I didn’t know Barr hired Alex Jones to help with the editing.
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This is the title of this article:
DOJ IG To Release Report On Origins Of Russia Probe Dec. 9
What the title should read is this:
DOJ IG TO RELEASE THEIR CORRUPT TRUMP DEFENDING COVER REPORT ON THE ORIGINS OF RUSSIA PROBE.
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Exactly my fear.
Taking into account the Modus Operandi of the Republican party - they don’t need to prove anything.
It’s simply not how they work.
They didn’t ‘prove’ anything with Benghazzi despite the hearings. And yet the narrative running up to the election - was poison. “Crooked Hillary” stuck.
“Crooked Biden” might very well stick even as the whole thing is debunked.
“Sham Impeachment/Ukrainian Meddling” will be the clarion call.
Trump didn’t want an investigation of corruption - he wanted an ANNOUNCEMENT of an investigation. It’s their meat and potatoes when it comes to public dis-information.
And you’re right - both siderism will support it.
Dear God, I fear for the integrity of the election process.
Schiff et al, must continue to fight the good fight. It will never change the Trump Cult mindset of course, but it MUST motivate our side to get out the vote. It must NOT suppress the enthusiasm of the left. We MUST continue to use critical thinking skills instead of CYNICAL thinking defeatism.
I think understanding their methods, correctly identifying the ‘water carriers’ and the false narratives is not cynical. It’s critical thinking that motivates us. Cynical thinking is ‘what’s the use, the fix is in’. I still think we can win. But it’s going to take everything we’ve got.
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I agree that this is how they want it to work and that parts of the media will fall for or actively promote it, but I think that its all but certain lack of hard factual support, logical inconsistencies and leaps and hit job tone will ultimately not only damn it, but make it backfire as an obvious attempt to stretch or invent facts and strain logic to make a case that simply has no factual or logic basis, to harm Dems and protect Trump. The facts just aren’t there. We know that because we’ve heard them all and they’re all either lies or massive distortions. And most of the legit media and public will see that, I believe.
It’ll be like OJ accusing Marcia Clark of murdering his ex wife and her friend.
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It is my fervent hope you are correct.
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Let’s not all set our hair on fire until the report is actually released. It is of course, entirely possible that it will be a Trump coverup; on the other hand, historically, these IGs have been pretty much on the straight and narrow. My only real question would be is, has Graham already seen the report? If not, I’m not going to freak out…yet.
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If we can’t trust Barr, who can we trust. Looking forward to his 3.5 page summary.
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Horowitz is also the IG who excoriated Comey and McCabe, but did not look into leaks from the NY FBI field office about the EMAILZ investigation.
At best, he’ll write the report that Barr tells him to write because he’s an ass-kisser.
At worst, he’s in the tank for Trump (and Putin, but I repeat myself).
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Although I’m sure (as sure as somebody who is a civilian with no access to anything can be) that there aren’t any real facts to back up these wild conspiracy claims that the right-wing has been pushing, my concern remains that the information in the report will somehow be twisted and distorted like a balloon animal into some kind of unrecognizable shape where a tiny enough bit of doubt or mud is splashed onto the impeachment inquiry that will allow Senate Republicans to let Trump off the hook (and themselves with their constituents) when the impeachment action moves to the Republican-controlled Senate.
this is false. The White House Counsel’s office told Maguire not to release the report.
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Marcia was always suspiciously tall…
It was funny how Filmknight and you and I were writing variations of the same post at the same time! You are clearly the most optimistic of the three of us, and it is true that there have been times that Nunes/Jordan premieres have been panned by the critics and then closed after a week. And I do think that we have a lot of institutions that will push back – it has worked before.
The wild card is Barr. He has the power to appoint special counsels, the ability to selectively declassify intelligence, and we know how that can work. Like a well-edited reality show, he can basically take a narrative that people subconsciously accept on some level, and only show them the clips that fit that narrative.
Barr clearly fancies himself the White Knight (of Malta) KGB/GRU chief who will single-handedly deliver the Republic from the infidels. I would be much more optimistic if there was some way to undermine his authority.
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Nadler needs to subpoena Horowitz for a hearing on Dec 8, and demand chapter and verse for every communication between the his office, and Barr, Sessions, Whitaker, Rosenstein and White House.
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Yes! This.
Heh, Barr a leading member of the Dark Knights of Trumplar!
But for Barr to take this beyond the hit job level he’d need to get prosecutors, judges, grand juries and petit juries to go along, armed with supporting facts and sound arguments, and he knows he doesn’t have those. So all he can do is try to tarnish Dems and intimidate future witnesses. He’ll probably make some inroads there, but I doubt enough to make a difference.
And, again, there will be massive pushback, by Dems and the media, which can make it hugely backfire, and which I believe it will. He could end up being impeached for abuse of power and knowingly promoting false facts and misusing DoJ resources, and referred for criminal prosecution. Whether it’s legal, political or even military, Trump’s only viable ways out of all this are likely to backfire.
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People we should trust before we trust Barr:
KSM
Jared
Dick Cheney
Joel Osteen
Used car salesmen
Kanye West
Lance Armstrong
Any given Housewife of those awful “reality” shows
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I stand corrected – it was OLC that issued that opinion, not DOJ IG. The point remains that, as @taylor noted above, there are still good reasons to believe that Horowitz is anxious to please his bosses.
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Is this intended as sarcasm (I hope)?
Whatever this report contains and however it affects things, here’s what SHOULD be further investigated and I hope IS being investigated, which are actual crimes:
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What really happened leading up to the Comey letter in late October 2016 that arguably lost Clinton the election. I think it’s way more complex than Comey trying to help Trump win or really bad luck for Clinton. I believe that this was manufactured by Trump’s allies in the NYC FBI & NYPD and likely involved if not coordinated by Rudy and Kallstrom with the knowledge, cooperation and approval of Trump and constitutes an impeachable and indictable set of crimes (that are not necessarily only federal crimes and thus not pardonable).
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The Russian angle in the Ukraine quid pro quo given that Russia stood to benefit by the withholding of military aid to Ukraine.
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Trump’s decades-long corrupt relationship with Putin/Russia and especially his many quid pro quos with them as president, many of which he DID succeed in following through with and didn’t merely try to, e.g. Ukraine aid, Syria, sanctions.
This is just a partial list. It’s a long one. A very long one. A prosecutor’s Xmas wish list.
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This is another reminder why it’s super important that we at least won the House in the 2018 Elections, because we have the ability to push back on and challenge stuff like this instead of being relegated to backrooms and minimal (if any) media coverage. We have people like Schiff, Nadler, et. al whom can actually investigate and/or challenge the credibility of any report Barr puts out. Even though Barr’s report was good for Trump, it eventually was picked apart, challenged, criticized, etc.
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Why would it be sarcasm? Barr is a trusted white conservative Republican, er, I mean a respected man.
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