OK, with Trump heading into a private meeting with Putin just days after Mueller went public with evidence proving Russia’s state-sanctioned hacking of our 2016 presidential election, is it finally time to admit that the conspiracy theory is actually fact, and take to the fucking streets?

As I’m not sure where to start, or where this post may go, I’m just going to jump right in and start rambling. Hopefully you can follow along. If not, I apologize.

Earlier this past week, before Donald Trump left the U.S. for what would turn out to be a completely disastrous NATO summit in Brussels, in which he succeeded in offending every leader of the free world, he met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who informed him that the Justice Department would soon be indicting 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic emails in hopes of influencing the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In spite of this, however, Trump continued to call the Mueller investigation a “rigged witch hunt” while on his European trip, and cheer on his Republican enablers in Congress as they interrogated FBI agent Peter Strzok for hours on end about a single text message that he’d send to a coworker within the agency with whom he was having an affair. The fact that Strzok had said in this text message, “we will stop him,” these Republican members of the House argued, proved that there was deep state conspiracy against their beloved leader, Donald Trump. Strzok, as you’ve likely seen by now, more than held his own against the ridiculous attack, reminding the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee that, while it’s true that he may have taken offense at Donald Trump’s having attacked the family of a deceased war hero, which is what apparently motivated the text in question, there was no evidence that he had done anything to interfere in the election on the part of Trump’s adversaries. [If anything, as we know now, the FBI tipped the election to Trump, when, just days before the election, FBI Director James Comey, under pressure from Trumpists in the FBI New York field office, announced the reopening of the farce of an investigation into Clinton’s email server.] Here, in case you missed it, is Strzok firing back in response to the Republican narrative.

In more sane times, a hearing like this never would have taken place, but, as the Republics control Congress, and as they’ve demonstrated that they have every intention of defending Donald Trump from prosecution, we have no choice but to be subjected to such nonsense. So, instead of holding substantive investigations into the clear and ongoing threat we as a nation face from Russia, the House of Representatives keeps tugging on the same little thread, hoping to convince the viewers of Fox News that Strzok sat at the center of a governmentwide conspiracy to keep Donald Trump from ‘Making America Great Again.’ So they attacked Strzok’s character, insinuating that his “we will stop him” text proves the existence of a vast anti-Trump conspiracy at the highest levels.

My favorite of the despicable attacks directed at Strzok came from Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, who said “I can’t help wonder, when I see you looking there with a little smirk, how many times did you look so innocent into your wife’s eye and lie to her about Lisa Page?” [Does Strzok’s wife have just a single eye?] Lisa Page, for those of you who don’t recognize the name, was the FBI attorney with whom Strzok had been having an affair. [Someone might want to tell Gohmert that Donald Trump was having unprotected sex with a porn across while his wife was home with their newborn son, as I suspect he may want to use the same line during Trump’s impeachment hearing.]

And, as Trump’s hypocritical enablers  attacked Strzok for infidelity, yelling nonsensically about how the Mueller investigation has been politically motivated, the Democrats politely reminded everyone in the audience that, far from being a “witch hunt,” the Mueller investigation has already secured numerous indictments and guilty pleas… more, in fact, than Watergate, Whitewater or Iran-Contra during the first years of those investigations. Speaking of which, how much does it piss you off to hear Trey Gowdy demand that we wrap up the Mueller investigation when he spent several times as long on the Benghazi investigation, yielding not even a single indictment?

Here, while we’re on the subject of the Strozok hearing, are a few of my favorite things that transpired. First, we’ve got Republican Paul “I’m a dentist and therefore a body language expert” Gosar attempting to demonstrate his deep understanding of the constitution.

And, here, in my second favorite clip, is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin reminding everyone that, during the campaign, Strozok wasn’t the only one talking negatively about Donald Trump…. No, a lot of Republicans, many of whom who have since chosen to embrace Trump, once said much worse things about him.

Somehow, though, the President’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, watched all of this unfold and declared it a great victory for his client. The entire Mueller investigation, he argued, should be thrown out because of Strzok’s incredible bias.

And, as I said, all of this was unfolding as Donald Trump was in Brussels, offending our allies and putting the NATO alliance, which has served as a safeguard against Russian aggression for the past seven decades, at risk… Here, with that it in mind, is some old 2016 presidential debate footage between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, in which Secretary of State Clinton notes specifically that Putin’s end goal is not just to destabilize America, but to fracture the NATO alliance. [Pretty interesting, right?]

But, wait, it gets weirded. As Donald Trump was lying about our allies and tearing at the fabric of NATO, and House Republicans were attempting to argue that the whole Mueller investigation should be ended because Peter Strozok once had the audacity to tell his lover that the American people would do the right thing and keep Donald Trump from office, Robert Mueller was preparing to go public with 12 indictments against Russian military intelligence (GRU) officials for hacking the Democratic National Committee’s servers in 2015 and 2016 and the email accounts of individuals working for the Clinton campaign.

Of course, all of this information – the fact that we had evidence of the involvement of Russian military intelligence officers – wouldn’t have been news to Donald Trump. As the President of the United States, he would have known all of this some time ago. He would have known this when he said one year ago this month that he wanted to form an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit” with Putin, giving the Russians access to our cybersecurity infrastructure. And he would have know it two years ago, when he said that it was a “joke” that “Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails”. And he certainly would have known about a few weeks ago, when word first broke that he was planning to meet with Putin in private this coming Monday… a meeting which, by the way, he’s yet to cancel, even with these most recent public revelations.

Speaking of the revelations included in these most recent indictments. Here’s one of my favorites. On July 27, 2016, according to these recently filed court documents, the Russians targeted Clinton campaign emails “for the first time.” Do you know what happened earlier that same day? Well, friends, that’s the day that Donald Trump stood on a stage in Florida and said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.

Trump, now that all of this is out in the open, isn’t thanking the intelligence community for their work. He’s also not cancelling his face-to-face meeting with Putin on Monday, which is said to be happening without any other Americans present. And he’s not calling for increased election security. No, he’s not doing any of that. What he’s doing is blaming Barack Obama for not having stopped any of this from happening… Following is Trump’s tweet and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff’s response.

For what it’s worth, Schiff left out one salient fact. Obama went to Republican Mitch McConnell and asked him to issue a joint statement on the subject of Russian election interference, only to have the Senator refuse.

Oh, and in the background, as all of this has been going on this past week, the Republicans voted unanimously to name Trump nominee Brian Benczkowski the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, despite the fact that he has absolutely no prosecutorial experience, has never so much as argued a single case in court, and worked for Alfa Bank, a Russian bank owned by an oligarch closely tied to Vladimir Putin… If the name Alfa bank sounds familiar, it’s likely because it’s come up in relation to the Russia investigations. As CNN recently reported, “Questions surrounding Alfa Bank first arose in 2016 when a group of computer scientists raised concerns about Internet records that showed that Alfa Bank servers repeatedly looked up the unique internet address of a Trump Organization computer server in the United States.

One last thing. While not naming names, these most recent grand jury indictments indicate that Americans citizens were in contact with those running the Russian hacking operation. Specifically, the document refers to a U.S. congressional candidate and a person in regular contact with senior Trump campaign officials. [The person in regular contact with the Trump campaign is thought by many to be Nixon “ratfucker” Roger Stone.]

So, yeah, I guess you could say America is in peril. Russia sought to instal Donald Trump as our president, and they succeeded. Whether or not he would have won without their help, we’ll never know. What we do know, however, is that, instead of supporting the investigation and actively taking steps to ensure that it never happens again, Donald Trump has sought to suggest that the entire investigation is nothing more than an attempt on the part of angry Democrats to delegitimize his presidency. And, what’s worse, Congressional Republicans are actively supporting him as he does this, attacking his enemies, spreading his lies, and laying the groundwork for something akin to Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre… Benczkowski, as head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, will be in a position to help kill the investigation, should Trump make a move against Rod Rosenstein… And, according to Politico, House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan could move to impeach Rosenstein on behalf of the President as early as Monday — the same day that Trump will be meeting privately with Putin.

So, at what point do we take to the streets? Do we wait until Rosenstein is fired, or does the general strike start the moment Donald Trump goes into his private meeting with Vladimir Putin?

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59 Comments

  1. Ryan Knight by proxy
    Posted July 14, 2018 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    The fact that 12 Russian Military Officers were indicted for attacking our election, and instead of condemning the attack, Trump is attacking our FBI, tells me everything that I need to know: Trump is aiding and abetting the Russian attack on our democracy and must be impeached.

  2. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 4:56 am | Permalink

    Everyone who is concerned, shocked, stunned or disgusted at what is happening, should take every action possible immediately. We all know it. But the vast majority of people have the tendency to just freeze up and do nothing, telling themselves somehow that what they are witnessing is not really what it appears to be, or not really happening.

  3. John Brown
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 6:19 am | Permalink

    The circumstantial evidence is overwhelmingly clear. We have a treasonous Ruskie Stooge, enabled by a treasonous Republican leadership, facilitated by treasonous NRA and fox propaganda machine, and supported by millions of treasonous collaborators. A general strike would seem like a bare minimum. With a contingency to fight a civil war should they suspend elections in response to protest.

  4. EOS
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 6:34 am | Permalink

    So we indicted 12 Russian spies for spying on America because they were able to hack into an unsecured server used by Clinton. Mark would have us believe that this is a threat to America. And John Brown thinks we should prepare to fight a civil war. Unbelievable.

  5. John Brown
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 7:13 am | Permalink

    What’s unbelievable is that the cold warrior party has flipped to encouraging foreign agents to disrupt American democracy. Desperately maintaining minority rule with help of foreign agents. Trump and Mitch make Benedict Arnold look small time.

    And collaborators like EOS accept it because “abortion is murder”. Zombie Jesus cult fools will be forever responsible for what happens next.

  6. Anonymatt
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    You can’t let go of that Doobie Brothers song, can you?

  7. John Brown
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 8:02 am | Permalink

    And House GOP laid groundwork to impeach Rosenstein yesterday, apparently for doing his job a little too well. Looks like tyranny to me. 2nd Amendment applies to liberals too.
    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/13/house-republicans-rod-rosenstein-impeachment-719816

  8. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:08 am | Permalink

    EOS, it sounds to me like there were a lot more accounts than Hillary’s which were hacked. Do you have a list or a link to all the accounts which were hacked?

  9. John Galt
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:20 am | Permalink

    So what if Trump meets with Putin behind closed doors while trying his best to dismantle NATO. Didn’t you read Peter Strzok’s text? He actually said that he didn’t want a racist liar to be president! Can you imagine that? So much bias! Sure, he may never have acted on these feelings, but the very thought that he could have proved to me the existence of a deep state organization even more dangerous that the child sex slave ring run by Hillary Clinton in that secret cave beneath that D.C. ping pong club.

  10. Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:55 am | Permalink

    Donald Trump just referred to the European Union as a “foe” of the United States.

  11. Kyle Griffin by proxy
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:57 am | Permalink

    Trump is asked if he will ask Putin to extradite the 12 Russian military officers indicted by Mueller.

    Trump responds, “Well, I might. I hadn’t thought of that.”

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1018491699197370368

  12. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 10:07 am | Permalink

    We, the American people, should designate a new post in the federal government and hold a special emergency election to fill it. We should refer to this individual the ‘Secretary of Apologies and Regret’.

  13. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 10:16 am | Permalink

    Imagine the word “as” in my last comment where appropriate. Also, maybe the full title of the post should be “Secretary of Apologies, Embarrassment, Shame and Regret.”

  14. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 10:24 am | Permalink

    I’m watching the World Cup Final from Moscow. Just caught a nice shot of our new Commander-In-Chief, Vladimir, relaxing calmly in the stands, the day before giving his Deputy Chief his marching orders to destroy NATO.

  15. iRobert
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 10:33 am | Permalink

    I hope the Finns secretly video record the meeting and also start blackmailing our president the way Putin has been doing. Thank you GOP.

  16. wobblie
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 10:45 am | Permalink

    This hysteria is of course all based on the premise (false I believe) that Russia is our enemy. All powers mess in each others domestic politics. Israel is of course the prime US example. Don’t hear the drum beat for war against them, and yet they probably had more to do with Trump getting elected than the Russians. While MM tries to drum up support for “action” against Russia–that does seem to be where he wants this to go using words like, “attack”, “defend ourselves against” and in general wanting to make the Russians our enemy.

    Meanwhile the Democrats get ready to capitulate on the Supreme Court judge (several “Democratic” Senators will end up voting for Kavenaugh), and are already looking for other ways to be “bi-partisan”.

    No outrage by the Liberals on the continue gutting of our labor laws for example.

    Russia, Saudia Arabia and the US are all allied in the efforts to keep carbon based energy as the predominate energy source. Together they create the conditions to drive up carbon energy prices and distract us from the true menace to the world which is accelerating climate change.

  17. Lynne
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 7:20 pm | Permalink

    You are part of why we are in this situation, wobblie. Russia clearly was meddling in a way that is harming our nation. Does that not make them our enemy a little bit? It seems like something we should concern ourselves with. We can also look into any Israeli influence.

  18. Jean Henry
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 7:48 pm | Permalink

    Agreed Lynne. Many on the far left have been naive about Putin’s Russia at best. The double standard they have excusing Russian malfeasance while condemning our own is notable. I’m not much on nationalism generally but I do believe in free and fair elections as free of foreign influence as possible. This story was disturbing.

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/03/putting-a-face-mine-to-the-risks-posed-by-gop-games-on-mueller-investigation/

  19. John Brown
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:48 pm | Permalink

    No quarter for Ruskie Stooges. 1776, USA, Patriots. Live free or die, did I mention that?

  20. CBS
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:54 pm | Permalink

    Trey “Benghazi” Gowdy says he doesn’t like public hearings.

    “Public hearings are a circus. That’s why I don’t like to do them. I don’t do many of them. It’s a freak show”: Rep. Trey Gowdy discusses FBI agent Peter Strzok’s hearing on @FaceTheNation cbsn.ws/2iuAAgA

  21. harry kane
    Posted July 15, 2018 at 9:59 pm | Permalink

    thanks

  22. Anonymous
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 6:30 am | Permalink

    Donald Trump: “Received many calls from leaders of NATO countries thanking me for helping to bring them together and to get them focused on financial obligations, both present & future. We had a truly great Summit that was inaccurately covered by much of the media. NATO is now strong & rich!”

  23. NBC's Natasha Bertrand
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 10:29 am | Permalink

    Trump says he and Putin “spent a great deal of time talking about” Russia’s election interference. “Putin feels very strongly about it and he has an interesting idea.” …what?

    https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1018879491089805314

  24. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 12:26 pm | Permalink

    Listening to the run down of the press confeeence and I feel like throwing up. Anyone who was upset about corporate over-reach in politics who isn’t sick Russia’s sway over our president as evidenced by this bit of political theater is not paying attention.

    Trump just sided with Putin in condemning US intelligence services.

    It’s apparent that most of our elected representatives will happily sell our country down the river to achieve power and influence. The corruption isn’t surprising. Just the degree of it.

    I feel like I’m in a Kafka novel. Or early Kundera. Or Gunter Grass. Fuck. That stuff I read as personal metaphor in the past, not political reality.

    I remember reading once about a political action in Ann Arbor where activists puked at the old McDonalds on Maynard. The objection was not health and nutrition but corporatism or something. It was meant to be funny. I’m not interested in Protesting McDonalds (believe it or not) but I feel like we could hold a Vomit-in in DC and many would be ready to participate.

  25. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

    How anyone thinks it is wise to just take the intelligence agencies’ word for it I do not know. If it was a hack why hasn’t the server been examined? That is insane.

  26. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 12:38 pm | Permalink

    “So we indicted 12 Russian spies for spying on America because they were able to hack into an unsecured server used by Clinton.”

    It’s about the DNC server, not the clintonemail.com one. If it goes to trial watch for Assange and/or Dotcom to present evidence belying the unintelligence community’s claims.

  27. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 1:04 pm | Permalink

    “How anyone thinks it is wise to just take [Trump and Putin’s] word for it I do not know. If the [president isn’t compromised why is he serving Putin’s interests rather than ours on every front]? That is insane.”

  28. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 1:17 pm | Permalink

    Fascism is in fashion. It’s treason season. And its hot as fuck but that has nothing whatsoever to do with human failure to respond sensibly to imminent danger even as the evidence is right there before us as well as the avenues for solution.

    It’s time to turn off the news.

  29. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 1:51 pm | Permalink

    How is Trump serving Russia and not the USA? Your goddess did that as I reminded you recently.

  30. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 1:59 pm | Permalink

    HW–
    TRUMP JUST CALLED OUR EUROPEAN ALLIES OUR FOES
    HE COSIED UP WITH PUTIN, RIGHT AFTER FURTHER INDICTMENTS ON RUSSIAN MEDDLING IN OUR ELECTIONS
    HE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO HAVE ALLOWED PUTIN GREATER ACCESS AND INFLUENCE IN SYRIA AND SO TO THEIR OIL RESERVES DAYS AFTER THE ELECTION BEFORE EVEN TAKING OFFICE
    HE JUST MADE INTIMATIONS THAT HE WAS WILLING TO RECOGNIZE CRIMEA.
    –OH AND HE QUESTIONED OUR OWN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES. (THAT MAY BE OK FOR US AS CITIZENS TO DO, BUT IT’S REPREHENSIBLE FROM THE LEADER OF THIS COUNTRY.)

    IN RUSSIA THEY ARE SAYING THAT PUTIN GOT THE OTHER HAND.
    TRUMP IS BEING CALLED AN IDIOT FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE GLOBE AND ALL FACTIONS OF US POLITICS.

    YOU’RE AN IDIOT AND A FOOL, HW.

    I WISH OUR PRESIDENT WASNT ONE TOO.

    THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.

  31. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:00 pm | Permalink

    UPPER* NOT OTHER

  32. Jean Henry Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:07 pm | Permalink

    IRobert– Speaking to HW’s influence or not, which you persistently minimize. My point has always been that HW’s perspective is reflective oaf a larger narrative, one being perpetuated by Fox News which we know Trump watches obsessively rather than reading briefs.

    If you look above at HW’s comments they closely mirror Trump’s.

    I had earlier established that Hannity, a man with zero formal education, is repeating a lot of the QAnon story lines. We know have learned that Trump talks to Hannity for 1-2 hours a day, that Hannoty has been come a de facto chief advisor to the President. Om who follows QAnon. And that Trump repeats those stories with regularity.

    I’m not saying HW matters. I doubt he does. I’m saying that understanding his belief system will help us understand our president. And what his followers believe. And yeah that matters.

  33. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:09 pm | Permalink

    The EU system is a foe. That’s why countries want to get out of it. Clinton’s dream is the same thing in the Americas, she said. It would be the destruction of the USA and a huge step towards world government.

  34. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:10 pm | Permalink

    Even your typing looks insane now.

  35. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:12 pm | Permalink

    Questioning the CIA is a fucking AWESOME for a President to do. I don’t understand this. Do you really not think they bumped off JFK?

  36. wobblie
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:15 pm | Permalink

    JH, just read your capitalized list of reasons to oppose Trump and go to war with Russia.
    YOU’RE AN IDIOT AND A FOOL, JH

    End the wars.

  37. Demetrius
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:17 pm | Permalink

    Trump’s behavior today was so crazy/damaging/treasonous that even many Republicans are coming out to criticize him:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/us/politics/republicans-trump-putin.html

    Could this be a tipping point … ?

  38. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:36 pm | Permalink

    Ryan and McCain! They are relevant, right.

  39. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:40 pm | Permalink

    I was just too lazy to take off the shift lock.

    Wobblie thinks kowtowing to Russia will prevent war. I guess he’s not taking into account Russia’s own war mongering and imperialist initiatives.

    This idea that only the Us is responsible fo War is amusingly myopic.

  40. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 2:42 pm | Permalink

    I predict Trump will invade and bomb someplace in the Middle East before Nov 8th of the year.

  41. John Brown
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 3:35 pm | Permalink

    Wobblie, I agree we don’t want to go to war externally. However we have some serious domestic enemies that are flirting with civil war. They need to know that enemies of the Constitution like the NRA leadership and ardent trump accomplices will be handed their heads if they persist.

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b4cec64e4b0e7c958fe56b2

  42. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 6:12 pm | Permalink

    Jean, I agree with everything you said in your most recent comment directed at me.

    HW, considerable elements of the CIA were certainly involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. Also, many Dallas Police officers participated in various ways. That doesn’t make the entire Dallas Police force of thousands of officers all guilty of the assassination. Though FBI director Hoover played one of the most critical roles in the coverup, along with many agents who participated in various ways, that doesn’t mean the FBI as a whole is guilty of the assassination. Also, many individuals with organized crime syndicates participated in various ways. However, it is not accurate to say the mob killed Kennedy.

    You see where I’m going here.

  43. Iron Lung 2
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 6:20 pm | Permalink

    lol

  44. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 6:47 pm | Permalink

    So my point, HW, is that though a questioning the CIA is a good thing for a President to do, it isn’t a good thing for the President to see the entire agency as their enemy.

    Robert Kennedy, USAG at the time of his brothers assassination, was at his home in suburban DC when he was notified of the shooting of the President in Dallas. RFK’s first phone call was to the director of the CIA, asking “Was it your people who did this?” The director responded saying he didn’t know, but had no information to suggest his agency was involvement. It became clear pretty soon that there was involvement of CIA assists, however. This doesn’t mean the director lied to RFK. Only individuals who were identified as sympathetic to such an extreme action would ever be brought in in any way. Everyone else would be shielded completely. It’s standard procedure for any and all intelligence operations, regardless of the sensitive nature of the objective.

  45. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 7:28 pm | Permalink

    Jean, I wasn’t kidding. I actually do agree with everything you said in your comment above, where you posted as “Jean Henry Jean Henry”

  46. wobblie
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 7:40 pm | Permalink

    IRobert, what is your analysis of the CIA role in our war of aggression against Iraq? Was it just “rogue” players who “stove piped” information to the “policy makers”. People find it so easy to forget that for the last 18 + years the good old USA has been guilty of the worst war crime identified at Nuremberg. Colin Powell understands what he did at the UN and knows he is liable as a criminal. All other war crimes are secondary because they follow from the initial crime. If it was just rogue players, and or political appointees, why has the US persisted in following the policies that resulted from the initial crime.?

    JH, I think we should “kow tow” to the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, N. Koreans, Vietnamese, Nicaraguans, Salvadorians, Syrians, Haitians, Chileans and various Africans who have been victimized by US corporate/military imperialism and beg forgiveness for the millions who have died in the name of US exceptionalism.

  47. Jean Henry
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 7:54 pm | Permalink

    Statement from Sen John McCain:
    “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
    “President Trump proved not only unable, but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press, and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.
    “It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s regime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.
    “Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.
    “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are—a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”

  48. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 8:20 pm | Permalink

    wobblie, those are questions which would require a lot of discussion just to set the groundwork for reasonably comprehensive answers.

    For one thing, the invasion, war and occupation of Iraq is a very different sort of operation and in just about every way. First of all, it was being pushed for many years in DC, going back to operation Desert Storm. I’m sure you know the whole PNAC story.

  49. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    I’m almost afraid to look into what the other GOP Senators and congressmen have said about the Helsinki meeting, and joint press conference. I expect there has been a lot of awkward silence in DC.

  50. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 8:47 pm | Permalink

    wobblie, all through the 90s there were a number of operations which were devised to be the trigger for an invasion of Iraq. These operations involved intelligence assets and were all relatively small in scale. The Clinton Administration repeatedly resisted the provocation, and instead went to great lengths to recharacterize the incidents so as to downplay or cover completely the provocative details.

    It was concluded that an administration would need to be installed which would not resist the engineered provocations to invade Iraq. A “new Pearl Harbor” was then considered necessary as well, so control over the top end of intelligence agencies would be needed. So that’s how things proceeded. Top level appointees were just stooges who’d do whatever they were told.

  51. iRobert
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 9:25 pm | Permalink

    Putin’s statement today about not having an intelligence program of compromising visiting western businessmen is only a true statement in a very strict and limited sense. Much of the compromising activities directed at visiting western businessmen is carried out by non-governmental syndicates. But they have very close connections and ongoing relationships with the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies.

    Compromising powerful businessmen and high ranking government officials, foreign and domestic, is a very developed industry in Russia. They’ve had more experience and success with it than any other country in the world.

    It is almost a certainty that Trump was baited when he visited Moscow as a private businessman. However, the baiting wasn’t likely done by official Russian intelligence agents. It would have been more of a mob thing, the motive being to find ways to potentially benefit financially from the ‘weaknesses’ of these visiting businessmen. This is allowed to go on as long as any potentially valuable political or economic information gathered is passed on to government intelligence as well.

  52. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 16, 2018 at 11:10 pm | Permalink

    iRobert, I never said anything about every single agent being in on it. Obviously they compartmentalize. People high enough in it to get something done like the JFK hit were involved. That’s plenty enough reason to destroy it right there. Of course that’s only one thing they have done.

  53. iRobert
    Posted July 17, 2018 at 5:56 am | Permalink

    HW, I can certainly understand why you’d want to see the CIA destroyed. I think most people would share your feelings about that if they bothered to inform themselves about some of the things the agency has been doing for the past several decades.

    I just don’t agree that we can afford to completely destroy it. With all the threats posed by the activities of our enemies and adversaries, we need to have the CIA. I do think there needs to be some way to keep the agency from being used so easily and frequently by interests seeking to have their dirty work done. I don’t know how that can be protected against, but I’d imagine somebody could come up with some ideas.

  54. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 17, 2018 at 7:32 am | Permalink

    Yeah, I guess it’s not that bad to murder the President. We should give them another chance.

  55. Iron Lung
    Posted July 17, 2018 at 8:15 am | Permalink

    “Yeah, I guess it’s not that bad to murder the President.”

    lol

    All of the same people that were there in 1963…. ARE STILL THERE because…. well, lizard people life extension through adrenochrome.

  56. Iron Lung
    Posted July 17, 2018 at 8:18 am | Permalink

    “JH, I think we should “kow tow” to the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, N. Koreans, Vietnamese, Nicaraguans, Salvadorians, Syrians, Haitians, Chileans and various Africans who have been victimized by US corporate/military imperialism and beg forgiveness for the millions who have died in the name of US exceptionalism.”

    This statement is actually dumber than anything the Kushlord could ever come up with

    “various Africans”

    The wobblie is clearly ignorant on, for example, the history of the DPRK, but can’t even be bothered to parse out the African continent.

    “they all look the same to me”

    lol

  57. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted July 17, 2018 at 8:27 am | Permalink

    You should volunteer to have your pineal extracted. It would be an honor for you to serve your masters and no one would have to deal with you anymore. Everyone wins.

  58. CNN's Zachary Cohen
    Posted August 21, 2018 at 11:54 am | Permalink

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Bob Corker says Congress has still not been briefed on the details of Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki. That summit happened more than a month ago.

  59. EOS
    Posted August 21, 2018 at 7:33 pm | Permalink

    https://www.reddit.com/r/greatawakening/comments/98yduw/connnecting_some_dots/

3 Trackbacks

  1. […] the big day. Following almost immediately on the heals of last week’s big announcement about the grand jury indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for committing acts of cyber…, Donald Trump had more than ample opportunity to cancel this morning’s private one-on-one […]

  2. […] When Donald Trump traveled to Iceland a month ago to meet in private with Russian dictator Vladimir …, causing an uproar among leaders of both parties, Paul was one of the few in Congress to come forward to praise the President. And he’s spoken out against the Mueller investigation on several occasions, attributing it to what he calls “Trump derangement syndrome,” and saying that “special prosecutors have too much power and that we really shouldn’t have them.” And, as we now know, when he left for Russia about nine days ago, Paul carried with him a letter, written by Donald Trump, to give to Putin’s representatives upon landing. […]

  3. […] the big day. Following almost immediately on the heels of last week’s big announcement about the grand jury indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for committing acts of cyber…, Donald Trump had more than ample opportunity to cancel this morning’s private one-on-one […]

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