@f8d9bc1c
This is the nature of journalism. This is the nature of social life. Everyone is trying to control the narrative. It's why they invented deodorant.
@e2aff28e
My hope--and I think it's reasonable--is that the Republicans lose their majority after all the Shutdown drama, and we're treated to a really critical Congressional Hearing about the role of oligarchs in American foreign policy.
@fa46ee30
Gonna have to agree to disagree.
He can't even control his own country that easily. He's constantly having to murder people. If he were this genius, he wouldn't be elevating these people to power in the first place, much less getting his own hands dirty to get rid of them later on.
@fa46ee30
I just don't find that plausible. That this one guy who can't even get his own house in order is this master genius capable of manipulating the whole world.
I understand why somebody would WANT to believe that--if the problem is only one single guy, then the solution is to just get rid of only that one single guy.
But life is always way more complicated than that.
@fa46ee30
That's my point--you think Putin knows America well enough to direct propaganda here whereas he clearly failed in Ukraine? That just doesn't make sense.
@fa46ee30
There is some statistical perspective we can apply to put this in context, and I think it supports my position pretty strongly.
All told, Hilary Clinton spent about $769 million during the 2016 election.
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate?id=N00000019
Even the most aggressive estimates, which few people believe, say that Russia spent no more than $300k--0.039% of Hilary's spending.
@fa46ee30
I doubt Putin is that smart. He can't even manage his own country without resorting to transparent murder.
I think we have to accept that the US has some foundational flaws in its own system that are finally catching up to it.
Not that the flaws in the US and the Russian system are equal. I mean, Russia has undergone like 5 revolutions in the time the US has had 2 civil wars.
But that's not the point. It's that we can't blame everything on one man.
@fa46ee30
Probably the bottom line is that the IRS don't have enough funding to do more than harass poor people. It's too expensive to pursue the abuses of the wealthy, who can afford lawyers to make the task impossibly lengthy and complicated. Agents are promoted/compensated based on the # of cases they close. They don't have time to gamble on really big returns. Better to intimidate a lot of little people.
@098a11ae@f8d9bc1c
So you think Trump is a great guy? Encouraging him to run for president was a 'good' thing by your lights?
Because that's what the emails discussed.
@098a11ae@4f83d25c@f8d9bc1c
Wait--are you claiming that NY Times is a Republican outlet? I don't think I've met anybody anywhere who believes that.
You can argue that you personally would manage a Dem outlet differently than the NY Times does, but I don't think it can be seriously argued that the NY Times is a Republican outlet.
@098a11ae@f8d9bc1c
Nobody, not even the Clintons, denied that the emails were real. Hilary did try to portray their release by Wikileaks as part of a Russian effort to manipulate the election, but clearly the NY Times would not be recommending clemency for Assange 6 years later in 2022 if they thought that were actually the case.
@f8d9bc1c
The problem with the Clinton emails wasn't where they came from--even the NY Times Editorial board supports clemency for Assange. It's that they were real.
@fa46ee30
It's not about intelligence or non-intelligence. It's about being left or right.
2023 Democrats are basically 1980 Republicans.
So the only way for 2023 Republicans to differentiate themselves is to become Nazis.
The policies they are advocating are stupid and violent. But nobody actually--not even the people advocating them--thinks they are actually good. Just different from what the Democrats are saying.
Thinking never enters the equation.
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