Posted on 04/02/2017 4:39:46 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
The Talk Shows
Apr 2nd, 2017
Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:
FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
MEET THE PRESS (NBC): McConnell; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
FACE THE NATION (CBS): U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley; Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
THIS WEEK (ABC): Haley; Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz.; Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House intelligence committee; Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Freedom Caucus founding chairman; Jason Lewis, R-Minn.
But I want to just plant this flag here — there remains the possibility that the president and his campaign are innocent. There remains the possibility that the president and his campaign are not incident — not innocent, but that this scandal does not prove to be an existential presidency-ending conflagration, even if they are found to have committed very bad acts. There remains the possibility that at the end of this, even if these investigations continue to go as badly as they have for the president thus far, there remains the possibility that the end of all of it, he’s still president and then for the sake of our democracy, we have to figure out how we are going to regain our in tolerance for corruption and scandal and throwing our American ethical and political norms out the window.
LOL. Such anecdotal information does not make it fact. The leadership of the Dem Party will not shut up nor will they let go of the collusion narrative. By ceding the possibility of Trump collusion with the Russians, you are reinforcing the charge, which is totally bogus. Once you concede that, it is like a prostitute negotiating over the price.
Their response would be that regardless of the veracity of the information released, the far greater crime, some may call it treason, is a Presidential candidate working with a foreign government headed by an autocrat and former KGB officer that has invaded the Ukraine and seized a portion of it and is already under sanctions by the US and our allies, to win an election. What does this say about the patriotism and honor of Trump and his team? What have they promised to Russia to get their cooperation to defeat Hillary Clinton? What impact does this have on national security?
You make a big mistake by even allowing the possibility of collusion. It is the gravest crime of all.
You say: “LOL. Such anecdotal information does not make it fact. The leadership of the Dem Party will not shut up nor will they let go of the collusion narrative. By ceding the possibility of Trump collusion with the Russians, you are reinforcing the charge, which is totally bogus. Once you concede that, it is like a prostitute negotiating over the price.”
That is funny, but you are completely missing the point that I was trying to make. (Obviously unsuccessfully, lol) You seem to be focusing on the incorrect premise that we would be conceding something.
The point is, we need to have a set thing to say every time they bring up these talking points. What I have suggested works. I know it does because I have personally tried it. Many times.
If you would be more comfortable saying something like this, it would work also: “You know that (Russia blah blah blah) is not true, but even if it were, how exactly would they have attacked our democracy? By exposing democrat corruption? Don’t the people have the right to know?
I think you are right on target that’s my guess as well.
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I have to ask you something about this thread over here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3540329/posts
What’s going on here is that we are being told that Trump is currently bringing in 400 refugees per week but it is increasingthenumber to 900 which will make over 60k for the fiscal year.
We are told he has to do it for some arcane reason I don’t get.
Also we are also being told that the Muslim Brotherhood can not be classified as a terrorists org. since there are two MB’s one is a good one that supposedly works with us the other the holding company for all terror organizations.
I figure if anyone would know what is going on here you would with your background.
I don’t get either take.
You say “Their response would be that regardless of the veracity of the information released, the far greater crime, some may call it treason, is a Presidential candidate working with a foreign government headed by an autocrat and former KGB officer that has invaded the Ukraine and seized a portion of it and is already under sanctions by the US and our allies, to win an election. What does this say about the patriotism and honor of Trump and his team? What have they promised to Russia to get their cooperation to defeat Hillary Clinton? What impact does this have on national security?
You make a big mistake by even allowing the possibility of collusion. It is the gravest crime of all.”
I completely disagree.
In order for their response to be effective, it has to make sense. A direct question, not conceding anything, but getting them to explain how exactly what was put out there changed the results of the election is effective and it works. They may try to confuse and obfuscate. We need to continue to ask over and over to hold their feet to the fire.
Either I am ineffective in getting a point across or you are unwilling to consider the point that I am trying to make. Either way, we should agree to disagree. If this strategy were employed, it would be successful. You disagree, but if we continue to fight this organized propaganda machine the way we have been fighting it we will lose, and we lose our country. I am right, you just don’t know it. We are on the same side, though.
Many times with whom? Have you tried it with Dem politicians?
If you would be more comfortable saying something like this, it would work also: “You know that (Russia blah blah blah) is not true, but even if it were, how exactly would they have attacked our democracy?
Comey, Admiral Rogers, and others in the IC have said the Russians meddled in our election, period. Nunes and Schiff have seen the intel reports and don't dispute the conclusion. They have detailed how Russian bloggers and hackers have carried out these attacks including providing "fake news." They cited Pizzagate as one such example. Wikileaks is another example of trying to influence public opinion about Clinton. They all acknowledge that it is impossible to gauge what effect it had on the election.
The bottom line is that there is evidence coming from the intel community that Russia interfered in our election, but there is no evidence so far of any Trump collusion with Russia to influence the election. Comey said that the investigation began last July to determine if such collusion existed.
The far more important issue is the one of the USG spying on the Trump campaign and President-elect Trump's transition team and the unmasking of American citizens. We know that took place in the case of General Flynn along with the public leaking of his name. Both of these are felonies. Chairman Nunes and now Schiff have been shown evidence of the surveillance of the Trump transition team by the IC on matters not related to Russia. It was deemed to be "incidental collection," but a number of questions must be asked to see if in fact that was the case.
“The bottom line is that there is evidence coming from the intel community that Russia interfered in our election, but there is no evidence so far of any Trump collusion with Russia to influence the election. Comey said that the investigation began last July to determine if such collusion existed.”
All the more reason we should be consistently drawing their attention to the *fact* that the main thing that influenced the election was the laying bare on Wikileaks of the corruption in the democratic party. Not that they hacked into voting machines and changed votes, as they are implying. We need to draw the public’s attention to this every time it is mentioned, and to everyone who mentions it, before laying out any further facts or arguments. Especially to Democrat politicians. I would love to have a go at any of them, especially Shumer and Pelosi.
“The far more important issue is the one of the USG spying on the Trump campaign and President-elect Trump’s transition team and the unmasking of American citizens. We know that took place in the case of General Flynn along with the public leaking of his name. Both of these are felonies. Chairman Nunes and now Schiff have been shown evidence of the surveillance of the Trump transition team by the IC on matters not related to Russia. It was deemed to be “incidental collection,” but a number of questions must be asked to see if in fact that was the case.”
I totally agree with you on this, but if we don’t get past the “Russia influenced our election b.s.” nobody will be discussing this except us among ourselves. By not shutting them up on this they are controlling the narrative. The truth is actually a constitutional crisis and abuse of power worse than any that we have ever known before. That needs to be the narrative.
Sounds like Portlandia where the craziest of the Californians moved to get away and became our problem.
I’m not surprised lots of whacked out cities anymore.
Key West is indeed unique. Some of the best fishing in the world. Some of the craziest people and yet some of the finest restaurants you will ever eat at.Quite the mix.
The main thing was Wikileaks? Do you really believe that? How about a few other factors that may have cost Hillary the election?
1. Hillary was a terrible candidate with high unfavorables and a record that encompassed both her and the many scandals in the Clinton administration.
2. The email scandal that showed Hillary's poor judgment that saw her set up a private server in her home to conduct her official State Department business. The FBI investigated it and found her to be, according to the testimony of Director Comey to be "extremely careless." She lied repeatedly about not having any classified material on the server and destroyed any trace of the emails she erased from the server before turning it over to law enforcement.
3. The deaths of four Americans in Benghazi (including our Ambassador to Libya) demonstrated her lack of leadership and incompetence in providing the proper protection of our personnel and the failure to respond appropriately to Americans under attack in Benghazi. Hillary lied about the cause of the attack repeatedly blaming it on a video and even had the nerve to lie to the relatives of the victims amidst their caskets at Andrews AFB vowing to prosecute the filmmaker.
4. Hillary collapsed at a public event and had to be carried into a waiting van raising questions about her health.
5. The operation of the Clinton Foundation raised real questions about play for pay, i.e., donations to the Clinton Foundation bought access and favorable decisions affecting the donors. Peter Schweizer's book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich provided a detailed accounting of the various questionable activities of the Clinton Foundation. Huma Abedin was collecting concurrently 4 pay checks from the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, Teneo Holdings, and Hillary Clinton personally. SecState and the CF were intertwined in their operations.
6. Trump outworked Hillary on the campaign trail having more events with bigger crowds. Hillary overlooked what was happening in WI, MI, and PA assuming they were in the bag. She never went to WI.
7. Trump used the issues of immigration and trade to attract blue collar Dems to vote for him. He articulated an economic plan to create jobs and assert economic nationalism putting this country first. He called on businesses to keep their factories here and bring overseas jobs back to this country. Trump was not a creature of Washington. He was not a politician. He spoke in the vernacular and was able to relate to the "common man" better than Hillary.
8. Obamacare increases came out a month before the election showing huge premium increases and high deductibles. Trump vowed to repeal it while Hillary defended it.
9. The seizure of Weiner's laptop resulted in Comey issuing a public statement that he would be opening the investigation of Hillary up again to evaluate the new information.
10. Hillary called half of Trump supporters deplorable and irredeemable. She made it quite clear that Trump supporters were racists, bigots, and xenophobes.
I could add many more factors that influenced the election. Wikileaks was just one of them and no one knows to what extent they influenced voters one way or the other. Most voters had made up their minds any way. It should also be noted that Hillary received 3 million more votes than Trump and the third highest vote total in American history.
State of the Union:
Adam Schiff(ty) basis a claim on the fact that Trump knew what Nunes had read. Nunes is on record and very early on stated he went back and briefed the President.
The way to "shut them up" is to have the Congressional investigations come to the conclusion that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. It is an accepted fact by the IC, Dems, and GOP that Russia meddled in our election. How much of an influence they were can't be measured.
Trump regains the narrative with the surveillance scandal that could eventually ensnare Obama. We have been assured that at least the name of one very high level, well-known name in the IC will be revealed as one person responsible for unmasking the names of Trump team personnel.
I didn’t read kabar’s post but from what you quoted inside of yours I would say that Wikileaks get’s MVP award.
All those things you listed are valid, but they’re the type of attacks the Clinton’s have become experts at deflecting, projecting.
Wikileaks was an altogether different type of attack. They couldn’t deny the emails because they were real and other people could verify them. They had to eat the attacks and then project the whole Putin/Trump collusion.
The substance of the Wikileaks was not covered by the MSM, especially their role in colluding with the DNC during the campaign. The Bernie supporters and policy wonks like those of us on FR were very interested, but the average voter knew very little about what was contained in the leak material and could care less. It was all inside baseball.
The conventions, the debates and Trump's campaign events garnered far more attention. And Hillary was a known commodity, perhaps the most known candidate in a very, very long time. Hillary was the status quo and Trump was the change candidate. The election was a referendum on Obama.
True, but until the investigations are completed, we can shut them up about Russia by pointing out every time they mention Russia, that Democrat corruption was what was exposed. They will have to come up with a different narrative as this one will embarrass them every time they start with it.
We can only go around this tree so many times. Collusion with the enemy is far stronger narrative than internal Dem corruption. Let’s just agree to disagree. Cheers.
Agree with all of your points on the many reasons that Hillary lost. Wikileaks was one of them, and may not have been the main one, ( I will give you that) but the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. The scandals you mentioned, we knew about, but the average voters didn’t know about most of them due to the mainstream media covering up for her. We just discuss them among ourselves and are outraged that the press doesn’t report.
I do disagree, though, that Hillary got three million more votes than Trump. That has not yet been proven, but with all the voter fraud, I am sure that she didn’t really get that many more votes, if she got more at all.
Cheers!
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