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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn case a link to a Republican COMPLETELY DISMANTLING Trump's Ukraine story might be useful
Last edited Mon Sep 23, 2019, 03:07 PM - Edit history (1)
as something to post on social media -- especially in response to anyone trying to say that the liberal mainstream media is just defending Biden because he's a Democrat -- then you might want to show skeptics or Trump defenders this scathing analysis of Trump's lies by former Jeb Bush communications director Tim Miller:
https://thebulwark.com/truth-lies-and-the-nonsense-trump-biden-ukraine-false-equivalency/
One of these guys was pressuring the Ukraine to help him out in an election. The other was pressuring the Ukraine to end corruption. They are not the same.
Watching the media cycle around President Trumps apparent abuse of powerand the underlying Biden nontroversy in Ukrainegives me a frustrating, helpless feeling. Its like when youre watching a horror movie and the psychopath is creeping up on some clueless dupe with a chainsaw and you scream, HES. RIGHT. BEHIND. YOU. You know its going to turn out badly and Leatherface is going to wind up doing his happy dancebut AGGH you want to try to help anyway.
Part of the reason its so frustrating is that we all know the script by now. Trump uses his perch for corrupt ends in the most ham-handed, farcical way imaginable.Then he denies it happened. As the truth seeps out through blind leaks, the position changes from denial to self-aggrandizement: Hell yeah I did it. What of it? Then comes the misdirection where the Trumpists pivot from defending the presidents actions to exaggerating some alleged misdoing by a Democrat and claiming its way worse than whatever crime Trump admitted to. Because while it wasnt a crime and Trump is proud of doing it, the Democrat who maybe might have done something vaguely similar is totally corrupt and Lock her up, baby!
It is maddening. And most of the mainstream media has turned to be ill-equipped to handle Trumps gaslighting, eagerly repeatinghis false accusations without the requisite context. And meanwhile, the Trump-friendly conservative outlets are his comrades-in-alternative-facts, giving legions of MAGA warriors the ammo they need to flood their Facebook feeds with the latest misinformation.
But despite the frustrating reality, the only way to combat or change this cycle is to disrupt it. So consider this is a humble attempt to do just that and provide some clarity to those of you who are too busy to bathe in the minutiae of the Ukranian prosecutors office and might be susceptible to throwing up your hands and placing a pox on both their houses.
-snip-
What follows is a very long piece that makes the case against Trump's lies, and defends Joe Biden.
And since it's not from a source that can be dismissed as liberal, your non-liberal relatives, friends and acquaintances might be more open to considering it.
_______
See reply 5 for another excerpt.
Control-Z
(15,681 posts)Thank you for bringing to our attention, highplainsdem!
highplainsdem
(48,731 posts)highplainsdem
(48,731 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)highplainsdem
(48,731 posts)UTUSN
(70,496 posts)************* QUOTE ***********
. (1) Joe Bidens son, Hunter, did take consulting work for a Ukrainian oil company, Burisma (UTUSN says, NOT Hunter), that was under investigation by a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin (UTUSN says, shaking down Burisma), for the work under the prior Russian-allied regime. This is where the true part of the Trump disinformation comes to an end.
(2) The problem was that Shokin actively stood in the way of international investigations that the U.S. and other democratic reformers were pursuing.
(3) Vice President Biden, U.S. diplomats, and our E.U. allies all called on the prosecutor to be fired so the corrupt oligarchs could be investigated MORE AGGRESSIVELY. This includes the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine calling out by name Mykola Zlochevsky, the oligarch who ran the company Hunter Biden worked for, as someone this prosecutor was letting off the hook.
(4) Donald Trump was allegedly pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate a domestic political foe on a bogus conspiracy for personal gain. Joe Biden was pressuring the Ukrainian government to root out corruption in their own country and bring about democratic reforms.
(5) For the kids in the back:
PRESSURING A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TO INTERFERE ON YOUR BEHALF IN DOMESTIC ELECTIONS = VERY BAD.
PRESSURING A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE CROOKS = GOOD.
.
But we dont have to continue living this cycle. We can stop playing along with it. What happened in Ukraine, after-all, is not a game. Sometimes things are cut and dry. Sometimes one man is fighting corruption and the other guy is corrupting all of us, on purpose.
This is one of those times.
*************UNQUOTE******
highplainsdem
(48,731 posts)Martin Eden
(12,803 posts)The truth should matter.
crazylikafox
(2,739 posts)highplainsdem
(48,731 posts)LudwigPastorius
(8,944 posts)"Tim Miller's a Deep State RINO! Drain the Swamp!"
Cultists cannot be reached with reason or logical representations of reality. They must be deprogrammed first.
After this national nightmare is over, we're going to have to have some kind of wide-ranging effort in place, akin to the 'de-Nazification' of Germany after the war, to rid the country of Trump's deranged zealots and enablers.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)He got this right on Trump knowing how to play the media
Donald Trumps great innovation as a political actor is that he discovered how to weaponize the media against the country. He realized that the medias traditional attempt to present balance in its political coverage meant that he could do just about anything, and reporters would feel compelled to contact some source to explain how, if you squint, it might be normal and bookers would put someone on air to defend him. The idea of balance required the media to always present a dissenting view of Trump, no matter how egregiously wrong his actions might be.
He also realized that the medias imperative to run down every story meant that he could always distract them from one scandal by creating another. Its the political version of chaff: One scandal can end your presidency. A hundred of them is just white noise.