Robert Mueller’s July 17 Congressional Appearance: Broadcast Coverage Is What Counts
President Trump called into Fox Business for a softball interview on Wednesday. Host Maria Bartiromo, a one-time journalist who’s sold her soul in return for White House access, never got a question in.
Grumpy Grampy Don-Don wanted to rant today, and rant he did, hoping to refute the Mueller investigation by saying what was really going on was really just a spying operation by Democrats. This might have something to do with the news about the former Special Council’s testimony before two House Committees on July 17th.
We learned about tariffs. We learned about China. We learned about Vietnam (Trade war, soon). We learned about how Europe hates us more than China. We learned about how Twitter keeps people from following him. If he became a liberal Democrat, the president asserted, he would pick up "five times" as many followers on Twitter. We learned about how Trump’s hand-picked Chair of the Federal Reserve isn’t kissing enough ass.
Then we came back to Robert Mueller… who is now apparently guilty of the crime of “terminating” emails or texts about how FBI agents were conspiring against him.
Jack Holmes, Politics Editor at Esquire, sumed it up nicely:
It is incredible to watch an adult human who is on television for a living listen to this Fox News Grandpa ranting into the telephone and just nod along, asking "where" his deranged accusations are "in the courts." They are not in the courts. He is making it up. The words do not even make sense. This all resides in his Very Good Brain, which is rapidly deteriorating due, at least in part, to a debilitating level of cable-news consumption.
This is one side of the sprawling infrastructure of Imperial Clothiers. These folks speak to the president through the teevee and tell him he's doing a great job, and all his problems are the fault of The Fake News Media or The Deep State or The Open-Borders Democrats, and that all the Real Americans support him. Then he calls up the teevee people and rants to them about what a great job he's doing, and how this person or that person is causing all his problems, and how great it is to have the support of Real America.
And the rest of our national media watches this grotesque feedback loop of deranged propagandistic bullshit with polite silence, waiting to ask their questions about whether the president might still bomb Iran, or whatever. Because there's nothing worse than admitting this isn't just Not Normal—we're witnessing the rapid decay, and possible collapse, of American constitutional government. And we're watching it on the goddamn Fox Business Channel.
Also today on the stoopid channel:
https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1143830132806836224
If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now: the President is having a meltdown.
It’s just about too late in this session of Congress to expect a (theoretical) impeachment investigation to reach a conclusion, and, should charges be deemed necessary, the Senate to ignore any request for a trial.
Mr. Mueller has made it clear his public testimony will be limited to what information is found within the pages of the Special Counsel report.
The House Judiciary Committee will focus on what wasn’t in the report, namely the evidence denied --through document destruction or perjury-- the Special Counsel. Expect a lot of talk about the financial aspects of the Trump organization.
The House Intelligence Committee will want to ask more questions about the Russians, their contacts with the Trump campaign, and --probably not in public session-- the counterintelligence aspects of the investigation. Much of what we the public don’t know was gleaned from various nations’ communications intercepts. Democrats will look to repackage that info in a manner hiding its sources and methods to allow it to see the light of day.
On defense, we’ll see America’s dumbest Congressman, Texas Republican Louie Gomert, waste his five minutes of fame with gibberish. Ohio’s Rep. Jim Jordan can be expected to handle the personal attacks. Give him extra points if he can work in the terms “socialist” or “antifa.”
For those of us who’ve been paying attention, it’s unrealistic to expect any bombshells in Mueller’s testimony about the campaign and the White House. It is remotely possible we’ll learn about the investigations spun off from the Special Counsel’s office, especially given reports about seven of them being discontinued by Attorney General Barr.
What is important about Bob Mueller testifying will be the TV coverage. Look for the administration to do everything in their power to block the congress. And if that doesn’t work, July 17 could be the day the US bombs Iran. Or something similarly distracting.
There’s one simple reason.
Before the Watergate hearings Nixon enjoyed a 67% approval from the public. When he resigned the number plummeted to 19%. Trump’s already 25-30 points below where Nixon started.
Because of the cult-like culture of MAGA-types, I don’t think the President will fall that far in the polls. There is, after all, a quarter of the voting population willing to support his agenda no matter what.
But there’s another number The Donald should fear.
It only takes 3.5% of the people to change the world, from the BBC:
There are, of course, many ethical reasons to use nonviolent strategies. But compelling research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, confirms that civil disobedience is not only the moral choice; it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics – by a long way.
Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.
In the U.S., that’s roughly 11 million people actively (meaning more than typing snark on Facebook) involved.
Getting the Mueller Report's facts and figures before the public via hearings could do just that.
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What breaking news?
https://twitter.com/aedwardslevy/status/1143883590197010433
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