turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalThe Hill can't stop spreading misinformation about Trump's impeachment
The site’s social media strategy sows confusion and spreads lies
Written by Parker Molloy
Published 12/20/19 8:37 AM EST
President Donald Trump lies. A lot. On topics big and small, consequential and petty, Trump can’t seem to help himself from saying things that are just flat-out disconnected from reality. The Washington Post’s running total as of December 10 is 15,413 false or misleading claims from the president since he took office. By the time you read this, that number will likely have inched higher. He will lie tomorrow just as he lies today, just as he lied yesterday.
While there isn’t much journalists and news outlets can do to make him tell the truth—especially since he tends to grant his interviews to friendly outlets—there’s something they can do to stop his lies from infecting the public consciousness. Namely, the press can stop printing lies free from context.
In May, Media Matters published a study highlighting how frequently major news outlets amplify Trump’s lies on Twitter. While we found that nearly every outlet we considered was guilty in some form or another, none pumped out the president’s false talking points with more regularity than The Hill. (A follow-up study we published this month again found The Hill to be the worst offender at amplifying Trump misinformation.)
Earlier this week, Trump conducted a rally in Michigan while the House of Representatives was voting to impeach the president over the Ukraine abuse of power scandal. In response, The Hill did what it always does: Promote the president's spin about the events without any context, pushback, or attempt to assess the validity of what he was saying.
https://www.mediamatters.org/hill/hill-cant-stop-spreading-misinformation-about-trumps-impeachment
After Admitting "It's Always Been Republicans Suppressing Votes," Trump Advisor Says Party Will Get
Even More Aggressive in 2020
Published on Saturday, December 21, 2019
by Common Dreams
"It's clear there's no law Donald Trump and his right-wing machine won't bend, break, or ignore to try to win the presidency."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
Reporting on Friday shows a top advisor for President Donald Trump's re-election campaign caught on tape in November bragging of the Republican Party's history of voter suppression—and promising to go on the offensive in 2020.
The revelation came from the Associated Press in a report Friday on comments by Trump re-election advisor Justin Clark at an event in Madison, Wisconsin.
"Traditionally it's always been Republicans suppressing votes in places," said Clark. "Let's start protecting our voters. We know where they are... Let's start playing offense a little bit. That's what you’re going to see in 2020."
AP reported that Clark's remarks show the Republican Party determined to use relaxed civil rights regulations to their advantage:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/21/after-admitting-its-always-been-republicans-suppressing-votes-trump-advisor-says
CNN's Victor Blackwell asks Jenna Ellis a question.......it did not go well for the legal advisor..
Federal Workers Less Likely to Report Corruption After Attacks on Whistleblower, Poll Finds
Matt Cohen
In the months since a whistleblower in the US intelligence community sounded the alarm about the Ukraine scandal, the president has taken every opportunity to attack the anonymous individual. Trump has said the whistleblower should be investigated “for fraud” and has called on media outlets to expose the whistleblower’s identity. Perhaps not surprisingly, that rhetoric seems to be having a chilling effect on other federal workers’ willingness to report corruption within the federal government.
According to a new poll conducted by the Government Business Council, the research arm of Government Executive, one-in-three federal workers say they are now less likely to “report an act of perceived wrongdoing to the appropriate authorities” because of the attacks on the whistleblower by Trump and his allies. Specifically, 19 percent said they are now “much less” likely to report wrongdoing, and 15 percent responded that are “somewhat less” likely to do so. The good news is that half of respondents said that Trump’s attacks would have no impact are their willingness to expose malfeasance, and 16 percent said they were now more likely to blow the whistle.
According to Government Executive, the poll, which has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percent, was sent to a random sample of its subscribers. That may not precisely represent all federal employees, but it’s still a pretty big deal that more than a third of respondents said the president’s intimidation tactics would make them less likely to report corruption.
Those results are understandable considering what the Ukraine whistleblower has gone through since coming forward. During the House’s impeachment inquiry, Trump ramped up the personal attacks, tweeting about that person more than 100 times. That helped lead to a bevy of threats aimed at the whistleblower and their attorneys, according to a source close to the legal team. As David Corn explains:
https://www.motherjones.com/impeachment/2019/12/ukraine-whistleblower-trump-corruption-poll/
During Impeachment Debate, Congress Receives Trump's Christmas 'Card' It's a doozy.
Politics
12/19/19 8:00am
Read time: 1 minute
It's a doozy.
By Frances Langum
Once again, Donald "No Filter" Trump boggles the minds of sane people.
While the impeachment debate was held Wednesday, congressional offices received a 16X12 inch giant Christmas card from the White House. Inside the giant card (signed in red) was a smaller red card (signed in gold) and...wait for it... a copy of Trump's six-page diatribe to Nancy Pelosi protesting his impeachment.
More than one wag on Twitter noted that for all of Trump's bragging that he's "bringing back Merry Christmas," he sure is following the Festivus tradition of "airing of the grievances."
https://crooksandliars.com/2019/12/during-impeachment-debate-congress
While listening to Raskin (MD) explain why there is a impeachment rule's being made
to have Trump removed from office ..
I was struck with the thought that if traitor gets his way...........................he can on whim, decide all by himself..........................................to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, and voting, ....without a congress......
and then remembering watching #Moscow Mitch tell the senate there will be no witness's................................
Hey Kentucky, do you think it's alright to have #Moscow Mitch a fascist, leading you into a dictatorship and saying it just fine and dandy to eliminate your right to vote..........................and have a foreign power decide who represents you........................
This is just the US World War II List from Kentucky.....................not Russia, #Moscow Mitch...................
http://usgwarchives.net/ky/military/wwii/indexarmy.html
Democratic candidates unite against Trump but little else
By WILL WEISSERT and THOMAS BEAUMONT today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic White House hopefuls agree President Donald Trump must be defeated next year. But the unity ends there.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, are locked in an increasingly acrimonious feud that threatens to change the tone of the Democratic primary. The tension was on display Thursday as the candidates knocked one another as being spineless in standing up to the rich or throwing out wildly unrealistic proposals.
That followed a week of barbs between Warren and Buttigieg as they called on the other to be more forthcoming about their past. Buttigieg pressed Warren to reveal her previous legal work for corporations while Warren said Buttigieg should open his private fundraisers and detail the companies he worked for as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. a decade ago.
The hits mark a shift in a Democratic primary that has so far been largely devoid of tension, to the point that some candidates refused obvious opportunities to slam one another when they shared a debate stage last month. But as they prepare to debate again next week, that reluctance has dissipated and a clear battle is emerging between Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who are leading the call for major overhauls to American life, and Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden, who are urging pragmatism.
https://apnews.com/e72d68e8219580ed6ec761f2167291a5
Battle ahead: Scotland party leader vows independence push
By GREGORY KATZ 28 minutes ago
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won the majority he needs to push through Brexit, but he faces another big challenge from Scotland, where the independence-minded Scottish National Party and its leader Nicola Sturgeon have surged to a commanding position. Here is a look at the factors that will make this a vexing issue for Johnson.
WHO IS NICOLA STURGEON AND WHAT IS HER ROLE IN SCOTTISH POLITICS?
The dynamic Sturgeon, 49, is leader of the Scottish National Party, which dominates the political scene, and as such she is Scotland’s first minister. She took over the party’s top post in 2014 after it lost a hard-fought referendum on independence from the United Kingdom. Sturgeon has emerged as one of the most talented figures on Britain’s fractious political scene.
The daughter of an electrician and a dental nurse, she became a lawyer after training at the University of Glasgow and has earned a reputation for being well-prepared, witty and at ease with voters, and blunt when she needs to be.
https://apnews.com/e7870a2757c4bbdfa789b86a4cf09679
Trump now open to idea of shorter Senate trial: sources
Politics
December 11, 2019 / 5:11 PM / Updated an hour ago
Steve Holland 3 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is now open to having a shorter impeachment trial in the Senate, two sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday, after he initially proclaimed he wanted a full-blown, potentially lengthy hearing.
Trump has said publicly that a trial in the Republican-led Senate would give him an opportunity to defend himself properly against Democrats, who accuse him of abusing his power by trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and of obstructing Congress when lawmakers tried to look into the matter.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry a sham. The charges are expected to be approved by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and sent to the Senate for a trial on whether he should be removed from office.
The Republican president has said he wants to call Biden, a former vice president and a leading 2020 Democratic presidential contender to run against Trump, as one of the witnesses.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment-trial/trump-now-open-to-idea-of-shorter-senate-trial-sources-idUSKBN1YF2QA?il=0
How does this asshole get to dictate how long a impeachment trial should be heard.....................
November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough.........................
U.S. Senate committee backs Russia energy bills, delays vote on sanctions 'from hell'
Source: Reuters
Business News
December 11, 2019 / 1:59 PM / Updated 15 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Underscoring U.S. lawmakers’ continuing unhappiness with Russia, a Senate committee on Wednesday advanced legislation seeking to hamper Russian energy pipelines and boosting NATO but delayed voting on a measure nicknamed the “sanctions bill from hell” that would punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved four energy bills, including the “Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe Act of 2019,” which opposes Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, encourages NATO countries not to buy Russian gas and expedites U.S. natural gas exports.
The bill also calls on President Donald Trump to impose sanctions under existing law for sales of equipment or investment used for the construction of Russian energy export pipelines.
That vote, like the others, sent the act to the full Senate, but there has been no indication yet of when the chamber’s Republican leaders would allow votes given the crowded schedule as the year nears its close.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions/u-s-senate-committee-backs-russia-energy-bills-delays-vote-on-sanctions-from-hell-idUSKBN1YF2DP?il=0
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