Syria And The DNC Hack - How Beliefs Turn Into Dangerous Policies
Two examples came up today of people who seem to cope easily with contradicting beliefs.
A well known pro-Syrian rebels dude posted these two tweets within 15 minutes of each other:
6:31 AM - 27 Jul 2016 - Hasan Sari Verified account @HasanSari7300,000+ civilians in E. Aleppo (40klm) under bombardment & will be starving in 2 weeks as Castillo road cut. Bad.
6:44 AM - 27 Jul 2016- Hasan Sari Verified account @HasanSari7Out of 300k residents in Eastern Aleppo 30-40k remained there.
300,000 people are under bombardment in an area where - says the same person - only 30,000 people remain.
The 30,000 number is about correct. In March 2015 Martin Chulov of the Guardian visited east Aleppo and estimated that some 40,000 were still living there. He has since re-confirmed that 2015 observation but the number it must have shrunk since. There has been no running water there for a long time and no electricity. Only fighters and their immediate families are left in east-Aleppo. The current estimate is some 5,000 fighters and 20-25,000 civilians. They have, according to multiple sources, food and medical supplies for about three month.
The area is completely closed off though people on foot can leave through checkpoints. The Syrian government sent SMS to invite everyone in the area, civilians and fighters, to get out without trouble. This is all well known to "western" journalists but will not hinder them to daily offer dozens of harrowing accounts of the 300,000 starving children in east-Aleppo and the 286 hospitals that just now were bombed to rubble.
Here is another example of contradicting beliefs in the news. NBCnews headlines: Why Experts Are Sure Russia Hacked the DNC Emails.
Many U.S. officials and cyber security experts in and out of government are convinced that state-sponsored Russian hackers are the ones who stole 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee and leaked them to the public just in time to disrupt the Democrats' national convention in Philadelphia. Here's why the experts are so confident the Russians did it:[... innuendo and marketing talk from cyber snakeoil dealers ...]
Then follows this paragraph:
Like other cyber-experts, however, [retired four-star Adm. James] Stavridis said definitively proving such connections is virtually impossible. "I don't know the answer to that and I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that except for a few individuals in the Kremlin."
So experts are "sure", says the piece, while the quoted expert and his colleagues say there is no way to be sure. How does that compute?
It may be plausible that Russian and other governments' services have sniffed off the DNC email servers. It would have been a regular part of their their job. The U.S. does the same and more, says former Bush administration lawyer Jack Goldsmith. But there is no evidence at all, as in zero, that some Russian government service did so. There is no evidence at all that some Russian directly or indirectly gave the hacked DNC emails to Wikileaks. The alleged proof does not make sense. The culprits could be anyone with the relevant resources.
The case is probably like the Sony hack which the U.S. government and Sony stitched to North Korea while the real experts said it was an insider attack.
But the media has orders to promote Clinton for president and to damn Trump, as well as Putin, wherever it can. Thus Trump is Putin and Putin personally hacked the DNC email servers. What DNC or Clinton crimes were documented in those emails is not of interest and does not matter at all.
For believers in their mission, be it damning the Syrian president Assad or promoting Hillary for U.S. president, any contradiction only confirms their faith.
This is hard to swallow for observers outside of such faith. One can smile and accept such contradictions as funny phenomena. But they can be dangerous when they build upon each other and create their own reality:
Every time a claim of attribution is made — right or wrong — it becomes part of a permanent record; an un-verifiable provenance that is built upon by the next security researcher or startup who wants to grab a headline, and by the one after him, and the one after her. The most sensational of those claims are almost assured of international media attention, and if they align with U.S. policy interests, they rapidly move from unverified theory to fact.
For hawks it will follow from such facts that one has to bomb Russia. This for a harmless, routine hack Russia has likely nothing to do with. Or that Assad must be assassinated and the Syrian people deliver to Jihadis because of some fake number.
This is why such contradictions must be dragged into the light and exposed as the nonsense they are.
Posted by b on July 27, 2016 at 18:47 UTC | Permalink
The Big Lies promoted by the DNC are essentially the same as those promoted by the Outlaw US Empire. It's alarming that out of our citizenry, those professing to be D Party members say their trust in the Propaganda System is at 56%. Fortunately, only 24% of the citizenry say they're registered Ds, a % that's likely lower now.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 27 2016 19:03 utc | 2
Usually, the only thing that stops mass- and self-delusion (and the attending propaganda) on this scale is the massive intervention of reality. I worry that many casualties will ensue.
Trump apparently said in his press conference that the US should cooperate to with Russia to destroy ISIS. The panic created in DC by this man must be incredible.
Posted by: NoOneYouKnow | Jul 27 2016 19:04 utc | 3
ELECTION 2016
Trump Calls for Russia’s Help to Expose Emails Clinton Deleted
By ASHLEY PARKER 11:44 AM ET (NYT)
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Donald J. Trump said, referring to messages deemed personal by Hillary Clinton and deleted from her private email server.
===
As life exceeds satire, one can imagine that within a week Wikileaks will produce those "missing e-mails". And later Hillary's Wall Street speeches, following the next appeal from Trump.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 27 2016 19:29 utc | 4
PB @ 4, confirming some earlier analysis that trump is playing the media for suckers over HRC's hysteria. "Trump calls on Kremlin to commit acts of espionage against Hillary Clinton." omg.
Posted by: jason | Jul 27 2016 19:37 utc | 5
There is just not enough of Orville Redenbacher's popcorn to last to the end of this crazy 2016 . I think if Putin came out personally and said that he did it the world would cheer . yet for some reason Russia needs to be vilified ...Thanks for the work you do b ...
Posted by: Terry | Jul 27 2016 19:45 utc | 6
Here are some real experts on this and check comments there is a former server coder writing this up.
Posted by: jo6pac | Jul 27 2016 19:46 utc | 7
Terry at 6 here is your request.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/07/exclusive-interview-putin-dnc-emails-russia-love.html
A little humor for the day;)
Posted by: jo6pac | Jul 27 2016 19:50 utc | 8
What cracks me up about the idea that the Russians were behind the DNC hack is that Putin has little to fear from the accusation. It would probably help him politically at home and seriously, what are we going to do about it? Go to war? More sanctions? Denounce Russia in the UN?
He's probably having a good laugh over the whole thing.
Posted by: ian | Jul 27 2016 19:54 utc | 9
3, they cannot afford to have the truth about ISIS revealed. They need the next president to continue their lies. It is terrifying.
Posted by: Ondine | Jul 27 2016 20:03 utc | 10
Pat Buchanan provides some interesting thoughts on the subject, "Will Putin Get a Pulitzer?" http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/will-putin-get-a-pulitzer/
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 27 2016 20:10 utc | 11
Here are a couple of links to techie stories about the issue. They each have links and educational comments. How deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/27/evidence_russians_hacked_dems_email/
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/07/russian_hack_of.html
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 27 2016 20:12 utc | 12
Assange Timed WikiLeaks Release of Democratic Emails to Harm Hillary Clinton
The New York Times
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
5 hrs ago
WASHINGTON — Six weeks before the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks published an archive of hacked Democratic National Committee emails ahead of the Democratic convention, the organization’s founder, Julian Assange, foreshadowed the release — and made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency.
Mr. Assange’s remarks in a June 12 interview underscored that for all the drama of the
Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 27 2016 20:58 utc | 13
AmeriKKKa!!! Bullshit you can believe in!!?
(And they wonder why they've never won a War against ppl who can shoot back?)
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 27 2016 21:01 utc | 14
Bush lawyer Jack Goldsmith: Yet More Thoughts on the DNC Hack: Attribution and Precedent
Essentially: "Even if Russia did the hack and leaked that information (no evidence)- so what? We have done and do the same all the time in other countries. Just doesn't feel as good when you are at the receiving end."
Thanks, b - a very acute analysis. It reminds me of the warning of false narrative the "Merlin" sponsors were peddling which Control warned George Smiley about in Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy":
"They're buying their way in with false money, George."
Posted by: Cortes | Jul 27 2016 21:41 utc | 16
It's like 9/11. What do you desperately want to believe? What are you desperately afraid to admit?
Trump made light of the charges with 'hope the Russians find the 30,000 missing emails' crack, but his vp immediately made a show of taking the claim seriously ... he looks to be the mole set up by the RNC to take down Trump.
No amount of 'debunking' of the DNC's assertions will affect the beliefs of those who want to believe, who are afraid to admit that they are going to vote for the corporate whore who mocks them with her pathetic ruses. The corporate media have suffered irreparable damage to their credibility over the past decade, at least.
The D-N-Cee,
the men-a-ger-ie,
they're not for you,
and they're not for me!
They're runnin' in circles,
around the tree.
When they turn to butter, let's make pancakes. I'm so hungry I could eat one hundred and sixty-nine! Breakfast for us indigenes.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 27 2016 21:44 utc | 17
What is scary about this campaign is that the anti-Russian hysteria is being incorporated by Hillary supporters. By the time she is elected there will be many millions of Democrats crying for war against Russia. The last time a Democrat ran to the right of the Republican in a presidential election was the Kennedy-Nixon race. That resulted in Kennedy entering office and believing his own bs. He then very quickly carried out the Bay of Pigs fiasco but much worse the near start of WWIII during the Cuban missile crisis.
Hillary is definitely stupid enough to listen to her neocon advisers and, fueled with self righteous Russian hatred, get us involved in some shooting war with them in Syria, Ukraine or the Baltic region. Very dangerous times ahead I fear. This why I am moving closer and closer to voting for Trump rather than a third party.
Posted by: ToivoS | Jul 27 2016 22:15 utc | 18
Well, REVOLUTION anyone?
Sure, it will be bloody. The oligarchs NEVER give up gracefully. (Well, they kinda/sorta did under one of their own with the new deal.) Sadly, we could lose. But ...
I live in a town dependent on a near by air farce base. I'm not sure those folks will follow orders to turn on their own. But, they might ... for the very same set of reasons they are in the air farce to begin with.
Maybe, just maybe, buying a pitchfork (or it's 21st century equivalent) is a good idea?
Anarchy is better than the democrats under Clinton.
Care to object to my analysis? I'm up to it. Question is: are you? Really?
Again, thanks B ... appreciate you.
Posted by: rg the lg | Jul 27 2016 22:16 utc | 19
Credit to Julian Assange for having guts. If Clinton should win it's foreseeable that a major effort to regime-change Ecuador will ensue so they can get him booted from the London embassy straight into a CIA jet.
Posted by: jayc | Jul 27 2016 22:17 utc | 20
Putin knows the zionists hate him,and Trump.I don't believe he would release this stuff.just because of the anti Russian BS the MSD would stir,which wo proof, they are anyway.
I read it was Guccifer?somewhere,a Russian? blogger.
This will all backfire,as the American people have been had too many times by the serial liars.
What if this came from GB,say?What would be the reaction then?
And why is Russia,who has never done a thing to US,in history,an enemy,when the Zionists spy,bribe and control our whole nation,nakedly,shamelessly,but there is the ol'crickets only, chirping in the weeds?
Yahoo to Putin;Hey,you are cutting in on our action.
Posted by: dahoit | Jul 27 2016 22:37 utc | 21
@18 Toivo S
Trump as the lessor of two evils. Everyday in every way ... Who'd'a thunk it?
Posted by: jfl | Jul 27 2016 22:38 utc | 22
WaPo comment sections are full of people who seem to be true believers in the ideology of the new Cold War. Or maybe they only say that because they're being paid to do so. Hard to believe so many people could be so stupid.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 27 2016 22:40 utc | 23
I was thinking the other day that Putin should send a squad of angry babushkas after the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits running the DNC. Evidently this is already in the works.
#UKRAINE—UA police released warning that the "#HolyCross Procession includes violent grandmas who provoke Ukrainian youth to beat them up."
https://mobile.twitter.com/gbazov/status/758426948309651456
Posted by: hejiminy cricket | Jul 27 2016 22:51 utc | 24
@15 b
Great observation. Cuts to the chase, to bedrock reality. We are the Evil Empire that Ronald Reagan ranted about. Have been since the Dulles Boys' coup.
Still I agree with yours and with Toivo S' point just above. Trump is beginning to look like the lessor of two evils. And we Americans are proven suckers for that line of 'reasoning'. The champion poll forecaster now 'shows Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton with a shocking 15 percentage point-greater chance of winning if the general election were held today.'.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 27 2016 23:06 utc | 25
@ jfl
Before the Dulles Boy's coup there was the changing of the motto in the 1950's from E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one) to In Gawd We Trust.
Before that in 1913 the Fed was created with the 12 regional banks owned privately.
Has the City of London and that empire ever died?
Has the City of Rome corner of the global financial system ever been made clear?
The basic tenets of the Western way are private ownership of property enhanced by rampant inheritance at the top and private finance owned and operated by historical families and others unknown. It is sad to me when commenter here and other places rail on about bankers and corporations and not the global cabal that own them all.
Why can't humanity evolve beyond private finance to totally sovereign finance and, at a minimum, neuter inheritance laws globally so that none can accumulate enough to control social policy? Private finance is a cancer humanity can no loner afford.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 27 2016 23:31 utc | 26
TYPOS
journalists but will no hinder them --- should read
journalists but will not hinder them
***
contradicting believes in --- should read
contradicting beliefs in OR PERHAPS
contradicting assertions in
***
But the media has order to -- should read
But the media has orders to
Damn my lack of proof reading abilities!
need plural commenters
longer instead of loner
Others????
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 27 2016 23:33 utc | 28
@27
Just as the DNC attempts to transform the story of Hillary's betrayals into one about the Russians are coming so too you attempt to transforms b's substantive posting(s) here into typography. My apologies if you are not a troll but a bona fide anal retentive and unable to control yourself.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 28 2016 0:24 utc | 29
Saw an oval blue sticker on a car today. It read in white letters 'Hillary For Prison.'
Posted by: ALberto | Jul 28 2016 0:31 utc | 30
Wikileaks release voicemail from dnc calling for preventing sanders from winning primary..two options, trial by water or fire
Posted by: hejiminy cricket | Jul 28 2016 0:46 utc | 31
@29 I believe Ronald's intentions are to attract readers to his blog. Something tells me he is wasting his time here.
Posted by: dh | Jul 28 2016 0:56 utc | 32
By the way, consider hypothetically that there are 300 thousands civilians in Eastern Aleppo. What would USA do in such a situation? In 21st century it did happen, and one can read sufficient details in Wikipedia under "1st and 2nd Battle of Fallujah". In succession, set the siege, pulverize 25% of the city, relent because of civilian losses but keep the siege in the form of a ring of checkpoints and encourage the population to leave. Once the population drops by 80% make a decisive attack with "free fire zone" rules.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 28 2016 2:05 utc | 34
More examples from our recent history. In 2006 Israel; "responds decisively" the the loss of two soldiers who were on Lebanese territory under Israeli occupation (Israel claims that this is Syrian territory and thus the occupation is legit). A swath of Lebanon was pulverized or covered with bomblets from cluster bombs and the usual disloyal elements were kvetching about civilian losses and "lack of proportionality". And we learned (at least those of us who are intellectually inclined and follow the appropriate explanations) that the concept of "proportionality" is totally bogus, because of we would treat it seriously than a stronger side could never engage in hostilities with a weaker side as anything it does would be called disproportional. This would allow the weaklings to do sh...t with impunity and we cannot have that. Additionally, rather than artificial dichotomy of "military personnel/civilians" one has to inspect the "degree of civilianality" of the putative civilians.
Personally, I thought I understood it, but short time later there was a war between Russia and Georgia that started from death of Russian soldiers on a spot that Georgia deemed Georgian and Russia deemed to be independent and protected by Russian peacemakers, and the American President, in an official speech, deplored the "violation of the principle of proportionality". I got totally confused, and I must admit, I did not recover.
Another example: would any serious state snoop on communication of foreign leaders and their staff? Could one imagine United States taping, say, Angela Merkel? Well, why we budget billions on so called "signal intelligence", if our boys at NSA did not do any of that, they would be wasting taxpayer money. So the distinction that we need to make is not hacking or not hacking but (according to NYT) making the result public or not. A civilized country uses the result for blackmail or other types of discrete advantage. Or would any civilized state used hacking for the purpose of industrial sabotage?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 28 2016 2:32 utc | 35
17
"... he (Pence) looks to be the mole set up by the RNC to take down Trump."
Not at all. Pence wasn't the only VP candidate, and staff within another VP candidate's office revealed that the Trump people promised 'full control over US domestic and foreign policy'.
When asked what Trump would be doing if his VP was running government, the Trump staffer said, 'He has other priorities.'
"... he (Pence) looks to be the mole set up by the Chosen to take down America." Fixed it for you.
A mob boss like Trump would never soil his hands. A mob boss only needs nod. That's what his gumbah Pence is for. Trump will be busy lolling by the poolside at his New Trump Macau casino.
Posted by: WilhemO | Jul 28 2016 3:08 utc | 36
25
And the Champion Poll reveals that John Cena will crush The Rock at WWE Raw this weekend, lol.
You need a higher level of reading material....
Posted by: WilhemO | Jul 28 2016 3:11 utc | 37
This may or may not be related to the DNC email hacks - A fortnight or so ago, a Seth Rich, who had worked at the DNC for two years in the IT department as the voter expansion data director, was killed on his way home in Washington DC. Shot twice in the back the police told his mother Mary Rich that it was a possible robbery. She was quoted by an NBC Channel 4 report saying: "There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything." Watch, wallet, cellphone were still in his possession
It may be random or another in the long line of suspicious deaths that dog the Clintons, especially after the suppression/altering of Democratic voter rolls in NYC & in other states.
Posted by: kiwicris | Jul 28 2016 3:29 utc | 38
Panetta looked really serious when he accused Russia to have hacked the DNC emails to propup the "Russian" candidate, Trump. If this is what the CIA thinks, no wonder they are screwing up anywhere they go
Trump will come up bigger and stronger from the DNC convention where he was the center of all speeches. It does show how worried the democrats are that Hillary Clinton's chances are weaker by the day.
Trump's reaction was sarcastic: "Maybe Russia or some other country should help Hillary find her emails!"
Posted by: virgile | Jul 28 2016 3:33 utc | 39
my first instinct was that the blame Putin defense for the DNC email leak was simply a distraction. with the server in Hillary's home during her State job, she showed both incompetence and blatant disregard for security. i remember reading the original Guccifer leaks years ago, and she was communicating in open text across the internet with people holding AOL email accounts. AOL is the original training wheels of the internet, that some old timers seem still unable to escape. so she was incompetent there. grossly incompetent. that the DNC got hacked, and the buck stops at Hillary, would only remind people that she is incompetent wrt security. Blaming a state like Russia, not some autist in his basement, raises the bar to a well-funded professional, removing the stigma of failure.
but watching a Trump press conference today, it was obvious that several reporters were sent out with marching orders to tie Trump to Putin. as if Russia were still some bogeyman in the psyche of Americans. perhaps it is with those elders unable to remove the shackles of AOL. but a bunch of geriatrics from the greatest generation are not going to win this for Hillary. and Hillary is unlikely to be able to explain to everyone younger why in the world we should be at war, rather than engaging with Russia.
Posted by: cahaba | Jul 28 2016 7:29 utc | 41
virgile
Scary indeed, and they absolutely believe it, the hate and paranoia for Russia is just another proof how mass propaganda work today and it does work very well, people are actually buying this bs.
Posted by: Rebel1 | Jul 28 2016 7:30 utc | 42
Russia, Syria, Ukraine and the New Cold War
By Stephen F. Cohen
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45191.htm#st_refDomain=&st_refQuery=
Posted by: okie farmer | Jul 28 2016 7:54 utc | 43
MSM/TPTB hates Trump and that hate grows.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-russia/493298/
Posted by: From The Hague | Jul 28 2016 8:08 utc | 44
@44 Good catch. WaPo piece is an obvious intelligence cover/setup for an apparent November widespread lame-scream media operation attempting to discredit the election results if Trump wins.
Of course the voting machines can be hacked, just as the HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy" shows, but rather not remotely.
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 8:32 utc | 45
@kiwi 38 Of course it was not random, see "clinton body count".
UN official linked to Clinton corruption 'accidentally' kills himself days before testimony
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 8:39 utc | 46
230 ALberto 'Hillary For Prison.' signs been popular for long already
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 8:45 utc | 47
@23 lysias
MIC government contractors and connected entites (e.g. in finance) with their families want more imperial wars (at least that's info I'm getting from the US on personal basis), so do not be surprised to see such comments.
They need to maintain they standards of living (remember Reagan's propaganda about the "American way of life" from the 80s "so coveted by the rest of the world"?) at the expense of "the losers" in other parts of the world.
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 8:57 utc | 48
@18 Toivo
Hitlary has been doing what she's been told as a politician, there is no choice involved here.
It's not an excuse for her, just a consequence of her earlier career choices.
Her masters have obviously a lot of dirt on her, it's a gang policy for every top puppet they make and break.
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 9:06 utc | 49
@21 dahoit Isn't that curious?
Hacker ‘Guccifer’: Chicago And Unnamed Pennsylvania City To Be Nuked In 2015
That claim about the Pennsylvania city also being targeted is a new development in the story. I blogged back on November 11:The recently-apprehended hacker known as “Guccifer” (Marcel-Lehel Lazar, an unemployed 43-year-old Romanian) is in the news today for something he told The New York Times while meeting with them. Andrew Higgins reported on the Times website yesterday:
Before agreeing to answer questions from The New York Times in prison, where he shares a cell with four others, including two convicted murderers, he read out a lengthy handwritten statement that he said explained the purpose of his hacking.
A potpourri of conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the 1997 death of Princess Diana and alleged plans for a nuclear attack in Chicago in 2015, it said: “This world is run by a group of conspirators called the Council of Illuminati, very rich people, noble families, bankers and industrialists from the 19th and 20th century.”
BTW U.S. Civil War: The US-Russian Alliance that Saved the Union
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 9:20 utc | 50
Robert Parry destroys Nytimes propaganda-war.
Will NYT Retract Latest Anti-Russian ‘Fraud’?
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/07/22/will-nyt-retract-latest-anti-russian-fraud/
Posted by: Rebel1 | Jul 28 2016 9:22 utc | 51
I stopped watching Faux News years ago because of their blatant hypocrisy, lies, war mongering but I've just come across this: Leaking Ship - Wikileaks Released 20,000 Hacked DNC Emails - Fox & Friends
And the only conclusion I could make after having watched this clip is that FN supports Hitlary! So obvious, yet so incredible...
And this is funny:
Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets
Posted by: ProPeace | Jul 28 2016 9:36 utc | 52
@72 rebel, '...the hate and paranoia for Russia is just another proof how mass propaganda work today and it does work very well, people are actually buying this bs.'
Maybe the people you're likely to see on the corporate media are. Not the people who were chanting 'no more war' at Panetta.
Can the DNC/Bernie double-cross have blown up in their faces? Have they pissed off and alienated the people they waited for the Good Shepherd to bring to their corral? I think so.
And 'The Russians are coming!' [1] is not going to play with Trump's thumpers. You need a critical mass for mass hysteria, and surely they're trying to work for just that right now, but if you have a sizeable core, the majority of the population that doesn't buy it ... you end up looking like just what you are.
'The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Really! We mean it! The real Russians are coming, and they're ten feet tall really!'
Scares the actors in the film. Is a comedy to the folks in the theatre.
Tying their 'panic' so transparently to the desperate needs of their collapsing campaign not only flops, it turns the spotlight on their own desperation and collapse.
The fact that they are now trivializing the very real death, devastation, and destruction that they are causing, all around the world, is not lost on the folks. No more war! No more war! No more war!
[1] The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966), "It's A Plot!... to make the world die laughing!!"
Posted by: jfl | Jul 28 2016 10:05 utc | 53
@53 jfl
Jan 20, 2017 Donald is coming
Jan 20, 2017 Hillary is coming
No difference?
Posted by: From The Hague | Jul 28 2016 10:11 utc | 54
ProPeace@46 & @ 52
Yeah - well aware of the list. Goes back to Mena from memory, if not before hand.
Good catch of the Russian ships . . .the incompetence is mind boggling
jfl@53
It's got so ridiculous that I feel a fast approaching "the Emperor has no clothes" moment striking a significant proportion of the masses. The (((MSM))) may be sailing to their Waterloo as they have certainly done their share of shark jumping the last few days !!
Posted by: kiwicris | Jul 28 2016 11:20 utc | 55
The attempted demonization of Trump would be incomplete without the obligatory reference to Hitler.
The Secret of Identity Politics - Israel Shamir
http://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-secret-of-identity-politics/
The problem is that the Jews have much more than just their votes at their disposal. One of their mighty tools is the Google, their joint venture with the CIA. This works overtime and offers twenty million hits for “Trump Hitler”, seven times more than the Bing search engine. Google’s search function delivers results related to Donald Trump when users search for Adolf Hitler. The search “When was Hitler born?” generated not only the expected information on Hitler, but also a Donald Trump image and link. Jewish-owned media produces much anti-Trump trash.
Meanwhile over at Facebook;
Facebook admits it blocked links to DNC email leaks after censorship accusations
https://www.rt.com/news/353340-facebook-blocked-wikileaks-dnc/
Facebook has confirmed without reason that it temporarily blocked links to the WikiLeaks files of leaked internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails
Social engineering is entering a new phase as the thought police start flexing their muscles.
Posted by: pantaraxia | Jul 28 2016 11:23 utc | 56
@jfl 53
"..Can the DNC/Bernie double-cross have blown up in their faces? Have they pissed off and alienated the people they waited for the Good Shepherd to bring to their corral? I think so. ..."
We can only speculate. There are a lot of pissed Bernistas out there, some of whom have very loudly jumped onto the Trump Train.
A clue maybe be found here. Assange: 'Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment. Some people may have egg on their faces,”
If I were to wager, I would say this was a Copy>Attach>Send by a disgruntles dem, not a hack as such.
Come on Hill, cold war is over baby. Dems already using attack as defence with a deflecting smear. But they are too rotten. The nature of the leak should last for a while.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jul 28 2016 13:11 utc | 57
This was not a "mistake"
Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets
While retired Adm. John Nathman, a former commander of Fleet Forces Command, honored vets as America's best, the ships from the Russian Federation Navy were arrayed like sentinels on the big screen above.These were the very Soviet-era combatants that Nathman and Cold Warriors like him had once squared off against.
@56 pantaraxia, 'Social engineering is entering a new phase as the thought police start flexing their muscles.'
Next time you have a couple of hours to kill, have a gander at the DIVISION N—CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2015. During the 'omnibus' session at the end of the congress they passed the bill, which grants Google, Facebook, Twitter, and the bunch all immunity from prosecution for turning in the goods on the people responsible for the email/postings/phone conversations/whatever that their analytic software might label as 'suspicious'. Facebook and Twitter claimed to oppose the bill, as I remember. Google was silent. People said that Google wrote it. Seems to fit Eric Schmidt's profile. Silicon valley is a nest of snakes.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 28 2016 14:55 utc | 59
@54 fth, 'Jan 20, 2017 Donald is coming. Jan 20, 2017 Hillary is coming, No difference?'
The difference will be just as you see now: smoke, mirrors, the clash of cymbals, the boom of big drums.
The same people will pull the strings. The wars will continue. The wars will spread and intensify. The rich will get richer and the poor, poorer.
That's my assessment. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll only ever know in the one case and not the other.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 28 2016 15:01 utc | 60
Not for jfl, but for the people with their eyes and ears open:
Killary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8rLjfse39Q
Trump: https://grabien.com/file.php?id=60049
Posted by: From The Hague | Jul 28 2016 15:35 utc | 61
It doesn't make a lot of sense for 300,000 to remain in East Aleppo today when the LA Times reported two years ago that two-thirds of the population of the entire city had already fled. 300K is probably the UN estimate for the entire city, and some news articles are reporting it as such.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-c1-syria-aleppo-mood-20140411-m-story.html
"More than two-thirds of the city's population is estimated to have fled north either to Turkey or, for those not allowed passage into the country, along its border in ramshackle refugee tents. Certain suburbs have also seen a large exodus.
As one Aleppo resident said of the city, "There are fighters, activists and shop owners. No one else is left."
Some neighborhoods of Aleppo have only one or two families left."
Posted by: Les | Jul 28 2016 20:22 utc | 62
@dahoit no. 21
"Putin knows the zionists hate him,and Trump."
The zionists may or may not hate Trump, but it appears that Netanyahu and Putin get along just fine.
Posted by: sleepy | Jul 28 2016 20:31 utc | 63
b, Good catch of the dishonest, distorted reporting we get (suffer from) these days.
I found what claims to be a source of unbiased news from Syria. And their Aleppo quantity?
As 2 more districts fall to regime, noose tightens around east Aleppo’s 300,000 residents
http://syriadirect.org/news/as-2-more-districts-fall-to-regime-noose-tightens-around-east-aleppo%E2%80%99s-300000-residents/
so much for that source .....
Posted by: Curtis | Jul 28 2016 20:33 utc | 64
Part of the story is that Trump is a creep. This is his tweets according to "The Intercept":
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama's college records (destroyed?) and check "place of birth"
6:06 AM - 6 Sep 2014
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
ObamaCare is a disaster and Snowden is a spy who should be executed-but if it and he could reveal Obama's records,I might become a major fan
6:48 PM - 30 Oct 2013
It is true that Trump on occasion says something sensible, and for that he is attacked by our "internationalists" and liked by many people who comment here. Would it make sense for me to tweet "Jeffrey Dammer had appalling eating habits and for that he should be executed, but if he included Donald Trump in the content of his refrigerator, I might become a major fan." If you believe that Snowden should be executed, you should not contemplate being a fan, and if you do not, than it is disgusting to pretend that you do for the sake of a joke. And the whole issue of Obama birth certificate was enormously bogus, an insult to intelligence and exploitation of the feeblemindedness.
And look how Trump balanced his lucid statements about Russia:
Newsweek, May 3rd, 2016Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has vowed to shoot down Russian jets approaching U.S. military assets should the Kremlin reject calls to stop.
Trump, who declared himself the “presumptive nominee” of the Republican party after another round of sweeping primary victories last week, was speaking to BuzzFeed radio show K File on Sunday, ahead of campaigning in Indiana.
He was asked about the recent swathe of incidents involving Russian military aircraft zooming at high speeds past U.S. navy vessels in European waters. The latest incident occurred when a Russian Su-27 plane did a barrel roll over a U.S. ship in the Baltic Sea last week.
[Journalists of Newsweek confused the alleged military asset "under the barrel", which was a military plane, not a ship. The point is that Trump would verbally "start WWIII" for the sake of sounding manly and decisive.]
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 29 2016 12:28 utc | 65
A clarification of my own thoughts about "barrel incidents": I would use the words of a Russian song "oi-sya, oi-sya, do not fear me, I will not bump you, do not be afraid". To understand the context, go to 4:30 on this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXydImOEIC4
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 29 2016 12:35 utc | 66
@66 pb
Thanks for the video. Great singing, not to mention the costumes. I don't know if you can sing like that without the costumes. Glad the sword didn't get away from the man handling it. I suppose that's the point. A line in Dmitry Orlov's book, The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors' Toolkit, caught my eye ...
The mischief they [terrorists] sow in turn finds an easy mark in the United States: terrorist attacks, which are mere pinpricks unable to truly hurt a mighty military empire, offend against the Americans’ sense of infantile omnipotence and send them into an equally infantile rage. This is quite different from, say, the Russian reaction to terrorist attacks, which is, typically, “They can’t kill us all.” The American reaction is to kill Moslems indiscriminately, and this only makes matters worse.
... the two countries are on very different pages of the same book, but only one seems to know that. The other, in its 'infantile omnipotence', doesn't seem to see a need to know anything. It thinks it's the rest of the world that's going to learn its lesson.
Posted by: jfl | Jul 29 2016 22:53 utc | 67
The comments to this entry are closed.
The West is 'indispensable and exceptional' and doesn't need to be logical or rational.
The West is ruled by a bi-partisan oligarchic sociopathic elite.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Jul 27 2016 18:57 utc | 1