Let's Get This Straight: QAnon Are Conspiracy Crackpots and Crazies - Not Theorists

The perfect treatment for most QAnon conspiracy spreaders would be ECT, as Dr. Pat Bannister used to order for paranoid schizophrenics in the 1970s.

The existence of the QAnon screwballs and crackpots came to light in Trump's Tampa rally last night, when images caught many holding signs reading "Q" and "QANON".   In one shot on Fox News, DoTurd was partially obscured by a sign in the crowd reading “We Are Q.” In another shot during the Traitor's speech, a sign promoting the debunked Seth Rich conspiracy theory, with the hashtag #Qanon, came into focus in the center of the screen. Some attendees wore T-shirts with a blocky Q. Others held up signs with the letter.  What gives with these mental misfits, most of whom belong in rubber rooms attached to ECT machines? According to Rational Wiki:

"The Storm (also known as Calm Before The Storm) is a conspiracy  meme, and right wing fantasy that originated in a series of incoherent posts on 4chan in 2017 by someone calling themselves QAnon. Following on the heels of similar bullshit such as Pizzagate, it advances a fantastic web of deceit that wraps up Trumpism, deep state fearmongering, evil, satanic pedophilia rings controlled by the Democratic Party, investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, the Las Vegas shooting, and New World Order paranoia into a package easily and wholeheartedly promoted by internet cesspools and Alex Jones.   The term "The Storm" was apparently inspired by a non sequitur mumbled by Trump to the press during a routine photo-op with senior military leaders in October 2017.

TRUMP: “You guys know what this represents? ... Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”
REPORTER: "What storm, Mr. President?"
TRUMP: "You'll find out."

Because he was surrounded by high-ranking military officers at the time, believers have interpreted his bizarre remarks to mean he was recruited by military intelligence to lead a "quiet coup" to restore "integrity" to the US government; hence, he will impose martial law and unleash a "storm" of retribution against satanic Clintonites, Democratic evil-doers, Deep State dirtbags, and RINO cucks."

That very well sums up the noxious, deranged effluent erupting in the brain embolisms of these losers.   Brains which appear to have been hijacked en masse, and likely germinated in a memetic transfer by whackdoodles like Alex Jones, e.g.




Let's also get it very clear from the get go that the assorted horse shit being peddled by these ignoramuses does not qualify as conspiracy theories, they are conspiracy claptrap or refuse. In  previous blog posts I noted Barbadian psychologist Pat Bannister's categorization of those who invoke conspiracies and how she differentiated them. As part of her construction of a theory of mind, specifically showing the role of lying in young children, she also noted adeptness at detecting lies was linked to accurate detection of real conspiracies.

Dr. Bannister's classification was simple:

1- Conspiracy analysts

2- Conspiracy theorists

3- Conspiracy crackpots or cultists


At the top of the hierarchy were conspiracy analysts, such as Mark Lane, Peter Dale Scott, Harold Weisberg, Richard Charnin and others (like yours truly)).  These were serious people possessing some measure of intellect who brought their scientific, mathematical and other aptitudes to the investigation of multiple aspects of a putative real conspiracies like Iran-Contra and the JFK assassination.  These people put in real man hours and actually published their work in authoritative media (e.g. BOOKS - real books!) and respected forums as opposed to spreading bunkum through half-assed posts in the lowest dreg regions of the net, like 4chan and 8chan.

By contrast, the "conspiracy theorist" put forward conspiracy conjectures  but (usually) didn't  advance adequate evidence or documents to  support them. Or, if such were advanced, they too often didn't meet didn't meet scientific standards for acceptance, including consistent data selection. For example, the nincompoops who claimed no men actually landed on the Moon and it was all filmed on a Hollywood lot.

The bottom feeders of the classification scheme were conspiracy crackpots or clowns, like Alex Jones.   Jones is most famous for his off the wall bunkum that the Sandy Hook/Newtown massacre was a federal "false flag" operation. Those kids weren't really slain, they were merely actors- as well as the teachers- in an elaborate script to befuddle the public and make them demand gun confiscation across the land.  Jones claims - probably in a haze of LSD and MJ candies, that he's watched "films over and over and just seen those kids walking in circles".

Another example of swill generated by conspiracy crackpots is "Pizzagate".   This insipid bunkum first came to light in 2016  after a brain-jacked lunatic - Edgar Welch- drove 9 hours from North Carolina to try to "free" child sex slaves at a D.C. restaurant called Comet Ping Pong . Evidently, this pathological mind virus had been circulating on the web since the end of October, 2016. It was traced to a lunatic named Michael G. Flynn, the son of Michael T. Flynn .

As one writer on The UK Guardian put it:

"In any other year a story like 'Pizzagate'  would get you laughed out of a room. The conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was part of a sex-trafficking ring run out of a pizza shop is bizarre and disturbing from start to finish.  But in 2016, a year when nothing makes any sense any more, it can be cited as a motive for a crime".

Interestingly, the Pizzagate mind virus - like the current 'Storm" codswallop-  was assembled from a host of disparate incidents, events subsequently patched into whole cloth rubbish by febrile brains. These included photos of NYPD officers hauling supposed bags with email evidence out of a residence, speculation about Anthony Weiner and his sexting propensity and the presence of some Hillary emails left on his computer, by wife (and HRC aide) Huma Abedin. Supposedly all this in tandem with a paranoid schizophrenic's claim about Hillary's "predilection for underage children" spawned the original brain fart..  Add in the phenomenon of stupid repetition and 'Voila!' - millions of idiots gobbled this fake news like it was the real thing.  

How would Dr. Bannister, if she were alive today, describe a convoluted, paranoid mental mosh pit like "the Storm"?   Basically, she'd probably call it a phantasmagoria and quasi psychotic ideation attempting to make sense of disparate, suspicious elements in the contemporary U.S. - driven by social media.  She'd also make note that such fever dreams don't need a whole lot of external memetic fuel to get started: a coincidence here, a loaded word from Trump there, an obscure reference to "deep state" there- oh  and some "genius" who first puts it all together in his mother's basement and posts it on 4chan. Whereupon a susceptible brain will be infected and spread it on to other gullible souls, searching for meaning in their vacuous lives. Well, to be sure, it's probably a bit better than using opioids!

Another example of this I gave about a year ago, noting some right wing nitwit  (Michael Weiss) who found a video or image of Russkie lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, e.g.

Sitting at a hearing (from June 14, 2016) behind then Ambassador Michael McFaul. Weiss - who I designated as "Dolt Zero", yapped in a "Eureka!"- style tweet:

"Hey, look what I found. Veselnitskaya sitting behind @McFaul at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia, June 14, 2014"

As if it was some huge discovery of a nefarious link, as opposed to simple seating coincidence. But this is the nature of egregious conspiracy claptrap ideation : it grabs isolated events and imagery and tries to stitch these disparate spots into a coherent whole - using all manner of irrational backflips, non sequiturs and hasty conclusions to arrive at  half-cocked rubbish, like Mike Flynn's 'Pizzagate' refuse.

Sure enough, as with all mind virus infections, Weiss' garbage was then picked up by Gateway Pundit - which we shall designate "Dolt Zero + 1".    These morons handled a website often known for inaccurate information.   Once again, following the playbook of conspiracy crackpots - notorious for jumping to conclusions with zero substantiation - the image was presented as evidence of a connection between Veselnitskaya and the Obama administration.

This was based on the fictitious claim Veselnitskaya was "sitting with" McFaul, despite the fact she was doing no such thing. She was seated BEHIND him. BEHIND him is NOT seated with him.  If I attend a concert with wifey and our rabid right wing congress critter Doug Lamborn is seated behind us, that doesn't mean we are "seated with" him! 

The spread of the mind virus then leapt again to "Dolt ZERO + 2" in the guise of the guttersnipes known as the Sludge ....errrr..... "Drudge Report".  WikiLeaks, losing any semblance of temperance or intelligence, then further spread this nonsense, re-tweeting the image with this:

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at hearing on Russia left of Obama's @McFaul eight days after @donaldjtrumpjr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJkgSPSb0o …

 This fantasy conspiracy then jumped the shark - infecting  the usual stable of half-assed, right wing media personalities (e.g. Hannity, Limburger etc.) who then regurgitated this offal.

I submit the Storm bunkum pretty well fits the same model and modus operandi of spreading.

It would be great if we could just ignore these looneytunes-  or dispatch them to an asylum for general ECT and lithium therapy. But alas, their fevered baloney can have real world consequences and act outs - especially when a virulently infected zombie gets activated - like the guy who fired a round into the D.C. pizza parlor looking for child sex slaves. Or the other screwball who tried to block traffic headed for the Hoover Dam.

These people desperately need help, but it seems there are just too few professionals around now to get the job done.   Where is Dr. Bannister when we need her?

See also:

• Worse than Pizzagate conspiracy theory is gaining force among Trump supporters

Mueller's Probe Is NO "Sideshow" As William McGurn, Holman Jenkins And Other Rightie Hacks Will Soon Learn

Let's acknowledge that beneath their current misinformation campaign the toadies of the Right have their hair on fire. This is after  Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation has drawn first blood with indictments of Paul Manafort, and especially getting Georgie Papadopoulos to take a plea deal. Which means he will sing, or has sung  - a lot! So even as the assorted WSJ hacks try to diminish the import we know a lot more is to come so we'll see the associated weasels of the Trumpian empire falling like tenpins.  Despite this, the deranged Right is determined to try to marginalize Mueller's probe and insist the "real one" is that by the GOP House punk and fabulist,  Devin Nunes,  who I've already lambasted in earlier posts, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/03/devin-nunes-exposed-as-bannons-punk-and.html

And:  http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2017/03/devin-nunes-leaks-classified-info.html


Among the toadies pushing Nunes' baloney - based on a specious conspiracy theory surrounding the Steele dossier and an alleged  Clinton connection to a uranium deal -  is the WSJ's William McGurn ('Bob Mueller's sideshow, Oct. 31, p. A15).   McGurn, seemingly in full possession of his faculties, writes:

"It is worth noting that the charges (against Manafort and Gates) serious as they may be, have little to do with what Mr. Mueller was supposed to be investigating when he was named special prosecutor, to wit: 'the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election'"

How to say this? McGurn has clearly missed the "elephant" in the charges room, namely George Papadopoulos who did attempt to make direct contact with the Russkies over HRC emails, and has pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the  FBI about his operations.  It is also clearly Papadopoulos who will bring the heat - via the information he's already given - on Paul Manafort and his buddy Gates

This also undermines the WSJ editorial ('The Manafort Indictment') appearing on the same day with the subtext 'Mueller's charges relate to money laundering cash from the Ukraine', with which the Right's scribes and dandies can comfort themselves - until Papadopoulos turns state's evidence on his compadres.

The WSJ editorial - unlike McGurn - at least acknowledges Trump campaign policy advisor Papadopoulos lied to the FBI in early 2017 about his "interaction with foreign nationals whom he understood to have connections with senior Russian government officials"    Adding:

"The plea suggests Russians might have been attempting to supply the Trump campaign with opposition research on Hillary Clinton, but Mr. Mueller provides no evidence this happened"

Missing the point that Mueller doesn't really have to "provide" evidence. Papadopoulos already hung himself out to dry by acknowledging his INTENT to meet with those presumed to have connections with Russian officials.   Whether they really were (which still remains to be determined) or not is immaterial.  As I  pointed out before (by analogy),  a wife who hires a pretender hit man to off her hubby - and who then absconds with her cash - is still guilty of conspiracy to commit homicide. It makes no difference that the guy she hired wasn't a genuine hit man, or that he never fulfilled his end of the deal.

Trump, a.k.a Dotard, is just as off kilter as McGurn and Co.  So no surprise that shortly after Manafort  sashayed into an F.B.I. office to face criminal charges on Monday, Trump took to Twitter to dismiss their relevance via the textual burpoid: “There is NO COLLUSION!”

You wish, sonny. (Insiders at the WH have reported him flying into a rage at Mueller, and even screaming at the walls and acting like the two year old terror we know lives inside the 71-year old flabby body.)

Even as this miscreant's message went out to 41 million brainwashed followers, news emerged that the authorities were unsealing another case that described how a young foreign policy adviser spent months seeking to connect Mr. Trump’s campaign with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

The first charges filed by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, did not implicate Mr. Trump but collectively amounted to a political body blow to a president who has spent months insisting that Mr. Mueller’s investigation was nothing more than a “witch hunt” based on a “hoax” invented by Democrats and the news media.

The indictment of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, suggested that the president’s top lieutenant for part of last year was a highly paid agent for pro-Russian foreign interests. And the guilty plea extracted from George Papadopoulos, the foreign policy adviser, confirmed the second known attempt by Trump’s team to tap Moscow for damaging information on Mrs. Clinton, coming months before his son Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer for the same purpose.

The Right's hysteria about the Fusion GPS oppo research was exposed once it was learned the original firm that hired them was The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news site. The WSJ editorial noted it was funded by big GOP donor Paul Singer.

Singer then was merely part of the old Repub order that respected norms and traditions and abhorred the possibility of  a two bit Queens real estate chiseler and lowlife like Trump  becoming  President. So he and the Beacon wanted "oppo" research on him. That is the hard fact.  Once Trump won the nomination, the research was continued by Democrats and HRC. So what?. That proves nothing more than Fusion GPS is a firm that is happy to be employed by either side. 

If you want, call them a bipartisan oppo research outfit. But don't call them conspirators or "sleazy operators" as the WSJ editorial writers did.  No, they weren't sleazy even for hiring Christopher  Steele (for $168,000 not "$12 million" as Dotard belched), because Steele was an independent investigator not a frickin' Russian agent or election interloper. There is simply no comparison.

As former McCain campaign advisor Steve Schmidt had put it on Chris Hayes' two nights ago, had he received offers from a Russian to dig dirt on McCain's opponent  (Obama)  he'd have RUN - not walked - to the FBI to report it. He argued that the GOP blind spot about this is truly terrifying - as if they regard Russian oppo no different from other (domestic) versions.  But this speaks to the "malignant normality" Trump has ushered in, as suggested by the psychiatrists who contributed to the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

The psychiatrists' worry is that Trump's presence in the highest office is enabling "malignant normality" or more specifically, deranged and untoward behavior and standards to become normalized. The seeming acceptance of  an adversary nation's oppo -  or ranking it like the Fusion GPS oppo via the Steele Dossier-  is an example. In reality, there is simply no analogy, no comparison.  We're talking chalk and cheese.

Steele, as I've written before, is no clown or stooge or  likely to be "fooled"  as Kimberly Strassel claimed (WSJ, 'The Fusion Collusion').  According to one Financial Times account (Feb. 16) , Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".  It is, therefore, highly unlikely he'd be 'fooled" by any kind of false intel or disinformation as Strsassel seems to believe.  James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services".

The point is there was not a damned thing sinister or wrong about Hillary's campaign hiring Fusion GPS or Fusion recruiting Chris Steele to dig up material on a lowlife vermin who would soon control the nuclear codes - IF he became president. Every day since then we've seen how wise the DNC decision was-  never mind it didn't work out - mainly because Trump and his campaign had more Russians working for him, including hacking into state election centers, and pouring propaganda into Twitter and Facebook - reaching up to 126 m by one count..

McGurn (ibid.) makes much ado about the Steele dossier which he claims "the same people who pushed it have now lost all interest in it" which is flat out horse pockey. The Senate Committee especially is trying to get Mr. Steele to testify and to elaborate aspects of his document. Steele, for very good reasons, is concerned for his life.

McGurn also tries to pump up Devin Nunes' real sideshow "investigation"  asking: "What has Mr. Nunes' committee  found?  Turns out that in the Obama years, especially in 2016, officials made many requests to unmaks the identities of Americans, including Trump campaign officials who were caught up in foreign surveillance."

Devin Nunes - still a forlorn clueless punk and conspiracy fabulist.

Which I've posted on before, i.e. with these unmaskings authorized by Susan Rice. McGurn appears not to be aware that when Americans are swept up in surveillance of foreign officials by intelligence agencies, their identities are supposed to be obscured, but they can be revealed for national security reasons, and intelligence officials say it is a regular occurrence.

Former CIA Assistant Director John McLaughlin, interviewed April 4th, pointed out:

"Susan Rice was merely doing her job. Occasionally these reports refer to foreigners contacting Americans about something so the national security adviser has the option of asking the FBI, or the National Security Agency if it can be justified to let her know who those people are- and often to protect them. Sometimes you want to go to an American and say, 'you should know who you've been I contact with'.   This is done quietly and not spread around the government, And people that make decisions for unmasking someone have a very high bar for doing it, it isn't done casually,  So I think she was basically just doing her job as she should have been doing it."

If Trump campaign officials - like George Papadopoulos and Paul Manafort were busy making contacts with the Russkies we know they'd be surveilled. Indeed, we already know Manafort, Donald Jr. along with Jared Kushner was  meeting (on June 9, 2016) with Natalia Veselnitskaya  - a Russian who offered dirt on Hillary.  For sure all of these clowns - I am talking about the Americans - would have been duly unmasked. Given the Trumpites were meeting with a rep from an adversarial state Ms. Rice would be derelict in duty if she didn't authorize unmasking of these reprobates..

Holman Jenkins, in his latest claptrap yesterday  ('Trump and the Russia Racket', WSJ, p. A13)  tried to dismiss the import of Don Jr.'s. exclamation "I love it!" when offered Russkie oppo by writing:

"Don Jr. ...stands out as the one person from whom better shouldn't have been expected."

Tough shit! He said it, and it counts, as Bob Mueller will soon show. Portraying Don Jr. as an incompetent dunce will not save him or the other Trumpites at the meeting!

 Little Holman also tried to dismiss the import of Papadopoulos by asserting "his name appeared on a  throwaway list of campaign advisers" . This merely compounds Jenkins' delusionary wishful thinking based on successive marginalization attempts of the principals. But the kicker was this demonstrable lack of insight:

"Notice the particulars of his case actually belie the theory of meaningful Trump-Russia collusion"

Jenkins can believe this balderdash if he wants but the reality is a lot more serious, and Papadopoulos serves as the ultimate human skeleton key to unlocking the lips of the rest of the Trump campaign cabal.

Jenkins, McGurn, Kim Strassel and other fake news imps can bawl and whine all they want about "no real evidence" or "no real connection to Trump or his campaign"  but the hammer has already fallen - including with the Mueller supplemental release showing Trump nominee (for Dept. of Agriculture) Sam Clovis was also in the collusion loop - exchanging info on Russian HRC email "goodies" with Papadopoulos.  So no one ought to be surprised that Clovis has since withdrawn his name from consideration for the USDA head, realizing his fat butt would soon be on Mueller's "skillet" after his communications with Georgie were disclosed.

The fact Papadopoulos had already cut a plea deal sends a warning shot over the bow of the other miscreants, including Manafort.  Former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, a law professor at George Washington University, put it bluntly:

"The signal Mueller's sent to every other potential witness is pretty clear. Be like George, come in and cooperate and cut a deal. If you stonewall us you'll end up like Manafort."

Adding: "We'll see how strong they are when facing hard prison time"

The likes of Jenkins, McGurn, Strassell and their "no big deal" ilk are betting the Trumpkins will stay strong, lips zipped. But don't fall for it.

The beauty of a federal prosecutor - which the WSJ editorial nabobs think is unnecessary - is that he and his staff are not deterred or deflected by bullshit -like "Uranium One" conspiracy fluff, sinister Fusion GPS conjectures, the  "untrustworthiness"  of  the Steele Dossier or any other side  refuse. Nope, the Mueller staff are laser -focused on impending prosecutions,  overturning new pages, new evidence and finding new laws broken, and new assholes to charge. This as they work their way toward the ultimate asshole, Trump, a.k.a. Donny Dotard.

I will put my money on Mueller and his crack team. But alas many Trumpkins and FAUX News regulars - mesmerized by all the fake "uranium one", Steele dossier, Fusion GPS conspiracy bunkum - may not see it that way. I guess they have money they can afford to lose big on losing bets.

We will see.

See also:

• Papadopoulos plea deal has opened up Jeff Sessions to perjury charges

Skewering Another Right Wing Conspiracy Ideation: "The Dems DID It!"

Kimberly Strassel: Is helping to pump the idiotic "theory" that the Dems, Hillary, Loretta Lynch and others ginned up the Steele dossier to "dig up dirt on Trump" and upend his nutso (p)residency. Now we know she - like her Reich cohort - are playing with 52 cards short of a full deck.

As the screws tighten on the Trump-Russia associations and the Mueller probe into undermining of the 2016 election by the same Russkies, it was expected the Right would at some point go batshit nuts and try to contest the facts.   That time appears to be now, as across the Reich fake news spectrum (Breitbart, FOX, Drudge Report etc.) they are peddling the nonsense conspiracy that Dems and the Left are the REAL culprits in a "Russiagate"  scenario - to take down Trump!

Writing in yesterday's WSJ, we read this codswallop from Kimberly Strassel (p. A13, 'Who Paid for the Trump Dossier?'):

"Here's a thought: What if it was the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton's campaign (who did not sign letters asserting the hiring of Fusion GPS)?  What if that money flowed from some  political entity on the left, to a private law firm, to Fusion, to a British spook, and then to Russian sources?....What if they specifically made up claims to dupe Mr. Steele, to trick him into writing his dossier?"

Nice try, but you rival Alex Jones (with his Sandy Hook false flag bunkum) and Michael Flynn's  pizzagate conspiracy - with this abysmal dreck. Basically, lazily grabbing at any possible "event" and coincidence to attempt to parlay some combination into a conspiracy.

For example, 90 percent of this bull pockey got started when some right wing nitwit  (Michael Weiss) found a video or image of Russkie lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, e.g.

Sitting at a hearing (from June 14, 2014) behind then Ambassador Michael McFaul. Weiss - who we can designate as "Dolt Zero", yapped in a "Eureka!"- style tweet:

"Hey, look what I found. Veselnitskaya sitting behind @McFaul at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Russia, June 14, 2014"

As if it was some huge discovery of a nefarious link, as opposed to simple seating coincidence. But this is the nature of egregious conspiracy ideation (can't really dignify it with 'theory'): it grabs isolated events and imagery and tries to stitch these disparate spots into a coherent whole - using all manner of irrational backflips, non sequiturs and hasty conclusions to arrive at some half-cocked rubbish. We've seen it before with Mike Flynn's 'Pizzagate' refuse.

Sure enough, as with all mind virus infections, Weiss' garbage was then picked up by Gateway Pundit - which we shall designate "Dolt Zero + 1".    These morons handle a website often known for inaccurate information.   Once again, following the playbook of conspiracy ideationists - notorious for jumping to conclusions with zero substantiation - the image was presented as evidence of a connection between Veselnitskaya and the Obama administration. (Based on the fictitious claim Veselnitskaya was "sitting with" McFaul, despite the fact she was doing no such thing. She was seated BEHIND him. BEHIND him is NOT seated with him.  If I attend a concert with wifey and our rabid right wing congress critter Doug Lamborn is seated behind us, that doesn't mean we are "seated with" him!  Doh!)

The spread of the mind virus then leapt again to "Dolt ZERO + 2" in the guise of the guttersnipes known as the "Sludge ....errrr..... Drudge Report".  WikiLeaks - which is now a pathetic shadow of what it once was when it released the Bradley Manning files (in 2011) then became the next victim (or accomplice) on Wednesday , further spreading this nonsense, re-tweeting the image with this:

Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at hearing on Russia left of Obama's @McFaul eight days after @donaldjtrumpjr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJkgSPSb0o …

 This fantasy conspiracy then jumped the shark - infecting  the usual stable of half-assed, right wing media personalities (e.g. Hannity, Limburger etc.) who then regurgitated this offal.

They suggested that Veselnitskaya was "hanging out" with Obama administration officials just days after the meeting with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort.   And VOILA! We have the perfect false equivalence: "How can you media types howl about the Trump Jr., Manafort, Kusher meeting with the Russians when Dems were doing it too!"

Of course this is total horse shit. The proximate seating position of a Russkie lawyer to an Obama official (McFaul) can only be contorted into being "seated with" by a brain devoid of critical thinking and prone to making mountains out of ant hills. But let's not be too surprised as this is the noxious frequent tactic used by the pro-Trump media to try to discredit reporting from credible news outlets  It's a tactic we've come to expect from the Trump media mobocracy when faced with political peril. So they try to upend the latest political firestorm facing the Trump administration.  (Never mind much of the firestorm is created by Trump and his own hirelings, e.g. "Mooch")

Let's not forget there's another piece of this conspiracy "theory" which evidently originated with Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's outside legal counsel. He said the Russian attorney was linked to Fusion GPS, a DC-based opposition research firm known for commissioning the Steele dossier. This is also clearly what has Kimberly Strassel's dander up. Veselnitskaya was representing Prevezon — a Cyprus company owned by a Russian national that is accused in the US of laundering money — at the same time Fusion GPS was doing work for a law firm that did work for Prevezon, according to the Washington Post.   Again, all this really shows is that Fusion was an "equal opportunity" business - happy to work with anyone who'd pay real money.  It doesn't prove that there is some nefarious connection or conspiracy, i.e. to slime Trump. (Hell, he doesn't need any help on that score!)

Corallo insisted  Fusion “was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the president.” But what he and his cohort ignore is the fact that Fusion GPS was initially hired in October 2015 by unnamed Republican clients in order to develop opposition research on Trump to be used during the GOP primary.  These Republicans were part of the old (e.g. pro-Jeb Bush) order who respected norms and traditions. They detested the fact that a two bit Queens real estate weasel and lowlife like Trump could possibly become President. So they wanted "oppo" research on him. That is the hard fact.  Once Trump won the nomination, the research was continued by Democrats. That proves nothing more than Fusion GPS is a firm that is happy to be employed by either side.  If you want, call them a bipartisan oppo research outfit. But don't call them conspirators.

None of this proves a conspiracy or even near conspiracy other than in the deranged brains of the out of  control Rightist nuts.  Hence, Strassel's claim of Fusion as "the oppo research outfit behind the infamous and discredited Trump dossier ginned up by a former British spook" is false. In fact, all the evidence suggests that the dossier was completed by Steele ca. 2015 or while Fusion was still cooperating with the Republicans on the oppo.  Also, all these conspiracy nabobs on the right appear to forget that before going underground, the material gathered in memos was considered so explosive that Steele turned it over to contacts he had in the FBI last summer. This was without informing the opposition research group for which he'd initially begun his project.  If  Christopher Steele was indeed working with the Dems or Reeps why would he not inform them?

Christopher Steele, as I've written before, is no clown or stooge or even a "spook" likely to be fooled as Kimberly Strassel claims.  According to one Financial Times account (Feb. 16) , Steele was the "UK intelligence expert on Russia".  It is, therefore, highly unlikely he'd be 'fooled" by any kind of false intel or disinformation as Strsassel seems to believe.  James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, informed the AP that sections of the dossier document created by Steele "read exactly as reports from the secret services".

Let's also reference the other case being made about Veselnitskaya having ties to Democrats which has the Right's  pseudo conspiracy mavens questioning why she got a visa to be in the country on June 9, 2016, i.e.  for the meeting with the Trump campaign.  The true fact is Veselnitskaya was initially refused entry to the United States when she applied for a visa for herself and her children for the end of 2015. According to court files, she said she was granted a temporary “parole letter” allowing her into the country to assist her client Katsyv, who was facing a trial in the U.S. linked to his alleged part in the $230 million fraud uncovered by Magnitsky.  She applied in the Southern District of New York for that temporary access to be extended beyond Jan. 6, 2016, when it was due to expire. Court transcripts show that prosecutors were reluctant to give Veselnitskaya a blank check to remain in the U.S. while the case stalled. Then subsequently, a NY judge ordered an extension, with the expectation that trial would start soon.

Again, nothing mysterious, nothing nefarious - other than in the febrile brains of the Right's idiot conspiracy allies of Alex Jones.  Again,  none of this matters a whit because ultimately Donald Jr. was happy to have a meeting with someone who told him they represented the Russian government and had dirt to share about Hillary Clinton.

Was this a "nothing burger' because nothing came of it? Maybe, but that's irrelevant.  The point is legally the intent was there to dig up dirt using a high profile Russian lawyer, irrespective of it not succeeding. Just because a wife hires a hitman to whack her hubby and he doesn't succeed doesn't let her off the hook. 

While the Right media has tried desperately to shift the Russia spotlight to the DNC, Hillary and Loretta Lynch - the incontestable fact is that it has always been Trump in up to his eyeballs with the Russkies - including to save his no good, bankruptcy- filing ass.  As noted in The New Republic (Aug./Sept. p. 29):

"A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, or even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money .....Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics....It's entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters."

Of course, this very background helps explain why Trump is hyper paranoid now about Bob Mueller digging into his money trail, including leading right through his family finances. This is why, indeed, he's already telegraphed his guilt - first in firing James Comey, then in his recent obsession with Bob Mueller's probe - even warning Mueller not to veer into his "family finances" which would be taken as "crossing a red line".  Why? What's so all-fired important about them? What has Trump got to hide? Why has Trump released no recent tax returns?   All of this bespeaks a guy loaded with guilt and committed to obstruction of justice.

Thus, Strassel's blabber that:

"If Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Democrats and the media really want answers about Russian meddling, this (dossier)  is a far deeper well than the scant case against Trump"

Is pure horse hockey.  Those more in the know than Strassel -  concerning the integrity of sources and what the intel really shows -  acknowledge that what Steele compiled is very likely true, at least in part.  In addition to which the whole shtick fits the modus operandi ("Kompromat") of videoing any one who comes to Moscow and stays at a hotel- perhaps to engage in illicit sexual activities with Russkie "honey pots".  Kimberly may revolt at the thought of Russian whores jubilantly pissing all over her master, but there it is. Trump (and his loopy defenders) then may have more to worry about than where Bob Mueller is going. They better worry that if Trump signs the recently passed "sanctions" legislation Putin will go ahead and release the piss video.

The most laughable aspect of this whole farce? The Reich wingers trying to claim that Veselnitskaya was brought on by Democrats because there's no proof that she wasn't.  Wow. Great argumentum ad ignorantium.

Methinks we need to send all of these conspiracy hustlers and hucksters  back to  courses in logic 101 along with critical thinking 100. 

Will Trumpies Be Aroused From Their Coma By An ICBM Called "SATAN II"?

The largest ICBM ever made: The RS Sarmat -28 or "Satan II" - in NATO nomenclature. One of these could wipe out an area the size of Texas. Are Trumpies finally going to take the Trump -Russia ties seriously, or punk out like fidget-spinner zombies?

To most Trumpie zombies, the whole Trump-Russia narrative is all baloney, pure bunk. They refuse to take it seriously and believe it is just a media-Democrat conspiracy to bring down the biggest horse turd to ever occupy the Oval Office.  They insist the narrative (and investigation) stop and just let the horse turd do what he was put into office for. Which most of us presume is to lay waste to this Republic and leave all ethical standards and norms in tatters, defining the country itself down to gutter level as he "fast forwards" its decline - according to one Aussie (Australian News) political editor.

How whacked out are the Trumpie zombies, otherwise known as "Storm Trumpers"?   Their alarming descent into madness is grimly illustrated in the results of a new survey by Public Policy Polling (PPP). Some examples from the survey:

• Only 45% of Trump voters believe Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton...even though Trump Jr. admitted it. 32% say the meeting didn't happen and 24% say they're not sure.
• 72% of Trump voters consider the Russia story overall to be 'fake news,' only 14% disagree.
• Only 24% of Trump voters even want an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, 64% are opposed to an investigation.
• Only 26% of Trump voters admit that Russia wanted Trump to win the election, 44% claim Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win, and 31% say they're not sure one way or the other.
• Even if there was an investigation, and it found that the Trump campaign did collude with Russia to aid his campaign, 77% of his supporters think he should still stay in office to just 16% who believe he should resign.
  

A psychologist like my niece Shayl or Dr. Pat Bannister might inquire as to what manner of sickness we have displayed here. After all, less than half of the Trump disciples believe that Don Jr. met with Russians despite his having confirmed it. Shayl has already offered the opinion that the Storm Trumpers are suffering from the late stages of schizoid personality disorder and could use a number of sessions of ECT. But some of us wonder if even that can bring them back from their political delirium.  But look, the hacks who defend Trump and attack the Russiagate story aren't much more advanced.

According to WSJ resident nabob, Holman Jenkins ('On Don Jr. Media Can't Help  Itself'):

"The farcical element continues to predominate in Russiagate...But real trouble can flow even from a farce. Thinkers for whom Russia was just one problem in a world full of problems (who previously did not identify Moscow as the No. 1 enemy), now do so vociferously....Even the estimable Anne Applebaum - author of a book on the Soviet Gulag- now fulminates in The Washington Post against every recent president for 'failing to heed Russia's peculiar dangers'"

Adding:

"Most U.S. reporters know they are overplaying the Trump-Russia connection, even as they revel in the Don Jr. gotcha moment."

In the same piece Holman mocks the import of the Russkie lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as well as the "tubby British music publicist who babbled fourth hand Russian government support for the Trump effort".

This and other pieces probably led a Denver Post letter writer to scold the Post over its recent Trump-Russia coverage: "The 'smoking gun' ballyhooed by Democrats and The New York Times (and The Denver Post) is really only them blowing smoke. If anything it is a toy gun masquerading as a real one."

In other words, like Jenkins, he believes this is a whole lot of nothing, aka a "nothing burger". But is it really?

In terms of Jenkins' take,  let's first note that mere days later the WSJ featured a major story 'Lawyer Met With Russia's Top Prosecutor' (July 15-16, p. A5) pointing out that in fact Ms. Veselnitskaya had close ties with the Chief Prosecutor Yuri Chaika's office. Noting also that Chaika is a "top official appointed by the Kremlin".   In other words, she certainly wasn't the casual person of acquaintance Jenkins' makes her out to be.

Supporting that, in an interview on CBS Tuesday morning,  former U.S. fund manager William Browder told Charlie Rose and co-hosts that Veselnitskaya was the "most aggressive lawyer he'd ever met" and indeed went to the mat with him to try to overturn the Magnitsky Act.  This is a 2012 U.S. law that locked up Russian funds tied to its Kleptocratic oligarchs.  In response, Veselnitskaya  and her cohort have launched all out efforts to upend it.

Jenkins' and the Post letter writer's other strategy appears to dismiss the import by mocking the whole factual basis, including that the guy who contacted Donald Trump Jr. was Rob Goldstone, a "tubby" Brit clown who once blabbed - while on an African jaunt- that "the only thing to do here is eat".  Of course, mocking a conspiracy has always been one of the means used to try to dismiss it.  Just ask those who've investigated the JFK assassination for many decades.

But even if Don Jr. is dismissed as a dope or clueless dunce - as Holman Jenkins seeks to do -  other aspects betray the meeting in Trump Tower. As per a recent piece in TIME (July 24, p. 24), the giveaway may not have been so much Don Jr.'s reactions but what his co-colluders (Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort) did not do.   In particular, they "never dismissed the offer of very high level  Russian support as phony or fake. On the contrary the prospect of Russian assistance  was real enough to pull these busy men into a Trump Tower office to meet with a messenger (Veselnitskaya ) from Moscow."

Again, one needs to look beyond Trump Jr.'s foibles to what his companions did. Are Kushner and Manafort to be written off as "gullible clowns" too? I think not.   Even more damning - and given Veselnitskaya's actual background noted from the WSJ story:

"They also failed to report the alleged effort of a foreign power to influence the election".

As I told Janice on relating this information to her, it appears too many Americans now have had their brains and intellects gutted to the point they are little better than walking zombies. In establishing this it is always useful to go back in perspective to what citizens confronted by similar news would have done 50 years ago.  Without any doubt, none - zero, if this story broke of a U.S. President and his team meeting with the Russians the WHOLE nation (not just part of it) would literally have gone ballistic and called for all and sundry to be charged with treason. Yes, you read that, treason, not just collusion or even a Klein conspiracy.

Yet 40 percent of today's citizens (about the same who are committed to Trump come hell or high water) actually regard the Russians as "friends".  This is simply unfathomable. As TIME also notes (ibid.):

"From Damascus to Turtle Bay, from oil fields to outer space, Russia is a fierce rival of the U.S. and has been for generations.  What politician jumps in bed with Russia? Whether overt or covert, Moscow's stance toward Washington runs a short, troubling gamut from mischievous to hostile."

Then quoting Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine:

"Russia is the one country that could physically destroy America."

And to underscore that capacity, let us now introduce to readers the largest, most monstrous ICBM ever built: the RS-28 Sarmat Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, nicknamed that Satan II by NATO.   This 100 ton beast, one of which is capable of obliterating the state of Texas, has recently been revealed by the Russian Defense Ministry.

There are a number of aspects of this missile that ought to keep Trumpie zombies awake at night, or at least get them to reconsider their "Russiagate is nothing" or "Russia is our friend" memes, and especially the noisome "if Russia can help Trump defeat a Dem in 2020 we're ok with that".

One is that the Satan II has been designed with stealth technology, which means that it can be fired at a target without being detected by U.S. radar.  This means the Russians - if they wanted- could launch a pre-emptive strike to knock us out of the game before we could launch a single Minuteman III ICBM.    Another is that this missile can deliver up to 12 independently targeted warheads in the 350-500 kiloton (e.g. half a megaton) range. Any one of which could wipe out whole cities the size of Dallas, Houston, LA or Miami.   This also means the U.S. defenses would be rendered impotent, after all which particular warhead do you target with an anti-missile missile?

Add to that the capability of the Satan II coming across over the South Pole, as opposed to the usual North Pole track, and you have a nightmare scenario.

Let's again emphasize that by the time this beast is ready by 2020 it won't be aimed at Iran, Japan, India or Kenya. Nope. All five hundred-odd Satan IIs will be aimed at U.S. states - regions to deliver their nuclear payloads for imminent obliteration.   And no it shouldn't take a genius to grasp this.

What about Trump's 2nd (secret) meeting with Putin, with only a Kremlin translator there to help him? A bad scene all around since the translator could have told the Donald anything and he'd never be any the wiser.  But the most dangerous aspect isn't necessarily Trump cooking up some nefarious plan with Putin. No, it would be a U.S. President - a largely unread and stupid one with no security personnel of his own - in the presence of a supreme former KGB operator.  The latter, being a guy who can size an opponent up as formidable or a dumb turd in a micro-second.

And if the latter is interpreted, along with a critical character weakness, how long might it be before that is exploited, leading to a first strike nuclear attack to take out an enemy?

Maybe it's time the Trumpie faction of the nation start to get serious about the Trump-Russia issues too.

See also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECPrrXGEe5w

And:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lPZLBNAnxY

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/neal-gabler/74087/what-trump-s-putin-love-reveals-about-conservatives

Trump-Russia: Time To Change C-Words - From 'Collusion' To CONSPIRACY

With the new revelations about Donald Trump Jr being forced to release damning emails that reveal he eagerly embraced (what he was explicitly  told) was a Russian government attempt to damage Hillary Clinton’s election campaign, we have now entered the conspiracy meme. Up to now, the media has uniformly kept that more "extreme " c -word off the table, opting to use the more vanilla term "collusion" instead. This despite the fact most legal scholars assert collusion is not a crime, but conspiracy is. More on this to follow.

Anyway, the stunning Trump Jr. (aka "Fredo")  disclosure raised questions over whether campaign laws were broken and why senior Trump associates failed to report a hostile act by a foreign power.

Trump Jr also admitted on Tuesday night that he could have handled the situation better but he had not told his father about meeting a Russian lawyer because “it was a nothing”.  (This was later amped up to a "nothing burger" by WH lackey and lapdog Reince Priebus in the Sunday talk show circuit).

The emails show Russkie contact and music promoter Rob Goldstone telling Trump's dumbo son that “the crown prosecutor of Russia” had offered “to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father”.

Goldstone added,  in the exchange of June 3rd, 2016: “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

He didn't mince words or soft soap it, absolutely pointing out the "support for Mr. Trump".  Any sensible individual with more than air between the ears would have run - not walked - to the nearest FBI office and turned in the material. What did Don Jr. do instead?

Seventeen minutes later, the jug-headed imp welcomed the email with the reply: “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.”     He then forwarded the incriminating material to his comrades in crime, as his email betrays:

From:   Donald Trump Jr.
Sent:    Yesterday, June 8, 2016, 12: 55 p.m.
To:       Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort
Subject: FW: Russia - Clinton -  Private and Confidential

Just a few weeks later the first batch of DNC emails were released.

(In a later email, Goldstone described the Russian lawyer they are due to meet, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as a “Russian government attorney. She had denied this, but the Kremlin probably ordered her to do so and assert it was all her own impetus and idea.)

So it's now clear Don Jr. was lying when he claimed not to know who the Russian lawyer was.

So now what do we have? Is it collusion or conspiracy? An informative segment on 'Morning Joe' yesterday saw House Intel Committee standing member Adam Schiff explaining:

"We've been using collusion as a term to cover a lot of potentially problematic conduct. There is no statute that uses that term or 'coordination' which is the term the FBI Director more often uses. 

The statute would be conspiracy. If you conspire with others to violate any number of laws it is a crime. So if there is a conspiracy to violate the election laws and get help from a foreign power. If there's a conspiracy to engage in illegal quid pro quo, so you get help in exchange for a legislative change. If there's any conspiracy to obtain illicit information, or to steal the information. Any number of those things could be a violation of law."

So there you have it: no legal basis for collusion in the statutes, but a definite basis for conspiracy. So why doesn't the media use that word instead? As I said, it is on account of a decades -long effort to scrub that c-word out of existence, especially so Americans will not invoke it - say to do with the JFK assassination conspiracy.

Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade identified the specific type of conspiracy last night as a "Klein conspiracy". She defined this as "a conspiracy to impede the functioning of any department of government."

She added that this would include the "administration of fair elections".   One technical legal website (USLegal) defines the elements as follows:

(1) an agreement between two or more people to accomplish an unlawful objective against the United States;

(2) the commission of an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy; and

(3) the knowing and voluntary participation of the defendants in the conspiracy.

Adding:

Such conspiracies to defraud are not limited to those aiming to deprive the government of money or property, but include conspiracy to interfere with government functions also.

It seems clear on this basis that the media need to halt the incessant use of the vanilla term 'collusion' and use 'conspiracy' instead, and specifying the exact nature (e.g. "Klein conspiracy") if possible. That is, assuming they want their readers to have a clear legal idea of what Don Jr. and others have done, and what legal charges they can actually be brought up on.