From The Post:
But her tarmac…
by Betty Cracker| 115 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics
by Betty Cracker| 115 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Free Markets Solve Everything, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Cosplay Socialists
Remember how in 2016 all the Alt right guys and Alex Jones conspiracy guys blew up to their highest national profile ever, and the subsequent scrutiny pretty much destroyed them? That’s what rose emoji twitter is about to go through, like a supernova
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 5, 2020
This is not an attempt to draw a one-to-one rhetorical comparison, it’s just everyone was forced to care about Baked Alaska and Milo and like 50 other flunkies until we very rapidly did not
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 5, 2020
TFW when you blow half your war chest to try and prove you can get non-voters to the polls but the predicted surge doesn’t hit.https://t.co/aSA0VxiNbg
— An Antic Disposition ?? (@pavanvan) February 5, 2020
… When Bernie Sanders’ campaign was preparing for a potential win in the first 2020 contest Monday, his aides and allies envisioned him giving a primetime victory speech, raising millions of dollars from small-dollar donors amid their ecstatic high, and savoring proving so many elites wrong at a party at the Holiday Inn.
Instead, Sanders and his senior aides found themselves working to reassure demoralized and shaken staffers and volunteers on Tuesday.
In a last-minute all-staff call around noon, Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, told aides that the Iowa Democratic Party had been incompetent and the delayed results were frustrating. But, he said, it was critical to appreciate what had just happened despite receiving the most negative news coverage of any 2020 campaign…
This was not what the Sanders campaign had expected to happen, to put it mildly. Excitement had been building among his team and its allies for days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. While campaigning throughout the state, Sanders himself appeared in a good mood, smiling and cracking more jokes than usual. He said his wife, Jane, would make a great first lady; Rep. Ilhan Omar, a top surrogate, said at events that they were going to send Sanders to the White House.
Then on Monday, hundreds of Sanders’ supporters — his Iowa precinct whips and captains; Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan; members of the Sunrise Movement, a group of young climate change activists; campaign co-chair Rep. Ro Khanna — packed into a hotel next to the airport for what felt like it could be an historic night. The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd milled around, along with reporters from around the world…
In the wee hours of the morning Tuesday, Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ senior adviser, lashed out at Iowa Democratic Party leader Troy Price in a call with the 2020 presidential campaigns, saying “the whole process has been a fraud for 100 years.” He told POLITICO that “there is no doubt” that Nevada, which had been planning until Tuesday to use the same app that failed in Iowa, should “disregard” it. On the flight to New Hampshire, Sanders said he was “disappointed” that Iowa Democrats couldn’t release timely results…
About that Holiday Inn party venue:
At a pre-caucus party, a Bernie supporter did a call and response.
“When I say ‘Fuck,’ you say ‘Warren!’”
“Fuck,” he yelled. “Warren,” the audience answered back.
He did the same for the other candidates. JFC.https://t.co/A2UcfYYPxE
— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) February 6, 2020
… The Sanders shindig Sunday night was conjured by the hosts of Chapo Trap House, the popular podcast of the self-proclaimed “dirtbag left” — the radicalized, often vulgar, and sometimes hilarious internet creatures all in for Bernie. The show’s hosts gathered in a tiny and graffiti-covered back room that looked like a charming imitation of a Lower East Side dive bar bathroom and discussed their candidate’s chances in the caucuses and whether one could get HBO interested in a miniseries starring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Out on the dance floor, a massive image of Jeffrey Epstein’s bungalow on Little Saint James, otherwise known as “Pedophile Island,” was being beamed onto the walls.
Rumors about the results of the scuppered Des Moines Register poll — the hotly anticipated barometer for Democratic candidates that was shelved the day before due to data-collection hiccups were flying around the bar. The poll’s results supposedly were good for Bernie and bad for the centrists, particularly those they call Uncle Joe and “Mayo Pete.” Upon hearing the gossip, one canvasser began twerking to scattered applause.
Another hopped on stage and grabbed a microphone for a call and return with the crowd.
“When I say ‘Fuck,’ you say ‘Biden!’”…
But, after what happened in the last primary cycle, these warriors had reason to be feeling vengeful. And though the hopeful vibes for their candidate’s chances in the caucuses were radiating around the room, they could see the establishment forces conspiring against them in real time. Even before the squelched caucus results threw this whole thing into a blender, a drumbeat of Democratic dreck had been fueling rage in the Bernieverse. First there were stories that Obama privately remarked that he would speak out against Sanders if necessary. Then came the trailer for Hulu’s new Hillary, pouring some Clinton haterade into the mix. Des Moines was buzzing that weekend over an NBC report that John Kerry was overheard at a hotel nearby saying that he would be willing to enter the race to stop “the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic party.” (Kerry has emphatically denied this.) On MSNBC Chris Matthews was saying on a Morning Joe panel discussion in Iowa that Sanders could win “real big” here but that “Bernie Sanders is not going to be president of the United States.”…
Words I seldom say: One hopes Chris Matthews is correct.
None of this argument made any sense.
Buttigieg is on track to win the Iowa caucus, and he did it by literally bringing over disenchanted Independents and Republicans. Look at the facts before making claims like this. https://t.co/NQqJhSfvP0
— Nick ?? (@TossupReport) February 5, 2020
bernie commendably didn't push conspiracy theories in his post caucus speech, and yet for the past 24 hours every single fuckin bernie supporter in my feed has been posting Qanon level garbage about shadow corp dot net or whatever anyways, weird how that keeps happening
— krapp's last take (@mmcgrath42) February 5, 2020
"They don't believe in winning."
Nailed it – Chapo thrives on grievance and us vs them politics. Bernie winning would hurt their business model. https://t.co/LsTWUeXEiz
— Shannon (@TheStagmania) February 5, 2020
Late Night Open Thread: Cosplay Socialist Extinction BurstPost + Comments (81)
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Enhanced Protest Techniques, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Open Threads, All Too Normal, Assholes, Cosplay Socialists
i for one love to pivot from calling the DNC an incompetent and fumbling org to accusing it of successfully orchestrating a national-scale conspiracy against the candidates that i like
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) February 4, 2020
How quickly Bend The Knee turned to petulant attempts at taking the party hostage.
— Iowasca Tripper (@agraybee) February 5, 2020
We are not a joke, people! (Well, not a *deliberate* joke… )
Oh shit, better not mess with these guys. https://t.co/YhchfAs9wK
— Iowasca Tripper (@agraybee) February 5, 2020
We devout Cynics were told not to badmouth the Bernistas’ proclivity to attack Democrats instead of the greater enemy, Trump. When the voting finally started, we were told, Senator Sanders and his closest aides would quickly pull his supporters into line, for the greater good. Because they were mature adults, not hobbyists nursing their adolescent fantasies of exclusion and revenge.
Yeah, well, Iowa — and the Iowa caucus structure the Sanders campaign fought so hard to preserve — certainly provided some valuable lessons, yes it did!
Shows the futility of the endeavor, lol. I'd like to think indulging self-grievance and conspiracy theories backfires because it's the ugliest side of his campaign and one that just has nothing to do with anyone's real life. https://t.co/hGPO4Sqm1m
— Gustave Le Fromage (@davidabenner) February 4, 2020
Bernie Twitter is full of nastiness and venom (and conspiracies and lies) about Pete Buttigieg.
Pete Twitter is full of joy and hope (and substance and belonging).
The day the sun comes up after Donald Trump, what kind of President do we want to pick up the pieces? https://t.co/VWIGI2SMPG
— Brian Goldsmith (@GoldsmithB) February 4, 2020
I will say this… Thank you Warren supporters for not going headlong into conspiracy theories from the Bernie camp.
— Caucus Error Reporter. (@CascadianSolo) February 4, 2020
Not trying to give any advice but like:
Sanders fans have one super good argument (he's leading /will probably win both versions of the popular vote!—that should matter!) and one pretty bad argument (how dare Iowa release partial results!) and they should focus on the good one.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 5, 2020
Also no, let me go out on a limb, the Iowa Democratic Party is not intentionally making themselves look incompetent on an international stage and risking the future of the Iowa caucuses, their greatest power asset. Have you ever like, worked in elections or politics or…any job?
— Xenocrypt (@xenocryptsite) February 4, 2020
Seems like all did not go as planned pic.twitter.com/cVY99rDsmH
— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) February 4, 2020
Pete Buttigieg quaking in fear as Bernie supporters prepare a battalion of Simpson’s screen grabs, confused conspiracies linking him to Jeffrey Epstein and stuff that’s maybe homophobic but deliberately worded to be ambiguous
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 4, 2020
People need to stop pretending the conspiracies are just being pushed by random accounts on twitter. It's his top surrogates & supporters like RoseAnn (who btw has been pushing insane conspiracies for years now). Stop giving him & his campaign an undeserved pass. https://t.co/qHIwCxPih5
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 4, 2020
so if I point out that kneejerk conspiracism is a warning sign that you can be manipulated by authoritarians and is extremely dangerous to the long-term health of leftist movements, will y'all take it seriously, or does that make me a shitlib?
— Pythagorean Danskin (@InnuendoStudios) February 4, 2020
Great job planting the seeds of anti Bernie material Rose twitter
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) February 4, 2020
This is what the entirety of the Twitter Left has decided is the case. Really. https://t.co/kXlhgWoudi
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 4, 2020
Congrats, everyone. You again did so great, leading to this. https://t.co/P8yDERVkX8
— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) February 4, 2020
Cold Grey Iowa Caucus Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Proof of ConceptPost + Comments (42)
This post is in: 2020 Elections, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Information Warfare, Post-racial America
Yes, he is… but that’s only a virtue when one is consistently correct.
The Washington Examiner is a right-wing propaganda sheet, but it’s a professional operation. So when it came time to start roughing up St. Sanders, they didn’t go for the low-hanging ‘he’s a commie’ fruit, they dug up some indefensible-to-good-progressives oppo:
Wow. They found 1970s interviews where Bernie praised segregationist George Wallace.
‘Sanders, then 31, said Wallace "advocates some outrageous approaches to our problems, but at least he is sensitive to what people feel they need."’ https://t.co/EIsLb42Ppw
— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) January 30, 2020
Turns out everything that Bernie surrogates said about Biden and segregationists, anti-busing, tough on crime rhetoric, and the crime bill actually applied to Bernie Sanders himself. The level of hypocrisy is absolutely unbelievable.
— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) January 30, 2020
Because I’m in a bad mood, I’ll argue that watching George Wallace’s ‘success’ in the early 1970s actually gave Sanders his inspiration — white working-class (straight, male) resentment, but from the left. Vote for me, if you agree that ‘those people’ are stealing what should be *your* working-class benefits! Let us dream of returning to the golden age where one might be a wage slave, but at least there was the satisfaction of knowing the browns and the women would never be permitted to enter *our* unions!
Sure, Sanders is no more racist than any other white male 1970s politician who fled New York City for the bucolic white hamlets of Verment, but that’s still… pretty racist, by today’s standards. And if he’s embedded his arguments in a ‘sensitive to bigots’ feelings’ model that got him a toehold in Vermont politics back then, shame on the Cosplay Socialists who currently find it appealing.
Hillary Clinton was 16 years old when she supported Barry Golderwater
Bernie Sanders was 31 years old when he supported George Wallace.
Lets see how these cult followers defend this.
— ?? Black Professor ?? (@Wonderbitch82) January 30, 2020
On Wallace:
"[He] advocates some outrageous approaches to our problems, but at least he is sensitive to what people feel they need." -Bernie Sanders ('72)
"Over my dead political body is George Wallace going to get [the Democratic nomination]" -Joe Biden ('74) https://t.co/7VRFt6p97g
— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) January 30, 2020
The Bernie-George Wallace controversy shows us two things:
1. Bernie’s class over race stance goes back nearly 50 years, the Rogan issue is just the latest in a long line of similar choices.
2. Bernie has clearly not been vetted and who the hell knows what else is out there.— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) January 30, 2020
Four years of screeching about how Bernie hasn't changed his opinions ever in his entire life is not paying off right now.
— Reject Ophidiophobia (@agraybee) January 30, 2020
Context is good but it’s hard to get past that quote about his admiration for Wallace’s supporters anger at the political system. They were angry because the political system was defending black ppl’s rights! https://t.co/G89qcPEp8t
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) January 31, 2020
Wallace was tapping into racist resentment, not economic resentment. LBJ had an unprecedented anti poverty program! Wallace appealed to white ppl possessed at the CRM.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) January 31, 2020
Every damn time:
1) Who should we woo and accommodate? White working class racists.
2) Who should we fight to the death with every ounce of righteous fury in our body? Hillary, Liz, Kamela, Nancy, Barack.
— South Bend is smaller than ASU (@86_RSK) January 30, 2020
I think saying Wallace (or Trump!) was or is "sensitive to what people feel they need" understandably invites some questions as to which people and which needs. This isn't the time to say he's been unwaveringly focused on class only, if I were running interference for him. https://t.co/DWqkcuAYy9
— Gustavo Duderino (@davidabenner) January 30, 2020
Also, I know it’s just our usual sexist politics, but I don’t think Warren would have a flagship WaPo writer out here running defense for her if she’d had said the same.
— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) January 30, 2020
Great point: You can’t pull the “economic anxiety” bs with the George Wallace praise, since America was in the economic golden age that many modern progressives admire today. Weaker corporations, less inequality, stronger unions. Just Black people who wanted rights. https://t.co/elzrIyDlmf
— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) January 31, 2020
I'd love to live in a world where the left has more respect for Kamala Harris's voters than Hitler's voters.
— Reject Ophidiophobia (@agraybee) January 31, 2020
Today’s Predictable FusterCluck: <em>But Bernie Is *Consistent*!</em>Post + Comments (81)
by Adam L Silverman| 23 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Information Warfare, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security
In every one of the Black PSYOP posts I’ve done, I’ve referenced Paula Chertok’s reporting that the earliest mention of Vice President Biden having a potential ethical and/or legal problem was Russian agitprop first reported in Russian state backed media RIA Novosti. I have also referenced in several of these earlier posts that Secretary Kerry’s step-son was also referenced.* As I’ve explained in these previous posts this was done to begin to dirty up Vice President Biden and Secretary Kerry who were both reportedly considering running for president in 2016.
On Saturday I explained that the President’s defense team would try to launder the debunked Russian conspiracy theories about Ukraine, not Russia, interfering in the 2016 election and doing so to frame Russia and the President for doing so, as well as the agitprop that Vice President did something illegal in regard to Ukraine in an attempt to cover up for the fact that his son had a sinecure. This is what the Republican members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee were using the impeachment hearings to perpetuate the Black PSYOP of laundering Russian conspiracy theories, misinformation, and agitprop through each committees’ hearings and into the mainstream news reporting.
Today former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a member of the President’s defense team, laundered this Russian agitprop from 2014 through the Senate and into the news. And you can see that this is a direct transmission of the agitprop cited above because Bondi suddenly introduces a new player into her narrative: Secretary Kerry’s stepson Chris Heinz. The video below is queued up to start at the 5:25 mark just before she introduces the agitprop.
For those that don’t want to watch the audio-visual extravaganza that is Pam Bondi, here’s the transcript:
Here’s how Hunter Biden came to join Burisma’s board in 2014: He was brought on the board by Devin Archer, his business partner. Devin Archer was college roommates with Chris Heinz, stepson of Secretary of State John Kerry. All three men, Hunter Biden, Devin Archer, and Chris Heinz had all started an investment firm together. Public records show that April 16th, 2014, Devin Archer meets with Vice President Biden at the White House. Just two days later, on April 18th, 2014, is when Hunter Biden quietly joins Burisma, according to public reporting. Remember this is just one month after the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office opened a money laundering case into Burisma, Hunter Biden joins the board.
Now compare this with the RIA Novosti reporting above.
As of right now the PBS Newshour and other mainstream broadcast and cable news stations have either the full video of Bondi’s time at the podium or clips of it up on their digital and social media feeds. That’s the first step of the information laundry for the Black PSYOP. The second step has already occurred, if you keyword search “Pam Bondi John Kerry’s stepson” you get results from conservative to far right digital “news” sources. The first page of returns includes The Daily Wire, Breitbart, Towhnall, The Epoch Times, Daily Gaming World, and GLOCKTalk, which is a firearm’s forum and the thread is full of inaccurate conspiracy theories like this one:
Those returns also include mainstream reporting, such as this article from Newsweek. But it won’t be long until the right wing digital news and social media ecosystem push this from the fringes to Fox News. Once there this five year old Russian agitprop, intended to be part of potential active measures campaigns against either Vice President Biden or Secretary Kerry in 2016 will get broadcast to a much wider audience. And just in time for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary both Vice President Biden and one of his most senior surrogates, Secretary Kerry, will be dirtied up. Just the way Vladimir Putin wanted back in April 2014. Which is why Bondi did it. To get results like this:
ERNST: "IA caucuses are this next Monday evening. And I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Demcaucus goers. Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?"
H/T @JaxAlemany pic.twitter.com/tYYkSPuIDY
— Alan He (@alanhe) January 28, 2020
Open thread!
* I really don’t understand why Elizabeth Cheney was included in the agitprop that was initially placed in RIA Novosti. There was reporting in 2015 that Bill Kristol was floating VP Cheney’s name for a potential 2016 run. And VP Cheney did suggest that he thought VP Biden should run in 2016. But neither of those makes any sense as to why Russia’s misinformation and agitprop campaign would include his daughter in what was clearly a placed piece of agitprop in 2014 to dirty up potential 2016 Democratic candidates.
by Adam L Silverman| 128 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Economics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment, Open Threads, Politics, Russia, Silverman on Security
The entire tape is out!
The closest I’ve found to a transcript is from Susan Simpson’s, a DC attorney, Twitter feed, which I’ll excerpt below and provide snarkmentary on:
Here’s the clip/part about Ambassador Yovanovitch.
The bleeped out part was apparently "the ambassador of Ukraine."
Okay who the hell bleeped that out and why?https://t.co/ANIEhCuVm9
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Now everyone is discussing steel tariffs. Trump expresses frustration that South Korea dare competes with the U.S. steel industry: "Can you believe it." "How we ever got involved in South Korea in the first place, tell me about it."
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
The President apparently slept through the Korean War.
Trump is bragging about his steel tariffs to one of the people at the dinner, and how much steel prices has gone up, and isn't that great. The man then gently corrects him, "I'm not a steel producer, I'm a steel buyer."
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
The President does not seem to understand 19th Century economic policy at all!
Trump: "China didn't become great until the WTO." Trump is explaining how China was going nowhere, then they joined the WTO and bam, like a rocket ship.
Trump is just making up random econ stats, and then everyone around the table goes, "Wow," "Incredible," "Woooww," "Amazing."
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Trump, laughing: "Can you imagine getting hit by a hundred pounds of drugs?"
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
I got nothing…
Parnas: 'We're in the process of purchasing an energy company in Ukraine that should cut off Russia.'
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Narrator Voice: Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were not, in fact, in the process of buying a Ukrainian petroleum company!
Parnas: "They're waiting for your support to go on" with oil development, so that they don't lose it all to Russia.
Trump: "How long would they last in a fight with Russia?"— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Let’s get serious for a minute, Ukraine is fighting for its sovereignty and national integrity, which is something that a nationalist-populist like the President is supposed to be all about. Every day that the US screws itself into the ground over and over again on its foreign and nat-sec policy regarding Ukraine, Europe, and Russia is another day that Ukrainians are being killed so that Vladimir Putin can recreate what he thinks are the necessary boundaries that Russia deserves to have as the Soviet Union’s successor.
The bleeped out part was apparently "the ambassador of Ukraine."
Okay who the hell bleeped that out and why?https://t.co/ANIEhCuVm9
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Here's the section with the BLEEP – Maddow suggested on her show that, whatever it was, it wasn't because of profanity. https://t.co/jRbkswAQ77
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
As I referenced in this morning’s post, European Union member states provide approximately 2/3rds of all the aid to Ukraine. Which is more than what the US is providing.
Everyone at this dinner party from hell is on Team Reefer, it seems.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Can you imagine this crowd with the munchies? No hamberder would ever be safe. And we’d soon experience a strategic KFC gravy shortage! Watching the President mesmerized by the size of his hands, however, might be fun to watch for a few minutes.
Parnas: "We're in the process of purchasing — Ukraine is privatizing one of it's biggest energy companies –"
Naftogaz, if that's what they're referring to, was obviously not in the process of being purchased.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
It will soon be Pam Bondi’s time in the barrel!
They're wondering why Bernie Sanders hasn't gone "crazier" agains the Democrats, for betraying him or something, and start debating whether Sanders will run for 2020. Someone — maybe Parnas? — just said, laughing, "I hope Biden runs."
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Ruh Roh! Clean up on aisle Bernie, clean up on aisle Bernie!!!!!
This is killing me. Someone at the table keeps trying to move the conversation to natural gas policy, and I am silently rooting for him because I want to hear that discussion, but Trump keeps bringing it back to the aluminum cars.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
The President does not seem to know what cars are made of. Who knew?
The table was discussing the embassy in Jerusalem for a bit, but now we're back to the Messiah talk again.
And Trump abruptly ends the dinner, with a joke about having "a long way back."
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
Yep, Parnas, Fruman, Giuliani and a couple of oligarchs have set up an Ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Ukraine with something called the Anatevka Foundation, a fake village on the outskirts of Kyiv for Jewish refugees called Anatevka, and a bogus US scam charity the US Friends of Anatevka. Rudy Giuliani is the Honorary Mayor of Anatevka. And the pet rabbi appears to have declared that the President is the messiah through the use of gematria. Yidee bidee, yidee, bidee, yidee bidee bidee buum! Also, obligatory:
Let’s see where were we? Oh, here we are:
Parnas definitely brings up Biden at several points throughout the dinner, including during this discussion.https://t.co/zuPCG6DlMh
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
I don't think Parnas's referenced to Biden are necessarily significant, though. At this point in time, I'm not convinced the Biden part of the scheme had come together yet.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) January 25, 2020
And that’s a wrap!
Updated at 10:20 PM EST
I’ve added the three tweets, including the audio clip, where the President says to “take out” Ambassador Yovanovitch.
Open thread!
Lordy It’s The Tape: The President’s Fundraising Dinner Tape Has Been ReleasedPost + Comments (128)
by Adam L Silverman| 121 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War
The ongoing Black PSYOP by the President, his Congressional defenders, his surrogates, and his supporters is set to enter its next phase: using the defense of the President in the Senate trial of his impeachment to launder the Russian misinformation and agitprop about Vice President Biden, Hunter Biden, and the conspiracy theory that the Clinton 2016 campaign and Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 presidential election not the Russians through the Senate into mainstream reporting and to the American people.
From The Washington Post:
White House lawyers are gearing up for a scorched-earth defense of President Trump in the impeachment trial, mounting a politically charged case aimed more at swaying American voters than GOP senators — and damaging Trump’s possible 2020 opponent, Joe Biden.
Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, and Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal attorney, plan to use their time in the trial to target the former vice president and his son, Hunter, according to multiple GOP officials familiar with the strategy. Trump’s allies believe that if they can argue that the president had a plausible reason for requesting the Biden investigation in Ukraine, they can both defend him against the impeachment charges and gain the bonus of undercutting a political adversary.
This is why Senator Cruz floated his one for one deal on witnesses. Specifically that if the House Democratic impeachment managers are allowed to call John Bolton, then the President’s defense team gets to call Hunter Biden. It is why Senator Graham has been suggesting a special counsel be appointed to investigate the Bidens and if one isn’t appointed he’s going to do it himself through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
We know the President’s and his surrogates allegations about Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden are Russian agitprop. As Paula Chertok has reported and I’ve repeatedly referenced here in the previous Black PSYOP posts, it was created in the spring of 2014 in order to begin to dirty up Vice President Biden ahead of a potential 2016 presidential run.
The repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory the Clinton campaign conspired with Ukraine to steal the 2016 presidential election and frame the Russia and the President now appears to have been established by Russia as early as 2015.
Three weeks after Election Day 2016, the Kremlin officially floated a theory that would ultimately lead to only the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history.
“Ukraine seriously complicated the work of Trump’s election by planting information” aimed at damaging his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Nov. 30, 2016, accusing the Ukrainian government of scheming to help elect Hillary Clinton.
Russian officials offered no evidence—on that day or on any other day—that it was really Kyiv and not Moscow that meddled in the 2016 election. Nor have U.S. intelligence agencies backed off on their collective finding that the Kremlin orchestrated a major effort to help Trump win office.
Zakharova’s claims seemed easy enough to shrug off at the time. It was not surprising that the Kremlin, highly skilled in the dark arts of dezinformatsiya, would try to shift blame to its adversaries in Kyiv.
But that effort to shift blame may have started months earlier. A review of Russian state media reports from the time and interviews with a dozen current and former officials and experts in Kyiv and Washington paint a more sinister picture: that Zakharova’s seemingly throwaway accusation was actually the culmination of a year-long effort to frame Ukraine for a Russian attack, ultimately leading to parallel efforts by Moscow and President Donald Trump to try to game the 2020 election by seeking dirt on former vice president Joe Biden.
Cindy Otis, a former political and military analyst at the CIA who now leads the disinformation analysis program at Nisos, a cyber security firm, says that Moscow may even have planted the seeds even earlier than Zakharova’s news conference.
“There’s been an evolution of the main narrative” tying Ukraine to the 2016 election, Otis said. She pointed to a March 2015 article in the Kremlin-funded outlet Russia Today that tried to connect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the future Democratic presidential nominee, to the popular uprising against the pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013.
“The Russian narrative in 2015-2016 was that Clinton interfered in Ukraine, and that her campaign was being directed or driven by Ukrainian oligarchs,” Otis said.
As is typical of Russia’s disinformation operations, it hinged on a kernel of truth—the reports cited donations her charity had received from Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk beginning in 2008, which were initially reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“They really seized on that Wall Street Journal article,” Otis said, pointing to a chart included in the article listing “Ukraine” as the Clinton Foundation’s top donor that was widely shared by suspected Russian trolls and the far-right on social media.
But it wasn’t just isolated accounts accusing Ukraine of manipulating the 2016 election; lawmakers say they’ve seen signs of an organized, top-down effort directed by the Kremlin to create a false narrative and exonerate Russia.
Russia’s disinformation and agitprop campaign was laundered through the usual sources starting with Russia’s state backed news media platforms designed to propagandize Americans, such as RT, and from their through a variety of far right and alt-right sources until it hit places like Brietbart, The Gateway Pundit, and then, ultimately, John Solomon at The Hill.
This phase of the Black PSYOP will be wrapped within faux righteous indignation that the Democrats are simply continuing the conspiracy against the President, by using the impeachment to finish the job delineated in Russia’s conspiracy theory about the election, to remove him from office, overturn the 2016 presidential election results, and fix the 2020 election by doing so, as well as a lack of burden sharing by the EU in support of Ukraine. None of this is true! Approximately 2/3rds of the aid that Ukraine receives is from European Union member states. The Ukrainians are forbidden from using the Javelin missiles we’ve sold them, and which his defenders constantly reference as something the President did for Ukraine when no one else – not Obama, nor the EU leaders – would, because the President doesn’t want to upset the Russians, so they’re stored across the country from where the Ukrainians are actually fighting a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russians are the ones who actually conspired with and interfered in the 2016 elections on behalf of the President, not the Ukrainians conspiring with the Clinton campaign. If the Senate were to vote to convict the President during the trial phase of his impeachment it does not overturn the 2016 election, it simply removes him from office and bars him from running again at the Federal level. VP Pence would become president if this were to happen, which is not overturning the 2016 election. Overturning the 2016 elections would make Secretary Clinton president, which isn’t even in the realm of the possible. Finally, the President has repeatedly indicated that he would welcome foreign assistance in his reelection campaign or solicited it – on camera, to reporters!
The Senate, the world’s greatest deliberative country club, is just another front in the Black PSYOP campaign to fix the 2020 presidential election and absolve Russia of responsibility for the unconventional war it has been waging on the US so that sanctions against Russia can be lifted.
We are off the looking glass and through the map!
Open thread.
The Black PSYOP Part VI: The President’s Defense in the SenatePost + Comments (121)