Friday, September 06, 2019

Stephen Cohen on Russia-gate

Russia-gate was the biggest waste of time.  The lie existed to cover up for Hillary Clinton's awful campaign.  Instead of explaining how she failed to win the 2016 election despite her strategy of elevating Donald Trump so that she could have an easy win.  The lie prevented people from focusing on reality -- real issues -- and prevented the Democratic Party from being held accountable.

Stephen F. Cohen questioned this nonsense all along.  This is from his latest at INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE:

But the question remains: Why did Western intelligence agencies, prompted, it seems clear, by US ones, seek to undermine Trump’s presidential campaign? A reflexive answer might be because candidate Trump promised to “cooperate with Russia,” to pursue a pro-détente foreign policy, but this was hardly a startling, still less subversive, advocacy by a would-be Republican president. All of the major pro-détente episodes in the 20th century had been initiated by Republican presidents: Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan.
So, again, what was it about Trump that so spooked the spooks so far off their rightful reservation and so intrusively into American presidential politics? Investigations being overseen by Attorney General William Barr may provide answers—or not. Barr has already leveled procedural charges against James Comey, head of the FBI under President Obama and briefly under President Trump, but the repeatedly hapless Comey seems incapable of having initiated such an audacious operation against a presidential candidate, still less a president-elect. As I have long suggested, John Brennan and James Clapper, head of the CIA and Office of National Intelligence under Obama respectively, are the more likely culprits. The FBI is no longer the fearsome organization it once was and thus not hard to investigate, as Barr has already shown. The others, particularly the CIA, are a different matter, and Barr has suggested they are resisting. To investigate them, particularly the CIA, it seems, he has brought in a veteran prosecutor-investigator, John Durham.
Which raises other questions. Are Barr and Durham, whose own careers include associations with US intelligence agencies, determined to uncover the truth about the origins of Russiagate? And can they really do so fully, given the resistance already apparent? Even if so, will Barr make public their findings, however damning of the intelligence agencies they may be, or will he classify them? And if the latter, will President Trump use his authority to declassify the findings as the 2020 presidential election approaches in order to discredit the role of Obama’s presidency and its would-be heirs?

Equally important perhaps, how will mainstream media treat the Barr-Durham investigation and its findings? Having driven the Russiagate narrative for so long and so misleadingly—and with liberals perhaps finding themselves in the incongruous position of defending rogue intelligence agencies—will they credit or seek to discredit the findings?

Stephen has been straightforward on this issue.  He spoke clearly and strongly before Russia-gate imploded.  He spoke up when it meant he was attacked verbally.  There haven't been a lot of heroes in the last years but Stephen can be seen as one of the few.



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, September 5, 2019.  Another American has died in Iraq, Joe Biden's lies about Iraq reveal that his 'gaffes' aren't accidents, and much more.


Another American has died in Iraq, 31-year-old Brandon Pinson.  Patrick Smith (NBC NEWS) and REUTERS report:
An American working to defuse explosive devices left from battles with the Islamic State near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul has been killed, according to local Iraqi security officials and the humanitarian organization Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD).
FSD, which clears mines and explosive remnants after wars, named the American on Tuesday as 31-year-old Brandon Pinson.
The FSD employee was defusing an explosive device when he was killed, the organization said in a statement.


  1.  Sep 3
It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Brandon Pinson, supervisor of one of FSD's clearance teams in Iraq. He was killed this morning following the explosion of an IED he was defusing. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. 👉
1 reply14 retweets12 likes
 
 


Molly Parker (THE SOURTHERN) reports:
Pinson, 31, was an Army veteran and married father of two.
He was raised in Benton, though left the area as a young adult. His mom, Karen Pinson, of Benton, said he was just a month shy of completing his work in Iraq and returning to his home in Cherry Point, North Carolina. He was eager to get back to his wife, Samantha, and their 4- and 2-year-old boys, she said. He had recently accepted a job as a police officer, she said. Karen said she believes her son accepted the contract work in the meantime to support his family, and because he also believed in the mission of the humanitarian aid organization for which he worked. Left behind to detonate without warning, these weapons terrorize citizens who are trying to return home even after the war has ended. “He loved helping people,” she said. “He would help anybody. It didn't matter who it was.” 



  1.  10 hours ago
This young man from my hometown Benton, IL lost his life defusing an IED in Iraq yesterday. Plz keep family, especially wife & 2 boys, in your prayers. Also help financially thru this link & RT❤️TY Brandon Pinson Family Support Fund
 
 
 13 hours ago
Do me a favor today and read this article. This young man lost his life trying to make the world safer for those living in war torn areas. Brandon Pinson, 31, Army Vet, Husband, Father HERO
1 reply7 retweets18 likes
 
 
 13 hours ago
Click here to support Brandon Pinson Family Support Fund organized by Juanita Michelle Gober
 
 
 14 hours ago
Benton native Brandon Pinson was killed Tuesday morning in Iraq, where he was leading a team of deminers working to clear improvised explosive devices left behind from battles with the Islamic State.
1 retweet
 
 
 18 hours ago
BENTON — Benton native Brandon Pinson was killed Tuesday morning in Iraq, where he was leading a team of deminers working to clear improvised explosive devices left behind from battles with the Islamic State.
3 retweets2 likes
 
 
 21 hours ago
Former U.S. military EOD Tech Brandon Pinson, age 31, was killed while rendering safe an IED close to the village of Tel al-Shear, south of Mosul, Iraq. He is survived by his wife and two young children
4 replies21 retweets17 likes
 
 
  1. Show this thread



Iraq was an issue in the 2004 US presidential election, the 2008 US presidential election, the 2012 US presidential election, the 2016 US presidential election and it's becoming an issue in the upcoming 2020 election.

Last week, THE WASHINGTON POST's Matt Viser and Greg Jaffe reported on Joe's fanciful story that he tells publicly but that is not accurate: "The upshot: In the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony."

As he finished telling that lie, he concluded with, "This is the God's truth.  My word as a Biden."  It wasn't the God's truth and there should be serious questions about his "word as a Biden."  He and his campaign have repeatedly tried to dismiss it.  It doesn't matter, they insist.




You can tell me you're telling the truth
That you don't wanna make me a fool
And baby you know I play along
Now you're telling me you're sorry
Well don't start lying to me now
(Don't start lying to me now)
-- "Don't Start Lying To Me Now," written by Chris Stapleton, Melissa Peirce and Joss Stone, first appears on Joss' LP1


This week's 'it doesn't matter'?  Joe's lie to NPR about how he immediately opposed the Iraq War ("The moment it started.  I came out against the war at that moment.").

That lie has gotten more pushback from the press with NEWSWEEK, SPLINTER, BUSINESS INSIDER, SALON,  among others.  Nathan McDermott and Andrew Kaczynski (CNN) observe, "In recent speeches and interviews defending his past foreign policy decisions, former Vice President Joe Biden has misrepresented his past position on the Iraq War."

 Sep 3
Just saw on CNN that Biden claims to have been against the Iraq War, before it began. Hope they’re mistaken. Cuz if he did, it’s not a mistake or a gaffe. It’s a whopper. (& btw, this isn’t about age. I’m 74 & remember quite clearly who was for & against)
58 replies308 retweets996 likes
 
 



Ben Mathis-Lilly (SLATE) notes:
           
Underlying all of that is the absurdity, when two of the premises of your presidential campaign are that you have good foreign policy judgment and that you are an expert at working with Republicans in bipartisan good faith, of telling a story about how you made a disastrous foreign policy decision because a Republican took advantage of your naïve belief that he was working in bipartisan good faith.

So … given that it’s extremely at odds with both the public record and the themes of his campaign, why is Biden claiming that George W. Bush fooled him into accidentally voting to start a war? Probably because the most central theme of his campaign, and indeed the theme of his entire career, is that Joe Biden represents the common-sense majority consensus of the American public against extremists on both sides. In 2002 and 2003, a wide majority of Americans felt that Bush was a good president and that invading Iraq was a good idea, and thus Joe Biden for the most part felt that way too. In 2019, though, those positions are, at best, contested ones, and thus Joe Biden no longer holds them either. 


 Sep 3
"9 months ago, I voted with my colleagues to give the president the authority to use force & I'd vote that way again today," Joe Biden, 7-31-03. "I am opposed to giving the President a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq," Bernie Sanders, 10-09-02
"Immediately, that moment it started, I came out against the war at that moment," Biden told NPR about the Iraq war. But in multiple public remarks made after the invasion began in 2003,…
45 replies987 retweets2,817 likes
 
 

 16 hours ago
I honestly can't believe that , who voted for the Iraq War, and then support the occupation for years, is claiming that he opposed the war after the invasion. There's a word for this. Lying
Joe Biden is repeatedly misrepresenting his past position on the Iraq War, falsely saying again this week that he was against it from the moment of the invasion. The long record shows that’s far from what happened. Story from and :
Show this thread
24 replies155 retweets592 likes
 
 

 Sep 3
Nominate someone who doesn’t lie so much, creating a “both sides do it, so don’t bother voting” narrative.
6 replies17 retweets57 likes
 
 

 22 hours ago
Biden's role in leading us into the Iraq War was a disaster then and deeply troubling for his decision making now. He was Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in better position than anyone to expose the lies. Instead he trusted Bush. FULL:
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0:44
99 replies588 retweets1,662 likes
 
 



Today on MORNING EDITION (NPR), Don Goya offers a fact check on Joe's claim while Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley reminds:
Biden has been challenged on the veracity of other stories or factual assertions that he has used on the campaign trail. That has been a long-standing problem with Biden. However, this is about his record in supporting an unnecessary and unwarranted war that costs thousands of lives and ultimately over a trillion dollars. Like Kerry and Clinton, Biden cast the popular rather than the right vote. No level of revision of history will change the cost of that war for thousands of families or the country.
These denials and revisions are precisely why the Framers wisely insisted on declarations of war — a constitutional requirement that has been effectively removed from the Constitution by our politicians.

In other news, Adnan Abu Zeed (AL-MONITOR) reports:
Ammar al-Hakim, head of the National Wisdom Movement, said Aug. 12 that efforts aimed at forming an opposition front would produce a “shadow government.” This comes after the concept of parliamentary opposition remained absent during the terms of three parliaments due to consensual multiparty emocracy and the domination of the same parties for more than 10 years.
Baligh Abu Kalal, a top member of the National Wisdom Movement, told Al-Monitor, “The aim of the shadow government is to consolidate democracy with both pro-government and opposition camps and to offer an alternative to the current government through figures representing the opposition who diagnose the errors of the government and provide solutions and remedies.”
Abu Kalal said, “The shadow government will form committees to meet with some or all government ministries at the beginning in order to better evaluate and motivate performance.”
 
What's going on?

Adel Abdul Mahdi is a disaster as prime minister.  We're one month shy of his first year anniversary.  He's been an ineffectual disaster.  He's united everyone against him.




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