Despite the anti-Mueller propaganda blitz, the majority of Americans still favor his efforts:
56% of Americans think Trump's public statements on the Russia probe have been mostly or completely falseThirty-four percent means that the only people who are buying the Fox party line are the Trumpian hard core. That said, 47% approval is dangerously low; we can't let the number drop further. Fox propaganda can have a subtle effect on the thinking of average citizens who don't necessarily vote Republican. People start to think: "There must be something genuinely reeky about that person they are attacking, even if I can't specify what that something is."
47% of Americans approve of Mueller's handling of the Russia probe vs. 34% who disapprove
Here's the problem: While most Americans understand that Fox is slanted, they do not yet understand that Fox lies.
It's time for Democrats to apply some variant of the "fake news" sobriquet to Fox.
First to go. The Palmer Report believes that the first head on the chopping block will be FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
For weeks, Fox News and other pro-Trump propaganda outlets have been falsely accusing Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe of being some kind of secret operative for Hillary Clinton. This is based on no evidence of any kind, but that never matters to these types. Trump has eagerly bought into this conspiracy and has launched Twitter attacks on McCabe several times. In Trump’s delusional mind, it’s McCabe who’s somehow really out to get him, as he continues to believe that Hillary is somehow the architect of his demise from afar.There has to be a deeper reason for this barrage of anti-McCabe paranoia. A tactical reason. He doesn't have any direct power over Mueller. So...what is it? Exactly how would the destruction of McCabe aid Trump's chances of survival?
This week Donald Trump has also begun taking shots at McCabe on Twitter. Congressman Trey Gowdy, a corrupt Trump shill, couldn’t contain his excitement and ended up bragging to the media that he believes McCabe will be fired soon.
For days now, I've presumed that Rosenstein would be yanked during the Christmas holiday. Now I'm not so sure. Maybe I've made an insufficient check of the right-wing blogosphere (can you blame me for limiting my time there? That place is toxic), but there seem to be relatively few calls for Rosenstein's execution, compared to the mob demanding McCabe's blood.
Bannon. This piece on Steve Bannon is bizarre for any number of reasons, but I was particularly struck by this passage:
The siege on Roy Moore’s campaign continued. The previous day, Ivanka Trump told the Associated Press “there’s a special place in hell for people who prey on children.” Bannon was incredulous she’d make the comment. “What about the allegations about her dad and that 13-year-old?” he said, referring to the California woman who alleged Trump raped her when she was a teen (the suit has since been dropped.)I've always presumed that the "Katie Johnson" suit was a fake created by Team Trump, intended to deflect attention from the real sexual misdeeds in Trump's past. Yet Bannon's comment makes sense only if one presumes that the suit had validity.
Does it? Have I been wrong about this matter all along?
I heard an interview with Gloria Allred recently which convinced me that she sincerely believes in Katie. Allred insisted that her firm vets all such cases before taking them on. I'd like to know just how this one was vetted.
Of course, the fact that Allred believed Katie doesn't mean that we need to take Katie seriously.
Still...I'm starting to wonder...
Purity of Essence, Peace on Earth. Finally, a message from Kurt Eichenwald:
Remember: All the Nader voters preened about their purity. Then, reckless tax cuts, wars and they grew up. Now they all go "How could I have been so stupid?" The same will happen to the people who refused to meaningfully participate in 2016.
When they face consequences of knowingly deciding to play no role in the direction of government, they have to accept responsibility for treating voting as irrelevant to future govnt policy, but is about "statements." Voting for someone who cant win is narcissism.....I'll add this: The candidate you think is so freakin' "impure" is probably a lot better than you think -- while Bernie Sanders is as pure as an overfilled septic tank.
It all comes down to propaganda. Young people think that they can't be fooled by it. Oh yes they can. Hell, they're the easiest to hornswoggle.
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Could be the case that Trump will fire McCabe because he's the easiest one to fire. Don't forget that Trump is ultimately a coward and is afraid of firing someone that will cause real consequences against him. Firing Rosenstein will cause real outcry while firing McCabe will not. It's probably all being done just to appease his base.
The problem with the "purity left" are not the young people. Young people being "pure" is a given. It's those who never grow out of it and/or exploit the idealism of young people for their own purpose e.g. Bernie Sanders.
SITE - Israeli military veteran Rita Katz's terrorism intelligence agency that is the main "qualifier" of Al Qaeda and Daesh videos in the western media - are warning of the possibility that Daesh will carry out murderous attacks against Christian and Christmas-themed events and locations in the near future.
OK, that link does go to a piece in the Daily Mail, a rightwing rag that specialises in scaring British people, especially those aged over 50, that squatters might start living in their houses when they go on holiday, black people might leap out at them from behind bushes, immigrants might pee all over their Christmas pudding, etc. BUT...that doesn't mean that circumstances are NOT such that murderous terrorist attempts against such targets are likely in the near future. I had already reached the conclusion that they are. Recent developments in the politics of Britain and Germany and on the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) status issue have hardly been explained properly. It feels to me that we are in a short lull. The horrendousness of terrorism, the murder of innocents, can appear even greater when acts are carried out at times and places when many are full of goodwill towards people in general. Be vigilant!
And remember: Jesus was a Palestinian refugee!
The sudden transition of the republican leadership to a disgusting and humiliating pose of groveling to, and brown nosing Donald Trump is shocking. The possibility that they were planning on impeachment, while trying to placate the insane Donald until he signed the tax bill in January seemed reasonable. But Trump just signed the tax bill. What now?
As he's steadily worked to dismantle the U.S. foreign services, I've come to believe that Rex Tillerson is being blackmailed by Russia to do their bidding. Suddenly the entire republican leadership are now enthusiastically slipping their tongues up Donald Trump's asshole. And Trump just signed the tax bill.
Last night, Joy Reid had on a regular guest (I can't find the link) with knowledge of intelligence practices. She thought that during their sycophantic speeches, both Mike Pence and Orin Hatch seemed afraid. So she called it... The Russians have dirt on all of these guys. The entire republican leadership is being blackmailed into submission. Our country in a very dangerous situation.
Back in the late 80's early 90's someone I knew called Gloria Allred on behalf of their girlfriend. The 'vetting" process consisted of a 5,000 dollar retainer before going forward. Perhaps very high profile cases are treated differently.
I don't know if they have changed since then but over the years on a couple of occasions I have tried to reach out to other attorneys and have found their vetters to be lacking. I can feel the pressure they are under to truly throw out 99% of the calls and hone in on the 1% that are the most likely to result in a win.
In my opinion the vetting process in general is not about how much of a victim a person may have been, it's about whether or not the case is winnable and also billable to either the client or the opposition.
Blackmail plain and simple. Straight from the old KGB playbook.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/authoritarianism-expert-russia-hacked-lindsey-grahams-personal-emails-so-trump-may-be-blackmailing-him/
And a lot of the "dependable" journalists of the left (Robert Parry, Mike Whitney I'm pointing at you) have been falling over backwards trying to discredit the Trump-Russia collusion story. Tells me they're compromised somehow.
And hackers demonstrate the vulnerability of electronic currencies, causing the value of Bitcoin to crash just as China is set to introduce the new gold backed yuan to the world.
This is a massive intelligence operation that is unfolding before our eyes.
Pee Pee Gate is a side show. What's more shocking... Hookers peeing on a mattress, or Donald making a pig of himself?
Donald Trump has been traveling to Russia since 1987.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/19/trump-first-moscow-trip-215842
2001 Howard stern Interview of Donald Trump
https://www.gq.com/story/howard-stern-donald-trump-russia-brag
Trump: I assume A.J.’s clean. I hope he’s clean.
Benza: Meanwhile, he bangs Russian people…
Stern: Russian people?
Trump: Who are you talking about, Russian people, A.J.? I don’t know anything.
Benza: He used to call me when I was a columnist and say, “I was just in Russia, the girls have no morals, you gotta get out there.” [Trump’s] out of his mind.
It's ridiculous to even entertain the notion that the Russians don't have film of Donald going whole hog. Russian intelligence would have had girls knocking on Trump's hotel room door every night he was there.
Trump's "fortune" is based upon Russian money laundering. Russia holds enough financial evidence on Trump to put him away for multiple life times.
Donald Trump has been blackmailed.
And Donald is acting guilty as hell. Donald Trump is Putin's bitch. Our President is an asset of Russian Intelligence. And we are at war.
Russian sixth Generation Warfare
Democratic Party leadership needs to recognize that WE ARE AT WAR and unanimously call for Al Franken to retain his senate seat, acknowledging that he was probably victim of a political hit job by Russian operatives.
Fox News is Trump News is Russia's News
Add Ray McGovern and Sy Hersch to that list. Doesn't mean they didn't speak truth in the past, but seems pretty obvious that like a mob boss, Putin has called in a debt. Or blackmail.
Journalists need to publicly question individual republican leaders, "Are you being blackmailed?" Answer carefully. The truth will come out. Recognize that your life is already destroyed. Do you want to be remembered as a "dirty patriot", or despised as a "lying traitor"?
I'll never forgive Kirsten Gillibrand for trying to advance her career by throwing Al Franken under the bus.
Set aside the sexual inquisitions and focus on this... WE ARE AT WAR . The United States is now under greater threat than in World War Two. No one is putting up a serious public fight, because the only opposition party is too busy purging itself. Putin now has us fighting amongst ourselves.
We are at war and the commander in chief is a servant of Vladmir Putin.
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RUSSIAN SIXTH GENERATION WARFARE
The topic is discussed starting at 5:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BctgKJXBdd0
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We need community more than we need preppers.
Where will the National Guard stand when the time comes?
Maybe this didn't go through last night... Maybe Joseph decided not to post it.
Russian Sixth Generation Warfare
This is how wars are now fought. Our whole society is being played. We are at war with Russia at this very moment, but nobody sees it for what it is. Putin realizes that the whole world now knows that he brought Trump to power. So he has nothing to lose by going for broke. This show is just getting started. Putin is practiced in judo... Play off your opponent's momentum and weakness'. Blackmail is the ultimate in political judo. And Vladmir wrote the book!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1556434456/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3486221407&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8rl8vpmlza_e
Through Trump's election and the liberation of Syria, Putin has already destroyed the United State's standing in the world.
The election campaign and presidency of Donald Trump has ripped apart the fabric of our society. He is calling for the restructuring of the FBI. The rule of law is threatened. Science is is under attack from within. Our populace is now divided between authoritarians and those wanting checks upon the power of state. The republican leadership has been blackmailed into publicly licking Donald Trump's ass. The democrats are focused on sexual issues while the house burns down around them.
I grew up in gun culture reading American Rifleman. The gun industry promoted sporting arms, for hunting and target shooting. As our society became more urbanized, the states sold fewer hunting licenses, and manufacturers changed focus to self defense weapons... and with the growth of militias, military arms. Our population is armed for insurrection... well at least the authoritarian right. The NRA is now a far right political group calling for blood. It has been co-opted by Russia. At some point, somebody is going to call for true believers to kill the libtards.
Remember, Ivana Trump said that Donald had never read a book, cover to cover, in his life. But he did keep a copy of Adolf Hitler's speeches on his bedside table, which he studied every night.
Recognize that Fascism and Russian are no longer mutually exclusive.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-submarines-are-prowling-around-vital-undersea-cables-its-making-nato-nervous/2017/12/22/d4c1f3da-e5d0-11e7-927a-e72eac1e73b6_story.html?utm_term=.3af59738cdbb
There's always the possibility that a long dependable informant or two, can pass misinformation to a journalist.
Got to wonder where the checks and balances are in the famous US constitution if a President can fire someone from an investigation that might lead him to lay a criminal charge against the President. That sounds more like monarchy than republicanism.
I hope some in the US are making the point that executive presidency is a load of cack.
This is how wars between superpowers are now fought.
Axios had some notes on the Washington Post Article; Kremlin Trolls Burned Across the Internet as Washington Debated Options
"It's not about supporting President Trump. Instead, Russia's goal is all about sowing discord in American society in order to distract the United States from reacting to Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions."
Donald Trump is a tool in the bigger operation to neuter and break apart the United States. Putin wants the U.S. reduced to a condition of worldwide political and economic insignificance... and America's military significance will follow. Trump is an amazingly useful and effective tool for sowing discord. U.S. society has never been more divided, since the Civil War. It's as if he has the demonic power to raise all the hidden evils and wrongs of America up out of the shadows to run amok.
But useful as Trump may be, he is ultimately disposable if it seems the better option. And Trump going down with a fight would sow a lot of discord. The longer and bloodier the battle the better. But the ultimate goal is balkanization.
From the Post Article;
"The Russians are taking advantage of “seams between our policies, our laws and our bureaucracy,” said Austin Branch, a former Defense Department official who specialized in information operations."
We are a society that emphasizes free access to a wide range of information. We have strong laws restricting government snooping on citizen communications. We consider these our strengths, but these laws prove ineffective against skilled con men and devoted (not just willing) marks. We've created an accessible information superhighway into every American household. And American culture is crazy. We believe countless aliens walk the streets amongst us. American culture has gone in a million different directions as we each search for a group to give us an identity to help express our individualism.
So Russia doesn't want to meet us head to head on the battlefield. That would unify us. That's a waste of Russian energy and resources as well as being unsafe. Russia can just poke and prod where it's safe, easy and effective. Like floods of trolls on Facebook and comments sections of blogs and on news items. Putin just stole the idea from Obama's 2008 campaign. And Russia will keep propping up Trump as long as he's useful.
Washington Post;
"U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies saw some warning signs of Russian meddling in Europe and later in the United States but never fully grasped the breadth of the Kremlin's ambitions. Top U.S. policymakers didn't appreciate the dangers, then scrambled to draw up options to fight back. In the end, big plans died of internal disagreement, a fear of making matters worse or a misguided belief in the resilience of American society and its democratic institutions."
Our system of government was not set up to deal with this. The checks and balances between branches were designed to hamper action. If the head of the Executive Branch is working under the direction of Russia, and half the Legislative Branch is a willing accomplice, our legal system has no way to cope. With just the emoluments clause of the constitution, Trump has demonstrated that the law does not apply to him. A good portion of the populace agrees. And if the law gets close, Putin can throw rocks in the road that nobody ever would have expected. This is just getting started.
“We should have every expectation that what we witnessed last year is not a one-shot deal,” said Douglas E. Lute, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO. “The Russians are onto something. They found a weakness, and they will be back in 2018 and 2020 with a more sophisticated and targeted approach.”
It's true that we simply are not ready for the next election. The republicans are accomplices with Trump in stalling any change. But the focus on Russia returning for the next election is misguided. Russia never left.
Comment sections are still full of trolls. Scrolling YouTube presents a cacophony of conspiracies. Who is pushing all these? The efforts to clutter the discourse on climate change and almost any scientific subject is astounding. It's actually an attack upon rational thought. What does it do to a society, to encourage the most ignorant to believe that their opinion on scientific subjects is just as valid as a trained scientist? Did vicious rightist trolling during the election push the Overton Window closer to fascism? What do the trolls say on the websites too ugly for most of us to read? How far has their window moved? This operation which just encourages the worst of our culture, is still unfolding.
United States society is uniquely vulnerable to disruption, and these weaknesses are being targeted. It's the easiest way for Putin to take down the US. This is war. Missiles aren't flying, but this is war. It's already up and rolling.
There have been accounts of critical infrastructure having been probed by hackers. When the time comes that Russia needs things in the states to get crazier, we can have the distribution of heating gas or the electric grid go down, or the internet, or maybe the stock exchange. Everything's done digitally now. Everything can be hacked. Our society is uniquely vulnerable, technologically, economically, and culturally.
This is how wars between superpowers are now fought. We are at war this very moment.
Russian Sixth Generation Warfare and Recent Developments Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 9 Issue: 17
https://jamestown.org/program/russian-sixth-generation-warfare-and-recent-developments/#.VbAo3flVhBc
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