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  • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post

    Sure looks like Fox is now the propaganda arm of Trump, Inc. not that there was any doubt. Josef Goebbels would be proud of them and that journalist using the principles of propaganda he pioneered. Fortunately a slight majority of Americans haven't fallen for it.
    Fox has always been the propaganda arm of Donald Trump...but even Fox has its traitors to the cause:

    Fox News Host Pulls Apart Election Lies Trump Spouted On Network Hours Earlier

    Fox News host Eric Shawn on Sunday debunked election disinformation that President Donald Trump shared on the same network only hours earlier.

    Trump unloaded a stream of baseless claims about a rigged election in his first televised interview since the election to his devout Fox News ally Maria Bartiromo, who encouraged the allegations and allowed them to go largely unchallenged.

    But Fox weekend anchor Shawn pointed out on “America’s News Headquarters” that Trump’s campaign has failed to prove any of his accusations in court.

    “In fact, your government, election officials, experts and others ― many of them Republican, including Trump appointed officials ― say that the president’s claims are false and unsubstantiated,” he told viewers.


    He invited Axios political reporter Hans Nichols to help dismantle many of Trump’s claims, including that ballots counted after the initial tallies on election night were somehow fraudulent.

    “Every swing state that we’re talking about, and they did these massive dumps of votes,” Trump said. “And all of a sudden, I went from winning by a lot to losing by a little.”

    “Well, officials say these are not illegal dumps,” Shawn said. “That’s just the counting of the many mail-in ballots that are entered into the computer system.”

    Biden overtook Trump in several battleground states where Trump initially led on election night as absentee and mail-in ballots were counted in subsequent days, a standard and legitimate procedure.

    Trump also asserted that President-elect Joe Biden couldn’t possibly have received more votes than former President Barack Obama.

    “It seems that we have a president who, he can’t wrap his brain or mind around the fact, he can’t process the fact that someone who he thinks is so inferior to him won the election,” Shawn said.

    Trump’s allies at Fox News, including Bartiromo and prime-time opinion hosts, helped him amplify false claims of election fraud. But some members of the network’s hard news division pushed back and fact-checked the unsubstantiated assertions.

    Shawn participated in a similar segment two weeks ago after Bartiromo gave airtime to Trump lawyers who peddled conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
      Sure looks like Fox is now the propaganda arm of Trump, Inc. not that there was any doubt. Josef Goebbels would be proud of them and that journalist using the principles of propaganda he pioneered. Fortunately a slight majority of Americans haven't fallen for it.
      The red hat seems to be a mind control device that imposes Orwellian Doublethink.

      Originally posted by Eric_Arthur_Blair_aka_George_Orwell

      Doublethink: The act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.

      According to Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, doublethink is, “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.”

      Four examples of doublethink used throughout 1984 include the slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, and 2 + 2 = 5.

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      Last edited by JRT; 30 Nov 20,, 04:08.
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      • Originally posted by JRT View Post
        Looks like Trump is setting up the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to knock it down hard, and thereby hobble the incoming administration. Because he can.

        Note the timing, 19 January 2020....
        Coming so close to the Inauguration AFGE could stick a fork in the plan. Lawsuit filed and ties it up in courts. Biden comes in and rescinds with an EO.

        “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
        Mark Twain

        Comment


        • Former top admiral alarmed by Pentagon purge says Trump still has time to do something 'really destructive'

          Mike Mullen, a retired Navy admiral and formerly the top US military officer, sounded the alarm Sunday over the recent Pentagon leadership purge, noting that there is still time for President Donald Trump and his team to do "something that's really destructive."

          "I'm actually very concerned about the Trump loyalists who have now gone to work in the Pentagon," Mullen, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during both the Bush and Obama administrations, told Chuck Todd Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

          Earlier this month, Trump fired his defense secretary. The next day, the chief of staff to the secretary of defense and the top civilian Pentagon policy and intelligence officials resigned.

          Those positions were filled by Trump loyalists, including retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a former Fox News commentator who spread falsehoods about former President Barack Obama, writing on social media that Obama was a "terrorist."

          "There are some real Trump loyalists there now in charge," Mullen said. "It's pretty difficult to think that over the course of 50 or 60 days you can do something constructive, but you can do something that's really destructive."


          As observers questioned the reasons behind the moves at the Pentagon, the administration began taking steps to pull thousands of US troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

          On November 17, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who arrived at the Pentagon only a week prior, announced that by the middle of January the troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq will be down to 2,500 each.

          "I just think we need to be very careful with that," Mullen said of the reductions.

          "I'd like everybody to come home as well," he continued. "There are still terrorists who would do us ill. I want to play, actually, the game on their turf, and not play it here. If we just come home, my fear is that they arrive here in the United States."

          "We've been through that before and I never want to see that happen again," he said.

          Retired Adm. William McRaven, the former head of US Special Operations Command and Navy SEAL who oversaw the Osama bin Laden raid, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he was also "concerned" by changes at the Pentagon.

          He said that Trump had "taken out all the leadership in the Department of Defense" and replaced them with a new team, one lacking experience.


          "The new team, you know, maybe they're good folks, but they are inexperienced," he said. "And what they're trying to do, of course, is to push forward President Trump's agenda, particularly when it comes to Iraq and Afghanistan and drawing down the number of troops."

          "We can have reasonable policy discussions on how many people we ought to have in Iraq and Afghanistan," McRaven continued. "But what we don't want to do is we don't want to rush to failure. We don't want to pull everybody out of Afghanistan and risk putting the troops, you know, in greater harm's way."

          "We've got to be thoughtful, we've got to be methodical about how we draw down the number of troops in Afghanistan," he said. "But what it appears is that this new administration in the Department of Defense is really rushing to get a lot of Trump's agenda resolved before a President Biden comes in."

          Both Mullen and McRaven also raised concerns about the possibility of escalating tensions with Iran, which has been a serious issue at various points during Trump's presidency.
          ____________

          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • Originally posted by JRT View Post
            Originally posted by Eric_Arthur_Blair_aka_George_Orwell

            Doublethink: The act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.

            According to Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, doublethink is, “To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.”

            Four examples of doublethink used throughout 1984 include the slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, and 2 + 2 = 5.

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            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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              • Remains to be seen if the NDAA may yet pass with a veto-proof majority, and if some Republicans might be growing weary of the tweeting/quacking of the lame duck POTUS Trump.

                Originally posted by NPR

                Trump Threatening To Veto Defense Bill Unless Shield For Big Tech Is Scrapped

                02 December 2020
                by Jaclyn Diaz

                President Trump is threatening to veto a critical defense spending bill unless Congress agrees to repeal a liability shield for social media companies.

                The president tweeted late Tuesday that Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act is "a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity."

                Section 230 provides legal protection for technology companies over content from third parties and users. Trump referred to the provision as a "liability shielding gift" to "Big Tech."

                If he doesn't get his way, Trump is threatening to nix this year's National Defense Authorization Act — a crucial piece of annual legislation that covers authorization for pay raises and other spending needs for the nation's military.

                The veto threat is the latest move by the president in his war against social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter. He and other conservatives believe tech companies are biased against conservative political views — censoring posts they don't like. However, the social media platforms say they are only trying to stop the spread of false claims and disinformation.

                Trump previously threatened a veto of the NDAA in July because it included language renaming U.S. military installations honoring Confederate generals.

                Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, who have largely rejected a wholesale repeal of Section 230, have nonetheless proposed revisions, in part to modernize the policy, but no concrete legislative steps have been taken.

                Lawmakers on the NDAA conference committee are set to meet Wednesday over the legislation.

                This is the 60th year Congress has crafted an annual defense policy bill and it usually passes with overwhelming bipartisan, veto-proof majorities.

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                • Originally posted by JRT View Post
                  Remains to be seen if the NDAA may yet pass with a veto-proof majority, and if some Republicans might be growing weary of the tweeting/quacking of the lame duck POTUS Trump.


                  If he doesn't get his way, Trump is threatening to nix this year's National Defense Authorization Act — a crucial piece of annual legislation that covers authorization for pay raises and other spending needs for the nation's military.

                  ...
                  Yeah this will be yet another litmus test for the Congressional members of Cult45.
                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • GOP chairman: Defense bill to include renaming Confederate bases, but not Section 230 repeal

                    Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Wednesday that President Trump is prepared to accept language regarding a plan to remove Confederate names, monuments and symbols from U.S. military installations, adding that the mammoth defense bill does not include a repeal of a tech liability shield, referred to as Section 230, despite a veto threat.

                    Inhofe said the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Congress hopes to send to Trump’s desk this month, includes language passed by the Senate in July that would set up a commission to form a plan on renaming bases honoring Confederate generals and instruct the Defense secretary to implement it.

                    The senior Oklahoma senator, who previously told colleagues that he would attempt to change the language substantially, cast it as a victory because it would delay the stripping of commemorations to the Confederate States of America. House Democrats wanted a one-year deadline for renaming bases.

                    “It hasn’t changed and, quite frankly, it’s a good thing that it is there because that language would stall that for about three years, it would appoint a commission that we would have a lot of participation in,” Inhofe said of the Senate-passed language included in the final version of the defense authorization bill.

                    “I’m glad the language is there because that’s one way of stalling the closures and the shuffling around of the installations,” he said.

                    Inhofe, who spoke to Trump on Monday, said the president is “fine with that.”

                    “That doesn’t seem to be an issue with him. I think he’s fine with that because it’s a commission. It’s three years, so that’s better than the alternative,” Inhofe said.

                    Inhofe added that he discussed Section 230 with the president. Pressed on what the president’s reaction was, Inhofe demurred but added that Trump “doesn’t like 230 and I don’t like 230.”

                    “First of all 230 has nothing to do with the military. And I agree with his sentiments we ought to do away with 230 but you can’t do it in this bill. That’s not a part of the bill,” Inhofe told reporters.

                    The senator spoke roughly 12 hours after Trump threatened to veto the NDAA if a repeal of 230 wasn’t included.

                    “Section 230, which is a liability shielding gift from the U.S. to 'Big Tech' (the only companies in America that have it - corporate welfare!), is a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity. Our Country can never be safe & secure if we allow it to stand,” Trump tweeted Tuesday night.

                    In June, Trump declared that he would refuse to cooperate with efforts to rename military bases named after Confederate generals such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Hood in Texas.

                    “The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars,” Trump tweeted. “Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations. Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military!”

                    Trump lauded the bases as “part of a Great American Heritage.”

                    The Senate Armed Services Committee passed compromise language in June to form a commission to come up with a plan for renaming bases and to implement it after three years after negotiations between Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

                    Republicans on the Armed Services panel, including Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), supported the language.

                    Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) strongly opposed the change in committee.
                    ___________

                    So Trump folds like a complete wuss on the Confederate names for bases, when he's repeatedly vowed that he wouldn't even consider it.

                    And Inhofe clearly establishes that Section 230 doesn't have jack to do with the military.

                    The plot thickens...
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                    Comment


                    • I just hope they'd quit dicking around and get this passed. It is totally screwing up a massive system upgrade for me which we desperately need.

                      Been trying to get this done for almost 2 years and with a CR the funding hasn't been released. I have a vendor sitting there waiting and can't do new work.

                      Freaking madness.
                      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                      Mark Twain

                      Comment


                      • Hurry up and wait ... and then, I need this done yesterday. Some shit never change.
                        Chimo

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                          Hurry up and wait ... and then, I need this done yesterday. Some shit never change.
                          Yup...and it ends of costing 35-50% more because of contract mods where you had to keep people on so you would have their expertise once you get the go. So you end up paying high priced software engineers to do simple help desk stuff.

                          Fucking madness.
                          “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                          Mark Twain

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                            I just hope they'd quit dicking around and get this passed. It is totally screwing up a massive system upgrade for me which we desperately need.

                            Been trying to get this done for almost 2 years and with a CR the funding hasn't been released. I have a vendor sitting there waiting and can't do new work.

                            Freaking madness.
                            Y'know, maybe if we had a businessman as President for a change, instead of a politician! Someone who makes deals all the time, someone who's known as a master dealmaker....

                            Oh, right.
                            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                            Comment


                            • Former Trump campaign manager says he and Jared Kushner 'both paid the price' for telling the president the truth

                              The former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a wide-ranging interview on Fox News on Tuesday that he "paid the price" for telling the president the truth.

                              When the host Martha MacCallum asked about reports that President Donald Trump yelled at him over the phone after learning of poor poll numbers, Parscale said: "I didn't like lying to him. I like telling him the truth."

                              Parscale was demoted from his post at the helm of the campaign in July, replaced by Bill Stepien.

                              In September, Parscale's wife called the police to their home, saying Parscale loaded a firearm and threatened to harm himself.

                              But Parscale told MacCallum that the president never reached out to him and that they had not spoken since.

                              "And it's pretty hurtful," Parscale said. "But it's probably just as much my fault as his. I love that family. And I gave every inch of my life to him, every inch."

                              Parscale also offered insight into how Trump responds to tough news and how others in the campaign — whom he described as "D-level people" — capitalized on the president's desire for staffers to paint a rosy picture.

                              The former campaign manager said both he and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, were relegated from their perches atop the campaign when Trump's polling numbers dipped. Parscale said their willingness to be frank with Trump might have contributed to that.

                              "Sometimes that came with a lot of — a lot of painful days, after knowing that I might have let him down or made him upset," Parscale said. "But a lot of those D-level people that hung around him, they just told him what he wanted to hear.

                              "They were yes-men. And I wasn't going to be a yes-man."

                              Parscale, who has been less than truthful about his work in the past, described Kushner and himself as unsung heroes in the story of the campaign's demise.

                              "I was going to be a get-it-done man," he said. "And I did it for [Trump]. I did it for the family. I did it for this country, because I feel like somebody needed to be the one telling him the truth. And I think Jared did too.

                              "I think we both paid the price for that sometimes."
                              _____________

                              What kind of dumbshit gives his loyalty to a loathsome c*nt like Donald Trump?
                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                              Comment


                              • No doubt that there are some red-hatted Trumpsters who will choose to believe Roger Stone.

                                Was it some North Korean galley slaves who may have rowed these boats to Maine from North Korea? Must have been quite the trip. Perhaps Roger Stone might collaborate with Oliver Stone to create an animated documentary video for Donald J. Trump and his red-hatted Trumpsters to watch.

                                Originally posted by NewsWeek

                                Roger Stone Says North Korean Boats Delivered Ballots Through Maine Harbor As Trump Boosts Fraud Claims

                                by Jeffery Martin
                                02 December 2020

                                Former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed on Wednesday that North Korea had interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to assert that fraudulent activity was prevalent during the November election.

                                Stone, who has previously spoken of his respect for some members of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to investigators in connection with the Mueller probe into Russian election meddling during Trump's 2016 campaign. Trump commuted Stone's sentence in July.

                                With the Electoral College expected to meet on December 14, Trump has intensified his claims of widespread election fraud. Democrat President-elect Joe Biden was widely projected to be the winner of the election despite Trump's protestations. During an interview on The Alex Jones Show, Stone said he had received further proof of election fraud.

                                "I just learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine, the state of Maine," Stone said. "If this checks out, if law enforcement looked into that and it turned out to be true, it would be proof of foreign involvement in the election."

                                Stone told Jones that he prayed daily for Trump to be "strengthened" in his fight against "an epically corrupt deep state that has no problem in what appears to be the cyber-manipulation of the votes of the American people." In a July interview, Stone praised some members of the QAnon movement as "great patriots." Many of the theories espoused by QAnon adherents revolve around Trump leading a covert battle against Democrats, some members of the business community and individuals in the entertainment industry. According to the theory, those individuals are involved in pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic worship.

                                While Trump has declined to distance himself from the QAnon movement, his claims that Democrats conspired to win the election have continued. On Wednesday, Trump released a 46-minute long video on his Twitter feed detailing his allegations of election fraud.

                                "The Democrats had this election rigged right from the beginning," Trump said, citing claims of voting machine manipulation, improper mail-in ballots and insufficient signature checks.

                                Trump has alleged that many of the mail-in ballots, which skewed Democratic, were illegally counted. Those ballots allegedly helped swing the election in Biden's favor. "If we are right about the fraud," Trump said, "Joe Biden can't be president. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of votes."

                                Trump's legal team has filed litigation in some battleground states contesting the election process. However, many of those lawsuits have been dismissed by judges.

                                "What a disaster this election was," Trump said. "A total catastrophe, but we're going to show it, and hopefully the courts—in particular, the Supreme Court of the United States—will see it and respectfully, hopefully, they will do what's right for our country."

                                According to the Associated Press, Biden was projected to win the election with 51.3 percent of the popular vote to Trump's 47 percent. Biden received 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 electoral votes required to be officially declared president. Although some litigation on behalf of Trump is still ongoing, states have until December 8 to certify their election results before the Electoral College convenes on December 14.

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                                Last edited by JRT; 03 Dec 20,, 18:24.
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