The Stone-Wikileaks Syllogism

The media is desperate to perpetuate the conspiracy of Russian collusion and the latest twist involves the indictment of Roger Stone. This was hardly unexpected and has been anticipated for some time even by Stone himself.

Once again the now two year investigation struggles to find a smoking gun and the media continues to do all it can to keep the public engaged and stoke anger. Now in light of the Stone indictment we're informed once more that 'this is it', the evidence we've been waiting for.

And yet when pressed the legal experts grow sullen and back down admitting that the 'there' isn't really there. If the media wanted to stir up some anger they could do an extensive report on all the false 'smoking gun' exposes that have been silently and deceitfully retracted. One of the worst examples of this was The Guardian's report that Paul Manafort had met with Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The 'smoking gun' of that week, the story has faded away tarnishing both the Guardian and the reputation of Luke Harding, a reporter who if not being paid by MI6, the DNC and the CIA, ought to be.

Of course the supposed Manafort story like the Stone indictment rests upon at least two false syllogisms both rooted in the premise that Wikileaks is an arm of Russian Intelligence. The Stone syllogisms go something like this: Wikileaks is an arm of the Russian state. Stone contacted Wikileaks and in some way shape or form collaborated with them. Therefore Stone colluded with the Russians. What we have is a false unproven premise and certainly a false conclusion.

And then to add another layer, because Stone knows Trump and has worked with him from time to time and Stone had contacts with Wikileaks, therefore the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

First of all, Stone wasn't even part of Trump's campaign when this contact happened. Secondly, the argument(s) quickly and utterly collapse(s) if Wikileaks is not an arm of Russian intelligence.

US intelligence agencies tell us to trust them. We all know they have a long track record of deceit and have on a regular basis concocted false intelligence in order to attain political goals and even start wars, and yet they insist they have evidence indicating Assange works for the Russians.

Will we ever see this evidence? Will it come out in Stone's trial? No. It's classified and protected as essential to national security. We have to take their word for it.

Sorry, only a fool would do that.

The 'liberal' media and the Democrats once somewhat sceptical of organisations like the CIA now champion them as trustworthy heroes.

Additionally, anyone who has followed and perhaps researched Wikileaks and Assange will realise (without too much effort) that he and his organisation are not agents of Moscow. They may have transgressed editorial boundaries in their opposition to the Clintons and certainly there are plenty of other criticisms one could levy against Assange.

But being an agent of Moscow isn't credible.

And thus the Stone case collapses.

Why would Mueller float an indictment that will collapse? Isn't that risky? Most of these indictments will never come to trial. All prosecutors load up the charges in hope of a plea. Many of the guilty pleas so far have had nothing to do with Russian collusion but instead are examples of desperate men trying to stay out of prison. They realise they've been targeted and run the risk of a lengthy incarceration for their crimes (unrelated to the Russia conspiracy) and so they cut a deal. Mueller gets a media feather in his cap and yet we're no closer to the truth.

What Mueller is doing is generating a lot of smoke. In fact it's so thick it could be more accurately described as a fog.

Once again it would seem Mueller's tactic is the shakedown. Threaten to destroy these people and make them talk. Eventually something will come out. That's the hope anyway.

Again, like Ken Starr's largely bogus Whitewater investigation, there's plenty of corruption to be found. Trump is dirty. Does anyone seriously doubt that? So were the Clintons and yet their dirt is often 'connected dirt' in that if really pursued is going to generate widespread damage to the system... to the economy and to the political order.

So instead, the investigators keep digging until they find something, even if it's something that had little or nothing do with the original purpose of the investigation. It's not a quest for justice. It's politics.

For Starr it was Linda Tripp's revelations regarding a White House intern. Mueller has yet to find his Linda Tripp and one has to wonder if he isn't running out of time. There are literally dozens of things they could use to bring down Trump but they have chosen to set them aside. Why? Either some of his opponents actually find him politically useful or they fear what would be exposed in such investigations.

The Russian plot is a grand conspiracy being sold to the Western public and yet it's not a very good one. In some respects it's actually quite funny. The evidence being presented as 'proof' is far less compelling than the reams of evidence suggesting that the Warren Report was pure fiction or that the Bush administration played some role in 9/11 and yet such suggestions are immediately deemed as 'fringe'.

Only the historically ignorant and the willful are taken in by the Russian conspiracy and I say this as one who finds Trump detestable and has remained horrified by Christian support for him. Putin is a nationalist idolater, a megalomaniac with blood on his hands. An enemy of Christ's Church he is a friend to the idolatrous clergy of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and their vision of a unified sacral Russia.

These are not people I find joy in defending and yet the truth must remain our paramount concern. And thus far the machinations of the other wicked factions that would (1) bring down Trump and (2) establish a case for widespread censorship and (3) the basis for a war against Putin remain dubious.

Stone is sleazy, even somewhat buffoonish and yet hardly a stranger to those who partake of Libertarian and Right-wing alternative media. His name was already tarnished but it will be interesting to see if he's able to extract himself from this mess.