I’m still taking a break from this kind of stupid:
On December 2, 2017, after [Michael] Flynn pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges that he had lied to the FBI about the conversations he’d had with the Russian ambassador, President Trump appeared to confirm what the timeline had recorded. “I had to fire General Flynn because he had lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” the president tweeted. The White House, in an effort to contain the damage from this admission, said that the tweet had been ghostwritten by one of his personal attorneys, John Dowd, and was not accurate. But a source with direct, first-hand knowledge of the matter told me that Dowd’s tweet was based on what had been recounted in the McGahn timeline, as well as what the president and other senior aides had affirmed to Dowd about what had transpired in Flynn’s firing.
Who needs that kind of unthinkable idiocy in their lives?
Speaking of unthinkable idiocy:
https://gizmodo.com/president-trump-accuses-nbc-news-of-fudging-famous-inte-1828710329
Just more Post-Truth stuff.
Business as usual now.
No one can tell exactly what is happening because all sides of every story lie, and lie so well…buttressed by the implicit idea that no video or recording can be totally trusted…that in the end all trust is broken. The only thing people have to go on is their gut, which is really the very definition of “identity politics.”
Like dat.
Wars have been fought on less.
AG
. . . of this (if only we could all get a well-deserved break from ag’s kind of stupidity!) demands monumentation here:
The worst, most-egregious PURVEYOR of “Post-Truth” in these here parts obsessively rants and rails against his own product!
But these droningly repetitive rants are all off-target because their obviously most-valid target is . . . himself!
One of the best illustrations I’ve ever encountered of the classic definition of “chutzpah”, i.e.: the child who murders both parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.
Physician, heal thyself!
A group…or perhaps better, a cadre…of people on this site have tried everything in their power to discourage criticism of the Democratic Party as it stands today. They automatically downrate such posts and have endlessly attacked several posters as liars, fools, pro-Trump trolls and/or spreaders of Russian propaganda. When effectively rebutted, they simply ignore the rebuttal and repeat the same attacks. These McCarthyite tactics are intended to exhaust the patience of the attacked posters and discourage others from reading or posting similar material. It has worked on a few posters, who have simply given up. It has not worked on me. I initially answered their attacks with attempts at reason. After realizing that this was a total waste of time, I have pretty much stopped replying to them. My comments and articles on this site are my replies. Read what I have to say; consider what they have to say and how it is said, and then make up your own minds. Thank you-AG
wah wah wah WATB
. . . he continued running away from definitive factual refutation of his lies and related grotesque dishonesty.
STILL waiting, Counterpunchdrunk liar!
link
link
*P.S. I am going to add the following statement to many of my replies to your “standalone articles” (LOL!) and comments…for the benefit of new readers here. It applies to the comment that replies to as well:
*[ref.]
I repeat…and there really is no other way to effectively and efficiently reply to your repeated attempts at branding me as some sort of serial “liar.” (Emphasis mine.)
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A group…or perhaps better, a cadre…of people on this site have tried everything in their power to discourage criticism of the Democratic Party as it stands today. They automatically downrate such posts and have endlessly attacked several posters as liars, fools, pro-Trump trolls and/or spreaders of Russian propaganda. When effectively rebutted, they simply ignore the rebuttal and repeat the same attacks. These McCarthyite tactics are intended to exhaust the patience of the attacked posters and discourage others from reading or posting similar material. It has worked on a few posters, who have simply given up. It has not worked on me. I initially answered their attacks with attempts at reason. After realizing that this was a total waste of time, I have pretty much stopped replying to them. My comments and articles on this site are my replies. Read what I have to say; consider what they have to say and how it is said, and then make up your own minds. Thank you-AG
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Look at the recent ratings, arguebonita.
You are losing.
Go peddle your wares elsewhere.
dKos would be a nice place.
You’d fit right in.
Down with the rest of the Granny No-No neocentrists.
Get a life.
Later…
AG
Don’t feed the troll, Arthur.
Booman could end this in an instant but he won’t, which bolster my idea that the troll is a Booman sock puppet sayings things he doesn’t want said in his own name.
I really believe that Booman is:
1-Too honorable to do something like that.
2-Has got too many other things to do to waste time on creating a character as complex and obviously troubled as ouaquabonita.
and
3-Is actually more “Left” than he lets on these days.
But you are right.
Shouldn’t feed them.
Weak of me, I suppose.
However…I have noticed a decided bump in the number of good ratings and recommendations that we (“the loyal opposition,” so to speak) have been receiving here since I started occasionally pointing out the idiocy and utter dishonesty of the Gang of Four.
Maybe an occasional public resistance (rather than just sighing and hoping they’ll go away) has had a good effect.
Or maybe it’s just a few instances of one glass of good wine too many on my part.
Or…a little of both.
Whatever.
Fight on.
Later…
AG
Nor this other troll that turned up.
. . . don’t belong because whether they’re lies is not in question. They’ve been documented and then unequivocally, conclusively refuted as false with linked factual documentation.
This, too, is obviously and transparently false:
There is in fact exactly, and only, one “way to effectively and efficiently reply to” definitive factual refutation of a false statement one has made (your stupid “cadre [blah, blah, blah]” pack of lies start-to-finish ain’t it!). It’s the way that’s well-known to all basically honest, decent, honorable folks (because we do it whenever the situation calls for it), as I’ve pointed out to you numerous times: retract and correct the falsehood! Duh. Ain’t rocket surgery. (An apology is generally in order as well, but, hey, baby steps!)
But even supposing one generously manages to imagine your false statements were initially made out of ignorance or having been misled . . . but basically in good faith (i.e., not — originally — “knowingly” false, with intent to deceive — the generally acknowledged standard for defining “lie”): . . .
. . . Once they’d been conclusively, factually refuted, but you chose nevertheless to let them sit there unretracted/uncorrected on this site right up to this very instant . . .
. . . from the moment of that definitive factual refutation and your choice to run away from it instead of doing the only honorable thing . . .
. . . at that moment they became and remain unequivocally lies, and hence you a liar. Which you remain, continuously, 24/7/365, for as long as they sit there unretracted/uncorrected — lying to anyone and everyone who comes across them here. Regardless whether your falsehoods were originally stated knowingly, with intent to deceive, now that they’ve been definitively refuted, they remain there, unretracted/uncorrected, by your conscious choice, now knowingly, with intent to deceive: Lies.
None of this requires any “attempts at branding” by me. I simply report the facts. You do a thorough job of branding yourself a liar by repeatedly making false statements, then running away from definitive factual refutation of them. That’s a “brand” you created all by yourself (knock yourself out trying to market it!). I’ve merely documented that.
Recapping just a few of the most clearly and unequivocally false (and definitively, factually refuted) “greatest hits” from your record of lying here:
It’s remarkable (except it’s you, so not surprising!) that you’ve managed (or pretended!) not to notice that nobody — not your butt-buddies who, in factional solidarity, consciously, admittedly abuse the ratings system to uprate your lies and garbage and troll-rate accountability for them . . . not even you (you run away instead!) even attempts to pretend your falsehoods that I’ve refuted are anything other than false. Nobody! (There’s a very obvious explanation for that: it’s impossible! The refutation of them is thoroughly, definitively, factually documented.) You all just abuse the ratings system and/or post ridiculous lies about “cadres” (LOL!), etc.
It’s pathetic.
Functioning link.
Truth is not truth!
Who needs such idiocy? The 46%. They have never been so happy and satisfied.
As for the rest, Der Trumper is behaving pretty much as expected, since Campaign 2016 made quite clear to anyone with a functioning brain that the man was a political criminal. In the “policy” area, Trumper is wrecking the government and throwing monkey wrenches into everything precisely as he said he would. And every Trumper appointee/courtier is aiding and abetting his criminality.
Will The Littlest Confederate be gone before the midterms? As the scandals spiral out of control, some kind of National Trumpalist Reinhard Heydrich has to be found to “take control” of DOJ. That is now Job One.
. . . RE:
The 46% represents the portion of the voters that bothered to vote or who were not actively prevented from voting. That is not even remotely 46% of eligible voters. Also, about half those voters were just predictably voting Republican; very few were NeverTrumpers. The actual Trumper population is likely to be the usual 27% of crazies, racists and traitors.
Everyone I know is dealing with burn out.
I am active in a local group working to register and inform voters and GOTV. We are all struggling and trying to prop each other up until we get through this election season.
Sanctions relief was a big part of the conspiracy to defraud the US. Let’s not lose sight of this. If Pence knew, the next House of Representatives could be selecting our next President.
It’s impossible for me to keep up with this unending lying, deception, b.s., hype, spin and pure unfettered nonsense that eminates daily from the White House.
Of course, it’s mostly done to distract us hapless proles from the rapine and plunder and pillaging happening daily.
Each new tweet brings fresh outrage and/or confusion.
Insanity on steroids, yet we’re supposed to somehow “follow” this “leader.”
It’s just a poll, but even so it’s pretty good news today in the WaPo.
I was going to post in the Site Announcement thread, but since there’s a new one, I’ll post here…
First, I want to say that I greatly appreciate what you’ve put together here. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I’ve learned more about politics from you and your site than from any other single source.
I remember when I first stumbled upon DailyKos during the darkness of the Bush years. I remember reading all of these excellent posts by someone named BooMan23. And then the Pie Fight happened, and from that day forward your site became my primary go-to for political insight and discussion. It remains so to this day. I don’t post as often as I used to, but I still visit multiple times per day.
If you asked a much younger ejmw, I never would have thought I’d ever become anything resembling an activist. You and the people on this site inspired me to fly to DC in 2007 to protest the Iraq war, my first march or protest of any kind. Truth be told I was just as excited to meet you, supersoling, CabinGirl, Man Eegee, and the others as I was to stick my thumb in the eye of that earlier cadre of corrupt criminals.
Anyway, I say all this to give you an idea of the depth of what this site and your writing have meant to me. I am a better person and a more responsible citizen because of your efforts over the years. I’ve tried to chip in when I could, but I certainly haven’t been able to pay for the value that I’ve gotten out of the site (though I’m about to send you a few more e-duckets after I get off this soapbox).
To finish up, I’m a programmer by trade. These days I mostly write back end web services, but I do also have a little bit of front end experience. I don’t have the time right now to work on a full site re-design, but I might at least be able to help you out with preserving the archives in some way. Shoot me a message on Facebook if you find yourself needing a hand with that.
(ps – if you do a site re-design, does that mean new t-shirts? 🙂 )
It is tiresome, but this stuff is Orwell writ large. Its become a 24/7/365 stream of mindless idiocy, too consequential to ignore, unfortunately.
Once upon a time I never would have thought rank stupidity and ignorance on this level would become key to maintaining and expanding power, as it has become for the Trump/GOP. Trump’s stupid lies, like NBC “fudging” his interview with Lester Holt now that he realizes that was essentially a public admission of obstruction broadcast to the world, are played for the 27% of voters who have essentially become cultists, worshiping their god of stupidity. For them, as Trump Jr said, they love it.
Then there’s the media for whom stupid equals advertisement dollars, as they set up these mindless panels to shout each other down with a stream of insults as they are asked to “debate” Trump’s latest blatant lie as its “what they believe” and therefore assigning legitimacy to it. Makes for great click bait style TV, but that’s it. But it does tremendous damage in broadcasting the stupid into the airwaves. Asking them: if you know its a lie why bother? The answer? Ratings, that’s why. Its certainly not about reporting, journalism with the goal of edifying the viewers. Its entertainment.
My fear is that it has become so ridiculous that there are voters out there who are sick of it and not only ignoring it not just to maintain some sanity in their lives, but have tuned out altogether and may not come out to vote in November. Not realizing the stakes because the media is too focused on these reality show style battles than communicating what’s at stake.
Hence the utility of the stupid for the GOP. This is why, when the obvious comes to mind: why do the GOP put up with this man who privately they don’t like or trust, who personally insults them,; who is incompetent and an embarrassment, and of whom its clear even at this point that he’s sold out the country on some level to save his own ass and/or in service of his personal greed and ego? That’s because he’s mastered stupid, and supporting it and him is what will keep the crazies at bay, for them, and help them maintain power.
Cultists on both sides, csm. And racists too.
Not a mirror image but not Snow White either.