A Deeply Fractured US

[Fishbone Jones]

Pelosi on the Wrap Up Smear. Adam Schiff was particularly enamoured with using it.

 

[KevinB]

Trump being classy as always...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689635701044961282

 

[KevinB]

Unfortunately some decided to act on Trumps "not" threats.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689422301228339200

 

[Good2Golf]

That’s a pretty good definition of FAFO right there…

 

[TacticalTea]

Looks like suicide by cop.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Who do you suppose is “they”? Do the politically sensitive leaks you take issue with come from the professional intelligence community itself, or the various political types and staffers who are occasionally privy to classified briefings?

Unless "anonymous source" is accompanied by, for example, "within the White House" or "within the CIA", who can tell? But the issue isn't limited to current employees; past members of the establishments stir the pot by referring to "my contacts" or "people who tell me" or some other euphemism to manufacture credibility.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Trump being classy as always...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689635701044961282

Not a good move. There I said it.
In fairness though, we can listen to unsolicited opinion from the other side. Posted in the same Twitter thread. After all, the one posted above is a nobody also. Just personal opinion. At least you can hear exactly what was said, not the cherry picked verbage in the original article. He was referencing a circulated news story. As an aside, nobody can seem to find that charge, sullying the image of the prosecutor, in Georgia's statutes, let alone one barring him from running for president. A quick perusal of the interwebz doesn't turn up any evidence of Willis telling Trump to prove it or face charges. Perhaps someone with better Google Foo.

 

[brihard]

Looks like suicide by cop.

Or someone who just didn’t believe in the consequences of choices, or thinks he can make himself a martyr? Either way, there will be more of these. I hope nobody else was hurt and that the involved officers are getting support. Good possibility they prevented something worse.

Sounds like he has years of utterances like that but was still allowed under their laws to amass weapons. Great system.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The 'Intelligence Community' shot themselves if the foot and did all their own damage. How can anyone take anything they say, with no reservations of their bias or motives. 51 of the nations top and most experienced agents flat out lied to the American people simply for biased political expediency and to protect a member of the Biden Crime Syndicate and by extension, skewed the national election in favour of the same.

They didn't actually lie. I have pointed this out repeatedly since the letter first appeared, but here it is again: they only stated that the matter (emails on Hunter's laptop) "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". In short, "looks like". Naturally, many people blew right past a careful parsing and proceeded directly to "is a Russian information operation".

One or more of the signers could have fought that misinterpretation vigorously and immediately, but I do not recall any of them even contesting it weakly. Obviously, someone might have and it could have escaped my attention. Anyone knowing differently could point to a such a contemporary accounting. Instead, we got Clapper only a few months ago complaining about misinterpretation - long after the benefit of the propaganda was banked. That kind of selective "oh, that's not what we said" years after the fact is a nail in the coffin of credibility of the "community".

To what degree the letter was solicited/suggested/coached by the Biden campaign is a matter of dispute. Blinken was involved, but I am unaware anything so coarse as a direct request was made.

 

[brihard]

Trump being classy as always...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1689635701044961282

Smells like BS to me. I think from a quick search that Georgia does have a misdemeanour criminal defamation statute on the books - Code § 16-11-40 (2014), but if that’s still current I’d be astonished to see it used. If there are substantive criminal charges, let them speak for themselves.

This voiceover video seems like clickbait nonsense. I can’t find what purported motion Fani Willis has filed with any such ultimatum, nor does the “prove it by tomorrow or I charge you” sound like a plausible prosecutorial response. I suspect BS.

 

[KevinB]

TBH I didn’t really look much into it, as it just seems to be something he would do.​

​

@brihard I was looking at: ​

§ 16-10-97​

But I don’t think that meets the requirements.

I also can’t figure out how to undo fonts on my phone once I use one here.

 

[brihard]

TBH I didn’t really look much into it, as it just seems to be something he would do.​

​

@brihard I was looking at: ​

§ 16-10-97​

But I don’t think that meets the requirements.

I also can’t figure out how to undo fonts on my phone once I use one here.

I don’t see ‘intimidate’, ‘injure’, or ‘impede’ being met here. Talking out of one’s ass and being a nuisance, even committing defamation, would probably be short of that unless some real resultant harm could be proven. A liar lying isn’t inherently injurious.

 

[QV]

They didn't actually lie. I have pointed this out repeatedly since the letter first appeared, but here it is again: they only stated that the matter (emails on Hunter's laptop) "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". In short, "looks like". Naturally, many people blew right past a careful parsing and proceeded directly to "is a Russian information operation".

One or more of the signers could have fought that misinterpretation vigorously and immediately, but I do not recall any of them even contesting it weakly. Obviously, someone might have and it could have escaped my attention. Anyone knowing differently could point to a such a contemporary accounting. Instead, we got Clapper only a few months ago complaining about misinterpretation - long after the benefit of the propaganda was banked. That kind of selective "oh, that's not what we said" years after the fact is a nail in the coffin of credibility of the "community".

To what degree the letter was solicited/suggested/coached by the Biden campaign is a matter of dispute. Blinken was involved, but I am unaware anything so coarse as a direct request was made.

Biden didn't get millions deposited direct to his personal savings account either, but he sure has been living way beyond the means of a salaried lifetime public servant. I think we can reasonably draw conclusions in both cases that should disqualify from office.

 

[brihard]

Biden didn't get millions deposited direct to his personal savings account either, but he sure has been living way beyond the means of a salaried lifetime public servant. I think we can reasonably draw conclusions in both cases that should disqualify from office.

Can you give examples of him living beyond his means as you allege?

There’s been plenty of reporting on his finances, and unlike some he has not resisted conventional disclosure of his taxes. Forbes has done some reporting on what he’s worth. All said and done it’s by no means outlandish:

Hereâs How Much Joe Biden Is Worth

Joe Biden earned $17.3 million over the four years he was out of office, but his net worth is only an estimated $8 million. Why isn’t he richer?

www.forbes.com

It would be interesting to see wide open financial analyses for all members of both houses of Congress and other senior appointed officials.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Smells like BS to me. I think from a quick search that Georgia does have a misdemeanour criminal defamation statute on the books - Code § 16-11-40 (2014), but if that’s still current I’d be astonished to see it used. If there are substantive criminal charges, let them speak for themselves.

This voiceover video seems like clickbait nonsense. I can’t find what purported motion Fani Willis has filed with any such ultimatum, nor does the “prove it by tomorrow or I charge you” sound like a plausible prosecutorial response. I suspect BS.

And you're probably right.

This is likely the extent of Ms. Willis' response. Almost as if she is learned in the law, staff management and public relations, like a good DA should.

âDerogatory and falseâ: Fulton DA denies rumors circulated by Trump

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Wednesday flatly denied that she had a relationship with a former client and other rumors spread by former President Donald Trump in a new campaign ad.

www.ajc.com

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23904098/willis-email.pdf

 

[QV]

They didn't actually lie. I have pointed this out repeatedly since the letter first appeared, but here it is again: they only stated that the matter (emails on Hunter's laptop) "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". In short, "looks like". Naturally, many people blew right past a careful parsing and proceeded directly to "is a Russian information operation".

One or more of the signers could have fought that misinterpretation vigorously and immediately, but I do not recall any of them even contesting it weakly. Obviously, someone might have and it could have escaped my attention. Anyone knowing differently could point to a such a contemporary accounting. Instead, we got Clapper only a few months ago complaining about misinterpretation - long after the benefit of the propaganda was banked. That kind of selective "oh, that's not what we said" years after the fact is a nail in the coffin of credibility of the "community".

To what degree the letter was solicited/suggested/coached by the Biden campaign is a matter of dispute. Blinken was involved, but I am unaware anything so coarse as a direct request was made.

Though technically correct, you're being too charitable. The original phrasing and follow on actions or lack of actions is deceit meant to shape public opinion. The outcome, as all outcomes lately, was to protect one candidate while damaging another. The political processes are absolutely corrupted by the actions and inactions by those who hold positions of authority, power, and trust. I'm not sure how if the West will recover from this.

 

[Halifax Tar]

When will people realize they are just arguing over which steaming shit pile is worse than the other and start demanding better ?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

When will people realize they are just arguing over which steaming shit pile is worse than the other and start demanding better ?

Demand away. What's your plan? How do we implement it, while convincing and herding the hundreds of thousands of people required to make government listen? You and me standing on different street corners in different cities, screaming for change, won't amount to much noise or much change.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

They didn't actually lie. I have pointed this out repeatedly since the letter first appeared, but here it is again: they only stated that the matter (emails on Hunter's laptop) "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation". In short, "looks like". Naturally, many people blew right past a careful parsing and proceeded directly to "is a Russian information operation".

One or more of the signers could have fought that misinterpretation vigorously and immediately, but I do not recall any of them even contesting it weakly. Obviously, someone might have and it could have escaped my attention. Anyone knowing differently could point to a such a contemporary accounting. Instead, we got Clapper only a few months ago complaining about misinterpretation - long after the benefit of the propaganda was banked. That kind of selective "oh, that's not what we said" years after the fact is a nail in the coffin of credibility of the "community".

To what degree the letter was solicited/suggested/coached by the Biden campaign is a matter of dispute. Blinken was involved, but I am unaware anything so coarse as a direct request was made.

So they're good at wordsmithing and leaving themselves legal deniability. On the other hand, let's not kid ourselves. They knew exactly what they were doing and why. They knew they were trying to kill the laptop story, the biden team knew trump would jump on it and needed a way to put it to rest during the debate. That letter was engineered to do just that and remove the story for the election. It got the reaction they needed and gave votes to biden. That is the very definition of election interference. But they didn't lie

 

[Brad Sallows]

So they're good at wordsmithing and leaving themselves legal deniability. On the other hand, let's not kid ourselves. They knew exactly what they were doing and why.

Of course. That doesn't make what they did better; it makes it worse.