Time Magazine article illustrates why US conservatives don't trust the media

[Pavel Mosko]

"TIME Magazine has published an extraordinary investigative piece titled, “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” detailing how an extensive network of powerful and wealthy people ran a “shadow” campaign in order to save the election.

The column, authored by Molly Ball, lays out a scenario involving “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” who worked in concert to change election laws and control the dissemination of information before and after the election."

(This sort of thing is usually called "Collusion" when Republicans and conservatives do it, and is considered immoral, illegal, maybe even treasonous.) Anyway After listening to Tim Pool talk about this for a minute, I read the Time magazine article.... What a propaganda piece!


Explosive TIME Magazine Investigation: “Well-Funded Cabal” Worked To Change Election Laws, Control Flow Of Information

 

[tulc]

...I don't suppose his being about the least popular or trusted President in modern history was a factor?
tulc(is just curious)

 

[Halbhh]

If Ralph tells you a story about John.

(and I just listened to the first 7 minutes, so I have been listening)

Then How can you know for sure Ralph is representing it the exact way that is most realistic?

What if Ralph already has a strong opinion about John?

(and I have noticed in the first seven minutes a very strong personal opinion from the presenter...)

What then?

Now, suppose you could just go and ask John.

Then you should go to John and get the story from from him.

(there are bible verses about this kind of thing in proverbs, if you want me to get one to look at)

Let's you and me try to just imagine reading the story ourselves, without Ralph telling us what to think(!)....

So that we can get our own first-hand view and our own thoughts.

Not Ralph's thoughts. Our own.

The article:
---------------------
A weird thing happened right after the Nov. 3 election: nothing.

The nation was braced for chaos. Liberal groups had vowed to take to the streets, planning hundreds of protests across the country. Right-wing militias were girding for battle. In a poll before Election Day, 75% of Americans voiced concern about violence.

Instead, an eerie quiet descended. As President Trump refused to concede, the response was not mass action but crickets. When media organizations called the race for Joe Biden on Nov. 7, jubilation broke out instead, as people thronged cities across the U.S. to celebrate the democratic process that resulted in Trump’s ouster.

A second odd thing happened amid Trump’s attempts to reverse the result: corporate America turned on him. Hundreds of major business leaders, many of whom had backed Trump’s candidacy and supported his policies, called on him to concede. To the President, something felt amiss. “It was all very, very strange,” Trump said on Dec. 2. “Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted.”

In a way, Trump was right.

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.

The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors. The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding.
...
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election

I wonder if you see what I see, Pavel --

A) I see a story written in a dramatic way, for effect, to try to grab the attention of the reader.... thus "cabal", which it really isn't, actually. More like just groups of people all wanting a non-chaotic election outcome.

"...an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. "

"TIME Magazine has published an extraordinary investigative piece titled, “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election,” detailing how an extensive network of powerful and wealthy people ran a “shadow” campaign in order to save the election.

The column, authored by Molly Ball, lays out a scenario involving “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” who worked in concert to change election laws and control the dissemination of information before and after the election."

(This sort of thing is usually called "Collusion" when Republicans and conservatives do it, and is considered immoral, illegal, maybe even treasonous.) Anyway After listening to Tim Pool talk about this for a minute, I read the Time magazine article.... What a propaganda piece!

Explosive TIME Magazine Investigation: “Well-Funded Cabal” Worked To Change Election Laws, Control Flow Of Information

 

[Halbhh]

My view from November 19th:

"The only way Trump could win here after already losing [ Arizona was called for Biden...] would be to [himself] steal the election.

"And we can't rule out he might try. After all, he's the one accusing others, and for humans, the accuser is often the guilty party. Very often.

"But, even if Trump tries to steal this election, I don't think America will let him. Not in the end."

The only way Trump could win here after already losing would be to steal the election.

And we can't rule out he might try. After all, he's the one accusing others, and for humans, the accuser is often the guilty party. Very often.

But, even if Trump tries to steal this election, I don't think America will let him. Not in the end.

 

[zippy2006]

I read the Time magazine article.... What a propaganda piece!

Indeed. "The superheroes who defend humanity banded together, rushing from the four corners of the earth to defend Democracy against the anti-Christ." This is a really silly piece. I thought "Captain Planet" was a fun show, but there is a difference between fact and fiction. Time should be better than this.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

...I don't suppose his being about the least popular or trusted President in modern history was a factor?
tulc(is just curious)

Building the wall is evidence of his commitment to his word. People who do the right thing are seldom popular. Even people who look like they might do the right thing are suspect.

 

[Halbhh]

Building the wall is evidence of his commitment to his word. People who do the right thing are seldom popular. Even people who look like they might do the right thing are suspect.

I'm pretty sure the majority of Christians in the world agree with this kind of view below, because they believe in the words in the Bible:

Build bridges, not walls, says Pope Francis
Francis on the margins lives up to his rhetoric.
Build bridges, not walls, says Pope Francis

As in:
Leviticus 19:34 You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Or... "Love your neighbor as yourself"

 

[public hermit]

"Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result."

Right, they made sure the foreseen Trump narrative of a stolen election wouldn't succeed. It sounds like we need some laws. I'm not smart enough to know the details, but scrambling to avoid something like this should not happen again.

 

[tulc]

Building the wall is evidence of his commitment to his word.

Who was supposed to pay for that? And how much actually got built? And who pardoned the guy who embezzled over a million dollars from people who donated money to "build a wall"? And the list goes on.

People who do the right thing are seldom popular.

True, you know who else isn't popular? People who lie all the time and try to overturn legal elections with a riot.

Even people who look like they might do the right thing are suspect.

People are also suspicious of people who don't/wont do the right thing as well.
tulc(just thought that should be pointed out)

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Anyone who trusts one news source is woefully under informed.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Build bridges, not walls, says Pope Francis
Francis on the margins lives up to his rhetoric.
Build bridges, not walls, says Pope Francis

I'm sure his statement is metaphoric.

As in:
Leviticus 19:34 You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

I agree, legal immigrants should be treated with all the respect due a citizen.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Who was supposed to pay for that? And how much actually got built? And who pardoned the guy who embezzled over a million dollars from people who donated money to "build a wall"? And the list goes on.

At least the wall got built (mostly). That's the important thing.

True, you know who else isn't popular? People who lie all the time and try overturn legal elections with a riot.

TBD

People are also suspicious of people who don't/wont do the right thing as well.

Lots of that going around as well.

 

[Halbhh]

I'm sure his statement is metaphoric.



I agree, legal immigrants should be treated with all the respect due a citizen.

Remember how Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus and fled into Eygpt? They were escaping governmental action. They evaded authorities basically.

There are not any neighbors, legal or 'illegal', that "love your neighbor" doesn't apply to -- we are commanded to love all.

We are to love 'illegal ' immigrants.

 

[Wolseley]

Millions of Americans no longer trust the people running the government, nor do they have any faith in the organizations that prop them up: media, big business, millionaire tycoons. The system has become so corrupt that nobody gives it any credence whatsoever. The next step is when people simply opt out of it, declare all authority illegitimate, and refuse to cooperate with it any longer. The ultimate result is national collapse.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Remember how Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus and fled into Eygpt? They were escaping governmental action. They evaded authorities basically.

There are not any neighbors, legal or 'illegal', that "love your neighbor" doesn't apply to -- we are commanded to love all.

We are to love 'illegal ' immigrants.

How far do you want to take that?

 

[hislegacy]

Remember how Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus and fled into Eygpt? They were escaping governmental action. They evaded authorities basically.

There are not any neighbors, legal or 'illegal', that "love your neighbor" doesn't apply to -- we are commanded to love all.

We are to love 'illegal ' immigrants.

Here is where the Joseph and Mary did it narrative falls apart. In their travel to Egypt, they did so legally, they did not break Egyptian laws by entering the country as the modern day illegals do.

Breaking the law is what makes them illegal.

Both my parents were fleeing people actively trying to kill them, both of them spent months in a camp waiting permission to enter the US.

Our country loves immigrants, we are built on them. There is a right way and a wrong way to enter. Joseph and Mary also lived righteously. People should still do so today.

We want citizens who are law abiding, productive people. It is hard to be law abiding when you start by breaking the law.

 

[hislegacy]

It’s also interesting to hear the Pope talk about bridges instead of walls from behind his walled fortress.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Millions of Americans no longer trust the people running the government, nor do they have any faith in the organizations that prop them up: media, big business, millionaire tycoons. The system has become so corrupt that nobody gives it any credence whatsoever. The next step is when people simply opt out of it, declare all authority illegitimate, and refuse to cooperate with it any longer. The ultimate result is national collapse.

That's the fear isn't it?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Millions of Americans no longer trust the people running the government, nor do they have any faith in the organizations that prop them up: media, big business, millionaire tycoons. The system has become so corrupt that nobody gives it any credence whatsoever. The next step is when people simply opt out of it, declare all authority illegitimate, and refuse to cooperate with it any longer. The ultimate result is national collapse.

If people want to reduce the power of media, big business, and millionaire tycoons they can stop buying their stuff. If people saved more money interest rates would remain low. If they began to buy only traditionally designed (smaller) houses home prices would drop. America is consumer driven, propelled by mass marketing of 'conspicuous consumption' products. People should have "The Millionaire Next Door" on their bookshelves, right next to their bibles.

 

[Halbhh]

Here is where the Joseph and Mary did it narrative falls apart. In their travel to Egypt, they did so legally, they did not break Egyptian laws by entering the country as the modern day illegals do.

Breaking the law is what makes them illegal.

Both my parents were fleeing people actively trying to kill them, both of them spent months in a camp waiting permission to enter the US.

Our country loves immigrants, we are built on them. There is a right way and a wrong way to enter. Joseph and Mary also lived righteously. People should still do so today.

We want citizens who are law abiding, productive people. It is hard to be law abiding when you start by breaking the law.

We are (all of us) to love those that we see or think do wrongs, even though they are imperfect.

When we love an imperfect person, it is not an approval of whatever wrongs they may do.

But, when we love our neighbors, we love them even though they are sinners, just like us.