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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Tangent128 from Virginia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
#239226: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:35:01 AM

Hannity’s rising role in Trump’s world: ‘He basically has a desk in the place’

The phone calls between President Trump and Sean Hannity come early in the morning or late at night, after the Fox News host goes off the air. They discuss ideas for Hannity’s show, Trump’s frustration with the ongoing special counsel probe and even, at times, what the president should tweet, according to people familiar with the conversations. When he’s off the phone, Trump is known to cite Hannity when he talks with White House advisers.

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#239228: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:46:13 AM

I still dislike him but at-least he acknowledges the abomination it has turned into.

edited 18th Apr '18 11:46:24 AM by Fourthspartan56

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#239229: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:52:01 AM

The important thing to keep in mind with Comey is to not let opinions turn partisan. He's not a Good Guy or a Bad Guy. That he refused to cow to Trump's agenda does not erase the fact that he violated the Hatch Act. That he violated the Hatch Act does not erase the fact that he refused to cow to Trump's agenda.

He's not on "our side", nor is he on "their side". He's a dude who has successfully managed to piss off both sides with distinctly separate actions that he has taken.

edited 18th Apr '18 11:52:28 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#239230: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:53:24 AM

[up]Of course, which is why I said I don't like him instead of saying that he's an angel or devil tongue

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#239231: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:55:37 AM

That wasn't direct at you. There's just been a lot of discussion of Comey in recent weeks months since 2016.

My stance on Comey is similar. We have a common enemy, but if we didn't, then he'd be invited to kiss my ass. I have a lot of disdain for Comey, but I loathe Trump and the modern GOP more.

edited 18th Apr '18 11:56:21 AM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#239232: Apr 18th 2018 at 11:58:57 AM

[up]Fair points smile

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#239233: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:08:47 PM

I was willing to be more forgiving of Comey as a guy who got put in an impossible situation and ended up making a bad call based on faulty assumptions. Doesn't change the fact that he screwed up, but at least it was understandable.

The book tour interviews he's been doing, though... He doesn't admit that he screwed up. He doesn't admit that he handed the election to Trump. He doesn't admit that he caved to internal pressure from pro-Trump FBI employees. He doesn't admit anything, he just wrings his hands about "well, I think I did the best thing and I hope it didn't affect the election but we'll never really know" while ignoring the fact that we know for a fact that it wasn't the best thing and it did affect the election.

He's so convinced that he's the only good guy left in Washington that he's unable to admit that he was wrong about anything. So fuck him for that.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#239234: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:13:09 PM

Sounds like your average Conservative to me.

i'm tired, my friend
Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#239235: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:13:41 PM

And more specifically the average Never Trumper.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#239236: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:17:59 PM

Comey didn't make a mistake. He knowingly, deliberately, consciously made the decision that he made in 2016. He's been very clear about that repeatedly, and his tune has never changed.

Even in Colbert's interview, he outright stated that, knowing what he does now about the consequences of his decision in 2016, he still would have done it exactly the same way as he did then. He regrets nothing, he would change nothing. He'll go to his grave insisting that his actions were right, even knowing that their consequences were horrible.

There is something to admire in his conviction to stick to his guns and refuse to give out a fake apology for a decision that he fully believed in. But that decision was, is, and will always be awful and a betrayal of everything the FBI Director's supposed to represent. The country can burn around him as long as he feels like he never crossed a moral boundary, as defined by himself.

So. Yeah. Your average conservative prior to the Cult of Trump revolution.

edited 18th Apr '18 12:20:48 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#239237: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:27:11 PM

At least one reporter is convinced that when Trump fires Mueller, Fox News will keep him in office. Yes, that's when, not if, especially now that Hannity is directly linked to Cohen. Full article text 

For Richard Nixon, the “Saturday Night Massacre” was the beginning of the end.

The nation finally turned against the embattled president after he forced out — on Oct. 20, 1973 — the attorney general and his deputy who refused to get rid of the special prosecutor investigating him.

A week later, for the first time, a plurality of Americans favored impeachment. And 10 months later, he resigned.

But Nixon didn’t have Fox News in his corner.

President Trump does — and that might make all the difference if he were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein or even special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The pro-Trump media, led by Fox, would give cover, and huge swaths of Americans would be encouraged to believe that the action was not only justified but absolutely necessary.

You can see it coming.

Night after night — for many months — Trump’s sycophant-in-chief, Sean Hannity, has been softening the ground. And his message is sinking in.

In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, three of four Republicans said they believed the Justice Department and the FBI are actively working to undermine Trump.

“Hannity has been poisoning the well for Mueller’s ‘deeply corrupt’ investigation and laying the groundwork to support the president if he seeks an authoritarian recourse,” wrote Matthew Gertz, of the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America. That was back in October.

Six months, five convictions and more than a dozen indictments later, that poison has done its job.

And the doses of propaganda keep coming.

“This man’s track record is atrocious,” Hannity ranted one evening last week about Mueller, calling his investigation “the biggest abuse-of-power scandal in the country’s history.”

Hannity spent part of his show trying to explain away a previous day’s appalling graphic, depicting “the Mueller Crime Family,” which had brought reasonable criticism from the reality-based press.

Then he brought on former Trump aide and noted Islamophobe Sebastian Gorka who readily tore into a former FBI director and the mainstream media: “James Comey is a liar, and CNN is a bunch of perverts.”

That’s not to say that Fox, which has been on air since 1996, is the most trusted of the three; a recent poll suggests otherwise.

Even Fox insiders cringe, and sometimes quit.

Just weeks ago, the conservative former Army lieutenant colonel Ralph Peters left his post as a Fox contributor, expressing disgust in a resignation letter that was leaked to Buzz Feed.

“Today, I feel that Fox News is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers,” Peters wrote.

And some of Fox’s own editorial employees have told CNN’s Oliver Darcy that they are mortified by the Mueller coverage.

It’s entirely possible, of course, that Trump won’t take the drastic action of firing either Rosenstein or Mueller, though his spokeswoman asserted just days ago that he believes he has every right to do so and his former Svengali, Steve Bannon, is reportedly pushing in that direction.

Even with the approval of Trump’s base, the move would be politically risky and might not accomplish much anyway: The investigation would go on.

But if he does, there will be a cheering section. Though Fox has the biggest megaphone, it’s far from alone in its campaign to discredit Mueller.

Breitbart News, for example, touted a story last week at the top of its home page that opined, “Mueller is now much more widely seen, not as a man investigating a legitimate crime, but as a zealous prosecutor investigating a man in the hopes of finding a crime that will overturn a presidential election.”

Last November, a widely circulated Vox piece posited an alarming scenario in which Mueller’s investigation would find serious wrongdoing by Trump but result in no consequences amid America’s tribal politics.

“Say the entire right-wing media machine kicks to life and dismisses the whole thing as a scam — and conservatives believe them,” it suggested. “The conservative base remains committed to Trump, politicians remain scared to cross the base, and U.S. politics remains stuck in partisan paralysis, unable to act on what Mueller discovers.”

The same dynamic might hold if Trump were to fire Rosenstein or even Mueller.

Millions of Americans might take to the streets, but just as many would be nodding their approval from their living rooms, with Fox and its ratings star Hannity leading the applause.

In the Fox News era, the nation that turned against Nixon’s corrupt rejection of the rule of law may not even exist anymore.

Sorry, lemme emphasize that last line one more time: In the Fox News era, the nation that turned against Nixon’s corrupt rejection of the rule of law maydoes not even exist anymore.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#239238: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:31:45 PM

Oh, the base won't turn on him, and the GOP probably won't either. But Democrats and Independent should be energized enough to topple him in 2020, at worst.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#239239: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:41:14 PM

With Sinclair's monopoly on the local networks and Fox News being the most watched news channel in the country, it wouldn't surprise me.

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#239240: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:44:08 PM

Aren't they also the least trusted, though?

Raptorslash Since: Oct, 2010
#239241: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:45:36 PM

Sinclair and Fox don't need to be trusted by everyone - just the people they're targeting. They're also squeezing out easy access to other perspectives.

Aleistar Since: Feb, 2018 Relationship Status: Hugging my pillow
#239242: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:46:37 PM

I'm a bit late to the Comey discussion, and I trust Tobias' analysis, but what political/statistical analysis indicates that releasing the memo changed people's minds about the election?

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#239243: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:47:50 PM

Comey didn't make a mistake. He knowingly, deliberately, consciously made the decision that he made in 2016. He's been very clear about that repeatedly, and his tune has never changed.
A mistake is something that you did intentionally but should not have. That's what Comey did. What you're describing is an accident: something you do without meaning to.

"Whoops, I spilled my drink on myself" is an accident. "Man, I shouldn't have had that fourth burrito" is a mistake. Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation was not an accident, but was a mistake.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
LSBK Since: Sep, 2014
#239244: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:48:00 PM

The people they're targeting already trust them. They're basically reinforcing a bubble at this point.

Larkmarn Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#239245: Apr 18th 2018 at 12:50:52 PM

[up][up][up] How the universe works, mostly. It's technically impossible to quantifiably prove it, which is exactly the argument Comey's making.

But given how close the race was, and how many factors were involved, if you don't think the head of the FBI (of a Democratic administration) saying "hold up, the rumors about Clinton might be true" immediately before the election would sway people, then you would be completely divorced from reality.

Which maybe Comey is. Which Trump definitely is.

edited 18th Apr '18 12:51:36 PM by Larkmarn

Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#239246: Apr 18th 2018 at 1:00:38 PM

I'm a bit late to the Comey discussion, and I trust Tobias' analysis, but what political/statistical analysis indicates that releasing the memo changed people's minds about the election?
Take your pick. Polls pretty clearly show that Clinton had a narrow lead prior to Comey announcing that the investigation was reopening. Then her numbers tanked and gave Trump a narrow lead. After he announced that nothing new had been found and the investigation was closed again, her numbers slowly started to recover, but they didn't have time to get back to their pre-announcement levels before election day.

Here's 538's article on the subject.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#239247: Apr 18th 2018 at 1:01:36 PM

So... Have we discussed the poll showing Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke within 3% of Sen. Ted Cruz for the November election?

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
Raptorslash Since: Oct, 2010
#239248: Apr 18th 2018 at 1:02:24 PM

How much was Sinclair around before Trump? I'm sure Sinclair was there before him, but were they this powerful and have the reach over local news they've gained?

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#239249: Apr 18th 2018 at 1:05:47 PM

From Jim Sciutto's twitter

Breaking: Trump administration notified Russian Embassy in Washington no additional US sanctions were coming -Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman to CNN

edited 18th Apr '18 1:16:04 PM by megaeliz


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