RETIREDFAN1 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 16 minutes ago, CENTEXFAN said: Then file charges. Oh wait courts have to go by facts, not conspiracies. No....the goppers are just as corrupt.....charges should be filed against both, but President Trump keeps getting bad advice about his nominees .....he should tell whoever is advising him to go to hell, and go with his gut on the nominees...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CENTEXFAN Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 20 minutes ago, WestHardinfan1 said: No....the goppers are just as corrupt.....charges should be filed against both, but President Trump keeps getting bad advice about his nominees .....he should tell whoever is advising him to go to hell, and go with his gut on the nominees...... Or it was just plain made up garbage on Obama and Clinton. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTV1 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 8 hours ago, CENTEXFAN said: Or it was just plain made up garbage on Obama and Clinton. Any D.A. or Attorney General should have filed charges on Hillary for destroying evidence and obstruction of justice even if the emails and servers she destroyed or most likely ordered to be destroyed. We know that wouldn't happen when Obama was President, and why the current or past Attorney General didn't do it is just weak of them. I realize President Trump is friends with the Clintons, so he might have told them to stand down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 On 3/21/2019 at 9:02 AM, MavGrad99 said: Are we really sure that the accusations are false against Hillary Clinton? There seemed to be a lot of stuff that pointed her way that just wasn't prosecuted because of who she is... Which, if you go back in history, is true for A LOT of former powerful government officials.... And their seems to be more more “stuff” pointed her way on a regular basis. If this article is true, she, like Flynn, contacted a foreign government before she was sworn in. Flynn was investigated, why wasn’t Hillary? Fear of death? https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/03/22/unfortunately-hillary-fbi-able-recover-emails-staff-tried-destroy-judicial-watch-obtained/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild74 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Never Stop Mocking Rachel Maddow … Never Stop Mocking Louise Mensch… Posted by Kane on March 23, 2019 7:14 pm Categories: Breaking By Caitlin Johnstone It has been obvious from the very beginning that the Maddow Muppets were being sold a lie. Snowflakes swallowed the Russiagate narrative hook, line and sinker, and they believed that the Mueller investigation was going to vindicate them. It did not. I’ve been saying Russiagate is ##### from the beginning, and I’ve been called a Trump shill, a Kremlin propagandist, a Nazi and a troll every day for saying so by credulous mass media-consuming dupes who drank the Kool Aid. And I’ve only taken a fraction of the flack more high profile Russiagate skeptics like Glenn Greenwald and Michael Tracey have been getting for expressing doubt in the Gospel According to Maddow. The insane, maniacal McCarthyite feeding frenzy that these people were plunged into by nonstop mass media propaganda drowned out the important voices who tried to argue that public energy was being sucked into Russia hysteria and used to manufacture support for dangerous cold war escalations with a nuclear superpower. We must never let them forget what they did or what they cost us all. We must never let mainstream Democrats forget how crazy they got, how much time and energy they wasted, how very, very wrong they were and how very, very right we were. Never stop reminding them of this. Never stop mocking them for it. Never stop mocking their idiotic Rachel Maddow worship. Never stop mocking the Robert Mueller prayer candles. Never stop making fun of the way they blamed all their problems on Susan Sarandon. Never stop reminding them of those stupid pink vagina hats. Never stop mocking them for elevating Louise Mensch and Eric Garland. Never stop mocking them for creating the freaking Krassenstein brothers. Every politician, every media figure, every Twitter pundit and everyone who swallowed this moronic load of bull spunk has officially discredited themselves for life. Going forward, authority and credibility rests solely with those who kept clear eyes and clear heads during the mass media propaganda blitzkrieg, not with those who were stupid enough to believe what they were told about the behaviors of a noncompliant government in a post-Iraq invasion world. The people who steered us into two years of Russiavape insanity are the very last people anyone should ever listen to ever again when determining the future direction of our world. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild74 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 ZEN FREE PRESS FLASHBACK: Media Predict Trump Family Leaving White House in HANDCUFFS… Posted by Kane on March 23, 2019 6:54 pm Categories: Breaking Tom Elliott@tomselliott Flashback Montage: Dems, media optimistically predict Mueller probe will result in impeachment, prison sentences 377 10:28 PM - Mar 22, 2019 265 people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy ‘My impression is after all of this is said and done that some people end up in jail’ Over the last two years talking heads in the major media developed high hopes that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe would crescendo with dramatic flare. Viewers started to imagine that the only possible outcome would be the Trump family being frog-walked out of the White House in handcuffs. Tonight, Mueller’s probe officially concluded. No further indictments will be filed, and no one in the Trump family will be indicted. The two-year investigation never charged anyone with conspiracy related to the Trump campaign and Russia. For a refresher on just how confidently these predictions were made, here are a few flashbacks. In December 2017, Mika Brzezinski said the Trump Team was might be going to jail “for the rest of their lives.” In December 2018, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Delaware Sen. Coons — as he often does — if he thought Trump might be facing jail time. Sen. Coons said yes, “the issues outlined against both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, I think, continue to sharpen the ways in which it is clear that the Mueller investigation has produced a whole series of actions not previously exposed to the public.” Democratic lawmakers were not immune from setting lofty expectations from the outcome of the investigation. In December 2018, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Trump could be the first president “to face the prospect of jail time.” “My takeaway is there’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,” Rep. Schiff said. “We have been discussing the issue of pardons that the president may offer to people or dangle in front of people. The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.” In March 2017, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said the evidence he had already seen enough evidence of collusion to predict prison sentences. “My impression is after all of this is said and done that some people end up in jail,” he told CNN’s Blitzer. “My impression is that people will probably be charged and probably go to jail.” In March 2018, ABC’s Joy Behar hopefully predicted of the Trump family: “I think they’re all going to end up together in prison and maybe that’s a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whs1965 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 WRONG ON ALL COUNTS. JUST WISHFUL THINKING FROM ALL INVOLVED. HILLABEAST IS BEHIND ALL OF THIS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarthDawg77 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 3 hours ago, Wild74 said: ZEN FREE PRESS FLASHBACK: Media Predict Trump Family Leaving White House in HANDCUFFS… Posted by Kane on March 23, 2019 6:54 pm Categories: Breaking Tom Elliott@tomselliott Flashback Montage: Dems, media optimistically predict Mueller probe will result in impeachment, prison sentences 377 10:28 PM - Mar 22, 2019 265 people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy ‘My impression is after all of this is said and done that some people end up in jail’ Over the last two years talking heads in the major media developed high hopes that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe would crescendo with dramatic flare. Viewers started to imagine that the only possible outcome would be the Trump family being frog-walked out of the White House in handcuffs. Tonight, Mueller’s probe officially concluded. No further indictments will be filed, and no one in the Trump family will be indicted. The two-year investigation never charged anyone with conspiracy related to the Trump campaign and Russia. For a refresher on just how confidently these predictions were made, here are a few flashbacks. In December 2017, Mika Brzezinski said the Trump Team was might be going to jail “for the rest of their lives.” In December 2018, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Delaware Sen. Coons — as he often does — if he thought Trump might be facing jail time. Sen. Coons said yes, “the issues outlined against both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, I think, continue to sharpen the ways in which it is clear that the Mueller investigation has produced a whole series of actions not previously exposed to the public.” Democratic lawmakers were not immune from setting lofty expectations from the outcome of the investigation. In December 2018, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Trump could be the first president “to face the prospect of jail time.” “My takeaway is there’s a very real prospect that on the day Donald Trump leaves office the Justice Department may indict him, that he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time,” Rep. Schiff said. “We have been discussing the issue of pardons that the president may offer to people or dangle in front of people. The bigger pardon question may come down the road as the next president has to determine whether to pardon Donald Trump.” In March 2017, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said the evidence he had already seen enough evidence of collusion to predict prison sentences. “My impression is after all of this is said and done that some people end up in jail,” he told CNN’s Blitzer. “My impression is that people will probably be charged and probably go to jail.” In March 2018, ABC’s Joy Behar hopefully predicted of the Trump family: “I think they’re all going to end up together in prison and maybe that’s a good thing. Joy Bewhore is fat, stupid cow that doesn’t know her butt from a barrel of bat guano...🦇. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirtFalcon Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 My younger brother watches and swears by Rachael Madcow ... there is no reasoning with him with facts or the issues ... he hates President Trump and isn't interested in hearing the truth .... he's as brainwashed as anyone I have ever seen and is beyond reasoning with .... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarthDawg77 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 1 hour ago, KirtFalcon said: My younger brother watches and swears by Rachael Madcow ... there is no reasoning with him with facts or the issues ... he hates President Trump and isn't interested in hearing the truth .... he's as brainwashed as anyone I have ever seen and is beyond reasoning with .... You should schedule an intervention for him, & I hope you can show him the light... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trueblue82 Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 14 minutes ago, CarthDawg77 said: You should schedule an intervention for him, & I hope you can show him the light... Dr. Hardin West is currently accepting new patients. Just sayin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirtFalcon Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 (edited) 2 hours ago, CarthDawg77 said: You should schedule an intervention for him, & I hope you can show him the light... Believe me, my sister and I and a few others have tried ..... When anyone tries to present anything contradictory to what the biased liberal media says, he goes into a rage and talks over everybody, he doesn't even listen to what anyone tries to explain to him. I have seen him get sdo mad he gets up and storms out because he doesn't want to hear anything other than what the anti-Trump media has told him .... He has a 9th grade education thinks he is the smartest person in the room and everybody else is wrong and is just making stuff up ... it's really a pathetic situation trying to reason with him about what's going on politically in America ... there are a few "old timers" around here that are almost as uninformed about the truth as he is .... I have gotten to the point I mostly just avoid getting into arguments with these fools .... Edited March 24, 2019 by KirtFalcon yo mama 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 20 hours ago, KirtFalcon said: My younger brother watches and swears by Rachael Madcow ... there is no reasoning with him with facts or the issues ... he hates President Trump and isn't interested in hearing the truth .... he's as brainwashed as anyone I have ever seen and is beyond reasoning with .... I have to give you kudos for admitting this. Many families have a black sheep, but a liberal? Man, that took guts. I hope you had him neutered. We’re lucky in my family politic wise. Everyone is a conservative. My son-in-law was a liberal, but after a few years working in Fed Law Enforcement, he’s to the right of Rush Limbaugh. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 On 3/19/2019 at 2:53 PM, Hagar said: The bias has gotten so bad, even Ted Koppel is acknowledging it. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ted-koppel-new-york-times-washington-post-decided-as-organizations-that-trump-is-bad-for-united-states As Ted Koppel has recognized, today’s media embrace the darkness of their own biases: Journalism Dies in Self-Importance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Conclusion of Mueller probe raises anew criticisms of coverage: https://outline.com/nsBD5k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 “Nobody wants to hear this, but news that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is headed home without issuing new charges is a death-blow for the reputation of the American news media,” Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi wrote in a column published Saturday, a day before Barr nailed the collusion coffin shut. He added, “Nothing Trump is accused of from now on by the press will be believed by huge chunks of the population.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 The Media’s Russia ‘Bombshells’ look even worse now that Mueller found no collusion: https://outline.com/cSLzKs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 The obsession to prove collusion has dampened the media’s journalistic abilities, leading to a seemingly endless list of corrections, retractions and apologies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Trump-Russia collusion did affect an American election — the one in 2018: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/435700-trump-russia-collusion-did-affect-an-american-election-the-one-in-2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Polls showed the impact of the Russia coverage on voters. About half of American voters declared they believed Trump or his aides had colluded with Russia, even though they hadn’t. It is the most compelling proof in a long time that false information repeated long enough becomes truth for many people. Although we are still coming to grips with the finality of the Mueller report, one thing has become increasingly clear: The Russia collusion narrative — fanned by foreigners, dirty tricksters and a willing media — did, in fact, impact an American election. Not the one in 2016, but the midterm that came two years later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REX Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryLaverty Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/26/trump-republicans-offense-nah-its-just-same-old-gaslighting/?utm_term=.160db663183b The Plum Line Opinion Trump and Republicans ‘on offense’? Nah. It’s just the same old gaslighting. (Evan Vucci/AP) By Greg Sargent Opinion writer March 26 at 11:08 AM Have we really learned nothing from the first two years of the Trump presidency? Welcome to the new narrative: President Trump and Republicans are “turning the tables” and going “on offense” against Democrats and the media, who, we are told, should be groveling for forgiveness in the wake of Attorney General William P. Barr’s brief summary of the special counsel’s Russiagate conclusions. Unfortunately, there are scattered signs that some in those quarters are taking this far too seriously. We’re seeing news accounts suggesting media coverage of the Russia scandal may have overreached; columnists demanding introspection from journalistic colleagues; and analyses that overestimate the degree to which Trump can now claim victory over Democrats. Some accounts hint at angst among Democrats about how aggressive an investigative posture to strike going forward. It’s amazing this needs to be stated, but here goes. This “new offensive” from Trump and Republicans is saturated with nonsense from top to bottom, and it is designed to get the media to back off of its entirely legitimate scrutiny of Trump, and to get Democrats to retreat from their entirely legitimate efforts to impose oversight and accountability. Trump has spent the past two years screaming “WITCH HUNT!” and “FAKE NEWS!,” even as he and his congressional allies have absurdly cast the investigations as corrupt based on one fake “scandal” after another. Throughout all this, what’s actually happened is that one revelation after another has emerged detailing startling criminality among those in Trump’s inner circle and extraordinary corruption and abuses of power by Trump himself. Opinion | Yes, the media made mistakes in the Mueller probe. Covering Trump wasn’t one of them. Media analyst Erik Wemple blasts critics who say journalists fueled a witch hunt against President Trump. (Joshua Carroll, Kate Woodsome, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) It is certainly very significant that the attorney general has declared that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has not established any criminal conspiracy with Russia. This does end one chapter in this scandal. But come on: Much of the current coverage and journalistic handwringing has the effect of badly downplaying the significance of what has emerged in the past two years, and the potential for more damaging information to emerge. And it doesn’t adequately reckon with the rot of bad faith at the core of what’s driving this new “turn the tables” offensive — an effort to chill continued efforts to unearth that information, through legitimate scrutiny and oversight. We know this, because we’ve seen it for two years. The media mostly got this story right “The Mainstream Media is under fire,” Trump raged moments ago. “For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion,” he continued, adding that the media is “corrupt and FAKE.” The White House press secretary is circulating a chart featuring high-profile media figures and describing them as “haters.” Russiagate skeptics on all sides are treating this as a severe blow to the news media’s reputation. This is ridiculous. Dogged media scrutiny has unearthed a range of extraordinary revelations. Media reporting is what disclosed Trump’s campaign advisers’ active efforts to conspire with Russian sabotage of our democracy, his extensive efforts to bend law enforcement to his political will to prevent an accounting of that sabotage, his habit of concealing the details of his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the original hush money payments that ultimately led to Trump being implicated in campaign finance crimes. Beyond Russia, it also established extensive self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. Of course there have been many “Trump is a Russian asset!” and “Manchurian candidate!” excesses by some media figures. But on balance, the decision to devote intense scrutiny and journalistic resources to the multiple Russia-related stories, and to Trump’s corrupt responses to them, has actually been vindicated by the sheer gravity of all that has already been unearthed. We can debate endlessly whether the excesses detract to some degree from these journalistic achievements. But to claim that the excesses are somehow defining is really just another way to downplay the seriousness of what those achievements have actually brought into the light of day. Which for Trump and his propagandists is the whole point of this in the first place (what is motivating others making this claim is harder to say). On balance, the media got this far more right than wrong. The value of all that reporting — including what it has told us about Trump’s dealings with Russia — is in no way diminished by the fact that no criminal conspiracy has been established. And right now, the media is responding to the Barr letter with skeptical scrutiny of his decision-making, particularly in clearing Trump on obstruction of justice when Mueller pointedly did not. Given the legitimate questions raised by this decision, this is exactly what should happen. Democrats don’t need to back off The Trump machine’s new “offensive” against Democrats is similarly absurd. Overreach on Russia is just not the big story of the past two years. While in the House minority, Democrats were mostly fighting a rearguard action against the GOP’s perversion and weaponizing of the oversight process to protect Trump from accountability and to harass a legitimate investigation into not just “collusion” but also into a foreign attack on our democracy. That investigation led to extensive indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, and it has set in motion many more investigations into “nearly every organization Trump has run over the past decade,” whose future revelations remain unknown. To claim that Democratic efforts to protect this process constituted overreach, on the basis of the lack of criminal conspiracy charges, is just another way of using that latter fact to denigrate the seriousness of the extensive wrongdoing and criminality that this process has already ferreted out. Which, again, is the whole point. Now that House Democrats are in the majority, they are demanding documents relating to potential Trump financial conflicts of interest, efforts at obstruction of justice, gaming of the security clearance process, and the dimensions of the hush money scheme and extent of financial dealings with Russia concealed during the campaign. It would be a dereliction of responsibility for Democrats to not be pursuing those things. And on Russia, given how little we know about Mueller’s actual findings and about what went into Barr’s decision-making, Democrats absolutely should be pressing for release of the former and intensifying scrutiny of the latter. The whole point of the current offensive is to get Democrats to back down on all those fronts. That Trump and his allies claim themselves emboldened to do this by Mueller’s findings, while attacking Democratic efforts to get those findings released, perversely captures the true nature of the gaslighting we’re seeing here. But if anything, this should embolden Democrats to keep pushing forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Evan Vucci/AP) By Greg Sargent Opinion writer March 26 at 11:08 AM Have we really learned nothing from the first two years of the Trump presidency? Welcome to the new narrative: President Trump and Republicans are “turning the tables” and going “on offense” against Democrats and the media, who, we are told, should be groveling for forgiveness in the wake of Attorney General William P. Barr’s brief summary of the special counsel’s Russiagate conclusions. Unfortunately, there are scattered signs that some in those quarters are taking this far too seriously. We’re seeing news accounts suggesting media coverage of the Russia scandal may have overreached; columnists demanding introspection from journalistic colleagues; and analyses that overestimate the degree to which Trump can now claim victory over Democrats. Some accounts hint at angst among Democrats about how aggressive an investigative posture to strike going forward. It’s amazing this needs to be stated, but here goes. This “new offensive” from Trump and Republicans is saturated with nonsense from top to bottom, and it is designed to get the media to back off of its entirely legitimate scrutiny of Trump, and to get Democrats to retreat from their entirely legitimate efforts to impose oversight and accountability. Trump has spent the past two years screaming “WITCH HUNT!” and “FAKE NEWS!,” even as he and his congressional allies have absurdly cast the investigations as corrupt based on one fake “scandal” after another. Throughout all this, what’s actually happened is that one revelation after another has emerged detailing startling criminality among those in Trump’s inner circle and extraordinary corruption and abuses of power by Trump himself. Opinion | Yes, the media made mistakes in the Mueller probe. Covering Trump wasn’t one of them. Media analyst Erik Wemple blasts critics who say journalists fueled a witch hunt against President Trump. (Joshua Carroll, Kate Woodsome, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) It is certainly very significant that the attorney general has declared that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has not established any criminal conspiracy with Russia. This does end one chapter in this scandal. But come on: Much of the current coverage and journalistic handwringing has the effect of badly downplaying the significance of what has emerged in the past two years, and the potential for more damaging information to emerge. And it doesn’t adequately reckon with the rot of bad faith at the core of what’s driving this new “turn the tables” offensive — an effort to chill continued efforts to unearth that information, through legitimate scrutiny and oversight. We know this, because we’ve seen it for two years. The media mostly got this story right “The Mainstream Media is under fire,” Trump raged moments ago. “For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion,” he continued, adding that the media is “corrupt and FAKE.” The White House press secretary is circulating a chart featuring high-profile media figures and describing them as “haters.” Russiagate skeptics on all sides are treating this as a severe blow to the news media’s reputation. This is ridiculous. Dogged media scrutiny has unearthed a range of extraordinary revelations. Media reporting is what disclosed Trump’s campaign advisers’ active efforts to conspire with Russian sabotage of our democracy, his extensive efforts to bend law enforcement to his political will to prevent an accounting of that sabotage, his habit of concealing the details of his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the original hush money payments that ultimately led to Trump being implicated in campaign finance crimes. Beyond Russia, it also established extensive self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. Of course there have been many “Trump is a Russian asset!” and “Manchurian candidate!” excesses by some media figures. But on balance, the decision to devote intense scrutiny and journalistic resources to the multiple Russia-related stories, and to Trump’s corrupt responses to them, has actually been vindicated by the sheer gravity of all that has already been unearthed. We can debate endlessly whether the excesses detract to some degree from these journalistic achievements. But to claim that the excesses are somehow defining is really just another way to downplay the seriousness of what those achievements have actually brought into the light of day. Which for Trump and his propagandists is the whole point of this in the first place (what is motivating others making this claim is harder to say). On balance, the media got this far more right than wrong. The value of all that reporting — including what it has told us about Trump’s dealings with Russia — is in no way diminished by the fact that no criminal conspiracy has been established. And right now, the media is responding to the Barr letter with skeptical scrutiny of his decision-making, particularly in clearing Trump on obstruction of justice when Mueller pointedly did not. Given the legitimate questions raised by this decision, this is exactly what should happen. Democrats don’t need to back off The Trump machine’s new “offensive” against Democrats is similarly absurd. Overreach on Russia is just not the big story of the past two years. While in the House minority, Democrats were mostly fighting a rearguard action against the GOP’s perversion and weaponizing of the oversight process to protect Trump from accountability and to harass a legitimate investigation into not just “collusion” but also into a foreign attack on our democracy. That investigation led to extensive indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, and it has set in motion many more investigations into “nearly every organization Trump has run over the past decade,” whose future revelations remain unknown. To claim that Democratic efforts to protect this process constituted overreach, on the basis of the lack of criminal conspiracy charges, is just another way of using that latter fact to denigrate the seriousness of the extensive wrongdoing and criminality that this process has already ferreted out. Which, again, is the whole point. Now that House Democrats are in the majority, they are demanding documents relating to potential Trump financial conflicts of interest, efforts at obstruction of justice, gaming of the security clearance process, and the dimensions of the hush money scheme and extent of financial dealings with Russia concealed during the campaign. It would be a dereliction of responsibility for Democrats to not be pursuing those things. And on Russia, given how little we know about Mueller’s actual findings and about what went into Barr’s decision-making, Democrats absolutely should be pressing for release of the former and intensifying scrutiny of the latter. The whole point of the current offensive is to get Democrats to back down on all those fronts. That Trump and his allies claim themselves emboldened to do this by Mueller’s findings, while attacking Democratic efforts to get those findings released, perversely captures the true nature of the gaslighting we’re seeing here. But if anything, this should embolden Democrats to keep pushing forward.
DannyZuco Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Looks like another OP-ED by another hater. 20 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/26/trump-republicans-offense-nah-its-just-same-old-gaslighting/?utm_term=.160db663183b The Plum Line Opinion Trump and Republicans ‘on offense’? Nah. It’s just the same old gaslighting. (Evan Vucci/AP) By Greg Sargent Opinion writer March 26 at 11:08 AM Have we really learned nothing from the first two years of the Trump presidency? Welcome to the new narrative: President Trump and Republicans are “turning the tables” and going “on offense” against Democrats and the media, who, we are told, should be groveling for forgiveness in the wake of Attorney General William P. Barr’s brief summary of the special counsel’s Russiagate conclusions. Unfortunately, there are scattered signs that some in those quarters are taking this far too seriously. We’re seeing news accounts suggesting media coverage of the Russia scandal may have overreached; columnists demanding introspection from journalistic colleagues; and analyses that overestimate the degree to which Trump can now claim victory over Democrats. Some accounts hint at angst among Democrats about how aggressive an investigative posture to strike going forward. It’s amazing this needs to be stated, but here goes. This “new offensive” from Trump and Republicans is saturated with nonsense from top to bottom, and it is designed to get the media to back off of its entirely legitimate scrutiny of Trump, and to get Democrats to retreat from their entirely legitimate efforts to impose oversight and accountability. Trump has spent the past two years screaming “WITCH HUNT!” and “FAKE NEWS!,” even as he and his congressional allies have absurdly cast the investigations as corrupt based on one fake “scandal” after another. Throughout all this, what’s actually happened is that one revelation after another has emerged detailing startling criminality among those in Trump’s inner circle and extraordinary corruption and abuses of power by Trump himself. Opinion | Yes, the media made mistakes in the Mueller probe. Covering Trump wasn’t one of them. Media analyst Erik Wemple blasts critics who say journalists fueled a witch hunt against President Trump. (Joshua Carroll, Kate Woodsome, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) It is certainly very significant that the attorney general has declared that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has not established any criminal conspiracy with Russia. This does end one chapter in this scandal. But come on: Much of the current coverage and journalistic handwringing has the effect of badly downplaying the significance of what has emerged in the past two years, and the potential for more damaging information to emerge. And it doesn’t adequately reckon with the rot of bad faith at the core of what’s driving this new “turn the tables” offensive — an effort to chill continued efforts to unearth that information, through legitimate scrutiny and oversight. We know this, because we’ve seen it for two years. The media mostly got this story right “The Mainstream Media is under fire,” Trump raged moments ago. “For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion,” he continued, adding that the media is “corrupt and FAKE.” The White House press secretary is circulating a chart featuring high-profile media figures and describing them as “haters.” Russiagate skeptics on all sides are treating this as a severe blow to the news media’s reputation. This is ridiculous. Dogged media scrutiny has unearthed a range of extraordinary revelations. Media reporting is what disclosed Trump’s campaign advisers’ active efforts to conspire with Russian sabotage of our democracy, his extensive efforts to bend law enforcement to his political will to prevent an accounting of that sabotage, his habit of concealing the details of his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the original hush money payments that ultimately led to Trump being implicated in campaign finance crimes. Beyond Russia, it also established extensive self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. Of course there have been many “Trump is a Russian asset!” and “Manchurian candidate!” excesses by some media figures. But on balance, the decision to devote intense scrutiny and journalistic resources to the multiple Russia-related stories, and to Trump’s corrupt responses to them, has actually been vindicated by the sheer gravity of all that has already been unearthed. We can debate endlessly whether the excesses detract to some degree from these journalistic achievements. But to claim that the excesses are somehow defining is really just another way to downplay the seriousness of what those achievements have actually brought into the light of day. Which for Trump and his propagandists is the whole point of this in the first place (what is motivating others making this claim is harder to say). On balance, the media got this far more right than wrong. The value of all that reporting — including what it has told us about Trump’s dealings with Russia — is in no way diminished by the fact that no criminal conspiracy has been established. And right now, the media is responding to the Barr letter with skeptical scrutiny of his decision-making, particularly in clearing Trump on obstruction of justice when Mueller pointedly did not. Given the legitimate questions raised by this decision, this is exactly what should happen. Democrats don’t need to back off The Trump machine’s new “offensive” against Democrats is similarly absurd. Overreach on Russia is just not the big story of the past two years. While in the House minority, Democrats were mostly fighting a rearguard action against the GOP’s perversion and weaponizing of the oversight process to protect Trump from accountability and to harass a legitimate investigation into not just “collusion” but also into a foreign attack on our democracy. That investigation led to extensive indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, and it has set in motion many more investigations into “nearly every organization Trump has run over the past decade,” whose future revelations remain unknown. To claim that Democratic efforts to protect this process constituted overreach, on the basis of the lack of criminal conspiracy charges, is just another way of using that latter fact to denigrate the seriousness of the extensive wrongdoing and criminality that this process has already ferreted out. Which, again, is the whole point. Now that House Democrats are in the majority, they are demanding documents relating to potential Trump financial conflicts of interest, efforts at obstruction of justice, gaming of the security clearance process, and the dimensions of the hush money scheme and extent of financial dealings with Russia concealed during the campaign. It would be a dereliction of responsibility for Democrats to not be pursuing those things. And on Russia, given how little we know about Mueller’s actual findings and about what went into Barr’s decision-making, Democrats absolutely should be pressing for release of the former and intensifying scrutiny of the latter. The whole point of the current offensive is to get Democrats to back down on all those fronts. That Trump and his allies claim themselves emboldened to do this by Mueller’s findings, while attacking Democratic efforts to get those findings released, perversely captures the true nature of the gaslighting we’re seeing here. But if anything, this should embolden Democrats to keep pushing forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Evan Vucci/AP) By Greg Sargent Opinion writer March 26 at 11:08 AM Have we really learned nothing from the first two years of the Trump presidency? Welcome to the new narrative: President Trump and Republicans are “turning the tables” and going “on offense” against Democrats and the media, who, we are told, should be groveling for forgiveness in the wake of Attorney General William P. Barr’s brief summary of the special counsel’s Russiagate conclusions. Unfortunately, there are scattered signs that some in those quarters are taking this far too seriously. We’re seeing news accounts suggesting media coverage of the Russia scandal may have overreached; columnists demanding introspection from journalistic colleagues; and analyses that overestimate the degree to which Trump can now claim victory over Democrats. Some accounts hint at angst among Democrats about how aggressive an investigative posture to strike going forward. It’s amazing this needs to be stated, but here goes. This “new offensive” from Trump and Republicans is saturated with nonsense from top to bottom, and it is designed to get the media to back off of its entirely legitimate scrutiny of Trump, and to get Democrats to retreat from their entirely legitimate efforts to impose oversight and accountability. Trump has spent the past two years screaming “WITCH HUNT!” and “FAKE NEWS!,” even as he and his congressional allies have absurdly cast the investigations as corrupt based on one fake “scandal” after another. Throughout all this, what’s actually happened is that one revelation after another has emerged detailing startling criminality among those in Trump’s inner circle and extraordinary corruption and abuses of power by Trump himself. Opinion | Yes, the media made mistakes in the Mueller probe. Covering Trump wasn’t one of them. Media analyst Erik Wemple blasts critics who say journalists fueled a witch hunt against President Trump. (Joshua Carroll, Kate Woodsome, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post) It is certainly very significant that the attorney general has declared that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has not established any criminal conspiracy with Russia. This does end one chapter in this scandal. But come on: Much of the current coverage and journalistic handwringing has the effect of badly downplaying the significance of what has emerged in the past two years, and the potential for more damaging information to emerge. And it doesn’t adequately reckon with the rot of bad faith at the core of what’s driving this new “turn the tables” offensive — an effort to chill continued efforts to unearth that information, through legitimate scrutiny and oversight. We know this, because we’ve seen it for two years. The media mostly got this story right “The Mainstream Media is under fire,” Trump raged moments ago. “For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion,” he continued, adding that the media is “corrupt and FAKE.” The White House press secretary is circulating a chart featuring high-profile media figures and describing them as “haters.” Russiagate skeptics on all sides are treating this as a severe blow to the news media’s reputation. This is ridiculous. Dogged media scrutiny has unearthed a range of extraordinary revelations. Media reporting is what disclosed Trump’s campaign advisers’ active efforts to conspire with Russian sabotage of our democracy, his extensive efforts to bend law enforcement to his political will to prevent an accounting of that sabotage, his habit of concealing the details of his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the original hush money payments that ultimately led to Trump being implicated in campaign finance crimes. Beyond Russia, it also established extensive self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. Of course there have been many “Trump is a Russian asset!” and “Manchurian candidate!” excesses by some media figures. But on balance, the decision to devote intense scrutiny and journalistic resources to the multiple Russia-related stories, and to Trump’s corrupt responses to them, has actually been vindicated by the sheer gravity of all that has already been unearthed. We can debate endlessly whether the excesses detract to some degree from these journalistic achievements. But to claim that the excesses are somehow defining is really just another way to downplay the seriousness of what those achievements have actually brought into the light of day. Which for Trump and his propagandists is the whole point of this in the first place (what is motivating others making this claim is harder to say). On balance, the media got this far more right than wrong. The value of all that reporting — including what it has told us about Trump’s dealings with Russia — is in no way diminished by the fact that no criminal conspiracy has been established. And right now, the media is responding to the Barr letter with skeptical scrutiny of his decision-making, particularly in clearing Trump on obstruction of justice when Mueller pointedly did not. Given the legitimate questions raised by this decision, this is exactly what should happen. Democrats don’t need to back off The Trump machine’s new “offensive” against Democrats is similarly absurd. Overreach on Russia is just not the big story of the past two years. While in the House minority, Democrats were mostly fighting a rearguard action against the GOP’s perversion and weaponizing of the oversight process to protect Trump from accountability and to harass a legitimate investigation into not just “collusion” but also into a foreign attack on our democracy. That investigation led to extensive indictments, guilty pleas and convictions, and it has set in motion many more investigations into “nearly every organization Trump has run over the past decade,” whose future revelations remain unknown. To claim that Democratic efforts to protect this process constituted overreach, on the basis of the lack of criminal conspiracy charges, is just another way of using that latter fact to denigrate the seriousness of the extensive wrongdoing and criminality that this process has already ferreted out. Which, again, is the whole point. Now that House Democrats are in the majority, they are demanding documents relating to potential Trump financial conflicts of interest, efforts at obstruction of justice, gaming of the security clearance process, and the dimensions of the hush money scheme and extent of financial dealings with Russia concealed during the campaign. It would be a dereliction of responsibility for Democrats to not be pursuing those things. And on Russia, given how little we know about Mueller’s actual findings and about what went into Barr’s decision-making, Democrats absolutely should be pressing for release of the former and intensifying scrutiny of the latter. The whole point of the current offensive is to get Democrats to back down on all those fronts. That Trump and his allies claim themselves emboldened to do this by Mueller’s findings, while attacking Democratic efforts to get those findings released, perversely captures the true nature of the gaslighting we’re seeing here. But if anything, this should embolden Democrats to keep pushing forward.
Wild74 Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 It has become fairly clear that you can't believe a word of what the Washington Post has to write after everything they said about Trump ended up in the FAKE NEWS catagory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveTV1 Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 Another op-ed accepted as fact. Now they're defending their jobs of shoddy reporting by using speculation instead of the traditional method of journalism. I don't know why the White House is calling for an apology in the first place, because as Trump should know since he was once a Democrat that they never apologize for their corrupt behavior. That was the main reason I didn't vote for him in addition to his personal life. I know how he is. The difference today is what he's done for me on an economic level. I'm actually building up my savings again. I wish that newspapers would get rid of the op-eds, because they are not based on the Who, What, Why, How, When, and Where. Today it's more about who can report a story first, without gathering all of the FACTS. These op-eds are based on emotion and feeling, and have no place in journalism. Report the news, and let me decide ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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