Having endured the "Death by a Thousand Cuts" ordeal now known by the name "Watergate" I realize how difficult it can be to make sense of the significance and meaning of yesterday's testimony by FBI director, James Comey, and NSA chief, Admiral Mike Rogers.
This video helps to put those events in perspective.
9 comments:
Bib of an aside, Mound. Did you listen to this: "'I'm boiling with anger': 97-year-old Nuremberg prosecutor won't give up on peace"
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-march-21-2017-1.4032985/i-m-boiling-with-anger-97-year-old-nuremberg-prosecutor-won-t-give-up-on-peace-1.4033000
Ferencz is amazingly articulate for a 97-year-old and well worth listening to. I'm sure he has no use for Trump.
Anon, you're pathetic and you have no place here. Adios, asshole.
Moanin' Joe and Meatpuppet used to be Trump's fluffers during the election - so much so that Joe was accused of being in the tank for Don the Con. But when those cabinet positions they seemed to be angling for didn't work out, boom! Still, I'm surprised to see Joe so critical of his former Republican colleagues.
Cap
"Trump is a liar but that’s not the whole truth: Salutin
The spies are lying, too. It's what they do." ...wise words in the Toronto Star.
Sorry but this ain't the 1970's when there was still a semblance of democracy in the USA. Get used to Trump - he ain't going nowhere for at least 4 years. His scandal-ettes provide useful distractions for the oligarchs.
Glenn Greenwald:
"Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence."
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/16/key-democratic-officials-now-warning-base-not-to-expect-evidence-of-trumprussia-collusion/
PLG:
GG is NOT credible on this issue, period. Why anyone who claims to be a serious person sees him as anything other than a useful idiot of Russia (at best) when it comes to this matter of Russia's clear corruption of the US elections and the use of WikiLeaks and people like GG as well as the likelihood of active collusion with team Trump and Russia on the timing of release of said hacked emails is beyond reason and rationality to me.
I might also add that GG is not a liberal in any meaningful sense of the word, so watching hard leftists cite him as some sort of authoritative and definitive counter-argument is particularly sick to me. It seems you all are more worried about corporate takeovers from American/western multinationals than you are by Russia, Putin, and the Russian versions of corporate Citizens aka oligarchs who make our western corporate masters seem like angels by comparison doing so. Well some of us find the Russia actions to be far more of a direct threat, not least because of the weaponization of Viral Deception, and the willingness of far too many to swallow it uncritically. You being one of those, sad to say.
General:
What Comey did was surprising, and important, period. This is *NOT* politics as usual, it is in my view far worse than WaterGate, and not by a small margin either. One of the most disturbing things Comey said was that the Russians were "unusually loud" in what they did here, as if they were advertising it, and STILL people want to claim there is no there there, especially on the far left. I was noting that loudness last summer with great concern and alarm, only to be told I was being duped by red baiters and being propagandized by them and missing the real problems with Wall Street banker controlling everything instead.
This kind of reality disconnect is why many centrists will not trust the far left with real national governing power especially security issues, because that level of delusion is little better than that on the right, as we are seeing in the GOP Congress (Freedom caucus) as well as the most obvious example, President Trump.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Scotian, Scotian. YOU are not credible on this issue, period--speaking of "useful idiots". If you imagine that the main weaponizer of "viral deception" in the world is Russia you are far too naive, perhaps wilfully, to be discussing the issue. As to the allegations about Russia hacking the election, I might be willing to believe it if anyone were willing to say, "Here is the evidence". But bald assertions cut little ice with me. It would also be more credible if those advancing the narrative would allege what they are actually alleging. The actual claim seems to be that Russia was instrumental in making public some emails of the DNC which show the DNC to have been engaging in questionable conduct--and that in exposing the American public to the truth about what some of the politicians running for office were doing, this caused some members of the American public to vote against the key politician involved. It is unclear just how unethical this would really be if they had done it, but even if we say it's reprehensible, it is quite different from "hacking an election". "Hacking an election" is where you go into those Diebold voting machines and change the tallies, something that has fairly clearly happened in some states in, for instance, the Bush vs. Kerry, but generally done by Republicans, not Russians. The repeated shrill cries have in fact given a whole lot of people the impression that hacking voting machines or similar is what is actually being alleged and that the Russians actually did that. And the ones saying it, frankly, for the most part know that full well and are going for precisely that effect. With that lack of ethics fully on display, it's not much of a surprise to find the same people ignoring the claims of the people who actually publicized the emails about how it happened, while privileging the claims of known liars who advance no evidence. Really, "CIA/NSA guys who have records of lying to Senate committees whenever it suits them say it's maybe so but won't say why" does not constitute evidence of anything except which direction the political winds are blowing.
Yes, Russia has wealthy, shady, corporate oligarchs--who literally did not exist until the US actively fostered them in the 90s. But while Putin no doubt has some ties to them, the chief US complaint about Putin is more that his ties to such people are too limited than too great. They loved Yeltsin precisely because Yeltsin was in kleptocrats' pockets and completely corrupt and bribable.
And those Russian plutocrats are nasty people; it would surely be better for the Russian people if their assets were confiscated and they were put in jail, perhaps better for London homeowners as well. But in terms of their impact on the world in general and North America in particular relative to the impact of North American money elites, consider getting real. Russia's GDP is smaller than Canada's, what are their rich people supposed to be doing to us?
PLG:
I know this is way late, but I did not say/writ the elections were hacked (the DNC and Podesta, yes, the elections, no), I said they were CORRUPTED by Russia's actions and involvement. That you cannot even read this basic a point while castigating my credibility or lack thereof in your view, well, again, you show why you are a useful idiot. Especially when you go off on this voting machines hacking tangent, which has nothing to do with anything I said nor wrote nor even implied.
Really, anymore straw in that reply and spontaneous combustion would be a very real risk from the friction in the spinning it was being used for.
I also notice that you failed to actually deal with reality once again, nor did you deal at all with the very real points I raised about GG, his actual ideology, and the very real questions regarding whose interests he is actually serving here, beyond of course whatever his own personal ones are, and frankly, that you and those like you give him such trust, well you show yourselves yet again for being unserious people in the real world.
So on that note, and in general, you seriously need to dial down the personal hystrionics whenever you reply to me, it simply shows just what kind of person, and what kind of lack of rebuttal you actually have and are.
Post a Comment