We have previously discussed how the controversial EU President Jean-Claude Juncker has dismissed the notion of national boundaries and called nationalists “stupid.” Various countries are faced with parties seeking to exit from the European Union as the EU exercised more and more control over every aspect of life in various countries. Rather than look for a figure to allay such concerns, the EU is moving toward a leader who has called for a United States of Europe with a single military. Ursula von der Leyen is Angela Merkel’s defense minister and was proposed by EU leaders to take over in October as the new leader in Brussels.Von der Leyen wants to “accelerate” plans for an EU army and the creation of a federal Europe during which nation states would be left with little power or sovereign identity. Europe would be effectively run by global bureaucrats.
This will add an increasing dynamic in Great Britain where they continue to struggle over the refusal of Parliament to move forward on Brexit. Opponents have blocked the exit and pushed for a new referendum. Now however the EU will have a leader who has openly called for what many EU supporters in Britain have denied: a single Europe with its own single unified military.
Well, would they be any less sovereign than the states within the United States of America? Probably not, but on the other hand U.S. states are far less sovereign than the individual European countries.
Why put someone with no experience in charge of anything?
Doing what? Showing that he’s too incompetent to do anything?
same bunch had particular names back in the 1940’s through 1990’s Socialists international, socialists national and of course the western europe transferred to the Western Hemisphere aggressively regressive socialist progressives. Do we really need to go through wWi, WWII etc. again and again again
JanF/anon1/Anon didn’t mention if his participation in the early 1960s civil rights movement in the South was with his “personal friend” Bernie Sanders, or if he had an inside track with the workings of the FBI at that point or later, or the workings of the DOJ attorneys, etc.
I suspect JanF/anon1/Anon was simulataneously involved in the Gemini and then Apollo projects😄😃😂🤣 while being involved with the civil rights cause, and making all of these contacts with Sanders, etc.
Tom, maybe you can get JT to write a thread about me. I am very fascinating and all, but the subject was our lying sack of s.. president, on which you’ve gone dumb.
We all know how fascinating you are….you’ve told us numerous times
And right you are to bring it up Tom. Now, what about that lying sack of s… who is the president?
What about him? If you’re going to “what about” every politician who routinely lies, it’ll tie up the entire upcoming 4 day weekend.
I’m think’in maybe AG Barr might be ok?
Google/ytube algos have been full retard for months & I think they have peaked as Prez Trump is about to be finally forced to drop the hammer on those Google/ytube, FB, Twitter, apple, paypal etc…, type American Hatin Trash!
Trump is likely to move from twitter to other platforms, kill big tech H1B visas for HaBeb tapes (sic), ban military & other govt/contracts from using those Commie/Nazis Totalitarians platforms, no more grants or other Biz connections.
That means no new laws need, no lengthy lawsuits, it means in a few weeks Prez Trump wins & they are so Phk’d.
It means: Flawless Victory!
Anyway, heres the video I posted, not the one ytube displayed first:
Nice, how many times have I now caught their algos screwing with what I posted, 10, 20, more… ?
& it just did it again.
Oky1 – that was so cool! Never knew Barr could play. Sounds like it’s hard to outmaneuver him.
Here is one of my favorite tunes from Canadonia – Hamsterheid.
https://youtu.be/vZoAeOO73R0
Karen,
I’ve been reading your many great comments but didn’t feel I could give them the proper response lately, they’re reading as I, keep it up if you can for others.
I seen this post of yours on the morning of the 4th & knew that it was going to be fantastic, so I saved it for the last of my day, I wasn’t disappointed, I’ve had it on a loop for at least the last 1:30 to 2 hours & I’ll move it to my permanent playlist tomorrow.
If there’s going to be a fight let the Irish/Scots/Germans throw the 2nd punch that ends the fight, 🙂
And hey, you watch playing those pipes on holidays when the strong drink is flowing… you know the pipes should be banned again. LOL;)
TRUMP GIVES UP FIGHT FOR CITIZENSHIP QUESTION
CENSUS FORMS TO BE PRINTED WITHOUT
The Trump administration has dropped plans to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, the Justice Department said Tuesday, just days after the Supreme Court described the rationale for the question as “contrived.”
The decision was made after officials determined that there would not be enough time to continue the legal battle and meet the printing deadlines for the census questionnaire, according to people familiar with the matter.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement Tuesday that “I respect the Supreme Court but strongly disagree with its ruling regarding my decision to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.”
President Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night that it was a “very sad time for America when the Supreme Court of the United States won’t allow a question of ‘Is this person a Citizen of the United States?’ to be asked on the #2020 Census.” He said he had asked the Commerce and Justice departments to “do whatever is necessary to bring this most vital of questions, and this very important case, to a successful conclusion.”
The decision to eliminate the question was a victory for civil rights advocates concerned that the query would lead to an inaccurate count of immigrant communities that could skew political representation and federal funding.
The fate of the question has been the subject of legal and political wrangling since March 2018, when Ross announced that he planned to add it to the decennial survey, leading to half a dozen lawsuits from states, cities, civil rights groups and others.
Last week, Trump responded to the justices’ ruling by saying in a tweet he would seek to delay the census to give administration officials time to come up with a better explanation for why it should include a citizenship question.
Trump expressed disbelief again on Monday that the question could not be included and told reporters at the White House: “I think it’s very important — to find out if somebody is a citizen as opposed to an illegal? I think there’s a big difference, to me, between being a citizen of the United States and being an illegal.”
Instead of a delay, government lawyers notified those challenging the question of the administration’s decision to proceed without it.
The Census Bureau has started printing the questionnaires without the question, Ross said. He added that his “focus, and that of the bureau and the entire department, is to conduct a complete and accurate census.”
Soon after the Supreme Court ruled against the administration, Justice Department officials said privately that they determined that they would have no choice but to eliminate the question from the upcoming survey.
That is because the printer’s deadline was days away, and officials knew there was no way that a court could rule in the administration’s favor before then, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss pending litigation.
When Trump tweeted that he would explore delaying the count, some Justice Department officials were left scratching their heads, they said, because such a move would be legally impossible.
The White House asked the Justice Department how it might be able to add the question, including by possibly delaying the census, and the department explained that it wasn’t realistic or tenable, given time constraints and the Supreme Court’s ruling, said a person familiar with the discussions.
Critics of the question, including some at the Census Bureau, said it could cause an undercount of millions of people in immigrant communities who would be afraid to return the form, leading to an inaccurate number that could skew representation and apportionment in favor of Republican areas.
Edited from: “2020 Census Will Not Include Citizenship Question, Justice Department Confirms”
This evening’s Washington Post
Trump was hoping to delay the 2020 Census until he could get the Citizenship Question on the official Census form. But apparently unknown aides had to tell him that the Census must be taken every 10 years.
(President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker)
Have I missed it or has Prof Turley again failed to inform readers important facts?
Such as Junker’s dad & grand-dad where very important, real Nazis working with/for Hitler’s Totalitarian NAZIS!!!!
Turley? What’s up?
And then there’s the EU type govt was/Is a dream/ construct from the Juncker/Hilter Totalitarian Nazis.
But hey, maybe Prof Turley didn’t feel his readers could understand the Juncker’s type bullshiit coming out of totalitarian types in DC now days???
https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/contractor.asp?thisCompany=Junkers
I blame it all on Ronald Raygun when he demanded of the Soviet leader: “Mister Gorbachov,,,Tear down that wall!” That wall came down. Since then the EU had eliminated its national borders such as that between Italy and Greece. Once the terrorists come in to Greece by water they can go anywhere in the EU.
The EU is self-immolating with the Visegrad Group and the Italy taking the lead in pouring gasoline on open borders and the bullies from Brussels. And since no good nationalist movement should be without it’s Churchill so I give you today’s version, Viktor Orban:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGyDw6_ypo
Here’s the words that will survive and prevail:
𝐸𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑐𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒. 𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑤. 𝑆𝑜 𝑎𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑈𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡. 𝐼𝑓 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝐻𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠? 𝐿𝑒𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠: 𝑤𝑒 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑒. 𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑠, 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝐺𝑂𝑠 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟, 𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒 “𝐺𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑆𝑜𝑟𝑜𝑠”. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑖𝑚, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑚.
Orban is dismantling democracy in Hungary while selling the kind of nativiesm that appeals to the fearful.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/17/hungary-finally-has-an-opposition-worth-a-damn/
The political situation in Hungary isn’t something that I closely follow. I haven’t heard anything about the elections being tainted, and Orban’s party seems to be dominant as the result of free elections.
It’s one thing to oppose his conservative policies, but it seems like a leap to declare that he is “dismantaling democracy” because of opposition to those policies.
It’s one thing to oppose his conservative policies, but it seems like a leap to declare that he is “dismantaling democracy” because of opposition to those policies.
Notice the pattern?
The left is made up of people addled by a great deal of unearned self-esteem. They conceive of elected officials as a sort of student council which gets to do just what they, the school administration, permit them. Elected officials who do what said elected officials prefer are rogue operators and criminals. The reaction of the EU bureaucracy to Law and Justice in Poland and to Fidesz in Hungary is of a piece with the behavior of Obama judicial appointees in the U.S.
The left, Anon in particular, object to all the things they promote when they have power or are attempting to gain power. They are totalitarian and violent when they develop enough strength. We are seeing this in our own country where in certain parts of the country the police will not do anything while a person like Andy Ngo is nearly killed. They won’t even help him after the fact by helping him get to the hospital. Take note that we haven’t heard our leftists on this blog condemning that type of action. Deep down many approve. They are envious and want to get even.
Meanwhile Allan and others have defended a right wing murderer as misunderstood and a victim.
Unlike some like Kurtz who had fun posting a video of right wing j.. o.. beating people up, I abhor all political violence and despise any and all who practice it, from antifa to proud boys to the mass murdering right wingers.
“Meanwhile Allan and others have defended a right wing murderer as misunderstood and a victim.”
Is that Hillary you are talking about? No, she is on the left. Can’t figure out which murderer I defended for being misunderstood. You seem to be making things up again.
Anon, you say you abhor violence but both your attitude and writing shows a different position. I don’t think you would be in the center ring beating someone’s head in but I believe you get pleasure out of it because you want to get even. You have an anger management problem that has been evident since you appeared as Jan F.
“BERLIN — Hundreds of private Hungarian news outlets have been simultaneously donated by their owners to a central holding company run by people close to the far-right prime minister Viktor Orban, cementing Mr. Orban’s grip on the Hungarian news media.
If approved by the country’s regulatory authorities, which are led by an official appointed by Mr. Orban, the deal will place most leading private Hungarian outlets under the control of a single, state-friendly entity, in a move that is unprecedented within the European Union, according to Freedom House, a global rights watchdog that analyzes press freedom.
It is the latest broadside against pluralism under the increasingly autocratic Mr. Orban. Since taking power in 2010, he has steadily chipped away at Hungary’s checks and balances, stacking the Constitutional Court with loyalists, reshaping the electoral system to favor his party and placing dozens of watchdog institutions — including the judiciary and prosecution service — under the leadership of his allies….
Today, more than 500 Hungarian news outlets take a pro-government stance, compared with just 31 in 2015, according to research by Atlatszo, one of the few Hungarian news websites that remain independently owned. Under Mr. Orban, public broadcasters have been turned into mouthpieces for the Orban government and rarely feature opposition voices.
“It’s a massive change, but it’s more about the symbolism,” Zselyke Csaky, the research director for Europe and Eurasia at Freedom House, said of this week’s ownership transfers. The Hungarian media is now “beginning to resemble state media under Communism because of the level of control and consolidation,” Ms. Csaky added….”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/europe/hungary-orban-media.html
Firstly, one shouldn’t accept anything the Times says but I have no doubt Orban is looked on quite favorably by the media since he was voted in with a heavy majority and he has protected his nation from the onslaught of illegal immigration. Orban wishes to maintain the culture of Hungary something desired by most of his people. By the numbers and the support for the Hungarian civilization it is not surprising that the media supports him.
On the other hand in the US the media is vastly in favor of destroying American culture and permitting the onslaught of illegal immigration while the leftists in Congress prevent any legislation to control illegal crossings and by doing so are responsbile for the deaths of many South Americans. It is amazing that Anon will condemn a country’s leader moving away from communism and garnering media support for his actions while supporting an American media for actions contrary to the security of the American citizen that is moving in the direction of the socialists. The American media for the most part has given up the truth for ratings.
Anon1:
In 2018, his party was landslided into office with 70% of the Hungarian voters voting and giving him a 2/3 majority in Parliament. Orban is democracy in Hungary and a bellwether for the rest of the West who are returning to traditional customs and mores including the Christian religion and merit-based immigration. See Poland, Italy etc. That really pi$$es off the Left which, of course, renders me elated.
Orban retained power in the 2018 election with less than a majority of the vote.
Why am I not surprised that you are motivated by trolling perceived political enemies. Resentment and some strange persecution/inferiority complex is the primary shared spirit of Trump supporters.
Anon:
“Orban retained power in the 2018 election with less than a majority of the vote.”
****************************
Your disknowledge (as historian Katherine Eggert might say) of elections almost rivals your knowledge of psychology resulting in the aforecited meaningless obfuscation. In 2018, Orban’s Fidesz Party won 49.27% of the vote. The nearest competitor was the Jobbik Party with 19.06% of the vote. Like Fidesz, Jobbik is stridently pro-nationalist. Anyway you slice it, Orban’s Party won in a landslide and Hungary remains staunchly traditionalist to the tune of about 70% of the voters.
As confirmed by mespo, Orban received less than a majority with another right wing party receiving about 20%. Mespo apparently finds justification for the increasing control of formerly independent Hungarian governmental and non-governmental agencies and associations by this majority in his pleasure in seeing the left “pi…ed off”.
No wonder he’s a follower of the Trump the Troll Cult
Orban is leading a nation formerly under communism and now has free elections where Orban doesn’t necessarily prevail. The EU hates Orban and talks about how anti-democratic he is because he refuses to destroy his country the way some other EU nations have destroyed theirs. The EU is not really democratic for the people though one might find it democratic for the elite so in that way one can say Orban is dismantling the democracy of the elite in Brussles. Like all leaders he has done a few things that might not match entirely with free thinkers as opposed to leftist thinkers who are repressive and do far more damage than leaders like Orban.
For instance Orban has been accused of crony capitalism but one could compare that to Obama who did the same but in a far worse way. It has been said that Orban’s government has used tax investigations to punish opposition. Where have we heard that before? We heard about the IRS investigations under Obama where the Obama administration was found to be guilty and the US government is now paying out restoration.
In the world of this type of misdeeds we have seen the Obama administration commit them big time making Orban a small fish. The Democratic candidate in 2016 was more of the same and we are now finding more proof that top secret material was deleted by Hillary and people working for the Obama administration to prevent scandal and promote rule by one party.
What I consider to be the biggie in Hungary is the domination by Orban’s friends of the media. That is a freedom of speech issue but then when we look here at home we see the MSM almost completely on the side of Obama and the left to such an extent that with the media’s help a soft coup was attempted against Trump. It failed and the fascist left lost.
As usual Anon is full of BS generalities and totally lacks any understanding of what actually is happening.
The only evidence of a soft coup was the sabotaging of Hillary’s campaign by Comey two weeks before the election.
Studies by Harvard and 538 found overall mainstream press coverage of the 2016 election – primary and general – to be roughly equal in negative coverage of the major party candidates. In the general Hillary received slightly less negative press.
Allan’s hallucinations are all his own.
Anon, you repeat the same meme that has been answered numerous times in different fashions but you state no one ever responded to it. A lie but that is usual for you.
The soft coup is quite evident when one looks at how so much stuff was hidden and as example how both Fisa was blindsighted and the defense of Manafort was inappropriately denied crucial information by the prosecutors. I posted on that yesterday. It’s also evident in an investigation that started before Trump was President and continues onward today in impeachment investigations after Trump has been proven totally innocent and the evidence mounts against Hillary and the Obama administration.
Cherry picking data to meet your needs is the sign of an individual of low intellect.
https://youtu.be/_vUCb225t4s
https://youtu.be/q8itF62yIJg
Is this democracy in Great Britain? When voters choose Brecit, block it, and then keep calling for new votes until or unless they vote to stay in the EU.
Autocorrect. “Brexit.”
If you are interested in a true call for a United States of Europe, please read the writings of Dr. Leo Klinkers. His basis is a Federal body of States based on the US model and using the Federalist Papers as a foundation.
“Money changers,” “Illuminati,” “deep state,” “Military/Industrial Complex,” “shadow government,” “government behind the government,” “religious world domination,” “new world order,” “trilateral commission,” “Bilderberg Group,” “free masons,” “Bohemian Club,” “Council on Foreign Relations,” “Communism,” etc. –
It’s the banks, stupid!
It’s the central banks.
Money changers (i.e. central bankers) in Europe want to increase and consolidate their profits through globalizing dominion.
_________________
Matthew 21:12-17 – Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 Then Jesus entered the temple[a] and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;
but you are making it a den of robbers.”
__________________________________
Our nations are temples but the “deep deep state” is turning them into dens of robbers – the wealthy profiteering money changers and those who sold doves to exploit the poor. Central banks are antithetical, anti-American and unconstitutional which they must be in all free, self-governing countries. Those who control the money control the country.
Congress has merely the power: “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;…” Congress may only coin silver-backed money.
Interest rates, prices and wages are set naturally by the market – by supply and demand. Congress does not have the power to set prices, wages or interest rates or to otherwise control the private property of the private banking industry for the extreme benefit of the central bank bankers and money changers and those who sold doves to exploit the poor.
The “Federal Reserve Board,” “Money changers,” “Illuminati,” “deep state,” “military/industrial complex,” “shadow government,” “government behind the government,” “Jewish world domination,” “the Council on Foreign Relations,” “new world order,” the “swamp,” “central bankers,” et al. are the antithesis and mortal enemy of self-governance in republics existing as restricted-vote democracies.
The EU speaks for the central bankers who will subjugate Europe and exponentially enhance central bank profits.
That’s what the EU did – reduced member nations to states under centralized, non elected, bureaucratic control. Each state ceded part of its sovereignty, with the trend towards losing more as time went on.
When the EU put in place measures that wasted horrifying amounts of taxpayer dollars, each member nation was helpless to do anything about it. For example, when the EU moves its headquarters between Brussels and Strasbourg once a month, it costs 103 million euros, and stalls government, all to move the headquarters to Strasborg for about 4 days. Then they move again. Entire offices have to be boxed up and moved. They charter an entire train, and fleets of moving vans. It’s one of the stupidest governing ideas in the history of stupid ideas, and yet, it is not fixable for the nations. It’s just throwing millions of euros into a hole.
Nation states bring people together with similar ideas. They negotiate trade agreements and treaties with allies, but each nation state enacts laws for the good of its own people. What is good for one, for example, Pakistan, would not be amenable to another, for example, the US. A nation state with a representative government obeys the will of its own people.
We require a natural born citizen to be President, to avoid foreign influence. We have laws against foreign contributions to election campaigns, which are, granted, easily skirted. And yet, the EU turns this very paradigm on its head. It encourages nation states to control the affairs of others, without caring if its inhabitants object. That is anathema to representative government or personal freedom.
The EU rules through an impenetrable bureaucracy. At some level, it doesn’t much matter who gets elected to lead individual member nations. It’s the bureaucracy that rules. The US is well on its way to having its own unelected bureaucrats behind the scenes running everything, regardless of who is elected to power. The IRS, NSA, DOJ, and FBI all targeted conservatives over the past decade, until it culminated with an attempt to oust Trump.
The EU does not have ultimate power as member states governments are the real power in Europe. The just completed nominations for officers, which JT is commenting on were the results of negotiations between member states, not top down, internal EU decisions.
Also, the IRS, NSA, DOJ, and FBI did not target conservatives. That’s a falsehood that has been roundly debunked.
Also, the IRS, NSA, DOJ, and FBI did not target conservatives. That’s a falsehood that has been roundly debunked.
I gather they told you at Correct-the-Record that if you were crude enough, it would get the job done.
The voices in absurd’s head said “type! type!”, but nothing else.
DSS, whenever facts approach Anon he puts his fingers in his ears and you know what? They touch each other.
Tabby, no indictments in any of those so-called ‘scandals’. The ‘scandals’ don’t even play outside the rightwing media bubble.
the IRS, NSA, DOJ, and FBI did not target conservatives. That’s a falsehood that has been roundly debunked.
Perhaps that hardcore, right-wing news outlet commonly known as NPR didn’t get the same memo as you did.
In a legal settlement that still awaits a federal judge’s approval, the IRS “expresses its sincere apology” for mistreating a conservative organization called Linchpins of Liberty — along with 40 other conservative groups — in their applications for tax-exempt status.
And in a second case, NorCal Tea Party Patriots and 427 other groups suing the IRS also reached a “substantial financial settlement” with the government.
Olly:
“In late September 2017, an exhaustive report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general found that from 2004 to 2013, the IRS used both conservative and liberal keywords to choose targets for further scrutiny.[2][3]
In October 2017, the Trump Administration agreed to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of more than four hundred conservative nonprofit groups who claimed that they had been discriminated against by the Internal Revenue Service for an undisclosed amount described by plaintiffs’ counsel as “very substantial.” The Trump Administration also agreed to settle a second lawsuit brought by forty-one conservative organizations with an apology and an admission that subjecting them to “heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays” was wrongful. [4][5]”
Hi Karen, et al!
I haven’t been talkative lately but has everyone been noticing how the Deep State
bureaucrats continue to completely disobey Prez Trump’s direct orders.
Like today, it appears that some in the DOJ have ignored P Trump on what to do next in regards to the SC’s Ph’ed opinions on regulatory agencies & then denies the Commerce Dept, a regulatory agency’s decision to add the question of “Are you a Citizen” on next years Census.
As Infowars.com’s main lawyer Robert Barns pointed out the other day & added today.
I don’t want to add words to Barn’s comment, basically it sounds to me he was saying Trump should of told the court it has no authority in these areas. (sic)
Why it’s so important is that without that question on the 2020 Census it will completely Disfranchise Every American/American voter and is a direct National Security Threat from these Millions of Invaders coming.
Up to the Europeans of course, but what’s with the Brexit talk from JT: “Europe would be effectively run by global bureaucrats.” You mean a government selected by the citizens of Europe? Given the size of Europe’s economy and land mass, how is that different from the US? Or are we run by “global bureaucrats”? I think that would have been news to our founders.
Unless we are feeling threatened by another large democracy as opposed to a collection of nations who have spent the last several thousand years in bloody tribal strife -the worst of it within the lifetimes of millions still living – why do we care? I think I’d go for the “no more bloody tribal strife” thing myself.
Europe needs a criminal, treasonous, episodic, psychotic, megalomaniacal, vicious, brutal, tyrannical and oppressive despot with homosexual tendencies like “Crazy Abe” Lincoln to “unify” the continent.
“The South will rise again!” Mainly it will be southern Europeans who wish to secede from the Union. Britain will probably go soon. We all need to be able to close and protect our borders and keep out migrants from hell holes around the globe. Britain is lucky to be surrounded by water. The terror actions will escalate in the next few years and nit wits in the Democratic Party who wish to let em all in will be expelled from office.
Watching Fox News I keep hearing about the vicious Antifa Group while those poor innocent and peaceful Proud Boys are minding their own business.
Related to this article, sounds like Turley is leaning towards Nationalism pretty hard. Maybe that explains his constant rationalization for Trump?
enigmainblackcom:
I think that you are conflating Proud Boys with a gay Vietnamese-American journalist who was savagely beaten by an Antifa mob.
Don’t blame you for the mistake; if you only watch CNN and MSNBC, you would have been misled.
I have diversified my news sources to good effect; can highly recommend listening to opposing viewpoints.
Steve Fleischer (I try no to hide behind nicknames)
Not at all, get the whole story.
antifa has been engaged in criminal conspiracies to commit violence against people who are exercising their civil rights of free speech and assembly for decades. recently they are casting a wider net, which has brought them to more attention.
I would bet however, that antifa is riddled with police informants and snitches and provocateurs, which is why they get away with so much garbage.
“I would bet however, that antifa is riddled with police informants and snitches and provocateurs…”
a safe bet
Kurtz, I think we had a discussion and you liked certain things I said. I think you will be interested in this article if you haven’t already read it. I agree completely with the author. https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/us-iran-standoff-trump-has-more-choices-than-previous-presidents/?utm_source=Hoover+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=9231834eca-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_02_05_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_21b1edff3c-9231834eca-73452805
who’s proud boys again? Oh these guys. here was a high moment for them. well done, chad!
If I’m on the street I know which group I’m with and it aint the tatted up freaks in black bandannas
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/420392-fbi-does-not-consider-proud-boys-an-extremist-group-agent-says
“FBI agents briefed law enforcement leaders in Clark County about the Proud Boys, a far-right group which labels itself as “a pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.””
“We do not intend and did not intend to designate the group as extremist,” he said of the presentation, according to the Oregonian.”
I have no idea if the Proud Boys are inherently racist or not. The genesis of Proud Boys was inevitable, given the severely anti-Western trend among Leftists, and toxic feminism against males, rather than calmly supporting equal rights with men.
When cultural relativism advocates that all cultures have equal value, whether they stone gays, mutilate little girls’ genitalia, imprison government critics, criminalize free speech or apostasy, then there is going to be pushback. When Antifa is on the news chasing down elderly white men, there is going to be a correspondingly hard pushback.
Obviously Western civilization is a great human achievement as far as individual liberty, scientific advancement, jurisprudence. Electricity, the car, refrigeration, vaccines, antibiotics, computers, telephones, planes…all Western achievements. There is nothing wrong with being proud of that, in light of the fact that the West has shared many of those innovations with the world, even in places where the wheel had not been discovered yet. The problem is when it is combined with racism or abuse, or if there is denial of any non Western achievement, such as the great library of Alexandria, the Hindu Arabic numeral system, or Eastern medicine.
I’m not saying Proud Boys are correct in their own actions. They might be the Avenging Angle who turns into a bully himself. I don’t know much about them. But extremist Leftism bigotry fuels extreme counter movements.
In Karen’s world, all right wing whites are victims. She even constructed a defense of our stealing Indian lands as being no big thing since it was arguable – in her mind at least – that they were really the first ones in the New World. And no telling how our oil got under those camel jockey’s sand.
The Proud Boys aren’t beating up reporters. This isn’t that difficult.
Since you’re likely sitting in a chair somewhere and not in the thick of it…and given the following, it’s probably more “difficult” than you think:
“I would bet however, that antifa is riddled with police informants and snitches and provocateurs…” -Mr Kurtz
“The Proud Boys aren’t beating up reporters.”
The truth is:
You really don’t know what they’re doing, but keep on pretending that you do.
Not the first time Kurtz has posted videos for teen age right wingers.
They’re regarded with stupefying hostility by the people at our cultural control centers. The dirt on the Proud Boys is that they appear on $PLC lists. If they actually had done something substantively awful, it would be wall-to-wall. And you know that.
Other than being right wing racists looking to beat people up, what’s to complain about?
They are beating people up, they were stopped from doing it at the President’s kick-off rally in Orlando. It’s just a matter of time before they do ir again. You’ll no doubt blame the other party. I’m not saying Antifa is in the right and deserves no blame. Let’s not forget the violent racists that were also involved.
Antifa has shut down streets in Seattle, chasing down an elderly man in a car for no other reason than he had a Southern license plate. They are infamous for beating people up and creating chaos.
It is agains the law to physically harm anyone because you don’t like their political positions or opinions. Otherwise, we’d have to let out all the wife beaters whose wives legitimately irritated them.
The Proud Boys et al were the inevitable result of the constant Leftist bigotry towards all males, but especially white males. Such excessive bigotry fuels a pushback, and that pushback can always go too far, too.
As for nationalism, Nelson Mandela and Ghandi were both nationalists. There is nothing wrong with being a “nationalist”, which means patriotism as well as a desire to do what’s best for one’s country. There is no inherent negative connotation. Rather, that is a recent media led effort, such as suddenly redefining “thug” as racist, when the term means nothing of the sort. If someone is not a nationalist then they would advocate for measures at the expense of their own country, or against its values. Examples against nationalism would be ceding sovereignty to the EU, or if the United States formed its own American union, and became just one member nation among Canada, Mexico, and all of South America, no longer its own independent country.
One can be a nationalist fascist, a nationalist white supremacist, or a nationalist like Nelson Mandela who wanted to do what’s best for his country. The same thing goes for patriotism, which is inherently a positive attribute. However, one can be a patriotic racist, or a patriotic good person.
Frankly, supporting the EU is nationalism on a larger scale, with the umbrella of the EU being the new nation state.
Yes, and as a white male, let me tell you what a victimized minority we are. I lived through segregation in the south and it was nothing like this. Police beat us up, no one will hire you, the best schools and jobs are closed to you, and everyone looks at you suspiciously and won’t trust you with responsibilities.
No, Nelson Mandela was a red haze protest politician. One of the American Universities Field Staff assessors wrote in 1963 that it was only among the Coloured population that the prevailing sentiment was ‘we belong to South Africa’ rather than ‘South Africa belongs to us’. As time goes by, the negligence of his successors is costing the country human capital. And now on the scene is a perfectly odious political movement dedicated to mass property seizures.
Anon lived through segregation in the south and is now part of segregating non leftists from society (take a look at social media). Your type never changes. First it may have been blacks then it is another group, In this case anyone who doesn’t agree with you. Your type always has to hate someone in his attempt to climb the ladder.
I was involved in the civil rights movement in the south in the last couple of years prior to the CR Act of 1964.Typically Allan – who is not worth anyone’s time – accuses people of things he knows nothing about.
Anon, I didn’t call you a segregationist (though you are of the type) when black civil rights were impaired. You told us you marched for civil rights and I’ll believe you though I don’t think you ever understood what civil rights really are. I will call you a segregationist today segregating people based on their political ideology. In the past they used to call blacks all sorts of names just because they were black and today you do the same with conservatives.
Antifa acts just like the KKK and the violent groups that preceded Hitler taking office.
I think the seizure of public property is going to plunge South Africa into poverty. It will shortly join its neighbors in famine.
The path forward is inclusion and equality. Equality among blacks and whites does not mean attacking the latter. Unfortunately, there has been a rise in violent assault. Frankly, the first step should be privatizing tribal land. A lot of land is in the control of tribal elders, who won’t allow members to own it. It’s like an Indian Reservation where the tribe is allowed to live there, but not own anything. It results in poverty and a general lack of improvement. Step number one should be to divvy up the land into parcels, deeded into the name of individual tribe members. There is also land to develop that does not involve eminent domain.
If South Africa wants to return to being a black country, then it should buy the land from the landowners, and peacefully relocate them. The list of wrongs in South Africa include tribal warfare (still ongoing), apartheid, and past blacklisting of government critics.
I do not think that punishing white landowners for apartheid will make an inclusive, tolerant country, out of raw materials already struggling with residual racism and tribal warfare. They should seek peace.
“However, one can be a patriotic racist, or a patriotic good person.”
I would submit that a patriotic racist cannot be a good person. They’re still racist.
Being a racist is not good but that doesn’t mean they do bad things. However, it doesn’t solve race problems by elevating one race over the other. We have to learn to live in a society where all people are equal under the law accepting bias as something that will never entirely disappear.
“Being a racist is not good but…” Kinda says it all right there. There is no “but.”
Yes there is a but because there will always be a sense of racism or discrimination of one group or another. You would like to fight wars instead of accepting the bias of people. My wars start and end with the law and learning to live with everyone whether or not they like me or you.
Enigma – that’s why it was an either/or. Racism is a pretty serious character flaw. Patriotic is a positive adjective, but it is just one of many adjectives strung along to describe someone. An extreme form of patriotism would be xenophobia or bigotry.
I will say that sometimes people can be brainwashed. I’ve known a great many Muslims, many of whom immigrated here. Virtually all of those who grew up in the Middle East were anti-semitic to one degree or another. Sometimes the relatives of my friends would be passionately anti-semitic. It’s how they were raised. The Saudis don’t let a Jew set foot in their country. Trump’s son-in-law was the first. In Iran, the kids chant, “Death to America! Death to Israel!” in elementary school. Their antipathy towards America is due to its licentious freedom (which many young Persians rather like) and for our meddling in their affairs. However, the anti-semitism is religious. It’s written into their Qu’ran. Many new Jewish people as inherently evil or bad, or at the very least they would not associate with them. I recall one relative of my friend was a wonderful father, funny, and devoted to his family. I would have said he was a good person, but he was one of the most passionate anti-semites I’d ever met. I naively thought I could talk him out of it. That would be a hard no. At some point I gave up and he agreed not to talk about it in front of me, which was gracious of him. He could have banned me from hanging out with my friends since I clearly was an influence different from their own values. I didn’t blame him. He was clearly brainwashed since birth. He was a generally good person with a pretty severe character flaw. Perhaps there are racists that cannot get past the brainwashing, or see it for what it is. It is sad to think of otherwise good people doomed to these flaws.
I am sorry that there are people who would think less of you because of your melanin concentration, which is simply sun protection. Thankfully, such biases are less common nowadays.
I started to write a lengthy response, recognizing that anti-semitism is a real thing and likely widespread among Muslims but looking at the other side and Israeli persecution of Palestinians and encroachmend via illegal settlements. All made possible by support of the US. The only point I would have wanted to make is thatwhen you point to one side’s “hatred” there are often reasons. If this were a debate I could take the other side and make a strong case for Israeli defense and the need to protect themselves from their neighbors but I’d have to ignore a lot of things Israel does without justification.
I am not siding with the Proud Boys but once again we have seen Antifa Bolsheviks hone in on a defenseless person, beat him up and run away. This time it was Andy Ngo. That that long ago I think in the same city it was a senior citizen. That is what you support, violent fascists. Your family must be proud.
Antifa does not accept that regardless of what other people think or say, you cannot hit someone to force them to share your views. Free speech protects everyone. They do not have the right to assault anyone because they don’t agree with them. They also tend to call anyone fascist they target – be it an elderly man driving with Southern license plates, or the guy who was upset that Antifa arbitrarily closed off the street in Seattle, or a journalist who disagreed with their violence. Fascist has devolved to “poo poo head.”
I also think that the Proud Boys formed because they saw Antifa beating people up, indiscriminately in many cases, and getting away with it. So they formed a club to go kick their butts. Then we’ve got two groups beating each other, only Antifa is wearing skinny jeans and was used to choosing targets that looked easy. As Kevin’s Corner remarked, you don’t see Antifa targeting biker gangs. Instead, they usually go after easier targets, like the journalist.
I don’t want anyone beating anyone up over words. If the police were permitted to respond appropriately to Antifa’s violence, then we wouldn’t have these vigilante opposition groups. If politicians tie the hands of the police regarding Antifa, then they’re going to have to apply those same rules to Proud Boys and other resistance groups. When there is utter lawlessness due to politicians, there will be people who take the law into their own hands.
The solution is to apply the law equally to all, and arrest Antifa (or anyone else) when they block off streets, redirecting traffic on a whim, or assault anyone.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/todd-starnes-antifa-portland-mayor
“Last October a 74-year-old motorist was assaulted after he was caught up in an Antifa mob action. During that protest, police officers were ordered to stand down.
“I was appalled by what I saw in the video, but I support the Portland Police Bureau’s decision not to intervene,” the mayor said in remarks reported by the Washington Times.
Mayor Wheeler also condemned federal immigration policies and vowed to stop police from assisting ICE agents.”
“Dhillon called for the federal government to intervene, comparing the crisis in Portland to the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror in the Deep South.
“This gang is the new version of the KKK using masks to terrorize citizens going about their business,” she said. “
Karen with the crocodile tears for the Proud Boys, but nothing to say about murder by right wing Americans.
Quit making excuses for political violence.
I find it notable that Professor Turley refuses to cover the story regarding the Orwellian named group “Antifa” (meaning, of course, that they are, in truth, a fascist and terrorist organization) and their latest case of assault and battery against those that they disagree with. That case involved attacks on journalist Andy Ngo this weekend in Portland, Oregon. Professor Turley’s silence (along with others in the mainstream media) about the viscous attacks on Mr. Ngo and others who do not share the views of the left speaks volumes about those who pretend to care about civil liberties.
https://twitter.com/mrandyngo/status/1126628195497697280?lang=en
Terrorist organization is right James. What’s the difference between the roving Antifa thugs, Sharia patrols and ISIS terrorists other than the degree of harm they bring to their victims.
they are not fascists. They are anarchists. They are scum but don’t degrade fascism by confusing it with anarchism.
Anarchism is the last redoubt of the psychopath who only wants to smash any sort of social organization where he sees it, including government of any kind whatsoever. This is why the Bosheviks pushed the Bakunin anarchists to the side in the early days of communism before 1917, and why the later Soviets suppressed the insane anarchist formations in Spain during the Civil war.
Today, letting anarchists run wild on the streets is a very very bad idea. Things like that can trigger a thermidorian reaction if it goes to far.
Which may get back to my earlier point about them being riddled with snitches and informants. Did anyone ever stop to think what powers that be, may desire for the ANTIFA to run wild?
Kurtz, I believe the core of antifa is Marxist and fascist in their expression though they have all sorts in their ranks. They terrorize private citizens whose ideas do not meet their own. They are quite violent.
What effing difference does it make what they are? If the Little Sisters of the Poor were out cracking skulls on innocent people, should their actions be treated any differently?
Olly, the response was to Kurtz as I disagreed with how he classified antifa. “they are not fascists. They are anarchists.” I believe they are Marxists and fascists.
You are dealing with a completely different subject, violent terrorists. I agree with you and I would treat all violent terroists the same, remove them from the streets.
Allan,
I know what you were responding to. And no, the subject is not different; the subject being Antifa. What value is there in debating where in the spectrum they hail from? Are they right wing or left wing? Fascists, Marxist? D or R? White, Black, Green? How does any of that matter?
“What value is there in debating where in the spectrum they hail from? ”
Know your enemy.
Know your enemy.
BS. ANTIFA is assaulting innocent people. What more do you need to figure it out?
Antifa is assaulting specific innocent people not random people which is the way you seem to be looking at things. Innocents need to know their enemy and take appropriate precautions. A guppy needs to know he is bait for a larger fish.
Specific, random, what difference does it matter for law enforcement?
Olly, law enforcement’s job is to keep the peace and it doesn’t make that much difference who is breaking the law except perhaps if they are looking at things like demographics but to the individual it means a lot. Be aware of where you are and who is around. It’s basic survival skills.
OT: Exculpatory evidence wasn’t released to Manafort and the Fisa court. Brody vs Maryland. Could that mean an appeal by Manafort?
—
Russian oligarch’s story could spell trouble for Team Mueller
Sometimes it is the quiet, elusive ones who come back to haunt you. And for ex-special prosecutor Robert Mueller, one of those might be a Russian billionaire named Oleg Deripaska.
The oligarch who once controlled Russia’s largest aluminum empire has been an international man of intrigue in the now-completed and disproven Trump collusion investigation.
Deripaska was a disaffected former business client of Donald Trump’s fallen campaign chairman Paul Manafort. He also was a legal research client of Trump-hating, Clinton-aiding British spy Christopher Steele. In his spare time, he was an occasional friendly cooperator with the FBI and its fired deputy director, Andrew McCabe.
And, at the height of the Russia collusion hysteria, Deripaska was sanctioned by the Trump administration to financially punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for his meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
With the Russia case, in which he had so many connections, now completed, Deripaska is breaking his silence. And what he has to say could impact Mueller’s July 17 testimonybefore Congress.
In a wide-ranging interview with me, Deripaska confirmed a story told to me more than a year ago by law enforcement sources: He was indeed interviewed by FBI agents in September 2016 during the early Russia probe, and he told them he strongly doubted the bureau’s theory that the Trump campaign, through Manafort, was colluding with Moscow to hijack the 2016 election.
“I told them straightforward, ‘Look, I am not a friend with him (Manafort). Apparently not, because I started a court case (against him) six or nine months before … . But since I’m Russian I would be very surprised that anyone from Russia would try to approach him for any reason, and wouldn’t come and ask me my opinion,’” he said, recounting exactly what he says he told the FBI agents that day.
“I told them straightforward, I just don’t believe that he would represent any Russian interest. And knowing what he’s doing on Ukraine for the last, what, seven or eight years.”
OK, so why should you care if a Russian denied Trump campaign collusion with Russia during the election?
First, Deripaska wasn’t just any Russian. He was closely aligned with Putin and had been helpful to the FBI as far back as 2009. So he had earned some trust with the agents.
Most importantly, Deripaska’s interview with the FBI reportedly was never provided by Team Mueller to Manafort’s lawyers, even though it was potential proof of innocence, according to Manafort defense lawyer Kevin Downing. Manafort, initially investigated for collusion, was convicted on tax and lobbying violations unrelated to the Russia case.
That omission opens a possible door for appeal for what is known as a Brady violation, for hiding exculpatory information from a defendant.
“Recent revelations by The Hill prove that the Office of Special Counsel’s (OSC) claim that they had a legitimate basis to include Paul Manafort in an investigation of potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government is false,” Downing told me. “The failure to disclose this information to Manafort, the courts, or the public reaffirms that the OSC did not have a legitimate basis to investigate Manafort, and may prove that the OSC had no legitimate basis to investigate potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.”
Deripaska’s second relevance to Mueller’s congressional hearings has to do with a series of events that first gained him trust inside the FBI.
Deripaska confirmed a story I reported last year from FBI sources that he spent more than $20 million of his own money between 2009 and 2011 on a private rescue operation to free Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent captured in Iran in 2007 while on a CIA mission.
Deripaska confirmed he paid for the operation at the request of the FBI, which was then under Mueller’s direction. And he added that McCabe, then a rising FBI supervisor who was a former colleague of Levinson and later became a key figure in the Russia collusion probe, was one of those who asked him to help.
“I was approached, you know, by someone that he is under a lot of scrutiny now — McCabe,” Deripaska said. “He also said that it was important enough for all of them (FBI officials). And I kind of trusted them.”
Deripaska said his privately funded rescue team came very close to a deal with the Iranian captors to secure Levinson’s release but he was told by his FBI handlers that the deal ran into difficulties at Hillary Clinton’s State Department and was scuttled. “I heard that some Russian ‘hand,’ or whatever you call people who are expert on the Russians at the State Department, (said), ‘We just don’t want to owe anything to this guy,’” Deripaska told me, adding that he never expected any U.S. favors for his personal efforts to free Levinson.
Asked if he thought the former FBI agent is alive, some dozen years later, Deripaska answered: “I don’t think so.” He pointed out that if Levinson had been alive, he likely would have come home in 2016, after the Obama administration struck a nuclear deal with Iran.
Deripaska said he is continuing to investigate what really happened at State with Levinson, as he tries to fight the sanctions levied against him in 2018. His company, Rusal, has been removed from the sanctions list.
Deripaska’s tale has the potential to raise questions about a conflict of interest, since Mueller’s FBI first received a gift in the form of the privately funded rescue mission before Mueller, as special prosecutor, investigated Deripaska’s ties to key figures in the Russia case.
And Deripaska’s complicated tale goes on: His legal team in 2012 hired Steele, the former British MI6 agent, to do some research for a lawsuit involving a business rival that Deripaska was fighting in London: “It was a research project to support what was the case against me in London. But my understanding is that the lawyers trusted him for some reason, and he was for quite a time on retainer.”
Deripaska was unaware, though, that Steele also was working for the FBI on, among other things, a special program to recruit Russian oligarchs to provide intelligence on Putin and Russian organized crime.
He told me that Steele invited him to a September 2015 meeting with some Justice Department officials, under the guise that they might be able to help with the Russian’s long-running battle with State to get visas to visit the U.S. He said the offer to help with his visa problem was a “pretext” to recruit him.
“They actually never talk, you know, about the (visa) problem. They start talking about anything else. They ask, ‘Do you have anything? Give me names. Cases, whatever,’” Deripaska recalled.
He said he later was shocked to learn that Steele eventually went to work for the Clinton campaign through Fusion GPS, and the FBI, and spread allegations of the now-disproven Russia-Trump collusion.
Deripaska’s willingness to do an American interview at this moment undoubtedly has a motive. It’s likely rooted in an American charm offensive, as he sues not only to reverse the sanctions that Trump imposed on him but to challenge the State Department’s 15-year effort to keep him from getting normal visas.
He recently won a lawsuit and forced State to produce the so-called evidence it used to justify denying him a visa for years and imposing the sanctions. It was a thinly sourced file, he said, mostly of old newspaper articles with no real secret intelligence.
So I asked him about the most common allegation levied by his detractors at State — that, earlier in his life while consolidating power in the aluminum industry, he had ties to Russian mobsters and may have killed or encouraged killing critics.
He quickly responded, noting that the file released by the courts offered no such direct proof: “There is no evidence. What is there to dispute? Do you believe that I could kill someone 25 years ago and there will be no victims, no corpses, no names?”
Throughout the interview, it was clear Deripaska chose his words in English carefully. But there was one word he offered only twice — once in response to the Steele dossier’s allegations of Trump-Russia collusion, and the other time to respond to the allegations used to sanction him. “Balderdash,” he insisted.
Now it’s time for Team Mueller to answer the same questions.
—John Solomon
Exculpatory evidence wasn’t released to Manafort and the Fisa court. Brody vs Maryland. Could that mean an appeal by Manafort?
I believe the Huber and Horowitz reports should open up all sorts of opportunities for appeal as well as indictments.
Any story about Antifa should include analysis of ‘Proud Boys’, as well:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-and-allies-to-rally-in-dc-to-capitalize-on-trumpstravaganza
“How a Dubious Claim of Cement Milkshakes in Portland Became a Right-Wing Meme”
“The police claimed that left-wing protesters were hurling cement drinks. There’s no evidence to back that up.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-a-dubious-claim-of-cement-milkshakes-in-portland-became-a-right-wing-meme/
Did it? I thought the whole thing was made up by the propagandists of the socialist far left from start to finish having yet to see any evidence to the contraryu.
The EU is a menace to self-government, collective survival, and justice. Blow it up.
Put Obama in charge.