22 Comments
Sep 16Liked by Andrew Korybko

"...Democrat-aligned forces."

Aren't 'Republican-aligned forces' just as culpable as their Democrat comrades in entrenching and perpetuating their dysfunctional (forever and ever!) "...permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”)..."?

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They are culpable, you're right, but I don't think they're interested in taking Trump out. They didn't want him to win the primary, which is why the RINOs backed Haley, but even those of her public supporters at the time have largely rallied around him.

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@Andrew Korybko

(Quote)

"but even those of her public supporters at the time have largely rallied around him."

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You have not noticed the official endorsements of Democratic candidates Kamala Harris/Tim Walz by Dick Chenney and several hundred other prominent deep state aligned Republicans?

The old guard are NOT rallying. Quite the opposite, AFAICT. And that old guard has plenty of acquaintance with "the agency".

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republicans-endorsing-kamala-harris-2024/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/former-ronald-reagan-staffers-endorse-kamala-harris

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don't blow that up. they haven't been Republicans for a long time. Totally owned by the US MIC. As Kurt Schlicter, that wag, wrote about Nikki Haley, "Nikki Halet (R-Boeing). The Bushes and Cheneys are big participants financially in all those weapons we produce. They are interested parties in war.

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@Norma Brown

Norma, in a world where I could be called a woman because I feel like it and fill out my ID paperwork with that box checked, calling ones self an "R" or a "D" does in fact make them one. Now, if you want to call some of them "RINO"(or "DINO"!), that's cool.

And BTW, the war lobby is equal opportunity- The DINOs are just cheaper to buy so Raytheon can afford to buy more of 'em.

R and D are meaningless when it comes to MIC and forever war, if you oppose the bloated MIC budget and the imperial foreign policy, you won't be elected (or may have an unfortunate accident if your constituents stubbornly insist on re-electing you).

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our Congress is almost as corrupt as our goverment, paid off in so many ways indirect and direct for their avid endorsement of wars that others fight to "make jobs in America's defense industry!" If I ruled the world, they'd be up for war crimes, guys like Lindsay (Butta wouldn't melt in mah mouth!) Graham. Vile people who openly equate nearly a million dead with more US jobs. Yes, we have been a lazy, stupid compliant people in America. Now we pay the price.

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"...we have been a lazy, stupid compliant people in America. Now we pay the price."

Fair enough, no-one's perfect. Try not to take it too hard. With the right attitude, it should all work out for the best in the end. That's enough piety and forgiveness (from me for now).

I wouldn't like to do anything to support or enable the likes of Lindsay Graham and his ilk to get away with what they've done, but I think it's important to find out WHY they've done what they've done. I'm sure the more feeble-minded among them, perhaps like Mr Graham himself, were, much like the Ukrainians, deceived, manipulated and coerced. Is it fair to apply the same rules to a simpleton as you would to others who are less credulous?

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they aren't stupid at Graham's level, or naive, they are onto it all. The idiots in Hollywood are "the credulous" or moreso, "the disinterested." They mouth lines, and so do our other entertainers on the "news." But the guys at the top, they may not have insight or vision, but they can add two plus two.

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OK, you know better than me; string 'em up from the lampposts, then.

Probably best to make sure you get a recording of a good show trial first, though.

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@Norma Brown

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"our Congress is almost as corrupt as our goverment"

It must be too early in the day, my reading of that seems to imply you think "our Congress" is NOT part of "our government"?

No quibbles about corruption, that's a prominent feature. Or about the moral culpability of LindsEy Graham.

https://www.celebrity-cutouts.com/product/lindsey-graham-grey-hair-big-head/

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no, I think of the Congress as "elected" and almost the entire Executive Branch as "appointed." So I distinguish. I can't throw out White House advisors, but I can help throw out my Congressional rep.

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@Norma Brown

Ah. You assume all of the unelected positions are hired through the executive branch? That is FAR from the case, even for the positions not tested and hired for "merit". Legislative AND judicial hire for many unelected positions and make up their own qualifications, ESPECIALLY notable in the case of elected legislative (Congressmen & senators) who can hire ADVISORS/RESEARCHERS and others who draft bills for them to move DIRECTLY FROM THE AFFECTED INDUSTRIES. And that's the key to a big chunk of "regulatory capture" & legalized corruption, even before the campaign "contributions/legalized corporate bribery.

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Federal civil service positions hired directly by the legislative branch include staff positions within individual Congressional offices, committee staff, legislative assistants, press secretaries, communications directors, and other roles supporting the operations of the House and Senate, essentially any role working directly for a Senator or Representative within their office or on a committee; these positions are not typically considered part of the "competitive service" under the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as they are directly employed by the legislative branch itself.

Key points about legislative branch hiring:

Directly employed by Congress:

Unlike most other federal civil service jobs, legislative branch positions are hired directly by individual members of Congress or their respective committees.

Not under OPM oversight:

The hiring process for legislative staff is not typically subject to the same competitive examination and rules that govern the executive branch civil service under the OPM.

Variety of roles:

Legislative branch positions can include policy analysts, researchers, caseworkers, counsel, office managers, and communications staff depending on the specific needs of a member or committee.

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The Civil Service is defined as "all appointive positions in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the Government of the United States, except positions in the uniformed services." (5 U.S.C. § 2101).

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Far as I can tell, so far the MSM are doing just fine at ignoring or at least downplaying the Ukraine connection.

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If they find that he put a roof on a Blackrock office building, I'll be totally convinced!

More seriously, while both assassins def seem oddly connected and simultaneously deranged, this attempt smells significantly less nefarious than the earlier Pa event.

Security at the Pa event was so pathetically bad that the more likely explanation is that its failure was intentional. Added to this was a shooter who trained locally at a gun range, who knew how to evade social media radar, who was heavily radicalized yet not deranged to the point of being public, had a very odd connection Blackrock, and was on the FBI radar for some unknown reason. While his manner at the scene of the event attracted attention from authorities, he still managed to get on an unprotected roof with a long gun and with a clear shot of appx 130 yards (not a difficult shot in the least for a trained shooter). The Secret Service couldnt catch him, but the bystanders spotted him immediately. And law enforcement radios, gosh darn it, just didnt seem to work. And somehow he got off several shots, then was immediately killed. Oddly, the national media, which had abandoned Trump events until then, was there at this one and well positioned to capture the images of a President, beloved by many, being shot like a watermelon. Immediately after, the media narratives downplayed what had happened, and then media attention suddenly shifted due to a massive cyber failure initiated by none other than Crowdstrike, that's right, the DNC cyber firm of Russiagate fame whose forensics work was mysteriously not reviewed by FBI forensics experts. None of this comes close to passing the smell test. And nobody trusts the FBI to investigate.

In this case, the assassin seems like a legit nutbar, was very public in his radicalization, never got closer than 300-500 yards away, had a weapon not capable of making a shot from that range, was clumsy enough to have been detected vs patiently waiting for a shot while disguised/hidden. Lacking further details, this guy was never an imminent threat.

It is interesting that there is some legion of radicalized Ukraine / regime boosters out there. Why? Because the only reason ever given to most Americans for this stupid war is that "Putin = Hitler and you know what happens when evil is appeased." In the beginning, Ukrainian flag wavers were ubiquitous in social media and the flag waving seemed relatively infectious to those of an establishment supporting pea brain mindset, but none of it seemed as radicalizing as many of the images that have recently come out of Israel/Palestine. So you really have to wonder about the source of Ukraine radicalization, hard to believe it's organic.

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Now, pretend that Harris were to have escaped assassination by a crazed alt-media supporter.

How would the official reaction be? Think they'd be downplaying or ignoring any ideological motivation? Or using it as an excuse for a crackdown?

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This is a mentally disturbed person looking for adrenaline rush in wars. Some people may even suspect him to be an experimental product of certain intelligence agencies. The trace of Ukraine in this event is about as dense as Ukrainian involvement in blowing up the Nordstream pipeline. I suspect more of such would-be assassins would show up as there are enough marginalized people in USA who have been under extreme stress for too long. It is not quite easy to live in a polarized world.

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@Nakayama

The man has a series of drunk driving/driving after revocation of driver's license arrests going back nearly 40 years, plus works in a building trade widely known for use of amphetamines. The matter of him fleeing a traffic stop and then standing off police with an illegally possessed fully automatic weapon (and receiving no jail time!) IS a bit of a wonder to me, even in FL that kind of activity is frowned upon.

Not that being a cranked up older drunk would make him LESS susceptible to suggestions- Useful idiot, strong accent on "idiot".

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Those credentials might have gotten him recruited, lol.

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@L Jones

Our noble CIA, selflessly adding a new dimension to "diversity hire"?

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All this huffing & puffing to give some credence to a psy-op. The extent to which this guy was the darling of the media ought to give us a clue as to the "floating balloon" aspect of this story. "Look. Look! It's up there!". Haven't we been through this scenario enough times by now? This is what I meant when referring to the "Biden presidency." Why do we keep believing this nonsense?

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I'm sorry, but I don't have any idea what your real point is. Can you explain it in 50 words or less?

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as I wrote on another site idiots can be dangerous

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