The Birth of the Biggest Lie

Appreciating the Free Press

Hell. How about appreciating just reading newspapers?

We might come to think that the damage done by the Russian propaganda machine has been completed. The Russians plotted to help Donald Trump win the Presidency, but is there any reason to think that this stopped there?

MeanMesa's accolade for the New York Times is not empty praise. Further, the snarky continuum asking about the traditional American "habit" of reading newspapers is more than an empty quip, also.

In fact we can blame the current fiasco in the White House directly upon Americans' capacity to receive "news" from a reasonable source. Not only do Trump supporters clearly get their "news" from a nasty collection of unscrupulous sources, the President, apparently, does, too.

We are now "paying the full price" for our slovenly, uneducated, collective credulity. We may not survive it.

Enjoy the excellent NYT article below. [Visit the original article at this link: NYTimes]

Birth of the Biggest Lie

Charles M. Blow

MARCH 23, 2017

A few things are clear after the congressional testimony of James Comey, the F.B.I. director, this week:

First, Donald Trump owes Barack Obama and the American people an apology for his vituperative lie that Obama committed a felony by wiretapping Trump Tower. It was specious, libelous and reckless, regardless of the weak revelations of “incidental collection” that the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Trump transition team member Devin Nunes outrageously made public, briefing the president without first briefing his fellow committee members. Nunes’s announcement was a bombshell with no bomb, just enough mud in the water to obscure the blood in the water for those too willfully blind to discern the difference.

Second, Donald Trump will never apologize. Trump’s strategy for dealing with being caught in a lie is often to tell a bigger lie. He seems constitutionally incapable of registering what others would: shame, embarrassment, contrition. Something is broken in the man — definitely morally and possibly psychologically.

Third, and to me this is the biggest, Comey confirmed that the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russians who tampered with our election is not “fake news” manufactured by Democrats stewing over a bitter loss but a legitimate investigation that has been underway for months and has no end in sight.

Individuals who were associated with the president of the United States’ winning campaign are under criminal investigation. That is an extraordinary sentence and one that no American can allow to be swallowed up by other news or dismissed by ideologues.

Depending on the outcome of this investigation, we could be facing a constitutional crisis. Oddly, it is likely that the reason Trump is even in the Oval Office is Comey’s original, extraordinarily inappropriate and unprecedented action. The Trump machinery then used that action to scare Americans about Clinton, in one of the most astonishing acts of deflection and hypocrisy in American history.

The timeline of how the lie of Clinton’s constitutional crisis was born and grew is full of Machiavellian-level misdirections.

On Friday, Oct. 28, a little over a week before Election Day, Comey sent his now infamous letter to Congress saying that “the F.B.I. has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent” to the Clinton email server investigation and that “the F.B.I. should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”

Soon after the media reported the letter, Trump said at a crowded rally in New Hampshire:

“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office. I have great respect for the fact that the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.”

James Comey testifying on Capitol Hill on Monday.
 Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

That day, Fox News tweeted a quote from the Trump campaign manager Kellyanne “Alternative Facts” Conway, with an image of her appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor” and text that read: “@KellyannePolls on HRC: “If you’re under your 2nd FBI investigation in the same year then you do have a … corruption & an ethics problem.”

About an hour later, Conway retweeted the Fox News tweet, adding, “Most honest people I know are not under FBI investigation, let alone two.”

That night, as reported by The Des Moines Register, Trump said at a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rally:

“The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it’s everybody’s hope that justice at last can be delivered.” He went on, “The F.B.I. would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense.”

Two days later, on Oct. 30, Doug Schoen, a pollster for former President Bill Clinton, said on Fox News that having a president under criminal investigation would pose a constitutional crisis, and the next day he wrote about that it in The Hill, saying:

“I am now convinced that we will be facing the very real possibility of a constitutional crisis with many dimensions and deleterious consequences should Secretary Clinton win the election.”

He continued:

“In the best case scenario, there will be at the very least a criminal investigation of President-elect Clinton. And there will be a criminal investigation of Huma Abedin, which is apparently ongoing. Furthermore, there will be potential investigations into the actions of the Justice Department and most of all the F.B.I. and its director, James Comey.

“After the past eight years wherein America has become progressively more and more divided and a campaign season that has magnified these divisions, I fear for that we will not be able to withstand this kind of continued scandal.”

The Monday that Schoen’s “constitutional crisis” column appeared in The Hill, Trump quoted it at a rally in Michigan. Trump added:

“She would be under protracted criminal investigation and probably a criminal trial, I would say. So we’d have a criminal trial of a sitting president.”

Then that night the Fox News host and Trump flunky Sean Hannity repeated the warning on his own show:

“Think about the magnitude of all of this for a second. Hillary Clinton could be sworn into office while still being under investigation from the F.B.I., which would then put this country into a major constitutional crisis.”

Hannity continued:

“Now Clinton says Donald Trump, oh, he’s not fit to serve in the Oval Office. But she, and she alone, has created a situation that could do severe damage to this country and the office of the presidency and prevent this country from solving problems.”

Three days later, on Nov. 3, the Trump campaign released a television ad called “Unfit” that said in part: “Hillary cannot lead a nation while crippled by a criminal investigation.”

On Sunday, Nov. 6, just two days before the election, Comey sent another letter to Congress saying that based on the bureau’s review, “we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” In other words, oops, false alarm, nothing there.

But the damage was done. The Trump campaign had already honed its “constitutional crisis, unfit for office” message, and it had sunk in with many Americans. What those Americans didn’t know — what we learned from Comey’s testimony this week — was that although there was no reason to continue investigating Clinton about her emails, the Trump campaign had been under investigation since July about possible contacts and collusion with Russia in its efforts to influence our election.

Now the very thing that Team Trump and its Fox News media arm warned about, Trump himself has delivered: A compromised presidency and a possible constitutional crisis.

As The New York Times reported after Comey’s testimony:

“Mr. Comey placed a criminal investigation at the doorstep of the White House and said officers would pursue it ‘no matter how long that takes.’ ”

The lie these people promoted about Clinton and shielded about Trump are two of the biggest lies ever told in this country in service of electoral advantage.

No act of this presidency — good or bad, beneficial or detrimental — can ever be considered without first contextualizing that this presidency itself was conceived in deception and is being incubated under an extraordinary lie.

The Trump presidency is a corruption that flows from corruption. It is damned by its own damned lies.

FBI - Biblical Treachery at High Levels

Memorializing the Twisted Legacy of J. Edgar Hoover

The FBI and the DOJ have insinuated

 themselves into the politics of US democracy before.

Just not like they did this time.

The Americans have seen the electoral mischief which marks the operation of the "new order." We have had one President essentially elected by a suspiciously obedient Supreme Court. Given this, although historically depressing,  it is not particularly shocking to watch another "President" as he is materially "assisted" by the machinations of the previously fairly respectable and trustworthy, FBI.

1952-72: UNITED STATES. For two decades,FBI Director
 J. "Edna" Hoover and his lover, miraculously promoted
 FBI Assistant DirectorClyde Tolson, spend extended summer
  vacations at the Del Charro,  La Jolla, California  [image]

Of course, the FBI hasn't always enjoyed the somewhat acceptable reputation attributed to it these days. Most of this previously famous, meat handed reputation was accumulated under the quivering hand of J. Edgar Hoover. As FBI Director Hoover suffered under a tragic, homosexual, self-hating mania, with a violent bent for eliminating all possible political "complications" which might have interfered with his raw ambition for power, not to mention those who were merely "irritants" to his numerous "other" psychological sensitivities.

After J. Edgar Hoover's death in 1972 Congress began a decades long effort [Congress actually did such things back then.] to restore the FBI to some semblance of its intended, legal role.

After nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover dies, leaving the powerful government agency without the administrator who had been largely responsible for its existence and shape.

By the time Hoover entered service under his eighth president in 1969, the media, the public, and Congress had grown suspicious that the FBI might be abusing its authority. For the first time in his bureaucratic career, Hoover endured widespread criticism, and Congress responded by passing laws requiring Senate confirmation of future FBI directors and limiting their tenure to 10 years. On May 2, 1972, with the Watergate affair about to explode onto the national stage, J. Edgar Hoover died of heart disease at the age of 77. The Watergate affair subsequently revealed that the FBI had illegally protected President Richard Nixon from investigation, and the agency was thoroughly investigated by Congress. Revelations of the FBI’s abuses of power and unconstitutional surveillance motivated Congress and the media to become more vigilant in future monitoring of the FBI.

[Excerpted. Read the entire article about Hoover's demise  here - HISTORY.com]

FBI - Rehabilitated, Then Corrupted -- Again

Stuff "happens" when it becomes necessary to make crimes legal.

Not trusting yourself or anybody else doesn't help.

By the time Bush W. had begun his disastrous Administration the agency had recovered much its reputation as a "straight shooting," professional department filled with competent government servants. Unhappily, "The W," undoubtedly influenced by the horrible Administration officials surrounding him [George W. Bush was, it turns out, dangerously naive and credulous.], appointed a "highly soiled" group of strangely untrustworthy collaborators into positions of power, including not just obedient advisers but also a collection of remarkably conflicted types into the Department of Justice and to the position of US Attorney General.

This much is ancient history. "The W." needed some actively sympathetic "cover" for the things he intended to do as President. The final consequences of this emerged "front and center" as the FBI lurched into partisan politics eleven days before the 2016 Presidential election. The results were catastrophic -- even worse than the most pessimistic estimates made at the time. 

This marked a turning point in the gradual demise of democracy in the United States. Although it may be too late to effect any beneficial change in the outcome, it remains a valuable goal to understand the mechanism which allowed this unusual treachery to deal the "death blow" to such an established process. There are a good number of "moving parts" to the scheme, so let's get busy.

How the FBI Became Permanently Crippled

What un-elected President would want 

hordes of uncontrollable G-Men prowling around at full strength

 while he was torturing people, racking up the national debt, 

illegally spying on everyone in the country, lying to the public 

and destroying the economy while starting his own oil wars for fun and profit?

Now, thanks in part to the corrupt FBI, we have another un-elected President.

Okay, right. George W. was, in fact, not the brightest candle on the oligarchs' altar, and he was able to be effortlessly manipulated by all the creature-like fascists he had packed into the White House, but was he this incompetent? Really?

Yeah. The damage done to the FBI during his watch had to have been organized by those several "pay rates" above the war mongering Connecticut Texan in the boots and the cowboy hat.

The corruption injected into the bowels of the FBI at the time was like a dental cavity which took several years to become a gut wrenching, brain numbing, painful nightmare, but, in time, it accomplished precisely this outcome. Worse, the task of wrecking the FBI was not his only anti-democratic project, either, but MeanMesa will reserve a discussion of those for other posts.

Here's how it unfolded.

Years ago, a constantly chortling, liquid tongued con man and televangelist, Pat Robertson, had amassed enough "love offerings" to finance his very own "university." Reverend Robertson had some significant other great business ideas, too. These included looting more than a few "drips and drops" from his annual "love offering" accounts for all sorts of other, self serving purposes beyond simply "carrying the good news" -- for example, purposes such as using his tax deductible "church cargo planes" for highly profitable transportation to and from his blood diamond mines in Africa.

Just a Wee Bit About Dominionists

 and Coerced Righteousness

Even when they complain, just remember that it is all for their own good.

What follows is a quick visit to America's "nest"

 of judicially enforced, political evangelism.

Reverend Pat is what we call a Christian "Domionist." A thorough understanding of this term, "Dominionist," will be essential to explain the rest of this story.

It's all about "convenience."

A "Dominionist" is, in most cases, mindlessly pursuing one of the "governing doctrines" of a self-proclaimed "hand of God" mandate to rid the world of sin and sinners. Of course, all the definitions of such states as "sin" and "sinners" can be conveniently derived from what are often called "interpretations" of various sections of the Christian Bible.

It turns out that not only are these "interpretations" conveniently available to the "Dominionists," but the content and application of these "interpretations" as they pertain to "correcting" the sinful lives of others also proves to be "quite conveniently fluid." A further convenience -- again, as "conveniently interpreted" by "conveniently conflicted" preachers from various passages of selected scriptures -- is the complete acquittal of any measures taken by those "chosen by God, himself" to eliminate these "sins" and "sinners."

Good Christian, American Republicans
 love this stuff. [image]

The "acquittal" idea assures these "soldiers following the divine orders" that no matter how detestable their "inspired social and spiritual purification" efforts might become, and no matter what suffering or injustices may be the unavoidable, added consequences of such efforts, absolutely everything will be completely forgiven when these long suffering types stand at the "Pearly Gate" of judgment. It is in the cases when one or more of these "spiritual warriors against sin" exercises an option for one of these specific, divine "acquittals," that the familiar, inevitable, "miserable" outcomes here in this "sinful world" become instantly evident. 

While all of this may seem to be little more than pointless ranting and railing, it is actually chillingly relevant. This "Dominionist world view" is precisely what is relentlessly injected into the minds of the young students at Pat's "university." To put it bluntly, during the time of their "education" there, these, otherwise more or less normal, boys and girls are "reconstituted" into fire breathing "Dominionists."

At first none of this particularly mattered, but then, at a certain point, Pat suddenly had the idea that if his "university" took the business decision of starting a "law school," it would result in the creation of literally hordes of "Dominionist lawyers." Of course even the best "graduates" of this "law school" were terrible lawyers. Their priorities had been permanently twisted away from those usual priorities held a normal lawyer into the grotesque priorities of doing absolutely anything possible to "rid the world of sin."

In no time there were literally hundreds or thousands of these unemployable "sin fighting" lawyers standing around after graduating from Pat's special law school.

Where could they possibly find a job?

We are now ready to return to the tale of how the FBI became so corrupted.

George W.'s Strange Attorneys General

 and Lots of New "Civil Servants" for the DOJ and FBI

Law enforcement becomes much easier when it's Biblical

Once the "packed" Supreme Court handed Bush W. the Presidency, his Texas "Bible Study" crowd suddenly found themselves enjoying all the power necessary to continue their Dominionist ambitions. [The routinely tipsy George W. claimed that the time he spent in the Bible study had "saved" him from his cocaine and whiskey habits. There is plenty of evidence indicating otherwise. The Doubtful Faith of George W./SLATE] 

Bush W's first Attorney General was John Ashcroft. Ashcroft had plenty of Dominionist indoctrination during his childhood in an Assembly of God household. Ashcroft's father had been President of Central Bible College. Bush's torture regime began under Attorney General Ashcroft.

It turns out that Dominionists have very few problems with torturing people to a grisly death.

Bush replaced Ashcroft [Who resigned after the first Bush term.] with his General Counsel, Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales had been a Supreme Court Justice for Texas during the period when that state had the highest number of criminal death penalty executions. Continuing in his "righteousness seeking" bloodbath habits, Gonzales was the legal genius who approved the memo authorizing torture, backing up his decision with a formal opinion that the provisions of the Geneva Convention were no longer applicable and obsolete. [Alberto Gonzales/AmericanProgress]

However, having been placed in a position of power to undertake such a scheme, Dominionists such as Ashcroft and Gonzales, now ensconced in the Bush W. Administration, began to recruit these otherwise unemployable Regency Law School graduates as civil servants by the dozens, largely into the Department of Justice.

Of course, very few of these new employees were even remotely competent. That was far from the primary consideration for the merits of the "packing job." Importantly, these "new hires" were civil servants. This means that they were permanent. Had they been "appointments," they would have been subject to a "house cleaning" under a new Administration.

Instead, the plan was to so thoroughly saturate these Federal offices with like-minded, Dominionist types as to permanently twist the DOJ's previous priorities concerning the enforcement of law as specified under Constitutional requirements. Although it would take a considerable passage of time before these new DOJ employees would consolidate their influence and move up in the ranks at the DOJ, the "seed had been planted."

Elections - By the Modern "FBI" Method

Quit screaming, and get used to it.

It is no secret that the Republican "dirt digging factory," with the assistance of various, complicit "co-conspirators" such as FOX News and others, undertook a decades long, industrial effort to permanently fix into the public consciousness the idea that Hillary Clinton had done at least "something" illegal with her private email server. For those few American voters interested enough to explore the facts of these allegations, it was clear enough that no secrets had been lost to the country's enemies and, thanks to the arm twisted FBI Director, James Comey, that no "prosecutable" offense had ever been committed.

It turns out that the "remaining" American voters -- that is, other than the few who bothered to understand this -- had essentially no idea about even what a "private email server" might be and absolutely no inclination to ever find out anything about the right wing "hissy fit" manufactured for their consumption by the GOP's think tanks.

Well, as the campaigns rolled along toward the November election, a reactionary right winger somewhere in the bowels of the GOP's industrial election machine noticed that the public opinion rage about Hillary's emails had calmed to the equivalent of barely smoking embers. Worse, at least for the GOP, the political entropy resulting from the developing of this gradual "lack of interest" had tipped the polls strongly into Hillary's favor.

Something simply had to be done.

We are all painfully familiar with exactly what that "something" was to be. Eleven days prior to the election, FBI Director Comey sent a letter to various Republican Congressmen to inform them that additional evidence "might possibly" have been "discovered" in Weiner's confiscated computer.

Two days prior to Comey's letter to the Congressmen, political "has been" and Trump apologist, Rudy Guiliani, after a corpse-like chortle during an interview with a FOX host, announced that "We have a trick up our sleeves." [Guliani and Trump Campaign "Smelling a Rat"/DailyKOS]

Now, exactly how did Guliani know this far ahead of time that Comey intended to sabotage the Clinton campaign with his letter? Although there are plenty of reasons why the FBI Director's "participation/intervention" was far from the sole reason for the Trump election, it was almost certainly a complicit, material factor which contributed to the disastrous outcome.

Comey's letter was very, very far "over the line" for FBI official behavior. Guliani's chortling acknowledgment of the plan on FOX is damning evidence that not only did Comey premeditate his illegal intervention, some FBI employees who were privy to his intentions "leaked" the information to Guliani.

Well now. Precisely which FBI employees might have made this "leak?"

Guliani, a previous New York city Mayor, had also been a DOJ prosecutor in New York. He was quite well connected to the New York office of the FBI.

Of course, there still remains the question of why "Constitution loving" FBI employees in the New York office would have stooped low enough to engage in such anti-democracy actions.

Not a problem. These are Domionists. Constitutional law means very little to them. They feel entirely empowered to do anything and take any action to further distort "Earthly events" in preparation for the joyful delight of the "Second Coming." 

Additional Reading

We should probably be familiar with what finally happened to US democracy.

Alberto Gonzales/WIKI

Fundamental John Ashcroft/MOTHERJONES

Comey Ashcroft Hospital Episode/WashingtonPost

150 Bush Lawyers From Regency Law School/SKEPTIC

Christian Law School Scandal/BOSTONARCHIVE