This account gives an interesting twist, that Trump wants to keep Rosenstein as leverage.

Posted by: BM | Sep 26 2018 16:02 utc | 4

I think it is not in the interest of Trump to do anything that could look like hampering the Mueller investigation. It might be in his interest to try to force Mueller to show what he has bevore the midterm elections, but that could also be seen as a form of hampering.
I think there are already lots of indications that the whole Russiagate collusion story was fabricated. The messages between Peter Strzok und Lisa Page point towards this direction, and it seems that different stories that were used for Russiagate were connected.
It seems that the Steele dossier played a crucial role for getting warrants for spying on the Trump campaign and for starting the media campaign about Trump-Russia “collusion”. Obviously, the Steele dossier is a rather implausible conspiracy theory (allegedly, Russia made preparations for Trump’s candidacy years earlier when hardly anyone thought Trump would have the slightest chance of being nominated by a major party), contains no evidence for the allegations, and the elements that can be verified are either banal and don’t show collusion or they are false (e.g. Trump’s lawyer going to Prague, it seems he has an alibi, and there are leaks that there was another person named Michael Cohen, without a connection to Trump, who flew to Prague, so Steele probably had access to flight data, but did not do further verifications).
A further strand of “Russiagate” is the story around Papadopoulos. First, it should be noted that it hardly shows foreknowledge of the DNC leaks when someone may have speculated that Russia may have e-mails from Hillary Clinton – at that time, the deleted mails from Clinton’s private server were talked about a lot, and one of the concerns that was often mentioned was that Clinton’s private server may have been hacked by Russia or China. None of the versions of what Papadopoulos was allegedly told by Mifsud and told Downer specifically mention DNC or Podesta e-mails. Second, the people involved had close connections to Western intelligence services. Mifsud had close ties with important EU institutions and was connected with educational institutions used by Western intelligence agencies (mainly Italian, British, FBI). If he really was a Russian spy, there would have been larger consequences, and the FBI would hardly have let him go after questioning him. According to a book by Roh and Pastor who have known Mifsud for a long time, he denies having told Papadopoulos anything about damaging material about Hillary Clinton (Mifsud also said that in an interview), and Mifsud suspects Papadopoulos of being a provocateur of Western intelligence services – Papadopoulos forcefully tried to create connections between the Trump campaign and Russians, but both sides were not willing to go along (a representative of a Russian think tank which Papadopoulos asked to invite Trump answered that the Trump campaign should send an official request, which never followed). Papadopoulos was in (probably frequent) contact with FBI informer Stefan Halper, and it may be that Papadopoulos was an unwitting provocateur because of events Stefan Halper arranged. The Australian diplomat Downer has connections to the Clinton foundation (he helped arranging large payments by Australia) and Western secret services. Third, what has exactly been said by whom is disputed. As mentioned, Mifsud denies mentioning anything about damaging material on Hillary Clinton to Papadopoulos (the only one who claims this is Papadopoulos), and Papadopoulos denies mentioning e-mails to Downer. It seems, Papadopoulos were only half-willing participants in the setup arranged by Stefan Halper whose goal was to have some background for the message that could be received from Downer. Papadopoulos’ wife has shared a picture of Stefan Halper and Downer together, which also fits the idea that this story was set up by FBI informant Halper with Downer.
The visit of the Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya was arranged by Fusion GPS, and she met with him before and after the meeting she met with Glen Simpson.
Of course, we are just in the beginning, there is certainly enough concrete material for starting an investigation (unlike with the alleged Trump-Russia collusion), but many details are still open. Those who presumably set up the collusion story went from offensive to defensive, even if that might not be clear if someone reads particularly biased media. Now, the time until the midterms certainly is not enough for conducting and concluding such an investigation. But it should be enough for unclassifying and publishing some documents that shed further light on these events.
The time for more decisive action against those who set up Russiagate may be after the midterm elections, and how easy that will be probably partly depends on the election result. Therefore, I suppose that Trump and other Republicans will strongly press for important documents being unclassified and published before the elections.

Posted by: Adrian E. | Sep 26 2018 16:22 utc | 6

Trump admin and GOP Congress are doing almost everything possible to alienate the majority of the public on a wide spectrum of issues that’s also helped threaten the positions of Republicans masquerading as Democrats. The fallout from the 2016 Primary and subsequent disclosures about Clinton and DNC corruption and law breaking–meddling in elections and caucuses–has emboldened numerous people–particularly women–who were previously politically apathetic, not just to run for office, but also to work to get like-minded candidates elected. Sanders called for an insurrection–and yes, he’s still sheep dogging–and it’s emerged and isn’t totally controlled by the DemParty despite its efforts: The cat’s out of the bag.
Now I expect the usual attacks using the trite adage that voting doesn’t matter. Well, guess what, Trump’s election proves that adage to be 100% false. There’s only one path to making America Great and that’s by getting the neoliberals and neocons out of government; and the only way to do that is to run candidates with opposing positions and elect them–then–once in office, they need to oust the vermin from the bureaucracy–Drain the Swamp, as Trump put it. I know it can be done as it’s been done before during two different epochs of US History. And the System was just as rigged against popular success than as it is now.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2018 16:42 utc | 8

Sunny Runny Burger @9–
Where do you live? I reside in Oregon, where engaged voters and their votes have proven to make a difference. To my South in my former state of residence, Californians are mobilized, particularly the “hyphenized” communities of minorities who now collectively outweigh white Anglos in population.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2018 17:00 utc | 10

@11 Replying to myself
Using an online aging software turned up to max on the alleged 2003 passport photo and I get this. The ears look definately wrong to me.

Posted by: TJ | Sep 26 2018 17:43 utc | 12

@11
The shape of his head appears different also.

Posted by: Ike | Sep 26 2018 17:51 utc | 14

Bellingcat is MI6, so what do you expect.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Sep 26 2018 18:07 utc | 16

According to Microsofts State Of The Art face recogniser for the 2003 alleged passport photo vs the photo of Boshirov-
Verification result: The two faces belong to different people. Confidence is 0.44705.
Using the aged photo I produced-
Verification result: The two faces belong to different people. Confidence is 0.33398.

Posted by: TJ | Sep 26 2018 18:22 utc | 18

uuu @19–
The House organizes an investigation to arrive at a list known as Articles of Impeachment and votes to send them to Senate for Trial. Nixon was never Impeached. I think you meant to write that, but you didn’t proofread.
Actually, the hypothetical outcome with Pence becoming POTUS is worth exploring for the wrongness of attempting to Impeach Trump as Pence is far more dangerous–although he keeps his mouth closed, Pence is very much like Bolton, and most agree Bolton as POTUS would be a disaster.
Some have mentioned that Trump’s actually working to undermine the efficacy of the Outlaw US Empire. IMO, that would make an interesting thread topic. However, IMO, the Democrats, particularly Obama, Powers, Clinton, and Kerry did much prior to Trump to erode the Empire’s Soft Power and empower the world’s nations to begin resisting. The combination of BigLie Media and 100% unsubstantiated allegations powering Russiagate/Skripal has disgusted many and made the opportunities offered by China and Russia more attractive thanks to putting the arrogance of the Outlaw US Empire on full display–something BigLie Media cannot censor or spin to make disappear.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2018 19:15 utc | 20

Yes, it’s OT, yet it’s germane just the same.
For those barflies not following what’s happening politically in UK, you should know that Corbyn’s Labour Party’s aggressively on the move to end neoliberalism within UK. The best place to follow this show, IMO, is through Corbyn’s Twitter, which currently has several short video ads at its top that I find compelling and powerful–the sort of ad campaigns that USA’s Democrat Party would have run in the 1930s but won’t today since it’s 100% captured by neoliberal twats who’d rather help corporations than people. Indeed, if Trump’s MAGA had produced its own version of My Town, he would have won even more handily (But he’d never be able to get Congress to pass any of his program since it’s not Neoliberal–both Ds and Rs would vote it down).
IMO, once Labour regains control of UK government, much will also change within EU, and within the overall global order. Imagine an EU and UK having good relations with Russia and the changes that would generate.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2018 19:55 utc | 22

Karlof1 I could be wrong of course but one example of why none of that would matter is when the US dollar for all practical purposes winks out of existence and that could happen right now as we speak. Why would that happen you may ask? It would happen whenever someone “beyond personal wealth” like the usual finance suspects decides it is the way for them to make enormous amounts of profit out of the resulting worldwide instability before any of their competitors beat them to it. The longer they wait the more likely someone else will jump the gun and surprise them.
I don’t think the US has two years worth of “blood” left in it before that happens.
In a sense nothing will be left when each and every dollar becomes at least 20 trillion times less valuable. If the response to that happening is the same as the early 20ieth century response (Germany) then nothing will be left at all considering the difference in technology and differences in circumstance (everybody already have the weapons ready). If the response is the late 20ieth century response (USSR) then maybe something will be left but the USSR was both lucky and relatively solvent in comparison to the current US. The starting point for the US is several magnitudes worse in both examples. The world can’t afford to carry the US at cost any more than the US can’t right now and like the US haven’t been able to for decades, the required wealth doesn’t exist.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 26 2018 20:06 utc | 24

I assume the Awan brothers and their scandalous spying on the US congress through all those democrats has been bipartisanly removed from public eye. If Trump has the cards to play to keep his team in majority NOW is the time to play them.
This is the biggest scandal since Hillary and her crappy email server.
The USA is a dopes circus.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Sep 26 2018 20:47 utc | 26

Sunny Runny Burger @24–
The nascent USA had its national capital sacked and presidential residence burnt during what’s known as the War of 1812, yet it continued to exist politically. Same during Civil War. During the Revolutionary War, the USA had a national government and 13 separate state governments, all of which continued to function as the war raged. There’ve been at least two Coups–1963 and 2000–but the USA continued its political existence. Even the Germany destroyed by WW2 still existed politically. Destroying political entities is very–extremely–difficult, which is why it seldom occurs. Rome’s central authority ceased in the mid 6th century but its provinces continued as did the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire. Russia’s governmental system was drastically altered during and after Russia’s Civil War, but Russia continued to exists as a political entity. The USSR was an imperial governing edifice built atop numerous national political entities. It did vanish, but the nations comprising it didn’t; indeed, new nations were born as a result.
As for the dollar and its international position, even those nations desirous of undoing dollar hegemony have said it cannot be done overnight as the overall system is both too complex and too fragile for hasty adjustments to be made stably. Moreover, for better or worse, the Outlaw US Empire’s an integral component of the global economy, which motivates those changing the system to arrive at a Soft Landing, not a Hard Crash.
Catastrophism belongs in the realm of Geology, not Geopolitics, although the former will certainly affect the latter. Geopolitics can certainly enable an ecological crisis such as the Overshoot we’re now entering, but that’s several magnitudes less than what rates as a geological catastrophe–and not all such catastrophes are global.

Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2018 21:13 utc | 28

@8 “The fallout from the 2016 Primary and subsequent disclosures about Clinton and DNC corruption and law breaking–meddling in elections and caucuses–has emboldened numerous people–particularly women–who were previously politically apathetic, not just to run for office, but also to work to get like-minded candidates elected.”
I’m hearing a lot about these motivated women. Can we assume they are predominantly ‘progressive’? My sense is that as long as Trump stays white, male and heterosexual he will get re-elected.

Posted by: dh | Sep 26 2018 23:58 utc | 30

Couple of snips from Cooks piece linked above
Power’s goal is to keep looking like it has become something new, something innovative. Because the power-structure does not want change, it has to find front-men and women who can personify a transformation that is, in truth, entirely hollow….
…..neoliberalism is increasingly discredited in the eyes of large sections of the electorate in the US and UK. Its attempts at concealment have grown jaded, its strategy exhausted. It has reached the end-game, and that is why politics now looks so unstable. “Insurgency” candidates in different guises are prospering.—
….Insurgents are therefore those who seek to reverse the trend towards globalisation – or at least claim to….
…A Trump figure can usefully serve power too, because he dons the clothes of an insurgent while doing little to actually change the structure…

Posted by: Pft | Sep 27 2018 0:14 utc | 32

Hey karlof1, thanks for the link to the Jonathan Cook blog. I like his ability to make clear the logic behind familiar details.

These minor narratives conceal the fact that such individuals are groomed before they ever gain access to power. Business leaders, senior politicians and agenda-setting journalists reach their positions after proving themselves over and over again – not consciously but through their unthinking compliance to the power-structure of our societies. They are selected through their performances in exams at school and university, through training programmes and indentures. They rise to the top because they are the most talented examples of those who are blind or submissive to power, those who can think most cleverly without thinking critically. Those who reliably deploy their skills where they are directed to do so.

Posted by: jonku | Sep 27 2018 0:45 utc | 34

In my own words then. According to Cook the power elites goal is to change its appearance to look like something new and innovative to stay ahead of an electorate who are increasingly skeptical of the neoliberalism and globalism that enrich the elite at their expense.
Since they do not actually want change they find actors who pretend to represent change , which is in essence fake change. These then are their insurgent candidates
Trump serves the power elite , because while he appears as an insurgent against the power elite he does little to change anything
Trump promotes his fake insurgency on Twitter stage knowing the power elite will counter any of his promises that might threaten them
As an insurgent candidate Trump was indifferent to Israel and wanted the US out of Syria. He wanted good relations with Russia. He wanted to fix the health care system, rebuild infrastructure, scrap NAFTA and TTIPS, bring back good paying jobs, fight the establishment and Wall Street executives and drain the swamp. America First he said.
Trump the insurgent president , has become Israel’s biggest cheerleader and has launched US missiles at Syria, relations with Russia are at Cold War lows, infrastructure is still failing, the percentage of people working is now at an all time low in the post housewife era, he has passed tax cuts for the rich that will endanger medicare, medicaid and social security and prohibit infrastructure spending, relaxed regulations on Wall Street, enhanced NAFTA to include TTIPS provisions and make US automobiles more expensive, and the swamp has been refilled with the rich, neocons , Koch associates, and Goldman Sachs that make up the power elites and Deep State . Americas rich and Israel First

Posted by: Pft | Sep 27 2018 1:58 utc | 36

For Trump to be “insurgent” he should
(a) talk coherently
(b) have some kind of movement consisting of people that agree with what is says — that necessitates (a)
Then he could staff his Administration with his supporters rather than a gamut of conventional plutocrats, neocons, and hacks from the Deep State (intelligence, FBI and crazies culled from Pentagon). As it is easy to see, I am describing an alternate reality. Who is a Trumpian member of the Administration? His son-in-law?

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Sep 27 2018 2:23 utc | 38

@31 Well, the BBC is relying on an “investigation” by Bellingcat so, no, there is very unlikely to be any truth behind the “outing”.
To be honest, Bellingcat shows three photos. The two on the right look to me to be of the same man. The photo on the left doesn’t.
Similar, sure. But I don’t think it is the same person.
So which photo is the “gotcha!” photo as far as Bellingcat is concerned?
The photo on the left.
Simple rule-of-thumb – if Eliot Higgins says *this*, then it is a lie.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 27 2018 3:05 utc | 40

Hay! Khaver! !חבֿר הײַ!
Greetings from Tel Aviv, my Hebrew friends!
Although I’m writing this from Miami, where I’m on vacation.
This fine Jewish blog (Moon of Alabama) has many admirers in Israel.
While we don’t agree with your views on Israeli politics, this is a minor, trivial detail compared with the obvious love for Judaism and support for The Israel Project that shines through on almost every comment posted at M of A
With one exception!
the comment Posted by: anon | Sep 26, 2018 4:00:06 PM | 23, which talks about “Jewish supremacist gangsters and Neocon Israel firsters” and seems to imply that these “neocons” have some sort of control over the politics in Washington DC
Bullshit! What non-sense!
That kind of talk doesn’t belong on this fine Hebrew blog, so I’m asking for this one comment to be removed
other than that, excellent, perfectly fine and acceptable comments by all!
…..Keep up the good work!
A dank! / A sheynem dank!

Posted by: dov | Sep 27 2018 4:08 utc | 42

First of all, it’s a little premature to headline that Rosenstein was neither fired nor resigned since Trump will meet with him on Friday and Trump is a loose canon and would love any excuse to remove the thorn from his side. However, because Trump’s Oracle Sean Hannity warned him not to do it; he might not; BUT he might give R a reason to resign, because, that’s the least risky and very favorable option for him. McGahn and Kelly have no interest in seeing Rosenstein gone, period, ergo, they held R in place.
Now if this was a set up, it sure pissed off Democrats; you have only to go to their hangouts to see how pissed they were with the Times and whoever leaked that news.
Either it was a colossal impulsive blunder by the Times to monopolize the news cycle for the week or it was meant to abort Mueller’s investigation. The risk to the investigation was too great without a fail-proof outcome for this to have been a deliberate set up from the Democratic side and their angst and outrage over the leak that would end the investigation proves this point.

Posted by: Circe | Sep 27 2018 5:01 utc | 44

@40 I just figured out why Trump can do no wrong around here–he’s a Zionist! It’s really not because he pretends to make nice with Russia. Trump can eat kittens and lock up kids and he still won’t be condemned here. I finally get it, he’s a Zionist that’s why and Zionists everywhere love him, here too, as much as in Israel. Blech.

Posted by: Circe | Sep 27 2018 6:10 utc | 46

I flicked on the beeb news channel as I dragged meself outta the pit this am and caught the ‘news’ of the bellingcat claim that Ruslan Boshirov = Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga.
Now I’m fully cognisant of the fact that neither Russia nor Chepiga should feel obliged to prove this claim is untrue, but since whichever way you slice it Chepiga is now ‘blown’, They (Russia/Chepiga) may as well prove the claim is nonsense. The thing being that the boof heads at MI6/CIA would also have worked that out, unless it was a particularly boofed, boofhead who put this latest snippet together.
IMO in all likelihood Ruslan Boshirov = Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga is correct. Towards the end of one of the supporting articles that sets out the ‘proof’ Bellingcat mutters something rather odd which seems like it actually detracts from the story – if the ultimate target of this revelation is Colonel Chepiga.
But who really cares about some obscure military intelligence mid-level bloke? (Colonel is nowhere near the giddy heights of any military, something I discovered when working in the Oz public service & I was seconded to the department of defence to do a job. Since I was working with a bunch of uniformed saluters, it was claimed they would not “feel comfortable working with someone of unknown status in the hierarchy”. So I was told that my position in the Public Service equated with the rank of colonel in the army. I can tell you, if it weren’t totally apparent, that I was just an average sh1tkicker)
No one cares about Chepiga, this entire saga is about getting the masses to accept without any deep consideration, that “Putin” the figurehead who (according to western media) micromanages everything evil about russia, only cares about destroying the life of Jo/Joe Sh1tkicker where ever in the world Jo/Joe may be.
So the last two paras of the burble runs thusly:

Bellingcat has contacted confidentially a former Russian military officer of similar rank as Colonel Chepiga, in order to receive a reaction to what we found. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed surprise that at least one of the operatives engaged in the operation in Salisbury had the rank of colonel. Even more surprising was the suspects’ prior award of the highest military recognition.
In our source’s words, an operation of this sort would have typically required a lower-ranked, “field operative” with a military rank of “no higher than captain.” The source further surmised that to send a highly decorated colonel back to a field job would be highly extraordinary, and would imply that “the job was ordered at the highest level.”

The logical flaw is obvious of course. If ‘the job’ had been ordered at the highest level surely sending some bloke who had been riding a desk for the last six years is not how it would handled, the most recently capable operative would be sent – either a relatively junior officer or a young but experienced NCO.
However assuming Boshirov = Colonel Chepiga is correct, while he would never be sent to supervise a hit on the ground much less carry it out; it doesn’t take a great stretch to ruminate on the possible tasks a military intelligence colonel would be sent to england for.
There is one obvious task which would explain most credibly what he was in Salisbury for – to give Sergey Skripal confidence that his repatriation was a genuine offer, not some half arsed wish fulfillment plan dreamed up by Yulia and a low level intelligence operator eager to climb into Yulia’s pants.
Two colonels of the GRU, one a highly decorated hero and the other a dodgy turncoat who had come to realise after the nonsense his immediate MI6 superior Pablo Miller, plus his big boss “Mr Steele” had put out about Moscow golden showers, whilst insinuating he, Skirpal was party to the fiction, that rapprochment between Russia and angland/amerika was never gonna happen. He was never going to be able to know any of his grandchildren or see his motherland again because usuk needed ‘evil Russia’ to distract their citizens away from the real evildoing ‘at home’.
Someone used a chess mataphor elsewhere in a thread, well I would say that if the Bellingcat revelation that Ruslan Boshirov = Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga. if true sails close to a checkmate.
If Russia confesses that Ruslan Boshirov does = Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, citizens in the west would be denied any explanation as the fishwraps and talking heads would be too busy celebrating Russia’s alleged ‘defeat’ to include any other portion of what Russia had said, especially not an exposition which dealt with everything from the fact that Chepiga & co arrived too late on Sunday for their poisoned doorknob to have tainted the Skirpals who had left the house for the last time hours before and that of all the english towns some idjit chose to squirt this muck around Salisbury was the one where assassination by chemical weapon was the town the least likely to give success since the proximity of Porton Downs guaranteed that some not all staff at Salisbury Hospital would have been trained in chem weapon detection and antidote.
On the other side of the coin – panic stations at MI6, on a quiet Sunday it has just been uncovered that an asset was ‘going over’. So some duty officer sent the thug on call for the day over to Porton Downs to grab ‘a little something’ guaranteed to prevent any such nonsense.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 27 2018 6:30 utc | 48

What other October surprises might be planned by either side?
This gave me chills.

Posted by: AG17 | Sep 27 2018 6:44 utc | 50

@31 ninel
@37 librul
@38 Yeah, Right
@46 Debsisdead
See my posts 11 and 12, according to Microsofts Facial Recognition software they are not the same person, even when artificially aging the 2003 photo.

Posted by: TJ | Sep 27 2018 8:20 utc | 52

Number 6 Adriane
Good post. The meeting between Downer and Papadopoulos I think was arrange by Downer? This meeting combined with the Steele/Skripal/Miller dossier, is used for a FISA warrant.

Posted by: Col from OZ | Sep 27 2018 9:05 utc | 54

Posted by: TJ | Sep 27, 2018 4:20:14 AM | 50
Did you even read the article I linked to? Aging software FFS, a useless app for the bored. About as real an instrument of ‘truth’ as an amerikan lie detector.
Setting aside the fact that a pair of low rez pix taken off the net are worthless for determining this stuff, using facial recog apps is worthless and that intelligence services of whatever ilk are rarely truthful about sources, the article details how the determination Boshirov = Colonel Chepiga was made.
It (the determination) relies on bureaucratic archive material mostly obtained covertly – nothing to do with the highly ineffective facial recognition system. Of course the deceit that inevitably accompanies any discussion by intelligence service about sources and means needs to be considered. However there is a big elephant in this room.
That is given that blowing the claim is a simple as putting Boshirov & Chepiga in the same room live on RT, something that russia has already done and now that Chepiga is blown no matter what comes next, if the englanders are not sure of their ground, it is highly unlikely that they would have run with this. Not impossible – just unlikely. Remember the englanders are doing this because of overt skepticism about the entire Skripal saga.
It is more likely that the two are the same person and the englanders have released this ID because they know after all that is happened they believe they have jammed Russia in a cleft stick.
Because of the way the debate has shifted in the last two weeks, that is down to identity and not about cui bene or that the Skripals went missing for 3 plus hours on the day in question, or that the Russian duo arrived in Salisbury hours after the Skripals left home for the last time, meaning that door knob painting couldn’t have poisoned them, it is going to be really difficult after what has already been said for russia to refute that and own to Boshirov = Colonel Chepiga.
They can do it, of course, but before that happens it is imperative more people are encouraged to consider the real flaws in the englanders’ claims.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Sep 27 2018 10:18 utc | 56

What other surprises?
Israeli plane is downed (pilot survives), Trump gets to be tough on Russia/Syria/Iran.

Posted by: jiri | Sep 27 2018 11:59 utc | 58

karlof1 @28:
Thanks for the great political and historical lessons in your post. There seems to be a lot of panic, maybe that’s a bad word, a feeling almost palpable, that these are the worst times, that nothing has ever happened like now.
Wrong. Everybody take a deep breath, go into the crying room if need be, this ain’t the first time this stuff ever happened and it sure ain’t gonna be the last.

Posted by: morongobill | Sep 27 2018 12:59 utc | 60

Good Trump gave an entertaining press conference yesterday bordering on civil interaction with the media, LOL, and predictably downplayed the Rosenstein dilemma. He stated he wants to delay the RR meeting….(probably until after 11/6?)….
But when Twitter Trump shows up again who knows what will happen?
Trump will definitely become a less interesting and perhaps more predictable leader of the global capitalist apparatus should the demotards take the House and moreso if they also pull off the Senate upset. I believe he pivots often into the “gracious” Trump we saw on display yesterday and maybe…maybe… starts to even give something like lip service (at least) to half the population that didn’t vote for him, cuts a deal on the dreamers, of course also drops his Obamacare repeal fantasies (by necessity), supports Social Security and Medicare more forcefully against the demented GOP hardliners just as he did during the campaign, etc. which should also help him shore up and retain his base support among those who will howl about a dreamers compromise.
IOW makes some moves toward becoming the populist leader he emulated on the campaign trail once the hard right no longer controls the legislative agenda. A move to the center right may also shield him some from the next round of congressional investigations in the next Congress chaired by Demotards.
This is supposedly how the US political system should function so will be interesting to see how far Trump will “course correct” in his self interest…at least in terms of public style.
For this also seems to me Trump’s only realistic path to re-election. Of course he and many of his fans believe electoral lightening can strike twice in the same places if he just keeps doing what he’s been doing but I will take the other side of that bet.
As it is, Trump’s budget MO is giving both sides all the money they want for their pet programs (and accepting only token wall money in return), budget deficit be damned because he also supported the ridiculous “tax reform” legislation based on the long discredited idea that a growing economy will magically make up the difference in lost tax revenue.

Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 27 2018 13:08 utc | 62

Re Debsisdead @54
Would not the simplest way to prove that the two men are not the same be to produce them together at a press conference?

Posted by: Baker | Sep 27 2018 13:24 utc | 64

I’ve now come to a firm conclusion and will update my comment @42. I believe this was a set up made to look like a set up of Trump instigated in the radical right Nunes/Meadows wing of the party with the help of the Trump propaganda squad led by Hannity and Pirro to discredit Rosenstein and make him appear like a deep-state operative in the public’s view conspiring to take Trump down to sully/taint the Mueller investigation, make Trump look like innocent victim Caesar with inside enemies bent on his destruction and temporarily distract from emerging allegations about Kavanaugh’s nasty youthful exploits with a media blitz distraction about nothing. Trump was in on all of it, hence his measured response and all parties had a good laugh at the expense of the Times which is why the Times quietly retreated in embarrassment. Democrats had nothing to gain in making Rosenstein look like a villain and risking the investigation.
It was all planned by Trump and Friends. Now Trump gets to shame Rosenstein with no public outcry, and if Rosenstein resigns; there’s an added bonus – Trump gets to pick his replacement. It’s all good for Trump. The most important question is always who benefits the most, again, Trump.

Posted by: Circe | Sep 27 2018 13:44 utc | 66

@ Circe 43
The reason I praised this as a Jewish blog, is not because of Zionists hanging out here. It’s because unlike many other blogs/websites with relatively uncensored/unfiltered comment sections, the comments here show no signs of antisemitism
Just to give one recent example, yesterday a friend of mine showed me some of comments in response to articles at UNZ review…..some were blaming Zionists for dragging America into WWI. …Another one there said it was a proven fact and anyone with an IQ over room temperature knows of the Jewish supremacists/Zionist’s treachery in foisting WWII on Europe and America, and the slaughter-fest that ensued…the result of which was Israel, rising out of the ashes of Europe
Other commenters were praising historical revisionists who deny the Holocaust, Gerard Menuhin and Professor Roger Dommergue were mentioned, two Jewish revisionists who deny the holocaust and whose names often come up on right-wing sites
Others went on to blame Israel (and Larry Silverman) for 9/11 and to blame Israel for the Mideast wars that followed, as well as the mass third world immigration into Europe which has resulted from this.
Another Unz Review commenter called this mass immigration into Europe an “invasion” that is intended to be “white genocide by design” (meaning Soros and Jewish Supremacists are the ones behind it)
And so those are the kind of comments we’re finding not only
on Unz Review but on blogs and websites all over the Internet, but not at Moon of Alabama, which is why I praised this as a Jewish blog
However it might have been more accurate for me NOT to call Moon of Alabama a Jewish blog, but to point out that UNLIKE the comment sections on many other blogs and websites, there are no signs of anti-semitism on this blog

Posted by: dov | Sep 27 2018 16:05 utc | 68

@yeah, right… thanks for your posts…

Posted by: james | Sep 27 2018 17:08 utc | 70

@68
I won’t comment on who’s to blame for WWI and WWII. There’s plenty of blame to go around. I would say that the rise of Nazism could be attributed to failures and inhumanity towards the German people post WWI, but nothing excuses what the Nazis did.
Now, fforward to present as far as the successive wars and proxy wars waged on Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen ALL can be attributed to a Zionist agenda imposed on the other most militarized country besides Israel, the U.S. Likewise, the Arab mass migration is not an unplanned coincidence. Wars produce mass migration and Zionists know this better than anyone. Therefore, I have no pity for Zionists who pretend they’re unjustly blamed for the ME wars and the consequences! All these ME wars can be linked to Zionist foreign policy agendas and geopolitical machinations to protect and benefit the Zionist state to the detriment of others.

Posted by: Circe | Sep 27 2018 19:38 utc | 72

dov – another hasbara troll, but folks want to engage the bozo.. go figure..

Posted by: james | Sep 27 2018 20:15 utc | 74

@ dov 68
Apologies in advance, English is not my language
I would consider Professor Roger Dommergue as an interesting French revisionist because he is a very brilliant man and his interviews are always full of humor and amazing anecdotes.
I had never heard before about Dommergue as a revisionist in France. An eventual mention of him on another blog let me know about his existence.
His presence is not perceptible in the French media which prefer to focus on the “living evil” Prof. Robert Faurisson. That reason we’ve never heard of him might possibly be connected with the fact that Dommergue was born from a jewish mother converted to christianism and that, despite he is an agnostic, he treats jews as his “congeners”

Posted by: jayde | Sep 27 2018 21:43 utc | 76

@ Dov
I’m guessing that the comments you found on Unz Review were either in response to Ron Unz’s American Pravda series, or Dr Andrew Joyce’s article called “Modify the Standards of the In-Group: On Jews and Mass Communication” ?
Concerning Andrew Joyce one of the commenters said: “This is the most important article by Dr. Joyce that I have read. I had no clue about this vital information”
And from Ron Unz’s American Pravda series, which covers everything from World War One to 9/11, Ron’s conclusion concerning the JFK assassination is that the ONE CERTAINTY that emerges from any fair-minded study of the Kennedy assassination is that the media has been GROSSLY DISHONEST—and that’s putting it mildly.
As he puts it:
“So the clear dishonesty of the mainstream media in avoiding any recognition of a conspiracy seems matched by a second layer of dishonesty in the alternative media, which has done its best to avoid recognizing the most likely perpetrator.
“And the third layer of media dishonesty is the the most extreme of all. A quarter century ago, Final Judgment provided an enormous mass of circumstantial evidence suggesting a major, even dominant, role for the Israeli Mossad in organizing the elimination of both our 35rd president and also his younger brother, a scenario that seems second in likelihood only to that of Johnson’s involvement.
Yet Piper’s hundreds of thousands of words of analysis have seemingly vanished into the ether, with very few of the major conspiracy researchers even willing to admit their awareness of a shocking book that sold over 40,000 copies, almost entirely by underground word-of-mouth.”
As a public service, Ron Unz has put Piper’s Final Judgment online—and you can read it for free. Also don’t miss Laurent Guyénot’s From Yahweh to Zion, which extends Piper’s analysis.
But despite this dishonesty concerning the JFK assassination, you’re telling us we should trust the dishonest media’s official narratives on everything else, including WWI and WWII, 9/11 and the MidEast wars, etc amirite?

Posted by: anon | Sep 28 2018 3:18 utc | 78

Russ thank you for telling me. For anyone else here is one news item about it at something called Times of Israel (first search result for “Jerry Seinfeld Israel”). The page displays poorly without javascript however in at least Mozilla and similar browsers one can choose to display the page without any style sheet (on the browser Menu bar choose View | Page Style | No Style or anything similar) which makes it perfectly readable without allowing it to run code.
Thanks to anon here is a link to the Final Judgement at Unz Review.
I hope I’ve done this correctly and that the page margins here don’t break.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Sep 28 2018 6:44 utc | 80

Mon dieu! What other October surprises?
-$ 850B Omnibus Debt Bill Two
-$ 125B Fed Bank Interest Only Debt Service Bleedoff
-$ ???B Undesignated 25% Fed VAT Trade Tax Slush Fund
-$1,250B 3Q Deep State Mil.Gov UniParty Tithe-Tribute
Two trillion GI Joe bucks, disappearing POOF into atoms
No stop-loss, no audits, no accountability Great Satan
Bombing recommences at 09:30 Tehran time, 05/11
Another ’11’ Event to feed The Beast

Posted by: Anton Worter | Sep 28 2018 15:19 utc | 82

@ Sunny Runny Burger 82
Anyone who reads Piper’s Final Judgement will never think about the JFK assassination in the same way again
And any honest person who listens to this 45 minute video will understand that Michael Collins Piper was murdered because he dared to tell the truth
Michael Collins Piper: FINAL JUDGEMENT lecture [Mossad connection to JFK Conspiracy]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2utTWSdq8YY

Posted by: anon107 | Sep 28 2018 16:27 utc | 84

a blueprint of a social system
Its design is well above abilities of an ordinary mind, including that of its publisher.
It is a dynamic process of two stages…..first destabilization, increasing freedom and liberalism, which is terminated in social cataclysm
and on the second stage, new hierarchical restructuring of society takes place
It is more complicated than a nuclear bomb. It could be a stolen and distorted plan designed by a mind of genius.
The master-plan begins with reshaping of the human mind:
People’s minds should be diverted (away from contemplation) towards industry and trade, and then they will have no time to think.
The people will be consumed by the pursuit of gain.
It will be vain pursuit, for we shall put industry on a speculative basis:
what is withdrawn from the land by industry will slip through the hands of workers and industrialists and pass into the hands of financiers
The intensified struggle for survival and superiority, accompanied by crises and shocks will create cold and heartless communities with strong aversion towards religion
Their only guide will be the gain that is Mammon, which they will erect into a veritable cult

Posted by: debs_is_alive | Sep 29 2018 12:19 utc | 86

James @ 74 – dov – another hasbara troll, but folks want to engage the bozo.. go figure..
One of the features of internet commenting is there will always be people who want to feed the trolls. I imagine creative trolling of the trolls is one attraction, especially when the troll is also trolling at a high level.
Just as there always are a few glum others who take it upon themselves (unless they are paid to do so?) to “serve and protect” the community from these heinous “comment thread criminals” in an attempt to maintain “law and order.”
I guess my sincere question is why bother, dude? Unless you are paid, what do you derive from this repeated activity which always proves useless and in itself adds no value to the discussion?

Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 29 2018 12:42 utc | 88

Newsflash
Neoliberal jackasses ‘don’t get’ public service.
=
Bonus: donkeytale essentially admits he’s a paid troll: “… why bother, dude? Unless you are paid …”
LMFAO (thanks to mighty james, troll slayer)

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 29 2018 14:49 utc | 90