Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
January 07, 2017

Intelligence Report On Russian Election Influence Is A Flop

Yesterday the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the NSA and the FBI released a report about alleged Russian hacking of the Democratic National Council and on Russian influence operation on the U.S. presidential election. The report failed to convince anyone. It is indeed a public relation disaster for the Intelligence Community.

John Harwood covers "the economy and national politics for CNBC and the New York Times." More then 100,000 people follow him on Twitter. He is known as Hillary Clinton supporter and chummy with John Podesta who ran Clinton's election campaign.

Harwood set up a simple poll. It is not statistically representative but gives a picture of a general sentiment.

This result surely shows the limits of power of the so-called Intelligence Community. But it is worse: yesterday's "Russian hacking" claims failed to convince even its most ardent and anti-Russian supporters.

Daily Beast: U.S. Spy Report Blames Putin for Hacks, But Doesn’t Back It Up

Kevin Rothrock (Moscow Times):

I cannot believe my eyes. Is this really part of the US government's intelligence case?

I'll say it: the declassified USG report "Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections" is an embarrassment.

Susan Hennessey (Lawfare, Brookings):

The unclassified report is underwhelming at best. There is essentially no new information for those who have been paying attention.

Bill Neely (NBCNews):

Lots of key judgements but not many key facts & no open proof in US Intell. report into alleged Russian hacking.

Stephen Hayes (Weekly Standard):

The intel report on Russia is little more than a collection of assertions. Understand protecting sources/methods, but it's weak.

Julia Ioffe (The Atlantic):

It's hard to tell if the thinness of the #hacking report is because the proof is qualified, or because the proof doesn't exist.

@JeffreyGoldberg Have to say, though, I'm hearing from a lot of Russia watchers who are very skeptical of the report. None like Putin/Trump.

When you lost even Julia Ioffe on your anti-Russian issue ...

Clapper as DNI and Brennan as CIA chief should have been fired years ago. They will both be gone by January 20. The Intelligence Community will remember them as the chief-authors of this devastating failure.

Posted by b on January 7, 2017 at 13:50 UTC | Permalink

Comments
next page »

Thanks, b, for this morning's post. Some relief, finally.

Posted by: Glorious Bach | Jan 7 2017 14:09 utc | 1

Good news in dire times.

B - regarding your yesterday post comment section. Please do not led antisemitic slur go uncommented. It could be misunderstood. Every right wing israeli will use it for his / her purposes.

Posted by: Pnyx | Jan 7 2017 14:15 utc | 2

Disaster or not, majority of western populations believe in these propaganda-campaigning and politicians will act on it as it is something "factual". 13 days and this nightmare will be over? I hope so very much for the benefit of world peace TBH.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 14:15 utc | 3

Check out Trump's twitter feed. Twitter is manually pushing negative comments about Trump to the top on virtually every recent post.

Posted by: [email protected] | Jan 7 2017 14:15 utc | 4

As PavewayIV originally posted &advised, many of the comments and replies re his twitter poll are outstanding, some extraordinarily funny, none of it at all what he expected ... he's mentioned dozens of times in the Wikileaks DNC emails ... total suborned scum. Highly recommend following the link: Harwood set up a simple poll.

Re-assuring the average joe are becoming 'aware', now that things have been so heavily overcooked.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 7 2017 14:17 utc | 5

I couldn't help but take a look at the report, it was both painful reading and amusing at the same time.

They listed specific examples of RT saying bad things about the US on topics such as drone use, police brutality, and bad things Clinton had done.

You can read similar stuff in the NYT, the Guardian, CNN and Fox. I don't see them claiming that NYT journalists are working with Putin to get Trump elected by exposing Clinton's dealings with Uranium One.

Personally I think RT is quite tame compared to many alternative sites. If you read between the lines you can glean more information out of the western mainstream outlets too, using their own contradictions against their arguments as b often does here.

Posted by: Bob | Jan 7 2017 14:19 utc | 6

The worlds greatest democracy, the rule of law, rules based order bla bla. Or corrupt, debauched empire imploding?

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 7 2017 14:22 utc | 7

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 7 2017 14:25 utc | 8

I would urge everyone here following #4's comment: "Check out Trump's twitter feed."

The hate by liberals against Trump is real disgusting, heinous. And they say Trump spread hatered?!

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 14:29 utc | 9

McStain continues his treasonous life....


http://journal-neo.org/2017/01/07/john-mccain-caught-red-handed-planting-landmines-in-georgia/

Posted by: pubumwei | Jan 7 2017 14:29 utc | 10

For whatever reason i don't read RT that often, but whenever the IC or whomever is slamming them I immediately navigate on over to see what all the fuss is about. Within that vein, pro-porn-or-not led me to a couple new sites that I now check regularly. Not sure how a discredited authority like the US gov/IC doesn't understand that pointing out their critics simply gives those entities much needed publicity.

I know a few people who voted for Trump because they felt that if the powers that be hated him so much that he must be doing something right.

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Jan 7 2017 14:30 utc | 11

The Trail of VP Alperovitch @CrowdStrike

Posted by: Oui | Jan 7 2017 14:37 utc | 12

It would appear we have actually become, in reality, a caricature of the USSR we so aggressively painted starting from the '50's, through McCarthy ... ever onwards & upwards, to today.

Clearly our own NYT et al, are no longer popularly seriously considered or taken as being, Pravda(Truth!).

Hm, we no longer trust, believe or have confidence or faith in our government, our media nor our Intelligence services ... how déjà vu.

Are we reaching towards critical mass, are we now beginning to go through what the Soviets did, 1985-1991 ?

Are we past due for our own USofA version of Glasnost & Perestroika ?

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 7 2017 14:44 utc | 13

Hey, you can't forget the part where they revealed the evil plot to stop fracking and the ridiculous claims on RT that America could be imperialist

Bob- You're totally right, I came into this all [meaning the whole escalation beginning around 2009] trying to be even in my sources, listening to both east and west, but really what was more damaging for any ambivalence I may have had was watching the MSM consistently take a path of total narrative washing in direct contradiction to any facts they may accidentally let slip in their trash 'articles'

Posted by: Skuzzy | Jan 7 2017 14:59 utc | 14

I've struggled to understand the dilemma of "has it always been this bad, or is it just now bad." Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" points definitively toward the former. It's a bear to read, but it was released in 1988 and the examples of complicity on the part of major media outlets with the US gov narrative were disturbingly familiar, especially as it pertains to using the Soviets/Russians as a convenient foil. The book would suggest that the mechanisms have not changed, just that the amplitude is dialed up and down as needed. The two things I look for now are how the NYT's sets the bookends of the allowable discourse, and strategic omissions. For example, how intelligence for the Iraq war is repeatedly referred to as exaggerated, rather than outright fraudulent. "Oops" is very different than "war crime."

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Jan 7 2017 15:13 utc | 15

Think of the ...unintended consequences, exposing RT like this! Kinda like the WaPo's exposure of the 200 fake news sites! Free advertisement!

Posted by: Trixie from Dixie | Jan 7 2017 15:17 utc | 16

Meanwhile the lame duck keep making angry noise:

Obama: Putin is not our friend
http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/01/07/505210/US-Presidential-hack-Russia

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 15:26 utc | 17

pubumwei @10

from the article:

"Another thing is his key role in installing the puppet regime in power in Kiev as part of a larger ploy to divvy up what is left of Ukraine and sell it off to the highest bidders"

A number of the large machine plants Kharkov have been dismantled, without the workers being informed why, and the key components, casting moulds, etc, shipped west, presumably to other factories eg Smila in Cherkasy oblast. The sites of these historic factories (making T-34s in WW II) are now wastelands. It is reminiscent of the takfiris stripping machines from factories in Aleppo.

https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/mikle1.livejournal.com/6942123.html

Posted by: Yonatan | Jan 7 2017 15:44 utc | 18

The other day I mentioned a Russian-only Anna News video about the White Helmets with new evidence from recently liberated Aleppo. Someone has provided (at times rudimentary) English subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iy39AnTkBU

It has a content warning requiring a sign-in. That can be sidestepped by using the NSFW link

http://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=8iy39AnTkBU

Posted by: Yonatan | Jan 7 2017 15:50 utc | 19

One dead giveaway about the quality of the supposed intelligence report is that no one, not even a pure polirtical operative, is prepared to put their name to it. A security professional putting their name to such dreck would be laughed out of the industry.

Posted by: Yonatan | Jan 7 2017 15:54 utc | 20

Yonathan

Yeah. I have read the report and I dont get it, I was eagerly reading through looking for a bombshell but the report is like a simple description of RT itself, like they copy and pasted from Wikipedia. Just look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)

I guess this is how deception is done today by the media and deep-state. Frame something hysterical and hope it sticks.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 16:03 utc | 21

We have definitive proof, but we can't show it to you because it would reveal the sources." That is the same line we heard regarding WMDs in Iraq in the lead up to war in 2003. I also have a hard time believing that they cannot reveal the "fake news" released by the Russians, because we might learn where that fake news was published and only they know where that was. If it was published in secret publications that only the government read, how did it affect the election?

I am not ashamed to be an American, but I certainly am embarrassed to be one.

Posted by: Bill H | Jan 7 2017 16:07 utc | 22

13, Outraged: "Are we past due for our own USofA version of Glasnost & Perestroika?"

"Perestroika" literally means "Rebuilding". Did not you see the slogan "Rebuilding America" recently?

Posted by: sasha | Jan 7 2017 16:24 utc | 23

All this hype about Russkies ‘hacking’ the US elections if total BS. No need to flog a dead horse, b. It is rotting by now. Game-Ooverr. Finis.

What we see: the Dems being ‘sore loosers’ and blaming their ‘enemy du jour’ or rather their main target after being infiltrated by various anti-Russia factions (see Ukraine and Syria..) and trying to point to an ‘outside enemy’: the oldest, worn-out, trope in the book. It does serve, as directed to the ignorant base, without consequence as the top ppl know. (Bruit about other crap and the sheeples will follow.) The victorious opponent, Trump, is a Russia groupie, etc.

At another level, it also speaks to awareness of the fact that DNC leakers (see Assange) etc. were internal traitors, which of couse can’t be admitted unless these are shown to be, and even that is difficult to do, ‘weirdos, psycopathic bad apples’ and are outed, punished in a publically acceptable way. Which didn’t happen, nothing like that took place, as basically that scenario would reveal that corrupt, in the sense of only “in” for power and financial gain, adherence, was the norm. (The murder of Seth Rich is perhaps indicative, but I’m wary of all that.)

Plus: Russia probably has the entire contents of Weiner’s laptop and knows exactly what pertains. Painting Russia as ‘hackers’ and promulgating ‘fake news’, and upping agression towards Russia (weak, symbolic sanctions, sending extra troops to Baltics and the like) is thus a pre-emptive, protective move, aimed at threatening Russia should it make any revelations. A kind of warning. A cat and mouse game. Putin is not fooled.

Posted by: Noirette | Jan 7 2017 17:01 utc | 24

This so-called Russian hacking intel is looking more and more like the Bush/Cheney casus belli for the invasion of Iraq: iow - I don't want exculpatory evidence; make it up if you have to!

I don't for one minute believe, however, that Trump's CIA will be any more reliable or truthful; this is shit the AngloZionist empire pulls all the time and Trump has his own Zionist agenda to fulfill and he and his admin will also resort to half-baked intel and false flag to get it done. Trump is far from transparent, has fudged facts and lied repeatedly, so I don't trust him as far as I can spit. I'm confident both shoes will drop and he will be exposed for the con artist he really is pulling off the biggest con job of all time; bamboozling a mass of millions just as Obama did; but with a different angle.

My question is: What will Trump's CIA and NSA fabricate as a casus belli for ripping up the Iran deal; imposing sanctions that constitute financial tyranny and an act of war against Iran and very likely against China; and finally cooking up an excuse to attack and plunder Iran?

I will never trust the empire no matter which Zio-puppet rules on behalf of the two-party monopoly and the deep state masters of war and deception.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 17:30 utc | 25

TRUMP'S INTEL PICK: Retired US senator was a vocal critic of Russia

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/07/trump-to-nominate-former-sen-coats-for-national-intelligence-director.html

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 17:37 utc | 26

This is wonderful news, b and it most certainly proves Lincoln was correct - if we wait long enough, if we CAN wait long enough, all of the people will become un-fooled.

Merry Russian Orthodox Christmas to all, even the trolls - for on the previous thread such excellent posts were mounted in response to the tomfoolery that I am very glad I have now the habit of returning to previous posts and checking what might have happened there. The quality,additional information, etc. just cannot be ignored.

I would definitely link the move to federate election apparatus control to the push to implicate Russia as interfering in the electoral process, and I would link that entire plan to the preliminary quest to involve Russia in a confrontation over Ukraine. We saw Russia baiting in that instance, clear provocation to which Russia did not respond, that it should invade in order for Nato troops to have a provocation for war.

I would even go so far as to wonder about the revelations of Five Eyes surveillance as itself a similar provocation to Russia to snoop on the US elections, which Russia wisely did not do - so it had to be fabricated, with Russia's forbearance at least delaying the issue long enough for that not to have happened sooner.

It's too late now, thankfully. But don't you think they would have, had they felt they had sufficiently propagandized the population, done this before the election and so locked everything into place for Hillary to waltz in her inaugural gown the night of January 20th?

I know: I'm slow. Most of you know this stuff already. Thank you all, and especially b.

Posted by: juliania | Jan 7 2017 17:39 utc | 27

Thanks for update & insights. I don't own a tv but at gym today several different stations had screaming headlines re the Roooskies hacked the election. Tuned into NPR to listen to their bs propaganda. Of course in very serious tones we rubes were admired that dastardly Vlad had hacked the 'lection to get Trump in.

My Q: let's suppose Putin did that (he didn't). So what? It doesn't conclusively prove that the hacked emails actually threw the election to Trump. I can see no way that can be proved. Also so what? Because unless the CIA can prove collusion with Trump, how is Trump responsible?

Boy are Dems sore losers & they make themselves look totally stupid. That said a huge percentage of US citizens will buy this rubbish bc they've been trained to believe Unca Sam's horse shit.

Posted by: RUKidding | Jan 7 2017 17:58 utc | 28

It would appear we have actually become, in reality, a caricature of the USSR we so aggressively painted starting from the '50's, through McCarthy ... ever onwards & upwards, to today. .. Outraged @ 13.


The difference is that in the ex-USSR satellites most (?) ppl did not trust their MSM or Gvmt. pronoucements, or even paid attention to local potentates pontificating. They raged against ‘the PTB - Gvmt..’ (somewhat similarly to Libertarians in the US today) and believed not a jot, nothing, of what was announced by MSM papers, TV, radio. In this way they kept their own ‘freedom’ - they were cynics trying to survive. The few who supported the ‘Kommunists’ readily admitted that sucking up to power was necessary for survival, no secret. In many cases they were just ‘faking’ that adherence, and everyone knew it. (Of course today many state the Communist era was better than neo-liberalism, that is another topic.)

— From my experience of travelling to Yougoslavia (2x), Roumania (2x), Poland (2x) and Bulgaria, etc. for work, not as a tourist, before 1990. Everywhere the same story. Censorship by the authorities was totally ineffective, it was laughed at, derided. Certainly > one of the reasons for the ‘sudden’ collapse of the USSR.

The difference with the US is that some immense proportion of US citizens adhere to MSM / Gvmt. narratives, laws, strictures, myths, etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Jan 7 2017 17:59 utc | 29

After all, the real culprit is the Obama administration that has been unable to protect the country's major political organization from hacking and spying through Internet. The problem is as old as 2008.
To easily forgive Hillary's "carelessness' about the security of state related emails shows well the low level of importance the National Security organization ( CIA, FBI etc..) gives to cyber security.
Trump is absolutely right. There is a need for an overdue solution to prevent hacking and he plans to deal with it. Obama has not done it, he will. Subject closed.

Posted by: virgile | Jan 7 2017 18:01 utc | 30

b.. thank you.. i would like to echo @23 noirettes comments to you which i agree with whole heartedly.

to me it brings up the question of whether the usa is capable of reflecting on it's own actions ever? it seems to me they are so busy looking out, that the ability to look within has never been taken up..

Posted by: james | Jan 7 2017 18:16 utc | 31

@25

Lol! I see the first shoe is already dropping. Trump himself will yet prove me to have been right all along.

So Trump picks a Russia hater once banned from entering Russia to oversee all intelligence agencies, CIA included.

What could be more telling? Haaaaaa. I won't say I told you so just yet; I'm gonna love doing it in dribs and drabs.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 18:21 utc | 32

For whatever reason i don't read RT that often, but whenever the IC or whomever is slamming them I immediately navigate on over to see what all the fuss is about.

Ever consider someone wants you to read RT? (If MSM is presenting something for our viewing pleasure it is because they want us to know about it.)

Ever consider that maybe, possibly, all the ruling cliques -- meaning various nation's establishment -- are one the "same team"?

Ever consider why all the ruling cliques want to monitor us 24/7? (They all agree on that.)

Ever consider why all the ruling cliques are critical of our 2nd A? (They all agree on that.)

The question to ask is who will benefit from a destabilized America.

Little people?

Posted by: nobody | Jan 7 2017 18:25 utc | 33

Speaking of...

Trump's new intel czar; here is Coats top ten list mocking Russia's decision to ban him.:

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/05/508417418/trump-picks-ex-senator-banned-from-russia-as-his-intelligence-chief

Well at least he has a sense of humor. No doubt it's the top criteria Trump considered when he eyeballed him; second to being a rabid Russiaphobe, of course. Looks like Trump's not lacking in irony either with this choice.

Whuuut? No spin yet on this? No... Trump has an ingenious ulterior motive for doing this? I hear crickets, pure golden silence...how refreshing for a change to let the truth speak for itself.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 18:46 utc | 34

Circe

After all these attacks on Trump, it would be hard for him to keep his Russia course, I sense Trump will backtrack on Russia ALOT but will keep a better relationship than Obama did and will slowly work towards a normalisation as soon he gets in power, but it will be a very slow process imo.

Its real tragic that a possible peace between Russia/US is being destroyed in front of us right now because some hysterical warmongers.

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 18:49 utc | 35

Whether "...the CIA, the NSA and the FBI released a report about alleged Russian hacking of the Democratic National Council and on Russian influence operation on the U.S. presidential election...." are no longer important. President-elect Trump now "drain the swamp" which he promised and there will be unintended consequences...

President-elect Trump's transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day.....and vacate their posts by 20 January without exception.

‘You’re fired!’ Donald Trump to sack Obama’s diplomats

http://theduran.com/donald-trump-to-sack-obamas-diplomats/

OJS -> The Original Jack Smith

Posted by: OJS | Jan 7 2017 18:50 utc | 36

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Posted by: nobody | Jan 7 2017 18:56 utc | 38

@33 On the other hand....Coats must be scratching his head.

>In a series of tweets on Saturday, Mr Trump said that having a good relationship with Russia was "no bad thing" and that "only 'stupid' people, or fools, would think that it is bad!"<

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38542415

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 18:59 utc | 39


Recipe for: Pasta Posta ala Propaganda


Ingredients:

1 completely fabricated tale of a (target) enemy’s dastardly deeds
1 very large and prominently placed misleading headline
3-4 large dollops of heavy duty credibility desperation
6 well-rounded scoops of narrative hubris (preferably oligarchical in origin)
1 Very tiny pinch of buried at-the-end-of-story counter context
10 or more generous sprinklings of official sounding “unnamed sources”
1 appropriately sycophantic in-house stenographer

Mix all of the above ingredients into a dense mass of manipulated text (and graphs - if required), to resemble an alarming: “The Imperial empire is at risk” pseudo-investigative article. Let this mass of media (dis) information fester and ferment for several news cycles - making sure that your now very sticky stew of bubbling BS has adequately reached its intended coagulation of deep state purpose - and is now being faithfully replicated by fellow corporate infotainment compatriots - especially the cable news cabals and their local ‘big hair’ affiliates. Once this highly stupor’ed state of agreed upon manufactured “facts” and the associated mainstream media frenzy concerning them has been achieved, you can then belatedly (and quietly) throw out a faux (non)disclaimer about the actual ingredients of the entire composted dish you’ve so carefully concocted. for general consumption. Note: This last step should have little or no lasting substantive effect on the perceived validity or flavor of your original steaming pile of “Pasta Posta ala Propaganda”

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Jan 7 2017 19:01 utc | 40

"ноль + ноль = ноль"... doubling down on stupid.

RT's a target because they've gotten good at weaponizing the truth. They're mostly not calling fact-check-false. It's just these things aren't brought up in polite company.

Posted by: gohum | Jan 7 2017 19:02 utc | 41

Above recipe (dis)serves tens of millions..

Posted by: time2wakeupnow | Jan 7 2017 19:03 utc | 42

@35

President-elect Trump now "drain the swamp" which he promised and there will be unintended consequences...

Guess you missed the breaking news on the latest insider he appointed to be his Intel Czar.

@34 My sense is you sense wrong where Trump is concerned. My sense is if only people would stop projecting their hopes on Trump and stop spinning him a marvellous set of threads; they'd see him for the naked Emperor he really is.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 19:04 utc | 43

I just started reading the document at LA Times:
http://documents.latimes.com/read-us-intelligence-report-russian-hacking/

This is amazing, disgusting, and too many adjectives .... They accuse the Russians of using false-flag operations and give Ukraine as an example. Also beware of weasel words like "probably." Like the lady said in the old Wendy's commercials, "Where's the beef?"

Posted by: Curtis | Jan 7 2017 19:11 utc | 44

9

The zTweeker-in-Chief and his former TV host sidekick Pence have 12 days to learn how to run a country 1,000,000 times bigger than Trump H&C and with a 100,000,000 times bigger budget, of which ~$6 TRILLION has gone MIA at the Pentagon, SS and MC a looted ponzi 'scheme', and 95,000,000 are umemployed or homeless.

Meanwhile the zTweeker-in-Chief is holed up in his NYC fantasy playhouse with his servants and guards, his zSon-in-Law and 24k i-Phone, tweeting about The Apprentice, for God sake, one of the biggest dogshyte programs to ever hit prime time TV, gloating like a 14-year old trapped in a 70-year old's senile body, the doddering old Israel First bloviate that DJT really is.

He has the emotional depth of a Kim Jung Un!!!
Tick tock, get off the pot, Don! Time to saddle up!
You're not in WWE Raw anymore! Grow up, you boy!

How did we get to this point!?

DJT was always just HRCs showboating right-wing sheepdog, dragging the Right off to crazy-town, like Bernie sheep-dogged off the Left, to crack-spread the Center-Right for Rodham, and ensure her victory.

Then she had to go and open her f*k'g Hag-Witch pie-hole, the c*nt, now we are all doomed with this draftdodging, serial bunko artist, money laundering, philandering Orange Jesuit with a bad tweeker habit for POTUS, executing for a rabbinical Congress of Grifters and End Timers and Apocalypsts, under a Jesuit-Jew SCOTUS and Globalist zFed, let's be honest. Money and Power for the Ubers, and f*k the Little People. DJT is a recipe for civil war and grinding USAryan poverty for 45% of the citizens, and this time, nobody in Emerald City is gonna be able to Fix It and Flip It.

On to Sevastopol for the One Party of zMil.Gov.Biz.Fed! It's a' comin'! 2 more months, and MoA will be rolling in war news again. Huzzah!

Posted by: chipnik | Jan 7 2017 19:13 utc | 45

Clapper as DNI and Brennan as CIA chief should have been fired years ago. They will both be gone by January 20. The Intelligence Community will remember them as the chief-authors of this devastating failure.

I agree there, but people who damaged the most of stuff were those well embedded into the Washstablishment of a likes such as feeble Power, Nuland and probably 25 other officials with a mandate to actually dictate to the Intelligence Community how to act and even what to do.
Those guys were just tools.

Shame is that those persons will fade away in a history as same as various collection of characters such as Wolfowitz, Gonzales, Rice, Rumsfeld etc. who actually prepared the ground for today's mess we are all in and are pretty much responsible for most of the destruction we are still witnessing today.

How it will continue remains to be seen, but for me I go and pour a shot of Talisker and keep on a close watch in the coming days.


Posted by: laserlurk | Jan 7 2017 19:17 utc | 46

Are we reaching towards critical mass, are we now beginning to go through what the Soviets did, 1985-1991 ?

Are we past due for our own USofA version of Glasnost & Perestroika ?

-- Outraged@13

I can see why you find the parallel, but if you compare post-WWII Russian society with 201x US society you'll probably find the Russians and eastern Europeans considerably more hardened and aware of their surroundings. One thing, former KGB agents vs. current USIC ops mgrs, I wouldn't bet on USA given their tendency to whine about someone stealing their cookies when they forget to close the kitchen door.

For all of the USA's technical capabilities and cosmopolitan sophistication,

Posted by: stumpy | Jan 7 2017 19:18 utc | 47

The fable of "they were fighting over my wallet":

Once upon a time, a man was walking home after a hard day's work. As usual, as he made his way home, he passed by a public square. There was a big commotion and a crowd of onlookers had gathered around a group of men fighting.

He asked around, "what's going on?". "Oh, these are two opposed gangs, and they are duking it out!"

"So who are the good guys?" he asked around.

Some told him "oh, those guys." But other interjected "No no. Those are the bad guys. The good guys are on the other side!".

It all very confusing.

Anyway, he had to go home. It was getting late and he still hadn't stopped by the supermarket. So he leaves, still not entirely sure what that spectacle was all about.

At the checkout, he reaches for his wallet to pay. And that is when he realized that someone had picked his pockets.

The next day, the local news reported on a CRIMINAL GANG that was going around creating spectacles while the rest of the "team" picked the pockets of the distracted people who were focusing on the BOGUS FIGHTS.

Posted by: nobody | Jan 7 2017 19:20 utc | 48

@38

Naw, Coats isn't the one scratching his head; I'm sure Trump knew exactly what he wanted and exactly what he's getting with Coats as Intel Czar. No doubt fellow Hoosier Pence filled Trump in on Coats. There's the inner sanctum where they're all on the same page, and then the line Trump feeds the duped on the outside; but a whole lot of Trump's supporters here are scratching their heads; even if they won't admit it.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 19:22 utc | 49

Clapper as DNI and Brennan as CIA chief should have been fired years ago. They will both be gone by January 20.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, b. And even if so, the CIA will never forget (think JFK)

Posted by: mh505 | Jan 7 2017 19:25 utc | 50

This hacking report absolutely proves the Russians have deeply penetrated U.S. 'intelligence. What else could explain making these agencies appear idiotic and malicious. It's all mole stuff. The Russians are wrecking them and nobody can see it!

Posted by: Robert McMaster | Jan 7 2017 19:26 utc | 51

@38 Oh now I get it. Trump is just calling anti-Russian types like McCain stupid fools to piss them off and he chose Coats to confuse everybody. Damn he's devious. Sure keeps his fans guessing though.

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 19:33 utc | 52

Noirette@28 "The difference with the US is that some immense proportion of US citizens adhere to MSM / Gvmt. narratives, laws, strictures, myths, etc". "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" H.L.Mencken.

Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 7 2017 19:45 utc | 53

These Trump picks are as bad as anything Reagan/Poppy/Dubya/Cheney had come up with. You could say they foisted that asshole Pence on him, but these boilerplate Republican asshats are all on the Trump.

Posted by: fast freddy | Jan 7 2017 19:48 utc | 54

RT have come under fire for criticizing the United States and negatively against Clinton in particular, no mention of the 95% US MSM support for Clinton.

Posted by: harrylaw | Jan 7 2017 19:57 utc | 55

So much Trump hatred in this thread. The DNI needs to get Senate confirmation. So, given that the swamp doesn't want to get drained, who better to choose for this post than a well-known Russia hater, to the extent that Russia has banned him?

It is going to take some moonbats a while to figure out Trump's style. I think I'm getting a better sense of it than some here because I follow right wing blogs.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 7 2017 20:09 utc | 56

On the bright side, the report praises the accuracy of RT coverage.

Our spy agencies praise RT for covering political parties outside the duopoly:

In an effort to highlight the alleged “lack of democracy” in the United States, RT broadcast, hosted, and advertised third-party candidate debates and ran reporting supportive of the political agenda of these candidates. The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a “sham.”

and laud the accuracy of RT’s coverage of civil liberty issues

RT’s reports often characterize the United States as a “surveillance state” and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use (RT, 24, 28 October, 1-10 November).

Of course, if the purposes of your organization include protecting our corrupt establishment and trampling the Bill of Rights under foot, you may have a slightly different perspective on these issues.

Posted by: George Phillies | Jan 7 2017 20:19 utc | 57

@51

Oh now I get it. Trump is just calling anti-Russian types like McCain stupid fools to piss them off

So you haven't figured out yet that when someone gets on the wrong side of Trump's ego; loyalty to individual party members goes out the window and his ego overrides all.

His choice of Coats is not confusing at all.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 20:21 utc | 58

Of course, if the purposes of your organization include protecting our corrupt establishment and trampling the Bill of Rights under foot, you may have a slightly different perspective on these issues.

Sure, but by the same logic you also wouldn't put that blurb that highlights the shortcomings of your establishment press in an unclassified report, would ya?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Posted by: nobody | Jan 7 2017 20:25 utc | 59

Stephen Cohen (21 dec)

Putin allegations in US election distract from real danger?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAySdDC9JFU

Fox rules, who would have thought?

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 20:26 utc | 60

@57 Yes I get that part. The man is a dangerous egomaniac. There's something quite entertaining about him though. Like a roller coaster.

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 20:42 utc | 61

@55

Ahh...I was wondering when the typical Trump can do no wrong; smartest guy in the room spin would begin. So you follow right-wing blogs? Why am I not surprised. Oh, and you're a real authority on Trump's style; but then iyo Islam is a heresy. Right. I'm gonna trust your judgement - hell no.

So much Trump hatred... And that's a bad thing? Cause obviously you're infatuated. Expect more...everywhere. Bush's favourability rating soon to become the second lowest.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 20:52 utc | 62

As the Obama regime twists its blade one last time, blaming the lost elections on Putin to damage Trump, the pervading impression remaining is chutzpah. Health system ruined, unending wars, racial strife, lost privacy and destroyed constitution are but a few of this regimes legacies. But it is the chutzpah illustrated by trying to provoke a war with Russia to hand to Trump that makes the biggest impression.

And chutzpah is the right word. Just like Israel being created in the terrorism, murder, land theft and genocide of the Palestinian people. Then these same zionists expected Europeans to pay for their existence and fight their wars for decades because of guilt for being "anti-semitic". Then getting those same European countries to destroy all Israel's neighbors for the creation of greater Israel along with the genocide Christian culture of Europe, ultimately leading to one world government under their control.

Yes, chutzpah is the word, and Putin has had to deal with far more than his share of it. Lets hope he can put and end to it and save Christian culture.

Posted by: Kenny | Jan 7 2017 20:54 utc | 63

@61 Me too!! I follow right wing blogs. And left wing blogs. And middle wing undecided blogs. I even read your boring ineffectual diatribes. How's that for getting a balanced perspective?

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 21:02 utc | 64

@63

Good for you. Maybe you can teach Adalbrand how to balance his perspective too. Hopefully, you're not bragging and it doesn't turn into a case of the blind leading the blind. I'll be monitoring his progress...lol in case it moves a notch.

Posted by: Circe | Jan 7 2017 21:12 utc | 65

Ever since I have read that "every intelligence agency believed that Saddam had WMDs" my opinion of those agencies was levelly diminished. At the very least, what is being promulgated as their consensus belief is not a good predictor of what we may encounter in the real world.

"Hacks" are electronic entities so there will not be such a radical reckoning, and the reputations will no sink much further.

More important puzzles will require analysis. How did powers that be in the Democratic party arrived at the conclusion that Clinton is "electable"? After all, "leaks" are like a wolf blowing at a house. House made of straw will fall down, and so will the house made of sticks. But a house made of bricks will remain standing.

After all, Putin was also a target of highly suspicious leaks, and it was a non-event. And I just have no idea what type of dirt GOP could find about Sanders. I read one "unmasking article" posted at WSJ site and it was hilariously thin.

Now Establishment Democrats try to assemble a house made of straw, collecting expert opinions that this is the highest quality straw that was specially aged to be moldy and sticky so it will be many times harder to blow away that fluffy fresh straw. So instead it will fall down under its own weight.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 7 2017 21:12 utc | 66

@Kenny #62:

I do not disagree with anything you wrote, but I think it would be nice if you waited until Trump is inaugurated to repeatedly express such views. Please take into account that b's blog is based in Germany, and that Europeans do not value the freedom of speech as Americans do.

@Circe #61:

but then iyo Islam is a heresy.

You are directing hate speech against me because I'm a Christian. Chill out. Of course, to an educated Christian, Islam is nothing more than a fake religion, an offshoot of some Christian heresies. Get over it.

On the basis of your handle, I assume that you are a woman. Because it looks like we are going to be getting into fights for a while. I like to know who I'm dealing with.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 7 2017 21:27 utc | 67

Russia should reply and go all-in and show that the whole EU/US MSM conducting a 24/7 propaganda campaign against Russia.

Also, what this hysteria is all about:
In one sense, the new Red Scare has had the desired and entirely predictable result. Defense spending, though hurt by troop wind-downs in Iraq and Afghanistan, is now exhibiting renewed vigor. Introducing its upcoming $583 billion budget in 2016, the Pentagon specifically cited “Russian aggression” as a rationale for spending.

The New Red Scare Reviving the art of threat inflation
http://harpers.org/archive/2016/12/the-new-red-scare/1/

Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 7 2017 21:30 utc | 68

@Piotr Berman #65:

How did powers that be in the Democratic party arrived at the conclusion that Clinton is "electable"?

I think the answer to that question is pretty simple. It is a combination of two factors. (1) The Clintons turned the Democratic party into a fiefdom of their own through their foundation. So nobody but an outsider like Bernie ended up challenging Hillary. (2) The Establishment assumed that the control of public opinion by the corporate media is a solid, well worked out technique that will continue working in this election. That assumption turned out to be wrong.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 7 2017 21:38 utc | 69

From my own reading of various blogs, my impression of what Donald Trump's leadership style is likely to be is that it will resemble the approach used by DH @ 63 in reading blogs more so than it will follow anything suggested by Adalbrand and Circe.

After all, wasn't this approach used by Trump in "The Apprentice" where people from different walks of life were thrown together to work on problems? And does not also Vladimir Putin keep close to him a group of economic advisors that includes the neoliberal economist Alexei Kudrin and those like Sergei Glaziev who advocate a more state-directed approach and using land rent taxation to finance economic development? Isn't this the real reason that Trump admires Putin's leadership and wants to work with Russia?

Posted by: Jen | Jan 7 2017 21:39 utc | 70

No matter who became President in the US, if they had genuine intentions of draining the swamp, they would have to play the system.
It will take months to see which way Trump is going. A few good words for Israel and he has Murdoch on side to play against the rest of the media.
Even if Trump is genuine about draining the swamp, there will be lots of hair pulling and screaming from the pessimists as he goes about it.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 7 2017 21:46 utc | 71

@69 Old definitions of left and right don't hold anymore. I read all kinds of stuff but of course there's always a bias. The trick is to read between the lines. Adalbrand has a Christian perspective....Circe doesn't like Trump, some personal issues maybe. We are all products of our antecedents, location, education etc. etc.

I find Trump entertaining and I like the way he's going after McCain.....but that doesn't make me a fan. It's interesting to watch him deflect whatever they throw at him. I imagine the next wave of attacks will accuse him of making business deals with Putin.

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 21:56 utc | 72

THE FACT;

CLAPPER SAYS: "OUTCOME OF ELECTIONS WAS NOT INFLUENCED AT ALL . VOTING SYSTEM WAS NOT HACKED OR ALTERED."

TRUMP WON ACCORDING TO RULES OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE of deeply undemocratic and inherently riggable/rigged US electoral system [Primaries and GE] as much as I and millions others regret it this is the fact. However, in my eyes it does not make him a legitimate ruler or POTUS facing at least 180 millions of Americans who did not support him.

So what this is all about really because definitely not about some routine daily occurrence of hacking by Russians [state or private actors] or by Americans [state or private actors] or Israelis [state or private actors, Netanyahu hates Obama and Hillary is GOP supporter and has army of state hackers to do it] or Chinese or even about influencing of elections outcome since that was completely ruled out by Clapper himself?

So what this was all about? Something else completely.

This report was a mockery of a report, supposedly stemming from multi billion dollar US agency massive investigation and not from illiterate 14 years old adolescent lame hack using some obscured old software available to anyone on the dark web.

The baseless blatant accusation of anyone, such as those in the report, in such a revolting way would have been a troubling sign of a mental disorder of the accuser requiring immediate medical attention but the same paranoia stemming from high US intelligence officials who are too close to the push-button for nukes, is a horrifying realization what a nut cases, and that includes Obama, are running US government.

The foundation free, evidence free, rationale free and logic free and basic human decency free taxpayer paid expensive incoherent utterance called a intelligence report is stunning for one reason alone, namely being itself a direct proof of massive fraud of taxpayer money, all the security agencies involved themselves in stepping onto a criminal path of extortion and coercion of highest governmental institutions and blatant propaganda psy-op against US population resulting in a clear, present and immediate danger to the constitutional order and office of US presidency itself.

The so-called report can only be construed as nothing but another element of ongoing soft coup d'etat by security and intelligence agencies that derelict their duty to uphold constitution while being taken over by cross partisan mafia that corrupted them to political ends.

In a sense it is ironic and ridiculous but not unexpected that there is virtually nobody out there to defend a shadow of the American Republic torn apart to pieces in recent decades, not forth estate or media, not remaining democratic institutions, no civil rights organizations, no one but a LONE entertainer from a TV reality show: America you are fired.

This is sad testimony to meaningless farcical spectacle the US political system has become decades ago and now vengeful political sludge is surfacing for everyone to see for its fragility, cheap opportunism, a sewage excretion of personal puny psychopathic insecurities of those who run it for power, profit and fame with no other political program,or idea behind it.

Posted by: Kalen | Jan 7 2017 21:59 utc | 73

Clinton made her intentions clear towards Russia in the run-up to the elections, a lot of people world wide saw this as WWIII is on with Clinton. Russia's “aggressive behaviour” as repeated endlessly in the MSM would seem to imply they want a world war too. So is this paragraph from Robert Parry erroneous?

“The DNI report amounted to a compendium of reasons to suspect that Russia was the source of the information – built largely on the argument that Russia had a motive for doing so because of its disdain for Democratic nominee Clinton and the potential for friendlier relations with Republican nominee Trump.”https://consortiumnews.com/2017/01/07/us-report-still-lacks-proof-on-russia-hack/

The Russian people are trustworthy enough to fly around in the ISS with and to build the rocket engines for our Saturn launch vehicles but how dare they try to prevent WW III? Friendlier, why that's outrageous, after all our proof of Putin's evil he turns around and wants to be friendly and cooperate fighting terrorism. Parry's piece does mention the huge downside to being caught trying to beat her had Hillary won, as most every expert seemed certain would happen, how distinctly unPutin that would have been.

If a person is a aggressive, belligerent bully why would they seek friendlier relations? Its funny, when your foundation is a lie, every thing you build on it seems a little crooked.

Posted by: frankly | Jan 7 2017 21:59 utc | 74

The CIA/FBI/NSA report does spend a lot of time breathlessly tattling on RT’s outrageous coverage of U.S. political and economic issues, such as:

RT’s reports often characterize the United States as a “surveillance state” and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use (RT, 24,
28 October, 1-10 November).

and

RT aired a documentary about the Occupy Wall Street movement on 1, 2, and
4 November. RT framed the movement as a fight against “the ruling class” and described the current US political system as corrupt and dominated by corporations.

and

In an effort to highlight the alleged “lack of democracy” in the United States, RT
broadcast, hosted, and advertised third-party candidate debates and ran reporting supportive of the political agenda of these candidates. The RT hosts asserted that the US two-party system does not represent the views of at least one-third of the population and is a “sham.”

How in the world is RT dreaming up bizarro accusations like that?

Posted by: Tom | Jan 7 2017 22:19 utc | 75

b,

As a former hacker I relate to what the intelligence committee put out. It is certainly more believable than Trump.

Posted by: Bardi | Jan 7 2017 22:32 utc | 77

@dh #71:

Adalbrand has a Christian perspective

Honestly, my perspective is that of early 19th century Germany, that of Goethe, Schiller, and Hegel. So I see myself as a member of Western civilization more than a Christian. When I talk about Christianity, what I am actually doing is advocating for the European civilization of Goethe's time. And Goethe was not an orthodox Christian. (small 'o')

I guess that what it comes down to, now that the Left has turned into a joke with identity politics, is that the main force of resistance to neoliberalism and the Empire remaining is the Christian tradition.

It is the same as it was with the fall of Communism. The locus of resistance to the GDR government was Lutherans acting independently of the official church.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 7 2017 22:36 utc | 78

@77 Sorry Adalbrand. I didn't mean to bracket you or disparage Christianity. I have no religious beliefs myself and I avoid discussing religion. For some reason it usually ends badly.

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 22:50 utc | 79

@dh #78:

I didn't take offense at all. I just wanted to clarify where I'm coming from.

This is a political blog, and it is clear that to this day, religion plays a role in politics. Both Reagan and the Bushes depended on their base of evangelical Christians.

Evangelicals used to be obsessed with cultural conservative issues like abortion. This made the Establishment expect that evangelicals would go for Cruze and not Trump. But I sensed something in the air. Since Trump conveyed an authentic message, the old Republican wedge issue politics (anti-abortion, anti-gay) did not work in the Republican primaries.

Nevertheless, today Trump supporters still link support of Trump with being Christian. (I get this impression from my Twitter feeds.) So today, in the West, being positive about Christianity signifies resistance to the neoliberal project (Obama, Hillary, Merkel, etc.). Before this election, being positive about Christianity signified being against abortion and gays. So there has been a definite realignment between Christianity and US politics in this election.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 7 2017 23:20 utc | 80

We are seeing the collapse of the ruling clique within the Deep State or at least it feels that way. This issue is absolutely critical and the fact that mainstream figures are expressing some dissent in the face of universal editorial support of the War Party is a powerful indicator of how things have changed.

Posted by: Banger | Jan 7 2017 23:49 utc | 81

Trump grew up Presbyterian but he doesn't seem comfortable talking about religion. He's probably not fervent enough to please Evangelicals. I think he promised to repeal Roe/Wade. We haven't heard much about muslims and gays lately.

There's a sort of unreality about Trump. It will all get more serious when he takes office.

Posted by: dh | Jan 7 2017 23:53 utc | 82

@dh #81:

Trump grew up Presbyterian but he doesn't seem comfortable talking about religion. He's probably not fervent enough to please Evangelicals.

Evangelicals voted for him. I think Trump is like the elite were in Goethe's time: everyone affirmed Christianity, but intelligent people weren't really believers, even though they didn't say so. I think Trump is like Putin in this respect. Putin goes to church and lights candles. But I have no doubt that he is like my father and grandfather. We affirm Christianity and go to church on occasion because that is who we are. But it's an an inside joke that when examined closely, belief in God can't be taken seriously. This attitude permeates post-Enlightenment European culture until Nietzsche.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 8 2017 0:31 utc | 83

@76 bardi
So you can relate to painting mindscapes of certainty based around the word hacking which have no base in reality. I am not surprised you're a former hacker. Please excuse me now, I must go wash my balls.

Posted by: MadMax2 | Jan 8 2017 0:35 utc | 84

Clarification. When I said, "belief in God can't be taken seriously", what I should have said is that "belief in in the existence of God can't be taken seriously". I believe in Christ, and Christ is God.

Now that I've had to make that clarifying remark to defend my faith, I should say something more relevant to a political blog. So I suggest that with Trump winning, we are going to see Christianity in America taking a more high-brow form.

Christianity was treated like shit under the Obama administration. Obama obviously hates Christianity and really relates to Islam. That's what made it so easy for him to support Islamic terrorism. Any time I've ever seen Obama talk about Christian belief, he has always talked about it ironically. He does not talk ironically about Islam. He expresses nothing but admiration for it.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 8 2017 0:47 utc | 85

Noirette @23,

The horse isn't dead until the Blob can't put it back together again. Keep beating.

Adalbrand @82,

Except it's tedious and unfunny, and, having rejected liberalism, we likewise reject your ethos and priors as self-soothing reenactment. But you're welcome to do whatever you like in the comfort of your own home and church so long as you leave us out of it.

Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 8 2017 0:49 utc | 86

@Jonathan #85:

having rejected liberalism, we likewise reject your ethos and priors as self-soothing reenactment. But you're welcome to do whatever you like in the comfort of your own home and church so long as you leave us out of it.

All I'm saying is that because of our tradition, Christianity should be one of our main reference points, even if we are not believers. What is wrong with that attitude?

It's obvious that part of the neoliberal project has been a concerted attack on Christianity, because Christianity is the main remaining locus of resistance to neoliberalism, given that academia has been subverted.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 8 2017 0:59 utc | 87

@86, addled, 'Christianity is the main remaining locus of resistance to neoliberalism'

you're just like the wahabists. their mirror image.

every thread is your thread to pollute with your kultur kampf.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 1:09 utc | 88

@86 addled

and like the 'wahabists' you are yourself an unbeliever, religion is your lever, your tool. i wonder if you aren't, like the wahabist leadership, a mercenary, as well.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 8 2017 1:12 utc | 89

Posted by: pubumwei | Jan 7, 2017 9:29:51 AM | 10

John McCain caught red handed planting landmines in georgia

Your link is excellent, thank you.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 1:23 utc | 90

@52/54 harrylaw.. thanks.. you've provided a couple of good quotes/insights in those posts which i'll repeat.

"nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" H.L.Mencken. +

"RT have come under fire for criticizing the United States and negatively against Clinton in particular, no mention of the 95% US MSM support for Clinton."

@56 george phillies.. thanks.. i missed that in all the hoopla..

@71/78 dh..thanks.. i have a similar view to yours..

@72 kalen.. thanks.. ditto much of your post as well..

@73 frankly.. exactly.

@80 banger.. looks that way to me too.. this has been talked about the past year - divide inside the usa over who and what is running the country..

Posted by: james | Jan 8 2017 1:24 utc | 91

...
Yes, chutzpah is the word, and Putin has had to deal with far more than his share of it. Lets hope he can put and end to it and save Christian culture.
Posted by: Kenny | Jan 7, 2017 3:54:17 PM | 62

Christian Culture (racist-supremacist colonialism, plunder, rape and pillage) isn't worth saving. Read the Bible. Christianity was invented and scripted by Jews. Jews played all the leading roles including Jesus and the Money Lenders. Even the 10 Commandments are a 'forgery' based on a similar, Judaic, list of Principles favouring, and placing at the Head of society, Powerful Rich Blokes.
The world will get along just fine minus the overtly class-conscious, Pecking Order principles of Christianity.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 8 2017 1:28 utc | 92

So much hate.

Christianity is the basis of Western culture. So I find it interesting that even though moonbats reject the Establishment narrative on the DNC and Podesta emails, they compulsively and deliriously accept the same narrative on Christianity.

Posted by: Adalbrand | Jan 8 2017 1:41 utc | 93

@ Adalbrand | Jan 7, 2017 7:59:11 PM | 86

Oh, FFS.

You regularly propose 'We', should follow our Christian traditions, blah, blah ... whatever makes you think 'we' as a collective(?!) or as individuals may even be 'Christians', self identify as 'Christians', or follow, believe or even accept your inane sugar coated visage re 'traditions' ?!

Like the 'Christians' who under Bush the Younger, were allowed to infiltrate the US Air Force, especially throughout anything to do with training and key leadership positions, to promote 'Kill 'em all, and send 'em to Jeebus!' attitudes from the Dark Ages ? Or these 'Christians' who are exploited (theoretically), or willingly exploit others, to create the envisaged circumstances re Israel and the Middle East to bring on 'The end Times' ... so THEY(exclusively) can 'Ascend' !

Genuinely strongly suspect your consistent repetition of this dross, is just a variation on filling threads with facile crap from outrageous Holocaust denial and conspiracy/anti-conspiracy/anti-anti-conspiracy sites. And am saying that as one who was brought up Irish Catholic(strictly), unto adulthood. Hence why I'm no longer orthodox Catholic(Christian?) ... though self-identifying as an ethical, moral, principled, Humanist ? yes.

The abuses against the entirety of humanity by Orthodox religions have a awful lot to answer for.

Long may the Intelligent Flying Spaghetti Monster in the Sky (FSM), benignly reign over us, and may we be so fortunate as to be touched by his Noodly appendage ! Pastafarianism rocks!

Give it up, FFS.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 1:56 utc | 94

@92 Adalbrand,

Just like geocentrism, and exactly as dispensable. This isn't Whiggish progress nonsense. This is the elephant seen with proper eyesight and perspective from every angle, as a cardboard cutout. Christianity is completely explained by politics of people no longer alive.

And don't get me started on the bourgeois arrogance of Christianity, either. Talk to me when you've gotten some Liberation Theology in you. Everything else is a child's play-pretend.

Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 8 2017 1:57 utc | 95

@92 Don't despair Adalbrand. Christianity was considered subversive in Rome once. Perhaps it will be again.

Posted by: dh | Jan 8 2017 1:57 utc | 96

Adalbrand, adding, the harvest stands even as the blighted trees are uprooted.

Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 8 2017 1:58 utc | 97

92
So much hate. That is why the US is going down. Hate directed at anything and everything.
Since MH17 I have my moments too, when I see the shit the US is doing around the world.
No use arguing religion. I am not religious in any way shape or form, but as you say, most of what we believe in as right or wrong is based on Christian background.

Posted by: Peter AU | Jan 8 2017 2:19 utc | 98

@ sasha | Jan 7, 2017 11:24:42 AM | 22

Interesting, isn't it, what ? ;)

@ Noirette | Jan 7, 2017 12:59:00 PM | 28

(Of course today many state the Communist era was better than neo-liberalism, that is another topic.)

The difference with the US is that some immense proportion of US citizens adhere to MSM / Gvmt. narratives, laws, strictures, myths, etc.

Please, we may well be more in agreement more than you may percieve. The keywords used were 'caricature' AND 'painted'. I grew-up in, lived through those times too, active widely in many cultures and nations, in blind service service of The Empire. Have recently previously posted re carbon-copied Samizdat, etc.

Peace. Salaam. Shalom.


@ Posted by: OJS | Jan 7, 2017 1:50:14 PM | 35

President-elect Trump's transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day.....and vacate their posts by 20 January without exception.

Now that is a key indicator.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 2:20 utc | 99

@ nobody | Jan 7, 2017 2:20:10 PM | 47

:))

I'll tell you what's at the bottom of IT (Bigotry, Racism, Hate for 'Others'). If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

- As quoted in "What a Real President Was Like: To Lyndon Johnson, the Great Society Meant Hope and Dignity", by Bill Moyers, The Washington Post (13 November 1988).

And, no, IMHO, LBJ was scum too, tho ocassionally refreshingly honest.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2017 2:32 utc | 100

next page »

The comments to this entry are closed.