{"id":180,"date":"2017-05-01T15:20:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=180"},"modified":"2017-05-01T16:06:23","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T16:06:23","slug":"lunatic-fringe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/05\/01\/lunatic-fringe\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunatic Fringe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lunatic Fringe (thanks Red Rider!!)<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s been a while since my last blog. In my non-blog life I am a high school track coach, and this is \u201ccrazy\u201d time. But I\u2019m back today, so let\u2019s get crazy!!<\/p>\n

Louise Mensch has \u201call of the answers\u201d in regards to Trump, Putin, and the Russian takeover of the American Presidency (her theory, not necessarily mine.) She has an odd background for a \u201cground-breaking\u201d reporter on an American crisis. Born in England, a former Conservative Member of Parliament, she moved to the US to be with her children and husband Peter Mensch who runs \u201cQ Prime\u201d a band management group (Metallica, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins.)<\/p>\n

She made her reputation in Parliament with her sharp questioning of the Murdochs (Fox News) in the British media phone hacking scandal. After she resigned from Parliament and moved to the US, she went to work for \u201cHeat Sheet\u201d on online political \u201cnews\u201d journal owned by the Murdoch\u2019s News Corp. <\/p>\n

She broke into the Trump story with a November 2016 story stating that the FBI had been granted a FISA warrant for activity between the Trump Tower server and two Russian Banks. This warrant would cover anyone with connections to these servers, thus perhaps including Donald Trump himself. While at the time the story seemed fantastical, and in fact was denied by the New York Times, later research by other organizations (BBC, the Guardian) seemed to back her claims.<\/p>\n

Mensch: FISA Warrants<\/a><\/p>\n

Since that time she had developed a comprehensive theory of a multiple year attack by Russia on the United States, which include the claims that there are Russian \u201cmoles\u201d in the National Security Agency that influenced and aided Edward Snowden in his massive data breach of US secrets. She sees all of these actions (Snowden, email hacking, election involvement, subversion of senior American government officials) as one plan orchestrated by Russian President Putin. She no longer writes for “Heat Sheet” though she continues to be employed by News Corp. She blogs about the Trump crisis at her website patribotics.blog<\/a>. Her comprehensive theory of the crisis is further explained here:<\/p>\n

Mr Putin, lets play chess<\/a><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t prove that she\u2019s wrong: but it\u2019s difficult to prove that she\u2019s right either. She has attempted to develop a \u201croadmap\u201d for the current crisis, and much of her early work has proven to be accurate. It doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s all correct: but it does give pause.<\/p>\n

Christopher Steele, the author of the famous \u201cTrump Dossier\u201d (including Golden Showers) is another Englishman whose work has had a dramatic impact on the current crisis. Steele, a former British intelligence agent, was commissioned first by opposing Republicans and later by Democrats to develop a report of Trumps\u2019 activities regarding Russia. It was the revelation of this document (wholly unsubstantiated by outside sources at the time) that began the Trump crisis. And again, while large portions are still unsubstantiated, significant pieces have been documented. <\/p>\n

Steele Report<\/a><\/p>\n

As Bob Woodward of Watergate fame pointed out at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, reporting is about putting a story together piece by piece, and not getting ahead of the substantiated facts. He and Carl Bernstein look back to the years it took them to piece together (along with many other reporters) the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon Presidency. <\/p>\n

Deep Throat stamped his foot. ‘A conspiracy like this…a conspiracy investigation…the rope has to tighten slowly around everyone’s neck. You build convincingly from the outer edges in, you get ten times the evidence you need against the Hunts and the Liddys. They feel hopelessly finished – they may not talk right away, but the grip is on them. Then you move up and do the same thing at the next level. If you shoot too high and miss, then everyone feels more secure. Lawyers work this way. I’m sure smart reporters must, too. You’ve put the investigation back months. It puts everyone on the defensive – editors, FBI agents, everybody has to go into a crouch after this.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Louise Mensch may be on the \u201clunatic fringe\u201d of the Trump investigation. It doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s wrong, it just means she\u2019s shooting too high. Christopher Steele wasn’t worried about an investigation, he was just writing an opposition research report. In the end they may both be road maps to nowhere, or they may show the direction of this Constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lunatic Fringe (thanks Red Rider!!) I know it\u2019s been a while since my last blog. In my non-blog life I am a high school track coach, and this is \u201ccrazy\u201d time. But I\u2019m back today, so let\u2019s get crazy!! Louise Mensch has \u201call of the answers\u201d in regards to Trump, Putin, and the Russian takeover … Continue reading “Lunatic Fringe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLunatic Fringe : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/05\/01\/lunatic-fringe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lunatic Fringe : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lunatic Fringe (thanks Red Rider!!) 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