Russiagate and lessons learned

The latest twist on the Russiagate scandal is Mueller's letter to Attorney General William Barr expressing "frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage”.
We are being told by Democrats, the MSM, and late-night comedians that this is a big deal.

Do you remember the last time that "context" was a political scandal? Benghazi.

Much of the questioning and Morell's testimony focused on Morell's role in the production of flawed talking points given to Rice before she appeared on television and blamed the attack on an anti-Islam video.
"The White House needed the talking points to support their narrative that al-Qaeda was on the run," said Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, the committee's Republican chairman.

I'm guessing that Dems won't see the connection here.

Matt Taibbi famously wrote It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD.
He's 100% correct on that.
Taibbi also wrote The Press Will Learn Nothing From the Russiagate Fiasco.
On this claim he may be wrong. He should have said The Press Will Learn Nothing Good From the Russiagate Fiasco.

Let's go back to 2003 and Saddam's WMDs.
Remember that this was a Republican War first and foremost, and no one beat the drums of war harder than Fox News.
Fox passed CNN's ratings in 2002 and has never looked back. How did they avoid any backlash in viewership from it's promotion of the disastrous Iraq war?
It never stopped lying to it's viewers.

In a Public Mind poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University released Wednesday, more than half of Republicans — 51 percent — and half of those who watch Fox News — 52 percent — say that they believe it to be “definitely true” or “probably true” that American forces found an active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq.

You can bet that MSNBC and CNN have learned this lesson well. They will not stop moving the goalposts and lying about Russiagate because all of the capitalist incentives are to double-down on the lies.
Speaking of lessons learned, Fox has made an industry out of promoting racist xenophobia against muslims. Well, Russiagaters have learned that lesson too.

During an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd on May 28, Clapper said, “If you put that in context with everything else we knew the Russians were doing to interfere with the election,” he said. “And just the historical practices of the Russians, who typically, are almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique. So, we were concerned.”

The investigation and coverage has repeatedly turned to xenophobic language, yet it gets unnoticed. Which is ironic for a political party that is hypersensitive to racist words.
Fox News proved that jingoism and xenophobia sells, and MSNBC and CNN are following in their footsteps.

Finally, there is the lesson of why the Democrats will never drop Russiagate. Let's call it the Vincent Foster Rule.

In early 1995, however, Kavanaugh offered his boss, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, the legal rationale for expanding his investigation of the Arkansas financial dealings of President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, to include the Foster death, according to a memo he wrote on March 24, 1995.

Kavanaugh, then 30, argued that unsupported allegations that Foster may have been murdered gave Starr the right to probe the matter more deeply. Foster’s death had already been the focus of two investigations, both concluding that Foster committed suicide.
...His handling of Starr’s Foster probe helped elevate Kavanaugh’s career, but the lengthy inquiry enabled conspiracy theories to flourish and add to the tumult of the Clinton presidency. Once the Foster matter was closed, Starr’s office continued to investigate the Clintons and eventually veered into the president’s relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
... The Foster component of Starr’s investigation cost about $2 million and lasted three years.

Entertaining stupid konspiracy theories can both enhance your career, and be a political payoff if you keep it up long enough.
It also leaves the audience with doubts about what is actually true. At least one Fox News viewer still believe Vincent Foster was murdered. His name is Donald Trump.

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edg's picture

You've drawn interesting and thought-provoking parallels. Keep up the good work. I appreciate your essays and your inhuman output of them even when I quibble about a point or two.

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snoopydawg's picture

frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage

by just about every one who still wants to believe that there is something to do about Russia Gate. Emptywheel has written a very long essay on what Mueller got wrong with the Flynn case and his call to Russia about the sanctions. I guess she thinks that she knows more about what happened during the investigation than Mueller did. What hubris huh? Lots of the information people think they know about Russia Gate didn't come from intelligence agencies. Nope. It came from some journalists who decided that they knew exactly what happened. This is not evidence, it's innuendo.

Here's what Mueller said about Russian interference:

The FBI believes that Russia interfered with the election and that probability is high.

This is what he's basing it on? I can believe that I'm rich and don't have any money problems, but that doesn't mean it's true.

Incoming administrations reach out to foreign government all the time to start negotiations with issues, but it was wrong for Trump to do it. Oh well at least he didn't reach out to Iran to ask them to keep the hostages until after the election had been decided. I don't remember a Iran Gate at the time does anyone?

Every time someone says something about those dastardly Russians ask them to replace the name with Jews instead.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pluto's Republic's picture

...of the second term of the Presidency of the mentally degraded Ronald Reagan — was to get rid of the Fairness Doctrine and allow the nation's AM radio stations to be monopolized. With a set-up like that, propaganda can become reality and crimes against the People will go unpunished.

Doubling down and repetition can only be done by those who own the media.

The latest twist on the Russiagate scandal is Mueller's letter to Attorney General William Barr expressing "frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage”.

Actually, Barr intimated that Mueller claimed his words were being misunderstood by the media because of what members of Congress were saying to the media.

Not because of what Bill Barr told said to Congress. He had no problem with Barr's letter to congress or to Barr's summary of Mueller's findings.

Mueller's solution was to release more of the report. Now Congress has more of the Report — and they still cannot comprehend what it says and what that means.

Democrats thing that Muller is going to testify before congress, and he will say:

Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.

Bill Barr is controlled by the Kremlin and he would not let me tell you that. He also would not let me tell you that Donald Trump obstructed justice in my investigation.

Please don't stop resisting.

No matter what Mueller says to Congress, this is what they will hear. Life will go on. Americans have now normalized brain damage and delusion at this level.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

I agree with and respect everything you've said in your essay. And I think Pluto's Republic's example of what Congress will hear, no matter what is said by anyone, is profoundly true. I think we can all see the Deep State Media are going to hammer and hammer and hammer, ever onward, with false statements couched as if they have something to do with truth.

But I think the reason they will do this is not just to avoid facing the fact that they were wrong. There's a lot going on here, and it looks like big crimes are being covered up.

First of all, someone in the FBI, we are told, alerted the DNC in the fall of 2015 that their communications weren't secure, but the DNC blew it off. Then in the spring of 2016, someone in the NSA alerted the NSA Director that private contractors had access to FISA surveillance data. The NSA Director then put an end to it. On exactly the day he did that, the DNC later claimed their emails were hacked by Russia, starting on that date.

So there are some things here that really matter. It's possible the FBI was monitoring the DNC from 2015. The DNC emails released by Wikileaks are evidence of at least two major crimes, money laundering and voter suppression, by the DNC. The NSA may also have uncovered another crime, illegal surveillance by private contractors.

It's possible what's being covered up by the Russiagate story is that the CIA, private contractors, foreign contractors, or whoever, may have access to the surveillance data of Americans, of candidates, of members of Congress, of government officials. That's a big crime. And the DNC is still unchallenged about its money laundering and voter suppression crimes.

So I think the hysteria with which the Democrats and the Deep State keep hammering lies at us is to keep attention away from these crimes and maybe even bigger ones connected to them.

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Creosote.'s picture

@Linda Wood It well represents the quality of this site.

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@Creosote. ,

for your kindness and encouragement. In 50 years of watching the war machine mislead the American people into war, I have never seen such blatant, flimsy propaganda go so far. It's breathtaking and frustrating.

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that failure to prosecute does not equal innocence, especially when people of the rank of the Clintons are at risk. Also, I do know that the number of investigations doesn't mean a lot, especially when people of the rank of the Clintons.

Ted Kennedy was exonerated in at least two formal proceedings, one of them being an inquest; and I also know that he failed to try to get help for Kopechne. While I do believe that he tried to help her himself, back brace and all, I believe that was the extent of his efforts because he was more concerned about a drunk driving charge and being alone with a young woman at that hour than in reporting the accident immediately. I think he still entertained Presidential aspirations then. As it was, he was not able to rescue Kopechne or his reputation, precisely because he did wait.

I guess I am saying that, while I may accept that Foster committed suicide, I wouldn't accept it solely because two official investigations came to that conclusion.

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@HenryAWallace

I guess I am saying that, while I may accept that Foster committed suicide, I wouldn't accept it solely because two official investigations came to that conclusion.

1. Park Police
2. FBI
3. House committee
4. Senate committee
5. Special counsel Robert Fiske
6. Special counsel Ken Starr

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everything. happily, unlike so many african american music dudes of that era, he got credit and got paid.

Don't Be Cruel was the song that got his foot in the door, he also wrote All Shook Up (a co-worker dropped a soda bottle on the floor, so instead of opening it, he put it on Blackwell's desk and said, "Write a song about that" -- the legend is that he finished the song before the soda was warm) and Return to Sender and Handy Man and eleventy bajillion others.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd

Good to know about OB, though. Thanks!

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@HenryAWallace

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.