You bring up some valid points. But dismissing Epstien as a conspiracy theory ignores an awful lot of facts.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of trafficking minors for sexual purposes.
Epstein was arrested for the same charges.
An awful lot of power players were in his orbit.
Epstein was given a sweet heart deal on his prior conviction involving minors.
The Epstein case resembles a prior instance commonly known as the Franklin County conspiracy an awful lot.
If there was no list and they were just saying it to get elected, then they deserve every bit of blowback they get.
If there is a list and they’re participating in a coverup they deserve every bit of blowback they get.
I understand you deal with information warfare and there is a ton of it out there. But dismissing this case as simply disinformation or a conspiracy theory isn’t an objective evaluation of the facts IMHO.
Trump is reacting to the Epstein focus with the rage of malignant narcissism, he is losing control of some of this base that makes him rage. Think Nero or Hitler's Nero Decree as they turn on their people when they no longer do as instructeed. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio did a long in depth research report from the US Senate that did conclude that Russia helping Trump was not a hoax.
There’s only one reason the Epstein files haven’t been released.
If Joe or Barack or Bill were on the list, it would already be public.
Trump may be the most untruthful person ever to be POTUS, but his impetuous lashing out always betrays his truest self. He's obviously extremely agitated, even panicked over the Epstein case. It's not hard to figure out why that is.
I think the reason nobody fact checked the "couch fucking" conspiracy theory is because more or less it doesn't change anything/mean anything. Legally Vance could fuck all the couches he desires; it was more of a way to poke fun at him. I seriously doubt that rumor would've changed anyone's opinion of him in the first place.
Hey Ryan, the Epstein story is not really a conspiracy theory, it's an actual proven crime with plenty of document evidence. Now it's turned into a scandal and a cover-up by Trump. As far as Russia, you might want to slow your roll a little. It's not as cut and dried as Trump wants people to think. There's this question: Why did everybody in the 2016 Trump campaign have Russian contacts?
Why did everyone in the Trump campaign LIE about their contact with the Russians?
* Flynn - lied about his contacts.
* Manafort - lied about his contacts
* Sessions - lied about his contacts.
* JD Gordon, worked for Russia to change the GOP 2016 convention Ukraine platform
What is the fundamental cause of the informal hate that has become normal and accepted, across social media?
I’d suggest that b/c the interweb gave every zealot and azzphat wingnut (who likely existed well before the web but were socially isolated), a basis for connecting w/ other such social dolts, across the vast global web:
(1) it allowed non-citizens actors (aka China, Ruskie, Iranian and other foreign nationals) to meet, recruit, organize and act as a social-media catalyst, via various platforms - amplifying these “far-out” boutique cults of group-think’s propaganda, giving their audience a tool to propagate their nonsense far beyond their actual numbers
(2) put forth the belief of the perceived anonymity of social exchanges between parties/people/orgs, which likely instilled some sort of “personal manners and behaviors” filter-override, thus giving flawed characters a type of personal confidence and maybe even a sense of group approval - those who in times before the interweb might only sling their vocal hate-diarrhea in a local bar after having consumed their alcoholic dinner, now seemingly value and thus seek the virtual approval of their “web friends”, via ramping up their hateful, anti-social, virtual behaviors, in an almost addicted-like manner
(3) all of this has normalized what was once considered to be crass, hateful, antisocial and embarrassing behaviors - I even dare say that all of us, at times, have overstepped Shakespeare’s rule, that being “the better part of valor is discretion”
Sadly, I see no reason to believe that we will ever see polite discourse recover from the current path we’re on… just sayin
Trump has been documented in making up lies many thousands of times, just during his time in office. Pam Bondi, as attorney general for Florida, dropped the suit against Trump University almost immediately after receiving an illegal $25.000 contribution from Trump. As for Epstein, a known, years-long confidante and partner in sexual exploitation, Bondi stated clearly that she possessed a list of clients. Only after Trump objected did her statements of the non-existence of a list occur. She proclaimed that the Biden administration was targeting political opponents on several occasions, with never with a scintilla of proof. During her confirmation hearing, and later, she stated that a drug bust early in Trump's current term in office saved 119 MILLION lives. Experts found the statement to be absurd. She then said that the same drug bust saved 258 MILLION lives, thus showing the ability to even lie about lies. She stated, on several occasions that the 2021 Presidential election was a 'peaceful transfer of power', totally disregarding the Jan 6 attempted takeover of our government. This resulted in the conviction of some 1,270 criminals - all of whom, violent or not, were then pardoned by another convicted criminal and convicted sexual abuser. Bondi has made ending illegal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) a center piece of her efforts; closing whole departments, firing literally hundreds of workers who provided protections or services in multiple areas.
Ryan, please now explain to every Black, Asian, and Hispanic man or woman that you served with why you now believe that they do not have equal rights with 'white' people. Stick to missiles, your morals may need some repair.
Donald Trump 1/13/2016 "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," MAGA would have forgiven him for murder but not for his afuscation of the Epstein "list" or should I say "File". Is there a President Vance in our near future? Elon hopes so. Vance is his man. Where's Carlson? He should be all over this. It's a treasure trove of clicks.
I find it more likely that Trump himself used the girls and that people more powerful than trump are on the videotapes. Where are the tapes?
Further, I suspect that true patriots deliberately messed up the prison cell video when following orders to obfuscate the murder. They left the proof of tampering on purpose, sacrificed their careers in honour of the children who were sex trafficked.
Department of Justice. Executive power/ Judicial Power......Separation of power. Don't you know what that means? The Executive can not interfere with the Judicial system. It's in your constitution. But how things have changed under your current government. One piece of legislation that barely got through ( by one vote ) the big beautiful one.... which take from the poor and gives to the super wealthy. Everything else by decree, literally. And you still believe in this lazy and corrupt government under Trump.... poke yourself in the other eye as well lol. We will be safer...
Biden's top motivations were following the established rules of the American political system, and the appearance of impropriety involved in his FBI releasing damaging information on his opponent would be anathema to him and his administration.
You might review your sources. The Biden administration was quite happy stepping on opposition. I say "administration" because I do not believe Biden was mentally competent enough to know how presidential power was abused in his name.
The attorney general has nothing to do with the Judicial branch?? I thought the attorney general is supposed to be responsible for the Judicial branch ya?
The word choice by the American forefathers could have been better. The Department of Justice is an arm of the Executive branch (the President). The Federal courts are part of the Judicial branch, up to the Supreme Court. DOJ prosecutes crime, and the Judicial branch are the judges.
Yes but in my opinion Biden was not petty. He wasn't trying to protect anyone, and he wasn't trying to libel anyone, and he was always content to let the DOJ do what the DOJ was supposed to do: prosecute criminals where there was a likelihood of meeting the bar of beyond reasonable doubt of guilt.
It's potentially a disbarrable offense to, as a prosecutor, bring cases you know you can't win.
Jon Stewart coined the term "Truthiness" ten years back to refer to your "emotional Truth". the phenomenon has been around a long time. In fact, I'd venture to guess that religion is a form of truthiness.
You are working pretty hard to draw equivalencies here.
If people think that it all needs to be ripped down, that's their view. If people think that it needs to be tweaked, that's their view.
But its pretty clear who has been shouting out conspiracy theories to great effect about everything from Epstein to elections, and its overwhelmingly the far right. Not 100%, no. But its not 50/50, and we all know it. Admitting that is another matter entirely.
'The left' by and large is saying the Epstein files exist, and that Trump yelled pretty loud about them and made a ton of hay about them. And now wishes they did not exist and insults the same base who they riled up with this stuff in order to get elected.
Which is a 100% valid critique.
You want to dig up crap from 10 years ago and then use 2-3 qualifiers for your example - your call.
But it's not a credible argument that the left does this nearly as much as the right. And your audience knows that.
Last I checked Pete B is not trying to tell me that a secret cabal is eating kids. Cory Booker is not trying to tell me that the CIA is running 'bio labs' in Ukraine. Schiff is not telling me that he had a list of millions of people who illegally voted...then failing to provide that list. Whitehouse is not claiming that he has found thousands of 150 year olds collecting SS checks.
The right is doing all that and much, much more.
Speaking as a conservative, it really is painful to say this. But its the right that's doing this crap far more than the left. Kidding ourselves about that is counter productive.
Edit: Major points for the highlight of McCain. We'd be in a much safer country if he'd won the primary in 2000.
The modern Republican party is in the process of running the anyone even remotely like him out of the building.
Back when I was in high school I had to volunteer for a local election campaign for government class, and when they talked about putting up signs, they told me "The signs work because if people see something three times, they think it's the truth." Nowadays with a 24-hr news cycle of headlines and social media echo chambers the number might be over three, but I think there's still something to it.
Of course, it's easy to counter that by having higher standards of evidence and searching out varied news sources, but for sure not everybody does that.
So as usual, you bring up really interesting topics and look at it from a very sensible viewpoint. A question that that brought up for me is why doesn’t the United States have a secure cyber border policy. It seems to me that that is our most vulnerable spot right now where we have our adversaries, Russia, China, and North Korea, Iran, and so forth, actively participating in warfare against us for at least the last 20 years. The first amendment is sacrosanct to the American people. But it is a right that is only afforded to US citizens. It is not afforded to foreign citizens inside of the United States or acting inside of the United States. We should 100% be holding foreign agencies responsible for the words that they are putting into the minds of American citizens.
This video is a perfect example of what is wrong with media neutrality - False equivalency:
You bring up some valid points. But dismissing Epstien as a conspiracy theory ignores an awful lot of facts.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of trafficking minors for sexual purposes.
Epstein was arrested for the same charges.
An awful lot of power players were in his orbit.
Epstein was given a sweet heart deal on his prior conviction involving minors.
The Epstein case resembles a prior instance commonly known as the Franklin County conspiracy an awful lot.
If there was no list and they were just saying it to get elected, then they deserve every bit of blowback they get.
If there is a list and they’re participating in a coverup they deserve every bit of blowback they get.
I understand you deal with information warfare and there is a ton of it out there. But dismissing this case as simply disinformation or a conspiracy theory isn’t an objective evaluation of the facts IMHO.
Trump is reacting to the Epstein focus with the rage of malignant narcissism, he is losing control of some of this base that makes him rage. Think Nero or Hitler's Nero Decree as they turn on their people when they no longer do as instructeed. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio did a long in depth research report from the US Senate that did conclude that Russia helping Trump was not a hoax.
There’s only one reason the Epstein files haven’t been released.
If Joe or Barack or Bill were on the list, it would already be public.
Trump may be the most untruthful person ever to be POTUS, but his impetuous lashing out always betrays his truest self. He's obviously extremely agitated, even panicked over the Epstein case. It's not hard to figure out why that is.
I think the reason nobody fact checked the "couch fucking" conspiracy theory is because more or less it doesn't change anything/mean anything. Legally Vance could fuck all the couches he desires; it was more of a way to poke fun at him. I seriously doubt that rumor would've changed anyone's opinion of him in the first place.
Hey Ryan, the Epstein story is not really a conspiracy theory, it's an actual proven crime with plenty of document evidence. Now it's turned into a scandal and a cover-up by Trump. As far as Russia, you might want to slow your roll a little. It's not as cut and dried as Trump wants people to think. There's this question: Why did everybody in the 2016 Trump campaign have Russian contacts?
Why did everyone in the Trump campaign LIE about their contact with the Russians?
* Flynn - lied about his contacts.
* Manafort - lied about his contacts
* Sessions - lied about his contacts.
* JD Gordon, worked for Russia to change the GOP 2016 convention Ukraine platform
* Rick Gates - lied about his contacts.
* Jared - lied about his contacts.
* Don Jr - lied about his contacts.
* Bannon - lied about his contacts.
* Rudy - lied about his contacts.
* Michael Cohen - lied about his contacts.
* Eric Prince - lied about his contacts.
* Roger Stone - lied about his contacts.
* George Papadopoulos - lied about his contacts.
* Carter Page - lied about his contacts.
* Hope Hicks - lied about her contacts.
* Dan Scavino - lied about his contacts.
Thanks for the walk-n-talk updates!
Just wondering:
What is the fundamental cause of the informal hate that has become normal and accepted, across social media?
I’d suggest that b/c the interweb gave every zealot and azzphat wingnut (who likely existed well before the web but were socially isolated), a basis for connecting w/ other such social dolts, across the vast global web:
(1) it allowed non-citizens actors (aka China, Ruskie, Iranian and other foreign nationals) to meet, recruit, organize and act as a social-media catalyst, via various platforms - amplifying these “far-out” boutique cults of group-think’s propaganda, giving their audience a tool to propagate their nonsense far beyond their actual numbers
(2) put forth the belief of the perceived anonymity of social exchanges between parties/people/orgs, which likely instilled some sort of “personal manners and behaviors” filter-override, thus giving flawed characters a type of personal confidence and maybe even a sense of group approval - those who in times before the interweb might only sling their vocal hate-diarrhea in a local bar after having consumed their alcoholic dinner, now seemingly value and thus seek the virtual approval of their “web friends”, via ramping up their hateful, anti-social, virtual behaviors, in an almost addicted-like manner
(3) all of this has normalized what was once considered to be crass, hateful, antisocial and embarrassing behaviors - I even dare say that all of us, at times, have overstepped Shakespeare’s rule, that being “the better part of valor is discretion”
Sadly, I see no reason to believe that we will ever see polite discourse recover from the current path we’re on… just sayin
Trump has been documented in making up lies many thousands of times, just during his time in office. Pam Bondi, as attorney general for Florida, dropped the suit against Trump University almost immediately after receiving an illegal $25.000 contribution from Trump. As for Epstein, a known, years-long confidante and partner in sexual exploitation, Bondi stated clearly that she possessed a list of clients. Only after Trump objected did her statements of the non-existence of a list occur. She proclaimed that the Biden administration was targeting political opponents on several occasions, with never with a scintilla of proof. During her confirmation hearing, and later, she stated that a drug bust early in Trump's current term in office saved 119 MILLION lives. Experts found the statement to be absurd. She then said that the same drug bust saved 258 MILLION lives, thus showing the ability to even lie about lies. She stated, on several occasions that the 2021 Presidential election was a 'peaceful transfer of power', totally disregarding the Jan 6 attempted takeover of our government. This resulted in the conviction of some 1,270 criminals - all of whom, violent or not, were then pardoned by another convicted criminal and convicted sexual abuser. Bondi has made ending illegal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) a center piece of her efforts; closing whole departments, firing literally hundreds of workers who provided protections or services in multiple areas.
Ryan, please now explain to every Black, Asian, and Hispanic man or woman that you served with why you now believe that they do not have equal rights with 'white' people. Stick to missiles, your morals may need some repair.
Donald Trump 1/13/2016 "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," MAGA would have forgiven him for murder but not for his afuscation of the Epstein "list" or should I say "File". Is there a President Vance in our near future? Elon hopes so. Vance is his man. Where's Carlson? He should be all over this. It's a treasure trove of clicks.
I find it more likely that Trump himself used the girls and that people more powerful than trump are on the videotapes. Where are the tapes?
Further, I suspect that true patriots deliberately messed up the prison cell video when following orders to obfuscate the murder. They left the proof of tampering on purpose, sacrificed their careers in honour of the children who were sex trafficked.
If Trump were known to be on the island, the Biden administration would have show pictures.
Department of Justice. Executive power/ Judicial Power......Separation of power. Don't you know what that means? The Executive can not interfere with the Judicial system. It's in your constitution. But how things have changed under your current government. One piece of legislation that barely got through ( by one vote ) the big beautiful one.... which take from the poor and gives to the super wealthy. Everything else by decree, literally. And you still believe in this lazy and corrupt government under Trump.... poke yourself in the other eye as well lol. We will be safer...
The Department of Justice is led by the Attorney General, who is a member of the president's cabinet. Nothing to do with the Judicial branch.
So, Biden's DOJ would have embarrassed Trump with island pictures, if they had some, and never touched the Federal Courts.
Biden's top motivations were following the established rules of the American political system, and the appearance of impropriety involved in his FBI releasing damaging information on his opponent would be anathema to him and his administration.
You might review your sources. The Biden administration was quite happy stepping on opposition. I say "administration" because I do not believe Biden was mentally competent enough to know how presidential power was abused in his name.
The attorney general has nothing to do with the Judicial branch?? I thought the attorney general is supposed to be responsible for the Judicial branch ya?
The word choice by the American forefathers could have been better. The Department of Justice is an arm of the Executive branch (the President). The Federal courts are part of the Judicial branch, up to the Supreme Court. DOJ prosecutes crime, and the Judicial branch are the judges.
Yes but in my opinion Biden was not petty. He wasn't trying to protect anyone, and he wasn't trying to libel anyone, and he was always content to let the DOJ do what the DOJ was supposed to do: prosecute criminals where there was a likelihood of meeting the bar of beyond reasonable doubt of guilt.
It's potentially a disbarrable offense to, as a prosecutor, bring cases you know you can't win.
Jon Stewart coined the term "Truthiness" ten years back to refer to your "emotional Truth". the phenomenon has been around a long time. In fact, I'd venture to guess that religion is a form of truthiness.
Hey Ryan actually you are quite political. Appreciate that you do think critically, that's the main thing.
You are working pretty hard to draw equivalencies here.
If people think that it all needs to be ripped down, that's their view. If people think that it needs to be tweaked, that's their view.
But its pretty clear who has been shouting out conspiracy theories to great effect about everything from Epstein to elections, and its overwhelmingly the far right. Not 100%, no. But its not 50/50, and we all know it. Admitting that is another matter entirely.
'The left' by and large is saying the Epstein files exist, and that Trump yelled pretty loud about them and made a ton of hay about them. And now wishes they did not exist and insults the same base who they riled up with this stuff in order to get elected.
Which is a 100% valid critique.
You want to dig up crap from 10 years ago and then use 2-3 qualifiers for your example - your call.
But it's not a credible argument that the left does this nearly as much as the right. And your audience knows that.
Last I checked Pete B is not trying to tell me that a secret cabal is eating kids. Cory Booker is not trying to tell me that the CIA is running 'bio labs' in Ukraine. Schiff is not telling me that he had a list of millions of people who illegally voted...then failing to provide that list. Whitehouse is not claiming that he has found thousands of 150 year olds collecting SS checks.
The right is doing all that and much, much more.
Speaking as a conservative, it really is painful to say this. But its the right that's doing this crap far more than the left. Kidding ourselves about that is counter productive.
Edit: Major points for the highlight of McCain. We'd be in a much safer country if he'd won the primary in 2000.
The modern Republican party is in the process of running the anyone even remotely like him out of the building.
Back when I was in high school I had to volunteer for a local election campaign for government class, and when they talked about putting up signs, they told me "The signs work because if people see something three times, they think it's the truth." Nowadays with a 24-hr news cycle of headlines and social media echo chambers the number might be over three, but I think there's still something to it.
Of course, it's easy to counter that by having higher standards of evidence and searching out varied news sources, but for sure not everybody does that.
So as usual, you bring up really interesting topics and look at it from a very sensible viewpoint. A question that that brought up for me is why doesn’t the United States have a secure cyber border policy. It seems to me that that is our most vulnerable spot right now where we have our adversaries, Russia, China, and North Korea, Iran, and so forth, actively participating in warfare against us for at least the last 20 years. The first amendment is sacrosanct to the American people. But it is a right that is only afforded to US citizens. It is not afforded to foreign citizens inside of the United States or acting inside of the United States. We should 100% be holding foreign agencies responsible for the words that they are putting into the minds of American citizens.
Well, this is one of the reasons that I suggest striking disinformation actors. It’s warfare by a different means.
John McPhee vs a call center of foreign political influencers… i’ll bring the popcorn and Eagle Rare you bring the cigars