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Can We Lock Up Rachel Maddow Now?

Mar 252019
 
 March 25, 2019  Posted by at 2:50 pm Primers Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Yves Klein Leap into the Void 1960

 

Message to Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Kemala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard and the rest of the crew: you can stop asking for campaign donations, because you no longer stand a chance in the 2020 elections. Your own party, and the media who support you, made sure of that. Or rather, the only chance you would have is if you guys start another smear campaign against your president, and I wouldn’t recommend that.

I don’t want to start another Lock Her Up sequence, that’s too ugly for my taste. But three parties in this No Collusion disaster must be held accountable: US intelligence, the Democratic party, and the media. You can’t just let it go, too much water under the bridge. No can do. “The Democrats need to move on”, a recent ‘soft line’, is not good enough. They must be held to account.

Bill Barr can investigate the FBI and DOJ, but the obstacles there are obvious: investigating the investigators. The Democratic party would mean going after individuals, but sure, let’s see what Loretta Lynch, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Maxine Waters have to say for themselves and take it from there, before you get to Hillary. The media, though, is something else altogether.

Freedom of the press, and freedom of opinion, is one thing. Conducting a 2-year+ smear campaign against your own president is another. So what does US law say about this? Let’s hear it. Since Trump made Bill Barr the new Attorney General, Barr is instrumental in answering these questions. Is it a smear campaign? Is that acceptable? Is it legal? Asking for a friend.

Not a soul could blame me if I were to gloat because what I’ve said since the 2016 elections has been proven: there is no collusion between ‘the Russians’ and Donald Trump and there never was. But I don’t feel much like gloating because 1) it’s old news and 2) this tale is far from over. The media, and the Democrats, are not going to cave in, because they have nowhere left to ‘cave into’.

The biggest shame, I think, is not that the media will just keep doing what they have, but that a remnant, a residue of all the made-up narratives will remain in their audience’s minds, long after Robert Mueller has said it was all lies all that time. That the public will say: there’s been so much, surely some of it must be true?! The power of repetition.

 

The same media that has spun the collusion theme all this time will simply continue doing what it’s done, just perhaps without using that term -and not even that is sure. Don’t let’s forget, and I’ve said this 1000 times, that while there is a dose of genuine hatred of their own president involved, and some political issues, most of all it’s about their business model. Trump scandals mean readers and viewers. And money.

Because of that, or at least partly because of it, I would seriously like to ask what the odds are of putting Rachel Maddow behind bars. How many lies can you tell, and how often can you repeat them, about anyone, but certainly about your President, before someone calls you on it? Trump can’t really defend himself, or couldn’t as long as Mueller was busy, but this can’t be.

Does the fact that you work for the media protect you to the extent that you can just say anything? And Maddow of course is just an example, albeit an extreme one, but the same goes for CNN, New York Times et al. What freedoms do you have as a journalist? And at what point are you no longer a journalist at all? Who decides that?

BuzzFeed said Mueller was in possession of evidence that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Mueller himself had to discredit that. The Guardian’s Luke Harding wrote a #1 NYT bestselling book called “Collusion” before writing an article with Dan Collins claiming that Manafort had met with Assange multiple times in London.

Not a word of that was true. But Harding And Collins and their editor still work at the Guardian, and no apologies or corrections were ever issued. And at some point you have no choice but to ask: where does it stop? Where do we draw the line? Can anyone who labels themselves a journalist and/or anyone employed by MSM, say anything they want? From sources:

The nonpartisan Tyndall Report pegged the total amount of time devoted to the story on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC last year at 332 minutes, making it the second-most covered story after the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

According to a count by the Republican National Committee released Sunday, The [Washington] Post, The New York Times, CNN.com and MSNBC.com have written a combined 8,507 articles [since 2017] mentioning the special counsel’s investigation [into nonexistent collusion], some 13 articles a day. The cable news networks, particularly CNN and MSNBC, have added hundreds of hours of discussion about the topic, too.

And they wrote many more in 2016 as well. They were on a mission. Tyler Durden adds:

Mueller’s 40 FBI agents issued over 2,800 subpoenas, executed “nearly 500 search warrants,” and “obtained over 230 orders for communication records. They also issued 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

All that time, and all those resources, dedicated to a figment of the imagination, invented out of this air to derail a presidential election and a presidency. Where do we think these people see their country go? I must admit I’m not sure about that one. But I see Bernie Sanders on the anti-Trump wagon, and AOC and Tulsi trying to get on, and I think: please don’t do that, it doesn’t go anywhere.

I’ve called for a second special counsel many times, and I can’t imagine there won’t be one, and as much as I think it’s desperately needed, it’s obvious at the same time that it can only divide the nation further.

There was a reason Trump was elected: people had gotten sick of what was there before, of what Republicans and Democrats had to offer. And there is absolutely nobody in either party who addresses that issue. In other words, there’s still nobody who is listening to those people. So they tune into Rachel Maddow and her kind of ‘reporting’.

Looks like Bill Barr will be badly needed. And that to restore the credibility of US intelligence, he will need to clean up the FBI and DOJ and get rid of all those who’ve taken part in the collusion debacle. A formidable task. I’d suggest he start with Maddow et al and take it from there. Find out who feeds the media their fantasy stories.

Oh, and now that collusion’s off the table, free Julian Assange. Let Robert Mueller show he’s not as much of a coward as he looks until now. To that end, let him swallow the Guccifer 2.0 nonsense as well. That Rachel Maddow makes things up from scratch, doesn’t mean Special Counsels should do that too. Mueller knows exactly what this is about.

A friend (not exactly a Trump fan) mailed me last night saying this was never a witch hunt. And I’m thinking: maybe that depends on how you define it. Here’s one definition: “an unforgiving, evidence-scant campaign against a group of people with unpopular views.” Not too far off, is it?

Time for spring cleaning, Bill Barr.

 

 

Home › Forums › Can We Lock Up Rachel Maddow Now?

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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  • March 25, 2019 at 2:50 pm #46244
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Yves Klein Leap into the Void 1960   Message to Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Kemala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard and the rest of the crew: you can stop as
    [See the full post at: Can We Lock Up Rachel Maddow Now?]

    March 25, 2019 at 3:17 pm #46245
    zerosum
    Participant

    Why did the Romans need “Bread and Circus”?

    Let the games continue.

    ( the bold key, italic key etc. have disappeared)

    March 25, 2019 at 3:32 pm #46246
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    ( the bold key, italic key etc. have disappeared)

    From where?

    March 25, 2019 at 5:31 pm #46247
    zerosum
    Participant

    From the top of the “comment box”
    Is it just me?

    March 25, 2019 at 5:42 pm #46248
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Pas moi

    March 25, 2019 at 7:34 pm #46249
    [email protected]
    Participant

    Oh, my. Perfect photo!

    March 25, 2019 at 8:55 pm #46251
    zerosum
    Participant

    not on my Microsoft edge
    Yes on google Crome

    March 25, 2019 at 9:01 pm #46252
    Raúl Ilargi Meijer
    Keymaster

    Microsoft? That still exists?

    So lock her up?

    March 25, 2019 at 9:07 pm #46253
    zerosum
    Participant

    yep!
    just switched my default browser.

    March 25, 2019 at 9:15 pm #46254
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    It is about the Benjamins, baby. Donald Trump sells. But more importantly he, Teresa May and Emmanuel Macron are corporate toadies. They do what the plutocrats want: cut taxes, deregulate, and privatize. Their governments are incompetent. They don’t give a damn for the Little People. Forever wars are started that can’t be won. Ethnic conflicts are promoted to dismember nation states. The Deep State’s sole purpose is to make war profits. Donald Trump indicated that he would break their rice bowls. Also, he is a populist not a globalist. So, they went after him with the British dodgy dossier and failed spectacularly. The western Ship of State is control by the same people who market the 737 Max. Unless control is returned to the people, the system will keep repeatedly pointing the nose at the ground till we crash.

    March 25, 2019 at 9:56 pm #46255
    Zerodollars
    Participant

    Well all thats really required is to simply “ban Hate-speech*. That would take care of this particular issue, along with many of the other problems that afflict the USA.

    OOOps – I forgot.. Freedom of speech is one of America’s most cherished possessions; right up there with the right to bear arms. And Wall Street.

    So YES, lock her up. Along with the rest of ’em.*

    Thank you, Sir, for an interesting and thought-provoking post.

    Cheers,
    – M

    *p.s. It might be easier, and possibly less costly, to have a go at banning hate speech.

    March 26, 2019 at 12:21 pm #46264
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Legally, the path is pretty clear and incredibly old. It’s always been illegal to slander (in voice) or libel (in print) someone. The Covington kids are following this right now. It’s illegal everywhere, including Britain and New Zealand, and the legal threshold has a couple of bullet points. There has to be provable damage, the facts provided have to wrong, they have to be specific, and so on. Then you sue civilly for compensation in measure with the damage caused. Pretty simple. But if it’s actual libel of the sort anyone actually means, not just “I disagree with you”, then all these elements are absolutely in play. No false accusations, no just getting the facts wrong on accident.

    What’s more, the government is never the plaintiff. Although in theory I suppose they could get standing, in practice slander and libel are prosecuted BY private people AGAINST private people, which eliminates a major element of government censorship and repression. …The problem is, now that the entire force of media is resident in 5 corporations the size of most countries, no one has been suing anyone, much less challenging them to pistols at dawn.
    That and the marketplace is adjusting to the new reality: It USED to be that when a newspaper catastrophically screwed the pooch as we Yanks say, people would cancel their subscription to such a piece of pure, useless, misleading garbage. …But no one ever pays for news anymore; there’s nothing to cancel. Clicks are free. So even when it’s completely wrong, knowingly, provably wrong in 10 minutes of google, if it gets clicks you get paid, so there is a new OPPOSITE incentive to lie, so long as the lies are salacious. It’s literally impossible to be discredited under this model. Look at Brian Williams on NBC and Donna Brazile on Fox.

    However, you can still be sued to penury and be unable to pay your click-bills, and I expect this is a new growth industry, perhaps led by Nunes. Certainly Buzzfeed and Vox haven’t waited, they’re collapsing under their blizzard of nonsense and poor reputation, while so many bloggers who got it right continue to rise despite every repression the algos can throw at them. And that’s the market adjusting, note: without the government.

    So that’s how Americans and legal nations with free speech do it and always have. Because legally, there is no such thing as ‘hate speech’. If there were, it would be thought crime, a tyranny so diabolical that even the existence of opinions is illegal. You are allowed to hate. Why? Because you are human, we don’t lock people up for thinking and feeling things, and thank our ever-loving God for that. You are also allowed to SAY you hate someone. Why? Because it’s both a fact and your opinion. What would be the alternative, universal love enacted by perpetual violent force? If people don’t know you don’t like them, you can’t be forewarned, you can’t work things out, we don’t have an open debate in the marketplace of ideas.

    What you CAN’T do – and again, this is the law everywhere and always – is ACTUALLY HARM someone. ‘Cause words are just cheap air, sound and fury, signifying nothing. A world where people are terrified of words alone is a world the weakest man who ever lived could conquer. But that’s the western world now, apparently having never seen or felt violence, actually believes that ‘words are violence.’ …That is until being so weak, such violets, such snowflakes, their total weakness attracts REAL violence which devours their nation in hours, as they see with decadent, falling empires throughout history.

    There are a few other things: you are generally liable if your words cause physical or monetary harm. Further, you can’t therefore call for specific harm to a specific person, as is called on my people every day, because being more dangerous, the law wishes to prevent murder rather than punish it. But any rational person can follow these without even knowing the law exists, although, like all laws in the U.S. presently, it isn’t enforced, or only enforced on people they don’t like.

    But that’s all terribly simple. The media legally CAN’T tell lies like this without consequences. Thankfully, however, the government isn’t the plaintiff and repressor. We legally can have open discussions where bad ideas, bad beliefs are able to be read openly and refuted, like Jim Jones, like Mein Kampf; as they must be, for the only alternative is to control and erase history, and then we could never learn, never recognize it. To punish people for ideas in their heads and feelings in their hearts, making their very existence a prison.

    The media will soon wish they could erase history, and perhaps they will already. I mean, they just erased Patrick Moore from founding Greepeace yesterday. But without the authorization of legal propaganda against the people and the government cash payments that’s soon going to be revealed — as long-used but signed into law by Obama — CNN, MSNBC and the boys are going to go broke on a business plan that has been totally discredited.

    So under market capitalism – and now lacking monetary and legal protection of their lies by government, and under attack for monopoly bias and with executive orders reminding everyone that speech is always free – the liars are about to be sued, go broke, and disappear. Which is a pity, since I doubt they have the competence to clean toilets instead. So that’s what free nations do, and are doing right now, instead of making all news, all facts, and all history verboten.

    “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” ― George Orwell, 1984

    March 26, 2019 at 7:21 pm #46271
    Zerodollars
    Participant

    Interesting posting, Dr D., thank you for writing it.

    One thing I wondered, from the start, is whether or not it was a deliberate strategy on the part of Trump to simply allow the Mueller inv. to run on, under the assumption that if he gave them enough rope they would eventually hang themselves. (Quite apart from the obvious bad optics that would have arisen if he had simply moved at some point to close the thing down).

    Also I sometimes wonder whether the investigation would have run for as long as it did, without the complicity or “cheer-leading” provided by the mainstream media to “egg it on”.

    In the “good old days”, a newspaper or some other media outfit armed with old-fashioned integrity might have done a bit of invesigative journalism on the reputation of Steele himself and thereby cast a bit of doubt on the usefulness or otherwise of the entire Mueller exercise. As it happens, the whole thing seems to have depended upon the US Justice system turning a blind eye at the right moment, thereby failing to nip the thing in the bud (excuse the mixed metaphor).

    But as you say, the MSM has been bought out by 5 or so corporates. (The way I heard it was that all of the “significant” media in the Western world are owned by six families).

    I did see one posting somewhere that praised Steele and his experience/career backround to high heaven, but I took that to be a sponsored propaganda exercise.

    We live in interesting times.

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