You can put virtually anything Team Trump says before “That’s not true”. Does this even belong in the “News” column?
The Russians found that the Trumps, singly and in toto, were just too damn dumb to conspire with. I guess that’s a uniquely American defense.
The Russians instead just helped themselves.
Of course it does. The fact that they constantly tell huge lies in direct contradiction of the most widely known facts makes it more newsworthy, not less. Do you want the lies to go unremarked on? Think that would help? People believe this stuff. Maybe not your friends but enough to get him elected once and maybe enough to do it again. You can’t complain the media aren’t pushing back enough one day and then ask “Why is this even news?” another. People have to realize what blatant liars they are.
Choosing Russia over America. Dangerous cult you got there Republicans.
But it is such obvious and old news. (I agree that in a way, the sheer volume and audacity of the lies is big news, but anyone who has been paying even a modicum of attention, or is likely to, already knows this.) It is getting to be a little like seeing headlines every day that my cat has used her litter box, and it needs to be cleaned.
the KGB’s hand picked candidate occupies the Oval Office
how long do you think the CIA’s hand picked candidate would occupy the Kremlin (is it possible to count negative time?)?
If the American people uniformly saw that Trump and his minions are constant, outrageous liars among their other imperfections, if 95 percent of them said yep, liars, won’t vote for 'em, never will, then I’d say you wouldn’t have to report on and complain about every lie. Until then, we have work to do. And this is a particularly outrageous and pernicious lie deliberately told by his goddamn campaign manager to support the narrative that it’s all a witch hunt by libs to persecute the bestest president ever because they hate America and want free stuff.
I mean this in the best possible way, but Trump’s supporters are never going to listen to or accept any of this. (Yes, maybe a handful, and that may be enough to make it worthwhile, but let us be reasonable in our expectations. It is very difficult to convince people of something when their whole world-view depends on not believing it.) These people still think that Benghazhi was a Clinton scandal and that Obama was born in Kenya. Some of them are probably trying to place a delivery order for a pepperoni pizza with a side of child, even as we speak.
I mean this in the best possible way myself but very few Americans pay serious attention to politics. It’s all just kind of out there somewhere, like the stock market, and the ups and downs similarly don’t affect their daily lives much and they just don’t care about it. I’d guess most of them know Trump is odd, he blusters, brags, say odd things. But they don’t know about the lifelong pathological lying that is now stamped on every aspect of his administration and other operations. We TPMers live in a little bubble. We don’t know the apathy and lack of attention all this gets. Until Trump’s disapprovals are firmly lodged in the high sixties we have work to do.
I dunno. You’re right that they should be called out, but on the other hand, coverage of similar stories can make people less sensitive to Team Trump’s crimes. I suspect it might also have something to do with the way the media reports the news. Over time, the media seems to have also become less serious about the crimes. That said, I’m not sure how to improve.
I did hear - somewhere, can’t remember in the way-too-much political crap I read and listen to - that Mueller’s report is number one on bestseller lists. I know, it’s just for now, yadda yadda, but still … . However, I have a good friend whose white, “economically anxious,” rural caretaker had never heard of him. I don’t get cable news but I would think this would be the glory days for a savvy political advertising firm.
I recall reading at the time (Mother Jones?) that Yuri Andropov was in fact a CIA asset. And he didn’t last long at all.
I said on another thread that, last night, I saw Laurence Tribe on Lawrence’s show. I don’t have the link but it is must-see watching. It made me believe even more that we will prevail.
Let me tell you WHY…
Tribe emphasized having open hearings on Trump and his crime cronies as happened in Watergate. Although (in 1973 & 1974) I was a graduate student, I was not as hooked in on politics as I am at this time. Yet, I did watch those hearings and most of my buddies did too (even some of the street guys). Those hearings brought in whole swaths of the country in ways that wonky-ness could not do.
And that is why Trump KNOWS he has to run out the clock on ANYBODY coming before Congress.
Look, neither of us control the national media and we can’t turn the dial one way or the other, but I’m telling you there’s no way to have a baby-bear just-right level of coverage of this. The society isn’t used to electing this kind of lifelong con artist and psychopath to the presidency. It’s really hard to take that in. So they have to be slowly persuaded by a thousand examples that he really is what we see him as. What we can do is talk—respectfully, not spluttering and waving our arms—to friends, relatives, neighbors, anyone you can talk to rationally about all this. We need to have examples in mind, and I realize I haven’t done this myself, of Trump’s lies and crimes. It needs to sink in voter by voter that this man is uniquely bad and dangerous in that office. Friends and neighbors are shown to be the most persuasive source of information. Don’t worry so much about the media. If we all do our own part it’ll help more than talking about it here ever will. Mea culpa on that, I assure you.
Dual edged sword.
In Parscale’s case, awareness of him needs to be magnified. Just like Miller’s being asked to visit the House and then prevented from doing so may also magnify the presence of Miller. The public needs to see these people and ask WTF are they even involved for?
But also agree you can create the familiarity with it all becoming background noise and people go on to other things.
REALLY???
I just googled.
Although we didn’t really need it, I appreciate that “falsely” has been added to the headline, at least at it appears on the main page.
Hey Brad even though you were in charge of digital operations you weren’t a big enough fish for Manafort to confide in, plausible deniability and all that jazz.