Trump’s Impeachment

57 thoughts on “Trump’s Impeachment”

1. Why can’t he go after Biden’s corruption, which Biden himself admitted, while showing off? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCF9My1vBP4&fbclid=IwAR0C8IA2IB239ZV9lnX9cM1IUwZlZVqNtXt1SUdDTr2p8xGWBdAcC3dIHhw

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2. Assuming Biden’s “corruption” merits investigation, there are all sorts of legal ways to go about it. No one said Biden or anyone else can’t be investigated.

   To clarify matters, it’s often helpful to change the names involved. President Hillary Clinton calls Ukraine and pressures its leader for dirt on Candidate Donald Trump. At the same time, she’s withholding aid to Ukraine approved by Congress. Do you support her actions?

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   1. That would not be Hillary’s responsibility, just a dirty trick, while one of Trump’s responsibilities is Justice. You and many of the comments below indicate TDS. He does good and bad, and as I see it, he is better than the four Presidents before him. I voted third party in 2016, and support Tulsi, Yang and marianne for 2020 and beyond. And yes, I hate Hillary, you got that right.

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3. If the Speaker of the House doesn’t list all counts of “high crimes & misdemeanors” – focusing instead on the most recent outrage – then she is truly a fool and needs to retire.
   But here’s my “mortal lock” prediction: no matter what happens in the House, the Senate will only do what’s right and proper – also known as “their job” – if and only if they believe Trump can’t win in 2020. Otherwise, it’ll be business as usual and the Nation will complete its circle ’round the drain.

   Well, let’s amend that: the GOP has no viable – as in “electable” – alternative candidate waiting in the wings if Trump goes down, so the Senate will fight impeachment to the taxpayers’ last dollar. He’s not going anywhere, so here’s my Revised 4-Part Mortal Lock Prediction: the Senate says “nyet” to the wishes of the House, Trump gets re-elected, starts in on a vendetta against every Democrat Representative living or yet to be born, and senior Republicans start announcing they won’t be running in 2022.

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4. An opinion against impeachment as being too disruptive, divisive, and dangerous. My reply? Let justice be done though the heavens fall. Either we are a nation of laws or we are nothing.

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   1. Before staking out a position on this [non] issue, I would advise interested persons to hold fire until they have taken in this most recent episode of The Jimmy Dore Show (September 27, 2019), featuring an in-depth interview with Aaron Maté, who really knows from whence he speaks on this [xxxx]-gate stuff and what it reveals about the utter bankruptcy of the neoliberal corporate Democrats as any form of “opposition” party vis-a-vis the Republicans and their current cable-tv front-man, Donald Trump. See: FULL Story: Trump/Biden-Ukraine Corruption & Impeachment Media Ignores with Aaron Maté

      When I finish typing up a pseudo-transcript of the show’s most important (in my estimation) parts, I’ll post them below along with any other observations I may choose to bestow upon those who never asked for them.

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   2. Well, that’s the Big Question since the 2016 election: Are we a nation of laws, or aren’t we? Congress is traditionally referred to as “the Nation’s Lawmakers” and yet many of its members – from both sides of the aisle – have lately shown little regard for the Law or the Constitution they are sworn to uphold.
      The Republicans have run roughshod over it with their blind and rabid support for the current occupant of the Oval Office, while the Democrats cower, gnash their blunted teeth, and look for reasons not to do anything, hoping one big issue even they can’t overlook won’t ever materialize. Their new mantra: “We’ll get ’em next time.”
      And they almost got there.
      But the election is still 14 months away. Plenty of time for procrastination, making sure all the ducks are in a row, not wanting to rush because this is too important to The Nation. “Trust the process.”
      And hey, before you know it, we’ll be hearing the Speaker of the House solemnly intone how impeachment procedures will wait until after the election because they don’t think Trump will get a second term, so why bother? In other words, they’ll trust to the electorate to do their job for them.
      Weasels & vipers at every turn, clogging both sides of the aisle, whose first allegiance is to themselves, their second is to their party & its corporate backers, and their third is to, well, I guess that’s as far as they go.

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   3. Well, gosh. I was upstairs for a couple hours working on a new project and as soon I returned my attention to what some call “the real world,” I learned that the Speaker of the House has “ordered” that the impeachment inquiry focus on – yes – the recent unpleasantness with Ukraine. Forget about everything else.
      There are times when you don’t want to be right, and this is one of them.
      The fix is in.

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5. Add in also, that the DC resident has remarked about how “spies” were dealt with in the past. He really doesn’t like whistleblowers, does he?

   “The New York Times is reporting that President Trump told staff from the United States Mission to the United Nations that he wants to know who told the whistleblower about his phone call with the president of Ukraine, saying that whoever did so was “close to a spy” and alluded to dealing with those sources how spies were formerly dealt with….”

   We all know what that penalty was. To equate a whistleblower with a spy is a dangerous precedent.

   I guess we are all supposed to overlook everything he has done. However, I am wondering how his friend Putin feels about his buddy-buddy relationship with the Ukrainian president since Putin wants Ukraine. Given the history of Russian paybacks, if I were Trump I would be a bit uneasy.

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   1. The Russians are still supporting demagogue Trump. (They call him “an island of sanity”)
      https://southfront.org/donald-trump-future-belongs-to-patriots-not-globalists/
      Like they used to do:
      http://thesaker.is/dugins-guideline-in-trump-we-trust/
      Though someone had let the cat out the bag:
      “The rise of Trump clearly demonstrates that there are some in the bowels of the Deep State dissatisfied with the Globalist agenda, and they maintain enough influence to keep him in the limelight. These would be the same sort of intelligence and military cadre that shepharded Putin to power. So the question becomes, how much of the security apparatus will side with them if Trump wins”

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      1. The Russians are still supporting demagogue Trump. (They call him “an island of sanity”).

         I suspect a refined sense of irony in that remark by the Russians: something along the lines of “In the land of the blind rules a king with one eye.” Something about one who can barely see surrounded by a population that cannot see at all. Whatever one thinks of President Trump’s intelligence or sanity, the Russian remark in truth says a great deal about the level of putrid pollution in the steadily rising swamp waters surrounding the current occupant of the White House.

         Now, of course, Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp instead of populating his administration from it. And he did promise to get the United States out of its many stupid and counterproductive regime-change wars. He also suggested in passing that it might make good sense for the United States to resume more normal and productive relations with the steadily recovering Russian Federation. Probably about the only thing Trump ever said that I agree with. But he has done none of these promised things even if he ever meant his remarks as anything but cheap campaign bait to get votes from an enraged electorate in a few states economically decimated by the “free trade” debacles associated with the name of “Clinton.” An smug, entitled Medusa with a dead albatross (or several of them) around her neck does not win election to the top political job in the United States. I mean, imagine the perceived ugliness of anyone who could make an orange clown with a dead yellow raccoon on his head look attractive by comparison.

         Anyway, if “supporting” someone means “saying something polite instead of spitting vindictive insults at them” then we should all hope for such “support.” Both our hapless President and his hysterical political “opposition” could use a real education in the subject of simple good manners and diplomatic commentary vis-a-vis foreign governments and their leaders. Learning a few key phrases in Russian and Mandarin Chinese wouldn’t hurt, either, since those two important and powerful countries get closer and stronger the more the U.S. shouts at and threatens them, thereby isolating itself from anything resembling civilized behavior.

         Спасибо (“spasibo”)

         Xie Xie.

         See? “Thank you.” Such a small investment. Such a disproportionally favorable return. More Americans should try to learn such “supportive” language instead of running down those, like the excellent Russian and Chinese diplomats, who have.

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         1. “He also suggested in passing that it might make good sense for the United States to resume more normal and productive relations with the steadily recovering Russian Federation. Probably about the only thing Trump ever said that I agree with.”

            Yes, you seem to care a great deal about that, but not all of us do. Relations with Russia were presented as the main concern during Trump’s campaign by his supporters, but there are many other things which are more important than Russia or China’s well-being.

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6. The wording is fascinating,

   “President Donald Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden.” Followed by, “The White House acted to lock down transcripts of the phone call…” And that is followed by, “And my first reaction was: Can Trump be impeached for stupidity?”

   There is no suggestion, other than the veiled insinuation offered here, that President Trump was involved in “locking down the transcript of the phone call.”

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   1. It’s not yet known who was involved in the “lock down.” Also, it may not have been the first cover up. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/whistleblower-allegation-server-misuse-raises-alarm-bells-n1059381

      As Truman always said, “The buck stops here.” Ultimately the president is responsible for the people he hires, the climate he creates, etc. And that applies to any president — or any leader. The captain goes down with the ship, or at least that’s the way it used to be. Now the captain often jumps ship, shifts the blame, etc.

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      1. My favorite Australian rogue journalist beat me to the punch regarding reputed CIA whistleblowers not actually in prison on trumped up charges laid on them by secret grand juries. MSM Defends CIA’s “Whistleblower”, Ignores Actual Whistleblowers, by Caitlin Johnstone, caitlinjohnstone.com (September 27, 2019)

         A beautiful piece of work. Worth savoring and saving for future reference. The key paragraphs, in my estimation:
         …
         The whistle-blower who revealed that President Trump sought foreign help for his re-election and that the White House sought to cover it up is a CIA officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point, according to three people familiar with his identity,” The New York Times reports. “The man has since returned to the CIA, the people said. Little else is known about him.”

         So there you have it. A mysterious stranger from the lying, torturing, propagandizing, drug trafficking, assassinating, coup-staging, warmongering, psychopathic CIA was working in the White House, heroically provided the political/media class with politically powerful information out of the goodness of his heart, and then vanished off into the Langley sunset. Clearly there is nothing suspicious about this story at all.

         In all seriousness, even to call this spook a “whistleblower” is ridiculous on its face. You don’t get to call someone from the US intelligence community a whistleblower unless they are actually whistleblowing on the US intelligence community. That’s not a thing. A CIA officer who exposes information about government officials is an operative performing an operation unless proven otherwise, because that’s what the CIA does; it liberally leaks information wherever it’s convenient for CIA agendas while withholding all other information behind a veil of government secrecy. [emphasis added]

         A CIA officer who exposes information about CIA wrongdoings without the CIA’s permission is a whistleblower. A CIA officer who exposes information about someone else is just a spook doing spook things. You can recognize the latter by the way the mass media supports, applauds and employs them. You can recognize the former by the way they have been persecuted, imprisoned, and/or died under mysterious circumstances. [emphasis added]

         …

         While all this political/media class cheerleading for whistleblower protections is going on, the most prominent whistleblower in America remains imprisoned for taking a principled stand against secret grand juries while being driven into crippling debt. Chelsea Manning is still racking up fines of $1,000 per day while locked in a Virginia federal detention center for refusing to testify against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The mainstream press that is so keen to champion a “whistleblower” who works for the CIA and provided information which feeds into America’s fake partisan pro wrestling feud [emphasis added] has been almost completely silent on the actual whistleblower who exposed actual US war crimes.

         “The courageous whistleblower Chelsea Manning has now been held in a federal detention center in Alexandria, Virginia for more than six months,” reads a recent article by World Socialist Website, one of the only news outlets to consistently report on Manning’s plight. “Manning has not been charged with or committed any crime. She was sent to jail on March 8, 2019 for refusing to testify before a secret grand jury that has indicted persecuted WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, who published the information she leaked exposing rampant US imperialist criminality.”

         “The vindictive treatment of Chelsea Manning has included ‘administrative segregation’—a prison euphemism for solitary confinement—and being fined an unprecedented $1,000 per day for refusing to answer grand jury questions,” WSWS reports. “By the time she might be released in October 2020, she will be left owing the US government as much as $440,000. Convicted antiwar activist Jeremy Hammond, who provided intelligence documents to WikiLeaks, has been also brought to the same jail as Manning in order to coerce him into giving false testimony.”

         …

         Pointing out hypocrisy is such a common practice in politics that it often wears a bit thin these days, especially since it’s frequently done in a disingenuous way, but when implemented with intellectual honesty it serves a very useful purpose: it shows when people aren’t really being truthful about the position that they are taking.

         The political/media class of the United States do not care about whistleblowers. They do not care about truth, and they do not care about justice. They do not care about holding power to account, because they exist only to serve power. [emphasis added]

         I don’t pretend to know what the CIA’s game is here; it probably isn’t to remove Trump from office because everyone knows that will not happen and failed impeachments historically boost a president’s popularity. But I do know that everyone cheerleading for this fake “whistleblower” while ignoring the real ones has exposed themselves. [emphasis added]

         What she said.

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         1. Mike: there’s a great new book out: “Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in An Age of Fraud,” by Tom Mueller. This book (in which I’m cited in a small way) illustrates how powerful people hate whistleblowers.

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         2. Caitlin Johnstone is using classical “whataboutism” here – a very well known tactic employed by Trump supporters and Russian supporters. It’s just smears and deflection from the actual DEED of the president.

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            1. Oh, bugger off, Mollusk. What “DEED”?

               You haven’t replied with anything but rank Russophobia and camp-follower Trump Derangement Syndrome yourself. I realize that when you label people “Trump supporters” and “Russia supporters” you think you have offended them and put them in their place, but millions of American citizens would only take those intended pejoratives as a compliment and a sure sign that your resort to the ad hominem — attacking the arguer and not the argument — has exposed you as not having a legitimate argument to make. The American people do not know anything about Russia or its capable political and economic leadership, and they could care less. Foaming at the mouth about “Russia”-this and “Russia”-that for three years only reinforces the accurate perception that the Democrats have no viable policy options to offer and that they simply oppose Donald Trump out of petulant spite. Not a good recommendation.

               In any event, criticising bullshit and wishful thinking does not necessarily make one a “Trump supporter” or a “Russia supporter.” It makes one a bullshit-and-wishful-thinking-opposer which perfectly characterizes Caitlin Johnstone’s fine work. That the brain-dead and politically inept corporate Democrats have stupidly chosen to attack President Trump with fabricated bullshit and wishful thinking [a.k.a., three years of “Russia-gate”] while venerating a CIA “gossip blower” (hat tip to The Duran for that lovely turn of phrase) says nothing about Donald Trump, but everything about those — think, “John Brennan,” “James Clapper,” “James Comey,” and “Robert Mueller,” for example — who have broken many laws in their bungling attempts to overthrow President Trump when the electorate did not do that for them at the ballot box. I agree with Representative Tulsi Gabbard that next year offers the occasion for citizens to vote Donald Trump and Mike Pence out of office and that the American people should consider availing themselves of this opportunity. Oppose Trump legitimately, fine. But waiting around for some unelected spooks — congenital liars, torturers, drug dealers, and assassins by profession — to do the job that a real Opposition Party ought to do, smacks of lame, pathetic weakness. Who wants to vote for that? And who would trust for a nanosecond any word-like noises pouring from between the flapping lips of Democratic party Representatives Adam Schiff and Jerome Nadler? Tweedle-dumb and Twaddle-dumber.

               To make my position here plain and simple for you, remember: the initials “CIA” stand for “Can’t Identify Anything” and “Cocaine Importation Association,” while the initials “FBI” stand for “Furtive Bungling Imbeciles.” Similarly, the initials “JCOS,” stand for “Joined Chefs of Stuff.” How anyone can believe a single syllable uttered by officials of the U.S. government — including President Trump and his administrative cabinet — I would find amazing if I didn’t already have such a low opinion of the blanket corporate media which has never met an anonymous leak or rumor that it wouldn’t peddle relentlessly for a nickle, dime, or dollar until the propaganda mind-poison becomes the reigning National Narrative.

               Again, had the neoliberal corporate Democrats truly opposed President Trump’s policies — which they don’t — they would have nominated and run someone who actually disagreed with Republican Wealth Worship, War Worship, and Culture War demagoguery. But they want those table scraps that the billionaire donor class toss them after stuffing the Republicans with the main course meal. So the corporate Democrats put on a show of blaming a foreign country for the fact that their own brand of bullshit and wishful thinking does not generally inspire confidence in voters fed up with the ruling “establishment.” As a matter of fact, candidate Donald Trump ran to the left of further-to-the-right “centrist” You-Know-Her whose slogan “I’m With Her” only reinforced received political wisdom that “The Clintons are always there when they need you.” I mean, if Donald Trump, political rookie, could beat that dismal discredited dowager, then who couldn’t?

               Finally, I obviously have a measure of genuine respect for what the Russian and Chinese people have achieved, despite some truly awful foreign invasions and occupations over several centuries. It has taken them a long while to recover from so much damage. They have suffered much and have made some mistakes. But they have endured, adapted, and achieved a good deal. They deserve credit where due and I look forward to the day when my own country can abolish the rumor-mongering CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Surveillance, and Pompous Pentagram in order to become the good neighbor and helpful friend to them that we Americans so very loudly and falsely proclaim ourselves to a world that no longer believes our “combustible rubbish,” as Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce once called our current version of “patriotism.”

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7. Ahh, the saying, “What a tangled web, we weave when first we practice to deceive”. President Agent Orange and even Citizen Agent Orange is no stranger to using as we say in Chicago – Clout. Clout is influence or in more extreme cases outright intimidation to obtain a desired result.

   “America’s Mayor” the repellent Rudy Giuliani somehow has his money grubbing fingers in the mix. I suppose any message by Giuliani to Ukrainian officials would be protected by Attorney-Client privilege, since Repellent Rudy is President Agent Orange’s personal attorney. Normally, you might have a special envoy with diplomatic experience delivering a message via the State Department to a foreign government. Not so in this case Repellent Rudy can be counted on to carry the the water and he is eager to do it – No shame for Repellent Rudy in his role as a sycophant.

   Mike Pompeo has already shifted into a defense mode. Nothing to see here. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/26/mike-pompeo-whistleblower-report-ukraine-giuliani

   The big question for Democrats is – Will this Impeachment attempt have any effect at all on the elect-ability of President Agent Orange and Pastor Pence. It will come down to the Democrats supporting impeachment and the Republicans opposing it. Since the Republicans control the Senate a conviction of President Agent Orange is virtually nil.

   The talking heads at CNN and MSDNC for so long had their collective eggs in the basket of the Mueller Report. When the silver bullet was not delivered, you could see and hear the audible sigh of resignation, just like the night Hillary lost – Too Bad, So Sad.

   Now, the talking heads at CNN and MSDNC are busy constructing the case for Impeachment.

   How will American voters outside of the partisans in both parties view this impeachment effort will be an interesting question. I suspect it will be with a collective yawn.

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8. A few comments in passing:

   1. Investigating Trump, on credible charges, is not an example of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
   2. Saying that Biden is also corrupt, or that Democrats are corrupt, in no way exonerates Trump. For my money, let’s prosecute all corruption everywhere.
   3. Often, the cover-up is worse than the crime. That may well be the case here.
   4. Trump, as is his wont, is making matters worse, suggesting the whistleblower’s sources acted like spies and suggesting execution would be appropriate. (Please don’t say he was vague; we all know what he meant.)
   5. Readers of this blog know that I voted third party in 2016. If you examine my articles, you’ll find I’m critical of both Democrats and Republicans.
   6. Justice should not be partisan, even as it’s inevitably influenced by it.
   7. I don’t care if the Republican-controlled Senate chooses not to convict Trump. Our lawmakers will have to go on the record, as they should, History will render the final verdict.
   8. I don’t know if impeachment will make Trump stronger or weaker, and I don’t care. What it will do, assuming the evidence is sufficient, is to make justice in America stronger. No man should be above the law.

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9. Well, at least I’m back on WordPress. They claimed my password was wrong, and getting old trusted them….but it wasn’t. WP probably hates more what I write! lol
   Meanwhile, so Trump’s in trouble again; No bimbos this time; peed beds by prostitutes, etc. and porn star payoffs. But these great “moralists”: wasn’t Epstein’s pimp Ghislaine Maxwell photographed at Chelsea’s wedding? Peter Schiff’s friend injected drugs into 3 dead male hustlers?
   We as Americans have to start asking serious questions: Who are these slobs that start wars, ruin countries, yet so self indulgent & decadent themselves? This scandal is clean – just money. But it cost many innocent lives via Victoria Nuland’s appointment by Billary to overthrow Ukraine Gov’t. Now this: no surprise!
   Oh yeah REPs behind it too! McCain etc. Under Trump they’re trying Venezuela, but it won’t work again.
   The future is technology, and fair wages for Americans – we’re a big country! It worked fine before “Globalisation” vs 1%ers using slave labor to produce American bought goods.

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10. Look, fellow Crimestoppers. This latest, tawdry [xxxx]-gate whatever — call it “Ukraine-gate,” in its latest transparent “disguise” — simply reeks of a Deep State pre-emptive strike against the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations which have begun looking into the origins of an attempted coup by the so-called U.S. “Intelligence Community” against the elected U.S. President, Donald Trump. British legal affairs analyst Alexander Mercouris explains what this means in a recent discussion with Alex Christoforou of The Duran. See: Ukraine ‘Gossip-blower’ complaint points to coordinated, Deep State set-up (Video), The Duran Quick Take: Episode 317. (September 27, 2019).

    Alex Christoforou begins the discussion by showing a quote from the so-called “whistle blower”:

    I was not a witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleague’s accounts of these events credible.

    Now, an admission like that from the chief non-witness for the prosecution would normally get a case thrown out of court on the basis of inadmissible hearsay. End of story.

    Mr Christoforou goes on to read a quote from Zero Hedge:

    Perhaps he [the putative “whistle blower” should better be named a “gossip blower.”

    But Mr Mercouris delivers the bottom line significance of all this when he observes:

    … what Donald Trump was asking Zelenski to do was to cooperate with an ongoing Department of Justice Investigation. … this investigation was set up by [Attorney General] William Barr … [who] … had previously decided to look at Ukraine. And that is all that Donald Trump and Zelenski were talking about. And actual evidence of a quid pro quo, there is none. …

    … what this whole thing is all about. It is primarily about sabotaging or torpedoing John Durham’s investigation. It wants to keep John Durham away from Ukraine by insinuating that if John Durham goes to Ukraine and asks the necessary questions there about Ukraine’s role in fabricating Russia-gate in 2016 that somehow creates a “collusion” between Donald Trump and Ukraine to meddle in and eventually steal the 2020 election. So that’s what this complaint is really about. It’s to stop Durham. And I think, before very long, that more and more people in the Republican party and in Congress will understand that and, frankly, this impeachment is going to go absolutely nowhere.

    Again, I would caution those who do not want any more egg on their faces than they already have for credulously swallowing the “Russia-gate” hoax: it would pay not to invest more heavily in rotten Ukrainian eggs sold by eight oligarchs who take turns robbing the Ukrainian people — with a lot of help from the US and EU — of what little they still possess. Electing a Russian-speaking TV comic like Volodomir Zelenski so far hasn’t helped very much although I can see where he might have a lot to talk about with former cable-tv game show host, Donald Trump.

    Now, as former CIA Director and current corporate tv “analyst” John Brennan begins to “feel the walls closing in” as he likes to say …

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    1. Calm down, Mr Murry. Truth hurts.
       The DEED is the President of the United States disgracing the office through traffic of influence. No amount of smoke and mirrors will change that. Not even the DEED not being reported in the press of fly-over country so as the impeachment to appear as “democratic harassment” to uniformed voters , or the same DEED being turned into the opposition’s fault by the trumpian partisan hacks.

       I’m really surprised at your defending Trump so frenetically, especially after you wanted him out of office just a few days ago. You may get your wish now, and it doesn’t even involve your favourite countries Russia and China, so you should be happy.

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11. Now, as promised (or, “threatened”) above, some necessary background context behind the pathetic political puppet pugilism on display, as usual, in the United States between the two squabbling right-wing factions of The Property Party, as Gore Vidal called the American substitute for actual “democracy.” Courtesy of The Jimmy Dore Show referenced above [bold font for emphasis added].

    Aaron Maté: I think it’s important to remember what the Democrats have brought us so far. We should start with Russia-gate. What was Russia-gate for the Democrats [meaning] the neoliberal wing of the Democrats? It was a way for them to avoid becoming the party of Bernie Sanders and his movement. That was the obvious lesson from 2016. You have Trump, a con man. I think he’s a con man. Some people might disagree with that. But, at a minimum, Trump portrayed himself as a working-class champion. I think, falsely. And he convinced enough people that he was anti-establishment. He was the anti-establishment candidate. And he won. That was the winning message in 2016.

    The obvious direction for Democrats to go, was with a real anti-establishment candidate who could point to Trump and say “This guy promised to drain the swamp, but he has only enlarged it. He has enlarged it for himself and his billionaire cabinet.” And the person with that message was, of course, the other anti-establishment candidate in 2016 who wasn’t the nominee in the end but who came close, which is Bernie Sanders. That would have been the obvious direction for Democrats to go after 2016. And the obvious move would be to drop, and abandon finally, the neoliberal legacy that enough voters rejected by electing Trump. But they didn’t go that way. And they didn’t go in the direction of changing their policy, because doing so would threaten their own privilege and power. So instead, they latched onto this theory that Russia was the reason for Trump’s victory and that Trump might have been a conspirator in this grand coup that Russia pulled off. And so fixating on this for over two years was their way to deflect responsibility and to hold on to their own power. And this Ukraine-gate thing follows from that similar poison tree. Because blaming Russia also fuels this jingoistic posture towards Russia where the way to oppose Trump is to accuse him of being “soft” on Moscow. And it also requires venerating, and in fact relying on, intelligence officials. So, Robert Mueller is going to be our savior. And the word of John Brennan, now that he’s an analyst on MSNBC, is the Word Of God. We have to listen to him and believe him when he tells us that “the walls are closing in.”

    Well, look how that turned out. It was a complete disaster. But look at the lessons that are being learned. Nothing. Because what is this Ukraine-gate scandal now? It’s the same thing. Trump held up, briefly, this military aid to Ukraine. Adam Schiff comes on TV today and says Trump weakened Ukraine’s ability to fight back “Russian aggression” [scare quotes mine] and that hurt our national security. And who is the new hero now in this Ukraine-gate thing? It’s another member of the “intelligence” community [scare quotes mine], another person who is coming at Trump, not because they don’t like him bombing Yemen, and starving Yemen and being cruel to immigrants and discriminating against poor people and working-class people in this country, robbing from working-class people in this country. But because they don’t like the fact that Trump held up briefly military aid to Ukraine.

    So, it’s the same thing, in the refusal to be a real opposition party and challenge Trump on his actual policies, and instead relying on “intelligence” officials and rallying behind the flag and being the party of militarism and cold-war chauvinism that we’re seeing now in Ukraine-gate. So how can anybody who is progressive and actually wants to take Trump down, based upon the experience of Russia-gate alone get behind this, and, as you say, emotions are getting the better of people. I get it. I understand it. But it’s just not smart.

    I think it bears keeping in mind everything that Aaron Maté, Caitlin Johnstone, and Alexander Mercouris have observed above in comments that I have quoted here. I never believed a word of this [xxxx]-gate nonsense and I find despicable the vindictive persecution of real whistle blowers and publishers such as Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden, among many others, by countries such as the US and UK who love to advertise themselves as venerating the “rule of law” while, in practice, only validating what George Orwell said about them in 1984: “In Oceania there is no law.”

    And finally: can we Americans at last stop using the quaint title “President” when the ruling Transnational Corporate Oligarchy prefers the more accurate and worshipful “Emperor”? We proles wouldn’t want to “get out of line” or “fail to fit in,” now would we?

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    1. Mike: I completely agree with this: “the [Democrat’s] refusal to be a real opposition party and challenge Trump on his actual policies.”

       Which is why I support Bernie and Tulsi, who have had the guts to be real opposition candidates. Note how the DNC treats Bernie and Tulsi — ignoring them, shunting them aside, working against them. That tells you what you need to know about the DNC.

       That being said, Trump, it seems to me, deserves an impeachment vote in Congress. He routinely breaks the law because the man thinks he’s above it — a dangerous precedent to tolerate in any man, especially a president. Now, if he’s an emperor, let’s just drop impeachment and let him and his cronies ruin the country in their naked pursuit of greed and power.

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12. Good posts MM, and thanks for correcting Adam from my ‘Peter’ Schiff. I knew it was something ‘Biblical’. LOL’s
    The Duran “Alex’s” are excellent me thinks. I remember a few years back 1st hearing “Russia” in Dem debates, and scratching my head: “What the hell??” Then it dawned on me: “What a boost for the MIC!!”.
    It worked! No matter whose in office; Boing! Huge country! So much to spend! Instead we got a sarcastic Putin, whose actually cutting military spending, using diplomacy instead with his brilliant Sergei Lavarov FM. They handled Ukraine beautifully, having a regional vote to reintegrate Crimea back with Mother Russia. Best to hold your nose in US State Dept. That was the only part of Ukraine worth fighting for. So Joe’s son picks through the scraps left by the Oligarch’s. Russia doesn’t care: they long ago cancelled those thieves line of credit. Now EU, US, IMF are stuck with the bill, all very unhappy.
    That’s my take on “Ukrainegate”…..

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    1. Thanks, BMCKS. As to your head scratching perplexity, do not feel alone. Many people do not remember — if they ever paid attention in the first place — that the “Russia-gate” hoax got started back during the 2016 presidential election circus when You-Know-Her’s campaign did some internal polling and discovered that her greatest vulnerability — and she had many — came from her and her husband Bill’s dealings with certain Russian business interests. Bill took a half million dollars in speaking fees from a Russian bank, and snake-haired Medusa with the NAFTA albatross necklace, as Secretary of State, signed off on selling 20% of U.S. uranium to these Russian businesses. Also, these Russian business interests contributed some 140 million dollars to the Clinton Slush Fund “Foundation.” Everyone thought that she had the election in the bag, including the Russians who had never heard of Donald Trump.

       Nothing formally illegal in doing business with Russians, but it would look really bad politically if the Republicans started calling You-Know-Her “soft” on the Russians and a dupe of their President Vladimir Putin. So the Clintons decided to pre-emptively attack Donald Trump first, calling him a dupe and tool of the Russians. As you probably remember during their debates, You-Know-Her openly called Donald Trump “Putin’s puppet” and sought to portray herself as the really tough Russia-fighter eager to set up a no-fly zone in Syria so those head-chopping, liver eating Wahabi jihadist fanatics could overthrow the Syrian government as Sordid Arabia and the Apartheid Zionist Entity demanded. “Asad must go,” intoned the empty-suit rhetoric reciter, Barack Obama. We all know who went and who stayed.

       You-Know-Her also called Russian President “Adolph Hitler,” possibly the most scurrilous insult that anyone can hurl at a Russian. Then, when none of this worked because the American people didn’t know anything about Russia or give a tinker’s damn either way, the Democratic party, stuck with the “Russia Bogeyman Monster” that they had themselves created, could not back down and have just kept heaping more and more fantastic lies on top of falsehoods on top of figments on top of fables, on top of … Then you get Robert “WMD” Mueller who can’t even remember what his own “investigation” contained — because it contained nothing — and so what do the corporate Democrats do? They heap lies about “Ukraine” on top of lies about “Russia” and figure, like Bullwinkle Moose failing to pull a rabbit out of his magic hat: “This time for sure!”

       I think I have this history essentially correct.

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       1. Mike: Russia-gate was a hoax. A farce. But it doesn’t follow that Ukraine-gate is a repeat.

          Sometimes, when the little boy cries “Wolf!”, there really is a wolf.

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          1. Mr Astore, Russia-gate was a hoax only in the way it was shown to the public. Russian interference was very real, but it was done through the Hungarians – Prof Gollner from Montreal University wrote about this on the Hungarian Free Press:

             This first, of a two part series, summarizes some fresh evidence about the nature of the collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign. It will provide some empirically verifiable evidence of the electoral impact of the Russian leaks, in the context of the strategic aspirations of the Trump campaign.

             This series argues that the place where the FBI, Congress, and the American mass media should be looking for evidence, about the collusion between senior Trump staffers and the Russian secret service is not in America, but in far away Hungary, a member of NATO, the European Union, and a champion of Vladimir Putin in the West.

             Our investigation has uncovered „the smoking gun” about the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret services. It shows that the connection between the Russian secret services and the Trump campaign is not a direct one. It did not run through the Russian embassy in the US or through the spies that have been expelled by Obama. It did not run through New York City or Moscow, or in conversations between campaign staff and the Russian ambassador to the US. It ran through Budapest, which is the European Headquarters of Putin’s FSB. Budapest was the „bridge” between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret service.

             [ I have a comment in pending with the links to this investigation, it might have gone to spam ]

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       2. Yeah, MM, and don’t give You-Know-Her a high grade in creativity. For a single guy, she’s found many ‘Hitler’s’: Suddam Heusein, Gaddoffi, Bashier Assad, a few Iranians, Hamas leaders, ALL Hezbollah fighters. Adolf really got around! Might be Freudian penis envy: he accomplished a lot more plunder & terror, albeit only 4 years, than she has! (Oops Forgot: Chavez! Maduro! Zelina from Honduras!) How come no women? Maybe the Brits have it right: “She sweeps both sides of the street.”
          On a more serious note, you’ve got the Clinton/Russia history correct. Strangely, from Russian friends, the ‘real’ Hitler brought them together as never before: Nobody steals their homeland, it is sacred. I asked one, with communism gone, why their snazzy Aeroflot International Airlines still sports the hammer & sickle in their logo, and buildings the Red Star. “It’s our history” he replied. Today, they’re doing all right, certainly better than W Europe, which is ironic: EU & US started all the trouble in the first place. Ukraine is turning into a catastrophic embarrassment here: NeoNazis marching around Ukraine with authentic SS logos, long outlawed here. Don’t feel sorry for Putin being called “him” by You-Know-Her. He’s got a biting -Russian!- sense of humour. “You want it? Take it. It’s all yours now…”

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       3. MM – I for-one find your version of events to be the most credible in this current thread. While I agree with WJA that an initial impeachment fact-finding INQUIRY is warranted, it should be a relatively low-key event and not the center-ring spectacle of the Dems 2020 campaign as it’s currently being pursued — it’s hard to uncover truth in an overheated atmosphere like that.

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          1. Thank you, Eddie. You make an excellent point about the difficulty of uncovering the truth “in an overheated atmosphere.” More about that below as time allows. But first, in an effort to cool down the atmospheric temperature a bit, let us consider the background context of it all:

             As part of its lunatic plan to resurrect the long-dead Cold War and its vast military expenditures — which require an “existential” Lucifer Satan — the U.S. government under a Democratic party administration fomented a coup d’etat — or “Impressive Tradecraft,” as Victoria Kagan-Nuland called it — that violently overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine, installing in its place an even more corrupt and inept neo-Nazi regime that spends most of its time servicing eight rapacious oligarchs while bombarding the Russian speaking eastern regions of the country, destroying communities, homes, schools, and hospitals, driving over a million residents from their homes (refugees which the Russian Federation had to absorb and resettle at considerable expense) with — you guessed it — lethal weaponry and training and funding supplied by the U.S. and E.U. In this violent fascist coup, Republican John McCain and many prominent Democrats in the Obama Administration — including Vice President Joe Biden and, especially, CIA Director John Brennan — played ugly, arrogant, and manifestly criminal roles. Currently circulating youtube videos have long attested to this.

             I will go on with additional observations about all this, but as a shortcut to the bottom line here: “Russia-gate” = “John Brennan, Part I.” “Ukraine-gate” = “John Brennan, Part II.” See: The Spy Who Walked Away, by Scott Ritter, Consortium News (September 14, 2019). We shall soon see if the United States actually has any “laws” worthy of the name if this motherless cretin doesn’t wind up behind bars instead of Chelsea Manning, along with many of his very prominent associates.

             Now, back to the overheated atmosphere: President Donald Trump supposedly delayed sending another allotment of this lethal military aid to a despicable and discredited neo-Nazi regime and then later had a phone conversation with the newly elected President of Ukraine, a television comedian named Volodymyr Zelenski, asking him for assistance in getting to the bottom of this three-year-old “Russia-gate” hoax which had its origins in Ukraine [see, again, the above contextual background]. As the Moon of Alabama blog puts the case:

             Instead of running on policy issues the Democrats will (again) try to find vague dirt with which they can tarnish Trump. This is a huge political mistake. It will help Trump to win his reelection.

             After two years of falsely accusing Trump to have colluded with Russia, they now allege that he colludes with Ukraine. That will make it much more difficult for the Democrats to hide the dirty hands they had in creating Russiagate [emphasis added]. Their currently preferred candidate Joe Biden will get damaged

             Any reasonably informed person can easily see this obvious motivation for the Democrats to “overheat the atmosphere” in an attempt to “hide the dirty hands they had in creating Russiagate” as well as their dirty little role in creating the fascist regime in Ukraine. If I thought anyone in Congress truly wanted to impeach a president for actual war crimes and illegal international weapons trafficking, I would heartily endorse such an action. But we see nothing of the sort here. So, I smell a pile of shit and I don’t wish to step in it; while the hapless Democrats stoop to give it a taste in order, so they say, to properly identify that which they have smeared all over themselves.

             Only the corporate stooge Democrats could have produced a Donald Trump. And they seem determined at all costs to do it again.

             More quotes later from this truly outstanding Jimmy Dore show episode with Aaron Maté. This one goes in the library file for handy future reference.

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             1. Again, an outstanding excerpt from FULL Story: Trump/Biden-Ukraine Corruption & Impeachment Media Ignores w/Aaron Maté, The Jimmy Dore Show (September 27, 2019).
                …
                Jimmy Dore shows a screen shot from a Huffington Post report of Trump’s telephone conversation with Ukrainian president Zelinkski:

                “I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.” Trump said. The key word in this response in “though” – it implies a link between Zelenski’s praise for U.S. military aid to the coming request.”

                I kid you not, fellow Crimestoppers. Some moron at the Huffpost actually wrote that drivel for public consumption.

                Jimmy Dore: “This seems like a huge stretch to me …” [then asks Aaron Maté to comment]

                Aaron Maté: “OK. They’re going to claim that “though” is the smoking gun.

                Jimmy Dore: [agreeing emphatically] “Yes. It’s funny, right?”

                Aaron Maté: “Again, this is the kind of mentality that led to Russia-gate, where this parsing of words, trying to interpret something damning and explosive when the actual evidence before us is just not there. And you’ve pulled up a very good illustration of that. So they’re saying that because Trump uses the word “though,” that means that he is extorting the Ukrainian president and conditioning U.S. military aid on Zelenski’s full co-operation in investigating Joe Biden, something that Trump doesn’t even explicitly say, certainly not there, because in that passage he’s talking about the origins of the Russia-gate investigation. It’s only way later on that Biden comes up, and even then, it’s not even clear what Trump is actually asking him to do. It looks like he’s asking him to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr in a hypothetical investigation. Because, as we know, one doesn’t even currently exist into Joe Biden and Ukraine, which Barr says isn’t happening. … The problem is, if you want to prove that this is impeachable, you need evidence way more convincing that Trump’s use of the word “though.”

                I would only add to Aaron Mate’s accurate statements above that, as a clarifying note, we should remember that, while no investigation into Joe Biden currently exists, Attorney General Barr has most definitely launched an investigation into the origins of “Russia-gate” in which tawdry tale Ukraine and former Vice President Joe Biden figures prominently. In other words, any real investigation into the origins of “Russia-gate” and “red-headed-stepchild-of-Russia-gate,” or “Ukraine-gate,” will highlight the lowlife activities of Joe Biden. He comes out of this, no matter what, and deservedly, as dirty as they come in the Washington, D.C. cesspool.

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             2. I may have noted this before, but it bears repeating. As Alexander Mercouris of the Duran has said after reading the so-called “complaint” by yet another anonymous hearsay “gossip blower” (whose relationship to John Brennan I very much hope that ongoing investigations will reveal):

                … what this whole thing is all about. It is primarily about sabotaging or torpedoing John Durham’s investigation. It wants to keep John Durham away from Ukraine by insinuating that if John Durham goes to Ukraine and asks the necessary questions there about Ukraine’s role in fabricating Russia-gate in 2016 that somehow creates a “collusion” between Donald Trump and Ukraine to meddle in and eventually steal the 2020 election. So that’s what this complaint is really about. It’s to stop Durham. And I think, before very long, that more and more people in the Republican party and in Congress will understand that and, frankly, this impeachment is going to go absolutely nowhere.

                As an anti-war working-class “Leftist” Vietnam veteran, I want to see President Trump impeached and removed from office for not cutting off military aid to Ukraine and a host of other nasty brutal dictatorships supported by the U.S. I wanted to see President Barack Obama impeached for the same crimes. And President George W. Bush. And President Bill Clinton. And President George H. W. Bush before them. I have hardly known a single U.S. President in my lifetime that I didn’t want to impeach and remove from office for crimes against humanity on an unconscionable scale. But not enough of my countrymen ever agreed with me. So the murderous crimes against humanity went one and continue today. No matter. As American scientist and philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce wrote back towards the end of the nineteenth century:

                “The truth would remain true even if nobody believed in it. And the false would remain false even if everyone believed in it. The truth, or the Real, doesn’t care who believes in it.”

                So, I want to see the truth in all this come out. Even if — especially if — it brings down both corrupt right-wing factions of what Orwell called “The Oligarchical Collective” (a.k.a., The Borg). May the walls of the CIA and Pentagram come tumbling down.

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13. This POGO statement gets it right

    Press Statement: Impeachment Inquiry is Appropriate Path Forward for Congress
    SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

    Today, it was reported that the House will begin a formal impeachment inquiry. POGO has a long history of working with Congress to increase its oversight efforts and brings a unique perspective to the conversation.

    Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), issued the following statement:

    The launching of an official impeachment inquiry is a legitimate function of Congress. An impeachment inquiry may be imperfect, messy, and uncomfortable. But it is the only process the founders established in the Constitution to address serious misconduct by presidents.

    The allegations against the president are among the most serious any president could face. Yet, his administration is declining to cooperate with an orderly, statutorily-mandated process to allow Congress to review them. This comes after many months of efforts across the administration to obstruct congressional oversight of the executive branch.

    The public deserves to know whether their president has abused his power. An impeachment inquiry not only offers Congress and the public the chance to investigate alleged wrongdoing, but also affords the president an appropriate venue to defend himself, governed by rules of procedure and evidence.

    https://www.pogo.org/press/release/2019/press-statement-impeachment-inquiry-is-appropriate-path-forward-for-congress

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14. The Kremlin is already in damage control mode:

    The Kremlin has said it hopes that discussions between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will remain secret following the scandal that erupted over Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader.

    Transcripts from Trump and Putin’s face-to-face meetings have not been made public, with reports saying Trump has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to conceal them. During a July phone call, Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden, the U.S. president’s likely opponent in the 2020 election — a request that has sparked a political firestorm in Washington this week.

    “Of course, we would like to hope that in our bilateral relations, where there are already a lot of very serious problems, we won’t reach such situations,” the RBC news website quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Friday.
    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/09/27/kremlin-says-it-doesnt-want-trump-putin-transcripts-to-be-made-public-a67477

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15. Got a great Putin favourite joke for you Oyster.
    A nervous US spy walks into the KGB; announces :”I’m a spy”.
    “What country?” “US.”
    “Go to room 17”.
    In room 17, “Are you armed?” “Yes”.
    “Go to room 28”.
    He goes to room 28 and they ask “Are you on a mission?” “Yes”.
    “Go to room 26”.
    There the ask him: “Is your mission active?” “Yes.”
    “Go to room 29”. He goes and gets read the riot act: “We know all about you! Get the hell out aand stop wasting office time! Do your mission!”
    That’s what your flaccid news report via Dimitry say! He laughs as you weep. Russia is a great
    country, as is US. Get over it Oyster! And I certainly like their actions for peace over US & EU. TThere’s no reason for a fight! Unless you want to imagine UK in the 17th Cen.

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    1. Good response to the Mollusk, BMCKS. I always get a laugh whenever I hear or read of some U.S. official telling us that we have to protect the identities of our own James Bond and Jason Bourne wannabes, for if we expose them, the foreign Bad People, will do them in. I like to answer: “Why would the foreign Bad People want to get rid of these bungling, incompetent U.S. fools? They do so much damage to America and its reputation in the world — think “U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers,” “Bay of Pigs,” “Gulf of Tonkin,” “Bombing the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade,” “WMD,” for only a few stellar examples — that the foreign Bad People consider them their own national treasures and only wish for the United States to waste more hundreds of billions of dollars recruiting as many of them as will show up for a job interview with their new bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.” The Plutocratic Class needs some safe place to park their credentialed but useless “trust fund babies” so the CIA takes them in as “analysts” so they don’t have to consider a career as a lowly (and low-paid) war-worker for the Pentagram.

       Come to think of it, I nominate our own resident Mollusk for a tour of duty spying on some goat-herding poppy farmers in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. There has just got to be some nefarious goings-on there that the U.S. marines on patrol protecting the heroin crop for some boy-buggering Afghan warlords have not managed to uncover. The old Soviet Union did a terrible thing to America when it withdrew from Afghanistan so that the Americans could rush in, take over, and give themselves yet another Vietnam. But that’s what America does. Predictably. As an old Russian joke at the time put it: “We’re about to do a terrible thing to you Americans. We’re going to rob you of your enemy.” But the U.S. government — chiefly the CIA and Pentagram — just invented an imaginary bogeyman anyway. The American public, isolated from any real threat behind two oceans, would never know the difference. And now the corporate Democrats have gotten into the act of bogeyman-inventing as if the Republicans will ever give them an ounce of credit for their abject Nixon-McCarthy imitations.

       Meanwhile, a visibly happy and relaxed Alex Christoforou and Peter Lavelle report from Red Square in Moscow: Journalistic malpractice: Ukrainegate exposes CNN & MSNBC propaganda (Video), The Duran Quick Take: Episode 318 (September 28, 2019). Looks to me like an impressive capital city of an impressive country.

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       1. You don’t like America at all, Mr Murry.

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       2. Yeah MM, the Commies never ransacked the place. Guess it was too bourgeoise to steal Czar
          & Czarina’s Fabraegé collection. It’s in a museum. In fact, the over the top splendorous room You-Know-Her’s Hitler #17?, 18? -lost count- walks into is the same room the Portaburo met in with the Hammer & Sickle & Lenin portrait on the wall. It was put in storage, and there’s some racy books of what went on between guards & secretaries in the storage rooms. Written before #MeToo of course.
          On the subject of the Evil Empire, if you have a taste for filthy language, you missed your chance. It was during the Russia World Cup 2018 FIFA outside PM Theresa May’s residence. With all UK’s serious problems, she lied incessantly about how dangerous Russia was, trying to sabotage the games. Guess she’s not aware Russia has phones, because the few that risked their lives going, called their buddies: “Get over here! You’re missing a Game & Party of a lifetime!” This cost Brits plenty in extra airfare & rush accommodations. Thus the fury outside 10 Downing St. on their return.

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    2. Czech analysts found after investigating 22,000 Russian-language online sources that Moscow’s propaganda started two years before the military intervention in the case of Ukraine and four weeks in advance concerning Syria. First came the journalists, then tanks and bombs.
       From the 2010s the Russian army and its military intelligence service started dominating the control of Russian propaganda; thus, whatever is published in the 90% state-dependent Russian media is part of the Russian Federation’s military strategy.

       Semantic Visions, a Czech company also examined the role played by European leaders, including Viktor Orbán, and the results are worrying. The Kremlin-controlled Russian media uses politicians voicing an anti-EU and anti-West rhetoric to legitimise the Putin’s regime.
       What we have called Russian propaganda in Europe for a long time has been categorised as “information warfare” by the Russian Federation’s military doctrines. What we believe to be propaganda journalism, political PR or country image improvement is the integral part of the Russian army’s military strategy for Moscow.

       Russia expert András Rácz pointed out to Index that information warfare has been a part of Russian military thinking since the 80s and, consequently, it has constantly been improved. Regarding contemporary ideas on the topic, he believes it is worth it to have a look at the military lexicon, which is available online as well, entitled Voina I Mir (War and Peace) published back in 2011 and edited by Dmitry Rogozin, a Russian pro-government politician and former permanent representative to NATO (!) who is famous for his provocative actions.

       The book lists weakening the opponent’s governmental defence capability and its military power, breaking its fighting morale and trust in military leadership, discrediting political leadership, provoking “controlled crises” and staggering the population’s mood as potential goals of information warfare. An integral part of information war is the moral and psychological training of one’s own population to prepare them for war, including the formulation of a depiction of the enemy.

       The new Russian military doctrine approved three years later in December 2014 considered information warfare to be equal to ground, air and naval warfare. Consequently, the importance of the field is also indicated by the allocation of resources

       – said András Rácz. In practice this means journalists only differ from an armoured division in that they fight the enemy on another field. The deployment of journalist brigades is quite simple because around 90% of Russian media is either directly owned by the state or strongly dependent on it.

       A study on Russian information warfare (.pdf) written by Jolanta Darczewska for the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) in Warsaw highlights that the “information weapons” Russia uses against the West were tested internally in advance. The Kremlin first established the “single information space of the Russian Federation”, which mainly means that they started to regulate publicity through tough rules and took control of major media outlets. The test of information weapons in reality involved cyberattacks against Russian civil society organisations, opposition activists and on the grounds of fighting extremism they ordered opposition media outlets and social media to be shut down.

       “The protection of domestic information space is so important to Moscow it created a separate information security doctrine in December 2016. The document does not only elevate the previously followed, more and more restrictive practice to the political level, but it forecasts further restrictions as well” – recalled András Rácz. The quoted Polish study states that for a long time Russian (civilian) intelligence services were the only ones responsible for Russian “information security”, but this changed in the early years of this decade.

       SINCE THEN, THE MILITARY HAS BEEN INCREASINGLY DOMINATING THE SYSTEM, AND THE MAIN GOAL OF PROPAGANDA BECAME THE LEGITIMIZATION AND SUPPORT OF THE KREMLIN’S CONFRONTATIONAL FOREIGN POLICY

       For instance, this also explains why hacking the Democratic National Committee in the US or the takeover of the Hungarian far-right MNA’s website and its reorganisation as a propaganda site fell under the competence of Russia’s military intelligence, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, commonly known as GRU and why not the KGB’s successors, the SVR and FSB got exclusive rights to perform these missions.

       https://index.hu/english/2017/02/04/orban_is_a_tool_for_putin_in_his_information_war_against_the_west/

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       1. You really don’t live on a planet with a blue sky and a yellow sun, Mollusk.

          Given your bed-wetting, diaper-soiling fear of Omnipotent Vladimir Putin and his mastery of the Vulcan Mind Meld, I suggest that you surrender to him now, while he still feels generous. Otherwise, if you keep foaming at the mouth and drooling spit at the mere thought of his Slavic Majesty, the local animal control center might suspect you of rabies and put you out of your misery.

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          1. Mr Murry, your continually replying with ad hominem to my polite and informed comments is not helping you. The truth will be told regardless.
             ___________________________________________________

             Members of Putin’s state machine received Hungarian residence permits through controversial Golden Visa program

             While Viktor Orbán’s government has closed down borders for refugees and migrants, the country’s controversial residency bond program offered a backdoor for wealthy investors to Hungary and the EU. The government refused to disclose the names of these investors but a joint investigation by Direkt36, 444 and Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has revealed that a number of influential Russian individuals, including politicians and executives of state companies, received Hungarian residence permits. In several cases, we could confirm that they did it through investment in Hungary’s bond program. The family members of the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) and a Russian businessman reported to be connected to an organised crime group were also clients of the Hungarian Immigration Office, though the Office declined to share more details about their exact involvement.

             These revelations are based on information that Direkt36 and another Hungarian news organization, 444, received earlier this year. In January, both outlets received an anonymous envelope that contained the names of citizens of Russia and several other countries, who, according to the sender, had received residency permits through Hungary’s residency bond program. We managed to verify this claim in a number of cases.

             A member of the Russian Duma, Vladimir Blotskiy confirmed that he and his family members had received Hungarian residence permits through the bond program before he became a lawmaker. He claimed that he gave up the residency after joining the Duma. Besides Blotsky, several executives of state-owned companies also confirmed that they received a Hungarian residence permit, and one of them also confirmed that he did so through the bond program.

             Among the Russian individuals listed by the anonymous letter, the most remarkable ones are the family members of the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin. An additional source with knowledge of the bureaucratic process of gaining residency in Hungary claimed that Sergey Naryshkin’s son, Andrey participated in the residency bond program. The Hungarian Immigration Office confirmed that Andrey Naryshkin was their client but declined to say in what capacity. Although we contacted the Naryshkin family through various channels, they did not respond to our questions.

             The family of the SVR chief
             Among the names we received in January, we found immediate family members of Sergey Naryshkin, the current head of the Russian foreign intelligence service, known by its acronym SVR. A successor of the Soviet-era KGB, the agency is tasked with gathering intelligence and conducting espionage activities outside of Russia. Before becoming the director of SVR in October 2016, Sergey Naryshkin served as the speaker of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, between 2011 and 2016. Following the Crimean crisis, in 2014, among other Russian officials, he was put on the EU’s sanctions list for having publicly supported the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.

             Sergey Naryshkin’s 39-year old son, Andrey has also been close to the Russian state but has not taken any political roles. According to a Forbes article published in 2012, he became the member of the Board of Directors in Russia’s largest, majority state-owned electrical transmission grid company and system operator, but there is no information about his current workplace, and he does not own any companies either. Andrey Naryshkin and his family – his wife and two daughters – appear among the names we received. One family member’s social media activity suggests that the family has recently traveled to various European countries, including Austria, Germany, France, and Poland. In 2016, the family member uploaded photos taken in the castle of Budapest, and at the beginning of September, a new photo taken in front of the Hungarian parliament.

             more (in English) at https://www.direkt36.hu/en/putyin-gepezetenek-tagjai-kaptak-magyar-papirokat-orbanek-kotvenyprogramjaban/

             So Russians spooks travel at will in Europe through the gateway of Hungary, free to murder their opponents like they recently did in Germany.

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16. It’s still early morning here in the Land of Fine Chocolate, Wooden Shoes & Windmills, so I’ve probably missed something or perhaps several – even many – somethings, but I find it reprehensible that only now, three years into this travesty of an Administration, people who have sworn to uphold the Constitution and whose job is the stewardship and care of the Nation may finally take action in keeping with that trust.
    What’s worse is their doing so only because of a “whistleblower complaint” that was made public, not because of the wanton disregard for what America is supposed to be and represent. Not because of what has been done/undone domestically which, it seems, is not an issue worth discussing, perhaps not an issue at all. But mention Russia, Ukraine, China, whomever and suddenly, there’s a problem.
    But we are the problem. The rot is widespread and Donald Trump is merely the manifestation of it. Like the fairy tale queen who smashes all mirrors save the one that tells her what she wants to hear, we look everywhere but at ourselves.
    The Nation’s wounds are self-inflicted: some will scar over, but many will never heal. There are divides that may never be bridged. And none of which seems cause for concern or comment.
    So, tell me: Who will mourn the passing of America? Apparently, not even Americans.
    From this distance, that is the greater crime and sorrow.

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17. A most interesting comment from Prof Andras Gollner, who is investigating Hungary’s role as middleman between Russia and Trump:

    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2019/09/28/kurt-volkers-departure-a-blow-to-hungarian-autocracy/
    András B. Göllner
    on September 28, 2019 at 3:03 pm
    The plot thickens. Remember that 6 part series we published here about the assistance provided to the presidential campaign of Donald Trump by Viktor Orbán’s utterly corrupt autocracy? (See underneath) The resignation of Kurt Volker yesterday is directly connected to that narrative.

    Our investigative report documented Hungary’s „deep-penetration” by the Russian Secret Services, Orbán’s anti-Ukranian coalition with Putin, the close ties between Orbán’s American political advisors, like Volker, and Hungary’s „open-door policy” throughout the last presidential campaign, to „alt-right”, pro-Russian and extremist anti-Clinton bloggers that fed the bot attacks coordinated by Jared Kushner and Robert Mercer’s cyber operatives.

    Kurt Volker was and is to this day, one of those “Ugly Americans” (along with David Cornstein, Trump’s and Roy Cohn’s buddy from the “good ol’ days”, who is now Trump’s back channel to Putin in Budapest), who threw the people of Hungary under the bus, after Viktor Orbán began to dismantle that country’s democratic order. Remember Steve Bannon’s recent comment, that Orbán was Trump before Trump? Volker, Cornstein, Bannon, are American carpetbaggers who profits from promoting the rise of a criminal political class in the territories of the former Soviet Empire.

    The talking heads on American media outlets should be careful not to read an anti-Orbán, anti-Trump turn into Volker’s resignation, but investigate what the man was up to chaperoning Trump’s ace in the hole, Rudy Giuliani in the Ukraine. They should look into what he is doing on the Board of an openly pro-Orbán, anti-democratic lobby group in the US without being registered as a lobbyist for the Hungarian dictator. But most importantly, Congress should investigate how these Washington lobbyists who are paid millions by foreign autocrats, are undermining justice and the rule of law in America.

    To revisit our earlier series please follow the URLs underneath.

    The Budapest Bridge
    Part I.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/13/the-budapest-bridge-hungarys-role-in-the-collusion-between-the-trump-campaign-and-the-russian-secret-service/
    Part II.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/14/the-budapest-bridge-hungarys-role-in-the-collusion-between-the-trump-campaign-and-the-russian-secret-service-part-2/
    Part III.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/21/the-budapest-bridge-epilogue/

    Creatures in the Budapest Hills
    Part I.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/28/creatures-in-the-budapest-hills-part-1/
    Part II.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/04/30/creatures-in-the-budapest-hills-part-2/
    Part III.
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/05/02/creatures-in-the-budapest-hills-epilogue/

    “The Government of Viktor Orbán capitalizes on its membership in the EU and NATO by telling Eastern autocrats that it can serve as their eyes, ears and mouths inside the Western alliance. It has branded itself, as not only an illiberal state, like them, but one that can get away with it inside the Western alliance and can serve as their ticket to getting away with murder. That Russia interfered in the American elections, that it does so in all the West European elections is no longer in doubt. That Hungary serves as one of the most trusted brokers in the establishment and operation of Global Supply Networks on behalf of anti-liberal forces, has been documented not only by me, but by a host of well-known scholars, and perhaps none better than Kim Lane Scheppele, Jan Werner Müller, Cas Mudde, János Kornai, and Gábor Halmai. It is now up to the US Congress, law enforcement agencies in Europe and America, journalists of conscience world-wide, and to all concerned citizens who value justice, equality, human rights and the dignity of our fellow human beings, to stand up and be counted.

    Postscript

    When I heard the American President, on prime time American television a couple of days ago, deride America’s journalists, and follow this with a recital of Al Wilson’s The Snake– a poem that bears a striking resemblance to a short essay that Hungary’s anti-Semitic rulers loved to recite prior to the deportation of 600,000 Jews to the gas-chambers of Auschwitz – the hair stood up on my back. (Read: Albert Wass. The Conquest of the Rats: A Tale for Youths. The only English translation of this incitement to hatred towards the Jews is on an American Nazi website, which speaks volumes. [https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t529405/ ]
    András Göllner”
    http://hungarianfreepress.com/2017/05/02/creatures-in-the-budapest-hills-epilogue/

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18. A decent article on what the Bidens were up to in Ukraine, i.e. peddling influence and making money “legally”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/hunter-bidens-legal-socially-acceptable-corruption/598804/

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    1. There are a few names for what the Biden’s engaged in. Nepotism, patronage, etc., it all comes down to “Clout”, ie., using power or perceived power to achieve a monetary reward for a client, in this case the Younger Biden. Hunter it seems had no qualifications to be appointed as a Director – as far as I know, Hunter never even pressed a button or turned valve in a power plant or energy distribution facility. Yet, this lack of expertise was not a disqualification to be on the Board.

       We all do what we can to help our children. There may not be any laws that were broken concerning the Biden’s. It does show us the difference that connections can and do make.

       President Agent Orange and his surrogates in the usual fashion have gone on the attack. So what we can expect are attacks – counter attacks and lots and lots of spin.

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19. Sometimes there is a cat in the Russian bag:

    Maria Angelica Brunell Solar • a month ago • edited
    As far as I understand the geopolitical situaltion, there is now an Alliance of White Hat military/intelligence agencies from most countries, and other powers, in order to defeat the NWO Zionist Satanist Globalist cabal . Russia’s and China’s armed forces/intelligence belong completely to the Alliance, because the fight is more advanced there, presidents Putin and Xi have already done a draining of the swamp in their countries. Just a few other countries’ whole armies are with the Alliance. Most are Patriotic factions, as is the case of the Trump military government, a White Hat faction of US military and intelligence.
    They are just pretending to be threatening each other, to be in trade wars,etc-. These are war disinfo games they are playing on the population. Putin, Xi and Trump are actually allies. But the cabal still holds part of the US armed forces and intelligence.
    https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/two-puny-nations-subjecting-world-risk-nuclear-holocaust/ri27547

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    1. Good post Oyster. But I like many Europeans of the original 13 States of EU, are now wondering: “Why?” These old Soviet blocs were allowed into EU in the 1st place. It was supposed to be a peace between W European Nations for peace: coal & steel production. Now it’s turned into a National Enquirer of scandal.
       It’s easy to blame USSR for all their problems, but maybe EU should look to their own corruption. They were talked into such nonsense by US & UK; latter now leaving.
       Oh Boy! “Ukraine”! A step I never dreamed EU would go along with! A murderous coup, that’s also failing. Now they’re stuck: Billion$ to help Ukraine while W Europe suffers.
       It’s not Putin/Russia’s fault – it’s their own.

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20. Not the actual article, that’s just standard PCR fare with the usual pro-Russian twist. Russia is blaming Poland and Romania for the American military installations, conveniently forgetting that she has missiles in Kaliningrad and suitcase nukes in Transnistria. (Admittedly small and carelessly handled, but still nukes.)

    What I meant to attract attention to was the actual comment of the Russian troll from which I quoted. The Russians float a balloon first through the comments section in the media, and then if it’s well received they write articles about it. The quote I gave was about the same subject Mr Astore wrote here:
    https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-cabinet-is-a-coup-waiting-to-happen/
    Only the Russians practically admit to their conspiracy with factions of the US military intelligence – and in other places too like on the now deleted Disqus channel Mickey’s Clubhouse – and if their fans like it they take credit for the idea. It’s about the military dictatorship Trump and his supporters in the MIC intended to install in the US during his second term.

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    1. Oh, give it up, Mollusk. I’d rather listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. They make better sense, even in translation, than you do. Apparently you think that the Russian Federation should not have moved its borders so close to encroaching NATO missile batteries just recently installed there, reneging on promises made by several U.S. presidents that they wouldn’t do that if Russia consented to the re-unification of Germany, a country that had murdered twenty-five million Russians in World War II. What a view you have from half-a-world away. Not of much of interest to Americans struggling with trying to make a living, though. They have nothing against Russians or their government and neither do I.

       Personally, I’ve loathed Bill Clinton and his “two for the price of one” wife ever since she bungled health care in her husband’s first administration. No one had even heard of “Facebook” or “Social Media” then. People used to actually read books. We anti-war “leftists” simply hated the Clintons for selling out the working class and jumping into the fluffy featherbed with the owners of the Republican party.

       Buy some Republicans. They’ll shout ‘Gawd Bless!’
       Rent a few Democrats. They’ll lose for less.

       Back in those days — the 1990s — the Clintons loved the Russians, especially the drunken Boris Yeltsin whose countrymen rightfully regard him as a dupe and traitor because he allowed “the West” to come in and loot Russia of everything worth carrying away to banks in London and New York. Then along came Vladimir Putin and some oligarchs started finding themselves in jail and their looted national resources returned to the nation for the benefit of average Russians. Now Russia finds itself in much better shape and Russians rightfully accord Vladimir Putin with a great deal of credit for that. Good for them. Good for him. I do not wish any harm or ill luck to befall these people. Who would?

       The Russians have a fairly high level of general education and would regard your insane babbling with a sneer and a shrug, if they even bothered to waste a minute of their time on you. But you do provide a tiny window into the asylum basement where the Clintons and Obamas plot and connive for a “comeback” while counting their millions in payoffs from the corporations and banks they rescued with public money. So I’ll give you credit for keeping us informed of their “thoughts.”

       And do let us know in advance when Bogus Bill and You-Know-Her plan to make their heroic appearance at next year’s Democratic Party Convention. Just try to picture it and you will know precisely when the Democrats lost their next presidential election. If I never see another screen shot of these two shameless grifters I will count myself a lucky man indeed.

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       1. It goes way back MM. It was supposedly at the Yalta Conference that Truman telegraphed: “The Baby is born!” Translation: US had a powerful nuclear bomb that actually worked. Churchill was ecstatic. “We can bomb whoever we want! Moscow, Tokyo, you name it!” Stalin sat quietly for the rant, whispered to some advisors, and they burst into laughter. Churchill whispers to his assistants: “He doesn’t understand”. The Russians howled even louder. They knew exactly what was going on in the Manhattan Project. Later on, as they started carving up Europe, Churchill begged Stalin to leave out Poland. After all, Poland’s why they went to war in the 1st place. “That’s too bad”, but still, a firm “No”; “We’ve been invaded twice through them.” Churchill then tries the religious angle: “We want to keep our good relations with the Vatican”. Stalin responds: “And how many Divisions does the Pope have?”
          So the Russkies have been pissing off the West for a long time. And let’s not forget the “White Russians”, the mercenary ISIS of the time. That didn’t work either.
          The Clinton’s plunder of Russia was more the (sometimes) ‘luck of history’ than actual intellect and decency. They’re scoundrels because so many NeoLiberals believed outrageous theft was not as “evil” as Communism. The silly books written: “The End of History”, “The Earth is Flat” etc. we’re finding out have a short shelf life, as do their authors and supporters.
          Billary lost the election not only because she is obnoxious, but even her corruption is out of date: we haven’t gotten a drop of oil out of Iraq or Libya, but spent a fortune destroying them. Yeah, yeah, I know: “But we will out of Venezuela! Iran!” No we won’t. We’ll just dig a deeper hole of debt. More anger in our streets.
          If the Clinton’s have a shred of decentcy, with all their stolen money, they should build a shrine in honour of Boris Yeltsen. Because such flukes of history won’t happen again in 1000 years.

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       2. How to spot a pro-Russian propagandist: he/she always has to praise his/her employer and only quotes from approved media. Always belittle their opponents (the old trick of trying to discredit the messenger when they can’t combat the message). Never discuss the actual subject but always promote the party line. Use words which appeal to emotions and stay away from reason – that also includes lengthy off topic and even mindless harangues, violent attacks, forceful negativity and so on. Rather crude methods but tried and true.

          In short – anything to distract potential readers from noticing what anybody else except the propagandist is saying. When Mr Murry wrote that Americans didn’t know anything about what’s happening in Russia’s influence zone, no doubt he took into account the possibility of pro-Russian propagandists planting the Russian flag in these tabula rasa mental areas and making new converts.

          By the way, the funny thing is that most of these pro-Russian propagandists are actually Hungarians, diaspora who speak English very well and Hungarian intelligence services operatives. Their Lider Maximo Viktor Orban was recently “unanimously” re-elected boss man at Fidesz’ last congress and he proclaimed himself defender of Eastern Europe and Christiandom from the evil democracy of the West. He and his little army of commenting locusts would do well to remember that pride often goes before a fall, like their Orange friend in the White House recently experienced.

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          1. Ya’ know Oyster, as this blog runs down, as much as you & MM are diametrically opposed, I think here in France they would relish a screaming match at a Town Hall meeting. Of course you’d both be arrested if you tried at a EU Parliament Meeting, but nobody listens, nor trusts, them anymore.
             Your comments on Hungary are valid; I too, like CPR, believe they were paid off by the US. Not for peace mind you, but more trouble, inside the EU. You can’t have World Domination with a group that produce Mercedes & Cartier – beyond the capabilities of US. Voila! Bring in a corrupt group from the Old Soviet bloc, weaken the West.
             We’re in mourning today: we buried our last GREAT President: Jacque Chirac. He wasn’t afraid of a little brat from the corrupt Bush family! No war in Iraq! “Freedom Fries”? Puff! He was also against crazy expansion of EU, and wanted to make peace* with Russia: That would make a REALLY STRONG & PROSPEROUS EU! *It wasn’t even ‘peace’ in his time! Just a sensible market for French Industry to grow after the fall of Communism! Nobody listened, and we’ve had financial disasters since. Amazing: now even GERMANY is facing recession!
             Can’t say they woken up yet, but finally dawning on them hatred of Russia & overthrow of Ukraine, have made EU poorer, not richer.
             RIP Jacque Chirac!

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             1. Very cute, but my comments on Hungary and all the links I posted said they were paid by the Russians. All Orban’s politics revolve around benefiting the Russians and some investigations hinted at a certain cash suitcase paid long ago to Orban by the Russian gangster Mogylevich, which is the stick with which Putin drives Orban. But there’s also a carrot in front of his eyes – and that’s the promise of revising the Trianon Treaty so there’s always a silver lining for some people even if it involves starting a new war.

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21. This will probably mark my last excerpt from from the Jimmy Dore show featuring Aaron Maté. This segment of the conversation concentrates more on issues related to the “elite” swamp rivalries for power and prestige:

    Aaron Maté: “You can cause genocide in Yemen, but you cannot go after another member of the establishment. And so for Democrats and those who identify with them in the media, this is the impeachment-worthy scandal. Not committing mass murder in Yemen. Not pulling out of the Iran Deal, the Paris Climate Accords, locking up kids in cages, subjecting immigrants to even more cruelty than they were under Obama where [their treatment] was already pretty cruel. No. You cannot go after Joe Biden. And this is what we’re going to get you for.

    “This is endemic. Richard Nixon. What was he impeached for. He wasn’t impeached for bombing and mass murder in Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam. He was impeached for going after the other faction of The Establishment. The [offices of] the Democratic party were broken into. Nixon covered that up. He lied about it. You can’t do that. You can’t go after the other faction of the elite, or else that faction and their partisans in the media will go after you. And so that’s what’s unfolding now. And in the process the Democrats and their media partisans are enrolling everyone who is legitimately aggrieved by Trump’s existence as president. But they’re enrolling them in this kind of narrow, backward grievance that is not going to catch on. This is trying to get him on something so miniscule in the scale of his actual crimes.”

    Jimmy Dore: “And the fact that it actually involves corruption by Joe Biden and his family also means that half the country is not going to go along with this impeachment. We already know this is not going anywhere in the Senate, so this is just another political stunt because the Democrats do not have a policy position to offer as a counter to Donald Trump. Nancy Pelosi wants the same health care that Donald Trump wants. She wants private health insurance. She wants private pharmaceutical companies that charge you as much as they want. That’s Nancy Pelosi’s plan. That’s Trump’s plan. They can’t oppose him on Syria. They can’t oppose him on Libya – we just bombed Libya again – they can’t oppose him on Afghanistan, because he’s still there. They can’t oppose him on Venezuela. They don’t oppose him on Yemen. They don’t oppose him on Saudi Arabia. They don’t oppose him on any of the stuff they should be opposing him on because they go along with him on these things.
    And if you’re not going to impeach bona fide war criminals like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who lied us into a war? That’s why [the Democrats] took over the House and Senate and [the voters] elected a black guy with a Muslim middle name – Barack Obama – because [voters] were so angry at George Bush and Dick Cheney ordering us into a war and ordering torture and being war criminals, that’s how much people hated them. And so they asked Nancy Pelosi: “are you going to impeach a war criminal?

    [“Shows Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying “No. Impeachment is off the table. It is a waste of time.”]

    So is this. Because he is not going to be impeached just like Bill Clinton was not going to be impeached in 1999. What did they do? They helped him. His numbers went up when they did this. Which is exactly what is going to happen to Trump. Which has just happened to Trump with Russia-gate. And after Russia-gate was all over, Trump had the highest approval ratings of his presidency. This will boost Trump. It will hurt Joe Biden. But the Democrats don’t care. This will help assure a Trump victory in 2020. They don’t care.

    And why didn’t [Nancy Pelosi] impeach George W. Bush? Because she was complicit in torture. She was told that [the U.S.] was torturing people in 2002. She didn’t whistle-blow. She didn’t say anything. Which makes her complicit in a war crime. So she is also a war criminal. Which is why she didn’t investigate and impeach George Bush because she would also been held to account for being a war criminal. People don’t know that.

    [Shows video of Dylan Ratigan]: “While the FBI Director example gives those with a partisan view against Donald Trump – and it’s easy to be against Donald Trump – the obvious fuel to suggest that he’s a criminal, that he’s a terrible guy, blah blah blah, under investigation. Probably true. But if you believe that, then you probably also need to consider that Hillary Clinton was taking money through her foundation to do weapons deals overseas while personally enriching herself, and that Barack Obama is paid off by the private health insurance companies and the banks to make sure we don’t actually have proper health care or a functioning financial system. It’s hard to believe one and not accept the other two.

    Jimmy Dore: “This is all to distract us from the fact that we don’t have an opposition party and the Democrats don’t have anything to offer people to come out and vote for them. All they have is Russia-gate. All they have is Impeachment. Just like the Republicans had when Bill Clinton was president. They’re a bankrupt party. They have a bankrupt ideology.

    [End of laboriously typed transcript]

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    1. Mike: Thanks for posting. I watch Jimmy and he nails it here. There are so many policy reasons to resist Trump and the Republicans, and people like Bernie and AOC do resist Trump. But the DNC, represented by spineless Dems like Biden and Pelosi, don’t want to resist Trump on policy because their policies are basically the same. So they must resort to scandal. First, Russia. Now Ukraine.

       Well, it does appear Trump stepped into it on Ukraine. So I’m for an “inquiry” into impeachment. But I haven’t forgotten the ethical and political bankruptcy of the DNC. Kudos to Tulsi for quitting her position in it.

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