I suspect Pence was in on it too. His statements to the public (allegedly based on falsehoods told to him by Flynn) may have been intentional lies, lies that he thought he'd get away with. Isolating the culprit to be (loose canon) Flynn may just be damage control to protect Pence.
An at least partial explanation came out at the hearing and news commentary afterward. (I've been soaking up so much of this stuff I don't remember where exactly.) A key fact is that the Trump investigation is ongoing. By some accounts, counter-intelligence investigations tend to take a long time. Comey did not want to violate FBI procedures and jeopardize the investigation by letting on that it was taking place before all the work was done.
Whereas, the Clinton investigation was a much smaller affair that, as I recall, had been complete when first announced. The next two announcements had something to do with a promise to Congress that any further developments would be followed up if they were to occur, as they did.
I'm not making excuses for Comey. But I think it's true, as you've implied, that he was faced with a tricky navigation problem. I've heard numerous times that not commenting on ongoing investigations is standard procedure. If only the Clinton case had been more complicated and time-consuming, then perhaps Comey would have said nothing till after the election and the investigation(s) were complete.
A week or two before the hearing---before it had even been arranged---"Ranking Member" Schiff mentioned his frustration with Comey about standard FBI priorities having to do with prosecutability. Hush hush until the whole case is in order. Whereas Schiff, as a Congressman, felt that national security issues were more important. Given the huge pile of highly suspicious circumstantial evidence that had been gathered, Schiff was itching to let everyone know about it, even if resulting court cases might be weakened as a result. My impression is that Schiff's concerns with respect to Comey have been mostly, if not entirely satisfied by the hearing.
Half a century after the civil rights movement, the problem of racial divisions in the US, especially between "blacks" and "whites," is still a mess.
I think ideas, images, and most importantly, actions that have the effect of cooperation, empathy, and harmony are needed most. Least productive are ideas, images and actions that tend to polarize.
Even those with ostensibly noble motives may err, as I think Beyonce has, by approvingly waving the polarizing image of Black Panthers. In their early days, the Black Panthers said and did some stupid things. For example, along with their military-style uniforms, they carried guns. A popular poster at the time was a photo of one of the Black Panthers founders, Huey Newton, posing with a rifle.
(Another of its founders, Eldridge Cleaver later became a fashion designer whose claim to fame was to bring back the cod-piece. Then he became a Republican.)
If it's one thing the world does not need, its more glorification of militarism, no matter who are supposed to be the "good guys."
A qualification of my earlier comment may be in order:
If the "interest of the powers that be" is only short-term gain and to give the appearance of being respectable citizens (corporations, countries) then "spreading responsibility [for war] among the masses" makes sense.
In a more comprehensive, long-term sense, this behavior is not even in their own best interest. If they were concerned about the sustainable welfare of their own offspring and the world they live in, then they'd accept responsibility, apologize, and change their belligerent ways.
To a certain extent this is true. But I have long held the hypothesis that this extent is very nearly proportional to our material wealth; our capacity to back up our beliefs and political inclinations with media megaphones and muscle.
To the extent that this hypothesis is true, some of us are a lot more culpable than others. It is in the interest of the powers that be, I think, to try to diminish their own horrible culpability by spreading the responsibility among the masses.
If they shared their money as freely, maybe then I'd accept a more similar proportion of the blame for war.
Nowhere in the report or the video is there any discussion of the idea that the officer might have first tried to reason with the girl.
A good cop is one who knows how to use his brains and his ability to communicate verbally. Alas, in this dysfunctional society of ours, brute force prevails.
The part about Trump's flip-flopping across party lines reminds me of a similar "transformation" that occurred to Eldrige Cleaver in the 1970's. Cleaver had been a Black Panther and then became a Republican.
In an interview Timothy Leary was asked how to explain this. Leary replied that Cleaver only wanted to be on the side that he figured would enable himself to kick more ass.
Animals, our own bodies, and Earth's ecosystem all benefit as humans transition to becoming vegetarians.
Thank you for remembering and giving a voice to these too-often forgotten and voiceless realms of life on Earth. In so many ways, burger-mania is a source of horrible suffering.
Data such as those presented above and the corresponding arguments against the meat industry have been known for years. Now that global warming has become so hard to ignore, let us rethink the impact of our unsustainable carnivorousness.
Ironically, there is some truth to Erdogan's views. Women are different from men. On average, they are much more peaceful and compassionate. They are much more inclined to work out differences by negotiation instead of violence.
Alas, if only men were not, in this regard, more like women. By this reckoning, women are superior.
With regard to the desire for "more wars again" a further clue from the main article should be pointed out.
It's that a case can easily be made that the percentage of those vets who come back "mentally healthy" are the ones we should worry about. Isn't the normal healthy response to war to be traumatized by it? Those who are so numb as to come back thinking everything is hunky dory are the ones who will encourage more wars again.
For theoretical reasons, I'm not a big fan of Albert Einstein, but I often resonate with his political views. He wrote:
"To my mind to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder. "
We condition our young people to be utterly numb and blind to the voice of reason. We train them to be killers. For what? We are a very sick society. It's scary.
It is not entirely clear to me what you meant by saying
"Gravity is also a ‘theory’; the word doesn’t mean what they think it means."
Whatever you meant, it is a fact that gravity remains one of the most mysterious physical phenomena (un)known to humanity. A paper that sheds some light on how much we don't know about gravity may be accessed here:
© 2026 All Rights Reserved
Nice article.
Lots of reasons to be vegetarian.
Marianna: Good points. Seems to me that what the world is waiting for is Trump and his family circus of deranged clowns to be gone.
Go Mueller!
I suspect Pence was in on it too. His statements to the public (allegedly based on falsehoods told to him by Flynn) may have been intentional lies, lies that he thought he'd get away with. Isolating the culprit to be (loose canon) Flynn may just be damage control to protect Pence.
As for Trump, as usual, there's no excuse.
Please hit return once more between paragraphs. Your info-rich piece is visually very hard to read.
An at least partial explanation came out at the hearing and news commentary afterward. (I've been soaking up so much of this stuff I don't remember where exactly.) A key fact is that the Trump investigation is ongoing. By some accounts, counter-intelligence investigations tend to take a long time. Comey did not want to violate FBI procedures and jeopardize the investigation by letting on that it was taking place before all the work was done.
Whereas, the Clinton investigation was a much smaller affair that, as I recall, had been complete when first announced. The next two announcements had something to do with a promise to Congress that any further developments would be followed up if they were to occur, as they did.
I'm not making excuses for Comey. But I think it's true, as you've implied, that he was faced with a tricky navigation problem. I've heard numerous times that not commenting on ongoing investigations is standard procedure. If only the Clinton case had been more complicated and time-consuming, then perhaps Comey would have said nothing till after the election and the investigation(s) were complete.
A week or two before the hearing---before it had even been arranged---"Ranking Member" Schiff mentioned his frustration with Comey about standard FBI priorities having to do with prosecutability. Hush hush until the whole case is in order. Whereas Schiff, as a Congressman, felt that national security issues were more important. Given the huge pile of highly suspicious circumstantial evidence that had been gathered, Schiff was itching to let everyone know about it, even if resulting court cases might be weakened as a result. My impression is that Schiff's concerns with respect to Comey have been mostly, if not entirely satisfied by the hearing.
Such an ugly, horrible, frightening mess.
It probably would have been interesting if she had gone there anyway, got arrested, and a trial were held.
Ah, but facing the music is not exactly the style of powerful people, certainly including the pernicious string-pullers in Israel.
Frank Zappa once told his audience:
"Everyone in this room is wearing a uniform, and don't kid yourselves."
As between Trump and Clinton, Clinton is merely the lesser of evils. Not saying much.
Half a century after the civil rights movement, the problem of racial divisions in the US, especially between "blacks" and "whites," is still a mess.
I think ideas, images, and most importantly, actions that have the effect of cooperation, empathy, and harmony are needed most. Least productive are ideas, images and actions that tend to polarize.
Even those with ostensibly noble motives may err, as I think Beyonce has, by approvingly waving the polarizing image of Black Panthers. In their early days, the Black Panthers said and did some stupid things. For example, along with their military-style uniforms, they carried guns. A popular poster at the time was a photo of one of the Black Panthers founders, Huey Newton, posing with a rifle.
(Another of its founders, Eldridge Cleaver later became a fashion designer whose claim to fame was to bring back the cod-piece. Then he became a Republican.)
If it's one thing the world does not need, its more glorification of militarism, no matter who are supposed to be the "good guys."
Netanyahu is, of course, enabled by US money and political friends. Are his supporters not, therefore, just as culpable?
A qualification of my earlier comment may be in order:
If the "interest of the powers that be" is only short-term gain and to give the appearance of being respectable citizens (corporations, countries) then "spreading responsibility [for war] among the masses" makes sense.
In a more comprehensive, long-term sense, this behavior is not even in their own best interest. If they were concerned about the sustainable welfare of their own offspring and the world they live in, then they'd accept responsibility, apologize, and change their belligerent ways.
"Who is culpable? We all are."
To a certain extent this is true. But I have long held the hypothesis that this extent is very nearly proportional to our material wealth; our capacity to back up our beliefs and political inclinations with media megaphones and muscle.
To the extent that this hypothesis is true, some of us are a lot more culpable than others. It is in the interest of the powers that be, I think, to try to diminish their own horrible culpability by spreading the responsibility among the masses.
If they shared their money as freely, maybe then I'd accept a more similar proportion of the blame for war.
Nowhere in the report or the video is there any discussion of the idea that the officer might have first tried to reason with the girl.
A good cop is one who knows how to use his brains and his ability to communicate verbally. Alas, in this dysfunctional society of ours, brute force prevails.
The part about Trump's flip-flopping across party lines reminds me of a similar "transformation" that occurred to Eldrige Cleaver in the 1970's. Cleaver had been a Black Panther and then became a Republican.
In an interview Timothy Leary was asked how to explain this. Leary replied that Cleaver only wanted to be on the side that he figured would enable himself to kick more ass.
Animals, our own bodies, and Earth's ecosystem all benefit as humans transition to becoming vegetarians.
Thank you for remembering and giving a voice to these too-often forgotten and voiceless realms of life on Earth. In so many ways, burger-mania is a source of horrible suffering.
Data such as those presented above and the corresponding arguments against the meat industry have been known for years. Now that global warming has become so hard to ignore, let us rethink the impact of our unsustainable carnivorousness.
"...full of themselves over this gravity business"
Which "gravity business" would that be?
"Militants have banned the used of crayons and colored pens."
Hard to imagine anything more inhuman than that.
Next they'll ban flowers and rainbows.
What is an "AO"?
Too bad human males don't behave more like human females.
Monsters win. Good guys lose. It's depressing.
Clicking the video gives me only a commercial, which seems to loop without ever going the speech and interview.
The degree of malicious idiocy displayed by the Israelis is often, as in this case, difficult to fathom.
Ironically, there is some truth to Erdogan's views. Women are different from men. On average, they are much more peaceful and compassionate. They are much more inclined to work out differences by negotiation instead of violence.
Alas, if only men were not, in this regard, more like women. By this reckoning, women are superior.
Dysfunctionality produced by madness riddled with divisiveness wrapped in hooba-gooba. (Something like that.)
Obama destroyed his credibility a long time ago. Pledge schmedge.
"Money doesn't talk, it swears."
Dylan -- It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
"disarming is a must."
It's pretty hard to imagine Israel disarming itself. So this proposal sounds like endless perpetuation of the same old bloody story.
This reminds me of an idea I've had for a bumper sticker:
With a big smiley face on the left, the text reads, "Thou shalt make fun of thine god, lest yee believe in him."
I like to think of it as the zeroth commandment.
"...glib and superficial piece of cynicism."
Recent events in Gaza (among others) prove that Israel is one of the most active participants in the "madness."
Israel is the "terror squad."
Somebody said "the first casualty of war is the truth."
The Israelis and their US media outlets know this well.
The horrible injustice of it all makes me cry.
With regard to the desire for "more wars again" a further clue from the main article should be pointed out.
It's that a case can easily be made that the percentage of those vets who come back "mentally healthy" are the ones we should worry about. Isn't the normal healthy response to war to be traumatized by it? Those who are so numb as to come back thinking everything is hunky dory are the ones who will encourage more wars again.
For theoretical reasons, I'm not a big fan of Albert Einstein, but I often resonate with his political views. He wrote:
"To my mind to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder. "
We condition our young people to be utterly numb and blind to the voice of reason. We train them to be killers. For what? We are a very sick society. It's scary.
The Berkeley group's experiments and research appear to me to be exercises in a word that (unless I missed it) wasn't mentioned:
Empathy.
What the world needs now...
Why not? Because the world is nuts. Not much "fair" about it at all.
That which is sane and reasonable and moral--as your suggestion is--gets routinely squelched and trampled.
About the only silver lining one can imagine is that, yes, it could be worse!
Cheers.
It is not entirely clear to me what you meant by saying
"Gravity is also a ‘theory’; the word doesn’t mean what they think it means."
Whatever you meant, it is a fact that gravity remains one of the most mysterious physical phenomena (un)known to humanity. A paper that sheds some light on how much we don't know about gravity may be accessed here:
link to gravitationlab.com
Love your blog.