Mark Zaid, JFK and Trump

[Jeff Carter]

2 hours ago, Robert Wheeler said:

Outsider R's and D's (Conservatives and Liberals) see the phoniness of the narrative (aside from someone like Limbaugh & Hannity (those you would expect to support Trump) you have Liberals like Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Ray McGovern, Johnathan Turley, and quite a few others 

And rather than representing the opinions of Trump supporters or fascist enablers, the phoniness of the narrative has been baked right in, starting with the mendacious ICA in January 2017 and continuing with the obvious paucity of evidence developed since. 

[W. Niederhut]

3 hours ago, Robert Wheeler said:

Just an observation.

We are getting the closest look ever at the "Deep State" (Power Elite, the Establishment, the Swamp, "The Illuminati" if you are 14 years old.)

Insider R's and D's (Conservatives and Liberals) are all on the same side (Romney & Pelosi, Stephanopolous & Kristol) and are pushing the same manufactured narratives to get rid of Trump.

Outsider R's and D's (Conservatives and Liberals) see the phoniness of the narrative (aside from someone like Limbaugh & Hannity (those you would expect to support Trump) you have Liberals like Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Ray McGovern, Johnathan Turley, and quite a few others (do you want me to include you too Jim Eugenio?)

A Venn Diagram of Liberal Insiders, Liberal Outsiders, Conservative Insiders, and Conservative Outsiders, would really narrow down who is taking orders from the Deep State.

Just when we thought Trump and Bill Barr's fictional Deep State conspiracy alibis couldn't get any more ridiculous... 🤪

Who is William Barr?

https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/12/06/william-barr-a-lawyer-fit-for-a-king/

December 6, 2019

       "...Barr first met Bush in the CIA. In 1976, having shifted to the agency’s legislative office, he helped write the pap sheets that director Bush used to fend off the Pike and Church committees, the first real embodiments of Congressional oversight of the CIA. Intimates say the experience was for­mative for Barr, turning him into an impla­cable enemy of congressional intrusions on executive prerogative."

 

[Jeff Carter]

9 hours ago, Bob Ness said:

Please provide a source for your assertion that it is not the last word.

Bob - I think you need to broaden your sources of information. Much information has been developed since the summer of 2018, including the revelation that Crowdstrike never shared anything beyond a draft version of their work. 

Slagging persons such as William Binney and Craig Murray exemplifies the distinct neo-McCarthy-ite tone exhibited by one side of this conversation. To state that Binney is a “self-proclaimed expert” or that Murray “got conned” strongly suggests that you have a rather tentative grasp of the factual record. Instead of always quoting from biased partisan editorials, why don’t you look up some of the critiques of same and tell us in your own words why they are wrong. For example, go to Consortium News and search “DNC email hack leak” and see what they have to say. I at least have read the critiques you cite, and the Mueller Report, and the Senate Subcommittee Report, and can explain in my own words why I believe they are flawed.

[James DiEugenio]

Bob:

Was Steele a consultant on that article you raised from the dead?

That article is 17 months old.

This one is seven months old. Look who's name is first in the signature line.

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/03/13/vips-muellers-forensics-free-findings/

[Bob Ness]

On 12/7/2019 at 12:33 AM, Jeff Carter said:

Much information has been developed since the summer of 2018, including the revelation that Crowdstrike never shared anything beyond a draft version of their work.

LIKE WHAT AND WHO!!! PLease provide a source!

[James DiEugenio]

I just watched Revealing Ukraine.

The production team was not the same as on Ukraine on Fire.  

But I thought it was an interesting film.  The automatic criticism by some on this board because the film went after Biden is, I think, unwarranted.  Biden was one of the major leaders of the USA effort to force Ukraine to take the EU deal and reject the much better deal offered by Moscow in order to fend off an economic downturn.  Biden was also one of the central leaders backing up Nuland and Pyatt in their schemes to place the rightwing Bandera operatives and idolators in power.  They succeeded and the film shows how this was an economic and social debacle for Ukraine.  A once vital economy has become moribund; net exporting industries have now become net importing industries. Almost a million people a year are leaving Ukraine.

A  neat part was that Canadian professor who studied the shootings in Kiev in 2014 for over four years and concluded they were done by the rightwing parties, who, in some cases, lead the police into traps.

American foreign policy toward Ukraine was a neocon pipe dream.  And for Obama to have allowed it to be spearheaded by HRC and Biden speaks reams about who he really was.  That and his recent comments about Sanders just about seal the deal on this guy.

 

[Jeff Carter]

Svetlana Lokhova, who Stepan Halper deceitfully identified as a Russian honeypot agent assigned to compromise Michael Flynn, identifies Halper as a key malign figure in this imbroglio, in context of the IG report which will be released this week.

Lokhova stated today:

The origins of this report are the tense stand off between then Chair of House Intel Committee Nunes and acting AG Rod Rosenstein. Nunes wanted to see the Halper papers. The IC were never going to let him. This investigation and report are the compromise.

The scope was narrow to avoid revealing the toxic nature of Halper’s work. The report took so long because it was hoped the scandal would go away before it was completed. The scandal just grew. Halper’s dubious intelligence is a key component of the invasive FISA applications.

Halper lures Page to the Cambridge (England) on July 11-12, 2016. Page appears in the Steele Dossier with false "intelligence" about secret Kremlin meetings on July 19, 2016. Halper's fingerprints all over that. First FISA on Page is based on this false information.

Halper had frequent contact with Page for months starting in July 2016 thru 2017. Contact intensified around time of each FISA renewal. The contact ended with the lapse of the final FISA. Yes, that’s right surveillance on Trump's team continued long after the election.

Remember there was no collusion. The eavesdropping found nothing.

Instead Halper found exculpatory evidence of innocence. That evidence was kept from the Court.

While Steele’s nonsense captures the headlines because it ties Comey up in knots, the crimes stem from Halper. His whole suite of intelligence on Flynn, Trump etc was just lies.

 

[Douglas Caddy]

Another Inquiry Doesn’t Back Up Trump’s Charges. So, on to the Next.

By the time the Justice Department inspector general’s report was released, the president and his supporters had moved on in their effort to convince Americans of the enemies arrayed against him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/us/politics/trump-ig-report.html

 

[Douglas Caddy]

David Talbot wrote on Facebook yesterday:

What a great article in today's NY Times about the sick relationship between two New York celebrities -- Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. Trump has the schoolyard bully's knack for attracting men so hungry for the media limelight that they're willing to sacrifice all self-respect to be around him. Once hailed as "America's Mayor," Giuliani has been reduced to running sleazy errands for Trump in swamps like Ukraine and endlessly shilling for him on TV.

One of the many cringe-in...ducing anecdotes in this NYT article -- which demonstrates the best of the Times team reporting -- reveals how Mayor Rudy rushed onto Trump's campaign plane in October 2016 while it was held on NYC's La Guardia Airport tarmac. Giuliani was late for the flight, which was taking Trump and his entourage to a fateful debate with Hillary Clinton, because Mayor Rudy was one of the only prominent Republicans still willing to cover for Trump after the "Access Hollywood" videotape had gone public, with Trump bragging about his sexual crimes. Giuliani had been racing from one TV news studio to the next, explaining away Trump's predatory boasts as "locker room talk." It was the moment when Giuliani revealed that he was so greedy for media attention and proximity to power (even Trump's coarse throne) that he was willing to completely debase himself on national TV. It's been all downhill for Giuliani from there, as this Times article demonstrates.

And how did the Bully-in-Chief thank Giuliani for taking not just one, but many bullets for him following the "Access Hollywood" bombshell? Here's how the Times tells the story:

When Mr. Giuliani boarded the plane (at La Guardia), spent from his labors (in defense of Trump), he strode down the aisle a conquering hero, swapping high-fives. The he settled across from Mr. Trump. Everyone could hear what the candidate said next.

"Man, Rudy," Trump said, "you sucked. You were weak. Low energy."

Mr, Giuliani slumped in his seat, one witness said. The plane grew silent.

But by day's end, Mr. Giuliani was back in front of the cameras, claiming victory for Mr. Trump in the debate. (End of story)

Yecch, as the old Mad magazine would've said.

Trump and Giuliani are the most notorious products of New York City's twisted and tacky celebrity culture. They inevitably became entwined in their mutual lust for 24/7 media attention. Neither man truly exists until TV lights are turned on. Theirs is a poisonous embrace, but they deserve each other.

And now they're about to go over the waterfall in a barrel together.

See More

 

 

 

nytimes.com

 

The Indispensable Man: How Giuliani Led Trump to the Brink of Impeachment

Rudy Giuliani didn’t get the job he expected. But as unpaid personal counsel to the president and for-profit peddler of access and advice, he got the spotlight.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Doug:

As Professor Jonathan Turley notes in this piece, what is in the DOJ report depends on which web site or cable channel you read.

Here is his analysis:

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/473709-horowitz-report-is-damning-for-the-fbi-and-unsettling-for-the-rest-of-us

[Jeff Carter]

When this incident started to leak out two years ago - that the Republican presidential campaign was subject to extensive surveillance by agents of the state based on unverified opposition research funded by the Democrats - it appeared a major political scandal. The details are actually far worse than anticipated, not least the extremely flimsy standards by which domestic surveillance could be initiated, a situation which the intelligence mavens insisted could never happen.

Still no word on what motivated Mifsud’s interaction with Papadopoulos. If it turns out to have been at the initiative of someone like Halper, then any notion of a good faith predicate - the current fall-back - is null.

[James DiEugenio]

But the report says that Page was also in league with the CIA.

[Bob Ness]

26 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

But the report says that Page was also in league with the CIA.

Yeah. Malcolm Nance appears to have called it. That's one reason at least that he wasn't indicted. In fact it looks like he's also been in bed with the FBI and State possibly as a CI.

[Bob Ness]

2 hours ago, Robert Wheeler said:

Who is Malcom Nance? - Source Link to his "Call", if you could please.

Toward the end. I don't care whether you think I know anything Robert.

[Jeff Carter]

18 hours ago, Robert Wheeler said:

When are you guys going to figure out Carter Page, George P. and Gen. Flynn were working for Brennan when they joined the Trump Campaign and were flipped before Comey was fired?

That might be a bit too inside baseball, and associative, but it would not be surprising. The supposed Downer/Papadopoulos meeting seems too flimsy and dependent on hearsay to serve as a convincing predicate sparking a huge counter-intelligence probe. The origin of Crossfire Hurricane seems a cover story masking something else then. The Russian angle is just hot air - as Lavrov again pointed out in a press briefer yesterday.