I’m back and there’s a lot to unpack this week. First of all, I offer heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Art Bell. He passed away on Friday the 13th, which is the single most Art Bell thing Art Bell could have done. I spent many years working lonely night shifts, and Coast to Coast AM carried me through it.
Even though my interest in the paranormal and conspiratorial predates discovering Mr Bell’s show, nobody but him ever made it as fun or entertaining while also keeping it from getting downright goofy or scare-mongery. RIP to a good man and a fantastic broadcaster.
Admittedly, I haven’t listened to any of Art Bell’s podcasts or much of his other content in a long, long time. I’m sorry for that because I’d like to know what his perspectives would be on how what he always called “the Quickening” is shaping up.
First, we have the chaos of the international order on display again in Syria. President Trump has continued his April tradition of lobbing cruise missiles at the Assad regime.
When he’s right, he’s right. This is a rare occasion in which CM is in full agreement with millions of solid Trump supporters, me included. I disapprove of this latest episode in the Syrian Saga, just as I protested last year’s flop, Episode I: The Phantom Military Strategy.
Say what you will about George W Bush, but it appears that he is to be the last American president who believed in at least upholding the pretense of US and international law when it came to making war.
I’m bothered as much by the lawlessness of the West’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War as I am the stupidity of doing it in the first place. I mean, Russia is calling for an emergency UNSC meeting to reassert norms of international law.
In a statement issued by the Kremlin, the Russian leader says Moscow is calling an emergency meeting of the United Nations’ Security Council over the strike launched by the US, Britain and France.
Putin added that the strike had a “destructive influence on the entire system of international relations.”
I don’t care what your attitude is about Putin or whether you believe he’s harming international relations himself with his supposed troll farms and exotic assassination techniques. He’s correct and I’m glad at least one of the leaders of the major powers is asserting that coordinated military strikes by a coalition of nations should occur once the reason for conducting them has been verified and there’s a consensus on what action should be taken. This was understood with Iraq in 1991 and again in 2003. Post-Arab Spring, it no longer exists and it spells trouble for the future. It’s reckless.
Think logically. You are Vladimir Putin. The three ‘democratic’ permanent members of the UN Security Council just illegally bombed a sovereign state, without consulting their parliaments.
Why would you bother anymore with ‘international law?’ https://t.co/KG39epYgmX— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) April 14, 2018
For my part, I find that nothing about this situation makes any sense. Assad and Putin are winning the war. There’s no reason to risk bringing an international coalition in to undo everything by using chemical weapons. I’m skeptical of this, as I always am when the intelligence community is making these claims. They have their own interests and I long ago stopped believing that those have anything to do with what is best for our country.
Seeing Trump carry out their agenda is heartbreaking. I had genuinely hoped that these mindless and illegal interventions were something he would end. I’m disappointed today but remain adamant that the president must follow through on his pledge to finish the American involvement in Syria once ISIS is gone.
As bad as the situation is now, it’s going to be even worse once the struggle begins between Assad, Iran, Turkey, and the Kurds with Russia desperately trying to restrain its friends. Let them all stay busy with this for a few years. They care, we don’t. Deep State can suck it.
On the topic of Deep State,we had Trump’s lawyer’s office get raided by the FBI. It remains to be seen whether the validity of the warrant will be upheld or if Cohen really broke any laws. I’m going to leave that aside for now, although I’ll say I think there’s a possibility that any unlawful election shenanigans involving Trump were far more likely over woman troubles than Russia Collusion.
Instead, I’m just going to say that these heavy-handed tactics are a blunder that will build Trump’s support, regardless of what is found out from any documents that were in Cohen’s office. This was an extraordinary action to take and it provides further ammunition to Trump’s claims that he’s the target of a witch hunt by partisan bureaucrats who will stop at nothing to reverse the outcome of the 2016 election.
It’s not about Trump being above the law. Nobody is arguing that. It’s the unequal enforcement of the law that has been the problem all along. Cheryl Mills didn’t have her home raided over the Clinton emails. She got immunity. Perkins Coie hasn’t been raided, even though it paid for the Steele Dossier and may have violated campaign finance laws in doing so. You cannot have these scandals going unexamined and unpunished and expect a serious person to think that Trump should be thoroughly investigated with limitless scope and depth and in which all protections afforded to anyone else are violated ruthlessly. Not if you’re really committed to seeing him impeached, anyway.
Rosenstein himself reportedly signed off on this and, in my opinion, has provided sufficient justification for his firing. This couldn’t come at a worse time for Rosenstein, who is already looking at threats of being impeached himself over stonewalling Congress.
HPSCI Chairman Nunes will move to hold FBI Director Wray and Deputy AG Rosenstein in contempt of Congress & will vote to impeach if they fail to comply with the HPSCI's request for unredacted docs, including the 2 page document that launched the investigation into the Trump camp. pic.twitter.com/X3PSv4lfDh
— Nick Short (@PoliticalShort) April 11, 2018
Well, I’ve been repeatedly saying for months that this is exactly what should happen for any federal official who refuses to comply with Congress. Glad to see it being put into practice.
If he manages not to be impeached, then Trump might as well fire him. This is as good a time as any. Rosenstein’s objectivity is far too questionable given his involvement in FISA Abuse, his status as a witness in any possible obstruction case over Comey’s firing, and now this stunt with Cohen.
Firing Rosenstein wouldn’t automatically remove Mueller. Whoever took Rosenstein’s place would have to do it or Sessions would have to unrecuse and do it. I’m not sure that Trump can count on sufficient GOP support to do that right now, but it is noteworthy that the Cohen raid has had a pretty negative effect on public sentiment for him.
Anybody want to place any bets? I’m giving Rosenstein three months but think Mueller will stay on to finish his investigation into Russian Collusion sometime after Ivanka’s second term.
Oh, I mentioned Comey. His book is coming out. I’ll probably read it, but I doubt it will be as good as some of the parodies.
The details in this Comey book are crazy. pic.twitter.com/kdzTsJgCZY
— jon gabriel (@exjon) April 13, 2018
I lose it at “The hell is this, g-man?” every…single…time.
I don’t know if Trump’s pardon of Scooter Libby is intended as a “fuck you” to the FBI and Mueller but it is satisfying either way. Libby was indeed railroaded and this was a good deed on Trump’s part on its merits. However, he’s sent a clear message that Flynn, Cohen, and probably Manafort really don’t have anything to fear from Mueller’s investigation. The only question is if Trump can survive it. You know I say he will, but la dee da.
Moving on to other topics, my wife has been obsessed with the story about the lesbian couple who murder-suicided their adopted kids in California. She had hoped there would be some shred of evidence to show that it wasn’t intentional; that it was a horrible accident rather than an unspeakable evil.
No such luck. Those two bitches were downright evil and public agencies–again–were incapable of doing anything about it.
Signs of physical and emotional abuse observed by friends, neighbors and teachers resulted in nearly 10 years of contacts with child welfare workers and police.
Despite the mounting string of incidents, no law enforcement, school district or social services agency ever interceded to the point of stopping the abuse. The parents seem to have been aided by limited communication between state agencies and the fact that no central nationwide registry exists for child abuse or child welfare reports.
I don’t know why my wife follows these depressing local news stories. But, you know, she can’t figure out why I follow the insanity of political news either.
Here’s one of those stories we seem to like discussing. It includes both a corporate boycott and racial profiling.
Too soon to tell if the charges were justified, as it was the employees who made the call and we don’t know what was done or said up until that point. But that is a plethora of cops to respond to a simple loitering call, El Guapo.
Let’s lighten the mood a bit with a clip Art Bell would approve of.
Next, an episode of Gym Idiots from Infinite Elgintensity (this is one of the top ten YouTube channels I recommend following):
On the topic of fitness, my resumption of my diet and exercise routine has been going strong. I marked one full month back on Thursday and am down about 7 pounds. Not bad considering that I had a vacation, wedding anniversary, and child’s birthday during that time. My daily workouts have been paying off, big league.
Okay, so what shall we fight about?
Art Bell’s death was a real downer. I discovered him around the turn of the millennium, and I was a regular listener for years when I worked 2nd and 3rd shifts. I eventually dropped C2C when George Noory took over full time, mainly because it coincided with my return to working day shifts.
I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal, but except for one UFO sighting as a kid, and a couple of haints that came with the house I live in, my experiences have been sadly few and far between. To me Art Bell’s show was the continuation of Unsolved Mysteries, which as a child of the 80’s was a personal favorite.
I’ve always kept an open mind about things, but I mainly listened because I enjoyed the stories he put on without necessarily believing them all. I always felt Art was of the same mindset, which is why I was a fan for so long. George Noory seems like a nice guy, but his wide eyed credulity about everything grates on me, plus his biweekly 4 hour infomercials for his nutritional supplements just got to be too much for me.
Art’s death shocked me, but I haven’t listened to his show (which he apparently stopped in 2003) since the 90’s. Anybody listen to the new guy? Any good?
Putin – I’d be more apt to listen to him talk about international law if he had his country get out of Crimea.
I would echo your sentiments, spootyjim. Noory was fine as a guest host, but C2C was never the same without Bell.
Perfectly stated. The venues on the Web that indulge the same topics now are angrier, less thoughtful, half-crazed, and downright immature than Bell ever would have allowed on his show. Nobody else has ever come close to his manner in setting up and discussing the supernatural, exopolitics, and the like.
It reminds me of the old observation (I think Kissinger?) about how for all Russia’s paranoia about external threats, any list of attacks against Russia by its neighbors would be dwarfed by the list of Russia’s aggression against its neighbors.
However, I’ll note that when NATO wanted to intervene in Libya, Putin went along with the UN Security Council Resolution to establish a no-fly zone with the understanding the West wouldn’t try to overthrow Ghadafi.
They did it anyway and look at the shitshow that resulted from it.
You know the only reason Russia is in Syria is to prevent the West from fucking up that country as it did Libya with any more illegal and badly-conceived operations. We really need to collectively acknowledge the truth of this.
Putin isn’t a good guy, as I keep saying. But if the West really wants to set him up as a lawless villain, then we need to start restraining our governments from carrying out lawless wars and subversions in other countries too.
Barbara Bush is dying. No matter what anyone has to say about her husband or sons, I’m glad she has generally always been treated with respect.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/15/former-first-lady-barbara-bush-wife-and-mother-presidents-declines-medical-treatment/518799002/
May she pass without fear or pain. She had a good life, I think.
When I started working 3rd again in 2015, I went right back into the C2C fold – mainly because listening to music in the dark is a great way to fall asleep behind the wheel, whereas talking keeps my brain engaged.
I listened nightly up until about October 2016, because I got fed up with 4 shows a week with various psychics performing on-air auguries regarding the upcoming election. After about 20 shows of that I couldn’t listen to the beclowning anymore.
My other great gripe was that it was getting to the point where they were doing 2 alien shows and a JFK show every. Single. Week. Without fail. Plus the aforementioned 4 hour biweekly infomercial slinging George’s nutritional supplements. God bless him for engaging in capitalism, but when every single on-air diagnosis starts with removing all gluten from human/pet food and doing a CDC level housecleaning shit gets repetitive fast.
Yeah, Art Bell was one of a kind. A nut, but a fun nut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5KIRChve0
That’s one way to get attention:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/charred-body-found-prospect-park-walking-path-article-1.3933598
Trump rails against Comey:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/15/comey-trump-trade-shots-ahead-long-awaited-interview-book-release.html
Well, Joe, neither did your own Party at one time:
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/04/15/joe-biden-rips-trump-dont-want-black-folks-voting-voter-id-laws-fraud-claims
Also RIP R. Lee Ermey:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/04/15/full-metal-jacket-actor-r-lee-ermey-dies-at-age-74.html
Rip Art Bell. You’re finally going to get the answers to all of the burning questions.
Fun fact: the creepiest and most cool experience I had with Art Bell was driving up to the bay to go to my friend’s wedding. It was the episode where they discussed all of the astronaut claims that ufo’s are real. I was taking the 5 en route to half moon bay but spent some time in the central coast on the 101 where it practically turns into a 2 lane road.
I think the Art Bell experience and California go hand in hand. From the high desert to the middle of the state, there’s nothing like vast expanses of land, frighteningly enormous state prisons and military bases, and Art Bell whispering in your ear that big brother is watching you that quite completes the coast to coast experience so thoroughly.
That trip was also when I met rich in person so it was a very significant memory to me, filed in the most precious chambers of my mind to remember fondly.
Damm Art Bell, i used to listen to him on the night shit, loved his radio show there were time i actually got a bit spooked, but hell. some of the craziness was fun.
This….
Anyone see this IG report, that making Comey out to be a world class ass, and scum?
What now? The 2003 invasion was based entirely on ‘trust us, this is legit and we know what we’re doing even it appears that the opposite is true and we’re not going to demonstrate justification’, and it was against the strong majority of world opinion (govts and populations), and the preceding UN resolutions did not provide for it. That invasion was a significant blow to international law and the post-WW2 framework, and the reputations of the leaders who took part (Dubya of course and definitely Blair, who is despised by a large proportion of the British public, many of whom had previously supported him). It completely lacked legitimacy and will remain a dark stain for a long time to come.
Maybe Trump is just following the Clinton model (seriously, he seems a lot more like Bubba than Bush, or maybe a combination of the worst of the two):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Iraq_(1998)
Probably a combination of the worst of the two.
That link you provide has a number of examples which illustrate just how deceitful and downright cynical the 2003 pro-war narrative was. An embarrassing disgrace to all who prosecuted it and those who enabled them.
Worst part, but oh so inevitable, is that nobody was held responsible and nobody seems to have learned a thing.
The key phrase you missed was ” upholding the pretense of US and international law “. You can think that what Bush did was illegal and wrong, but he still went to the trouble of trying to at least have the appearance of legality.
He tried to get UN resolutions to justify it and even got Congress to approve both the AUMF’s for the GWoT and Iraq. He got Resolution 1441. And there was verification that Saddam wasn’t complying with inspections, regardless of if he ultimately turned out to have WMD.
Obama abandoned any notion of legality with regard to military action and Trump hasn’t shown any interest in bringing it back in style either.
El Paso was the same. I used to listen to him when I was working night shift on Ft Bliss. The thought of the sheer darkness of a remote desert military road in the middle of nowhere while Art Bell calmly discussed the shocking and fearsome still gives me the chills.
CMNZ seeing the glowing reception scooter Libby got here you’re speaking to an inpenitrable wall of tribalism. Trump can do no wrong, even when he back tracks on previous neocon trandgressions.
Scooter Libby was bush firewall for the Iraq war for Christ sakes, but now he’s a nice guy because trump pardoned him? Lmao, the guy never served time, had his law license reinstated and can even vote again.
Don’t tell anyone here (they won’t acknowledge anything outside of Fox News anyway), but trump signaling he will pardon through Libby is probably his most stupid move yet. 1.) Libby was a true firewall, effectively ending the investigation on bush Iraq war justification. Trump’s probably going to have to pardon an entire administration and the Russian continent to do the same, and that STILL won’t stop investigations outside of the federal branch. 2.) pardoned individuals lose the fifth amendment protections. You mean the one Cohen is invoking right now? Lmao yeah that one.
There’s much more but ssshhhhh….. the heads exploding can’t be heard if you’re trying to shout over the stupid.
Scooter Libby was convicted of a process crime that emerged from a special prosecutor’s investigation of something that wasn’t even a crime and Libby wasn’t even the person who did the act that prompted the investigation. Worse, the testimony that got him charged and convicted was later recanted by Judith Miller
Fitzgerald’s investigation was as much a wasteful one as Mueller’s is. I’m glad all of his hard work came to nothing.
Let’s take an accounting here of his expenses over this bogus charge; $250,000 fine, probably double that in attorney fees, several years probation, several years not being able to earn a living, the shame knowing that you did nothing wrong yet remain a convicted felon. I will be awaiting your creation of the Libby gofundme page to make amends.
You do realize that Fitzgerald should be the one going to prison, withholding exculpatory evidence. His actions were more egregious than the FBI agents in the Noor Salman trial, surely you don’t condone or excuse prosecutorial misconduct do you?
When it suits his purposes of attacking Trump, he does. Everything is on the table, apparently, and all normal principles go right down the shitter.
It’s perfectly fine that somebody got his rights violated as long as he did something else that was “bad”. Next time some thug gets shot by police for sticking his hands in his pocket to pull out his ID, I guess we can say it’s justified if he had a previous arrest record or something.
Which reminds me, off topic, but some progressives really need a good ass beating;
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/04/12/liberal-writer-donations-to-hockey-team-crash-victims-are-high-because-of-white-n2470230
There is no heart-breaking tragedy out of bounds anywhere that can not be exploited for political expediency. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people, have they no sense of propriety or shame?
Open thread! Nothing is off-topic.
1441 was only approved because it didn’t authorise an invasion. It probably did more harm to law and international relations to then do it anyway because you didn’t get your way (especially with the bugging, and embarrassing Powell presentation). It made it all more explicit.
It’s hilarious that at the same time Trump is ranting about Comey being a leaker and a liar, he pardons Libby. But then he doesn’t know Libby from a bar of soap, and doesn’t even know what happened (” I have heard that he has been treated unfairly”). We all know the real reason don’t we?
Judge, I’m starting to see it less as tribalism and more as battered wife syndrome.
All these hot, topical issues going on and we’re going to spend the day re-litigating the Iraq War. Alright.
My point stands that GW Bush was the last US president to seek, much less obtain, legal approval for any military actions. I’m not sure why you’re wanting to get tangled up in the weeds over it, unless it is just too hard for you to acknowledge that Obama did his fair share of warmongering that further destabilized the Middle East. Tribalism, you say?
Yeah, and I’m good with it. Both because Libby shouldn’t have been charged or convicted of anything in the first place and because the current special counsel has little credibility with me either.
Something like 1/3 of this post is dedicated to me criticizing Trump over his actions in Syria, yet JDPS still throws it out there that I’m suggesting “Trump can do no wrong”.
Really, guys. If you ever feel like I’m unfair or lack objectivity in my opinions, it might just be because I don’t think there’s any point to me attempting to be fair or objective since everything I say here is either going to be misconstrued or ignored when it collides with your own cognitive dissonance anyway.
Regarding Hoog, he turned 18 so no more will be able to hide behind the imprimatur of ,”I’m just a kid so leave me alone”. He is taking a gap year to spend campaigning, now there is someone you really want on stage, endorsing your campaign.
Re: the Starbucks arrest, some perspective is in order. The reason there were so many cops at the scene was because the first responders were bike cops, hence the bike helmets. They have no means of transport if an arrest is forthcoming, so they call a patrol vehicle as back up to transport.
Trespassing falls within the parameters of civil complaints, and cops absolutely hate these. It’s not like ,”See a crime, make an arrest”, no, the complainant (the store manager) decides if HE wants the people arrested for trespassing. The cop at the scene will do everything in his power to get it resolved without an arrest. This involves getting the manager to take it down a notch or getting the customers to either buy something or leave. There is an 8 minute youtube video of the arrest which looks to me like this was a concerted effort by the two arrestees to make a statement by purposefully getting arrested, maybe in the hopes of a large payout afterwards.
Thank you Justice Kimba Wood! Hannity, you naughty, naughty boy.
How can the freedom cucks cries of a media-state conspiracy not ring hollow when there’s a reporter in the fat orange cuck’s pocket? Lmao!
If the Moorewatch forums are still up, I can point you to this same discussion 13 or so years ago with CM…same opinions, same arguments, same facts. Also incidentally the exact same points of view. And probably several other times since then.
Or you can re-hash it.
That’s just because you’re a Fox News Cuck or something.
I don’t know. I didn’t do anything on the 15 year anniversary of the start of the war, which would have been a good chance to have a retrospective discussion. This is an open thread so…
I still say the war was justified, if badly managed. We still haven’t fully resolved two of the great questions that Bush faced when he ultimately decided to invade.
1. How far should the world go to enforce UN resolutions against nuclear proliferation? Is war ever the answer?
2. When, if ever, is the US justified in waging pre-emptive war?
These are both still persisting issues with regard to Iran and North Korea and were both the vital issues 15 years ago wrt Iraq.
Maybe it was really “nuanced”. Like I was saying “I disapprove of Trump’s actions” but REALLY meant “I disapprove of deeper military involvement in the Syrian Civil War in theory, but secretly approve when Trump does it.”
It’s as if JDPS doesn’t read criticism of Trump as actually being criticism unless I say, “Trump is a cuck for cucking Syria with his cuck bombs. Cuck a doodle cuckin’ doo. IMPEACH!!!!1!!”
It’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that.
What exactly do you think he did that would make him naughty?
Now that’s just weird, I got that embroidered on a throw pillow, word for word.
Whatever it is, Hannity is in meltdown mode and his responses are all over the place. At the minimum, he’s in trouble for defending Cohen on his show without disclosing that he’s been a client of his. At the other end…?
My understanding so far, Hannity never hired Cohen for any work, ever. He never paid him for any service. Cohen has never represented Hannity in any matter, ever. So I’m not sure where the “client” aspect figures in to this. I’m watching Tucker now, Hannity is supposed call in for a statement.
If Cohen never took any money from Hannity, then there’s no attorney-client privilege. Lots of info at Hot Air:
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/16/weird-check-michael-cohen-reveals-secret-third-client-sean-hannity/
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/985987306925387776
It really is the flaming shitshow that never ends.
I don’t, but I’ll definitely chime in when someone tries to let Dubya and his cohorts off the hook when it comes to Iraq.
I can acknowledge it (particularly the damage done by drone strikes) and also observe that the invasion of Iraq and what that set off and what it meant for international relations and institutions was significantly worse, and presented Obama with a poisoned chalice in a number of ways.
Well I guess that might explain it. I don’t believe it though.
It’s not about letting Bush off the hook. I voted for Trump not just as a repudiation of Obama, but also Bush.
Put this in perspective. I took a comment from you that pointed out Trump’s lawlessness in Syria and how it shouldn’t be okay now when it wouldn’t have been okay if Obama did it and then made the point that Bush, of all people, was the last one who at least presented a case to Congress and the UN instead of just saying, “Think of the children, man.” I was agreeing with you.
So here’s Stormy Daniels’ alleged threatening individual, and it’s:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/17/stormy-s-sketch-harasser-sparks-social-media-frenzy-tom-brady-comparisons.html
I agree with those who say it looks more like Willem Dafoe than Tom Brady.
Funny bit of serendipity. I was listening to “How Soon is Now” in the car on the way back from picking up the kids from school. When I got back to my laptop, Morissey was trending on Twitter. The reason why is fucking hysterical:
https://www.westmonster.com/morrissey-the-smiths-loony-left-call-everyone-racist-to-change-the-subject/
RIP Barbara Bush
https://twitter.com/SecretService/status/986406392767664129?s=19
Same countries indulging in the same bullshit again.
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/04/has-britain-already-forgotten-about-the-chilcot-report/
[…] it’s reasonable to say that the Trump-Russia Collusion story is in its early death throes. My own sense, a couple of weeks ago, was that the Cohen raid was a mistake. An overreach. It seemed […]