That infamous Russian dossier was so filled with "fake news" that the FBI planned to hire the MI-6 agent who compiled it to continue his research.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

The former British spy who authored a controversial dossier on behalf of Donald Trump’s political opponents alleging ties between Trump and Russia reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement. 

The agreement to compensate former MI6 agent Christopher Steele came as U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that the Russians had interfered in the presidential election by orchestrating hacks of Democratic Party email accounts. 

While Trump has derided the dossier as “fake news” compiled by his political opponents, the FBI’s arrangement with Steele shows that the bureau considered him credible and found his information, while unproved, to be worthy of further investigation. 

Ultimately, the FBI did not pay Steele. Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

I think that most of us already gave that dossier quite a bit of credibility, especially after portions of it were confirmed by US investigators.

And this just further proves the point, as does much of what we have learned since, that there are some deeply troubling connections between Donald Trump and the Russians, that make him ultimately unfit for the office he is currently holding.

Part of me wonders whatever happened to that MI-6 agent, and if he has not been working with European and American intelligence ever since he fell off the radar?

And somehow I think that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin wonder the same thing.

British press rallies around MI-6 spy who assembled dossier that Donald Trump calls "fake news."

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

There has been an avalanche of support for Steele's credentials in the British press over the past two days, the cumulative effect of which has been to add credibility to the unproven allegations against the US president-elect. Here are some key things we now know about Steele: 

Steele was head of MI6’s Russia desk. He worked at Britain's intelligence service for years and was a highly regarded specialist on Russia, according to The Guardian. He served in Paris and Moscow in the 1990s before retiring. He now runs the intelligence company Orbis Business Intelligence with Christopher Burrows, a former British Foreign Office counsellor. 

He has a network of sources in Russia. The New York Times said he was known for "his knowledge of the intricate web of Kremlin-tied companies and associates that control Russia." He called on these contacts to compile the allegations against Trump. 

Steele has been trusted by the FBI and others with sensitive work.Reuters reported that the intelligence expert supplied the FBI with information on corruption at football's world governing body, FIFA, in 2010. He also gathered intelligence on Russia for England's 2018 World Cup bid. Russia ultimately triumphed during the bidding process. 

He has friends in high places. Sir Andrew Wood, a former British ambassador to Moscow who helped alert US intelligence to the dossier, said Steele was a "very competent professional operator."

Well that doesn't sound like the sort of professional who simply traffics in gossip and innuendo.

Which was also the conclusion of David Corn who writes for Mother Jones, who interviewed Steele and had this to say:

I also was able to review the memos the former spy had written, and I quoted a few key portions in my article. I did not report the specific allegations—especially the lurid allegations about Trump's personal behavior—because they could not be confirmed. The newsworthy story at this point was that a credible intelligence official had provided information to the FBI alleging Moscow had tried to cultivate and compromise a presidential candidate. And the issue at hand—at a time when the FBI was publicly disclosing information about its investigation of Hillary Clinton's handling of her email at the State Department—was whether the FBI had thoroughly investigated these allegations related to Russia and Trump. I also didn't post the memos, as BuzzFeed did this week, because the documents contained information about the former spy's sources that could place these people at risk. 

When I spoke with the former spy, he appeared confident about his material—acknowledging these memos were works in progress—and genuinely concerned about the implications of the allegations. He came across as a serious and somber professional who was not eager to talk to a journalist or cause a public splash. He realized he was taking a risk, but he seemed duty bound to share information he deemed crucial. He noted that these allegations deserved a "substantial inquiry" within the FBI. Yet so far, the FBI has not yet said whether such an investigation has been conducted. As the former spy said to me, "The story has to come out."

At first the former spy was working for Republicans looking for dirt on Trump, but after the election they no longer seemed to care. However Streele himself felt that the information was too important to keep secret so he started looking for ways to disseminate it pro bono.

Here was his reasoning:

Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries. 

However, say security sources, Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him. He came to believe there was a cover-up, that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. 

It should also be noted that Steele was the agent who exposed the corruption within FIFA, a scandal that had international repercussions. Which only cements his reputation as a very professional and capable investigator.

Of course since all of this has come out this gentleman has gone underground, and there are reports that he is "terrified for his family's safety."

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that if this man was willing to sacrifice so much to get this information exposed to the public, that it behooves various media outlets around the world to at the very least work hard to either confirm or denounce it.

Right now it appears that Penthouse magazine might be taking the lead on that front: 

Adult magazine Penthouse has received three claims for its $1 million offer to anyone who could provide real tapes of President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged and unproven sexual escapades at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, the publication’s editor exclusively revealed to International Business Times Thursday.

I for one don't think this story is dead yet, and I am more than a little interested in seeing where it goes. 

Bristol Palin's soft porn pal disses ex-fiance MOH winner on Facebook.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:

 The war of words between Bristol Palin and her jilted Medal of Honor-winning ex got suddenly more heated on Wednesday when her best friend appeared to slam the military hero as a 'coward.' 

Marina Lupas quoted reggae legend Bob Marley with a large message on her Facebook page clearly aimed at former Marine Dakota Meyer. 'The biggest coward is a man who awakens a woman's love with no intention of loving her,' she posted. 

 I know that a lot of people have suggested that this whole engagement thing was a total put on from the start, and that Bristol was never really into Dakota Meyer.

I ABSOLUTELY think that Sarah set the whole thing up, and most likely coaxed Bristol into giving Dakota a tumble, but also I think that Bristol really thought she was in love.

I have heard from a number of sources that Bristol falls into what she perceives as love quite readily, but that it is fairly temporary. And once Bristol is over you, she is by God over you.

We actually all saw that for ourselves during an episode of "Life's a Tripp" where Bristol suddenly  flips out on boyfriend Gino Paoletti, and dumps his ass off at the side of the road.

So yes I think that Bristol thought she and Dakota were going to be in love forever, because that's what she does. However if anything is going to convince Bristol to throw you to the curb it is the revelation that you have been married before and never bothered to tell her.

Which I think we all know is exactly what happened here.

You know the other day some troll in the commenting section suggested that all of this drama is boring and that we should only cover Sarah Palin's political Facebook postings and Fox News appearances.

I wholeheartedly disagree with that.

To be honest I have been extremely bored with a lot of the repurposed word salad that has fallen out of Palin's maw lately, and the ghostwritten Facebook posts are becoming so cookie cutter that I could easily cut and paste old posts of my own to cover them.

However scandalous episodes like the drunken brawl, that crazy ass speech in Iowa, and now this broken engagement, undermine the carefully crafted mythology that Palin has worked so hard to create.

No her family is NOT all about Christian values. No she is NOT good at giving speeches without a teleprompter and careful preparation. And no her daughter is NOT a born again virgin who is waiting for the right man to put a ring on her finger before giving him an all day pass to her personal theme park. (She essentially lived with Dakota for almost two months, and you can really only shoot guns together for so long.)

No these salacious stories are essentially now the most important ones concerning the Palins because they prove to those who at one time were ignorant enough to support Sarah Palin that they were duped, and that the Palin critics were right all along.

And it also hopefully helps them to develop a healthy skepticism toward the next Christian family phony who comes along and starts using religion, and conservative political speak, to convince them that they are the answer to their prayers.

Right now the newest gossip, and this is actually catching fire even among those who know Bristol, is that the relationship she has with Marina is now developing into something a little more....complicated.

(Can you say "road trip?")

And hey, at this point, would it really surprise you?

Stay tuned folks.

Fox news anchor arrested for being belligerent and uncooperative. Well, yeah he's a Fox News anchor, what did they expect?

Courtesy of New York Daily News:  

Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was released from jail early Thursday following an alleged drunken bust in a Minneapolis airport bar. 

Cops said the 59-year-old weekend anchor appeared wasted and was belligerent during a run-in with police at the Northern Lights Grill at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport at around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

Jarrett, who on leave from the news station, refused to cooperate with police and was booked into Hennepin County Jail for interfering with a peace officer, a misdemeanor, authorities said. 

He was released at about 1:30 a.m. after posting $300 bond, cops said. 

"We were made aware late last night that Gregg Jarrett was arrested in Minneapolis yesterday and charged with a misdemeanor," a Fox News spokesperson said in an email. "He is dealing with serious personal issues at this time." 

"A date at which Gregg might return to air has yet to be determined," the spokesperson said. 

Jarrett has taken leave from Fox News due to "personal issues," and has been missing from the cable network since earlier this month.

Apparently viewers had noticed Jarrett speaking erratically during a broadcast in April.

Okay well as much as I would like to pile onto a Fox News host, most of whom I believe are guilty of journalistic malpractice, I think I will reserve judgement until we find out exactly what is ailing Mr. Jarrett.

At the link you will see video of him from April 14th, in which he is clearly struggling to formulate simple sentences, and seems to have difficultly reading the teleprompter.

However if he is just your everyday drunk, and I really wonder how you can NOT be and still work at Fox news, then the gloves are off.

(H/T to Raw Story.)

If Obama is being called out for hugging a black man, then what do we make of this?

You know  personally I am not sure WHOSE reputation should be more damaged by this.

I think this is where Bush was thinking, "Thank God I was not the one running against this guy!"