Trump Is Guilty of Treason and Wants to Start Major Wars as a Distraction

Trump is toast. Not because he's an asshole, though he is; not because he's a Republican, which (in fact) he isn't; he's toast because he's one of the biggest traitors in the history of the U.S. and Mueller has *at least* three key witnesses *already* who can testify to that.

Trump knows he's toast, which is why he's preparing for two wars: a war on the rule of law here at home, and a senseless war abroad, in either North Korea or Iran. All of it is to save himself—he thinks—by delaying what at this point is inevitable: his fall from power.

Trump effectively has no lawyers: (1) McGahn is a witness against him. (2) He no longer trusts Cobb and discusses firing him. (3) Dowd resigned. (4) DiGenova and Toensing chose not to join the team. (5) Sekulow is more activist than lawyer. (6) Cohen is mired in scandal.

Meanwhile, Trump is firing all his intelligent advisors—Tillerson, McMaster, perhaps soon Kelly (NB: even Hope Hicks, while young, may on occasion have been a calming and steadying influence)—and bringing in dangerous radicals like John Bolton. Bolton could get us into a war.

The reason Trump not having a real legal team is a major national news story is that the war with North Korea (and possibly Iran) that Bolton wants—has long wanted—would possibly forestall Trump's legal woes slightly, so he might take military advice in lieu of legal advice.

Simple fact: the inability of the most powerful man in the world to secure adequate legal representation as he's facing the gravest downfall of a political figure in American history is a huge national news story—and a national security issue—and must be covered as such.

Analysis from Seth Abramson. I can't argue with his logic. See the twitter threads linked above for additional documentation.

Nightmare Scenario-- John Bolton Slated to Trump's National Security Advisor

A total crackpot and FoxNews hack pundit, Bolton was a major Iraq warhawk and has long insisted that the Iraq war was a good thing. Bolton has also long advocated for war with and/or bombing Iran.

Bolton has also called for attacking North Korea, which would be a complete catastrophe for the world, since nuclear missiles would almost certainly be launched and Seoul largely destroyed, along with hundreds of thousands to millions of people killed.

Bolton is really about the last person in the country who should be advising Trump on national security.

Right now, there are no moderating voices in the White House. Sec. of Defense Mattis may be all that is stopping us from launching huge and costly wars.

There are critical midterm elections this Fall, that should allow Democrats to take back Congress.

Look out for an October surprise before the elections then, as an increasingly unpopular and desperate president looks to change the national conversation and start a huge new war.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is ‘Increasing Exponentially’

Well shit.

Seventy-nine thousand tons of plastic debris, in the form of 1.8 trillion pieces, now occupy an area three times the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, a scientific team reported on Thursday. The amount of plastic found in this area, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is “increasing exponentially,” according to the surveyors, who used two planes and 18 boats to assess the ocean pollution.

“We wanted to have a clear, precise picture of what the patch looked like,” said Laurent Lebreton, the lead oceanographer for the Ocean Cleanup Foundation and the lead author of the study. The Garbage Patch has been described before.

But this new survey estimates that the mass of plastic contained there is four to 16 times larger than previously supposed, and it is continuing to accumulate because of ocean currents and careless humans both onshore and offshore.

Greed and stupidity is going to kill us yet.

Promoting Criminals, Punishing Whistleblowers (and 33 of the day)

CIA officer John Kiriakou was jailed for exposing the torture program. Now Trump wants to promote CIA officer Gina Haspell, who was a leader in the program after 9/11 and helped cover it up.

Putting Haspel in charge of the CIA would undo attempts by the agency — and the nation — to repudiate torture.

The message this sends to the CIA workforce is simple: Engage in war crimes, in crimes against humanity, and you’ll get promoted. Don’t worry about the law. Don’t worry about ethics. Don’t worry about morality or the fact that torture doesn’t even work. Go ahead and do it anyway. We’ll cover for you.

And you can destroy the evidence, too.

Described in the media as a “seasoned intelligence veteran,” Haspel has been at the CIA for 33 years, both at headquarters and in senior positions overseas.

Now the deputy director, she has tried hard to stay out of the public eye. Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director and secretary of state designee, has lauded her “uncanny ability to get things done and inspire those around her.”

I’m sure that’s true for some. But many of the rest of us who knew and worked with Haspel at the CIA called her “Bloody Gina.”

The CIA will not let me repeat her résumé or the widely reported specifics of how her work fit into the agency’s torture program, calling such details “currently and properly classified.” But I can say that Haspel was a protege of and chief of staff for Jose Rodriguez, the CIA’s notorious former deputy director for operations and former director of the Counterterrorism Center. And that Rodriguez eventually assigned Haspel to order the destruction of videotaped evidence of the torture of Abu Zubaida.

Just disgusting. But what else do you expect from CIA torturers?

Also, this is reminiscent of the many people involved in 9/11 who were promoted by the Bush administration, while other 9/11 whistleblowers were suppressed.

Richard Myers, in charge of the Pentagon on 9/11—Promoted

Who was in charge at the Pentagon? Richard Myers, who gave several contradictory accounts of his actions on 9/11, was promoted as a new Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 24, 2001 by President Bush. As Jim Hoffman notes, "General Richard Myers was Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 11th... As Acting Chairman, Myers was the highest-ranking military official, and the principal military advisor to the President." On 9/11, Myers was in charge because Chairman Henry Shelton was out of the country. Amazingly, just three days after 9/11, following NORAD’s stunning failure to intercept any of the planes on 9/11, he was promoted from Vice-Chairman to Chairman, replacing Henry Shelton. A few months after this second promotion, Myers curiously said that "the goal has never been to get Bin Laden."

Ralph Eberhart, in charge of NORAD on 9/11—Promoted

On a day in which routine procedures should have prevented 9/11 from even happening, the attacks were mirrored in military drills. NORAD commander-in-Chief Ralph Eberhart was asked by the 9/11 Commission if these war games "helped" response to the 9/11 attacks and responded nonsensically, "sir, my belief is that it helped because of the manning, because of the focus, because the crews—they have to be airborne in 15 minutes and that morning, because of the exercise, they were airborne in six or eight minutes. And so I believe that focus helped." This was clearly a ridiculous statement since none of the planes were intercepted during the attacks. What "response" was there at all to the off course aircraft? In fact, there is very strong evidence that these drills coordinated by Dick Cheney hindered response since they moved air defenses away from New York and Washington, added "injects" to radar screens, and created general confusion. Like Richard Myers, Eberhart was promoted shortly after 9/11; "nominated by President Bush to command the... U.S. Northern Command," a new creation of the Department of Defense which Eberhart said was "needed" after the attacks. The lack of response to the aircraft can be clearly seen in the case of the Pentagon strike, which was significantly later than the attacks on the World Trade Center. Norman Mineta reported that a plane was flying towards the Pentagon while in a bunker with Dick Cheney. When an aide periodically reported the incoming aircraft to the Pentagon, he finally asked Dick Cheney "do the orders still stand?" Cheney responded angrily, "of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!?" Despite knowledge of this aircraft by the FAA, Dick Cheney, and NORAD with its superior radar capability, no obvious action was taken to intercept the plane or shoot it down. Instead, while NORAD was nowhere to be seen, a C-130 cargo plane was sent by civilian air traffic controllers to intercept and observe the incoming aircraft from Andrews Air Force Base. This base was 10 miles away from the Pentagon and had fighter jets available on 9/11. Why weren’t fighter jets scrambled to intercept the incoming plane and defend the Pentagon? Were civilian air traffic controllers left in charge of defense and intercepting planes on 9/11 in place of NORAD’s responsibility? Why wasn’t the Pentagon evacuated when the White House was evacuated? Why was Ralph Eberhart promoted?

Captain Charles J. Leidig, acting NMCC Director—Promoted

Captain Charles J Leidig was asked by Brigadier General Montague Winfield the day before 9/11 to take over his responsibilities. Leidig "assumed duties as the Deputy for Command Center Operations in the J3 Directorate of the Joint Staff... responsible for the maintenance, operation, and training of watch teams for the National Military Command Center (NMCC)." In testimony given to the 9/11 Commission, Leidig explained that "the Command Center then became a focal point for coordinating information flow... I convened a conference called a Significant Event Conference. And what that does is that brings leadership and combatant commanders into the conference to start discussing what actions should be taken or might be taken... I... [controlled] the conference that gets all these folks on the phone." Leidig was not reprimanded and was later promoted in 2004 to Admiral.

Brigadier General Montague Winfield—Promoted

Brigadier General Montague Winfield was in charge of the National Military Command Center (NMCC). But as Nick Levis observes, in an amazing coincidence, "Montague Winfield was originally scheduled to be at his command post on morning of Sept. 11. But on Sept. 10, he arranged for his deputy to relieve him the next morning at exactly 8:30 a.m. This turned out to be just eight minutes before the military was alerted to the diversion of the first flight." Winfield’s absence was significant because the NMCC was responsible for coordinating information on the 9/11 attack. In May of 2003, he was promoted to two-star rank of major general. Ben Sliney, in charge of FAA on 9/11—Promoted 9/11 was Ben Sliney’s first day on the job as National Operations Manager, described as "the chess master of the air traffic system." He successfully accomplished the landing of all commercials aircraft—an unprecedented event carried out "flawlessly". But as David Ray Griffin observes, "[is] it plausible that FAA personnel, on the same day that they carried out an unprecedented task so flawlessly, would have failed so miserably with a task that they, decade after decade, had been performing routinely?" While the 9/11 commission attempts to shift the blame away from NORAD to the FAA by completely omitting Laura Brown’s statement and other evidence from their final report, the interception of aircraft was a routine protocol as noted previously. Perhaps it was a bad day to start his job, but Sliney was not reprimanded and was later promoted. Steven Abbot, coordinator of Dick Cheney’s task force on problems of national preparedness—Promoted Admiral Steven Abbot was appointed by Dick Cheney to lead the domestic terrorism task force in June 2001. After 9/11, Abbot was promoted to become deputy director of the office of Homeland Security headed by Tom Ridge in October 2001. Marion (Spike) Bowman, blocked FBI investigations into the alleged hijackers before 9/11—Promoted FBI director Mueller awarded Bowman with a presidential citation and cash bonus of about 25 percent of his salary. Bowman, who was head of the FBI’s National Security Law Unit, was given an award for "exceptional performance" after a 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report claimed that his unit gave Minneapolis FBI agents "inexcusably confused and inaccurate information" that was "patently false." As well, Bowman’s unit "blocked an urgent request by FBI agents to begin searching for Khalid Almihdhar after his name was put on a watch list."

Pasquale D’Amuro, in charge of counterterrorism in New York—Promoted Pasquale D’Amuro, was the FBI’s counterterrorism chief on 9/11 in New York City, and was promoted to the top counterterrorism post after the attack.

Michael Maltbie, the supervisor handling the case at the FBI's Radical Fundamentalist Unit—Promoted

According to FBI Agent Harry Samit, he "wrote FBI headquarters about 70 memos about Moussaoui's likely terrorist plans between his arrest on Aug. 16 and Sept. 11, all to no avail." He was warned by his supervisor Michael Maltbie that pursuing this could be "bad for his career", and that he should not pursue this to "preserve the existence of his advancement potential" in the FBI. Instead of reprimand, Michael Maltbie was promoted to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the FBI’s Cleveland office after 9/11.

David Frasca, head of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit—not fired

It has been observed that when it came to the success of the 9/11 attacks, "most roads lead to counterterror chief’ David Frasca", head of the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit. Interestingly, he came into the job a week before 9/11 and was not fired for his performance after the 9/11 attacks. Paul Thompson observes that, "The Phoenix memo, which was addressed to Frasca, was received by his unit and warned that al-Qaeda terrorists could be using flight schools inside the US... Two weeks later Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested while training to fly a 747, but Frasca’s unit was unhelpful when local FBI agents wanted to search his belongings—a step that could have prevented 9/11." Time Magazine reports that, "The Phoenix memo was buried; the Moussaoui warrant request was denied." The New York Times indicates that Frasca, "[threw] up roadblocks" even after 9/11 in the Moussaoui investigation. Apparently, the FBI was so "incompetent", that some of the alleged hijackers lived with an FBI informant without intervention. The Able Danger program similarly identified some of the alleged hijackers. Not only this, some of the alleged hijackers trained on US military airbases.

FBI: "Incompetent" then Suddenly "Competent" after the Attack?

Immediately following the attacks, the FBI suddenly changed from being "incompetent" to very competent. Family member Kristen Breitweiser in testimony to the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry asked, "[how] did the FBI know exactly where to go only a few hours after the attacks? How did they know which neighborhoods, which flight schools and which restaurants to investigate so soon in the case? ...How are complete biographies of the terrorists, and their accomplices, created in such short time? Did our intelligence agencies already have open files on these men? Were they already investigating them?" Most of the hijackers were identified within hours of the attacks. While the attack at the Pentagon was not prevented despite observations of an incoming aircraft on radar, videos of the Pentagon strike were taken by the FBI minutes after it happened from multiple locations.

Failures Promoted, Whistleblowers Silenced?

While not one single individual was reprimanded for the 9/11 "failures", many whistleblowers were punished for speaking out. Coleen Rowley, Sibel Edmonds, Robert Wright, Kevin Ryan, and many others were silenced, fired, punished, and ignored for speaking out about what happened behind the scenes before and after the 9/11 attacks. As well, many credible professionals, scientists, professors, and others have expressed their doubts about the 9/11 "official story". The mainstream media has been curiously silent about these facts.

More Ground Zero Cancer

After terrorists struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a New York ferry captain who later became a city firefighter helped evacuate hundreds of people from Lower Manhattan.

He was Thomas Phelan, 45, one of the many heroes who came to the city's rescue after the attack. Phelan died on Friday, authorities said, one of the thousands of victims of cancer linked to the 9/11 attack.

Phelan worked for Circle Line Statue of Liberty ferry cruises when the twin towers were hit and helped ferry people from Lower Manhattan, FDNY spokesman Jim Long confirmed. In 2003, Phelan joined the fire department as a firefighter and eventually was promoted to marine pilot, Long said.

So he was only 45, very young, and didn't apparently work at Ground Zero. But I suppose he must have taken in a lot of WTC dust as he ferried people. God knows what exactly he was exposed to, presumably toxic chemicals but radiation as well seems likely.

It would be nice to have a full accounting of just how many people succumbed at an early age to cancer after being near Ground Zero on or after 9/11.

A full accounting, and justice for the real crimes of that day.

50th Anniversary of the My Lai Massacre

Fifty years ago, on March 16, 1968, U.S. soldiers attacked the Vietnamese village of My Lai. Even though the soldiers met no resistance, they slaughtered more than 500 Vietnamese women, children and old men over the next four hours, in what became known as the My Lai massacre.

After the massacre, the U.S. military attempted to cover up what happened. But in 1969 a young reporter named Seymour Hersh would reveal a 26-year-old soldier named William Calley was being investigated for killing 109 Vietnamese civilians. Today, memorials have been held in My Lai to mark the 50th anniversary of this horrific attack.

Good for Democracy Now on covering this story. Worth watching their report for sure.

And Anonymous Physicist's piece on Hugh Thompson and how he stopped the massacre is still a good read.

President Chaos Strikes Again

Trump ousts Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo

(speaking of intelligence officials being in charge)

"Trump's Latest Voter Suppression Plan Smells Dictatorial"

From Charlie Pierce:

The noisy guy who went bananas on national television on Saturday night is just brimming with new ideas these days, each one of them worse than the last. You may not have noticed, but the way we conduct our elections in this country is crazier than the president* the last one produced. (snip)

President Trump would be able to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places nationwide during a federal election, a vast expansion of executive authority, if a provision in a Homeland Security reauthorization bill remains intact.

The rider has prompted outrage from more than a dozen top elections officials around the country, including Secretary of State William F. Galvin of Massachusetts, a Democrat, who says he is worried that it could be used to intimidate voters and said, “This is worthy of a Third World country,” said Galvin in an interview. “I’m not going to tolerate people showing up to our polling places. I would not want to have federal agents showing up in largely Hispanic areas.”

Billy Galvin is a pol’s pol, old-school with a weather eye for electoral shenanigans. If he’s worried, the rest of us should be, too. The provision alarming him and others is a rider attached to legislation that would re-authorize the Department of Homeland Security.

The legislation already cleared the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs didn’t include the measure in the version of the bill it approved this week, according to Ben Voelkel, a spokesman for Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate committee. The full Senate must still approve the bill, and then the two versions of the legislation would need to be reconciled before going to the president for approval.

“There is no discernible need for federal secret service agents to intrude, at the direction of the president, who may also be a candidate in that election, into thousands of citadels where democracy is enshrined,” according to a letter opposing the provision that was signed by 19 bipartisan secretaries of state and elections commissioners.

The letter — sent to the Senate’s majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and its minority leader, Charles Schumer, on Friday afternoon —requests that the Senate keep the Secret Service provision from the final legislation.

The elections officials described the proposal as “unprecedented and shocking.”

“This is an alarming proposal which raises the possibility that armed federal agents will be patrolling neighborhood precincts and vote centers,” according to the letter, which was obtained by the Globe.

Who in their right mind would give this vulgar talking yam [i.e. Trump] this kind of power? The guy won’t protect the national elections from Russian ratfcking but he’s willing to send DHS into (selected) voting precincts just to be sure the figments of his inflamed and paranoid imagination aren’t stealing his rightful place among the giants of history?

(snip)

And the Secret Service isn’t wild about this, either. Under current law, the Secret Service can be stationed at a polling place to protect the president or other federal officials when voting. But they do not provide law enforcement. Catherine Milhoan, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said Saturday that her agency is seeking “clarifying language” to ensure agents can access polling places while protecting candidates.

US Government Investigation Finds No Complicity of US Government in 9/11

and... Republican-led House committee on intelligence finds no complicity of the Republican president with Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump Partied with Russian Oligarchs at Vegas Nightclub Shut Down over ‘Lewd’ Acts Involving Women and Urine

Just can't make this stuff up! 

A bombshell new report suggests Donald Trump consummated a deal to hold his Miss Universe pageant in Moscow while hobnobbing with Russian oligarchs at a Las Vegas nightclub later shut down over lewd performances involving women and urine.

The future president invited himself to dinner June 15, 2013, with Aras and Emin Agalarov and British publicist Rob Goldstone while presiding over the Miss USA contest his company owned at the time, reported Michael Isikoff and David Corn.

The elder Agalarov is a real estate developer and businessman, like Trump, and Goldstone is the publicist for the Russian’s pop star son, and all three figure in the controversial June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr.

They were planning a dinner at CUT, a restaurant at the Palazzo hotel and casino, when Trump’s longtime security chief Keith Schiller called and asked if the pageant owner and reality TV star could join their party. A group of about 20, including Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, dined in a private room, and Trump flattered his new friends and boasted that “nobody in the world” was better at self-promotion than he was, and referred to himself in third person.

Also at the dinner was Ike Kaveladze, the vice president of Agalarov’s Crocus International, who had been identified in 2000 by U.S. authorities as a conduit for money laundering $.14 billion out of Russia and Eastern Europe. Part of the group — including Trump, Emin, Goldstone, reigning Miss Universe Olivia Culpo and outgoing Miss USA Nana Meriwether — went after dinner to an after-party at a raunchy nightclub called the Act, where they arrived shortly after midnight.

The Act was later ordered a few months to stop its “lewd” and “offensive” performances — which involved activity that resembles salacious details of the Trump-Russia dossier compiled by a former British spy. “Among the club’s regular acts cited by the judge was one called ‘Hot for Teacher,’ in which naked college girls simulate urinating on a professor,” Isikoff and Corn reported. “In another act, two women disrobe and then ‘one female stands over the other female and simulates urinating while the other female catches the urine in two wine glasses.’”

I think at this point, there is little doubt the Steel dossier is almost 100% true, which means that Trump is a fucking treasonous scumfucker of the lowest order. Impeach his ass NOW.