Andrew McCarthy on the Manafort indictment
So far, Andrew C. McCarthy has earned his reputation as the go-to guy for information on the Mueller investigation. So I suggest, now that he’s reacted at some length to the Manafort indictment (boy, he’s quick!), that you read the whole thing.
Here’s an excerpt:
Even from Paul Manafort’s perspective, there may be less to this indictment than meets the eye ”” it’s not so much a serious allegation of “conspiracy against the United States” as a dubious case of disclosure violations and money movement that would never have been brought had he not drawn attention to himself by temporarily joining the Trump campaign.
From President Trump’s perspective, the indictment is a boon from which he can claim that the special counsel has no actionable collusion case. It appears to reaffirm former FBI director James Comey’s multiple assurances that Trump is not a suspect. And, to the extent it looks like an attempt to play prosecutorial hardball with Manafort, the president can continue to portray himself as the victim of a witch hunt.
Of course, most people don’t read Andrew McCarthy. The MSM will be spinning this quite differently.
For example, we have this headline from our old friends at the NY Times: “Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Told to Surrender.” Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Even though the Manafort charges have nothing to do with Trump or his campaign.
Here’s the history of Manafort’s connection with the Trump campaign, by the way:
He joined Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team in March 2016 and served as campaign manager from June to August 2016.
If you want to see the approach of the left to this story, there are plenty of examples here. The gist of it is that this is just the beginning of very very bad news for Trump.
I’m not at all sure the ordinary person will see it that way.
Heh. My favorite was NPR this afternoon talking about WHO the indictments were against without talking about what the indictments were FOR. Then they shifted gears to the Trump aid who lied to the FBI [!]. And they wrapped up the who thing with a summary of the Trump-Russia collusion theory.
Then they introduced their next story, “In another story involving election irregularities, the election in Nigeria …”
common sense tells me that if trump was colluding with Russia, and he truly knew that Manafort was a Putin agent, the last thing he would do is hiring Manafort to front his campaign. Why collude with Russia in the public light instead of in the dark? it is like Trump waving to the media and yelling “Hey look at me, I am colluding with Russia” at this point liberals have lost any ability to conduct any political analysis with logic and common sense. The liberals are smart people in their fields but they have a blind spot with the concept of virtue, they lost any ability to logic when you package an idea with virtue to present to them. It is like even the most stingy father can be very generous to his children.
Since about October 2015 the MSM has been pushing the line that ‘what ever incident they were reporting on’ is just the beginning of very very bad news for Donald Trump.
Can’t recall a single example of how any ‘story’ worked out that way. So far the Press is batting 0.000. But they’re still pitching aren’t they. I guess they ONLY have a ‘bull’ pen.
Manafort, Podesta,obama, the clintons, and many others are connected to a web of money for nothing and the chicks (or pubescent boys) are free. Mueller and Comey are not white knights of justice, they too are corrupt. IMO a large percentage of the people attracted to DC are corrupt or are corrupted once there. The Founders understood that investing too much power in the federal government was a death sentence to the Republic.
Strange it is that a character like Trump is applying, haphazardly, the brakes.
This is about propaganda NOT about legal process. We all know about the Big Lie. Repeat the propaganda long and incessantly enough and people begin to subconsciously assume that there must be fire beneath all that smoke.
The Left would love to impeach and convict Trump but will realistically settle for destroying any chance of Trump’s reelection.
Donald Trump colluded with Russia by asking them to release Podesta’s emails about his funny hobby of participating in spirit cooking events with other weirdo celebs like Lady Gaga through wikileaks, and this piece of information was somehow enough to tip the scale and turn the blue wall red. To pay back Putin Trump promised not to start war with Russia and rebuild relationship, basically a resemblance of the Russia reset, the exact same foreign strategy adopted by the obama admin with Hillary being the Secretary of State.
This is the story the progressives are selling to the America hoping to win support from us to undo the election.
“Humpty Dumpty fell off of the wall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty together again.”
About a year ago the unthinkable happened, an election was lost that was a sure thing. The Queen was going to take the throne and make everything do something, no idea what and it did not happen.
Comey made a move to show that he was impartial and worthy of his place since the Queen was a sure thing. The whole coastal world was ready to rejoice in crowning the first woman and the first woman president, no matter what her flaws, and they were many.
And now here we are.
Your final sentence hits the key point: there are no ordinary people on the left, especially in so far as the media is concerned.
Tuvea Says:
October 30th, 2017 at 6:26 pm
Since about October 2015 the MSM has been pushing the line that ‘what ever incident they were reporting on’ is just the beginning of very very bad news for Donald Trump.
Can’t recall a single example of how any ‘story’ worked out that way. So far the Press is batting 0.000. But they’re still pitching aren’t they. I guess they ONLY have a ‘bull’ pen.
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This is how the “ordinary person” sees things – and the Leftist “journalist” writing the piece still doesn’t get it.
http://www.kansascity.com/article181300286.html
They’re Trump-strong in rural Iowa – and not changing their minds
BY ROBERT LEONARD
Special to The Star
OCTOBER 27, 2017 2:05 PM
…
While I couldn’t bring myself to actually watch Trump give his speech, [Value Voters Summit] I read the transcript as provided by the White House.
Looking only at the written word, and putting Trump’s arrogant off-script comments aside, it was a beautiful speech. Powerful. Inspirational. Brilliant even.
That’s not what I took from the reporting – which may well be the fault of my selective reading and viewing – but if President Barack Obama had given a similar speech I know much of the media would have lauded it, leaving me with a completely different perspective of the speech, and likely of the man.
Doing my best to understand how my conservative friends might read Trump’s speech, I read it again. Only this time, I contrasted Trump’s messaging with how rural conservatives often view Democratic messaging. Here goes.
Trump began by saying we are a nation of believers and that “together we are strengthened and sustained by the power of prayer.” Democrats want prayer out of the public sphere.
Trump called the Las Vegas shooting a “horrific mass murder” and an “act of pure evil.” Democrats blame the guns and want to take yours away.
Trump honored the heroes of Las Vegas, including the police officers and other first responders. Democrats elevate thugs and view our protectors in blue with disdain.
Trump quotes scripture. Democrats ridicule those who do.
Trump stresses unity. Democrats divide American society into victims and oppressors.
Trump says, “We love our country.” Obama went on an international apology tour.
Trump says, “We cherish the sacred dignity of every human life.” Democrats murder babies.
Trump says, “We believe in strong families.” Democratic policies pull them apart.
Trump says, “We are proud of our history.” Democrats tear down monuments.
Trump says, “We respect our great American flag.” Democrats take a knee.
I could go on. There’s much, much more in Trump’s speech that’s fodder for conservative thought.
So, big media, keep up the great writing, thoughtful analysis, logic and reasoning. And fact checking. But, remember here in Trumplandia, you won’t change any minds. The cultural fissure is too deep, and relates to fundamentally different worldviews with respect to freedom and the nature of man.
Given so, Trump’s sinking poll numbers are irrelevant. My conservative friends will vote for a fence post before they vote for a Democrat.
Keep preaching to the choir, coastal media elites. Continue to predict the downfall of Trump in 2020 if not before, and great victories for Democrats in congressional races in 2018, and we’ll see if it works. That’s my hope. I fear, however, such stories will only lead to complacency among the Democratic electorate.
My conservative friends remain “Trump-strong.” And remember, we in the hinterland have the Electoral College by the throat.
A grand jury can be led to indict a ham sandwich by an aggressive prosecutor. Supposedly, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But not in the court of MSM opinion. It is entirely possible that Manafort will not be proven guilty of much. Six similar government indictments since the 1960s with one conviction. Not an impressive record.
Tony Podesta is in Mueller’s sights as well. At least Mueller’s not loathe to go after a Democrat lobbyist. May be done to give the appearance of evenhandedness.
I expect the MSM to make much of this, but evidence of the connection to Trump campaign collusion with the Russians is still quite minimal. Unlike evidence of the DNC/Hillary connection to paying Fusion GPS for the Russian sourced anti-Trump dossier. Or the Clinton/Obama connection to selling 20% of our uranium sources to the Russians.
Aesopfan：
You have said everything i wanted to say with say
Liberals flip everything upside down
CNN is the one calling an apple a banana, calling a man a woman, calling the advantaged oppressed, calling the disadvantaged deplorable, calling the incompetent the most qualified, calling the virtuous evil, calling the violent peaceful… fuck the liberals and the democrats, f**k them all.
Sorry I used profanity, my anger for the evils got the best of me.
kevino Says:
October 30th, 2017 at 5:43 pm
Heh. My favorite was NPR this afternoon talking about WHO the indictments were against without talking about what the indictments were FOR.
* * *
Once I began reading the non-MSM news sites and blogs like Neo’s, I quit listening to National Partisan Radio.
Defund and destroy NPR and PBS, and I will be happy with President Trump.
But moving along, here is a must-read on the timeline of Russia’s railroad on the Potomac.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2017/10/30/extraordinary-timeline-dnc-fusion-hillary-trump-dossier-crowdstrike-hirings-payments-2016-primaries/
Off the main track, I looked at this entry and wondered if anyone (who is someone) is looking at connections between the DNC server that was allegedly “hacked” and the Democrat congressional computers that were open books to the Pakistani agents who had unfettered access to them for years (I refuse to insert alleged for the Awan bunch).
“29 April: The DNC discovers the penetration of its servers by unknown hackers. An emergency meeting is called between Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (DNC Chief Executive), Amy Dacey (DNC Technology Director), Andrew Brown, and Michael Sussman, a lawyer for Perkins Coie.”
Revisiting my comment on the Kansas City Star article, if I hadn’t read the parts where the author proclaimed himself a proud Democrat and vehement anti-Trumper, I might almost have characterized the piece as something from a Federalist or NRO writer cautioning the Left about their misreading of rural conservatives.
However, on second reading, this sentence caught my attention: “Only this time, I contrasted Trump’s messaging with how rural conservatives often view Democratic messaging. ”
The author thinks it’s just a matter of messaging!
(Deja vu all over again, I know.)
His litany of Trump statements v. “conservatives’ view of Democrats” totally misses the essential fact: conservatives view Democrat “messaging” in exactly the way he demonstrates, because everything he says about the Democrats is true.
One more for the road: McCarthy takes on the Papadopoulous plea with this conclusion (pithily restated on PowerLine):
UPDATE: Here’s Andy McCarthy on the Papadopoulous case. Among his observations is the shrewd one that if the Russians acquired thousands of Clinton emails and then needed to inform Papadopoulos that they had them, this means that Trump and his campaign had nothing to do with the acquisition of the emails.
Why doesn’t affirmative action benefits more disadvantaged children? It is because the main beneficiaries of affirmative action are children of upper middle class parents like Obama’s or Charlie blow. If there is 20% quota reserved for minority kids with Ivy League schools, certainly those seats will be occupied by children of middle class well connected professional minorities who were the first or second generation beneficiaries of affirmative action themselves, not any kids from inner cities with good grades. If obama really want to help black kids he should send her daughters to state universities and offer their seats in Ivy League schools to someone like Michael brown or Trayvon martin.
Obama’s daughters don’t need a degree from Ivy League colleges to get good jobs, why don’t they offer their seats for more disadvantaged children in the inner cities. When obama and democrats demand that more qualified white children to give up their seats for the more disadvantaged minority children, why don’t they set an good example and surrender the seats of their children first instead of forcing others to do so?
“So, big media, keep up the great writing, thoughtful analysis, logic and reasoning. And fact checking.”
What alternative universe does this dude live in?
Incidentally, I had to check to see if the comment I quoted above wasn’t meant ironically. But as AesopFan (who reposted the original article) points out the author Robert Leonard is a lib and he meant it. Leonard seems to have some dim awareness as to why middle American voters are so turned off to the Dems but cannot really face up to it.
The leftist media’s spin and attempts to turn the news into more than it is only reinforces Trump’s cries of “fake news!”
But unfortunately, fake news often has real results.
Those so called reporters are actually democrat party apparatchiks. The media long ago became Pravda for the democrats.
The real and most serious charges about Trump & his campaing colluding with Russia to undermine our election of a president, and prevent Hillary from assuming the office she was born to hold are always coming in the future. Sometimes it is even the near future, but so far has never been today.
Paul Manafort’s lawyer was on TV and said in effect that Mueller must be desperate if that’s all he could come up with.
See how powerful it is to not do illegal things but have your opposition think you do? (including the public)…
its straight out of military (school) tactics studying under Tsun Tsu and others..
when you are weak appear strong becomes when you are honest, appear dishonest.. (with the obvious corrolary being when your dishonest appear honest, just as when strong, pretend your weak).
and then there is the knowing your opposition
most here refuse to accept what theopposition is
oh, there is a bit of lipserver, but there is endless discussion with the idea of trying to actually find a way out of deciding what kind of people communists really are. its silly… and sillier that this is a po mo way of negating the negatives and means nothing!!!! (like learning a magic spell that reqires you to spit three times, as long as everyone pretends to believe it, you will too… if your like most people – but dont worry, everyone thinks they are exceptional)
you talk endlessly of why this gets retried
why they dont throw the bums out
why people SEEM to change when they actually only switch sides to the one that actually represents them after being fooled
why there is little oppositon, etc
because evil is willing to hurt people whether it right or wrong and good people wait so long to find out something is evil its too late to do anything once they are sure.
and thats taht.
and its hysterically funny watching a 10 year discusiosn that has amounted to zippo as we ride the swirly down the toilet of politics to the end result as a fait accompli precisely because until it all falls apart and you cant even comment any more, they wll chatter meaninglessly and endlessly.
at least at MGTOW we are in 800 countries
its independent and a movement for over 15 years
i left it to come here to find another set to start another movement, and i failed cause, well, everyone here has it pretty good and doesnt want to lose it till its lost…
i am back over a MGTOW, at least they have been covered by time, psychology today, and even one of neos fav commentors apologized to us!!!
anyone want any MGTOW T-Shirts
given the recent wacko things from pussy hats, to rampant sexual harasment, new laws in france, and more… we are really busy doing things!!!
not so much here..
and yet, we can guess who will get the aprobation
I half suspect the reason why potential Trum supporters are bothered by my method of writing his name, is that they can’t take on Trum’s enemies. They are powerless. So it is easier for them to target and blame people who they can get.
It’s kind of childish. But whatever floats that American Hollywood entertainment vibe.