9/28/17, Wall St. Journal twitter
Friday, September 29, 2017
Thursday, September 28, 2017
New movie about Watergate 'Deep Throat' Mark Felt features Woodward and others as recipients of leaks, but character of Carl Bernstein doesn't appear. Mark Felt was convicted in 1980 of authorizing break-ins for Nixon but was pardoned by Reagan-marketwatch
"In 1980, he (Mark Felt) was convicted of
authorizing break-ins during the Nixon administration’s search for
suspected members of the Weather Underground but was pardoned by Ronald
Reagan."
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"Daniel Smith, 9/28/17, I welcome this new movie...because once Obama's political spying crimes are exposed, it will dwarf anything this movie presents."
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"Daniel Smith, 9/28/17, I welcome this new movie...because once Obama's political spying crimes are exposed, it will dwarf anything this movie presents."
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RussiaGate is the new 'gold rush.' Nothing Washington Post came up with on its own could save it: Overwhelming interest in Trump presidency spurs high number of digital subscriptions to Washington Post, NY Times, Wall St. Journal-CNN...(Without RussiaGate, it's back to shabbier summer homes, lower tier private schools)
"Overwhelming interest in the Trump presidency has spurred a high number of digital subscriptions to the outlets."
9/26/17, "Washington Post digital subscriptions soar past 1 million mark," CNN, Brian Stelter
"The Washington Post is marking a milestone in its transition from being a local print newspaper to a national news website.
"Earlier this year, we crossed the 1 million mark for paid digital-only subscribers," the Post's publisher Fred Ryan revealed in an internal memo on Tuesday.
The news stood out to staffers because the Post had not disclosed the data before.
The Post, like several other national papers, has been focused on signing up as many paying subscribers as possible.
"Our growth has been exceptionally strong, with digital-only subscriptions more than doubling since January 1 this year," Ryan wrote. "Digital-only subscriptions have more than tripled since last year at this time."
Ryan didn't provide any other benchmarks, but the 1 million figure puts the Post just a bit behind The Wall Street Journal, one of its primary rivals.
According to The Journal's most recent count, through June, it has 1.27 million digital subscribers.
Both papers are eclipsed by The New York Times, which has far more digital subscribers than any other American news outlet. Through June, the Times had 2.3 million paid digital subscribers.
The news organizations like to point out that lots of other subscribers pay for the print edition and get digital access on top of that. But digital-only subscriptions are the primary area of growth.
Overwhelming interest in the Trump presidency has spurred a high number of digital subscriptions to the outlets.
But the Times, the Journal and the Post have benefited a lot more than regional and local papers have.
The Los Angeles Times, for instance, recently revealed that it now has 105,000 digital subscribers.
The Boston Globe is nearing the 100,000 mark.
According to Ryan's memo, the Post has seen "especially impressive growth in our digital subscription base among millennials as they have grown accustomed to paying for products and services they view as valuable and even essential."
He said Tuesday that the figures "validate our strategy of growing the size of our news and engineering teams and expanding our product offerings.""
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9/26/17, "Washington Post digital subscriptions soar past 1 million mark," CNN, Brian Stelter
"The Washington Post is marking a milestone in its transition from being a local print newspaper to a national news website.
"Earlier this year, we crossed the 1 million mark for paid digital-only subscribers," the Post's publisher Fred Ryan revealed in an internal memo on Tuesday.
The news stood out to staffers because the Post had not disclosed the data before.
"Our growth has been exceptionally strong, with digital-only subscriptions more than doubling since January 1 this year," Ryan wrote. "Digital-only subscriptions have more than tripled since last year at this time."
Ryan didn't provide any other benchmarks, but the 1 million figure puts the Post just a bit behind The Wall Street Journal, one of its primary rivals.
According to The Journal's most recent count, through June, it has 1.27 million digital subscribers.
Both papers are eclipsed by The New York Times, which has far more digital subscribers than any other American news outlet. Through June, the Times had 2.3 million paid digital subscribers.
The news organizations like to point out that lots of other subscribers pay for the print edition and get digital access on top of that. But digital-only subscriptions are the primary area of growth.
Overwhelming interest in the Trump presidency has spurred a high number of digital subscriptions to the outlets.
But the Times, the Journal and the Post have benefited a lot more than regional and local papers have.
The Los Angeles Times, for instance, recently revealed that it now has 105,000 digital subscribers.
The Boston Globe is nearing the 100,000 mark.
According to Ryan's memo, the Post has seen "especially impressive growth in our digital subscription base among millennials as they have grown accustomed to paying for products and services they view as valuable and even essential."
He said Tuesday that the figures "validate our strategy of growing the size of our news and engineering teams and expanding our product offerings.""
......................
Plea to international community to stop US stampede to WWIII. RussiaGate now at frenzied peak as it combines with US political class and media obsession to nullify Trump election based on non-existent or so-called 'confidential' evidence-Adam Carter, Phase 5
"Even after a year of inquiries, (Russia Foreign Minister) Mr. Lavrov said, “we did not see a single fact.” Mr.
Lavrov said he had asked his American counterpart, Secretary of State
Rex W. Tillerson, for evidence of Russian meddling in the election and
was told it was confidential. Mr. Lavrov dismissed that contention as well. “You know I cannot believe that,” he said. “Information is leaking all the time.”" 9/22/2017, "Russia Says ‘Small-Hearted’ Obama Administration Spoiled Ties," NY Times, Somini Sengupta, United Nations
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9/19/17, "Phase #5 Complete," by Adam Carter, http://g-2.space/phase5/
"Ambassadors and diplomatic staff of many embassies located in London (covering 150 nations) were sent the following communication:
Dear Honourable Ambassador,
I am writing to you as part of my effort to reach out to all governments around the world regarding what I fear is a genuine threat to world peace. It is a threat stemming from what, I regret to say, appears to be a partisan political deception campaign by a political party within the United States of America. This is a very serious issue and an issue that every country deserves to be properly informed about.
INTRODUCTION
I'm a private citizen of the United Kingdom. I have no affinity with any political party and no investment or stake in geopolitical outcomes beyond that of being a British citizen who opposes needless conflict, especially if it is instigated by deceit.
At the end of December 2016, I started to investigate an online persona that identified itself as "Guccifer 2.0", an identity many believed – and many in America still do believe – to be a Russian hacker allied to the Russian security services, the GRU and/or the FSB. The Guccifer 2.0 online persona made unverified claims of being a source for the “DNCLeaks” – the leaked emails of seven Democratic National Committee officials that WikiLeaks published on 22 July 2016 – and deliberately left various ‘clues’ pointing to an apparent Russian identity.
These ‘clues’ have been cynically exploited by vested political interests in the US to claim the Russian government used Guccifer 2.0 as a conduit to WikiLeaks of ‘hacked’ DNC materials in order to “subvert our democracy” in last year’s US election.
There has been a great deal of misreporting, under-reporting and false assumptions made about Guccifer 2.0, and what makes this a serious issue is that these earlier press errors have gone uncorrected. Instead, most of the mainstream press has studiously ignored new evidence that contradicts the false narrative it has promoted over the past 15 months and instead continues to generate xenophobic hysteria over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election.
In light of this refusal to report the new evidence, it appears the US mainstream press is manufacturing consent for war once again.
RESEARCH, DISCOVERIES and MAINSTREAM PRESS SILENCE
In February 2017, a discovery was made that discredited the ‘Russian hacker’ theory. This discovery of independently verifiable evidence was made by carrying out a more thorough analysis of the metadata of digital files published on Guccifer 2.0’s own Wordpress website than anyone appears to have done in 2016.
The mainstream press stayed silent; it took around 200 days before the first brief mention of this new evidence in the press. Since then, the ‘Russian hacker’ theory has been further invalidated by other ‘digital forensics’ evidence from various independent researchers and analysts. Again, instead of dealing with these new discoveries legitimately, most in the mainstream press have chosen to ‘cherry-pick’ a single aspect, distort that, and argue against it ‘strawman’-style, as a means to disregard 90%-95% of the research.
THE THREAT TO GLOBAL STABILITY and HUMANITY
Since October 2016, the United States Intelligence Community (USIC), with assistance from mainstream media propaganda channels, has used warmongering rhetoric, alleged Russian government interference in the US election, and called that alleged interference an "act of war".
Anonymous officials in the USIC, cited by US mainstream press, have also made claims that strong evidence exists and have even stated they have intelligence showing that Russian President Vladimir Putin called for hacking the DNC.
Nothing has ever been made public that supports such allegations. Indeed, the closest any USIC agencies have come to this is making assessments, none have produced hard evidence. Those assessments, at least as they relate to the Guccifer 2.0 persona, have been discredited by the newly discovered information. This, however, does not seem to have stopped the push for sanctions or for escalating military tensions, both of which continue within the US government.
Those entrusted to investigate the alleged Russian interference also appear to be completely ignoring the new evidence – evidence that does a lot to vindicate Russia. Ignoring evidence that suggests there may have been a domestic political scheme to frame Russia should be a concern to those who desire a peaceful and stable world for all.
This could easily be an attempt to sustain a false pretext for war, a war between nuclear-armed nations that risks expanding into global war.
QUESTIONABLE SOURCES
Even more questionable, the assessments provided by various US intelligence agencies have, in part, been based on the reporting of private sector entities, one of which is CrowdStrike, the only entity the Democratic Party allowed to have access to its computer servers – effectively the ‘crime scene’ of the alleged cyber intrusion of which DNC claims it is the victim.
CrowdStrike has multiple conflicts of interest here: its own contract with the Democratic Party; its affiliation with the Atlantic Council (which in turn has ties with NATO and anti-Russian individuals such as Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk); and some of its executives have made specious claims over the past year that now clearly need investigating, especially with regards to the relative timing of CrowdStrike’s public statements and the appearance of the Guccifer 2.0 persona.
WHY EVIDENCE MAY BE GETTING IGNORED
The person investigating these matters is Robert Swan Mueller III, someone whose history includes attempts to frame WikiLeaks and who is friends with one of the CrowdStrike executives who made specious claims about the DNC being hacked. I am concerned that he may not investigate this matter thoroughly and may ignore evidence that has recently been reported to him.
WHO HAS THIS BEEN REPORTED TO?
A report outlining various pieces of evidence and raising concerns over the assessments given by several US intelligence agencies was sent to Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III as well as to the US House and Senate Intelligence Committees, the US House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the US Deputy Attorney General, Rod Jay Rosenstein.
WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN INFORMED OF AND BY WHOM?
A copy of the report ("Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge") is available at: http://nef4rhc.wordpress.com
While the report does cite research that I have been involved with (and that I report on at: http://g-2.space), it was actually produced and sent by Skip Folden, a US citizen, former IBM Program Manager for Information Technology for the US, and someone who worked at IBM for at least 25 years.
Folden also co-authored an earlier report on this same subject with members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of highly experienced veteran intelligence officials and whistleblowers that opposes conflict justified by flawed intelligence. VIPS is most famous for its 2003 memorandum blowing the whistle on the false assessment that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that led America into an illegal invasion of Iraq.
SUMMARY
I don't want to see global chaos and conflict caused by deception. I want to make sure investigation of the “DNCLeaks” is not obstructed or conducted in bad faith. I feel there is a serious and credible threat to global stability that may arise if this matter is not investigated properly.
My reason for writing to you is to request that you or your technical/technology advisers read the report linked to above and consider all the new evidence that has been discovered in 2017. If its implications cause you concern, I hope you will feel you now have sufficient facts to take the matter forward in your official capacity, in whatever way you judge to be most appropriate.
If you wish to clarify any of the points made in this letter or the report, technical or otherwise, I will be happy to do so to the best of my ability.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Carter"
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Added: See, Comey's "folks" told him that relying on DNC employee CrowdStrike was an "appropriate substitute" for failing to examine DNC servers themselves:
"Mr. Comey provided his most detailed explanation of the DNC lockout in March when he appeared before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was questioned by Rep. Will Hurd, Texas Republican.
Mr. Hurd: So, Director, FBI notified the DNC early, before any information was put on WikiLeaks....You have...never been given access to any of the technical or the physical machines that were, that were hacked by the Russians? [sic]
Mr. Comey: That’s correct, although we got the forensics from the pros [CrowdStrike] that they hired, which — again, best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves, but this--my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.”
Why the FBI did not request a search warrant was not asked."...
7/27/17, "With Mueller investigation, FBI gets chance to physically inspect ‘hacked’ DNC computers," Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough
(Regarding this insulting headline: There was never going to be a "chance" for physical inspection of DNC computers. Nor has there ever been evidence that DNC computers were "hacked.") ed.
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Added: Excerpts from two Alastair Crooke articles:
8/26/17, "How the Deep State Ties Down Trump," Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
"President Trump has had his foreign policy hands and feet tied by the Russia (and Iran) Sanctions Act. He now has been rendered “helpless”: in respect to détente with Russia — gulliverized, spitefully, by his own party, working with the Democrats, to empty Trump's constitutional prerogatives in policy--and to seize them for Congress....
It seems that the American deep state is so frenzied in this way that its inhabitants can no longer see straight: they are ready to risk despoiling not just the "recalcitrant" abroad but America herself. And the way they are going about trying to “have her,” may well ruin the deep state too, as collateral damage."....
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Second article:
"America’s ability to pursue or even to have a foreign policy is non-existent in the face of its internal civil war."..."Executive powers have been transferred to Congress:"
8/6/17, "Playing Politics with the World’s Future," Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
"Finally...the U.S. Congress has produced a piece of legislation. And it passed with quasi-unanimous, bi-partisan support. Only its substance is not so much a deep reflection on the foreign policy interests of America, but rather, the desire to hurt, and incapacitate the U.S. President in any future dealings with Russia. (And never mind the worrying impulse towards conflict with Russia this entails, or its collateral damage on others).
The aim has been to see President Trump hog-tied, and “tarred and feathered” for his “risky behavior” on Russia. This aim simply has overpowered any other considerations--such as likelihood that the outside world will conclude that America’s ability to pursue or even to have a foreign policy is non-existent in the face of its internal civil war. It is a key juncture. For an overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican Senators and Congressmen, bringing down “The Donald” is all--and the devil take the consequences for America, in the world....
The U.S. President had little option but to sign the legislation, but that does not mean that diplomacy is completely blocked. As expected, he issued a Signing Statement (see here), in which, while accepting the mandate of Congress, Trump took issue with the new Congressional encroachments into his prerogatives (Article Two of the Constitution) in terms of foreign policy, and he reserved the right to decide on how the Congressional mandate might be implemented (i.e. in respect to the quadrilateral negotiations over Ukraine)....
As indicated earlier, Trump’s Republican base (unlike support from the Republican establishment) is not eroding, but rather is becoming angered and resentful. The more the MSM and the East Coast élites attack the deplorables’ “alt” news and websites – the greater the pushback, it seems....
The point here is that the Republican [voters'] support for Trump’s desire for détente with Russia has not eroded one jot, whereas the “concern” of the Independents and even among Democrats is eroding somewhat."...
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Comment: As explained in above two excerpts, the entire US political class, ie both US political parties, is thrilled with the RussiaGate issue, has already used it to nullify Trump's election and the votes of 63 million Americans, and to gin up WWIII with Russia. Both House and Senate voted nearly unanimously in August on a bill stating Putin/Russia interfered in the 2016 election and must be severely punished. They also voted to remove Trump's authority to conduct foreign policy with Russia, effectively removing a Constitutionally provided Executive branch duty and transferring it to Congress. They did this without benefit of an amendment to the Constitution. In addition to humiliating the US president, they wanted to let US voters know that under no circumstances are us hicks allowed to decide who becomes president. They proved this by nullifying the election. Trump had campaigned on detente with Russia, that among other things, with the global terrorism problem, we needed more countries to work with us. Trump voters agreed, won the election, then had it taken away from them by the non-gridlocked political class. Shutting us up is the #1 obsession of these people. They're so frustrated with us now that World War III looks like an improvement. Of course, we're forced to pay all the bills for their wars.
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Added: Putin bro-love for Obama, endorsed Obama for President in 2012:
Putin praised Obama leading up to Nov. 2012 election, said Obama would provide more favorable resolution to missile defense, that Romney would widen rift. Putin gushes that Obama is "an honest person who really wants to change much for the better"-Reuters, 9/6/2012
9/6/2012, "UPDATE 1-Russia's Putin defiant on Syria, says Romney "mistaken"," Reuters, Moscow
"Putin held out hope for an end to a dispute with Washington on missile defence if President Barack Obama were re-elected in November, telling Russia’s RT television he was “an honest person who really wants to change much for the better”.
Putin took aim at Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney, calling his criticism of Russia “mistaken” campaign rhetoric and suggesting a Romney presidency would widen the rift over the anti-missile shield the United States is deploying in Europe."...
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9/19/17, "Phase #5 Complete," by Adam Carter, http://g-2.space/phase5/
"Ambassadors and diplomatic staff of many embassies located in London (covering 150 nations) were sent the following communication:
Dear Honourable Ambassador,
I am writing to you as part of my effort to reach out to all governments around the world regarding what I fear is a genuine threat to world peace. It is a threat stemming from what, I regret to say, appears to be a partisan political deception campaign by a political party within the United States of America. This is a very serious issue and an issue that every country deserves to be properly informed about.
INTRODUCTION
I'm a private citizen of the United Kingdom. I have no affinity with any political party and no investment or stake in geopolitical outcomes beyond that of being a British citizen who opposes needless conflict, especially if it is instigated by deceit.
At the end of December 2016, I started to investigate an online persona that identified itself as "Guccifer 2.0", an identity many believed – and many in America still do believe – to be a Russian hacker allied to the Russian security services, the GRU and/or the FSB. The Guccifer 2.0 online persona made unverified claims of being a source for the “DNCLeaks” – the leaked emails of seven Democratic National Committee officials that WikiLeaks published on 22 July 2016 – and deliberately left various ‘clues’ pointing to an apparent Russian identity.
These ‘clues’ have been cynically exploited by vested political interests in the US to claim the Russian government used Guccifer 2.0 as a conduit to WikiLeaks of ‘hacked’ DNC materials in order to “subvert our democracy” in last year’s US election.
There has been a great deal of misreporting, under-reporting and false assumptions made about Guccifer 2.0, and what makes this a serious issue is that these earlier press errors have gone uncorrected. Instead, most of the mainstream press has studiously ignored new evidence that contradicts the false narrative it has promoted over the past 15 months and instead continues to generate xenophobic hysteria over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election.
In light of this refusal to report the new evidence, it appears the US mainstream press is manufacturing consent for war once again.
RESEARCH, DISCOVERIES and MAINSTREAM PRESS SILENCE
In February 2017, a discovery was made that discredited the ‘Russian hacker’ theory. This discovery of independently verifiable evidence was made by carrying out a more thorough analysis of the metadata of digital files published on Guccifer 2.0’s own Wordpress website than anyone appears to have done in 2016.
The mainstream press stayed silent; it took around 200 days before the first brief mention of this new evidence in the press. Since then, the ‘Russian hacker’ theory has been further invalidated by other ‘digital forensics’ evidence from various independent researchers and analysts. Again, instead of dealing with these new discoveries legitimately, most in the mainstream press have chosen to ‘cherry-pick’ a single aspect, distort that, and argue against it ‘strawman’-style, as a means to disregard 90%-95% of the research.
THE THREAT TO GLOBAL STABILITY and HUMANITY
Since October 2016, the United States Intelligence Community (USIC), with assistance from mainstream media propaganda channels, has used warmongering rhetoric, alleged Russian government interference in the US election, and called that alleged interference an "act of war".
Anonymous officials in the USIC, cited by US mainstream press, have also made claims that strong evidence exists and have even stated they have intelligence showing that Russian President Vladimir Putin called for hacking the DNC.
Nothing has ever been made public that supports such allegations. Indeed, the closest any USIC agencies have come to this is making assessments, none have produced hard evidence. Those assessments, at least as they relate to the Guccifer 2.0 persona, have been discredited by the newly discovered information. This, however, does not seem to have stopped the push for sanctions or for escalating military tensions, both of which continue within the US government.
Those entrusted to investigate the alleged Russian interference also appear to be completely ignoring the new evidence – evidence that does a lot to vindicate Russia. Ignoring evidence that suggests there may have been a domestic political scheme to frame Russia should be a concern to those who desire a peaceful and stable world for all.
This could easily be an attempt to sustain a false pretext for war, a war between nuclear-armed nations that risks expanding into global war.
QUESTIONABLE SOURCES
Even more questionable, the assessments provided by various US intelligence agencies have, in part, been based on the reporting of private sector entities, one of which is CrowdStrike, the only entity the Democratic Party allowed to have access to its computer servers – effectively the ‘crime scene’ of the alleged cyber intrusion of which DNC claims it is the victim.
CrowdStrike has multiple conflicts of interest here: its own contract with the Democratic Party; its affiliation with the Atlantic Council (which in turn has ties with NATO and anti-Russian individuals such as Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk); and some of its executives have made specious claims over the past year that now clearly need investigating, especially with regards to the relative timing of CrowdStrike’s public statements and the appearance of the Guccifer 2.0 persona.
WHY EVIDENCE MAY BE GETTING IGNORED
The person investigating these matters is Robert Swan Mueller III, someone whose history includes attempts to frame WikiLeaks and who is friends with one of the CrowdStrike executives who made specious claims about the DNC being hacked. I am concerned that he may not investigate this matter thoroughly and may ignore evidence that has recently been reported to him.
WHO HAS THIS BEEN REPORTED TO?
A report outlining various pieces of evidence and raising concerns over the assessments given by several US intelligence agencies was sent to Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III as well as to the US House and Senate Intelligence Committees, the US House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the US Deputy Attorney General, Rod Jay Rosenstein.
WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN INFORMED OF AND BY WHOM?
A copy of the report ("Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge") is available at: http://nef4rhc.wordpress.com
While the report does cite research that I have been involved with (and that I report on at: http://g-2.space), it was actually produced and sent by Skip Folden, a US citizen, former IBM Program Manager for Information Technology for the US, and someone who worked at IBM for at least 25 years.
Folden also co-authored an earlier report on this same subject with members of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of highly experienced veteran intelligence officials and whistleblowers that opposes conflict justified by flawed intelligence. VIPS is most famous for its 2003 memorandum blowing the whistle on the false assessment that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that led America into an illegal invasion of Iraq.
SUMMARY
I don't want to see global chaos and conflict caused by deception. I want to make sure investigation of the “DNCLeaks” is not obstructed or conducted in bad faith. I feel there is a serious and credible threat to global stability that may arise if this matter is not investigated properly.
My reason for writing to you is to request that you or your technical/technology advisers read the report linked to above and consider all the new evidence that has been discovered in 2017. If its implications cause you concern, I hope you will feel you now have sufficient facts to take the matter forward in your official capacity, in whatever way you judge to be most appropriate.
If you wish to clarify any of the points made in this letter or the report, technical or otherwise, I will be happy to do so to the best of my ability.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Carter"
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Added: See, Comey's "folks" told him that relying on DNC employee CrowdStrike was an "appropriate substitute" for failing to examine DNC servers themselves:
"Mr. Comey provided his most detailed explanation of the DNC lockout in March when he appeared before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and was questioned by Rep. Will Hurd, Texas Republican.
Mr. Hurd: So, Director, FBI notified the DNC early, before any information was put on WikiLeaks....You have...never been given access to any of the technical or the physical machines that were, that were hacked by the Russians? [sic]
Mr. Comey: That’s correct, although we got the forensics from the pros [CrowdStrike] that they hired, which — again, best practice is always to get access to the machines themselves, but this--my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.”
Why the FBI did not request a search warrant was not asked."...
7/27/17, "With Mueller investigation, FBI gets chance to physically inspect ‘hacked’ DNC computers," Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough
(Regarding this insulting headline: There was never going to be a "chance" for physical inspection of DNC computers. Nor has there ever been evidence that DNC computers were "hacked.") ed.
-------------------
Added: Excerpts from two Alastair Crooke articles:
8/26/17, "How the Deep State Ties Down Trump," Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
"President Trump has had his foreign policy hands and feet tied by the Russia (and Iran) Sanctions Act. He now has been rendered “helpless”: in respect to détente with Russia — gulliverized, spitefully, by his own party, working with the Democrats, to empty Trump's constitutional prerogatives in policy--and to seize them for Congress....
It seems that the American deep state is so frenzied in this way that its inhabitants can no longer see straight: they are ready to risk despoiling not just the "recalcitrant" abroad but America herself. And the way they are going about trying to “have her,” may well ruin the deep state too, as collateral damage."....
-------------------
Second article:
"America’s ability to pursue or even to have a foreign policy is non-existent in the face of its internal civil war."..."Executive powers have been transferred to Congress:"
8/6/17, "Playing Politics with the World’s Future," Alastair Crooke, Consortium News
"Finally...the U.S. Congress has produced a piece of legislation. And it passed with quasi-unanimous, bi-partisan support. Only its substance is not so much a deep reflection on the foreign policy interests of America, but rather, the desire to hurt, and incapacitate the U.S. President in any future dealings with Russia. (And never mind the worrying impulse towards conflict with Russia this entails, or its collateral damage on others).
The aim has been to see President Trump hog-tied, and “tarred and feathered” for his “risky behavior” on Russia. This aim simply has overpowered any other considerations--such as likelihood that the outside world will conclude that America’s ability to pursue or even to have a foreign policy is non-existent in the face of its internal civil war. It is a key juncture. For an overwhelming majority of Democratic and Republican Senators and Congressmen, bringing down “The Donald” is all--and the devil take the consequences for America, in the world....
The U.S. President had little option but to sign the legislation, but that does not mean that diplomacy is completely blocked. As expected, he issued a Signing Statement (see here), in which, while accepting the mandate of Congress, Trump took issue with the new Congressional encroachments into his prerogatives (Article Two of the Constitution) in terms of foreign policy, and he reserved the right to decide on how the Congressional mandate might be implemented (i.e. in respect to the quadrilateral negotiations over Ukraine)....
As indicated earlier, Trump’s Republican base (unlike support from the Republican establishment) is not eroding, but rather is becoming angered and resentful. The more the MSM and the East Coast élites attack the deplorables’ “alt” news and websites – the greater the pushback, it seems....
The point here is that the Republican [voters'] support for Trump’s desire for détente with Russia has not eroded one jot, whereas the “concern” of the Independents and even among Democrats is eroding somewhat."...
........................
---------------------
Comment: As explained in above two excerpts, the entire US political class, ie both US political parties, is thrilled with the RussiaGate issue, has already used it to nullify Trump's election and the votes of 63 million Americans, and to gin up WWIII with Russia. Both House and Senate voted nearly unanimously in August on a bill stating Putin/Russia interfered in the 2016 election and must be severely punished. They also voted to remove Trump's authority to conduct foreign policy with Russia, effectively removing a Constitutionally provided Executive branch duty and transferring it to Congress. They did this without benefit of an amendment to the Constitution. In addition to humiliating the US president, they wanted to let US voters know that under no circumstances are us hicks allowed to decide who becomes president. They proved this by nullifying the election. Trump had campaigned on detente with Russia, that among other things, with the global terrorism problem, we needed more countries to work with us. Trump voters agreed, won the election, then had it taken away from them by the non-gridlocked political class. Shutting us up is the #1 obsession of these people. They're so frustrated with us now that World War III looks like an improvement. Of course, we're forced to pay all the bills for their wars.
..........................
Added: Putin bro-love for Obama, endorsed Obama for President in 2012:
Putin praised Obama leading up to Nov. 2012 election, said Obama would provide more favorable resolution to missile defense, that Romney would widen rift. Putin gushes that Obama is "an honest person who really wants to change much for the better"-Reuters, 9/6/2012
9/6/2012, "UPDATE 1-Russia's Putin defiant on Syria, says Romney "mistaken"," Reuters, Moscow
"Putin held out hope for an end to a dispute with Washington on missile defence if President Barack Obama were re-elected in November, telling Russia’s RT television he was “an honest person who really wants to change much for the better”.
Putin took aim at Obama’s Republican rival Mitt Romney, calling his criticism of Russia “mistaken” campaign rhetoric and suggesting a Romney presidency would widen the rift over the anti-missile shield the United States is deploying in Europe."...
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Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Alabama's message to Trump: We will drain the swamp with or without you. Trump supported the slimy swamp candidate, seems to have battered wife syndrome vs GOP Establishment. He keeps coming back for more humiliation believing eventually they'll be nice to him. It will never happen-John Nolte, Breitbart...(Memo to Deep State: Your problem isn't Trump, it's us)
Trump seems have battered wife syndrome regarding the GOP Establishment. He keeps coming back for more beatings: "There is
simply no lie the Republican establishment will not tell, no back they
will not stab." And..."If Trump has not learned the lesson of Alabama, the movement certainly has--that we don't need Trump in order to obtain victories for Trumpism." Final, NY Times: Roy Moore 54.6, Luther Strange 45.4
9/26/17, "Nolte: Alabama’s Deafening Message–The Movement Is About Trumpism Not Trump," Breitbart, John Nolte
"With the results now clear in Alabama’s hotly-contested U.S. Senate Republican primary race, the unambiguous message coming from the GOP voters responsible for Roy Moore’s underdog victory is clear-cut — a crucial reminder to everyone that Trumpism is not about any one person. More importantly, what this humiliating loss tells President Trump is that Trumpism is not even about him. The indisputable lesson here for the president is that even he, the man who started the movement, is not bigger than the promises, ideas, agenda, and platform he ran on.
Yes, Trump ran on specifics such as a border wall, the repealing of Obamacare, and tax cuts. Trump’s existential promise, though, the overall rationale for his insurgent campaign, was all about “draining the swamp,” or taking the fight to the DC establishment — not just within the corrupt national media and the cancerous Democrat Party, but also within the Republican Party, which, as we have seen over the last eight months, is no better than the others.
By fully backing Luther Strange, the poster boy for everything his very own movement despises, Trump defiantly violated his existential promise to us, the promise to drain the hideous DC swamp.
In a different world, in a world where, for the last eight months, while in complete charge of the federal government, the Republican Party actually delivered on its promises; in a fantasyland where the GOP did not expose itself as a gang of feckless cowards unwilling to keep even the Obamacare repeal promise that defined the party’s existence for seven years, maybe Trump could have gotten away with supporting a Luther Strange.
But that is not the world we live.
The reality is that the GOP chose instead to use their once-in-a-lifetime political opportunity to pander to media hoaxes and Democrats, to launch countless investigations against Trump and to push for citizenship for millions of illegal Democrats.
Had the Republican Party actually honored the national mandate Trump’s 2016 victory called for, Trump supporters might have come to believe that the president had somehow managed to fix the GOP, to give the spineless a spine. In that case his support for a Luther Strange might not have felt like such a mistake…and betrayal.
Here is a another lesson the president should have not been forced to learn through tonight’s defeat…
That when a Republican Swamp Creature leans over and whispers its rancid breath in your ear…
"Just come on board this one time. Just play the game a little bit. Not only will the media like you more, not only will we like you more, we will repeal Obamacare for you. See, it is all about relationships, going along to get along… That’s how DC works. Become one of us and we will give you everything you want."
…That is not a promise, it is a trap--a call for the believer to sail right into the rocks and commit political suicide.
You see, there is just no reasoning with professional con men and grifters. There is no compromising with those who have knowingly spent the last seven years hustling their own supporters. There is no bargaining with narcissistic vampires willing to sell their rotted souls for acceptance within the coven that is the mainstream media. There is simply no lie the Republican establishment will not tell, no back they will not stab.
With the 2018 midterms coming, another historic political opportunity looms, an opportunity for the movement to repeal and replace even more of the Republican establishment.
And if Trump has not learned the lesson of Alabama, the movement certainly has — that we do not need Trump in order to obtain victories for Trumpism."
Above, Alabama map results, 9/26/17 GOP primary runoff, NY Times
......................
3 among comments to above at Free Republic:
....................
"This is a good sign that nationalism and draining the swamp is bigger than one man (Trump).
This should cause consternation in the enemy ranks, since they have falsely thought if they get rid of Trump their problems will be over. However, it appears now that if they get rid of Trump, their troubles will only metastasize.
20 posted on 9/26/2017, 10:08:15 PM by txrefugee"
...........................
Added: From Alabama pollster:
"“What we’ve noticed is that Trump voters aren’t necessarily looking for Trump, they’re looking for candidates who are outsiders like Trump and will lean toward people with that sort of background,” said Robert Cahaly, a Republican pollster whose firm surveyed the Alabama race. “Strange seems establishment, he’s not seen as disruptive at all, so he was at a disadvantage.”"
9/26/17, "After Alabama, GOP anti-establishment wing declares all-out war in 2018," Washington Post, Robert Costa
...........
---------------------------
...............
9/26/17, "Nolte: Alabama’s Deafening Message–The Movement Is About Trumpism Not Trump," Breitbart, John Nolte
"With the results now clear in Alabama’s hotly-contested U.S. Senate Republican primary race, the unambiguous message coming from the GOP voters responsible for Roy Moore’s underdog victory is clear-cut — a crucial reminder to everyone that Trumpism is not about any one person. More importantly, what this humiliating loss tells President Trump is that Trumpism is not even about him. The indisputable lesson here for the president is that even he, the man who started the movement, is not bigger than the promises, ideas, agenda, and platform he ran on.
Yes, Trump ran on specifics such as a border wall, the repealing of Obamacare, and tax cuts. Trump’s existential promise, though, the overall rationale for his insurgent campaign, was all about “draining the swamp,” or taking the fight to the DC establishment — not just within the corrupt national media and the cancerous Democrat Party, but also within the Republican Party, which, as we have seen over the last eight months, is no better than the others.
By fully backing Luther Strange, the poster boy for everything his very own movement despises, Trump defiantly violated his existential promise to us, the promise to drain the hideous DC swamp.
In a different world, in a world where, for the last eight months, while in complete charge of the federal government, the Republican Party actually delivered on its promises; in a fantasyland where the GOP did not expose itself as a gang of feckless cowards unwilling to keep even the Obamacare repeal promise that defined the party’s existence for seven years, maybe Trump could have gotten away with supporting a Luther Strange.
But that is not the world we live.
The reality is that the GOP chose instead to use their once-in-a-lifetime political opportunity to pander to media hoaxes and Democrats, to launch countless investigations against Trump and to push for citizenship for millions of illegal Democrats.
Had the Republican Party actually honored the national mandate Trump’s 2016 victory called for, Trump supporters might have come to believe that the president had somehow managed to fix the GOP, to give the spineless a spine. In that case his support for a Luther Strange might not have felt like such a mistake…and betrayal.
Here is a another lesson the president should have not been forced to learn through tonight’s defeat…
That when a Republican Swamp Creature leans over and whispers its rancid breath in your ear…
"Just come on board this one time. Just play the game a little bit. Not only will the media like you more, not only will we like you more, we will repeal Obamacare for you. See, it is all about relationships, going along to get along… That’s how DC works. Become one of us and we will give you everything you want."
…That is not a promise, it is a trap--a call for the believer to sail right into the rocks and commit political suicide.
You see, there is just no reasoning with professional con men and grifters. There is no compromising with those who have knowingly spent the last seven years hustling their own supporters. There is no bargaining with narcissistic vampires willing to sell their rotted souls for acceptance within the coven that is the mainstream media. There is simply no lie the Republican establishment will not tell, no back they will not stab.
With the 2018 midterms coming, another historic political opportunity looms, an opportunity for the movement to repeal and replace even more of the Republican establishment.
And if Trump has not learned the lesson of Alabama, the movement certainly has — that we do not need Trump in order to obtain victories for Trumpism."
Above, Alabama map results, 9/26/17 GOP primary runoff, NY Times
......................
3 among comments to above at Free Republic:
....................
"This is a good sign that nationalism and draining the swamp is bigger than one man (Trump).
Voters get it. They don’t want more do-nothing RINOs to give lip service to voters and who quickly join the swamp.
We need to clear the biggest RINOs out in primaries state by state.
We the people have the votes, the numbers, and the power.
We don’t need 30 million bucks or the media or Washington elites.
Throw the bums out!
7 posted on 9/26/2017, 10:04:33 PM by TigerClaws"
We need to clear the biggest RINOs out in primaries state by state.
We the people have the votes, the numbers, and the power.
We don’t need 30 million bucks or the media or Washington elites.
Throw the bums out!
7 posted on 9/26/2017, 10:04:33 PM by TigerClaws"
.........................
""Alabama’s Deafening Message–The Movement Is About Trumpism Not Trump."
Exactly. I voted for a series of stated principles last November. My support for those principles will not waver. My support for the man who stated those principles is entirely dependent on whether he sticks by those principles.
""Alabama’s Deafening Message–The Movement Is About Trumpism Not Trump."
Exactly. I voted for a series of stated principles last November. My support for those principles will not waver. My support for the man who stated those principles is entirely dependent on whether he sticks by those principles.
11
posted on 9/26/2017, 10:05:26 PM
by AnotherUnixGeek"
................................
"The ignorant Democrat media painted Trump’s success as Trump using the Deplorables to win. It appears that it was the Deplorables using Trump to win, and he is not essential to their movement.
"The ignorant Democrat media painted Trump’s success as Trump using the Deplorables to win. It appears that it was the Deplorables using Trump to win, and he is not essential to their movement.
This should cause consternation in the enemy ranks, since they have falsely thought if they get rid of Trump their problems will be over. However, it appears now that if they get rid of Trump, their troubles will only metastasize.
20 posted on 9/26/2017, 10:08:15 PM by txrefugee"
Added: From Alabama pollster:
"“What we’ve noticed is that Trump voters aren’t necessarily looking for Trump, they’re looking for candidates who are outsiders like Trump and will lean toward people with that sort of background,” said Robert Cahaly, a Republican pollster whose firm surveyed the Alabama race. “Strange seems establishment, he’s not seen as disruptive at all, so he was at a disadvantage.”"
9/26/17, "After Alabama, GOP anti-establishment wing declares all-out war in 2018," Washington Post, Robert Costa
...........
---------------------------
...............
Conservative Inc. scammers will fight the culture war on the page, in the think tank, from the podium, but won't take the slings and arrows that come with doing the actual fighting. To them, action is messy, uncouth, and maybe even (gasp) populist-Rush Limbaugh commentary on 'Conservative, Inc.' article by Kurt Schlichter
9/26/17, "What Happened to the Conservative Movement?" Rush Limbaugh
"RUSH: This is Kurt Schlichter at Townhall. The title of his piece is “Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced by Us Militant Normals.” Let me tell you what this column is about. The “conservative movement,” quote-unquote, has always been thought of to be a specific, certain thing with membership of specific, identifiable individuals. And it was always thought that there was unity within the conservative movement because conservatism is a set of principles and core beliefs and values — and if you ascribe to them, you’re a conservative; if you don’t, you’re not. Well, that isn’t the case anymore.
Conservatism has been butchered. It has been redefined as people seeking to lead the movement wish to define it. Conservatism has become exclusionary. In other words, some of the big-time leaders of the so-called conservative movement — and I mean in their minds, the leaders — have decided to say that certain people aren’t conservatives even though you might think they are and certain people are. One of the litmus tests was Trump. At first, it was impossible for any “real” conservative to support Trump.
And if you did, then you were betraying conservatism, and you were betraying everybody who believed in you as a conservative. There was widespread fear, disgust, and anger over Trump, because Trump became as popular as conservatives really want to be.
Conservatives, I think, would love to have the kind of popularity Trump had during the campaign. But they haven’t had it. Reagan did, but there are few beyond Reagan that have. But many of them have sought it. Trump came along and appropriated some of the conservative agenda. Not all of it.
The parts of the conservative agenda that he appropriated, the leaders of the conservative movement thought that Trump butchered. And they felt very, very frightened and scared that Trump was going to ruin conservatism by redefining it as populism and that many people were gonna the end up thinking they were conservative when they really, really weren’t. When they really, really were populists. So the leaders of conservatism — and these are self-anointed people, by the way. They publish magazines; they run blogs; they run websites.
Many of them are media related. Many of them live off donors — a very conservative thing to do. Ahem. Ahem! But nevertheless, they are self-appointed, and they were sitting there deciding who was and wasn’t and is and isn’t a conservative. So Mr. Schlichter comes along here and breaks this down and unpacks it for us.
“Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced by Us Militant Normals.” Let me give you a pull quote here....“Who are the normals? The Americans who built this country, and defended it. When you eat, it’s because a normal grew the food and another normal trucked it to you. When you aren’t murdered in the street or don’t speak German, it’s because a normal with a gun made those things not happen. We normals don’t want to rule over others. We don’t obsess about how you live your life, but also we don’t want to be compelled to signal our approval or pick up the tab. We are every color and creed — though when someone who is incidentally a member of some other group aligns with normals, he/she/xe loses that identity."...
You know what I mean when I say normal American, don’t you? Many of you in this audience consider yourselves normal Americans, and you know that because you’re normal you’re under assault, because not everybody is normal. There’s some oddballs out there. There’s some freaks and kooks. And you know who they are. They know who they are. But they don’t want to be considered freaks and kooks, so they attack you so that you can’t be normal.
You can’t say there’s a normal. “We’re a melting pot. We are a diverse, giant melting pot of all kinds of different things, and there is no normal.” And you who think you’re normal are gonna be attacked. And that is part and parcel of what’s going on. “Militant normalcy is the result of normal people roused to anger and refusing to be pushed around anymore.”
Mr. Schlichter writes, “We prefer a free society based on personal liberty and mutual respect. But if you leftists veto that option, that leaves us either a society where you rule and oppress us, or one where we hold the power. So let me break this down, both for the left and for their fussy Fredocon enablers: You don’t get to win.”
Those are pull quotes....“I guess now we’re not supposed to be fighting culture wars anymore--man, it’s so hard to keep up with these ever-changing new rules! I’m old enough to remember way back to 2016, before Trump got nominated, and I could have sworn Conservative Inc. –” the conservative movement run by the conservative elitists, “– was gung-ho for the whole culture war thing. But then Trump actually fought it, taking on the big, soft target that is the spoiled, semi-literate athletes who like to rub their contempt for the flag we love in our faces. Now we suddenly discover that fighting back is horribly uncouth,” and it’s just not done. Fighting back is so, so messy.
But Conservative Inc., oh, yeah, they were all for fighting the culture war on the page, in the think tank, from the podium. But don’t really do it. Don’t actually go out there and actually fight the culture war against the left. That’s so messy....
"I took it seriously when Conservative, Inc., promised to fight the leftist blitzkrieg against normal Americans. It was all a scam, a lie, a pose for us rubes. The Tru Cons didn’t actually mean it. There’s a lot of that not meaning it going on in the GOP right now.
“Exhibit A is John McCain, who ran ads touting how he was leading the way in opposing Obamacare only to give it aid and comfort when someone in the White House would actual sign its repeal. He’s the guy the establishment designated to lose to Barack Obama in 2008, and he was sure up to the task. But in retrospect, thank goodness, because McCain’s inevitable presidential betrayal of conservatives by breaking his word then and treating GOP voters like he treated his first wife would have done exponentially more damage to conservatism than Trump being prevented from keeping his word today ever could.”
Did you follow that?...That’s quite a hard-hitting statement, that McCain and his betrayal of conservatism is so routine and profound that had he ever been president he would have done more damage to conservatism than Trump could ever hope to....
"There used to be a thing called ‘conservatism,’ and I knew it pretty well since I was part of it for about a third of a century. But conservatism changed, becoming less about principles and more about money-grubbing navel gazing and intellectual onanism.”
Do you know what onanism is? It’s masturbation....So now that you know what the word means, let me reread the sentence, okay?
“But conservatism changed, becoming less about principles and more about money-grubbing navel gazing and intellectual onanism. Actual Republican voters, actual normal Americans? Well, they became kind of beside the point in the tumbler-klinking world of the John Boehnercons, and to the corporate-friendly compassioncons who put the interests of everyone else ahead of the GOP voters who voted the establishment in.
“Conservativism forgot about the real world conservatives we expected to line up behind us. While we were talking about free trade, we were ignoring that GOP voter who fought in Fallujah, came home, got a job building air conditioners, raised a family, and then one day watched the video of the oh-so-sorry CEO — who looked remarkably like Mitt Romney, because all these guys look remarkably like Mitt Romney--sadly informing his beloved employees that their jobs were getting shipped to Oaxaca. And our response to the 58-year old Republican voter who asked us how he was going to keep paying for his mortgage and his kid in college? Pretty much, ‘Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman,'” and go learn something....
You get the gist of it. It’s an unveiled attack on the phoniness and the pretentiousness of what Mr. Schlichter thinks is the conservative movement. Conservative, Inc., they write, they speak, they talk, but when it comes time to doing, you can’t tell ’em apart from the others in the establishment.
RUSH: Limited time here. Let me stick with this...."And our response...‘Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman,'” go read some theory....
Schlichter writes, “That’s not a response, not for a political party that requires people to actually vote for it. That’s an abdication, but what did Conservative, Inc., care? Priorities! ‘There’s this new tapas place in Georgetown everyone is talking about — the other night, my buddy from the Liberty Freedom Eagle Institute for Liberty, Freedom and Eagles saw Lawrence O’Donnell there getting hammered!'”
His point here is that the conservative movement, for lack of a better term, has actually become an intellectual enterprise, an intellectual exercise that does not engage in any warrior-like activity to change anything, does not actually ever see the battlefield, just comments on it, approvingly or disapprovingly of other conservatives and is largely unhelpful. Mr. Schlichter feels betrayed by them, and that’s the point of his piece. He explains why these people now vote Trump and not for conservative GOP."
Rush Limbaugh "Related Links"
Townhall: Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced By Us Militant Normals - Kurt Schlichter
...........................
Added: Article on "Conservative Entertainment Complex," written in Jan. 2016 after National Review's cover story, 22 "Conservatives Against Trump:"
Ibendahl: "The Gang of 22 is right to be terrified. A President who could get things done would expose them as the irrelevant creatures they truly are."
1/22/2016, "National Review just handed Donald Trump the Election," Republican Newswatch, by Doug Ibendahl "Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party."
"National Review’s publication of the collective anti-Donald Trump missives from 22 self-appointed conservative potentates has caused quite a stir in Republican circles.
The nationwide responses range from, “Wait, I thought National Review went out of business years ago,” to “Ed Meese? Seriously?”
The Gang of 22 have officially become parodies of themselves. One would have to reach back to the days of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to lift an adequate quote to describe them.
“Nattering nabobs of negativism,” “vicars of vacillation,” “pusillanimous pussyfooters,” “the decadent few,” “ideological eunuchs,” “the effete corps of impudent snobs,” or “the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history” – take your pick, because they all apply about equally well to each and every one of them.
So clueless is the Gang of 22 they can’t even see how they’ve stumbled right into the narrative Trump’s been communicating so successfully for months. Just like the elected officials from both parties, the Gang of 22 has been GREAT at complaining about stuff, year, after year, after year.
But getting anything accomplished? Not so much.
..........
Many of the Gang of 22 have been hanging around and chattering for decades, and some are active cogs in the Conservative Entertainment Complex, deriving their income by pandering to conservative anger while offering no real solutions.
Donald Trump represents a threat to these ineffectual poohbahs in the same way he represents a threat to do-nothing public officials.
.........
Jealousy is also seriously at work here. Trump is inspiring and exciting a broad spectrum of the country like no member of the Gang of 22 ever has, or ever will.
In just seven months of campaigning, Trump already has more Americans listening to a Republican message than the entire Gang of 22 could muster over decades. Trump understands that before you can advance the ball, you have to convince people to take time from their busy lives to listen. No one on the GOP side since Ronald Reagan has accomplished that like Trump.
No one else has come close, and certainly no one from that “effete corps of impudent snobs” to which the National Review thinks we should defer.
The Gang of 22 had their chance. They’ve done a lot of bitching over the years, and it paid well for some
.
But Americans care about results. They can plainly see that all of the empty talk from the Gang of 22 got us eight years of Barack Obama, and a loss in pretty much every conservative battle there was to lose.
.........
At the same time when Americans look at Donald Trump’s life they get a lot of assurance that here is finally a man who shares their focus on actually getting results. And Trump returns the respect by recognizing regular hard-working Americans are a lot smarter than any of the “ideological eunuchs” in all of their pontificating glory.
The “pusillanimous pussyfooters” love to nitpick Trump’s words, but what voters are looking for this year is competence and accomplishment. Donald Trump has an actual record of delivering both in spades.
...........
The Gang of 22 is right to be terrified. A President who could get things done would expose them as the irrelevant creatures they truly are.
It can’t happen fast enough."
...........
Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party." image via Republican Newswatch
................
Comment: Only one functioning political party exists in the US today. Half the US electorate, comprised of Republicans, Independents, and disaffected Democrats, has no political party behind it. 63 million of this group voted for Trump in 2016. Trump, of course, doesn't have a party behind him either. The Deep State isn't going to budge, it's waiting around hoping we'll just give up.
..................
"RUSH: This is Kurt Schlichter at Townhall. The title of his piece is “Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced by Us Militant Normals.” Let me tell you what this column is about. The “conservative movement,” quote-unquote, has always been thought of to be a specific, certain thing with membership of specific, identifiable individuals. And it was always thought that there was unity within the conservative movement because conservatism is a set of principles and core beliefs and values — and if you ascribe to them, you’re a conservative; if you don’t, you’re not. Well, that isn’t the case anymore.
Conservatism has been butchered. It has been redefined as people seeking to lead the movement wish to define it. Conservatism has become exclusionary. In other words, some of the big-time leaders of the so-called conservative movement — and I mean in their minds, the leaders — have decided to say that certain people aren’t conservatives even though you might think they are and certain people are. One of the litmus tests was Trump. At first, it was impossible for any “real” conservative to support Trump.
And if you did, then you were betraying conservatism, and you were betraying everybody who believed in you as a conservative. There was widespread fear, disgust, and anger over Trump, because Trump became as popular as conservatives really want to be.
Conservatives, I think, would love to have the kind of popularity Trump had during the campaign. But they haven’t had it. Reagan did, but there are few beyond Reagan that have. But many of them have sought it. Trump came along and appropriated some of the conservative agenda. Not all of it.
The parts of the conservative agenda that he appropriated, the leaders of the conservative movement thought that Trump butchered. And they felt very, very frightened and scared that Trump was going to ruin conservatism by redefining it as populism and that many people were gonna the end up thinking they were conservative when they really, really weren’t. When they really, really were populists. So the leaders of conservatism — and these are self-anointed people, by the way. They publish magazines; they run blogs; they run websites.
Many of them are media related. Many of them live off donors — a very conservative thing to do. Ahem. Ahem! But nevertheless, they are self-appointed, and they were sitting there deciding who was and wasn’t and is and isn’t a conservative. So Mr. Schlichter comes along here and breaks this down and unpacks it for us.
“Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced by Us Militant Normals.” Let me give you a pull quote here....“Who are the normals? The Americans who built this country, and defended it. When you eat, it’s because a normal grew the food and another normal trucked it to you. When you aren’t murdered in the street or don’t speak German, it’s because a normal with a gun made those things not happen. We normals don’t want to rule over others. We don’t obsess about how you live your life, but also we don’t want to be compelled to signal our approval or pick up the tab. We are every color and creed — though when someone who is incidentally a member of some other group aligns with normals, he/she/xe loses that identity."...
You know what I mean when I say normal American, don’t you? Many of you in this audience consider yourselves normal Americans, and you know that because you’re normal you’re under assault, because not everybody is normal. There’s some oddballs out there. There’s some freaks and kooks. And you know who they are. They know who they are. But they don’t want to be considered freaks and kooks, so they attack you so that you can’t be normal.
You can’t say there’s a normal. “We’re a melting pot. We are a diverse, giant melting pot of all kinds of different things, and there is no normal.” And you who think you’re normal are gonna be attacked. And that is part and parcel of what’s going on. “Militant normalcy is the result of normal people roused to anger and refusing to be pushed around anymore.”
Mr. Schlichter writes, “We prefer a free society based on personal liberty and mutual respect. But if you leftists veto that option, that leaves us either a society where you rule and oppress us, or one where we hold the power. So let me break this down, both for the left and for their fussy Fredocon enablers: You don’t get to win.”
Those are pull quotes....“I guess now we’re not supposed to be fighting culture wars anymore--man, it’s so hard to keep up with these ever-changing new rules! I’m old enough to remember way back to 2016, before Trump got nominated, and I could have sworn Conservative Inc. –” the conservative movement run by the conservative elitists, “– was gung-ho for the whole culture war thing. But then Trump actually fought it, taking on the big, soft target that is the spoiled, semi-literate athletes who like to rub their contempt for the flag we love in our faces. Now we suddenly discover that fighting back is horribly uncouth,” and it’s just not done. Fighting back is so, so messy.
But Conservative Inc., oh, yeah, they were all for fighting the culture war on the page, in the think tank, from the podium. But don’t really do it. Don’t actually go out there and actually fight the culture war against the left. That’s so messy....
"I took it seriously when Conservative, Inc., promised to fight the leftist blitzkrieg against normal Americans. It was all a scam, a lie, a pose for us rubes. The Tru Cons didn’t actually mean it. There’s a lot of that not meaning it going on in the GOP right now.
“Exhibit A is John McCain, who ran ads touting how he was leading the way in opposing Obamacare only to give it aid and comfort when someone in the White House would actual sign its repeal. He’s the guy the establishment designated to lose to Barack Obama in 2008, and he was sure up to the task. But in retrospect, thank goodness, because McCain’s inevitable presidential betrayal of conservatives by breaking his word then and treating GOP voters like he treated his first wife would have done exponentially more damage to conservatism than Trump being prevented from keeping his word today ever could.”
Did you follow that?...That’s quite a hard-hitting statement, that McCain and his betrayal of conservatism is so routine and profound that had he ever been president he would have done more damage to conservatism than Trump could ever hope to....
"There used to be a thing called ‘conservatism,’ and I knew it pretty well since I was part of it for about a third of a century. But conservatism changed, becoming less about principles and more about money-grubbing navel gazing and intellectual onanism.”
Do you know what onanism is? It’s masturbation....So now that you know what the word means, let me reread the sentence, okay?
“But conservatism changed, becoming less about principles and more about money-grubbing navel gazing and intellectual onanism. Actual Republican voters, actual normal Americans? Well, they became kind of beside the point in the tumbler-klinking world of the John Boehnercons, and to the corporate-friendly compassioncons who put the interests of everyone else ahead of the GOP voters who voted the establishment in.
“Conservativism forgot about the real world conservatives we expected to line up behind us. While we were talking about free trade, we were ignoring that GOP voter who fought in Fallujah, came home, got a job building air conditioners, raised a family, and then one day watched the video of the oh-so-sorry CEO — who looked remarkably like Mitt Romney, because all these guys look remarkably like Mitt Romney--sadly informing his beloved employees that their jobs were getting shipped to Oaxaca. And our response to the 58-year old Republican voter who asked us how he was going to keep paying for his mortgage and his kid in college? Pretty much, ‘Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman,'” and go learn something....
You get the gist of it. It’s an unveiled attack on the phoniness and the pretentiousness of what Mr. Schlichter thinks is the conservative movement. Conservative, Inc., they write, they speak, they talk, but when it comes time to doing, you can’t tell ’em apart from the others in the establishment.
RUSH: Limited time here. Let me stick with this...."And our response...‘Well, that’s how free enterprise works. Read some Milton Freidman,'” go read some theory....
Schlichter writes, “That’s not a response, not for a political party that requires people to actually vote for it. That’s an abdication, but what did Conservative, Inc., care? Priorities! ‘There’s this new tapas place in Georgetown everyone is talking about — the other night, my buddy from the Liberty Freedom Eagle Institute for Liberty, Freedom and Eagles saw Lawrence O’Donnell there getting hammered!'”
His point here is that the conservative movement, for lack of a better term, has actually become an intellectual enterprise, an intellectual exercise that does not engage in any warrior-like activity to change anything, does not actually ever see the battlefield, just comments on it, approvingly or disapprovingly of other conservatives and is largely unhelpful. Mr. Schlichter feels betrayed by them, and that’s the point of his piece. He explains why these people now vote Trump and not for conservative GOP."
Rush Limbaugh "Related Links"
Townhall: Conservative, Inc., Is Being Replaced By Us Militant Normals - Kurt Schlichter
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Added: Article on "Conservative Entertainment Complex," written in Jan. 2016 after National Review's cover story, 22 "Conservatives Against Trump:"
Ibendahl: "The Gang of 22 is right to be terrified. A President who could get things done would expose them as the irrelevant creatures they truly are."
1/22/2016, "National Review just handed Donald Trump the Election," Republican Newswatch, by Doug Ibendahl "Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party."
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| 11/9/2015, Trump in Springfield, Illinois |
"National Review’s publication of the collective anti-Donald Trump missives from 22 self-appointed conservative potentates has caused quite a stir in Republican circles.
The nationwide responses range from, “Wait, I thought National Review went out of business years ago,” to “Ed Meese? Seriously?”
The Gang of 22 have officially become parodies of themselves. One would have to reach back to the days of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew to lift an adequate quote to describe them.
“Nattering nabobs of negativism,” “vicars of vacillation,” “pusillanimous pussyfooters,” “the decadent few,” “ideological eunuchs,” “the effete corps of impudent snobs,” or “the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history” – take your pick, because they all apply about equally well to each and every one of them.
So clueless is the Gang of 22 they can’t even see how they’ve stumbled right into the narrative Trump’s been communicating so successfully for months. Just like the elected officials from both parties, the Gang of 22 has been GREAT at complaining about stuff, year, after year, after year.
But getting anything accomplished? Not so much.
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Many of the Gang of 22 have been hanging around and chattering for decades, and some are active cogs in the Conservative Entertainment Complex, deriving their income by pandering to conservative anger while offering no real solutions.
Donald Trump represents a threat to these ineffectual poohbahs in the same way he represents a threat to do-nothing public officials.
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Jealousy is also seriously at work here. Trump is inspiring and exciting a broad spectrum of the country like no member of the Gang of 22 ever has, or ever will.
In just seven months of campaigning, Trump already has more Americans listening to a Republican message than the entire Gang of 22 could muster over decades. Trump understands that before you can advance the ball, you have to convince people to take time from their busy lives to listen. No one on the GOP side since Ronald Reagan has accomplished that like Trump.
No one else has come close, and certainly no one from that “effete corps of impudent snobs” to which the National Review thinks we should defer.
The Gang of 22 had their chance. They’ve done a lot of bitching over the years, and it paid well for some
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But Americans care about results. They can plainly see that all of the empty talk from the Gang of 22 got us eight years of Barack Obama, and a loss in pretty much every conservative battle there was to lose.
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At the same time when Americans look at Donald Trump’s life they get a lot of assurance that here is finally a man who shares their focus on actually getting results. And Trump returns the respect by recognizing regular hard-working Americans are a lot smarter than any of the “ideological eunuchs” in all of their pontificating glory.
The “pusillanimous pussyfooters” love to nitpick Trump’s words, but what voters are looking for this year is competence and accomplishment. Donald Trump has an actual record of delivering both in spades.
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The Gang of 22 is right to be terrified. A President who could get things done would expose them as the irrelevant creatures they truly are.
It can’t happen fast enough."
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Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party." image via Republican Newswatch
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Comment: Only one functioning political party exists in the US today. Half the US electorate, comprised of Republicans, Independents, and disaffected Democrats, has no political party behind it. 63 million of this group voted for Trump in 2016. Trump, of course, doesn't have a party behind him either. The Deep State isn't going to budge, it's waiting around hoping we'll just give up.
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Impossible for US intel to validly have 'high confidence' when relying on secondhand information and CrowdStrike supplied forensics-Steve McIntyre, 9/24/17
9/23/17, "Guccifer 2 and “Russian” Metadata," Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit
9/24/17, at 11:26 am, Steve McIntyre comments:
Responding to comment: ""There is no way for the US IC to have a "high confidence" of anything using only secondhand information and CrowdStrike supplied forensics. Anyone disagree?"
I think that there’s considerable amount of deception in US intel community assessments, in which they imply supersecret “sources” but in reality they have little more than open source content. I agree that it is impossible for US IC to VALIDLY have high confidence “using secondhand information and Crowdstrike supplied forensics”, but think that it is entirely possible for them to say that they have “high confidence” despite only using using secondhand information and Crowdstrike supplied forensics”."
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9/24/17, 5:05pm: Steve McIntyre comments:
"Something that makes me wonder, Thinking back, I don’t remember that the DNC hack being such a huge issue in real time. Didn't it first become an issue because of the October 7 intel community finding. At that time, the intel community, especially John Brennan, was consumed by teasers from the fraudulent Steele dossier which was the first document that purported to link Trump to the DNC hack. The development of the DNC hack theory and the fake dossier seem to go hand in hand."
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About Me
- susan
- I'm the daughter of an Eagle Scout and World War II Air Force pilot born in Brooklyn, finally settling in New Jersey.
9/28/17, "Mark Felt’ Deep Throat biopic disproves this one Watergate scandal myth," marketwatch.com, by Tom Teodorczuk, Entertainment writer
"The new movie “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” stars Liam Neeson as the FBI Associate Director revealed as Deep Throat, the most celebrated anonymous whistleblower in U.S. political history who helped orchestrate President Nixon’s downfall by leaking information on the Watergate scandal.
But the movie’s director, Peter Landesman, tells MarketWatch that he was keen for the film to challenge a key tenet of Watergate history, namely that Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were central to President Nixon’s resignation. The Woodward and Bernstein/ Deep Throat story was most famously chronicled in Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 Oscar-winning drama “All the President’s Men,” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
“Mark Felt,” which also stars Diane Lane, Tony Goldwyn and Tom Sizemore and is co-produced by Ridley Scott, contains scenes in which Felt leaks information about the Watergate break-in to a Time magazine journalist and doesn’t even feature Carl Bernstein as a character.
“I think the mythology that Watergate is about Woodward and Bernstein is not the whole picture,” says Landesman. “It’s not even a big piece of the whole picture. The system that brought down a corrupt presidency involved dozens and dozens of hardworking people. Felt was the only one who had his hands on the absolute truth of what was happening and he was doling it out to at least 3, maybe even 4 or 5 journalists, including Woodward and the Washington Post.”
“The biggest mythology that’s being pierced is the fact that Woodward and Bernstein were the sole recipients [of information] which is not all true. Felt was puppeteering a number of people to help him to do the job,” Landesman says.
So why, when it comes to Watergate, has so much attention been lavished on Woodward and Bernstein? “I think those guys got out of the gate first with a book and then a movie starring at that time the biggest movie star in the world and maybe even the second-biggest movie star in the world [Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman]”, says Landesman, himself a former journalist for the New York Times.
“Once that film hit the movie theaters, that became the knowable history of Watergate,” he adds. “The truth is it’s much more complex and it’s much broader, the context is much deeper but largely they beat everybody to the punch.”...
Felt retired from the FBI in 1973 and finally admitted to being Deep Throat in a 2005 Vanity Fair interview. In 1980, he was convicted of authorizing break-ins during the Nixon administration’s search for suspected members of the Weather Underground but was pardoned by Ronald Reagan. He died in 2008....
Landesman, whose previous movies “Parkland” and “Concussion” deal with the aftermath of JFK’s assassination and brain damage in football players, respectively, adds: ”Mark Felt is the answer to the greatest political question of our time, if not all time, in the United States.”
“But what’s interesting about him is actually how unknown and unknowable he was. People were expecting Deep Throat to be somebody big and I think it was an anti-climax when he confessed,” he says."
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"Tom Grady, 9/28/17, From the article, where the author is comparing Watergate to the current situation: “There will always be corruption at the top, there will always be someone willing to sacrifice themselves and tell the truth to fix the corruption. It just so happens that these particular circumstances are similar.”
The problem is, in Watergate there was an actual crime. Here, we have the Russians trying to hack our systems, but the "Trump colluded with Russia" part was invented by Democrats."
"Daniel Smith, 9/28/17, The Obama administration illegal spying/wiretapping/unmasking on over 300 private citizens for political gain over a six year period was hidden from congress, congressional committees and the American people. It is the biggest political scandal in American history and 10,000 times bigger than Watergate. And yet, the media suppresses the story (remember the "no proof" slam a Trump on this?) and congress is doing its best to not investigate it. If Power, Rice, Clapper, Comey, Obama and others are not held accountable for this unprecedented criminal act, there will be a wholesale change in Washington. Americans are fed up."