Need to apply a little more critical thinking here - your closing line is that the system is working? Because a couple of whistleblowers came forward years after massive agencies attempted a litany of cover ups? The bar you set for these organizations is incredibly low if your conclusion is that the system is working.
Bravo! Hemingway hisownself could not have conveyed it more perfectly. We are under siege and the enemy is - if not us - then at least put in place by us while we slept at the switch.
The upcoming 2024 presidential election could either save the Best Nation That Ever Was or it could be America's Waterloo, its Culloden. Now retired, I see Real America each and every day; the people understand very well that we stand at the precipice; the votes are there to turn this ship around, but as Stalin said, it's not who votes; it's who COUNTS the votes that matters.
If this country does not Stop The Steal in the upcoming election, as Churchill perfectly described, "the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science." Perverted science, indeed. Are you listening, Zuck?
Pray that somehow we are able to make the 2024 vote honest. The People will do the rest. The only things on the line are all that we have known and cared for.
I see that in his summary of deep state actors, Mr. Lake omitted the Mainstream Press. For over seven years they’ve been acting like obedient lap dogs, with but a few exceptions. Without them, the deep/security state could not exist. Then again, at least we know what kind of ice cream Joe Biden likes. Just like the brave whistleblowers that have only recently been given airtime, there have been dedicated fourth estate reporters that have been pointing out the hole in the deep state dike for years. The New York Post, Taibbi and Schellenberger come immediately to mind. Just like Messrs. Shapely and Ziegler, and FBI agents Garrett O'Boyle, Steve Friend, and Marcus Allen who gave testimony before them, they have been maligned, ostracized and threatened with financial and professional retribution. So welcome to the party, Mr. Lake, even if, as I suspect, there is an ulterior motive.
The Deep State essentially runs the Press. They don't even try to hide it anymore. I can't count how many times I have heard about announcement of a new high-level hire at CNN or MSNBC described as "former CIA or FBI".
Worse, they are interchangeable and movement between them is fluid. They serve the same purpose, to give power to Democrats and lie about everyone else.
The whole point of the concept of the Deep State is that of the bureaucracy (esp. the intelligence services) running themselves (and anyone else they can control or influence) in their own guild interests against those of the elected government and the citizenry. If someone else is running them, then it's not really the Deep State. Maybe a symbiotic relationship, but if the Press is understood as providing a limit on government by demanding accountability, then it looks more like parasitism than symbiosis, since the relationship serves only the Deep State and has to a large degree vitiated the function of the Press.
Valid Points. Thing is relationships ARE going to happen. The Media and The Bureaucrats, live in the same area/towns, often in the same neighborhoods, their kids go to the same schools, they go to the same bars//restaurants, VERY often have the same political ideology. I mean we are talking about people not robots. The problem comes when The Media forgets its job. 1. Tell me What s Going On, 2. Hold the Bureaucracy accountable, 3. Ask Hard Questions. Its has been quite some time since I've seen any of that.
"but if the Press is understood as providing a limit on government by demanding accountability"
When was the last time they did this to a Democratic Party Administration? I mean it may have happened, but nothing pops into my head.
I think you g8ve them too m7ch credit. Stenographer actually write down what they hear. Most of what passes for journalism these days is simply re-Tweeting. Zero critical analysis done or independent thought generated.
“how Bari and her audience still read and respect them”
Never forget that Bari Weiss angled for power at the NYT. She might have departed employment there but it is still in her blood. Now she hangs out in the salons of power - Aspen Institute, Sun Valley conference, etc. she hired interns from the coastal elite institutions. she wants to be a player in the falls of power. Listen to her Honestly podcasts.
The press has absolutely disgraced itself in the last few years. During the pandemic, it functioned essentially as a PR firm for Pfizer and Fauci. We shouldn’t overlook that this absurd “reporting” which eliminated critical thinking entirely has probably resulted in many deaths. A very few reporters—like Taibbi and Shellenberger—have been what amounts to heroic in this climate.
Bravo Tim. It amazes me that we now are suddenly reading these “new” revelations when anyone with an iota of common sense (currently described as ‘conspiracy theorists’) have seen the lies and debauchery among our bureaucrats for years.
Timothy, the irony in how the WOKE Left Democrats will “eat their own” if one dares go against the WOKE narrative! Examples are Taibbi, Schellenberger, etc. EVEN Elon Musk - RFK Jr.! ALL are registered voting Democrats!
"Rachel" is the same dude who wasn't satisfied with Pride"month" and pushed instead for a "summer" of Pride. And this Pied Piper of Pride is insisting that more and more troubled, confused teens castrate themselves and bind and butcher their healthy breasts. He's Mengele in drag.
This is why I have been calling for a "Betrayal of Public Trust" law or amendment.
If you betray the public trust you get life in a super max prison, not Club Fed. A prison where the swine who betray the trust are taking long warm showers with a heavily muscled and tattooed person named Knuckles.
We need to put a stop to the corruption in our government. This corruption isn't anything new. It has been going on since 1776. Let's stop it NOW! Don't just throw these sociopaths out of office. Throw them in prison.
Trump lost the 2020 election. He never acknowledged that he lost the election, throwing our country into crisis. He’s the overwhelming favorite to win the GOP nomination for 24. Let’s stop him, because we can’t afford another 4 years of Biden.
Well, I can't say I disagree with Lake on that conclusion. If Trump is the nominee, Biden will win. Likely toast him. And then another 4 years of the Democrat nonsense.
I’m gonna go out on a very short limb and predict the Joe Biden will not be the democrat nominee. That said, I hope he is because short of a “magic bullet”, a disciplined Trump will crush him
Which is what Trump knew. They were so threatened by the swamp being drained that they overplayed their hand and now anyone who bothers to look sees it clearly
True that. They are appointed bureaucrats, beholden only to their masters. They may be civil servants who don’t serve the public but rather work in stealth, undermining the very system they take oaths to serve. Shame on them all. One day when the dust settles their dirty deeds will be known and history will regard them as the traitors they have become.
They may honestly believe they are doing right but the road to perdition is paved with good intentions.
The election workers in my town are the most scrupulously honest people I’ve ever seen. I’m sure the same is true in almost all towns in the US. To see them unfairly maligned as “rigging” an election is just wrong. Look at the election head in Georgia who flat out refused to “find” 14,000 votes.
It’s the very nature of our election system—each town and city using its own system of voting—that makes the system that much harder to tamper with. If we had one national internet system I’d be a lot more worried.
And if anyone reading this is one of the volunteers who works on Election Day, thank you and kudos
1. As with all things Trump-mania related, it's important to go to primary sources. I listened to the Georgia call. The part you referenced happened after a Trump team member listed out a few categories of what they considered to be unlawful / invalid votes in GA and they tallied them up roughly and it was a lot. Then they said but out of those <sets of what they considered unlawful / invalid votes>, they only needed to find 14,000 (the margin to win) which the Trump team said should be easy.
2. The term "rigging" means different things to different people I think. Having Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg privately spend ~$500mil to "help" with elections sounds outrageous to my concept of free and fair elections. And yet it happened.
Having Twitter and Facebook prevent the NY Post story from being posted and even messaged was unprecedented. Sending out ballots in the mail to everyone on the voter registration list sounds sketchy to me. Having 3rd parties go out and collect ("harvest") ballots is really dodgy. So, "rigged"? Maybe I wouldn't use that word, but I would say the 2020 election was "sloppy at best."
3. I agree the vast majority of local elections are tight. But for federal elections for Senate and President, you only need one sloppy big city with mountains of absentee ballots to run the state. Some of the videos from huge convention center-sized vote counting operations in places like Philadelphia and Detroit and Atlanta showed things that didn't look professional at all.
What difference does it make if election workers count the ballots accurately if the voters who cast the ballots don't have the information they need to cast an informed vote. Polls show that without the FBI and CIA suppression of the truth, Joe Biden would not have been elected.
Not all poll workers - in fact a minority - are crooked, however it takes crooked poll workers to make it all go. Nobody is unfairly maligning anyone as rigging an election. I am maligning them fairly.
You are right and you are wrong about how difficult the "system" is to tamper with. It WAS difficult; now it is trivial, and the more complex it is made, the easier. Houdini always supplied a long, long rope for his dupes to use to bind him. Every coil had a little slack; combined they had enough for him to escape. The simplest solution is the best IMHO: one-day voting, absentee voting only for a good reason and if applied-for in advance, a solid chain-of-custody system for triple-locked ballot boxes, and paper ballots.
You are correct that there is little to no "rigging" at the local elections offices. That is why there is no election fraud. But if you read this article and believe the author's statements, you are incredibly naive to not believe the 2020 election was rigged. No one who cast a ballot was ALLOWED to cast an informed one.
We were well-informed because we trusted our instincts. We have been vindicated in spades. But far too many who voted the other way were blatantly duped. You profess to an interest in different points of view so I recommend Mike Pompeo's Never Give an Inch. But if not, at least change the shade of your pig's lipstick. Loud and bold are out. Soft and subtle is the new trend. 😉
You're putting too much faith in party politics. IMO, the 2024 presidential election can do very little. Reading and math test scores among kids have fallen off the charts in the last 10-15 years, depression is way up, suicide is way up. These are not things Trump or Biden can fix. Crime is similarly soaring, and largely not under the purview of the federal government.
Also, if some of the school board stuff shows us anything, it's that local/grassroots politics is far more important than national or even gubernatorial. A lot of the time, these people run unopposed or use non-political processes to install people from outside a district into positions of power within that district. A well-funded nonprofit with a couple scary lawyers can override the prevailing will of a community. But so too can grassroots local movements be used to drive some level of positive change to create bastions of normalcy among an increasingly insane world.
Of course, Jim, Winston Churchill was referring to the threat of Nazi Germany after conquering all of Western Europe in 1940, and after the debacle of Dunkirk, not American elections. I know you feel strongly about Democrat and Biden malfeasance in all things, but you might have used another quote that would be more apt to your point.
I know - I named my son after Churchill, so I am quite aware of the original context. That doesn't make the Very Same Words inappropriate for a different situation. If you know any more apt, pls advise, I'll edit the post.
I didn't offer to edit it for your benefit. I offered to edit it if you could come up with a better turn of phrase than Churchill's to describe what is currently at stake. The offer stands.
You don’t have to be “Donald Trump’s most dedicated fan” to demand transparency and accountability in our taxpayer funded institutions. The bootlicking regime media has abandoned their duties and intentionally ignored all Hunter Biden stories. If Donald Trump Jr committed a fraction of Hunter’s crimes, there would be wall to wall coverage until lefty kangaroo court prosecutors and juries send him to jail like they are trying to do with his father.
Bingo! The first line tying of this piece reveals exactly how little interest The Free Press cares in holding this (or any Democrat) administration accountable and exactly how they will hand wave away coverage.
I keep thinking they will feel some sense of duty or at least embarrassment, but it never happens.
“A lie can go around the world twice before the Truth can get its pants on.”
The destruction of people, wealth, estates, and reputations that government lies have caused are irreparable. That this happened by official coercion is itself DISproof that the system is working by any reasonable set of criteria. Regarding the FBI, the fox is officially in charge of guarding the hen house. How perfect.
yeah, that conclusion is a little bold to say the least. They didn't even expand on it - they just said, "Yep, two people came forward, so the People are still actually in charge." I don't buy it. I'm not a Trump fan for myriad reasons, but I am also not a fan of being lied to over and over again.
How about the fbi agents that came forward and were attacked by the agency, media, and democrats. A "system succeeding" shouldn't be defined as individuals taking action against a corrupt government and elite institutions. Nobody ever said the deep state was 100 percent of government employees, but they have shown their faces and the linkages in their conspiracy to act against the population.. The election is a last opportunity to reform and I hope it is followed by criminal investigations of agency personnel and any others who participated.
Same although I was pleased at the effectiveness DJT had while in office.
It was and is a national disgrace that he and his family have been treated so poorly. Not to mention the fiasco and plainly profane way Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were treated by our “congressional” leadership. Such undignified behavior from people who should know better.
Yes at much personal expense whistleblowers came forward. The last 3 were all fired, their homes and belongings seized. One was told he was transferred to Virginia only to have no job and all his family's personal items seized from the moving van.
The criminals sit in ultimate power with no consequences yet. The media is in full-blown all-out defense mode. The First Amendment is now under debate by people who sit in power because of widespread federal lies during election year.
This is the opposite of a just and equitable system "working." The system will work when Biden is impeached and removed from office, his son goes to jail, the FBI crooks who lied to the public are disgraced and fired, and the Democratic Party gets a strong rebuke in the next election cycle.
Those things aren't going to happen.
Btw, Eli, conservatives knew most of this in 2020 when we watched the Biden crime family take power. Knowing these things is why a lot of us supported J6 and would gladly support another one. Biden would not have been elected without the First Amendment violations that protected his criminal activity.
Yeah, and the article started off with this flaccid clunker: "For this crowd, the deep state functions like an invisible force behind the curtain that controls our country on behalf of an oligarch class." It should have read, "...on behalf of Democrats." The Deep State is a massive group of entrenched partisan Democrats - same as with the mainstream Press. It's actually the same cabal, because when the hacks get fired from government they go to work in the media. They are incentivized to be corrupt hacks. I'll wager that Hunter ends up as a contributor on MSNBC before long, victim status fully affirmed.
Those who think there is a Deep State are "extremists", "domestic terrorists", "fascists" and more. Enlightened and respectable people like Eli Lake are not of our ilk and he goes to lengths to let everyone know.
I'm afraid the Deep State only acts on its own behalf. That's the phenomenon -- bureaucrats, esp. in the intelligence services, acting in their own guild interests -- the Turks noticed in their own government when they came up with the phrase as short-hand.
The whistleblowers at least have protection and the law to turn to. Adnittedly, a low bar, but still a system in which this can be exposed and recognized as wrong.
But you are right - it's brave individuals bucking the system that are saving the day. Corrruption and rot are the order of the day. And the average Democrat is still mocking the Hunter Biden laptop story as a desperate tactic by Republicans to take the heat off Trump.
They don't care about the facts if those facts don't align with their politics.
Exactly. When "the system" requires courageous people to risk their jobs, livelihoods, reputations, friendships and families to make it work, it is not "working." These whistleblowers had to go outside "the system" to ensure it was held to account.
The only way the "system is working" is if the revelations of the whistleblowers result in a lot of people being fired, some going to jail, and agencies being revamped in ways that will prevent this from happening again.
I guarantee that the Democrats currently in power will make sure that those things do not happen.
OK, so there was a serious false start in 2016 when we underestimated what it would take to deliver the election for Hillary. But we recovered in time to destabilize the Trump presidency and secure the election of Joe Biden in 2020. The dike has held for nearly seven years.
Patience people. Let the process play out. Stay focused on refining our mail-in voting analytics for 2024 so that we can deliver the exactly the votes we need, where we need them. Maybe we'll throw in a couple of 'common-sense' reforms for good measure. Everything will work out fine.
Did the FBI dictate this article to the author? We know from the Twitter Files that they often tell "reporters" what to write. The author pretends to be open minded while casting any skepticism as, you guessed it, conspiracy theories. And whoever said that the FBI invented crack cocaine? A red herring if there ever was one.
John, You are partially right. “The system is working” is correct.......barely, but it IS working in terms of the committee making the facts public. We do at least have that platform because of the bare majority we have in The House. Trump screwed our Senate chances. Simultaneously our problem is that the Democrats and the msm are doing a great job snuffing the story and we are on the ropes in terms of educating the public. If it wasn’t for TFP and Matt Tiebe and other corrageous classic liberal journalists we’d be toast. They give me hope in what seems ever hopeless. Here’s praying for some providence....Devine intervention may be the only way the good ship America gets righted.
The Free Press went from a publication with great potential to becoming The Diet New York Times. This latest read should be considered gaslighting.
“Hey everybody, look at all of these horrific things that this administration has done to its political adversaries and the discovery that Democrats have controlled and weaponized all enforcement agencies of the federal government since the Clinton administration. It’s good we are just learning about this, even though Democrat lawmakers and the executive branch deny all allegations and mainstream media reports none of this, including actual congressional hearings with verifiable data. The system is working!!! There is no deep state!!”
I agree. What an idiotic conclusion. What other things don’t we know about? What other people were intimidated into to silence - or committed ‘suicide.’
"In an effort to counter Russian disinformation, the FBI actively allowed American disinformation to spread."
It wasn't an effort to counter disinformation. It was a succesful effort to swing an election in favor a lifelong politician, the very type of politician whose incompetence, entitlement, and corruption fueled the rise of Trump in the first place.
This mass public disenchantment with our political establishment and government institutions is further fueld by a media in bed with the Deep State actors. The kind of media that will take a story like this and use it as an example of how the Deep State really isn't all that bad because, after all, a couple people spoke up (nevermind that they've already been fully disowned by the Democratic party and ignored by the mainstream media) so how bad can it really be?
You nailed it. I've been telling my left & right leaning friends for almost 3 years that the 2020 election was interfered with by two groups primarily. It was never drop boxes, mail in ballots or hacked voting machines.......it was the leadership in the government alphabet agencies and the main stream media. As a result, both of these groups have pulled big tech into the scheme. Its why today, public trust in both are right up there with that of congress.
In actuality it was also drop boxes and vote harvesting in retirement homes with residents too far into dementia to vote. Perhaps a reason why we have a president too far into dementia to govern?
Well, sure. Why else scream and get an injunction to block enforcement of the “no contact with the censors” ruling? That’s the action of a desperate group that sees itself losing power. Once the lights are on, the roaches scurry for cover. These jokers want the lights to stay out. Forever.
THIS! They never report on this because they don't want to be invited to the cool kids cocktail parties or they never took math where 2 + 2 = 4. I can't think of another explanation. Honestly (where did I hear that word before), why don't journalists never answer this question? I'd like to see them try to answer it.
Do you think the motive might have been to swing the election? Especially since they BURIED the evidence forever!
VERY important to note that these truths are only coming out because Republicans have the House. Without that, Democrats would still be denying all of it, like their comically corrupt media outlets are currently doing.
Eli and his ilk are going to pretend the truth is coming out because the "system is working" knowing full well their Party has been doing everything it can to prevent the system from working, and would have succeeded if not for those pesky evangelical voters.
“Eli and his ilk are going to pretend the truth is coming out because the "system is working" knowing full well their Party has been doing everything it can to prevent the system from working...”
Lake is very much a conservative. I also find his conclusion vexing — the system is working...for whom? — but he’s no democrat.
Lake is no conservative, and he's also no fool. He sees his colleagues in the media falling all over each other in a desperate attempt to defend the indefensible, and he wants to avoid being tarred with the same brush. It's called self-preservation.
Hmm. Interesting point. I respectfully disagree but, being a cynic, I’m open to the possibility that you’re right about EL and his motives.
By the way, does anyone else find that while reading TFP on the Substack app, clicking on the notification does not take one directly to the comment, and it’s necessary to scroll though to find it? I don’t have this problem with other pages.
Good point- it kinda reminds me of Jim Jones, the Cult Leader & Civil Rights Activist who said he "Loved Socialism". He convinced 900+ people to commit suicide.
What you describe is not Biden - but the Biden Machine- a whole artillery of Tech, Media, Govt, Activists, FBI, who "told " those 80 million people WHAT TO THINK & WHAT TO DO. Basically the same Psychological Weakness.
You know, I think there is a machine all right but it’s not the “Biden” machine, it’s simply the DNC. Biden was their chosen figurehead, simply because they perceived him as the most manageable and perhaps electable. Now they know they stepped in dog doo and are gonna scramble around for someone else to get out of the mess. Evil machinations afoot from them forever!
Remember the old "you got your peanut butter in my chocolate" commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? That is what I imagine when I think of the Biden machine getting involved with the DNC machine; the Biden grifters were a low-tech bunch of grifters selling influence purely for their personal enrichment. That the DNC actually selected Joetato, they saw an opportunity to expand the family business which is now ironically throwing the DNC machine off the rails and scrambling for another candidate like The Hair from CA.
I agree that much of this is driven or heightened by the media's, the political establishments', and the government institutions' intense hatred of Trump. Period. While I have concerns about the Deep State in general, I wonder how much of this situation is being exacerbated by widespread anti-Trump fervor.
Remember that the Democratic party's semi-official plan for the upcoming 2024 presidential election is to run senile, inept Joe Biden against Trump -- relying their friends in the media and their friends in government agencies to continue to fuel the anti-Trump sentiments and ride them to victory while Biden hides in his basement. Biden certainly can't win based on his successes. Why isn't there a single legitimate, mainstream Democratic challenger lining up against Biden in anticipation of primaries that theoretically will be kicking off in approximately 6 months?
Now that the media's, political establishments and deep state's tactics have worked against Trump they will be deployed against any Republican candidate in 2024 and beyond - count on it.
The attacks on Casey DeSantis are especially disgusting and disappointing.
In the meantime, the mainstream media has given "Dr." Jill Biden a complete pass. Her dissertation is a tepid re-hash of existing information, with virtually no original research or thought. Her use of the title "Doctor" is an insult to anyone who went to med school or who earned a doctoral degree in a technical field.
And anyone else that gets in their way - D or R, they don’t actually care. They’ll take out RFK (or any other Dem candidate) just as quickly as any Republican challenger.
(And I have no doubt they’ll do it literally if they need to.)
Eli "the system is working" Lake means, "it's working to keep us in power and spread our lies with impunity. Look, I begrudgingly wrote this article that wouldn't have existed without the Republicans I oppose, that demonstrates how honest I am."
There is a legitimate challenger, Robert Kennedy Jr, but the mainstream media is doing all they can to discredit him. Fortunately, there are ways he is getting his message out through long-form podcasts. It is refreshing to hear that there is at least one honest person left in the Democratic Party.
Robert Kennedy Jr is the future of the Democratic party, if people stop listening to slander and misleading statements about him. He's more intelligent and honest than any politician I've heard in decades. He gives me hope for the future.
The New York Times has previously written whole pieces on RFK Jr where he was not called for comment and, when he asked to have a letter published in reply, it was declined. This violates all previous standards of good journalism. Not sure who is making these decisions, but the paper is destroying an institution which had an honorable and important function. Great job!
You're really going to dismiss him over one issue, while ignoring the many other more important issues on which he stands (eg, anti-MIC, anti-agency corruption, pro-medical freedom, anti-censorship, pro-environment, anti-drug war, anti-US interventionism, pro-whistleblower rights, pro-revitalizing the middle class, pro-uniting US citizenry, pro-foreign relations)?
JD, NO legitimate Democrat exist, EXCEPT RFK Jr, and now that he dares to run against “the most popular President ever” the WOKE Left is out to destroy him!
YES, you are correct, they despise Trump and are “ear up with TDS”but they are now treating RFK Jr and DeSantis the same as they’ve treated Trump!
RFK Jr has now taken the #1 spot as, “The biggest threat to Democracy” with DeSantis not far behind!
Of course, the Left is as terrified of RFK Jr as they are of Trump, simply because they aren’t lifelong politicians, and they are going against the WOKE narrative! If they can’t be controlled, they must be destroyed”
After 5 LONG years of so called investigations (+ for the last year my asking TFP to “at least mention” the Biden Crimes/Hunter laptop), to FINALLY come out with THIS??!!!
And the author saying, to the effect, “What Hunter did to the Biden GOOD NAME” + Does he really believe the system is working, because of some whistleblowers FINALLY came forward?! Men who, by the way, are now having their reputations & livelihoods ruined!
Where is outrage from anyone on the Left??!! And when it comes from the Right, “Well, there goes those MAGA, White Supremacist, Conspiracy Theorists, Ignorant Deplorable Election Deniers! Censor them, or LOCK ‘EM UP”
Sorry for ranting, but I beyond frustrated & angry!
agree- the Biden “good name” is a joke. He was always an obtuse, racist, arrogant, SOB using dirty tactics to achieve his ends. I laughed when Obama chose him as VP for his “foreign policy experience,” and I laugh now that ignorant people hate Trump so much that they voted for this self-dealing establishment turd. What a joke.
New gaslighting style of journalism: there’s no deep state out to get Trump. There’s just the FBI “ wielded as a weapon of one political party.” And the IRS poring through Trump’s dirty kleenex but slow-walking or blocking any investigation into Biden shenanigans. And the DOJ turning Jan 6 into a years-long kangaroo court. But look, a whistleblower! Stop being a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
Exactly. Just think if we applied the same principles to an unsolved murder.
1. There’s no body and therefore there’s no investigation.
2. Actually we thought there might be a body located here but there wasn’t enough evidence to inspect the entire building.
3. We found the body 10.5 years after disappearance and with the new statue of limitations of 10 years passed 2 years ago, there’s no crime to investigate. BUT, we can’t let this happen again. 100 hours of community service to the ex husband.
(It’s so insulting and disgraceful......... let’s run another national divisive social meltdown event to forget about it.)
Totally agree! And, Rick, I’m waiting for the next BIG Flu Virus to hit in Summer 2024 ... just in time to force voting restrictions to mail in ballots!
Can’t remember who said, “It isn’t WHO votes, it’s WHO COUNTS the votes”
I had always thought the deep state were all the government employees who stay on no matter who is president, etc. And that these individuals have definite political affiliations and tastes.
But there should not have been a need for a whistleblower here, Eli, if everyone had been doing the job that we, the American people, have been paying them to do. That’s the bottom line.
I thank God for those whistleblowers and their good consciences.
Thank you for this piece. The “big guy” indeed has been a liar and a cheat since his first elected office.
That's actually the responsibility of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Yet another once venerated Federal service gutted and undermined by the Obama administration and which has continued its downward spiral since.
Thank the Heavens there is no such thing as the Deep State. Otherwise, you know, we'd really be in trouble...
“Stories like Russiagate and the Hunter Biden affair play into the paranoid underbelly of American politics.”
Is it paranoia when the stories are true, or is it righteous indignation? Two whistleblowers do not make the system work. Prosecution and conviction for crimes committed do.
Essential part of the gaslighting. "Even if everything you have been talking about is true, you're still paranoid and the system is fine. The problem is you. Joe isn't going anywhere and will receive no justice and we all know it."
Just like the critiques of Sound of Freedom movie. “Sure, child sex trafficking does happen. But making a movie about it fuels conspiracy theorists that say its happening”
I agree the majority of the Congress is feckless, or worse. But I have hope that the sleazy, lying Garland will be the first to enjoy an impeachment hearing, and others, including Becerra and Mayorkas may follow.
And when that happens, expect every Democrat to line up to protect them. Led by the douche in the doo rag, Raskin and my own pathetic poseur James Himes of CT. I'm so disgusted by this spectacle I can't see any option but to burn the entire thing down and start anew.
Great piece but how can you end it with the system is working? I understand there are 2 whistleblowers etc, but really? It feels like you didn’t read your own piece.
Exactly. Two whistleblowers in 2023 don't cancel out the letter signed by 51 federal security officers before the 2020 election that affirmed the laptop story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
How many of those hacks were fired and lost their pensions when the truth came out?
Recall that John Brennan got to head the CIA despite having voted for a communist for president and kept his job despite having been found to have spied on Congress. What should have happened to Brennan is a public execution. Instead, he got a big reward from our state media.
Yes the whistleblowers may be the beginning of the system fixing itself, but the pattern of unaccountable partisan abuses that Eli himself lays out don’t inspire confidence that anything meaningful will come from this, or even that this sort of skullduggery won’t happen again and again.
Blowing the whistle on malfeasance doesn’t mean the “system is working.” The key players being held accountable would be a start. There is bona fide, clear evidence the FBI interfered with the 2020 election and that DoJ and the IRS obstructed justice in the Hunter Biden cases. Until someone is indicted (and jailed) for these crimes, the system is most definitely not working.
They interfered by VIOLATING OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Shout it from the rooftops. Biden sits in power because the FBI violated our constitutional rights, on purpose, to help a criminal into the White House. Biden is the most anti-Constitution president we've ever had, and is now talking about how to take power over the Supreme Court so there's no accountability left.
For anybody with integrity, the alarms should be clanging incessantly. This is how to install fascists in the White House and that's why their propagandists are labeling any and all right wingers as "fascists."
100% correct. Wray is still there, Bill Barr is out there bashing Trump, and not one malign actor faced criminal liability. It worked and will continue to work…
“It’s true the FBI has lost much of its legitimacy with the Republican Party”. Why not with all Americans? Maybe because most of MSM isn’t covering stories such as the under-oath testimony of two whistleblowers before the US Congress. Nothing in headlines from WPO, NYT, or This Week (ABC) from my small survey. Nothing to see here folks.
Its a great reminder about the dark side of human nature. The left was suspicious of those things because they largely were not in control of them. Even when Dems had the Presidency and both houses of Congress, it wasnt until recently that the left had taken power of the bureaucratic state as well as of media and culture. As has been pointed out by many, it was Obama who made the deals that aligned the left with pharma and defense industries, which you can see from how much funding they provide the left now. The point is, everyone is against centralized authority until they have control over it. Its why communism, socialism etc all fail - people just dont give power back to the people, regardless of their rhetoric or, in the most generous interpretation, their initial intentions. Its why I dont trust the republican party either, despite their newfound love of the 1st Amendment and suspicion of centralized authority. These new values are not core values of the party but rather values they must embrace as the party outside of power. I do think there are people within the new R party who really do have those values but in another time they would be democrats. Any person who has fidelity to principles rather than politics, will not identify themselves with a party.
This ridiculous article about one of the biggest stories of the last few years, the deep corruption and politicization of officialdom, and lack of accountability, is yet another reason why I have cancelled my subscription to The Free Press. This article contains no new information or insights, it’s pure spin in a pathetic attempt to lull everyone back to sleep; yup, there’s nothing to see here folks, the “system is working”. Do better Bari.
I think that it's pretty clear that Ms Weiss is unwilling to cede her place amongst the Popular Kids. I find some of the contributors less useless than this one, and the comments crew can be kinda phun.
I like this publication. With some articles I’m nodding my head and with others I feel annoyed. I take it as a good sign. Plus, when something goes off track (like the last paragraph of this article), there’s always the comments section. 😁
Absolutely. But I think such critical thinking is better facilitated by learning multiple viewpoints in order to form a more educated conclusion. One only gets one side of the story (and often only a portion of that side) by reading only the article. While the comments, especially the dissenting ones, fill in the gaps of what an article (often intentionally) omits and/or spins to serve the Establishment narrative.
A few days ago, I read comments by people on the left side of the aisle who threatened to cancel their subscription because of something in TFP. I happen to disagree with the story as an example of our broken system working, but I am glad that we have Bari willing to piss off people from both sides in an effort to get closer to truth. It is what good journalism is supposed to be.
Nope. If you’re pissing people off by telling the truth, that’s fine. But if all you’re doing is trying to justify or downplay the corruption because you’re terrified of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist” and losing your Cool Kid status, then no. There is no way to spin this without being a total weasel.
If you’re referring to the TGIF comments section, I was one of those who cancelled my subscription in response to the smearing of RFK. However I am nowhere close to the left. I’m a solid conservative who nonetheless is disgusted by clearly dishonest and biased attacks against a man who seems to be speaking the truth as he sees it. RFK is supported by people on the left and right, if for no other reason than that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
She’s only willing to piss off one side and to think otherwise is to be completely ignorant.
I see you can’t even remember which article it supposedly was that pissed off the left because then we could actually compare and contrast it with this garbage.
The Free Press listened to subscribers' repeated requests to cover the biggest story out there- all of the malfeasance surrounding the Bidens. The Free Press responded with... this article? Shows a lack of respect for the intellect of the subscriber base.
My guy, it's absurd to be this upset about one line in an article like this. The rest of the article is exactly what you've been begging for from news media for years!
I'm not saying I agree that "the system is working." But throwing out the baby with the bath water is a progressive left thing. The FP audience is better served by a mature, pragmatic attitude.
So if I understand Mr Lake’s view, it’s not a big deal that lies influenced an election, that people’s lives were destroyed over false accusations, that CIA, FBI leadership lied to the American people and Congress, and now have cushy jobs at CNN, that we have a fraud in the WH who sold out his country, oh, no, not a problem, because a couple whistleblowers came forward so, all good. FFS!
And it’s still going on. The MSM continues to ignore the whistleblower testimony. Until there is full accountability and the house gets cleaned, it means nothing.
Ummm. This should more correctly be titled The deep state and Trump with a little soupçon of the bidens thrown in. Not exactly the deep dive hinted at by Nellie but then it was only weeks ago right? I’m sure they are working diligently on a completely fact based, objective, no opinions injected piece to be published perhaps by the twelfth of never.
But I suppose barely covered with a lot of caveats and deflections is better than complete silence, but not by much. Still, Very disappointing.
Oh, and when you have multiple levers of government that are supposed to be objective running interference for a family of corrupt criminals, it’s not “deep state”. It IS the Deep State - period. It is malicious and not honorable at all.
We learned this week that Burisma hired Hunter Bidden and his buddy Devon Archer -- energy experts both -- for $50,000/month positions on its board shortly after President Obama named Slow Joe as the US point man on Ukraine and China.
Later, we have heard, the big guy and Hunter were paid $5 million each after policy vizier Joe threatened to cancel a US financial commitment to Ukraine if Burisma didn't fire a pesky government prosecutor. Joe bragged about that (the firing, not the swag) on television.
We still don't know how much the CCP remunerations were, but the numbers appear to be bigger.
Surely this is a scandal much, much larger than Watergate. And yet crickets from the media. I get the sense that there are still enormous scandals that dwarf the Twitter files that are still uncovered.
Agreed, I was promised a detailed investigation, and instead got a bare-minimum puff piece saying everything is fine.
Hopefully, best case scenario, this is the beginning of a painful process of Democrats realizing, "they were right, I was wrong, and these are real problems."
It takes a long time to internalize the message and cope with the psychological pain. Give Eli a year or two and he might arrive at, "that was actually dangerous corruption in a horribly broken system."
People are “paranoid” or just highly disgusted in now knowing that these institutions we used to hold in high regard are more corrupt than anyone could imagine?
There is a theory among gardeners that a long-handled digging tool with a sharp rectangular blade exists. The fact that it has been observed being employed in this function only fuels the growing perception that such a tool exists.
Seriously, Bari??? Your readers have been hounding you for months to cover this story, you promise that a deep dive is coming, and THIS is what we get? There is not a single fact here that wasn’t already known. America is being fed shit soup. This article served it up with a silver spoon on grandma’s china, so we’ll think that all’s right with America and just keep eating it. Your readers rightfully want to know who’s in the kitchen making that soup and thinking they can get away with it.
Though I disagree with the sunny conclusion that the system is somehow working because two of the many people in government that have knowledge of the Biden’s corruption have come forward, I do appreciate that the FP is actually starting to cover this. Better late than never, though this does read a bit like gently dipping your toe in the cancerous goop surrounding the Bidens/FBI.
When you actually get in the weeds of everything Biden has provably done, as well as things that have been alleged but which fit in with the pattern already established, it’s hard to be quite so optimistic.
I’ll also point out that many of the top figures involved in this whole mess from 2015-present are now ensconced in powerful positions in major media and social media corporations, and not one has faced a shred of accountability for what amounts to a soft coup d’etat.
Talk about media gaslighting. First deny it and claim you're the paranoid one. Second, admit to one tiny aspect of it but claim you're blowing it out of proportion. Third, when everything is out in the open, say 'see? I've been reporting this all along!'
It would’ve been fair to say that while some people take it too far, there’s some truth to the notion of a deep state. Ironically Eli takes it too far in downplaying things.
Need to apply a little more critical thinking here - your closing line is that the system is working? Because a couple of whistleblowers came forward years after massive agencies attempted a litany of cover ups? The bar you set for these organizations is incredibly low if your conclusion is that the system is working.
Bravo! Hemingway hisownself could not have conveyed it more perfectly. We are under siege and the enemy is - if not us - then at least put in place by us while we slept at the switch.
The upcoming 2024 presidential election could either save the Best Nation That Ever Was or it could be America's Waterloo, its Culloden. Now retired, I see Real America each and every day; the people understand very well that we stand at the precipice; the votes are there to turn this ship around, but as Stalin said, it's not who votes; it's who COUNTS the votes that matters.
If this country does not Stop The Steal in the upcoming election, as Churchill perfectly described, "the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science." Perverted science, indeed. Are you listening, Zuck?
Pray that somehow we are able to make the 2024 vote honest. The People will do the rest. The only things on the line are all that we have known and cared for.
I see that in his summary of deep state actors, Mr. Lake omitted the Mainstream Press. For over seven years they’ve been acting like obedient lap dogs, with but a few exceptions. Without them, the deep/security state could not exist. Then again, at least we know what kind of ice cream Joe Biden likes. Just like the brave whistleblowers that have only recently been given airtime, there have been dedicated fourth estate reporters that have been pointing out the hole in the deep state dike for years. The New York Post, Taibbi and Schellenberger come immediately to mind. Just like Messrs. Shapely and Ziegler, and FBI agents Garrett O'Boyle, Steve Friend, and Marcus Allen who gave testimony before them, they have been maligned, ostracized and threatened with financial and professional retribution. So welcome to the party, Mr. Lake, even if, as I suspect, there is an ulterior motive.
The Deep State essentially runs the Press. They don't even try to hide it anymore. I can't count how many times I have heard about announcement of a new high-level hire at CNN or MSNBC described as "former CIA or FBI".
"The Deep State essentially runs the Press."
Or the reverse? A symbiotic relationship?
Worse, they are interchangeable and movement between them is fluid. They serve the same purpose, to give power to Democrats and lie about everyone else.
Well, great comments by all! The question is when does the dam break?
The whole point of the concept of the Deep State is that of the bureaucracy (esp. the intelligence services) running themselves (and anyone else they can control or influence) in their own guild interests against those of the elected government and the citizenry. If someone else is running them, then it's not really the Deep State. Maybe a symbiotic relationship, but if the Press is understood as providing a limit on government by demanding accountability, then it looks more like parasitism than symbiosis, since the relationship serves only the Deep State and has to a large degree vitiated the function of the Press.
Valid Points. Thing is relationships ARE going to happen. The Media and The Bureaucrats, live in the same area/towns, often in the same neighborhoods, their kids go to the same schools, they go to the same bars//restaurants, VERY often have the same political ideology. I mean we are talking about people not robots. The problem comes when The Media forgets its job. 1. Tell me What s Going On, 2. Hold the Bureaucracy accountable, 3. Ask Hard Questions. Its has been quite some time since I've seen any of that.
"but if the Press is understood as providing a limit on government by demanding accountability"
When was the last time they did this to a Democratic Party Administration? I mean it may have happened, but nothing pops into my head.
I tend to think that nowadays the MSM is just overpaid stenographers for the TLA's (three letter agencies)
I think you g8ve them too m7ch credit. Stenographer actually write down what they hear. Most of what passes for journalism these days is simply re-Tweeting. Zero critical analysis done or independent thought generated.
I prefer the term "useful idiots".
You said it. I didn't. Though I may have thought it.
And after spreading these lies, they dedicated themselves to stopping "misinformation" and "conspiracy theories". They're liars and they know it.
What I don't understand is how Bari and her audience still read and respect them.
“how Bari and her audience still read and respect them”
Never forget that Bari Weiss angled for power at the NYT. She might have departed employment there but it is still in her blood. Now she hangs out in the salons of power - Aspen Institute, Sun Valley conference, etc. she hired interns from the coastal elite institutions. she wants to be a player in the falls of power. Listen to her Honestly podcasts.
I will give TFP credit for their recent hiring of interns. Seemed like a reasonable mix of conservatives/liberals, which is unusual.
For most media today, their idea of diversity is to hire progressives, far left progressives, and really, really far left progressives.
Now you be careful, there... I'm still angling for her and Nellie to marry me.
I'm aware, and also aware that her comments section has lots of eyes on it.
If you don't mix with that crowd, then you will not learn what they are thinking about nor their true views that they won't reveal publicly.
The press has absolutely disgraced itself in the last few years. During the pandemic, it functioned essentially as a PR firm for Pfizer and Fauci. We shouldn’t overlook that this absurd “reporting” which eliminated critical thinking entirely has probably resulted in many deaths. A very few reporters—like Taibbi and Shellenberger—have been what amounts to heroic in this climate.
Bravo Tim. It amazes me that we now are suddenly reading these “new” revelations when anyone with an iota of common sense (currently described as ‘conspiracy theorists’) have seen the lies and debauchery among our bureaucrats for years.
Timothy, the irony in how the WOKE Left Democrats will “eat their own” if one dares go against the WOKE narrative! Examples are Taibbi, Schellenberger, etc. EVEN Elon Musk - RFK Jr.! ALL are registered voting Democrats!
You know me Honey, off topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JeiIUUBSww
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22801958/parents-teachers-warned-schoolkids-furries/
God bless the Democrats, the voice of evil.
I'll walk off topic with you, Lonesome: The Biden White House's Richard Levine is the father of two and his wife was a psychiatrist.
https://www.leftyliars.com/why-rachel-levine-is-still-a-man/
He is most likely intact but thinks the kids should be mutilated.
I recommend the whole thing. It's well written and funny, too.
"Rachel" is the same dude who wasn't satisfied with Pride"month" and pushed instead for a "summer" of Pride. And this Pied Piper of Pride is insisting that more and more troubled, confused teens castrate themselves and bind and butcher their healthy breasts. He's Mengele in drag.
Democrats love assholes and promote and force them on us.
This is why I have been calling for a "Betrayal of Public Trust" law or amendment.
If you betray the public trust you get life in a super max prison, not Club Fed. A prison where the swine who betray the trust are taking long warm showers with a heavily muscled and tattooed person named Knuckles.
We need to put a stop to the corruption in our government. This corruption isn't anything new. It has been going on since 1776. Let's stop it NOW! Don't just throw these sociopaths out of office. Throw them in prison.
What is Eli Lake’s “ulterior motive”?
I'll let him speak for himself:
Eli Lake
@EliLake
Trump lost the 2020 election. He never acknowledged that he lost the election, throwing our country into crisis. He’s the overwhelming favorite to win the GOP nomination for 24. Let’s stop him, because we can’t afford another 4 years of Biden.
6:49 PM · Jul 22, 2023
·
Well, I can't say I disagree with Lake on that conclusion. If Trump is the nominee, Biden will win. Likely toast him. And then another 4 years of the Democrat nonsense.
I’m gonna go out on a very short limb and predict the Joe Biden will not be the democrat nominee. That said, I hope he is because short of a “magic bullet”, a disciplined Trump will crush him
Take a gander at Mike Pompeo's Never Give an Inch. You might revisit your Trump opinion.
As I said in my post, q v , Eli Lake has been a fellow traveler of the Deep State for decades.
Unfortunately the deep state and administrative state cannot be “voted out”. They must be knee capped and dismantled piece by piece.
Which is what Trump knew. They were so threatened by the swamp being drained that they overplayed their hand and now anyone who bothers to look sees it clearly
True that. They are appointed bureaucrats, beholden only to their masters. They may be civil servants who don’t serve the public but rather work in stealth, undermining the very system they take oaths to serve. Shame on them all. One day when the dust settles their dirty deeds will be known and history will regard them as the traitors they have become.
They may honestly believe they are doing right but the road to perdition is paved with good intentions.
'The Perfect Crime': Tech Companies Are Manipulating Our Elections and Indoctrinating Our Children — How We Can Stop Them
by Robert Epstein
July 23, 2023
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19821/tech-companies-manipulating-elections
____________________________________________________________________________________
Do yourself a favor Google/Youtube search Robert Epstein.
He was on a podcast with Joe Rogen. It was enlightening and alarming at the same time.
I 1st ran into him in the summer of 2020 on Glenn Beck(?). YES it is Scary stuff.
The election workers in my town are the most scrupulously honest people I’ve ever seen. I’m sure the same is true in almost all towns in the US. To see them unfairly maligned as “rigging” an election is just wrong. Look at the election head in Georgia who flat out refused to “find” 14,000 votes.
It’s the very nature of our election system—each town and city using its own system of voting—that makes the system that much harder to tamper with. If we had one national internet system I’d be a lot more worried.
And if anyone reading this is one of the volunteers who works on Election Day, thank you and kudos
Scott, a few things:
1. As with all things Trump-mania related, it's important to go to primary sources. I listened to the Georgia call. The part you referenced happened after a Trump team member listed out a few categories of what they considered to be unlawful / invalid votes in GA and they tallied them up roughly and it was a lot. Then they said but out of those <sets of what they considered unlawful / invalid votes>, they only needed to find 14,000 (the margin to win) which the Trump team said should be easy.
2. The term "rigging" means different things to different people I think. Having Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg privately spend ~$500mil to "help" with elections sounds outrageous to my concept of free and fair elections. And yet it happened.
Having Twitter and Facebook prevent the NY Post story from being posted and even messaged was unprecedented. Sending out ballots in the mail to everyone on the voter registration list sounds sketchy to me. Having 3rd parties go out and collect ("harvest") ballots is really dodgy. So, "rigged"? Maybe I wouldn't use that word, but I would say the 2020 election was "sloppy at best."
3. I agree the vast majority of local elections are tight. But for federal elections for Senate and President, you only need one sloppy big city with mountains of absentee ballots to run the state. Some of the videos from huge convention center-sized vote counting operations in places like Philadelphia and Detroit and Atlanta showed things that didn't look professional at all.
What difference does it make if election workers count the ballots accurately if the voters who cast the ballots don't have the information they need to cast an informed vote. Polls show that without the FBI and CIA suppression of the truth, Joe Biden would not have been elected.
Not all poll workers - in fact a minority - are crooked, however it takes crooked poll workers to make it all go. Nobody is unfairly maligning anyone as rigging an election. I am maligning them fairly.
You are right and you are wrong about how difficult the "system" is to tamper with. It WAS difficult; now it is trivial, and the more complex it is made, the easier. Houdini always supplied a long, long rope for his dupes to use to bind him. Every coil had a little slack; combined they had enough for him to escape. The simplest solution is the best IMHO: one-day voting, absentee voting only for a good reason and if applied-for in advance, a solid chain-of-custody system for triple-locked ballot boxes, and paper ballots.
Scott D May I ask if it is your view that all legal ballots, and only legal ballots, were accurately counted in 2020 election? in 2022?
You are correct that there is little to no "rigging" at the local elections offices. That is why there is no election fraud. But if you read this article and believe the author's statements, you are incredibly naive to not believe the 2020 election was rigged. No one who cast a ballot was ALLOWED to cast an informed one.
The 74 million Americans who voted for Trump thought they were informed..
We were well-informed because we trusted our instincts. We have been vindicated in spades. But far too many who voted the other way were blatantly duped. You profess to an interest in different points of view so I recommend Mike Pompeo's Never Give an Inch. But if not, at least change the shade of your pig's lipstick. Loud and bold are out. Soft and subtle is the new trend. 😉
Soft and subtle. Pretty much what Trump is not..
Oh well - there are others to choose from.
Agreed, Scott. But you're swimming upstream on this comment thread..
You're putting too much faith in party politics. IMO, the 2024 presidential election can do very little. Reading and math test scores among kids have fallen off the charts in the last 10-15 years, depression is way up, suicide is way up. These are not things Trump or Biden can fix. Crime is similarly soaring, and largely not under the purview of the federal government.
Also, if some of the school board stuff shows us anything, it's that local/grassroots politics is far more important than national or even gubernatorial. A lot of the time, these people run unopposed or use non-political processes to install people from outside a district into positions of power within that district. A well-funded nonprofit with a couple scary lawyers can override the prevailing will of a community. But so too can grassroots local movements be used to drive some level of positive change to create bastions of normalcy among an increasingly insane world.
Of course, Jim, Winston Churchill was referring to the threat of Nazi Germany after conquering all of Western Europe in 1940, and after the debacle of Dunkirk, not American elections. I know you feel strongly about Democrat and Biden malfeasance in all things, but you might have used another quote that would be more apt to your point.
Just sayin'..
I know - I named my son after Churchill, so I am quite aware of the original context. That doesn't make the Very Same Words inappropriate for a different situation. If you know any more apt, pls advise, I'll edit the post.
Don’t edit your post for my benefit, pls. The point you’re making is yours, not necessarily mine..
I didn't offer to edit it for your benefit. I offered to edit it if you could come up with a better turn of phrase than Churchill's to describe what is currently at stake. The offer stands.
Check out Never Give an Inch by Mike Pompeo. It is very enlightening. But also very positive.
Well said, Jim!
You don’t have to be “Donald Trump’s most dedicated fan” to demand transparency and accountability in our taxpayer funded institutions. The bootlicking regime media has abandoned their duties and intentionally ignored all Hunter Biden stories. If Donald Trump Jr committed a fraction of Hunter’s crimes, there would be wall to wall coverage until lefty kangaroo court prosecutors and juries send him to jail like they are trying to do with his father.
And the dems keep crowing that Trump is a “unique threat” to democracy. His very presence blows the whistle on the actual threat.
The Democrats are gullible pawns in all this. They are not the shot-callers.
Bingo! The first line tying of this piece reveals exactly how little interest The Free Press cares in holding this (or any Democrat) administration accountable and exactly how they will hand wave away coverage.
I keep thinking they will feel some sense of duty or at least embarrassment, but it never happens.
Despite my hopes to the contrary, it is pretty clear that Common Sense/The Free Press' original proposition was a sham.
Touche
“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
“A lie can go around the world twice before the Truth can get its pants on.”
The destruction of people, wealth, estates, and reputations that government lies have caused are irreparable. That this happened by official coercion is itself DISproof that the system is working by any reasonable set of criteria. Regarding the FBI, the fox is officially in charge of guarding the hen house. How perfect.
yeah, that conclusion is a little bold to say the least. They didn't even expand on it - they just said, "Yep, two people came forward, so the People are still actually in charge." I don't buy it. I'm not a Trump fan for myriad reasons, but I am also not a fan of being lied to over and over again.
How about the fbi agents that came forward and were attacked by the agency, media, and democrats. A "system succeeding" shouldn't be defined as individuals taking action against a corrupt government and elite institutions. Nobody ever said the deep state was 100 percent of government employees, but they have shown their faces and the linkages in their conspiracy to act against the population.. The election is a last opportunity to reform and I hope it is followed by criminal investigations of agency personnel and any others who participated.
Same although I was pleased at the effectiveness DJT had while in office.
It was and is a national disgrace that he and his family have been treated so poorly. Not to mention the fiasco and plainly profane way Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were treated by our “congressional” leadership. Such undignified behavior from people who should know better.
Yes at much personal expense whistleblowers came forward. The last 3 were all fired, their homes and belongings seized. One was told he was transferred to Virginia only to have no job and all his family's personal items seized from the moving van.
Remember years ago when it was uncontroversial and unironic to refer to the US as a free country? What happened to us?
The criminals sit in ultimate power with no consequences yet. The media is in full-blown all-out defense mode. The First Amendment is now under debate by people who sit in power because of widespread federal lies during election year.
This is the opposite of a just and equitable system "working." The system will work when Biden is impeached and removed from office, his son goes to jail, the FBI crooks who lied to the public are disgraced and fired, and the Democratic Party gets a strong rebuke in the next election cycle.
Those things aren't going to happen.
Btw, Eli, conservatives knew most of this in 2020 when we watched the Biden crime family take power. Knowing these things is why a lot of us supported J6 and would gladly support another one. Biden would not have been elected without the First Amendment violations that protected his criminal activity.
Exactly! The obstruction of the Trump administration and the 2020 election show that the system is working. But not the one that is for the people.
Yeah, and the article started off with this flaccid clunker: "For this crowd, the deep state functions like an invisible force behind the curtain that controls our country on behalf of an oligarch class." It should have read, "...on behalf of Democrats." The Deep State is a massive group of entrenched partisan Democrats - same as with the mainstream Press. It's actually the same cabal, because when the hacks get fired from government they go to work in the media. They are incentivized to be corrupt hacks. I'll wager that Hunter ends up as a contributor on MSNBC before long, victim status fully affirmed.
Those who think there is a Deep State are "extremists", "domestic terrorists", "fascists" and more. Enlightened and respectable people like Eli Lake are not of our ilk and he goes to lengths to let everyone know.
This was an embarrassing article to be published on FP. They must be short-staffed.
I'm afraid the Deep State only acts on its own behalf. That's the phenomenon -- bureaucrats, esp. in the intelligence services, acting in their own guild interests -- the Turks noticed in their own government when they came up with the phrase as short-hand.
Hunter’s a blow paint artist not a commentator. Commentators aren’t paid thousands by undisclosed sources/art lovers.
The whistleblowers at least have protection and the law to turn to. Adnittedly, a low bar, but still a system in which this can be exposed and recognized as wrong.
But you are right - it's brave individuals bucking the system that are saving the day. Corrruption and rot are the order of the day. And the average Democrat is still mocking the Hunter Biden laptop story as a desperate tactic by Republicans to take the heat off Trump.
They don't care about the facts if those facts don't align with their politics.
Exactly. When "the system" requires courageous people to risk their jobs, livelihoods, reputations, friendships and families to make it work, it is not "working." These whistleblowers had to go outside "the system" to ensure it was held to account.
The only way the "system is working" is if the revelations of the whistleblowers result in a lot of people being fired, some going to jail, and agencies being revamped in ways that will prevent this from happening again.
I guarantee that the Democrats currently in power will make sure that those things do not happen.
From Eli's perspective, the system is working.
OK, so there was a serious false start in 2016 when we underestimated what it would take to deliver the election for Hillary. But we recovered in time to destabilize the Trump presidency and secure the election of Joe Biden in 2020. The dike has held for nearly seven years.
Patience people. Let the process play out. Stay focused on refining our mail-in voting analytics for 2024 so that we can deliver the exactly the votes we need, where we need them. Maybe we'll throw in a couple of 'common-sense' reforms for good measure. Everything will work out fine.
Yes, the system is working. Spectacularly well.
Did the FBI dictate this article to the author? We know from the Twitter Files that they often tell "reporters" what to write. The author pretends to be open minded while casting any skepticism as, you guessed it, conspiracy theories. And whoever said that the FBI invented crack cocaine? A red herring if there ever was one.
John, You are partially right. “The system is working” is correct.......barely, but it IS working in terms of the committee making the facts public. We do at least have that platform because of the bare majority we have in The House. Trump screwed our Senate chances. Simultaneously our problem is that the Democrats and the msm are doing a great job snuffing the story and we are on the ropes in terms of educating the public. If it wasn’t for TFP and Matt Tiebe and other corrageous classic liberal journalists we’d be toast. They give me hope in what seems ever hopeless. Here’s praying for some providence....Devine intervention may be the only way the good ship America gets righted.
The Free Press went from a publication with great potential to becoming The Diet New York Times. This latest read should be considered gaslighting.
“Hey everybody, look at all of these horrific things that this administration has done to its political adversaries and the discovery that Democrats have controlled and weaponized all enforcement agencies of the federal government since the Clinton administration. It’s good we are just learning about this, even though Democrat lawmakers and the executive branch deny all allegations and mainstream media reports none of this, including actual congressional hearings with verifiable data. The system is working!!! There is no deep state!!”
I agree. What an idiotic conclusion. What other things don’t we know about? What other people were intimidated into to silence - or committed ‘suicide.’
"In an effort to counter Russian disinformation, the FBI actively allowed American disinformation to spread."
It wasn't an effort to counter disinformation. It was a succesful effort to swing an election in favor a lifelong politician, the very type of politician whose incompetence, entitlement, and corruption fueled the rise of Trump in the first place.
This mass public disenchantment with our political establishment and government institutions is further fueld by a media in bed with the Deep State actors. The kind of media that will take a story like this and use it as an example of how the Deep State really isn't all that bad because, after all, a couple people spoke up (nevermind that they've already been fully disowned by the Democratic party and ignored by the mainstream media) so how bad can it really be?
You nailed it. I've been telling my left & right leaning friends for almost 3 years that the 2020 election was interfered with by two groups primarily. It was never drop boxes, mail in ballots or hacked voting machines.......it was the leadership in the government alphabet agencies and the main stream media. As a result, both of these groups have pulled big tech into the scheme. Its why today, public trust in both are right up there with that of congress.
In actuality it was also drop boxes and vote harvesting in retirement homes with residents too far into dementia to vote. Perhaps a reason why we have a president too far into dementia to govern?
My retired structural engineer admitted to me he voted for Biden for his wife - who is in memory care.
That's admitting to a crime. Report him.
When these crimes don't get reported, the people they support get to say it never happened.
He died a few months ago.
All of the above and more. A fraudulent election
Support the police. Defund the Democrats.
“… public trust in both are right up there with that of congress.”
Evans, I think you meant to write “…right ~down~ there with…congress.”
Don’t leave out big tech. They are still censoring, banning and filtering to favor Democrats… the establishment ruling-class party.
Well, sure. Why else scream and get an injunction to block enforcement of the “no contact with the censors” ruling? That’s the action of a desperate group that sees itself losing power. Once the lights are on, the roaches scurry for cover. These jokers want the lights to stay out. Forever.
You are correct, but its Monday morning.....I'm trying to be a little bit positive. :-)
‘Nuff said.
THIS! They never report on this because they don't want to be invited to the cool kids cocktail parties or they never took math where 2 + 2 = 4. I can't think of another explanation. Honestly (where did I hear that word before), why don't journalists never answer this question? I'd like to see them try to answer it.
Do you think the motive might have been to swing the election? Especially since they BURIED the evidence forever!
VERY important to note that these truths are only coming out because Republicans have the House. Without that, Democrats would still be denying all of it, like their comically corrupt media outlets are currently doing.
Eli and his ilk are going to pretend the truth is coming out because the "system is working" knowing full well their Party has been doing everything it can to prevent the system from working, and would have succeeded if not for those pesky evangelical voters.
Yes, that’s a crucial point.
“Eli and his ilk are going to pretend the truth is coming out because the "system is working" knowing full well their Party has been doing everything it can to prevent the system from working...”
Lake is very much a conservative. I also find his conclusion vexing — the system is working...for whom? — but he’s no democrat.
Lake is no conservative, and he's also no fool. He sees his colleagues in the media falling all over each other in a desperate attempt to defend the indefensible, and he wants to avoid being tarred with the same brush. It's called self-preservation.
Hmm. Interesting point. I respectfully disagree but, being a cynic, I’m open to the possibility that you’re right about EL and his motives.
By the way, does anyone else find that while reading TFP on the Substack app, clicking on the notification does not take one directly to the comment, and it’s necessary to scroll though to find it? I don’t have this problem with other pages.
Christopher, hit the "return to thread" link to get to the place you want to be without having to scroll.
Interesting. I appreciate that context.
Now, KP, we all know Biden is SO well known & popular he got 81 million votes, while never leaving his basement to campaign!
He IS the most popular President in the history of our country!
Good point- it kinda reminds me of Jim Jones, the Cult Leader & Civil Rights Activist who said he "Loved Socialism". He convinced 900+ people to commit suicide.
What you describe is not Biden - but the Biden Machine- a whole artillery of Tech, Media, Govt, Activists, FBI, who "told " those 80 million people WHAT TO THINK & WHAT TO DO. Basically the same Psychological Weakness.
You know, I think there is a machine all right but it’s not the “Biden” machine, it’s simply the DNC. Biden was their chosen figurehead, simply because they perceived him as the most manageable and perhaps electable. Now they know they stepped in dog doo and are gonna scramble around for someone else to get out of the mess. Evil machinations afoot from them forever!
Yes, "Biden-Machine" & " DNC-Machine" , one in the same.
Remember the old "you got your peanut butter in my chocolate" commercials for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? That is what I imagine when I think of the Biden machine getting involved with the DNC machine; the Biden grifters were a low-tech bunch of grifters selling influence purely for their personal enrichment. That the DNC actually selected Joetato, they saw an opportunity to expand the family business which is now ironically throwing the DNC machine off the rails and scrambling for another candidate like The Hair from CA.
Not a joke!
I agree that much of this is driven or heightened by the media's, the political establishments', and the government institutions' intense hatred of Trump. Period. While I have concerns about the Deep State in general, I wonder how much of this situation is being exacerbated by widespread anti-Trump fervor.
Remember that the Democratic party's semi-official plan for the upcoming 2024 presidential election is to run senile, inept Joe Biden against Trump -- relying their friends in the media and their friends in government agencies to continue to fuel the anti-Trump sentiments and ride them to victory while Biden hides in his basement. Biden certainly can't win based on his successes. Why isn't there a single legitimate, mainstream Democratic challenger lining up against Biden in anticipation of primaries that theoretically will be kicking off in approximately 6 months?
Now that the media's, political establishments and deep state's tactics have worked against Trump they will be deployed against any Republican candidate in 2024 and beyond - count on it.
The attacks on Casey DeSantis are especially disgusting and disappointing.
In the meantime, the mainstream media has given "Dr." Jill Biden a complete pass. Her dissertation is a tepid re-hash of existing information, with virtually no original research or thought. Her use of the title "Doctor" is an insult to anyone who went to med school or who earned a doctoral degree in a technical field.
And anyone else that gets in their way - D or R, they don’t actually care. They’ll take out RFK (or any other Dem candidate) just as quickly as any Republican challenger.
(And I have no doubt they’ll do it literally if they need to.)
Eli "the system is working" Lake means, "it's working to keep us in power and spread our lies with impunity. Look, I begrudgingly wrote this article that wouldn't have existed without the Republicans I oppose, that demonstrates how honest I am."
Lol.
There is a legitimate challenger, Robert Kennedy Jr, but the mainstream media is doing all they can to discredit him. Fortunately, there are ways he is getting his message out through long-form podcasts. It is refreshing to hear that there is at least one honest person left in the Democratic Party.
Robert Kennedy Jr is the future of the Democratic party, if people stop listening to slander and misleading statements about him. He's more intelligent and honest than any politician I've heard in decades. He gives me hope for the future.
I wish! I would vote Democrat if it came to him vs Trump.
The New York Times has previously written whole pieces on RFK Jr where he was not called for comment and, when he asked to have a letter published in reply, it was declined. This violates all previous standards of good journalism. Not sure who is making these decisions, but the paper is destroying an institution which had an honorable and important function. Great job!
There’s no such thing as an honest politician. None. Not even a tiny one.
'The Outsider' wrote "honest person" because RFK Jr is not a politician. Which is a big part of what makes him so appealing.
RFK? The guy who just a week ago gave a full throated defense of affirmative action? No thanks.
You're really going to dismiss him over one issue, while ignoring the many other more important issues on which he stands (eg, anti-MIC, anti-agency corruption, pro-medical freedom, anti-censorship, pro-environment, anti-drug war, anti-US interventionism, pro-whistleblower rights, pro-revitalizing the middle class, pro-uniting US citizenry, pro-foreign relations)?
JD, NO legitimate Democrat exist, EXCEPT RFK Jr, and now that he dares to run against “the most popular President ever” the WOKE Left is out to destroy him!
YES, you are correct, they despise Trump and are “ear up with TDS”but they are now treating RFK Jr and DeSantis the same as they’ve treated Trump!
RFK Jr has now taken the #1 spot as, “The biggest threat to Democracy” with DeSantis not far behind!
Of course, the Left is as terrified of RFK Jr as they are of Trump, simply because they aren’t lifelong politicians, and they are going against the WOKE narrative! If they can’t be controlled, they must be destroyed”
Totally agree, Pemulis!
After 5 LONG years of so called investigations (+ for the last year my asking TFP to “at least mention” the Biden Crimes/Hunter laptop), to FINALLY come out with THIS??!!!
And the author saying, to the effect, “What Hunter did to the Biden GOOD NAME” + Does he really believe the system is working, because of some whistleblowers FINALLY came forward?! Men who, by the way, are now having their reputations & livelihoods ruined!
Where is outrage from anyone on the Left??!! And when it comes from the Right, “Well, there goes those MAGA, White Supremacist, Conspiracy Theorists, Ignorant Deplorable Election Deniers! Censor them, or LOCK ‘EM UP”
Sorry for ranting, but I beyond frustrated & angry!
Take a pill. Settle down with a cool drink and be like me calm, cool and relaxed. You know me. I never, ever rant.
I'm the voice of calm and reason.
agree- the Biden “good name” is a joke. He was always an obtuse, racist, arrogant, SOB using dirty tactics to achieve his ends. I laughed when Obama chose him as VP for his “foreign policy experience,” and I laugh now that ignorant people hate Trump so much that they voted for this self-dealing establishment turd. What a joke.
This. THANK you.
New gaslighting style of journalism: there’s no deep state out to get Trump. There’s just the FBI “ wielded as a weapon of one political party.” And the IRS poring through Trump’s dirty kleenex but slow-walking or blocking any investigation into Biden shenanigans. And the DOJ turning Jan 6 into a years-long kangaroo court. But look, a whistleblower! Stop being a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
1. Deny it is happening
2. Acknowledge of course it has always been happening, it just isn't a big deal
3. It's too late to change anything, we'll call slaps on the wrist "justice" and then let them stay rich and powerful.
Rinse and repeat for the next Democrat scandal.
Exactly. Just think if we applied the same principles to an unsolved murder.
1. There’s no body and therefore there’s no investigation.
2. Actually we thought there might be a body located here but there wasn’t enough evidence to inspect the entire building.
3. We found the body 10.5 years after disappearance and with the new statue of limitations of 10 years passed 2 years ago, there’s no crime to investigate. BUT, we can’t let this happen again. 100 hours of community service to the ex husband.
(It’s so insulting and disgraceful......... let’s run another national divisive social meltdown event to forget about it.)
Totally agree! And, Rick, I’m waiting for the next BIG Flu Virus to hit in Summer 2024 ... just in time to force voting restrictions to mail in ballots!
Can’t remember who said, “It isn’t WHO votes, it’s WHO COUNTS the votes”
Stalin.
Yes, there is definitely a very real genocide of trans people right now.
Nailed it!!
Right on
I had always thought the deep state were all the government employees who stay on no matter who is president, etc. And that these individuals have definite political affiliations and tastes.
But there should not have been a need for a whistleblower here, Eli, if everyone had been doing the job that we, the American people, have been paying them to do. That’s the bottom line.
I thank God for those whistleblowers and their good consciences.
Thank you for this piece. The “big guy” indeed has been a liar and a cheat since his first elected office.
Good point, the entire point of a "whistleblower" is that the system didn't work and needs reform.
Formerly known as “Sen. Biden (D) - MBNA
That's actually the responsibility of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Yet another once venerated Federal service gutted and undermined by the Obama administration and which has continued its downward spiral since.
Thank the Heavens there is no such thing as the Deep State. Otherwise, you know, we'd really be in trouble...
“Stories like Russiagate and the Hunter Biden affair play into the paranoid underbelly of American politics.”
Is it paranoia when the stories are true, or is it righteous indignation? Two whistleblowers do not make the system work. Prosecution and conviction for crimes committed do.
Essential part of the gaslighting. "Even if everything you have been talking about is true, you're still paranoid and the system is fine. The problem is you. Joe isn't going anywhere and will receive no justice and we all know it."
Just like the critiques of Sound of Freedom movie. “Sure, child sex trafficking does happen. But making a movie about it fuels conspiracy theorists that say its happening”
Impeachments do, as well But, sadly we have a mostly useless or complicit Congress.
I agree the majority of the Congress is feckless, or worse. But I have hope that the sleazy, lying Garland will be the first to enjoy an impeachment hearing, and others, including Becerra and Mayorkas may follow.
And when that happens, expect every Democrat to line up to protect them. Led by the douche in the doo rag, Raskin and my own pathetic poseur James Himes of CT. I'm so disgusted by this spectacle I can't see any option but to burn the entire thing down and start anew.
And, who exactly, are the “paranoid underbelly”?
Us.
Great piece but how can you end it with the system is working? I understand there are 2 whistleblowers etc, but really? It feels like you didn’t read your own piece.
Exactly. Two whistleblowers in 2023 don't cancel out the letter signed by 51 federal security officers before the 2020 election that affirmed the laptop story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
How many of those hacks were fired and lost their pensions when the truth came out?
Recall that John Brennan got to head the CIA despite having voted for a communist for president and kept his job despite having been found to have spied on Congress. What should have happened to Brennan is a public execution. Instead, he got a big reward from our state media.
I oppose the death penalty but am all in on exile to a deserted, windswept pile of rocks in the South Atlantic.
My preference would be hanging, drawing and quartering. But in Brennan's case, I'd opt for something stronger.
How about stranding him on a desert island with Hillary. Now that would be pure hell on Earth.
Even better! The harridan from Hades!
How many lost their pensions? Zero. Most have transitioned to the media or big tech.
Yes. The “system” is working as it always has. Fortune continues to favor the chosen few. No one has toppled that structure yet.
Yes the whistleblowers may be the beginning of the system fixing itself, but the pattern of unaccountable partisan abuses that Eli himself lays out don’t inspire confidence that anything meaningful will come from this, or even that this sort of skullduggery won’t happen again and again.
The system only works if there is accountability, so far, I’ve seen none...
I’m still looking for accountability with the IRS and Lois Lerner.
We all are.
Don't hold your breath.
accountability? we were crushed in Afghanistan and lied for 20 years and everyone maintained their perks or received promotions.
Indeed.
‘Failing up’ is all I see.
Blowing the whistle on malfeasance doesn’t mean the “system is working.” The key players being held accountable would be a start. There is bona fide, clear evidence the FBI interfered with the 2020 election and that DoJ and the IRS obstructed justice in the Hunter Biden cases. Until someone is indicted (and jailed) for these crimes, the system is most definitely not working.
They interfered by VIOLATING OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Shout it from the rooftops. Biden sits in power because the FBI violated our constitutional rights, on purpose, to help a criminal into the White House. Biden is the most anti-Constitution president we've ever had, and is now talking about how to take power over the Supreme Court so there's no accountability left.
For anybody with integrity, the alarms should be clanging incessantly. This is how to install fascists in the White House and that's why their propagandists are labeling any and all right wingers as "fascists."
Staging a soft coup is more than a first amendment violation.
100% correct. Wray is still there, Bill Barr is out there bashing Trump, and not one malign actor faced criminal liability. It worked and will continue to work…
“It’s true the FBI has lost much of its legitimacy with the Republican Party”. Why not with all Americans? Maybe because most of MSM isn’t covering stories such as the under-oath testimony of two whistleblowers before the US Congress. Nothing in headlines from WPO, NYT, or This Week (ABC) from my small survey. Nothing to see here folks.
It’s amazing- the American left used to be suspicious of war, of the defense industry and of the three letter agencies. Now they love them all.
Its a great reminder about the dark side of human nature. The left was suspicious of those things because they largely were not in control of them. Even when Dems had the Presidency and both houses of Congress, it wasnt until recently that the left had taken power of the bureaucratic state as well as of media and culture. As has been pointed out by many, it was Obama who made the deals that aligned the left with pharma and defense industries, which you can see from how much funding they provide the left now. The point is, everyone is against centralized authority until they have control over it. Its why communism, socialism etc all fail - people just dont give power back to the people, regardless of their rhetoric or, in the most generous interpretation, their initial intentions. Its why I dont trust the republican party either, despite their newfound love of the 1st Amendment and suspicion of centralized authority. These new values are not core values of the party but rather values they must embrace as the party outside of power. I do think there are people within the new R party who really do have those values but in another time they would be democrats. Any person who has fidelity to principles rather than politics, will not identify themselves with a party.
This ridiculous article about one of the biggest stories of the last few years, the deep corruption and politicization of officialdom, and lack of accountability, is yet another reason why I have cancelled my subscription to The Free Press. This article contains no new information or insights, it’s pure spin in a pathetic attempt to lull everyone back to sleep; yup, there’s nothing to see here folks, the “system is working”. Do better Bari.
I think that it's pretty clear that Ms Weiss is unwilling to cede her place amongst the Popular Kids. I find some of the contributors less useless than this one, and the comments crew can be kinda phun.
I like this publication. With some articles I’m nodding my head and with others I feel annoyed. I take it as a good sign. Plus, when something goes off track (like the last paragraph of this article), there’s always the comments section. 😁
True. But what concerns me is how the worldviews of those who read only the article and not the comments are being influenced.
I hear that. But I think people are responsible for their own critical thinking.
Absolutely. But I think such critical thinking is better facilitated by learning multiple viewpoints in order to form a more educated conclusion. One only gets one side of the story (and often only a portion of that side) by reading only the article. While the comments, especially the dissenting ones, fill in the gaps of what an article (often intentionally) omits and/or spins to serve the Establishment narrative.
Agreed
A few days ago, I read comments by people on the left side of the aisle who threatened to cancel their subscription because of something in TFP. I happen to disagree with the story as an example of our broken system working, but I am glad that we have Bari willing to piss off people from both sides in an effort to get closer to truth. It is what good journalism is supposed to be.
Nope. If you’re pissing people off by telling the truth, that’s fine. But if all you’re doing is trying to justify or downplay the corruption because you’re terrified of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist” and losing your Cool Kid status, then no. There is no way to spin this without being a total weasel.
If you’re referring to the TGIF comments section, I was one of those who cancelled my subscription in response to the smearing of RFK. However I am nowhere close to the left. I’m a solid conservative who nonetheless is disgusted by clearly dishonest and biased attacks against a man who seems to be speaking the truth as he sees it. RFK is supported by people on the left and right, if for no other reason than that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
She’s only willing to piss off one side and to think otherwise is to be completely ignorant.
I see you can’t even remember which article it supposedly was that pissed off the left because then we could actually compare and contrast it with this garbage.
You will go really far by insulting people Aaron. That kind of comment is a perfect indication of the kind of behavior that is destroying our country.
The Free Press listened to subscribers' repeated requests to cover the biggest story out there- all of the malfeasance surrounding the Bidens. The Free Press responded with... this article? Shows a lack of respect for the intellect of the subscriber base.
Yeah, pretty weak tea for TFP's promised Hunter story. I can only hope there are more and better articles to come
My guy, it's absurd to be this upset about one line in an article like this. The rest of the article is exactly what you've been begging for from news media for years!
I'm not saying I agree that "the system is working." But throwing out the baby with the bath water is a progressive left thing. The FP audience is better served by a mature, pragmatic attitude.
So if I understand Mr Lake’s view, it’s not a big deal that lies influenced an election, that people’s lives were destroyed over false accusations, that CIA, FBI leadership lied to the American people and Congress, and now have cushy jobs at CNN, that we have a fraud in the WH who sold out his country, oh, no, not a problem, because a couple whistleblowers came forward so, all good. FFS!
And it’s still going on. The MSM continues to ignore the whistleblower testimony. Until there is full accountability and the house gets cleaned, it means nothing.
And the clock run-out the statute of limitations...
FFS, TFP, indeed!
Yep. You have the story right. Right here in TFP.
Ummm. This should more correctly be titled The deep state and Trump with a little soupçon of the bidens thrown in. Not exactly the deep dive hinted at by Nellie but then it was only weeks ago right? I’m sure they are working diligently on a completely fact based, objective, no opinions injected piece to be published perhaps by the twelfth of never.
But I suppose barely covered with a lot of caveats and deflections is better than complete silence, but not by much. Still, Very disappointing.
Oh, and when you have multiple levers of government that are supposed to be objective running interference for a family of corrupt criminals, it’s not “deep state”. It IS the Deep State - period. It is malicious and not honorable at all.
We must all count on Taibbi- elsewhere- for the deep dives.
PUBLIC Is doing a great job. So is Lee Fang.
Agreed, PUBLIC is the real deal.
yes TFP is just so much fluff in comparison..
And Greenwald.
We learned this week that Burisma hired Hunter Bidden and his buddy Devon Archer -- energy experts both -- for $50,000/month positions on its board shortly after President Obama named Slow Joe as the US point man on Ukraine and China.
Later, we have heard, the big guy and Hunter were paid $5 million each after policy vizier Joe threatened to cancel a US financial commitment to Ukraine if Burisma didn't fire a pesky government prosecutor. Joe bragged about that (the firing, not the swag) on television.
We still don't know how much the CCP remunerations were, but the numbers appear to be bigger.
Within a few days! It’s astonishing and remember President Trump was IMPEACHED for trying to investigate further.
Surely this is a scandal much, much larger than Watergate. And yet crickets from the media. I get the sense that there are still enormous scandals that dwarf the Twitter files that are still uncovered.
Agreed, I was promised a detailed investigation, and instead got a bare-minimum puff piece saying everything is fine.
Hopefully, best case scenario, this is the beginning of a painful process of Democrats realizing, "they were right, I was wrong, and these are real problems."
It takes a long time to internalize the message and cope with the psychological pain. Give Eli a year or two and he might arrive at, "that was actually dangerous corruption in a horribly broken system."
"might" is the operative word here
People are “paranoid” or just highly disgusted in now knowing that these institutions we used to hold in high regard are more corrupt than anyone could imagine?
There is a theory among gardeners that a long-handled digging tool with a sharp rectangular blade exists. The fact that it has been observed being employed in this function only fuels the growing perception that such a tool exists.
Seriously, Bari??? Your readers have been hounding you for months to cover this story, you promise that a deep dive is coming, and THIS is what we get? There is not a single fact here that wasn’t already known. America is being fed shit soup. This article served it up with a silver spoon on grandma’s china, so we’ll think that all’s right with America and just keep eating it. Your readers rightfully want to know who’s in the kitchen making that soup and thinking they can get away with it.
I am hoping this was only the preview to the real movie
Though I disagree with the sunny conclusion that the system is somehow working because two of the many people in government that have knowledge of the Biden’s corruption have come forward, I do appreciate that the FP is actually starting to cover this. Better late than never, though this does read a bit like gently dipping your toe in the cancerous goop surrounding the Bidens/FBI.
When you actually get in the weeds of everything Biden has provably done, as well as things that have been alleged but which fit in with the pattern already established, it’s hard to be quite so optimistic.
I’ll also point out that many of the top figures involved in this whole mess from 2015-present are now ensconced in powerful positions in major media and social media corporations, and not one has faced a shred of accountability for what amounts to a soft coup d’etat.
Interesting how the author says it’s “paranoid” to believe there is a Deep State and then goes on to give several examples of it. 😂
Talk about media gaslighting. First deny it and claim you're the paranoid one. Second, admit to one tiny aspect of it but claim you're blowing it out of proportion. Third, when everything is out in the open, say 'see? I've been reporting this all along!'
Don’t forget you also have to smear anyone that has noticed the corruption as a Trump supporter in the opening sentence.
Don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea that this is something to actually be investigated.
It would’ve been fair to say that while some people take it too far, there’s some truth to the notion of a deep state. Ironically Eli takes it too far in downplaying things.
I know! Goes on to use Deep State repeatedly.