Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Republicans in disarray!

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

So many bastards, so little time.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Has No One Ever Heard of a Disinformation Campaign Fer Fuck’s Sake

Has No One Ever Heard of a Disinformation Campaign Fer Fuck’s Sake

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You’d think with the 2016 election being recent history, people would recognize what is going on. I mean, fer fuck’s sake, everyone and their brother has heard of gaslighting by now. Apparently not, though:

THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT BARR WANTED. The reason he sent the initial letter was sent by Barr WITHOUT RELEASING THE REPORT is so that useful idiots and hacks could run around and make statements about how Trump was totally cleared, and then by the time the actual report was released the waters would be sufficiently muddied that it didn’t matter what the actual report said because now there could be a debate about it. It’s what they fucking do with everything. It’s why corporations spend so much money funding alternative studies debating shit that is undebatable, like climate change or whether cigarettes are addictive and on and on.

The media didn’t intentionally misrepresent the report- Barr did and misled the media. That was his intent.

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    The media seemed to fall for Barr’s shiny object. Yes, there were headlines that “Barr said”, but the stories gave more credence to his spin.

    The media should have made the spin — that it was Barr’s interpretation, period, on a yet unseen report — way more clear, because we have us some gullible and willfully misled fellow citizens. Alas, many of them in the media, or pleasing their corporate owners.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The media is made up of gullible twits who have no critical thinking skills to speak of.

  5. 5.

    Bobby Thomson

    Shit, SNL practically did a whole show saying the report was a bust, based on nothing more than Barr’s lies.

  6. 6.

    patrick II

    Adam Schiff said on Chris Hayes tonight that there has been no counter-intelligence report to congress (I assume regarding the Russia investigation) as required by law in a year and a half. That is stunning. I don’t think he expects any without fighting Trump’s Justice department (or CIA) to get them.

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    Why are we arguing about the meaning of Mueller’s statements about Barr anyway? Anyone can tell even from the public redacted report that Barr’s summary of it was misleading. We don’t need to do Kremlinology to extract hints about what Mueller thought about it any more.

  8. 8.

    PPCLI

    The statement that Muller said only the media was inaccurate and not Barr’s letter is, of course, From unnamed DOJ officials. One of whom is presumably Barr.
    At this point, nothing Barr and his flunkies say can be believed. Yet journalists still pass it on uncritically.

  10. 10.

    ribber

    I literally know people who have made the argument that they don’t have to read the report because Barr summarized it for them and he’s an expert. I congratulated them on their gullibility.

  11. 11.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    Purveyors of deza are rarely unwitting, especially when they are paid to disseminate it.

  13. 13.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Mueller provided summaries in his report. Barr didn’t use them.

    I’m encouraged that people are saying that Barr should lose his job or worse. People who might be able to do something about that. Of course, they voted for him, despite his opposition to investigating the Iran-Contra affair and his support for President George H. W. Bush’s granting pardons.

    One of the infinite reasons to vote against Republicans is so that we never have to put up with their recycled and aging scum.

  16. 16.

    GregB

    Barr will go down as a more venal hack of an AG than John Mitchell. Congratulations Bill, everything Trump touches dies.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I’m encouraged that people are saying that Barr should lose his job or worse. People who might be able to do something about that.

    Wake me when they actually do something. Beyond furrowed brows I mean.

  18. 18.

    GregB

    By the way, The Four Horsemen of the Infowars on America, Greenwald, Taibbi, Tracey and Mate are getting mercilessly dragged on Twitter as their gossamer wings go up in flames.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @Yutsano:

    Wake me when they actually do something. Beyond furrowed brows I mean.

    SRSLY.
    We all know he’s a hack, that’s not news.

  23. 23.

    Aleta

    @Matt McIrvin: Why are we arguing about the meaning of Mueller’s statements about Barr anyway?

    Because every argument is intended to divert attention from the thieves and the stealing.

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    Two weeks from right now, I will be somewhere over the North Atlantic, on the way to a country with a despot that, unlike Trump, actually knows how to despot. Going to be interesting.

  28. 28.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    Who cares what some rando moron (BlackTowerRadio) on Twitter thinks?

  36. 36.

    BobS

    @Cheryl Rofer: I don’t remember any senator, Republican or Democrat, bringing up Barr’s role in the Iran-Contra coverup during his confirmation hearing- unlike Ilhan Omar reminding everyone of piece of shit Elliot Abrams’ participation in genocide and war crimes in Central America. We need more senators like the congresswoman.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    @NotMax:

    Nothing that much fun.

    EMEA Region Conference of the global alliance of accounting firms that my employer belongs to. They pay for the international tax folks to attend for relationship-building and exchange-of-technical-info purposes.

  41. 41.

    James E Powell

    I’m trying to figure out the angle of the lefties who disparage Mueller’s investigation and report. What’s their thinking?

  48. 48.

    Redshift

    @James E Powell: Mueller concluded the Russians boosted Bernie and pushed lefties toward Hillary hate. Since lefties are sure they have only completely legitimate hate for Hillary, Mueller must be evil, and his “evidence” must be discredited. (Just a guess.)

  50. 50.

    Bill Arnold

    @James E Powell:

    I’m trying to figure out the angle of the lefties who disparage Mueller’s investigation and report. What’s their thinking?

    1. Help Fascists solidify permanent grip on power
    2. ??? [0]
    3. [Socialist/post-consumerism/post-scarcity/whatever] utopia

    [0] Climate emergency causing worldwide disruptions, famine, migration blocked by nativism-driven immigration controls.

  51. 51.

    Captain C

    @James E Powell: Otherwise they might have to admit that HRC is not, in fact, History’s Worst Monster, and therefore , when fascism openly reared its ugly head, they chose to do all they could to kneecap the opposition, and they did so knowing their privilege would protect them.

  52. 52.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Oh, boy you don’t know what you’ve been missing. He’s truly the most pathetic human being on Earth. He’s a total prima donna, a shitty writer, and an even shittier (sp?) person. He was a writer (at one point the head writer) on the Archie Sonic comic for a decade. The editor at the time didn’t care and let Ken get away with a lot of shit. There’s horror stories of staff locking the doors to their offices to make him go away when he’d throw a tantrum.

    He left in 2006 and then in 2012 sued Archie for the copyright on characters he created for the comic. The court ruled in his favor since Archie couldn’t find Ken’s original contract. Those characters were no longer allowed to be used which caused a huge reboot. He is hated for that by many.

    Recently, on Twitter, he wrote this vile message:

    The one story I couldn’t tell was Sally losing her virginity to Geoffrey. Sonic may be fast, but Geoffrey was faster on the draw in that department.

    Princess Sally is a minor (16) and the other character was in his twenties. You heard that right, Penders, deep down, wanted to write a story where an adult has sex with a minor in a licensed comic aimed at children. Yeah. Also too, it’s incredibly sexist. Of course Penders loves to claim how “progressive” he is.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @Yutsano

    Shamefacedly admit to a moment’s slight hesitation about clicking, thinking it might have something to do with a shirtless Marine.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    ;)

  58. 58.

    FlipYrWhig

    @James E Powell:

    I’m trying to figure out the angle of the lefties who disparage Mueller’s investigation and report. What’s their thinking?

    “Blarharhar stoopit liberals blame everyone but themselves something something Neera Tanden” [victory dance]

    They are lost in their own ridiculous world that takes place mostly on Twitter, which makes most everyone an insufferable idiot on a good day.

  60. 60.

    Jay

    “Captured by the British en route to his post in Europe during the war, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After hostilities ended, he became one of the Peace Commissioners who negotiated United States independence under the Treaty of Paris. The chief negotiator on the British side was Richard Oswald, the principal owner of Bunce Island; he and Laurens had been friends for 30 years. The United States independence was negotiated in part between the British owner of Bunce Island and his American business agent in South Carolina, demonstrating the wealth and status achieved by these men by their trade in rice and slaves.”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunce_Island

  61. 61.

    Mike G

    “Most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.” – Michael Rivero

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    You’d think with the 2016 election being recent history, people would recognize what is going on. I mean, fer fuck’s sake, everyone and their brother has heard of gaslighting by now.

    unfortunately, at least half of those people think “gaslighting” is when Democrats talk about the Russian support Bernie and Jill Stein got in 2016.

    I just had one of them try to lecture me on Facebook about how “political canvassing” means walking up to random strangers and telling them how great Bernie is. The fact that the link that he himself provided gave my definition and not his meant that I was mean for being condescending to him and forcing him to misread his own source.

    When you have a group of political operatives who don’t understand the difference between canvassing and proselytizing, you’ve got a problem on your hands.

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    @Mike G: That’s a great quote.

    @Mnemosyne: I am steering clear of Bernie people and other sheep.

    I tire of people sanctimoniously telling me they will support him if he is the nominee. Hell no. I am not taking any pledges. Although, he is not going to be the nominee.

  64. 64.

    wasabi gasp

    The waters are not muddy. Not even under the gaslight. It’s the pee.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    You realize that you just brought up a character from “Hamilton,” right?

    (People forget he’s in it because LMM deliberately left his scene off the cast album.)

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @Mnemosyne:

    While it’s interesting, not into “Hamilton”.

    I was reading up on African Fortifications and came across an “oddity”,

    Thought some might find it interesting.

  67. 67.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    Speaking of Barr, you know who doesn’t get near enough hate for his confirmation? That godless fucking suckmonkey Doug Jones.

    Unless the republicans decide to run another child toucher—not impossible, god knows, but unlikely—Doug Jones is going to be replaced in six years. He could vote to the right of Steve King or to the left of AOC—it just doesn’t matter.

    His vote to confirm Barr was a slap to the face to every single Alabama democrat who came out to vote for him; at least if rootin’ tootin’ Roy Moore prevailed we’d have some crazy shit to talk about.

  69. 69.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    Adam pointed out that it’s a gateway to Identity Theft, Targetted Gaslighting and other forms of Ratfuckery.

  70. 70.

    Fair Economist

    @James E Powell:

    I’m trying to figure out the angle of the lefties who disparage Mueller’s investigation and report. What’s their thinking?

    Anybody disparaging the Mueller investigation and report for anything other than not going far enough is either working for Russia (possibly indirectly) or being led around like a puppet on strings. We are way past the “reasonable people can disagree” phase.

  72. 72.

    oatler.

    @Jay: Why, that sounds downright Jeffersonian!
    “Whereaf the Targetted Gaflighting and other Formf of Rattfuckerie..,”

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @oatler.:

    Aggregate IQ and Cambridge Analetica algorythms are loose in the wild,

    Combine that with a social media database, in which Berner’s can just add you with out consent,…..

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jay: Every night.

    ETA, tonight it was my Lab wanting to go out in the rain. He doesn’t paw at the bed or anything like that, just sits there and pants heavily. Once I was awake…

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: @Jay:

    “This much is clear: There’s even less information for American taxpayers to gauge whether their investment in Afghanistan is a success, or something else,” John Sopko, the head of SIGAR, told Reuters.

    Here, let me help you with that: Outside of lining some folks pockets with gold, it’s not a success.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yup, Afghanistan was lost at the First Loya Jurga, when Dubya Dubya Me Too picked the Warlords, War Criminals and Drug Dealers over the Reformers.

  82. 82.

    sukabi

    John, what are the odds that BlackTowerRadio is a Russian bot? Or if they are an actual person that they are actually a knowing part of the disinfo campaign?

    I’d put money on either, because at this point the only other option is that you were arguing with a moron.

  83. 83.

    Jay

    @sukabi:

    Crypto currency, “libertarian”, ammosexual wingnuts with a you tube channel , podcast and “independent” radio station in “western” New York State,

    Not Russian Bot’s but definately “The Americans”.

    So, morons.

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @sukabi:

    because at this point the only other option is that you were arguing with a moron.

    At any given time, the likelihood of this being the case is significant, especially if said entity is arguing in favor of a RWMF position.

  85. 85.

    msdc

    @burnspbesq: To judge by their Twitter feed, red rose stans who are really into Glenn Greenwald, Syria conspiracy theories, and bitcoin.

    In other words, they are the disinformation campaign.

  86. 86.

    germy

    The media didn’t intentionally misrepresent the report

    I disagree. I think there were quite a few members of the media who are complicit and eager to push a “nothing to see here, move along” narrative.

  87. 87.

    germy

    Has Barr agreed to the conditions he was objecting to? Will he submit to 30 minute questioning?

    My local TV news says he’s testifying, but they don’t go into detail.. Last I read, he was objecting to the format.

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