Hey! Remember when Trump abruptly stopped campaigning in Swing states

[LaydeeBug]

Last edited Thu Dec 8, 2016, 11:38 PM - Edit history (1)

and then it turned out the Russian government was in daily contact with him? And that they hacked DNC and HRC emails?

Good times!

Remember when CNN hired people who were contractually bound to not speak ill of Trump? Nothing to see there? No?

Awesome!

But hone your message folks. There's nothing to see here. We need to 'move on' and focus on *anything* that isn't *that*

edit: typo

[mcar]

1. But, but

Hillary didn't visit states where she was way ahead, per pollsters!!11 She didn't talk about the economy, except when she did!!11 She wasn't likable!!11

[Blanks]

2. I must have missed the CNN thing?

Do you have a link?

[bettyellen]

6. Corey Lendowski- double dipping by getting paid by both CNN and Trump- seen getting off the Trump

Plane after insisting he hadn't worked for him for months- trying to hide it by wearing a hoodie. And he quit to work for Trump "again" the day after the election.
Also Morning Joe and Mika admit talking to Trump behind the scenes all the time.

[R B Garr]

3. Very true, actually. Unreality is the new reality,

so "message" can be as fact free as you want.

Good points all around.

[NCTraveler]

4. +1 nt

[Squinch]

5. Not only that, we must beat OURSELVES up and become more like

unicorns -er, I mean the nonexistent rust belt working class white Trump voters - because standing up for social issues and civil rights is baaaaaaaaaaad.

[VOX]

7. Everything you learned about being a decent human being is now void.

Last edited Thu Dec 8, 2016, 10:14 PM - Edit history (1)

We're not just through the looking glass, we're in another universe, and it's as Orwellian as can be.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. The media is most to blame for this mess. No doubt about it. nt

[quakerboy]

9. The media picked all of our candidates

And then did a lot of the work for the one that suited them best.

[mopinko]

10. hey, remember when cheeto's first campaign manager (recruited him to run?)

was drummed out when his russian connections started to get a little too much attention? and his connection to a fishy referendum in ukraine started to leak out in the blogoshere?
so off he went, down the memory hole. in spite of all this talk about russia.
and fishy elections.

such an amazing accomplishment.
i heard the memory hole uses a million kw an hour. how do they power that thing?
it would have to be dead babies before it showed up on the teevee.

[MythosMaster]

16. if we could only power the world on lies.

....

[betsuni]

11. K&R

[byronius]

12. Oh, there's a few things missing from that list.

For instance, WHAT THE HELL IS IT THAT SEVEN DEMOCRATIC SENATORS WANT DECLASSIFIED BEFORE TRUMP TAKES OFFICE?

Sorry about the caps, but WTF.

Ohhhh, and perhaps a little election fraud to go with that. Y'know. Because they neeeeeeeeed it. Because 'good' guys have to cheat to win, it's in the bible.

Racists and Russians, racists and Russians, organizing a worldwide fascist takeover that will end in the slaughter of millions, ho hum, so boring, so yesterday.

Get with the new! That Donald, he's so hot right now.


I was just watching this documentary about another coupla 'good' guys -- got all bold when the better half just didn't have the gumption to stand up to 'em early on. And that ended well. After ten years of murder.

Yup. One realm, one people, one leader. Here it comes.

And he lost!

[They_Live]

13. "I did not say this...

...I am not here."

@2:22

[LisaM]

14. Great post.

Thank you.

[LaydeeBug]

23. Thank you for that. nt

[certainot]

15. it should not have been close enough to steal

the only reason they were close and the only reason they have been able to create this alternate reality in which these ignorant corrupt lying global warming denying nutjobs can get elected because of a private email server and other bullshit is the free speech free ride they get with 1200 think tank coordinated radio stations.

we have to get house and senate in 2 years and can if the left/dems do something about talk radio

and if your state universities are helping trump radio attract advertisers to pay for global warming denial and defunding public ed, making excuses for trump, trying to end net neutrality, and generally everything undemocratic, protest anything trump there.

and tell their student groups and newspapers this:

xxxxxx

Your school is on a list of 88 universities at republiconradio.org that broadcast sports on 257 of Rush Limbaugh’s 600 radio stations. They could also be called Trump radio stations.

Your university is not only mocking it’s own mission statement, it is undermining the interests of most of its students, faculty, employees, and surrounding communities.

That makes your own school a legitimate place to protest any issue related to the Trump agenda.

Many of those relationships began prior to the 90’s, before they all began broadcasting propaganda for one party. There is no reason for those schools not to start looking for apolitical alternatives immediately.

The school administration will claim that it does not make business decisions based on politics.This is a question all those schools need to ask: If a radio station went to KKK programming would the university still let its mascot be used to sell a KKK agenda?

Those stations weigh in on elections for university regents and selection of administration including presidents and chancellors - is there a conflict of interest?

All of those stations will continue to deny global warming, deny reproductive rights to women, excuse racism and homophobia, and promote and excuse the Trump agenda. Republicans want to privatize public education, social security, and the post office. Their policies will raise college tuition. They want to reverse gains in health care reform. They want to end net neutrality. Those stations will be cheerleaders for the next war, as they were for the last one.

The station pays a licensing company a fee and the school gets a part of that. The station then gets to use the school logos, mascot, and community standing to attract advertising revenue. It gets to declare things like “850 KOA, home of the Buffs,and Rush Limbaugh!” Compared with TV licensing revenue talk radio stations pay very little.

Advertising revenue is used to fund station operating costs and pay for the national and local talk show hosts that broadcast from them most of the day.

Except for occasional innocuous programming all of those stations operate exclusively for the benefit of the Republican Party. They are coordinated with national and state GOP and their allied think tanks

If Trump would pay $1000/hr for a radio ad, 1200 nationwide stations x 15hrs/day x 5 days/week are worth about $5BIL/yr FREE for Trump. 255 x $75,000 = $19,125,000/WEEK FREE for Trump, or about $1BIL/yr endorsed by institutions of higher learning.

Those stations, licensed to operate in the public interest, are heavily dependent on the schools they parasitize and they all:
- deny global warming and science
- use public airwaves to sell voter suppression legislation
- use and excuse racism, misogyny, homophobia, and hate to divide communities
- work to deny reproductive rights for women and access to contraception
- fight environmental regulation, push fracking, and always support fossil fuel solutions over renewables
- fight to defund and privatize public education, attack teachers and work to lower their salaries, attack their unions, push voucher solutions and standardized testing, and obstruct efforts to lower student debt
- fight efforts to increase minimum wage
- undermine the economic and environmental interests of their communities
- use public airways to repeat propaganda that is demonstrably false and continue to lie after being corrected
- use public airwaves but use call screeners to exclude dissenting callers

How much revenue does the licensing company pay for radio broadcasting portion compared to the TV portion? Could donors make up the difference if there is a monetary loss? If there is a loss, how does it compare with the harm it is doing to its own principles, funding, students, and surrounding communities?

Are they violating their 501c3 tax exempt status? Here’s the IRS rule for political activity:
“Political activity. -  If any of the activities (whether or not substantial) of your organization consist of participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office, your organization will not qualify for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). Such participation or intervention includes the publishing or distributing of statements.”

No university has a good excuse not to reexamine it’s relationship with partisan radio stations and look for apolitical alternatives. If an existing contract cannot be voided without penalty, can donors be found to cover it?

Any university, state or private, supporting Republican talk radio is shooting itself in the foot, demeaning its mission statement and professed goals and values, and harming its students’ futures.

Here is that list of universities ($1000 x 15hrs/day x 5days = $75,000/week):

ALABAMA 8 $600,000 Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 1 $75,000 Arizona St. 1
ARKANSAS 3 $225,000 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 $375,000 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 4 $300,000 Air Force 2, Colorado 1, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1  $75,000 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 $1,500,000 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 $1,050,000 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7 $525,000 Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 $525,000 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 $825,000 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 $375,000 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 $300,000 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 $225,000 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 $225,000 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 $150,000 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 $75,000 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 $1,425,000 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 $300,000 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 $450,000 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 $450,000 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 $75,000 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 $150,000 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 $225,000 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 $525,000 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 $1,200,000 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 $750,000 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 $375,000 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 $900,000 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 $1,050,000 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 $300,000 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 $525,000 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 $1,200,000 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 $75,000 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 $450,000 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 $450,000 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 $150,000 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 5 $225,000 Wisconsin 5

There is no excuse for any school to support Trump radio.

[LaydeeBug]

17. It wasn't. They had to resort to suppression *AND hacking, *AND* the FBI becoming a de facto arm of

the KGB.

Right wing radio has brainwashed our servicemen and women and it is probably doing the same to our college students.

[duffyduff]

18. Yep. nt

[certainot]

19. it was close enough to steal is my point. many issues like global warming are

no brainer issues that shouldn't be within 20 points. but they are because the left does nothing about talk radio

[LaydeeBug]

21. stop blaming the victim, "if he was close enough to hit you, you deserve to be battered"

nt

[certainot]

22. i'm blaming dems/left/liberals for the biggest political mistake in history

they put carnival barkers on every corners and stump in the country in the late 80's after reagan killed the fairness doctrine, yelling "your sister's a whore, your brother's a thief, and your ideas are treasonous". liberals stuck their fingers in their ears and walked by thinking maybe they'd stop sometime. stupid and disastrous. now we see the result.

we let them take free potshots at our candidates for 30 years, clinton for 25 years, and did nothing and expected our reps to keep sticking their necks out and do the right thing and every election we just get the vote out and vote.

the negatives those 1200 coordinated radio stations could generate were a big part of the reason they got it anywhere near enough to steal but the idea that a major party can put up this orange asshole and continue to deny global warming and still win more than 30% of the vote signals that something huge and major is wrong and we'd better fix it.

gotv isn't going to do it - dems have to stop ignoring rw radio and have to go on the offensive

if you want to wait for limbaugh and sons to stop on their own you're not paying attention

good luck passing election reform before challenging and destroying the messaging juggernaut that sold the electronic voting machines and the false pretext for voter suppression in the first place with 20 years of anti immigration and fake voter fraud stories.

[ZoomBubba]

28. The thing is, there is no smoking gun for hacking ...

... or solid evidence that proves anything without a doubt. The race shouldn't have been so close, but we have to try to look at it from a nonpartisan point of view. Both candidates were very unpopular so it came down to the "who's less worse" than "who's the best." Clinton had accumulated thousands and thousands of little cuts from attacks over the decades, severely weakening her already making the election closer than it should've been from the get go. But I think the DNC email controversy was what severely weakened her and Comey's talk was the death blow. But, honestly, the election probably came down to who could hit the other last.

Like some columnist said, "Trump was the only Republican Hillary could beat and Clinton was the only Democrat Trump could beat." And honestly, I was relieved when Trump won the GOP nomination because I figured there was no way he could win ... but I had a nagging feeling that I'd wished they'd nominated Jeb or Kasich, just in case she did lose ... that way I wouldn't have to feel like civilization could come to an abrupt end.

[LaydeeBug]

29. The thing is...framing the narrative as though we need to have smoking guns is only

a way to try and marginalize the crime while enabling the criminals.

[ZoomBubba]

30. We need hard evidence ...

... not insinuation and belief. If you can't prove it, or at least have something material to make a strong case, you're just engaging in conspiracy theory. You need something that you can show someone that can't be knocked down by a simple "prove it."

[LaydeeBug]

31. When all 19 intel agencies say it was a Russian hack, I have no idea how much MORE proof you need

but I certainly *bet* you need more.

[ZoomBubba]

32. No intelligence agency has claimed that Russia directly changed the vote count ...

... and nobody is denying they hacked into email servers or was behind the fake news. Influencing and directly tampering are separate issues. The claim that they outright changed election results just doesn't have any hard evidence to support it, just speculation and belief.

[LaydeeBug]

33. Aaaah..."directly changed the vote count" is *your* metric, I see.

nt

[ZoomBubba]

34. You haven't decided a metric ...

... it's not clear what you're claiming. Are you claiming the Russians influenced the election or directly changed the results? From what you said, it's hard to tell if you consider the election results valid.

Do you believe that the votes were directly tampered with?

[LaydeeBug]

35. Do you believe they weren't? nt

[ZoomBubba]

36. I haven't seen evidence ...

... to make me believe they were. If persuasive material evidence is provided, then I may change my opinion. But right now, I believe that thinking that Russians manipulated the ballots is somewhere between "9/11 was an inside job" and "Obama isn't a US citizen."

[LaydeeBug]

37. So you don't think they were? nt

[ZoomBubba]

38. Are you trying to avoid my question ...

... by asking me in return? Because that seems like what you're doing.

Am I supposed to believe in something without actual evidence to support it?

[LaydeeBug]

39. As it seems you are trying to avoid mine...

Are you saying there is no actual evidence of voter fraud in this election?

Are you saying that voter suppression isn't voter fraud?

Are you saying that with all of these discrepancies *already* with recounts, that HRC didn't *actually* win the electoral vote as well?

Please.

Proceed.

[ZoomBubba]

40. I asked first. You should answer.

No, suppression isn't fraud. Do you have access to a dictionary? They have two different definitions. The suppression factor actually has evidence, but it was legal. Unless the laws are struck down, then we're going to have to live with them for at least the next four-eight years. That's just how it is.

The discrepancies have not amounted to much and there is almost zero chance that they will affect the outcome. Just because discrepancies exist does not mean that there was an intentional human actor. According to Washington Post, the discrepancies can be blamed on computers being better at counting than humans.

You seem to be trying to change the subject. There's no evidence of the ballots being manipulated by hackers. That's pretty much that.

[spooky3]

41. ABC News: "Russian hackers targeted nearly half of states' voter registration systems...

Successfully infiltrated 4"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/russian-hackers-targeted-half-states-voter-registration-systems/story?id=42435822

The source: Hillary Clinton's trusted friend and ally, James Comey, FBI director, testifying before Congress.

"Nearly half of the states in the U.S. have recently had their voter registration systems targeted by foreign hackers, and four of those systems have successfully been breached, sources tell ABC News.

That amount of targeting and actual infiltration into state election-related systems is significantly larger than the U.S. government has been willing to acknowledge.

Hackers working on behalf of the Russian government are suspected in the onslaught against more than 20 state election systems, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

"There's no doubt that some bad actors have been poking around," FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Wednesday, without offering any more specifics....(snip)"

Lots of other outlets reported similar stories.

[ZoomBubba]

43. I don't think that no one doubts they were poking around ...

... feeling out for weaknesses. I think the question is "is it something that can stand up in court" and "can you prove that these people weren't already going to vote for Trump?" Clinton's camp has said the death blow was Comey's statement on "new information" just a week or so before the election, which has nothing to do with Russia.

[spooky3]

44. I think this is why McCain is right about needing

An investigation.

[ZoomBubba]

45. I agree ...

... I'm just not for being optimistic. The Republicans are scared crapless now ... they'd probably rather have someone status-quo and stable but they also want to get elected again. I don't see them making a move until the evidence forces their hand, which means they're going to probably want a smoking gun.

[spooky3]

46. It's not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic

We have preliminary evidence from professionals at agencies whose mission it is to know about these things. What we now need is a fuller investigation and to reserve judgment until we see what that reveals. Jumping to a conclusion in either direction is premature.

[uponit7771]

24. How can this be said after the EMPIRICAL data of Russia hacking and voter suppression unless you

... don't believe there was hacking or voter suppression?

thx in advance

[certainot]

25. if the polls show them down 10 or 20, which would be closer to

reality if they weren't getting a free speech free ride on rw radio, it would be a lot harder to sell the hacking and fraud and suppression

i know they are culling legitimate votes and the suppression should be clear to anyone with a brain - making it harder for traditional dem support, etc.

the hacking is something very possible too, thanks to hackable electronic machines the rove bush crime family pushed around the country through their partners in crime.

did russians do some of that? very possible, imo.

unfortunately the problem is made possible because of the incredibly irresponsible lack of attention by dems liberals and left of the rw radio psyops.

[Rex]

20. Gotta be careful with the conspiracy talk.

Trump has a list.

[Botany]

26. Remember when every newspaper and all the former Presidents and their families ...

.... came out against Trump and for Hillary?

It was coup.

[ucrdem]

27. It's strange how quickly the narrative changes

based on highly dubious vote counts reported by a handful of unreliable states. Everything else remains the same, including Trump's declining approval ratings which were never high, yet we're now supposed to retool our entire understanding of the US electorate based on ridiculous bullshit.

Sorry, no sale.

[Cha]

42. Thank you, LaydeeBug!