The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Michael Maiello's picture

    Your Liberal Media

    By Michael Maiello on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 9:33am | Media

    Wow.

    Mr. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. White House officials say they can only hope he refrains from discussing classified information when he is on them.

    Somehow I don't remember ever seeing this story in The Times:

    Secretary Clinton’s aides have repeatedly warned her that, despite her private server being reasonably secure and there being no evidence of any breaches by foreign intelligence services or anybody else, she might consider using a government server exclusively, if only for appearances. But aides say the voluble former Secretary of State, has still refused to give up her personal server, which was expertly installed and is maintained by qualified technicians. So that's pretty much the end of that and it's no big deal.

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    Yes, wow is right.  

    No shame. No embarrassment.  No compass.  To think of all the vitriol he spewed about Crooked Hillary and the email server and how she was endangering national security. 

    I'm sure we'll have patriotic, country first congressional Republicans expressing 1/10 of the outrage over this as they expressed over Hillary's emails, and privately telling this president he must resign for the good of the country.  Surely.  It will happen. 

    Yeah, right.  Where's the broom?  Congressional Republicans are all complicit, each and every one of them for their sheer cowardice and abdication of their responsibilities to our country.  They are epic, historic failures.  Each and every one of them in Congress and in the Oval Office.  Not hyperbole.  Truth.  


    by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 10:51am

    I certainly don't expect Trump to be self aware about this, and I don't expect Republicans to be anything but mercenary.  But, yeah, maybe the media that made such a big deal about "her emails" could not be flippant about this? Oh, he's just "voluble."

    Give it a week and this will either be gone or they'll be saying he wants spies to listen into his conversations so he can manipulate them.  


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 11:08am

    Trump has already debunked this latest fabricated MSM BS. He uses only secure land line government phones and has one rarely used government issue cell. Hillary OTOH was quite careless and her emails, some classified, were directly cc'd  to the Chinese according to the IG report.


    by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 11:36am

    Trump can't "debunk"-anything - he's a rampant liar telling multiple lies a day for years as documented well by multiple fact-checker sites. But you knew that.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 11:57am

    I'm with Peracles: at this point, rational people can't believe a single thing he says. There could be a huge plot against him, smearing him unfairly with terrible things, and a majority would not believe his denials. He's got a severe "cry wolf" problem AND YOU FANS HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT. Yes I am shouting. Doncha see what a problem it is to be a fan of someone who lies all the time? Especially someone whose own staff counters him time after time after time. Why do you feel so attached to defending a liar? How can you possibly know what he is actually responsible for and what he is not? Are you brain dead?


    by artappraiser on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 12:57pm

    Peter is so far down the rabbit hole he apparently believes citing a Trump denial of bad, illegal or stupid stuff Trump does is all that is needed to silence us.

    This is true fanatical devotion, and a delusional attribute found only in a disciple under complete submission to a charismatic leadership cult.


    by NCD on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 2:59pm

    You have given him what he wants.

    So have Peracles and artappraiser.


    by moat on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 3:05pm

    A psychiatric diagnosis? He must have it? And it's not for him, but for anyone who wants to understand the cult worship of demagogues.

    BTW, psychologists are still studying human behavior in societies under  leadership cults, see The Social Psychology of the Holocaust, Oxford Press, 2002. 


    by NCD on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 3:07pm

    Unfortunately, when you talk to many Trump supporters, you do find that they will deny facts or do what aboutisms. If you mention voter suppression, they will say both parties do it and remind you of the Kennedy election and Illinois. They will not address the current situation. You also find variations on “ fake news”. Mention the Russia investigation and they will tell you about money the DNC received from Russia. They will downplay the embarrassment of the Trump-Putin presser. One technique I have seen is to quote something said by a Conservative on a CNN and then proudly state, “and mind you, this was said on CNN”. The fact that CNN broadcast it despite being a Liberal outlet, it had to be true. Is The nonsense we get from Peter is not that far off base for Trump supporters. Perhaps others have had different experiences with Trump supporters. I’d be interested to hear.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 3:17pm

    I sincerely doubt I fulfilled his wishes. Others may have.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 3:09pm

    The theory behind the Don't Feed the Troll strategy is that trolls crave attention and will eventually leave if shunned. So you are giving him what he wants according to that theory. Now remember, I have never subscribed to that theory. What I find so interesting is Arta has been the longest most vigorous advocate of that theory all the time she's been here yet she's among the first to feed the troll after we had a long discussion and even I agreed to go with the crowd and refrain from posting to it. That it will never be implemented by enough people is one of the reasons I believed the theory would not work. That's not a critique of anyone. Just an observation. Nor is it a suggestion as I don't think the Don't Feed the Troll strategy will work even if everyone does it. Trolls only respond to moderation, because they have no choice. Posts need to be delete. Trolls banned. That's my theory for the only effective measure to deal with trolls.


    by ocean-kat on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 4:29pm

    You replied to him.  You fed him - and you're on the friggin' masthead, Peracles.


    by barefooted on Fri, 10/26/2018 - 8:15pm

    Downie of the Washington Post points to one element of the security risk that White House is probably telling the truth about:

    Those around Trump know how little he knows. In the Times’s story, anonymous White House officials told the reporters that “they had further confidence he was not spilling secrets because he rarely digs into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities.”

    With any other president, that excuse would be ridiculous. With Trump, it’s Occam’s razor — the most straightforward explanation is probably the best one.

    Release the balloons for the funeral.


    by moat on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 1:49pm

    Yes, this is about where this presidency is: it's considered a good thing just now in the wake of the Times story, a reason to worry a little less perhaps, that the president usually does not dig deep into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities, to use the antiseptic language.


    by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 2:20pm


    by artappraiser on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 2:00pm

    There is so much competing for immediate attention just now: the pipe bombings, vote suppression, the elections, Trump's tax fraud, the Khashoggi murder and fallout, charges of Russian interference in the 2018 elections, on and on...Oh and the crisis of democracy, our system of government, norms of decency and fair play in government and politics, or whatever you want to call it.  I am pressed to recall a time when there were so many fast-motion train wrecks cascading through news cycles at the same time.


    by AmericanDreamer on Fri, 10/26/2018 - 1:33pm