8.4 Fake News and 'Russian Collusion'
One other favourite line of Trumps vanquished political foes has been that he lied his way to power. Trump has been blamed for spreading ‘Fake News’, for disseminating right-wing misinformation, for ushering in a ‘post-truth’ age. Although ‘Fake News’ is used as a stick to beat Trump and explain away his electoral success, the term was actually coined by Trump to encapsulate the near-unanimous attitude of hostility towards him by a vituperously Trump-loathing media.
One other favourite line of Trumps vanquished political foes has been that he lied his way to power. Trump has been blamed for spreading ‘Fake News’, for disseminating right-wing misinformation, for ushering in a ‘post-truth’ age. Although ‘Fake News’ is used as a stick to beat Trump and explain away his electoral success, the term was actually coined by Trump to encapsulate the near-unanimous attitude of hostility towards him by a vituperously Trump-loathing media.
The key actor in the Fake News assault on Trump and all his works is ‘Russia’. Alleged Russian ‘meddling’ has taken many forms – Russian foreign agents conspired with Trump and his circle to swing the election because Putin thought Trump would go easier on him in return for facilitating Trump property projects in Russia. Russian hackers were responsible for leaking Democratic National Committee election emails. Russian agents somehow directly tampered with the electronic vote count. Keyboard warriors in digital Russian ‘troll farms’ played social media mind-games by spending $100,000 in Facebook ads to get American voters to tick the Trump box.
The key actor in the Fake News assault on Trump and all his works is ‘Russia’. Alleged Russian ‘meddling’ has taken many forms – Russian foreign agents conspired with Trump and his circle to swing the election because Putin thought Trump would go easier on him in return for facilitating Trump property projects in Russia. Russian hackers were responsible for leaking Democratic National Committee election emails. Russian agents somehow directly tampered with the electronic vote count. Keyboard warriors in digital Russian ‘troll farms’ played social media mind-games by spending $100,000 in Facebook ads to get American voters to tick the Trump box.
The prime exhibit in all this is the infamous ‘Steele dossier’, a compilation of salacious allegations against President Trump in Russia made by unnamed Russian sources. The dossier was commissioned (for around $10 million) by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, which hired the Perkins Coie law firm, which hired Fusion GPS (a political-opposition-research firm with senior Democrat links), which hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, one-time FBI informant and Trump-hater, who paid Russian sources to spin yarns about Donald Trump’s alleged Russian “collusion”, juiced up with lurid stories of Trump’s alleged participation in a festival of urination by a group of prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room because the Obamas had once slept there.
The prime exhibit in all this is the infamous ‘Steele dossier’, a compilation of salacious allegations against President Trump in Russia made by unnamed Russian sources. The dossier was commissioned (for around $10 million) by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, which hired the Perkins Coie law firm, which hired Fusion GPS (a political-opposition-research firm with senior Democrat links), which hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, one-time FBI informant and Trump-hater, who paid Russian sources to spin yarns about Donald Trump’s alleged Russian “collusion”, juiced up with lurid stories of Trump’s alleged participation in a festival of urination by a group of prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room because the Obamas had once slept there.
Not a single one of the Steele dossier’s allegations have been verified, despite two years of heroic media effort. It was always an tawdry exercise, a $10 million Democrat investment, intended to deliver concocted ‘evidence’ for its paymasters.
Not a single one of the Steele dossier’s allegations have been verified, despite two years of heroic media effort. It was always an tawdry exercise, a $10 million Democrat investment, intended to deliver concocted ‘evidence’ for its paymasters.
The fake dossier was then given to intelligence agencies, the FBI, journalists and the Justice Department for dissemination to the world at large. The FBI and Justice Department with its Obama-era Deep State anti-Trump resisters, used the dossier to gain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrant to spy on Trump and his entourage before the election. It failed, like all other Fake News, to derail Trump’s campaign but it had a back-up role – to delegitimise and hopefully bring down the new President through impeachment, or really bad PR, or, at the very least, to gum-up the gears of the Trump Presidency by tying up the Administration with endless prosecution, indictments, allegations, rumours, and the threat of impending doom.
The fake dossier was then given to intelligence agencies, the FBI, journalists and the Justice Department for dissemination to the world at large. The FBI and Justice Department with its Obama-era Deep State anti-Trump resisters, used the dossier to gain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrant to spy on Trump and his entourage before the election. It failed, like all other Fake News, to derail Trump’s campaign but it had a back-up role – to delegitimise and hopefully bring down the new President through impeachment, or really bad PR, or, at the very least, to gum-up the gears of the Trump Presidency by tying up the Administration with endless prosecution, indictments, allegations, rumours, and the threat of impending doom.
The Steele dossier was the formal trigger for a $40 million DOJ/FBI investigation by an ‘independent’ counsel, Robert Mueller, and his merry band of Democrat-friendly partisans – of the seventeen lawyers in Mueller’s office on the ‘Collusion’ case, fourteen are registered Democrats who had donated more than $60,000 to Democrat candidates.
The Steele dossier was the formal trigger for a $40 million DOJ/FBI investigation by an ‘independent’ counsel, Robert Mueller, and his merry band of Democrat-friendly partisans – of the seventeen lawyers in Mueller’s office on the ‘Collusion’ case, fourteen are registered Democrats who had donated more than $60,000 to Democrat candidates.
The Mueller investigation probe has nothing to do with the pursuit of truth about ‘Russian collusion’ – its whole point was to stage the great anti-Donald burlesque revue, a theatrical production designed to correct the ‘mistake’ of the 2016 election It has been a dry well, with Mueller reduced to prosecuting Trump associates who came anywhere within the Trump orbit at any time over process crimes and unrelated matters long before Trump had even entered the Presidential race, tripping them up in perjury traps over what they recall saying to whom and when, or whom they might have forwarded an email to several years ago (ah ha – lying to the FBI!).
The Mueller investigation probe has nothing to do with the pursuit of truth about ‘Russian collusion’ – its whole point was to stage the great anti-Donald burlesque revue, a theatrical production designed to correct the ‘mistake’ of the 2016 election It has been a dry well, with Mueller reduced to prosecuting Trump associates who came anywhere within the Trump orbit at any time over process crimes and unrelated matters long before Trump had even entered the Presidential race, tripping them up in perjury traps over what they recall saying to whom and when, or whom they might have forwarded an email to several years ago (ah ha – lying to the FBI!).
The Steele Dossier is a classic exhibit in the political genre of disinformation efforts. The Left, which was once sensitive to state disinformation, being on the receiving end of anti-leftist Fake News for so long, has sadly fallen for the latest version of it. A struggling nation with a GDP only as big as Spain’s has been inflated by the left to a global threat by the Cold War Re-enactment society of old-school rightwingers and their surprising new recruits from the liberal left.
The Steele Dossier is a classic exhibit in the political genre of disinformation efforts. The Left, which was once sensitive to state disinformation, being on the receiving end of anti-leftist Fake News for so long, has sadly fallen for the latest version of it. A struggling nation with a GDP only as big as Spain’s has been inflated by the left to a global threat by the Cold War Re-enactment society of old-school rightwingers and their surprising new recruits from the liberal left.
The constant word association of ‘Trump-Russia-Collusion’ has been quite effective in keeping up the spirits of the anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ (the grandiosely titled, melodramatic cover for the losers of the 2016 election who are still clueless, and bitter, about the election outcome), seeking to undermine Trump’s democratic legitimacy. The Resistance are wedded to the ‘Russia’ nonsense. According to a recent poll, around 70% of Democrats think the Russians helped sway the 2016 presidential election in favour of Trump, including ‘tampering with vote tallies’ (67% of Democrats concurring), hacking Democratic National Committee emails (85%) ; creating fake news (90%).
The constant word association of ‘Trump-Russia-Collusion’ has been quite effective in keeping up the spirits of the anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ (the grandiosely titled, melodramatic cover for the losers of the 2016 election who are still clueless, and bitter, about the election outcome), seeking to undermine Trump’s democratic legitimacy. The Resistance are wedded to the ‘Russia’ nonsense. According to a recent poll, around 70% of Democrats think the Russians helped sway the 2016 presidential election in favour of Trump, including ‘tampering with vote tallies’ (67% of Democrats concurring), hacking Democratic National Committee emails (85%) ; creating fake news (90%).
Apparently, believing that Putin stooges hypnotized voters through Facebook as they rigged voting machines on election day sits much more easily with the left than with acknowledging the failure of their liberal, globalist, ‘Diversity’ political policies. The ‘Russia did it’ nonsense serves only to displace the American people as the source of justified discontent and political revolt.
Apparently, believing that Putin stooges hypnotized voters through Facebook as they rigged voting machines on election day sits much more easily with the left than with acknowledging the failure of their liberal, globalist, ‘Diversity’ political policies. The ‘Russia did it’ nonsense serves only to displace the American people as the source of justified discontent and political revolt.