Evil-Echo Empire Update….
We may be witnessing a criminal enterprise operating inside the White House & Fox fake-news studios, engaged in a coordinated campaign to conceal illegalities while disparaging the accusers & truth-finders. It’s so obvious to those of us not fooled by the echo-fog that all these crazy stories spun inside Trump-world, it’s all a premeditated effort to place blame on the FBI & Justice Dept. in finding some reason to justify the firing of Rosenstein. And now that Rachel Brand has moved onto Walmart, any potential Rosenstein replacement could gum up the works on the Mueller investigation. Despite it being so abundantly clear that is the real sinister purpose of the White House, his echo & select congressional goon squad, it defiles human reasoning their base doesn’t seem able to see through the fog. Or are they just unwilling? I sincerely don’t know whether the conservative base is really that gullible, or come hell or high water are more adamantly locked into their tribal extremism? What I do know is a party unwilling to accept truths, it’s bad for America & threatens our democracy. When some echo-host wants to get their audience all riled up about some perceived indiscretions inside the FBI, just stop & consider the real intent.
Just look at this desire to weaponize the intelligence agencies, which need to remain independent, but it appears Trump seeks to remake the DOJ/FBI into his own personal Gestapo as a means to attack his enemies, as described in this important read (the-doj-is-moving-toward-abso
Normally Trump & his echo, along with a few in Congress willing to serve as Trump’s puppets, over the past year would come up with one or maybe two scandals per month they claimed were bigger than Watergate. But just last week they trotted out 3 scandals that were so-called worse than Watergate (yes, that’s right, 3 in the same week!). The Nunes memo, some other “bombshell” where Obama wanted to stay informed about something hyped by Senator Johnson, & then another one where they tried to smear Senator Mark Warner, but proved so ridiculous it’s not even worth mentioning. All 3 of their Watergate-type scandals were easily & quickly debunked. But somehow the base bought in. That’s the scary part. We would think gullibility has its limits, but apparently not. All these made-up scandals have nothing to do with uncovering wrongdoing, it’s instead all about casting doubt on the integrity of the DOJ/FBI, so they can in turn discredit whatever Mueller finds. The frantic pace these phony scandals are coming out suggests desperation, so I’ve got 3 reasons why we might be seeing this more aggressive level of diversions & deception, from which these crazy narratives they’re selling to the GOP base could pave the way for one or more of these outcomes:
1. Trump weaseling out from testifying either in front of Mueller or a grand jury
2. The smearing of the DOJ/FBI could escalate into firing Rosenstein, putting a puppet in place to fire Mueller &/or curtail his investigation
3. Create so much smoke & confusion over the Russian case, plus blame the accusers, so the base won’t believe the Mueller conclusions no matter how strong the evidence (the same strategy that confused the O.J. Simpson jurors leading to his murder acquittal)
Let’s review some of the many related articles below. The basic formula we keep seeing is Republican lies originate with Trump or the echo, which are then spread around psycho-conservative world & believed by their base. I just wish Fox News would report the Cleveland Browns are Super Bowl champions, since as ridiculous as that reporting would indeed be, millions of viewers would probably believe that too. See the article donald-trump-fox-news-
Charlie Sykes, a conservative talk radio host turned Trump critic, put it well. “The essence of propaganda is not necessarily to convince you of a certain set of facts. It is to overwhelm your critical sensibilities. It’s to make you doubt the existence of a knowable truth. The conservative media is a giant fog machine designed to confuse and disorient people.” There is no doubt that the Nunes memo and the various texts have thickened the fog. If you were watching mainstream media outlets, you mostly saw the memo debunked, dismissed. If you were watching Fox News, you saw Tucker Carlson saying, “For the first time in generations Americans have reason to believe that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies gravely misuse the powers we have given them.” If you were watching Trump’s Twitter feed, you saw an all-caps alert of BOMBSHELL, alongside declarations of total victory.
Information is evaluated based not on conformity to common standards of evidence or correspondence to a common understanding of the world, but on whether it supports the tribe’s values and goals and is vouchsafed by tribal leaders. “Good for our side” and “true” begin to blur into one. This is the logic of alternative facts, which is a strategy of base mobilization rather than persuasion. You don’t need to win the argument. You don’t need to even have the facts. All you need is to offer your side an alternative story in which to believe, a story that makes you sound trustworthy and your enemies untrustworthy. And over the past week, Fox News and Donald Trump have done exactly that.
The very first group of links in the related articles below, we see an important & worrisome message here that is the conclusion to will-truth-win-out-rob-port
They need to face “the reality of having to make editorial decisions about what’s true and what’s false.” Will they decide with an eye to the public interest rather than one fixed only on the bottom line? It’s far from clear that they will, but it matters immensely. So, let’s see. We have a president who attacks civic norms, lies with impunity and is not adequately held in check by Congress. We have a media system, tainted by the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson at Fox News, that enables him. We have unfettered technology that spreads disinformation in insidious new ways. It’s not a recipe for a functioning democracy. Thankfully — and in part because of good journalism — reality still manages to break through the murk. Sometimes, it takes a photograph of a woman’s bruised face to force the truth to be acknowledged. That’s a terrible lesson. It’s a lesson worth remembering.
The always perceptive Rubin states these comments from her article americans-dont-believe
If you are infuriated by the fear-mongering and conspiracy-spinning coming out of the right-wing media machine (not to mention the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee), you can take some solace in the knowledge that most Americans do not believe their hooey. If you are infuriated by the fear-mongering and conspiracy-spinning coming out of the right-wing media machine (not to mention the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee), you can take some solace in the knowledge that most Americans do not believe their hooey. The Marist poll is the latest to confirm high levels of support for the FBI and the Russia investigation:
Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say, if President Donald Trump and the FBI disagree, they would believe the FBI over the president. Only 24% of U.S. residents report they would take the side of Mr. Trump. With the exception of the president’s most ardent supporters, more Americans put credence in the FBI than in the president.
In sum, the GOP-led Congress and Trump are not winning over the public. At least in this poll, Democrats maintain a generic ballot advantage (49 percent to 38 percent), well above the level many analysts say is necessary to win the House majority. If Republicans want to boost their numbers, they might consider shutting down Nunes’s conspiracy machine, ceasing their baseless attacks on law enforcement and taking steps to prevent Russia from again putting its thumb on our electoral scales.
This article trump-nudging-america-
It is unclear if we are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the world order, but we certainly should be paying attention to the signs. In the past decade, Russia has been playing an increasingly assertive role on the world stage. China has been expanding its diplomatic efforts throughout the globe, and is now an economic powerhouse, and a technological and environmental leader. The most notable arena for this global shift in power is the Syrian Civil War, where the United States has capitulated to Russian interests, reinforcing Russia’s aggressive tactics. Most significantly, both Russia and China offer an alternative model of governance to Western liberal democracy. The model has already been emulated by multiple populist governments including Hungary, India, and Turkey. Here lies the great danger of the populist turn: the battleground is vulnerable democracies, and the United States is consciously neglecting its role as a defender of democracy.
There are also a group of articles on Trump’s hypocrisy in releasing memos. He exclaimed he’d release the GOP memo 100% before even reading it, yet for political reasons refused to release the Dem memo. Maybe the Dem memo was too accurate & well-sourced. Here’s an excerpt from trump-agrees-trump-author
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday refused to authorize the release of a Democratic rebuttal to a Republican intelligence committee memo alleging that FBI and Justice Department officials abused their power to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. In a letter to House intelligence committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the White House said it could not release the Democrats’ memo because the Justice Department “has identified portions…which it believes would create especially significant concerns for the national security and law enforcement interests.”
That explanation stands in stark contrast to his release of the GOP memo last Friday. The president approved its release over the strong objections of the FBI, which warned that it could jeopardize national security. “The President’s double standard when it comes to transparency is appalling,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “The rationale for releasing the Nunes memo — transparency — vanishes when it could show information that’s harmful to him. Millions of Americans are asking one simple question: what is he hiding?” The president’s refusal to release the Democrats’ memo also goes against the committee’s unanimous, bipartisan decision Monday to make it public.
Getting down into the Fox Lies group of links, this video a-tale-of-two-media-narr
Fox & Friends has spent years being the punch line of every joke about Fox News. It’s been called “TV’s dumbest news show”: a toxic mix of internet conspiracy theories, right-wing propaganda, and general absurdity. The show’s hosts have accused President Obama of going to school at a madrassa, argued that Spongebob Squarepants promotes a global warming agenda, and once tried to roast marshmallows with a plastic spoon. It’s a show that’s often parodied but rarely taken seriously outside of the Fox News bubble. And it’s now one of the most influential news shows in the US, because it has a direct line to the White House. That’s thanks to President Trump, who regularly watches the show and tweets what he sees. Trump regularly tweets about Fox & Friends’ morning news segments, often quotes Fox & Friends chyrons verbatim, and tags the show in his tweets. That’s given Fox & Friends tremendous power to hijack the news cycle; to get other networks talking about the right-wing horror stories and conspiracies that would otherwise never escape the Fox News bubble.
There are many similarities in the way Watergate & Russiagate played out (see the article from part 1 woodward-and-bernstein-trumps-
Quite frankly, the one I would most like to see spending some time in the brig is Sean Hannity. Not that I have some strong personal animus towards him, although anyone who constantly lies & deceives millions of people with a message that’s a bastardization of conservatism & could destroy our democracy, they’re easy not to like. But it would be what’s best for America, since serving jail time would knock Hannity off the air & damage his credibility with all but his most loyal toadies. Our First Amendment rights to free speech & a free press are sacrosanct, so I’m not suggesting we muzzle Hannity’s, but there is plenty of evidence he at the very least actively engaged with Trump in plotting out their obstruction of the Russian probe, from which he may have to pay the penalty & be locked away in a place he’d be temporarily forbidden from abusing his First Amendment privileges. Another outside of Trump’s campaign & White House staff who could be caught up in all this is Devin Nunes (is-devin-nunes-obstructing-ju
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