[American Thinker] The infamous "Steele Dossier" seems to have assumed a permanent place in American presidential politics. Just this week the Dossier was cited by numerous pundits in the mainstream media as proof of Trump-Russia collusion. In the remote event you missed it, the Dossier is a compilation of salacious allegations against President Trump made by unnamed Russian sources and compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy and one-time FBI informant. For unknown reasons, Steele was reportedly desperate to prevent Trump’s election. He was not alone in his angst.
Erstwhile Russian involvement is critical to the Resistance claim that the 2016 election was illegitimate. Too bad for the claim, none of the Steele allegations have been verified despite two years of heroic media effort. Yahoo News pundit Michael Isikoff, one of the first to break the story in 2016, has admitted Steele’s allegations are "likely false." Former FBI Director James Comey has testified that FBI had been unable to verify any of the allegations. Steele himself testified under oath to British authorities that he too is unable to verify any of the Dossier’s claims. Yet the media still uses the Dossier to make its "case" for collusion.
This is not to say the Russians didn’t try to interfere in the U.S. elections, only that the Steele Dossier provides no proof of Trump-Russia collusion. Neither do the reported findings to date of the Mueller probe. The DoJ indictment of Russian agents for attempted interference explicitly rules out witting involvement of any Americans. The indictments also disavow that any votes were corrupted by Russian efforts.
#1
The Russians were not trying to get Trump elected - like everyone else they thought he had no chance. They were trying to contaminate the election process - and succeeded beyond expectations. I am sure somewhat similar activities - probably more and worse - are there to be uncovered about Hillary, to have been exposed had she won.
[Rudaw] Ottoman TurkishArclight airstrikes against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region are nothing new. Ankara’s most recent attacks on the group, however, struck areas presently under the control of the Baghdad government.
Joel Wing, author of the Musings on Iraq blog, pointed out that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has attacked suspected PKK targets "with increasing intensity" in the northern part of the Kurdistan Region over "the last several months".
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/20/2018 00:27 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Cause the Shia rulers in Baghdad have no more love for Kurdish independence than the Turks?
[Free Beacon] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Wednesday released a statement criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria, calling it an "Obama-like mistake."
The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, followed by others, reported on Wednesday that Trump planned to "immediately" remove U.S. troops from northern Syria. Trump appeared to confirm these reports on Twitter by saying that the United States "defeated" the Islamic State in Syria.
"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," Trump tweeted.
#2
The SDF is in pretty firm control of NE Syria. Barring a major Turkish invasion I don't think they are too worried. However, there is a small area near the Jordan border that is a defacto safe zone.
Also, what about air cover?
Does anyone know if this will still be ongoing?
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/20/2018 6:09 Comments ||
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#3
Graham is very shallow on this topic. There is no comparïson between the Obama situation and this situation.
No Russion ordered Wagnor Group assault on our forces occured under Obama as it did in Syria and with renewed US vs Russian sabor rattling happening, a second, more effective assault opportunity should not be allowed in Syria. The ISIS threat is greatly reduced.
US casualties were too high under Obama. Trump promised to reduce casualties and he is acting on his promise as Commander in Chief.
Those people have been slugging it out for thousands of years. What are we going to gain by interfering in their apparent genetic disposition to tribalism, murder and mayham ?
#5
I doubt that many people get that this is just the first indication that the Pentagon is turning back towards trying to find the budget for hardware like the Columbia class subs, B-21 bombers and next gen ICBMs. Time to stop wasting scarce resources on whack-a-mole.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/20/2018 8:18 Comments ||
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#7
Does Graham have a magic wand and with one flourish '♫Magickus Appearus♫! Peace Breaks Out!' -OR- do we plan on staying there until the Heat Death of the Universe?
#8
Graham should not be allowed to get away with his continued dabbling in RINOhood. Instead, he should be required to defend his position of why troops should continue to stay in Syria.
#10
So if Trump keeps them there he is wasting dollars because ISIS is defeated. They had him both ways with their anti Trump messaging. If we were to stay we would have to help rebuild, costing millions. Let the UN handle that. Time to go home, there is nothing in Syria worth staying for...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/20/2018 16:21 Comments ||
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#11
Today is a damn bizarre day. The Russian slimy propaganda news RT is accusing China of Ethnic Cleansing by restricting Uighurs doing physical work to 500 calories...
‘Horrendous Atrocity’: Uighurs claim Ethnic Cleansing in China (VIDEO) https://youtu.be/z2XMamPQVsw
#14
When was the last time some GOs said - we have too many missions, please cut some?
And BTW, you've lost control of your southern border thus the homelands. Doesn't matter what the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Syrians et al are doing or could do someplace in the world. You've already lost at home. See - frog and boiling water.
Careful scrutiny of how the left operates reveals a tiered hierarchy. There is a small cadre of elite leftist leaders who know the true nature of the evil that they perpetrate. This leadership is utterly self-serving and utterly cynical. This is where you find the true psychopaths, racial eugenicists, etc. Examples include Vladimir Lenin, Lavrentiy Beria, Heinrich Himmler, and George Soros.
They have a praetorian guard of similarly elite true believers in the causes trundled out for consumption by the leadership. These are intelligent, motivated, and charismatic champions of causes like environmentalism, multiculturalism, Malthusianism, etc. These are the people who cannot psychologically afford to accept that they might be serving an untrue belief system, so they will readily and casually reveal their cognitive dissonance to others without being able to see it in themselves.
And finally, the foot soldiers: These are the ones who march to the tune of whichever drummer promises the brightest utopia for the least amount of personal effort and investment. It is these that have been cultivated to be emotionally infantile adults incapable of critical thought. It is these who hold simplistic worldviews and decide with their emotions instead of their intellects. They tend to believe the caricature of their enemies that has been painted for them by their leadership, but their relative proximity to actual circumstances at ground level causes them to see through the ruse occasionally. These foot soldiers are perpetually subdivided into smaller and smaller special interest groups. They aren't especially evil; their chief problem is unquestioning loyalty to the left's leadership.
[The Hill] The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's chief advocacy and policy development officer said in an interview that aired Wednesday on "Rising" that the U.S. is taking itself out of genetic exploration by prohibiting certain kinds of genetic engineering.
"We have great scientists. We have great oversight of science in this country," Sean Tipton told Hill.TV's Buck Sexton in an interview last month.
"We're taking ourselves out of the game. What happens when you do that is the work is going to be done in other places by other people, who may not have those same kind of oversights," he continued.
Tipton's comments come after Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, claimed he was able to edit the genes of twin babies in an effort to protect them from HIV. The scientist said the breakthrough could protect children and their future offspring from genetic diseases such as certain types of cancer and muscular dystrophy.
#2
I believe attempts at selective breeding have taken place previously. (Photo of the 'Old Slave House' located near Equality, Illinois. The attic contained a single window, sleeping stalls and buck quarters)
A great war was fought which brought an end to this madness.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Free Beacon] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on Wednesday released a statement criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria, calling it an "Obama-like mistake."
[The Hill] The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's chief advocacy and policy development officer said in an interview that aired Wednesday on "Rising" that the U.S. is taking itself out of genetic exploration by prohibiting certain kinds of genetic engineering. 
