A letter from House Intelligence Committee members demands answers from the DNI about illegal breaches of the wall guarding against CIA and NSA domestic activity.
You know what the scariest, most painfull part of this all is? The People’s inability to see wtf is really going on, and frightening capacity to turn on one another instead of doing some inteligent, non-bias, processing. Have you yet been called an extremist? I have. By someone very close to me who is a hard core Democrat and listens to Rachael like it’s gospel. All I said was essentially that Trump may not be exactly who they’re portraying him to be since they are known to lie and some facts don’t add up. And that he, in comparisson to other Presidents past, was not much different. Better or worse at certain things, but over all if you ask a non-American inhabitant of this planet they’d probably say the US has remained pretty consistent no matter who’s in the Oval Office since the bombs never really did quite stop raining on their heads.
To me that’s scary AF. People so easily turning against their friends and loved ones and parroting exactly wtf they heard on MSNBC and CNN: that to question the narrative basically means “you want to see the country burn down”, you’re anti-America, anti-democracy, anti-peace, anti-society, “you’re an etremist”, you’re violent and/or associated to violence, etc. How can people not realize that it is NOT ok or acceptable to use such hostile tactics to debate a point with somebody? How can people not realize they’re playing right into their hands? They’re using us to silence each other while they continue on doing their dirt unencumbered by the bothers of pesky “extremists” asking questions? I can’t help but to wonder what it was the average German was doing while other humans were being burned alive right up the road during the Holocaust.
I understand your reasoning but the hard fact is that only about half the American populace is capable of rational thought. There's a reason the Marine Corps says, or used to say, they didn't want intelligent recruits but rather wanted C students - because their officers would do their thinking for them and their role was to do as there were told. People follow propagandists like Rachael Maddow because they are too dumb to question what she says. The same is true on the other side of the spectrum.
Intelligence doesn't have much to do with our current predicament. Some of the "smartest" people I know are full on in support of the Biden regime's plans for us. They are comfortable financially and consider themselves liberals. They just don't care what is going on under the veneer of political correctness.
Agree, well put, except I think they think they do “care.” The real globalist elitists are evil cynics (okay that gets me a couple ranks up on the 'domestic terrorist' list :-) but I think these people just lost their way sometime when they flipped their fourth house, made investments that put small businesses out and paid for their children to chest their way into good schools. Like those people with signs in their front yards that say “In this house no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, science is real, women are in charge of their bodies, black lives matter, white supremacy is the threat” - they “care” in the abstract but god forbid an actual caravan of migrants with Covid showed up at their door or a woman said “if it's my body my choice I refuse this vaccine.” They just morally grandstand to their neighbors so they can feel okay about themselves for one second when they know deep down they are lousy members of any society.
It seems that the majority of people in the U.S. have somehow been conditioned over the years to "mainline" news headlines straight into their belief system without any skepticism or critical thinking. It's frightening that it occurs so frequently nowadays even among otherwise thoughtful people.
Speaking of Biden, can’t wait for that big press conference tomorrow where he fields cold questions from scores of reporters he chooses at random with no cards and no TelePrompTer!
What is happening to Biden IS elder abuse. His handlers have no shame. How long will the US tolerate this sham? It is a continuous embarrassment to watch that senile man being paraded around as a front for the Dems. It is shameful!
Thanks for your perceptive reply -- Regrettably, you are absolutely right. However, intelligence does occasionally come into play in basic everyday activities like driving, deciding how to take medication to comply with what's on the prescription label, etc. Sometimes, it can be a negative factor, as when a mathematician gets distracted by his complex inner dialog.
Intelligence and stupidity are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes yes but too often no. Problem is stupidity cannot really be cured as it seems to be some type of missing logic circuit within the brain. You can be considered by all standards pretty smart but if you have that blank spot in the brain you continually put your hand in the fire to determine if it is hot or check for a flat tire when you have a dead battery.
10% of them have IQ's lower than 83, which is well known by sociologist as the bottom decile and one in which these poor folks are ineligible to enlist in the US Military...at least for now.
I know some pretty middle IQ types who are very successful and have an instinct for smelling out B.S. narratives. Most "know what they don't know" un like the hubris driven leftists who know that they know everything without much evidence or reality to back them up, other than what they are told by their betters in the media and academia. These types are in fact the high IQ useful idiots necessary for the destruction of any gov't. Like Hitlers Brown shirts when they are no longer needed, their leaders will be disposed of and they themselves will be discarded into the trash heap of history. It is a pernicious cycle repeated over and over throughout history. Sometimes the higher the IQ k now it all is the easiest to con utilizing the language of Orwellian double speak or academic babble. Since they KNOW the answer there is no reason to "look it up."
I think emotion often trumps intelligence. U.S. society is deeply divided, with many people trapped in an "us against them" mentality. Being part of an identity group that affirms one's worldview provides a powerful and primal sense of security. When this is combined with a constant message that "the other side" is an existential threat, critical thinking is abandoned and loyalty to one's tribe takes control.
One of the groups on locals that I am a part of the leader says that when you see the paradigm it can cause cognitive dissonance. I can see that, you have believe these lies all your life then you realize it and it can be easier to accept the lies, than go through the hard work of seeing the truth. Case in point some people are simply lazy.
An academic colleague made headlines with a paper that compared performance of blacks in the military with performance of blacks in society in general. She and her coauthors found that the blacks in the military fared better. Her conclusion was that the more egalitarian structure of the military erased the disadvantages prevalent in our more racist non-military society. Of course, the fact that the military filters out low IQ people means that the IQ gap between blacks and whites is, on average, probably much lower than in the general population. Of course, mentioning that would end one's academic career.
There was a study where blacks did better (graduation rates, dean’s list, choosing and sticking to a STEM major) in colleges where they matched their SAT scores with the scores of most of the other students. When there is a mismatch in scores, those in the lower ranks seem to never be able to catch up and have not so good outcomes.
While serving there is structure, discipline, no bs. Outside military it's "freedom". So I guess the paper implied that racism was responsible for poor family values, fatherlessness, gang culture etc. Because if those didn't exist in the wild then I'm sure blacks would be doing just as well in all areas as in the military.
The academic colleague saw performance gap differences, and attributed them (without any firm evidence) to a racism gap -- less racism in the Army leading to a smaller performance gap. However, the performance gap differences may be due to iq gap differences. The military has a lower end cutoff, and since blacks generally score 15 or so points lower, more of the low scoring blacks are kept out of the military than are low scoring whites.
Much of the time, it is not. However, consider the following story. I was driving downhill in a crowded city on a Friday at 3pm. There were 3 lanes in each direction. As I approached a major intersection, the light turned green. I saw that the two left lanes were filled with large vans and trucks, but the right lane was totally clear. I veered into the right lane, wondering, "Why are they so slow off the line." I slowed a bit, figuring somebody to my left might jump the queue. Then something flashed. They are just TOO slow. I slammed on my brakes just as I was about to go through the intersection. WHOOSH, a massive moving van blasted across the intersection no more than 6 feet from the nose of my car. WTF!! Turns out a policeman was controlling the intersection because of a minor fender bender, and was waving traffic through against the red light, unaware that people in the far right cross lane had no idea he was there because the large vehicles were blocking their view.
My flash of intuition, intelligence --- whatever --- saved my life. The vehicles in the left lane were not moving because the cop had his hand up.
BTW, I parked, walked over to the cop, and tried to explain. He cursed at me. I called his headquarters, and told my story to some "captain," who proceeded to put me on speaker phone so everyone could laugh at me.
The way I take it you were a bit too smart. If you stayed behind in the parking lane (which is the left lane on most US multi-lanes, especially highways) you'd be fine.
No kidding! In boot camp they had but one goal they yelled repeatedly: to break you! The idea is you to forget everything you know and they build you back up as a good, order following soldier. And indeed they seemed to resent those of us that asked questions we shouldn’t and got others thinking.
I think it’s beyond “too dumb” to think for themselves. It’sa mindset that was created and perpetrated upon The People on purpose and with the intention of dividing us further. It’s based on fear too. Fear that the lesser evil is all we’ve got left and we’d be folks to lose it. And also it’s about righteousness. NO BODY likes admitting they’re wrong. And for Democrats to see themselves as what they describethe enemy to be is a hard pill to swallow.
I wonder that everyday why we as a populace have not woken up to the lies that the government, media, big tech and their shills have tried to feed us. I want to scream at the top of my lungs to think for yourself and follow the money and power to anyone that will listen, but sadly most want to continue be sheep and led.
I think it's a mistake to think that people are "waking up" due to their becoming aware/etc in general. Rather, things around them get worse and so the conditions *force* them to "wake up". They'd happily stay asleep if it wasn't for the pandemic, worsening economic conditions, etc. And they will "become comfortably numb" once things become normal again.
I have noticed this as well and that encouragement keeps me from jumping off the bridge. That and being here with Glenn et al. makes me feel less alone in my thoughts too!
I had 2 very "rotund and robust" white SJW's come after me in an airport about 2 years ago screaming at me for being racist after they overhead me saying "Holy Shit" when CNN played a Don Lemone clip on the airport tv. They kept badgering and badgering me down the concourse until I finally had had enough and turned...got back in their face....asked why they were so racist..yelling at them for being fat white racist pigs....and I started yelling for security...these 2 hogs are racist!!!
Look, if you ever find yourself being called out by someone who's woke, the only way to win is to get the left of them and use their own words against them..use their own virtue signalling as your weapon.
Sun Tzu was a wise man. Thankfully SJW's don't read much Sun Tzu.
Ironically, there were much fewer bombs raining down on heads under Trump than any other president in the last 50 years. Trump didn’t start any wars, and at least tried to bring troops back home, although he was largely thwarted by military-industrial complex (or deep state if you prefer). The Trump doctrine seemed to be, as long as no Americans were killed, it would be jawboning and economic sanctions, if Americans were killed he would go kinetic.
Many muslim friends of mine from Middle East are Trump supporters - they consider Trump to be the most muslim friendly President because he didn't bomb their home countries into oblivion or start new wars. I found this quite interesting considering media took Trump's words on radical islam as some sort of muslim hater.
When the "liberal and tolerant" President is getting the support of George Bush, then we are officially living in clown world.
Yeah, Trump the dictator warmonger was more peaceful than most US Presidents. And all the good things he tried to do, as a dictator lol, didn’t get done because top R and D officials were already negotiating and didn’t need the elected President’s input.
It's ironic. I moved to the Middle East (the UAE) when Bush II was president, was there the entirety of Obama's administration, and for most of Trump's administration, coming back in his last year, just before the pandemic hit. I find it fascinating how the American media utterly and completely ignored the major peace treaties signed between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain and growing relationships with Saudi. There are now flights between Israel and Abu Dhabi. It's a major breakthrough in regional politics and a harbinger for a more peaceful status quo for the region. Pompeo was very much part of this, and Trump did play a role. Did he get any credit? Nope. Utter silence.
Let's not idealize too much - this was purely transactional. F-35 needed to be sold after Turkey was kicked out of the deal, and the only block was Israel which - plainly visible and obvious - controls much of US policy in ME. To drop that objection, they got recognition by UAE which conveniently also undermines Palestinian position and finances too. Trump "foreign policy" in the last few months was nothing more that being cheap salesman for Israel - Morocco got Western Sahara claim recognition, Sudan drop from the "state sponsor list" for recognizing Israel, it went completely tragicomical when Kosovo (not even a real country but a buffer zone around US base) recognized Israel! Right up to the last hours, we know very well he pardoned the biggest living spy in US history plus an array of other Zionist shady businessmen.
Jared Kusher was a big part of the peace deals too. Saying this as someone who's not even a fan of his but wants to give the man credit where it's due.
Course not! Trump didn’t do anything at all good whatsoever remember?!
Everything orange man did bad.
Though I must say it makes me cringe a little that Israel and Saudi are getting ahead while doing what they’re doing to their neighbors. I’m not greatly informed on the whole thing. Kinda hard to be from where I’m standing here at home if you get my drift. But I find it hard for me to celebrate that. Though I know it could eventually mean something good for the others, I’m not very confident. Again, please forgive my ignorance.
In fact one of the primary tipoffs to me that I am dealing with someone who has drank the kool aid, is when they get upset if you try to point out anything good, no matter how trivial. In fact, it is a test I use to gauge the possibility of having a rational conversation.
omg I am so glad Trump is not president anymore! Now that Biden is president the media is no longer reporting on politics at all. Can you imagine what it would be like if Trump had won? Everything would be exactly the same except people would be complaining so much more and paying attention to the news. It would be so annoying! I would much rather our country completely falls apart than have to suffer listening to brunch liberals cry for another 4 years in a row. /s
Again, you're letting the media create the noise that's no different than if you see a massive black cloud 2 blocks away you are going to head over to look.
That's what happened the last 4 years where every single nitpicked thing was a dumpster fire and "Breaking News."
Nobody..and I mean nobody..should allow someone to live rent free in their heads, yet that's what we see has happened the past 4 years.
That was the Establishment aiming their cross-hairs every second of the day on the Anti-Establishment just as the Hatfield's kept a bead on the McCoy s.
You're relieved, but the fact we have a man in the WH now who is quite clearly challenged mentally means all 330,000,000 of us are at risk of having to learn Mandarin.
I'll do my part to prevent that, but it doesn't help the nation by coddling an old codger. Be as brutally honest about the pros/cons of Biden as you were about the cons of Trump.
Otherwise, you're just one of the multitudes in the Intellectually Dishonest Camp.
And when it comes time to meet St. Peter, you don't want to have to explain"but those mean tweets."
See...you're letting the media narrative on Trump pollute your objective reasoned critical thinking.
Look, I despise Trump from a personal standpoint. He's a bloviating fool who happened to jump in front of the Patriotic Populist Parade and declared himself Grand Marshall.
Democrats got him elected. We really didn't have a choice between a turd sandwich in Hillary Clinton and Trump.
But this Populist parade started long before Trump. It even started before the Tea Party after the subprime scam of 2007-2008 when not a single Wall Street icon was arrested, let alone jailed.
To understand Trump, you have to look at the historical successes he's had where he had success.
Building buildings and golf courses and even hockey rinks in Central Park...he was really good at. He was in his swim lane and when he went the Trump licensing route, that's when things got a bit stupid.
He's a builder and he quite literally was a "Get R Done" guy.
I voted for him with great trepidation as he'd gotten more Democrats elected the prior 20 years than nearly any other man in the country. He had no political grounding so we thought for sure he'd sell out the second Pelosi handed him a win-win deal, which she never did.
I've never seen someone so rabid as Pelosi. I know TDS was supposed to be a thing, but she hated Trump more than Pelosi hates Burger King's fries.
I voted for Trump...then ignored Trump. I didn't vote for Obama, then I ignored Obama. Same this year, except this time I'm legitimately worried about the moves Russia, Iran and China are going to take against our interests without us having a cogent response except a 5 minute Teleprompter speech.
Trump wasn't the problem the last 4 years. It was inevitable we were going to get a POpulist President and it just happened to be Trump over Sanders.
2024 will see another Populist following Populist wins in Germany and France.
It might be someone less toxic like a Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo, but Populism isn't dead and Trump only temporarily interfered in this movement.
Look, I'm a 55 year old 1%'er who grew up with 12 kids in a home with cockroach infested powdered milk for breakfast and dumpster diving for dinner most nights, and my father (a disabled union plumber) was the only conservative Democrat in our neighborhood, so for us traditional Republicans to ask the viability in bringing our troops home and increasiing taxes on those making over $5 million a year to expand Medicare.....makes sense to us. What about yoU? What are you will to concede to find common cause with people who supported Trump?
If you can find a way to join your 30% on the left with the 30% on the right, that makes a 60% majority vs. the 40% Establishment.
Where I come from, that's called winner winner chicken dinner.
"You know what the scariest, most painfull part of this all is? The People’s inability to see wtf is really going on, and frightening capacity to turn on one another instead of doing some inteligent, non-bias, processing."
You know what are you Daniela? You are an extremist, and I am going to report you. You are extremist at writing thoughtful and insightful comments and I am reporting your comment to the internet comment hall of fame for consideration in the museum of excellent comments, where it will have a place of honor for the next 1000 years.
When I saw your comment I was petrified! It was so well said I kept thinking I could never live without my comment by its side. But then, I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong!!!!
Fair enough. But still, it was terrible and people did know. Some even tried to help. Others got in their cool new buggies and headed to the fancy resorts built for them far enough away at the beach that they could ‘easierly’ ignore reality. After all it didn’t affect them or their family. And that is not the first or last time humans ignored others’ suffering right under their noses. I feel like a good example is the boarder crisis. No matter their opinion on open or closed borders, no American I talk to ever wants to talk about IS committing election interference in other countries, or full on coups. Or American companies suffocating their economy and paying them shit. Or the war on drugs which is nothing but a racket for them AND for us citizens as well.
That’s the kind of ignoring your neighbor’s suffering that will come back to bore us in the ass. Watch!
I agree with the gist of your comments, but I recall reading (long ago) that many Germans during the Nazi era refused to believe those who told them that people were being shipped to concentration camps (mostly in Poland) and killed. They were used to thinking of their country as too civilized to descend into such barbarity. One said that "Such a thing could never happen in the land of Kant." Many believed that Jews and other "undesirables" were only being deported, not slaughtered (which is not, of course, to excuse deportations!).
Perhaps that was in the earlier days. Needless to say, many knowingly went along with the Nazi program without any pangs of conscience. But most of us can only wonder if we would have the courage to sacrifice our lives in openly opposing such horrors, or if we would keep silent in hope that the nightmare would pass.
It is a hard question. One I feel we should all ponder on. And maybe even ask “is anything similar to this in any capacity going on around me right now today?” If there is, what should you do?
I’ve come so far as to ask questions about the obvious bullshit around me. I’ll openly oppose shit, I’m a rebel lol. But I have suffered consequences and they do hurt. I’m stuck at wtf can I do?
Seriously, wtf can I do? Vote?!😅GTFO! Until we have a democracy again a vote means nothing. Those who make them count don’t give a damn about democracy, only winning.
Daniela: I don't have an answer to your question, "What can we do?" I've more or less resigned myself to simply trying to live my own life in accord with the basic moral principles I believe in when interacting with other people. But there are those whose sacrifice bears witness to a deeper commitment to cosmic truths, serving as a reminder to my conscience that I am not doing enough.
You seem young and so it's going to be hard to take but I'd submit there's not much you can do to "change the world". You're one of the few conscious ones and you should be proud of that. Sticking your head out too much will probably hurt you more than benefit others.
Do not take the above the wrong way - I'm not saying "give up". Stay aware and propagate your enlightenment in subtle ways but the world will unfortunately proceed the way it will.
I don’t know if I agree with your comment or disagree. On one hand I agree that those who rock the boat will get cancelled, lose jobs etc. While on other hand, being a coward is exactly how we got to this stage in first place where the 3-4% of actual woke population is ruling over the rest of the spineless sheeps.
I could keep donating, just to find out later it was a waste as they turn out to be corrupt or complicit. I could still write emails and letters and make calls, but to what avail?! Wtf cause or thing we want, serious shit like health care and wage increase not just pacifiers like knocking some statues down, have all those donations and effort accomplished? We get AOCs elected, at high cost, then they do exactly opposite of what we demand.
And you clearly can’t go protesting for your rights lest you be labeled an extremist or worse and good luck to ya!
Maybe I am crazy. I hope I am. But I feel like this pressure cooker needs release. Bad! The People are tired. The world is tired. All these wars. All this insanity. All the innocent dead. It’s enough.
You're not crazy, but you have to step back away from the media noise and find a white board to map this all out.
There are some real Marxists on the Left, then there are Progressive AntiEstablishment Populists.
There are some real Fascists on the right, then there are Patriotic AntiEstablishment Populists.
I spent time in both OWS and Tea Party camps in 2010 and 2011 and found an amazing similarity the genesis of their movements and their desired end game, which was to break up the corrupt relationship between Wall Street and Washington.
I think it's safe to now say we can add Tech and Media Oligarchs to that cabal known as The Establisment.
Their entire being is to protect the status quo. They will destroy anything that threatens their power and trust me when I say this...Bernie Sanders is/was as big a threat to the power of the Establishment as was Donald Trump.
So the Establishment ratches up the noise about how Tucker Carlson hates AOC and how Ilhan Omar hates Ted Cruz. Look...over there >>>>>FIGHT!!!!
This distraction has happened the past 12 years and is intentionally designed to keep the far left and far right firing missiles at each other while the Establishment NeoCons and NeoLiberals send more troops to Syria, more troops to Afghanistan, more jobs to China, etc...
This is why the Capitol has 8' high razor wire around it right now as they write new laws that terminate your rights and mine to be able to express freely our disdain for what these fire breathing heathens are doing to the heart and soul of this country.
End of the day, most Populists want the massive and growing Federal Government to be redistributed to state and local governments.
If you want to have liberal laws in Austin, have at it.
If you want to have a hunting lodge in South Dakota, have at it.
This is a big vast nation with 330,000,000 opinions about what's right and what's wrong. The last thing we need are 535 coddled legislators thinking they can erase our Constitutional Rights while hiding behind a 5000 man army while they stay hunkered in their bunker.
Let go of the DNC just as many on the right have let go of the RNC.
And also..if you are left of center...the biggest change you personally can impact on this dysfunctional system is to gather with your fellow travelers and insist your US Rep mandate the Democrats in the House adopt the same term limit rules as REpublicans have.
AOC should get access to real power to represent her constituents. Republicans don't stand in her way.
I also should add that the current situation to me feels like the Soviet Union under L.I. Brezhnev. The state still had fearsome powers of repression, but nobody of influence and authority believed in the system anymore, and we cynically playing for themselves, their team or tribe.
Think of COVID as sort of like Chernobyl. Yes, the state was still powerful, but not even the KGB could hide the fact that the leaders were not only cynical and self-serving - they were also incompetent.
I am not a Marxist-Leninist, but V.I. Lenin was in a somewhat similar situation, and he did obtain a certain amount of practical insight in the care and feeding of revolutions.
Thanks for the interesting commentary. I haven't studied the history of Nazi Germany as closely as you have. My previous comment was based on my recollection of a book I read years ago, which was itself based on government archives, contemporary news sources, etc. It seemed to be very objective in its description of the various attitudes of Germans at the time. As I recall, the author was a Jewish woman; I was impressed by her objectivity.
Yes, and political echo chambers achieve a kind of psychological resonance effect, amplifying the strength of people's beliefs, as if the strength of evidence for a claim is proportional to the number of people who believe it.
It kind of reminds me of the low effort shit posting on Reddit comments too. Like you go and read comments even on a non political post and top voted comments are some super low effort often single sentence comments.
With the AUMF about to be rescinded by Congress, the hydra-like intelligence community spawned during the post-9/11 era needs to find a new justification for its existence.
After all, why do we have a Department of Homeland Security with no threat to the homeland?
Enter the unholy neocon/neoliberal alliance which has coalesced around one simple philosophy: the government should have unlimited power to spy on whomever it pleases. Otherwise, the power of the government might be threatened. Notably, these evil people do not care if that 'threat' is a political one from the nation they purport to represent.
If the 1/6 rioters engaged in conspiracy to sedition and insurrection, so did Antifa and BLM when they declared themselves independent of US law and attacked federal courthouses and federal agents. But because of the lack of political support for the administration in power at the time, the calls for a new internal security state waited until a more politically palatable target appeared for the left-of-center: Trump supporters.
The point of this screed? Mr. Greenwald has more eloquently than me pointed this out: the legacy media is allied with the would-be masters of the internal security state. Don't believe anything these people tell you, and understand that defending your civil rights matters FAR, FAR more than whether or not you hate the opposing political party.
So close, almost there, go abit further and then you can see the actual summer riots as inorganic, tried and true implementation of soft Coup activities sponsored by said organization. George Floyd in particular, one wonders why the full video was only released months after? They are also responsible for the death of news media as we see today, and most likely the actual power behind this doddering, malarkey filled Presidency. This is what they do and now they are doing it here. Dark Winter wasn't a Freudian slip of Biden during the debates, it was a "I'm your Patsy" from the establishment tool.
Most people haven’t even seen the actual body cam video released 2 months after. It completely debunks the narrative they were sold.
Also this video wasn’t even supposed to be released- someone first leaked it to the UK tabloid Dailymail and they released it in full. If that leak hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t even know the truth.
It’s odd. When a guy like the recent Colorado mass shooter is in the FBI’s crosshairs, they stand back and do nothing. But when a guy dressed like Chewbacca decides to give Congress a piece of his mind with no weapon he is locked down in solitary.
I don't know about many of you, but I've lost faith in the G-men and women working in the FBI.
We keep hearing after-action reports in many of these mass shootings that the suspect was "known" by the FBI.
While doing nothing to make themselves "well known" to these suspects, a crew of 15 of them hop on down to Talladega to investigate a looped strap handle on a raceway pit garage door that made Bubba Wallace pee his pants.
They falsify FISA warrants and then worse...lie about it when caught.
They coalesce around the other IC to tell us minions that Russia planted that Hunter Biden laptop in the Delaware Repair shop (where they must have forged his signature as well), then tell us the Capitol needs 8' high fencing with razor wire and 5000 Army troops with fully auto weapons to protect the prisoners inside the Capitol Hill Prison (Warden - Nancy Pelosi; Capacity - 535).
Once the G-men lose their ability to know an objective truth and fall away from their true north, it's now them against us...and by us...I mean 70% of the nation.
Feels a lot like the Securitate in Romania during the last 3 years of Ceausescu's regime.
If I hear one more talking head on TV refer to "the 99.9% of the FBI who are hard-working, upstanding, wonderful patriots.." I may throw a book through my TV screen. IF 99.9% of the FBI fit that description, we'd have had a few dozen whistle-blowers during Russiagate. We had none. As for Durham's "investigation," don't hold your breath. The truth is, the vast majority of FBI employees are arrogant jerks.
I too have lost a tremendous amount of faith in the FBI, and pretty such all federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Their actions that have come to light since 2016 have destroyed my trust, and I think the trust of many others. I look back now and it's hard to see the feds actions in Waco against the Branch Dividians as anything other than murder. Yet they always get away with whatever evil they do.
When you consider that the FBI evolved over decades with the almost explicit goal of collecting dirt on politicians for Hoover. You begin to understand their current rationale better.
The worst part of the whole Bubba Wallace thing is that Michael Jordan got involved in NASCAR to keep BW fiscally solvent. Rather than him just going all Dick Trickle and let the theory of racecar driver evolution run its course, he gets bankrolled by the GOAT, so he's got a seat at the table until he doesn't want to anymore. The PR of this stinks to high heavens.
My preferred analogy is to the USSR, about the time of Chernobyl. The system appeared monolithic and all-powerful, but the cracks were starting to show.
Thank you Glenn - a timely and alarming article. Domestic surveillance is rampant and all encompassing - extensively disclosed by Snowden. HiTech and communication monopolies are already deeply integrated into the US security apparatus.
HiTech monopolies will not likely be broken up any time soon despite recent Congressional report on high priority need to be broken up. The accounting for 5+-years of lying is unravelling and the efforts are now focused to prevent the full disclosure of this scam of the century. Most of us agree that it is very good that Trump defeated himself -- but the involvement of the US security apparatus for five+ years is truly alarming.
By far the highest interest of Biden government and its oligarch cabal is that Russia-gate immense hoax – the scam of the century -- will NOT / will NEVER be exposed. There has been synchronized and choreographed collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now more than five years.
The entire anti-Russian fairytale is a deliberate fabrication -- the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate hoax -- initiated by Obama/Biden administration. They lost to a TV host and instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory -- this includes the completely (proven) false accusations that Russia gave WikiLeaks Hillary's emails (hence the total silence on Assange torture). Assange must be silenced by that psychopaths' logic -- all the plotters/players agree...
There has been collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now five years. The Russia-gate hoax and Ukraine-impeachment “entertainment” was concocted by Obama/Hillary/Biden/Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jamie Raskin, etc. and their intelligence, HiTech and DNC executives on behalf of their Wall Street and arms industry donors. The lying team is now back in power – note that Kamala Harris (and her sister) and Neera Tanden are Hillary's protégés; Pete Buttigieg was promptly rewarded for his role of election theft in Iowa, etc.
Remember, Clapper, Brennan & Hayden trio were among former 50 intelligence officials stating that Hunter-laptop is classical “Russian disinformation” !?!.
- They were also key promoters of the by now five-year Russia-gate hoax.
- They were also key intelligence executives in Obama/Biden/Hillary government – the government which hunted Snowden (forcing Bolivian plane with Bolivia’s president to land to search it) and armed Al Qaeda (including “white helmets” hoax) and staged all chemical attacks in Syria to remove its government.
When asked about Hunter's corruption laptops - Pelosi brazenly stated "All roads lead to Putin"; commenting on Capitol invasion (called now "armed insurrection" although not a single weapon was discovered) Schumer said - "worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11"...
The lying Russia-gate team is fully back in power working at full speed -- massive censorship and domestic surveillance is mandatory for them to preserve power..
Only half convinced? I'm convinced that 95% of what is presented as news in the MSM is 100% concocted and is planned and managed in great detail: who says what, to whom, when, and how (through what channel)...
Control through access. You don't even need to change MSM journalists minds to control narrative, just limit access to those journalists that uncritically regurgitate unverifiable statements with ideological sympathies. Whether the journalist is aware and complicit is ultimately even irrelevant. Journalist questions motivation? They're no longer on the list. Journalist requests verification? See ya. Journalist outs a source for passing along false or incomplete information? Find a new job, buddy. Self-selection takes care of it all and without a pesky paper trail of quid pro quos, statements of motivation, etc.
Journalistic ethics should require a statement by the author after every statement regurgitated by an anonymous source whether the source agrees to be outed if the information ends up being untrue or materially misleading.
I'm in favor of demonetizing them, their employers and the companies who sponsor them. Let it be known your money will not flow their way and surmise the reasons why.
It’s hard to demonize them. People will unknowingly off the boycott continue to buy their news. This needs to be fixed through legislation. Whatever all Bill Clinton did to make lying on the news legal needs to be undone. Everyone a news reporter KNOWINGLY lies, they and their superiors should have to answer for it. Of upon investigation it is found that they knowingly and purposefully lied, they should be criminally prosecuted, fined, and forced to display a “less than truthful” disclaimer across any and all their media and papers.
You’ve seen what is done to a bartender and the bar owner when they let a drunk person drive off and hurt others right? So how come a belligerent liar can get on TVs and cause hurt and danger to the entire country and globe and nothing is done about it? How many wars have they been part of? How many workers and lives have they hurt? How about all the damage to our democracy? Our economy? Our education? OUR HEALTH CARE??!!!!! And the punishment for all that chaos is zero?!!!
QAnon *is* a CIA disinformation campaign. Their - and competing foreign government intelligence agency's - historical use of this tactic is well documented. I'm conservative and fairly active in politics and everyone I come across in that sphere appears perplexed at the myth or is entirely unfamiliar with the term let alone the "theory".
Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves.--Nietzsche
Love him or hate him, Trump at least removed the curtain to show the lengths the IC will go to engage in domestic politics if they feel threatened, through both its current and former members, utilizing mouthpieces in the media and unverifiable sources that strike with immediate effect but take years to determine the actual veracity. And their response following his deposition is further illuminating.
Ah...but a simple roll of lowly toilet paper.. that maybe has been soaked in some flammable substance.. can potentially be turned into "flaming" ammo for those that may be currently well endowed in that particular commodity.
One man's posterior wiper could also end up being another man's weapon of rebellion.
They might not have much in common, but if you ask an old hippy, a rural gun owner, an old black man, a War on Terror vet, and a Muslim immigrant if they trust the US Government, you will surprisingly get the same answer!
Remember -- Trump was VERY bad president - totally incompetent.
The human and economic national virus catastrophe should enter the US history as "Trump virus". Many people would vote for my cat just to get rid of Trump and his coterie of religious extremists and grifters...
Donald Trump 'wants FDA to approve oleander plant extract as a drug to cure Covid-19' after it was promoted by Ben Carson and MyPillow founder - despite no proof that it works
• Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson ( my note: the bible idiot – pyramids were built by St. Joseph to store wheat ) and MyPillow boss and ( my note – a deeply repulsive grifter ) Mike Lindell, a big Trump supporter, have urged Trump to look at the botanical extract (oleander oil)
• Meeting arranged by the pair with a director at company developing the product
• Andrew Whitney, of Phoenix Biotechnology, claims he is '100%' sure it's a cure
• But there is no peer-reviewed study to support the claim
• Lindell says that in the meeting, Trump 'basically said the FDA should approve it'
• Senior administration official expressed deep concern that Carson and Lindell were 'pushing a dubious product at the highest levels' during the pandemic
By ROSS IBBETSON -- PUBLISHED: 05:03 EDT, 17 August 2020
The notion that Trump was "totally incompetent" is at odds with the facts. His record on COVID was far better than that of many other world leaders. The silly leprechaun Fauci certainly didn't help,
constantly sending mixed, often incoherent signals and setting bad example on occasion. And, of course, we have our famous New York Emmy Winner as a prime example of how much worse things might have been.
Trump had many excellent ideas, but had some serious weaknesses that set him back. Just for example, in my opinion he was terribly underprepared for the first debate with Biden. Of course, he might have been suffering the effects of COVID at the time. But this doesn't excuse the fact that, when given a couple of minutes to list his accomplishments near the end of the debate, Trump forgot to mention foreign policy! And, of course, he is prone to picking aides who are awful at their jobs. The notion that Obama was a better president than Trump is laughable. Obama was a failure in nearly every area of presidential performance except suit wearing and reading a teleprompter speech with a nice cadence.
No need to argue. The mere fact that he didn't pardon Julian Assange, probably his strongest ally on unmasking the Russia-gate hoax, illustrates my point
OK, I've read sufficient number of your posts re Trump = idiot because of covid. Trump was far from perfect but main criticisms against him lie far from the virus one.
Re virus: is the US President King? Can he just order stuff to be done? With his various exploits re alternative treatments (albeit dubious) did he impede the development of the vaccines? Did he put obstacles in front of anyone to do what they wanted to do? If yes, how? If not, then how could he speed it up? Put on the white gown and sit there directing the scientists? Did the world stop waiting for Trump to say "Go" in their search for the cure/vaccine?
Where I do fault him is - he should have learned his history. With his agenda he should have known he's going to be "assassinated" either physically or virtually (the latter succeeded) based on ample evidence from the past. He was not prepared. He flunked.
Trump was an incompetent bully who surrounded himself with incompetents and sycophants. Virus, unfortunately for him, couldn't be bullied.
The US response to pandemic was abysmal failure (550,000 death so far - compare to less than 5,000 deaths in four times larger China) -- a catastrophe compared to almost all other countries - including, I know you wouldn't like to hear that, Cuba, Vietnam, all Asian countries.
We don't need to even mention the continuing brutal psychopath sanctions against population of many countries, including decades long attempts to overthrow legal governments of Syria, Iran and Venezuela. Unfortunately, both DNC and GOP oligarchs continue the same US imperial war policy of terrorism.
Well, let’s see. Here are some examples of what I consider unalloyed goods under Trump:
- First, and in my view most importantly, Trump didn’t start any new wars. In contrast, he actually started bringing troops home, and would have brought more home were it not for the institutional resistance of the Pentagon. Contrast that with Biden, who promptly reversed this policy and started adding troops in Syria, following in the footsteps of Obama who bombed the shit out of Syria for eight years.
- Trump the alleged racist promoted and signed legislation providing $250 million annually to HBCUs, as well as the First Step Act, which started to address our mass incarceration problem (which disproportionately affects black people) by providing a pathway to early release for nonviolent offenders and support in reintegrating into society.
- Operation Warp Speed was a smashing success, enabling development of vaccines in record time.
- Speaking of smashing successes, Trump’s calculated aggression smashed ISIS within months, while Obama could do nothing for years.
- In large part due to Trump’s diplomacy, Israel signed peace treaties with multiple Arab states.
And here are some things that I consider positive developments under Trump, though others might disagree and/or may argue are not directly attributable to Trump:
- America became a net energy exporter rather than a net importer for the first time in generations.
- The economy boomed under Trump (at least pre-Covid), with blue collar wages rising faster than white collar wages for the first time in decades. Some will argue that presidents do not directly affect the economy much, but the synchronicity with Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation and tariffs seem to me to be a bit too coincidental to deny him all credit.
- Trump launched the Space Force, correctly recognizing (at least in my view) that space will be the crucial battleground of the future, despite scoffing from the left.
- Trump cut taxes for the vast majority of taxpayers (contra the Democratic lie that Trump’s tax cuts benefited only the wealthy)
- Trump correctly recognized that China and not Russia was our primary geopolitical rival and took steps to counter China both economically and diplomatically, in contrast to Biden who claimed that “a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large." and that China was “not competition for us” before finally starting to change his tune early this year.
All in all, I consider this quite a solid record of achievement, especially when you consider that Trump faced an unprecedented opposition that destabilized a number of small-d democratic norms, including targeting his personal lawyer and other associates to try to get them to give up the goods on Trump, encouraging government employees to actively resist the policies of the lawfully elected government of the United States, and of course the big one, the entire Russian collusion lie.
I must admit I’m rapidly becoming aware that I possibly made quite the mistake at the elections. I did not bore for Biden. I’m not THAT off kilter lol. But I’m really starting to feel that I may be one of the overwhelming propaganda against Trump’s victims. And I’m starting to regret not having voted for him. Trump, though I do not like the type of man or business man he is, isn’t in reality wtf they portrayed him to be for the last 6 years. Nor is Russia. There is an attack on our democracy, but it is not coming from Trump... or Russia.
No you are not -- this is just institutionalizing what has already been in practice re: intelligence units getting together on domestic " terrorism (sic)"
Thank you once again, Glenn. Basically - from what they say - we're all domestic terrorists except for the media useful idiots who take their “reporting” from what intelligence dictates to them. I voted for Obama but got increasingly concerned over his love of surveillance - I came to realize he makes Nixon look like the poster child for non-paranoia - and joined the quite peaceful and well organized marches against his surveillance policies. Which probably has me down as a domestic terrorist.
This is a latter step in the process of the US government completely restructuring the country to an authoritarian, centrally planned system, a system more similar to modern China than historic US. Last year began operation warp speed and this is just nails in the coffin.
Too many Americans were are apathetic about their own liberties and enthusiastically lowered their head for the leash over the last year, probably the last chance of reversing this trend. Most of the left is overwhelmingly on board with virtually any expansion of government power, and enough of the rest are on board or ignorant or stupid or just don’t care. Since governments do not ever voluntarily give up power, and Americans can’t surrender their liberties fast enough, there is little reason to see these trends reverse. Looking for waves of opposition but I just don’t see them.
It is a perfectly rational approach for those in power to take more power when they see a population of people willingly submitting to scare tactics. They're just walking up and taking candy from adult-babies who are largely detached from understanding the liberty they are giving up.
What’s extra unsettling to me is that even if the population at large suddenly came to their senses and demanded back all the things they had given up, the precedent has already been set and the word is already out to anybody looking to expand their authority with no questions asked: it’s easy to scare the shit out of people and they’ll quickly take the baton and scare the shit out each other until they’re completely willing to give up everything and beg authority to make them feel safe again.
I thought more people had learned that lesson post-9/11 not to let themselves be so easily manipulated, but now I feel pretty naïve for ever thinking that.
Glenn, many thanks for sounding the alarm on this growing threat to the future of America.
Given what we have seen in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, the DHS Report of 03/01/2021 is incredibly chilling. A key point of vulnerability is the meaning of the terms "violence" or "DVE" that dominate the DHS document.
The academic establishment, which overwhelmingly supports Biden, and which has surrendered all pretense of objectivity, has already blurred the meaning of "violence," extending the word to encompass any activity it finds intellectually threatening.
This blurring became apparent in the aftermath of the riot of 01/06/2021. This was labeled a "violent insurrection," when of course it was (except for the setting) little more than Fort Lauderdale Spring Break party gone bad until, without warning, a uniformed guard killed Ashli Babbitt.
As I stated for weeks on Powerline Blog, and you carefully documented here, all the most basic information (potentially) contradicting the "violent insurrection" narrative has been withheld. We still don't even know the name of the man who killed Babbitt nearly 3 months ago! We still don't know the results from Sicknick's autopsy. We don't know the dollar value of the damages to the capitol on 01/06, but we can guess that it is less than many a weekend ANTIFA funfest in Portland. Yet DHS is using the "violent insurrection narrative to vastly extend its powers.
What you are now documenting is the near complete takeover of a shadow government in the USA, with the active complicity of a corrupt academic establishment. I could go on for pages, but let's just consider a few obvious changes since Trump was removed.
1. During the first few weeks of the Trump administration, there were dozens of leaks designed to undermine him and his goals. Trump couldn't eat an extra scoop of ice cream, or call a foreign government, without the NY Times getting a full report designed to portray Trump as an ignoramus and a bully. During the first few weeks of the Biden administration, there have been virtually no leaks, even though it is woefully apparent to anyone that Biden actually is an ignoramus and a bully.
2. The academic establishment fully supported many attacks on Trump's mental capacity and morality. For example, Bandy X. Lee published a volume of "long distance" psychiatric analyses of Trump by several academicians that were largely based on hyperbole and political bias. The American Psychiatric Association considers such analyses unethical when presented as professional opinion, yet Lee became a hero in the anti-Trump press, which generally failed to mention that her appointment at Yale was not as a tenure-track professor, while portraying her as a "Yale Professor" in much the same way that they inflated Obama's humble adjunct teaching position into a "Professor of Constitutional Law." For example, Wikipedia describes her as "with Yale University," rather than give her actual title.
Now that Lee has outlived her usefulness, Yale has removed her from her voluntary teaching duties. This has been described as a "firing," and Lee has responded by suing Yale.
It is noteworthy that Lee has not, to my knowledge, ever expressed the slightest public concern about the mental health or fitness of Joe Biden. She's outlived her usefulness.
Many academic "experts" supported various attacks on Trump's veracity. For example, when Trump repeatedly asserted (with good reason) that he was optimistic that a COVID vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020, CNN marshalled numerous experts to declare that this was a joke, an impossibility, and a lie. Interviewed about this a few weeks ago, one of the founders of Moderna and the inventor of the technology that made the vaccine possible declared that those who declared it a joke were apparently unaware of recent developments in the technology. Right. Yet nobody in the liberal media sought to reveal this prior to the election, and there were no leaks of the imminent release of the vaccine either.
Imagine: a pharmaceutical company becomes aware that their vaccine works, meaning billions in potential new revenue --- and keeps the information secret!
US Prosecutor: “Your honor, the defendant clicked the heart button on the article by Mr. Greenwald. This is proof positive that he not only liked the seditious article, but loved it. We recommend the death penalty.”
This might be the least surprising writing you have made recently Glenn. I’m afraid this genie is long gone from the bottle. We released him almost 20 years ago.
I do appreciate you continuing to talk about it because it is a topic of great importance but I wonder what crime it will take to be perpetrated by our own government against us for the public to finally say enough is enough.
I know so many of the “if you are not doing anything, you have nothing to worry about” crowd that I suspect we have passed the point of no return.
The irony that GG is writing about is how the Patriot Act is now being turned on actual Patriots. Once Pelosi, Schumer, etc. figured out how to turn it on us, they started praising the Bush/Cheney method because by all political accounts, they had more in common with them as Trump ascended into power, than they even thought possible from 2000-2008. They found a nice, snug little loophole that suited their agenda.
And this is exactly what all the libertarians was saying was going to happen back in 2001. At the time we were crazy, unpatriotic, and MAYBE "giving comfort to the enemy."
Weird how all the "loonies" seem to be correct more than the "leaders."
Blackpill alert. Frogs don't know the water is getting hot, we aren't frogs and can easily escape the pot. It takes first the will to do so. The 10th monkey remembers.
"possibly illegal involvement by the intelligence community in U.S. domestic political affairs." There's an understatement. Do they do anything legal? Yesterday we learned that the CO murderer was on the FBI's radar but left free to roam. We are all on the IC's radar because it is easier for them to police the law-abiding and claim that we are "protected" by this, than it is to investigate the real threats.
Also yesterday, we read even more about the CIA chief begging the Yemenis to release "my guy" - Al Alawaki.
How much protection can a country withstand? 17 Intel Agencies and not one of them on our side.
As much as the right wants to paint the picture of Grandpappy Soros as the face of global evil, you have to look at Brennan as the guy every single American should fear. Demonic is an understatement.
I have two experiences in my life where I saw someone I did not know and was overcome with a feeling of ice cold malevolence. The first one was Jerry Sandusky. The second one was John Brennan. Interestingly enough, within a day or two of these experiences I saw news paper articles on the individuals touting their "great humanity".
Wow. From Penn State to the state pen, as the old euphemism goes. I'd love to see Brennan in Florence, CO. When I go to mass and light a candle, that is basically my lone prayer.
Brennan is damaged goods. You could see him being appointed at Harris' Dick Cheney and then standing on the podium in full uniform like a Generalissimo.
But Brennan is like the Ed Harris guy in "The Truman Show." He has access to intel Soros could only dream of. I'm sure they both swim in the same monetary backchannels and you're absolutely right to say they are doing similar things - it's just that Brennan has access. Brennan is the inside man.
"Indeed, many of the same House Republicans who wrote this important letter to the DNI have in the past supported laws that allow greater involvement of the CIA, NSA and other agencies in activities on U.S. soil — including the Patriot Act."
While I am more right leaning on most things, I do find it very interesting that Republican politicians are getting a taste of the medicine (poison) they pushed for few decades ago. But it also seems like the Democrat constituents are making the same mistake as Republicans did few decades ago - Democrats are supporting these measures against their political opponents without self awareness that when the pendulum swings back, it will be against them. The "it's okay because my opposing view point is a nazi white supremacist" crowd will be wondering what happened when the pendulum flips back on them.
In fact, the establishment hammer is already falling on the few honest liberals still left - Jimmy Dore is being called inciting violence by AOC for his force the vote thing, his channel is throttled, Hard Lens Media got suspended on YouTube, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Matt Taibbi, Tulsi Gabbard etc are all called russian agents. You want your $2000 you were promised? You want the $15 minimum wage or medicare for all you were promised? You want to stop forever wars or want to hold Wall Street accountable? You want businesses to open up and stop covid fear mongering? You are a sexist for speaking against the first female treasury secretary, racist for speaking against the black DOD secretary, transphobic for speaking against the trans health minister, inciting violence against AOC for "force the vote", poor uneducated deplorable for wanting $15 minimum wage. Oh and Russia!!!
First they came for Alex Jones and Milo, then they came for Tulsi Gabbard and Orange Man. Bernie Sanders supporters got called misogynsts by the establishment. Remember how Pocahantas Warren and establishment media treated Bernie at the debate? Too bad, Bernie took it as a pathetic cuck that he is.
People seem to think it's a linear scale where left vs right falls. I disagree - I think it's a triangle with liberals and conservatives are on two corners fighting each other while the authoritarian establishment consisting of elite politicians, media, corporations, Hollywood etc are sitting and enjoying the fight in the third corner.
I think this is because people believe in the illusion of the two party system. There's no two party. Nor is there a libertarian party. Remember when libertarian party last year was pushing the BLM narrative? The Democrat and Republican parties are mostly the same - one is evil using identity politics to push their establishment agenda while the other is a bunch of incompetent spineless cucks who run away the very moment someone calls them a bigot. Both parties are totally okay now a days with feeding the war machine, spying on Americans etc.
I wish that instead of wasting 4 years on stupid russiagate nonsense and impeachment harassment, media and liberals spent time demanding pardons for Assange Snowden etc. The biggest disappointment from Trump was him not pardoning the very victims of the things he talked about - deep state, spying, free speech, forever wars etc. It felt like a slap to my face honestly when the pardons didn't come. I honestly wonder if the deep state threatened him with something. We know McConnell did threaten him with a successful impeachment if he did but I wish Trump had grown the balls and just done it.
With that said, I do wonder if this change in the political party ideology is what made Trump switch from being a Democrat until late 2000s into a Republican.
Btw, when I refer to Democrat/Republican/Libertarian - I am talking about the politicians - not the constituents. A lot of constituents don't like what their politicians are doing. Right now it seems like more right leaning don't like their republican politicians vs left leaning not liking the democrat politicians - but I could be mistaken on this. I just don't see enough left leaning push back against the Democrats.
Until this pendulum swinging continues without any self reflection, I think we are going in circles and the establishment cronies will continue winning.
Thanks, that's absolutely superb. Trump, unfortunately, came apart at the end. Just for example, he *could* have easily inoculated himself against the 01/06 narrative by stating, at the very beginning of his speech, that under no circumstances should his followers do ANYTHING approaching a riot. He simply failed to anticipate the number of people arrayed against him. And, as you suggest, there were a lot of Republicans who were happy to tamp down the earth on Trump's political grave. Half the conservatives over at Powerline and National Review were practically joyous at their anticipated return to power.
I share your deep disappointment that Trump couldn't take a step backward and realize he'd been checkmated, then (a) issue those pardons, and (b) take a more statesmanlike stance.
The whole capitol thing was a nothing burger imo. The only reason we are talking about it is because media and politicians made it out as such a big deal. A 3 time veteran got shot and killed because of - wait - we don't even know anything about it because she must be a nazi. 2 years ago, the anti-kavanaugh protestors did the exact same thing to the Senate chambers - they even bragged about it on twitter and Pelosi was actively encouraging it. And we all saw what happened for 8 months last year. One simply cannot convince me anything which happened at the capitol was remotely anything to be mad about based on past.
The capitol breach was so bad that 4 hours later, all the politicians came back and finished their "votes" in the chambers? Gimme a break.
Also Trump shouldn't have to state anything in his speech. Again - past behavior from Democrats has been actually bad and nobody asked them to tone down their speech. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Also I watched it all go down live. Trump was speaking and on stage till 1:15PM. Capitol was breached at 12:53PM. It is nearly 1.5mi from the Ellipse to the Capitol, at least 30-40 min walk. Anyone who claimed his speech was inciting anything at the Capitol is hiding the truth that the Capitol was breached 23 minutes before Trump's speech ended and 40 minute walk away.
Saying this as someone who's not a fan of his as I have already described in my previous comment.
I thought both impeachment trials were a bit of a farce, however I would have impeached him for his handling of Covid - "depraved indifference toward human life"
US death numbers are not an outlier once you consider
1. The US population is on average over 30lb overweight compared to the rest of the world with significant comorbidities (In the United States, 36.5 percent of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight. In all, more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese),
2. has very old population similar to Italy,
3. has tons of tourism during winter
4. New York was been found to be the origin of virus variant for majority of the US states - something Cuomo played a big role in.
5. Canada has a population density of 4 people per square kilometer and population of 1/10th of US. US has a population density 36 per Km2. US also has the third-highest population in the world.
What could Trump have done differently to make the situation better? Asking this as a Canadian who's also not a fan of Trump (not pardoning Assange, Snowden, Bump stock ban etc).
Only thing I guess Trump could have done differently is told people to take this opportunity to get healthy and start working out, losing weight and eating healthy. But that would be called fatphobia in today's "big & beautiful" world.
With obesity and vitamin D deficiency being two MAJOR factors in outcomes, you have to wonder what would have happened if government had "mandated" an hour-long walk in the sunshine on days it was possible.
Well, considering that Taiwan has a MUCH lower case and death rate, though being right across the channel from the mainland - what did they do, from the start - ramp up the production and availability of masks - pretty simple, while Trump was running around denigrating and mocking them - he could have invoked the DPA and cranked PPE out like crazy. And he continually, in public, downplayed the seriousness of the virus - "no worse than the flu", even as he himself had to be helicoptered to the hospital, got supplemental oxygen, and all the available Rx, none of which, save the O2, was available to the public - he modeled all the worst behavior one could engage in with regard to the spread of the pandemic, even as he apparently told Woodward that this was a nasty disease indeed early on - we were "exceptional" all right in having the highest number of cases and deaths ... in a country that supposedly has the "best" healthcare in the world.
I think his handling of, or failing to handle, the Covid outbreak cost him re-election - the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal apparently thought he could make a deal with the virus ....
Nice MSNPC talking points you got there. One does not have to be a fan of Trump to still admit that there's not anything he could have done differently other than asking people to stop eating too much, start exercising, losing weight and get sunlight.
Taiwan - a nation with tourism of 10 million vs USA which gets tourists in billions. Taiwan a nation with bodyweight 40lb lighter and thus less co-morbidities than USA. Comparing them is asinine.
There's been not a single death because of lack of ventilators or PPE or hospital beds. So I don't know what you are talking about. In fact the temporary hospitals orange man built for New York along with the hospital ship he sent to New York didn't even get used because genius governor Cuomo sent the patients into nursing homes and then lied about the numbers because he didn't want Orange Hitler's DOJ to find out. Even the Democrat governors like Newsom, Cuomo, Murphy etc said that there was not a single request which Trump didn't help them on. Then these same governors would go on political narraitves during election and change their tune.
First Cuomo and every democrat complained about lack of ventilators. Then when Trump gave them as many ventilators as they wanted, the Doctors came back saying putting patients on ventilators is pretty much a guaranteed death because it destroys the lungs.
And he wasn't wrong about "no worse than the flu". The fatality rate is very much the same. 99%+ survival rate if you’re under 70... 99.9% if you’re young and healthy. Lock it all down for everyone. Destroy the economy. Act irrational. Go panic buy toilet paper.
As for masks, do you blame him considering Lord Fauci himself lied about them first? Do you blame Trump for flip flopping considering the Lord Fauci, who everyone loves so much, flip flopped on them?
Plus masks haven't done anything to help.
When Nevada’s Governor mandated masks on June 24, 2020, he said that “when at least 80% of a population adopts universal masking, it results in a substantial reduction in infection”. Carnegie Mellon estimated over 94% in NV are wearing masks and yet cases are up ~540% since the mandate in June 24. Whoops! We need 110% compliance. Only then will cases go down!
As we don't even need to get into the utopia that is New York and their mask numbers.
As of July 2020...masking in public was almost 80% in the US (and has remained so...since). Which is the same 80% as Canada.
Entire scientific community agreed before COVID that non-fitted non-N95 masks do not work on influenze like viruses. They admitted they neither work for the person wearing, nor for those around them. In fact, they said cloth masks make it worse because they become a breeding ground for bacteria. Then somehow magically, everyone flipped the script when orange man came into power. Here's proof:
> Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids (36). There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.
> We did not consider the use of respirators in the community. Respirators are tight-fitting masks that can protect the wearer from fine particles (37) and should provide better protection against influenza virus exposures when properly worn because of higher filtration efficiency. However, respirators, such as N95 and P2 masks, work best when they are fit-tested, and these masks will be in limited supply during the next pandemic. These specialist devices should be reserved for use in healthcare settings or in special subpopulations such as immunocompromised persons in the community, first responders, and those performing other critical community functions, as supplies permit.
> Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%. This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally. However, as a precautionary measure, cloth masks should not be recommended for HCWs, particularly in high-risk situations, and guidelines need to be updated.
> Facemask use does not prevent clinical or laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims.
> Conclusions: Together, these results indicate that ocular surface cells including conjunctiva are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, and could therefore serve as a portal of entry as well as a reservoir for person-to-person transmission of this virus. This highlights the importance of safety practices including face masks and ocular contact precautions in preventing the spread of COVID-19 disease.
-------
If you believe that China, India and Russia is giving you the right number of cases, then you have bought into the propaganda too well for me to bother changing your mind.
I also find it super interesting that the same people who spent like 4 years calling Orange man a hitler, fascist, dictator etc want him to instantly act as an authoritarian by forcing unconstitutional mask mandates on everyone, nationalize entire industries and force shut down everyone. The irnoy is laughable.
The fact is, anyone who's making childish comments like "the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal apparently thought he could make a deal with the virus ...." cannot be convinced with any data because they seem to prefer getting their information from watching late night comedy instead.
Do you think Orange Hitler is more to be blamed for the deaths in New York or Cuomo? If you blame Orange Hitler for the deaths of 400K, do you also praise him for saving 23,132,879 who recovered so far? And the vaccine too? And shutting down travel despite being called racist and xenophobic by every talking head? Do you think Trump should have done more while also letting the Democrats do mass protests entire year? Or does that not contribute to COVID?
Flu - hmmm, somehow I missed the 500,000 deaths from flu last year - shucks, where was I - lets see, collecting multiple studies on masks - the materials that proved considerably effective, when worn properly (also paid attention to how folks were wearing them - good grief!) When you have to quote a study on Hajj pilgrims to "make" your point, forgive my rolling my eyes .. I hope you tell your docs to not wear masks so they won't "infect" you
I argued for months that that if we had spent more on masks, we wouldn't have needed the ventilators -
The only "late night comedy" I watch is the comments such as yours I find on-line..
Where did you ever see me calling Trump "orange Hitler" or a fascist? Where did you ever see me defending Cuomo?
In addition to spreading a lot of bunk, you are barking up the wrong tree thinking I am an MSNBC fan, or a D - I am an equal opportunity critic - where I see BS, I call it ...
As for who "saved" all those folks - it was the medical workers, at least 3000 who have died in the attempt to fulfill their oath - which is something Trump should have done ... I am a retired medical professional, familiar with the need for PPE
As for "mandates" - hmm, we have gov't regulations for all sorts of public health reasons - and he could have modeled that behavior -
As for the vaccines - yup, operation Warp Speed - good for him - are you getting one?
Thanks. I’m sure you are right about their counterreaction. However, following my suggestion would have made their bias more evident and their salesmanship more difficult.
Anyone who's watched his speech knows already that media is lying. Plus it couldn't have contributed to what happened at Capitol considering he was speaking 40 min walk away and 20 minute AFTER the capitol was breached.
Anyone who's willing to do due diligence honestly knows he's not to be blamed.
Going in circles - yup! We the people are like ducks swimming in any increasingly polluted pond with 2 sets of hunters, one at each end, each promising to protect us from the other - so we swim to one end - and get shot, then we swim to the other end - and get shot, then we swim back again, and again ad nauseum, while at the end of the day the hunters put down their guns, shake hands, and go off together to have a beer - and a duck dinner. Meanwhile there is a clean pond upstream that we could swim to, but we don't ... too much trouble, harder to paddle there. ... So, sorry, as long as we the people insist on making the easier choices - we will have nothing to show for it except more and more lead in our butts ...
Americans can thank Harry Truman and Democrats in Congress after World War II for the implementation of these agencies. The CIA and NSA were created by the National Security Act of 1947 - which also established the DOD and the United States Air Force - as a means of expeditiously obtaining intelligence rather than depending on the War and Navy Departments' intelligence agencies. It created new bureaucracies instead, each with its own agenda. Incidentally, although the NSA is thought of as a "spy" organization, its actual role is security by SPYING ON US GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS to ensure that they don't pass on classified information through conversations and messages. I was in the Air Force in the 1960s and 1970s and it was common knowledge that telephone lines on military bases were monitored to protect classified information. There were signs on the wall above the phones in our squadron in Okinawa advising that the lines were monitored. The CIA was charged with collecting "intelligence," which is a euphemism for information, pertaining to foreign government although its Special Activities Division was established to start wars and otherwise disrupt governments the US didn't like. As for protecting against violence, Americans forget that the United States came about because of a violent overthrow of the legitimate government of the British monarchy. (Granted, the rebels won only because France came to their aid.) In fact, the Founders - after resistance to the Constitution by the anti-Federalists led by Patrick Henry - provided for the violent overthrow of the Federal government in the event it became tyrannical by the inclusion of the Second Amendment in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Progressives try to link the amendment to the National Guard but the National Guard didn't come into being until the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and the militia referred to in the amendment was every able-bodied man in the country with the intent being the means to resist tyrannical government.
Sam McGowan, you wrote, "In fact, the Founders - after resistance to the Constitution by the anti-Federalists led by Patrick Henry - provided for the violent overthrow of the Federal government in the event it became tyrannical by the inclusion of the Second Amendment in the first ten amendments to the Constitution."
Oh, good gravy, that is patently ridiculous. A government does not give "authority" (constitutional, or otherwise) to those trying to overthrow it, especially through armed/violent revolution.
“Happy for us, that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the coolness of philosophers and set it to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend or to restore their constitutions.”
Why, whatever do you suppose he could have meant with this?
Very simple in that "the people" should always have the means to resist and/defy the gov't if necessary. The necessary part is left to the people to decide. Once the means to resist is crushed the deciding part is irrelevant.
Elections can in fact be revolutionary actions by citizens and have in fact changed the face of the nation many times over the decades without resort to armed insurrection. Once elections are negated by fraud, political operatives, restrictive laws and cheating the "armed insurrection" part can't be too far behind. Political operatives and election "fixers" are the true domestic terrorists yet the alphabet soup agencies ignore them in favor of the likes of Roger Stone and the anyone else the established political order determines is a threat to their position and power.
Congress must start reigning in and re-thinking this entire aspect of national security before the Jan 6th riot starts to look like the first shot at Bunker Hill in tomorrow's history books. That riot was mostly based on the idea that the election was being stolen right under the noses of the American public. Probably not but the media and others sure went to great lengths to "explain" the evidence that Biden gathered more votes than Obama or any other candidate in history despite his uninspired and insipid campaign where crowds of single digits (mostly media) milled about at is few and far between public appearances. The sudden mass flocking to the polls and mailed in ballots seemed as false as old Joe's defense of Hunter's business activities.
You know what the scariest, most painfull part of this all is? The People’s inability to see wtf is really going on, and frightening capacity to turn on one another instead of doing some inteligent, non-bias, processing. Have you yet been called an extremist? I have. By someone very close to me who is a hard core Democrat and listens to Rachael like it’s gospel. All I said was essentially that Trump may not be exactly who they’re portraying him to be since they are known to lie and some facts don’t add up. And that he, in comparisson to other Presidents past, was not much different. Better or worse at certain things, but over all if you ask a non-American inhabitant of this planet they’d probably say the US has remained pretty consistent no matter who’s in the Oval Office since the bombs never really did quite stop raining on their heads.
To me that’s scary AF. People so easily turning against their friends and loved ones and parroting exactly wtf they heard on MSNBC and CNN: that to question the narrative basically means “you want to see the country burn down”, you’re anti-America, anti-democracy, anti-peace, anti-society, “you’re an etremist”, you’re violent and/or associated to violence, etc. How can people not realize that it is NOT ok or acceptable to use such hostile tactics to debate a point with somebody? How can people not realize they’re playing right into their hands? They’re using us to silence each other while they continue on doing their dirt unencumbered by the bothers of pesky “extremists” asking questions? I can’t help but to wonder what it was the average German was doing while other humans were being burned alive right up the road during the Holocaust.
I understand your reasoning but the hard fact is that only about half the American populace is capable of rational thought. There's a reason the Marine Corps says, or used to say, they didn't want intelligent recruits but rather wanted C students - because their officers would do their thinking for them and their role was to do as there were told. People follow propagandists like Rachael Maddow because they are too dumb to question what she says. The same is true on the other side of the spectrum.
Keep in mind, as you drive down the street: About half the people driving with you have IQs below 100.
Intelligence doesn't have much to do with our current predicament. Some of the "smartest" people I know are full on in support of the Biden regime's plans for us. They are comfortable financially and consider themselves liberals. They just don't care what is going on under the veneer of political correctness.
Agree, well put, except I think they think they do “care.” The real globalist elitists are evil cynics (okay that gets me a couple ranks up on the 'domestic terrorist' list :-) but I think these people just lost their way sometime when they flipped their fourth house, made investments that put small businesses out and paid for their children to chest their way into good schools. Like those people with signs in their front yards that say “In this house no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, science is real, women are in charge of their bodies, black lives matter, white supremacy is the threat” - they “care” in the abstract but god forbid an actual caravan of migrants with Covid showed up at their door or a woman said “if it's my body my choice I refuse this vaccine.” They just morally grandstand to their neighbors so they can feel okay about themselves for one second when they know deep down they are lousy members of any society.
It seems that the majority of people in the U.S. have somehow been conditioned over the years to "mainline" news headlines straight into their belief system without any skepticism or critical thinking. It's frightening that it occurs so frequently nowadays even among otherwise thoughtful people.
Speaking of Biden, can’t wait for that big press conference tomorrow where he fields cold questions from scores of reporters he chooses at random with no cards and no TelePrompTer!
Wait, what?!
LOL! I can't wait for his debate with Putin - live! No teleprompters!
If his effortless crushing of Megyn Kelly is any indication, Putin would absolutely dismember Biden in a debate.
What is happening to Biden IS elder abuse. His handlers have no shame. How long will the US tolerate this sham? It is a continuous embarrassment to watch that senile man being paraded around as a front for the Dems. It is shameful!
That would be elder abuse. Like watching F. V. Emilianenko beating up a computer geek.
Putin will have him for dinner - chilling to see many countries challenging the US.
Thanks for your perceptive reply -- Regrettably, you are absolutely right. However, intelligence does occasionally come into play in basic everyday activities like driving, deciding how to take medication to comply with what's on the prescription label, etc. Sometimes, it can be a negative factor, as when a mathematician gets distracted by his complex inner dialog.
They is some folks that is smart in the classroom, but dumb on the bus.
I know a bunch of them
That last line is gold. Thanks.
Yes. Some of those considered intelligent just have no common sense!
Intelligence and stupidity are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes yes but too often no. Problem is stupidity cannot really be cured as it seems to be some type of missing logic circuit within the brain. You can be considered by all standards pretty smart but if you have that blank spot in the brain you continually put your hand in the fire to determine if it is hot or check for a flat tire when you have a dead battery.
Taxes up on $400 k per family income not on $200 k. I guess they were just too stupid to see it coming.
Good grief...this IQ shit again. The most treacherous folks in the USA are quite “bright”.
A huge number of prominent folks fell into the Russiagate pail.
10% of them have IQ's lower than 83, which is well known by sociologist as the bottom decile and one in which these poor folks are ineligible to enlist in the US Military...at least for now.
And this low IQ does not discriminate.
I know some pretty middle IQ types who are very successful and have an instinct for smelling out B.S. narratives. Most "know what they don't know" un like the hubris driven leftists who know that they know everything without much evidence or reality to back them up, other than what they are told by their betters in the media and academia. These types are in fact the high IQ useful idiots necessary for the destruction of any gov't. Like Hitlers Brown shirts when they are no longer needed, their leaders will be disposed of and they themselves will be discarded into the trash heap of history. It is a pernicious cycle repeated over and over throughout history. Sometimes the higher the IQ k now it all is the easiest to con utilizing the language of Orwellian double speak or academic babble. Since they KNOW the answer there is no reason to "look it up."
I think emotion often trumps intelligence. U.S. society is deeply divided, with many people trapped in an "us against them" mentality. Being part of an identity group that affirms one's worldview provides a powerful and primal sense of security. When this is combined with a constant message that "the other side" is an existential threat, critical thinking is abandoned and loyalty to one's tribe takes control.
One of the groups on locals that I am a part of the leader says that when you see the paradigm it can cause cognitive dissonance. I can see that, you have believe these lies all your life then you realize it and it can be easier to accept the lies, than go through the hard work of seeing the truth. Case in point some people are simply lazy.
You can't use the word "Tr&mp". You are now a fascist.
Amen.
Second amen.
“The only difference between genius and insanity is that genius has its limits.”
An academic colleague made headlines with a paper that compared performance of blacks in the military with performance of blacks in society in general. She and her coauthors found that the blacks in the military fared better. Her conclusion was that the more egalitarian structure of the military erased the disadvantages prevalent in our more racist non-military society. Of course, the fact that the military filters out low IQ people means that the IQ gap between blacks and whites is, on average, probably much lower than in the general population. Of course, mentioning that would end one's academic career.
There was a study where blacks did better (graduation rates, dean’s list, choosing and sticking to a STEM major) in colleges where they matched their SAT scores with the scores of most of the other students. When there is a mismatch in scores, those in the lower ranks seem to never be able to catch up and have not so good outcomes.
While serving there is structure, discipline, no bs. Outside military it's "freedom". So I guess the paper implied that racism was responsible for poor family values, fatherlessness, gang culture etc. Because if those didn't exist in the wild then I'm sure blacks would be doing just as well in all areas as in the military.
so the smaller the iq gap, the less racism? interesting.
The academic colleague saw performance gap differences, and attributed them (without any firm evidence) to a racism gap -- less racism in the Army leading to a smaller performance gap. However, the performance gap differences may be due to iq gap differences. The military has a lower end cutoff, and since blacks generally score 15 or so points lower, more of the low scoring blacks are kept out of the military than are low scoring whites.
Isn't it proof that driving is not really that challenging an activity.
Much of the time, it is not. However, consider the following story. I was driving downhill in a crowded city on a Friday at 3pm. There were 3 lanes in each direction. As I approached a major intersection, the light turned green. I saw that the two left lanes were filled with large vans and trucks, but the right lane was totally clear. I veered into the right lane, wondering, "Why are they so slow off the line." I slowed a bit, figuring somebody to my left might jump the queue. Then something flashed. They are just TOO slow. I slammed on my brakes just as I was about to go through the intersection. WHOOSH, a massive moving van blasted across the intersection no more than 6 feet from the nose of my car. WTF!! Turns out a policeman was controlling the intersection because of a minor fender bender, and was waving traffic through against the red light, unaware that people in the far right cross lane had no idea he was there because the large vehicles were blocking their view.
My flash of intuition, intelligence --- whatever --- saved my life. The vehicles in the left lane were not moving because the cop had his hand up.
BTW, I parked, walked over to the cop, and tried to explain. He cursed at me. I called his headquarters, and told my story to some "captain," who proceeded to put me on speaker phone so everyone could laugh at me.
Just 8 lives left then. You're on a roll. :)
The way I take it you were a bit too smart. If you stayed behind in the parking lane (which is the left lane on most US multi-lanes, especially highways) you'd be fine.
Wisdom comes in many forms, doesn't it!
No kidding! In boot camp they had but one goal they yelled repeatedly: to break you! The idea is you to forget everything you know and they build you back up as a good, order following soldier. And indeed they seemed to resent those of us that asked questions we shouldn’t and got others thinking.
I think it’s beyond “too dumb” to think for themselves. It’sa mindset that was created and perpetrated upon The People on purpose and with the intention of dividing us further. It’s based on fear too. Fear that the lesser evil is all we’ve got left and we’d be folks to lose it. And also it’s about righteousness. NO BODY likes admitting they’re wrong. And for Democrats to see themselves as what they describethe enemy to be is a hard pill to swallow.
Ah, yes, but which half?
1/4 from the middle to each side.
I wonder that everyday why we as a populace have not woken up to the lies that the government, media, big tech and their shills have tried to feed us. I want to scream at the top of my lungs to think for yourself and follow the money and power to anyone that will listen, but sadly most want to continue be sheep and led.
I completely feel you. It’s maddening!
You are right but I have noticed pockets of people waking up to this mess and hypocrisy we are living in.
I think it's a mistake to think that people are "waking up" due to their becoming aware/etc in general. Rather, things around them get worse and so the conditions *force* them to "wake up". They'd happily stay asleep if it wasn't for the pandemic, worsening economic conditions, etc. And they will "become comfortably numb" once things become normal again.
I have noticed this as well and that encouragement keeps me from jumping off the bridge. That and being here with Glenn et al. makes me feel less alone in my thoughts too!
If it wasn’t for the likes of Glen and Jimmy you better move aside on that bridge cause I’m coming through! 😂
I had 2 very "rotund and robust" white SJW's come after me in an airport about 2 years ago screaming at me for being racist after they overhead me saying "Holy Shit" when CNN played a Don Lemone clip on the airport tv. They kept badgering and badgering me down the concourse until I finally had had enough and turned...got back in their face....asked why they were so racist..yelling at them for being fat white racist pigs....and I started yelling for security...these 2 hogs are racist!!!
Look, if you ever find yourself being called out by someone who's woke, the only way to win is to get the left of them and use their own words against them..use their own virtue signalling as your weapon.
Sun Tzu was a wise man. Thankfully SJW's don't read much Sun Tzu.
100% this. Use their own tactics against them. And it's not even hard considering wokesters and racists don't have any difference in their thinking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg
Sorry, SJWs ?
Social Justice Warriors. Aka WOKESTERS.
Thanx - I try to keep up with the acronyms, but they keep coming :)
Ironically, there were much fewer bombs raining down on heads under Trump than any other president in the last 50 years. Trump didn’t start any wars, and at least tried to bring troops back home, although he was largely thwarted by military-industrial complex (or deep state if you prefer). The Trump doctrine seemed to be, as long as no Americans were killed, it would be jawboning and economic sanctions, if Americans were killed he would go kinetic.
Many muslim friends of mine from Middle East are Trump supporters - they consider Trump to be the most muslim friendly President because he didn't bomb their home countries into oblivion or start new wars. I found this quite interesting considering media took Trump's words on radical islam as some sort of muslim hater.
When the "liberal and tolerant" President is getting the support of George Bush, then we are officially living in clown world.
I wish Mitt Romney would turn down this JFK Profiles in Courage award merely being given to him for voting to impeach Trump.
"He's going to put ya'll back in chains!"
Remember Biden calling Romney a monster slave master?
I wish he had more dignity and was more aware of how he's being used.
I guess Candy Crowley picking his pockets, stealing his lunch money and giving him a wedgie in that single debate wasn't humiliating enough for him.
He's intent on doubling down.
👍🤡
Yeah, Trump the dictator warmonger was more peaceful than most US Presidents. And all the good things he tried to do, as a dictator lol, didn’t get done because top R and D officials were already negotiating and didn’t need the elected President’s input.
It's ironic. I moved to the Middle East (the UAE) when Bush II was president, was there the entirety of Obama's administration, and for most of Trump's administration, coming back in his last year, just before the pandemic hit. I find it fascinating how the American media utterly and completely ignored the major peace treaties signed between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain and growing relationships with Saudi. There are now flights between Israel and Abu Dhabi. It's a major breakthrough in regional politics and a harbinger for a more peaceful status quo for the region. Pompeo was very much part of this, and Trump did play a role. Did he get any credit? Nope. Utter silence.
Let's not idealize too much - this was purely transactional. F-35 needed to be sold after Turkey was kicked out of the deal, and the only block was Israel which - plainly visible and obvious - controls much of US policy in ME. To drop that objection, they got recognition by UAE which conveniently also undermines Palestinian position and finances too. Trump "foreign policy" in the last few months was nothing more that being cheap salesman for Israel - Morocco got Western Sahara claim recognition, Sudan drop from the "state sponsor list" for recognizing Israel, it went completely tragicomical when Kosovo (not even a real country but a buffer zone around US base) recognized Israel! Right up to the last hours, we know very well he pardoned the biggest living spy in US history plus an array of other Zionist shady businessmen.
Jared Kusher was a big part of the peace deals too. Saying this as someone who's not even a fan of his but wants to give the man credit where it's due.
Course not! Trump didn’t do anything at all good whatsoever remember?!
Everything orange man did bad.
Though I must say it makes me cringe a little that Israel and Saudi are getting ahead while doing what they’re doing to their neighbors. I’m not greatly informed on the whole thing. Kinda hard to be from where I’m standing here at home if you get my drift. But I find it hard for me to celebrate that. Though I know it could eventually mean something good for the others, I’m not very confident. Again, please forgive my ignorance.
Don't worry - they will both meet their well-deserved fate sooner or later, and it won't be pretty.
Frankly, one can only hope so.
Yeah, and there were the Trump vaccines and the border. It's an ill wind that ...
In fact one of the primary tipoffs to me that I am dealing with someone who has drank the kool aid, is when they get upset if you try to point out anything good, no matter how trivial. In fact, it is a test I use to gauge the possibility of having a rational conversation.
omg I am so glad Trump is not president anymore! Now that Biden is president the media is no longer reporting on politics at all. Can you imagine what it would be like if Trump had won? Everything would be exactly the same except people would be complaining so much more and paying attention to the news. It would be so annoying! I would much rather our country completely falls apart than have to suffer listening to brunch liberals cry for another 4 years in a row. /s
😂😅😅
Again, you're letting the media create the noise that's no different than if you see a massive black cloud 2 blocks away you are going to head over to look.
That's what happened the last 4 years where every single nitpicked thing was a dumpster fire and "Breaking News."
Nobody..and I mean nobody..should allow someone to live rent free in their heads, yet that's what we see has happened the past 4 years.
That was the Establishment aiming their cross-hairs every second of the day on the Anti-Establishment just as the Hatfield's kept a bead on the McCoy s.
You're relieved, but the fact we have a man in the WH now who is quite clearly challenged mentally means all 330,000,000 of us are at risk of having to learn Mandarin.
I'll do my part to prevent that, but it doesn't help the nation by coddling an old codger. Be as brutally honest about the pros/cons of Biden as you were about the cons of Trump.
Otherwise, you're just one of the multitudes in the Intellectually Dishonest Camp.
And when it comes time to meet St. Peter, you don't want to have to explain"but those mean tweets."
See...you're letting the media narrative on Trump pollute your objective reasoned critical thinking.
Look, I despise Trump from a personal standpoint. He's a bloviating fool who happened to jump in front of the Patriotic Populist Parade and declared himself Grand Marshall.
Democrats got him elected. We really didn't have a choice between a turd sandwich in Hillary Clinton and Trump.
But this Populist parade started long before Trump. It even started before the Tea Party after the subprime scam of 2007-2008 when not a single Wall Street icon was arrested, let alone jailed.
To understand Trump, you have to look at the historical successes he's had where he had success.
Building buildings and golf courses and even hockey rinks in Central Park...he was really good at. He was in his swim lane and when he went the Trump licensing route, that's when things got a bit stupid.
He's a builder and he quite literally was a "Get R Done" guy.
I voted for him with great trepidation as he'd gotten more Democrats elected the prior 20 years than nearly any other man in the country. He had no political grounding so we thought for sure he'd sell out the second Pelosi handed him a win-win deal, which she never did.
I've never seen someone so rabid as Pelosi. I know TDS was supposed to be a thing, but she hated Trump more than Pelosi hates Burger King's fries.
I voted for Trump...then ignored Trump. I didn't vote for Obama, then I ignored Obama. Same this year, except this time I'm legitimately worried about the moves Russia, Iran and China are going to take against our interests without us having a cogent response except a 5 minute Teleprompter speech.
Trump wasn't the problem the last 4 years. It was inevitable we were going to get a POpulist President and it just happened to be Trump over Sanders.
2024 will see another Populist following Populist wins in Germany and France.
It might be someone less toxic like a Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo, but Populism isn't dead and Trump only temporarily interfered in this movement.
Look, I'm a 55 year old 1%'er who grew up with 12 kids in a home with cockroach infested powdered milk for breakfast and dumpster diving for dinner most nights, and my father (a disabled union plumber) was the only conservative Democrat in our neighborhood, so for us traditional Republicans to ask the viability in bringing our troops home and increasiing taxes on those making over $5 million a year to expand Medicare.....makes sense to us. What about yoU? What are you will to concede to find common cause with people who supported Trump?
If you can find a way to join your 30% on the left with the 30% on the right, that makes a 60% majority vs. the 40% Establishment.
Where I come from, that's called winner winner chicken dinner.
"You know what the scariest, most painfull part of this all is? The People’s inability to see wtf is really going on, and frightening capacity to turn on one another instead of doing some inteligent, non-bias, processing."
BINGO!
You know what are you Daniela? You are an extremist, and I am going to report you. You are extremist at writing thoughtful and insightful comments and I am reporting your comment to the internet comment hall of fame for consideration in the museum of excellent comments, where it will have a place of honor for the next 1000 years.
You scared me for a second lol.
Thanks, and I’m sorry it needed to be said.
When I saw your comment I was petrified! It was so well said I kept thinking I could never live without my comment by its side. But then, I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong!!!!
(Music note emoji)
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
And so you're back
From outer space
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face
I should have changed that stupid lock, I should have made you leave your key
If I'd known for just one second you'd be back to bother me
<3 <3 <3
Fair enough, but comparison with the average East German under Stasi a more apt comparison
"Stasi" would be a great name for the next big social media company (with free products).
For the time being....
Fair enough. But still, it was terrible and people did know. Some even tried to help. Others got in their cool new buggies and headed to the fancy resorts built for them far enough away at the beach that they could ‘easierly’ ignore reality. After all it didn’t affect them or their family. And that is not the first or last time humans ignored others’ suffering right under their noses. I feel like a good example is the boarder crisis. No matter their opinion on open or closed borders, no American I talk to ever wants to talk about IS committing election interference in other countries, or full on coups. Or American companies suffocating their economy and paying them shit. Or the war on drugs which is nothing but a racket for them AND for us citizens as well.
That’s the kind of ignoring your neighbor’s suffering that will come back to bore us in the ass. Watch!
I agree with the gist of your comments, but I recall reading (long ago) that many Germans during the Nazi era refused to believe those who told them that people were being shipped to concentration camps (mostly in Poland) and killed. They were used to thinking of their country as too civilized to descend into such barbarity. One said that "Such a thing could never happen in the land of Kant." Many believed that Jews and other "undesirables" were only being deported, not slaughtered (which is not, of course, to excuse deportations!).
Perhaps that was in the earlier days. Needless to say, many knowingly went along with the Nazi program without any pangs of conscience. But most of us can only wonder if we would have the courage to sacrifice our lives in openly opposing such horrors, or if we would keep silent in hope that the nightmare would pass.
It is a hard question. One I feel we should all ponder on. And maybe even ask “is anything similar to this in any capacity going on around me right now today?” If there is, what should you do?
I’ve come so far as to ask questions about the obvious bullshit around me. I’ll openly oppose shit, I’m a rebel lol. But I have suffered consequences and they do hurt. I’m stuck at wtf can I do?
Seriously, wtf can I do? Vote?!😅GTFO! Until we have a democracy again a vote means nothing. Those who make them count don’t give a damn about democracy, only winning.
Daniela: I don't have an answer to your question, "What can we do?" I've more or less resigned myself to simply trying to live my own life in accord with the basic moral principles I believe in when interacting with other people. But there are those whose sacrifice bears witness to a deeper commitment to cosmic truths, serving as a reminder to my conscience that I am not doing enough.
You seem young and so it's going to be hard to take but I'd submit there's not much you can do to "change the world". You're one of the few conscious ones and you should be proud of that. Sticking your head out too much will probably hurt you more than benefit others.
Do not take the above the wrong way - I'm not saying "give up". Stay aware and propagate your enlightenment in subtle ways but the world will unfortunately proceed the way it will.
I don’t know if I agree with your comment or disagree. On one hand I agree that those who rock the boat will get cancelled, lose jobs etc. While on other hand, being a coward is exactly how we got to this stage in first place where the 3-4% of actual woke population is ruling over the rest of the spineless sheeps.
I could keep donating, just to find out later it was a waste as they turn out to be corrupt or complicit. I could still write emails and letters and make calls, but to what avail?! Wtf cause or thing we want, serious shit like health care and wage increase not just pacifiers like knocking some statues down, have all those donations and effort accomplished? We get AOCs elected, at high cost, then they do exactly opposite of what we demand.
And you clearly can’t go protesting for your rights lest you be labeled an extremist or worse and good luck to ya!
Maybe I am crazy. I hope I am. But I feel like this pressure cooker needs release. Bad! The People are tired. The world is tired. All these wars. All this insanity. All the innocent dead. It’s enough.
You're not crazy, but you have to step back away from the media noise and find a white board to map this all out.
There are some real Marxists on the Left, then there are Progressive AntiEstablishment Populists.
There are some real Fascists on the right, then there are Patriotic AntiEstablishment Populists.
I spent time in both OWS and Tea Party camps in 2010 and 2011 and found an amazing similarity the genesis of their movements and their desired end game, which was to break up the corrupt relationship between Wall Street and Washington.
I think it's safe to now say we can add Tech and Media Oligarchs to that cabal known as The Establisment.
Their entire being is to protect the status quo. They will destroy anything that threatens their power and trust me when I say this...Bernie Sanders is/was as big a threat to the power of the Establishment as was Donald Trump.
So the Establishment ratches up the noise about how Tucker Carlson hates AOC and how Ilhan Omar hates Ted Cruz. Look...over there >>>>>FIGHT!!!!
This distraction has happened the past 12 years and is intentionally designed to keep the far left and far right firing missiles at each other while the Establishment NeoCons and NeoLiberals send more troops to Syria, more troops to Afghanistan, more jobs to China, etc...
This is why the Capitol has 8' high razor wire around it right now as they write new laws that terminate your rights and mine to be able to express freely our disdain for what these fire breathing heathens are doing to the heart and soul of this country.
End of the day, most Populists want the massive and growing Federal Government to be redistributed to state and local governments.
If you want to have liberal laws in Austin, have at it.
If you want to have a hunting lodge in South Dakota, have at it.
This is a big vast nation with 330,000,000 opinions about what's right and what's wrong. The last thing we need are 535 coddled legislators thinking they can erase our Constitutional Rights while hiding behind a 5000 man army while they stay hunkered in their bunker.
Let go of the DNC just as many on the right have let go of the RNC.
And also..if you are left of center...the biggest change you personally can impact on this dysfunctional system is to gather with your fellow travelers and insist your US Rep mandate the Democrats in the House adopt the same term limit rules as REpublicans have.
AOC should get access to real power to represent her constituents. Republicans don't stand in her way.
Nancy Pelosi and her 80 year old + sycopants do.
Don't vote D/R - doing the same thing over and over and expecting (or even hoping for) different results is the definition of insanity ....
I also should add that the current situation to me feels like the Soviet Union under L.I. Brezhnev. The state still had fearsome powers of repression, but nobody of influence and authority believed in the system anymore, and we cynically playing for themselves, their team or tribe.
Think of COVID as sort of like Chernobyl. Yes, the state was still powerful, but not even the KGB could hide the fact that the leaders were not only cynical and self-serving - they were also incompetent.
I am not a Marxist-Leninist, but V.I. Lenin was in a somewhat similar situation, and he did obtain a certain amount of practical insight in the care and feeding of revolutions.
Thanks for the interesting commentary. I haven't studied the history of Nazi Germany as closely as you have. My previous comment was based on my recollection of a book I read years ago, which was itself based on government archives, contemporary news sources, etc. It seemed to be very objective in its description of the various attitudes of Germans at the time. As I recall, the author was a Jewish woman; I was impressed by her objectivity.
I mean the US, not IS.
"one is dealing, not with the man himself, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like, which have taken hold of him. "
Perfectly describes the WaPo comment sections and the op-eds they are affirming.
Yes, and political echo chambers achieve a kind of psychological resonance effect, amplifying the strength of people's beliefs, as if the strength of evidence for a claim is proportional to the number of people who believe it.
Make a comment they don't like and they swarm like the walking dead and make the same noises.
It kind of reminds me of the low effort shit posting on Reddit comments too. Like you go and read comments even on a non political post and top voted comments are some super low effort often single sentence comments.
Snark haiku rises to
The top like a turd in a
Toiletbowl not flushed.
(sorry)
Good stuff ...
Indeed!
With the AUMF about to be rescinded by Congress, the hydra-like intelligence community spawned during the post-9/11 era needs to find a new justification for its existence.
After all, why do we have a Department of Homeland Security with no threat to the homeland?
Enter the unholy neocon/neoliberal alliance which has coalesced around one simple philosophy: the government should have unlimited power to spy on whomever it pleases. Otherwise, the power of the government might be threatened. Notably, these evil people do not care if that 'threat' is a political one from the nation they purport to represent.
If the 1/6 rioters engaged in conspiracy to sedition and insurrection, so did Antifa and BLM when they declared themselves independent of US law and attacked federal courthouses and federal agents. But because of the lack of political support for the administration in power at the time, the calls for a new internal security state waited until a more politically palatable target appeared for the left-of-center: Trump supporters.
The point of this screed? Mr. Greenwald has more eloquently than me pointed this out: the legacy media is allied with the would-be masters of the internal security state. Don't believe anything these people tell you, and understand that defending your civil rights matters FAR, FAR more than whether or not you hate the opposing political party.
So close, almost there, go abit further and then you can see the actual summer riots as inorganic, tried and true implementation of soft Coup activities sponsored by said organization. George Floyd in particular, one wonders why the full video was only released months after? They are also responsible for the death of news media as we see today, and most likely the actual power behind this doddering, malarkey filled Presidency. This is what they do and now they are doing it here. Dark Winter wasn't a Freudian slip of Biden during the debates, it was a "I'm your Patsy" from the establishment tool.
Most people haven’t even seen the actual body cam video released 2 months after. It completely debunks the narrative they were sold.
Also this video wasn’t even supposed to be released- someone first leaked it to the UK tabloid Dailymail and they released it in full. If that leak hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t even know the truth.
What body cam footage??!!
It’s odd. When a guy like the recent Colorado mass shooter is in the FBI’s crosshairs, they stand back and do nothing. But when a guy dressed like Chewbacca decides to give Congress a piece of his mind with no weapon he is locked down in solitary.
Perhaps someone can explain this to me?
I like how all the media has completely forgotten CHAZ. The mayor even called it “summer of love”.
This is golden.
Do you think the AUMF will actually be rescinded?
Possibly? There are actual conversations which Biden says he agrees with. I know. Hope is not a plan.
Well yeah - Biden has said he actually agrees with a lot of things, until he doesn't ....
Chair Force One
Best comment. moar likes pls.
I don't know about many of you, but I've lost faith in the G-men and women working in the FBI.
We keep hearing after-action reports in many of these mass shootings that the suspect was "known" by the FBI.
While doing nothing to make themselves "well known" to these suspects, a crew of 15 of them hop on down to Talladega to investigate a looped strap handle on a raceway pit garage door that made Bubba Wallace pee his pants.
They falsify FISA warrants and then worse...lie about it when caught.
They coalesce around the other IC to tell us minions that Russia planted that Hunter Biden laptop in the Delaware Repair shop (where they must have forged his signature as well), then tell us the Capitol needs 8' high fencing with razor wire and 5000 Army troops with fully auto weapons to protect the prisoners inside the Capitol Hill Prison (Warden - Nancy Pelosi; Capacity - 535).
Once the G-men lose their ability to know an objective truth and fall away from their true north, it's now them against us...and by us...I mean 70% of the nation.
Feels a lot like the Securitate in Romania during the last 3 years of Ceausescu's regime.
If I hear one more talking head on TV refer to "the 99.9% of the FBI who are hard-working, upstanding, wonderful patriots.." I may throw a book through my TV screen. IF 99.9% of the FBI fit that description, we'd have had a few dozen whistle-blowers during Russiagate. We had none. As for Durham's "investigation," don't hold your breath. The truth is, the vast majority of FBI employees are arrogant jerks.
You would probably be better served in your life if that teevee was destroyed! Oh! Look! There’s that great book I always intended to read!
Don't watch it al all!
My solution as well. I like football and tennis. Otherwise I don't turn the TV on.
I too have lost a tremendous amount of faith in the FBI, and pretty such all federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Their actions that have come to light since 2016 have destroyed my trust, and I think the trust of many others. I look back now and it's hard to see the feds actions in Waco against the Branch Dividians as anything other than murder. Yet they always get away with whatever evil they do.
When you consider that the FBI evolved over decades with the almost explicit goal of collecting dirt on politicians for Hoover. You begin to understand their current rationale better.
Those politicians are right now trying to disarm the law abiding citizens while being surrounded by armed military.
The worst part of the whole Bubba Wallace thing is that Michael Jordan got involved in NASCAR to keep BW fiscally solvent. Rather than him just going all Dick Trickle and let the theory of racecar driver evolution run its course, he gets bankrolled by the GOAT, so he's got a seat at the table until he doesn't want to anymore. The PR of this stinks to high heavens.
My preferred analogy is to the USSR, about the time of Chernobyl. The system appeared monolithic and all-powerful, but the cracks were starting to show.
But....but....supposedly all the National Guard “weapons” have no ammo??
Thank you Glenn - a timely and alarming article. Domestic surveillance is rampant and all encompassing - extensively disclosed by Snowden. HiTech and communication monopolies are already deeply integrated into the US security apparatus.
HiTech monopolies will not likely be broken up any time soon despite recent Congressional report on high priority need to be broken up. The accounting for 5+-years of lying is unravelling and the efforts are now focused to prevent the full disclosure of this scam of the century. Most of us agree that it is very good that Trump defeated himself -- but the involvement of the US security apparatus for five+ years is truly alarming.
By far the highest interest of Biden government and its oligarch cabal is that Russia-gate immense hoax – the scam of the century -- will NOT / will NEVER be exposed. There has been synchronized and choreographed collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now more than five years.
The entire anti-Russian fairytale is a deliberate fabrication -- the worst scam in US history is neoliberals’ Russia-gate hoax -- initiated by Obama/Biden administration. They lost to a TV host and instead of reflection, they latched onto a moronic conspiracy theory -- this includes the completely (proven) false accusations that Russia gave WikiLeaks Hillary's emails (hence the total silence on Assange torture). Assange must be silenced by that psychopaths' logic -- all the plotters/players agree...
There has been collusion between media, Democrat party, Hi-Tech companies and the deep state for now five years. The Russia-gate hoax and Ukraine-impeachment “entertainment” was concocted by Obama/Hillary/Biden/Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jamie Raskin, etc. and their intelligence, HiTech and DNC executives on behalf of their Wall Street and arms industry donors. The lying team is now back in power – note that Kamala Harris (and her sister) and Neera Tanden are Hillary's protégés; Pete Buttigieg was promptly rewarded for his role of election theft in Iowa, etc.
Remember, Clapper, Brennan & Hayden trio were among former 50 intelligence officials stating that Hunter-laptop is classical “Russian disinformation” !?!.
- They were also key promoters of the by now five-year Russia-gate hoax.
- They were also key intelligence executives in Obama/Biden/Hillary government – the government which hunted Snowden (forcing Bolivian plane with Bolivia’s president to land to search it) and armed Al Qaeda (including “white helmets” hoax) and staged all chemical attacks in Syria to remove its government.
When asked about Hunter's corruption laptops - Pelosi brazenly stated "All roads lead to Putin"; commenting on Capitol invasion (called now "armed insurrection" although not a single weapon was discovered) Schumer said - "worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11"...
The lying Russia-gate team is fully back in power working at full speed -- massive censorship and domestic surveillance is mandatory for them to preserve power..
"All roads lead to Putin" - much the same way that an unreconstructed Nazi can always find a way to blame anything he doesn't like on Jews.
No evidence needed. Because Jews.
Pretty much the best summary I’ve read in a long time.
Thank you -- if so it may be worth repeating and disseminating further -- many have still not fully opened their eyes.... ;-))
But remember, there is no Deep State. That's just a QAnon myth.
I'm still half-convinced QAnon was a CIA disinformation campaign, or a huge 4chan troll. Hard to distinguish anymore.
Only half convinced? I'm convinced that 95% of what is presented as news in the MSM is 100% concocted and is planned and managed in great detail: who says what, to whom, when, and how (through what channel)...
Control through access. You don't even need to change MSM journalists minds to control narrative, just limit access to those journalists that uncritically regurgitate unverifiable statements with ideological sympathies. Whether the journalist is aware and complicit is ultimately even irrelevant. Journalist questions motivation? They're no longer on the list. Journalist requests verification? See ya. Journalist outs a source for passing along false or incomplete information? Find a new job, buddy. Self-selection takes care of it all and without a pesky paper trail of quid pro quos, statements of motivation, etc.
Journalists don't exist in MSM. They are nothing but propagandists.
I think it's important to note there's a difference between a member of the media and a journalist.
Glenn Greenwald and John Kass are journalists, unafraid to speak truth to power wherever hypocrisy and/or abuse rears its ugly head.
They are Card Carrying Members of the 4th Estate.
Those talking heads on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and much of what's on Fox? Media.
Mike Royko is rolling in his grave laughing at this array of Media Midges like Jim Acosta and others.
+1 Anonymous Source and Person Familiar with the Administration's Thinking
I prefer my lies from “experts” - that seem to be endless and nameless
😂😂😂
Journalistic ethics should require a statement by the author after every statement regurgitated by an anonymous source whether the source agrees to be outed if the information ends up being untrue or materially misleading.
Bingo!
I'm in favor of demonetizing them, their employers and the companies who sponsor them. Let it be known your money will not flow their way and surmise the reasons why.
Demonitize****
It’s hard to demonize them. People will unknowingly off the boycott continue to buy their news. This needs to be fixed through legislation. Whatever all Bill Clinton did to make lying on the news legal needs to be undone. Everyone a news reporter KNOWINGLY lies, they and their superiors should have to answer for it. Of upon investigation it is found that they knowingly and purposefully lied, they should be criminally prosecuted, fined, and forced to display a “less than truthful” disclaimer across any and all their media and papers.
You’ve seen what is done to a bartender and the bar owner when they let a drunk person drive off and hurt others right? So how come a belligerent liar can get on TVs and cause hurt and danger to the entire country and globe and nothing is done about it? How many wars have they been part of? How many workers and lives have they hurt? How about all the damage to our democracy? Our economy? Our education? OUR HEALTH CARE??!!!!! And the punishment for all that chaos is zero?!!!
QAnon *is* a CIA disinformation campaign. Their - and competing foreign government intelligence agency's - historical use of this tactic is well documented. I'm conservative and fairly active in politics and everyone I come across in that sphere appears perplexed at the myth or is entirely unfamiliar with the term let alone the "theory".
QAnon is led by the QAnon Shaman while BlueAnon is led by the White House, NYT, Academia, and the WaPo.
QAnon is just the old NESARA conspiracy theory, repurposed.
Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. They devour one another, and cannot even digest themselves.--Nietzsche
Love him or hate him, Trump at least removed the curtain to show the lengths the IC will go to engage in domestic politics if they feel threatened, through both its current and former members, utilizing mouthpieces in the media and unverifiable sources that strike with immediate effect but take years to determine the actual veracity. And their response following his deposition is further illuminating.
Not sure Trump did any of that. Rather, by getting elected, Trump so infuriated the alphabet agencies that they did it themselves.
The problem is, they have all of the ammo.
so they're the reason for the current ammo shortage?
the plot thins
Ammo is as rare as hen's teeth but toilet paper is overflowing on the store shelves.
Ah...but a simple roll of lowly toilet paper.. that maybe has been soaked in some flammable substance.. can potentially be turned into "flaming" ammo for those that may be currently well endowed in that particular commodity.
One man's posterior wiper could also end up being another man's weapon of rebellion.
They might not have much in common, but if you ask an old hippy, a rural gun owner, an old black man, a War on Terror vet, and a Muslim immigrant if they trust the US Government, you will surprisingly get the same answer!
LOL. The only people I know who still trust the US Government are the same people who still believe mainstream media is telling them the truth.
84 million of them exist and voted for Biden.
Not sure all 84 million voted for Biden for the same reason-- ie still trust the US Govt
the overlap/convergence between "trust the govt" and "trust the media" and "Biden voter" is quite large IMO
A lot of long dead people voted for Biden. It's easier to trust the media and the govt if you're six feet under.
Think you need to post the Venn Diagram
Remember -- Trump was VERY bad president - totally incompetent.
The human and economic national virus catastrophe should enter the US history as "Trump virus". Many people would vote for my cat just to get rid of Trump and his coterie of religious extremists and grifters...
Donald Trump 'wants FDA to approve oleander plant extract as a drug to cure Covid-19' after it was promoted by Ben Carson and MyPillow founder - despite no proof that it works
• Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson ( my note: the bible idiot – pyramids were built by St. Joseph to store wheat ) and MyPillow boss and ( my note – a deeply repulsive grifter ) Mike Lindell, a big Trump supporter, have urged Trump to look at the botanical extract (oleander oil)
• Meeting arranged by the pair with a director at company developing the product
• Andrew Whitney, of Phoenix Biotechnology, claims he is '100%' sure it's a cure
• But there is no peer-reviewed study to support the claim
• Lindell says that in the meeting, Trump 'basically said the FDA should approve it'
• Senior administration official expressed deep concern that Carson and Lindell were 'pushing a dubious product at the highest levels' during the pandemic
By ROSS IBBETSON -- PUBLISHED: 05:03 EDT, 17 August 2020
The notion that Trump was "totally incompetent" is at odds with the facts. His record on COVID was far better than that of many other world leaders. The silly leprechaun Fauci certainly didn't help,
constantly sending mixed, often incoherent signals and setting bad example on occasion. And, of course, we have our famous New York Emmy Winner as a prime example of how much worse things might have been.
Trump had many excellent ideas, but had some serious weaknesses that set him back. Just for example, in my opinion he was terribly underprepared for the first debate with Biden. Of course, he might have been suffering the effects of COVID at the time. But this doesn't excuse the fact that, when given a couple of minutes to list his accomplishments near the end of the debate, Trump forgot to mention foreign policy! And, of course, he is prone to picking aides who are awful at their jobs. The notion that Obama was a better president than Trump is laughable. Obama was a failure in nearly every area of presidential performance except suit wearing and reading a teleprompter speech with a nice cadence.
No need to argue. The mere fact that he didn't pardon Julian Assange, probably his strongest ally on unmasking the Russia-gate hoax, illustrates my point
PS: pls read carefully and - think: https://youtu.be/4rZx-yi2neU
OK, I've read sufficient number of your posts re Trump = idiot because of covid. Trump was far from perfect but main criticisms against him lie far from the virus one.
Re virus: is the US President King? Can he just order stuff to be done? With his various exploits re alternative treatments (albeit dubious) did he impede the development of the vaccines? Did he put obstacles in front of anyone to do what they wanted to do? If yes, how? If not, then how could he speed it up? Put on the white gown and sit there directing the scientists? Did the world stop waiting for Trump to say "Go" in their search for the cure/vaccine?
Where I do fault him is - he should have learned his history. With his agenda he should have known he's going to be "assassinated" either physically or virtually (the latter succeeded) based on ample evidence from the past. He was not prepared. He flunked.
Trump was an incompetent bully who surrounded himself with incompetents and sycophants. Virus, unfortunately for him, couldn't be bullied.
The US response to pandemic was abysmal failure (550,000 death so far - compare to less than 5,000 deaths in four times larger China) -- a catastrophe compared to almost all other countries - including, I know you wouldn't like to hear that, Cuba, Vietnam, all Asian countries.
We don't need to even mention the continuing brutal psychopath sanctions against population of many countries, including decades long attempts to overthrow legal governments of Syria, Iran and Venezuela. Unfortunately, both DNC and GOP oligarchs continue the same US imperial war policy of terrorism.
PS: pls read carefully and - think: https://youtu.be/4rZx-yi2neU
Well, let’s see. Here are some examples of what I consider unalloyed goods under Trump:
- First, and in my view most importantly, Trump didn’t start any new wars. In contrast, he actually started bringing troops home, and would have brought more home were it not for the institutional resistance of the Pentagon. Contrast that with Biden, who promptly reversed this policy and started adding troops in Syria, following in the footsteps of Obama who bombed the shit out of Syria for eight years.
- Trump the alleged racist promoted and signed legislation providing $250 million annually to HBCUs, as well as the First Step Act, which started to address our mass incarceration problem (which disproportionately affects black people) by providing a pathway to early release for nonviolent offenders and support in reintegrating into society.
- Operation Warp Speed was a smashing success, enabling development of vaccines in record time.
- Speaking of smashing successes, Trump’s calculated aggression smashed ISIS within months, while Obama could do nothing for years.
- In large part due to Trump’s diplomacy, Israel signed peace treaties with multiple Arab states.
And here are some things that I consider positive developments under Trump, though others might disagree and/or may argue are not directly attributable to Trump:
- America became a net energy exporter rather than a net importer for the first time in generations.
- The economy boomed under Trump (at least pre-Covid), with blue collar wages rising faster than white collar wages for the first time in decades. Some will argue that presidents do not directly affect the economy much, but the synchronicity with Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation and tariffs seem to me to be a bit too coincidental to deny him all credit.
- Trump launched the Space Force, correctly recognizing (at least in my view) that space will be the crucial battleground of the future, despite scoffing from the left.
- Trump cut taxes for the vast majority of taxpayers (contra the Democratic lie that Trump’s tax cuts benefited only the wealthy)
- Trump correctly recognized that China and not Russia was our primary geopolitical rival and took steps to counter China both economically and diplomatically, in contrast to Biden who claimed that “a rising China is a positive, positive development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large." and that China was “not competition for us” before finally starting to change his tune early this year.
All in all, I consider this quite a solid record of achievement, especially when you consider that Trump faced an unprecedented opposition that destabilized a number of small-d democratic norms, including targeting his personal lawyer and other associates to try to get them to give up the goods on Trump, encouraging government employees to actively resist the policies of the lawfully elected government of the United States, and of course the big one, the entire Russian collusion lie.
I must admit I’m rapidly becoming aware that I possibly made quite the mistake at the elections. I did not bore for Biden. I’m not THAT off kilter lol. But I’m really starting to feel that I may be one of the overwhelming propaganda against Trump’s victims. And I’m starting to regret not having voted for him. Trump, though I do not like the type of man or business man he is, isn’t in reality wtf they portrayed him to be for the last 6 years. Nor is Russia. There is an attack on our democracy, but it is not coming from Trump... or Russia.
^^^^Here is an example of the convergence^^^^
Or a native American.
“An “extremist” is anyone who opposes the current prevailing ruling class and system for distributing power.”
We are doomed.
It's springtime and the trees of liberty look awfully dead.
No you are not -- this is just institutionalizing what has already been in practice re: intelligence units getting together on domestic " terrorism (sic)"
Indeed!
Thank you once again, Glenn. Basically - from what they say - we're all domestic terrorists except for the media useful idiots who take their “reporting” from what intelligence dictates to them. I voted for Obama but got increasingly concerned over his love of surveillance - I came to realize he makes Nixon look like the poster child for non-paranoia - and joined the quite peaceful and well organized marches against his surveillance policies. Which probably has me down as a domestic terrorist.
If you're not on a list at this point, you're doing America wrong.
Wry smile.
Accurate comment.
He was "pretty good at killing folks" too.
This is a latter step in the process of the US government completely restructuring the country to an authoritarian, centrally planned system, a system more similar to modern China than historic US. Last year began operation warp speed and this is just nails in the coffin.
Too many Americans were are apathetic about their own liberties and enthusiastically lowered their head for the leash over the last year, probably the last chance of reversing this trend. Most of the left is overwhelmingly on board with virtually any expansion of government power, and enough of the rest are on board or ignorant or stupid or just don’t care. Since governments do not ever voluntarily give up power, and Americans can’t surrender their liberties fast enough, there is little reason to see these trends reverse. Looking for waves of opposition but I just don’t see them.
It is a perfectly rational approach for those in power to take more power when they see a population of people willingly submitting to scare tactics. They're just walking up and taking candy from adult-babies who are largely detached from understanding the liberty they are giving up.
It doesn't bode well for the immediate future.
Yes, exactly. Like taking candy. It was easy.
Total coup, restructuring whatever you want to call it, without a single shot fired.
What’s extra unsettling to me is that even if the population at large suddenly came to their senses and demanded back all the things they had given up, the precedent has already been set and the word is already out to anybody looking to expand their authority with no questions asked: it’s easy to scare the shit out of people and they’ll quickly take the baton and scare the shit out each other until they’re completely willing to give up everything and beg authority to make them feel safe again.
I thought more people had learned that lesson post-9/11 not to let themselves be so easily manipulated, but now I feel pretty naïve for ever thinking that.
Glenn, many thanks for sounding the alarm on this growing threat to the future of America.
Given what we have seen in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, the DHS Report of 03/01/2021 is incredibly chilling. A key point of vulnerability is the meaning of the terms "violence" or "DVE" that dominate the DHS document.
The academic establishment, which overwhelmingly supports Biden, and which has surrendered all pretense of objectivity, has already blurred the meaning of "violence," extending the word to encompass any activity it finds intellectually threatening.
This blurring became apparent in the aftermath of the riot of 01/06/2021. This was labeled a "violent insurrection," when of course it was (except for the setting) little more than Fort Lauderdale Spring Break party gone bad until, without warning, a uniformed guard killed Ashli Babbitt.
As I stated for weeks on Powerline Blog, and you carefully documented here, all the most basic information (potentially) contradicting the "violent insurrection" narrative has been withheld. We still don't even know the name of the man who killed Babbitt nearly 3 months ago! We still don't know the results from Sicknick's autopsy. We don't know the dollar value of the damages to the capitol on 01/06, but we can guess that it is less than many a weekend ANTIFA funfest in Portland. Yet DHS is using the "violent insurrection narrative to vastly extend its powers.
What you are now documenting is the near complete takeover of a shadow government in the USA, with the active complicity of a corrupt academic establishment. I could go on for pages, but let's just consider a few obvious changes since Trump was removed.
1. During the first few weeks of the Trump administration, there were dozens of leaks designed to undermine him and his goals. Trump couldn't eat an extra scoop of ice cream, or call a foreign government, without the NY Times getting a full report designed to portray Trump as an ignoramus and a bully. During the first few weeks of the Biden administration, there have been virtually no leaks, even though it is woefully apparent to anyone that Biden actually is an ignoramus and a bully.
2. The academic establishment fully supported many attacks on Trump's mental capacity and morality. For example, Bandy X. Lee published a volume of "long distance" psychiatric analyses of Trump by several academicians that were largely based on hyperbole and political bias. The American Psychiatric Association considers such analyses unethical when presented as professional opinion, yet Lee became a hero in the anti-Trump press, which generally failed to mention that her appointment at Yale was not as a tenure-track professor, while portraying her as a "Yale Professor" in much the same way that they inflated Obama's humble adjunct teaching position into a "Professor of Constitutional Law." For example, Wikipedia describes her as "with Yale University," rather than give her actual title.
Now that Lee has outlived her usefulness, Yale has removed her from her voluntary teaching duties. This has been described as a "firing," and Lee has responded by suing Yale.
It is noteworthy that Lee has not, to my knowledge, ever expressed the slightest public concern about the mental health or fitness of Joe Biden. She's outlived her usefulness.
Many academic "experts" supported various attacks on Trump's veracity. For example, when Trump repeatedly asserted (with good reason) that he was optimistic that a COVID vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020, CNN marshalled numerous experts to declare that this was a joke, an impossibility, and a lie. Interviewed about this a few weeks ago, one of the founders of Moderna and the inventor of the technology that made the vaccine possible declared that those who declared it a joke were apparently unaware of recent developments in the technology. Right. Yet nobody in the liberal media sought to reveal this prior to the election, and there were no leaks of the imminent release of the vaccine either.
Imagine: a pharmaceutical company becomes aware that their vaccine works, meaning billions in potential new revenue --- and keeps the information secret!
Remember: the announcement of one of the vaccines was delayed until after the election. There's no logical reason for that -- only political ones.
Exactly!
US Prosecutor: “Your honor, the defendant clicked the heart button on the article by Mr. Greenwald. This is proof positive that he not only liked the seditious article, but loved it. We recommend the death penalty.”
🙄
This might be the least surprising writing you have made recently Glenn. I’m afraid this genie is long gone from the bottle. We released him almost 20 years ago.
I do appreciate you continuing to talk about it because it is a topic of great importance but I wonder what crime it will take to be perpetrated by our own government against us for the public to finally say enough is enough.
I know so many of the “if you are not doing anything, you have nothing to worry about” crowd that I suspect we have passed the point of no return.
The irony that GG is writing about is how the Patriot Act is now being turned on actual Patriots. Once Pelosi, Schumer, etc. figured out how to turn it on us, they started praising the Bush/Cheney method because by all political accounts, they had more in common with them as Trump ascended into power, than they even thought possible from 2000-2008. They found a nice, snug little loophole that suited their agenda.
And this is exactly what all the libertarians was saying was going to happen back in 2001. At the time we were crazy, unpatriotic, and MAYBE "giving comfort to the enemy."
Weird how all the "loonies" seem to be correct more than the "leaders."
Speaking of The Patriot Act, we are approaching the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
I predict Google will scrub every search to merely say, “Somebody did something.”
Blackpill alert. Frogs don't know the water is getting hot, we aren't frogs and can easily escape the pot. It takes first the will to do so. The 10th monkey remembers.
I always thought it was the hundredth monkey?
Agreed!
"possibly illegal involvement by the intelligence community in U.S. domestic political affairs." There's an understatement. Do they do anything legal? Yesterday we learned that the CO murderer was on the FBI's radar but left free to roam. We are all on the IC's radar because it is easier for them to police the law-abiding and claim that we are "protected" by this, than it is to investigate the real threats.
Also yesterday, we read even more about the CIA chief begging the Yemenis to release "my guy" - Al Alawaki.
How much protection can a country withstand? 17 Intel Agencies and not one of them on our side.
As much as the right wants to paint the picture of Grandpappy Soros as the face of global evil, you have to look at Brennan as the guy every single American should fear. Demonic is an understatement.
Remember - Brennan, Clapper, Hayden, Mueller, etc. -- they are just synonyms for Obama and Biden
I have two experiences in my life where I saw someone I did not know and was overcome with a feeling of ice cold malevolence. The first one was Jerry Sandusky. The second one was John Brennan. Interestingly enough, within a day or two of these experiences I saw news paper articles on the individuals touting their "great humanity".
Wow. From Penn State to the state pen, as the old euphemism goes. I'd love to see Brennan in Florence, CO. When I go to mass and light a candle, that is basically my lone prayer.
and by "seeing", I mean passing within about 6 feet of proximity. For the Brennan episode he was seated on a plane as I passed him in the aisle.
Clearly, evil exists.
Yup always have-- got to have both for balance--
Brennan is damaged goods. You could see him being appointed at Harris' Dick Cheney and then standing on the podium in full uniform like a Generalissimo.
Well both are probably doing similar things, just sayin'.
But Brennan is like the Ed Harris guy in "The Truman Show." He has access to intel Soros could only dream of. I'm sure they both swim in the same monetary backchannels and you're absolutely right to say they are doing similar things - it's just that Brennan has access. Brennan is the inside man.
Yes I agree, Brennan is a dirt bag. Peas in a pod. Birds of a feather...
Its always been there, now it is out in the open they don't have to pretend anymore--its not over...
"Indeed, many of the same House Republicans who wrote this important letter to the DNI have in the past supported laws that allow greater involvement of the CIA, NSA and other agencies in activities on U.S. soil — including the Patriot Act."
While I am more right leaning on most things, I do find it very interesting that Republican politicians are getting a taste of the medicine (poison) they pushed for few decades ago. But it also seems like the Democrat constituents are making the same mistake as Republicans did few decades ago - Democrats are supporting these measures against their political opponents without self awareness that when the pendulum swings back, it will be against them. The "it's okay because my opposing view point is a nazi white supremacist" crowd will be wondering what happened when the pendulum flips back on them.
In fact, the establishment hammer is already falling on the few honest liberals still left - Jimmy Dore is being called inciting violence by AOC for his force the vote thing, his channel is throttled, Hard Lens Media got suspended on YouTube, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Matt Taibbi, Tulsi Gabbard etc are all called russian agents. You want your $2000 you were promised? You want the $15 minimum wage or medicare for all you were promised? You want to stop forever wars or want to hold Wall Street accountable? You want businesses to open up and stop covid fear mongering? You are a sexist for speaking against the first female treasury secretary, racist for speaking against the black DOD secretary, transphobic for speaking against the trans health minister, inciting violence against AOC for "force the vote", poor uneducated deplorable for wanting $15 minimum wage. Oh and Russia!!!
First they came for Alex Jones and Milo, then they came for Tulsi Gabbard and Orange Man. Bernie Sanders supporters got called misogynsts by the establishment. Remember how Pocahantas Warren and establishment media treated Bernie at the debate? Too bad, Bernie took it as a pathetic cuck that he is.
People seem to think it's a linear scale where left vs right falls. I disagree - I think it's a triangle with liberals and conservatives are on two corners fighting each other while the authoritarian establishment consisting of elite politicians, media, corporations, Hollywood etc are sitting and enjoying the fight in the third corner.
I think this is because people believe in the illusion of the two party system. There's no two party. Nor is there a libertarian party. Remember when libertarian party last year was pushing the BLM narrative? The Democrat and Republican parties are mostly the same - one is evil using identity politics to push their establishment agenda while the other is a bunch of incompetent spineless cucks who run away the very moment someone calls them a bigot. Both parties are totally okay now a days with feeding the war machine, spying on Americans etc.
I wish that instead of wasting 4 years on stupid russiagate nonsense and impeachment harassment, media and liberals spent time demanding pardons for Assange Snowden etc. The biggest disappointment from Trump was him not pardoning the very victims of the things he talked about - deep state, spying, free speech, forever wars etc. It felt like a slap to my face honestly when the pardons didn't come. I honestly wonder if the deep state threatened him with something. We know McConnell did threaten him with a successful impeachment if he did but I wish Trump had grown the balls and just done it.
With that said, I do wonder if this change in the political party ideology is what made Trump switch from being a Democrat until late 2000s into a Republican.
Btw, when I refer to Democrat/Republican/Libertarian - I am talking about the politicians - not the constituents. A lot of constituents don't like what their politicians are doing. Right now it seems like more right leaning don't like their republican politicians vs left leaning not liking the democrat politicians - but I could be mistaken on this. I just don't see enough left leaning push back against the Democrats.
Until this pendulum swinging continues without any self reflection, I think we are going in circles and the establishment cronies will continue winning.
Thanks, that's absolutely superb. Trump, unfortunately, came apart at the end. Just for example, he *could* have easily inoculated himself against the 01/06 narrative by stating, at the very beginning of his speech, that under no circumstances should his followers do ANYTHING approaching a riot. He simply failed to anticipate the number of people arrayed against him. And, as you suggest, there were a lot of Republicans who were happy to tamp down the earth on Trump's political grave. Half the conservatives over at Powerline and National Review were practically joyous at their anticipated return to power.
I share your deep disappointment that Trump couldn't take a step backward and realize he'd been checkmated, then (a) issue those pardons, and (b) take a more statesmanlike stance.
The whole capitol thing was a nothing burger imo. The only reason we are talking about it is because media and politicians made it out as such a big deal. A 3 time veteran got shot and killed because of - wait - we don't even know anything about it because she must be a nazi. 2 years ago, the anti-kavanaugh protestors did the exact same thing to the Senate chambers - they even bragged about it on twitter and Pelosi was actively encouraging it. And we all saw what happened for 8 months last year. One simply cannot convince me anything which happened at the capitol was remotely anything to be mad about based on past.
The capitol breach was so bad that 4 hours later, all the politicians came back and finished their "votes" in the chambers? Gimme a break.
Also Trump shouldn't have to state anything in his speech. Again - past behavior from Democrats has been actually bad and nobody asked them to tone down their speech. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Also I watched it all go down live. Trump was speaking and on stage till 1:15PM. Capitol was breached at 12:53PM. It is nearly 1.5mi from the Ellipse to the Capitol, at least 30-40 min walk. Anyone who claimed his speech was inciting anything at the Capitol is hiding the truth that the Capitol was breached 23 minutes before Trump's speech ended and 40 minute walk away.
Saying this as someone who's not a fan of his as I have already described in my previous comment.
I thought both impeachment trials were a bit of a farce, however I would have impeached him for his handling of Covid - "depraved indifference toward human life"
US death numbers are not an outlier once you consider
1. The US population is on average over 30lb overweight compared to the rest of the world with significant comorbidities (In the United States, 36.5 percent of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight. In all, more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese),
2. has very old population similar to Italy,
3. has tons of tourism during winter
4. New York was been found to be the origin of virus variant for majority of the US states - something Cuomo played a big role in.
5. Canada has a population density of 4 people per square kilometer and population of 1/10th of US. US has a population density 36 per Km2. US also has the third-highest population in the world.
What could Trump have done differently to make the situation better? Asking this as a Canadian who's also not a fan of Trump (not pardoning Assange, Snowden, Bump stock ban etc).
Only thing I guess Trump could have done differently is told people to take this opportunity to get healthy and start working out, losing weight and eating healthy. But that would be called fatphobia in today's "big & beautiful" world.
With obesity and vitamin D deficiency being two MAJOR factors in outcomes, you have to wonder what would have happened if government had "mandated" an hour-long walk in the sunshine on days it was possible.
But but but Cuomo told me that would KILL MY GRANDMA!!!!!
Well, considering that Taiwan has a MUCH lower case and death rate, though being right across the channel from the mainland - what did they do, from the start - ramp up the production and availability of masks - pretty simple, while Trump was running around denigrating and mocking them - he could have invoked the DPA and cranked PPE out like crazy. And he continually, in public, downplayed the seriousness of the virus - "no worse than the flu", even as he himself had to be helicoptered to the hospital, got supplemental oxygen, and all the available Rx, none of which, save the O2, was available to the public - he modeled all the worst behavior one could engage in with regard to the spread of the pandemic, even as he apparently told Woodward that this was a nasty disease indeed early on - we were "exceptional" all right in having the highest number of cases and deaths ... in a country that supposedly has the "best" healthcare in the world.
I think his handling of, or failing to handle, the Covid outbreak cost him re-election - the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal apparently thought he could make a deal with the virus ....
Nice MSNPC talking points you got there. One does not have to be a fan of Trump to still admit that there's not anything he could have done differently other than asking people to stop eating too much, start exercising, losing weight and get sunlight.
Taiwan - a nation with tourism of 10 million vs USA which gets tourists in billions. Taiwan a nation with bodyweight 40lb lighter and thus less co-morbidities than USA. Comparing them is asinine.
There's been not a single death because of lack of ventilators or PPE or hospital beds. So I don't know what you are talking about. In fact the temporary hospitals orange man built for New York along with the hospital ship he sent to New York didn't even get used because genius governor Cuomo sent the patients into nursing homes and then lied about the numbers because he didn't want Orange Hitler's DOJ to find out. Even the Democrat governors like Newsom, Cuomo, Murphy etc said that there was not a single request which Trump didn't help them on. Then these same governors would go on political narraitves during election and change their tune.
First Cuomo and every democrat complained about lack of ventilators. Then when Trump gave them as many ventilators as they wanted, the Doctors came back saying putting patients on ventilators is pretty much a guaranteed death because it destroys the lungs.
And he wasn't wrong about "no worse than the flu". The fatality rate is very much the same. 99%+ survival rate if you’re under 70... 99.9% if you’re young and healthy. Lock it all down for everyone. Destroy the economy. Act irrational. Go panic buy toilet paper.
As for masks, do you blame him considering Lord Fauci himself lied about them first? Do you blame Trump for flip flopping considering the Lord Fauci, who everyone loves so much, flip flopped on them?
Plus masks haven't done anything to help.
When Nevada’s Governor mandated masks on June 24, 2020, he said that “when at least 80% of a population adopts universal masking, it results in a substantial reduction in infection”. Carnegie Mellon estimated over 94% in NV are wearing masks and yet cases are up ~540% since the mandate in June 24. Whoops! We need 110% compliance. Only then will cases go down!
https://gov.nv.gov/News/Press/2020/Gov__Sisolak_announces_mandatory_face_covering_policy_in_public/
https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2020/october/covidcast-mask-use.html
California also had the highest % of mask wearers compliance with 90% compliance according to the same CMU study and yet was the highest cases.
https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2020/october/covidcast-mask-use.html
As we don't even need to get into the utopia that is New York and their mask numbers.
As of July 2020...masking in public was almost 80% in the US (and has remained so...since). Which is the same 80% as Canada.
Entire scientific community agreed before COVID that non-fitted non-N95 masks do not work on influenze like viruses. They admitted they neither work for the person wearing, nor for those around them. In fact, they said cloth masks make it worse because they become a breeding ground for bacteria. Then somehow magically, everyone flipped the script when orange man came into power. Here's proof:
-------
https://www.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
> Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids (36). There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.
> We did not consider the use of respirators in the community. Respirators are tight-fitting masks that can protect the wearer from fine particles (37) and should provide better protection against influenza virus exposures when properly worn because of higher filtration efficiency. However, respirators, such as N95 and P2 masks, work best when they are fit-tested, and these masks will be in limited supply during the next pandemic. These specialist devices should be reserved for use in healthcare settings or in special subpopulations such as immunocompromised persons in the community, first responders, and those performing other critical community functions, as supplies permit.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/
> Penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97% and medical masks 44%. This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally. However, as a precautionary measure, cloth masks should not be recommended for HCWs, particularly in high-risk situations, and guidelines need to be updated.
> Facemask use does not prevent clinical or laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3349234
Also the eyes are an more likely entry point:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.09.086165v1.full
> Conclusions: Together, these results indicate that ocular surface cells including conjunctiva are susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, and could therefore serve as a portal of entry as well as a reservoir for person-to-person transmission of this virus. This highlights the importance of safety practices including face masks and ocular contact precautions in preventing the spread of COVID-19 disease.
-------
If you believe that China, India and Russia is giving you the right number of cases, then you have bought into the propaganda too well for me to bother changing your mind.
I also find it super interesting that the same people who spent like 4 years calling Orange man a hitler, fascist, dictator etc want him to instantly act as an authoritarian by forcing unconstitutional mask mandates on everyone, nationalize entire industries and force shut down everyone. The irnoy is laughable.
The fact is, anyone who's making childish comments like "the guy who wrote The Art of the Deal apparently thought he could make a deal with the virus ...." cannot be convinced with any data because they seem to prefer getting their information from watching late night comedy instead.
Do you think Orange Hitler is more to be blamed for the deaths in New York or Cuomo? If you blame Orange Hitler for the deaths of 400K, do you also praise him for saving 23,132,879 who recovered so far? And the vaccine too? And shutting down travel despite being called racist and xenophobic by every talking head? Do you think Trump should have done more while also letting the Democrats do mass protests entire year? Or does that not contribute to COVID?
Nice Foxnews talking points you got there!
Flu - hmmm, somehow I missed the 500,000 deaths from flu last year - shucks, where was I - lets see, collecting multiple studies on masks - the materials that proved considerably effective, when worn properly (also paid attention to how folks were wearing them - good grief!) When you have to quote a study on Hajj pilgrims to "make" your point, forgive my rolling my eyes .. I hope you tell your docs to not wear masks so they won't "infect" you
I argued for months that that if we had spent more on masks, we wouldn't have needed the ventilators -
The only "late night comedy" I watch is the comments such as yours I find on-line..
Where did you ever see me calling Trump "orange Hitler" or a fascist? Where did you ever see me defending Cuomo?
In addition to spreading a lot of bunk, you are barking up the wrong tree thinking I am an MSNBC fan, or a D - I am an equal opportunity critic - where I see BS, I call it ...
As for who "saved" all those folks - it was the medical workers, at least 3000 who have died in the attempt to fulfill their oath - which is something Trump should have done ... I am a retired medical professional, familiar with the need for PPE
As for "mandates" - hmm, we have gov't regulations for all sorts of public health reasons - and he could have modeled that behavior -
As for the vaccines - yup, operation Warp Speed - good for him - are you getting one?
Thanks. I’m sure you are right about their counterreaction. However, following my suggestion would have made their bias more evident and their salesmanship more difficult.
Anyone who's watched his speech knows already that media is lying. Plus it couldn't have contributed to what happened at Capitol considering he was speaking 40 min walk away and 20 minute AFTER the capitol was breached.
Anyone who's willing to do due diligence honestly knows he's not to be blamed.
Going in circles - yup! We the people are like ducks swimming in any increasingly polluted pond with 2 sets of hunters, one at each end, each promising to protect us from the other - so we swim to one end - and get shot, then we swim to the other end - and get shot, then we swim back again, and again ad nauseum, while at the end of the day the hunters put down their guns, shake hands, and go off together to have a beer - and a duck dinner. Meanwhile there is a clean pond upstream that we could swim to, but we don't ... too much trouble, harder to paddle there. ... So, sorry, as long as we the people insist on making the easier choices - we will have nothing to show for it except more and more lead in our butts ...
So spot on!
Americans can thank Harry Truman and Democrats in Congress after World War II for the implementation of these agencies. The CIA and NSA were created by the National Security Act of 1947 - which also established the DOD and the United States Air Force - as a means of expeditiously obtaining intelligence rather than depending on the War and Navy Departments' intelligence agencies. It created new bureaucracies instead, each with its own agenda. Incidentally, although the NSA is thought of as a "spy" organization, its actual role is security by SPYING ON US GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS to ensure that they don't pass on classified information through conversations and messages. I was in the Air Force in the 1960s and 1970s and it was common knowledge that telephone lines on military bases were monitored to protect classified information. There were signs on the wall above the phones in our squadron in Okinawa advising that the lines were monitored. The CIA was charged with collecting "intelligence," which is a euphemism for information, pertaining to foreign government although its Special Activities Division was established to start wars and otherwise disrupt governments the US didn't like. As for protecting against violence, Americans forget that the United States came about because of a violent overthrow of the legitimate government of the British monarchy. (Granted, the rebels won only because France came to their aid.) In fact, the Founders - after resistance to the Constitution by the anti-Federalists led by Patrick Henry - provided for the violent overthrow of the Federal government in the event it became tyrannical by the inclusion of the Second Amendment in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Progressives try to link the amendment to the National Guard but the National Guard didn't come into being until the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and the militia referred to in the amendment was every able-bodied man in the country with the intent being the means to resist tyrannical government.
"The Second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn't work out"
~ Dave Chappelle
Sam McGowan, you wrote, "In fact, the Founders - after resistance to the Constitution by the anti-Federalists led by Patrick Henry - provided for the violent overthrow of the Federal government in the event it became tyrannical by the inclusion of the Second Amendment in the first ten amendments to the Constitution."
Oh, good gravy, that is patently ridiculous. A government does not give "authority" (constitutional, or otherwise) to those trying to overthrow it, especially through armed/violent revolution.
"[T]he tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
~ Thomas Jefferson
Why, whatever do you suppose he could have meant with this?
Jefferson also wrote:
“Happy for us, that when we find our constitutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can assemble with all the coolness of philosophers and set it to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend or to restore their constitutions.”
Why, whatever do you suppose he could have meant with this?
Why, perhaps that peaceful measures should be exhausted before shedding the blood of patriots and tyrants?
"It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government."
~Thomas Paine
Very simple in that "the people" should always have the means to resist and/defy the gov't if necessary. The necessary part is left to the people to decide. Once the means to resist is crushed the deciding part is irrelevant.
Elections can in fact be revolutionary actions by citizens and have in fact changed the face of the nation many times over the decades without resort to armed insurrection. Once elections are negated by fraud, political operatives, restrictive laws and cheating the "armed insurrection" part can't be too far behind. Political operatives and election "fixers" are the true domestic terrorists yet the alphabet soup agencies ignore them in favor of the likes of Roger Stone and the anyone else the established political order determines is a threat to their position and power.
Congress must start reigning in and re-thinking this entire aspect of national security before the Jan 6th riot starts to look like the first shot at Bunker Hill in tomorrow's history books. That riot was mostly based on the idea that the election was being stolen right under the noses of the American public. Probably not but the media and others sure went to great lengths to "explain" the evidence that Biden gathered more votes than Obama or any other candidate in history despite his uninspired and insipid campaign where crowds of single digits (mostly media) milled about at is few and far between public appearances. The sudden mass flocking to the polls and mailed in ballots seemed as false as old Joe's defense of Hunter's business activities.