COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, January 08, 2017

“CIA intelligence reporting stating that the Russian government hacked the presidential election in order to elect Donald Trump is false. It is merely a political attack against Donald Trump with the goal of delegitimizing his presidency.



original.antiwar.com

Purge the CIA by -- Antiwar.com

Justin Raimondo

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified at a hearing on “Russian interference” in the election that there’s a difference between “skepticism” of the intelligence community’s assessment and “disparagement” of said community. While stopping short of asking for a “safe space,” this admitted liar used the opportunity to cry on the shoulders of Donald Trump’s assembled enemies: “We’re not perfect,” he burbled, but hey everybody makes mistakes.

Clapper’s remarks were clearly aimed at Trump, who has tweeted his contempt for the effort by the CIA and allied agencies to conjure up a Russian conspiracy to put him in the White House. Citing Julian Assange’s statement to Sean Hannity that a teenager could’ve hacked the Podesta emails, Trump’s tweets evoked the rage of the Washington Establishment – how dare he question those who failed to prevent 9/11, told us Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction,” and failed to foresee the rise of ISIS, which they (through President Obama) characterized as “the JV team”!

The hearing quickly degenerated into a “Hate Assange” session, with McCain asking Clapper "if any credibility should attached to this individual” given WikiLeaks’ “record of leaking materials that put U.S. lives in direct danger.”

"Not in my view," Clapper replied.

Only in Washington would this exchange not be followed by howls of jeering laughter. It was Clapper, after all, who lied under oath to Sen. Ron Wyden and the Senate when asked about the extent of spying on US citizens engaged in by the National Security Agency, and later was forced to apologize for it.

And of course it is a brazen lie that anything published by WikiLeaks in its decade-long history has ever resulted in a single death – except, perhaps, the death of the US government’s credibility.
What will go down in history as the John McCain-Lindsey Graham dog and pony show featured plenty of thunder and lightning. McCain pressed Clapper to declare that Russia’s alleged actions were an “act of war,” but the DNI demurred, saying it’s not the intelligence community’s job to make such judgments.  Sen. Graham opined that he’d like to start “throwing rocks” at the Russkies, whereas President Obama has been lobbing mere “pebbles.” While the spectacle of Graham trying to go all macho had its comic aspects, as far as serious additions to the intelligence community’s case went there were none. There was rhetoric aplenty, but no new facts.

Indeed, facts were notably absent: while Clapper declared that the intelligence community “stands ever more resolutely” behind the conclusions reached in a report issued earlier this week, he gave no indication that the many holes in that report would be filled any time soon – at least in public. And so the question that has plagued the new cold warriors – where is the evidence? – goes unanswered. But then again, evidence is something that the McCain-Democrat anti-Trump alliance has absolutely no use for: they’ve already reached their conclusion, and it is this:

Trump, in their view, is an illegitimate President: he was elected by the Russians, and is for all intents and purposes a Russian agent. That is what the McCain “hearing” was all about, and the Arizona Senator will continue to harp on this, along with his Democratic allies, until the cows come home. It is unlikely, however, that he will get much of a platform outside of his own Armed Services Committee and CNN: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said there will be no select committee investigation, as McCain is demanding, and that the Senate Intelligence Committee is “quite capable” of investigating what needs to be investigated.

At one point, Graham got up on his hind legs and directly addressed Trump: “What I don’t want you to do is undermine those who are serving our nation in this area until you’re absolutely certain they need to be undermined.” These underminers certainly need to be undermined, at least as far as the President-elect is concerned. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump is planning a major revamp of the intelligence services:

One of the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s planning said advisers also are working on a plan to restructure the Central Intelligence Agency, cutting back on staffing at its Virginia headquarters and pushing more people out into field posts around the world. The CIA declined to comment.

“’The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world has become completely politicized,’ said the individual, who is close to the Trump transition. ‘They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring the agencies and how they interact.’”

That the CIA, in particular, has become a thoroughly politicized cadre of desk jockeys whose intelligence-gathering abilities have seriously atrophied is borne out by the remarks of one “Ishmael Jones,” a former CIA officer writing under a pseudonym: he is the author of The Human Element: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. Jones writes:

“CIA intelligence reporting stating that the Russian government hacked the presidential election in order to elect Donald Trump is false. It is merely a political attack against Donald Trump with the goal of delegitimizing his presidency.

“The depth and quality of the CIA reporting is too good to be true. A December 16 NBC report states, for example: ‘Putin personally directed how hacked material from Democrats was leaked and otherwise used.’ … Such a conclusion would require access to Putin’s inner circle and knowledge of Putin’s plans and intentions. Any spy that close to Putin would be one of the best intelligence sources of all time.

“If such a source existed, he doesn’t exist any more. The leaked reporting would have put him in grave danger, and he would already have been imprisoned or executed.”

What Jones has to say about the culture of the CIA – its politics – tells us why we are seeing this remarkable public spat between an incoming President and the intelligence community he will (ostensibly) command:

“The reporting instead reflects the political opinions and agendas of bureaucrats. CIA bureaucrats are a big blue voting machine with a long record of creating information harmful to Republican presidents. The danger to Mr. Trump is ratcheted up because the recent election influenced many people at the CIA to believe that Trump is the second coming of Hitler. And to stop Hitler, anything is ethical, even treason. CIA bureaucrats have chosen to attack Mr. Trump before he even takes office.”
These are the Praetorian Guards of a decadent and corrupt empire: comfortably ensconced in the swamp Trump has vowed to drain, they long ago lost touch with their alleged mission: gathering intelligence overseas. As Jones relates:

“The CIA is meant to spy upon foreign countries. The secrets we seek are located in foreign countries. Yet the bloated CIA bureaucracy exists almost entirely within the United States. CIA bureaucrats appear to find foreign service disagreeable. They enjoy their lifestyle and will fight with aggressive passivity to keep it that way. More than 90% of CIA employees spend their careers living and working entirely within the United States….

“The incoming CIA chief, Mike Pompeo, will be astonished by how many of his senior leaders have not had an overseas assignment in decades. Brief junkets and TDY’s to foreign countries do not count. CIA boss John Brennan’s 40-plus years of CIA service have occurred almost entirely within the Headquarters building….

“Today, we have more employees working in encouraging diversity, and as of recently, more transgender employees, than we do case officers operating under cover in Russia, China, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and North Korea combined.”

As usual with these hypocrites, in claiming that Russia “interfered” with the election, they are merely projecting their own sins on to Vladimir Putin. The entire agency, as presently constituted, represents a threat to the Republic. Forget “reform” of the CIA: what’s needed is a thoroughgoing top-to-bottom purge.

President Trump must not back down from his reported plans to do just that. The alternative is having to battle these parasites for the next four years as they work to undermine his agenda in alliance with the Democrats and the hawkish wing of the GOP.
Let the purges begin!

NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.

Read more by Justin Raimondo

65 comments:

  1. HILLARY CLINTON AND OBAMA'S REAL LEGACY

    Syria was invaded by a NATO-supplied army of mercenary terrorists–from Jordan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and China, and elsewhere (wherever willing jihadists could be found to wage war on the Assad government).

    There was a climate change-induced drought in the eastern Mediterranean that caused an upswing of protest against the Syrian state in 2011. But that peaceful protest was quickly buried beneath a surge of violent jihadist extremism supplied by an opportunist West.

    So why persist in this farcical ruse of referring to these mercenaries as “rebels,” as though this war is some wildly noble democratic revolution of Syrian farmers? Some scene out of Zola’s Germinal with a pitchfork-wielding Gerard Depardieu in the vanguard of a seething agrarian horde. Please.

    When they could, civilians fled for Syrian government areas, suggesting they feared the “moderates” more than the Assad regime. It should also be noted, as it rarely is in the MSM, that the Russians are in Syria on the invitation of the Syrian government.

    The NATO coalition is there uninvited, which is aggression in international law.


    Aside from that obscured fact (how insignificant international law becomes when we’re violating it), the Syrian government is one of the most secular in the region, with modern institutions and nominally democratic infrastructure. The terrorist factions our allied team is backing are quite openly anti-democratic, pro-theocracy, and have little regard for anyone they brand as infidel or kafir, to the point of summary executions and all manner of social repression for whatever frightened populace they rule.

    And yet to say that one supports Syria and its allies winning the war against NATO- and GCC-backed terrorists is not to sanction all the domestic or battlefield behavior of those nations. It is rather to support the rule of international law.

    {...}

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    1. {...}

      SANCTIMONIOUS BULLSHIT ARTISTS

      Lies of the West

      The point is never that foreign governments are pure, but rather the fact our government is anything but. This is an essential criticism to make because it is so much harder to find serious criticism of U.S. foreign policy. By “serious criticism,” I mean appraisals that don’t make tidy work of American war crimes by excusing them as noble blunders: you know, sniffing napalm in the morning and reminding yourself you meant well before things got a little out of hand.

      Instead of doing the real job of investigative journalism and holding power accountable, the Western media is by far the most sophisticated purveyor of state-sponsored bullshit on the planet.

      {...}

      Delete
    2. {...}

      HEAVY DUTY "MADE IN USA" BULLSHIT

      Other nations are making strides in their use of media to disseminate and influence opinion, but the U.S. has been building and fine-tuning its doctrinal system for a century now.

      Studies by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, as well as relentless documentation by organizations like Fair.org, lay plain the inbuilt bias of Western mainstream media and its subservience to powerful corporate interests. It has now reached the point of pure sycophancy.

      Our doctrinal system is perversely effective at:

      a) selectively using facts to create a false narrative (spinning Iranian civilian nuclear energy program as a military initiative aimed at the production of warheads);

      b) omitting facts to support a false narrative (the erasure of the successes of Latin leftist governments in countries such as Venezuela and Argentina, and the omission of Israeli provocations and international law within the Israel-Palestine narrative); and

      c) promoting whole-cloth falsehoods to create or sustain a false narrative (Iraqi WMDs).

      More immediate examples include the disparate coverage of the Mosul and Aleppo battles. Military.com reported that since October 21st, the U.S.-led air attack on Mosul has dropped 1,300 bombs in and around Mosul, and one every eight minutes at the outset of the campaign.

      Yet coverage of that underreported “liberation” is dwarfed by hyperventilating condemnations of the “liberation” of Aleppo. Western readers have also been bombarded with ceaseless reports of hospital bombings in east Aleppo supplied by Al Qaeda-sanctioned reporters, and the relentless promotion of the supposedly selfless and valiant work of the “White Helmets,” a shadowy Western-backed front that seems only to work in Al Qaeda-held areas, uses jihadists in its videos, and stages rescues. All of this facilitated by the feckless ruse of the “moderate rebel,” the unicorn of the Syrian war.

      THANK YOU BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN MCCAIN

      {...}



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    3. {...}

      A Faithless Left

      That is the failure of the mainstream: it doesn’t seriously question its government and instead legitimates its lies. Yet no government should be trusted, only held to account.

      So it falls

      the citizenry and alternative media to do the media’s job.

      Citizens of every nation ought to hold their own governments to an unrelentingly high standard. And this should be the first order of business, not something taken up reluctantly after hammering every other nation on earth for its failures.

      Or after posturing about one’s own noble intentions. This is one of the lessons of the profound failure of lesser evilism: that without significant pressure from the left, governments–and the media, too–will drift right, enmeshing themselves with corporate industrial-finance megaliths that profit by authoritarian regimes and hawkish foreign policies, the better to betray the will of the populace to line the pockets of the elite.

      The media should represent a society’s capacity for self-reflection.

      When it ceases to do this, it partakes in a kind of sophomoric good/bad dualism that is better left to teen fiction and Marvel Universe backstories.

      Glenn Greenwald says it’s tribalism writ large, this seemingly hardwired need to paint such stark distinctions between ourselves and others, always and revealingly in the most self-serving manner feasible.

      Which is why it is hard to answer the question of when was the last time anyone inside the beltway uttered that once-famous maxim to take the plank out of your own eye before removing the speck from your neighbor’s eye. Not a bad piece of advice. Washington and its MSM flacks might pay it some heed.


      CounterPunch

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    4. .

      Hear! Hear!

      Though the last is pure wishful thinking.

      .

      Delete
  2. Chomsky is just an insane old commie who denied the Cambodian Holocaust.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Attacker shot dead... Developing...
    People trapped under truck...
    Bodies strewn on street...




    JERUSALEM: TRUCK RAMS INTO SOLDIERS; 4 KILLED


    Drudge

    This new method of slaughter is catching on all over.

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    1. VIDEO of truck attack:

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4099046/Truck-attacker-shot-dead-killing-three-wounding-15-pedestrians-Jerusalem.html

      Delete

    2. Since the licensing of trucks has failed to stem the violence, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, what is the next move our "Security" forces should take/

      Delete
  4. The 'Syrian Government' represents about 15% of the Syrian people.

    They have no moral claim on power. Just brute force.

    I say break it up into enclaves, except it's too late.

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    1. Syrian's been a brutal dictatorship as long as I can recall, like most of the countries over there.

      The whole area is like one of these sticky mouse traps....you're walking along, foolishly walk onto the sticky tape, and spend the rest of your time in a futile effort to get unstuck.

      Delete
    2. Syria is the business of Syria.

      When we fix Camden, Chicago and Detroit, shortly after be bring NYC and San Francisco into compliance with federal law, we can then once again to pretend to have the answer for every other country on the planet.

      Delete

    3. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, like his Israeli heroes, would support al-Qeada operatives taking power in Syria.

      Delete
    4. Perhaps the"Draft Dodger" will support the Israelis in their attempt to 'take down" British politicians ... Replacing them with al-Qeada operative, as well ....

      LONDON - In a deeply embarrassing episode revealed on Sunday, a senior employee of the Israeli Embassy in Britain was recorded plotting to “take down” senior British politicians critical of Israel and calling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson “an idiot ...

      Delete
  5. CBS radio report created the impression Chicago torture victim was a black man assaulted by white Trump supporters
    January 8, 2017
    This may be the single most despicable act of media bias I have ever encountered. More

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/01/cbs_radio_report_created_the_impression_chicago_torture_victim_was_a_black_man_assaulted_by_white_trump_supporters.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have we considered the possibility that Trump is a KGB agent like his pal Pooty ?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Q Society Making Massive Gains Worldwide

    "Q"Nit of the Day: The Q Society


    Australia: Party vowing to “reduce Islam” soaring in popularity

    JANUARY 7, 2017 1:18 PM BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS 62 COMMENTS

    The Q Society (of which Robert Spencer is the “First Lifetime Member At Large”) is described in the article below as “anti-Islam,” and is cast as a reactionary entity overreacting to jihad terror attacks. But the challenge of political Islam is much greater than the ever-present threat of jihad terror attacks. The incursion of Islamic supremacists in Western countries has been alarming, to say the least, and the Q Society is trying to alert people to that.

    It is baffling that Western societies have continued to tolerate the rampant crime committed by Muslim migrants; as well as their shocking sex assaults; threats to free speech; threats of jihad violence; hatred spewed against the West from many mosques; powerful mainstream unindicted co-conspirator lobbies that scream “Islamophobia” at every turn; hate-filled al-Quds day rallies held brazenly in open view with no consequences; and BDS campaigns of hate on campuses, driven by Hamas offshoot groups. The West is crippled by a collective denial of reality, fostered by many corrupt leaders who are fixated upon vote-counting rather than responsible leadership. Yet the Muslim migrant crisis is a mere foreshadowing of things to come unless Westerners wake up.

    The civilization jihad to conquer the West, which the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups are pursuing, is well in progress. “Australia’s newest political party’s manifesto states that ‘Islam is not merely a religion, it is a totalitarian ideology with global aspirations.’” There are Muslims in the West who wish to practice their faith in private like people of other faiths, but political Islam that has spread unchecked, with Western authorities not daring to speak out about it or strategize against it, for fear of being beaten down as “racists” and “Islamophobes.” In contrast, the Q Society declares:

    “With Islam, the problem grows exponentially…the main thing is to reduce the numbers, not let it grow any further and take the status out of it in our so-called multicultural society.”


    If these words are not heeded in regard to political Islam, Australia will eventually cease to be a multicultural society at all, or non-Muslim cultures will subsist only in a state of subjugation under Islamic law.



    “’It’s is not merely a religion’ Secret party vowing to ‘reduce Islam’ soars in popularity”, by Rebecca Perring, Express, January 6, 2017:

    The mysterious Q Society is now gaining ground and support for the “Islam-critical Movement” across Australia and has decided to embrace the limelight.

    It is a far cry from the days the group insisted members sign a nondisclosure agreement if they want to attend one of its meetings.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. But now the anti-Islam party is publicly promoting a $150-a-head (£89) fundraising dinner in Sydney and Melbourne, which will feature speeches from well-known local councillors.

      Leaders say the secretive group is gathering momentum across the pond in the wake of multiple Islamist terror attacks……

      “If you look back 10 years, you won’t read about these issues. Everything was fantastic, everyone wanted a falafel or kebab.

      “With Islam, the problem grows exponentially. We’re probably 10 years behind Britain and Europe but we’re catching up fast.

      “The main thing is to reduce the numbers, not let it grow any further and take the status out of it in our so-called multicultural society.”

      Australia’s newest political party’s manifesto states that “Islam is not merely a religion, it is a totalitarian ideology with global aspirations”.

      The party is affiliated with the Australian Liberty Alliance and global organisation Stop The Islamisation of Nations (SION), which brought right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders to speak in Australia.

      Q Society has 1,000 registered members across Australia who donate sums of anything from $5 (£3) to $5,000 (£3,000).

      But the organisation’s popularity hasn’t gone without receiving harsh criticism.

      Keysar Trad, from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said Q Society spreads “disturbing baseless Islamophobia” but said some subscribed to their message because of a lack of good information about Islam.

      However Mr Schumann argues “Islamophobia” is a bogus concept.

      He told news.com.au: “It’s basic slander, the usual stuff to shut people up.

      “Call them a Nazi, a bigot. I don’t think it’s racist. It’s concern about one particular ideology.

      “You probably don’t remember how it used to be when you boarded an aircraft, it was like getting on a train or a tram. The change is certainly not because of crazy Hindus or Jews. Terror works.”

      He told news.com.au: “It’s basic slander, the usual stuff to shut people up.

      “Call them a Nazi, a bigot. I don’t think it’s racist. It’s concern about one particular ideology.

      “You probably don’t remember how it used to be when you boarded an aircraft, it was like getting on a train or a tram. The change is certainly not because of crazy Hindus or Jews. Terror works.”

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/australia-party-vowing-to-reduce-islam-soaring-in-popularity

      Delete
    2. Sounds like a great organization and a wonderful name, too !

      Going to find out if I too can join.

      I too might be a Q.

      Delete
    3. Hey, Doug, you want to be a Q too ?

      Delete
    4. (Rumor and Living Legend have it that The Q Society was first proposed at, of all places, Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe in Detroit, Michigan, the brain child of one "Q" who listens to mob gossip there.)

      Delete
    5. .

      I think you probably should join. Sounds like its right up your alley. In fact, perhaps you can apply to open up an American branch or lodge. In doing so, you would be joining a long history of such organizations and parties like this going back to the nation's beginning.

      Here's one example...

      The Know Nothing Party

      Know-Nothing party, byname of American Party, U.S. political party that flourished in the 1850s. The Know-Nothing party was an outgrowth of the strong anti-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest itself during the 1840s. A rising tide of immigrants, primarily Germans in the Midwest and Irish in the East, seemed to pose a threat to the economic and political security of native-born Protestant Americans. In 1849 the secret Order of the Star-Spangled Banner formed in New York City, and soon after lodges formed in nearly every other major American city.

      Members, when asked about their nativist organizations, were supposed to reply that they knew nothing, hence the name.
      As its membership and importance grew in the 1850s, the group slowly shed its clandestine character and took the official name American Party. As a national political entity, it called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-born from voting or holding public office in the United States, and for a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship.

      By 1852 the Know-Nothing party was achieving phenomenal growth. It did very well that year in state and local elections, and with passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 it won additional adherents from the ranks of conservatives who could support neither the proslavery Democrats nor antislavery Republicans. When Congress assembled on Dec. 3, 1855, 43 representatives were avowed members of the Know-Nothing party.

      That, however, was the peak of Know-Nothing power. At the American Party convention in Philadelphia the following year, the party split along sectional lines over the proslavery platform pushed through by Southern delegates. Party presidential candidate Millard Fillmore carried just one state (Maryland) in the 1856 election, and congressional strength dropped to 12 representatives...


      Dang, sounds eerily familiar. Yep, I think you ought to sign up for the Q Party right away. Well, f you can scrape up the $150 I mean, a small price to pay for the camaraderie of like minded yokels.

      .

      Delete
    6. Hmmm....doesn't sound eerily familiar to me, unless the Roman Catholics were into suicide bombing but I've never read they were....did the Catholics of that day favor subordination of women, preaching that they were only one half a human being ? Did they hate dogs ? Were they trying to subordinate all other outlooks ? Did the Catholics burn folks in wicker cages ? (Be careful here) Did they behead people for no reason ?

      Anyway, I certainly do like the name. Noble, and easy to remember....

      Delete
    7. Hmmm.....The Horrors of The Church and its Holy Inquisition

      www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican29.htm
      Citizens accused of heresy would be woken in the dead of night, ordered, if not .... Men, women, and children, all legally murdered on evidence by a church, .... Those refusing to accept Catholicism where lead to the stake and burnt alive in a .... Women condemned of heresy, blasphemy, adultery, and witchcraft often felt the ...

      http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vatican/esp_vatican29.htm

      Any chance you can loan me $150 bucks ?

      Delete
    8. .

      No. All I do is bundle derivatives based on risky paper like a loan to you would be.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      Eerily familiar?

      Sure, the anti-immigrant, the nativist, and especially the know nothing part.

      .

      Delete
    10. One of the greatest Jihads in history was the English Protestant led ethnic cleansing of North America of the North American Indian (savages)

      in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

      But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

      In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

      Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.


      Delete
  8. .

    Priebus says he thinks Trump 'accepts' intelligence community's findings

    Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he thinks President-elect Donald Trump accepts the findings of the intelligence community on Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race.
    "I think he accepts the findings," Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday."
    "But here's the thing that I think everyone needs to understand - when this whole thing started, it started from the Russians 50 years ago...This is something that's been going on in our elections for many, many years."
    Priebus said it "happens every election period."

    ReplyDelete
  9. Meanwhile in Venezuela, where forgotten corpses are exploding in hospitals without doctors or nurses -


    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Names Suspected Islamic Terrorist Tareck El Aissam as Vice President
    By Pamela Geller - on January 7, 2017

    LEFT/ISLAMIC ALLIANCEel-aissami-terrorista


    The red/green alliance (the socialist/Islamic alliance) was a priority objective under Chavez. Hugo Chavez, a notorious enemy of freedom, aligned with Islamic terror leaders to oppose America and her allies.

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the successor to the late socialist President Hugo Chavez, announced on Wednesday that former minister Tareck El Aissami would become vice president of the country.
    “That means that, in a country of complete and utter chaos — where people are starving, healthcare is nonexistent, electricity is scarce, and vigilante justice is becoming a norm — a suspected terrorist is one heartbeat away from the highest office in the land.”

    screen-shot-2015-03-25-at-23030-pm

    A SUSPECTED TERRORIST AND DRUG TRAFFICKER JUST BECAME VENEZUELA’S VICE PRESIDENT
    Linette Lopez, Business Insider, January 5, 2017:

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the successor to the late socialist President Hugo Chavez, announced on Wednesday that former minister Tareck El Aissami would become vice president of the country.

    That means that, in a country of complete and utter chaos — where people are starving, healthcare is nonexistent, electricity is scarce, and vigilante justice is becoming a norm — a suspected terrorist is one heartbeat away from the highest office in the land.

    El Aissami is a known entity in the world of US intelligence. He is allegedly a part of Venezuela’s state drug-trafficking network and has ties to Iran, Syria, and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

    And if Maduro is ousted, as his opposition is calling for, El Aissami will become the president of a failed state in America’s backyard.

    EVER HEARD OF AEROTERROR?

    A little-discussed feature, at least here in the US, of Chavez’s socialist regime was its ties to hardline Islamists. For example, from 2007 to at least 2010, there was a flight from Caracas, Venezuela, to Tehran, Iran, that made a stop in Damascus, Syria.

    Chavez and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly called it “Aeroterror.” Only government officials with a special clearance were permitted to fly on it, and there were often very few passengers. The flights mostly carried drugs, weapons, cash and terrorists, according to US government testimony and a report by Brazilian paper Veja.....

    http://pamelageller.com/2017/01/venzuela-vice-president-terror.html/

    So, the insistent unspoken question is becoming louder as to whether or not the USA erred in allowing Chavez to come to power in the first place....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Heh,

    The birther Trumpettes have their knickers in a twist because the Russians have given cause to question the legitimacy of Trump as POTUS. What goes around comes around...turnabout is fair play...ect...ect...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I read Trump is actually a Russian, but has covered his tracks well.

    That's what I read somewhere.

    It's time we had a Russian President.

    We had a Kenyan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Kathleen Parker: If Obama is a Muslim, is Trump a Russian spy?

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-obama-is-a-muslim-is-trump-a-russian-spy/2017/01/06/26fe7128-d45c-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html?utm_term=.d8c85aacddfe

      Good ol' wacky Kathleen.

      Delete
  12. How are things going in your socialist paradise of Venezuela, Ash ?

    ReplyDelete
  13. JANUARY 9 2017 - 12:00AM

    Russia isn't the bad guy you've been led to believe it is

    Tom Switzer



    ....It's time we asked why we in the West can't work with the Kremlin when interests overlap, as they do in defeating Islamic jihadists and keeping in check a rising China. Once we do that – and start treating Russia like the great power it still is – we may find it easy to strike a deal that can satisfy all sides.

    Alas, among the policy elite and media class, describing oneself as a supporter of engaging Russia invites scorn and derision. But the position reflects a political tradition with roots in the American past.

    It was those Cold Warriors Nixon and Reagan, remember, who embraced detente with the Soviet Communists. A time, as leading historian Stephen Cohen reminds us, when a far more vibrant debate about Russia took place.

    Still, not everyone is hawkish. In a most encouraging sign, Donald Trump and his secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson want to deal with Putin. So, too, does Francois Fillon, the French conservative presidential candidate. In a forthcoming book, Return to Moscow, former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin makes a personal appeal against the hostile Western drive to a new Cold War with Russia.

    If their views were to become Western policy, the prospects for co-operation and reduced tensions with Moscow would be excellent. If not, the outlook for the world is grim.


    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/russia-isnt-the-bad-guy-youve-been-lead-to-believe-it-is-20170106-gtmzvc.html


    And, don't forget, IF they helped defeat the Criminal Hillary Clinton when she was running for President, they did well.

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What about the charges of Moscow's interference in America's presidential election?

      They have certainly strengthened the demand to treat Russia as the enemy. But outrage should be tempered by the recognition that if such interference justifies condemnation, then many nations have grounds for condemning Washington.

      For decades, the US has itself interfered in the domestic affairs of other nations -- not just enemies and competitors, but Western friends and allies. From 1946 to 2000, according to Carnegie Mellon University's Dov Levin, the US interfered in foreign elections 81 times compared to 36 by the Russians.



      http://www.smh.com.au/comment/russia-isnt-the-bad-guy-youve-been-lead-to-believe-it-is-20170106-gtmzvc.html

      This figure of 36 by the Russians since 1946 seems quite low, and deceptive, considering there never a free election in all the counties dominated in Europe by the Soviet Union, and when it happened in Czechoslovakia one time the Russian tanks moved in....Alexander Dubček and all that.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dub%C4%8Dek

      But the point is there have been lots of 'interventions' all over the landscape.

      Delete
  14. Why are there allowed Russian spy compounds in the US? (not a joke).

    ReplyDelete
  15. 'This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party [independent forensics lab CrowdStrike] for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.'

    But the DNC has directed questions about those claims to an interview given to Buzzfeed by Eric Walker, the DNC’s deputy communications director, in which he said the FBI never actually asked to access the technology.
    'The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and US Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers,' he said.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Science of Funny

    http://www.businessinsider.com/science-of-funny-humor-new-yorker-cartoons-bob-mankoff-2016-12

    What makes a joke funny ?

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Q"Nits of the Day: Ottawa, Canada

    A MUSLIM MURDER SPREE IN CANADA’S CAPITAL

    Muslim migration carries a heavy price.

    January 9, 2017 Daniel Greenfield


    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

    Canada’s capital is a small sleepy city of less than a million. Its average annual murder rate is only 10. That’s a weekend in Chicago. But last year something strange happened to Ottawa’s murder rate.

    It shot up to 24 homicides.

    The last two murders were of Somali Muslim sisters Asma and Nasiba. Their murderer was their brother, Musab A-Noor. Despite the obvious history of Muslim honor killings of women, often carried out by brothers against their sisters, Musab was found “unfit” to stand trial. A director at the Somali Centre for Family Services insisted that Somali settlers in the city need more mental health funding.

    Something certainly seems to be needed.

    There were an estimated 66,000 Muslim settlers in the Ottawa - Gatineau metropolitan area. Despite forming some 5 percent of the population, they are startlingly overrepresented in Ottawa’s murders.

    2016 in Ottawa ended with a Muslim murder in December and it began with a Muslim murder in January. Mohamed Najdi was killed by five other Muslim men. Mohamed had probably been shot in connection with the 2015 shooting of yet another Muslim man by an accused killer named Mohammad.

    And we mustn’t confuse Mohamed with Mohammad.

    The other Mohammad, a Kuwaiti immigrant, had been a suspect in multiple shootings the previous year and had spent two years in prison for sexual assault.

    At January’s end, Marwan Arab, Ottawa’s second homicide victim, was shot, along with his cousin. Both men were members of the Algonquin Muslim Students Association. One of the Arab cousins allegedly had links to a terror suspect. The shooting led to more arrests of Muslims for plotting another attack.

    In March, Christina Voelzing became Ottawa’s sixth murder victim. The 24-year-old Algonquin college student was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Behnam Yaali. Yaali, a drug smuggler, was represented by a lawyer who also specializes in refugee law.

    Twenty-four hours after almost being allowed to walk free after pleading guilty to robbery, Idris Abdulgani was arrested for murdering Lonnie Leafloor, a 56-yearold former truck driver, by stabbing him in the back of the neck.

    And that was Ottawa’s seventh murder.

    Of the first seven murders in Ottawa, six involved Muslims as victims or perpetrators and one is ambiguous. Almost half of the total murders in Ottawa last year involved Muslims. The same had also been true for the previous year.

    Meanwhile in 2014, Ottawa witnessed a Muslim honor killing and the terrorist attack on Parliament Hill by Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf, a Libyan Muslim terrorist, whose actions were blamed on, predictably enough, mental illness. Abdallah had wanted peace, but argued that, “There can’t be world peace until there’s only Muslims.” There can’t, apparently for that matter, be peace in Ottawa with Muslims.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a vehement advocate of Muslim colonization, had declared that Canada was the “first postnational state”.

    “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,” the radical leftist leader had insisted.....


    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265366/muslim-murder-spree-canadas-capital-daniel-greenfield

    Trudeau is an absolute moron.

    But he's right.

    There is no core identity in his Canadian outlook.

    ReplyDelete
  18. It was the Russians that were responsible for USA electing O'bozo twice.

    They wanted to harm the USA, and they did, too.

    ReplyDelete
  19. CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST

    Last year, Scotland Yard announced plans to increase the number of armed police in the capital by 600, bringing the total to almost 3,000. Now the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents 32,000 officers in London, is asking all of its members whether or not they would be happy to be armed on duty.

    Ken Marsh, chairman of the association, said: "We've seen a lot of change in Europe and a lot of different kinds of terror attacks such as lorries being used.

    "We're asking our officers if they think they should be armed with Tasers and firearms to get an informed opinion from them so we can tell people what my colleagues are saying.

    "If it comes back overwhelmingly that they all want to carry firearms we would have to have a very frank discussion about that, but there is no intention as we speak for that to happen.

    "However, if there was a major incident on mainland England then I think that people's opinions could change. The terrorism threat in London is constant and our officers must be vigilant and be able to deal swiftly with any scenarios we face."

    ReplyDelete
  20. The Drive Through Sequoia Came Down

    Too much rain.

    Drove through it once.

    Iconic Sequoia Tunnel Tree Brought Down By California Storm

    http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/09/508919216/iconic-sequoia-tunnel-tree-brought-down-by-california-storm

    ReplyDelete
  21. Sound like anyone we know?

    "...

    The e-mail hacks and pseudo-news couldn’t have had the effect they did if the U.S. wasn’t so bitterly divided. Millions of Americans were ready to believe anything that fit their political narrative, regardless of its source. Mr. Trump’s supporters hated Ms. Clinton more than they distrusted the foreign power feeding them election “facts” of suspicious veracity and provenance.

    That’s the real scandal of the 2016 U.S. election."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/russia-wanted-payback-not-a-president-trump/article33546639/

    That's just the concluding paragraph but the whole article is worth the read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blah, blah, blah.

      You LOST !

      Git over it.

      Delete
    2. .

      I'm not buying it, Ash. Well, at least I am not convinced it was the Russians based on the evidence that has been presented. I was kind of surprised Trump bought into it. It does to show that that the only reason he called the story phony before was that he thought they were just trying to delegitimize the election results.

      First, the story from the Globe and Mail...

      Mr. Trump’s supporters hated Ms. Clinton more than they distrusted the foreign power feeding them election “facts” of suspicious veracity and provenance.

      To begin with, all the leaked data was true not suspicious. Clinton's team and the DNC didn't even try to deny that. Knowing it would have been a losing gambit, they concentrated on the foreign interference meme.

      Now, there was a lot of 'fake news' going around in the campaign, but it would take a faux farmer from Idaho to actually believe and spread a story here that the Clintons were running a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor. No normal person could do anything but laugh at such a story. Trying to blame those on the Russians, IMO, is just nutz. The only way the accusation holds up is if you can prove it. And as far as I know, no one has ever shown a link.

      As for the actual leaks, you have a lot of people saying it wasn't the Russians, for instance, the Russians, Assange (the guy who released the leaks), that ex-ambassador (not the band) who said he got it from a guy at the DNC and then passed it on to Assange.

      So if not the Russians, who could have pulled if the hack if there was a hack and it wasn't just some guy leaking the information. The Chinese, the Iranians, the Israelis, multiple countries have the capability. Some seem to have as much reasons as the Russians to do it. China is know to be using cyber weapons against the US all the time. It would likely be in their interests to prove the could affect the US Elections. Israel, Trump is on the record saying he will move the US embassy to Jerusalem. He has pretty much vowed that the settlements are not a problems and he is washing his hands of the issue.

      So there are countries other than Russia that could have done the hack. There are also other non-state players that could be involved, hackers who could do it for the fun of it or hackers who get paid for doing it. And who would pay them? Some cowboy GOP PAC would be a good guess. Heck, it could be one of the numerous cybersecurity firms out there with more being formed daily. These are the guys the Dems, the Clinton Campaign, and even the US government hire to do their cybersecurity work. Cybersecurity is a growing industry valued in the billions. Just like the MIC always likes a good real war, these guys mouths start watering when they hear about a coming cyber war. If things are a little slow, why not start their own?

      So to my mind the case against Russia isn't as clear cut as the Obama administration and the MSM would make it seem. So, who do we have making the case against the Russians and what proof do they provide. Well, it's the Clapper and his bros in the intelligence fraternity. And what proof do they provide. None, if they showed it to you they would have to kill you.

      {...}

      Delete

    3. {...}


      Why should we believe their story? Because they are the US intelligence establishment.

      Why should we question their conclusions?

      - Clapper is a documented liar, he lied to Congress and to the American people, as have other heads of these agencies.

      - The record of these guys just ain't that damn good, they've had massive screw-ups for the past 30 years, failing to predict the fall of the USSR, 9/11, the Arab Spring, Libya, Iraq/Syria, Russia taking the Crimea, ISIS. It just goes on. But what about their expertise in cybersecurity. Well, the US was the first to use computers as an offensive weapon when they and Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities with the Stuxnet malware. In doing so, they showed that not only can cyber warfare be effective it can be managed by non-state actors also as long as they can find some idiot who isn't careful with his thumb drive. Thank you USA and Israel.

      - The people talking to Trump and the American people are all political appointees. We have seen the things that can happen when analysis and facts are cherry-picked to come up with a desired outcome. Look at GWB and Iraq.

      - But would these guys actually do that? Of course, they would if they felt like it (see Clapper and lying above). Most of these guys will be leaving when Trump comes in (except those with a set term like Comey who elect to stay). What do they have to lose. After what he has said about them, they could be looking for some payback. There is little danger of blowback, nobody likes Russia, you've got the Dems and the GOP both on your side and the neocons are wetting their pants on this one. Obama's not going to argue. It fits the meme that the Dems didn't actually lose, the elections were simply stolen from them by the Russkies who by the way are 'friends' of Trump. It's no lose for them.

      - But what about all the evidence they have provided? Twenty-five pages of innuendo and accusations based on speculation and 'intelligent' assessment. Oh, we are assured there is much more but they need to protect methods and sources and only a precious few are allowed into the inner sanctum.

      - Most of the media and the public are buying the dog and pony show put on in D.C. However, few facts that were presented, key names, addresses, etc. would be recognized by everyone involved in cybersecurity, various nation states, the hacker community, cybersecurity firms who will work for anyone. If it was the Russians rather than one of these other groups, there is only two things you could say about the Russian effort...

      1. The Russians are incredibly stupid using techniques and addresses used in previous hacking cases, or...
      2. The just don't care who knows it was them.

      Until I see some more proof, 'actual evidence', I can't buy it.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      ...the few facts that...


      .

      Delete
    5. I get the impression that you didn't actually read the article Quirk.

      I think Trump has seen the nuts and bolts of the evidence the 'agencies' presented and he believes it points to Russia. That is the stuff, the evidence you demand, that they won't show us.

      In any case the specific 'fake news' items that were referred to in the article was:

      "The DNI report highlights how a trio of anti-Clinton, pro-Trump videos – some of them clearly belonging in the category of “fake news” – were among the most-viewed on the website of RT (Russia Today). This is held up as yet more proof that the Kremlin wanted to see Mr. Trump in the White House.

      The videos highlighted by the DNI include an August interview with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, a report claiming that “100 per cent of the Clintons’ ‘charity’ went to … themselves,” and a late-campaign file that quoted Mr. Assange asserting “Trump will not be permitted to win.” Each video was viewed millions of times online, and the DNI includes a detailed (if out-of-date) seven-page assessment of RT as an appendix to its crisper five-page summary of the evidence."

      If you can't access the article and you really want to read it I can cut paste the whole thing here for you.

      Delete
    6. There are also other non-state players that could be involved, hackers who could do it for the fun of it or hackers who get paid for doing it. And who would pay them? Some cowboy GOP PAC would be a good guess.

      OK, I fess up. Quirk's onto it.

      Me and Wayne done it to pass some time.

      We got paid by the local farm bureau.

      Nobody there could stand Crooked Hillary.

      Delete
    7. AshMon Jan 09, 04:52:00 PM EST
      I get the impression that you didn't actually read the article Quirk.


      I've gotten the impression over the years that Quirk can't, actually, read.

      So cutting and pasting the whole thing for him won't do any good.

      Delete
  22. Someone around here said Trump wasn't and couldn't do anything till he was a sworn in Prez.

    O-MA-G: JACK WANTS AMERICA GREAT AGAIN; +1M NEW JOBS....DRUDGE HEADLINE

    Also, Ford, GM, Fiat, Carrier etc etc.....

    Something is happening !

    But of course it has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump, so we all might as well go back to sleep till Inauguration Day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GREAT AGAIN: FIAT to invest $1B in new MI, OH plants; Create 2,000 jobs....DRUDGE

      Delete
  23. Meanwhile, in Ashland, Venezuela -

    Venezuelans receive 50% minimum wage hike paid in still worthless money
    Jan 9, 2017 8:01 AM by Jazz Shaw

    Circling the drain


    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/09/venezuelans-receive-50-minimum-wage-hike-paid-in-still-worthless-money/

    At this rate, soon all Venezuelans will be millionaires, if not billionaires, as my Dad once said about the Italians.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But they still won't have the price of a taco.

      Delete
  24. .

    AshMon Jan 09, 04:52:00 PM EST

    I get the impression that you didn't actually read the article Quirk.



    You are right in saying I didn't read the Globe and Mail article, Ash. However, I did watch the actual hearings. Also, since the hearings, I have read 5 or 6 articles and editorials in a number of papers ranging from the NYT to the Times of Israel. They all might have been written by the same writer. I suspect you could set the G&M article next to those others and not be able to tell the difference except for the occasional 'eh'.

    The one sentence you put up from G&M in your initial post suggests that to me. It emphasizes the exact point Clapper and crew is trying to sell, the ludicrous claim that a Russian preference for Trump over Clinton as indicated by RT news stories, 'fake news' they claim all came from Russia, and by 'hacked' (the irony is just too juicy) conversations picked up by US agencies prove that all the hacking and fake news stories also came from the Russians. I'm not denying that all the claims could be true (well, yes, I guess I am) but the implication that if one is true they are all true is illogical and ludicrous.

    The argument is faulty in two senses. First, it seems to imply that no government should have or at least express publically (or privately) views on who they would like to see win an election in another country. Does anyone doubt the current administration would have preferred Rafsanjani in Iran, anyone but Bibi in Israel, Cameron in the UK. Hell, US presidents pretty much determined the election wins of Maliki and al-Abadi in Iraq. But all of that is irrelevant. They go on to argue that any Russian capable of responding gleefully to a Trump win would unquestionably launch a full scale cyber/fake news attack on Clinton. When Clapper brought it up at the hearing, you could just sense McCain and Graham getting that old tingle up their leg and silently mouthing 'Ooray, slam dunk.'

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
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    1. {...}

      You put up...

      Mr. Trump’s supporters hated Ms. Clinton more than they distrusted the foreign power feeding them election “facts” of suspicious veracity and provenance.

      That one sentence perfectly encapsulates the arguments now being put forward by the intelligence agencies as well as the political views of their MSM enablers.

      The 'Intelligence agencies' say "Trust us" (as if they have given us reasons to do so) "we are professionals" (a questionable assertion) and the MSM, when the agencies supports their own point of view, provides support. That point of view is encapsulated in the G&M's sentence. It shows the paper's contempt for Trump voters. It readily accepts the CIA story without question. It combines two issues (hacking and fake news) exactly what the intelligence community wants the public to do. That one sentence draws on three or four logical fallacies in its construction.

      I think Trump has seen the nuts and bolts of the evidence the 'agencies' presented and he believes it points to Russia. That is the stuff, the evidence you demand, that they won't show us.

      Perhaps, however, I think Trump went into that meeting with one goal, to assure that regardless of what he saw, there would be no official assertion that the final election results were in any way affected by 'hacking' or fake news by anyone. Once he had that, I have no doubt he was being advised to drop the public fight with the intelligence agencies.

      I am not saying there is no truth to the intel story. However, I remain skeptical in the knowledge that the best way to sell the 'Big Lie' is to salt your story with bits of the truth. To my mind, the story being sold so far and tying the whole campaign against Clinton to the Russians is unconvincing. The counter arguments to the establishment story are laid out in the Antiwar article Deuce lead this stream off with. They article makes the argument much better than I do.

      I get the impression that you didn't actually read that article, Ash.

      .

      Delete
    2. Quirk has proven he is a much better reader than Ash.

      Where in hell is Doug ?

      I want to ask him if he ever drove through the Drive Through Sequoia, an important question compared to all this hacking craparoo.

      Hacking or no hacking every one with a brain knew or should have known Hillary is a world class corruptocrat crook and should be in prison.

      Delete
    3. For Treason too, selling our nation's interests for money.

      Delete
    4. And Hillary was a terrible candidate.

      When she walked into a room, the temperature dropped.

      Delete