Robert Mueller Hearing A 'Disaster' For Democrats
The Democrats wanted Robert Mueller to testify about his report on their favorite conspiracy theories, that Russia influenced the U.S. election and that Trump colluded with Russia in this.
Mueller had made clear that he did not want to testify and that all he had to say was already in his report. The Democrats insisted. But today's hearing went poorly as even their partisan followers admit:
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw - 18:30 UTC Jul 24, 2019Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster. Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it. The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced.
During the hearing multiple Democrats tried to get Mueller to support an impeachment of Trump. But Mueller never gave them that gift. The Democrats should thank him for that. An impeachment process against Trump is not popular:
A July Post-ABC poll found that 37 percent of Americans support Congress beginning impeachment proceedings, while 59 percent do not, with a 61 percent majority of Democrats backing proceedings.
It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics.
Mueller seemed to be not aware of many details of the investigation done under his name.
He said he knew nothing about GPS, the company hired by the Clinton campaign to contract with MI6 agent Christopher Steele to fabricate the 'dirty dossier'. There were lots of reports about GPS in the media and Mueller missed all of them?
He refused to answer why he did not indict Joseph Mifsud, a mysterious Maltese professor who planted the claim that 'Russia has dirt on Hillary Clinton' with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos later repeated that claim. The FBI then used that fact as the reason to launch its investigation against the Trump campaign. In his report Mueller claimed, without showing evidence, that Mifsud worked for Russia. That is unlikely and there is actual evidence that he worked with the British MI6.
Mifsud lied to the Mueller investigation. But unlike others witnesses who lied, Mueller never indicted him for making false statements. He punted on questions about this issue with multiple “Can’t get into that.”
He reacted similar when he was asked about Christopher Steele, the British agent who created and peddled the fake 'dirty dossier'.
There is still another Justice Department investigation ongoing that will look at the whole Russia affair from a different viewpoint. Was the FBI investigation into 'Russiagate' an illegal partisan effort to go after Trump? Who really initiate the whole 'Russiagate' campaign that seems to have been run by the British MI6? Was it John Brennan, Obama's CIA director, involved?
Little is known about that second investigation. It will hopefully come up with better evidence and results than the one Robert Mueller led.
Posted by b on July 24, 2019 at 17:57 UTC | Permalink
next page »Here are some very interesting comments from Vladimir Putin about Russia's role in the 2016 election and how the election was rigged for a Clinton victory:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/07/vladimir-putins-observations-on.html
As Mr. Putin states, the 2016 election was a clear case of the loser not wanting to admit defeat.
Posted by: Sally Snyder | Jul 24 2019 18:22 utc | 2
Lots of Schadenfreude options with this.
"The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced."
What idiotic partisan drivel from the aptly named Lawrence Tribe. There's no real democracy and every president is lawless (as is every other US institution).
"During the hearing multiple Democrats tried to get Mueller to support an impeachment of Trump."
Maybe they should try getting their own Speaker to support it. It's the only possible theater they have left.
"It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
Why would they do that? By any objective or historical measure the Democrats are a far-right party. Oldest bourgeois political party on Earth.
Laurence Tribe's "lawless president" was Obama, not Trump. In a great many ways, Obama is/was worse than Trump, which ought to be expected--Obama's CIA, Trump's merely an Apprentice. Mueller fashioned a cover up and is fortunate to escape. There're still many crimes to investigate and arrests to be made, but those are mostly on Tribe's side.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 18:35 utc | 5
Russ #3. You took the words right out of my keypad Russ, starting with your first "quote" and ending with your last "quote". The only difference is you said it much better and more succinctly than I.
Posted by: juannie | Jul 24 2019 18:48 utc | 7
Brennan no matter how you toss, turn, stretch, fold or slant it.
Brennan (and a small côterie around him) tried a 'lever-grab' when Trump won.
It got out of hand when the MSM ran away with it and Brennan was ex.
The only way to control this narrative was for Brennan remain in charge of it.
Hence his pundit role on CIA Network News.
It ain't rocket science.
Posted by: bjd | Jul 24 2019 18:53 utc | 8
curious man #4--
Shades of the Sirhan-Sirhan frame-up it would seem. You don't go to a crowded nightclub, get out on the dance floor and kill yourself; instead, you'd shoot up the club then kill yourself or allow the cops to do the deed. The Clinton Crime Family strikes again!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 18:54 utc | 9
The aim is now to get Trump on obstruction of justice. However, it's highly possible that Obama will get hit with that charge first for obstructing the investigation and charging of Hillary Clinton for the many crimes she committed. Then there are also Obama's crimes, too. But does Trump have the balls required? We shall see.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 19:08 utc | 10
"It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
Depends. Do you want them to talk about real progressive, as in leftist and anti-capitalist, politics, or about fake "progressive" politics, as in the SJW pet-peeve of the day?
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Jul 24 2019 19:10 utc | 11
“It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics.“
b, you of all people should know that the Democratic Party is not interested as an institution in progressive politics. There seems to be a few who hang out with the Dems who are. They are flogging a dead horse. We need a new party that will really fight for the working people, and mobilize for change, not just for elections.
Posted by: Jeffrey Kaye | Jul 24 2019 19:14 utc | 12
OT OT OT
Iranian source says IAEA chief assassinated
The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, recently passed away and now there are claims that he was actually assassinated by Israel and the US for refusing to give in to raise new allegations against Iran's nuclear program. It appears that he was not in the best of health and therefore was planning to step down early, but on the other hand there appears to be no depth to which the accused parties will not sink.
Does anybody have further info on this?
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2019-07/24/content_75028198.htm
Posted by: farm ecologist | Jul 24 2019 19:26 utc | 13
Anyone who has doubted that the so-called Russia-gate scandal was nothing nothing but a fraud ginned-up by the Democrats, specifically by the Clinton wing of the party from day one, must be hopelessly stupid. Donald Trump's election to the Presidency, was in fact, the product of a gerrymandered House of Representatives, that gave individual congressional districts to the GOP, which in turn, assured Trump's election by the Electoral College, regardless of how the popular vote went. That is the reason why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, in addition to her being a lousy and arrogant campaigner.
Posted by: GeorgeV | Jul 24 2019 19:30 utc | 14
The gerrymandering of the House of Representatives is deplorable, but it did not affect the Electoral College vote in 2016. How many votes a state gets in the Electoral College depends on its population as determined by the census.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 24 2019 19:54 utc | 15
"It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
Hahahaha! Stop, you're killing me! ROTFL!
Posted by: TG | Jul 24 2019 19:56 utc | 16
"It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
Don't hold your breath.
Posted by: Thirdeye | Jul 24 2019 19:56 utc | 17
karlof1@13. Trump... “I don’t want to hurt them,” he said, referring to the Clintons. “They’re good people.”
Posted by: Harry Law | Jul 24 2019 19:57 utc | 18
farm ecologist @17--
I rather doubt he was murdered; his health was in decline; he planned to retire soon; and he was not at the recent closed-door meeting called by the Outlaw US Empire. As I wrote yesterday, the two most avid candidates for his replacement are an Argentinian and a Romanian, whose degree of independence must be questioned as was Amano's initially. As I cited Zarif as saying, his replacement must be as great an advocate of JCPOA as he was.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 20:02 utc | 19
Among the incidental damage of this farcical reprise of McCarthyite history was Emptywheel-Marci Wheeler, who must have known better but evidently believed that the Democrats would win this one and be distributing spoils galore.
A pity because, in her time, before 2016 Marci did much constructive work, now all wasted away. Most of the partisan Democrats who have felt obliged to pay lip service to this nonsense-including Bernie who must have known better- have damaged their credibility significantly. And they didn't have an abundance of credibility to draw on.
So we can expect the stupidity to continue: too many people have too much political capital invested in Russiagate not to keep selling this combination of a mirage and Brooklyn Bridge to the fan club.
I'm beginning to think that Julian Assange won't be extradited for the same reason as the Internet Research Agency of St Petersburg is not being charged: even the corrupt US court system cannot completely guarantee that Julian will not say something very interesting about the matter. And come up with irrefutable proof that it is true.
Posted by: bevin | Jul 24 2019 20:03 utc | 20
Harry Law @23--
Yeah, deplorable ain't it? But he hates Obama, who certainly obstructed justice. As I opined a few days ago, Trump probably told Pelosi that if impeachment proceedings against him were to go forward then he'd go after Obama, which is why Pelosi again said impeachment's off the table.
As for what some see as a related topic, to get beyond Epstein, the sealed financial records must be unsealed cause that's where all the goodies are hidden--follow the money, don'tcha know!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 20:09 utc | 21
For those who challenged b's assertion that the Ds would start talking about Progressive politics, he's correct as they already have/are--attacking Progressive politicians and the policies they champion. From yesterday:
"'It's as Bad as It Looks': Pelosi Under Fire for Debt Ceiling Deal That Hands GOP Power to Kneecap Progressive Agenda
"'It sets up a crisis of the first year of the next president's administration,' said a former congressional staffer. 'We're letting them light the fuse on another bomb and place it squarely in the middle of the next president's first year.'"
Quite similar to what Obama did to Trump at the executive.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 20:17 utc | 22
The whole Russiagate thing started two days after the DNC found out it had lost its emails. Losing the emails meant the world would know that the primary was rigged, and that the DNC, with media assistance, intentionally lined Trump up as an easy-to-beat GOP candidate. This would be very very bad for them all, and for the USA. The future could have been a scene of the Democrat candidate being hauled away in cuffs mid way through the election campaign.
Fox reporter says Assange told her privately to tell Seth Rich's parents that Seth did the leak. The timeline fits that Mifsud, and then Alexander Downer, did what they did upon request, implicating Paps in a Russia scandal all the way on the other side of the pond (read somewhere that Paps doesn't even recall mentioning the Russian dirt thing to Downer), so that it wasn't so obvious that the need for the whole Russiagate campaign originated entirely from the DNC email leak.
Posted by: Peter D | Jul 24 2019 20:18 utc | 23
This so-called "report" can be described in one word; Obfuscation..
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 20:29 utc | 24
I think he was just playing dumb as soon as they asked him anything implicating MI6, the Clintons or the FBI. His answers for the Dems were pretty short and sweet, anytime he was asked anything tricky he mumbled and fuddled to obfuscate the truth, if he actually answered at all.
Posted by: EtTuBrute | Jul 24 2019 20:32 utc | 25
Russ @ 3 said; "It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
No doubt, but don't hold your breath. The un-named party of big $, has captured most of the D's and R's AND WILL PREVAIL..
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 20:33 utc | 26
PCR posits that Trump needs to go after the crminals, in what he calls,
...the most massive conspiracy in American history, the intent of which was a coup against the elected president of the United States...
He says that Chavez' fatal mistake was 'moving on' instead of going after the gang behind the 2002 coup attempt [ie the powerful Venezuelan oligarchy].
Muduro is repeating Chavez’s mistake. The CIA puppet who declared himself President of Venezuela and participated overtly with Washington in a coup attempt against Maduro has been given a free pass by Maduro, who has “moved on.”Politicians who are so stupid as to allow extreme criminal actions against democracy to go unpunished destroy democracy and bring about their own overthrow. Will Trump be one of them?
Posted by: flankerbandit | Jul 24 2019 20:41 utc | 27
" ...the most massive conspiracy in American history, the intent of which was a coup against the elected president of the United States..."
Now that's garbage..
The REAL garbage was, and is, blaming Russia instead of the bought, and paid for corporate Dems, like HRC, and Obama..
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 20:49 utc | 28
P.S.- You can add Pelosi and Schumer to that list, and many more, who worship at the feet of the uber-wealthy, instead of serving the public interest. All these and more, including DJT, are the real problem..
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 20:54 utc | 29
ben @34--
PCR is wrong about it being "the most massive conspiracy in American history." I would posit that the attempt to implement the #1 policy goal of Full Spectrum Dominance is THE most massive conspiracy--historic and ongoing--as it involves almost the entire Federal government and the armed forces just for starters. Blaming Russia is part of that policy goal.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 20:57 utc | 30
To Lysias: Please read or reread a 9th grade high school civics book. Each US House congressional district is allotted one elector to the Electoral College. Each congressional district in each state is determined by that states' legislature. If that legislature is controlled by a particular political party, (Democrat, GOP etc.) then the makeup of that state's congressional borders will reflect the majority party's wishes on who goes to the Electoral College as an elector. Thus the gerrymandering. Remember, it is for better or worse, the Electoral College that actually selects who will be President, not the popular vote. Usually, most electors will reflect the voters of their district. But there have been rare exceptions. The US of A is not a pure democracy, but a limited one.
Posted by: GeorgeV | Jul 24 2019 20:59 utc | 31
karlof @ 36; Agreed, but, this whole ball of wax is about massive corporate profits, and those sycophants who enable the process of killing for profits, around the globe...
That's what the 4th Reich does..
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 21:04 utc | 32
b:
"It is high time for the Democrats to finally bury that nonsense and to start talking about progressive politics."
I completely agree with previous comments making the point that the Democratic Party, as an establishment institution, derails progressive change.
b supported Sanders in 2016. Apparently, he still hasn't caught on to the ruse.
"Democracy" as we understand that term is dead. Does anyone really believe that the Hillary vs. Trump choice arose from a 'democratic' process? Is Theresa May and Boris Johnson's selection to lead Britian 'democratic'? What about two consecutive rounds of Jewish Presidents and Prime Ministers in Ukraine? Is that a true 'democratic' choice?
Representative democracy has been compromised by money. The best alternative is direct democracy, which is a key demand of the Yellow Vest protestors.
=
Was the FBI investigation into 'Russiagate' an illegal partisan effort to go after Trump?
No. Russiagate was means for the Deep State to initiate a new McCarthyism. It had virtually no effect on the 2016 election.
=
Who really initiate the whole 'Russiagate' campaign that seems to have been run by the British MI6? Was it John Brennan, Obama's CIA director, involved?
I think it's pretty clear that CIA uses MI6 for US domestic 'ops'. I doubt MI6 would be 'meddling' in US Presidential elections without CIA approval. And Gina Haspel was in UK during this time.
I've voiced my deep suspicions about the 2016 Presidential election for well over a year, and specifically about Brennan (as a ring-leader) on April 20th 2019:
Brennan on trialDid he order the new McCarthyism (aka "Code Red") which included electing Trump as President, setting up Wikileaks to be smeared as a foreign agent, and settling scores with Michael Flynn?
Acting on 'Deep State' approval from the likes of Clinton, McCain, Mueller, Bush Sr., et al.
<> <> <> <> <> <>
The public is being led to believe that some bad apples in FBI/CIA were trying to elect Hillary and then unseat President Trump. That makes no sense for many reasons but chief among them is that Trump has not been bad for the establishment that pretends to hate him.
What makes much more sense is that Trump was meant to win. There wouldn't have been a Russiagate without a Trump win and Kissinger was calling for something like MAGA in 2014 to meet the challenge from Russia and China. Plus Hillary lost/threw the election by taking steps that no seasoned politician would have, like alienating key voter groups and refusing to campaign in the 3 mid-Western states that SHE KNEW would decide the election (her running mate grew up in the mid-West!)
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 24 2019 21:04 utc | 33
The Constitution gives states the power to determine how their electoral votes are awarded. All the states but Maine and Nebraska award all their electoral votes to the one candidate who receives the highest number of popular votes in the state. So congressional district boundaries have no effect on the electoral votes.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 24 2019 21:07 utc | 35
What about the MH-17 "conspiracy theories"? A recent video "MH17: Call for Justice’ (2019)" produced by Max van der Werff blows the lid off (just the tip of the iceberg) of the propaganda put worth by the West.
A new documentary from Max van der Werff, the leading independent investigator of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 disaster, has revealed breakthrough evidence of tampering and forging of prosecution materials; suppression of Ukrainian Air Force radar tapes; and lying by the Dutch, Ukrainian, US, and Australian governments. An attempt by agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to take possession of the black boxes of the downed aircraft is also revealed by a Malaysian National Security Council official for the first time.The sources of the breakthrough are Malaysian – Prime Minister of Malaysia Mohamad Mahathir; Colonel Mohamad Sakri, the officer in charge of the MH17 investigation for the Prime Minister’s Department and Malaysia’s National Security Council following the crash on July 17, 2014; and a forensic analysis by Malaysia’s OG IT Forensic Services of Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU) telephone tapes which Dutch prosecutors have announced as genuine.
...
The film reveals the Malaysian Government’s evidence for judging the JIT’s witness testimony, photographs, video clips, and telephone tapes to have been manipulated by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), and to be inadmissible in a criminal prosecution in a Malaysian or other national or international court.
For the first time also, the Malaysian Government reveals how it got in the way of attempts the US was organizing during the first week after the crash to launch a NATO military attack on eastern Ukraine. The cover story for that was to rescue the plane, passenger bodies, and evidence of what had caused the crash. In fact, the operation was aimed at defeating the separatist movements in the Donbass, and to move against Russian-held Crimea.
The new film reveals that a secret Malaysian military operation took custody of the MH17 black boxes on July 22, preventing the US and Ukraine from seizing them
(Source)
Posted by: jsb | Jul 24 2019 21:15 utc | 36
lysias @41--
Correct!
Techno_Fog and thread seem to agree Mueller perjured himself and ought to get the Flynn treatment.
Margaret Kimberley on Russiagate's legs and at least one responsible for keeping it alive:
"Robert Mueller testifies today but Russiagate will live on as long as cynical democrats like Kamala Harris want it to. She is the worst, as she uses black people and denies our history in an effort to promote the lie."
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 21:23 utc | 37
ben @40
Thanks. You are (and have been for some time) among those who are savvy enough to understand what is really going on.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 24 2019 21:24 utc | 38
I agree with Jackrabbit......it is all kabuki for the masses and it seems "we" are all sufficiently entertained
@ jsb with the MH17 update.....thanks.....more evidence that most/all of what happens is structured if not actually carried out as kabuki cover for perfidy behind the curtain
My Overton Window has the US Democrats and Republicans in the same corner of support for the elite that own global private finance.....just like there is no "empire" difference between UK/US nation state elite in spite of what is projected to the masses.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 24 2019 21:28 utc | 39
bevin #25, not buying any kind words about Marci Wheeler, or her crap infested emptywheel site. Shill, screaching nonsense, brainless analysis, obsessive Trump hatred, no critical introspection applied to demoncratz.
emptywheel is exactly that, all rim and no spokes or hub.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 24 2019 21:30 utc | 40
Progressive politics is irrelevant. The last chance this system had was when Obama gave the banks a trillion dollars, instead of housecleaning. Though the die was pretty much cast anyway. Nothing else matters, not politics, not climate change, not foreign policy, before the financial system is cauterized. The only movement in that direction is the public banking initiative;
http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org
Their efforts might seem fairly feeble, but it's the only way to solve this mess.
Government was private once. It was called monarchy and the monarchists insisted "mob rule" could never work. Not that they were completely wrong, but it became better than the alternative.
It does seem the democrats have done more to elevate Trump, than Trump has. The irony.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 24 2019 21:34 utc | 41
The reason Mueller couldn't comment or answer so many questions today. The irony is off the charts.
"What Goes Around"
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/what-goes-around/
"It turned out that Mr. Mueller’s team had no evidence that the Russian government was involved with the Facebook pranks. This annoyed Judge Friedrich, who ordered Mr. Mueller and his lawyers to desist making public statements about Concord and IRA’s alleged “sweeping and systemic” collusion with Russia, and threatened legal sanctions if they did."
Posted by: Oraneg | Jul 24 2019 21:35 utc | 42
@GeorgeV #37
Electoral College votes are proportional to the number of Congressional districts in each state but are not allocated according to the vote in each district. They are allocated winner-take-all according to the candidate with the most votes in each state. The gerrymandering is irrelevant in presidential elections.
Posted by: Thirdeye | Jul 24 2019 21:45 utc | 43
Mueller's stumbling, fumbling, confused performance serves to discredit his report. Thats a win for Democrats. Of course he wouldn't support impeachment publicly as he was hired to cover it up. Nobody does cover ups better than Mueller. Doesn't know who GPS is? LOL. No indictments for Steele and Mifsud. More LOL
With the author of the report that supposedly absolved Trump discredited, the report is no longer credible. Impeachment is the only way to get answers. But Dems and the deep State Media don't want impeachment despite their public rhetoric. Its all fake wrestling. Trumps the man the elite have chosen. They follow the orders of their masters who wish them to to make ineffective noises against Trump to serve the illusion we have a 2 party Democracy
So instead of emphasizing how Mueller discredited himself as a justification for impeachment they muddle the water with articles pointing to their defeat because Mueller didn't hand them anything on a silver platter (impeachment) besides his own apparent incompetence, they wave the white flag of defeat. LOL, IQ’s are plummeting like a Boeing 737Max. There is nothing people wont believe.
Posted by: Pft | Jul 24 2019 21:48 utc | 44
John Merryman @47--
You opine: "Progressive politics is irrelevant." Then you endorse a Progressive Political Policy Goal: "the public banking initiative".
The Populist Progressive Movement of the late 19th Century championed Public Banks as opposed to Private Banks and pushed for them to be implemented on a national scale. The all too numerous business cycle and financial crashes from 1876 to 1912 finally pushed Conservatives into forming a hybrid they could control which became the Federal Reserve. Its 106 year history shows that it's extremely imperfect and has caused great harm to the majority of the US citizenry. IMO, it would be best to terminate the Fed and replace it with what the Populists originally proposed--a nationwide system of public banks dedicated to serving the public interest while working with the US Treasury to manage the nation's coin and currency. Private banks could still exist; but with the Fed's elimination, their special privileges would disappear and they'd be forced to compete in a fair market with public banks. Here's the main national advocate group's website to establish a system of public banks while allowing the Fed to remain.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 22:07 utc | 45
Karlof1,
I'm not saying it isn't progressive politics, but that it's the core issue. Will we ever have an effective healthcare system, for example, if we still have a culture that views money as a commodity to mine out of society, rather than the social contract enabling mass society?
Will we ever learn to take care of the environment, when the vultures only see value to monetize?
Money is a tool that has become our god. We need to make it a tool again.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 24 2019 22:22 utc | 46
ps;
One of my ancestors, Louis McLane, was Jackson's Sec of the Treasury, until he got on the wrong side of the renewing the Second Bank of the US issue, then was switched to State.
It's never going to be an issue that will be fully resolved, because the situation is always dynamic, so it will fluctuate between the various options, as each learns a little from the previous, as well as forgetting a few things. Life.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 24 2019 22:27 utc | 47
51 Cont'd--
Oops, I see we linked to the same site. What follows is the relevant portion of the National People's Party Platform also known as the Omaha Platform adopted in 1892:
"FINANCE.—We demand a national currency, safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the people, at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent. per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a better system; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.
"1. We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of l6 to 1.
"2. We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita.
"3. We demand a graduated income tax.
"4. We believe that the money of the country should be kept as much as possible in the hands of the people, and hence we demand that all State and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government, economically and honestly administered.
"5. We demand that postal savings banks be established by the government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facilitate exchange."
I wonder what a delegate to that Convention would think of today's level of corruption and the utterly criminal mismanagement of the nation's/People's finances by those entrusted with that job.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 22:28 utc | 48
Anyone good with Photoshop?
Democrats didn't get what they wanted from the hearing.
But let us at least try to get a smile out of crestfallen Democrats.
The Robert Mueller/Aaron Zebley hearing could make use of a mem.
Have Obi-Wan photo-bombing the hapless pair.
"These are not the (D)roids you're looking for"
Posted by: librul | Jul 24 2019 22:28 utc | 49
Corporate Democrats are shark suckers attached to the bottoms of Oligarchs. To keep feeding they must blame someone else not the White Shark. Russians are a natural enemy for the five-eyes intelligence community and corrupt politicians. Media propaganda can’t keep up with the spooks crazy operations; restarting the Cold War, the Steele Dossier, Brexit, Salisbury Poisonings, Trade Sanctions, or pirating oil tankers. One or all will inevitably kill the host.
Posted by: VietnamVet | Jul 24 2019 22:29 utc | 50
Thank you John Merryman who wrote
"
Will we ever have an effective healthcare system, for example, if we still have a culture that views money as a commodity to mine out of society, rather than the social contract enabling mass society?
"
I see this as an issue that both "fake left/right" but really the bottom to top/bottom could support but they are kept fighting each other over fake left/right memes......aka Robert Mueller kabuki
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 24 2019 22:30 utc | 51
John Merryman @52&53--
Thanks for your reply! I don't know if you followed the discourse on the latest week in review open thread where I invoked Hudson's advocation of public versus private finance, but quite a lot was unveiled and discussed. IMO, universal healthcare comes under the auspices of "Promoting the General Welfare" and is the easiest FIRE sector to eliminate or at minimum greatly downsize and eliminate from politics.
We need change. We all know it. Yet, they also know it; that's why we're denied change and are subjected to crass crap like Russiagate.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 22:41 utc | 52
This so-called "report" whole thing can be described in one word; summed up in three words Obfuscation Brennan and Clapper/Hayden...
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 24 2019 22:42 utc | 53
As I recall, it is said that Roosevelt is credited with "saving capitalism from itself." While this is usually taken to mean that he held society together, after the great crash, the conspiracy side of me observes that not only was he putting unemployed labor back to work, but unemployed capital, as well. As that is when the deficit really first started.
What I think most are missing, the real elephant in the room, is the extent to which public debt supports private wealth. Where would those trillions go otherwise? Blow up the stock market even more?
I think the real kabuki is the story they actually try to budget, rather than spend as much as possible, in order to borrow more and further create the space for more money to be borrowed into existence and add more billionaires.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 24 2019 22:44 utc | 54
karlof1,
Their mistake is they assume TINA. So they think they can be as corrupt, delusional and irresponsible as they wish and nothing can stop them. Yet they are the greatest danger to themselves, not any of today's protest movements. That's why I think the real effort should go to developing a ground up alternative, on the assumption the system is going to crash monumentally. Rather than reforming it from the inside. That is why I fussed about "progressive politics."
Say a radical "think tank." With a focus on objectively gaming out the crash, rather than playing into current political polarities. Then it puts those in political movements on notice that emotions are irrelevant, as well as telling those in control they can do whatever nonsense they chose, as they are just being useful idiots to the larger dynamic.
It's cycles all the way down.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 24 2019 23:18 utc | 55
Pft @ 50 said;"Its all fake wrestling. Trumps the man the elite have chosen. They follow the orders of their masters who wish them to to make ineffective noises against Trump to serve the illusion we have a 2 party Democracy"
Yes, and STILL, millions have no clue. Propaganda/ Advertising works.E. Bernays would be proud.
Posted by: ben | Jul 24 2019 23:29 utc | 56
@Clueless Joe:
When have the Democrats ever been truly or even partly "anti-capitalist"? LOL such a silly thing to think.
Posted by: KC | Jul 24 2019 23:35 utc | 57
An alternative inquiry might question Julian Assange and Craig Murray. And they really should question Cody Shearer, Sidney Blumenthal.and of course Christopher Steele. Sergei Skripal would likely have relevant information (if he could be found), along with his MI6 minder Pablo Miller (and Steele's MI6 mate and business partner)...
Posted by: Stephen Morrell | Jul 24 2019 23:35 utc | 58
Seems like everyone knows more about Mueller's investigation than Mueller himself does.
Posted by: c matt | Jul 24 2019 23:37 utc | 59
John Merryman @60--
Your last sentence paraphrases what Hudson's said, particularly in reference to Obama's bailout of the criminal banksters. I do suggest taking the time to peruse the week in review thread. Or perhaps even better, go here and read as much of what I cited on that thread is contained there. For the global situation, go here to read the paper Hudson delivered last Sunday so you can see how the domestic and foreign policies link.
The deliberate change of focus from Industrial Capitalism to Finance Capitalism via the Chicago School's coup during Wilson's terms is where the roots of today's dilemma began. The change generated great overexuberance which led to the Crash and Great Depression. WW2 resurrected Industrial Capitalism, but as soon as the war ended, Finance capitalism returned but this time went much slower at its rapaciousness. It bided its time and took over when Nixon took the dollar off gold, gaining full control during Carter putting Neoliberalism in place with Volker in charge prior to Reagan's election. And the last 40 years were spent hollowing out the USA's industrial capacity and shipping it overseas, leaving only a few dominant monopolies and oligopolies behind that can still be milked before they too are destroyed and offshored.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 24 2019 23:38 utc | 60
18 george. No that is not the way the American electoral system works especially in electing Trump. It is possible to lose the total mount of votes (popular) and still win however the 'delegates' assigned to the states are on a purely population basis. For example I think California (largest)has 55 delegates counted towards the Presidency and 53? Congressional districts, ie almost the same number, BUT Clinton got all 55 delegates towards her presidency count and if it went on congressional districts maybe Dems would have got 42 delegates while Republicans get/got 13 delegates. ie (total 55)
Posted by: col from Oz | Jul 24 2019 23:45 utc | 61
I notice that Karlof1 points out the goal of getting Trump on "obstruction of justice". Testimony indicating that "obstruction of justice" obtains even if no crime is involved indicates the total destruction of the rule of law under the yankee legal structure. This view makes the yankee system like a Duerrenmatt novel where they can charge any body who does not fully cooperate with the authorities with obstruction of justice even if they cannot charge them with any other crime. That results in a fascist structure that can imprison any body they choose to on trumped up charges. As for Mueller, his failure reveals the bankruptcy of the whole Russia theory. It was, however, a success for the power structure, since, as a result, Flynn, a sceptic on arming terrorists to act on behalf of the yankee regime, was eliminated as Trump's national security advisor and eventually replaced with Bolton, a war criminal and a threat to our survival.
Posted by: exiled off mainstree | Jul 25 2019 0:11 utc | 62
Today besides Dems creating drama for future campaign ads, we were all amused by Keyser M̶u̶e̶l̶l̶e̶r̶ Söze putting on his best Sgt. Schultz act "I know nothing, I see nothing."
Mike Whitney wrote about the outcome of this being a dud a few months ago: Tit For Tat? Why Did Mueller Let Trump Off the Hook?. Whitney said that Russiagate was all about containing Trump's foreign policy agenda, to try to force him to go along with the Blob--and when Trump started to do that, that is when Mueller "finished" and found "nothing to see here folks" when he could have dragged it on for years.
I also wrote about that idea 2 years ago, also saying that Russiagate was all about forcing Trump to change his foreign policy goals through impeachment threats. I used to think it was the Saudis behind egging the Dems on towards impeachment as a way to pressure Trump into going along with their agenda for the Middle East,i.e., letting Trump's people know they could bribe enough people to get the Russiagate dog and pony show to go away if Trump wouldn't leave Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, and also attack Iran, at least financially. I wrote how they tried to get Obama to do their bidding but he wouldn't capitulate fully in Syria, and that is why the Saudis and Netanyahu hated on Obama so fiercely.
Now I am not so sure if the Saudis and Netanyahu were behind it, it could be coming from the foreign policy establishment, not just Americans but also Russian oligarchs on the outs with Putin, also oligarchs from the UK and Europe, Ukraine, Georgia, etc. and mostly all about containing Russia economically and geopolitically. Or I could be right and it is about the Middle East. My idea was that the impeachment talk by the Dems would end if Trump did what MbS and Netanyahu want him to do. How do we know which is correct? If Trump starts a war with Iran and impeachment talk ends, then I was right because the foreign policy establishment does not want a war with Iran. We know that because recently various major domos of the establishment and oligarchs like Soros and Koch have been trying to talk Trump out of a military conflict with Iran.
The hearings made it clear that Mueller did not write the report. His staff did, and he just rubber-stamped it. His recollection of what was in the report was so defective that I suspect he hadn't even read the whole thing.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 25 2019 0:15 utc | 64
Oops, made a mistake at the end of my post #69. It should say:
"If Trump starts a war with Iran and impeachment talk doesn't end, then I was right because the foreign policy establishment does not want a war."
col from Oz @67--
Essentially correct. Each state gets two delegates for its Senators and one for each House District, the minimum being three. All but three states are winner-take-all. POTUS elections have always been about winning the most Electoral Votes, not the overall Popular Vote. And at the beginning of it all, the loser became Vice-President, which was one of Madison's counterbalancing separation of powers, which was unfortunately changed all too soon as if continued it might have deterred the formation of the Two Party System, now the Duopoly, to the detriment of the world.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 0:19 utc | 66
The evil things that block America's salvation by Trump's impeachment are American laws and American courts, first circuit.
Uneducated Americans and running circles hitting those obstacles like blind kittens, now for years.
I wonder when they would finally open their eyes and realize American judges were imposed upon them by Russians and all American laws were written by Putin and his troll farm???
If they would not - there would be now America left...
Posted by: Arioch | Jul 25 2019 0:19 utc | 67
If Trump is removed by impeachment, religious nut Pence becomes president. Out of the frying pan...
Posted by: lysias | Jul 25 2019 0:32 utc | 68
@ c matt | Jul 24 2019 23:37 utc | 65
Seems like everyone knows more about Mueller's investigation than Mueller himself does.
________________________________________
It's funny because it's true, and worth repeating. It has a Will Rogers ring to it.* Bravo, c matt!
* "Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators." -- Will Rogers
Posted by: Ort | Jul 25 2019 0:35 utc | 69
karlof1,
I've been following Hudson since 08, but while he is very good at the historical dynamic and context, I don't think he is offering a way out of this doom loop, other than keeping one's eyes open. Which is all well and good for about 5% of the population, but most people curl up in their niches and hope the big guys don't step on them. Wasn't it Jay Gould who said he could hire half the workers to beat up the other half?
My argument is that Western Civ has to be cracked wide open. As Gilbert Murray points out, the Ancients didn't distinguish between their religious and their political models, so monotheism was analogous with despotism, as in one god, one ruler. While poly/pantheism equated with democracy and republicanism. As in many gods, many voices/factions. So for the medieval period, the 'divine right of kings' was the default political model. It was when we went back to populist political systems, that separation of church and state became necessary.
The logical fallacy of monotheism is that a spiritual absolute/source of consciousness, would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. Yet even modern technology assumes that top down model, as the premise of artificial intelligence is that the proper processing of information creates consciousness, rather than consciousness being the reason to process information.
My point being is this need for a social and cultural reset goes much deeper than monetary theory, but if they can all be carried forward together, they support and feed off each other.
So that finance and money function as the circulation system and blood of the social organism, carrying value where it is needed, just as government, as executive and regulatory function, is the central nervous system. Then people would be better able to instinctively understand how society functions, even if they are only one cell in the body and sense when it is diseased, injured or otherwise corrupted and not just hide in their shell, but attack like an activated immune system.
As it is, our individualized, atomized culture just means banking mediates that many more relationships and feeds off them. Think The Matrix. We are in our little cocoons.
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 25 2019 1:35 utc | 70
John Merryman @76--
Thanks for your reply!
I picked up my used copy of Super Imperialism back in 1978 and have tried to keep up with Hudson since. When I first began commenting at our bar, I often touched on our dysfunctional culture as being at the ultimate root of our multiple dilemmas, and that speaks to your 2nd & 3rd paragraphs. As I've expressed, IMO US and by extension EU society is coming to a state of Critical Mass but not simultaneously. Much of the former USSR and Soviet Bloc went through this experience first, but it was of a different sort and parts are now going through a second phase with Ukraine and Georgia being examples. The EU had Greece and now France, but they are all disparate although they share commonalities. The anti-union regions of the USA are all hurting with their $7.25 minimum wage and great lack of basic services; yet, the wealthier regions aren't doing as well as it may seem at first glance as exemplified by the many working homeless. Both Trump and Sanders fed off these disaffections in 2016, and things are worse now than then.
As it stands, we are all students at this bar; none are Masters with answers, although some try to project that visage. Most interactions are helpful even if not replied to as the differing POV are the same as a different school of thought, promote reevaluation, further thinking, and analysis. So, thanks again for your replies, and to all the others that participate.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 25 2019 2:03 utc | 71
thanks b... anything to discredit this pile of innuendo is fine by me - especially if mueller is being exposed for the gofer he is..
Joseph Mifsud was a key player in the game, but always portrayed as a russian asset.. disobedient media did good work covering mifsuds connections to m16-cia.. no wonder mueller didn't feel a need to talk with him.. he was one of their assets..
another curious character is felix sater. Felix Sater, Trump Associate, Skips House Hearing and Now Faces a Subpoena
but regardless of the desire to throw the wool over the publics eyes, what is really shocking is the dismal role of the democrat party in the usa as a party in opposition.. trump is being given another win by these folks... you find the worst person to lead the country - trump, and then you get an even worse opposition party - the democrats - and you have another 4 years of trump! but, if you are lucky the democrats will figure out to drop the impeachment concept when trump gets in for a 2nd term... that is not a sure thing!
@25 bevin.. i used to follow ew... she has driven so far over the cliff, there is no turning back for her... her comment section now is just plain awful...
Posted by: james | Jul 25 2019 3:05 utc | 72
Mueller proved one thing.. no one in any western government is going to improve one damn thing not from the inside, not from the outside.
government is the problem.. Leadersless government Bureaucrats hold positions and they are charged to carry out the laws, but they don't make the laws, and are not allowed to make the laws or decisions or even to make novel rulings in court. Instead all decision of what ever kind are made by popular vote. No secrets in government.
Until we eliminate private property laws, and return the power of government to government and make the government leaderless, in the sense that no president, no congress, no parliament, just bureaucrats who the governed can indite and drag into court and prove them to be doing something unlawful and thereby remove them from office nothing will change.
Its the leaders that have ruined every government the world has invented.
Posted by: snake | Jul 25 2019 4:23 utc | 73
There is still another Justice Department investigation ongoing that will look at the whole Russia affair from a different viewpoint. Was the FBI investigation into 'Russiagate' an illegal partisan effort to go after Trump? Who really initiate the whole 'Russiagate' campaign that seems to have been run by the British MI6? Was it John Brennan, Obama's CIA director, involved?Little is known about that second investigation. It will hopefully come up with better evidence and results than the one Robert Mueller led.
Oh bruuuther...this sounds like it came
straight out of the Fox Fake News Website!
Who needs effing Mueller's blessing anyway!!! Trump committed crimes when he paid off the porn stars and he obstructed justice acting out of consciousness of guilt and anyone who pretends otherwise is a Trump-can-do-no-wrong hack!
Nancy Pelosi works for the Zionist cabal that want to protect their Trump asset, and she's doing just that--protecting the biggest con to ever disgrace the office.
Notice how Mueller refused to answer the question of whether he discovered in his investigation that other foreign countries meddled in the election. Damn straight another foreign country meddled! ISRAEL and upon reaching that point, Mueller bowed his head and looked no further and issued no subpoena for Trump's testimony!
Notice how Mueller started off in the A.M. by NOT exonerating Trump of obstruction nor ruling out that he could be indicted in future. Then after the lunch break he reversed course stating he couldn't conclusively state Trump was guilty of obstruction. HELLO? Someone got to him during the break!
Trump has Zionist protection. He'll get away with everything and the Zionist mafia will protect him.
Look at how the bastard Trump is fighting to keep his taxes from being made public.
Just imagine how deep he buried what we don't know about him that smells like rotting fish. Oh yeah, I have very good intuition...and whatever he's desperately hiding, stinks! Trump fought the investigation cause he's hiding something. Mueller could have found it by following the money, but someone ordered him to stop looking once he hit the Zionist wall.
Mueller can't stand Trump, but he looked like a man who was forced to heel to the masters and not a former decorated marine and FBI Director who hunted down terrorists after 9/ 11.
The Mueller hearing confirmed the following: Trump is protected and the U.S. is NOT a democracy.
Nothing more to see; move on.
Posted by: Circe | Jul 25 2019 4:28 utc | 74
It was the perfect ending to two years of BS. Obviously Muller was never in control of the investigation.
He was nothing more than a figurehead brought in to gain some credibility. That is how all Western nations are run.
Posted by: dltravers | Jul 25 2019 7:08 utc | 76
Did he jump or was he pushed ?
Epstein
Seems to have attempted suicide!
I think his controllers don’t need him eny more, or he is a massive danger to the people running the US at the moment.
Of course both option (1) &(2) are the same.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jul 25 2019 7:39 utc | 77
"Was the FBI investigation into 'Russiagate' an illegal partisan effort to go after Trump?"
Is the Pope a Catholic?
Posted by: TEP | Jul 25 2019 7:53 utc | 78
John Merryman - 76
Well, there's an argument to be made that Western civilization had been hijacked by monotheism a long time ago, and if we want to make it work again, we'd better hit rest on that.
But then, it's quite obvious that if mankind is to survive and prosper, it will have to get rid of monotheisms, all of them, and pretty soon. By essence, any monotheism will breed intolerance, sooner or later - we've seen it happening even to those who had the kindest outlooks and the most lenient messages. As you implied, it's not a big surprise that monotheisms arose in societies that were more on the despotic side of things, and not in the midst of the Roman republic, Athenian democracy or German vaguely egalitarian tribes, and that the rise of Christianity in the West went hand in hand with the consolidation of power in the Empire.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Jul 25 2019 8:00 utc | 79
Mueller made it clear that he found grounds to press criminal charges against Trump and is prevented only by Department of Justice policy not to indict a sitting president.
In a normal world, we would not need a Mueller Report, there are blatant and egregious conflicts of interest and violations of the Emoluments Clause, but the political will is lacking.
Democrats in the House have nothing to gain from impeaching him as long as they know full well that the Republican-controlled Senate will not convict.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 25 2019 8:10 utc | 80
Democrats (as in Democrat party), not candidates, try to defeat Trump on his personality and his business practices.
They do not want to discuss policies. Actually, Trump does not want to discuss policies, feeding the news cycles with click bait.
This realclearpolitics article claims all policy issues Democrat candidates have poll as a minority view - at present.
If people are utterly disgusted with Trump. they may just stay at home or vote Democrat, never mind the policy.
There is another chance. Trump has staked his reelection on claiming to be responsible for the - good - economy.
Bets are that after going up for a long time (and this started under Obama) the economy will go down.
Elizabeth Warren has already bet on it.
The green economy is the next industrial wave (after that capitalism has to stop if ecosystems are meant to survive, it is probably too late for that already).
Democrats have the recipe for that.
Even if Trump gets a second run, his policies are not sustainable, not demographically, not economically. Lack of health care/overprized health care, lack of education is a disadvantage not an advantage of the American system. Democrats are wise to have a long term perspective.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 8:48 utc | 81
add to 87
I think a lot of the anti-Russia craze was sponsored by Ukrainian oligarch - Pinchuk - who of course invested in both sides.
Washington is a bi-partisan mafia to shake down foreign governments.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 9:15 utc | 82
It was good to see congress members show some intelligence (and do intelligence work} in questioning Mueller. Congress, AG Barr, and IG Horowitz now have overwhelming evidence which could expose a lot of rot and possibly bring criminal charges to the highest ranks of the intelligence agencies and Obama administration. Question is, are they willing to go that far, or just serve as "controlled opposition" the way Trey Gowdy was with the Clinton email crimes. Repubs have been on the same MIC teat as Dems, and that may temper how far they go. Yesterday's questioning was encouraging though.
As others have said, the most stunning display of ignorance was Mueller's admission of not knowing who Fusion GPS or Glenn Simpson was. WTF!!?? and what has he been doing for over two years? With Mueller's obvious showing of ineptitude it's clear what his role has been from the start, serving as the "esteemed and beyond reproach, non-biased statesman" while the cabal on the committee set the agenda. NPR in their wisdom yesterday refuted any such idea, because as you know Mueller is a "Republican".
MSM reporting on this whole affair for the last three years is a joke; I'd put the score at 98% BS and 2% useful info (the 2% mostly from Fox--Tucker Carlson et al). The most incisive MSM reporting has come from Dan Bongino; I don't agree with some of his politics but with Russiagate/Spygate he is spot on. His podcast from yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMKn3lgv6Bc
Posted by: kabobyak | Jul 25 2019 9:23 utc | 83
@ Clueless Joe with the condemnation of monotheism and connection to despotism....I agree
To those that are enthralled with the kabuki of Mueller, I encourage you to look around at what is happening in the rest of the world and recognize that before the next US election the world is either going change significantly or we will be on our way to extinction.
The rest of the world is calling BS on the global private finance house of cards and it will not stay propped up for another year.
Back to counting angels dancing on the head of a pin
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 25 2019 9:42 utc | 84
Imagine if all the tiny minority of people who actually pay attention to such witless nonsense as "the ruskies stole our election" just quit listening to any of the lies from all of the 'sides'?
The careerist emptyheads who pull down a couple of hundred grand a year (courtesy of the thieves and fools who still give money to 'liberal causes') would be forced into a corner, where they had no choice other than devising policies which appeal to those pesky voters. "The mugs aren't listening to the scary bullshit. Help. we need to offer 'em something.
Quick, call up the bagman and find out who hasn't been contributing lately. We must offer up a sacrifice."
Hiya snake Good to cya round.
Posted by: Horatio Human | Jul 25 2019 9:46 utc | 85
There is lot of reason to think the Mueller investigation was about Ukraine.
German Wikipedia team has more information than the English version on Victor Pintschuk- use google translate
What they say: From 2014 onwards Pinchuk was part of Western oriented Ukrainian elite. His Yalta European Strategy invited - to the summer palace of the last tsar in Crimea - Bill and Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Larry Summers, Bill Gate, Richard Branson ... Henry Kissinger, Steven Spielberg and the Obamas were part of the wider circle.
He bought political influence via payments to the global system of foundations. European connections seemed to be best served via the Tony Blair foundation. Access to Washington's scene and to the US steele market were achieved via giving millions to the Clinton Foundation from 2006 onwards. He supported the Brookings Institute. He owns 6 TV stations.
Pintchuk financed several political pro European projects. He supported Maidan in 2013/2014 with big sums. With Petro Poroshenko's win he put his rivals from the Achmetov clan into the defensive.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 10:02 utc | 86
Add to 92
Mueller’s ‘Pit Bull’ Offered Ukrainian Oligarch A Sweet Deal To Provide Dirt On Trump"
In July 2017, Weissmann, who has been labeled Mueller’s “pit bull” because of aggressive prosecutorial style, met with attorneys representing Dmitry Firtash, an energy magnate who was indicted on bribery charges in 2014, reports The Hill.The story cites sources familiar with Weissmann’s offer and defense memos written in meetings with the prosecutor.
One of the defense memos said that Weissmann claimed he could “resolve the Firtash case” by withdrawing charges against the oligarch, who has since been ordered extradited to the U.S. from Austria.
“The complete dropping of the proceedings … was doubtless on the table,” a Firtash defense memo reportedly says.
...
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 10:06 utc | 87
add to 93
Victor Pinchuk, the Clintons & Endless Connections
and this
As Russia collusion fades, Ukrainian plot to help Clinton emerges
Ukraine would explain Russiagate, Christopher Steele, Skripal, MH17 ....
And for some reason the Epstein case explodes now, where noone can explain his system of foundation and where the money originally came from.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 10:24 utc | 88
karlof1,
I'm a bit of a figurative hermit in a cave, having spent my life in ag and horse racing, so my education is "field research," rather than culture. So thanks for the feedback, as my interneting is my only connection with any thoughts outside the immediate.
Joe, psycho,
I'm more of the yin/yang opinion that nature is fundamentally more about thermodynamic cycles between polarities, rather than this linear narrative.....
Off to work
Posted by: John Merryman | Jul 25 2019 10:27 utc | 89
Somehow, I'm reminded of this article. They got what they wanted from the Mueller Report
(not the Democrats, but the so-called "Deep State"). by: Maracatu @ | 1
Here are some very interesting comments from Vladimir Putin about Russia's role in the 2016 election and how the election was rigged for a Clinton victory: https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/07/vladimir-putins-observations-on.html
As Mr. Putin states, the 2016 election was a clear case of the loser not wanting to admit defeat. Posted by: Sally Snyder @| 2
I agree here is my analysis.. =>In these past several months, trillions in conventional and nuclear arms have been delivered to
the Saudis, UAB, Egypt and Jordon. These deliveries from USA, UK, and Israel suggest these rouge states are purchasing these weapons to invade, destroy and war-on Iran, Yemen, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Syria, Russia and China intentions? Why war: because the independent states represent competition and often oppose the USD hegemon and certain long standing oil companies stand to win big when regime change is accomplished in Iran, Yemen, Russia, Venezuela, Syria and Afghanistan.
But I see a very important hidden objective in this massive, hidden-in-foreign nations, military build up; the agreement likely provides that the rouge states will become the nuclear armed global knee breaker. Their new duties will be to use their newly acquired nuclear capabilities and weapons to defend the "USD for oil=dollar exchange (the Petro$Agreement)". Hence from now on, the USD hegemon will be defended by nuclear-armed, oil rich, middle eastern rouge states and better yet, the rouge states will pay the involved cost. In the future, anyone not buying oil in dollars or doing business through a member central bank will be nuclear waste and the political objection often raised at home when such travesty occurs will be muted. Transfer the cost, the risk and the use of nuclear weapons and the armaments and armies with attendant cost needed to wage war to the rouge states and reap, at home, the benefit of not only the Petrodollar Agreement but also the benefits of being able to totally control the minds, precisely locate and identify each human individual and to use that location to control behaviors of the masses with 5g and you have a deal, made in heaven, for a few? Example It was Saudi Arabia that wiped out Iran, we didn't give them a dime and none of our people are dying in the Saudi armies, but boy o boy are we making profit, our stock market is strong, the dollar is stronger than ever, and 5g is up and running, too bad about those billions of lives that were wasted.. Oh well business is business?
Posted by: snake | Jul 25 2019 10:32 utc | 90
I'll still stand by my theory that the entire coverup was initiated at the point that the Clinton campaign used the DNC to block Sanders: it was aided by the MSM (stocked with political toadies). The betting angle was always on HRC, and a Sanders presidency was unthinkable to the "establishment," an establishment that was knee-deep in the dirty dealings in Ukraine. Folks need to understand what Ukraine really means: it's the gateway to Russia, the same gateway that the Nazis passed through on their way to attacking Russia, in a quest for control over Russian oil. Yes, history DOES repeat itself! The implications were HUGE. The emails, had they really been parsed in public, would have blown the lid off of things.
"Projection" is big here. The notion of Trump as blackmail-able has nothing to do with Russia (though Trump did/does have an interest in Russia, a financial one- that makes him, underneath, not a fan of pushing conflict with Russia), it has to do with the Deep State. But, to further tie the blackmail projection to something bait-able, Russia was set up as meddling in US elections. Big win for all tied at the hip of the Deep State: 1) HRC gets to blame something other than herself; 2) MIC keeps military budgets high by ramping back up on the tried and true Cold War game [as part of the Grand Chessboard strategy]; 3) Populace gets distracted (from the entire game).
Posted by: Seer | Jul 25 2019 10:35 utc | 91
GOOGLE BANS SPUTNIK!
I can now confirm my observation. Everything published by Sputnik on or after July 20, 2019 is blocked by Google from appearing in their search results. The only way to see Sputnik articles in Google's search results is by including a sentence or paragraph in quotes and clicking on "repeat the search with the omitted results included" in the small print at the bottom of the page.
To check for yourself:
1) Open any new article on https://sputniknews.com/
2) Highlight any paragraph.
3) Use the right mouse button to "Search Google for..." the paragraph.
4) Edit your search by putting the text in quotes.
5) On the bottom of the page you will see a text like this in small print: "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 3 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included." Click on the linked text.
This censorship is related to Russiagate. Google's internal memo from some two years ago names the election of Donald Trump and Wikileaks as the main reason why Google and other social media need to move from free speech to censorship. Sputnik thinks Google is now closely aligned with the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 25 2019 10:35 utc | 92
Victor Pinchuk's business is Ukrainian steel, pipes, metallurgy.
Exports to the US are vital. There is this 2014 dispute setting steel workers against the Obama administration.
Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton have built a sprawling network of powerful friends around the globe, one that could aid Mrs. Clinton's chances were she to seek the presidency. But those relationships often come with intersecting interests and political complications; few people illustrate that more vividly than the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk.A steel magnate and major contributor to the Clintons' foundation, Mr. Pinchuk was in frequent contact with Mrs. Clinton's State Department, at meetings arranged by Douglas E. Schoen, a Clinton political operative who became a lobbyist.
And now Mr. Pinchuk is at the center of a trade dispute that places him at odds with steelworkers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, precisely the kind of union workers Mrs. Clinton would need to appeal to in a presidential campaign.
Mr. Pinchuk's relationship to the Clintons became the subject of scrutiny last summer when American steel makers filed a case alleging that Ukraine -- and by extension Mr. Pinchuk's company, Interpipe Ltd. -- and eight other countries had violated trade rules in exporting a type of steel tube used in natural gas extraction, an industry whose growth has provided one of the few bright spots in the United States manufacturing sector.
The Commerce Department is expected to issue a preliminary ruling in the case any day now. If it decides that the countries sold the products at illegally low prices, it could impose duties on Interpipe's steel imports, which, analysts say, would push the indebted company deeper into financial distress.
The situation has taken on new urgency for Interpipe, given the political crisis in Ukraine, which has led to a virtual block on imports of its steel products to Russia. Interpipe had hoped to make up for lost revenue with increased sales in the United States.
Spokesmen for the Clintons declined to comment on the relationship. Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said that during her tenure as secretary of state, from Jan. 21, 2009, to Feb. 1, 2013, Mr. Pinchuk was never on her schedule.
Needless to say Interpipe won. The deal was extended in 2018.
Lobbying works bipartisan.
Posted by: somebody | Jul 25 2019 10:36 utc | 93
Karlof1 @ 66 and 77
Capitalism is by nature a dog eat dog game and pitting the working class against itself is the primary form of labour exploitation and source of industrial profits since the founding of industrialism.
This follows the evolution of imperialist capitalism (aka globalisation) so presciently described by Lenin more than 100 years ago
The rise of [political] multipolarity which we all extol on MoA resulted from the shift of investment capital and offshoring of production away from the US and into China and other inviting locations where cheap labour leads to enhanced multinational corporate profitability (and rising stock markets).
And as China rises the shift of production moves away from China to cheaper labour sources...and yes the BRI is a leading edge of this phenomenon in a friendly guise.
The question is what could US unions have done to prevent the offshoring of capital?
Capital finds its own freedom. As long as global capitalism exists this will be the case.
This is also the challenge facing China and why the CPC works so hard to gain control over private enterprise while at same time pumping debt into current capitalist growth schemes. They seek a bastardised system which so far appears to be failing on both counts....corporate and personal debt are on the rise, growth is slowing....while income inequality increases along the same demographic lines we see in the west.
This is not China bashing but a recognition of the political/economic reality....of globalisation and its impact on class struggle...the problem of the US working class is the problem of China's working class too...it is also a global struggle for which the left seems entirely unprepared to counter.
Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 25 2019 11:06 utc | 94
@28
The truth. Trump might finally use Assange to blow the thing open in 2020.
Posted by: j | Jul 25 2019 11:36 utc | 95
@101
At least with the CPC you get a fighting chance against capitalists, versus the West where you are guaranteed to only have a choice of their shills.
Posted by: Jonathan | Jul 25 2019 11:45 utc | 96
Yes, the hearing was a disaster for Democrats... and Republicans... and Americans... and even for Trump! But who cares? What is hugely damaging for almost everyone else is, instead, another lost opportunity to expose the emptiness of the Russian supposed meddling activities and the senseless Macchartist Russo-phobic climate following it, that has come out reinforced from the Muller testimony
Posted by: gpcus | Jul 25 2019 12:02 utc | 98
Jonathan - Is this actually true? Can you show examples of this happening in reality? I don't see this occurring at all but would love to be shown evidence of fact that I am wrong.
At least with the CPC you get a fighting chance against capitalists, versus the West where you are guaranteed to only have a choice of their shills.
Posted by: donkeytale | Jul 25 2019 12:08 utc | 99
Jeffrey Epstein found semiconscious in his prison cell with marks on his neck.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 25 2019 12:26 utc | 100
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Somehow, I'm reminded of this article. They got what they wanted from the Mueller Report (not the Democrats, but the so-called "Deep State").
Posted by: Maracatu | Jul 24 2019 18:10 utc | 1