Posts Tagged ‘2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN’
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, ANCIENT GREECE, ANCIENT ROME, AP, BERNIE SANDERS, BILL CLINTON, BRIAN THOMPSON, BUZZFEED, CATASTROPHE, CBS NEWS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (CEOs)), CHINA, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CORPORATE TAXES, CORRUPTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DELAY DENY DEFEND (BOOK), DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DONALD TRUMP, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH, FORBES, FUNDRAISING, HILLARY CLINTON, INCOME INEQUALITY, IVAN THE TERRIBLE, JAY M. FEINMAN, JOE BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, LEON TROTSKY, MEDICAL INSURANCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SPARTACUS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE CORRUPT SOCIETY (BOOK), THE DAILY BEAST, THE DISCOURSES, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE GREAT LEVELER, THE GREAT LEVELER (BOOK), THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITEDHEALTHCARE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIOLENCE, Vladimir Lenin, WALL STREET, WALTER SCHEIDEL, WATERGATE, WEALTH GAP, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WINSTON CHURCHILL, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on December 11, 2024 at 12:19 am
The gap between rich and poor in the United States has never been greater.
The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality. Its September 21, 2023 report stated:
- In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker.
- In 1965 they were paid 21 times as much. In 2021, CEOs made nearly eight times as much as the top 0.1% of wage earners in the U.S.
This would not have been news to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science. In his masterwork, The Discourses, he observed the human condition as that of constant struggle:
Niccolo Machiavelli
“It was a saying of ancient writers, that men afflict themselves in evil, and become weary of the good, and that both these dispositions produce the same effects.
“For when men are no longer obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition, which passion is so powerful in the hearts of men that it never leaves them, no matter to what height they may rise.
“The reason for this is that nature has created men so that they desire everything, but are unable to attain it. Desire being thus always greater than the faculty of acquiring, discontent with what they have and dissatisfaction with themselves result from it.
“This causes the changes in their fortunes—for as some men desire to have more, while others fear to lose what they have, enmities and war are the consequences. And this brings about the ruin of one province and the elevation of another.”
Author Walter Scheidel, Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History at Stanford University, has also given this subject a great deal of thought. And, like Machiavelli, he has reached some highly disturbing conclusions.
Walter Scheidel
World Economic Forum [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D
He gave voice to these in his 2017 book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. His thesis: Only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout history.
According to the book’s jacket blurb: “Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes.
“Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return.
“The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
“Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality.
“The ‘Four Horsemen’ of leveling—-mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich.
“Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century.
“Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.”
Revolutionaries have known the truth of Scheidel’s findings from the gladiators’ revolt of Spartacus (73-71 B.C.) to the French Revolution (1789-1799) to the overthrow of the Czarist Romanov dynasty (1917).
But American politicians serenely ignore that truth. They depend on the mega-rich for millions of dollars in “campaign contributions”—which pay for self-glorifying ads on TV.
Thus, in 2016, American voters had a “choice” between two “love-the-rich” Presidential candidates: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Trump owed his wealth to a $200 million gift from his real estate tycoon father. Clinton owed hers mostly through her husband, Bill, by his writing books, giving speeches, consulting private companies and advising billionaire Ron Burkle.
After leaving the Senate (2001-09) and President Obama’s cabinet (2009-13), she earned $9 million in speaking fees in both 2013 and 2014.
The result was that millions stayed home or voted in protest for third-party candidates who had no chance of winning.
In 2020, American voters got to “choose” between another two “love-the-rich” candidates: Donald Trump and Joseph Biden.
In his 1975 book, The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Modern-day America, British historian Robert Payne warned that the predatory rich would not change their behavior: “Nor is there any likelihood that the rich will plow back their money into services to ensure the general good.
“They have rarely demonstrated social responsibility, and they are much more likely to hold on to their wealth at all costs than to renounce any part of it.
“Like the tyrant who lives in a world wholly remote from the world of the people, shielded and protected from all possible influences, the rich are usually the last to observe the social pressures rising from below, and when these social pressures reach flashpoint, it is too late to call in the police or the army.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, ANCIENT GREECE, ANCIENT ROME, AP, BERNIE SANDERS, BILL CLINTON, BRIAN THOMPSON, BUZZFEED, CATASTROPHE, CBS NEWS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (CEOs)), CHINA, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CORPORATE TAXES, CORRUPTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DELAY DENY DEFEND (BOOK), DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DONALD TRUMP, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH, FORBES, FUNDRAISING, HILLARY CLINTON, INCOME INEQUALITY, IVAN THE TERRIBLE, JAY M. FEINMAN, JOE BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, LEON TROTSKY, MEDICAL INSURANCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SPARTACUS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE CORRUPT SOCIETY (BOOK), THE DAILY BEAST, THE DISCOURSES, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE GREAT LEVELER, THE GREAT LEVELER (BOOK), THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITEDHEALTHCARE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIOLENCE, Vladimir Lenin, WALL STREET, WALTER SCHEIDEL, WATERGATE, WEALTH GAP, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WINSTON CHURCHILL, X
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on December 10, 2024 at 12:21 am
Americans are used to Presidential candidates telling lies (euphemistically known as “campaign promises”) to get elected.
But when a candidate actually (and usually accidentally) tells the truth, the results can be electrifying.
A pointed example:
On June 18, 2019, Democratic Presidential candidate and front-runner Joe Biden addressed a roomful of donors in New York. Money is, after all, the lifeblood of all political campaigns, and Biden wanted to guarantee he got more of it than any of his 23 Democratic rivals.
So the former vice president had a message he felt sure would appeal to his well-heeled audience of billionaires: Don’t worry, if I’m elected, your standard of living won’t change.
Joe Biden
Addressing the 100 or so guests at a fundraiser at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, Biden said that he had taken heat from “some of the people on my team, on the Democratic side” because he had said that rich people were “just as patriotic as poor people.
“The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change,” he said.
And he added: “I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money.
“When we have income inequality as large as we have in the United States today, it brews and ferments political discord and basic revolution. Not a joke. Not a joke. It allows demagogues to step in and say the reason where we are is because of the ‘other’….
“You’re not the other. I need you very badly. I hope if I win this nomination, I won’t let you down. I promise you. I have a bad reputation, I always say what I mean. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.”
Biden talked about decreasing income inequality and promoting workers’ rights. But he took a moderate stance when it came to taxation.
Vermont United States Senator Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, has attacked the ultra-rich as responsible for the ever-widening gap between themselves and the poor.
Bernie Sanders
Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“I love Bernie, but I’m not Bernie Sanders. I don’t think 500 billionaires are the reason why we’re in trouble,” Biden said in March, 2019.
Instead, he proposed expanding tax credits for the poor and middle class, and making the tax code less friendly to rich investors.
Robert Payne, the distinguished British historian, had a different—and darker—view of the rich.
Payne authored more than 110 books. Among his subjects were Adolf Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, William Shakespeare and Leon Trotsky.
In 1975, he published The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America. It proved a summary of many of his previous works.
Among the epochs it covered were the civilizations of ancient Greece, Rome and China; Nazi Germany; the Soviet Union; and Watergate-era America. And the massive corruption each of those epochs had spawned.
In his chapter, “A View of the Uncorrupted Society,” Payne warned: Power and wealth are the main sources of corruption.
“The rich, simply by being rich, are infected with corruption. Their overwhelming desire is to grow richer, but they can do this only at the expense of those who are poorer than themselves.
”Their interests conflict with those of the overall society. They live sheltered from the constant anxieties of the poor, and thus cannot understand them. Nor do they try to.
“They see the poor as alien from themselves, and thus come to fear and despise them. And their wealth and influence enables them to buy politicians—who, in turn, write legislation that protects the rich from the poor.”
But Payne foresaw an even greater danger from the rich and powerful than their mere isolation from the rest of society: “The mere presence of the rich is corrupting. Their habits, their moral codes, their delight in conspicuous consumption are permanent affronts to the rest of humanity. Vast inequalities of wealth are intolerable in any decent society.”
Writing in 1975, Payne noted that a third of the private wealth was possessed by less than five percent of the population—while about a fifth of the populace lived at the poverty level. By 2000, he predicted, about five percent of the population would possess two-thirds of America’s wealth. And more than half the population would be near or below the starvation level.
Payne has proven to be an uncanny prophet.
On October 8, 2024, Fortune magazine noted that “over the past 30 years, the U.S.’s top 1% got richer, and now hold nearly a third of the nation’s wealth.“
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations, focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942. On January 16, 2023, it noted:
“The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population.”
But this situation need not remain permanent.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ACADEMY AWARDS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSOCIATED PRESS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, BIRTHERS, BLOOMBERG, BULLYING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENSORSHIP, CHRIS CUOMO, CNN, CREDIBILITY GAP, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DAVID HALBERSTAM, DISABILITY, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX AND FRIENDS, FRANK STANTON, FULL METAL JACKET, GEORGE MCGOVERN, GOLDEN GLOBES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, KELLEYANNE CONWAY, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MARK SHIELDS, MEDIA MATTERS, MERYL STREEP, MORLEY SAFER, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEEWSWEEK, NEW DAY, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER ARNETT, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RONALD ZIEGLER, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SERGE KOVALESKI, SLATE, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, STANLEY KUBRICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE IRON LADY, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WATERGATE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 21, 2024 at 12:10 am
After being presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, Meryl Streep criticized Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s mocking of disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.
Kovaleski suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that restricts the movement of the muscles in his arms.
At a South Carolina rally on November 24, 2015, Trump claimed that Kovaleski was backing away from an article he had written four years earlier.
Trump had earlier said the article proved that New Jersey Muslims had celebrated the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Kovaleski had insisted there was no credible proof of such celebrations.
Angered at being contradicted, Trump mocked Kovaleski: He flopped his right arm around with his hand held at an odd angle while imitating the reporter: “Now, the poor guy, you’ve got to see this guy: ‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. Uhh, I don’t remember,’ he’s going like ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.'”
Trump mocking Kovaleski, left; Kovaleski, right
At the Golden Globe Awards on January 8, Streep denounced this behavior that “broke my heart.”
“And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.
“Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes
Streep’s words outraged Trump’s supporters—especially his mouthpiece, Kelleyanne Conway.
Appearing on Right-wing Fox and Friends the next morning, she said: “We have to now form a government, and I’m concerned that somebody with a platform like Meryl Streep is also, I think, inciting people’s worst instincts.
“When she won’t get up there and say, ‘I don’t like it, but let’s try to support him and see where we can find some common ground with him, which [Trump] has actually done from moment one.”
Conway didn’t say what common ground Streep should find with Trump. Perhaps agreeing on mocking the disabled?
Kelleyanne Conway
Then Conway visited CNN’s “New Day,” where she offered a “black-is-white” defense for Trump’s videotaped ridiculing of Kovaleski: It didn’t happen.
The host, Chris Cuomo, having seen the video, wasn’t buying it.
CUOMO: But is [Streep] wrong? Is she wrong that it was wrong for Trump to make gestures like that about a man with disabilities?
CONWAY: He didn’t—but that is not what he did and he has said that a thousand times. As he tweeted out today—
CUOMO: He can say it a million. Look at the video.
CONWAY: Why can’t you—wait, excuse me. Why can’t you give him the benefit of the doubt the way the benefit of the doubt was given to CNN’s polling, all of its analysts?
CUOMO: Because he’s making a disgusting gesture on video talking about Serge.
CONWAY: Not about that reporter and that’s just a fact. That is what he’s said. You should give him—
CUOMO: But how is it not about the reporter?
CONWAY: —the deference and respect if he says that it was—he was not mocking, he was mocking the groveling. He said it again this morning. He has three tweets out about it.
CUOMO: But he’s doing a gesture that goes right to the guy’s vulnerability.
CONWAY: You’re saying you don’t believe him. You’re calling him a liar and you shouldn’t.
CUOMO: Look, Kellyanne, to me that’s like you’re trying to scare me off the point and we both know it’s a waste of time.
CONWAY: I’m not going to scare you off anything.
CUOMO: He’s making a gesture that is so keenly tuned to what Serge’s vulnerability is.
CONWAY: And now you’re giving oxygen to what Meryl Streep said.
CUOMO: Forget about Meryl Streep. This happened before her. If our kids did that, could you imagine what we would say to them?
Conway said she would not bring her children into the discussion.
CUOMO: I will. If my kid did something like that, it’d be a really tough day.
CONWAY: You have to listen to what the president has said about that. Why don’t you believe him?
Conway tried to change the subject to Hillary Clinton: “She was given the benefit of the doubt here constantly.”
When Cuomo asked for specifics, she refused to give them. Then she returned to claiming that Trump had never mocked Kovaleski:
CONWAY: You can’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this, when he’s telling you what was in his heart? You always want to go by what’s come out of his mouth, rather than look at what’s in his heart.
* * * * *
Previously, politicians had defended themselves with arguments like: “You can see right here on the tape, I did (or, I didn’t)….”
Trump has cast aside that logic—and the taped evidence—by demanding: “Believe what I’m telling you, not what you’ve just seen.”
By that rationale, if a security camera shows Trump robbing a bank at gunpoint, we’re supposed to believe him if he says: “No, I didn’t rob that bank. I was simply checking my bank balance.”
Such “logic” holds appeal for paid shills like Kelleyanne Conway. But most people will continue to judge by the evidence.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ACADEMY AWARDS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSOCIATED PRESS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, BIRTHERS, BLOOMBERG, BULLYING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENSORSHIP, CHRIS CUOMO, CNN, CREDIBILITY GAP, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DAVID HALBERSTAM, DISABILITY, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX AND FRIENDS, FRANK STANTON, FULL METAL JACKET, GEORGE MCGOVERN, GOLDEN GLOBES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, KELLEYANNE CONWAY, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MARK SHIELDS, MEDIA MATTERS, MERYL STREEP, MORLEY SAFER, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEEWSWEEK, NEW DAY, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER ARNETT, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RONALD ZIEGLER, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SERGE KOVALESKI, SLATE, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, STANLEY KUBRICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE IRON LADY, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WATERGATE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 18, 2024 at 12:22 am
For five years, Donald Trump, more than anyone else, popularized the slander that Barack Obama was born in Kenya—and was therefore an illegitimate President.
For more than a year during his 2016 Presidential campaign, Trump continued doing so.
As his popularity fell to less than 1% among blacks, the managers of his campaign urged: Put the “birther” issue behind you.
So, on September 16, 2016—10 days before his scheduled first debate with Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton—Trump made his version of a reversal.
Donald Trump: “President Barack Obama was born in the United States.”
He did so in about seven seconds and 40 words—after spending a half hour paying tribute to the military and promoting his new upscale hotel in Washington, D.C.:
“Now, not to mention her in the same breath, but Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy.
“I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”
His tone made it clear that he felt uneasy making that statement–and wanted to get it over with as fast as possible.
He refused to take questions from reporters covering the event. Nor did he apologize for his five-year campaign of slander.
On the evening of September 16, Hillary Clinton strongly responded to Trump’s comments:
“For five years, he has led the birther movement to de-legitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history.”
And First Lady Michelle Obama slammed Trump for his “birther” claims:
“Then, of course, there were those who questioned, and who continue to question for the past eight years, and up to this very day, whether my husband was even born in this country.
“Well, during his time in office, I think Barack has answered those questions with the examples he set, by going high when they go low. And he’s answered these questions with the progress we’ve achieved together.”
Michelle Obama
But perhaps the best perspective on this event was provided by syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Each Friday they appear on the PBS Newshour to review the week’s major political events.
David Brooks and Mark Shields
On September 16, 2016, Shields (a liberal) and Brooks (a conservative) addressed Trump’s about-face on birtherism.
MARK SHIELDS: “I think it’s important to establish right at the outset that [Trump] wasn’t only the loudest and the highest-profile and the most persistent and the most well-publicized birther, he, Donald Trump. He lied. He lied consistently and persistently.
“And, today, without explanation or excuse, he just changed his position and tried to absolutely falsely shift the blame onto Hillary Clinton.
“And this was an appeal to—he debased democracy. He debased the national debate. He appealed to that which is most ignoble or least noble in all of us.”
DAVID BROOKS: “Usually, there’s some tangential relationship to the truth, but a corroding relationship to the truth, frankly, as politics has gone on over the years.
“But now we’re in a reverse, Orwellian inversion of the truth with this. And so we have a team of staffers and then the candidate himself who have taken the normal spin and smashed all the rules.
“And so we are really in Orwell land. We are in 1984. And it’s interesting that an authoritarian personality type comes in at the same time with a complete disrespect for even tangential relationship to the truth that words are unmoored.
“And so I do think this statement sort of shocked me with the purification of a lot of terrible trends that have been happening. And so what’s white is black, and what is up is down, what is down is up. And that really is something new in politics.
“And the fact that there is no penalty for it, apparently—he’s doing fantastic in the last two weeks in the polls–is just somehow where we have gotten.”
Less than two months later, Trump won the Presidency.
Since then, Trump has continued to inhabit what David Brooks called “Orwell land.”
The most recent example of this occurred on January 9, 2017.
The night before, Meryl Streep had enraged Trump and his mouthpiece, Kelleyanne Conway, at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony.
While being presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, she had criticized Trump’s mocking, on November 25, 2015, of disabled New York Times reporter Serve Kovaleski:
“There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth.
“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ACADEMY AWARDS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSOCIATED PRESS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, BIRTHERS, BLOOMBERG, BULLYING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENSORSHIP, CHRIS CUOMO, CNN, CREDIBILITY GAP, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DAVID HALBERSTAM, DISABILITY, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX AND FRIENDS, FRANK STANTON, FULL METAL JACKET, GEORGE MCGOVERN, GOLDEN GLOBES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, KELLEYANNE CONWAY, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MARK SHIELDS, MEDIA MATTERS, MERYL STREEP, MORLEY SAFER, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEEWSWEEK, NEW DAY, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER ARNETT, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RONALD ZIEGLER, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SERGE KOVALESKI, SLATE, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, STANLEY KUBRICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE IRON LADY, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on October 17, 2024 at 12:12 am
In 2011, Donald Trump, host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” was thinking of running for President against Barack Obama.
Seeking to gain popularity among America’s Right-wing, Trump almost singlehandedly created the popular fiction that the President was born in Kenya—and was not an American citizen.
His motive: To convince Americans that Obama was an illegitimate President.
Donald Trump
Among the statements Trump made:
February 10, 2011: “Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: The people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is. It’s crazy.”
March 23, 2011: “I want him to show his birth certificate. I want him to show his birth certificate. … There’s something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like.”
March 28, 2011: “I am really concerned” [that Obama wasn’t born in the United States]. He said that the birth announcement for Obama in a Hawaii newspaper could have been planted “for whatever reason.”
March 30, 2011: “If you are going to be president of the United States you have to be born in this country. And there is a doubt as to whether or not he was. … He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or he may not have one. But I will tell you this. If he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.”
April 7, 2011: “I have people that have been studying it, and they cannot believe what they’re finding. You are not allowed to be a president if you’re not born in this country. Right now I have real doubts.”
April 25, 2011: “I’ve been told very recently…that the birth certificate is missing. I’ve been told that it’s not there or it doesn’t exist. And if that’s the case, it’s a big problem.”
On April 27, President Obama released his original, long-form Hawiian birth certificate.
The long-form version of President Obama’s birth certificate
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” said Obama at a press conference, speaking as a father might to a roomful of spiteful children. “We have better stuff to do. I have got better stuff to do. We have got big problems to solve.
“We are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted, we are not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other…if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts, we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers.”
And on May 1, he announced the solving of one of those “big problems”: Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, had been tracked down and shot dead by elite U.S. Navy SEALS in Pakistan.
SEALS attacking bin Laden’s compound in the 2012 movie, “Zero Dark Thirty”
And how did Trump respond? With the following series of Tweets on Twitter:
May 18, 2012: “Let’s take a closer look at that birth certificate.@BarackObama was described in 2003 as being “born in Kenya.” http://bit.ly/Klc9Uu
August 6, 2012: “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.”
August 27, 2012: “Why do the Republicans keep apologizing on the so called “birther” issue? No more apologies—take the offensive!”
September 13, 2012: “Wake Up America! See article: “Israeli Science: Obama Birth Certificate is a Fake”
June 30, 2013: “@davidrhythmguit: @realDonaldTrump @Chuffman48 Mark Cuban accepts the fact that the President of the United States was born here. Doubt it”
August 22, 2013: “Why are people upset w/ me over Pres Obama’s birth certificate? I got him to release it, or whatever it was, when nobody else could!”
December 12, 2013: “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate” died in plane crash today. All others lived”
November 23, 2014: “@futureicon: @pinksugar61 Obama also fabricated his own birth certificate after being pressured to produce one by @realDonaldTrump“
Even after declaring his candidacy for President on June 16, 2015, Trump continued to insist that Barack Obama was an illegitimate President.
Meanwhile, Trump’s popularity among blacks had steadily fallen. In June, 2016, a Quinnipiac poll revealed that Trump had 1% of support from black voters. By comparison, 91% of black voters backed Hillary Clinton.
Among the reasons for this:
- His enthusiastic support by racist white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.
- His “birther” attacks on President Obama as a non-citizen from Kenya—and thus ineligible to hold the Presidency.
- His attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement and calling on his supporters at rallies to rough up minority protesters.
Even the managers of Trump’s campaign urged him to put the “birther” issue behind him.
And so, on September 16—10 days before his scheduled first debate with Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton—Trump made his version of a reversal.
In doing so, he entered into what conservative New York Times political columnist David Brooks called “Orwell land.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 9/11 ATTACKS, ABC NEWS, ACADEMY AWARDS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSOCIATED PRESS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BBC, BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, BIRTHERS, BLOOMBERG, BULLYING, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENSORSHIP, CHRIS CUOMO, CNN, CREDIBILITY GAP, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAVID BROOKS, DAVID HALBERSTAM, DISABILITY, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX AND FRIENDS, FRANK STANTON, FULL METAL JACKET, GEORGE MCGOVERN, GOLDEN GLOBES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HUFFINGTON POST, JOHN F. KENNEDY, KELLEYANNE CONWAY, KRAMER VS. KRAMER, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MARK SHIELDS, MEDIA MATTERS, MERYL STREEP, MORLEY SAFER, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEEWSWEEK, NEW DAY, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OSAMA BIN LADEN, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETER ARNETT, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, RONALD ZIEGLER, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SERGE KOVALESKI, SLATE, SOPHIE'S CHOICE, STANLEY KUBRICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE IRON LADY, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WATERGATE, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 16, 2024 at 12:26 am
“Credibility gap” is a term that came into use during the mid-1960s to describe public and journalistic distrust of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In particular, the term was applied to his administration’s conduct of the Vietnam war.
It was, in short, a euphemism for accusing government officials of outright lying.
An example of the credibility gap in full swing appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1987 Vietnam war movie, Full Metal Jacket.
Vietnam was a war where military and political officials spewed a gung-ho version of constant American progress against a tough enemy.
And where civilian reporters like David Halberstam and Walter Cronkite saw—and labeled—the war as a brutal, wasteful and ultimately doomed effort.
Midway through the film, there’s an editorial meeting of The Sea Tiger, the official Marine newspaper.
Lieutenant Lockhart is presiding–and he is determined to give his superiors an endless stream of “all-systems-go” propaganda reports. He reads a series of stories that have been published:
Story #1: DIPLOMATS IN DUNGAREES—MARINE ENGINEERS LEND A HELPING HAND REBUILDING DONG PHUC VILLAGES.
LOCKHART: “Chili, “if we move Vietnamese, they are evacuees. If they come to us to be evacuated, they are refugees.”
Story #2: N.V.A. SOLDIER DESERTS AFTER READING PAMPHLETS.
LOCKHART: “A young North Vietnamese Army regular, who realized his side could not win the war, deserted from his unit after reading Open Arms program pamphlets.”
Story #3: NOT WHILE WE’RE EATING: N.V.A. LEARN MARINES ON A SEARCH AND DESTROY MISSION DON’T LIKE TO BE INTERRUPTED WHILE EATING CHOW.
LOCKHART: “‘Search and destroy.’ Uh, we have a new directive on this. In the future, in place of ‘search and destroy,’ substitute the phrase ‘sweep and clear.’ Got it?”
Lt. Lockhart, editor of The Sea Tiger
LOCKHART: “And, Joker—where’s the weenie?”
JOKER: “Sir?”
LOCKHART “The Kill, Joker. I mean, all that fire, the grunts must’ve hit something.”
JOKER: “Didn’t see ’em.”
LOCKHART: “Joker, I’ve told you, we run two basic stories here: Grunts who give half their pay to buy gooks toothbrushes and deodorants—winning of hearts and Minds—okay? And combat action that results in a kill—Winning the War. Now you must have seen blood trails … drag marks?”
JOKER: “It was raining, sir.”
LOCKHART: “Well, that’s why God passed the law of probability. Now rewrite it and give it a happy ending–say, uh, one kill. Make it a sapper or an officer. Grunts like reading about dead officers.”
JOKER: “Okay, an officer. How about a general?”
LOCKHART: “Joker, maybe you’d like our guys to read the paper and feel bad. I mean, in case you didn’t know it, this is not a particularly popular war. Now, it is our job to report the news that these why-are-we-here civilian newsmen ignore.”
So great became the divide between truth and lies during military “press briefings” that reporters started calling them “The Five O’clock Follies.” And even some soldiers took to wearing buttons that said: “Ambushed at Credibility Gap.”
Reporters who dared to write truthfully about the military’s crimes and failures—like David Halberstam of the New York Times and Peter Arnett of the Associated Press—were regarded as traitors by military and political officials.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy became enraged by Halberstam’s reporting on the corruption of the South Vietnamese government. He pressured New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger to transfer Halberstam to another locale. Sulzberger politely refused—and then, to send a message to Kennedy, extended Halberstam’s stay in Vietnam another six months.
David Halberstam
In 1965, when CBS Correspondent Morley Safer filmed Marines setting fire to the village of Cam Ne with Zippo lighters, President Lyndon B. Johnson was similarly outraged.
He placed an early-morning call to CBS News President Frank Stanton and shouted: “Your boys shat on the American flag!”
The trail of deceit and attempted censorship continued right up to the end of the war—in April, 1975. That was when North Vietnamese forces invaded the South and quickly overwhelmed the incompetent defenses arrayed against them.
And while America was still bogged down in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal erupted on June 17, 1972.
Watergate Hotel
Members of the Nixon administration’s secret “Plumbers Unit” burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel.
Obsessed with re-electing Richard Nixon, they sought incriminating information to discredit U.S. Senator George McGovern, the Democrats’ nominee for President.
When the burglars were caught, President Richard M. Nixon and his topmost officials lied and stonewalled both reporters and investigators seeking the truth.
Nixon’s press secretary, Ronald Ziegler, repeatedly slandered the integrity of The Washington Post for its coverage of the mushrooming Watergate scandal. He called the Watergate break-in “a third-rate burglary” and attacked the Post for “shabby journalism.”
Finally, on April 17, 1973, Ziegler, announced at a press conference: “This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.”
In short: We’ve been lying to you for the last 10 months. But now we’re telling the truth.
Like Vietnam, the Watergate scandal destroyed the reputations of many of its chief architects. Forty government officials were indicted or jailed.
Vietnam and Watergate were seminal events for Americans coming of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They taught an entire generation: Don’t trust the government. Its officials routinely lie, and their lies can be deadly.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW INTRATER, AP, ARCHIBALD COX, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BENNY JOHNSON, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CLINTON WATTS, CNN, CRAIG UNGER, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVE RUBIN, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEVIN NUNES, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DOUG COLLINS, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FBI’S COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT (FARA), FOX NEWS, GREG MILLER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, HOUSE OF TRUMP HOUSE OF PUTIN (BOOK), ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS), ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE, JAMES COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JEFF SESSIONS, JERROLD NADLER, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE, KAYLEIGH MCENANY, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN SUTHERN, LEN BLAVATNIK, LESTER HOLT, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MALCOM NANCE, MALCOM W. NANCE, MARCO RUBIO, MATT CHRISTIANSEN, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL FLYNN, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MONEY-LAUNDERING, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PAUL MANAFORT, PAUL RYAN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, PROPAGANDA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, REX TILLERSON, RICHARD M. NIXON, RINAT AKHMETSHIN, ROBERT S. MUELLER 111, ROD ROSENSTEIN, RT, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ROULETTE (BOOK), SALON, SEAL TEAM SIX, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, SERGEY KISLYAK, SERGEY LAVROV, SLATE, SUPREME COURT, TALIBAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAYLOR HANSEN, TENET MEDIA, THE APPRENTICE (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PLOT TO DESDTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIM POOL, TIME, TREASON, TRUMP INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NAVY SEALS, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM BARR, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 20, 2024 at 12:10 am
Would you believe in a love at first sight?
(Yes, it happens with a mirror all the time.)
What do you see when you turn out the light?
(It stays on so that my face can shine.)
Oh, I get by with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, I can lie with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, you’re gonna die with a little help from my Vlad.
The appointment of Robert S. Mueller as Special Counsel aroused unprecedented hopes and fears.
Yet even before the release of the long-awaited Mueller report, several deeply-researched and well-written books outlined Russia’s efforts to subvert the 2016 Presidential race. And they cast devastating light on Trump’s loyalty to the United States.
Among these:
- The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of Democracy, by Greg Miller
- House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia, by Craig Unger
- Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Michael Isikoff
- The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West, by Malcom W. Nance
According to its blurb on Amazon.com, The Apprentice is “based on interviews with hundreds of people in Trump’s inner circle, current and former government officials, individuals with close ties to the White House, members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities, foreign officials, and confidential documents.”
Among the subjects it covers:
- The Trump Tower meeting, where the Trump campaign sought “dirt” on Hillary Clinton from Russian Intelligence agents;
- The penetration by Russian Intelligence of computer systems used by Democrats;
- How Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, tried to set up a secret back channel to Moscow via Russian diplomatic facilities;
- Trump’s giving Russian officials highly classified secrets supplied by Israeli Intelligence;
- Trump’s clashes with the FBI and CIA.
Miller is a veteran investigative journalist and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Among his stories: National security adviser Michael Flynn’s discussing U.S. sanctions with Russian officials prior to Trump’s inauguration. The story contributed to Flynn’s ouster.
Then there’s House of Trump, House of Putin, whose jacket blurb describes Trump’s inauguration as “the culmination of Vladimir Putin’s long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City.
“…Craig Unger methodically traces the deep-rooted alliance between the highest echelons of American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Donald Trump’s sordid ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world….
“Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president.”
As an appendix to the book, Unger writes: “Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with Russia. Below are fifty-nine Trump connections to Russia.”
Russian Roulette, according to its dust jacket, “is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry.
“After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election.
“The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no ‘third-rate burglary.’ It was far more sophisticated and sinister—a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won….
“This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump’s strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle—including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn—and Russia.”
Malcom Nance, the author of The Plot to Destroy Democracy, is an Intelligence and foreign policy analyst and media commentator on terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture.
In his book, he outlines how “Donald Trump was made President of the United States with the assistance of a foreign power.
“[It is] the dramatic story of how blackmail, espionage, assassination, and psychological warfare were used by Vladimir Putin and his spy agencies to steal the 2016 U.S. election—and attempted to bring about the fall of NATO, the European Union, and western democracy….
“Nance has utilized top secret Russian-sourced political and hybrid warfare strategy documents to demonstrate the master plan to undermine American institutions that has been in effect from the Cold War to the present day.
“Based on original research and countless interviews with espionage experts, Nance examines how Putin’s recent hacking accomplished a crucial first step for destabilizing the West for Russia, and why Putin is just the man to do it.”
These books—combined with the findings of the Mueller report—clearly establish the damning conclusion: The man now sitting in the Oval Office is an illegitimate usurper, installed by an unholy alliance of American Fascists and Russian Communists.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW INTRATER, AP, ARCHIBALD COX, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BENNY JOHNSON, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CLINTON WATTS, CNN, CRAIG UNGER, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVE RUBIN, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEVIN NUNES, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DOUG COLLINS, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FBI’S COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT (FARA), FOX NEWS, GREG MILLER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, HOUSE OF TRUMP HOUSE OF PUTIN (BOOK), ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS), ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE, JAMES COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JEFF SESSIONS, JERROLD NADLER, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE, KAYLEIGH MCENANY, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN SUTHERN, LEN BLAVATNIK, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MALCOM NANCE, MALCOM W. NANCE, MARCO RUBIO, MATT CHRISTIANSEN, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL FLYNN, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MONEY-LAUNDERING, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PAUL MANAFORT, PAUL RYAN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, PROPAGANDA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, REX TILLERSON, RICHARD M. NIXON, RINAT AKHMETSHIN, ROBERT S. MUELLER 111, ROD ROSENSTEIN, RT, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ROULETTE (BOOK), SALON, SEAL TEAM SIX, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, SERGEY KISLYAK, SERGEY LAVROV, SLATE, SUPREME COURT, TALIBAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAYLOR HANSEN, TENET MEDIA, THE APPRENTICE (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIM POOL, TIME, TREASON, TRUMP INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NAVY SEALS, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM BARR, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 19, 2024 at 12:16 am
Do you need anybody?
(I need a Gestapo that kills.)
Could it be anybody?
(As long as it kills I get thrills.)
Yes, I get by with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, I can lie with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, you’re gonna fry with a little help from my Vlad.
On January 20, 2017—the day Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States—Michael Flynn became the nation’s 25th National Security Adviser.
Flynn was a former United States Army lieutenant general and director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
TREASON EXAMPLE #5 On February 8, Flynn denied having spoken to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December, 2016, about removing the sanctions placed on Russia by the outgoing Obama administration.
The sanctions had been placed in retaliation for Russia’s efforts to manipulate the 2016 Presidential election.
On February 13, The Washington Post reported that Acting Attorney General Sally Yates had warned Trump in late January that Flynn had lied about his contacts with Kislyak—and that he could be blackmailed by Russian Intelligence.
Sally Yates
Flynn was forced to resign that same day—after only 24 days as National Security Adviser.
Officially, the reason given was that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence. But Flynn’s deception had already been known—via the warning to Trump by Yates.
Only after Yates’ warning became known to the media was Flynn forced to resign.
The same Washington Post story reported that, in December, 2015, he had appeared on Russia Today, the news network that American Intelligence agencies consider “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.”
He had also received more than $45,000 as a “speaking fee” from the network for a talk on world affairs. At the gala where Flynn received the fee, he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin for dinner.
Flynn did not file the required paperwork for the trip. Nor did he report the “fee” to the Pentagon.
On December 1, 2017, Flynn appeared in federal court to formalize a deal with Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III. He plead guilty to a felony count of “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI.
TREASON EXAMPLE #6 On May 9, 2017, President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential race.
There were four reasons for this:
- Comey had refused to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump. Trump had made the “request” during a private dinner at the White House in January.
- Comey told Trump that he would always be honest with him. But that didn’t satisfy Trump’s demand that the head of the FBI act as his personal secret police chief—as was the case in the former Soviet Union.
- Comey had rejected Trump’s attempt to coerce him into dropping the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
- Comey had recently asked the Justice Department to fund an expanded FBI investigation into well-documented contacts between Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
James Comey
TREASON EXAMPLE #7 On May 10, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office—and gave them highly classified Israeli Intelligence about an Islamic State plot to turn laptops into concealable bombs.
Kislyak is reportedly a top recruiter for Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency. He has been closely linked with Jeff Sessions, then Attorney General, and fired National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
“I just fired the head of the FBI,” Trump told the two dignitaries. “He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
TREASON EXAMPLE #8 On July 16, 2018, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There he blamed American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—as partners in a conspiracy: “You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin in Helsinki
TREASON EXAMPLE #9 On June 9, 2018, Trump called for Russia to be readmitted to the G7.
“I think it would be an asset to have Russia back in,” he said during an impromptu press conference at the summit.
“I think it would be good for the world. I think it would be good for Russia. I think it would be good for the United States. I think it would be good for all of the countries of the current G7. I think the G8 would be better.”
Russia was ousted from the group in 2014 after Putin annexed Crimea—the first violation of a European country’s borders since World War II.
“Today crystallizes precisely why Putin was so eager to see Trump elected,” said former Obama National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.
“For Putin, this is return on his investment, and it’s safe to say that his investment has paid off beyond even his wildest dreams,” he said in a statement to CNN.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW INTRATER, AP, ARCHIBALD COX, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BENNY JOHNSON, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CLINTON WATTS, CNN, CRAIG UNGER, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVE RUBIN, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEVIN NUNES, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DOUG COLLINS, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FBI’S COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT (FARA), FOX NEWS, GREG MILLER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, HOUSE OF TRUMP HOUSE OF PUTIN (BOOK), ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS), ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE, JAMES COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JEFF SESSIONS, JERROLD NADLER, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE, KAYLEIGH MCENANY, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN SUTHERN, LEN BLAVATNIK, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MALCOM NANCE, MALCOM W. NANCE, MARCO RUBIO, MATT CHRISTIANSEN, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL FLYNN, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MONEY-LAUNDERING, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PAUL MANAFORT, PAUL RYAN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, PROPAGANDA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, REX TILLERSON, RICHARD M. NIXON, RINAT AKHMETSHIN, ROBERT S. MUELLER 111, ROD ROSENSTEIN, RT, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ROULETTE (BOOK), SALON, SEAL TEAM SIX, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, SERGEY KISLYAK, SERGEY LAVROV, SLATE, SUPREME COURT, TALIBAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAYLOR HANSEN, TENET MEDIA, THE APPRENTICE (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIM POOL, TIME, TREASON, TRUMP INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NAVY SEALS, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM BARR, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 18, 2024 at 12:14 am
What do I do when the bank calls me in?
(Does it worry you to be in debt?)
How do I feel when I need rubles fast?
(Do you worry Vlad might say “Nyet”?)
No, I get by with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, I can lie with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, you’re gonna fry with a little help from my Vlad.
Donald Trump—as the Republican nominee for President—steadfastly refused to acknowledge his decades-long relationship with Russia. On October 24, 2016, he stated: “I have nothing to do with Russia, folks, I’ll give you a written statement.”
In fact, Trump had a highly profitable relationship with Russia—as his two sons, Donald, Jr., and Eric, unintentionally revealed:
In 2008, Donald Trump, Jr. said at a New York real estate conference: “In terms of high-end product influx into the US, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets….We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
And Trump’s son, Eric, said in 2014: “Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”
Trump quickly appointed men with ties to Russian officials to high positions.
Among these: Attorney General Jeff Sessions. During the 2016 campaign, Sessions—then serving as a surrogate for Trump’s campaign—twice spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
But during his Senate confirmation hearings, Sessions denied that he had had “communications with the Russians” during the campaign.
The discovery of numerous contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian Intelligence agents led the FBI to investigate Russia’s efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election.
TREASON EXAMPLE #4: Trump has repeatedly praised and defended Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Putin
On December 18, 2015, Trump appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Its host, Joe Scarborough, was upset by Trump’s praise for Putin:
SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, [he’s] also a person who kills journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that would be a concern, would it not?
TRUMP: He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader. Unlike what we have in this country.
SCARBOROUGH: But again: He kills journalists that don’t agree with him.
TRUMP: I think our country does plenty of killing, also, Joe, so, you know. There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that’s the way it is.
On October 7, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement blaming the Russian government for the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. Its motive: “To interfere with the US election process.”
Two days later, Trump publicly stated: “But I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are—Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia.”
On December 16, 2016, FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. agreed with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House.
Trump, however, steadfastly denied any such role by Russia: “I think it’s ridiculous,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it….No, I don’t believe it at all.”
Clinton Watts, a consultant to the FBI’s Counter Terrorism Division, is an expert on cyberwarfare.
Testifying before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on March 30, 2017, Watts outlined cyberwarfare measures that Russia used to subvert the 2016 Presidential campaign.
This pattern of Russian falsehoods and social media manipulation of the American electorate continued through Election Day and persists today.
Many of the accounts we watched push the false Incirlik story in July now focus their efforts on shaping the upcoming European elections, promoting fears of immigration or false claims of refugee criminality.
They’ve not forgotten about the United States either. This past week, we observed social media campaigns targeting Speaker of the House Paul Ryan hoping to foment further unrest amongst U.S. democratic institutions, their leaders and their constituents.
As we noted two days before the Presidential election in our article describing Russian influence operations, Russia certainly seeks to promote Western candidates sympathetic to their worldview and foreign policy objectives.
But winning a single election is not their end goal. Russian Active Measures hope to topple democracies through the pursuit of five complementary objectives:
- Undermine citizen confidence in democratic governance;
- Foment and exacerbate divisive political fractures;
- Erode trust between citizens and elected officials and democratic institutions;
- Popularize Russian policy agendas within foreign populations;
- Create general distrust or confusion over information sources by blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
From these objectives, the Kremlin can crumble democracies from the inside out creating political divisions resulting in two key milestones:
- The dissolution of the European Union and
- The break up of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO).
TREASON EXAMPLE #5 On January 20, 2017—the day Donald J. Trump became the 45th President of the United States—Michael Flynn took office as the nation’s 25th National Security Adviser.
Two days later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Flynn was under investigation by U.S. counterintelligence agents for his secret communications with Russian officials.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW INTRATER, AP, ARCHIBALD COX, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARACK OBAMA, BENNY JOHNSON, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CLINTON WATTS, CNN, CRAIG UNGER, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DAVE RUBIN, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DEVIN NUNES, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DOUG COLLINS, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FBI’S COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOREIGN AGENTS REGISTRATION ACT (FARA), FOX NEWS, GREG MILLER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, HOUSE OF TRUMP HOUSE OF PUTIN (BOOK), ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS), ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE, JAMES COMEY, JARED KUSHNER, JEFF SESSIONS, JERROLD NADLER, JOE SCARBOROUGH, JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE, KAYLEIGH MCENANY, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN SUTHERN, LEN BLAVATNIK, LINDSEY GRAHAM, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MALCOM NANCE, MALCOM W. NANCE, MARCO RUBIO, MATT CHRISTIANSEN, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL FLYNN, MICHAEL ISIKOFF, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MONEY-LAUNDERING, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PAUL MANAFORT, PAUL RYAN, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEFING, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, PROPAGANDA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, REX TILLERSON, RICHARD M. NIXON, RINAT AKHMETSHIN, ROBERT S. MUELLER 111, ROD ROSENSTEIN, RT, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN ROULETTE (BOOK), SALON, SEAL TEAM SIX, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, SERGEY KISLYAK, SERGEY LAVROV, SLATE, SUPREME COURT, TALIBAN, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAYLOR HANSEN, TENET MEDIA, THE APPRENTICE (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PLOT TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIM POOL, TIME, TREASON, TRUMP INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, TRUMP TOWER MEETING, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NAVY SEALS, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM BARR, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 17, 2024 at 12:10 am
What would you think if I ripped off some kids?
Would you walk out and not vote for me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll feed you a line
And I’ll try not to laugh cynically.
Oh, I get by with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, I can lie with a little help from my Vlad.
Mm, you’re gonna fry with a little help from my Vlad.
On September 4, the Department of Justice indicted two Russian nationals—Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27—for conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Both were employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute hidden Russian propaganda to U.S. audiences.
RT did so through its ownership of Tenet Media, an American Right-wing company. Among its employees were six right-wing influencers: Matt Christiansen, Tayler Hansen, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Lauren Southern.
Numerous Republicans have profited through Russian bribes (officially described as “campaign contributions”). Among these:
- Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky);
- Former House Speaker Paul Ryan;
- Senator Marco Rubio (Florida);
- Former House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (California);
- Senator Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).
But no Republican has benefited more from Russian monies and assistance than former President Donald Trump, who received:
- $1 million to the Trump Inaugural Committee from Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik;
- $1 million to the Trump Inaugural Committee from Russian oligarch Alexander Shustorovich;
- $250,000 to Trump’s Inaugural Committee from Russian oligarch, Andrew Intrater
Trump has repeatedly claimed “no collusion” between himself and Russia. But the evidence overwhelmingly speaks otherwise.
TREASON EXAMPLE #1 On July 9, 2016, high-ranking members of his Presidential campaign met at Trump Tower with at least two lobbyists who had ties to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The participants included:
- Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.;
- His son-in-law, Jared Kushner;
- His then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort;
- Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to Putin; and
- Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet counterintelligence officer suspected of having ongoing ties to Russian Intelligence.
The purpose of that meeting: To gain access to any “dirt” Russian Intelligence could supply on Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Trump originally claimed that the meeting was “about the adoption of Russian children.” Eventually he admitted that it had been “a meeting to get information on an opponent.”
Donald Trump
TREASON EXAMPLE #2 On July 22, 2016, Wikileaks released 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments hacked from computers of the highest-ranking officials of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Early reports traced the leak to Russian hackers.
On July 27, 2016, during his campaign for President, Trump said at a press conference in Doral, Florida: “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing [from Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s computer]. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow targeted Clinton’s personal office and hit more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts.
Clinton Watts is a consultant and researcher on cyberwarfare. He has served as
- An FBI Special Agent on a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF);
- The Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC); and
- A consultant to the FBI’s Counter Terrorism Division (CTD) and National Security Branch (NSB).
In a statement he prepared for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Watts outlined cyberwarfare measures that Russia used to subvert the 2016 Presidential campaign.
He delivered this on March 30. 2017. Part of this reads as follows:
Through the end of 2015 and start of 2016, the Russian influence system….began pushing themes and messages seeking to influence the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election.
Russia’s overt media outlets and covert trolls sought to sideline opponents on both sides of the political spectrum with adversarial views toward the Kremlin. The final months leading up to the election have been the predominate focus of Russian influence discussions to date.
Clinton Watts
However, Russian Active Measures were in full swing during both the Republican and Democratic primary season and may have helped sink the hopes of candidates more hostile to Russian interests long before the field narrowed.
The final piece of Russia’s modern Active Measures surfaced in the summer of 2016 as hacked materials from previous months were strategically leaked.
On 22 July 2016, Wikileaks released troves of stolen communications from the Democratic National Committee and later batches of campaign emails. Guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks revealed hacked information from a host of former U.S. government officials throughout July and August 2016.
For the remainder of the campaign season, this compromising material powered the influence system Russia successfully constructed in the previous two years.
TREASON EXAMPLE #3 Throughout 2016, the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) found numerous ties between officials of the Trump Presidential campaign and Russian Intelligence agents.
And many of those Trump appointed to office had strong ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rex Tillerson
One of these was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In 2013, as the chief executive of ExxonMobil, he was presented with Russia’s Order of Friendship award. He had just signed deals with the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft. Its chief, Igor Sechin, is a loyal Putin lieutenant.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, ANCIENT GREECE, ANCIENT ROME, AP, BERNIE SANDERS, BILL CLINTON, BRIAN THOMPSON, BUZZFEED, CATASTROPHE, CBS NEWS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (CEOs)), CHINA, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CORPORATE TAXES, CORRUPTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DELAY DENY DEFEND (BOOK), DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DONALD TRUMP, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, EXECUTIVE PAYWATCH, FORBES, FUNDRAISING, HILLARY CLINTON, INCOME INEQUALITY, IVAN THE TERRIBLE, JAY M. FEINMAN, JOE BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, LEON TROTSKY, MEDICAL INSURANCE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT PAYNE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SPARTACUS, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE CORRUPT SOCIETY (BOOK), THE DAILY BEAST, THE DISCOURSES, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, THE GREAT LEVELER, THE GREAT LEVELER (BOOK), THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITEDHEALTHCARE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIOLENCE, Vladimir Lenin, WALL STREET, WALTER SCHEIDEL, WATERGATE, WEALTH GAP, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, WINSTON CHURCHILL, X
THE CORRUPTIONS OF THE RICH ARE STILL WITH YOU ALWAYS: PART TWO (OF THREE)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on December 11, 2024 at 12:19 amThe gap between rich and poor in the United States has never been greater.
The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality. Its September 21, 2023 report stated:
This would not have been news to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern political science. In his masterwork, The Discourses, he observed the human condition as that of constant struggle:
Niccolo Machiavelli
“It was a saying of ancient writers, that men afflict themselves in evil, and become weary of the good, and that both these dispositions produce the same effects.
“For when men are no longer obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition, which passion is so powerful in the hearts of men that it never leaves them, no matter to what height they may rise.
“The reason for this is that nature has created men so that they desire everything, but are unable to attain it. Desire being thus always greater than the faculty of acquiring, discontent with what they have and dissatisfaction with themselves result from it.
“This causes the changes in their fortunes—for as some men desire to have more, while others fear to lose what they have, enmities and war are the consequences. And this brings about the ruin of one province and the elevation of another.”
Author Walter Scheidel, Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History at Stanford University, has also given this subject a great deal of thought. And, like Machiavelli, he has reached some highly disturbing conclusions.
Walter Scheidel
World Economic Forum [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D
He gave voice to these in his 2017 book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. His thesis: Only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout history.
According to the book’s jacket blurb: “Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes.
“Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return.
“The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
“Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality.
“The ‘Four Horsemen’ of leveling—-mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich.
“Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century.
“Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.”
Revolutionaries have known the truth of Scheidel’s findings from the gladiators’ revolt of Spartacus (73-71 B.C.) to the French Revolution (1789-1799) to the overthrow of the Czarist Romanov dynasty (1917).
But American politicians serenely ignore that truth. They depend on the mega-rich for millions of dollars in “campaign contributions”—which pay for self-glorifying ads on TV.
Thus, in 2016, American voters had a “choice” between two “love-the-rich” Presidential candidates: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Trump owed his wealth to a $200 million gift from his real estate tycoon father. Clinton owed hers mostly through her husband, Bill, by his writing books, giving speeches, consulting private companies and advising billionaire Ron Burkle.
After leaving the Senate (2001-09) and President Obama’s cabinet (2009-13), she earned $9 million in speaking fees in both 2013 and 2014.
The result was that millions stayed home or voted in protest for third-party candidates who had no chance of winning.
In 2020, American voters got to “choose” between another two “love-the-rich” candidates: Donald Trump and Joseph Biden.
In his 1975 book, The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Modern-day America, British historian Robert Payne warned that the predatory rich would not change their behavior: “Nor is there any likelihood that the rich will plow back their money into services to ensure the general good.
“They have rarely demonstrated social responsibility, and they are much more likely to hold on to their wealth at all costs than to renounce any part of it.
“Like the tyrant who lives in a world wholly remote from the world of the people, shielded and protected from all possible influences, the rich are usually the last to observe the social pressures rising from below, and when these social pressures reach flashpoint, it is too late to call in the police or the army.”
Share this: