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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:52:29 GMT
THE CONSERVATIVE CIRCUSCOMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOUFBI launches new Clinton Foundation investigationBy John Solomon - 01/04/18 08:35 PM EST 4,670comments (John Solomon is a discredited right wing journalist that has pushed conspiracy as fact for years)
The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.
FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the Foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in coming weeks.
The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.
The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the Foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.
One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.
The witness discussed his interview solely on the grounds of anonymity. He said the agents were from Little Rock and their questions focused on government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama's State Department.
The FBI office in Little Rock referred a reporter Thursday to Washington headquarters, where officials declined any official comment.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, and Craig Minassian, a spokesman for the Foundation, did not immediately return calls or emails seeking comment Thursday evening. But the Foundation and Merrill have previously told The Hill that the Clintons never traded any government policy decisions for donations and that the continued focus on the issue was solely designed as a conservative distraction from President Trump's Russia election probe.
Former Clinton White House aide Bruce Lindsey, who oversees the Foundation, also did not respond immediately to an email seeking comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that several FBI field offices, including the one in Little Rock, had been collecting information on the Clinton Foundation for more than a year. The report also said there had been pushback to the FBI from the Justice Department.
A renewed law enforcement focus follows a promise to Congress late last year from top Trump Justice Department officials that law enforcement would revisit some of the investigations and legal issues closed during the Obama years that conservatives felt were given short shrift. It also follows months of relentless criticism on Twitter from President Trump, who has repeatedly questioned why no criminal charges were ever filed against the “crooked” Clintons and their fund-raising machine.
For years, news media from the New York Times to The Daily Caller have reported countless stories on donations to the Clinton Foundation or speech fees that closely fell around the time of favorable decisions by Hillary Clinton's State Department. Conservative author Peter Schweizer chronicled the most famous of episodes in a book called Clinton Cash that gave ammunition to conservatives, including Trump, to beat the drum for renewed investigation.
Several GOP members of Congress have recently urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to look at the myriad of issues surrounding the Clintons. Justice officials sent a letter to Congress in November suggesting some of those issues were being re-examined, but Sessions later testified the appointment of a special prosecutor required a high legal bar that had not yet been met.
Officials also said the Justice Department was re-examining whether there are any unresolved issues from the closed case into Hillary Clinton's transmission of classified information through her personal email server. Former FBI Director James Comey in 2016 concluded Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling that classified information and that there was some evidence of legal violations but he declined to recommend charges on the grounds that he could not improve Clinton and her top aides intended to break the law.
His decision was roundly criticized by Republicans, and recent revelations that his statement was watered down by edits and that he made the decision before all witness interviews were finished have led to renewed criticism.
A senior law enforcement official said Justice was exploring whether any issues from that probe should be re-opened but cautioned the effort was not at the stage of a full investigation. One challenge for any Clinton-era investigation is that the statute of limitations on most federal felonies is five years and Clinton left office in early 2013.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:52:54 GMT
As long as there is FOX news and right wing hate radio (all arms of the Republicon Party) little will change. Liberals need to toughen up and fight back which includes making sure elections are fair and free (and audited).
Why Conservatives Opt for Propaganda Over Reality Conservatives are consuming a right-wing media full of lies and misinformation, whereas liberals are more interested in media that puts facts before ideology. By Amanda Marcotte / AlterNet October 22, 2014, 5:55 AM GMT Pew Research set out to find what’s behind what it considers the increasing political polarization of the United States; why the country is moving away from political moderation and becoming more and more divided between liberals and conservatives. Its first report on the phenomenon, which examines where people are hearing news and opinion in both regular and social media, shows that this is happening for very different reasons among people moving to the right than for people moving to the left.
Or that’s the charitable way to put it. The less charitable way is to say Pew discovered that conservatives are consuming a right-wing media full of lies and misinformation, whereas liberals are more interested in media that puts facts before ideology. It’s very much not a “both sides do it” situation. Conservatives are becoming more conservative because of propaganda, whereas liberals are becoming more liberal while staying very much checked into reality.
That this polarization is going on isn’t a myth. Previous Pew research shows the percentage of Americans who are “mostly” or “consistently” conservative has grown from 18% in 2004 to 27% in 2014. During that same period, the percentage of Americans who are “mostly” or “consistently” liberal stayed a little more consistent, growing from 33% to 34% in 10 years. (These statistics don’t measure what you call yourself, but what you rate as on a scale of beliefs about various issues.) While liberals became more liberal, conservatives both became more numerous and more rigidly conservative over time. What gives?
Enter right-wing media, which has a nifty trick of convincing audiences it’s the other guys who are the liars, all while actually being much less trustworthy in reality. From conservative screaming about the “media elite” to Fox News’s old slogan “Fair and Balanced,” conservative media is rife with the message that everyone is out to get you, conservative viewer, and only in the warm blanket of right-wing propaganda will you be safe.
Fox News is one of the main factors, possibily the main factor, driving political polarization in this country. Huge chunks of this country listen mostly or solely to a relentless stream of misinformation coming from Fox News, coupled with warnings, implied or even baldly stated, to avoid listening to other, more factually accurate news sources. Unsurprisingly, then, more people are becoming conservatives and people who were already conservative are becoming more hardline about it. If you have any Fox viewers in your family, you probably already suspected this, but now Pew has given us the cold, hard facts to confirm your suspicions.
www.alternet.org/media/why-conservatives-opt-propaganda-over-reality
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:53:26 GMT
Old article but more true today than ever. There aren't even 10 radio stations in ALL of America that broadcast Liberal talk. Mainstream media is corporate media and corporate media is conservative media. And all of these corporations are shills for the conservative overclass and the republican party carrying out their DIRTY WORK.Right-Wing Radio Monopoly and the Myth of the Liberal MediaTuesday, September 16th, 2014 Aristotle Blog, Campaign Guide
Originally posted on CompleteCampaigns.com and written by William S. Bike
When it comes to national talk radio, conservatives are king… –Philadelphia Daily News, May 8, 2002*
Conservative political commentators are not just the majority on talk radio–they monopolize it. It’s easy to rattle off a list of celebrity conservative radio commentators: Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, G. Gordon Liddy, Neal Boortz, Mike Gallagher, Matt Drudge, Bob Dornan, Michael Reagan, Oliver North, Michael Medved, Bob Grant, Ken Hamblin, Pat Buchanan, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage–and the list goes on.
However, it is virtually impossible to name progressive or Democratic talk show hosts with the listenership, celebrity, and entertainment value of any of the above-mentioned conservatives.
Limbaugh alone is on 600 stations and has a listenership of about 20 million. O’Reilly is on 205, and is estimated to have as many as 15 million.*
The spectrum of opinion on national political commercial talk radio shows ranges from extreme right wing to very extreme right wing–there is virtually nothing else, wrote Edward Monks in the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard in 2002.****
Since then, a few progressives have managed to make it onto the airwaves, via Air America and a few other outlets. Occasionally, an Ed Schultz or a Randi Rhodes will make it onto the evening cable news talk shows. But their celebrity still pales next to the likes of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, et. al.
In an America in which voters, despite the results of the 2006 elections, are split almost evenly between conservatives and liberals or Republicans and Democrats, a large part of the reason that the Conservative ideology has so many adherents is its articulation in the media–particularly on talk radio. Before the repeal of the federally mandated Fairness Doctrine allowed conservative ideology to be articulated so prolifically on talk radio, virtually without opposition since the 1980s until the rise of Air America and a few other progressives, the Democratic Party was the majority party, and the progressive ideology was the predominant one. That no longer is the case.
Conservative talk radio is a rapid-response media machine, allowing conservative and Republican leaders to strongly influence, if not dictate, what is considered news.** Progressives and Democrats only in the last few years have developed their own rapid response through blogs and organizations like MoveOn.com.
By ceding talk radio to the overwhelming dominance of the conservatives, Democrats and progressives ceded their majority status, and America’s best platform for articulating and disseminating ideas and philosophy, to their opponents.
The 2006 election results showed that Democrats and progressives finally learned their lessons. Blogs, activist organizations, and the few progressives on radio do make a difference. Yet, with the continued overwhelming dominance of conservatives and Republicans on talk radio, it still is vital that progressives and Democrats develop radio hosts as entertaining as the above-mentioned conservatives.
The perception that media are liberal
Creation of perception that the media are liberal was a policy planned by conservatives to increase their voice while stifling that of the progressive opposition. No less a conservative pundit and policymaker than William Kristol said, I admit it, the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.***
It is not just conservative pundits who are less than fair and impartial, reports webpan.com. The mass media as a whole are seriously biased–the conservative way.**
F.A.I.R (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has documented that conservative or right-leaning think tanks received more than 50 percent of media citations during a Democratic presidential administration in 1998 and 1999, while left-wing and progressive think tanks overall received less than 13 percent.**
Political opinions expressed on talk radio are approaching the level of uniformity that would normally be achieved only in a totalitarian society…, Monks writes. Yet the almost complete right-wing Republican domination of political talk radio in this country has been accomplished without guns or gulags.****
Unable to face the fact that a majority of the population simply does not want theocracy, social darwinism, and corporate supremacy, writes webpan.com, conservatives had to find a scapegoat, or invent one if needed. Thus the liberal media myth was born. The liberal media myth is a propaganda tool employed by conservative radio hosts, columnists, and pundits as a convenient excuse why after 20 years their ideology has failed to convince the public at large, and as a memetic inoculation of the public against the evidence that the media bias is in fact a conservative one.
Not only does the liberal media claim have no basis in fact, webpan.com continues, it also does not make sense considering the issue of media ownership and influence of advertisers. Most media outlets are owned by a handful of conservative corporations and individuals, and funded by usually economically conservative advertisers…This pro-corporate conservative bias of the media is well-documented and shows itself in consistent under-reporting or ignoring of any information that would lead people to question the fundamental status quo.**
Thus, the media is not liberal. It is right-wing, and nowhere moreso than in talk radio. The progressive counter-voice must grow if America is to have the balanced dialogue needed to inform people of what they must know to run a democracy.
more: aristotle.com/blog/2014/09/right-wing-radio-monopoly-and-the-myth-of-the-liberal-media/
*Right-wingers rule the radio waves, Philadelphia Daily News, May 8, 2002. ** The Myth of the Liberal Media, www.webpan.com/dsinclair/myths.html. *** The New Yorker, May 22, 1995.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:54:01 GMT
anyone notice the irony here:
This Is What Happens When You Point Out Right-Wing Lies
rEVILution: The Rise of Right-Wing Terrorism, REDUX (Documentary)
Published on Jan 17, 2015
Featuring: Alex Jones, David Duke, Rachel Maddow, Mark Potok, Mike Papantonio, Noam Chosmky, Ed Schultz, Don Black, Barack Obama, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ted Nugent, Lawrence O'Donnell, Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, and many more.
Since the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, the number of right-wing so called "Patriot" militia groups has increased eight-fold, and the number of right-wing terrorist plots has skyrocketed. According the West Point Counterterrorism Agency, there have been more right-wing terror plots since 9/11 than Islamic terror plots. This documentary the rise of extremism and hate in the right-wing in the Obama era.
Reich-Wing Watch: "Fighting Despotism, Saving Democracy" Reich-Winger (adj.): an individual who's views are so far-right that they are ideologically aligned with the Third Reich. A Reich-Winger typically is opposed to democratic institutions such as workers unions, support Social-Darwinism (survival of the financially fittest - usually disguised as 'individualism'), hate Jews, hate gays, hate immigrants, hate Marxists, support strong border security and national sovereignty, oppose secularism, support voter suppression (voter ID laws + cutting early voting + cutting voting places), and believe in legislating morality (religious freedom laws + gay marriage + abortion). Reich-Wingers will accept any historical revisionism and conspiracies which confirm their extreme ideological predispositions.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:54:39 GMT
I was listening to an interview on PBS with my senator Jeff Flake. He said because of the extreme right wing anger and tea party types that he doubts he would be able to get successfully through a primary to even run for re-election. In the following video Thom Hartman reveals that Republican operative Frank Luntz has come out and admitted that right wing radio and Rush Limbaugh have created a cult. It is exactly this cult that is putting forth like minded candidates into the primaries against traditional Republicans thereby eliminating them from national elections. They are polarizing their own party.
companion thread: ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/4786/cult-trump
The Right Wing Cult Machine Exposed .
Thom Hartmann Program Published on Apr 25, 2013
Thom Hartmann compares right wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh to cult leaders.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:55:05 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:55:30 GMT
Quote by ronstadtfanaz: . And Luntz has to pretty much admit it, because, arguably, Luntz himself is part of this cult--maybe not on the level of "comedian" Limbaugh, but part of that cult all the same (IMHO).
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:55:56 GMT
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:56:21 GMT
Quote by ronstadtfanaz: . And Luntz has to pretty much admit it, because, arguably, Luntz himself is part of this cult--maybe not on the level of "comedian" Limbaugh, but part of that cult all the same (IMHO).
Frank Luntz: an American Goebbels?
In effect Luntz is Frankenstein or at least co-Frankenstein. He was the Goebbels of the right wing noise machine teaching them how to market themselves, how to title proposed laws and reform that mean just the opposite of what its intent was, etc.
Then Reagan revokes the Fairness Doctrine in the media which creates Rush Limbaugh who was the other co-Frankenstein preaching nothing but Republican talking points and a hatred for Liberals and liberalism.
And in political circles comes Newt Gingrich who brings this hate for Liberals, Democrats and mean spirited one sidedness to congress. Aided by Bill Clinton, himself a supply sider they team up to push some hurtful and harmful legislation through against the wishes of the Democratic Party.
Once Clinton and the Republicans have their do-over of Media FOX News is born and hasn't shut up with their right wing rhetoric ever since.
Soon after all of this right wing hate radio takes off and is set to persuade and brainwash America. Frank Luntz in the Denial Machine (CBC - Fifth Estate) Frank Luntz, Political Consultant - PBS Frontline: The Persuaders (2004)
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:56:54 GMT
All of the above is sad but true. But this is also why I avoid listening to right-wing talk radio and F*x "News" like the plague, because I would need a whole pharmacy shelf full of aspirin from the headaches I would get. And while I know pretty much all media in this country is corporate (save for Pacifica and Ring Of Fire, both of which I have gotten into in recent years), I do think careful and cagey analysis is offered on MSNBC's weekday evening slate of Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O'Donnell.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:57:24 GMT
If one is paying attention they know how angry today's conservatives/right wingers are all the time. Just mad about everything lol. I think this movie would have been more appropriate using reptiles as the right and mammals as the left in a more definitive manner.Is The Angry Birds Movie Racist Right Wing Propaganda? Published on Jun 9, 2016
The Angry Birds Movie has a lot of political symbolism. In this video I point out this symbolism and deliver the facts from both sides of the political spectrum. This video has gone through many revisions after being shown to a wide variety of people from all over the world, and with vastly different political views.
The end product is this, as balanced of a video we could make while still getting the messages across; and we all hope you learn something today. Please keep an open mind to views that oppose your own, because you might just learn something, and closing your ears solves nothing.
Also: Go see the Angry Birds movie, if you watch it with all of this in mind you will find much more symbolism than I have covered, and it adds a whole extra layer to the movie that adults can enjoy.
Support Gnoggin on Patreon: www.patreon.com/Gnoggin
So what do you think? What are Angry Birds hidden messages? Secret meaning? Does it truly have an anti-Islam, anti-Muslim message? or am I looking too deeply into a children's movie?
On the flip side, Does Angry Birds balance out Zootopia with its message? Allowing children to have both arguments, both sides of the story, in order to choose for themselves rather than having the rhetoric of their parents mimicked? Let me know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Special Thanks to QueenQeeko for the artwork of birds holding signs!
The Angry Birds Movie - Official Teaser Trailer (HD)
full movie (free)
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHlN5dkyyB_fdE7qu4wQt__pzfZhFGOON
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:57:50 GMT
Conservatives self confirm their own lies and voice them as truth.
Rachel Maddow Explores Right Wing Lying Echo Chamber
We just had Death Panels put up in the finished basement. I can't decide what color to paint them.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:58:17 GMT
This article goes to the heart of the poor poor pitiful me "I am a victim of the liberal media" myth that Conservatives and RepubliCons have been pushing ad nauseam. If this is liberal bias I wish they would do MORE of it and running Oprah Winfrey would be a WONDERFUL idea. Everyone knows where her heart is and she is the most accomplished woman outside of Hillary that I know of. Being a self made billionaire won't hurt either. RUN OPRAH RUN.
Mark my words. Oprah Winfrey NOW has a right wing target on her back. Hate radio and right wing media will go into overdrive to assassinate her reputation starting NOW and never ending until they see the threat is over. They are doing the same to Hillary until the very end.
NBC deletes tweet welcoming 'OUR future president' Oprah
Dylan Stableford 3 hours ago
NBC deleted a tweet posted during Sunday night’s Golden Globes telecast which appeared to endorse the suggestion made by host Seth Meyers that Oprah Winfrey should be president of the U.S.
“Nothing but respect for OUR future president,” NBC tweeted during the comedian’s monologue on Sunday night.
NBC deleted this tweet after a backlash from critics who said it showed bias. (Image: NBC via Twitter)
In a statement released Monday, the network said the tweet, authored by a “third party agency,” was “in reference to a joke made during the monologue and not meant to be a political statement.”
During Meyers’s monologue, he explained that jokes he told about Donald Trump during the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner — an event he hosted — were reported to have provoked Trump to run for president.
“So if that’s true, I just want to say: Oprah, you will never be president. You do not have what it takes,” Meyers said before calling on Tom Hanks. “And Hanks. Where is Hanks? You will never be vice president. You are too mean and unrelatable. Now we just wait and see.”
Later, while accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Winfrey gave a moving speech that led to renewed speculation that the former queen of daytime television is, in fact, considering a presidential run.
CNN reported on Monday that “two of her close friends” say Winfrey is “actively thinking” about a White House bid.
The original tweet met with outrage from conservatives — including Donald Trump Jr. and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer — as well as members of the media who said it called into question the network’s objectivity.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:58:45 GMT
Unlike Trump she's ACTUALLY a self made BILLIONAIRE (started poor, not with $200 million from daddy). She's "actually" smart ...i.e. can talk for over 30 seconds in a series of connected sentences building on a point and coming to a conclusion, without random stream of consciousness child like sidetracks like someone else we all know.. . She represents the best of America.. not some child like ranting racist man-baby. And like Obama who appointed a Nobel Prize winning physicist to run the Dept of Energy (instead of a sycophant).. she'd appoint qualified people, not just praise-monkeys. And she probably won't spend 30% of her entire Presidency playing golf (while criticizing the previous black President for being "lazy" playing golf), and 25% of each day just watching cable TV to see what people are saying about her (like "somebody else we know"..
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 21, 2020 6:59:11 GMT
It would be nice to have a president we could trust to do the right thing...Democrat or Republican or Independent. However a popular independent candidate could lose the election for whoever the Democrat's put forth. Let's hope that doesn't happen. We can't afford another 4 years of this bullshit. Oprah would certainly engage black and minorities to vote and she would probably challenge suspicious results. She really could be the perfect candidate and would stick up for the middle class because that's where she came from (actually the lower poverty class). She is also an inspirational figure like Bernie Sanders was to so many. Oprah has one thing Bernie doesn't (well, a few things lol) Youth. So this would be exciting news if it were to happen and I could die in peace. But not only would racism rear its ugly head again but so would misogyny. Time we all faced those things head on again and again until they are defeated. Oprah would have long coat tails to win down ballot races even without hat pins like my grannie had at the beginning of last century.
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