Robert David Steele

[giovonni]

"False flag terrorism, TPP secrets, and how the richest 1% are killing the goose that killed the golden egg are discussed with Robert David Steele. The former reform party candidate for president explains how there are seven shadow governments at work in America, and how billionaires are exploiting the government, and how neither Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren can save us from corruption. The reason Obama should be impeached, and the overwhelming need for electoral reform is discussed in this uncensored Buzzsaw" ...

GUEST BIO:
Robert David Steele is an American activist and former Central Intelligence Agency clandestine services case officer. He is known for his promotion of open source intelligence. He was a candidate for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election until February 23, 2012.

Published on Jun 19, 2015

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JJ_s_waokDg

[giovonni]

Lots of truth / Good stuff !

[RunningDeer]

Posted by giovonni (here)
Lots of truth / Good stuff !

Yes, thanks for posting, Gio.

[Kryztian]

Good food for thought. Some good comparisons between Ron Paul and Sanders - we can probably expect that they will cheat him out of primaries. And even if Sanders would become president, just as if Ron Paul had won, there isn't a whole lot they can do to change the nation.

[robinr1]

that was surprisingly a very great video....thank you

[M0JFK]

A fantastic post...thanks. The chap's only fault is giving the elites a free pass...feck that, you try em, then you hang em. You hang them high.

[Karezza]

Thought it does warrant a new thread but may fit here.















Investigative Journalism by Media Matters (Full Video)

[DNA]

I just finished listening to this, and I thought I might share the notes I've jotted down regarding it. My initial impression of this man is that he is profoundly intelligent. One is struck by how much one needs to learn while listening to this man. He is constantly sprinkling in sources of study for those who are so inclined. My notes are by no means inclusive, there is enough information in just this one video for pages of notes to be made by any who wish to contribute.


The major thrusts are
1. Electoral Reform
2. Education of voters through a Trump Channel
3. Restore FBI as a counter intelligence agency to police the CIA/NSA


Reince Preibus is mentioned constantly as a traitor and Robert David Steele is constantly going back to Preibus stating that if Trump doesn't get rid of Preibus he may be compromised.


In regards to the attempts by the MSM to birsmirch those actually seeking the truth outside of the MSM Robert David Steele mentions how the CIA began doing this after the JFK assassination knowing full well that Alan Dulace of the CIA led the assassination of JFK.


Robert mentions how the education system has dumbed down America and reduced emphasis on critical thinking. He recommends a book called "Weapons of Mass Instruction" by John Taylor Gotto published 2009.


The topic of pedophilia among the democratic party came up and Robert David Steele states this is absolutely happening and that this is how the NSA/CIA control all of congress.
Robert states that the democratic party is not alone in this, and that Republicans are probably 3X as bad in this regard. Referring to Republicans as this being a core practice where as democrats are new to this and it has become an acquired taste.
Robert states that until something is done about the NSA/CIA spying and blackmailing with impunity nothing can ever be done to change our country.


All charities including Red Cross are scams. The Clinton Foundation may be the worst all time while taking billions and paying out a trivial 5 million.
The Clintons are also responsible for having arrested and imprisoned more black people through their Clinton Crime Bill than were emancipated in 1885.


Robert goes on to state that War and Refugees are a source of profit for Wall Street. Saying how children are sold to pedophiles, satanic cults and are killed in ceremonies and their blood drank by these mother f*ck*rs.


Mentions that John Wesley Clark did an excellent Youtube video "The United States Foreign Policy Coup". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY2DKzastu8


Robert David Steele asked a high ranking Chinese diplomat "why haven't the rothschilds been assassinated?" His answer is here. http://phibetaiota.net/2016/06/rober...econciliation/


Robert David Steele seems to think there is a possibility that the Rothschild grandchildren may bring about change in the economic system. One such is Lynn Forrester Rothschild. Personally I know nothing about this lady but here is a speaking engagement by her on the worlds economy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEqQahVj8FM


And finally I'll mention the statement that Donald Trump won't be president in 2018 unless he addresses the three points first mentioned in these notes. He is a target for assassination, impeachment and constant slander/libel.


When looking for a remedy for the situation David mentions that there needs to be an exit strategy for the elite. Immunity so to speak for past crimes. If we want to get the truth on the table and work from there then we need to acknowledge that there are two legal systems, one for the elite and one for the rest of us. For those seeking vengeance I feel you but David makes a good point in wanting to do whatever it will take to move on and immunity for past crimes may be a good start. David states "You don't want to back guys into a corner who have billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of mercenaries".
For more on truth and reconciliation he recommends Matt Tobey's "Grifftopia" and "The Divide".


Thanks to Onawah who introduced this video on the Kanye West thread.


https://youtube.com/watch?v=rkse6CLLJFM

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rkse6CLLJFM

[Cidersomerset]

Bump ~ A good interview cheers.....

[onawah]

Trump should hire him!

[gord]

I've been paying attention to Robert David Steele for years. He does seem to be one of the good guys.

[sanma]

Also he's written many many reviews on amazon.
He has good taste in reading.
You could get quite an education just following what he reads.

[DNA]

I also forgot to mention how he states that Trump was an accidental President. He states that Trump was supposed to lose according to odds makers anywhere from 20-1 to 200-1. And this was right up until the election. He stated that the clincher was Hillary complaining that the Wikileaks docs were an attempt by the Russians to influence the election. This apparently caused a massive pre-election day review of all electronic voting machines, these same voting machines are what Hillary used to defeat Bernie Sanders and steal the democratic nomination. Without being able to out and out cheat, Hillary lost the election.
Amazing!!!!
Well, amazing if true.

[Innocent Warrior]

Everybody gets the truth, nobody goes to jail - I love that, I've thought it myself before but I can't see that happening for quite some time yet. I don't see enough cool heads or the compassionate hearts required for that to be constructive when all is said and done. There would also need to be a lot of work to be done to make that fair (fixing existing cases of wrongful imprisonment for a start). And then could they handle the truth and stick to the agreement once they knew it? I imagine it could boil the blood of saints upon hearing of it. It's a beautiful idea but too beautiful for this world just yet, it would probably cause more chaos than it's worth. I used to get irritated when I heard people say the public can't handle the truth, until I saw the ugly truth of how our culture has fostered the attitude that it's perfectly fine to be evil to someone who's been deemed evil. I find that one of the most evil characteristics of our society.

[RunningDeer]

RobertDavidSteele.com & Public Intelligence Blog

Article from The Mind Unleashed

Former CIA Spy Has A Surprising Message For Trump

“Dear Mr. Trump,

I am among the tens of millions who voted for you, and also among the twenty thousand or so that spent fifteen months obsessively devoted to getting you elected. I went to bed in tears on election night, only to be woken at midnight by my wife to watch the miracle unfold. I have never had an answer to over twenty-five attempts – including three personal visits to Paul Manafort’s office in Alexandria – to tell you what I am going to post below. Perhaps someone will read this and in a second miracle, you will hear my voice. I am going to make seven points with seven paragraphs and seven graphics.

#1 You are not only an accidental president, you are a fringe president.

27% of the eligible voters elected you (1% more than elected Barack Obama). 26% of the eligible voters hate you with the passion common to the brain-washed or brain-dead, and 47% did not vote at all. My best-selling Kindle Short, Donald Trump, the Accidental President – Under Siege! (also available free online here) documents how you won against all odds (20-1 at best, 200-1 at worst) because Hillary Clinton was not able to use the same electronic voting fraud against you that she used to steal thirteen primaries from Bernie Sanders. That was the big one; in combination with her calling us all “deplorables,” her spaz attack in NYC, her doctor and nurse in constant attendance, and of course the emails leaked by insiders – not the Russians, John Brennan is a liar plain and simple – she lost more than you won. A miracle. Get a grip. You do not represent all of us, you represent 27% of us, and fixing that should be your first priority. Here is the political landscape – note that the Establishment – the two-party tyranny that opposed you to the bitter end – controls 30% of the vote. Your mission is to mobilize the 47% who did not vote in 2016, toward joining the Movement you lead in time to impact on 2018, while embracing the Sandernistas and the Libertarians and Tea Party Conservatives to the fullest extent.

#2 You cannot govern responsibly as long as our electoral system is corrupt.

The electoral system is rigged twelve different ways not counting George Soros’ funding of protestors and the occasional false flag shooting of cops to be blamed on blacks. Although you spoke to a rigged system, and your allies blocked Hillary Clinton from leveraging the electronic voting fraud option she used so successfully against Bernie Sanders, there are at least two sucking chest wounds in our political process that you need to address, ideally before you submit a single nomination to the Senate. First, you must free the Members from their dependence on campaign finance controlled by the extreme wealthy, the banks, and the various industrial complexes, from the agricultural to the educational to the military to the pharmaceutical to the prison complexes. Second, you must break the back of the two-party tyranny and open the halls of Congress to a swing vote – Independents and members of small parties. I had to run for president in 2012 to learn that there are six accredited small parties (eligible for matching federal funds) that are blocked from ballot access by the two-party tyranny. The Republican Party is delusional in thinking that it can avoid the same implosion that befell the Democratic Party. Now is the time for you to go direct to the public, mobilize the 47%, and demand an Electoral Reform Act of 2017 – a Unity Act. The system is rigged twelve different ways. Challenge Senator Chuck Schumer on this, and if he fights you, bury him.

#3 The media purveys fake news. 

Between now and Inauguration Day you should ask Mike Flynn, your National Security Advisor, to sit down with Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale (Giles-Parscale), Andrew Garfield (Glevum Associates), and me, to discuss the repurposing of the White House floor space and resources now wasted on the fake news press. In my view, this space could house the National Security Advisor and a Grand Strategy Cell that is directly supportive of your thinking about Whole of Government strategy and policy; a Trump Studio that broadcasts a mix of Trump appointees, subject matter experts, and regular Public Briefings that cannot be filtered or manipulated by the corrupt media and are vastly superior to the crap you are getting in the President’s Daily Brief; a presidential polling unit under Kellyanne’s direct control but leveraging the extraordinary methodologies of Andrew Garfield and Glevum Associates as well as others far superior to the mediocrities used by the media during the campaign; and an Open Source element that can give you 90% of what you need in the way of decision-support at very low cost – with the added advantage that being unclassified, this intelligence can be shared widely.

[RunningDeer]

Robert David Steele @ Amazon.

The promotions mentioned in the OP for the Kindle shorts have expired:

@ 22:59 minutes - Donald Trump, The Accidental President -- Under Siege!: A Soft Coup Rages within a Closed Rigged System - $2.99, 17 pages.

Summary:

UPDATE of 20 December 2016: This is not over by a long stretch. The despicable treasonous misbehavior of John Brennan (Saudi-funded Director of the CIA) and the severe misbehavior of Jim Clapper and Barack Obama in failing to shut down the lies from CIA about Russian hacking (newsflash: NSA and CIA spy on our politicians with impunty, insiders did both the hacking and the leaking) will stand in history as a low point in US politics. This is NOT over.

Wayne Madsen has written:

President-elect Trump is facing a two-pronged attack by his opponents. One, led by entrenched neo-con bureaucrats, including former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and Bush family loyalists are seeking to call the shots on who Trump appoints to senior national security, intelligence, foreign policy, and defense positions in his administration. These neo-Cold Warriors are trying to convince Trump that he must maintain the Obama aggressiveness and militancy toward Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries. The second front arrayed against Trump is from Soros-funded political groups and media. This second line of attack is a propaganda war, utilizing hundreds of anti-Trump newspapers, web sites, and broadcasters, that will seek to undermine public confidence in the Trump administration from its outset.

As protests and riots continue and spread – high school students are now being organized by professional agitators and covert social media campaigns designed to forment civil stress against the President-Elect, Trump has been slow to recognize that he is a 27% “fringe” president (as Barack Obama was and as Hillary Clinton would have been), and slow to understand that his first priority, having been elected “unshackeled” and therefore an existential threat to the dual Democratic-Republican Establishment that represents only 30% of the eligible voters, must be to unify the country by educating the 73% who did not vote for him, on how the system is rigged twelve different ways, and by passing the Electoral Reform Act – the Unity Act – to demonstrate to one and all that our President-Elect represents the fastest, cheapest path toward restoring integrity to our government and making our government, for the first time in a very long time, one that is Of, By, and For We the People instead of the 1%.

Only after doing this – and securing a mandate twice that of any prior president (by engaging the 47% that did not vote and the 26% who voted for Hillary Clinton (less the three million illegal immigants and dead people – she did not win the popular vote), can he then begin to plan for the future.

An Electoral Reform Act – a Unity Act – empowers the President-Elect by stopping the protests and demonstrating his resolve to represent the 99% instead of the 1%; by liberating the Members of Congress from dependency on lobbyists and corporate funding; and by exploding the talent pool available to him should he decided to create an open system, a Kennedy-esque system that integrates the best and the brightest from across the political spectrum.

A Grand Strategy Summit in which candidates for ALL Cabinet positions and from ALL sources are tested against one another before being considered by President-Elect Trump, and a Presidential Academy that trains the incoming political leadership cadre as a whole, are the two additional recommendations being made to President-Elect Donald Trump.

Anyone not supporting a peaceful transition of power to this miracle President is a traitor. Trump is a blessing in part because he is "unshackeled" -- he is not beholden to anyone outside those few who truly believed in him and have been loyal when all others repudiated him. He has the power to unrig the system and create an evidence-based government that is Of, By, and For the 99% -- We the People. He merits our support, our prayers, and our ideas.

@ 34:49 - Democracy Riots!: We are all black now - deal with it! - 99 cents - 24 pages

Summary:

The only people actually inciting violence at Donald Trump rallies are the organized agitators, including convicted felon and terrorist Bill Ayers, who are violating – with malice aforethought – the First Amendment rights of the participants in these private events. We now know that George Soros has committed major funding toward a wave of civil agitation explicitly aimed at disrupting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

There will be no riots. This is a scare tactic from the two-party tyranny Establishment that is utterly terrified of populism and pitchforks. More to the point, veterans – over twenty one million of them – and law enforcement officers – close to three million of them – have turned against the elite 1% and appear firmly committed to restoring democracy in the USA.

I was a white Latino minor multi-millionaire. I lost my business to US Government security apparatchiks that could not compute 7,500 foreign contacts cheerfully declared, and I have been unemployed – a stint in Afghanistan and ten nights as a Lowe’s receiving clerk not-with-standing – since 1 January 2008. I can testify that the real unemployment rate is 23%, and in my demographic, as well as those of people of color, single moms, and new college graduates, it is closer to 40%. I have no salary, no pension, no savings, and no property. At several points I have had to worry about being able to repair a borrowed car, and at one point I did not have the $30 to repair the zipper on my one usable winter coat. Now I am a black homeless person and for the first time I begin to understand their centuries of abuse and deprivation at the hands of “the Establishment.”

We are all black now. That is the central unstated premise of this electoral cycle.

This is my country and I want it back – Jim Hightower, long one of my heroes, got that exactly right with his 2004 book Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take It Back. Jim is not a Republican and in today’s environment of legalized political crime he could hardly be called a Democrat – I think of him the way Ike Eisenhower thought of himself: as an American.

My focus is not on a particular candidate winning the presidency, but rather on restoring integrity to the whole – I am especially concerned about two-party corruption and grid-lock within the Congress, which has abdicated its Article 1 responsibility under the Constitution, and turned all members less the Tea Party members into party-line drones who are in constant betrayal of the public trust.

Put bluntly, if we can pass an Electoral Reform Act of 2016 that restores integrity to Congress, I can live with Hillary Clinton as President – but I would prefer to go for broke: Trump-Sanders in the White House, and 20-30 Members of Congress who are not part of the two-party tyranny, and who refuse to caucus with either half of this despotic cabal.

The question then jumps out: Why has Senator Bernie Sanders ignored my six attempts to get him to sponsor the Electoral Reform Act of 2016, challenging the Republican leaders – especially the righteous Tea Party Republicans – to see that opening the doors to Constitution, Green, Independent, Justice, Libertarian, No Party Preference, Reform, and Working Families Members will be good for everyone less the corrupt elite?

In this white paper I to do three things:

1. Outline the explicit preconditions of revolution that exist in the USA today
   
2. Outline the substance of governance and some issues not being discussed by anyone
   
3. Summarize specific steps we can take to restore integrity to our now-defunct democracy

Pay attention. I am trying to avoid those riots being incited by the “Establishment,” with George Soros now doing to America what he did to the Eastern European countries – only there he installed fascists, here he wants to keep the existing financial fascists in power, using the easily manipulated unthinking “progressives."

God Bless America

[sheme]

As we feel there is more than what meets the eye going on with these protests- the stiring of emotion all orchestrated by the PTW I also think tpw are having to pay for the "peoples" help. Is anyone handing out free water or something else with it ?
May be Trump is waiting for Soros to run out of money- now that would hurt real bad-

[araucaria]

Posted by Innocent Warrior (here)
Everybody gets the truth, nobody goes to jail - I love that, I've thought it myself before but I can't see that happening for quite some time yet. I don't see enough cool heads or the compassionate hearts required for that to be constructive when all is said and done. There would also need to be a lot of work to be done to make that fair (fixing existing cases of wrongful imprisonment for a start). And then could they handle the truth and stick to the agreement once they knew it? I imagine it could boil the blood of saints upon hearing of it. It's a beautiful idea but too beautiful for this world just yet, it would probably cause more chaos than it's worth. I used to get irritated when I heard people say the public can't handle the truth, until I saw the ugly truth of how our culture has fostered the attitude that it's perfectly fine to be evil to someone who's been deemed evil. I find that one of the most evil characteristics of our society.

Truth and reconciliation is definitely the way to go, but it is so hard to see how this might play out on the largest scale. Below are just a few practical thoughts on the subject.
When we see crime on this scale, it is like what we call in French a ‘panier de crabes’, a basket of crabs all crawling over each other to get to the top. In other words, the key feature is actually individualism and egoism despite all we hear about crime syndicates and crime families, which of course have absolutely nothing to do with true family values. The crucial mindset is mistrust and the subtext is of course that such behaviour pays, even though many of the perpetrators go around in fear of their lives. The way forward would be to make it generally understood that altruism pays much better: not only is it built on trust and the relaxed confidence that trust instils, it has literally potential for universal enrichment beyond the wildest dreams of any mere elite.

When we lay out the problem in these terms, we see unlikely instances of how it is done. In a popular team game like soccer, for example, kids can learn fairly quickly that the most effective tactic is team coordination. A few skilful individuals are not enough as they are targeted and silenced. The only way is to raise the overall level with everyone pulling their weight. This is a two-way thing; not everyone is a star player, but everyone needs to give 100% in order to make everyone shine, otherwise the weaker ones will just get in the way. The same thing happens within any given individual: the tendency is always to ‘put your best foot forward’, as we say; which means literally, if you are right-footed, you tend to play exclusively with your right foot, thereby strengthening it further, and in the process further weakening the left foot. The effect is to weaken your overall game by reducing your options, since your opponent knows exactly what you are going to do next. On the other hand, if you practise to bring that left foot to a decent level of performance, enough to make it a possible alternative, you also enhance the performance of your good right foot. Likewise, if you train the weaker elements of a team to do what they can as best they can, it will have the same beneficial effect on the entire team.

There is a moral aspect to this discussion, one of personal and collective integrity, and the corresponding negative, deception, as encapsulated in the formula of ‘the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing’, or taking it to extremes, the ‘one-armed bandit’.

And since sport is basically a form of confrontation without violence, and with only symbolic winners and losers, unsurprisingly the same principle of team spirit applies to an army. Without a disciplined rank-and-file, good generals are not enough, or even possible since generalship is all about coordinating fighting men in a given situation. The problem in the world today is that politics runs more on the lines of war than of sport. It is a major source of violence and of real winners and real losers where the leadership has actually taken its own rank-and-file as its enemy. In other words, you have an army that has become split in two and ended up confronting itself. There is no point arguing over blaming the vanguard for racing too far ahead or the rearguard for lagging too far behind: these are simply two ways of viewing the same overall picture, which boils down to a lack of coordination and cohesion; while everyone may have been pulling their weight individually, the collective effort has been woefully inadequate, which is a collective responsibility.

The upshot for ordinary folk at the bottom of the ladder would seem to be that more understanding is required. It needs to be recognized that much of what is going on in the alternative media is highly divisive. For example, the ‘911 was an inside job’ meme (for lack of a better word) could well be highly – and most of all unnecessarily – counter-productive. If one reappraises the official ‘non-conspiracy’ account in the light of ‘ordinary’ criminal behaviour spiralling out of control notably within the intelligence community, then we may be appalled to discover that it is actually enough – leaving the forensics aside – to explain the basics of what happened and how and why.

This changes our viewpoint diametrically from one of a fiendish master plot, concocted always at some level higher than those we can reach, to the no less spine-chilling one of the established protagonists who monopolize the mainstream headlines hitting record-breaking heights of crass incompetence. Joseph J. Trento’s 400-page 2005 book Prelude to Terror: the Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America’s Private Intelligence Network offers an interesting description of how this may have occurred. The title offers an excellent summary: 911 was the inevitable outcome of criminal privatization of the intelligence services. This involved basically a capitalist takeover of the CIA by rogue entirely for-profit competitive corporations, leading to all kinds of contradictions, not just double-dealing by supplying both sides in a war, but also total paralysis (‘the intelligence community was providing almost no useful intelligence to the president’, p.345) and total ineffectiveness through loss of identity and purpose:

Among the problems with using a private intelligence network is that the benefits of counterintelligence are not available. And if your private network is essentially funded by another country, you are flouting a basic tenet of intelligence: trust no one, including your allies. The purpose of counterintelligence is to test the veracity and honesty of sources and allies, and to protect secrets. When an illegal network of private businesses and secret alliances carries out a nation’s covert operations, counterintelligence is not possible. In the early 1990s, the cost of not having any counterintelligence ability would soar. (p.340)

The CIA had failed in its most important mission: it had not warned the U.S. government that the Soviet Union was about to break apart. In fact, the CIA hierarchy was still supplying intelligence that supported the continued purchasing of Cold War military weapons systems and the continuation of alliances with Cold War intelligence services. This meant that the United States was spending billions to protect itself against an adversary on the verge of collapse. Politicians pandering to a conservative base influenced the Agency leadership to exaggerate the capacity of the Soviet economy. This was–prior to September 11–the CIA’s most colossal failure. Not only had the CIA leadership lost its ability to place agents and run operations, it had also refused to acknowledge the current condition of its main target.
To the CIA, the Soviet collapse was a great victory, brought about by the attrition of the Afghan War, which the CIA had had a large hand in funding. Now, however, the CIA lost all interest in Afghanistan, even as the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal eventually led to the establishment of the radical Taliban government. The intelligence community failed to recognize that an Islamic holy war was under way against the West. The irony was that the threat came from the Muslim fighters in the Afghan War that the United States had trained, funded and armed. (p.337-8)

‘Trust no one, including your allies’ simply cannot be made to work. That was the method for example of James Angleton in the period that immediately preceded/led to the above mess. See several posts upstream and downstream from here.
It is a sure fail because ultimately you cannot even trust yourself not to achieve the exact opposite of what you set out to do. In other words, in a system based on mistrust, we cannot bring in trust through the back door. We need to build a system based on the opposite premise, ‘Trust everyone, including your enemies’. The only way to build that kind of trust is to be the first to show trust in a situation that calls for great caution. Gaining the trust of an armed man in order to avoid bloodshed can only be done by someone who is disarmed, consistent with the avowed purpose of passing from an armed relationship to a non-violent one.

The question of What next? is an issue that is not always adequately thought through. Here in France we have a presidential race on in which the frontrunner, François Fillon, was a kind of good Catholic Mr Clean until the ‘Penelopegate’ scandal surfaced last week.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7546281.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a7549951.html
He has been accused of employing his wife Penelope as his parliamentary assistant (not illegal) with a salary of taxpayer money at least double what he would have paid an outsider. The illegal part of the setup would be if no actual job was being done. As far as I know, it would also be partly illegal if the employment did not justify the inflated salary; but in any case, there is the moral issue of the hypocrisy between the projected image and the private practice. The above simplified situation (he also employed two of his children) leads to several conclusions. First, there is a need to change the law to outlaw the common practice of employing family members (and a large majority in favour). Secondly, Fillon’s presidential run is dead in the water: it doesn’t matter if it takes for ever to get the case through the courts, as of now the man is losing voter support and is not going to win the election; he has disqualified himself from office on his own terms ahead of any punishment from the courts.

Why is voter support drying up? Because friends and colleagues are also tying themselves in knots trying to help: they don’t know what to say that will not turn out to be actually incriminating; and most of all because of Mrs Fillon herself. While doubtless the lovely person and wonderful wife and mother she reportedly is, the more honest she is made out to be, the more flagrant is the dishonesty. She has always claimed to stay well out of her husband’s political activities. If she has been telling the police the same story as he has to get out of trouble, then either she has been lying all these years or she is lying now. The usual claims of dirty campaign tricks are not going to overcome that huge contradiction. The Fillons have lived for years with that contradiction, but now that it has been exposed, they are going to have to deal with it less hypocritically. The courts can choose to be lenient, but the voters do not have that choice; a president voted in does not get a slap on the wrist, he gets five years of statutory impunity, sending out the wrong signals all over again.

This means that individual voters are actually making a difference by elevating honesty to the status of a major campaign issue, which was a big anti-establishment plank in Fillon’s platform anyway (nowadays even former prime ministers pose as anti-establishment). If voters are serious and consistent about this, they will apply the criterion to other candidates as well. This would likely lead to them also discounting another anti-establishment hopeful, Marine Le Pen and her National Front, for example, who are embroiled in a similar scandal involving the embezzlement of EU expenses for strictly non-EU purposes. Always supposing a reasonably honest candidate can be found, they will be judged on their ability or otherwise to deliver on that pledge, and a little progress will be made along the difficult path to making virtue pay. If people are serious and consistent about this, they will also hopefully seek to improve their own performance in this regard, if only because this more virtuous leadership will be breathing down their necks a little more. Hence, if we take the analogy of a rising tide floating all boats, it is not so much a wave of virtue elevating passive people as a wave of people actively elevating virtue.

[Helene West]

Just listened to 3/4 of interview and had to take a break as he was talking about impeachment proceedings are already being organized behind the scenes by both dems and repubs and he feels if trump doesn't get wise to who are the traitors to him he will probably be impeached within 2 years. Pence will be pres and phony leftist eliz warren will probably be vice and it would essentially negate the entire election.

I got so bummed hearing that I had to take a break....

[Helene West]

His idea on allowing the ruling class an exit strategy is sheer wisdom.

This guy would be such an asset and like others I'm wondering how does he get trump's attention particularly on the traitor issue. But then I also listened to a short interview someone posted with Roger Stone. What did Stone say? That trump has to be the most careful of republicans not dems. He didn't name names but if he is really the good friend to trump that people say he is then this topic just may be uppermost in trump's mind. Let's fervently hope so. The way Steele spoke you got a much deeper sense of the incredible pressure trump lives under.