Russiagate will never die

If you were worried that the travesty of Russiagate would finally be over after the issuance of the Mueller report, don't be. Because the Democrats have no intention of ever letting it go.

Democrats have yet to see details of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election, but are insisting they will press ahead with their investigations no matter what the conclusions.

In a rare Saturday conference call for House Democrats, Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on full disclosure of Mr Mueller’s report, telling her colleagues she would reject any classified briefing on the report from the 22-month investigation for just a select group of lawmakers. Separately, six committee chairs said they would proceed with enquiries into whether Mr Trump obstructed justice or abused the powers of his office.

Why stop now? They would only have to start talking about the serious issues that impact the lives of most Americans. And no political party wants that. They will start wars, gin up conspiracy theories, lie to the public, and do whatever else it takes to prevent taking action on those issues for the simple reason that to do so would annoy their corporate sponsors.

So don't feel sad for Rachel Maddow or Representative Schiff, who have made a career over the last several years screaming "Russia! Russia! Russia!" every chance they could get. Our political system will ensure that nonsense like Russiagate will continue to dominate the nightly cable news while around the globe people will continue to die because of our imperial wars, our fast tracking climate change, our police state, the for profit health care system and as a result of the actions of tyrannical regimes who are our allies, all of which they will ignore in order to distract the public with the narrative John Podesta and Robby Mook ginned up the night Hillary lost the election to a TV reality show host.

Soon after Clinton’s defeat, top strategists decided where to place the blame. “Within 24 hours of her concession speech,” the authors report, campaign manager Robby Mook and campaign chair John Podesta “assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.”

What a waste, but so typical of the Banana republic in which we reside.

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Lookout's picture

Did you catch Jimmy's happy dance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjPgO57AzjQ (18 min)

The battleship turns slowly, but turn it must....I hope.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout It's all they got.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on full disclosure of Mr Mueller’s report, telling her colleagues she would reject any classified briefing on the report from the 22-month investigation for just a select group of lawmakers.

One of the few times I ever agree with Nancy. We and generations to come all have a right to know everything there is about one of the most ridiculous two year periods in American history.

Not to mention that the ongoing Deep State civil wars only continue to discredit both corrupt parties while building support for a Progressive alternative.

We put up with decades of 'let's you and him fight' from the establishment parties dividing us into defeatable factions. Time to turn the tables.

Free hamburgers!

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Cassiodorus's picture

The guy keeps iron discipline, no?

Perhaps we could get a CIA agent to say that Blofeld is the Russian agent responsible for whatever Russian misdeeds are supposed to have been done?

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Nancy Pelosi is on a mission, and that mission is to destroy the Democratic Party. She is succeeding beyond all expectations. The only thing left is whether or not she will take the American democracy or the entire Earth first.

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On to Biden since 1973

Azazello's picture

"Think hard about it," Powell told the Army Times newspaper. "I'm running out of demons. I'm running out of villains. I'm down to (Fidel) Castro and Kim Il Sung," he said, referring to the leaders of Cuba and North Korea.

That was Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs back in 1991.

Powell's comments suggested the Gulf War has not solved a major problem for some Pentagon planners over the past three years - how to justify a large army and a nearly $300 billion military budget in the post-Cold War era.

Seattle (Boeing?) Times
The arms industry needs "threats" to justify their budgets. I think one of the reasons Russiagate took off was that the MIC saw a chance to ramp up a new cold war. So we get stuff like this, from CNN: Top US general calls for more troops and warships to counter growing Russian threat.
The New Cold War is too useful to too many people. They won't let it die.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

jobu's picture

...it has served its ultimate purpose, that is to distract with fear mongering so that the Corporate Dems could further consolidate their hold over the Democratic Party. (exhibit 1, Tom Perez)

They used this false narrative to cling to power and Bernie fell for it. It will cost him (and us) dearly in a years time.

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They could accept the loss of RussiaRussiaRussia and move on to providing Democratic voters something to Vote For.

But will they do that? No. They will ride this loss and their losing fights against Trump long after any person cares at all about this made up issue. Losing is where the money is, evidently.

It's what their owners and donors want. It keeps the status quo intact. And all the consultants and lobbyists get paid.

Maybe Rachel's ratings will fall off a bit. I surely hope so.

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NYCVG

Pluto's Republic's picture

....which they will ignore in order to distract the public with the narrative John Podesta and Robby Mook ginned up the night Hillary lost the election to a TV reality show host.

I think John Podesta and Robby Mook knew Hillary wasn't going to win pretty early on. They had lost confidence during the primaries. I believe by September, they knew for sure. I'm speculating here, but a lot of people seemed to realize what was happening by then.

The Russia Hoax was staged and ready to go by the end of July. CrowdStrike set it up and laid the paper trail, such as it was, and by July 15th had announced to the Washington Post that the DNC computers were "hacked" by the Russians. That story served a another purpose. It offered cover for the illegal surveillance the FBI was running over the summer. They didn't get their first FISA warrant until September. Mook and Podesta did play it up after Her loss. And then those two disappeared.

Question: Don't you think the Dems will be just as happy pursuing other crimes like obstruction or campaign finance sins if they thought it might lead to impeachment? I hoped they would just drop the Russia stuff and go for the gold. Their psychotic Russian madness has really screwed with the geopolitical world and has caused needless harm and suffering to the people of several nations around the world.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

is because people believe the original lie that Russia interfered with Hillary's chance of being president. Even though it's been debunked by the statement included in the essay and that shows how it was just created by the Clinton's campaign. People won't believe that either as they refuse to believe that Hillary rigged the primary against Bernie. The f'cking DNC lawyers basically admitted that and more, but it's still considered CT by the Hillbots. Maybe if Her herself came out and told people that, "yeah I rigged the primary and made up the Russian interference" people might.

It's very hard to pretend that the summary as Barr has written is is anything other than severely disappointing, as well as confusing. After all, we already knew that Russia had made extensive efforts to reach out to the Trump campaign, and those efforts were welcomed. From Donald Trump, Jr. eagerly inviting Russian operatives to stroll into campaign headquarters, to Paul Manafort ferrying polling data to a Russian agent, to George Papadopoulos working both ends of the campaign-Russia pipeline, there was never a moment where Donald Trump’s campaign was anything other than enthusiastic and receptive about the idea of working with Russia

.

Where did this crap come from? No we don't know that Russia made extensive efforts to reach out to the Trump campaign. Nor do we know that Russia even thought about our elections because A's Putin has stated, "our elections don't change anything." Why do people believe that this happened? I've read nothing about anything regarding the Russians hackers working with the GOP to do this. Or is this just something that sumner made up for the rubes on ToP? I'm thinking the latter because I've watched him during this time take credible news and totally distort what it said. I've never seen one person call him out on it.

Nevins knowingly and enthusaistically conspired with Russian hackers to identify the most valuable documents in the haul stolen from the DNC. Nevins then helped both the Russians and Republican candidates to take advantage of the fact that they had insider knowledge of Democratic strategies for getting out the vote. For this, Nevins faces … nothing

?

Someone said that if the vote was today Trump would win. Here's one reply:

Are you kidding? If the election were held today, Trump would lose to just about any of our Democratic frontrunners. All it takes is for 80,000 voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin who didn’t vote for Hillary to vote for our Democratic nominee, and voters in those states have already shown in the 2018 election that they have buyer’s regret over Trump. Most voters don’t care about or even understand legal constructions of conspiracy and obstruction of justice or how they apply to what Trump has done. They care a lot more about stuff that impacts their lives, like shutting down the government, trying to take away their healthcare, putting babies in cages, spewing constant hate and stupidity on Twitter and in interviews and speeches, etc.

Yeah good luck with that. Why would anyone vote for democrats now after they just spent two years on this propaganda crap? Are democrats offering people something that they can vote for? Nope. Nada. There was a very good reason why people didn't vote for Herheinous in the first place. She sucked as a candidate because of the things she had done during her whole political life. Is there one piece of legislation that she passed or helped Bill pass that helped main stream Americans?

Welfare reform hurt and is still hurting people. The other financial legislations passed during his tenure came back to bite us big time and it still is.

Then there's the Empty Suit's tenure that did nothing to roll back the Clinton's and Bush's abuses or help us in any way. So why would people think that after 3 decades that democrats are going to put someone in power that would change the direction this country is going in?

Thanks for posting the Mook link Steven. I had lost where I put it.

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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 @snoopydawg Trump would surely win. This whole thing plays into the victimization he and his supporters claim. It does nothing but shore up and strengthen the support he has while making the Democrats look like they’re still fighting, and losing, 2016. The Dems doubled down on Russia and lost, hugely.

What’s more, I think this is going to have a similar effect as the Ken Starr witch hunt had for Slick, in that people in the middle saw what was going on and recognized it for what it was. Hell, he probably would have won a third term if he could have run.

Of course, unlike then, the Republicans at least won the battle, even if they lost the war, when they impeached him. Democrats got nothing out of all this. As many have noted, it really hasn’t even disrupted Trump’s addenda, such as it is. The Dems have been waking back impeachment for a while now and it’s hard to see where they go from here. “He’s not worth wasting the effort on” isn’t going to play at the polls. For instance, I hang out at a non-political board with a strong anti-Trump vibe and they’re all sputtering trying to make sense of it all. Hard to believe that won’t depress the Dems votes in 2020, especially with the candidates they’re rolling out.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

This. It's exactly what people are saying. What was the point of all the investigations if democrats weren't going to do anything about it? (of course we know that wasn't the reason for it). But people want a reason to vote for people and the democrats will not give them one. Why did Nancy have to say anything about it in the first place? It demobilized the base and they were demobilized already.

The reason why democrats lost both houses and so many seats was because democrats never delivered anything when they had the chance and Obama had his mandate.

People are still pissed at people who stayed home or voted for Stein because they think they owed Hillary their votes and just because Trump is running again they still think they owe their votes to the democrat. Nope. Earn it! Stop the republicans from appointing all those right wing judges instead of helping them like they are now.

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

won a top award in France. Should have won more awards in the US

Foresters use the term overstory for the top. I have heard canopy. Then there is the understory beneath the overstory.

The title of the novel is The Overstory

an interview

To what degree (if any) do you consider your work to be a moral or didactic project? Am I mistaken in feeling that The Overstory isn’t just a novel, but maybe a blueprint for being inducted into the “shimmering council” of the trees—something like a viable evangelism? Or does this idea just piss you off?
Goodness—what better way to start an interview than plunging into one of the most highly charged questions in the history of literature! Centuries of great writers have filled volumes exploring the proper position of the literary author along the spectrum of moral detachment and commitment. In the mid-19th century, the warring camps had their spokespeople in Tolstoy, who advocated for fiction that would raise consciousness and make readers into better people, and in Flaubert, who preached a moral detachment, urging writers to be like a remote, objective, hands-off God—“present everywhere and visible nowhere.”

In the last century, when I was growing up, the American version of this war was playing out between John Gardner and Gore Vidal. Vidal was the champion of aesthetic, belletristic freedom—the author who was above the fray, committed only to the free play of exploration and possibility. Gardner, in his controversial and influential book On Moral Fiction, wrote that fiction ought “to test human values, not for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology, but in a truly honest and open-minded effort to find out which best promotes human fulfillment.” Here’s the interesting thing: Don’t both these positions sound attractive and defensible?

If I were to name the prevailing aesthetic of the present concerning literary fiction, I’d say it leans toward the belletristic. Moral passion hasn’t been cool for some time; much better to gird yourself in irony and fatalistic detachment. Or to put it more sympathetically, contemporary literary fiction strives for the dialogical, where the conflicting moral positions of all the characters in the story are both defensible and flawed. But look at the standout books—the great war novels and postcolonial novels and novels of politics, social showdown and human abuse—and you’ll see a different story. These books know what’s wrong with the world and what it would take to better minister to the human condition.

“I believe that vital, vivid fiction can play a unique role in producing that shift in consciousness.”

INTERVIEWS Richard Powers The biggest questions in literature

and a book review

The Novel That Asks, ‘What Went Wrong With Mankind?’ Richard Powers’s climate-themed epic, The Overstory, embraces a dark optimism about the fate of humanity.

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Lookout's picture

He calls his channel "the new Left"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdG6oyjV2Qk]

his argument is that your vote doesn't count, and I think he is right.

Russiagate is the distraction (well one of many anyway).

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

snoopydawg's picture

@Lookout

Exit polls showed Bernie winning so they just stopped doing them.

Legalized bribery and politicians should have to wear badges for where they got their donations. Corruption is legal.

3 private companies control our voting machines. Easy admin access to the machines with a ballpoint pen.

DWS not only rigged the primary her own election was rigged. The paper ballots were destroyed. No one goes to jail. She takes millions from big pharma, private prisons, payday lenders.....

Thanks for posting this, LO

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

Interviewing some Republican. I think he was a Congressman. (R) kept on saying the whole report should be released including the Steele Dossier and the FISA warrant and the petition for the FISA warrant. (R) saying "zero collusion with Russia" Snuffleupagus saying it proves that Russia colluded with Trump and can't be released to the public because of "sensitive data" but House Democrat's should see the whole report, but not the public.

I'm with the (R) on this.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Bollox Ref's picture

24/7.

No wonder nothing useful ever gets done. By design.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

detroitmechworks's picture

A conspiracy theory?

I mean, isn't it the definition of a conspiracy theory? The entire theory depends on the idea that there's a hidden conspiracy that was set up in secret, performed in secret, and kept hidden by a HUGE network of people, all of which must be investigated. Of course, once it was and no charges were filed, it's just more proof of the Conspiracy!

I mean, I have seen some crazy conspiracy theories in my time, but this one takes the entire fucking bakery.

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

lotlizard's picture

how Trump would probably question the legitimacy of the election after he lost, and what a disgrace and insult to all that is decent that would be.

Russiagate reminded me that when Democrats complain about Republicans, half the time they are projecting — and the other half of the time they are jealous and just raring to do the same things they accuse the GOP of doing.

I don’t remember anyone helping Japanese-Americans fight FDR internally deporting them into desert concentration camps, and the Supreme Court ruled against Fred Korematsu when he tried to fight it through channels, so excuse me if I remain sceptical when folks talk about closing ranks to protect vulnerable minorities as if that were really a thing and not just a tactic to make the other duopoly party look bad.

Edited to add:
It’s like here in Germany and the E.U., where the “moderates” in power (Christian Democrats and Social Democrats) rant about the threat from nasty right-wing populists, at the very moment they themselves are about to impose pervasive internet censorship in the name of copyright protection.

Article 13, copyright, and the E.U.

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