@Mark from Queens with opening my eyes on Obamacare. A friend who was rightly skeptical of it sent me an article from Taibbi and there it all was - a documented sell out to big insurance, et al.

"I Can't Breathe" was another great one from him.

He's been right on this all along.

Some great ones in this essay, as usual:

This is a damning page one admission by the Times. Despite the connect-the-dots graphic in its other story, and despite the astonishing, emotion-laden editorial the paper also ran suggesting “We don’t need to read the Mueller report” because we know Trump is guilty, Baker at least began the work of preparing Times readers for a hard question: “Have journalists connected too many dots that do not really add up?”

The paper was signaling it understood there would now be questions about whether or not news outlets like itself made galactic errors by betting heavily on a new, politicized approach, trying to be true to “history’s judgment” on top of the hard-enough job of just being true. Worse, in a brutal irony everyone should have seen coming, the press has now handed Trump the mother of campaign issues heading into 2020.

Nothing Trump is accused of from now on by the press will be believed by huge chunks of the population, a group that (perhaps thanks to this story) is now larger than his original base. As Baker notes, a full 50.3% of respondents in a poll conducted this month said they agree with Trump the Mueller probe is a “witch hunt.”

Stories have been coming out for some time now hinting Mueller’s final report might leave audiences “disappointed,” as if a President not being a foreign spy could somehow be bad news.

Openly using such language has, all along, been an indictment. Imagine how tone-deaf you’d have to be to not realize it makes you look bad, when news does not match audience expectations you raised. To be unaware of this is mind-boggling, the journalistic equivalent of walking outside without pants.

There will be people protesting: the Mueller report doesn’t prove anything! What about the 37 indictments? The convictions? The Trump tower revelations? The lies! The meeting with Don, Jr.? The financial matters! There’s an ongoing grand jury investigation, and possible sealed indictments, and the House will still investigate, and…

Stop. Just stop. Any journalist who goes there is making it worse.

Subscribe to his sub-stack series.

You know for what else Taibbi deserves so much credit?

The fact that he was compelled to find out Eric Garner's story.

He spent some time on Staten Island talking to Garner's family, friends and associates, as well as cops and sociologists. The result was a book in which he dignified a human being who was by all accounts warm, funny and the victim of both tough luck and an insane law enforcement/justice system that really does prey upon his ilk.

Garner, of course, has been frozen for all-time by the MSM who garishly played it on constant repeat so that he would be immortalized as the pathetic victim of a cold-blooded police murder in broad daylight. The documenter of which was another twisted story, he himself the victim of relentless police intimidation and incarceration afterward. If he hadn't had a bird's eye view and not filmed the horribly tragic and completely unnecessary attack of an un-resisting with asthma pleading for his breath, Garner's life most probably would have been relegated to just another pg 23 "unfortunate" incident of another black man "resisting arrest." The MSM as usual had no interest in delving into such subjects as the policies of Broken Windows policing, widespread police brutality and corruption, unaccountable repeat offenders in the ranks, etc, still less in who Garner was as a person.

Taibbi could have chosen to continue to be an expert on financial criminality and political chicanery and sought another big book deal that certainly would have paid more than this one. I don't even think many knew it even came out. I took it out of the library and couldn't put it down.

I didn't think it was possible for my admiration of him to grow after how much I already revere him and look forward to his writing. But after this book he gained a few more notches.

I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street

@Alligator Ed

Lots of very incorrect information has been slung about at people for the last two years. Chris Steele is already being sued in the U.K. for some of the things he put in his dossier and I hope that string is attached to Sydney Bluementhal since he was very involved with its creation.

So we here at c99 are amongst the few who from the Russiagate outset, knew the issue was a manufactured phony.

A few people on Twitter have been posting the websites and people who never bought into Russia Gate and I've added my name and c99 to the lists. I think we should take a bow for our coverage of it here as well as the other things connected to it.

Well done, folks!

In the early months of this scandal, the New York Times said Trump’s campaign had “repeated contacts” with Russian intelligence; the Wall Street Journal told us our spy agencies were withholding intelligence from the new President out of fear he was compromised; news leaked out our spy chiefs had even told other countries like Israel not to share their intel with us, because the Russians might have “leverages of pressure” on Trump.

The links to Caitlin Johnstone article are, as usual, excellent.

So we here at c99 are amongst the few who from the Russiagate outset, knew the issue was a manufactured phony. Now the proof is in. Unfortunately many Amurikkkan sheeples are still brain washed, with little capacity to undergo the required rinsing to wash the Demonrat drivel from their ossified brains.

Taibbi wrote a magnificent curriculum vita of the MSM, which in actuality is an early autopsy report leading to future and LIKELY repercussions taken against the "press". Included in that amorphous montage are the "social media" outlets like FakeBook and Twatter. It is almost certain that Trump will declare those "private" enterprises to be publishers, instead if news collectors. Such an action will make them directly liable for acts of defamation, including libel. Good grounds exist for that move. By censoring outright, shadow banning or otherwise regulating content, the social platforms exert powers of an editor, not just disseminators of content submitted by independent parties.

@bobswern

...to the New York bubble Metro-Dems. Give them a couple of weeks to continue believing that their prescioussssss NYT hasn't been blowing smoke up their asses AGAIN for two years straight.

Meanwhile, it didn't take long for the tables to turn in the Capitol:

President Trump has called for an investigation into the "illegal takedown that failed" - after Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that Trump and his campaign did not collude with Russia in the 2016 US election. "The most ridiculous thing i've ever heard." he said.

"It's a shame that our country had to go through this. To be honest it's a shame that your president had to go through this for - before I even got elected, it began. And it began illegally. This was an illegal takedown that failed, and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side."

Rep. Devin Nunes is reportedly making criminal referrals to Attorney General Bill Barr on FBI, DOJ officials who perpetrated this hoax.

• Recall that Hillary Clinton's campaign paid an opposition research firm, Fusion GPS - who paid a former UK spy, Christopher Steele, who compiled a bogus dossier using Kremlin sources, which was then used against Trump both at the federal level and in court of public opinion.
• Also recall that Maltese professor (and self-admitted Clinton foundation member) Joseph Mifsud seeded Trump aide George Papadopoulos with the rumor that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. 
• Papadopoulos would later drunkenly pass this information to Australian diplomat (and Clinton ally) Alexander Downer, whose report reached the FBI and launched operation crossfire hurricane. 
• The FBI would then employ at least one spy to "infiltrate" (spy on) the Trump campaign. 

.

An hour later, the Dems on the Hill started squealing:

.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have received a four-page letter from Attorney General William Barr which concludes that "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 Presidential election."

Less than hour after the release of the summary and the DoJ's clearance of obstruction allegations, top Democrat, and chair of the House Judiciary committee, Jerry Nadler, has decided to call Attorney General Barr in to testify. Nadler has got his eye on obstruction charges. But he's grasping at straws.

Mueller left Obstruction to the Attorney General to "determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime." But, Barr sees no obstruction - writing in conjunction with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that they "concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."

Mueller's team of approximately 40 FBI agents issued over 2,800 subpoenas, executed "nearly 500 search warrants," and "obtained over 230 orders for communication records. They also issued 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses. 

.

It looks like they will all be too busy to do their government jobs. And that is likely a good thing.

...but I had to deal with a bit of an emergency around here, this weekend. Now, I don't feel so bad, because someone's covering it. Thank you!

A few takeaways...

1.) Taibbi is spot-on when he notes that, for all intents and purposes, the Russiagate story has--and the way the U.S. and British fourth estate have handled it--virtually destroyed any remaining shreds of credibility that the U.S. and British press maintained, post WMD/Iraq.

2.) The real story about Trump has always been the reality that he is an exceptionally sleazy businessman. More importantly, it was a well-known fact throughout Wall Street in 2008/2009--and for years prior, and many years thereafter, virtually to this day--that it was drug cartel money from countless sources, and Russian Mob money in NYC and Europe, as well (often one and the same), that saved the day for a myriad of players in the real estate industry, and a lot of major financial institutions throughout the western world, from as early as 2006, and for at least a few years, if not through to this day! (HSBC was caught, bigtime! And, Wachovia, essentially, remained afloat--primarily due to Tim Geithner--long enough to be absorbed by Wells Fargo; and there were countless other/similar stories, too; they just weren't publicized as much. See HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE, etc., etc.)

3.) The Democratic Party is, basically, f*cked, from a public relations perspective. The neolibs, led by Clinton, et al, are going to be dealing with intense payback from the G.O.P., as a result; and this will last for, perhaps, decades. And, the Dims were warned: by many here at C99P, Taibbi, Greenwald, Johnstone, and so many others. But, they made their bed, and the media supported the charade, lock, stock and barrel.

4.) The one Hail, Mary! for Democrats? The Second Judicial District of Southern New York. They will be going after Trump--and they already are--in a massive way. And the Southern District's efforts, more than likely, have less to do with Russiagate, (or little if anything Trump's done since he became president) and everything to do with Trump's business practices and his public displays of philandering, and related cover-ups re: "all of the above." This all remains to be seen.

Adding the following three links to this comment, in addition to where I originally posted them, farther downthread...

See the following, from Newsweek, last month...
NEW YORK INVESTIGATORS COULD 'INDICT' DONALD TRUMP WHILE HE'S STILL PRESIDENT, WATERGATE PROSECUTOR SAYS, JASON LEMON, NEWSWEEK, 2/18/19 AT 2:44 PM EST

And, from the front page of today's/Sunday's New York Times...
Mueller Report Lands, Prosecutorial Focus Moves to New York, Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum, Benjamin Weiser and Maggie Habermas, New York Times (Page A1), Sunday, March 24th, 2019

Last, but not least, New York Magazine, this past Friday...
The Trump Investigations Are Far From Over, Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine, Friday, March 22nd, 2019

@gulfgal98
and social media platforms embarking on self sensorship at the behest of government (Deep State) will likely remain and become ubiquitous. Those intentionally fostering manipulative disinformation campaigns understand this tendency very well. The embarrassment of being caught in a lie is of no import to the liars. The effect of the lie remains.

One would hope that such lies, once exposed, would be soundly condemned by our “free press” as the domestic propaganda that they are. This will never happen. Instead the disinformation will persist in the minds of a frighteningly large percentage of our population as the truth. How many Americans believe to this day that Sadam actually had WMD, but that we simply failed to find them, and that Kuwaiti babies were thrown out of their incubators on his orders?

I found this quote from Caitlin as one worth remembering. I wonder what ever happened to critical thinking skills in this country?

Most people who got swept up in the Russiagate fervor were manipulated by their disgust for Trump and their desire to get him out, no matter if it was true or not. I think the great lesson here is that you can’t out-manipulate the grand manipulators. You have to stick to the truth even when it appears to go against your own self interests because your ego has levers and it can be used to puppet you. If you always value the highest interest over your self interest then you can’t be played.

Matt Taibbi sums the current and potential future impacts of Russiagete very well in his piece.

The WMD mess had massive real-world negative impact, leading to over a hundred thousand deaths and trillions in lost taxpayer dollars. Unless Russiagate leads to a nuclear conflict, we’re unlikely to ever see that level of consequence.

Still, Russiagate has led to unprecedented cooperation between the government and Internet platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, all of which are censoring pages on the left, right, and in between in the name of preventing the “sowing of discord.” The story also had a profound impact on the situation in places like Syria, where Russian and American troops have sat across the Euphrates River from one another, two amped-up nuclear powers at a crossroads.