American Psyops: Ben Rhodes' "Force Multipliers" Now Being Called Out by Foreign Policy Experts

Note: If you're just seeing this story, you might want to read this piece from yesterday first, or Lee Smith's Weekly Standard piece to get up to speed.

It's huge.

The legacy media is, get this, giving this story the silent treatment, not interested in covering a scandal that affects so many of their colleagues and late-night bootycall side-pieces.

But conservative writers are writing about it. This Lee Smith piece at the WS has additional horrifying quotes from the New York Times piece about Ben Rhodes and his army of "force multipliers."

Samuels's profile is an amazing piece of writing about the Holden Caulfield of American foreign policy. He's a sentimental adolescent with literary talent (Rhodes published one short story before his mother's connections won him a job in the world of foreign policy), and high self regard, who thinks that everyone else is a phony. Those readers who found Jeffrey Goldberg's picture of Obama in his March Atlantic profile refreshing for the president's willingness to insult American allies publicly will be similarly cheered here by Rhodes's boast of deceiving American citizens, lawmakers, and allies over the Iran deal....
In Rhodes's "narrative" about the Iran deal, negotiations started when the ostensibly moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected president, providing an opening for the administration to reach out in friendship. In reality, as Samuels gets administration officials to admit, negotiations began when "hardliner" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was still president. It was Rhodes who framed the Iran deal as a choice between peace and war, and it was Rhodes who set up a messaging unit to sell the deal that created an "echo chamber" in the press. "[Al Monitor reporter] Laura Rozen was my RSS feed," says Tanya Somanader, the 31-year-old who managed @TheIranDeal twitter feed. "She would just find everything and retweet it."
"In the spring of last year," Samuels writes:

legions of arms-control experts began popping up at think tanks and on social media, and then became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters. "We created an echo chamber," [Rhodes] admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. "They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say."
When I suggested that all this dark metafictional play seemed a bit removed from rational debate over America's future role in the world, Rhodes nodded. "In the absence of rational discourse, we are going to discourse the [expletive] out of this," he said. "We had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else. So we knew the tactics that worked." He is proud of the way he sold the Iran deal. "We drove them crazy," he said of the deal's opponents.

Sohrab Ahmari is writing about this incident today, and Ben Rhodes' echo chamber force multiplier Laura Rozen, as she relentlessly retransmitted Administration lies about Rouhani.

Sohrab Ahmari's account says he's:

Editorial Writer, @WSJOpinion. At work on a book about smugglers and refugees.

Here's his encounter with Rhodes'/Obama's "Echo Chamber:"

A Twitter essay on Iran and Ben Rhodes: (1) In June 2013, the day after Rouhani was elected, I wrote a WSJ oped showing he's no moderate.
(2) I noted his "Death to America" statements, record in the Iranian security apparatus and role in suppressing the 1999 student uprising.
(3) I also noted that, even if he were inclined toward moderation, the Iranian system is designed such that popular branches have no power.
(4) The oped clashed with the Rouhani-mania in Washington, among the Rozen types and the various Iranian-American interpreters of Iran.
(5) A few others (@EliLake, @SGhasseminejad, @mdubowitz) joined me in sounding skeptical notes but the Rozens of the world won the day.
(6) Their message discipline was remarkable. It was as if they'd all received the same memo. Skeptics were shut out and ridiculed.
(7) There were variations in tone. But on the main issues the Rouhani government, the US Iran lobby and most of the prestige press agreed.
( The main line was that it's either deal or war. Also that Washington and Tehran should overcome hard-liners on both sides.
(9) As if John McCain, Mark Kirk and Netanyahu, etc. were no better, morally, than the ayatollahs who stone women and hang gays.
(10) Every instance of Iranian aggression and duplicity was attributed to the "hard-liners." Rouhani was an innocent lamb.
(11) I thought: I've lived in Iran. How can Max Fisher et al propound on it with such certainty from a 10-mile radius from Dupont Circle?
(12) More important, how could so many foreign-policy elites pretend that history began in 09, following a dark prehistory that began in 03?
(13) Well now we know: Ben Rhodes was feeding them the talking points, packaged in those obnoxious background that are Obama-admin hallmarks

Tom Nichols, a professor at the Naval War College, is detailing his (presumed) run-in with Rhodes' Force Multiplier Echo Chamber:

I want to know how the #IranDeal advocates are going to explain why Ben Rhodes is wrong about how they were all his sock puppets. /1
Why should I, or anyone, believe that the agitprop campaign about the @AP report in particular wasn't orchestrated by the WH? /2
A lot of experts put their reputations on the line for #IranDeal and #Parchin, and made some heavy accusations. Rhodes outed them today. /3
I wrote about this in the @thedailybeast at the time, here. /4

The article he's talking about his here, about the Force Multipliers' relentless pushback when the Parchin matter was disclosed. Let me quote a bit, before getting back to his narrative. Parchin was, as you might remember, the facility that the Iranians were allowed to self-inspect for nuclear activity, in a side-deal.

The story, of course, had immediate impact: Supporters of the Iran Deal took issue with the whole notion of "self-inspection," while opponents blasted the news as yet more evidence that the West, and particularly the Obama administration, had caved to unreasonable Iranian demands.
In short order, this predictable debate fell to the wayside as Deal supporters adopted a "shoot the messenger" strategy. In a later version of the same story the AP clipped some of the more controversial claims. Deal supporters pounced, and gloated that the AP was quietly walking back its own story after accomplishing nothing but riling up the GOP rubes who hate the deal anyway.
The next morning, Max Fisher of Vox fired off a story that, at first reading, seemed to eviscerate the AP's report...

Fischer seized on the fact that the later version of the story omitted a couple of claims in the earlier version, and decided, for no particular reason (except that Ben Rhodes probably told him so) that this represented a full walk-back of those claims.

It didn't. The next update included all those claims again. It was just happenstance that one draft didn't include a couple of claims.

...
As Fisher’s story hit the Internet in mid-morning, it crossed in cyberspace with the AP’s updated version of its own story, with all the contentious claims restored. The AP, it turns out, hadn’t "scrubbed" anything and stood by all of it. Fisher amended his own story to note this new development, including an interview with AP executive Paul Colford, who said the earlier version had been cut briefly to make room for GOP reactions.
Still, Twitter lit up with gleeful claims that the AP reporters had gotten the story wrong....
These are pretty serious accusations. And then things got really weird.
On Thursday afternoon, the AP published what it claimed was a direct, verbatim transcription of the draft side-agreement...
Instead of engaging the substance of the document, however, Iran Deal supporters went for a simpler, truther-ist explanation: The document couldn’t say anything at all, but because it's a fake.

Interestingly, almost all of the charges and implied charges of forgery hit the Internet at roughly the same time on Friday morning. (At least they did in my Twitter stream.) I’m not pushing my own conspiracy theory, so I'll just say I have no idea if it was orchestrated. But I hate those kinds of coincidences--and hey, I'm just asking questions.

Not to skip ahead, but Nichols now does suspect coordination. But at the time, he didn't know that Rhodes had a bunch of Twitter Dummies posing as "experts" who would take whatever pre-cum dripped out of his lie-dick and turn it into a Twitter lie bukkake.

The presumed Force Multipliers began blaming Jewish chicanery. No, I'm not kidding.

The Huffington Post made the strongest play by noting that former IAEA official Tariq Rauf said that in his view it was "not an authentic document" and represented an attempt to "hinder:the Iran Deal. Because the AP’s draft referred to Iran as the "Islamic State of Iran"--its official name is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which also appears in the draft--some seized on this as evidence of involvement of...well, You Know Who: "The only one who refers to Iran," Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council tweeted, "as 'Islamic State of Iran' is [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu. And strangely, AP's dubious 'draft' of the IAEA-Iran agreement..."
AP writer Matt Lee upbraided Parsi, saying: "You know better than this." Parsi, in classic truther fashion, replied: "I am pointing out the language similarity and calling it strange. That's it." Fisher, for his part, called the AP story "troubling" and backed off when Lee also directly challenged him to take a position on the forgery charge.

Now back to Nichols' new suspicions in the wake of the Rhodes Confessions:

I and other #IranDeal opponents, scholars and experts, were accused of ignorance and pure partisanship. /5
But we weren't the ones cutting and pasting Rhodes's talking points. We weren't the ones accusing @AP of cooking the reports on #Parchin. /6
We were accused of bad faith. But as Rhodes admits, he spun the messaging *intentionally* to short circuit a debate. /7
Here's Rhodes: "We set up an echo chamber."
He's not even trying to finesse it. He fed a line to reporters and think tank flacks. /8
And the rest of us had to take static for being partisan from people like @cirincione, and journo giants like @Max_Fisher on #Iran /9
I wonder: did any of those people foresee the possibility that Rhodes is so arrogant he'd out them and then crow about it? /10
Because make no mistake: Rhodes is admitting what he did. And he's happy about it. And he thinks it was a good idea. /11
And in turning experts and journos into #IranDeal suckers, both experts and journos harmed themselves and public debate. /12
Those who saw the deal as an Obama play for a legacy based on some vaporous #Iran grand bargain got it right, like @Doranimated. /13
Those of us who objected to #IranDeal on those grounds were then told that this was just striking while the iron was hot, only on nukes. /14
This, by Rhodes's own admission, is now completely a lie. This was part of a harebrained Big Policy Idea going back years. /15
But when some of us sensed exactly that very thing, we were gaslighted by fellow experts and compliant journalists for being haters. /16
Every expert who took those #IranDeal talking points, and every journo who repeated them willingly, should have to answer for this. /17
My opposition to #IranDeal was based on best judgment as a foreign policy expert and scholar. My conscience is clear. /18
But those #IranDeal advocates who participated in this circus should be losing sleep over it. At the least, they owe us an explanation. /19
And I don't want to hear how this is more partisan hating. I've written in support of Obama policies when I've thought them to be right. /20
But the experts and journos who bought Rhodes's #IranDeal novel have placed their credibility in doubt.
It's up to them to restore it.

So where is the media on this? This is not an accusation; this is an admission by Ben Rhodes as well as some of the key players in his shop. Who named themselvs -- they're not anonymous. They admitted these things.

So we have lies, schemes to deceive, willing stooges in the media eager to transmit those lies (as they have no expertise of their own to offer, except what the failed novelist Ben Rhodes puts in their heads), and all over an inarguably major subject -- foreign policy, and specifically, the nukes Obama gave Iran.

Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

As usual -- covering up for their dirty-dealing colleagues.

Here's Lee Smith summing up this unscrupulous, anti-American psyops against the public:

So that's it. For the last seven years the American public has been living through a postmodern narrative crafted by an extremely gifted and unspeakably cynical political operative whose job is to wage digital information campaigns designed to dismantle a several-decade old security architecture while lying about the nature of the Iranian regime. No wonder Americans feel less safe--they are.

Posted by: Ace at 11:32 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 This is supposed to bother us why exactly? Isn't this a pro-Hillary site now?

Hashtag diplomacy is where its at.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 11:36 AM (2Ocf1)

2
Force Multiplier = Preference Cascade. It's the exact same thing.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:36 AM (h+IVw)

3 Also, there's a lot of shit going on in the ME that is not being reported.

I know a Qatari national - he was called up in the National Guard or whatever its called there before Christmas. He's still on duty - fighting ISIS and Houthis and others. It was a nationwide callup.

Seems like that's news, right?

The media exists not to tell you things, but to decide what you should be told.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 11:38 AM (2Ocf1)

4 blaster, fuck off and go suck trump's dick somewhere else.

this is a major story and all you can do is fucking whine that your hero isn't being respected and that somehow denigrates your class

as I said, fuck of. not every fucking story revolves around your Celebrity Reality King

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 11:38 AM (dciA+)

5 Joseph Goebbels has NOTHING on this Rhodes fucker.

Posted by: LGoPs at May 06, 2016 11:39 AM (OcRm7)

6 fucking important story but Trump Clowns gotta clown

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 11:39 AM (dciA+)

7
The media is acknowledging this story, btw. But they're spinning it solely as Rhodes doing the people 'a solid' by 'warning' them that someone such as Trump might use the media's gullibility and malleability to sell bad policy.

Rhodes, you see, would never do this for obama's behalf. Rhodes is, according to the media liars today, is only shedding light on the problem because Trump might take advantage if elected and that would be awful.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:41 AM (h+IVw)

8 No, the question is WHERE WERE THE SENATORS?

These are the people who are supposed to be the Upper Chamber, the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Whatever, and these goddamn fools and their bloated, paranoid staffs got their information from the same incompetent jackholes as the press, and credulously swallowed it exactly the same way.

Posted by: JEM at May 06, 2016 11:41 AM (o+SC1)

9 So isn't this sort of "illegal" I mean it does affect the National Security does it not... But obamas 'Reign" is amazingly scandal free...

Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 11:41 AM (O2RFr)

10 remember that behind the scenes of this manipulation of a largely compliant press was a campaign of intimidation through bullying and berating. on occasion a reporter would speak out until finally the tactics were denounced by a shocked woodward. he wondered why there wasn't more open criticism of the administration's unprecedented aggression.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at May 06, 2016 11:42 AM (WTSFk)

11 Off topic early but too good to play by the rules......
McCain says on tape that The Donald is ruining he reelection campaign. That's it, I'm all in! Trump 2016!

Posted by: connielu at May 06, 2016 11:42 AM (xs+DN)

12 11 Off topic early but too good to play by the rules......
McCain says on tape that The Donald is ruining he reelection campaign. That's it, I'm all in! Trump 2016!

The old dinosaur need to be put out to pasture anyway...

Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 11:43 AM (O2RFr)

13 >>>The media is acknowledging this story, btw. But they're spinning it solely as Rhodes doing the people 'a solid' by 'warning' them that someone such as Trump might use the media's gullibility and malleability to sell bad policy.

Rhodes, you see, would never do this for obama's behalf. Rhodes is, according to the media liars today, is only shedding light on the problem because Trump might take advantage if elected and that would be awful.

...

are you kidding me? Where is this?

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 11:43 AM (dciA+)

14 Joseph Goebel would be so proud.

Posted by: Creeky at May 06, 2016 11:43 AM (clbHW)

15 The amazing thing is just how similar Rhodes' behavior is to that of Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare architect, or Obama himself, for that matter. These people just can't seem to help themselves; they have to trumpet how powerful they are, how the rules of mere mortals don't apply to them, and how contemptuous they are of their lessers (everybody).

By all means, let's give power to people like this.

Posted by: pep at May 06, 2016 11:43 AM (3e8zv)

16 Truth is just another word for whatever the left finds convenient at the time.

Posted by: joe, living dangerously at May 06, 2016 11:45 AM (34w2E)

17
I just heard someone say it on Fox News 5 minutes ago. I'm assuming he's not the only one repeating these talking points. I forget who it was.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:45 AM (h+IVw)

18 If there was only one thing I could change in America, it would be to destroy the "journalistic" profession. Without their active cooperation and participation none of this happens. There is no Obama treachery because there is no Obama.
Media Delenda Est.

Posted by: LGoPs at May 06, 2016 11:45 AM (OcRm7)

19 >>The amazing thing is just how similar Rhodes' behavior is to
>> that of Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare architect,

They're just so much SMARTER than everyone else, that of COURSE they're right.

Posted by: JEM at May 06, 2016 11:45 AM (o+SC1)

20 Good work, Ace.

I love to hate the mFm.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe far far away..the media does it's job.

Posted by: willy at May 06, 2016 11:46 AM (Ffw22)

21 They told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney we'd get a cynical, manipulative government that actively deceives the public on foreign policy matters... and they were right!

Posted by: Insty's shade at May 06, 2016 11:46 AM (Hlv/w)

22 Dog bites man story. MSM propaganda for regime is expected.
Fox, Breitbart, Rush, Hannity et al all have their heads too far up Trump's ass to notice anything else going on.

Posted by: El Alamein at May 06, 2016 11:46 AM (bSxRn)

23 I think Ace is going for a scalp.

And may just get it.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at May 06, 2016 11:47 AM (ptqRm)

24 ***"By all means, let's give power to people like this."***

They already have the power. All of it.

If there's any left unclaimed, they'll just seize it.

There's really no nice way to describe people who think this grand experiment isn't over.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 11:48 AM (Wckf4)

25 Bookmarking. They'e doing the same thing with the anti-reality spin of men in women's bathrooms being "good and normal." This entire admin has been a work of fiction. Worse it's been a work of fiction at war with reality. Expect the same from Hillary.

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 11:48 AM (UbIg6)

26 Wow, a book snuck in here.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 06, 2016 11:49 AM (vvmPQ)

27 whatever pre-cum dripped out of his lie-dick and turn it into a Twitter lie bukkake.

********

I'm still reading but this is....

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 11:50 AM (mcm0N)

28 I'll be g**damned is this country isn't on the express train for a major reckoning that'll make the civil war look like a cheery Sunday afternoon with cake and ice cream.

Choo, f'in, choo.

Posted by: shinjinrui at May 06, 2016 11:50 AM (4SznG)

29 As usual, Obama cuts out the middle-person (and the middle-class) and dumps the raw propaganda into reporters' laptops for distribution.

When I saw that obsequious head-bow Brian Williams gave to Barry during William's first Obama interview at the White House, I knew what we were in for. The MSM is just one big, effin' sewer line for the DNC.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 11:51 AM (JBggj)

30 I was admonished earlier for wanting to be called an "American"...Sven they replied Hillary! fans can call themselves "Americans"....

yeah "really"?

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:51 AM (g8Hfr)

31 ***"whatever pre-cum dripped out of his lie-dick and turn it into a Twitter lie bukkake.

********

I'm still reading but this is...."***

Pure poetry?

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 11:52 AM (Wckf4)

32 I have a feeling the news was more impartial back when the media was actually partial. Like, when candidates would just buy newspapers for positive press.

This whole "impartial" press is a blight on our system of governance.

And probably TV, too. The nightly news has probably done more to stupidfy the country than anything else.

Posted by: Chupacabra at May 06, 2016 11:52 AM (W2YA6)

33 25 Bookmarking. They'e doing the same thing with the anti-reality spin of men in women's bathrooms being "good and normal." This entire admin has been a work of fiction. Worse it's been a work of fiction at war with reality. Expect the same from Hillary.

I think if Hillary wins, and its a good possibility, She won't get quite as much adoration as obama because no one can replace the Boy King ... Of course they won't be too hard on Her because She's Historic, just not as historic as Their Messiah...

Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 11:52 AM (O2RFr)

34
Isn't the media's work on the Bruce Jenner saga the biggest most grossest example of a "Force Multiplier" we've ever seen?

By showing Bruce as a normal person and repeating how brave and beautiful is as he pretends he's a woman, the media is manufacturing a preference cascade using simple psychology.

If we've learned anything in the last 10 years, it's that it's very easy to fool people and shape the way they think.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:52 AM (h+IVw)

35 This administration and its enabling media minions are making Vikund Quisling out to be a man of great character in comparison.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 06, 2016 11:53 AM (igkah)

36 The Iranians are throwing the wrong people off the rooftops.

Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn at May 06, 2016 11:53 AM (UhRGU)

37 And Trump pretty much has his propaganda machine already in place. Maybe Roger Stone or Alex Jones will be his "Communications" Director.
See everyone in the concentration camp!

Posted by: El Alamein at May 06, 2016 11:53 AM (bSxRn)

38 The MSM. Not only are they liars (we knew that), they're now revealed to be a pack of lazy, fucking, stupid assholes.

Posted by: kathysaysso at May 06, 2016 11:53 AM (43OZ6)

39 35 Posted by: Anna Puma at May 06, 2016 11:53 AM (igkah)

Obama's "Smaht Powah" is built on media "Retard Strength"

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:54 AM (g8Hfr)

40 (

The main line was that it's either deal or war. Also that Washington and Tehran should overcome hard-liners on both sides.

(9) As if John McCain, Mark Kirk and Netanyahu, etc. were no better, morally, than the ayatollahs who stone women and hang gays.

********

Damn this Rhodes bastard. Another unqualified expert most forget about is --McDonough.

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (mcm0N)

41 ***"Joseph Goebel would be so proud."***

Actually I'm pretty shocked at how brazen these assholes are.

Posted by: Joseph Goebbels at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (Wckf4)

42 No matter what you call this crap sandwich, a "deal" or an "illegal treaty" that Iran refuses to acknowledge. It is another great foreign policy success for Obama. Like all of his foreign policy "deals" it is a massive failure. My last link about Iran was to an article that said they warned that they were going to close the Straight of Hormuz to Americans again.

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (vvmPQ)

43 No, the question is WHERE WERE THE SENATORS?

These are the people who are supposed to be the Upper Chamber, the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Whatever, and these goddamn fools and their bloated, paranoid staffs got their information from the same incompetent jackholes as the press, and credulously swallowed it exactly the same way.
Posted by: JEM

I lecture you peasant, You don't lecture me.

Posted by: Sen B. Sassy (R- For rent) at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (326rv)

44 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

-
In.

The.

Tank.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 06, 2016 11:56 AM (Nwg0u)

45 Ben Rhodes should be turned over to ISIS to test his 'digital prowess' as a means of escape.

Posted by: Foghorn Leghorn at May 06, 2016 11:56 AM (UhRGU)

46 42 Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (vvmPQ)

Correct...American voters must force themselves to separate "Obama" from "America"....for Ogabe Iran cave was a success...

he has empowered more Islamic terrorism and on a long enough timeline it will be nuclear terrorism.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:56 AM (g8Hfr)

47 Well, the sad thing is, Rhodes is right - the 20-somethings in the media calling him actually don't know a fvcking thing.

The guy can spot a fellow traveler.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 11:57 AM (Wckf4)

48 43 Posted by: Sen B. Sassy (R- For rent) at May 06, 2016 11:55 AM (326rv)

The GOP Senators were busy thwarting the Constitution to not have to admit to the American people we have a traitor in office.

Sassy Ben you keep on being you babe.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:57 AM (g8Hfr)

49 "I'll be g**damned is this country isn't on the express train for a major reckoning that'll make the civil war look like a cheery Sunday afternoon with cake and ice cream. "

I'm afraid so too.

Here we have the government admittedly lying and using the media as willing spooge receptacles and it's not really making a blip.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (AbFmZ)

50 Joseph Goebbels has NOTHING on this Rhodes fucker.

-
At least Joe was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (Nwg0u)

51 Oh joy obama is gonna speak about that fantastic jobs report!

Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (O2RFr)

52 Damn, this kinda shitshow is gonna make ace go back to twitter for a few days.

Maybe we can get more art threads!

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (Wckf4)

53 Why should we no consider that this same message management has driven other Obama initiatives:

Fast & Furious
The monthly economic numbers
Obamacare

etc.

Journolist didn't die, it just moved to Twitter.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (cXiMR)

54 Another great example of press stupidity: gleefully talking about automated McDonalds ordering and $15 minimum wage in back-to-back segments.

They do not ask follow-up questions, therefore they're as dumb, or dumber, than we think they are.

Posted by: Chupacabra at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (W2YA6)

55 It's Gruber all over again. The perp can admit anything publicly and it simply doesn't matter to the left. So long as government grew a bit and freedom receded a bit, it's all good to them.

Posted by: Epobirs at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (IdCqF)

56 Obama's "Smaht Powah" is built on media "Retard Strength"

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:54 AM (g8Hfr)

In addition to my insistence that Leftism starts with the assumption that there is no objective truth (a self-refuting piece of malarkey if such a thing ever existed), I have this to add:

There are three things that rule the modern Left. The Dunning-Kreuger effect, the Peter Principle, and Groupthink. Every position has ended up filled by idiots who are the inheritors of better men whose traits they do not share, the skills for competence are the same skills necessary to recognize competence - so they don't know how stupid they are or the magnitude of the mistakes they're making, and the mindbogglingly stupid produce of such mental lightweights is then deemed correct because it finds no opposition in the echo chamber.

Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (HalrA)

57 Donna, Hillary won't be as adored but she'll be more feared.

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (UbIg6)

58 51 Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (O2RFr)

Er uh I know 160,000 people is INARGUABLY below replacement rate for new births...

BUT hey I need to import 2,000,000 Syrians and it'll all work out!

//Bronk T Ogabe

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (g8Hfr)

59
obama to speak on the economy in moments. Watch the Liar in action as he says the economy is "fundamentally strong" and reminds us he's created 58 straight months of job growth -- a historical record. obama might also mention he created a historical bull market.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (h+IVw)

60 obama to speak on the economy in moments. Watch the Liar in action as he says the economy is "fundamentally strong" and reminds us he's created 58 straight months of job growth -- a historical record. obama might also mention he created a historical bull market.

You don't actually think He'd tell the truth do You?

Posted by: donna at May 06, 2016 12:00 PM (O2RFr)

61 Easily done.

Posted by: Jayson Blair at May 06, 2016 12:00 PM (gwG9s)

62 Well written, and excellent work, Ace, but seriously, did any of this really play any role in what happened? I mean, if a Senator was citing Fisher or Rozen or any of the media idiots, he was just looking for a fig leaf to cover him on his vote.

No matter what the media was saying, did anyone for a minute think, "Yeah, this could bring peace in our time"? If so, how dumb can you be? It's Iran. There's a whole lot of "inside baseball" stuff with Rhodes in this article, and he wants to make himself sound like the most important man in Washington, but the facts are that Dems are too deep into the Obama Kool-Aid to oppose him on anything, no matter how stupid the idea, and there are too many spineless Republicans who will go along to get along.

And educate me, SJWs - Is it racist to use Obama and Kool-Aid in the same sentence?

Posted by: Ted K. at May 06, 2016 12:00 PM (seSmy)

63 Okay, I am out.

I'm about at my LD50 level for outrage and reality.

Posted by: Anna Puma at May 06, 2016 12:01 PM (igkah)

64 56 Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at May 06, 2016 11:59 AM (HalrA)

They are a very odd hybrid of Lenin and DuBois....

they *are* the (non)talented tenth...

We are fucked, go long on SPF-1750

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:01 PM (g8Hfr)

65 If only there existed some institution that was capable of examining the Administration's claims for accuracy, and then reporting its findings to the public .....

Posted by: sturt at May 06, 2016 12:02 PM (my2h4)

66 Alright. Sleepy time, for realsies. Have fun, and kick some killjoys in the squishy bits and strike fear in the hearts of authoritarians everywhere.

Posted by: Cato the Rebel Without a Party at May 06, 2016 12:02 PM (HalrA)

67 >>>I'm about at my LD50 level for outrage and reality.

i get the reference. i love ld50. great name for a band.

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:02 PM (dciA+)

68 So essentially what did we get from Iran out of this deal?

"Not war"? But even that's a lie?

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (mcm0N)

69 The interesting thing about this? Conservative blogs all pointed out this as it was happening and the MSM ignored it to help the Magical Negro.

The cult of Obama, now being replaced with the cult of Trump and/or Hillary.

The dumbing down of the country continues.

God help us.

Posted by: Nip Sip at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (jJRIy)

70 It's Gruber all over again.

-
Welcome to the party, pal.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (Nwg0u)

71 We are so messed over! Our only hope is the Lord. Here is a link to the 2016 National Day of Prayer prayer. It's calls for God's miraculous intervention to save our country, and for renewed courage on the part of everyday Christians.

http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/national-prayer/

Posted by: Carmen at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (RHjCR)

72 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

-
In.

The.

Tank.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

On
Their
Knees
Enjoying it

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (cXiMR)

73

Read the original piece in the NY TIMES. I did yesterday. While the author was stunned by Rhodes admissions, can't help but see the ADMIRATION.

This makes me sick

I'M LOOKING AT YOU JUST STREET. I'M LOOKING AT YOU DEMOCRATS. I'M LOOKING AT YOU MEDIA.

I feel like puking

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (dbBTG)

74 obama to speak on the economy in moments. Watch the Liar in action as he
says the economy is "fundamentally strong" and reminds us he's created
58 straight months of job growth -- a historical record. obama might
also mention he created a historical bull market.

================

With 94,000,000 Americans not working (in tax-paying jobs). Modern technology makes it easier and more socially-acceptable to be on the dole instead of waiting in a soup line, like in the old days. Just swipe the card, baby.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 12:04 PM (JBggj)

75 " If only there existed some institution that was capable of examining the Administration's claims for accuracy, and then reporting its findings to the public "

There is no truth in Pravda......

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:04 PM (AbFmZ)

76 This Iran deal just gets better and better. Obama isn't just a feckless
fool, he's a traitorous treasonous son of a bitch. And that's not just
hyperbole. I'm not a lawyer -- can anyone here give their legal
opinion on whether Obama's actions here, selling us out with his
storyteller foreign policy guru, rise to the level of a crime for which
he could be prosecuted?

That's one way Trump could get my vote:
Promise to prosecute Obama and his minions, for this, and for the
weaponizing of the IRS.

Posted by: Pastafarian at May 06, 2016 12:05 PM (LqrRo)

77 67 Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:02 PM (dciA+)

LD-50 is nice slang...

at some point your rage and ire at the entrenched institutional idiocy takes form and runs away from you like Peter Pan's shadow....

We are governed by Tinkerbell Ace... ANY Donk failure is b/c we all were not clapping.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:05 PM (g8Hfr)

78 Meh hoped the pixy formater would support concrete comments

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:05 PM (cXiMR)

79 So each and every member of Obama's administration is a mendacious scheming POS. Quelle surprise!

Posted by: Sherry McEvil, Stiletto Corsettes now franchising Lulu Snackbars at May 06, 2016 12:05 PM (kXoT0)

80 All I had to know about the Iran deal was the following:

It let the crazy mullahs have nukes and 100 billion dollars.

Posted by: Sherry McEvil, Stiletto Corsettes now franchising Lulu Snackbars at May 06, 2016 12:06 PM (kXoT0)

81 Re: Where is the media, I think folks who get frustrated that this admin isn't held accountable by the media are missing a very key point: this administration IS the media. Look at who is in the administration. What did they used to do? Who are their sexual partners? Media media media.

Put it another way, what if the 4th estate woke up and decided that instead of reporting on power it might be a lot more fun to BE in power. What might that look like? How is it different from what we have now?

Posted by: major major major major at May 06, 2016 12:06 PM (QdJ6U)

82 ~~Let it burn.~~

Burn it down.

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:06 PM (nbrY/)

83 obama might also mention he created a historical bull-shit market.

Fixed for accuracy.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:06 PM (6hZFv)

84 Top.Men.

Posted by: Grump928(c) says Free Soothie!, with purchase of commentor of equal or greater value at May 06, 2016 12:07 PM (evdj2)

85 It's the same in immigration policy. The administration will spread a big lie ("Obama is deporter in chief! Biggest deportations ever!") and then Dara Lind at Vox and SM Kim at Politico and the NYT and WaPo will simply repeat the lies ad nauseam, despite being called out over and over by Kaus and Krikorian and Neil Munro. I'm sure it's the same in education policy or housing policy or anything else. Here is a good post by Spotted Toad about how the administration and Vox coordinate on education policy.

https://spottedtoad.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/vox-and-teachers-2/

Posted by: bjk at May 06, 2016 12:07 PM (x2rNW)

86 Burn it down.

Make the rubble bounce.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:07 PM (6hZFv)

87 Put it another way, what if the 4th estate woke up and decided that instead of reporting on power it might be a lot more fun to BE in power. What might that look like? How is it different from what we have now?

It has been said that the Democratic Party is just the armed wing of the Media.

Posted by: Grump928(c) says Free Soothie!, with purchase of commentor of equal or greater value at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (evdj2)

88

Read the article. Iran is our ally. They are siding with Shia in this civil war. They think this will keep us out of ME wars

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (dbBTG)

89 81 Re: Where is the media, I think folks who get frustrated that this admin isn't held accountable by the media are missing a very key point: this administration IS the media. Look at who is in the administration. What did they used to do? Who are their sexual partners? Media media media.

--

Ben Rhodes is the brother of the President of CBS News

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (nbrY/)

90 Well, look at things from a "jounalist"'s point of view. Popular respect for "journalists" is currently lower than whale sh*t. And jobs in "journalism" are very hard to find. If one wants to be a "journalist" and enjoy the very finest shrimp cocktails and free drinks on the DC circuit, one toes the line.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (JBggj)

91 No need to burn it down. It will burn all by itself. The key is escaping the fire.

Posted by: grammie winger at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (dFi94)

92 I dispute that Rhodes is "extremely gifted." Any given troll on a message board or blog could have puked the same stupid talking points as he did or spun things the way he has.

His "gift" is having a compliant, obedient, and servile press that simply repeats and expands on anything he says, giving it credibility and weight. He didn't trick them. He didn't dazzle them. He wasn't "gifted" in some special way to get this to happen. They wanted it to happen and went along deliberately even while knowing better.

The legacy media isn't just young and ignorant about foreign policy, they're willing co-conspirators because of three things:

1) They fear being considered racist for opposing a halfrican American president
2) They fear contributing to war buildup by pointing out the evil in Middle Eastern countries as they think happened with Iraq.
3) They want to promote and support the leftist agenda of this administration, and feel that any opposition or question of it moves America to the right politically.
3)

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (39g3+)

93 Ben Rhodes is the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes. The inbreeding between the MSM and the regime is incredible.

Posted by: El Alamein at May 06, 2016 12:09 PM (bSxRn)

94 88 Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:08 PM (dbBTG)

Smaht POWAH!

B/C it makes perfect sense to overtly ally yourself with the more radical, less populous sect of Islam....

"no really"

Not possible without the Ratahd Strength of the media

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:09 PM (g8Hfr)

95 >>>I dispute that Rhodes is "extremely gifted." Any given troll on a message board or blog could have puked the same stupid talking points as he did or spun things the way he has.

i agree, but I guess it sounds better to say we were taken by a supremely gifted storyteller

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:10 PM (dciA+)

96 And educate me, SJWs - Is it racist to use Obama and Kool-Aid in the same sentence?

Posted by: Ted K. at May 06, 2016 12:00 PM (seSmy)

Use it and we'll let you know. As you are aware these things change.

-SJW's everywhere

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at May 06, 2016 12:10 PM (mEZce)

97 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

Where the fuck was the GOP?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (OcD4G)

98 The crease.....
So beautiful.....

Posted by: David Brooks at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (QM5S2)

99 No need to burn it down. It will burn all by itself. The key is escaping the fire

Yeah. "Let it burn" isn't a call to light the fires.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (39g3+)

100 95 Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:10 PM (dciA+)

It may make the pain go down easier Ace, but reality is we allowed ourselves to be rolled by functional illiterates.

If we seek to alter that it is better to admit reality.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (g8Hfr)

101 This story has me angry beyond words - fortunately Ace is not so afflicted "But at the time, he didn't know that Rhodes had a bunch of Twitter Dummies posing as "experts" who would take whatever pre-cum dripped out of his lie-dick and turn it into a Twitter lie bukkake."

Hey I always mix up Kabuki and Bukake - which is which again?

Posted by: Holdfast at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (nNdYv)

102 "But at the time, he didn't know that Rhodes had a bunch of Twitter
Dummies posing as "experts" who would take whatever pre-cum dripped out
of his lie-dick and turn it into a Twitter lie bukkake."

Poetry, Ace!

I'm adding thoe "force multipliers" to my list of people I hope have a frontrow view of Iran's first nukes hitting a US target.
Treasonous [redacted]!!

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (NOIQH)

103 J Street should have this anchor tied around

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (dbBTG)

104 therefore they're as dumb, or dumber, than we think they are.
Posted by: Chupacabra at May 06, 2016 11:58 AM (W2YA6)

Reading their slop, no other conclusion is possible.

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (rbPBV)

105 What is it you've said before Ace "Americans are being gas lighted?"

Its not just in foreign policy. Last year, shortly after gay marriage because a civil right I noticed Late Night and some other news entertainment shows were starting to push stories about trans-gendered kids in schools.

We got all those "recovery summer" BS stories to the point where the local media tells me the housing market in the front range area of CO is booming and I don't believe it. Anecdotally my farrier told me his SIL had gotten laid off from his title search job which is not consistent with a hot real estate market, so even though housing prices are high and nice houses sell quickly I'm still thinking "they lie about everything, I don't trust them even on this"

Posted by: PaleRider at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (wYRTH)

106 You have to wonder what goes on inside that wrinkled old head of Rupert Murdoch's.

Posted by: El Alamein at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (bSxRn)

107 99 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:11 PM (39g3+)

"Let" it burn is simply shrugging when the idiot democrat is playing with matches.

You can't stop the fire so get shelter or get gone.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (g8Hfr)

108 I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

I know! Let's hold a hearing!

Posted by: Trey Gowdy at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (Kl1Y6)

109 Of course the media has to play along with Ben, his Bro controls their future employment.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:13 PM (cXiMR)

110 We've got a serious problem. The Feds could institute Martial Law in a dozen cities, start sending dissidents to camps, and the media would willingly spin it as strikes against domestic terrorists.

I suggest we start coming up with some code language.

Posted by: ScoggDog at May 06, 2016 12:13 PM (8v0G6)

111 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

As usual -- covering up for their dirty-dealing colleagues.-ace

I once had a dog, should have named her "Media". Why you ask? Because she ate her own shit, just like these f*ckers.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at May 06, 2016 12:13 PM (voOPb)

112 Where is the GOPE

This is why state uses private emails

TO HIDE THE MESSAGE COORDINATION

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:13 PM (dbBTG)

113 i agree, but I guess it sounds better to say we were taken by a supremely gifted storyteller

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:10 PM (dciA+)

===========
In many ways, this is the story of George Lukas.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (JBggj)

114 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

Where the fuck was the GOP?
Posted by: weft cut-loop

Partying with the media.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (6hZFv)

115 Not that the dude isn't a slimeball...but he does make a valid point. The actual number of actual journalists working in major media anymore is getting closer to 0 every day. When entire foreign bureaus stocked with grizzled, worldly reporters are replaced with naval gazing pajama boys because the media company is dying and needs to cut costs...there are ramifications.

The power of the internet to crush classic media is a double edged sword. Everyone has access to more information, but the major messaging has become one giant echo chamber which is always easier to control. It will only get worse until this cabal is completely disrupted and supplanted.

And then the Bronies will deliver the true message to the masses.

Posted by: Don Quixump at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (1H9ox)

116 99 No need to burn it down. It will burn all by itself. The key is escaping the fire

^^^^!!!

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (rbPBV)

117 >>>What is it you've said before Ace "Americans are being gas lighted?"

i haven't said that so much as enthusiastically agreed when other people said it.

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (dciA+)

118 i agree, but I guess it sounds better to say we were taken by a supremely gifted storyteller

Yeah, for the writer I suppose its softer on their ego.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (39g3+)

119 "Where the fuck was the GOP? "

Cowering. Afraid of this same media.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (AbFmZ)

120 Btw my long time Twitter motto has been "media delenda est"

They are the enemy.

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (nbrY/)

121 I dispute that Rhodes is "extremely gifted." Any given troll on a
message board or blog could have puked the same stupid talking points as
he did or spun things the way he has.

I remember saying the same thing about Bill Clinton over 20 years ago when everyone was fawning over his "brilliance". There wasn't any fucking brilliance. The only thing he had going for him was a worshiping media that never questioned him on anything.
Fuck, even I could be considered "brilliant" if everyone just lapped up anything I said without question.

Posted by: LGoPs at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (OcRm7)

122 Most current article detailing the mix of folks in the administration and their ties to the media are from 2013. There are a ton of articles from then but it looks like they just stopped detailing it.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (mEZce)

123 That shit-weasel Ben Rhodes needs to be brought before a stone-faced, dead serious congressional committee and brought to tears. If the Republicans aren't in the process of organizing this now they deserve to go to the trash-heap of history.

Posted by: Ripley at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (1BQGO)

124 108 I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

I know! Let's hold a hearing!
Posted by: Trey Gowdy at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (Kl1Y6)

Not if I beat you to it first.
Posted by: Larry, Larry & Darrell Issa

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (voOPb)

125 Excellent post, Ace! Well worth the length.

Also well said, pep:

These people just can't seem to help themselves; they have to trumpet
how powerful they are, how the rules of mere mortals don't apply to
them, and how contemptuous they are of their lessers (everybody).

THIS
Let's hope they keep talking, since the fluffer press is never gonna report the truth on what these psychos did while Obama was in office.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (NOIQH)

126 Where.

The Fuck.

Is the Media?

Where the fuck was the GOP?
Posted by: weft cut-loop

Getting their asses kicked by a reality show star. I think that Rubio voted for this shitty mess.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (326rv)

127 so we have lies, schemes to deceive, willing stooges in the media

Also known as Everyday in Democratville.

Iran-Contra consumed how many man-hours, media cycles, etc. The copies of that goofy report will make excellent lining for basement fallout shelters. Too bad you can't keep a basement in Foggy Bottom without running pumps.

Posted by: DaveA at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (DL2i+)

128
obama said exactly what I predicted he's say and he said "wages are rising" because of his policies. Then he pivoted to the Republican Congress needing to work with him so the economy can improve even further.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (h+IVw)

129 The downfall of American Journalism happened when they created the Associated Press.

Instead of competing groups of reporters, there is really only ONE... the AP... and it is underfunded and using LOCAL sources as Journalists...

We no longer have Reporters going all over the world... creating their own sources... digging into stories... and competing for that 'Big Scoop'...

All we have are people who regurgitate crap they read from other sources.... and Ben Rhodes is just another one of those 'sources'....

They do not have the background to even really vet the stories they are given... they are now trained to just 'trust' the AP... or any other 'source' they have...

Posted by: Don Quixote at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (qf6WZ)

130 Where's the media?

The media didn't get played. Getting played implies that they were duped. They weren't duped. They were willing participants in the scam. They will not, under any circumstances backtrack on this because, in their perspective, the lies and scams they willingly perpetrate on the country is for the greater good.

"The Nobel Lie"

You called it probably over a year ago.

Posted by: Mr Macca Bean at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (4ng05)

131 117 Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:14 PM (dciA+)

You defined it and pretty well, so I can see where some think you offered it yourself.

If the GOP is incapable of adapting to this reality or combatting it what is the answer Ace?

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (g8Hfr)

132 ace am I wrong or did you not declare your intent to vote for Hillary?

Yeah, I get it, and you can blow me on the Celebrity King thing because that isn't who he is not to me maybe to one of your strawmen you want to argue against. Plus I voted for Cruz in the primary.

He's going to be the nominee.

People who would prefer to vote for the Democrat need to own that and cheer for this digital diplomacy lying to the people bullshit because that is what you are voting for.

And if you want to know where the media is, check your preferred candidate's back pocket.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (2Ocf1)

133 PaleRider, they didnt consolidate the statistical reporting agencies under the whitehouse to cut overhead.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (cXiMR)

134 You have to use private Emails so the people don't see the message coordination between the government and the media.

THIS IS ALSO WHY THE MEDIA IS UNINTERESTED IN THE PRIVATE SERVER STORY

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (dbBTG)

135 Which is why, btw, I have always been drawn to support the enemies of the media.

It's a logical decision.

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:16 PM (nbrY/)

136 FUCK EM UP ACE

Carpet bombing my every acquaintance with this piece now.

Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:17 PM (xuouz)

137 A name that you might want to remember here when counting the Iranian enablers for nukes is

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn)

That is all.

Posted by: whig at May 06, 2016 12:17 PM (mlyQI)

138 This whole "impartial" press is a blight on our system of governance.

They're all money losing businesses so no sane Republican owns one.

Posted by: DaveA at May 06, 2016 12:17 PM (DL2i+)

139 Too bad you can't keep a basement in Foggy Bottom without running pumps.

Posted by: DaveA at May 06, 2016 12:15 PM (DL2i+)

Its apparent that blow jobs work as well as pumps.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at May 06, 2016 12:17 PM (voOPb)

140 Everyone ignored me when I pointed out that we were missing the point last year:
http://cutjibnewsletter.com/2015/12/focusing-on-the-nyt-revision-is-missing-the-bigger-point/

Posted by: tsrlbke PhD(c), rogue bioethicist at May 06, 2016 12:17 PM (tM4uk)

141 This would be the deal that the stalwart conservatives in the GOP pre-approved for Gaylord.

Posted by: Don Trumpote at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (cJDvr)

142 I like Iowahawks line about the press.

The Job of the press is to cover a story...with a pillow till it quits moving.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (kTF2Z)

143 On around 2004, the legacy media realized that this country will, unless the left gives a constant, full court press of relentless effort without pause, push against it, naturally move to center right.

America is not a nation of radical leftists, its not France here. We do not as a people normally and readily drift toward the extreme left. When a disaster or crisis takes place, we become more our natural position of focusing on nation, family, heritage, and freedom.

In time, with the constant pressure, we may become that as a people. But not yet. Which is why no matter how idiotic or humiliating it has to be for them, they'll keep it up. I remember distinctly reading various journalists glad when Clinton was out of office so they didn't have to keep repeating the blatant idiotic lies about him.

They know.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (39g3+)

144 Did everyone just forget about JournoList?

Posted by: Grump928(c) says Free Soothie!, with purchase of commentor of equal or greater value at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (evdj2)

145 Btw all this is classic Stalin

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (nbrY/)

146 I know! Let's hold a hearing!
Posted by: Trey Gowdy at May 06, 2016 12:12 PM (Kl1Y6)

Not if I beat you to it first.
Posted by: Larry, Larry & Darrell Issa

Oh, there are all my shattered hopes and broken dreams. I knew I'd left them somewhere.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (1xUj/)

147
Interesting. Now that it appears that a recession is coming (before obama leaves office), obama is pivoting back to demonizing the rich, e.g., closing tax loopholes and making the rich pay their fair share.

Don't blame me, blame the Republicans and blame the rich, obama is saying right now.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (h+IVw)

148 i talked about this at the end of the podcast. even scumbags don't WANT to lie. Even sociopaths want to tell people how they manipulate others. even psychopathic murderers want to admit their killings.

these people are so firmly in control of everythign now -- government, justice department, media, academy, armed forces -- they fell safe enough to start telling the Col. Jessup like truth of the matter.

they feel they're untouchable

i'm not sure they're wrong

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (dciA+)

149 It would be interesting to see a comprehensive database compilation of every known, active member of the news and commentariat media.

Drill down to the level of assistant producer, intern researcher and other such minions.

Identify in columns having to do with their known political sympathies, affinities, donations and the like. Put cross-index tags on their friends, professional associations, memberships, etc.

In short, diagram the whole damn spiderweb.

If a political party can index hundreds of millions voters down to individual purchasing habits, magazine subscriptions and the like, then it would be comparably easy to document a few hundred thousand media whores.

Then, come up with some kind of weighting system to identify which of them has the worst record of damage to the Republic, and which are doing the most harm now.

Keep that as an updated database. I think a monthly re-index would suffice.

It's relatively easy to know which politicians are enemies to freedom. Less so to sort out which of the "reasonable sounding" smiling faces in the press merit the same ire.

And we oughta know who they are, and keep up to date with where they're working and what they're doing.

If it comes to full Trumpian ugliness in our fight against the Ds and media (department of redundancy department alert!), at least we'll know where to aim our keyboards with no undue delay.

And if the burning times? Well, let's hope not, shall we?

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (McRlu)

150 >>Of course the media has to play along with Ben, his Bro controls their future employment.

The relationship between the WH and the MSM is incestuous - filled with family relations like the Rhodes brothers.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (NOIQH)

151
Remember boys and girls.... "bias" is an unconscious slant that unintentionally creeps into ones work affecting certain conclusions or points of view.

Intentional slants to advance an agenda or just plain fucking lie to your face in NOT media bias..... it's media corruption.

Posted by: Calos Danger at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (8XRCm)

152 It's a dangerous thing. After Benghazi--there is no place to go with serious dirt on this administration other than Fox News which the left has done its best to delegitimize. And now Fox News is ruining what credibility it had left--except a few good reporters--Brett Baier, Catherine Herridge, Jennifer Grifffin, Stephen Hayes. Nic Robertson at CNN had excellent initial reporting on Benghazi--but they buried it at their international website.

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (mcm0N)

153 73 ----Read the original piece in the NY TIMES. I did yesterday. While the author was stunned by Rhodes admissions, can't help but see the ADMIRATION.

This makes me sick

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:03 PM (dbBTG)
-----------------------
I have seen this before --- in the media's reaction to the Clintons back in the 90's. With every scandal, they KNEW Bill and Hill were lying and they ADMIRED them for being so brazen and good at it.

I thought at the time that this was a sea change, that something beyond usual media bias was appearing. Was the media finally going post-modern, full Marxist, where truth is (at best) irrelevant? Or was it just some weird charm personal Bill exercised over journalists?

I wasn't sure then but I remember it was a .....change.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (T/5A0)

154 144 Did everyone just forget about JournoList?

--

I suspect, rather than forget, pundits on the right simply created their own.

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (nbrY/)

155 Way back on LGF, before the insanity, there was an article on how the Saudi's co-opted the AP/UPI by creating there own over-funded Islamic news feeds and programs. The lavish funds from those operations basically force the rest of non-profit organization to kow-tow to keep the gravy train running.

This time they didn't even need to get paid to whore themselves out.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (cXiMR)

156 ugg old sock off

Posted by: fixerupper at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (8XRCm)

157 It's been a long time since I watched a George Lucas film.

In many ways, this is the story of mrp.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (JBggj)

158 Impeach.

Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (xuouz)

159 108 I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

I know! Let's hold a hearing!
Posted by: Trey Gowdy

====

We'll get right on it! First we have to form a committee then focus group the findings..run a few poll..have some more show trials..then a phony vote to show the folks back home we're play fighting..er really going after 'em!

Posted by: Ryan and Mcconnel at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (Ffw22)

160 >>> ace am I wrong or did you not declare your intent to vote for Hillary?

yes you're wrong.

now please get off of trump's dick and comment on the actual story.

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (dciA+)

161 Intentional slants to advance an agenda or just plain fucking lie to your face in NOT media bias..... it's media corruption.
Posted by: Calos Danger at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (8XRCm

*********

It's working as propagandists for the regime.

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (mcm0N)

162 158 Impeach.
Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (xuouz)

You're funny.

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (nbrY/)

163 Maybe why this is why they torched Sharryl Atkisson.

Posted by: grammie winger at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (dFi94)

164 >>Identify in columns having to do with their known political sympathies,
affinities, donations and the like. Put cross-index tags on their
friends, professional associations, memberships, etc.
In short, diagram the whole damn spiderweb.

You also have to map them to family members - a lot of them have spouses, siblings, offspring who are part of the DC machine (work for a politician, lobbying firm, Democrat publicity co., etc.).

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (NOIQH)

165 Gas-lighting, huh?
That was fun when we were young although a buddy of mine burned half his ass off when he let fly with a really big one!

Posted by: joey biden at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (f4AGl)

166 "[Al Monitor reporter] Laura Rozen was my RSS feed," says Tanya Somanader, the 31-year-old who managed @TheIranDeal twitter feed. "She would just find everything and retweet it."

This really is hashtag diplomacy.

Posted by: rickl at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (zoehZ)

167 Wasn't able to put this in the Mid-morning thread.

A Holy Land Moments devotional-"The Greatest Gift of All"

http://preview.tinyurl.com/hg78526

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (w4NZ8)

168 Obama's going to do the same thing one day. He'll monologue. I'd bet on it.

Posted by: ScoggDog at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (8v0G6)

169
This would be the deal that the stalwart conservatives in the GOP pre-approved for Gaylord.

Posted by: Don Trumpote at May 06, 2016 12:18 PM (cJDvr)
----------------------

Words fail.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (pC96u)

170
Listening to obama right now say we're in serious times and candidates need to be scrutinized for their claims of solutions to problems is surreal.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (h+IVw)

171
I can see why Bibi was/is so frustrated with DC.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (iQIUe)

172 Is this real life?

I'm beginning to lean away from having a general election fight and more towards a full blown civil war uprising.

Fuck these fucking fuckers.

Posted by: LOL Kabong at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (MCmqp)

173 #163

Maybe? La, those people hate rogues, individuals with a conscience. It makes the rest of the herd uncomfortable, and dirty.

Posted by: mrp at May 06, 2016 12:23 PM (JBggj)

174 Where.
The Fuck.
Is the Media? <<<<<<<<<

Getting banged up the back side by obama and the dnc.

They are just common cheap prostitutes. Their only payment is they feel their part of something. Which is a group of whores. Rhodes basically says so, and they say "yep".

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at May 06, 2016 12:24 PM (ODxAs)

175 but I guess it sounds better to say we were taken by a supremely gifted storyteller

I'm just going to say I voted for the HairWeaselPocalypse.

Posted by: DaveA at May 06, 2016 12:24 PM (DL2i+)

176 7
The media is acknowledging this story, btw. But they're spinning it solely as Rhodes doing the people 'a solid' by 'warning' them that someone such as Trump might use the media's gullibility and malleability to sell bad policy.

Rhodes, you see, would never do this for obama's behalf. Rhodes is, according to the media liars today, is only shedding light on the problem because Trump might take advantage if elected and that would be awful.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 11:41 AM (h+IVw)

This is the beginning of the MFM's Mea Culpas about the Obama Era...so they must expect Hillary! to lose or think there's a good chance of it.

They (MFM) did exactly the same thing with BJ Clinton starting around October of his last year.

"Oh we're so sorry. We were fooled by Clinton's hypnopowers and let him get away with lots of stuff.

"But that's not who we are. So, we want the American people to know that we're back. We not gonna let that nasty W get away with anything like we did with Clinton. Swearsies.

"The MFM is on your side."

And so on.

As Insty says...if you want the MFM to do their job. Elect a Republican.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 06, 2016 12:24 PM (0cMkb)

177

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic too.

I want a list of echo chamber reporters and pundits

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:24 PM (dbBTG)

178 Sherrly has her own show now ... but it is buried deep.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:25 PM (cXiMR)

179 My brother in law is a Democrat operative and he is a master at getting people jobs. He will meet somebody new and as long as they're a friend of a friend, will immediately start strategizing about how to get that person a job. He's got friends all over the administration and congress and think tanks, both Dem and Republican, because he helped them get jobs. I wonder if Republicans are as good at that as Democrats.

Posted by: bjk at May 06, 2016 12:25 PM (x2rNW)

180
Just now obama urged the media to start reporting on the "spectacle." He's contradicting himself from what he just said a minute ago.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:25 PM (h+IVw)

181 ***"Everyone ignored me when I pointed out that we were missing the point last year"***

No one ignored you. Pretty sure I saw the point you made there, made here.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 12:26 PM (Wckf4)

182 So the media was basically fooled by 4Chan's Meme Magic.

Bravo.

Posted by: LOL Kabong at May 06, 2016 12:26 PM (MCmqp)

183

And a list of Republicans who supported this deal

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:26 PM (dbBTG)

184 166 "[Al Monitor reporter] Laura Rozen was my RSS feed," says Tanya Somanader, the 31-year-old who managed @TheIranDeal twitter feed. "She would just find everything and retweet it."

This really is hashtag diplomacy.

Posted by: rickl at May 06, 2016 12:21 PM (zoehZ)

Now add in that Twitter now uses an algorithm to decide what shows up on feeds... or does NOT show up on feeds... (fancy way of saying they use Math to decide what you can and can't see)...

Posted by: Don Quixote at May 06, 2016 12:26 PM (qf6WZ)

185 they feel they're untouchable

i'm not sure they're wrong

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (dciA+

That has been evident for some time.

My example would be Dan Rather. Caught lying yet given a Lifetime Achievement Award by his cronies several years after the fact.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (voOPb)

186 Identify in columns having to do with their known political sympathies,
affinities, donations and the like. Put cross-index tags on their
friends, professional associations, memberships, etc.
In short, diagram the whole damn spiderweb.

You also have to map them to family members - a lot of them have spouses, siblings, offspring who are part of the DC machine (work for a politician, lobbying firm, Democrat publicity co., etc.).

Posted by: Lizzy

I would recommend against keeping records.

Posted by: L-188 Loadmasters Assoc. at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (cXiMR)

187 The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column.

Posted by: Don Trumpote at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (cJDvr)

188 LGoPs and whichever commenter he quoted above in 121, you stole my comment (just got here).

There's nothing remotely "impressive" about any of the players here. (and ditto for Clinton, who while not as unworldly and simply clueless as Obama and his ilk, was/is nothing special at all, intellectually or politically)

Ace there's something a little weird here. The blast radius of this "scandal" pretty much encompasses those who were the "victims". It doesn't matter that this talentless twit English major operative of the dumbest administration in modern times was creating an "echo chamber".

Every topic, every meme any WH puts out is subject to torture and fisking and destruction. "Experts" are as well. Under Bush, even solid and common sensical policies were the subject of non-stop illiterate hysteria (and, of course, there was mostly silence from the WH, so much so that even some people in these comments regularly repeat the idiocy they internalized from those years).

So Rhodes' efforts, while ridiculous, should have just been chewed up like everything else these dumbshits barf up.

There is no press, hasn't really been one for years. This is just a glaring example. The "scandal" continues to be about the Beltway and the dumbed down, lazy country.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (QDnY+)

189 "Just now obama urged the media to start reporting on the "spectacle."

Which one?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (AbFmZ)

190 i fail to see how this matters. this reminds me of the Gruber tapes, with the evolutionary change that Gruber's were candid insights and these are post-coital boastings.

Rhodes is ok to do this because he knows, "what are ya gonna do about it? nothing? thought so". Similar to Barry in the Atlantic.

Posted by: Edmund Dantes at May 06, 2016 12:27 PM (eRsMQ)

191 A hall of shame as it were

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (dbBTG)

192 Furthermore, this is kind of complex and it takes more than a 2 minute youtube video or a silly cat caption to explain to non-political people.

So the general public won't give a shit.

Posted by: LOL Kabong at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (MCmqp)

193 these people are so firmly in control of everythign now -- government, justice department, media, academy, armed forces -- they fell safe enough to start telling the Col. Jessup-like truth of the matter.

they feel they're untouchable

i'm not sure they're wrong

I am sure they are right, they are untouchable. We haven't the power, the GOP hasn't the pills or the will, the courts haven't the interest, and the people who have the money and influence are most interested in making more money.

For along time people have wondered why conservative billionaires and all those super rich Republican corporate types didn't spend that money to fight the left? Where's our Soros, where's our network to fight the power, where are their organizations?

Well there is a little, but for the most part those guys aren't conservative, aren't worried, and are more focused on making more money now and clinging to what they have than anything else. Joe Billionaire isn't against big government or high taxes philosophically, he's just greedy and wants to keep more money. He's not a small government type, he's not even fiscally conservative.

This election ripped the mask off. He's just a chamber of commerce Republican. He wants cheap labor, less competition, and a foot in the door when it comes to making regulations. He doesn't give a crap how big and invasive the government gets, he just wants his taxes low.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (39g3+)

194
Speaking of civil war, is Captain America going to fight Iron Man in this movie?

Captain America is supposed to be a libertarian, and Iron Man is in favor of strict government oversight of superheros, or something.

Who cares?

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (h+IVw)

195 I heard last night that they are mobilizing Christians for a "march on/pray for" massive gathering on the National Mall or whatever it's called this summer. They applied for the permit and surprisingly got it immediately. There are a good number of bands and nationally known speakers lined up. They're hoping for a million Christians to descend on Obama's doorstep mid-July. Maybe that'll have an impact. Sure can't hurt. I'm going try to find a link. I think it's called Reset16.

Posted by: grammie winger at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (dFi94)

196 Biggest story of the year.

IMPEACH

Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (xuouz)

197 The media would keep reporting that everything is hunky dory and suggest everyone have lawn parties while The Purge was happening.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (6hZFv)

198 Impeach.
Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:20 PM (xuouz)

You're funny.

That's not the word I'd use.

Impeach Chicago Jesus during an election year so he can can qualify for styrofoam martyr status. And energize the black vote for Hillarity.

P.S. it won't work. The CinC had someone under the desk in the Oval office and the dems lauded him for it. And rewarded him.

To do this, the dems in the Senate would be turning against the Manufactured Messiah AND their vote on Iran.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (326rv)

199 If our task is impossible, voterma, then we must do is commit to achieving the impossible.

Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (xuouz)

200 >>>Captain America is supposed to be a libertarian, and Iron Man is in favor of strict government oversight of superheros, or something.

Judging from trailers alone, Cap seems to really really love Bucky and declares war on Tony Stark because he can't quit him.

Posted by: LOL Kabong at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (MCmqp)

201 This is the main problem when you do not have an oppositional party.

Let's imagine a world where the media would collude and play along with a republican administration, that world doesn't exist and will never exist...

Would the democrats allow it?

Right now the most dangerous place in the world would be between a reporters microphone and a democrat politician if a republican in charge.

The cries of deception and lying would be deafening.

Posted by: Kreplach at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (FQukk)

202

Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too

Posted by: ThunderB at May 06, 2016 12:30 PM (dbBTG)

203 Remember how pissed off Obama was when Bibi addressed Congress over the then-pending Iran deal?

Bib was messing with Rhodes' narrative, yo!

Also recall how an "unnamed" administration source called Bibi chickenshit?

Or that their foreign policy motto is "Don't do stupid shit?"

Amateur hour.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:30 PM (NOIQH)

204 The Fredo Admin and all Liberals lie cheat and conspire against America. And this is news to anyone?

Hey I got a great idea let's help elect another one

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:30 PM (V/InG)

205 >>Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too

He composed the infamous talking points, right?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (NOIQH)

206
(6) Their message discipline was remarkable.
--------------------------

Lying is the one thing at which they will work like a dog. The one area where they're not entitled slack-offs. They fight with a practice, organization, discipline, dedication, and diligence like our military.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (pC96u)

207 It would be interesting to see a comprehensive database compilation of
every known, active member of the news and commentariat media.

http://discoverthenetworks.org/

Posted by: DaveA at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (DL2i+)

208 Has anyone ask Corker for a comment?

Posted by: L-188 Loadmasters Assoc. at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (cXiMR)

209 Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too
Posted by: ThunderB

No, that was Sid Blumenthal.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (OcD4G)

210 News repeaters have no expertise in foreign policy?

Huh!

News repeaters don't have any expertise in anything except english grammar, and a large vocabulary.

So does that extend to self appointed experts, and opinion makers? The on air pundits who tell us what it all means? If they don't have the expertise they claim, then why should we trust their conclusions? If they are just repeating Obama's minions, then why should be trust anyone in the media? Or their inside anonymous sources, or their on air guests who present themselves as expert witnesses?

Turtles all the way down, turtles as far as the eye can see. Here a turtle, there a turtle, everywhere a turtle.

Posted by: Loran Gerban at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (s/vC3)

211 194 Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:28 PM (h+IVw)

We're going to Helena to watch it....

Cap is Saint Steve the 1940s Democrat who goes full modern Marxist retard...

and Iron Man is evil BushHitler...

Wife and boy are insistent, otherwise I'd sit this out.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (g8Hfr)

212 "but seriously, did any of this really play any role in what happened"

Sure it did. The media creates "reality" for politicians, pundits, and most of the population. Every reality challenged person out there, which apparently is the majority of the pop, spun the "treaty or war" fiction.

The pols then go along with that because "public perception."

The left always always always does this "one trick". It redefines the argument, attributes to its "enemies" positions, statements, world view et all that the "enemy" does not have and then they attack the attribution with vigor. It invariably includes a choice between two things, ie Giving Iran's money back and letting them go nuke or WWIII, or "executing women for having abortions or funding abortion through the 10th month", or "Trading 1/2 the Taliban for Bowe Berghdal or "leaving our kids behind."

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (UbIg6)

213 Seriously what the---Ssm hell did we get out of this deal?

A feather in the cap of Obama's legacy?

The story is that Iran threatened us with war--but Rhodes was just lying about that?

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:32 PM (mcm0N)

214 Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too
Posted by: ThunderB

No, that was Sid Blumenthal.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at May 06, 2016 12:31 PM (OcD4G)

I could be wrong...yeah Blumenthal was in on it, but Rhodes was the point man pushing that shit out to all the MSM and Rice

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:32 PM (V/InG)

215 Need to remember to take that sock off ...

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:32 PM (cXiMR)

216 Affirmative Action has Consequences.

Posted by: garrett at May 06, 2016 12:32 PM (ZcEXv)

217 204 Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:30 PM (V/InG)

What America needs is a media ready to lie on the hammock another 8 years...rather than being enraged an ostensible "Republican" got in....

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:32 PM (g8Hfr)

218 If you hold a hearing, bring in the suborned journalists to testify. Watchem' squirm like a worm.
Or maybe they'll reach in their pants and say, "Excuse me while I whip this out" as they pull out a copy of the First Amendment to hide behind.

Posted by: Headless Body of Agnew at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (FtrY1)

219
Then I take it Captain America will win. Marvel sucks.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (h+IVw)

220 Speaking of civil war, is Captain America going to fight Iron Man in this movie?

The comic book series this is roughly based on was a giant steaming diarrhea pile on the heads of readers. It was horrible and a nearly constant drumbeat of steel-toed boots to the mangerines of long time comic book fans.

Supposedly the movie doesn't follow that storyline very closely and is better, but I have no interest in watching it to find out.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

221 This story is getting picked up everywhere.

Everywhere meaning FrontPage Magazine and The Weekly Standard.

Cocksuckers.

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (mEZce)

222 Unless the remedy you prescribe involves these people, a wall, gunpowder and a long ditch, you're not going to change a single thing

Posted by: Tradd at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (GSJcT)

223
The cries of deception and lying would be deafening.

Posted by: Kreplach at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (FQukk)
----------------------

They *will* be deafening. The only way to defeat this is through someone unprecedentedly narcissistic and pugilistic.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (pC96u)

224 And what is amazing is that this prick Rhodes felt comfortable enough to announce to the World that they lie cheat and hate America. I guess he thinks at least 52% of America is that stupid? LMAO

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:34 PM (V/InG)

225 I said this was a very bad deal.
Was I right? I was right.

Posted by: D.Trump POTUS apparent at May 06, 2016 12:34 PM (nbrY/)

226 As someone who's family worked for the Shah of Iran and saw the horrible aftermath of the revolution, I never could wrap my head around Obama's willingness to work with the Mullah's. The fact that the Ayatollah is the supreme leader and the ultimate decider in all things Iran made all the reports of a moderate being elected in Iran laughable. But here we had the media and leftist taking heads pushing this crap that it was between peace and war.

Posted by: Arson Wells at May 06, 2016 12:34 PM (/E+t2)

227 Oh I commented on the story above. The media is in the business of deciding what you should know, not with providing you knowledge. Because people might act on information in inappropriate ways don't you know.

I have serious outrage fatigue with this administration - with the whole ruling class, the whole elite. I read something like this and my reaction is just "well of course they did."

Remember when Bill Clinton was lying about "sex" but I guess not really sex because oral sex isn't sex (I mean, just that locution shows how this works, right?)

The press was actually enamored of how well Bill Clinton lied. What is the takeaway from that? Lie well, not only will you win, you'll get kudos for being so devious. They covered not only the lies by saying they weren't lies, they carpet bombed the landscape with stuff about how everyone lies all the time anyway so even though we are saying he isn't lying, even if he were lying its okay.

That's what's going on here. Rhodes feels that he is able to preen about his lying because he knows that he will be lionized for his lying.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (2Ocf1)

228
Now obama is blaming the Republican Congress for our "old" and crumbling infrastructure.

He says Republicans see all government spending as "bad." They do? They sure do a lot of it.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (h+IVw)

229 >>Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too

Posted by: ThunderB

>>No, that was Sid Blumenthal.

Posted by: weft cut-loop

It was Ben Rhodes according to this (see references to articles about it):
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2583

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (NOIQH)

230 15 The amazing thing is just how similar Rhodes' behavior is to that of Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare architect, or Obama himself, for that matter. These people just can't seem to help themselves; they have to trumpet how powerful they are, how the rules of mere mortals don't apply to them, and how contemptuous they are of their lessers (everybody).

By all means, let's give power to people like this.
Posted by: pep at May 06, 2016 11:43 AM (3e8zv)

>>>>> I don't know about you, but if these are the rules, lets get it on our side too.

Posted by: Tradd at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (GSJcT)

231 You know, a story like this, with this level of incestuous collaboration between the media and the Democrat crime syndicate in control of the federal government, and this JournoList-level lockstep from the media...It makes me wonder:

When months ago I suggested that Trump was being purposefully foisted upon us by the left and their toadies in the media, through a coordinated campaign of free publicity for Trump and a duplicitous ban on stories harmful to Trump, and I was mocked as a conspiracy theorist and a nut -- what part of that was just too far-fetched, again?

Posted by: Pastafarian at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (LqrRo)

232 200 Posted by: LOL Kabong at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (MCmqp)

Ponder this...in the comics Bucky was a 12 year old boy....

*hurl*

but in the Marv CU Bucky was Steve's protector and hero....essentially the Alpha that Beta Steve prior to his "Prayers Training and (anabolic) Vitamins"....

In trying to save Bucky Cap is in fact protecting HIS "hero"....

if I am pleasantly surprised and it is handled well it is a good twist on the usual story.

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (g8Hfr)

233 What America needs is a media ready to lie on the hammock another 8 years...rather than being enraged an ostensible "Republican" got in....
Posted by: sven10077

If you want to know if Trump is a liberal dem, watch how the media treats him.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (6hZFv)

234 He doesn't give a crap how big and invasive the government gets, he just wants his taxes low.

They don't even want that. Why would they?

With high tax rates, they get to point to them. And their BS quotes about fairness.

They have the ability, talent, resources and the motivation to move, shelter and husband their money.

Their primary asset isn't their car, or their 401K.

That's why they love to talk tax rates, not the one they actually paid.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (326rv)

235 And closer to the end of Fredo's term, we'll be hearing more and more about how his regime duped all the "rubes".

When the WH is finally empty of this POS family, everyone involved with them will start writing books and appearing on talk shows laughing at how easy it was to bring down this nation.

Posted by: Soona at May 06, 2016 12:35 PM (Fmupd)

236
obama: "We know that when we spend a dollar on the infrastructure, ah, uhhh, ahhh, it gives a bigger bang for the buck all around."

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:36 PM (h+IVw)

237 The Media is delaying the inevitable. This is the beginning of the useful tools being purged.

Posted by: Crowley at May 06, 2016 12:36 PM (9nRhy)

238 " I guess he thinks at least 52% of America is that stupid? LMAO"

Just so long as that EBT card keeps getting re-charged.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:37 PM (AbFmZ)

239 220 Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (39g3+)

They martyred Hippie Rogers after he "did the right thing and quit"...

I have bought zero weekly Marvel titles since, and only Mark-Down graphics that are used.

Fuck Marvel and DC is >-> close as well for their SJW action hour

Posted by: sven10077 at May 06, 2016 12:37 PM (g8Hfr)

240 They will get to it as soon as the globalwarming/transbathroom/blacklives matter/trumptrumptrump/etc stories die down..........SQUIRREL!!!

Posted by: Roland THTG at May 06, 2016 12:37 PM (QM5S2)

241 Isn't this a pro-Hillary site now?

Hashtag diplomacy is where its at.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 11:36 AM (2Ocf1)

What do you mean??

Posted by: Mimzey at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (aRUb8)

242 This comes to mind:
http://tinyurl.com/jnkkphy

Posted by: G6loq at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (FHmKp)

243
these people are so firmly in control of everythign now -- government, justice department, media, academy, armed forces -- they fell safe enough to start telling the Col. Jessup-like truth of the matter.

they feel they're untouchable

i'm not sure they're wrong
------------------------------

Harry Reid with his smug little smile about Mitt Romney supposedly not paying taxes for the past 20 years: "Did he win?"

I expect Obama to start coming out with braying, mocking confessions like this over the years to come. "Pwned you, mothafuckahs!" At one time I was merely expecting spine-tingling tell-all books about which Obama would be tight-lipped. Now I think he's going to be the named source. Named and laughing in your face.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (pC96u)

244 When months ago I suggested that Trump was being purposefully foisted upon us by the left and their toadies in the media, through a coordinated campaign of free publicity for Trump and a duplicitous ban on stories harmful to Trump, and I was mocked as a conspiracy theorist and a nut -- what part of that was just too far-fetched, again?

Trump will be treated as a liberal dem, or he'll be savaged by Hillz & the media. Which is it? You can't have it both ways.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (6hZFv)

245 Pastafarian, You may be right, but even as a tool of the left, he'd still do less damage than Hillary mostly because he had no idea what's going on or refuses to learn.

Who'd you rather fight? A moron or a demon?

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (UbIg6)

246 226 As someone who's family worked for the Shah of Iran and saw the horrible aftermath of the revolution, I never could wrap my head around Obama's willingness to work with the Mullah's.

--

Everything Obama knows about Iran he learned from.Jarret.

And the reason she okayed Kerry as SOS is because his daughter married an Iranian whose family is still in Iran

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (nbrY/)

247 >>>>>Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too

Posted by: ThunderB

>>No, that was Sid Blumenthal.

Posted by: weft cut-loop

It was Ben Rhodes according to this (see references to articles about it):
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2583

...

WOW

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (dciA+)

248 this sort of reminds me of how, whenever the USSR got a new dictator, a lot of people in the media would tell us that he was different and we needed to make concessions to show him we were serious about peace or reducing nuclear weapons or some such BS.

the fascinating thing about people like Kerry is that they are convinced that they are so brilliant that they always did the right thing, no matter how many times we ended up F'd

Posted by: mallfly suPreme at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (qSIlh)

249 This is how the bitches are working the AGW scam as well. Bury the real science, to include the actual EPA researchers, in an echo chamber of repeated lies: 99%/flood the world/cause war/etc. They just had to co-opt a few key journals with lavish spending.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (cXiMR)

250 Is it possible we got something out of the deal and we are not being told what it is?

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:39 PM (mcm0N)

251
The Media is delaying the inevitable. This is the beginning of the useful tools being purged.

Posted by: Crowley at May 06, 2016 12:36 PM (9nRhy)
-----------------------------
How do you figure? Who's being purged? What's changing?

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:39 PM (pC96u)

252 "Now obama is blaming the Republican Congress for our "old" and crumbling infrastructure. "

What the fcuk did they do with that $900B Stimulus!?!?

(I know, I know)

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:39 PM (AbFmZ)

253
obama on the lousy economy today: Not my fault. My policies are working. It's the global economy's fault and the Republican Congress' fault. The rich need to be taxed more.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (h+IVw)

254 It would be interesting to see a comprehensive database compilation of
every known, active member of the news and commentariat media.

Drill down to the level of assistant producer, intern researcher and other such minions.

Identify in columns having to do with their known political
sympathies, affinities, donations and the like. Put cross-index tags on
their friends, professional associations, memberships, etc.

In short, diagram the whole damn spiderweb.

=====

votermom -- I know you talk about crayfisher as being your home blogspot, but I do recall initial efforts at a family 'tree' showing marriages, siblings, etc. for the MSM and current admin. I hope you can find that and update for current use.

Posted by: mustbequantum at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (MIKMs)

255 WOW
Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (dciA+)

You did not know Ben Rhodes was a major cancer on America? He is one of the worst people in America

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (V/InG)

256 " Is it possible we got something out of the deal and we are not being told what it is?"

I highly doubt it. Obama worked long and hard to make it as shitty for America as possible.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (AbFmZ)

257 247 >>>>>Ben Rhodes came up with the video cover story for Benghazi too

Posted by: ThunderB

>>No, that was Sid Blumenthal.

Posted by: weft cut-loop

It was Ben Rhodes according to this (see references to articles about it):
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2583

...

WOW
Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:38 PM (dciA+)

*********

So then Rhodes isn't even a good fiction novelist.

He sucks at that--even.

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (mcm0N)

258
obama started off with "74 straight months of job growth!"

Harris Faulkner is having none of it.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (h+IVw)

259 Remind me to break Ben Rhodes' face if I ever see him at the end of the bar.

Posted by: Eli Cash at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (a+WIL)

260 they need to put a click link for ammo on the discoverthenetworks site.

Posted by: Jean at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (cXiMR)

261 >>And the reason she okayed Kerry as SOS is because his daughter married an Iranian whose family is still in Iran

IIRC, Iran's Defense minister attended Kerry's daughter's wedding as a friend of the groom's family. The same guy who sat across the table from Kerry during "negotiations."

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (NOIQH)

262 If you want to know if Trump is a liberal dem, watch how the media treats him.

Yeah, they'll treat him the way they think he will govern and behave in office. If they like him, he'll get the Sanders treatment: some ugly pics, low coverage, focus on stuff that they think will turn off voters, but overall pretty even handed and even sometimes friendly treatment.

They want Hillary to win, but they won't be hostile to someone they think is one of them.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (39g3+)

263 (9) As if John McCain, Mark Kirk and Netanyahu, etc. were no better, morally, than the ayatollahs who stone women and hang gays.

That's not quite true.

Far too many on the Left think McCain, Kirk and Netanyahu are morally worse than the ayatollahs.

You know why conspiracy theories linger around? Because every now and then one of them turns out to be true.

I believe that the reason Rhodes and the President of the United States and the journos who did this and the think tank people who did this fail to see that this is anything but a game is because to them that's all this is. A game. It's about Building A Legacy and Making An Impact and, c'mon, it's just words. It's just paper. It's just pixels. It's not like Iran is really going to nuke Israel (and anyway who cares if Israel gets nuked). C'mon, now, you don't think they really mean all that stuff, right? It's just for show. Just like politicians do here.

And that's how we end up on the verge of total nuclear annihilation. Because it's just a game.

Posted by: alexthechick - Banderette at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (mf5HN)

264 >>The amazing thing is just how similar Rhodes' behavior is to that of Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare architect, or Obama himself, for that matter. These people just can't seem to help themselves; they have to trumpet how powerful they are, how the rules of mere mortals don't apply to them, and how contemptuous they are of their lessers (everybody).

I'm going to go ahead and Godwin myself right out of the gate. What this is similar to is Hitler and Goebbels.

Hitler wrote about The Big Lie in Mein Kampf, long before he came to power and Goebbels was a willing acolyte and weaponized The Big Lie. They didn't try to hide it, they laid it all out and it still worked.

We've seen this kind of extremism (and that's exactly what it is) before in history and it always ends with violence, not with a competing political party standing up and saying, "I say there old chap, that doesn't appear to be true."

Posted by: JackStraw at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (/tuJf)

265 will be similarly cheered here by Rhodes's boast of deceiving American citizens, lawmakers, and allies over the Iran deal....

No one was deceived about the Iran treaty. Everyone knew what it was all about from before Barky ever slimed into the Oval Office and those who supported him did so knowing full well what they were doing.

The Left was wholly in favor of surrendering to Iran and the Vichy Right was hot and heavy about letting Barky do any damn thing that popped into that fevered pee-brain of his. They all knew what they were doing and we all knew what they were doing. And everyone knew it was a treaty that was not going to see the light of day in the Senate - which Bitch McConnell and the turd GOP was more than happy with.

There was no farce multiplier with the Iran treason. None needed.

Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (zc3Db)

266 I highly doubt it. Obama worked long and hard to make it as shitty for America as possible.
Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (AbFmZ)

*********

I want to say that maybe Iran agreed to take out ISIS in Syria--but that sounds kind of nuts and..

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (mcm0N)

267 Posted by: mustbequantum at May 06, 2016 12:40 PM (MIKMs)

I don't remember that but I can look

Posted by: @votermom at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (nbrY/)

268 223--- The only way to defeat this is through someone unprecedentedly narcissistic and pugilistic.
Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:33 PM (pC96u)
--------------------
Pugilistic, maybe.
But if you think narcissism is the solution to the evil of post-modernism, you really don't have a clue.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (T/5A0)

269 Votermom, I've seen those things and read about them. The most alarming and telling thing to me was when the people of Iran were ready for a revolution(the Green Revolution) and murder of Neda went viral, I thought for sure the US would help facilitate it. Instead Obama was silent for 2 weeks and did nothing. Little did we know he was working on his fucking nuclear deal.

Posted by: Arson Wells at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (/E+t2)

270 The sad thing is that this major story is just too inside baseball for the general public to care.

The inherently warped feelings of the mentally ill .03% is the most pressing Issue of Our Time.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (Wckf4)

271
" I guess he thinks at least 52% of America is that stupid? LMAO"

It's 47% (democrats) + 53% * 40% (trump voters) so 63% minimum

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (UbIg6)

272 British Mosques: Muslim Women Not Allowed To Leave House Without Permission Of Husbands, Cant Wear Trousers, Be On Facebook

Sharia for Britain?

Weasel Zippers

So glad they elected a muslim mayor of london...and I am sure Ben Rhodes agrees.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (V/InG)

273 rickb223: You're saying that the left would never sacrifice one of their own for the greater good? I don't think you really think that. Of course they'll rip Trump to shreds -- they want to win with an out-and-proud progressive more than the do with a closet progressive.

But they win, either way.

Posted by: Pastafarian at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (LqrRo)

274 No one was deceived about the Iran treaty.

I can pretend can't I

Posted by: Sen Corker at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (cXiMR)

275 Conservatives for seven years: The emperor has no clothes.

Emperor's flunkies: I know, right! Can you believe how much no clothes the emperor has.

Media: OMG Michelle's toned arms make me quivery and moist.

Posted by: Komissar Vladimir at May 06, 2016 12:45 PM (nawZ+)

276 ***"And that's how we end up on the verge of total nuclear annihilation. Because it's just a game."***

Well, DUH!

Posted by: WOPR at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (Wckf4)

277 If only this (mal)Administration was half as competent at dealing with our enemies as they are dealing with their enemies, i.e., us.

Posted by: Jay Guevara at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (oKE6c)

278 You know, for an anti-Semite Obama sure has a lot of Jewish advisers (now includes Rhodes)

Posted by: anon2020 at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (yCcA0)

279 I'm going to go ahead and Godwin myself right out of the gate. What this is similar to is Hitler and Goebbels.

********

I've been trying to resist that. What was the name of that German colonel sycophant--who was all about repeating the message over and over--and keeping it simple.

Posted by: Biden Is In The Ball Pit at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (mcm0N)

280 It's not like Iran is really going to nuke Israel (and anyway who cares if Israel gets nuked). C'mon, now, you don't think they really mean all that stuff, right? It's just for show. Just like politicians do here.

And that's how we end up on the verge of total nuclear annihilation. Because it's just a game.

Types.
Deletes.
Types.
Deletes.

What I want to say is soooooo bannable.
So I won't poop on Ace's carpet.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (6hZFv)

281 + 53% * 40% (trump voters) so 63% minimum

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (UbIg6)

Give it a rest, already. You hate Trump and you hate those who vote for him. Good for you. It's been noted. But don't think that you are smarter than the average Trump voter. You aren't.

Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (zc3Db)

282 The Media is delaying the inevitable. This is the beginning of the useful tools being purged.

Posted by: Crowley at May 06, 2016 12:36 PM (9nRhy)

No, I think that it's painfully obvious to even them that Iran is fucking with JEF. So now the best thing is to talk about how JEF and co were sooooo clever.

In short, Iran may have fucked over JEF, but he fucked over all of us, so he's still #1.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 12:47 PM (326rv)

283
Pugilistic, maybe.

But if you think narcissism is the solution to the evil of post-modernism, you really don't have a clue.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 06, 2016 12:43 PM (T/5A0)
----------------------

I mean someone with a weapons-grade ego that will strike at anyone who attempts to make him into a liar or loser.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:47 PM (pC96u)

284
If we're to pretend Bruce Jenner is a beautiful woman, why can't we pretend Iran will never build nukes?

If Iran identifies as a non-nuke proliferator, who are we to say differently?

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:47 PM (h+IVw)

285 >>I've been trying to resist that. What was the name of that German colonel sycophant--who was all about repeating the message over and over--and keeping it simple.

Goebbels.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 06, 2016 12:47 PM (/tuJf)

286 You're saying that the left would never sacrifice one of their own for the greater good?

If he's a leftist they win either way, why tear him apart like usual if he's one of them? The coverage will tell what they think about him. Whether that's accurate or not is another question.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 06, 2016 12:47 PM (39g3+)

287 The Iran Deal was 100% Kosher

And Hillary never had any classified information on her Server even though she NEVER used a .GOV account at all

And she never told the Benghazi Families the film maker was responsible

See a pattern here folks?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (V/InG)

288 So, anyone bet this is happening in areas other than just the Iran deal?

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (UBBWX)

289 >>No one was deceived about the Iran treaty.

Yeah, it was similar to the Obamacare campaign. All those racist teabaggers demanding their elected representative to not vote for it, and then years later we're being told the things that people feared would happen has...."unexpectedly."

No one will be more shocked than these WH fools and the MSM when Iran drops its first nukes.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (NOIQH)

290 rickb223: You're saying that the left would never sacrifice one of their own for the greater good? I don't think you really think that. Of course they'll rip Trump to shreds -- they want to win with an out-and-proud progressive more than the do with a closet progressive.

But they win, either way.

See CT's reply at 262.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (6hZFv)

291 For some reason, our political elites refuse to take on certain countries in the Mid East...

There is evidence that the House of Saud was complicit in 9/11... through money and support... yet Bush would not confront them.

There was evidence that Iran planned and carried out the 1983 Terrorist bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut... yet Reagan would not confront them.

We had evidence and even caught personnel proving that Iran was arming insurgents in both Afghanistan and Iraq, which killed US service members.

There is evidence that Pakistan paid for the 2009 bombing of a CIA annex in Afghanistan.

And there is no way you can say that no one in Pakistan knew that Bin Laden was living there, for YEARS....

Yet, the greatest Super Power the world have ever known... won't even tell its OWN people about these things...

Posted by: Don Quixote at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (qf6WZ)

292 You know, for an anti-Semite Obama sure has a lot of Jewish advisers (now includes Rhodes)
Posted by: anon2020 at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (yCcA0)

JINOs and self hating Jews...they are a dime a dozen

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:49 PM (V/InG)

293 >>So, anyone bet this is happening in areas other than just the Iran deal?

As sure as night follows day, this is being done with everything.
It's been a long time since most people who pay attention believed any of the WH narratives.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:49 PM (NOIQH)

294 "See a pattern here folks?"

Lies, deceit, and, treachery...?

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:49 PM (AbFmZ)

295
We're already pretending about far more serious things than Bruce Jenner's gender.

When obama's policies took the USA into recession a couple of times (two consecutive quarters of negative GDP), we were led by the White House and the media to pretend we were in a recovery.

Since the US economy "identified" as being in recovery, the recessionary period never happened!

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:50 PM (h+IVw)

296 Interesting there's shock, Shock! from a factoid observable even by ISS. How about doing a story on something we don't know.

Posted by: Jeff E. at May 06, 2016 12:50 PM (av/YM)

297 ALSO - Rhodes is taking credit for a woefully weak national Republican party. I don't know that his wishcasting worked.

It wasn't like the Republicans opposed it.

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 12:50 PM (2Ocf1)

298
Perception trumps reality. I always thought this was a silly statement. Today it is our reality.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:50 PM (h+IVw)

299 See a pattern here folks?

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (V/InG)

Yes, Obama was a terribly incompetent president, your point?

Oh, wait, more bullshit politicking for Trump, right?

Jesus Christ, can't there be a discussion on foreign policy with out the cheerleading?

Posted by: Arson Wells at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (/E+t2)

300 dagny at 245: I'd rather fight a moron than a demon. But that's not really the choice here, we're not choosing someone to fight, once.

We can elect an idiot progressive (Trump) or a slightly-less-addled progressive (Hillary). Trump might be better able to ram a progressive agenda through congress, because "only Nixon could go to China." And after 4 disastrous years, if Hillary is in office, the pendulum is due to swing back to the right. If Trump is, then here we go again ratcheting ever leftward (because Trump's election will not be a real swing to the right, but the LIVs won't see it that way because of the R after his name), and we get another Democrat, and we'll have at least 16 consecutive years of progressive control of the executive branch.

So I guess I'd rather elect the demon. If that's my only choice. I'm holding out hope for a third party possibility in a 4 way race.

Posted by: Pastafarian at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (LqrRo)

301 263--- Because it's just a game.
Posted by: alexthechick - Banderette at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (mf5HN)
----------------
Lawyers and academics live in a world of words just as surely as creative writers do. The symbol becomes the 'reality' for them, a 'reality' conveniently empty of material consequences.

Yeah, it's a game.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (T/5A0)

302 obama started off with "74 straight months of job growth!"

Harris Faulkner is having none of it.
Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:41 PM (h+IVw)

----

To be fair.... Obama is right on that point.

But only if you only count the jobs created, and ignore the jobs lost.

Posted by: fixerupper at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (8XRCm)

303 Well after all this cheery News, I am off to buy Bacon for Mother's Day

Posted by: Nevergiveup at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (V/InG)

304 i talked about this at the end of the podcast. even scumbags don't WANT to lie. Even sociopaths want to tell people how they manipulate others. even psychopathic murderers want to admit their killings.

these people are so firmly in control of everythign now -- government, justice department, media, academy, armed forces -- they fell safe enough to start telling the Col. Jessup like truth of the matter.

they feel they're untouchable

i'm not sure they're wrong

Posted by: ace at May 06, 2016 12:19 PM (dciA+)

This is the glory of socialism/communism/the Chicago Way etc.

As long as you're part of the movement-

you will succeed, move upward, and get rich.

Even while you're destroying your country and getting your fellow citizens killed in PR driven wars and making life in general evermore miserable.

This is what Obama meant when he said to his Obama Corps flunkies- if you stay in long enough, you will succeed.

There is no metric to follow to gage superior performance other than slavish loyalty to the group.

That's why they're so hard to get rid of politically and power-wise.

In my darkest moments, I believe we will see a very dire, very harsh Civil War 2.0*

*No Marvel characters involved.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (0cMkb)

305 Everything Obama knows about Iran he learned from.Jarret.

This. Iran plays an outsized and dark role in Obama's legacy -- explainable only due to Valeria Jarrett. And with only retards like Harf around, there is nobody to provide a counter weight to Jarret. Group think at its worst.

Posted by: wooga at May 06, 2016 12:52 PM (g23cL)

306 "Also, there's a lot of shit going on in the ME that is not being reported.

I know a Qatari national - he was called up in the National Guard or whatever its called there before Christmas. He's still on duty - fighting ISIS and Houthis and others. It was a nationwide callup. "

The war in Yemen is being poorly reported indeed, but if you followed what reporting there was, you know the UAE, Saudis, & Qatar are fighting there.

I just think Syria and Iraq overpowers Yemen for newsworthiness.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 12:52 PM (UBBWX)

307 Perception trumps reality.

I always thought this was a silly statement.

Srsly? How do you think the left survives?
Their perception of reality is the only thing keeping their pin heads from exploding.

Posted by: rickb223 at May 06, 2016 12:53 PM (6hZFv)

308 271-Trump voters didn't give us Bob Corker and the Corker Capitulation.

Posted by: ejo at May 06, 2016 12:53 PM (il4FI)

309 I would like to point out, this is the same shit Susan Rice pulled and nobody in the media gives a shit.

Posted by: Chupacabra at May 06, 2016 12:53 PM (W2YA6)

310
Oh, wait, more bullshit politicking for Trump, right?

Jesus Christ, can't there be a discussion on foreign policy with out the cheerleading?

Posted by: Arson Wells

Are you infuckingsane? Where in his comment do you see cheerleading? You didn't. You just wanted to give him shit.

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 12:54 PM (h+IVw)

311 Ben Rhodes must have really, really wanted to brag about this.

p.s. his brother runs NBC, IIRC.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 12:54 PM (UBBWX)

312 "There is evidence that Pakistan paid for the 2009 bombing of a CIA annex in Afghanistan. "

Another useless "ally."

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at May 06, 2016 12:54 PM (AbFmZ)

313
The sad thing is that this major story is just too inside baseball for the general public to care.

The inherently warped feelings of the mentally ill .03% is the most pressing Issue of Our Time.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (Wckf4)

-----------------------------

Forget the story about the lies and manipulation; that's hopeless. We just have to move on to destruction. I hope President Trump shuts the White House Press Office and communicates entirely via tweets and Facebook posts.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:54 PM (pC96u)

314 Rush teasing this for the top of the next hour.

Posted by: garrett at May 06, 2016 12:55 PM (ZcEXv)

315 >>A game. It's about Building A Legacy and Making An Impact and, c'mon,
it's just words. It's just paper. It's just pixels. It's not like
Iran is really going to nuke Israel (and anyway who cares if Israel gets
nuked). C'mon, now, you don't think they really mean all that stuff,
right? It's just for show. Just like politicians do here.

And that's how we end up on the verge of total nuclear annihilation. Because it's just a game.

THIS
Rhodes is working on his best novel yet: "Benjamin Rhodes: DC's smartest foreign policy analyst evah!"

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:55 PM (NOIQH)

316 This is an important story to be sure. And, no offense ace, but no story between now and December can be discussed outside the context of the election. Yeah Obama is SCOAMF and his people are using the media for their duplicitous machinations. We already know that. If you're helping Hillary to win, you're voting for more of the same. Every story like this should be an argument against Hillary.

Posted by: #NeverHillary at May 06, 2016 12:55 PM (28JcA)

317 >>p.s. his brother runs NBC, IIRC.

CBS

Posted by: JackStraw at May 06, 2016 12:55 PM (/tuJf)

318 274 No one was deceived about the Iran treaty.

I can pretend can't I
Posted by: Sen Corker at May 06, 2016 12:44 PM (cXiMR)

-------------------

Didn't Cruz vote for the Corker amendment?

Posted by: Soona at May 06, 2016 12:55 PM (Fmupd)

319 "Trump voters didn't give us Bob Corker and the Corker Capitulation."

Tru dat.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 12:56 PM (UBBWX)

320 No one will be more shocked than these WH fools and the MSM when Iran drops its first nukes.
Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (NOIQH)
***
Between the Israelis' continuing provocation of refusing to allow the Arabs to massacre them, and the climate of islamophobia fostered and proven by Trump's acendancy, who could blame them for a bit of anticipatory retaliation?

(I should write for the Times, really, I should.)

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 06, 2016 12:56 PM (lutOX)

321 Ben Rhodes must have really, really wanted to brag about this.

p.s. his brother runs NBC, IIRC.
Posted by: Harun

CBS news director.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at May 06, 2016 12:56 PM (OcD4G)

322 @316 oh no if you say Hillary is going to continue this kind of thing apparently you're on Trump's dick

Posted by: blaster at May 06, 2016 12:56 PM (2Ocf1)

323 Rhodes' wife, Ann Norris, is a senior foreign-policy and defense advisor to Se. Barbara Boxer.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:57 PM (NOIQH)

324 >>The war in Yemen is being poorly reported indeed, but if you followed
what reporting there was, you know the UAE, Saudis, Qatar are
fighting there.

In Osten nichts neues--not much to report. Saud is spending about $100 million/month, has no plans to send in occupation, increased their defense spending 17% in 2014 to accomodate a cheap war that serves the "we're victims of Iran's Shiite proxy pissant nations" narrative.

Posted by: General Zod at May 06, 2016 12:58 PM (Bdeb0)

325 Cruz voted no for closure, and yes on the final bill.

He did not like the bill, concluded it was the only shot to stop the deal.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 12:58 PM (UBBWX)

326
Yeah, it's a game.
Posted by: Margarita DeVille at May 06, 2016 12:51 PM (T/5A0)
***
The Glass Bead Game, I think it has been called.

Posted by: Your Decidedly Devious Uncle Palpatine, Still Accepting Harem Applicants at May 06, 2016 12:58 PM (lutOX)

327 >>>Everything Obama knows about Iran he learned from.Jarret.

Surely there are people in government that were around during the time of the Shah and post revolution that had knowledge of Iranian affairs. I wonder if those people spoke out and were ignored or just not even consulted.

To think that one person had that much influence on obama about Iran is just fucking insane.

Posted by: Arson Wells at May 06, 2016 12:58 PM (/E+t2)

328 Rhodes' wife, Ann Norris, is a senior foreign-policy and defense advisor to Se. Barbara Boxer.
Posted by: Lizzy

Dear god, there is one Dem senator dumber than our Republicans ...

Posted by: Sen Corker at May 06, 2016 12:59 PM (cXiMR)

329
with only retards like Harf around, there is nobody to provide a counter weight to Jarret. Group think at its worst.

Posted by: wooga at May 06, 2016 12:52 PM (g23cL)
--------------------

There's no counterweight to Jarrett anyway. She had access to the most sensitive briefings. I'm sure she could nix the most seasoned expert's opinion with a shake of her head.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 12:59 PM (pC96u)

330 Nood.

Posted by: johnd01 at May 06, 2016 01:00 PM (ukNFU)

331

noot

Posted by: Flock of Seagulls at May 06, 2016 01:00 PM (h+IVw)

332 Has ValJet registered as a foreign agent?

Posted by: Sen Corker at May 06, 2016 01:00 PM (cXiMR)

333 Cruz voted no for closure, and yes on the final bill.

He did not like the bill, concluded it was the only shot to stop the deal.

Posted by: Harun

As I recall, one Senator had the courage to vote no on this POS.

The only reason they had this "only shot" because they engineered it. Therefore, it wasn't a shot; it was a scam.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 01:00 PM (326rv)

334 199 If our task is impossible, voterma, then we must do is commit to achieving the impossible.
Posted by: Ghost of kari - certified sidebar at May 06, 2016 12:29 PM (xuouz)

To dream, the impossible dream?

Posted by: Windmill Thread Guy at May 06, 2016 01:01 PM (jnRfN)

335 General Zod,

Saudis being in Yemen, means they are harder pressed to do anything in Syria.

And the Saudis are worried about the Houthis is because rebellious Shia areas of Saudi Arabia are right there next to Yemen.

But not much has been achieved against the Houthis. You can see videos on Youtube of UAE tanks blowing up.

Also, there was a hilarious story about UAE commandos wearing military-style shorts.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 01:02 PM (UBBWX)

336 >>No one was deceived about the Iran treaty.

Not deceived maybe but a lot remain unclear on what really happened apparently.

The sanctions only worked because they were enforced by the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, the so called P5 +1. Without this support, which the Bush administration put together the sanctions were a joke.

It was no great surprise to anyone who followed the story that the negotiations to remove the sanctions were bi-lateral between the US and Iran, the were between the P5+1 and Iran. And it was also no surprise that Obama took the deal that the P5+1 helped negotiate and obviously supported to the UN before bringing it to US lawmakers.

Once it was agreed to at the Security Council, and it was unanimously, it was all over. And the very next day representatives from every member of the P5+1 as well as members of the EU were making deals in Iran.

What the Senate did or didn't do became a moot point once the Security Council rolled over on Iran for money.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 06, 2016 01:02 PM (/tuJf)

337 dagny! good comments, good to see your name

Christopher Taylor, you're on fire (in terms of focus and quality)

garrett - your pithy axiom about affirmative action never loses its sting

Posted by: rhomboid at May 06, 2016 01:02 PM (QDnY+)

338 Just spent the entire morning attempting to understand a Comcast employee with a heavy accent trying to get the WiFi back.

Finally. Damned Comcast.

Now, back to read the content.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at May 06, 2016 01:02 PM (1ZOkK)

339
No one will be more shocked than these WH fools and the MSM when Iran drops its first nukes.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:48 PM (NOIQH)
----------------------

Hmm. I think they may be a tad red-faced at just how bad an actual nuke drop turns out to be ("Skin burns off like that? Wow."), but shocked that it's happened? No.

Posted by: iforgot at May 06, 2016 01:02 PM (pC96u)

340 > UAE, Saudis, Qatar are
fighting there.

No they're not. They are just paying other people to fight. A hefty percent of the Qatari military is comprised of Yemenis to begin with. Very few actual Qatari citizens other than superficial officer slots.

Posted by: #NeverHillary at May 06, 2016 01:03 PM (28JcA)

341 Ben Rhodes must have really, really wanted to brag about this.

p.s. his brother runs NBC, IIRC.
Posted by: Harun

CBS news director.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at May 06, 2016 12:56 PM (OcD4G)

Rhodes' wife, Ann Norris, is a senior foreign-policy and defense advisor to Se. Barbara Boxer.
Posted by: Lizzy at May 06, 2016 12:57 PM (NOIQH)

Everybody all linked together like the end of the horror movie "Society":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcfav-5kArM

This is the perfect visual metaphor for Washington DC- the pols, the MSM,etc

Also----NSFW!!!

WARNING---Very gross. Not in a Lemon Party way but in an SciFI/horror way. Plus, some humor.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 06, 2016 01:03 PM (0cMkb)

342 Every single one of these WH tool bags needs to be tried for treason.

But that will happen when pigs fly and Hillary! is indicted.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at May 06, 2016 01:03 PM (1ZOkK)

343 "The only reason they had this "only shot" because they engineered it. Therefore, it wasn't a shot; it was a scam."

Some of that was engineered years ago by giving the president the power over sanctions.

Also, the entire "is it a treaty or an agreement" BS.

By the time the Supremes would get to that answer, it would be a done deal.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 01:03 PM (UBBWX)

344 "No they're not. They are just paying other people to fight. A hefty percent of the Qatari military is comprised of Yemenis to begin with. Very few actual Qatari citizens other than superficial officer slots."

Their governments are fighting. Airstrikes, too.

Also, there are videos of armored vehicles getting blowed up. That suggests its more than just arming locals.

Posted by: Harun at May 06, 2016 01:08 PM (UBBWX)

345 What the Senate did or didn't do became a moot point once the Security Council rolled over on Iran for money.
Posted by: JackStraw

Forking over $150B isn't a moot point.

Giving them access during a period of declining oil prices and increased supplies isn't moot either.

And faking a vote and abdicating their role in treaties isn't moot.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 01:09 PM (326rv)

346 Ben Rhodes is detonating the bombs to collapse the media network they worked, so they can't be used by Hillary. Some will never work in journalism again. What a glorious piece of work David Samuels has in the NYT. He's written on Kanye West and Britney Spears, and now Ben Rhodes.

Posted by: Crowley at May 06, 2016 01:10 PM (9nRhy)

347 Also, the entire "is it a treaty or an agreement" BS.

By the time the Supremes would get to that answer, it would be a done deal.
Posted by: Harun

Imperial Presidency. An opposition that was interested in being in opposition could have done it.

Instead, they chose to lie to us.

Posted by: Blue Hen at May 06, 2016 01:11 PM (326rv)

348 JackStraw bringing the needed factual background. The Iran "deal" was very different from something like SALT or START or the Panama Canal treaties. Because of its origins.

It was even different within the US context. The sanctions were built, legally, on a hodgepodge of executive agreements and US law implementing or echoing some these things. Most of which - standard procedure, BTW - gave the executive branch wide latitude in exercising discretion to apply/suspend the sanctions.

A lot of this is standard, normal mechanics. The problem - duh! - is that you had the unprecedented act the WH going off the rails on a bipartisan policy that had gone unchallenged for years, unchallenged because it was obvious to all that Iran was at war with the US and the west and was by far the most dangerous actor in the region. It's as if a president wanted to exit the NATO treaty in, say, 1983 or something - simply, obviously, indefensibly stupid move.

Doesn't make the Corker thing a good idea. But there is actual gray area in the treaty power and executive agreement area that is *not* just jaw-dropping brazen lawlessness by these dumb, alien mediocrities twice elected to the WH.

The GOP's failure is more general - to not burn the s**t-house down in reaction to such a dangerous move. And the Dems - it's pretty much a straight line from January 12, 1991 to the utter irresponsibility of supporting this insanity.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 06, 2016 01:11 PM (QDnY+)

349 The right could never use any "force multipliers" to peddle lies. The corrupt left-wing media which amplifies their lies would be kill off any right-wing propaganda immediately. As ace mentioned, they brag because they feel they're now untouchable.

This is why, for all his flaws - which are legion, I've come around to supporting Trump. For 50 years, the left has carefully constructed and finally perfected a hunger games arena of disinformation and subterfuge designed to destroy any challengers to their favorite presidential candidate. Trump, whose imperfections are legion, is the only guy who walks through their booby traps and ambushes unscathed.

Posted by: Crrr6 (hotair refugee) at May 06, 2016 01:14 PM (Vqcn4)

350 I noticed the other day how many, many, many pikes there are on the White House fence. I fear the coming implosion will make The Great Terror seem like a squabble amoungst friends.

May God help us.

Posted by: Drill at May 06, 2016 01:15 PM (TjXED)

351 Doesn't make the Corker thing a good idea. But there is actual gray
area in the treaty power and executive agreement area that is *not* just
jaw-dropping brazen lawlessness by these dumb, alien mediocrities twice
elected to the WH. - rhomboid
=====

^^^THIS

However, I will add the old EB White maxim as caution: eschew unnecessary words. They have been spinning the sub-sub-sub clauses of everything to spin themselves into the ground.

Posted by: mustbequantum at May 06, 2016 01:16 PM (MIKMs)

352 >>Giving them access during a period of declining oil prices and increased supplies isn't moot either.

Most of the money was held in international banks outside the US control. So once again, once other countries decided to crash the sanctions we couldn't do anything to force them to keep the money.

>>And faking a vote and abdicating their role in treaties isn't moot.

They weren't faking anything. Obama announced his intention to bypass the Senate over a year before the deal was reached. There was no way to force him not to go to the UN first. The Corker plan was a Hail Mary with little chance of working but it was an attempt to get him to go to the Senate.

Unless of course you think guys like Cruz were secretly scheming with Obama to give Iran nukes. Which if fucking nuts.

Posted by: JackStraw at May 06, 2016 01:17 PM (/tuJf)

353
The NY Times Magazine oozes contempt for anyone not in the WH's inner loop.

Tar. Feathers. Rails. Some assembly required.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot, Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 06, 2016 01:17 PM (BK3ZS)

354 D-Lamp was much too kind to these criminals in the media.

Posted by: rickl at May 06, 2016 01:21 PM (zoehZ)

355 The only issue I have in all of this is the idea that Rhodes is "brilliant." This guy is supposed to be a literary genius --but he can't even sell a short story, and only his mother's connection's got him a real job.
No, he and his twitter buddies , are all just sucking each other's cock. He's playing with fire though, and it's sickening that assholes like this are so close to the nerve center between peace and war.

Man, some real shit is going to come out about Obama and his "people" after he's safely out of office....

Posted by: JoeF. at May 06, 2016 01:21 PM (Ff12p)

356 "It's huge." Yup, just as "huge" as FF, IRS targeting of conservative non-profs, EPA collusion with enviro wacks, EPA sharing personal information of land owners with enviro wacks, Benghazi, NSA spying on everyone, including the AP, Obama's DOJ targeting local law enforcement for perceived "institutional racism", and on and on... And this latest scandal will proceed per the usual stages of conservative reality in Obama's America; What?!?, BOLD headlines "It's huge" all over conservative media outlets, talk radio will take up the issue, maybe congress will hold a dog and pony show, fade, whisper, fade, nothing....

Posted by: WVinMN at May 06, 2016 01:23 PM (esqHz)

357 JackStraw is correct here.

The question - and this arises in the context of the other policy debacles of the last few years - is whether the GOP Congress should have gone all-out in their opposition, using all their tools.

"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds appropriated in this act shall be used to .....".

The club the GOP Congress has not touched. Yes - veto fight to follow. This is the "power of the purse" many know of, and rightly puzzle over why it seems to rarely make an appearance.

As for the SCOTUS, one long-standing pattern there has been a wise reticence and modesty about treading on the executive's broad constitutional authority. Well, "had" been.

Hamdan v. Bush. I've whined about it before. Case about the military tribunal procedures for the Gitmo prisoners. Outlandish, absurd Kennedy "ruling" brazenly usurping the treaty power and literally rewriting negotiating history for the Geneva Convention's Common Article 3. Roberts (from today's perspective, amusingly) recoiled in horror and used very very alarmist language in his dissent about the very constitutional order itself being undermined.

So - as with so much else in the last few years, when the SCOTUS really has formally and finally gone off the constitutional rails - very hard to say what they would do. Probably still duck, esp. on something like Iran. The court's majority is obviously not very smart, but they are clearly cowardly, and would be loathe to get involved in something with a death toll associated with it, in their lifetimes.

Posted by: rhomboid at May 06, 2016 01:26 PM (QDnY+)

358 Trump, whose imperfections are legion, is the only guy who walks through their booby traps and ambushes unscathed.

Posted by: Crrr6 (hotair refugee) at May 06, 2016 01:14 PM (Vqcn4)

How would that be known? As long as he is just a clown figure, why should they bother? If he doesn't toe the line, they will set the booby traps and launch the ambushes. So far they like his work in sabotaging the right.

Posted by: Mimzey at May 06, 2016 01:37 PM (aRUb8)

359 The media have effectively reviewed the Loki speech in the Avengers and envisioned themselves as First Among Kneelers.

Posted by: ZBBMcFate at May 06, 2016 01:49 PM (k7D+q)

360 :-0
My shocked face.

Posted by: Crazy Jane at May 06, 2016 01:50 PM (ZbJ8q)

361 I wouldn't use the word "gifted" for anyone who sells leftwing lies to the press. That is like calling a bartender who sets up shop at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting "gifted" because he sells out of alcohol.

Posted by: Thatch at May 06, 2016 01:54 PM (pBZp4)

362 Posted by: ThePrimordialOrderedPair at May 06, 2016 12:46 PM (zc3Db)

Those two aren't mutually exclusive. I will vote against Hillary in the general regardless of who her opponent is from the other major party.

Posted by: dagny at May 06, 2016 01:59 PM (UbIg6)

363 This sort of conspiracy theory appeals to the weak and powerless, or at least those who don't have as much power as they think they ought to have. People who have a sense that their own world is beyond their control tend to find a conspiracy theory explaining the secret hands that work the gears and levers of the world empowering, in a sad way. People who feel more personal control over their own world know the world doesn't work like that.

Posted by: Doppelganger Ace at May 06, 2016 02:30 PM (uzNN5)

364 Are any other people less offended by having a government lackey manipulate the media, than they are by that government lackey being an adolescent, fresh-from-college, english major?

Posted by: zincfinger at May 06, 2016 02:39 PM (Bj229)

365 Also, for some reason I find myself obsessed with semen and penises.

Posted by: Doppelganger Ace at May 06, 2016 02:42 PM (uzNN5)

366 I hope Trump executes all these mother fuckers.

Posted by: Obamanation at May 06, 2016 02:51 PM (ka/xO)

367 363 This sort of conspiracy theory appeals to the weak and powerless, or at least those who don't have as much power as they think they ought to have. People who have a sense that their own world is beyond their control tend to find a conspiracy theory explaining the secret hands that work the gears and levers of the world empowering, in a sad way. People who feel more personal control over their own world know the world doesn't work like that.

This isn't a conspiracy theory, dumbass. It came straight from the horse's mouth.

Posted by: Obamanation at May 06, 2016 02:52 PM (ka/xO)

368 So when the Iranian nuclear first strike eviscerates us, they will throw up their hands and say that they had the best of intentions, and really this is all so unexpected!

Posted by: Randomized at May 06, 2016 03:09 PM (sUq3E)

369 Judas Priest, when your back seat driving and your hands ain't on the wheel

Posted by: The Jackhole at May 06, 2016 03:35 PM (dULJN)

370 Where

Posted by: furious_a at May 06, 2016 03:40 PM (8lw4l)

371 the F*ck

Posted by: furious_a at May 06, 2016 03:40 PM (8lw4l)

372 is Congress?

(looking at YOU, Corker)

Posted by: furious_a at May 06, 2016 03:40 PM (8lw4l)

373 sorry for the test---
replies not working on firefox---

Posted by: test at May 06, 2016 03:54 PM (By7r4)

374 This is treason.

Posted by: DL at May 06, 2016 04:23 PM (lKErG)

375 Ah, the happy days when traitors like these were hanged in the town square.

Posted by: Jeffersonian at May 06, 2016 04:26 PM (+ttLq)

376 Neither gifted nor tallented, the media is just that biased, lazy, and ignorant that they'll confirmation bias their way through their entire career.

Posted by: David Mears at May 06, 2016 04:26 PM (WFjXF)

377 Ace,

I am a bit late today to the party. But has anyone else noticed that when facts get in the way of a liberal narrative. Some mystery "multiplier" gets added to whatever line of attack liberals push?

We have the above "force" multiplier.
When its global warming CO2 is used as the "multiplier" for global catastrophe.
When it was Obama stimulus. Government spending was somehow "multiplier" as opposed to money spent from non-government sources.

In all cases the "multiplier" has been either unprovable. Or completely contradicted by most other evidence.

And yet each time the press not only did not question the claim. But usually pushed it as a proven fact

Posted by: Mythx at May 06, 2016 09:42 PM (N9BGs)

378 Clearly Rhodes is proud of the job he has done manipulating the media to achieve Obama's insane agenda. He exists in such a moral vacuum that he doesn't understand that he is taking credit for propaganda, dishonesty, deception, and treachery. If Iran gets a nuclear bomb and blows up Israel, we now know who exactly to hold responsible in addition to Obama the Feckless.

Posted by: IanDeal at May 07, 2016 08:53 AM (teGBX)

379 Here is more of what they peddle at a so called human interest site:
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/05/the-highway-of-death.html

Posted by: Sennacherib at May 07, 2016 08:33 PM (w+uQ7)

380 Great post ace, thanks for the coverage...

Although I have insufficient evidence, my gut tells me this is just business as usual for the Left. How else can they make so many people believe a sow's ear is a silk purse?

Posted by: Dan Knight at May 08, 2016 09:02 AM (r17kK)

Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.049 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0197 seconds, 389 records returned.
Page size 224 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.