The 4th Estate Thread Has Surrendered

[hepcat]

Give T a slogan and a hat and you've got yourself a voter!

[Isgrimnur]

[hepcat]

MAPF. Make America Pity the Fool.

[LordMortis]

You neglected the slogan.

Is it:

MMMM Milk.
I ain't gettin in no plane
I pity the fool

Or did you have something else in mind?

[hepcat]

You neglected the slogan.

Is it:

MMMM Milk.
I ain't gettin in no plane
I pity the fool

Or did you have something else in mind?

MAPF. Make America Pity the Fool.

[LordMortis]

I was responding to Izzy and you snuck in like a Thief in the Night.

Stone Cold
And I thought I knew you so well

[hepcat]

Ah, I thought you were responding to me...FOOL! I HEREBY PITY YOU!

[LordMortis]

I don't need your pity

[Z-Corn]

[em2nought]

A certain bot forgot to be updated. It's supposed to be gatoing stopthebias. Walkaway never got traction.

...and the polls are projecting Hillary by a landslide. Don't kid yourself, I see a couple #WalkAway videos being posted on facebook every single day. Only one of those posters spoke with a Russian accent so far, but she was HOT! Maybe it should be changed to #RunDon'tWalkAway

[Holman]

Don't kid yourself, I see a couple #WalkAway videos being posted on facebook every single day.

OMG this is priceless!

[Skinypupy]

Don't kid yourself, I see a couple #WalkAway videos being posted on facebook every single day.

I have no doubt that you do.

[stessier]

For those of us only half paying attention, what does #walkaway reference?

[Smoove_B]

For those of us only half paying attention, what does #walkaway reference?

when everything is viral and nothing matters.

The pro-Trump Internet is really good at convincing its audience that going viral signals popular opinion, that its movement is and always will be #winning. In this case, #WalkAway is the answer to the possibility of a Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms. It doesn’t need to be true to be effective. After all, the hashtag has now become an article in The Washington Post.

[stessier]

Ah, thank you. I feel better now.

[LordMortis]

It's not viral because there is a lib conspiracy to keep it from trending, doncha know? Twitter and Facebook are part of the lying media. stopthebias

And I suppose it's only right for supposed former democrats who have seen the light under Trump to refer to their brainwashers was libs as they would now be cons.

[hepcat]

Ah, thank you. I feel better now.

It's also usually accompanied by stock photos instead of actual people...you know...walking away.

[em2nought]

Ah, thank you. I feel better now.

It's also usually accompanied by stock photos instead of actual people...you know...walking away.

Here you go setting yourselves up for a huge disappointment again.

[GreenGoo]

For a guy planning on bailing, you sure do get excited to be stigginit before you go.

That makes you kind of a dick, but then you already knew that. That's kind of the point, isn't it?

Why on earth do you think people should remain civil with you when you're busy smearing feces on everything while chuckling that you can't wait to go to some second world country with cheaper hookers?

My response to anyone who's motivation is trolling is that you're not really part of humanity as we all struggle and work to find a way forward. We're not in this together. You're busy kicking over sandcastles and shitting in the drinking water.

When does your bus leave again?

[em2nought]

Why on earth do you think people should remain civil with you when you're busy smearing feces on everything while chuckling that you can't wait to go to some second world country with cheaper hookers?

You forgot about the cheap rent, massages, food, and medical treatment too! Those are all priorities, the hookers are more like a fringe benefit.

I am starting to feel a glimmer of hope that we can be rescued from our potential PC future. If gold moves down to $800 an ounce I might become a true believer.

[GreenGoo]

Things aren't expensive because of PC. Are you mentally deficient?

Stop talking about going and just go already.

[em2nought]

Things aren't expensive because of PC. Are you mentally deficient?

Stop talking about going and just go already.

Where did I say that? Don't worry Gooey, when I do leave I'll still stop by this elitist den you little beavers chomping at the tree of liberty call home.

[GreenGoo]

Things aren't expensive because of PC. Are you mentally deficient?

Stop talking about going and just go already.

Where did I say that? Don't worry Gooey, when I do leave I'll still stop by this elitist den you little beavers chomping at the tree of liberty call home.

Damn straight we're elitist. We're fucking elite. That's one of the benefits of being awesome. You on the other hand pay your buck fifty income tax and call it criminal. You got your 15 minutes. Hope it was worth it. Nothing says loving freedom like burning things to the ground then moving somewhere cheaper.

[hepcat]

Ah, thank you. I feel better now.

It's also usually accompanied by stock photos instead of actual people...you know...walking away.

Here you go setting yourselves up for a huge disappointment again.

Russian bots using a viral meme with fake photos is only disappointing for people who aren’t Putin’s lapdogs. Right, Comrade Nought?

Things aren't expensive because of PC. Are you mentally deficient?

Stop talking about going and just go already.

Where did I say that? Don't worry Gooey, when I do leave I'll still stop by this elitist den you little beavers chomping at the tree of liberty call home.

Wait, aren’t you a Russian patriot? Is that tree of liberty in Moscow, Comrade Nought?

[noxiousdog]

Things aren't expensive because of PC. Are you mentally deficient?

Stop talking about going and just go already.

Where did I say that? Don't worry Gooey, when I do leave I'll still stop by this elitist den you little beavers chomping at the tree of liberty call home.

This is one of the least elitist places I've ever been. see: Drazzil

[em2nought]

Wait, aren’t you a Russian patriot? Is that tree of liberty in Moscow, Comrade Nought?

Motherland? Fatherland? Southland? I wish you fellas would make up yours minds about which detestable subset you think I belong to.

[GreenGoo]

Look ma, people are paying attention to me! This is the greatest day of my life!

[Alefroth]

Wait, aren’t you a Russian patriot? Is that tree of liberty in Moscow, Comrade Nought?

Motherland? Fatherland? Southland? I wish you fellas would make up yours minds about which detestable subset you think I belong to.

That's adorable, you think there's just one.

[hepcat]

Wait, aren’t you a Russian patriot? Is that tree of liberty in Moscow, Comrade Nought?

Motherland? Fatherland? Southland? I wish you fellas would make up yours minds about which detestable subset you think I belong to.

#walkaway

[Sepiche]

Chuck Todd is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore

Instead of attacking rivals, or assailing critics—going negative,in the parlance of political campaigns—reporters need to showcase and defend our reporting. Every day, we need to do our job, check our facts, strive to be transparent, and say what we’re seeing. That’s what I’ve tried to do here. I’ve seen a nearly 50-year campaign to delegitimize the press, and I’m saying so. For years, I didn’t say a word about this publicly, and at times I even caught myself drawing false equivalencies because I was afraid of being labeled as biased. I know that stating the obvious will draw attacks, but I’ve also learned that the louder critics bark, the more they care about what’s being reported.

I’m not advocating for a more activist press in the political sense, but for a more aggressive one. That means having a lower tolerance for talking points, and a greater willingness to speak plain truths. It means not allowing ourselves to be spun, and not giving guests or sources a platform to spin our readers and viewers, even if that angers them. Access isn’t journalism’s holy grail—facts are.

[stessier]

Bob Woodward's new book comes out on Sept. 11th.

CNN got an advance copy.

Woodward's book takes readers inside top-secret meetings. On July 27, 2017, Trump's national security leaders convened a gathering at "The Tank" in the Pentagon. The goal: an intervention to try to educate the President on the importance of allies and diplomacy.

Trump's philosophy on diplomacy was personal. "This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim," he said of North Korea.

His inner circle was worried about "The Big Problem," Woodward writes: Trump's lack of understanding that his crusade to impose tariffs could endanger global security.
But the meeting didn't go as planned.

Trump went off on his generals. "You should be killing guys. You don't need a strategy to kill people," Trump said of Afghanistan.

He questioned the wisdom of keeping US troops in South Korea.

"So Mr. President," Cohn said to Trump, "what would you need in the region to sleep well at night?"

"I wouldn't need a fucking thing," the President said. "And I'd sleep like a baby."

After Trump left the Tank, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared: "He's a fucking moron."

[Carpet_pissr]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared: "He's a fucking moron."

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

[malchior]

More cut down horse race style coverage from CNN.They wrote up the drama while leaving out the substance. I notice they left out the entire Leahy angle which is probably the most important thing that has happened from a disqualification standpoint. Focus on the style...lose the substance...this is CNN.

[malchior]

A good thread about how the big players in the media are failing us again by focusing on the drama.

[Pyperkub]

Journalists subject to FISA orders:

Many journalists already worried that their calls and emails were likely to be swept up in dragnet acquisition of overseas communications authorized under a controversial provision of FISA, added in 2008, that allows intelligence agencies to acquire large quantities of electronic communications without obtaining individualized warrants for each target. Journalists could become entangled in such collection since many of them likely communicate with people who meet the broad definition of possessing “foreign intelligence” information — which could include information on “foreign affairs.” That concern applied to journalists based in the United States, or U.S. citizens, who might have their end of a conversation picked up “incidentally” under the FISA provision; such incidental collection can then be tapped by domestic law enforcement for use against Americans in so-called backdoor searches. But the issue resonated even more with foreign journalists based overseas who could be spied on without triggering constitutional restraints.

The 2015 memos, however, contemplate a scenario in which a journalist or media entity is specifically targeted for surveillance under various provisions of the act, either in the U.S. or as a U.S. person abroad.

Of course, nothing new, as Hoover maintained a lot of illegal files on Journalists, and Snowden warned of it over 5 years ago:

Long before President Donald Trump coined the term "fake news," disparaged the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN, or declared a war on the media, there was a dogged reporter named Ben Bagdikian, who rattled the Nixon White House and landed on FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's enemies list.

Bagdikian, who died in March 2016 at the age of 96, was the dean of the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley, and an Armenian American journalist and author who was probably best known as the reporter who obtained a copy of the Pentagon Papers about America's secret role in the Vietnam War—the greatest and most important leak in US history—and advocated publishing it in the Washington Post to his editor, Ben Bradlee.

Still, very, very, chilling, and I'm still angry at Obama for not dismantling the surveillance state.

[Max Peck]

This topic is getting more literal every day.

Fears are growing over missing Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, after Turkish officials said they believed he had been murdered.

Mr Khashoggi, a Saudi national, went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.

A Turkish official told the BBC that initial investigations indicated he was murdered there.

Saudi Arabia has denied the accusations, saying it is "working to search for him".

The Washington Post said it would be a "monstrous and unfathomable act" if he had been killed.

An official of Turkey's ruling AK Party told broadcaster CNN Turk there was concrete evidence in the case, although none has yet been presented.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

As Jamal Khashoggi prepared to enter the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, a squad of men from Saudi Arabia who investigators suspect played a role in his disappearance was ready and in place.

They had arrived from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, early that morning and checked in at two inter­national hotels in Istanbul before driving to the consulate in the leafy Levent neighborhood, said two people with knowledge of the investigation. One of them, the Mövenpick Hotel Istanbul, is a few minutes from the consulate by car.

By the end of the day, a 15-member Saudi team had conducted its business and left the country, departing on planes bound for Cairo and Dubai, according to flight records and the people familiar with the investigation.
....
Turkish officials, who are examining the squad’s movements, have now expanded their investigation to explore what happened at the residence of the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, located 500 yards from the consulate. A photograph taken from a Turkish police closed-circuit television camera outside the residence and obtained by The Washington Post shows a Mercedes Vito van with tinted windows that security officials say transported some of those men from the consulate to the residence about two hours after Khashoggi entered the consulate.
...
Before Khashoggi’s disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him, according to a person familiar with the information. The Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there, this person said. It was not clear whether the Saudis intended to arrest and interrogate Khashoggi or to kill him, or if the United States warned Khashoggi that he was a target, this person said.

[Holman]

The administration is bending over backwards to avoid making Khashoggi 's murder an issue.

Here's Trump minimizing it by pointing out that it happened in Turkey, Khashoggi isn't a U.S. citizen, and anyway our deals with the Saudis are Yuge Money.



Current right-wing talking points are that Khashoggi was probably a terrorist or something.

This morning it's being reported that the Turks (who'd bugged the consulate) have actual audio of Khashoggi's torture, interrogation, and murder.

[LawBeefaroni]

The administration is bending over backwards to avoid making Khashoggi 's murder an issue.

Of course it is. We just signed a $110B defense deal with them last year that Trump still talks about and Kushner is probably still counting on them for bailouts.

Follow

The money.

[GreenGoo]

Turkey gave up their bugs for this? They're not doing it for altruistic purposes. What are they expecting out of it?