You’ve seen zero evidence??

he said it was white guys, two black guys confessed

the black guys we’re friends of his, were seen in surveillance cameras as the only human beings in the area at the time of the attack

they had receipts for rope and bleach, used in the attack

smollet has spoken to them
just before, and just after the attack, on his phone

smollett refuses to turn over his phone, and when he did, it had been altered

we also know that the grand jury indicted on 16 felonies, and that smolletts family has connections with the obamas

you knew none of this? You’re a liar. you a brain dead thoughtless zombie, who can’t bring himself to admit what everybratuonal person knows, that he staged this. your brain can’t let you admit this, because in your mind, i guess, that’s saying all liberals are bad and all conservatives are good.

He staged this. your beliefs don’t allow you to admit the obvious. time for
new beliefs when you are trapped by such obvious truth.

Protect the narrative at all costs.

You humiliated yourself here.

all by myself? how about what the cops have said, and wht the grand jury did, and the fact that his two black friends confessed to a crime he said was carried out by white trump
supporters?

pathetic.


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Paul S, do you think he staged this?
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Jim he must not watch tv or read the news

"Perhaps" and "likely" you, in your brilliant and authoritative dissection, will find fault with his report. I am sure that you will see exactly what you want to see. So far, Mueller hasn't disputed what Barr has said.

no tv, don't take the paper anymore
NPR isn't fixated on it
I have not made it a point to read anything about it and I would have had to
What you wrote there is far more than I know about this, everybody has to be an expert at something.
I also don't care about this issue, it's largely created in the media and Fox apparently loves it, they certainly have you worried about it.
Have fun with it, I see you have also brought Obama into your narrative, all evil derives from him.

Flynn lied to them and the agents asked him if he was sure of his statement.
They gave him the opportunity to correct it. Why he lied is a open question.

Just what have you heard Mueller say, about anything?

Nothing. That's my point. Mueller jumped in a little while ago to correct what was being said about the investigation. So he has demonstrated that he will correct false impressions or statements about his investigation. So far, no correction or amendment has been made to Barr's synopsis.

I think Mueller is prohibited from saying anything about his report unless he's called by Congress.

Good point. Albeit a minor one in terms of the discussion twixt Pete and Me.

Well, it did dismiss your entire post.

This issue is at the heart of rule of law. Of justice for all. Of equal application of the law. When prosecutors can be persuaded by money, politics, powerful influence, personal prejudice, to subvert the legal process, to give favor to a particular defendant that would not be given to most others, rule of law is replaced by rule of man . . . or of person . . . or of cis, quasi, trans, whatever . . . you get the point. I hope.

And it tickles me that you point out Jim's bringing Obama into this thread when you, as you are wont to do in just about any thread on any subject, bring in Trump and the Russia stuff (and Benghazi) in a thread about the Smullett hoax.

Either you didn't read my entire post, or you're out of your mind.

One is an item that history will likely forget, the other is what will make history.
Perhaps you, like Jim, think Smullet is important beyond this moment
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I think every moment is filled with the infinite range of possibilities that exist in what we refer to as reality. Every moment, for one who is aware and pays attention, contains the answers to all the questions that the human mind can concoct. Every moment is the most basic microcosm of history.

All moments will eventually be forgotten by those who inhabit future moments. That is why every moment is important as an opportunity to discover whatever there is to discover.

If you are waiting for the right moment to begin your search for understanding, you may well remain permanently ignorant.

interesting pete. So in all things that make Trump look bad, you are remarkably well informed, you know all the facts and truths that paint him in a negative light. you post constantly.

Yet here on an issue that makes a liberal look bad, all of a sudden you can’t comment, because you don’t know enough, you don’t have access to the right information.

pete, you are right in many issues in my opinion. but when your beliefs don’t allow you to admit what every sane person knows what happened here, what does that say about your beliefs?
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He is simply being dishonest,NPR has stolen his soul.
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it’s unbelievable....they simply cannot ever say anything that goes against the narrative. Not once, not ever, not on any topic. i’ve never had a dog so blindly and thoughtlessly obedient.
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I am trying to help but he pushes away.
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They're as rabid as Jim Jones' followers. It's stupefying. Nohting is questioned, not ever. Nancy Pelosi gives marching orders to stop talking about Russia and pivot to healthcare (which is a winning issue for them), and in the first 24 hours after she said that, every show on CNN and MSNBC has talked about healthcare.

Quite the echo chamber you have going here.
Talk about blindly obedient, you think Pelosi made the media look at healthcare.
It was quite likely this tweet:
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
Mar 26
The Republican Party will become “The Party of Healthcare!”


Perhaps you can comment on the changes this year to the Rules of Golf.
I find that much more important in my life than a bad actor (pun intended).

pete, say whatever you want. youbarent honest enough to admit what happened here.
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You had once asked me if I was a disciple of Stefan Molyneux. I said no, but I should have also said that I am a disciple of Ben Hogan.

And the rules of golf are sometimes quirky or downright silly. But, and I think Hogan would have agreed, they must be followed to the tee--pun appropriate. If not, the entire scheme of the game could collapse into a disorganized pick up game.

Likewise, when we allow criminal or constitutional law to be unequally or incorrectly applied, the whole rule of law thing is in danger of becoming a tool of the "privileged."

Good to know, though, you and I have something of value (golf) in common.

I don't think it's about honesty, it's about confusion. The idea that a prosecutor would just drop charges on a case with so much national attention is pretty hard to fathom. You'd have to know it would get investigated and you'd be looking for a new job.

It's fair to be confused about why the charges were dropped. It's not reasonable to be confused about what happened that night. I didn't ask why the charges were dropped, I asked whether or not he thinks Smullett staged this. He said he didn't know any of the facts and therefore couldn't answer. Well he sure feels comfortable opining on all things Trump.

His lawyers are saying now, that maybe it was white guys in blackgace. But HIS FRIENDS CONFESSED. The question of what happened that night, I snot a mystery, no more than whether or not OJ was innocent.

What about the changes in the Rules of Golf?
Don't you care enough about that to spend the time to come up with a reasonable opinion?

I think your paranoia now includes this Smollett fellow, whatever he did very very likely not affect my life.

I finally read an article about Smollett
https://thebulwark.com/donald-and-ju...-of-a-feather/

Thank you for the cut and paste PeteF. You have exposed Trump again,and without the aid of npr.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

The symmetry between the two videos is not, as your article states, perfect. Actually, the "symmetry" doesn't exist at all.

The prosecutor in the Smollett case agreed with the charges against Smollett. There was no indecision about Smollett's guilt. But an "alternative to prosecution" was decided. And Smollett was deemed to have done enough community service and forfeiture of his bond to pay for his crime. If the bond had not been forfeited, the charges would not have been dismissed.

The special counsel, Mueller, in the Trump obstruction case, was not a prosecutor, and did not have the power to dismiss. Nor did he even recommend prosecution. His investigation produced evidence that might indicate guilt, but also evidence that is exculpatory. That is, it was it was not dispositive enough to make a conclusion. The DOJ, which has the power to prosecute a case, decided their was not sufficient evidence provided by Mueller to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So there were no charges, no accusation of guilt.

Did Trump's sexual peccadillos before he became President affect your life?

I think the symmetry is that both Smullett and Trump claimed total truthfulness and exoneration when in either case non exists.

Just like most political writing, you need to take it with a grain of salt and understand that it is not reporting. What I found interesting was this sentence and possibly many of us are guilty of this.
"Maybe it’s best not to think too hard about these things. Because if you did, you’d come to the conclusion that American political life is broken and that people who defend one of these men to the hilt while railing against the other—without even a hint of self-awareness—will get exactly the sort of government they deserve."

No, I'm more concerned about what he's done lately.

Here's a couple of things he's done in addition to his Russian peccadillos

He has defended North Korea’s Kim Jong-un against U.S. intelligence that shows Kim is lying about his nuclear programs.

He has defended Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, against American intelligence that exposes the crown prince’s role in the murder of a U.S. resident.

He has sided with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against American generals and U.S. law enforcement.

He has declared that the Chinese government is more honorable than the American Democratic Party.

"What about the changes in the Rules of Golf?"

I have no idea what you are asking. None.

Pete, you were annihilated by my posing a simple, obvious question. That's how flimsy your beliefs are.

I can admit Trump is a disgusting person. Can you admit that Smullett staged the attack?

Do you think Smullett staged the attack?

Actually, thinking hard, in depth, about "these things" (e.g. the justice system) leads to the conclusion that in Smollett's case "American political life" is broken, regardless of what Smollett says. And those that support him to the hilt despite his guilt are a sign of that break.

In Trump's case, the justice system does not seem to be broken. There is no dismissal of charges in the face of overwhelming evidence. Quite the contrary. Regardless of what Trump says.

What sort of government do we deserve if we support shady dismissals of charges as in the Smollett case? What sort of government do we deserve if we support conclusions of an intense and thorough investigation that cannot find enough evidence to make a charge? I don't see a symmetry between the two. I see an attempt to create an equivalence that doesn't exist--merely by noting the similarity of words about exoneration between Trump and Smollett.

The article is an unnecessary and nonfactual equivalence of Trump's case with Smollett's to create the appearance of why American political life is broken, with the slant that Trump and his supporters are at least half of the problem. God knows who the other half is. Certainly not just little ole insignificant Smollett and his few supporters.

The broken American political life is not caused by the trivia in your article. It is only broken if the base that hold's it together is cracked--you know . . . the "C".

That seems to be the most likely scenario.

What about the changes in the rules of golf is a very simple question if you took the time to learn about golf and the rules.

How could you possibly not know?

You were apparently annihilated by my simple question.

I did read some writing on Smollett that was in something I find interesting and I linked it previously.
Perhaps you missed that, if you want the link, just pedal back a page or so.


"I have two videos for you. In less than three minutes, total, they present the full lunatic tribalism that is American society.

First, here’s President Donald Trump claiming “complete and total exoneration” of all charges in the Mueller investigation.


And now here’s actor Jussie Smollett claiming that he’d been “truthful and consistent” in the face of charges that he’d committed a hate-crime hoax.


The symmetry here is perfect. Absolutely perfect. The only thing we really know from Bob Mueller’s lips is that on the subject of obstruction: “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” That’s eerily similar to the words said by the prosecutor who dismissed the charges against Smollett, saying that he “does not believe [Smollett] is innocent.”

Now you can believe that both of these men have been judged as innocent because the legal system has declined to prosecute them. Or you can believe that both of them can be viewed with suspicion because the official verdict of the legal system is not the last word in actual culpability.

But you cannot claim that one of them must now be treated as totally and completely innocent but that the other is clearly guilty. Which is what most of America seems to be doing.

Including the president of the United States. Barely 72 hours after TOTAL EXONERATION he demanded that federal investigators overturn the verdict of local law enforcement because he was positive that Jussie Smollett had not been, at all, in any way, even partially exonerated.


Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
FBI & DOJ to review the outrageous Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. It is an embarrassment to our Nation!

131K
6:34 AM - Mar 28, 2019

Though why Trump would trust the FBI—an organization Trump claims is full of “dirty cops” who tried to commit “treason”—to investigate Smollett is beyond me.

Then again, maybe we should take Trump’s criticisms of the FBI seriously, but not literally. Maybe FBI agents are only “dirty” in the same way that Mexico is “paying” for the “concrete wall” on America’s southern border."

:easy:

That's all paranoia crap spin. Can you point out how those things have affected your life, as in your reply to Jim "I think your paranoia now includes this Smollett fellow, whatever he did very very likely not affect my life"?

The article you read is crap. Just pedal back three or four posts to post 196.