And this 66-year-old remembers when there was much of it. I love these proofs it is not yet extinct - it's what I love Sunbstack for, and I don't find much of it elsewhere.
I got a reduced deal on WSJ which gives me the right to comment. The rare instances they write about censorship (which they did today) I use the comments section to remind their readers that MT's Twitter Files were the crack in the dike. I get a few people that agree with me every time. Maybe it helps a little to bring a few here.
I walked away from the WSJ a few years ago. Sad. I used to love that paper. Especially the editorial page. But they showed me they were only slightly less biased than the NYT so I abandoned them. Too bad.
Wow. It's like some dystopian nightmare that goes on and on. No justice. And now the State media is coronating another puppet stooge here and people are buying this like they haven't watched her for four years? Listened to her platforms from 2019? Erasing all that like 2+2 is 5? It is all so frustrating and no way to get real information to people.
I think Matt had the same thing happen to him that happened to me in the literary community. He thought he was a well-respected reporter and one of the club, and his colleagues would respect his investigative journalism even if they didn't agree. And he found out how fast this machine cast him aside for questioning the party line. I was kind of shocked and I'm sure Matt is, but we owe him a lot for doing it.
Ha, no one has ever thanked me before! Thank YOU. It was hard being cancelled from the literary community in MI but there was no other choice. I also got worked out of an adjunct queue at NMU for trumped up reasons. I don't regret it at all, but it was quite a shock at first. You don't cross leftists. They do not appreciate debate or listen to you because you've been one of them. You tow the line or you're out. And I was only taking a NEUTRAL position. Ha.
When given the choice of a Blue pill or Red pill..most people will choose "ignorance is bliss" until 20 years from now they're breaking into the local zoo to find some fresh meat for their family while using 3 wheelbarrows of US $ to pay for a loaf of bread.
I was an adjunct who believed her students could do college work and caught a lot of hell. You know FAIR is interested in publishing stories like yours? And they have the FAIR in the Arts group. (Maybe you know that but in case you don’t.)
Yes, they seemed kind of interesting to me at first, but it looks like they are pretty left. They like the DEI thing and are criticizing the Times for saying Shapiro wasn't chosen because he was Jewish, though it seems pretty obvious that's true. I thought they were championing people no matter what party, which would be ok, but not sure. I get some of their newsletters. So...
I doubt they were 'leftists'. And I think it's time we move beyond the left-right labels. They're used so subjectively as to now be virtually meaningless.
and ps, Roger, I thought they were in business solely to champion free speech --everyone's. Yet they seem to have an agenda that goes beyond that. I was disappointed.
Oh PLEASE. That was my point. Call it anything you want and quibbling over whether leftists are socialists or democrats or whatever is ludicrous. Which is your point. People have to be able to use LANGUAGE to describe things. I'm sure you'd like to be arbiter of that. My POINT is that they seem to have a BIAS I didn't expect and it seems to lean left, not that that is the point --and I didn't want one EITHER WAY. You scolds are so annoying and superior. Get off it.
In 2011 I met with an OWS protest group in Boston. I'd met with. Tea Party Group in MN the year before.
Though both were Populists....one was more nationalist and willing to defend the ideals in the US Constitution. They wanted power taken from DC and handed back to state and local governments.
The other was more interested in creating a powerful State that gave them power instead of Wall Street.
Both agreed that deconstruction of DC was necessary to achieve their goals....but one group had more libertarian views about whst's next while the others could quote Das Kapital better than a Sociology Professor at Oberlin.
It's too bad that you see others' disagreements with you as scolding and also that they project to you, "superiority". I'll write things as I see them and you can ignore or bristle however you like. It seems that you are in fact illustrating my point, which is that the use of these labels is subjective and also often therefore mistaken.
It's also likely that you're missing the main point: which is that the "they" (to whom I think you're referring, which is those running the security state as well as the political elites atop the two sides of the duopoly, aren't left nor right. They represent the corporate and oligarchic interests of those who control both. Maintenance of the status quo in which the Wall Street and Washington-centered Empire expands (or at least hangs on to) its hegemony (which is enabled by the dollar in its de facto role of global exchange currency), IS the consensus agenda of both parties. This is why there is almost no debate and no hesitation about funding proxy wars against those States that do not consent to this hegemony and who are seen as possible competitors; little hesitation to start color revolutions or otherwise support coups, anywhere a leader or government resists this imperial colonialism, etc.
The established powers are at once neoliberal in economic policy and neoconservative in foreign policy; in fact, neoliberalism and neoconservatism have effectively married because they both serve that singular agenda of maintaining the power and profits of those at the top in an economic order defined by U.S. interests.
So, left and right mean little to them. More, they are used by the policy makers to define the other side, i.e. as pejoratives; and the culture-war issues that they deliberately use to keep attention off the most important topics such as I've alluded to here.
I observe that, while they've been wildly successful in keeping the little people barking at each other through such manipulations, there is a growing number of people who are seeing this game / system for what it is.
This first happened to Matt's colleagues. I forget who. He was shocked at how she was treated. I think it was a woman. But I still think he was shocked that they all got this treatment and got thrown off the MSM and vilified. But that didn't stop him. I think it was Jordan Peterson who said he really missed his old life before he took these stands. He was probably a center left type guy. But he said he was going to lose and pay if he said nothing. So there really was no choice. And you don't regret it because not telling the truth is like murdering yourself. He said it better. But not many people have done this. Glenn Greenwald. Joanathan Turley, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Jodan Peterson. I give thanks for these folks every day. I don't know yet if we'll win--too much controlled by these people--education, entertainment, government jobs, and the media. That's a lot to overcome. But these people had a lot to lose. Matt of course.
Ya, sure, they all had a lot to overcome---hell, they're all millionaires now, compliments of the big right-wing grift machine.
And Jordan Peterson "who said he really missed his old life before he took these stands."
And shed no tears, crocodile or otherwise, for Herr Professor Peterson who I'm certain does not miss his past life of mundane academic hackery, now that he's a rich YouTube clown.
YES, Jordan Peterson DOES miss his quiet professor life. He wouldn't have CHOSEN this, he feels it's a big loss, but he's happy about the money. And doing what he believed was right. Those are his words. But then you know better.
The Venn diagram of Kamala's skills shows many overlaps among dancing, laughing, coattail riding, hand-signalling, and shit-eating grinning. Speaking extemporaneously is absent.
This is all according to plan though, isn’t it? Can you imagine any intelligent, moral, candidate in this mass of mediocrity? There was Robert Kennedy jr., who got closer to that than anyone, but look how easily they swatted him away. I remember waking up on June 5th ‘68 and hearing of his father’s murder. I actually started crying. Which of today’s interchangeable droids could be assassinated to make a young person cry?
I was in high school at the time, right at the end of the school year. I can still remember my Spanish teacher, Miss Ybarra, ripping into the whole corrupt establishment, kind of an impromptu rant. She was right, though.
Wait! Before you write him off, RFK, Jr. is on the ballot in 45 states. I just collected signatures for him to gain ballot access here in CT. We've filed, and we're awaiting certification of the petitions. It should be a shoo-in. It is Bernie all over again. If voters would just vote for him. Like, don't write him off. I agree, though, that, just like with Bernie, it's a media blackout . . . . well, in this case a torching. But, hold out hope!
I'm trying to figure out the intent of your response, but... I'll focus on making myself clear. Our current administration has made it abundantly clear that the VP is as important as the P. I knew this administration was going to be a shitshow in 2020 and they did not disappoint.
I'll behave myself and keep this civil, but I am curious. Are you on board with the way things were handled by the Dems recently and agree with our country being a full banana republic? Maybe nihilism has gotten the better of you? Don't tell me you are just a realist and see no choice but to make jokes and enjoy the show. Americans have been doing that for 60+ years and look at where that has gotten us.
I just read that eating squirrel brains can be dangerous. "Doctors in Kentucky put out a warning against eating squirrel brains in 1997 after 11 people were diagnosed in the state with the non-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, according to the New York Times. “'All of them were squirrel-brain eaters,'' a doctor told the paper at the time." Speaking of squirrel brains, how about that Kamala interview?
And how smooth and aloof is she, keeping her fingerprints out of the morass? Not unlike organized crime, it might take something akin to RICO statutes to drag the net over these crooks, at which point they begin to sing and "roll up."
Started to delete this when I realized it was stupid of me to think someone would enforce such statutes.... Then decided to leave it, with this acknowledgement, to illustrate the futility of controlling this mob. They are, after all, above the law. In fact, they are the law.
lots of people are willing to put in the work to makes things better. Our main problem is organizational in nature, which is kind of a recurrent human thing.
I'm 67 also. 68 in a few days! Good luck to you too, although I should warn you, riding off into the sunset sounds like a good way to get shot in the back.
Isn’t suspicious that the greatest political crimes of the last 20 years have completely eluded the world’s “finest” law enforcement agency and has been delegated to the dustbin of history….Who killed Seth Rich? Does anybody care? Who planted the bombs on January 6, 2021?? Who killed Jeffrey Epstein? And why are criminals who abused young girls not named and not prosecuted? The FBI can name every single Tom, Dick and Harry who even came close to the Capitol on January 6, but that one guy with the hoodie and the bombs is just too elusive.
Our government has lied to us for the last 200+ years and continues to this day.
“The FBI can name every single Tom, Dick and Harry who even came close to the Capitol on January 6….” But they still won’t name the 40-odd agents provocateurs that show up in much of the surveillance footage.
Good question. And did they kill him because he was the party responsible for the "DNC hack" that The Nation (!) once posited was an inside job and not Russian interference. The Nation has walked it back a bit, but the original story said that the "hack" was executed locally with a portable storage device.
What is a spaces chat? Sorry for my ignorance but, like Art, I need a simplified version of Matt’s reporting on this one. It’s hard to keep track of everyone if you don’t already know the players. I pay for this site because I value Matt’s excellent reporting but I got lost here. It’s important stuff and time-crunched minds want to know!
ART, please unblock me. I don't know why you blocked me because I like all of your comments but can't like them. Sorry, JMS, don't know where else to jump in to get Art's attention.
Art: Here’s the straight story. Our United States Bureaucracy tried to overthrow the Trump Presidency through nefarious and illegal means withe the major media outlets running cover for this insurrection. In a nutshell.
JBoss law of politics: the level of corruption involved is directly proportional to how far left the person or organization leans.
And realize everything in govt is corrupt. Easily 10% to 20% of all dept budgets are lost to grift or waste or outright fraud. I work on govt. The stories I could tell you...
Govt is too big, and nobody on the take will give up "their" share without a fight.
Just a hunch, the new conspiracies will involve the same old 51 retired members of the intelligence community. Expecting a letter any day that Harris has only been pretending to be a ninny to trick the Russians.
I hear you. I read through the incredible detail Racket News brings to its reporting, which we are not used to anymore --- neither detailed reporting nor deep reading.
But then I read, someone ". . . wiped dozens of phones . . ." My government. My Protector. I don't need to know how to code to interpret what government is doing there. And then lying, too.
I love Matt to pieces and I’m a paid subscriber. But often he writes as if I already know what he’s talking about. Which I often don’t. And he’s such a damned smart reporter, it’s almost like listening to an astrophysicist talk about the cosmos to a a lay person.
I think it is important to keep this fact in mind: What the Russia-gate Hoax Conspiracy was all about was the attempt to deny and delegitimize Trump's election. It was an attempt to claim his election was rigged (by Russians), therefore he was an illegitimate president. This conspiracy was orchestrated first by the Clinton team and the DNC, and was then quickly signed onto by the Obama/Biden Administration, the CIA, FBI, and the Mainstream Media. Once the commitment was made there was a "whole of government" effort to make this stick.
The Russia-gate Hoax Conspiracy is still going on today, as they cannot afford to admit the truth. Too many reputations would be irretrievably ruined.
It was a two-fer. Denying and delegitimizing (and ultimately dismantling) Russia's sovereignty was part of the plan too. They knew that Russia would eventually respond to the civil war going on next door in Ukraine. The Trump and Russiagate operation was also part of the PR campaign to get the American public to approve and pay for a proxy war against Russia later.
They would never admit anything because they don’t have to. If you robbed a bank and got away with it, would you confess if nobody cared to ask and authorities didn’t bother to investigate and swept it under the rug?
Was it me or was Substack down for a minute or two? Weird that Crowdstrike is prominent in this story. Also weird that Crowdstrike's defective software caused global business disruption a couple weeks ago. Is someone knocking at my door?
It went down for me too. Didn’t last long, but I also thought it was weird in light of CrowdStrike and Elon Musk’s technical difficulties last night. Way too much fuckery going on and as a result I’m starting to see conspiracies everywhere I look anymore.
I got on substack's email list for service outages. They not infrequently have problems, some big, some small. I think I saw a notice fly through my email today.
Matt, thank you for your excellent and tireless work on smoking out this blatant corruption. The problem is that these people have created such a complicated web of corruption, involving multiple govt. agencies, Universities and “researchers”, it is nearly impossible for the average person to understand. So, the corrupt corporate media are allowed to ignore it as just right-wing conspiracy theories.
This is fabulously deep reporting, and once again makes me note that Matt Taibbi is the most hardworking Substacker out there. But I have to be candid: I could use a short summary. I could also use a post in which Matt summarizes the major points and overarching upshot of the Twitter Files, and smaller ancillary investigating. This is worse than keeping track of characters on Game of Thrones.
Yes, totally agree. It would be useful to see a sketch of what Matt and his colleagues have ultimately in mind, so we can then understand how all the disparate puzzle pieces begin to fit in.
I totally agree. If anyone from Matt's team is monitoring these comments. Please note we need help. The names, the players, the relationships...perhaps some kind of mapping software that provides macro-level of interests, that then allows deeper and deeper to the raw data. Aww crap, this sounds like an abstract for a DARPA DLL/ML grant application. Sorry.
With an ounce of journalistic decency, some group like 60 Minutes could have blown this RussiaGate-Mueller bullshit to hell and back years ago. They didn’t because they’re on the same team.
When you read Matt and other real investigative journalists you realize we are being gaslighted by both sides of the media. MSDNC and ZNN control the left brain lemmings and Fox News controls the right brained ones. What you’ll eventually notice is neither one touches on the work Matt does. You’d think Fox at the very least would be all over this reporting but no it very rarely expounds on Matt’s reporting ( not that anyone really can add anything) but this information needs to be blasted from the rooftops but that never happens which shows how corrupt the MSM is. They follow what the govt tells them to report on depending on their alliances and drive it home until those listening to it bleed from their heads. Those of us who know better subscribe and happily read Matt and others to get the story straight. Unfortunately, we are in the minority which is frustrating as we watch our country be destroyed by the very people we elected. Keep up the great work. I’m a lifer!
As a computer engineer, I have never been comfortable with the narrative the Mueller report lays out regarding the hack.
From what I remember, the amount of detail and their supposed ability to know what these Russian hackers were searching for and doing, seemed made up.
The only technically feasible way I could see them being able to prove the amount of detail they did in that indictment is if the US government was monitoring these hackera realtime, and basically having hacked the hackers.
It just has never made any sense to me, and the fact that they've never had to prove any of it in court with all the indicted people being Russians who will never go to the US is just very convenient.
Do we even have independent confirmation that the indicted Russians exist? Has the media ever tracked them down and asked them about the allegations? Nope.
It's just all a bit bizarre.
And remember, the contents of the leak didn't really contain anything very damaging. They basically revealed that they had screwed over Sanders and had been working behind the scene to anoint Clinton. By the time the leak came out, it was too late to stop Clinton anyway.
So there was no real downside to the leak for the Democrats, but it provided the basis for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and has ever since been used as evidence that Russia was working to help Trump.
Where do I direct my rage over all of this and the copious pile-up of Democrat political corruption and profound threats to democracy?
For some reason I am thinking of Chief Justice Roberts. SCOTUS is supposed to protect democracy as per the Constitution and related book of laws. It seems that under the Roberts Court, he keeps punting everything back as the responsibility of the voters to resolve through the election process. However, when the entire democratic process has been so corrupted by Democrat malfeasance, that is where SCOTUS is supposed to step in. Roberts is a weak man.
Most of it should be kicked back to Congress, who doesn’t do their job representing our interests. That said, I agree that the Chief Justice looks out for the image of the Court too much. He needs to raise a middle finger to them every time the Administration and Congress threaten it.
Unfortunately the nature of Congressional hearings works against them having much of an impact in the public mind. The minority members spend their allotted five minutes crafting (usually irrelevant to the subject at hand) sound bites for cable news. The half of the audience that identifies with the minority will dismiss the entire hearing as political. Very discouraging.
Agreed. I think he worries about the court reputation in the likes, clicks and followers social media pop culture... and also his invite to the ruling class dinners and cocktail parties. Maybe his wife is threatening him.
And its formal name --Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001--what a mangle.
Yes, a lot of fellow Republicans have selective memory and tend to gloss over the Patriot Act. NAFTA is another "Republican" backed, slap in the face to our citizens.
My dear Matt, I realize I tell you nothing you don't already know when I say "one of the biggest and most important investigations in history" was nothing but a sham, just another representation of the crooked DNC, and the power it wields. The crooked-ness gets only more and more crooked as it goes forward to cover itself up. And that's why it's so important that you're doing what you're doing. Keep it alive! It's NOT OLD NEWS! It's the heart of darkness at the root of the collapse of a healthy democratic political system. Do we not see the result in this circus we're calling the 2024 presidential election cycle? Sure, there's plenty more crooked-ness to be found. But, to have this right before our eyes and watch it squirm away is a death blow. For me, it's almost unbearable to watch . . . so I thank you, many, many times.
This is further confirmation of what we already know: The entire "national security" apparatus is corrupt from top to bottom, and uses private companies and foreign actors to get around the Constitution and other pesky requirements to keep the government accountable to the people.
This is REAL investigative journalism!
And this 66-year-old remembers when there was much of it. I love these proofs it is not yet extinct - it's what I love Sunbstack for, and I don't find much of it elsewhere.
I got a reduced deal on WSJ which gives me the right to comment. The rare instances they write about censorship (which they did today) I use the comments section to remind their readers that MT's Twitter Files were the crack in the dike. I get a few people that agree with me every time. Maybe it helps a little to bring a few here.
I've been paying Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald and Michael Schellenberger and Paul Gigot at the WSJ for a long time.
Not too many people care about the MSM abandoning their 4th Estate principles to where the deliberately seek out real reporters....yet here you are.
You're well on your way to being a truly informed citizen.
The best kind.
You might be the one liking my comments.
I walked away from the WSJ a few years ago. Sad. I used to love that paper. Especially the editorial page. But they showed me they were only slightly less biased than the NYT so I abandoned them. Too bad.
Yeah, real late. All in f this is old, old news. Hell, most of it is in published books already, just like the last "scoop" from Schellinburg.
Wow. It's like some dystopian nightmare that goes on and on. No justice. And now the State media is coronating another puppet stooge here and people are buying this like they haven't watched her for four years? Listened to her platforms from 2019? Erasing all that like 2+2 is 5? It is all so frustrating and no way to get real information to people.
I think Matt had the same thing happen to him that happened to me in the literary community. He thought he was a well-respected reporter and one of the club, and his colleagues would respect his investigative journalism even if they didn't agree. And he found out how fast this machine cast him aside for questioning the party line. I was kind of shocked and I'm sure Matt is, but we owe him a lot for doing it.
We owe all you truth tellers an awful lot. Thank you.
Ha, no one has ever thanked me before! Thank YOU. It was hard being cancelled from the literary community in MI but there was no other choice. I also got worked out of an adjunct queue at NMU for trumped up reasons. I don't regret it at all, but it was quite a shock at first. You don't cross leftists. They do not appreciate debate or listen to you because you've been one of them. You tow the line or you're out. And I was only taking a NEUTRAL position. Ha.
And that's why the left wins most of the time. Like a good military, they are well disciplined. Individualism is punished without hesitation.
You'd think that would cause people to abandon them, but doesn't seem to. Odd.
They're called lemmings for a reason.
When given the choice of a Blue pill or Red pill..most people will choose "ignorance is bliss" until 20 years from now they're breaking into the local zoo to find some fresh meat for their family while using 3 wheelbarrows of US $ to pay for a loaf of bread.
I was an adjunct who believed her students could do college work and caught a lot of hell. You know FAIR is interested in publishing stories like yours? And they have the FAIR in the Arts group. (Maybe you know that but in case you don’t.)
which FAIR are you referring to? I can find at least 3.
ps, Thanks for the thought!
Yes, they seemed kind of interesting to me at first, but it looks like they are pretty left. They like the DEI thing and are criticizing the Times for saying Shapiro wasn't chosen because he was Jewish, though it seems pretty obvious that's true. I thought they were championing people no matter what party, which would be ok, but not sure. I get some of their newsletters. So...
will now I'm curious to hear your story @Lekimball !
I doubt they were 'leftists'. And I think it's time we move beyond the left-right labels. They're used so subjectively as to now be virtually meaningless.
Spot on.
Media and Establishment want the left vs right narrative to continue.
2007\2008 subprime mortgage collapse tlted this on its axis.
It's now top vs bottom battle seen through a hierarchical lens.
The 3E's vs We The People.
Elites. Experts. Establishment.
and ps, Roger, I thought they were in business solely to champion free speech --everyone's. Yet they seem to have an agenda that goes beyond that. I was disappointed.
Oh PLEASE. That was my point. Call it anything you want and quibbling over whether leftists are socialists or democrats or whatever is ludicrous. Which is your point. People have to be able to use LANGUAGE to describe things. I'm sure you'd like to be arbiter of that. My POINT is that they seem to have a BIAS I didn't expect and it seems to lean left, not that that is the point --and I didn't want one EITHER WAY. You scolds are so annoying and superior. Get off it.
In 2011 I met with an OWS protest group in Boston. I'd met with. Tea Party Group in MN the year before.
Though both were Populists....one was more nationalist and willing to defend the ideals in the US Constitution. They wanted power taken from DC and handed back to state and local governments.
The other was more interested in creating a powerful State that gave them power instead of Wall Street.
Both agreed that deconstruction of DC was necessary to achieve their goals....but one group had more libertarian views about whst's next while the others could quote Das Kapital better than a Sociology Professor at Oberlin.
It's too bad that you see others' disagreements with you as scolding and also that they project to you, "superiority". I'll write things as I see them and you can ignore or bristle however you like. It seems that you are in fact illustrating my point, which is that the use of these labels is subjective and also often therefore mistaken.
It's also likely that you're missing the main point: which is that the "they" (to whom I think you're referring, which is those running the security state as well as the political elites atop the two sides of the duopoly, aren't left nor right. They represent the corporate and oligarchic interests of those who control both. Maintenance of the status quo in which the Wall Street and Washington-centered Empire expands (or at least hangs on to) its hegemony (which is enabled by the dollar in its de facto role of global exchange currency), IS the consensus agenda of both parties. This is why there is almost no debate and no hesitation about funding proxy wars against those States that do not consent to this hegemony and who are seen as possible competitors; little hesitation to start color revolutions or otherwise support coups, anywhere a leader or government resists this imperial colonialism, etc.
The established powers are at once neoliberal in economic policy and neoconservative in foreign policy; in fact, neoliberalism and neoconservatism have effectively married because they both serve that singular agenda of maintaining the power and profits of those at the top in an economic order defined by U.S. interests.
So, left and right mean little to them. More, they are used by the policy makers to define the other side, i.e. as pejoratives; and the culture-war issues that they deliberately use to keep attention off the most important topics such as I've alluded to here.
I observe that, while they've been wildly successful in keeping the little people barking at each other through such manipulations, there is a growing number of people who are seeing this game / system for what it is.
This has nothing to do with the media we are discussing and whether they demonstrate bias. No idea what you are going on about.
Look how fast the machine tossed out Biden after decades and decades of loyal service grift.
This first happened to Matt's colleagues. I forget who. He was shocked at how she was treated. I think it was a woman. But I still think he was shocked that they all got this treatment and got thrown off the MSM and vilified. But that didn't stop him. I think it was Jordan Peterson who said he really missed his old life before he took these stands. He was probably a center left type guy. But he said he was going to lose and pay if he said nothing. So there really was no choice. And you don't regret it because not telling the truth is like murdering yourself. He said it better. But not many people have done this. Glenn Greenwald. Joanathan Turley, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Jodan Peterson. I give thanks for these folks every day. I don't know yet if we'll win--too much controlled by these people--education, entertainment, government jobs, and the media. That's a lot to overcome. But these people had a lot to lose. Matt of course.
Indeed, when one chooses inauthenticity, and it IS a choice, you lose everything.
Yes, you lose either way, but one way you lose yourself. Thank you.
And when you lose yourself, you have nothing.
Yes, it most certainly is a choice.
Ya, sure, they all had a lot to overcome---hell, they're all millionaires now, compliments of the big right-wing grift machine.
And Jordan Peterson "who said he really missed his old life before he took these stands."
And shed no tears, crocodile or otherwise, for Herr Professor Peterson who I'm certain does not miss his past life of mundane academic hackery, now that he's a rich YouTube clown.
YES, Jordan Peterson DOES miss his quiet professor life. He wouldn't have CHOSEN this, he feels it's a big loss, but he's happy about the money. And doing what he believed was right. Those are his words. But then you know better.
Most of us are millionaires now(inflation and QE really helps), which is why Bernie Sanders no longer attacks millionaires; he being one of them.
There are those on Substack who get what this is about and those who do not.
you are very triggered
lol
you mean, glacially, then all of a sudden?
The Venn diagram of Kamala's skills shows many overlaps among dancing, laughing, coattail riding, hand-signalling, and shit-eating grinning. Speaking extemporaneously is absent.
Ha ha! And yellow school buses. She needs those.
Oh, and craters on the moon you can see with your own eyes.
And the wonder of electric vehicles that you, gasp, plug in
How dare you mock her Joy!
I’m curious. I am hearing she has a drinking problem. Anyone else hearing that?
Possibly. If she would only have a few, it might depress her insane cackle.
This is all according to plan though, isn’t it? Can you imagine any intelligent, moral, candidate in this mass of mediocrity? There was Robert Kennedy jr., who got closer to that than anyone, but look how easily they swatted him away. I remember waking up on June 5th ‘68 and hearing of his father’s murder. I actually started crying. Which of today’s interchangeable droids could be assassinated to make a young person cry?
I was in high school at the time, right at the end of the school year. I can still remember my Spanish teacher, Miss Ybarra, ripping into the whole corrupt establishment, kind of an impromptu rant. She was right, though.
Wait! Before you write him off, RFK, Jr. is on the ballot in 45 states. I just collected signatures for him to gain ballot access here in CT. We've filed, and we're awaiting certification of the petitions. It should be a shoo-in. It is Bernie all over again. If voters would just vote for him. Like, don't write him off. I agree, though, that, just like with Bernie, it's a media blackout . . . . well, in this case a torching. But, hold out hope!
"We" the Bobby Kennedy volunteers, know he will win on aopeal. Don't you worry! Keep the faith. This is nothing like the Bernie attempt. Bobby can win
The main question is which party RFK Jr. will drain the most votes from. With his newfound alliance with Trump, it may be the GOP.
Kennedy's VP pick is horrible. Read up on her. I like RFK jr, but not for Pres. Not with that running mate of his.
Then don't vote for the VP.
Vote for the #1 spot.
Unless you think Tim Wlaz is the "It Girl" this week....or is it "Ick Girl"?
Who shakes their wife's hand on a national stage?
That's just weird.
I'm trying to figure out the intent of your response, but... I'll focus on making myself clear. Our current administration has made it abundantly clear that the VP is as important as the P. I knew this administration was going to be a shitshow in 2020 and they did not disappoint.
I'll behave myself and keep this civil, but I am curious. Are you on board with the way things were handled by the Dems recently and agree with our country being a full banana republic? Maybe nihilism has gotten the better of you? Don't tell me you are just a realist and see no choice but to make jokes and enjoy the show. Americans have been doing that for 60+ years and look at where that has gotten us.
What exactly?
He will win the ballot access on appeal. Don't worry. RFK Jr all the way!
I’m all for it. My thought was that he could run as Trump’s VP, and then, when no one’s looking, dump him in Central Park.
My grandfather was a vet in rural NE.
We would often get fed "stew" when we'd go visit.
Sometimes it was squirrel meat and sometimes there were cutup Rocky Mountain Oysters or pheasant or opossum meat and even bear.
I only found out it wasn't "chicken and beef stew" years later at Grandpa's funeral when Grandma spilled the beans.
We haven't stopped laughing since.
Lighten up....RFK Kr didn't murder the bear.
I just read that eating squirrel brains can be dangerous. "Doctors in Kentucky put out a warning against eating squirrel brains in 1997 after 11 people were diagnosed in the state with the non-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, according to the New York Times. “'All of them were squirrel-brain eaters,'' a doctor told the paper at the time." Speaking of squirrel brains, how about that Kamala interview?
Amen
I'm sure it is shocking to find out a lot of people don't walk their talk.
Did Special Counsel Robert Mueller Rely on Clinton Campaign Operatives to Point to Russia?
------------
Yes. They may or may not have been officially working for the Clinton campaign at the time, but they were certainly Clinton operatives.
I think there is only one way to leave the Clinton organization.
⚰️
And how smooth and aloof is she, keeping her fingerprints out of the morass? Not unlike organized crime, it might take something akin to RICO statutes to drag the net over these crooks, at which point they begin to sing and "roll up."
Started to delete this when I realized it was stupid of me to think someone would enforce such statutes.... Then decided to leave it, with this acknowledgement, to illustrate the futility of controlling this mob. They are, after all, above the law. In fact, they are the law.
Mueller seemed to be equal to Biden with respect to dementia so maybe there is a signal here.
Like Jeannie Rhee. She represented Hillary and was on the dream team
The two things I take from this are:
1) Damn near everyone involved in this is dirty, lying and without scruples
2) This is why we are $trillions in debt. Chicanery at this level ain't cheap.
Otherwise, it seems we lost our country to a bunch of shitty people and we won't get it back because there are so many of them
way more of us
And how many of us are willing to do something about it?
About one. Matt
lots of people are willing to put in the work to makes things better. Our main problem is organizational in nature, which is kind of a recurrent human thing.
Agree that Matt is priceless.
Biden said we needed F-16s to do anything about it…smug Son of a Bitch.
The Taliban beg to differ
Don’t they have F-16s now, thanks to Brandon?
Biden never was the sharpest tack in the box, was he.
Your subscriptions help him do the investigations so you are not without honor everyone here.
I am happy and proud to give money to Matt for his efforts. He is amazingly industrious and honest. A true "Damn the Torpedoes" warrior
I weep for American. The slow ride downhill.
I'm 67. Looks like I get to ride off into the sunset saying "I told you so. You branded me crazy for 30 years. Good luck"
I'm 67 also. 68 in a few days! Good luck to you too, although I should warn you, riding off into the sunset sounds like a good way to get shot in the back.
Sounds as good (or better) than cancer
To each his own. I'd prefer the Rooster Cogburn type approach.
I'm not familiar with the movie and google didn't give me any specifics about the Rooster Cogburn approach. That's a pretty great name, though
SGC More like a fast run away train ride
What I want to know, is: who killed Seth Rich?
Isn’t suspicious that the greatest political crimes of the last 20 years have completely eluded the world’s “finest” law enforcement agency and has been delegated to the dustbin of history….Who killed Seth Rich? Does anybody care? Who planted the bombs on January 6, 2021?? Who killed Jeffrey Epstein? And why are criminals who abused young girls not named and not prosecuted? The FBI can name every single Tom, Dick and Harry who even came close to the Capitol on January 6, but that one guy with the hoodie and the bombs is just too elusive.
Our government has lied to us for the last 200+ years and continues to this day.
Who killed Michael Hastings? And Gary Webb? I certainly don’t buy the suicide angle.
Gary Webb and the old 2 shots to the head "suicide"
🛎️🔨
Ahhh...so many questions...this must be where you sign-up to join the Clinton "disappeared list".
Might as well add recent the Boeing whistleblowers to the list…
Spot fucking on.
agree
“The FBI can name every single Tom, Dick and Harry who even came close to the Capitol on January 6….” But they still won’t name the 40-odd agents provocateurs that show up in much of the surveillance footage.
Nashville bomb Christmas Day 2020, that was really freaking weird. Elohim City McVeigh. How did this kid shoot at Trump?
Who shot JR? That one we know….
People let them. Until we revolt the Gov will keep growing and just eat all that don't serve it. A new nation is growing from within our Gov.
Good question. And did they kill him because he was the party responsible for the "DNC hack" that The Nation (!) once posited was an inside job and not Russian interference. The Nation has walked it back a bit, but the original story said that the "hack" was executed locally with a portable storage device.
We all *know*; what we really need is *recognition* of who did that.
Sort of like how Epstein Didn't Kill Himself.
If only we had somebody in law enforcement who also wondered about this. . .
"Botched robbery" just doesn't cut it, since his wallet & phone had not been taken.
You'll find out in 2067.
DC gang on orders of DNC thugs J. Podesta and Clinton. Paraphrasing, Podesta said even if he didn't do it, let's send a message.
Riiiiiiiiiggghhhttt . . . . . good question, huh?????
Ugh, I need a simplified version of this. Is there anything like The Deep State for Dummies available?
We're going to do a spaces chat to try to walk through it.
What is a spaces chat? Sorry for my ignorance but, like Art, I need a simplified version of Matt’s reporting on this one. It’s hard to keep track of everyone if you don’t already know the players. I pay for this site because I value Matt’s excellent reporting but I got lost here. It’s important stuff and time-crunched minds want to know!
Its X’s live version of a podcast.
Thanks; following
ART, please unblock me. I don't know why you blocked me because I like all of your comments but can't like them. Sorry, JMS, don't know where else to jump in to get Art's attention.
Date and time?
Art: Here’s the straight story. Our United States Bureaucracy tried to overthrow the Trump Presidency through nefarious and illegal means withe the major media outlets running cover for this insurrection. In a nutshell.
That, of course, is only the most recent episode. Read "The Devil's Chessboard" by David Talbot.
JBoss law of politics: the level of corruption involved is directly proportional to how far left the person or organization leans.
And realize everything in govt is corrupt. Easily 10% to 20% of all dept budgets are lost to grift or waste or outright fraud. I work on govt. The stories I could tell you...
Govt is too big, and nobody on the take will give up "their" share without a fight.
Too big is exactly right. I'd posit that a new nation is growing from within. Those of us not bending the knee will be considered non-citizens.
$7 Trillion Dollar Federal Budget
10% = $700 Billion
Nice work if you can get it.
We need a graphic like when the detective pins photos to the wall and connects them with yarn.
Glenn Beck does that all the time connecting the dots for lay people to understand the complex connections.
Deep state calls him a conspiracy nut, but just because you're a nut doesn't mean you're wrong.
In my case, I need me some new conspiracies since all the others have been proven to be true.
Just a hunch, the new conspiracies will involve the same old 51 retired members of the intelligence community. Expecting a letter any day that Harris has only been pretending to be a ninny to trick the Russians.
This is funny.
I hear you. I read through the incredible detail Racket News brings to its reporting, which we are not used to anymore --- neither detailed reporting nor deep reading.
But then I read, someone ". . . wiped dozens of phones . . ." My government. My Protector. I don't need to know how to code to interpret what government is doing there. And then lying, too.
It's kinda like that street game, "find the queen". I may get lost in the confusion, but I'm reasonably sure we're screwed.
I agree. This is very esoteric and needs an interpretation. I think I understand but I couldn’t be a witness. Thanks
I love Matt to pieces and I’m a paid subscriber. But often he writes as if I already know what he’s talking about. Which I often don’t. And he’s such a damned smart reporter, it’s almost like listening to an astrophysicist talk about the cosmos to a a lay person.
You could also just watch 25% of Jimmy Dore YT clips.
I think it is important to keep this fact in mind: What the Russia-gate Hoax Conspiracy was all about was the attempt to deny and delegitimize Trump's election. It was an attempt to claim his election was rigged (by Russians), therefore he was an illegitimate president. This conspiracy was orchestrated first by the Clinton team and the DNC, and was then quickly signed onto by the Obama/Biden Administration, the CIA, FBI, and the Mainstream Media. Once the commitment was made there was a "whole of government" effort to make this stick.
The Russia-gate Hoax Conspiracy is still going on today, as they cannot afford to admit the truth. Too many reputations would be irretrievably ruined.
It was an attempted coup.
It worked. Any attempts at peace were hamstrung from the beginning.
And all my liberal friends still believe it.
Russia-gate is a million times worse than the January 6 protests.
It was a two-fer. Denying and delegitimizing (and ultimately dismantling) Russia's sovereignty was part of the plan too. They knew that Russia would eventually respond to the civil war going on next door in Ukraine. The Trump and Russiagate operation was also part of the PR campaign to get the American public to approve and pay for a proxy war against Russia later.
It also allowed them to bolster the "Russia can never be allowed to succeed" philosophy and the now nearly-three-year proxy war in support of that.
They would never admit anything because they don’t have to. If you robbed a bank and got away with it, would you confess if nobody cared to ask and authorities didn’t bother to investigate and swept it under the rug?
But we wouldn't do that so it is hard to imagine that the party so many of us belonged to would...
Was it me or was Substack down for a minute or two? Weird that Crowdstrike is prominent in this story. Also weird that Crowdstrike's defective software caused global business disruption a couple weeks ago. Is someone knocking at my door?
It went down for me too. Didn’t last long, but I also thought it was weird in light of CrowdStrike and Elon Musk’s technical difficulties last night. Way too much fuckery going on and as a result I’m starting to see conspiracies everywhere I look anymore.
Substack had a "glitch" today as well
I got on substack's email list for service outages. They not infrequently have problems, some big, some small. I think I saw a notice fly through my email today.
Mine too.
Mine was down too.
GB stop using the W…. word. It’ll rot your brain.
Matt, thank you for your excellent and tireless work on smoking out this blatant corruption. The problem is that these people have created such a complicated web of corruption, involving multiple govt. agencies, Universities and “researchers”, it is nearly impossible for the average person to understand. So, the corrupt corporate media are allowed to ignore it as just right-wing conspiracy theories.
This is fabulously deep reporting, and once again makes me note that Matt Taibbi is the most hardworking Substacker out there. But I have to be candid: I could use a short summary. I could also use a post in which Matt summarizes the major points and overarching upshot of the Twitter Files, and smaller ancillary investigating. This is worse than keeping track of characters on Game of Thrones.
Yes, totally agree. It would be useful to see a sketch of what Matt and his colleagues have ultimately in mind, so we can then understand how all the disparate puzzle pieces begin to fit in.
link to a capsule summary of the Twitter files with acronyms that Matt did on January 4, 2023.
https://www.racket.news/p/capsule-summaries-of-all-twitter
Kathleen you’re on it! as always. Thanks.
Cate! Here is a link to a capsule summary of the Twitter files with acronyms that Matt did on January 4, 2023.
https://www.racket.news/p/capsule-summaries-of-all-twitter
I totally agree. If anyone from Matt's team is monitoring these comments. Please note we need help. The names, the players, the relationships...perhaps some kind of mapping software that provides macro-level of interests, that then allows deeper and deeper to the raw data. Aww crap, this sounds like an abstract for a DARPA DLL/ML grant application. Sorry.
With an ounce of journalistic decency, some group like 60 Minutes could have blown this RussiaGate-Mueller bullshit to hell and back years ago. They didn’t because they’re on the same team.
They have been for tears. Just look up the incestous list of members to The Council on Foreign Relations.
When you read Matt and other real investigative journalists you realize we are being gaslighted by both sides of the media. MSDNC and ZNN control the left brain lemmings and Fox News controls the right brained ones. What you’ll eventually notice is neither one touches on the work Matt does. You’d think Fox at the very least would be all over this reporting but no it very rarely expounds on Matt’s reporting ( not that anyone really can add anything) but this information needs to be blasted from the rooftops but that never happens which shows how corrupt the MSM is. They follow what the govt tells them to report on depending on their alliances and drive it home until those listening to it bleed from their heads. Those of us who know better subscribe and happily read Matt and others to get the story straight. Unfortunately, we are in the minority which is frustrating as we watch our country be destroyed by the very people we elected. Keep up the great work. I’m a lifer!
"What you'll eventually notice is neither one touches on the work Matt does." That simultaneously characterizes and condemns today's corporate media.
I think MT has been on Fox but as people have posted above it is so much...like jumping on the middle of War and Peace.
As a computer engineer, I have never been comfortable with the narrative the Mueller report lays out regarding the hack.
From what I remember, the amount of detail and their supposed ability to know what these Russian hackers were searching for and doing, seemed made up.
The only technically feasible way I could see them being able to prove the amount of detail they did in that indictment is if the US government was monitoring these hackera realtime, and basically having hacked the hackers.
It just has never made any sense to me, and the fact that they've never had to prove any of it in court with all the indicted people being Russians who will never go to the US is just very convenient.
Do we even have independent confirmation that the indicted Russians exist? Has the media ever tracked them down and asked them about the allegations? Nope.
It's just all a bit bizarre.
And remember, the contents of the leak didn't really contain anything very damaging. They basically revealed that they had screwed over Sanders and had been working behind the scene to anoint Clinton. By the time the leak came out, it was too late to stop Clinton anyway.
So there was no real downside to the leak for the Democrats, but it provided the basis for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and has ever since been used as evidence that Russia was working to help Trump.
Where do I direct my rage over all of this and the copious pile-up of Democrat political corruption and profound threats to democracy?
For some reason I am thinking of Chief Justice Roberts. SCOTUS is supposed to protect democracy as per the Constitution and related book of laws. It seems that under the Roberts Court, he keeps punting everything back as the responsibility of the voters to resolve through the election process. However, when the entire democratic process has been so corrupted by Democrat malfeasance, that is where SCOTUS is supposed to step in. Roberts is a weak man.
Most of it should be kicked back to Congress, who doesn’t do their job representing our interests. That said, I agree that the Chief Justice looks out for the image of the Court too much. He needs to raise a middle finger to them every time the Administration and Congress threaten it.
I think the House Judiciary Committee has been trying. Jim Jordan has been fierce.
Unfortunately the nature of Congressional hearings works against them having much of an impact in the public mind. The minority members spend their allotted five minutes crafting (usually irrelevant to the subject at hand) sound bites for cable news. The half of the audience that identifies with the minority will dismiss the entire hearing as political. Very discouraging.
Agreed. I think he worries about the court reputation in the likes, clicks and followers social media pop culture... and also his invite to the ruling class dinners and cocktail parties. Maybe his wife is threatening him.
Don't forget a lot of crap happened under Bush also. Patriot Act. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Both parties are complicit.
And its formal name --Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001--what a mangle.
The acronym virus strikes again.
Yes, a lot of fellow Republicans have selective memory and tend to gloss over the Patriot Act. NAFTA is another "Republican" backed, slap in the face to our citizens.
I think it would help a lot if people could question their blind tribalism.
My dear Matt, I realize I tell you nothing you don't already know when I say "one of the biggest and most important investigations in history" was nothing but a sham, just another representation of the crooked DNC, and the power it wields. The crooked-ness gets only more and more crooked as it goes forward to cover itself up. And that's why it's so important that you're doing what you're doing. Keep it alive! It's NOT OLD NEWS! It's the heart of darkness at the root of the collapse of a healthy democratic political system. Do we not see the result in this circus we're calling the 2024 presidential election cycle? Sure, there's plenty more crooked-ness to be found. But, to have this right before our eyes and watch it squirm away is a death blow. For me, it's almost unbearable to watch . . . so I thank you, many, many times.
This is further confirmation of what we already know: The entire "national security" apparatus is corrupt from top to bottom, and uses private companies and foreign actors to get around the Constitution and other pesky requirements to keep the government accountable to the people.
It all needs to go.