265 Comments
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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Watergate was the first deep state coup. Bob Woodward was an intelligence asset that used an allied MSM platform. Nixon and Trump did nothing wrong, but Watergate set the precedent for Russiagate and half a century of rule by the uniparty swamp.

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Mike R.'s avatar

RACKET reports like this one--the USAID reveal--spook lands decision to designate We the People's concern at political/financial graft a criminal threat--that is-- the NGO treasure syphon and the DNC/CCP/Brussels Davos clubs ability to use American tax largesse to cut our throats-- while openly lying to our faces-- is infuriating. Meanwhile the bottom--the bottom being the lives and future of American youth--continues to fall away. Supermax the entire crowd.

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Jeff Keener's avatar

"the NGO treasure syphon" --> well spotted!

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DaveL's avatar

Arabella Advisors, huge money-laundering NGO.

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Frank Lee's avatar

American youth seem largely to be supporting those that cause their future to keep falling away.

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Mike R.'s avatar

There's two sides to the coin and it is difficult to know which is which. I see blue haired nose ringed kids everywhere but I also encounter straight up hard working young people every day.---USAID "rent a riot" revelations supports my suspicion that the problem is an intentionally distorted national dialogue. The MSM is an equal opportunity poison.

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TeamOfRivals's avatar

Please use normal punctuation! Your hyphens make your comment unintelligible.

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pundette's avatar

I hope you've seen, Yuri Bezmenov, Joe Rogan's podcast with Bill Murray. Hilarious and illuminating. Murray says that he read the first five pages of Woodward's "Wired" book on John Belushi and got chills thinking to himself, "Oh, my God, they framed Nixon." So little did the Belushi book reflect the man Murray knew well, this delta immediately called into question everything Woodward has ever said or written about anything and everyone.

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Madjack's avatar

Yes. And FBI was “deep throat”.

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David 1260's avatar

Sorry, but that's a naive view of American history. Obviously, the JFK assassination was a deep state coup. Other presidential assassinations including Lincoln and Garfield were plots. And then there was the attempted coup against FDR that was foiled by General Smedley Butler...

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Han's avatar

Lincoln was not the subject of a coordinated attack by members of his own administration and neither were Garfield nor fdr.

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David 1260's avatar

Who said coups need to be led by members of one's own administration? The US perpetrates coups all over the world on other leaders...

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Han's avatar

it’s absurd to call those things coups. none of them intended to take over a government. It’s beyond absurd actually; it’s quite naive.

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Michelle Dostie's avatar

Russia hoax was attempted coup - a 3 year one.

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David 1260's avatar

Thanks for the nuance. The scheming around FDR *was* an actual coup attempt--Big Business intended to replace the administration. The other assassinations definitely disrupted the anti-big money Presidents. Two weeks before he was assassinated, President James A. Garfield stated:

"Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce, and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." See: https://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/allwarsarebankerwars.php

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Han's avatar

pfft.

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Mike Williams's avatar

The Kennedy assassination was the first deep state Coup.. :)

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JD Free's avatar

Once again, there are no consequences, and there will never be consequences.

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Danno's avatar

That's what the deep state wants us to believe.

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Enticing Clay's avatar

The value of cynicism is doubt and critical thought.

When cynicism is sure of itself, it's just bummer.

When hope and happiness has more doubt and critical thought than cynicism--then cynicism has no value.

At that point I'm just going to the fun party. Best of both worlds.

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michael Griffin's avatar

There’s a book about how Nixon was framed. Not to mention, Halderman and his crew were all CIA

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P.S.'s avatar

Once they realized they could feed endless at the public trough, filled daily by the public hate, they haven't quit..Amazing how no one is ever charged, except the outsider.

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Perkins's avatar

I heard that Woodward got that scoop after his first week as a journalist. Not suspicious at all. kind of reminds me of how Lex Fridman burst onto the podcasting scene. He comes from out of nowhere and his first two guest are Bezos and Elon Musk. He rules the algorithm. Fall asleep with youtube on and wake up to Lex. Not so much anymore; he's to boring for even the deepstate to tolerate.

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reel life's avatar

Nixon did 'nothing wrong'? Hush money for witnesses. 18 minute gap in Oval Office recording tapes.

There may have been other reasons some parties wanted to push out Nixon. If so, he had dirty hands that provided the basis.

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Madjack's avatar

Still believe our “security services” should be razed to the ground. They are a clear and present (and future) threat to the American people.

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flyoverdriver's avatar

The intelligence agencies, first with the pretext of 9/11 and then with the pretext of Trump/MAGA, have been the chief architects of creeping authoritarianism in this century. Not a politically-flexible real estate developer from Queens.

How anyone swallowed that the latter was the biggest threat and that the former needed all tools at its disposal to stop him defies all reason.

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Danno's avatar

Most of the country didn't swallow it, despite a media-led campaign to destroy him and his reputation. Trump won 3 elections.

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Frank Lee's avatar

Claiming Trump/MAGA continue deep state malice is like claiming the allies that occupied Germany continued the war.

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Harry Potter's avatar

You are right. Oddly the left and their useful idiots paint Trump as an authoritarian. That’s from the “accuse the right of doing what the left is doing” playbook. Getting real old how prevalent that is. Like the term misinformation. Coming from the generators of misinformation.

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DaveL's avatar

Unreformable: nuke ‘em!

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Tomas Pajaros's avatar

unfortunately in today's world of state sponsored terrorism, and Chinese espionage, they are also a necessary evil IMO.

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flyoverdriver's avatar

Sure, security services are. Just not the current version of them. What’s that JFK quote about breaking the CIA into a thousand pieces? We need to raze them to the ground and then rebuild them in the interests of voters, not in service of a warmongering and morally adrift empire.

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Danno's avatar

"I want to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces, and scatter it to the winds."

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John Oh's avatar

Just wish the IC would spend more time on them and a lot less on us. A lot of agents and resources wasted on what should have been recognized as trivial from the outset.

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John David Truly's avatar

Thank you for your deep excavation of this mind numbingly complex rats nest. This reader, at least, is saddened by the appearance that this conspiracy is so complex with a scope and playbill beyond the comprehension of so many that the enormity is beyond the grasp of most readers.

Watergate, along with many lesser scandals, was fairly straightforward and fed popular comprehension and condemnation. I fear the Byzantine complexity of this one may result in most folks walking by with their heads spinning. Such is the demonic evil of so horrid a scheme. Thank you again for your comprehension and efforts at truth.

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badnabor's avatar

It's true that most citizens aren't blessed with the time to delve into and parse the information (probably by design that public financing of never-ending wars, by out of control printing of dollars, just happens to keep Joe Six-Pack's nose to the grindstone as opposed to time spent keeping a close eye on their shenanigans). I do remain hopeful that this is, albeit slowly, turning around, due to actual journalists like Matt.

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John David Truly's avatar

I wholeheartedly agree. Sadly it’s a huge sandwich for many to bite into. But it must be done.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

True. That’s why when Racket lays down verifiable dates of actions that blow up the narrative — those are the toads of truth that will be the downfall of this group of liars. Surely, there is more to come, too.

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Jackson74's avatar

I agree. It made me terribly sad to read this.

We needed intelligence to avert the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to avert the tragedy/disaster/horror of Oct 7. Rather than a Blinken Foreign Affairs article claiming calm in the Middle East.

Than you Matt for digging into this dirty mess.

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michael Griffin's avatar

Well said. The complexity and audacity of the scheme is exactly what they count on. That and their control of the media. Fingers crossed that Tulsi et al stay the course

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Emmanuel Goldstein's avatar

Watergate has long been considered the gold standard of political scandals, that all others have been compared to. And of course that's reflected in how we name other scandals by affixing the "gate" suffix. But I think that it's long past time to retire that. Russiagate, with all its tentacles infesting just about every corner of the govt and media, is orders of magnitude worse than Watergate. They're not even in the same universe. Russiagate needs to be considered by all to be the new gold standard of governmental corruption.

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Doggie Dad's avatar

Yes. For the duration of the his administration, if Trump farted, Carl Bernstein would reliably appear on whatever cable news show to posit that it was "worse than Watergate," The coordinated weaponization and corruption of the Justice Department, FBI. FISA courts, and the MSM—including his former employer—apparently not.

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John Wygertz's avatar

"Elements are still in place"

Chilling phrase. Only three and a half years to ensure that the elements are rooted out and never return.

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Danno's avatar

If Trump's successor is JD Vance and not another government-tied Democrat or RINO, that's potentially 11 and a half years. If Vance's successor is Tulsi Gabbard or Big Marco, then we have (potentially) 19 and a half years. That should be sufficient.

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John Wygertz's avatar

I appreciate your optimism

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Terrance O'Grady's avatar

Segue off your thought. I would prefer the order to be Gabbard than JD or Marco. Gabbard was herself in the crosshairs of the deep-state and therefore would be, I think, much more motivated and focused on eliminating it.

When I read these posts, I can't help but think of Ben Franklin's "a republic, if you can keep it" quote. And it seems obvious that we've lost the republic. Eliminating the deep-state is the highest priority if we are ever to regain it. Because I believe that to be so, I think Gabbard is our best choice.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Actually, maybe only 17 months? A Dem Congress will impeach Trump. And the lawfare goes on now, nonstop.

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John Wygertz's avatar

Worst case scenario

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DaveL's avatar

Hard to get rid of. We still have many believers in Brennan/Clapper’s “Russia is our mortal enemy.”

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

As much as we need another Church Committee, I despair the Democrats won’t be interested in the truth as Republicans were then. It’s not the 70’s and the rot is too pervasive.

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James P's avatar

Church was a Democrat - none like him anymore

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

Yes he was, which shows how far the Left has fallen in terms of opposing "The Man."

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John Oh's avatar

How far fallen? Just compare Church with Adam Schiff. Can't go much lower (I hope)

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

In politics, when betting the "over-under", never bet the over.

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Lonesome Polecat's avatar

The weird part is that their self-conception hasn't changed at all

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E. W. Zepp's avatar

Self-reflection is hard. Cognitive dissonance is far easier.

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Terrance O'Grady's avatar

I'm stealing that. It's one for the ages!!!

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Tim's avatar

How about an essay or a discussion with Walter on America This Week about the murder of Seth Rich. I think it's all tied in with the whole Russiagate episode. Thanks!

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DaveL's avatar

If Walter or anyone else has any useful information on that, yes. Otherwise, it’s just another exercise Michael Crichton’s “Why Speculate?” speech.

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Enticing Clay's avatar

From his speech. The more things change. Hilarious.

https://gwern.net/doc/statistics/prediction/2002-crichton-whyspeculate.html

[...]

But speculation is every bit as rampant in the so-called serious media, such as newspapers. For example, consider the New York Times for March 6, 2002, the day I was asked to give this talk. The column one story that day concerns George Bush's tariffs on imported steel. We read:

Mr. Bush's action "is likely to send the price of steel up sharply, perhaps as much as ten percent.." American consumers "will ultimately bear" higher prices. America's allies "would almost certainly challenge" the decision. Their legal case "could take years to litigate in Geneva, is likely to hinge" on thus and such.

In addition, there is a further vague and overarching speculation. The Allies' challenge would be "setting the stage for a major trade fight with many of the same countries Mr. Bush is trying to hold together in the fractious coalition against terrorism." In other words, the story speculates that tariffs may rebound against the fight against terrorism.

You may read this story and think, what's the big deal? Isn't it reasonable to talk about effects of current events in this way? I answer, absolutely not. Such speculation is a complete waste of time. It's useless. It's bullshit on the front page of the Times.

The reason why it is useless, of course, is that nobody knows what the future holds.

[...]

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Terrance O'Grady's avatar

Michael Crichton is a lost treasure. I sometimes wonder what he'd think of all of this...

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michael Griffin's avatar

There is still no proof that the DNC server was ever hacked

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Burt Dickinson's avatar

Could this be used as evidence of an ongoing conspiracy to circumvent the statute of limitations, potentially allowing prosecution of certain actors going back to 2016?

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PGrabow's avatar

Your detail, Matt, is amazing. A true reporter.

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Ann Batiza's avatar

The intelligence community remains the greatest threat to our democracy. I hope this administration can curtail it and that the people involved in its abuses see jail time.

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James Schwartz's avatar

This stinks of RICO which I hope the DOJ begins to see and uses when they start bringing charges. The amount of people involved seems almost limitless. We need accountability or all of this evidence dropping is just for show. I want heads on Pikes. If people don’t go to prison over this it’ll be maddening.

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Mike R.'s avatar

At bottom--is it anything other than the money and access to the money. Trillions in American treasure has disappeared without a trace. Likewise --the "uniparty"/Brussels/Davos boys and girls make their living from CCP slave labor--gouging the American consumer and gobbling our Republic's tax treasure. 30 people a day in Starmer's England are being arrested for thought and speech crimes. (Ms. Harris intended the same for American shores.) The entire capture of the internet and crackdown on speech is to prevent the truth/fact solutions oriented national conversation that Americans--must now demand--or perish.

We the People live between manufactured extremes where-- the bureaucratic managerial/surveillance machine and the totalitarian elite it serves simply talk over the top of the human moral reason our founding fathers worked to enshrine in our Constitution. They're poseurs and second rate criminals. It's a fk'n psyop.

It ain't them. We the People are the responsible party. These thugs are just passing through. Depart the lie and thrive.

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James Schwartz's avatar

Don’t I know it. The truth is trying to be silenced at every turn. My wife is a nurse for 30 years and is involved with what’s going on at HHS. Big Pharma won’t allow the truth to get out about the poisons they feed us as medicine. The entrenched buerocrats are fighting tooth and nail against any change there. It’s horrifying. Both parties suck and aside from a revolution we are screwed.

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DaveL's avatar

If anyone is looking for overt evidence of our medical industry’s corruption, consider how quickly it assimilated all the Woke dogma.

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BookWench's avatar

That also happened with all our large corporations.

In no time at all, they were not only adopting every last Covid mandate, but also parroting all the woke language on transitioning. That has been one of the creepiest aspects of the past several years -- seeing all these enormous segments of our economy all speak with one voice.

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DaveL's avatar

Yes, that aspect is truly creepy! A more ancient form is the totalitarianism Hannah Arendt describes in “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” A great book, by the way, but it ought to be updated to include this recent iteration, since it appears to be happening that way.

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James Schwartz's avatar

Yup, all the medical schools took “grants” from big Pharma and woke took hold from there. Also, all the medical journals are owned by huge conglomerates that aren’t even US companies so Europe was able to inject all its left wing dogma

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Julinthecrown's avatar

"Can that pattern be reversed?" you ask. Not as long as there are no consequences for criminal acts.

I have maintained, lo, these many years, that the most evil, dastardly, mean, greedy, contemptible & cowardly deeds started with the arrival of the Clintons on the national stage. And the corrosion they started continues to this day.

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Alvie Johnson's avatar

Julinthecrown - I had/have the exact same feeling about the Clintons also. There has always been some degree of corruption in Washington, D.C., but those two were the advent of a degree of perversion of our government institutions so vile that it will mean the end of our Republic if the perpetrators are not identified and publicly held to account.

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richardw's avatar

Is it worse than Reagan/bush offering a deal to Iran in exchange for them hanging on to the hostages until Carter was ousted? Or Nixon doing the same thing with n. Vietnam during the. ‘68 campaign? Treason during election campaigns has a long history in our country, and while the Clinton gang was pretty bad, they were by no means the first.

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Alvie Johnson's avatar

richardw - The Clintons were not the first, just the worst. Initiating and promoting totally made up evidence from before Trump was even elected (the "pee tapes"), to the bogus assertion of his collusion with the Russians is entirely without precedent in the sometimes sordid annals of American politics.

What makes it all especially odious is the willing complicity of intelligence agencies who possess the potential to subvert and even destroy our system of representative democracy.

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Julinthecrown's avatar

When I think of all the skulduggery they have been involved in it boggles the mind.

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Julinthecrown's avatar

"... those two were the advent of a degree of perversion of our government institutions so vile..." Perfectly said.

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richardw's avatar

‘Jewel in the Crown’ is my favorite series ever.

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Julinthecrown's avatar

I remember seeing some of it so many years ago.

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Bill G's avatar

Chilling. I hope Caputo and the rest that were harassed and slimed by Comey et al sue the crap out of the government and get an appropriate judgement. Won't undo the damage but they are owed something if they can't get a pound of flesh from each of the turds that ran this scam.

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Kevin P. Brady's avatar

Re-reading the Mueller Report. It is not aging well. Facts like Papadopoulos's guilt seem quite contrived, even abusive. BTW, how did a bar conversation in London in May turn into full blown FBI investigation (Crossfire Hurricane) in July, just two months? I have had a lot more incendiary bar conversations that never got anyone's attention.

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Lis's avatar

Isn't it ironic? Last night, I picked out three old paperbacks to re-read from my bookshelf, because I couldn't fall asleep. One was my well-worn copy of The Master and Margarita, and of course that's the one I settled on.

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Anne Emerson Hall's avatar

I first read it as a teenager in the 70s, then forgot about it for decades. In the early 2000s, we went to Moscow and a friend of a friend took us to a cafe decorated with images from the book that I recognized instantly. When I recalled the titles, I reread the book and thoroughly enjoyed the Russian miniseries. This launched me into a Bulgakov tear, and one of his early books, The White Guard, was an eerie preparation for the mire that is the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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DaveL's avatar

We lived on Gagarinsky Pereluk, near the scenes Bulgakov described. It was spooky sometimes…

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Matt Taibbi's avatar

I briefly lived at Patriarch’s Ponds.

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DaveL's avatar

No tram there, but it made a good story for Bulgakov. Used to get my hair cut there.

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SnowInTheWind's avatar

I love that one. For most of my life, that was the only Russian novel I had ever read, and it's still one of my very favorite books.

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John Anthony's avatar

Thanks. I just ordered the Penguin Classic edition. This translation wasn’t highly rated but the text is annotated so it may be good first read.

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Cranky Frankie's avatar

If warrants issued for these wiretaps, tell us the names of the judges and release the warrant decision orders. Let's see who is in these conspiracies. After that it won't be necessary to impeach any of them. They'll be ruined as they richly deserve.

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Danno's avatar

In most cases the judges were lied to. What you need are the transcripts of the FISA hearings and supporting affidavits to see who signed off, then you need to see whether or not they were false and the authors were aware that the evidence was false. Simple, but not easy.

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Cranky Frankie's avatar

Since only one side is presented in a FISA court hearing it is incumbent on FISA judges to exercise strict scrutiny, examine evidence, question the theories. This goes double when the target is a national political figure and triple when there has been a recent history of leaks, "Being lied to" isn't enough of an excuse. Those judges should expect lies.

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Enticing Clay's avatar

I know we only want judges considering courtroom evidence, but judges knew everyone was lying about RussiaGate very early in the game.

Using 'courtroom evidence only' as a scam to 'see no evil and hear no evil' is not a scam we have to participate in.

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