Postcards from the alt-right

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Another conspiracy theory. It wasn't the Russians (despite all 17 US intelligence services saying so), it was a murdered DNC employee, despite the police vehemently denying..

The family of a slain Democratic National Committee staffer strongly criticized media outlets and individuals who they suggested used a new report about Rich's contacts before his death as validation of their political ideology. Late Monday, a private investigator affiliated with the Rich family told local Washington, DC, outlet Fox 5 that before his death, Rich had contacts with WikiLeaks, which released internal DNC emails last year.

Rod Wheeler, an investigator who reports have said is paid by a third party, hinted at potential foul play in Rich's death. He suggested the Metro Police Department had attempted to cover up the nature of Rich's death on behalf of the DNC, a claim the police department vehemently denied on Tuesday.

The Fox 5 report was prominently featured by top right-leaning sites, including Breitbart News and the Drudge Report, and was featured prominently on FoxNews.com and on the "Fox & Friends" morning show. Asked about the attention the new report received from right-leaning outlets, Brad Bauman, a spokesperson for the Rich family, said the family condemned the attempt to politicize Rich's death.

"It's sad but unsurprising that a group of media outlets who have repeatedly lied to the American people would try and manipulate the legacy of a murder victim in order to forward their own political agenda," Bauman told Business Insider. "I think there is a special place in hell for people like that." Many top right-leaning outlets have dismissed intelligence and law-enforcement findings that Russian intelligence hacked and leaked private DNC emails, in which top DNC staffers were openly hostile to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic primary.

Seth Rich family criticizes right-wing media for report on son - Business Insider

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From ZeroHedge (which is basically a front for the Russians as even an insider explained)

According to a new survey by the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling (PPP), 48% of Americans want Trump impeached.  Of course, while it makes for a provocative headline, the poll does little more than prove that (i) pollsters are still using generous Democrat "oversamples" and (ii) Trump's favorability is heavily dependent on ones party affiliation with 81% of Hillary voters supporting impeachment and 83% of Trump voters opposing it.

And while 81% of Hillary voters can't wait for impeachment proceedings, we can't help but wonder whether any of them could point to a single "fact", as opposed to an anonymously sourced fake news story from the New York Times and/or Washington Post, that would merit such a punishment. 
As far as we know, the only thing that Democrats have managed to "prove" so far is that a couple of Russian-based media outlets ran some negative articles about Hillary during the 2016 election cycle...which pales in comparison to the amount of negative press that Republicans get from the combination of CNN, NYT, Wapo and the rest during every single election cycle...does this mean that CNN has tried to hack every election for the past 35 years?

If you really have the stomach for ugly stuff read the comments to the article..

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Yea, these guys are better than the mainstream press, which Trump characterizes as the "enemy of the people", right?

Infowars — an outlet that claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax — joins a growing list of fringe sites to get credentialed. On Monday morning, Jerome Corsi, Washington bureau chief for Alex Jones’ right-wing Infowars conspiracy website, tweeted that he has White House press credentials.

Corsi is one of America’s most prominent “birthers” — the racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s birth certificate that brought Donald Trump to political prominence in 2011. That same year, Corsi wrote a book entitled, “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible To Be President.” In 2004, Corsi co-authored a book baselessly smearing then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for his military service, which included two Purple Hearts, a Silver Star Medal, and a Bronze Star.

In January, Corsi announced that he was leaving another fringe website — WorldNetDaily — for Infowars, a site that relentlessly spread the conspiracy theory that the 2012 school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax. Trump reportedly consulted with Corsiwhen pushing the notion that Obama’s birth certificate was fake.

In recent days, Corsi — like Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich — has been pushing the conspiracy theory that a former DNC staffer was murdered because he was responsible for sending DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

News that Infowars will be participating in White House press briefings startled everybody from conservative pollster Frank Luntz — who tweeted that “[t]he media outlet that insists Sandy Hook was a hoax depicted by paid actors now has White House press creds” — to a senator who represents Sandy Hook, Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Corsi wouldn’t be the first right-wing conspiracy theorist the Trump administration has welcomed to the White House. Leading Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich has recently attended White House press briefings, where he was photographed making a white nationalist hand signal from behind the press podium. (Jones recently apologized for promoting Pizzagate on his website and broadcasts and characterized himself as a “performance artist” instead of a journalist.)

America’s leading conspiracy website says it now has White House press credentials

These are basically either nut jobs or cynical business people selling click bates (or both).

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This is what has become of America..

If you’ve ever watched hours of Alex Jones’s Infowars, as I have, you might come away steeped in a dark and distorted view of the world. Jones alleges that 9/11 was “an inside job,” that the Sandy Hook massacre was designed to get Americans to side with gun control, and that there’s a secret fungus epidemic spreading across the country and slowly killing Americans.

He delivers these bizarre claims, and many others, red-faced, in his signature husky rasp. They’re framed as truths the mainstream media and elites are hiding from public view, with Jones as the bearer of the truth.

The president of the United States, meanwhile, has applauded Jones and perpetuated falsehoods that originated on the show, like the suggestion that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama started ISIS and that the election was rigged.

Along with Breitbart and Fox News, Infowars was one of the keys sources of information for conservatives in the last election. (The White House recently gave Infowars press credentials.)

NBC's Megyn Kelly's interview with Alex Jones is shaping up to be a disaster - Vox

"One of the key sources of information for conservatives..."  Go figure..

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The family of a CNN reporter who wrote a story about the Reddit user who created a video of President Trump attacking CNN has been inundated with harassing phone calls, The Daily Beast reported Thursday.
Andrew Kaczynski, who leads CNN's investigative K-File unit, drew backlash for a story where he appeared to warn that he may reveal the personal information of Reddit user HanAssholeSolo, who created the video showing Trump attacking CNN's logo in a pro wrestling match.

Kaczynski's parents and wife have gotten about 50 harassing phone calls, the report said.
Other members of the K-File team also reportedly had messages left at their homes about the story.
“The only thing I worry about is somebody getting hurt,” a CNN insider told The Daily Beast. “These far-right trolls are really threatening people and coming after people. Somebody’s gonna do something stupid at some point."

CNN reporter's family getting dozens of harassing calls over Reddit report | TheHill

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Funny, this, and depressingly typical, from The Guardian:

Rightwing media struggles to defend Trump Jr's meeting with Russia lawyer

Younger Trump’s decision to publish own emails undermines Breitbart story as Infowars warns Trump Jr was ‘set up by the deep state’

Alex Jones: ‘They tricked him into the meeting, he knew it was bull and he got out.’ 

Wednesday 12 July 2017 14.07 BST Last modified on Wednesday 12 July 2017 15.39 BST 

Donald Trump Jr created a lot of work for his lawyers on Tuesday when he decided to release a string of emails which could incriminate himself, his brother-in-law and his dad’s former campaign manager. But it wasn’t just legal minds that were tested. Journalists at Trump-supporting news sites and rightwing commentators had their work cut out as they attempted to spin the story of Trump Jr and an apparent Russian government attempt to damage Hillary Clinton’s election campaign. The email chain, first reported by the New York Times, showed Trump Jr agreeing to meet with a “Russian government attorney” offering damaging information on Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr Trump”.

The Times initially cited sources with knowledge of the email chain, rather than publishing the emails themselves. That gave Breitbart, formerly led by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, an opportunity to gloss over the accusations.

“New York Times has neither seen nor read ‘Russia email’ to Donald Trump Jr,” was Breitbart’s main take on Tuesday morning. “This is only the latest effort by the Times to bring down President Donald Trump that relies on documents it has not seen and verified.”
The story seemed to be working well as a distraction for Breitbart readers – guiding more than 4,000 commenters into a familiar, comfortable debate about bias in the liberal media.

But at 11am, with the Times preparing to publish his emails, Trump Jr decided to bite the bullet and post them himself. The Times ran its story at almost exactly the same time, and journalists at news organizations – including conservative outlets such as Fox News and the Washington Examiner – scrambled to follow up. That wasn’t the case over at Breitbart, which valiantly stood by its attempt to discredit the Times’ reporting for more than an hour after Trump Jr himself confirmed it.

The site couldn’t ignore Trump Jr’s tweet for ever, of course, and just after 12pm it published a story headlined: “Donald Trump Jr releases ‘Russia email’ chain”. The article included the main accusations and the emails Trump Jr released, although it also included paragraphs from the earlier report about the New York Times not having seen the emails.

The story added: “The email does not refer to any cooperation, coordination or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.” The veneer of even-handedness did not last long. By 3.30pm the story had disappeared from Breitbart’s homepage – although it was still in the “most popular” section – to be replaced by a story on Donald Trump praising his son for publishing the damaging emails. That article cut any mention of Trump Jr being promised information as part of Russian government support for his father.

Over at InfoWars, Alex Jones, arguably an even stauncher defender of Trump, said the liberal media had got it all wrong. Trump Jr had been “set up by the deep state working through this bygone producer from Britain”, a guest told Jones, apparently referring to the Trump Jr associate Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer. Goldstone works as a music promoter and represents the son of Aras Agalarov, a Moscow-based developer who tried to partner with Trump in a hotel project and has close ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“They tricked him into the meeting, he knew it was bull and he got out,” Jones said. The Trump Jr discussion did not last long before Jones changed topic. Exclaiming “they’re trying to shut us down”, Jones moved on to claim the Federal Elections Commission was planning to investigate the “editorial decisions of Infowars, the Drudge Report, and Breitbart”. It was a story based on an FEC letter that suggests nothing of the sort.

A number of less famous rightwing commentators followed Jones’s lead. Bill Mitchell, host of the YourVoice America YouTube show and with almost 250,000 Twitter followers, saw nothing untoward in Trump Jr’s emails. “And just like that, another blockbuster from the NYTimes (Don Jr Story) ends up being pure bullsh*t,” he wrote after the emails were released. “It never ends.”

Mitchell offered no explanation for that tweet, or for a later message in which he declared: “The fact Don Jr even spoke to this woman proves there was no coordination between the Trump campaign and russia.” Other Trump defenders offered similarly robust, and similarly vague, comments. “This is just basic campaigning,” wrote Charlie Kirk on Twitter.

Mike Cernovich, a Trump blogger and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist whose Twitter profile describes him as a national security reporter, drew the same conclusion. “Don Jr had to release the email himself because it doesn’t support the lying Times conspiracy, that’s why they never released the emails!” Cernovich wrote on Twitter. In a sign that the far-right has consistency in both its message and language, a fellow Pizzagater, Jack Posobiec, toed the party line. “Is there an emoji for Nothingburger yet?” Posobiec tweeted.

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Desperate refugees and migrants making the treacherous and often deadly trip across the Mediterranean bound for Europe on flimsy rafts and boats this summer may face a new obstacle: the European alt-right. A group of European 20-somethings who call themselves “Generation Identity” and work under the banner “Defend Europe” want to stop migrants from coming to Europe by intercepting the humanitarian ships working to rescue migrants in distress. Modeled after the actions leftist groups like Greenpeace have taken to obstruct whaling ships and nuclear submarines, this new form of anti-immigrant protest isn’t merely symbolic; it could have literal life-or-death consequences for people fleeing war zones, political chaos, and economic privation.

A European alt-right group wants to take to the sea to stop rescuers from saving migrants - Vox

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Obviously he's smoking something, but what??!

RUSH LIMBAUGH: A coup is moving in there and ridding the government of the guy. A coup is moving in there and taking the guy out. That's why many coups actually occur with the military -- you need a show of force behind it.  And I tell you, I wouldn't doubt -- I've seen enough James Bonds movies, I've seen enough stuff to know that there are people attempting to convince military people --

I think the level of panic about Trump inside the Beltway is beyond what we even think. I think the panic, the outrage, the frustration, the inability to cope, I think it is is way, way, way beyond what even we think based on what we see. I think they are bordering on panic absent any kind of rationality, because this is driven by pure, unadulterated hatred. It's personal hatred, it's professional hatred, it's political hatred. The opposition to Trump is fueled by this hatred, and it's causing them, I believe, to lose elements of their sanity. I think it's causing them to certainly to lose elements of their rationality. So I wouldn't doubt -- I have no evidence, by the way; I will openly state I am just speculating using intelligence guided by experience -- that these people are so far gone over what's happened here to their precious town, to their precious power base, to their precious control of things, that I wouldn't doubt if a couple of them are making phone calls to retired generals, who still get up and put the uniform on every day even though they are retired, and soliciting their assistance should it ever become necessary, of course, to lead a rebellion. I don't have any evidence of it, none whatsoever. As I say, intelligence guided by experience. But clearly there is an uncontrolled rage and an irrationality in the anti-Trump forces, on the left primarily.

Rush Limbaugh conspiracy theory: "Leftists" are soliciting retired generals to possibly "lead a rebellion"

Go to bed Rush, it's late..

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And here is Archie Bunker, uuh, Lou Dobbs

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): I just outlined in great detail the Ukrainian issue of influence and real collusion. Then, of course, you've got the British Intel dossier, and Comey wanted to pay the guy with false information and he was paying people for the information, but that's not what we hear about. What do you make of the double standard? 

LOU DOBBS: The double standard is more than that I think, Sean by a long measure. This is an effort to subvert the administration of President Donald Trump. It is nothing less, it is an effort by the deep state to roll over a duly elected president and a legitimate government. And to break the will of the American people. This is no longer about Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals, this is about a full on assault by the left, the Democratic party to absolutely carry out a coup d'etat against President Trump aided by the left-wing media.

Lou Dobbs: The media is aiding a "coup d'etat against Trump"

Have another round of whiskey, Lou..

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Fox News has such an influence on Donald Trump that US journalists now react to the president’s proclamations on Twitter by searching for the Fox and Friends segment that inspired them. This intimate feedback loop between the Fox morning show and the president has made it “the most powerful TV show in America”, in the words of a New York Times critic.

For Rupert Murdoch, a ruthless player in conservative politics across continents, such influence is striking. But it’s not new. Liberal critics of the administration, however, are now turning the spotlight on what they see as a troubling new pro-Trump outlet. It’s not Fox News, with its angry anchors and aging audience.

It’s Circa, a colorful digital media site aimed at viewers in their teens and 20s. Circa is owned by the Sinclair Media Broadcast Group, which owns or operates more than 170 television stations across the country and calls itself America’s “leading local news provider”. As Sinclair expands, it has faced speculation that it could become a conservative challenger to Fox News.

Forget Breitbart: the White House has a new favorite rightwing media outlet | Media | The Guardian