THE WALLS: When John Durham released his report...

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2023

...the walls didn't come tumblin' down: In the wake of CNN's town hall, Ross Douthat had a better idea.

His idea concerned the kinds of questions a candidate like Trump should be asked. 

He began by noting, quite effectively, the way blue tribe moderators have sometimes failed in their approach to red tribe candidates. And no, he wasn't apologizing for Donald J. Trump. In this part of his New York Times column, he described the problem as he saw it:

DOUTHAT (5/14/23): That dynamic explains the futility of CNN’s town hall with Trump this week... The topics raised by Kaitlan Collins included many issues that would be embarrassing to Trump, were he capable of embarrassment—personal scandals, election lies and so forth. But with an amped-up crowd eager to side with him against the press, it was child’s play for Trump to steamroll her attempts at shaming and her frantic real-time fact checks.

In Douthat's view, Collins was dealing with a candidate who isn't "capable of embarrassment." Also, with "an amped-up crowd eager to side with [Trump] against the press."

By "the press," Douthat plainly meant the mainstream or blue tribe press. Here was his better idea about what Collins could have done:

DOUTHAT: [I]f the press intends to conduct interviews and run debates as normal, then in preparing for them they need to try to think a little bit more like Republican voters as opposed to center-left journalists. Not in the sense of behaving slavishly toward the former president, but in the sense of writing the kinds of questions that a right-leaning American primed to dislike the media might actually find illuminating.

In part, as Ramesh Ponnuru suggests, that means drilling into Trump’s presidential record on conservative terms rather than liberal ones—asking about, for instance, the failure to complete the border wall or the surge in crime in the last year of his administration. In part, as Erick Erickson writes, it means asking obvious questions that follow from his stolen-election narrative rather than just attacking it head-on—as in, if the Democrats really stole the election, why did your administration, your chosen attorney general and your appointed judges basically just let them do it?

Say what? Also, where has Douthat been? 

In his first specific suggestion, he suggested asking Trump about his "failure to complete the border wall." As we've described in the past two days, Collins did question Trump about that very topic, at considerable length.

When she did, the walls which separate red tribe voters from mainstream journalists didn't come tumblin' down! Instead, a lengthy Babel ensued, with red tribe voters at the town hall cheering their champion on.

Let's offer a bit of background:

According to the American hymnal, when Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, "the walls came tumblin' down."

According to the leading authority on the matter, "the Battle of Jericho...was the first battle fought by the Israelites in the course of the conquest of Canaan." 

Unfortunately, the walls which separate our various population groups will almost surely be much harder to bring to the ground. Consider what happened two days ago when John Durham finally released his long-awaited report. 

In April 2019, Attorney General Barr directed Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In October 2020, Barr appointed him special counsel for the Department of Justice on that matter.

Finally, this Monday, Durham released a 300-page report concerning his lengthy search. On Tuesday morning, a front-page report in the New York Times started by offering this:

SAVAGE (5/16/23): John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of having “discounted or willfully ignored material information” that countered the narrative of collusion between Donald J. Trump and Russia in a final report made public on Monday.

Mr. Durham’s 306-page report revealed little substantial new information about the inquiry, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations accusing the bureau of politically motivated misconduct that former President Donald J. Trump and his allies suggested Mr. Durham would uncover.

Instead, the report—released without substantive comment or any redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland—largely recounted previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from confirmation bias and a “lack of analytical rigor” as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia.

According to Charlie Savage, Durham had made certain accusations, but they were largely old hat. In this morning's New York Times, Savage offers a "news analysis" piece which fleshes out this critique.

Hard-copy headline included, today's analysis piece starts like this:

After Years of Political Hype, the Durham Inquiry Failed to Deliver

The limping conclusion to John H. Durham’s four-year investigation of the Russia inquiry underscores a recurring dilemma in American government: how to shield sensitive law enforcement investigations from politics without creating prosecutors who can run amok, never to be held to account.

At a time when special counsels are proliferating—there have been four since 2017, two of whom are still at work—the much-hyped investigation by Mr. Durham, a special counsel, into the Russia inquiry ended with a whimper that stood in contrast to the countless hours of political furor that spun off from it.

Mr. Durham delivered a report that scolded the F.B.I. but failed to live up to the expectations of supporters of Donald J. Trump that he would uncover a politically motivated “deep state” conspiracy. He charged no high-level F.B.I. or intelligence official with a crime and acknowledged in a footnote that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign did nothing prosecutable, either.

According to this analysis piece, Durham's investigation ended not with a bang but a whimper. 

Durham's report had "failed to deliver." It constituted "a limping conclusion" to a probe which failed to live up to red tribe expectations.

Great expectations had gone unfulfilled! Or so American voters are being told if they live inside blue tribe tents. 

That being said, hear this:

For voters who live on the other side of a very high wall, the story which is being told is very, very different. Here's the start of the story such voters were told on Monday night if they were watching the well-known Fox News Channel:

WATTERS (6/15/23): Fox News Alert! It only took four years, but the Durham report has finally dropped, and he found out whatever everyone already knew.

The whole Trump/Russia collusion story was a giant hoax started by Democrats. 

The FBI knew it was a hoax. The CIA knew it was a hoax, and Barack Obama knew it was a hoax.

Everybody knew it was a hoax the whole time, but they acted like it was real. The CIA knew Hillary started the Russia collusion story, and then went in and told Barack Obama all about it. 

That's the way the story began at 7 P.M. Monday night. That was the start of the story as it was told on the nightly program, Jesse Watters Primetime.

Tomorrow, we'll show you more of what Watters said, presumably as he campaigns for the spot vacated by Tucker Carlson.  Also, we'll show you what red tribe voters were told when Senator Hawley appeared as Watters' featured guest at 7:08 P.M.

When Joshua fit that famous battle, the walls came tumblin' down. The walls which snake between our nation's population groups will be much harder to dislodge.

In closing today, we'll note a comment Barack Obama made in a CBS interview which aired yesterday morning. 

“The thing that I’m most worried about is the degree to which we’ve now had a divided conversation, in part because we have a divided media," the former president said. 

"Today, what I’m most concerned about is the fact that because of the splintering of the media, we almost occupy different realities.”

For Joe DePaolo's fuller report, you can just click here. But we do in fact have a "divided" media—a media which is almost wholly segregated by viewpoint.

We do have a vastly divided media! For what it's worth, we see substantial though differing types of fault on various sides of our walls.

Tomorrow: As told to red tribe voters


90 comments:

  1. Two things:
    1) Reporters should ask Republicans about white supremacy and bigotry only. It's all they really care about, so it's the only time they make good faith arguments.

    2) Republican voters are a bunch of dunces, who easily get played by the corporate media. It isn't exactly news, but reminding the public of this truth doesn't hurt.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How difficult is it really to deal with the debt crisis?
    You call McCarthy to your office, give him a phone and a list of CEOs of defense contractors, and you have him call them to explain the USA is broke, and we won't be making any defense purchases this year.
    Let his constituents tell him to go fuck himself.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We live in a barred spiral galaxy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't take any credit for it. Like you, I was born here.

      Delete
  4. Durham has shown how the Clinton campaign invented a false story about Trump colluding with Russia and took that false story to the FBI and the media, knowing it was false.: "On October 31, 2016, less than two weeks before the election, the New York Times and others published articles on the Alfa Bank matter and the Clinton campaign issued tweets and public statements on the allegations of a secret channel of communications being used by the Trump Organization and a Russian bank allegations that had been provided to the media and the FBI by Fusion GPS and Sussmann, both of whom were working for the Clinton campaign."

    Not that doing that was illegal - just sleazy. And it shows the Clinton campaign falsely connected Trump to Russia as early as July 2016.

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    Replies
    1. "Not that doing that was illegal - just sleazy."

      Don't lock Them Up!!!

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    2. Meh. The NY Times spent 2016 pretending to care that Republicans were pretending to care about Hillary Clinton's email protocols.
      Now THAT'S sleazy.

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    3. 9:46, Invented? You mean the Russians really didn't hack the DNC and DCCC and John Podesta?

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    4. The NYT, as has been proven, was publishing false.stories about Trump and Russia that the Clinton campaign invented and fed them,. knowing it was completely false information.

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    5. 9:56. If you have questions, you're going to actually have to take your hand out of your pants and read the report.

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    6. Unfortunately, the sleazy blogs you read obscure these truths from you. Digby etc.

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    7. From what I can tell, I don't think Durham actually thinks the Russians ratfucking Hillary Clinton's campaign was a bad thing. CDS is terminal you know.

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    8. "Not that doing that was illegal"
      Already looking forward to Trump's campaign speeches being drowned out by the chant "Don't Lock Them Up".

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    9. 9:46,
      Will Durham get a participation trophy for failing to find the Deep State?

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    10. Trump has been involved with Russia for years. There’s no hoax there, the hoax is the Durham Report.

      The Durham Report is an embarrassment for Trumpers, a total nothingburger. Sussmann and Danchenko were acquitted, and one low level FBI lawyer plead guilty to cutting corners on a wiretap request (he didn’t).

      Worse, Barr and Durham were tipped off by Italy of Trump engaging in illegal financial dealings, and they buried it by incorporating it into the Durham investigation, but it’s not even mentioned in the report, or any report.

      This is all old news, right wing media trying to make hay out of this doesn’t serve any justice or ethical purpose, it’s merely intended to motivate Republican voters, but it’s a bit early and unlikely to have the intended impact.

      Delete
    11. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/27/23573026/durham-barr-new-york-times-trump-investigation

      Delete
    12. Gosh, it almost sounds like the Trump ( or one of his bullshit MAGA dolts posting here) could SUE the Clinton campaign for definition. Not going to happen, of course, but wouldn’t it be great if they did? Greatest discovery ever!

      Delete
    13. Yeah, sue them for definition!

      Delete
  5. The right lies about the results of the Durham investigation and Somerby thinks he has found out something new. Yes, they hear different stuff on Fox because Fox lies and spreads misinformation.

    Somerby offers no solution. He hints that the left lies too, but he documents nothing.

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    Replies
    1. What is the misinformation in this case?

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    2. 10:02: Why don’t you read the article in the NYT by Savage et al that Somerby quotes from? It might answer your question.

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    3. I read it. It didn't.

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    4. (I've read the Durham report in full as well.)

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    5. 10:35, congratulations, did Durham perhaps mention the Italian criminal referral concerning Donald J Chickenshit, and explain why he intentionally mislead the public into believing the criminal investigation concerned Hillary? Just curiousm magat.

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    6. 11:29, lets hope the Dems do some good questioning at the hearing (for a change).

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  6. From what I can tell, I don't think Durham actually thinks the Russians ratfucking Hillary Clinton's campaign was a bad thing. CDS is terminal you know.

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  7. “The whole Trump/Russia collusion story was a giant hoax started by Democrats.”

    Does Somerby intend to merely present such statements, shrug his shoulders, and complain about how the blue tribe is engaging in narrative overlooking some purported red tribe “truth” like the above?

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  8. It's hard to engage on this issue with movement Democrats as this is a religious issue for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People tend to fell strongly about foreign meddling in our elections.

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    2. there's no such thing as "movement" Democrats, troll boy.

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    3. 10:06,
      I'm sure this, and not Democrats support for equality for black people, is what's hurting your feelings. (sarcasm font)

      Delete
    4. 2:36 I know you are.
      It's the only game you play.

      Delete
    5. It's hard to engage on this issue with with Republicans, because they are too distracted by beer companies marketing to people who aren't them.

      Delete
  9. Once the media made the collective decision to disappear the outright bigotry of Republican voters as the reason Trump was elected President in 2016, stories like Russiagate were inevitable.

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  10. Movement liberals who only consume liberal media don't have to worry about anything Durham discovered about sleazy attempts to constantly connect Trump to Russia on the part of the Clinton campaign with false and misleading lies.

    It will be completely kept from them.

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    Replies
    1. The Senate Report didn't find that. Sorry.

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    2. 2 indictments,, 0 convictions, and NO ties to the Clinton campaign. I look forward to Durham’s appearance before Congress.

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    3. Are you talking about the Durham investigation? If so, your facts are wrong.

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    4. Why are you too lazy to read the report yourself?

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    5. 2:57 is correct. Unlike the Mueller investigation that produced 37 indictments, the Durham investigation, which was longer, and frankly, more thorough, resulted in 3 - one lawyer plead guilty to cutting corners on some paperwork, and 2 other indictments that resulted in acquittals.

      The Durham investigation found no legal nor ethical violations with the FBI or the Clinton campaign.

      It did receive information about some illegal financial actions by Trump, but it buried that, it’s not mentioned in the report.

      The Durham Report is a giant nothingburger.

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    6. Wow. What paperwork was that?

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    7. 4:29

      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-fbi-lawyer-kevin-clinesmith-pleads-guilty-first-criminal-charge-durham-probe/

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    8. 4:34, yeah, that wasn't even Durham's work. Small potatoes.

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    9. That’s my point, it’s less than small potatoes. The lawyer didn’t even do anything wrong.

      The Durham Report is a giant nothingburger.

      Delete
  11. The second amendment is evil.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Why didn't CNN have an audience that was a cross section of America? Did the agreement with Trump require a Republican audience?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Responding to criticism by DeSantis, Trump told NewsMax, “I’m the one who got rid of Roe v Wade.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed he is. That is his lasting disgraceful legacy.

      Delete
    2. The Supreme Court recently, essentially dismantled the Roe v Wade decision, a decision originally made by Republicans on a Republican controlled Supreme Court, back when Republicans had no issue with abortion.

      Later, late in the 70’s, Republicans discovered they could weaponize abortion into a wedge issue, and thus flip flopped on the issue.

      It’s impossible to be a Republican and maintain any sense of integrity.

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    3. Trump is bragging about the dystopian hell hole he guaranteed.

      A Florida 5th grade teacher is under investigation and is going to lose her job for showing her class a Disney movie that stick up his ass Desantis doesn't approve of.

      God help this country.

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  14. Jesse Walters said President Biden invented a story about a raped 11 year old trying to get an abortion. It’s easily to treat Waters as a respectable counter story when you are willing to ignore that wretched behavior, and Bob was.
    As with Ann Coulter, Bill Maher, or anyone who is willing to say ridiculous things for money, their is no way to win a hundred percent of the time with a pig of a man like Trump. I think a reporter should return a personal insult in kind, at least it would shake things up a little. But sorry Bob, there is only one good remedy for Trump, that’s jail. It’s a legal remedy for a legal problem, the kind that occurs when someone breaks the law.

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    Replies
    1. "Fat fuck, who's filed for multiple bankruptcies, says what?"

      Delete
    2. When Biden debated Trump during the 2020 campaign, he mostly stumbled, but at one point turned to Trump, looked him in the eye, and called him a clown to his face. Biden won the debate, and later the presidency.

      Somerby is a moron, operating with the remarkably empty goal of manufacturing ignorance to further a right wing agenda.

      Delete
  15. Defund the Supreme Court.

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  16. Bob raises an important point. It is not possible that the two parties can look at the exact same report issued by Durham, and draw diametrically opposed conclusions.
    It has gotten to the point now where the right in this country just don't give a damn about the facts, they will create their own alternate reality. This is destroying our nation.

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    Replies
    1. Look, all they have to do is say “Clinton” and the dolts will follow. Won’t work in Court, of course….

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    2. The Right doesn't claim the Left care more about feelings than facts, for nothing.
      They claim the Left care more about feelings than facts, because every Right-wing accusation is really a confession.

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    3. It's so exhausting, which I suppose is the point. The right lies so shamelessly in total orchestrated synchronization. It mattered not what Durham ultimately wrote in his report, they had their talking points and narrative they were going to push.

      I am old enough to remember a time in the distant past when these issues could be debated face to face in a civil manner and some agreement of the facts could immerge. That is simply impossible now with crazy right.

      Why isn't fucking Steve Bannon in jail yet?

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    4. "immerge" lol.

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    5. What talking points and narratives did the right push that were at odds with what Durham ultimately wrote in his report?

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    6. That the FBI and Clinton campaign did something illegal and unethical; that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election was a hoax (the Mueller Report referred to it as “sweeping and systemic”).

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    7. Hoax refers to the idea that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia.

      The Clinton campaign and the FBI did do something unethical. Read the Durham report. He spills it out very clearly. It's very easy to understand. But first, it will only work if the Democratic party is not your religion and your God. You have to keep an open mind and be open to the idea that it's even possible. You have to first believe that it's even possible that the Clinton campaign in the FBI could act in an unethical and sleazy manner in order to take out a political opponent.

      If you are in mh or the same old troll, then no, the Democratic party is your religion and there's no point in discussing it further.

      Either way, wishing you the best.

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    8. Russiagate was one of the biggest political events of this century.. the FBI and the Clinton campaign worked together to thwart a person who was legally elected. And they did this by disseminating tons and tons of complete lies. God only knows what sleaze they did in total. It's wild man.

      There's a pretty good chance our democracy will never recover from it.

      But it will never make sense to anyone who looks at politics as their religion as the main troll here does, sadly.

      For people who don't look at politics as a religion, it's much easier to hold the idea together that Trump can be terrible and Clinton can be sleazy and horrible also. To most people who have not made politics their religion, those types of concepts are easier to understand. Anyway I'm just talking to a wall basically. Bye!

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    9. Once the media made the collective decision to disappear the outright bigotry of Republican voters as the reason Trump was elected President in 2016, stories like Russiagate were inevitable.

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    10. 11:32, 11:36 one of the issues with your claims is that they are wholly unsubstantiated. It’s not just you, the Durham Report also failed to substantiate those claims.

      Another issue is you do not seem to understand the word religion. Even putting aside the supernatural element, the Democratic Party has plenty of issues, but being dogmatic is not one of them, as that is anathema to their core principles. Interestingly, it is a core trait of the Republicans, so your claims are very confused.

      Another issue is you don’t seem to understand the word politics, which in reality refers to the process of making decisions for groups of people, and who gets to make those decisions.

      Another issue is you seem unaware of how our government works. For example, Trump had free rein to implement his agenda, within the boundaries of our political system, he was not hampered by so called “Russia gate”, which was not a hoax. Trump chose to do nothing positive about healthcare, education, jobs, public health, etc. Trump’s agenda was to lower taxes for the wealthy elites and corporations, encourage a culture war, and personally acquire as much money as he could, and that’s what he limited himself to. He accomplished those goals, to the detriment of society, and notably he also helped Putin and Russia flourish. Obviously since then, Biden was elected, and now Putin and Russia are getting their asses handed to them.

      I wouldn’t say you’re talking to a wall, more like a mirror.

      Delete
    11. Thank you for your response!

      Delete
    12. The Clinton campaign and the FBI did do something unethical.

      See, this is what I am talking about. The Clinton campaign was the actual victim of Russian criminal ratfuckery, yet you twist this around to make it totally opposite. Donald J chickenshit - "Russia, if you're listening" - in your twisted mind was the victim. This was Durham's conclusion he reached before he even started his 4 year investigation. After 4 years of failure to prove this, he wrote his fairytale anyway, because he is also a victim of CDS.

      Reality from Josh Marshall twitter:
      ***
      In honor of the Durham Report I remind all that Russia intervened in the 2016 election on Trump's behalf. Trump was informed of this, welcomed it, asked for more it and took numerous affirmative steps to profit from it. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-big-picture-14 via @TPM
      ***
      Then we watched for 2 years during, Donald J Chickenshit corruptly and criminally obstruct the Mueller investigation in broad daylight, dangle pardons to witnesses, vindictively attack FBI agents doing their job because apparently only FBI agents who support Trump are allowed to investigate Trump, and ultimately ABORT the investigation just as Mueller was delivering the final report. But of course to you, that makes Trump a victim.

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    13. The Clinton campaign did do something unethical. They made up charges about Trump being connected to Russia. Then they brought these charges that they knew were totally false to the media in the fbi. This is the week after Trump became the Republican nominee in the last week of July 2016. Then when the news stories came out that they had planted, they tweeted and talked about it as if it was news to them. It's exact same thing Dick Cheney did to falsely lead us into the Iraq war.. It's one of the oldest sleaziest political tricks in the book to try to connect your opponent to russia. It's old school McCarthyism. The Clinton campaign unethically and sleazily completely made up charges about Trump ... who already is a complete loser and scumbag. I wish it had worked. I wish it had sunk Trump back then. But.. it didn't. They got caught. It's not like Durham is making this up. He is showing the emails. They are caught. That's all there is to it. It's not illegal what they did it's just sleazy. It's not that big a deal. It would have been great if it had worked.

      Certainly you don't think Democrats are a gang of saints. These are hardcore political operatives vying for the top spot of the most powerful and rich warmongering bloodthirsty country in the history of the world. You think they're all ethical?

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    14. The tweet from Josh is really pathetic goalpost moving. The issue of Russiagate is collusion. Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia? That was the whole issue, the whole time. That Russia interfered and that the Trump campaign welcome their help is not the issue. It never was the issue. But people like Marshall make it the issue now after the whole collusion thing collapsed. Really lame on his part. You people can all deny to yourselves the reality of the situation which is all evident from email evidence. You can deny it all you want but it won't change the truth. And I'm not speaking directly to you, I understand you're just a congregant.

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    15. Politics became religion to you people. You see the world in black and white, dogmatic terms. If anything has to do with Trump it's bad and he is wrong and the demigods you worship are the saints, who do everything right and are moral an ethical at all times!

      It couldn't be that both are sleazy liars. One side has to be all good and the other side has to be all bad in your little comic book fever dream.

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    16. Here is the main news story that the Clinton campaign unethically planted in the press:

      The writer even gave a draft to the Clinton campaign to review before he published it!

      This is all detailed by Durham with emails and billing records from the Clinton campaign. Ever single bit of it. They are caught. That's all there is to it. Some of us will deny it and look the other way, some of don't.

      https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html

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    17. Lying to the FBI is a crime. When is Durham going to indict Hillary Clinton for lying to the FBI?

      You know, Hillary had nothing to do with the investigation of the server investigation, which was in fact meant to be protecting Donald J Chickenshit, who was president at the time.
      Again, you have yourself twisted into an bizarro opposite world.

      So for a NORMAL loyal citizen, they would WELCOME the FBI's investigation of people who were secretly working for a foreign country, if they kept their distance. They wouldn't see it as an investigation INTO them, but to protect them.

      Not Trump.

      Tells ya something.

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    18. What does it tell you?

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    19. What is bizarro is all of these new hillbilly, hick Democrats who are in love with the fbi.

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    20. Calm down, I understand you completely. You're sick with terminal CDS. You see Hillary's name and the blood rushes to you brain and you start hallucinating. I wish I could help you, but it's incurable. Just curious, when did you first become aware that Hillary Clinton was the source of all evil in the world? Was it when Jerry Falwell published the Clinton Chronicles? Was it when she killed Vince Foster? When did you finally realize she was responsible for all the miserable failures in you life?

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    21. Gaslighting. I guess it's just the best you can do.

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    22. Don't worry, just give Durham a little more time and he'll be sure to prove his case. And then finally, in one last giant orgasmic burst, you'll be able to lock her up for good. I believe in you.

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    23. 6:58,
      I assume your problem with the Durham Report was the complete lack of proof of the charges against the deep state/ Clinton campaign.
      Was there any part of the Durham Report you liked?

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    24. "What is bizarro is all of these new hillbilly, hick Democrats who are in love with the fbi."

      All the proof you need to know this is true, isn't in the Durham Report. Just like the proof that the deep state and the Clinton campaign were feeding Russiagate stories to the press.

      Delete
    25. Yeah, us progressive Democrats just fucking LOVE the FBI, so grateful to the partnership we formed during the 2016 election.

      How Rogue Agents in the FBI’s NY Field Office Helped Elect Trump

      Comey testified that agents were leaking information about Clinton’s emails to Rudy Giuliani.

      12 days before the election, the FBI director released a letter saying he had found a brand-new trove of emails and implying that this might finally be the smoking gun about her private email server. That’s it.

      We’ll never know for sure if James Comey did this because he’s terminally stupid and didn’t realize what impact it would have, or if he did it knowing full well what impact it would have. But he did it. And that’s why Donald Trump is president.


      It's funny how reality has a disturbing habit of intruding on your fantasies.

      The investigation into the NY FBI field office leaking shit to Rudy and Joe DiGenova was quietly forgotten to death.

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    26. I'm the only one here who read the Durham report.

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    27. Anyone here remember when exactly FBI Director James Comey revealed to the public for the first time that the Agency was investigating Russian interference in the election and connections with the Trump campaign? March 2017, after the election and after the inauguration.

      It reminds me of that scene from Dr. Strangelove, where Strangelove angrily faces the Russian Ambassador after learning about the Doomsday Machine.

      Strangelove:
      Yes, but the... whole point of the doomsday machine... is lost... if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh?

      Just so, the whole point of the FBI working with the Clinton campaign to undermine poor poor beleaguered Donald J Chickenshit. Only one problem, the FBI forgot to tell the world.

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  17. Republicans should support statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

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  18. Bill Barr makes Hunter Biden look like a clean-cut straight arrow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Republicans are upset because Hunter demonstrably has a bigger penis than they do.

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  19. Rudy getting bad press treatment too, Bob?

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  20. Much of Somerby’s rhetoric comes from Nixon’s hard hats vs hippies electoral strategy, well covered recently by the Citations Needed podcast:

    https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-182-hardhats-vs-hippies-and-the-cold-war-curation-of-the-conservative-union-guy-trope

    ReplyDelete