Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley has released a … document? — headlined Newly Declassified Appendix to Durham Report Sheds Additional Light on Clinton Campaign Plan to Falsely Tie Trump to Russia and FBI’s Failure to Investigate. It’s even got a George Soros tie, which makes it even better.
I’m sure you remember the Durham Report, the Republican investigation to the Russia-Trump investigation. And if you do, you’ll remember it was a fizzle. Well, today the Department of Justice sent Sen. Grassley some “annex” of the Durham investigation that has been “newly declassified” and purports to show that someone connected to George Soros conspired with Hillary Clinton to create the Trump-Russia “hoax,” and the FBI investigation began as a result.
And if this were such a smoking gun, one wonders why Durham didn’t bring it to light himself. It’s kind of a puzzle to me why it was even “classified,” assuming that it was. If you can wade through all the biased framing and name-dropping, it sounds as if Leonard Benardo, Senior Vice President of Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and Hillary Clinton exchanged one or more emails in July 2016 that discussed the already growing appearance of Russian manipulation in the campaign. But Grassley’s document is presenting this as the instigation of the Trump-Russia “hoax.”
If you need a review of what happened when, I found a good timeline at Politico. Before July 2016 a lot of hinky things had already happened, like the Russian hacking of John Podesta’s and the DNC’s emails, which happened in March 2016. And an internet agency connected to Russia began running Web ads in April 2016 saying things like “JOIN our #HillaryClintonForPrison2016.” And there’s a lot more that happened before July 2016. Note that Trump had enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination by late May.
The point is that by July there already was growing suspicion, even some suspicions being expressed publicly, that Russia was somehow helping the Trump campaign. And what conversation might have gone on between Leonard Benardo and Hillary Clinton sound to me about “how can we use this in the campaign?”
Oh, and remember the famous “Russia, if you’re listening” quote?
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” Trump said in a July 27, 2016 news conference.
On or around that same day, Russian hackers targeted Hillary Clinton’s account. It was shortly after this that the FBI investigation called “crossfire hurricane” began. But my point is that there already was much public buzz about the Russian hacking and whether Russia was trying to manipulate U.S. public opinion to help Trump.
Another bizarre statement in Grassley’s download is that President Obama considered squashing the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. And maybe he did consider doing that, but he didn’t, did he? So why is this being boldfaced as if it’s a shocking revelation? There also was a memo about linking Trump to the Russian mafia. Allegations about the Russian mob using Trump for money laundering go back three decades. Trump also had well-known ties to the more traditional New York mafia; here’s a Politico article about it published in May 2016.
In other words, you’d have to be fairly dim to believe any of this amounts to anything, but we’re talking about righties here. At least for some of them this will probably take their attention away from Epsteingate. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
Stuff to read: Here is an excellent critique of the Democratic party by Antonio Delgado, New York’s lieutenant governor. See This Is the Moment Democrats Have Been Talking About for Years. Here’s just a bit —
If you want to understand why New York — and virtually every other state — is drifting to the right, observe how so many in the Democratic establishment confuse triangulation with leadership and treat stability as a virtue in and of itself. There’s a chasm between what we say and what we deliver. We continue asking voters to show up while we refuse to show up for them.
Some of them do try to show up for their voters, but too many are just too damn cautious.
Worst news I’ve seen today — Trump plans massive renovation of White House. He wants to spend $200 million to make the East Wing look at tacky and nouveau riche as the Oval Office. Stop him before he gilds again! Future administrations will just have to undo all that crap. What a waste.
And to reflect on the worse damage Trump is doing see Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End by Ross Andersen at The Atlantic.
It's a measure of their desperation that they're trying to wring some outrage out of the dusty old Durham report. It's like Lucy with the football: the wingnuts were set up to believe Durham would finally get the dirt on the Democrats, just like they were promised with Epstein, and Lucy jerked the ball away from them. Will they fall for it? Again?
Scott Galloway wrote Brain Drain a few months ago, when the Big Barbaric Bill was being cooked up:
The one positive thing about the Atlantic article, is that human progress is unlikely to slow in our age. It will just locate elsewhere.
Was listening to How Trump’s Childhood Shaped His Presidency – The Psychological Truth – the missing ingredient is Attention. Trump never got the attention he craved as a child. Hence the need to command the moment, the fawning sycophants, the fixation on ratings. Even if it's destructive negative attention, by destroying himself or country – it doesn't matter.
That may be true about attention. I read Mary Trump's book about the Trump family. Trump's father sounds like a sociopathic monster, and his mother appears to have shut down emotionally at some point.
If you want a stroll down memory lane re Russian interference, what about the meeting in Trump Tower with two Russians offering to sell information damaging to HRC. The meeting, which was never reported to the FBI by Team Trump, included Don Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner.
Later, Manafort leaked private polling data to a Russian agent, possibly used to micro-target voters in social media in crucial districts. Manafort was forced to resign fromm the Trump campaign because of his links to the previous Ukranian dictator, living in Moscow after the dictator was forced out, which ended Manafort's gravy train, indirectly with Moscow. (Manafort was the courier with money buying political support in the US for his boss, a stooge for Moscow until a revolution in Ukraine left Manafort unemployed.)
Trump is determined to rewrite history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_meeting
"…previous Ukranian dictator" = Viktor Yanukovych? President of Ukraine, elected in 2010? According to Wiki, "[that] election was widely recognized and endorsed as being fair and an accurate reflection of voters' intentions by all international agencies observing the election including the OSCE and PACE."
Plz be more careful about using loaded words like 'dictator'; it undermines your [accurate] conclusion that "Trump is determined to rewrite history."
When opposition to Yanukovych was growing in Keiv his people were shooting protesters from the rooftops.
https://apnews.com/general-news-f5855b135cc741c68bcd72357c9e7833
Trump was e;ected in 2017. That did not entitle him to pull an insurrection in 2020.
A whole lot of the 'shiny" objects release is an attempt to draw the discussion AWAY from Epstein. Trump didn't help himself by saying the break with Epstein was because Epstein hired away help from MAL, including Virginia Guthrie, one of Epstein's victims. (She took out Prince Andrew.) Guthrie died of suicide last year.
Guthrie was supposedly working at MAL in the spa, according to Trump. She would have been 16. This raises a whole new set of questions about what was going on at MAL and how much it may have resembled Epstein's operation.
The questions I raised about Maxwell and her (possible) demands for a pardon are being amplified in the press and on social media. I read rumors that Maxwell's lawyers were behind the release of the Trump letter as a shot across the bow. Trump sent his personal lawyer under the guise of a DOJ inquiry to try to find out what she has and what she wants.
I think Trump wants to USSC to deliver the pardon he does not want his name on, but if they decline, I predict Trump will. Or possibly Maxwell will die of suicide. IML, we have to cover other attrocities that are happening but we also have to return to this one regularly until all the truth is out there. (I could not give a rodent's fuzzy fat behind if the evidence forces Bill Clinton into hiding, or prison. )
(Every time I pull two comments in a row, I think of Gulag.)
What a fun Friday this is going to be. Tariff-ick, with deals for a few who groveled for a deal from the double dealer. For the rest unreasonable punitive tariffs, especially for those who want justice for all including coup perpetrators like Brazil. So far, the markets don't seem to like it. Could be quite a different sort of black Friday, and more a red Friday for those with 401K's.
The giant power grab continues as does the even bigger shirk of responsibility. In Texas, for the recent killer flood, all those with the power to trigger the alarm were asleep or otherwise preoccupied. Oops. Too late now to make sure power went to responsible authority not power grabbers. It is just ugly watching them shirk and shirk. You would think a little remorse would be in order but that is not the spirit of these times. Welcome to the days of reckless abuse of power. They rule by divine right although, I hear South Park sees it as a pact with the devil.
It does seem like the devils are having a lot of fun days of late, if you put credence in those sorts of beings. Wolves attired in the garb of sheep continue to roam and reap. Too occupied by grifting to worry about petty things like responsibility.
I agree that this new barrage of BS about Russiagate is an attempt to deflect from the Epstein mess, but I've always been skeptical about the impact of Russian attempts to swing the 2016 US election to Trump, and especially skeptical of the Steele Dossier as the foundation of Democrats' attempts to deflect blame from Hillary Clinton's failed campaign.
To be clear, I agree that Russian agencies probably spent /some/ effort undermining Clinton, but (1) I don't think they devoted huge resources to it and (2) I don't think it had any serious effect on the outcome. IMO, there were several factors which were far more important in Clinton's loss that year:
– a terrible campaign, run by Party insiders who didn't understand the mood of the country (especially working-class frustrations)
– an inept candidate (my fave example: apologizing for calling racists 'deplorable' showed gutless timidity)
– bog-standard GOP electoral cheating (de-registering voters, under-resourced polls in poor black areas, and likely direct computerized vote-switching)
– the frightening appeal of Trump's crazy blather, made possible by decades of GOP propaganda.
Also, there have always been several very weak links in the Steel Dossier and related stories. Notably, Craig Murray – a former British Ambassador who resigned over Tony Blair's support for US torture – has written extensively on the Steele Dossier, Wikileaks/Assange, and the Skripal poisonings:
You searched for steele dossier – Craig Murray
Plz read at least some of Murray's writings before slapping me down here.
Murray is long-winded, but his critiques are well-argued, and IMO, accurate and important. I find him to be one of the – or perhaps THE – most honest, balanced, and moral sources in the whole damn internet, and he's put his life on the line for his convictions. (He recently spent a few months in Lebanon, reporting on the Israeli bombing campaign there).
Bottom line: yeah, the new 'investigation' of Clinton & Obama over Russiagate is BS, but 'Russiagate' was BS to begin with. Neither are really worth much attention; they both distract from far more important problems.
I believe it's been pretty well established that the Steele Dossier, in spite of all the publicity it go, really had little to do with instigating the Trump-Russia investigation. And I agree it's very possible Clinton would have lost without the Russian manipulation. But the Russian manipulation did happen.
In my history book Putin thinks the deal he had was I get you elected you give me Ukraine. That's when he thought he had a deal and not the double deal which is stock and trade. I'd say they need to prove that's not the truth really well or my history book stays as it is. With 35 felonies and two impeachments you lose your right for a presumption of innocence for history authors. They get to call a duck a duck when it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and swims like a duck. By that standard and without strong evidence to the contrary Putin had some kind of deal with the trans- actionist or thought he did. That there is such a strong attempt to revise this history as we now know it, gives powerful evidence the truth may even be worse than what we can infer. So far, that has proved correct. The hidden part is never well estimated by the tip we see, and ducks just keep acting like ducks.