W. Niederhut

It must be something in the water here. 🤥 I just read Colorado astrophysicist Phillip Stahl's Brane Space blog entry for today. It's about the Bill Barr/Durham "investigation." Durham's Sham Trial & The WSJ Trolls Cheering Him On As They Lie About The "Russia Hoax" https://brane-space.blogspot.com/2022/05/durhams-sham-trial-wsj-trolls-cheering.html May 16, 2022

Ben, Manafort also engaged in witness tampering and repeatedly lied to prosecutors and to the FBI during the Mueller investigation-- even after agreeing to cooperate with the investigation as part of a plea bargain. He repeatedly stonewalled Mueller's inquiries about his 2016 campaign contacts with Russian GRU agent Konstantin Kilimnik. He also floated a Trump pardon to Rick Gates during the investigation-- telling Gates, "We'll be taken care of" -- in a blatant case of obstruction of justice and witness tampering by Trump and Manafort, himself. See, for example... Paul Manafort sentenced: 5 things to know about his downfall (usatoday.com) Manafort entered into an agreement in September of 2018 where he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the District of Columbia in exchange for him cooperating with Mueller's investigation and the possibility of a reduced sentence. But only two months later, Mueller sought to void the plea agreement after prosecutors alleged that Manafort had misled them about his interactions with a Russian business associate, his contacts with Trump's administration and other subjects. Prosecutors had accused Manafort of lying to them about five subjects, ranging from his interactions with a Russian business associate to his contacts with the Trump administration. He was also accused of lying about sharing polling data with the Russian national, Konstantin Kilimnik, and about meeting with him in Madrid, according to court documents. Prosecutors alleged that Manafort lied about how many times he met Kilimnik, according to a partially redacted transcript of a Feb. 4 hearing. Prosecutors contend Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence, which he has denied.

Ben, If Sussman is found guilty of lying to the FBI, what does that prove or disprove about Russiagate-- about Trump's involvement with the Kremlin in 2016, and beyond? Nothing, really. It's a Bill Barr/Durham nothing burger-- a smokescreen to create a misleading public impression that Trump's Russiagate scandal was a hoax. The FBI's un-publicized investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign's Russian contacts wasn't triggered by Sussman or by the Steele Dossier. In fact, Trump's 2016 Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort had been under surveillance by the FBI as early as 2014, because he had worked as an (unregistered) foreign agent of the Kremlin in Ukraine, Western Europe, and the U.S. for several years. You may still not realize that the story of Manafort and the 2016 Trump campaign's contacts with Kremlin assets was largely suppressed in the U.S. mainstream media prior to the election. It had no impact on the 2016 election-- unlike the weekly headlines about Hillary's Emails. As an example, we found out only in 2017 that the Editor in Chief of NYT, Dean Baquet, specifically put the kibosh on any stories about Trump and Russia prior to the election! The theory that the "Deep State" conspired against Trump was always bunk. If anything, the FBI and the M$M sabotaged Hillary Clinton's 2016 candidacy.

Tucker Carlson not only promoted the white nationalist “great replacement” theory, but repeatedly called on his audience to take actionwww.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-not-only-promoted-white-nationalist-great-replacement-theory May 16, 2022

Peter Dale Scott's political science writings about "Deep Politics" and the "Deep State" originated half a century ago-- decades before Trumplicans seized on the concept of the "Deep State" a few years ago in an attempt to deny the Trump campaign's involvement with the Kremlin in 2016 (i.e., "Spy-gate," "Obama-gate," the "Nunes Memo," etc.) Trump and Bill Barr's Durham investigation is the most recent Trumplican propaganda effort to deflect attention from the fact that Donald Trump served in the White House as a compromised Russian asset. Durham's allegations against Sussman are, essentially, part of a propaganda effort to create the impression that the Trump campaign wasn't really involved with Kremlin efforts to install Trump in the White House in 2016-- and that Trump was an innocent victim of the "Deep State." (Presumably, unlike Hillary's victimization by weekly 2016 M$M headlines based on anonymous FBI "leaks" associated with Rudy Giuliani.) The truth is that Sussman and Christopher Steele played no significant role in the FBI's tardy, unpublicized investigation of the Trump Campaign's numerous 2016 contacts with Kremlin assets. What a joke! This bogus Barr/Durham construct has been repeatedly debunked during the past 18 months, but it continues to re-surface in Rupert Murdoch's propaganda outlets and, now, in the M$M.

It's not our country-- although we did confiscate half of it, at gun point, with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Oddly, we Americans have always had difficulty grasping the concept of other people's sovereignty.

Paul, I know some Trumplicans on another forum who kept bringing up the point last year that none of Trump's January 6th insurrectionists had ever been charged with sedition. It was probably a Faux News talking point at the time. Guess what? Several Trump insurrectionists have now been charged with seditious conspiracy, and some have even plead guilty to the charges. As for Trump, the guy has spent half of his life committing crimes, and the other half evading consequences for his crimes. He's a skilled, wealthy sociopath.

It will be interesting to see if Kevin McCarthy acquiesces in the persistent Trumplican contempt for the rule of law. Wanking Rudy Giuliani refused to meet with the committee last week. From what I've read, McCarthy was not as involved in Trump's coup plot as some of the other subpoenaed Republican screwballs in Congress-- e.g., Jim Jordan, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, et.al. What is equally troubling is the tendency of Trump fans to dismiss the investigation of the historic January 6th coup plot as mere "political theater"-- as if this were a merely partisan, political "investigation" like Benghazi or White Water... When in American history did a sitting President ever attempt to obstruct and overturn the results of an election he lost? This is terra incognita in our history.

Yeah, Kirk, I'm guessing a lot of progressive Democrats have had fantasies about DINO Joe Manchin's boat or Maserati exploding in a blazing fireball. But, unlike the hardcore Trumpsters, we loony libs tend to keep our primal, Paleolithic impulses at a fantasy level, instead of attacking public officials with flag poles, homemade napalm, etc. I have noticed that Manchin gets a lot of money from fossil fuel industry moguls, and his hillbilly constituents, apparently, have a lot in common with Mitch McConnell's. I never could understand why those impoverished, Appalachian meth addicts keep voting for Mitch McConnell. Talk about your false consciousness! Perhaps Chris can give us a theoretical explanation, while reprimanding us for our inappropriately homicidal humor.

I saw this at Kevin Drum's blog today.* (For those who aren't familiar with Kevin Drum, he published a daily blog at Mother Jones for many years. Now he's a retired So Cal guy who publishes his own interesting daily blog.) *Here’s why the Russian army sucks so badly https://jabberwocking.com/ May 11, 2022

Consensus, at last! We're both against napalm, (although it did play a useful role in USAF and RAF warfare against the N-A-Z-I panzer tanks in WWII.) So, Ben, you've probably heard about the case of the January 6th Trumpster from Alabama, Lonnie Coffman, who brought homemade napalm Molotov cocktails to the Capitol, to "Stop the Steal?" Lonnie Coffman sentenced to 46 months in prison for bringing molotov cocktails, guns to D.C. on Jan. 6 - The Washington Post

Well, Ben, I agree with you about the bullhorns after 10 PM. How do you feel about protesters who bring bear spray, flag poles, zip ties, and homemade napalm bombs to attack public officials? 🤥

Ben, I, certainly, don't approve of threats against public officials-- e.g., against Dr. Fauci, Governor Whitmer, Nancy Pelosi, (on January 6th) or SCOTUS judges who lied about upholding Roe v. Wade during their Senate confirmation hearings -- but karma can sometimes be a bitch... 🤥

Elon Musk is wrong: research shows content rules on Twitter help preserve free speech from bots and other manipulation (theconversation.com)

Retro newsflash for Ben and Chris... 🤥 Accused Russian Agent Gave to One Politician: Tulsi Gabbard Russian-American national Elena Branson was indicted this week for lobbying for pro-Kremlin policies while not registered as a foreign agent. She gave to one U.S. politician. https://www.thedailybeast.com/accused-russian-agent-elena-branson-gave-to-one-politician-tulsi-gabbard March 10, 2022

Agreed. But it's not "tokenism," per se, when highly qualified people are appointed. Tokenism is when candidates with dubious qualifications are appointed because they are minorities. Clarence Thomas is a classic example. He's a Republican Uncle Tom who voted to undermine voting rights for blacks in the South-- in Shelby v. Holder-- something that his people were denied for almost a century after the collapse of Radical Reconstruction in 1877 (prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.) Meanwhile, the Trumplicans are suddenly outraged about public anger at the Republican SCOTUS judges who lied to Congress about upholding Roe v. Wade. Where were these Trumplican clowns when right wingers were threatening Dr. Fauci and his family-- and Governor Whitmer-- for trying to save lives during the COVID pandemic? Where were they when Trumplicans violently attacked the U.S. Congress on January 6th?

Ben, I get along well with my in-laws, thank you-- especially since they stopped watching Fox News during the Trump presidency. But, as usual, you missed the central point here. To wit, white identity politics has been a Republican game since the Nixon years. And it has been the essence of Trump-ism-- a real disaster for the United States. Your interpretation of "identity politics" and Biden is dead wrong-- by 180 degrees. In essence, Trump (and Fox) have normalized bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia. In contrast, Biden has attempted to normalize tolerance and respect for all U.S. (and world) citizens, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation. See if you can figure that one out. (I won't hold my breath.)

Huh? Divisive or inclusive, Ben? You remind me of a Fox News-watching in-law of mine who insisted a few years ago that Obama was "divisive"--presumably because he wasn't Caucasian. When I asked him why he thought Obama was "divisive," he mentioned that Obama didn't condemn the looters during the Ferguson riots! He didn't realize that Fox News had deliberately edited Obama's Ferguson speech, to delete Obama's condemnation of the violence and looting after Mike Brown's murder. Fox/Trumplican politics have been based on bigotry, xenophobia, and white identity politics and the "Southern strategy" since 2015. It dovetailed perfectly with Putin's "Gerasimov" strategy of dividing the U.S. along racial and cultural fault lines after 2015. Recall that Trump came to prominence as the anti-Obama-- the Birther-in-Chief. See if you can finally figure that one out.

Well, Ben, this shocking appointment must be stirring up considerable consternation in the MAGA-verse, eh? Not only is Jean-Pierre a woman, she's black, and she's not even a heterosexual! What in hell is the world coming to? 🤥 And, in comparison, just think of the many wonderful, heterosexual, Caucasian press secretaries that Donald Trump appointed (and fired) during his White House tenure!

The Republican Axis Reversing the Rights Revolution Can Anything Stop Republicans From Rolling Back Rights? - The Atlantic May 6, 2022 Ron Brownstein: “Since the 1960s, Congress and federal courts have acted mostly to strengthen the floor of basic civil rights available to citizens in all 50 states, a pattern visible on issues from the dismantling of Jim Crow racial segregation to the right to abortion to the authorization of same-sex marriage.” “But now, offensives by red-state governments and GOP-appointed federal judges are poised to retrench those common standards across an array of issues. The result through the 2020s could be a dramatic erosion of common national rights and a widening gulf—a ‘great divergence’—between the liberties of Americans in blue states and those in red states.” “The only lever Democrats have to resist these efforts is their unified control of the White House and Congress. In theory, this allows them to pass federal legislation establishing a new floor of nationwide rights on voting, abortion, LGBTQ issues, and other areas. In practice, that’s proved to be an empty promise.”

Speaking of Trump, I have a question for legal experts. In the NY AG's civil tax fraud case, Trump is currently being fined $10,000 per day until he produces the subpoenaed documents. Question. If Trump ate and/or flushed the documents down his golden toilet, is he up sh*t creek without a paddle on a permanent $10,000 per day canoe trip? 🤥 In other words, what happens if he can't produce the documents?

Unless, of course, they were tracking commies for the Quakers... 🤥 BTW, wasn't Nixon-- the man who carpet-bombed Cambodia-- also a Quaker?

Kirk, Musk may not be a racist, but the Trumplicans are, certainly, cheering for Musk to allow the Orange Menace back on Twitter. Wouldn't you agree that Trump, himself, has been a major source of disinformation and hate speech in the U.S. media since 2015 -- attacking minority groups, immigrants, etc.? For example, Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about Mexicans invading the border played a direct role in triggering the El Paso Walmart Massacre. Trump also repeatedly promoted deadly disinformation during the COVID pandemic-- downplaying the importance of social distancing, masking, and vaccines-- resulting in hundreds of thousands of preventable U.S. deaths. Geez, the guy even hosted deadly MAGA campaign rallies, in Tulsa, Phoenix, and elsewhere, during the 2020 pandemic! Trump has also fomented a wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans, blaming the "China virus" (Wu Flu, etc.) for his blunders in managing the pandemic-- including his decision to abolish Obama's White House pandemic response team and the U.S. epidemiology team in China (prior to 2019!) The Wuhan lab leak theory may be valid, (I suspected as much from the beginning of the pandemic) but it was politicized by Trump and the GOP to deflect blame from their own pandemic blunders-- and it has played a role in promoting violence against Asian Americans. See, for example... Poll: Americans now more likely to blame Asian Americans for COVID (axios.com)

Greg, I suggest that you go back study the original, detailed commentaries in the first several pages of this 2015 thread by James DiEugenio and Greg Parker. It can't be said any better. They review the evidence about the Paines, Allen Dulles, and the involvement of the Paines in helping to set up and, later, frame Oswald as the lone assassin of JFK. This includes a review of the fact that Ruth Paine's own father and sister worked for the CIA-- something that she tried to cover up during the Clay Shaw trial. And, incidentally, I don't bear false witness against anyone. Never have and never shall. It's against my "ancient Near Eastern religion."

Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath about Roe v. Wade during his Senate confirmation hearings.