“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”

 –Revelation 18:2

I am prone to saying that we live in interesting times.

And by that, I mean we live in perhaps the most fucked-up and totally insane epoch of repugnant treachery and open deceit ever perpetrated in the history of the Union – if not the world.

“Now, get a grip, Barker. Don’t go off the deep end, you crazy bastard – here, have a drink – it can’t be that bad?”

Look, don’t take my word for it – open any newspaper in the Free World this morning and let me know what you think.

During the 2016 Presidential campaign, I wrote extensively how our once venerated media compromised themselves in an almost universal frenzy to delegitimize the frontrunners – with specific and near constant emphasis on now President-elect Donald Trump.

I opined that all it cost us was the collective loss of any real confidence in the national press – and our democratic process.

Well, gird your loins, folks – it’s gotten worse.  As if that were possible. . .

This morning, as good people throughout the nation awake, brew the morning joe, and tune in to their favorite talking heads, they are learning the ugly pseudo-facts about an incredibly salacious story that has been quietly making the rounds of Washington media-types, politicians – and the intelligence community – for months.

It seems that an oddly written, and completely unverified, 25-page dossier allegedly compiled by a former British intelligence officer – hired to develop opposition material on Trump – was obtained by Florida-based GOP political operative, and confirmed hack, Rick Wilson; who then trotted it around to anyone, and everyone, who would read it – including, apparently, the Central Intelligence Agency.

(You remember Rick Wilson.  He coined the phrase “Cheeto Jesus” – and led the ‘Never Trump’ movement from the very point of the spear – then spent the better part of last year viciously trashing the Republican nominee while serving as a “top GOP consultant”?)

To take this absurdity to its ragged edge – this morning we will also learn that top officials of our intelligence community used this unconfirmed “report” to brief both Mr. Trump, and President Barack Obama, as hard evidence of the width and depth of Russian involvement in our 2016 election.

On a more nefarious – and completely over-the-top – note, the report cites information from unidentified covert ‘sources’ that Russian intelligence is currently in possession of extremely embarrassing material that could be used to compromise and blackmail Mr. Trump – also suggesting Russia has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump in the years leading to his candidacy.

The report – parts of which sound like an old Penthouse Forum segment – include a weird story of Mr. Trump hiring Russian prostitutes to engage in “golden showers” on a bed once occupied by Mr. & Mrs. Obama in the Presidential Suite of the Moscow Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

As I understand it, Wilson took the bait – hook, line and sinker.

In turn, Wilson turned the report over to the Central Intelligence Agency, who quickly shared it within the intelligence community, before adding it to briefing materials presented as a fact-based intel product to the highest officials in the United States government.

Frankly, it reads like some perverted twist on a John le Carre novel – where clandestine dead drops and secretly palmed Minox cameras are replaced with tawdry piss-play. . .

Then, in some onanistic frenzy to break the next big Washington “Got’cha!” the online “news” source Buzzfeed – a strange hybrid website composed of hard journalism and pop culture bullshit – actually ran the raw dossier (complete with Sharpie highlighted passages) last night for all to see.

Understand, the material was billed by Buzzfeed as an “unverified memo” – but the damage was done.

They know it, and you know it.

Now, the rest of the story.

Although this is an actively developing disaster, as the hours pass it is increasingly clear that this dubious “intelligence report” – the contents of which made it all the way to a presidential briefing – originated as a bogus troll post on some obscure online bulletin board (4chan.org).

This morning, the site posted a claim that the “infamous golden shower scene” in the unverified dossier was a hoax, fabricated by an anonymous member of the chatboard as “fanfiction” – then sent to Rick Wilson – and ultimately, the CIA.

Is it possible that the most sophisticated intelligence agencies on earth – along with some of our nations most seasoned journalists and outlets (read: CNN) – have been shamefully duped by the proverbial 300-pound dude sitting on a chat forum in his mother’s basement?

You bet it is.

In a chock-a-block attempt to explain the matter, zerohedge.com summed things up better than I can:

“From here on out, assuming this is all true – it doesn’t matter how “legit” any report, document, or declaration is from any agency regarding Russian involvement in the US elections.  Even if there is credible evidence in the case (there’s not), it simply won’t matter after today.”

 Indeed.

We are witnessing the death of trust.

I hope, in the end, our two corrupt political parties – with the full support and acquiescence of our now defiled media establishment – realize the depth of harm they have done to our great nation with their detestable machinations.

Earlier today, President-elect Trump took to Twitter and denounced the report as “fake news,” stating, “Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me.  Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Given the malevolent fallout and internal treachery we’ve seen in the wake of Mr. Trump’s electoral victory, I’m afraid I can no longer answer that question with any degree of certainty.

Can you?