Trump wins: Russiagate becomes the weapon of mass destruction for Mass Media’s reputation

Trump is vindicated. The real substance of Russiagate is what it says about the media

Dragged out for two years of hate, denigration and abuse in the media, in the end the Muller inquiry found no collusion. How many journalists predicted this. How many even wrote as though it was possible? Credit to Matt Taibbi for the scathing WMD comparison.

Mueller report into collusion a stunning victory for Donald Trump, by Cameron Stewart, The Australian.

The summary of the Mueller report issued today by Attorney General William Barr clears the president and his aides of any collusion with Russia and says there is no legal case to support obstruction of justice charges against him. …

It is a devastating defeat for the Democrats and for much of the US media who had hoped, prayed and frankly expected that Mueller would somehow find a silver bullet to end or at least cripple Trump’s presidency.

Matt Taibbi on Russiagate: ‘Death Blow for the Reputation of the American News Media’

It’s official: Russiagate is this generation’s WMD

Nothing Trump is accused of from now on by the press will be believed by huge chunks of the population, a group that (perhaps thanks to this story) is now larger than his original base. As Baker notes, a full 50.3% of respondents in a poll conducted this month said they agree with Trump the Mueller probe is a “witch hunt.”

The Special Prosecutor literally became a religious figure during the last few years, with votive candles sold in his image and Saturday Night Live cast members singing “All I Want for Christmas is You” to him featuring the rhymey line: “Mueller please come through, because the only option is a coup.”

Stories have been coming out for some time now hinting Mueller’s final report might leave audiences “disappointed,” as if a President not being a foreign spy could somehow be bad news.

UPDATE: On the legal process, read Mark Steyn, Read it all. Read it twice.

 Deep-State Dumpster Fire

It started in April 2016, when it became clear that Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. The Hillary campaign and the DNC gave millions of dollars to Marc Elias, a Clinton lawyer, who in turn hired Fusion GPS, who in turn hired former MI6 agent Christopher Steele. Why use Mr Elias as a cutout? Because Hillary and the DNC could then itemize the expense as “legal services” rather than list payments to Mr Steele, which would be in breach of federal law…

Steele’s dossier was passed along to the FBI. It seems a reasonable inference, to put it as blandly as possible, that the dossier was used to justify the opening of what the Feds call an “FI” (Full Investigation), which in turn was used to justify a FISA order permitting the FBI to put Trump’s associates under surveillance. Indeed, it seems a reasonable inference that the dossier was created and supplied to friendly forces within the bureau in order to provide a pretext for an FI, without which surveillance of the Trump campaign would not be possible.

But that’s all you need. The dossier is a remarkable thing. It self-regenerates and corroborates itself as it ricochets back and forth between corrupt bureaucrats, biddable hacks and rubber-stamp judges…

Fifteen lawyers in search of a crime:

They’ve already been on it for a year, and, if there were any “collusion”, it would have been leaked months ago: If Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, the “Russia investigation” is a nullity wrapped in an absence inside a void, now shimmering in the black hole of the billable hours of fifteen lawyers and the expense accounts of a hundred FBI agents.

But tally-ho! The Great MacNuffin Hunt goes on -..

We have witnessed an extraordinary sustained attempted coup in which senior officials of the “justice” department shoot the breeze about wearing a wire to get the goods on the elected chief executive. If there are no consequences to that, it will happen again.

Do read it. Send it to your friends. Steyn at his scathing best. (h/t Kevin L)

Peter Baker, New York Times, three days ago: it’s a reckoning coming for the media and the system

Moreover, the president and his allies have raised enough questions about the conduct of his investigators to convince many of his supporters that the real scandal is the “deep state” trying to thwart the will of the democratic system by dislodging him from office.

The sheer volume of allegations lodged against Mr. Trump and his circle defies historical parallel, possibly eclipsing, if they were all proved true, even Watergate, the nonpareil scandal of scandals.

But none of the investigations has carried the authority or import of Mr. Mueller’s.

Rudy Giuliani Calls for ‘Full and Complete Investigation’ into Originators of Collusion Claims

by Michelle Moons, Breitbart

“I say this is complete and absolute victory,” Giuliani told Fox News Sunday afternoon, calling the victory “way beyond anybody could have expected a year ago with all this crazy fake news that’s going on.”…
“Absolutely no collusion by anyone in the Trump campaign so you have to wonder why did this investigation start in the first place and why did we waste $40 billion,” he questioned. “Second, no obstruction.”… “President is absolutely correct to be very, very upset,” Giuliani said after the president’s statement to reporters. “It is absolutely definitive that he was being investigated for a crime that never happened. There was never any collusion. I can tell you that because I was on that campaign.”

Glenn Reynolds asks ...what other Republican candidate in 2016 could have withstood this sort of assault?

h/t David E, Pat, Scott of the Pacific.

9.8 out of 10 based on 109 ratings

327 comments to Trump wins: Russiagate becomes the weapon of mass destruction for Mass Media’s reputation

  • #
    Ted O'Brien.

    Stunning? Why should this be stunning?

    I have seen signs lately that led me to suspect that Our ABC may have seen some writing on their wall. But tonight, with Gladys Berijicklian’s coalition having won a “stunning” victory in Saturday’s election, Our ABC’s TV news devoted nearly the first six minutes, i.e. the first 20% of their news time, to the Labor Party’s doings.

    There is no cure for this disease.

    570

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      No cure but Exorcism.

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Now that’s a bombshell. The beginning of the end:

        https://youtu.be/qjUvfZj-Fm0

        Their ABC is in good company.

        190

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Verbalism is such a horrible disease, stressful to watch.

          Fact free expression with only the emotion of the t.v. compere to push your buttons.

          Whoever put that together has done everybody a great service and highlighted the problem. Now, can anybody fix it.

          It reminds me of some bad Pelosi moments: worrying.

          KK

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        • #
          Ian Hill

          Fascinating. Most mentioned clichés:

          22 – Bombshell
          21 – Beginning of the end
          13 – Tipping/turning point
          12 – Walls are closing in

          and a cast of many others including

          Entropy – crumbling internally
          Terrified old man
          He’s under water
          If this were a football game we’re in the third quarter

          etc.

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      • #
        Speedy

        In the old days we used to put leeches on the patient, but in this case, it is obvious that the patient IS a leech!

        60

    • #
      Geoff

      Australia paid the Clinton Foundation tens of millions of US dollars. For what? We paid a bribe to Hilary Clinton thinking she was going to be the first female president. Who authorized it? Who instigated it?

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      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Exactly.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Slightly O/T but interesting and timely – a person I know has won a stunning victory against a university.

          The university pursued, assuming I understood correctly, a heavy handed attempt to silence legitimate complaints and issues of academic *freedom of speech* against an academic, who is also profoundly disabled. You cant make this stuff up.

          His recount was such that the beak was sufficiently livid at the behaviour of the said university but held it together to hand the universities’ rear end to itself, and in efefct has appeared to allow multiple additional avenues of legal redress to be allowed.

          I believe the case may have used some of the Ridd situation to bolster their argument.

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      • #
        Sambar

        And why don’t we investigate it ?

        140

        • #
          ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

          Because Australians are too submissive and trained by grabbermint propaganda, indoctrinated in every classroom from an early age to report loudly when their name is called, never question or “answer back” (whatever that means) and “salute the flag, cheerfully obey our parents, teachers and the law” as was part of our 1970’s Monday morning primary school chants which began when we received a new Principal from the inner city.

          The favourite Australian motto has often been “But what can ya do eh?”, spoken wistfully into the mouth of a beer can while being distracted by their favourite warriors chasing a round-ish object. Only when we’re forced to war for another country do we manage “Get stuck in”.

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          • #
            ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

            Crikey Jo, what word in my comment above got me sin-binned? Maybe the sin bin itself has been infected by a Marxist bot.. 🙂

            50

          • #
            ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

            Nice. Thanks for fixing it quick. Someone’s up early.. 😉

            50

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Who? JG, wasn’t it?

        30

      • #
        Greebo

        Pretty sure I know who instigated it. Can’t talk about authorisation, but I’d take a WAG. I believe Juliar and Turnbull may have had the odd phone call. Evidence, I have none……

        20

    • #

      This conclusion to the Collusion Delusion
      should not be stunning.

      It was obvious in late 2016 that
      Trump was not colluding with anyone,
      and I put it in writing on my politics blog
      at the time.

      Trump was supposed to be “colluding”
      with the Republican Party in 2016, and
      he could barely do that !

      He’s VERY FAR from the colluding type
      — I wish he would collude with experts
      more often, and Tweet fewer dumb things !

      Not once in the American press, outside of
      a few mentions on Fox News, did I hear
      ANYONE bother to mention that “collusion”
      is not even a crime.

      Certainly after two years of unusually harsh
      treatment of Russia, especially arming Ukraine,
      it was obvious Trump was doing no favors
      for Vladimir Putin.

      Our US Dumbocrat party is as dumb as politicians get,
      allowing dingbat Alexandria Occasionally Coherent
      to get so much attention with her “Green Ordeal” …
      although Dumbocrats are very experienced
      at character attacks ( but Trump fights back,
      and they are not used to that ! ).

      My politics blog:
      http://www.ElectionCircus.Blogspot.com

      My economics blog:
      http://www.EL2017.blogspot.com

      My climate science blog:
      http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com

      New articles at all three today !

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      • #
        Dean_from_Ohio

        They’re not dumb, they are vile. The Democratic Party of the U.S. is a pitch-black, stinking cesspool of demonic evil.

        170

        • #
          Lawrie

          Just like the Greens, GetUp and the ALP. Of course nowadays the ALP use it’s numerous third parties to dish the dirt and wallow in the mire.

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        • #
          Greebo

          If only Trump had the wit of Reagan. He has the potential to be a better Pres.

          20

    • #
      FarmerDoug2

      There is no cure for this disease.

      Till the host dies.

      100

      • #
        Greebo

        This may or not be O/T, but Apple, the richest and possibly most influential company ever had a “Special Event” today… Apparently you can have News, and media curated by “Apple Experts” to “personalise” your experience, and make sure you have information that you can “trust”. Don’t you feel all warm and fuzzy? Disclaimer: I love Apple hardware, and the software that runs it. Today, though, Apple became the new FaceBook on the block, and it’s scary.

        I trust Apple when they say that info provided is private. They have proven this over and over. However, they seem more and more to be in the game of manipulation. Tim Cook, a man with some influence at Apple, is an avowed Trump hater. Can I trust AppleNews+ to give me accurate stories about Trump, or some slanted piece? If you think Zuckenberg is powerful ,watch this space. Apple has more power than Hollywood. The cheering at the event today is very scary. Apparently Oprah is an evangelist ( and maybe she is….).

        Trump is facing a very well organised and well heeled opposition. I fear that Apple is at the forefront, and their marketing skills are incredible. I hope they get taught a lesson…, just as I hope Hollywood does. I’m not asking a lot.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          On my (Apple) computers is an album by U2. I don’t know U2. I have never played it. I didn’t put it there. Apple did.

          Why?

          00

    • #
      Bulldust

      We have the Mueller report finding nothing against Trump, we have Brexit in tatters. What does the ABC lead with on their web site today? Drumrol….

      1) A sting against One Nation led by a foreign government owned media outlet (Al Jazeera)
      2) A piece about eggboy … the chap who assaulted a senator
      3) Brunei’s regressive laws against LGBT

      That’s balanced taxpayer funded media for you…

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  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    There needs to be repercussions for those in the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, the DNC and the MSM.

    Those who have been responsible for this attempt to undermine a democratically elected leader of the free-world need to be investigated, charged and, if found guilty, imprisoned.

    In addition, it seems that the Five-eyes structure may also need to be investigated. It’s interesting that Alexander Downer’s name came up during the course of the slandering of President Trump. Downer also needs to be investigated.

    371

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Why Sam? He was the Australian High Commissioner in London. That is he was an Australian diplomat.

      Downer simply reported back to Canberra, what someone else told him in a piss up.

      Not doing so would have been been a gross failure in his job as our diplomat in London.

      And what Canberra did with that information is not his responsibility.

      So your suggestion amounts to yet another expensive and useless witch hunt.

      .

      512

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Downer simply reported back to Canberra, what someone else told him in a piss up.

        Not doing so would have been been a gross failure in his job as our diplomat in London.

        And you know this? How?

        Who was the person who lined him up at the cocktail party and gave him the false information?

        The Five eyes agreement requires the parties involved to not spy on each other (as I understand it).

        Who did Downer give the information to in Canberra? What was the full body of information (including his analysis of its veracity) that he passed on to Canberra?

        What Canberra did with the information is extremely important. Who did it notify in the USA that it had this information. Did it advise the President’s office? Who in the President’s office? Did it feed it to any media? Any member of the DNC?

        Downer is under suspicion. It needs to be investigated and laid to rest, one way or the other. Downer potentially gave credibility to the slander – knowingly or not. We need to know whether our High Commissioner became party political to the attempt to undermine a democratically elected leader of the free world.

        You might think that is unimportant. But it isn’t. It’s fundamental to the Australia/USA relationship, now and into the future.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      I have another gripe against young Alex.

      He, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, was a key player in Australia’s wheat trading with Iraq under the Oil for Food Program. He knew what was being done and how. He was at times the chief negotiator.

      The $300 million “bribes to Saddam Hussein” wasn’t bribes at all. It wasn’t even secret. I, with no special source of information, knew that “inland trucking fees” were being paid, how much was being paid, why and how this was justified, and that this was approved by both the Australian government and the UN, who forked out the cash.

      When Kevin Rudd and the Marxists in our media set out to destroy AWB Ltd and American trading companies sought to take a competitor down, the Howard government hung AWB Ltd out for the jackals.

      Why? They hold to a philosophy called Free Market Theory, which, when you look at the trail of consequences of its application must have been written by Marxists. (They haven’t noticed that yet.) Under that theory, AWB was a bastard child, not born of their “Free Market”. AWB Ltd was founded on the $3.5 billion worth of wheat that the Wheat Board held on behalf of growers when the Howard government abolished it.

      So they trashed it, at terrible cost to Australia’s wheat growers. They changed the rules on the run. And this old school toff was a key player.

      280

      • #
        Bill in Oz

        Ahhh yes, the “Wheaties Of Mass Destruction ” !!!

        How cruel of Alexander Downer ensuring that the people of Iraq got fed instead of starving !

        And ensuring that Aussie farmers got to sell their wheat and make some money !!

        All so very appalling…….Sarc/

        Now reality : Saddam Hussein was a brutal sadsistic cruel monster who arranged mass slaughter of his own people on multiple occasions until he was overthrown by the Yanks…

        He did not give a flying f*ck about his fellow Iraqis. And would cheerfully have let them starve if it suited hiis purposes. So paying him off did the Iraqi people & the world a great favour. But getting rid of the bastard was even better !

        78

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          The Howard government was a coalition of the Liberals & the Nationals.

          if the National party MP’s did not or could not ensure that AWB was not nobbled and destroyed by the Liberal idiocrats, it’s a National party problem for farmers to take up with them..

          Just like happened this past Saturday in NSW

          31

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            Why is it always somebody else’s problem Bill?

            61

          • #
            Ted O'Brien.

            Yes, Bill. Tim Fischer and John Anderson are lovely blokes. But they were lousy reps. Instead of representing us to Canberra, they represented Canberra to us.

            The National Party came awfully close to annihilation at the 2007 federal election. It was Barnaby Joyce and some other new reps, including Fiona Nash and John Williams who subsequently saved it from disappearing altogether. Now Fiona Nash is gone, John Williams is retiring for health, and Barnaby Joyce has been sidelined.

            As for last Saturday. The Nats are paying the penalty for trying to steal the Greens vote. First the dogs fiasco, and not far behind the drinks container levy. That put the price of a bottle of drink up 20% from 75c to 90c, and gave us no means of getting back our 10c deposit. That really stunk. Both issues Greens policy. The Nats head office has lost the plot completely. Again.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          There’s a lot you’ve missed there Bill. You are looking very much like a swamp dweller. Don’t you accept that the Australian government and the UN were closely involved in what was done, which was to feed the Iraqi people.. Why? On what grounds to you negate this?

          Before all the wars Australia was Iraq’s preferred supplier of imported wheat. This was because The Australian Wheat Board set far and away the world’s highest standards in quality control with wheat trading, and the Iraqis were discerning buyers. So for us, we owned that market, as long as we maintained our standards and a competitive price.

          After the Gulf War UN sanctions shut down trading with Iraq. From memory it was about two years later that the UN, noting that the Iraqi people were starving, set up the Oil for Food Program. There was’t any visible quibble, they handed this wheat trade to Australia, presumably because Australia could demonstrate some kind of proprietary right to that trade, and could quickly reinstate it.

          And, Bill, would you be interested to know that during the sanctions Iraqi kids were crying because all they could get to eat was egg plant. And that Iraqi kids died. So Saddam Hussein wasn’t the only brutal, sadistic cruel monster.

          On the side, don’t ever imagine that the Iraqi people differentiate between Australians and Americans in their hatred of invaders.

          Read my post again so that you understand my gripe with Downer and Howard.

          130

    • #
      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        This bit resonates with me:

        “Americans waking up in the early morning to the sight of tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House and crashing through the railings to arrest Trump would eventually have an armed response, courtesy of the Second Amendment, by one of the most heavily armed populaces in the world. As for seizing and silencing all the TV, radio, newspaper and internet news sources nowadays, there aren’t enough troops.

        The modified approach to doing the coup was derived from the method used to try and subvert the presidential election of 2016. A campaign of falsification, smear and misinformation was to be run by feeding the media in all its forms, a steady stream of manufactured negative items about Trump. The shakers and movers at the top of the media information cartels were to be active players in the conspiracy. With media coverage running at an estimated 90% of negative articles against him since he declared his candidacy, the thinking was he’d never get elected.”

        He got elected.

        Trust the people.

        170

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        It’s certainly interesting that The Pointman sees the AGW scam as beaten. Let’s hope he’s right. It’s certainly not beaten in Australia yet, with Al Gore’s RET grinding us down day by day.

        I ask again, how did Al Gore persuade Clive Palmer to “protect” the RET?

        Maybe with this hurdle out of the way Trump can demolish the scam.

        60

        • #
          Another Ian

          An excellent question for Palmer’s current ad blitz

          40

          • #
            Ted O'Brien.

            Yes. Is his purpose to maintain Al Gore’s voice in our parliament? That question should be asked, too, in regard to Clive Palmer’s adoption of a homeless senator.

            40

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    More “good” news.

    But as expected the Democratic forces are coming back with the idea that it’s just more Trump collusion and when they have the numbers in the house they will reveal the real truth.

    That’s, no doubt, the Truth according to Hillary.

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    • #

      Trump wins Russia-gate!
      Thank goodness fer that.
      Temporary truce in the
      Cold War. Chapter Two:
      Truce over, War of
      Obstruction begins –
      (Sound of War drums in
      Dimmocrit Camp.) Rules
      For Radicals, Mark Two,
      Re yr target, ‘never let up.’

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  • #
    Kinky Keith

    More “good” news.

    But as expected the Democratic forces are coming back with the idea that it’s just more Trump collusion and when they have the numbers in the house they will reveal the real truth.

    That’s, no doubt, the Truth according to Hillary.

    90

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      KK,

      There you have your finger on what I fear will happen. Both the Democrats and their enablers in the media now have to find a way to save face.

      What to do? And I’ve already seen enough to fill a small encyclopedia. They could attack Mueller or it can go about like I said a thread or two back. There’s plenty to suggest collusion it’s just been better hidden than we expected but if we go on we’re bound to find it. Stay with us. And they will go on and either they lose big in next year’s election or people start to believe their line of drivel and Trump must continue fighting.

      Trump’s handling of it all has been masterful and if he remains patient the haters will eventually shoot themselves, not just in the foot but right in the head. The question boils down to who can hang on longer, Trump or the liars at CNN and MSNBC?

      My bet will be on Trump. When you have built the huge business empire Trump has and your enemy has built nothing you have a pretty good chance. But you can never predict evil.

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      • #
        ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

        Roy & Keith, you see what I see. There’s still enough money flowing to the Dummocrats from supporters in high places that saving face is a must-do mission or they’ll eventually lose everything – providing the media turn against them too. But it won’t be an easy fight either way.

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      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Roy, your previous comment on the hierarchy of computer programming was interesting.

        A relative living just west of Washington boundary works as a programmer and has mentioned that not all supervisors are fully competent.

        Still, that’s the way of the world.

        KK

        40

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          Locally. A daughter was accountant for a small (65 staff) factory part of one of Australia’s biggest businesses.She complained endlessly to me that a couple of junior managers didn’t do their work properly, increasing her workload, and the senior management wouldn’t do anything about it.

          She went on maternity leave, and the beautiful new hospital did so much damage to her that she wasn’t able to return to work. My wife had to go to Sydney for three months until she was strong enough to handle the baby on her own.

          I was thinking that if what she had been telling me was right, this show couldn’t survive without her.

          It didn’t. It closed three or four months later with substantial funds mislaid.

          In how many businesses does such a situation exist? What if, say, the tax office was run like this? I can’t see why it would be immune.

          100

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            Ted,
            a difficult and frightening personal situation overcome by family support.

            On a national level we are being led by loonies who have little appreciation for the basics of society and have a Media driven approach to governing and keeping themselves in power.

            If anything was ever going to be a turning point perhaps RussiaGate is it: time will tell.

            KK

            50

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          What’s even more stunning than the dishonesty of politicians and the MSM is the willingness of so many people to believe the nonsense they were getting every day. How can so many be fooled so easily? In most cases the people, MSM and so on who were spewing out he lies were already easy to identify as unreliable if not dishonest before Donald Trump ever thought of running for president.

          More importantly, how do we change that? It’s killing us and desperately needs changing. And it has to happen at the individual citizen level.

          I’m completely out of ideas. The more I think about it the more hopeless it looks. We’re going to crash and burn as a civilization and not enough people can see it.

          40

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            I can only hope that I’ll be wrong and the more optimistic view I see expressed here is the way things will go.

            50

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            Hi Roy,

            Our societies have moved on from 1950 when most families had a connection to reality through the backyard garden patch.

            Unfortunately today we are connected by a highly distorted media that constantly misinforms and misrepresents reality: it has no long term future and maybe Yellow Vests and RussiaGate signal a turning point.

            Only time will tell.

            Having watched no TV in my home for three years now, the little time I’ve spent in front of a TV when traveling has been frightening.

            To think that people are being subjected to such hyperventilating news and opinion presentations is disturbing. Only politicians and those who control them can benefit at the moment and Joe Average has no idea what’s going on.

            We need a better way, a way that connects people to reality rather than distorted media junk.

            KK

            60

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        My view is that this was their trump card. Your money is safe on Trump.

        The question now that I see is should Trump pusue this matter or get on with other business. I think that if it isn’t pusued it will continue to be regenerated as a bare faced lie. That’s their MO.

        70

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          I agree, for the general good of all in the future the past behaviour of the demonewocrats needs to be exposed and a new era of personal responsibility and good process reintroduced to public life.

          Then we might have a decade or so of good government before it starts all over again.

          I once mistakenly drove past that sign outside the fbi or cia home : the price of good government is eternal vigilance.

          It’s up to the public to demand honesty in politics even if it means Yellow Vests.

          KK

          60

    • #
      Greebo

      Whatever happened to the old saw that history is written by the victors? Are the Democrats/Greens/ALP/ GetUp! to steal that from us as well?

      40

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Good point.
        We really need to focus on the bought and paid for influencers you mention, they have no place in a real democracy but are apparently O.K.in modern Australia.

        Is that because we aren’t a democracy any more?

        The People have lost power when Getup, Shortening and MalEx444 can pose as legitimate candidates to lead us.

        KK

        40

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    Now Democrats are demanding all the unrelated dirt, gathered by Mueller) be publicly released – so they can smear Trump all over again.

    Just wait for these pending ‘leaks’ by ‘anonymous sources’ – it’ll make all the speculation to date look considered.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      This is why Trump should take his revenge. it isn’t revenge at all if it is punishing lawlessness.

      70

  • #
    tom0mason

    What Trump has now is a clear view of how deep and wide that swamp is, and how much more work is required to drain it.

    Trump’s done a good job so far, however as this political nonsense (of Robert Mueller’s the special counsel report shows), is the level to which the left will sink to try and oust him by any means possible.
    His ability to ‘Make America Great Again’ will be more difficult now as the Dimocrats will be attempting to block his every move from now on.
    What may also happen (for the good) is that the news media reawakens their responsibility to report facts and not to emote about hypothetical arguments. Alternatively they may just double-down on anti-Trump rhetoric and even more imaginative propaganda.

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    • #
      Peter C

      I think that Trump should now go on the offensive. That means a sweep out of the FBI and the DOJ with a new investigation of those who were trying to use the public institutions to unseat him.

      Trying to subvert the democratic process in a democratic country is Treason.
      Treason is the highest crime on the statutes.

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    • #

      Would have been different if this witchhunt closed before the November midterms.

      270

      • #
        James Murphy

        In my opinion, the investigation was never in any danger of being completed prior to the mid-terms unless there was damning evidence against the Trump camp.

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      tom0 wrote: ” the news media reawakens their responsibility”

      Not a chance! I suspect, with reputations shredded, some may wither, and new ones might show up (or some bought and repurposed). America’s CNN, ABC, CBS, & NBC won’t change anytime soon.
      “the leopard cannot change its spots” —
      No disrespect of Leopards intended.

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        ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

        tom0 wrote: ” the news media reawakens their responsibility”

        Not a chance! I suspect, with reputations shredded..

        Exactly. Their reputations have taken a beating. People now have ample evidence (“proof” is more precise) that the lamestream media’s been lying to them for 3 years about Russian collusion. I haven’t watched free-to-air TV for a number of years (too many ads and excessive BS) but even Foxtel has been infected by The Swamp. Some shows I used to watch because they were funny:

        Last Week Tonight – With British import host John Oliver.
        The Daily Show – With Trevor Noah.
        Russell Howard’s Good News – With British Russell Howard.

        At this time, Foxtel are running their shows (Howard’s are up to 2 years old right now) and everything they say is anti-Trump or anti-Brexit. They dedicate nearly half their show time trying to smear Trump or Theresa May (she’s a lame duck anyway – go for it).

        During Obummer’s presidency these shows were funny, because they dare not say anything against a black President according to PC doctrine and politics wasn’t a major player. These days Trevor Noah (allegedly black) constantly gets away with racist jokes against whites, although recently I think he was finally chided for that. John Oliver endlessly slags the White House/Trump and Russell Howard is doing the same.

        It’s easy to sell propaganda to the stupid masses when it’s funny, but it’s all so blatantly endless and they still repeat the same rehashed lies show after show. Now that Mueller’s report is out and many Leftard camps are rapidly losing credibility, hopefully the media will learn (or be held to account for treason) and these shows will be funny again. Hmm.. that could take a while.

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        ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

        UPDATE: Trevor Noah’s still trying to craft cheap laughs from blatant lies even after the Mueller fail. It’s pathetic to watch so I spent a full 15 seconds shaking my head uncomfortably. At least he’s not sooking publicly like Rachel Madcow Maddow.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Let’s face it. Trump’s only crime is that he won an election that political correctness said Hillary should have won. That’s unforgivable and the gods of PC will want their pound of flesh.

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    TdeF

    Comment of the moment

    Former FBI Chief Comey, chief promoter of the whole Russia story, the one who made a fake FISA statement to get the thing started, summed up Robert Mueller’s investigation by posting a picture of a man who appeared lost in the woods.

    “So many questions.”

    Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, replied, “Could not agree more. See you soon”

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  • #
    Bill in Oz

    Jo I have spent the past two years studiously ignoring the machinations of the various American factions to destroy their own government.

    And I will do the same here.

    After all there are limits to my interest in the USA.

    It’s another country far away with very different ways of being & thinking to Oz.

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      Personally Bill the reason I like Trump so much is what he is doing to the CAGW crowd and the lie that it is .
      Also the America first stance and the fact he is not a politician.

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    • #

      Bill, I understand, but this was an attempt at a deep state coup and against the most skeptical political leader that has achieved success anywhere, and he did in the worlds most powerful economy.

      Where the US Dems go, so will – eventually – our Big-Gov loving parties. If only because some US donor will send over some advisors.

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    • #
      RicDre

      “…It’s another country far away with very different ways of being & thinking to Oz.”

      As a Yank who lives in Northern Ohio, Oz is a half a world away from me but I am very interested in what happens there because it is a fellow democracy, I have great respect for the people who live there and because I see a glimpse of our future in what is happening in Oz now.

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        Annie

        Agree totally RicDre. The US is very important to all of us. That’s my opinion as an Pommie Aus (or Aussie Pom)….ie English origin ‘New’ Australian.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      It’s another country far away with very different ways of being & thinking to Oz.

      I would beg to differ. Oz and America have so much n common that the visible, superficial differences should be ignored. Even the different forms of government should be ignored.

      We are alike in the one thing that really matters that gives us a common problem to solve.

      In both places honesty has been replaced with dishonesty in high places. If we can’t find a way to reverse that we’re both doomed. In both our countries it will descend into dictatorship.

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    • #
      TdeF

      To quote Mark

      “Steele’s dossier was passed along to the FBI. It seems a reasonable inference, to put it as blandly as possible, that the dossier was used to justify the opening of what the Feds call an “FI” (Full Investigation), which in turn was used to justify a FISA order permitting the FBI to put Trump’s associates under surveillance. Indeed, it seems a reasonable inference that the dossier was created and supplied to friendly forces within the bureau in order to provide a pretext for an FI, without which surveillance of the Trump campaign would not be possible.”

      The FBI lied to a FISA judge so they could wire tap the Republican Presidential campaign on behalf of people in the FBI who openly hated Trump and were connected directly to Hillary Clintons campaign managers. The difference with Watergate is that the breakin was by the FBI on behalf of Hillary and based on a fake Dossier and a brazen lie to a judge that the information had been confirmed by an independent government agency.

      In Watergate, 65 people were indicated and 48 were found guilty. It will be a repeat and will reach Hillary.

      This is with or without the incredible scandal that all the top secret decrypted plain English correspondence of the Secretary of State was posted daily to Yahoo because Huma Abadin said Hillary liked to print them out when she was at home.

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  • #
    glen Michel

    The Deep State must unravel but the collossus that is MSM will continue to corrupt the line. To arms! To arms!

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    Penguinite

    And don’t let “Our ABC” off the hook! They are so biased it;s embarrassing. Even as late as tonight’s news Zoe Daniels and John something were still trying to cast aspersions.

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    philthegeek

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-25/donald-trump-russia-robert-mueller-report-five-things-we-know/10935242

    Barr’s actual letter embedded here. People, you should probably not pop the champagne corks just yet.

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    • #
      philthegeek

      So…

      “His report said there were “multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign”.”

      And no-one from the Trump campaign reported this at the time?? Odd thing for patriotic Americans to do??

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        TdeF

        This is all ABC disinformation. “The report did not conclude whether Donald Trump committed a crime”

        Yes it did.

        The investigation was to determine if Donald Trump or anyone else in his group committed a crime . He found no such evidence.

        He does not find innocence. That is presumed in our legal system.

        This is all sophistry, spin. There are no indictments. That is the end of the story for Trump, but not for Comey and the DNC and Hillary. It is just the start. Now there will be a major investigation into the investigation itself and the judge approved wire tapping of the Trump Tower and everyone in the campaign. Mueller has found that was based on a lie.

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        • #
          philthegeek

          I’d think that its best to wait until the full report is released to Congress and people who may have a different perspective to Trumps hand picked AG have a chance to look at the actual content.

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            TdeF

            There is no evidence. You cannot have a crime without evidence. Perhaps interview all the people again, ask the same questions. It’s been two years.

            Read all you like into the full report, if it is released but that would mean the summaries of interviews some 3,000 people who were subpoenaed and without allegation of a crime and some evidence to back it up, that should all remain secret. Otherwise, once again, they are breaking the 4th amendment. This investigation followed sworn allegations of a serious crime for which Mueller has found the evidence does not exist.

            Otherwise it is a witch hunt, but that’s not news. The crime now was using the 1978 FISA act to claim that foreign agents were involved, that on oath the FBI had independently confirmed evidence of this and so were given permission to wiretap the entire Republican Presidential campaign.

            What Mueller has inadvertantly found is that crimes were committed. By the FBI, possibly the Justice department and members of the DNC. It’s another Watergate, this time run by the police.

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            • #
              TdeF

              Mueller’s job was to find evidence of crimes and he had an incredibly wide brief. He indicted people for tax fraud and lyi*g but he found no crimes of the sort alleged. No one alleged he was biased or a friend of Trump. It is amazing how people will not accept his plain response. There is no evidence of the crimes alleged.

              So perhaps congress should appoint another prosecutor and ask him to start again? Or just keep reading the transcripts until he finds something. What nonsense.

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              • #

                Since Mueller found no evidence of criminal collusion it follows that Trump cannot be accused of collusion.
                Since NO CRIME was committed, an INNOCENT PERSON can not be accused of obstruction for that which did not exist.

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                Roy Hogue

                Mueller’s job was to find evidence of crimes

                And therein lies the problem. He was given no evidence of any crime so he was told to investigate the person to see what evidence he could come up with.

                We do not investigate people and neither do you in Oz. We investigate probable cause to believe there has been a crime committed. If it’s to be allowed to be the other way, we investigate people, then you or I or Jo, anyone, could suddenly find ourselves in Trump’s shoes. Can you withstand that? I certainly can’t. I don’t know what legal safeguard that wold break in Australia but here it flushes he Constitution right down the drain because the Constitution demands probable cause. A good lawyer could explain it better but that’s what was wrong with the Mueller probe witch hunt..

                That’s the ultimate in dishonesty in high places, that a witch hunt was allowed to begin.

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              • #
                Roy Hogue

                And in spite of Willis’ plea, they will not do the honest thing and give it up.

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                Roy Hogue

                So perhaps congress should appoint another prosecutor…

                God forbid. The appointment of someone with such broad powers as to be able to investigate where there isn’t even probable cause is anathema to the Constitution. We need to get rid of even the most remote possibility that a special prosecutor can happen again.

                Where was there the slightest evidence that would stand up under scrutiny by a judge. Trump, like many corporations did business in Russia. Why would his acquaintance with Russians be suspicious? And ask yourself this. If you’e about to become president why would you not want to talk with Russia, one of our largest neighbors on this planet? I think I would.

                Even the company I worked for bought specialized software from a small Russian company. Where’s my special prosecutor? I’m as guilty looking as Trump

                At face value there was nothing that could be legitimately investigated by the Justice Department. But it happened anyway.

                The House of Representatives may go on and look into every aspect of Trump’s whole life. They have that power but just because they have the power doesn’t mean it’s good idea to use it. But they surely will, they won’t be able to resist the temptation.

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            Sceptical Sam

            The full report will never be released without a court order.

            Why is it that lefties like Philthegeek just don’t understand how the Rule of Law works?

            And, that’s not a rhetorical question.

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            Yes Phil, I’m sure Muller would have held on secretly to the actual evidence of actual crime and it will “be found” next week buried deep in the documents.

            It’s a witchhunt Phil. They trawled for any damn thing they could find.

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            el gordo

            Phil it was a trumped-up charge and now MSM credibility is badly tarnished, Fairfax, ABC and Guardian are just scum.

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            MudCrab

            I think you should wait until the head of the Left stop exploding and then start talking about unicorns.

            There are only three types of people here:

            – People who accept the report
            – People who are currently making fools of themselves
            and
            – People who are going to double down on the Fool and be forever branded.

            Personally I find your continued deluded hope to be most amusing. Armeeabteilung Steiner is not coming to save you. You can accept that fact and move on, or keep fighting the last war while everyone else – including your opponents – are busy winning the next one.

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            • #
              AndyG55

              Poor phoolp is still fighting wars with himself.. and LOSING !!

              That’s what happens when you live your life based on delusional fantasies and a totally blindness to reality.

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            philthegeek

            Its interesting the thought processes on display in terms of the intolerance of the RW to challenge.

            Mueller has come out and Barr has published. Now, if this was anything to do with science people would be ranting that they want the evidence, the actual report, not a partisan precis of it. But not when its to do with Trump. Uncritical acceptance of the word of authority. Go for it guys. 🙂

            And, the whole, we have had a “win”….of sorts…..sort of……. now all you lefties lot just give up and go away and STFU……

            Thats a well established pattern from the RW that shows their lack of depth, resilience and arguably desperation to shut down other voices.

            Be interesting to see where this goes and whether the Americans can actually out do the Brits in terms of self harm??

            Glad to live in Oz where even though we doo have our loons, and a nasty RW element that makes its living of stoking the outrage of their useful idiots, things are generally much more centrist and reasonable. 🙂

            Now, can we discus the conspiracy against one nation and how the evil forces of the left deep state forced them to say all those things about NRA funding ?????? 🙂

            ]nicely done Mr. Geek! Virtually every correct ploy of the Left propaganda machine exposed and with a smiley face at every twist![ DE

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            • #
              el gordo

              ‘…and arguably desperation to shut down other voices.’

              The ABC doesn’t allow climate change contrarians a voice and in a political sense its patently obvious that extreme polarisation is becoming the norm.

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              Serp

              GetUp funding inquiry should take precedence though as it antedates by a decade any perceived misbehaviour from PHON.

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            • #
              philthegeek

              Virtually every correct ploy of the Left propaganda machine exposed and with a smiley face at every twist!

              Now there is a surprising response. 🙂 Not. 🙁

              Still click bait for the triggered will be appreciated by the site owner no doubt.

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              • #
                AndyG55

                And YOU just got TRIGGERED, yet again, poor little phoolp. !!

                There WASN’T any evidence against Trump.

                Why is it you are SO DUMB when it comes to basic comprehension !!

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              AndyG55

              What is wrong with funding from the NRA funding?

              Labor and the Greens get HUGE amounts of funding from union THUGS and from the global socialist agenda machine.

              “things are generally much more centrist and reasonable.”

              You are now talking about Trump, Abbott, Hanson etc.. People who actually want the BEST for their countries, and are as you describe, centrist and reasonable.

              It is the hard-left globalist/socialists of Labor/Greens that fools like your worship, that is harming, denigrating and destroying society.

              They are the ones bringing hatred and spite with them where ever they go,
              (you and pfutz are great examples, your ONLY purpose here is to bring your hatred and spite)

              You/they are the true EVIL of the world.

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                el gordo

                That is a bit harsh, Phil is just a foot soldier.

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              • #
                philthegeek

                No probs eg. Just sitting back and letting AngryG do his projection thing.. Its just so cute when triggered to a froth. 🙂

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              • #
                AndyG55

                “Phil is just a foot soldier.”

                Constantly tasked with cleaning his own latrine.

                You should see the scummy froth-ridden rant of his a couple of posts up. 🙂

                Can only be put down to deep mental injury and derangement and being permanently in a state of addled delusion and displacement from reality.

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      • #
        gnome

        If it occurred within the US it was perfectly legal under the protection of the First Amendment. Nothing to report.

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  • #
    pat

    TWEET: George Papadopolous:
    Get ready to see what I have been telling the world about Alexander Downer being used as a weaponized asset against me
    LINK TWEET Paul Sperry:
    BREAKING:Rep. Devin Nunes says House Intel has evidence Clinton operatives & hi-level FBI & DOJ officials started Trump-Russia investigation in “late 2015/early 2016” &that House GOP will be making criminal referrals to AG Barr for officials who “perpetuated this hoax” for 3+ yrs
    24 Mar 2019
    1,400 replies
    https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1109939459397693441

    TWEET: George Papadopolous:
    The person who introduced me to western intelligence asset, Joseph Mifsud, also introduced Alison Saunders (the UKs top prosecutor) to Bruce Ohr 4 days before the Trump tower meeting. I expose this person in my book. U.K. is the epicenter of the coup attempt of last 2 years.
    24 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1109744380292681728

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    pat

    TWEET: Paul Sperry (responding to Adam Schiff tweet)
    Apparently you didn’t read page 3, which states that Rosenstein and DOJ officials had “engaged in discussions” with the Special Counsel’s office regarding obstruction question “over the course of the investigation.” So your rash 48-hour decision argument looks to be a red herring

    TWEET: Adam Schiff:
    Mueller spent two years investigating obstruction of justice and found evidence that “does not exonerate” Trump. Barr took two days to set aside that evidence…(The entire report must be published and evidence provided to Congress so the American people can judge for themselves)
    24 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1110048919055147008

    it’s impossible not to notice Dems & FakeNewsMSM have been singing from the exact same song-sheet today.
    reminder:

    22 Mar: RealClearPolitics: Dossier-Tied Firm Pitches Reporters Daily on ‘Collusion’
    By Paul Sperry
    The operation’s nerve center is a Washington-based nonprofit called The Democracy Integrity Project, or TDIP. Among other activities, it pumps out daily “research” briefings to prominent Washington journalists, as well as congressional staffers, to keep the Russia “collusion” narrative alive…
    TDIP is led by ***Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI investigator, Clinton administration volunteer and top staffer to California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It employs the key opposition-research figures behind the salacious and unverified dossier: Fusion GPS co-founder ***Glenn Simpson and ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Its financial backers include the actor/director Rob Reiner and billionaire activist George Soros…

    Recipients of the TDIP reports include staffers at the New York Times and Washington Post and investigative reporters at BuzzFeed, ProPublica and McClatchy, as well as news producers at CNN and MSNBC, according to a source familiar with the project’s email distribution list. Democratic aides on Capitol Hill also subscribe to the newsletter…

    A New York-based nonprofit linked to the family of billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer has donated $2.1 million to TDIP, according to the Daily Caller. Steyer, who has hired Fusion GPS to conduct investigations in the past, has also demanded Trump’s ouster over Russia.
    Soros and the Steyer-tied benefactor accounted for roughly a third of TDIP’s total 2017 revenues…
    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/22/trump-russia_20_dossier-tied_firm_pitching_journalists_daily_on_collusion_139825.html

    Sperry tweeted today:

    TWEET: Paul Sperry:
    BREAKING: Flustered by Mueller findings, Dan Jones & Glenn Simpson broke trend & e-blasted special Sunday edition of their TDIP Briefing to media elite,noting Mueller “reached no conclusions” regarding obstruction & quoting Pelosi/Schumer:”Report does not exonerate the president”
    24 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1110043379453358080

    Sperry also responded to Jennifer Rubin (WaPo/MSNBC) tweet:
    To be clear: Mueller found evidence of obstruction. Now we need to hear what it was. Barr throwing in his two cents is inappropriate in the extreme.

    SPERRY’S RESPONSE: Keep drinking that Kool-Aid
    https://twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1110046681209421829

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  • #
    TdeF

    American Constitution
    4th Amendment – Protection from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

    “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”

    A Federal FISA judge in secret on application by the FBI ordered the wire tapping of the Republican offices during the Presidential campaign. Mueller has found there was no evidence to justify this. Worse, the FBI swore that the information had been corroborated by an independent government agency. They lied. All this organized and paid for by the Democratic National Convention and friends of the Clintons.

    It could not be a more serious indictment of the FBI and their Democrat friends and fellow Trump haters.

    Now the roof will collapse. There will be indictments.

    “FISA – The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court) is a U.S. federal court established and authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law “

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Now, I wonder if Alexander Downer’s name might just happen to appear in these applications.

      That would put a different aspect on his cocktail party.

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          Sceptical Sam

          As I’ve said, Downer is in it up to his fat neck:

          The Wall Street Journal, quoting a diplomatic source, reported Downer passed Papadopoulos’ Russia information directly to the US embassy in London.

          Good find el gordo. I hadn’t seen that previously.

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        • #
          Serp

          Can’t wait for Georgina to make it into parliament and put on display the fourth generation skillset of the Downer Australian parliamentary dynasty — “clean hands” is long gone from the Downer vocabulary.

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          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Serp:
            You will be waiting a long time. Living in the electorate and far from left wing** I haven’t heard anybody saying they would vote for her. Sure she will get some votes but don’t bet on her winning.

            **Actually I consider myself Centre Right but that is a long way from the Left Wing these days.

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          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            I have nothing against the Downers as a family or Georgina as a person and potential MP in the Federal Parliament. However it’s a pity that they’re so “wet”.

            I do have an issue with an Australian diplomat playing partisan party politics, arranging Australian taxpayers’ money to be contributed to the private Trust Fund of a disreputable USA politician on the socialist left, and being party to the undermining of a legitimately elected leader of the free world. He should have shown much more perspicacity.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      FISA – The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court) is a U.S. federal court established and authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies inside the United States by federal law

      …and to do it secretly. How that squares with the constitution I will never be able to figure out. A secret court can be subverted easily to do the will of some scoundrel and it was subverted. And it’s accountable to no one because it’s very existence is secret.

      Among all he things my government has done the thing that angers me the most is that it established a secret court, a court that I was never to be allowed to even know about and it became public knowledge only because it was spoken about publicly and I don’t even know who to thank for that.

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  • #
    pat

    unfortunately, this is behind paywall. this narrative should be leading all news today:

    24 Mar: WSJ: Mueller Is Done. Now Probe the Real Scandal
    Americans deserve a full accounting of the missteps of Comey and the FBI.
    by Kimberley A. Strassel
    Attorney General William Barr has reported to Congress that special counsel Robert Mueller has cleared President Trump and his campaign team of claims of conspiring with Russia during the 2016 election. This is more than an exoneration. It’s a searing indictment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as a reminder of the need to know the story behind the bureau’s corrosive investigation…
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-is-done-now-probe-the-real-scandal-11553468801

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    • #
      TdeF

      It’s far worse than that. The FBI wire tapped Trump’s campaign, his offices, his family, his friends, his home. All based on sworn statements by the FBI to a judge of independently corroborated evidence of foreign spies involved in the US Presidential campaign.

      Even the judge involved in authorizing the wire taps can and probably will act now, clearly compromised by proven FBI perjury to break the 4th Amendment. I would not be surprised if the judge moved quickly to arraign the people who gave sworn evidence to his court and remove the slur on his reputation. This will not stand.

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      • #
        TdeF

        In effect Mueller found that the Steele dossier, put together as paid (and tax deducted) work by the DNC, Fusion GPS and Steele other outspoken enemies enemies of Donald Trump, is discredited. The suggestion of blackmail is discredited. No evidence of collusion to corrupt the election process was found. That means Comey, Strzok and lover, Steele and a cast of hundreds will not sleep well tonight. Even Loretta Lynch may be checking out places without extradition treaties with the US.

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        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Even Loretta Lynch may be checking out places without extradition treaties with the US.

          What a Downer for her.

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    TdeF

    On a related point, the continuing WMD meme is wrong. When the US soldiers entered Baghdad, they had on full chemical suits in 56C tempratures. The story was that the tankers of WMD chemicals had left for Syria and Assad. They had.

    Two years ago Assad handed over 3,000 tons of Sarin gas, 30x more deadly than Cyanide! It was developed by the Germans in WWII and manfuactured by Hussein in Iraq. This gas has been quietly destroyed in special factory ships with very high temperature incinerators in the Meditteranean, breaking the gas into harmless elements. This has all been done quietly, to not alarm the entire region.

    However we still have to endure this idea that the WMD did not exist. No, they had fled.

    Even now there is the fear that Assad has kept some. That is why the huge American overreaction with many cruise missiles on a single reinforced concrete hanger at the air base. They even told the Syrians they were going to do it and to move their aircraft away. The idea was to create a massive temperature and incinerate, not distribute the deadly Sarin gas.

    Of course no one in the press understands why they did this. According to them the WMDs did not exist.

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      TdeF

      Of course that in turn is because Republicans like Bush and Trump are intrinsically evil and cannot be trusted, where Democrats Clinton and Obama are inherently truthful and near saints.

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      TdeF

      For those interested, the Trump launched 59 cruise missiles at an airforce base. No one asked why. A few planes were damaged. The airport remained fully functional.

      Among the targets were “hardened aircraft shelters”. Why? The Wikipedia entry says “The US avoided striking a suspected sarin gas storage facility at the targeted airport.” This is disinformation. Everyone knew. The Russians say they did not know where 36 of the missiles struck. The US had followed the earlier bombing raid which dropped Sarin gas. They saw where it was stored. I believe 37 of the missiles hit the one spot, with great accuracy and timing. Or everything we see in the spy movies is untrue.

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  • #
    pat

    Steve Hilton has guests Sara Carter and Gregg Jarrett throughout the program. lots of good stuff.
    in his opening, he clearly defines why there’s “no obstruction”:

    AUDIO: 41min03sec: The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton on Fox News 3/24/19
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6fQ8zOPzaE

    this DiGenova recommendation, on a Fox News program, has been mentioned online all day, yet I still can’t find a video clip or a Fox article documenting it:

    TWEET: LawyerforLaws:
    #BREAKING Joe diGenova says . . Clapper, Brennan, Comey and others should hire an attorney.
    He believes AG Barr is going to impanel a Grand Jury to look into the FISA Abuse!
    24 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/lawyer4laws/status/1109993145348046849

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    • #
      TdeF

      As I wrote above, this may not be needed. The judge who approved the wire tap under the FISA act may move quickly and independently. In fact he would be obliged to do so.

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        TdeF

        The US like all other democracies has the principle of separation of powers, between the Congress and the Judiciary and in the American case, the Executive branch. The Congress can require the appointment of Meuller, but he reports to the Attorney General, not to Congress. The Attorney General reports to Congress. Judges and the Attorney General cannot be told what to decide by politicians. Otherwise there are no checks and balances and you have dictatorship.

        This demand for Mueller or the Attorney General to reveal their now unjustified criminal investigation to the public would be a massive invasion of the privacy of thousands of people when the Attorney General has already been told there is no evidence of the alleged crimes. Surely no one in two years has suggested prosecutor Mueller is a friend of the Republicans and Trump.

        Still the media think they are the final judges, that popular opinion should decide and basically the mob will rule. We can only be grateful that Hollywood is not running the joint, even though they think they are. You really think Streisand and Cher and Carrey would stop lecturing the world on right and wrong. And Kathy Griffin and Rosie O’Donnell and Chelsea Handler. As comediennes they are very unfunny.

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    pat

    timely reminder:

    23 July 2018: Investors Business Daily: Editorial: Did Obama, Brennan And Clinton Illegally Collude To Take Trump Down?
    Not only did President Obama know about the investigation, he seems to have pushed it from the very beginning.
    But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, the nation’s former spy master, James Clapper, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper:
    “If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of event which are still unfolding today, including Special Counsel (Robert) Mueller’s investigation. President Obama is responsible for that. It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place.”

    Why didn’t this get more attention in the media? Obama and Brennan not only knew the dubious nature of the allegations against Trump, but pushed them anyway.

    As Kimberley Strassel wrote in the Wall Street Journal, Brennan in particular has revealed himself to be a total anti-Trump partisan to an extent that’s shocking for a public official. His animus is raw and deep, as his actions suggest.
    “The record shows (Brennan) went on to use his position — as head of the most powerful spy agency in the world — to assist Hillary Clinton’s campaign (and keep his job),” Kimberley Strassel wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal…

    What’s stunning is the casual way Clapper let us know that President Obama “was responsible” for the whole shebang.
    If that’s so, there are really only two possibilities:

    One, that a gullible Obama was fed phony information from Brennan and the Hillary Clinton campaign. He then over-reacted by tasking the intelligence community to look into it.
    Or, two, that Obama knew he was dealing with tainted information. Instead of halting a bogus investigation, he let Brennan carry it forward. Why? He thought it would help elect Hillary Clinton — and cement his own presidential legacy for posterity…

    Such collusion, if only in the political sphere, wouldn’t be a crime. However, using federal assets and personnel and misrepresenting what you’re doing to a FISA court to influence an election are crimes. Felonies, in fact…

    But instead of investigating Trump, shouldn’t we investigate those who subverted our democracy for rank partisan purposes to influence a presidential election? That’s Obama, Brennan and Clinton…READ ON
    https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/russia-trump-collusion-investigation/

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      Serp

      Hillary was supposed to win in a cake walk so what was the point of spying on the loser Trump? Stupid is as stupid does apparently…

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    pat

    25 Mar: American Spectator: What Did Obama Know and When Did He Know It?
    Time for transparency: Mueller effectively indicts the Obama Justice Department and FBI.
    by Jeffrey Lord
    Here is the link to the Mueller Report as provided by Attorney General William Barr…
    What is not said here? There is no word about the role of then-President Obama and/or anyone in the Obama administration when it comes to the question of directing this entire effort to sabotage first the Trump campaign and then, when that failed, the Trump presidency itself.

    Who, exactly, did Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and the entire list of Justice Department, CIA, and FBI officials work for, anyway? They worked for President Barack Obama. As did his first Secretary of State and presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton.

    As has been repeatedly uncovered by ace reporters Sara Carter of Fox, the Hill’s John Solomon, Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, and the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel, something was deeply, seriously amiss in ObamaLand…

    When will Attorney General Barr appoint a special prosecutor to do some serious transparency — to look into the role of President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and all of his FBI minions?…
    https://spectator.org/what-did-obama-know-and-when-did-he-know-it/

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    pat

    24 Mar: NY Post: Michael Goodwin: We should all be celebrating the collapse of Hillary’s big lie
    Stick a fork in impeachment. It’s dead.
    Victory doesn’t get any sweeter for the winners. Or more important for our country.
    The results of the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller are a tremendous vindication for President Trump and the many millions of Americans who never doubted his innocence. The findings prove, once and for all time, that he won the 2016 election fair and square.

    Let me repeat the point: It is now a fact beyond any doubt whatsoever that Donald Trump is the legitimate 45th president of the United States.
    “Hail to the Chief,” this time with feeling…

    We now know that Hillary Clinton and her supporters misled the country in claiming that the White House was stolen from her. She started the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and her claims, aided by the Obama White House and magnified by a thoroughly partisan media, set in motion a wild-goose chase.
    The chase undermined a duly elected president and cost taxpayers more than $30 million for an investigation that proved the accusations were flat-out false…

    Yet as I wrote Sunday, the end of Mueller must not mean the end of investigating what happened in 2016. It was, after all, the Clinton-financed Russian dossier that formed the basis of the FBI investigation launched by the disgraced James Comey that summer.
    How did that happen? How did a partisan dirty trick result in an FBI probe of the other party’s presidential candidate?
    And how did so much classified information leak, including the names of Trump associates picked up incidentally on wiretaps? Who in the Obama White House broke the law?

    These and other questions deserve at least as much scrutiny as Clinton’s false claims. As Trump said Sunday, “This was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully, somebody’s going to be looking at the other side.”
    Amen to that.
    https://nypost.com/2019/03/24/we-should-all-be-celebrating-the-collapse-of-hillarys-big-lie/

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    Jim

    I am one who was an investigator. First rule, never write a conclusion. I could not say, ” he is guilty” , I could say what the investigation pointed to, I could say what they did, and how, but not guilt. That’s for the court to decide. I could say, they bought the gas, lit the match, and burned the shed down, but I could not say it was arson. Or for profit, that’s for the courts. A special investigation would say the same, we found all these facts, a defense attorney, says not guilty, but, isn’t he supposed to say, not guilty?

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    TdeF

    The other thing you do not want in a democratic society is a partisan police force which does the bidding of the politicians.

    This is less clear than the judiciary but fundamentally the police enforce the laws but judgement is left to the judiciary. For the FBI to act in so outrageously partisan a way as to illegally phone tap the Republican party headquarters and many members of the party and a potential candidate and his family even at home is the sort of thing you would expect of a communist state. They deceived the court to bypass the law.

    We will now see the response of a democratic society to such outrageous and illegal partisan police action. Brennan, Comey and many others will no longer be anyone’s heroes on book tours. Overall the lack of any evidence for prosecution has enormous implications for many people behind the whole affair. The Justice Department order to the FBI to not prosecute the business of Hillary’s emails is going to be another big issue, especially after the clandestine meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton.

    Trump hasn’t won. He didn’t have a case to answer. Justice has won.

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      TdeF

      You can only hope it is the beginning of the end for mob rule. As with all the Green laws and the incredibly destructive Green New Deal. That anyone could support such obviously massive self harm tells you above their motives.

      We have the same elements in Australia, people who want mob rule, supported in Australia by massively publicly funded media without rules or checks and balances. The jailing of Cardinal Pell without any evidence at all. A mob verdict. Pink Batts, Windmills, solar panels, massive theft from electricity bills and the blowing up of fully functional power stations are just parts of the malaise. Richard di Natale performance on Andrew Bolt’s program was just frightening for a major political leader. There is no longer any pretense of niceness. Nothing less than mob rule will do.

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        Serp

        Di Natale looks the part of Lucifer and speaks unrelieved blatant untruth in seeming confirmation of the validity of the Physiognomy pseudo-science; his continuing existence sternly tests my live and let live outlook.

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    pat

    24 Mar: Washington Examiner: No Collusion: 10 anonymously sourced Trump-Russia bombshells that look like busts
    by Jerry Dunleavy
    Over the course of the years-long Mueller investigation, some of the media’s biggest stories resulted in retractions, apologies, and even departures. Some reports, many of which relied on unnamed sources and remain uncorroborated, have never been retracted or corrected. One such story was even refuted by the Special Counsel’s Office in a rare public rebuke…

    Despite all of this investigative work, Mueller never charged anyone in relation to these 10 bombshell reports…READ ON
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/no-collusion-10-anonymously-sourced-trump-russia-bombshells-that-look-like-busts

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    pat

    meanwhile, as President Trump celebrates a victory, and as he puts together a panel to investigate the science of CAGW, we have the usual traitorous RINOS pulling another stunt!

    24 Mar: The Hill: Romney helps GOP look for new path on climate change
    By Alexander Bolton
    Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who is emerging as a pragmatic leader among Senate Republicans, is at the center of private discussions among GOP senators about crafting a legislative response to climate change…
    Amid that backdrop, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), who represents coal-rich Kentucky, is at the forefront of efforts to roll back federal regulations on coal-powered energy, making him a close ally of President Trump on that issue.

    But a group of Republicans — Romney and Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), who worked with Democrats in 2009 and 2010 to cap carbon emissions, as well as others — have taken it upon themselves to come up with market-based approaches to addressing climate change…

    “There’s no question that we’re experiencing climate change and that humans are a significant contributor to that,” Romney told The Hill. “In my view, the course forward is going to require innovation and technology breakthrough because nothing I’ve seen is going to reverse the warming trend other than that.”…
    “I’ve talked to Romney. The Green New Deal is kind of a ridiculous proposal, but denying the problem is equally as bad,” Graham said…

    “Romney had the best line of anybody: ‘We better hope it’s man-made, because if it’s not we’re in trouble,’” Graham said. “That would be my approach, for the party to acknowledge that climate change is a problem.”
    Asked how many of his Republican colleagues agree with his approach, Graham said, “a lot of people, I think [are] in this camp.”
    “I think man is contributing significantly enough that we should do something about it,” he said…
    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/435328-romney-helps-gop-look-for-new-path-on-climate-change

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      Dave in the States

      It may be a good thing that Romney lost in 2012. If he had won then we would probably still have him instead of Trump. We would still be in Paris or worse.

      We have got to have better and clearer thinkers than: “There’s no question that we’re experiencing climate change and that humans are a significant contributor to that,” We would not have someone listening to a competent scientist like Will Happer, but someone who takes their cues from the fake news media.

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      Serp

      It seems there’s always going to be plenty of money for top priority funding of the climate scam; well, you’ve gotta spend it to make it.

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  • #
    Dave in the States

    Many people have trouble believing that something widely held as a matters of fact and part of the popular narrative for so long could turn out to be total BS. Yet it is.

    We saw this before. Think back to Nov. 2009. The incompetent scientists and their sycophants were not held to account. Therefore, they continued on like nothing had happened and swept it all under the rug, even doubled down. Now the BS memes they created are threatening the very fabric of civil society and freedom itself. Threatening to turn back the clock to a new dark age. Indeed:

    A perfectly good civilization is going to waste…

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    hunter

    In the darkest days of McCarthyism even Joe McCarthy had more class and respect than does the mob attacking President Trump.

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    • #
      RicDre

      “…even Joe McCarthy had more class and respect than does the mob attacking President Trump.”

      And though he was a very imperfect person, Joe McCarthy was mostly right (See “Blacklisted by History” by M. Stanton Evans for a good accounting of his successes and failures).

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  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    Two points:
    1. I haven’t paid attention to America’s MSM for about 20 years.
    2. “ …two years of hate …
    The hate existed. There has been a focus, Trump, for two years.
    Where will all that hate be next directed?
    Well, okay, the Dems are going to continue to investigate, but non-US media may be looking in other directions.
    Perhaps, toward those individuals that have used the web, and their brains, to undercut the vision of catastrophic warming and 1 World government.
    Let me think a minute about who that might include.

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    Ruairi

    His election they said could not stand,
    Judged by Dems. as unfit to command,
    With an M.S.M. mob,
    To drive him from his job,
    Which for two years Trump had to withstand.

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  • #
    TdeF

    The President of the United States is not a criminal. How very disappointing for so many people in the media, in Hollywood and a lot of people cheering for his impeachment and imprisonment. They are really upset. Maxine Waters says it’s not over. They know Trump is not guilty of any crime and somehow this is devastating? They know the election was not stolen. They had no problem with illegal wire tapping, criminal FBI behaviour, criminal involvement of the Democratic party all the way to Hillary Clinton. None of that matters. They want Donald Trump removed at any cost. Is there anything they haven’t called him, even against all logic and evidence? Mysogynist, racist, sexist, anti semitic, criminal, traitor, pawn of the Russians? What if none of it is true?

    What does this say about these people? They are past sore losers. That is glorification of people who do not believe in Democracy or in the rights of anyone but themselves, the elites of Hollywood, Washington, big business, the media. Even people who did not like Donald Trump at all are starting to realise he is a good President, the best in many years, a real boon for the unemployed, the minorities, Latinos, Blacks, jobs and quality of life and he is not the problem. He appears to be the solution.

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      When will the sanctions against Russia be removed? After all they were part of this fake news story

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      • #
        el gordo

        They have in place 60 sanctions against Russia, on a whole range of issues. Meddling in U.S. elections and hacking U.S. entities is ongoing.

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        TdeF

        No they weren’t. They are about Ukraine and the ongoing terrible civil war in the Donbass and the annexation of the Crimea and the prospect of annexation of the Donbass region. It was never about allegations of interference with the US elections let alone at a government approved level.

        Besides you hardly had to be a genius Russian hacker to get Hillary’s emails. Everyone had them. They were even on Weiner’s laptop in plain English when he was arrested on s*x charges and he was never part of the State Department. If someone was to be on trial over interference with the US 2016 elections it is the Democratic party and Google and Facebook who would be in the dock. Ballot stuffing was found in Michigan. By the Democrats.

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          That would be a ‘no’ then

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          • #
            el gordo

            There has been much mockery by the green left of our obsession with the deep state, just more paranoid delusions from the centre right.

            A state within a state, a covert network pursuing their own agenda to regain power.

            ‘It can operate in opposition to the agenda of elected officials, by obstructing, resisting, and subverting their policies, conditions and directives. It can also take the form of Government-owned corporations or private companies that act independently of regulatory or governmental control.’

            wiki

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  • #
    graham dunton

    Our national broadcaster the ABC report
    This is our National broadcaster the ABC, reporting on.. what a disgrace.
    ABC News examines the findings and fallout from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

    https://iview.abc.net.au/show/trump-russia-the-mueller-investigation/series/0/video/NN1928H001S00

    Judicial Watch Statement on Mueller Report
    Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement in response to the Muller special counsel report summary made public by Attorney General Barr today…

    Link active

    READ MORE

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    PeterS

    What is interesting is it proves the Democrats are insane and certainly not fit to govern the US. Yet we have the ALP+Greens here in Australia who are far worse in many respects yet we are facing the possibility of them running our country very soon. Makes me wonder if most Australians even have a brain any more.

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    • #
      Dean_from_Ohio

      They are not insane; they are evil. They are not mentally ill; they are morally ill. Their depravity has so fouled their consciences that their every impulse is to multiply evil in every way possible, to ease their violated consciences and get drunk of wickedness even as their ship sinks from under them.

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  • #

    The Mueller Report, and the background shows the mentality of the so-called Progressives. Just as all people who agree with them have similar values and think along the same lines, so must all who oppose them have similar values and think along the same lines. The Democrats neither like Donald Trump or the Russians. Therefore it is any easy step that they must be colluding with each other. They forget the differences. This biggest is on energy. Russia produces similar amounts of oil, gas and coal to the USA. However, its economy is much smaller ($1.6trn v $20.5trn last year estimated by the IMF) and Russia exports more. Russia’s economic interests along with financing military might, are in constraining fossil fuel production. The expansion of shale gas and shale oil is undermining Russia’s dominance of gas in Europe and world oil prices. Putin would have supported the Democrats, but there was no need as
    (a) Democrats are quite willing to restrict fossil fuels without any prompting and
    (b) Democrats spent twice the amount as the Republicans on their campaign.
    Since coming to power, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and authorised a major oil pipeline that Obama had blocked.

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      Dean_from_Ohio

      Not exactly. Yes, Progressives are wicked fools, but they have learned only too well from the Satan worshipper Saul Alinsky. They accuse their opponents of the very thing they themselves are doing. Hillary Clinton is a traitor who accepted 175 million USD from the Russians “for their “charitable foundation” and sold 20% of the U.S. uranium to Russia. She is controlled by demons and will stop at nothing to seize and keep power. Only the prayers of God’s people, and God’s mercy, kept her demonic claws from latching onto the jugular vein of the United States.

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    Travis T. Jones

    “More reputable organisations such as CNN and the Associated Press committed one howler, reporting a suspect had been arrested when that was not true – prompting a swift, terse rebuke from authorities.”

    – Waleed Aly

    https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/bomb-response-refreshingly-honest-20130418-2i2tn.html

    “More reputable organisations such as CNN … ” I lol’d.

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    JCalvertN(UK)

    And here was I thinking that “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” was an Over-the-top send-up, when actually it was a documentary!

    50

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    Sure took a long time to find him innocent (apologies to late Harper Lee)

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    • #
      bullocky

      Lindy Chamberlain too!

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    • #
      RicDre

      “Sure took a long time to find him innocent”

      As TdeF points out above, he is presumed innocent. He can only be found guilt by a jury, not the prosecutor.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        He has ALWAYS been innocent of these fabricated charges.

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        • #
          Gee aye

          only Teena McQueen could come up with a worse sentence than that.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          Truth hurt you did it, little geegee.

          The charges were FABRICATED. Trump has always been innocent.

          Why are you in such deep DENIAL??

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          • #
            Gee aye

            “Always been innocent” is illiterate. “Innocent of fabricated charges” is illiterate.

            There were no charges except for obstructing justice.

            It looks like, at the moment, 8 people didn’t read what you wrote but liked your allcaps and 3 people read it.

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            • #
              Gee aye

              I forgot to add that “innocent of these fabricated charges”, is not just illiterate but has an implication that there are other fabricated charges that he is guilty of.

              you need an editor. No, you need a whole editorial panel.

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            • #
              Mark D.

              You must be a moron. “Illiterate” as you have accused is impossible since he has used written words.

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Why would anybody expect a green/socialist/lefty like Fitz to understand that.

        To the left anybody right of centre is guilty of whatever they accuse them of.

        The Rule of Law means nothing to them.

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      PeterFitzroy

      No one got the reference “To kill a Mockingbird “ after their jury hands down the verdict

      27

      • #
        AndyG55

        Was just a pointless and totally irrelevant reference.

        Quite a quick investigation, actually

        And guess what…

        NO EVIDENCE was found of any Trump wrong-doing.

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    Reed Coray

    Independent of whether or not Hillary ends up faces criminal charges, the Mueller report makes her the biggest loser. I believe Hillary’s absence from the bevy of democrats (socialists) vying for the 2020 presidential nomination is a deliberate strategy. After the democrat nominees trash each other into oblivion, Hillary’s plan was to rise from the ashes and claim that no other democrat has a chance of beating Trump in 2020; and if Trump had not colluded with the Russians, she would have easily defeated Trump in 2016. If I’m right and that was her strategy, Mueller’s report blew it to smithereens. Way to go, Mueller!

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    pat

    theirABC’s 7.30 Report coverage!!!

    25 Mar: ABC 7.30 Report: Summary of the Mueller report revealed
    To discuss the report we’re joined by Richard Painter, who was the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House
    TRANCRIPT:
    LEIGH SALES:… On obstruction of justice, it did not draw a conclusion one way or the other, and Special Counsel Mueller cautioned that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime” it also does not exonerate him…
    RICHARD PAINTER, FMR WHITE HOUSE ETHICS LAWYER:…According to that summary, Robert Mueller concluded that he did not have enough evidence to prosecute anybody in the Trump campaign for criminal conspiracy with the Russians in connection with the Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    That doesn’t mean there was no collusion. There was obviously collusion – there was a meeting in the Trump Tower between a Russian agent and Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr, but not all collusion is criminal and not all criminal collusion can be demonstrated, proven beyond a reasonable doubt and Robert Mueller reached the conclusion that criminal charges should not be brought against anyone in the Trump campaign for criminal collusion with the Russians.

    And Robert Mueller was unable to reach a conclusion as to whether the President of the United States engaged in criminal obstruction of justice.
    That’s a matter, however, that really would have been a moot point because the Department of Justice has already taken the position that the President of the United States cannot be criminally charged, rather he has to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate first.
    I want to emphasise how critically important it is that we get the entire report, the entire report…

    Republicans and Democrats have called for the release of the entire Mueller report…
    Attorney-General William Barr, himself, has a conflict of interest because he himself actually worked on this matter when he was a private lawyer, writing memos for various defence lawyers, explaining why, for example, there was no obstruction of justice.
    So I don’t know why William Barr is even participating in this matter. He should recuse…

    We have the right to see Robert Mueller’s entire report not just a summary of a few pages prepared by an Attorney-General with a conflict of interest.

    LEIGH SALES: How would you describe the President’s claim that this is a complete exoneration?

    RICHARD PAINTER: The Mueller report specifically says that while the Special Counsel did not find that the President of the United States committed a crime, the Special Counsel is not exonerating the President either.
    It’s very, very explicitly stated in the report that there is no exoneration of the President from criminal conduct in the Mueller report…

    The question of collusion with the Russians, even if it wasn’t criminal collusion with the Russians, is a matter of utmost importance for national security and should be looked at by the House and Senate intelligence committees…
    https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/summary-of-the-mueller-report-revealed/10938084

    Wikipedia: Richard Painter: He is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. Painter has been affiliated with the Campaign Legal Center, a left-leaning group that is a frequent critic of the Trump administration. Throughout 2017, he was involved in the CREW lawsuit against Trump, CREW v. Trump…
    A longtime Republican and self-described “centrist”, in 2018 Painter ran (as a Democrat) for the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party nomination for U.S. Senate, challenging recently appointed Senator Tina Smith. Smith defeated Painter in the primary by a wide margin…
    Clean Energy
    Painter has said, “Donald Trump’s promise to bring coal mining back to the U.S. is disingenuous. We need to move forward and expand the creation of clean jobs across the state.” He supports creating these jobs by expanding tax credits that can help grow solar energy farms across Minnesota.[50] Painter believes that investing in clean energy will increase jobs in all areas of processing, such as installation, manufacturing, sales and distribution, and project development.
    Painter also advocates fair trade and free trade trade policies in order to protect American jobs while promoting clean energy investment…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Painter

    Has the President Been Exonerated?
    POLITICO Magazine-19 hours ago
    Richard Painter is a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005-2007…
    Once again, we need to see the entire report to know what evidence of collusion was found, in addition to that which we already know: the Trump Tower meeting, the “coffee boy” and his Russian handler, Roger Stone, WikiLeaks, etc…

    Bush Ethics Advisor: Trump Has Mental Problems
    Prensa Latina-27 Feb 2019

    ANYONE WHO IMAGINES THE FAKENEWSMSM WILL CHANGE IS FOOLING THEMSELF.

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    James Murphy

    The Democrats want the full report released, and Trump has also stated previously that he wants the full report released.

    This inescapable convergence of opinion must be causing all kinds of apoplexy for the TDS sufferers – at least I hope it is.

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  • #
    robert rosicka

    OT but One Nation are in the news again this morning being attacked for seeking donations from the NRA , the only thing I can see wrong here is Hanson had a rant in Parliament about foreign money going to Australian political parties so maybe they’re guilty of hypocrisy here but if that was a crime we would have no politicians at all .

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      So, more guns, AR’s perhaps? Forgotten Christchurch already? NZ has slacker gun control and a long history of intervention by the NRA, and look what happened. You want to risk another Port Arthur, or another Christchurch?

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Pretty sure you’re counting two plus two and getting 97% again putz , never said I agreed with what One Nation did , just said they’d broken no law .
        Lobby groups try and change laws , yours wants us riding a bike and eating Kale .
        I’ll make you a deal , you stop getting your opinions from getup and Greenpiss and I’ll stop getting mine from the ABC .
        And shame on you for bringing NZ into the argument to try and score points .

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          You could, of course, move to America, hunt deer anyway you like. AR’s, Rifles, handguns, and a death rate that is the envy of the world

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          • #
            robert rosicka

            All that is available here putz , as usual you have no idea what you’re talking about .
            Like most lefties you are a very angry little ant that takes offence by anything that doesn’t fit into your indoctrinated world view .

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            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              The why the support for more guns?

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              • #
                robert rosicka

                Show me where I said I wanted more guns putz , because I can’t find it in any of my comments .

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              • #
                AndyG55

                Fabricating LIES about what others have said.

                You must be a hard-left operative.. .

                That is the modus operandi, right pfutz.

                “and a death rate that is the envy of the world”

                Which is why so many people from the south are trying to get there.

                Right, pfutz.!

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              • #
                Another Ian

                RR

                From Roy H at 4.1

                ” There’s plenty to suggest collusion it’s just been better hidden than we expected but if we go on we’re bound to find it. Stay with us.”

                PF’s going full Democrat on you. Knows you must have said it and will keep saying so in the vain hope that someone might find that you did say it

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              • #
                PeterFitzroy

                Nah, RR is on the internet, wanting to kill animals all,over Victoria, he knows what the reference is related to.

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            Sceptical Sam

            There must be a lot of deer in Chicago.

            Chicago was responsible for nearly half of 2016’s increase in homicides in the US, though the nation’s crime rates remain near historic lows.

            In 2011, 83% of murders involved a firearm.

            75.3% of homicide victims and 70.5% of offenders were African American, 18.9% were Hispanic (20.3% of offenders), and whites were 5.6% of victims (3.5% of offenders).

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

            There must be a lot of democratic socialists in Chicago.

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              RicDre

              “There must be a lot of democratic socialists in Chicago”

              Yes, Chicago is run by a Democrat. In fact, many of the big cities in the US that have high crime rates are run by Democrats. Its certainly an interesting correlation. If I didn’t know that that correlation doesn’t prove causation, I’d be tempted to think there was an important pattern there.

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              • #
                RicDre

                I did a quick check of the top 10 cities in the US with the highest crime rates and strangely enough, they are all run by Democrats. They also have some of the toughest Gun laws in the US. Its funny how the gun laws don’t seem to be reducing the crime rates.

                Rank City Rate/100,000 Mayor Party
                1 St. Louis 1,817.10 Lyda Krewson Democrat
                2 Detroit 1,759.60 Michael Duggan Democrat
                3 Memphis 1,740.10 Jim Strickland Democrat
                4 Milwaukee 1,596.10 Tom Barrett Democrat
                5 Baltimore 1,535.90 Catherine Pugh Democrat
                6 Oakland 1,442.50 Libby Schaaf Democrat
                7 Kansas City 1,417.30 Sly James Democrat
                8 Stockton 1,352.00 Michael Tubbs Democrat
                9 Cleveland* 1,334.30 Frank Jackson Democrat
                10 Indianapolis 1,288.00 Joseph Hogsett Democrat

                110

              • #
                Another Ian

                Ric

                You didn’t point out the other end of that list – that a lot of the areas with low firearms fatalities are ones with high firearms ownership

                Explaining that requires similar mental gymnastics as required to explain how global warming produces bodaceous cold and snow

                70

            • #
              Peter Fitzroy

              perhaps a more recent example:
              The CDC’s Wonder database shows that in 2017, 39,773 people in the US lost their lives at the point of a gun, marking the onward march of firearm fatalities in a country renowned for its lax approach to gun controls. When adjusted for age fluctuations, that represents a total of 12 deaths per 100,000 people – up from 10.1 in 2010 and the highest rate since 1996.

              513

              • #
                philthegeek

                More casualties per year than during the Vietnam War, each and every year. Thats the price they pay in the US for the idiotic and self indulgent mess that are their gun laws. People so frightened of each other and their Govt so they accept the random deaths of children, and accept being used by the lowlife scum who make political milage and $ out of this. Sad.

                513

              • #
                Hanrahan

                Doctors

                (A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is

                700,000.

                (B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians

                per year are

                120,000.

                (C) Accidental deaths per physician

                is

                0.171

                Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of

                Health and Human Services.

                >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                Now think about this:

                Guns

                (A) The number of gun owners in the U.S.

                is

                80,000,000.

                (Yes, that’s 80 million)

                (B) The number of accidental gun deaths

                per year, all age groups,

                is

                1,500.

                (C) The number of accidental deaths

                per gun owner

                is

                .0000188

                Statistics courtesy of FBI

                >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                So, statistically, doctors are approximately

                9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

                >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                Remember, ‘Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.’

                >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN,

                BUT

                Almost everyone has at least one doctor.

                This means you are over 9,000 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as by a gun owner!!!

                >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

                145

              • #
                AndyG55

                “and accept being used by the lowlife scum who make political milage and $ out of this. Sad.”

                Which is EXACTLY what you are and EXACTLY what you are doing, phloop. !!

                92

              • #
                Hanrahan

                philthegeek
                In the US the life expectancy at birth is, for the first time, going down, and it isn’t guns causing it, it’s illicit drugs such as fentanyl.

                A border wall would save more lives than gun control laws. BTW London has a higher murder rate than New York, and they have always had strict gun laws.

                91

              • #
                philthegeek

                This means you are over 9,000 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as by a gun owner!!!

                Oh doGs above. Someone who thinks it has a sense of the funnies doing false equivalence.

                You arent Tina McQueen are you???

                410

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Hanrahan I first saw that joke around 2004, as one of those chain emails.
                https://www.truthorfiction.com/doctor-deaths/
                Now it’s an internet meme:
                https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/doctors-kill-more-people-than-guns/

                either way good for a smile 🙂

                510

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Quoting CDC , I don’t suppose you could tell me if any of those deaths were police shootings ?

                80

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Robert, no I couldn’t, but you possibly could, a search engine and all that.
                and Hanrahan:
                Some newspapers reported murders in London exceeded those in New York (a city with the same population) for the first time in February 2018. However a number of commentators have suggested that such a comparison of a snapshot of one month in isolation gives undue weight to that particular month. Later figures suggest that New York recorded 57 murders during January through March 2018 whereas London recorded 45. More recent data shows that, between January and June 2018, New York’s 141 homicides was nearly twice that of London’s 80 homicides

                Strike two

                47

              • #
                el gordo

                In Australia there is rivalry between gangsters, which takes a small toll. In the regional and rural areas people keep guns for security and probably to keep the vermin down, but unfortunately far too many men under 44 years of age find it an easy way to end their lives.

                111

              • #
                Dave

                Peter Fitzroy?

                You state:

                “Some newspapers reported murders in London exceeded those in New York (a city with the same population) for the first time in February 2018”

                NO NEWSPAPERS reported this thing you quoted!
                A blatant LIE Peter!

                Peter? Where do you get your facts from?

                92

              • #
                AndyG55

                copying RikDre’s post because pfutz and phoolp cannot read and have proven comprehension issues.

                Quote starts here…..

                I did a quick check of the top 10 cities in the US with the highest crime rates and strangely enough, they are all run by Democrats. They also have some of the toughest Gun laws in the US. Its funny how the gun laws don’t seem to be reducing the crime rates.

                Rank City Rate/100,000 Mayor Party
                1 St. Louis 1,817.10 Lyda Krewson Democrat
                2 Detroit 1,759.60 Michael Duggan Democrat
                3 Memphis 1,740.10 Jim Strickland Democrat
                4 Milwaukee 1,596.10 Tom Barrett Democrat
                5 Baltimore 1,535.90 Catherine Pugh Democrat
                6 Oakland 1,442.50 Libby Schaaf Democrat
                7 Kansas City 1,417.30 Sly James Democrat
                8 Stockton 1,352.00 Michael Tubbs Democrat
                9 Cleveland* 1,334.30 Frank Jackson Democrat
                10 Indianapolis 1,288.00 Joseph Hogsett Democrat

                Seems that the “gun crime” rate is a Democrat issue, not a USA issue.

                112

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Strike 2 ?? Where was strike one ?

                71

              • #
                AndyG55

                Strike X?

                pfutz is playing a whole different ballgame of his own fantasies.

                One where there are many kangaroos loose in the top paddock.

                62

              • #
      • #
        Bobl

        You mean the Christchurch shooting committed by a leftist madman with a thing against Islam? Shocking yes, inexcusable yes, committed by a right winger …. um No. Look into your own ideology Peter. Right wing means anti collectivist, someone who believes everyone deserves to succeed or fail on their own merit. Individualists don’t see the world as tribes.

        It it the collectivists, the left wingers that identify people according to their tribes, it’s the left wing that harbours the tribal hate.

        112

        • #
          philthegeek

          So…he was some kind of evil lefty white supremacist then??

          Or not that at all just someone who wanted to appear to be a violent RWnutjobbie murderer of children to discredit the RW white supremacists and its all a leftie plot??

          Are we approaching peak loopy on revisionist bollocks here or wot??

          314

          • #
            AndyG55

            He was a twisted mind. Didn’t have a clue what he was or who he was.

            [snip enough personal vitriol ok – jo]

            I’ve never seen so much hatred and spite as you possess in your soulless being.

            That is why you are here, isn’t it… to try to spread YOUR hatred and spite.

            We LAUGH at your efforts, as being puerile and that of a severely warped mind. 🙂

            82

          • #
            AndyG55

            He had a warped mind, didn’t know what he thought or what he believed.

            He had a grudge against society.. just like you do.

            As for loopy ???..

            You are WAY PASSED being peak loopy.. your mind wandering in La-La-Land. !

            Please take your bile back to the hard-left blogs where it came from, phloop.

            92

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Try Tom Lehrer in the 1960’s

            I was in no mood to trifle,
            so I took down my trusty rifle,
            and soon I bagged the maximum the law would allow,
            6 hunters, one game warden and a pure bred Guensey cow.

            71

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          So about that succeed of fall on their own merit bundle of toxic sludge. Show me how someone born to a drug addict, in a remote community is going to succeed against someone who is (via the parents) able to buy themselves a degree from Harvard. Tell that to the thousands of Australians who have been underpaid. Tell that to all the women who get only 70% of a male’s wage for the same work.

          As to not seeing the world as tribes; your first sentence used the words leftist and right winger – tribes both of them.

          Of course it’s not really your fault Bobl, you benefited from being born into affluence, being white, getting a good education etc. A bit of introspection would help you.

          313

          • #
            el gordo

            Politics in a democracy is robust and naturally tribal, it has just become more sharply polarised because of the communications revolution.

            120

          • #
            AndyG55

            “So about that succeed of fall on their own merit bundle of toxic sludge.”

            You keep FALLING, in your own toxic sludge, pfutz

            It really is HURTING you and little phloop that Trump has done NOTHING wrong

            Same situation as your yabbering…

            ZERO EVIDENCE.

            ps. In my employment, females get paid exactly the same amount for the same work.

            So sorry that you constantly FEEEEEL that you are a VICTIM of society.

            GET OVER IT !!

            82

            • #
              PeterFitzroy

              Trains bothering you Again?

              36

              • #
                AndyG55

                No rational response again, little puddle-pfutz?

                ZERO-EVIDENCE against Trump

                ZERO-EVIDENCE of CO2 warming.

                Seems to be your life.. So sad. 😉

                81

              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                I’ve all the evidence I need, for both C02 and for the Gender Pay Gap. You are making the false “Proof by Assertion” argument, I wish you would stop

                39

              • #
                AndyG55

                And yet you cannot produce one single bit of empirical evidence for CO2 warming.

                You are an EMPTY void when it comes to evidence.

                I wish you would STOP being so EVIDENCE-FREE. !!

                ZERO-EVIDENCE against Trump

                ZERO-EVIDENCE of CO2 warming.

                Seems to be your life.. So sad. So pathetic.

                72

              • #
                AndyG55

                Tell you what, little child,

                How about you list, say, 10 jobs where females are paid less than males for the same job. Please take into account all benefits offered by their employment.

                Please show me one single “award” agreement that states that females will get paid less than men for a particular job.

                We are waiting for some evidence………. as we ALWAYS seem to be doing where-ever your fantasies are concerned.

                62

            • #
              Leo Morgan

              Sceptic though I am about Global Warming being anything more than chicken little making yet another environmental call of “Wolf”, I would like to know what you would count as empirical evidence of warming from CO2?
              After all, if I didn’t recognize anything as evidence of the existence of gravity, then that says more about me than it does about gravity.

              50

      • #
        Leo Morgan

        Have you forgotten last century? Half of the world’s population were subjected to totalitarian control. For every person killed in incidents like New Zealand, there were 40 thousand killed by their own governments. We do not want the slaughter of innocents.
        The left is simultaneously clamoring that the right are Nazis, and that they should take guns away from the people, which of course includes Jews, and are blandly ignorant of how this combination makes them look.

        51

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Earlier today I did a quick search on the death toll from fentanyl but couldn’t find it. Tonight I see it kills 130 per day. That is WAY more than guns.

      The American psyche has been forged in fire – gunfire. They seem to be in a perennial state of war so there is no way gun control will be accepted or could it be effective. Thems the facts.

      But a border wall would reduce drug trafficking. Why do people chase the elusive dream while ignoring practical measures that would save lives.

      70

      • #
        PeterFitzroy

        The drugs are from prescriptions, often on sold by seniors, to help make ends meet. The wall won’t work.
        Strike three, and out

        38

        • #
          AndyG55

          Nope, no strike. You weren’t even in the ballpark.

          Just playing another of your fantasy games.

          I can figure you don’t want your supply of whatever you take to aid your delusions, disrupted though.

          62

        • #
          robert rosicka

          Seriously take your medication and have a lie down your rants are getting worse if that’s even possible putz .

          61

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Are the seniors providing the heroin, cocaine and grass too?

          The fentanyl is actually made in China and shipped via Mex. Trump recently convinced Xi to declare it a controlled substance. No idea if that will work, but the man you hate so much is at least trying, not just making excuses.

          60

          • #
            philthegeek

            Are the seniors providing the heroin, cocaine and grass too?

            You silly. The Team supplies it to THEM, Screw over their poor pensioner minds so they vote for who we tell them too.

            07

  • #
    pat

    from 9min44sec – McLaren brings up Team Clinton etc. Switzer speaks of investigations to come. Switzer then moves to media coverage in Australia, as compared with what it might have been if collusion had been found. says Guardian Australia late last nite had 20 stories on its website and nothing on Mueller – that says something. says he was asked yesterday by ABC Q&A producer to go on Q&A in place of Craig Laundy who’d pulled out. says he couldn’t do it, but asked if there were any questions on the Mueller Report. oh no, no questions on that he was told…Switzer LAUGHS. goes on to critique ABC’s 7.30 Report sham.

    AUDIO: 12min29sec: 26 Mar: 2GB Mike McLaren: President Trump & the Mueller Report
    Tom Switzer, political adviser & Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies joins Michael to discuss that aftermath of the release of the Mueller Report and what it might mean for President Trump…
    https://www.2gb.com/podcast/president-trump-the-mueller-report/

    50

    • #
      pat

      LAST-MINUTE INCLUSION OF MUELLER QUESTION:

      (first 8 minutes-plus) Mueller question from ***MAYA AVRAMOVIC in the studio audience; while Cowan is responding, Tony Jones says twice Mueller Report found Russia did in‌fluence THE OUTCOME of the 2016 election; biggest applause for the Greens senator; then for final comments from anti-Trump Gay:

      VIDEO: 1hr06min: 25 Mar: ABC Q&A: Roxane Gay on Q&A
      Panellists: Roxane Gay, American feminist writer; Tony Burke, Shadow Minister for Environment, Water and Citizenship; Mehreen Faruqi, NSW Greens Senator; Simon Cowan, Research director, Centre for Independent Studies; and Teena McQueen, Liberal party Vice President.

      QUESTION: MUELLER & TRUMP
      ***Maya Avramovic asked: It appears that President Trump has dodged a bullet in respect of any prospect of his impeachment given that the Mueller Report has concluded the President is not guilty of any crime. For someone who identifies as a “bad feminist” what is your take Roxanne Gay? Will the president now have a free hand to do whatever he wants?
      https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2019-25-03/10904012

      ***HOW FORTUNATE IS MAYA AVRAMOVIC TO HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO ASK A QUESTION ON AT LEAST 3 PREVIOUS OCCASIONS?

      22 Oct 2018: ABC Q&A
      ***MAYA AVRAMOVIC asked: How low can we really go in Australian politics when the latest known dirty trick is to publish a fake email falsely claiming high profile doctor Kerryn Phelps has HIV and what does this say about politics in general?

      12 Feb 2018: ABC Q&A:
      ***MAYA AVRAMOVIC asked: Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has built his brand on his character and conservative values. His own family have contributed to a projection of this image. Does the public have a right to know about his affair and how will this affect his own career and legacy do you think?

      14 Aug 2017: ABC Q&A:
      ***MAYA AVRAMOVIC ASKED: How is dual citizenship a threat to our sovereignty, but donations from foreign billionaires is not?

      80

      • #
        Another Ian

        By the sound of that name might be Russian!

        Quick! Appoint a Royal Commission into foreign influence!

        60

  • #
    Alfred (Cairns)

    Australian media is trying to downplay it. Just like they downplayed the fact that ISIS is really an extension of NATO and Israel. Just like they downplay the fact that Australian naval ships are taking part in the embargo against Yemen which is resulting in a massive number of deaths – mostly children.

    Donald Trump says the Robert Mueller report is ‘complete exoneration’. Except it isn’t (ABC)

    They just will not accept reality when it does not suit their purposes.

    73

  • #
    John PAK

    The reassurance that Trumpety-trump is “innocent” is under-whelming. All these leaders seem to be sexual predators with monster egos and I doubt we’ll ever know more than the tip of the iceberg however this particular politician is ruffling establishment feathers by actually carrying out some of his election promises and I reckon he has the best intentions of Americans at heart.
    Much of what goes on in the world happens before we (the Little People in Medialand) find out. In the late 80s I was photographing the construction of “a telephone exchange” next to Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital. During my brief visit they had a discrete surveillance officer check me out and upon processing the film, one of the scaffolding workers was clearly staring straight at me with binoculars. Workers refused to talk about the job and the site was off-limits, even to Council Inspectors. Rumours said it housed a $600 million computer which at that time was as expensive as the UK’s new Air Defence System computer so, NOT “a telephone exchange”.
    I would not believe anything I read in a newspaper or saw on the telly. That’s for the plebs if they are stupid enough to suck it up.
    Old-man Bush gave a long public address at the pronouncement of war on Saddam’s Iraq but the first quarter hour of that address was not about Iraq but was an introduction to something called “The New World Economic Order”. That was the day the penny dropped for me. “They” have bigger plans for the world and this Russia fiasco is just part of the distraction.

    31

  • #
    robert rosicka

    The ABC still looking for ways to get rid of the Don.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-26/mueller-report-donald-trump-plan-b/10938842

    70

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      A reprint of some yank bullsh*t artist.
      Bah !

      61

    • #
      pat

      Robert Rosicka –

      the writer:

      ABC bio: Micheline Maynard is an American journalist, broadcaster, author, public speaker, and professor, who writes The Check blog at Forbes.com. She is the editor and founder of Curbing Cars, a crowdfunded journalism project that looks at the future of transportation. She previously worked as a reporter at The New York Times, made regular appearances on PBS NewsHour, and has written several books…She lectures at the University of Michigan, and taught at the university’s Ross School of Business.

      (among her earlier pieces published by theirABC)

      23 Jan: Even Republicans say they’d vote for Ocasio-Cortez for President — so could she take on Trump

      18 Jan: Trump’s stunning insult to the US’s third most-powerful person (Nancy Pelosi)

      5 Dec 2018: Two forces are colliding to make this the end of Trump’s presidency as we know it

      8 Nov 2018: Obama is back and he’s reclaiming his America
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/micheline-maynard/9597156

      70

  • #
    pat

    from Trump’s campaign, not Admin:

    25 Mar: The Hill: Trump campaign asks TV producers to challenge past guests who said there was ‘evidence of collusion’
    By Justin Wise
    The Trump campaign on Monday called on various TV producers to challenge their guests’ “outlandish, false” accusations about alleged collusion between Trump’s associates and Russia now that the claim has “proven to be false.”
    Tim Murtaugh, the director of communications for Trump’s campaign, made the request in an email just a day after Attorney General William Barr said that the special counsel investigation did not uncover evidence to conclude the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. The Trump campaign confirmed the email’s authenticity to The Hill…
    MEMORANDUM

    Murtaugh seized on several talking points from people such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and former CIA Director John Brennan.
    The individuals said, among other things, that there was strong evidence of collusion while appearing on networks such as CNN, MSNBC and NBC…READ ON
    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/435681-trump-campaign-sends-memo-asking-tv-producers-challenge-past-guests-who

    80

  • #
    pat

    can you believe this?

    25 Mar: Washington Times: Ex-CIA chief offers mea culpa on Trump: ‘I don’t know if I received bad information’
    by Douglas Ernst
    Former CIA chief John O. Brennan now says his months of attacks on President Trump may have been based on “bad information.”…
    “Well, I don’t know if I received bad information but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was,” Mr. Brennan told host Joe Scarborough. “I am relieved that it’s been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election.”…

    The former CIA head said he still maintained that some conversations between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russians were “inappropriate.”
    “I’m not all that surprised that the high bar of criminal conspiracy was not met,” he said…
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/25/john-brennan-ex-cia-chief-offers-mea-culpa-on-trum/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

    lawyer up, Brennan.

    80

  • #
    MudCrab

    What is going to be more interesting is how this is going to affect the US Democrats internal power struggles.

    You have, broadly speaking, those who never pushed the Russian angle, those who walked away a month or so ago and those who are still there gasping like dying fish on the side of the river.

    Now if I have been paying attention correctly, Pelosi walked away from the ‘impeach’ tactic about a month ago, claiming something along the lines that Trump was still guilty, but it wasn’t worth the effort. Then you have the Green Left like AOC who – open to correction here – were too busy pushing their next 5 Year Great Leap Forward to bother about ‘Russia’. Then there are the screaming types who can’t believe and are in denial.

    So, given that the Denial types are only going to increasingly make fools of themselves, is this the moment where the Green Left make a move to increase their own power base?

    Not sure if this is the time to stock up on popcorn or tinned food and weapons, but we live in interesting times.

    110

    • #
      RicDre

      That sounds like a pretty good summary of the current state of Democrat party to me.

      For now, I’d say stock up on popcorn. I don’t think the tinned food and weapons will be needed, but if the green left takes over the Democrat party, anything is possible.

      90

    • #
      Hanrahan

      I doubt much will change, 93% of the news will still be anti-Trump and Hollywood will still be rabid. The Dems will not be able to enunciate policy because they are fractured.

      What may change is that Trump will start indictments of his own. I mean, of course, the Justice Dept will IF Barr has the ticker.

      70

  • #
    pat

    25 Mar: The Federalist: The Media Have Done Irreparable Damage To The Country
    Journalists used fears over Russia and anger over Trump to try to reverse the results of a legitimate election.
    By David Harsanyi, senior editor
    While bad behavior from partisan sources should be expected, the lack of skepticism from self-appointed unbiased journalists has been unprecedented. Any critical observer could see early on that Trump-era partisan newsroom culture had made journalists susceptible to the deception of those peddling expedient stories. Our weekly bouts of Russia hysteria all sprung from one predetermined outcome: the president was in bed with Vlad Putin.

    The natural disposition of journalists—even opinion journalists—should be skepticism…
    For all the alleged reporters who spread tales of conspiracy—Ken Dilanian, Natasha Betrand, Ryan Lizza, Manu Raju, and Jason Leopold come to mind, although they certainly weren’t alone— there were an endless number of pundits and liberal writers who regularly accused the president, not of being merely mendacious or incompetent, but of sedition.
    A bunch of crackpots were transformed into social media stars. Cable news paraded out officials with axes to grind, like John Brennan and James Clapper, and a slew of supposedly credentialed talking heads as experts. They all claimed that the most remarkable conspiracy in American history had transpired.

    No one, of course, will take responsibility for two years of panic-driven coverage. Margaret Sullivan, a media columnist at the Washington Post, in fact, argues that mainstream journalists—not the ones who were rightly dubious about the collusion narrative—should be “proud” of the exemplary job they did. Sullivan might not be aware that it was the Washington Post that helped ignite the Russia scare with two “scoops” that turned out to be completely false in early 2017: the first, a piece on Russia hacking a Vermont power grid and the other a breathless story about the reach of Vladimir Putin’s fake news operations…

    Take the legendary Carl Bernstein, now with CNN, who also claims that coverage of Russia collusion was “one of the great reporting jobs” in history. One of these great bombshells, authored by Bernstein, Marshall Cohen, and former Obama administration political appointee Jim Sciutto, had numerous “sources” on the record claiming that Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen was going to tell Mueller that Trump knew in advance of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that his campaign was colluding with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who was allegedly selling dirt on Hillary Clinton. False alarm.
    There were many false alarms…

    “I’m comfortable with our coverage. It is never our job to determine illegality,” New York Times editor Dean Baquet explained, “but to expose the actions of people in power. And that’s what we and others have done and will continue to do.” In reality, The New York Times and other outlets have hurt their ability to expose the actions of the powerful, because, even when they’re right, many Americans will have a difficult time believing them. And the powerful will certainly have a lot easier time dismissing them as tools of the Democratic Party.
    Half the country doesn’t trust anything you have to say…
    http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/25/media-irreparable-damage-to-the-country/#.XJkxOK6o7Mg.twitter

    90

  • #
    pat

    read all:

    25 Mar: Fox News: Trump allies await results of two internal probes that could expose Russia investigation backstory
    By Gregg Re; Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Brooke Singman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
    DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed at a panel discussion last week that his office is continuing to review potential surveillance abuses by the FBI, a review that began last March and that Fox News is told is nearing completion. Horowitz has previously found that senior FBI officials routinely leaked information without authorization to the media, and also received “improper gifts” from reporters, including meals and sporting event tickets. Most notably, Horowitz found that FBI officials’ anti-Trump communications raised doubts as to the integrity of their work.

    Republicans are increasingly looking for answers from U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber, who was appointed a year ago by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to review not only surveillance abuses by the FBI and DOJ, but also authorities’ handling of the probe into the Clinton Foundation.
    Huber, Republicans have cautioned, has apparently made little progress, and spoken to few key witnesses and whistleblowers. But in January, then-Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker reportedly indicated at a private meeting that Huber’s work was continuing apace.

    Among the primary looming questions that the IG has said he will address, and that Huber is expected to review: Did the FBI follow all applicable “legal requirements” when FBI lawyer Lisa Page and then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil Trump aide Carter Page — weeks before the 2016 presidential election — by relying heavily on a dossier created by a firm working for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)?…

    Huber’s investigation, meanwhile, has been dogged by allegations that he has not interviewed witnesses who could shed light on those topics. In a letter to Mr. Huber, Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and Georgia GOP Rep. Doug Collins said they interviewed dozens of witnesses while his probe was simultaneously running.
    “During the course of our extensive investigation we have interviewed more than a dozen current and former DOJ and FBI personnel, and were surprised to hear none of these potentially informative witnesses testified to speaking with you,” Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Collins, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Huber.
    In a deep dive published late last year (LINK), RealClearInvestigations reported that Huber’s appointment was internally seen as little more than a political effort to placate Republicans…

    Even aside from the probes by Huber and the IG, Republicans on Monday called for new inquiries, including a special counsel to probe “the other side of the story.”…
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-allies-await-results-of-2-internal-probes-that-could-expose-russia-investigation-backstory

    70

  • #
    pat

    25 Mar: Townhall: Lest We Forget: These Reporters Won Pulitzer Prizes For ‘Deeply Sourced’ Russia Reporting
    by Beth Baumann
    The “award winning” journalists include Maggie Haberman, Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo and Mark Mazetti from The Times and Rosalind Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Ellen Nakashima, Adam Entous and Greg Miller from WaPo.

    They received the award “For deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration. (The New York Times entry, submitted in this category, was moved into contention by the Board and then jointly awarded the Prize.)”

    Deeply sourced? Hardly.

    Relentlessly reported? Definitely…

    The Times was so proud of their award that they even bragged about it…in an article…on their website (emphasis mine)…

    The Washington Post shared a similar article on their own website…

    Now that we know there was no collusion, now that we know there was no obstruction, does this mean we get a “redo” on this award? Does Pulitzer pull their award and name a new winner? Do these news organizations have to return the $15,000 they were wrongly awarded? And do these journalists have their “Pultizer Prize Winning” title pulled from their bio?
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/03/25/flashback-remember-when-wapo-nyt-won-pulitzer-prizes-for-their-deeply-sourced-n2543726

    Newt Gingrich tweeted (with multiple typos) today that NYT/WaPo should return the Pulitzers. plenty agreed and quite a few suggested Obama should return his Nobel Prize as well.

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    pat

    TWEET: Donald J. Trump:
    WSJ: Obama Admin Must Account for ‘Abuse of Surveillance Powers’ LINK Breitbart
    25 Mar 2019
    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1110359392023646208

    25 Mar: Breitbart: WSJ: Time for Obama Admin to Account for ‘Historic Abuse of Government Surveillance Powers’
    by Dr. Susan Berry
    Wall Street Journal assistant editor James Freeman and Sen. Rand Paul are on the same page: the Mueller report confirms it is now time for the Obama administration to account for its flagrant abuse of the surveillance powers of the federal government…

    While Democrats and other members of the “Resistance” flail about in the wake of news the Robert Mueller investigation did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election, Freeman observed Monday the report confirms it is former President Barack Obama who “owes the country an explanation” for his administration’s “historic abuse of government surveillance powers.”

    Freeman wrote…READ ON
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/25/wsj-time-for-obama-admin-to-account-for-historic-abuse-of-government-surveillance-powers/

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    Geoffrey Williams

    Trump is now one big step nearer to a second term in office.
    GeoffW

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    John Watt

    Something the “Clinton Cash” could not buy?
    Any implications for Assange?

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    pat

    the putrid SkyUK. Haynes move to Sky from UK Times at end of May 2018:

    24 Mar: Sky News UK: Sky Views: UK has a duty to investigate potential Russian interference
    By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor
    Nigel Farage claimed “Russian collusion” when it appeared that a number of signatories to a parliamentary petition calling for the government to stop Brexit came from outside the UK.
    It is unclear whether the former UKIP leader genuinely believes this or was simply conveniently drawing on an issue – Kremlin interference in Western democracies – many observers suspect played a part in the Brexit referendum that he and fellow Brexiteers such as Arron Banks won.

    Either way, Mr Farage’s remark on his Twitter account is a reminder of the threat to democracy posed by hostile states that use websites and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as a weapon, by exploiting existing divisions in democratic societies.
    (CHECK THE FARAGE PIC)

    I am not saying that President Vladimir Putin secured the Brexit vote.
    It was 17.4 million living, breathing British people – not Russian cyber bots – who ticked the box marked ‘leave’ when asked what they thought about Britain and the European Union.
    But there is evidence to suggest that Moscow at the very least deliberately meddled in the public debate leading up to the vote, helping to promote the arguments for Brexit over social media as well as via pro-Kremlin media outlets such as RT and Sputnik…

    An independent inquiry could have been set up, similar to the investigation into suspected Russian interference in US democracy in 2016 headed by special counsel Robert Mueller that has just concluded.
    Instead, in the UK the issue is skirted around with a hollow line repeated by ministers that they have seen “no evidence” of Russia successfully interfering with the Brexit vote.
    I am sure that is the case, but it does not answer the question definitively…
    https://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-britain-has-a-duty-to-investigate-potential-russian-interference-11673887

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      RicDre

      “…But there is evidence to suggest that Moscow at the very least deliberately meddled in the public debate leading up to the vote…”

      I don’t know whether Vladimir Putin tried to meddle in the public debate leading up to the Brexit vote, but I do know of at least one foreign president who did: President Obama when he said that if the UK voted for BREXIT “The UK is going to be in the back of the queue” to get a trade deal with the US.

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    pat

    25 Mar: The Hill: John Solomon: Trump-Russia collusion did affect an American election — the one in 2018
    In all, more than 530,000 stories were written between May 2017 and this month about a Trump-Russia investigation that, ultimately, found no collusion. The earned media impact of that negative coverage likely would have cost billions of dollars if a Democratic candidate had tried to buy such coverage.
    But the news media provided it free of charge, fanned by the commentary of lawmakers and intelligence officials such as Brennan and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, whose public comments contrasted with the secret intelligence.

    As the “Impeach Trump” machine raged with fuel provided by Democrats and an errant media, a funny thing happened: More than three dozen Republican incumbents in Congress announced they were retiring in 2018, leaving the GOP with a gaping hole in the House that Democrats exploited.
    Polls showed the impact of the Russia coverage on voters. About half of American voters declared they believed Trump or his aides had colluded with Russia, even though they hadn’t.
    It is the most compelling proof in a long time that false information repeated long enough becomes truth for many people…

    The Russia collusion narrative — fanned by foreigners, dirty tricksters and a willing media — did, in fact, impact an American election. Not the one in 2016, but the midterm that came two years later.
    https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435700-trump-russia-collusion-did-affect-an-american-election-the-one-in-2018

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    We can only hope that the implosion of the collusion delusion will cause many to question other far left positions pushed with similar certainty, the climate effects of CO2 being one of them.

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    theRealUniverse

    We all knew that Russia gate was a farce and fake. There was no collusion. USA calls the kettle black when it comes to interference in foreign elections..they are the ‘experts’ at it, ask the C I A.

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      Another Ian

      TRU

      Maybe reconsider that list using the definition of an expert as

      “Ex” out of and “Spurt” a drip under pressure

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    toorightmate

    I cant help (heh, heh, heh) feeling sorry (heh, heh, heh) for CNN (heh, heh, heh).

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    Annie

    What gets me is the hypocrisy shown by all the blethering lefties. Why hasn’t there been a big stink about Obama’s effort to undermine the Brexit Referendum in 2016 and Al Gore’s big success in getting Clive Palmer to do an about turn?
    Actually, I rather think Obama’s interference had the opposite effect to what he intended; it certainly got my hackles up. I also will never vote for Clive Palmer’s mob as we have proof that the manifesto doesn’t have any value, despite the incredible quantity of advertising on Sky News on Win that we suffer.

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      Annie

      To me, this is relevant because it is foreign interference in a sovereign nation’s affairs…what sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!

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        Hanrahan

        Holier than thou Shorten makes a meal of ON’s dalliance with the NRA condemning foreign money in our election.

        Does he think we are unaware that getup is funded by Soros?

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      Dave in the States

      Additionally, Obama tried to undermine Netanyahu and meddled in their elections.

      The alleged Russian meddling in the US elections occurred under Obama’s watch and he knew about it. He didn’t care as long the results were to his liking. Obama meddled in the US elections himself. Anybody that doesn’t think that the corruption at the Justice Department and the FBI wasn’t given a subtle nod and a wink by Obama is rather naive. There once was a king in Brittany who made an off hand comment about why doesn’t somebody rid him of a certain priest-who was once his friend. Riders rode through the night swords at the ready.

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        Dave in the States

        Furthermore, anybody that doesn’t think that bureaucratic policy makers and government scientists had not been doing Obama’s bidding, much as the kings’s four knights to rid him of Becket, on the issue AGW is rather naive.

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    pat

    26 Mar: NBC: AP: Key Greenland glacier growing again after shrinking for years, NASA study shows
    “That was kind of a surprise.”
    WASHINGTON — A major Greenland glacier that was one of the fastest shrinking ice and snow masses on Earth is growing again, a new NASA study finds.

    The Jakobshavn glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles and thinning nearly 130 feet annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Geoscience (LINK). Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary.
    “That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” said Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate scientist Jason Box. “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast. But it is going.”…

    While this is “good news” on a temporary basis, this is bad news on the long term because it tells scientists that ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought, said NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a study co-author…
    While this is “good news” on a temporary basis, this is bad news on the long term because it tells scientists that ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought, said NASA climate scientist Josh Willis, a study co-author…

    Four outside scientists said the study and results make sense.
    University of Washington ice scientist Ian Joughin, who wasn’t part of the study and predicted such a change seven years ago, said it would be a “grave mistake” to interpret the latest data as contradicting climate change science.
    What’s happening, Joughin said, is “to a large extent, a temporary blip. Downturns do occur in the stock market, but overall the long term trajectory is up. This is really the same thing.”
    https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/key-greenland-glacier-growing-again-after-shrinking-years-nasa-study-ncna987116

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      el gordo

      ‘…ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats and advances than previously thought…’

      I’ll pay that, good catch Pat.

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      Graeme No.3

      pat:

      The picture shows bare land so what does the water temperature mean? The glacier is expanding NOT retreating further INLAND, so the lower water temperature is of low importance.
      And the usual explanation for glacier expansion involves an imbalance in the rate of snow added and the rate of melting. More snow, faster growth, less snow leads to a reduction.
      So we have colder water and less snow, and apparently they are reinforcing their effects. And Donald Trump still colluded with those he slapped restrictions on, and if you believe that contact me for a bargain in Harbour Bridge shares. NOTE for the USA; Brooklyn Bridge instead.

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    pat

    on Tucker: 26min46sec to 33min09sec: Glenn Greenwald:

    Youtube: 41min10sec: Tucker Carlson Tonight 3/25/19
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z66YvI3-uBc

    Hannity on fire: half-hour opening monologue:

    Youtube: 43min40sec: Sean Hannity 3/25/19
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDwk-ADso5o

    Youtube: 40min10sec: The Ingraham Angle Fox News 3/25/19
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC50V8OXrV8

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    Peter C

    PETER RIDD FREEDOM OF SPEACH LEGAL CASE

    Just delivered to my email from the IPA.

    “Dear supporter of freedom of speech on climate change

    I want you to be the first to hear what’s just happened on the opening day of Dr Peter Ridd’s court case in Brisbane.

    I’ve been in court all day witnessing the unfolding of one of the most important freedom of speech cases in Australia.

    My name is Gideon Rozner and I’m the Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs. The judge and the lawyers have just adjourned for the night and we’ll be back again tomorrow at 10.00 am. The whole case is expected to last three days in front of Judge Vasta.

    Peter has taken legal action against James Cook University (JCU) in the Federal Circuit Court to have his employment at the university reinstated after he was dismissed as a professor of physics last year.

    Watch my summary of the first day of hearings from the Peter Ridd court case in Brisbane.
    At about 9.30am this morning Peter entered the court with his wife Cheryl and his legal team headed by Stuart Wood QC. Inside the court the public gallery was full and a number of Peter’s former students were there as a show of support for Peter.

    Stuart Wood QC opened the case for Peter by outlining what it was that Peter had said about the Great Barrier Reef and climate change to which JCU had objected. As you’ll recall it was in Peter’s chapter in the IPA’s book Climate Change: The Facts 2017 that Peter questioned the quality of the science behind the orthodox view that climate change was ‘killing’ the Great Barrier Reef. When Peter was interviewed by the media, including by Alan Jones on Sky News, Peter had simply restated what he’d previously written.

    Wood pointed out that under the terms of his employment with JCU, as set out in the university’s Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, Peter had the specific right to speak about academic and scientific matters within his area of expertise. Wood also told the court that the ‘confidentiality’ directions that JCU had tried to impose on Peter created a ‘Star Chamber’ (Wood’s words) environment whereby Peter was not even allowed to tell his wife that JCU was taking action against him.

    JCU’s argument in essential terms is that Peter had breached the university’s code of conduct by discussing matters outside of his expertise and that he had failed to protect the ‘integrity and reputation’ of the university.

    Tomorrow Peter will be in the witness box. I’ll be in court to let you know what happens.

    Thank you for your support for Peter. It is only because of people like you that Peter was able to raise the $260,000 from 2,405 donors to help pay for this case. It is a case with far-reaching consequences for freedom of speech and for the integrity of science.

    I hope that Jo will make a special post as the case develops.

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      Serp

      I didn’t get the email so went to the Peter Ridd page and signed up to receive the regular updates; curiously enough Chrome refuses access to the IPA page but my very old Firefox does but will not play the HTML5 videos…o tempora o mores!

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      Michael262

      Peter C
      Ridd has made assertions outside his field of expertise, all without evidence.
      Scepticism is fine, facts are better.

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        AndyG55

        He drew attention to FAKED research papers.

        That was his big sin.

        And somehow it is him that is accused of bringing the Uni into disrepute..

        … and NOT the person who FAKED the study.

        GBR studies from that particular university have always been decidedly on the nose. based on anti-science assumptions and agenda driven non-science.

        About time someone blew the whistle on it.

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    robert rosicka

    Great news everybody but Fitz and gloop your going to have to do better .

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-26/global-carbon-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2018-according-to-iea/10941378

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      Peter C

      Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2018, International Energy Agency says

      Well that is a very strange thing.

      I just read that CO2 emissions from the UK, Europe and the USA are down.

      Who is producing all these emissions?

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    pat

    the wait for Hillary to tweet post-Mueller report is over:

    TWEET: Hillary Clinton
    Two realities we must confront:
    1. Climate change won’t just affect the coasts.
    2. Climate change is a national security issue LINK NBC Montana
    25 Mar 2019

    22 Mar: NBC Montana: Floods show national security threat posed by climate change
    by MARGERY A. BECK, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and ROBERT BURNS Associated Press
    Though the headquarters of Strategic Command, which plays a central role in detecting and striking at global threats, wasn’t damaged, the flooding provided a dramatic example of how climate change poses a national security threat, even as the Trump administration plays down the issue.
    It is also a reminder that the kind of weather extremes escalating with climate change aren’t limited to the coasts, said retired Rear Adm. David W. Titley…

    It would takes weeks or more for scientists to determine if the Plains flooding, or any weather disaster, was caused or worsened by climate change, which is occurring as emissions from coal, oil and gas alter the atmosphere. But federal agencies and scientists around the world agree that climate change already is making natural disasters more frequent, stronger and longer…

    But Trump has belittled his own government’s warnings. During a January cold spell, he tweeted his wish for “a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming!” In response to security warnings on climate change, the Trump administration has allowed a physicist who rejects scientific consensus on manmade climate change to start organizing a White House panel to make its own determination…
    https://nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/floods-show-national-security-threat-posed-by-climate-change

    26 Mar: Daily Mail: PIERS MORGAN: The Russia collusion hoax was a disgraceful fake news witch-hunt that shames all of Trump’s deranged enemies in the media, the FBI and Hollywood and has probably ensured their worst nightmare – his re-election
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6847671/PIERS-MORGAN-Mueller-report-shows-collusion-disgraceful-hoax.html

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    pat

    great choice of guest, Fran!

    AUDIO: 15min10sec: 26 Mar: ABC Breakfast: Fran Kelly: Mueller report highlights Russian interference in 2016 election
    Pressure is now building on the US Attorney General William Barr to publicly release Robert Mueller’s full report.
    The summary stopped short of exonerating Donald Trump on obstruction of justice allegations.
    Robert Mueller also did not offer systematic solutions to the dangers of Russia again interfering in the 2020 presidential election.
    Guest:
    ***Laura Rosenberger, Director, Alliance for Securing Democracy; and former foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton (in Canberra this week as Distinguished Visitor of ANU)
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/mueller-report-highlights-russian-interference-in-2016-election/10938994

    ***Greenwald/Intercept is just one of the prog left crowd (Salon.com is another) that is critical of the “Alliance”:

    18 Jul 2017: The Intercept: Glenn Greenwald: With New D.C. Policy Group (Alliance for Securing Democracy), Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons
    A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance…
    It is, in fact, the ultimate union of mainstream Democratic foreign policy officials and the world’s most militant, and militaristic, neocons. The group is led by two longtime Washington foreign policy hands, one from the establishment Democratic wing and the other a key figure among leading GOP neocons.
    The Democrat, Laura Rosenberger, served as a foreign policy adviser for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and chief of staff to two Obama national security officials…
    https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-continue-to-rehabilitate-and-unify-with-bush-era-neocons/

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    pat

    lengthy interview re Peter Ridd case on Jones/Credlin/Sky just now – with IPA’s John Roskam.

    will look for podcast later, but Jones said some interview would be on IPA’s Ridd page –

    https://ipa.org.au/peterridd

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    George

    Part 2 of Power special on 7:30 report tonight

    Reporter states –

    Overall renewables have been shown to reduce the price of power

    3min 55sec

    https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/power-special:-part-2/10942650

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    • #
      robert rosicka

      They keep saying that George but I’m yet to see any evidence of it .

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        Peter C

        I must agree

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      • #
        George

        Thinking about it again, in this case I think she just meant specifically that those with rooftop solar reduce their bill overall, which is probably true.
        The video did have a fair amount of criticism of rooftop solar.

        20

        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          George says he thinks she meant:

          those with rooftop solar reduce their bill overall, which is probably true.

          Unfortunately George that is probably untrue, as a general statement.

          Should you do the sums in the proper way you will quickly find that it is untrue for many, many people. Regrettably, they do not do the sums. They believe what they’re told.

          Here’s my assessment for my circumstances in Perth, Western Australia:

          http://joannenova.com.au/2018/12/weekend-unthreaded-241/#comment-2088629

          I’ve also done a similar analysis for a property in NSW that is vacant for about 8-9 months per year. It doesn’t work there either.

          I’d be happy to see your figures George. Or at least a critique of mine.

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    The Trump Campaign just sent a politely worded memo to TV producers. You can almost hear Trump’s lawyers gearing up for some retribution. It’s about time.

    https://old.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/b5kot0/the_trump_campaign_is_sending_this_memo_to_tv/

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    Ian Wilson

    Jo,

    While I agree with all of your comments about Trump and Meuller probe, your comments on the WMD and the Iraq war are completely false.
    The Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein did indeed possess WMD. Here are some indisputable historical facts:

    1. The Chemical weapons stockpile of Iraq was trucked out of the country in January and February 2003, just prior to the start of the war.

    2. The Syrian government built a storage facility for the Iraqi chemical weapons at Homs in that year.

    3. The Israelis bombed the Homs storage facility/Chemical manufacturing facility in 2013, completely destroying it.

    4. The US has recordings of what was said at Saddam’s cabinet meeting in October 2002. They show that Saddam revealed to
    his generals that he was getting rid of his chemicals weapons stockpiles. The Generals were shocked because they were
    relying on the possible use of these weapons in the upcoming battle with the US and its allies.

    5. Just prior to the outbreak of war in March 2003, an ABC [Australia] reporter put a story to air that conclusively showed
    that Iraqi troops in the Kurdish territories were trained in the use of battlefield chemical weapons and had every intention
    of using them. The broadcast showed the chemical weapons manuals, as well as the protective gear, that the Iraqi troops used
    to deploy their chemical weapons stockpiles.

    6. Both British and Italian intelligence have recordings of government officials from Niger discussing the selling of yellow
    cake (Uranium) to Iraqi government officials at a conference in the capital of Niger. Anti-war officials in the US tried to
    discredit this story by claiming that there were no such discussions in the auditorium at the conference. They got away this
    half-truth because technically the actual discussion took place in the hallways at the edge of the venue. However, they conveniently
    left this little detail out and shouted down anyone who tried to dispute their lie.

    Hence, anyone who tells you that Iraqi’s WMDs were a hoax is lying to you. Just because they repeat this lie over and over does not make this true.

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    cedarhill

    Don’t think this is even close to ending the Resistance Saga to overturn the 2016 election. Just ask Dan Rather about the media or ask about the end of man made global warming has occurred (hasn’t has it?).
    Mueller’s report set up on-going Democrat Congressional investigations since Mueller stated he neither confirmed nor disproved “obstruction”.

    And, for sure, Congressional Democrats already have the full text of Mueller’s report and may even have helped write it for him. Never, ever discount of make light of the evil of the Left or their methods.

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    pat

    25 Mar: CBS: John Podesta, whose emails were hacked by Russia, says he accepts Mueller report’s conclusions
    by Emily Tillett
    Podesta said it was “exceptional” that Mueller completed his report without an in-person interview with President Trump, and instead relied on submitted questions with “heavily lawyered” answers.
    “I think I know why the lawyers didn’t want him to be put before the special counsel, because Mr. Trump has a well-known inability to tell the truth, but we’ll see where this goes,” he said…
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mueller-report-john-podesta-whose-emails-were-hacked-by-russia-says-he-accepts-conclusion/

    VIDEO: 2min39sec: 26 Mar: MSNBC: John Podesta talks Attorney General Barr’s summary of Mueller report
    Andrea Mitchell reports
    Senator Lindsey Graham is reigniting calls for an investigation into the Clinton campaign’s connection to the Steele dossier. John Podesta, former Chairman Of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss.
    https://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/john-podesta-talks-attorney-general-barr-s-summary-of-mueller-report-1464372291598

    The biggest lesson from the Mueller probe? It’s about character.
    Washington Post-22 hours ago
    John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential…

    VIDEO: 8min11sec: 20 Mar: ABC: Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman discusses hacking and how to beat Donald Trump in 2020
    The World
    John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential election campaign, knows more about the political damage hackers can inflict than most people.
    Russian cyberattacks against the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign saw thousands of compromising emails from Mr Podesta’s personal Gmail account stolen, and later published by WikiLeaks in the weeks leading up to polling day.

    Speaking to national affairs correspondent Greg Jennett for the ABC’s The World program, Mr Podesta said cyber security was an issue governments across the globe needed to increase their awareness of.
    He made the comments while visiting Australia in the wake of last month’s hacking attempt against the Australian Parliament, which officials believe was committed by a foreign government…

    How Democrats can beat Donald Trump in 2020
    “I think that what the Democratic candidates need to do is two things: one is to continue to make the case that [Donald Trump] is temperamentally unfit and unqualified to be president, that he’s made bad judgments, that he ran as a populist but he governs as a plutocrat … I think it’s kind of easy in his case because he proves it every day.”…

    Mueller investigation: 37 indictments and counting
    “[Robert] Mueller’s done an incredible job, a professional job, he’s kept the whole thing buttoned up, he’s got 37 indictments, there are people pending trial like Roger Stone, [Paul] Manafort was just dirt on Hillary. ***So we know there was collusion, the question is was there a criminal conspiracy, and I think it’s worth waiting for Mueller to finally report and render his judgement and say what he thinks about the facts, and then the rest will I think fall into place.”…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-20/hillary-clinton-campaign-chair-on-how-to-beat-donald-trump/10916326

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      Dave in the States

      Poor John Podesta. He would like to cast himself and the Hillary campaign as victims. Its so unfair that their emails became public, exposing just how corrupt their candidate and their campaign were. Cry me a river. It’s the contents of the emails that matters. I am sure glad it happened.

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    pat

    25 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Leaders told to bring plans, not speeches to UN climate summit
    A landmark conference hosted by Antonio Guterres in September aims to jolt flagging international action on climate change, in line with the latest science
    By Karl Mathiesen
    Representatives of Antonio Guterres wrote to heads of government last week, urging them to “demonstrate a leap in collective national political ambition and massive low-emission movements in the real economy”.
    Climate Home News understands organisers do not intend to give politicians the UN podium for speeches, in a departure from the typical format of such events…
    “This summit will be action-oriented,” the note, which was shared with CHN, said…
    4-PAGE NOTE…

    The note is the clearest indication yet of the hardline approach Guterres will take, after a speech last year indicating he would throw himself and “the entire United Nations” into the fight against climate change.
    On a practical level, countries will be encouraged to form coalitions focused on specific aspects of the climate puzzle…

    ***With an eye to the growing global school strike movement, there is to be a special track for mobilisation and youth, overseen by the Marshall Islands and Ireland…

    UN diplomats, led by Guterres’ special envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba, are already criss-crossing the globe to drum up support for the summit…
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/03/25/leaders-told-to-bring-plans-not-speeches-to-un-climate-summit/

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    pat

    25 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Southeast Europeans ignore EU rules with €2.4bn coal subsidies
    The EU’s Energy Community neighbours ‘systematically turn a blind eye’ to its state aid rules, a report by the secretariat finds
    By Sara Stefanini
    The European Union’s southeastern neighbours pay around €2.4bn ($2.72bn) a year in subsidies for coal-fired power – contradicting the EU rules they’re supposed to follow, according to findings published (LINK) on Monday.

    The Energy Community aims to extend EU energy market rules to its “contracting parties” – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.
    That includes legal obligations to ban state aid that distorts or threatens competition – the way support for coal does in electricity markets, the Energy Community Secretariat said in a report that takes the closest look yet at their support for the fuel…
    Coal power plants in nine neighbouring countries would face “significant losses” if their direct state aid were to be eliminated and a price imposed on their carbon emissions, the secretariat report said.
    This makes it hard for Energy Community members to follow the EU’s targets for reducing emissions, as well as the Paris climate agreement, it added…

    But eliminating the subsidies would be politically controversial – triggering a significant rise in household electricity prices across the community. The estimated increases range from as big as 49% in Serbia and 37% in Montenegro, to a smaller 23% in Kosovo, the report found. Industrial power consumers would face a 36% increase in Montenegro and 34% in North Macedonia, and a drop of 9% in Kosovo…

    Climate change campaigners welcomed the findings and will now look to the European Commission to pressure the community’s members to make changes…
    https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/03/25/southeast-europeans-ignore-eu-rules-e2-4bn-coal-subsidies/

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    pat

    25 Mar: CarbonPulse: Ontario “closes book” on cap-and-trade, refunding a fraction of allowance purchases
    Ontario has “closed the book” on its brief foray into carbon trading, refunding emitters for only a fraction of the tens of millions of unusable permits bought before the government abruptly cancelled the programme last year.

    25 Mar: Ontario News: Press release: Ontario Closes the Book on Cap and Trade Carbon Tax Era
    Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
    Final chapter in the elimination of the ineffective cap and trade program
    Ontario’s government is working for the people in taking the final step to end the cap and trade carbon tax once and for all in a way that puts people first and respects Ontario taxpayers.

    The government has finalized the compensation for the eligible participants of the former program, which amounts to a total of $5,090,000. This is consistent with the government’s initial estimate of the final costs and commitment to wind down the program in a responsible way that minimizes impacts to hardworking taxpayers.

    “This closes the book on the cap and trade carbon tax era in Ontario. But in one week, the federal government will impose a brand-new job-killing carbon tax, punishing the hardworking people of Ontario,” said Premier Doug Ford. “Our government remains part of a growing coalition of provinces across Canada that oppose this cash-grab, which raises the cost of essentials like home heating and gasoline.”

    “While some cited that the wind down of cap and trade would cost taxpayers billions of dollars, we are delivering on our commitment to an orderly and transparent wind down of the cap and trade program that respects taxpayers,” said Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “This will be the final chapter in our promise to Ontario families to eliminate the ineffective cap and trade program, putting up to $260 per household back in the pockets of the people of Ontario.”
    Notices of the final compensation were sent to participants who applied under the Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018…READ ON
    https://news.ontario.ca/ene/en/2019/03/ontario-closes-the-book-on-cap-and-trade-carbon-tax-era.html

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    pat

    25 Mar: WSJ Editorial Board: Accountability for a Dossier
    The dirty trick that started the collusion fable needs exposing
    Special Counsel Robert Mueller has dispatched the Russia collusion theories to the land of cranks and bitter-enders, but there are still some loose ends. To wit, how did the partisan propaganda known as the Steele dossier become the basis for an unprecedented FBI probe of a presidential campaign, an abuse of law enforcement, and two years of media and political hysteria?

    We know the outlines of the story but not all the details, and no one has yet been held accountable under the law or even held to much public scrutiny. It’s time for both.

    The dossier was concocted in spring 2016 by oppo-research firm Fusion GPS, and financed by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Fusion hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile sensational claims, based on anonymous Russian sources, that Donald Trump was compromised by Russian intelligence
    Mr. Steele used his intelligence contacts to get the dossier to an Obama State Department official and the FBI. Fusion GPS chief Glenn Simpson funneled it to the FBI through Justice Department employee Bruce Ohr.

    Mr. Mueller’s conclusion that there was no collusion suggests that he was not able to verify the dossier’s claims, and there needs to be a reckoning. The country has endured two years of angst and controversy based on a politically motivated invention financed by the Clinton campaign and promoted by former Obama CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

    The Justice Department Inspector General is investigating, and so should prosecutors. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham is promising hearings, and he should put this entire crowd under oath. The Steele dossier looks like one of the nastiest dirty tricks in political history, and its authors and promoters should be held accountable…
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/accountability-for-a-dossier-11553555149?mod=hp_opin_pos3

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      pat

      25 Mar: WSJ: Mueller Exposes Spy Chiefs
      Did our intel leaders have any evidence when they pushed the Russia collusion line?
      By William McGurn
      Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has found that no one in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, Democrats are busy moving the goal posts. But this is a distraction from the real reckoning that needs to come.

      The one we need is for all the intelligence officials—including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — who pushed the Russia conspiracy theory. The special counsel has just made clear they did so with no real evidence.

      But there’s something even worse than an intelligence community that has been played. It’s an intelligence community that chose to play along simply because its members hated Donald Trump. For a full reckoning, America will need an accounting of the evidence used to launch that counterintelligence probe, the unmasking of officials, the leaks, and the likely abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.

      The lesson here is this: Be careful what you wish for. Because the questions this special prosecutor has unleashed might yet yield federal criminal indictments. Just not for the people the fantasists of Russian collusion expected…
      https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-exposes-spy-chiefs-11553555713

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    pat

    26 Mar: Townhall: Assume the Left Lies And You Will Discover The Truth: Reflections On The Trump-Russia Collusion Lie
    by Dennis Prager
    When the left tells us the Earth has 12 years left because of global warming, I assume they are not telling the truth. One bit of proof is that almost no one on the global-warming-will-destroy-life left advocates the safest, cheapest and most practical non-fossil-based source of energy: nuclear power. If they really believed life was existentially threatened by fossil-based fuel, they would be building nuclear reactors as fast they could make them. One reason I haven’t believed man-made global warming will destroy the Earth is that the left does.

    So, while the latest left-wing lie — Trump-Russia collusion — is now exposed, there is little to cheer about. Without missing a beat, the left — the Democratic Party, the media and academia — will move on to another lie.
    And there will be no soul-searching on the part of the media or the rest of the left.
    Why won’t there be? Because no leftist acknowledges the collusion story was a lie.
    Truth has never been a left-wing value. Like “gender,” it is whatever you want it to be.

    (Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is “The Rational Bible,” a commentary on the book of Exodus. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.)
    https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2019/03/26/assume-the-left-lies-and-you-will-discover-the-truth-reflections-on-the-trumprussia-collusion-lie-n2543732

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    pat

    great graphic:

    25 Mar: NY Post: Mueller Madness: The media pundits who got it most wrong
    by Sohrab Ahmari
    https://nypost.com/2019/03/25/mueller-madness-the-media-pundits-who-got-it-most-wrong/

    26 Mar: Washington Examiner: Byron York: On collusion, Mueller sent sign after sign, yet some would not see
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-on-collusion-mueller-sent-sign-after-sign-yet-some-would-not-see

    publisher Conrad Black:

    25 Mar: NY Sun: Conrad Black: U.S. Was Closer To Coup D’Etat Than Ever Before
    https://www.nysun.com/national/us-was-closer-to-coup-detat-than-ere-before/90625/

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    Sceptical Sam

    My last comment on this thread for the day. 🙂

    Headline: “Jeff Zucker: No Regrets on CNN’s Russia Hoax Coverage, ‘We Are Not Investigators’”

    Comment from somebody calling himself M.S: “WOW. Zuck publicly admits that his “journalists” do not investigate.

    Non-investigating “journalist” = PARROT”

    Love it.

    Lots of them at the ABC too.

    https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/03/26/jeff-zucker-no-regrets-on-cnns-russia-hoax-coverage/

    “I’m very honoured to have been asked to chair the ABC. I consider it one of the most important cultural and information organisations in our country,” she said.

    “It is the voice of the Australian people. I think it reflects our identity, it tells our stories.”

    What do you call a female parrot?

    Answer: Is that all, Ita?

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    Roy Hogue

    I’ve probably said enough on this thread already and Jo has moved on but I can’t resist one more comment.

    Today the full range of possible Democrat reactions is starting to appear. Already I’ve seen everything from, “We’re still right. There’s plenty of evidence of collusion,” to circling the wagons for defense hoping to make it so air tight that the enemy can’t get an arrow though to bite them.

    Nancy Pelosi tells Democrats to drop it and concentrate on bills that further the gains that helped them win the House, in other words ignore it even though all their contenders for president have been yelling for blood for the whole length of their campaigns.

    If nothing else this little — what shall I call it… …maybe morality play — is going to provide political circus like no other for a long time. And in spite of Democrats looking into every last breath Donald Trump has drawn in his life, he’s going to be in the driver’s seat. He’s already got his emergency declaration because the Democrats couldn’t override his veto and he has a Supreme Court that understands what the Constitution says and does not say.

    I love it. We have a winner in this president. They threw all they had at him and he comes out on top. 🙂

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    toorightmate

    I am waiting for CNN to announce that they have found a link between Putin and Russia.

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    pat

    25 Mar: WSJ: A Catastrophic Media Failure: Journalists botched the Russia story from birth to its final breath
    by Sean Davis
    Robert Mueller’s investigation is over, but questions still abound. Not about collusion, Russian interference or obstruction of justice, but about the leading lights of journalism who managed to get the story so wrong, and for so long.

    It wasn’t merely an error here or there. America’s blue-chip journalists botched the entire story, from its birth during the presidential campaign to its final breath Sunday—and they never stopped congratulating themselves for it. Last year the New York Times and Washington Post shared a Pulitzer Prize “for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.” A 2017 Time magazine cover depicted the White House getting a “makeover” to transform it into the Kremlin.

    All based on a theory—that the president of the United States was a Russian asset—produced by a retired foreign spy whose work was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. An unbiased observer would have taken the theory’s partisan provenance as a red flag, but most political journalists saw nothing but green lights. No unverified rumor was too salacious and no anonymous tip was too outlandish to print.

    So much for accepting Robert Mueller’s conclusions and recommendations. If your objective is to bring down Mr. Trump, nothing Mr. Mueller or anyone else finds—or fails to find—makes a difference. Mr. Trump didn’t collude with Russia, but he did defeat Mrs. Clinton. From their behavior it is evident that many in the media view that as sufficient to establish his guilt. For them, the Trump-Russia investigation was never about protecting democracy or securing elections—never mind telling the truth, which is supposed to be their job…
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-catastrophic-media-failure-11553555444?mod=hp_opin_pos1

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    pat

    25 Mar: LifeZette: So How Fake Is Fake News? Media Published 500,000-Plus Stories About Russia Collusion
    By The Political Insider Staff
    Now that we know the Trump-Russia “collusion” story the media have been obsessed with for two years was all a hoax, exactly how many stories did they put out about it?
    Over half a million.

    Axios reports that since May 2017, exactly 533,074 web articles have been published about Russia and Trump-Mueller, which in turn have generated “245 million interactions — including likes, comments and shares — on Twitter and Facebook.”
    Axios determined these findings by compiling data from social media analytics company NewsWhip…

    How about TV time? It gets worse, though, in our view.
    The Media Research Center (MRC) said that major media gave 2,284 minutes of coverage to the Russia probe.
    “From January 20, 2017 (Inauguration Day) through March 21, 2019 (the last night before special counsel Robert Mueller sent his report to the attorney general), the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts produced a combined 2,284 minutes of ‘collusion’ coverage, most of it (1,909 minutes) following Mueller’s appointment on May 17, 2017,” MRC reports (emphasis theirs)…

    The fake news media won’t stop. As if that weren’t bad enough, fake news outlets like CNN are still camped outside Robert Mueller’s office.
    The Political Insider reported Monday:
    “CNN’s Evan Pérez said Mueller was spotted dressing down at the office,” reports The Week. “On Thursday, CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz noted that Mueller didn’t leave for lunch as he usually does.”
    Heavy stuff, indeed…
    When will these reporters go away?
    This is a new low for the media from which they might never recover…
    https://www.lifezette.com/2019/03/so-how-fake-fake-news-media-published-500000-stories-russia-collusion/

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    pat

    26 Mar: The Hill: John Solomon: US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 election
    By John Solomon
    It turns out the group that Ukrainian law enforcement was probing was co-funded by the Obama administration and liberal mega-donor George Soros. And it was collaborating with the FBI agents investigating then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.
    The implied message to Ukraine’s prosecutors was clear: Don’t target AntAC in the middle of an America presidential election in which Soros was backing Hillary Clinton to succeed another Soros favorite, Barack Obama, Ukrainian officials said.
    “We ran right into a buzzsaw and we got bloodied,” a senior Ukrainian official told me…READ ALL
    https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435906-us-embassy-pressed-ukraine-to-drop-probe-of-george-soros-group-during-2016

    how to kill the Trump exoneration story!

    Smollett was not due in court until April 17:

    14 Mar: CNN: Smollett pleads not guilty
    The next hearing is scheduled for April 17…

    27 Mar: NBC: Jussie Smollett case: Chicago prosecutors drop all charges against ‘Empire’ actor
    Smollett, 36, was seen arriving at a Chicago courtroom around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday for an emergency hearing…

    26 Mar: Breitbart: George Soros Spent $408k on Kim Foxx, Prosecutor in Jussie Smollett Case
    by Joel B. Pollak
    Left-wing billionaire mega-donor George Soros donated $408,000 in 2016 to a super PAC that supported Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whose office prosecuted — and dropped — the Jussie Smollett case…

    Foxx had formally recused herself from the case in February because she had spoken with Smollett’s family. The Chicago Tribune later reported that Foxx had asked police to turn the case over to the FBI after an intervention by Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama…

    Soros has spent heavily on backing “progressive” candidates for local prosecutorial offices across the nation, following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, which alleged that black defendants have been treated unfairly by the justice system…
    As chicagoist.com reported in 2016, Alvarez received donations from the “old-boy” network, but Foxx found other donors, including Soros…
    As Breitbart News has reported extensively, Soros has been intervening in local races for prosecutor, state’s attorney, and district attorney — often backing left-wing Democrats against other Democrats in doing so…
    The decision to drop the charges was officially made by Joe Magats, first assistant state’s attorney.
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/26/george-soros-donated-408k-to-kim-foxx-prosecutor-who-let-jussie-smollett-walk/

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      pat

      the Smollett farce is exploding faster than the FakeNewsMSM is uniformly praising the dropping of all charges.

      Fox’s Rafer Weigel was just on with Laura Ingraham/Fox, saying people in Chicago are now wondering if Kim Foxx really did recuse herself. that she didn’t consult with Supt Johnson or Mayor Rahm Emanuel (ex-Obama Chief of Staff) prior to making an announcement at the emergency hearing.

      some of this can be gleaned from the replies to this tweet:

      TWEET: Rafer Weigel, Fox 32 Chicago:
      Going on @IngrahamAngle now to talk #JussieSmolett charges being dropped
      26 Mar 2019
      READ REPLIES
      https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1110732678133923840

      TWEET: Rafer Weigel:
      #CPD source says they found out SA Kim Foxx’s office was going to drop charges against #JussieSmolett through a source this morning just before academy graduation. Foxx did not contact Supt Johnson or the Mayor b4 hand which the source called “unprofessional” and “disrespectful”.
      26 Mar 2019
      READ REPLIES
      https://twitter.com/RaferWeigel/status/1110730065053212672

      the timing of this announcement is sooooo suspect, given this is the moment calls are getting louder to investigate Obama/Clinton and their enablers in Spygate.

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        pat

        26 Mar: Vulture: Cook County Drops All Criminal Charges Against Jussie Smollett
        By Hunter Harris
        TMZ reports that the State Attorney Kim Foxx told local police she was dropping the case because Smollett would’ve “only gotten community service if convicted and she said he has already performed community service so there is no point in prosecuting him.” According to TMZ, Chicago police are reportedly “furious” about the decision…
        Smollett was previously represented by Mark Geragos, who was named as a co-conspirator in Michael Avenatti’s alleged attempt to blackmail Nike…

        Eddie Johnson, the city’s police superintendent, agreed with (Mayor Rahm) Emanuel’s critical stance. “At the end of the day, it is Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax, period,” Johnson said. “If he wanted to clear his name, the way to do that is in a court of law so everyone can see the evidence. I stand by the facts of what we produced.”…

        ***ABC News confirmed Smollett participated in community-service efforts this week in the Chicago area. On March 23 and 25, he did a total of 16 volunteer hours at Jesse Jackson Sr.’s nonprofit organization, Rainbow Push. Smollett’s service included “working in the bookstore, critiquing in the broadcast studio, and speaking to students and parents who visited.”
        https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/cook-county-drops-criminal-charges-against-jussie-smollett.html

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    pat

    26 Mar: Adweek: Scoreboard: Monday, March 25
    by A.J. Katz
    The day after Attorney General Barr released his four-page summary of the Mueller report, Fox News averaged more prime time viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined
    https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/category/ratings

    26 Mar: Adweek: Scoreboard: Monday, March 25
    Total Viewers (Live+SD x 1,000)
    Total Day: FNC: 2160 | CNN: 590 | MSNBC: 1112
    Prime: FNC: 3.749 | CNN: 846 | MSNBC: 1.956
    https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/scoreboard-monday-march-25/397838

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    pat

    26 Mar: NY Post: Trump ‘ready to declassify everything’ from Russia probe: (Lindsey) Graham
    by Nikki Schwab
    Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Trump is ready to release a trove of documents related to the Russia probe – but the South Carolina Republican recommended caution.
    “Yeah, I think he’s ready to declassify everything, but you know, we want to make sure we don’t reveal sources and methods,” Graham said Tuesday.

    For months, the president has been thinking about declassifying documents, such as FISA warrant applications. In November, Trump told The Post he was waiting for an opportunistic time to drop them…
    Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said he planned to investigate whether FISA – short for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – warrants were abused…
    https://nypost.com/2019/03/26/trump-ready-to-declassify-everything-from-russia-probe-graham/

    throw caution to the wind. release.

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    Snowleopard

    “First the verdict, then the trial.” (per Alice in Wonderland) has morphed into “First the verdict, then the investigation.” All are expected to do what they are told or the massive know/see everything “control files” are used as a threat to demand obedience. BUT “If there is nothing in our “control files” we will make something up.” It works most times because who has the money to fight the beast??

    This comedy of errors shows that the so called Democrats, intel agencies, USA national “Law enforcement” and world mainstream media are all parts of the same beast seeking control of all of us.

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