation! And I agree completely with the Writer that the nefarious objectives & narratives of this ridiculous lie has already been achieved as stated by Caitlin?? These delusional crooks have managed to manufacture dissent via all the propagandist white noise generated by this blatant lie to demonise Russia, firstly to cover up the Democratic Party’s rigged Candidate process in choosing the corrupt Hillary Clinton over Bernie Saunders then to distract further from their humiliating & bumbling loss to Trump in the Presidential Election! Secondly, as Caitlin explained, the Russiagate lie has been further used as a excuse to crackdown on Internet freedoms by censoring & silencing alternative voices who are questioning the fake Propaganda narratives spewed out by the US Govt & Ministry of Truth MSM in lockstep with this Deepstate! The McCathyite “Reds under the Beds” narratives have been brought out of their 1950’s closet & dusted off to further demonise Russia as the enemy, because the US of A has to have a bogeyman to justify the MIC’s ridiculous Military Budgets & spending on useless weapons that Russia has now the Hypersonic & Nuclear weaponry to completely render as obsolete piles of junk! And now Trump is further hastening America’s complete decline as a Hegemonic unipolar Empire by pulling out of the INF deal or any deal they don’t like or can’t control? The last desperate gasps of a dying Empire, rotting from the inside out!
And yet, for better or worse, we are in a cyber war with Russia and china. I don’t blame them, but it does appear they have the upper hand which may not go so well for the rest of us.. There is ample proof of that, and as always, CN simple fails to discuss anything that has come up in this investigation (and others) that counter the no collusion/ no obstruction/deep state narrative. the lack of balance is so obvious that it’s hard to take this site seriously any longer. I quote the head of what is in fact the most dangerous administration we’ve ever had (a hard act to pull off btw) when I say Sad!
If there is “ample proof”, please link to some so that we may analyze it.
Apparently $100,000 in face book ads some of which were pro-Trump others pro-Clinton and 60% posted after the Nov 6,2016 election somehow magically caused voters to turn to Trump. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? However this is the so called proof being touted by the MSN as proof.
Click-bait marketing rebranded as The Most Ominous Threat to Freedom Ever.
that so few “left” critics of russiagate, crossfire hurricane and midterm exam exist will shame the rest of that side of the spectrum for quite a while, especially as this time thorough prosecution just may be the exception that proves the rule.
and those that spoke out, when it counted, like the nation magazine, forensicator, vips, and caitlin johnstone, will, i hope, receive the thanks and recognition they deserve from an appropriately grateful, and chastened, citizenry.
Trump’s just playing ball now anyway. And they’re all owned by Israel. So it doesn’t really matter much.
You have a point there. For all the folks who believed Trump was some sort of populist monkey wrench – ha ha ha! How’d that work out?
Trump is just a whore like the rest of them. The difference is Trump doesn’t bother to speak in complete sentences, and that makes him sound like one of the common folks.
Meanwhile, none of the actual policies change. More money for the rich folks who don’t need it, and more death for the wogs.
Not so well :-(
I was never a MAGA believer like his cheering crowds, but thought he might be able to tap on the brakes of our global empire project for a few years. HRC was a known corrupt warmonger, with Trump the only means of blocking her from picking up where Obama left off. But it didn’t take long for him to give everyone the jitters with his “Art of the Deal” brinksmanship style of diplomacy. And now he’s pulling out of the INF Treaty!
Just maybe the gods mean to hasten the destruction of this American experiment in order to usher in a new age based on something other than capitalism as its driving force.
Understood. Ironically, Trump’s nonaggressive attitude towards Russia may have been his only position I agreed with on the day he was elected.
Turns out that position was fake too.
Like all bullies, at heart Trump is a coward. He isn’t going to fix anything because he doesn’t stand for anything but himself.
It is important to also mention here that indeed there was some Russian Collusion — BUT IT WAS BY HILLARY CLINTON AND BARACK OBAMA AND BOB MUELLER!!!!!!!!
That’s right. Under these people we secretly sold off our Nation’s URANIUM and THE CLINTON FOUNDATION was rewarded huge kickbacks right while Hillary Clinton was in charge of the U.S. State Dept., and Obama was the President, and Mueller was directly involved. This was known as the “Uranium One” scandal, and you can google it, but no one will ever be prosecuted because these true Russian Colluders are part of the “Deep State” and are they always above the Law.
Hillary Clinton also was behind the Fusion GPS Election fraud (which involved Russian collusion) to fabricate a (non-existent) crime to blame onTrump, and Clinton and the DNC committed additional Election meddling and fraud by cheated Bernie Sanders.
The entire DOJ and FBI is rotten to the core and has been protecting the real criminals the whole time. That is the big news flash.
When will the real criminals (and its not Trump) ever be held accountable??
Vote for JOBS not MOBS!!
Yes, yes, FS, you are preaching to the choir here at CN, but the bulk of the polity is still ensconced in their media-induced hypnotic trance. My “wishful thinking” was that, once this charade blew up and was exposed as fraudulent, that the media would be exposed as the complicit liars that they are, discredited, and that this would result in Americans awakening from their trance.
From my perspective, DC’s partisan bickering is small potatoes compared to the vast hallucinatory power wielded by the major media outlets.
JOBS, MOBS, PEACE AND SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE [Improved Medicare for All!!!!’
it’s too bad that no one reliable is able to weigh in on Uranium One. Sadly, it’s the province of wackadoodles and Fox news. it might even be real but it’s never gonna get traction without anyone serious looking at it…and I notice CNs won’t even touch it.
Here are some places to start. There is far, far more evidence of shenanigans with regard to Uranium One than there is for Russian collusion.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/14/hillary-clinton-uranium-one-deal-russia-explainer-244895 :
What is the Uranium One deal?
The deal in question involves the sale of a Canadian company, Uranium One, with mining interests in the U.S. to Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy agency. The sale occurred in stages, beginning in 2009 when Rosatom purchased a minority stake in Uranium One, and continued in 2010, when the Russian agency took ownership of a 51 percent share of the company. In 2013, a third transaction gave Rosatom full ownership of Uranium One.
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With its purchase of Uranium One, Rosatom assumed control of roughly 20 percent of uranium production capacity in the U.S. The current licenses issued to Rosatom’s U.S. subsidiaries, issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, prohibit the company from exporting uranium outside the country, according to OilPrice.com.
Because uranium is considered an asset with national security implications, the 2010 sale to Rosatom was subject to approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an intragovernmental agency that includes input from the Departments of State, Treasury, Justice, Energy, Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security, as well as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
What are the allegations of wrongdoing?
Controversy surrounding the deal largely pertains to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state in 2010 when the State Department signed off on Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One. Several of Uranium One’s owners were also donors to the Clinton Foundation, giving $145 million to the charitable foundation, and critics have alleged that Clinton greenlighted the sale to appease donors to her family’s charity.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/409356-fbis-37-secret-pages-of-memos-about-russia-clintons-and-uranium-one
I was the reporter who first disclosed last fall that a globetrotting American businessman, William Douglas Campbell, managed to burrow his way inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear giant, Rosatom, in 2009 posing as a consultant while working as an FBI informant.
Campbell gathered extensive evidence for his FBI counterintelligence handlers by early 2010 that Rosatom’s main executive in the United States, Vadim Mikerin, orchestrated a racketeering plot involving kickbacks, bribes and extortion that corrupted the main uranium trucking company in the United States. That is a serious national security compromise by any measure.
The evidence was compiled as Secretary Clinton courted Russia for better relations, as her husband former President Clinton collected a $500,000 speech payday in Moscow, and as the Obama administration approved the sale of a U.S. mining company, Uranium One, to Rosatom.
The sale — made famous years later by author Peter Schweizer and an epic New York Times exposé in 2015 — turned over a large swath of America’s untapped uranium deposits to Russia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html
As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.
Thanks for weighing in.
I’m shocked, just shocked, that this investigation is going to come up empty handed.
After all America has a long history of investigations that have been unassailable, JFK, 9/11, TWA 800, the list is a long one.
were i writing the script, at the outset of trump’s second term, in order to soften up the likud mossad for the one state solution in israel/palestine, president trump initiates three 9-11 reviews, one with horowitz and huber, one with mueller and zelikow, and one with chris bollyn and the engineers and architects for 9-11 truth, with appropriate budgets and subpoena powers, results to be published unredacted in a year.
Anyone else wonder why Cambridge Analytica never became THE focus of 2016 election meddling “investigation”?
It’s CEO has explained the strategy of, and AND revealed that the Trump campaign paid for, a sophisticated, perhaps successful, social media-based process that was everything Rootin’ Tootin’ Putin© (RTP) would like to have employed … IF he had wanted to influence the outcome of a US presidential election.
Jill Stein has also been blamed continually by media for the failure of the HRC campaign for, essentially, having the unmitigated nerve to act as if the USA were a democracy, i.e. running for president — when it was Ms Clinton’s “turn.”
In one memorable browbeating, Stein pointed out that the media had given Trump the equivalent of several hundred $billions of free coverage, far outweighing any conceivable effect of Stein’s 1.5% of the vote. The media rep rose, like a trout to a perfectly presented fly: “Well, (harumph), the media is NOT Russia!”
The US media and Cambridge Analytica hardly comprise an exclusive club of institutions apparently entitled to manipulate a US presidential election. Clearly, RTP seems to be the rare, if not sole, exclusion from said club.
Well done, Caitlin!
Sock it to ’em!
But, don’t expect any walks to Canossa by the Russia-gate lemmings.
They’ll make up some excuse, a la Iraq: It was bad intelligence!
Hard to believe they managed to lose the election with this sort of strategic brilliance, ain’t it?
See also — #metoo and the #pussyhat march which also appear (to me anyway) to be dedicated if under the radar DNC adjunct to “The Resistance” etc. whose major impact has been to frequenctly nay-say the “Our Revolution” youth movement and perpetuate the Sanders “feud” while offering the same-old-same-old choices and refusing to “share” a stage. (The Democrats trying to spin Kavenaugh as a “victory” may have hit some cognitive dissonance buttons, a bridge too far as others wondered exactly how the spectacle of Christine Blasey Ford’s treatment was “worth it” since it seems to have empowered the most brazen nose-thumbing and indecency … now being multiplied with KSA and pulling out of arms treaties)
Stick a fork in it … The Democratic Party is done … woe is on all of us … I fear a debacle as optimism wanes (the newspaper headlines have been increasingly giving a negative “reality check” wrt to those “crazy kids” … yeah, thanks for nothing
Several weeks ago I was expecting the Russia-gate narrative to blow up in the establishment’s face at any time, but I’ve since considered that it may have just been wishful thinking on my part. The major media outlets are pros at misdirecting and misinforming the public, and still lead the bulk of the population by the nose, stealthily guiding them hither and thither with each new story like a herd of dumb beasts. There is precedent that when the Mueller investigation wraps up they will unfurl the “Mission Accomplished” banners, claim victory, quickly dismantle the circus tent, and move on.
Does the public have the ability and attention span to weigh the initial claims of “Russian Collusion” that launched the witch hunt… er, I mean investigation with its eventual findings, which in this case are sure to be insignificant and unrelated to the original objective? I’m beginning to think that they do not. My guess is that they will accept these petty indictments as proof of a conspiracy, whereas you and I both know that finding corruption in DC is like shooting fish in a barrel.
The Democrats claimed a Kavenaugh victory — mobilized the troops, doncha know.
The Mueller obsession has always been a dangerous gambit — assuming that important indictments reaching into the Trump circle would result — and unfortunately even financial corruption and money laundering will not meet the claim of “Russian interference in the election” since it’s Trump business as usual.
Trump has a history of being sufficiently “Hand Off” — like that “crazy mafia don” — that finding the evidentiary trail has protected him … I’ have read the Trump business records are incomplete and chaotic … how convenient. Jared or Junior may get taken out of the game …. but “we were promised inpeachment”
Right on, Caity! I feel I have earned the right to gloat, not that it will do any good, as the Russiagate believers will probably just double down on their belief in it. There are those that still buy the WMD claim, too. I know it’s not quite over yet, but thank you for your diligent work exposing the b.s. that is Russiagate since Wikileaks exposed it and even before! I never bought it for a second, and it’s still upsetting to me that so many did. The thing many don’t want to talk about is the harm it did Russian Americans, of whom I know many. They have had to suffer the xenophobic paranoia directed their way. Hopefully we can close this ugly chapter soon.
It seems, Caitlin, all the “Russia gate” noise served as just one more clever “deflection” away from the utterly disastrous stewardship of our ruling elites.
In another version of the USA , where the expression “No taxation without Representation” still matters…just the idea of bankrupting our nation by defrauding us into war would carry the stiffest of penalties.
In that version, thousands of members of our criminal plutocracy, (as well as their media elites), would be serving life long sentences, as well as having all their assets seized to pay down the heinous 22 trillion dollar debt their lies created.
Instead, we are all treated to a version of the USA , where accountability to the American people is meaningless …..and endless fraud (as its poor substitute) gets “full” billing….24/7.
I agree completely. Both the right and left “inflicted this obscene psyop upon their audiences “. For the right it’s the Alex Joneses of America, for the left, well, Consortium News writers been on top of that. Thankfully.
While I join in the sense of vindication, I worry that it may be premature and that the Demopublican-NSS Party may have another joker up their collective sleeves. Keep in mind; ‘He who laughs last…”
The Real Danger of Russiagate Always Has Been the Martyrdom of Trump
Thanks to the Russiagate hoax, we’ll be seeing 8 years of Trump. Thanks Hillary!
Yes.
One small shard of light:
I think we can count on Trump to rub it in real good!
That is kind of a cold comfort for the Russiagate skeptics who held the line at reason, even while horrified at the doings of Trump, but it should still be entertaining.
Why look a good laff or two in the mouth??
Especially if Trump can force some crow down the throat of Rachel and her adoring lemmings.
Basically just more of what has been the consolation of Trump since Escalator Day:
Walking orange, eldritch abomination – but at least he’s a bit of grit in the shoe of the bastards who run everything. (Please note that a piece of grit in the shoe doesn’t prevent anyone from walking anywhere – and over anyone – that they were already planning to.)
how much grit does one need to take one’s marching orders from Sean Hannity and Fox and friends (and Israel and a Saudi Arabian prince).
David G., whatever color you see POTUS is colored in, the US citizens were subjected to the treasonous activities by the FBI, DOJ, and DNC: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-20/fbi-admits-using-multiple-spies-infiltrate-trump-campaign
“The DOJ says it redacted information in order to protect the identity of their confidential sources, which “includes nonpublic information about and provided by Christopher Steele…”
Steele, referred to as Source #1, met with several DOJ / FBI officials during the 2016 campaign, including husband and wife team Bruce and Nellie Ohr. Bruce was the #4 official at the DOJ, while his CIA-linked wife Nellie was hired by Fusion GPS – who also employed Steele, in the anti-Trump opposition research / counterintelligence effort funded by Trump’s opponents, Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
In addition to Steele, the FBI also employed 73-year-old University of Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, a US citizen, political veteran and longtime US Intelligence asset enlisted by the FBI to befriend and spy on three members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election. Halper received over $1 million in contracts from the Pentagon during the Obama years, however nearly half of that coincided with the 2016 US election.”
What the last thirty years have shown us, among other things, is that both Clintons are just as narcissistic as DT. Even now, Hillary won’t go away quietly. Instead, she and Bill will be talking to fat cats on the talk circuit. O Greed, where is thy sting?
No one is going to eat crow. They’re too busy making money off the national reality TV show.
Did you see they’re going on tour? The Clintons.
Bill’s looking for groupies and Hillary wants people to tell her it’s not her fault. While they get filthy rich…er.
https://truthout.org/articles/the-longest-goodbye-why-the-clintons-need-to-leave-the-stage/
Good point, O Society. Why do I keep getting caught up in the drama, thinking it is real, instead of the money-making TV reality show it truly is?
After reading the Truthout article about the Clinton tour, I determined that the author must be a Clinton apologist after coming across these two lines, which are pure smoke and mirrors:
“Hillary Clinton’s approval ratings are in the basement not because most people believe these preposterous stories, but because after 30 years a great many people are sick and tired of hearing them. Clinton’s enemies have not permanently damaged her political standing with facts, but with plodding duration. Quite simply, they wore everyone out.”
I have just discovered and am half-way though a book by David Wise & Thomas Ross, THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS PUBLISHED IN 1964!! It goes into extremely detailed documentation of the history of the CIA. The level of their arrogance and incompetence defies the imagination. The devil is in the details. It also defies democracy and defines almost all of the acts that have led to its takeover of the lifeblood of America’s decision making process. It is a Dracula of a nation that was supposedly ours.
Having promised Hillary the presidency, the CIA acted with their indomitable ignorance, ego, and panic with the Russia story and their vision of back-to-the Cold-War that Hillary began ranting as Secretary. Something bad? Russia did it. The two years of Mueller have been beyond useless, although it did catch out a real Trump thug or two. It has also produced a few laughable indictments of Russians and brought uncertainty to our election results.
The CIA design is to set up a condition where they can step out of the shadows and openly control a neo-fascist government. They are getting there, because they totally own both parties and the new lot of inexperienced politicians who the Democrats will elect will be controllable. I see no counterbalance on the horizon.
The CIA is more of an enemy of the US Constitution than the Russians.
It was the CIA who fabricated us into the war in Vietnam with 58,000 US soldiers lives wasted.
It was the CIA who protected the Shah of Iran and disabled the secular Iranian movement.
It was the CIA who arranged for the Iran/Contra sales of arms to Iran to fund the right wing war in Guatemala.
It was the CIA who sold arms to our “friend” Saddam Hussein justifying the Iranians documentation that WE ARE the Great Satan.
It was the CIA who protected the Saudi Arabians in the US after the Saudi Arabians attacked us on 9/11.
It was the CIA who knew about the potential attack on the US on 9/11 and was “blocked” from sharing that data with the FBI.
It was the CIA who fabricated the Weapons of Mass Destruction theory for Iraq so that we would attack the enemy of Saudi Arabia and not Saudi Arabia.
It is the CIA who is still protecting the 400 square mile area around Kandahar which produces 90% of the world’s heroin and whose profits go to fund Isis and the Taliban.
Eighty percent of that Afghan heroin production is distributed by the Russian Mob which is protected by the CIA.
It is the CIA who wanted Hillary defeated since she was the one most effective in blocking their illegal activities and combatting Russia.
It is the CIA who knows that Trump is a highly verbal and semi-literate dufus who has NEVER done anything honest in his life.
It is the CIA who benefits from the mercenary activities of BlackWater and other semi-legal military groups.
Or to quote Pogo, “We have met the enemy and it is US.”
Anyone who supports Trump and his compulsive lying is a fool or hypocrite.
From Anonymot’s comment:
“Having promised Hillary the presidency, the CIA acted with their indomitable ignorance, ego, and panic with the Russia story and their vision of back-to-the Cold-War that Hillary began ranting as Secretary. Something bad? Russia did it. The two years of Mueller have been beyond useless, although it did catch out a real Trump thug or two. It has also produced a few laughable indictments of Russians and brought uncertainty to our election results.”
Most of your statements about the CIA are true, yet you come to the conclusion that Trump is the problem, and not the Deep State or Hillary. Russiagate has been shown to be “Brennan’s baby”, yet you come to the conclusion that they wanted Hillary defeated. Your conclusion defies all logic. Please show me how Hillary was “most effective in blocking their [CIA’s] illegal activities and combatting Russia”. I am also curious as to your source for the connection between Afghanistan’s heroin and the Russian mob.
BTW, I agree that Trump is not the answer, and I in no way support him. A grass roots uprising via a third party candidate is our only hope at this point.
Please cite your reference for the Russian mob distributing Afghan heroin and being protected by the CIA. Also please provide evidence for the CIA preferring Trump to Hillary, and cite Hillary’s blocking their [CIA/Russia and/or Russian mob] illegal activities.
There is really something weird going on with the comment section here. Maybe it’s been hacked. My 8am comment was originally posted, and then shortly after deleted. No mention of moderation. Now it’s back. WTF gives?
Good rebuttal. Thanks. Hillary Clinton was certainly the Deep states Candidate as she was supported by both Bush and Cheney. Not every member of the CIA is evil. For every Jon Brennan and James Clapper there is a Ray McGovern and Edward Snowden.
Yes, Skip Scott. Glad someone else can see it. It isn’t censorship. There’s a ghost in the machine.
Until this gltch in the matrix gets fixed, folks need to not take it personally, because it isn’t.
Good commentary, thanks.
Mueller personifies a well-known proverb: Give a prosecutor a case and they will investigate and indict for a day. Give a Special Counsel a “Gone Fishin'” sign and a blank check, and they will investigate and indict for a lifetime.
Trump’s election spawned a bloc of authoritarian-submissive progressive-liberal moderates who apparently see the FBI and CIA– and, for that matter, the “17 intelligence agencies” who fabricated the bugaboo of “Russian interference in the election”– as bastions of truth and justice, and champions of civil liberty and the rule of law.
Accordingly, they perceive charlatans and brutal fixers like Mueller, Comey, Brennan and their ilk as patriotic heroes and the last, best hope for Saving the Republic from the depredations of the rogue Usurper Trump.
Mueller’s role is to gin up Show Indictments to give aid and comfort to this so-called “Resistance”, and provide grist for the Democratic Party’s ongoing campaign to inculcate acute Russophobia in the public mind, for the purpose of bamboozling and distracting it from the inconvenient truth that the domestic political Establishment, not Russia, is the source of the US’s woes.
The credulous and frustrated prog-lib thralls are disinclined to look these spurious Russian gift horses in the mouth, and lack the sophistication to understand the subterfuge of making showy, splashy indictments of foreigners who will never put these frame-ups to the test in a court of law.
In short, they are unable or unwilling to realize that they’re being quite successfully played for fools.
Ort,
clear and concise. You get stains out fast. I think that is the state of the nations politic.
I think that a 3rd party has to evolve out of this mess, if no other reason, then to remove the leadership of one, or both parties.
I already am a 3rd party member.
Excellent comment, thanks.
It was Caitline Johnstone who referred to the “resistance” as the “McResistance rainbow flag on a Reaper drone left” and the “make sure everyone on the drone kill list is referred to by their preferred personal pronoun left”. I share the sentiment. Thanks for the essay Caitline.
all true. Their turning liberals against Assange and Snowden was probably a major coup…or, in the case of Assange was it? that guy along with other notables sure have a hard time keeping their sources out of jail…
and this seems odd…but maybe Assange just knows a sucker when he sees one? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/
And the head idiot, Three Names, that started all this is talking about running in 2020. There was no “Russian Meddling” in the first place. Obama and Three Names did tremendous damage to America’s reputation and standing in the world with a boatload of basically unjustifiable sanctions that have cost our allies billions.
So true, Caitlin, I, too, saw through the whole fiasco 2 years ago when I was living in NH and wrote a piece of satirical “October Surprise” verse about how “it was really a Bernie supporter working in the VT Teddy Bear factory, ‘Goldie Lock’, who confessed to hacking the DNC & leaking Hillary & Podesta emails. Furthermore, she declared that ‘Fancy’ & ‘Cozy Bears’, supposedly the ‘code names’ of the ‘Russian hackers’…were actually two of the factory’s favorite plush products & now they were moving into high gear to produce a bumper crop so that every VT child would find a Fancy or Cozy Bear in his or her xmas stocking”. Etc. & offered it to our late, great CN founder/editor R. Parry only to have him respond that he didn’t publish satire because his readers (weren’t smart enough) wouldn’t get it. Thus, CN has also spent the past 2 years & how many thousands of $$$ paying mostly male “investigative journalists” and veteran (mostly male) Intel agents to sleuth for “the truth” and write a reaction to every MSMedia Russophobic fake news story. I would add that it wasn’t just CN which wouldn’t publish my satiric piece; I sent it to a long media list including as a “letter-to-the-editor” but absolutely none would publish it…not even the local NH-VT paper which I had served as columnist to cover the NH ’72 primary. Caitlin; you live on the other side of this world of Fake Reality & are too young to have witnessed…but this has been going on forever…at least since the Hearst media cranked out the war propaganda to enable Teddy & his Rough Riders to begin American Empire-building by taking over the Cuba war for independence from Spain in 1898 & subsequently taking over all of Latin America & more from the Spanish Empire. Or just focusing on Russophobic propaganda, one has only to read the definitive deconstruction: “Fake News on Russia and Other Official Enemies: The New York Times, 1917 – 2017” Monthly Review 7/1/17, by Edward S. Herman, the late, great Wharton School media critic. Just think, CN could have just kept that link up front on its site each day…and saved all of expensive scribbling by a host of less competent media critics. & mind you that the Ivy League, U. of Pennsylvania School of Business has two other far more famous graduates than Herman: Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka. Hello MSM, CN & all the rest: these two Trumps are no dummies.
Do you vote? Or perhaps that isn’t relevant anymore?
She’s Australian…
Vote third party. It annoys and discomfits the rulers.
So, how much did the Trump administration pay you?
An ad hominem attack? (Which violates this site’s comments policy.)
Is that all you’ve got?
Sadlebagface wrote, “So, how much did the Trump administration pay you?”
A good question and there’s a good answer, except it’s not a question. It’s:
“So how much, Sadlebagface, does the CIA pay you?”
Not that I really think Sadlebagface is working for the CIA. But sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. That’s my go to response when a poster makes these kind of ad hominem attacks.
Right on again Caitlin but this comment, “In a just world, everyone who helped promote this toxic narrative would apologize profusely and spend the rest of their lives being mocked and marginalized”, was the best… Thank you Caitlin.
They won’t apologize. Many will go on demonizing Russia. There are a lot of anti-Russian bigots left over from Cold War that arn’t aware that Russia is not Communist, and the LGBT fanatics will still despise Russia.
Russia is fine…Gorbachev was too. Putin? The jury is out but the evidence suggests he might not be such a great guy.
“So that’s it then. An obscene amount of noise and focus, a few indictments and process crime convictions which have nothing to do with Russian collusion, and this three-ring circus of propaganda and delusion is ready to call it a day.”
Possibly, but personally I’m willing to wait until the report is actually, you know, released.
“A few”?
As for the indictments, it was fun to read the article on Zerohedge:
“Judge Orders Mueller To Prove Russian Company Meddled In Election” as well as the original article on Bloomberg.
“A Washington federal judge on Thursday ordered special counsel Robert Mueller’s team to clarify election meddling claims lodged against a Russian company operated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Bloomberg.”
An ally of Putin? Is he a foreign policy advisor, maybe? Isn’t he the former manager of the catering firm, serving Putin’s workplace? One can definitely say that he is “close to Putin”, in a way.
The point in the article was actually that one of the indictment objects, the firm Concord Management was accused of supporting the Internet Research Agency (IRA), operated by Prigozhin. The Concord company, to Mueller’s disappointment, appeared in the court to defend themselves. The defence argues that in the US law there is no such crime listed as “interfering in an election”.
“The defence argues that in the US law there is no such crime listed as “interfering in an election”.”
Wonderful! Bwa ha ha.
But kind of a shame because our Zionist jurists doubtless have known this all along ever since they started started controlling our political life and esp its finances. Wasn’t that in 1948?
Finally, someone has the b’s to mention the Zionists. Thank you.
A big “oopsy” on Mueller’s part, as they weren’t counting on Russians actually defending themselves. Funny stuff.