559 Comments
User's avatar
Marty Keller's avatar

Now who will hold Obama et al "accuntable"?

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Matt Taibbi's avatar

Yikes fixed — lol that doesn’t happen every day…

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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

A cunt table: Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Clinton

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Ken D.'s avatar
11hEdited

"hey, we lost the election, but we can still fuck up the transfer of power", they said.

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Grape Soda's avatar

Try “…But we can still keep power,” they said. The government was a vast money sucking machine under the control of these top bureaucrats. The president was one man not very well versed in the byways of power. He didn’t know where the switches and levers were, but they did. They thought they could hound him from office and continue business as usual.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

So much for “the peaceful transfer of power.”

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Frank A's avatar

LOL! How Freudian!!

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Marty Keller's avatar

Paging Dr. Freud . . .

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Candi Wease's avatar

You beat me to the punch.

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Marty Keller's avatar

Great minds . . .

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Victoria Bell's avatar

I like the original version; it's somehow both apt and poetic.

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Mary's avatar

I stared at it for a while - 'hmmm, did he really mean that?" Because now I think it will become a new word....

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Reid's avatar

It should!!!

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MH's avatar

LOL, I think so too

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ShirtlessCaptainKirk's avatar

Matt did repurpose the "C" word recently. Wondered if this was some new conjugation.

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baker charlie's avatar

congugation is the bestest ever thing in the ever in the English lanuage. It brings sublimation into truest light if one has the ability to see.

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Christine's avatar

I missed it...can you share?

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Phuckthephacts's avatar

He misspelled accountability this way: accuntability!

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Paul Harper's avatar

Update - Matt just posted his own update on X: "The new documents released by @TulsiGabbard leave no doubt - none - that the @BarackObama White House invented a phony espionage scandal to hang on the incoming Trump administration." Excellent by Matt!

But then Matt collapses in his close: "The sole question is, why?" and then poses two extremely important additional questions - both on which also require answers: "What idiot thought this would work, that it was a good idea?"

The "why" part of the Barack Obama WH coup can be partially answered by the fact that many Americans still believe the Obama WH fiction that Trump colluded with Putin to be true!!! The Barack Obama WH scam FUCKING WORKED, Matt. The Trump-Putin fiction is still fully functional, Matt? Noticed?

Which by definition makes the Barack Obama WH knee-capping of the Trump administration (the vaunted insurance policy?) the greatest hoodwink of the American public, perhaps, in modern political history - and served the purposes of the globalist elites (note the involvement of US allies governments in the scam) like few others.

Great to have you on board, Matt!! Sincerely. Takes balls to step right up. But finish the job and flesh out the rest of the issues. Again, many, many, many thanks for all the great work you do!!!

Congratulations! - You and Walter discussed the new art of headline writing - you managed thirty-plus words of "crimes were committed" without mentioning a single administration name.

Brennen Rice et al: "Hey Mr. President, we're organizing a coup against the new administration. We need to borrow your office."

Matt's Obama: "Huh? What's the over and under? Don't make me look bad, ok?"

You're inching towards reality, Matt, kudos! "Appears to be a top-down effort"? Really?

Matt's "Nobody told Obama" presidency - fantastic!

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Jeff Keener's avatar

Obama read about it in the papers.

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SpC's avatar

More likely on F*book first. Doubt he bothers with getting newsprint ink on his oh so white hands, ever.

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Paul Harper's avatar

Open Question - short of actually assassinating Donald Trump the incoming president in 2016 (recall Obama's famed trashing of Donald Trump citizen at the WH press club dinner), are Obama's actions against the incoming duly-elected 45th president, Donald Trump, the most anti-democratic actions ever taken by a sitting US president against the will of American voters?

We've heard a lot about "threats to democracy." Where does the 44th President concocting a fiction making the lawfully-elected 45th president "in fact" a servant of Russia's president Putin fit in this discussion? Historians will be paying attention, to the facts and to the ass-covering.

Maybe a good time for the self-preserving to step up. Obama's failure to get Biden over the line confirms Obama has reached his "sell-by" date. Time for the globalists to present and bed-in a new generation of liars to serve their needs, while rescuing the rest of us from ourselves. Lucky us!

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Pacificus's avatar

Good points, Paul, but you and I know that the historical profession, as it is currently constituted, will not touch a story that implicates St Barry and his merry men (and women) in such colossal wrongdoing... It will be buried, discounted and otherwise ignored/lied about by historians for decades to come.

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Paul Harper's avatar

With respect, what's your point? The crafting of history by the victors is as old as Caesar's Gallic Wars - doesn't change the fact that evidence exists and will be debated and discussed - just not in the public sphere to the degree which partisans might prefer.

As a sidebar, I spent some time earlier this year reviewing different editions of a standard history of France used in better French schools from during the late 18th century through the First Empire. The treatment of Louis XVI (who went to the guillotine in 1793 followed by his wife) was surprisingly neutral - depicting a man unequal to the challenges of his time. By 1808, Louis XVI, the Bourbon monarch deplored in much of Europe through the 1790s had been more or less restored to good standing within elite circles in France.

We agree, I think, that pandering to biases is a far more lucrative form of "history" writing. The documents currently being discussed will be challenged, dismissed, and otherwise discounted. Again, so what? We know they exist and that's enough.

I disagree completely with Matt's assertion that we're on the cusp of a "new era of accountability" Accountability is the last thing most folks want, imho, simply because that means we have to accept responsibility for keeping our own eyes wide shut to the messes we've largely created for ourselves. I disagree very strongly, btw, on the question of scapegoating minorities - that's like killing Jews - never, ever gets old.

Obama will be the ultimate bad apple and DEI hire - far easier to forget the fact that he was always a grifter and clearly so from his time in college. I frankly find him a deeply sympathetic figure who found himself at the center of world events without the skills to do much more than take directions. My own judgment was so warped as late as 2008 that I thought HRC the better choice. Their corrupt alliance stripped the final scales from my eyes re: the Dems. Bernie was kind of my last hope, but by 2015, it was clear only radical change would suffice. We're seeing some of that now, particularly with MAHA.

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Frank A's avatar

"I disagree completely with Matt's assertion that we're on the cusp of a "new era of accountability"

I'm seeing a shift, or at least a willingness in some, to view things objectively and at least question the old tribal dogma. For sure, many will cling to their hatred of The Other Side to assuage their existential anxiety in light of these revelations (I have such friends). Large shifts in public opinion often occur incrementally and require mass and momentum. When people like Tulsi, Bill Maher, Elon Musk, RFK Jr. etc.., indicate that something's rotten in the state of Denmark, the seeds of momentum can begin to germinate.

"Accountability is the last thing most folks want". I think most folks want accountability for The Other Side, and justify overlooking the sins of their tribe because the other tribe is worse: a "threat to democracy", fascist, racist, "constitutional crisis", etc... Who cares if the FBI and media covered-up Hunter's laptop; the ends justified the means.

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TimInVA's avatar

>>> I disagree completely with Matt's assertion that we're on the cusp of a "new era of accountability"

I -might- agree with Matt - - but only in the sense that even less attention will be paid to corruption than before.

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Victoria Bell's avatar

Obama could cut someone 's throat on camera on the White House lawn and leave them there to bleed out and 49 percent of the voters would deny it.

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Paul Harper's avatar

Up till now I'd agree, I'm not sure how many of the faithful are ready to join him in exile. Blaming the black guy is America's favorite past-time, and while his name's on the scam - he was far from alone - most of the GOP leadership (formal and informal) hate Trump more than most Dems.

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Pacificus's avatar

Paul, wait a minute--"blaming the black guy" has not been "America's favorite past-time" since baseball was America's favorite past-time, sometime in the '60s/'70s... for the last 30 years or so, overlooking/explajning away black malfeasance and failure has been the rule. And that applies to no one more than Barry O. His (mixed) race status protects him from virtually any criticism from the MSM... As it will in this case, in what is probably the biggest political scandal in US history.

Yep, Barry is guilty as sin--his name is not just "on the scam," he is the mastermind behind it-- , but he will get away with his crimes...because, equity... That's the racial reality in 2025 'Murica... sigh...

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Frank A's avatar
1hEdited

"His (mixed) race status protects him from virtually any criticism from the MSM" That and the fact that they worshiped him for years. They have way too much invested and far too little ethics to be honest about him - they'll risk losing what little credibility and audience) they have left!

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

That's "pastime" fellas.

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Paul Harper's avatar

See my above, thanks!

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Matt L.'s avatar

Walter was great in his recent Tucker interview. Especially the Luigi subject, Kirn has good insights.

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Kelly Green's avatar

The answer to why is "you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time".

As to "who thought this would work?" ummmm..... it did.

No one is going to be held accountable because there may not even be a law broken. Overriding typical Intelligence Community practices and doing something that was different is morally wrong, and the new document releases make make it fully and finally clear what happened. We can now point it out to all, record it for history, and deride them, but none of it is illegal, or too little to bother 8-9 years later.

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Mike R.'s avatar

(I'm recommending the T.Carlson/W.Kirn interview/conversation.)

Where is the truth/fact based solutions oriented national conversation capable of creating the unifying truth/fact based reality the people of the American Republic--(and the world)--deserve? (Again-I'm with RACKET 'till the wheels fall off.)

The LIE/PSYOP is a kind of psychic/spiritual poison. The damage to We the People is far deeper than "..liar liar pants on fire..." --and the LIE is far bigger than Russiagate. Our Republic isn't bleeding it is hemorrhaging. Where is--and who will apply--the tourniquet?

There is no "conspiracy". Avaricious capital and "woke" ideological utopians are joined at the hip. They saw the opportunity to seize control of --and loot the American Republic-- and took it. Their contempt for We the People is revealed by their every action. --AND--repeating myself-repeating myself--repeating myself--the walking wounded and the dead are scattered across city sidewalks--huddled inside homeless encampments and lying in city morgues from "..sea to shining sea.." That's what a LIE does. None of this is happening by accident.

Coming soon to a home near you: Armed thugs with badges questioning a poor citizen under arrest for thought crimes about the books in his personal library. It's happening now. And everyone here knows who-where and why.

Comey-Trump-Obama--the Clinton's and the Bush family--prick Cheney--bow wow wow wow wow. We the People are right where we've always been--on our own. "Badges--we ain't got no badges--we don't need no stinking badges." This is the American Republic.

(Please help!! This coffee cup seems to have grown to my hand.)

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Lisa Boice's avatar

Omg I’m DYING

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Paul R's avatar

It's how we know you wrote it and not AI.

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matthew burke's avatar

My new favorite word - it lives on forever in the original email alert.

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Outis's avatar

Though it's hard to think of a group better characterized by that term!

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TWC's avatar

Change it back! That's a Taibbism everyone should know! Lol

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J. Lincoln's avatar

Naw...no need to fix, you were correct to begin with.

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flipshod's avatar

In a past, unlikely life, I was an accountant and spelled it "accuntant" on business documents way too often (the days before autocorrect).

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Don Reed's avatar

07/19/25: Welcome to Mercury Rx, Matt (you've been through approximately 165 of them).

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reality speaks's avatar

Autopen forgot to pardon him

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Marty Keller's avatar

That's an autopun, no?

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ShirtlessCaptainKirk's avatar

Should be autopud if we're sticking with the theme.

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Don Reed's avatar

07/19/25: SCORE!

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Steve Smith's avatar

Paging Susan Rice.

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Outis's avatar

Exactly. That email-to-self that was made public in 2022 begs for reexamination.

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GAVEMartin's avatar

We commit treason "by the book."

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GAVEMartin's avatar

"Susan Rice, former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, sent an email to herself on January 20, 2017, which is the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration. The email detailed a meeting that occurred on January 5, 2017, in the Oval Office, involving then-President Obama, then-FBI Director James Comey, and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, among others. In this meeting, the discussion revolved around the handling of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and concerns about sharing classified information with the incoming Trump administration due to Michael Flynn's communications with the Russian ambassador"

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Orenv's avatar

So many nuggets out there...

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Don Reed's avatar

07/19/25: She should respond to one of the pagers that the Israelis shipped to the (now deceased) Hamas-Hezbollah chain of command.

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David 1260's avatar

Don’t you mean St. Obama?

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BookWench's avatar

Half-black Jesus.

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Frank A's avatar

LOL!

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Skenny's avatar

Gives extra depth to the phrase, "fuck'em."

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Matt L.'s avatar

Nobody will hold them to account if the R’s are smart…. until after the midterms. Putting Obama under the gun too early is a loser proposition

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JC's avatar

And how sad is that! Truth doesn't seem to matter anymore. We know the MSM would spin it a completely different way like, I don't know...it must be racism!

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Unaffiliated366's avatar

I’m questioning that theory in that I’m not sure Trump really cares about the mid-term elections compared to holding these people accountable.

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Mac's avatar

President Trump is going to burn it all down. I guarantee he is dead focused on bringing those accountable to justice.

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Orenv's avatar

We make him accountable by finally letting him be the joke he always was. The guy whose election showed us all that there was in fact no experience requirement to be President of the USA. Biden (the dunce selected as his VP) was the bookend that showed that you didn't even need a person to be President. Just an autopen.

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Jim Croft's avatar

As opposed to AOC An Ordinary Cunt.

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Janice LeCocq's avatar

Not happening.

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BookWench's avatar

Pfftt!

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EndOfTheRoad's avatar

Nah, he had it right.

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Dan's avatar

Came here to see who got it first. Bravo!

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Johnstone75's avatar

Nobody

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Just Plain Me's avatar

Thanks for the hint since it's already been fixed. Haha

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David Brailsford's avatar

Not a fucking WORD in the MSM. THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN US HISTORY.

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MillingAround1's avatar

Complicity

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Matt L.'s avatar

Why is this being released late on a Friday, and not 1st thing Monday AM?

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Mac's avatar

To upset a lot of peoples weekend plans.

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Chris Gorman's avatar

I like the thinking. Tulsi also said earlier this week in her TPUSA speech that documents would be declassified in the coming days rather than weeks.

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Matt L.'s avatar

😆😆

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GAVEMartin's avatar

Lawyers like to "shake people up on Fridays" with demand letters, serving law suits. They want very high anxiety to besiege the other side by Monday.

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An Inconvenient Truth's avatar

Hardly. Don't you think the fact that institutional treason has apparently been the bread-and-butter of American warmongering since at least as far back as the sinking of the Lusitania has it beat, just for example?

I'm not saying this was acceptable, but it didn't even get anyone killed.

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SpC's avatar

"...but it didn't even get anyone killed."

Ashli Babbitt (for one) might disagree with you there, were she still around to take part in a conversation.

Another January 6th four years later saw an effort to bring truth to counter falsehoods that had been foisted on an unsuspecting, undeserving electorate.

Falsehoods that didn't have anything to do with a legitimate electoral process, falsehoods that continued as the alleged 'insurrection' took place when in fact the duly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested the resignation of the Chief of the Capitol Police the next day.

Had she bothered to do her job perhaps Ms. Babbitt (and the others who died as a result of the altercations of 1/6/2021) would still be with us.

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An Inconvenient Truth's avatar

Point taken.

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Don Reed's avatar

07/19/25: Body buried.

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MillingAround1's avatar

I agree, our government supports all kinds of nefarious and horrible shit. Viet and GWOT being chief among them and will forever stain us all.

Treason by a sitting POTUS is a pretty big story too-though that has ramifications inside our own country and not some foreign land. I just hope Tulsi has the bravery to also go after the Bush presidency. They might actually be worse…🤦‍♂️

Our MSM has been the biggest cheerleader/stenographer through all of it.

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An Inconvenient Truth's avatar

"Might"? Inarguably, I'd say - only by "Ernst Janning" logic might one say the Obama Admin was worse; otherwise, everything bad they did was an extension of the Bush Regime.

George W Bush needlessly raped my entire generation, and I will never forgive nor forget that.

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MillingAround1's avatar

Great point, but I’d go no lower than apples to apples. After all Obama did burn Syria and Libya to the fucking ground.

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Grape Soda's avatar

9/11 changed America profoundly. Idk if it was actually an inside job (a notion I resisted for years, because I still had some childhood innocence left … and hadn’t looked at the anomalies yet) but, at minimum, it was allowed to happen. I look at Bush’s face when he found out that day … that dude was no more in charge of it than Obama was in charge of the CIA. His dad, though…

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DaveL's avatar

It’s exactly what Osama Bin Laden planned and wanted. It’s a judo move where you use your opponent’s own mass to take him down.

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Grape Soda's avatar

He Osama was used by forces greater than

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JollyLittlePerson's avatar

Too big to completely ignore. They're just downplaying it - NYT "Gabbard Claims Obama Administration Tried to Undermine Trump in 2016"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/us/politics/gabbard-obama-trump-russia.html

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TWC's avatar

'Politically motivated andcerror-ridden'...lol. The first is pure conjecture, the second an outright lie.

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Barryonthefly's avatar

Shhhh. Every time they lie by omission another bubble escapes from their drowning lips. They are irrelevant now.

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Don Reed's avatar

07/19/25: "Quick, look at these wonderful kitten videos!"

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Kevin's avatar

Oddly the fact that Obama, as the sitting president, knew and condoned it makes it less of a scandal than all the times things where done without the president's knowledge.

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Christopher Smith's avatar

That's really where we are at this point, isn't it?

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Cheryl Barekman's avatar

Nothing on DFW local Fox or local ABC news

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angelO's avatar

And, curiously, no comment from the Obamas, the Clintons, nor any other DNC bigwigs, nor “51 former super-spies”.

Go figure.

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James Roberts's avatar

Yes, though I'm not sure how public release of these documents is within the purview of the DNI?

I suppose that at least it's public nature is an improvement on the precedent it exposes?

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Treeamigo's avatar

Makes watergate look like jaywalking

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ShirtlessCaptainKirk's avatar

Watergate is carefully snipping the DO NOT REMOVE tag from a comfy pillow compared to this domestic 'color revolution' fiasco.

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Han's avatar

watergate was an intel operation against nixon

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Grape Soda's avatar

This too. Nixon did nothing unusual and he knew it.

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NDDV's avatar

Yes!

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Rick Barnes's avatar

More like 7 Days in May

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Mark Marshall's avatar

So there really was a Deep State coup against Trump and the American electorate, requested by Obama.

This is TREASON!

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Dazed and Confused's avatar

I always thought it should have been called "obamagate" and not russiagate. It's a more accurate description.

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bhs66's avatar

Well the name can always be changed to accurately fit the narrative!

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Outis's avatar

Just think...Obama's extravagant presidential-library-theme-park-temple-to-self is to open early next year.

The timing might be perfect.

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EndOfTheRoad's avatar

Isn't the building already crumbling? An apt metaphor.

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Outis's avatar

I haven't been following closely but one can't help notice that there is an unusual amount of "news" regarding the construction. As in weirdish things like "problems" with concrete along with the all-too-predictable hubub as to whether there are "enough" workers from various groups and demographics.

If the "Russia Collusion Revelations" have any teeth or longevity, I wonder if the University might regret the association. It never had anything to do with academics, the U-of-C was just a very convenient launching pad: had all the right "credentials" AND was located on the oh-so-storied "South Side" of Chicago. The surrounding area was definitely still pretty dicey when I commuted there back in the late-70s-early-80s.

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baker charlie's avatar

Not so perfect, some of it is not open to outsiders from what I hear. Beware Tofu Dreg.

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Outis's avatar

I can believe that.

I was referring though to the "grand opening" that's bound to be launched possibly coinciding with a huge scandal "hitting the fan". That would be hilarious.

The whole "complex" is a boondoggle. They were able to take a big chunk of what was a public park (Washington Park -- I would walk through it sometimes to catch the El) and built a temple-to-self.

A fair number of people in Hyde Park and at the university are expressing some regrets as to approving the egomaniacal boondoggle.

Obama maintains a house in Hyde Park by the university. My folks lived nearby. I have wondered how many nights he's spent in the joint since getting elected to the Senate in 2004. Not many is my guess. My suspicion is that they keep the place so they can say they have a "home in Chicago".

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baker charlie's avatar

From IL. lots of politicians like to rinse their undies there. but very few are from there. Same as it ever was, LOL

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rtj's avatar

Wonder what they decided to do with the wing that was supposed to be designated for the TPP.

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Outis's avatar

TPP? Not sure what that acronym means. :-)

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rtj's avatar

The Trans Pacific Partnership - that trade deal that he was so sure was going to pass that he had a wing in his monument to himself slated for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership

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Outis's avatar

Ah, gotcha. I did find that "acronym translation" but wasn't aware that there was going to be a wing of the temple dedicated to it.

Priceless. In all the wrong ways. Talk about self-unaware.

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Doctor Mist's avatar

Oddly, it seems that attempting to overthrow the government does not actually count as treason, per the definition in the Constitution. The closest it comes is “levying war” against the U.S. but consensus seems to be that this requires the use of armed force.

I’m sure there are plenty of indictable offenses here, starting with perjury for violating oaths to uphold the Constitution. But jumping straight to treason is going to be a tough job.

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ThePossum's avatar

I'm definitely guilty of misusing treason and traitor when describing the unsavory, anti-American and self aggrandizing actions of the Dem power structure. No other words seem to fit.

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Doctor Mist's avatar

"Sedition" works. That's defined by statute, not the Constitution, and does not require force of arms.

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ThePossum's avatar

Thank you, I'll begin using that instead. Much obliged.

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Outis's avatar

Well put. That is the better term.

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arthur landry's avatar

Thank you. It’s well past time for people to stop misusing “treason”.

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Han's avatar

they betrayed their allegiance to the country and tried to overthrow the government. What is that if not treason?

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Outis's avatar

To quibble, there wasn't an explicit attempt to overthrow the government.

What they did do was falsely accuse or insinuate that the incoming administration was compromised and thus kept the first Trump administration busy addressing a "scandal that wasn't" instead of doing the work Trump was elected to do.

So, one might argue that a more precise way of putting it was that "the Obama administration actively interfered with the peaceful transition of power".

That is probably (technically) accurate.

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Han's avatar

it was an explicit attempt to overthrow the government.

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Outis's avatar

We're arguably getting into semantics at this point.

I'll certainly agree that it was deeply unethical. Definitely showed a deep disregard, disrespect and dislike for the US Constitution and the orderly transition between administrations.

AND...that it was done by a former "constitutional law professor" makes it that much more ironic!!! What a two-faced hypocrite!

I voted for that fake in 2008. I was skeptical but not happy with the all the mideast war-making so I did vote for him the first time.

I didn't even like Romney as a candidate (probably like him even less now) but I voted Republican in 2012 simply because I figured Romney wouldn't make the same mistakes I expected Obama to make.

I think Obama's second term was more damaging than his first.

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Lis's avatar

Isn't it considered a soft coup?

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PL's avatar

100%.

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Just Plain Me's avatar

Pray for Tulsi Gabbard, the whistleblowers and the few brave journalists that have kept this front and center. Accountability.

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Norma Odiaga's avatar

She will get a lot of flak. I just hope there will be no violence.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

"intelligence officials began leaking “blatantly false” information about a nonexistent “secret assessment” that Russia intervened to influence the “outcome of the election.”"

All TDS sufferers will hear is this: Trump is still a criminal and this changes nothing. We're dealing with people so delusional that any lie must be protected, any false claim must be defended. Doing otherwise would cause their world to collapse on itself like a dying star and their egos can't take that kind of hit.

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ShirtlessCaptainKirk's avatar

Had a guy tell me recently, “Mueller said Trump was not innocent. This means they had proof he was in bed with Russia but couldn’t convict due to presidential immunity.”

I’ve directed him to Matt’s Substack and several others. Discussed books I’ve read. Made a point of emphasizing that I don’t really watch TV.

“They couldn’t convict because the charges were prefab bullshit.”

“Sad,” he said. “Your mind is totally warped by Fox News.”

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Indecisive decider's avatar

The degree to which these people are basically in a cult can't be overstated. They don't care about truth when the delusion is so much more compelling. It's truly pathetic.

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BookWench's avatar

As if we are all glued to Fox News 24/7.

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ShirtlessCaptainKirk's avatar

Last time I watched Fox at all regularly was for the first run of 'The X-Files.' The truth might be 'out there,' but these people definitely are.

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Michael Karg's avatar

But they (Fox News) do get the comedy of it all, notice those are their top rated shows, by far - "The Five" and "Gutfeld!" And Dagan McDowell is special. Can't say much for the other "Presenters." O, the hero Joey.

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BookWench's avatar

Back when I did watch Fox News, all I ever watched was Gutfeld, & sometimes Jesse Watters' (before he had his own show) man in the street interviews, because he edited in funny film clips. I hate watching any of those network news shows. Everyone is too shiny and fake.

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Debbie Mitchell's avatar

I still watch Gutfeld because it is funny and I like to laugh before I fall asleep.

But I read a lot and watch many podcasts, not to silo my thinking but to expand my comprehension. But if I told some of my friends and family members “hey I saw, or read THIS (anything), and thought of you” the source (and I) would be judged before the content. I miss dialogue, which is why I love Matt and Walter!

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DaveL's avatar

Never watch it, myself.

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BookWench's avatar

Me, neither.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

Their strategy has been extremely effective. They run smear campaigns against Trump accompanied by elaborate show trials on the Dems' favorite cable news networks, but what the Dems mostly remember is just "Trump is a felon." Then if new information is presented that requires mental work to digest and motivation to renounce the previous exciting belief, just sticking with the original narrative might be more attractive.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

100%. Did you see their howling today when Colbert got 86d? They're now crying censorship. their delusion is as real as a donut.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

Yes!! They live in a world of denial and projection.

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Randy Hill's avatar

Shifty Schiff facing several serious federal financial fraud charges. What a fabulous week.

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Grape Soda's avatar

Yes. The Trump smear campaign was extremely effective. It’s only being eroded now, one win at a time. By the end of this mess, the script will have flipped. Future generations will have a great time making fun of us who are alive now.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

I worry about our future generations, and hope they will be laughing at us.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Exactly. BTW, how long does it take for an appeal to wind its way through the New York appellate system?

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Grape Soda's avatar

Yes but their world will shrink as the normies realize what was up

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Barbara Delisi's avatar

This is too accurate veru scary. They will never believe it.

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Norma Odiaga's avatar

Right on point!

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Burt's avatar

A plurality of Democrats believe today that Russia changed vote totals in the 2016 election. That may be an an unfixable level of stupid.

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Patrick Hurley's avatar

Democrats also believe that people can choose their sex and males can have babies. Stupid is forever.

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J. Lincoln's avatar

Tampon Tim...

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Dr. K's avatar

Remember, as my Mother told me often, "There is no cure for stupid".

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Skenny's avatar

Sadly, TDS sufferers experience an 80%+ mortality rate, with less than one in five afflictees recovering before death. The syndrome spreads aggressively, in large part because the point of origination, the brain, is not of adequate mass in sufferers to attenuate the spread to other parts of the body. Unfortunately, it is also highly contagious in certain geographic areas, and among those with weakened immune (brain) systems.

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EndOfTheRoad's avatar

I've seen a shocking number claim that Musk used Starlink to hack the voting machines in 2024. Because that's how satellites work, apparently.

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Paul R's avatar

Stupid is as stupid......

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BookWench's avatar

And a few also believe that Putin and Elon somehow contrived a method to steal the 2024 election for Trump, as well.

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Thomas Robinson's avatar

Thank you for your commitment to solid journalism

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Chester Williams's avatar

The guilty need to be held accuntable.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

I want to know who at CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Newsweek, Time, NYT, LAT, etc was aware of this.

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RV's avatar

Everyone except the janitor.

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JOAN FURLONG's avatar

WAPO, don't forget WAPO. And the WSJ.

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MayorofDunkin's avatar

The MSM can’t be delegitimized fast enough. Unfortunately, half the electorate still considers them an authority.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

Including the high priest of cuntdom, Steven "I used to be funny" Colbert.

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Randy Hill's avatar

He’ll spend the last months of his career by throwing himself on the tracks defending BHO.

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Grape Soda's avatar

He’s such a tool I wonder what he did that he’s so desperate to protect

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Dan's avatar

Came here for that comment. So good. Thanks.

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mhj's avatar
19hEdited

Thanks, Matt.

I never gave even a moment's credence to the idea that Russia committed cyber-attacks, or even had a strong preference for Trump. That made no sense because Trump and the GOP advocated expanding all facets of US domestic energy production while Clinton and the Democrats opposed fossil fuels, nukes, and even hydropower, for (claimed) environmental reasons. Scarcity and high-price of oil and gas on the world market were the only things keeping Russia a top-tier economic player, and the tax revenues were the main revenue for the Russian government, including its rearmament. Plus, no evidence-- $125K of FB ads, half spent AFTER the election, and content pulling both ways, was all I ever saw even claimed. Plus, I recall a story in Dec. 2016 or early Jan. 2017 about Jared Kushner asking a high-ranking Russian about setting up a communication channel to use before Trump was inaugurated--which would not have been needed if they had been colluding all along.

The whole thing never made sense and I watched, appalled, as the media all lined up and much of the public believed things that made no sense at all. It drove home the power of propaganda in a way I had never seen, even beyond the WMD stuff of 2002-03 or the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which were fake but PLAUSIBLE. RussiaGate was always not credible and not even plausible. It did not pass the giggle test.

Yet, here we are.

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Christopher Fleming's avatar

I can find the exact language, but the Mueller report said in its opening paragraphs that Russia perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and took steps to bring that about, while the Trump campaign expected to benefit from Russian interference and welcomed it when it occurred. So while Barr and others trumpeted Mueller saying he could not find legal conspiracy, that wasn't really needed because Russia and the Trump campaign were on the same side to begin with. (And if you recall, when the Trump campaign thought Russians with damning information about Clinton wanted to meet with them -- that actual collusion was going to take place -- Don Jr.'s response was something like "outstanding." So it wasn't like the Trump campaign was averse to actual coordination, either.

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mhj's avatar

Must be tough for you, to go through life so credulous, and with no sense of humor or irony, either. Normal people looked at the Mueller report and understood that if this was all Andrew Weissman and his team could come up with--allegations with no evidence--after $40+M, over a year, and virtually unlimited subpoena power, there was no there, there.

I also remember, when asked about Russian hacks, Trump saying he hoped that if Putin had the material he would release it, and everyone reacted to an obvious joke as if Trump was exposing a treasonous conspiracy in a public forum. I was expecting you to mention that one.

The closest anything came to bad behavior was when Don Jr. and a couple of others took a meeting with a Russian woman who was looking to get the Magnitsky Sanctions removed, whom they may have been told had something of political value to offer. She had nothing and they walked out of the meeting. Now, they should NOT have taken that meeting in the first place (unless they told the FBI, first, and FBI asked them to take it and then tell what transpired); but if a collusive arrangement was already in place, the whole thing would have been redundant and unnecessary.

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Han's avatar
19hEdited

these documents prove just the opposite. the entire episode was manufactured.

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michael Griffin's avatar

Talk about alternative facts lol

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Steve's avatar

The Mueller report would have gotten that from intelligence produced by the same intelligence apparatus that the very article you're commenting on is exposing as having corruptly produced untrue intelligence to falsely link Trump and Russia. So I hope you do find that language, then please cite it's source.

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Grape Soda's avatar

Oh FFS. Put on your big boy pants. No seeker of power is going to reject support, from whoever and wherever it comes. The question is only what do you do or not do with that? Making it into a big deal in order to kneecap the sitting president is a bit beyond the pale.

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Steve's avatar

Yes. For example, sometimes a campaign hires a British guy to use his Russian national sources to find out if the other guy would ever use information provided by Russian nationals.

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Mark Paul's avatar

I thought we have learned since that Mueller's claim that “Russia was thinking at the time it would have benefited from a Trump win” is false.

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Cara Catanzaro's avatar

Your subtitle gave me a good chuckle! Thanks for that, Matt!

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Alternative Minded's avatar

Hahahaha! Darling, Cara!! You beat me to it. The old man and I are up in Maine, having a bourbon, and laughing our asses off. Thanks for the laugh, Matt!!

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reality speaks's avatar

This story will never be in any MSM ever

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Just Plain Me's avatar

Because they play a major role in the hoax.

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bhs66's avatar

Like biden’s debate performance, if and hopefully when indictments come down the MSM will have no alternative but to publish. They can color the whole thing but just like old man Biden, the more they obfuscate or outright lie, the deeper the hole they dig for themselves.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Of course the fake news will label these disclosures as fake news. Just like when we saw Obama put his hand on President Biden’s back in California and guide him offstage. It was called a cheap fake. The blowback will be fierce.

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Outis's avatar

It's no small (and delicious) irony that Colbert got axed today. He was funny, once. Talented guy who went nuts and became a deeply unfunny political hack.

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Indecisive decider's avatar

it's worse than that. he was the megaphone. he's a tremendous POS just like John Oliver. These guys aren't comedians.

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Grape Soda's avatar

There is a (probably dark) reason that happened. He went full propaganda tool. If that happened spontaneously then it’s merely mental illness. I don’t know. But he reeks of desperation. Doubt he’s all that unhappy to be out of the game. The peak of his service to TPTB was that egregious dancing vax episode. That goes into the propaganda museum.

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DaveL's avatar

They put Ezra Pound in a cage for doing something similar for the Italian Fascists.

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Grape Soda's avatar

Pound believed his own bullshit though, imo. I don’t think Colbert has a sincere bone in his body.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

Crazy how primary sources written by the primary actors themselves are somehow misinformation.

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Outis's avatar

It's so self-referential and "recursive" that it seems to transcend irony.

Maybe there's a category in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders

https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

Note: I'm not entirely convinced that these sorts of things admit neat "boundaries" or can really be broken into categories.

Obviously a vexing and interesting problem though! :-)

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Scott Laskowitz's avatar

The problem is is that if MSN doesn’t report it then the same 50% of the population that already believes that are the only ones that hear it.

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WW's avatar

If trials actually happen, it will get pretty hard for MSM to hide stuff, maybe for example, direct testimony demonstrating treason by a US President.

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Norma Odiaga's avatar

The Democrats have their base pretty well brainwashed. It won't surprise me if my intelligent Democrat friends will refuse to believe this.

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

I know for certain that my Democrat friends will not believe that Russia gate was a hoax. They have decided that I personally am no longer to be believed because in their minds I have succumbed to right wing conspiracy theories.

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Grape Soda's avatar

But how long will “lalalala I can’t hear you” really work?

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

It's been working for years, so even if it stops working it will take a long time for the Dems to absorb the reality.

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Mary Orlowski McFerson's avatar

I know the feeling!

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Han's avatar

if they are actually intelligent, they have to see these actual documents. they won’t see them on nbc, abc, cbs, cnn or msnbc

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Mary Orlowski McFerson's avatar

And believe me, they won’t go looking for the real documents. They’d rather believe their fairytale lies.

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Han's avatar
3hEdited

it is certainly an interesting time.

When the Ukraine phone call hoax was rsging, i had conversations with a flaming liberal about it. she pointed to a nytimes article that was shrieking that trump was not using proper channels, through the State Department. The official transcript was attached to the article.

the first sentence of that transcript asked Ukraine to work with the American State Department to investigate bribery and corruption of American officials. THE VERY FIRST SENTENCE.

When I showed it to her, she flew into a tirade. About abortion, if I recall correctly.

I asked her to read it aloud and she instantly left. A couple of days later she was ranting about… the way trump was breaking every rule with the Ukraine phone call - precisely as if she had never seen the official transcript of the call.

High intellect. Successful in business. World traveller.

Utterly swamped, mentally, by the intel op run by vindman and nuland.

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Nathan Woodard's avatar

they will cry "lawfare"

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WW's avatar

Sure they'll try, but Tulsi appears to be very, very careful here. She's going to be trying to force Obama-appointed judges down a legal path they absolutely do not want to go. I will not bet against her ability to remove all viable off ramps for them.

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ͲimH's avatar

You are stereotyping Obama-appointed judges to be Obama-loyal. Look at all the Republican-appointed judges pushing back at the Trump deportation shenanigans right now.

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Alex K.'s avatar

No. Even if there are trials and evidence is before their eyes, those on the left still won't care because the bottom line is, anything to take down Trump is justified. Anything egregious done against Trump and conservatives is acceptable and they don't care. They'll just shrug like they shrugged at Twitter Files.

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Alex K.'s avatar

It's useless. Even if they report it, it'll be framed as Trump going after political opponents like they warned during the campaign.

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Wm. S. Loder's avatar

Not to brag but my suspicions was Obama behind this the whole time. He’s a prick. He also had Comey go after Flynn, who he hated, cause Flynn apposed Obama every Foreign Policies. Remember after the original interview the FBI stated Flynn was truthful in his testimony.

The damage they have done to the country is incalculable. The hatred and despicable attitudes toward Trump were conceived as a result of this tyranny. Over 60% of Democrats today believe the Russia hoax.

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MillingAround1's avatar

Expose them all, on all sides. No more bullshit.

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