Posted on 12/03/2017 9:46:07 PM PST by Kaslin
It is amazing the degree to which seemingly intelligent people hold an unshakable belief the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the election. Blind to the trumped up narrative unraveling all around them, oblivious to the absence of any evidence or even a substantive allegation of a deal between Trump and Russians, unmoved by every error and scandal the media stumbles into trying to push the story, they simply know it’s true. They smugly sneer and disdain anyone who points out the holes in collusion conspiracy.
Last week’s guilty plea by Trump’s short lived national security advisor Michael Flynn is a prime exhibit of the critics’ unshakable faith in The Narrative. Michael Flynn pled guilty to a single count of lying to the FBI. Instantly the Trump impeachment mob was high fiving and laying bets how soon the trail would lead to Trump and force his exit.
ABC’s Brian Ross added to the frenzy when he breathlessly blurted that Flynn was cooperating with Muller, and would testify that, during the campaign, Candidate Trump had directed him to contact the Russians. The mob went wild. Smoking gun! Collusion! Treason!
By the next day, Ross and ABC had to backpedal in disgrace: The direction to Flynn came after the election, not before. That is, it was about transitional diplomacy on behalf of an incoming administration, not about hacking emails or rigging the vote for a candidate in an upcoming election. The supposed bombshell turns out to be little more than a distracting sparkler. ABC suspended Ross without pay for four weeks.
The information released by Muller the next day was clear: Flynn was directed to engage the Russians about improved relations, about considering opposing a UN resolution against Israel, and about cooperating to fight ISIS in the Middle East. There was simply nothing untoward about those contacts. Why Flynn would have lied to FBI investigators about having them is something of a mystery. But he pled to lying about things that were right and proper, not wrong and collusive. They were completely unrelated to the campaign and voting.
In a sane world, the details of the Flynn plea would have been seen as strong indication there is nothing to the collusion conspiracy. We don’t live in that world.
CNN contributor Errol Lewis promptly brayed: “It’s time to start talking about impeachment.”Lewis presents Flynn’s plea as a confirmation of the collusion narrative; if Trump told Flynn to talk to Russians, that as good as proves the election was stolen. This is utter nonsense.
Lewis wholly misled CNN’s readers about the timing and purpose of the contacts.
Other publications piled on the faux hysteria. Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein took to USA today to wonder whether “it is Trump impeachment time yet?” Sunstein’s piece was actually a mostly platonic discussion of the historical origins and understandings of impeachment. But the headline and lede fanned the frenzy. So too, did Newsweek, eagerly asking: “Will Trump Be Impeached Based on Michael Flynn’s Russia Revelations?”
Each of these publications and writers seriously disserved its readers and committed media malpractice by wallowing in fanciful speculation untethered from the substance of Flynn’s actions—talking to Russians about policy after the election. The disgraceful performance is probably a mixture of the media’s lust to take down Trump combined with a commercial calculation about clicks and ratings and what the audience wants.
Most the impeach mob does not want to hear exculpatory information. They want to believe Trump is bleeding and going down. In the fever swamps of the Never Trump zealots, no fact or information shakes their conviction. Trump and Putin stole the election from Hillary Clinton. Trump colluded, committed treason, and needs to be removed.
The zealots are actually missing quite a bit of interesting news. They have probably forgotten that CNN had to fire three reporters for fabricating a Trump-Russia story. They probably have not heard that Muller had to fire one of his top aides from the investigation because the aide had exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Clinton texts with another FBI agent.
They almost certainly haven’t heard that the FBI is stonewalling Congress’s attempts to learn more about the aide’s involvement in the case, as well as the FBI’s role in procuring and distributing the infamous Russia Dossier, and that Committee Chair Devin Nunes is threatening to pursue contempt charges. Also they probably missed Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz’s insightful explanation why Muller’s charges against Flynn signal a weak case, rather than a strong one, and are a good indication for Trump.
None of the drip drip drip of The Narrative leaking away soaks any of their sweet dreams of perp walks and impeachment and an orange president in an orange jumpsuit. They should probably pay a little more careful attention to the news.
The Russians had bribed Clinton in the past, why would they want Trump to win?
There are two movies, the dems see only what they want to see. They cannot understand how Hillary won except by cheating and they were fixing the ballots so they know Trump did not do that. What else could he have been doing?
I am amazed at the number of left wingers who are convinced that Trump will soon be gone by impeachment and removal.
I suspect that when it doesn’t happen we will have a new round of virtue signaling via women cutting their hair and telling their tales of personal woe..
“Collusion” is the new “truther”.
This collusion and impeachment game can be sold to some Democrats for a fair amount of time. But once the election of 2020 has come and gone....with Trump winning, I think about half of the Democratic Party will be in a dismal situation that they were led by some naive leaders and it was all fake politics.
I wish a real journalist would do a detailed series on “lawfare,” the Leftist criminalizing of opponents for being opponents, and destroying their lives and families.
I regard what the Left is doing to Flynn, Manafort, and did to Scooter Libby and Tom Delay is a refined, Americanized version of what fellow Leftist Nazis and Soviets did to counter-revolutionaries; conduct a quick kangaroo court, execute the innocent, and enslave their families.
I am sorry, but your post makes absolutely no sense
That is why we must make sure that we keep the House and the Senate. We must increase our seats, if we lose them, the rats in the House will impeach President Trump and the rats in the House will remove him. Why does no one seem to get it?
...”It is amazing the degree to which seemingly intelligent people hold an unshakable belief the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the election.”...
Anyone who believes that needs to read something other than the NYTimes and the Washington Post. Also, I doubt that those in high places who are ideological leftists and most in the American media are, believe this. I suspect that most know very well that it is contrived because the deep state in existence for more than their lifetimes do not want to give up power to the man-made dynamo who is Donald Trump. The holding of their power is lifeblood for them, even if it is a hidden dictatorship for the American people. They fear that they cannot control Trump because he did not become beholden to them to win the election. That power was turned back over to our 200+ year old system and the American people. That they cannot abide and will, I believe, tell any lie, and enter into any kind of deal to try and remove Trump from office is an sick obsession they cannot shake. The bad news for the Swamp is that the Trump election has already exposed enough of who they are and what they do that the nation will not return fully to the control of the elites. Word is being spread on a daily basis and logic is not yet turned inside out and upside down. We are involved at the moment in the exposure of massive sexual predator behavior coming mostly from the left. Now, if we could just get some idea of whether drugs or alcohol are a problem in our highest offices, we might be able to make some real cleanup progress. It is usual for these behaviors to go hand in hand. Truths will emerge in time. We may not live to see it, but it will happen.
Sorry, I am a fan of Scott Adams. If that helps.
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