The Independent newspaper reports that Attorney General William Barr showed up in London with requests that one British official said “is like nothing we have come across before, they are basically asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job on their own intelligence services.”
Barr and Trump want to find evidence that the CIA and FBI were wrong about Russian hacking of the 2016 election. They think Ukraine done it. Or the butler.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They think Ukraine done it. Or the butler.
Love it.
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Thanks,Laura. I felt inspired by a Higher Power when I wrote those two sentences.
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The petition in support of Bill Barr has the following explanation- There are “efforts of militant secularists to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage.” The organization sponsoring the petition further states that, atheist Soros indirectly funded an organization of “fanatics to silence Barr’s free speech and religious liberty rights”.
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Barr has a long history wanting the U.S. to have an all-powerful Imperial Presidency — no sharing of power with the courts and Congress.
Trump wants to be an all-powerful Emperor for the rest of his life and die knowing that one of his children will replace him.
Trump clearly wants a Trump Dynasty that will last for generations.
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Clearly, the Attorney General is serving as Trump’s personal lawyer. Gosh, when Giuliani was doing such a fine job of that already!!! Gives a whole new meaning to blind justice doesn’t it?
Welcome to the banana republic without the bananas.
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We don’t grow bananas, but there are plenty of them in all the markets like Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
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I stopped believing US Intel when no WMD’s were found after the Iraq invasion. Remember those satellite photos that Intel said were absolute proof that Sadam was making chemical weapons? Do we believe them when they say Iran attacked Saudi Arabia? “There is no doubt that Donald Trump would like to exact political revenge on those behind the Russia probe, and it is fair to be skeptical of his Department of Justice. But it would be a mistake to reflexively dismiss the inquiry, which is led by US Attorney John Durham and overseen by Attorney General William Barr. The public deserves an accounting of what occurred. And given the intrusion of the nation’s intelligence’s services into domestic politics, a failure to learn lessons and enact safeguards could leave future candidates, especially on the left, vulnerable to similar investigations.”-Aaron Maté
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If you trust Bill Barr on this or any other subject, we don’t agree. Barr is Trump’s lapdog.
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But what about John Durham? Is he Barr’s lapdog? Is he Trump’s lapdog? Will the influence of those above him bias his investigation and destroy his impeccable reputation as a prosecutor?
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Durham does not have an “impeccable reputation as a prosecutor” although I heard the words “impeccable reputation” used to describe William Barr also.
The bottom line is if you trust William Barr, you will trust his handpicked guy to do the investigation.
If you have watched William Barr mischaracterize the Mueller report and work so hard to hide it — just as he did Trump’s criminal phone calls demanding foreign countries “help” him publicly smear his political opponent — then you would be very glad Barr’s handpicked minion is doing this “investigation”.
And of course Durham is welcoming Barr’s personal involvement and flying all over the country ordering foreign governments to help gin up evidence to smear Trump’s political opponents. I would again say if you believe William Barr has an “impeccable reputation”, you would certainly trust his handpicked guy to do his bidding.
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you might recall that it was the White House ordering the intelligence community to gin up evidence of Saddam’s WMD. That was the problem, not the intelligence service inventing facts.
William Barr appointed his handpicked acolyte, John Durham. If you believed that William Barr’s characterization of the Mueller Report totally exonerating Trump was correct, you will believe whatever Durham comes up with. Giving a White House led by Donald Trump any credibility in launching an inquiry is like believing what Putin’s handpicked “investigator” says about one of his opponents.
Very weird for anyone to be arguing that we should trust Donald Trump and William Barr over everyone else.
I stopped believing in Donald Trump roundabout the time he told me he had evidence that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. I bet Art Smart won’t even admit Trump was lying about that. Those who hate America and are traitors to democracy are fine with giving all power to a known liar.
The public does deserve an accounting of what occurred. Those who insist that the only accounting should be from known liar William Barr and his handpicked henchman are only interested in a cover-up.
And everyone on the left and everyone in the middle and everyone who is conservative but believes in democracy knows that.
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“the White House ordering the intelligence community to gin up evidence of Saddam’s WMD.” On this subject, George Tenet’s memoir, At the Center of the Storm, is damning. That’s exactly the story that he tells.
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So the intelligence services were just following orders. Got it.
BTW, the one giving those orders? GWB? Anyone remember him? The one who is now besties with Ellen and a hero of the #Resistance?
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I didn’t realize that Ellen and GWB were “besties”. Thanks for telling us that we clearly must accept that Ellen is evil because she has embraced the entire GWB agenda and considers GWB her BFF and constantly is praising his ideas and saying how wonderful he is.
How funny that you just convinced me that Jill Stein was “besties” with Putin! After all, your own “evidence” includes ‘sitting next to someone”. And frankly, your kind of thinking is exactly what your friends in the right wing media will use to destroy Bernie Sanders because he “sat next to” someone who they can attack.
Again, it is typical of the trolls that they claim “sitting next to” someone but only if you a Democrat) is a crime. But Trump is innocent because Barr exonerated him! But Ellen is besties with Bush because she sat next to him! But sitting next to Putin doesn’t mean Jill Stein is a bestie.
Trump did say he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. I have no doubt that any criticism of that here would be met by dienne77 posting “but the Democrats…..” Or “but Ellen….”
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“Bernie Sanders: GOP Sen. James Inhofe is a friend”
OMG everyone please vote for Elizabeth Warren because Bernie Sanders is “besties” with the right wing Republican who is one of the biggest climate deniers in the Senate. dienne77 says that is all the evidence we need to understand that Bernie is corrupt and evil, just like Ellen and her “friendship” with GWB.
What hypocrisy from the most rabid Trump/Barr defenders who post here.
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If Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, I expect dienne77 and Arts Smart will be posting here to defend Trump and smear Bernie.
After all, Bernie Sanders has said publicly that GOP Senator Jim Inhofe is a friend. Since Jim Inhofe is a climate change denier, that will give the most rabid Trump defenders a way to attack the nominee as someone who is secretly planning to destroy the environment of this country.
If I am to believe dienne77, Bernie’s friendship with Inhofe is just as evil as Ellen’s friendship with GWB.
It is interesting that when you don’t have the facts on your side, you use all sorts of innuendo to distract from the fact that Trump and Barr and seriously corrupt. By pretending their corruption is nothing compared to the Dems.
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Arts Smart has to be another Faux News hacked conspiracy theory troll.
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I used to believe in the mainstream media narrative until I became union public school teacher. I woke up one day and every mainstream media outlet had an abundance of stories about how the teacher’s union and public education were failing our children. That’s when I discovered Noam Chomsky. He said it was “fake news” designed to destroy unions and the public education system in order to further privatization. He wrote a book on fake news titled “Manufacturing Consent”. According to Chomsky fake news is as old as the gulf of tonkin.
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I used to believe that Arts Smart wasn’t a right wing troll until he made it clear he believes Trump and William Barr and Steve Bannon are far more trustworthy truth tellers than the “mainstream media”.
Also, Arts Smart claims that the Mueller report was a nothing burger and William Barr has completely exonerated Trump so that tells us a lot about his concern about truth.
Like you say, when someone posts lies over and over again, they just aren’t trustworthy. Look in the mirror. No one here is ever going to believe you Arts Smart because you have posted way too many lies.
LOL! Arts Smart says Trump is exonerated and that’s why he has to trash the Dems! lol! Sure, that’s the ticket!
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Of course. Everyone you disagree with is. It’s a lot easier that way, innit? S/he’s also a Russian asset, amiright?
https://rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/clinton-gabbard-russian-asset-jill-stein-901593/
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dienne77,
I think it’s funny that everyone who criticizes Trump and Barr gets attacked by you. You believe the defenders of Trump and Barr are the truth tellers, and honest and upright people like Diane Ravitch are embracing McCarthyism. Shame on you.
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The intel about WMD’s was twisted in its telling by George Tenet who wanted to advance his own personal career. Tenet told Bush what he knew he wanted to hear. Intel reporting has nuanced content.
“Slam dunk” is inconsistent with the intel community’s characterizations.
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The entire outing of Valerie Plame was BECAUSE the intelligence agency was concerned.
It is very weird for dienne77 to try to exonerate the Bush administration by blaming the entire thing on the CIA!
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But CIA officials showed satellite photos and explained in detail that they were weapons facilities. Are democrats now claiming that CIA officials were ordered to do so by the Bush Administration, even though the CIA knew they weren’t really weapons facilities? What are you implying about John Durham? Does he have a history of political bias when it comes to prosecution? Now he’s a henchmen? Shouldn’t we wait for the evidence before we assassinate his character and impeccable reputation as a prosecutor? Just because I don’t believe the CIA doesn’t mean that I believe Donald Trump. Don’t forget that Trump also said that he hired private detectives who were turning up very disturbing information on Obama’s citizenship. He was lying of course, he never hired any private detectives, but that doesn’t mean that he conspired with the Russians to win the election. Not one allegation in the Steele dossier was ever verified and Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy. No one was charged with conspiracy. “a failure to learn lessons and enact safeguards could leave future candidates, especially on the left, vulnerable to similar investigations.” This scares me more than Russia.
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What are you implying about Barr? That you believe he would appoint someone who would do an honest investigation? You trust Barr more than Obama and that says a lot.
Look, I get your adoration of the liar Barr and Trump. Many people in the alt right racist groups who want to MAGA are just like you. Continue to worship at the altar of Trump and Barr. If you trust them more than you trust Diane Ravitch, that is on you. Your biases are clear.
By the way, if you want to make a better far right troll and hide your racism and fascism better, I suggest you don’t quote right wing propaganda word for word. “Not one allegation in the Steele dossier was ever verified and Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy”. The fact you just repeated the lies of Trump and Barr shows exactly where you are coming from.
Turns out that the Steele dossier was very much verified by Mueller and it turns out that Mueller found all sorts of evidence of conspiracy. Oops!
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The Steele dossier was “verified”??? OMG, ROFLMAO! Perhaps you could link to the pee tape for me? Thanks.
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Arts Smart: “Not one allegation in the Steele dossier was ever verified and Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy.”
dienne77, you also forgot to mention that Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy, like Arts Smart said.
The fact you are posting on here trying to make us believe Arts Smart and take him seriously speaks volumes. Really?
FYI – if the Steele dossier and Mueller Report had really been a nothing burger, do you think Trump and his henchmen William Barr would spend this much time and effort to extort foreign governments into helping them “disprove it”.
The Steele dossier reported (and clearly identified) both rumors and facts that have now been documented. Unlike Trump and Barr, it did not present rumor as fact.
Mueller found evidence of conspiracy. Because he acted exactly the opposite of Ken Starr and limited his interviews, Mueller said did not have ENOUGH evidence to charge, but since he did have excessive amounts of evidence of obstruction of justice (to cover up their supposedly totally innocent dealings with Russia!) he did not continue to pursue the conspiracy when Trump was ready to fire him. Why do you think Mueller neglected to interview the guy who called the meeting at Trump Tower between Trump campaign top officials and Russia’s offering to help their campaign?
But you probably think Donnie Jr. – who wasn’t interviewed – always gets to order around his dad’s top campaign officials like Manafort and you probably believe that when Donnie Jr. ordered Manafort to jump, Manfort always said “how high, Donnie Jr., who bosses me around because he is my superior”. lol. If you believe Manafort came because Donnie Jr. ordered him to attend and not Trump himself, I have a bridge to sell ya….
But the bigger question is why you are defending Arts Smart.
And why you always believe the worst of Democrats without any evidence but bend over backward — to the point where it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad – to give the most corrupt White House in history the benefit of the doubt.
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Don Jr. provided evidence of the Trump campaign’s collaboration with the Russians when he brought the top campaign leaders to meet with the lawyer Vesilnetskaya in Trump Tower. The subject was “adoptions,” but adoptions was code for getting rid of the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in 2012 on Russia for the murder of Sergei Magnitsky. Congress punished Russia by passing the Magnitsky Act, and Russia retaliated by banning adoption of Russian children by Americans.
When Don Jr. was asked to meet with her, he believed he was going to get “dirt” on Hillary. What he got instead was a discussion of whether and when to lift sanctions on Russia, in exchange for?
THE INTERPRETER
When the Kremlin Says ‘Adoptions,’ It Means ‘Sanctions’
July 10, 2017
President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. initially defended his meeting with a Russian lawyer connected to the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential campaign by saying that it was primarily about adoption — a seemingly innocent humanitarian issue.
Reinstating American adoptions of Russian orphans certainly seems like a far less serious matter than a meeting about, say, the removal of United States sanctions on certain Russian officials.
But from the Russian perspective, whether the younger Mr. Trump and his associates knew it at the time or not, the issues of adoptions and sanctions are so inextricably linked as to be practically synonymous. (Mr. Trump said in a later statement that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had also promised to give him compromising information about Hillary Clinton.)
Understanding the connections between adoptions and sanctions offers a lens into the worldview and foreign policy goals of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and into how even a meeting that really did focus primarily on adoption would also have been about much more.
What connects the two issues? Leverage.
It might not seem obvious what sanctions have to do with American parents’ adoptions of Russian children, which is the topic that the younger Mr. Trump initially said Ms. Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss. Their connection comes down to one word: leverage.
The context is the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 American law that freezes the assets held in the United States by Russian officials responsible for human rights abuses. The law also bars these officials from receiving American visas. It was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a young Russian lawyer who died in pretrial detention after exposing a $230 million tax-theft scam perpetrated by Russian officials.
To the law’s backers, the Magnitsky Act was a way to strike a blow for justice. But to Mr. Putin, it seemed like an intolerable attack by the United States government against the stability of his own presidency.
Mr. Putin, though powerful, depends on the support of a small circle of powerful elites, in and out of government, who both keep him in power and help him enforce his will. In exchange, Mr. Putin sees that they are taken care of. The Magnitsky Act, by sanctioning some of those elites, sent a message that Mr. Putin might not be able to uphold his end of the bargain.
It also called into question whether lower-ranked officials could trust that they would be protected from punishment for tolerating or participating in illegal acts at the behest of Mr. Putin or his allies.
And the law embarrassed Mr. Putin by showing that his influence was not strong enough to prevent the law’s passage, despite his vigorous lobbying against it.
Revoking the law became an important foreign policy priority for Mr. Putin’s government. And he identified adoptions as an area that seemed to offer a way to force the issue.
In 2011, the year before the Magnitsky Act was passed, about 1,000 Russian children were adopted by American families, more than from any other foreign country. Many more adoptions were still pending, some for American parents who had already met the children they expected to take home. An adoption freeze would be a grievous loss for those families.
The Russian government, sensing that those parents would be a vocal pressure group, proposed a law known as the “anti-Magnitsky law,” which would halt all adoptions of Russian children by Americans — including those that were already in process. The Kremlin cited the case of Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler who died after being adopted by American parents, as a pretext for the rule.
But the government also made clear that the new law would be retaliation for the Magnitsky Act.
That pressure failed to sway the American government, and the Magnitsky Act stayed in place despite pleas from anguished adoptive parents.
But, for Moscow, the issues of adoption and sanctions became seen as linked and have remained that way — something that a Kremlin-connected lawyer like Ms. Veselnitskaya would surely have had in mind.
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Diane,
Yes, that’s what I mean. Mueller didn’t force Donnie Jr. to testify under oath because he knew Trump would immediately shut down his investigation if he did. And since Mueller already had excessive amounts of evidence that Trump and his White House obstructed justice to cover up their relationship with Russia, he left it at that.
But for dienne77 to completely mischaracterize that exactly as William Barr did — that Mueller did not find any evidence at all that the Trump campaign worked with Russians — is very revealing of dienne77. Why does she prefer to believe William Barr and attack you and imply you are embracing McCarthyism (but the Trump White House isn’t).
It is the Republican playbook. Accuse your opponents of doing what you are doing. The White House survives on McCarthyism, and their defenders attack their critics as the people embracing McCarthyism. It is very odd to hear dienne77 make those same right wing trope arguments to attack your post and defend Trump and Barr.
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And to think Barr is paid for – and works for – the American taxpayer. He’s Rudy redux.
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1992- William Barr, U.S. Deputy Attorney General
After investigation, the U.S. Attorney General’s office terminated the grand jury probe and informed Koch it anticipated no indictments.
The case involved alleged oil theft from the reservations of native Americans.
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If anyone wonders why it’s become such an echo chamber around here, just look at how Arts Smart has been treated. S/he is not a new commenter, but rather a previously active commenter who hasn’t commented in a while, along with a host of people who have dropped off since 2016. It’s hard to have any reasonable discussion when dissenters are “Russian assets” or “Trump trolls” spreading “propaganda”. This site (along with dozens of other left-leaning sites) is becoming as biased and unhinged as anything on the right. You’re going to find yourself on the same side of history as Joseph McCarthy someday.
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The right wing blog of Jonathan Turley experienced the disappearance of a number of commenters after the investigations into Russian job-shops that paid workers to write comments for American blogs.
One tell to identify the workers was their desperation for linked articles if articles were cited without links. The workers were allowed to open links but not to do internet searches.
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Are you sure those Russian trolls weren’t fakes created by the Democrats? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/alabama-senate-roy-jones-russia.html Russia didn’t turn me against the Dem establishment, it was the democrats pro privatization agenda that turned me against them. Have we already forgotten this betrayal? I’m sure that there’s a lot of working and middle class people in other professions who feel the same way. I’ve received a barrage of emails from Barbara Boxer asking me to donate to her pac in order to stop Trump and Putin. But it was Boxer who endorsed Nick Melvoin for school board putting my school district in the hands of a charter majority, not Putin. I’m more more fearful of democrats like Boxer, Melvoin, and Duncan than I am of Putin.
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Arts Smart,
There was lots of active conversation on this blog about Melvoin and privatization and when that conversation happened, you had no interest in posting. But the subject comes to the corrupt William Barr, you feel the need to defend him??
If you were not a troll, you would be bashing Trump and Melvoin and noting how corrupt Bill Barr is. When your focus is only on the Democrats and the underlying theme of every single thing you post is that Dems are liars and innocent Republicans are victimized by them, then no one will believe you are anything but a dishonest right wing operative.
Here is my test for trolls (and it will probably make you disappear): Post a character attack on a Republican like Trump or Barr the way you post them about Democrats. If you don’t, then it is clear you are simply misrepresenting yourself.
And post that Bernie Sanders is honest and should be elected President over the lying, corrupt Trump and any Republican.
Because you would get a lot of agreement about that. Aren’t you allowed to bash Trump?
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Arts Smart
The Fox audience has your missing, “better Russian than Democrat” t-shirt made in China.
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NRA sells that T-shirt
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Arts Smart
There’s a “blessed” pillow made in PRC available for you if you prefer authoritarian religion to democratic government like Republican voters do.
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Sinclair Broadcasting owns the local TV stations. Diane had posted a story about how propaganda is inserted into the broadcasts. At the time the network put those right wing shows on at 2:00 in the morning. Recently, they have started inserting right wing features into the regular broadcast. These insertions often include themes of the failure of government or some conspiracy theories about some aspect of government. It is propaganda.
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Fox, Sinclair broadcasting and leaders of right wing religion- destroying democracy.
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Family values- Republicans
David D. Smith, chairman of the Sinclair board – sex charges
Baffler makes the connection to pot monopoly/oligopoly.
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dienne77,
Do I really understand you to say that it is the critics of Trump and William Barr who are on the same side of history as Joseph McCarthy? In other words, we should shut up and stop criticizing the reprehensible things Barr and Trump are doing or you will attack us and call us McCarthyites?
Enough said. I hope everyone reads this. Comparing Diane Ravitch, who carefully researches and uses facts, with Joseph McCathy, because you feel the need to defend Trump and Barr is truly beyond belief. You have jumped the shark.
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Is dienne77 really implying that Diane Ravitch is “on the same side of history” as right wing Joe McCarthyite because dienne77 is angry at a fact-based post about William Barr?
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^^sorry for double post
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If the section on lies from Putin’s handbook was omitted, what would be left? Look at Trump who uses the Kremlin playbook.
The Koch’s trot out Stalin and Putin’s grim band trots out McCarthy.
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The Koch father made his fortune building oil refineries for Stalin and Hitler.
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The Koch family from hell and their extended famiiy- the Gates.
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I read Diane’s posts daily, but have given up and avoid reading the comments, mostly because of you and your acolytes who actually think you have anything of value to say or write just ruin the rest of my day. Unfortunately, I read this thread and it reminded me of why I’ve given up. When you use the world “echo chamber”, it reveals what a true … you are. You have no historical knowledge prior to your immediate experience, and even that is incredibly ignorant (a much more charitable word than my actual, initial opinion). Citing Joe McCarthy–of whom you surely have no historical knowledge whatsoever given your previous comments, especially since your dogmatism echoes his views more closely that you will ever be aware–just confirms your, shall we call it ignorance to be charitable? I like the comments of some of our right wingers like Charles, BA, Teaching Economist, and to a lesser extent, Ponderosa, because they challenge me to think about and articulate my views more precisely. On the other hand, your ideological, ignorant certainty grates insufferably. You and some others are Stalinist at the very least stupid at best (read some Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin or constitutional history). You are the reason why this is the last time I will ever read the comments on this blog again. I will, however, continue to read the posts to learn. But idiotic comments like this teach me nothing. They just annoy me to the extent that I’m not interested in reading anything you or the people who think you have anything of value to contribute here. Anyone, like you, who buys into this stupidity and ignorance is not worth my time. There is little-to-no difference between you and the reactionary morons who blindly support the forces that will end what this nation should represent and stand for.
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GregB,
Come back! Skip the comments you don’t like.
I learn so much from you.
I miss you!
Diane
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