First reported by Michael Shellenberger, new details about the "Burisma leak" tabletop exercise of summer 2020 reveal a notable betrayal of principle by two famed papers
I'd say 100-percent of the mainstream media "pack" of pack journalists was "captured," but this isn't quite right. The NY Post wasn't.
Re: Covid narratives, they ALL followed the same script. No "Woodward and Bernstein" investigating any of those taboo/off-limits scandals.
I'm also struck by the pre-planning that goes into squelching any story that attacks the authorized narrative. The "fact checkers" and "misinformation" organizations were seeded months and years before they were asked to spring into action.
Make no mistake about it these types of suppression of information MUST be coordinated and planned lest someone starts singing out of tune with the orchestrated narratives necessary to bury a story. These people are NOT doing this at random but as an well planned operation. Don't ever even consider giving them a pass and assuming that this was some haphazard operation. Communists and the East Germans perfected the art of controlled press and information. Might recall when books by Solzhenitsyn had to be smuggled out of the old Soviet Union. Imprisonment or even death resulted in "unauthorized" books, or newspaper stories. We might be well on the way. It is the worst of human nature to do this type of thing. These people in the U.S. media and others are the worst among us. Hopefully they will be steamrolled by people like Matt and other courageous truth tellers.
all you have to do is listen to all the different newscasts, even down to the local levels parroting the exact same thing about a given story. Its like the DNC sneds out its talking points, and the bobblehead anchors just read it verbatim.
They do. Anyone who gets the daily political emails from the DNC will have exactly the same talking points. Trump winning broke something. The last remaining pushback in the MSM disappeared. Now it just pure Narrative. Can't admit to anything that might all the "bad guys" to win again.
The establishment controls huge sums of money. The Big Guy cut on our last years budget was $730B, throw in the mexican cartels and you are close to $1T. In a world where you could find someone to do almost anything for $500, imagine what that kind of money buys.
I wrote a story on my Substack about Pfizer becoming a corporate sponsor of the SEC sports league. In fact, as far as I know, I'm the only journalist who wrote a story about this.
I don't think Pfizer really cares about supporting athletes of the Crimson Tide or Georgia Bulldogs. I think they spent $10 million to make sure no scientist at these 14 red state colleges ever did any kind of study that would debunk Pfizer's product.
So it was money well spent. They don't have to "sponsor" the Ivy League sports teams or Pac-12 conference schools. They KNOW those colleges are in the bag.
Here's my story. It was no great scoop. I read it in the fine print of the SEC's website and there was a quick blurb in Pfizer commercials that the company ran non-stop in televised football games. Prizer is/was now a "corporate sponsor" of the SEC and the SEC joined with Pfizer in encouraging "everyone" to get their boosters. However, I asked the SEC office if they were now encouraging all of their student-athletes to get those shots? They didn't answer my question.
Nor did the league run a big press release trumpeting the big partnership. Nor do I know how much Pfizer paid to be a corporate sponsor.
I do stick with my predictions: One day this partnership will be scrubbed from SEC websites. Also, I don't think any "scientist" at any SEC schools is going to produce any kind of vaccine study that ever embarrasses Pfizer.
I emailed a couple of sports reporters who cover the SEC and asked them if they were going to do stories on this announcement. None would answer my question.
Bill, I really don't believe that Pfizer's corporate sponsorship of the SEC is a strategy to "make sure no scientist at these 14 red state colleges ever did any kind of study that would debunk Pfizer's product."
Like most corporate sponsorships, Pfizer obviously views this as a means of repairing and boosting its reputation by associating itself with the tried and true, red, white and blue of All-American big time college football. It's marketing and public relations, nothing more I'm afraid.
Though I do like conjuring the image of Nick Saban and a few of his defensive lineman paying a visit to the Tuscaloosa laboratory of a "rogue" Crimson Tide chemist and tenured professor rumored to be working on a "study that would debunk Pfizer's product." To, you know, have a "word" with the good professor.
There's a reason you're the only journalist who wrote a story about this.
In praise of the "silent MINORITY" who are making Substack possible today and in the future. And we need as many great Substack writers (real journalists) as possible to prevail in this fight.
Here's my first-ever appeal to do what any successful sales rep must do - ask for the sale.
Yes, but the Empire is secretly constructing an armored space station with enough power to destroy and entire electoral process. President Biden (or more likely, one of his puppet masters) will proudly say, "Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational Ballet Harvest."
But we have found a flaw in the plans. A single determined person could set off a chain reaction to destroy the monstrosity. Should we prepare a shuttle for them just in case?
The issue is that they still fail to fully understand why Trump was elected. These "educated" elite continue to sit in their coastal High Rises, or gated communities surrounded by guards with guns, calling the middle of the country moronic Sheeple.
The irony is that's exactly what they are. Except there is a divine level of Hypocrisy to them as well. I was a Life Long Democrat raised by a union man. I say WAS. Years of exposing the corruption and rot of the United States led to some of the smarter people in the nation (read, not precisely educated), to understand that the few had once again gained power and are hoisting that old Caste system around us again. Now, we can argue fairly the choice of a loud mouth idiotic billionaire was poorly chosen, but what other options do you have in a rigged system?
The truth is.. the world is done. The old money has once again risen and taken over using the most highly educated rubes in the history of the planet to do their bidding and not bother to think outside their circle. It's why you can't "trust the science" or authorities anymore. They are the game, and they are the least intelligent people left.
Don't forget ace reporter Michael Shellenberger, member of the independent journalist resistance. Nice we have a list of the "so called journalists" and the news media they are affiliated, who are joining this evil cabal.
I hope this won't sit behind the paywall for long. I certainly appreciate getting to see it, but this needs wider exposure, particularly those Great Institutions of the media invoking silence as though their credibility stands unchallenged. The hypocrites must be made to face their hypocrisy.
On the contrary, I think they live in fear. Why else go to the extremes in hunting down and punishing those of Jan 6th? [And in contrast to the summer of Floyd that preceded it.] The TN and MT protests - disrupting the legitimate legislative work being done - were tests to see if they could do both at the same time (punish opposition and engage in the same behavior with no consequences).
They're behaving like dinosaurs who know the meteorite is on the way, trying with all their might to apply their useless magic to stopping the inevitable. Quite pathetic, really.
I'm not sure they're smart enough to recognize cable TV is on its way out--there's an "old" demographic that is dying out and not being replaced by a younger audience. TV, particularly local TV, seems to be where newspapers were 20 years ago. And they don't see it coming.
I quit cable TV months ago. I'm watching podcasts & reading Substack. I feel I'm better informed. And no one is insulting my intelligence.
Unfortunately, younger people don't engage with anything BUT social media. The old people watching cable can remember when being liberal meant opposing war, censorship, torture, etc. The young people think liberal means only their personal issues, whether it be reproductive rights or identity. Important subjects, but not up there with the things that could threaten the republic.
The Censorship Industrial Complex has been applying the muscle to the social media platforms and big tech firms all along in order to maintain control of the public discourse. That's likely some of what the hundreds of meetings between the Obama White House and Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, etc. during the Obama administration were about. The extent of their efforts was revealed by Taibbi's "The Twitter Files".
As the "old" demographic dies out, the consequences for defunding and privatizing Social Security will decline. You may have paid all your premiums via payroll deductions, but you'll never get the promised payoff.
What, you mean that any of a million other Americans that don't speak Ukrainian and know nothing about the petroleum and natural gas business would be appointed to Burisma's board at a cool million bucks a year?
In my mind, the Right is the home of "rugged individualism" aka more-for-me, none-for-thee mentality. The Left is the home of those fighting for folks having a sense of shared responsibility for those in their community.
To preempt a response stating Obama-like politicians as representing the Left, Obama himself is effectively a Center-Right Neoliberal (fights for more corporate power, pro-war, etc.). Even Bernie Sanders is fairly centrist by European standards.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Calling liberals and center right politicians the left is a mind virus that has infected a lot of commenters on here. There seems to be no cure. Much like there being no cure for liberals’ TDS and fear of all things Russia. They both belong to cults.
Exactly. I've tried advancing that perception for YEARS all over the web, to no avail that I've noticed. Nearly everyone at Taibbi and Greenwald's sites continue believing liberals and Democrats constitute "the left." This mind virus is far more widespread than any Covid could ever be.
Fair question. Let's eschew European standards or we will be calling conservatives liberals (as they are in Europe). And in reality, our spectrum is much narrower.
There is a left that dissociates from Democrats - but that isn't numerous enough to give much consideration. To the right of them, but still well to the left of oh say 80% of the country are the progressives, which are the left-wing of the Democratic Party. They tend to think they represent the whole country but they are in fact only a faction within the party; they make a lot of noise but don't actually get much done. Then there is the rest of the Democratic Party which no longer has any kind of conservative wing though it did up through the '60s.
Obama might be center-right in Europe but not in the U.S. where he is center maybe just left of center (at least in rhetoric if not reality). If you don't think he is slightly to the left of the country as a whole, you don't understand the spectrum here.
I agree on where Obama stands. It sure as hell ain't left. I was promoted to VP at a large healthcare company, and became eligible for company-paid financial planning, estate planning, taxes, etc. Cause, you know, rich executives need those extra benefits. The guy from the wealth management firm met with me, and in how's the weather conversation, I said something critical of Obama. He jumped in with the "yeah, he's left-wing..." I looked at him and said, "I don't think you understand. Obama's not left-wing. I criticize Obama FROM the left."
Let's all agree with what to call the left/liberals/progressives--the REAL ones, who have always been against war, torture, economic inequality, and state censorship. A lot of people used to be with me there. But now so many of them support a war that is becoming as ludicrous as Iraq was. So many of them are OK with censorship, as long as Trump can't win.
It's a sincere question I ask of liberal friends (well, formerly-liberal friends, because, as too many Americans have forgotten, you can actually be friends with someone with which all of whose ideas you don't agree)--what the fuck happened? All they can answer is Trump Bad!
Obama is a damn neo-communist. You can decide if you want to call him left or right or whatever that means. What he says attempts to sound centrist. What he does is act like the ruling class of this WEF style neo-communist fascism.
Thank you for the reminder that Matt is a person of the Left. I had forgotten. What is the Left? All of those who are not on the Right side of America existing under its Constitution, which by the way, Obama hated because it was framed in the negative. But he got around that rather easily by ignoring it and using his phone and pen. The big unravel started with his admin.....
I was leaning toward liking him and supporting him, but then it rather quickly became clear that his rhetoric was just that.
He killed children in Waziristan on just his third day in office and then never stopped. He not only continued to bomb and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan he then went on to bomb 5 additional countries. He literally destroyed Libya and then just walked away. Yet, to this day he is a "liberal" icon.
I just don’t understand people who are so much smarter than me who continue to think he was the best President we’ve ever had. I really do not get it…. Other than to say humanity is so flawed that unless there is some kind of regeneration from within humanity, in general can not see themselves clearly enough to know just how flawed our thinking can be.
Yeah, Trump was a clown (promo for Matt's book: Insane Clown President), but not in the depths of worst Presidents. Certainly not down there with Reagan and Bush 2. Or Woodrow Wilson. Or a shit-ton of boys from the 19th century. There are incompetent Presidents (e.g., Hoover) and then there are bad Presidents. What Wilson did to civil liberties, what Reagan did to the concept of economic striving in America, what Bush 2 did to the Constitution, in general? Now we have a new category--clown President. Not as bad as the bad ones, probably about on par with the incompetents.
Another book plug: Douglas Brinkley's "The Unfinished Presidency," about Jimmy Carter's achievements after leaving office.
I’d like to ask Matt why he used the word “clown”. I can see why he used the description “Richie Rich” but only as a superficial shot. It’s way to easy. Other than Trump’s “believe all women” cousin whose writings had many salivating, I wonder if anyone really did an in-depth on Trump, his father , growing up, military school, where he went to church because I understand he did go, Trump with more than a description of the exterior trappings. That’s way to easy. Joe Rogan recently interviewed John Hennessy CEO of H. Performance Engineering. JH briefly described what motivated him to build really fast cars. His description was very telling…it actually made me think of Trump… and no one except a traumatized cousin with clearly her own issues gives what I might call a real picture of the man . True he says some really dumb things but even in that there’s something, I don’t know exactly what, but there is something there that gives those motivated an opportunity do to this guy what has never been done to anyone in history. It makes me wonder. Sometimes I wonder why we still don’t hear H. Clinton’s “deplorable” reference to over 50% of the country. Or why when during Rachel Maddow’s interview , Hillary Clinton called on China, speaking right into the camera, saying China should intervene in our elections saying if Trump could do it with Russia She could do it with China and did it on National tv. It’s odd … and now we find out Russia was the biggest lie of all…Doesn’t any one find it intellectually curious. Maybe someone like a Jordan Petersen as an outsider could shed some light….Times today seem to indicate we can’t afford to see politics as a sport. I never listened to these guys as closely as I ought. But I listened to Matt Gaetz questioning the panel on the ATF and by God if Matt didn’t make some sense it was eye opening…I thought everyone was happy that just a short time ago we were not on the verge of any wars Now it’s pick your country. Sometimes I wonder if politicians don’t understand how to run a business and only know War makes lots of money and creates jobs maybe they aren’t as smart as they try to appear. War has been making money for decades when that’s all you know that’s what you do. Does that seem smart I thought people were surprised but happy that Serbia not too long ago was actually talking to Kosovo That The Arabs were talking to Israel
Bahrain, the UAE and the thinking was maybe even Oman and Sudan will be engaged in diplomacy with Israel What happened now everyone’s pointing guns at one another like in that clip Matt had in with the broomstick It doesn’t make sense until we make it make sense. Does that make sense?Who knew Pakistan was all nuked up…, Somebody’s got to get serious here because the party is out of control. And there’s Matt guns a blazing it seems all by himself. If Matt had the character to speak at the William F Buckley Society then somebody has to go around throwing cold water on the freaking same ol same ol and start getting deep. Loyality to integrity is the truth definition of Loyality. Loyality to people for its own sake of agreement is in a word ———is not a Loyality to the absolute truth of existence in a civil society that is for certain.
Have you heard of a hip-hop group called Insane Clown Posse? I have a very strong suspicion Matt's use of "clown" in his title might be some sarcastic metaphor. No one who observed the 2016 campaign could have any surprise at all that it was described as more circus-like than most.
My apologies, but I don't have the energy to respond to everything else you write. Some I might agree with, some I might disagree with, but some I can't even tell if you're talking about Matt Taibbi or Matt Gaetz.
I’m sure there were bad and incompetent presidents in the 19th century that we don’t know much about, but most of the criticisms you mention do not refer to competence or character but to political positions you have a problem with. Yes, Bush’s Patriot Act was a threat to the Constitution and you didn’t mention Reagan’s subversion of the will of Congress with Iran Contra, but no other president
Well said. I have an honest question to the room, which I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer: What is it about Trump that you hate so much?
Trump is an unattractive man in every respect, and he lost me at Operation Warp Speed. Yet, for example, I think it is a good idea to staunch the bleed of jobs from America, particularly as we are bringing in so many foreigners. I understand that people don’t like Trump as a person, and that he speaks like a swine, but, for example, I see him as having less blood on his hands than St. Obama. Again, my question is sincere.
He said he wanted to break down the swamp which was politics as usual. They felt threatened. He called out the fake news. They might lose their power. Personally I did not hate him so I don’t get it either.
Sam Harris said the quiet part out loud though, they simply did not care what happened to us and America they need to destroy him and his supporters. I’m still appalled at the depth of hatred we witnessed.
It must be some kind of a very contagious mass psychosis. I see no other explanation. I myself have experienced a wide range of emotions related to Trump: first, I couldn’t believe such a vulgar, poorly educated and uncultured dude with shady business deals and bad taste could be elected our President lol; I thought we deserved better. Then I was disgusted by his poorly written and delivered speeches and his unwillingness to compromise, silly me. I thought if only he went to hug George Floyd’s family, things could be different. Then I saw how his enemies treated him and began to feel sorry for him and admire his resilience. I do not like or respect him, but those who hate him with such animal passion as many do, they simply belong to a mental asylum. Every single thing they are doing now or thinking of doing is to prevent Trump’s return to power. They are obsessed with it, and, for some inexplicable reason, scared to death of this prospective. And this pathological fear and hatred of Trump is turning our country into a Stalinist regime with censorship and persecution of dissidents. Surreal.
Exactly, nor do those suffering TDS seem to be able to grasp Trump will not be influencing US politics for long, one way or another. The man is nearly 80, not nearly as age addled as Biden, but still not long for this planet. Dems couldn't just find a better candidate and seek to beat him at the ballot box fairly, or wait out a 2nd term? We have term limits. Age limits us all eventually. The answer has to be they fear Trump's ideas, will last far longer than the man.
They are not able to think rationally. The level of hatred that shut down their brain function will be a subject of psychiatric research for generations to come lol. I hope they will teach it in medical schools as an aberration. Unless we will be living in alternative Orwellian reality. Then the only thing they will teach in medical schools is DEI.
Trump is quite the character. I just can’t remember any public figure that had to dodge arrows from enemies 24/7, always fighting back. I found him to be a person who loved this country and truly wanted to make it better, if you could get past his bravado and listen. But he was not talking to the elites, academia or the press core. He appealed to the deplorables, the forgotten masses that did not live on the coasts or were people who thought they were smarter than blue collar workers who perhaps were plumbers or nurses. He was not a swamp creature either. Personally I would have voted for Barney before Hillary. Hatred is blinding.
“Hatred is blinding” So true. And while in a 24/7war with virtually everyone outside of his circle, which also perpetually changed, Trump managed to pass so many laws that are good for the country. Biden’s gang never mentions them, and Biden has struck down most of them with an executive order.
You nailed it. To think we went from at least trying to hide the affair with the intern all the way to "grab 'em by the..." was like a drop down a roller coaster. Unbelievable. But OK, that passes muster now. I almost prefer being allowed to be obscene in politics to the stupid stuff like "I didn't inhale" rectitude. My father, who passed away last year, was one who told me often he feared Trump was a Russian asset. There are a lot of reasons I wish he was still around, but a big one is the talks he and I would be able to have about the stuff that guys like Matt and Glenn are talking about.
Your handle gave me the first belly laugh I've had all day. Brilliant. Thank you!!!
Part of what you're identifying is black-and-white thinking. People had such a visceral reaction to him that they were unable to see the (few) positives, including the not starting new wars. I like to think my former Progressive allies had their brains broken by Trump. They can't discriminate.
Take Tucker Carlson, for example. Some of the things he said were fabulous. I could feel the truth in them, that no one else was willing to say. And other things I profoundly disagreed with. That's how a brain is supposed to work.
I would think not starting any wars in his four years would count for something. After all no American children were slaughtered or returned home maimed. That seems like a ver big deal. But neo-cons and other war mongers could care less about individual American kids, they are just numbers to them. These are very evil individuals who feed the maw of the war machine with bodies and tax money to keep it running like clockwork. We have become as destructive as any nation to ever inhabit this planet. Yet it seems this administration is itching to get us into a nuclear confrontation with either Russia or China. Does the stupidity ever end?
Wars are more than useful, they are necessary for rearranging global alignments, growing bank accounts of the funders, population control, mass migration, attention redirection, and so much more. Let’s see: Wilson-D, FDR-D, Johnson-D, Bush41-R (skirmish in the desert ended early when UN told Bush no more). Then, the war on terror everyone backed until they didn’t. Well, except Ron Paul with his numerous Congressional speeches.
Ambushed American military is hardly starting a war. Is it always necessary to make extreme leaps of logic where Trump is involved. Everything he has done even reasoned and logical things must be dismantled and ridiculed because you personally don't like him. This is the definition of illogical hatred pretty much the same as race hate, illogical and all consuming. Now you know how racists reason away their crazy pathological views on race. Just review your all consuming Trump hate. I am not really a Trump fan but reality sometimes must displace hate. It corrodes the soul.
Obama actually killed two Americans who were not officially charged with any crime. He "droned" them. One was a propagandist for Jihad and the other was the man's son. Both were American citizens who had not been indicted or even charged with any crime. Obama proudly stated on national TV that he had a list on his desk of individuals who could be eliminated on his say so. This is a criminal act but due to 9/11 people just shrugged and looked away. It just illustrates the arrogance and superior attitude that many politicians seem to have when they take power. With all the undeclared wars conducted without Congressional votes since WW II many of our presidents could be considered criminals conducting their own military actions without the legal authority needed under the Constitution. Seems many of the public are "on board" with this type of one man rule.
Technically Obama set up the killing of the 8 year old al-Awlaki daughter, Nawar/ "Nora" as well. The attack was planned for the first week after Trump was inaugurated, and Trump did not over-rule (may not have even known). and to those who say it was Trump, not Obama, Obama also commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence and she was released on May 17, 2021, about four months after Trump became President (he may not have known about that either. He never seemed in the loop.)
I have referred to it in the past as assassination by robot plane of American citizens who had not been arrested, charged, indicted, tried, convicted, sentenced, or had appeals considered for any crime that I'm aware of. Much less a capital crime.
His name was Anwar al Awlaki and then two weeks later, his 16 year old son Abdul who was looking for his dad. Abdul was born in Denver, he liked rap, he, of course, spoke perfect English.
Trump later approved an Obama plan for a SEAL raid in Yemen that killed Awlaki's 8 year daughter Nora, who was accidentally shot in the neck and then left to bleed out.
When Robert Gates was asked about al Awlaki's son he said that, "maybe he should have had a better father".
Trump's mortal sin was the fact he denied a coronation to Hillary, something she was promised that night when she and Obama ran from the journalists and hid in Feinstein's house "for a talk." She waited for eight long years to be president, but he and the "basket of deplorables," who dared not vote for her, stopped her.
Her trademark cackling, "We came, we saw, he died," about Qaddafi morphed into raging hatred toward Trump and her following madness. She was the one who ordered that fabrication, the "Steele Dossier," and with everyone on board of the Russiagate train, the insanity started to ripple in all facets of society.
Fast forward, and what we have is rising totalitarianism that has nothing to do with the Trump years: being dislikable for the "elite"; he despised them, and they hated him for it. He was an ideal boogeyman. Now, argument or discussion is not possible. That's a trademark of a totalitarian regime they've been creating for us and it's now here to stay for a long, long time.
He tried multiple times to pull out of Syria—Obama promised that there would never be boots on the ground in Syria—and Trump tried to avoid conflict with Russia. Now the so-called left tells us nukes are Safe & Effective.
The key thing is to stand in the middle of your living room (not clear why this is so much better than your bathtub, which is hailed as the safest place from hurricanes and tornadoes.)
As always, Bill, nailed it. From time to time lately I wonder if free speech is the most important. Then I remember war can get you killed a lot easier. Someone noted earlier about young people not paying attention to cable news anymore. I worry about young people not having any fucking clue about what nuclear war can do. Hell, they don't even remember the 80s movies like The Day After that were designed to scare us off nukes. People used to wonder why we didn't drop the Big One on Tokyo instead of Hiroshima. It was because we had already fire-bombed Tokyo to dust. At least Hiroshima was a mostly standing city. Only took a few seconds to do what had taken us months to do in Tokyo. And, of course, modern warheads DWARF the firepower of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs.
(I don't think Carter started any wars, did he? The man's got to get credit for something.)
"Did you know, for example, that your chances of surviving an atom bomb attack are excellent?" - Groucho Marx
You're not insinuating that Groucho would lie are you?
Decades ago the US government came up with an ingenious "Duck & Cover" strategy that rivals the "lock yourself in Mom's basement" Covid strategy that was recently all the rage.
I also understand that you can find a barn & pile hay along its sides for even more protection.
Whatever happens we should all sleep soundly knowing that, in the event of a nuclear bitch slap, Joe Biden will be in a bunker somewhere spouting red, white & blue gibberish until the Ensure runs out.
Are you talking about Reset Button Hillary? Because I don't think the Hillary that helped grease the skids on the Uranium One sale to Russia was going to be any sort of impediment to Putin.
More likely, if Hillary had won in 2016, we wouldn't be talking about Ukraine today, because it would all be over but for the Ukrainian crying years ago.
My dislike for him is mainly based on his current (since 2020 election) proclivity to put his needs/desires at a higher priority than the good of the country.
So, prior to November, 2020, Trump DIDN'T put his needs/desires at a higher priority than....anyone, or anything? Are we talking about the same guy? Crooked real estate developer from NYC? That guy?
To be fair, he primed the media with accusations of the 2016 electing being rigged - against him. Those with functioning memories will recall that Obama made a point of pooh-poohing that. It is the remarkable pivot when the election produced his unexpected victory that is breathtaking in it's speed and cynicism.
First of all, I was never impressed by Life Styles of the Rich and Famous or reality tv. Second, when Trump rode down the escalator and said Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, he was talking about the hard working families of my students.
When you talk about presidents with blood on their hands, it was Woodward, a hero to many here, who revealed that Trump knew full well how deadly covid was all the while telling the public it was a hoax.
Wikipedia? That's your source? Are you kidding me??
And with regard to his "grab 'em by the pussy comment," I'll make three observations. 1 - If all that you require to "convict" someone of misogyny is comments like that, I hope you never sit on a jury. 2 - The complete comment in context included the words "...and they let you do it." 3 - Men who are trying to prove something frequently talk in such a manner because they believe it makes them more "alpha." It's not the case, but this comment is hardly the "proof" you think it is of misogyny. If it were, no man who has ever played on any sports team or inhabited a locker room could defend the charge.
In sum, you're an ideologue who hates Trump and nothing will convince you otherwise.
There are several articles about Joe Biden's racist comments as well (for example: https://freebeacon.com/politics/joe-bidens-history-of-racial-gaffes/). You may not remember Biden almost single-handedly doubling the US incarceration rate (about tripling it for Blacks), or his 100-fold longer sentencing for crack cocaine (mostly used by Blacks) vs powder cocaine (mostly used by whites).
Ask Tara Reade about Biden's treatment of women. Frankly Bill Clinton, Trump and Biden and many more powerful men in America are cut from the same misogynist clothe.
In hindsight, the (real) left should have seen this coming and supported Trump and not the corrupt establishment. He was, in the words of Michael Moore, "the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHekdQSiXg
You can kick up a real hornet's nest by pointing out that Trump and Sanders were mining the same vein of populism - just from different banks of the creek.
Trump was a Democrat for much of his life, and an opportunist for his entire life. That qualified him for DC except for the small matter of NOT being part of the Establishment/ Ruling Elite.
Dodnald Trump is a man of courage and of independence
COURAGE “ [Trump] has the indispensable attribute of a leader: courage. “
INDEPENDENCE “Because no secret puppeteer operating from the shadows owns him, …”
Trump's Virtues - Tom Klingenstein
1,155,033 views Jul 6, 2022 Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024.
Trump’s Virtues Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. They say we need someone with Trump’s virtues but without his vices.
Fair enough, but that formulation does not get us very far unless we have a proper accounting of his virtues.
Not only has he become a millionaire from his politics (and not redistributed to "the poor, the oppressed, the exploited and the marginalized” ") but he has not attacked Democrats because it was NOT politically and personally expedient for him to do so and he has supported Schumer and Biden and the Democratic Leadership, without criticism, for reasons of personal and political expediency.
In fact, Sen. Sanders supports the US/NATO unnecessary and avoidable proxy war in Ukraine. The Defense Budget is 800 billion and Sanders and the Democrats and some UniParty Republicans have voted about 130 BBillion to Ukraine.
Sen Sanders supports the Green New Deal of which the main beneficiary is China. Why is that? Does he not receive millions of donations from the Solar, Wind and EV multi-million dollar, corporate businesses? Sanders supports Biden-Schumer-Democratic Leadership’s policy on Green New Deal and Electric Vehicle subsidies to Solar, Wind and EV multi-million dollar, corporate businesses, does he not? He supports multi-millionaire capitalists and they support him. Is that not a betrayal of his socialist principles? For personal power and financial gain?
Sen. Sanders supports the Biden policy of Open Border and unlimited entry of foreign nationals into this country. Without question.
There is NOT one major or minor piece of legislation where Sanders has NOT voted with Schumer Biden, is there?
Nor is there ONE Democrat he has attacked, or criticized, including Hunter Biden, is there?
And, in return, the Democratic Establishment has supported him in his position of power and high status.
It was Donald Trump LIKE NO OTHER from the beginning of his campaign for the Presidency in 2015 who informed Americans, including myself, about the Deep State and its Agenda and the Fake News corporate Media that justifies them.
Leftist Matt Taibbi continues the Trump/MAGA campaign of exposing the FAKE corporate media for the cynical, two-faced, duplicitous, lying, manipulative Machiavellians that they are.
An odd couple, Trump and Taibbi, are they not? Both Patriots.
Trump is a convicted fraudster, e.g., Trump "University, an accused rapist, and an inveterate shameless liar who bilks contractors out of their money by not paying his bills. He's a scumbag, and anyone who trusts that gasbag deserves the screwing they will inevitably get. However, that doesn't mean that he hasn't occasionally been right about a very small number of things. To be clear: there is no one in US politics who is actually left, i.e., a democratic socialist. Not AOC, not Ilhan Omar, and not Bernie "Military Pork Barrel" Sanders. It's one of the primary reasons that your country is the shithole that it has become.
Donald Trump has NOT been convicted of anything. Accusations are NOT proof. He is innocent of any crime until proven guilty with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Insults do not prove anything.
He was found to have committed fraud in 2016 and ordered to pay $25 million in damages. Technically, it was not a criminal conviction but he was found to have committed fraud via his fraudulent "university." The rape accusation is being heard in civil court as I type this. He's a pathological liar and a lifelong P.o.S. who was trained by the godfather of all Pieces of Shit, Roy Cohn.
And, no: No one named Obama is an actual leftist. No leftist has ever been elected president. The Dems and the GOP are both servants of the empire and its military-industrial complex. The rest is just propaganda and noise.
A simple rule of life by which I live: all politicians are liars and grifters. Never be a fan and never trust them as far as you can throw their severed heads. All parties are tribal and utterly controlled by big money. There is zero hope for change in the electoral system unless the change being sought is to screw the working and middle classes even harder, as well as ruining the environment.
"I take it that you don't vote. Is that right? What would be the point? Have I understood the intended inference?"
Voting in the US is a laughable and pointless act. Here in my home country it is much the same. All of our politicians are the servants of the ultra rich and their corporations as well as the military-industrial complex. I see no value in trying to change society at the ballot box. It doesn't matter what a politician or party says when they are not in government. It only matters what they do once they have been elected and without exception, they maintain the status quo which is to keep enriching the rich and to keep the poor in their place. The rest is just noise.
Is it all hopeless? Pretty much. The environment upon which we depend for our survival is being destroyed all around us. We are playing footsie with nuclear Armageddon in Ukraine. Corporations control all of the major governments except for those governments which are openly autocratic. Journalism exists only on the margins--all else is propaganda. Are we slaves to the empire? Vassals and serfs more like. Donald is a servant of the empire albeit as a phoney "outsider." That being said, despair is not an option. Hope is necessary even when it is a fantasy. I'll give Chris Hedges the last word on hope: “Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and more potent hope becomes.
Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness, the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on all of us. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope's power. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.”
As a retired/recovering journalist, there was a time (10+ years ago) that I supervised young reporters at a small daily newspaper. What struck me was the lack of competition among the reporters. It wasn't only that they lacked the "fire in the belly" to beat the atrocious local TV reporters, but they didn't even seem to care if their stories were good enough/important enough for page 1. I never once heard a reporter complain that his story was more important than a co-worker's story, or better written, "So why isn't MY story on page 1?"
I found this puzzling since Back When I Was a Reporter, there was a competitive tension in the newsroom.
I attribute this cultural change to the Participation Trophy mentality, the abolition of school Honor Roll (that was once even published in local newspapers!). This new generation seemed to drift through life with no sense of urgency.
So, I offer this observation to add to the destruction of media today. The media are part of one big club, with everyone sitting at the Cool Kids' Table.
Your note took me back. I grew up in a relatively rural area of Western PA and the town's weekly newspaper would print the Honor Roll for both junior high schools and the senior high school. It was one of the bricks in a wall of Community.
Yes it was! My family owned a neighborhood retail store and knew all their customers. Dad always reported when customers told him that they'd seen my name on the Honor Roll printed in the local weekly newspaper.
It also printed the names & photos of graduating seniors when they chose what college to attend, as well as graduating seniors who enlisted in the military.
I tried to print the local schools' Honor Rolls when I became a newspaper editor. The school guidance departments said, "We don't do that any more. It makes the other students feel bad."
Great. Hurt feelings trump celebration of achievement.
Oh, how times have changed! My teachers were quite forward about telling one that he had not made the honor roll that term. They thought of it as motivation as I'm sure yours did.
I think the current crew grew up dreaming of becoming Woodward and Bernstein, entitled to attend Georgetown soirées and dress up in tuxes at the White House correspondents’ dinner. So they have just become self-satisfied stooges, as this piece attests. I am only relieved that Matt and his pals are courageous old time reporters.
I'm confident many of them have no knowledge of Woodward and/or Bernstein. Much less Daniel Ellsberg, who BTW has only months to live. Who will write his obituary? Certainly not these nincompoops.
Rather than "Tabletop Exercise" which is so benign, why not label it what it really was, a "War Game"? It's no exaggeration to say the press has waged a war against the American people.
I wrote a piece listing 17 movies perfect for our Twilight Zone New Normal times. No. 1 on my list was Three Days of the Condor (or at least the prescient last scene).
You also have "Network," "Being There," "The Godfather" (of course) and many other classics. A few of my selections ("Casablanca" and "The Shawshank Redemption") have a hope-inspiring message.
I'm sure I left off a lot of great candidates. Be sure to subscribe (It's free) and add some more selections for my list! I guess I need to watch Idioocracy.
I hate to admit I've never even heard of it, but I'll check it out now. My favorite TV drama is "Breaking Bad.” I actually worked in a reference to Walter White in my latest piece on all the activities and products that are now banned.
How is this not proof that the 2020 election was stolen? These people are perpetrating a coup d’état, which renders American democracy hollow. American democracy is a sham. The people I am referring to are the people held in the highest regard in the society. America is a lie.
(I think the rest of the world knows this, America is a murderous thug on the world stage.)
You realize your children are being taught by teachers in secondary school, and in the Academy that are fully on board with this sort of deception . You know they’re turning your children into liars. Go speak to them, your children, they are not on this side. Please don’t think because Matt and a few other people are calling bullshit, that this is winning. The enemy resides in your basement.
We know it was NOT stolen because honest and competent government officials counted every legal ballot, and only legal ballots, accurately, with scrupulous care. Government officials never lie or mislead us; the historical record is clear.
OK, ask yourself this - who do you know, personally, that would have changed their vote from Biden to Trump because of Hunter? It works both ways for that matter, what circumstances would've caused a Trump voter to change to Biden? At best, you might get someone to not show up at the polls because they are so discouraged with the choice there.
On the one hand, to prove out in practice what the exercise had floated. After all, the exercise wasn't about the laptop - it was about how to act in concert without obvious coordination. And on the other, it probably is fair to say it might have cost Biden some votes, just not ones that would flip to Trump.
right, so they were worried it would cost them the election. Not via flipped votes but via no shows. Enough people saying "whats the difference, Biden is just as bad, why even vote?" could be the margin of difference and the laptop story could have had that kind of impact. Reverse the story and make it Donald Jr and its a biden landslide. They knew how dangerous this was
It’s a good point but the laptop is a single instance in a relentless, whole of society effort to subvert accurate information with an ambient political conditioning. If people in a position of authority view you as somehow dangerous should you receive accurate information then you are a captive and your rulers by dint of their own efforts are your enemy.
The "Trusted News Initiative," billed as an effort to counter (suppress) "misinformation," has likely resulted in a large increase in the number of people who *mistrust* the news. This could be a feature rather than a bug.
Hannah Arendt wrote that the ideal totalitarian subject isn't the devoted Nazi or the devoted Communist, but the person who no longer knows *what* to believe.
Propaganda is used because it works. Advertising is used because it works. Had they shown the other side of the tub with Uncle Joe smoking a crack pipe opposite Hunter, he would have lost.
Why do people believe that Trump is worse than all of the rest of them as far as ethics or smiling in your face goes? Because everyone they ever heard of is saying it repeatedly. Every google search is gamed to present the narrative. One might think, well, they are probably onto something and are right. But then look back at all those same people paling around with Trump back in the day. Why did they do it then and turn on him now?
Well, we can't actually answer that question because we cannot know what the aftermath of a more honestly and widely reported story would have been. Would there have been many more questions raised by sources other than the President about Mr. Biden's integrity? Would the media have badgered him more persistently about his anodyne non-responses to the charges of corruption? If so, would Mr. Biden have lost his cool and exposed his real character? Consider how few voters would have had to change their minds to alter the outcome of the election. A shift of 33,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, Nebraska, and Wisconsin would have given the electoral college to President Trump.
Consider also that Zuck spent $400M to swing 110,000 votes from Trump to Biden instead of Hilliary. About $3K per vote. How many votes can you harvest at $3K each?
Surely you know some Biden voters you could ask. Can you assess the impact across the entire country - no, but you can at least test the contention to a degree. So, anyone?
Well, as I pointed out, it's not that straightforward. Counterfactual history is always a crapshoot at best, so let's focus instead on addressing the issue before us today.
Not sure why you feel the need to disrespect my comments by misquoting me. Where do I "argue how obvious the results would've been otherwise"? I think I made it plain how impossible it would be to derive useful information by simply asking Biden voters four years later if any one them would have changed their minds based on what we only know now, since we can't know what would have happened then if the NY Post story hadn't been deliberately repressed.
As to testing the premise "anecdotally"--for whatever value that might yield--I blush to learn that I have the power to stop you from doing that. By all means, have at it!
I don’t think you know what was in the laptop: evidence that Biden himself got a 10% cut of Hunter’s fees. The laptop isn’t important because of what it tells us about Hunter. It’s important because of what it tells us about Joe. Many people were unsure whom to vote for. The information most certainly would have changed the votes of many people who had thought of Joe Biden as an honorable and basically honest man. He isn’t, and the laptop emails made that clear.
The beacon of hope comes from the rise of citizen journalism and the ever-increasing obviousness of the co-opting of the corporate media by government and corporate interests. Once someone recognizes the propaganda there is no coming back, so the influence of the corporate media must wane over time I think.
Did the principle ever exist in the first place? Or was it just a commercial decision based on the country largely turning on the Vietnam War. Certainly, with Watergate the Washington Post hated Nixon so they were happy to publish embarrassing info that turned his landslide 1972 victory into resigning two years later. I wonder if we look back and impute higher motives to the news media of that time than they actually had. Both Watergate and Russiagate were certainly high water marks for the Washington Post business model.
Point well made. I seriously doubt the Pentagon Papers would have been treated the same had it been a Democrat president in the White House. The media have never been truly ethical. If they had been, they still would be.
Once the scales fall from your eyes and you realize that the press has *always* been a wing of the Democratic Party, it really makes for some fascinating “what ifs” when you reverse the polarity of the parties. A Dem Watergate would have been an afterthought instead of a buzzword. “Ask not what your country ...” would have been portrayed as the worst jingoism. Nixon would be the president associated with the moon landing that occurred during his watch instead of Kennedy. Chappaquiddick would be the biggest political scandal of the 20th century. Etc etc. It’s gotten much worse in our time. But the poisonous spin has always been in effect.
I think ethics, such as they are, often take a backseat to business decisions and the personal views of whoever happens to own the newspaper at that time and how they feel about the nation at that time.
The Pentagon Papers did span America's Vietnam involvement which included both Republican and Democrat administrations. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon.
It looks more and more like Watergate was a CIA setup and Woodward and Bernstein just their chosen propaganda vehicles rather than the intrepid reporters of popular myth. The tape of Nixon talking to then-CIA director Richard Helms about how “they both know who killed John” and how it would be a shame if someone, not Nixon of course but someone, revealed the CIA’s dirty tricks dept to the public is pretty instructive. Nixon completely sounds like he knows he is being set up and is trying to threaten Helms to get him to back off.
I read Matt's book Hate Inc. again. His theory is that the movie "All the President's Men" made reporting look like a glamorous job. In reality, while it can sometimes be interesting, even exciting, it can also be boring, tedious, annoying or frustrating.
Also, in most cases, it's not a job in which you do it for the money.
Truth be told, I imagine a lot of today's generation got into the business thinking they'd be rich and famous, when in reality, that's a long shot -- and furthermore, the "famous" part is not the reason one should get into journalism.
But was the country turning against the Vietnam War a truly spontaneous turn, or was it planned? Sy Hersh did say that the stuff he published were usually because on someone the inside and at the top wanted the stuff leaked. Maybe the MIC knew Vietnam was going nowhere and wanted a convenient off-ramp?
Can you imagine being a self-respecting journalist and agreeing to take part in such a mind control experiment? As if it even needs pointing out, the fingerprints of the intelligence community are all over this. And let's not forget: when the Hunter Biden laptop leak actually came out, there was a clear trail back to the computer repair shop where the drug-addled scion had left it (for over a year, was it?) and never denied doing so. And the media STILL had the cojones to call it a Russian disinformation campaign. Well played, spooks and lame-asses.
Just to synthesize my own take from Matt's piece: The media is saying that the public can no longer be trusted with the truth. Because they might make political decisions based on the truth that we, the media, abhor. Only the elites in government, technology, and media can know the truth because the impulses of the public must be CONTROLLED.
in 2016 Americans made the fatal error of voting in the wrong candidate, and this must never be allowed to happen again. They're just protecting Democracy™!
Well researched Matt. Keep hammering those nails into the coffin of main stream media! Hopefully sufficient awareness of how co-opted and corrupt they have become will help healthy alternative media sources flourish.
Suppression leads to repression and is in fact a form of it. That's the issue, Matt. Media sites are enabling repressive, rather than representative, governance. And they're proud to do so.
Matt - another summer 2020 tabletop exercise that should be investigated by this group of principled Twitter Files journalists is the Transition Integrity Project. It was not shrouded in the same secrecy as the Burisma exercise (getting contemporaneous writeups in the Boston Globe and Time, for example), but it would be worth digging to see if there was any similar collusion among the press, the Democratic Party, the Frum/Kristol set, and officialdom to rig up a political response to Trump’s fraud accusations in advance. And, if there was any foreknowledge of true information (like the Post story) that would need to be suppressed come November.
FYI: there is a new link to the document, “Partnership for a Healthy Digital Public Sphere” that should work now.
OMG Matt has his guns on the big ships of the empire. Queue another alphabet agency inquiry in matts personal life.
I'd say 100-percent of the mainstream media "pack" of pack journalists was "captured," but this isn't quite right. The NY Post wasn't.
Re: Covid narratives, they ALL followed the same script. No "Woodward and Bernstein" investigating any of those taboo/off-limits scandals.
I'm also struck by the pre-planning that goes into squelching any story that attacks the authorized narrative. The "fact checkers" and "misinformation" organizations were seeded months and years before they were asked to spring into action.
Make no mistake about it these types of suppression of information MUST be coordinated and planned lest someone starts singing out of tune with the orchestrated narratives necessary to bury a story. These people are NOT doing this at random but as an well planned operation. Don't ever even consider giving them a pass and assuming that this was some haphazard operation. Communists and the East Germans perfected the art of controlled press and information. Might recall when books by Solzhenitsyn had to be smuggled out of the old Soviet Union. Imprisonment or even death resulted in "unauthorized" books, or newspaper stories. We might be well on the way. It is the worst of human nature to do this type of thing. These people in the U.S. media and others are the worst among us. Hopefully they will be steamrolled by people like Matt and other courageous truth tellers.
1000x on your "worst among us" characterization.
They're proving you right on a daily basis.
all you have to do is listen to all the different newscasts, even down to the local levels parroting the exact same thing about a given story. Its like the DNC sneds out its talking points, and the bobblehead anchors just read it verbatim.
They do. Anyone who gets the daily political emails from the DNC will have exactly the same talking points. Trump winning broke something. The last remaining pushback in the MSM disappeared. Now it just pure Narrative. Can't admit to anything that might all the "bad guys" to win again.
Decades ago, Noam Chomsky wrote that any Soviet commissar would envy the discipline of the supposedly free Western press.
The establishment controls huge sums of money. The Big Guy cut on our last years budget was $730B, throw in the mexican cartels and you are close to $1T. In a world where you could find someone to do almost anything for $500, imagine what that kind of money buys.
I wrote a story on my Substack about Pfizer becoming a corporate sponsor of the SEC sports league. In fact, as far as I know, I'm the only journalist who wrote a story about this.
I don't think Pfizer really cares about supporting athletes of the Crimson Tide or Georgia Bulldogs. I think they spent $10 million to make sure no scientist at these 14 red state colleges ever did any kind of study that would debunk Pfizer's product.
So it was money well spent. They don't have to "sponsor" the Ivy League sports teams or Pac-12 conference schools. They KNOW those colleges are in the bag.
Here's my story. It was no great scoop. I read it in the fine print of the SEC's website and there was a quick blurb in Pfizer commercials that the company ran non-stop in televised football games. Prizer is/was now a "corporate sponsor" of the SEC and the SEC joined with Pfizer in encouraging "everyone" to get their boosters. However, I asked the SEC office if they were now encouraging all of their student-athletes to get those shots? They didn't answer my question.
Nor did the league run a big press release trumpeting the big partnership. Nor do I know how much Pfizer paid to be a corporate sponsor.
I do stick with my predictions: One day this partnership will be scrubbed from SEC websites. Also, I don't think any "scientist" at any SEC schools is going to produce any kind of vaccine study that ever embarrasses Pfizer.
I emailed a couple of sports reporters who cover the SEC and asked them if they were going to do stories on this announcement. None would answer my question.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/the-southeastern-conference-is-now
I do not think Georgia is.
Your comment had me check the Mises Institute's (on the edge of Auburn's campus- a 7 iron away) website.
"The Dominion Lawsuit against Fox News is Part of the War against Free Speech"- Mises Institute 5-4-2023
I'll have to read this later. Thanks!
Bill, I really don't believe that Pfizer's corporate sponsorship of the SEC is a strategy to "make sure no scientist at these 14 red state colleges ever did any kind of study that would debunk Pfizer's product."
Like most corporate sponsorships, Pfizer obviously views this as a means of repairing and boosting its reputation by associating itself with the tried and true, red, white and blue of All-American big time college football. It's marketing and public relations, nothing more I'm afraid.
Though I do like conjuring the image of Nick Saban and a few of his defensive lineman paying a visit to the Tuscaloosa laboratory of a "rogue" Crimson Tide chemist and tenured professor rumored to be working on a "study that would debunk Pfizer's product." To, you know, have a "word" with the good professor.
There's a reason you're the only journalist who wrote a story about this.
....um, what?
In praise of the "silent MINORITY" who are making Substack possible today and in the future. And we need as many great Substack writers (real journalists) as possible to prevail in this fight.
Here's my first-ever appeal to do what any successful sales rep must do - ask for the sale.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/the-importance-of-the-2-percent
Collusion? Corruption? Criminal enterprise to defraud the American people? Any civil suits possible?
You'd think with the kind of resources they have that the gatekeepers could come up with more plausible "facts".
Yes, but the Empire is secretly constructing an armored space station with enough power to destroy and entire electoral process. President Biden (or more likely, one of his puppet masters) will proudly say, "Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational Ballet Harvest."
I find your lack of faith disturbing....
But we have found a flaw in the plans. A single determined person could set off a chain reaction to destroy the monstrosity. Should we prepare a shuttle for them just in case?
Yes, Happy May 4th to you too. :)
The big ships of the empire are taking on water. I sense a hint of panic when they send their weaponized agencies after the truth-tellers.
They don't even have to send them. There are ambitious players everywhere.
Including the MSM.
The issue is that they still fail to fully understand why Trump was elected. These "educated" elite continue to sit in their coastal High Rises, or gated communities surrounded by guards with guns, calling the middle of the country moronic Sheeple.
The irony is that's exactly what they are. Except there is a divine level of Hypocrisy to them as well. I was a Life Long Democrat raised by a union man. I say WAS. Years of exposing the corruption and rot of the United States led to some of the smarter people in the nation (read, not precisely educated), to understand that the few had once again gained power and are hoisting that old Caste system around us again. Now, we can argue fairly the choice of a loud mouth idiotic billionaire was poorly chosen, but what other options do you have in a rigged system?
The truth is.. the world is done. The old money has once again risen and taken over using the most highly educated rubes in the history of the planet to do their bidding and not bother to think outside their circle. It's why you can't "trust the science" or authorities anymore. They are the game, and they are the least intelligent people left.
Don't forget ace reporter Michael Shellenberger, member of the independent journalist resistance. Nice we have a list of the "so called journalists" and the news media they are affiliated, who are joining this evil cabal.
Matt has his guns trained on their flagships, for sure. Cue the alphabet agencies' attack on his character.
I hope this won't sit behind the paywall for long. I certainly appreciate getting to see it, but this needs wider exposure, particularly those Great Institutions of the media invoking silence as though their credibility stands unchallenged. The hypocrites must be made to face their hypocrisy.
Declassé to reply to yourself, but I really just want to shout in the face of every person named in this piece: WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Likely response: Better than you, peasant.
Deplorables
yes oh hello french revolution good to see you
Tumbril rides preceded helicopters.
They don't care. None of them. They just don't give a fuck.
On the contrary, I think they live in fear. Why else go to the extremes in hunting down and punishing those of Jan 6th? [And in contrast to the summer of Floyd that preceded it.] The TN and MT protests - disrupting the legitimate legislative work being done - were tests to see if they could do both at the same time (punish opposition and engage in the same behavior with no consequences).
They want to instill fear. A great motivator.
We are ruled by persons whose behavior is indistinguishable from that of sociopaths.
How would a sociopath react?
They are sociopaths.
Many are 'psychopaths' (that term is not in the DSM, but it should be.
Obama killed babies his third day in office and then never stopped.
He never stops smiling either.
They're behaving like dinosaurs who know the meteorite is on the way, trying with all their might to apply their useless magic to stopping the inevitable. Quite pathetic, really.
I'm not sure they're smart enough to recognize cable TV is on its way out--there's an "old" demographic that is dying out and not being replaced by a younger audience. TV, particularly local TV, seems to be where newspapers were 20 years ago. And they don't see it coming.
I quit cable TV months ago. I'm watching podcasts & reading Substack. I feel I'm better informed. And no one is insulting my intelligence.
I gave away my tv in 2000.
I feel clean.
Unfortunately, younger people don't engage with anything BUT social media. The old people watching cable can remember when being liberal meant opposing war, censorship, torture, etc. The young people think liberal means only their personal issues, whether it be reproductive rights or identity. Important subjects, but not up there with the things that could threaten the republic.
thats why the social media boys are invited to the dance
The Censorship Industrial Complex has been applying the muscle to the social media platforms and big tech firms all along in order to maintain control of the public discourse. That's likely some of what the hundreds of meetings between the Obama White House and Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, etc. during the Obama administration were about. The extent of their efforts was revealed by Taibbi's "The Twitter Files".
As the "old" demographic dies out, the consequences for defunding and privatizing Social Security will decline. You may have paid all your premiums via payroll deductions, but you'll never get the promised payoff.
Spot on. They live in fear that the populist Right and Left might somehow find a way to work together to displace them.
We already are. Right here, right now.
I have been feeling that energy lately
Hey Micheal your doing great work but between this and Apocalypse Never you must be exhausted
Love your work, Michael. You killed it on Rogan.
Not declassé until someone adds a postscript option.
BTW well said.
I wouldn't say it this way exactly, but agree with you.
I really want everyone of them to be fired and looking for a new job outside the "intelligence" industry.
America's calling, Tom Wolfe.
They won’t believe it. If it’s not from the corporate press they’ve been brainwashed to believe it’s right wing.
Mass Psychosis
Matt unlocked it--saw at his Twitter feed.
Damn, that's going to go to my head!
I understand your pov but am also a big fan of Matt and his colleagues getting paid for their work.
Hear, hear!
What, you mean that any of a million other Americans that don't speak Ukrainian and know nothing about the petroleum and natural gas business would be appointed to Burisma's board at a cool million bucks a year?
Most of the people I talk to literally never heard about Hersh's article either.
"America blew up what?"
As bad as Trump was, the left's reaction to him is way worse.
In the pantheon on American Presidents, Trump does not come close to being "bad".
The left's reaction to him is an odd combination of authoritarian and utterly childish.
It shows a pathetic vulnerability to state propaganda, as long as it's laced with a few progressive buzzwords.
The left would live by Lord of the Flies if they were allowed to.
I'm curious, who do you consider the "Left"?
In my mind, the Right is the home of "rugged individualism" aka more-for-me, none-for-thee mentality. The Left is the home of those fighting for folks having a sense of shared responsibility for those in their community.
To preempt a response stating Obama-like politicians as representing the Left, Obama himself is effectively a Center-Right Neoliberal (fights for more corporate power, pro-war, etc.). Even Bernie Sanders is fairly centrist by European standards.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Calling liberals and center right politicians the left is a mind virus that has infected a lot of commenters on here. There seems to be no cure. Much like there being no cure for liberals’ TDS and fear of all things Russia. They both belong to cults.
Exactly. I've tried advancing that perception for YEARS all over the web, to no avail that I've noticed. Nearly everyone at Taibbi and Greenwald's sites continue believing liberals and Democrats constitute "the left." This mind virus is far more widespread than any Covid could ever be.
Fair question. Let's eschew European standards or we will be calling conservatives liberals (as they are in Europe). And in reality, our spectrum is much narrower.
There is a left that dissociates from Democrats - but that isn't numerous enough to give much consideration. To the right of them, but still well to the left of oh say 80% of the country are the progressives, which are the left-wing of the Democratic Party. They tend to think they represent the whole country but they are in fact only a faction within the party; they make a lot of noise but don't actually get much done. Then there is the rest of the Democratic Party which no longer has any kind of conservative wing though it did up through the '60s.
Obama might be center-right in Europe but not in the U.S. where he is center maybe just left of center (at least in rhetoric if not reality). If you don't think he is slightly to the left of the country as a whole, you don't understand the spectrum here.
I agree on where Obama stands. It sure as hell ain't left. I was promoted to VP at a large healthcare company, and became eligible for company-paid financial planning, estate planning, taxes, etc. Cause, you know, rich executives need those extra benefits. The guy from the wealth management firm met with me, and in how's the weather conversation, I said something critical of Obama. He jumped in with the "yeah, he's left-wing..." I looked at him and said, "I don't think you understand. Obama's not left-wing. I criticize Obama FROM the left."
Let's all agree with what to call the left/liberals/progressives--the REAL ones, who have always been against war, torture, economic inequality, and state censorship. A lot of people used to be with me there. But now so many of them support a war that is becoming as ludicrous as Iraq was. So many of them are OK with censorship, as long as Trump can't win.
It's a sincere question I ask of liberal friends (well, formerly-liberal friends, because, as too many Americans have forgotten, you can actually be friends with someone with which all of whose ideas you don't agree)--what the fuck happened? All they can answer is Trump Bad!
Obama is a damn neo-communist. You can decide if you want to call him left or right or whatever that means. What he says attempts to sound centrist. What he does is act like the ruling class of this WEF style neo-communist fascism.
Most Europeans on the left consider Sanders as center-right. Our liberals are their reactionaries. There isn't a leftist anywhere near Washington DC.
Thank you for the reminder that Matt is a person of the Left. I had forgotten. What is the Left? All of those who are not on the Right side of America existing under its Constitution, which by the way, Obama hated because it was framed in the negative. But he got around that rather easily by ignoring it and using his phone and pen. The big unravel started with his admin.....
This is how humans have been ruled by ruthless minorities for most of civilization. Most of the humans on earth today suffer this sort of rule.
Lord Obama prosecuted more journalists than all the other presidents in history combined.
Trump made Acosta feel uncomfortable.
Man I was so duped by Obama’s swagger...
I was leaning toward liking him and supporting him, but then it rather quickly became clear that his rhetoric was just that.
He killed children in Waziristan on just his third day in office and then never stopped. He not only continued to bomb and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan he then went on to bomb 5 additional countries. He literally destroyed Libya and then just walked away. Yet, to this day he is a "liberal" icon.
I just don’t understand people who are so much smarter than me who continue to think he was the best President we’ve ever had. I really do not get it…. Other than to say humanity is so flawed that unless there is some kind of regeneration from within humanity, in general can not see themselves clearly enough to know just how flawed our thinking can be.
Regarding your first sentence: not the worst, but certainly bad. In a compromising mood, I might settle for "profoundly embarrassing".
Yeah, Trump was a clown (promo for Matt's book: Insane Clown President), but not in the depths of worst Presidents. Certainly not down there with Reagan and Bush 2. Or Woodrow Wilson. Or a shit-ton of boys from the 19th century. There are incompetent Presidents (e.g., Hoover) and then there are bad Presidents. What Wilson did to civil liberties, what Reagan did to the concept of economic striving in America, what Bush 2 did to the Constitution, in general? Now we have a new category--clown President. Not as bad as the bad ones, probably about on par with the incompetents.
Another book plug: Douglas Brinkley's "The Unfinished Presidency," about Jimmy Carter's achievements after leaving office.
Hoover was wedded to a philosophy that was unhelpful in the face of the Great Depression but he was not incompetent.
I’d like to ask Matt why he used the word “clown”. I can see why he used the description “Richie Rich” but only as a superficial shot. It’s way to easy. Other than Trump’s “believe all women” cousin whose writings had many salivating, I wonder if anyone really did an in-depth on Trump, his father , growing up, military school, where he went to church because I understand he did go, Trump with more than a description of the exterior trappings. That’s way to easy. Joe Rogan recently interviewed John Hennessy CEO of H. Performance Engineering. JH briefly described what motivated him to build really fast cars. His description was very telling…it actually made me think of Trump… and no one except a traumatized cousin with clearly her own issues gives what I might call a real picture of the man . True he says some really dumb things but even in that there’s something, I don’t know exactly what, but there is something there that gives those motivated an opportunity do to this guy what has never been done to anyone in history. It makes me wonder. Sometimes I wonder why we still don’t hear H. Clinton’s “deplorable” reference to over 50% of the country. Or why when during Rachel Maddow’s interview , Hillary Clinton called on China, speaking right into the camera, saying China should intervene in our elections saying if Trump could do it with Russia She could do it with China and did it on National tv. It’s odd … and now we find out Russia was the biggest lie of all…Doesn’t any one find it intellectually curious. Maybe someone like a Jordan Petersen as an outsider could shed some light….Times today seem to indicate we can’t afford to see politics as a sport. I never listened to these guys as closely as I ought. But I listened to Matt Gaetz questioning the panel on the ATF and by God if Matt didn’t make some sense it was eye opening…I thought everyone was happy that just a short time ago we were not on the verge of any wars Now it’s pick your country. Sometimes I wonder if politicians don’t understand how to run a business and only know War makes lots of money and creates jobs maybe they aren’t as smart as they try to appear. War has been making money for decades when that’s all you know that’s what you do. Does that seem smart I thought people were surprised but happy that Serbia not too long ago was actually talking to Kosovo That The Arabs were talking to Israel
Bahrain, the UAE and the thinking was maybe even Oman and Sudan will be engaged in diplomacy with Israel What happened now everyone’s pointing guns at one another like in that clip Matt had in with the broomstick It doesn’t make sense until we make it make sense. Does that make sense?Who knew Pakistan was all nuked up…, Somebody’s got to get serious here because the party is out of control. And there’s Matt guns a blazing it seems all by himself. If Matt had the character to speak at the William F Buckley Society then somebody has to go around throwing cold water on the freaking same ol same ol and start getting deep. Loyality to integrity is the truth definition of Loyality. Loyality to people for its own sake of agreement is in a word ———is not a Loyality to the absolute truth of existence in a civil society that is for certain.
Have you heard of a hip-hop group called Insane Clown Posse? I have a very strong suspicion Matt's use of "clown" in his title might be some sarcastic metaphor. No one who observed the 2016 campaign could have any surprise at all that it was described as more circus-like than most.
My apologies, but I don't have the energy to respond to everything else you write. Some I might agree with, some I might disagree with, but some I can't even tell if you're talking about Matt Taibbi or Matt Gaetz.
But no other president encouraged a mob to attack the Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Ok. Explain where he explicitly said that. Quotes only.
I’m sure there were bad and incompetent presidents in the 19th century that we don’t know much about, but most of the criticisms you mention do not refer to competence or character but to political positions you have a problem with. Yes, Bush’s Patriot Act was a threat to the Constitution and you didn’t mention Reagan’s subversion of the will of Congress with Iran Contra, but no other president
Makes you wonder, don’t it?🤔
!TRUMP! is an imaginary boogeyman that power uses to scare the groundlings.
Well said. I have an honest question to the room, which I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer: What is it about Trump that you hate so much?
Trump is an unattractive man in every respect, and he lost me at Operation Warp Speed. Yet, for example, I think it is a good idea to staunch the bleed of jobs from America, particularly as we are bringing in so many foreigners. I understand that people don’t like Trump as a person, and that he speaks like a swine, but, for example, I see him as having less blood on his hands than St. Obama. Again, my question is sincere.
He said he wanted to break down the swamp which was politics as usual. They felt threatened. He called out the fake news. They might lose their power. Personally I did not hate him so I don’t get it either.
Sam Harris said the quiet part out loud though, they simply did not care what happened to us and America they need to destroy him and his supporters. I’m still appalled at the depth of hatred we witnessed.
It must be some kind of a very contagious mass psychosis. I see no other explanation. I myself have experienced a wide range of emotions related to Trump: first, I couldn’t believe such a vulgar, poorly educated and uncultured dude with shady business deals and bad taste could be elected our President lol; I thought we deserved better. Then I was disgusted by his poorly written and delivered speeches and his unwillingness to compromise, silly me. I thought if only he went to hug George Floyd’s family, things could be different. Then I saw how his enemies treated him and began to feel sorry for him and admire his resilience. I do not like or respect him, but those who hate him with such animal passion as many do, they simply belong to a mental asylum. Every single thing they are doing now or thinking of doing is to prevent Trump’s return to power. They are obsessed with it, and, for some inexplicable reason, scared to death of this prospective. And this pathological fear and hatred of Trump is turning our country into a Stalinist regime with censorship and persecution of dissidents. Surreal.
Exactly, nor do those suffering TDS seem to be able to grasp Trump will not be influencing US politics for long, one way or another. The man is nearly 80, not nearly as age addled as Biden, but still not long for this planet. Dems couldn't just find a better candidate and seek to beat him at the ballot box fairly, or wait out a 2nd term? We have term limits. Age limits us all eventually. The answer has to be they fear Trump's ideas, will last far longer than the man.
They are not able to think rationally. The level of hatred that shut down their brain function will be a subject of psychiatric research for generations to come lol. I hope they will teach it in medical schools as an aberration. Unless we will be living in alternative Orwellian reality. Then the only thing they will teach in medical schools is DEI.
Trump is quite the character. I just can’t remember any public figure that had to dodge arrows from enemies 24/7, always fighting back. I found him to be a person who loved this country and truly wanted to make it better, if you could get past his bravado and listen. But he was not talking to the elites, academia or the press core. He appealed to the deplorables, the forgotten masses that did not live on the coasts or were people who thought they were smarter than blue collar workers who perhaps were plumbers or nurses. He was not a swamp creature either. Personally I would have voted for Barney before Hillary. Hatred is blinding.
“Hatred is blinding” So true. And while in a 24/7war with virtually everyone outside of his circle, which also perpetually changed, Trump managed to pass so many laws that are good for the country. Biden’s gang never mentions them, and Biden has struck down most of them with an executive order.
Do you remember Bill Clinton? Arrows? 24/7? For 8 years?
Granted, much brought on by himself. But then, Trump brings a lot of it on himself as well (e.g., "perfect" Ukraine call).
You nailed it. To think we went from at least trying to hide the affair with the intern all the way to "grab 'em by the..." was like a drop down a roller coaster. Unbelievable. But OK, that passes muster now. I almost prefer being allowed to be obscene in politics to the stupid stuff like "I didn't inhale" rectitude. My father, who passed away last year, was one who told me often he feared Trump was a Russian asset. There are a lot of reasons I wish he was still around, but a big one is the talks he and I would be able to have about the stuff that guys like Matt and Glenn are talking about.
"I’m still appalled at the depth of hatred we witnessed."
That sentence should not be past tense. It's ongoing and getting more severe.
Mass psychosis
Your handle gave me the first belly laugh I've had all day. Brilliant. Thank you!!!
Part of what you're identifying is black-and-white thinking. People had such a visceral reaction to him that they were unable to see the (few) positives, including the not starting new wars. I like to think my former Progressive allies had their brains broken by Trump. They can't discriminate.
Take Tucker Carlson, for example. Some of the things he said were fabulous. I could feel the truth in them, that no one else was willing to say. And other things I profoundly disagreed with. That's how a brain is supposed to work.
I would think not starting any wars in his four years would count for something. After all no American children were slaughtered or returned home maimed. That seems like a ver big deal. But neo-cons and other war mongers could care less about individual American kids, they are just numbers to them. These are very evil individuals who feed the maw of the war machine with bodies and tax money to keep it running like clockwork. We have become as destructive as any nation to ever inhabit this planet. Yet it seems this administration is itching to get us into a nuclear confrontation with either Russia or China. Does the stupidity ever end?
Wars are more than useful, they are necessary for rearranging global alignments, growing bank accounts of the funders, population control, mass migration, attention redirection, and so much more. Let’s see: Wilson-D, FDR-D, Johnson-D, Bush41-R (skirmish in the desert ended early when UN told Bush no more). Then, the war on terror everyone backed until they didn’t. Well, except Ron Paul with his numerous Congressional speeches.
Start at 11 minutes to review U.S. wars and a few take downs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-vMj-FB88
Except for the Special Forces that were ambushed in Nigeria
Ambushed American military is hardly starting a war. Is it always necessary to make extreme leaps of logic where Trump is involved. Everything he has done even reasoned and logical things must be dismantled and ridiculed because you personally don't like him. This is the definition of illogical hatred pretty much the same as race hate, illogical and all consuming. Now you know how racists reason away their crazy pathological views on race. Just review your all consuming Trump hate. I am not really a Trump fan but reality sometimes must displace hate. It corrodes the soul.
We may all die as a result, but some of us will die fabulously wealthy.
Obama actually killed two Americans who were not officially charged with any crime. He "droned" them. One was a propagandist for Jihad and the other was the man's son. Both were American citizens who had not been indicted or even charged with any crime. Obama proudly stated on national TV that he had a list on his desk of individuals who could be eliminated on his say so. This is a criminal act but due to 9/11 people just shrugged and looked away. It just illustrates the arrogance and superior attitude that many politicians seem to have when they take power. With all the undeclared wars conducted without Congressional votes since WW II many of our presidents could be considered criminals conducting their own military actions without the legal authority needed under the Constitution. Seems many of the public are "on board" with this type of one man rule.
Technically Obama set up the killing of the 8 year old al-Awlaki daughter, Nawar/ "Nora" as well. The attack was planned for the first week after Trump was inaugurated, and Trump did not over-rule (may not have even known). and to those who say it was Trump, not Obama, Obama also commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence and she was released on May 17, 2021, about four months after Trump became President (he may not have known about that either. He never seemed in the loop.)
Correct. The killing of the daughter was an Obama approved raid that he never got around to.
I have referred to it in the past as assassination by robot plane of American citizens who had not been arrested, charged, indicted, tried, convicted, sentenced, or had appeals considered for any crime that I'm aware of. Much less a capital crime.
His name was Anwar al Awlaki and then two weeks later, his 16 year old son Abdul who was looking for his dad. Abdul was born in Denver, he liked rap, he, of course, spoke perfect English.
Trump later approved an Obama plan for a SEAL raid in Yemen that killed Awlaki's 8 year daughter Nora, who was accidentally shot in the neck and then left to bleed out.
When Robert Gates was asked about al Awlaki's son he said that, "maybe he should have had a better father".
Trump's mortal sin was the fact he denied a coronation to Hillary, something she was promised that night when she and Obama ran from the journalists and hid in Feinstein's house "for a talk." She waited for eight long years to be president, but he and the "basket of deplorables," who dared not vote for her, stopped her.
Her trademark cackling, "We came, we saw, he died," about Qaddafi morphed into raging hatred toward Trump and her following madness. She was the one who ordered that fabrication, the "Steele Dossier," and with everyone on board of the Russiagate train, the insanity started to ripple in all facets of society.
Fast forward, and what we have is rising totalitarianism that has nothing to do with the Trump years: being dislikable for the "elite"; he despised them, and they hated him for it. He was an ideal boogeyman. Now, argument or discussion is not possible. That's a trademark of a totalitarian regime they've been creating for us and it's now here to stay for a long, long time.
Trump's only sin was his refusal to fight Russia the way Hillary would have for sure.
And for that sin they tried to destroy him.
He tried multiple times to pull out of Syria—Obama promised that there would never be boots on the ground in Syria—and Trump tried to avoid conflict with Russia. Now the so-called left tells us nukes are Safe & Effective.
For me there is no greater issue, none, than WAR, in particular, global thermonuclear war.
It transcends everything.
Trump, almost alone in history, started no new wars.
"He has to be stopped!" - Hillary, the MIC and the Deep State
NYC and presumably all Blue States are prepared:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zznmdUJbeU8
The key thing is to stand in the middle of your living room (not clear why this is so much better than your bathtub, which is hailed as the safest place from hurricanes and tornadoes.)
As always, Bill, nailed it. From time to time lately I wonder if free speech is the most important. Then I remember war can get you killed a lot easier. Someone noted earlier about young people not paying attention to cable news anymore. I worry about young people not having any fucking clue about what nuclear war can do. Hell, they don't even remember the 80s movies like The Day After that were designed to scare us off nukes. People used to wonder why we didn't drop the Big One on Tokyo instead of Hiroshima. It was because we had already fire-bombed Tokyo to dust. At least Hiroshima was a mostly standing city. Only took a few seconds to do what had taken us months to do in Tokyo. And, of course, modern warheads DWARF the firepower of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs.
(I don't think Carter started any wars, did he? The man's got to get credit for something.)
"Did you know, for example, that your chances of surviving an atom bomb attack are excellent?" - Groucho Marx
You're not insinuating that Groucho would lie are you?
Decades ago the US government came up with an ingenious "Duck & Cover" strategy that rivals the "lock yourself in Mom's basement" Covid strategy that was recently all the rage.
I also understand that you can find a barn & pile hay along its sides for even more protection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2djuNBHwrg
Whatever happens we should all sleep soundly knowing that, in the event of a nuclear bitch slap, Joe Biden will be in a bunker somewhere spouting red, white & blue gibberish until the Ensure runs out.
Nothing else should matter.
I forgot to add that another one of Trump's 'crimes in the eyes of the Permanent Government was his almost successful attempt to make peace with Kim.
The Plan, which they exercise every year on North Korea's border, is to invade and destroy Kim, and then put US bases right on the Chinese border.
Nucular is only safe and effective for warfare
Not so much for power generation
200 years ago, sure.
The way Hillary would have?
Are you talking about Reset Button Hillary? Because I don't think the Hillary that helped grease the skids on the Uranium One sale to Russia was going to be any sort of impediment to Putin.
More likely, if Hillary had won in 2016, we wouldn't be talking about Ukraine today, because it would all be over but for the Ukrainian crying years ago.
Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
at a purely psychological level, I think the Trump hatred is motivated by pure emotion.
let me explain.
to the person suffering from TDS, there is tremendous dissonance between the reality of Trump and their emotional response.
his gross, crude, egotistical way of speaking and acting, triggers them so much that they are having a visceral disgust reaction.
so they have to make the reality of Trump match their emotional perception of him.
it’s not enough to be a disgusting carnival barker, he must be a Russian agent and the next Hitler.
this is the animating spirit behind the Trump Derangement Syndrome...
My dislike for him is mainly based on his current (since 2020 election) proclivity to put his needs/desires at a higher priority than the good of the country.
So, prior to November, 2020, Trump DIDN'T put his needs/desires at a higher priority than....anyone, or anything? Are we talking about the same guy? Crooked real estate developer from NYC? That guy?
To be fair, he primed the media with accusations of the 2016 electing being rigged - against him. Those with functioning memories will recall that Obama made a point of pooh-poohing that. It is the remarkable pivot when the election produced his unexpected victory that is breathtaking in it's speed and cynicism.
It was rigged. Just not rigged enough. They learned.
First of all, I was never impressed by Life Styles of the Rich and Famous or reality tv. Second, when Trump rode down the escalator and said Mexicans were drug dealers and rapists, he was talking about the hard working families of my students.
When you talk about presidents with blood on their hands, it was Woodward, a hero to many here, who revealed that Trump knew full well how deadly covid was all the while telling the public it was a hoax.
I unreservedly hate his transformation into Orange of Mussolini's stylish black.
It's really hysterical, the people who kept insisting he was Hitler reborn when every cue he took was from Rome.
I hate how he is openly and publicly a racist, a sexist, and a misogynist.
Is that a satisfactory answer?
No - you need to actually provide the receipts. You're just repeating what you've been told.
There's a whole wikipedia article devoted to racists things trump has done and said.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump
You must be familiar with his "grab em by the pussy" comment in regards to how he prefers to treat women. For me, this is solid evidence of misogyny.
Wikipedia? That's your source? Are you kidding me??
And with regard to his "grab 'em by the pussy comment," I'll make three observations. 1 - If all that you require to "convict" someone of misogyny is comments like that, I hope you never sit on a jury. 2 - The complete comment in context included the words "...and they let you do it." 3 - Men who are trying to prove something frequently talk in such a manner because they believe it makes them more "alpha." It's not the case, but this comment is hardly the "proof" you think it is of misogyny. If it were, no man who has ever played on any sports team or inhabited a locker room could defend the charge.
In sum, you're an ideologue who hates Trump and nothing will convince you otherwise.
Obama killed babies. Dozens of them.
There are no heroes.
You're quoting Wikipedia?
Why is it you're here?
There are several articles about Joe Biden's racist comments as well (for example: https://freebeacon.com/politics/joe-bidens-history-of-racial-gaffes/). You may not remember Biden almost single-handedly doubling the US incarceration rate (about tripling it for Blacks), or his 100-fold longer sentencing for crack cocaine (mostly used by Blacks) vs powder cocaine (mostly used by whites).
Ask Tara Reade about Biden's treatment of women. Frankly Bill Clinton, Trump and Biden and many more powerful men in America are cut from the same misogynist clothe.
!TRUMP! is Goldstein except that in this edition it is seven years of hate.
bingo
That's a good analogy.
!TRUMP! and of course, !PTUIN!
And they believe them
In hindsight, the (real) left should have seen this coming and supported Trump and not the corrupt establishment. He was, in the words of Michael Moore, "the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHekdQSiXg
You can kick up a real hornet's nest by pointing out that Trump and Sanders were mining the same vein of populism - just from different banks of the creek.
Indeed. On trade, Trump sounded more like Dick Gebhardt than Mitt Romney
Dick Gebhardt was a long-time hero until he came a lobbyist in 2005.
Free trade is great. But like most utopian ideas, it rarely exists.
Exactly. In 2015, Trump and Sanders were both opposed to illegal immigration, NAFTA and free trade, the war on terror, and the Affordable Care Act.
The Socialist sold out for personal gain and the New York businessman remained true.
Trump was a Democrat for much of his life, and an opportunist for his entire life. That qualified him for DC except for the small matter of NOT being part of the Establishment/ Ruling Elite.
Dodnald Trump is a man of courage and of independence
COURAGE “ [Trump] has the indispensable attribute of a leader: courage. “
INDEPENDENCE “Because no secret puppeteer operating from the shadows owns him, …”
Trump's Virtues - Tom Klingenstein
1,155,033 views Jul 6, 2022 Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024.
Trump’s Virtues Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. They say we need someone with Trump’s virtues but without his vices.
Fair enough, but that formulation does not get us very far unless we have a proper accounting of his virtues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-GAw1lLWJA
Are you saying *Sanders* "sold out for personal gain?" Not my take, how do you get there?
Yes
Not only has he become a millionaire from his politics (and not redistributed to "the poor, the oppressed, the exploited and the marginalized” ") but he has not attacked Democrats because it was NOT politically and personally expedient for him to do so and he has supported Schumer and Biden and the Democratic Leadership, without criticism, for reasons of personal and political expediency.
In fact, Sen. Sanders supports the US/NATO unnecessary and avoidable proxy war in Ukraine. The Defense Budget is 800 billion and Sanders and the Democrats and some UniParty Republicans have voted about 130 BBillion to Ukraine.
Sen Sanders supports the Green New Deal of which the main beneficiary is China. Why is that? Does he not receive millions of donations from the Solar, Wind and EV multi-million dollar, corporate businesses? Sanders supports Biden-Schumer-Democratic Leadership’s policy on Green New Deal and Electric Vehicle subsidies to Solar, Wind and EV multi-million dollar, corporate businesses, does he not? He supports multi-millionaire capitalists and they support him. Is that not a betrayal of his socialist principles? For personal power and financial gain?
Sen. Sanders supports the Biden policy of Open Border and unlimited entry of foreign nationals into this country. Without question.
There is NOT one major or minor piece of legislation where Sanders has NOT voted with Schumer Biden, is there?
Nor is there ONE Democrat he has attacked, or criticized, including Hunter Biden, is there?
And, in return, the Democratic Establishment has supported him in his position of power and high status.
Well said Curmudgeon. It is the essential political truth of the Trump era.
Didn't Billary insinuate that Bernie was also a Kremlin stooge and that his Bernie Bros. were a group of misogynistic women haters?
Just a different version of Trump, the pussy grabbing Russian asset, that has ridden the top of the Democratic Hit Parade for 7 long years.
This is why they were worried about the Bernie Bro's.
Great statement. Kudos.
It was Donald Trump LIKE NO OTHER from the beginning of his campaign for the Presidency in 2015 who informed Americans, including myself, about the Deep State and its Agenda and the Fake News corporate Media that justifies them.
Leftist Matt Taibbi continues the Trump/MAGA campaign of exposing the FAKE corporate media for the cynical, two-faced, duplicitous, lying, manipulative Machiavellians that they are.
An odd couple, Trump and Taibbi, are they not? Both Patriots.
Trump is a convicted fraudster, e.g., Trump "University, an accused rapist, and an inveterate shameless liar who bilks contractors out of their money by not paying his bills. He's a scumbag, and anyone who trusts that gasbag deserves the screwing they will inevitably get. However, that doesn't mean that he hasn't occasionally been right about a very small number of things. To be clear: there is no one in US politics who is actually left, i.e., a democratic socialist. Not AOC, not Ilhan Omar, and not Bernie "Military Pork Barrel" Sanders. It's one of the primary reasons that your country is the shithole that it has become.
Donald Trump has NOT been convicted of anything. Accusations are NOT proof. He is innocent of any crime until proven guilty with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. Insults do not prove anything.
Is Micehlle Obama an actual Leftist?
Is Michelle Obama a true Democratic Socialist?
Michelle 2024?
He was found to have committed fraud in 2016 and ordered to pay $25 million in damages. Technically, it was not a criminal conviction but he was found to have committed fraud via his fraudulent "university." The rape accusation is being heard in civil court as I type this. He's a pathological liar and a lifelong P.o.S. who was trained by the godfather of all Pieces of Shit, Roy Cohn.
And, no: No one named Obama is an actual leftist. No leftist has ever been elected president. The Dems and the GOP are both servants of the empire and its military-industrial complex. The rest is just propaganda and noise.
A simple rule of life by which I live: all politicians are liars and grifters. Never be a fan and never trust them as far as you can throw their severed heads. All parties are tribal and utterly controlled by big money. There is zero hope for change in the electoral system unless the change being sought is to screw the working and middle classes even harder, as well as ruining the environment.
Donald Trump was NOT convicted of fraud in 2016 or any other time. It is a matter of easily accessible records.
Is Donald Trump a "servant of the empire and its military -industrial complex"?
Is it all hopeless? Are we all doomed to be slaves of the Empire? 1984 has arrived?
Do you disagree with Donald Trump: " Never Give Up; the Best is Yet to Come".
I take it that you don't vote. Is that right? What would be the point? Have I understood the intended inference?
In my view, despair is not a viable strategy in politics or life.
I just googled "Trump fraud conviction" and sure enough, the Trump Organization has been convicted on 17 counts of criminal charges. Cheers.
"I take it that you don't vote. Is that right? What would be the point? Have I understood the intended inference?"
Voting in the US is a laughable and pointless act. Here in my home country it is much the same. All of our politicians are the servants of the ultra rich and their corporations as well as the military-industrial complex. I see no value in trying to change society at the ballot box. It doesn't matter what a politician or party says when they are not in government. It only matters what they do once they have been elected and without exception, they maintain the status quo which is to keep enriching the rich and to keep the poor in their place. The rest is just noise.
Is it all hopeless? Pretty much. The environment upon which we depend for our survival is being destroyed all around us. We are playing footsie with nuclear Armageddon in Ukraine. Corporations control all of the major governments except for those governments which are openly autocratic. Journalism exists only on the margins--all else is propaganda. Are we slaves to the empire? Vassals and serfs more like. Donald is a servant of the empire albeit as a phoney "outsider." That being said, despair is not an option. Hope is necessary even when it is a fantasy. I'll give Chris Hedges the last word on hope: “Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and more potent hope becomes.
Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness, the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on all of us. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope's power. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.”
Yeah, and don't forget the left trying really hard to start WW3:to avenge 2016.
Had they trusted the truth, which was ugly enough, they'd still have some credibility.
As a retired/recovering journalist, there was a time (10+ years ago) that I supervised young reporters at a small daily newspaper. What struck me was the lack of competition among the reporters. It wasn't only that they lacked the "fire in the belly" to beat the atrocious local TV reporters, but they didn't even seem to care if their stories were good enough/important enough for page 1. I never once heard a reporter complain that his story was more important than a co-worker's story, or better written, "So why isn't MY story on page 1?"
I found this puzzling since Back When I Was a Reporter, there was a competitive tension in the newsroom.
I attribute this cultural change to the Participation Trophy mentality, the abolition of school Honor Roll (that was once even published in local newspapers!). This new generation seemed to drift through life with no sense of urgency.
So, I offer this observation to add to the destruction of media today. The media are part of one big club, with everyone sitting at the Cool Kids' Table.
It's pitiful.
Your note took me back. I grew up in a relatively rural area of Western PA and the town's weekly newspaper would print the Honor Roll for both junior high schools and the senior high school. It was one of the bricks in a wall of Community.
Yes it was! My family owned a neighborhood retail store and knew all their customers. Dad always reported when customers told him that they'd seen my name on the Honor Roll printed in the local weekly newspaper.
It also printed the names & photos of graduating seniors when they chose what college to attend, as well as graduating seniors who enlisted in the military.
I tried to print the local schools' Honor Rolls when I became a newspaper editor. The school guidance departments said, "We don't do that any more. It makes the other students feel bad."
Great. Hurt feelings trump celebration of achievement.
Oh, how times have changed! My teachers were quite forward about telling one that he had not made the honor roll that term. They thought of it as motivation as I'm sure yours did.
I think the current crew grew up dreaming of becoming Woodward and Bernstein, entitled to attend Georgetown soirées and dress up in tuxes at the White House correspondents’ dinner. So they have just become self-satisfied stooges, as this piece attests. I am only relieved that Matt and his pals are courageous old time reporters.
I'm confident many of them have no knowledge of Woodward and/or Bernstein. Much less Daniel Ellsberg, who BTW has only months to live. Who will write his obituary? Certainly not these nincompoops.
Or else they'll consult Wikipedia.
Rather than "Tabletop Exercise" which is so benign, why not label it what it really was, a "War Game"? It's no exaggeration to say the press has waged a war against the American people.
Final scene from Three Days of the Condor, a film that could never get made today.
Hey, Turner. How do you know they'll print it?
You can take a walk, but how far if they don't print it? - Higgins
They'll print it. - Condor
How do you know? - Higgins
https://youtu.be/vZNnDiDSUiI?t=226
I held on to that fiction a long time....no longer.
I wrote a piece listing 17 movies perfect for our Twilight Zone New Normal times. No. 1 on my list was Three Days of the Condor (or at least the prescient last scene).
You also have "Network," "Being There," "The Godfather" (of course) and many other classics. A few of my selections ("Casablanca" and "The Shawshank Redemption") have a hope-inspiring message.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/movies-for-our-covid-times
Great list, but you left out Idiocracy.
Idiocracy is now considered a documentary
I'm sure I left off a lot of great candidates. Be sure to subscribe (It's free) and add some more selections for my list! I guess I need to watch Idioocracy.
No need really as we are all living out the premise of the movie in real time.
Great list!
It's not a film, but it is the best thing ever on television.
The Prisoner
https://youtu.be/osNmf_zmSyE
I hate to admit I've never even heard of it, but I'll check it out now. My favorite TV drama is "Breaking Bad.” I actually worked in a reference to Walter White in my latest piece on all the activities and products that are now banned.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-banning-gas-stoves
BB was great!
The Prisoner is like nothing else before or since. And it's super relevant for today.
"Be seeing you."
When I first saw it, I thought it was fiction. Now I have learned, it was not.
Thanks for naming names, dates, places, and evidence.
Makes me sick e.g. want to vomit. How could journalism come to this level of conspiracy and contempt for the general public?
How is this not proof that the 2020 election was stolen? These people are perpetrating a coup d’état, which renders American democracy hollow. American democracy is a sham. The people I am referring to are the people held in the highest regard in the society. America is a lie.
(I think the rest of the world knows this, America is a murderous thug on the world stage.)
You realize your children are being taught by teachers in secondary school, and in the Academy that are fully on board with this sort of deception . You know they’re turning your children into liars. Go speak to them, your children, they are not on this side. Please don’t think because Matt and a few other people are calling bullshit, that this is winning. The enemy resides in your basement.
We know it was NOT stolen because honest and competent government officials counted every legal ballot, and only legal ballots, accurately, with scrupulous care. Government officials never lie or mislead us; the historical record is clear.
Indubitably
OK, ask yourself this - who do you know, personally, that would have changed their vote from Biden to Trump because of Hunter? It works both ways for that matter, what circumstances would've caused a Trump voter to change to Biden? At best, you might get someone to not show up at the polls because they are so discouraged with the choice there.
If the Laptop story wouldn't have made any difference, why did they pull out all the stops to suppress it?
On the one hand, to prove out in practice what the exercise had floated. After all, the exercise wasn't about the laptop - it was about how to act in concert without obvious coordination. And on the other, it probably is fair to say it might have cost Biden some votes, just not ones that would flip to Trump.
right, so they were worried it would cost them the election. Not via flipped votes but via no shows. Enough people saying "whats the difference, Biden is just as bad, why even vote?" could be the margin of difference and the laptop story could have had that kind of impact. Reverse the story and make it Donald Jr and its a biden landslide. They knew how dangerous this was
It’s a good point but the laptop is a single instance in a relentless, whole of society effort to subvert accurate information with an ambient political conditioning. If people in a position of authority view you as somehow dangerous should you receive accurate information then you are a captive and your rulers by dint of their own efforts are your enemy.
The "Trusted News Initiative," billed as an effort to counter (suppress) "misinformation," has likely resulted in a large increase in the number of people who *mistrust* the news. This could be a feature rather than a bug.
Hannah Arendt wrote that the ideal totalitarian subject isn't the devoted Nazi or the devoted Communist, but the person who no longer knows *what* to believe.
Subsequent polls seem to show a different outcome had the electorate been aware of the suppressed info on Hunter's laptop.
Propaganda is used because it works. Advertising is used because it works. Had they shown the other side of the tub with Uncle Joe smoking a crack pipe opposite Hunter, he would have lost.
Why do people believe that Trump is worse than all of the rest of them as far as ethics or smiling in your face goes? Because everyone they ever heard of is saying it repeatedly. Every google search is gamed to present the narrative. One might think, well, they are probably onto something and are right. But then look back at all those same people paling around with Trump back in the day. Why did they do it then and turn on him now?
Well, we can't actually answer that question because we cannot know what the aftermath of a more honestly and widely reported story would have been. Would there have been many more questions raised by sources other than the President about Mr. Biden's integrity? Would the media have badgered him more persistently about his anodyne non-responses to the charges of corruption? If so, would Mr. Biden have lost his cool and exposed his real character? Consider how few voters would have had to change their minds to alter the outcome of the election. A shift of 33,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, Nebraska, and Wisconsin would have given the electoral college to President Trump.
Consider also that Zuck spent $400M to swing 110,000 votes from Trump to Biden instead of Hilliary. About $3K per vote. How many votes can you harvest at $3K each?
Surely you know some Biden voters you could ask. Can you assess the impact across the entire country - no, but you can at least test the contention to a degree. So, anyone?
Well, as I pointed out, it's not that straightforward. Counterfactual history is always a crapshoot at best, so let's focus instead on addressing the issue before us today.
Ah, so you get to argue how obvious the results would've been otherwise, but I can't test the premise even anecdotally. Right.
Not sure why you feel the need to disrespect my comments by misquoting me. Where do I "argue how obvious the results would've been otherwise"? I think I made it plain how impossible it would be to derive useful information by simply asking Biden voters four years later if any one them would have changed their minds based on what we only know now, since we can't know what would have happened then if the NY Post story hadn't been deliberately repressed.
As to testing the premise "anecdotally"--for whatever value that might yield--I blush to learn that I have the power to stop you from doing that. By all means, have at it!
I don’t think you know what was in the laptop: evidence that Biden himself got a 10% cut of Hunter’s fees. The laptop isn’t important because of what it tells us about Hunter. It’s important because of what it tells us about Joe. Many people were unsure whom to vote for. The information most certainly would have changed the votes of many people who had thought of Joe Biden as an honorable and basically honest man. He isn’t, and the laptop emails made that clear.
"Many people were unsure whom to vote for."
That I doubt very much. No one voted FOR Biden, that would be like voting for cabbage. Every Biden vote was anti-Trump.
I was unsure who to vote for.
Is it “lying” if those children don’t know what the truth is themselves?
Useful idiots. They make your progeny idiots, hum, lying is better?
Yes
I’m afraid the horse has already ‘left’ the barn - I don’t see this trend reversing any time soon.
The beacon of hope comes from the rise of citizen journalism and the ever-increasing obviousness of the co-opting of the corporate media by government and corporate interests. Once someone recognizes the propaganda there is no coming back, so the influence of the corporate media must wane over time I think.
and the Tech companies are strangling that hope in the crib.
Substack and Elon’s Twitter seem to be fighting the tide at least
they are trying but it is david vs Goliath. one can hope.
Did the principle ever exist in the first place? Or was it just a commercial decision based on the country largely turning on the Vietnam War. Certainly, with Watergate the Washington Post hated Nixon so they were happy to publish embarrassing info that turned his landslide 1972 victory into resigning two years later. I wonder if we look back and impute higher motives to the news media of that time than they actually had. Both Watergate and Russiagate were certainly high water marks for the Washington Post business model.
Point well made. I seriously doubt the Pentagon Papers would have been treated the same had it been a Democrat president in the White House. The media have never been truly ethical. If they had been, they still would be.
Once the scales fall from your eyes and you realize that the press has *always* been a wing of the Democratic Party, it really makes for some fascinating “what ifs” when you reverse the polarity of the parties. A Dem Watergate would have been an afterthought instead of a buzzword. “Ask not what your country ...” would have been portrayed as the worst jingoism. Nixon would be the president associated with the moon landing that occurred during his watch instead of Kennedy. Chappaquiddick would be the biggest political scandal of the 20th century. Etc etc. It’s gotten much worse in our time. But the poisonous spin has always been in effect.
I think ethics, such as they are, often take a backseat to business decisions and the personal views of whoever happens to own the newspaper at that time and how they feel about the nation at that time.
The Pentagon Papers did span America's Vietnam involvement which included both Republican and Democrat administrations. Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon.
The NYT wouldn't print the Pentagon Papers today. Instead they would sic the CIA on Daniel Ellsberg.
It looks more and more like Watergate was a CIA setup and Woodward and Bernstein just their chosen propaganda vehicles rather than the intrepid reporters of popular myth. The tape of Nixon talking to then-CIA director Richard Helms about how “they both know who killed John” and how it would be a shame if someone, not Nixon of course but someone, revealed the CIA’s dirty tricks dept to the public is pretty instructive. Nixon completely sounds like he knows he is being set up and is trying to threaten Helms to get him to back off.
I read Matt's book Hate Inc. again. His theory is that the movie "All the President's Men" made reporting look like a glamorous job. In reality, while it can sometimes be interesting, even exciting, it can also be boring, tedious, annoying or frustrating.
Also, in most cases, it's not a job in which you do it for the money.
Truth be told, I imagine a lot of today's generation got into the business thinking they'd be rich and famous, when in reality, that's a long shot -- and furthermore, the "famous" part is not the reason one should get into journalism.
But was the country turning against the Vietnam War a truly spontaneous turn, or was it planned? Sy Hersh did say that the stuff he published were usually because on someone the inside and at the top wanted the stuff leaked. Maybe the MIC knew Vietnam was going nowhere and wanted a convenient off-ramp?
Can you imagine being a self-respecting journalist and agreeing to take part in such a mind control experiment? As if it even needs pointing out, the fingerprints of the intelligence community are all over this. And let's not forget: when the Hunter Biden laptop leak actually came out, there was a clear trail back to the computer repair shop where the drug-addled scion had left it (for over a year, was it?) and never denied doing so. And the media STILL had the cojones to call it a Russian disinformation campaign. Well played, spooks and lame-asses.
they are saving democracy, to them they are the hero's
Just to synthesize my own take from Matt's piece: The media is saying that the public can no longer be trusted with the truth. Because they might make political decisions based on the truth that we, the media, abhor. Only the elites in government, technology, and media can know the truth because the impulses of the public must be CONTROLLED.
in 2016 Americans made the fatal error of voting in the wrong candidate, and this must never be allowed to happen again. They're just protecting Democracy™!
Well researched Matt. Keep hammering those nails into the coffin of main stream media! Hopefully sufficient awareness of how co-opted and corrupt they have become will help healthy alternative media sources flourish.
Suppression leads to repression and is in fact a form of it. That's the issue, Matt. Media sites are enabling repressive, rather than representative, governance. And they're proud to do so.
Their side is in power.
Matt - another summer 2020 tabletop exercise that should be investigated by this group of principled Twitter Files journalists is the Transition Integrity Project. It was not shrouded in the same secrecy as the Burisma exercise (getting contemporaneous writeups in the Boston Globe and Time, for example), but it would be worth digging to see if there was any similar collusion among the press, the Democratic Party, the Frum/Kristol set, and officialdom to rig up a political response to Trump’s fraud accusations in advance. And, if there was any foreknowledge of true information (like the Post story) that would need to be suppressed come November.