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Best of the Web: Why McCabe can't help but stonewall about his desperate belief in dodgy dossier fantasies

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 22:06 UTC
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has some explaining to do. The top FBI official's seven-hour testimony contained "numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses."
On Tuesday 19th December 2017 it was the turn of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe to give evidence about Russiagate behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee. Judging by this report on Fox News the Republican members of the Committee found it a frustrating experience
Congressional investigators tell Fox News that Tuesday's seven-hour interrogation of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses, prompting the Republican majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee to decide to issue fresh subpoenas next week on Justice Department and FBI personnel....

"It's hard to know who's telling us the truth," said one House investigator after McCabe's questioning....

Sources close to the investigation say that McCabe was a "friendly witness" to the Democrats in the room, who are said to have pressed the deputy director, without success, to help them build a case against President Trump for obstruction of justice in the Russia-collusion probe. "If he could have, he would have," said one participant in the questioning.

Investigators say McCabe recounted to the panel how hard the FBI had worked to verify the contents of the anti-Trump "dossier" and stood by its credibility. But when pressed to identify what in the salacious document the bureau had actually corroborated, the sources said, McCabe cited only the fact that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had traveled to Moscow. Beyond that, investigators said, McCabe could not even say that the bureau had verified the dossier's allegations about the specific meetings Page supposedly held in Moscow....

The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall - despite the reported existence of documents with McCabe's own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossier's financing and provenance. (bold italics added)
The key words are the ones I have highlighted and they go to the heart of the FBI's - and Robert Mueller's - problem.

Comment: See also:

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SOTT Logo S

SOTT Focus: The Solution to the Hatred of Identity Politics Is Psychological Knowledge

Ryan Jones
Sott.net
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 22:51 UTC
sexism and racism
© Brentcherry
Identity politics is stupid. It divides humans into various arbitrary "identity groups" and then stops there. All analysis and understanding go no further than the level of the group. But what is identity? It comes from the Latin idem, meaning "the same, in the sense of repeating over and over". In other words, identity implies something about you that carries over from one instant to the next, making you you. Of course, things like your sex, skin color, and orientation do that. Contrary to popular opinion, you can't just decide you're a lesbian Mexican grandmother. But the idea that any or all of those things define you completely is absurd. Identity politics makes all members of a group, Blacks for example, identical. If that sounds racist, it's because it is.

No, identity is more than what biological category you happen to have been born in. It's who you are - singular. The only true identity politics would have to go down to the level of the individual, because no matter how similar two people are, they are never identical. Another definition for identity comes from information technology: "an object that represents a user".[1] This is a good analogy - at least it approaches the level of the individual. But even individuals can change. Given sufficient stress, a person's personality can become warped. Identity should be something more permanent.

Most of the time, we operate in the world based on 'rules' or habits accumulated throughout our lives, shaped from conception by our genes and socialization. Our gift of higher reasoning allows us some measure of control over these habits - to monitor, and if necessary, inhibit the aggressive or fearful knee-jerk responses in order to provide for conscious control during situations to which our personalities may be unadapted - for instance, a severe change in the conditions of our external environment.
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Mr. Potato

Theresa May proclaims Russia is weaponizing information so it can undermine international order


RT
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 22:00 UTC
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May
© Kacper Pempel / ReutersBritain's Prime Minister Theresa May meets Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw, Poland December 21, 2017
Britain and Poland joined forces to renew accusations that Russia is attempting to "weaponize information." UK Prime Minister Theresa May is in Warsaw to announce plans for greater defense and security cooperation.


Comment: Theresa May? You're still Prime Minister? Oh well, not for long.


May, who was accompanied by other senior cabinet ministers, said Britain will spend £5 million ($6.68 million) on a joint UK-Polish plan to counter "disinformation." Part of the money will go to Polish state-funded TV channel Belsat, which broadcasts in Belarus.


Comment: Let's face it, the Poles just got Britain to subsidize vodka filled poker nights.


"We have agreed today to bolster our cooperation to counter Russian disinformation in the region... we are both deeply concerned by Russia's attempts to weaponize information," May told reporters. "The Kremlin is seeking to undermine the international rules-based system and it will not succeed."


Comment: People I don't like are doing things I'm afraid of, and they won't succeed: because magic fairy dust. Who is going to stop them? Theresa May? What'll you do, wobble your jowls and squint at them disapprovingly?


Comment: Russia is using the truth, which naturally undermines the lies of the Western establishment. In no way shape or form is the truth undermining a rules based system. The system of which May speaks is built on dominance and manipulation, and it is collapsing in on itself as a result of its own behavior.

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Books

Western democracy: Ukraine imposes fines for importing ideologically incorrect books from Russia


Sputnik
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 21:19 UTC
books
© Fotolia/ Pakhnyushchyy
From now on, the unauthorized publishing products from Russia without a relevant permit will be withdrawn from circulation in Ukraine. The seizure will be carried out on the basis of appeals from law enforcement agencies, legal entities and individuals in accordance with the procedure previously approved by the Ukrainian government.

Entities that violate the law will be subject to an administrative and economic penalty in the amount of 10 times the minimum wage (about $1,100) for each case of such distribution made for the first time, and in the amount of 50 times the minimum wage ($5,7 000) for each subsequent case, the press service of the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting of Ukraine (Derzhkomteleradio) said.

"The order of the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting of October 17, 2017 on approval of the procedure for imposing administrative and economic fines ... came into force. Thus, the creation of a legal mechanism for exercising the powers of the State Committee for Television and Radio-Broadcasting, as defined by the law on restricting access to the Ukrainian market of foreign printed products of anti-Ukrainian content, has been completed," the press release, released on Tuesday, read.

Comment: If only the old Soviets were alive today! Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

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Tornado1

Russiagate witch hunt is the deep state's insurance policy

David Stockman
Antiwar.com
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
Pandoragate
© KSJD/KJN
There was a sinister plot to meddle in the 2016 election, after all. But it was not orchestrated from the Kremlin; it was an entirely homegrown affair conducted from the inner sanctums - the White House, DOJ, the Hoover Building and Langley - of the Imperial City.

Likewise, the perpetrators didn't speak Russian or write in the Cyrillic script. In fact, they were lifetime beltway insiders occupying the highest positions of power in the US government.

Here are the names and rank of the principal conspirators: John Brennan, CIA director; Susan Rice, National Security Advisor; Samantha Power, UN Ambassador; James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence; James Comey, FBI director; Andrew McCabe, Deputy FBI director; Sally Yates, deputy Attorney General, Bruce Ohr, associate deputy AG; Peter Strzok, deputy assistant director of FBI counterintelligence; Lisa Page, FBI lawyer; and countless other lessor and greater poobahs of Washington power, including President Obama himself.

To a person, the participants in this illicit cabal shared the core trait that made Obama such a blight on the nation's well-being. To wit, he never held an honest job outside the halls of government in his entire adult life; and as a careerist agent of the state and practitioner of its purported goods works, he exuded a sanctimonious disdain for everyday citizens who make their living along the capitalist highways and byways of America.

Comment: If Trump was not a true and serious threat, the deep state would never so blatantly reveal itself in such an open and nasty push back that engages half of Washington DC in subjective and subversive actions. The results, so far, have been calamitous for the perpe'traitors' in miscalculating Trump's win, underestimating his unpredictability and veracity, and managing the recent/ongoing incriminating revelations. Such an insurance policy!

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Attention

McMaster announces the US is ready to take North Korea's nukes by force

Alex Lockie
Business Insider
Wed, 20 Dec 2017 16:33 UTC
mcmastertrump
© AP
H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, has taken an incredibly bold stance on North Korea that points to the worst possible outcome: all-out war.

Asked by the BBC on Tuesday whether the US was committed to a peaceful resolution to the North Korean crisis, McMaster abandoned the usual formality of political speech. "We're not committed to a peaceful resolution," McMaster said. "We're committed to a resolution."

He added: "We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as the president has said, all options are on the table. And we have to be prepared if necessary to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime."

Denuclearization by force would equal a massive war, no way around it

Of the seven possible courses of action on the North Korean crisis prepared for Congress by its internal think tank, denuclearization of the country by force is one of the harshest and most dangerous.

In separate comments to PBS NewsHour on Monday, McMaster restated his belief that the chance of war with North Korea is growing every day. "We have a very short amount of time to be able to address the problem," he said.

Comment: So, they came up with 7 amazingly bad options. The seven are:
  • Maintain the status quo
  • Arm the region to the teeth and watch North Korea like a hawk
  • Shoot down every medium-to long-range missile North Korea fires to restrict its testing
  • Destroy all ICBM sites and missile launch pads
  • Complete denuclearization by force
  • Decapitation of the Kim regime
  • Just walk away (While this seems to be 'less bad', it isn't a solution.)
See also:

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Question

Rapprochement with Russia, is it still possible?

Daniel Larison
The American Conservative
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
Flags diagonal
© Global Research
Trump can't make a move without being seen as a bag man for Putin.

U.S.-Russian relations are at one of their lowest points since the end of the Cold War - and there seems to be little appetite for improvement on the part of the Trump administration and Congress.

Egged on by anti-Russia hysteria in many parts of the American media, Congress has imposed new sanctions to penalize Moscow over its alleged meddling in the 2016 election. The sanctions legislation was written in such a way that the president cannot waive its requirements, which all but guarantees that they will remain the law and an impediment to better relations for a very long time to come.

Thanks to the many questionable contacts between some members of the Trump campaign and Russian officials, the administration has been unable to pursue any constructive engagement with Moscow without triggering accusations of doing Russia's bidding. The administration's response to this predicament has usually been to echo the most conventional hawkish views on disputed issues and make no concerted effort to repair frayed ties with the Russian government.

Comment: "America first" does not mean, for the rest of the world, "America only." And, Russia is proving this premise by inviting countries into its fold through trade and diplomacy, more-than-not the castoffs of the empire. If there is a chance for the US and Russia to reach a warm and fuzzy relationship they must join the same sphere of influence or be content that more than one exists. And that, the PTB will not allow.

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Arrow Up

In from the cold? CIA gesture may indicate a thawing in US-Russia ties

M.K. Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 07:26 UTC
Trumputin
© AFP / Sputnik/ Mikhail Klimentyev
In the annals of Russian-American relations, it is difficult to recall a precedent for the Kremlin leader calling his White House counterpart to convey his personal gratitude and appreciation for the profound contribution made by the US' Central Intelligence Agency and its director to Russian national security.

The great irony is that the incumbent Kremlin boss is a former KGB officer. Vladimir Putin never ceases to surprise.

The Kremlin readout of Putin's phone call to US President Donald Trump on Sunday should be an eye-opener to anyone who bought the US propaganda that Putin is a demon preparing to devour the West - or Russian propaganda that encourages an impression to be formed among the naïve and the gullible that the world is carved into two neat halves, namely the good and the evil.

Countries like Turkey, Iran and Egypt - and Venezuela and North Korea - should take particular note that the world situation and the emerging international order are a lot more complicated than some among them would like to think. What prompted Putin to make such an extraordinary move?

Comment: Was the US gesture genuine or was it tactical in nature? Considering Putin often displays the high road in exchanges with other countries, he challenges the 'lift' to others and therefore this call may be a less indicative marker of actualities or intent. Trump, on the other hand, may be seeking real cooperation, though all options are still in the air. Skepticism for the tactics and motivations of the CIA is always prudent.

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Biohazard

Pyongyang denies biological weapons rumors, accuses US of fabricating a pretext for attack


RT
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 04:34 UTC
Nuclear Alert:
© Anadolu Agency
North Korea has rejected media speculation, fueled by the US National Security Strategy, that it's preparing for chemical warfare. Pyongyang accused Washington of fabricating yet another "false pretext" for a surprise attack.

As tensions on the Korean peninsula continue to escalate, a series of reports suggest that North Korea might be developing a program to fit biological weapons on intercontinental ballistic missiles. One such report appeared in Japan's Asahi newspaper, which cited an unnamed person allegedly connected to South Korea's intelligence. The allegations took root in the fertile media ground, already prepped by the assessment from Donald Trump's National Security Strategy released Monday.

"As missiles grow in numbers, types, and effectiveness, to include those with greater ranges, they are the most likely means for states like North Korea to use a nuclear weapon against the United States," the document notes. "North Korea is also pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile."

North Korea dismissed the allegations that it's preparing for biological warfare. "The DPRK, as a state party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), maintains its consistent stand to oppose development, manufacture, stockpiling and possession of biological weapons," the North's Institute for American Studies, affiliated with the foreign ministry, was quoted as saying by state news agency KCNA.

Comment: Instead of exploring all reasonable options to bring North Korea to the table and find a workable solution with the US, the empire instead chooses to continue verbal attacks and provokable speculations to keep the North Koreans on a razor's edge. What does this achieve? Certainly not sympathy or global accommodation to the US, nor an end to the hostile environment between the two countries. Distraction? Maybe. Accusing others of what it wants to do? There is that pattern. Does NK have bio-weapons? Likely.

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X

Putin: 'Collusion accusations 'undermine' the US and President Trump

Charlie Spiering
Breitbart
Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
VPutin
© Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the ongoing investigations into the possibility that President Donald Trump's campaign "colluded" with the Russians.

"That's been invented by those that are in the opposition, people who oppose President Trump to delegitimize his time in office," Putin replied to ABC News reporter Terry Moran during a press conference via a translator. "And it really seems strange to me because it seems that they don't understand, they undermine their own nation."

Putin said that he had respect for the Democrats opposition, but that they risked alienating Trump supporters. "It limits the powers of the president who has been elected," he said. "It means that they don't have respect for those Americans who elected Donald Trump."

Putin said that meetings with campaigns around the world was a normal practice for the Russians to talk about shared interests. "Why do you have this spy hysteria, Russia meddling hysteria?" he asked.

Comment: Putin is right when he says "...they undermine their own nation." It is exactly what is happening.

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