Emerald Robinson @EmeraldRobinson
BREAKING: Source tells me that NeverTrumper mags took cash from top Internet company to suppress stories of bias against conservatives & Trump supporters. Audio recording of top tech executive explaining strategy has leaked to major newspaper.
Now, is this true? Well, Emerald Robinson works for OAN and I assume she wouldn't risk her career with a false claim.
But would her sources maybe float an idea they suspect is true but can't prove is true in hopes that the floated not-really-a-story-but-a-suspicion will attract journalistic attention which will result in proof?
I know that sort of thing happens.
As for the "major newspaper," well, they haven't written a story on it yet, but given the circumstances -- and given this newspaper's liberal/pro-NT biases -- there might be a reason they're suppressing a valid story.
Let's not forget how NBC News deliberately suppressed proof that Avenatti and Swetnick were lying.
That sort of thing happens too. Especially in today's not-even-pretending-not-to-be-pure-propgandists-any-longer media.
I've watched certain pips squeaking since last week and I've wondered about why.
Here's my little conspiracy theory: Certain NeverTrumpers have been howling in NPC Unison that it's "antisemitic" to say bad things about George Soros because they're trying to create the notion that publishing this story would itself be an "antisemitic" incitement against Jews.
They're doing propagandistic pre-innoculation, trying to set up a Narrative that will blockade the actual story from coming out.
#MuhPrivateBusinesses can do whatever they want to do, including bribing "journalists" from writing about their abusive practices, I guess.
I do think it's interesting that the Weekly Standard and most of its writers have declared that discussing George Soros' pernicious influence in politics is inherently and dangerously antisemitic -- and yet the Weekly Standard used to decry Soros' left-wing political influence as if it were just a fact one was permitted to comment upon.
What's changed? Why did noting that Soros was a major left-wing donor who was very pro-socialist and anti-border, anti-sovereignty go from perfectly respectable to Vicious Antisemitism Which is Too Dangerous to Even mention just in the past few months?
And let's not forget: We've known for months that NeverTrump was now being funded by Democrats.
Even the NYT reported on that.
Since Donald J. Trump began dominating American politics more than two years ago, Democrats concerned about his policies and behavior have taken solace in a group of influential Republicans who have consistently assailed the president as anathema to the values of their party, and the country more broadly.
In the past year, however, influential liberal donors and operatives have gone from cheering these so-called Never Trump Republicans to quietly working with --and even funding -- them. Through invitation-only emails and private, off-the-record meetings, they have formed a loose network of cross-partisan alliances aimed at helping neutralize President Trump, and preventing others from capitalizing on weaknesses in the political system that they say he has exploited.
While this network has mostly eschewed electoral politics
If they've mostly eschewed electoral politics, who have they been funding, then?
Electoral politics of course refers to elections and elected officials. If they've avoided funding that previously, who have they been funding?
Politically-influential NeverTrumpers who are not running for office?
Hm, sound like anyone you know?
..some involved see the potential for it to help form an ideological --and possibly financial ---platform to back candidates, including a centrist challenge to Mr. Trump in 2020, possibly from within the G.O.P. or even a third party.
The network —--composed of overlapping groups led by Democrats such as the donor Rachel Pritzker and several veteran Obama administration operatives, as well as leading Never Trump Republicans like Evan McMullin, Mindy Finn and William Kristol -- aims to chart a middle path between a Republican base falling in line behind Mr. Trump and a liberal resistance trying to pull the Democratic Party left.
...
Yet they are arguably more united than past efforts by their concern over threats to democracy they contend are embodied by a single politician: Mr. Trump.
It’s an amorphous, somewhat secretive effort, partly because some participants fear Mr. Trump and his allies would brand Never Trump Republicans as pawns of Democrats. Meeting locations, agendas and attendees are mostly kept quiet, while political intelligence is privately shared between participants on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
But some of the collaboration is becoming more overt.
Over the last couple of months, network members filed amicus briefs accusing Mr. Trump of overstepping his authority on matters ranging from immigration to his administration's efforts to block a merger between AT&T and Time Warner.
Well, hm, that seems to involve the media and tech.
...
The Niskanen Center hosts a semimonthly invitation-only gathering of Trump critics called the Meeting of the Concerned, which attendees are asked to keep confidential. While it is attended primarily by a rotating cast of Never Trump Republicans -- including the pundit Mr. Kristol and the former Representative Mickey Edwards -- meetings sometimes include a Democrat or two presenting research or analysis on relevant issues. Attendees have included Ian Bassin, a former Obama White House lawyer who founded a watchdog group, Protect Democracy, that has sued the Trump administration and that has brought on staff members and advisers --including Mr. Taylor =- from conservative or Republican backgrounds.
...
The discussions at Patriots and Pragmatists meetings are intended to focus on big picture topics related to democracy, rather than elections or political funding. Nonetheless, some see the coalition as having the potential to bring the same kind of financial firepower to an anti-Trump centrist movement as the Democracy Alliance brought to the left. Its efforts were described by a dozen people familiar with the group, who spoke anonymously to describe private discussions.
Speaking of the Democracy Alliance -- George Soros is a major funder of just that.
Are we still allowed to mention that? I don't know, the rules change so quickly these days.
BTW: I know a NeverTrumper who does political ops. I don't know this NeverTrumper well enough that he (or she) would disclose anything consequential to me, but I do know this person's friend, who this person would disclose stuff to.
And the word I get from this NeverTrumper's friend is: Yes, of course, the Democrats are now funding the political operations of the NeverTrumpers -- who else would? they've divorced themselves from mainstream Republicanism and therefore any other clients -- and this is an overt thing they don't even bother trying to keep a secret.
