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."

Friday, January 06, 2017

How did NBC get leaked breifing details and report on them before Trump?


US Intel Chief Cites Phantom Evidence on ‘Russian Hacking’

Narrative Continues to Rest on Unsubstantiated Allegations

by Jason Ditz, January 06, 2017 ANTIWAR

The new, and apparently seminal report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on putative Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election has finally been released, providing a 25-page glimpse into the thinking that underpins an allegation which remains the sum total of US electoral politics in recent months.

This appears to be the report that the Obama Administration was heavily pressured to proffer by Congressional Democrats as a way to end public skepticism of the allegations, and attempts to do so, as officials have been for weeks, by declaring Russian intervention, hacking, and what have you as an absolute confirmed fact.

But like the previous reports, evidence to substantiate the claims is wholly lacking. The big difference in the new report is an acknowledgement that they aren’t providing any evidence of what they are alleging, complete with a disclaimer at the top of every page that as a declassified report it “does not include the full supporting information” that some secret other report might.

The evidence-free version was still sufficient to get ample media coverage once again echoing the claims unquestioned, declaring that Putin was driven by “hatred” and warned to “denigrate Secretary Clinton.” The report’s claims largely amount to a collection of the myriad allegations in an easy-to-follow form, but break no new ground.

Once again, the report claims the DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 was actually the Russian military, providing no evidence for this, and claims DCLeaks.com was the military as well. They claimed the military directly gave WikiLeaks the documents because Putin thought WikiLeaks’ history of accuracy was valuable. No evidence for any of this, but the report did at the very least note that all the WikiLeaks documents appear to have been authentic.

Beyond a very brief rehash of the narrative, and a claim that Putin was bent on destroying the Western liberal order simply to spite Hillary Clinton, the report then gets into by far the deepest section, alleging state-funding media outlet RT America “disparaged” Clinton and wanted Trump to win.

Interestingly in that it’s the part with the most meat, this “propaganda” section is also the part with the most glaring contradiction, arguing on the one hand that Putin was just anti-Clinton and warmed to Trump relatively late in the campaign while at the same time arguing that Russia had hired a bunch of “social media trolls” and that they were all pro-Trump from before the primaries began.

The report also faults RT for covering the Clinton email leaks so extensively, presenting that as proof of their “consistently negative” attitude toward the candidate. US media outlets, of course, largely focused on Clinton’s allegations of Russian plots above the actual email releases.

As has often been the case in previous reports, this one begins with its conclusion and then figures out ways in which the facts could conceivably fit  that conclusion. For example, the report notes that Putin did not publicly praise Trump ahead of the election, and then concludes this was a savvy move on the part of the Kremlin because they thought it would “backfire” and hurt Trump’s election chances.

With no existing publicly available evidence for the allegations, and no new evidence emerging from today’s report, it’s not clear that anyone new will be convinced, and President-elect Donald Trump appears to have the same doubts he always did. Ultimately, the only ones likely to be happy with the report are those who were already sold on the allegations before.

115 comments:

  1. 18 April 2004

    The media reports of smiling Iraqis leading inspectors around, opening up buildings and saying, "See, there's nothing here," infuriated Bush, who then would read intelligence reports showing the Iraqis were moving and concealing things. It wasn't clear what was being moved, but it looked to Bush as if Hussein was about to fool the world again. It looked as if the inspections effort was not sufficiently aggressive, would take months or longer, and was likely doomed to fail.
    ...There was another factor at work that was not publicly known. Sensitive intelligence coverage on U.N. inspections chief Hans Blix indicated that he was not reporting everything and not doing all the things he maintained he was doing. Some in Bush's war cabinet believed Blix was a liar.

    "How is this happening?" Bush asked Rice. "Saddam is going to get stronger."

    Blix had told Rice, "I have never complained about your military pressure. I think it's a good thing." She relayed this to the president.

    "How long does he think I can do this?" Bush asked. "A year? I can't. The United States can't stay in this position while Saddam plays games with the inspectors."

    "You have to follow through on your threat," Rice said. "If you're going to carry out coercive diplomacy, you have to live with that decision."...

    "He's getting more confident, not less," Bush said of Hussein. "He can manipulate the international system again. We're not winning.






    ReplyDelete
  2. Monday, April 19, 2004

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About two weeks before deciding to invade Iraq, President Bush was told by CIA Director George Tenet there was a "slam dunk case" that dictator Saddam Hussein had unconventional weapons, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BEEN THERE DONE THAT

      “With support from the CIA, Noriega was able to outmaneuver his rivals and in August of 1983, he became Commander of the Panamanian Military. As the Reagan administration expanded its covert war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, Noriega became increasingly helpful. Working with the CIA, and with Israeli arms dealers, Noriega helped coordinate an arms supply network to provide weapons to contra bases in northern Costa Rica.”

      Delete
  3. OUR DEMOCRACY "at threat"


    Twenty-six years ago, early on the morning of December 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Just Cause, sending tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft into Panama to execute a warrant of arrest against its leader, Manuel Noriega, on charges of drug trafficking.

    For years, as Saddam Hussein had been Washington's man in Iraq, so Noriega was a CIA asset and Washington ally in Panama. He was a key player in the shadowy network of anti-communists, tyrants, and drug runners that made up what would become Iran-Contra. That, in case you've forgotten, was a conspiracy involving President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council to sell high-tech missiles to the Ayatollahs in Iran and then divert their payments to support anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua in order to destabilize the Sandinista government there.

    In his December 20th address to the nation announcing the invasion, President Bush gave "democracy" as his second reason for going to war, just behind safeguarding American lives but ahead of combatting drug trafficking or protecting the Panama Canal. By the next day, at a press conference, democracy had leapt to the top of the list and so the president began his opening remarks this way: "Our efforts to support the democratic processes in Panama and to ensure continued safety of American citizens is now moving into its second day."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PRELUDE

      The US road to Baghdad, ran through Panama City. It was George H.W. Bush's invasion of that small, poor country, Panama, 25 years ago that inaugurated the age of preemptive unilateralism, using "democracy" and "freedom" as both justifications for war and a branding opportunity. Later, after 9/11, when George W. insisted that the ideal of national sovereignty was a thing of the past, when he said nothing—certainly not the opinion of the international community—could stand in the way of the "great mission" of the United States to "extend the benefits of freedom across the globe," all he was doing was throwing more fuel on the "wildfire" sparked by his father. A wildfire some in Panama likened to a "little Hiroshima."

      MORE

      Delete
    2. The Democrat argument is that Bush was an idiot for believing Intelligence...

      Trump is an unpatriotic threat to democracy for doubting it.

      Delete
    3. That presents the Pubs with a.....a....a real quandary...

      Delete
    4. Panama ?

      Well, they did get rid of old pock face the drug dealer.

      And it really can be argued that Venezuela would have been better off if we'd prevented Chavez from getting power.

      But, the new way of non intervention prevailed, and another socialist paradise has come into being, one of the most miserable countries in the world at this point....

      Delete
    5. The new incarnation of Chavez, an illiterate former unemployed bus driver, doesn't want to give up power.

      The country is descending into violence now. The people have no food, unattended corpses have been exploding in doctorless hospitals, woman are not giving birth.....

      The outcome remains to be seen.

      Delete
    6. Oh, and the money is worthless....which doesn't mean much because there's nothing to buy anyway.

      Delete
  4. CIA - INTEGRITY

    Ex-Aide Says Noriega Got CIA Reports on Senators
    February 09, 1988|Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — An exiled former aide to Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega said today that CIA reports were sent regularly to Noriega on the personal lives of U.S. senators and congressional staff members.

    The revelation by Jose I. Blandon, once Noriega's consul general in New York, was part of an outpouring of testimony before a Senate foreign relations subcommittee that included tales of drug trafficking, murder, gunrunning, money laundering and a host of other illegal activities said to have been used by Noriega to build a vast fortune.

    The CIA reports, along with others prepared by the National Security Council staff, included information on the activities of Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a leading Noriega critic, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Blandon said. The reports detailed "Kennedy's positions, and his own personal problems," Blandon testified.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maybe NBC has a security clearance above that of the President Elect.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For Quirk:

    Sen. Rand Paul - Republican Senator from Kentucky on budget and debt:

    http://www.podcastone.com/The-Laura-Ingraham-Show-Podcast

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sen. Rand Paul. Got to admire the man.

      He's the guy that wants to use the nation's drones to rain Hellfire on liquor store robbers right as they leave the liquor store.

      That's the way to stop the worst kind of crimes dead in its tracks !

      $50 bucks and a bottle of Kentucky Whiskey is enough to merit Dead In Your Tracks -

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh2LJKK1RD4&t=14s

      Delete
  7. Hillary Clinton deserves prison for lying to Congress about the true nature of the CIA operation in Benghazi. She was given cover by the Obama Administration and the political operatives in the CIA.

    Former deputy CIA Director Michael Morell covered for Hillary Clinton in Benghazi, and went on to endorse her for President.

    There is a desperate attempt to discredit Trump's presidency and IMO so discredit him that no one will know what to believe when Trump is in charge.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Raise the flag higher boys, our democracy is at threat. This time it is not Yugoslavia, Cuba, Panama, Iran or Iraq. The Russians want to ruin our fine democracy and discredit our stellar masters and rulers in Washington.

    The US media says it is so. It is a slam dunk, bet the farm on it, you betcha, unqualified fact.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Carrie Fisher's brother carries her ashes in a giant Prozac pill.

    http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/nation-world/national/article125081249.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's certainly unique.

      Doug's going with a honed out pineapple, I've made arrangements to be plowed under(my wife wanted to keep me in an urn on the fire place mantel as a conversation piece), and Quirk....there's a hard one.

      Perhaps the spittoon from Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe....

      Delete
  10. Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. terrorism and security for the U.S. Government and private companies. Johnson has appeared as a consultant and commentator in many major newspapers and news programs.

    Today Johnson said:

    “It was not Vladimir Putin who told Hillary Clinton to use a private email account and conduct US-government business over that account and to share classified information. And her repeated lying about it. The fact that you would just focus a story on it somehow makes you an agent of Vladimir Putin. This thing is so ridiculous. It’s amusing we have talk about, but it’s so serious because it shows just the level that the intelligence community in the United States has fallen to. They are playing and interfering in domestic policies,” he said.

    ReplyDelete
  11. MORE FINE DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

    Hillary Clinton left open the possibility of running for mayor of New York City this year in a private conversation with a top Democrat, a well-placed source told the Daily News.

    Clinton, who is being pressed by many New York Dems to get back into the game by running for mayor, did not rule out challenging current City Hall occupant Mayor de Blasio in that conversation, the source said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heh.

      Damn, and I thought the stake would stay in her chest, and the national mood would slowly improve.

      Now the soft moist soil of the grave begins to move....

      O Lordy

      Delete
    2. Fine Vanity in Action, I call it.

      Delete
    3. .

      The only problem is that in NY she could probably win.

      .

      Delete
    4. The one place in the country.
      ...other than Hollywood.

      Delete
  12. TRUMP IS LEARNING FAST

    With two weeks until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has issued an unusual order in the history of US foreign service: a blanket mandate that all politically appointed US ambassadors step down by Jan. 20, with no exceptions, as several US diplomats told The New York Times and Politico.

    While being told to pack their bags at the end of an administration is par for the course, the lack of a grace period, or case-by-case exceptions, could prove worrisome, diplomacy experts say, if it left top US embassies without ambassadors for months.

    ReplyDelete
  13. REMEMBER THIS?

    WASHINGTON — Since at least August 2013, a variety of senior administration officials have expressed opposition to President Obama’s hands-off approach to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    So when a group of 51 mostly mid-level State Department diplomats this week called for a more aggressive approach, it raised the question, why now?

    According to some Syria diplomats and regional experts with close ties to diplomatic circles, their motivations include: a last-ditch effort to sway policy in the waning months of the Obama administration; a desire to air objections to a diplomatic approach the dissenters assert is only serving America’s adversaries in the conflict; and hopes of prompting debate on Syria policy in the presidential campaign.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Judge gets it right - two hate crimes -

    Judge denies bail to hate crime suspects as new details of kidnapping are revealed

    POSTED AT 8:01 PM ON JANUARY 6, 2017 BY JOHN SEXTON


    When hate crime charges were brought against four suspects accused of kidnapping and torturing a schizophrenic 18-year-old man yesterday, it was not immediately clear if the charges stemmed from the victim’s race or from the fact that he was mentally-challenged. The AP reports today that the four suspects were charged with two separate hate crimes, one based on the victim’s race and the other based on his disability.

    Lawyers for the four suspects portrayed them as responsible adults and asked a judge to grant them bail so they could return home while they await trial. The Associated Press reports the judge asked, “Where was your sense of decency?” before denying the request.

    “I find each of you a danger to yourself and society,” Cook County Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil said, sounding baffled that the suspects who hold jobs, attend school and, in one case, care for a brother in a wheelchair could be charged with attacking the 18-year-old victim. How, she wondered, could she agree to allow people accused of such “terrible actions” to walk out of jail?

    It was also reported yesterday that the suspects had texted the victim’s family during the attack. Today it was revealed that one of the suspects had demanded $300 from the victim’s mother for his return. We also learned that some of the suspects had previously been arrested in connection with serious crimes, though it’s not clear the arrests resulted in any convictions:

    Hill, for example, was arrested as a juvenile in 2015 on allegations of armed robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle and residential burglary. Chicago police said they did not know the disposition of those arrests by suburban officers.

    Tanishia Covington was arrested in 2007 on attempted armed robbery and aggravated battery charges. Police records do not show any convictions as a juvenile. As an adult, she was arrested on charges of battery and aggravated assault, but those charges were dropped.

    Finally there was some detail about how the victim escaped. Apparently a downstairs neighbor heard the fighting and threatened to call the police. Two of the suspects went to the neighbor’s door and broke it down. That apparently was when the victim was able to get away. Reports published yesterday suggested that police had found evidence of a fight at the scene. That may have been a reference to the broken down door. Presumably the neighbor is the one who called the police.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/06/judge-denies-bail-to-hate-crime-suspects-as-new-details-of-crime-are-revealed/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Judge got it right with no bail, it was the prosecutors that got it right by charging two separate hate crimes.

      Delete
  15. .

    I liked the ANTIWAR post above. I agree with it.

    I only wish Trump had been more demonstrative in rejecting the report. Not even a tweet on it.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  16. .

    From the NYT...

    Trump Vows Mexico to Pay for Wall Even if Work Starts Soon

    President-elect Donald J. Trump made the comments after Republicans in Congress started discussing ways to include money for the barrier in spending bills.

    :o)

    Trump vows Mexico will pay for the wall even if we have to give them the money to do it.


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A simple remittance tax of 2% on all funds transferred from America to Mexico can pay for the wall. Why not see what happens?

      Delete
  17. .

    Breitbart News is "the platform for the alt-right," boasts Stephen Bannon.

    The EB is "the platform for every piece of news that is fit to be made up," boasts the Bobbsey Twins.

    Fake News Central

    ‘Allahu akbar’-chanting mob sets alight Germany’s oldest church? Shocking story, if it were true.

    BERLIN — It was every God-fearing Christian’s worst nightmare about Muslim refugees. “Revealed,” the Breitbart News headline screamed, “1,000-Man Mob Attack Police, Set Germany’s Oldest Church Alight on New Year’s Eve.”

    The only problem: Police say that’s not what happened that night in the western city of -Dortmund.

    The Breitbart report has triggered a backlash in Germany, igniting fresh concerns over the manipulation of information and the societal cost of revenue-generating clickbait.

    The report comes amid a rash of misleading rumors and social-media claims about refugees in the aftermath of the recent Berlin Christmas market attack, including one missive falsely linking a refugee who once took a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to a holiday season assault on a homeless man.

    As they did in the United States during the presidential campaign, fake and misleading reports are popping up across Europe, particularly as a string of countries including Germany are poised for major elections. Yet the Breitbart report on Germany, critics say, shows how the disseminators of such tidbits trade not only in pure fiction but also in skillfully sown innuendo steeped in ¬exaggeration.

    “We shook our heads in ¬disbelief when we saw how this operation was politicized” by -Breitbart, said Gunnar Wortmann, a spokesman for the ¬Dortmund police.

    The report was largely aggregated from the local news outlet Ruhr Nachrichten, which also lashed out at Breitbart for “using our online reports for fake news, hate and propaganda.”

    The story drew blistering critiques from others in the German media, including pundits who worry that it signals an attempt by right-wing outlets to poison the public debate as Merkel — blasted by President-elect Donald Trump for her open-door policy on refugees — seeks a fourth term this year. She has declared the spread of false news a pox on Germany that must be cured. The government is planning to introduce a measure that could impose large fines on social-media firms like Facebook if they fail to take immediate action to take down such stories...


    The story above was brought to us by the same guys who brought the Hillary Clinton 'child sex ring' stories to this blog.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      the rest of the story continues...

      “The ‘Breitbart’ report about New Year’s Eve in Dortmund could be a taste of the upcoming parliamentary election campaign,” warned an editorial in the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. “Websites such as ‘Breitbart News’ could increasingly use misinformation and distortion in order to diminish trust in established institutions.”

      Breitbart — formerly headed by Trump’s top aide, Stephen K. Bannon — did not respond to a request for comment.

      The way Breitbart tells it in its Jan. 3 piece, a New Year’s Eve “mob” in the industrial city of Dortmund “began throwing fireworks into crowds of visitors, which also included families with children. Asked by officers to stop, the mob turned to pelt fireworks at police instead.”

      Fireworks, the story says, were launched at “St Reinolds, ¬Germany’s oldest church, setting the roof alight.” The article strongly suggests, but never ¬directly states, that the ¬responsible parties were unruly Muslim migrants. It cites federal police spokesman Volker Stall as saying a “large number of young men from North Africa” were in town who displayed an ¬“aggressive mood” toward the public and police.

      The piece also cites a video tweeted by Ruhr Nachrichten that showed men apparently chanting “Allahu akbar” around the flag of the Free Syrian Army, a group defined by Breitbart as “al-Qaeda and ¬Islamic State collaborators.”Police in Dortmund do not dispute that several incidents took place that night, but nothing to the extremes suggested by the Breitbart report. In fact, they said, the evening was comparatively calmer than previous New Year’s Eves.

      As for setting “alight” the roof of “Germany’s oldest church”: A firework did hit the netting -covering the church’s construction scaffold. It caught fire, and was put out without damage to the church — which is not ¬Germany’s oldest.

      Officials said there were a large number of revelers in the square that night, including Germans. Wortmann said it remains ¬unclear who lighted the offending ¬projectile or whether the incident was even intentional.

      In a separate incident, a group of migrants, reportedly celebrating the cease-fire in Syria, did rally together and chant “Allahu akbar,” a phrase sometimes ¬associated with terrorist attacks but also common in Muslim prayers and celebrations. In the video, they indeed hoisted a flag — of the mainstream Syrian ¬opposition, which is supported by the U.S. government.


      {...}

      Delete

    2. {...}

      In an interview, Stall, the police spokesman quoted by Breitbart, described another incident in far less dramatic terms. He said a group of about 35 people who appeared to be migrants obstructed traffic in front of a ¬McDonald’s and, for a brief period, refused to move.

      He said the group initially resisted police requests to move on, but he said he was unaware whether any of them had acted aggressively toward the public.

      One Syrian migrant appears to have thrown a single firework that landed at the feet of an officer, he said. That same night, a German man, he added, also threw a firework at officers.

      Elsewhere in Germany, especially in Cologne — the site of mass sexual assaults a year earlier — authorities did report several arrests of men with migrant backgrounds for aggressive or otherwise illegal behavior. Police in Dortmund said that they did find the number of migrants gathered that night to be unusually high, but nevertheless described the evening as relatively calm.

      Recent rumors on social media have appeared to embellish ¬stories to fuel anti-refugee -sentiment when the facts ¬themselves may have done the job almost as well. On Christmas Eve, for instance, police said a group of young refugees were suspected of trying to set fire to a homeless person at a Berlin subway ¬station.

      Soon afterward, a photo ¬collage emerged on social media blaming Anas Modamani — the young Syrian man who famously took a selfie with Merkel in 2015 that quickly went viral as being emblematic of her open-door ¬approach.

      “Homeless person set on fire — Merkel made a selfie with one of the offenders in 2015,” the -collage’s caption read.

      Modamani, however, is not a suspect in the case, and his attorney fired off letters to Facebook and individuals who shared the image, threatening legal action if they were not taken down.

      It was one of several viral threads that emerged after the Berlin attack on Dec. 19, when a truck was driven into a crowd, killing 12. A Tunisian man suspected of being the attacker is now dead.

      “It’s a potpourri of real and fake news that creates the impression that something is ¬happening always and everywhere,” said André Wolf, spokesman of Mimikama, an Austria-based organization devoted to exposing fake news.



      Sure it happens, but would 'reputable' sites like jihadwatch, frontpagemag, Martha Geller, Robert Spencer stoop to such tactics? Of course they would. It's how they make their money. It's the only thing they have going for them.

      .



      Delete
    3. Good thing we've got the good old MSM as a reliable factcheck.

      In my experience, Frontpagemag is more reflective of reality than the NY Times.

      Delete
    4. I think, now more than ever, that the spittoon at Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe is the proper place for the Q-man's ashes.

      Delete
    5. .

      In my experience, Frontpagemag is more reflective of reality than the NY Times.

      Of course. The distorted funhouse mirror 'reality' of Bobbsey Twin-World.

      .

      Delete
    6. Here's the kind of guy Pam likes -

      I'll make it my....

      "Q"Nit of the Day: Australia

      Australia: Veteran fights off EIGHT Muslim men after they attacked his wife, called her “white s**t” and punched her in the face

      By Pamela Geller - on January 6, 2017
      AUSTRALIAkyle-and-liana-tyrrell

      This is the future. Non-Muslims are going to have to learn how to protect themselves. We certainly can’t depend on authorities to protect us.

      kyle-tyrrell

      “Iraq war veteran who fought off EIGHT Muslim men after they attacked his wife, called her a ‘white s**t’ and punched her in the face says he would ‘do it all again in a heartbeat,'” by John Carney, Daily Mail Australia, January 2, 2017 (thanks to Kenneth):

      A retired Iraq war veteran who fought off eight Muslim men after they attacked his wife has tried to put the record straight on what exactly happened that day.

      Kyle Tyrrell, 48, had an altercation with fishermen on Victoria’s Surf Coast a year ago while standing up for his wife Liana.

      Mr Tyrrell claimed that Liana was punched in the face at the Cosy Corner beach, in Torquay, after one of the men put a crab pot in the water and she told him the area was a marine sanctuary and fishing was banned.

      In the fight that took place on Sunday, January 24, 2016, Mr Tyrrell suffered minor injuries, while at least one of the fishermen was taken to hospital. No charges were laid.

      The retired lieutenant-colonel claimed that the attack was racially and culturally motivated after his wife was called a white sl** and a white w***e by the men.

      However criticism that he has received about the incident on Facebook persuaded him to set the record straight on the incident. He confirmed that the men were Muslim and said he would ‘do it again in a heartbeat’.

      His response was published on the Stand Up For Australia – Melbourne Facebook page, where he argued he had no other option but to fight.

      Mr Tyrrell claimed the Muslim man took offence to being told what to do by a woman and unleashed a tirade of abuse at her, but the fact that she ignored him only enraged him even more.

      ‘His mates got close to me and then he made a run for my wife, that’s when I ran at him, he threw a punch which I ducked and the fight started. At no time could either my wife, daughter or I safely walk away,’ Mr Tyrrell wrote.

      ‘At that point five more joined the fight, one punching my wife as she attempted to get our daughter up the beach.’

      At one stage one of the men said to Mr [sic] Terrell: ‘Your husband needs to teach you a lesson.’

      ‘I would do the same thing again in a heartbeat, in fact I would do the same thing for any woman I saw in that situation not just my wife,’ he concluded the Facebook post….

      http://pamelageller.com/2017/01/australia-veteran-fights-off-eight-muslim-men-attacked-wife-called-white-st-punched-face.html/

      Delete
    7. .

      There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and Bob with the help of various outre sources brings us his Q-nits of the day, 365 a year, half of them as has been pointed out fake news. Even a simple one like the one above Geller can't help but embellish whether through habit or for effect. 'One slapped my wife. Five others joined in.' Gellar: 'Man fights off 8 muslims.' SOP

      I recall a while back where Bob put up a Q-Nit from Canada about a Muslim attacking a women. Within a few days of the incident, there was a report about a young boy being abused by his father, an ex cop. The kid was locked up in a closet, beat, and burned. The abuse went on for years. The mother was arrested to because she was aware of the abuse and didn't report it.

      Right around the same time, there were reports here of a sex slave ring being broken up in down in Detroit. There were also the reports, one in Michigan and one in Ohio of women who had escaped from guys who ad kidnapped them and held them locked up for years.

      Yet, Bob offers no comment on any of these. I suppose it's understandable. The stories were reported by real news sources. Not the kind of stuff carried in jihadwatch or Breithart.

      .

      Delete
    8. .

      Actually, the story on the abused boy was on the same day bob put up his story.

      .

      Delete
  18. http://guff.com/these-people-didnt-take-their-wedding-seriously-at-all/horse-play

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent comment !!

      Your best today !

      Oh, if only they were all just like this one.....

      Delete
    2. QuirkSat Jan 07, 04:51:00 AM EST has about the same amount of intellectual content as the typical New York Times article.

      Delete
    3. .

      Your act has become old and tired. How many times have you put up the same banal comments when someone deletes a post?

      Is this because you are trying to disguise the fact that for years you lacked the simple ability to delete your silly comments here?

      .

      Delete
    4. I wasn't criticizing YOU, Your HighAss, I was criticizing The New York Times.

      Get on the choo train or get left at the station.

      Delete
    5. .

      Bob, get a grip. You are truly losing it. You can't remember what you posted 3 posts back.

      Idaho BobSat Jan 07, 07:52:00 AM EST

      Excellent comment !!

      Your best today !

      Oh, if only they were all just like this one....



      I am coming to fear criticizing you for fear of being charged with a hate crime for bullying the mentally retarded.

      .

      Delete
  20. NY TIMES

    The declassified intelligence report found that Mr. Putin developed “a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well there is some real news and insight. Putin is waste deep in shit in Syria that was not of his or Russian making. The "Calamity Jane" of the US State Department, architect of death, destruction, chaos and arms supplier to ISIS is one of a choice of two candidates for US President and Putin prefers anyone other than...Truth-disabled Hillary Clinton.

      No Shit Sherlock.

      REMEMBER WHEN?

      Russian President Vladimir Putin told the U.N. on Monday that those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East are to blame for the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State.

      "Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster — and nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life," Putin said through a translator. "I cannot help asking those who have forced that situation: Do you realize what you have done?"


      If Putin did indeed save the US from Hillary Clinton, the Architect Of The Capitol should be looking on The Mall for a place for Putin's monument.

      Delete
    2. .

      Having a clear preference for one candidate in another countries election is now a crime and a national security concern?

      As I recall we do it all the time.

      .

      Delete
  21. During the course of the campaign this backwoods voter developed a clear preference for Trump.

    As did you, Deuce.

    Which shows that such diverse folks all across our great land came to the same correct conclusion....Hillary was not fit for high office. She was a much better fit for a jail cell.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't think of anyone here, except maybe Ash, who didn't come to this conclusion.

      So, on his one issue, we all agree with Pooty !

      Delete
  22. The great champion of rights for women and children through her superb work in Iraq, Libya and Syria has one amazing accomplishment:

    An increasing number of young Iraqi women and girls who fled Iraq during the turmoil are turning to prostitution in Syria. The same in Libya and refugee camps throughout the Middle East. although there are no reliable statistics on how many girls are involved journalists and human rights workers,have reported many, in the thousands.

    “It’s a serious problem because there are young girls doing this — 11, 12, 13 years old,” says Abdelhamid El Ouali, the representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees who’s based in Damascus. “It’s amazing at first. But when you fight for your life, what are you going to do?”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I thought the US presence there was all that was needed to change things for the better, to improve the lot of all the women there or so we have been told by the resident 'feminist'.

      Too Cold for Angels to Fly


      Simple solutions for simple minds.

      .

      Delete
    2. A simple statement by your simple mind, Quirk.

      What I said once was we ought to at least protect Kabul ' for the women'.

      Kabul isn't in Syria. Or Iraq.

      Your solution is to leave them all to the tender mercies.

      Delete
    3. Your attitude towards women, or the broads, as they are called down at Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe, is retrograde, not even rising to the noble medieval.

      You, Sir, are no Shining Knight.

      Delete
    4. .

      Perhaps, but you are a simple minded idiot who has the entire history of US invasions and occupations in the ME readily available to him and still can't see.

      You talk idealistically about women being forced to wear burkas or not being allowed to drive cars while millions of them are turned into refugees, starved, and killed because of US actions. I would suggest that any women in the ME would prefer to wear a burka than to killed by a Hellfire missile or watch her children starve.

      You are an elitist fool just like the assholes that get us into these war. As if a few thousand US troops could change centuries of tradition in a few years while holed up in compounds scattered across a war torn.

      Your ignorance is contemptible.

      .

      Delete
  23. .

    From the NYT...

    Russia Ridicules U.S. Charge of Meddling to Help Trump

    The declassified report was met with a storm of mockery by Russian politicians and commentators.

    Although the public report did not include concrete evidence on the sources and methods used to collect information, intelligence officials said those details were in a classified version.


    We would like to tell you how we developed this information but then we would have to kill you.

    This despite all the info on sources and metheds revealed by Snowden and the million or so articles we've seen in the news about Guccifer and all the others.

    It stretches credulity beyond the breaking point.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      US Intelligence Officials: Trust Us.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      From the NYT...

      Trump’s Attack-Dog Strategy Has Limits

      Mr. Trump’s strategy of intimidation did not prove effective in his effort to minimize intelligence assessments about Russia.



      I notice these are the type of stories that NYT, WaPO, and other MSM media doesn't allow critical comments on.

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      Although they may be right. I noticed Trump's response was pretty subdued and he didn't continue his assertion that the assessment was all bull.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Is Trump really the typical bully who is aggressive right up to the point someone stands up to him, a paper tiger who is really a pussy?

      Time will tell.

      .

      Delete
    5. How do you know time will tell ?

      You'd be better off spending your time watching the Seattle Seasqawks who are on the air on national TV starting at 5:00pm Pacific Time, if you can tell time, rather than b.s.ing about time telling.

      Delete
    6. It's most likely their final game of the season.

      The geologists have their ground movement sensors out to measure the ground movement caused by the roaring Seattle crowd.

      This is the second go round for this experiment, as far as I know.

      What they actually learn from this I don't know.

      But it's a big deal.

      Delete
    7. .

      How do you know time will tell ?

      Either you don't know the meaning of the idiom or you fail to realize that once Trump actually becomes president, I, as well as most of American (at least those who get their news from real media instead of fake news sites like jihadwatch and PamGeller.com), will be observing every move he makes and will be able to make a more informed judgment.

      .

      Delete
    8. Aha !

      You may be observing, or think you are, every moves he makes but that doesn't mean you will be able to make an informed judgment about what you have been observing, or think you have been observing.

      Those of us who have observed your behavior here are 'less than certain' that you are capable of making an informed judgment about anything at all, except what sells in a mass market. Time has told us that.

      !!

      Delete
    9. What's The Donald doing right now for instance ?

      You have no idea.

      So there goes your affirmation that you know 'every move' he makes.....

      !!!

      Delete
    10. Aldous Huxley held that a liberated mind would be capable of knowing everything that is going on, all at once, in the entire universe.

      Since this would be a little overwhelming, at least at first, our organism has filtered and toned down the experience through the senses.

      This too has the advantage of concentrating our awareness on the here and now, making it less likely we will be eaten by that hungry grizzly bear over there.

      Delete
    11. Or for urban dwellers like yourself, this allows you to pay attention to the latest gossip at Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe, instead of to what is happening two billion light years away somewhere, as an example.

      Delete
    12. See: Aldous Huxley

      'The Doors of Perception'

      and

      'The Perennial Philosophy'

      Heard introduced Huxley to Vedanta (Upanishad-centered philosophy), meditation, and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa. In 1938, Huxley befriended Jiddu Krishnamurti, whose teachings he greatly admired. He also became a Vedantist in the circle of Hindu Swami Prabhavananda, and introduced Christopher Isherwood to this circle. Not long after, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, The Perennial Philosophy, which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world. Huxley's book affirmed a sensibility that insists there are realities beyond the generally accepted "five senses" and that there is genuine meaning for humans beyond both sensual satisfactions and sentimentalities.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

      Delete
    13. "resources"
      ...some like to be "more inclusive"

      Delete
  24. I got to go get the mail, and tune my psyche for the coming Seattle Seasqawks game.

    Cheers !

    ReplyDelete
  25. .

    Aldous Huxley held that a liberated mind would be capable of knowing everything that is going on, all at once, in the entire universe.


    You can take your liberated mind and stick it up your ass.

    Oh wait, that would be redundant.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now, now, Quirk, don't be grumpy.

      And, don't take LSD or other drugs.

      I never have, but from what I've read it's a very very bad move.

      Just what I didn't want in the mailbox. Tax forms for 2017.

      Delete
  26. .

    What's The Donald doing right now for instance ?

    Who gives a shit? He's not president right now.

    As long as it's not criminal no one cares what he does in his private life. My comment was about the job he does when he becomes president.

    You are as bad as Doug, a couple of nitpicking, pettifogging twits constantly carping about minutiae. I can only assume it's because you have no argument but can't stand the thought of just shutting up.

    .

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You just don't like mockery, especially when YOU are the target.

      !!

      :):)

      Delete
    2. And, the things The Donald has been doing the last few weeks are VERY VERY important, like picking a Cabinet, considering a new Supreme Court Justice, even though the importance of these escapes you.

      You need to tune in, not drop out. The action is going on right now.

      Delete

    3. The escape velocity from the gravity of Quirk's brain is... low.

      Delete
    4. .

      You just don't like mockery, especially when YOU are the target.

      You call that mockery. You two are burlesque comics, Jerry Lewis on steroids.


      .

      Delete
  27. WIO:

    "Obama did it to all Bush appointees"

    Bush was too stupid to do it to all Clinton appointees.

    We paid.

    Again

    ReplyDelete
  28. Charles Manson reportedly returned to prison after hospitalization in Bakersfield.

    http://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/charles-manson-reportedly-returned-to-prison-after-hospitalization-in-bakersfiel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always ready to advance further, now we will pay for a killer's sex change.

      ...if he's Muslim, Quirk's onboard.

      Delete
  29. Trump: Only 'stupid' people, fools oppose better Russia ties

    NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that "only 'stupid' people or fools" would dismiss closer ties with Russia, and he seemed unswayed after his classified briefing on an intelligence report that accused Moscow of meddling on his behalf in the election that catapulted him to power.
    "Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing," Trump said in a series of tweets.

    http://bakersfieldnow.com/news/nation-world/trump-only-stupid-people-fools-oppose-better-russia-ties

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 19h19 hours ago

      Gross negligence by the Democratic National Committee allowed hacking to take place.The Republican National Committee had strong defense!

      Delete
    2. On Saturday, he said he wanted retired Sen. Dan Coats to be national intelligence director, describing the former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee as the right person to lead the new administration's "ceaseless vigilance against those who seek to do us harm."

      Coats, in a statement released by Trump's transition team, said: "There is no higher priority than keeping America safe, and I will utilize every tool at my disposal to make that happen."

      Delete
    3. More of his private life that is of no consequence.

      ...according to some.

      Delete
    4. ...lotta Midwesterners, where's the Beef? Where's Hollywood???

      Delete
    5. Coat's top ten list of what he won't be able to do after having been banned from Russia:

      http://www.npr.org/2017/01/05/508417418/trump-picks-ex-senator-banned-from-russia-as-his-intelligence-chief

      10. I won’t be able to complete my granddaughter’s Russian doll collection

      Delete
    6. None of this is important to the Illuminati like Quirk - only what The Donald does from the moment he is sworn in is of any importance.

      The Donald could pick Goofy as Defense Secretary tomorrow morning and it wouldn't mean a thing in QuirkWorld cause The Donald ain't sworn in yet.

      Delete
    7. .

      And tomorrow morning neither will goofy be sworn in yet. Don't you understand anything about our political system.

      .

      Delete
    8. The stock market responds to the moves of The Donald, even before his picks have been sworn in....if Goofy had been picked the market would be down, but, the market is up.

      I realize you are in advertising, not stocks, though you deserve to be in the stocks; still most in advertising would, or should, understand that whom a President-elect chooses for his Cabinet is meaningful news.

      Think if Scrooge were chosen as Secretary of the Treasury, for instance.

      What if Lucy were picked to UN Ambassador ?

      What if Quirk were picked to be Secretary of State ?

      Stocks would tank.

      Delete
  30. A cop murdered in a domestic dispute is no different in Quirkworld than one taken out by a Muslim screaming Allahu Akbar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      More importantly, I doubt it would make any difference to the cop. Man, you guys are two of a kind.

      .

      Delete
    2. I'd rather be shot by my wife than a jihadi.

      Each to his own ways....

      Delete
    3. Hard to believe you are really that obdurately stupid.

      ...but obdurate is hard.

      Blockhead.

      ...as if the Nice French folks getting mowed down by a Jihadi madman is no different than by a Truck with a brake failure.

      ...or a plane going down in the Atlantic due to engine failure no different than one being driven into Trump tower.

      After all, he's not even President yet, and in both cases he'd be dead.

      The Earth turns.

      Delete
    4. .

      ...as if the Nice French folks getting mowed down by a Jihadi madman is no different than by a Truck with a brake failure.

      ...or a plane going down in the Atlantic due to engine failure no different than one being driven into Trump tower.


      How stupid are you, Doug?

      Read the example you gave above that I responded to, dipshit.

      The cop in the example you cited was murdered in both instances, in one instance by a party in a domestic dispute and in the other by a terrorist. Yes, I guess I miss the subtlety of your thought processes. I suspect the cop and his family would too.

      Why don't you and your buddy go jerk each other off instead of making fools of yourselves.

      .

      Delete
    5. Man, those Detroit Lions REALLY SUCK !!!

      What a bunch of worthless LOSERS !!!!

      Delete
    6. If our son was killed by a drunk driver, that would be a bummer, and probably stimulate me to speak out against drunk driving.

      If he was killed by a Jihadi screaming Alahu Akbar, it would be a bummer and an indicator that the Jihad had spread to Hawaii.
      Some of us would speak out, others would condemn us for it.
      Racis!

      Two different scenarios, just like all the rest.

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    8. .

      Have you been hitting the pina coladas again, old timer?

      I haven't a clue what the hell you are talking about. First you start out with this.

      A cop murdered in a domestic dispute is no different in Quirkworld than one taken out by a Muslim screaming Allahu Akbar.

      Two cases in which a cop is 'murdered' and I gave you my answer to your comment.

      Then you launch into a comparison of a jihadi 'murder' with a tragic accident cause by bad brakes. And then a tragic plane and the 911 attack implying I would see no difference in them. You're and idiot.

      Finally, you say you are going to speak out on jihadis and drunk driving to which I say go for it.

      It just seems that you are beating around the bush and lack the balls to come right out and say what you mean and instead are just making an ass of yourself.

      Your first comment was silly enough but you've steadily been going downhill from there.

      The closest I can riddle a meaning from what you put up is that you are trying to say that I somehow support or condone jihadi terrorist attacks. If that's it have the guts come out and say it. If not then shut your damn mouth.

      .

      Delete
  31. FINAL

    Seattle Super Sea Hawks: 26
    Detroit Lion Mew Mew Cubbies: 6

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (let them talk that over at Ye Olde Mafia Barber Shoppe....I hope they were all watching)

      heh heh heh !

      Delete
  32. Ivanka's new DC digs

    http://sanluisobispo-politics-chatter.sanluisobispo.com/politics-talk/slideshow/inside-ivanka-trumps-new-d-c-mansion/?li_source=LI&li_medium=publisher-widget

    ReplyDelete
  33. Did you hear Quirk's language above, Doug ?

    We really got the old goat by his dick !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's got Bob and Doug Dolls.

      Delete
    2. .

      We really got the old goat by his dick !

      And I wish you would just kiss it and let it go.

      .

      Delete
    3. You sound like Rufus except the let it go part.

      Delete
  34. Trump Blasts 'Fools' Who Oppose Good Russian Ties....DRUDGE

    It's all part of Trump playing the Rooskie Card against the Chinese.

    Henry Kissinger said 20 years or more ago that we would need to do this one day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. POLITICS
      Kissinger's Washington Is Coming Back Around

      58JAN 4, 2017 6:00 AM EST
      By
      Eli Lake

      Let’s take a moment to savor what looks to be Henry Kissinger’s final act. The man is 93 years old. At that age, most people are lucky to have enough energy for “Wheel of Fortune” and a few Facebook posts. Not Kissinger. These days, he’s playing the influence game against insiders who hadn’t even been born when he was Richard Nixon’s secretary of state.

      Officials with Donald Trump’s transition team tell me Kissinger has spent several hours since the election advising incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn and his team. He’s also putting his network in place. He recommended his former assistant, K.T. McFarland, to be Flynn’s deputy, and urged Trump to nominate Rex Tillerson, the chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil, as his secretary of state. Kissinger is one of the few people in Trump’s orbit who can get him on the phone whenever he wants, according to one transition adviser.

      That’s just behind the scenes. Consider that Kissinger is also an important validator for Trump in the press. When some Republicans questioned Tillerson’s closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kissinger defended the pick on “Face the Nation.” Kissinger helped soften the blow of Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s president in December before the Committee of 100, which advocates for the U.S.-China relationship. Before that, Kissinger winged his way to Oslo to urge his fellow Nobel laureates to give the next president’s foreign policy a chance. It feels like 1975 all over again. I’m half-expecting to read something in the tabloids about a Kissinger affair with a Hollywood starlet....

      https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-04/kissinger-s-washington-is-coming-back-around

      Delete
    2. Wish Dick and Henry had kicked Red China in the balls instead of kissy face.

      https://www.google.com/search?q=kissy+face&rlz=1C1AVSU_enUS357&tbm=isch&imgil=Hs3nt3h6ky8TLM%253A%253BC78bj2mButHCYM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fgiphy.com%25252Fsearch%25252Fkissy-face&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Hs3nt3h6ky8TLM%253A%252CC78bj2mButHCYM%252C_&usg=__daCd4JXCyARL9ne3yuHPUSSJ5i8%3D&biw=960&bih=510&ved=0ahUKEwjlvoXthbLRAhXmx1QKHVLiAhUQyjcIQw&ei=8OxxWOWGAeaP0wLSxIuoAQ#imgrc=Hs3nt3h6ky8TLM%3A

      Delete