Greg Palast's Blog, page 67
March 5, 2018
Why We Should Applaud Trump’s Tariffs
By Greg Palast
[Image: Palast worked as a negotiator and investigator for the Steel Worker’s Union when Ed Sadlowski ran the Chicago-Gary district.]
Have Progressives lost their tiny minds? We protested in Seattle against a tariff-free world in which workers in every nation are pitted in a contest to see who will work for lowest wages. The majority of Democratic senators voted against NAFTA.
In 2016, the Democrats lost Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin by theft for sure, but it would not have been close enough to steal except that Obama was pushing the TPP and Hillary free trade.
The idea of free trade with a slave state like China is a terrible joke played on America’s working class.
Do we hate Trump so much that we are obliged to attack when he does the right thing for the American worker?
Obama slapped heavy tariffs on Chinese auto parts before the 2012 election, and didn’t start a trade war. But he did win Ohio.
Will tariffs raise the price of steel? Yes, it is the price of keeping Pennsylvania alive. Pollution controls also raise the price of steel — but it is the price of keeping our planet alive.
Sometimes, principles must trump politics. (Pun intended.)
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Why We Should Applaud Trump’s Tariffs appeared first on Greg Palast.
March 1, 2018
Twenty-one years ago today…
By Greg Palast
Twenty-one years ago today...
Two new Palasts.
Time is a carnivore.
And we’re just food.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Twenty-one years ago today… appeared first on Greg Palast.
February 16, 2018
Florida = Honduras: Inequality kills. Want to end the American shooting epidemic?
By Greg Palast
A crucial factor about the Florida killer: his family had to move out of the school district because they couldn’t afford the rent. Resentment yields anger. Not every poor kid becomes a killer — think Bill Clinton — but there will be one. Inequality kills.
A student of statistics — my son — was surprised by his regression analysis of gun ownership per capita in each nation versus homicides.
He wrote, "The result of my scatter plot came as quite the surprise to me: there was just about no correlation between number of guns and number of gun homicides."
In fact, "the correlation coefficient was -0.105871699." That is, by a small amount, more guns meant fewer homicides.
So what DID prove a strong correlation? Homicides versus the "GINI" coefficient. GINI is the measure of income inequality in a nation.
I've just returned from the nation with the widest gun ownership in the world, Switzerland, which has vanishingly few homicides — although almost all men 18-35, due to ancient military tradition, must keep weapons in their home (many fully automatic).
The nation with the same population as Switzerland, Honduras, has the world’s highest homicide rate — yet Honduras outlaws personal gun ownership.
David Hemenway, of the Harvard School of Public Health notes, "Switzerland and Honduras are not even close to being the same in many aspects of their society that will influence the levels of violence and homicide."
Exactly. Want to end gun violence? End violent inequality.
Here’s the roster of the world’s most violent nations measured by non-military homicides:
Honduras
El Salvador
Jamaica
Venezuela
Guatemala
Trinidad
Colombia
Belize
Brazil
South Africa
It’s also a listing of the world’s most economically unequal nations.
After the US, here is the list of highest per capita gun ownership: Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany Austria, Iceland — all nations with tiny small homicide rates — and very low GINI scores. Iceland, where a huge one-third of households have guns, is the most economically equal society on the planet — with a homicide rate of ZERO.
(And before your all scream at me because I’m simply telling you the facts, I will add that these nations with lots of guns and few or zero homicides all maintain strict gun SAFETY rules. In Switzerland, deadly weapons in your home must be safely LOCKED AWAY.)
As a journalist, you will have to take these facts from my cold, dead hand.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Florida = Honduras: Inequality kills.
Want to end the American shooting epidemic? appeared first on Greg Palast.
February 11, 2018
The “Steele Dossier” on … Me:Why I won’t praise the FBI lie & spy machine
[image error]
Surveillance Team for Paul "The Vulture" Singer tracks Greg Palast (from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy)
Do we hate Trump so much, we’ll cheer FBI perjury, cheer the monstrous FISA star chamber and the surveillance horror show exposed by Ed Snowden?
Like it or not, that creepy little GOP shill Rep. Devin Nunes, revealed facts that should scare us. First, FBI agents failed to tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that the file it used to justify spying on a US citizen, the “Steele dossier,” was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
True, the FBI dropped a footnote about the source coming from a "political entity," a fuzzy cover-our-ass comment that failed to state known partisan bias. But failure to tell the court the whole truth and nothing but the truth is perjury.
Ironically, Nunes himself commits the same perjury, by failing to mention the original creator of the report. Before Hillary paid for a copy, the file was already written for a news front sponsored by Republican billionaire Paul Singer. Singer: Better known as “The Vulture.”
Singer The Vulture, the court should have been told, has a long history of creating what ousted FBI Director James Comey himself called “salacious and unverifiable” files on his enemies.
I know. Because The Vulture created a file on me. And on elected officials worldwide who got in the way of his next billion. Poisonous garbage – but really effective, deadly garbage.
In 2011, I flew to the Congo and discovered that The Vulture had seized the funds meant to end a cholera epidemic. I reported on Singer’s deadly capers at the top of the BBC news, on the front page of the Guardian, and on Democracy Now!
To spike the story, The Vulture’s PR flunky called BBC and said, “We have a file on Greg Palast.” Apparently, it contained the same kind of salacious garbage peddled by Steele.
The BBC pressed Singer's flak to turn over the actual dossier. Singer’s flunky backed down after admitting it contained old fabricated smears that had been long discredited. (In fact, a US power company had to write me a fat check in punishment for the libel.)
So, it’s personal. When I hear that some Trump toady is slimed by a suspect Singer file, I don’t clap with joy.
Steele-style dossiers by GOP Vulture
Singer has slipped secret, poisoned dossiers to media outlets to destroy the reputations of elected officials from Argentina to the Congo — all to make another billion.
Indeed, his PR flak boasted how he had planted stories about the president of the Republic of Congo with a pliant Washington Post. It was part of Singer's campaign to seize $400 million from the Congo for old bonds he bought for just $10 million during the nation’s civil war. Singer seized funds that were made available to the Congo by US and European taxpayers to help the destitute nation clean its water supply and end a cholera epidemic.
Even the US Treasury has accused him of “extortion.”
Singer’s smear campaign shifted to Argentina. The nation’s President Cristina Kirchner refused to pay “El Buitre” (The Vulture) the billions he demanded for old bonds based on legal flim-flam. Vulture-financed groups deployed dossiers that accused Kirchner of murder!
It worked. The new president, Mauricio Macri, in his first days in office, paid Singer the billions of dollars Kirchner had refused.
FBI texts: truly dangerous
Not all dangerous thumbs belong to Trump. While Nunes’ memo is poisoned by comically pro-Trump bias, we cannot ignore his exposure of the ill influence of partisan FBI agents like Peter Strzok.
I ask you to read the texts to his love-interest, Justice Department attorney Lisa Page. I don’t give a toot about their fooling around, I care about how they deliberately bent the investigation of Hillary Clinton to protect her.
Bernie Sanders supporters take note. Strzok admitted that the FBI somehow overlooked the fact that Clinton’s email server, which she claimed was used for wedding invites and the like, contained several emails marked with a ‘c’ for “confidential.”
Worse, Strzok wrote that he saw himself as providing an “insurance” policy against Trump’s election. Remember that Comey press conference in which he stated that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling classified emails? The Democrats blamed that for Hillary’s loss. In fact, it would have been far worse, except that Strzok convinced Comey to change the language to “extremely careless” from the much harsher – and possibly criminal – “grossly negligent.”
You can hate Trump all you want, but when FBI agents bend official statements to protect one candidate over another, our democracy is shot in the stomach.
Is Trump a bloviating bigot, a nuclearized narcissist miscreant? That’s a fact. So, why are we rushing to join his bonfire of our liberties?
Take my word for it: you don’t want the FBI picking our presidents.
The choice between FISA and freedom
Finally, I cannot believe my fellow progressives are now cheerleaders for the FISA court, the very agency Edward Snowden courageously exposed as the judicial inquisitors blessing an ugly police spy state.
Just one of the thousands of FISA court spy authorizations — revealed by Snowden — permitted the National Security Agency to get every single phone call made by Verizon callers, and similar demands were approved to seize the records of every major phone carrier.
The ACLU has been in legal combat with the FISA court over "mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans," allowing use of "Network Investigative Techniques" (i.e. malware), and information collected under the law without a warrant that could be "used to disproportionately target disfavored groups, whether minority communities, political activists, or even journalists."
I ask a simple question: have we no shame?
Again, the Nunes Memo does not discredit Mueller nor his investigation.
Nevertheless, the Nunes Memo exposed FBI perjury, how in secret the FBI brought the full dark powers of the surveillance state down on US citizens based on fabricated slanders, and used official power to flak for a Presidential candidate. And progressives are applauding?
So I ask you what Snowden asks: When you’ve crossed the wrong billionaire, when they come for you, will they quote your own words in praise of the Gestapo Lite?
A version of this story was first printed in Truthout
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post The “Steele Dossier” on … Me:
Why I won’t praise the FBI lie & spy machine appeared first on Greg Palast.
February 9, 2018
The “Steele Dossier” on… Me: Why the Nunes Memo should scare you
[image error]
Surveillance Team for Paul "The Vulture" Singer tracks Greg Palast (from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy)
Progressives should not be cheerleaders for the FBI when it shaves the truth, even if the bureau is now portrayed as Donald Trump's enemy. This is, after all, the FBI infamous for the wiretap of Martin Luther King Jr., the broader COINTELPRO operation, and, recently, smearing antiwar and environmental activists with claims of Russian influence.
Like it or not, that creepy little GOP shill Rep. Devin Nunes is stating a fact when he writes that FBI agents failed to tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that the file it used to justify spying on a US citizen, the "Steele dossier," was paid for in part by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
True, the FBI dropped a footnote about the source coming from a "political entity," a fuzzy cover-our-ass comment that failed to state known partisan bias. But failure to tell the court the whole truth and nothing but the truth is perjury.
Ironically, Nunes himself commits the same perjury by failing to name the original creator of the report. Before Clinton paid for a copy, the file was already written for a news front sponsored by a Republican billionaire named Paul Singer.
Singer, the court should have been told, has a long history of creating what former FBI Director James Comey himself called "salacious and unverifiable" files on his enemies.
I know something about this history, because Singer created a file on me. He also created files on elected officials worldwide who got in the way of his next billion. The files consisted of poisonous garbage — but really effective, deadly garbage.
In 2007, I flew to the Congo and discovered that Singer had seized the funds meant to end a cholera epidemic, which I reported at the top of the BBC news and on the front page of the Guardian.
To spike the story, Singer's PR flunky called my BBC "Newsnight" producer and said, "We have a file on Greg Palast." Apparently, it contained the kind of salacious garbage peddled by Steele. The BBC was un-moved, saying, it seems that "Palast has a file on you."
The BBC pressed Singer's flak to turn over the actual dossier. They backed down after admitting it contained old fabricated smears that had been long discredited. (In fact, a US power company had to write me a fat check in punishment for the libel.)
So when I hear that some Trump toady is slimed by a Singer file, I don't clap with joy.
Singer has used secret, poisoned dossiers slipped to media outlets to destroy the reputations of elected officials from Argentina to the Congo — all to make another billion.
Indeed, his PR flak boasted how he planted stories about the president of the Republic of Congo with the pliant Washington Post. It was part of Singer's campaign to seize $400 million from the Congo to pay off interest and penalties on ancient debts of the war-ravaged nation that Singer had picked up for just $10 million.
Singer has seized millions in Congo assets — funds that were made available to the Congo by US and European taxpayers to help the Congo clean its water supply and end a cholera epidemic.
The Singer-funded groups in Argentina that smeared former President Cristina Kirchner with allegations of murder, all to get her removed from office. It worked. Despite large public protests, the new president, Mauricio Macri, in his first days in office, paid Singer the billions of dollars Kirchner had refused.
Singer — a top funder of Marco Rubio's candidacy against Trump and leader of the "Never Trump" campaign — then decided to use the tricks that succeeded in other countries on our nation.
Let me be clear: Despite Nunes' assertions, nothing in his memo — none of this FBI misconduct, however unacceptable — undermines Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump and gang.
Still, I cannot applaud billionaires bending our elections, manipulating — wittingly or unwittingly — the FBI.
And I cannot believe my fellow progressives are also cheering the FISA court, the very agency Edward Snowden courageously exposed as the judicial inquisitors blessing an ugly police spy state.
Just one of the thousands of FISA court spy authorizations — revealed by Snowden — permitted the National Security Agency to get every single phone call made by Verizon callers, and similar demands were approved to seize the records of every major phone carrier.
The ACLU has been in legal combat with the FISA court over "mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans," allowing use of "Network Investigative Techniques" (i.e. malware), and information collected under the law without a warrant that could be "used to disproportionately target disfavored groups, whether minority communities, political activists, or even journalists."
So I ask you what Snowden asks: When you've crossed the wrong billionaire, when they come for you, will they quote your own words in praise of the Gestapo Lite?
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post The “Steele Dossier” on… Me:
Why the Nunes Memo should scare you appeared first on Greg Palast.
February 8, 2018
The Nunes Memo And The Regressive Progressive Rhetoric It Spawned
By Greg Palast with Dennis J. Bernstein
When the FBI applied to the rubber-stamp FISA court for a warrant to surveil Trump associate Carter Page they were more than a little economical with the truth. Basing their warrant request, in part, on information contained in the now-infamous Fusion GPS dossier, they omitted to mention that the intel had been bought and paid for by the Clinton Campaign. The FBI did add a small footnote noting that info culled from the dossier came from a source that "may be political" — but it was a cover-your-ass note that failed to provide anything approaching the whole truth.
The lies-by-omission continued when Devin Nunes in his headline-grabbing memo made much of the Clinton funding, but failed to mention that the Fusion GPS research had originally been instigated by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication which is funded by one of the GOPs largest donors, Paul “The Vulture” Singer. This single omitted fact negates much of the political point-scoring that is the memo. However, the memo isn’t without merit, since it does highlight the problems created by a secret FISA court system that lacks oversight and approves over 99% of requests made — regardless of how dishonestly they are drafted by the agencies that make up our surveillance state.
To be clear: the FISA warrant on Page may be justified by other non-Fusion GPS sourced evidence we haven’t seen. (So, let’s see it!) And it is ludicrous for Nunes and his GOP cohorts to claim that this FBI misconduct somehow discredits the entire investigation of Trump and gang. It’s also imperative that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continue. But — and this is a BIG BUT — progressives shouldn’t be so gung-ho to get Trump & Co. at any cost that they’re willing to throw our civil liberties under the bus, along with any expectation that our intelligence agencies should follow due process and abide by the laws of the land.
In this episode of Flashpoints, Dennis J Bernstein and Greg Palast discuss the issues raised by the Nunes memo and the regressive progressive reaction it spawned.
TRANSCRIPT (First broadcast on February 6, 2018)
Greg Palast: My fellow progressives, do you really hate Donald Trump so much that you are willing to throw your civil liberties into his bonfire? Here's the problem: The Nunes memo, which the DNC wants to deride, did reveal a case of very disturbing FBI perjury. FBI agents lied to the FISA Court, the secretive court that Edward Snowden warned us about and which subjects US citizens to total surveillance. We can't be applauding this, no matter what we feel about Trump. The evidence they used was a file of sludge called a field dossier and was paid for by Hillary Clinton. Nunes himself is concealing something even more important: It was originally created by the Republican billionaire Paul Singer, who I refer to as "The Vulture." He creates these field dossiers on people he doesn't like. Snowden exposed this court and how the FBI has been using it. We shouldn't be encouraging any of this.
Dennis J. Bernstein: We know that the Clinton machine made many enemies during the campaign in terms of how they undermined the campaign of Bernie Sanders. There were a number of Sanders people who ended up working with Clinton and once they got inside realized that the party hadn't given Sanders a chance. We still haven't heard the content of the emails.
Palast: Your Congressperson, Jackie Speier, just accused Julian Assange and WikiLeaks of being Russian agents without a single shred of evidence! She assumes that files from the Democratic National Committee must unquestionably come from a Russian hacker. Julian Assange draws the more plausible conclusion that someone at the DNC who supported Bernie Sanders saw these memos in which they were conspiring to commit felony crimes to undermine the Sanders campaign and promote Hillary Clinton. But neither Putin nor WikiLeaks wrote the DNC memos. They were put out by the DNC leadership. It is a felony crime to use money meant for the party for a particular candidate. We cannot support these McCarthyite attacks. How dare WikiLeaks tell the truth about the Democratic Party? This FISA Court should be shut down immediately. And the FBI should stop using perjury to get warrants to surveil people. We can't go along with that.
Bernstein: A lot of people in the corporate press seem to be going along with it. They are making money hand over fist with this story. They are hiring former high-level CIA and NSA people for commentary. We are seeing journalists celebrating people who participated in the overthrowing of governments and in very vicious military operations.
Palast: Another thing in the Nunes memo was that a guy named Peter Strzok was writing memos saying that his job was to protect the nation from Donald Trump. That might be a worthy cause, but you don't use the power of the FBI to do it. When Comey reopened the investigation of Hillary Clinton, Congresswoman Speier basically complained that Comey was telling the truth. Comey said that Clinton, in using her own private email server instead of secure server, was "extremely careless." Comey's original phrase was "grossly negligent." Gross negligence in the handling of classified information is a crime. It was Strzok who got Comey to change the language. I'm sorry, the FBI is not here to campaign for Hillary, nor is it here to protect us against Trump. We can't have the FBI and the CIA acting as hit squads against a sitting president, no matter how odious he is. If we go along with that, our civil liberties are history.
Bernstein: Does the name Rose Mary Woods ring a bell? It seems that the FBI misplaced a few hundred crucial memos but we are being told that is irrelevant.
Palast: If you read the texting between Strzok and Lisa Page, you will see that the FBI failed to make public the fact that a letter "C" appeared on several of the emails in Clinton's private server. "C" stands for classified. She claims that she was doing wedding announcements and her mother's funeral preparations and things like that. So they were doing their best to protect Hillary Clinton. The idea that Comey was out to get Clinton is insane. The FBI doesn't have a great record of protecting our civil liberties. Mueller and Comey were the guys who ran to what they thought was the deathbed of John Ashcroft to stop him from signing papers to allow torture at Guantanamo, so they are not the worst of the crop. But I don't think we should take these Nunes revelations lightly.
Bernstein: It does seem that the liberals have become McCarthyites. If we need to bring back the Cold War, threaten nuclear war, whatever we have to do to make Russia the bogeyman because Hillary Clinton lost the election and we want to get rid of Donald Trump. This is walking a tightrope.
Palast: The Democrats keep pointing to this joint statement of our intelligence agencies which supposedly looked into collusion. They were there all together to tell us about how Russia was interfering in our elections. They claimed that RTTV is "messaging Russian interests" because they have run reports featuring the "anti-fracking movement" and the dangers of fracking to the environment and health. Here is why this is dangerous: It is basically saying that if you oppose fracking, you are serving Russian interests. The report also said that RTTV featured the Occupy Wall Street movement, which took the position that America is not a real democracy but is tainted by corporate interests and money. That is a "message of the Russian government." I thought it was a Bernie Sanders message. But obviously he must be a Russian spy, too. This is dangerous stuff, and the Democratic Party has been leading the charge.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post The Nunes Memo And The Regressive Progressive Rhetoric It Spawned appeared first on Greg Palast.
February 5, 2018
The “Steele Dossier” …On Greg Palast Nunes Memo Reveals True Threat To Civil Liberties
By Greg Palast
Do we hate Trump so much we cheer the FBI, the monstrous secret FISA star chamber, and the surveillance horror show exposed by Snowden? When they come for you, will they use your own words of praise for Gestapo Lite?
The FBI should have disclosed to the court that the Steele dossier was originally paid for by Paul "The Vulture" Singer — who has a record of creating what James Comey himself calls "salacious and unverifiable" files on his enemies.
I know, Singer created a dossier on me.
Apparently, it claimed fantastical sex and ethics nonsense — sorry, no peeing Russian prostitutes — that he peddled to news media to destroy me. The Vulture’s toady called BBC to tell my producer, "We have a file on Greg Palast." The BBC was un-moved, noting that "Palast has a file on YOU" — and BBC was running with the Singer investigation.
But the Vulture’s file seemed to work in the USA: I’d been a regular on US mainstream news outlets like Washington Journal. It suddenly stopped dead. And not one network dares say a word against Singer.
In nature, vultures vomit on their attackers. In my case, I won a liable judgment against the sludge. But Singer’s vomit remains on my name.
I note that that coward dirtball Devin Nunes did not mention in his memo that The Vulture originated the "Steele" dossier. (Kudos to my old comrade, the ethically-challenged Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, for charging Clinton a second time for the work paid for by a Republican.)
The FISA court is a secretive chamber which Edward Snowden courageously exposed as the judicial blessing of an ugly police spy state. Is that what we are lauding today? [My hat off to ex-CIA agent and whistleblower Mel Goodman for refusing to join the FBI praise choir.]
The joke’s on you, by the way: Trump has now held secret meetings with The Vulture — and, interestingly, Trump’s promise to close Singer’s favored tax loophole, vanished.
Is Trump a bloviating nuclearized narcissist miscreant? That’s a fact. So, why are we rushing to join his bonfire of our liberties?
It makes me ill that so-called Progressives applaud the use of The Vulture’s "salacious and unverifiable" vomit to destroy fellow citizens. You may applaud the Vulture vomiting on Trump. Some of you may be happy he vomited on Greg Palast. But when the police state machinery comes for you because you’ve crossed the wrong billionaire, who will be there to protect you or tell your story?
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post The “Steele Dossier” …On Greg Palast
Nunes Memo Reveals True Threat To Civil Liberties appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 30, 2018
It’s Even Worse Than You Think: Watch David Cay Johnston & Greg Palast from their Facebook LIVE Head-To-Head
"A narcissistic know-nothing con artist who has spent his entire life swindling others while repeatedly urging followers to commit criminal acts of violence against his critics." - David Cay Johnston
Who could he be talking about? I asked...
Broadcast on January 31, 2018, from our SOLD OUT event in LA.
Full frontal exposure of the Trump Presidency by two New York Times bestselling investigative reporters — conversing, debating. This event was broadcast live from our sold out event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, January 31.
Johnston’s It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, opened this week at #2 on the Times' bestseller list.
And Amazon and Amazon Prime have just released Palast's film of his investigation for Rolling Stone on how Trump’s cronies swiped 2016: The Best Democracy Can Buy:The Case of the Stolen Election.
Watch Palast question Johnston about the accusations in his book, including Johnston’s revelation of Trump’s 2005 tax return — and his explanation why it reeks of criminality.
About David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. He is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and teaches at Syracuse University College of Law. For more on David visit: DavidCayJohnston.com
About Greg Palast
Known as the Guardian and BBC investigative reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
* * * * *Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post It’s Even Worse Than You Think:
Watch David Cay Johnston & Greg Palast
from their Facebook LIVE Head-To-Head appeared first on Greg Palast.
It’s Even Worse Than You Think: David Cay Johnston & Greg Palast Head-To-Head On Facebook LIVE — Wednesday, January 31 at 8:15PM PT
"A narcissistic know-nothing con artist who has spent his entire life swindling others while repeatedly urging followers to commit criminal acts of violence against his critics." - David Cay Johnston
Who could he be talking about? I’ll ask…
Live from LA - from the sold-out event. Full frontal exposure of the Trump Presidency by two New York Times bestselling investigative reporters — conversing, debating.
Johnston’s It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America, opened this week at #2 on the Times' bestseller list.
And this week, Amazon and Amazon Prime released Palast's film of his investigation for Rolling Stone on how Trump’s cronies swiped 2016: The Best Democracy Can Buy:The Case of the Stolen Election.
Palast will question Johnston about the accusations in his book, including Johnston’s revelation of Trump’s 2005 tax return — and his explanation why it reeks of criminality.
And we will field questions, as well, from the Facebook and Twitter communities, media, and the live audience at the Hollywood event.
Join us here on Wednesday, January 31 at 8:15PM PST when the Facebook LIVE stream will appear at the top of the @GregPalastInvestigates Facebook page!
About David Cay Johnston
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. He is a former president of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and teaches at Syracuse University College of Law. For more on David visit: DavidCayJohnston.com
About Greg Palast
Known as the Guardian and BBC investigative reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
* * * * *
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post It’s Even Worse Than You Think: David Cay Johnston & Greg Palast Head-To-Head On Facebook LIVE — Wednesday, January 31 at 8:15PM PT appeared first on Greg Palast.
January 29, 2018
Robert Parry RIP: A Reporter Outcast In His Own Land
By Greg Palast
[image error]
Bob Parry has died. He was a giant… The reporter who uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal. Instead of a Pulitzer, he was fired by the AP.
Then fired by Bloomberg and Newsweek for more reports.
And, 30 years ago, he convinced me to take on two unknown and dangerous brothers: the Kochs. He exposed them in Nation Magazine — which he told me led Nation to fire him.
In the end, he simply printed his own reports in his Consortium News.
He received high accolades abroad — including Britain’s Martha Gellhorn award. But this great American reporter was a prophet outcast in his own land.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Robert Parry RIP:
A Reporter Outcast In His Own Land appeared first on Greg Palast.
Greg Palast's Blog
- Greg Palast's profile
- 138 followers
![[image error]](https://i2.wp.com/www.gregpalast.com/wp-content/uploads/Robert-Parry-headshot-2.jpg){kind=link}