Surreal: a true CIA palace coup against Trump

Warning: Absurdist Irony Abounds:
From Patrick Martin at wsws.org, Oct. 9, 2019:

‘Why do the CIA assassins and coup-plotters love this “whistleblower”?’

Ninety former national security officials under the Obama and Bush administrations—and three who served for a period under Donald Trump—have signed an “Open Letter to the American People” defending the CIA officer, as yet unidentified, whose whistleblower complaint has become the basis for the House of Representatives opening an impeachment inquiry into the president.

The signers “applaud the whistleblower not only for living up to that responsibility but also for using precisely the channels made available by federal law for raising such concerns.”

They further claim, “A responsible whistleblower makes all Americans safer by ensuring that serious wrongdoing can be investigated and addressed … What’s more, being a responsible whistleblower means that, by law, one is protected from certain egregious forms of retaliation.”

They draw the conclusion that the anti-Trump whistleblower’s identity must be protected at all costs, writing that “he or she has done what our law demands; now he or she deserves our protection.”

This professed defense of whistleblowing as a critical function of democracy would be more convincing if it did not come from high officials in the administration that prosecuted more leakers and whistleblowers than all previous US administrations combined.

The signers include former CIA directors John Brennan, Michael Hayden and Michael Morell, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (Obama’s point-woman on Ukraine). Bush administration officials who signed the letter include Matthew G. Olsen, former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and Paul Rosenzweig, former deputy assistant secretary for policy, Department of Homeland Security. Among the former Trump aides who signed is Andrea Kendall-Taylor, former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council.

These officials had a much different attitude toward genuine American whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and John Kiriakou, who exposed crimes of US imperialism. Manning supplied WikiLeaks with Pentagon files documenting US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as State Department cables showing US conspiracies against governments around the world. Snowden brought to light NSA spying on the entire world. Kiriakou exposed CIA torture in secret overseas prisons during the “war on terror.”

None of these genuine whistleblowers received any form of protection. On the contrary, they were rebuffed in their efforts to expose atrocities by the US military-intelligence apparatus and felt compelled to release the information to the public. For their courageous actions, they have been brutally persecuted.” [snip]

“In a recent commentary in Consortium News, Kiriakou noted the contrast between his own treatment and that accorded the “whistleblower” in the Ukraine case. He wrote, “If he’s a whistleblower, and not a CIA plant whose task it is to take down the president, then his career is probably over. Intelligence agencies only pay lip service to whistleblowing.” [snip]

“In other words, the former CIA agent suggests, the entire “whistleblower” complaint against Trump is likely an operation directed by higher-level officials at the agency.

Similar questions are raised in a remarkable article posted Monday on the website of Rolling Stone magazine, written by its main political writer Matt Taibbi.”

And if you haven’t seen it already:

“Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd grills senator: “You don’t trust the FBI and CIA?”, Barry Grey, wsws.org

And of course Grey speaks to the irony and hypocrisy afoot with Senators Ron Johnson and Chris Murphy as well:

“When Johnson evaded Todd’s questions concerning Trump’s bullying of Ukraine to advance his personal electoral chances, and instead repeatedly raised the Clinton campaign’s collaboration with Ukrainian officials against Trump, Todd exclaimed as though in exasperated disbelief:

Do you not trust the FBI? You don’t trust the CIA?

Johnson replied, “Absolutely not,” to which Todd responded incredulously, “You don’t trust any of those agencies?” [snip]

“The Democrats and their media chorus present what was rightly known as America’s “Murder, Incorporated,” along with its domestic counterpart, the FBI, as pillars of “democracy,” improbable as this would seem to anyone familiar with the criminal history of these organizations. They evidently believe that the public is infinitely gullible and suffering from collective memory loss.

These, after all, are the organizations that justified the war in Iraq on the basis of the Big Lie of “weapons of mass destruction.” They created the fraudulent narrative of the “war on terror” to justify aggressive wars in Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa that killed millions and destroyed entire societies. Meanwhile, in Libya and Syria, they funded and collaborated with Al Qaeda-linked terrorist militias in wars for regime-change.

The CIA has engineered coups and installed military dictatorships and far-right regimes all over the world. It would take many volumes to detail all of the lies and crimes of these pillars of the “deep state” against the people of the United States and the entire world.” [snip]

“Todd’s next guest was Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat from Connecticut), who co-sponsored with Johnson the bill to provide more arms to Kiev. Murphy repeatedly attacked Johnson for a lack of “patriotism.”

The final guest was John Brennan—now a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC—whom Todd presented as a national hero unjustly slandered and victimized by Trump and his political allies. Introducing the 25-year veteran of the CIA, who served as deputy executive director under George W. Bush and director under Barack Obama, Todd asked: “And how would you explain to somebody, you have been completely character assassinated and eviscerated … Do you understand how you got here?”

Brennan replied that he has indeed been “pilloried as an example of the deep state.” To which Todd exclaimed indignantly: “Well, at this point, it’s a campaign to destroy the credibility of the intelligence community. Even now, Senator Johnson would not affirm that he trusted the CIA and FBI right now. What does that say about those two agencies right now and their ability to conduct the work of protecting America?”

Brennan took the opportunity provided by Todd to denounce the “disinformation” that is “inundating the airwaves,” singling out “social media platforms,” with the implication that media sources that do not disseminate the CIA line should be shut down or censored.

Grey finishes with a brief resumé of Brennan’s fascistic Imperial crimes.

From MTP on Twitter:

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

on this all because: the barr-durham investigation of the spooks. daniel lazare says it right:

The Campaign to Stop William Barr’, daniel lazare, strategic-culture.org, Oct. 5, 2019

“The furor over Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky has not been easy to figure out. Contrary to initial reports, the president said nothing about a quid pro quo, and he didn’t push the Ukrainian president to “dig up dirt” on Joe Biden either. All he did according to the official transcript was ask Kiev to look into his activities, and all Zelensky did in response was guarantee that any such investigation “will be done openly and candidly.” An honest inquiry into a politician who cheerfully confessed to forcing out a prosecutor looking into his son’s company – what’s wrong with that?

But now the mystery is solved. The uproar is not about Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani investigating the former vice president. It’s about William Barr investigating Russiagate, which is far more important.

This became clear early this week when the New York Times reported that Trump had also phoned Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and asked him to cooperate with the attorney general. Suddenly, Giuliani and Biden were forgotten as the rest of corporate media screamed themselves hoarse. “Democrats’ worst fears about William Barr are proving correct,” declared the Washington Post. “AG Bill Barr finds himself ‘neck deep’ in Trump scandal,” said MSNBC. The Daily Beast called for his impeachment while the Guardian accused him of nothing less than attempting to “rewrite the history of the 2016 US presidential election.”

This was cheeky coming from a newspaper that tried to rewrite history itself by falsely accusing imprisoned whistleblower Julian Assange of meeting with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort in connection with stolen Democratic Party emails.

But it was all nonsense. Trump’s crimes – waging war on Yemen, blockading Iran, attempting to starve Venezuela into submission, etc. – are almost beyond enumeration. But this is not one of them. Despite the cries of outrage, he did nothing wrong in phoning up Scott Morrison, and neither did Barr in flying to London and Rome to seek their cooperation. Indeed, both men would have been remiss if they didn’t.”

Three Big Bad Loaves of Bread Day for me; back as i'm able. lottsa flowers to arrange, as well.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@wendy davis

It'd be pathetic. Maybe it's both? They really do think we are zombie idiots incapable of seeing this for exactly what it is: Power factions battling each other in plain sight.

Meanwhile, as always, Rome burns..,

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

wendy davis's picture

@Anja Geitz

category, as i find it all hilarious. to me, it's like where (fbi) COINTELPRO meets (cia) Operation CHAOS? no, not maxwell smart and his 'cone of silence', although i lived the show to pieces.

dunno which other links to bring in my haste, but i'll choose this for now: ‘Here they go again: Senate reheats ‘Russian meddling’ claims, using assertions as evidence, RT.com, 9 Oct, 2019

sorry i don't have the time to bring excerpts, but it's sincerely hilarious, as they just won't stop!, imo.

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@Anja Geitz And they aren't wrong that a significant portion of this country are indeed zombie idiots who still think America is a beacon of freedom and democracy. Sickening, pathetic, darkly funny in a horrible way, but those of us who see it for what it truly is are woefully outnumbered by zombie idiots.

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

Anja Geitz's picture

@lizzyh7

but those of us who see it for what it truly is are woefully outnumbered by zombie idiots.

Dating back through time when Galileo was threatened by excommunication from the Church because he stated, correctly, that the earth moved around the sun, there has always be a majority of wrongness masquerading as rightness.

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

Caught in a rip-tide and being dragged further out to sea, Mr. Brennan has hit the rocks and lost his ship. Floating with him, a hapless group of CIA and NSC Cold Warriors, all in way over their heads.

Having torn the sheets and smashed the hull, they bob in the waves. Lost is the wars they started far off over the horizon. Ukraine, Syria, who is to blame? Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, too.

Now, they have seized some bloated fat guy they are trying to turn into a raft. Two-faced, venal opportunist, he waded out into the water, seeing an opportunity to make a buck off
the ship-wreck.

As they struggle, arms grappling and legs thrash,
their combined weight pulls them all down together into the ever-darkening . . . murk.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@leveymg

But my money's on the beast surviving. No stake to the heart has been strong enough yet to kill this thing.

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

Alligator Ed's picture

@Anja Geitz But, with my swampy connections, I know where to get appropriate help for Brennan, McCabe, Clapper, et. al. Allow me to introduce:

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl8MNwwzK9E]

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wendy davis's picture

@leveymg

magnificent comment and metaphor, darlin'. my hat's off to you.

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earthling1's picture

he would not miss this opportunity to truely drain the swamp.
He has been given a list of 90 of them on a silver platter.
Dissolving the CIA, FBI, NSA, NED, and all the letter agencies and starting from scratch would compel me to vote for him in 2020.
And I have never, in 50 years, voted for a Republican.
Clearly, Trump is enemy number one to the deep state.
IMHO

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

Anja Geitz's picture

@earthling1

Would also be a blow to the enemy. Strange bedfellows indeed.

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

wendy davis's picture

@earthling1

to the gods' (and trump's) ears, but from what i've been reading, he's playin' it all wrong, sadly.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@wendy davis has the butterfly morphed into a warhawk?

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed @Alligator Ed

you're asking me about 'the syrian' after my comment. i'd been trying to agree with yes: drain all the intel agencies and cia cut-outs NED, USAID by eradicating them, and i'd add all related hegemonic NGOs, sir gator.

unless, of course, you think i'm defending the Great Orange one by this or any other russia-gate ukraine-gate psyops.

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wendy davis's picture

@Alligator Ed

more anti-war, anti-Imperialism than your favorite x 10 candidate. but ah, i see now that you may have thought i might be signaling i'd vote for trumpelina in 2020. if so, not on your nellie, nor do i care for any of the Ds running, so if howie klein gets nominated as the Green candidate, i'll vote for him. he has a great socialist platform, but at least on the Twit machine, he's running on his stoopid Green Deal; meh.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to impeach.

But in a new campaign ad on Facebook, the Kentucky Republican claims that any impeachment attempt will fail as long as he remains in charge of the Senate.

"Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president," McConnell says directly to the camera in a 17-second video. "All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.

"But I need your help," he adds, standing in front of a picture of an elephant. "Please contribute before the deadline."

Anybody who thinks Mitch McConnell looks at impeachment as anything but an opportunity to raise cash and screw over Democrats doesn't know Mitch McConnell.

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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?

wendy davis's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

but what he cares about is *only* his power to stop it? wth? pelosi claimed to have raised $13 million during the first week after opening her bogus, behind closed doors, no congressional approval 'inquiry'.

but mitch has always been a fuquetard, hasn't he?

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

Anybody who thinks Mitch McConnell looks at impeachment as anything but an opportunity to raise cash and screw over Democrats doesn't know Mitch McConnell.

Biggrin

Seriously, McConnell posturing (for now) to raise money off DT, doesn't mean (to me) that he wouldn't consider throwing him under the bus, if it looks politically 'safe.'

It's not just because of what Halperin said, it's because he's not particularly popular with the Trump Base, since he considered to be a RINO. (IOW, he's basically a corporatist neoliberal, in sync with the DP Leadership--a close buddy of Harry Reid. (posted the CNN piece about this several years ago)

For the heck of it, let's compare a popular conservative--Alabama's Jeff Sessions (who'd wipe the floor with Doug Jones, IMO).

Sessions won his last Senatorial election with 97.25% of the vote, thusly,

2014 United States Senate election in Alabama[293]

Party Candidate Votes %

Republican Jeff Sessions (incumbent) 795,606 97.25%
Write-ins Other 22,484 2.75%
Total votes 818,090 100.00%

Compared to "Moscow Mitch's" most recent stats,

2014

2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky

In 2014, McConnell faced Louisville businessman Matt Bevin in the Republican primary.[296] The 60.2% won by McConnell was the lowest voter support for a Kentucky U.S. senator in a primary since 1938.[297] He faced Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in the general election. Although polls showed the race was expected to be very close,[298] McConnell defeated Grimes, 56.2–40.7%.[299][300] The 15.5% margin of victory was one of his largest, second only to his 2002 margin.

2014 U.S. Senate Republican primary election in Kentucky

Party Candidate Votes % +%
Republican Mitch McConnell (inc.) 213,753 60.2%
Republican Matt Bevin 125,787 35.4%
Republican Shawna Sterling 7,214 2.0%
Republican Chris Payne 5,338 1.5%
Republican Brad Copas 3,024 0.9%

And, in the general election, an even worse performance,

2014

McConnell 56.2%

Alison Lundergan Grimes, Democratic
David Patterson, Libertarian 40.7

Hey, obviously, it's just conjecture on my part that Mitch may throw DT under the bus (if it looks politically feasible).

But, I wouldn't equate public support for DT (now), with loyalty to him when the rubber meets the road--especially, if KY polls show relatively strong support for ousting DT.

Whether or not that will happen, dunno. But, I think it's much more likely there, than say in TN or AL.

I also think that he may consider 'who' the DP nominee looks like it'll be. If he believes that DT can easily defeat him/her, he might hold his nose and fight for DT, so that he can put a few more hundred conservative judges on the bench. Supposedly, he wants that success to be his primary 'legacy.'

BTW, I know that I may have a big plate of crow to eat, in several months--that's what makes all of this so much fun!

Smile

Have a good one.

Mollie

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
~~Cicero

The obstacle is the path.
~~Zen Proverb

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

ggersh's picture

the definition of "whistleblower", just like they
have hijacked all other terms that go against
their evilness.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

duopoly legacy parties sure have. in their own pragmatic self-interest, of course.

my bread dough's ready to be shaped into loaves for its final proofing, so i haven't time for excerpts, but now it's not the transcripts of The Big Call, it's all the Texts!

'The Ukraine affair is damning, all right – just not in the way you’re being told to think’, 4 Oct, 2019, RT.com

Dems publish Trump administration officials’ texts in Ukrainegate impeachment frenzy (READ IN FULL)’, RT.com, oct 4, 2019

not dueling banjos, dueling interpretation of texts, not sexts. long live the US duoply idiocracy!

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wendy davis's picture

and thank you all. tonight's closing song's just gotta be from the brilliant parodist weird al yankovic:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGXgjAUG14]

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@wendy davis @wendy davis

thanks for this essay. Especially, sharing the Tweets/videos. (We've heard some of them, since we hear the Sunday programs on replay on XM radio, but, good to be able to see them, as well. Plus, glad others get to hear them.)

If DT weren't such a loudmouth/gasbag, he probably could have turned the ridiculous Ukraine Gate/CIA leaker saga on the Dems. Dunno, but imagine that Repub lawmakers are totally freaked out, and fed up with him, now--if they weren't, already.

Got a chuckle out of Biden 'demanding' that Twitter not carry one of DT's 'mean' ads (which they ignored)--just to turn around the next day, and call for his impeachment.

Oh, that's right, he'll beat him like a drum. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure, Uncle Joe. If you can remember your own name, by the time the presidential debates roll around.

Biggrin

Have a good one.

Blue

I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
~~Cicero

The obstacle is the path.
~~Zen Proverb

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

wendy davis's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

i was interested enough to see those interviews to go and fetch them, especially as our teevee doesn't watch the news...ever. dinaae know that about biden and the mean ads, that's pretty funny.

i know there are loads of opinions as to how trump's been handling this wrongly or correctly, esp. under constitutional law in individual cases, such as telling his aid so-and-so he or she doesn't have to appear before the committee, etc. but this from patrick martin spells out what HE believes the constitution says, including the fact i'll bold, but hadn't known.

Trump asserts unchecked presidential powers’, Patrick Martin, 10 October 2019, wsws.org

"In the wake of the eight-page letter sent Tuesday evening by the White House to the House of Representatives declaring the Trump administration’s defiance of the impeachment inquiry, the president and his attorneys are elaborating a theory of unchecked executive authority, a presidential dictatorship in all but name.

The scope of presidential immunity from Congress asserted in the letter sent by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is essentially unlimited. The letter makes the president the decision-maker over whether Congress has the right to bring impeachment proceedings against him and how they are to be conducted, in direct violation of the constitutional separation of powers, which makes Congress a branch coequal to the executive.

As far as legal arguments go, the White House letter amounts to declaring the Constitution null and void. In its claims that the inquiry is not “necessary,” “authorized” or “valid,”

it simply ignores the plain text of the document, which declares (Article 1, Section 2), “The House of Representatives … shall have the sole Power of Impeachment,” and the House (Article 1, Section 5) “may determine the Rules of its Proceedings.

The president has no power to declare an impeachment inquiry “constitutionally invalid” or claim that it “lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment.” He is not the supreme arbiter of constitutionality and has no control over the manner of his own impeachment. If impeached, he may defend himself at the Senate trial, presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court."

i'd thought, but may have dismembered, that pelosi was required to have authorization from the House to open an impeachment inquiry. but i'm sure constitutional experts have been weighing in on it. there's a great one who's face i can see, but whose name i cannae recall. very quietly spoken, brilliant, and direct. maybe i'll think of it later...when it no longer matters. ; )

martin brings in a lot of polling results, but all polls are push polls, so...meh.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

White House Issues Defiant Letter Refusing To Cooperate In Impeachment Proceedings, october 9

he does address the one issue i'd mentioned:

'The White House continued along its ill-considered strategy of refusing to cooperate in an impeachment inquiry. I have previously written that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a fundamental error in not securing a vote of the House to commence an impeachment investigation. However, the letter issued by the White House counsel further undermines the case for executive privilege arguments and could reinforce obstruction allegations in any final articles of impeachment.

The letter rightfully raises concerns over the lack of a House vote of the body and the secrecy of proceedings. The Democrats have limited Republicans in their effort to question witnesses and secure material. However, that is not a legitimate basis for refusing to cooperate or supply clearly material evidence.

The letter emphasizes a lack of due process in the proceedings. The Constitution does not guarantee such rights as confrontation. Indeed, it does not expressly require anything other than a vote of the House on impeachment and a majority threshold for any referral of the matter to the Senate for trial.

Once again, past impeachments (like the one that I handled) have allowed for witness examinations and some adversarial process. That should be the case here. There is clearly an effort by Democrats to prevent serious questioning of witnesses by Republican members. That is not a good practice and undermines the impeachment investigation.

there's more of course.

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dervish's picture

about what Chuck Todd and the other paid media whores say about this?

Literally noone watches that crap anymore.

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

wendy davis's picture

@dervish

i couldn't say, nor do i know what most people do watch. but i'd have to guess that there's a large D R divide. ; )

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