17 Comments

Craig Murray is an expert on Mackinder's life and times.

Expand full comment

I've been interested in the stuff you and others are bringing out about how the FBI deceived others in the government, also confirming (as I and others contended) that the "dossier" was the be all and end all of predication. My guess is there's a much bigger story there--that the FBI was set onto that by other Deep State actors, not acting on their own.

Expand full comment

as context, I tend to look at these documents based on my experience in the stock market where prospectuses are (or used to be) parsed closely by securities commission and had to meet requirements of "full, true and plain disclosure", which includes a duty to disclose adverse information. While this may not be a legal duty on FBI briefing congress, for topics as important as Russiagate investigation of an incoming president, it seems to me to be a useful standard. Which FBI leadership violated quite saucily.

Expand full comment

one of the major Russiagate mysteries is the supposed non-Steele intelligence used by CIA and agencies in ICA to conclude that Russia interfered to "assist" Trump. As of beginning of Dec, both FBI and ODNI had briefed House Intel that they didn't know motives. However, CIA had briefed SSCI that purpose was to "assist" Trump. But by mid-December, all three agencies backed CIA theory with "high confidence". There is discussion of this topic in SSCI report, but long section is ENTIRELY redacted. So what was Brennan's secret sauce? And why is it still secret? Brennan and ICA say that it wasn't Steele dossier, but something else. You'd think that someone would have explained by now.

I'm suspicious that it might be some sort of parallel construction of Steele dossier, but who knows.

Expand full comment

There was also the personal visit of the GCHQ head to Brennan--not to NSA as you might expect. That, if I recall, was in July, 2016.

Expand full comment

yes, shrouded in secrecy. however, there's one "coincidence" in that period that raises questions about what Brennan learned. In late Aug 2016, Harry Reid, subsequent to a briefing from Brennan, went public with an accusation that pretty clearly referred to the supposed Carter Page meeting with Sechin described in a July Steele report. A story that was false. Brennan says that he didn't rely on Steele dossier and wasn't aware of it until much later. If it was Brennan who gave Page-Sechin story to Reid (as seems likely) and Brennan had not seen Steele dossier reports (not everything Brennan says is necessarily a lie), perhaps Steele had seeded his story to GCHQ and Brennan's secret source was nothing more than laundered Steele information. If so, the agencies would definitely not want this to be public. But it could be something totally different. But the double pop-up of the Page-Sechin story really nags at me.

Expand full comment

"the double pop-up of the Page-Sechin story really nags at me."

As it should. We know that Steele consulted with Brit intel on the Russia Hoax:

https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/2020/08/again-important-takeaway-from-schrages.html#more

https://meaninginhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=steele+dearlove

Expand full comment

The good ol' days when we were discovering exactly what the bad guys had been up to in 2016. It hurts that the bad guys have still not been called to account.

Expand full comment

The consideration of an alternate plan would assume that these people possess the political, historical, military, foreign policy and diplomatic acumen to realize that they have screwed up big time and need to regroup before the whole colossal blunder collapses and sends the entirety of western civilization into a tailspin from which it might not be able to recover.

It truly is amateur hour in Washington and we the people are going to pick up the tab.

I am so “over” these clowns.

Expand full comment

What “won” the cold war was the superior Western Economic system, over centralized planning.

Somehow it seems Russia now has a more functional economic system that is creating exports, than in the USSR era. Russia still has a huge challenge of not moving up the food chain on value, but still being a raw material supplier. I wish I knew of a good analysis of the Russian economy. I thought it was in tatters, but that’s apparently not true.

China has done an amazing job of importing factories / manufacturing jobs, including entire industries.

The West has done a lot of hobbling their economic growth with red tape, environmental extremism, political correctness, soft corruption, hubris, and a huge concentration of wealth in a few. And allowing corruption from China to influence Western Economic policy. Trump tried to address these issues, but was incredibly resisted / sabotaged.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Jun 18, 2022
Comment removed
Expand full comment

And they thought the wealth they raked in was a measure of their superiority over other lesser beings.

Expand full comment

“It seems to me that it’s high time that the US considered alternative strategies.”

Maybe even alternative aspirations?

Expand full comment

Precisely.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Jun 18, 2022Edited
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Sorry, I don't. If I come across one I'll post it.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Jun 18, 2022Edited
Comment removed
Expand full comment