Russiagate: a house built on sand
Why would anyone ever believe Putin wanted Trump to be president? It never made sense – except to those who believe Trump admired a fellow dictator, and vice-versa, and that Trump had promised him favors. But it was a way the left saw to undermine Trump, something to which they’ve dedicated their lives for the last ten years and counting.
The January 6, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “developed a clear preference” for Donald Trump and “aspired to help his chances of victory” is revealed in a report released this morning by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to have been based on four pieces of evidence. One was the Steele Dossier. The surprise is that the other three were even less credible, each included over objections of the report’s CIA authors.
The first item was a “scant, unclear, and unverifiable fragment” of one sentence that the report’s five CIA authors read “five ways” and initially left out, only to have Director John Brennan order it back in. The second item was an email with “no date, no identified sender, no clear recipient, and no classification.” The third was supposedly backed by “liaison,” diplomatic, and press reporting, as well as signals intelligence (SIGINT), except the “SIGINT” didn’t mention Trump, the “liaison reporting” didn’t mention Trump and was from 2014, and the “diplomatic and media” reporting was a post-election review by a U.S. Ambassador citing a Russian pundit who said Putin and Trump should “work together like businessmen.” This was “evidence” that Putin “developed a clear preference” for Trump.
All three reports weren’t just unsourced and unreliable, but discarded fictions pulled out of the CIA’s trash heap. …
The Assessment was written by just five CIA analysts hand-picked by Brennan, but even these most favored lieutenants couldn’t accept the key pieces of evidence. Two of the five went to Brennan to say, “We don’t have direct information that Putin wanted to get Trump elected,” only to be overruled. The same thing happened when members of the group objected to the Steele material, saying it didn’t meet even “basic tradecraft standards.” When confronted on this point, Brennan reportedly said, “Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?”
It served A Higher Truth, much like the Rathergate memo.
The report on which this was based was written eight years ago but Taibbi notes that it was “locked at Langley ever since” and only released at Trump’s behest, to be studied by Gabbard’s group. “Langley” refers to CIA headquarters. When the intelligence community does shady things, it can hide them by classifying them.
And of course on Taibbi’s X thread we get some predictable responses such as this:
Matt why are you covering this instead of Epstein?
The Democrats have their talking point.
Hans Mahncke:
https://x.com/HansMahncke/status/1948445409325588539
which tells you how little the care about epstein,
btw the pooper scoop the journal came from josh dawsey, who recounted ridiculous stories when he was at the Washington Post, that only a horse whisperer like Durbin heard
for those with a copy of the home game, this was much the way the 2003 NIE
was crafted, the more spectacular claims came from a disgruntled engineer Rafi Alwan, codenamed Curveball, who was a BND source, who despite the flaws in his testimony, sued the German gov for his stipend and the courts upheld it,
of course the Germans would not allow him to be interviewed so the information leaked second hand,
In the Bush days the line was that Osama bin Laden WANTED Bush to be President because of how bad he was for American and for our alliances and how much Iraq and Afghanistan were costing in blood and treasure. But even they didn’t believe that themselves, they just thought it might work on us.
And it was only in 2012 when Barack Obama referred to threats from Russia as “the 80s called, they want their foreign policy back” and told the “President” of Russia he’d have “more flexibility after the election”.
(“President” in quotes because he was just keeping the seat warm for Putin, back when Putin was term-limited.)
And it was only 2009 when Hillary Clinton had a “reset button” made and got a baffled Russian Foreign Minister to help her push it.
No matter what you produce in real evidence, diehard Left will never believe any of it. They just can’t.
Epstein is a nothing burger. Now, a Fed Judge in Fl won’t release transcripts. Is that Trump’s fault? Big nothing is that Trump is mentioned. I would bet that a lot of others are named, but mean nothing. If it did mean something on Trump, don’t you think Biden Team Obama would have released it by now?
Brennan should have performed seppuku by now, but seppuku restores lost honor, which Brennan never had, so it would be pointless.
SHIREHOME (6:50 pm) said: “No matter what you produce in real evidence, diehard Left will never believe any of it.”
That is truly true. I have *no* fantasy that the die hard left [I refuse to capitalize “left”] or even the garden variety left will ever believe any of it.
What I hope for — and I pray fervently that this is not a mere fantasy — is that *some* persuadables will somehow(?!?) get wind of these events and perhaps seriously think about them and their implications for the political health and future of our nation.
But are there any persuadables out there?
@MJR: Are there any persuadables out there?
Trump won last year by gaining votes from just about all demographics except college-educated white women.
Diehard leftists — I was one until the left blamed the US for 9-11 — are diehard until they aren’t.
There is usually a certain amount of cognitive dissonance already built up before a threshold is reached.
A yuge part of Trump’s brilliance was not to give up on wooing blacks, hispanics and the working class — traditional left strongholds — then develop effective appeals to these groups.
huxley (7:17 pm), I credit your point. Keep it up and I may well be forced to relinquish my Curmudgeon Club life membership.
[Not quite SCOTTtheBADGER’s (7:04 pm) seppuku, but it would be at least a start.]
SHIREHOME and M J R
I am sympathetic to your comments, and understand your frustration, but the truth is they don’t care about Truth. In fact, they think there is no such thing. Thus words, argument, “reason” – also no such thing – are merely instruments for acquiring what one wants. Just a means to an end. When one grasps that, one can begin to understand the postmodern left.
Mike Plaiss (7:23 pm), I credit your point as well. Now what? . . .
Hell if I know. Prayer maybe?
I’m crediting both points (huxley’s and Mike Plaiss’) but I am recognizing that the former applies to persuadables whereas the latter applies to the hard and also not-as-hard left. That’s why both points get credited. “Prayer maybe?” Okay with me . . . [smile] . . .
Epstein has been the D talking point since at least 2 weeks. They latched onto some conservatives criticizing Bondi, and saw that as an way to drive a wedge between Trump and MAGA, and then also, a fruitful way to attack Trump directly.
Now EVERYTHING Trump does…Japan deal, Gabbard’s releases, etc is supposed to deflections away from Trump’s “Epstein Problem” .
They won’t believe otherwise.
fairly lame,
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/07/24/you-left-something-out-brylcreem-gavin-newsoms-attempt-to-dunk-on-donald-trump-backfires-bigly-n2416159
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/24/exclusive-this-should-not-be-included-read-intelligence-officials-objections-to-extremely-sketchy-steele-dossier/
Mollie and Margot team up:
rtwt
MJR, Mike Plaiss, huxley and SHIREHOME,
Reagan was an amiable dunce whose economic policies would wreck the country if his foreign policy didn’t instigate nuclear winter first.
And then the economy cranked up and the hippies became greedy capitalists.
In a similar vein, I think the economy is Trump’s best chance at changing Leftists’ minds.
Rufus:
You ignore neo’s “A mind is a difficult thing to change”. Leftists will not change.
Five good minutes from DNI Gabbard about Russiagate, including Deep State resistance. She calls out WaPo reporter Ellen Nakashima for using burner phones to harass Gabbard’s team:
https://youtu.be/eRHRJEsdm6I
I think the economy is Trump’s best chance at changing Leftists’ minds.
Rufus T. Firefly:
That’s a reasonable take. Over time I think it’s possible, as the left’s fever dreams of Trump as Hitler subside.
It’s actually a lot of work to be angry and fearful all the time. It was such a relief when I left the left.
I say that inside a leftist there is also a normie asking politely to be let out and to live his/her own life.
I admit it’s a harder voice to hear.
It was really built on fear*, anger*, arrogance, stupidity, greed, obliviousness, obstinance, delusion, power grasping, and other general psychopathy. That provided a rather substantial foundation for too long, and for many it will remain impregnable for all time.
Evolution is not goal directed and thus we have evolved both positive and negative elements of cognition and mentality, mostly since both elements seemed to work (and aid survival) for a time and place and environment that no longer exists for most of us. We now adapt as best we can with cultural solutions to hold the negative components of mind at bay.
*thanks, Huxley
John Solomon lays out a clear case that the Obama administration in league with the Hillary campaign worked to tie Trump to Putin before and after the election, going so far as to assert that Putin didn’t favor Trump.
“Reasonable” folks are working overtime to deflect the key points in the scandal.
Tulsi Gabbard’s New Russiagate Revelations?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpCBGWImKY
— Rufus T Firefly
The hippies would have changed that way with or without Reagan. It was simply a matter of life stage.
Most of the hippies came from upper middle class or higher economic backgrounds, and they were hippies in their early adulthood. It’s one thing to be uninterested in material things at 22. At 32 the world looks a little different. It was always inevitable that most of the hippies would sell out. In fact, even that’s wrong, you can’t sell out if you never really bought in. There was always a big performative element to hippy-dom.
(That’s part of why working-class Boomers never got on well with hippies, and tended to fine them infuriating. They had the luxury of pretending to be ‘above’ materialism, which made their sanctimony grating for their less well-off age cohort-members.)
— Shirehome
True, but the die-hard Left is a much smaller group than is sometimes realized.
It’s often observed that the electorate divides 50/50, but that’s not the same thing as saying that half the country is Leftist. They are not and never have been.
The Democratic Party maintained its hold, in spite of the unpopularity of hard-core ‘progressivism’ because it was also the party of Social Security and Medicare and the minimum wage. It was many voters’ bastion against the business lobby, a source of checks on pollution and labor abuses.
That and of course the media/Democratic lockstep.
All of which had a grounding in reality at one time. The thing that kept costing the GOP winnable elections was precisely their desire to undo the New Deal. The American electorate, at a whole, has no interest in that goal.
Republicans were unable to take advantage of the Democrats social/cultural outrages because too many voters were scared to death that a GOP majority would privatize SoSec or cut Medicare. Bill Clinton recovered from his pasting in 1994 precisely by slamming that fear hard over and over and over, and the GOP seemed clueless about what was happening to them.
A key turning point for Trump in 2015/16 was when he came out in defense of protecting Social Security benefits. The commentariat assumed that would kill his primary chances, but instead in propelled him forward, because most Republican voters are former Democrats (Something J.D. Vance understands and has said openly.
That hard core unpersuadable Left is probably no more than 20% of the total electorate. The rest of the Dems are potentially winnable, as long as the GOP recognizes that their economic interests conflict with the business wing/Libertarian lobby goals.
OK…
But if the non-die-hard Left hasn’t yet been able to grasp just how DESTRUCTIVE the Democratic Party has become, then what’s it gonna take?
I asked this question yesterday:
AesopFan on July 24, 2025 at 1:46 am said:
Seriously: why didn’t the conspirators eliminate all the evidence in the past four years, and why — give their advanced positions in national security — did they not practice the slightest bit of operational security in their communications?
This is a pretty good answer: they are not as smart as they think they are.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/07/23/when-youre-plotting-to-overthrow-the-government-dont-put-it-in-an-email-n4942026
The failure to identify, much less prosecute, the Epstein clients remains a real failure. Tho I don’t see many calling for the Deep Throat path “Follow The Money”. Who paid/ gave Epstein money, & how much? Not a nothingburger BUT no big threat to the Deep State.
The Russia Hoax is a threat. (If Neo doesn’t like R-gate, she should choose the alternative she likes better. Russia Hoax for me so far.)
Still, I remember Durham … so my Don Surber inspired attitude remains, no excitement without an indictment.
Still, it’s very good to get the Truth out there.
Because the way to change more leftist minds fast is to laugh at them for being so gullible. Stupid & gullible. More Reps need to be repeating, “you only believe that because the Democrats & Media say it, but they’re lying. And you keep believing their lies, like a gullible fool.”
On tariffs, or immigration, or inflation. Objective economic things, Trump was right, his critics were wrong. Most of them often lied in being wrong.
Using tariffs as negotiation to get more access to Japan’s market is less important than getting $500 billion more investment.
$500 billion. Really a big big number. $1,000 each for 500 million people, if divided that way, tho it won’t be.
As we start the ai & robot age, it’s really really important to get most rich (& powerful) people to be invested in America.
Cicero and huxley,
I was being a bit hyperbolic, intentionally, in my statement in order to impugn the hippies.
In reality few changed their opinion of Reagan, or ever admitted their criticisms of his policies were wrong. Like the animals in the “Henny Penny” fable, they just gladly grew fat on the largesse he and his policies created.
The idea that they had tapes of trump being peed on by Russian prostitutka is funny… That service can be had in Manhattan a lot cheaper and with less trouble.. AND if the Jeffery Epstein bs was true, why would he go to Russia? ITs like people who live in the 1950s decided to write that…
None of it matters because there is no way to stop what’s going to happen. Maybe way back when the kids were children and I was commenting there was a chance, but they don’t even know what direction to run in. After all, Barrys communist pedigree and what they are willing to do is NOW becoming clear, but who that matters would listen or care?
the fact no one knows her or of her, and I could not get anyone to read the key FREE books or any kind of thing is how i know what the end result HAS to be…
too funny… Nero lives and fiddles play.
They don’t know she existed — because they were never allowed to!
the Joke Is: A generation that chants “liberation” in the streets knows nothing of Freda Utley,
…and everything about Marx, Gramsci, and Audre Lorde. They worship ideas that she watched collapse in blood and betrayal — and they’ll learn, the hard way, what she already tried to tell them.
You all thought i was so negative in the past…
Was i? or did i know more about the nature, history, process, and what’s going on under the surface of the silent waters that would not and could not be opposed without people knowing
How many do you think have read these?
and how many realize what all this was that your discussing?
Freda Utley – British communist turned anti-Soviet exposer.
Milovan Djilas – Yugoslav insider, author of The New Class.
Arthur Koestler – Former communist, wrote Darkness at Noon.
Whittaker Chambers – Ex-Soviet spy turned American patriot.
Victor Kravchenko – Soviet defector, author of I Chose Freedom.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn – Gulag survivor, The Gulag Archipelago.
Jan Valtin – German communist agent, author of Out of the Night.
Ignazio Silone – Italian Marxist who turned against communism.
Lev Kopelev – Soviet loyalist turned dissident after witnessing famine.
Julius Margolin – Survivor of Soviet camps, wrote Journey into the Land of the Zeks.
Margaret Buber-Neumann – Imprisoned by both Stalin and Hitler.
Andrei Amalrik – Soviet historian, predicted the USSR’s collapse.
Natalya Gorbanevskaya – Poet, dissident, imprisoned for protesting Soviet oppression.
Slavko Goldstein – Witness to communist and fascist atrocities in Yugoslavia.
Svetlana Alliluyeva – Stalin’s daughter who defected to the West.
Stefan Heym – East German dissident, exiled after supporting the GDR.
Jean-François Revel – French socialist intellectual turned critic of the Left’s blindness.
Ludwig von Mises – Not just economist—chronicled the dangers of collectivism firsthand.
David Horowitz – Former New Left radical turned critic of cultural Marxism.
Diana West – Exposes communist infiltration in the U.S. government and media.
IF you want to understand Obama and what he did, here is the book list (one you know by name)
Funny how many of them i was listing more than 10 years ago!
AND before Obama came to office I said to read (do note how AI knows it relates to Obama):
You guys are so funny.. (i will let AI tell you since you dont get it from me anyway)
Without Understanding the Machinery, There Can Be No Opposition
Your not armed for the conflict… nor can you pass it on
and the writings needed are harder to find than before
i think the French call this a Fait Accompli.
(by the way, it only took one sentence to release all of that above)
have fun… you think AFTER Trump things will not change faster given their fears?
@Rufus: In reality few [hippies] changed their opinion of Reagan, or ever admitted their criticisms of his policies were wrong.
I suppose it depends on how few is defined here.
However, I suggest the number may be larger than you suspect. About a third of the male hippies I knew are now conservative. Including myself.
Female hippies OTOH are batting 1000 unchanged when it comes to Reagan.
The gender divide is not unnoticed in American politics, but I think it is still a larger story than is being told.
When some might be considered fromme ists who years later went on a rampage or like katherine soliah
What are the odds
https://x.com/RodDMartin/status/1948560536066511060
A rought counterpart to the red army factionista brigitte kuhlmann who worked with habbashes crew at entebbe (they tried to make look sympathetic by casting rosamond pike, Who has been cast in sociopathic roles before notably gone girl and die another day
There was some degree of evolution from the 68 generation on both sides of the ocean but for a certain cohort the revolution endures
Local library has two by Utley
“What are the odds”
Well yes, the courts WRT their more liberal judges are, for the most part, THE LAST REDOUBT of the grand Obama strategy of
TransformationSUBVERSION…and ultimate destruction/replacement.(Um, Judge Roberts, take note.)
Meanwhile, the Yurps (once again for the most part) are motoring ahead on all cylinders…with the UK—fancy that!—leading the charge…alas…
The Left will not change for in their minds it has taken on religious overtones. If you die in the struggle against “evil” you go to heaven and immortality, where Trump bamboozles the Left is he likes to fight for the fun of fighting. The Left with their fixation on language demand an apology which they’ll never get.
Tom Grey:
What makes you so certain that there WERE “Epstein clients,” in the sense of providing other people with underage girls with whom to have sex? I’ve written on the subject many many times before, so I won’t do it again here, but I think there is room for plenty of doubt.
As a teenager, I admired Lyndon Johnson, because he was a fellow Texan, and because I could see his effectiveness in intimidating his political opponents for gain. As I became of age, I could see his deficiencies and understand the opposite point of view. When I was legally able to vote (in college), I voted Republican and have ever since. So, not all Boomers were Liberals who needed to be converted.
I was an Engineering student who worked my way through college. The late-60s and early-70s protests were all over campus, but I didn’t have time for that nonsense, nor was I interested. I will admit, I got lucky with the draft lottery and the end of the draft itself.
As I read through what I wrote, I see that it has drifted away from the original topic. I’m mostly responding to the more recent comments. Sorry if that bothers the regulars.
What I like most about following Neo, is that apparently the vast majority of readers are in my age group (70+).
John Buford, my path thru engineering school was similar to yours, except I did get caught by the draft lottery. But not sent to Vietnam so it all worked out in the end.
On the majority here being 70+, that may well be true, but I would hope some of our commenters are in their 30’s to 60’s to obtain that age cohort’s perspective as well.
And that some of the readers/lurkers here are in their 20’s absorbing the ideas and occasional wisdom discussed here.
Buford,
You have ol’ Landslide Lyndon!
Neo, I’m certain there were clients for the sex that G Maxwell is in jail over, not sure they were under age.
I’m also certain there are bank records of who paid/ gave money into Epstein’s bank accounts.
I’m not sure if you’ve listed any of those clients, legal or not, but I believe the clients abusing women, and maybe girls, are among those sending money. Or getting money from Epstein, like maybe campaign contributions to Clinton or other pols.
Too little publicity about Epstein’s money & how he was getting it, how he was using it.
Tom Grey:
You are CERTAIN? Why? The evidence against other “clients” is the testimony of 2 women, one a proven liar, who sued in civil court to get lots of money mostly through settlements (like the one with Prince Andrew). Dershowitz – who was one of the accused – fought back and won. I’ve written about this several times on the blog.
Now, it’s certainly possible there were such clients, but I’ve seen zero convincing evidence of it. So I’m very puzzled by the word “certain.”
Maxwell was convicted of trafficking, procuring girls who traveled across state lines to have sex with Epstein, not with anyone else.