General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBarr Memo Reveals Semantics of Whitewashing 101
Last edited Wed Mar 27, 2019, 03:55 PM - Edit history (1)
Barr says he's quoting Mueller when he says "[T]he investigation did not establish that Trump campaign members conspired and coordinated with the Russian GOVERNMENT in its election interference activities."
The key word here, of course, is "government." What Barr and his Republiscum cohorts are counting on is that most Americans don't understand the nature of exactly how Russia operates in the post-Soviet era. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, Putin's government does can be directly traced to it as a governing body. All is done through oligarchs, cutouts, and shell companies.
So, semantically speaking, I'm sure this statement, whose sole purpose is to whitewash American idiots, is actually technically correct.
If you don't understand this, I strongly suggest you give yourself a crash course in Iran-Contra where you can pluck from the documents of the time many such jewels of semantic whitewashing...many, in fact, written by Barr himself.
Note: For those not schooled in contemporary U.S. history, Bill Barr was the Federalist Society fixer brought on as George H.W. Bush's Attorney General to shut down the Iran-contra scandal (which occurred in the previous Reagan administration while Daddy Bush was VP).
Congressional investigations pointed to direct involvement in the affair by both Bush and Reagan. Barr supervised a massive cover-up involving evidence suppression, redaction of information for public consumption, and, ultimately, pardons for all the men who were in a position to finger both Bush and Reagan.
Most importantly, Barr's main job was to distance the Federalist Society from the affair and to tamp down any public discussion of how this organization had instigated a takeover of the Republican Party in the 1980s---an organization whose ideology and members led directly to the Iran-Contra affair occurring in the first place.
If anyone really wants to know how this latest Federalist Society debacle with tRump (no, he's not a member, just a useful idiot) is going to turn out, one only needs to study the cover-ups of Iran-Contra, 9/11 and Saudi Arabia, and Iraqgate. There's more, but this is the short list.
Spoiler Alert: The Federalist Society always gets away with it.
skylucy
(3,734 posts)NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)but, they also said that none of Barr's quotes of Mueller are a complete sentence - so, he was parsing whatever was in the report with partial sentences
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)Last edited Mon Mar 25, 2019, 12:23 AM - Edit history (3)
Just saw that Barr used the "[T]" in front of supposed quotes, another obscure semantic sleight-of-hand that most Americans don't understand. It means the highlighted quote is only part of what was actually said.
BigmanPigman
(51,432 posts)were discussing the [T] and what it meant...partial sentences taken out of context to appease the fucking moron who hired him for this single purpose. He gave his opinion, a biased one at that, and NOT a summary.
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)No doubt, but as any American history buff will tell you, you're still going to have to read between the lines and have a good grasp of semantic whitewashing to understand what is actually going on.
stefan
(2 posts)White men; white privilege; whitewashing. How else can this be explained?
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,432 posts)we knew his OPINION would be biased since this is why he was hired.
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)We are where we are today with Trump because of the coverup Barr supervised that stopped George H.W. Bush from ever having to answer for the Iran-Contra crimes he engaged in as Reagan's VP.
Barr is essentially the consigliere of the Rethuglican Party. He's the "made man" who the big guns bring in when the party itself is threatened.
Make no mistake about it, neither Barr nor Mueller actually give a rat's ass about Trump. It's all about saving the criminal enterprise known as the Republican Party.
For those of you who are still here 20 to 30 years from now, you will at that time be reading in-depth reports and watching documentaries about how this national nightmare we are currently sleepwalking through is at its core an exercise in covering up massive Russian money laundering through the coffers of the Republican Party.
It's really not much different than the post-9/11 cover-up of the massive Saudi money laundering into this same political party. As I remember it, our feckless FBI director at that time was all-in on ensuring this information was redacted from the "reports" fed to the masses about why the towers had to fall. I think that guy's last name was Mueller...oh, and the Deputy AG at the time was named Comey.
Thick as thieves, these guys.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)uponit7771
(90,225 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)It describes how Putin and his ilk take advantage of the FALSE dichotomy between state and "private citizens" to exploit the weaknesses of lawful democratic societies. Well worth a read.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211953340
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)Also eye-opening is the Christopher Wylie (former Cambridge Analytica) tweet in the Comments section of that OP.