The NYT Blames Trump for FBI/DOJ Wrongdoing Against Him

US President Donald Trump speaks during his address to the nation from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on August 21, 2017.
Trump warned Monday that a hasty exit from Afghanistan would create a “vacuum” that would benefit America’s jihadist foes, in a major policy address on his strategy in the 16-year conflict. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

The Times long ago destroyed its credibility – suppressing hard truths on vital issues, substituting willful disinformation.

The self-styled newspaper of record is part of a cabal trying to oust Trump from office for the wrong reasons – a coup d’etat plot to remove a sitting president for defeating Hillary, a media darling, guilty of wrongdoing throughout her public life.

The Times went all-out to denigrate the Russiagate FISA memo, exposing high-level FBI and DOJ wrongdoing, wanting its contents suppressed.

A previous article explained that the FBI and DOJ sought multiple FISA warrants based on unverified information from former MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dodgy dossier on Trump – his work funded by Hillary and the DNC to denigrate him during the 2016 presidential campaign, continuing once in office.

It attempted to smear him with specious, unproven allegations of improper or illegal connections to Russia – including phony accusations of Russian US election meddling.

Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe admitted in testimony that without the Steele dossier, he couldn’t have gotten FISA court warrants.

America’s DOJ, FBI and intelligence community have a well-documented history of abuse of power – notably against Jack and Bobby Kennedy, along with Martin Luther King, eliminated to silence them and end their influence over US policymaking.

Russiagate investigations are a scam. House and Senate investigations are vitally needed to expose abusive practices by the above agencies.

The NYT lobbied against release of the FISA memo. Following its release, it continued its campaign against important information it revealed, publishing multiple articles and commentaries.

A Sunday one  headlined “Trump’s Unparalleled War on a Pillar of Society: Law Enforcement,” saying:

“Under attack by the president, the deputy FBI director, Andrew G. McCabe, was pushed out in recent days. Mr. Trump has hinted that he may fire the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein.”

“And his aides fear that Christopher A. Wray, his FBI director, may resign over the dispute with the bureau, although associates doubt it.”

“The war between the president and the nation’s law enforcement apparatus is unlike anything America has seen in modern times.”

Fact: McCabe, Comey, and Rosenstein sought FISA warrants to investigate Trump’s team based on fabricated allegations.

Fact: Trump sacked Comey earlier. McCabe resigned to avoid sacking for wrongdoing. Rosenstein should be sacked.

Fact: All three and others involved at the FBI and DOJ should be prosecuted for wrongdoing, establishing a precedent to hold high-level US officials accountable for their crimes.

A Times commentary headlined “The Memo Doesn’t Vindicate Trump. It’s More Proof of Obstruction,” saying:

Trump “said…the memo’s release…’vindicates’ him in the probe,” including for “obstruction. (I)t does no such thing.”

Fact: Trump is guilty of serious wrongdoing, major war crimes especially. No evidence suggests he obstructed justice. Claims otherwise by the Times, other media scoundrels and undemocratic Dems are phony.

Another Times commentary headlined “The Nunes Memo Is All Smoke, No Fire,” saying the memo “does not establish an ‘abuse of the foreign intelligence laws.”

Probable cause is required to get FISA warrants, wrongdoing committed if the DOJ and FBI “intentionally or willfully omit(ted) important information that could defeat the probable cause finding.”

“(T)he memo doesn’t make its case. It should prompt more confusion than outrage,” the Times falsely claimed.

Fact: Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele’s dodgy dossier was funded by Hillary and the DNC to denigrate Trump and help defeat him in the 2016 election.

Fact: As explained above, McCabe admitted that without Steele’s dossier, he couldn’t have gotten FISA warrants – several because they expire in 90 days.

Fact: Steele failed trying to get his dossier published, getting no takers. Media he approached turned him down because his information was unverified.

Fact: DOJ and FBI applications to the FISA court failed to mention Steele’s dossier was funded by Hillary and the DNC – even though high-level officials in both agencies knew it.

Fact: Privately, Steele told later demoted FBI agent Bruce Ohr he wanted Trump prevented from becoming president.

The FBI, DOJ and intelligence community have well-documented histories of abuse of power, including by targeting political leaders.

Based on unverified information in Steele’s dodgy dossier, no probable cause existed to justify issuance of FISA warrants.

Times reports failed to explain this and other vital information. It remains furious over Trump’s electoral triumph, defeating its campaign to get war criminal, racketeer, perjurer Hillary elected president – still smarting from her defeat.

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Media Scoundrels Slam FISA Memo Release

Lots more like it are needed, exposing corrupt practices in Washington – high-level officials responsible for serious ethical and legal breaches.

The swamp overflows with wrongdoing. Many officials in the nation’s capital are responsible for what goes on, few ever held accountable.

Deplorable practices continue unabated, release of the FISA memo not likely to change things.

The NYT went all-out to denigrate the Russiagate FISA memo, wanting its contents suppressed, continuing to wage editorial war on Trump for the wrong reasons.

Following the memo’s release, the Times continued its offensive with a barrage of articles and commentaries.

One column headlined “How Trump’s Allies Fanned an Ember of Controversy Into Flames of Outrage,” saying the memo’s release “was broadly greeted with criticism, including by some Republicans. They said it cherry-picked information, ma(king) false assertions…It didn’t live up to the hype.”

Read it and judge for yourself. It’s clear evidence of the Washington swamp filled to overflowing, unaccountable extrajudicial practices. The memo covered one issue. Countless others need exposure to the light of day.

Another Times column headlined “House Republicans Release Secret Memo Accusing Russia Investigators of Bias” – calling it “politically charged, national security officials and outraged Democrats…accus(ing) Republicans of misrepresenting sensitive government information through omissions and inaccuracies.”

What else would scoundrels and their supporters caught red-handed say!

Another headlined “Thank Progressives for the Nunes Memo,” saying:

“The move is nakedly partisan, and it certainly seems as if Republicans are trying to discredit the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling.”

It should have been discredited months ago. No Russian meddling occurred. No evidence proves any.

A day earlier Times column before the memo’s release headlined “The Republican Plot Against the FBI,” saying:

“In a demonstration of unbridled self-interest and bottomless bad faith, the Trump White House and its Republican minions in Congress are on the cusp of releasing a ‘memo’ that purports to document the biggest political scandal since Watergate.”

“To pull it off, they are undermining the credibility of the law enforcement community that Republicans once defended so ardently, on the noble-sounding claim that the American public must know the truth.”

“Don’t fall for it.”

The FBI, DOJ and CIA are enemies of rule of law principles and freedom-loving people everywhere.

Times editors headlined “We’ve Got the Memo. Now What About Trump’s Tax Returns?”

One issue has nothing to do with the other. The Times wants the subject changed, diverting attention from what’s most important, supporting what demands condemnation.

The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post quoted FBI director Christopher Wray telling bureau employees:

“The American people read the papers, and they hear lots of talk on cable TV and social media.”

“But they see and experience the actual work you do – keeping communities safe and our nation secure, often dealing with sensitive matters and making decisions under difficult circumstances.”

“And that work will always matter more. Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure.”

The FBI is America’s Gestapo. We’d all be better off if the bureau was disbanded, ending its longstanding abuses, its contempt for rule of law principles.

WaPo editors headlined “The Nunes memo is a giant, damaging distraction,” saying:

“(T)he infamous Nunes memo does nothing to discredit the Russia investigation, which was President Trump’s transparent aim in authorizing its release on Friday.”

“It also does little to show abuse of surveillance law, which was the pretext on which House leaders justified its disclosure.”

Shameful comments! The memo’s information speaks for itself. The sham Russiagate investigation is the most scandalous abuse of power since Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts.

He hurt many people unjustifiably, ruined careers for political reasons, accomplishing nothing else, leading to his fall from grace and Senate censure. He died a broken man at age-48.

Today’s scandal is worse, aiming to prevent a presidential candidate from winning the nation’s highest office, then trying to oust him for the wrong reasons.

Instead of explaining flagrant abuse of power practices in Washington, media scoundrels want them suppressed.

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The NYT Wants Alleged Russiagate FISA Abuses Suppressed

They come from a four-page memo released to House members – discussed in previous articles.

Investigative journalist Sara Carter’s sources called the memo’s classified revelations shocking and explosive – possibly “lead(ing) to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice,” adding:

It “contains information regarding the (fabricated Christopher Steele) dossier that alleges President Trump and members of his team colluded with the Russians in the 2016 presidential election.”

House Republicans want the document made public. So does Trump. According to Carter, it reveals “problematic” issues on how FISA warrants were obtained for the Russiagate investigation – serious abuses, according House members who’ve read the memo.

An unnamed GOP House member said “(w)e probably will get this stuff released by the end of” January. The House Intelligence Committee voted to make it public.

Another unnamed source said the House Intelligence “committee document…deals with the assessment on the Department of Justice, FBI and the oversight work that is being conducted by the committee.”

Since initiated by CIA director John Brennan in 2016, Russiagate is all about delegitimizing Trump for the wrong reasons and bashing Russia – a colossal scam.

Not a shred of credible evidence supports the allegations, nothing warranting endless witch-hunt congressional and special counsel investigations.

If serious wrongdoing was committed by FBI, Justice Department and perhaps other US officials, it should be made public – followed by accountability, the way to end the Russiagate scam.

The NYT supports coverup. It wants Russiagate investigations continued, Russophobic anti-Trump federal officials free to continue their witch hunt – instead of responsibly ending the scam, along with sacking and prosecuting culpable US officials.

The Times mocked House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, saying:

“In nearly every crime-caper movie there’s a shifty guy on the street corner who, seeing the cops in hot pursuit, flips over a fruit cart to slow them down and give the culprits a chance to get away.”

“In Trump-era Washington, that role is being played with impressive conviction by Devin Nunes…supported by a rotating coterie of conspiracists in Congress and the usual suspects on right-wing cable news…tossing out sinister-sounding allegations of wrongdoing by federal law enforcement officials.”

If wrongdoing was committed by federal officials, it should be revealed, not suppressed.

Clearly Russiagate investigations lack credibility. They never should have been initiated. They should be ended straightaway.

Evidence of high-level wrongdoing in Washington is how how to end the most disgraceful chapter in Capitol Hill history since the shameful Joe McCarthy era – a despicable figure Harvard Law School dean Ervin Griswold once described as “judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one.”

The Times: “The whole point of (Nunes’) game is to make the job of the actual investigators harder while confusing the public about where the true scandal lies.”

It lies in DNC headquarters, the offices of undemocratic Dem leaders and other party members, as well as in scoundrel media editorial board rooms – plotting ways to remove Trump and endlessly bash Russia.

The Times: “Democrats have called the memo ‘profoundly misleading’ and have said its factual allegations are taken out of context.”

How do they know? They haven’t seen it. Fact-checking is vital to learn if information it contains is shocking and explosive as claimed. Coverup is complicity with wrongdoing if it occurred.

The Times disgracefully suggested Russia may be involved in wanting the memo’s information released. It mocked an FBI “secret society” allegation, instead of calling for an investigation to learn if it exists.

It relates to a possible high-level FBI cabal wanting Trump’s presidency undermined. If true, the truth should be revealed with credible evidence supporting it, along with individuals involved held accountable.

The Times: “Mr. Nunes and his ilk are causing real and possibly lasting damage for nothing more than a short-term political win.”

Sunshine is the best disinfectant. It’s absent in Times reporting. The same goes for other media scoundrels.

It’s sorely needed to expose wrongdoing in the Washington swamp.

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WikiLeaks Releases Proof of NY Times Colluding With Clinton’s State Dept to Deceive America

A New York Times reporter was exposed colluding with the U.S. State Department by providing a timetable of upcoming publications during Cablegate.

Meanwhile In The UK: Going About Our "Normal" Lives?

Authored by Douglas Murray via The Gatestone Institute,

• One of the most striking images from the night of the London Borough Market terror attack was of drinkers being marched out of the Market under police escort with their hands on their heads. The British public at that point looked not like stoical, pugnacious heroes, but like a defeated army being marched into captivity.


• Contrary to all our public statements, we have become terrorised, just as the terrorists want.


• It is a glimpse into the soul of a city; and like all such ugly glimpses, we will turn away from looking at it, rather than considering it and wondering what it truly suggests.

Whenever Britain suffers a terrorist attack -- and it has suffered four Islamist attacks this year alone -- the British public responds the same way.

Twelve years ago, when four suicide bombers detonated homemade bombs on the London underground and on a red-top bus in central London, there was much talk of "Blitz spirit". After 7/7, the media erupted with boasts of wartime echoes. Some people who lived in London noticed a rather different atmosphere. Of course people "got on with their lives" (what else could they do?) but in the days and weeks after the attacks it was not really "business as usual". Especially not after another four suicide bombers went onto the tube a fortnight later, on July 21, and attempted to repeat the exercise. Fortunately, on that occasion the bombs failed to detonate. But during the period that ensued, it was certainly easier than usual to get a seat on the London Underground.

Of course, political leaders relish the opportunity to accentuate and exaggerate these echoes. If the British public are the citizens of London in the Blitz, then the politicians are Winston Churchill. After attacks like the 2013 daytime slaughter of Drummer Lee Rigby on the streets of London, then-Prime Minister David Cameron stressed from the steps of Downing Street that "One of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives. And that is what we shall all do." These themes are thought to play deep to the spirit of the British people.

But the more this conspicuous, self-conscious egging-on of such attitudes is stressed, the thinner it seems to get. In March, after Khalid Masood ploughed a car across Westminster Bridge, mowing down locals and tourists, and crashed the car and stabbed policeman Keith Palmer to death inside the gates of the Palace of Westminster, one prominent British journalist took to the pages of the New York Times to pour out the clichés.

"By Thursday morning, London was, if not quite back to normal, then certainly back in business. As I traveled through the south of the city, up to Chelsea and later over to King"s Cross, Londoners really were going about their lives as on any other day.

 

"This behavior reflects something deeper than conscious defiance, I think. It would simply not occur to the 8.6 million citizens of this megalopolis to allow one man to send them into hiding. As they say in the East End, you"re having a laugh, aren"t you?"

One wonders when the author last went into an East End pub to have a pint, and whether he honestly believes such honest cockneys still reside there? Nevertheless, he went to boast of the "stoicism" and "ancestral pride" that still exists there and to insist that, "The only way to proceed is -- in the much-loved British slogan -- to keep calm and carry on." Quite why this spirit is meant to reside in the bones of a city in which most of its current residents (according to the last census) have arrived in the decades since the Second World War is never clear.

Similar clichés spilled out after the suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena in May. They came out yet again after the London Bridge attack in June. Yet one of the most striking images from that night was of drinkers in Borough Market, where the terrorists finished their assault, being marched out of the Market under police escort with their hands on their heads. The British public at that point, at any rate, looked not like stoical, pugnacious heroes, but like a defeated army being marched into captivity. Still the clichés continued. The day after the attack, in her address to the nation, Prime Minister Theresa May assured the public that "Our response must be as it has always been when we have been confronted by violence. We must come together, we must pull together."

One of the most striking images from the June 3, 2017 Borough Market terror attack was of drinkers being marched out of the Market under police escort with their hands on their heads. The British public at that point looked not like stoical, pugnacious heroes, but like a defeated army being marched into captivity. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

So it is interesting to consider, beneath all the talk of business as usual, and Blitz spirit, and keeping calm and carrying on, what, in fact, are the British public actually feeling? Last month provided a sobering demonstration.

Early in the evening on Friday, November 24 there were reports of shots having been fired at Oxford Circus station. A crowd stampede occurred, with people fleeing in terror down Oxford Street and other parts of one of London"s busiest shopping areas. Terrified crowds barricaded themselves into local shops. A celebrity singer and television presenter called Olly Murs tweeted to his millions of followers that he was in Selfridges department store. "F**k everyone get out of Selfridges now gun shots!! I"m inside." That was his first unwise tweet, followed up shortly after with, "Really not sure what"s happened! I"m in the back office... but people screaming and running towards exits!"

The police announced that they were responding to events as though they were a terrorist incident. Social media and some early national media reports said that not only gunshots had been heard but that a vehicle had ploughed into pedestrians on Oxford Street and that there were bodies and blood everywhere.

Within an hour, however, all this turned out to be nonsense. Not only had there been no vehicular attack -- there had been no gunmen. Reports that the incident may have been sparked by a gang fight rather than a terrorist attack were themselves later quashed. The next day two men who thought they might have been responsible for the panic voluntarily came into a police station and were released without charge. The only casualties from the incident were 16 people injured, one seriously, as a cause of the mass stampede out of Oxford Circus station and through the neighbouring area.

Incidents like this one in London last month easily flow by in the news cycle, and are easily forgotten. They will not be referred to in the speeches of any politician and they immediately fell away from even the "News in Brief" sections of the nation"s media. But they are in fact extremely telling. They suggest that rather than being this persistently stoical, unbending and resilient people, the citizens of London have absorbed the lessons of the terror attacks of the last year and the terror attacks across Europe that have occurred in the years preceding them, in Paris and elsewhere. Contrary to all our public statements, we have become terrorised, just as the terrorists want. So much so that a minor altercation on an average evening can lead to a mass panic, a crowd stampede, and terrified public figures bleating to their followers about wholly imagined horrors. It is a glimpse into the soul of a city. And like all such ugly glimpses, we will turn away from looking at it, rather than consider it and wondering what it truly suggests.

Liberals Behind "The Young Turks" And Vice Apologize For Blatant Sexism

The founders of two liberal news outlets found themselves apologizing over sexist remarks and a "boy"s club" environment filled with sexual harassment. Cenk Uygur, creator and host of popular liberal news show, The Young Turks (TYT), apologized last week for a series of now-deleted blog and social media posts from the early 2000s, published by The Wrap. 

Cenk Uygur

In one entry from 2000 entitled "Rules of Dating," Uygur says of third dates: "If I haven"t felt your tits by then, things are not about to last much longer. In fact, if you don"t get back on track by the fourth date, you"re done." Uygur"s "Rule 2" of dating: "There must be orgasm by the fifth date," and "Rule 3" states "There must be sex by the second month of dating."

There are a lot of allowable exceptions to this rule, but they all involve orgasms.  I"ll let you slide if for unseen circumstances we haven"t gotten to see each other much, and you have been providing me with some excellent orgasms in the meanwhile.

 

But there are no foreseeable reasons why anyone would slip into the fourth month of dating without sex.  But since you do provide a certain level of sexual satisfaction, I will give a requisite talking to you to see "what"s wrong."  If you don"t give it up the date after "the talk," you"re done. -Cenk Uygur

In another post, after an apparent lack of sex, Uygur declared that "the genes of women are flawed" because they "do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully." 

There"s quite a bit more on Uygur"s past statements which have been compiled by journalist Cassandra Fairbanks.

Uygur"s defense to his old posts was to claim he was a was a different back then; "I had not yet matured and I was still a conservative who thought that stuff was politically incorrect and edgy. When you read it now, it looks really, honestly, ugly." This post from January, 2000, however - in which Uygur slams conservative Pat Buchanan, suggests his ugliness was coming from the left.   

Oh boy, @TheYoungTurks need to buckle up because if 1/3 of what im hearing is true I can’t see them lasting past Spring. The death blows won’t even be coming from the right, either.

— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) December 24, 2017

In this week"s second exposé, the New York Times ousts left-leaning media outlet VICE for its "boy"s club" environment - from which allegations of sexual harassment and revenge were levied by over two dozen women who say they experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct at the company. 

VICE co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi (Reuters/Mike Segar)

VICE settled with four other women for sexual harassment or defamation as well. 

An investigation by The New York Times has found four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees, including its current president. -NYT

In a statement to The Times, CEO Shane Smith and co-founder Suroosh Alvi said “from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive,” adding that a "boys club" culture at Vice had "fostered inappropriate behavior that permeated throughout the company." 

In 2016, Vice"s president, Andrew Creighton paid $135,000 to a former employee who was fired after she wouldn"t sleep with him, while earlier this year, VICE settled with former employee Martina Veltroni, who claimed that her supervisor retaliated against her after they had a sexual relationship. The supervisor, Jason Mojica - the former head of Vice News, was fired last month. 

Joanna Fuertes-Knight

The $6 billion media company also reached a $24,000 settlement with a London journalist, Joanna Fuertes-Knight, who said she had been sexually harassed, and suffered racial and gender discrimination along with bullying. She claims that a Vice producer, Rhys James, made sexist statements to her - including asking whether or not she slept with black men, as well as the color of her nipples. 

Vice started out in 1994 as a punk magazine in Montreal, Canada, before growing to a multi-billion dollar multimedia company catering to millennials. Walt Disney owns an 18% stake, while private equity firm TPG invested $450 million in June, valuing the company at around $5.7 billion. 

Saudi General Reportedly Tortured To Death After Refusing To Fork Over His Fortune

Rumors that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has hired mercenaries to torture recalcitrant royals and officials sleeping in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh have been circulating since shortly after last month’s “corruption crackdown” naked cash grab.

Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman

Now, Middle East Eye reports that one of MbS’s guests has reportedly died under torture rather than fork over his money and assets to his domineering relative. He was reportedly beaten and tortured so bad his family members had difficulty recognizing his body.

Major general Ali Alqahtani, who was detained in early November as part of an alleged anti-corruption drive, had been working in the royal guard forces.

 

He was the manager of the private office of Prince Turki Bin Abdullah, the son of former king Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, according to the newspaper.

 

Alqahtani died on 12 December after being tortured with electric shocks, and his family struggled to recognise him after receiving his body, according to sources, the newspaper reported.

We know this might come as a shock to some – Tom Friedman and the New York Times said MbS was such a nice guy! But that doesn’t change the fact that he is effectively extorting members of his own family to help plug a gaping hole in the Saudi government’s budget, willfully employing violence when necessary in a fashion that would make Tony Soprano proud. Case in point: Yesterday, we noted that the Saudi government had reportedly made Prince Alwaleed bin Talal – one of the world’s richest men - an offer he cannot refuse: Either fork over $6 billion to the Treasury, or spend the rest of his life being strung upside down and tortured by foreign mercenaries.

Back when oil was at $100 and above, the Saudi economy was firing on all cylinders, and nobody even dreamed that the crown jewel of Saudi Arabia - Aramaco - would be on the IPO block. But official data released earlier this week showed the Saudi economy contracted this year for the first time in eight years. It’s estimated to have shrunk by 4% as thousands of state-subsidized jobs have disappeared.

But despite the contraction, the Saudis have announced a radically expansionary budget for 2018. The government is forecasting spending at 978 billion riyals ($260.8 billion), up 10% on 2017 estimates, as the royal family’s proxy war against Iran in Yemen enters its third year.

Even though oil prices are seemingly stuck at $50 a barrel, the Saudi government knows that its survival depends in part on placating the country’s citizens, who’ve grown accustomed to the trappings of a lavish welfare state.

This goes back to one of the reasons MbS has been able to get away with his crackdown: millions of regular Saudis have lauded MbS’s treatment of his fellow royals, seeing it as their long-overdue comeuppance.

Given that political opposition to the Crown Prince – who is expected to soon succeed his ailing father as king.

Treason: Presidential Candidates Successfully Conspired with Foreign Leaders to Thwart Official American Policy and Drag Out War

Long-time rumors about presidential candidate Nixon conspiring to delay the Vietnam War were recently confirmed.

A year ago, historian and journalist John A Farrell wrote in the New York Times:

fA newfound cache of notes left by H. R. Haldeman, [Nixon’s] closest aide, shows that Nixon directed his campaign’s efforts to scuttle the peace talks [President Johnson’s 1968 peace initiative to bring the war in Vietnam to an early conclusion], which he feared could give his opponent, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, an edge in the 1968 election. On Oct. 22, 1968, he ordered Haldeman to “monkey wrench” the initiative.

 

 

***

 

We must now weigh apparently criminal behavior that, given the human lives at stake and the decade of carnage that followed in Southeast Asia, may be more reprehensible than anything Nixon did in Watergate.

 

Nixon had entered the fall campaign with a lead over Humphrey, but the gap was closing that October. Henry A. Kissinger, then an outside Republican adviser, had called, alerting Nixon that a deal was in the works: If Johnson would halt all bombing of North Vietnam, the Soviets pledged to have Hanoi engage in constructive talks to end a war that had already claimed 30,000 American lives.

 

But Nixon had a pipeline to Saigon, where the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, feared that Johnson would sell him out. If Thieu would stall the talks, Nixon could portray Johnson’s actions as a cheap political trick. The conduit was Anna Chennault, a Republican doyenne and Nixon fund-raiser, and a member of the pro-nationalist China lobby, with connections across Asia.

 

“! Keep Anna Chennault working on” South Vietnam, Haldeman scrawled, recording Nixon’s orders. “Any other way to monkey wrench it? Anything RN can do.”

 

Nixon told Haldeman to have Rose Mary Woods, the candidate’s personal secretary, contact another nationalist Chinese figure — the businessman Louis Kung — and have him press Thieu as well. “Tell him hold firm,” Nixon said.

Here are some screenshots from Haldeman’s notes in Nixon’s presidential library:

Nixon also sought help from Chiang Kai-shek, the president of Taiwan. [An enemy of the United States.] And he ordered Haldeman to have his vice-presidential candidate, Spiro T. Agnew, threaten the C.I.A. director, Richard Helms. Helms’s hopes of keeping his job under Nixon depended on his pliancy, Agnew was to say. “Tell him we want the truth — or he hasn’t got the job,” Nixon said.

 

***

 

Nixon had cause to lie. His actions appear to violate federal law, which prohibits private citizens from trying to “defeat the measures of the United States.” His lawyers fought throughout Nixon’s life to keep the records of the 1968 campaign private. The broad outline of “the Chennault affair” would dribble out over the years. But the lack of evidence of Nixon’s direct involvement gave pause to historians and afforded his loyalists a defense.

Time has yielded Nixon’s secrets. Haldeman’s notes were opened quietly at the presidential library in 2007, where I came upon them in my research for a biography of the former president.

 

***

 

When Johnson got word of Nixon’s meddling, he ordered the F.B.I. to track Chennault’s movements. She “contacted Vietnam Ambassador Bui Diem,” one report from the surveillance noted, “and advised him that she had received a message from her boss … to give personally to the ambassador. She said the message was … ‘Hold on. We are gonna win. … Please tell your boss to hold on.’ ”

 

In a conversation with the Republican senator Everett Dirksen, the minority leader, Johnson lashed out at Nixon. “I’m reading their hand, Everett,” Johnson told his old friend. “This is treason.”

 

“I know,” Dirksen said mournfully.

 

Johnson’s closest aides urged him to unmask Nixon’s actions. But on a Nov. 4 conference call, they concluded that they could not go public because, among other factors, they lacked the “absolute proof,” as Defense Secretary Clark Clifford put it, of Nixon’s direct involvement.

 

Nixon was elected president the next day.

The BBC’s 2013 report adds details:

Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson’s telephone calls provide a fresh insight ….

 

***

 

By the time of the election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks – or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had “blood on his hands”.

 

***

 

In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris – concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared.

 

Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal.

 

So on the eve of his planned announcement of a halt to the bombing, Johnson learned the South Vietnamese were pulling out.

 

He was also told why. The FBI had bugged the ambassador’s phone and a transcripts of Anna Chennault’s calls were sent to the White House. In one conversation she tells the ambassador to “just hang on through election”.

 

Johnson was told by Defence Secretary Clifford that the interference was illegal and threatened the chance for peace.

This is treason: contacting foreign leaders, including enemies of the United States, in order to thwart official U.S. policies and prolong war.

(There is also some rather intriguing circumstantial evidence that presidential candidate Ronald Reagan convinced the Iranians not to release American hostages until after the election … to make rival candidate Jimmy Carter look weak.)

That is in sharp distinction to the common practice of presidential candidates contacting foreign leaders for normal diplomatic purposes.

On the other hand, what type of foreign contacts did candidate Trump have with Russia?

The only thing which has proven so far is that Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael “Flynn asked Russia’s ambassador to refrain from escalating the situation regarding the U.S. sanctions on Russia” and “Flynn asked Russia’s ambassador to delay a vote on pending UN Security Council resolution on Israel”.

The first request would promote peace between two nuclear superpowers by delaying an escalating round of sanctions from spiraling out of control.

The second didn’t succeed … Russia ignored the Trump administration’s request, and voted to condemn Israeli settlements.

Such actions pale in comparison to what Nixon (and perhaps Reagan) did.

McCabe Testimony Contained "Numerous Conflicts" With Previous Witnesses; Subpoenas Planned

After Eight Hours Of Testimony And More Scheduled For Thursday, Congressional investigators tell Fox News that Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe dodged questions on the "Trump-Russia" dossier, and his testimony "contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses" so much that the House Intelligence Committee is planning to issue new subpoenas next week to Justice Department and FBI Personnel. 

While HPSCI staff would not confirm who will be summoned for testimony, all indications point to demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker, who accompanied McCabe, along with other lawyers, to Tuesday’s HPSCI session. -Fox News

“It’s hard to know who’s telling us the truth,” said one House investigator after McCabe’s questioning - which was reportedly spearheaded by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). 

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe

Individuals thought to be on the new subpoena list include demoted DOJ official Bruce Orr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker. Notably absent, however, is Peter Strzok - the veteran counterintelligence agent in charge of both the Hillary Clinton email "matter" and the early Trump-Russia investigation who sent anti-Trump text messages to his mistress. 

McCabe was described as a "friendly witness" to Democrats in the room, who tried to enlist McCabe in building a case against President Trump for obstruction of justice. "If he could have, he would have" said one witness in the closed door session. 

When asked about how hard the FBI worked to verify the anti-Trump "dossier," McCabe stood by its credibility - despite the FBI"s unwillingness to pay former MI6 spy Christopher Steele an agreed upon $50,000 if he could verify the claims in the document which relied on senior Kremlin officials. 

Per the New York Times

The agent said that if Mr. Steele could get solid corroboration of his reports, the F.B.I. would pay him $50,000 for his efforts, according to two people familiar with the offer.

 

Ultimately, he was not paid.

When asked about funding for the dossier, McCabe claimed he could not recall whether or not the Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the report - despite the alleged existence of documents which McCabe signed establishing his knowledge of its financing and provenance. 

Curiously, ahead of McCabe"s Thursday appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee for a "transcribed interview," the DOJ has announced that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe "will not be in a position to discuss matters that are within the scope of the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III." 

Dep FBI Dir McCabe to appear before Hse Judiciary Cmte Thursday in classified setting for a "transcribed interview." DoJ tells cmte "McCabe will not be in a position to discuss matters that are within the scope of the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.”

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 20, 2017

The news comes a week after McCabe canceled a previously scheduled testimony after a Fox News report that the wife of Senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr worked for Fusion GPS, the company which created the Trump-Russia dossier. 

Perhaps McCabe revealed too much to the House Intelligence Committee - because it appears the Judiciary Committee won"t be able to ask McCabe questions such as whether or not the FBI launched their Russia investigation based on the unverified Fusion GPS "Trump-Russia" dossier, which was funded in part by Hillary Clinton and the DNC and was created with the cooperation of high level Kremlin officials.

Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr

If McCabe can"t talk about the genesis of the Trump-Russia investigation, it likely also means there will be no discussion of the anti-Trump text messages sent by the lead FBI investigator on both the Clinton email probe and the Trump-Russia investigation to his mistress - which includes the infamous "Insurance Policy" text.

Does this also mean the Clinton email investigation is off limits due to Peter Strzok"s involvement? 

• No questions about the FBI"s extensive edits to the Clinton exoneration statement made by FBI top brass, and overseen by Deputy Director McCabe - which effectively decriminalized the behavior of a candidate for US President while running for office? 

• No questions about the immunity agreements given to Hillary Clinton"s IT staff which installed her illegal server, and went on Reddit to ask how they could "strip VIP"s emails?" 


• No questions about which DOJ employees conducted the "mid-year review" during the investigation of Secretary Clinton"s use of a private email server?

Was McCabe allowed to discuss his potential hatch act violation? 

Perhaps little birds in the House Judiciary Committee will relay the details of tomorrow"s testimony to Fox News and we"ll be all the wiser. 

Shocking Animation Shows Amtrak Train 501 Speeding Around Bend

A day after Amtrak Train 501 derailed yesterday during its first trip on a new high-speed rail line, authorities are releasing more information about what Amtrak and the NTSB can do to prevent future accidents.

Last night, authorities revealed that – contrary to initial reports that an object on the tracks might’ve caused the accident – Train 501 had been traveling 80 mph around a bend where the recommended speed was 30 mph. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether the engineer was distracted by another employee.

The excess speed is shown in this animated simulation released by ABC...

 

Animation of how the #Amtrak train derailed near DuPont yesterday, from @ABC #LiveOnK2 pic.twitter.com/arHZAKg0No

— KATU News (@KATUNews) December 19, 2017

 

And, in another eerie clip, an NBC reporter covering the launch of the new high-speed train line has published footage recorded inside the train on the day of the accident. The reporter and his cameraman were spared when they got off at a stop just 10 minutes before the train tumbled onto Interstate I-5.

 

NEW: I shot this video on board the #Amtrak501 in the 6 o clock hour this morning. We got off after shooting the video. This specific car on the train derailed minutes after we shot this video. pic.twitter.com/3g25PvMAMe

— Alex Rozier (@AlexRozierK5) December 18, 2017

 

The reporter later tweeted that he interviewed the same passenger both on the train and later in the hospital, where he was being treated for a broken back.

Just last month, the NTSB reported that Amtrak had a “weak safety culture,” according to the New York Times. That conclusion stemmed from the fatal accident outside Philadelphia in 2016 that killed eight people and seriously injured dozens more.

During a Tuesday news conference held by the NTSB, a member of the board said that a newer safety system was not in place during the deadly train crash near Seattle because of a Congressional extension.

Bella Dinh-Zarr spoke during a Tuesday news conference about the Monday derailment that killed at least three people, saying that Positive Train Control technology, which was mandated by a 2008 law and is supposed to prevent train-to-train collisions as well as slow and stop trains, was not yet installed on the train line.

There were plans to install the PTC system for the train, which had another safety system in place, but Congress extended a 2015 deadline to be met by the end of 2018, she said.

Sound Transit said Tuesday that the company was on track to have the system installed ahead of a December 2018 federal deadline, according to the local NBC affiliate.

To be sure, it clearly wasn’t installed quickly enough. What’s worse, the circumstances of the crash mirror those of the 2016 crash. In that instance, the train was traveling at 100 mph when it entered a bend in the track, and quickly derailed.

Meet The Team Building North Korea"s Nuclear Missiles

In recent years, North Korea has frustrated the US intelligence community, which has struggled to determine exactly how Kim Jong Un and his regime have managed to make so much progress, so quickly in their quest to develop a nuclear weapon capable of striking the Continental US.

The international community has authorized one round of sanctions after another, and yet they appear to have little impact on the country’s economy. If anything, these efforts have only served to strengthen the Kim’s grip on power by feeding the narrative - taught to every North Korean child - that the US is an evil, imperialist antagonist bent on subjugating the North.

While the exact means by which the North has managed to survive such immense international pressure remain a mystery, the New York Times has a theory: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has cultivated an aura of reverence and celebrity around the country’s nuclear scientists.

These celebrity scientists are known by nicknames like the “nuclear duo” and the “missile quartet”.

They also occupy a unique place in the North Korea power structure: While Kim, 33, has executed scores of senior officials - including his own uncle - he has turned the scientists into public heros. So far, not one nuclear scientist has been punished by the regime.

“We have never heard of him killing scientists,” said Choi Hyun-kyoo, a senior researcher in South Korea who runs NK Tech, a database of North Korean scientific publications. “He is someone who understands that trial and error are part of doing science."

As a result of this, each of the six nuclear tests conducted since 2006 has been more powerful than the last, an incredible feat of engineering, considering the restraints.

Kim has elevated science as an ideal in the regime’s propaganda and put his fondness for scientists and engineers on prominent display across North Korea.

One of the carrots Kim has offered his prized scientists is a street called “Future Scientists Street”. Opened four years after Kim assumed power in 2011, the street is reportedly filled with gleaming towers for scientists, engineers and their families.

Kim also opened a sprawling complex shaped like an atom that showcases the nation’s achievements in nuclear science, and where decadent galas are held to celebrate the nuclear program’s progress.

There is little doubt what is behind Mr. Kim’s passion for science. In ubiquitous propaganda posters, North Korean rockets soar into space and crash into the United States Capitol.

After successful tests, scientists and engineers are honored with huge outdoor rallies.

While international sanctions prohibit the teaching of science with potential military applications to North Korean students, the regime has hit upon several clever strategies to import nuclear research from the outside world.

Also, the country still manages to send talented students abroad to study science in places like China, India and even Germany.

Kim wasn’t the first North Korean leader to adopt these special privileges for scientists. Indeed, his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, embraced science as he struggled to rebuild North Korea from the ruins of the Korean War. He embraced those trained in Japan when Korea was a Japanese colony and later sent hundreds of students to the Soviet Union, East Germany and other socialist states.

One of them was So Sang-guk, a nuclear scientist who emerged as a key figure in the nation’s nuclear program but seems to have retired.

However, since taking power, Kim Jong-un appears to have overseen a generational shift at the top of the weapons program, elevating a group of scientists and officials about whom little is known.

But now, analysts have identified six figures who have repeatedly appeared alongside Mr. Kim at key moments - four tied to missile development and two associated with nuclear tests.

Two members of the “missile quartet” are scientists, according to state media. Jang Chang-ha is 53 and president of the Academy of National Defense Science, and Jon Il-ho, 61, is commonly described as an “official in the field of scientific research.”

Ri Pyong-chol appears to be the quartet’s highest-ranking member. A former air force commander, he serves as first deputy director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s munitions industry department.

Kim Jong-sik, 49, first began appearing with Kim Jong-un in February 2016 and has an engineering background. His rise has coincided with an acceleration of test launches, but he and Ri did not attend last month’s launch.

Ri Hong-sop is the director of North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Institute. He appears to be a key figure in the nuclear program.  

Hong Sung-mu, the other member of the “nuclear duo,” is a former chief engineer at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, the birthplace of the North’s nuclear weapons program.

But in perhaps one of the most significant trappings of the scientists’ status in North Korean society is the picture below, where several scientists can be seen sharing a cigarette with Kim - a major privilege considering Kim is revered like a God in North Korea.

After successful tests, sometimes Kim will even embrace his scientists, some of whom can be seen weeping. In another stunning image, Kim can be seen carrying one of the scientists on his back - a play on an old Korean tradition.

North Korea carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet back in September when it detonated what was estimated to be a 300 kiloton bomb. Despite indications that the North’s longtime test site at Punggye-ri is suffering from “tired mountain syndrome”, satellite imaging recently showed the North’s military is hard at work on a new tunnel located in a remote area of the test site...

...Suggesting that the North is already preparing to carry out what would be its seventh nuclear test.
 

"Look At That Thing!" - The NYT Reveals The Pentagon"s Mysterious UFO Program

When tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theories cross paths with massive "defense" budgets and excited politicians, "stranger things" happen.

Welcome to The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

As The New York Times exposes, within the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.

The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena.

Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.

And while the clapping of crony capitalism screams alod from those two last sentences, one watch of the following video (just one of many), suggests the boondoggle may be based in some kind of reality after all... (the footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves. The Navy pilots can be heard trying to understand what they are seeing. “There’s a whole fleet of them,” one exclaims. Defense officials declined to release the location and date of the incident.)

Mr. Reid, who retired from Congress this year, said he was proud of the program.

“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Mr. Reid said in a recent interview in Nevada.

 

“I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”

While not addressing the merits of the program, Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at M.I.T., cautioned that not knowing the origin of an object does not mean that it is from another planet or galaxy.

“When people claim to observe truly unusual phenomena, sometimes it’s worth investigating seriously,” she said.

 

But, she added, “what people sometimes don’t get about science is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained.”

Read more here...

Congresswoman Says Rumor Is That Trump Will Fire Mueller Before Christmas

Republican lawmakers have been increasingly frustrated by revelations that one of the FBI agents who had a pivotal role in both the early stages of what became the Mueller investigation and the bureau’s decision to excuse Hillary Clinton shared anti-Trump sentiments with his mistress, also an FBI employee.

Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley fired off a letter to the DOJ asking Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to explain this and other disturbing revelations indicating bias toward Trump from within both the DOJ and the Mueller probe specifically. To wit, nearly every Mueller team member donated to at least one of Hillary Clinton’s campaigns. Furthermore, Mueller’s right-hand man Aaron Zebley represented the IT staffer who installed Clinton’s illegal server.

These frustrations came to a head earlier this week when Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Rosenstein engaged in a testy exchange during the latter’s public testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

Given the mounting pressure on Mueller, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Friday that the rumor on Capitol Hill is that President Donald Trump is planning to fire Mueller before Christmas, but after Congress leaves Washington for the winter recess.

“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller," Speier told California"s KQED News.

According to the Hill, Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that Trump was trying to shut down the committee"s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. As evidence, she pointed to the lack of interviews scheduled for the new year.

The New York Times reported Friday that the committee is scheduling its final witnesses of the year to testify in New York despite important votes coming up in Washington, DC, and confirmed no additional witnesses are scheduled yet in 2018.

"We can read between the lines I think," Speier said. "I believe this president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations, and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller."

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), also said Friday that he is worried that Republicans leading the committee are seeking to shut down the committee"s investigation by the end of the year.

"Republicans have scheduled no witnesses after next Friday and none in 2017 [sic]. We have dozens of outstanding witnesses on key aspects of our investigation that they refuse to contact and many document requests they continue to sit on," he tweeted Friday.

Of course, there’s also reason to take Speier’s comments with a grain of salt: Rumors that Trump might fire Mueller have been circulating since May.

"There is no intention or plan to make any changes in regards to the special counsel," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in October.

John Lennon Was Right: The Government Is Run By Maniacs For Maniacal Means

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

Not much has changed in the 37 years since John Lennon was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet.

All of the many complaints we have about government today - surveillance, corruption, harassment, political persecution, spying, overcriminalization, etc. - were used against Lennon, who never refrained from speaking truth to power and calling for social justice, peace and a populist revolution.

Little wonder, then, that the U.S. government saw Lennon as enemy number one.

A prime example of the lengths to which the U.S. government will go to persecute those who dare to challenge its authority, Lennon was the subject of a four-year campaign of surveillance and harassment by the U.S. government (spearheaded by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover), in an attempt by President Richard Nixon to have him “neutralized” and deported. As Adam Cohen of the New York Times points out, “The F.B.I.’s surveillance of Lennon is a reminder of how easily domestic spying can become unmoored from any legitimate law enforcement purpose.”

Years after Lennon’s assassination, it would be revealed that the FBI had collected 281 pages of surveillance files on him. As the New York Times notes, “Critics of today’s domestic surveillance object largely on privacy grounds. They have focused far less on how easily government surveillance can become an instrument for the people in power to try to hold on to power. ‘The U.S. vs. John Lennon’ … is the story not only of one man being harassed, but of a democracy being undermined.”

Such government-directed harassment was nothing new.

The FBI has had a long history of persecuting, prosecuting and generally harassing activists, politicians, and cultural figures, including Martin Luther King Jr.

In Lennon’s case, the ex-Beatle saw that his music could mobilize the public and help to bring about change. Yet while Lennon believed in the power of the people, he also understood the danger of a power-hungry government. “The trouble with government as it is, is that it doesn’t represent the people,” observed Lennon. “It controls them.”

By March 1971, when his “Power to the People” single was released, it was clear that Lennon was ready to participate in political activism against the U. S. government, the “monster” that was financing the war in Vietnam.

The release of Lennon’s Sometime in New York City album, which contained a radical anti-government message in virtually every song, only fanned the flames of the government’s war on Lennon.

In 1972, Nixon had the ex-Beatle served with deportation orders “in an effort to silence him as a voice of the peace movement.” Despite the fact that Lennon was not plotting to bring down the Nixon Administration, as the government feared, the government persisted in its efforts to have him deported. Equally determined to resist, Lennon dug in and fought back. Finally, in 1976, Lennon won the battle to stay in the country. By 1980, the old radical was back and ready to cause trouble.

Unfortunately, Lennon’s time as a troublemaker was short-lived.

Mark David Chapman was waiting in the shadows on Dec. 8, 1980, just as Lennon was returning to his New York apartment building. As Lennon stepped outside the car to greet the fans congregating outside, Chapman dropped into a two-handed combat stance, emptied his .38-caliber pistol and pumped four hollow-point bullets into Lennon’s back and left arm.

John Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Much like Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy and others who have died attempting to challenge the powers-that-be, Lennon had finally been “neutralized.” 

Yet Lennon’s legacy lives on in his words, his music and his efforts to speak truth to power.

Even so, his work to change the world for the better is far from done.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, peace remains out of reach. Activists and whistleblowers continue to be prosecuted for challenging the government’s authority. Militarism is on the rise, all the while the governmental war machine continues to wreak havoc on innocent lives. And those who do dare to speak up are labeled dissidents, troublemakers, terrorists, lunatics, or mentally ill and tagged for surveillance, censorship or, worse, involuntary detention.

As Lennon shared in a 1968 interview:

I think all our society is run by insane people for insane objectives…

 

I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal means.

 

If anybody can put on paper what our government and the American government and the Russian… Chinese… what they are actually trying to do, and what they think they’re doing, I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing.

 

I think they’re all insane. But I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”

So what’s the answer?

Lennon had a multitude of suggestions.

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”

 

“Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders….You have to do it yourself.”

 

“Peace is not something you wish for; It’s something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.”

 

“War is over, if you want it.”

In other words, fighting the evil of the American police state can only come about by way of conscious thoughts that are put into action.

Do you want an end to war? Then stop supporting the government’s military campaigns. Do you want government violence against the citizenry to end? Then demand that your local police de-militarize. Do you want a restoration of your freedoms? You’ll have to get the government to recognize that “we the people” are the masters in this relationship and government employees are our public servants.

The choice is ours.

The power (if we want it), as Lennon recognized, is in our hands.

“The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people,” concluded Lennon. “The people are unaware. They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government.”

For the moment, the choice is still ours: slavery or freedom, war or peace, death or life.

The point at which we have no choice is the point at which the monsters—the maniacs, the powers-that-be, the Deep State—win.

As Lennon warned, “You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.”