Putin takes over the U.S. Senate

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most powerful man in the world.
How do I know that? CNN said so.
Not only that, Vladimir Putin has a plan for destroying the West—and that plan looks a lot like Donald Trump.

Are you terrified yet?
Are you pissing your pants while cowering in your closet, crying for your mommy?

Good. Because Putin has taken over another branch of our government - the Senate.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona attacked fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on Wednesday, accusing him of doing the bidding of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I pointed out last week that the Democrats are lovin them some McCain, so guess who people at TOP endorsed in this dispute?
I'll give you one guess.

We may as well surrender now. Nothing can stop Putin.
At this rate next month he'll control every level of government in America, right down to city dog catcher.
I'd be working for Putin already if I knew how to sign up? Does anyone know how to sign up?

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OK, so although I can't remember where Montenegro is, I want to be aware of what John McCain is talking about, and apparently a Russian agent tried to kill the leader of Montenegro and prevent it from being part of NATO.

Even so, here's to Rand Paul!

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CB's picture

@Linda Wood
I believe it is much too amateurish to have come from the Kremlin. Besides, such an assassination would not have produced the purported ends. The entire crapfest benefits the US and NATO propaganda. The western MSM is having a field day with this.

https://warisboring.com/did-rogue-russian-agents-plot-a-coup-in-monteneg...

Did Rogue Russian Agents Plot a Coup in Montenegro?
Tiny Balkan country’s accession to NATO remains controversial
...
According to Montenegrin Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic, the plotters had acquired police special forces uniforms and intended to storm the Montenegrin parliament. Then a sharpshooter would assassinate Djukanovic and the group would install an anti-NATO government.
...
Katnic later described some of the conspirators as “Russian nationalists,” but claimed there was no evidence of ties to the Russian state. The opposition Democratic Front party scoffed that the abortive coup plot was “contrived and fabricated” to scare up support on election day.

For its part, the Kremlin denied involvement in “arranging any illegal actions” in Montenegro. Certainly some of the notoriously corrupt Montenegrin government’s allegation did seem fishy, but subsequent developments in Serbia soon cast a different light altogether on the incident.
...

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Alligator Ed's picture

@CB @CB should see physicians because of their unverified delusions: ideas that have no factual basis yet are firmly held by the believer(s). That would apply to most of the Corpradems and apparently also to the devolving denizens of GOS.

The citation about the plan by Putin to destroy the West is very dangerous because it does contain facts, not alternative facts, about Trump's dealings with Russia. It would be sensible for Trump as a businessman to not kill off what is alleged to be a Russian cash cow, but to continue doing this post-election definitely violates the Emoluments Clause. Trump is greedy.

But the narrative of the long tirade is filled with as much unverified crap which Medusa and DWS and Deprecated Donna have been spewing. The only real truth I found in the article about Russian interference in American politics are the past business ties (possibly still ongoing).

In the end, we only have circumstantial evidence about the Russian efforts to shape this election

Putin is smart enough to see that his direct intervention in Western politics is unnecessary. He is watching with suppressed delight in dissolution of the EU (gjohnsit, give me your guess for that date please; mine is late 2018--if we live that long).

The other thing which Putin is wisely doing is not to directly affect our American turmoil which might cause backlash against Russia on a more unified basis. Instead he can watch:
A. The Repugnants tear themselves into Trumpistas, Never-Trumpers, and Rand Paul Libertarians.
B. The Dumbocrats cease being a political force due to ongoing depletion of legislative and executive seats in Congress and State governments.

Hell, he probably has his feet up on a desk, drinking Vodka, watching us destroy ourselves on RT.

Edited to add "not"

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@CB

Wierd little pair that they are.

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dervish's picture

@Sunspots Response to McCain, it's epic!

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

boriscleto's picture

@Linda Wood There is a saying in Montenegro. "The Serbs will fight until the last Montenegrin is dead"...

The Serbs started the First World War. It would be just like them to start the third...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

snoopydawg's picture

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

snoopydawg's picture

Paul and I can't believe that no one would say something to McCain for attacking Paul like that.

You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin... trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject of an attempted coup.” McCain continued: “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin and I do not say that lightly.”

The hypocrisy of our government knows no bounds does it? Obama and others in our government kept saying that they needed to sanction Russia because of its aggressions, but I never heard that Russia was invading countries or committing coups. I would think that if they had done those things then our media would be covering it 24/7 don't you?
The people on DK who are backing up McCain are just down right ridiculous. That site has so completely jumped the shark, it's totally unrecognizable to me anymore.
First they were praising the worst president ever because he said something about Trump. They have forgotten that this was the person who illegally destroyed Iraq and decided that renditions to countries that they knew would torture people, decided that water boarding wasn't torture because it didn't cause lasting damage to organs and that the Geneva conventions didn't apply to them because they weren't 'real' soldiers, they were enemy combatants.
Now McCain is their hero because he chastised someone who spoke out against how many countries this country is bombing.
There is one person who keeps calling people out on their praising McCain and he is getting hammered by comments such as this one;

— but the sight of Russian tanks and trucks rolling through ANY other country should make us think more of Hitler into Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia — or Soviets into Hungary — more, more, more!
It’s a law of nature. When the bully goes too far, you have to stop the bully. Otherwise, the bully gets bolder. Where do we draw the line?
The real question — What kind of world do we want? We can out-smart, out-gun, out-earn, out-create, innovate and develop the bad guys, every day of the year. “Winning the peace” is eminently possible — and superior to every other outcome. But sometimes that means defending the meek from the greedy and powerful, who don’t really NEED to take away somebody else’s rights and freedoms, they just WANT to.
Wow — that sounds a lot like our new “president” — doesn’t it?

For the love of Dawg! Which country is putting tanks and other military equipment along with thousands of troops in countries that surround Russia

But sometimes that means defending the meek from the greedy and powerful, who don't really NEED to take away somebody else's rights and freedoms, they just WANT to.

I have no idea how to respond to that type of thinking.
JFCOAWSTICK!

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@snoopydawg

They do project a lot, don't they?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

is another great guy if he says something bad about Trump.
How low are people going to allow themselves to go as long as they can keep up the narrative that Trump is doing what Putin wants him to do?

I meant to write about how our country played Yetlzin after he agreed to "tear down that wall"!
Bush had no intention of keeping the agreement with Russia that if they allowed Germany to reunify then they wouldn't expand NATO and what Bush said about the agreement. He said that he had no intention of keeping the promise. Here's part of what he said and the link to the article.

The conditionality of the Soviet Union’s agreement to allow East Germany to be taken by West Germany and for the Cold War to end, was that NATO would not expand “one inch to the east.” This was the agreement that was approved by the Russian President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, a great man and a subsequent hero to democrats around the world. He agreed then to end the Soviet Union and abandon communism and thus to end the entire Cold War; he agreed to this because he had been promised that NATO would expand not “one inch to the east,” or “one inch eastward,” depending upon how the promise was translated and understood — but it has the same meaning, no matter how it was translated. He trusted American President George Herbert Walker Bush, whose friend and Secretary of State James Baker made this promise to Gorbachev. With this promise, Gorbachev agreed to end the Soviet Union; end the communist mutual-defense pact which was their own equivalent of NATO, the Warsaw Pact; and he believed that the remaining nation that he would then be leading, which was Russia, would be accepted as being a Western democracy. He was even promised by the United States that “we were going to make them a member [of NATO], we were–observer first and then a member.” In other words: the U.S. promised that NATO would not extend up to the borders of Russia and so become a mortal threat to the national security of the Russian people — now isolated and separated from its former military allies. Instead, Gorbachev was told, Russia would itself become welcomed into the Western Alliance, and ultimately become a NATO member. That was the deal, ending the 46-year Cold War.

Russia kept its part of the bargain. The United States did not; the U.S. instead lied through its teeth and so has since expanded NATO to absorb former member-nations of the Warsaw Pact into NATO as being, now, an anti-Russian military alliance — exactly what the U.S. had promised would never happen. U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush in private told West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (who had wanted to go along with what James Baker had arranged): “To hell with that! We prevailed, they didn’t.” He didn’t want peace with Russia; he wanted to conquer it; he wanted to rub Russians’ noses in their inferiority to Americans.

And it's Russia who is being the aggressor, right?
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/how-america-double-crossed-russia...

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@snoopydawg

Typical psychopathic criminal mindset... Russia keeps its word, the US lies and breaks theirs, but the honest one is 'inferior'. No wonder the whole corporate two-party mess deteriorated even further from there, once those standards were condoned...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

mimi's picture

and advocate to send back all the Russian imported Vodka to Putin as a sign of solidarity with McCain..
Udder chaos: Turkey deports Dutch cows in strange show of solidarity with Erdogan - Published time: 15 Mar, 2017 23:08
Who is the better ruminant, McCain or the "Holstein Cows" (which by the way originate from my home turf "Schleswig Holstein" in Germany and the Dutch have stolen adopted them.) Wink

Here is the timeline of Trump's sinful dates with Putin's Russia.
A Timeline: Russia and President Trump

Putin should send more beautiful Russian girls to the US f0r good and McCain should send more Senators to Russia for good ...that would be a real good Trump deal and find the President's approval.

Sorry, gjohnsit, I just woke up and can't digest the news in the morning without hick-ups.

Ok,I have to get serious, get up and do some more garden work to clean out the jungle in my backyard.

Have a good day, all.

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@mimi there are many Holsteins around Sonoma County, I love the ranches that paint their fencing black and white to match their cows. Good dairy. One thing I still enjoy is cheese, there are a couple of local factories left. I can't afford imported cheese anymore, but I remember what it was like. Mmm, Parmigiano Reggiano when I was hipster I would grate it on everything. Lucky! /grateful

Thanks I got a laugh from your ruminant question, reminded me of this weird godzilla moment:
Huffington Post image
that always sends me in to a rock jam

peace
Edited: oops forgot the quote that speaks.
"History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man, Godzilla!"

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@eyo

on the money, so to speak.

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@eyo

Lol, makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes, can't find an example but I recall seeing that posture and face in the strip.

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes

(This just came up in my Muse-fest - posting it because it so fits the fact that these lunatics all have to be stopped...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydGrJ0DjyQ0&list=RDydGrJ0DjyQ0#t=185

Muse - Unsustainable [MUSIC VIDEO] Alternative Version

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@mimi

Actually, I think we all need all of the vodka we can get right now. It's the fruitcakes in public office who are having a cow... do wish they'd rumun-ate...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Pluto's Republic's picture

It's an amazing thing to see.

Technology emerged just in time to capture it for the future.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

Only thing is, what future? Assuming any power sources continue for a while, will the rusting robots remaining care to view what happened?

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Well I sorta do. In the evening blues there was a link to TOP regarding Tulsi and her bill that would stop the funding and arming of AQ's allies in Syria, dam near threw up reading the comments. The calls for primarying her for being ''extreme right wing'' were nonstop. Decided to go over there and write a diary. McCain was on the front page, decided to read it, as well as take a look at the comments, big mistake. I have been in my own bubble for a few years, sticking to Naked Capitalism, Counterpunch, Telesur etc. Your average dem is far to the right of Bush now. I've noticed most dems using the exact same god dam language republicans used justify the Iraq invasion to justify intervention in Syria and for escalation of tensions with Russia. I knew it was over. I felt betrayed sure, saddened? of course, but I quickly came to terms with the fact that this is the way it is and will always be, the MIC will always win, and sadly your average dem voter is just as stupid as your average republican voter. But nothing could prepare me for the comments section regarding McCain calling Paul a tool of Putin. 180, it's so god dam bizarre to see how much that place fliped from anti PNAC to pro PNAC.

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Solidarity forever

@Akze

Policy Institute first worked for the Democratic Leadership Council. He signed the PNAC letter urging Bush to invade Iraq. How progressive was that?

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@Akze TOP does reveal one thing unfortunately. Establishment, neoliberal, and now neocon democrats do have a base of supporters. This base may not be the majority of the party, but is big enough to elect Tom Perez as DNC chair. Add in the element of cheating, and they have a grip on the democrats which at this point, cannot be overcome. However, some of that base, particularly black and Hispanic voters did have some amount of buyer's remorse given the lower levels of turn out during the general election.

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@MrWebster regarding Russia and foreign policy, and the comments made on mainstream dem sites, I would have to say they are with out a doubt the majority. American exceptionalism is the average dems religion now.

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Solidarity forever

@Akze I think a recent poll of Americans regarding Russians puts them at the same rating as N. Korea if I remember correctly. Propaganda works.

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In response to statements made by Vice Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul J. Selva about Russia "violating" the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty:

Such statements are certainly disappointing. As you know, this is not a new story. An informed person representing the military leadership of a major country should have known better. In particular, he could have finally explained what exactly they consider our “violations” to be and how they came to this conclusion.

However, this is not the first time that public accusations of Russia’s non-compliance with the INF Treaty ​​are not backed up by any evidence. They seem to be following what has already become a familiar pattern – making claims and immediately evading any specificity.

We have repeatedly affirmed our commitment to the INF. We explained to the US side that all missile tests in Russia are in compliance with the Treaty. During all negotiations, consultations and meetings we asked them to list Russia’s specific actions that are causing concern in Washington. Invariably, we got little in response except vague proposals to guess what they meant. This hardly seems like a serious approach.

Indicatively, though, the Americans are threatening to retaliate for Russia’s mythical violations with certain steps of a military nature. The very fact that US representatives are persistently using such rhetoric, without bothering to bring any evidence or specific examples whatsoever, raises questions about the purpose of these false media narratives.

At the same time, the Americans stubbornly refuse to discuss our well-founded claims concerning their own compliance with the INF Treaty. I am referring to the Mk-41 vertical launching units in the Aegis Ashore ground-based anti-missile systems, which the United States has deployed in Romania and plans to deploy in Poland, and which can reasonably be considered cruise missile launchers. The large-scale programme of building ballistic missile targets for missile defence-related applications, with similar characteristics to intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, is also causing a lot of questions. In addition, the United States produces and uses unmanned combat air vehicles, which fit the definition of ground-based cruise missiles contained in the INF Treaty.

Once again, we suggest abandoning this unsubstantiated rhetoric and public accusations without specific examples in favour of a substantive dialogue aimed at addressing existing concerns and clarifying potential points of disagreement. All the mechanisms are there. We are open to such a dialogue through the appropriate channels.

Russia is looking for an objective dialog with the US. We are witnessing the window close on the biggest international prize of all -- friendship with Russia. The window is still open, but barely. The cost the actions like McCain bashing any fellow Senator who has an objective view of the world is to advance his personal cause of war everywhere, and enemies everywhere. The "West" is a small fraction of the world and becoming smaller every year. Our behavior does not isolate Russia, it isolates us.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

CB's picture

@The Wizard
TOP will soon be celebrating the entire Kagan family.

The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow
Exclusive: The neocon royalty Kagans are counting on Democrats and liberals to be the foot soldiers in the new neocon campaign to push Republicans and President Trump into more “regime change” wars, reports Robert Parry.
...
With Trump in the White House, Official Washington’s neocon-dominated foreign policy establishment was down but far from out. The neocons were tossed a lifeline by Democrats and liberals who detested Trump so much that they were happy to pick up Nuland’s fallen banner of the New Cold War with Russia. As part of a dubious scheme to drive Trump from office, Democrats and liberals hyped evidence-free allegations that Russia had colluded with Trump’s team to rig the U.S. election.

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman spoke for many of this group when he compared Russia’s alleged “meddling” to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor and Al Qaeda’s 9/11 terror attacks.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, Friedman demanded that the Russia hacking allegations be treated as a casus belli: “That was a 9/11 scale event. They attacked the core of our democracy. That was a Pearl Harbor scale event.” Both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 led to wars.

So, with many liberals blinded by their hatred of Trump, the path was open for neocons to reassert themselves.
...

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Meanwhile, back in the real world:

The Democrats Anti-Russia Campaign Falls Apart

Sanity is finally winning over. After raising all kinds of shambolic rumors about “Russian interference” the “western” intelligence agencies are walking back their previous outrageous claims:

  • Former DNI James Clapper admits (vid) that he has zero evidence for any Trump-Russia collusion;
  • The British Foreign Secretary now says there is “no evidence” of any Russian interference with British democracy;
  • The German secret services have no proof (in German) for any Russian disinformation campaign.

There is no evidence for any Russian interference in the U.S., or any other, election. No evidence has been show, despite many claims, that Russia or its proxies hacked John Podesta‘s emails or the DNC or collaborated with Wikileaks.

Even the Democrats now concede that the whole mountain of bullshit their anti-Trump and anti-Russian campaign created stinks to high heaven

So in other words . . . more fake news.

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@LoneStarMike on the wrecked list

Paul Ryan’s Super PAC proceeded to be complicit agents in Russian espionage
...
Americans need to be reminded that after Trump, Ryan is America’s #1 traitor.

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detroitmechworks's picture

I don't believe he's dead yet.

The Dems should totally drag his crypt-keeper looking face out to denounce us for giving over to Russians... snicker...

No, no wait! Kissinger's an evil Russian plotter! We haff Proof!

It makes TOTAL sense! Suddenly the guy who fled Nazis is working for the Russians! He was a mole the whole time, and that's why he supported Hillary! He was secretly working for Putin, and fooled us all!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdhhQhqi_AE]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

;-D Irony alert!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420228/bernie-sanderss-soviet-honeymoon-john-fund

... Ino Gómez, who fled Cuba in 1970, asked de Blasio in an interview about what he was thinking when he chose to violate U.S. law and spend his honeymoon in Cuba in 1991.

“What did you see in Cuba? What is your impression going on a honeymoon in a country that hasn’t had free elections in the last 50 years? What did you get from that trip?” Gómez asked.

A defensive de Blasio sputtered: “I didn’t go on a trip to study the country. I don’t pretend to have full perspective of the country.” He then acknowledged Cuba is undemocratic but praised “some good things that happened — for example, in health care.””
...

1991 retread, please proceed. One day soon the full perspective will occur.

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Big Al's picture

that John McCain is still a Senator. Sometimes I let myself wonder why the people of Arizona continue to bestow this creature on the rest of us, but then I think of Trump and Obama and how I have in effect, as an American, bestowed them upon the rest of the world.

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@Big Al "Endorsements" are like "You're Fired!" to me now. lol
McCain's broken marriage fractured other ties as well

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant but less than exuberant endorsement.

"Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op.

In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years." But that friendship was strained in the late 1970s by McCain's decision to divorce his first wife, Carol, who was particularly close to the Reagans, and within weeks marry Cindy Hensley, the young heiress to a lucrative Arizona beer distributorship.

Pardon my sexism, but that sounds familiar.

Arizona voters are Testament to the Power of Propaganda is more like it: Mishaps mark John McCain''s record as naval aviator (never been to datalounge before, they are quoting LA Times from that link).

Me, I gave DiFi waay too much endorsement after the drama of Harvey and George being murdered right there next to her office when she was on SF City Council, mayoral loser. Her testimony during some gun control legislation later on, about sticking her finger to try and stop the bleeding, it was traumatic. I'll never forget that day, just leaving the city after delivery cake to the effing financial district, no shit. I guess we are both past our due dates now, but look at her pull up the ladder as she goes toddling off. What a Democrat.

Peace

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CB's picture

failed bid for Presidency, is schooled by Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov replies that the US is "self humiliating" itself by saying another country can readily come in and "intervene in your election process".
Also, take note that Zakaria lies when he says ALL 17 intelligence agencies had "high confidence that Russia tried to alter the outcome of the elections". The NSA stated they only had "moderate confidence" and these are the guys that can track any movements on the 'nets.

Take note that the "proof" offered is due to Peskov's denial. It is painfully obvious CNN is batshit crazy. Unfortunately the Dems mow lap up this shit with obvious relish.

Zakaria looks to have been attempting to get back at Putin for being humiliated last June.

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edg's picture

@CB The most salient point is that none -- zero -- zip -- nada of those agencies conducted actual forensics on the DNC server because the DNC refused. The only "evidence" is the unsupported and specious claims by rabid anti-Russia private company Crowdstrike, the firm that the DNC hired to examine its server.

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orlbucfan's picture

was a cover of this song. They blow Barrett Strong right out of the water. No lie. Just listen to the studio version, not the live one. I own and love both versions. Wish I was computer literate enuff to link it, but there's plenty of you tech geeks on here who can. Smile

This whole Russkie deal is another corporate media distraction. The worse part is the role the BS American Exceptionalism meme plays. It's way too alive and well. It's also the root of all the successful Frightwingnut propaganda. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

orlbucfan's picture

Is it that hopeless for AZ to replace him with a younger, able-brain person?

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

edg's picture

@orlbucfan As far as I can tell, McCain has a lifetime appointment from AZ voters because he keeps the pork rolling in for our military bases and aircraft graveyards.

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CB's picture

Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media
...
But it could also be true that both the Democratic Party and many leading media outlets are making a dangerous gamble, betting their professional and political capital on the promise of future disclosures that may not come.

We have to remember that the unpopularity of the press was a key to Trump's election. Journalists helped solve the billionaire's accessibility problem by being a more hated group than the arrogant rich. Trump has people believing he shares a common enemy with them: the news media. When we do badly, he does well.

Trump calls us "enemies of the people" who purvey "fake news." Together with what vile ex-CNN turncoat Lou Dobbs calls the "global corporatists" who own the major media companies, we are said to comprise the "opposition party."

We can't afford to bolster these accusations of establishment bias and overreach by using the techniques of conspiracy theorists to push this Russia story. Unfortunately, that is happening.
...

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@CB
There are plenty of good, concrete reasons to hate and fear Trump.
They don't need to invent one.

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CB's picture

@gjohnsit
Right now the Dems are showing their true colors as the party of war and the national security state. Their masters are trying to destroy Putin because he reversed what Bill Clinton and the Dems did to Russia in the 90's (enlarge NATO, rob and pillage the economy, install a puppet, neutered the military). Putin had managed to rebuild a strong and viable Russia right under the deep state's nose and he did it against all odds on a shoestring budget.

Putin has reduced the Russian defense budget by 30% for 2017 but he will still get tens times as much bang for the buck due to less corruption, graft and pork by sticking to the absolute necessities. He runs a tight ship. The US better believe Putin when he states that the next war against Russia will not be fought on the motherland.

Meanwhile, American presidents have little to no real control over their defense budget. The US is increasing its defense offense budget by 10% and using that money to produce arms the military doesn't need or even want. The cost to the nation is staggering. Every dime going into that budget means there is that much less for the important things that the US desperately needs. In effect, pumping all this money into the defense industry is actually weakening the country just like it did at the fall of the Roman Empire. It becomes a downward spiral.

Putin understands what is required to make Russia, in the American vernacular, "Great Again". This why Putin is such a threat to America:

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@CB of their over-reach and hubris in Afghanistan - they were doing exactly what we are doing now - increasing military spending and cutting more and more from domestic until the economy collapses. I would imagine the Russian people remember that painful episode and have no wish to repeat that stupidity.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

CB's picture

@lizzyh7

Afghanistan, 1979-1992: America’s Jihad

His followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. CIA and State Department officials I have spoken with call him “scary,” “vicious,” “a fascist,” “definite dictatorship material”.

This did not prevent the United States government from showering the man with large amounts of aid to fight against the Soviet-supported government of Afghanistan. His name was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He was the head of the Islamic Party and he hated the United States almost as much as he hated the Russians. His followers screamed “Death to America” along with “Death to the Soviet Union”, only the Russians were not showering him with large amounts of aid.

The United States began supporting Afghan Islamic fundamentalists in 1979 despite the fact that in February of that year some of them had kidnapped the American ambassador in the capital city of Kabul, leading to his death in the rescue attempt. The support continued even after their brother Islamic fundamentalists in next-door Iran seized the US Embassy in Teheran in November and held 55 Americans hostage for over a year. Hekmatyar and his colleagues were, after all, in battle against the Soviet Evil Empire; he was thus an important member of those forces Ronald Reagan called “freedom fighters”.
...
Nevertheless, for decades Washington and the Shah of Iran tried to pressure and bribe Afghanistan in order to roll back Russian influence in the country. During the Daoud regime, Iran, encouraged by the United States, sought to replace the Soviet Union as Kabul’s biggest donor with a $2 billion economic aid agreement, and urged Afghanistan to join the Regional Cooperation for Development, which consisted of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. (This organization was attacked by the Soviet Union and its friends in Afghanistan as being a “branch of CENTO” the 1950s regional security pact that was part of the US policy of “containment” of the Soviet Union.) At the same time, Iran’s infamous secret police, SAVAK, was busy fingering suspected Communist sympathizers in the Afghan government and military. In September 1975, prodded by Iran which was conditioning its aid on such policies, Daoud dismissed 40 Soviet-trained military officers and moved to reduce future Afghan dependence on officer training in the USSR by initiating training arrangements with India and Egypt. Most important, in Soviet eyes, Daoud gradually broke off his alliance with the PDP, announcing that he would start his own party and ban all other political activity under a projected new constitution.
...
But the Soviet Union had bled. They had bled profusely. For the United States it had also been a holy war.

I would imagine the Russian people remember that painful episode and have no wish to repeat that stupidity.

Yes they do.

Russia slashes military spending as revenues shrink
...
Lessons from the USSR

The government’s decision to cut the defense budget has largely been driven by the example of the final years of the Soviet Union, which – despite falling oil prices – continued to boost military spending, thus sinking into a deep crisis that ultimately led to the break-up of the country.

“The main lesson in budget planning to be learnt from the budget of the final years of the USSR is the danger of excessive military spending,” says Sergei Khestanov, a macroeconomics adviser to the head of the Otkrytie Broker financial company.
...

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@CB

We can't afford to bolster these accusations of establishment bias and overreach by using the techniques of conspiracy theorists to push this Russia story. Unfortunately, that is happening.

Since the accusations of establishment bias and overreach are absolutely true, I see nothing nothing wrong with "bolstering" them. Msm are not using "the techniques of conspiracy theorists". Rather they are using the techniques of mass propaganda and information control -- the very same techniques that were successfully used to instigate and justify the invasion of Iraq. "Conspiracy theorists", however troublesome they may be, have nothing like that kind of power and influence.

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native

Strife Delivery's picture

So the scare tactics are that everyone and everything is an agent of Putin. Man, a modern day Cold War is so fun.

Well, luckily for me, I just have to log in a few more hours of commenting about how it would be a terrible idea to go to nuclear war with a nuclear superpower to be able to enroll in PPP.

Putin's Pension Plan.

At least he gives one.

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CB's picture

@Strife Delivery
AND health care AND university education from profits from Russia's oil and gas as well as other government income.

This anti-capitalist blasphemy is reason enough for the US to sanction and attempt to destroy Russia.

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@CB
It's the ENTIRE reason. Putin's moving, ever so incrementally, in the direction of Norway, which is a success for its PEOPLE, not for its BLUBBERING BILLIONAIRES, and even on the basis of the slightest move in that direction, Putin is making a strong, clear, consistent case for it in the kinds of public statements you post here, in the videos you post.

That's what's bugging the neo-con blubbering billionaire's club, common sense rearing it's reality based head on the Internet.

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into a semblance of protein for the believers in Russia's desire to take over Europe, and the world, is Crimea, the belief that Russia invaded Crimea and took it over, rather than that the Crimean people voted to leave Ukraine when we, the United States, installed a pro-Nazi government in Ukraine which launched a military operation against those who refused to recognize the new government.

Crimea is complex, and each side of the controversy here in the United States gets hysterical when we're working with partial knowledge. We need to get information that explains what happened in Crimea -- truthfully and clearly -- if we are going to persuade our colleagues, our friends, and our family members what happened. Somehow, explaining that it isn't worth nuclear war, even if it did happen the way they're being told, isn't working. Somehow, explaining that it isn't worth conventional war isn't working.

It freaks me out, baffles me, and scares me very seriously that so many Americans appear to have no understanding of what war is. Keeping it away visually from most people in our huge country has apparently made it into a video game for enormous numbers of Americans. That's a very dangerous thing, and so I am advocating posting real pictures and real video of current war and its effects on civilians as well as combatants.

I hope we will all remind our loved ones what nuclear war is, as well as what a war like the one in Syria or the Balkans is for the people on the ground. Not a game. Not over in a weekend. We might ask them; Would they wish that horrific suffering on the people of Eastern Europe or the people of Russia. Would they expect that the Russian forces would give up and let us win, rather than using nuclear weapons. We ought to ask them the question we didn't ask John McCain, Hillary Clinton, or the Obama war planners: What is the plan? Because if the plan is endless war, it is not a solution.

Even so, for whatever reason, the Putin-is-Hitler, Assad-is-Hitler, Iran-is-Hitler, tactic is very powerful if it is connected to a belief that Putin, Assad, and Iran aren't voting for the candidate you're voting for. I'm hoping truth will have a way of emerging and solving this, but it won't if we don't point it out with as much homework and effort as it takes.

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CB's picture

@Linda Wood
same family, with the same needs and dreams. It really pisses me off when those in positions of power use their propaganda and politics to divide, alienate and demonize the people.

Maybe social media like YouTube can give understanding.

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@CB
for this video and for the others you've posted. The Tartar individuals in this video express a clear sense of repression and a clear sense that where they are now is better than war, while also expressing a willingness to work toward more change.

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I can surrender to Putin, too.

Thing is, I don't see any of them as good. Not Bubba, not Hillary, not Obama, not Trump, not Putin.

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@HenryAWallace
Compared to what? is the question I think the Putin-fearing zealots fail to ask.

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@Linda Wood

That's because the answer to 'worse/worst' would be Clinton...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

This strain of propaganda goes back to the Cold War and McCarthyism, which itself is built off the anti-Jewish/Slavic propaganda of the real German Nazis. Democrats and the main stream media talk about the Russians in the same way that Trump talks about Muslims and Mexicans. Only they add in the world conspiracy themes of European antisemitism. I believe this is what got to Masha Gessen when she wrote her article attacking the Putin conspiracies. Being a Jew and Russian, she saw the themes that have echoed through European history for a long time. And one of these themes is that Jews are undermining European civilization which has become a very common theme of explaining many social problems of Western countries. Brexit?--yup Putin, etc.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

could see who the real aggressors are. I can't tell you how many people I've had to correct about the Russian's 'invading' and violently annexing Crimea. So sad that the one good thing the Pumpkin Fuhrer has talked about, good relations with Russia, will go by the wayside because of neoliberalcon's like McCain, Killary, et al.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

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https://dninews.com/article/intelligence-briefing-ukrainian-refugees-nig...

Intelligence Briefing: Ukrainian Refugees A Nightmare Made In The USA
Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Having financed and directed the violent overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2013, the USA has created a refugee crisis in Donbass unlike any other in recent history, including the current flood of middle eastern residents flooding Europe... According to data published by the receiving countries in a UN report, in 2014-2015 some 900,000 people left Ukraine. Of them, nearly 750,000 went to Russia. About 80,000 people left for Belarus. Some 5,000 people went to other European countries. By March 2016, the Ukrainian authorities had registered some 1.6 million internally displaced individuals, according to the Ukrainian Migration Service. The United States refuses to allow numbers above 70,000 refugees for the whole world. So where did all these missing Ukrainians end up?

Russia is the short answer. Because of heavy shelling by US backed forces, many ethnically Russian local residents lost their homes and moved to Russia. According to the Federal Migration Service's official data, nearly two million Ukrainian citizens have moved to Russia. In 2014-2015, the Russian authorities allocated 18 billion rubles ($260 million) to help Ukrainian refugees settle in...

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