No Trump-era fiction has been more profoundly internalized and repeated within the closed conservative information system than the fiction that Trump is the victim of a plot by the FBI.
Samuel Johnson once stood talking with James Boswell about a theory expressed by a certain Bishop Berkeley that the external world was made up entirely of representations. There was no reality, only beliefs. Disgusted, Johnson said : “I refute it thus!”—and aimed a kick at a nearby boulder.
The point being: You can believe what you want, but if you ignore the rocks, you’ll badly hurt your toe. The Republican world would do well to take this story to heart.
It’s another familiar story that conservatives have built themselves a closed information system. The system generates and repeats agreed fictions, and people are rewarded according to their ability to internalize, repeat, and embellish these fictions.
The system has revved itself into hyper-activity in the Trump years. And no Trump-era fiction has been more profoundly internalized and repeated within the closed conservative information system than the fiction that Trump is the victim of a plot by the FBI. This particular fiction is exceedingly complicated. Its details shift from day to day. It is most often repeated not as a coherent statement of checkable facts, but as an outraged sequence of bullet points: Fusion GPS! Deep State! The Democrats are the real colluders!
Even on its own terms, the story does not make sense. Within the closed information system, it is simultaneously believed—for example—both that former FBI Director James Comey deserved to be fired for his unfairness to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and also that Comey cannot be trusted because of his flagrant bias in favor of the Clinton’s presidential campaign. But the whole point of a closed information system is that the things are not believed because they make sense. Things are believed because the closed information system has ratified and repeated them.
In some times and places, closed information systems are backed with coercive power. President Trump obviously hankers for that power. But as yet, that power is lacking within the American system. The closed conservative information system is binding only for those who agree to submit to it.
Which has created this problem for Trump and his political allies. Twice now their closed knowledge system has told them that secret memos would vindicate Trump of the Russia-collusion charge. The first time, it was the memo written by the Republican staff of the House Intelligence Committee; the second time—just these past few days—the notes James Comey wrote to memorialize his post-inauguration meetings with Trump. The inhabitants of the closed conservative knowledge system demanded the memos be released—only to suffer a shock when they got their wish. Nobody outside the closed knowledge system was even slightly impressed by either, and even inside the system the supposed secret weapon was quietly discarded as worthless. (Notice that not even The Wall Street Journal editorial page, which did so much to publicize it in advance, ever alludes to the Nunes memo now. It has popped like a soap bubble, leaving behind only a faint residue of scum.)
Normally this would not matter. But it matters now because the inhabitants of the knowledge system confront the legal equivalent of Johnson’s boulder—the Mueller investigation. They may tell themselves that investigation will soon end without result. They are saying it again now. But it does not go away, and as it rolls forward it keeps winning guilty pleas from people ever closer to the president and his family.
In a true crisis—which does seem to be coming—the closed conservative information system will offer an indispensable resource to Trump. It will isolate his followers from ugly realities and mobilize them to his defense. A cynical politician once remarked, “It doesn’t matter what damn lie we tell, so long as we all tell the same damn lie”—and that plan offers Trump his best hope.
But before the crisis arrives, the habit of relying on false information leads to bad decision-making—like the very bad decision to leak the Comey memos. Those memos have enhanced James Comey’s testimony, and left Trump looking guiltier than ever. The big news in the Comey memos is that Comey directly told Reince Priebus that a federal court had issued a FISA warrant against his national-security adviser. The president presumably knew this—and kept Flynn on the job while pressuring Comey to end the investigation of Flynn. The leak of the Comey memos has succeeded only in more deeply implicating Trump in the gravest espionage scandal of recent decades.
The rock really is there. And after this latest kick at it, Trump’s toes must hurt worse than ever.
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Rod Rosenstein outsmarted the Republicans in Congress, and the Trump apologists in general.
Nunes thought he would get hold of Comey's memos and leak cherry picked excerpts to damage Comey.
Unfortunately for him Rosenstein allowed the memos to be released to the press, and they were published to the general public before Nunes had a chance to tamper with and mischaracterize their content.
Lo and behold, the memos completely correspond with what Comey has been saying all along, and only serve to bolster his overall credibility.
The conservatives trying to save Trump's ass can't get out of their own way.
Trump and reality are two different things.
Doesn't matter. His base is holding. What Trump really is does not matter. The reflection is the perfection.
I am fairly sure that polling has showed that twice as many Americans believe Comey as believe Trump.
Which is not surprising since Comey is a "boy scout" and Trump is completely delusional.
This all must be very embarrassing to traditional Republicans.
Traditional republicans? If it weren't for them there would not be a Trump. He is the GOP they never had the guts to admit.
If it does come down to credibility then Trump does not stand a chance. This is one of those times when his constantly telling lies on a daily basis comes back to bite him. He has no real credibility left when he needs some and Comey has a sterling reputation, comparatively speaking. It's no contest. Credibility? Comey plus 100. Trump minus infinity.
I have to differ here, my father was a life long Republican, he said he didn't see a change in the party until the election of George W. Bush, in fact he said he never would vote for him, he was to extreme for my father and, that is a Nixon Defender and, apologist talking, after that point he couldn't bring himself to vote in any election, he didn't like were the party he had been a part of all his life was going.
Obviously there are still a few voters who are Rockefeller or Eisenhower Republicans but the party itself has been purged of such people for decades. I think the last few left when Dubya decided to invade a country which never attacked us.
I will not differ with what you said. In fact, I agree.
I was a republican. Left the part in Reagan's second term and never looked back.
Well, I can kind of understand this part of it. I liked Reagan, he was a good president but, by his second term Hinckley had shot him and, there is evidence that he started getting early onset dementia, I wondered if we were seeing a White House run by Nancy and the staff more than Reagan himself at that time. Of course there is nothing to prove what I have suggested but, I tend to believe my brother, who was part of the medical staff that took care of Reagan at the ranch when he recovered from the shooting, my brother does have credentials to diagnose dementia in people, he has a masters in psychology and, he is an RN.
If it does come down to credibility then Trump does not stand a chance. This is one of those times when his constantly telling lies on a daily basis comes back to bite him.
I can’t believe this actually is being said out loud. It’s like having a discussion about a horrific car crash that just occurred, and someone says “car crashes are bad”. I so can’t wait for this administration to end, and normal conversation to come flooding back.
John might be the only person in America who thinks Comey had a good week, or that these memos hurt Trump.
You need to get your nose out of the National Review.
The memos had a zero effect on Comey as they were pretty much what we already knew and were harmless and a slightly negative effect on Trump, but no more then Comey's Congressional testimony did.
The memos show that Comey is an honest man. That is the key revelation. The right is trying to discredit his credibility, and frankly it is ridiculous.
This is why the Dumpsters hate him so. Lying is one of their core values (along with cowardice and thuggery).
That's true. The right wing Congressmen who demanded the memos were obvious hoping for some deep dark secret that they could point to as something damaging to Comey's reputation and maybe even a crime, however they completely struck out on both counts. There is nothing damaging there to accuse him of or to hang on him there.
Yea..he honestly leaked memos with classified information in them. That is why the DOJ IG is now investigating him for it.
They were his personal notes that he had written and he only released his personal ones that contained no classified information and were his own property. Nothing has been shown otherwise or will be. The only ones with classified information were the ones that were demanded by the GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee and provided this week.
Similar to the Dossier that Trump was going to be impeached with...lol
Oh well there is tomorrow...always tomorrow huh?
Uh oh, Randy. Looks like you are wrong...again..
Let me guess. CNBC is now a far right wing rag.
Their mantra is "any day now".
Boy, you guys sure like harping back to that dossier, don't you. You ignore that the dossier is not even one of the major revelations about Trump's shenanigans.
You also, conveniently forget, that several of the parts of the dossier have been independently verified, BUT NONE have been proven wrong.
Someone could say you had an affair too, room full of hookers....must be true, no one has proved it wrong.
So what else was Trump going to get impeached with that has failed miserably...........
They were his personal notes that he had written and he only released his personal ones that contained no classified information
What parts were verified, can you describe them? And how can a work of fiction be either right or wrong?
By not being a work of fiction?
That's either a lie or you've been swallowing too much Faux News.
I agree, I think were any damage will come from is what is happening to Cohen at the moment and, what Mueller decides about the firing of Mr. Comey.
No, the reason the DOJ have been asked by Congress to investigate Comey is because three Republicans want it done, not because there is any evidence of any crime.
Do you feel like your having one of those days all the time? Seems like by now you should.
Apart from the things others have mentioned, Trump's bodyguard confirmed to Congress that Trump was offered the services of 5 Russian prostitutes on the night in question and in the hotel room in question.
And now it seems that Mueller has proof that Trump's lawyer was in Prague and met with a Russian agent.
It's very interesting that even these minute details are proving true. Steele must have very good sources indeed.
He also said that he sat outside Trump's room and nobody entered. It look's like nobody can confirm that prostitutes ever entered the room.
Steele must have very good sources indeed.
Really?
The sources that are never identified?
Then why did he refuse to testify?
Why did he choose to leak info to the media and then lie to the FBI about it?
It seems Steele was more interested in earning his huge salary from the Clinton campaign AND satisfying his loathing of Trump.
Think of what you are asking here. A former MI-6 agent, a spy, has sources that he or, she uses and, the only reason that they agree to help the agent is to stay out of the news or, any official reports. Why would they want that? They're spy's as well and, they don't want anyone on their side finding out they are double agents.
One, he isn't a U.S. citizen and, two, Congress would have wanted to know who his sources are, (for this case refer to my first comment).
I don't know why he would have lied but, he said in one interview that he didn't think the FBI would act on the information he gave so, he gave it to the press, remember, he isn't a member of the FBI or, the government, he is a British citizen and, since the information was his he could do what he wanted with it.
There is nothing to prove this point, he hasn't stated, to my knowledge any preference to Trump one way or, the other while he was gathering the information, he simply was doing a job and, felt that the information he gathered should be shared with American authority's. If you know something different from a credible source post it.
Verified: Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page met with representatives of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.
Wow, is that all there is?
"Stay tuned to this channel for further developments as they come in!" As we have said before, it took two years to discover what happened in Watergate, we are just getting started here.
Let's assume that he got his info from double agents in Russia. How do we verify it?
One, he isn't a U.S. citizen and, two, Congress would have wanted to know who his sources are, (for this case refer to my first comment).
And 3 the British government would have serious problems with him if he were working with the FBI back when he was an MI-6 agent, right?
I don't know why he would have lied but, he said in one interview that he didn't think the FBI would act on the information he gave so, he gave it to the press, remember, he isn't a member of the FBI or, the government, he is a British citizen and, since the information was his he could do what he wanted with it.
I think even you would have to admit that excuse is a bit disingenuous. He was most likely advancing the narrative which the Clinton campaign rewarded him for. BTW he even gave details from his "dossier" to Yahoo News - a report that the FBI would later use to back up it's submission of the "dossier" to get a warrant. In other words, the dossier was used to back up the dossier!!!
There is nothing to prove this point, he hasn't stated, to my knowledge any preference to Trump one way or, the other while he was gathering the information, he simply was doing a job and, felt that the information he gathered should be shared with American authority's. If you know something different from a credible source post it.
I assume you consider "The New Yorker" credible:
“It was as if all criminal roads led to Trump Tower ,” Steele told friends.
You would have made a great lawyer. Defending what is impossible to defend. According to Steele, the Russians bent over backwards to accommodate Donald Trump IN 2011, no less. How did they know he would become President? Why would they give him so much? As far as I can see, the Dossier is a work of pulp fiction, but it did work for the democrats in every way except one. It couldn't get HRC elected.
Watergate was based on a crime #1. AND Watergate had a huge input of insider info (deep throat - an FBI leaker!) #2
Yes, it was and, so is this, it is a crime for a foreign government to interfere in another country's elections, it is also an act of war. As far as the second part is concerned, it would have been thought of as a second rate burglary attempt if someone hadn't leaked that the people involved had White House connections.
Trump's bodyguard said he went to bed after a while and didn't know what happened after that. So we do know that the details stated in the dossier are accurate up to that point.
Pretty amazing details.....Steele must have very knowledgeable sources in the Kremlin. I wonder if he's seen the pee tape? The other detail the dossier got right is that Trump has a habit of paying women for sex.
You keep going back to that - the crime being alleged is NOT that - it has been Trump collusion!!!! Just tune in to CNN for the past year. THAT IS WHAT LACKS EVIDENCE and hence differs from Watergate!
Correct. And how do you intend on proving that? Therefore, the "dossier" shouldn't have been used to get a FISA warrant.
Mueller will prove it, this isn't even done yet and you want conclusions! And the dossier was NOT the only thing used to get the FISA warrant, it was just a small piece. A lot of the information you think you know is not real information, it is the wishful thinking of republicans trying to spin this. Nobody needs to 'prove' anything to you, because nobody knows everything except Mueller and his team. And the various teams in different state jurisdictions that are working on other possible crimes. Its obvious to EVERYBODY except those want to stay in the bubble that there is a lot of THERE THERE, so to speak. Its pretty funny Nunes and the other protectors wanted to get the memos and release only what they though was good for Trump. And Rosenstein just released them all, and they back up Comey and have bonus references to his hooker conversations with Putin. hehehe
How do you know that? Your'e so convinced that Trump colluded or obstructed justice? Or maybe you can be more honest. Maybe what you mean is that Mueller will get him for something? So Mueller is trying to get him anyway he can? Yup that I can agree with. I think the case against Cohen is how it can happen. That is all about finding something on Trump. Let's not pretend.
Its obvious to EVERYBODY except those want to stay in the bubble that there is a lot of THERE THERE, so to speak.
Really? Even the biased FBI agent Peter Strozk said he didn't think there was much there, but you see something! Tell us what it is. I'll bet you here and now that whatever it may be, probably wont be what may hurt him. Whatever that is hasn't been discovered yet and that is exactly what's going on, Mueller is trying everything to shake out some criminal activity. If they find something in Cohen's files that happened 15 years ago, that would be good enough for you, except that is not what Mueller's very generous mandate even provides. He is free to investigate whatever comes up in the "Russia investigation", but clearly, in the case of Cohen, he's going out of his way to search for things.
Just admit what some of your fellow liberals have - you just want to get Trump, right?
Sounds like you're whining that a clueless Trump campaign member was being monitored because he was talking with known Russian spies again. Are you suggesting that the FBI shouldn't monitor the communications between foreign spies and the Americans they try to recruit?
Andy McCabe said that without the Dossier there wouldn't be an investigation. Do you deny that fact?
The memo quotes former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who abruptly retired earlier than expected on Monday, as having given testimony that a surveillance warrant would not have been obtained without the dossier.
... ce-abuses/
LOL. Even your good buddy Devin Nunes admitted that the investigation was triggered when Papadopoulos admitted that Russian agents were offering the Trump campaign "dirt" from Clinton emails they had stolen.
We also know that it was the Trump campaign which urged Papadopoulos to contact the Russians:
.
It is curious though that all you right wingers are upset that a FISA warrant was granted to monitor communications between Russian agents and someone the FBI already knew the Russians had previously tried to recruit. Are you all so far in Putin's pocket that you want the FBI to be negligent in its duty?
So let me get this straight, your answer when confronted with what the deputy director of the FBI said, is to tell me about something in the Nunes memos?
It is curious though that all you right wingers are upset that a FISA warrant was granted
That's right, FISA abuse is a serious matter. You may not care about Civil Liberties but some of us do
I'm just telling you what actually triggered the FBI's investigation. Here's some good commentary from a former CIA officer who notes that what Russian agents were doing was a rather classic SVR operation:
.
At least it's now clear that conservatives have sided with Putin against the US. Thanks comrade!
No, you're just giving me the liberal talking point. You know the one that tries to ignore the fact that this thing started with virtually nothing.
At least it's now clear that conservatives have sided with Putin against the US. Thanks comrade!
That's sounds so strange coming from any democrat, the party which up until about a year ago has been so soft on Russia, the Soviet Union and Communism
An interesting comment since Putin hated Obama and feared Clinton. However we shouldn't be surprised at all that Trump and the GOP love Russian mobsters.
It is also illegal for any citizen, (that includes Trump), to work with a country to subvert our elections, it is also a crime to obstruct an investigation and, it is a crime to lie to the FBI.
Oh, I beg to differ. Putin in my opinion loved Obama. He made great gains for Russia during Obama's 8 years. As for Clinton, he truly hated her. He blamed her (wrongly or rightly) for the riots in Russia during his election:
"In December 2011, Vladimir Putin came closer than he’s ever been to losing his hold on power. His decision that year to run for a third term as Russia’s President had inspired a massive protest movement against him. Demonstrations calling for him to resign were attracting hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Some of his closest allies had defected to the opposition, causing a split in the Kremlin elites, and Russian state media had begun to warn of a revolution in the making.
At a crisis meeting with his advisers on Dec. 8 of that year, the Russian leader chose to lay the blame on one meddling foreign diplomat: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“She set the tone for certain actors inside the country; she gave the signal,” Putin said of Clinton at the time , accusing her of ordering the opposition movement into action like some kind of revolutionary sleeper cell. “They heard this signal and, with the support of the U.S. State Department, started actively doing their work.”
The article goes on to point out how HRC tried to use Dmitri Medvedev, when he and Putin had to alternate roles.
I suppose Putin would argue American interference, would'nt he?
Your'e conflating and BTW, there is no evidence of collusion or obstruction. Trump needs to take this before a Judge. This investigation as applies to him, had no legal basis and he also needs a ruling on "obstruction", otherwise everything he does will be twisted by the media into "obstruction"
As to Comey....Dems were calling for his head and firing just after Trump was elected. Trump Fires him, and NOW Dems want to resurrect Comey as a Hero !
My "Popcorn" stash groweth.
That's another lie. No Dem ever called for firing Comey. Some said he should resign after he broke with DoJ and FBI practices of not putting out potential politically explosive statements right before an election (which probably did throw the election to the Dumpster, by the way). Ironically, Dumpsters should have called for his firing at the time since he's going to be a big player in taking The Dumpster-in-Chief down.
My God, how many times do you need to be wrong in a day?
Apparently quite a bit.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-before-trump-fired-fbi-director-james-comey-democrats-wanted-his-dismissal-20170510-story.html.
What's really funny is Trump Praising Comey and wanting him to stay on, until he finds out that Comey is, quite rightly, looking into improper contacts between the Trump campaign between Russia and the Trump campaign (and no it had nothing to do with the dossier) and then Trump made the huge and amateur mistake of obstructing justice by firing him and then going on nation TV and saying he obstructed justice by doing it. Even though he made up a story that lasted less then 24 hours that Bugs Bunny would not believe that he was being fired for not being fair to Clinton.
Apparently you weren't paying attention to what Comey has been saying....re-saying differently...then saying differently again.
"Nothing to see here" !
Poor Comey. After all....he NEVER Leaked anything nor did he do any shenanigans after all.
Apparently you haven't been. In his testimony. In his book. In the released memos. His story has been completely consistent. And none of it has been criminal.
According to whom ?
Hell, Even Clinton Fans Alan Dershowitz and Lanny Davis say Comey is a nut.
"And none of it has been criminal."
Who said it was ?
Both of those people are Fox News whores. Neither of them are in good standing as "liberals" any more.
They went too "Centrist" for you John ?
In case you missed it, they both still champion for Hillary.
Bet you loved you some Comey when he came out about the Hillary Stuff before the election....dintchya.
Prove it. I doubt you have read any of this.
Still, a bit closer to what I understand the subject to be. Many on the right think that Trump is some sort of victim of some vast conspiracy by the Justice Department, particularly the FBI and perhaps the State Department also. They call this fantasy "The Deep State" Of course it does not exist. In order for it to exist it would not only have involve the many people they accuse of being involved such as Obama, Clinton, Comey, Mueller, Podesta, McCabe and on and on and on (the list grows to dozens daily), but the people around them would have to know about it also because these people could not conduct this grand conspiracy without the help and co-conspiracy of at least some of their aides. Each of their aides would probably, at least at some level, involve their staffs. In other words this “Deep State” conspiracy would not just involve a few people working secretly to try to take Trump down, there would have to hundreds and thousands of other people who knew about at least part of it and who all kept there mouths shut about it for years as new hires came on board in these agencies and became part of the conspiracy, left the department for another government department that had nothing to do with the conspiracy and still didn't say anything, retired and stayed quiet and on and on. It would become akin to not much short of trying to fake the Moon landing with a such a large number of people knowing at least a part of this “Deep State Conspiracy” that keeping a secret would simply be impossible.
Now that is not to say that Trump could not inspire some kind of Deep State Conspiracy, just not the deep he and the right wing imagine. It would not be organized in any manner at all. What would cause it to come about is if Trump and the Hard right constantly continue to attack the Justice Department without cause as they are doing now. Trump is trying to tear down Justice and the Law in America for his own political reasons and for some reason there is a large number of un-American, Americans who are going along with him by also constantly attacking our Federal Law Enforcement Agencies for based on little or no evidence.
Now Trump himself in his personal life and career has had little use for the rule of law and he has brought that attitude with him into the White House. To him the law has always been something irrelevant. Something to be gotten around or to be manipulated or bought off or ignored just as long as it gets him what he wants. However he is now in a position where having no respect at all for the rule of law brings grave danger to all Americans and many of his followers don't seem to see it happening. A time will come, as it has many, many, many times in the past when we will need the FBI, but what will America do if the Agency is not trusted by a third of Americans and outright hated by another third? How will they be able to do their job? The job they have always done in the past of helping to protect America? If Donald Trump has legal problems let him fight them out in a Court of law. Not with tweets that sow hate and distrust of the FBI when it's undeserved and most people know it. I have no doubt that there may be a few bad apples in the Justice Department and the FBI considering that they are large Agencies. However to think that there could exists and sort of large conspiracy in them in conjunction with other people in the government is absurd.
The vast, vast of the Agents in the Justice Department and the FBI, the DEA, the NSA, the CIA and all of the law enforcement and intelligence are hard working dedicate and patriotic Americans doing a dangerous job to help make America a safer place. Yet as Donald Trump constantly runs them down and insults them they can help bu have their moral run down and make it more difficult to do their job and to, like many people, have less and less respect for Trump. This is not a really a Deep State, but there is bound to be resentment of some type when these agents constantly put their lives on the line to enforce the law and all they get in return from the White House is told how bad they are and how corrupt they are and how suspicious the American people should be of them and how they can't be trust to enforce the law. It will drive many fine people not to pursue a career in these agencies and cause at least some to feel such resentment of Trump that they may be willing to do a less the good job when the issues concern him. And who could blame them?
The conspiracy nuts are nutty about their conspiracies. They love them some 'deep state', one of those wing nut terms that is impossible to disprove because it is basically meaningless.
James Comey is about as conspiratorial as Andy Taylor of Mayberry is. He is so scrupulous about trying to do the right thing that he agonizes over it and the agony can effect his judgement. One thing that has stayed consistent is Comey's basic honesty. Of course when we contrast that with Trump the difference is staggering.
The "big state" hypothesis is a catch all for the right wing nut jobs to assign any event or process that they don't like at all but cannot explain through normal accepted logic. Which, for a lot of them is just about everything having to do with politics and public policy.
Watch what happens to the left, past and present, as the year rolls on. Be prepared to deal with it. It start to get much more interesting after the Republicans keep control of Congress.
It sounds a lot like their Christian Persecution Complex.
I think it's more like when they check your colon.
Yeah, ya don't know were those hands have been.
I always ask to be scoped rather than poked, and I have them record the video so I can watch it again and again and play it at dinner parties.
That sounds a little shitty to me but, to each their own.
Keep telling yourself that. Andrew McCabe is most likely going to face criminal charges. That's called STEP ONE!
He'll never be prosecuted for anything. Watch and see. He'll never be charged.
And why is that? Because for decades un-elected government officials NEVER got punished?
That's what really shocked them about the 2016 election.
That wasn't supposed to happen!
Here is an entry today by one of my favorite bloggers that makes a perceptive point
IT'S LIKE A PONZI SCHEME, BUT WITH PHONY SCANDALS INSTEAD OF FUNNY MONEY
After a great deal of agitation by Republicans and the right-wing media, last night the Justice Department sent Congress lightly redacted versions of James Comey's memos on his meetings with President Trump -- and the memos were leaked to the press in 39 minutes. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had been threatened with impeachment if he didn't release these and other memos ... but the Comey memos, once we were all able to see them, had few new revelations, and were consistent with what Comey has said in congressional testimony, in his book, and in his recent interviews.
Many people are puzzled.
It's simple. Republicans are running a Ponzi scheme -- but instead of promising wealth, they're promising a payoff that apparently means much more to the rageoholics who watch Fox: proof of unprecedented criminality on the part of their political enemies. For days, weeks, or months, they tease angry right-wingers with new tales of Deep State perfidy -- and yes, by the time the reveal comes it's clear to everyone that it's all a big nothing, but by that time they've been laying the groundwork for other claims of gross misconduct by everyone the rubes hate, so no problem. Republicans and their allies don't really care if there's no payoff, just as they didn't care that the much-hyped Devin Nunes memo was a damp squib, because the buildup is the point. Days or weeks in which they promise shocking revelations of pure evil are days and weeks when the hate reaches maximum level. The point is to keep the rubes invested in their narrative, and to maximize the number of days when they're at peak anger.
The Republicans won't slink away crestfallen. They'll just move on to the next thing. They'll have achieved another anger peak that lasted longer than the current momentary letdown.
Rinse and repeat. They can keep this up forever.
One would hope that it's like the housing bubble when suddenly someone looks around and realizes "I paid how much for this?!" and at that moment the bubble bursts. Sooner of later one of the these conspiracy nuts has to take a serious look at what has been hyped to them by Hannity and Carlson and realize that there is no there there and figure out that they have been had. That they have been made out to be fools for ratings of FOX State TV and the Donald Trump, who is no better then a really bad used car salesman who has sold them a real piece of shit car. Some of them will have to wake up from the delusion sooner or later.
Wake up! There is not "conspiracy" and never has been! There is no "Deep State" and never has been! It's a script on a bad reality TV show and all of you are just pawns in it and you don't even know it. What's worse is not only are you not being paid to be actors in this TV show, they are stealing your money too! You've been had! You've been conned! Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are LYING to you and so is Donald Trump! They are conning you! You've been tricked! If you really want someone to be pissed at open your eyes to the truth and turn your anger on the people who have leading you around like what they think of as ignorant sheep by a ring on your nose for the past two years!
STOP BEING A SHEEP! THINK! LOOK FOR THE TRUTH AND NOT FROM THE PROPAGANDA ON FOX! STOP LETTING THEM MAKE FOOLS OUT OF YOU! WAKE UP! STOP SLEEP WALKING LIKE THE ROBOTS THE BELIEVE YOU ARE! THINK FOR YOURSELF INSTEAD OF JUST FOLLOWING THEM! OPEN YOUR MINDS TO OTHER THINGS, IDEAS AND THOUGHTS THEN WHAT FOX AND TRUMP ARE FEEDING YOU LIKE DRUGS! PLEASE! THIS IS NOT A GAME! IT IS THE FUTURE OF THE NATION AND IF YOU LOOK DOWN THE ROAD WHERE THEY ARE TRYING TO LEAD IT, IT IS NOT AN AMERICA YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN AND GRAND-CHILDREN IN LIVE IN! IT IS IN FACT AN AMERICA THEIR GRAND-PARENTS AND YOURS FOUGHT AND DIED TO SAVE US FROM! WAKE UP AND THINK FOR YOURSELF! IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!
I would suggest you do the same.
Removed - PRF
Duplicate deleted.
I pity your children and grand-children if Trump and the FOX Propagandist type right wingers manage to destroy the rule of law in America forever like he and they are trying to do, just to try to cover up whatever it is that he is so terrified of people finding out and will do unless some Republicans in the House and Senate suddenly grow a spine. But don't worry, they won't be alone, because as much as I pity your children and grand-children, I pity mine too...and everyone else's also for the America we will leave behind for them to try to live in. I hope they are stronger and smarter then our generation has been and I hope that someday they will forgive us.
None of the lies of the Trump administration work without the Big Lie that Trump and his corrupt organization are being persecuted. If that lie isn't sold to his base and believed by them, there is no reason that the republican congress would continue to support this white house. The lie has to be told over and over again. It must be made more and more grandiose. It has to make his supporters believe that not only is Trump being persecuted, but so are his supporters. It is a divisive lie that will take years for this nation to heal. This is the type of poison that Goebels and Hitler used successfully in WWII and worked for a while during the war.
Dear David Frum:
You can't defeat evil with ideological purity. John McCain lost in 2008 partly because he wouldn't use the weapons that were directly in front of him. (He was also in the wrong place at the wrong time- facing the first black candidate for President as the financial crises exploded a month before the election).
In the battle with evil we need someone who can bring out the inner demons of what would appear to be thoughtful politicians, who, in reality, have worked at radically changing America, while leaving the middle class for dead.
What does that mean? What is the evil? Greed? Lies? Arrogance? Who is the someone? What radical change? Who actually does care (actions, not words)?
It means nice guys don't win ideological battles
What is the evil?
Progressive ideology
What radical change?
Let's see, taking away due process from students accused of rape, forcing schools to keep thugs in school, flooding the country with illegal immigrants, fining investment banks and having them donate the money to leftist organizations and placing police departments under consent decrees,, is that enough?
Who actually does care
The only one caring seems to be a foul talking, abrasive, former real estate developer, who is doggedly smashing the deep state
Sigh, you need to reevaluate your understanding of every one of those answers, I don't even know how anybody could think that way, it isn't even close to what 'progressiveness' is. And that you think Trump cares, well, no words. I've got nothing for ya except enjoy the upcoming clusterfu@k, you will learn more as it progresses. All I can say is that you exude anger, hate and a total misunderstanding of what THIS progressive believes.
Meh, he lost because he had a someone that has the IQ of a turnip for a running mate.
He never had a chance in 2008
The lies that are told and perpetuated sound like an SNL skit. How on earth does a "billionaire" who holds the highest office, who has a Republican majority handing him anything he wants claim that he is a "victim" of anything?
He golfs and vacations while making a profit off the taxpayer and withall of his campaign cash added to the mix, he is getting free legal help at the taxpayers expense; even though it has reached a point that no lawyer really wants to attempt to defend him.
There is no flipping on an innocent person.
That is just a fact.
The proven indictments, the proven hacking of our elections, the proven involvement of the Russians, the proven hacking of both the DNC and the Republican party are facts.
Why does Trump get so unbelievably bent out of shape if he is innocent of anything?
If any normal person held the highest office, had a ruling party majority, and was not guilty of anything, then why keep kicking up such a fuss?
Trashing law enforcement, trashing the media that cover these facts, trashing private citizens all on Twitter is unbecoming of the office Trump holds.
Everyone by a majority in this country believe it is best to let it take it's course and if he were truly innocent he wouldn't be sweating it on Twitter.