@edg

I keep surprising myself at my new-found acceptance of articles on sites that I would never have bothered to troll before this last election kerfluffle.

I've been perplexed about it, as well. I don't seek these sources, but they fall across my desk in the course of doing the work.

I have determined a couple of mitigating conclusions about this phenomenon.
1) I haven't changed. I have always weighed in from the far Left, and I'm still out here with the rest of the didactic eccentrics.
2) The overall content of these questionable sources remains dogmatically skewed to their right wing doctrine. But in the scope of certain issues, they deal with facts that align with widely-experienced reality, and do not require the suspension of disbelief. They enter the logic zone.

That means this is about an "issue" and not an "ideology". And, that's where the intellectual honesty comes into play.

if I said I remember when The Beau Brummels were a fresh new rock band?

Great essay, Amanda. I find myself in the same predicament -- I now read websites I used to sneer at. It's because they're telling the truth in a way the MSM is not, and that's quite sad.

@Pluto's Republic that the majority of the US population gives much credence to all this BS the propaganda machine spews. Just about everyone I talk to knows it is all lies. Problem is, there are no independent sources that have a voice big enough anymore. (The latest UN report on US poverty being a rare exception).

[How they] pulled off the RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! Scam. None of this is a secret anymore. The only thing lacking is PROOF. That’s why these docs are so important.

Since then, it's fallen apart completely in the forensics. CrowdStrike was hopelessly out of their league.

But the Deep State weighed in for other reasons. Hillary has nothing to do with their decision. They swooped in and got the job done. A majority of the US population will now believe until the end of their days that they were attacked by Russia during the 2016 elections. Nothing can change a propaganda push like this one. The Deep State Neocons got what they need — a seriously ignorant and misinformed electorate who will support their murderous reach for Empire.

No one is going to turn anything over to some hearing by the elected Temporary Help. All this will go away.

@Pluto's Republic

A majority of the US population will now believe until the end of their days that they were attacked by Russia during the 2016 elections. Nothing can change a propaganda push like this one. The Deep State Neocons got what they need — a seriously ignorant and misinformed electorate who will support their murderous reach for Empire.

Look at our current educational system in the primary and secondary grades. "Teach for the test" which means the test provides pre-determined answers, correct or incorrect, to which the student must endorse or risk failing. This built in prejudice, determined by "educators", underlies what is nowadays considered to constitute education. Higher education, such as colleges and universities, are largely inhabited by neoliberal morons. The Peter Principle raised to the Academic level.

One recent instance of neoliberal social justice warriorism is the pronouncement of San Diego State profs that farmers' markets are racist. I'm too pissed off to find the link. More effort than it's worth.

[How they] pulled off the RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! Scam. None of this is a secret anymore. The only thing lacking is PROOF. That’s why these docs are so important.

Since then, it's fallen apart completely in the forensics. CrowdStrike was hopelessly out of their league.

But the Deep State weighed in for other reasons. Hillary has nothing to do with their decision. They swooped in and got the job done. A majority of the US population will now believe until the end of their days that they were attacked by Russia during the 2016 elections. Nothing can change a propaganda push like this one. The Deep State Neocons got what they need — a seriously ignorant and misinformed electorate who will support their murderous reach for Empire.

No one is going to turn anything over to some hearing by the elected Temporary Help. All this will go away.

@snoopydawg Herr Göbells is clapping in his grave over the masterful job the Dumbs are doing. This is their last waltz before the Titanic takes them all beneath the waves.

If anyone is interested in this, I hope you read this excellent article that details all the parts of this hoax still being played on this country.

Democracy Betrayed By Democrats, Not Russia

Over the course of the last year, the ‘Russian hacking’ narrative has steadily deteriorated into accusations of nebulous Russian “collusion,” before morphing into claims of nefarious ‘Russian trolling.’ During this time, establishment interests have overtly attempted to use accusations of Russian interference to deflect from the DNC email’s revelation that the Democratic Party was caught red-handed in the destruction of the American democratic process. By the end of the year, the investigation into Russian meddling had devolved into an outright retaliatory witch-hunt, and the subversion of Democracy shown by the DNC had gone largely unaddressed.

First, DNC emails showed the Democratic establishment acting in a clearly partisan manner against Bernie Sanders and in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Secondly, the publication of the DNC emails served as the starting point of the constantly mutating Russian hacking narrative, which, like some type of bacteria initially annihilated by antibiotics, morphs in the face of evidence within the chrysalis of media salivation from accusations of a “hack” to accusations of “collusion,” and finally, to accusations of mere Russian social media “trolling.”

I have written about how the NYT is being accused of providing cover for the FBI, as does this essay. This is because the GOP are now questioning why the justice department got a FISA warrant to spy on Trump.

Lindsay Graham has a few things to say about that in this article.

Crisis for Mueller: Lindsey Graham calls for new Special Counsel to investigate Trump Dossier and FBI

I’ve spent some time in the last couple of days, after a lot of fighting with the Department of Justice, to get the background on the dossier, and here’s what I can tell your viewers: I’m very disturbed about what the Department of Justice did with this dossier, and we need a special counsel to look into that, because that’s not in Mueller’s charter. And what I saw, and what I’ve gathered in the last couple of days, bothers me a lot, and I’d like somebody outside DOJ to look into how this dossier was handled and what they did with it.

This could become a huge problem for the Obama administration if the truth is ever uncovered as Amanda stated. But we're not the same country that prosecuted Nixon now are we? Or perhaps people on both sides of this are being played.... stay tuned at the wheel turns