Peter Strzok Explains His Personal Views DID NOT Extend To Rest Of FBI or Investigations….And he did so forcefully & convincingly! Trump’s congressional henchmen have kept trying to stir up a hornet’s nest for months by claiming the personal anti-Trump messages from Peter Strzok somehow taints the entire FBI, which by connection somehow taints the Mueller probe. Strzok effectively shot down that crazy accusation, stating his expressing private opinions to a lover was a view he didn’t branch out to other FBI agents or tarnish his job responsibilities conducting the investigations. All of us have personal opinions, but it’s preposterous the way Trump’s lawyers & congressional/echo lackeys somehow extrapolate one lone FBI agent’s personal messages into discrediting the entire investigation. But they must be desperate & grasping at straws, since they have no legal way to defend against what we’ll someday learn of the evidence in its totality from the Russian scandal. Funny how these GOP politicians show no interest in uncovering the ways Russia is attacking us.
In their desperation, Trump’s GOP sycophants on the congressional committees made fools of themselves yesterday, turning the Peter Strzok hearing into a day long sideshow & even kangaroo court. It’s modern-day McCarthyism gone haywire! They have no evidence whatsoever Strzok’s personal animus had any effect on the FBI properly doing their job. There are no signs of any conspiracy here. The only conspiracies are the fictitious ones being placed in the minds of Fox’s viewers. The real witch hunt is the way Trump-world is trying to give legs to all these outlandish conspiracies to disrupt & cast doubt on the Mueller probe. And as those Trump puppets in Congress stoop so low as demanding sensitive information be exposed pertinent to an ongoing investigation, it only recklessly puts our worldwide intelligence sources & nation’s security at risk! They’re willing to use any lie or evil tactic to undermine the DOJ/FBI & Mueller, since they have no interest in getting at the truth, they’re only trying to protect their corrupt leader. And after all, Mueller did fire him as soon as Strzok’s views became known, so special counsel makes sure his team is squeaky clean.
Trey Gowdy looked like he was about to pull out his Trump-like hair at yesterday’s hearing, perhaps trying to rescue his GOP cred from the Benghazi probe flop. Now today in a private hearing, they’re also grilling the mistress of Peter Strzok, that being Lisa Page, looking for any slip up they can use to spin some false tale the FBI was biased. And did you catch the accusations by the dumbest member of Congress, Louie Gohmert (whom I have always referred to as Gomer Pyle), going way out of bounds by getting personal in complaining how Strzok lied to his wife: rep-louie-gohmerts-question-
I also promised to keep us up-to-date on Jim Jordan’s potential cover-up in the long-running Ohio State University sex abuse scandal, so here are some articles inside jim-jordan-is-
Fox News Lies & Corruption
Hillary Clinton has played no active role in our politics since she lost the 2016 presidential election. She has watched from the sidelines as Donald Trump writes one of the most scandal-plagued chapters of the American presidency. But on Fox News, the character “Hillary Clinton” still plays a crucial part in the story. I call her a character because the value Fox News finds in Clinton is largely a narrative one. Fox News has devoted itself to painting Trump as a protagonist, which can be hard given the scandals, the incompetence, and the cruelty. But with the perfectly crafted villain, anyone can be made a hero. And that villain is, still, Hillary Clinton. Since Trump’s inauguration, Fox News has consistently covered Clinton more than other cable news channels — by a wide margin. This “Hillary” character — in which Fox News has found so much value — isn’t a post-2016 invention, nor is it purely a Fox News creation. Rather, it’s the product of 30 years of character development by the media and her opponents, which has resulted in a blunt storytelling tool for the pro-Trump news network.
As Fox News’s boss, Roger Ailes took the caricaturing of Clinton to extremes. As New York Times reporter Amy Chozick writes: Over two decades, Fox News made Mrs. Clinton one of the longest-running villains on TV. Mr. Ailes would rewrite her part over the years: In the 1990s, she was a bra-burning affront to stay-at-home mothers; in her Senate race, she was an entitled wife riding on her husband’s coattails; by the 2008 primary, she was Lady MacBeth, desperate to star in her own production. In 2016, Mr. Ailes made Mrs. Clinton, a centrist Democrat whose most audacious campaign promise was that she wouldn’t over-promise (“we don’t need any more of that”), seem like a cross between Saul Alinsky and Ramsay Bolton.
After every presidential election, the losing candidate continues to play a role as the face of the losing party. We can see this trend with both John McCain after his 2008 loss and Mitt Romney after his 2012 loss. But the residual coverage of Clinton far surpasses them on all networks. Of all the cable networks, it’s Fox News that has gotten the most mileage from this character. Last fall, congressional Republicans and Fox News pushed the Uranium One conspiracy — the idea Hillary Clinton personally benefited from sale of uranium to Russia. This is untrue. When Fox News reports on FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia, they make sure to bring Clinton into the story. They say it was Clinton who started this witch hunt — that it was her campaign that paid for the “fake Russian dossier,” which eventually led to the investigation. (The Clinton campaign did pay for the dossier, but we don’t know how much of a part it played in the initial FISA warrant, despite top Republicans trying to prove otherwise.)
Sometimes, they just use Clinton as a foil to show that, no matter what Trump did, Clinton is way worse. When there is news that legitimately involves Clinton, Fox News ramps up its coverage. The network was particularly interested in the Justice Department’s inspector general’s report, which looked at the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. Many Fox News pundits, including Hannity, believed it would show the FBI was protecting Clinton — that there was an alternate justice system for elites like the Clintons. (It showed no such thing.) All of these narratives are complex. It requires a bit of mental gymnastics to justify Clinton being the topic of these stories. But it all makes sense for Fox and its viewers. ”What Fox wanted was the president having sex in a room Reagan wouldn’t walk into without a jacket on,” Lucianne Goldberg, a regular Fox News guest during Bill Clinton’s presidency, told Gabriel Sherman. She added, “Roger [Ailes] understands you must simplify, simplify, simplify.” And on Fox News, there’s nothing simpler than “Hillary.”
It has become rather apparent as of late that Trump & Fox News are now joined at the hip, thoroughly corrupted & immersed in their own lies: resident-trump-anoints-
President Trump’s connections to Fox News got even stronger last week with his appointment of Bill Shine, a former network co-president, to serve as the White House’s deputy chief of staff for communications. Gabriel Sherman, who covers the White House for Vanity Fair, notes that Shine has been named in “numerous lawsuits” related to the sexual harassment claims filed against the former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. “To me, it’s mind-boggling that someone with this amount of baggage, who is too toxic for an institution like Fox News … would become one of the highest-ranking members of the federal government,” Sherman says of Shine. Less surprising to Sherman is the overall influence that Fox News has on the Trump White House — and vice versa: “I saw this trend really started developing in the Obama years, as the right-wing media and the Republican Party started to fuse into this single entity.” Fast-forward to 2018, Sherman notes, and “there’s almost no daylight now between the agenda of the White House and the agenda of Fox News. … In many ways, Donald Trump is the logical conclusion of entertainment and right-wing media taking over the Republican Party.”
Expose Trump Lies By Sharing This Blog
Trump does lie constantly, so as these excerpts from what-we-can-do-about-
As the political season heats up, Trump is ramping up his lies through his three amplifiers: Fox News, rallies and Twitter. According to The Fact Checker’s database, the average daily rate of Trump’s false or misleading claims is climbing. The problem isn’t just the number or flagrancy of the lies — for example, that Putin and the Russians didn’t intervene in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, or that the Mueller investigation is part of a Democratic plot to remove him. And it’s not just that the lies are about big, important public issues — for example, that immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans, or trade wars are harmless. The biggest problem is his lies aren’t subject to the filters traditionally applied to presidential statements – a skeptical press, experts who debunk falsehoods and respected politicians who publicly disagree.
Around 6 million Americans watch Fox News each day and relate what they see and hear to their friends and relations. Fox News is no longer intermediating between the public and Trump. Fox News is Trump. Many of his lies originate with Fox News; Fox News amplifies the ones that originate with Trump. Fox News’s Sean Hannity is one of Trump’s de facto top advisers. Trump has just appointed Bill Shine, the former number two at Fox News, as his deputy chief of staff for communications. No democracy can function under a continuous bombardment of unmediated lies.
So what are we to do, other than vote on Nov. 6 to constrain Trump? First, boycott Fox News’s major sponsors, listed here. Vote with your wallet and starve the beast. Get others to join you. Second, attend Trump’s rallies, as distasteful as this may be. You’re entitled to attend. He is, after all, the president of the entire country. Organize and mobilize large groups to attend with you. Once there, let your views about his lies be heard and seen by the press. Third, sign up for his tweets, and respond to his lies with the simple: “b.s.” But as the political season heats up, Trump’s lies are heating up, too. And they will sway unwary voters. So you need to be active now, before Election Day — on behalf of the truth.
More on the incessant lies are seen inside democrats-must-fight-for-
Democrats need to talk about impeachment. The story of why Trump should be impeached is the story of the greatest con in American history, one that, if Democrats are not working tirelessly to expose, they are aiding and abetting. They need to call a lie a lie and a grift a grift — quickly, forcefully and repeatedly. They need to articulate a clear, resounding vision in powerfully symbolic language, every day, and connect the dots between that vision and the effect it has on real people’s lives. Democrats need to fight the good fight, even for causes that might seem lost, and especially for the most urgent cause of all: salvaging our democracy. There’s more at stake than just an election.
Kavanaugh & Evangelicals
Of course, evangelicals have high hopes the new court can overturn Roe v. Wade. But let’s be cautious of the many heretics parading out there as religious leaders, even Trump’s personal religious adviser spewing her nonsense: trump-evangelical-ally-jesus-
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in an interview on Wednesday that Judge Kavanaugh’s belief in broad presidential authority was “just off the deep end.” For Democrats facing an uphill struggle to block Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation, his protective views of the presidency could prove to be a bright red ribbon. Rather than just playing it safe with a broad swath of voters worried about access to health care and abortion, Democrats now see an opportunity to excite their base by fanning fears that the highest court in the land could turn into a bulwark to protect the man appointing its members. As the judge made the rounds of the Capitol — he paid courtesy calls on Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina — Mr. Schumer and his Democratic colleagues were gaming out a line of questioning that, they hope, will create a perception that a Justice Kavanaugh would compromise the independence of the court. In two law journal articles — one published in 1998 and another in 2009 — Judge Kavanaugh raised questions about whether a sitting president could be indicted, and suggested that presidents should be shielded from civil suits and criminal investigations. Both explore issues that are deeply relevant to Mr. Trump and the ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
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