As for Buzzfeed's publication of the 35-page trump dossier, I personally feel that by publishing it in its entirety, the website did both democracy and the First Amendment a solid -- despite the sanctimony that has laced the criticism of the website for publishing unverified material. By doing so, it enabled Americans to play "we report; you decide" in its rawest form and increased public awareness of the disturbing rumors about the nature of trump's Russian connections that had been floating around for months. Its allegations range from the political to the prurient and is not at all small stuff. Among them include the charge that trump's "inner circle" received a "regular flow" of information from the Kremlin, and that Russia's secret service holds embarrassing sexually-related material on trump which could be used for blackmail, including his alleged participation in a sex act involving female urination.
It's all denied by trump of course, who -- in conjunction with Putin-- shrewdly characterized it as "fake news," which it may well be. Nevertheless, one can't help but figure that over time, the "fake news" mantra will be the only defense available to an administration that is shaping up as a vast breeding ground for illegal activity and political corruption similar to that of Richard M. Nixon's.
So, prepare for a sustained onslaught of "newspeak " by the trump "Administration" which will include its perpetual use of the phrase "fake news." Because when CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post or some enterprising web outfit like Buzzfeed inevitably produces an irrefutable smoking gun linked to an impeachment-level high crime, trump will have already indoctrinated the public to the idea that most, if not all negative coverage of himself is "fake news," therefore whatever Buzzfeed or any other mainstream media outlet has dug up should be considered fake as well.
"Fits the description"
It's tempting to speculate about the possibility that someone who seems to take such pride in his extremely uncompromising personality might have a ton of excruciatingly compromising material about him floating around in cyberspace and elsewhere. But, it is important to acknowledge that as of this writing, the only thing conclusive about the raw data in the dossier is that there is no conclusion as to its veracity. Still, some aspects of trump's personal behavior -- revealed over the years by trump hims elf -- don't leave much room for plausible denial by trump regarding at least one specific category among the many allegations leveled at trump in the dossier.
One can quibble, for example, over the likelihood of some of the dossier's allegations of geo-political hijinks, such as possible collusion between the trump and Putin camps during the presidential campaign. But any such quibbling would have to include some discussion about:
What led former British intelligence agent Steele to go "off the grid" just prior to being publicly named as the person who gathered and compiled the material contained in the trump dossier.
The peculiarly prescient nature of the dossier's claim of a trump-Putin quid-pro-quo related to the Ukraine.
The "president's" chronic saber-rattling against NATO(which just so happens to pose the greatest deterrent to Putin's global ambitions).
His talk of lifting sanctions against Russia via executive order without any prior concessions from Putin.
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