THE DEEP STATE BODY COUNT ... AND ITS NOT OVER YET!

IF ONLY THE WALLS COULD TALK!

That other plot – to bring down Trump
Pat Buchanan: 'The real indictment here is of the American political system' ... AND THE LOSERS ARE ...

Patrick J. Buchanan About | Email | Archive
Pat Buchanan was twice a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and the Reform Party's candidate in 2000. He is also a founder and editor of The American Conservative. Buchanan served three presidents in the White House, was a founding panelist of three national TV shows, and is the author of 11 books. His latest book is "Nixon's White House Wars."Published: 21 hours ago
THE LEFT UNHINGED

JEFF SESSIONS AND THE BANANA PEEL ... ONE COULD ALMOST POINT A FINGER AT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NOT TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS ... INSTEAD MANY ARE BEING GORED (PUN INTENTED!) ...

A REAL HAND JOB!

HILLARY & BILL THE BONNIE AND CLYDE OF THE U.S. POLITICS HAVE HAD MORE CONTACT WITH VALDIMIR PUTIN THAN HIS WIFE AND TRUMP ... SO WHERE DO THEY FIT INTO THE ROBERT MUELLER HOLLOWEEN PARTY?

Well over a year after the FBI began investigating “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has brought in his first major indictment.
 

MUELLER'S CATCH LIKE UNWANTED GUESTS AFTER THREE DAYS ... MAYBE MANAFORT IS JUST LIVE BAIT!

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has been charged with a series of crimes dating back years, though none is tied directly to President Donald Trump or 2016.

With a leak to CNN that indictments were coming, Mueller’s office stole the weekend headlines. This blanketed the explosive news on a separate front, as the dots began to be connected on a bipartisan plot to bring down Trump that began two years ago.
 

And like “Murder of the Orient Express,” it seems almost everyone on the train had a hand in the plot.

The narrative begins in October 2015.

Then it was that the Washington Free Beacon, a neocon website, engaged a firm of researchers called Fusion GPS to do deep dirt-diving into Trump’s personal and professional life – and take him out.

A spinoff of Bill Kristol’s The Weekly Standard, the Beacon is run by his son-in-law. And its Daddy Warbucks is the GOP oligarch and hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer.

From October 2015 to May 2016, Fusion GPS dug up dirt for the neocons and never-Trumpers. By May, however, Trump had routed all rivals and was the certain Republican nominee.

So the Beacon bailed, and Fusion GPS found two new cash cows to finance its dirt-diving – the DNC and the Clinton campaign.

To keep the sordid business at arm’s length, both engaged the party’s law firm of Perkins Coie. Paid $12.4 million by the DNC and Clinton campaign, Perkins used part of this cash hoard to pay Fusion GPS.

Here is where it begins to get interesting.

In June 2016, Fusion GPS engaged a British spy, Christopher Steele, who had headed up the Russia desk at MI6, to ferret out any connections between Trump and Russia.

Steele began contacting old acquaintances in the FSB, the Russian intelligence service. And the Russians began to feed him astonishing dirt on Trump that could, if substantiated, kill his candidacy.

Among the allegations was that Trump had consorted with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel, that the Kremlin was blackmailing him, that there was provable collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

IT'S SIMPLY AMAZING THAT THE MSM COULD IDENTIFY FICTION CONSIDERING THE CRAP THEY PRINT!

In memos from June to October 2016, Steele passed this on to Fusion GPS, which passed it on to major U.S. newspapers. But as the press was unable to verify it, they declined to publish it.

Steele’s final product, a 35-page dossier, has been described as full of “unsubstantiated and salacious allegations.”

Steele’s research, however, had also made its way to James Comey’s FBI, which was apparently so taken with it that the bureau considered paying Steele to continue his work.

LOOK JIMMY BOY NOTHING UP MY SLEEVES 

About this “astonishing” development, columnist Byron York of the Washington Examiner quotes Sen. Chuck Grassley:

“The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for president in the run-up to the election raises … questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the Obama administration’s use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political ends.”

The questions begin to pile up.

What was the FBI’s relationship with the British spy who was so wired into Russian intelligence?

TRICK OR TREAT

Did the FBI use the information Steele dug up to expand its own investigation of Russia-Trump “collusion”? Did the FBI pass what Steele unearthed to the White House and the National Security Council?

Did the Obama administration use the information from the Steele dossier to justify unmasking the names of Trump officials who had been picked up on legitimate electronic intercepts?

THE OXYMORON AND THE MORONS

In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed they did not know that Perkins Coie had enlisted Fusion GPA or the British spy to dig up dirt on Trump.

Yet, when Podesta testified, the lawyer sitting beside him in the committee room was Marc Elias of Perkins Coie, who had engaged Fusion GPS and received the fruits of Steele’s undercover work.

Here one is tempted to cite Bismarck that, if you wish to enjoy politics or sausages, you should not inquire too closely how they are made.

Thus we have Free Beacon neocons, never-Trump Republicans, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC, a British spy and comrades in Russian intelligence, and perhaps the FBI, all working with secret money and seedy individuals to destroy a candidate they could not defeat in a free election.

If future revelations demonstrate that this is what went down, it is not only the White House but the entire electoral system that has major problems.

If you wish to know why Americans detest politics and hate the “swamp” that has been made of their capital city, follow this story all the way to its inevitable end. It will be months of unfolding.

THE REAL LOSERS ARE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

The real indictment here is of the American political system, and the true tragedy is the decline of the Old Republic.

WITHOUT A SCORE CARD EVERY SHOT IS A MULLIGAN

LISTEN CAREFULLY ... IT IS THE ESSENCE OF OUR COUNTRY, OUR REPUBLIC

LOCK HER UP ... HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Journalistic Psychosis using society as a reflecting pool ... "doing reporting the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"?

To put it in simple terms, to a certain degree, everyone is insane and participates in their own individual psychosis; then they project their psychosis upon society to influence the mass illusion, defining normal within the construct of a civilization, a civilized society with barbaric and brutal laws, ideals, and beliefs. Does proper attribution (Einstein in most online quote accumulations, however there is by all accounts a huge open deliberation about the realness of this attribution. Others like Mark Twain, an old Chinese saying and Benjamin Franklin have additionally been recommended as the originators) really matter in the terms of relative truth, or is seeking such validation an act of insanity within itself; and before the denial and confirmation bias to protect their cognitive dissonance begins, do I realize that my explanation means that I am insane? Perhaps, but the best judge is you and your mirror.

HAVE THEY NO SHAME ...

Pelosi face spasms mar speech; Utters gibberish, confuses ‘trillions’ and ‘billions’ ...

What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi? SHORT ANSWER NOTHING ... REVISED ANSWER SHE WAS ELECTED WITH 84% OF THE VOTE IN HER DISTRICT. 

During her weekly press conference on Thursday, the House Minority Leader was seen stumbling over words, uttering gibberish, staring blankly at reporters, and on at least two occasions, suffering from face spasms.
 
“What an event-filled morning has been,” Pelosi began, botching her opening line.

It went downhill from there.  SOMEONE GET THE HOOK!

“Really one that, uh, marks a transf— for—” she said, before staring at reporters barely 10 seconds into the appearance, and finally saying, “transformative moment…”

Moments later, she confused “trillions” and “billions.”

“When President Bush left office the deficit was 1.4 trillion,” she said as she suffered an apparent facial spasm, “uh, trillion dollars. So you’re talking about an enormous amount of money. The national debt increased by an enormous amount — the debt was 1.4 billion in terms of the deficit.”

No wonder the federal government is spending so wildly when leaders can’t tell a number that has 9 zeros from one that has 12.

“This is about the American people and how policy here affects them,” she said. After staring and murmuring something softly, she blurted out “low,” before continuing, “instead let’s go to the table…”

Answering a reporter’s question, she started by uttering gibberish, before recovering and saying, “We’re here for the American people…”

Seconds later, she said, “Education being essential. Education, by the way, being any money being spent on education that—” she said before stopping and staring at reporters, and continuing.

Pelosi suffered another facial spasm when she attempted to say “declaring an emergency.”

Suffering an apparent brain freeze, Pelosi said, “House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans and the White House, as to uh— what— when that will happen,” blurting it out.

Moments later, she struggled to say “continuing.”

“It has to happen soon so that we can have it done, uh, by the um— the end of the— con— ca— uh, the continuing resolution,” she finally said.

Is it any wonder more Democrats are calling for new leadership?

3 DEMOCRATS IN A ELEVATOR ONE FARTS AND THEY BLAME ...

TRUMP ... NOW THAT'S RICH ... Panetta: Intelligence Committee Needs to Look into Clinton/DNC Dossier Payment ... Frist intelligent question Wolf Blitzer asks since being on Jeopardy! 
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta said that the Senate Intelligence Committee is going to have to look into the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for funding the controversial Trump dossier during an interview on Thursday.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Panetta how it was possible that neither “the chair of the DNC and the Clinton campaign” knew about payments for the dossier.

“Well, it’s obviously something that the Intelligence Committee is going to have to look at,” Panetta said. “You know, knowing presidential campaigns, they’re big operations and somehow the left hand may not know what the right hand is doing. And that could be the case here.”

Panetta continued, “I really do think that the committee is going to have to get into this, determine just exactly what happened. Who knew what and when?”

Blitzer followed up by asking Panetta why Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias didn’t tell Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta, they had paid for the dossier.

Elias was the lawyer was represented the Clinton campaign and DNC, during the election and is alleged to have paid Fusion GPS for the Trump dossier.

“Well, it certainly makes the situation very awkward,” Panetta said. “If you’re testifying and saying you have no knowledge, and the attorney sitting next to you is one of those that knew what was involved here, I think it does raise an issue that the committee is going to have to look at and determine just exactly who knew what.”

I THINK I GOT IT ...

Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington PostClinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier - The Washington Post

IN CONGRESS ... YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ... BUT THEN KEEP DIGGING FOR THE PONY

Roger Stone 'complied' with House Intelligence on identity of Julian Assange intermediary ... 
Diana Stancy CorrellOct 13, 2017, 9:08 PM

Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone has "complied" with the House Intelligence Committee's request to provide the identity of his emissary with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stone's attorney said on Friday.

A useful parable and life lesson for the Special Prosecutor ...

"There's a Pony in There Someplace" ... A young father tried very hard to prepare his son for the ‘real world’ by providing challenging experiences. His son was a natural optimist and never learned the hard lessons Dad wanted him to learn…he always saw the bright side.  

The father wracked his brains trying to think of something that would force his son to see the dark side, the unhappy side of life. He desperately wanted to toughen his son up so he would develop a jaundiced eye.

He thought he had a plan. For Christmas, he transported a four-foot high pile of horse manure into the house, right next to the Christmas tree. Surely, this, as his only present, would humble and humiliate the child and he could properly navigate the cold cruel world.

Christmas morning came, and the father told his son that there was one present for him by the tree. The child ran down the stairs, beheld the pile, and jumped up and down in glee.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! This is the best present ever! Oh, Daddy. I love it!”

The mystified father dropped into his chair in confusion. A huge pile of manure as his only present, and the boy was ecstatic? How? 

The father repeated…”This is your only present. This is all you get for Christmas.”

“I know!! I’m so excited!” 

“Son, why are you happy to get a pile of manure for Christmas?”

“Oh, Daddy!! There’s a pony in there someplace!”

One day after a subpoena was threatened if Stone refused to comply by Friday, Grant Smith, an attorney for Stone, said "Mr. Stone has complied with the committee's requests. No further statement will be issued," according to CNN.

• Smith did not disclose whether that meant Stone actually did reveal the identity of the intermediary.

Stone attracted scrutiny after he appeared to anticipate document dumps from WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, and even said once Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta or Tony Pedesta's "time in the pile" would occur soon.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Stone dismissed claims he had any prior intel that WikiLeaks would release Podesta's emails. Rather, he said the statement was based off his own investigations of Podesta.

Stone testified before the House intelligence panel during a closed session in September, where he fielded questions about contacts with the Russian hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 election. Members of the U.S. intelligence community have said they believe Guccifer 2.0 was used by Russian intelligence to propagate stolen emails.

Although Stone claimed during the hearing he did not participate in any collusion with the Russians to interfere with the election, he told reporters afterward he answered all questions, except he did not disclose the name of his intermediary with Assange.

Stone claimed the exchange with his intermediary was an off-the-record discussion with a journalist and he would not disclose the journalist's identity, although he said he would follow up and ask the journalist if he could unveil the journalist's identity.

Stone has said he had no direct contact with Assange and said he learned Assange had obtained Democratic National Committee emails in June via Twitter. He said he contacted the journalist, whom he said had interviewed Assange, to verify the report was true.

THERE IS A MORAL TO THE STORY ... THE SPECIAL PROCESUTOR IS STILL DIGGING LOOKING FOR THE MIRROR TO SEE THE REAL VILLAN.

YOU CAN NOT UNLEARN THIS!!! ARRRRGH!!!

Woman Says Harvey Weinstein Forcibly Performed Oral Sex on Her During Her Period ... 
by Alberto Luperon | 3:10 pm, October 24th, 2017 

Another woman said Tuesday that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her. Mimi Haleyi, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, said he lured her to a SoHo loft in 2006, where he backed her into what seemed to be a children’s bedroom, and forcibly performed oral sex on her. She was having her period at the time and he pulled out her tampon during the sexual assault, she said.

HUMAN WASTE! AND HE EATS WITH THAT MOUTH, KISSES HIS CHILDREN ... WHAT ELSE!?

According to Haleyi, he asked her, “‘Don’t you feel we’re so much closer to each other now?’ To which I replied, ‘No.'”

THERE ARE TO "STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS" ON MORALS ... THIS IS HUMAN WASTE!

She said she told several friends about this story. Allred declined to comment on whether they will sue, and whether they will go to the cops about this. She suggested this may not be within the statute of limitations, but Haleyi’s allegations could still be of interest to law enforcement investigators who are looking into Weinstein.

Cops in Los Angeles, New York, and England are investigating Weinstein for sexual assault.

A New York Times report said Weinstein settled sexual harassment claims with at least eight actresses and staffers. Another article from The New Yorker said that several women alleged he sexually assaulted them. Since then, dozens of women said he sexually harassed them or worse.

Sallie Hofmeister, a Weinstein spokeswoman, has previously denied claims, saying her client “unequivocally denies allegations of non-consensual sex.” Law Newz reached out to her for comment. She dismissed this claim as well.

“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” Hofmeister said in an emailed statement.

HE'S BACK ... WELL ALMOST AND HEAD TO HEAD WITH FAKE NEWS

Bill O’Reilly May Wind Up at Sinclair Broadcasting ... 
by Claire AtkinsonOct 25 2017, 3:14 pm ET

LOOK MOM NO HANDS ... 

Bill O'Reilly, the former Fox News anchor, has been negotiating for a position with the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation's largest television-station owner, according to two sources familiar with the talks.

Sinclair, known for its conservative commentary, is continuing with the talks despite the sexual harassment cases that cost O'Reilly his job at Fox earlier this year, the sources said. Last week, The New York Times reported that O’Reilly settled a $32 million sex harassment claim against him by a former legal analyst, Lis Wiehl. The sources said the news does not appear to have sidelined the talks.

"They took a pause but it didn't really change anything for them," one of the sources said.

O’Reilly has said the Times article was designed to hurt him in the marketplace. He told The Times that the report was “politically and financially motivated.”

One of the sources said Dave Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair, was introduced to O’Reilly after O'Reilly left Fox in April. A month later, Sinclair denied reports that it was pursuing O’Reilly.

O'REILLY'S ACCENT FROM HELL

The company did not initially return calls from NBC News about the latest round of talks, but after this article was first published, a spokeswoman denied that Sinclair was in discussions with O'Reilly.

Nonetheless, one of the sources, who is close to O’Reilly, said on Tuesday that the two sides were "about midway" through negotiations. A second source explained that Sinclair is considering putting O’Reilly on its local stations.

Sinclair currently owns or operates 173 U.S. television stations. In May, the company reached a deal to pay $3.9 billion for Tribune Media, and if the deal is approved by regulators, the company would control more than 220 stations.

Many of Tribune's stations are Fox affiliates. It is unclear how Fox would feel about O'Reilly appearing on its affiliated stations.

“What you are going to see is a syndicated show,” said a source familiar with talks, “not a news channel. I know they’ve been talking about doing something in syndication and and something that could air on WGN,” Tribune's flagship station.

The source said Sinclair is considering a two-hour block for O'Reilly, possibly beginning at 6 or 7 p.m.

"They want to do something anti-CNN, anti-MSNBC," the source said, referring to Sinclair's conservative political bent. Sinclair has faced criticism for telling local news managers that they must run segments featuring the Republican political analyst Boris Epshteyn, a former staff member in the Trump White House.

WOW ...

Issuance of gift certificates accounts for more than half of central bank's printed money in 2016 ... 
SEJONG, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- The total value of gift certificates issued in South Korea last year accounted for more than 50 percent of the country's money printed by the central bank, a report showed Sunday.

Some 11.3 trillion won (US$10 billion) worth of gift vouchers, mobile coupon and revenue stamps were issued in 2016, according to a report by Rep. Shim Ki-joon of the ruling Minjoo Party.

This is equivalent to 56.2 percent of 20.2 trillion won worth of money printed by the Bank of Korea in the same one-year period.

The report noted that it is hard to estimate the exact amount of gift cards issued in the country due to a loophole in related laws and because such certificates can be used for tax evasion, rebates, bribery or corporate slush funds.

Last year, the Korea Consumer Agency received 1,872 complaints about gift vouchers, compared to 1,973 cases in 2015 and 1,794 in 2014, added the report.

Rep. Shim said it is necessary to enact new laws to regulate issuance and circulation of gift certificates in a bid to improve transparency in the market.



brk@yna.co.kr

(END)

WEINSTEIN, HOLLYWOOD HONEYS AND THE DEMOCRATS ...

Harvey Weinstein doesn’t seem to be taking sex rehab seriously ... needs his Hollywood Honeys ... but you can't teach an old dog new tricks!? Perhaps Bill Clinton can lend an ear?

HARVEY AND THE HOLLYWOOD HONEY POTS

According to TMZ, Weinstein was reportedly said to have finished the sex addiction course and his psychologist said he “fully invested in the programme”.

The beleagured producer is said to have focused on "dealing with his anger, his attitude toward others, boundary work and the beginnings of work on empathy".

He is said to have showed up for all the meetings and “was fully engaged" despite a “ton of distractions”.

The psychologist told TMZ: "There were things that triggered [Weinstein's] anger and our job was to help him recognise where it was coming from and how to control it.

“But he was not venting about some conspiracy to get him. It was an appropriate display of anger."

A representative later reportedly said Weinstein would stay in Arizona for another month to avoid distractions.
The Sun Online has contacted Weinstein’s representatives for a comment on his treatment.

Weinstein was said to have been falling asleep during therapy sessions and ranting about conspiracies against him.
Harvey Weinstein is already being belligerent at sex addiction rehab — barking into his banned mobile phone and remaining in denial about his alleged sex attacks, insisting each and every one was consensual, Page Six has exclusively learned.

The movie mogul, who volunteered to go to rehab after a wave of allegations of sexual harassment and rape against him from women in Hollywood, isn’t exactly in his element in therapy, falling asleep in sessions or talking on his phone, a source tells Page Six.

Weinstein was reported to be at an inpatient facility, but our source says he is actually being treated at an intensive outpatient facility, which allows him to spend nights at a hotel. The clinic offers one-on-one counseling and group therapy sessions, among other treatments.

The source told us, “In one group therapy session, Harvey arrived 15 minutes late. Then, when it was his turn to speak, he launched into a speech about how this is all a conspiracy against him.”

The source added that as others at the clinic shared their personal stories, “Harvey fell asleep in his chair. He was only woken up by the ringing of his smuggled mobile phone [which is banned at the facility] . . . Harvey jolted awake, jumped up, immediately took the call and then ran out of the room.”

The events were said to have taken place Tuesday — the same day Weinstein resigned from the board of directors of his former movie company as his sex scandal widened.

Another source close to Weinstein says he is no longer joining group sessions, “for obvious reasons,” but is undergoing individual treatment, and is accompanied at all times by a therapist.

“He insists he never raped or assaulted anyone, and that all the encounters were consensual. He realizes he has acted like an a–hole, but he still insists he’s not a rapist. He does have his phone, but when he is in therapy, he has to give it to someone else,” the source said, adding, “The characterization of what he said and what happened at the group session isn’t true.”

YOU HAVE BEEN RECRUITED ... WELCOME TO THE CIA/NSA/FBI/DIA AND 15 OTHER AGENCIES

Facespook! Social media giant becomes arm of US intel ...

Fakcebook, the world’s top social media platform, is reportedly seeking to hire hundreds of employees with US national security clearance licenses.

Purportedly with the aim of weeding out “fake news” and “foreign meddling” in elections. Now if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you!
 

If that plan, reported by Bloomberg, sounds sinister, that’s because it is. For what it means is that people who share the same worldview as US intelligence agencies, the agencies who formulate classified information, will have a direct bearing on what millions of consumers on Facebook are permitted to access.

It’s as close to outright US government censorship on the internet as one can dare to imagine, and this on a nominally independent global communication network. Your fun-loving place “where friends meet.”

Welcome to Facespook!
 

As Bloomberg reports: “Workers with such [national security] clearances can access information classified by the US government. Facebook plans to use these people – and their ability to receive government information about potential threats – in the company’s attempt to search more proactively for questionable social media campaigns ahead of elections.”

A Facebook spokesman declined to comment, but the report sounds credible, especially given the context of anti-Russia hysteria.

Over the past year, since the election of Donald Trump as US president, the political discourse has been dominated by “Russia-gate” – the notion that somehow Kremlin-controlled hackers and news media meddled in the election. The media angst in the US is comparable to the Red Scare paranoia of the 1950s during the Cold War.

Facebook and other US internet companies have been hauled in front of Congressional committees to declare what they know about alleged “Russian influence campaigns.” Chief executives of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, are due to be questioned again next month by the same panels.
 

Mark Zuckerberg, the 33-year-old CEO of Facebook, initially rebuffed claims his company had unwittingly assisted Russian interference in the last US in November. But after months of non-stop allegations by politicians and prominent news media outlets vilifying Russia, Zuckerberg and the other social media giants are buckling.

Led, perhaps unwittingly, by US intelligence fingering of Russian meddling, Facebook, Google, and Twitter are now saying they have discovered postings and advertisements “linked to the Russian government.” Notably, the sources impugning the “offending ads” are the intelligence agencies and members of Congress who are hawkish on the Russia-gate narrative.

One glaring weakness in this narrative is that the alleged “Russian ads” involved a spend of $100,000 on Facebook. Twitter identified $274,000 worth of “Russian-linked ads.” Some of the information being promoted appears to be entirely innocuous, such as pet-lovers sharing cute photos of puppies.

It is far from clear how these ads are connected to Russian state agencies allegedly attempting to subvert the US elections. Moscow has dismissed the allegations.

Much of it is assumed and taken on face value from claims made by American intelligence and their political and media associates. But what is clear – albeit overlooked in much US media coverage – is the sheer implausibility that the Russian government intended to warp the US presidential election with a few hundred thousand dollars.

Facebook alone earns billions of dollars from advertising. The alleged Russian ads represent a drop in the bucket. The expenditure and presumed impact on public opinion is also negligible compared to the billions of dollars American corporations donated to the election campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook are among the top 50 biggest US corporate donors in lobbying the Federal government and Congress. Last year, the top 50 corporations reportedly spent over $700 million, of which Alphabet and Facebook contributed $15 million and $8.7 million, respectively. This expenditure is explicitly intended to influence policy and legislation. So, what’s that about Russia allegedly swaying the presidential election with a fraction of the financial muscle?

Despite the irrational focus on Russian meddling, internet companies like Facebook have become willing participants in the official efforts to clamp down on this illusory “enemy of democracy.”

Welcome to 1984: Big Brother Google now watching your every political move

What’s more is the complete oversight on how the US media environment is increasingly dominated and controlled by vested powerful corporate interests.

While the mainstream media and politicians fret over alleged Russian influence on American citizens, there is an absurd absence in the public debate about the disproportionate power of just six US media conglomerates dominating all major American news services.

Social media and internet companies are vying with the traditional news channels. In a recent article, New York Times technology columnist Farhad Manjoo wrote about the “Frightful Five” – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google). He writes: “The Five elicit worries of total social control.”

The influence these US-owned media giants exert cuts across all cultural sectors, from the news received, to books, film and other entertainment. In effect, these companies are molding citizens into the consumers that they want to maximize their profits.

Facebook’s reported plans to employ US government-validated people who can use their intelligence contacts and prejudices to control what millions of ordinary people will read, watch or listen to is another manifestation of the larger drift into a corporate matrix.

Under the preposterous guise of “protecting” from “fake news” and “foreign meddling in elections,” Facebook is turning into a government censor.

This disturbing trend has accelerated over the last year. Far from Russia or some other foreign impostor tampering with freedom of information and free speech – supposed bedrocks of democracy – it is increasingly American companies that are the very real and formidable constraint.

Robert Bridge, a fellow Op-Edge contributor, said Facebook appears to be deliberately blocking links disseminating particular news stories carried by the channel.

Bridge concurs with the experience of many other ordinary people around the world who also have noticed how US internet companies have substantially curbed the search freedom previously enjoyed on the internet.

“It's really incredible how Google and YouTube have earnestly started manipulating their algorithms and censoring news, ” says Bridge. “I was researching a story recently, and it was so difficult to pull up any relevant information that was not critical of Putin or Russia.”

A similar finding was reported by the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), which carried out a study on how search traffic to that site and other left-wing, anti-war online journals has plummeted by over 50 percent since Google announced new search engines to curtail “fake news” back in April.

Facebook and the other big US internet companies are instead directing users to what they call “authoritative” news organizations, which by and large are corporate-controlled entities aligned with government interests. Ironically, these news outlets have peddled some of the biggest fake news stories, such as the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which launched a decade-long US war killing over a million Iraqis.
“Russia-gate” is another fabricated narrative which is being used to crush critical alternative sources.

The infernal paradox is that genuinely alternative, critical news sources are now at risk of being censored by internet companies working in league with nefarious US government intelligence.

AS THE SWAMP CHURNS ... AND ILLUSION BECOMES DELUSION

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KABUKI THEATRE AND CONGRESS? NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! EXCEPT FOR WARDROBE.

CONGRESS OPERATES UNDER PRINCIPLE EMBODIED IN NEO-FEUDALISM ... SUSTAINABLE STUPIDITY.

CONGRESS IS AT ITS BEST AT SUCKING ALL OF THE VALUE OF OUR SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT AND CULTURE.

LURKING ALWAYS IN BAD TIMES ARE THE SEMINAL CAUSES OF MORE UNFORTUNATE TIMES STILL TO COME ... BUT THEN AGAIN IF YOU ARE A LIBERAL TIME PASSES SLOWLY.

THE DEEP STATE IS A THIN DISGUISE FOR THE CONFLICT WITHIN THE REPUBLIC - THE PEOPLES' VOICE ON ONE SIDE OF THE CULTURAL ARGUMENT WITH RULE OF LAW AND ON THE OTHER NEO-FEUDALISM THINKING THEY MUST ELIMINATE ALL POLITICAL COMPETITION ... 

ALL POLITICAL RELATIONSHIPS DEMAND CONTINUED AND CONSTANT ATTENTION ... ONCE YOU PUT THE ILLUSION OF GOD INTO MAN ... THEY BECOME LOST IN DELUSION.

U.S. CONGRESS A RUNNER UP IN THE DUMB AND DUMBER CONTEST ...

Putin laughs off proposal to export pork to Indonesia ... 

The Jakarta Post
Moscow, Russia | Mon, October 16, 2017 | 06:42 pm

Russian President Vladimir Putin could not help laughing when one of his cabinet ministers proposed the country's meat producers to export pork to Indonesia, a Muslim majority country.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd left) and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev (left) attend a meeting with heads of German companies, with Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG Olaf Koch (2nd R) seen nearby, in Sochi on October 12, 2017. (Agence France -Presse/Maxim Semetov

News channel Al Arabiya English reported that Putin burst into laughter after Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev mentioned exporting pork to Indonesia.

In a video posted on the news outlet's website, Putin first chuckled after Tkachev proposed a plan to boost the export of meats and gave Germany as an example in terms of exporting pork to some countries like Japan, China and Indonesia.

Putin is scheduled to visit Indonesia next year.

WATCH: #Putin bursts into laughter after ‘pork exports to Indonesia’ joke https://t.co/Md32jyQNbK pic.twitter.com/JM6tiyYYlk

— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 15, 2017

Putin clarified to Tkachev that Indonesia is a Muslim country and its people do not eat pork. The minister insisted and replied “they will.”

Putin then said: “No, they will not,” before bursting into laughter.

Tkachev then smiled and clarified that he meant South Korea and not Indonesia.

GOVERNMENT AND ITS MARQUEE LONG-TERM CARE INSTITUTION

An old-school pharmacy hand-delivers drugs to Congress, a little-known perk for the powerful ...

Grubb's Pharmacy on Capitol Hill. Eric Kruszewski for STAT

WASHINGTON — If House Speaker Paul Ryan comes down with the flu this winter, he and his security detail won’t be screeching off toward the closest CVS for his Tamiflu.

Instead, he can just walk downstairs and pick up the pills, part of a little-known perk open to every member of Congress, from Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell down to the newest freshman Democrat.

• Nearly every day for at least two decades pharmaceutical drugs have been brought by the carload to the Capitol — an arrangement so under the radar that even pharmacy lobbyists who regularly pitch Congress on their industry aren’t aware of it.

The deliveries arrive at the secretive Office of the Attending Physician, an elaborate medical clinic where Navy doctors triage medical emergencies and provide basic health care for lawmakers who pay an annual fee of just over $600. Every one comes from Washington’s oldest community pharmacy, Grubb’s.

Mike Kim, the reserved pharmacist-turned-owner of the pharmacy, said he has gotten used to knowing the most sensitive details about some of the most famous people in Washington.

“At first it’s cool, and then you realize, I’m filling some drugs that are for some pretty serious health problems as well. And these are the people that are running the country,” Kim said, listing treatments for conditions like diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

“It makes you kind of sit back and say, ‘Wow, they’re making the highest laws of the land and they might not even remember what happened yesterday.'”

Mike Kim (center), a pharmacist and owner of Grubb’s Pharmacy, prepares a medication with compound technician Ron Thompson. Eric Kruszewski for STAT

Kim’s tiny pharmacy — which, at its busiest, sends as many as 100 prescriptions to members in a day — is nestled among Capitol Hill’s stateliest row houses, less than four blocks from the Capitol building itself. Founded in 1867 and named for a previous owner, the pharmacy predates penicillin, the American health insurance system, and even the Lincoln Memorial.

The two-story shop, with its bay windows and wood counters, harkens back to that history, though the computer systems and supplements inside aren’t far removed from your typical Walgreens counter — if all of Walgreens’s inventory was shoved into the nooks and crannies of three small aisles and labeled with individual stickers. At Grubb’s, staff will even scoop Hershey’s ice cream into cones out of a small counter in the corner, a modern-day nod to the marble-topped soda fountain once popular with the neighborhood kids.

The pharmacy mostly serves the staffers, lobbyists, and families who make their home in the quiet, leafy neighborhood just to the east of the Capitol building, though Grubb’s five drivers will deliver prescriptions across the entire city. Some 800 prescriptions leave its doors every day, filled by some three dozen pharmacists, technicians, and support staff.

The relationship between Grubb’s and the Capitol has gone nearly unchanged for decades, even as congressional leaders have pushed again and again to overhaul the nation’s broader health care system.

Most lawmakers know far more about the Office of the Attending Physician than about Grubb’s or its arrangement with Congress. In a STAT survey of some two dozen House and Senate members from both parties, only one knew about the single pharmacy that delivers all their drugs: Congress’s only pharmacist, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.).

“If you have a vote and you can’t get home to your personal physician, you need to see somebody, and I’ll run over between votes and be able to keep my personal responsibilities going,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. “It’s a convenience that definitely allows us to be more productive.”  NOW THAT'S AN OXYMORON! 

A ticket dispenser hangs on the wall inside Grubb’s Pharmacy. Eric Kruszewski for STAT

Lawmakers describe the Office of the Attending Physician as a modern space much like a regular doctor’s office — though the $3.7 million budget it enjoyed for 2016 suggests a relatively well-furnished space. It’s strictly off-limits to reporters; staff there declined repeated requests for comment, and a spokesman for the House Administration Committee that helps oversee OAP declined multiple follow-up inquiries.

That’s perhaps because the office is not without controversy. Its services — and the relatively low fees that members must pay for access — were thrust into a harsh spotlight in 2009, as Congress began to debate the Affordable Care Act and as reporters began to ask how lawmakers’ own care might color their perspectives on policy. The central issue is the cost: In 2016, lawmakers paid $611 for annual membership — a fee that, unlike most health care prices, has risen much slower than inflation. In 1992, the first year the office charged a fee, it was $520.

The Office of the Attending Physician itself was formed in 1928, after three members of Congress died in their offices within months of one another — more than 50 years after Grubb’s first opened its doors.

The little red pill being pushed on the elderly exposes inappropriate use of drug in nursing homes ... NOTE: Perhaps as well Long-Term care facilities like congress 
The maker of a little red pill intended to treat a rare condition is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year as it aggressively targets frail and elderly nursing home residents for whom the drug may be unnecessary or even unsafe. 

And much of the money is coming straight from the federal government.

The pill, called Nuedexta, is approved to treat a disorder marked by sudden and uncontrollable laughing or crying -- known as pseudobulbar affect, or PBA. This condition afflicts less than 1% of all Americans, based on a calculation using the drugmaker's own figures, and it is most commonly associated with people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

IF CNN DID THE INVESTIGATION IT MUST BE TRUE!

Nuedexta's financial success, however, is being propelled by a sales force focused on expanding the drug's use among elderly patients suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and high-volume prescribing and advocacy efforts by doctors receiving payments from the company, CNN found.

In her former nursing home, Lenore Greenfield was diagnosed with PBA and prescribed Nuedexta by California psychiatrist Romeo Isidro, a physician who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in promotional payments from Avanir.

Since 2012, more than half of all Nuedexta pills have gone to long-term care facilities. The number of pills rose to roughly 14 million in 2016, a jump of nearly 400% in just four years, according to data obtained from QuintilesIMS, which tracks pharmaceutical sales. Total sales of Nuedexta reached almost $300 million that year. 

Nuedexta is being increasingly prescribed in nursing homes even though drugmaker Avanir Pharmaceuticals acknowledges in prescribing information that the drug has not been extensively studied in elderly patients -- prompting critics to liken its use to an uncontrolled experiment. The one study the company conducted solely on patients with Alzheimer's (a type of dementia) had 194 subjects and found that those on Nuedexta experienced falls at more than twice the rate as those on a placebo. 

Avanir declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this article. In an emailed statement, the company said PBA is often "misunderstood" and that the condition can affect people with dementia and other neurological disorders, which are common among residents in long-term care facilities. A company website states PBA can afflict up to roughly 40% of dementia patients -- a figure that is based on an Avanir-funded survey and was repeatedly disputed by medical experts interviewed by CNN, including some of those paid by Avanir.

Nuedexta is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat anyone with PBA, including those with a variety of neurological conditions such as dementia. But geriatric physicians, dementia researchers and other medical experts told CNN that PBA is extremely rare in dementia patients; several said it affects 5% or less. And state regulators have found doctors inappropriately diagnosing nursing home residents with PBA to justify using Nuedexta to treat patients whose confusion, agitation and unruly behavior make them difficult to manage.