ADRIANA COHEN: Time to ban the collusion conspiracy theorists. “So now what? For starters, Twitter, Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley tech companies should remove all Russian collusion conspiracy theorists from their platforms. After all, social media networks didn’t hesitate to ban Alex Jones of Infowars and others for spreading misinformation and/or conspiracy theories, so why not ban House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Schiff, Eric Swalwell, John Brennan, Beto O’ Rourke and scores of media hacks who’ve all done the same? And what about Google? Will it continue to allow search results that yield now-debunked conspiracy theories surrounding Russian collusion and the Trump campaign? Or will they do the right thing and scrub misinformation and lies to stop the hoax from perpetuating? Knowing how stacked Silicon Valley is against conservatives, don’t hold your breath.”
Archive for 2019
March 24, 2019
AT AMAZON, releases in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Mueller report: Collusion by the news media, not Donald Trump, but don’t expect apologies. “The irony, of course, is that while purporting to worry about Russian interference in American politics, by advancing this story the press was actually doing Putin’s work, sowing division and confusion through the American polity. As former Clinton pollster Mark Penn tweeted, we wasted two years, thirty million dollars, and a lot of institutional credibility at the FBI and Department of Justice over ‘a false story of Russia collusion based on oppo research that was always unsubstantiated and preposterous.'”
UPDATE: CNN says Trump ‘exonerated’, MSNBC says Trump ‘vindicated.’
REMEMBER, BRENNAN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN INTELLIGENCE EXPERT:
BETO’S ROLE IS AS COMIC RELIEF, AND HE PLAYS IT WELL:
[WILFORD BRIMLEY VOICE] MR. TRUMP, ARE YOU THAT SMART? NEVER MIND, YOU AIN’T GONNA TELL ME THAT, ARE YOU?
I suspect it’s going to turn out that Trump was doing more than tweeting throughout all this, and that it reflected a strategy that has now paid off. But Republicans — including NeverTrumpers still capable of some degree of rationality, if such exist — should ask themselves what other Republican candidate in 2016 could have withstood this sort of assault. As with the Kavanaugh character assassination attempts, I think the answer will be damn few. Maybe Ted Cruz, but nobody else really comes to mind. And, say, Mitt Romney? It is to laugh. We got Trump because of a media/political environment that only Trump could survive and flourish in.
And note that the past week has been a bad one for Trump’s enemies in general: Higher education is facing its biggest scandal ever, the SPLC is folding, the Democrats are split over anti-semitism and more or less open Marxism. . . . Stay tuned. It’s going to get interesting.
UPDATE: Battenfeld: Great job, Democrats, media … you’re on your way to re-electing Trump.
ANOTHER UPDATE: “It is a complete rout for Democrats and the media.”
Related: ” I can’t resist a moment of triumph. . . . I think it has been a foregone conclusion for a while that Mueller would acknowledge there was no collusion, because 1) there was no collusion, 2) the charges Mueller brought against Trump underlings and associates did not involve collusion, and 3) the meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya proved there was no collusion, since had the Trump campaign been conspiring with Russian officials, there would have been no reason to meet with an obscure lawyer who claimed to have (but did not have) dirt on Hillary. (That meeting, by the way, appears to have been a setup by the Clinton campaign, since Veselnitskaya was in the United States on a matter in which she was working with Glenn Simpson, and she met with Simpson both before and after her brief meeting with Donald Trump, Jr.)”
Flashback, March 2017: “Hypothesis: The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction.”
MORE: From the comments: “The unions and some companies can make the economy tank. Get ready for it.” They’ll be playing into his hands if they do.
OPEN THREAD: How was your weekend?
THE END OF HOPE:
And, of course:
Plus, a reminder that civic literacy is no part of modern journalism.
And, for comic relief, Rachel “Russia” Maddow:
Maddow? No way it's not like this clip was spliced from a single show. pic.twitter.com/oHITN8928k
— Currie Dobson (@Ventuckyspaz) March 23, 2019
Flashback, January 2017: Russians! Under my bed! Trump wasn’t even in office yet, but I think this column holds up pretty well.
HAVE A CHE REBEL SPIRIT ENERGY DRINK!: It’s rebelicious.
I SUPPOSE PEOPLE WOULD FROWN ON CALLING IT “KID MODE:” Tesla’s ‘dog Mode’ Keeps Pets Cool While The Car Is Off.
Think of them as Democratic party operatives with bylines — and no concern for the welfare of their country — and you won’t go far wrong.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Mueller report: Collusion by the news media, not Donald Trump, but don’t expect apologies. “The irony, of course, is that while purporting to worry about Russian interference in American politics, by advancing this story the press was actually doing Putin’s work, sowing division and confusion through the American polity. As former Clinton pollster Mark Penn tweeted, we wasted two years, thirty million dollars, and a lot of institutional credibility at the FBI and Department of Justice over ‘a false story of Russia collusion based on oppo research that was always unsubstantiated and preposterous.'”
UPDATE: CNN says Trump ‘exonerated’, MSNBC says Trump ‘vindicated.’
Related: One of the times I’m on the same page as Glenn Greenwald:
ANOTHER UPDATE:
HMM: How to Rein In Powerful Companies Without Ruining the US Tech Industry. I don’t think I agree with this approach, but it’s interesting that the discussion is shifting from whether to how.
AT AMAZON, save in Patio Lawn and Garden.
UNLESS YOU’RE A DEMOCRAT. THEN YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED THAT AMERICA DOESN’T HAVE A TRAITOR/RUSSIAN STOOGE AS PRESIDENT. AG Barr’s Letter Contains Unambiguously Good News for the U.S. “Instead, Americans should feel even greater confidence in the legitimacy of the 2016 election. They should reject — once and for all — the lurid conspiracy theories that have dominated parts of the internet and gained entirely too much purchase in the broader media. And critically, they should trust Mueller’s conclusion. Remember how Trump’s defenders repeatedly and loudly noted that Mueller staffed his team with Democratic lawyers? Well, this is their report.”
UPDATE: Hmm:
Plus: Andrew McCarthy: After Mueller’s Exoneration of Trump, Full Disclosure. “Well, if we’re going to have disclosure, fine. But let’s have full disclosure: Mueller’s report in addition to the FISA applications; the memoranda pertinent to the opening and continuation of the investigation; the testimony in secret hearings; the scope memorandum Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued on August 2, 2017, after failing to cite a crime when he appointed Mueller — let’s have all of it.”
Flashback, March 2017: “Hypothesis: The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Why Obama and Hillary need to be probed.
CRUSHINGLY SAD: A second Parkland School shooting student has committed suicide. I can’t help but wonder why the press hasn’t interviewed David Hogg. He leveraged this tragedy into popular acclaim, a book deal and a Harvard admission, but I have to ask why he wasn’t as focused on helping his classmates as he seems to be on his political ambitions.
Oh, of course, it’s Donald Trump’s fault.
ANN ALTHOUSE ON TODAY’S #JOURNALISM: How any good news for Trump will be reported — the rule is quite clear. “I’m seeing 2 big examples of how the media are reporting good news for Trump this weekend. It’s really embarrassing for them because the 2 stories are very big and very good for Trump and, in both, the same move is made to turn it into something negative and ominous.”
They’ve been lying to their readers and viewers for over two years. Now they have to let them down gently. It’s called cooling out the mark.
LAURENCE JARVIK: With his executive order on Free Speech, President Trump established himself as a true reformer, while his Democratic opponents have embraced revolution. Therefore, America faces a stark choice between reform or revolution in the 2020 elections. I dunno, I’d say Trump’s pretty revolutionary himself.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: FOID (Firearm Owners Identification Card) Ruled Unconstitutional In Illinois. “Of course Illinois is appealing, and I assume that some judge or judges will eventually find in the state’s favor, but if this goes to the United States Supreme Court we have a shot at winning.”
IT’S ALMOST WORTH TURNING ON MSNBC TO SEE HOW THEY’RE TAKING THIS: Sarah Sanders Celebrates ‘Complete Exoneration’ of President Trump.
BREAKING: Mueller Report: No Collusion.
Moments ago, Attorney General William Barr released the “principal conclusions” of the Mueller report to members of Congress. According to the letter, “The special counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
In other words: there was no Russian collusion.
“Sarah Sanders Celebrates ‘Complete Exoneration’ of President Trump,” Matt Margolis writes at the PJ mothership.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, on the other side of aisle, Jeff Toobin tells CNN, “Total vindication of the president and his staff.”
And “MSNBC’s Katy Tur, with a blank look on her face, says regarding the Mueller report: ‘This vindicates the President on collusion.’”
As Sean Davis of the Federalist tweets, “Hands up, don’t shoot. Trump’s a Russian spy. Kavanaugh ran a secret gang rape cartel. Covington kids assaulted a vet. Never forget that these lies — and yes, they were outright lies — were deliberately peddled by all the same people for all the same reasons.”
HOW A TENNESSEE TOWN SAVED AN AIRPLANE THAT NEVER FLEW: Nearly two decades of work by residents and preservationists saved an iconic plane-shaped gas station outside Knoxville, Tennessee.
Around 1930, Elmer and Henry Nickle built the airplane as a novelty gasoline service station. The pumps sat underneath its wing. Neither one of them was a pilot; reportedly, Elmer just liked planes—but the Nickles were savvy businessmen hoping to capitalize on the business of automobile travel.
In the ʼ30s, automobiles became more affordable and highways began to stretch across America, making car travel a feasible and fashionable option for tourism and adventure. This created a demand for on-the-go gasoline dispensing. (Previously, drivers would buy fuel somewhere like a hardware store and pour it themselves.) Scores of mom-and-pop roadside gasoline service stations—or, in this case, brother-and-brother—competed to fill those tanks, and owners had to do what they could to attract traffic. So Elmer and Henry collaborated with engineer Wayne L. Smith to design their station in the shape of an airplane.
The article doesn’t mention it, but plane looks much like Charles Lindbergh’s iconic 1927 Atlantic-crossing “Spirit of St. Louis” – except quite a bit bigger. I assume that styling was intentional.
