Second verse, same as the worst: Random Political Thoughts

There are no disagreements from me...

You have no other evidence except to interpret claims against as evidence for?

And you wonder why you're called a moron?

Ovi: you've no evidence and are taking denials as evidence. This is stupid.

kirinke: "oh, yeah, here's an opinion piece, a doibling down, and a made up 9 of 10 statistic with no support! You just love Trump, that's why you keep saying I am naked. If you didn't love Trump, you'd see how lovely my new clothes actually are!"

You're incapable of critical thought, which is why you're being led around by the nose by people happy to have such useful tools.

No, you didn't.

You gave me an opinion piece that didn't actually say anything, it just alluded to maybes.

You told a lie about 9 in 10, and have consistently been shown that it's a lie, but you still like to believe it.

Your only source of argument is that everyone denies it, so it must be true. Flat Earthers and Anti-Vaxxers say the same things.

This is a news story that is only from unnamed sources and is not corroborated by any other information. It's an unconfirmed rumor, reported by unnamed sources, and published by unethical reporters because it can be used to get useful idiots like you to think that Trump is bad. And, you've fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.

If it comes out that any of the allegations have any evidence to support them outside of unnamed sources, I'll join you -- that would be a very bad thing. But, you'll need more that what's out there or denials to get there. Stop being a useful idiot. I know thinking hurts you, and you just want your comfortable hate of Trump, but, come on, try.

So, I have seen more stories than that, corroborated by people in the Taliban. Still not the best corroboration, but it's there. Here's the story.

Well, the first source has been out of the country since 2016, so that seems like a last administration problem as well?

The odd overlooking of timing aside, no one in that article provided evidence outside of anonymous (and in some cases even to the reporter) claims that it's absolutely happening, but the sources would never do such a thing, it's other people that they don't work with that do it. No names, no details were forthcoming. This is still rumor, and unsubstantiated rumor. Finding people that repeat the rumor isn't more evidence -- this seems like exactly the kinds of reports the US intelligence services have, which they properly class as 'unsubstantiated reports.'

That article further goes into actual fake new territory. First with the headline, which the article doesn't support (although that's more likely the editor's call than the reporters). Second with the claim that Trump denies that Russia is paying bounties. The very quotes they provide are either talking about Trump denying he was briefed -- a topic the article doesn't address otherwise -- or that the information is unsubstantiated by US intelligence -- a claim that is very much true. The article trying to claim Trump is lying, but then substitutes statements on other, granted related, topics as statements to the claim the article is trying to make. It's absolute shit that the news keeps doing this kind of thing and people eat it up and ask for seconds.

The media has done this for at least a decade, and quite often to Trump, and been very badly burned quite a few times. But, they don't change and everyone pretends that their actually honest brokers of information despite this. The willingness to blindly believe the media despite being shown over and over to being more than capable of mistake or outright fabrication is baffling to me. Critical thought seems to evaporate around any topic concerning Trump. The man is deeply flawed but you guys continue to just suck up anything instead of actually making an argument. This is case in point -- it's a nothingburger but it's going to dominate the cycle because idiots suck up this kind of grist even though the last 3 years of Trump-Russia bullshit has been shot in the head, quartered, and buried on separate continents. Yet, the appetite for believing it anyway is no less than a religious fervor.

Depends on which part of the story you're discussing. Remember, the whole story is that the Russians are paying bounties for dead US GIs, Trump knew about it since March, and he's done nothing.

First, Russians paying bounties is possible, plausible, and believable. Credibility is lacking due to the lack of actual evidence, just the same vague rumors without details.

Second, Trump knowing about it is possible, plausible, and maybe believable, but not credible. There's too many people actually interested in protecting the US that have absolutely stated Trump wasn't briefed. So, either Trump wasn't briefed, or Trump is a master manipulator that has managed to get so many people to lie right before an election that it strains plausibility that he'd be caught out by the news media.

Finally, Trump not doing anything is possible, but not very plausible. For starters, Trump has been quite hard on Russia. What he publicly says is very different from what actions his administration takes -- Trump's foreign policy is weird. He says nice things about terrible people, seemingly in an attempt to let them change and save face. However, his administration is quite direct in leveling sanctions and other actions against Russia and other states. Recall that despite his friendly statements about Kim Jong Un, Trump ratcheted down the sanctions on North Korea to the tightest they ever were and extracted actual concessions from NK and still more heavy sanctions in place against NK than Obama ever did. Same with Russia -- there's no relaxing of sanctions against Russia in the record. Here's what the Brookings Institute found when looking at concrete actions towards Russia. The Brookings Institute has been evaluated by Media Bias as center-left.

So, no, it's not very believable that credible intelligence was briefed to Trump in March about Russia bounties on US GIs and nothing was done. That's the kind of thing Trump jumps on with both feet. It's only the persistent fever dream that Trump is a Russian lackey -- disproved by all available evidence -- that lets this even get started. It's pure stupid on the part of consumers.