Friday, March 29, 2019
Headlines for March 29, 2019
Headlines with an * are the ones we managed to fit in in our allotted time slot.
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for March 29, 2019
*A Very Incomplete List of Sinister Things Vladimir Putin/Russia/‘the Russians' Have Been Accused of Doing
Mueller has absolved Trump of collusion with Russia, but it is still conventional wisdom that Russia was doing bad things to “interfere with our election” and more. More than 50 things on the list. Most of these are still taken as an article of faith by the Russiagate faithful, like that an IRA ad promoting a “Buff Bernie coloring book” was a serious attempt to get Sanders elected! Just a reminder of two favorites which made it to our segment during the past year, an indication of how crazy the Russiagate obsession got (and yes, these are real headlines)
*Is Masha and the Bear a Putin stooge? Critics claim cartoon with 4.18m subscribers is made by Kremlin to subvert children
*Russian operatives were promoting sex toys on Instagram to sow discord in the US
*Trump has not been ‘soft’ on Russia. He’s been tougher than Obama.
Interesting not because it’s wrong or misleading, but because it’s so untimely. This is a subject we and other Loud & Clear guests have discussed repeatedly for the last 2 ½ years, all while other media were still pushing the “Putin’s puppet” line. Now, finally, the WaPo lets its readers in on what has been obvious to us – arms to Ukraine, attempting to overthrow Russian allies in Syria and Venezuela, withdrawal from INF, attempts to thwart Nordstream, etc. The simplest thing — the two Russian diplomatic compounds seized by the US under Obama in Dec. 2016, something Trump could do all by himself without Congress, hasn’t happened (despite fake news headlines in June 2017 like “Trump to hand back Russian compounds”). How important is this? Stephen Colbert, the second-most Russiagate obsessed person on television after Rachel Maddow, made two jokes on Monday night and one more on Tuesday night, all along the lines, “If Putin didn’t have something on Trump, why was Trump so nice to Putin?” The fact that Trump has not been “nice to Putin” just hasn’t sunk in to the American public.
*Ex-CIA chief (John Brennan) offers mea culpa on Trump: 'I don't know if I received bad information'
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/25/john-brennan-ex-cia-chief-offers-mea-culpa-on-trum/
“Former CIA chief John O. Brennan now says his months of attacks on President Trump may have been based on “bad information.” Right. Just like that "bad intelligence" that led to the Iraq War.
*Steele says he used unverified information to support details about web company in dossier
He used CNN’s iReport, viewer-submitted, unvetted and unverified statements, to “verify information” in his dossier about the web hosting company Webzilla. Unbelievably, this “intelligence agent” didn’t even realize what iReport was. "Do you understand that they have no connection to any CNN reporters?" an attorney asked Steele during his deposition last June. "I do not," he answered.
Iran Moves to Cement Its Influence in Syria
Tehran uses cash, food and public services in a hearts and minds campaign to cultivate loyalty, draw military recruits and win converts to the Shiite Muslim sect
Tehran uses cash, food and public services in a hearts and minds campaign to cultivate loyalty, draw military recruits and win converts to the Shiite Muslim sect
Slanderous, cynical article, e.g., ““The goal is to re-create the Persian empire,” said Muneer al-Khalaf, a member of the City Council of Raqqa, Islamic State’s once de facto capital.” What horrible thing is Iran up to? “To Syrians battered by war, Iran is offering cash, food, Iranian ID cards, public services and free education.” And their sources that this is all a plot to gain Shiite converts? A “24-year old male resident from the nearby village of Jalaa” and “a U.S. official and a person familiar with U.S. intelligence operations in the region.” they actually compare Iran’s actions to ISIS! “Residents from Deir Ezzour Province liken Iran’s strategy of wooing the younger generation to the same tactics of indoctrination once used by Islamic State.” “Just like ISIS gave religious lessons to children after prayers, they are doing the same thing,” said a father of two school-aged children.”
This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile
He’s been homeless for a year, but he’s good at chess, so it’s all good.
*William Barr has made this a win for Moscow
Dana Milbank, still not giving up. One thing to note here—this article, like pretty much everything else in the media, simply takes for granted all the claims like “Russia hacked the Clinton emails and gave them to Wikileaks”, and takes the indictments of a number of Russians as equivalent to guilty verdicts. That is something that not only won’t the Mueller report dispel, but will in fact reinforce.
*We’ve All Just Made Fools of Ourselves — Again
What do you mean “we”, David Brooks? Amazingly, he’s not just referring to Democrats who called Trump a traitor, but also Republicans who called the investigation a witchhunt.
