Recently Booman posted a comment in his article How Stormy Daniels Explains Russian Collusion. It said “Not sure the source, but I saw a headline that [Trump’s lawyer Michael] Cohen was bitching to friends that Trump hadn’t paid him back” the $130,000 of hush money that he says he paid Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket.
Steggies answered with a URL.
<https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/05/politics/michael-cohen-stormy-daniels/index.html>
That URL led to a CNN report about a Wall Street Journal article. “WSJ: Cohen complained about lack of reimbursement for porn star payment.”
The originating story from the WSJ is hidden behind its paywall…I will not give them any more money than they have already stolen, so I cannot quote it directly, but it includes the following:
Michael Cohen said he missed two deadlines to make a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels because he couldn’t reach Donald Trump in the final days of the … After Mr. Trump’s victory, Mr. Cohen complained to friends that he had yet to be reimbursed for the payment to Ms. Clifford, the people said.
Within 24 hours this story had been copied by hundreds of outlets. As far as I can find out…I read about 10 of the related articles…there was no proof of the WSJ allegation about Cohen’s complaint. No names, no places, no quotes, no times…nothing. Just an empty, unproven allegation. One that is quite likely to be true, given the widely reported business practices and Trump and company, but “quite likely to be true’ and “true” are two widely disparate concepts…two widely disparate concepts that have been collated by the anti-Trump forces into one post-factual-world journalistic practice. The New York Times, WAPO, WSJ and the rest of the centrist mass media are now operating on the level of The National Enquirer. Lower, even, because The National Enquirer is quite purposely a running joke while these media are commonly taken as “serious.”
I posted a short reply pointing this out. It has been zeroed out from this blog in a blatant attempt at censorship. False news about Trump is not going to bring him down; only factual reporting will do that. This blog’s fall into collusion with the massive media attempt to “false news” Trump out of the White House has now reached a new low.
A couple of years of widespread mockery and unproven allegations in the centrist media has done nothing to stop Donald Trump. He understands the old publicity saw “Say whatever you want to say about me, but spell my name right.” This is his stock in trade, and Booman is allowing this blog to deal in it. Every sleazy-but-unsupported-by-factual-proof swipe at Trump only makes him stronger.
It is a stupid tactic.
Stop it.
I wrote several posts here before the possibility of a Trump presidency was anything but a nasty rumor dealing with the basic idea that “You cannot laugh a clown offstage.” Well…you cannot lie a liar offstage either. All you succeed in doing is lowering yourself to his level.
Get real.
Not fake.
Please.
AG
It’s hilarious that you’re oblivious to how thoroughly such shit reveals where your allegiance lies, your claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
Also too — yet again — “censorship”: another in a LONG list of English words whose meaning you do not (or pretend not to) understand.
Bot on, oaguabonita…
Bot on.
AG
P.S. Booman knows exactly who I am. I have a backstory 40+ years long, and my “allegiences” have been quite clear throughout that time.
You and the rest of the fairly new, kneejerk neocentrist posters here?
Who the fuck are you, really?
What is left of the few inquiring minds here want to know.
I think that you are all “false news.”
Or…possibly…false news dupes.
Either way…jive like a motherfucker.
AG
Sadly, that is all this particular diary amounts to. And yet, it takes but a single user on this group (one who never appears to post anything) to get this sorry excuse for a diary on the Rec list. That may be a marker of the health of this blog, and if so, the person who actually owns this blog might want to ask if some real or imagined personal allegiance to someone who is a genuine serial blog wrecker (a term Booman once used a little over a decade ago) is really worth it. Seriously. AG has made it clear he does not give a fuck about how he affects the community. He’s made it clear in both actions and words. In the meantime, our only recourse is what we’ve seen done already – downrate those comments that are genuinely trollish by AG, rec any diary that actually contributes something positive to this blogging community, and hope that short term those actions can at least limit the damage that is being done to whatever might be left of this community.
One can also ignore him (AG that is). Works for me.
Priceless Arthur!
I took a screenshot … says it all
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BooMan 4
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Just telling the truth as I see it, Oui…as I have aways done here, without any hope of approval or fear of disapproval.
“Straight ahead and strive for tone,” as musicians often say.
Also…in a consciously self-denigrating way…”Close enough for jazz…”
AG