NORTON META TAG

11 June 2018

The Real Russia Scandal Is Hiding in Plain Sight. Yet Trump May Get Away With It. & Donald Trump Is Getting Away With the Biggest Scandal in American History 8&5JUN18


WORD TO SENATOR MARK WARNER D VA (also posted on his facebook page). I HAVE HEARD YOU AND YOUR WIFE SPEAK AND I KNOW HER BALLS ARE MUCH, MUCH BIGGER THAN YOURS, PROOF IS IN THE DISHONORABLE MENTION OF YOU IN THE 2ND ARTICLE IN THIS POST. 
In the face of Trump’s fact-free denials, who is reminding the public of the basics—that Russia attacked, and that Trump aided and abetted the operation? If you watch cable news or are addicted to Twitter, you can see Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Republicans and the forces of Fox News over the Russia probe on practically a daily basis. A few other Democratic members of his committee join the fray when the news cycle permits. But Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, prefers maintaining a lower profile. And there are no other Democratic bigwigs who have assumed the task of addressing the beyond-cable audience and fiercely reiterating and emphasizing the core narrative. When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.
IF YOU ARE GOING TO CONTINUE AS A JELLY FISH DEMOCRAT DO US ALL A FAVOR AND JUST JOIN THE REPUBLICANS SO WE CAN VOTE YOU OUT OF OFFICE. OR FIND YOUR SPINE AND CHALLENGE THIS FASCIST PIG IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND HIS ADMINISTRATION.
NOT MY pres drumpf/trump is guilty of colluding with putin and his fascist russian oligarchs to steal the 2016 presidential election from the American people. He, with the full knowledge, cooperation and support of NOT MY vice pres pence and the fascist leadership of the republican party are systematically working to nullify the US Constitution so they too will be able to impose a theocratic plutocracy / oligarchy subservient to putin. The current administration is a real threat to our American Republic, to our democracy. We must take congress from the republicans this November, if we don't there are many patriots who feel America is doomed. REMEMBER, THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS ARE ON TUESDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 18. VOTE, BECAUSE THE FUTURE OF OUR NATION DEPENDS ON IT! NOT only have I voted in every election I was eligible for since I registered to vote in 1976 I have been a monthly donor to Mother Jones for years because I understand the need for and appreciate a free, independent, investigative press. Please donate what you can, if you can. From Mother Jones.....

The Real Russia Scandal Is Hiding in Plain Sight. Yet Trump May Get Away With It.


Earlier this week, I wrote a piece, “Donald Trump Is Getting Away With the Biggest Scandal in American History,” that struck a chord with a lot of people. And I’ve been thinking a lot about where we go from here, because demonstrating that Trump is “getting away” with this is important but still frustrating.  
Here’s the gist of what I wrote. The Trump-Russia scandal has become something of a mud-wrestling match, with the president’s partisans refusing to acknowledge the fundamental facts of this episode and distracting public attention from the key facts about which there truly isn’t any doubt: Trump and his associates engaged in serious wrongdoing during the 2016 campaign. On this, there is no confusion, no he-said-she-said, no speculation. The evidence is rock-solid.  
In 2016, Vladimir Putin’s regime mounted information warfare against the United States, in part to help Trump become president. While this attack was underway, the Trump crew tried to collude covertly with Moscow and sought to set up a secret communications channel with Putin’s office. At the same time, they publicly denied this assault was happening, providing cover to the Russian operation. Trump and his lieutenants aligned themselves with and assisted a foreign adversary as it was attacking the United States.
This was a profound act of betrayal. They aided and abetted an attack on the core of our democracy—our elections—and they lied about it. And they still do. This is the true scandal. It should shock the public and compel action.
But this fundamental fact has not fully sunk in with the American people. That’s why Trump and his minions have been able to dodge responsibility. And, unfortunately, our industry—the media—is partly to blame.
Here’s what I mean.
The media coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal tends to focus on the specific components of an unwieldy and ever-expanding story. It is a story with tentacles reaching into other scandals—Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, other attempted foreign interventions in our election, Paul Manafort’s alleged money laundering and illegal lobbying, and more.
All of this keeps us riveted, eyeballs glued to screens big and small, as we wait for the next big scoop or the next revelation from the Mueller investigation. But there is no order to this cascade of revelations. Each one arrives as part of the fusillade of crazy known as the daily news cycle. What’s the connection between all these stories—the Trump Tower meeting, Jeff Sessions’ recusal, a meeting in the Seychelles, princes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates secretly meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Manafort conspiring with a former Russian military intelligence officer to cover up his lobbying for a Ukrainian party? Is there a connection? And how is each new headline related to Putin’s war on America and the way Trump assisted that clandestine operation?
Attempting to track this whole damn thing can make one feel like Carrie Mathison on Homeland. Do you even have enough string or enough space on the bulletin board?
And that’s just it. Trump has no bulletin board—and no need for one. He only requires 280 characters, and sometimes just two words, “witch hunt,” accompanied by other tweets designed to fog and distract from the fundamental point: An overseas enemy struck at the republic—and it succeeded. Trump and his crew helped and encouraged the attack by engaging in secret contacts with Moscow and publicly insisting that no such assault was happening.
In previous scandals, it was not necessary to remind the public repeatedly of the essential elements of the story. No one disputed the Watergate burglary had transpired—the issue was White House involvement and the cover-up.
But this time, Trump and his amen chorus have been claiming there is no Russia scandal—that the real shocker is a secret FBI plot against him. And by forcing politicians and the media to debate whether the Russia scandal actually exists, Trump wins. He has succeeded in diverting attention from how his campaign actions benefited Putin.
Much of the media framing of the Russia scandal has—sometimes unwittingly—let Trump define the terms of debate. The driving question has become whether Trump directly collaborated with Moscow’s covert operation—and whether Trump, as president, tried to thwart the investigation and obstruct justice. Instead of helping the American public understand the gravity of the attack—and the continuing threat—the media often present the Russia scandal mostly as a political problem for Trump.
So what can we do about it? The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering Trump’s disinformation in fundamental terms.
Republicans and Democrats alike ought to take their—and Trump’s—oath to uphold the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” seriously. And journalists must break from convention. That means not being diverted by the purposeful distractions. Sure, Trump’s tweets and phony narratives deserve attention—and debunking. But not at the expense of reporting and explaining the big picture. His attempts to lie—yes, I know that’s a heavy word—about an attack on the United States and his role in that assault deserve as much attention as his endless and baseless claims that he is the victim of a “witch hunt.” In the age of Trump, journalists have to ascertain and report when a leader is knowingly misleading the people.
At Mother Jones, we see our job as providing the day-in, day-out reporting that is critical to holding the powerful accountable and to do this while presenting the broader context. In the chaotic media environment of this moment, it is crucial to provide both information and understanding. Journalism that only focuses on the latest leak or revelation and fails to depict the wider and deeper story is simply not powerful enough to counter the firehose of lies, propaganda, and disinformation.
And this is where I ask you to support Mother Jones during our pledge drive—because if we can raise another $155,000 by June 30 we’ll have enough resources to bring on a senior reporter and a data scientist to tackle the sort of information warfare Trump wages every day. 
We may not have Trump’s bully pulpit, but we can produce a steady drumbeat of stories that break news on the scandals and that expand our understanding of what they mean. Mother Jones’ independence and the fact that we’re supported primarily by readers like you allow us to punch well above our weight. One example: I was the only reporter in Washington (or anywhere else) who reported on the existence of the Steele memos and the FBI’s interest in them before the election. And I am confident that our readers—and I mean you—want us to keep digging into this scandal, so much of which is hiding in plain sight.
We are here to counter the disinformation and b.s. To do it with facts and kick-ass reporting. To not get lost in the aggravating chaos and helter-skelter that is engineered to keep the American public from grasping the full truth. Every day we are battling the lies and misdirection.
But this is no lie: We can only do this with the support and help of folks like you. I’ll tell you, it’s not fun to ask for money. I know how hard it is to squeeze a buck out of me! But if you want to be part of our team and this mission, please give what you can. I promise you this: We will do the type of journalism that exposes the deceit and deceptions that are threatening our nation—and make you proud.

Donald Trump Is Getting Away With the Biggest Scandal in American History

Witch hunt.

The other evening I was on a cable news show to cover the latest Russia news of the day—and I had an epiphany.
We were talking about a recent scoop from Michael Isikoff, the co-author of my latest book, Russian RouletteHe had reported that a Spanish prosecutor had handed the FBI wiretapped transcripts of a Russian official who was suspected of money laundering and for years had been trying to gain influence within the American conservative movement and the National Rifle Association. We then discussed a New York Times article revealing that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime fixer, had met with a Russian oligarch in January 2017, around the time a US company affiliated with this tycoon began making $500,000 in payments to Cohen. Next we turned to the latest in the so-called Spygate nonscandal—the false claim, championed by Trump and his defenders, that the FBI infiltrated a spy into his presidential campaign for political purposes.
Then the show moved on. We had spent 15 or so minutes on these important developments, delving into the details—but without referring to the essence of the story. And it hit me: Though it’s clear Trump’s presidency has been hobbled by the Russia scandal, the manner in which this matter plays out in the media has helped Trump. 
Almost every day, Trump pushes out a simple (and dishonest) narrative via tweets and public remarks: The Russia investigation is a…well, you know, a witch hunt. Or a hoax. Or fake news. He blasts out the same exclamations daily: Witch hunt, hoax! Hoax, witch hunt! That’s his mantra.
His synopsis is easy to follow. It encompasses (even if by ignoring) every new fact and revelation. It connects all the inaccurate and false dots Trump and his partisans toss out: Unmasking! Obama wiretapped Trump! The FBI improperly obtained warrants to conduct surveillance on his campaign advisers! And so on. He’s the victim. The bad guys are the Dems, libs, prosecutors, and deep staters pursuing this huge nothing-burger for nothing but political gain. The Russia story, in Trump’s telling, is a black-and-white tale of evildoers persecuting a great man—him. Sad. And this bully uses his pulpit (and smartphone) to transmit this simple message nonstop.
The other side—the accurate perspective—isn’t that complicated. In 2016, Vladimir Putin’s regime mounted information warfare against the United States, in part to help Trump become president. While this attack was underway, the Trump crew tried to collude covertly with Moscow, sought to set up a secret communications channel with Putin’s office, and repeatedly denied in public that this assault was happening, providing cover to the Russian operation. Trump and his lieutenants aligned themselves with and assisted a foreign adversary, as it was attacking the United States. The evidence is rock-solid: They committed a profound act of betrayal. That is the scandal. 
But how often do you hear or see this fundamental point being made? The media coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal—which has merged with Cohen’s pay-to-play scandal, the Stormy Daniels scandal, and a wider foreign-intervention-in-the-2016-campaign scandal—has yielded a flood of revelations. Yet the news reporting tends to focus on specific components of an unwieldy and ever-expanding story: a Trump Tower meeting between Trump aides and a Kremlin emissary; what special counsel Robert Mueller may or may not be doing; the alleged money-laundering and tax-evasion skullduggery of Paul Manafort; a secret get-together in the Seychelles between former Blackwater owner Erik Prince and a Russian financier; the Kremlin’s clandestine exploitation of social media; Russian hackers penetrating state election systems; Michael Flynn’s shady lobbying activities; Trump’s attempted interference in the investigation; and so much more. It is hard to hold on to all these pieces and place them into one big picture.
These revelations do not emerge in chronological or thematic order. They arrive as part of the fusillade known as the daily news cycle. One day, we learn that Trump last year leaned on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Another day, we see headlines that Mueller has indicted Russian trolls. We learn that—yikes!—a former Trump campaign adviser has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his efforts to put the campaign in secret contact with Putin’s regime. We’re told that Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign met with a shady character representing the princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who were secretly offering to help Trump.  Or the big story is that Trump has acknowledged he dictated a false statement issued in his eldest son’s name about the Trump Tower meeting. What’s the connection? Is there a connection? And how is each new headline related to Putin’s war on America? Attempting to track this whole damn thing—while the nation experiences a larger hurricane of crazy—can make one feel like Carrie Mathison on Homeland. Do you even have enough string or enough space on the bulletin board?
And that’s just it. Trump has no bulletin board—and no need for one. He only requires 280 characters. Or less. Sometimes just those two words—witch hunt—accompanied by other tweets designed to fog and distract by raising peripheral and non-evidence-based matters, such as the phony Uranium One scandal and other supposed examples of Democratic malfeasance. The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering his disinformation in fundamental terms.
In the face of Trump’s fact-free denials, who is reminding the public of the basics—that Russia attacked, and that Trump aided and abetted the operation? If you watch cable news or are addicted to Twitter, you can see Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Republicans and the forces of Fox News over the Russia probe on practically a daily basis. A few other Democratic members of his committee join the fray when the news cycle permits. But Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, prefers maintaining a lower profile. And there are no other Democratic bigwigs who have assumed the task of addressing the beyond-cable audience and fiercely reiterating and emphasizing the core narrative. When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.
This traces back to the weeks before and after the 2016 election. A month prior to Election Day, the US government declared that Russia had mounted a cyber attack and influence operation against the United States. (To call this action “meddling” is to diminish its full significance.) But at a time when Trump was being hammered by the Access Hollywood video and conventional wisdom held that he was toast, President Barack Obama and his aides chose not to generate a major fuss regarding this unprecedented disclosure. They feared amplifying the disorder the Russians were trying to cause and worried that Trump would seize upon a big White House reaction to bolster his claim that the election was being rigged against him. The White House let this dog lie. And most of the media focused instead on Trump’s grab-them-by-the-pussy problem and the parallel (and not coincidental) release by WikiLeaks of the juicy emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta by Russian hackers. 
Yet a few days following the election, Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, confirmed the hacking of Democratic targets and the public dissemination of stolen emails was “a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.” He added, “This was not something that was done casually. This was not something that was done by chance. This was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily.”
In the subsequent weeks, few leaders of the Democratic Party complained vociferously about the Russian attack or the assistance the Trump campaign provided the Kremlin. When asked, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), the top two Democrats in Congress, would say they supported creating an inquiry. But neither were beating any drums. Democrats seemed too shocked at the results to move expeditiously. Perhaps they worried they would be accused of being sore losers. It took a month or two for the calls for an investigation to become loud enough to force GOP leaders on Capitol Hill to agree to such probes. 
Meanwhile, Obama said little about the Russian attack. In early December 2016, the White House announced that Obama had called for an intelligence community assessment. At the end of the month, he hit Russia with sanctions for its intervention in the election, though the punishment was arguably not sufficiently tough. (Obama and his advisers did fear going too far and sparking a crisis with Moscow, at a time when Trump and his gang of inexperienced hands were about to take over.)
For his part, Trump kept insisting there was nothing much to talk about regarding Putin’s intervention. Instead, he focused obsessively on denying the salacious allegations about him within the Steele memos and decried the fake news media, the vehicle through which information on the Russia scandal would reach the public.
Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?
Once the congressional investigations were launched in early 2017, Democrats largely stepped back and ceded much of the rhetorical terrain to Trump. In normal circumstances, this might have been the responsible thing to do. But now Trump had the big-picture turf mostly to himself. There would be much debate in reaction to new developments, such as Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. Largely, though, there was less discussion devoted to the controversy’s basics.
In previous scandals, it was not necessary to remind the public repeatedly of the essential elements of the story. Once the scandalous activity was revealed, there was no argument over whether it had actually happened. No one disputed the Watergate burglary had transpired—the issue was White House involvement and the cover-up. Ronald Reagan and his aides conceded the administration had sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to the contras fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua. The issue, again, was what the president knew—and whether this had been illegal.
But this time, Trump and his amen chorus have been claiming there is no Russia scandal—and insisting the real scandal is the existence of a secret FBI plot against him. They have promoted a perverted version of reality at a volume of 11. By merely forcing a debate over whether the Russia scandal truly exists, Trump clouds a tremendously important matter and scores at least a partial win. He has succeeded in diverting attention from his campaign actions that benefited Putin.
The Russia Witch Hunt is rapidly losing credibility. House Intelligence Committee found No Collusion, Coordination or anything else with Russia. So now the Probe says OK, what else is there? How about Obstruction for a made up, phony crime.There is no O, it’s called Fighting Back
Along with his shouts of “witch hunt,” Trump also incessantly declares, “No collusion.” This simplistic piece of shorthand aims at a straw man. Trump seems to be setting a bar that favors him: Unless evidence emerges that he personally met with Russian hackers, told them which Democratic Party emails to steal, and then provided guidance on how to release the material, then nothing wrong occurred. But the public record is already replete with serious wrongdoing committed by Trump and his aides. For example, after being secretly briefed in mid-August 2016 by the US intelligence community that Moscow was behind the hack-and-leak attack on the Democrats, Trump publicly claimed there was no reason to suspect the Russians.
With his “no collusion” chant, Trump is like an embezzler who yells, “There was no murder”—and asserts that is the only relevant benchmark. Think of what Trump did during the campaign in this fashion: A fellow is standing on a sidewalk in front of a bank. He is told the bank is being robbed. He can see armed men wearing masks in the bank. Yet when people pass by and ask what is happening in the bank, he says, “There is no robbery. Nothing to see. Move along.” Even if this person did not collude with the robbers, he is helping the gang perpetrate a crime. And in Trump’s case, the criminal act was committed for his gain.
Much of the media framing of the Russia scandal has followed Trump’s lead and adopted his collusion-centric perspective. The debate, such as it is, has become whether Trump directly collaborated with Moscow’s covert operation—and whether Trump, as president, tried to thwart the investigation and obstruct justice. The story is not driven by the serious offenses already established: Trump and his associates encouraged and assisted an attack from a foreign foe. 
In this ongoing fight, it is Trump and his bumper stickers versus a media presenting a wide variety of disparate disclosures that come and go quickly in a hyperchaotic information ecosystem, often absent full context. No wonder then that a recent poll found that 59 percent of Americans said Mueller has uncovered no crimes. In fact, he has secured 17 criminal indictments and obtained five guilty pleas. Accurate news reporting alone does not always carry the day.
The Russia scandal is the most important scandal in the history of the United States. President Andrew Johnson was impeached (but not convicted) because he violated an act of Congress to remove a secretary of war. In the Teapot Dome scandal, the secretary of the interior in Warren Harding’s administration leased federal lands at low rates to private oil companies, presumably in return for bribes. In Watergate, a president and his aides engaged in political skulduggery against political foes. President Bill Clinton lied about a sexual affair he had with a subordinate in the White House. All these scandals raised serious questions about integrity in government. But at the heart of the Russia scandal is the most fundamental issue for a democracy: the sanctity of elections.
An overseas enemy struck at the core of the republic—and it succeeded. Trump and his minions helped and encouraged this attack by engaging in secret contacts with Moscow and publicly insisting no such assault was happening. This is far bigger than a bribe, a break-in, or a blow job. And, worse, the United States remains vulnerable to such a strike.
Yet the full impact of this scandal does not resonate in the daily coverage and discourse. In many ways, the media presents the Russia scandal mostly as a political threat to Trump, not as a serious threat to the nation. And many Americans, thanks to Trump and his allies, view it as a charade. All this shows how easy it is for disinformation and demagoguery to distort reality. That is a tragedy for the United States. For Trump—and Putin—that is victory.
Listen to David Corn discuss this idea on last week’s episode of the Mother Jones Podcast:
Cover Image
The Mother Jones Podcast
Make America Toxic Again
00:00 / 26:44
 

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  • David Corn
    David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington bureau chief and an on-air analyst for MSNBC. He is the co-author (with Michael Isikoff) of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers, Showdown, Hubris(with Isikoff), and The Lies of George W. Bush, as well as the e-book, 47 Percent: Uncovering the Romney Video that Rocked the 2012 Election. For more of his stories, click here. He's also on Twitter and Facebook.


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