Schiff’s star rising
Lies pay when you’ve got the MSM wind at your back.
Adam Schiff’s performance was highly praised by Democrats and the MSM during the impeachment, and now there’s a small push to nominate him as the Democratic candidate for president in 2020 if no clear winner emerges before the convention:
MSNBC host Chris Matthews proposed the long shot notion of nominating Rep. Adam Schiff to represent the Democratic Party in the 2020 election contest against President Trump.
The California Democrat, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and lead impeachment manager, is not running for the White House, but as Matthews noted, he could be picked in a brokered Democratic convention. After all, frustration with the nomination process is mounting after the Democratic Party botched its handling of the Iowa caucuses.
Lest you think this is some sort of joke, I can pretty much assure you that it is not. I say this because recently a friend of mine who happens to be on the right, and who is active on Facebook (I’m not), mentioned that a mutual friend of ours whom I’ll call Linda had posted support for the idea.
I have quite a few friends who are significantly to the left, but in the past Linda was never one of them. Nor is she stupid; au contraire, she’s extremely intelligent and always was very sensible. Linda lives in a small blue enclave within a red state, so she’s not really in a complete liberal bubble and in fact, when I last spoke to her about politics a few years ago, I would have called her mostly a political moderate.
That this former moderate is now enthusiastically supporting Schiff is an ominous sign. It’s not just a sign of how bankrupt the Democratic Party is this year in terms of candidates. It’s a sign of how the failure of the MSM to tell the truth about a person such as Schiff (just to take one example, the way he lied about the contents of the FISA application) has allowed his lies to spread and be believed, and apparently it has caused otherwise-reasonable people (or previously-reasonable people) to support him and even admire him greatly.
These are trends we have known about for a long time. But something about this particular news about Linda really got to me in a deeper way, as a graphic and personal demonstration of how far it’s gone.
I’m really worried about the divisions in the nation. Trump’s rise and then his success have exposed what was already brewing.
Democrats complain about Trump’s lies, which are mostly his exaggerations. To even consider someone like Schiff, who’s been out telling now-demonstrable deliberate lies in public for years, is staggering.
Sorry, Neo, but your friend Linda is hardly sensible if she has fallen for the garbage spewed forth by the democrats’ fifth column, especially regarding a disgraceful little toad like Schiff.
“Jerry…Jerry…Jerry….”
My Facebook friends are all liberals, (unfortunately, most are real friends in real life) they’re clamoring for Pelosi for prez, followed by AOC. They’d go for Schiff in a heartbeat, if he was on offer. But, the Bernie Bros will have other thoughts. Should be fun.
I decided to stay on Facebook for situational awareness. As as an antidote to the endless stream of anti Trump hysteria I joined Jexodus and SHTF private Facebook groups.
Isn’t there a story about how a German newspaper in the 1920s or early 30s ran a front-page article pointing out how Hitler was far from an Aryan superman and in fact closely resembled a lot of vicious smears Nazis directed at Jews and other undesirables? No one cared.
People in the grip of hysteria by definition cannot be rational. It’s now going to take the mother of all slaps to snap them out of it.
Mike
OlderandWheezier:
That’s why I wrote WAS sensible and that she was previously-reasonable. My guess, though, is that she didn’t watch all that much of the actual proceedings, but instead gets her news filtered through CNN and the WaPo and or NY Times or her local equivalent. If one does that, one might reasonably think Schiff a valiant truth-teller, since all these people are saying so.
Perhaps if I got my news solely that way, I might even agree with her. That’s my point, actually – that reasonable people who aren’t that into watching or reading a lot of primary sources, and get their news from the MSM, can think very unreasonable things.
In other words, propaganda works.
Schiff was very good in the impeachment. He is a clear thinker on his feet. He is an unabashed liar.
I understand, Neo. But those who were led around by their noses for almost three years, guaranteed that Trump had been an active conspirator with Russia in stealing the 2016 election, and that it was all over except for the shouting, and who STILL continue to put stock in whatever those scam artists (whether in print or over the airwaves) claim, are neither reasonable nor sensible.
Lots of very intelligent people were Communists. If there was ever system designed to fail, it was Communism, but that didn’t hinder its appeal. Intelligence counts for little in the host of systems built into the human animal. People will often surprise you when they are thrust into novel situations.
“…the failure of the MSM to tell the truth…”
That’s an interesting way to put it!
(Yes, they tried so hard, so very hard to tell the Truth and nothing but…but came up short by a country mile by spewing scurrilous scuttlebut…)
Well those liars of the land will get another chance to do what they do best tomorrow and tomorrow and….
BTW, I think it would be fabulous if Schiff would persuade his confabulating “dragon slayer” self that he is indeed presidential material (and why shouldn’t he?! After all, he’s Adam Schiff! )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rinz9Avvq6A
“In other words, propaganda works.” — Neo
I watched the beginning of Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business yesterday morning. Now he is something of an economic conservative and a bit of a Never Trumper, though not of the hair-on-fire variety.
He begins to speak about the SOTU, apologizes for sounding like a Never Trumper (literally) and says he’s not, and then says that the speech was just loaded with lies. (This is now Pelosi’s meme too and an excuse for ripping the document.)
He gives one example: Trump said that the unemployment rate was the lowest ever. Oh my, Cavuto says, everyone knows the unemployment rate was 2.5% in the 1950’s (a full percentage point lower than now).
Within a couple minutes I had pulled up the transcript. Trump said that we have the lowest unemployment rate in the last 50 years. Hello!
Lying about lies is where we are. And the media purveyors seem to be unable to perform the most minimal and independent fact checking.
TommyJay:
The MSM isn’t unable to perform fact-checking. They are unwilling to, if it hurts the narrative. And they will perform lying “fact-checking” if it helps the narrative.
I know some nice people who get all their news from CNN. It never occurs to them that their opinions aren’t based in fact.
If Schiff’s pseudo-candidacy goes anywhere, it will simply prove that the wokesters in the Party of Diversity (TM) are lying through their collective teeth: isn’t Linda aware that Schiff is a straight white cis-male, married with two kids, and not part of a thruple, as far as we know? How boringly bourgeois!
There’s some comedian out there who does his own version of Schiff, some of which I found quite a while back, when I really hadn’t seen much of him.
Yes, unable (to perform fact-checking) versus unwilling or disinterested or invested in the dishonesty are some of the options.
I suspect that folks like Cavuto really believe that Trump spouts lies incessantly, and that they have some fact-checking source that they trust enough that they needn’t bother to verify. Possible worse, are the more ambitious folks who survey several fact-checkers and asses the consensus.
A friend of mine once said, “A consensus of gossip (or lies) is still gossip nonetheless.
Well, the Democrats do have a problem with their current slate, having driven their campaign train off the rails back in 2016.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/02/06/three-glorious-days-of-democrat-agony-n2560771
Kurt Schlichter
Anyone who has lived long enough knows that sound judgement in human affairs can’t be taught. Rather it takes some combination of life experience and self-understanding . . . and even that’s no guarantee.
Like common sense it’s not so common, and nowadays when many people have never even fixed a bike tire, I think it’s becoming less common.
This is not about elections or impeachment, but it really does a good job of showing, as demonstrated by the conclusion, that Neo’s friend is not the only person who has completely lost touch with reality. I suspect the explanation for WHY is the same in both cases.
The post is too complex to excerpt fairly, but well worth the reading.
https://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2020/02/06/the-unteachables-n2560821
Townhall is pretty much on a a roll today.
Please, please, please Schiffty, run for President! I have a friend who’s running for his seat, and this is the only way he can win. Schiffty wouldn’t get as many votes as he has relatives.
Neo – sorry to pick on your friend, but would she agree with this?
https://thefederalist.com/2020/02/06/joe-biden-on-rush-limbaugh-he-doesnt-understand-the-american-code-of-decency-and-honor/
Does she think that Joe Biden is decent and honorable?
The Dems say that Trump lies all the time. I keep looking at what they call lies and see that they are really matters of a difference of opinion. They have no tolerance for ideas that differ from their own.
Example: It’s not proven that CO2 is the cause of our present warming cycle. LIE, they cry!
Another: By reducing regulation, taxes, and restrictions on oil and gas exploration Trump has helped create the economic boom we’re experiencing. LIE, they cry!
Another: Trump’s muscular foreign policy has made us safer. LIE, they cry!
Another: Trump was correct to use executive privilege to protect his Presidency during the impeachment proceedings. LIE, they cry.
Either you parrot the Democrat party line or you are lying. And that line includes accepting things that are mostly statist propaganda. Political correctness run amok.
Schiff is apparently an aspiring screenplay writer. It shows. He certainly is a creative liar. But, as Neo points out, he has the MSM at his side. They accept and magnify his lies. Propaganda with a capital P. Because of that he is a dangerous man. Though I doubt he would be much of a Presidential candidate. His appearance – the deer in the headlights look, his pencil neck, his lizard-like tongue, and his furtive glances as he makes his points are all characteristics that don’t seem very appealing to me. However, YMMV. If he is the Dems fall back or hail Mary candidate, they are in deep doo doo.
Without accounting for why anyone would support a Schiff candidacy I can certainly see a rationale for proposing it. Just as Biden ran in part to immunize himself from investigation of his corruption, Schiff could claim the same immunity. It’s kind of hilarious that Trump was supposedly impeached for going after a political opponent, but his opponents in the Senate got to vote on tossing him out.
Neo: Nor is she stupid; au contraire, she’s extremely intelligent and always was very sensible.
I have many leftist friends and one thing that always amazes is the degree of emotional vicissitudes. Lot of the thought process of center-left is not really thought but rather emotive regurgitation.
Didn’t they have a crush on Avenatti just a little while ago? As for Schiff, he is a Democrat and went to Harvard Law School so he has all the qualifications to lie brazenly.
People decide and make evaluations based on their emotions, and then look for reasons to rationalize their evaluation. Dems want to believe Trump lies, therefore when the Dem media paraphrases what Trump said into something not true, the Dems claim he was lying.
“Lowest unemployment in the last 50 years” is different, but close to, “Lowest unemployment ever”.
And of course, the key point is very very low unemployment – the Dem lies about Trump are often to obfuscate the key point, the truth Trump is noting. Note how seldom an entire tweet is quoted, usually just a fragment with a paraphrase of ‘what he meant’ being reported as what he said.
Sort of like the difference between saying what a woman will allow a rich famous man to do, and saying what he actually does (which was to go kiss them without asking or waiting).
That’s why I read his tweets directly, and look for the text of his speech — don’t like listening to him or any politician. The text also reduces the emotional impact, but that’s a big plus for analysis.
Normal folk who are not political junkies have a bad habit of believing their dishonest Dem media. Trump is making real, but also real slow, progress on getting more folks interested in the truth. But there is so much Fake News out there.
And colleges are full of emotionally invested Trump-hating elite intellectuals, certain that they’re smarter than you and that they’re right.
“MSNBC host Chris Matthews proposed the long shot notion of nominating Rep. Adam Schiff to represent the Democratic Party in the 2020 election contest against President Trump.”
One can only hope that Matthews long shot comes to fruition. As a Schiff nominee will bury the dems even deeper. Proven liar with bug eyes that exude fanaticism. A Schiff/Warren ticket would lead liberal/leftists off the cliff… ala Thelma and Louise.
“I have quite a few friends who are significantly to the left, but in the past Linda was never one of them. Nor is she stupid; au contraire, she’s extremely intelligent and always was very sensible.”
The first sacrifice upon ideology’s altar is the truth. Hitler was no dummy and reportedly Himmler highly intelligent, as were many of the Nazi leadership. Intelligence is often simply a means of being wrong with confidence. That is so because intelligence and wisdom are entirely different qualities. The world is full of intelligent fools. A brief conversation with a few faculty at any college or university will fully confirm that assertion.
Or just read the editorial page of any major newspaper.
“I know some nice people who get all their news from CNN. It never occurs to them that their opinions aren’t based in fact.”
“those who were led around by their noses for almost three years, guaranteed that Trump had been an active conspirator with Russia in stealing the 2016 election… who STILL continue to put stock in whatever those scam artists… claim, are neither reasonable nor sensible.”
This what we get, when we fund an education/ MSM system, which pukes out (mostly upper-middle class) know-it-alls, who really know very little, besides how to sneer/ virtue-signal at (mostly middle or lower class) Deplorables.
Surely the bulk of this crap happens largely in blue sectors of the country (and in colleges in all states), esp. among the pseudo-educated.
Those who follow the MSM, but back-off when presented with contrary evidence, deserve compassion.
But those who bob and weave (e.g. w/ Schumeresque/ Pelosi-ist straw men), when presented with such evidence, deserve to be openly, emphatically shunned.
Trump is teaching Righties how to stand up to this crap.
DNC cartoons.
https://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2020/01/30/171271
https://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2020/01/26/171154
Hillary, Nanette Burstein’s four-hour documentary debuted at Sundance to rapturous viewers. She was just on Ellen explaining why Bernie can’t win. Biden has been sidelined. Warren has peaked.
Inside the Blue Bubble there is no doubt that Trump is over. Hillary is being mentioned more and more, and never negatively. She already beat him once after all.
I say third round will nominate her. Mayor Pete is looking good for VP.
Trump takes both houses and the popular vote. A new decade dawns with a government finally able and willing to govern.
Leftists and Liberals both tend to live in a “disagreement-free” bubble. As so many of them are women (or very feminized men – not necessarily gay, just compliant to the female structure of interaction), they fall prey to a uniquely female weakness – refusal to permit divergent thinking within the group.
Women enforce allegiance to the political norms of the group. Failure to echo groupthink gets you kicked out, which becomes a circular strategy – as the variance diminishes, the inability to express a divergent thought becomes ever more impossible.
You might think of it as similar to the tightly controlled groupthink of the Weather Underground, which ended in blindly going along with armed robbery, bombing, and murder. Those were were in the WU or even associated with it fell prey to that tunnel vision.
We may need to start thinking about de-programming for the most affected.
Cavuto says, everyone knows the unemployment rate was 2.5% in the 1950’s (a full percentage point lower than now).
There was a period extending from February 1951 to October 1953 where the unemployment rate was lower than it is today. The median unemployment rate during that period of time was 3.05%. At the time, a mean of 320,000 men were deployed to Korea, a sum equal to about 0.6% of civilians employed outside the farm sector.
That 32 month period aside, the unemployment rate right now is the lowest it has been in the last ninety years.
If you’ve fairly rendered what Cavuto said, I’m inclined to write him off as a jack-wagon.