The Trump Administration is guilty of countless wrongdoing, including monstrous acts that no one cares about, at least not in the press. In the meantime, the media is obsessing over a meeting between a 2016 Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, Donald Trump, Jr. and a number of other attendees.
How the Press Leads “The Resistance”
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Love that «Resistance», Ted – sort of reminds me of «Hope and Change»….
«Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux….»
Henri
> The Trump Administration is guilty of countless wrongdoing, including monstrous acts that no one cares about …
Bingo! Bush, Reagan, and Obummer all walked free, in spite of numerous treasonable offenses / war crimes. It would be nice if the public cared – but they don’t. Komrade Trumpinsky was elected even though he was publicly known to be a liar and cheat, any column inches dedicated to ‘exposing’ those qualities should be filed under ‘beating a dead horse.’
> the media is obsessing over …
… a story that sells newspapers. Anyone who is surprised by this please raise your hand so that I can mock you in an appropriate manner.
> a [SECRET] meeting between a 2016 Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, Donald Trump, Jr. and a number of other attendees. [Wherein they discussed methods whereby the Russians could help Komrade Trumpinov win the election]
… but that’s not PROOF! (at this point, I’m starting to wonder what would constitute proof to the deniers, but I’m pretty sure that this doesn’t.)
Glenn Greenwald, referencing Democratic Party interference with the Trump campaign using trumped up Russian sourced information from the faked Steele dossier:
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/13/glenn_greenwald_donald_trump_jrs_emails
“And here’s what I don’t understand. The Steele dossier that everybody got excited about, that claimed that the Russians had incriminating videos of Trump in a Moscow hotel and other dirt on Trump, that came from somebody who was getting first paid by Republicans and then by Democrats, going to Moscow and getting dirt about Donald Trump from Kremlin-affiliated agents in Moscow. In other words, he went to Russia, talked to people affiliated with the Russian government and said, “Give me dirt about Donald Trump,” and then, presumably, got it and put it in the memo. Similarly, there’s an amazing Politico article from January of this year that describes how allies of the Clinton campaign, including somebody being paid by the DNC, met with officials of the Ukrainian government, which was desperate to help Hillary Clinton win and Donald Trump lose, and get information incriminating about Trump from Ukrainian officials. In other words, Ukraine was meddling in our election by giving Democrats incriminating information about Trump.”
One man’s meddler is the next man’s freedom fighter – or is it the other way round ? And that nasty Russian ambassador was actually talking to people in Washington, which, of course, isn’t at all what an ambassador is for – he must be a spy !… 😉
Henri
.. but there is no PROOF!
In a free and fair election, St Hillary would have gotten at least 175% of the vote. That’s irrefutable proof that the Russians hacked the election. What more proof does any decent American need?
Droning terrorists? Bush, jr, Obama, and Trump know that’s the president’s job. And it’s US law that everyone droned on orders of the US president is, a fortiori, a heinous, terrorist war criminal.
Clinton, Bush, jr, Obama, and Trump all know it’s the government’s job to take money from the rabble and give it to the job creators.
But not doing the right thing and ordering regime change in Russia, an evil regime that supports the terrorists in Syria, Iran, and North Korea is treason! The US press has to press anyone and everyone to enforce this law.
There is NO PROOF that the Ukrainians hacked the RNC!!!!
It is instructive to contrast this with the behavior of the press in the Vietnam war era:
To simplify a lot, the press was of course mostly under state control – but – once a few bits of the truth got through (My Lai) some of the press up to the establishment papers actually began to critically report on the lies, death tolls, and how the war was going sour. Large parts of the public were enraged, corroborated by what they learned through the press. It mushroomed once whistleblowers (Dan Ellsberg, etc) revealed the sheer magnitude of the madness and criminality.
Today everything is upside down. Those who want to know can learn about the massacres that took place when cities get liberated essentially in real time, i.e. from people on the ground like Patrick Cockburn writing in the UK Independent who also got hold of leaked Iraqi Kurdish intelligence reports. But the U.S. establishment media won’t touch any – unless it is to report favorably on the presidentiality of indiscriminate bombing.
People are enraged plenty anyway. As Matt Taibbi gleefully pointed out, it is only the elite who like the idea of the Russian plot, the rank-and-file voters care much more about the second panel in the cartoon. Therefore the media are making themselves more and more dispensable by the day – all while getting record revenue from their 24/7 reporting on the all the Trump stunts and associated witch hunts.
> To simplify a lot, the press was of course mostly under state control – but – once a few bits of the truth got through
True, dat – but the other side of the coin is the public itself. We’ve had plenty of war crimes, massacres and atrocities in the Muddle East; coupled with young Americans dying for no reason. Where is the outrage?
My working hypothesis is that the public is likewise mostly under state control. e.g. in the weeks following 9/11 Fox news showed the clip of the collapsing towers several times a day. Airport announcers *still* repeat silly-assed ‘threat levels’ in red states. We hear about ISIS or ‘terrorists’ often enough that many people believe they are personally in immediate danger.
See? The system works!
The biggest example of The State’s propaganda success was the gangland-style execution of UBL. I would expect right-wingers to cheer, but most lefties were right there beside them applauding. WTF? Rule of law? Presumption of Innocence? Due process?
We’re doomed.