Sunday, May 21, 2017

What Happens When the Everyday Donks Figure Out They've Been Had?

Or will they EVER figure it out...?
Key Democratic Officials Now Warning Base Not to Expect Evidence of Trump/Russia Collusion

Perhaps most revealing of all are the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee — charged with investigating these matters — who recently told BuzzFeed how petrified they are of what the Democratic base will do if they do not find evidence of collusion, as they now suspect will likely be the case. “There’s a tangible frustration over what one official called ‘wildly inflated’ expectations surrounding the panel’s fledgling investigation,” BuzzFeed’s Ali Watkins wrote.

Moreover, “several committee sources grudgingly say, it feels as though the investigation will be seen as a sham if the Senate doesn’t find a silver bullet connecting Trump and Russian intelligence operatives.” One member told Watkins: “I don’t think the conclusions are going to meet people’s expectations.”

What makes all of this most significant is that officials like Clapper and Morell are trained disinformation agents; Clapper in particular has proven he will lie to advance his interests. Yet even with all the incentive to do so, they are refusing to claim there is evidence of such collusion; in fact, they are expressly urging people to stop thinking it exists. As even the law recognizes, statements that otherwise lack credibility become more believable when they are ones made “against interest.”

Media figures have similarly begun trying to tamp down expectations. Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, which published the Steele dossier, published an article yesterday warning that the Democratic base’s expectation of a smoking gun “is so strong that Twitter and cable news are full of the theories of what my colleague Charlie Warzel calls the Blue Detectives — the left’s new version of Glenn Beck, digital blackboards full of lines and arrows.” Smith added: “It is also a simple fact that while news of Russian actions on Trump’s behalf is clear, hard details of coordination between his aides and Putin’s haven’t emerged.” And Smith’s core warning is this:
Trump’s critics last year were horrified at the rise of “fake news” and the specter of a politics shaped by alternative facts, predominantly on the right. They need to be careful now not to succumb to the same delusional temptations as their political adversaries, and not to sink into a filter bubble which, after all, draws its strength not from conservative or progressive politics but from human nature.

And those of us covering the story and the stew of real information, fantasy, and — now — forgery around it need to continue to report and think clearly about what we know and what we don’t, and to resist the sugar high that comes with telling people exactly what they want to hear.
For so long, Democrats demonized and smeared anyone trying to inject basic reason, rationality, and skepticism into this Trump/Russia discourse by labeling them all Kremlin agents and Putin lovers. Just this week, the Center for American Progress released a report using the language of treason to announce the existence of a “Fifth Column” in the U.S. that serves Russia (similar to Andrew Sullivan’s notorious 2001 decree that anyone opposing the war on terror composed an anti-American “Fifth Column”), while John McCain listened to Rand Paul express doubts about the wisdom of NATO further expanding to include Montenegro and then promptly announced: “Paul is working for Vladimir Putin.”
Observation: there is exactly ONE traitor in that last exchange and it's not Paul.

8 comments:

Stef said...

As if this makes anything better.

"Donald Trump’s mounting reversals, failures and betrayals make it increasingly clear that he is a fake and a fraud.

For many of us, this is affirmative reinforcement; for others, it is devastating revelation.

But it is those who believed — and cast supportive ballots — who should feel most cheated and also most contrite. You placed your faith in a phony. His promises are crashing to earth like a fleet of paper airplanes.

He oversold what he could deliver because he had no idea what would be required to deliver it, nor did he care. He told you what you wanted to hear so that he could get what he wanted to have. He played you for fools.

That wall will not be paid for by Mexico, if in fact it is ever built. If it is built, it will likely look nothing like what Trump said it would look like. His repeal and replace of Obamacare flopped. That failure endangers his ability to deliver on major tax reform and massive infrastructure spending. China is no longer in danger of being labeled a currency manipulator. The administration is now sending signals that ripping up the Iran nuclear deal isn’t a sure bet."

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/opinion/a-fake-and-a-fraud.html

Stan said...

Well, well. Quoting the NYT as a source on Trump's fraud is quite droll. The NYT and WaPo and MSM are now publishing fraud on every front page. They no longer need any evidence, because they are gods. They publish innuendo as if it were the truth about Trump. They have no reason to hate Trump except that they are evil. So they make up rumors and publish them as being evidence against Trump. There is no one who is lower than these MSM vermin, unless it is the Leftist Congressional vermin.

Trump is doing what needs to be done. Three months in he has fully established that most of the government is treasonous. Absolute fact. He has established that much of the Republican party is completely incompetent. Another absolute fact. He has established that the White House itself is full of treason, and probably fully bugged in order to eavesdrop on Trump's every conversation - Obama's dirty tricks know no bounds.

Trump is, in fact, modifying positions to some degree. To the Left, that should be satisfying, but no they (you) hate that part about Trump too.

Hatred is the mood of the day, as the Left makes up all sorts of stories about how evil Trump is. They didn't flinch at Obama's flaunting of Congress, at the gift of weaponry to the Mexican cartels, at the use of the government to persecute their political enemies, at the murder by incompetence of an ambassador in Benghazi, and dozens of other actual illegalities.

But Trump gets two (2) scoops of ice cream, and the Left shits itself.

Trump is fully on his own. There is no one he can trust, including his son-in-law (who he probably does trust but shouldn't). Trump is one man against an entire governmental gestapo.

He has done very well, considering the odds stacked against him.

And he is far, FAR preferable to Hillary - empty woman - Clinton, who would sell us all in order to make another nickel. Read what Paglia, the feminist, said about Hillary.

At any rate, I wish Trump well, and I don't envy him his position in the Leftist traitorous snake pit. And the lack of support from the Republican snake pit.

Stef said...

That's the problem with ring-wing conspiracy thoughts. You think everything and everyone is out to get you and into some sort of evil destructive path. Get off right-wing blogs a little bit, you might learn something.

Stan said...

Stef,
That's maximally arrogant. I view Leftist crap all the time. You would do well to investigate the lies that the Left puts out - unless you want to believe, because of your ideological lock down. The Left not only lies every day, they refuse to print stories that reveal the truth, especially the truth about themselves.

That's why wikileaks exists: to reveal the ethical/moral void that is the Left. And also part of the Republican Party as well.

The fact that you attribute the truth to paranoia or some sort of insanity shows your inability to objectively, critically analyze either the Left or the Right does certainly suggest a cultish belief in the totalitarian approach to the (impossible) utopia which the Left promises... if they could only eradicate all the free thinkers who are in the way.

Freedom vs. locked down utopia: your choice.

Stef said...

I chose freedom, you locked yourself up in right-wing conspiracies, populist thinking and emotional reactions

Steven Satak said...

@Stef: project much?

Stef said...

Steven, go away silly troll, you're just patting Stan on the back, you're fake.

Stef said...

Well we both are then!! But at least I made some points. You don't even try.