W. Niederhut

Understood. But I agree with Paul Brancato's point about the current dubious theories blaming the "Deep State" for Donald Trump's Ukrainian extortion scam. For one thing, we have the July 25th Trump-Zelensky phone call transcript. Two relevant, interesting MSM articles this morning... 1) A history professor from UW published an NYT piece about the origins of the career Civil Service cadre/Deep State in the Progressive Era. (Although, she doesn't delve into the post-WWII corruption of the U.S. government by Dulles' "Secret Team.") 2) WaPo has an interesting article about the latest PRRI survey showing that the delusional 26 percent of Americans who get their "news" from Fox will stand by Trump regardless of the evidence.

Good grief... Tipper Gore's cousin? Talk about your inconvenient truths... 😠 Let us know when you and your fellow right wing conspiracy theorists find any inaccuracies in Taylor's Congressional testimony about Trump's Ukrainian extortion scam. If Trump has nothing to hide, why has he worked so tirelessly during the past two years to prevent Congress and the public from learning anything about his campaign contacts with Russia, and, recently, his extortion scheme involving Zelensky? Why did Trump adamantly refuse to talk to Robert Mueller? As for Uranium One, surely, everyone knows by now that that was another fake, GOP-fabricated, pre-election "scandal" to smear Hillary Clinton-- the most "investigated" politician in American history. Michael Flynn was working as an unregistered paid foreign agent in 2016-- while serving as Trump's chief national security advisor. Flynn plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his undisclosed 2016 contacts with Russian government officials.

Yes, it's truly bizarre that so many Republican Congressmen, media moguls, and citizens called for Bill Clinton to be impeached for dissembling about a private, consensual sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, only to express outrage about Trump facing an impeachment inquiry for dissembling about his private intercourse with Vladimir Putin. And Ray Mitcham's observations about the parallels between Trumpism/Trumpaganda and European fascism in the 1930s are very much on target. Professor Thomas Childers at the University of Pennsylvania has an interesting Great Courses lecture series on "Hitler's Empire" that focuses on the question, "Could It Happen Here?" (i.e., in the U.S.) The parallels between Trumpism and the subversion of the Weimar Republic by the Nazi Party in 1932 and 1933 are frightening. We now have Trumpist goon squads obstructing Congressional hearings and threatening to shoot citizens who dare to question the criminal misconduct of their orange Fuhrer.

Well said, Paul. Sociopaths, like Trump and Putin, are adept at acquiring and wielding power on behalf of their oligarchs-- usually at the expense of the public good. It's the diametric opposite of utilitarianism, as defined by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century, which seeks to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. The greatest achievements of liberal democracy in American history-- FDR's New Deal, and the JFK-initiated legislation of the LBJ years after 11/22/63, including Medicare and the Civil Rights Act-- were cut from the cloth of utilitarianism. Trump-ism, (Reagan-ism, Bush-ism, etc.) in contrast, seeks to achieve the greatest good for the fewest people. But Trump, like Reagan and the Bush clan, can only acquire power in democratic societies by tricking the masses into believing that they represent their interests-- through appeals to fear, xenophobia, race, (e.g., Atwater's Willie Horton ads) ethnicity, religion, or misguided notions of "patriotism." In the past century, the ability of sociopaths like Trump and the Bush family to acquire and wield power on behalf of oligarchs has been greatly enhanced by techniques of modern mass media propaganda. In Trump's case, his entire propaganda strategy for acquiring and maintaining power since 2015 has dove-tailed precisely with Putin's Gerasimov Doctrine techniques for engendering division and weakness in U.S. society.

At this point, General Abdi's back is up against the wall. Erdogan is demanding Abdi's extradition to Turkey, as a Kurdish "terrorist." Little wonder that the General is suddenly "thanking" the Stable Genius in the White House. But here's what Abdi had to say about Trump earlier this week... SDF Chief: 'Our Trust in the United States is at Its Lowest' https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/sdf-chief-our-trust-united-states-its-lowest October 21, 2019

It's truly Orwellian. If Trump told his cult members here in the U.S. that little green men from Mars had invaded Louisiana, they'd all hunker down in their bunkers.

True. The Kurds have long been persecuted minorities in both (northern) Syria and Turkey. Now they are at the mercy of both national governments-- unless Putin can prevail upon Assad and Erdogan to protect them from genocidal military ops. If Putin's grand game is to ally the Kurds (especially in Iraq's Kurdistan) with the Russian-Iranian-Syrian Axis, perhaps he will try to protect them from Assad's regime. Meanwhile, in his inimitably idiotic style, Donald Trump has just claimed credit for Putin's resolution of the border dispute between Erdogan and Assad. If the Nationals manage to win the World Series Trump will, doubtless, take credit for that as well.

Robert, I know more about how Putin and the FSB operate than you imagine. I've had some direct experience with them during the past 20 years. In fact I'm a Russophile,(though not a Soviet-o-phile) a member of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROCOR) for the past quarter century. Surely, you jest in referring to Trump "punching Putin in the face" (metaphorically or otherwise.) Putin owns Trump, and the world knows it (other than the delusional 30 percent-- Fox News-watching crowd -- in the U.S.) Trump made an international laughing stock of himself in Helsinki by denying that Putin meddled in our U.S. elections. He's, obviously, terrified of Putin-- one of the few politicians in the world (besides Kim Jung Un) he hasn't dared disparage. Policy-wise, Trump has functioned as Putin's king pawn on the world stage since 2015-- fracturing and weakening U.S. society and our alliances with Western Europe, and ending our Timber Sycamore proxy war in Syria (probably a good thing there, considering the damage we have done in Syria.) Trump has also repeatedly undermined the Ukraine in their struggle to prevent occupation and annexation by the Kremlin. Putin has used Trump brilliantly to help implement Alexander Dugin's 1997 geopolitical strategy for advancing Russian Federation hegemony in Eurasia.

Dennis, Is this supposed to constitute a rebuttal of the many facts about Trump, Russia, Alexander Dugin, and the Gerasimov Doctrine that I posted above? How utterly ridiculous. To whom are you appealing with this kind of glib rhetorical nonsense? It's the kind of intellectual dishonesty that serves no useful purpose in a serious discussion of history and politics.

Jeff, I get the impression from this thread that many people here have been so focused on researching and accurately identifying the black ops and mainstream media disinformation of the post-WWII U.S. Deep State that they have lost sight of the fact that the modern Russian Federation is also capable of black ops and the propagation of disinformazia. No doubt, our own U.S. military-industrial complex has engaged in black ops and the propagation of Cold War propaganda for decades after WWII, but, surely, you don't imagine that Putin's Russian Federation hasn't also engaged in active measures, including black ops, to achieve a weakening and destabilization of the U.S. and their Western European adversaries in NATO-- especially in response to NATO aggression against Russia in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Gary Kasparov hit the nail on the head a year or two ago when he said that Trump has been completely over-matched in Putin's chess game against the U.S./ Israel/Saudi Arabia/NATO coalition since 2015. And Trump was an easy mark for Putin and his FSB associates-- a greedy, vainglorious libertine who was ensnared by a combination of old-fashioned KGB sexual kompromat and money (including major Russian money laundering through the purchase of Trump's properties in the U.S., and the Trump Moscow Tower deal, which was being secretly negotiated throughout 2016, contrary to Trump's public denials.) People need to look at the forest when it comes to the Trump administration and Putin's Russian Federation. The forest is Putin's 1997 geopolitical playbook-- Alexander Dugin's The Foundations of Politics-- Russia's Geopolitical Future, and its close relationship to the Russian Gerasimov Doctrine of asymmetrical cyber warfare.

Jill Stein was photographed sitting at a banquet table with Putin and Michael Flynn in 2015. It was a Russia Today gala of some sort. Did Putin fund Jill Stein's third party candidacy in 2016-- which siphoned a critical one percent of the swing state votes from Clinton in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin? Putin, certainly funded Trump's candidacy in 2016 ($30 million through the NRA alone.) To be honest, it seems like the Trump/GOP "Deep State" conspiracy theories about Trump's Russiagate scandal are ignoring the forest for the trees-- the obvious evidence that Trump is a compromised Russian asset. Trump and his 2016 campaign cronies have repeatedly lied about their numerous 2016 contacts with Kremlin liaisons, and they have also aggressively obstructed and covered up damning details in the Mueller Report. Why has Trump denied that Russia is hacking our elections? It's absurd. As for Manafort, he has done dirty work for the Kremlin in the Ukraine for years, and was paid handsomely for his chicanery. I would be shocked to learn that Manafort WAS NOT working for Putin in the summer of 2016. (And, BTW, Trump's attorneys DID float a pardon offer for Paul during his stonewalling of Mueller's investigation.) To paraphrase Churchill, Manafort is a $3 dollar bill, wrapped in a greasy 10,000 ruble note, baked in a rotten pirogue.

Jim, From what I have read, George Papadopoulos was a minor player in the 2016 Trump campaign's contacts with Kremlin officials and cut outs-- although Papadopoulos, like Flynn, did, in fact, plead guilty to lying about his undisclosed contacts with Mifsud-- consciousness of guilt. Paul Manafort's 2016 (and prior) work with the Kremlin is of far greater import in Trump's Russiagate scandal. He lied about his 2016 contacts with Kilimnik, and was involved in negotiating the quid pro quo alterations in the 2016 RNC platform regarding support for Ukraine. My questions for those who still believe that the Trump Russiagate scandal was a U.S. "Deep State" conspiracy to sabotage Trump... 1) Why did so many Trump campaign associates LIE about their 2016 contacts with Kremlin officials? Explain. 2) Why was information about the Trump campaign's numerous 2016 contacts with Kremlin assets (and the Steele Dossier) completely blacked out of the mainstream U.S. media before the election? 3) Why has Trump repeatedly denied that Russia hacked (and is still hacking) our elections? 4) Why did Mitch McConnell adamantly refuse to cooperate with a bipartisan announcement to the public about Russian interference in our 2016 elections? 5) Why did Trump engage in at least ten counts of obstruction of justice (per the Mueller Report) in the Russiagate investigations-- beginning with the firing of James Comey? 6) Why did Trump say, "I'm f-cked!" when he first heard that Rod Rosenstein had appointed a Special Prosecutor to investigate Russiagate? 7) Why did Bill Barr deliberately misrepresent the findings of the Mueller Report, while refusing to release Mueller's own redacted summary of the Report?

Jeff, What did Glenn Kessler conclude about that claim by Joshua Levy in his fact-checking article? I agree with your general skepticism about "the mainstream media" in matters related to the Deep State, but Kessler's fact-checking is usually well documented, as in this comparison of the claims in the Steele Dossier and the redacted Mueller Report. Meanwhile, you still haven't posted any credible references to support your "Deep State" conspiracy theory about the Trump campaign's numerous contacts with Kremlin officials in 2016. As for Paul Manafort, it is a matter of public record that he lied about his 2016 contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, even after he agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation!

Jeff, Did you bother to read your own WaPo reference article here by Glenn Kessler? It was based on the heavily redacted version of the Mueller Report Bill Barr reluctantly gave to Congress, but still concluded that Mueller's investigation corroborated the Steele Dossier, without disproving anything in it. Here's a direct quote from the Kessler analysis. “The Mueller Report substantiates the core reporting and many of the specifics in Christopher Steele’s 2016 memoranda, including that Trump campaign figures were secretly meeting Kremlin figures, that Russia was conducting a covert operation to elect Donald Trump, and that the aim of the Russian operation was to sow discord and disunity in the U.S. and within the Transatlantic Alliance,” Joshua A. Levy, counsel for Fusion GPS, told The Fact Checker. “To our knowledge, nothing in the Steele memoranda has been disproven.” Two other comments. 1) We still need valid reference links to corroborate your unsubstantiated claims about "FBI, CIA, and MI6 assets initiating" the many 2016 contacts between Kremlin officials and the Trump campaign. Who arranged for Veselnitskaya to meet with Don, Jr. and Trump campaign insiders in June of 2016? Who initiated Paul Manafort's and Michael Flynn's undisclosed 2016 contacts with Kremlin officials? 2) Why do you fail to mention the case of Trump's convicted 2016 Campaign Manager Paul Manafort? We know that Manafort had worked for the Kremlin for years to promote the corrupt Yanukovych regime in the Ukraine, and we also know that Manafort lied about his 2016 contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, even after he agreed in a plea bargain to cooperate with Mueller's investigation.

Jeff, I posted links to the extensive database of Russian Facebook ads from 2016, as you requested. Have you reviewed any of them? They're like case studies in a Gerasimov Doctrine propaganda textbook for fomenting conflict and division in U.S. society along racial, ethnic, and religious lines-- in close parallel to the 2016 Trump/Manafort campaign. As for the verification of the Steele Dossier, here's a high quality link to a Lawfare review article on the subject. (In my experience, Lawfare publishes good material.) The Steele Dossier: A Retrospective https://www.lawfareblog.com/steele-dossier-retrospective Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for you and Robert to post a credible reference link to support the Trump/GOP talking point about the Steele Dossier being fake-- and to give us your take on the death of Oleg Erovinkin.

Robert, Where are you getting your concept that the Steele Dossier is fake? Please post a credible source to back up that Trump/GOP talking point. There was quite a bizarre outcry in our mainstream U.S. media when Buzz Feed first published the Steele Dossier in January of 2017, on the grounds that it was "unverified," (presumably unlike all of those unverified anonymous FBI "leaks" about Hillary's Emails in the headlines throughout 2016, eh?) Yet, since January 2017, many of the Dossier's details have, in fact, been verified. (We're still waiting on others-- including Trump's "pee pee" tape. But who on earth would be surprised to learn that an old KGB kompromat pro like Putin had filmed a guy like Donald Trump cavorting with prostitutes?) Also, what are we to make of Oleg Erovinkin's death right after Putin learned about Steele's Dossier?

As a guy who believed for most of the past 56 years that Lee Harvey Oswald had murdered JFK, I need to be humble about any disagreements with JFK historians like James DiEugenio, et.al., but the evidence that Russia hacked our 2016 U.S. elections to undermine the U.S. and NATO seems overwhelming to me.* And, incidentally, I have been highly skeptical about U.S. Cold War propaganda and the U.S. military-industrial complex since the late 60s. In recent years, I have also been increasingly skeptical about U.S. and NATO black ops, and the PNAC/Neocon wars in the Middle East. I don't view the conflicts between the U.S. (and NATO) and the former Soviet empire as "Good vs. Evil," but rather as "Evil I vs. Evil II." As John LeCarre wrote in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, "The Berlin Wall is not a wall. It's a seam." Nevertheless, the alleged 2016 Russian hacking of U.S.elections also seems consistent with the strategic framework of the Russian military's Gerasimov Doctrine-- waging asymmetrical cyber warfare to foment social divisions and destabilize "enemy" nations. * The most important document you may ever read Senate Intelligence report on Russian interference should chill Americans who value our democracy https://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/the-most-important-document-you-may-ever-read

Jeff, Here are some references on the subject of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. Meanwhile, can you post some references to support Trump's claim that Russian hacking of our 2016 election is "fake news?" House Democrats release more than 3,500 Russian Facebook ads https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/10/house-democrats-facebook-russia/ https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/social-media-advertisements.htm Russia Targeted Election Systems in All 50 States, Report Finds https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/politics/russian-hacking-elections.html?auth=login-email&login=email Russian Hackers Were ‘In a Position’ to Alter Florida Voter Rolls, Rubio Confirms https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/us/florida-russia-hacking-election.html Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/

Paul, I was referring to the vast database of 2016 Facebook ads promoted by Russian xxxxx factories, most of which closely mirrored Trump campaign talking points about Muslims, Black Lives Matter, and hordes of rapacious Mexican invaders, etc. They were posted by Russian trolls using fake American identities like, "Heart of Texas." We also know that Russian military intel hacked state voter databases throughout the U.S., and had the capability to alter voter registrations and vote tallies-- contrary to Trump's claim that, "no votes were altered," and that he (Trump) "believed Putin's claim that Russia did not interfere in our elections."

FATAL FLAWS IN THE DEEP STATE-IS-OUT-TO-GET-TRUMP THEORY 1) The FBI played a crucial role in defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016 Remember all of those weekly front page stories in the mainstream U.S. media (including the NYT) in 2016 about the Hillary Email-gate nothing burger? Most of these weekly headlines were based on leaks by anonymous FBI "sources"-- culminating in James Comey's "October Surprise" letter shortly before the election about re-opening the "investigation" of Hillary's Emails. Recall also that Rudy Giuliani (PNAC's 9/11 man in NYC) had announced the Comey/FBI "October Surprise" in advance. Meanwhile, Dean Baquet and the NYT had put the kibosh on any 2016 stories about the Trump campaign's collusion with the Kremlin. 2) Russia definitely hacked the 2016 U.S. elections to put Trump and Congressional Republicans in office The evidence that Russia hacked our 2016 elections to put Trump and Congressional Republicans in office is overwhelming. It was a multi-faceted Kremlin op based on Gerasimov Doctrine strategies of creating social divisions in the U.S. (ethnic, religious, cultural) in close parallel with the campaign strategies that helped Trump win the GOP nomination and Electoral College -- e.g., fear-mongering about Mexican immigrants, Muslims, blacks, etc. 3) Trump and Congressional Republicans have repeatedly obstructed investigations of their close ties to the Kremlin, and have also blocked efforts to prevent ongoing Russian interference in our U.S. elections 4) Trump has betrayed the research communities investigating Deep State crimes-- both the JFK assassination and 9/11 After vowing to release the classified JFKA records in October of 2017--- as required by a unanimous act of Congress-- Trump abruptly declined to release the JFK records. After saying during his Republican primary debates that, "When (he is) President, Americans will find out who really destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11," Trump never said a word about what really happened on 9/11 subsequently. In fact, his first trips abroad after his Inauguration were visits to PNAC's 9/11 co-conspirators in Saudi Arabia and Israel. 5) Trump's main accomplices in obstructing investigations and suppressing the evidence of Republican collusion with the Kremlin have been Deep State insiders-- especially William Barr, the former CIA lawyer who was recruited to the DOJ from the Company by GHWB to manage the Iran-Contra pardons. Another Deep State insider working for Trump has been Rudy Giuliani-- Dick Cheney and PNAC's crucial resource in NYC during the 9/11 op. (Giuliani managed the sequestration and destruction of the WTC forensic evidence after 9/11, while telling everyone that Ground Zero was non-toxic. He also told Peter Jennings on 9/11 that he had been forewarned by the OEM about the impending collapse of the WTC Twin Towers-- a claim which he later denied to Phillip Zelikow's 9/11 Commission.)

Dennis, Let me respond to this ROCOR comment and your previous comment about Putin's annexation of the Crimea in a single post. 1) CRIMEAN ANNEXATION Putin's military occupation and annexation of the Crimea in 2014 was illegal on multiple accounts-- and continues to be regarded as illegal by the international community. The Russian referendum in Crimea, itself, was illegal-- and was conducted after Russian troops had illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory. The Crimea was a part of the sovereign, indissoluble nation of Ukraine in 2014-- and was subject to the Constitutional laws of Ukraine, which, among other things, required a nationwide referendum on matters pertaining to the secession or annexation of Ukrainian territory. 2) ROCOR HISTORY (Hint: Don't trust Wikipedia on this one-- the FSB has aggressively edited the true history of the ROCOR since 2007.) The Bolsheviks assumed total control of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia by 1921, after poisoning Patriarch Tikhon (arsenic) and murdering or imprisoning most of the Metropolitans, Archbishops, and Bishops in concentration camps like the former Solovki Monastery. Many Russian Orthodox Churches throughout the U.S.S.R. (including the Spaasky Cathedral near the Kremlin) were demolished by explosives, and even more were converted into skating rinks and gyms. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks re-organized what was left of the Russian Church hierarchy under the nominal supervision of Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky and other NKVD puppet bishops and priests (including the eventual KGB Moscow "Patriarch" Alexey II and the current Patriarch Kyril.) The concept was to use the outward form of the "Church" to advance the agenda of the atheistic Soviet state-- which did not preclude using the confessional as a form of state surveillance of the citizenry! So, following the Bolshevik murder of St. Tikhon and the Church hierarchy, and the torture and "conversion" of Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky to atheistic Bolshevism, the Russian Orthodox bishops in exile organized the ROCOR Synod outside of Russia to preserve what was left of "Holy Russia." To describe them as advocating "armed rebellion against the USSR" is tantamount to accusing Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany of advocating armed rebellion against the Third Reich. It's a patently absurd statement. The main difference is that everyone today knows the horrifying details of the Nazi Holocaust, but very few people know much about the worst genocide in world history-- the Bolshevik genocide perpetrated against Russians and Ukrainians in the Soviet Union (including the Ukrainian Holodomor.)

Jim, As a member of the (White) Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) during the past 25 years I have seen, up close and personal, how Putin and his FSB people operate. They skillfully infiltrated and seized control of the ROCOR in Western Europe and the U.S. in 2006 in a bloodless internal coup that was scarcely mentioned in the Western media. Part of their operation included intimidation (and probably kompromat) of several ROCOR bishops, including one whom I knew, personally, who was threatened and beaten up in his apartment. I also know of one ROCOR priest opposed to the Act of Canonical Communion with Moscow who died in a mysterious ladder "accident." (The Moscow Patriarchate was under the control of the NKVD/KGB/FSB since 1920, and had been anathematized by the ROCOR Synod for decades prior to 2006.) At the time of the ROCOR coup, Putin even proclaimed in a TASS interview that, "Religion is one of Russia's most effective means of self defense!" Putin worked as a KGB agent in East Germany for many years, and is, doubtless, an expert in the age old KGB tactics of intimidation, murder, and blackmailing compromised targets. He has, certainly, been involved in the murders of journalists and those (like Litvinenko, Gorokhov, and Erovinkin) who are seen as threats to Kremlin agendas. In my opinion, Trump has been targeted by Putin's FSB people and compromised for use as a Russian asset. Putin's oligarchs have also dangled a lot of carrots to manipulate Trump and many key Republicans in the U.S. Congress. We know that Russia has funneled a lot of illegal campaign cash to Republicans-- through the NRA, and also through shell companies set up by people like Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Mitch McConnell has repeatedly blocked legislation to secure our elections from Russian hackers. As for Congress and the Mueller Report, William Barr has worked tirelessly to prevent even the U.S. Congress from seeing the full, un-redacted Report. And we all know by now that Barr distorted the findings of the Report in his misleading four-page "summary," while withholding Mueller's own summary, which was intended for public and Congressional review.

Jim, Putin annexed the (Ukrainian) Crimea, and has been waging a border war in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in recent years. As for Mueller's investigation, let's not forget that Trump and his 2016 campaign associates persistently lied and stonewalled it from beginning to end. Paul Manafort even continued to lie about his 2016 contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik AFTER his plea deal to cooperate with Robert Mueller! And Trump adamantly refused to talk to Robert Mueller-- finally submitting some lawyerly written answers that consisted almost entirely of, "I don't remember." (Odd for a stable genius who claims to have "one of the great memories.") Mueller documented ample evidence of Trump's campaign "colluding" with the Kremlin, and at least ten counts of obstruction of justice-- but was strictly prohibited by Barr's DOJ from indicting a sitting POTUS. Trump's 2016 Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort, who worked for the Kremlin in Ukraine for years, will most likely die in prison. Manafort's lobbying partner, Roger Stone, may share the same fate. Don, Jr. -- who met with Kremlin lawyer Veselnitskaya in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting-- also refused to talk to Mueller. As for the Steele Dossier, much of it has, in fact, been verified by now. And let's not forget that Oleg Erovinkin-- thought to be one of Steele's main sources (from his tenure as head of MI6's Russia desk) was found dead in his car in Moscow right after Putin learned about the Dossier. One thing is obvious. In addition to aggressively obstructing the Mueller investigation, and the disclosure of its most damning details, Trump has repeatedly denied the fact that Russia hacked our elections ! How do you explain those facts?

Not trying to hijack this thread about Zaid and the Ukraine-gate whistleblowers, but I'm posting two references about Putin's geopolitical modus operandi, for anyone interested in the subject. They were both real eye openers for me. IMO, it's impossible to understand Russia's recent meddling in U.S. politics and foreign affairs without understanding what makes Putin tick.. I. The Gerasimov Doctrine It’s Russia’s new chaos theory of political warfare. And it’s probably being used on you www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/05/gerasimov-doctrine-russia-foreign-policy-215538 September/October 2017 Lately, Russia appears to be coming at the United States from all kinds of contradictory angles. Russian bots amplified Donald Trump during the campaign, but in office, Kremlin-backed media portray him as weak. Vladimir Putin is expelling U.S. diplomats from Russia, limiting options for warmer relations with the administration he wanted in place. As Congress pushes a harder line against Russia, plenty of headlines declare that Putin’s gamble on Trump has failed. Confused? Only if you don’t understand the Gerasimov Doctrine. In February 2013, General Valery Gerasimov—Russia’s chief of the General Staff, comparable to the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—published a 2,000-word article, “The Value of Science Is in the Foresight,” in the weekly Russian trade paper Military-Industrial Kurier. Gerasimov took tactics developed by the Soviets, blended them with strategic military thinking about total war, and laid out a new theory of modern warfare—one that looks more like hacking an enemy’s society than attacking it head-on. He wrote: “The very ‘rules of war’ have changed. The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness. … All this is supplemented by military means of a concealed character.” The article is considered by many to be the most useful articulation of Russia’s modern strategy, a vision of total warfare that places politics and war within the same spectrum of activities—philosophically, but also logistically. The approach is guerrilla, and waged on all fronts with a range of actors and tools—for example, hackers, media, businessmen, leaks and, yes, fake news, as well as conventional and asymmetric military means. Thanks to the internet and social media, the kinds of operations Soviet psy-ops teams once could only fantasize about—upending the domestic affairs of nations with information alone—are now plausible. The Gerasimov Doctrine builds a framework for these new tools, and declares that non-military tactics are not auxiliary to the use of force but the preferred way to win. That they are, in fact, the actual war. Chaos is the strategy the Kremlin pursues: Gerasimov specifies that the objective is to achieve an environment of permanent unrest and conflict within an enemy state. Does it work? Former captive nations Georgia, Estonia and Lithuania all sounded the alarm in recent years about Russian attempts to influence their domestic politics and security, as the Obama administration downplayed concerns over a new Cold War. But all three countries now have parties with Russian financial connections leading their governments, which softly advocate for a more open approach to Moscow. In Ukraine, Russia has been deploying the Gerasimov Doctrine for the past several years. During the 2014 protests there, the Kremlin supported extremists on both sides of the fight—pro-Russian forces and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists—fueling conflict that the Kremlin used as a pretext to seize Crimea and launch the war in eastern Ukraine. Add a heavy dose of information warfare, and this confusing environment—in which no one is sure of anybody’s motives, and pretty much no one is a hero—is one in which the Kremlin can readily exert control. This is the Gerasimov Doctrine in the field. The United States is the latest target. The Russian security state defines America as the primary adversary. The Russians know they can’t compete head-to-head with us—economically, militarily, technologically—so they create new battlefields. They are not aiming to become stronger than us, but to weaken us until we are equivalent. II. The Current Political Chaos was planned more than 20 years ago www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/25/1881360/-The-Current-Political-Chaos-was-planned-more-than-20-years-ago?utm_campaign=trending August 25, 2019 I recently had an in-car conversation with my nephew about WW II. He wanted to know what possessed Hitler to attack the Soviet Union. We ended up talking a little bit about geopolitics, and the role that oil & gas reserves played in Germany’s decision to turn against its ally. The conversation was very general, because I had few concrete facts or sources to give him. I promised that I would do some research and send him some links. Upon my return home, I fired up google and started browsing around about geopolitics. I happened upon a Wikipedia article that discussed a book written by Aleksandr Dugin called “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia”. What I discovered was both amazing and frightening. I strongly urge you to go and read the (relatively short) article in full. “The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia” was written in 1997. Since then, it has risen to the rank of textbook for the Russian military’s “Academy of the General Staff”. It lays out a Nationalist, Eurasianist political ideology and strategy for Russia to rebuild its influence and rise to world dominance. The strategic objectives laid out in the book are clear and systematic. The main tactics to accomplish them are not military; rather, The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries. First off, the textbook says that the United States need to be weakened internally. Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".[9] The book also recommends: • Isolating the United Kingdom from the rest of Europe • Annexing Ukraine • Dismembering Georgia • Creating a vital alliance with Iran • Destabilizing Turkey • Minimizing the influence of China At the end of the article is a 2017 quote from news.com.au which says the book Reads like a to-do list for Putin’s behaviour on the world stage. I couldn’t agree more. And now, with both the U.S. fracturing internally and the U.K. About to cut ITSELF off from the rest of Europe, I can’t help but wonder: are most of today’s major political current events simply part of a plan laid out more than 20 years ago?

Interesting to read the Kennedys and King article about Zaid being a Company man, but it seems like an overgeneralization to assume that the Ukraine-gate whistleblowers must, therefore, be involved in a "Deep State" conspiracy to undermine Trump's truly disastrous Presidency. For one thing, Trump has repeatedly denied publicly (at the Stinky in Helsinki and elsewhere) that Putin's GRU cyber warriors are hacking our elections! Two interesting Russian military documents that seem to explain the chess game that Putin has been playing on the world stage are; 1) the Gerasimov Doctrine of asymmetrical cyber warfare, (to divide and weaken foreign societies along racial, ethnic, and religious lines) and, 2) Alexander Dugin's 1997 strategic treatise about Russian control of Eurasia-- weakening the EU and U.S./NATO alliance, aligning Russia with Iran, Syria, and the Kurds, and destabilizing Turkey. I believe that Donald Trump is a compromised pawn (or rook?) in Putin's geopolitical chess game.