Info Meme of the Week: James Comey Strikes Again

NinaIllingworth March 23, 2017November 17, 2022 blog, CIA, Clapper, congressional hearings, conspiracy theory, Crowdstrike, Democratic Party, DNC, DNC Hack, DNI, DoJ, Donald Trump, Fantastic Lies, FBI, hacking, hysteria, Info Meme of the Week, infographics, Intel agencies, James Clapper, James Comey, Jan Intel Report, Justice, Keith Olbermann, law, lie, madness, mainstream media, Manchurian Candidate, Manchurian Candidate theory, Media, Meme, Mike Morell, Morell, News, Nina Illingworth, Obama Intel Officers, Op-Ed, Paul Manafort, Podesta Emails, Putin, Rachel Maddow, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, risking world war 3, Russia, Russia Probe, Russia-Trump conspiracy, Russiagate, Russian Hackers, sensationalism, Six Things I Think, testimony, Trump, Trump campaign, US Congress, US Intelligence, Viktor Yanukovych, Vladimir Putin, war with Russia, WW3

Editor’s note: well, it certainly does look like I spoke too soon doesn’t it? Less than a week ago and on this very website, I declared the Trump-Russia conspiracy all but dead in the water. I then went through all the logical reasons why it couldn’t possibly true, touched on the Democratic party’s true motive for pushing the conspiracy and finally swore I’d never write another article about the whole damn thing again. That vow has lasted all of five days and frankly, it probably wouldn’t have made it past three if I hadn’t already scheduled a website update in what I expected to be largely “downtime.” Naturally, delusional pinhead Congressman Adam Schiff steps in front of a camera to enthrall the mainstream media a couple of times and I’m now in the process of working on three separate supplemental articles that relate in some way to the Giant Russia Theory. It is indeed safe to say that I’m less than thrilled about this development.

At the risk of repeating myself however, I must confess that I’m still pretty damn sure this conspiracy is already finished; at least, insofar as the “Donald Trump is Putin’s Manchurian Candidate” aspect of it is concerned. Unfortunately however, the tangled web of propaganda, partisan politics and crass corporate commercialism involved in maintaining the illusion that this conspiracy still draws breath will now take a few more posts to properly untangle. Let’s start at the beginning of this latest whirlwind of controversy with a simple Info Meme of the Week about the comments by James Comey that have utterly dominated the headlines for the past three days:

Sources:

Full transcript: FBI Director Comey testifies on Russian interference in 2016 election

Comey Doesn’t Say Much

These are questions that Comey refused to answer

How Much Of The Trump-Russia Story Is Smoke And How Much Is Fire?

Obama’s intel chief says he knows of no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion

Clinton Ally Says Smoke, But No Fire: No Russia-Trump Collusion

Comey Is Now the Most Powerful Person in Washington

Note: Please be reminded that if you’re having trouble reading this Info Meme, you can right click on the picture and select “view this image” to pop out a larger version. Additionally, please feel free to post this meme anywhere you like and remember that you can provide sources to obnoxious ideologues if necessary by linking them back to this post.

The simple truth is that after sitting through roughly five hours of testimony and despite reading thousands upon thousands of words about Monday’s hearing, I honestly didn’t learn anything that hasn’t been available in the public sphere for months now. Anyone with half a brain already knew the FBI was going to be part of the Russia probe and if anything, Comey’s tight-lipped testimony seemed to imply that their investigation wasn’t really about Trump so much as “individuals associated” with the Trump campaign at this point. How does it even qualify as news to say that Paul Manafort is a sleazy lobbyist who openly worked for Ukrainian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych when it was public scrutiny of roughly $12M in undisclosed cash payments from Yankuvych that forced Manafort to resign from the Trump campaign back in August 2016? I mean, don’t get me wrong here; it sure as fuck does look like Paul Manafort might end up in jail soon but has anyone even tried to prove that Trump was colluding with Putin, through Manafort and/or Yanukovych? Don’t you think that if someone could do so, we’d have heard about it by now with the way Trump is racking up enemies and leaks are flying out of the White House?

In short, my advice to mainstream liberals would be to ignore hysterical partisans like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann until someone actually gets arrested. Above all however, avoid getting your hopes up about cryptic statements from James Comey; I have some experience in the matter myself and I can tell you that the man has a habit of delivering far more sizzle than steak.