(RE; FBI AGREEMENT to help pay for Steele Dossier): That Other Plot — to Bring Down Trump

One of the biggest problems I’m having with Treasongate is having to come to terms with the fact that some people that I would NEVER take seriously in a million years are people I find myself agreeing with today. Charles Krauthammer is one.

Krauthammer’s Take: ‘We Are Possibly Headed To A Cliff’

by NR Staff
August 3, 2017 9:03 PM
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.nationalreview.com/corner/450153/charles-...

Pat Buchanan is another. I don’t agree with much he says, but where we do agree is on the continual farce called the Mueller ‘Investigation(s). And I haven’t heard anyone else ask this question:

What was the FBI’s relationship with the British spy who was so wired into Russian intelligence?

http://buchanan.org/blog/plot-bring-trump-127802

That’s something NONE of us are talking about. And Pat B. Goes in to ask:

Did the FBI use the information Steele dug up to expand its own investigation of Russia-Trump “collusion”? Did the FBI pass what Steele unearthed to the White House and the National Security Council?

Did the Obama administration use the information from the Steele dossier to justify unmasking the names of Trump officials that had been picked up on legitimate electronic intercepts?

These questions go to the very heart of the whole RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! ‘ kerfluffle.

How many of us know (remember) that:

FBI once planned to pay former British spy who authored controversial Trump dossier
By Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman February 28

The former British spy who authored a controversial dossier on behalf of Donald Trump’s political opponents alleging ties between Trump and Russia reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement.
The agreement to compensate former MI6 agent Christopher Steele came as U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that the Russians had interfered in the presidential election by orchestrating hacks of Democratic Party email accounts.

While Trump has derided the dossier as “fake news” compiled by his political opponents, the FBI’s arrangement with Steele shows that the bureau considered him credible and found his information, while unproved, to be worthy of further investigation.

Ultimately, the FBI did not pay Steele. Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-once-planned-to-pay-former-b...

If you choose not to read Pat B’s column (this one won’t make you gag, I promise) iI’ll show you where Old Pat and Old Amanda have come to a meeting of the minds:

Thus we have Free Beacon neocons, never-Trump Republicans, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC, a British spy and comrades in Russian intelligence, and perhaps the FBI, all working with secret money and seedy individuals to destroy a candidate they could not defeat in a free election.

If future revelations demonstrate that this is what went down, it is not only the White House that has major problems.

If you wish to know why Americans detest politics and hate the “swamp” that has been made of their capital city, follow this story all the way to its inevitable end. It will be months of unfolding.

The real indictment here is of the American political system, and the true tragedy is the decline of the Old Republic.

(From Buchanan’s website so not violating fair usage rule:
Share Pat's Columns!)

I already know who I’m voting to put in the Oval Office next time around.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Raggedy Ann's picture

The real indictment here is of the American political system, and the true tragedy is the decline of the Old Republic.

Since I'm a dumbass for voting Gary Johnson, I'm probably a dumbass for agreeing with that line as well. I embrace my dumbassedness!

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

detroitmechworks's picture

@Raggedy Ann And I'm not going to judge anybody for their vote. Some folks believed Johnson was going to do what he said. Some didn't. I believed a total con artist named Obama once and suffered the ridicule of fellow service members for it.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMe3WDmxBEI]

up
0 users have voted.

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

Raggedy Ann's picture

@detroitmechworks
Some need to take a lesson from you. Pleasantry

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

gulfgal98's picture

@Raggedy Ann and no one should criticize or ridicule you or anyone else for how or why they voted or did not vote. The whole corrupt system has forced us into choices that we may not have wanted to make but were forced to do so for lack of a better choice.

This is exactly why the good people of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio voted the way they did. They were desperate for a change and some sort of relief for their economic suffering so they rolled the dice. They already knew what Clinton would bring, so they took a chance on Trump.

For the record, I voted third party too in a decidedly purple state (Florida). I have been severely criticized for letting Hillary down or letting Trump win. I have lost friends over it too. But I refused to be blackmailed into voting for or against someone by Washington DC power brokers who characterized it as the lesser of two evils.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@gulfgal98

... For the record, I voted third party too in a decidedly purple state (Florida). I have been severely criticized for letting Hillary down or letting Trump win. I have lost friends over it too. But I refused to be blackmailed into voting for or against someone by Washington DC power brokers who characterized it as the lesser of two evils.

Good for you! If nobody any longer voluntarily walked back into the Two-Faced Corporate-Party Trade-Off Trap because they are told it's 'their duty' to sacrifice themselves and their country in this manner, this situation would no longer obtain, as any plausibility of the cheating would be too hard to sustain.

The sane, sensible and patriotic thing to do is, obviously, not to vote for evil ever again.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Raggedy Ann
Got to do with this thread?

So very confusing.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Deja's picture

@Amanda Matthews It's a reference to a comment on another thread calling people who voted a certain way dumbasses.

up
0 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@Deja

If it has nothing to do with the topic. Private messaging might be a more appropriate way for people to direct their private grievances. That, or write an essay about it.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz

I took it as being a joking reference, personally. Dunno, that was just my impression.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Deja

IIt was.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Anja Geitz's picture

I've unplugged from social media so I'm not getting the full impact of what the Mueller investigation is "proving" to the already infected.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

detroitmechworks's picture

@Anja Geitz I have friends on both sides so I see the full range of bullshit.

On the Left: Trump collaborated with Russia, this is proof!

On the Right: This is all just trying to draw attention away from what we should be paying attention to, which is Indicting Hillary.

As a result, I tend to favor another solution.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqhuvb0YR9k]

up
0 users have voted.

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

The Aspie Corner's picture

@detroitmechworks The left in the united states doesn't exist.

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

detroitmechworks's picture

@The Aspie Corner MSM left then, because they actually do claim to be leftist...

up
0 users have voted.

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

earthling1's picture

@The Aspie Corner
Center(DNC), right(estab.), and far right(Trump base).
I believe we have 3 parties now.
The civil war between the establishment Republicans and the Trump Republicans is raging.
The war between the centrist Democrats and the left is over.
They won.
IMHO.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

lotlizard's picture

@earthling1  
openly admit it, and have nothing, nothing happen to the people they ordered to do this. Let alone the people who gave the orders.

All the while they whine about how the GOP is suppressing votes by wanting to require ID.

What rank amateurs the GOP are! When Democrats think they need to rig an election, they don’t have to get a new voter ID law passed or wait ten years to gerrymander after a census. No, Democrats just attack the voter registry directly.

https://nypost.com/2017/10/25/nyc-elections-board-admits-to-purging-vote...
http://gothamist.com/2017/10/25/city_board_of_elections_admits_wron.php
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/board-elections-admit-purged-20...

Consent decree? Chickenshit. That’s Obama DOJ, “wag your finger at the naughty bankster and make him promise not to do it again” stuff.

up
0 users have voted.
Anja Geitz's picture

@detroitmechworks

Are pointing to this and yelling Russia Russia Russia, but what I'm not clear on specifically is how they are making the connection from the mueller investigation to manafort, to trump, to Russia.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

detroitmechworks's picture

@Anja Geitz Instead they're screaming about the Civil War again. Apparently somebody suggested the south wasn't a source of pure evil that needed to be wiped off the map and have the ashes trampled into the earth, sow with salt, and never spoken of again.

/snark

up
0 users have voted.

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

lotlizard's picture

@detroitmechworks  
http://gothamist.com/2017/10/26/teddy_roosevelt_statue_vandalized_amnh.p...

Johnny-come-latelies. I’ve been saying for decades that naming Honolulu public high schools after McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt was adding insult to injury — America rubbing Hawaiians’ face in the mud after stealing their homeland.

up
0 users have voted.
Amanda Matthews's picture

@lotlizard
real name which is Denali.)

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

gulfgal98's picture

@Anja Geitz there is no connection since Manafort was indicted over things that happened between 2006 and 2014, long before the Presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, there is a huge connection between Clinton and the Russians over the Uranium One deal.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Anja Geitz's picture

@gulfgal98

Some connection to Trump at some point in time and the official narrative is now lumping the indictment together with Russia/Trump regardless if it fits? Or is the official narrative concocting the connection between Trump/Manafort up too?

As for all of this being a red herring to divert any serious investigation away from the Clinton's, that I do understand. Clearly.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

lotlizard's picture

@Anja Geitz  
One version of the story says Trump was angered after finding out he had been misled regarding Manafort’s earlier Ukraine and Russia related work, and fired him.

up
0 users have voted.

@gulfgal98

Lol, what, bring facts to a propaganda fight? You'll startle the Kangaroos at the Court!

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Red or blue lock them up.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

SnappleBC's picture

And by "on point" I mean just as he wrote it... for all "special prosecutors" not simply this particular instance:

Look, the problem with special prosecutors is you assemble a team of the best of the best in search of a crime. Normally, you have a crime and then the prosecutors go out and try to prove it. With a special prosecutor, you start with Whitewater and you end up with a blue dress. That’s a long journey.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/450153/charles-krauthammer-muellers...

What would make that even worse is a chain of events that goes like this:

Step 1: Pay for blatantly ridiculous "opposition research" on your opponent.
Step 2: Use said research to start "an investigation"
Step 3: Investigate until crimes are found.

You know I'd almost be OK with that if, in fact, they investigate until they run out of crimes to be found. But I don't believe for a moment that's going to happen because all of DC would be in prison if it did. I'm still hopey-changey about Uranium One but ... heh... What in fact happens is that they investigate until they find just the crimes they want to find against just the targets they want to take down.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

detroitmechworks's picture

@SnappleBC Check out the cases against Steve Jackson Games (Hacking) and Adam & Eve (Obscenity).

In the first case, all computers were seized by the federal government (Secret Service in particular) and they were never returned, despite no charges ever being filed. Eventually they found a crime which justified it, which involved a hacked file from a Power Company that had been posted on the Steve Jackson BBS. Jackson took several years to recover from the loss and created the game "Hacker" as a fuck you to the federal government.

In the second, Adam & Eve was charged with obscenity, and child pornography. The child pornography allegations were from a recent kerfluffle where an underage actress had been shot under fake ID. The company of course had no idea that had occurred at the time, and immediately recalled and destroyed all copies of the tapes. Regardless, they were charged with obscenity, and they successfully beat the Charges. However, they were still under investigation and were forced to plead guilty to mail fraud violations that they MAY have committed at some point in the past due to the technical nature of sticker size rules. If they hadn't the government was prepared to continue investigating and charging until they "Got Something" on the company.

Just a note: Both companies are very libertarian in public statements, and my knowledge of these affairs is based off public documents and documentary.

up
0 users have voted.

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

Meteor Man's picture

@detroitmechworks
Based only on my memory from California legal history, an unbelievable case I looked up to verify the facts.

A young man picked up a barmaid, assuming quite naturally that she was over 21. They had consensual sex. Their not so secret escapade was uncovered and it turned out she was 17 years and 9 months old. She had used a fake ID to get her job at the tavern. The man was convicted. On appeal the Uber Liberal Justice Rose Byrd upheld the conviction, because statutory rape was a "strict liability" crime.

up
0 users have voted.

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

earthling1's picture

@Meteor Man
The Tracie Lords debacle where she was filmed at 14 while posing as 18 and all the tapes had to be hunted down and destroyed.
Don't remember if anyone was charged or convicted.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Meteor Man
And same thing, girl in a bar drinking had fake ID and surely looked of ‘legal’ age. He has to sign up on the sex registry fir the rest of his life.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Amanda Matthews's picture

@detroitmechworks
Cop sees something he wants, take it and make up a crime later to justify the seizure.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

Yeah, but often they just take the cash or whatever and very kindly let the innocent victim go, as they often can't manage the money/time/travel to sue in court for the return of their cop-stolen property.

Canadians were warned by the Canadian government quite a while back that US cops had been targeting Canadian tourists. Can't seem to find any that specified 'targeting' and this one (of the only two showing on the first page) is more... diplomatically phrased... than were most of the others I could previously find but:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140915/09500928521/canadian-news-out...

Canadian News Outlet Warns Canadians That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash
from the US-outed-as-serial-abuser dept

Say That Again

by Tim Cushing

Tue, Sep 16th 2014

The exploitation of asset seizure/forfeiture laws by law enforcement isn't anything new, but it is receiving a lot more attention thanks to an extensive exploration of the subject by the Washington Post. The findings are astonishing/sickening. Over the last 13 years, nearly 62,000 cash seizures have been made by law enforcement officers, resulting in a $2.5 billion haul. And that's just the cash. Depending on local laws, people who have had their cash seized may also lose their vehicles, houses and access to any bank accounts.

Only one-sixth of those whose cash has been seized have engaged in the expensive process necessary to retrieve their money. Nearly half of those who make this attempt have their funds returned, which indicates that many of the cash seizures are predicated on tenuous legal ground (to put it very nicely). But even more bad news awaits should a citizen fight an uphill battle against an infinitely-funded opponent: in many cases, the responding governments only offer back half of what was seized and force citizens to sign a release agreement promising not to sue before they'll hand over the check.

The abusive farce that is asset forfeiture has now reached critical mass: CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has issued a warning to Canadian travelers. Senior Washington Correspondent Neil MacDonald posted this bluntly-titled article late last week. (via Boing Boing, which also gives us this great phrase: "robbery at badgepoint")

American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money

In it, he cautions Canadians that visiting the US with a bunch of cash on hand is a good way to end up short on funds. He points out that the Canadian government has no law limiting the amount of cash Canadians can take into or out of the country, but that has no bearing on what any local police force inside the US would consider to be the "legal" amount of cash a person -- especially a foreign citizen -- can carry. After all, half the seizures were for less than $8,800 and that number includes a college graduate (with no criminal record) who was relieved of $2,500 given to him by his parents to make a trip to California for a job interview. ...

Due process and the presumption of innocence in America died, along with the other fragments of democracy, as the rot of corruption spread everywhere.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Deja's picture

@detroitmechworks
That case includes entrapment too.

up
0 users have voted.

@SnappleBC
that Trump got elected. That's the problem, and they just can't stand it. So they're all looking around under the sofa for Russian spies, because they hate Russia anyway... so why not? Hoping to kill two birds with one stone that way, I guess.

Personally, I wouldn't trust either the FBI or the CIA as far as I could throw them, or that Mueller character either. So I don't much care what kind of dirt might get dug up. Basically they're all just beating on a dead horse, and wasting everyone's time.

up
0 users have voted.

native

@SnappleBC with this. They're going to make it so and once again, we will be LIED into another damned war or even Impeachment over what will turn out, much, much later, to be another "regrettable" instance of media collusion with lies. And Pence is their wet dream, both "sides" much prefer him and as a raging Dominionist, he is far scarier than Trump. And people will swallow this shit! I'm glad it's almost time for a drink, I need one.

up
0 users have voted.

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

until all the lies have come out.

up
0 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

Amanda Matthews's picture

@doh1304
you ever again. /s

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

lotlizard's picture

Simply rigged outright, in the most blatant fashion, with 200,000 voters illegally kicked off the rolls.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yv6jVjyn1U]

Who was behind this election fraud? Names, please. Where are the indictments and prosecutions?

Behold the worldwide propaganda campaign spreading the lie that $100,000 swung the election – $100,000 worth, supposedly, of Russian Facebook ads — the majority of which didn’t run until after the election with very low numbers of views, in many cases flat out zero.

Behold the profound media silence about New York authorities openly admitting to having illegally barred 200,000 actual voters – 120,000 in Brooklyn alone.

The self-anointed “Serious People” or “adults in the room” aren’t doing a very believable job of fairly judging the significance of $100,000 of advertising clickbait vaporware as compared to denying 200,000 actual living, breathing, registered citizens their right to vote, are they?

And, as Jimmy Dore asks, are we supposed to believe that this only happened one time, in this one place? Anyone who believes that deserves to have any insults they’ve been dealing out to others online come back like a boomerang and smack them right between the eyes.

up
0 users have voted.

@lotlizard

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd

Yeah, but they dodged him and tackled his supporters when the ref was busy counting his pay-off for not looking.

up
0 users have voted.

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

...some people that I would NEVER take seriously in a million years are people I find myself agreeing with...

This is absolutely troubling, but I have this perspective to offer:

THE ACTORS — The entire political gestalt has been rapidly evolving — after nearly a century of being tied to anticipated ideologies. Recently, several "sides" have engaged in unprecedented, purposeful, motion relative to you — the intelligence agencies, commercial media and the press, the political party apparatus, and the military strategic command. (We do not know why, and we do not know who or what is moving them around.)

THE REACTORS — Other "sides" have been strongly reacting to this evolution, but they are moving in more predictable ways. These "sides" include the temporary "elected-government" in Washington, particularly the House of Representatives; law enforcement, both state and federal; the Federal Reserve, whether acting or not acting; and foreign governments, who appear to be reorganizing their long-term geopolitical positions, relative to the US.

THE STOICS — Then, there are the stationary but critically aware "sides" that are maintaining their longer-term positions. Although riddled with spooks and run by the iron fist of the Neocons, the State Department is still operating within the patterns that have become normalized to us since the turn of the 21st century. The same can be said of the Judiciary, despite recent judgements that have changed "everything." Ditto to the general military, despite the global atrocities they are engaged in. They executed special operations in a whopping 172 nations last year, but they were just "following orders."

THE COUP — I'm leaving the Pentagon and the Executive out of this assessment. They are both in the midst of a coup. By monitoring the floundering cluelessness of their long-term tools in the People's government — such as Lindsey Graham and John McCain, who have been left to stumble and bumble and mutter utter nonsense during this evolution — we can monitor how the coup is going. If it were a settled matter, the entire Trump camp would have been moved to Guantanamo four months ago.

But back to this:

...some people that I would NEVER take seriously in a million years are people I find myself agreeing with...

Keep in mind, that it is those "people" who are in motion ideologically, not you. We see them in snapshots where they are sometimes in focus moving alongside our moral compass. But we don't know their flight path or where they are going to land. And, neither do they. Somewhere with free money, I presume.

up
0 users have voted.
Amanda Matthews's picture

@Pluto's Republic

total moron you seem to think I am. I have a damn good idea of what’s going on in this country thank you.

The illusion that we have any say in our government has been shattered and now the ‘left’ is desperately trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Too late.

I have been watching Krauthammer and Buchanan for years. They’ve been ranting against the ‘left’ and ‘liberals’ their entire political pundit careers. And they are both petty, mean-spirited little men. I always wanted to punch the tv when Charlie showed up on the McLaughlin Group. I believe his psyche was severely damaged by his swimming accident when he was young. He’s all about ‘can’t have unless it is something that benefits the 1% and the MIC. And Buchanan is, was, always will be, hateful conservative scum. He fit right in with the Nixon White House. Both are hard-core right wing conservative Republicans. Both have always been against any policies that might help the plebs, especially if it means preventing the uber rich from becoming richer. And have supported any policy (by anyone) that keeps the MIC gravy train a’rollin’.

Yes! I am surprised that they have something to say that interests me.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews
I didn't read anything into PR's comment that was anything more than an extension of your own reflections.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@UntimelyRippd
“This is absolutely troubling, but I have this perspective to offer:”

Really? What is a psychic episode.

The problem with psychic episodes is all the baggage that people generate to explain them. Then they go on to generate these grandiose moon castles based on very shaky theories.

The most common explanation of psychic episodes is the "radio in the head" theory. You suddenly realize you know something you didn't think you knew, and decide the information was beamed into your head, or perhaps you are a sensitive and can pluck it from the ether somehow. Once you decide you have a radio in your head, you wander off doing all sorts of odd things like beaming messages to God, your sister, or the brain of your favorite racehorse. Life would certainly be interesting if this worked, but it doesn't. Sorry, it's been researched half to death by people who really wanted to make it work, and it never did.

http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/psychic.html

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Amanda Matthews

I meant "the ruffling of one's psychic feathers" and failed to polish the clumsy headline. I used the wrong tense, too. It's a first person piece. I can barely guide myself though this paradigm shift.

And, really, I was rushing to say that I share that unnerving realization, one that I thought you expressed so well:

...some people that I would NEVER take seriously in a million years are people I find myself agreeing with...

That has been on my mind for months. Like you, I am quite familiar with them and I was so very certain I could dispose of them, intellectually. Who changed? Have people been swapping ideologies? It's disorienting. I was so relieved that you mentioned it that I quoted you twice).

I've enjoyed your recent flurry of righteous and witty essays. I think everyone has.

up
0 users have voted.
Amanda Matthews's picture

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic
You meant instead of automatically assuming the worst. But I heard that term (not directed at me) and the conversation went downhill REAL fast. In fact, I wasn’t even involved in the discussion. I was just sitting there listening to a couple of people in the coffee bar at the Old Market. (Place is small and you Literally ‘rub elbows’ with the guy at the next table.) The person who it was directed at gave someone quite the tongue lashing. That’s when looked it up the first time (not having clue one about what it meant or why it made this chick so mad).

(I’ve heard some of the best and worst squabbles in bars. Both coffee and liquor.)

I think ‘episode’ is one of those words that can get you in trouble. I once used the term ‘episode’ by itself in reference to an emotional fit someone had one day in public. Hoo boy! And in that particular case I was told that I was a ‘jackass’ because that person had Asperger’s Syndrome. And by using the word ‘episode’ I was making light of the situation, or something like that. I only wondered what was going on.

I rarely use that word unless it relates to a television show.

EDIT: added last 2 sentences to 3rd paragraph for clarity
EDIT EDIT: and added the last sentence at the same time.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@UntimelyRippd
Ditto!

up
0 users have voted.

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.

SnappleBC's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Another is to consider always the relative frames of reference of the various ideologies. In a simple example, I find the Republicans to be very good at unearthing dirt on the Democrats. I find the same thing to be true in reverse. Both do a credible job of pointing out problems. Granted, those real problems are also buried under a mountain of baloney like #RussiaGate or birtherism. But still, they do fairly decent opposition research on each other for obvious reasons.

When I'm considering how much I want to trust someone, I have to look at my frame, their frame, and the frame of the target under discussion. When I'm deciding what to believe, I go with externally verifiable, factual evidence.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

What better way to help keep 'Big Dog' Bill and Mad Bomber Hillary out of the White House bedroom rental business than by bringing in Bill The Cat?

'Big Dog' would never be able to explain the stuff that Bill The Cat would spray on his (Bill The Clinton's) clothing, should the Clintons be involved in an attempted ouster (or, as one might say, pussy-grab,) of him.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

...Trump is a serial liar that believes he is above the law. Therefore, it's not a stretch to think that he would meet with Russia to get dirt on Clinton. Indeed, I can't imagine him acting any other way. He has no clue or even considered what he did to be illegal. Remember what Trump said about opposition research ?

Why is it some vast conspiracy to suggest Russia is interested in screwing around with our elections ? God knows we screw around with them. Putin isn't exactly a shy wallflower no matter what you may think of him.

So now we have this ass hat "campaign volunteer" lying to Mueller about God knows what all. Hearing Krauthammer and Buchanan cry about special investigator overreach is laughable. These guys sure loved them some Ken Starr.

Trump may not have met directly with Russians regarding HRC dirt. But he needs to be deposed from his throne. I am not all that fussy about how it happens. He is in the business of hurting people and he is doing an astounding job with minimal support from anyone else.

up
0 users have voted.