Robert Mueller and the collapse of American trust

[homersapien 11,354]

Interesting article discussing the current state of politics in the country.  As someone who clearly remembers the Nixon Watergate scandal, I find it frightening.

 

The reaction to AG William Barr’s Mueller letter reveals a disturbing truth about America.

Attorney General William Barr’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report has not resolved all of the disputes surrounding Donald Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election. But the reaction to it has revealed one of the ways in which American politics is deeply and profoundly broken.

Democrats have responded to Barr’s summary by calling the attorney general’s impartiality into question (not entirely without reason). Leading members of Congress have raised the alarm about “very concerning discrepancies and final decision making at the Justice Department” and are pushing for the full release of Mueller’s report and for Barr to testify under oath.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have responded by blasting “the biased media” for spreading “a collective scam and fraud.” The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), even called for investigations into the FBI’s investigation itself, to see if the bureau’s pursuit of Trump and his allies was in any way improper.

A quick gander at social media shows this polarized reaction from partisan politicians is reflected in their parties’ respective media surrogates and rank-and-file voters. There’s not even a pretense of neutrality: Everyone is reading what they want into Barr’s letter, establishing a reality in which their side is right and the other side is making things up.

Barr’s document is particularly vague on some points, an ambiguity heightened by the fact that no one weighing in — from either side — has read the full report. But even the most unequivocal report would be subject to the deeper forces: the death of the neutral arbiter.

All in all, this reflects a collapse in trust in two core American institutions: politically independent federal law enforcement and the free press. This lack of faith, combined with a concomitant rise in partisanship, means that virtually every major political event is interpreted through a partisan lens. There’s no political institution widely accepted as being neutral anymore; instead, Americans judge the quality of the country’s leading institutions based on how favorable each one’s outputs are to their political interests.....

Read the rest at:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/25/18280802/donald-trump-mueller-report-barr-news-trust

[autigeremt 6,569]

I call it “reaping what they (duopoly) sew”. Hopefully the citizenry will wake up before it’s too late and start to truly drain the swamp unlike this faux swamp draining by orange man. 

[Mims44 1,864]

Time for a revolution?

 

 

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. ~TJ

[SaltyTiger 7,764]

On 3/25/2019 at 3:27 PM, homersapien said:

 

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have responded by blasting “the biased media” for spreading “a collective scam and fraud.”

Accurate. NBC news tonight has Lester interviewing Comey. As news?? Do not need tell you were that little chat went.

[homersapien 11,354]

16 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Accurate. NBC news tonight has Lester interviewing Comey. As news?? Do not need tell you were that little chat went.

I don't consider providing an audience for both sides of an argument to be "biased", much less a "scam".

If you prefer otherwise, you always have Fox to rely on.