184

There’s been a lot of use of the words Constitutional Crisis in the last 2 and a half years and let’s be clear we are there now. It’s not an emerging crisis it’s where we are today. As to why we are here I blame the Ken Dilanian media has much as anyone.

I mean we all know the GOP is morally and intellectually bankrupt-this is the underlying theme of this entire book. They are nothing but partisan hacks but those of us who have been paying attention knew this a long time ago.

But the press should know better. After the Comey Letter in 2016 and the freakout of the media-with Dean Baquet and Friends over at the Times being the ringleaders

I ranted at media people on Twitter-Brian Stelter, Chris Hayes-as I document in Chapter A, Hayes personally has a lot to answer for-Greg Sargent-he’s one of the best ones out there, the critique wasn’t so much directed at him but I felt he needed to hear it-if there’s any criticism of him it’s that very few journalists are willing to call out their colleagues to the extent it’s deserved-that the MSM has blood on its hands and I will hold them all personally responsible if Fuhrer Trump is ‘elected.’

In theory the press should be unwilling to do anything to frame a narrative in such a way that they’re literally assisting his campaign but that’s what they did.

Ok, so here we are two and a half years later and they have learned nothing. 

The outrageous double standard between Clinton and Trump only gets more outrageous with every day that passes. And these twin headlines of the Baquet’s New York Times almost exactly 2 and a half years apart  tell the story: After all when Comey admitted she was cleared no one in the MSM focused on that-the topline conclusions-they focused on but he said she’s very careless, extremely careless, how do you elect someone who’s extremely careless? 

With Trump the MSM focus was literally the converse: with the Barr Letter the focus was on the topline conclusions rather than the qualifier-the idea that Mueller ‘didn’t exonerate’ Trump was seen as a detail; all the focus was on ‘No criminal conspiracy’-which was false it was actually he wasn’t charged with a criminal conspiracy-which certainly doesn’t mean there was no collusion. 

But those are facts-details. The Ken Dilanian-Dean Baquet media could care less about facts they care about their own misconceived narrative.

Just like Cokie Roberts talking about Hillary Clinton in the 1990s-it doesn’t really matter what’s actually in the Mueller Report, the MSM has decided on its narrative and it’s TOTAL EXONERATION NO CONSPIRACY NO OBSTRUCTION.

Congress will want to know more but-why exactly? Dilanian has already decided that the only thing that we already know the only thing that matters. Let alone Barr actually admitted that Mueller did not exonerate Trump on obstruction. But-again, details. What do actual facts matter? This is why the MSM has no real moral foundation to complain about Kellyann Conway’s alternative facts-they built this. For years they have relativized the truth-‘Democrats say this, Republicans say that, all we can do is tell you what both sides are saying and then launch into our own uninformed speculation about what the political effects could possibly be regarding what both sides are saying.’

FN: You may notice I’ve already posted Dilanian’s tweet twice. It can’t be posted enough-it ought to go on his tombstone as far as I’m concerned. I mean it’s almost criminally stupid. If it weren’t so harmful you’d have to laugh at this level of insipidity and willful dishonesty. But what he did here-along with his equally craven colleagues-is empower the American Hitler. I mean why does Trump need to tweet at all with Dilanian on the case-could this illegitimate ‘President’ this illegitimate ‘man’ put it any better than Ken Dilanian in terms of being both utterly misleading and self serving?

I simply despise what Dilanian and Friends represent and what they have done to our country. If the Rule of Law is dying as we speak-and newsflash it is, though don’t expect the actual ‘journalists’ to breath a word of it-they built it. In the future autoposy of American democracy Dilanian-Baquet-Todd-Cillizza-Katty Kay-all have major cameos.

The only kind of analysis the MSM has any use for is amoral, fact free speculating on what the political effects could be-as if they’ve ever shown any actual aptitude for political strategy. They had thought Trump’s beating the drum over the caravan was simply diabolically brilliant-then he got totally blown out in the worst loss in history-worse than the Watergate election of 1974.

Yet they still speak of his allegedly brilliant political strategizing in almost reverent terms. Again facts don’t matter unless they seem to confirm the narrative of Chuck Todd and Ken Dilanian-only then do they get a hearing.

As for Comey well he too has reaped what he sowed.

Comey knew about the Russia investigation in 2016 yet still did the Comey Letter that ‘won’ it for Trump. 

Yes it is but don’t forget the MSM’s complicity-it’s collusion if you will.

Again I want this on Dilanian’s tombstone. Let’s never let him forget it. He blocked me on Twitter-and no, that was actually my first tweet to him. But Ken couldn’t prevent me from getting a screenshot of his tweet-thank you Ms. O’Brien-if only you were still the one running CNN.

We must never let them forget their utter failure.

And that’s why I say shame on Ken Dilanian shame on Dean Paquet shame on all of these gutless, clueless MSM hacks for the rest of their lives-they are making Trump’s destruction of democracy possible. They are not just failing to resist him they are assisting him. They ignore Maddow’s point-ignore what he says as he’s a pathological liar. While the MSM never tires of reminding us Cohen’s a liar they still take Trump’s every dishonest word perfectly credulously.

But that depends in part on the MSM-as we saw from Katty Kay’s tweet above, many so-called ‘journalists’ don’t care about the facts. They’ve already decided. And, again, how do you fault Trump for saying ‘total exoneration’ when Ken Dilanian says the same thing? I mean Dilanian’s tweet was so perfect for Trump how could it be improved on? It can’t.

As for Comey it’s a touchy subject. Barr’s evidence free ‘concerns’ about ‘spying on a political campaign’ implicitly could lead to a junta against Comey-as well as Obama-anyone in power in 2016 as well as Hillary Clinton. Barr apparently is interested in giving President Fuhrer Trump what he’s always wanted-prosecuting the Fuhrer’s political opponents.

But Comey is why we’re here in the first place. Even now Comey is declaring that even now we should be giving Coverup Bill Barr the benefit of the doubt. 

It’s amazing how nothing leaks now that the subject is Trump-but everything leaked when it was a Democrat, Hillary Clinton?

But regarding the Coverup AG’s basis for creating a whole new category to redact-‘reputational interests-an exception you can drive a a truck through as Hawaii Congressman Ed Case said-his basis is: the Comey Letter.

He’s saying ‘I don’t want to do what Comey did and muddy up people not being charged.’

This is chutzpah to say the least-sure as Trump hack I will not do to Trump what Comey did to Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton. He’s done the same thing with Ken Starr-gee what my fellow Republicans did to Clinton was awful, we GOPers are going to be certain not to do it ourselves-two wrongs don’t make a right…

But it’s actually a lot worse even than this. While Barr is now pretending to have a problem with what Comey did at the time he said the opposite-back on October 31, 2016-then he said that Comey did the right thing. 

“The continuing refrain from Hillary Clinton supporters and other observers that FBI Director James B. Comey’s action was “contrary” to Justice Department policy is flatly wrong. Given the particular circumstances facing Comey, it is absurd. While I do not agree with everything done and said over the summer in connection with the email investigation, I think that, last week, Comey had no choice but to issue the statement he did. Indeed, it would have violated policy had he not done so.”

And the gaslighting continues….

But note that this was a very strong and fullthroated endorsement for the Comey Letter. It was about more than simply giving Comey the benefit of the doubt. Many commentators have tried to give Comey some slack arguing that it was after all a tough call even if he made the wrong call-not that I agree with this as discussed in Chapter A.

But Barr’s defense of Comey goes further than anyone has gone-even Comey himself. Comey himself admitted that what he did was at variance with normal DOJ policy but that somehow Clinton’s emails were a 500 year flood that called out for ‘extreme transparency.’

This was self evident nonsense-that an email server rather than collusion with the Russian government-was the 500 year flood-talk about terrible judgment?

But Barr’s defense went much further-he claimed that Comey, rather than calling an audible and setting aside the rules under the dubious premise that something about an email server was a 500 year flood, had actually followed the rules that the rules demanded he actually did muddy Clinton up without bringing charges.

This by Barr was also patently false but instructive:

“Earlier this year, everyone was calling for a responsible investigation and rapid resolution of the email matter. The FBI pushed ahead, and in July, Comey announced that the matter had been thoroughly investigated and that he would not recommend prosecution. That announcement was a great boon to Clinton’s campaign — she touted it as a vindication, and, in the wake of Comey’s announcement, her poll numbers appreciably improved.”

Actually the announcement was anything but a ‘boon’ to Clinton and her numbers actually fell after the announcement noted above the MSM unlike Trump and Barr’s Just Trust Me summary-focused not on the topline conclusions but the qualifiers.

You can certainly ask why it wasn’t a boon to her campaign but the answer is the MSM-Dean Baquet and Friends-decided it wasn’t and this same Dean Paquet and Friends decided that the same situation was a boon to ‘President Trump.’

Of course, no one in the MSM has noticed the discrepancy-their job is to act as Trump stenographer and mirror-whatever he says just amplify it 1000 fold-rather than ask any actually meaningful questions much less those that implicate their own failures.

No one in Ken Dilanian-Dean Baquet media will point out how outrageous it is for Barr to justify ‘reputational interests’ on disapproval of the Comey Letter much less even point it out.

And even the Democrats failed to point this out.

Speaking of the Democrats-I get the sense that they largely get it now-hope is not a strategy but I guess I’m hoping-certainly Chairman Schiff clearly gets it.as do Nadler and Pelosi.

Still, they have to be willing to stay in this fight-it’s going to be very nasty-Barr’s fact free accusations of ‘spying on a political campaign’ is just the start. Are the Democrats up to this fight or are we going to again start seeing some more articles about how the Democrats need to forget Mueller and focus on healthcare to win in 2020?

In this vein I was disappointed with Congressman Eric Swalwell’s appearance on Maddow last night-he didn’t mention Mueller or Barr at all-he talked about Iowa and gun control. Look, his video on gun control is powerful and I totally agree with him on it. But on a day when Barr attacked our democracy in plain sight I would have hoped that someone on both the Intel and Judiciary Committees would have said something about this wether Maddow prompted him on it or not.

But his whole segment was about gun control and why he thinks he’s the best candidate to win White voters in Iowa. Listen-I agree with him passionately on gun control and winning white voters in Iowa is certainly something worth doing-though does Swalwell realize that it’s actually Black voters in South Carolina who decide the Democratic nominee?-but there’s a crisis in American democracy as we speak maybe don’t ignore the elephant in the room-that elephant being GOP hack Bill Barr?

The system is failing us and if the Dem opposition doesn’t have sufficiently stiff spines it will fail. If so, forget about 2020. The Dems worrying about Trump voters in Iowa ought to worry about their own voters if we don’t get the full Mueller Report and the tax returns.

Swalwell has vowed in the past that we will see every word of the Mueller Report. But now that he’s a POTUS candidate that’s on the down low? He fails to understand how worried and demoralized his own base is. Simply pivoting to gun control isn’t going to get it done.

Swalwell is already a distinct underdog-his fellow California Dem, Kamala Harris, is already snapping up Cali endorsements. If Swalwell hopes to gain any traction he should run towards not away from Mueller, et al.

Again I have to quote Yeats: 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity

You have to admit that Trump and his GOP co-conspirators-Devin Nunes, Lindsay Graham, Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan-have great intensity. So often I wonder where’s the passion from the best among us. 

 

 

 

License

October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

Share This Book