Is It Insanity, Evil, or Both that Has the Western World in Its Grip
Paul Craig Roberts
As the presstitute media has no allegiance to truth, one has to wonder if we can even believe obituaries.
For what it is worth, perhaps nothing, the presstitutes report that three US aircraft carrier battle groups are off North Korea or on the way there.
What for? Why are the morons in Washington following the 19th century British practice of sending warships? This is juvenile. China has already said that China will allow no attack on North Korea unless Korea strikes first. The Russians have indicated their opposition as
BREAKING NEWS: Paul Manafort and Rick Gates told to SURRENDER to federal authorities as Mueller grand jury indicts them in first charges from special counsel probe
The first charges from the probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election could be unsealed soon
The New York Times says Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have been told to surrender today
Manafort left his home shortly after 8:00 a.m. to turn himself in
A federal grand jury approved the indictment on Friday and a judge ordered it sealed then
Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt'
President Trump unleashed a tweetstorm on Sunday about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, praising Republican unity, rejecting claims of “collusion” and urging an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s possible links to Moscow.
“Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more,” he wrote on Twitter.
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announces run for attorney general POSTED: OCT 27 2017 05:27PM CDT
CHICAGO (AP) - Former Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn is joining a crowded field attempting to become the state's next attorney genera
Quinn on Friday announced his intention to run, saying he wants to be "the lawyer for the people."
Quinn, who governor from 2009 to 2015, says he intends to present his case to be the Democratic nominee next week to the party's Cook County organization.
Mueller is the wrong sleuth when his ex-agency is so tangled up with Russia.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, now special counsel on the Russia investigation, following a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, June 21.PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Let’s give plausible accounts of the known facts, then explain why demands that Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Russia investigation may not be the fanciful partisan grandstanding you imagine.
Here’s a story consistent with what has been reported in the press—how reliably reported is uncertain. Democratic political opponents of Donald Trump financed a British former spook who spread money among contacts in Russia, who in turn over drinks solicited stories from their supposedly “connected” sources in Moscow. If these people were really connected in any meaningful sense, then they made sure the stories they spun were consistent with the interests of the regime, if not actually scripted by the regime.
The resulting Trump dossier then became a factor in Obama administration decisions to launch an FBI counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, and after the election to trumpet suspicions of Trump collusion with Russia.
We know of a second, possibly even more consequential way the FBI was effectively a vehicle for Russian meddling in U.S. politics. Authoritative news reports say FBI chief James Comey’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter was prompted by a Russian intelligence document that his colleagues suspected was a Russian plant.
OK, Mr. Mueller was a former close colleague and leader but no longer part of the FBI when these events occurred. This may or may not make him a questionable person to lead a Russia-meddling investigation in which the FBI’s own actions are necessarily a concern.
But now we come to the Rosatom disclosures last week in The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
Here’s another story as plausible as we can make it based on credible reporting. After the Cold War, in its own interest, the U.S. wanted to build bridges to the Russian nuclear establishment. The Putin government, for national or commercial purposes, agreed and sought to expand its nuclear business in the U.S.
The purchase and consolidation of certain assets were facilitated by Canadian entrepreneurs who gave large sums to the Clinton Foundation, and perhaps arranged a Bill Clinton speech in Moscow for $500,000. A key transaction had to be approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Now we learn that, before and during these transactions, the FBI had uncovered a bribery and kickback scheme involving Russia’s U.S. nuclear business, and also received reports of Russian officials seeking to curry favor through donations to the Clinton Foundation.
This criminal activity was apparently not disclosed to agencies vetting the 2010 transfer of U.S. commercial nuclear assets to Russia. The FBI made no move to break up the scheme until long after the transaction closed. Only five years later, the Justice Department, in 2015, disclosed a plea deal with the Russian perpetrator so quietly that its significance was missed until The Hill reported on the FBI investigation last week.
For anyone who cares to look, the real problem here is that the FBI itself is so thoroughly implicated in the Russia meddling story.
The agency, when Mr. Mueller headed it, soft-pedaled an investigation highly embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton as well as the Obama Russia reset policy. More recently, if just one of two things is true—Russia sponsored the Trump Dossier, or Russian fake intelligence prompted Mr. Comey’s email intervention—then Russian operations, via their impact on the FBI, influenced and continue to influence our politics in a way far more consequential than any Facebook ad, the preoccupation of John McCain, who apparently cannot behold a mountain if there’s a molehill anywhere nearby.
Which means that Mr. Mueller has the means, motive and opportunity to obfuscate and distract from matters embarrassing to the FBI, while pleasing a large part of the political spectrum. He need only confine his focus to the flimsy, disingenuous but popular (with the media) accusation that the shambolic Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Mr. Mueller’s tenure may not have bridged the two investigations, but James Comey’s, Rod Rosenstein’s , Andrew Weissmann’s , and Andrew McCabe’s did. Mr. Rosenstein appointed Mr. Mueller as special counsel. Mr. Weissmann now serves on Mr. Mueller’s team. Mr. McCabe remains deputy FBI director. All were involved in the nuclear racketeering matter and the Russia meddling matter.
Let’s stop here. All this needs to be sorted out, but not in a spirit of panic and hysteria. We are a prosperous, successful country, in pretty good shape right now by historical standards, even if our officials behave in the frequently dubious, self-interested way they always have.
But still: By any normal evidentiary, probative or journalistic measure, the big story here is the FBI—its politicized handling of Russian matters, and not competently so.
To put it bluntly, whatever its hip-pocket rationales along the way, the FBI would not have so much to cover up now if it had not helped give us Mrs. Clinton as Democratic nominee and then, in all likelihood, inadvertently helped Mr. Trump to the presidency.
Dateline, Paris, France, Europe – 2016: In France, in her public political discussion circles, there is less political correctness than in USA! Here we have a respectable name in French journalism (Vincent Tremolet de Villers) criticizing the contemporary hypocrisy in French political culture which was inspired by the publication of President Hollande’s more candid comments in a new book. Even an outgoing liberal French president could speak more truthfully on immigration than President Trump did during his election! To hear Hollande say it “There is a problem with Islam, it’s true. No one doubts it.” Welcome to the club, Mr. President! Would you please run in our elections and win?
Islam has been an old enemy at the gates of the West. The Left denies this because reality is inadmissible to the political agenda driving the profits of the petty political scions of the Left who are safely ensconced in political-economic opportunities of guaranteed political power. The Left is sociopathic or psychopathic in nature because it hurts the citizenry by denying or by being oblivious to the reality of everyday life that normal people face. Anything defiant of reality will hurt the people. And Islam has a long, sordid, and predominant history of violence from ancient times to the present. Islam is positioned to exploit the evil fantasy that the ruling Left has imposed through its agenda on the everyday citizen of Europe and America. The sunset of our civilization will not be romantic.
IMMIGRATION: THE INCREDIBLE CONFESSION OF FRANÇOIS HOLLANDE
Vincent Tremolet de Villers writes in Le Figaro
“When we read Finkelkraut, Zemmour, Houellebecq, what does it carry? Always the same thing, Christianity, history, flawed identity in the face of an Arab-Muslim world that comes confident… That’s what makes those people fail, it’s not because they lost 3% of purchasing power – they have not lost by the way! – or because they are unemployed.There are things that tease them, they arrive on a train, they see bearded people, people who read the Koran, veiled women … “This is not an excerpt from The Cause of the People (Perrin) Patrick Buisson but are remarks by the head of state reported by Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme in their interview book “A president should not say that” (Stock). Curiously, the President of the Republic appears less vigilant than usual when he denounces those who “play on fears” and “stigmatize”. To hear it “cultural insecurity” is not a feeling. The integration? ” These are both things that work very well but the accumulation of potential bomb-related immigration continues. Because it continues... Nadine Morano? “I am convinced that, when questioned, the French are mostly in agreement on this position. (…) They think: “We are more like whites, there are more white than others.” »The French football team? It is plagued by a “balkanization, a segmentation, an ethnicization “. The tolerance threshold? ” I think there are too many arrivals, immigrants that should not be there. And take the example of teachers in front of new immigrants. “It’s a Sisyphus’ Task! We make them speak French, and then another group arrives, and we must start all over again. It never stops (…). So, it takes a moment that it stops. Islam? “There is a problem with Islam, it’s true. No one doubts it. The veil? ” Servitude .” Migrants? “We can not continue to have migrants arriving without control, in the context in addition to the attacks. ” The secession of territories? ” How can we avoid partition? Because it’s still happening: the score is being recorded. ”
Why did François Hollande choose to speak the truth? No doubt because his career is behind him!
Politicians, intellectuals and journalists who hold the same discussions have, however, undergone a quinquennium of education in genuine contempt. The government and the moral left have marked their favorite targets. These “reactionaries” will be happy to learn that the first person in the state shares their findings. However, they must be more worried. In Andersen’s tale, it is the crowd that realizes that the king is naked, here it is the king himself who proclaims it! This terrible admission has at least one merit: to expose the extraordinary schizophrenia that characterizes some of our political or media elites. Behind closed doors, with tables set up, they find few who think the anxiety that haunts the country as illegitimate. In front of the cameras, it is quite another thing. It is to show Illico [free bimonthly French LGBT magazine], anti-racist papers and external signs of leftist virtues. To assume the denial, even the lie, on these themes has become a common usage. “The worst incapacity of our political system is to name this problem of immigration, to put it in an acceptable language,” said Marcel Gauchet in the monthly Causeur.
Everything happens as if the political function imposed a duty of reserve before the reality. It’s part of the job. So we bend, we bypass, we lie. There is no “no law zone”, “Islam is not the problem”, “migrants are a chance”. One thinks of Alain Besançon evoking the Soviet practice of stunning the public: ” Intimidate by blatant falsehood, a fakeness so huge, so overwhelming that it draws its staggering strength from the incredible audacity with which it is imposed. This scythe is the first Trump fuel from around the world to shamelessly seize (before distorting) the abandoned reality. A glaring reality, but forbidden….
Parking enforcement aides will continue to work overtime and write tickets in commercial areas on the weekend.
DNAinfo file photo
CITY HALL — Shoppers hoping to test their luck by parking on Saturday or Sunday without feeding the meter would face longer odds of getting away scot-free under a proposal included in the city's 2018 budget.
Aiming to generate an additional $4 million in revenue, city officials are poised to expand enforcement efforts in more commercial areas of the city, where business owners want to see parking spots open up frequently to attract more shoppers, officials said.
A test of the program — which offered ticket writers an opportunity to work overtime in conjunction with employees from two city contractors that generated $2.6 million this year — will be expanded to more areas of the city, Comptroller Erin Keane told aldermen on the first day of hearings that will shape the city's nearly $10 billion spending plan.
Parking enforcement aides soon will have state-of-the-art handheld computers that will track complaints in real time and allow supervisors to deploy ticket-writers to the shopping districts with the most complaints, said Molly Poppe, a spokeswoman for the city's Finance Department.
Drivers will also pay $2 more to park at a meter near Wrigley Field starting two hours before Chicago Cubs games and other special events at the Friendly Confines and ending one hour afterward.
However, city officials have no plan to expand the surge parking restrictions to parts of the city around the United Center or Soldier Field, as originally proposed, Poppe said.