Drudge has this Circa report highlighted:
Did the FBI retaliate against Michael Flynn by launching Russia probe?
Guess this is the Trump counter-offensive. With the Clinton/Obama hacks leaking right and left trying to destroy Trump and Trump’s crowd fighting back, the Russians don’t have to work hard to undermine American democracy. Sure looks like our own rabid partisans are doing a bang-up job, without any hostile foreign assistance.
Filed under Politics, Public Corruption
After watching Donald Trump’s political media strategy for two years, his opponents, in the GOP, in the media, the panoply of enemies arrayed on the Left, and those who consider removing Trump from office a patriotic duty or perhaps revenge( Comey & friends), you’d think they would have learned how Trump operates. They haven’t learned anything and it’s pathetic to watch Trump outmaneuver them over and over and over.
Trump’s attacks don’t depend on facts or truth, they depend on optics. It’s a show and he takes charge of the stage every time. Trump’s opponents, many of them Tweet warriors, attack him relentlessly on Twitter and they recycle through all their old talking points – Trump’s taxes, his multitude of bold-faced lies, his chaotic White House, etc., etc., etc. Some hope the constant negative drumbeat will erode Trump’s poll numbers and aid in taking Trump down. I suspect only the political geeks follow all of this closely and most Americans just go about their daily lives, tuning it out.
Trump foes overplayed the “Russian collusion” hysteria and Trump has now seized the Russian issue and used the Friday, big Washington Post story to turn the tables on President Obama, leaving the big “Russian collusion” hysterics in a position where they were forced to admit that President Obama didn’t do enough last summer to counter the Russian cyber attacks.
Trump now controls the Russian narrative and his loyal sycophant, Sean Hannity has begun spreading the talking point that “even if Trump had colluded with the Russians, that’s not illegal”. They are working to inoculate Trump from any damaging revelations that might come from Mueller’s investigation, by convincing Trump’s most loyal followers that this investigation is just an unfair witch hunt.
So, with all this being played out last week, you’d think the Comey group, who are working to takedown Trump, would be wary of Trump’s ability to use the media to his advantage. Nope, Comey’s friend, Benjamin Wittes, on Friday, after the big Washington Post story on the Russian threat, tweeted:
TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK
To be clear, fuse length on this one is uncertain. Could be today. Could be Monday.
Why on earth would anyone, who has watched Trump operate, give Trump a head’s up of more damaging information on the way? Trump quickly seized on “Obama didn’t do anything to stop the Russians” and flipped the Russian collusion attack on its head.
His opponents have hurled the same talking points, over and over, since November. They haven’t produced any credible evidence of “Russian collusion”. And Trump, sensing another wave of attacks, preempted them by pushing Obama’s inaction on the Russian threat, the Loretta Lynch meeting with Bill Clinton and the DNC/media corrupt collusion to do in Bernie Sanders out front.
Trump just steamrolled them.
Trump isn’t a great strategist, but he’s an expert at stealing the show and sucking up all the oxygen.
Matthew Continetti explains the problem with how news is reported in a very good National Review piece:
They’re Wrong About Everything
Continetti explains:
“Events are turning me into a radical skeptic. I no longer believe what I read, unless what I am reading is an empirically verifiable account of the past. I no longer have confidence in polls, because it has become impossible to separate the signal from the noise. What I have heard from the media and political class over the last several years has been so spectacularly proven wrong by events, again and again, that I sometimes wonder why I continue to read two newspapers a day before spending time following journalists on Twitter. Habit, I guess. A sense of professional obligation, I suppose. Maybe boredom.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448929/media-democrats-republicans-does-anyone-know-anything
Between the mainstream media running Dem spin, Fox News running Trump spin and Twitter being the news sausage factory, we’re stuck in a news vacuum, despite being inundated with breathless reporting. This news dilemma seems much like the situation with TV, where we have hundreds of channels, yet nothing worth watching.
Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, The Media
I am trying to stop laughing at the shameless WaPo/Obama team propaganda effort to breath life into the “Russian collusion” story, that is on life support.
“In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy.”
Seriously, “crime of the century”???
What a pathetic piece of trash journalism and media collusion to keep the Democrats “Russian collusion” hysteria going. The truth is, yes, the Russians tried to interfere in our election and their cyber-activities have been escalating . That escalation was a growing concern among the intelligence community for the past few years. The truth also is that the Obama administration tried to downplay that threat and did very little to combat it out of political concerns with working out their Iran deal. Add in that President Obama is a waffler who prefers to “lead from behind” (not make decisions).
Only when the “Russian collusion” became a Dem talking point did the Russians cyber-activities become a national crisis. Heck, the DNC even refused to let the FBI analyze their computer system after it was hacked. If the Dems were so concerned about the Russian cyber-threat, why didn’t the DNC cooperate with the FBI investigation?
Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics
Here’s an interesting read:
Filed under General Interest, Politics, ThatWitch2016
The political atmosphere in America continues to descend into deeper partisan divides and the media’s frenetic spinning the news keeps perpetuating confusion and keeping America’s politics in a state of constant chaos.
Believing the worst of political opponents and those who hold differing views is the new normal. Extreme partisans feverishly work to launch vicious smear campaigns to destroy the character of political opponents, without any concern for the veracity of their scurrilous attacks in this endless scorched earth information war. With American partisans so entrenched in this self-destructive, by-any-means necessary, war of words, the Russians don’t have to do much to “influence” or work to destroy our democratic institutions. Our own partisans are burning them down rapidly, while Putin sits back and laughs at “America developing political schizophrenia”.
Here are two reading recommendations
David French’s piece: To Defend Trump, The GOP Is Becoming a Party Bill Clinton Would Love
The other is a book, Stopping Words That Hurt, Positive Words In a World Gone Negative, by Dr. Michael Sedler. I read this book a couple years ago and last night I started reading it again. I have it in kindle format, but it’s available in paperback at amazon now. While the book is written from a Christian perspective, the lessons really are universal and just plain old common decency. He explains why, what biblically is referred to as “evil reporting”, lying, gossiping, spreading negative stories about others, is only half of the issue. He explains why listening to “evil reporting” is very destructive and he offers many positive personal strategies to “stopping words that hurt”. I need to work a lot harder on this.
In a country where the media and politicians are consumed by their scorched earth war of words, to win the news cycle, I think all of us need to start demanding a truce in this “cold civil war”.
The following is a repost of my December 13, 2016 blog post. Sadly, I was wrong. Hillary’s coup may have failed to prevent Donald Trump from being inaugurated, but the Left is determined to see that he is impeached. Trump’s own behavior may end up helping them succeed. Besides the Left’s relentless, Resist efforts, there’s a core Trump Flight 93 media attack squad too, who work just like the Left’s spinners. These Trump mouthpieces attack anyone who isn’t on the Trump Train, working to destroy them. They also defend Trump and make excuses for the many inexcusable things Trump says and does. The rest of us are stuck being bombarded by their propaganda barrages every day. This continuing 2016 Presidential Election scorched earth information war is severely damaging America, because America’s federal government looks completely dysfunctional and that is the biggest win for the Russians from the 2016 Presidential Election:
Finished another plastic canvas box.
Here’s a rundown of the Clinton/Dem/Colluding Media talking points I’ve seen, being hysterically repeated on Twitter and various news sites in the last few days:
The liberal media has shed all pretense of being objective journalists, in fact, many are little more than Democratic hacks. The hysteria over Americans paying attention to Wikileaks over American journalists’ reporting or Democrat mouthpieces speaks not to Americans being idiots, it speaks to people TRUST Wikileaks (a likely Russian front) over American journalists and the liberal media.
Following Twitter, is an exercise in frantic, sore-loser talking points, most bogus or deeply disingenuous, being breathlessly repeated by a cadre of big name “journalists” and news organizations 24/7. It’s like kids at summer camp, sitting in a circle around a campfire, whispering something in the next person’s ear and saying, “Pass it on!”
President Obama has had numerous rappers at the White House. Hillary had Beyonce and Jay Z campaigning with her, but Kanye West showing up at Trump Tower this morning represents some new low in lack of seriousness about the presidency, according to the likes of Andrea Mitchell. I thought she was traveling with Hillary’s campaign, but guess she missed seeing Beyonce and Jay Z…
I think Trump will be a disaster as President. I believe he’s very corrupt. However, I thought the same things about President Obama and America survived. I believe the same things about Hillary too, so I take solace in the FACT that America is much more than our President and we are still a very blessed and fortunate people, because we are FREE. There are millions of wonderful people in America and thankfully most of us encounter them and not these corrupt journalists and shady politicians in our everyday lives. We still are free to go about our daily lives, to dream, to set off on new adventures and to hope and dream. For me, needlework is a stress-reliever, so I’m stitching away… another tissue box cover – three sides done since Sunday:
I have a feeling the Trump years will be very productive stitching years for me, lol. Oh, the little yarn tails on the top center are just my marking the top, while I stitch, so I know which side is the top when I set my sewing down and then go back to it.
Trump worries me, but the corrupt Clinton/Dem/Media cabal scare the crap out of me. The Russian hacking/ interference is bad, but so far there’s no evidence they tampered with ballot boxes, so the election is legitimate – end of conversation! The Dems with this recount fiasco, pushing the propaganda that the popular vote should count and not the electoral college, and now the desperation pitch for a do-over election, ostensibly because of Russian interference are trying to supplant the constitutional process all to prop up a very corrupt woman, who will do anything to be President. And her enablers are ready to discard The Constitution to assist her. I would have supported legal efforts to dump Trump as the Republican candidate before the election, but the general election is THE election, according to The Constitution and that’s FINAL!
Donald Trump deserves the opportunity to take office and be the President of the United States. The Americans who voted for him deserve that too. And frankly, respect for The Constitution demands we follow the rules. If he is a disaster, there are constitutional remedies for that too, but it’s ridiculous to talk about impeaching him before he’s even taken office (which some leftist loons are proposing).
Yesterday, John Podesta, who fell for a common phishing scam and gave the hackers his email password, supported a demand for a special CIA briefing on Russian hacking for electors. One of the chief organizers of this elector effort is Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. The electors don’t have security clearances, so anything the CIA can tell them, they can tell all of America – so cut the drama queen act and just have the CIA release the information. My bet is neither the Obama White House nor the CIA will do this, because they’ve exaggerated the facts.
Even President Obama has gotten into the Russian hacking propaganda blitz and it’s revolting. The Dems are demanding new investigations into Russian hacking, despite the fact there already are ongoing Congressional investigations into Russian hacking. Prior to this election hysteria, the Obama administration tried to downplay the Russian hacking threat.
So, the administration, where widespread use of private email was common practice, including by President Obama, now wants to champion fighting cyber-threats??? Be for real, the first line of defense against cyber-attacks is good online practices… like using SECURE systems for government business.
President Obama used his private gmail account to email Hillary at her private server email address. Huma Abedin was sure the Obama/Hillary email the FBI showed her, which was part of a classified CHAIN, had to be classified. Let’s start by finding out what kind of information President Obama was sending via his private gmail account, before we get too excited about the Russian hacking.
The Democrats are in mass hysteria about investigations into Russian hacking, well, sure let’s find out who they hacked, how they hacked and what was done to prevent their hacking.
It’s hard not to laugh at Democratic mouthpieces hysterically demanding an email investigation as the last ditch effort to beg, borrow or steal the election for Hillary. The clock is ticking…to December 19th.
If these people weren’t able to wield so much influence in America, I’d be laughing, because was there ever a more ridiculous leader to put forth as tough enough to take on Russian hacking, than Hillary Clinton??? She is the Democrats’ champion on facing America’s cyber-threats???
She couldn’t even keep track of her own blackberries, she had her Filipino maid printing out classified emails in the SCIF in her DC home, she and her State Dept. staff were sending classified information on her home-brew server, and she believed her private email server was secure, because the Secret Service protect her home… If foreign intelligence agencies around the globe aren’t laughing at the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton and fools like Michael Morell, I would be shocked:
“Former CIA acting director Michael Morell called the intelligence agency’s conclusion that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election to help President-elect Donald Trump “the political equivalent of 9/11.”
“A foreign government messing around in our elections is, I think, an existential threat to our way of life. To me, and this is to me not an overstatement, this is the political equivalent of 9/11,” Morell said in an interview posted Sunday on The Cipher Brief. “It is huge and the fact that it hasn’t gotten more attention from the Obama Administration, Congress, and the mainstream media, is just shocking to me.””
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/michael-morell-russia-us-elections-232495
Too bad these fools don’t realize that THEY and THEIR own weak policies and careless handling of information practically handed the information to the Russians. John Podesta did hand his emails to them…
“Fake news”…. yeah, the people who sold the SPIN cycle to the American people want to lecture Americans on fake news … what a farce!
Here’s the link to the FBI Employment Agreement, which lays out rules for releasing information, to include information that is not classified, to the media or outside parties:
Filed under General Interest, Politics
Comey has done more to unify Republicans in the past 24 hours than Trump has done since he became the Republican nominee for president. Here are my observations from Comey’s testimony and the political fall-out.
Today the media is in full-throated defense of Comey. Pelosi is tweeting about #ProtectOurDemocracy from Trump & the Russians, I presume, and America’s War of Words continues (here and here).
Up for redefinition, courtesy James Comey’s testimony, are a “matter”, where Comey testified yesterday that Loretta Lynch asked him to refer to the Clinton criminal investigation as a “matter”. Comey did obey and used that Clinton spin language. Now, Team Lynch is rebutting that Comey was told to do that characterization and I saw one tweet explaining the goal was to use consistent language, not a spin effort to use the Clinton campaign language to downplay the criminal investigation:
Ari MelberVerified account @AriMelber 18 hours ago
MoreNew: A denial/clarification of Comey statement about Lynch, from a source familiar with discussion, to NBC News: pic.twitter.com/vqsAmWsidF
Comey’s double-standard problem stems from his being a willing lackey for the Dems with burying the Clinton criminal investigation and aiding in Loretta Lynch’s Clinton clean-up effort. Lynch was caught meeting privately with the spouse of a target of a criminal investigation. She refused to recuse herself from the investigation, but instead, put Comey in a compromising position, by making a public statement that she would abide by the FBI’s recommendation on the Clinton investigation. It is NOT the FBI’s job to make a recommendation on prosecution, but Comey went along with that.
Comey compromised his integrity thoroughly on July 5, 2016. He went from mischaracterizing a criminal investigation to creating an intent provision in the law, exonerating Hillary Clinton using that made-up provision and then coining a new phrase “extremely careless” to mischaracterize and downplay her grossly negligent mishandling of highly classified information. Lynch promptly closed the criminal investigation (in Clinton/mainstream media parlance, that criminal investigation was not only a “matter” it was a “right-wing witch hunt”).
Comey appeared before Congress to explain his decisions and he sounded more like Hillary’s defense attorney than the director of the FBI. Loretta Lynch, likewise testified before Congress about the investigation. Her testimony was akin to giving the Congressional Republicans questioning her the middle finger. It was a disgraceful stone-walling effort.
President Trump is an epic liar, just like the Clintons. No need to rehash the endless, ongoing partisan War of Words, but America was the big loser yesterday. There were no “winners”. Comey damaged himself in some ways, helped himself a bit in others. Trump came across as corruptly trying to influence a FBI investigation and putting political pressure on the FBI director, but he won big on some other points.
Comey admitted that he personally leaked his memos of his meetings with President Trump to the media, through a third-party, a friend. This admission made Comey appear to be out for revenge and a partisan leaker. That Comey’s friend, Preet Bharara, a Trump-fired DOJ official, was sitting in a reserved seat, courtesy of Chuck Schumer, added to the partisan political aura surrounding Comey. Today, the pundits are debating if Comey’s memos were personal notes or official FBI records and if what Comey did was “leaking” vs. whistleblowing. Anonymous Trump sources suggested that Trump’s lawyer may demand Comey’s leaking be investigated. Comey legal eagle friends are countering that such a request would be Trump abusing power… to silence a whistleblower.
Comey is not a whistleblower. His notes are not like his personal diary and per his own testimony, those notes were FBI documents at the center of several high-level FBI meetings about the ongoing investigation into Mike Flynn. If these memos were part of the official FBI decision-making process on an important investigation, that would make them official records, I believe. Jonathan Turley, Georgetown Law Professor, argues that Comey’s memos are FBI documents:
“The problem is that Comey’s description of his use of an FBI computer to create memoranda to file suggests that these are arguably government documents. Comey admitted that he thought he raised the issue with his staff and recognized that they might be needed by the Department or Congress. They read like a type of field 302 form, which are core investigatory documents.
The admission of leaking the memos is problematic given the overall controversy involving leakers undermining the Administration. Indeed, it creates a curious scene of a former director leaking material against the President after the President repeatedly asked him to crack down on leakers.”
https://jonathanturley.org/2017/06/08/did-comey-violate-laws-in-leaking-memo/
Alas we move from Bill Clinton’s server, for his foundation emails, being cast as Hillary’s server, to the contents of that server being divided into State Department records and Hillary’s personal emails, with Bill Clinton’s foundation emails disappearing literally and from any mention by the media, to now Comey’s memos are being cast as Comey’s Dear Diary entries… Psst, don’t forget that David Kendall’s office reported to the media that they had saved the entire content on that server on a thumb drive. Patrick Kennedy, the State Dept Clinton email fixer, testified to Congress that he believed the FBI had that thumb drive (along with Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson’s laptops).
From Comey’s public pronouncements exonerating Hillary Clinton, going so far as to insist she had no criminal intent, it’s not surprising that Trump, being as corrupt as the Clintons, assumed Comey would play ball and be willing to play with him too. Comey admitted to telling Trump three times that he was not under investigation and Trump became angry that Comey would not exonerate him publicly. Comey decided not to compromise his integrity for Trump as he had for Hillary Clinton.
Paul Ryan characterized Trump as being “naive” about how things work as an excuse for Trump’s highly inappropriate pressure in those private conversations with Comey. Trump isn’t “naive”, in fact, if there’s one thing Trump is an expert at it’s reading people and leveraging power. Trump expected Comey to play politics with him, just as Comey had done for Lynch/Clinton. Trump will overplay his hand, trying to fight Comey, Dems and the media and go too far attacking Comey. He was back on Twitter this morning, rallying his base by branding Comey “a leaker”.
All of this endless redefinition and spin highlights the complete dysfunction of our political parties.
Comey played the martyr:
“Maine Sen. Angus King was pressing Comey about how he interpreted phrases President Donald Trump used in a one-on-one February dinner, in which Trump urged Comey to drop the probe into just-fired national security adviser Mike Flynn.King, an independent, asked Comey if he interpreted language like “I hope” as directives from the President.“Yes. It kind of rings in my ears as, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?'” Comey said.”
“A plague o’ both your houses!”
A pox on both your houses!
Former DNI, James Clapper, a liar under oath, was on TV lamenting about the “assault” on our institutions with the Russian trying to interfere in our election and Trump’s attacks on the intelligence community.
The media is stuck on moral preening about the “dangers” Trump poses to our republic daily, but here’s the one truth the media and Dems completely ignore:
The Dems colluded with the mainstream media to the tune of millions of dollars in free media to aid and abet Trump’s “GOP Insurgency”. Without their CORRUPT collusion, it is very unlikely Trump could have gained traction and been taken seriously as a presidential candidate. The media SOLD Trump to the American people as a viable candidate and they also sat on negative Trump stories until Trump’s GOP insurgency had succeeded.
The Russians ability to engage in cyber attacks is a direct result of the Obama administration (of which Clapper played a vital role) failure to act aggressively against escalating Russian cyber attacks and influence operations.
All the moral preening, from those who were a part of the Obama intelligence failures and corrupt Dem mass media spin operations (EVERY Democrat in Congress included) is deflection.
The GOP failed to defend its own party from a “GOP insurgency” waged by a loudmouth, Reality TV host.
And the American people have no respect of “our institutions” or they would not have settled for two completely corrupt candidates.
Our institutions were under assault long before Trump, otherwise a scorched earth information war between two extremely corrupt candidates, like Trump and Hillary, would not have been tolerated by the American people.
The Russians took advantage of the weaknesses in “our institutions”. Clapper should be held to account for his large role in the security failures, but the political class, the media and most of all the American people will have to wake-up and face their culpability too.
Blaming the Russians for attacking our institutions won’t save America.
Only a united America can do that.
libertybelle diaries 