Talking Points Memo

Josh Marshall: Feel The Propaganda, Feel the Hate

April 22, 2017 by Michael Boyle

Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo about the core deceptions at the heart of the administration’s twin crime and immigration policy stances.

We’re familiar with President Trump’s dystopian vision of an America in chaos, preyed on by foreigners and awash in citizens violated by feral criminals and “illegals.” Through last year’s campaign and into this year, Trump has repeatedly lied about the national crime rate, murder rates and much more. Here though is a case where anti-immigrant policies continue to be justified by at least deliberately misleading statements and what can only be called incitement. […]
There’s not much more to say. If this were one deception it might be dismissed. But of course it is not. It is a single illustrative example of deception as policy, one peep in a symphony of lies that President Trump, Attorney General Sessions and all their fellow travelers and appointees use regularly to sell their anti-immigrant crackdown and attempt to return to the ‘tough on crime’ policies of the past.

Source: Feel The Propaganda, Feel the Hate

Re: Russian Spy Accused of Treason

January 27, 2017 by Michael Boyle

Josh Marshall is following an odd but disturbing bit of news out of Russia. Note that this is going on as Trump officials are being investigated about their ties to Russia. Has someone in the White House “outed” one of the US’s own assets to the Russians?

Last night I noted that a top Russian spy who is the number two person in the FSB department which allegedly oversaw the US election hacking operation had been arrested and charged with treason. Was he a sacrificial lamb and olive branch to Trump? A way for Putin to claim that his spy services had perhaps gone rogue? Or was he suspected of being a source to US intelligence? People who fall from grace in Putin’s Russia are often dealt with with trumped up criminal prosecutions. But treason is a special charge.
Well, now we have reports that Sergei Mikhailov is suspected of being a US asset at the heart of Russian intelligence.

Source: Wow, It Gets Bigger

A Few Thoughts on Entering the Trump Era

January 21, 2017 by Michael Boyle

From Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo:

And yet here we have the opportunity to be its guardians and protectors at a unique moment, perhaps a moment of especial peril. Who would not embrace that challenge? We know the curse: may you live in interesting times. We are living in interesting times. Most of us would not have chosen it. But we have it. I think many of us look back at critical momentous moments in our history, the Civil War, World War II, the Civil Rights Movement and other comparable passages in the country’s history and think, what would I have done? Where would I have been? Well, now’s your moment to find out. We are living in interesting times. We should embrace it rather than feel afraid or powerless. We have a fabric of 240 years of republican government behind us. We have the tools we need.

Source: A Few Thoughts on Entering the Trump Era