Winter Patriot Community Blog

by Sarah R. Runge, Medium.com

As the controversy over fake news rages on, a notable conflict of interest exists concerning one of the media outlets that has driven much of the conversation.

While much of the blame for so-called “fake news” has been placed on smaller, more independent publications, it may turn out that the lion’s share of responsibility actually belongs to the more established media outlets.

As a leading American publication, the Washington Post has earned an air of legitimacy that many newer, less well-known publications do not yet possess. This may not last however, as the conflict of interest that was created when the ownership of the Washington Post changed hands recently may have already begin to call into question the credibility of one of America’s most distinguished publications.

In 2013, the Washington Post was purchased by Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. That same year, Amazon also obtained a CIA contract worth $600 million. At the time, the Nation pointed out the conflict of interest that these dealings posed…

Shortly after the CIA contract was finalized, Amazon issued a statement, saying simply, “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA.”..

Bezos’ conflict of interest is again worth mentioning after the Washington Post used highly questionable sources to promote identifying and blacklisting “fake news” sites in late November..

..the Washington Post’s fake news expose was riddled with questionable information and unsubstantiated claims…

Several weeks later, in early December, the Washington Post again created controversy by alleging Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election… The article cited an anonymous CIA source…

[read more here]

With the “ISIS” boogeyman losing credibility and al Qaeda now back to being our friends and allies in Syria, a new Cold War is just what the doctor ordered to pump up MIC expenditures, right?

by Scott Creighton

Yes, Virginia, there really are monsters working at the CIA.

This morning, after waking from the first good night’s sleep I have had since Friday night, I suffered through the first 20 minutes of Morning Joe during which their entire panel basically got down on their knees in the studio and offered a collective blow job to anyone working in the CIA because… “liberty” or some such nonsense.

Though that is a bit of an exaggeration, what they actually did was probably more disturbing to watch as they repeatedly justified a US intelligence agency openly working against a seated president because they didn’t like his policies. That’s treason folks. Treason on an agency-wide basis and treason being openly supported by the gaggle of neoliberal war-mongers at Morning Joe.

Some will try to tell you that this apparent war between The Donald and the CIA is a fabrication. I wont. It’s very real and it’s been on since Killary stole the nomination and the CIA’s leadership made it painfully clear she was their tainted choice to lead the nation into the new age of Red-baiting McCarthyism.

Ever since their corrupt candidate of choice lost, the CIA and the DNI have been doing everything they could to gin-up hostility toward both Russia and the current president of the United States. As one reported noted, we are looking at an unprecedented development in this country: intelligence agencies actively waging information warfare against a seated president because they perceive, rightly or not, that he will be less aggressive toward a nuclear armed state than they would like him to be.

Can you imagine what would have happened in this country had any intelligence agency been this hostile toward President Obama in the first month of his presidency?

On January the 4th, 2017, The Hill reported on Trump’s plans to restructure the two intelligence agencies.

“President-elect Donald Trump is crafting plans to restructure at least two of the nation’s top intelligence agencies, according to a new report.

Trump is eyeing overhauls of the CIA and the office of the director of national intelligence (DNI), The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

“The view from the Trump team is the intelligence world [is] becoming completely politicized,” an individual close to Trump’s transition operation said. “They all need to be slimmed down. The focus will be on restructuring agencies and how they interact.”

Trump is targeting the CIA and the DNI as he publicly wars with the U.S. intelligence community over its conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.” The Hill

Key to that report is the following line:

“The Journal added that advisers helping Trump draft the proposed alterations include retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.).” The Hill

That would be the same Mike Flynn the CIA just did away with.

That’s unfair. The CIA didn’t do away with him by themselves. They needed the help of all their Mockingbirds in the complicit corporate press as well as from members of the unDemocratic Party of America.

I saw Maxine Waters yesterday on some CNN show regurgitating all the current talking points about various “connections” members of the Trump administration supposedly have with “da ebil Rooskies”. She concluded that because 5 people have some kind of 6 degrees of separation to Moscow, The Donald has to be impeached because… “liberty” or some such nonsense.

Maxine smiled a big smile at the end because she was able to recount all the correct propaganda lines without messing up like she did last time when she said “Russia invaded Korea”.

Maxine Waters is a complete idiot and she’s an old idiot which is even worse. She’s like what John McCain would be if he were black and a woman.

The Dems are busy doing the public wet-work of the CIA in congress. They want investigations into what they claim was Russia derailing our election process. They are rabid and foaming at the mouth and regardless of how much they want to believe that old CIA-crafted lie, the fact remains there is no evidence at all to suggest Russia played any part in influencing the election other than being a country at the time and sitting back and watching like everyone else, the unDemocratic Party failing on a BIBLICAL SCALE in their loss to Donny Tiny Hands.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting Donald Trump has decided to continue with his CIA restructuring plan. They say he’s picked a vulture capitalist named Steve Feinberg to head up the program to evaluate the current structure of the intelligence agencies and make recommendations to fix it.

“President Trump plans to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of American intelligence agencies, according to administration officials, an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president’s worldview.

The possible role for Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, has met fierce resistance among intelligence officials already on edge because of the criticism the intelligence community has received from Mr. Trump during the campaign and since he became president. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump blamed leaks from the intelligence community for the departure of Michael T. Flynn, his national security adviser, whose resignation he requested.

There has been no announcement of Mr. Feinberg’s job, which would be based in the White House, but he recently told his company’s shareholders that he is in discussions to join the Trump administration.” New York Times

So Trump is moving forward with his plan to remake the CIA and DNI and folks in the intelligence community are not happy about it. Nor were the sycophants on Morning Joe who saw this as some kind of “McCarthyite” move on Trump’s part. Cute how they spun that one, huh?

The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported on the fact that various intelligence agencies have been withholding intel from the president of the United States because… “liberty” or some such nonsense.

“The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified current and former officials familiar with the matter, reports that officials’ decision to keep information from Mr. Trump underscores the deep mistrust that has developed between the intelligence community and the president over his team’s contacts with the Russian government, as well as the enmity he has shown toward U.S. spy agencies. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump accused the agencies of leaking information to undermine him.” Zero Hedge

I’m not going to sit here and tell you Donald Trump is some kind of hero for standing up to the CIA. He might just be naive enough to think he can get away with it. After all, they are attacking him on all fronts, doing their best to remove members of his team and manufacturing connections between his staff and “da ebil Rookies” like they’re run by the ghost of McCarthy himself and The Donald is still pressing forward with his restructuring plans rather than cowering in the corner and recanting his previous statements. That can’t be the smartest thing he ever did.

I’m also not going to tell you this is the first time a White House administration feuded with the CIA over power and policy. It certainly has happened in the past and at least one time back in ’63, it didn’t end so well for the seated president (or the country for that matter)

What I will tell you is conflict between presidents and the CIA has never been this public nor this overt. Again, at least not since ’63.

How it will end is anyone’s guess. But it is real and this out of control agency of terror, the CIA, is walking a fine line right up to the edge of treason. Why they are doing it is anyone’s guess. Yeah, they wanted Killary in power because under the unDemocratic Party the agency has risen to unimaginable levels of power in this country and across the world and they are probably concerned their new Cold War will wither on the vine under a Trump presidency.

It could also be as simple as the fact that they tipped their hand in the run-up to the election and now they’ve pissed off Trump so much, they expect the restructuring to cripple them in ways it will take decades of Democratic Party leadership to rebuild.

Yes Virginia, there really are monsters working at the CIA. They want endless war with a nuclear state and are willing to slander and undermine the president of the United States in order to save themselves and their piece of the power pie in Washington. Someone needs to yank on their leash a bit. The only question is.. is Trump the man for the job or will he fold under pressure like a comb-over in high winds?

I guess we will find out.

from The Saker

Okay, my sense is that a large number of commentators are misunderstanding the nature of what is going on.  So, this time, rather than writing an analysis, I will spell it out, ‘talking points’ – style and, hopefully, do a better job about making my point.  So, here we go.

1.  THIS IS NOT ABOUT FLYNN.  Let me repeat that once more.  THIS IS NOT ABOUT FLYNN!!!  Please don’t come and tell me that Flynn was wrong on Iran, on Islam or on China.  I agree.  But,
   ==>>THIS IS NOT ABOUT FLYNN!!!<<==
2. THIS IS ABOUT POWER.  As in, who is boss?  Who is number one?  Who is the alpha dog?  The President or the ‘deep state’?  That is what this is all about – showing everybody who is in charge.
3. FLYNN WAS A SYMBOL.  He was the symbol of the entire notion of draining the Washington swamp, which is mostly the 3 letter agencies + Pentagon anyway.  Flynn was the guy who dared defy the thought police and be friendly with the Russians.  Flynn was the man who wanted to bring the CIA and JCS back under White House control.  And Flynn was the guy with contacts with SOCOM and JSOC.  Flynn had to be brought down.
4. FLYNN WAS ALSO A CORNERSTONE.  For better or for worse, it is absolutely evident that Flynn was the brain behind Trump’s entire foreign policy.  On some stuff Flynn was great (Russia), on some stuff he was okay (Takfiri terrorism), on some stuff he was ridiculous (China) and on some stuff he was terrible (Iran).  But that is not what matters here.  Listen to Kucinich who clearly says that this is not about Trump or Flynn, but about a coup against the Presidency by the US ‘deep state’.  Now that Flynn has been brought down, there is no “Trump foreign policy” left…

[read more here]

from RT

US President Donald Trump has criticized the US intelligence community for allegedly leaking classified information to the media, responding to the latest report on alleged communications between his campaign aides and Russian intelligence agents.

Trump tweeted that information is “being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community,” wondering whether the NSA and FBI could be behind the leaks.

In a later post, he said it was “very un-American” that classified information “is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy.”…

[read more here]

by Scott Creighton

So the fake left like CNN, MSNBC, Glenn Greenwald and Cenk “what’s his face” from the Young Turks think it’s just peachy keen for the CIA to be interfering in the political process here in the states. They prefer allowing Capitalism’s Invisible Army to dictate foreign policy to our elected leaders? Is that how fucked our system has become? The fake left cheering for the CIA destabilizing American democracy?

Didn’t I just write about this today?

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: see update at end of article

—

(Hi folks. I’m still sick but recovering a bit. Didn’t even turn the computer on yesterday. Thanks for all the well wishes on the other thread.)

The rabid ankle-biting yip-dogs that are the unDemocratic Party these days are currently engaged in a feeding frenzy.

They were able to get Mike Flynn to resign due to his communications with the Russian ambassador that took place around the same time the war-mongering/Red Baiting, New McCarthyite Obama administration was imposing new sanctions on Russians for “hacking our democracy”.

What happened was Obama kicked a bunch of Russian diplomats out of the country for no reason whatsoever and Flynn spoke to the ambassador and reassured them that they could expect better treatment when Trump took office. That resulted in the Russians deciding not to kick US officials out of Russia and further escalate the situation. Most people would think that was a good thing. Not the Red Baiters from the left.

This “disclosure” was brought to us by a leaked transcript of some of his calls. I’m sure they were carefully edited for effect. What no one seems too concerned about though is how exactly they got these calls. As I have been saying for years, everything, your emails, texts, browser history and yes, even the content of your phone calls, are recorded these days. And it doesn’t matter if you are an out of work carpenter or the next National Security Advisor… everything is recorded and stored for future use. Flynn was no exception.

This is just a continuation of the CIA’s war on the Trump administration. And they seem to be stepping up their efforts to impose their will on our political process like they have done in countless other countries across the globe.

MoA is asking some interesting questions about why Trump allowed Flynn to take the fall for this.

Meanwhile the raging yip-dogs are now targeting Kellyanne Conway. Seems like they want to get her out of the White House as well.

They are also now regurgitating the old propaganda line that Trump campaign bigwigs were colluding with “da ebil Rooskies” on the “hacked election”

While all that plays out, Trump replaced Mike Flynn with Gen. Keith Kellogg. Kellogg has been at Trump’s side for a while now. Along with Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares, and Joseph E. Schmitz he was named to Trump’s foreign policy advisory team way back in March of last year. Kellogg had been part of the disastrous Coalition Provisional Authority right after the illegal invasion of Iraq.

In 2012 Kellogg became president of Abraxas and then later he was named VP of Cubic:

“In September 2012, Cubic named Kellogg president of Abraxas, a subsidiary company. Abraxas states on its website that it “provides specialized support, develops and integrates state-of-the-art technologies, and implements trusted and unique solutions to address the global challenges faced by the National Security community today and those that it will face in the future.” In January 2014, Kellogg became vice president of strategic initiatives of Cubic. According to the Washington Business Journal, Kellogg left Cubic later that year.” Ballotpedia

Over at Another Day in the Empire, Kurt Nimmo points out all the connections between Abraxas and the CIA. It’s part of the super secret surveillance apparatus of the deep state and was quite probably one of thousands of companies started with CIA seed money.

So they get Flynn out and manage to force Trump to take one of their very own in as his replacement. A powerful message.

—

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald, a man who was instrumental in the passage of the new CISPA bill which served the interests of the privatized surveillance state, implies the CIA fed David Ignatius and other “jounalists” intel on the Flynn conversations and admits their “leaking” said info was certainly highly illegal… but says it’s “ok” because “Flynn lied” to the public. As if the greater crime here was not illegally recording conversations of US citizens or foreign diplomats or violating US law by leaking top secret SIGINT info (which is a really big no-no)… but instead, according to Greenwald, the big crime is Flynn lying to the public about what he talked about with the Russian ambassador.

“That Flynn lied about what he said to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was first revealed by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who has built his career on repeating what his CIA sources tell him. In his January 12 column, Ignatius wrote: “According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking.”

That “senior U.S. government official” committed a serious felony by leaking to Ignatius the communication activities of Flynn. Similar and even more extreme crimes were committed by what the Washington Post called “nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls,” who told the paper for its February 9 article that “Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials.” The New York Times, also citing anonymous U.S. officials, provided even more details about the contents of Flynn’s telephone calls.

That all of these officials committed major crimes can hardly be disputed…

Yet very few people are calling for a criminal investigation or the prosecution of these leakers, nor demanding the leakers step forward and “face the music” — for very good reason: The officials leaking this information acted justifiably, despite the fact that they violated the law. That’s because the leaks revealed that a high government official, Gen. Flynn, blatantly lied to the public about a material matter” Glenn Greenwald

Flynn was not communicating with the Russians to give them state secrets or cut deals behind Obama’s back. He was simply trying to derail the former administration’s efforts to cripple Russian/US relations as they slimmed their way out the door of the White House.

So no, these kinds of flagrant violations of US law, BY THE CIA and other intelligence agencies, is NOT justified. Not on the grounds that Flynn misled the public and/or the Trump administration about the nature of the calls.

Greenwald couches his argument such that it supposedly defends the whistle-blowers but these aren’t whistle-blowers that he’s defending. This is the deep state of the CIA and the intelligence industry.

This is not an effort to get out an important truth being hidden from the American public. This is an effort, by the CIA, to shape the foreign policy of a new president and his cabinet to a more aggressive one targeting a major world and nuclear power. So no, Glenn, it’s not justified. This is another example of an out of control CIA trying to impose their will once again on this administration and nothing more.

Greenwald let’s his Mockingbird show with this one.

by Scott Creighton

Hi everybody. I’ve been sick all weekend. Got some flu bug from my mother Sat. morning. Haven’t eaten since Fri. Slept about 2 hours since Sat. Combine that with me not being therapeutic with my INR and all the ramifications of that and it’s a pretty unpleasant time in the AE household.

You know, I wonder if people understand the purpose behind this reactionary austerity measure of Obama’s attack on the disabled in 2013. Few write about it. Hell, no one writes about it. I wouldn’t if I wasn’t one of its many victims. And that’s what happens every time. Because people just don’t give a shit about the disabled. (this is a depressing post written by someone in a bad situation so if you don’t wish to continue reading, I certainly understand)

In ’81 when Reagan did the same thing, eventually it got some coverage and exposure and in ’84 it was halted and a new piece of legislation was put in place to keep future reactionary fascists from targeting the weakest and most defenseless in our society.

But Obama and the “moderates” got around that, they took a percentage from the 6% SS withholding tax in 2010 so by 2013 they could claim there was a “crisis” in SS which of course allowed them all the cover they needed to pump an additional 1.4 billion annually into the program that “reviews” the disability status of the disabled and then kicks them off the program. In many cases, like mine, wrongly and deceitfully.

You know what’s funny? Someone who was actually faking a disability wont be harmed by this move. That’s the funny thing. They’ll just find a job and go to work, as if they weren’t already working off the books in the first place.

The ONLY ones who will be harmed by this policy, and it was the same in ’81, will be the truly disabled. They wont be able to work and no body would hire them even if they could, for a while, because the company’s insurance provided wont allow them to be hired.

It’s a horrible little way to die, you know? You watch your life fall apart piece by piece. Family relationships are strained, your credit hits the toilet, homelessness, madness, depression, arrest, incarceration… that’s what happens when you can’t work and you cant get health care.

Funny thing is, in this great country of ours, this weekend at least once, some self-satisfied snobbish fake leftie was marching to some protest somewhere to scream and yell to keep some criminal in this country who is here illegally and working for 5 bucks an hour under the table, and he walked by some disabled American citizen sitting on the sidewalk with his hand out and that self-absorbed fake leftist sneered down at him and told he would be just fine if he had just a little of the gumption of all these illegal immigrants.

That happened. No doubt in my mind.

People don’t give a shit about the truly disabled. In fact, since that phony “crisis” they manufactured, my bet is, a lot of people secretly applaud the decision to let us die in the streets. That way SS is “saved” for when THEY retire… right? Something about war-time triage and cutting off the dead flesh. Yeah, of course the right-wingers and the Randians will openly admit to this, but I’m talking about the fake left, the one’s who wear their hearts on their sleeves and pretend they stand up for the weakest of our country.

They don’t. They stand up for cheap labor and yelling at congress members at town hall meetings because THEY’RE scared THEY might lose THEIR healthcare.. like us poor miserable disabled folks.

Hell, I understand that. It’s a horrible thing to be excluded from any kind of medical care due to circumstances beyond your control. Actually, it fucking sucks. Especially when you paid for SSDI for 30+ years just in case something unforeseen happened.

But don’t expect the left to start running around demanding an accounting of how many truly disabled people have been cast aside, made homeless, destroyed bit by bit and then died on the side of the road someplace. Don’t expect them to give a shit about that. Because ObamaGod of the Left Cover did it.

And don’t expect the Trumpers to give a shit either. They are fine with the whole process. Disability for them is nothing more than an entitlement a bunch of frauds take advantage of to bring down our Shining City on the Hill. Until they get sick. Until they need it. Then it’s different.

It’s been a bad weekend and I’ve been left stewing in my heart all night long thinking thoughts reasonable people should never think. I can’t sit here for too long and this is already longer than I thought it would/should be.

The people in this country don’t give a shit about the disabled. They’re broken so why bother with them? What can they contribute anyway?

I hope sometime soon someone with more resources and ability starts to look more closely into the tens of thousands of people kicked off disability since 2013. I hope someone comes to the conclusion that it’s not about getting frauds off the system as much as it is about getting rid of the damaged and dying.

I gotta sleep. Trolls go ahead and have your field day.