Puppet Masters
Mudd, who served as deputy director to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, said Trump's defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin has compelled federal employees "at Langley, Foggy Bottom, CIA and State" to try to take Trump down.
"Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. Government is going to kill this guy," Mudd, a staunch critic of Trump, said on "The Lead."
The White House has grown frustrated in recent weeks by what it considers the Pentagon's reluctance to provide President Trump with options for a military strike against North Korea, according to officials, the latest sign of a deepening split in the administration over how to confront the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un.
The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, believes that for Mr. Trump's warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans, according to those officials.
Comment: It seems the US lost its chance, and now not only are the North apparently capable of a nuclear strike on the US, but they're also busy making motions towards better relations with their kin in the South:
- Russian envoy to N. Korea: Pyongyang seriously boosted missile program in past year
- Washington's flag-waving myths about attacking North Korea need a serious dose of reality
- Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pledge to peacefully deal with North Korea
- North and South Korea agree to form unified women's hockey team for upcoming Winter Olympics
- Lavrov: Washington 'looking for excuse to destroy North Korea', Russia is ready but advocates diplomatic solution
- North Korea's strategy: Rational player pretending to be irrational
Beyond immigration and infrastructure plans that dominate the 2018 agenda, Mr. Trump sought to break the Capitol Hill logjam on paid family leave, job training and a "right to try" bill to give terminally ill patients access to experimental drugs and treatments.
He also vowed action to lower the sky-high prescription drug prices Americans pay compared to what people in other countries pay for the same drugs. The efforts will include the administration, Congress and state governments, said White House officials.
However, the White House faces the same obstacles that blocked many of these ideas in the past, including legislative gridlock that has intensified under Mr. Trump.
Cowardice, bloated egos, lack of discipline and intellectual pettiness are often to blame, but that is not all.
It is now absolutely clear that the Western left lost patently and shamelessly. It has almost no power, it has no courage to fight or to take risks, and it counts on no real political following in Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand. 'The masses', those proverbial 'oppressed masses', have lately been electing and voting in various semi-fascist populists, unapologetic right-wing demagogues, and mainstream pro-business brutes.
Entire Marxist 'theoretical certainties' have been collapsing in front of our eyes. Or at least they have been in the West.
To a great extent, what is now happening is absolutely natural. The European left betrayed as early as in the 1980's, by becoming too soft, too undisciplined, too cautious and too self-centered. It put pragmatism above the ideals. It rapidly adopted the lexicon of the liberal ideological establishment, complete with Western perceptions of human rights, democratic principles and political correctness. It ceased to be revolutionary; it essentially stopped all revolutionary activities, and it abandoned the core element of any true left-wing identity - internationalism.
Comment: Andre Vltchek suggests that the main issue with the left in the West is that it has given up its truly revolutionary (Marxist) roots. While it is true that the Western left has become a caricature of itself, the problem has much more to do with embracing postmodernist 'neo-Marxist' thinking, such as identity politics, rather than leaving behind revolutionary aspirations. After all, the world already saw what happened to Russia during and after its communist revolution - and who in their sane mind would like to see that happen again? Furthermore, who says that Social Justice Warriors would not be ready to spill blood and start a revolution in the name of their 'egalitarian' ideologies?
Vltchek is right about one thing: The illness of the Western left is most obviously manifested in its acquiescence of Western imperialism and the demonization of the Eastern rising powers and their allies, as well as other 'rebellious' nations in the 'periphery'.
And it relates in an unexpected way to special counsel Robert Mueller.
The point is: There are strict rules requiring that each and every fact presented in an FBI request to electronically spy on a U.S. citizen be extreme-vetted for accuracy - and presented to the court only if verified.
There's no dispute that at least some, if not a great deal, of information in the anti-Trump "Steele dossier" was unverified or false. Former FBI director James Comey testified as much himself before a Senate committee in June 2017. Comey repeatedly referred to "salacious" and "unverified" material in the dossier, which turned out to be paid political opposition research against Donald Trump funded first by Republicans, then by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Erekat, who has led the Palestinian peace negotiations and is secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, singled out Haley, who slammed Abbas for a recent speech that was full of anti-Semitic tropes.
Erekat said that Haley's "impudence" has gone as far as calling for removing Abbas from power.
"She called for overthrowing the democratically elected Palestinian president," Erekat complained in an interview with the Palestinian Al-Watan Voice news website.
"This is the president who led the peace process and promoted the principle of the two-state solution," Erekat said, referring to Abbas. "Now this [US] ambassador is accusing him of lacking courage, and is calling for replacing him."

Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant to Bill and Hillary Clinton, is linked to a shadowy figure named Cody Shearer in reports on the Trump-Russia collusion scandal.
His name is Cody Shearer, dubbed "Mr. Fixer" for Bill and Hillary Clinton and a workmate of fierce Clinton defender Sidney Blumenthal.
Last week, his name surfaced in a letter to the Democratic National Committee from Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican. The letter listed nearly 40 names and entities. The two senators asked the DNC to disclose any communications with them from March 2016 to January 2017.
Comment: It's unsurprising that there may be a second dossier coming from the Clinton camp tying Trump to Russian collusion. It would be more surprising if it turns out there's only two! But the fact that opposition "research" is being handed off to the FBI, who are using it to "investigate" Trump (more like smear him) is treasonous. See also:
- Clinton operative personally created second Trump-Russia dossier and flogged it to FBI
- But wait, look over here! A second Trump-Russia dossier being assessed by FBI
"I would like to emphasize the growing relevance of the missile defense topic. Let me remind you that an indestructible connection between strategic offensive arms and missile defense is noted in the preamble of the current Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty. There has been no substantial dialogue with the Americans on this matter for a long time. Now is the moment when it should be resumed," Ryabkov said in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia.
The Russian diplomat stressed that in order to overcome the impasse in Russian-US relations, it was necessary to cooperate in a number of areas, including economic and regional crises.
Comment: See:
- 'Ukraine on Fire': How US, Not Russia, Destroyed Ukraine - Oliver Stone Documentary Finally Available (VIDEO)
- Everyone Is Putin's Agent! Poroshenko and Saakashvili Each Accuse the Other of Colluding with Russia
- Is this a coup? Military personnel surround Lugansk
- Further US sanctions on Russia would be illegal, ineffective and hurt West more
- Sanctions backfire: Russia and Iran sign $2.5B deal, as U.S. legislates itself out of a lucrative market
- "Bombshell" Bellingcat report unwittingly confirms Russia did not control the Donbass rebellion, nobody did
- Russia sends 72nd convoy containing 450 tonnes of aid and seasonal gifts to suffering people of Donbass
The Truth Perspective: Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act, and anti-Russia Sanctions: Interview with Alex Krainer
Per a report by CNN on Saturday, Schiff, the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ("HPSCI") told multiple reporters on Friday that the central claim of the Nunes surveillance memo was "unfounded."
The Nunes surveillance memo relies upon the following thesis: that FBI and DOJ officials within the Obama administration made substantial and material omissions-rising to the level of perhaps unlawful misrepresentations-in front of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ("FISA Court") in order to obtain a surveillance warrant on Donald Trump's former campaign volunteer, Carter Page. The memo itself spells out those alleged omissions and reads, in part:
Neither the initial [FISA] application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele's efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.
Comment: It is hard to take seriously anything coming from a man who thinks that the Evil Ruskies promoted the 2nd Amendment so that Americans would kill each other:
Looney US Rep Adam Schiff says Russian ads promote 2nd Amendment 'so we all kill each other' (VIDEO)
Trump: "The FBI failed to inform the FISA court that the Clinton campaign had funded the dossier."
US President Trump showed his anger towards the corrupt US Deep State in a series of tweets following the fallout from the FISA memo release.
Via The Gateway Pundit...
The House Intelligence Committee released their de-classified FISA memo on Friday morning.
This comes after the approval of President Donald Trump.
** Read the entire un-redacted document here.
The FISA memo revealed how the Obama FBI and DOJ used bogus dossier and lies to gain approval to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016.
Comment: See also:
- Former CIA official taunts 'Trump can't do anything about the FBI' in spite of GOP memo
- 5 things the FBI never told the FISA court about the Trump dossier
- Obama admin's first request to spy on Trump campaign was rejected by FISA court - Added fake dossier
- 16 bombshells in the memo the media don't want you to know about
- GOP memo may offer proof 'deep state' is real
- Ex-CIA director Panetta on memo release: 'I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this happen'














Comment: Phil Mudd is the same fool who recently threatened that the Deep State would 'take Trump down'. He said, "You've been around for 13 months. We've been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We're going to win." When will CNN start reporting actual news and stop threatening to kill the President?